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US Births Decline, 140m Americans Had Covid, Aussie PM Tests Pos, World Covid Stats

Pandemic likely related to birth rate decline

 

© Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to a drop in birth rates at the beginning of 2021, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.

Compared to the same time period in 2020, the first six months of 2021 saw births decline by 2 percent overall, largely due to a 9 percent drop observed in January. In this period, the number of births declined in 19 states and Washington, D.C., while increasing in four states.

The birth rates last year: From January to June 2021, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) recorded 1.75 million births, compared to 1.78 million births in the same period of 2020.

The NCHS noted that while birth rates also declined about 2 percent in both the first and last six months of the calendar year from 2015 to 2019, the sharp drop observed in January 2021 followed by a moderate drop in February was unusual compared with recent trends.

“This difference between patterns seen for the first 6 months of 2021 and earlier years suggests that the magnitude of the downward trend seen in the second half of 2020 and January of 2021 may have begun to wane and declines in the number of births may be returning to prepandemic levels,” said the agency.

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140M Americans have had coronavirus: CDC

 

© AP.

About 140 million Americans have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus through the end of January, according to an estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The percentage of individuals who have antibodies to COVID-19, known as seroprevalence, is 43.3 percent for the total U.S. population, the CDC study found, much higher than regularly cited infection rates.

The data for the study was collected from late December to late January and relied on tests of nearly 72,000 samples.

Prevalence across age groups: The percentage of those with antibodies to the virus was lower in older age groups, with children having a seroprevalence of about 58 percent compared to 23 percent for those over the age of 65, the study found.

The CDC estimated the seroprevalence by collecting about 1,750 blood tests at 52 sites roughly every four weeks. Specimens for the study were collected from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

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Australian leader tests positive for COVID-19

 

© Getty Images

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced he has tested positive for COVID-19.

“Tonight I tested positive to COVID-19,” Morrison wrote in a Twitter thread Tuesday. “I am experiencing flu-like symptoms and will be recovering over the next week.”

“I had tested myself daily since Sunday, including this morning, with all tests returning a negative result.”

Morrison shared that his wife and children have tested negative for the virus but will have to quarantine for a week due to them being close contacts.

Morrison also said he plans to continue his work on his prime minister duties in quarantine, focusing on his government’s response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion and devastating floods on Australia’s east coast.

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WORLD COVID STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

439,116,596

Deaths:

5,985,611

Recovered:

371,646,304
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

March 2 (GMT)

Updates

  • 97,455 new cases and 784 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 61,843 new cases and 227 new deaths in Japan [source]
  • 13,115 new cases and 382 new deaths in Mexico [source]

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