Biden to Free Up Doses; N.Y. Widens Eligibility: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) — President-elect Joe Biden says he’ll distribute more of the available doses of coronavirus vaccines, as the U.S. surpassed 4,000 daily fatalities for the first time.

New York state will begin to expand eligibility for the vaccine beyond front-line health-care workers to include people over 75, police officers, firefighters and others. Utah’s new governor also signed an executive order to speed vaccine distribution. Maine broke records for infections and deaths.

London’s mayor declared an emergency as the U.K. reported record fatalities. Germany also reported the most daily deaths since the start of the pandemic. Iran banned U.S. and U.K. vaccinations.

• Global Tracker: Cases pass 88.6 million; deaths surpass 1.9 million
• Covid testing is slow to bounce back from holiday lull in U.S.
• U.S. jobs recovery falters as virus surge snaps hiring streak
• Vaccine Tracker: More than 17.5 million shots given worldwide
• Automakers are losing production as virus disrupts chip supplies
• Altering vaccine regimens endangers effectiveness, according to the EU regulator
• BBC staff will wear buzzers to help enforce social distancing
• Africa is being left behind as vaccinations begin worldwide
• Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on coronavirus cases and deaths.

More than three-quarters of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in Wuhan between January and May had at least one persistent symptom six months later, according to a report that forebodes the enduring pain of the pandemic.

Almost two-thirds of those followed still experienced fatigue or muscle weakness half a year after their acute illness, while 26% had sleep difficulties and 23% had anxiety or depression, according to the peer-reviewed study of 1,733 patients in The Lancet medical journal.

Utah’s new Governor Spencer Cox signed an executive order to speed up vaccine distribution amid a post-holiday virus surge. Among other changes, teachers will be eligible to receive doses starting Monday, and the minimum age will be dropped to 70 from 75 on Jan. 18. “The virus doesn’t sleep,” he tweeted. “The virus doesn’t take weekends off. And neither should we.”

Florida reported 19,530 new infections, slightly fewer than the record set the previous day for the entire pandemic. Amid a renewed surge around the South, the state reported another 185 deaths among residents.

New York will begin providing coronavirus vaccines to people age 75 and older on Monday, expanding eligibility beyond health-care workers on the front lines.

Hospitals and pharmacies still must prioritize health-care workers, but if they have extra capacity, “fine,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a briefing Friday.

New York will also allow private doctors, ambulatory centers and pharmacies to provide vaccines in order to speed a slower-than-expected rollout, Cuomo said. Also Monday, police officers, firefighters, and other first responders will be able to get shots, along with educators, transit and public-safety workers.

Hospitals have increased distribution, but it’s not enough, Cuomo said. Only 23% of 2.1 million health-care workers have received shots so far. “We’re not pleased with the rate,” he said.

New York reported 18,832 new cases on Friday, breaking a record for the second consecutive day. Another 161 people died.

Justin Trudeau’s government sought to assure the public it’s trying to speed up delivery of vaccines amid pressure from health authorities who say they’re running low on shots.

Canada has ordered more doses per capita than any other country — reserving at least 214 million shots for 38 million people — and was the second country after the U.K. to approve the Pfizer vaccine. It has also authorized Moderna’s shot.

France reported 19,814 new cases on Friday, pushing the 7-day average to 15,337, the highest level since late November. Deaths rose by 590 to 67,431. While the government has boasted France is doing a better job of controlling a resurgence of infections than neighbors, including the U.K. and Germany, daily cases are about triple a target set by President Emmanuel Macron before the country can start to ease restrictions.

The performance of three Covid-19 tests authorized for U.S. use could be affected by the emergence of coronavirus variants, though not significantly, and the overall risk of variants — including one that appears to be more transmissible — affecting testing accuracy is low, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.

The tests in question are Mesa Biotech Inc.’s Accula test, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s TaqPath Covid-19 Combo Kit and Applied DNA Sciences’ Linea Covid-19 Assay Kit, according to the FDA, though the agency noted that the latter two tests are designed to detect multiple genetic targets and so their overall sensitivity should not be affected. Those two tests could even help identify new variants early based on their detection patterns, the regulator said.

With the Mesa Biotech test, meanwhile, a genetic variant at a specific position could impact performance but “the impact does not appear to be significant,” the agency said in a letter to laboratory staff and health providers.

Applied DNA Sciences Chief Executive Officer James Hayward said in an interview the FDA communication actually suggests his company’s test is “one of the few ways, out of the hundred alternatives, to actually detect the variant.” The test, which is being used in diagnostic laboratories and surveillance efforts, has detected two instances of a coronavirus variant over the last two weeks, he said.

Mesa Biotech said in a statement that internal analysis found the test’s performance shouldn’t be affected by the genetic variant identified by the FDA.

Twitter hid a tweet by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that suggested the U.S. and U.K. might intentionally contaminate vaccines and decreed a ban on importing them.

The tweet on Friday, which said “French vaccines aren’t trustworthy either,” was labeled in violation of Twitter’s rules.

Iran’s Supreme Leader said he was banning the import of coronavirus vaccines made by U.S. and U.K. companies, including Pfizer, amid a feud with western nations.

“If their Pfizer manufacturer can produce a vaccine, then why do they want to give it to us?” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech Friday. “They should use it themselves so they don’t experience so many fatalities. Same with the U.K.”

The Iranian Red Crescent Society has canceled plans to deliver 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the help of U.S. philanthropists. The nation reported 6,251 new cases, bringing the total figures to almost 1.3 million. The number of fatalities rose by 85 to 56,018.

Irish authorities reported the most new cases on record and confirmed three cases of the so-called South African variant of the virus had been found in the country. The nation’s health ministry reported 8,248 cases on Friday, with 20 deaths. Genome sequencing showed the South African variant in three cases “directly associated with recent travel” from that country, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said. The government this week imposed the strictest lockdown level since March to control the virus, with hospitals in danger of being overwhelmed.

President-elect Joe Biden says he’ll distribute more of the available doses of coronavirus vaccines, reversing the Trump administration’s practice of holding back second doses to ensure they’re available for people who’ve already had their first shot.

The move, announced by Biden’s office Friday and supported by a group of Democratic governors, is a response to the sluggish vaccine rollout. Coronavirus cases and deaths have been surging in the U.S. for months.

As much as three-quarters of the global population is probably still susceptible to infection by Covid-19, said Mike Ryan, Health Emergency Director of the World Health Organization.

The WHO is starting to organize studies to better track how much of the world population has been infected, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead officer on Covid-19. Previous blood-test studies estimated as many as 10% of people may have been infected by Covid-19 in various countries, but those took place about half a year ago.

“We are at the fight of our lives,” Ryan said, adding that the mutation of the virus is speeding up the rate of infection. Reported infections worldwide have exceeded 4 million per week over the past three weeks.

Spain’s health ministry reported 12,327 new cases on Friday, the most since the start of the pandemic. That compares with 6,498 reported Thursday. Health Minister Salvador Illa said Friday that cases would continue to rise.

In Portugal, there were 10,176 new cases in a day, more than the previous record announced on Wednesday. The total number of deaths rose by a daily record 118 to 7,590. The nation may have to tighten restrictions on movement next week as it tries to contain the spread of the pandemic, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.

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