January 19 coronavirus news

Dr. Anthony Fauci got his second dose of coronavirus vaccine Tuesday.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, helped lead the development and testing of the Moderna vaccine. He got his first dose of the vaccine on Dec. 22. Moderna’s vaccine is supposed to be given as two doses, four weeks apart.

Fauci’s been the lead scientific face of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, and he has been helping the transition team of President-elect Joe Biden. He’ll stay on as NIAID director.

Thirty-six additional states received doses from a batch of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine that is under investigation in California, the company announced Tuesday.

Nearly a million doses from the lot have been shipped to approximately 1,700 vaccination sites, Moderna said in a statement. An additional 307,000 doses remain in storage and have not been distributed.

Health officials in California are telling medical providers across the state not to administer doses from this batch of the vaccine while they investigate possible severe allergic reactions that occurred last week. The California Department of Public Health said fewer than 10 people who got shots at a community vaccination clinic in San Diego required medical attention over a span of 24 hours. 

Moderna said it does not know how many doses have been administered, but that it expects that a significant portion may have already been used. The company said it was "unaware of comparable clusters of adverse events from other vaccination centers which may have administered vaccines from the same lot, or from other Moderna lots."

There have been at least 400,022 reported deaths from Covid-19 in the United States since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

At least 24,163,707 coronavirus cases have been reported in the US, Johns Hopkins data shows.

This is the fastest the United States has tallied 100,000 new Covid-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data.

Johns Hopkins recorded the first death from Covid-19 on Feb. 29 in Washington state. Later in the spring, two earlier deaths in California were posthumously confirmed to be from Covid-19.

A Scottish woman who lived through two world wars and the 1918 flu pandemic has received her first dose of coronavirus vaccine on her 108th birthday.

Marion Dawson, who was born in 1913 and is believed to be the third oldest person in Scotland, received her vaccine at a church in Houston, Renfrewshire, on Tuesday, according to a news release from local health trust NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. 

Rev. Gary Noonan, minister for Houston and Killellan Kirk church, called Dawson a "local treasure."

"Mrs. Dawson is a local treasure in Houston, having lived through two world wars and until the lockdown she never missed a week at church. It’s fitting she can get her vaccine in the Kirk, a place she loves," Noonan said.

The 2021 New Orleans Jazz Fest has been postponed until October, according to a statement posted on the festival's website.

Normally held in the Spring, Jazz Fest is being pushed to Oct. 8-17 due to the ongoing pandemic, the statement said. 

Organizers plan to announce details for the 2021 festival this coming Spring, the statement said. 

The 2020 version of Jazz Fest was canceled due to Covid-19, marking the first time in the festival's 50 years that it did not take place.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that the department has had hundreds of meetings with the Biden administration and is committed to a seamless transition.

“Changing administrations is no simple task during ordinary times, let alone during a pandemic. We’ve had hundreds of meetings now with President-elect Biden’s team, intent on handing over the reins to the Biden administration in the most seamless way possible,” Azar said during a State of the Department address Tuesday.

Some context: His comments come despite multiple officials familiar with the transition telling CNN they are concerned about the lack of full cooperation transparency from the outgoing administration and believe this has contributed to frustration and concern from Biden’s Covid team about understanding the problems they must confront.

About 2.5 million children in the US have tested positive for Covid-19 as of Jan. 14, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Last week alone, 211,466 new child cases were identified through testing, the report said. That’s an 18% increase in child Covid-19 cases over two weeks. Children represent 12.6% of all cases in the US. 

Children made up between 6% and 19% of those who were tested for Covid-19, and 7.3%to 27% of children tested were positive for the coronavirus, depending on the state.

Remember: Children are still considered much less likely than adults to develop severe symptoms of Covid-19 or to die from the disease. Children represented 1.2% to 2.8% of total reported hospitalizations for Covid-19, based on the information provided by 24 states and New York City. Only 0.2% to 3.1% of all cases of Covid-19 in children required hospitalization. 

Twelve states reported zero child deaths among the 43 states that provided data on Covid-19 mortality. The states that did report having a fatal case saw no more than 0.06% of deaths in children among all confirmed cases of Covid-19. 

The state of New York has administered at least 79% of first doses of the coronavirus vaccine received from the federal government, according to a news release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"To build on that momentum, I'm calling on the federal government to do its part and increase supply. We need to continue vaccinating all eligible New Yorkers quickly and equitably, and the more vaccines we have, the more easily we can accomplish that goal and spread immunity," he added.

The state reported at least 12,185 additional cases of Covid-19, according to its Covid-19 dashboard.

It hasn’t been easy to stand by facts and science while working under President Trump, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he made a commitment to tell the truth, no matter what administration he works for. He has served under six presidents.

“It's been particularly problematic here because that would often put me in direct conflict – not emotional conflict, but factual conflict – with what the President might say, so obviously that that has not been an easy thing to do," he said.