South Korea beat back that potentially catastrophic outbreak, and continued to greatly limit its cases. They had fewer than 1,000 deaths in all of 2020. In the United States, that would translate to fewer than 7,000 deaths from Covid in 2020. Instead, estimates place the number of deaths at more than 375,000.
What happened: When vaccines were developed, rich countries hoarded them.
The greatest scientific achievement of the pandemic may have been the speedy development of safe, effective vaccines.
In January 2020, the C.E.O. of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, started designing vaccines as soon as he read The Lancet study noting the case without symptoms, which convinced him that a pandemic was likely. He then persuaded Pfizer, his initially skeptical investor, to back him.
On May 15, 2020, the United States began Operation Warp Speed, which financed the development of six vaccine candidates. Five of them quickly proved to be highly effective not at all a given. The first to deliver spectacular results was that produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. Modernas quickly followed.
Supply was an immediate problem. Pfizer initially estimated it could make as many as 1.35 billion doses in 2021 enough for about only 8.5 percent of the worlds people to get two doses. Moderna, a much smaller company, wasnt expected to exceed that. AstraZenecas vaccine, too, would not cover the gap quickly enough.
There also was too little commitment to how vaccines could be distributed fairly around the world.
Instead, wealthy countries that had preordered or financed research got most of the initial doses.
Vaccine production grew, but too slowly. There was no consortium or sharing of resources to ramp up supply. Technology wasnt transferred to lower- and middle-income countries. Patents were left in place. The W.H.O. initiative to get vaccines to poorer countries, known as Covax, was not able to buy enough doses, and what donations were made were insufficient and haphazard.
Jill Duggar and husband Derick Dillard are not happy campers right now.
On Thursday, the pregnant reality star announced that she and Derick had both tested positive for COVID-19.
Give me all the hot liquids and cough drops please!! Derick & I tested + for covid for the first time and its not fun! , the 19 Kids and Counting alum, wrote on Instagram. With a little help from family, we were still able to celebrate Dericks birthday at home yesterday, even though it was different than wed originally hoped.
Prayers appreciated for quick recoveries and for baby to stay healthy too! she added before asking for any helpful tips.
Alongside them, she posted a photo of herself holding a thermos of tea with a decidedly grumpy face while Derick clasped a tissue box. She also shared a pic of their positive COVID tests and another cheerier image of Derick holding a birthday cake.
Last month Duggar revealed on their Dillard Family Blog that she was pregnant after suffering a miscarriage.
Ever since we were devastated last fall by the miscarriage of our sweet baby, River Bliss, we have prayed that, if it was Gods will, he would bless us with another baby, Duggar, 30, and Dillard, 33, wrote.
We are excited to announce that God has answered our prayers and we are expecting our rainbow baby due July 2022!
The couple is already parents to sons, Israel David, 6, and Samuel Scott, 4.
On March 11, 2020 -- exactly two years ago Friday -- the World Health Organization declared SARS-COV-2 a global pandemic, changing daily life in Southern California as we know it.
As a statewide order was issued for roughly 40 million Californians to stay at home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, things started to look different.
Freeways normally clogged with cars flowed freely. Baseball stadiums were empty of cheering fans. Movie theater marquees displayed public health recommendations and messages of support instead of lists of the latest flick. Even LAX became a ghost town.
Two years later, things aren't quite the "normal" we knew before, but they're different again from the first quiet days before social distancing, vaccines and boosters.
Scroll down for a look back at the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, two years later.
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When Cinequest was canceled midway through its 30th anniversary festival two years ago this month, nobody had any idea what the future of Silicon Valleys film and creativity festival would hold. Well, almost nobody.
Co-founder Halfdan Hussey knew Cinequest had the ability to stream movies and recreate the festival experience in a virtual setting it actually already had done it.
We were doing a virtual internet film festival in 2003, 2005, he said. In the early days, People were laughing at internet distribution of movies at that time, believe it or not.
The alpha version of a live, online festival launched that October when people were still reeling from the first big wave of the pandemic. Two more were held in 2021 and the fourth iteration will run April 1-17, with 132 movies and television shows including 82 world and U.S. premieres from 53 countries available to audiences. And special events are still a thing, including virtual red carpets spotlighting that evenings filmmakers and actors, online screening parties where groups can interact with each other after watching a movie, and a virtual VIP lounge where ticketholders can mingle with each other through avatars (though youre on your own for beer, wine and Titos vodka).
This challenge for us wasnt a bummer or a depressing one during COVID, Hussey said. It was an exhilarating challenge, so we called this experience Cinejoy because we wanted to bring people the joy of humanity, the joy of cinema, the joy of discourse that is positive and affirmative.
Cinejoys opening night film is 18, a 1970s-era Watergate conspiracy thriller and dark comedy directed by Slamdance Film Festival co-founder Dan Mirvish that stars Willa Fitzgerald, John Magaro, Bruce Campbell, Richard Kind and Jon Cryer. The screening will be proceeded by a conversation with the stars and filmmakers. In addition to the 15 Spotlight films that will be streamed on specific nights, you can also buy tickets for the other films on the showcase schedule, available to watch 24/7 anytime during the festival run. The easiest option is to pick up a festival pass for $129. You can view the lineup and buy tickets at www.creatics.org/cinejoy.
Gemma Arterton, who stars in the short film, Bump (April 10), is the first announced recipient of the Maverick Spirit Award this year. And while the award presentation will be virtual instead of at the palatial California Theatre, Hussey says that has its benefits. If we put Gemma Arterton on a stage, its going to be very electric, but only 1,100 people can see it, he said. And if you dont have a front-row seat, shes going to seem like shes quite a bit away from you.
The in-person version of Cinequest is expected to make a triumphant return to downtown San Jose in August, and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has included a $75,000 funding request in his March budget message to help reboot the festival. But Hussey doesnt expect Cinejoy to disappear once audiences return to in-person screenings.
We feel this is a unique experience that were very excited about, he said. This was not a COVID substitution only. Were going to keep building out new super-cool experiences that fit the world of global access through the internet.
LOOKING FOR LIBRARY RESTORATION: The San Jose Public Library Foundation will be recognized at Tuesdays San Jose City Council meeting for its 35th anniversary. But while the group no doubt appreciates the commendation, it would also like to see something more from the city council: $2 million in funding to restore hours and staffing at the citys 25 library locations to pre-COVID-19 levels.
At a rally at the West Valley Branch Library, Foundation Executive Director Dawn Coppin said before the pandemic, the librarys branches were open 47 hours a week and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library downtown was open 77 hours week, collectively serving 6 million visitors.
What does this $2 million mean? If parents need a safe place for their children go to after school, if they need help with their child to complete homework assignments and prepare for a successful transition to adulthood, if parents need fun and educational activities, the city can provide this, said Coppin, who was joined at the rally by San Jose City Council member Chappie Jones, whose mother was a librarian.
I know first-hand the impact that libraries have on the lives of the members of our community, said Jones, who urged his colleagues to restore hours and staffing in the budget process. To have access to the library for more hours will have a tremendous impact on the lives of our residents.
ST. PATRICKS DAY RETURNS: Its hard to believe its been five years since the last St. Patricks Day bash at Los Gatos venerable C.B. Hannegans, which closed its doors at the end of 2017 and has been replaced by, well, nothing since then. But restaurateur Alexander Hult is hoping to bring back that St. Patricks Day spirit at Mountain Charleys at 15 N Santa Cruz Avenue, where he and Jim Foley, part of the buildings ownership group, are planning a ShamRock-N-Roll Party on March 17.
The festivities get started at noon, with live music, food, DJs and, yes, green beer.
VIETGONE WILL BE HERE SOON: City Lights Theatre Company in San Jose just closed Agatha Christies The Hollow, which had its full run shifted back two weeks because of COVID-19, and is quickly putting together its next show, Vietgone, which opens for a monthlong run March 24.
The play by Qui Nguyen is both a hip-hop comedy and a love story of Vietnamese refugees who settle into American life in Arkansas in the 1970s. Southeast Asian arts group Chopsticks Alley is the City Lights nonprofit partner on the show, and Executive Director Trami Cron brought a group of Vietnamese community leaders to watch rehearsal with the actors and director Jeffrey Lo. You can can get tickets to the real thing at www.cltc.org.
Forget temperature checks and deep-cleaning surfaces. The best way to protect people from Covid-19 as they return to offices and other indoor spaces is to bolster air quality and vaccination coverage, experts on the transmission of the virus say.
Their consensus reflects an evolving understanding of the spread of a virus that the World Health Organization declared the cause of a pandemic two years ago this Friday. Deep-cleaning surfaces and temperature checksstill a mainstay at many businesseshave been understood for many months to be of relatively little help stopping the virus from spreading. Rather, as businesses and communities across the U.S. begin what is shaping up to be the broadest return yet to pre-pandemic behaviors, transmission and infectious-disease experts said broad vaccine coverage and good air hygiene stand out as the most important mitigation efforts.
Nydam said schools still must report COVID-19 cases and clusters according to the state requirements for notifiable diseases: Just like any other infectious disease such as measles.
Though state officials had said that the COVID-19 school reports were exempt from public release, many metro Atlanta districts voluntarily posted their numbers each week. Since last August, 14 area districts have recorded more than 75,000 coronavirus cases.
Now that the state has dropped the reporting requirement, Fulton County Schools has stopped publishing weekly staff and student case counts on its website.
The states decision was the major impetus for our suspension of creating the weekly report and publication, said Fulton spokesman Brian Noyes in an email.
He said the change was part of a de-escalation of our steps in response to waning COVID-19 case counts. The district also lifted its mask mandate in mid-January.
The last report Fulton posted online was for the week ending Feb. 24. That week, the district reported 133 COVID-19 cases among students and staff, its lowest count of this semester. Since August, the district had recorded more than 9,000 COVID-19 cases.
A spokeswoman for Douglas County School System said Friday that the district is no longer publishing COVID-19 cases. It had been reporting cases weekly.
Most metro Atlanta districts have continued to publish weekly reports in recent weeks, including Atlanta, Cherokee County, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb County, city of Decatur and Gwinnett County.
Its been two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and many Americans are cautiously optimistic that a new normal is on the horizon. They just dont think itll come quickly.
Gallup polling released this week found 63% of Americans believe the coronavirus situation is getting better, up from just 20% in January. Its the highest the percentage has been since before the delta variant.
The newfound outlook comes as newly reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have dropped to their lowest point since last summer following a surge in record-high COVID-19 infections in January. Though deaths have declined, more than 1,000 Americans continue to die daily, according to the CDCs seven-day average.
Most Americans arent under the impression that COVID-19 will end soon. The poll found 91% believe pandemic restrictions will continue for at least a few more months, including 38% who believe they will continue through the end of 2022 and 29% think it will go on even longer.
Yet many restrictions have already been lifted. In 38 states, there are no current restrictions, while eight states, including California and Hawaii, are easing them according to a USA Today analysis. Public transportation remains one area where masking remains required. The TSA announced Thursday that the federal mask mandate on planes, buses and trains will continue until at least April 18.
While most Americans think things are getting better, a quarter believe theyre staying the same, and 12% believe theyre getting worse. And many still have concerns, including 55% who said they are very or somewhat worried about new strains or variants, and 50% who are very or somewhat concerned about people choosing not to get vaccinated. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are fully vaccinated, but vaccination rates vary by state.
With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths declining in the wake of the omicron surge, Americans views of the state of the pandemic are sharply improved, Gallup wrote. Yet, Americans remain largely unconvinced that the end of the pandemic is near, and a majority still worry about the spread of new strains of the virus. With many Americans not fully or at all vaccinated, the U.S. remains vulnerable to new variants.
COVID-19 has killed more than 964,000 Americans, and a study from the University of Michigan found more than 40% of survivors have had long-term effects that occur a month or more after infection.
Two years of COVID-19 pandemic: new report highlights the 100 weeks of WHO/Europes efforts to protect lives and livelihoods
11 March 2022 is a grim milestone as we mark 2 years since WHO categorized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic a health emergency spanning countries and continents. Since cases of COVID-19 were first reported, more than 6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, with over 1.8 million of them in the WHO European Region.
The new WHO/Europe report titled One hundred weeks of emergency response, one hundred million COVID-19 cases: working towards better COVID-19 outcomes in the WHO European Region showcases the achievements of WHO/Europes COVID-19 Incident Management Support Team (IMST) the mechanism activated to deal with emergency situations from its establishment in early 2020, as the first cases of COVID-19 were being detected in the European Region, to 2022. It also includes insights into the work of the operational teams during this time as they supported some of the Regions Member States in dealing with the challenges of a global pandemic.
Quoted in the report is Dr Dorit Nitzan, former Regional Emergency Director for WHO/Europe, who said, The COVID-19 Incident Support Management Team has been the engine of WHO/Europes response to COVID-19 by generating knowledge and operationalizing it in countries with governments and partners.
Working to meet country needs
The report details the IMSTs work and the impact of its COVID-19 responses across various functions, including surveillance, public health and social measures, risk communication and community engagement, clinical and health interventions, essential health services, vaccines and operations, showing how each of these pillars contributed to meeting the needs of countries in three key areas:
strategic, by providing continuously updated guidelines and technical recommendations, combined with capacity building activities such as webinars and trainings;
technical, by providing global and regional expertise, channeling financial resources and delivering essential supplies to where they are most needed; and
operational, by providing continuous country-specific support through on-the-ground deployments and missions staffed by technical experts, and through technical assistance delivered remotely.
Commenting on the reports launch, Dr Gerald Rockenschaub, recently appointed Regional Emergency Director for WHO/Europe, said, This new report underlines how the IMSTs expertise and flexibility over the last two years have been crucial for providing Member States with the most timely and appropriate support for dealing with a complex and ever-evolving situation. Through solidarity, perseverance and patience, we can defeat this virus together.
WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic
One hundred weeks of emergency response, one hundred million COVID-19 cases: working towards better COVID-19 outcomes in the WHO European Region (2022)
Two years of COVID-19: What it takes to run an emergency response across 53 countries
Living with COVID-19 2 years on
As Russia continues attacks in Ukraine, global health leaders warn that "certainly there'll be a rise in Covid-19."
Some activists in the region already have seenaspread of the disease.
"Some of our volunteers got infected with Covid while helping manage refugees at the border or refugee centers. And because in both Moldova and Ukraine the vax rate is so low, the pandemic is still on,"Constanta Dohotaru, an activist involved in the refugee crisis in Moldova and working closely with the Moldovan government, told CNN.
TheCovid-19vaccination rate in Moldova isaround29% and in Ukraine it isabout34%, according to Our World In Data.
In a news briefing Wednesday, officials at the World Health Organization also said that as the pandemic continues, Russia's invasion will impact the spread of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
"Unfortunately, this virus will take opportunities to continue to spread. We, as an organization, recognize that countries are in very different situations, theyre facing different challenges.Theres a lot of movement and refugees associated with this crisis," MariaVan Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, said Wednesday.
Van Kerkhove added that WHO will work with countries receiving refugees to ensure thatCovid-19 testing and vaccinationscontinue. It is estimated that more than 2 million people have fled war-torn Ukraine, with most going to Poland.
In a Twitter post Thursday, WHO described the situation as "the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe for more than 75 years" and noted that it "is working closely with health authorities on meeting refugee needs," and supporting Ukraines health system.
"Certainly, therell be a rise in Covid-19 within the population within Ukraine, without a doubt, because not testing, without access to treatment, with vaccinations stopped and there's already low vaccination. I think about 34% or 35% vaccination rate before the conflict,"Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies program, said in Wednesday's briefing.
"So, there are many people who still remain vulnerable to infection," Ryan said, but he added that the world should be careful not to perpetuate harmful prejudices and stereotypes around refugees and Covid-19.
"Let us be very careful with our rhetoric because this always arises, that in some way people fleeing the horrors of war are going to bring stuff with them," Ryan said in part. "Europe has plentyCovid as it stands, and it has got to deal with that and Ukrainian refugees are not going to change the dial on that."
Maine health officials report three more deaths from COVID-19 and 282 new coronavirus cases across the state Maine Public
