Coronavirus Updates: 375k US Deaths, Zoo Gorillas Test Positive

The more contagious covid-19 variant B117 that was initially identified in the UK has now spread across several states in the US. Indiana is the latest state to report its first case of B117 coronavirus variant. As of now, nearly 10 states across the US have identified the strain in the last few weeks.

The total number of covid-19 deaths across the US has crossed more than 375,000 according to official figures. The country has recorded more than 2 million cases in the last 10 days.

375k US Deaths, Zoo Gorillas Test Positive

In a shocking development, several Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo safari Park have tested positive for coronavirus. This is the first instance of covid-19 among such animals in captivity. It was observed that nearly 8 Gorillas that live at the park are having symptoms of coronavirus and they have been coughing in the recent days.

According to reports coming from BioNTech, the company is expected to produce two billion doses of covid-19 vaccines in 2021. The company officials said that they have improved the manufacturing process and they have the ability to produce 2 billion doses in this year. In the initial stage of clinical trials, the company had not included pregnant women and children.

However, the company executives said that they are looking to expand vaccinations in the near future to include pregnant women and children. The company  is all set to conduct clinical trials on these participants in the near future so that the vaccinations can be expanded to include everyone in the community. As of now, the vaccines are not being administered to children and pregnant women across the US.

In an interesting development, the CDC has said that the seasonal flu cases are down to a record low in this season. According to official figures coming from the CDC, only about 1000 cases of seasonal flu were reported in this year when compared to more than 60000 cases in the previous year.

Meanwhile, public schools in Chicago reopened on Monday for the first time Since March. More than 6000 pre-kindergarten and special education students attended the public schools. New York has included teachers in the list of essential workers to receive the covid-19 vaccine on priority. The state has already started vaccinating teachers in the first phase of the vaccination program. In this manner, the state wants to reopen the schools in a normal way at the earliest. Several other states are also planning to take similar actions in the near future in order to resume the in-person classes.

The total number of coronavirus cases across the US has crossed 22.5 million. The surprising thing is that more than 2 million cases have been recorded in the last 10 days. This is a huge number compared to the fact that it took several months for the country to record its first 2 million cases. At the global level, the total number of cases has crossed 90 million and there is a huge surge in the number of new covid-19 cases in the european region.

The vaccine roll-out program has received a lot of criticism from all corners. The latest numbers indicate that States have so far received nearly 22 million doses of covid-19 vaccines. Among them, only about 7 million doses have been administered and the remaining doses are still lying in freezes. The federal authorities now plan to expand the vaccination program to include a larger segment of people from different professions.

The Biden transition team has also indicated that they will work hard to improve the pace of the vaccination program in the next few weeks. They have also proposed to release all available vaccines in order to include more numbers of people within a short duration of time.