#Coronavirus Update: U.S. COVID cases continue to fall, even with one-day death rate still above 3,000

There was positive news in a study by Oxford University that found a single dose of the vaccine developed by the university’s researchers in cooperation with AstraZeneca PLC
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offers 76% protection for up to three months after a first dose and appears to help reduce transmission.

The researchers found that vaccine efficacy was 76% after a first dose, with that protection maintained to the second dose. The shot’s effectiveness in preventing coronavirus disease rises to 82.4% once a second dose is administered after 12 weeks.

It also found a 67% reduction in positive COVID-19 swabs among those vaccinated, as a “substantial impact” on reducing transmission of the virus that causes the disease. But the researchers cautioned that a much bigger sample will be needed to reach definitive conclusions on transmission risk. Preliminary data from the study was published in medical journal the Lancet, but has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that the news was positive.

“I’d like to see the data myself. If that’s true, it’s good news,” he said. “We’re going to have multiple candidates in the mix.”   

Fauci said he expects the vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson to receive emergency-use authorization within a week or so. That vaccine has a huge advantage in that it is a one-dose regimen, unlike the others that have received emergency authorization, which all require two doses administered weeks apart.

In the meantime, he urged Americans to comply with public safety measures — frequent hand washing, social distancing and wearing a face mask in public — as new variants of the virus are more infectious.

“The [SARS-CoV-2] mutants are here in the United States,” he said. “They are not dominant yet. We can prevent them from becoming dominant by trying to suppress the replication.”

Fauci also cautioned that Americans should resist the temptation to mingle with other households to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl, which could turn the game into a superspreader event. “Enjoy the game, watch it on television, but do it with your family or people who are in the household,” he said.

See also: Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine shows 91.6% efficacy in late-stage trial

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker is showing that as of 6 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, 32.8 million doses had been administered and 52.7 million had been delivered to states.

The COVID Tracking Project is showing that hospitalizations are also declining, with 92,880 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Tuesday, down from 93,536 a day earlier and the lowest figure since Nov. 28. The number has declined for 22 straight days.

In other news:

• GlaxoSmithKline 
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has teamed up with German biotech CureVac 
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 to help develop a new generation of messenger RNA vaccines to target new strains of COVID-19, as MarketWatch’s Lina Saigol reported. The two companies said in a statement that they would work on a joint approach to address “multiple emerging variants in one vaccine.” The deal is worth €150 million. The news comes after Public Health England said on Tuesday that researchers had identified 11 cases in the U.K. of B.1.1.7 that had a mutation, called E484K, which is present in strains driving a surge in cases in South Africa and Brazil.

Read: The new South African strain is more infectious, and it’s also making COVID-19 vaccines less effective

• France will only administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people under age 65, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday, after the government’s health advisory body cited a lack of sufficient data about its effectiveness in older people, the Associated Press reported. The decision could shake up the French vaccination strategy, because the country has prioritized nursing-home residents and people over 75. France had counted on the AstraZeneca vaccine for a large part of its upcoming inoculations, until the company announced delays affecting countries around Europe and the world.

See now: Let’s stick to facts about COVID-19 vaccines: There aren’t ‘dozens’ of drug companies who can step in to produce more

• Australian regulators have decided to place no upper age limit on use of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine despite reports of dozens of deaths among the elderly in Norway, the AP reported. Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration said Tuesday that it received reports on Jan. 14 of about 30 deaths in more than 40,000 elderly people vaccinated with the jab developed by Pfizer Inc.
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and German partner BioNTech SE
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But it added that “no causal link between vaccination and deaths could be established.” The regulator last month gave provisional approval for the use of the Pfizer vaccine in Australia and the first doses are due to be administered to people aged 16 and older in late February

See now: Let’s stick to facts about COVID-19 vaccines: There aren’t ‘dozens’ of drug companies who can step in to produce more

• The World Health Organization team of experts visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan to investigate the origins of the pandemic have accessed as laboratory at the center of conspiracy theories, CNN reported. Few places they are visiting are as controversial as the laboratory run by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which officials in former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration suggested, without providing evidence, could have been the origin of the coronavirus.

• Saudi Arabia is banning travelers from 20 countries, including India and the neighboring United Arab Emirates to combat the spread of the virus, India.com reported. The temporary ban, which becomes effective today, also covers Germany, the U.S., the U.K., South Africa, France, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

Latest tallies

The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 103.9 million on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and at least 2.25 million people have died.

The U.S. has the highest case tally in the world at 26.4 million and the highest death toll at 446,901, or about a fifth of the global total.

Brazil has the second highest death toll at 226,309 and is third by cases at 9.3 million.

India is second worldwide in cases with 10.8 million, and now fourth in deaths at 154,596, after being surpassed by Mexico late last week.

Mexico has the third highest death toll at 159,533 and 13th highest case tally at 1.9 million.

The U.K. has 3.9 million cases and 108,225 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.

China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has had 100,196 confirmed cases and 4,820 deaths, according to its official numbers.

What’s the economy saying?

The huge service side of the U.S. economy grew faster in January, and companies added more workers, signaling better times ahead as the record surge in coronavirus cases receded, MarketWatch’s Jeffry Bartash reported.

A survey of top business leaders at nonmanufacturing companies such as restaurants, hospitals and banks rose to 58.7% from a revised 57.7% in the prior month, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Readings above 50% signals that businesses are expanding, and numbers above 55% are usually a sign of broad strength.

A similar ISM survey of manufacturers was also strong in January.

Read: ADP says private-sector higher climbs in January

Separately, the U.S. private sector added jobs in January after shedding workers in the prior month, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

Private payrolls rose by 174,000 jobs in January after shedding a revised 78,000 in the prior month. This was a smaller job loss in December than the initial estimate of a decline of 123,000. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast a gain of 48,000 private-sector jobs in January. The ADP report is produced with by Moody’s Analytics.

The data may provide a preview of the U.S. Labor Department’s monthly employment report to be released Friday. Economists are also forecasting a rebound in total January nonfarm payrolls, with the consensus calling for a gain of 105,000 jobs after a decline of 140,000 in December. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 6.7%.

The job gain was better than expected, but January figures are often suspect due to seasonal adjustment issues, said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. “We still have a long way to go for a full recovery in the job market,” he said.

U.S. stocks were mixed at midsession, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
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and S&P 500
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on either side of the flat line and the Nasdaq Composite
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assembling a more noteworthy upward move.