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As Covid Outbreak Rages, India Orders Essential Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down

As Covid Outbreak Rages, India Orders Critical Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down

NEW DELHI – With a devastating second wave of Covid-19 across India and lifesaving oxygen starvation, the Indian government on Sunday ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to remove dozens of social media posts critical of how the pandemic was dealt with are .

The order addressed itself in around 100 places that contained criticism from opposition politicians and called for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government said the posts could cause panic, use images out of context and hinder their response to the pandemic.

For the time being, the companies have complied by making the posts invisible to those using the websites in India. In the past, companies have republished some content after determining that it wasn’t breaking the law.

The shutdown orders come as India’s public health crisis turns into a political spiral, setting the stage for an increasing battle between American social media platforms and Mr Modi’s government over who decides what can be said online.

On Sunday, the country reported more than 349,691 new infections and 2,767 deaths. This was the fourth day in a row that it set a world record in daily infection statistics, though experts warn that the real numbers are likely much higher. The country now accounts for almost half of all new cases worldwide. His health system seems to be fluctuating. Hospitals across the country have been working hard to get enough oxygen for patients.

In New Delhi, the capital, hospitals turned away patients this weekend after running out of oxygen and beds. Last week at least 22 patients were killed in a Nashik city hospital after a leak cut their oxygen supply.

Online photos of corpses on plywood hospital beds and the countless fires of overhauled crematoria have gone viral. Desperate patients and their families have sought help from the government online, appalling an international audience.

On Sunday evening, in one of many solicitations for help on social media, Ajay Koli took to Twitter to find an oxygen bottle for his mother in Delhi, who he said had tested positive 10 days ago. Mr Koli said he lost his father on Saturday. “I don’t want to lose my mother now.”

Mr Modi has been attacked for ignoring expert advice on the risks of easing restrictions after holding large political rallies without regard to social distancing. Some of the content now offline in India has highlighted this contradiction by using garish images to contrast Mr. Modi’s rallies with the flames of the pyre.

In a radio address on Sunday, Mr. Modi tried to contain the fallout. He said the “storm” of infections “rocked” the country.

Updated

April 25, 2021, 1:06 p.m. ET

“To win this fight, we must prioritize experts and scientific advice,” he said.

One of the out of view tweets was posted by Moloy Ghatak, a labor minister in the opposition-ruled state of West Bengal, where Mr Modi’s party hopes to make big wins in the current election. Mr. Ghatak accused Mr. Modi of “mismanagement” and held him directly responsible for the deaths. His tweet included pictures of Mr Modi and his election campaigns alongside those of the cremations and compared him to Nero, the Roman emperor for choosing to hold political meetings and export vaccines during a “health crisis”.

Another tweet from Revanth Reddy, a seated MP, used a hashtag blaming Mr. Modi for the “disaster”. “India records over 2 lakh cases daily,” it says using an Indian numbering unit which means 200,000 cases. “Shortages of vaccines, shortages of drugs, increasing numbers of deaths.”

The new steps towards the confluence of the online language deepen a conflict between American social media platforms and the government of Mr. Modi. The two sides have argued over the past few months over an urge by the Indian government to monitor what is being said online more closely. A policy that, according to critics, serves to silence critics of the government.

“This is a trend that is increasingly being enforced for online media rooms,” said Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group. He added that the orders were used to “cause censorship” under the guise of making social media companies “more accountable”.

The battle for control of the gruesome images and online anger over a raging public health disaster is only one front in a wider conflict that is unfolding around the world. Governments around the world have tried to contain the power of the biggest tech companies like Twitter and Facebook, whose policies far from their California headquarters have huge political implications. At best, it can be difficult to untangle government efforts to deter misinformation from other motivations, such as tilting the online debate in favor of a political party.

While corporations attempt to adhere to guidelines that they say are based on the principles of free speech, their responses to government power games have been inconsistent and have often been based on business pragmatism. In Myanmar, Facebook cut ties with military-linked accounts because of violence against demonstrators. In China, Facebook is doing brisk business with government-sponsored media groups that have been busy denying the widespread internment of ethnic minorities that the US has labeled genocide.

In India, businesses are faced with a tough choice: obey laws and risk repressing political debates, or ignore them and face harsh sentences, including jail sentences for local employees, in a potentially huge growth market.

Disputes over online language in India are becoming more common. The Indian government, controlled by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has become increasingly aggressive in suppressing dissent. She has arrested activists and journalists and pressured media organizations to stick to her line. It cut off mobile internet access in crisis areas. A number of apps from Chinese companies were blocked following a stalemate with China.

In February, Twitter relented to government threats to arrest its employees and suspended 500 accounts after the government accused them of making inflammatory remarks about Mr. Modi. However, Twitter declined to remove a number of journalists ‘and politicians’ accounts, pointing out that the order to ban them appeared to be inconsistent with Indian law.

In a statement on Sunday, the Indian government said the posts it targeted were “spreading false or misleading information” and “panic over the Covid-19 situation in India through the use of unrelated, ancient and out of context images or images “. It pointed to photos in several posts that were alleged to be of bodies unrelated to the recent outbreak.

In a statement sent via email, Twitter said that if content is “found to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction but doesn’t violate Twitter’s rules, we may only deny access to the content in India,” adding that in this case users would be notified. Facebook did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

The moves did little to quell a wider chorus of online anger.

“If most citizens do everything they can to organize hospital beds, oxygen and logistics support for loved ones, what exactly is the Indian government doing?” wrote Mahua Moitra, a politician and MP from West Bengal.

Aftab Alam, professor at the University of Delhi, was more direct.

“Because you know it’s easier to remove tweets than to ensure oxygen supply,” he wrote on Twitter.

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Health

Papua New Guinea (PNG) Covid-19 outbreak, vaccine marketing campaign

Papua New Guinea (PNG) Covid-19 outbreak, vaccine campaign

A health worker is preparing to test for Covid-19 coronavirus outside a makeshift clinic at a sports stadium in Port Moresby on April 1, 2021.

Gorethy Kenneth | AFP | Getty Images

Misinformation on social media is hindering Papua New Guinea’s vaccination efforts.

According to the PNG’s Covid-19 Response Controller, many people are reluctant to vaccinate as false information about the vaccines is spread even as coronavirus cases increase.

The country reported 1,730 cases and 12 deaths between March 29 and April 4, according to a joint report from the World Health Organization and the PNG’s national ministry of health.

Cases of infection rose again in February, and PNG has reported 7,839 cases so far, data from Johns Hopkins University showed. However, there is consensus that the actual number is much higher, which is masked by low testing capacity and other logistical difficulties.

“We have been lulled into a kind of complacency and false sense of security that we have overcome over this first wave that we feared,” David Manning, PNG’s Covid-19 National Pandemic Response Controller, told CNBC’s Will Koulouris .

Papua New Guinea is located north of Australia and is a heavily forested island country with fewer than 9 million people.

This, of course, is attributed to the hesitation of the vaccine, and you can attribute this to a lack of awareness.

David Manning

National Pandemic Response Controller, Papua New Guinea

The National Capital District, home of PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, has the most reported cases, followed by the western province, which is also where the rate of infection is increasing.

A combination of events – funerals, holidays, and school resumption – resulted in “continuous transmission of the virus,” William Pomat, director of the PNG Institute of Medical Research, told CNBC last week.

Vaccine hesitate

So-called “vaccine nationalism” has made it difficult for small developing countries like PNG to resort to gunfire to vaccinate their populations. Many of them rely on an international vaccination initiative called Covax, but vaccine supply for that program is facing delays from India, which is also struggling to stem an increase in home cases.

PNG ran a vaccination campaign last week using around 8,000 cans of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots donated from neighboring Australia. More cans are expected from China and India in the coming weeks.

The island nation has vaccinated fewer than 600 people so far, which, according to Manning, is way behind schedule.

“Of course, this is attributed to the hesitation of the vaccine, and it can be attributed to a lack of awareness – basically information about whether the vaccine has any side effects and the fake news spread on social media,” he said, adding that vaccine skeptics exert comparatively less pressure in urban areas.

Combating misinformation

Manning said Facebook reached out to PNG and asked how the social network could help dispel some of the misinformation that was spread, but he failed to explain the details of that conversation.

Facebook launched a public awareness campaign in PNG this week to help users identify and combat health misinformation. It runs for five weeks and contains graphics and videos in several languages.

“For this campaign, we will continue to focus our efforts on addressing misinformation related to Covid-19 and vaccines to ensure Papuan New Guineans are able to verify their visibility to official public health resources,” said Mia Garlick , Facebook’s director of public order in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This campaign complements a call we launched in Papua New Guinea last week
Provide tips to local users on how to prevent Covid-19, “Garlick added.

Stressed health infrastructure

The outbreak puts undue strain on PNG’s already poor health infrastructure.

International organizations like Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have warned of an impending collapse. According to experts, many frontline health workers who are already few are falling ill with Covid-19.

“If you get sick, no one will stand – not only for Covid, but also for other diseases and so on,” said Pomat of the Institute of Medical Research.

He stated that Covid tests are only done for those who “might show up” (at the) a health facility if they show symptoms and those who volunteer to go inside. “

Even then, hospitals and medical facilities will run out of components needed to perform these tests.

As PNG works with its development partners, including Australia, to ensure the supply of more test kits and components, it has also introduced stricter social restrictions. For example, stores have been asked to deny entry to those who do not wear masks, while travel between provinces is strictly regulated.

Manning said the pandemic response needs to be tailored to PNG’s coastal communities as well as the highland region, where even in the best of times it is difficult to provide health, police or government services.

“So we have now shifted our focus from a national response to a provincial response and are working closely together with the provincial health authorities that are currently inundated with surges, “he said.

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Health

Salmonella Outbreak Is Linked to Wild Birds and Feeders, C.D.C. Says

Salmonella Outbreak Is Linked to Wild Birds and Feeders, C.D.C. Says

A salmonella outbreak related to exposure to wild songbirds and birdhouses left 19 people ill in eight states, eight of whom were hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they were studying salmonella infections in California, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington state in people aged 2 months to 89 years.

Six cases have been reported in Washington and five in Oregon. No deaths were reported.

Public health officials across the country surveyed 13 of the infected and asked them about animals they had come into contact with a week before they became ill, the CDC said. Nine said they owned a bird feeder and two reported that they came into contact with a sick or dead bird. Ten people said they had pets that had access to or contact with wild birds, the agency said.

To avoid further cases, the CDC recommends cleaning birdhouses and bird baths once a week or when dirty. People should avoid bare-handed feeding of wild birds and wash their hands with soap and water after touching bird food or bathing, or handling a bird.

In California, where three human cases have been reported, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife warned of an outbreak in February and reported that it had been “swamped” by calls from Californians finding sick or dead finches at birdhouses.

Andrea Jones, director of bird protection at Audubon California, said the state had determined that most of the birds affected by the outbreak were pine teats, a species of finch that spends the winter in California. That year, numerous pine cisks gathered in California, which allowed the outbreak to spread among the birds.

“It can happen any year, but this has been a particularly bad year,” said Ms. Jones. “Pine Siskins aren’t very good at social distancing.”

Sick birds often look weak, sluggish, or appear to have difficulty breathing, Ms. Jones said. She added that most birds die within 24 hours of being infected with salmonella.

Many pine teats are now leaving California for Canada, Ms. Jones said, adding that she hoped the outbreak could end soon.

Salmonella bacteria can spread from birds to pets and humans. According to the CDC, people can experience diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps six hours to six days after being infected. Children, adults aged 65 and over, and people with compromised immune systems sometimes have worse cases of salmonella, although most people will recover without treatment in one case a week or less.

With many people recovering quickly and not being tested for salmonella, it was likely that the actual number of cases caused by the outbreak was much higher than the number of reported cases, according to the CDC.

About 1.35 million cases of salmonella are reported in the US each year. Of these, about 26,500 will have to be hospitalized and 420 will die, according to the CDC

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Ebola Survivor Contaminated Years In the past Could Have Began New Outbreak

Ebola Survivor Infected Years Ago May Have Started New Outbreak

Genetic sequences of virus samples from current patients were compared to those from the 2014-16 outbreak and found to be so similar that they must be closely related, the researchers said. The report, which went online on Friday, involved researchers from the Guinean Ministry of Health, other laboratories in the country, the Pasteur Institute in Senegal, the University of Edinburgh, the Medical Center of the University of Nebraska and the PraesensBio company.

The results were published on Friday by Science and Stat.

“There are very few genomic changes and for these to occur the virus must multiply,” said Dr. Conductor. “I think the virus is mostly in hibernation.”

“Among other things, it shows you the brilliant insights that molecular sequencing of the entire genome can provide,” he said. “Up until that point, we all thought the current outbreak was a result of the transmission of bats from nature. But it probably came from a human reservoir. “

Michael Wiley, a virologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and executive director of PraesensBio, which provided materials to study the samples, described the current outbreak as a “continuation” of the previous one.

He said persistent infections and sexual transmission were already detected during the outbreak in West Africa and during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Every new milestone for virus persistence was a shock, he said: first 180 days, then 500 days and now more than five years after the initial infection.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement from spokesman Thomas Skinner: “CDC has reviewed sequencing data from samples taken during the current outbreak in Guinea. While we can’t be 100 percent sure, CDC agrees that the data support the conclusion that cases of the current outbreak are likely to be related to cases in the region during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. “

He added, “This suggests that the outbreak likely came from persistent infection, survivor, rather than new introduction of the virus from the animal reservoir. While we have seen survivor-related outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the amount of time between the end of the 2014-2016 outbreak and when this outbreak occurred is surprising, underscoring the need for further research to better understand the complex epidemiology of Ebola. “

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World News

Guinea Declares Ebola Outbreak With at Least three Deaths

Guinea Declares Ebola Outbreak With at Least 3 Deaths

Guinea is battling a new Ebola outbreak, West African nation health officials said on Sunday, with at least three deaths in a region that was previously the starting point for the worst epidemic of all time.

The three deceased – two women and one man – were among seven people who developed symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a nurse’s funeral in the southeastern part of the country on Feb.1, the Ministry of Health said in a statement With.

Officials confirmed an epidemic on Sunday after a laboratory found the virus in the first three samples tested by the patients.

“The government assures people that all measures are being taken to contain this epidemic as soon as possible,” the Guinean Ministry of Health said in a Facebook post on Sunday, adding that people are reporting more symptoms to health authorities, and hygiene and prevention should respect dimensions. It also said it would expedite the delivery of vaccines to the area and open a center to deal with established cases.

Guinea had not seen an Ebola case since 2016 when it came to an end to an epidemic that began in its southeastern region in 2014. This deadliest outbreak to date spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, eventually infecting more than 28,000 people in 10 countries, killing more than 11,000.

The resurgence comes as West Africa is still grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo also found new cases of Ebola three months after health officials said they wiped out the most recent outbreak in the Congo.

Dr. Mashidiso Moeti, regional director of the World Health Organization for Africa, said on Twitter on Sunday that she was “very concerned” about the reports from Guinea and that the agency was “stepping up preparedness and response efforts for this possible resurgence”.

The Ebola virus spreads through contact with body fluids or secretions from an infected or recently deceased person and causes a hemorrhagic fever with an average death rate of about half, although two vaccines are now available for it.

“We will quickly deploy vital resources to help Guinea,” said Drs. Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, a representative of the World Health Organization, told the Agence France-Presse news agency, adding that the group was in contact with the maker of a vaccine to dispense doses to control the outbreak.

“The arsenal is stronger now and we will use this to contain this situation as soon as possible,” said Dr. Ki-zerbo.

Anna Holland contributed to the reporting.

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Business

What occurred when one Chinese language metropolis shut down after new Covid outbreak

What happened when one Chinese city shut down after new Covid outbreak

Volunteers in protective suits disinfect in a residential area of ​​Tonghua, China on January 24, 2021.

Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING – A small Chinese town’s rush to control coronavirus has left some residents without food and some officials without work.

The fallout shows the extreme lengths to which the local Chinese authorities will attempt to contain the coronavirus. While the number of new cases in China this year is far below those in other countries, the strict preventive measures can quickly lead to major disruptions in work and daily life.

After a spike in Covid-19 cases in mid-January, the city of Tonghua, about a 10-hour drive northeast of Beijing, announced on Wednesday that no one could leave the city. Authorities added that all of the apartment complexes were essentially locked.

The folks who stuck home and had little time to get groceries turned to smartphone-based delivery apps, but many complained online that they couldn’t get their orders, according to the posts on Weibo, China’s version from Twitter.

On Saturday, the Communist Party’s local Disciplinary and Inspection Commission fired three officials for their poor performance in monitoring the pandemic situation, state media said. Eleven other officers received severe warnings, the report said.

On Sunday, Tonghua City apologized to its 500,000 residents for the “untimely” delivery of daily necessities and general inconvenience. The city added there was a severe labor shortage but sufficient food.

More than 11,000 people left mostly angry comments in a national state media post, apologizing for Weibo. Some users described how they or neighbors were starving and not receiving their orders for three or four days.

Many user comments found that Eleme, an Alibaba-supported grocery delivery app, cannot be ordered. The company did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Nasdaq-listed Dada, a food company that saw growth spurt during the lockdown of the first coronavirus outbreak last year, said none of its two apps operate in the city of Tonghua.

Covid-19 first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Chinese authorities closed more than half the country in February 2020, and the outbreak stalled domestically within weeks. Meanwhile, the virus accelerated its spread overseas in a global pandemic.

New domestic cases have emerged in China in the past two months with cold winter weather and a sustained number of overseas visitors. Northeastern Jilin Province, where Tonghua City is located, is the third most severely affected region. In January alone, 273 new confirmed coronavirus cases were reported.

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Health

Pfizer CEO joins World Well being Group at press convention on the coronavirus outbreak

Pfizer CEO joins World Health Organization at press conference on the coronavirus outbreak

[The stream is slated to start at 12:00 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference on Friday to inform the public about the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 97.6 million people worldwide.

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, which makes one of the Covid-19 vaccines approved in the US and Europe, is expected to work with WHO representatives during the virtual meeting. Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of the Gavi public-private vaccination partnership, and Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, will also attend the briefing.

Earlier this week, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the world would be on the verge of “catastrophic moral failure” if it did not fairly distribute available doses of Covid-19 vaccines around the world. He added that the discovery of several transmissible strains of the virus in different parts of the world increases the urgency of the vaccine’s introduction.

“It is not right for younger, healthier adults in rich countries to be vaccinated in front of health workers and older people in poorer countries,” he said on Monday. “There will be enough vaccine for everyone, but right now we need to work together as a global family to set priorities [those] most at risk of serious illness and death in all countries. “

Last year, WHO, in collaboration with Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, set up the COVAX facility to ensure equitable access to vaccines for every country in the world. By the end of 2021, 2 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines are expected to be administered.

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

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China’s Covid outbreak nonetheless not at a turning level: Hospital director

China's Covid outbreak still not at a turning point: Hospital director

Medical workers collect swab samples from residents of a Covid-19 testing site in Qiaoxi Township in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province, on Jan. 7, 2021.

Yang Shiyao | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

BEIJING – Beijing remains on the lookout for a recurrence of Covid-19 infection as neighboring Hebei Province continues to report new cases every day.

Hebei reported an increase in cases earlier in the year. In the last week or so, the province closed its own capital and at least two other areas to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“The turning point has not yet come (for Hebei),” Gao Yan, director of the Infectious Diseases Department at Peking University People’s Hospital, told reporters on Friday. That comes from a CNBC translation of her Mandarin-language remarks.

Due to previous outbreaks in China, it usually takes about a month to reach a tipping point.

Hebei Province reported 90 new confirmed cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of current cases to more than 550. The majority are in the capital, Shijiazhuang, about three and a half hours by car southwest of Beijing.

Targeted measures in Beijing, such as tracking down people in contact with Hebei cases, are sufficient for the time being, Gao said. She said the likelihood of the Chinese outbreak recurring last year was “very, very small”.

Covid-19 first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. The authorities did not lock the city until more than a month later. More than 4,000 people have died from the virus in China, according to Johns Hopkins University. The disease has killed more than 1.9 million people worldwide.

Beijing launched a city-wide vaccination campaign with more than 200 vaccination centers on January 1, 2021 to ensure critical staff are vaccinated before the New Year celebrations. Hundreds of millions of people usually travel the month around the public holiday, which officially falls in mid-February of this year.

According to official figures, in about two weeks from 5 p.m. local time on Thursday, the capital administered 1.5 million vaccine doses. At least for a large vaccination center in the Chaoyang district – where large foreign companies and embassies are located – the vaccines came from the state-owned Sinopharm company.

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U.S. stories greater than 4,000 Covid deaths for first time as outbreak worsens

U.S. reports more than 4,000 Covid deaths for first time as outbreak worsens

Vice Mayor Alix Desulme, of North Miami City, raises his arm during a prayer for the local lives lost to COVID-19 as a memorial to the lost is unveiled at Griffing Park in North Miami, Florida on October 28, 2020.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

More than 4,000 people died of Covid-19 for the first time in one day in the US on Thursday as the country reports record numbers and the outbreak grows worse day by day.

The US has reported a record daily death toll for five of the last 10 days, according to Johns Hopkins University. Over the past week, the US has reported an average of more than 2,700 deaths per day, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, up 16% from a week ago.

In January alone, almost 20,000 people died of Covid in the country. That set the pace for a month that will likely keep pace with December for the pandemic’s deadliest month yet.

Senior health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, warn that the outbreak is likely to get worse before it gets better.

“We believe the situation will get worse in January,” said Fauci in an interview with NPR on Thursday. He said Americans could still “moderate” that acceleration if they strictly adhere to public health measures like wearing masks and social distancing.

As of Thursday, cases continued to rise rapidly, a sign that more deaths will follow as people are diagnosed, get sick and enter hospitals, many of which are overwhelmed by the flood of Covid patients. The U.S. reported more than 274,700 new cases Thursday, taking the seven-day average to a new all-time high of 228,400, according to Johns Hopkins.

New cases are increasing almost everywhere every day. In 44 states and the District of Columbia, the average number of new cases every day is increasing by at least 5%. New deaths are growing particularly rapidly in Southern California, where healthcare workers are rationing supplemental oxygen and asking ambulances to wait hours before dropping patients off.

In Arizona, too, cases and hospital stays are increasing rapidly, according to Johns Hopkins data, a sign that new deaths may be catching up every day. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it will be setting up an infusion center to help administer Covid antibody treatments, which have shown promise in preventing hospital stays if used early on in an infection.

As the outbreak grows worse, many Americans across the country are waiting to receive any of the approved vaccines that are now being distributed. Initial rollout has been sluggish, and the US failed to meet its target of vaccinating 20 million Americans by December, as federal officials aimed to achieve.

Federal officials, including Fauci and Dr. However, Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have announced that the pace is expected to accelerate this month. The rollout has already shown some signs of a slow increase in speed.

The US fired more than 600,000 shots in a 24-hour period, the CDC reported Thursday. According to the agency, this is the highest value within a day to date. According to the data, more than 21.4 million doses have been given, but only 5.9 million have been given.

Amid criticism of a slow initial rollout, HHS officials are now urging states to move beyond the first level of prioritization. Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities should receive the vaccine first, according to the CDC. But HHS Secretary Alex Azar said earlier this week that states should open up to older and more vulnerable Americans if that would accelerate the pace of rollout.

In addition to the pressure to vaccinate quickly, there is the arrival of a new strain of the virus. The new variant, known as B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, has now been found in at least seven states. While it doesn’t seem to make people more sick, CDC officials believe it can spread more easily. That could make the outbreak worse and quickly overwhelm hospitals, CDC officials said last week.

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Inflatable Costume Could Be Behind Outbreak at California Hospital

Inflatable Costume May Be Behind Outbreak at California Hospital

An air-powered, inflatable costume that a worker wears for Christmas to spread the Christmas cheer could be responsible for a coronavirus outbreak that infected dozen of workers at a San Jose, Calif. Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

An employee wore the costume “briefly” in the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, spokeswoman Irene Chavez said in a statement. The hospital opened an investigation after 44 employees tested positive for the coronavirus between December 27 and Friday.

Inflatable costumes are usually powered by a battery-powered fan that draws air into the suit and helps it keep its shape. T. rex and sumo wrestler models are among the most popular. Some costumes cover the wearer’s face, others leave it exposed.

Ms. Chavez declined to say what type of air suit the hospital worker was wearing, but she described it as a “vacation theme”. As part of its response to the outbreak, she said, the hospital was investigating “whether the costume, which had a fan, contributed”. Air-powered costumes have been banned, she said.

It was unclear how long the staff member had been wearing the costume in the emergency room. The hospital declined to say if patients were infected.

It was also unclear whether any of the infected employees had received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but experts have said it will take at least a couple of weeks for the vaccine’s protective effects to kick in. 40,000 Kaiser employees in Northern California received the first dose of the vaccine.

“Any exposure, if it had occurred, would have been completely innocent and quite random as the person had no Covid symptoms and was just trying to lift the spirits of those around them during a very stressful time,” Ms. Chavez said of the costumed man Workers.

The emergency room will be thoroughly cleaned, Ms. Chavez said, and in addition to the protocols already in place, staff will be offered free weekly tests.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the coronavirus is mainly spread via respiratory droplets and can be spread “sometimes by airborne transmission” of both larger droplets and smaller aerosols when people “cough, sneeze, sing, speak or breathe” .

Dr. Jose-Luis Jimenez, aerosol expert and professor of chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, helped investigate the Skagit County choir breakout, which resulted in at least 53 infections and two deaths from a singing practice in Washington state. In an interview on Sunday, he said the outbreak among staff at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center was most likely due to airborne transmission.

“It’s like a choir,” said Dr. Jiminez. “There is no way you can infect 43 people while wearing a costume, except through airborne transmission or aerosols, since you are in a costume and cannot touch objects or infect people through surfaces.”

The hospital is located in Santa Clara County, California, which has confirmed 73,493 coronavirus cases, according to a New York Times database. 2,397,923 cases have been confirmed across California.

According to the Times database, more than 21,000 people were hospitalized in California as of January 1, a 26 percent increase from two weeks earlier.