This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for April 12th, 2021.

Haircuts, non-essential shopping, working out, outdoor restaurant meals, and yes, outdoor pubs…it’s all back in England as of today, as the government continues its lockdown-lift. Britain has had Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak, with more than 127,000 confirmed deaths.

The Chinese government itself is admitting their vaccine’s effectiveness is low. So low they’re thinking about mixing them together. Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses abroad with effectivity as low as 50.4% according to researchers in Brazil. At 50%, a vaccine is not even considered useful.

India has been rolling out the fastest vaccination effort in the world, but there’s an all-time record number of infections in that country of nearly 1.4 billion people. Vaccinations topped 100 million in just 85 days.

Continued good marks for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. However, a real-world study of the vaccination program in Israel shows they’re 8 times more protective against the first form of coronavirus than the South African variant and about 2.5 times less effective on the UK variant. The good news is this degree of difference is just an approximation because so few cases are breaking through the vaccines.

The tough question for employers, the military, and definitely colleges and universities…when do you require people to take the vaccine? Duke University announced it will join a growing number of others in requiring students to prove they’ve been vaccinated this fall. It’s a hot issue but it’s not new, at all. In a survey of about 100 four-year institutions, nearly all already required at least one vaccine to enroll.

In the United States cases were up 11%, deaths are down 26%, and hospitalizations were up 9% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending flat since March 30.

There are now 6,862,240 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: Chattahoochee, GA. Crosby, TX. Hutchinson, TX. Carson, TX. Lamb, TX. Hockley, TX. Otsego, MI. Garza, TX. Gray, TX. And St. Clair, MI.

The five states with the highest risk levels and most daily new cases per capita over 7 days are Michigan, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

There have been 562,064 deaths in the US reported as Covid-related, with a current national fatality rate of 1.81%.

The states with the most new deaths reported as COVID-related: New York 75. California 63. Texas 26. Illinois 16. Virginia 14. Minnesota 13. New Jersey 12. Maryland 11. Indiana 10. And Kentucky 9.

The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s had at least one dose, New Hampshire at 48.7%, New Mexico at 43.9%, and Maine at 42.7%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Mississippi at 27.5%, Alabama at 28%, and Georgia at 28.8%.

Globally, cases were up 19% and deaths up 22% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since March 5.

There are 23,820,453 active cases around the world.

The five countries with the most new cases: India 169,914. Turkey 50,678. The United States 47,864. Brazil 37,537. And France 34,895.

There have now been 2,934,981 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide.

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