Coronavirus Morning News Brief – May 4: Nasal Sprays as Covid-Fighting Tool, CDC Issues Mask Recommendation, Apple’s Return-to-Office Flop

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 755th day of the pandemic.

Your morning routine may soon include a Covid vaccine spray in addition to brushing your teeth and washing your face.

Meissa Vaccines says it is making progress on a coronavirus vaccine that’s delivered in the form of a nasal spray. The advantage, the company says, is that such a vaccine delivery system can trigger the body to develop infection-blocking defenses in the sinuses and throat because it stations Covid-ready B and T cells there so it can start to fight the infection much faster than an injected vaccine can.

Current mRNA from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech also use B and T cells, which seek out the coronavirus in the body, but this takes several days, while the virus quickly replicates, for this to happen. This results in the individual acting as a carrier before he even knows he has the virus.

There are numerous obstacles yet to be overcome and that are outside the scope of my brief note on the matter, but Meissa is, according to multiple media reports, confident that it can deliver such a vaccine even where others have failed.

In other news we cover today, the CDC issued a mask recommendation for all public transit, New Zealand opened its borders to citizens of 60 countries, and the majority of Apple employees are unhappy with the company’s return-to-office policies.

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

UNITED STATES

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new recommendation that properly-fitting masks be worn by all persons 2 years of age and older “in indoor areas of public transportation (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation hubs (such as airports, stations, etc.).”

The CDC further encouraged travelers to wear masks “in crowded or poorly ventilated locations, such as airport jetways.”

Coronavirus cases are starting to emerge among those who attended the White House Correspondents Dinner.  On Tuesday, multiple media outlets reported that ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl, tested positive for the virus Monday night.  Steve Herman, a chief national correspondent for Voice of America, also tested positive after the event.

Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio, the head of the White House Correspondents’ Association, told reporters thatthe cases he knew of so far were in the “single digits.”

The dinner returned after a two-year pandemic-induced hiatus, although many feared it might become a superspreader event.

The myth of the happy Apple employee is, apparently, just that.  A new survey found that 76% of Apple employees surveyed were unhappy with the company’s return-to-office policy that was recently implemented.

The survey was conducted by the anonymous social network Blind and 652 Apple employees responded in the period from April 13 to April 19.

For the past two years, virtually all corporate Apple employees have been telecommuting and now, 56% say they plan to leave the company, although not all who indicated this sentiment will necessarily follow through.

Finally, officials at the Greenwich Public Schools district reported an additional 55 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 162 since the end of spring break.  In the current school year, 959 cases have been reported in the district among 444 families.

GLOBAL

New Zealand opened its borders to 60 other nations after maintaining one of the tightest coronavirus border policies in the world for the past two years.

“In the early hours of this morning, we marked another big moment in our reconnection with the world with our borders reopening to visitors from visa-waiver countries,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a news briefing.

Three weeks ago, the country began to allow visitors from neighboring Australia.

The list of countries whose citizens are admissible include most European nations, the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Officials in Shanghai are slowly loosening the city’s draconian lockdown as the number of new cases continues to decline .  Additional companies, including automaker Tesla, are being allowed to resume operations, bringing the total number of businesses permitted to restart to almost 2,000.

There were 263 new cases reported on Wednesday, down from a pandemic high of 3,084 new cases on April 18.

Meanwhile, cases in Beijing continue to climb as officials there try to ward off Shanghai-style lockdowns.

City officials closed scores of metro stations and bus routes.  They also extended Covid-19 restrictions on many public venues on Wednesday after the number of new cases there hit 47.  While these figures may seem miniscule, similar numbers of new cases in Shanghai were sufficient to trigger that city’s lockdown as part of China’s “zero Covid” policy.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, May 4.

As of Wednesday morning, the world has recorded 514.8 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.8 million new cases in the preceding 24 hour period, and almost 6.3 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 469.5 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.7 million.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Wednesday is 38,995,816, an increase of 49,000 from the prior day. Out of that figure, 99.9%, or 38,955,197, are considered mild, and 0.1%, or 40,619, are listed as critical.  The percentage of cases considered critical is largely unchanged over the past 24 hours.

The United States reported 69,334 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday for the previous day, compared to 95,854  on Tuesday, 15,369  on Monday, 22,767  on Sunday, and 81,673 on Saturday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The 7-day incidence rate continues to climb and is now 69,224.  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 62,428, a 50% increase, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources.  The average daily death toll over the same period is 340, a decrease of 17% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 17,532, an 18% increase.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Wednesday, recorded over 83.2 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, 43.1 million, and a reported death toll of 523,920.

New data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed at the end of April that the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now over 803,000, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, after the United States.  Rosstat reported that 35,584 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in the month of March, compared to 43,543 in February.

Meanwhile, Brazil now has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 663,765, and has 30.5 million cases.

France continues to occupy the number four position in total cases with 28.8 million cases, and Germany is in the number five slot with 24.9 million.  The United Kingdom, with 22.1 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 Wednesday, 257.8 million people in the United States – or 77.7% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 66.2%, or 219.8 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 576.9 million. Breaking this down further, 89.1% of the population over the age of 18 – or 230million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 76.1% of the same group – or 196.6 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 49.4% of that population, or 97.1 million people, has already received a third, or booster, dose of vaccine.

Over 65.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Wednesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 11.62 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 10.52 million doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 15.8% 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.

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 in the single digits, if not lower.

In addition, North Korea and Eritrea are now the only two countries in the world that have not administered vaccines.

Anna Breuer contributed to this story.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)