Total Doses Distributed = 740,540,955. Total Doses Administered = 583,478,451. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 258,036,101. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 220,811,243.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
Total Doses Distributed = 739,095,455. Total Doses Administered = 583,221,364. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 258,074,668. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 220,811,434.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Kids ages 5 to 11 should get a booster dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, advisers to the U.S. government said Thursday.
If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees, as expected, it would open a third COVID-19 shot to healthy elementary-age kids — just like it is already recommended for everybody 12 and older.
The hope is that an extra shot will shore up protection for kids ages 5 to 11 as infections once again are on the rise.
Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s kid-sized booster, to be offered at least five months after the youngsters’ last shot.
But the CDC takes the next step of recommending who actually needs vaccinations. Its advisers debated if all otherwise healthy 5- to 11-year-olds need an extra dose, especially since so many children were infected during the huge winter surge of the omicron variant.
Ultimately, the committee pointed to growing evidence from older kids and adults that two primary vaccinations plus a booster are providing the best protection against the newest coronavirus variants.
“This always perhaps should have been a three-dose vaccine,” said Dr. Grace Lee of Stanford University, who chairs the CDC’s advisory panel.
The booster question isn’t the hottest vaccine topic: Parents still are anxiously awaiting a chance to vaccinate even younger tots, those under 5 — the only group not yet eligible in the U.S. Both Pfizer and rival Moderna hope to offer vaccines for those youngest children soon; the FDA is expected to evaluate data from one or both companies sometime next month.
But for the 5- to 11-year-olds, it’s not clear how much booster demand there will be. Only about 30% of that age group have had the initial two Pfizer doses since vaccinations opened to them in November.
CDC adviser Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University said health authorities must put more effort into getting more of those youngsters their initial shots
“That needs to be a priority,” she said.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech make the only COVID-19 vaccine available for children of any age in the U.S. Those ages 5 to 11 receive a kid-sized dose that’s one-third the amount given to everyone 12 and older.
In a small study, Pfizer found a booster revved up those kids’ levels of virus-fighting antibodies — including those able to fight the super-contagious omicron variant — the same kind of jump adults get from an extra shot.
Vaccines may not always prevent milder infections — and omicron especially proved able to slip past their defenses. But CDC cited data during the omicron surge that showed unvaccinated 5- to 11-year-olds had twice the rate of hospitalization as youngsters who got their first two doses.
Health authorities say for all ages, the vaccines are still offering strong protection against COVID-19’s worst outcomes, especially after a third dose.
But some especially high-risk people, including those 50 and older, have been offered the choice of a second booster, or fourth shot. And still to be decided is whether everyone will need additional shots in the fall, possibly reformulated to offer better protection against newer coronavirus variants.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Britain’s Metropolitan Police says it has concluded its investigation into breaches of COVID-19 regulations at British government offices, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official residence, and has issued a total of 126 fines.
Police said Thursday that they issued fixed-penalty notices to 53 men and 73 women for gatherings that took place on eight dates between May 2020, at the height of the first wave of the U.K.’s pandemic, and April 2021. Some people received multiple fines.
The scandal, dubbed “partygate” by the media, has dealt a heavy blow to Johnson’s leadership.
The conclusion of the police investigation means that results from a separate probe by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray, can now be published. Government officials say the Gray report, which is being closely watched for the extent to which it censures Johnson and his Conservative government, will be published as soon as possible, though unlikely before next week.
Johnson apologized last month after he revealed that he was among dozens of people who paid a police fine for attending lockdown-breaching parties and gatherings. That made him the first British leader to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.
Revelations that Johnson and other senior officials gathered illegally in government buildings — including enjoying “wine time Fridays” reportedly organized by Johnson’s staff — at a time when millions in the country stuck to strict government lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 have angered voters and triggered calls for Johnson to resign.
Johnson’s spokesman said Thursday he will not be receiving any more fines on top of the one he has already paid.
“The Met has confirmed they are taking no further action” against the prime minister, spokesman Max Blain said.
Police do not identify the people who received fines, but Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, as well as Johnson’s wife, Carrie, have said they were among those fined along with Johnson for attending a birthday party thrown for the prime minister in June 2020.
Johnson has repeatedly apologized, but denied that he knowingly broke the rules. He has insisted it “did not occur” to him that the gathering in his office, which he said lasted less than 10 minutes, was a party.
Opposition parties reiterated their calls for Johnson to resign and said the Gray report should be published without delay.
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said there can be “no further hiding places” for Johnson for the “industrial-scale lawbreaking” at government sites.
“That reflects a culture and the prime minister sets the culture,” he said.
Starmer himself faces a police investigation over his own conduct during the pandemic — he has acknowledged he had a beer and a takeout curry with colleagues in April 2021, when the U.K. was under coronavirus restrictions. Starmer insisted that the meal was part of a working day and broke no rules.
The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group called the police fines a “terrible insult” to all who lost loved ones during the pandemic.
“The nearly half a million pounds this investigation has cost could have been spent on support services for the bereaved. Instead it was spent investigating our own government, and all because they lied and failed to acknowledge they had broken the law,” said Safiah Ngah, who lost her father to the virus in February 2021.
More than 177,000 people have died in Britain after testing positive for the coronavirus, the highest toll in Europe after Russia.
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WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
The number of coronavirus deaths globally dropped by about 21% in the past week while cases rose in most parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization.
In its weekly report on the pandemic released Thursday, the U.N. health agency said the number of new COVID-19 cases appears to have stabilized after weeks of decline since late March, with about 3.5 million new cases last week, or a 1% rise. WHO said cases increased in the Americas, Middle East, Africa and the Western Pacific, while falling in Europe and Southeast Asia. Some 9,000 deaths were recorded.
Infections rose by more than 60% in the Middle East and 26% in the Americas, while deaths fell everywhere except Africa, where they jumped by nearly 50%.
The COVID-19 figures reported to WHO do not include the recent outbreak figures announced by North Korea, which has yet to officially share requested data with the agency.
On Thursday, the authoritarian country headed by Kim Jung Un reported more than 262,000 more suspected cases as its caseload approaches 2 million, a week after the country acknowledged the outbreak and scrambled to slow infections in its unvaccinated population.
Earlier this week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “deeply concerned” about the spread of COVID-19 in North Korea, noting the population was unvaccinated and that there were significant numbers of people with underlying conditions that could put them at risk of more severe disease and death.
Tedros said the agency was working to persuade North Korea to share more information and to accept help including technical support, vaccines, tests and medicines, but so far had received no response.
In the Western Pacific, WHO said the biggest number of reported cases was in China, which saw a 94% increase, or more than 389,000 new cases. After weeks of a sometimes severe and chaotic lockdown, Chinese authorities say they will allow some supermarkets, malls and restaurants in its financial capital of Shanghai to reopen under limited conditions next week.
WHO’s Tedros has previously described China’s extreme “zero-COVID” approach as “ unsustainable,” but acknowledged that countries are free to choose their own control strategies.
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WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Germany’s top court said Thursday it has approved rules requiring health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Federal Constitutional Court announced that it had rejected complaints against the measure, arguing that the importance of protecting vulnerable people in hospitals and care homes outweighs any infringement of health workers’ rights.
The limited mandate came into effect in mid-March. The constitutional court had previously refused to issue an injunction blocking its implementation while it reached a final decision.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach welcomed Thursday’s ruling, saying in a statement that “the state is obliged to protect vulnerable groups.” He thanked health facilities that have implemented the mandate, arguing that they have helped prevent more deaths from the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz initially wanted to extend the vaccine mandate to all adults, but even a proposal to impose one on people aged 60 and above was rejected by lawmakers.
Almost 76% of the population in Germany has received two shots against the coronavirus so far, and nearly 60% has also received a booster shot. Demand for vaccination is very low at present, but the government on Wednesday approved spending more money on new vaccines that will allow the country to deal with a series of possible variants this fall.
Lauterbach will host a meeting of his counterparts from the Group of Seven leading democracies in Berlin on Thursday and Friday, despite having had contact with U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra a day before Becerra tested positive for COVID-19.
A spokesman for Lauterbach said all safety precautions had been taken during the encounter Tuesday, and that Becerra would join by video from a Berlin hotel where he is currently in quarantine.
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