Coronavirus news, updates, hotspots and information for 3-29-2021

This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for March 29th, 2021.   Mexico has published revised figures indicating the number of coronavirus deaths is 60% higher than previously reported. More than 321,000 people are now believed to have died there. And that puts Mexico at the second highest Covid-related deaths in the world, after the US. The miscount is being blamed on a likely lack of testing.   New York and New Jersey are back on top of the list of U.S. states with the highest rates of infection. New infections have gone up 37% in a little more than a month. However, neither state is experiencing anything like last spring when hospitals and morgues were overflowing.   Critical care doctors in Paris say surging infections will soon overwhelm their ability to care for the sick in hospitals. And that means possibly choosing which patients will get treated and saved. A group of doctors writing an opinion piece said, “We have never known such a situation, even during the worst (terror) attacks.”   New research shows the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are effective in pregnant and lactating women, who can pass protective antibodies on to their newborns. Additional research is needed to know how long those protective antibodies last in newborns. The researchers also found no evidence of more or more intense side effects in pregnant and lactating women than in the general population.   If the administrator of the medical center there is to be believed, an Amish community in New Holland Borough, Pennsylvania has become 'the first in the US to achieve herd immunity to COVID-19' after 90% of their households became infected after resuming church services late last spring. Public health officials and epidemiologists are not disputing the outbreak but are very reluctant to assign anything positive to the way this herd immunity was apparently achieved.   In the United States cases were up 12%, deaths are down 31%, and hospitalizations down 6% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending up since March 22.    There are now 6,989,393 active cases in the United States. The current top 5 states by number of active cases: California, New York, Virginia, Florida, and Maryland.   The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Bacon, GA. Lewis, MO. Marion, MO. Dimmit, TX. Webster, NE. Big Horn, MT. Kingsbury, SD. Hitchcock, NE. Shelby, MO. And Huron, MI.   The five states with the highest risk levels and most daily new cases per capita over 7 days are Rhode Island, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, and Connecticut.   There have been 549,335 deaths in the US reported as Covid-related, with a current national fatality rate of 1.82%.   The states with the most new deaths reported as COVID-related: California 143. New York 87. Texas 55. Florida 38. Massachusetts 29. Illinois 23. Virginia 20. South Carolina 18. Pennsylvania 14. And Utah 13.   The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s had at least one dose, New Mexico at 36.1%, South Dakota at 33.3%. And Alaska at 33.2%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Georgia at 21.9%, Alabama at 22.4%, and Tennessee and Mississippi at 23.6%.   Globally, cases were up 26% and deaths up 11% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since March 5.    There are now 22,018,602 active cases around the world.   The five countries with the most new cases: India 68,206. Brazil 44,326. The United States 44,096. France 37,014. And Poland 29,253.   There have now been 2,782,944 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide.   For the latest updates, subscribe for free to Coronavirus 411 on your podcast app or ask your smart speaker to play the Coronavirus 411... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.