February 3 coronavirus news

CNN's National Correspondent Ryan Young is in Atlanta reporting on why some Black Americans are hesitant to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

According to a recent CNN analysis of data from 14 states, Black and Latino Americans are receiving the Covid-19 vaccine at significantly lower rates than White people — a disparity that health advocates blame on the federal government and hospitals not prioritizing equitable access.

The CNN analysis found vaccine coverage is twice as high among White people on average than it is among Black and Latino people. 

Black and Latino Americans are already dying of Covid-19 at three times the rate of White people and being hospitalized at a rate four times higher, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Watch Ryan Young's reporting:

CNN's Nicquel Terry Ellis and Deidre McPhillips contributed reporting to this post.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the US appears to be in a “consistent downward trajectory” for both Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.

Covid-19 cases have declined since hitting a peak on Jan. 8, dropping 13.4% to an average of nearly 144,000 cases per day from Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, according to Walensky.

While deaths have continued to increase, the pace appears to be slowing, she said.

However, Walensky warned Americans that Covid-19 cases still remain “extraordinarily high” and people should not let their guard down, especially as variants continue to circulate. 

She said people should only gather virtually or with their immediate family for the Super Bowl on Sunday. 

CDC director say we must take prevention intervention seriously:

Future economic success will be compromised unless employees can bring women back to work, warned labor firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. 

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows women accounted for all the job losses in December, losing 156,00 jobs, while men gained 16,000.

More than 2.1 million women have left the US labor market completely since the beginning of the pandemic, 20% more than the number of men, according to Challenger. 

Women have dropped out of the labor markets either because of lack of child care or to take care of older family members.  

Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of the firm, said:

Challenger said employers need to find ways to bring women back into the work force and keep them there, and offer leadership opportunities to help them grow.

The annual World Economic Forum, due to take place in Singapore in May, has been pushed back again.

The event will now convene from August 17 to 20.

WEF added that the pushback is a result of the current global travel restrictions that are making planning difficult for an in-person meeting in the first half of the year. 

Last week during the virtual Davos event, WEF expressed confidence that the in person meeting in Singapore would go ahead as planned in May.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine candidate got emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration within the next two weeks.

Johnson & Johnson will be the third company to seek emergency use authorization from the FDA for a coronavirus vaccine. 

For the Pfizer vaccine, it took a little over three weeks from the time the company submitted its data to an EUA.

For the Moderna vaccine, it took a little more than two weeks. 

In a news briefing on Wednesday, UNICEF announced new a deal with Serum Institute of India to access 1.1 billion doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Novavax vaccines at approximately $3 per dose for the poorest countries. 

“This is a great value for COVAX doners,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. “And a strong demonstration of one of the fundamental principles of COVAX.” 

COVAX is a partnership co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

The UNICEF announcement comes as COVAX prepares to distribute 337 million vaccine doses to the world’s most in-need countries as part its first interim distribution forecast. 

Only six US states have genetically sequenced more than 1% of their total coronavirus cases during the pandemic, compared to a national average just over 0.3%, according to data posted this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These states include Hawaii (2.8%), Washington (2.1%), Maine (1.7%), Wyoming (1.6%), Utah (1.5%) and Oregon (1.2%).

Meanwhile, nearly half of states have sequenced less than one tenth of one percent of their confirmed cases – 24 in total.

These are the states who preformed the highest raw number of genetic sequences:

Fourteen states report fewer than 100 sequences each.

These numbers come from sequences in a publicly accessible database from January 2020 to January 2021 and may not represent the full number of samples that have been analyzed.

US labs have submitted 92,000 sequences of the coronavirus – around 0.3% of total cases – to a genomics database known as GISAID. In comparison, the UK has submitted nearly 197,000 – just over 5% of its total cases.

The US has been ramping up its sequencing efforts and is on track to process at least 7,000 samples per week, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Experts have previously told CNN that the US should aim to sequence 5% to 10% of cases, in line with sequencing efforts in the UK. Given cases over the past seven days, this would amount to roughly 50,000 to 100,000 sequences in a week.

New York City Health Commissioner David Chokshi has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing “manageable,” “mild” symptoms, he said in a statement Wednesday.

He has been in touch with the city’s Test and Trace Corps to ensure that anyone who may have been potentially exposed is offered services and care.

Nicaragua has issued emergency use authorization for Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, according to a statement published by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Wednesday. 

Nicaragua is the sixth country in Latin America to register for the vaccine after Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay and Mexico.

According to RDIF's statement, some of the benefits of using the Sputnik V vaccine are that it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator and costs less than $10 per shot, making it "affordable around the world." 

In the statement from RDIF, CEO Kirill Dmitriev said "High efficacy, safety, easy distribution and affordability allow regulatory authorities around the world to include Sputnik V in their national vaccine portfolio."