Coronavirus live news: New York opens mass vaccination sites as global cases pass 90m

Coronavirus infections have now surpassed 90 million confirmed cases around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University, as more countries brace for wider spread of more virulent strains of a disease that has now killed nearly 2 million worldwide.

The number of infections worldwide has doubled in just 10 weeks, according to a tally by John Hopkins University on Sunday. Covid-19 infections had hit 45 million as recently as late October.

As of Sunday afternoon, John Hopkins counted 90,005,787 infections around the world.
The United States, now with more than 22.2 million infections, led the world with the highest number of infections recorded since the global pandemic began.

The number of US cases is more than double that of India, which has recorded nearly 10.5 million infections.

Brooklyn Army Terminal is one of two mass vaccination locations that opened in New York City on Sunday. The second one is located at Bathgate Contract Postal Station in the borough of the Bronx.

Reuters: The mass sites were open for part of the day on Sunday before they start operating round the clock, seven days a week on Monday as part of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s push to set up 250 vaccination locations to meet the ambitious goal of inoculating 1 million New Yorkers by the end of the month.

Three other smaller sites also opened on Sunday in Brooklyn, the Bronx and in Queens.

In New York, like in much of the United States, efforts to get the two vaccines that have so far been authorised into the arms of Americans have moved slower than hoped due to a slew of issues.

They included strict rules controlling who should get inoculated first, with some healthcare workers at the front of the line declining the shots, and a lack of planning or direction on the federal level.

As of early Sunday, New York City had administered 203,181 doses of the vaccines to its residents out of more than 524,000 doses that have been delivered, data from the city’s health department showed.

On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who previously said all healthcare workers should be inoculated before the state moved on to other categories, changed course, saying people aged 75 and over could receive the shot starting on Monday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said healthcare workers and nursing home residents and staff should have priority for the limited supply of vaccines. The agency softened that guidance on Friday, recommending that states move to those next on the list – people over age 75 and so called “essential” workers – to accelerate lagging vaccination programs.

Hello and welcome to our live coronavirus coverage with me, Helen Sullivan.

I’ll be bringing you the latest good and bad pandemic developments worldwide for the next few hours.

You can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: [email protected] – news, comments, questions all welcome.

Two mass vaccination locations opened in New York City on Sunday.

The mass sites were open for part of the day on Sunday before they start operating round the clock, seven days a week on Monday as part of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s push to set up 250 vaccination locations to meet the ambitious goal of inoculating 1 million New Yorkers by the end of the month.

Three other smaller sites also opened on Sunday.

Meanwhile the global coronavirus case total has come another sad milestone closer to a staggering 100m, with the total passing 90m on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. The death toll stands at 1,932,266.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• US House lawmakers may have been exposed to someone testing positive for Covid-19 during the Capitol siege by a violent mob loyal to Donald Trump. The Capitol’s attending physician notified all lawmakers Sunday of the virus exposure and urged them to be tested.
• A new coronavirus variant of coronavirus has been detected in four travellers from Brazil’s Amazonas state, Japan’s health ministry has said, in the latest recorded instance of the virus evolving.
• Seven people in Marseilles, southern France, have tested positive for the new, more infectious variant of Covid-19 first found in Britain, local authorities have announced.
• Russia has detected its first case of the more infectious coronavirus variant found in England, in a Russian who returned from Britain and tested positive late last month.
• Northern Ireland’s health minister said Covid-19 was placing the healthcare system under pressure “like never before,” as one hospital appealed on social media for the immediate help of all off-duty healthworkers nearby.
• One in five people in England may have had coronavirus, new modelling suggests, equivalent to 12.4 million people, rising to almost one in two in some areas.