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First Coronavirus Vaccines Head to States, Beginning Historic Effort

First Coronavirus Vaccines Head to States, Starting Historic Effort

“You are still a little hesitant,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “If we don’t go out there first, take the first doses of the vaccine, and show that we believe in and trust him, I don’t think the long-term carers will have the intake they need. ”

In most states, concerted efforts to vaccinate nursing home residents will begin a week later. Beginning December 21, under a contract with the federal government, CVS and Walgreens will deploy pharmacist teams to approximately 75,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in all 50 states to vaccinate as many residents and employees as possible. CVS aims to complete the process over nine to 12 weeks.

On Thursday afternoon, when an FDA advisory committee was debating whether to recommend approval of the Pfizer vaccine, the first packages – vaccination cards, masks, visors, leaflets and syringes – arrived at the UPMC Presbyterian, a hospital in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC’s medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology, said a hospital committee had concluded that the immediate goal of the allocation was to prevent community-to-hospital transmission.

“The likelihood of exposure is greater in the community and at home than in the workplace,” he said, noting that health care workers in general have taken great precautions when among patients.

Some hospitals have announced that they will give priority to workers with underlying illnesses that pose a higher risk of developing serious illnesses.

Dr. Marci Drees, the infection prevention officer and hospital epidemiologist at ChristianaCare, a Delaware-based hospital system, said the system would offer its healthcare workers a list of such conditions, but would only ask them to generally state if they had any.

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WHO holds press convention on the coronavirus outbreak

WHO holds press conference on the coronavirus outbreak

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World Health Organization officials hold a press conference on Friday to inform the public about the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 69.7 million people around the world as governments around the world begin rolling out the first vaccines.

The briefing comes as U.S. regulators say approval of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is imminent. On Thursday evening, an advisory group to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly approved the emergency approval of the Pfizer vaccine for use in anyone over the age of 15. The UK, Canada and Bahrain have already approved the vaccine for most adults.

It couldn’t be more urgent. More Americans are now dying from the disease than at any other time in the pandemic. The country reported more than 224,400 new cases of the virus on Thursday and more than 2,700 people in the country died of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week expressed concern about the “growing awareness that the pandemic is over”.

Tedros said the positive news about vaccine development “gets us all going,” but the public must continue to adhere to public health guidelines.

Read CNBC’s live updates for the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak.

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GPS monitoring, precedence touchdown for coronavirus vaccines, FedEx, UPS say

GPS tracking, priority landing for coronavirus vaccines, FedEx, UPS say

Wesley Wheeler, President of Global Healthcare at United Parcel Service (UPS), holds up a sample of the vial used to ship the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, as presented during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the Senate testifies on logistics for shipping a COVID-19 vaccine on December 10, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images

Location tracking and priority flights are among the special treatments FedEx and United Parcel Service are planning to deliver coronavirus vaccines, executives said Thursday.

The shipping giants told a Senate transportation subcommittee that even when the busiest shipping season peaks during the holiday season, vaccines will be given priority over all other items. Richard Smith, executive vice president of FedEx Express, said the company is calling it the “Shipathon.”

Smith and Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Global Healthcare, expressed confidence that their companies could get the vaccines to administrative centers in the US and explained how they plan to divide the work.

Your comments come as federal health officials appear to be on the verge of deciding whether to accelerate approvals for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.

“Just to point out how deep this is, you have two strong rivals … in FedEx and UPS who are literally joining forces to make this happen,” said Smith. UPS also supplies materials for the vaccine kits such as diluents, syringes, and protective equipment for the medical personnel who administer the shots.

According to Wheeler from UPS, vaccine and dry ice shipments – Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit – will each have special labels with tracking technology. Vaccine shipments are also transported using devices that monitor temperature, location and movement.

He added that vaccines are loaded first and unloaded first on UPS planes. Executives said they are working with the Federal Aviation Administration to alert them to airplanes carrying the vaccine so that they can get priority take-off and landing permits.

“We are in constant communication with the aviation industry on daily command center calls and weekly calls with industry executives,” the FAA said in a statement. “We’re working with the industry to identify priority flights and prioritize our resources to meet the greatest demand.”

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White Home Coronavirus Process Pressure backs restoration of inbound journey from Brazil, UK and Europe, sources say

White House Coronavirus Task Force backs restoration of inbound travel from Brazil, UK and Europe, sources say

President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Friday, November 13, 2020.

Evan Vucci | AP

The White House Coronavirus Task Force has recommended President Donald Trump that the United States begin admitting travelers from Brazil, the United Kingdom and the 27 countries of the European Union, according to two officials involved in the discussions.

If Trump approves the proposal for a directive, it would reverse entry bans on U.S. allies that were in place at the start of the pandemic as the virus rose overseas. Travel from China and Iran, two of the earliest hotspots for the virus that restricted travel in January and February, would not be eased, according to these officials.

The task force disagreed on its recommendation, which was sent to the president before Thanksgiving. According to the sources, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly disapproved of reopening travel as reckless, especially as the agency’s leadership signaled to the American public that domestic vacation travel was unsafe.

The proposed policy would not guarantee entry to the same countries for US travelers and would upset some of Trump’s advisors who argue that it violates the government’s “America First” mantra. However, significant disagreements persist between nations and blocs over what protocols are needed to keep transmission of the virus at bay, and the two officials who spoke with CNBC said there may be disagreements between the outbound and inbound administrations could give, which further complicates the negotiations.

In the U.S., the task force agreed that local authorities – such as individual airports, governors, and mayors – would be responsible for the testing and quarantine protocol international travelers would need after they land in order to avoid the creation of a surviving federal regulatory regime Pandemic.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on where the political process stands and when Trump might put it into action. The two sources involved in the discussion said that if approved, they would be announced before Trump leaves office, but the growing virus as a holiday approach would challenge any announcement until then.

Reuters initially reported on the lifting of travel restrictions. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that officials were discussing a limited opening of the travel corridor between New York and London, which should go into effect before the holidays.

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Italy coronavirus outbreak: What’s taking place there now

Italy coronavirus outbreak: What's happening there now

Healthcare workers transfer a COVID-19 patient to a biocontainment stretcher in the Covid emergency room of the San Filippo Neri Hospital during lockdown measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on October 29, 2020 in Rome, Italy.

Antonio Masiello | Getty Images

Italy became Europe’s first coronavirus hotspot earlier this year after cases occurred in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto in February.

It imposed the first lockdown outside of China after the virus spread across the country and across the continent.

In the summer, as elsewhere, there was a lull in infections in Italy before a second wave of coronavirus infections set in.

Now the daily number of infections remains high and a record number of daily deaths were reported last week. Here is a snapshot of the current developments in Italy.

What is the virus situation like?

Italy currently has the second highest number of coronavirus infections in Europe after France with 1,728,878 confirmed cases. This is based on data from Johns Hopkins University. Over 60,000 people have died of the disease in the country.

13,720 new Covid cases and 528 more deaths were recorded on Monday, with the numbers likely to be lower due to the delay over the weekend. It comes after 18,887 new cases on Sunday and 21,052 on Saturday. On Friday, 24,099 new infections were counted, as data from the Ministry of Health show – a number that points more to the current virus trend in Italy.

993 deaths were recorded last Thursday, surpassing an earlier record of 919 daily deaths during the first wave of the virus.

Italy’s health department, the Higher Health Institute, said Monday that nearly 40% of Italy’s 60,000 deaths have occurred in the hardest-hit region, Lombardy.

What about the vacation?

Last week the Italian government passed another package of tough restrictions, which are seen as a crucial way to avoid further hikes in certain cases.

This includes the ban on travel between Italian regions between December 21 and January 6, which means families across Italy cannot get together for Christmas unless they travel before the rules come into force.

Measures put online by the Italian Ministry of Health include a ban on leaving your hometown on Christmas Day, St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day, December 26) and New Year’s Day.

The government has maintained the current curfew. People are not allowed out of their homes between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. (and until 7 a.m. on New Year’s Day), except for work or health reasons. That rules out a midnight mass for millions of Catholics in Italy.

Italian tourists traveling abroad from December 21 to January 6 will have to undergo quarantine upon their return, the ministry said. Foreign tourists who come to Italy during the same period must also be quarantined.

Red zones

As in other countries, Italy has applied a tiered system to differentiate parts of the country according to their risk profile, with different rules applying in these areas.

The areas with the highest risk are classified as “red zones” and are subject to the strictest restrictions. This is followed by “orange zones” with medium to high risk and increased restrictions, and yellow zones of medium risk with baseline restrictions.

Currently, the yellow area includes the regions: Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Marche, Molise, Trento, Apulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Umbria and Veneto.

The orange areas include: Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lombardy, Piedmont, Bolzano, Tuscany and Aosta Valley.

The only red zone at the moment is the central region of Abruzzo. In a red area, only stores selling essential goods can remain open and restaurants and bars can only offer take-away service.

Red zone residents are not allowed to move around their own area (whether by public or private transport) unless there is a vital reason to do so. Anyone who has to leave the house for work, study, health or emergency reasons must fill out a form. In a red zone, visiting or meeting relatives or friends with whom you do not live together in an open or closed place is prohibited.

Bans and continued restrictions clearly affect some Italians more than others; A story about an Italian went viral after an argument with his wife who took a walk to cool off and ran 450 km after an argument with his wife. Italians called the man, who was fined 400 euros by the police for violating the curfew, “Forrest Gump” after the character who walks thousands of kilometers across America.