Today’s In Crisis headlines

(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:

COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections and deaths.

Latest reported numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 101,567,466
Global deaths: 2,193,577. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 433,213.
Number of countries/regions: at least 192
Total patients recovered globally: 56,170,790

Latest reported numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 25,768,826 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 433,213. New York State has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 43,093.
U.S. total people tested: 299,051,207

The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 3,273,905 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. This ranks second in the world after England, which has 3,274,397 cases. Texas is third, with 2,330,272 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 29 million.

Johnson & Johnson says single-shot COVID-19 vaccine proven “highly effective”
Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson announced Friday morning that their single-shot COVID-19 vaccine has proven “highly effective” in Phase 3 clinical trials. “[W]e’ve produced data that say that our vaccine is highly effective, 85% effective against severe COVID, 100% effective against hospitalization or death,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D., the global head of Janssen Research & Development, told ABC News. Johnson & Johnson also said the vaccine is safe to take, with volunteers experiencing mild reactions after the shot and fewer than 10% experiencing fever.

Unlike the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines currently being distributed nationwide, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one shot to be effective, and can be stored at conventional refrigeration temperatures for a much longer time. The Food and Drug Administration could consider the data and grant Johnson & Johnson an Emergency Use Authorization in the next few weeks, meaning if the EUA is granted, distribution of the vaccine could be underway before the end of February, with 100 million doses ready to go by June. Johnson & Johnson’s Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels said the company’s goal is to make a billion doses of the vaccine available worldwide by the end of the year.

COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations in US continue to fall
For the second week in a row, new cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped nationally this week – 17% for cases and 10% for hospitalizations — though both remain much higher than at any point before the fall/winter pandemic surge. Trend analysis by the Covid Tracking Project finds nationwide hospitalizations on Thursday fell by over 3,000, noting it’s “because cases are falling in every region.” Over two weeks, the national seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases, approximately 159,000, has declined by 34%, the steepest non-holiday related drop in cases the U.S. has seen since the summer. The national average is now the lowest it’s been since November 30, largely due to a significant decrease in new cases in the West, with every state in the region reporting cases falling.

Even so, the U.S. pandemic death rate remains high, with Johns Hopkins University reporting 3.872 COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday, for a cumulative total of 433,213 U.S. deaths since the first COVID-19 case was reported in the U.S. on January 21, 2020. The U.S. continues to account for the most pandemic cases and deaths in the world, with 25.3% and 19.7% of global totals, respectively.

News

By 101.9 The Mix | January 29, 2021