Category: Corona Virus

As new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus spread, the CDC says wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask offers increased protection against the virus. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

As new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus spread, the CDC says wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask offers increased protection against the virus.

Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new research on Wednesday that found wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask offers more protection against the coronavirus, as does tying knots on the ear loops of surgical masks. Those findings prompted new guidance on how to improve mask fit at a time of concern over fast-spreading variants of the virus.

For optimal protection, the CDC says to make sure the mask fits snugly against your face and to choose a mask with at least two layers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new research on Wednesday that found wearing a cloth mask over a medical mask is one way to reduce exposure to aerosol droplets that can transmit the coronavirus. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hide caption

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new research on Wednesday that found wearing a cloth mask over a medical mask is one way to reduce exposure to aerosol droplets that can transmit the coronavirus.

In laboratory testing, researchers simulated coughs and breathing and tested how well different masks worked to block aerosol particles comparing no mask, a cloth mask or a surgical mask. They also tested two methods to optimize the fit of cloth and medical masks: wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask, and tying knots on the ear loops of surgical masks and then tucking in and flattening the extra material against the face.

Both methods produced substantially improved protection against transmission of and exposure to infectious aerosols.

"In the study, wearing any type of mask performed significantly better than not wearing a mask," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in a briefing from the White House COVID-19 Response Team on Wednesday.

"And well-fitting masks provided the greatest performance at both blocking emitted aerosols and exposure of aerosols to the receiver. In the breathing experiment, having both the source and the receiver wear masks modified to fit better reduced the receiver's exposure by more than 95%, compared to no mask at all," she said.

The CDC compared the protection offered by (from left) an unknotted medical procedure mask, a cloth mask covering medical procedure mask, and medical procedure mask that is knotted and tucked. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hide caption

Walensky said the laboratory findings underscore the importance of wearing a mask correctly and ensuring it fits snugly over your nose and mouth. The new information does not alter the CDC's guidance on who should wear a mask and when.

As of Feb. 2, masks are now required on planes, buses, trains and other public transportation traveling into, within or out of the U.S., as well as in U.S. transit hubs such as airports and stations.

The CDC's guidance on improving mask fit now recommends:

But double-masking isn't recommended for all masks. Don't combine two disposable masks, the CDC says: "Disposable masks are not designed to fit tightly and wearing more than one will not improve fit."

And don't layer another mask on top of a KN95, either. That mask should be used alone, the CDC says.

NPR's Rob Stein contributed to this report.

Read more:

CDC Says Double-Masking Offers More Protection Against The Coronavirus - NPR

Assuming a 50-nanometre radius (at the centre of the estimated range) of Sars-CoV-2, the volume of a single spherical virus particle works out to be 523,000 cubic nanometres.

Multiplying this very small volume by the very large number of particles we calculated earlier, and converting into meaningful units gives us a total volume of about 120 millilitres. If we wanted to put all these virus particles together in one place, then wed need to remember that spheres dont pack together perfectly.

If you think about the pyramid of oranges you might see at the grocery store, youll remember that a significant portion of the space it takes up is empty. In fact, the best you can do to minimise empty space is a configuration called "close sphere packing" in which empty space takes up about 26% of the total volume. This increases the totalgathered volumeof Sars-CoV-2 particles to about 160 millilitres easily small enough to fit inside about six shot glasses. Even taking the upper end of the diameter estimate and accounting for thesize of the spike proteinsall the Sars-CoV-2 still wouldnt fill a can of soda.

It turns out that the total volume of Sars-CoV-2 was between my wifes rough estimates of the teaspoon and the swimming pool. Its astonishing to think that all the trouble, the disruption, the hardship and the loss of life that has resulted over the last year could constitute just a few mouthfuls of what would undoubtedly be the worst beverage in history.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there would be two quintillion (2x10) virus particles in the world at any one time. The figure given was a typo and it should read 200 quadrillion (2x10). This did not affect the results of the calculation and has been corrected.

* Christian Yates is a senior lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath and the author of The Maths of Life and Death.

This articleis adapted from a piece thatoriginally appearedon The Conversation, and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

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Why all the world's coronavirus would fit in a can of cola - BBC News

Welcome to the 39th installment of Coronavirus Contextualized, a recurring feature in which we explore some of the numbers swirling around in the time of coronavirus.

Through these stories, we hope to parse the numbers, including confirmed cases of COVID-19, people tested, number of hospitalizations and deaths, and provide some context to them. You can view the prior editions of Coronavirus Contextualized here on our coronavirus page.

These stories serve as a written roundup of the COVID-19 trends we kept our eyes on this week, with all graphs and charts living permanently on our COVID-19 data page, where they are updated multiple times a day with the latest numbers.

Were continuing to take suggestions for what kind of data, graphs and trends you would like to see analyzed in future versions of this story or included in a future update of our data page. Reach out to [emailprotected] with any feedback.

Below, we take a look at the latest COVID-19 trends as the number of new reported cases each day as Gov. Steve Sisolak on Thursday announced a new reopening plan that gradually loosens restrictions over the next two and a half months, at which point local jurisdictions will be responsible for putting in place their own COVID-19 health and safety measures.

Cases and test positivity

The good news continued for Nevadans this week: As of Thursday, an average of 677 cases were reported each day over the last seven days, down from 950 last week.

At the peak of the surge this fall, the seven-day average was 2,736, on Dec. 10. The low point before cases started to increase in mid-September was 267. That means that while cases are significantly down from the peak, theyre still more than double what they were before the surge.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, there have been 286,533 COVID-19 cases reported statewide. About a tenth of those cases, 36,039, have been diagnosed in the last month, and a little less than 2 percent, or 4,742 cases, have been reported in the last week.

One in 11 Nevadans has tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. Nevada ranks 16th in the nation for COVID-19 cases per capita, the same as last week.

At the same time, Nevadas test positivity rate which looks at the percentage of tests or people coming back positive out of the total tested remains high, though it continues to decrease day over day. As usual, well look at two different methods of calculating test positivity below, using both individual people and a metric known as testing encounters.

Starting with the number of new reported people who tested positive for COVID-19 out of the total number of new reported people tested each day, the states seven-day average test positivity rate was about 22.4 percent as of Thursday, down from a recent high of 45.9 percent on Dec. 13 but still significantly higher than the recent low point before the surge this fall, 9.2 percent on Sept. 17.

One of the drawbacks, however, of looking at test positivity using individual people is that some people are tested repeatedly. Someone who tested negative four times but tested positive on their fifth time would be counted as a new positive person but not a new person tested. (In other words, they would be counted in the numerator but not the denominator.) Thats why the test positivity rates calculated this way look so high.

Another way of looking at test positivity, as we have noted each week, is to examine test encounters, or the number of individual people tested each day. This method of looking at test positivity excludes duplicate samples collected the same day but accounts for people who are tested repeatedly on different days.

It is not possible to independently calculate the test positivity rate based on test encounters because the state only reports the number of positive cases, not the number of positive test encounters. However, the state does provide this number, calculated as an average over a 14-day period with a seven-day lag. As of Wednesday, that number was 14.3 percent, down from a high of 21.7 percent on Jan. 13. In September, before cases started to increase, the test positivity rate was 6.1 percent.

Whichever calculation you use to look at test positivity, the trends are generally the same. Test positivity had been increasing fairly steadily from September through mid-January and is now decreasing.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, about 1.4 million people about one in 2.3 Nevadans have been tested for COVID-19, and there have been nearly 2.6 million individual testing encounters.

Vaccinations

Since vaccinations started in December, 379,077 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Nevada, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includes 299,502 first doses and 77,555 second doses.

(Gov. Steve Sisolak, during a press conference Thursday afternoon, provided slightly more up-to-date, though rounded, figures from the states data: 307,000 first doses administered and 82,000 second doses, totaling more than 390,000 doses.)

That means that just a little bit less than 10 percent of Nevadans have been either fully or partially vaccinated. In total, Nevada has been distributed 533,800 doses of the vaccine by the federal government.

According to the CDC, Nevada is receiving the third fewest number of doses per capita from the federal government of any state up from second last week at 17,330 per 100,000 residents. State officials continue to seek clarity from the federal government about why the state is receiving fewer doses on a per population basis than other states.

Nevada has administered the 10th fewest doses per capita of any state though Nevada ranks 19th for most doses administered as a percentage of doses received, at 71.0 percent, down from 11th last week.

For more on these numbers, check out this explainer published by The Nevada Independent last week.

Among the counties, Mineral County has administered the most doses per capita, at 30,855 vaccines administered per 100,000 residents, followed by White Pine at 26,868 and Eureka at 19,271. Clark County ranks ninth at 11,142, while Washoe ranks fifth at 15,998.

For more on the vaccination process in the state, read our vaccine Q&A here.

Deaths

Nevada is still seeing a high number of new deaths reported each day, though the numbers are down from the peak in January.

As of Thursday, 30 deaths were being reported on average each day over the last seven days, down from a high of 44.9 on Jan. 14. Over the last seven days, 210 new COVID-19 deaths have been reported across the state, including:

In the last month, 1,138 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported statewide, a quarter of the 4,640 total COVID-19 deaths reported statewide since the beginning of the pandemic.

Pershing County has the number of deaths per capita in Nevada, with 28 deaths per 10,000 residents, followed by Carson City and Churchill County, each at 20, and Nye County at 19.

Nevada ranks 21st in the nation for deaths per capita, the same as last week.

Hospitalizations

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Nevada continue to decrease, though they continue to remain at high levels.

There were 879 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, the last day for which data is available, down from 1,121 last week. The record, 2,025 hospitalizations, was set on Dec. 13. The low point in September was 417.

Nevada now has the sixth highest number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 per capita at 29.9 per 100,000, behind New York, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and New Jersey.

Nevada hospitals are currently staffing 7,044 beds, more than the 6,660 they are normally licensed to operate, to keep up with the demand. As of Wednesday, 75 percent of staffed hospital beds and 66 percent of ICU beds were occupied. Those numbers were 79 percent and 72 percent, respectively, in Southern Nevada and 70 percent and 53 percent in Northern Nevada.

County by county

Ten of the states 17 counties are considered at elevated risk for the spread of COVID-19 according to state criteria as of Thursday. Those counties not considered at risk are Storey, Churchill, Humboldt, Lander, Eureka, White Pine and Lincoln.

Counties are considered at risk for elevated spread of COVID-19 if they meet two of the following three metrics:

Mineral County continues to have the highest case rate in the state at 1,579 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 30 days. Clark County comes in second at 1,068 and Pershing County comes in third at 704.

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Coronavirus Contextualized, 39th edition: Cases, hospitalizations continue to decrease though still double what they were in September - The Nevada...

More than 50 Walmarts across the Houston area are scheduling COVID vaccines. Heres how to check for appointments.

HOUSTON Dozens of Walmarts and Sams Clubs in Texas are now scheduling coronavirus vaccinations for Texans in phases 1a and 1b.

You must have an appointment to get the vaccine. No walk-ins accepted.

If youre eligible, heres the step-by-step process.

Houston-area stores with vaccines

Here is a list of Walmart and Sams Club pharmacies administering vaccines in the Greater Houston Area. Being a Sam's Club member is not required to receive the free COVID-19 vaccine.

BAY CITY

BAYTOWN

CROSBY

CYPRESS

11425 BARKER CYPRESS ROAD

FRIENDSWOOD

HOUSTON

9460 W SAM HOUSTON PKWY S

HUMBLE

9235 N SAM HOUSTON PKWY E

KATY

20903 HIGHLAND KNOLLS DRIVE

KINGWOOD

LA PORTE

MISSOURI CITY

PASADENA

RICHMOND

SPRING

24809 ALDINE WESTFIELD ROAD

STAFFORD

SUGAR LAND

TOMBALL

Originally posted here:

How to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine at a Walmart in the Houston area - KHOU.com

(NEXSTAR) All the COVID-19 virus particles in the world could fit inside a can of soda, according to a British mathematician, demonstrating how much ruin even tiny particles can wreak on the planet.

Christian Yates, a senior lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath in England, set out to calculate just how many COVID-19 virus particles are circulating in the world for the BBC and described his process in a piece for the Conversation.

Yates calculations led him to estimate that there are 200 million billion virus particles in the world at any given time a huge number, but given that a single COVID-19 particle is roughly 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, the total volume of virus particles in the world is minuscule.

Yates then went on to calculate the volume of a particle, using the equation V=4 r/3, and came to the conclusion that the total volume of all particles is about 160 ml easily small enough to fit inside about six shot glasses or a can of soda.

Its astonishing to think that all the trouble, the disruption, the hardship and the loss of life that has resulted over the last year could constitute just a few mouthfuls of what would undoubtedly be the worst beverage in history, Yates writes.

There are more than 107 million COVID-19 infections around the world, according to Johns Hopkins. More than 2.3 million people have died.

See more here:

Mathematician: All the COVID virus in the world could fit in a soda can - WFLA

MADISON, Wis. (AP) A new report says the coronavirus has taken its toll on Wisconsins transportation fund, the states primary source for road and infrastructure projects. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum reported the top two revenue sources for the fund, fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, fell short of projections by more than $116 million in fiscal year 2020. Travel plans changed last year for many Wisconsinites who opted to stay at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A federal package passed in December could provide relief for the fund. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials estimates the package will provide Wisconsin with about $188 million in transportation funding.

Read this article:

Coronavirus takes its toll on state transportation fund - WKOW

During a Thursday press conference, Gov. Greg Abbott said that more announcements are likely coming soon about relaxing COVID-19 restrictions in Texas as cases and hospitalizations continue to drop.

Abbott spoke at a roundtable discussion in Dallas with small business owners about the states role in supporting small businesses during the pandemic. As more Texans continue to get vaccinated and COVID-19 hospitalizations trend downward, Abbott said, he plans to lift statewide restrictions if trends continue.

We know there are businesses that need to get back to work. There are employees that have bills to pay. There are jobs that must be opened, Abbott said. I was visiting with the people around the table today to expect that things economically will be picking up very rapidly.

On Thursday, 8,933 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas the first time the number has dropped below 9,000 since December, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The state also reported 9,936 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,332 new probable cases.

We want to make sure that the numbers do continue along the same trend, Abbott said. And if they do continue on the same trend, we are already evaluating ways that we can begin to lift restrictions.

While average new COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases are trending downward, the numbers are higher than when Abbott initially announced restrictions on businesses.

Under an October order from Abbott, bars are allowed to reopen at 50% capacity and businesses like movie theaters can operate at 75% capacity. However, if the percentage of COVID-19 patients exceeds 15% of hospital capacity in a region for a week, restaurant occupancy must be reduced to 50% and bars must be shut down. On Oct. 14, the day the order took effect, the state reported 4,131 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

An Abbott spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about which restrictions would be lifted if trends continue or what threshold would prompt reopenings.

As of Tuesday, 3.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in Texas, and 3.1% of Texas population is fully vaccinated.

When Abbott initially closed bars and restaurants on March 19, there were 161 confirmed coronavirus cases and three reported deaths in the state. He allowed businesses to reopen in a limited capacity in April, but later closed bars and scaled restaurant capacity down in late June after the state reported 5,102 hospitalizations, which was a record at the time, and 5,707 daily confirmed cases.

Continue reading here:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott considers relaxing COVID-19 business restrictions - The Texas Tribune

In recent weeks, scientists have sounded the alarm about new variants of the coronavirus that carry a handful of tiny mutations, some of which seem to make vaccines less effective.

But it is not just these small genetic changes that are raising concerns. The novel coronavirus has a propensity to mix large chunks of its genome when it makes copies of itself. Unlike small mutations, which are like typos in the sequence, a phenomenon called recombination resembles a major copy-and-paste error in which the second half of a sentence is completely overwritten with a slightly different version.

A flurry of new studies suggests that recombination may allow the virus to shapeshift in dangerous ways. But in the long term, this biological machinery may offer a silver lining, helping researchers find drugs to stop the virus in its tracks.

Theres no question that recombination is happening, said Nels Elde, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Utah. And in fact, its probably a bit underappreciated and could be at play even in the emergence of some of the new variants of concern.

The coronavirus mutations that most people have heard about, such as those in the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa, are changes in a single letter of the viruss long genetic sequence, or RNA. Because the virus has a robust system for proofreading its RNA code, these small mutations are relatively rare.

Recombination, in contrast, is rife in coronaviruses.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center led by virologist Mark Denison recently studied how things go awry during replication in three coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid. The team found that all three viruses showed extensive recombination when replicating separately in the laboratory.

Scientists worry that recombination might allow for different variants of the coronavirus to combine into more dangerous versions inside of a persons body. The B.1.1.7 variant first detected in Britain, for example, had more than a dozen mutations that seemed to appear suddenly.

Dr. Elde said that recombination may have merged mutations from different variants that arose spontaneously within the same person over time or that co-infected someone simultaneously. For now, he said, that idea is speculative: Its really hard to see these invisible scars from a recombination event. And although getting infected with two variants at once is possible, its thought to be rare.

Katrina Lythgoe, an evolutionary epidemiologist at the Oxford Big Data Institute in Britain, is skeptical that co-infection happens often. But the new variants of concern have taught us that rare events can still have a big impact, she added.

Recombination might also allow two different coronaviruses from the same taxonomic group to swap some of their genes. To examine that risk more closely, Dr. Elde and his colleagues compared the genetic sequences of many different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 and some of its distant relatives known to infect pigs and cattle.

Using specially developed software, the scientists highlighted the places where those viruses sequences aligned and matched and where they didnt. The software suggested that over the past couple of centuries of the viruses evolution, many of the recombination events involved segments that made the spike protein, which helps the virus enter human cells. Thats troubling, the scientists said, because it could be a route through which one virus essentially equips another to infect people.

Through this recombination, a virus that cant infect people could recombine with a virus like SARS-CoV-2 and take the sequence for spike, and could become able to infect people, said Stephen Goldstein, an evolutionary virologist who worked on the study.

Feb. 12, 2021, 12:20 p.m. ET

The findings, which were posted online on Thursday but have not yet been published in a scientific journal, offered fresh evidence that related coronaviruses are quite promiscuous in terms of recombining with each other. There were also many sequences that cropped up in the coronaviruses that seemed to come out of nowhere.

In some cases, it almost looks like theres sequence dropping in from outer space, from coronaviruses we dont even know about yet, Dr. Elde said. The recombination of coronaviruses across totally different groups has not been closely studied, in part because such experiments would potentially have to undergo government review in the United States because of safety risks.

Feng Gao, a virologist at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, said that although the new software from the Utah researchers found unusual sequences in coronaviruses, that doesnt provide ironclad evidence for recombination. It could simply be that they evolved that way on their own.

Diversity, no matter how much, does not mean recombination, Dr. Gao said. It can well be caused by huge diversification during viral evolution.

Scientists have limited knowledge about whether recombination could give rise to new pandemic coronaviruses, said Vincent Munster, a viral ecologist with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has studied coronaviruses for years.

Still, that evidence is growing. In a study released in July and formally published today, Dr. Munster and his collaborators suggested that recombination is likely how both SARS-CoV-2 and the virus behind the original SARS outbreak in 2003 both ended up with a version of the spike protein that allows them to deftly enter human cells. That spike protein binds to a particular entry point in human cells called ACE2. That paper calls for greater surveillance of coronaviruses to see if there are others that use ACE2 and may thus pose similar threats to people.

Some scientists are studying recombination machinery not only to fend off the next pandemic, but to help fight this one.

For example, in his recent study on the recombination of three coronaviruses, Dr. Denison of Vanderbilt found that blocking an enzyme known as nsp14-ExoN in a mouse coronavirus caused recombination events to plummet. This suggested that the enzyme is vital to coronaviruses ability to mix-and-match their RNA as they replicate.

Now, Dr. Denison and Sandra Weller, a virologist at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, are investigating whether this insight could treat people with Covid.

Certain antiviral drugs such as remdesivir fight infections by serving as RNA decoys that gum up the viral replication process. But these medications dont work as well as some had hoped for coronaviruses. One theory is that the nsp14-ExoN enzyme chucks out the errors caused by these drugs, thereby rescuing the virus.

Dr. Denison and Dr. Weller, among others, are looking for drugs that would block the activity of nsp14-ExoN, allowing remdesivir and other antivirals to work more effectively. Dr. Weller likens this approach to the cocktail therapies for H.I.V., which combine molecules that act on different aspects of the viruss replication. We need combination therapy for coronaviruses, she said.

Dr. Weller notes that nsp14-ExoN is shared across coronaviruses, so a drug that successfully suppresses it could act against more than just SARS-CoV-2. She and Dr. Denison are still at the early stages of drug discovery, testing different molecules in cells.

Other scientists see potential in this approach, not only to make drugs like remdesivir work better, but to prevent the virus from fixing any of its replication mistakes.

I think its a good idea, Dr. Goldstein said, because you would push the virus into whats known as error catastrophe basically that it would mutate so much that its lethal for the virus.

Read more:

The Coronavirus Is a Master of Mixing Its Genome, Worrying Scientists - The New York Times

Even ifyouhavethe circulation of a variant in a country, there is no reason that we see for now,not to use the AstraZeneca vaccine as indicated, to be able to reduce the levels of severe disease in that population,saidDr AlejandroCravioto, Chair of theStrategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE).

The development follows therecentrelease of data from a study in South Africa indicatingthat theAstraZeneca jab providedlittleprotection againstavariant of the new coronavirusamong older people.

At a press conference in Geneva,SAGEExecutive Secretary,Dr JoachimHombach,described thatstudy asrelativelymodest, whileDrCraviotoadded thatfew over 65shad takenpartin it.

Dr Kate OBrien,WHOshead of immunization,said thatthe South African studysfindings were inconclusive, albeit demonstrating a low efficacyagainst mild and moderate disease.

Most important was theabsence ofevidence from that trial over whether the AZ product hasefficacy against severe disease, hospitalisation and death,she said,and that is the outcome of most interest andmost impact for early roll-out of vaccines.

From researchintothe new coronaviruss response to vaccines in trials so far, Dr OBrien explainedthatthe highestimpacthad beenamongthe mostpoorlypatients.

For all of the vaccines there is a gradient of response,she said. The highest response is against the most severe disease and somewhatlower efficacy for moderate and then further down for milder diseasethis is not unique to coronavirus vaccine.

The vaccine should beadministeredin two dosesto people over18 yearsoldwithout any upper age limit,DrCraviotosaid,addingthatthebest interval between the first and second doses waseight to 12 weeks,to ensureanincreasedimmune response.

Although the vaccine is safe,the SAGE Chair said thatowing to a lack of available data,it was notyetpossible to make a recommendation aboutwhether the vaccine should be given toallpregnantor breastfeedingwomen.

That decision should be taken on an individual basis by a general practitioner, he added.

And because of a lack of available vaccinesand the need to continue limiting the potentialfor the virus tospread,Dr.Craviotoadvisedthat international travellers shouldnot be given thejab.

Urging countries to use the AstraZeneca vaccine particularly those for whom it would be their sole protection against the virus -WHO Chief Scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, insisted thatthere was no time to lose.

The vast majority of countries that are still waiting to introducea vaccine - and this vaccine may be the first one - certainly the benefits will far outweigh the risks.

DrSwaminathanalso issued a call forgreatergenomicmonitoring ofCOVID-19 transmissionin initiatives including theAfricaPathogenGenomics Initiative.

In manyothercountriesthe situation may be that with very limited sequencing theyve been able to detect this variant, but they dont know the spread.And therefore,theyre very cautious in making decisions based on very limited data.

To date, there have beenthere have been 106,555,206 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,333,446 deaths, reported to WHO.

In a related development, the heads of the WHO and UN Childrens Fund UNICEF on Wednesday made an urgent appeal for vaccine solidarity.

TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus and Henrietta Forecalled on leaders to look beyond their borders and employ a vaccine strategy that can actually end the pandemic and limit variants.

Of the 128million dosesadministered so far, more than three quarters of vaccinations have been in just 10 of the wealthiest nations, they said.

This is a self-defeating strategy that will cost lives and livelihoods, the UN officials said, before warning that it would also give the virus the chance to mutate and evade vaccines, while also undermining economic recovery.

So that vaccine rollouts can begin in all countries of the world in the first 100 days of 2021, the WHO and UNICEF chiefs said it was imperative that health workers who have been on the frontlines of the pandemic in lower and middleincome settings should be protected first.

They also called for the COVID response initiative known as Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT) to be fully funded, to help developing countries to deploy vaccines.

If fully funded, the ACT Accelerator could return up to $166 for every dollar invested, the UN officials maintained.

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COVID: Using AstraZeneca vaccine is 'right thing to do' for everyone, says WHO expert panel - UN News

Ohio reopens salad bars, buffets, drink stations

Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud signed an amendment to a health order that will allow restaurants, bars and grocery stores to reopen self-serve food and drink stations, so long as they follow certain rules. These include customers wearing masks and employees serving and customer not able to do so.

The number of new coronavirus cases reported by Ohio schools has finally dropped statewide and in the Dayton area, after staying mostly flat through the month of January. New school-reported cases statewide was 14% lower during the first week of February than it was in the week prior. In the Dayton area, the drop was 27% percent compared to the week before.

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5 things to know about the coronavirus today: Curfew ends, buffets open - dayton.com