US TODAY is watching the news surrounding COVID-19 as some vaccines join the US fight against a virus that has killed more than 350,000 Americans since its first fatal death in February. Keep updating this page for the latest coronavirus updates, including who gets the vaccinations from Pfizer and Moderna, as well as other top news from across the US TODAY Network. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch Newsletter for updates directly to your inbox, join our Facebook group or browse our in-depth answers to questions from the reader for everything you need to know about the coronavirus.
In the headings:
► Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned against stricter restrictions, as a virus variant is raging across Britain. Johnson, however, insisted that schools be safe, although teacher unions are urging schools to teach themselves at a distance. Most of England already has gyms and shops that do not sell essential items.
►The numbers are in December and it’s gruesome. New infections have risen by more than 40% since November – and November has had more than twice as many cases as any previous month. The death toll in December also set a record. More details below.
► Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Monday he would speed up vaccine approval and tighten border controls to curb the spread of the coronavirus, promising to declare a state of emergency.
► Statistics on poverty and hunger in rural America have been available for years, and many rural schools have taken steps to combat hunger with government and local programs. But some teachers believe the statistics have taken on new meaning since the start of the pandemic.
► Funeral homes in Southern California say they turn away bereaved families when they run out of space with piles of corpses. One funeral home is on average six times higher than the normal rate, or about 30 coronations per day. The head of the California Funeral Directors Association says mortuaries are being flooded.
► Vaccination of vaccines in the US continues to increase, with just over 4 million people receiving a first dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
► Texas set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations on Sunday, as a boom continued to plague medical resources in the state following holiday trips and gatherings.
► Elected President Joe Biden will not receive a traditional parade in Pennsylvania Avenue after taking the oath of office, but he will receive presidential accompaniment to the White House.
📈 Today’s numbers: According to Johns Hopkins University data, the U.S. has more than 20 million cases of coronavirus and 351,000 deaths. The world total: more than 85 million cases and 1.8 million deaths.
Inflatable costume linked to outbreak in California hospital
A costume worn by a staff member during the Christmas party at a hospital in California was possibly a contributing factor to the infection of 44 staff members. Irene Chavez, spokeswoman for the Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, told the New York Times the costume was inflated by a small fan. Air-powered costumes were banned, she said.
“Any exposure, if it had taken place, would have been completely innocent and quite accidental, as the individual had no Covid symptoms and was only trying to lift the spirits of those around them during a very stressful time,” Chavez said in a statement. .
December reports on COVID deaths, cases
COVID-19 was disastrous in December, when one American died of the coronavirus about every 35 seconds. The United States reported 6,360,221 new cases, beating the November record by 1.9 million. And November had more than twice as many cases as any previous month of the pandemic, according to a U.S. TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.
The United States reported 77,572 deaths in December, more than 16,800 deaths above the previous monthly record set in April. Weekly deaths peaked in 30 states in December.
The winter break also brought about changes in who is being tested, how many test sites are open and how quickly labs and government data have been reported. This means that some of December’s numbers will eventually be tabled in January.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert in infectious diseases, warned last week that January is likely to be worse than December.
– Mike Stucka
Fauci: 100 million vaccinations possible in the first 100 days of Biden
President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to deliver 100 million shots of the vaccine in his first hundred days is achievable, says Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert in infectious diseases.
Fauci, who appears on ABC’s “This Week”, also rejects President Donald Trump’s claim on Twitter that coronavirus deaths and cases in the US are highly exaggerated.
‘All you have to do … is go into the trenches, go to the hospitals, go to the intensive care units and see what happens. These are real numbers, real people and real deaths, “Fauci said on NBC’s” Meet the Press “.
Pregnant women face pro-con questions with COVID-19 vaccine
Although there is very little data on how pregnant and breastfeeding mothers will respond to a COVID-19 vaccine, professional organizations and individual physicians say the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks.
According to a study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in November, it is likely that pregnant women are admitted to an intensive care unit, end up in a ventilator and die from COVID-19 as women of the same age. and health status that is not pregnant.
So far, none of the major clinical trials of vaccines have included pregnancies or mothers that are “incredibly disappointing,” Drs. Geeta Krishna Swamy, an obstetrician / gynecologist at Duke Medical Center, said. College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Read more here.
– Karen Weintraub
Why don’t all college athletes with COVID-19 get MRI exams?
The sudden collapse of Florida basketball player Keyontae Johnson this month deepened belief in Adama Washington about what saved her daughter from the same fate – if not death.
Demi Washington, a second basketball player at Vanderbilt, announced on Twitter on December 7 that she would be missing the rest of the season. She revealed that he had been diagnosed with myocarditis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the heart linked to COVID-19. According to Adama Washington, it was detected by an MRI (cardiac magnetic resonance imaging) examination after three other tests could not detect any abnormality.
However, the cardiac MRI exam, according to her, may have saved her daughter, is not mandated by most college conferences, with the Big Ten and Big 12 as the only Power Five conference requiring the test to be administered to athletes who are positive is for COVID-19.
“There is a belief that cardiac MRI is the gold standard for the diagnosis of myocarditis, and that the belief is based on the fact that it is the best tool we have to look for heart injuries,” said Dr. Aaron Baggish, director of the Cardiovascular, said. Performance Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center. “But it’s not a perfect tool.” Read more here.
– Josh Peter
Pope Francis: ‘We do not know what 2021 lies ahead of us’
Pope Francis said he was very sad that some people during COVID-19 pandemic holidays could slip it away during holidays while having so many economic problems or being sick.
Francis said in a Vatican prayer service on Sunday: “We do not know what the future holds for us in 2021.” But, he added, “what each of us and all of us can do together is to commit ourselves a little more to caring for others” and the environment, “our common home.”
During the pandemic, the pope stressed that he should take care of those most in need and obey anti-contamination measures.
Contributing Contributions: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on TODAY USA: COVID cases peaked in December; California, Texas Shortages: Updates