Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/coronavirus-briefing-what-happened-today.html

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The director of the C.D.C. said U.S. health officials “should be treating every case as if it’s a variant.”

Reports of new coronavirus cases have dropped by more than a third in recent weeks, reaching their lowest levels since November. Forty-eight states are reporting sustained declines in new infections.

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

Johnson & Johnson, the only major drugmaker developing a single-dose Covid vaccine, announced on Friday that its shot had provided strong protection in clinical trials.

If the Food and Drug Administration grants the company an emergency authorization, it would expand the vaccine supply in the United States as the Biden administration seeks to immunize many more Americans.

The results came with a significant cautionary note: In the U.S., the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 72 percent in clinical trials. But in South Africa, a country gripped by a new and more contagious variant, the efficacy rate dropped to just 57 percent.

The variant, which has spread to at least 31 countries, including the United States, may also blunt the effectiveness of Covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, warned that Johnson & Johnson’s trial results were a “wake up call” and warned manufacturers to be ready to reformulate the vaccines if needed.

“If ever there was reason to vaccinate as many people as expeditiously as we possibly can with the vaccine that we have right now, now is the time,” Dr. Fauci said in an interview.

Scientists still consider the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be a success: It was 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease. In all three regions where the trial was run — the United States, Latin America and South Africa — after 28 days, none of the vaccinated participants who developed Covid-19 had to be hospitalized. It is also easier to transport and administer than its rivals.

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines need to be stored at extremely low temperatures, and they spoil quickly once thawed. That could make Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine easier to distribute in poorer parts of the world, where more aggressive mutants could otherwise be seeded.

Meanwhile in Europe: The E.U. approved AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine but moved to temporarily restrict doses made in the bloc from being shipped abroad. Britain, a former bloc member, had been receiving a steady flow of vaccine doses from AstraZeneca since approving it well ahead of the E.U. in early December.

Restaurants in New York City will be able to open for indoor dining at 25 percent capacity on Valentine’s Day, more than a month after Gov. Andrew Cuomo shut down service to combat a second wave of the coronavirus.

For the restaurant industry, the announcement was a source of hope. The virus has decimated an important economic sector, putting restaurants and bars out of business and axing thousands of jobs. More tables indoors, especially during the chilliest days of the year, might help some businesses hang on until warmer weather returns.

Cote, an upscale Korean barbecue steakhouse, will be able to double the number of people it can sit from the roughly 50 it can serve in its outside cabanas. It already has a 100-reservation waiting list for Valentine’s Day.

“Now that we are opening indoors, it’s going to mean we no longer have to hemorrhage tens of thousands dollars each week,” the owner Simon Kim said.

The change will bring a welcome economic boost, but it comes at an incredibly precarious phase in the state’s battle against the virus, which has killed more than 42,500 people in New York State.

While the state’s hospitalization and positivity rates have begun to trend downward after a post-holidays spike, the vaccine rollout has been sluggish; only 6 percent of New York’s population has been vaccinated so far. More than 40 cases of the more contagious British variant have also been detected statewide.

Despite virus concerns, food-focused New Yorkers rushed to secure what is likely to be a coveted reservation inside for Feb. 14. Cafe Luxembourg, an intimate French bistro, immediately started fielding “many, many calls,” said Judi Wong, a manager.

“We’re always preparing for a change,” Ms. Wong said about the state’s shifting restrictions. “And this was a welcome change.”

The highly transmissible variant from South Africa has been identified in the United States, with two cases detected in South Carolina.

Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus death toll passed India’s on Thursday to become the world’s third-highest, after Brazil and the United States.

The University of Michigan advised students to stay home after at least 14 people contracted a new variant.

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

After months of delays, scientists from the W.H.O. began field work to trace the pandemic’s origin in Wuhan, China.

The W.H.O. no longer opposes vaccinating pregnant people, unless they are at high risk.

Canada will suspend flights to several resort areas in Mexico and the Caribbean in an attempt to stem the spread of new variants. “Now is just not the time to be flying,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

France and Germany both implemented travel restrictions in an attempt to stem the spread of variants.

Carole Landry, a writer and editor on the Briefings team, wrote about her time in a part of the world where the coronavirus is almost completely absent.

Today, my family and I are starting the long drive back to New York City after nearly two months in a world largely free of Covid. We’ve been spending time with family on Cape Breton Island, at the northeastern end of Nova Scotia, where we’ve been able to meet with friends, go to restaurants, do some shopping and basically plunge back into the Before Times.

There are currently three active cases of Covid in the region that includes the island, and nine active cases in the entire province of Nova Scotia. It’s not as if people here are completely oblivious — mask wearing is strictly enforced, and social distancing is taken seriously, as I found out when I walked against the arrows on the floor of a grocery store.

I’ve been struck at how our time here has been much less stressful. In New York, outings carried a risk. I now realize that we had lived under a steady but grinding, low-level stress.

I’ve so appreciated the opportunity to be social again, to talk face to face with friends. I feel as if I’ve peered into the post-pandemic future, and, friends, it’s wonderful.

Let us know how you’re dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.

Carole Landry contributed to today’s newsletter.