The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and Supreme Court ruling

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called the Supreme Court’s decision to block a nationwide vaccine and testing mandate for large businesses, “disappointing.”

Murthy said he expects the next few weeks to be “challenging” before the nation puts the pandemic in its rearview mirror.

“I think the next few weeks are going to be challenging. We are going to continue to see high numbers of cases. Our hospital systems in parts of the country are strained and that will continue,” he said.

The best course of action, Murthy said, is to stay diligent, and take all the proven measures that keep people safe and protected, not only against the Omicron variant but also in the event of the emergence of further harmful Covid-19 strands.

“The bottom line is, Wolf, there are a lot of curveballs that this virus has thrown at us. We’ve got to continue to do everything we can to invest, not just in vaccines and boosters… but also expand the supply of therapeutics… expand the supply of testing, to make masks actually more available to the public,” Murthy said.

“These are parts of the strategies that we have been working on… to make sure that we not only get through this wave of Omicron but also that we’re prepared for any new variants that may come our way.”

About 7.6% of New York City students have tested positive for Covid-19, according to sample testing data the New York City Department of Education released Thursday.

The testing, which includes only about 23% of the approximately 1,875 city schools, is a sample snapshot that was taken during a 24-hour period Wednesday, according to the data.

It shows that 7.59%, or 1,254 students, tested positive out of 16,515 students tested.

By comparison, 3.1%, or 91, of the 2,917 staff members tested positive during the same time period, according to DOE data.

No schools are closed at this time due to Covid-19, according to additional DOE data. About 77% of students reported to school Wednesday, according to preliminary DOE data.

The testing is a part of the in school testing surveillance program, and it is done using PCR tests, according to the DOE. In-school PCR testing as part of the city’s new effort to double surveillance began when classes resumed, a DOE spokesman said. 

The school system has also been handing out rapid tests to students since classes resumed. Students or teachers in a classroom with a positive case will receive an at-home rapid test kit and will take two tests in five days.

CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia and David Shortell contributed to this post

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference in New York on January 13.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters Thursday that he’s in talks with teachers’ union leadership and will consider a temporary remote learning option. His comments come less than one week after saying a remote learning option didn’t make sense to him. 

The comments were a contrast to what the mayor told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last Friday, when he said that a remote learning option to slow the current spread of Covid-19 in the city didn’t make sense to him, particularly because virtual lessons during past periods of the pandemic were not effective. He said remote learning negatively impacted children without proper access to Wi-Fi and technology and said he would need time to build out a proper remote learning option that addressed these issues. 

“The last time we did a remote option, children were not learning, and you can’t have a false remote option. I am going to build out one of the best remote learning processes in our country, but I need time to do so. But the product we did was inferior. We can’t continue to hurt the education of our children. And think about the children where English is a second language, or those children who live in homeless shelters and don’t have access to Wi-Fi or don’t have two to three meals a day,” Adams said last week.  

Today, Adams said that while he’s willing to talk with teacher union leadership about a remote learning option, his goal remains to keep children in school.

“I’m willing to sit down and entertain with the UFT if there is a way to do a temporary remote option, you know if we can do it, and it is a quality option, but my goal – I want children in school because it’s not only the academics, you hear me say it all the time, it is the holistic approach the full development of the personhood of the children. All the experts state they should be in school,” Adams said. 

Some background: New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks told CNN Wednesday that he would be meeting with some student leaders who walked out of classrooms on Tuesday, demanding remote learning in the wake of the latest Covid-19 surge in cases. 

Students walked out of several schools including Brooklyn Tech High School and Bronx High School of Science, saying they want more Covid-19 testing for students and staff, as well as an option for remote learning. Brooklyn Tech is the largest in-person high school in the country with nearly 6,000 students, according to the city’s education department.

New York City is the largest school district in the United States and serves nearly 1.1 million students, according to its website. 

CNN’s Mirna Alsharif, Laura Ly, and Elizabeth Stuart contributed to this report.

The Biden administration signed contacts with three companies for a total of 380 million at-home Covid-19 tests, the Department of Defense announced on Thursday.

The contracts, awarded in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, were signed with Abbott Rapid Dx, iHealth Lab and Roche Diagnostics Corporation.

The contract announcement did not mention a price for the Covid-19 tests nor did it state a date by when the tests would be delivered.

Montgomery County Public Schools is asking for help from the National Guard to address its school bus driver shortage due to the Omicron Covid-19 surge.

MCPS, the largest school district in Maryland, put in a formal inquiry through the county government, district spokesperson Chris Cram confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

Cram said an official response from the National Guard has not yet been received.  

Earlier this week, nearly 100 of the district’s school bus routes were impacted by the shortage of bus drivers, but that number is now down to 29 routes as of Thursday, Cram confirmed.

Among students and staff, the district reported 1,769 cases of Covid-19 on Monday; 2,530 on Tuesday; and 1,349 on Wednesday, for a total of more than 5,600 cases reported so far this week.

The World Health Organization on Thursday released its eighth update to guidelines on drug treatments for Covid-19, adding a recommendation for the use of a type of immune-suppressing drug. 

The organization “strongly recommended” the use of baricitinib, a time of Janus kinase inhibitor (JAK), for people with severe Covid-19 when used with corticosteroids, according to guidelines published in the British Medical Journal. 

JAKs are immune-suppressing treatments frequently used for autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. This recommendation was made after reviewing evidence that the drug “improves survival and reduces the need for ventilation, with no observed increase in adverse effects,” the WHO said in a news release.

Baricitinib is recommended as an alternative to interleukin-6 receptor blockers, which WHO recommended for use in July 2021. 

In the new guidelines, WHO also issued a conditional, or weak, recommendation against the use of ruxolitinib and tofacitinib, two other JAK treatments, as there was unclear evidence that they had any benefit and some evidence suggesting that tofacitnib could increase serious side effects. 

WHO updated its guidance on monoclonal antibody treatments as well, adding a conditional recommendation for sotrovimab, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, in those with mild Covid-19 at a high risk for hospitalization after evidence showed a “substantial” decrease in hospitalization risk.

This recommendation is similar to the one made for casirivimab-imdevimab, developed by Regeneron and sold as REGEN-COV. In the new guidelines, the organization said there is not enough data to recommend one treatment instead of another, but this decision could change based on data on effectiveness against the Omicron variant. 

“Following the publication of a previous conditional recommendation for casirivimab-imdevimab, pre-clinical evidence has emerged suggesting that this monoclonal antibody combination lacks neutralization activity against the omicron variant in vitro. Sotrovimab has been reported to retain activity against omicron in pseudovirus assays but with higher concentrations being required for neutralization,” the guidance authors wrote. 

Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh attends a press conference in Springfield, Massachusetts, on December 13, 2021.

Labor Sec. Marty Walsh said the Supreme Court’s decision to block the Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirement aimed at large businesses is “unfortunate.”

“It is disappointing the court ruled against workers to keep them protected in America. As we were putting this together, we talked to medical experts and we talked to legal experts, who all said they had the right to do this. And it’s really unfortunate,” Walsh told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Walsh also discussed the potential economic effects of the decision.

“The first Friday of the month is jobs day, and people are going to say, ‘what’s keeping people out of work?’ One of the reasons why people aren’t going back into the workplace is because they are concerned about their own health,” Walsh said.

He said the administration encourages any company to institute their own vaccine or testing requirement, adding that they can receive assistance from the federal government if needed.

In a separate statement, Walsh called the decision a “major setback.”

He also said that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration “will be evaluating all options to ensure workers are protected from this deadly virus,” but declined to say if the administration will pursue a more targeted mandate. 

-CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed to this post

French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer announced the provision of five million FFP2 (filtering face piece) masks to schools, following an “extremely intense” meeting with teaching unions on Thursday after a day of strikes by teachers. The meeting included the French prime minister, ministers of education and health and representatives from all the French teaching unions.

Blanquer said in a news briefing following the meeting that the masks would be distributed in particular to kindergarten teachers and some teachers with handicapped classes, whose students do not wear masks.

The French government will also undertake additional recruitment of “several thousand” teaching, support and administrative staff to support schools during the pandemic, Blanquer told reporters.

Blanquer also said a bimonthly meeting between the ministers of education and health and teaching unions would take place going forward. 

More than 77,000 people took to the streets of France on Thursday in strikes and marches organized by teaching unions in protest of the French government’s Covid-19 policies in schools, according to the French interior ministry. 

Severe Covid-19 and newborn deaths are more likely in women who aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine.

The researchers used data from a study, Covid-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland, to look at pregnancies between December 2020 and October 2021. There were 4,950 infections in pregnant women in that time: 77.4% of them were in unvaccinated women, with a little more than 11% each in partially and fully vaccinated women.

Unvaccinated women accounted for a vast majority of infections associated with hospital admission and almost all the infections associated with Intensive Care Union admission.

The preterm birth rate during the study period was 16.6% in babies born within 28 days of their mother’s Covid-19 infection and 10.2% in babies born to women infected at any point in pregnancy. In contrast, the overall preterm birth rate from March 2020 through October 2021 was 8%.

The extended perinatal mortality rate, defined as stillbirth or infant death within 28 days of birth, was 8 per 1,000 births for women with Covid-19 at any point in their pregnancy and 22.6 per 1,000 births for babies born within 28 days of the beginning of the mother’s infection. Women who were vaccinated during pregnancy had an extended perinatal mortality rate just above 4.3 per 1,000 births. In contrast, the overall extended perinatal mortality rate from March 2020 through October 2021 was 5.6 per 1,000 births.

The researchers note that all of the perinatal infant deaths after Covid-19 infection during pregnancy were in women who weren’t vaccinated at the time of their infection.

They also noted that vaccine uptake in pregnant women was consistently lower than in the general population of females of reproductive age, especially among the youngest women and those in the most deprived areas. “Our findings emphasize the need for continued efforts to increase vaccination uptake in pregnant women,” the researchers wrote.

Here’s the latest data on vaccination efforts in the United States, published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Note: CDC data on Covid-19 vaccinations are estimates. The agency notes that data on people who are fully vaccinated and those with a booster dose may be underestimated, while data on people with at least one dose may be overestimated. 

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced the state has ordered 588,216 at-home antigen test kits for Covid-19 that will be made available at no cost.

“This will ensure that, as we live with Covid, the supply chain does not dictate access for Nevadans,” Sisolak said during a Thursday news conference.

Sisolak says the test kits will not be sent directly to people’s homes, but will instead be distributed through “community partners” that will be named later. The test kits are expected to be available near the end of the month.

State health officials acknowledge it has been a challenge to keep up with changes in how much testing is needed.

“The demand for testing and the type of testing throughout the pandemic has varied, and Nevada is constantly adapting to meet the public demand,” said Julia Peek, deputy administrator of the state’s Division of Public and Behavioral Health.

The nation’s largest industry trade groups are calling the US Supreme Court’s decision to block President Biden’s vaccine or testing requirement for businesses a “victory for employers.” 

On Thursday the Supreme Court froze a lower court opinion that allowed the mandate to go into effect nationwide. The Biden administration’s Covid-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard directed businesses with more than 100 employees to require vaccines or mandatory weekly testing for employees under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which protects workplace safety. The mandate would affect 80 million workers. 

The NRF joined with more than 26 other trade associations this week and presented oral arguments before the court. Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer supporting 52 million Americans. The Associated Builders and Contractors and American Trucking Associations were two of the groups that filed emergency appeals to the Supreme Court.

“Trucking has been on the front lines throughout the pandemic – delivering PPE, medical supplies, food, clothing, fuel, and even the vaccines themselves. Thanks to this ruling, our industry will continue to deliver critical goods, as our nation recovers from the pandemic and we move our economy forward,” said Chris Spear, CEO of American Trucking Associations 

“This is a big win in removing compliance hurdles for the construction industry, which is facing multiple economic challenges, including a workforce shortage of 430,000, rising materials prices and supply chain issues. ABC continues to support vaccinations and encourages members to use its COVID-19 vaccination toolkit to keep workers safe on construction jobsites,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. 

The National Federation of Independent Business, which filed a petition with the Supreme Court argued there should have been a notice and comment period prior to instituting the mandate, a nationwide testing and vaccine mandate should be left to Congress, and the mandate will further exacerbate challenges for small businesses. 

The National Retail Federation is calling on President Biden to back down after today’s ruling. 

“NRF urges the Biden Administration to discard this unlawful mandate and instead work with employers, employees and public health experts on practical ways to increase vaccination rates and mitigate the spread of the virus in 2022,” said French. 

As Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations surge in Wisconsin, National Guard members will be trained as certified nursing assistants to support hospitals and nursing homes across the state, Gov. Tony Evers said in a news conference on Thursday. 

Approximately 50 Wisconsin National Guard members were deployed this week to six nursing homes in the state, according to a news release from the governor’s office. 

Also this week, a group of about 80 members began training and will deploy at the end of January, according to the release. Another group of about 80 members will start training in early February to deploy by the end of that month.

According to the release, the state’s current seven-day average is 9,915 cases, and a record 13,004 new confirmed Covid-19 cases were reported on Thursday. 

“The seven-day average has nearly doubled over the past two weeks and is now 50 percent higher than the November 2020 peak,” the release read. “Wisconsin is also seeing a record number of patients in intensive care units with COVID-19, at 488. There are currently 2,278 total COVID-19 patients in the state, an increase of 276 patients over the past week.”

“Our healthcare providers are beyond exhausted. We simply do not have enough staff to care for all those who are ill,” Lisa Greenwood, Madison College’s associate dean of nursing, said in the release.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded to Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling blocking the Biden’s administration’s vaccine or test requirement for large businesses, telling reporters the burden is now on individual employers “to determine whether their workplaces will be safe for employees, and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers.” 

Biden, Psaki said, “will continue to call on businesses to immediately join those who have already stepped up, including one third of Fortune 100 companies, to institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers and communities,” pointing to data that indicates a majority of employers will require employees to get vaccinated.

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on if the administration will issue a more targeted vaccine mandate, Psaki said she had no further announcements today.

“Any legal action I’d obviously defer to the Department of Justice, but at this point in time, what we are encouraging private sector companies to do is to take steps that have effectively worked around the country, that many, the vast majority of employers have indicated they have the intention to do,” Psaki said.

A Bluewater Diagnostic Laboratories technician bags up a Covid-19 test swab on January 10, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged residents to get vaccinated saying Covid-19 cases are “skyrocketing” in the state.

Kentucky has less than 10% capacity remaining in the intensive care units of its hospitals, according to data Wednesday from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Beshear addressed the hospital crunch saying, “I’ve already had to call out the national guard. And that next person in a car accident might not get the care they need. So get vaccinated for that person.”

President Joe Biden speaks after exiting a meeting with the Senate Democratic Caucus in Washington, DC, on January 13.

President Biden responded Thursday to the Supreme Court’s decision to block his administration’s vaccine requirement or test requirement large businesses but allow the vaccine mandate for certain health care workers.

“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the requirement for health care workers will save lives: the lives of patients who seek care in medical facilities, as well as the lives of doctors, nurses, and others who work there,” Biden wrote. “It will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities. We will enforce it.”

Moving forward, the President said, “it is now up to States and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers during this pandemic by requiring employees to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated.”

Bank of America Tower in New York, on January 4.

Bank of America urged most employees to stay out of its offices due to continued health concerns.

“Please continue working remotely, until we notify you that it’s time to return,” Bank of America wrote in a memo Thursday that was viewed by CNN. A company spokesperson confirmed the contents of the memo.

Most employees are encouraged to work remotely during the week of Jan. 17 as the bank continues to monitor the environment, the Bank of America spokesperson said.

Last week, Bank of America promised to donate $100 towards hunger relief for each US employee who shows proof of getting boosted against Covid-19. 

Bank of America does not have a vaccine mandate, but strongly encourages employees to get fully vaccinated, including boosters.

The White House still plans to encourage private businesses to voluntarily impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates after the Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s rule requiring them in large employers, according to an administration official. 

While officials viewed the mandate as a key component of their larger vaccination strategy, they still believe many large businesses will go ahead with mandates because they have proved successful in keeping employees safe.

Biden used the example of United Airlines earlier Thursday, pointing to the difference in worker deaths before and after imposing a vaccine mandate.

Officials expect Biden to continue to encouraging businesses to impose their own mandates, and explaining that the court ruling doesn’t disallow individual businesses from applying their own rules.

Top Biden administration officials were bracing Thursday for the Supreme Court to block its emergency rule requiring private companies with 100 or more employees to have their workforce vaccinated or tested weekly.

The move is a major blow to the President’s efforts to mandate vaccinations nationwide, and it remains unclear how the administration will respond to the court’s decision.

Biden made the move reluctantly last fall as millions of Americans remained unvaccinated. Officials then spent two months crafting the temporary emergency rule in hopes it would survive expected legal challenges. 

The Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s vaccine or testing requirement aimed at large businesses, but it allowed a vaccine mandate for certain health care workers to go into effect nationwide.

On Friday, the court heard arguments for almost four hours as the number of infections is soaring and 40 million adults in the US are still declining to get vaccinated. The three liberal justices on the court expressed clear approval for the administration’s rules in both areas.

Two sets of rules were issued in November. Here’s a closer look at both of them.

Vaccine or testing requirement for large employers: The first would impact some 80 million individuals and requires large employers to mandate that their employees either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

In the majority opinion, the justices said that although Congress has given the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the power to regulate dangers in the workplace, “it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly. Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category.”

Justices writing for the liberal dissent said the court’s order “seriously misapplies the applicable legal standards” and makes it more difficult for the federal government to “counter the unparalleled threat” of Covid-19. The dissent also said government officials have the “responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies,” adding the order was within the scope of their authority.

Healthcare workers: The second case concerned a regulation that requires certain health care employees who work for facilities that participate in Medicare or Medicaid programs to obtain vaccinations.

In that dispute, more justices seemed receptive to the Biden administration’s authority, particularly Chief Justice John Roberts, who suggested a closer link exists between health care workers and the vaccine mandates.

The majority opinion said that while the mandate goes further than past measures, officials “never had to address an infection problem of this scale and scope before.”

“In any event, there can be no doubt that addressing infection problems in Medicare and Medicaid facilities is what he does,” the majority added.

Justice Samuel Alito, with whom Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett join, wrote in the dissent that it is unexplained why “an agency can regulate first and listen later, and then put more than 10 million healthcare workers to the choice of their jobs or an irreversible medical treatment.”

Ohio smashed its own hospitalization record earlier this week, the state’s Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said at a news conference Thursday.  

The state reached 100,000 hospitalizations just days after Gov. Mike DeWine called on the state’s National Guard to support overrun hospitals and state testing sites, Vanderhoff said. 

Despite issuing 1.4 million testing kits in December alone, Vanderhoff said Ohio’s test supply is draining. And only a fraction of the state’s resupply has arrived due to shipping delays, Vanderhoff also said.  

The state is prioritizing distributing available testing kits to K-12 schools where they are essential for maintaining in-person learning, Vanderhoff said. 

Vanderhoff asked people to only go to the hospital in the case of a real emergency, as staffing shortages remain a critical issue.  

After DeWine deployed the National Guard last week, Maj. Gen.John C. Harris said nearly 2,000 guardsmen were split into 10-person teams to ease the pressure of Ohio’s emergency rooms. Harris said a planning team is also working directly with the health department to expand its footprint inside the hospitals.  

Vanderhoff said the Cleveland Clinic asked the state for support in seeking federal help to allow for more transfers and beds to open. Federal teams will begin working with the clinic next week at its main campus, according to Vanderhoff.  

Dr. Daniel Bachmann, the director of emergency preparedness at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said the guard is positively impacting hospital staff morale.  

The Omicron surge has driven Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations to record highs in the United States. This week, however, officials have started to call out very early signs that the wave is peaking — or at least plateauing — in parts of the Northeast.

But case rates are still higher in this region than any other, and experts say it will be weeks before any change can be declared a trend.

The US overall is reporting an average of more than 786,000 Covid-19 cases each day, double what it was two weeks ago, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Yet, seven states have seen case rates start to level out, changing less than 10% week-to-week: New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, New York, Kansas and Mississippi. And in Washington, DC, they’re down 19% from last week. But only in DC has this been a pattern for more than a week.

On Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that recent case trends are “a glimmer of hope.” She specifically noted an apparent plateau in average daily case rates in New York City.

The New York City health department’s data tracker indicates that while the test positivity rate is “stable,” case trends are “increasing,” as are hospitalizations and deaths. Also, data for the most recent 10 days is considered incomplete.

In a briefing Tuesday, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said that judging from a collection of metrics, the city “may be at peak right now.” Data from the city shows that the test positivity rate dropped for the first time in months, from 45% positive in the last week of December to 36% in the first week of January.

But she noted that the trends remain in flux.

“The thing about watching things like this is you’re watching a graph, you’re doing your best to project, and there’s no certainty to any of this,” she said. “I think we’re going to see it wiggle over the next few days, and then it’s just a question of whether we can hold it together and manage not to expose ourselves.”

But there are a few reasons it’s hard to declare what longer-term trends in case rates will be in real-time, according to experts.

Read more about why here:

FULLERTON, CA - JANUARY 08: Repertory Care Practitioner My Pham is working inside a covid19 patient's room at Providence St. Jude Medical Center on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 in Fullerton, CA. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Related article Omicron wave might soon subside in some parts of the US, but early signs are not yet a trend

“Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron,” CNN medical analyst and emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen said.

Ideally, in crowded places, “you should be wearing a KN95 or N95 mask,” Wen said. They include materials such as polypropylene fibers that act as both mechanical and electrostatic barriers to help prevent the spread of tiny particles.

But as of Jan. 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website still listed cloth masks with “two or more layers of washable, breathable fabric” as an option for helping mitigate the spread of Covid-19. 

“CDC continues to recommend that any mask is better than no mask, and we do encourage all Americans to wear a well-fitting mask to protect themselves and prevent the spread of Covid-19,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Jan. 12.

“We are preparing an update to the information on our mask website to best reflect the options that are available to people … and the different levels of protection different masks provide.”

When someone is speaking, wearing a face mask can slash the distance that droplets and aerosols travel by half (or more, depending on the type of mask), a recent study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases suggests.

Without face masks, droplets and aerosols traveled up to about 4 feet when someone was speaking, researchers at the University of Central Florida in Orlando found. 

Single-layer cloth masks reduced that maximum distance to about two feet. And 3-ply, disposable surgical masks reduced the distance of droplet and aerosol travel all the way down to 0.5 feet, the researchers found. The study did not include KN95 nor N95 masks. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s guidance on masks during the Omicron surge is simple: 

“Get the highest-quality mask that you can tolerate and that’s available to you,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Jan. 11. “Right now, (there) doesn’t seem to be any shortage of the masks that some time ago were not available. If you can tolerate an N95, do it. If you want to get a KN95, fine.”

Covid-19 has killed more than 840,000 people in the United States since January 2020. The US is now averaging 1,777 new deaths each day, according to data by Johns Hopkins University. This is 49% higher than a week ago.

As of Thursday, the US is now averaging 786,064 new Covid-19 cases, according to JHU. The average daily case rate has more than doubled in the past two weeks.

There are about 151,261 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, breaking previous record highs for the second day in a row.

But those numbers fail to paint a complete picture, however, since testing scarcity and delays likely left many Covid-19 cases and deaths undiagnosed, especially during the outbreak’s early stages.

In fact, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as many as 1 in 3 people in the United States has been infected, more than three times the official count.

You can track Covid-19 in your area using this map.

About 15,200 National Guard members are working to help communities in 49 states across the US with their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Daniel Hokanson said during a virtual press briefing on Thursday.

In Ohio, 2,500 National Guard members are currently deployed to help with the state’s response to the pandemic. Out of those 2,500 members, about 2,300 are stationed at hospitals across the state. Of the 60 locations where members are deployed, 48 of those are hospitals, Maj. Gen. John Harris, the adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard, said during the briefing. 

National Guard members in Ohio are primarily helping increase capacity at hospitals, Harris said. 

“We’ve added capacity in those hospitals by adding medical teams, non-medical teams and running testing sites,” Harris said.  

Some of the testing sites the Ohio National Guard has been able to stand up are testing up to 1,000 people a day, which keeps those people out of emergency rooms where they would otherwise be getting tested, Harris said.

In New York, there are currently 1,600 National Guard members activated to help with the state’s Covid-19 response, Brig. General Isabel Smith, director of the Joint Staff for the New York National Guard, said. 

The Army National Guard’s deadline for members to be fully vaccinated is June 30. National Guard Army service members activated in New York and Ohio who are not fully vaccinated are not directly dealing with Covid-19 patients, Smith and Harris said. They are serving in other roles that are not directly “patient-facing,” Harris said.

Hungary will make a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose available to its citizens, according to Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orban.  

Gulyas also said that due to the “rapid” spread of the Omicron variant in the country, the government expects a “substantial” increase of Covid-19 cases in the next few weeks.

The Hungarian government has also decided to shorten the quarantine period from 10 days to seven days, he added. 

A shipment of vaccines against the coronavirus sent to Sudan by the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative, are unloaded shortly after an Emirates plane landed at the airport in the capital Khartoum, on October 6, 2021.

The eastern Mediterranean region reported a “dramatic increase” in Covid-19 cases since the first week of January, but death rates have decreased, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. 

WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region comprises 21 member states with a population of nearly 679 million people.

“It is almost certain that the highly infectious Omicron variant has caused this shocking increase in cases … 15 out of 22 countries in the region have now officially reported Omicron,” Al-Mandhari said, adding that it is “vaccine inequity, vaccine hesitancy and low levels of adherence to public health and social measures” that has given the virus the opportunity to spread again. 

Six countries in the region have still only vaccinated less than 10% of their populations despite having enough supply for 40%. These countries include Afghanistan, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The WHO expects further increase in Omicron infections in the region but maintains that it is “controllable nevertheless.”

The WHO is working with countries to help them with the new wave of infections by strengthening surveillance, lab testing and health systems, plus building capacity of health workers. 

Qatar, Lebanon and Morocco reported the largest relative increase in Covid-19 infections in the first week of January, according to WHO data. The largest relative increase in deaths was in Lebanon, Jordan and Libya, the same data showed. 

An N95 mask dangles from the rear-view mirror of a car in North Tustin, California last week.

President Biden announced administration efforts to respond to the surging Covid-19 pandemic through additional testing, more medical support and increased supply of high-quality masks. 

He did so while also laying out a clear argument for getting vaccinated and boosted, telling those who have not done so to stop “standing in the way” as he renewed calls on media giants to combat the spread of misinformation.

Biden reiterated the importance of masking as he announced that new details on free high-quality masks such as KN95s and N95s will be coming next week.

On Wednesday, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not changed its guidance on mask usage, but the Biden administration is “strongly considering” making higher quality masks, like N95 and KN95 masks, more available to Americans.

Biden on Thursday called mask-wearing a “patriotic duty,” noting a statistic that approximately one-third of Americans do not wear a mask, making clear he understands that it is “not comfortable” and a “pain in the neck.” 

The President also announced a new purchase of 500 million additional Covid-19 tests in addition to the previously announced 500 million free, at-home rapid tests that will be rolled out via a website, amid ongoing demand for tests and continued shortages. 

He added that the administration continues to add federally run testing sites and touted new moves to make tests reimbursable to those with insurance.

Biden also outlined the federal surge response, including the deployment of military personnel to six hard-hit states to help deal with hospital staffing shortages. 

“Today, I’m announcing our next deployment of six additional federal medical teams — a total of more than 120 military medical personnel — to six hard-hit states: Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island,” he said. 

Since Thanksgiving, he noted, over 800 military and other federal personnel have been deployed across 24 states, tribes and territories, including over 350 military doctors, nurses and medics. More than 14,000 National Guard members are also activated in 49 states. All of those deployments, he noted, are fully paid for by the Covid relief package passed by Congress early last year.

He said he has also directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure there is enough hospital bed capacity in every state.

Biden underscored the importance of getting vaccinated to combat Covid-19, as his critics cite rising cases among people who are fully vaccinated.

He continued: “If vaccinated people test positive, they overwhelmingly have either no symptoms at all or they have mild symptoms. And if you’re unvaccinated, if they test positive, you’re 17 times more likely to get hospitalized,” adding that deaths are down “dramatically” compared to this time last year.

He later made a more forceful, targeted appeal to the millions of Americans who are not yet vaccinated, warning they are not just on the sidelines, but in the way. 

He made an appeal to social media companies and media outlets amid the ongoing spread of falsehoods about the vaccine and the virus more broadly. 

“Please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows. It has to stop,” he said.

President Joe Biden speaks about the government's COVID-19 response, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, Thursday, January 13, 2022.

President Biden said he will soon detail plans for his administration to make high-quality masks free to Americans.

“I know we all wish could finally be done with wearing masks, I get it, but they are a really important tool to stop the spread, especially of the highly transmissible Omicron variant,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, Biden once again reiterated the importance of wearing a mask.

Biden also acknowledged the malaise that the country is feeling during this latest onslaught of Covid-19 cases.

“I know we’re all frustrated as we enter this new year — the Omicron variant is causing millions of cases and record hospitalizations,” he said, before reiterating his belief that the pandemic is primarily affecting the unvaccinated in a plea for people to get their shots.

“Right now, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are testing positive, but what happens after that could not be more different.”

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Paul LeBlanc, Kate Sullivan, Kaitlan Collins and Betsy Klein contributed reporting to this post. 

President Joe Biden speaks about the government's COVID-19 response, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.

President Biden said six additional federal medical teams will be deployed to six more states to help hospitals overwhelmed by Covid-19.

The more than 120 medical and military personnel will go to facilities in Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island and New Mexico.

“If you haven’t gotten vaccinated, do it,” he added.

Biden said on top of these new medical teams, more than 800 military and other federal emergency personnel have been deployed to 24 states, tribes and territories since Thanksgiving. That includes more than 350 military doctors, nurses and medics, the President said.

Biden said his administration has also shipped personal protective equipment to health care workers and have directed FEMA to make sure there is enough hospital bed capacity.

President Biden gave an update on his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying the United States’ testing capacity has improved.

Biden also said the website for Americans to order free tests and have them home-delivered will be rolled out next week.

“In addition to the 500 million — half a billion — tests that are in the process of being acquired to ship to you home for free, today I’m directing my team to procure an additional 500 million more tests to distribute for free —a billion tests in total to meet future demand,” he announced.

The President said he will continue to work with retailers and online to “increase availability” of the tests.

President Joe Biden speaks about the government's COVID-19 response, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.

President Biden is delivering an update on his administration’s Covid-19 surge response.

He is expected to announce the purchase of 500 million additional tests and the deployment of federal medical teams to help overwhelmed hospitals in several states, a White House official told CNN.

The millions of new Covid-19 tests will be purchased to meet future demand and are in addition to the previously announced 500 million tests the White House is in the process of acquiring, according to the official. 

The military medical teams will support the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Henry Ford Hospital outside Detroit, University of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque and University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, the official said. 

French prime minister Jean Castex and Education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer will meet with representatives of all the teachers on a strike today, a spokesperson for the joint teachers’ union told CNN. 

An education ministry spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Castex and Blanquer would be attending the meeting. 

According to CNN affiliate BFMTV, Health Minister Olivier Veran, who announced Thursday he had tested positive for covid-19 and is isolating, will join the meeting by videoconference. 

French teachers are striking Thursday over changes to Covid-19 testing protocol in schools. The education ministry told CNN that 31.07% of all schoolteachers were on strike.

President Biden plans to order an additional 500 million more Covid-19 tests in addition to the first 500 million he’s in the process of ordering now, a White House official confirms. 

These will be ordered after they obtain the first half a billion he’s promised, which have not yet been secured. 

An HHS official testified this week that they have bought about 50 million so far and are in the process of signing contracts for the rest. 

More than 151,000 Americans were in the hospital with Covid-19 nationwide on Wednesday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. And the US averaged more than 747,260 new Covid-19 cases daily over the last week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

President Biden is set to deliver remarks at 10:30 a.m. ET today.

Vice President Kamala Harris appears on NBC’s Today Show on 13 January 2022

Vice President Kamala Harris defended the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response Thursday in an appearance on NBC’s Today Show, acknowledging frustration with the state of the pandemic as she touted progress. 

In the new portion of the interview, Harris was pressed on why Americans still don’t have access to at-home Covid-19 testing.

“But we just ordered – I don’t have the number in front of me, but millions of tests,” she said, presumably a reference to the 500 million free at-home tests the administration has yet to deploy. 

She continued, “We have 20,000 sites where people can go, and I urge people to – you can Google it or go on to any search engine and find out where free testing and the free testing site is available.” 

Harris pushed back on frustration that people still have to google where to get a test.

She was pressed repeatedly on when the 500 million promised free at-home tests will be deployed to Americans, saying they will arrive “shortly.”

Asked twice whether it should have been done sooner, she said, “We are doing it.”

“People are rightly frustrated with where we are,” she said, adding that “we’re all frustrated,” but that the US has made “great progress” with vaccines, boosters, and kids back in school. 

“We are not where we were a year ago,” she said.

President Biden is set to deliver a speech this morning on his administration’s Covid-19 response.

These days, it’s much easier to contract the coronavirus as the highly contagious Omicron variant spreads worldwide. As people face this current reality, it’s important to note that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recently changed its guidelines around isolation and quarantine. Many have questions about what to do if they or a family member ends up catching Covid-19.

CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, who is an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, answers some key questions.

CNN: What if everybody in your family tests positive? Do they need to isolate from one another?

Wen: If everyone has Covid-19, they do not need to isolate from each other. That’s because it’s highly unlikely that they have different strains of coronavirus; they probably all got the same strain from one another, and they aren’t going to reinfect each other so quickly. The entire family, of course, should be isolating from other people.

CNN: How long should someone be in isolation?

Wen: The CDC’s new guidelines essentially shorten the isolation period from 10 days to five days, with an additional five days wearing a mask. This means that you should stay fully isolated for the first five days. After that, you can go out — to work, to the grocery and so forth — but you should wear a high-quality, well-fitting mask when out in public. Don’t go to settings where you will be maskless, such as restaurants.

When it comes to people in the same family, this guidance means you really shouldn’t have meals together or have other casual, maskless encounters with uninfected members of your family in the 10-day period. If families are in two pods, the two shouldn’t mix for 10 days inside their house.

CNN: If someone had symptoms on Monday, got tested on Wednesday and then got results back on Friday, when does the five-day clock start?

Wen: Monday. The five-day clock starts when someone first starts getting symptoms. If someone is tested and they are asymptomatic but have a positive result, the five-day clock starts when they first got the test. If you are unsure — for example, if you are feeling a little rundown Sunday but don’t really have full symptoms until Tuesday — use the date that you are certain of the symptoms.

Remember that the count starts at day zero. Day one is the first full 24 hours after the onset of symptoms or after the positive test.

Read more answers to key questions here.

13 January 2022, Berlin: Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Federal Minister of Health, speaks during the three-day debate on the policies of the traffic light coalition in the Bundestag, Berlin, Germany on 13 January 2022.

Germany’s vaccine advisory committee — known as STIKO — has recommended Covid-19 booster shoots for all children and teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17, as the country recorded its highest single daily surge in infections on Thursday.  

In a written statement, the committee recommended the booster shots administered are an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech. Booster shots should be administered three months after the last vaccine dose at the earliest, STIKO added. 

In August, STIKO recommended all children and teenagers aged 12-17 to be vaccinated with a Covid-19 vaccine.

On Thursday, German health minister and epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach urged German lawmakers in parliament to support a key vote on whether to introduce a general vaccine mandate by the end of March or else the country ”would never be able to end the pandemic.”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN Thursday the Biden administration is preparing to surge military support to local responses as a massive wave of Omicron cases continues across the country.

For the time being, the FEMA administrator said, the number one request remains more staffing for states facing rising cases.

“So these teams are going to provide critical support to help relieve some of the drain and the strain on the health care system, and give them the well needed resources that they need to continue to fight this pandemic,” with a focus primarily on medical care providers, nurses, and physicians, and, to a lesser extent, individuals to assist with administrative needs.

President Biden is expected to deliver remarks on Thursday announcing a new wave of federally deployed medical teams to six states to help hospitals combat Covid-19, a White House official told CNN. 

People receive a PCR test at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon on Saturday.

Covid-19 cases in Africa have begun to plateau in the last two weeks, Dr. Abdou Salam Gueye, director of regional emergencies for WHO Africa, said in a virtual briefing on Thursday. 

East, central and southern Africa have reported a decrease in cases in the week ending on January 9th, while cases in west and northern Africa have risen.

Deaths across the continent have risen 64% in the same week compared to the previous week, mainly in infected high-risk people, although deaths in the fourth wave remain lower than previous waves.  

In South Africa, where the wave has been less severe with less hospitalizations, “we are still seeing very serious infections and admissions in patients who are unvaccinated and also in patients who have comorbidities and this includes the elderly population,” said South African pulmonologist Anita Graham. 

Around 10% of Africa’s population has been vaccinated, according to Dr. Gueye. 

President Biden is expected to deliver remarks this morning announcing a new wave of federally deployed medical teams to six states to help hospitals combat Covid-19, a White House official told CNN. The President is set to speak at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The military medical teams will support the following hospitals, according to the official:

“These teams will be providing relief, triaging patients, helping to decompress overwhelmed emergency departments, and freeing up health care providers to continue other lifesaving care. They will be working alongside health care workers on the front lines to give them the support they need,” the official added.

The deployments come as the Biden administration faces growing scrutiny alongside record Covid-19 hospitalizations, testing challenges and messaging frustration – issues the GOP has seized on.

Where things stand in the US: More than 151,000 Americans were in the hospital with Covid-19 nationwide on Wednesday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. And the US averaged more than 747,260 new Covid-19 cases daily over the last week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

That’s about three times last winter’s peak average (251,987 on Jan. 11, 2021), and about 4.5 times the peak from the Delta-driven surge (166,347 on Sept. 1), according to JHU.

The surge has put considerable stress on hospitals nationwide. And, to combat the massive strain on health care services that comes as more staff members call out sick with the virus, state leaders have enacted emergency procedures to help hospitals cope.

Hong Kong will ban transit passengers from most countries for a month starting on Sunday, the Hong Kong Airport Authority announced on Thursday.

Anyone staying in a “high-risk country” in the last 21 days will not be allowed to use the Hong Kong International Airport as a transit point, the airport authority announced. 

Hong Kong has classified any country outside mainland China or Taiwan with the Omicron coronavirus variant as a “high-risk country” — meaning that most passengers will be affected by the new measures.

The airport authority said the measure was “in response to the rising number of Omicron cases around the world”.

Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, also said in a news release on Thursday that all passengers starting their journey from outside mainland China or Taiwan will not be allowed to use Hong Kong as a transit period during the period.

Olivier Véran following a cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on Wednesday.

French Health Minister Olivier Véran has tested positive for Covid-19, he said Thursday.

The news comes as the country grapples with a teachers strike in protest at Covid-19 school protocols.

The minimum self-isolation period for people who test positive for Covid-19 in England will be reduced from seven to five days on Monday, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced Thursday. 

“Around two thirds of positive cases are no longer infectious by the end of day five,” Javid told the House of Commons, citing data from the UK Health Security Agency.

Currently, anyone who tested positive in England could leave self–isolation seven days after the date of their initial positive test if they received two negative LFD results, 24 hours apart, on days six and seven of their isolation period. 

Javid told the Commons that “any curbs on our freedoms must be an absolute last resort, and that we shouldn’t keep them in place for a day longer than absolutely necessary.” 

Despite “encouraging signs that infections are falling in London and the East of England,” he warned of the need to “proceed with caution,” adding the Omicron variant “still has the potential to lead to significant numbers of people in hospital,” due to its greater transmissibility. 

“There’s already almost 17,000 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England, and due to the lag between infections and hospitalizations, the NHS will remain under significant pressure over the next few weeks,” Javid said.  

Javid added it was encouraging that England had not seen an increase in Covid-19 intensive care patients during the Omicron wave, but highlighted the importance of vaccines. 

“We know that Omicron is less severe, but no one should be under any illusions - it is severe for anyone that ends up in hospital and that’s far more likely if you have not had the jab,” he continued. 

Teachers protest against school protocols in Clermont-Ferrand on Thursday.

At least three-quarters of elementary school teachers in France were reported to be on strike and half of elementary schools were closed Thursday in protest at the government’s Covid-19 protocols, according to a French teachers’ union.

At least 62% of high school and middle school teachers are also reported to be striking, according to the union which represents them.

In Paris, 58% of teachers are on strike​, and nearly 200 schools are closed​ Thursday, according to the mayor’s office.

Small groups of teachers were seen taking to the streets by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as well as in other cities Thursday morning ahead of an afternoon protest.

Read more below.

Read more here.

France, Clermont-Ferrand, 2022-01-13. National school strike, called by several teacher and student unions, to protest against the health protocol put in place by the government. Here, a demonstration in Clermont-Ferrand. Photograph by Adrien Fillon / Hans Lucas. France, Clermont-Ferrand, 2022-01-13. Greve nationale de l ecole, a l appel de plusieurs syndicats enseignants et etudiants, pour protester contre le protocole sanitaire mis en place par le gouvernement. Ici, une manifestation a Clermont-Ferrand. Photographie par Adrien Fillon / Hans Lucas.

Related article French teachers strike in protest at Covid-19 school protocols

Jonathan Van-Tam, Britain's Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, attends a media briefing on the latest Covid-19 update, at Downing Street, London on November 29, 2021.

England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam will leave his role at the end of March, according to a statement from the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Van-Tam will take up the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham, said the statement.

“My time as DCMO have been the most challenging of my professional career, especially the Covid response. We all wish Covid had never happened,” said Van-Tam in the statement. “Notwithstanding, it has been the greatest privilege of my professional career to have served the people of the UK during this time.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked Van-Tam on Twitter.

“I would like to thank Jonathan Van-Tam for his extraordinary contribution to our country and his invaluable advice throughout the pandemic,” wrote Johnson. “Wishing him the very best for the future.”

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid also tweeted about Van-Tam’s departure. 

“It has been an honour to work with JVT and I am hugely grateful for his advice & the vital role he has played in our vaccination programme,” Javid said.

Health workers greet passengers arriving from an international flight before testing for Covid-19 tested at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy, France, on Tuesday.

France has announced it will relax entry conditions for vaccinated travelers from the UK from Friday.

Vaccinated travelers will no longer be required to isolate upon arrival in France, nor will they have to provide a compelling reason for travel, minister of tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne announced on Twitter on Thursday.

But they will still need to present a negative PCR test taken within 24 hours before departure.

Unvaccinated travelers from the UK must continue to register before departure on France’s digital platform, and must observe a strict quarantine period of 10 days, according to a press release from the prime minister’s office. 

Attendees walk around the entrance of CES 2022 in Las Vegas on January 6.

The number of South Koreans who have tested positive for Covid-19 in relation to the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in the US jumped to 119 on Thursday.

Ko Jae-young, spokesman for the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said some of those who tested positive carried the Omicron variant, without giving specific numbers.

In a press release, South Korea’s health ministry urged attendees who were exempted from quarantine to work from home for 10 days to prevent spreading the virus.

On Thursday, South Korea reported 391 imported Covid-19 cases, a daily record, according to KDCA.

In response, South Korea will mandate that international arrivals take a PCR test within 48 hours of departure – shortened from 72 hours – starting from January 20, Ko said.

Health authorities estimate that the Omicron variant may become the dominant variant in the country by late January, Ko said.

Starting from Friday, South Korea will also begin administering Pfizer’s oral treatment pill Paxlovid to patients with a high chance of getting critically ill, those aged 65 or above, and those with reduced immunity, KDCA said in a press release.

The country reported 4,167 new cases from Wednesday, bringing the total confirmed cases to 679,030, KDCA said. The death toll rose by 44 to 6,210.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street for PMQs at the House of Commons on January 12 in London.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson canceled a visit to a vaccination center Thursday after a member of his family tested positive for Covid-19, his office told CNN.

“The Prime Minister will no longer be visiting Lancashire today due to a family member testing positive for coronavirus,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement sent to CNN. “He will follow the guidance for vaccinated close contacts, including daily testing and limiting contact with others.”

Johnson received his Covid-19 booster shot on December 2. He is therefore not legally required to self-isolate, according to the guidance established by his government.

The news comes as Johnson faces strong criticism after he apologized on Wednesday for attending a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden on May 20, 2020, while the country was in lockdown.

A woman wearing protective mask uses her mobile phone while waiting for a bus on January 13 in Singapore.

Singapore’s health minister Ong Ye Kung on Monday gave the country’s Parliament a breakdown of Covid-19 deaths among vaccinated patients last year.

In 2021, Singapore recorded 802 Covid-19 deaths; some 247 of those who died were fully vaccinated, while 555 were not fully vaccinated, Ong said.

Here is the breakdown of vaccinated fatalities:

Ong stressed the data is only reflective of a small sample size and does not account for other factors such as age or the timing of vaccination.

As of Monday, 87% of Singapore’s total population have been fully vaccinated, and 48% have received booster shots. 

Residents queue to for Covid-19 testing in Xi'an on January 12.

Two hospitals in the locked down Chinese city of Xi’an have been ordered to close for three months after reports of delays in treatment for critical patients, municipal authorities said Thursday. 

The CEO and related directors of Xi’an Gaoxin Hospital have been fired, along with the president, vice president, and head nurse of the outpatient department at Xi’an International Medical Center Hospital, the statement said.

The announcement comes after reports of people being denied emergency care during Xi’an’s lockdown — highlighting the immense human cost of China’s zero-Covid policy.

In one case, a woman had a miscarriage after she was denied entry to Xi’an Gaoxin Hospital by health workers because she didn’t have a valid Covid-19 test. In another incident, a woman posted on Chinese social media that her father, who was having a heart attack, had died after Xi’an International Medical Center Hospital refused to accept him because they live in a “risk area.”

Last week, China’s vice premier told hospitals not to turn patients away. The Xi’an municipal government also issued a notice, saying Covid-19 tests should not be used to deny patients immediate medical care. 

Xi’an’s lockdown: The city of 13 million has been under strict lockdown since December 23, as it grapples with the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak since Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic.

Its residents cannot leave their homes, unless permitted for mass testing. Local authorities have faced a public outcry over perceived incompetence, and disproportionately harsh measures that critics say harm the lives of those they are supposed to protect.

Japan's Minister for Economic Revitalization Daishiro Yamagiwa speaks during a press conference at the National Press Club on Wednesday in Tokyo.

Japan must coexist with Covid-19 while achieving economic growth, a government official said Wednesday, as infections surge in the country. 

Yamagiwa’s comments came as the world’s third-largest economy reported more than 13,000 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, surpassing 10,000 daily infections for the first time since September 9 last year, according to a tally by public broadcaster NHK.

Japan had managed to curb the spread of the virus last fall, with nationwide cases plummeting to under 1,000 a day in October, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. 

Japan has already entered its sixth wave as cases surge, the president of the country’s Medical Association, Toshio Nakagawa, said last week. Nakagawa warned cases will continue to rise in the coming weeks. 

Japan has fully vaccinated about 80% of its population, but has only administered booster shots to about 1% as of Monday, according to government data.

People line up to get vaccinated outside the Government Covid vaccination center in Ghaziabad, India, on January 12.

India reported more than 247,000 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a sharp increase from the day before, as cases in the country surge.

Thursday’s 247,417 cases is 27% higher than the 194,720 cases registered on Wednesday, the country’s Health Ministry reported. 

The last time the country recorded similar numbers was on May 22, 2021 — during the throes of India’s crippling second wave that saw millions infected and hospitals pushed to the brink of collapse.

As India braces for a third wave, major cities including the capital, Delhi, and financial center Mumbai continue to report high daily cases.

On Wednesday, the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, recorded 46,723 new cases. Delhi reported 27,561 new cases Wednesday —  its highest since India’s surge began late December. It also reported 40 deaths.

More vaccines: India has ramped up its vaccination program in the past week, making booster shots available to a limited group of people, including frontline workers and those above the age of 60 with pre-existing health conditions. Vaccinations have also started for children ages 15-18.

India on Wednesday administered more than 7 million vaccine shots, raising the total number of doses to 1.54 billion, according to the Health Ministry.

The country has recorded 36.3 million Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 485,035 related deaths.