Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/coronavirus-today.html

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U.S. officials reported at least 3,963 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, a single-day record, though delayed recording because of the holidays might have played a role.

Brazilian officials said a coronavirus vaccine made by a Chinese company was effective. If approved, it could be rolled out in much of the developing world.

Firefighters across the U.S. are beginning to receive the vaccine.

Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and vaccines in development.

We may never know for certain without effective contact tracing — which the U.S. largely lacks — and because most of the rioters who stormed the Capitol yesterday are unidentified, tracing them would be difficult.

Even so, a large group of mostly unmasked people shouting indoors for long periods is a recipe for a super-spreader event, my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli wrote.

Similar concerns were raised last year during the Black Lives Matter protests and campaign rallies. But in the case of those protests, most were held outdoors, and a greater number of participants seemed to be masked. (Research afterward suggested these were not super-spreading events.)

In contrast, at the Capitol, violent protesters, the police and members of Congress mixed for long periods indoors, some without masks, and without social distancing. Given current infection rates and the highly contagious variant that has most likely already spread to every state, it’s safe to assume that some people were infectious when the riot broke out.

Experts told Apoorva that they were particularly concerned about members of Congress, who have critical roles to play in the transfer of power, and who sheltered from the violence in large groups.

Already, Representative Jake LaTurner, a Republican from Kansas, announced on Twitter this morning that he had tested positive for the virus. Mr. LaTurner hunkered down in the chamber with other members of Congress for much of the day. One lawmaker told CBS News that about half of the 400 or so lawmakers and staff members who were huddling together after being whisked from the chamber for their safety had refused to wear masks.

Experts said they were also worried that rioters, many of whom had traveled long distances to Washington from other states, would return home and ignite outbreaks across the country. Given their political leanings, the experts added, many may be Covid deniers and refuse to get tested.

“We might get an inkling into how bad it might be because of the federal employees,” said Dr. Joshua Barocas, an infectious diseases physician at Boston University. But “I don’t think that we’re going to know the extent of this super-spreader event.”

In the past, research into outbreaks on airplanes have focused on flights that took place last spring, when planes were full, passengers mostly didn’t wear masks and preventive measures weren’t broadly understood. A study published yesterday, however, examined a more recent outbreak on a flight that put numerous containment measures in place — and the results were not great for travelers.

In September, an outbreak occurred aboard a flight from Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand. The 86 passengers onboard went into a mandatory 14-day quarantine in New Zealand, and seven eventually tested positive. Researchers at the New Zealand Ministry of Health found that at least four were infected on the flight.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, with a capacity of nearly 400 passengers, was only one-quarter full and the four people infected in flight were seated within four rows of one another during the 18-hour trip.

The in-flight outbreak occurred when additional precautions were in place and passengers were more cautious. But researchers still identified a number of holes. Two of the four people infected on the plane said they didn’t wear masks on the flight. The airline also did not require passengers to wear masks in the lobby before boarding or be tested preflight.

Previous studies on the risk of infection during air travel are mixed (airplane filtration systems are thought to help, even when a passenger is infected), but this latest research suggests that airlines need to tighten precautions even more to avert in-flight outbreaks.

Japan declared a state of emergency in and around Tokyo, after days of record coronavirus counts and a rapidly rising death toll.

Israel faces a tightened lockdown this week as officials fear that the more transmissible British variant of the virus is spreading rapidly and its vaccine supplies are running low.

The police in Thailand issued arrest warrants for a husband and wife who helped smuggle 19 illegal immigrants from Myanmar, including seven who tested positive for the coronavirus.

In France, officials vowed to speed up their vaccination campaign, but warned that restrictions and curfews would remain in place in order to halt a rise in infections and hospitalizations.

Here’s a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.

Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted that the daily death toll from the coronavirus would continue to rise for weeks, and asked for patience with the slow pace of the vaccination program gearing up across the nation.

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that infection rates were sharply higher in counties where universities held classes in person.

U.S. state and federal officials are warning consumers about potential fraud involving the coronavirus stimulus payments that are now being distributed by check and direct deposit.

A new study shows that convalescent plasma treatment for Covid-19 works — but only when given early in an infection.

Jury trials in the U.S. are being suspended again because of the virus surge.

The virus killed half the residents at a nursing home in Britain over Christmas, raising fears that the more contagious variant of the virus is beginning to penetrate nursing homes in the country, The Guardian reports.

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