November 30 coronavirus news

CVS and Walgreens are preparing to be among the first to administer Covid-19 shots in the United States, if the US Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of a vaccine. Those vaccinations would take place in long-term care facilities, not in retail stores. 

In October, the Trump administration announced agreements with CVS and Walgreens to give vaccinations to residents of long-term care facilities nationwide. Advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called an emergency meeting tomorrow to vote, in part, on whether to recommend that residents in those facilities be among the first people in the US to get a coronavirus vaccine.

CVS anticipates providing shots in long-term care facilities in mid-December.

Walgreens expects to begin administering shots in long-term care facilities within days of receiving doses.

"We are committed to administering vaccines to long-term care facilities as soon as we receive doses. We believe we can be in some long-term care facilities within a few days of when we receive the first vaccine doses," a Walgreens corporate spokesperson told CNN Monday.

Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna designed its vaccine against the novel coronavirus in just two days.

On Jan. 11, Chinese authorities shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, according to Moderna's website.

Two days later, on Jan. 13, the National Institutes of Health and Moderna’s infectious disease research team finalized the sequence for mRNA-1273, the formal name of the company's Covid-19 vaccine.

The company then went on to formulate a clinical batch, according to a company spokesperson.

Moderna announced it intends to apply today to the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The company will ask the FDA to review an expanded data set showing the vaccine is 94.1% effective at preventing Covid-19 and 100% effective at preventing severe cases of the disease.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said schools are some of the safest places in the city while explaining his decision to reopen public elementary schools and resume in-person classes.

“That 3% standard, after we had so much experience with the schools, proved to be different than we thought it would be,” he added, saying that the model needs to be more sustainable for until there is a coronavirus vaccine. “We decided we need a lot more testing and to make that [available] in every school.”

Students in 3K, Pre-K and grades K-5 can resume in-person classes on Dec. 7 and the city will address when middle and high schoolers can return to in-person classes in the future.

There will be weekly testing in every school, and students will need to be tested and get a consent form to come, de Blasio said about the reopening directives put in place.

The current testing capacity only allows the city to bring back elementary school students. Over time, the city will also bring back middle and high school students, de Blasio said.

In case a student tests positive for Covid-19, the entire classroom will quarantine, he added.

“[If] there's multiple cases in the school, there’s a careful investigation to determine whether the school only needs a temporary shutdown or full two-week quarantine," he said Monday. "That has worked and it's allowed us to keep the vast majority of our schools open the vast majority of the time. But it’s also given us the ability to pinpoint when there's a problem and address it quickly through our test and trace corps.”

Watch more:

Pharmaceutical company Moderna this morning announced it intends to apply today to the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine.

That means there will be at least two vaccine candidates seeking FDA approval: Earlier this month, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted for emergency use authorization for their coronavirus candidate.

Here's where things stand on the race to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine:

The European Commission has signed a Covid-19 vaccine contract with German biopharmaceutical company CureVac, President Ursula von der Leyen announced Monday. 

"Today we signed our 5th vaccine contract, with CureVac," von der Leyen tweeted from her official account.

She said the European Commission has now secured almost 2 billion doses of potential coronavirus vaccines and that Europeans would have access to them once they are approved as safe and effective, "hopefully before the end of the year!"

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Twitter that the deal put European and global citizens and economies another "step closer to delivering a safe and sustainable exit strategy from the crisis."

Vaccine maker Novavax has completed enrollment of the Phase 3 trial for its Covid-19 vaccine in the UK, and a large-scale clinical trial in the United States and Mexico will begin “in the coming weeks,” the company announced Monday.  

The UK trial enrolled 15,000 participants, and will determine the efficacy and safety of Novavax’s experimental vaccine, called NVX-CoV2373. Interim results from that Phase 3 trial are expected “as soon as early first quarter 2021,” depending on how fast Covid-19 is spreading in the region, the company said.

Novavax also announced it has fully enrolled its Phase 2b vaccine trial in South Africa, with more than 4,400 participants. Among its trials, more than 20,000 participants have been dosed to date.

The Phase 3 clinical trial in the United States and Mexico will begin “in the coming weeks” -- later than it had previously suggested. The vaccine maker said earlier in November that this trial would likely begin by the end of the month.

It would be the fifth coronavirus vaccine to enter late-stage clinical trials in the United States. The Maryland-based company was awarded $1.6 billion from the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed to fund its Phase 3 trial in the US and Mexico and to scale-up manufacturing.

Novavax's vaccine is made by growing synthetic versions of the coronavirus spike protein in armyworm moth cells. The vaccine combines these particles with the company’s adjuvant – a plant-based compound that helps boost the immune response to the vaccine.

##Vaccines#

The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in Florida increased by 30% in the past two weeks from 3,118 to 4,059, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.

In Miami-Dade County, the count of coronavirus patients requiring ventilators increased by 33% over the past two weeks, the county reported. The number requiring intensive care treatment increased by 18%.

Hospitalizations across the United States reached a record high of 93,238 on Sunday, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

In California, the number of hospitalized patients doubled from 4,000 on November 12 to more than 8,000.

California set a new pandemic record on Sunday with 7,415 people hospitalized, according to data from the state's Department of Health.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced stricter pandemic measures on Monday, as the city struggles to contain its latest coronavirus outbreak.

The new measures will be in effect for two weeks from Wednesday until December 15. 

Hong Kong reported 76 confirmed cases Monday, including nine cases with unknown sources of infection. 

The rules include:

Lam said in the news briefing that the restrictions on gatherings would go back to when it was most stringent, to a maximum of two people. All business premises must display the “Leave Home” app QR codes to help with contact tracing.

On Sunday, Hong Kong suspended face-to-face classes at all kindergartens and schools from Wednesday until after the Christmas holidays. 

Black churches in the US say the coronavirus pandemic has catapulted mental health efforts to the forefront of their mission. 

Some are preaching about mental health from the pulpit for the first time. Others are inviting mental health professionals to speak to their congregations, undergoing mental health training themselves or adding therapists to the church staff.

Across the US, mental health needs are soaring. And Black Americans are experiencing significant strain: A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer found 15% of non-Hispanic Black adults had seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days and 18% had started or increased their use of substances to cope with pandemic-related stress. 

Yet national data shows Blacks are less likely to receive mental health treatment than the overall population. 

Read the full story here:

RELATED

Black churches enlist mental health pros to support community