World Tops 6m Covid Deaths, US to Share VIrus Tech, World Covid Stats, More

Biden officials shift toward new virus phase

A discarded face mask lies in the street in San Francisco

© Associated Press/Jeff Chiu

The Biden administration has made a marked shift toward a new phase where COVID-19 is no longer treated as a crisis, rolling out a series of new programs aimed at increasing access to treatment and boosting vaccine capacity for the future.

Why the change: The change comes amid major strides in recent weeks including new case counts that have plummeted from 800,000 per day in January to 60,000, according to a New York Times tracker.

President Biden sought to highlight this shift in his State of the Union address Tuesday, saying the virus “no longer need control our lives.” Mask mandates in the House chamber had been lifted just before his address to a joint session of Congress.

But the programs the administration aims to roll out require new funding from Congress, which could be held up by GOP lawmakers who don’t want to allocate more money toward fighting the virus.

There is also the possibility of a new variant that may evade the protection of vaccines that, for the third time in less than a year, again hangs as a threat over recent progress.

White House asks Congress for $22.5B

Deputy OMB director nominee Shalanda Young

© Greg Nash

The Biden administration is requesting $22.5 billion from Congress for the COVID-19 response, setting up a tussle with Republican lawmakers who have resisted new funding.

Where the funds would go: In a letter to Congress dated Wednesday, the White House said the additional funds are crucial for efforts around vaccines, treatments and testing. In addition, $5 billion of the funding will go towards the global COVID-19 response, including vaccinating other countries, which is key to helping stop new variants from arising.

“Without additional resources, we won’t be able to secure the treatments, vaccines, and tests Americans need in coming months and fight future variants,” wrote acting Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young. “And critical COVID response efforts – such as free community testing sites and testing, treatment, and vaccination coverage for uninsured individuals – will end this spring.”

The White House is urging that the funding be included in a broader government funding bill that faces a March 11 deadline.

GOP resistance: Passing the funding could be a challenge. Republicans have pushed back on new COVID-19 funds, pointing to the billions already provided for the virus response.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Wednesday led 35 other Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), in a letter telling the administration they want a “full accounting” of money already spent “before we would consider” new COVID-19 funds.

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US TO SHARE COVID TECHNOLOGY WITH  WORLD

The Biden administration is planning to share government-backed COVID-19 technology with the World Health Organization (WHO) to help low- and middle-income countries access crucial medicines.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Health and Human Service Secretary Xavier Becerra and chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci both confirmed that the U.S. was looking into licensing COVID-19 medical technologies owned by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access pool (C-TAP).

Becerra and Fauci were unable to provide specific details on this new policy.

According to Fauci, the details of this plan are still being “ironed out.” The technologies will be sub-licensed through the Medicines Patent Pool, a Switzerland-based international organization aimed at enhancing access to medicines for low and middle-income countries.

“We’re still in early stages,” said Becerra. “This latest announcement is an effort to try to let low and middle-income countries know that we want them to have capacities as well.”

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WORLD COVID STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

442,525,364

Deaths:

6,003,031

Recovered:

375,467,509
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 4 (GMT)

Updates

  • 224 new cases and 2 new deaths in Laos [source]
  • 89,174 new cases and 776 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 70,958 new cases and 257 new deaths in Japan [source]
  • 10,558 new cases and 461 new deaths in Mexico [source]

 

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