November 24 coronavirus news

The Japanese government has scaled back its subsidized domestic "Go to Travel" campaign due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 cases.

The cities of Osaka and Sapporo will be removed from the destinations of the government’s popular program for at least three weeks until Dec. 15 to help curb the spike. 

On Tuesday, Osaka registered 210 new coronavirus cases while Hokkaido, home to Sapporo city, counted 216 new infections. The capital city of Tokyo recorded 186 new cases.

Japan's Health Ministry announced 1,228 new Covid-19 infections and 12 deaths over 24 hours on Tuesday.

The country's total numbers now stand at 136,012 confirmed cases with a death toll of 2,015.

Coronavirus treatments have helped lower mortality rates, but they aren’t a replacement for public health measures, Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday.

Hahn cited remdesivir, steroids, convalescent plasma, and monoclonal antibodies.

He noted that the FDA recently issued emergency use authorization for Eli Lilly and Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatments.

“What we found and issued in the authorization is that they may be effective early in the disease as outpatients,” he said.

Hahn said those treatments are all weapons against coronavirus, but the bottom line is that Americans must continue to practice public health measures if they want to help prevent people from getting sick.

“We have to protect our most vulnerable,” Hahn said.

The US government’s Operation Warp Speed effort is trying to understand discrepancies in data coming out of trials of AstraZeneca’s experimental coronavirus vaccine, Moncef Slaoui, chief science adviser to the mission, said Tuesday.

It might be possible to adjust the US trial arm if it turns out a different dose of the vaccine works better, he said. 

AstraZeneca said Phase 3 trial data from testing in Britain and Brazil indicated the vaccine was 62% effective -- except for a batch tested in 3,000 volunteers that looked to be 90% effective in preventing infection. The vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, is also being tested in the US but there’s no data from that arm of the trial yet.

AstraZeneca said surprisingly, the stronger effects were seen in volunteers who got a half dose of the vaccine, boosted by a full dose a month later. The 62% efficacy was seen in the majority of volunteers who got the proper dosing for both shots.

“We have been made aware of what's called now the half dose at the time it happened, was a change in the way the quantity of vaccine put in a vial was tested,” Slaoui said.

He seemed to indicate the half dose was given by mistake. “And when they realized there was an error or change in the approach, technique used, they corrected it. In the meantime, about 3,000 subjects were recruited, half in the placebo and half in the vaccine group.” 

That would skew the results. Clinical trials are carefully designed, and results that came from mistakes usually are not included in the final reports of those trials. But clinical trials can be adjusted if mistakes show a different dosing regimen, for instance, can provide better outcomes.

Iraqi lawmaker Hussein al-Zuhairi died of complications from Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the Iraqi parliament. He died in Lebanon, where he was receiving treatment, according to sources inside the Iraqi parliament’s media office.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 12,031 people have died of complications from Covid-19 in Iraq, and 593,749 have contracted the virus, according to government records.  

The US Food and Drug Administration is encouraging the development of at-home coronavirus tests, FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said Tuesday. 

The FDA recently issued emergency use authorization for the Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit, a self-test for Covid-19 that can provide rapid results at home.

“This is the first step, and I see more of this coming,” Hahn said.

The United States has reported more than 2,000 deaths from Covid-19 today, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.  

The country has reported at least 2,081 new fatalities so far on Tuesday.

This is the 21st time that the US has added more than 2,000 new deaths in a day. These are the highest new death numbers the US has seen since May.

Per JHU data, the US has also reported at least 169,766 new infections so far today, bringing the nationwide total to 12,587,994 confirmed cases and at least 259,860 virus-related fatalities.

CNN is tracking US cases:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

While the efficacy results recently reported by coronavirus vaccine makers are impressive, “the FDA doesn't authorize vaccines or approve any medical product, just on the basis of a press release,” Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday.

Pfizer submitted an application to the FDA last Friday requesting emergency use authorization of its coronavirus vaccine. So far, it’s released data only in a news release, but says the vaccine was 95% effective in preventing infection.

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on Dec. 10 to discuss the data. Hahn said the public will be able to watch the meeting virtually, and a summary of the data will be available online.

“That committee is going to report back to us, and then after we hear their recommendations, we're going to move forward,” he said.

Hahn emphasized the FDA will not hesitate to make a decision “either up or down” based on the information available.

"We're going to use that process for every other application that comes forward, no matter what," he added.

The United States set a record for the number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 on Tuesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. 

As of Tuesday, 88,080 people are currently hospitalized with Covid-19, according to CTP. This is the highest number of Covid-19 hospitalizations the nation has ever experienced. 

According to CTP data, the highest hospitalization numbers are: 

Los Angeles County is reporting the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in more than two months, an alarming new toll as the region sees an unprecedented surge of new infections ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 51 new deaths on Tuesday, the highest number since Sep. 9. The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus has also nearly doubled in the last two weeks, with 1,575 now being treated. More than a quarter of those hospitalized are in intensive care.

The toll comes a day after the county reported its highest daily number of new infections since the start of the pandemic and as officials order all restaurants to close outdoor dining starting Wednesday evening to curb spread of the virus. The county is also planning to issue a new stay-home order in the coming days. 

“People mixing with others not in their household has driven the Covid-19 pandemic in L.A. County to dangerous levels,” County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “Because L.A. County reached a five-day average case rate over 4,500 new cases, Public Health is working with the Board of Supervisors on additional safety measures to reduce transmission of the virus.”