Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Dec. 4: China Could Face Deadly Surge in Dismantling ‘Zero Covid,’ Hospitalizations in U.S. Are Rising
The Basilika St. Michael, in Mondsee, Austria
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 969th day of the pandemic.
The protests in China are seemingly having a far-reaching effect as the Chinese government beginning to dismantle its vaunted “zero-Covid” policies. The demonstrations, the most widespread national protests since the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators, have somehow caused the generally intransigent Chinese Communist Party leadership to do what was once the unthinkable.
In multiple cities, people for the first time since the earliest days of the pandemic will travel on public transit or go into a shopping mall without having to present a recent negative coronavirus test. Elsewhere, the requirements for such paperwork to enter parks and supermarkets has been abandoned.
Many testing booths in Beijing and other cities were shuttered as the need for such tests greatly diminished.
Those individuals who had come into contact with an infected person who just one week ago would have been sent to a government facility are being told they could isolate at home instead.
There’s one great fallacy, however, in what is happening, which is the government throwing away the baby with the bathwater. Covid rates are at an all-time high and the population’s immunity – largely because of the draconian zero-Covid policies – is small compared to that of the rest of the world.
China is justifying the change in policy to its populace by saying that the omicron variant now in circulation is far less dangerous than the delta variant, which preceded it.
Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, the Chinese leader most associated with the zero-Covid policies after Xi Jingping, struck a new tone this week, saying that the “fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and it comes with new tasks,” referring to the shift from the delta to omicron variant in the Middle Kingdom.
Omicron has proven itself to be less deadly as it spread across countries but by the time it had become dominant, many western countries were at or close to herd immunity. In Britain, about 95% of the population has some form of antibody from either vaccines or prior infection, for example.
China has a relatively low vaccination and booster rate and has repeatedly refused offers of western mRNA vaccines. Studies indicate that the homegrown Chinese vaccines are far less effective in stopping omicron than those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Few if any people have natural antibodies from prior infections.
All the Chinese have to do is look at Hong Kong as a harbinger of what could come. It too has a population with little natural immunity and also has a fairly low vaccination and booster rate. A high death rate from omicron was the result.
In other news we cover today, moderate exercise could increase the efficacy of Covid vaccines, hospitalizations in the U.S. are rising, and the Catholic church in Italy is bringing back handshakes as “a sign of peace.”
UNITED STATES
Hospitalizations from Covid are rising following the Thanksgiving holiday following a period of little change. Over the past 14-day period, hospitalizations are up 26% according to data reviewed by the Morning News Brief. Public health authorities have expressed concern that the combination of mounting SARS-CoV-2 patients along with record numbers of influenza and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, cases will push hospitals to the breaking point.
A woman in Fairfield, Connecticut, was arrested Friday and charged with stealing nearly $20,000 in unemployment benefits during the pandemic, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice.
Cami DeMace was charged with two counts of first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, three counts of unemployment compensation fraud, two counts of third-degree identity theft, attempt to commit second-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit unemployment fraud, and conspiracy to commit third-degree identity theft, agency officials said in a statement.
Finally, the White House is once again bustling with year-end activity including state visits and holiday parties. Both were paused in 2021 due to the omicron surge as well as in 2020, the first year of pandemic. A state visit on Thursday by French President Emanuel Macron included a formal dinner with hundreds of guests in a tent on the South Lawn of the White House. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that all attendees followed CDC guidelines. In addition, several hundred guests are expected to attend various White House holiday parties in the coming weeks as well.
GLOBAL
A new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that Covid-19 vaccines offer more protection from severe outcomes for individuals who also exercise. The individuals who saw the greatest protection from severe outcomes exercised at least 150 minutes per week at moderate intensity, which means a heart rate was between 70% and 79%. Patients who exercised in this manner in the study group were 2.8 times less likely to develop severe outcomes if Covid were contracted.
Chinese health officials reported two new Covid deaths. The news comes as some restrictions are being eased there. The National Health Commission said one death was reported each in the provinces of Shandong and Sichuan. No information was released about age, any underlying conditions, or vaccination status of the deceased.
RELIGION
In Italy, the Catholic Church is bringing back handshakes for the “sign of Peace” during Mass. “It will be possible to restore the usual form of exchanging the sign of peace,” the Italian Bishops’ Conference said in a letter to its membership. The move comes amidst a wider relaxation of coronavirus pandemic-induced restrictions in the church.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, December 4.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 649.8 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.3 million cases, and over 6.64 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 627 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.2 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 16,159,433, an increase of 77,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 16,122,361, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 37,072, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 4,861 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 73,,431 on Saturday, 98,558 on Friday, 111,515 on Thursday, and 47,939 on Wednesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 57,342. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 51,685, an increase of 24% averaged over the past 14 days, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 250, a decrease of 12% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 35,262, an increase of 26%. In addition, the number of patients in ICUs was 4,076, an increase of 21%.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded 100.8 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of just over 1.1 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, almost 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,628.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 38 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 36.6 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 690,213, has recorded 35.4 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 27.3 million cases, Japan, with 25.2 million, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with just under 24.5 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24 million, and Russia, with over 21.6 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, 267.3 million people in the United States – or 80.5% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68.8%, or 228.4 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 653.3 million. Breaking this down further, 91.2% of the population over the age of 18 – or 236.2 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 78.5% of the same group – or 202.8 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 14.7% of the same population, or 37.9 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 68.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.01 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2.51 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 24.6% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
