Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Oct. 8: We Are Entering Our Third Pandemic Winter, Covid Complicates China Communist Party Meeting

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, with a reflection of surrounding buildings

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 912th day of the pandemic.

The United States is now heading into its third pandemic winter.  If that sounds dire, it should.  If winter is coming, a new wave of Covid cases is not far behind.

Over the past few weeks, the number of new daily Covid cases has been slowly declining, as have hospitalizations and deaths due to SARS-CoV-2.   But colder weather and severe storms are keeping more people inside, where the virus spreads more easily and that increases the risk of a resurgence.

More significantly, the number of new daily infections in multiple European countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy has been rising, and the increase is coming from new more highly-transmissible variants that can largely evade protection from past infection and vaccines, although the vaccines continue to protect against severe illness and death.

It comes down in great part to whether there will be broad uptake of the new bivalent vaccine.  However, if there is immune escape, which seems eminently possible given some of the sublineages of the omicron variant now in circulation, albeit in small number, then we are not only entering a pandemic winter but a long cold Covid winter as well.

In other news we cover today, rising Covid cases is throwing China into chaos ahead of a major Communist Party meeting and Comic Con opened in full force in New York for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

UNITED STATES

In New York City, Comic Con returned to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in full force for the first time since 2019.   In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the event was held virtually while, in 2021, organizers held a scaled down version of the event with fewer attendees.

Comic Con is a convention dedicated to comic books, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television that was first held in 2006.

GLOBAL

Health Canada authorized Pfizer’s bivalent coronavirus vaccine booster.  The updated booster from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech targets both the original virus as well as the omicron BA.4. and BA.5 subvariants.  The health regulator authorized Moderna’s similar bivalent booster last month.

Meanwhile,  China is facing its largest increase of Covid-19 cases in a month.  This comes just as the country is preparing for a major Communist Party meeting  in Beijing and provincial and local officials are attempting to stop the virus from “spilling over” to the capital city before the meeting.

While the number of total new daily infections is quite low per capita by global standards, it is high under China’s “zero Covid” policy.  The country reported 1,400 new cases Friday, a drop in the bucket in a country of 1.4 billion people.  As a result of the increase, officials are increasing restrictions in regions that have seen increases, using lockdowns, mandated mass testing, forced quarantines, and travel restrictions that impact millions and are drawing complaints from citizens on social media.

The result is a chaotic seen where airport guards in hazmat suits were seen pointing machine guns at families with children at an airport where flights had been cancelled by the government and reports of tens of thousands of stranded tourists who traveled to vacation spots for the weeklong “Golden Week” holiday that started on October 1.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Saturday, October 8.

As of Saturday morning, the world has recorded 626.2 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.5 million cases, and 6.6 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 605.7 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.3 million.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Saturday is 13,935,005, an increase of 106,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 13,895,184, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 39,821, are listed as critical.  The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.

The United States reported 34,654 new coronavirus infections on Saturday for the previous day, compared to 73,751  on Friday, 80,585 on Thursday, 35,981 on Wednesday, and 47,898 on Tuesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The 7-day incidence rate is now 40,748.  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 40,186, a 26% 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 380, a decrease of 11% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 27,086, a 10% decrease.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Saturday, recorded 98.5 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of just under 1.09 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.6 million, and a reported death toll of 528,778.

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 35.8 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 686,849, and has recorded just under 34.8million cases, placing it in the number four slot.

Germany is in the number five slot with over 33.9 million cases.

The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with over 24.9 million cases, the United Kingdom, with 23.7 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 22.7 million, as number eight, as well as Japan, with 21.5 million, and Russia, with just under 21.2 million.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the Thursday, over 264.6 million people in the United States – or 79.7% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68%, or 225.9 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 624.2 million. Breaking this down further, 90.6% of the population over the age of 18 – or 234 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.9% of the same group – or 200.9 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 52.1% of that population, or 104.7 million people, has already received a first 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 68.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Saturday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 12.79 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4.49 million doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 22.9% 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)