AstraZeneca said Monday that\u00a0advanced trial data from a U.S. study on its vaccine shows it is 79% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and\u00a0100% effective in stopping severe disease and hospitalization.<\/p>\n
The early findings are among the information AstraZeneca must submit to the Food and Drug Administration. An FDA advisory committee will publicly debate the evidence behind the vaccine\u00a0before the agency decides whether to allow its emergency use.\u00a0The U.S. study comprised 30,000 volunteers, 20,000 of whom were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was suspended in several European countries last week amid\u00a0reports of blood clots in a small number of patients, but the European Medicines Agency subsequently said the vaccine was safe and effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scientists have been awaiting results of the U.S. study in hopes it will clear up some of the confusion about just how well the shots really work. Investigators said the vaccine was effective across all ages, including older people \u2013 which previous studies in other countries had failed to establish.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Florida\u00a0became the first state to have more than 1,000 known cases of coronavirus variants.<\/p>\n
The U.S. reported another 834 variant cases since Thursday alone and now has 6,638 known cases, with almost 6,400 of them being of the B.1.1.7 type, the one first found in the United Kingdom,\u00a0CDC data shows.<\/p>\n
Florida reported another 158 cases, bringing its tally to 1,070 even as the state’s coronavirus infections have been trending down. Florida leads the country in B.1.1.7\u00a0as well as the P.1 variant first seen in Brazil.<\/p>\n
Miami Beach\u00a0declared a state of emergency\u00a0in its entertainment district Saturday\u00a0because of an\u00a0influx of spring breakers who have inundated\u00a0the city.<\/p>\n
A curfew went into\u00a0effect\u00a0at 8 p.m. Saturday and will last at least until the same time Tuesday,\u00a0Miami Beach Interim City Manager Raul Aguila said.\u00a0All restaurants, bars, and businesses are required to be closed by 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
“At the peak of spring break, we are quite simply overwhelmed in the\u00a0entertainment district,”\u00a0Aguila said. “Folks, this is not an easy decision to make. We are doing that to protect the public health and safety.”<\/p>\n
The nation’s total of known coronavirus variants has roughly doubled since March 9.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Indianapolis celebrated the city’s largest event since the pandemic began as it hosted the opening round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend, but revelry surrounding the games is causing consternation among public health experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also in the news:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u25baStudents in California classrooms can sit three feet apart instead of six under new guidelines adopted by the state, which follows Friday’s\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.<\/p>\n \u25baOne in four Americans in recent weeks has\u00a0seen\u00a0someone blame Asian American people for the coronavirus epidemic, a new USA TODAY\/Ipsos Poll finds.\u00a0The nationwide survey was taken Thursday and Friday, in the wake of last week’s\u00a0mass shooting in Georgia\u00a0of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent.<\/p>\n \u25baRepublican Julia Letlow won\u00a0Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District election\u00a0Saturday in a landslide less than three months after her\u00a0husband, Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, died from COVID complications before he could take office.<\/p>\n \u25baCancun’s tourism board is projecting 300,000 visitors from the United States\u00a0in March based on results so far and reservations for the next two weeks.\u00a0That’s more\u00a0than the 222,731 in March 2020, when the pandemic took hold, but below 464,569 pre-pandemic visitors\u00a0in March 2019.<\/p>\n \u25baArkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that he believes his proposal to remove a mask mandate intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus will take place as planned at the end of the month.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcc8\u00a0Today’s numbers:<\/strong>\u00a0The U.S. has over\u00a029.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than\u00a0542,300 deaths,\u00a0according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals:\u00a0123.1 million cases and\u00a02.71 million deaths. More than\u00a0156.7 million vaccine doses have\u00a0been distributed in the U.S. and\u00a0124.4\u00a0million have been administered,\u00a0according to the CDC.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcd8\u00a0What we’re reading:\u00a0<\/strong>From grade school to graduate school,\u00a0developing young minds in close physical proximity halted abruptly in mid-March 2020.\u00a0Here’s\u00a0what happened next.<\/p>\n USA TODAY is tracking COVID-19 news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Want more?\u00a0Sign up for our\u00a0Coronavirus Watch newsletter\u00a0for updates to your inbox and\u00a0join our Facebook group.<\/em><\/p>\n On the anniversary of the United States’ closing of its borders to its neighbors to the north and south, lawmakers and families across the country separated by the border continue to languish with no clear end in sight.<\/p>\n “This has been a year of struggle for binational families,” said Devon Weber, founder of\u00a0Let Us Reunite, a campaign of 2,200 families lobbying the U.S. government for greater travel exemptions for communities separated by the border shutdowns.<\/p>\n “Your life is in limbo and it’s extremely frustrating. Heartbreaking is the word that comes to mind,” Weber said of the situation\u00a0affecting\u00a0families on both sides of the border. Each month during the pandemic,\u00a0border restrictions have been reauthorized with no clear end.<\/p>\n – Matthew Brown<\/em><\/p>\n As part of the push under President Joe\u00a0Biden to reopen schools, the\u00a0administration announced last week that it would make $10 billion available for K-12 schools to expand coronavirus\u00a0screening of staff and students. Quick, rapid antigen tests that offer results in\u00a015 minutes, like the ones used at McSwain Union Elementary School in Northern California, are likely to be adopted more broadly.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u00a0this week released new recommendations\u00a0in tandem with\u00a0Biden’s school-testing initiative. Biden administration officials say more details are\u00a0coming, but the lack of national coordination so far has states and districts charting their own paths.<\/p>\n Schools that already set up\u00a0testing regimes adopted different\u00a0practices. Medical technology companies have raced to meet their needs with testing products and services. Health experts are split on what tests are best. And some staff and\u00a0students’ families have balked at testing.<\/p>\n Public health experts are optimistic widespread vaccination will drive\u00a0case counts lower, but testing remains critical to track new cases and variants that might make the virus more contagious or deadly.<\/p>\n “It’s something that would have made a world of difference months ago,” said\u00a0Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “And it will make a world of difference if we can do it today.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Erin Richards, Ken Alltucker<\/em><\/p>\n The coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of the American health care system, but nothing changed quite as drastically as the rise of telemedicine.\u00a0While virtual care existed before COVID-19, the practice boomed after state-mandated\u00a0stay-at-home orders\u00a0and has\u00a0since remained strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to the pandemic, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts received about 200 telehealth claims per day. That number reached up\u00a0to 40,0000 claims per day from April to May 2020, and the insurer is still receiving about 30,000 claims per day almost a year later, according to spokesperson Amy McHugh.\u00a0Athenahealth, a health tech company, released an interactive dashboard that delivered insights on telehealth trends from\u00a018.4 million virtual appointments by 60,000 providers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pandemic has necessitated a new era in medicine in which telehealth appointments are a core aspect of the patient-provider relationship,\u201d said Jessica Sweeney-Platt, the company’s vice president of research and editorial strategy.<\/p>\nAfter one year of Canada and Mexico border closures, pressure grows for White House to issue reopening guidelines<\/h2>\n
Schools already testing students and staff for coronavirus say it’s crucial to in-person class: ‘It’s worth it’<\/h2>\n
Telemedicine’s boom may not end with pandemic<\/h2>\n