Authorities said Thursday that two South Carolina people had been diagnosed with a more infectious strain of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa. This is the first time the variant has been reported in the USA
Also Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report that found the state could have counted COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents by up to 50 percent. New York experienced its first major coronavirus outbreak last spring, and nursing homes have been particularly hard hit.
More than 430,000 people have died and more than 25.7 million cases have been reported in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic, according to NBC News.
Here are the latest coronavirus updates from the US and elsewhere:
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine provides strong protection against COVID-19, it has been less effective against the new variant
Johnson & Johnson says its vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with a single shot. It’s not as strong as some two-shot rivals, but it’s still potentially useful for a world that needs extremely high doses.
The results published on Friday show that the single-injection vaccine was 66% effective overall in preventing moderate to severe disease and much more protective against the worst symptoms.
The vaccine has worked better in the US than in South Africa, where it is facing a tougher, mutated virus. The company says it will file an emergency use application soon in the US and then abroad.
Read the full story here.
“COVID language” may be another symptom of the virus, the British researcher suggests
There may be another addition to the growing list of possible strange symptoms of the new coronavirus: the “COVID language”.
A British researcher helping to track down COVID-19 warnings reports several cases of infected people complaining of tongue discoloration, enlargement and other mouth problems, NBC News reports.
“Seeing a growing number of Covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers. If you have a strange symptom or even just a headache and fatigue stay home! Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, posted on Twitter this month.
He believes that more than a third of patients with COVID-19, 35%, have non-classical symptoms of the disease in the first three days, so it is important to draw attention to rashes, toes Covid and other signs of warning that ” he wrote.
Spector did not respond to a request for comment, but other researchers also reported language and oral symptoms related to the new coronavirus.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com
NJ Hospital gave early COVID vaccines to donors, relatives of directors: report
Some of the first people to receive COVID-19 vaccines at a New Jersey medical center were relatives of top hospital executives and some of its administrators and donors, according to a published report.
The images were administered by Hunterdon Medical Center in December and early January, at a time when only front-line health care workers and long-term care residents were eligible, NBC New York reports.
A record of vaccine recipients, obtained by New Jersey 101.5 FM, indicated that the shots were sent to two long-term donors at the hospital and at least seven spouses and two adult children of health care directors, administrators or care network directors. of health. The radio station stated that it had been registered by a whistleblower, whom it did not identify.
Some of the beneficiaries were 20 years old, an age group unlikely to qualify for the vaccine for several months.
A hospital spokesman said donors and board members were not given preference over eligible staff or at-risk individuals who were available, but that they received the vaccine when eligible recipients could not be located, rather than to waste vaccine doses.
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