FS-ISAC Coronavirus Update, Jan. 27, 2021

Headlines

• The number of new Covid-19 infections worldwide decreased by 15% over the last seven days, according to data from the World Health Organization, the largest decline in global new cases that has been reported over the course of the pandemic. 
• Severe COVID-19 infections are beginning to abate in many parts of the US even as the death toll mounts, possibly signaling an end to the pandemic’s post-holiday surge and prompting some states to begin to ease public health restrictions.
• While the US may return to some sense of normalcy in the second half of this year, people need to be prepared to respond to the coronavirus as it evolves, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday, adding that “We have to be prepared that this will be an elusive virus, that we would have to make some modifications in our interventions, whatever they may be.”
• The US is “43rd in the world” in its ability to track potentially dangerous new mutations of the coronavirus, according to President Biden’s coronavirus czar, who used the White House’s first public health briefing today to issue a stark warning that the country will remain vulnerable to the deadly pandemic unless Congress quickly passes a coronavirus relief bill.
• At least 315 cases of a coronavirus variant first spotted in the United Kingdom have now been detected in 28 US states, according to data posted Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 92 infections in Florida, 92 in California, 22 in New York, 17 in Michigan and 14 in Georgia, with Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming all having fewer than 10 current cases.
• The monoclonal antibody treatment made by Eli Lilly is powerless against the variant discovered in South Africa, according to a new study posted online but not yet peer reviewed on Tuesday, and in addition one of two monoclonal antibodies in a cocktail treatment made by Regeneron also is significantly less effective, although the combination still works, researchers at Columbia University reported, findings that underscore growing concerns that because of new mutations in its genetic material, this variant, called B.1.351, may be able to resist antibodies contained in treatments and perhaps those created by the body following vaccination.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it does not know if the new Covid-19 variants are causing more cases of a rare complication in children called MIS-C, which stands for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, the troubling complication of Covid-19 infection that can cause heart damage and typically shows up about three weeks after a child has been infected.
• Coronavirus variants popping up across the US are beginning to affect tests for the virus, the US Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, and is asking test developers to ensure their tests can detect the virus as it continues to mutate.
• More than 24.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the US, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 52% of the 47,230,950 doses distributed.
• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said today that based on recent data, there have just been 2.1 cases of anaphylaxis reactions per million doses administered of the Moderna vaccine, and 6.2 cases for the Pfizer shot.
• A new survey from the US Census Bureau conducted between January 6 through January 8 found that 51% of the roughly 226 million Americans who still haven’t been vaccinated “definitely” plan to receive the drug once it’s available to them, while 26% said they probably would get the shot.
• Local policies preventing evictions and utility shutoffs may have helped reduce the spread of Covid-19, according to a new analysis by Duke University researchers, with findings that showed moratoria on evictions and utility shutoffs reduced cases by 8%, suggesting that people who can stay home safely are better able to social distance.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that there’s no official recommendation yet on wearing double masks, explaining that "The CDC doesn't officially recommend wearing double masks," and adding "You know what would be a good start?  If everybody wears at least one mask."
• Swamped by a fast-spreading coronavirus variant and desperate to keep other mutations out of the country, Britain tightened its international travel restrictions on Wednesday, with citizens arriving from any of 22 high-risk countries now required to quarantine in hotels for 10 days at their own expense.
• Today marks a grim year since coronavirus struck in Germany, where the first case was registered at a Bavarian company, and the country shows no signs of reduced infections as two hospitals in a Bavarian town are now under self-quarantine as 11 people are potentially carrying the United Kingdom coronavirus variant.
• Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologized on Tuesday for the government’s failure to provide sufficient medical care under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic, saying "As the person in charge, I feel terribly sorry,” and “We have not been able to provide the necessary care, and I recognize that because the Japanese people are feeling anxious.”
• President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday to re-open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act markets for people who need medical care because of the pandemic, Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, confirmed Wednesday.
• The US Food and Drug Administration has placed all alcohol-based hand sanitizers coming from Mexico on a nationwide "import alert" until the agency is able to review the products’ safety, saying it has seen a sharp increase in products that were labeled to contain ethanol but tested positive for methanol contamination.
• The Federal Reserve pledged on Wednesday to keep interest rates low well after the US economy has recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, while the central bank's rate-setting body, the Federal Open Markets Committee, downgraded its assessment of the economic recovery, which slowed in the second half of 2020.
• The number of people flying on commercial airlines just hit a six-month low, with fewer than half a million passengers screened at US airports Tuesday, with new figures released by the Transportation Security Administration showing 468,933 people were screened at checkpoints nationwide, a number that hadn’t dipped below 500,000 since July 4, 2020.
• A team of World Health Organization investigators is preparing to leave quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan and begin a long-awaited investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, with members of the 13-person international team expected to finish their two-week quarantine in the next 24 hours, stepping out into a city that was once the center of the global outbreak but is now, a year on, largely returned to normal.
• Findings from a Seton Hall University poll that collected answers from 1,522 adults spread across the country from January 22-25 show that 25% of respondents said they would gather with people outside of their home to watch the Super Bowl, with 64% saying they would not, and 11% saying they were not sure.

Vaccines – US

1. More than 20 million people have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, a benchmark that the previous White House administration had previously said the US would hit by the end of 2020, with more than 3.8 million people fully vaccinated.
2. Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 Response Team, said today it will "be months" before all Americans who want a vaccine can get one, due to constraining factors of getting enough supply quickly enough and the ability to administer the vaccines quickly once they're produced and sent out to the sites.
3. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that while there is some wiggle room on getting vaccinated, people should try to get their second dose of vaccine on time, and they should try to make sure they get two doses of the same vaccine.
4. The federal government is amending rules to help broaden the list of people who can administer vaccines, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said Wednesday, with the Health and Human Services Department amending the current Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act “to permit doctors and nurses who have recently retired or become inactive to administer shots, and to permit anyone currently licensed to vaccinate in their state to administer shots across state lines.”
5. Most states are not publicly reporting racial data on people receiving vaccines, despite disproportionate death rates for Black and Hispanic people and rising concerns about who has access to - and is willing to take - the vaccine, and seven weeks after the first shots were administered, just 20 states include race and ethnicity data on their vaccine dashboards, even though it is required by the federal government, and even those states have major gaps in their data, with “unknown” being the first- or second-most frequent category in almost every state.
6. Close to half of Americans say they are eager to get a vaccine or have already gotten one, according to a January survey of more than 1,500 adults published Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that:

• 41% want the vaccine - considerably higher than the 34% reported in December, and 6% have already gotten at least one dose.
• 31% said they would like to wait and see how the vaccine works for others before they get one themselves.
• 7% will only get one if “required to do so for work, school or other activities,” while 13% said they would “definitely not” get it.
• 57% of those surveyed would be more likely to get vaccinated if told the vaccines are highly effective in preventing illness
• 54% said they would be more likely to get vaccinated if told it was the quickest way for life to return to normal.
• 46% were impressed by hearing millions of people have been safely vaccinated, and 45% were motivated by being told we need people to be vaccinated to get the US economy back on track.

1. Walmart says it has more than 5,000 stores and Sam’s Club locations “that are operationally and clinically ready to administer vaccines in our facilities and in communities through vaccination events,” and is preparing this week “to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines in Maryland, Texas, Delaware, Indiana and the District of Columbia to eligible populations as determined by each district and state.”
2. A draft request for assistance between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense is under discussion that would seek as many as 10,000 service members to support administering vaccine shots up at 100 sites nationwide, according to a FEMA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details were not final.
3. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Wednesday that the state will make vaccines available next week to 91,000 teachers and personnel needed for in-person schooling of students, as the state aims to reopen schools in March.
4. New York City will be getting 30% more doses of the Moderna vaccine, starting next week, resulting in 17,000 more doses each week, as a result of the Biden administration's most recent vaccine announcement.
5. Texas National Guard troops are being deployed to remote areas to vaccinate rural populations that can’t access clinics in towns and cities, with “mobile vaccination teams” initially targeting five counties - Marion, Starr, Sherman, Real and DeWitt - starting on Thursday, Governor Greg Abbott said today.
6. Andy Slavitt, the senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 response team, said Wednesday that the White House is not keeping a stockpile of vaccines but is rather sending doses to states as they get ordered, keeping only a few days’ worth in reserve. 
7. The US’ decision to rejoin the World Health Organization and its international vaccine program does not mean giving away any doses of vaccines intended for Americans, Dr. Anthony Fauci said today.
8. Dr. Anthony Fauci said the US must focus on minorities in order to efficiently distribute vaccines, explaining "I think that's the one thing we really got to be careful of, we don't want in the beginning that most of the people who are getting it are otherwise, well, middle-class White people."

US Outbreak

1. The US reported 142,511 new Covid-19 cases and 3,990 virus-related deaths on Tuesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
2. The US has counted 80,677 reported Covid-19 deaths in January as of Wednesday morning, more than December's 77,124 dead and the most in any month of the pandemic, with Alabama, Hawaii and Tennessee all setting single-day records for fatalities.
3. The number of patients sick enough to be hospitalized, a key indicator of the disease’s pace, spread and severity, has trended lower, falling 17.7% from a peak on January 6 to 108,709, the lowest since December 12 as of today.
4. Between vaccination coverage and natural immunity among those who have recovered from an infection, about 12% - and perhaps as much as a third - of the US population may currently have some degree of protection against Covid-19, according to a CNN analysis.
5. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest ensemble forecast published today now projects there will be 479,000 to 514,000 deaths in the US by February 20, updated from the January 20 projection of up to 508,0000 by February 13.
6. Oklahoma state officials are trying to return the state's $2 million stockpile of hydroxychloroquine back to the medical distributer, according to Oklahoma Attorney General's Office Communications Director Alex Gerszewski, who did not provide further details on the effort.
7. The White House Covid-19 Response Team and federal public health officials gave their first briefing today on the government's pandemic response, with the Biden Administration saying they will prioritize sharing information on a regular basis.

US Restrictions & Schools

1. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper today extended the state’s current state modified Stay-At-Home order set to expire Friday until February 28, and also announced plans to keep the eviction moratorium and statewide order allowing to-go mixed drinks sales in place through March.
2. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during an ongoing news conference today that he will lift restrictions in nearly all the state’s existing orange and yellow micro-cluster zones, citing the decline in the percent positivity and hospitalization rates statewide following the winter holiday surge.
3. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum will issue a new order Friday that will lift recommended occupancy limit for bars, restaurants and other food-service establishments to 80% of capacity, up to 300 patrons, with social distancing and face coverings strongly recommended or required.
4. Wisconsin’s State Senate voted Tuesday to repeal Governor Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate, with a crucial vote scheduled in the State Assembly on Thursday morning, with the resolution aiming to declare the public health emergency unlawful and terminate all actions included in the most recent executive order.
5. New York City’s school enrollment fell sharply this year, the latest sign that students across the country have left the public school system temporarily or even perhaps permanently during the pandemic, with enrollment in the nation’s largest public school system, with nearly 1 million students, falling by about 4%, or roughly 43,000 students, from the previous year, most concentrated in early grades, especially prekindergarten classes for 3- and-4-year-olds, according to data released by the city on Wednesday.
6. Chicago Public Schools halted in-person learning for about 3,200 pre-K and special education students who have been in classrooms for two weeks amid an impasse in negotiations between City Hall and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Business Related

1. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday nothing is more important for the economy than vaccinations - and that he’s gotten the first dose of a vaccine himself, explaining “There are many things that go into, as you know, setting asset prices,” and “If you look at what’s really been driving asset prices in the last couple of months, It’s been expectations about vaccines, and it’s also fiscal policy.”
2. The US is the most fraud-prone country in the world, responsible for more than a third of global payment card fraud losses, and experts say the pandemic could be making matters worse, as more money is transferred digitally.
3. The pandemic has had an uneven financial impact on women and people of color, and it’s affected their ability to save for retirement, with nearly 3 in 4 women with investable assets of $100,000 or more saying the pandemic has negatively affected their ability to retire, according to a survey released Monday from the Nationwide Retirement Institute.
4. Just over half of the US adults with credit card debt, or roughly 51 million people, added to their balances since the start of the coronavirus crisis, according to a new report by CreditCards.com, with nearly half, or 44%, saying the pandemic was to blame.
5. Virginia has enacted permanent Covid-19 workplace health and safety standards to protect workers which "mandate personal protective equipment, sanitation, social distancing, infectious disease preparedness and response plans, record-keeping, training, and hazard communications in workplaces."
6. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced Wednesday that a total of $402 million in federal Covid-19 relief funding has been given to his state to help people struggling to cover their rent because of the pandemic.
7. Walmart is betting Americans’ online grocery shopping habits will outlast the pandemic, as the retailer adds high-tech, local fulfillment centers to dozens of its stores by converting square footage or tacking them on to an existing building, with the small warehouses helping the retailer handle more orders and get them ready for pickup and delivery faster.
8. Global charity company Oxfam said today the pandemic economically hit women and ethnic minorities the hardest, and believes it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover as the pandemic “ushered in the worst job crisis in over 90 years with hundreds of millions of people now underemployed or out of work.”
9. The United Kingdom’s travel sector reacted to new government quarantine guidelines outlined by Prime Minister Johnson, saying battling Covid-19 is the top priority but it needs more government support to survive, with Heathrow Airport, the largest airport, saying it fully backs any measures that protect public health but called for more fiscal aid.