The total number of reported coronavirus cases in the United States marched toward 50 million early Tuesday, as New York City imposed a vaccine mandate for all private employers, federal health authorities warned against travel to several European countries, and more nations tightened restrictions on the unvaccinated.
The omicron variant of the virus, which is possibly more contagious than the widespread delta variant, had been found in 19 U.S. states as of Monday — just five days after the first known case in the country emerged in California. That number reflected the potentially heightened transmissibility of the newest variant and an improved system for detecting it.
But public health experts nationwide are stressing that the overwhelming majority of the nation’s coronavirus cases are still caused by the highly transmissible delta variant, which has led to some of the worst spikes of the pandemic. By early Tuesday, the United States had tallied nearly 49.3 million coronavirus cases and more than 786,000 deaths since the first infection surfaced in January 2020, according to Washington Post tracking.
Key coronavirus updates from around the world
By Washington Post Staff3:33 p.m.
Here’s what to know from news service reports about the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
- European Union health ministers discussed measures to try to halt the spread of the omicron variant on Tuesday, with the Netherlands calling for negative tests for incoming travelers from outside the bloc and France urging tests even for those arriving from E.U. states, according to Reuters. In line with the United States and many other countries, E.U. members last month agreed to impose travel curbs on seven southern African nations after they reported several cases of the omicron variant, which is considered highly infectious. Despite widespread reports of the variant outside of those African countries, no minister at a regular meeting in Brussels suggested these restrictions should be lifted.
- In Canada, coronavirus cases are on the rise across Ontario, the nation’s most populous province, because of the delta variant, but health officials are bracing for the omicron variant. “COVID will almost certainly rise through January, even before Omicron hits us in full force,” a provincial advisory body said. “We can’t predict Omicron precisely, but it will almost certainly hit us hard and fast.”
- Sweden is reintroducing measures to curb rising coronavirus infections and is urging renewed social distancing and the use of masks in public transportation. Early in the battle with the virus, Sweden had some of the most lax regulations, but later issued more stringent measures.
- In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told cabinet members that early indications suggest the omicron variant is more transmissible than the delta variant. “The prime minister said it was too early to draw conclusions on the characteristics of omicron but that early indications were that it was more transmissible than delta,” Johnson’s spokesman told reporters Tuesday.
- In Germany, a prosecutor said a man killed his wife and three young children before taking his own life after authorities found that he faked a vaccination certificate. The man feared his children would be taken away from him when the forgery was discovered, the prosecutor said.
U.S. launches new effort to expand access to vaccines worldwide
The United States is launching a new initiative to address global vaccine inequity, devoting an additional $400 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to try to help overcome access barriers around the world.
The effort, called the Initiative for Global Vaccine Access, or Global VAX, was announced Monday by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It will put $315 million toward vaccine delivery, including investing in the supply chain, supporting national vaccination campaigns and creating mobile clinics for rural and hard-to-reach populations.
Additionally, $75 million will be used to deliver lifesaving resources, such as oxygen, to covid hot spots, and $10 million will be used to support in-country vaccine manufacturing by offering training and planning assistance. Global VAX has a specific emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa, USAID said.
“Vaccinating the world is the best way to prevent future variants that could threaten the health of Americans and undermine our economic recovery,” the agency said in a news release. “As more vaccine supply flows to low and middle income countries, the United States and other donors must redouble efforts to help countries efficiently and effectively receive, distribute, and administer doses.”
While about 60 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, other countries lag far behind. African countries, for instance, have vaccinated just 6 percent of the continent’s population of 1.2 billion. The World Health Organization has repeatedly called on wealthy nations to support their smaller, poorer counterparts in vaccination efforts.
Global VAX joins previous U.S. efforts, including becoming the single largest donor to Covax, a World Health Organization-led global partnership to distribute vaccines to countries in need. The United States says it has shared more than 290 million vaccines with 110 countries — “amounting to more donations than all other countries combined,” according to the news release.
Analysis: Republicans’ disregard for doctors on the coronavirus
Austria to keep lockdown restrictions in place for the unvaccinated
Austria plans to lift its coronavirus lockdown this Sunday while keeping restrictions in place for the unvaccinated, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Tuesday.
Austria shut down restaurants and closed hotels for tourists Nov. 22 in an effort to bring down rising coronavirus rates, as Europe became the center of a new wave of the virus.
Nehammer, who took office Monday after the sudden resignation of Sebastian Kurz, which prompted a government crisis, said at a news conference that “the lockdown for the unvaccinated is staying,” according to Reuters. Close to 68 percent of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to Our World in Data.
The country has had a tougher stance toward people who are not vaccinated. It is the first country in Europe to mandate coronavirus vaccination for all starting in February, and it had imposed a lockdown for the unvaccinated a week before the Nov. 22 containment measures.
CDC sees New York City anime convention as test case for omicron
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators are taking an in-depth look at a New York City anime convention attended by a man who contracted one of the nation’s first confirmed cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Speaking Tuesday during a White House coronavirus task force briefing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said the agency was working with health officials in New York City and Minnesota, the home state of the infected man. They have been in touch with health agencies in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and 27 other countries with residents who attended the convention.
Of the reported 53,000 attendees, they’ve made contact with about 35,000, encouraging them to get tested, Walensky said.
“Data from this investigation will provide some of the earliest looks in this country on the transmissibility of the variant,” she said.
The convention ran Nov. 18-22 at the Javits Center, with vaccination and masks required. Peter McGinn, the Minnesota man who was infected with omicron, told The Washington Post he had mild symptoms and some fatigue over about two days. Several friends who attended the convention with the 30-year-old health-care consultant also contracted the virus.
McGinn credited his Johnson & Johnson vaccine and Moderna booster shot with protecting him from more serious symptoms.
“I would recommend everyone, when they can, do get the booster,” he said.
Illinois lawmaker says unvaccinated should pay for covid-19 care
Unvaccinated hospital patients in Illinois would have to pay their own coronavirus medical bills out of pocket under proposed legislation. State Rep. Jonathan Carroll (D) filed his bill on Monday as the state struggles to contain covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
“A person who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and chooses not to be vaccinated shall pay for health care expenses out-of-pocket if the person becomes hospitalized because of COVID-19 symptoms,” the proposed bill says.
The proposal from Carroll, who represents Northbrook, Ill., a Chicago suburb, is almost certain to face political opposition and legal concerns, as federal laws prohibits insurers and employers from charging higher prices to patients with preexisting conditions. That also includes those diagnosed and treated for covid-19, according to healthcare.gov.
Gen Z most stressed by coronavirus, citing pandemic toll on careers, education and relationships, poll says
Gen Z is feeling the stresses of the pandemic more than any other age group, according to a U.S. survey released Monday.
Higher proportions of Americans between ages 13 and 24 say the pandemic has made their education, career goals and social lives more difficult, compared with millennials and Gen X.
About 45 percent of Gen Z respondents said maintaining ties with friends was harder, and 40 percent said their romantic relationships had become more difficult. Fewer Americans in older age groups reported the same difficulties, and they were less likely to say the pandemic had disrupted their education or careers, according to the survey.
U.S. cases approach 50 million
The total number of reported coronavirus cases in the United States marched toward 50 million Monday, a mark that looms as the virus approaches two years of being detected in the country.
By late Monday, the United States had tallied 49.3 million coronavirus cases since the first infection surfaced in January 2020, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. There have been more than 786,000 deaths, and new cases were increasing by more than 118,000 per day, according to a seven-day average of the numbers.
Few of the new cases are likely to be caused by the newly discovered omicron variant — about which scientists are racing to learn and collect data — but regardless of which strain is responsible, the overall trend here and abroad is alarming.
Plant-based coronavirus vaccine shows ‘positive’ results, GlaxoSmithKline and Medicago say
Pharmaceutical companies Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline announced on Tuesday “positive efficacy and safety results” from a global trial using what they say is the world’s first plant-based coronavirus vaccine.
Studying 24,000 adults across six countries, the trial found that the overall efficacy rate of the vaccine candidate was 71 percent, rising to 75.3 percent against “COVID-19 of any severity for the globally dominant Delta variant.” However, the trial did not include the newly identified omicron variant.
The global Phase 3 placebo-controlled efficacy study used Medicago’s plant-based vaccine candidate in combination with GSK’s pandemic adjuvant, an ingredient that works to boost the immune response and efficacy of others’ vaccines.
The Canadian and British companies said they hoped their vaccine candidate would diversify the pool of shots available and said the trial had shown that it was “well-tolerated, with no related serious adverse events reported in the vaccine group.”
U.K. study makes the case for mixing and matching vaccine regimens
A British study has made the case for a more flexible approach to mixing and matching vaccine regimens, which is likely to support a swifter rollout in many countries still working to immunize their populations.
The study found that after a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, using a second dose of a Moderna or Novavax shot generated a “robust” immune response, according to researchers at Britain’s University of Oxford.
The doses had a nine-week gap between the first and second shots, the Com-Cov study on more than 1,000 participants found. Its results were published in the Lancet medical journal Monday.
“This study therefore supports flexible use of these vaccines in primary immunisation schedules, which is crucial to help rapid deployment of these vaccines, especially in low- and middle-income countries where vaccine supply may be inconsistent,” it said.
The research showed that taking a Pfizer-BioNTech first dose and a Moderna second dose induced higher antibody and T-cell responses than the standard two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech schedule.
It also found that taking an Oxford-AstraZeneca shot followed by either a Moderna or Novavax injection also induced higher antibodies and T-cell responses than the “standard” two-dose Oxford-AstraZeneca regimen.
Matthew Snape, associate professor in pediatrics and vaccinology at Oxford and chief investigator on the trial, said in a statement that the results have been encouraging and helped offer a “more complete picture” of how different coronavirus vaccines could be used together.
“As well as providing evidence for flexibility in deployment, these results suggest this approach can also help generate better immune responses,” Snape added.
The study focused on the beta and delta variants of the virus, not the newly identified omicron variant, it said, and no safety concerns were raised.
British vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert says next pandemic ‘could be worse’ than coronavirus
The world should do more now to prepare for future pandemics, said Sarah Gilbert, one of the inventors of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
“This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods,” Gilbert said as she delivered the 44th Richard Dimbleby Lecture, an annual address by an influential figure that will be aired Monday on the BBC. “The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both,” said Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University.
“We cannot allow a situation where we have gone through all we have gone through, and then find that the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness,” Gilbert said, echoing earlier calls for more proactive funding for scientific research.
Google and Uber delay office returns amid omicron uncertainty
For companies whose employees are still toiling from their couches at home, the question of when to bring their full workforces back to the office has become even trickier.
In a pandemic when many decisions have hinged on risk tolerance, the coronavirus’s new omicron variant has complicated the process of calculating those hazards. Major corporations that had planned to shepherd all their employees back into offices in early 2022 now have to decide whether those dates make sense in light of further evidence of the pandemic’s unpredictability.
“There remains so much uncertainty, and uncertainty equals instability,” said Lars Schmidt, an author and podcast host who focuses on the future of work. “So when you’re trying to pretend that doesn’t exist and push people back into something they’re not ready for, you’re going to be met with resistance from employees.”
Seven days: Following Trump’s coronavirus trail
When he first learned he had tested positive for the coronavirus, President Donald Trump was already aboard Air Force One, en route to a massive rally in Middletown, Pa.
With him on the plane that Saturday evening were dozens of people — senior aides, Air Force One personnel, junior staffers, journalists and other members of the large entourage typical for a presidential trip — all squeezed together in the recirculating air of a jetliner.
“Stop the president,” White House physician Sean Conley told Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to a new book by Meadows set to publish Tuesday that was obtained by the Guardian newspaper. “He just tested positive for covid.”
But Meadows asserts in his book that it was too late to stop Trump and that a second rapid antigen test — apparently done using the same sample — came back negative. But under guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Trump should have taken a more accurate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to confirm whether he had the coronavirus.
As covid persists, nurses are leaving staff jobs — and tripling their salaries as travelers
Wanderlust, and the money to fund it, made Alex Stow’s decision easy. After working a couple of years in an intensive care unit, he signed up to be a travel nurse, tripling his pay to about $95 an hour by agreeing to help short-staffed hospitals around the country for 13 weeks at a time.
“Travel” proved a bit of a misnomer. His current assignment is in Traverse City, Mich., only a few hours from his old full-time job in Lansing — close enough that he still works per-diem shifts at his previous hospital.
Now Stow, 25, is buying a truck and a camper and preparing to hit the road. He’ll work where he wants and take time off to see the country between nursing assignments.
“As soon as I found out that was a thing, I thought, ‘That’s got my name written all over it,’ ” said Stow, who agreed to discuss his new work life if the hospitals were not named.
If 2020 was the year travel nursing took off, with 35 percent growth over the pre-pandemic year of 2019, this year has propelled it to new heights, with an additional 40 percent growth expected, according to an independent analyst of the health-care workforce.
