More states are lifting the licensing requirements for Americans to receive the coveted coronavirus vaccine and COVID-19 Cases are falling across the countryshows a USA TODAY analysis.
Tuesday in Indiana, Texas and Georgia along with the majority of the states have allowed all adults to receive coronavirus vaccines by the end of this week or next. Utah will open all permissions on Wednesday.
However, with the elimination of the admission requirements, there is also the elimination of the business and masking restrictions. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb plans to lift the statewide mask mandate and remaining business restrictions on COVID-19 in two weeks. And many other states have already repealed states restrictions already lifted.
Experts warn of a fourth increase as new variants spread rapidly in the US.
In the last week alone, the US reported 2,926 new variant cases – more than the country reported in December, January and February combined. This is shown by an analysis by the USA TODAY Network of the data from the Centers for Disease Control.
Also in the news:
► California state prisons will resume limited personal visits to inmates on April 10, more than a year after being closed for the coronavirus pandemic.
► Hours after COVID-19 vaccine staff AstraZeneca and Oxford University released data on their large clinical trial, Federal officials said information may have been missing a month’s worth of data.
►The White House said 27 million doses of coronavirus vaccines will be distributed next week, more than three times the number when President Joe Biden took office a little over two months ago. The US currently manages 17.5 million shots per week.
► Individuals who are fully vaccinated are not required to wear masks when working in Anchorage, Alaska if they are in a dedicated work area away from the public and unvaccinated colleagues. This went into effect on Tuesday.
📈 Today’s numbers: The US has over 29.92 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 543,700 deaths. according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global total: 124.1 million cases and 2.73 million deaths. In the United States, more than 164.3 million vaccine doses have been distributed and 128.2 million administered. according to CDC.
📘 What we read: The pandemic ushered in “a new era of medicine”. These telehealth trends are likely to continue here.
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Regeneron’s COVID Treatment Lowers Risk Of Death By 70%
A major new study found Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody cocktail reduced the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 in high-risk patients. The pharmaceutical company announced in a statement on Tuesday.
The researchers examined more than 4,000 recently diagnosed patients and found that the two-antibody combination drug REGEN-COV reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 70% and reduced the median recovery time from 14 days to 10 days.
“This is a milestone in the fight against COVID-19,” said Dr. Suraj Saggar, investigator and chief infectious disease at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey. “With so many people going to become infected … these data underscore the need to quickly adopt REGEN-COV as the standard of care to give high-risk patients the best chance to reduce serious consequences.”
The results have not yet been published or verified by independent scientists. Earlier, Eli Lilly announced that treatment with two antibodies also reduced the risk of hospitalization or death in similar patients.
The US added nearly 3,000 new variant cases in the past week, CDC data shows
In the last week alone, the US reported 2,926 new variant cases – more than the country reported in December, January and February combined, according to an analysis by the USA TODAY Network of data from the Centers for Disease Control.
Tuesday’s report included another 1,143 new variant variations since Sunday’s report, bringing the country to 7,781 cases of coronavirus that can spread more easily, evade treatments and immunities, or both.
Some of the biggest increases are currently in Michigan’s communities rather than prisons. The CDC reported an additional 371 variant cases for the state, though many of them appear to be the late reporting from last week. Variant cases are increasing in a state where the pace of new coronavirus cases has tripled in the last month, although case numbers have declined in much of the country.
Other high-growth states include New Jersey, where known variant cases more than doubled as 230 new cases were added to hit 393. The number of coronavirus cases per person in New Jersey was the highest in the nation and is increasing.
Massachusetts added 190 cases to hit 454. North Carolina more than doubled its case count after adding 101 cases to hit 186.
Almost all of the new variant cases are from B.1.1.7, which were first found in the UK.
– Kristi Tanner and Mike Stucka
Contributor: The Associated Press
