The White House announced plans Friday to invest $1.7 billion in genomic sequencing — the process of mapping a virus' genetic code — to help states detect and curb the spread of COVID-19 variants.
The funding comes from President Joe Biden's nearly $2 trillion relief package and will be used to collect COVID samples, sequence the virus and share data, according to a White House fact sheet. The first portion of the funding will be allocated in early May through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The money will be used toward collecting COVID samples, sequencing of the virus and sharing subsequent data, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Until recently, only a fraction of samples in the U.S. were sequenced, but the Biden administration invested $200 million on sequencing, quadrupling the rate of testing beginning in mid-February.
The investment also includes $400 million to establish six "Centers of Excellence in Genomic Epidemiology," a partnership between state health departments and academic institutions for research and development, and $300 million to create a national bioinformatics system to share and analyze sequencing data. The administration will allocate the first portion of funding in early May, with a second tranche expected to be invested over the next several years.
►Chicago high schoolers may return to class for the first time in more than a year after the city's teachers union reached a tentative agreement Thursday with the school district. Terms of the agreement haven't been released yet.
►Johnson & Johnson asked Moderna and Pfizer to join a study into the risks of blood clots, but the rival companies declined, the Wall Street Journal reported. J&J also asked AstraZeneca, which was interested in a joint study, the Wall Street Journal reported.
►Travelers visiting Maui, the second-most-popular vacation destination in Hawaii after Oahu, will soon have to take a second COVID-19 test to bypass the state's mandatory quarantine.
►New U.S. government data shows that the country saw somewhere around 600,000 more deaths than usual during a 13-month span. COVID-19 was blamed for most of those deaths.
►New Hampshire's governor says the state will lift its mask mandate Friday, though individual communities and businesses will be allowed to continue to impose restrictions.
►Michigan’s largest hospital system is turning to tents to handle emergency care as it deals with a crush of COVID-19 patients in suburban Detroit. Beaumont Health said it had more than 800 COVID patients Thursday, up from 500 two weeks ago and 128 at the end of February.
►The pause in using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a bump in the road to full vaccination for health care workers relying on the one-dose shot to vaccinate Florida's more than 100,000 farmworkers before they begin migrating north. The Healthcare Network, which reached more than 430 farmworkers Saturday in Immokalee, Florida, with the one-shot, will now rely on the two-dose Moderna vaccine.
►France has become the third country in Europe after the U.K. and Italy to reach the unwanted milestone of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths as new infections and deaths surged due to virus variants.
►A top official from the World Health Organization says Europe has surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19.
???? Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 31.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 564,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: more than 139 million cases and 2.98 million deaths. More than 255.4 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 198.3 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
The U.S. has reported 30% of adults fully vaccinated, and nearly 50% of the U.S. adult population having received at least one vaccine dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But we're still a far way from herd immunity. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said the number could be as high as 85%.
Meanwhile, people will probably need a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech within 12 months of being fully vaccinated, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC on Thursday. Annual shots may also be needed, Bourla said.
In addition, Fauci said this week that people may need to get booster shots for the COVID vaccines in a year, during an interview with MSNBC’s Medhi Hasan. Recent data suggests that Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines provide protection for at least six months, Fauci said.
The mayors of some of Florida's most popular spring break destinations say they had little power to stop revelers from clustering in their towns last month, spreading the coronavirus.
In the four weeks between March 13 and Tuesday, infections have surged more in Florida’s spring break hot spots than elsewhere in the state, an analysis from the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, found.
DeSantis shares blame for that because he removed cities’ and counties’ ability to enforce their anti-coronavirus rules, local officials said. He ordered local governments on March 10 to cancel fines levied against businesses that violated anti-disease measures, and he asked state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing him to overturn local mask mandates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that out of more than 75 million fully vaccinated Americans, just 5,800 have had post-vaccine COVID-19 infections — or so-called breakthrough infections.
So far, just over 40% of the breakthrough infections were in people 60 or older and 65% were female, Kristen Nordlund of CDC Public Affairs said.
Nearly 30% of those with such infections had no symptoms at all. But 7% were hospitalized, she said, and just 1% died.
Posted April 16, 2021 11:18 AM
The White House announced plans Friday to invest $1.7 billion in genomic sequencing — the process of mapping a virus' genetic code — to help states detect and curb the spread of COVID-19 variants.
The funding comes from President Joe Biden's nearly $2 trillion relief package and will be used to collect COVID samples, sequence the virus and share data, according to a White House fact sheet. The first portion of the funding will be allocated in early May through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The money will be used toward collecting COVID samples, sequencing of the virus and sharing subsequent data, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Until recently, only a fraction of samples in the U.S. were sequenced, but the Biden administration invested $200 million on sequencing, quadrupling the rate of testing beginning in mid-February.
The investment also includes $400 million to establish six "Centers of Excellence in Genomic Epidemiology," a partnership between state health departments and academic institutions for research and development, and $300 million to create a national bioinformatics system to share and analyze sequencing data. The administration will allocate the first portion of funding in early May, with a second tranche expected to be invested over the next several years.
►Chicago high schoolers may return to class for the first time in more than a year after the city's teachers union reached a tentative agreement Thursday with the school district. Terms of the agreement haven't been released yet.
►Johnson & Johnson asked Moderna and Pfizer to join a study into the risks of blood clots, but the rival companies declined, the Wall Street Journal reported. J&J also asked AstraZeneca, which was interested in a joint study, the Wall Street Journal reported.
►Travelers visiting Maui, the second-most-popular vacation destination in Hawaii after Oahu, will soon have to take a second COVID-19 test to bypass the state's mandatory quarantine.
►New U.S. government data shows that the country saw somewhere around 600,000 more deaths than usual during a 13-month span. COVID-19 was blamed for most of those deaths.
►New Hampshire's governor says the state will lift its mask mandate Friday, though individual communities and businesses will be allowed to continue to impose restrictions.
►Michigan’s largest hospital system is turning to tents to handle emergency care as it deals with a crush of COVID-19 patients in suburban Detroit. Beaumont Health said it had more than 800 COVID patients Thursday, up from 500 two weeks ago and 128 at the end of February.
►The pause in using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a bump in the road to full vaccination for health care workers relying on the one-dose shot to vaccinate Florida's more than 100,000 farmworkers before they begin migrating north. The Healthcare Network, which reached more than 430 farmworkers Saturday in Immokalee, Florida, with the one-shot, will now rely on the two-dose Moderna vaccine.
►France has become the third country in Europe after the U.K. and Italy to reach the unwanted milestone of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths as new infections and deaths surged due to virus variants.
►A top official from the World Health Organization says Europe has surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19.
???? Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 31.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 564,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: more than 139 million cases and 2.98 million deaths. More than 255.4 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 198.3 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
The U.S. has reported 30% of adults fully vaccinated, and nearly 50% of the U.S. adult population having received at least one vaccine dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But we're still a far way from herd immunity. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said the number could be as high as 85%.
Meanwhile, people will probably need a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech within 12 months of being fully vaccinated, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC on Thursday. Annual shots may also be needed, Bourla said.
In addition, Fauci said this week that people may need to get booster shots for the COVID vaccines in a year, during an interview with MSNBC’s Medhi Hasan. Recent data suggests that Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines provide protection for at least six months, Fauci said.
The mayors of some of Florida's most popular spring break destinations say they had little power to stop revelers from clustering in their towns last month, spreading the coronavirus.
In the four weeks between March 13 and Tuesday, infections have surged more in Florida’s spring break hot spots than elsewhere in the state, an analysis from the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, found.
DeSantis shares blame for that because he removed cities’ and counties’ ability to enforce their anti-coronavirus rules, local officials said. He ordered local governments on March 10 to cancel fines levied against businesses that violated anti-disease measures, and he asked state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing him to overturn local mask mandates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that out of more than 75 million fully vaccinated Americans, just 5,800 have had post-vaccine COVID-19 infections — or so-called breakthrough infections.
So far, just over 40% of the breakthrough infections were in people 60 or older and 65% were female, Kristen Nordlund of CDC Public Affairs said.
Nearly 30% of those with such infections had no symptoms at all. But 7% were hospitalized, she said, and just 1% died.