Archives for February 2021

MADRID — Spain has surpassed 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases, the seventh highest total in the world.

The Health Ministry announced 16,402 new infections since Monday, one of the lowest daily increases of recent weeks. However, the ministry reported 766 deaths, the highest daily increase in the latest resurgence. Spain has totaled more than 63,000 deaths.

The U.S. leads the world with 27.1 million confirmed cases, followed by India (10.8), Brazil (9.5), Britain (3.9), Russia (3.9) and France (3.4).

Health Minister Carolina Darias says the high rate of ICU bed occupancy by coronavirus patients was “worrying,” but hoped this would descend next week. The occupancy percentage rate edged down Tuesday to 42%.

Spain also extended restrictions on passengers allowed on flights from Britain, Brazil and South Africa until March 2.

___

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

Spain surpasses 3 million coronavirus cases, seventh highest total in the world. The Biden administration says it will increase vaccine supply next week. WHO team: Coronavirus likely jumped to humans from animals. Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants.

— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s prime minister says a new lockdown in the greater Athens region will close all schools and most shops from Thursday through the end of February.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis says decision was dictated by an increase in hospitalizations in the area, which is home to about 4.5 million people, as well as the spread of coronavirus variants first detected in England and South Africa.

Health officials say hospital intensive care units for COVID-19 patients in the greater Athens area are at 71% capacity, up from 62% a week ago.

Health officials reported 1,526 new confirmed infections Tuesday — half in the greater Athens region — and another 20 deaths. The country of 10.5 million has nearly 17,000 total cases and a confirmed death toll surpassing 6,000 people.

___

MADISON, Wis. — A second case of a new, possibly more contagious form of the coronavirus has been detected in Wisconsin, less than a month after the England variant was first discovered.

The variant was first detected on Jan. 12 and was identified again on Sunday by lab partners of the state Department of Health Services. Wisconsin chief medical officer Dr. Ryan Westergaard calls the development “concerning” and says there are likely “many more cases” in the state than has been detected.

The variant was first discovered in England in November and December. It’s since turned up across the United States and in other countries.

Wisconsin currently ranks 10th in the percentage of population receiving at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.

___

NEW YORK — Players, on-field staff and non-playing personnel at ballparks must wear electronic tracing devices from the start of spring training or face discipline for violations.

The wristbands are part of upgraded health protocols agreed to by Major League Baseball and the players’ association to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Spring training starts Feb. 17 in Florida and Arizona. Players will be encouraged to get vaccines but are not required to get them. They’ll undergo PCR testing for a second straight season, mostly by saliva samples, but with a provision allowing nasal swabs.

Blood samples will be occasionally collected for serology or rapid antibody testing. PCR testing will take place at least every other day starting in spring training and continue as long as a player’s team advances until the postseason ends. There will be daily temperature and symptom screening.

___

WASHINGTON — The White House is increasing the supply of coronavirus vaccines beginning next week, with an aim to ensure the equity of the distribution of doses.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the chair of the White House’s COVID-19 equity task force, says that the federal government is devoting 1 million doses to begin distributing vaccines at 250 community health centers. It’s meant to be a first phase of a program to expand vaccinations to the more than 1,300 federally supported community health centers, which primarily care for low-income and uninsured populations.

COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients says, “Efficiency and equity are both central to what we’re doing.”

Zients also announced states will see their allocation of doses rise to 11 million per week beginning next week, up more than 2 million since President Joe Biden took office.

___

TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says starting next week any non-essential traveler arriving in Canada by land will need to show a negative PCR-based COVID-19 test or face a fine.

Trudeau says customs officers can’t send Canadians back to the U.S. if they don’t have a test because they are technically on Canadian soil but he says the fine will be up to $3,000 Canadian ($2,370) and they will also be subject to extensive follow up by health officials.

Canada already requires people arriving by air to show a negative test within three days of arriving. Last month, Trudeau also announced stricter restrictions on air travelers in response to new, likely more contagious variants of the virus. It’s mandatory for air travelers to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense.

But the government hasn’t yet announced when the mandatory hotel stays will start. The air traveler would stay at a government designated hotel until the results of a test.

___

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa public health officials have selected Microsoft to create an online COVID-19 vaccination scheduling system for a state that ranks 47th in administered doses.

The Iowa Department of Public Health posted a notice online Monday that it intends to award an emergency contract to Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.

Microsoft will be responsible for an online registration system for eligible residents to schedule vaccination appointments with approved providers. Its contract is expected to last through the end of the year.

Many essential workers and people 65 and older became eligible for shots on Feb. 1. But the slow rollout has infuriated some public school teachers, including many whose class sizes will double next week when Gov. Kim Reynolds’ new mandate for daily in-person learning takes effect.

On Friday, the Republican governor lifted a statewide mandate to wear masks, social distancing requirements for bars and limits on gatherings. That’s despite the new highly contagious U.K. variant recently found in the state. Several municipalities say they will still enforce local mask ordinances.

___

OKLAHOMA CITY — The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Oklahoma has fallen below 1,000 for the first time in three months.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health late Monday reported 937 people hospitalized with the virus, including 286 in intensive care. The health department had reported more than 1,000 hospitalizations daily since first topping the number on Nov. 3.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows the seven-day rolling averages of both new cases and deaths have declined during the past two weeks. The state health department has reported totals of 3,817 deaths and 404,994 virus cases since the pandemic began.

___

OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska officials expect nearly 70,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines to be available in the state this week as they continue to work to distribute more shots.

The state said 69,600 vaccine doses total should be released in Nebraska this week, up from 61,750 a week ago. Most of those vaccines are being distributed through local health departments, but nearly 6,000 doses will go to a new program that is just getting started to distribute vaccines directly through some retail pharmacies.

Across the state, officials have started to vaccinate people 65 and older and some workers who can’t do their jobs remotely.

___

LONDON — Britain’s government has announced tougher quarantine and testing measures for U.K and Irish residents returning home from South American and African countries in a bid to limit coronavirus variants.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says those international arrivals will be required to take two coronavirus tests during their 10-day quarantine to enable authorities to better track new cases.

International travelers already must show proof of a negative test before they can re-enter the country.

A new hotel quarantine system will be put in place for U.K. and Irish residents who arrive from the British government’s 33 “red list” countries – mostly South American and African countries. Those travelers will have to pay for a 1750-pound ($2,411) package for the hotel stay.

The U.K. currently bans others travelers from these 33 countries.

The new measures take effect Monday. Those violating the rules could face fines up to 10,000 pounds ($13,780) and up to a 10-year prison sentence.

___

PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey says Arizona will launch a new federally funded program to provide rental assistance to people in need of housing help due to unemployment.

Ducey’s office says the Arizona program will start taking applications on Feb. 23 and provide help in 12 of the state’s 15 counties. According to Ducey’s office, Maricopa, Pima and Yuma are receiving federal funding directly and plan their own rental assistance programs.

The state program will provide direct payments for rent, utilities and other expenses related to housing stability. The federal government is providing a total of $492 million to Arizona, with $292 million going to the state and the rest to cities and counties.

The state on Tuesday reported 4,381 additional cases and 231 deaths.

___

BUDAPEST — Hungary’s prime minister says he expects the first shipments of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in the country as early as next week, which will make Hungary the first country in the European Union to receive a vaccine from China.

Viktor Orban, speaking at a virtual conference between other Central and Eastern European leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping, praised the Chinese scientific community for developing the Sinopharm vaccine. He thanked Hungarian medical experts for visiting production sites in China and consulting with Chinese experts.

Also, Hungary will begin administering a Russian COVID-19 vaccine to elderly residents of the country’s capital who have no underlying health conditions, the chief medical officer announced on Tuesday. Hungary currently has enough doses to treat 2,800 people.

___

TEL AVIV, Israel — Health authorities in Tel Aviv have started dispensing COVID-19 vaccines to foreign nationals and asylum seekers.

Dozens of asylum seekers and foreign workers lined up at a vaccination center set up in southern Tel Aviv on Tuesday to receive their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. Israel has already vaccinated over 3.5 million of its population with the first shot, and at least 2.1 million people have received the second shot.

The country started easing lockdown restrictions on Sunday. However, the infection rate remains high.

Israel has recorded more than 700,000 confirmed cases and at least 5,192 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

—-

WUHAN, China — A World Health Organization team has concluded that the coronavirus most likely jumped to humans from an animal.

WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek announced that assessment Tuesday at the end of a visit by a WHO team that is investigating the possible origins of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

The first cases were discovered in Wuhan in December 2019. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has collected extensive virus samples, leading to allegations that it may have caused the original outbreak by leaking the virus into the surrounding community. China has strongly rejected that possibility.

The WHO team is intended to be an initial step delving into the origins of the virus, which is believed to have originated in bats before being passed to humans through another species of wild animal, such as a pangolin or bamboo rat, which is considered an exotic delicacy by some in China.

The pandemic has killed more than 2.3 million people worldwide. China has reported more than 100,000 confirmed cases and 4,822 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with more than 465,000 deaths.

___

BRUSSELS — Belgium will use the 443,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine the country will receive over the course of February to vaccinate people under age 55.

Regulators in the country of 11.5 million inhabitants have advised against the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for older people due a lack of data about its efficacy, so Belgium’s vaccination task force has reshaped its strategy.

It decided that the doses will go in priority to health care workers under 55 as well as residents and staff in collective care institutions in that age group. Sabine Stordeur, who co-chairs the task force, said on Tuesday that people from high-risk groups with underlying conditions and police officers working in the field will also be offered AstraZeneca injections.

People over 55 will continue to receive the two other vaccines approved in the EU, Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna.

Infection numbers have reached a plateau in Belgium, with new daily cases between 2,000 and 2,500, while coronavirus-related deaths are decreasing. So far, some 336,300 Belgium’s residents have received a first vaccine dose.

___

JACKSON, Miss. — Officials in Mississippi say about 2% of the coronavirus vaccinations given so far in the state have gone to people with out-of-state addresses.

Mississippi guidelines say vaccination is available to anyone 65 or older or to those who are least 16 years old and have underlying health conditions that might make them more vulnerable to the virus.

The state’s top public health officials says the vaccination is supposed to be limited to Mississippi residents, or to people from other states who work in Mississippi. However, they said people giving the shots do not check identification or verify that out-of-state residents work in Mississippi.

The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune recently reported that Louisiana residents are traveling to Mississippi to be vaccinated because Louisiana has tighter vaccination eligibility guidelines.

___

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants. People also can get second infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus if they mounted a weak defense the first time, new research suggests.

How long immunity lasts from natural infection is one of the big questions in the pandemic. Scientists still think reinfections are fairly rare and usually less serious than initial ones, but recent developments around the world have raised concerns.

In South Africa, a vaccine study found new infections with a variant in 2% of people who previously had an earlier version of the virus.

In Brazil, several similar cases were documented with a new variant there. Researchers are exploring whether reinfections help explain a recent surge in the city of Manaus, where three-fourths of residents were thought to have been previously infected.

In the United States, a study found that 10% of Marine recruits who had evidence of prior infection and repeatedly tested negative before starting basic training were later infected again. That work was done before the new variants began to spread, said one study leader, Dr. Stuart Sealfon of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“Previous infection does not give you a free pass,” he said. “A substantial risk of reinfection remains.”

Reinfections pose a public health concern, not just a personal one. Even in cases where reinfection causes no symptoms or just mild ones, people might still spread the virus. That’s why health officials are urging vaccination as a longer-term solution and encouraging people to wear masks, keep physical distance and wash their hands frequently.

“It’s an incentive to do what we have been saying all along: to vaccinate as many people as we can and to do so as quickly as we can,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert.

“My looking at the data suggests … and I want to underline suggests … the protection induced by a vaccine may even be a little better” than natural infection, Fauci said.

Doctors in South Africa began to worry when they saw a surge of cases late last year in areas where blood tests suggested many people had already had the virus.

Until recently, all indications were “that previous infection confers protection for at least nine months,” so a second wave should have been “relatively subdued,” said Dr. Shabir Madhi of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Scientists discovered a new version of the virus that’s more contagious and less susceptible to certain treatments. It now causes more than 90% of new cases in South Africa and has spread to 40 countries including the United States.

Madhi led a study testing Novavax’s vaccine and found it less effective against the new variant. The study also revealed that infections with the new variant were just as common among people who had COVID-19 as those who had not.

“What this basically tells us, unfortunately, is that past infection with early variants of the virus in South Africa does not protect” against the new one, he said.

In Brazil, a spike in hospitalizations in Manaus in January caused similar worry and revealed a new variant that’s also more contagious and less vulnerable to some treatments.

“Reinfection could be one of the drivers of these cases,” said Dr. Ester Sabino of the University of Sao Paulo. She wrote an article in the journal Lancet on possible explanations. “We have not yet been able to define how frequently this is happening,” she said.

California scientists also are investigating whether a recently identified variant may be causing reinfections or a surge of cases there.

“We’re looking at that now,” seeking blood samples from past cases, said Jasmine Plummer, a researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, said it soon would report on what he called “the Los Angeles variant.”

New variants were not responsible for the reinfections seen in the study of Marines — it was done before the mutated viruses emerged, said Sealfon, who led that work with the Naval Medical Research Center. Other findings from the study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine; the new ones on reinfection are posted on a research website.

The study involved several thousand Marine recruits who tested negative for the virus three times during a two-week supervised military quarantine before starting basic training.

Among the 189 whose blood tests indicated they had been infected in the past, 19 tested positive again during the six weeks of training. That’s far less than those without previous infection — “almost half of them became infected at the basic training site,” Sealfon said.

The amount and quality of antibodies that previously infected Marines had upon arrival was tied to their risk of getting the virus again. No reinfections caused serious illness, but that does not mean the recruits were not at risk of spreading infection to others, Sealfon said.

“It does look like reinfection is possible. I don’t think we fully understand why that is and why immunity has not developed” in those cases, said an immunology expert with no role in the study, E. John Wherry of the University of Pennsylvania.

“Natural infections can leave you with a range of immunity” while vaccines consistently induce high levels of antibodies, Wherry said.

“I am optimistic that our vaccines are doing a little bit better.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia issued updated statistics Monday on coronavirus-linked deaths which showed that 162,429 people with COVID-19 died last year, a number far higher than previously reported by government officials.

The state statistics agency, Rosstat, released its figures for December on Monday, updating its count of coronavirus-linked deaths that includes cases where the virus wasn’t the main cause of death and where the virus was suspected but not confirmed.

Out of more than 162,000 deaths between April and December, 86,498 were directly caused by confirmed COVID-19; 17,470 other deaths were likely caused by the virus, but it wasn’tt confirmed by a test. In 13,524 cases, the virus “significantly” contributed to fatal complications of other diseases, and 44,937 people tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.

Rosstat’s count is much higher than the tally reported by the Russian government’s coronavirus task force, which is reflected in the numbers released by the World Health Organization. By Jan. 1, the task force reported a total 57,555 deaths.

As of Monday, the number stood at 77,068.

Russian officials ascribe that to different counting methods, saying the task force only includes deaths where COVID-19 was the main cause.

Officials also said the task force uses data from medical facilities while Rosstat takes its numbers from civil registry offices where registering a death is finalized.

December accounted for the highest number of Russian deaths since April — 44,435, according to Rosstat. That’s when new coronavirus infections in Russia soared and officials regularly reported over 27,000 daily new cases.

The agency’s data also showed that the number of deaths from all causes in 2020 grew by 323,800, or nearly 18%, compared to 2019.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said 31% of these excess deaths in 2020 were those caused by “clearly diagnosed” COVID-19.

“Counting those who died from other causes but tested positive for COVID, (deaths of people with COVID-19 constitute) 50% of excess mortality in 2020,” Golikova said.

Rosstat’s count is much higher than the 77,068 deaths that have been reported by the Russian government’s coronavirus task force so far, including deaths that occurred in January and February. Russian officials ascribe the differences between the numbers reported by the task force and Rosstat to different counting methods, saying the task force only includes deaths where COVID-19 was the main cause.

Officials also said the task force uses data collected from medical facilities, while Rosstat takes its numbers from civil registry offices where registering a death is finalized.

Rosstat started releasing detailed monthly updates on virus-linked deaths in June, after the task force’s relatively low death count raised eyebrows in the West as Russia’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases became one of the world’s largest.

Critics and Western media alleged back then that Russian authorities might have been falsifying the numbers for political purposes to downplay the scale of the outbreak, accusations that officials vehemently denied. The Kremlin credited the government’s response measures for Russia’s low COVID-19 mortality, and experts cited the way Russia counts virus deaths as one of the reasons behind the relatively low reported number of virus deaths.

Russia has reported more than 3.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases, the fifth highest tally in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

___

Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:

___

The top-ranked Iowa wrestling program is pausing all in-person activities in response to positive COVID-19 test results within the program, forcing the postponement of a dual meet at Penn State scheduled for Friday.

The move Monday by Iowa came at the direction of the university’s medical team. School officials said the university will continue to follow Big Ten Conference medical protocols and the medical team will decide when the Hawkeyes can resume their season.

The schools will work with the conference to consider rescheduling options.

___

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced that Miami’s men’s basketball game on Monday night at North Carolina has been postponed.

The postponement follows a meeting of officials from both schools who concluded the game could not be played, but neither school has publicly disclosed reasons why the game was called off.

Earlier Monday, The Daily Tar Heel student newspaper reported that video had surfaced on social media of UNC players Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe mingling with multiple other people celebrating Saturday’s win against rival Duke and no one wearing a mask.

On Sunday, the school said it was reviewing complaints of potential violations of student COVID-19 protocols after hundreds of fans flocked to Franklin Street to celebrate the big win.

No makeup date was given. Both teams are following ACC protocols.

Miami was the only ACC team that had not had a conference game postponed or canceled this season.

___

The Breeders’ Cup is delaying ticket sales for this year’s world championships in Southern California because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The two-day event is set for Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar racetrack, north of San Diego.

Breeders’ Cup officials said Monday that ticket sales are being delayed until they have “greater clarity” on the ever-changing situation involving COVID-19.

Officials says it’s their “strong intent” to host fans for the event. Southern California has been especially hard-hit during the pandemic.

Last year’s event at Keeneland in Kentucky did not include spectators.

___

Seven more NHL games have been postponed because of COVID-19 problems with New Jersey, Buffalo and Minnesota.

Three upcoming Devils games, two Sabres games and two Wild games have been postponed, with no clarity yet on new dates. New Jersey won’t play Thursday or Saturday against Philadelphia or next Monday against Boston and currently has 16 players on the league’s COVID protocols list.

The Devils haven’t played since Dec. 31, when they visited Buffalo. The Sabres also haven’t played since then either because of an outbreak, and their games Thursday and Saturday against Washington have been postponed amid nine players on the COVID list.

Minnesota, which has nine players on the list, had games against St. Louis on Thursday and Los Angeles on Saturday postponed.

___

The English Premier League announced two positive tests in the latest round of coronavirus tests.

From Feb. 1-7, the EPL twice tested 2,970 players and club staff.

The two positives are the lowest total of new cases in the league since October, when there were also two from 1,609 tests.

Both positive cases came from the first round of tests in the first half of the week. The unnamed individuals are self-isolating for 10 days.

___

The U.S. Olympic wrestling trials won’t be held at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State because of COVID-19 restrictions on attendance. The trials were originally scheduled for April 2020 but weren’t held because of the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games.

USA Wrestling said early April remains the target date for the trials and a new site should be announced soon.

Spokesman Gary Abbott said a change in venue became necessary because capacity at the Bryce Jordan Center would be capped at 500 in the arena and 150 in the practice gym. Abbott said that capacity would not accommodate the participants, let alone spectators.

As part of an agreement with Penn State, the 2024 wrestling trials will be held at the Bryce Jordan Center.

___

The No. 2 Baylor men’s basketball team has postponed three more games because of COVID-19 issues and won’t play again until at least Feb. 20.

The Bears didn’t play Saturday’s scheduled home game against TCU and had already postponed Wednesday’s game at No. 12 Oklahoma before the latest changes announced Monday.

Now postponed are next Saturday’s home game against No. 7 Texas Tech, then two games next week at No. 14 West Virginia. That includes a Feb. 15 game at Morgantown, and then a Feb. 18 game in Waco that was supposed to be the makeup of a game postponed in January because of COVID-19 protocols in the Mountaineers program.

Baylor’s next scheduled game is Feb. 20 at home against No. 23 Oklahoma State.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.