Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	129,455,768	+640,165	2,827,452
USA	31,166,344	+68,756	565,256
Brazil	12,753,258	+89,200	321,886
India	12,220,669	+72,182	162,960
France	4,644,423	+41,907	95,640
Russia	4,545,095	+8,275	98,850
UK	4,345,788	+4,052	126,713
Italy	3,584,899	+23,904	109,346
Turkey	3,317,182	+39,302	31,537
Spain	3,284,353	+8,534	75,459
Germany	2,830,335	+20,825	77,039
Colombia	2,406,377	+8,646	63,422
Argentina	2,348,821	+16,056	55,858
Poland	2,321,717	+32,874	53,045
Mexico	2,232,910	+5,068	202,633
Iran	1,885,564	+10,330	62,665
Ukraine	1,674,168	+11,226	32,825
Peru	1,548,807	+8,730	52,008
South Africa	1,548,157	+1,422	52,846
Czechia	1,532,332	+8,568	26,421
Indonesia	1,511,712	+5,937	40,858
Netherlands	1,272,616	+7,633	16,538
Chile	995,538	+6,046	23,135
Canada	982,116	+5,518	22,959
Romania	952,803	+6,156	23,538
Belgium	876,842	+3,906	22,966
Iraq	850,924	+6,664	14,323
Israel	833,105	+466	6,209
Portugal	821,722	+618	16,848
Philippines	747,288	+6,128	13,297
Pakistan	667,957	+4,757	14,434
Hungary	652,433	+6,700	20,737
Jordan	611,577	+6,570	6,858
Bangladesh	611,295	+5,358	9,046
Serbia	600,596	+5,107	5,308
Austria	546,229	+3,687	9,339
Morocco	496,097	+676	8,818
Japan	472,112	+1,937	9,113
Lebanon	468,400	+3,393	6,234
UAE	461,444	+2,084	1,497
Saudi Arabia	390,007	+585	6,669
Slovakia	361,185	+1,855	9,719
Panama	355,051	+447	6,114
Malaysia	345,500	+1,482	1,272
Bulgaria	342,633	+4,207	13,197
Ecuador	328,755	+1,430	16,847
Belarus	321,807	+1,213	2,247
Georgia	281,761	+616	3,778
Nepal	277,309	+162	3,030
Croatia	271,632	+2,623	5,947
Bolivia	271,419	+1,072	12,239
Greece	263,689	+3,612	8,093
Azerbaijan	261,713	+2,237	3,567
Tunisia	254,018	+1,847	8,812
Dominican Republic	252,727	+343	3,325
Kazakhstan	244,981	+1,663	3,046
Palestine	242,353	+2,288	2,627
Ireland	235,854	+410	4,687
Kuwait	232,103	+1,282	1,313
Denmark	230,603	+701	2,419
Moldova	230,241	+1,871	4,960
Lithuania	216,119	+853	3,574
Slovenia	215,602	+1,558	4,047
Paraguay	214,667	+1,976	4,206
Ethiopia	206,589	+2,068	2,865
Egypt	202,131	+699	11,995
Guatemala	194,398	+564	6,840
Armenia	192,639	+1,148	3,515
Honduras	188,514	+539	4,599
Qatar	179,964	+780	291
Nigeria	162,891	+129	2,057
Venezuela	160,497	+1,348	1,602
Oman	159,218	+1,162	1,678
Libya	158,957	+706	2,667
Bahrain	144,445	+871	521
Myanmar	142,434	+22	3,206
Kenya	134,058	+1,412	2,153
North Macedonia	130,022	+1,511	3,781
Albania	125,157	+434	2,235
Algeria	117,192	+131	3,093
Estonia	106,424	+1,009	902
Uruguay	105,549	+3,088	974
S. Korea	103,088	+506	1,731
Latvia	102,363	+630	1,899
Norway	96,079	+1,453	673
Sri Lanka	92,706	+264	568
Montenegro	91,218	+386	1,274
Ghana	90,583	+84	743
China	90,201	+11	4,636
Zambia	88,418	+219	1,208
Kyrgyzstan	88,374	+98	1,499
Uzbekistan	82,869	+187	629
Finland	77,452	+607	844
Cuba	75,263	+1,051	424
Mozambique	67,579	+287	775
Luxembourg	61,642	+387	746
Singapore	60,381	+34	30
Cyprus	45,864	+434	256
Namibia	44,139	+88	523
Ivory Coast	43,889	+347	244
Uganda	40,867	+28	335
Thailand	28,863	+42	94
Aruba	9,443	+69	86
Suriname	9,122	+13	177
Vietnam	2,603	+9	35

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

"Quality" issue at Baltimore vaccine plant delays some of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine

From CNN's Jen Christensen

 

Employees work in a lab at Emergent Biosolutions, which is manufacturing vaccines for AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson on February 8, in Baltimore, Maryland. Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post/Getty Images/FILE

Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it had found a quality problem at a Baltimore plant helping manufacture its coronavirus vaccine under contract.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that workers at Emergent, the Baltimore plant that has been making Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, accidentally mixed up some of the ingredients, ruining as many as 15 million potential doses of vaccine and delaying US Food and Drug Administration authorization of the plant. 

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to CNN Wednesday that the quality control process at the plant identified “one batch” of drug substance that did not meet quality standards. The batch in question was a part of test run and quality check. The site is not yet authorized by the FDA to make the drug substance used in the vaccine.

“This batch was never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process,” the emailed statement from the company said.

None of the lost doses impact the company's goal of delivering 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in March. For that, the company said Wednesday, it is on track.

“This is an example of the rigorous quality control applied to each batch of drug substance. The issue was identified and addressed with Emergent and shared with the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA),” the statement said.

“Quality and safety continue to be our top priority. Therefore, as we continue to work with FDA and Emergent toward the Emergency Use Authorization of the Emergent Bayview Facility, Johnson & Johnson is providing additional experts in manufacturing, technical operations and quality to be on-site at Emergent to supervise, direct and support all manufacturing of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. In coordination with the US Department of Health & Human Services, these steps will enable us to safely deliver an additional 24 million single-shot vaccine doses through April," the statement added.

The FDA told CNN it is “aware of the situation, but we are unable to comment further” and referred CNN back to Johnson & Johnson. The manufacturer, Emergent, also referred CNN back to Johnson & Johnson.  

Last week: The Biden administration expressed some doubts the company could meet its self-imposed deadline, but by Friday, the administration seemed more confident that Johnson & Johnson would meet its goal, as White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients said, "they appear on track to meet that goal with at least 11 million doses delivered next week."

The FDA authorized Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine in late February, but the company had struggled to ramp up production and failed to meet earlier production timelines that had been laid out in its contract with the federal government.

The Biden administration has worked with all three authorized vaccine manufacturers to ramp up the supply of the Covid-19 vaccines. President Biden used the Defense Production Act to acquire new materials and equipment and brokered a rare partnership between Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical rival Merck & Co., to make more vaccines. That vaccine supply won't be available until later in the year.

In February, Johnson & Johnson also said it had been working to expand its own manufacturing capacity and was expanding the number of third-party vaccine manufacturers with which it was working.

 

 

 

Michigan plant packaging Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets OK to work in Europe 

From CNN’s Jen Christensen

 

Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM), the company that is doing some of the fill and finish work for the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine in the US, was given the certification it needs to provide commercial services to the European market, the company said Wednesday.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company was recently audited by the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate and was issued a European Union Good Manufacturing Practices certificate. That’s the last official piece of paper it needs to work in Europe. 

However, J&J would not confirm if it will work with GRAM in Europe. J&J announced Monday that it will supply Europe with 200 million Covid-19 vaccines this year.

Fill and finish are the last two steps in the manufacturing and packaging process for vaccines. The first J&J doses that went out immediately after the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine in February came from the GRAM plant. 

Last year, the company expanded and added a new 60,000 square foot facility with new rapid vial filling equipment. 

In August, GRAM signed a $160 million deal with the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Health and Human Services to expand the US capacity for manufacturing and the distribution of vaccines and therapeutics in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. GRAM got the emergency authorization to do the fill and finish work on the J&J Covid-19 vaccine in the US in February.

GRAM said it will continue its expansion and open a new finishing center sometime later this spring.  

 

 

 

French President calls for another national lockdown as Covid-19 cases surge

From CNN's Pierre Bairin and Lindsay Isaac

 

The Larragana family watch French President Emmanuel Macron addressing the nation in Ascain, France, on March 31. Bob Edme/AP

In a televised address to the nation, French President Emmanuel Macron said France risks "losing control" over the spread of Covid-19 without new national measures.

He said France would be extending the regional “reinforced slow-down” restrictions, already in place in 19 areas of the country, to all of France for four weeks.

Under the “limited lockdown,” curfews will remain in place, domestic travel will be limited and people will be asked to work from home. The new lockdown measures will start on April 3 and last through May 2.

“These rules will be extended to the entire metropolitan territory from this Saturday evening and for four weeks,” Macron said. “If we make this choice to extend them to the entire metropolitan territory, it is because no metropolitan area is now spared,” he added. 

Macron said the new UK variant has created an “epidemic within an epidemic” and it is more contagious and deadly. Almost 44% of all Covid-19 patients in intensive care units are under the age of 65 he said. France has made the “right choices” so far but in the past few weeks the vaccine has “accelerated” and “things have changed.” 

Starting Saturday all schools will be closed for three weeks. On April 26, kindergarten and primary schools can reopen. Middle schools and high schools can reopen on May 3, Macron said.

“These last weeks we are facing a new situation. We have entered a race of speed,” the French president said as the number of patients in ICUs exceeded 5,000 on Tuesday – a first since April 2020. “We must therefore set ourselves a new framework for the coming months,” he added. 

Macron said thanks to vaccinations, the country can see a way out of this crisis. "A total of 250,000 professionals are now ready to contribute to this national effort to vaccinate 7 days a week," he added.

 

 

 

US nursing homes see a 96% decline in Covid-19 cases since vaccines rolled out in late December

From CNN’s Jen Christensen

 

ecutive Director Patricia Gustin greets residents entering the dining room at a nursing home in Anaheim, California, on March 8. Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images

Nursing homes have seen a 96% decline in new Covid-19 cases since vaccines started rolling out in late December, according to a new analysis from the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL).

By March 7, the country saw the lowest number of weekly cases and deaths since Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been tracking them, according to the report published Tuesday. With 547 deaths the week of March 7, deaths were down 91% since December.

Since December, nursing home cases have been declining at a much faster rate than community cases, the group’s analysis showed.

“We are not out of the woods yet, but these numbers are incredibly encouraging and a major morale booster for frontline caregivers who have been working tirelessly for more than a year to protect our residents,” Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL, said in a statement. “This trend shows that when long term care is prioritized, as with the national vaccine rollout, we can protect our vulnerable elderly population.”

AHCA/NCAL represents more than 14,000 nursing homes and long-term care facilities around the country. The facilities provide care for about 5 million people a year. 

 

Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-04-01-21/index.html

 

 

 

Eating disorders are up sharply among people stuck at home during the pandemic

By Virginia Sole-Smith

 

 

Stay-at-home orders and bans on indoor restaurant dining during the pandemic disrupted many people’s eating patterns, experts say.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Experts who treat eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorder are reporting an overwhelming spike in the need for their services, with waiting lists growing at many practices and treatment centers across the United States.

The National Eating Disorders Association reported a 41 percent increase in messages to its telephone and online help lines in January 2021, compared with January 2020. And in a study of about 1,000 American and Dutch people with eating disorders published last July, more than one-third of subjects reported that they were restricting their diet and increasing “compensatory” behavior like purging and exercise. Among the Americans in the study, 23 percent said they also regularly binge-eat stockpiled food.

“I’m seeing more clients, and I’m getting clients who are sicker when they come to me, because we cannot get them access to a higher level of treatment,” said Whitney Trotter, a registered dietitian and nurse in Memphis who provides one-on-one nutritional counseling for adolescents and adults. She noted that many in-patient treatment centers were fully booked.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/31/world/covid-19-coronavirus/eating-disorders-are-up-sharply-among-people-stuck-at-home-during-the-pandemic

 

 

 

Turkey forbids gatherings as virus cases surge and Ramadan nears

 

 

A main shopping street in Istanbul last week. On Wednesday, Turkey recorded its highest single-day total of new infections since the pandemic began.Credit...Emrah Gurel/Associated Press

With coronavirus infections surging and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaching, the Turkish government is reimposing strict social-distancing measures, including a prohibition on the large gatherings for meals before sunrise and after sunset that are traditional during Ramadan.

Turkey recorded 37,303 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the country’s highest single-day total since the pandemic began and a fourfold increase since the beginning of March.

The sharp surge in infections — mostly from the highly contagious variant of the virus that was first identified in Britain — prompted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reinstate some of the restrictions he had eased just a few weeks ago.

With nearly two-thirds of adult intensive care beds occupied, the government has ordered restaurants to shift to takeout only and nearly the entire nation of 83 million is being ordered to stay at home on weekends.

In an address to the nation on Monday, Mr. Erdogan said that 80 percent of cities in Turkey were now considered at very high risk for the coronavirus, forcing his government to reinstate lockdown measures.

“The increase in the number of cases and patients, and deaths, obliged us to review the current practices,” he said.

But Mr. Erdogan has come under fire from opposition politicians and Turkish citizens for holding meetings of his governing party in crowded sports complexes around the country, ignoring the social distancing rules that were otherwise strictly enforced by his government. Critics also say that the authorities were too quick to begin relaxing restrictions in early March.

The new lockdowns are expected to be especially difficult for traders and small-business people, who had been hoping for an economic lift during Ramadan.

“The ones meeting at crowded congress are playing with our bread,” tweeted a group that represents cafe, bar and restaurant employees. “The whole sector is getting shut down because of the words coming from the mouth of one single person.”

Even Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, appeared to offer veiled criticism of Mr. Erdogan, telling reporters at Parliament on Tuesday that because the virus continues to afflict Turkey, “everyone in this struggle should fulfill their own responsibility.”

Mr. Koca said that Turkey’s vaccination drive would soon gather pace with the delivery of millions more doses of the vaccine produced by the Chinese company Sinovac as well as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Since January, 6.8 million people in the country have received two doses of the Sinovac shots.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/31/world/covid-19-coronavirus/turkey-records-highest-daily-infections

 

 

 

Summary

 

· France has imposed a nationwide month-long lockdown to curb a rising third wave of coronavirus. Schools will close for at least three weeks, workers will work from home, and travel within the country will be banned for a month after Easter. “We will lose control if we do not move now,” president Emmanuel Macron said.

· Johnson & Johnson has said that a batch of its Covid-19 vaccines failed quality standards and can’t be used. The drugmaker didn’t say how many doses were lost, and it wasn’t clear how the problem would impact future deliveries.

· Keir Starmer has dealt a blow to government hopes of pushing through a domestic Covid passport scheme, expressing scepticism about the idea and saying the “British instinct” could be against them.

· Italy has made coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for all health workers, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against significant ‘no-vax’ sentiment in the country.

· Brazil has detected a new Covid variant in São Paulo state that is similar to the one first seen in South Africa, it was reported earlier.

· Rates of stillbirth and maternal death rose by about one-third during the coronavirus pandemic, with the impact most acute in poor and developing countries, a study published in the Lancet Global Health journal reported.

· Finland’s government has withdrawn a proposal to confine people largely to their own homes in several cities to help curb the spread of Covid, the prime minister said.

· Europe’s drug regulator is investigating 62 cases worldwide of a rare blood clotting condition which has prompted some countries to limit the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, its chief said in a briefing.

· Sweden’s government will postpone a planned easing of some Covid restrictions until at least 3 May amid a severe third wave, the prime minister said.

· The premiers of two southern German states badly hit by the pandemic (Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg) urged leaders in the rest of the country to reintroduce tougher lockdown measures to try to contain a third wave of infections.

· Israel plans to administer the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech Covid vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds upon FDA approval, the health minister said after the manufacturer deemed the shots safe and effective on the cohort.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/apr/01/coronavirus-live-news-france-to-enter-month-long-covid-19-lockdown-batch-of-johnson-and-johnson-vaccine-fails-quality-control