FS-ISAC Coronavirus Update, March 11, 2021

Headlines

• The US reported 57,417 new cases for Tuesday, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, a total that was up from a revised daily tally of 44,758 cases for Monday, and a figure similar to levels seen in early October, before the latest wave of cases, which peaked in January, when cases often topped 200,000.
• The coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom and detected in at least 46 states and Washington, DC, could be more deadly, with new research published in a peer-reviewed journal finding it is associated with an estimated 64% higher risk of dying from the virus.
• President Biden announced today that he is directing the Department of Health and Human Services to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, and with the announced manufacturing collaboration between pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and Merck the country is now on track to have enough vaccine for every adult by the end of May.
• Nearly 96 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 75% of the 127,869,155 doses delivered and around 2 million more reported since yesterday, for a seven-day average of nearly 2.2 million per day.
• Alaska is the first US state to remove eligibility requirements for the coronavirus vaccine, making immunization available to anyone 16 and older who lives or works in the state.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is continuing to collect data on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant women through its registry called V-safe, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House briefing on Wednesday.
• The European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday there was no evidence so far linking AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to illnesses in two people who received it in Austria, one of whom died 10 days after being inoculated.
• Higher pollen concentrations in the air have coincided with increases in COVID-19 infection rates, a large study shows, suggesting a possible link, and using data from 130 sites in 31 countries, researchers found that airborne pollen levels, sometimes in combination with humidity and temperature, accounted for up to 44% of the variability of COVID-19 infection rates during the spring of 2020, but the effect was not connected with pollen allergies but rather exposure to pollen reduces the ability of the respiratory tract lining to defend itself against viruses by diminishing the release of the antiviral protein interferon.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services offered recommendations for nursing homes to safely expand visitation during the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday, with the new guidance, created in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, allowing for indoor visitation, regardless of the vaccination status of the resident or visitor.
• US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said today the next round of guidance for vaccinated individuals will involve traveling and going out, and it should be in the next few weeks.
• Before the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will “liberalize” its guidance for fully vaccinated people, it’s watching for coronavirus case increases and waiting for evidence about whether protection is fading among people who were vaccinated early on, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said today.
• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that the agency isn’t ready to create standards for states to ease restrictions – but if schools are still closed, other places shouldn’t be opening.
• Starting today, Texans will no longer be under a statewide mandate to wear masks in public, but some cities and businesses say they will still require masks – including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and El Pas, and federal health leaders have also pushed back against lifting restrictions.
• Corporate leaders are still grappling with how to safely reopen work spaces, and now face even bigger questions about how much office space they really need and what incentives they might require to lure people back, with many learning over the past 12 months that their employees can work from just about anywhere which means the office must serve a much more compelling purpose - a hub for collaboration that can’t be accomplished virtually and a place to retain and train an incoming workforce.
• As more Americans buy groceries online, traffic has shifted from store aisles to the parking lot, and brands like General Mills are taking note and paying for samples of their products to be tossed into curbside pickup orders or given away in swag bags.

US Outbreak

1. The seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the US dropped over the past two weeks from 67,713 on February 23 to 55,844 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, while the seven-day rolling average for daily deaths over those same dates decreased from 1,986 to 1,566.
2. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest ensemble forecast published today shows the daily death rate slowing and ow projects there will be 547,000 to 571,000 deaths in the US by April 3, updated from the March 3 projection of up to 564,0000 by March 27.
3. The US refusal to completely shut down over the course of the pandemic led to an increasingly high baseline of new infections, according to top infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci, a failure he said has allowed the pathogen to mutate and spread.
4. New York City’s in-person learning at public schools wasn’t associated with increased infections compared with the general community, according to a peer-reviewed study released Wednesday.
5. The new recommendations for fully vaccinated people mark the first step toward a return to pre-pandemic life, but some precautions are still essential, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues wrote in a JAMA Viewpoint article published Wednesday.
6. Texas doctors said today there is no evidence that migrants crossing the US-Mexico border are significantly contributing to the virus spreading in the country.
7. A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study has found that last year was the deadliest in the country’s history, with COVID-19 helping to drive a 15% increase in deaths.
8. Senator Patty Murray, the chair of the Senate’s health committee, is reintroducing a bill to steer billions of dollars to public health departments, saying that the pandemic has laid bare the need to fund local officials’ work.

US Restrictions & Schools

1. New Jersey and New York City’s indoor dining will move to 50% capacity, up from 35% capacity, beginning March 19, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said in a joint announcement today, with the rest of New York state will move to 75% indoor dining capacity, up from 50% capacity.
2. Utah will lift its mask mandate on April 10 after negotiations between the state's governor and legislature stopped an effort to end the measure immediately, a spokesperson for the governor's office confirmed today.
3. California could see three of the five largest counties – including Los Angeles – could reopen as early as this weekend for indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms at limited capacity under a new metric aimed at getting more vaccine shots to those most vulnerable.
4. With Governor Greg Abbott lifting Texas’ statewide mask mandate on Wednesday, 16 states in the US are no longer requiring face coverings.
5. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo warned today that Texans who do not comply with mask rules mandated by individual business could face criminal charges, despite the fact that Texans are no longer under a statewide mask mandate.
6. Texas restaurant owner Mike Nguyen wants his business open but he is also battling cancer, and said that by lifting the statewide mask mandate, Governor Greg Abbott has put him, and many others like him, in danger.
7. Houston restaurant owner Arnaldo Richards said that some people have threatened to call immigration services on his employees because he is keeping his restaurant’s mask mandate in place, and as a result, he is stationing a police officer outside the restaurant’s front door today.
8. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking her to detail her plans “to reopen the People’s House,” citing new guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that ease some covid restrictions for vaccinated Americans, and suggesting she begin lifting the protocols put in place nearly a year ago in the House because about 75% of the chamber’s members are vaccinated.
9. The Los Angeles Unified School District has reached a tentative agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles to reopen schools for in-person learning by April.

Economy and Business

1. The $1.9 trillion Covid relief package that cleared Congress on Wednesday includes provisions intended to lower the cost of health insurance through the federal exchange or a state’s marketplace for 2021 and 2022, with changes that include increasing premium tax credits available and expanding who qualifies for the financial help, as well as forgiving amounts due by taxpayers who received too much in subsidies in 2020, as well as minimizing that issue for 2021.
2. The first batch of $1,400 stimulus checks will be issued to Americans who gave direct deposit information when they filed taxes for 2019 or 2020, a Treasury Department official confirmed Wednesday.
3. As part of the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package approved by the House on Wednesday, the child care industry will receive $39 billion in direct funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program, and the legislation allocates an additional $1 billion to the Head Start program.
4. About $25 billion of money child-care in the new stimulus bill will go toward a stabilization fund to provide grants for child care centers, day cares, preschools and home-based child care programs, with providers able to can use these grants to help their businesses in a number of ways, including making payroll, purchasing sanitization supplies and covering fixed costs like rent.
5. The Covid bill legislation approved today extends the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund through September 2023, gives financial assistance to colleges and universities that do not have endowments worth over $1 million and supports emergency need-based financial aid for college students.
6. Roughly seven in 10 employees are also seeking incentives, including cash bonuses and extra time off, to get vaccinated, according to a survey from employment website Glassdoor released today, which polled more than 2,000 adults from February 16 to 18.
7. Some employees of Citigroup who continue to work in branches and offices are now able to take rapid at-home Covid-19 tests, part of an effort to identify cases early and prevent spread in offices and elsewhere.
8. The Colorado state legislature unveiled a $700 million pandemic recovery fund, with the spending program, which has bipartisan support, aimed at improving infrastructure, helping small businesses and providing workforce development.