Coronavirus Morning News Brief – April 7: Temperatures Are Rising in New York City, A Superspreader Dinner in D.C.

Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, in Kyoto

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 758th day of the pandemic.

New York City, which has, several times, played the role of canary in the coronavirus pandemic coal mine over the past 26 months, is now seeing a significant increase in new infections.

The city is reporting approximately 1,500 new cases a day and a positivity rate of nearly 3%.  Both figures are more than double what they were a month ago. In the borough of Manhattan, where the last wave of cases first emerged, the positivity rate has risen above 6% in some neighborhoods.

More alarming is the increase in the number of individuals with fevers across the city, which can portend coming coronavirus trends.  Data from Internet-connected thermometers across the city currently shows levels of fevers last week at the worst points of the pandemic in the Big Apple, according to data from the company Kinsa, which manufactures such devices and tracks such data.

Kinsa, is should be noted, is able to instantly spot fever spikes in states, cities, and even neighborhoods.

Anecdotal signs abound including multiple outbreaks of the virus in Broadway and off-Broadway casts including Matthew Broderick, who stars in “Plaza Suite,” and Daniel Craig, who stars in the title role in “Macbeth.”

Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, counts himself among those who recently contracted the virus as does Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller.

“We may be done with the virus, but the virus isn’t done with us,” Lander said after he testing positive last week.

Fortunately, the BA.2 subvariant hasn’t demonstrated the same high velocity as omicron, its predecessor, had but it is nonetheless causing a rising tide of new infections.

In other news we cover today, a mini superspreader dinner in D.C. is causing concern, Japan is loosening entry requirements for visitors, and the World Health Organization is warning countries in Latin America to not loosen restrictions too quickly amidst rising cases elsewhere.

Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.

UNITED STATES

A woman in Oklahoma pled guilty on Wednesday in a $32 million Covid relief fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said.  Amanda Gloria filed more than 150 fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans, which was created by Congress to help businesses keep their workforces employed during the height of the  pandemic.

In Washington, D.C., a mini-wave of new Covid infections from a small superspreader event is hitting the city’s leading politicians.  Both Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo tested positive for Covid on Wednesday, just days after attending a dinner and media event at the Gridiron Club.   Congressmen Adam Schiff and Joaquin Castro, who also attended the event on Saturday, tested positive this week, as did Congresswoman Katherine Clark, who was not, however, at the dinner.

At press time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she had tested positive for Covid.  A spokesman for the California congresswoman said she is fully vaccinated and boosted.  Pelosi is second in the line of presidential succession, after the vice president.

GLOBAL

Japan plans to ease its Covid 19-related border restrictions and will lift entry ban for foreign nationals from 106 countries.  The list of nations includes the United States, Britain and France on Friday, the government said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is warning that some countries in Latin America are prematurely loosening coronavirus restrictions. The agency urged them to instead double down on efforts to increase vaccination and testing instead.

Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the WHO, said in a call with reporters that, while the number of new cases is falling in some parts of the Americas, it is rising in other areas including in the Caribbean and in Europe.

“We know what has happened elsewhere foreshadows what our region will face,” she said on the call.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Thursday, April 7 .

As of Thursday morning, the world has recorded 495.5 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 1.2 million new cases in the preceding 24 hour period, and 6.2 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 431.4 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 1.4 million.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Thursday is 57,886,596, a decrease of 226,000 from the prior day. Out of that figure, 99.9%, or 57,832,026 are considered mild, and 0.1%, or 54,370 are listed as critical.  The percentage of cases considered critical is largely unchanged over the past 24 hours.

The United States reported 49,329 new coronavirus infections on Thursday for the previous day, compared to 30, 593 on Wednesday, 40,636  on Tuesday, and 4,927 on Monday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   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 29,711, a 2% decrease, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources.  The average daily death toll over the same period is 599, a decrease of 35% over the same period.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Thursday, recorded over 81.9 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of over 1 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, just over 43 million, and a reported death toll of 521,560. Meanwhile, Brazil has recorded the second highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 660,782, and has 30 million cases.  France continues to occupy the number four position with 26.4 million cases, and Germany is in the number five slot with over 22.2 million.  The United Kingdom, with over 21.5 million cases, is now number six and is the only other country in the world with a total number of cases over the 20 million mark.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, over 255.9 million people in the United States – or 77.1% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 65.7%, or 218 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now over 563.4 million. Breaking this down further, 88.5% of the population over the age of 18 – or 228.5 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 75.6% of the same group – or 195.2 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 48.6% of that population, or 94.8 million people, has already received a third, or booster, dose of vaccine.

Over 64.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Thursday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.75 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 13,.91 million doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 14.8% 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. In countries such as Ethiopia, Haiti, Syria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda, for example, vaccination rates remain in the single digits, if not lower.

Anna Riegler contributed to this story.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)