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Health authorities in Sydney, Australia have issued a Covid-19 public health alert after diagnosing the first cases of community transmission since December 3.
Five community cases of Covid-19 have been discovered in Sydney since Wednesday, according to New South Wales’ health department.
Just one of the five cases can be traced – a 40-year-old bus driver who ferried airline crews to and from their hotels.
The four mystery cases are all located in Sydney’s Northern Beaches area. Two were diagnosed on Wednesday and a further two on Thursday.
Residents in the area responded to a call for increased testing with long queues at clinics on Thursday morning.
The Berejiklian government took the added step on Thursday of canceling visits for elderly care homes on the Northern Beaches.
“We’re recommending no visitors until we identify the source of infection and feel more confident that we have it under control,” she said.
New South Wales has recorded a total of 4,477 cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the local health department.
New Mexico’s Department of Health had to discard 75 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine Tuesday amid concerns that it was not being transported at the proper temperature, according to the governor’s office.
The state disposed of the 15 vaccine vials “in the interests of safety,” Nerzig said. Each vial carries five doses of vaccine.
Officials are reviewing the thermometers they use to alert them when there is an unexpected drop in temperature.
Nerzig said 75 replacement doses were shipped out Wednesday without incident.
Pfizer’s vaccines need to be stored in ultra-cold freezers at minus 70 degrees Celsius, or 94 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
South Korea reported 22 deaths related to Covid-19 on Wednesday, the highest single-day total of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
For the second consecutive day, the country also reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 infections, with 1,014 cases, the KDCA said in a news release.
Of those, 993 were local cases and 21 were imported.
The vast majority of the new infections – 784 – were in the Seoul metropolitan area.
The latest tally brings total cases in the country to 46,453 and 634 deaths.
Brazil’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday announced its national vaccination rollout plan to counter Covid-19, set to start early next year.
During a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, with President Jair Bolsonaro in attendance, the country’s Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello gave what he called a “macro-view” of the strategy to vaccinate Brazilians.
The plan consists of four phases based on priority groups. The first three phases will constitute the vaccination of nearly 50 million people and should start in February, according to health authorities.
The priority groups will include health and educational workers, the indigenous population, elderly people aged over 75, those with pre-existing health conditions, members of the security forces, transport officials and inmates, among others.
According to a statement published Wednesday by the Health Ministry, Brazil has already negotiated deals for more than 300 million vaccine doses for 2021, “through agreements with Fiocruz/AstraZeneca (100.4 million doses) and the COVAX Facility (42.9 million doses).”
ANVISA, Brazil’s health regulatory agency, has yet to officially authorize the use of any Covid-19 vaccine in Brazil.
The hospitalization of an Alaska health care worker due to an adverse reaction to Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine must be put into context, a member of US President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisory board said.
Michael Osterholm said that while no one wants any sort of adverse reaction to receiving a shot, “we have to remember that these vaccines are to prevent people from dying and from becoming seriously ill.”
The health care worker was treated with epinephrine and is now stable.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has expressed “remorse” for attending a group dinner with celebrity friends while encouraging people to dine out in small numbers to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Suga attended a gathering of seven guests who were all over the age of 70 at a high-end steak restaurant on Monday.
Tokyo’s metropolitan government has asked that the number of people dining in restaurants be limited to five and has urged senior citizens to adhere to this guidance.
“We have been taking precautions, but the number of infections remains at a high level with 3,000 new infections confirmed in the last weekend. We are taking this very seriously. Experts pointed out that group dining has higher risks,” a spokesperson from the Tokyo metropolitan government said.
The United States reported 113,069 Covid-19 hospitalizations on Wednesday, setting a new record high since the pandemic began, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP).
This is the fifteenth consecutive day that the US has remained above 100,000 hospitalizations.
According to CTP data, these days recorded the highest hospitalization numbers:
People administering Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine may squeeze out extra doses from the vials if there is leftover solution in them after giving the standard five doses, the US Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
Pfizer vaccine is shipped as a frozen solution, which is diluted with saline before it is given to people.
Politico first reported that some pharmacists had found they could get six and possibly even seven doses of vaccine out of the vials, which are designed to provide five doses of vaccine each.
“FDA is aware of the issue and working with Pfizer to determine the best path forward, and will share additional updates as we have them,” an FDA spokesperson told CNN.
US health officials say they have shipped out more than 2.9 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine this week. They are giving it to frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.
Pfizer is working to make vaccine as it is rolled out and the US government has estimated it will have about 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine by the end of the month.
Congressional sources tell CNN that language for the stimulus bill is not expected to come out tonight, as negotiations between the leadership continue.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have both left the Capitol.
It is likely that any deal would wait until at least tomorrow to be announced, according to sources.
About the deal: The price tag for a stimulus deal could be close to $900 billion, a source familiar tells CNN.
The deal is expected to include a new round of stimulus checks at $600 per individual, but no money for state and local aid, a priority Democrats had pushed for, and no lawsuit protections, which Republicans wanted.
The measure is also expected to include an additional $300 a week in jobless benefits as well as up to $330 billion for small business loans and money for vaccine distribution.
But there are still provisions drawing pushback, including a Democratic push to include $90 billion in aid to states that would be administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Brazil has surpassed 7 million Covid-19 cases Wednesday, according to the nation’s health ministry.
The government announced a record 70,574 new Covid cases for the previous 24 hours. That brings Brazil’s overall case count to 7,040,608.
Brazil has the world’s third-highest count of coronavirus cases, surpassed only by the US (with 16,873,988 total cases) and India (with 9,932,547 total cases), according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Brazil has also suffered the world’s second-highest Covid-19 fatality rate, having officially recorded 183,735 deaths, after announcing 936 new fatalities on Wednesday.
Only the US tops that figure, possessing the highest global Covid-19 death toll with some 306,203 confirmed fatalities.
Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence will receive the coronavirus vaccine publicly Friday.
The Pences will be joined by US Surgeon General Jerome Adams who will also receive the vaccine Friday, the White House said in a statement.
Here’s what the White House said:
The event will take place at the White House.
Allison Wynes, a critical care nurse practitioner in Iowa, was one of the first health care workers in her hospital to receive the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday.
“It was such a moment of pure joy and happiness, and a moment of hope. I haven’t felt that light or that happy in months,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
She said that her arm is feeling a bit sore, but has had no side effects.
Despite the hope she feels after getting the vaccine, she wants others to keep in mind the reality of the pandemic.
Wynes said she has been recording “Covid diaries” on video to “put a voice and a picture and a thought behind what is happening.”
“There [are] machines everywhere. It takes an incredible amount of care, extra nurses, extra staff” to care for patients, she said.
Watch:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a list detailing the number of vaccine allocations made available for states and jurisdictions to order against.
A total of 2,980,575 doses were allocated for first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, followed by a similar number available for second doses approximately 21 days later.
Operation Warp Speed officials have said that allocations were made in proportion to population counts for states and jurisdictions. Among states, first dose allocations range from 327,600 in California to 4,875 in Wyoming.
States started to receive deliveries of the vaccine this week, with the first doses administered starting Monday morning.
At least two states – Idaho and Michigan – have started publicly tracking the number of vaccine doses administered in their states.
According to their respective dashboards, 119 doses had been administered in Idaho as of Wednesday morning, and 10 doses in Michigan as of Monday.
At this time, vaccination data is not readily available at the state or federal level. However, many states do plan to similarly track vaccine administration publicly in the coming days and weeks, and US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that the federal government will provide a dashboard with vaccine data and reporting – perhaps within a week.
As the first shipments of the vaccine arrive, states say they are working through the logistics of administering doses. Some states say they hope to administer all doses received in this first round within a week of delivery.
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said he hopes the US Food and Drug Administration decides to issue an emergency use authorization of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine tomorrow.
“A couple of days ago … 2.9 billion doses were sent out to 145 locations, and over the next few days to weeks, there’ll be more and more doses to ultimately, we hope, with a combination of Pfizer and Moderna, if Moderna gets the EUA, which I hope they will, that by the time you get to the end of December, have 40 million doses for 20 million people, to be able to administer.”
Adverse reactions to any vaccine can be expected, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.
This comes after Alaskan state health officials confirmed Wednesday that a health worker suffered an adverse reaction to a vaccine Tuesday. They said she has been treated and is recovering.
“Well, that’s the reason why I think people need to understand that the issue of the safety goes well beyond the confines of a clinical trial,” Fauci told CNBC.
Alaska doctors said the health worker who suffered the reaction did not have a history of allergies.
President Trump won’t be administered the coronavirus vaccine until it is recommended by the White House medical team, a White House official told CNN.
The official said Trump is still receiving the benefits of the monoclonal antibody cocktail he was given during his recovery from Covid-19.
Once Trump moves into a timing window to receive vaccination, he is likely to get his shot at that point, the official added.
Trump’s situation differs from that of Vice President Mike Pence, who is set to receive his vaccination in the coming days, the official noted. Pence has not contracted the virus, the official pointed out, meaning his need for vaccination is more pressing. Pence’s vaccination is expected to be made public, the official said.
The official went on to say Trump continues to be open to getting vaccinated. But the official cautioned Trump also wants to make sure frontline medical workers receive the vaccine first.
Alaska state health officials confirmed Wednesday that a health worker suffered an allergic reaction to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday.
“There was an adverse reaction yesterday evening,” Dr. Anne Zink, chief medical officer for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, told reporters on a teleconference Wednesday.
Doctors treated the health worker and said she is in stable condition.
The Federal Reserve, as widely expected, left interest rates near zero following its latest policy meeting Wednesday.
The Fed cut rates to that level in March and has maintained that they are likely to remain there for several years as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Fed has launched several lending programs and other stimulus efforts in addition to slashing interest rates this year to support the economy during the coronavirus crisis.
But Fed chair Jerome Powell has continued to stress that the Fed (as well as Congress and the White House) may need to do more to help struggling American consumers and businesses.
There are growing hopes that a new round of fiscal stimulus may be coming soon from politicians in Washington — and perhaps more will be done once President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.
Pfizer is working to find out more about a report that a health worker in Alaska suffered an allergic reaction to its vaccine Wednesday.
“We don’t yet have all the details of the report from Alaska about a potential serious allergic reactions but are actively working with local health authorities to assess,” a Pfizer spokesperson told CNN.
When British health authorities rolled out the vaccine there earlier this month, at least two recipients had allergic reactions but they recovered quickly. The New York Times first reported that a health care worker in Alaska suffered a reaction.
“Participants in our Phase 3 trial were excluded if they had a history of severe adverse reaction associated with a vaccine and/or severe allergic reaction (e.g., anaphylaxis) to any component of the investigational vaccine,” the Pfizer spokesperson told CNN.
“Overall, there were no safety signals of concern identified in our clinical trials, including no signal of serious allergic reactions associated with vaccine. However, reports of adverse events outside of clinical studies are a very important component to our pharmacovigilance activities and we will review all available information on this case and all reports of adverse events following vaccination,” she added.
