TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirms the state leader has received a single-dose coronavirus vaccine. He did so out of the public eye even as governors elsewhere across the political spectrum have been vaccinated publicly to reassure Americans that the shots are safe.
A spokesperson for the Republican governor declined to provide details Wednesday, including when the Republican governor received the dose. But it was disclosed that the governor received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The spokesperson, Meredith Beatrice, acknowledged the governor’s vaccination during an interview. The disclosure came after a DeSantis news conference at the Capitol assailing the TV news program “60 Minutes” for airing a segment Sunday that suggested a “pay-to-play” vaccine distribution deal with a supermarket chain that donated to his political committee.
DeSantis had recently said he would get vaccinated soon — but no announcement was made by his office, nor was there any media presence to witness the event. In fact, some of his top lieutenants said they were unaware that the governor had already been vaccinated, even as they work to persuade Floridians to get inoculated against a virus that has infected more than 2 million people in Florida and killed nearly 34,000.
Many governors of both parties have been public about their vaccinations, hoping that publicity will help convince more people to get the shot.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
VACCINES: More than 108.3 million people, or 32.6% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 63 million people, or 19% of the population, have completed their vaccination.
CASES: The seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. increased over the past two weeks from 53,651 on March 23 to 64,791 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
DEATHS: The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths in the U.S. decreased over the past two weeks from 821 on March 23 to 774 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
— EU agency: No restrictions on AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 18
— Brazil’s Bolsonaro ignores calls for lockdown to slow coronavirus
— Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
BOISE, Idaho – Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued an executive order Wednesday banning the state government from requiring or issuing COVID-19 “vaccine passports.”
The Republican governor is also preventing state agencies from providing information on an individual’s vaccine status to individuals, companies or government entities.
Little, who has gotten the vaccine, said he strongly encourages others to get vaccinated as well. But he said he has serious concerns that a vaccine passport requirement will violate medical privacy rights. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a similar order on Wednesday, and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis did so on Friday.
The White House has ruled out a national “vaccine passport,” saying it is leaving it to up the private sector if companies want to develop a system for people to show they’ve been vaccinated.
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TORONTO — Canada’s most populous province plans to vaccinate those 18 and over in hot spot areas in and around Toronto and plans to vaccinate some teachers amid a third surge of coronavirus infections fueled by more-contagious virus variants.
Ontario declared another state of emergency and will now allow all adults in certain postal codes to get priority access to vaccines. Ontario will also close nonessential stores to in-person shopping and limit big box stores to essential items such as groceries and pharmacy supplies.
The province is calling its latest measures a stay-at-home order though schools in most of the province will remain open and golf courses remain open. Ontario has seen seeing more than 3,000 new infections a day in recent days and record intensive care numbers.
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says there will be “no national lockdown,” ignoring growing calls from health experts a day after the nation saw its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours since the pandemic began.
Brazil’s Health Ministry registered 4,195 deaths on Tuesday, becoming the third country to go above that threshold as Bolsonaro’s political opponents demanded stricter measures to slow down the spread of the virus.
“We’re not going to accept this politics of stay home and shut everything down,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday, resisting the pressure in a speech in the city of Chapeco in Santa Catarina state.
Brazil’s conservative president also defended the use of so-called early treatment protocols, which include anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. No scientific studies have found the drug effective to prevent or treat COVID-19.
In an open letter published Tuesday in the newspaper O Globo, the Brazilian Association of Collective Health called for a three-week nationwide lockdown.
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has reported 54,740 daily COVID-19 cases as the daily number of single-day infections hit a new grim record.
On Wednesday, the country also reported 276 more deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest level so far.
The overall death toll since the start of pandemic now stands at 32,943, while the total number of infections has reached 3.6 million.
COVID-19 cases have surged to alarming levels since the government eased restrictions at the beginning of March.
The government announced renewed weekend lockdowns and the closure of cafes and restaurants during the Islamic month of Ramadan, which begins on April 13. But experts have raised questions over the effectiveness of the measures.
The health minister has said the more contagious variant first detected in Britain accounts for 75% of cases.
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MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Gov. Kay Ivey urged people to use common sense in the fight against the coronavirus as she lifts the state’s mask order.
She said a “greatly slimmed down” health order Friday will have few restrictions while encouraging people to keep taking precautions. Alabama ranks nearly in the bottom in the nation for the percentage of people who are fully vaccinated at 13.8%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alabama opened vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and older two days ago. State health officials say virus hospitalizations, positive tests and daily case numbers are hitting some of the lowest numbers in a year.
Only 25.9% of Alabama’s population has received at least one dose.
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BRUSSELS — Belgium is disregarding advice of the European Union’s drug regulator and imposing a four-week ban on administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to people under age 56.
The European Medicines Agency says although it found a “possible link” between the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and a rare clotting disorder, it placed no new restrictions on using the vaccine in people 18 and over.
The EMA says the benefits of the shot still largely outweigh the risks. There’s been a few dozen clotting cases among the tens of millions of AstraZeneca vaccinations.
Still, Belgium imposed a ban to administer it to younger people. Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke says the ban will be reassessed after a month. He says it should have little impact on the vaccination campaign since few from that age group are in line to get shots this month.
In Italy, health officials announced Wednesday that AstraZeneca would be recommended for people over 60 years of age after consultations with other major EU countries. The decision falls in line with Germany’s decision not to routinely give the vaccine to people under 60 because of a rise in reported cases of unusual blood clots in the days after the vaccination.
Officials said there would be no changes in administering the second doses to those who already received AstraZeneca.
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BANGKOK — Health officials in Thailand have confirmed the country’s first local cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.
The variant was found in customers of nightlife venues in the capital of Bangkok. The virus threat comes at a particularly vulnerable time for Thailand. Next week, Thais celebrate the traditional Songkran New Year’s holiday. It usually means an exodus of people from cities to visit relatives in other provinces, risking further spread of the virus.
Less than 1% of the country’s 69 million people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization.
The government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration announced Wednesday it had confirmed 334 new coronavirus cases, bringing Thailand’s total to 29,905 cases and 95 confirmed deaths.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. government says more than a half million Americans have already taken advantage of the Biden administration’s special health insurance sign-up window that’s tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The numbers released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that 528,005 people newly signed up for government-sponsored private plans from Feb. 15 to Mar. 31.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates about 3 million people lost coverage because of the pandemic. Some experts estimate numbers in the range of 5 million to 10 million.
The government anticipates even more consumers will gain coverage in coming months. That’s because millions of people recently became eligible for pumped-up taxpayer subsidies toward their premiums under President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief legislation.
Biden reopened the law’s health insurance markets as a backstop from job losses during the pandemic. The virus aid package helped delivered a health insurance price cut by making taxpayer subsidies more generous and allowed more people to qualify for financial assistance.
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WASHINGTON — The federal government is expanding COVID-19 vaccine access to all federally qualified community health centers.
White House COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt announced the development Wednesday, which expands opportunities for underserved communities to find vaccines in their communities.
There are roughly 1,400 of the health centers nationwide, which serve communities both hardest hit by the coronavirus and the most difficult to reach for vaccination.
The White House says the health center program is essential to ensuring equity in vaccine distribution, adding that a majority of doses distributed by the community health centers have gone to racial and ethnic minorities.
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WASHINGTON — A variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain is now the most common strain circulating in the United States.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, says the strain, formally known as B.1.1.7, is “now the most common lineage circulating in United States.”
The strain has been shown to be more transmissible and infectious among younger Americans, which Walensky says contributed to rising case counts in recent weeks.
Walensky says new outbreaks have been tied to youth sports and day care centers. She particularly encouraged states with rising caseloads to curtail or suspend youth sport activities to slow the spread of the virus.
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LONDON — The European Union’s drug regulator says it has found a “possible link” between the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and a rare clotting disorder but says the benefits of the shot still outweigh risks.
In a statement released Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency placed no new restrictions on using the vaccine in people 18 and over.
The EMA says most of the cases reported have occurred in women under 60 within two weeks of vaccination. The agency says based on the currently available evidence, it was not able to identify specific risk factors.
Experts reviewed several dozen cases that came mainly from Europe and the United Kingdom, where around 25 million people have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The EMA, the World Health Organization and numerous other health authorities have repeatedly stated the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective and the protection it offers against COVID-19 outweighs the small risks of rare blood clots.
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TEHRAN, Iran — Iran shattered its daily record for new coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day, with 20,954 cases reported.
The record Wednesday comes as the country is in one of the most severe surges of the coronavirus to date. It follows a two-week public holiday for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when millions traveled to vacation spots across the country and congregated in homes in defiance of government health guidelines.
The country’s vaccine rollout lags, with only some 200,000 vaccine doses administered in the nation of 84 million, according to the World Health Organization. COVAX delivered its vaccine first shipment to Iran on Monday from the Netherlands, containing 700,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths in Ukraine hit a new record on Wednesday. According to health authorities, 481 people died over the past 24 hours and 5,587 were hospitalized.
Infections and deaths have been spiking in Ukraine for several months, putting a severe strain on the country’s teetering health care system.
On Monday, the Kyiv authorities have imposed tighter lockdown restrictions in the city, shutting down schools and kindergartens and restricting the use of public transport.
So far only 320,000 people have received their first vaccinations due to widespread reluctance. On Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a deal to buy 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which are expected to be delivered by the end of the year.
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TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympic torch relay will not run through the streets of Osaka prefecture next week because of rising coronavirus cases.
The move is a setback for the Tokyo organizers who began the relay two weeks ago from northeastern Fukushima prefecture with 10,000 runners planning to crisscross Japan over the course of four months. Organizers say runners and the torch will be involved in some event in an Osaka city park on April 13-14, the days the relay was to cross the entire prefecture.
Osaka reported 719 new coronavirus cases Tuesday. About 70% of hospital beds available in Osaka have already been occupied, officials say.
The postponed Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to begin July 23.
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