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Interfor’s Covid-19 Updates -March 16, 2021
Latest numbers (as of 9am est):
Total Reported Cases: 120,302,055 (29,495,307in United States)
Total Deaths: 2,662,597 (535,661 in United States)
Full Vaccinations Administered: 85.6 million, globally (11.68% of US population; 38.3M)
NOTEWORTHY DEVELOPMENTS
United States
- Approximately 109 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published by the CDC. 21.4% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 11.5% have been fully vaccinated.
- The CDC is reviewing new data to see if physical distancing rules in schools should be changed to stay at least 3 feet apart instead of 6 feet, according to a federal official.
- Pennsylvania will ease restrictions on restaurants and businesses and increase mass gathering limits starting April 4, following a decline in Covid-19 cases, and climbing vaccination rates.
- Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said the state will be opening Covid-19 vaccination appointments to all residents 16 and older starting today.
- New York will open vaccine appointments to “public facing” workers starting Wednesday, which will bring the total number of vaccine-eligible New Yorkers to 12 million, about 80% of the adult population.
- Connecticut, with the highest vaccination rate in the country, expects to expand vaccine eligibility to people 16 and older by April 5.
- Biotechnology company Moderna has begun a study to test its Covid-19 vaccine in children under 12, including infants as young as six months. The study is expected to enroll 6,750 healthy children in the US and Canada.
International
- A growing number of European countries have suspended use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine as a precautionary measure pending review from Europe’s health regulator while it investigates links to several reports of blood clots.
- Hong Kong will expand its coronavirus vaccination drive to include people age 30 to 59, as the city faces a growing cluster of infections
- Italy was put in lockdown on Monday, in an effort to stop a third wave of infections, with people only permitted out of their homes for essential errands. The restrictions will last through Easter weekend, when the entire country will become a red zone.
- Brazil has ordered 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and 38 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. According to the health minister, Brazil plans to have the entire population vaccinated by the end of the year.
- French health minister said a new coronavirus variant was found in the French region of Brittany, adding that initial analysis did not show this new variant to be more serious or transmissible than others.
RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS
- Wear a mask. Despite a reduction in infections due to vaccination rollout we are not out of the woods yet.
- You can download Interfor’s return to work guidelines here.
WARNING: Be sure to vet ALL information and rumors.
Resources:
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/
- CDC Symptoms page
- See Interfor’s new blog post about how to scrub your personal information from data scraping websites. And here’s one about Meghan and Harry’s security woes.