First pill to treat COVID approved in UK: Live COVID-19 updates
Britain on Thursday grew to become the primary nation to approve a capsule to deal with COVID.
British Well being Secretary Sajid Javid stated the remedy can be a “sport changer” for these most weak to signs of the virus. The pill, referred to as molnupiravir, was developed by New Jersey-based Merck and can be given twice a day to sufferers just lately recognized with the illness. Javid stated the drug, initially developed as a remedy for the flu, can lower the chance of hospitalization or demise in half.
“I’m now working with my groups throughout authorities … so we are able to urgently get this remedy to probably the most weak sufferers as quickly as potential,” Javid stated.
Merck stated in a press release that the antiviral medication was licensed for the remedy of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults who’ve not less than one danger issue for growing extreme sickness. The corporate stated it’s submitting functions to different regulatory companies around the globe.
Additionally within the information:
►Inexperienced Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the NFL’s reigning MVP, tested positive for the coronavirus and can miss Sunday’s marquee sport towards the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. Rodgers is not vaccinated and lied to the media about it.
►The Nationwide Institutes of Well being will sponsor a four-year examine to evaluate the long-term effects of COVID-19 on pregnant ladies and their youngsters.
►The World Well being Group granted emergency use authorization to an Indian-made COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, that had been used for months within the nation. It’s the eighth vaccine to which the WHO has given use authorization.
📈 At this time’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded 46.2 million confirmed COVID-19 circumstances and greater than 750,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. World totals: Greater than 248.2 million circumstances and 5 million deaths. Greater than 192.9 million People — 58.1% of the inhabitants — are totally vaccinated, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re studying: A examine of deer in Iowa which have contracted the coronavirus suggests they may turn into “a major reservoir host” that enables the virus to mutate and re-enter people.
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Employees at huge firms face Jan. 4 deadline for vaccination or testing
Employees at bigger companies must get vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face regular testing beneath federal guidelines being launched Thursday. Employees who select the testing choice could need to bear the price. Additionally they can be required to put on a face masks on the job, starting Dec. 5. The principles fill within the particulars for the vaccination requirement President Joe Biden introduced in September for companies with 100 or extra staff.
“COVID-19 continues to carry again our workforce and our financial system – and it’ll proceed to take action till extra People are vaccinated,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Jeff Zients, the White Home COVID-19 response coordinator, wrote in an opinion piece for USA TODAY.
– Maureen Groppe
Infections rising in 24 states
COVID-19 infections seem like creeping larger in about half of U.S. states as winter approaches, suggesting that the nation could not have seen the final of the delta variant surge of the virus that all through the pandemic has killed greater than 750,000 People.
Instances rose week-over-week in 24 states within the seven-day interval that ended Wednesday, a USA TODAY evaluation of Johns Hopkins College information suggests. The rolling common of seven-day case counts nationwide has stabilized round 500,000 over the past 10 days after a month of regular declines.
Instances have been rising primarily in colder states that hadn’t been as hard-hit within the worst of the delta wave. They included Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.
– Mike Stucka
COVID a killer for sufferers contaminated in hospitals
Greater than 10,000 sufferers have been recognized with COVID in a U.S. hospital final yr after they were admitted for something else, in keeping with federal and state data analyzed completely for KHN. The quantity is definitely an undercount, because it contains largely sufferers 65 and older, plus California and Florida sufferers of all ages.
About 21% of the sufferers who contracted the virus within the hospital from April to September final yr died, the information exhibits. In distinction, almost 8% of different Medicare sufferers died within the hospital on the time. Read more here.
– Christina Jewett, Kaiser Well being Information
Suicide price fell general throughout pandemic
The overall number of suicides in 2020 was 3% lower than in 2019 regardless of the pandemic, in keeping with the examine performed by researchers on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Nationwide Heart for Well being Statistics. Nevertheless, the report discovered the suicide price amongst Hispanic males elevated 5% from 2019 to 2020. And charges elevated for all males ages 10 to 14 by 13%, and 5% amongst these 25 to 34.
“Suicide is advanced and multifaceted and simply having a rise in danger elements doesn’t translate to extra deaths by suicide,” stated the examine’s lead creator Sally Curtin, a well being statistician at NCHS. “The findings illustrate the complexity of suicide.”
– Adrianna Rodriguez
Vaccinations underway for teenagers as younger as 5
Younger youngsters started receiving COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday in what was a second of pleasure not just for their mother and father however the youngsters themselves. The Western States Scientific Security Evaluate Workgroup, a gaggle of immunization and public well being scientists from California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, concluded that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is protected and efficient for youngsters aged 5 to 11 on Wednesday. The workgroup’s choice reinforces the FDA’s authorization of the vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds, and formally allowed California to begin vaccinating younger youngsters.
President Joe Biden stated Wednesday that 20,000 websites nationwide could be accessible by subsequent week to manage the youngsters’s vaccine, and he identified that minors make up one-fourth of the COVID-19 circumstances within the nation.
“Vaccines for youngsters ages 5 to 11 and boosters (to) present further safety for seniors and others are two main steps ahead that are going to speed up our path out of this pandemic,” Biden stated.
Danger of myocarditis seems small for teenagers
Now that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been accredited to be used in youngsters 5 by way of 11, there’s concern that some will develop myocarditis, a swelling of the guts muscle. Nevertheless it’s not clear what number of – and thousands and thousands of youngsters should be vaccinated earlier than it’s recognized. Trials in youthful youngsters have been too small to indicate the uncommon facet impact, simply as trials in adults didn’t reveal myocarditis as a potential facet impact of the photographs.
“Getting COVID I believe is way riskier to the guts than getting this vaccine, it doesn’t matter what age and intercourse you’re,” Dr. Matthew Oster, a pediatric heart specialist with Youngsters’s Healthcare of Atlanta, advised an advisory committee Tuesday. “The chance of getting some kind of unhealthy coronary heart involvement is way larger should you get COVID than should you get this vaccine.”
– Karen Weintraub
Walgreens, CVS will have youngsters’ vaccine extensively accessible by weekend
The nation’s largest pharmacies, Walgreens and CVS, are already accepting online appointments for youngsters 5 to 11 to get the COVID-19 vaccine following the CDC’s sign-off Tuesday evening of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the age group.
Walgreens will start administering the pediatric doses at 1000’s of shops nationwide beginning Saturday. The primary vaccine shipments are scheduled to reach at some Walgreens areas this week, the corporate stated Wednesday.
CVS will start administering the vaccine this weekend, spokesperson Joe Goode advised USA TODAY. The vaccine may also be accessible on the places of work of pediatricians and first care medical doctors, youngsters’s hospitals and clinics at faculties.
Vaccines.gov – the one-stop store federal authorities web site – is anticipated to quickly record the closest accessible vaccine appointments for youngsters.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is simply as necessary to guard youngsters as different routine immunizations are, and the expanded eligibility will assist youngsters keep in class safely and forestall extreme sickness attributable to COVID-19,” Kevin Ban, Walgreens’ chief medical officer, stated in a press release.
The Biden administration’s distribution program can be “operating at full power” the week of Nov. 8, presidential adviser Jeff Zients stated Monday, because it has already ordered sufficient vaccine to cowl all 28 million American youngsters within the age group.
White Home works to counter misinformation about youngsters vaccines
As they enthusiastically welcomed the coronavirus vaccine for youngsters 5-11, members of the White Home COVID-19 response crew made some extent Wednesday to inform mother and father in regards to the significance of the photographs, in addition to their security and efficacy.
Most notably, the specialists sought to warn mother and father about what Surgeon Normal Vivek Murthy referred to as “the wave of misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines that’s coming their means.’’
Murthy stated the federal government is attempting to counter these bogus claims with outreach efforts involving trusted sources akin to medical doctors, lecturers and religion leaders, in addition to organizations well-known to folks, together with the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Many mother and father are already seeing inaccurate claims on social media, textual content threads and of their in-boxes,’’ Murthy stated. “Misinformation robs them of (the power to make knowledgeable decisions). That’s why I’m asking mother and father to please search solutions from credible sources, like their physician, their native hospital, their native well being division or the CDC.’’
Fellow crew members Drs. Rochelle Walensky and Anthony Fauci underscored that, whereas older adults are extra weak to COVID-19, the virus has contaminated almost 2 million youngsters ages 5-11, sending 8,300 of them to a hospital. One-third of these youngsters required remedy in an ICU.
Now there’s a device to stop lots of these diseases.
“Pediatric vaccination has the ability to assist us obtain wholesome, protected and inclusive environments for our youngsters,’’ Walensky stated.
– Jorge L. Ortiz
Contributing: The Related Press