U.S. Nears 500,000 Deaths; England Schools to Open: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) --

The U.S. is poised to reach 500,000 Covid-19 deaths, almost a year after the first was reported. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious disease doctor, called the number “almost unbelievable.” He said vaccinations slowed by bad weather should be back on track by midweek. New York state and California deaths slowed.

The Biden administration continues to call for K-8 public schools to reopen for in-person learning by the end of April, and said the provision of additional funds will be key. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said true herd immunity against the coronavirus may never come.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce that all schools in England will reopen from March 8, as he outlines how the national coronavirus lockdown will be lifted over the coming months.

Key Developments:

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Wisconsin Deaths Halt for First Time in Three Months (7:47 a.m. HK)

Wisconsin reported 403 new cases on Sunday, the lowest daily number since Aug. 31, according to Department of Health Services data.

The state, which was a focus of national attention as cases surged ahead of last year’s presidential election, reported no new Covid-19 deaths for the first time since Nov. 22.

Ivory Coast Main Port Isolates Ship (5:47 p.m. NY)

A ship that docked at Ivory Coast’s main port of Abidjan Sunday was isolated with its crew after several cases of Covid-19 were reported on board.

The port of Abidjan is one of the main exit points for exports of cocoa, of which Ivory Coast is the world’s top producer. It also handles most of the goods entering and exiting landlocked Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

U.K.’s Johnson to Say All Schools in England to Open (5:34 p.m. NY)

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce that all schools in England will reopen from March 8, as he outlines how the national coronavirus lockdown will be lifted over the coming months.

Alongside the reopening of schools, people will be allowed to meet one-on-one to sit down for a coffee or picnic outdoors, and after-school activities outside can restart from the same date, according to a person familiar with the plans.

In a statement to Parliament on Monday, Johnson is also expected to allow more social contact from March 29 when outdoor gatherings of either six people or two households can take place, and outdoor sports such as tennis and football can resume.

Brazil’s Bahia State Tightens Restrictions (3:41 p.m. NY)

Bahia state Governor Rui Costa will tighten restrictions between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., after occupancy of intensive-care beds rose to 80% in the state, he said on Facebook.

Bars and restaurants will close at 6 p.m., and transport operations will stop at 8:30 p.m. Food delivery is permitted until 11 p.m. The measures take effect Monday.

Gottlieb Says Herd Immunity May Never Come (2:57 p.m. NY)

True herd immunity against the coronavirus may never come, said Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Covid-19 “isn’t going to be like measles or smallpox where it just sort of goes away,” Gottlieb said on CBS.

Still, even if the virus continues to circulate at a low level, vaccination of vulnerable populations will head off most severe illness and death, said Gottlieb, a board member of Pfizer Inc.

He added that despite worries about more transmissible and possibly more lethal strains, Covid-19 variants don’t look prevalent enough to reverse the downward trends of cases in the U.S. He said that trend reflects expanding vaccination rates and that an estimated one-third of the population has already been infected.

Biden Aide Ties School Reopenings to Stimulus Funds (2:36 p.m. NY)

The Biden administration continues to call for K-8 public schools to reopen for in-person learning by the end of April, and said the provision of additional funds will be key.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday drew a direct line from the timetable for classrooms to be back in action to the $1.9 trillion Biden-backed stimulus plan now moving through Congress almost entirely with Democratic support.

“Many schools across country don’t have the resources to be able to invest in improving facilities, on hiring more bus drivers, on hiring more temporary teachers so we can have smaller class sizes,” Psaki said on ABC.

California Covid Deaths Slow (2:15 p.m. NY)

California reported 280 fatalities Saturday, below the 14-day average of 369, according to the health department’s website. There were 6,760 new cases, below the average of 7,573. Meanwhile, the state’s 14-day positive test rate dropped to 3.5%, the lowest since Nov. 7. California has administered 47 million tests in total.

France Outbreak Steady (2:14 p.m. NY)

France added 22,046 new cases and 160 Covid-19-linked deaths, in line with levels recorded in the last month. So far in France, 2.56 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Authorities are set to announce on Monday new measures to curb the spread of the virus in the Nice area, which is facing a surge in infections. Local officials gathered on Saturday evening after French Health Minister Olivier Veran called for tighter restrictions in the region by the end of the weekend.

Germany Damps Hopes for Easing Curbs (1:18 p.m. NY)

Germany needs to further slow the spread of the coronavirus before the government can consider additional steps to loosen restrictions on Europe’s largest economy.

“Once we have firm footing, we can take another step” after reopening schools and daycares, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in an interview with ARD television.

Germany’s contagion rate rose to the highest level in more than a week on Sunday, the latest evidence that a steady decline since a peak before Christmas has ground to a halt.

U.K. Deaths at Two-Month Low (11:51 a.m. NY)

Daily fatalities in the U.K. were the lowest since December and less than half of the average of the previous seven days. Another 215 people died, compared to a weekly average of almost 500. Reporting delays usually result in lower figures on weekends. The U.K. reported 9,835 new cases on Sunday.

Italy May Follow U.K. Approach (4:57 p.m. HK)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s administration is about to accelerate Italy’s Covid-19 vaccination program, taking inspiration from the U.K. campaign, La Stampa daily reported on Sunday, without citing sources.

According to the paper, in a cabinet meeting on Monday, the newly appointed Italian government will follow the example of Boris Johnson’s government and proceed with mass vaccinations using all available doses, without setting aside some for second shots.

Italy reported 13,452 new cases on Sunday, compared with 14,931 on Saturday, and 232 Covid-related deaths, with the positive test rate increasing from about 4.8% to 5.4%.

N.Y. Deaths Continue to Slow (10:43 a.m. NY)

New York state reported 75 more fatalities, the second consecutive day with fewer than 100 deaths, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. It was the lowest number of deaths since early December. The state’s hospitalizations, the highest in the nation, declined further to 5,764. The positive test rate also fell to 2.99%, the first time below 3% since Nov. 23. Another 6,610 infections were reported.

Cuomo also reported the first case in a New York state resident, on Long Island, of the coronavirus variant first found in South Africa. The strain is more transmissible and has shown some resistance to vaccines. Last week, a resident of Connecticut who was hospitalized in New York was also diagnosed with the variant, now reported in almost a dozen U.S. states.

Fauci Says Vaccine Delays to Be Quickly Reversed (10:13 a.m. NY)

The top U.S. infectious diseases specialist said the backlog of vaccinations from last week’s severe weather should be mopped up by midweek.

Fauci spoke as the U.S. stands on the verge of a milestone few imagined when the first coronavirus cases were diagnosed a year ago: 500,000 deaths. That level will probably be reached Sunday or Monday.

“It’s something that is stunning when you look at the numbers, almost unbelievable,” Fauci said. “People will be talking about this decades and decades and decades from now.”

U.S. Nears Half a Million Covid-19 Deaths (8 a.m. NY)

While 88 days passed from the first death, on Feb. 29, 2020, to 100,000, it will take just over a month for the toll to rise from 400,000 to half a million.

But fatalities have slowed dramatically: The U.S. reported 1,904 deaths on Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg. The week’s daily average is almost a 40% decrease from that of the previous week.

The issue now -- which will determine how soon the next 100,000 Americans die -- is often cast as a race between vaccines, now being rolled out in increasing volume and efficiency, and the mutant strains that are more transmissible and, in some cases, can elude the efficacy of the vaccines.

The B.1.1.7 strain first found in the U.K. is expected to become dominant in the U.S. as early as March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects. A separate variant first found in South Africa -- now reported in 10 U.S. states -- led to a 16-fold increase in cases in neighboring Zambia in less than a month.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent research center at the University of Washington in Seattle, projects that the U.S. will reach 600,000 deaths by May 14 -- 81 days from Monday.

Pfizer-BioNTech Shot Stops Covid’s Spread: Israeli Study (6:49 a.m. NY)

The vaccine, which was rolled out in a national immunization program that began Dec. 20, was 89.4% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed infections, according to a copy of a draft publication that was posted on Twitter and confirmed by a person familiar with the work.

The early results on lab-confirmed infections are important because they show the vaccine may also prevent asymptomatic carriers from spreading the virus that causes Covid-19, something that hadn’t been clear so far.

U.K. to ‘Cautiously’ Ease Lockdown (6:39 a.m. NY)

U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged people to keep following the rules even when vaccinated, after the government announced that all adults will be offered a shot by the end of July and everyone over 50 by mid-April.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a meeting with his senior ministers on Sunday to sign off on plans for how to ease England’s lockdown, ahead of a statement to Parliament on Monday. He’s said reopening schools will be the priority -- from March 8, depending on infection data -- and he wants any relaxation to be “irreversible.”

AstraZeneca to Compensate for Dose Cuts (6:18 a.m. NY)

The chairman and CEO of AstraZeneca Italy Lorenzo Wittum said in an interview with Messaggero daily on Sunday that yesterday’s cut in dose deliveries will be compensated, and that target of distributing 4.2 million doses to Italy by the end of current quarter will be met.

He also says the yesterday’s cut in deliveries to the country’s regions was about 7%, not 15% as initially reported.

Tanzania President Wants Citizens to Mask Up (5:52 p.m. HK)

President John Magufuli is asking Tanzanians to put on face masks as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus after months of discouraging their use.

Citizens should only to wear masks manufactured in the East African nation, Magufuli said in an emailed statement.

Germany Turns Away Thousands at Its Borders (4:55 p.m. HK)

German border police have refused entry to 15,877 people at the country’s borders to the Austrian province of Tirol and the Czech Republic since Feb. 14, according to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The travelers either lacked a negative test or didn’t meet other criteria put in place to contain aggressive Covid-19 variants.

On Monday, Germany will consider raising the risk level of France’s Moselle region, according to the Funke media network. Tobias Hans, premier of the state of Saarland, which borders France, told the media group that travel controls would be the last resort.

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