FS-ISAC Coronavirus Update, June 9, 2021

Headlines

Hearing impairment, severe gastric upsets and blood clots leading to gangrene, symptoms not typically seen in Covid patients, have been linked by doctors in India to the so-called Delta variant, and in England and Scotland, early evidence suggests the strain - which is also now dominant there - carries a higher risk of hospitalization.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded with the public to get vaccinated against Covid-19 on Tuesday, saying the spread and dominance of the Delta variant first identified in India - that is now dominant in the United Kingdom - is a “powerful argument” for people to get two doses and help keep it from proliferating across the US.
Declines in US Covid-19 cases, emergency department visits, hospital admissions and deaths were largest in age groups that were most vaccinated and show how vaccinations are working to fight the coronavirus, according to a new study published Tuesday in the US Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The US added 16,281 new Covid-19 cases in children between May 27 and June 3, the lowest new child cases in a week since the week ending in June 6, 2020, according to data published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics, numbers that represent a nearly 52% decline from the previous week which is the largest percentage decline of the pandemic.
Pfizer announced today it will trial smaller doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for children 11 years old, and the company said it is moving to a Phase 2/3 trial, with plans to enroll up to 4,500 children across 90 sites in the US, Finland, Poland and Spain.
About 52% of Americans support requiring proof of vaccination to return to the workplace, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll published Tuesday. [See SPECIAL – US Vaccine Poll following for more results]
Less than a month after the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine was authorized for use in people as young as 12 years in the US, half of those 12 and older have now been fully vaccinated, according to data published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised travel health notices for dozens of nations to a lower-risk tier, adjusting travel guidance for vaccinated Americans in the process, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, Italy, France and Germany among the 62 destinations that dropped from “COVID-19 very high” Level 4 tier to “COVID-19 high” Level 3 tier.
Hotels and office buildings are reopening after remaining dormant for a year or more, and building engineers are keeping a watchful eye for Legionnaires' disease, with legionella pneumophila, the bacteria that causes the illness, potentially being a problem when it sits in stagnant, lukewarm, unchlorinated water and multiplies, said Michelle Swanson, a professor of microbiology at the University of Michigan.
India on Tuesday recorded fewer than 100,000 new daily coronavirus cases for the first time in more than two months, as the worst of the country’s devastating outbreak appeared to finally be waning.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could be forced to delay a plan to abolish most social distancing requirements in England on June 21 after a recent sharp rise in coronavirus cases, according to the Times of London, who reported that a delay of “between two weeks and a month” was likely after top health officials gave a ministerial briefing Monday that was described as “fairly grim.”
Hong Kong’s top billionaires are ramping up incentives to boost vaccinations, and the city’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, and his business empire, CK group, are giving away HK$20 million worth of shopping vouchers via lottery to those who get two shots, according to an announcement Tuesday.
In Oxnard, a city of about 208,000 northwest of Los Angeles, the city council unanimously approved a measure to give a $1,000 bonus to anyone who worked at least three months in a grocery store or pharmacy during the first 12 months of the coronavirus pandemic, a program city officials and labor leaders said was the first of its kind in the country.
Florida-based Norwegian Cruise Line announced on Monday that it would be restarting its cruises from Miami with fully vaccinated passengers, setting up a possible showdown with Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed a law barring businesses from imposing vaccine requirements for service.
Tokyo 2020 organizers are consulting models that show there will be limited impact by the Games on the Covid-19 situation in the country, CEO Muto Toshiro told media today, with Masanori Takaya, spokesperson of Tokyo2020 also saying that there was little difference on the number of Covid-19 cases expected in Japan in running models for both holding games with spectators or canceling the games.
The Library of Congress has acquired a digital archive of the real-time impressions of more than 200 frontline health care workers documenting the country’s descent into the pandemic, audio diaries collected by The Nocturnists, a medical storytelling project, for its “Stories from a Pandemic” podcast series.