Parts Of Beijing Locked Down For 1st Time Since July As US COVID Vaccinations Lag: Live Updates

Summary:

• Dr. Fauci complains about lagging vaccinations in US
• Parts of Beijing locked down for first time since July
• Data delays continue in US
• Global cases near 81.5MM
• Arizona sees record daily deaths
• Ireland weighs even tighter restrictions
• Netherlands outbreak slows
• “Limited” vaccine doses allocated to House members

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As the haggling over the $2K stimulus check continues to occupy headlines in the US, Dr. Fauci on Tuesday reiterated his warnings about January being even worse than December in terms of the severity of the COVID outbreak, taxing hospital staff already stretched to the breaking point in places like LA.

Dr. Fauci also pointed out in an interview that Operation Warp Speed is on track to miss its year-end vaccination target by a massive margin (with roughly 2.13MM doses administered in the US, we’re on track to see just 10% of the 20MM goal). He told CNN that he had hoped more Americans would have been vaccinated by now.

Data from across the US remained incomplete for yet another day, as various states struggled to catch up with holiday-related delays.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, over the next couple of days, states will catch up on some reporting, but we’re unlikely to see data return to normal for quite some time.

Globally, the world has confirmed just under 81.5K cases, according to Johns Hopkins, while the official death toll has reached 1.778MM. More than 4.6MM doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been doled out internationally, along with the official vaccination numbers from Russia and China (though China is believed to have quietly vaccinated millions under accelerated emergency-use measures).

NYC has vaccinated nearly 70K people,

On the China front, what started as enhanced travel restrictions has escalated in Beijing on Tuesday amid whispers about another wave of outbreaks in China.

Yesterday, footage purporting to show health workers spraying disinfectant in Dalian helped to stoke the rumors on western social media.

CHINA: New video from the city of Dalian spreading on social media pic.twitter.com/0XztpLikyD

— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) December 28, 2020

But just a few hours ago, as night spreads across China, reports emerged that 10 areas of Shunyi district in the Chinese capital were sealed off on Tuesday after seven native COVID-19 cases were recorded. The alarming spike in “native” (as opposed to “imported”) cases has inspired the biggest lockdown in the capital since July. Xinhua previously reported that more than 1MM people in the city were tested Monday during a mass-testing campaign.

In what appeared to be another attempt to distract from this latest outbreak, Chinese state-backed media reported that traces of the virus had been discovered on the packaging of meat shipped from Mexico. China has repeatedly circulated reports exaggerating the prospects of contaminated foreign meat and fish.

Over in Europe, as the first week of EU vaccinations continues, Brussels has agreed to purchase an additional 100MM doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

We decided to take an additional 100 million doses of the #BioNTech /@Pfizer vaccine, which is already being used to vaccinate people across the EU.

We will therefore have 300 million doses of this vaccine, which was assessed as safe and effective.

More vaccines will follow!

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 29, 2020

Here’s some more news from Tuesday morning:

• Arizona on Tuesday reported 171 new deaths from Covid-19, the largest single-day toll since late July. The latest fatalities pushed the state’s total number to 8,640 since the pandemic began. With 2,799 new cases recorded, the state has seen 507,222 total (Source: Bloomberg).
• The number of coronavirus cases in the Netherlands fell in the past seven days, according to health agency RIVM. In the week ending Dec. 29, 67,388 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed, down from the 82,340 reported in the prior seven days (Source: Bloomberg).
• Ireland’s government will meet on Wednesday to weigh tighter restrictions to limit the virus’s spread, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told RTE Radio (Source: Bloomberg).
• A limited supply of coronavirus vaccine is now available to staff in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a memo House Attending Physician Brian Monahan sent to lawmakers (Source: Bloomberg).

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One more note on the vaccine front: In the latest blow to vaccine credibility in Europe, thee European Medicines Agency is reportedly planning to delay approval of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, claiming that it hasn’t received enough information to evaluate it properly.