The administration of Biden will send coronavirus vaccines directly to community health centers as it promotes the spread and reaches out to underserved communities.
At least one center in each state and territory will receive vaccines, as the program includes 250 of the more than 1,300 such facilities in the country. The participating centers will collectively receive 1 million doses, starting next week. In later stages, vaccines will be available for all community health centers.
“This effort … is actually about contacting the hard-to-reach populations across the country,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, who heads the COVID-19 Health Equality Task Force. These include homeless people, residents of public housing, migrant workers and people with limited English skills.
The majority of the patients served by the centers live on or below the federal poverty line. According to the administration, most are also minorities. The announcement comes amid concerns over inequalities in vaccine distribution and an often confusing and slow rollout.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients also said vaccine supply to states, tribal governments and territories grew by 5% last week. The new weekly total of 11 million doses represents an increase of 28% compared to the 8.6 million distributed when Biden took office three months ago, Zients said.
“I think it’s the manufacturers who are doing a good job and the president and the team are doing everything in our power to support the manufacturing process,” Zients said.
– Maureen Groppe
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In the headings:
► The United States reported 775,975 new COVID-19 cases in a seven-day period ending on Monday, the first time that the weekly count since 800 was 800,000 cases below 800,000 per week. The country reached a peak of about 1.75 million cases per week last month. The number of deaths, which usually lags behind by about four weeks, remains as high as ever and averages 21,700 per week, averaging 3,100 per day.
► Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be quarantined for 14 days after a member of his security team tested positive for COVID-19, his chief of staff announced. Buttigieg said the Biden government is considering a rule that would require negative COVID-19 test results for domestic flights.
► Congress Democrats have reduced calls from some moderate lawmakers to reduce the number of people eligible for $ 1400 stimulus checks in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 assistance proposal, with a revenue threshold of $ 75,000 per year, the same as in the final round of $ 600 checks.
►Do you want to do a COVID-19 test for your pet? In South Korea, officials have said they will give cats and dogs free tests if they come in contact with infected people and are symptomatic. And yes, they will have to be quarantined for 14 days if they are positive.
📈 Today’s numbers: According to Johns Hopkins University data, the U.S. has more than 27.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 466,000 deaths. The global total: more than 106.6 million cases and 2.33 million deaths. According to the CDC, more than 62.8 million doses of vaccine have been distributed and approximately 43.2 million have been administered.
📘 What we read: Although the latest increase in coronavirus infections is declining across the country, US TODAY research found that as of January 28, 245 hospitals report full intensive care units and 477 hospitals report more COVID-19 patients in the ICU than last week. You can find out here which hospitals in your community are overwhelmed.
Vaccinations at some drug stores are available Friday
That popular vaccine shot may be available at the nearby drug store this week for those who are eligible.
CVS and Walgreens, the country’s two largest pharmacy chains, begin vaccinating certain populations in stores on Friday. The CVS program will initially include 350 drug stores in 11 states, while Walgreens will offer vaccinations in 17 states and jurisdictions in some states. Appointments are required. Other pharmacies selected to deliver vaccines at certain locations include Walmart, Ride Aid, Kroger, Publix, Albertsons, Safeway, Costco and Meijer.
Experts hope that the established network of pharmacies across the country will help speed up the spread amid concern over the pace of implementation.
– Nathan Bomey
Vaccination rate picks up, but unequal in countries
President Joe Biden’s effort to create 100 mass vaccination sites nationwide within 100 days is underway. California and Maryland announced new openings from several such sites last week, and residents of several other states immediately signed up for COVID-19 shots. The U.S. government currently administers about 1.4 million vaccines a day, and states like Wisconsin are increasing the pace by expanding the implementation to free vaccination clinics.
But other states are reluctant to give vaccines while appointments remain vacant. In Massachusetts, there are still more than 7,500 appointments available at mass vaccination sites, but Gov. Charlie Baker said they would not go to someone who is not in the first phase of vaccinations or is at least 75 years old.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday that it was ‘news’ that some vaccines seemed less effective against the South African variant of the coronavirus.
The vaccine manufacturer will have to change their shots, and this is likely to be necessary in the future as the virus changes genetically, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.
Should employers give workers time or other incentives to get vaccinated?
TJ Daniels hoped after working for 11 months in a Petco store in Colorado during a pandemic that the company would give him time to get a COVID-19 vaccine and deal with the possible side effects. So far nothing. And while Petco has said it plans to announce a plan, most major employers, including Amazon, Target and Walmart, do not commit to compensating extra workers or workers to get their shots fired.
Advocates say incentives will encourage vaccinations, which will result in more protection for employees and clients. It can also limit downtime that can occur when workers contract the virus. Experts believe that a large portion of the American population – perhaps 80% – needs to be vaccinated to build up herd immunity, which will limit the coronavirus from continuing to spread.
Dollar General, McDonald’s and Olive Garden are among the employers who have announced incentives for workers to be vaccinated. But most others just say that they strongly encourage vaccination and force workers to do it on their own time.
– Nathan Bomey
The WHO says research on the unlikely theory of coronavirus laboratory leaks will end
Investigators from the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that they would no longer investigate whether the coronavirus had leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Peter Ben Embarek, an expert on food safety and animal diseases, announced at a press conference the decision to complete a visit by an international team of WHO experts to the city where COVID-19 was identified in 2019.
Embarek said there was not enough evidence to support a hypothesis that the virus escaped from a Chinese biosafety laboratory in Wuhan – the Wuhan Institute of Virology – and that the WHO stood by its previous finding that COVID-19 was likely the human population entered through an intermediate animal.
The WHO team spent several weeks on a fact-finding mission in Wuhan. Experts from ten countries visited hospitals, research institutes and a game market related to the outbreak. However, the WHO’s fieldwork and other activities in Wuhan are closely monitored by Chinese officials and security officials, and Beijing has repeatedly opposed it, calling for a completely independent investigation into the virus’ origins.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
The worrying South African variant could change vaccine expectations
A new study showing that the South African variant of coronavirus evades protection against the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine means ‘we need to recalibrate our expectations’, said Shabir Madhi, director of the research unit for vaccines and infectious diseases at the University of Witwatersrand, said the trial was conducted.
There is still much to learn about the variant, which has so far been detected in only six cases in the US. We still do not know if it is more transmissible, and if so with how much, and if the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine prevents serious diseases of the variant, as some scientists expect.
AstraZeneca researchers say they are adapting their vaccine by inserting a genetic sequence of the new variant.
The variant has reduced the level of protection of virtually all vaccines, but most vaccines show satisfactory efficacy in protection against serious cases and deaths by this version of the virus, Madhi said. Here are more answers to questions about the variant.
Facebook takes action to crack down on COVID-19 vaccines
Facebook is moving more aggressively to combat misinformation about vaccines, taking down unclear claims on Facebook and Instagram, including that vaccines cause autism or that it is safer for people to get COVID-19 than to get the vaccine.
Facebook has also warned that groups, pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these scams could be removed. Administrators of groups that have administrators or members who violate COVID-19 policies may also be asked to approve all posts temporarily.
The new policy is a departure to Facebook. Last fall, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company did not want to target vaccinations in the same way it did against COVID.
False claims about vaccines have been spreading on social media platforms for years, leading to a powerful anti-vaxxer movement with deep roots and a long reach.
– Jessica Guynn
Contributing Contributions: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID News: Vaccines Sent to Community Health Centers; CVS, Walgreens