FS-ISAC Coronavirus Update, March 17, 2021

Headlines

• In 15 states, new US Covid-19 cases reported over the past seven days are at least 10% higher than a week ago, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and in two of those - Minnesota and Michigan – infections are more than 40% higher than they were a week ago.
• The White House is racing to prevent and prepare for a potential fourth coronavirus surge as more transmissible coronavirus variants spread across the US - investing billions of dollars to boost coronavirus preparedness, accelerating the pace of vaccinations and working to prepare the public and governors for the prospect of another surge, and in what would be a first is drawing up plans to surge vaccines to emerging hotspots in an attempt to blunt the virus's trajectory and protect those at highest risk.
• Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said the US is on a march toward more normalcy from the coronavirus pandemic but that a surge in cases similar to what is occurring in Europe is possible if the country relaxes public-health precautions prematurely, adding that high-school-age children could get vaccinated in the fall, and predicting that both summer and fall would bring greater flexibility that feels more like normalcy.
• Nearly 111 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the US, according to data published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 77% of the 142,918,525 doses delivered, with 1.7 million doses reported administered since yesterday and a 7-day average that remains above 2.4 million doses per day.
• Asymptomatic or undiagnosed Covid-19 infections in US may have been twice the official count, according to a study published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA, with scientists estimating that 15.9 million asymptomatic or undiagnosed infections had occurred as of September 30.
• A small study of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa said the vaccine “did not show protection against mild-to-moderate Covid-19” due to the variant widely circulating there, according to results published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
• Drugmaker Moderna is studying the effects of its Covid-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, in children aged six months to 11 years old in a mid-to-late stage trial, a two-dose study that will assess safety and effectiveness, with the company planning to enroll roughly 6,750 kids in the US and Canada, according to Reuters.
• Some people who have spent months suffering from long-haul covid-19 are taking to social media to report their delight at seeing their symptoms disappear after they are vaccinated, leaving experts chasing yet another puzzling clinical development surrounding the disease caused by the coronavirus.
• Medical workers say a growing number of desperately ill patients are refusing ventilators, seeing them as scary contraptions to be avoided at all costs, and fearing it won’t be the coronavirus that kills them but “the tube” - their casual term for mechanical ventilation.
• At least 15 EU and associated countries have suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine over fears about blood clots, but the Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides urged counties Tuesday to use all their vaccine doses, saying the agency has repeatedly touted the benefits the vaccine outweigh the risks, and Europe's medicines watchdog announced it will release results of its investigation on Thursday afternoon.
• France is experiencing “what looks like a kind of third wave” of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Jean Castex said today, and the country has seen a rise in cases of new coronavirus variants, warning that the third wave has been “characterized by variants, a lot of them.”
• Germany’s coronavirus infections are rising exponentially, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said on Tuesday, putting at risk plans to lift the lockdown and revive the economy.
• Covid-19 is no longer the stock market's biggest fear, according to the Bank of America Fund Manager Survey for March, and instead inflation has replaced the pandemic as the top "tail risk" for investors, followed by a taper tantrum should the Federal Reserve pull back on its asset purchasing program ahead of schedule, with the pandemic now just the third-biggest risk.
• The majority of the roughly 160 million stimulus checks greenlit by the stimulus package passed last week will be issued via direct deposit tomorrow according to the Internal Revenue Service, with the  funds expected to be available for withdrawal around 9AM local time.
• US employers with a large workforce and locations that have enough space to maintain social distancing can consider setting up temporary vaccination clinics at the workplace, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.
• The number of US job postings on Indeed.com that mention "remote work," "telecommute" or "working from home" has more than doubled over the last year, from 2.9% in January 2020 to 6.9% last month, according to new data from the career services site, with most of the remote positions in finance, law, therapy and technology, especially tech support and software development.
• Spring breakers traveling by air are helping to break pandemic air travel records, and the Transportation Security Administration said today it screened 6.4 million people at airports across the country between Thursday and Monday, the biggest five-day period of pandemic air travel.
• Apple Maps, an application on iPhones, iMacs and other Apple products, has been updated to include Covid-19 vaccination locations, the tech giant announced on Tuesday, and to help people find shots, the company updated the app with location data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Finder, a web-based system of vaccination providers.

Vaccine Rollout - US

1. Nearly 22% of the population - about 72 million people - has received at least one dose of vaccine, and nearly 12% of the population - about 39 million people - are fully vaccinated, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released today shows.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that all states have now fully vaccinated at least 10% of their adult population, and among the 65-and-older population, more than a third are fully vaccinated, with nearly two-thirds having received at least one dose.
3. The White House said Tuesday that more than 22 million doses of vaccines will be distributed in the next seven days, a new high that would send the daily average over 3 million for the first time.
4. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday that starting immediately the state will allow groups in the next 1C phase of the state's rollout plan to get vaccinated, which includes about million residents who are age 16 to 64 with some underlying health conditions, essential workers in a range of industries, and people residing in high-risk settings, from those who are incarcerated to those living in crowded housing and student housing.
5. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte announced that all residents 16 years of age and older will be eligible for a vaccine on April 1, and pointed out that projections a month ago showed availability to this group being as late as mid-July.
6. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced today the state will offer the vaccine to anyone 40 and older starting on Friday, promised to expand to anyone over the age of 16 on March 29, and that anyone with cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, or obesity, will also be eligible.
7. Wisconsin on Tuesday said residents 16 years and older with certain medical conditions will be eligible for vaccinations a week earlier than initially planned, with shots now available starting March 22.
8. Indiana’s Department of Health announced that residents 45 and over can now register to get the vaccine in addition to educators, childcare workers and people with certain conditions.
9. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said today that every adult will be eligible for vaccine appointments starting on May 1, keeping with the national goal set last week by President Biden, an announcement that applies to residents 16 and older and people who work in the city in essential jobs.
10. Delaware will allow pharmacies to begin vaccinating anyone in the state who is 50 years or older and doctors and hospitals to vaccinate anyone with a high or moderate-risk medical condition, Public Health Director Dr. Karyl Rattay said today, including cancer, serious heart conditions, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as several lifestyle conditions like obesity and being a cigarette smoker.
11. Vermont has vaccinated more than 26% of its population, over 152,800 people, with at least one dose of vaccine, Secretary of the Agency of Human Services Mike Smith said on Tuesday, the majority of who are in the state’s 75 and older population.
12. New York City is on track to surpass the administration of three million vaccines on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, and as the city recorded over 370,000 vaccinations last week - the highest weekly total since vaccinations began, it hopes to increase that figure to over 500,000 weekly shots, a goal that is still contingent on the supply received.
13. Nearly four months after medical workers and nursing home residents began getting immunized against COVID-19, mail sorters, carriers and their colleagues are still not yet eligible for shots across much of the US, and given their work on the frontlines of a deadly pandemic, the nearly half a million Americans employed by the Postal Service had reason to believe they'd be among those prioritized for getting vaccinated.
14. Kentucky’s Department of Corrections is expected to begin vaccinating inmates age 70 and older on Thursday at Little Sandy Correctional Complex, J. Michael Brown, secretary of the Executive Cabinet, announced today, adding that all 14 of the state’s correctional institutions have now been enrolled as a distribution point and are going to be targeted for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as the state receives supplies.
15. Massachusetts State Police said that more than 800 employees declined to receive the vaccine despite being in the first stage of priority for the doses.
16. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday while the administration would welcome support from Republican elected officials to help reduce vaccine hesitancy from portions of the American public, the administration is focused on communicating with Americans through other means.

US Restrictions & Schools

1. Washington, DC’s suburbs are returning tens of thousands of children to in-person schooling this week, marking the end - for many - of more than a year of wholly virtual instruction, with Montgomery County, Maryland’s largest school district, opening the doors of its 135 elementary schools to more than 19,000 children from kindergarten to third grade.
2. The Federal Aviation Administration said it will continue its “zero tolerance” policy on unruly travelers after airlines reported more than 500 cases to the agency since late December, most of which cases stemmed from passengers who reportedly refused to wear masks on board, which is a federal requirement during air travel as well as an airline policy.
3. The US Naval Academy has established penalties for midshipmen who violate its COVID-19 restrictions, a move that comes after a proposal to have the mids police themselves failed, with a first offense resulting demerits and the loss of a weekend of liberty when it is restored and an additional seven days of restrictions when they are eased, and for a second offense another 50 demerits are added, as well as another week of restrictions and another lost chance to get off the Yard for the weekend.

Economy and Business

1. A fresh round of aid for the jobless may not arrive until the middle of April or later, a Labor Department official said in a memo issued Monday to state unemployment agencies, and while the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan extended unemployment benefits to Labor Day and continued a $300-a-week supplement, states need time to tweak their computer systems to account for the changes.
2. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a new round of budget recommendations on Tuesday outlining how the state should spend the latest round of federal relief funds, including a one-time $1,000 bonus be paid to every first responder in the state for their work during the pandemic, the state’s unemployment CONNECT system will receive $73.2 million, $50 million will be provided for infrastructure, and an additional $50 million dollars will be directed to boost the tourism industry.
3. The US solar industry posted record growth in 2020 despite the ongoing impacts from Covid-19, a report from the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie found, with installations jumping 43% year-over-year to a record 19.2 gigawatts of new capacity during 2020.
4. Tens of thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers received at least $80 million in government assistance during the pandemic - making them among the largest groups of beneficiaries of a little-known government grant and loan program established to help small businesses weather severe economic disruptions.
5. JetBlue Airways told flight attendants on a two-month unpaid leave for April and May that they will be called back a month early, a response to stronger travel demand than expected.
6. Apollo Global Management Inc. will test giving employees the option of working remotely two days a week through the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the matter, with the exact start of the experiment depending on when vaccines become more broadly available, but employees will be given at least 30 days’ notice.
7. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s summer interns are set to attend its New York and London offices, according to a person familiar with the plans, after Wall Street’s biggest names delayed, shortened or made virtual their paid summer programs due to the pandemic last year.
8. A recent AAA report found average gasoline prices jumped double digits in two-thirds of the country, with Utah seeing an increase up $0.25, and in Idaho and Missouri it increased $0.17 per gallon, price hikes fueled by severe weather that crippled Texas refineries in February, as well as an increase in demand.