More States Find Variant; N.Y. Cases Reach Record: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) — Connecticut, Texas and Pennsylvania reported their first cases of the virus variant that helped trigger a U.K. lockdown amid concern that Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. are likely to maintain a near-record pace at least through January. Mounting hospitalizations are offsetting any positive effect from the halting start to inoculations.

New York, New Jersey, Florida and North Carolina are among states that reported daily records as Illinois became the fifth state to surpass 1 million infections. Fatalities in Arizona reached a high and those in California were just two deaths from the record set at the end of 2020.

British medics will be able to give Covid-19 shots to hundreds of thousands of people every day by Jan. 15, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. Brazil surpassed 200,000 virus deaths, second only to the U.S., on a day when it reported the most infections of the pandemic.

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned hospitals and health-care workers on Thursday that if they don’t take Covid-19 vaccines while it’s offered exclusively to them in the early days of the state’s inoculation drive, they will lose their priority status when the vaccine rolls out to the general public.

Cuomo said that’s why he is pushing back on requests by New York City and other local officials who’ve asked the state to expand the group of people eligible for the vaccine in a bid to speed up vaccinations in the state. New York has administered only 430,000 of the 900,000 doses it has received.

Australia’s Queensland state imposed a three-day lockdown of its capital, Brisbane, after the U.K. variant of the coronavirus was detected in the city.

Residents across the metropolitan area will have to stay home except for essential work, services and exercise and wear masks if they do go out, state Premier Annastacia Pałaszczuk told reporters Friday.

Houston plans to turn Minute Maid Park, home to Major League Baseball’s Astros, into a vaccination hub this weekend. Shots will only be distributed to people who’ve booked appointments, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a tweet on Thursday.

Across Texas, almost 20,000 new virus cases were discovered, pushing the three-day total to 65,600, the worst run since the pandemic began, state health department data showed. Hospitalizations are approaching 14,000 in the second-most populous U.S. state. The Waco area surpassed Laredo as Texas’s worst hot spot, the data showed.

Brazil’s coronavirus death toll passed 200,000 as the respiratory disease again pummels the Latin American country and a nationwide vaccination plan remains weeks away at best. Another 1,524 people died, while new cases rose to a daily record of 87,843.

Much like in Europe and the U.S., the virus has resurfaced across the sprawling country in the past few weeks. Year-end festivities which saw large gatherings, and the detection of the new, more contagious variant of the virus in Sao Paulo, have added to concerns about the strength of a second wave.

Florida reported 19,816 new infections, the highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic. The state has been hit hard in the latest surge, far surpassing the number of infections reached in the summer. Total cases are now 1,429,722, the most after California and Texas. Another 164 residents died, for a total of 22,481.

France will keep gyms, theaters and ski lifts closed until at least the end of January, and bars and restaurants until mid-February, Prime Minister Jean Castex said. New infections rose by 21,703 on Thursday while deaths increased by 276 to 66,841. Curfew measures will remain in place across France until at least Jan. 20, Castex said.

The country said it has found 19 confirmed cases of the more-transmissible U.K. Covid-19 variant and 3 cases of the South African variant. Health authorities are investigating two probable clusters of infection with the U.K. variant in the western region of Brittany and the Paris region. Authorities found a confirmed case of the U.K. variant in Paris region that they haven’t been able to link to any travel history.

New York reported 17,636 positive tests and and 197 fatalities, while New Jersey had a record 6,314 new cases and 123 fatalities, a third straight day of more than 100.

Both states had warned of a post-New Year’s Eve celebration surge. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy have been battling a second wave as colder weather nudged people indoors and holidays increased social gatherings.

Hospitalizations in New Jersey for Covid-19 dipped slightly to 3,711 on Thursday, while those in New York also fell slightly to 8,548. At the height of the first wave of the pandemic, New York had more than 18,000 hospitalized at one time.

Still, New York City’s Covid-19 hospitalizations rose to their highest rate since May at 3,107 as of Jan. 5, according to state data. Hospitals admitted 273 people on Tuesday, and the rate of admissions has climbed to 4.28 per 100,000 residents, well above the city’s goal of keeping that rate below 2 per 100,000.

California reported 583 new deaths, just two fewer than the record set at the end of the year, raising the toll to 28,045 since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The state added 36,385 new cases, bringing the total to 2.5 million.

The Golden State has been a focal point of the latest outbreak as a growing number of regions across the state, particularly in Southern California, run out of ICU beds. Statewide, the number of ICU beds have fallen to the lowest level based on data going back to early April, as hospitalizations climb to the highest during that time.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said the two cases of the variant initially discovered in the U.K. came from a patient who had traveled to Ireland and another to New York state. The cases are unrelated, he said, citing genetic sequencing of the virus.

Spain’s total cases rose by 6,498 to surpass 2 million, according to the Health Ministry on Thursday. The total number of fatalities reached 51,675. The country will start receiving 600,000 doses of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine in the coming days, Health Minister Salvador Illa said.

Illinois passed another “tragic” milestone by logging more than 1 million coronavirus cases, Governor J.B. Pritzker said in a statement.

On Thursday, the state reported 8,757 cases and 177 deaths. That pushed the total to 1,008,045 confirmed and probable cases, and 17,272 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Texas and Pennsylvania became the latest states to report cases of the more-transmissible variant of the coronavirus.

In Texas, the variant was detected in an adult man from Harris County, home to the country’s fourth largest city of Houston, who has no history of travel, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“The fact that this person had no travel history suggests this variant is already circulating in Texas,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, DSHS commissioner.

In Pennsylvania, a person in Dauphin County tested positive after “known international exposure,” Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said. The person had mild symptoms that were resolved while isolated at home.

At least five other U.S. states have reported cases of the variant.

British medics will be able to give Covid-19 shots to hundreds of thousands of people everyday by Jan. 15, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

“We are in a race against time, but we are doing everything we can to vaccinate as many people as possible across the U.K.,” Johnson said at a televised press conference.

North Carolina infections rose to a daily record, of 10,398, as did total hospitalizations, to 3,960. Another 137 people died, state data showed.

Arizona on Thursday reported a daily record of Covid-19 fatalities for the second time this week. The 297 deaths brought the state’s toll from the pandemic to 9,741. The state Department of Health Services also reported 9,913 new cases for a total of 584,593.

Italy registered 18,020 new virus cases on Thursday, from 20,331 the day before. Daily deaths declined too, with 414 fatalities reported, compared with 548 on Wednesday, while the positivity rate rose to 14.9% as fewer tests were carried out.

Italy has extended through mid-January some curbs imposed during the holiday season, including a limit of two guests per household.

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