Vaccine sites in Northeast closed by snow; 441K US deaths

COVID-19 has killed more than 441,000 Americans, and infections have continued to mount despite the introduction of a pair of vaccines late in 2020. USA TODAY is tracking the news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox, join our Facebook group or scroll through our in-depth answers to reader questions.

Federal health officials announced Monday a $230 million deal to expand the use of a non-prescription at-home COVID-19 test to provide about 8.5 million tests a month in the United States.

The Australia-based Ellume tests can detect COVID-19 with 90% accuracy and can be used for people with or without symptoms, Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response told reporters.

The tests, which the FDA authorized for use in December, send results to users’ smartphones within 15 minutes and the swabbing is less invasive than the nasopharyngeal swabs of other COVID-19 tests.

“Making easier to use tests available to every American is a high priority with obvious benefits,” Slavitt said.

Meanwhile, Slavitt and other members of the White House COVID-19 response team urged states not to hold back on administering doses of vaccines available in fears that second doses won’t be available three to four weeks after first doses were administered.

In the headlines: 

►Ten Republican senators issued an open letter to President Joe Biden on Sunday asking to discuss a COVID-19 relief package the group believes will get bipartisan support in Congress. 

►The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order late Friday requiring people on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares to wear a face mask while waiting, boarding, traveling and disembarking. The order applies to those traveling into, within or out of the U.S. It goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Monday.

â–ºNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged that Black and Latino New Yorkers are receiving COVID-19 vaccines at far lower rates than white residents.

â–ºCaptain Sir Tom Moore, the 100-year-old British Army veteran who raised nearly $45 million for his country’s National Health Service, has tested positive for the coronavirus, his family announced.

► A top Connecticut official said Saturday that COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to enough nursing home residents in the state to potentially stop the transmission of the virus among those residents.

►A second U.S. state reported a case of the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan confirmed a case of the B.1.351 variant in his state Saturday. South Carolina reported at least two cases of the variant earlier this week.

►A World Health Organization team in Wuhan, China, visited two disease control centers on Monday as part of its investigations into the origins of COVID-19.

►A single local case of COVID-19 in Western Australia has prompted a 5-day lockdown for 2 million people in Perth and surrounding coastal towns as officials hope to prevent an outbreak.

📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 26.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 441,300 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 103 million cases and 2.22 million deaths. Nearly 50 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 31.1 million have been administered, according to the CDC.

📘 What we’re reading: Studies suggest up to 80% of people who have COVID-19 symptoms experience a reduced or complete loss of smell or taste. Most survivors regain their senses in a few weeks. But some don’t, and researchers say they may go without them for the rest of their lives. Read the full story.

Fauci: J&J vaccine ‘will be value added’

Dr. Anthony Fauci urged all Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available to them and their turn in line, regardless of what manufacturer has produced the shot.

Johnson & Johnson released data Friday from its late-stage clinical trial on its vaccine candidate, which showed an overall efficacy of 66%. However, Fauci said that the data show even more efficacy from the J&J vaccine at preventing the most severe cases of COVID-19. 

“The thing that is important that you need to put into the equation: you want to prevent people from getting seriously ill,” he said. “We want to keep people out of the hospital and we don’t want people to die, and with that regard, this will be value added.”

Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response, told reporters that he does not expect an immediate dramatic shift in vaccine distribution if J&J’s vaccine were to receive emergency use authorization from the FDA. The company agreed to provide 100 million doses by the end of June, and Slavitt said Americans should not expect them all to be delivered at once.

Vaccines sites in Northeast close with snow storm

Vaccine sites around the Northeast will be closed Monday as a snowstorm hammers the region, creating blizzard conditions and prompting emergency declarations.

At a news conference on Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he did not want older New Yorkers driving to vaccine appointments. Vaccinations scheduled for Tuesday will also be canceled, de Blasio said.

The snowstorm is set to derail vaccination appointments in at least six other states, as well, the New York Times reported: Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.

Other states, meanwhile, are awaiting the next vaccine shipments.

For some places, it’s just in time. Health officials say three mass COVID-19 vaccination sites in Snohomish County, the first county to report the virus over a year ago, are closing Monday and Tuesday because of a lack of vaccines. Many providers in rural Idaho are also waiting for more supply, reported KLEW-TV.

Health equity researchers sound alarm on lack of race, ethnicity information

As people of color suffer disproportionate rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths because of longstanding systemic inequities and racism, health equity leaders are calling for better health data tracking to shed light on racial disparities

A lack of data is further masking vaccination rollout transparency, health equity researchers say, and the data deficit is hurting those most vulnerable. So far, only 16 states are releasing vaccination counts by race and ethnicity, and the data is incomplete.

“If you don’t actually disaggregate the data, see where the people are – you will then have people die who should not be dying,” said Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, a doctor and senior adviser to the coalition who founded the National Birth Equity Collaborative.

The preliminary figures from those 16 states are already raising concerns, according to a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The analysis shows that the share of vaccinations among Black people in those states is smaller than the number of cases among Black people in all 16 of those states, and smaller than their share of deaths in 15 states.

Similarly, Hispanic people accounted for more deaths and cases than vaccinations in most of the states. Data on American Indians, Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders is missing. Read more here.

– Nada Hassanein

More than 95K people died of COVID-19 in the US in January

January was by far America’s deadliest month for COVID-19: 95,364 people died, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

January’s death toll shattered that of December’s 77,486 reported deaths, which itself vastly exceeded the previous record of 60,750 deaths reported in April.

With 6.1 million new cases reported in January, the month was second only to December’s 6.4 million, and far above earlier months. In mid-January the country was averaging a record of almost 250,000 cases per day, but those numbers have fallen to about 150,000 cases per day. That still leaves the United States alone in the world at reporting 1 million cases a week.

For Alabama (2,861 deaths) and California (14,937 deaths), January was more than twice as deadly as any other month of the pandemic. For 21 states, January became the deadliest month.

In about 800 U.S. counties, more than 1 of every 500 residents is dead, Johns Hopkins data shows. South Dakota’s Jerauld County is now the hardest hit, with 16 of its 2,013 residents dead, or 1 of every 126 people. Six states have reported more than 1 in 500 people dead, too.

– Mike Stucka

Teachers unions in several cities challenge school reopening plans

Teachers unions in serval cities were facing off with school district officials Monday as some reopening plans that would bring students back to classrooms were set to begin this week.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday evening that the city had not reached an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on how and when to reopen schools in the nation’s third-largest district.

Cincinnati’s teacher union also sued to stop the resumption of in-person learning at its schools, which were to begin blended learning over four weeks, starting Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a judge ruled that Minneapolis teachers who had work-from-home accommodations or were applying for them would not have to return in-person Monday, the Star Tribune reported.

Biden adviser says US should prioritize first vaccine doses ‘right now’

A top epidemiologist and adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team said Sunday that the U.S. needs to prioritize giving a single dose to as many people as possible before focusing on second doses of the two-shot vaccines.

Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told “Meet the Press” he expects another surge of infections within the next few months. Osterholm cited new variants, such as those first detected in Britain and South Africa, that appear to spread more easily than the original virus. 

“The hurricane is coming. Because of this surge, we have to call an audible,” he said.

Triumph of science over COVID waylaid by confusion, frustration

In late December, the idea that safe, effective vaccines against COVID-19 had been created in less than a year seemed miraculous. Pride in the remarkable feat, however, has been replaced by confusion, unfairness, frustrating waits and the nightmare of vaccine vials gathering dust while tens of thousands of people continue to die of what is now a preventable disease. Even people leading the effort are at a loss to explain what happened.

“I would love to understand it,” said Moncef Slaoui, head of the vaccine development effort under the Trump administration and now an adviser to the Biden administration. “What makes me sad is … the thousands of people that have worked day and night over the last many, many months really feel terrible, feel depressed, because the whole thing is now positioned as a disaster.” Read more here.

– Karen Weintraub and Elizabeth Weise

Child care problem skyrocket amid COVID-19, Census data shows

A USA TODAY analysis of new Census data shows that Americans missed more work than ever before because of child care problems in 2020, and the burden was shouldered almost exclusively by women. 

The number of women with child care-related absences in any month more than doubled from 2019 to 2020. Women accounted for 84% of all workers who missed work in the average month last year because of child care issues – a five-year high. 

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the executive director of MomsRising, a group that advocates for increased family economic security, said the current crisis has put preexisting problems into stark relief. Child care was already expensive, and providers operated at thin margins, she said, and then COVID-19 hit. A survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center found 70% of parents reported their pre-pandemic day cares either closed or reduced capacity. 

President Joe Biden’s coronavirus recovery plan calls for $25 billion to stabilize child care centers at risk of closing and an additional $15 billion in child care aid for struggling families.

– Matt Wynn

Contributing: The Associated Press