US Covid variant: Report of highly contagious new strain refuted

White House task force findings based on speculation by Dr Deborah Birx

News of the new variant comes on the day US suffers over 4,00 daily Covid deaths, the highest number on record. AFP

The White House coronavirus task force report on Friday of a new Covid variant was based on speculation,  The New York Times said.

The source of the misinformation was said to be Dr Deborah Birx, who left her role advising the Trump administration in December.

The report was based on a presentation she made to the task force in which she asserted that there was a new variant, and made a connection with the UK strain which earlier on Friday compelled London Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare a major incident in the capital.

Officials from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had dissented from Dr Birx's suppositions, and had tried to redact them from the report that was sent to governors.

They rejected the US variant in a statement which said that "neither researchers nor analysts at CDC have seen the emergence of a particular variant in the United States".

The news of the new variant had been announced as a Reuters tally reported the deaths of more than 4,000 people, the highest daily death toll to date.

States are under immense pressure with Los Angeles in Californa soon expecting 1,000 Covid deaths a week, as this video documents.

The current case rate is nearly double that reported in the spring and summer of last year with the US is currently averaging at least 228,400 new cases a day and 2,760 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

With America reeling from the Covid pandemic, president-elect Joe Biden on Friday called for more vaccines to be released when he takes office.

The President-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible

The plan would be a departure from the Trump administration's strategy of holding back supplies to ensure that required second doses of the vaccines are available. Manufacturing would have to be consistent enough to supply those second doses on schedule, three or four weeks after the first.

"The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible," TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Mr Biden's transition team, told Reuters.

The US vaccine distribution project began slowly as hospitals have not been able to administer the shots as quickly as they have received them.

A federal programme aimed at inoculating residents and staff at long-term care homes was also behind schedule.

One problem is that there is no federal infrastructure or plan in place for administering the vaccines once they have been distributed, leaving states to design their own strategies with little funding to do so.

The effort has fallen far short of the Trump administration's goal of having 20 million people vaccinated by the end of 2020.

States distributing the vaccine at varying paces

New York on Friday became the latest state to expand its vaccination distribution programme to seniors, with Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that people aged 75 and over could start receiving the shot next week.

In Arizona, where people over 75 are eligible to receive the vaccine in some counties, Republican Governor Doug Ducey said on Friday the state would use the Arizona Cardinals' football stadium as a 24-hour vaccination site to speed up the process.

In Texas, Florida and Georgia, which are among some dozen states that have either begun or will soon begin inoculating vulnerable seniors, people over 65 are eligible for a vaccine shot. West Virginia and Indiana are so far limiting the vaccine to those over 80.

West Virginia leads the country in first-dose inoculations, having administered 59 per cent of its allotted vaccine supply, according to the CDC.

With the US struggling, here you can read how the UK intends to meet its own stiff vaccine targets.

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Covid around the world - in pictures

Ellen Prosser, known as Nell, who is 100 years old, receives the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Dr Nikki Kanani at the Sunrise Care Home, amid the coronavirus disease pandemic in Sidcup, Britain. Reuters

An anti-lockdown protester is arrested by police officers in Parliament Square outside the House of Commons in London, England. The UK Parliament has been recalled today to debate and vote on the new regulations needed to reimpose the England-wide lockdown that was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday night. Getty Images

Zac applauds in the snow during the Clap for Heroes campaign, outside his house in Keele, Staffordshire, Britain. Reuters

A medical worker shows a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine dose, in a military base in Petrinja, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Zagreb, before to give it to an old woman who lost her house in a powerful earthquake which strucked central Croatia on December 29, 2020. AFP

A Colombian police car patrols the street in Medellin, Colombia. Colombian authorities placed several regions, including Antioquia and its capital Medellin, under a new lockdown after an increase in coronavirus cases. In addition, a night curfew was imposed. AFP

A patient is carried on a stretcher by healthcare workers outside Santa Maria hospital in Lisbon. Portugal reported a record 10,000 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours yesterday, and the government warned that its hospitals were under "enormous pressure" from the resurgence of the pandemic. AFP

A man sits by the grave of a Covid-19 coronavirus victim amid pouring rain at Keputih cemetery in Surabaya. AFP

Primary school teacher Marzio Toniolo's pupils, wearing masks, sitting at a distance from each other attend a lesson as they return to the classroom as part of Italy's coronavirus disease regulations after the holidays, in Santo Stefano Lodigiano, Italy. Toniolo has been documenting what life has been like for a small cluster of northern Italian towns since they were put on lockdown weeks before the rest of the country in February last year. Reuters

A person feeds pigeons at Piazza Navona, as the region enters the 'yellow zone' after the government relaxed some of the coronavirus disease curbs on weekdays following a strict lockdown over the holidays, in Rome, Italy. Reuters

People watch an outdoor movie screening within their social distances during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Singapore. Reuters

Pedestrians, wearing protective masks against COVID-19, stand in strong wind in Tokyo, Japan. Reuters

A doctor collects a sample for coronavirus testing in Shah Alam on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The recovery movement control order (RMCO) throughout the country has been extended until March 31, 2021, said Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. AP Photo

Registered nurse Kyanna Barboza tends to her COVID-19 patient at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California. The virus is surging in virtually every state. California is particularly hard hit, with skyrocketing deaths and infections threatening to force hospitals to ration care. AP Photo

Staff state health worker prepares a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to administer for residents and health workers at San Jeronimo nursing home, in Estella, around 38 kms (23 miles) from Pamplona, northern Spain. Spain plans to receive over 4.5 million doses of the vaccine over the next three months, enough it says to immunize just over 2.2 million people. The government estimates that this first phase will be enough to cover nursing home residents and workers, followed by health workers in general and people with disabilities. AP Photo