January 21 coronavirus news

Argentina’s president Alberto Fernández received his first dose of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V on Thursday, according to a statement from his office. 

“The president reaffirmed the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and reiterated that his priority is that it reaches the majority of Argentines in the shortest time possible,” the statement read. 

Fernández, 61, received the dose at the Posadas Hospital in the province of Buenos Aires.

The National Administration of Medicines, Food and Technology of Argentina (ANMAT) recommended the use of the vaccine on Wednesday to the Ministry of Health, for use on people over 60 years old.

Argentina received a shipment of 300,000 doses of Sputnik V on December 24.

In remarks at the White House Thursday afternoon, US President Joe Biden acknowledged the uphill battle his administration faces to vaccinate enough Americans to achieve immunity at any significant level.

Biden went on to explain his expanded Executive Orders mandating mask wearing while traveling.

The US leader said:

Biden signed a series of executive orders Thursday aimed at addressing the coronavirus pandemic, including setting up a pandemic testing board, keeping workers safe and expanding access to care and treatment for the virus.

He likened his efforts to curtail the coronavirus as a “wartime undertaking.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters Thursday that the US would soon see one million vaccine doses administered each day.

Fauci said he received his second dose of the vaccine on Tuesday.

His comments come as the US Covid-19 death toll reached 407,111 on Thursday according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU.)

The vaccine rollout in the US has been far from smooth. States across the country say they’re running low on coronavirus vaccine supply, with many officials insisting the vaccine delivery numbers previously reported by the Trump administration don’t align with what they are seeing on the ground.

The confusion around vaccine supply presents an immediate challenge for the incoming Biden administration, which has made the pandemic its top priority.

British Home Secretary Priti Patel speaks during a virtual news conference at No. 10 Downing Street on Thursday.

It is still “far too early” to consider easing lockdown measures in the United Kingdom, British Home Secretary Priti Patel said Thursday, warning that the country is “not out of the woods yet.”

Speaking alongside the Home Secretary, NHS (National Health Service) England’s medical director for London noted that while it is still “very early,” the NHS is seeing “some glimmers of the impact of the lockdown.” 

“It is far too early to be thinking about the lockdown, but there are early signs of hope because the lockdown measures we currently have in place do appear to be having an impact,” Dr Vin Diwakar said.

While the number of coronavirus patients requiring intensive care has increased in London, Diwakar highlighted that the number of patients in “general and acute beds” has fallen, as well as the number of emergency calls. 

The total number of cases recorded in the UK since the pandemic began is now 3,543,646.

Eli Lilly and Company’s monoclonal antibody combination therapy was found to help prevent Covid-19 among nursing home residents and staff in a Phase 3 trial, the company announced on Thursday.

The trial included 965 participants who tested negative for the coronavirus and 132 participants who tested positive, according to the announcement.

All participants were randomly given either 4,200 milligrams of the therapy known as LY-CoV555 or a placebo.

The trial results showed that after eight weeks, the residents given LY-CoV555, also called bamlanivimab, had up to an 80% lower risk of contracting Covid-19 versus residents in the same facility who received a placebo.

During the entire trial, there were a total of 16 deaths reported, including deaths not related to Covid-19, and all deaths occurred [among] residents, according to the announcement.

Eleven of those deaths occurred among people given a placebo and five were among those given the therapy.

In November, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the therapy to treat mild to moderate coronavirus infections in adults and children.

The single antibody treatment is administered as an infusion in a hospital or other health care setting.

An electronic board warns people in Nottingham, England, on Monday.

The UK Government has introduced new, tougher penalties for people breaking the country’s strict lockdown regulations.

From next week, people caught attending illegal gatherings of more than 15 people in homes will face an £800 (approximately $1,097) fine, Home Secretary Priti Patel said Thursday. 

“There is still a small minority who refuse to do the right thing, and to them my message is clear: if you don’t follow these rules, then the police will enforce them,” Patel said, warning that the penalty will “double for each repeated offense” to a maximum of £6,400 (approximately $8,775.)

According to the chairman of the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC), Martin Hewitt, national police forces have seen a “significant increase” in the number of penalties issued to those breaking lockdown rules. 

Speaking alongside the Home Secretary and the NPCC chairman during a press briefing at Downing Street, London’s NHS medical director urged the public to adhere to government guidelines, stressing that the pandemic is the “biggest health emergency to face this country since the Second World War.”

“Breaking the rules in the way that has been described today is like switching on a light in the middle of a blackout in the Blitz — it doesn’t just put you at risk in your house, it puts your whole street and the whole of your community at risk,” Dr Vin Diwakar said. 

The NHS England regional medical director also warned that the situation in London’s hospitals “remains really precarious,” highlighting that more than half of all patients in the capital’s hospitals are being treated for coronavirus. 

At least 407,111 people have died in the US from Covid-19 according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU.)

There have been at least 24,475,210 cases of the virus in the country, according to JHU’s latest tally.

So far today, the university has recorded 36,487 new cases and 964 new deaths. 

On the vaccine front, at least 35,990,150 doses have been distributed across the country and at least 16,525,281 total doses have been administered, according to the US CDC.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as repatriated cases.  

CNN is tracking the spread of Covid-19 across the US here:

Dr. Rochelle Walensky is the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says she doubts that a Covid-19 vaccine will be available in every pharmacy in the United States by late February.

Walensky was responding to predictions from former Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, who said that there could be widespread availability of the vaccine for the general population in pharmacies that month.

Speaking to NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show Thursday, Walensky said:

The CDC head added that the US is hoping to have more data from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine candidate soon, and the more vaccines are granted FDA authorization, “the better shape we’ll be [in].” 

The US continues to be the worst-hit country by Covid-19 globally, with more than 24.4 million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Medical staff test people for Covid-19 at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, on January 11.

The World Bank has approved a re-allocation of $34 million to support vaccination efforts for Lebanon as it faces a surge in Covid-19 cases, the international financial institution said in a statement Thursday.

“This is the first World Bank-financed operation to fund the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines,” the statement said, adding that the financing will provide shots for over 2 million individuals.

The vaccines are expected to arrive in Lebanon by early February 2021.

High-risk health workers, people over 65 years old, epidemiological and surveillance staff, and those aged between 55 and 64 years old with comorbidities are target priority groups, the World Bank said. It added that, “by prioritizing these groups, the country’s vaccination program has the potential to reduce the consequences of the pandemic, even in conditions of supply constraints.”

The institution’s decision comes as Lebanon’s health sector continues to struggle with a sharp rise in cases. The government has extended the country’s lockdown, which includes a 24-hour curfew, until February 8 at 5 am local time.

The World Bank said its decision to provide the funds follows an assessment and plan drawn up by the Lebanese government that “has all the key elements recommended by the World Health Organization and represents a central part of Lebanon’s vaccination readiness.”

On Thursday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported 67 Covid-19 related deaths, the fourth daily death record in a row.

The total number of deaths in Lebanon since the pandemic began is 2,151. A total of 269,241 cases have been reported.

A paramedic wheels a gurney outside the Royal London Hospital on Thursday, January 21.

The UK has recorded a decline in daily Covid-19 deaths and cases, according to official data released Thursday.

While the country reported a further 1,290 coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours, data from Public Health England showed – this is down from Wednesday’s death toll of 1,820.

The country has the highest death toll in Europe, trailing only the US, Brazil, India and Mexico in total deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

On Thursday 37,892 new cases were confirmed in the country – down from Wednesday’s daily increase of 38,905.

The total number of UK cases recorded since the pandemic began is now 3,543,646. 

According to Public Health England’s weekly Covid-19 surveillance report, hospital admission rates are still rising in several regions across England and remain highest in those aged 85 and over.

The report also highlights that “case rates have fallen in all regions,” but continue to be highest in London.

While case rates have also decreased in all age groups, they remain highest in those aged 20-29 years old, the report adds.

Paula Badosa plays a match in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on January 8.

Tennis star Paula Badosa announced Thursday that she has tested positive for Covid-19. Badosa, who is quarantining in Melbourne ahead of next month’s Australian Open, is the first known player set to compete at the Grand Slam to test positive for coronavirus. 

“I have some bad news. Today I received a positive Covid-19 test result. I’m feeling unwell and have some symptoms, but I’ll try to recover as soon as possible listening to the doctors. I’ve been taken to a health hotel to self-isolate and be monitored. Thanks for you support. We’ll be back stronger.” Badosa posted on Twitter.

Prior to testing positive, the 23-year-old rising star was isolating under a mandatory quarantine rule. 

Players arriving in the Australian state of Victoria have been placed into a 14-day quarantine ahead of their grand slam matches. Most have been allotted five hours each day to go out and train in strict bio-secure bubbles, but 72 players have been unable to leave their hotel rooms and cannot practice, under strict quarantine rules after passengers on their flights tested positive for Covid-19.

Some tennis stars have expressed anger and frustration at being kept cooped up ahead of the first grand slam of the tennis season. 

Badosa is ranked No. 67 in the world and competed in two Australian Open’s in her career. She most notably reached the round-of-16 at last year’s French Open. 

The Australian Open is scheduled to start on February 8, three weeks after its original start date.

Read more about the controversy at the Australian Open here:

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 18: Australian Open signage is seen at Melbourne Park on January 18, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne Park will host WTA and ATP events along with the ATP in the lead up to the 2021 Australian Open. Melbourne Park is currently under strict lockdown due to players quarantine conditions travelling from overseas into Australia. (Photo by Mike Owen/Getty Images)

Related article Australian Open tennis stars urged not to feed mice in hotel rooms

Couples are having to spend more time together under enormously stressful circumstances during the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s affecting their ability to get enough sleep.

Being forced to share the same space during lockdown has led many couples across the world to struggle with bad sleep patterns, and arguments that can lead led to breakups.

Sleep specialists say they are currently treating quarantined couples struggling to sleep in the same bed, and it’s creating and compounding problems in their relationships.

Research has backed this up. If a person’s sleep is disrupted by their partner during the night, it can lead to an argument in the relationship the following day, according to a 2013 study from the University of California, Berkeley.

New York-based clinical psychologist Orna Guralnik, host of the Showtime series “Couples Therapy,” agreed.

“There are petty little grudges that accumulate,” she said.

“There is a hyper-focus on the other person, and not enough distance between people to feel their independent existence. You put that in the context of sleeping together all night – it becomes too much, too symbiotic for people.”

Dave Russell is a light sleeper, for example, but he never had any issues sharing a bed with his girlfriend, Izzy James, before the pandemic.

Things began to change in March. Lockdown significantly altered Russell’s daily life. Like many people, he started working from home and limiting his contact with others, and he began to struggle to sleep through the night.

Before the coronavirus, Russell and James would spend most of their working days apart in separate offices outside their home. For the last nine months, the two have both been working from their studio apartment in London.

“We were literally sitting opposite each other for the whole day, and then when the workday was finished, we would just move to the sofa,” he told CNN. “It felt like we were in the same room all of the time.” Because they were.

Read more here:

Related article Couples struggle with sleep problems in the Covid-19 pandemic

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa speaks at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on January 20.

The Portuguese government decided to toughen its current lockdown measures on Thursday, ordering schools and universities to close for at least 15 days, due to a rapid surge of Covid-19 cases.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister António Costa after a cabinet meeting, who added that exceptions will be made for children aged 12 or younger, and whose parents work in essential services.

The decision was taken because of the rapidly rising number of cases, particularly due to the new strain of the virus that was first found in the UK. This variant, which now represents 30% of new cases, could reach 60% of new infections soon, according to a study by Portuguese health authorities.

Along with schools, some Portuguese public services will also be closed for the next 15 days and non-urgent court cases will have their deadlines suspended.

The move comes as Portugal reported another record daily increase in the number of fatalities attributed to Covid-19, with 221 deaths in the past 24 hours.

Authorities also reported an additional 13,544 new infections, the second-highest daily increase since the pandemic started.

The United Kingdom currently has a seven day rolling average of 620.40 cases per million, while the United States is at 584.94 per million, also according to Our World in Data.

As researchers around the world race to see if new coronavirus variants will pose a problem for the vaccines, a second study in two days says a variant from South Africa could possibly do just that.

The variant was first spotted in South Africa in October and has now been found in more than a dozen countries.

In both studies, the work was done in the lab and not in people, so more research is needed to gauge the true threat of the new variant.

In the most recent study, which was small, researchers took antibodies from six people who had been hospitalized with Covid-19 before the new variant was discovered. They found, to varying degrees, that antibodies for all six of the survivors were unable to fully fight off the virus.

It’s unclear whether this means someone would be vulnerable to the new variant if they’d already had Covid-19, or what this might mean for people who’ve been vaccinated.

The findings of this study were very similar to those of a study released Tuesday by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa.

“When you see two groups independently arriving at same basic answer, that’s good – there’s more consonance that they are correct,” said Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

A third study also released Tuesday was more optimistic. It showed that mutations in the new variant allowed them to evade some of the immunity induced by vaccination, but it was far from a complete escape.

That study looked at three mutations in the variant. The South African studies looked at eight.

None of the studies was peer reviewed or published in medical journals.

The most recent study was posted on the website for KRISP, the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform.

A vial of the Sputnik V vaccine pictured in Moscow on January 2.

The UAE approved the Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, on Thursday, making it the third shot to be approved for use in the country,

A statement from the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention said the country held Phase 3 trials of the vaccine. The results demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of Sputnik V in triggering a “strong antibody response” as well as “compliance with international safety,” the statement added. 

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement that Sputnik V was registered under an emergency use authorization procedure based on the results of the Russian Phase 3 clinical trials, which included over 33,000 subjects, and local Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine in the UAE, with 1,000 volunteers already enrolled into that study.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF, said: “RDIF appreciates the cooperation with UAE’s health authorities and welcomes the regulatory approval of Sputnik V… The decision to include Sputnik V in UAE’s national vaccine portfolio is an important step towards protecting the population with one of the best vaccines against coronavirus in the world.”

Read more about Sputnik V here:

MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA - NOVEMBER 28, 2020: A medical worker prepares to administer the Russian Sputnik V vaccine at the COVID-19 vaccination center at the Domodedovo central city hospital. Valery Sharifulin/TASS (Photo by Valery Sharifulin\TASS via Getty Images)

Related article Every country has vaccine skeptics. In Russia, doctors are in their ranks

A resident at a care home receives a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Wigan, England, on January 21.

The UK is giving 200 Covid-19 vaccinations every minute and 63% of residents in elderly care homes have now received a shot, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told lawmakers on Thursday, a day after the country recorded the highest daily death figures of the pandemic so far.

The UK has now given more than 5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to 4.6 million people, “making good progress towards our goal of offering everyone in priority group one to four their first dose by the 15th of February,” Hancock said.

He also announced the opening of 65 pharmacy-led vaccination sites in England, where the health workers will deliver shots for those in the highest priority groups.

This expansion includes a cinema in Aylesbury, a mosque in Birmingham and a cricket club in Manchester, Hancock said.

As the Covid-19 vaccines continue to be rolled out, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated the ‘stay at home’ mandate and said it is “absolutely crucial” to follow the current restrictions “in what is unquestionably going to be a tough few weeks,” he told reporters Thursday during a visit to flood-hit Didsbury in northwest England.

When asked when the lockdown could be eased, he said: “I think it’s too early to say when we’ll be able to lift some of the restrictions.”

Some background:

A long-running study by Imperial College London found on Thursday that Covid-19 cases in England may no longer be falling, and could even have risen at the start of the country’s third national lockdown.

The UK marked the deadliest day since the start of the pandemic on Wednesday, with 38,905 new coronavirus cases and a 1,820 further coronavirus-related deaths, according to data from Public Health England.

The country has the highest death toll in Europe, with more than 93,000 fatalities according to a Johns Hopkins University tally, trailing only the US, Brazil, India and Mexico in total deaths.

Workers are seen after a fire broke out at India's Serum Institute in Pune on January 21.

A fire broke out at facility for the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, in the city of Pune on Thursday.

Murlidhar Mohol, mayor of the western Indian city, told reporters that five bodies, believed to be those of construction workers, were retrieved from the six-floor building, while four people were rescued.

The blaze, which is now under control, will not impact production of the Covid vaccine, the company says.

SII is in partnership with Oxford University and AstraZeneca to produce the Covishield vaccine.

In a separate post, Poonawalla tweeted, “We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the departed.”

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined though, according to Mohol, preliminary investigations suggest that “during the building’s construction, some welding work could have led to the fire.”

China will gift Pakistan 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, according to Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The minister told media Thursday in Islamabad that the Chinese-made Covid-19 shot would be provided by January 31.

In December, Pakistan announced that it will be receiving 1.2 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to administer to the country’s first responders. 

Qureshi added that the 500,000 doses of the vaccine will arrive in Pakistan from February.

A medical worker cares for and comforts a patient who is suffering from Covid-19 at UMASS Memorial DCU Center Field Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 13.

Today marks one year since the announcement of the first patient with Covid-19 in the United States.

Over the course of the last year, one patient has grown exponentially into 24 million confirmed in the US alone – a number that is surely only the tip of the iceberg, the cases we know about.

Anniversaries are a time to reflect, to look back on this experience and assess what we got right versus what we got wrong. 

We got a few big things right: We made remarkable progress in scientific and medical arenas, like developing protocols and therapeutics – both repurposed and new – for people who got sick. Most notable of all, we managed to develop several vaccine candidates and even authorized two with astonishing speed.

But we also got too many things wrong: Most consequentially and tragically the public health basics, the things that are far easier to do but not as flashy: wearing a mask and staying physically distanced from those not in our household. We eschewed the inexpensive mask that slips on easily, yet embraced the billion-dollar breakthrough vaccine that takes a Herculean effort to develop and distribute.

The truth is, especially for many of us in the developed world, we want science to rescue us – but it can’t rescue us from ourselves; our own human nature. And our human nature is not good at dealing with what it can’t see.

Looking forward, I am optimistic, medically-speaking. I think once most of us are vaccinated, SARS-CoV-2 will become like the other circulating coronaviruses, an annual nuisance but not an existential threat.

The image of the United States as a public health leader, however, has been tarnished by the events of the last year and its inability to control the pandemic at home. It’s a fact, and we can’t spin the statistics to our advantage: We have 4% of the world’s population but 25% of known Covid infections and 20% of deaths. Can the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country’s premier public health agency, regain some of its lost prestige domestically and abroad? I believe with hard work and time, it can.

But beyond that, the country will be scarred psychologically and emotionally for a long time, especially the people who have lost family members to Covid-19, the health care workers who fought tirelessly – sometimes in the face of disbelief or worse – to care for the sick, the children of all ages who lost a year of school and struggled to catch up, the families who lost income from layoffs or suffered other economic catastrophes, the owners who had to shutter their businesses. The list goes on. 

Read more here:

HOUSTON, TX - JANUARY 1: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) A medical staff exits the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) on New Year's Day at the United Memorial Medical Center on January 1, 2021 in Houston, Texas. According to reports, Texas has reached over 1,760,000 cases, including over 27,800 deaths. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)

Related article Dr. Sanjay Gupta: The United States' one-year coronavirus checkup

A medical worker in Khimki, Russia, prepares the Gam-COVID-Vac coronavirus vaccine, also called Sputnik V, on January 21.

The Hungarian pharmaceutical authority has approved both the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines, a spokesperson for the Hungarian government told CNN on Thursday.

Hungary becomes the first European Union country to approve both vaccines, but as far as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine goes, it says it has to wait for a decision by the European Medicines Agency before it can distribute the shot.

Speaking about Sputnik, the spokesperson said talks with Moscow to buy the vaccine were “ongoing.”

“We hope that vaccines will be available in Hungary from as many places and in as large quantities as possible,” the spokesperson added.

In a statement, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) said the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition of Hungary approved the vaccine under the emergency use authorization procedure. 

“The approval is based on the results of the clinical trials of Sputnik V in Russia and a comprehensive assessment of the vaccine by experts in Hungary,” the RDIF statement said. 

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF, said that Hungary is “the first EU country to realize all the advantages of Sputnik V vaccine and authorize its use. This decision is very important as it demonstrates that the vaccine’s safety and efficacy of over 90% are highly regarded by our partners in Hungary.”

Some background:

Russia’s announcement of Sputnik V as the “world’s first” approved Covid-19 shot was met with international skepticism last year, after the country registered the vaccine in August ahead of key large-scale Phase 3 trials necessary to establish its efficacy and safety. While those trials are currently ongoing, the country is already moving towards mass vaccination.

On November 24, Russia announced that its interim data suggested the shot is at least 91.4% effective and could be more than 95% effective. 

Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu speaks in Pretoria, South Africa, on September 30, 2020.

Jackson Mthembu, a South African minister, has died from Covid-19, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Thursday.

Mthembu was one of the government’s key leaders in its response to the global pandemic and its public face during many news briefings.

“Minister Mthembu was an exemplary leader, an activist and life-long champion of freedom and democracy. He was a much-loved and greatly respected colleague and comrade, whose passing leaves our nation at a loss,” Ramaphosa added.

Mthembu tweeted that he had contracted Covid-19 on January 11. 

“Today I visited the Military hospital in Tshwane to get medical attention for an abdominal pain,” he said at the time. “After undergoing some tests, I tested positive for Covid-19… I want to thank the many South Africans who have wished me a speedy recovery. As a people we must overcome Covid-19,” Mthembu added.

As of Wednesday South Africa’s Department of Health reported 1,369,426 cases of Covid-19 and 38,854 deaths.

Lebanon has extended its strict general lockdown, which includes a 24-hour curfew, until Monday February 8, according to a statement tweeted by the Prime Minister’s office on Thursday.

The curfew – which started on January 14 and which was meant to end on January 25 – was imposed because of an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases in the country.

The spike comes after the holiday season, when the government loosened restrictions and allowed shopping malls, restaurants, bars and nightclubs to open.

On Wednesday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported 64 Covid-19 related deaths, the third daily death record in a row. The total number of deaths in Lebanon since the pandemic began is 2,084. 

On Friday, Lebanon reported 6,154 new cases, the highest daily total so far. The total number of cases in the country is 264,647.

The current lockdown measures, the strictest in the country so far, include a reduction of the number of travelers coming to Lebanon and quarantine measures for all arrivals.

#Restrictions##

People cheer as singer Kylie prepares to perform at the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England, on June 30, 2019.

The organizers of Glastonbury have announced that Britain’s famous music festival will be canceled for a second consecutive year amid the coronavirus pandemic – an ominous move for live music promoters and artists ahead of an uncertain summer.

“In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year,” organizers Michael and Emily Eavis said in a joint statement on Thursday. “We are so sorry to let you all down.”

Paul McCartney was set to headline one of the three premier slots at the iconic weekend-long festival in June 2020. The former Beatle told the BBC last month that he did not expect the event to go ahead this year.

Organizers said on Thursday that tickets already purchased will roll over to 2022 – when Glastonbury intends to hold just its second event in five years, following a year off in 2018 and two consecutive canceled events.

Read more here:

GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 25: People gather in front of the Pyramid Stage at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 25, 2017 near Glastonbury, England. Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield festival in the world. It was started by Michael Eavis in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just £1, and now attracts more than 175,000 people (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Related article Glastonbury music festival canceled for second year

The Biden White House is pledging to communicate more – and more honestly – about the coronavirus pandemic with the aim of restoring the trust of the American people. The first step will be a return to regular briefings.

CDC briefings have been notably absent since last March. In other disease emergencies, the CDC has provided regular briefings, often several a week, with top experts. The Trump White House stopped them after the CDC’s top respiratory specialist Dr. Nancy Messonnier warned of worsening spread and disruptions, angering then-president Trump. Her predictions came true, but CDC officials have held only a handful of briefings since then

The White House Coronavirus Task Force briefed regularly for a few months, but those briefings petered out by June and came only sporadically after that.

To that end, Zients said the new administration would be taking a number of steps to provide clarity and insight into the pandemic, including regular expert-led science-based public briefings by HHS, CDC and the Covid-19 White House response team.

On Thursday, President Biden will also issue an executive order to enhance the collection, sharing and analysis of data. As part of that, the CDC will maintain a public dashboard tracking real-time data on Covid-19 cases, testing, vaccinations and hospital admissions at a national and state-level.

There have been misunderstandings about much of the data generated about the pandemic. For instance, CNN relies more heavily on data from Johns Hopkins University about diagnoses and deaths than it does on the CDC.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a press conference in Berlin on January 21.

Germans must take the spread of the new, more contagious variant of coronavirus ”very seriously,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a Thursday news conference.

“The mutation of the virus is a threat,” Merkel told journalists in Berlin, referring to the new strain first detected in England.

Merkel went on to justify her decision to enforce stricter measures against the spread of Covid-19 earlier this week, explaining that while daily infections and hospital admissions are declining, the number of daily fatalities is still “shockingly high.”

“We see a fractured image,” she said, adding that there are “encouraging signs that the situation is easing.”

“[The] difficult sacrifices that people have made in the lockdown are starting to pay off,” Merkel added.

Earlier in the week Germany extended a nationwide lockdown until February 14, implementing stricter rules, including making FFP2 masks mandatory in public spaces and forcing German companies to allow employees to work from home until mid-March, where possible.

The country reported 20,398 new infections and 1,013 new deaths related to Covid-19 on Thursday, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

Cuba plans to produce 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine in 2021, state-run newspaper Granma reported on Wednesday.

According to Granma, the island is currently in the second phase of testing its Sovereign-02 vaccine on 900 people between the ages of 19 and 90.

The newspaper said Cuban health officials are planning to start a third phase of vaccine trials for children in February

Vicente Vérez Bencomo, the director general of Cuba’s Finlay Institute for Vaccines said Cuban officials hope to vaccinate the 11 million inhabitants of Cuba this year and will then sell the vaccine to other countries.

So far he said Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan and India have expressed interest in buying the vaccine when it is available for use.

A person receives the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in Tucson, Arizona, on January 15.

President Joe Biden’s first full day in office Thursday will focus on Covid-19, rolling out his national strategy for the pandemic amid the Trump administration response he inherited, with record high cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. 

There is a lot of work to do, officials said, and it’s actually “so much worse” than they thought. 

“For almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to Covid. And we’ve seen the tragic costs of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today that, that’ll change tomorrow,” White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday. 

The Biden strategy, he said, will be “a fundamentally different approach from the Trump administration,” and will be “driven by science, data, and public health,” not politics. 

Here’s a preview of the actions we can expect:

Jeff Zients attends a news conference in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 8, 2020.

White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said he thinks the vaccine supply will be adequate to meet the Biden administration’s goal of 100 million shots delivered in 100 days.

“In terms of specific projections from the manufacturers, you know, we know that there is sufficient supply to do the 100 million shots in the 100 days,” Zients told reporters in a briefing ahead of the release of the new “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness.”

Zients also pledged to clear up confusion about how many vaccines each state will get and when.

“We will work to provide projections on supply. We hear over and over from governors and local leaders that they just don’t know what supply is coming and can’t plan. We will absolutely across the next few days to get our arms around what’s going on, make sure that we are communicating with states and localities, so they can prepare, effectively,” Zients added.

“We clearly need strong coordination to ensure supply availability and information sharing, and that’s what we will do,” he said.

Some background:

US President Joe Biden has pledged to provide 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in his first 100 days of office. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s newly-installed chief medical adviser, said on Friday that Biden’s goal is quite feasible.

“You still optimistic that we can get 100 million doses in 100 days?” NBC’s Craig Melvin asked Fauci during an interview on the Today Show. “I really do think so,” Fauci responded.

Cases of Covid-19 in England may no longer be falling, and could even have risen at the start of the country’s third national lockdown, a long-running study by Imperial College London found.

Researchers analysed swab tests from 142,000 volunteers from January 6-15 and found that infections were up by 50% compared to early December, with 1 in 63 people in the country infected.

Some 1.58% of people tested positive for the virus during the early January round of the study, the highest prevalence recorded since May. That is more than a 50% increase from the previous round in early December 2020.

“The prevalence is very, very high compared to our last survey where we saw that uptick in December when that new variant came in,” Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme at Imperial College London told BBC’s Today Programme on Thursday.

“But we’ve found that it’s levelled off, the R value [or how many other people each person with coronavirus will infect] is around 1, so we’re at a position where the levels are high and are not falling now within the period of this current lockdown,” Elliott said.

The findings are at odds with the latest figures from the UK government which had been showing a decline in new daily reported cases at the beginning of the week.

Elliott said on Thursday that he believes this discrepancy may be a result of the REACT study testing people randomly, rather than those showing symptoms, and of government data not yet reflecting an increase in population mobility after Christmas.

Speaking on Sky News on Thursday, UK Minister for Education Gavin Williamson said that “the evidence that we’ve been seeing is that [the lockdown] has been having an impact in terms of relieving some of that pressure on the NHS so the NHS is able to cope but of course government always looks all the evidence that is available.”

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted Thursday that, “these findings show why we must not let down our guard over the weeks to come. Infections across England are at very high levels & it is paramount that everyone plays their part to bring them down.”

The UK recorded 38,905 new coronavirus cases and a 1,820 further coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, marking the highest daily increase in deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Public Health England.

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a Covid-19 testing site in the Qiaoxi District of Shijiazhuang, China, on January 20.

The Chinese city of Shijiazhuang – the scene of the country’s largest Covid-19 outbreak in months – is conducting its third citywide testing program in January, provincial officials said at a news conference this week.

Shijiazhuang is the capital of Hebei province and has around 11 million residents.

The tests started Wednesday and the program is expected to last three days. 

Chinese Center for Disease Control officials said in multiple press conferences in the past two days that the growth of the epidemic in Hebei province had been significantly contained and credited “the strict preventative and control measures taken earlier.”

President Joe Biden signs executive orders in the Oval Office after his inauguration on January 20.

Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House.

The Biden administration has promised to try to turn the Covid-19 pandemic around and drastically speed up the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus.

But in the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration’s Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.

Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from “square one” because there simply was no plan as: “Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence.”

CNN has previously reported that the Biden team’s most urgent concerns on Covid-19 include potential vaccine supply problems, coordination between federal and local governments, as well as funding, staffing and other resource needs for local governments. That is in addition to the emerging Covid variants, which the new White House – in consultation with scientists and experts – is watching warily.

Biden has made clear that slowing down the spread of Covid-19 and getting 100 million vaccine shots into Americans’ arms in his first 100 days in office are of utmost priority.

Read the full story:

Related article Biden is inheriting a nonexistent Covid-19 vaccine plan from Trump administration, sources say

Turmeric chunks as a pasta topping may seem like a bad idea, but they showed Sarah Yeats, 31, an emergency nurse from Florida, that she was beginning to regain her sense of taste after contracting the coronavirus in August.

Anosmia – a condition known as “smell blindness,” or loss of smell – is a common symptom of Covid-19 (and other viruses), and can severely impact people’s ability to taste, since the senses are intertwined.

Yeats, along with her husband Alex who also caught the virus, had been coaxing any sensation they could muster from foods by dousing chicken in lemon juice, throwing fistfuls of fresh herbs at soups and salads, and getting daring with food textures.

The day Sarah noticed she no longer found turmeric lumps acceptable on pasta, she said, was when she realized her sense of taste might be rebounding.

While most people regain their sense of smell or taste within days to weeks, emergency physician and CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said, “there are still many who have not regained their sense of smell after months.”

Creativity in the kitchen is how some people recovering from the virus are battling anosmia, and a way to remember how their favourite food used to taste and how flowers used to smell.

Londoner Kaya Cheshire has amped up the use of herbs and spices in her cooking since losing her sense of smell from a mild case of Covid-19.

At her doctor’s suggestion, Cheshire recently began “scent training,” using things like rose, lemons, cloves, garlic, eucalyptus and menthols that have a really strong smell to retrain her brain.

Read more here:

Related article Loss of smell drives Covid-19 survivors to get creative in the kitchen

The United States could face as many as 100,000 more Covid-19 deaths in less than a month, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although the CDC’s new leader offered a glimmer of hope, saying that “healthier days lie ahead.”

The nation reported more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths Wednesday, only the third day ever to cross that threshold, bringing the death toll to at least 406,001 people, according to Johns Hopkins University tracking data.

And by February 13, that number could reach 508,000, according to an ensemble forecast published by the CDC. The last forecast, on January 13, projected up to 477,000 deaths by February 6.

Meantime, vaccines have begun to be distributed, but there remain significant challenges with the supply across the country, according to state officials.

Hopeful outlook: New CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday described the toll of the pandemic as “truly heartbreaking” but that “healthier days lie ahead” – although that getting there would require a rapid acceleration of testing, surveillance and vaccination.

She said the agency will be conducting a review of all of its guidance regarding the pandemic, so “people can make decisions and take action based upon the best available evidence.”

Read the full story:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Related article CDC forecasts up to 100,000 more Covid-19 deaths in the next few weeks, although the new director offers a glimmer of hope

Members of the Housing Justice League participate in a rally in Atlanta, Georgia on January 13, urging the CDC to extend the federal eviction moratorium due to the pandemic.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will extend an order preventing the eviction of some people from their homes until March 31, the agency’s new director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said Wednesday.

The incoming Biden administration had highlighted the eviction moratorium as one of its key targets on day one. It was set to expire at the end of the month.

What impact will it have? “This means that a landlord, owner of a residential property, or other person with a legal right to pursue an eviction or a possessory action cannot evict for nonpayment of rent any covered person from any residential property in any US state or U.S. territory where the Order applies,” the CDC says on its website.

The order only covers limited numbers of people.

Tenants and other residents must show they have exhausted best efforts to get government help to pay rent; earn $99,000 a year or less; and cannot make payment because of a loss of income or extraordinary medical costs. To qualify, the tenant also must be trying to pay at least something and must swear they will be made homeless by eviction, or forced to move to congregate living settings.

A group of Peruvian medics went on hunger strike Tuesday demanding more investment in the health sector and rejecting the country’s handling of the pandemic amid rising cases of Covid-19, according to a statement from Peru’s Social Security National Medical Union (SINAMMSOP) published Wednesday.

About a dozen medics from the national social security union have been protesting outside Peru’s Ministry of Labor, where the group began the hunger strike on Tuesday.

Fiorella Molinelli, the president of Peru’s Health Social Security, has not commented on SINAMMSOP’s demands as of Thursday. She is currently leading government efforts to adapt temporary health and isolation Covid-19 centers to combat the spread of the virus.

The hunger strike comes in addition to numerous protests in different parts of the country since last week, where medics and other health workers are demanding more medical equipment, adjusted salaries and an “increase in the budget for the health sector,” according to the Peruvian Medical Federation.

Second wave: Peru is now facing a second wave of Covid-19 cases, according to the country’s Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti.

“We are starting on a second wave (of Covid-19 cases). This wave is rising. I can tell you that we’ve made some calculations and we are more or less right were we were in mid-April, and the figures keep ascending,” Mazzetti said during an interview with local media Monday.

Peru has reported at least 1,073,214 Covid-19 cases, including 39,044 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Vials of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine.

California health officials have given providers the all-clear to “immediately” resume administering the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from a specific lot after pausing earlier this week due to possible allergic reactions.

The state’s health department previously said it was aware of fewer than 10 people who received shots from the lot and required medical attention.

Read more:

Registered nurses transfer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from a bottle into a syringe ready for vaccination at the Corona High School gymnasium in the Riverside County city of Corona, California on January 15, 2021, a day after California began offering the coronavirus vaccine to residents 65 and older. - US President-elect Joe Biden was set to announce his Covid-19 vaccine rollout plan Friday as he bids to wrest the focus from the impeachment of Donald Trump to the agenda for his first days in office. Biden has said he wants 100 million Americans to receive shots during his first 100 days in office, an ambitious goal that would require a big step up in the current pace of distribution. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article California officials say providers can resume administering Moderna vaccine from a specific lot after pause

US President Joe Biden has already reversed a decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from the World Health Organization.

US President Joe Biden is expected to turn his focus straight to Covid-19 on his first full day in the Oval Office, tackling an issue that dominated much of the conversation during the campaign and planning in his transition and one he intends to hone in on right away, sources tell CNN. 

With the fireworks and the speeches over, here are some of the actions that the Biden administration has taken or will be taking to bring the US epidemic under control:

As they’re thrown full force into tackling the pandemic, Biden and his advisers say they are clear-eyed about the task ahead and acknowledge how swiftly they need to put words into action on this and so many other issues. Speaking Wednesday night, one administration official said: “We’re here to work.”

The United States reported 178,255 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, bringing the total to at least 24,434,283 since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Another 4,229 virus-related fatalities were also reported Wednesday – the country’s second highest daily total. The Covid-19 death toll in the US now stands at 406,001.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases

Vaccine numbers: At least 35,990,150 vaccine doses have been distributed and at least 16,525,281 shots administered, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Track US cases: 

Residents at the Emerald Court senior living community in Anaheim, California get the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on January 8.

It may take up to five months to vaccinate all California residents aged 65 and older at the current rate the state is receiving its doses of the coronavirus vaccine, state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said Wednesday.

Speaking during a state vaccine advisory committee meeting, Pan said that while California has about 6.2 million residents aged 65 and older, the state is only receiving 400,000 to 500,000 doses a week of its current allocation of about 1 million.

In order to vaccinate 70% of the 65+ age group with two doses, she explained that about 8,680,000 doses would be required. 

Pan also issued a statement advising providers to continue the use of a specific lot of the Moderna vaccine which was temporarily paused due to possible allergic reactions.

She added that the findings “should continue to give Californians confidence that vaccines are safe and effective, and that the systems put in place to ensure vaccine safety are rigorous and science-based.”

People wearing protective face masks are seen at the Beijing Railway Station on January 19, ahead of the Chinese New Year travel rush.

China’s National Health Commission (NHC) has announced a series of domestic travel restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 as the country prepares for mass movement of people to celebrate Lunar New Year. 

Millions of Chinese migrant workers who plan to travel back to the countryside are now required to present a negative Covid test result within seven days of departure.

They include:

People from medium- or high-risk areas are being discouraged from traveling altogether during the holiday. 

Those who do travel and have a negative test result will not have to quarantine on arrival. They will be required to monitor their health with daily temperature and symptoms checks, and undergo two other tests on the seventh and 14th day after arrival. 

The new measures will come into effect from January 28 and last until March 8. 

A staff member in a protective suit transports supplies in a cart in Daxing district of Beijing, China on January 20.

All residents in Beijing’s Daxing district have not been allowed to leave the area since Wednesday because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases, according to local officials. 

People wishing to leave the district need to provide a negative Covid-19 test taken within three days, a district notice announced. 

More than 24,000 residents around the infection hotspot in Daxing have also been asked to stay at home until further notice.

Daxing district has reported 11 confirmed cases since Sunday, according to the city’s health commission.

Schools and education facilities across Beijing will need to complete all in-person learning by Saturday, and kindergartens have been shut from today. Meanwhile, University and college students are being discouraged from leaving Beijing unless absolutely necessary. 

New cases: China’s National Health Commission reported 144 new Covid-19 cases across the country on Wednesday, including 18 imported infections. Among the 126 locally transmitted cases, 68 were reported in Heilongjiang, 33 in Jilin, 20 in Hebei, two in Beijing, two in Shanxi and one in Shandong. 

Additionally, 113 asymptomatic infections were reported nationwide, 16 of which were imported. China counts asymptomatic cases separately.

President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20.

The White House released US President Joe Biden’s letter reversing the Trump administration’s decision to leave the World Health Organization after the new US leader was sworn in on Wednesday.

US re-engagement: US diplomats around the world have already been notified of changes they must make as they conduct American diplomacy after Biden signed a series of executive orders tonight.   

The first department wide memo sent by Acting Secretary of State Dan Smith instructed all US diplomats to re-engage with WHO and halt any staff drawdown at the UN health agency, according to the memo reviewed by CNN. 

The memo was sent shortly after Biden signed a series of executive orders, including one to reverse former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from WHO. 

The US had been in the process of withdrawing staff at WHO in the final months of the Trump administration. That withdrawal will now be halted and reversed. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a news briefing at the White House on January 20.

The White House will require daily testing for coronavirus and N95 masks for staffers in a bid to model good pandemic behavior, according to press secretary Jen Psaki.

She said the new rules also include stringent requirements on social distancing.

Psaki said President Joe Biden “has asked us also to be models to the American people” – a contrast to the previous administration, which largely ignored government mask and social distancing recommendations.

Psaki also said the administration will resume regular briefings with public health officials in addition to the daily White House press briefings. 

Psaki said that the White House will combat misinformation by giving accurate information to the American people “even when it is hard to hear.”

The Trump administration had briefings with health officials regularly last spring when the coronavirus pandemic initially took hold, however those briefings were often not entirely focused on the pandemic as then-President Donald Trump led them awry.

Those regular briefings ended in April after Trump suggested injecting disinfectant could be a cure for coronavirus.  

New research out this week provides reassuring evidence that people vaccinated against coronavirus will be protected against emerging new variants of the virus.

Two teams tested two of the new variants against blood taken from people who had received the full two-course dose of either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine.

While the mutations in the new variants of the virus – one first seen in Britain, and another first identified in South Africa – did allow them to evade some of the immunity induced by vaccination, it was far from a complete escape, the two teams reported separately.

A team led by Dr. Michel Nussenzweig of the Rockefeller University tested plasma taken from 20 people who got two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine as part of clinical trials.

They found the vaccines produced strong antibody responses, as well as cells that keep producing new antibodies for months or years.

Wild-type virus is the catchall name for virus generally circulating that is not changed enough to be designated a variant.

Different mutations in the viruses did allow some escape from some types of antibodies, but the bodies of the volunteers threw an army of different types of antibodies at the viruses, the team reported in a pre-print study – not peer reviewed – published online.

“When you start putting all these mixtures of antibodies together, what it means is that together they can take care of the variants,” Nussenzweig said. Even though they had a reduced effect, overall the response was so overwhelming that it should not matter, he said.

Eventually, the vaccines should be updated – but the new mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna can be changed very quickly. “Should the vaccines be tweaked?” he asked. “Probably – but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be effective.”

Read the full story:

Members of the West Virginia National Guard conduct and participate in a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Joint Forces Headquarters, Charleston, West Virginia, Jan. 13, 2021. West Virginia maintains one of the highest percentages of vaccine allocation use in the United States and is rapidly expanding capacity to inoculate the population.

Related article Studies suggest vaccinated people protected from new Covid-19 variants

President Joe Biden, who plans to make the coronavirus pandemic his top priority, will begin his presidency by asking Americans to wear masks for 100 days and requiring their use on federal property.

His first executive order, the “100 Days Masking Challenge,” will symbolize the administration’s sharp turn from the Trump era by emphasizing recommendations by public health experts. A president cannot tell states or cities what to do, but a federal mandate will affect federal offices and federal lands and will urge states to do the same.

Read the full story:

Former Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic presidential nominee, left, and Senator Kamala Harris, Democratic vice presidential nominee, wear protective masks while holding hands outside the Chase Center during the Democratic National Convention in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020.

Related article Biden's first executive order will require masks on federal property

As state leaders clamored for more Covid-19 vaccine doses, Joe Biden became President on Wednesday with an eye toward changing approaches to the pandemic that has claimed more than 400,000 lives in the US.

Some state officials say they aren’t seeing as many doses as the federal government reports distributing and the demand for the vaccine is outpacing the supply. Georgia, for example, reports adequate staff, volunteers and infrastructure but not enough doses.

Biden, meanwhile, has signaled he intends to alter the federal government’s approach to the pandemic and public health in several ways, and one of his first acts as President, a few hours after his inauguration, was to sign an executive order mandating masks on federal property.

He also intends to restore a previously disbanded National Security Council office that would focus on pandemic preparedness and to stop the previous administration’s process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization, one of his aides has said.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency is conducting a comprehensive review of all existing Covid-19 guidance. “The toll that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on America is truly heartbreaking,” she said.

Biden took office just a day after the country surpassed 400,000 recorded deaths for the pandemic.

Across the country, hospitalizations and daily new cases and deaths have been dipping, though experts have warned that more-transmissible virus variants, including one first seen in the UK, could send cases surging again:

Read the full story:

EL CAJON, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 15: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Embalmer and funeral director Kristy Oliver (L) and funeral attendant Sam Deras load the casket of a person who died after contracting COVID-19 into a hearse at East County Mortuary on January 15, 2021 in El Cajon, California. The mortuary on average was handling about 50 bodies per month but owner Robert Zakar believes they may process closer to 100 in January as California continues to see a spike in coronavirus deaths. The mortuary holds the bodies of those who pass away due to COVID-19 for a minimum of three days before they are processed along with various other COVID-related safety measures. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Related article Officials call for more vaccine doses as the US death toll passes 400,000