China on Thursday rejected the World Health Organization’s plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of COVID-19 and a theory that the virus could have leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
“It is impossible for us to accept such a tracing plan,” said Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission, at a press conference called to address the question of the origin of the virus.
An earlier joint investigation involving the WHO and China found that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus escaped from the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week unveiled a plan to revisit laboratories and markets in Wuhan, the city where the first cases were identified. Tedros also called for more transparency from Beijing.
The US and some allies claim China did not comment on details of the early days of the pandemic. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who led President Donald Trump’s virus response team, claimed last week: Evidence strongly suggests that the coronavirus “jumped out of the Chinese laboratory”.
China accuses critics of politicizing an issue that should be left to scientists.
Also on the news:
►Two women won custom trucks and a nurse won $ 1 million as the youngest recipient of West Virginia Vaccination Sweepstakes. Other awards included four-year college scholarships, rifles, shotguns, lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, and weekend trips to state parks.
►The European Union announced on Thursday that it would donate more than 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to middle and low income countries by the end of the year.
►An infected Indonesian boarded a domestic flight disguised as his wife, wearing a veil and wearing fake IDs and a negative PCR test result, authorities said. A flight attendant discovered the trick when the man was changing in the toilet.
►Four other residents of the Olympic Village, including two athletes, tested positive. The skateboarder Candy Jacobs from the Netherlands and the table tennis player Pavel Sirucek from the Czech Republic had to leave the village to enter a quarantine hotel.
►Children under the age of 12 could be vaccinated against the coronavirus in a matter of weeks, says President Joe Biden. But it will likely take longer.
📈Today’s numbers: There have been more than 34.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 609,800 deaths in the United States. according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The global totals: More than 191.9 million cases and 4.1 million deaths. Almost 161.9 million Americans – 48.8% of the population – were fully vaccinated, according to CDC.
📘What we read: A Houston hospital has its first case of the lambda variant of the coronavirus, but public health experts say it is too early to say whether the variant will rise to the same level of concern as the Delta. What you should know.
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The number of new infections more than tripled within a month
Coronavirus cases bottomed out in the US on June 22nd. In the month since then, weekly new cases have more than tripled, according to an analysis by USA TODAY of data from Johns Hopkins University. The US had reported about eight cases every minute. There are now around 28. The country reported around 164,000 more cases in July than in all of June. Cases have risen in almost every state. Some of the changes reflect the dark days of earlier in the pandemic. As of June 22, the number of new cases increased 762% in Alabama, 666% in South Carolina, and 603% in Louisiana.
Recurring themes behind the climbs: vaccination hesitation and the delta variant.
Some hospitals were besieged. The number of likely COVID-19 patients in Nevada tripled on July 17 from a month earlier, an analysis of US government data by USA TODAY shows. The number of COVID patients has nearly doubled in Arkansas and Mississippi. Alaska rose from 13 hospitalized COVID patients to 64.
The pace of death has traditionally fallen a few weeks behind the case reports. COVID-19 was killing approximately 217 Americans every day, from its low point a few weeks ago. Now it kills about 245.
– Mike Stucka
Hospital Association: Health workers must be vaccinated
The country’s largest hospital association urges all healthcare workers to get vaccinated as cases increase across the country. “To protect all patients, communities and staff from the known and significant risks of COVID-19, the American Hospital Association urges vaccination of all health care workers,” the organization said in a Policy statement. “The AHA also supports hospitals and health systems that are adopting mandatory COVID-19 vaccination guidelines for medical personnel, with local factors and circumstances determining whether and how those guidelines are implemented.”
The AHA – which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals – is the largest health group advocating mandatory vaccine requirements for health workers. Health officials said so Vaccination remains the best protectionBeing aware of the gunshots reduces the risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and death.
“The vaccines are very robust,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told USA TODAY. “What we are seeing in the United States now, as the CDC director said, is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. That’s where the risk lies. “
US beach volleyball players tested positive, probably no longer at the Olympics
American beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Japan and is unlikely to be able to attend the Tokyo Olympics. according to reports Wednesday. The Orange County Register and an NBC subsidiary in Los Angeles each reported that 29-year-old Crabb had a positive test over the weekend that would likely prevent him from participating in his first scheduled match with partner Jake Gibb on Sunday.
Crabb would be the first U.S. athlete to be banned from participating in the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19 in Japan.
USA Volleyball confirmed in a statement that one of its members tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival but declined to provide any additional details, including the person’s identity.
“The health and safety of our athletes, coaches and employees is our top priority,” said a statement from the organization. “We can confirm that a member of Team USA tested positive on arrival in Japan. In accordance with local rules and protocols, the athlete was taken to a hotel. Out of respect for individual privacy, we cannot provide any further information here . ” Time.”
– Tom Schad, USA TODAY
Missouri Announces Vaccine Lottery; state religious leaders demand vaccinations
Vaccinated Missourians will now have the opportunity to win $ 10,000 under a new lottery program announced by Governor Mike Parson. The announcement comes on the same day that Missouri reported 3,031 new cases of the virus, the highest daily number since January. To date, 9,526 Missourians have died from COVID-19, and the state has reported a total of 549,191 cases. The early and rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus has put Missouri under a national microscope in recent months, with federal officials warning that the state could be a harbinger of things to come in the US
The USA TODAY Network’s vaccine tracker showed that to date only 40% of Missouri’s 6.1 million residents are fully vaccinated, with 47% of residents taking at least one dose. These values are well below the “herd immunity” that is generally accepted by scientists when at least 70% of the population is vaccinated.
Word & Way, a 125-year-old Missouri-based Baptist publication, organized and issued a statement supported by more than 200 Christian leaders. They urged everyone to get vaccinated in order to “find an easy way to live Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself'”.
– Galen Bacharian and Gregory J. Holman, Springfield News leaders
Contributor: Associated Press.
