Coronavirus Morning News Brief – June 2: N.Y.C. May Have 30 Times the Official Number of Case, U.S. Sees Over 200,000 New Daily Cases

Street scene in New York.

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 784th day of the pandemic.

If you’re hearing from friends, colleagues, and family that people are getting sick left and right, it isn’t someone’s vivid imagination:  The number of coronavirus cases in New York City may be undercounted by at least a factor of 30, an early survey of the current surge indicates.

“It would appear official case counts are under-estimating the true burden of infection by about 30-fold, which is a huge surprise,” Denis Nash, an author of the study who serves as a distinguished professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York School of Public Health, told the Guardian.

The study shows that 22% of New Yorkers – more than one in five – had Covid between April 23 and May 8 of this year according to the preprint study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.  Put differently, that would mean that over 1.5 million people in the Big Apple had Covid in this two-week period, hence the 30 fold increase in case figures.

Nash’s team conducted a similar survey after the initial omicron surge which held that 1.8 million adults were likely to have had the virus in the period January 1 through March 15 of this year.

In other news we cover today, the WHO said that the situation in North Korea is getting worse, not better; two cabinet secretaries in Washington, D.C., tested positive; and the United States saw over 200,000 cases, the first time since the omicron surge in the middle of February.

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

UNITED STATES

In the nation’s capital Labor Secretary Martin Walsh and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, both reported that they had contracted Covid.

Walsh said he was experiencing some mild symptoms.

“I’m grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted,” he said on Twitter.

Haaland, who is also vaccinated, said she hoped others who have not yet gotten inoculated would do so.

“I feel fine and am grateful to be fully vaccinated and twice boosted,” she said in a tweet. “I hope everyone stays current on their vaccinations so that, if they are exposed, they too will have milder symptoms.”

GLOBAL

Reports that the pandemic situation in North Korea is “improving” coming from the government are apparently optimistic at best.
The World Health Organization cast doubt Thursday on the claims, and said that it believes that the situation in the hermit kingdom is getting worse, not better.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said that the coronavirus wave that struck the country approximately two weeks ago has abated.  The daily number of “fever cases” was almost 400,000 at one point during the period.

That didn’t, however, convince officials at the WHO.

“We assume the situation is getting worse, not better,” said the organization’s emergencies chief, Michael Ryan, during a video news briefing Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a study of the most recent wave of the virus in South Africa found that, despite an extremely high level of community immunity, coronavirus infections nonetheless surged.

Other research suggests that 98% of the population has Covid antibodies, either from a vaccine or prior infection.  Despite this, the latest wave, which began in April and was driven by two omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, caused some 7,000 people to become infected on a daily basis at the peak of the wave.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, June 2.

As of Thursday morning, the world has recorded 533.7 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of .8 million new cases in the preceding 24 hour period, and 6.3 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 504.7 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.7 million.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Thursday is 22,714,833, an increase of 116,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,678,171, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 36,662, are listed as critical.  The percentage of cases considered critical is unchanged over the past 24 hours.

The United States reported 219,367 new coronavirus infections on Thursday for the previous day, compared to 182,386 on Wednesday, 32,152 on Tuesday and 9,045 on Monday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The 7-day incidence rate continues to remain over 100,000 and is now 102,847.  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.  Monday was a bank holiday in the United States.

The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 101,551, a 1% 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 279, a decrease of 8% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 27,226, a 16% increase.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Wednesday, recorded 86.2 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, over 43.2 million, and a reported death toll of 524,641.

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, 666,848, and has 31.1 million cases.

France continues to occupy the number four position in total cases with 29.6 million cases, and Germany is in the number five slot with 26.4 million.  The United Kingdom, with 22.3 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, 258.7 million people in the United States – or 77.9% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 66.7%, or 221.4million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 587.8 million. Breaking this down further, 89.3% of the population over the age of 18 – or 230.6 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 76.6% of the same group – or 197.8 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 50.3% of that population, or 99.4 million people, has already received a third, or booster, dose of vaccine.

Over 65.9% 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, 11.84 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5.54 million doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 16.2% 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)