Our live coverage has ended for the day. Follow the latest on the pandemic here.
Rich nations are vaccinating one person every second while the majority of the poorest nations have yet to give a single dose, the People’s Vaccine Alliance said Tuesday.
These same rich nations are blocking efforts by developing countries to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, the group said. The World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) committee meets Wednesday to discuss the TRIPS waiver.
“We should act now. There is no going back. It is totally unfair that rich countries, who have enough vaccines to protect their citizens, are blocking the TRIPS waiver, which could help poorer countries get the vaccines they need,” said Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate professor, and one of the leaders of the People’s Vaccine Alliance. “For the rich world, this proposed act of human solidarity to ensure that medicines and vaccines get to the whole human family simultaneously is in their own self-interest, not just an act of charity.”
The People’s Vaccine Alliance, a group of organizations including Oxfam International, Frontline AIDS, UNAIDS, and others, said that this is yet another example of rich countries prioritizing the interests of big pharmaceutical monopolies over people’s lives.
The proposed TRIPS waiver would remove legal barriers and allow manufacturers across the world to start producing vaccines at scale within months, the group said.
“One year into the global pandemic, it’s an outrage that vaccine factories are lying idle, unable to produce Covid-19 vaccines because rich countries are prioritizing the patents of pharmaceutical companies ahead of the lives of people across the world,” said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now. “A global suspension of patents is needed to speed up the production of these vaccines everywhere.”
Cities around Texas have announced policies of their own to try to keep face covering requirements in-place on the local level in response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s order lifting the mask mandate.
This is where things stand as of Tuesday night:
Austin
Dr. Mark Escott, Austin’s chief medical officer, announced that masks will be required in the city to protect from the spread of Covid-19. The city mask mandate and other health rules remain in place through April 15, when they may be extended based on health authority and Austin Public Health Department recommendation.
Dallas
Last Thursday, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson issued an order mandating face coverings inside all city buildings. The new regulation goes into effect on March 10 at 12:01 a.m., according to a news release from the mayor’s office. In the release, the city argues that Abbott’s executive order dropping Covid-19 restrictions and lifting the state mandate does not prevent local governments “from implementing mask requirements in their buildings.”
Houston
In a news conference Monday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner reiterated employees and visitors will continue to be required to wear a mask on any city-owned or operated facility. “And look, we want businesses to open. We want businesses to thrive, and I was saying,” Turner said. “And quite frankly, I do believe that two months from now, the landscape will be much better than what it is today. I do believe that it’s too early now to just take off the masks.”
San Antonio
Michelle Vigil, public relations manager, told CNN on Tuesday that San Antonio is “currently operating at a 25% occupancy and will require masks for anybody entering our facilities.” CNN has inquired whether the mask requirement will be made via a new order issued by the mayor or city manager and did not receive a response Tuesday night.
El Paso
Last week El Paso announced on Facebook it “will continue to require individuals entering any facility owned by the City to properly wear a face mask over their nose and mouth.” A city spokesperson told CNN Tuesday via email an updated order has not been issued yet and that staff “are still finalizing.” “Our city facilities will continue to require face masks. All city-owned and operated facilities will require face masks,” El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said during a news conference last week.
Mailing rapid antigen tests to US residents to encourage frequent, widespread Covid-19 testing is a cost-effective way to prevent millions of infections and thousands of deaths, according to a study published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Over a period of 60 days, if just half of the population tested themselves weekly and half of those who tested positive self-isolated for an appropriate period of time, the practice could help prevent about 2.8 million infections and 16,000 deaths, the researchers found. Even in the worst-case scenario modeled — where only a quarter of the population utilizes the at-home tests and a quarter of those who test positive self-isolate — about 3,400 lives could be saved.
In their baseline model, the researchers estimate that the at-home tests would cost about $12 billion and there would be about $10.5 billion in lost productivity due to self-isolation, but some of that would be offset by reduced resources needed to care for patients with severe or critical disease. Overall, the extra cost to save a life through at-home testing is just a quarter of what federal guidance cites as the “value of a statistical life, a benchmark of the societal willingness to pay for reductions in mortality risks,” according to the study.
Testing rates have slowed since mid-January, according to federal data. But experts say that testing remains a critical tool in the fight against Covid-19, along with vaccination and continued social distancing.
Despite concerns that home-based antigen testing may be unreliable and not widely adopted, authors of the study say it is a good complementary strategy for containing the pandemic.
“Our bottom-line message is: Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good; even a highly imperfect home-based testing program could confer enormous benefit,” they wrote.
As of Tuesday, 47 states plus DC are now allowing teachers and school staff to receive Covid-19 vaccines. By next Monday, teachers will be eligible in all 50 states.
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee Tuesday announced a plan to get all teachers at least the first dose of the vaccine by the end of March.
New Mexico’s Public Education Department secretary also announced late Monday their aim to get all teachers at least the first dose of the vaccine by the end of March, and that all schools are expected to reopen for in-person learning by April 5.
In Indiana, Montana and South Dakota, teachers are now eligible under a federal pharmacy program. In Massachusetts, teachers are currently eligible at CVS pharmacies, with a full rollout beginning on Thursday.
Here’s where the other three states stand:
A Biden administration official told governors during a weekly call on Tuesday that they can expect up to 400,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to go out next week, though the administration is still waiting to confirm the exact number of vaccine doses that will be distributed.
“On J&J, I shared last week that we expect unevenness in allocations week-over-week through March,” the official told governors. “In keeping with our commitment to transparency, we expect to have an allocation of up to 400,000 J&J doses that we’ll be able to confirm as early as tomorrow.”
CNN has previously reported that Johnson & Johnson would have significantly fewer doses available in March and April than initially expected, which frustrated the Biden administration.
That number pales in comparison to the other two authorized vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Roughly 15.8 million doses of those two vaccines are expected to ship next week, according White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN Tuesday that it may update travel guidance for the fully vaccinated when the science is more clear and more people are vaccinated against Covid-19. About 10% of the US has been fully vaccinated so far.
“CDC may update its travel recommendations for fully vaccinated people as more people are vaccinated and we learn more about how vaccines work in the real world. This is something we will be closely watching in the United States,” CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said in an email to CNN.
The CDC did not update travel guidelines for the fully vaccinated in new guidance it released on Monday.
The guidelines only say “follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations,” and the CDC travel guidelines page says to “delay travel and stay home.”
The airline industry and some public health experts characterized the new guidelines as too conservative.
But McDonald said that while the current Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective at protecting vaccinated people against severe illness, hospitalization and death, there is still a small risk that the vaccinated could become infected with a milder form of the disease and inadvertently spread the coronavirus to others who aren’t vaccinated sick.
Maryland is lifting its quarantine requirements and other restrictions for out-of-state travelers beginning at 5 p.m. ET Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday.
Currently, people who travel to Maryland – with the exception of people coming from Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, DC – must immediately get a Covid-19 test upon arrival and self-quarantine until getting a negative result, or get a Covid-19 negative test result within 72 hours of arrival, according to state guidance.
State authorities will continue to encourage out-of-state travelers to get tested upon their return anyways, but the official restrictions will be lifted, the governor said.
Hogan reiterated that Maryland’s statewide mask order remains in full effect and employers in the state are still strongly encouraged to allow for telework where possible.
Maryland’s state of emergency also remains in effect because it allows for the use of National Guard troops, the receipt of federal funding, and for the state to maximize its testing and vaccination capacity, he said.
Hogan cited improving health metrics for the reason why he is lifting restrictions, saying “the time is right.”
“Our health metrics are great, as I said, and it’s time to get our economy going,” Hogan said. He acknowledged that the Covid-19 virus can mutate and their health metrics can change, but also said it was “time to get people back to work.”
Chicago has added two states and the District of Columbia to its emergency travel order, the city’s health department website shows.
According to the latest information posted on the website, Texas, Nebraska and Washington, DC, were added to the Orange list. States that fall on this list are averaging 15 cases per 100,000 residents, the dashboard shows.
Anyone coming into Chicago from the 24 states and Washington, DC, will be required to quarantine for 10 days, provide a pre-arrival negative test result in the 72 hours prior to arrival or be fully vaccinated, which is defined as two weeks after the final dose of the vaccine, the website shows.
All travelers should continue to maintain strict masking and social distancing, the guidance states.
Chicago implemented the travel order in January to help combat the spread of Covid-19 in the city, as CNN previously reported.
Brazil reported a record high of Covid-19 deaths Tuesday, data from the ministry of health shows.
On Tuesday, Brazil reported at least 1,972 new Covid-19 deaths over a 24-hour period, bringing the country’s total death toll to about 268,370.
Brazil’s ministry of health reported at least 70,764 new Covid-19 cases, raising the country’s coronavirus case-count to about 11,122,429.
In the country’s southeastern state of Sao Paulo on Tuesday, a record number of 517 Covid-19-related deaths were recorded by state’s health authorities during the past 24 hours.
As of Tuesday, Sao Paulo’s death toll stands at about 62,101 Covid-19-related deaths and at least 2,134,020 cases, according to official data.
Brazil continues to be the country with the third-highest case-count of Covid-19 cases worldwide after the US and India, and the second-highest Covid-19 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
By a vote of 219 to 210, the House has passed a procedural motion that allows for a final vote on the Covid-19 stimulus package.
One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden from Maine, voted no.
While just a procedural vote, the tally is a good indicator of how Democrats will most likely vote on the final bill tomorrow, which increasingly looks like it will pass on a close, and mostly party-line vote.
There had been some concerns that progressives would balk at some of the changes made in the Senate version of the bill.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said about 127,110 Kentuckians were vaccinated during the past week, breaking the previous record of 112,428 vaccinations set the week before.
According to Beshear, Kentucky will be able to order about 8,500 additional Pfizer and Moderna doses for two weeks from now, and around 5,200 Johnson & Johnson doses for next week.
“We were told that we would have zero Johnson & Johnson for this week, so that’s a good thing,” Beshear said, talking about the doses coming in the future.
“Then we think it’s really going to take off, because both Pfizer’s CEO has said we’ll see a lot more, especially near the end of March, and the end of March is going to be significant, the end of April is going to be even more significant. So we expect by that point, again, to do 700,000 individuals vaccinated, this month. We’ll do even more than that in April,” the governor added.
Walgreens has administered approximately 5 million Covid-19 vaccines through its stores, dedicated clinics and long-term care facilities, according to a company statement.
In the more than 60,000 clinics the company initiated in long-term care facilities, Walgreens says it vaccinated the majority of residents and staff who opted to get a vaccine.
Now that the company is nearing the completion of its vaccination program for long-term care facilities, Walgreens is coordinating with the Biden administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to vaccinate teachers, child care workers and school staff included in the next vaccine priority group, the statement added.
The federal government aims for all school staff to receive their first dose by the end of March.
The pharmacy chain says it is receiving about 1 million vaccine doses this week from Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer for the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. Through that program, the company is supporting vaccinations across 43 states and jurisdictions.
“Walgreens is incredibly proud of our more than 40,000 immunizers who ensured the successful administration of vaccinations in these facilities,” said John Standley, the president of Walgreens. “With their deep experience, as well as increasing vaccine supply, we are making significant strides in accelerating access to Covid-19 vaccines.”
The biotechnology company Novavax is currently manufacturing its coronavirus vaccine at 10 sites in eight countries — with two sites in the United States, in North Carolina and Texas, Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development for Novavax, told CNN on Tuesday.
“They’re all at different stages,” Glenn said. “Some are earlier, but all are up and running and working on the vaccine. So, we expect to have a very large capacity.”
Maryland is removing all Covid-19 capacity restrictions on restaurants and other businesses on Friday, citing “significant improvements in [their] health metrics,” Gov. Larry Hogan announced at a news conference Tuesday.
Although physical distancing will still be required, capacity limits will be lifted on all indoor and outdoor dining establishments, retail businesses, religious buildings, fitness centers, personal service locations, such as hair and nail salons, and indoor recreation centers, such as casinos, bingo halls, bowling alleys, and skating rinks, the governor said.
All changes will be effective on Friday starting at 5 p.m. ET, Hogan said.
Large venues, such as for conferences, weddings, or concerts, may expand their indoor and outdoor capacity to 50%, Hogan said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, outlined today two ways Covid-19 vaccines could combat coronavirus variants: vaccinated people could get specific booster shots against each variant that crops up or a shot that offers protection against several variants.
“Here is the challenge: Are we going to chase each variant in an almost ‘whack-a-mole’ way or are we going to try and get a vaccine that has a good degree of protection against several (variants) and get the level of virus so low that we don’t really have an outbreak proportion,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event Tuesday.
Both strategies are being pursued in the US, Fauci said.
Dr. Mark Escott, chief medical officer for Austin, Texas, announced Tuesday that masks remain required in the city to protect from the spread of Covid-19, despite Gov. Greg Abbott lifting the statewide mask mandate.
Austin City Council passed an ordinance last year allowing the health authority to establish public health mandates and Texas state law allows cities to create their own health rules, according to Casar’s spokesperson Tara Pohlmeyer.
The city mask mandate and other health rules remain in place through April 15, when they may be extended based on health authority and Austin Public Health Department recommendation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill the narrowly passed the Senate Saturday as “very liberal and purely partisan,” saying it was only able to get through because Democrats “put lock-step unity ahead of substance” when they defeated almost every GOP amendment to the bill.
McConnell also said that “Democrats inherited a turning tide” because the “vaccine trends and economic trends were in place” before this bill voted on and before President Biden was sworn in.
The timeline: The US House is expected to vote tomorrow on the bill, according to a Democratic leadership aide. The House Rules Committee will take up the rule today, and the House will approve the rule governing floor debate tonight, the aide said.
The nearly $2 trillion package includes up to $1,400 stimulus checks to many Americans, and billions of dollars for states and municipalities, schools, small businesses and vaccine distribution.
Roughly 90% of American households will be eligible to receive stimulus checks, according to an estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
North Carolina has fully vaccinated more than 1.1 million people, Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“This puts us even closer to a time when we can hug our loved ones and gather without fear of severe illness,” he said. “I’m grateful for the vaccine providers across our state for working hard to get shots off shelves and into arms, your hard work is saving lives.”
Part of the state’s vaccination efforts have gone towards fair and equitable distribution.
“In the last four weeks over 20% of our first doses have been administered to Black North Carolinians,” Cooper said.
The state will continue to focus their efforts on equity, according to Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The state’s positivity rate has stayed around 5%, which is on track for the state, according to Cooper. However, the governor cautioned about “celebrating too early.”
“Let’s continue wearing our masks and being responsible so that one day soon we can turn the corner on this pandemic,” he said.
Biotechnology firm Novavax is developing a booster shot to its coronavirus vaccine, and company officials anticipate that vaccinated people might need boosters every six months or annually to stay protected against Covid-19. Similar to others, Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine is administered as two doses given three weeks apart.
After the second dose, “we’re seeing that at six months, there’s a pretty big decline in antibodies and I think all the vaccine makers are going to see that,” Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development for Novavax, told CNN on Tuesday.
Novavax has initiated a booster shot study to gather that information.
“We have actually started a trial where some of the people who got our vaccine last summer, at six months later we’re giving them a boost,” Glenn said. “We’re going to see how good that looks in terms of immune responses – and it can either be one dose, given once, or maybe we kind of repeat the same thing we did before where we give them a three-week interval.”
Cases of Covid-19 in children have declined for the seventh consecutive week, with at least 63,562 cases being reported last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP notes this is a “much smaller drop” than the previous six weeks.
Children make up about 13.2% of all Covid cases, and at least 3,231,836 children have tested positive since the onset of the pandemic.
In the 11 states that reported testing, children have made up between 6% and 18.5% of total state tests, with 5.3% to 30.7% of children who were tested testing positive.
Since states began reporting, between 1.3% and 3% of all hospitalizations were children, with between 0.1% and 2.2% of child Covid-19 cases leading to hospitalization. This is based on data from 23 states and New York City.
Overall, children made up zero to 0.19% of all Covid-19 deaths. Ten states reported no child deaths. Under 0.05% of all child Covid-19 cases resulted in death, AAP says. Mortality was reported from 43 states, New York City and Guam.
Biotechnology company Novavax still expects to see results from its PREVENT-19 trial, a Phase 3 study of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and Mexico, sometime in April. The trial has enrolled 30,000 volunteers across more than 100 locations.
“Everybody’s enrolled and now we’re watching for cases,” Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development for Novavax, told CNN on Tuesday.
In January, the American biotech firm announced that its Covid-19 vaccine was found to have an overall efficacy of 89.3% in a Phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom, where it was found to have 95.6% efficacy against the original coronavirus strain and 85.6% against the variant strain first identified in the UK.
The coronavirus vaccine was not among the first authorized in the United States because the company faced some challenges in building the staff needed to develop such a new vaccine, Glenn said.
“We were a small company,” Glenn said.
In January of last year, around the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Maryland-based company recruited more staff to work on developing its Covid-19 vaccine in response to the health crisis, Glenn said.
“We had to recruit people, and our funding was kind of low,” Glenn said. “In addition to all the challenges of developing the vaccine, which is really complicated, we had the challenge to build a company.”
Glenn added that Novavax has “reached a really good point now” with building the company and developing the vaccine. The company still expects to apply for emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine sometime in the second quarter of this year.
Current data suggests that women who are pregnant should feel comfortable receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the head of Covid-19 vaccine safety for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The data we have so far are reassuring. We do not see any signs of a safety problem in pregnant women — both with respect to the pregnant women individually and with respect to the developing fetus,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, vaccine safety lead with the Covid-19 Response Team at the CDC, said. “No unexpected pregnancy or infant outcomes have been observed related to Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy.”
A health official also addressed the vaccine’s impact on breast milk.
Shimabukuro said that despite the small amount of clinical data on Covid-19 vaccinations and pregnancy, pregnant people should consider the risks of contracting Covid-19 as well.
“There is evidence that pregnant women are at increased risk for complications from Covid infection and or increased risk for more severe disease. There is also some evidence that Covid infection may increase the risk of certain pregnancy birth outcomes,” he said. “So, I think in order to protect both the mother and the developing baby, I think it’s important that the women get vaccinated.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged business leaders to continue key public health measures to stop the spread of Covid-19. She spoke Tuesday during the Health Action Alliance National Business Summit.
She encouraged business to provide employees with face masks and also address vaccine hesitancy in the workplace.
“We are encouraged by the remarkable progress to date, but we continue to face challenges, including constrained vaccines supply, ongoing vaccine hesitancy and increasing myths and disinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines,” she said.
Walensky called on businesses to address misinformation by highlighting the unprecedented scale of the vaccine trials, which included over 100,000 participants, and the intensive vaccine safety monitoring program.
The latest figures on intensive care unit capacity in Brazil, where the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse amid a surging second wave, are grim.
Here is a breakdown of the figures:
According to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a health ministry institution, the accelerated occupancy rates at ICUs seen in the last month are the result of the lack of restrictive measures imposed by the federal and state governments, the spread of the new P.1 variant first identified in Brazil, and the slow pace of vaccination. Brazil has vaccinated only 4% of its population, according to the health ministry.
Vermont will allow anyone 16 years old or older with high risk conditions to schedule a vaccine appointment beginning this Thursday, Gov. Phil Scott announced Tuesday morning.
Vermont originally planned to open vaccinations to this population next week, but moved the timeline forward due to the state’s supply of vaccine and ability to accommodate more appointments.
Vermont expanded vaccinations to include teachers, school staff, and child care workers yesterday.
Disneyland expects to reopen by late April, after recalling and retraining furloughed employees, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced Tuesday.
California announced plans that will allow amusement parks, concert and sports venues to begin reopening starting April 1 if they are located in eligible counties. Orange County, home to Disneyland, is expected to progress out of the state’s most restrictive tier within the next week or two.
It will take a bit longer for Disney to get its more than 10,000 employees, or as Disney calls them, Cast Members, back to work and retrained on the state’s newly implemented rules surrounding Covid-19 precautions.
Attendance at the so-called Happiest Place on Earth will be limited to 15% of capacity until Orange County moves to a less restrictive tier.
The reopening of theme parks and sports venues “will mean so much to our working families and small businesses which have suffered so much while our large businesses have been closed for the past year,” Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu said Friday.
Disneyland’s official reopening date will be announced in the coming weeks.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday announced that effective immediately, people 16 and older with certain health conditions will be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
Speaking during a briefing, Edwards said the conditions are those listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that place an individual at a higher risk of suffering serious complications from contracting the virus.
The governor noted that at the moment, only the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for 16 and 17-year-olds. Individuals would need to complete a form for vaccine providers that certifies they have one or more health conditions that make them eligible to get vaccinated.
Edwards said the state is also expanding eligibility for any staff working in congregate facilities such as prisons “because of the especially high-level exposure they have.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about a concept being floated by the private sector, a “vaccine passport” that would allow Americans to demonstrate that they have been vaccinated ahead of traveling.
She suggested the effort will be driven outside of government as the administration’s focus is currently on vaccinating.
Pressed on whether the administration would want to be involved in setting standards, she said, “There are lots of ideas that will come from the private sector, nonprofits. We welcome those, but our focus from the federal government is on getting more people vaccinated, and that’s where we feel we can use our resources best.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki outlined another increase in vaccine doses being shipped to states, tribes, and territories.
She said today that the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccine supply will be 15.8 million doses this week, up from 15.2 million doses announced last week. Psaki also said 2.7 million first doses are being shipped directly to pharmacies.
She did not mention how many doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines would be shipped this week.
Psaki said the increase was first announced on a call White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients had with governors earlier on Tuesday.
The White House also said that the seven-day average for shots administered is now 2.17 million shots per day, up from 890,000 shots per day on January 20th when Biden took office.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave an update on when Americans should expect another stimulus payment, telling reporters on Tuesday that the payments are expected to go out starting this month.
Here are specifics from the White House on how Americans will be able to access their upcoming stimulus payment following its expected passage in the House and then President Biden’s anticipated signing of the American Rescue Plan into law:
Psaki said the White House is “not taking anything for granted” as the legislative process plays out but said they’re “pushing through the finish line.”
In the example of a typical family of four with parents making under $150,000 annually, she said that because of the rescue plan, the family should expect $5,600 in direct payments and $2,600 as part of the expanded childcare tax credit.
Read more about the stimulus checks here
About 93.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that 93,692,598 total doses have been administered – about 76% of the 123,232,775 doses delivered.
That’s about 1.6 million more administered doses reported since yesterday, for a seven-day average of nearly 2.2 million doses per day.
About 18% of US residents – more than 61 million people – have now received at least one dose of vaccine, and about 10% of US residents – about 32 million people – have been fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.
Note on the data: Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the percentage of US residents that have received at least one dose of the vaccine and those who have been fully vaccinated.
The US House is expected to vote tomorrow on a massive coronavirus relief package. While the bill includes up to $1,400 stimulus checks for some Americans, the Senate nixed plans to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Still, that is not expected to jeopardize the bill.
CNN’s Jessica Dean has the latest updates from Capitol Hill. Watch more:
A third round of stimulus payments is expected to be on the way later this month.
The payments are included in a sweeping $1.9 trillion Covid relief package that was approved by the Senate on Saturday and could be signed by President Biden soon after the House takes a final vote, now expected to be on Wednesday.
Roughly 90% of American households will be eligible, according to an estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
The payments are worth up to $1,400 per person, including dependents. So a couple with two children could receive up to $5,600. Unlike prior rounds, families will now receive the additional money for adult dependents over the age of 17.
The full amount goes to individuals earning less than $75,000 of adjusted gross income, heads of households (like single parents) earning less than $112,500 and married couples earning less than $150,000. But then the payments gradually phase out as income goes up.
Individuals who earn at least $80,000 a year of adjusted gross income, heads of households who earn at least $120,000 and married couples who earn at least $160,000 will be completely cut off from the third round of stimulus payments — regardless of how many children they have.
Read more about the stimulus checks here
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee announced on Tuesday the state’s plan to get all teachers, school staff and child care providers at least the first dose of their Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the month.
McKee said the plan supports the roadmap laid out by President Biden to prioritize teachers and to strive for a higher teacher vaccination rate.
The plan comes a week after CVS and Walgreens pharmacies in Rhode Island made teachers eligible for the vaccine. McKee said the effort will continue into April to ensure all teachers also get their second dose of the vaccine.
“We’re going to do everything that we possibly can to make sure that we salvage some of the school year in a real, strong way. We really need that time,” he said.
State health officials said they estimate the plan will include 18,500 teachers and school staff, adding that a third of teachers have already been eligible for vaccinations under other cohorts such as age.
Education officials support the plan as a way to prioritize in-person learning to return in a more robust way.
“Our teachers have shown up, have been doing the work,” said Rhode Island’s Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. “Our teachers deserve to have this added layer of mitigation, so we’re excited about being part of this new plan for vaccination.”
Signs first emerged early in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the United States that more women than men were reporting adverse side effects.
Researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration found that from mid-December through mid-January, among the more than 13 million vaccine doses that were administered, almost 6,994 adverse events were reported.
About 79% of those events were reported in women, even though only about 61% of Covid-19 vaccine doses at the time were given to women, according to the data published by the CDC in late February. Most of the symptoms reported were headache, fatigue and dizziness.
In general, these sex differences seen in adverse events among men and women are at least partly because women comprise a greater proportion of the total number of people vaccinated compared to men, and women comprise a greater proportion of people included in safety monitoring of the vaccine, Julianne Gee, a researcher in the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, told CNN in an email on Tuesday. But there might be some biological differences too.
“Regarding biological plausibility, studies conducted before COVID-19 vaccines were in use suggest that females have higher antibody responses than males to certain vaccines, including influenza vaccines. Conversely, males have higher antibody responses to other vaccines including tetanus vaccine,” Gee said in her email.
“Women generally develop stronger immune responses, including high antibody levels and greater T-cell activation, which can lead to more rapid control of infection but may also lead to increased reactogenicity after vaccines,” Gee said. “Females also have more reactions to a variety of vaccines including influenza.”
Canada will honor people who died of Covid-19 on Thursday in what is being billed as a national day of observance.
“There are no words for the pain of losing someone you love. As a country we remember all those we lost and we mourn with families and friends,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference Tuesday.
Canada has recorded nearly 900,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 22,000 deaths.
After a sluggish rollout, Trudeau promised that vaccine shipments would continue to pick up across the country.
Public health officials say more than 5% of Canadians have received at least one dose of a vaccine but new variants will continue to pose a significant risk to public health in the weeks to come.
Once the Covid-19 pandemic is over in the United States, the country will have a large number of people disabled from the virus who need help, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said Tuesday.
Speaking to a Senate committee hearing on Covid-19 response, Jha said he found it frustrating that the focus on mortality rates and push for herd immunity did not take into account the chronic effects of Covid-19 in some who were infected.
“When our President declares the public health emergency over, we are going to find a large number of Americans with substantial disability from this virus, from this infection,” Jha said. “The cost of that, human and financial, is going to be long-term. And we’re going to have to manage that as a country.”
Scotland will ease some lockdown restrictions and limits on outdoor meetings and activities on Friday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Tuesday.
Up to four adults from two households will be able to meet in any outdoor space, including private gardens, under the updated rules.
Changes to outdoor meetings for 12- to 17-year-olds will mean four friends from four different families can meet outdoors, she said.
Outdoor non-contact sports and organized group exercise will be permitted for all adults in groups of up to 15 people as of Friday, Sturgeon said.
She said the changes will mean a return to communal worship for upcoming Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu and Sikh holidays starting on March 26, when the limit on attendance will be increased from 20 to 50, with six feet of physical distancing.
“This is in time for Passover, Easter, Ramadan and Vaisakhi,” Sturgeon said. “I know that the restrictions on communal worship have been really difficult for many people, despite the exceptional — quite exceptional — efforts made by faith groups to reach out to their communities.”
Current guidance in mainland Scotland is to stay at home, except for essential purposes. Scotland, like Wales and Northern Ireland, sets its coronavirus rules independently from the UK government.
Plans to set out a firm timeline for reopening the economy, including shops, hairdressers, gyms, and parts of the tourism sector, will be announced next week.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo just announced that residents ages 60 and up can get vaccinated against coronavirus starting tomorrow morning.
Previously, only residents 65 and up, as well as some essential workers and some people with certain underlying conditions, were eligible for the vaccine.
Watch Gov. Cuomo:
It’s just before noon on Tuesday in the US, where more than 29 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the pandemic began.
If you’re just reading in, here’s what you need to know about the pandemic to start your day:
The $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill has finally been sent to the House after a lengthy procedural process, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the matter.
The House will give final passage to the bill Wednesday morning, according to a Democratic leadership aide. The House Rules Committee will take up the rule today, and the House will approve the rule governing floor debate tonight, the aide said.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he expects the rule to be adopted “late this afternoon,” with a vote to consider the package tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, called the Covid-19 relief bill “transformative.”
When pressed whether Democrats were taking a victory lap too early, and whether he was confident that the bill would clear the House with the Senate’s changes in it, Jeffries was bullish.
“I’m 110% confident,” he said. “And we’ll pass it hopefully with some Republican votes although, you know, that remains to be seen. What’s perplexing to a lot of us is that the American Rescue Plan is bipartisan across the country.”
If the House passes the bill, it is expected to be signed by President Biden shortly after.
What is in the bill: The nearly $2 trillion package includes up to $1,400 stimulus checks to many Americans, and billions of dollars for states and municipalities, schools, small businesses and vaccine distribution.
Roughly 90% of American households will be eligible to receive stimulus checks, according to an estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Read more about the checks here.
CNN’s Kristin Wilson, Ryan Nobles and Clare Foran contributed reporting to this post.
As the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked to prepare guidance for people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the possibility of changing travel recommendations was discussed but there was never a lot of momentum behind adjusting it right now, two federal health officials familiar with the discussion tell CNN.
The CDC announced on Monday that people who are fully vaccinated:
Among the things CDC said hasn’t changed: “You should still delay domestic and international travel. If you do travel, you’ll still need to follow CDC requirements and recommendations.”
“Early data show that the vaccines may help keep people from spreading COVID-19, but we are learning more are more people get vaccinated,” the CDC added.
New York City has administered over 2.4 million vaccinations, with nearly 340,000 having been administered last week alone, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The mayor said the city’s Vaccine for All Corps “continues to grow,” hiring 2,000 New Yorkers “right away” to work at sites throughout the city.
Recruitment is underway, and 2,500 applications were submitted within the first five days.
The new CDC guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are a “huge, huge emotional release and lift” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday.
He offered the example of elderly people who may be socially isolated, saying that they now know that if they are fully vaccinated, they can get together with friends who are also fully vaccinated, and they can hug their grandchildren.
Besser spoke about his own parents, both in their early 90s, and said that he knew for them that “getting two doses of vaccine, being fully vaccinated, now knowing they can get together with other people, that’s a huge, huge emotional release and lift.”
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo called Texas governor’s decision to lift statewide mask mandate a “step in the wrong direction” and added that he expects it will lead to an uptick in calls to his department for service and conflict.
“In this state, businesses have property rights. And so you know, ‘no mask, no service’ means you can’t be in that business,” he said. “So if a person does not want to wear the mask and refuses to wear the mask and refuses to leave, they’re committing what’s called criminal trespass.”
He added:
He said he hopes Texans will observe voluntary compliance but he can still see some cases of conflict “and the cops will be stuck in the middle like we always are.”
“We’ve already seen … a glass broken over [an employee’s] head simply for asking someone to wear the mask. We have another restaurant where the owner is calling me where they’re talking about calling ICE on their employees because they’ve chosen to follow the science and keep their customers healthy. And so the conflict is coming. It was avoidable. This was unnecessary and unfortunately, something else that will be on our plate moving forward,” he said Tuesday.
Acevedo also criticized Gov. Greg Abbott for lifting the mandate for “political theatre.”
“He’s going to continue to wear his mask, is my understanding because he understands the risk to his own health. If it’s good enough for him to wear a mask, I’m not sure why he doesn’t care enough about the rest of Texans to continue to follow the science,” he said.
Watch the interview:
The number of Americans who think there will be a return to normal within the next six months or sooner is increasing, according to new poll results from Axios-Ipsos released Tuesday. Now, 40% of respondents think that’s the case, compared with 26% in late January.
And the number who think it will take a year or more to return to normal is more decreasing, now 17% compared with 30% in late January. The poll, which was conducted March 5 to 8, was based on a nationally representative sample of 1,001 Americans age 18 and over.
In the poll, 20% say they don’t know when they will return to pre-coronavirus activity levels for in-person gatherings outside their household or dining at a restaurant. The rest have a mix of responses — 30% say they already have attended in-person gatherings, 29% said they will once they or everyone in their circle has been vaccinated, 21% say they will when officials say it is safe, and 20% don’t know.
As 25% of respondents reported getting the vaccine, the vast majority of respondents say that they will continue public health measures even after being vaccinated, with 81% saying they would continue to wear a mask, 66% continuing to social distance and 87% saying they will continue frequent hand washing or sanitizing.
As these numbers are changing, so are the number of Americans staying home and avoiding contact with others and engaging in social interactions outside the home.
The number of Americans who say they are avoiding contact, 13%, is at its lowest since October, and down six points from a month ago. The number of Americans who have visited family or friends in the past week — 44% — is up seven points from a month ago.
The poll also looked at personal benefits experienced since the start of the pandemic. It found 36% said spending more time at home was the biggest personal benefit experienced, 33% said spending less/saving more was the biggest personal benefit, and a quarter noted spending more time with family.
There was also “some cautious optimism” around finances, with fewer people saying that their ability to pay their rent or mortgage had gotten worse, and a lower number of people saying they have been temporarily furloughed or suspended from work.
Finally, the poll looked at how the pandemic has affected dreams. It found that 1 in 3 Americans reported strange or vivid dreams in the last month, one-quarter had stressful or frightening dreams and fewer than 1 in 10 had coronavirus-specific dreams.
About 60% of people age 65 and older have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine the United States, a CNN analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Census Bureau indicates.
About 30% of US residents age 65 and older are fully vaccinated, meaning they have either received two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The proportion of people over age 65 who have been vaccinated in the US is about three-fold the general population.
This is important because the risk of severe disease in death increases significantly as a person gets older.
People ages 65-74 are 35 times more likely to be hospitalized and 1,100 times more likely to die from Covid-19, compared to someone who is 5-17 years old, according to the CDC.
People ages 75-84 are 55 times more likely to be hospitalized and 2,800 times more likely to die. People ages 85 and older are 80 times more likely to be hospitalized and 7,900 times more likely to die.
People who at first experience no symptoms when they have Covid-19 may still go on to become “long-haulers” – meaning they may develop and experience long-term symptoms later, according to early research, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
The pre-print paper, posted online to the medical server medrxiv.org last week, found that nearly a third of Covid-19 patients who were reporting symptoms more than 60 days after testing positive initially experienced no symptoms when first testing positive, making them asymptomatic.
The new study included data from the electronic health records of 1,407 Covid-19 patients in California who were never hospitalized during their coronavirus infection.
More on the study: The researchers analyzed the Covid-19 symptoms patients reported during the first 10 days of their infection and then at least 61 days later, which was the criteria used to define “long-haulers.” The researchers found that 27% of the patients reported symptoms at least 61 days later.
More women than men experienced lingering symptoms at least 61 days later, the researchers found, and the most prevalent symptoms were: chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, abdominal pain, cough, low back pain and fatigue. The researchers also found all age groups were represented among the “long-haulers.”
The researchers noted in their paper that “these long-term consequences of becoming a long-hauler are unclear, and further research is urgently needed to corroborate our findings.”
The last five days are the busiest air travel has been over such a stretch since the holidays. The Transportation Security Administration just reported it screened 1.1 million people at airports on Monday, meaning 5.6 million people have traveled by air over the last five days.
The new numbers come as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling people to still not travel, even if they are fully vaccinated against coronavirus — and as health experts are worried about a spike in the virus after upcoming spring break trips.
The airline industry insists that flying is safe regardless of whether people are vaccinated or not. More than two dozen travel industry trade associations and unions sent a letter to the Biden administration Monday saying that it should work with the industry to come up with standard traveler health records as a way to bring back travel.
Russia has never participated and will not participate in disinformation campaigns against Covid-19 vaccines, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists on a conference call, Peskov said statements claiming that there is a Russian campaign working to undermine confidence in Covid-19 vaccines used in the US are “absurd” and “have no basis at all.”
“We do not understand the reasons for such statements. We intend to continue to explain patiently and very consistently that such messages are absurd,” Peskov said.
On Sunday, a State Department spokesperson told CNN that online platforms directed by Russian intelligence are spreading disinformation about two of the coronavirus vaccines being used in the US.
Peskov said there is a broad discussion across the globe about coronavirus vaccines in general and Russia has always been against politicizing covid vaccines.
“We have always been against politicizing any vaccine-related issues in any way. It is necessary to test the vaccine first, and as soon as its effectiveness is confirmed, to produce as much as possible of it in order to save the world from coronavirus and save as many human lives as possible,” he said.
Peskov also said that despite its efficacy, the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, has been subject to criticism, adding it sometimes happens under the guise of objectivity and at other times “completely without any attempt to pretend to be objective, just sweeping criticism.”
“Russia never participated and is not going to participate in an information campaign against any other vaccines. On the contrary, by the way, it is the Russian Federation that is now involved in collaboration with other vaccine companies in order to make a more effective product,” Peskov added.
The airline industry is pushing back against new US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention guidelines that fully vaccinated people should still avoid travel.
In a new statement, industry group Airlines For America insists being on board a plane poses a low risk of coronavirus infection because of heavily filtered air and federally mandated mask wearing. “We remain confident that this layered approach significantly reduces risk,” the group said.
The announcement comes after the CDC said those who are vaccinated can meet with others who are vaccinated and even low-risk people who aren’t vaccinated but should still avoid travel.
Health experts remain concerned that upcoming spring break travel will lead to an uptick in coronavirus infection rates.
This is the second pandemic-related disagreement between the airline industry and the new Biden administration.
The transportation industry pushed back hard earlier this year when the CDC was considering requiring that domestic air travelers get tested for coronavirus at the start of their trip. The White House met with airline CEOs, and the idea fell apart.
An airline industry source told CNN that it is urging the CDC to publicly release the criteria it will use to adjust travel guidance.
A new study suggests that the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine can protect people against the concerning coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil.
Blood serum samples from people who had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine “efficiently” neutralized a version of the virus engineered to carry the same mutations as the variant, known as the P.1.
The P.1 variant is suspected of fueling a resurgence of coronavirus cases in Brazil. It was found in 42% of samples in one survey carried out in Manaus and cases have since emerged in countries including the US, the UK and Japan.
The P.1 variant has mutations in common with the variant first identified in South Africa that are thought to make it more contagious and possibly able to evade immunity from vaccines – though this new study suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may still be effective.
Pfizer previously reported findings that blood samples also neutralized variant B.1.351, first reported in South Africa. The study found neutralization was still “robust but lower.”
In February, Pfizer said that there is no evidence in real life that the South African variant escapes the protection offered by its vaccine but that they were working on developing a booster shot and an updated vaccine.
“Nevertheless, Pfizer and BioNTech are taking the necessary steps, making the right investments, and engaging in the appropriate conversations with regulators to be in a position to develop and seek authorization for an updated mRNA vaccine or booster once a strain that significantly reduces the protection from the vaccine is identified,” Pfizer said in a statement at the time.
US lawmakers are calling for research into the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on mental health.
Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Tim Kaine of Virginia exclusively told CNN that they plan to introduce the Covid-19 Mental Health Research Act on Tuesday afternoon. The legislation would direct $100 million annually for five years to the National Institute of Mental Health to fund research on the mental health consequences of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko and Republican Rep. John Katko, both of New York, will introduce the House version of the legislation, according to Klobuchar’s office.
“Health care workers have led our communities through this crisis, with many feeling acute stress and anxiety,” Klobuchar said in a statement to CNN.
“Children, adolescents, and seniors have also been uniquely impacted. To understand how we can best support them – and all Americans – through this difficult time, we must assess the scope of this mental health crisis and take steps to promote recovery and healing,” she said.
The proposed bill would provide support to research that examines the pandemic’s toll on mental health, especially for health care workers. Other funding would support post-pandemic mental health response and suicide prevention.
Tonko said that focusing on mental health will be part of “rebuilding America” after the pandemic, especially for medical professionals and emergency responders.
One study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry in February, found that emergency department visits related to mental health, suicide attempts, overdoses, intimate partner violence and suspected child abuse were generally higher during the pandemic last year than during the same period the year before.
Read more:
The Artistic All-Around World Cup in Tokyo, which was also set to serve as a test event for this summer’s Olympics, has been cancelled due to the pandemic, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced on Tuesday.
The event, which had been scheduled for May 4 at the Ariake Gymnastics Center, was meant to conclude this year’s All-Around World Cup series.
The cancellation, though, of two earlier events in Stuttgart (Germany) and Birmingham (England) has led to the scrapping of the series from Olympic qualifying.
The FIG added that Tokyo 2020 would instead hold an operational test event at the venue on May 4 in the form of a national gymnastics event.
The Olympic games are set to open on July 23, with the Japanese government determined to hold the games as scheduled.
Japan and the International Olympic Committee plan to implement strict countermeasures against covid-19 during the games, including quarantine, testing, use of PPE, and vaccinations.
Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Bureau of Laboratories said that the first case of the B.1.351 Covid-19 variant has been identified in the state.
The variant, which was first identified in South Africa, has been detected in a male child, according a statement issued by the agency on Monday evening.
The child is living in Jackson County, an area approximately 80 miles west of Detroit.
The case marks the only known case in Michigan at this time, however it is possible that there are more that have not been identified, according to the statement.
Researchers are currently investigating the Jackson County case to determine close contacts and if there are additional cases associated with the case, it said.
As of Monday, Michigan has also identified 516 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the UK, in 23 jurisdictions.
A safer future is just a few months away, but it’s crucial that Americans keep practicing Covid-19 safety precautions and heeding health officials’ advice as the country works to vaccinate more people, one expert told CNN on Monday.
Americans should continue wearing masks and avoiding indoor crowded spaces – “where the virus can spread rapidly,” according to Frieden – as officials track the variants circulating in the US and, among them, the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant that was first detected in the UK.
Experts say that variant is now rapidly spreading across the US and, according to the CDC, will likely become the predominant variant this month. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm warned earlier this week the variant could help fuel another dangerous surge in just several weeks’ time.
Read more:
Italy’s coronavirus death toll topped 100,000 on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, making it the sixth country to record a death count above six figures.
Italian Health Ministry data showed the country registered a further 318 deaths in the 24 hours to Monday, bringing its total number of fatalities during the pandemic to 100,103.
On Monday, Prime Minister Mario Draghi recalled how a year ago on March 10, Italy was the first Western country to declare hard lockdown measures.
“The pandemic has not yet been defeated, but with the acceleration of the vaccination plan, a way out is not far away,” Draghi said, thanking Italian citizens for their patience and discipline, especially those suffering economic consequences from the crisis.
He said the country is seeing a rise in cases. In the past 24 hours, 13,092 new infections were recorded, and ICU occupancy is up to 2,700, 95 more than a day earlier.
Almost 5.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country, but Draghi aims to speed up the vaccination schedule.
World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned about squandering the progress that has been made around the world Monday, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thursday will mark 12 months since the UN health agency declared the crisis a pandemic.
“Right now, WHO’s focus is on supporting all countries to end the pandemic, including with vaccines and the public health measures that have been the bedrock of the response for 15 months,” Tedros said during a news briefing in Geneva.
Tedros said the tools to control the pandemic exist, but they must be used consistently and equitably. “Science, solutions and solidarity remain our guide. There are no shortcuts,” he added.
New guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely visit with other vaccinated people and small groups of unvaccinated people in some circumstances, but there are still important safety precautions needed.
The CDC defines people who are fully vaccinated as those who are two weeks past their second dose of the Moderna and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines or two weeks past a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. There is growing evidence that people who are vaccinated don’t spread Covid-19, but scientists are still trying to understand how long vaccine protection lasts.
Read more:
