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A World Health Organization team of experts wrapped up their visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan on Tuesday, with the conclusion that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is unlikely to have leaked from a Chinese lab and most probably jumped to humans from a yet-to-be-identified animal.
WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek told reporters at a briefing that the team’s investigation into the possible origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, where the first cases were discovered in December 2019, found it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus originated in a lab, the Associated Press reported.
The WHO experts found no evidence of widespread circulation of the virus in Wuhan before December 2019, and said it was still unclear how it got into the Huanan seafood market, where it was first detected.
The trip took months to negotiate with the Chinese government, which has kept a tight lid on information relating to the pandemic and whose own official numbers are widely viewed as understated.
The WHO’s conclusions come as the global confirmed tally of COVID-19 cases climbs above 106.5 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S. accounting for more than 27 million of that total. The U.S. continues to lead the world in case numbers and deaths of now more than 465,000, or about a fifth of the global total of 2.33 million.
The U.S. added at least 92,603 new cases on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, and at least 1,547 people died. Cases are on a downtrend and have averaged 111,190 a day in the last week, down 35% from two weeks ago.
The number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals fell to 80,055 on Monday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, from 81,439 a day earlier. Hospitalizations are now down about 60% from their January peak.
Experts continue to caution that new variants of the virus that have emerged in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil may derail those improving trends, if people stop following public safety measures — frequent hand washing, social distancing and wearing face masks in public .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker is showing that as of 6.00 a.m. ET Monday, 42.4 million vaccine doses had been administered and 59.3 million doses distributed. Almost 10 million Americans have had a second dose of the vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization, which require two doses set weeks apart.
Dr. Leana Wen, a former Health Commissioner for the City of Baltimore, told CNN the U.S. may be in the calm before the storm if more infectious variants take hold and warned against abandoning face-mask mandates and other measures.
The WHO also said Tuesday that the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca PLC AZN, +0.64% AZN, +0.47% and Oxford University remains a vital tool in combating the virus, despite some concerns about its efficacy for older people and the news from the weekend that it appears to be far less effective in dealing with the new strain from South Africa.
The agency is planning to ship about 340 million shots of that vaccine to lower-income countries through its Covax program.
In other news:
• Officials in the U.K. and Australia tried to reassure their citizens about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca–Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine, after South African authorities decided to halt its rollout due to “limited protection” against the virus’ local variant, MarketWatch’s Pierre Briançon reported. U.K. vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said that the public could have confidence in the AstraZeneca shot, which has proven efficient against the dominant strains in the U.K. Australian health minister Greg Hunt insisted that “there is currently no evidence to indicate a reduction in the effectiveness of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer PFE, +0.35% vaccines in preventing severe disease and death.”
• Facebook Inc. FB, +1.81% is planning to remove posts that make false claims relating to COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general, starting Tuesday, news outlet The Verge reported. The social media giant began removing debunked COVID-19 claims in December and to notify customers when they had interacted with such posts. The new list of false claims includes saying that COVID is man made; that vaccines are not effective; that it’s safer to get a disease than its vaccine; and that vaccines can cause autism.
• The U.K. government will start imposing penalties and fines on travelers who fail to take a mandatory COVID test, and will automatically extend their quarantine period by an extra 14 days, the Guardian reported. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a fine of £1,000 ($1,378) would be imposed for failing to take a first test, and of £2,000 for anyone failing to take a second mandatory test. Arrivals who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel will face fines of up to £10,000. Travelers will be obliged to book through an online platform for a quarantine package costing £1,750 that will include the cost of a hotel, transport and testing.
• China has reported no new local COVID infections for the first time in almost two months, Reuters reported. The total number of COVID-19 cases rose slightly to 14 on Feb. 7 from 12 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said in a statement, but all were imported infections from overseas. Seven of the cases were in Shanghai, the rest in the southeastern Guangdong province.
• Small-business owners have become more pessimistic about conditions getting better soon, despite the promise of a speedier U.S. economic recovery offered by coronavirus vaccines, MarketWatch’s Jeffry Bartash reported. The closely followed optimism index compiled by the National Federation of Independent Business fell 0.9 in January to 95.0, hitting the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic last spring. More alarming, the percent of small-business owners who expect conditions to improve in the next six months dropped to a seven-year low. Pessimism has increased sharply in the past four months, a period that coincides with a record explosion in coronavirus cases.
Latest tallies
The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 106.5 million on Tuesday, with the death toll above 2.32 million. At least 59 million people have recovered from the illness.
Brazil has the second highest death toll at 231,534 and is third by cases at 9.5 million.
India is second worldwide in cases with 10.8 million, and now fourth in deaths at 155,158.
Mexico has the third highest death toll at 166,731 and 13th highest case tally at 1.9 million.
The U.K. has 3.9 million cases and 113,014 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
China has had 100,435 confirmed cases of COVID and 4,822 people have died, according to its official numbers.
