Health professionals and other scientists are concerned that the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday may also have been a COVID-19 superspreader event.The shouting mob that invaded the building was largely unmasked and not observing social distancing as they went through the halls of Congress and entered some lawmakers’ offices.Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told The New York Times that, “People yelling and screaming, chanting, exerting themselves — all of those things provide opportunity for the virus to spread, and this virus takes those opportunities.”John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said the virus killed a record 4,085 people in the U.S. on Thursday.Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told National Public Radio in an interview Thursday that he believes “things will get worse as we get into January.”  A result, he said, of “the holiday season travel and the congregate settings that usually take place socially during that period of time.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 41 MB1080p | 79 MBOriginal | 234 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioFauci also said that he believed that tide could be turned “if we really accelerate our public health measures during that period of time, we’ll be able to blunt that acceleration. But that’s going to really require people concentrating very, very intensively on doing the kinds of public health measures that we talk about all the time,” such as wearing masks, social distancing and being inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine.Fauci said he is hopeful that when President-elect Joe Biden is in office, the U.S. will be able to deliver to the U.S. public  “1 million vaccinations per day, as the president-elect has mentioned.”The U.S. has more COVID-19  cases than anyplace else in the world —  21.5 million of the globe’s more than 88 million infections, roughly one-fourth of the world’s cases.The figures come as nearly 6 million Americans have been vaccinated against the disease.The U.S. has also suffered more COVID-19 deaths than any other country – more than 365,208 of the world’s nearly 2 million COVID-19 deaths.Britain announced mandatory COVID-19 tests Thursday for all international arrivals to the country.Brazil surpassed 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, making it the country with the second-highest death toll in the world.Canada moved Thursday to keep elementary schools in the province of Ontario closed until at least Jan. 25. Ontario officials said that the positivity rate among children under 13 was as high as 20%.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures in response to a surge of new coronavirus cases in the capital city.The decree lasts until Feb. 7. Residents in Tokyo, China, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures are encouraged to stay home after 8 p.m., and restaurants and bars are also encouraged to close at the same time.     
…

A ray of hope emerged Thursday for the Rainbow Nation, which has seen a massive spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases, as South Africa’s health minister announced a large shipment of vaccines is coming this month.   
 
Zweli Mkhize said the country will receive one million vaccine doses by the end of January, and another half million in February, both from the Serum Institute of India. The first doses, he says, will go to health workers.   
Mkhize acknowledged that South Africa’s vaccine acquisition was delayed because the nation was unable to pay for vaccines that were still in development — a barrier wealthier nations haven’t faced. But, he vowed, it will catch up. South Africa’s limited budget also led officials to choose the cheapest vaccine option, offered by AstraZeneca.   
   
“We will be making sure that we bring the vaccines as quickly as possible into South Africa,” he said. “By the time we start the vaccination program, we won’t be very far different from many countries. We would actually be all in line with most of the countries. So, we would like to assure the public that, in fact, we are all on course.”  
   
That heartening news came after South Africa, which is the continent’s viral hotspot, reported what Mkhize described as a “grim milestone” — surpassing 20,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. And, he said the situation gets worse from there, as the nation enters a second wave that features a new variant of the virus that appears to be spreading much faster.   
 
“Deaths are already higher than what we ever experienced before,” the health minister said. “Admissions are already higher than what we experienced before. The new cases on the seven day average are also higher than what we experienced before.”  
 
South Africa has now seen more than 1.1 million cases since the virus first arrived in March. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases says that 31,368 people have died in South Africa.   
 
Once South Africa’s health workers are vaccinated, a second round of vaccinations will target 17 million people, including essential workers, teachers, the elderly and those with other health conditions that put them at higher risk. In the end, Mkhize said, the nation hopes to vaccinate about 40 million people within the year, about 67 percent of the population. That figure is close to what health experts say is the threshold for herd immunity.  
 
As for the rest of the vast continent, Dr. Kate O’Brien, the WHO’s director of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, described the process by which 92 of the world’s poorest nations can get access to the vaccine, through the COVAX Facility, a global initiative of 192 countries that is trying to ensure equitable access.   
 
“For countries, 92 countries, that are less able to actually purchase these vaccines on their own from their own domestic funds, there are donor funds that have been provided,” she said. “We need about $7 billion in order to deliver enough vaccine to these countries through the end of 2021. And the facility has already raised about $6 billion of the $7 billion.”
 
O’Brien said the facility “has access to over two billion doses of vaccine” and will start to deliver those vaccines by mid-February.  
 
“That’s how countries in Africa and South Asia, and other countries around the world of these 92 that are less able to afford vaccines, are actually going to get vaccine,” she said.  
 
O’Brien emphasized that people with HIV — South Africa carries the world’s highest burden of that virus — should be vaccinated. But pregnant and breastfeeding women should discuss the vaccine with health care providers before making a decision.   
 
…

The World Health Organization warns the European region is probably in the most acute phase of COVID-19 transmission and drastic measures must be taken to control the spread of the pandemic.  
More than 26 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the European region, including over 580,000 deaths.  The World Health Organization reports levels of transmission remain extremely high.  As a consequence, it notes countries and territories across the region are enacting full lockdown measures, affecting more than 230 million people. FILE – Medical personnel attend patients at Casalpalocco Covid 3 hospital in the outskirts of Rome, Jan. 1, 2021.WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge says the year ahead offers new opportunities and tools, such as vaccines for controlling the pandemic.  At the same time, he notes new challenges posed by the virus itself are of great concern.   He says the COVID-19 virus has changed.  He says it is normal for viruses that circulate to mutate over time.  While little is known about the impact of the new variant, he says the new strain appears to spread more quickly and be more contagious. FILE – The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, speaks during a news conference about the coronavirus disease at Eigtveds Pakhus, in Copenhagen, Denmark, March 27, 2020.”Twenty-two countries in the WHO European region have detected this new variant.  This variant is of concern and it has increased transmissibility.  So far, we understand there is no significant change to the disease this variant produces — meaning the COVID-19 is not more nor less severe,” he said.  Kluge says the new viral strain spreads across all age groups and children do not appear to be at higher risk.  Over time, he says the variant may replace other lineages, as seen in Britain and Denmark. Senior Emergency Officer in WHO’s European Region Catherine Smallwood says new variants are assessed for any public health impact.  She says the strain identified in Britain has been studied for its transmissibility and impact on COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed. FILE – A man receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Britain, Jan. 4, 2021.”There is probably quite promising evidence that the vaccines will work.  At the moment, there is no evidence for any of the variants that have emerged that there will be any decreased effectiveness of the vaccine.  But studies are still going on and we expect to hear more after the studies are confirmed,” she said.   The vaccine rollout will have little immediate effect on the control of transmission and spread of COVID-19.   WHO officials say that will be achieved by following public health measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing.   However, vaccines will protect the most vulnerable people from becoming severely ill and dying in hospital.  Vaccines also hold the promise of one day bringing this devastating pandemic to an end. 
…

Vaccine inoculations have begun in Italy for medical staff and the most vulnerable, but the country’s daily death toll continues to be well over 500. All Italian primary school students and most middle school students returned to face-to-face lessons on Thursday. But not all regions in the country have agreed to re-open their schools to younger students due to very high numbers of COVID infections in some places.In at least four regions the return of middle school students has been delayed. Regions also adopted different decisions for high school students, but most were being allowed to return to face-to-face classes next Monday, as Education Minister Lucia Azzolina explained on Italian national television.The minister said five million younger students would be returning to school on Thursday. These are the same students, she said, who were already attending classes during the second wave. The government, Azzolina added, has also authorized 50 percent of high school students to return to in-person classes next Monday and the other 50 percent will continue with distance learning.The relief group Save the Children this week warned that the pandemic has had severe effects on the lives of millions of youngsters who have faced difficulties with distance learning due to lack of technology and possibilities to study online.Protests broke out Thursday throughout Italy against the failure to reopen schools to all students.Italy continues to enforce COVID restrictions in spite of the tight measures taken over the Christmas season. More than 20,000 new infections were reported on Wednesday and the daily death toll stands as well over 500.Meanwhile, Covid vaccine inoculations began before the end of the year, first with medical staff and the most vulnerable.A resident receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Villa Verde elderly care home, as part of the coronavirus vaccination campaign in Rome, Italy, Jan. 7, 2021.More than 320,000 Italians have been inoculated so far with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that have been distributed across Italy. The regions of Lazio, Tuscany and Veneto in particular, have managed to quickly use most of the doses available to them. The Moderna vaccine will also soon start to be used in Italy after it received approval and up to 1.3 million doses will be available in Italy in the first quarter of this year.The Italian government aims to vaccinate six million people by the end of March, 14 million by the end of April and the remainder of all those who accept to be vaccinated by the end of August. Vaccination is voluntary. 
…

New strains of the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic have evolved, raising alarms with public health experts. The viruses appear to be more infectious, making them harder to control. But experts say the new vaccines against them should still work. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. 
…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the city aims to vaccinate 10,000 police officers against the coronavirus by Sunday.At his daily briefing, De Blasio said police officers and jail guards were now eligible to receive vaccines under guidance provided by state officials. The guidelines released by the state do not explicitly say that police officers can now be vaccinated, but a de Blasio spokesperson said city officials were told they could count police and corrections officers as frontline workers eligible for the shots.De Blasio said the city wanted to make sure “all these frontline workers, folks who work directly with everyday New Yorkers, folks who do things like having to perform CPR or working in very close proximity, that they’re going to get the opportunity to be vaccinated starting right now.”In a statement, the president of the city’s police union, Patrick Lynch, applauded the move, saying it cleared the way to protect “both police and the New Yorkers” they help every day.In a tweet, Lynch said the pandemic had strengthened the bond between police and other first responders who have been prioritized for vaccination, calling them a “frontline family.”New York City has about 35,000 uniformed police, of whom about 25,000 regularly deal with the general public.De Blasio said the expanded vaccine eligibility guidelines included home health aides.
 
…

Malawi has introduced a mandatory quarantine on returnees from South Africa to control rising cases of COVID-19.  Thousands of Malawians have returned from South Africa in recent weeks, and officials fear they could import the new, more contagious form of coronavirus.Malawi has seen a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases since the middle of December.    The Public Health Institute of Malawi reports confirmed cases jumped from 116 on December 18 to 946 on January 5.   Health authorities say they believe the rise is largely driven by Malawians who traveled to South Africa to look for work and escape poverty triggered by the pandemic. According to Malawi’s immigration department, about 10,000 Malawians have returned from South Africa since the start of the pandemic, with others expected to return soon.   Immigration officers at Mwanza border wellcoming buses carrying Malawi returnees. (Courtesy: Pasqually Zulu/Immigration Department)“Forty percent of our cases have come from especially our returnees and indeed our deportees. So we have no option but to put this mandatory institutionalized quarantine,”  said Malawi’s minister of health Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda.The new policy, announced Tuesday, says returnees will be taken to a quarantine facility for coronavirus testing.  Those found to have the virus will not be allowed to return home until they test negative.   John Phuka, the chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, says the measure will help contain the more deadly new strain of the coronavirus known as 501.V2 which has hit South Africa. “For the past two weeks the number of cases had doubled almost twice,” he said. “We were 210; we should have doubled to 400. We have now doubled again to over 800 active cases. So the rate at which this is rising is pointing towards that.”   Phuka notes that more young people are getting infected, compared to the first wave of the pandemic. “In the current wave, amongst those we have lost to death, three are less than 30 years. As we speak we have two children who are admitted for example at Queens [Central Hospital]. And then last week we also discharged one child, six months old, so there are indications that we may have this variant,” he said.This is not the first time Malawi has put returnees in quarantine. In May last year, more than 400 Malawian migrant workers who returned from South Africa escaped from a coronavirus screening camp at Kamuzu Stadium in the economic capital, Blantyre.   This came two days after eight people who tested positive for coronavirus escaped from Kameza Isolation center in Blantyre.   This time Health Minister Kandodo-Chiponda says there will ‘very tight security’ in the quarantine facilities. 
…

India has not imposed a ban on export of vaccines for COVID-19, the federal government said amid a controversy that it had imposed restrictions on an Indian company expected to be on the frontlines in supplying vaccines to developing countries.      India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, is expected to play a pivotal role as low and middle income countries look ahead to launching immunization programs to bring the pandemic under control.     But following the emergency authorization granted by Indian authorities to the British-developed AstraZeneca and another vaccine developed locally on Sunday, media reports said that India will not allow exports for several months. “The government hasn’t banned the export of any one of the COVID vaccines. That is something that should be absolutely clear,” Rajesh Bhushan, the health ministry’s top official told reporters cautioning against what he called “misinformation.”    In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two companies manufacturing the vaccines — the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech — also pledged global access for the doses saying that the most important task ahead was to save lives and livelihoods in India and the world.    FILE – An employee in personal protective equipment (PPE) removes vials of AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from a visual inspection machine inside a lab at Serum Institute of India, in Pune, India, Nov. 30, 2020.For the time being, the global focus is mainly on the Serum institute that is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine — the company is on track to make a billion doses this year as it ramps up its current capacity of 60 to 70 million doses a month to 100 million doses by March, according to a company spokesman.     It has already stockpiled 50 million doses made even before approval came in.      The initial vaccines are expected to be supplied domestically India, which aims to immunize 300 million people by August, will need millions of doses for its own massive population.     A health worker talks to a vaccine trials’ volunteer before he is tested for COVID-19 and takes part of the country’s human clinical trial for potential vaccines at the Wits RHI Shandukani Research Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 27, 2020.However, the rollout in many countries in Asia and Africa will depend on the speed with which they secure vaccines from Indian companies like the Serum Institute. Half the one billion doses it is contracted to make are to be sold to developing countries.     Health experts are also watching the development of two local vaccine candidates by Indian companies.“India’s leadership on this front may be a game changer for COVID vaccine distribution in the developing world,” according to Andrea D. Taylor, an Assistant Director at the Duke Innovation Global Health Center. “The first is the sheer volume of vaccines that they intend to produce, as well as the considerable number of doses that have already been manufactured and stockpiled and are now ready to ship out.”     While rich countries like the U.S., Britain, and Canada have secured available vaccines for their own populations and launched immunization programs, developing countries have been left behind as they look for affordable vaccine supplies.     FILE – Staff members deliver injections of the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to patients in their cars at a drive-in vaccination center in Hyde, Greater Manchester, northwest England, Dec. 17, 2020.For them, the most promising candidate so far is AstraZeneca that can be stored in ordinary refrigerators and is cheaper compared to vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna.     Gavi, a non-profit global vaccine alliance, has entered into an agreement with the Serum Institute for 200 million doses of AstraZeneca billed as the “vaccine for the world.” It is expected to be priced at around $ 3.However, when these will be available remains unclear. Though Indian companies, which make 60 percent of the world’s vaccines, are ramping up production lines, there is expected to be a huge mismatch between supply and demand amid the worldwide scramble for vaccines.      “Our data on vaccine purchases and manufacturing indicate that there is reason to be concerned that low and middle income countries will not receive enough vaccines in 2021,” according to Taylor. “This is not because of hoarding by the Indian market but because globally we cannot produce enough doses quickly enough or ensure that they reach all high-priority populations first.”                
…

More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have so far gone unused.  As Mariama Diallo reports, some states are vowing to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly enough.
…

The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed disappointment Tuesday with the failure of Chinese officials to grant final permission to an international team of researchers to enter the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.At the agency’s regular COVID-19 briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “very disappointed” that China had not authorized entry of the team, some of whom had begun their travels to Wuhan. The news forced other members of the team to cancel their travel at the last minute.Tedros said plans for the trip had been arranged jointly among WHO officials, the Chinese government and the countries for which the team was meant to travel through on their way to Wuhan. He said the agency just learned Tuesday “that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China.”Tedros said he had been in contact with senior Chinese officials. “And I have once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team. I have been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment. We are eager to get the mission under way as soon as possible.”FILE – Medical workers move a person who died from COVID-19 at a hospital in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Feb. 16, 2020.China reported the first cases of a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan to the WHO on Dec. 31, 2019, and closed a market where the novel coronavirus was believed to have emerged.Health ministers called on the WHO in May to identify the source of the virus and how it crossed the species barrier.The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. U.S. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet for China during the pandemic. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 illness. 
…

As millions of people await their turn to get a COVID-19 vaccine that could be months away, scammers online, in emails and on messaging apps are luring victims with claims they can deliver shots within days for as little as $150.
 
COVID-19 vaccine scams are on the rise, according to European and U.S. government officials who are warning the public of fraudsters out for money and personal data.
 
A Reuters search online, in dark web forums and on messaging app Telegram found seven different offers for alleged COVID-19 vaccines.
 
Scams include emails promising entry to supposedly secret lists for early vaccine access and robocallers impersonating government agencies. Message boards on the so-called dark web have added COVID-19 vaccines to more traditional illicit goods for sale.
 
The U.S. FBI and Interpol, among others, have warned of emerging pandemic-related fraud schemes, saying false cures and vaccines advertised on fake websites could pose cyber threats and a significant risk to peoples’ health, or even lives.
 
Website domains containing the word vaccine in combination with COVID-19 or coronavirus more than doubled since October to roughly 2,500 in November, when the first legitimate vaccines were nearing regulatory approval, according to cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, which is tracking COVID-19 fraud online.
 
“So far a lot of these domains just appear to be opportunistic registrations, but some are going to be used for phishing attempts to have people click on (malicious) links,” said Lindsay Kaye, director of operational outcomes at Recorded Future.
 
Kaye said her team, which also scours the dark web, so far has not come across any legitimate vaccine diverted from healthcare facilities or national stockpiles.
 
The scams are preying on concerns about the far slower-than-promised rollout of vaccines to protect against the virus that has claimed more than 1.8 million lives worldwide so far. Most people will likely have to wait well into the spring, or even summer, to get their shot.
 
In the United States, only about 4.5 million people had received their first shot as of Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. That is a fraction of the 20 million who were supposed to have been vaccinated by the end of 2020, according to earlier government forecasts.
  Vaccines, Guns and Money
 
On dark web forum Agartha, fake COVID-19 vaccines were offered next to cocaine, opioid medication, “super high quality fake money,” hand guns and gift cards. Posts showed stock photos of vaccines and offered vials for $500 and $1,000, or the equivalent in Bitcoin.
 
On another dark web site, a seller claiming to be from the “Wuhan Institute of Science” offered COVID-19 vaccines in exchange for a donation, and asked buyers to provide their medical history.
 
On Telegram, several channels claimed to offer COVID-19 vaccines, accompanied by stock images. One user offered supposed Moderna Inc vaccines for $180, and claimed the vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE could be had for $150 and AstraZeneca’s for $110 per vial.
 
Asked how the vaccines would be shipped, the account creator said they were transported in “regulated temperature packs” and ice packs within a few days, or overnight for an additional charge.
 
Actual COVID-19 vaccines, particularly the Pfizer/BioNTech offering, must be temperature controlled to remain effective, with drugmakers equipping shipments with temperature trackers to ensure the cold chain. Vaccine shipments and distribution are also tightly controlled by officials and will be administered at no cost.
 
The United States has so far authorized two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use – the ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. The European Union to date has authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and is expected to clear the Moderna vaccine this week.
 
 The UK has already authorized those two and just added the vaccine developed by Oxford University with AstraZeneca.
 
Asked about vaccine scams, Pfizer said it had taken meticulous steps to reduce the risk of counterfeiting and tracked trends very carefully.
 
“Patients should never try to secure a vaccine online – no legitimate vaccine is sold online – and only get vaccinated at certified vaccination centers or by certified healthcare providers,” a Pfizer spokesman said in a statement.
 
Moderna referred a request for comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which did not respond. AstraZeneca did not respond to a request for comment.
 
The HHS, FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have urged the public to report any COVID-19 vaccine scams, including people asking for out-of-pocket payments for the vaccine and online vaccine advertisements.
…