This article was updated May 5, 2021, at 5:06 p.m. ET.
The United States leads the world in cases of COVID-19. We'll provide the latest updates on coronavirus cases, government response, impacts to our daily life, and more.
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COVID-19 Variant Cases in Florida Doubled in 2 Weeks
May 5, 5:06 p.m.
More than 10,000 COVID-19 variant cases have been reported in Florida, which is more than double the total from 2 weeks ago, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The jump indicates that the spread of coronavirus variants is accelerating, the newspaper reported. Only 1% of the state’s COVID-19 cases undergo the genetic testing needed to identify variants, so the actual number is likely higher.
“The real problem is that everyone’s acting like the pandemic is over,” Aileen Marty, MD, a professor of infectious diseases and outbreak response at Florida International University, told the newspaper.
“If we get lackadaisical about it ... these variants can overcome some of the immunity that we’ve developed,” she said. “We may find ourselves in a very bad situation again.”
As of May 1, Miami-Dade County led the state with 2,279 variant cases, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, followed by Broward County with 1,950 variant cases.
The most common variant is the B.1.1.7 strain, which was first detected in the U.K. Florida has reported more than 9,050 B.1.1.7 cases statewide.
The variant cases have led to the death of 62 people, the newspaper reported, which is twice the number reported 2 weeks ago. In addition, 222 Florida residents have been hospitalized with COVID-19 variants. Overall, only a small fraction of people diagnosed with a COVID-19 variant had recently traveled, which typically occurred in the U.S.
State health officials released the numbers on Monday, just hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he was immediately suspending all COVID-19 restrictions, the newspaper reported. The executive order will soon supersede local restrictions, which means cities and counties may not be able to respond to outbreaks of contagious strains in their communities.
“I think that, to the majority of people, there are just too many numbers and letters [for the variants] to keep up with and to understand where the risk actually is right now,” Marty said. “The most important thing to know is that we need to get more people vaccinated.”
The Florida Department of Health data was released as part of a legal settlement with the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper sued in mid-March to obtain county-level data, particularly about COVID-19 variants, after numerous requests for information during the previous 2 months. The lawsuit claimed that the data is vital to “understand how the virus continues to spread and affect Floridians.”
Oregon Extends Workplace Face Mask Rule
May 5, 3:41 p.m.
As the state deals with a high number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, Oregon health officials have extended a rule requiring face masks and social distancing in the workplace.
The new regulation replaces a temporary one and will be in place until it’s “no longer needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace,” said a news release from the Oregon Department of Occupational Safety and Health.
The lack of an end date angered many Oregonians. The Associated Press reported that the department received more than 5,000 comments to the proposal and that 70,000 people signed a petition opposing the regulation.
Under the rule, employers must make sure employees wear masks inside and wear them outside if they must be within 6 feet of people.
The Oregon Health Authority said on Monday that the 7-day average of daily new cases was 800 and that the positivity rate was 6.2%. In addition, 342 people were hospitalized. The AP said Oregon had the fastest growth infection rate in the nation last week.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday said she would relax restrictions in 15 counties that were required to shut down indoor dining and reduced capacity in gyms and other indoor spaces. The change is effective Friday.
Brown put the restrictions in place because of the high infection rate and number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. She said those counties moved from the extreme risk to the high-risk category when the statewide 7-day average increase for hospitalized COVID positive patients dropped below 15%.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s neighbor to the north paused its reopening schedule.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said data shows the state’s fourth wave of infections has “hit a plateau.”
“We are at the intersection of progress and failure, and we cannot veer from the path of progress,” Inslee said in a news release. “Our economy is beginning to show early signs of growth thanks to some of our great legislative victories and we know vaccines are the ticket to further reopening -- if we adhere to public health until enough people are vaccinated.”
Patches, Pills to Deliver COVID-19 Vaccine Being Studied
May 4, 6:43 p.m.
New ways to get people vaccinated against COVID-19 are being explored as health experts learn more about how long the vaccines last.
One possibility is that people could get a coronavirus booster when they get an annual flu shot, especially as the possibility of booster vaccines increases.
The Biden administration has not said whether booster vaccines to protect against COVID-19 will be necessary, but Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson have all said they’re developing boosters or plan to.
For instance, Moderna says it’s working on a shot that would combine protection against COVID-19, influenza, and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) this year. Phase I clinical trials are expected to start in 2021, the company said in a news release.
Don’t like needles? Researchers are looking at ways to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine through a patch, a pill, or into the nose.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have had promising results with an inhaled vaccine. The vaccine was given to rhesus monkeys and provided protection against COVID-19 in their lungs and nasal areas, the NIH said in a news release.
Washington University School of Medicine has tested the nasal vaccine on mice with promising results, the school said in a news release.
“The researchers found that the nasal delivery route created a strong immune response throughout the body, but it was particularly effective in the nose and respiratory tract, preventing the infection from taking hold in the body,” a news release said.
The biotech company Vaxess Technologies says it’s developing a patch that could deliver a combo COVID-influenza vaccine.
The vaccine would be delivered “through a number of tiny, painless projections that dissolve at a precisely engineered rate, releasing their treatment at its most effective dose for the most beneficial length of time,” the company said in a news release.
Vaxess is working in partnership with the Taiwanese pharmaceutical company Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. Patches could have a long shelf life and be easy to ship to improve global access, said Vaxess CEO Michael Schrader.
And a coronavirus vaccine that could be taken as a pill may enter clinical trials in the second quarter of 2021.
The oral vaccine is being developed by Oravax Medical, a new joint venture of the Israeli-American company Oramed and the Indian company Premas Biotech.
One advantage of oral vaccines is that people could take it at home instead of having to travel to an office or central vaccination location.
L.A. County Reports No COVID-19 Deaths on Sunday
May 3, 5:50 p.m.
Los Angeles County, at one time the national epicenter for coronavirus transmission, on Sunday reported no COVID-19-related deaths for the first time in more than a year, the county public health department reported.
County officials said that may be an undercount because of weekend reporting delays, but it’s still very good news for the nation’s most populous county. The health department’s other numbers were good on Sunday, with only 313 new cases reported and 410 people hospitalized. The 7-day positivity rate for testing is 0.6%.
As more people become vaccinated L.A. County is on the verge of moving into the least-restrictive tier in the state's four-tier Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
The yellow tier would allow fitness centers, wineries, and breweries to increase capacity from 25% to 50%, KABC said. Bars, which now can only operate outdoors and must close at 10 p.m., could operate indoors with 25% capacity indoors with no restrictions on operating hours. Outdoor venues could go up to 67% capacity.
"Getting vaccinated in L.A. County is easier and more accessible than ever before and we encourage everyone waiting to get vaccinated to take advantage of the opportunity as soon as possible,'' County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.
L.A. County, with a population of 10 million, has recorded almost 24,000 deaths and more than 1.2 million cases overall.
How many people have been diagnosed with the virus worldwide, and how many have died?
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 154.60 million cases and more than 3.23 million deaths worldwide.
How many cases of COVID-19 are in the United States?
There are more than 32.53 million cases in the U.S. of COVID-19 and more than 578,920 deaths, according Johns Hopkins University.