The federal government has been advised to promote financial inclusion, equitable distribution of resources and infrastructural development as tools to drive Nigeria's post COVID-19 economic recovery and to reduce poverty in the country.
The advice was given by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consultancy firm, in its report that was titled: "How to Forge an Inclusive Post-COVID-19 Recovery in Nigeria."
The report, which was authored by a Partner at the BCG, Mr. Tolu Oyekan, stated that the tools would stave off the COVID-19 induced economic contraction that could further compound the poverty situation in the country.
Oyekan also posited that financial inclusion through infrastructural intervention projects would reduce the percentage of Nigerians that are living below the poverty line and have positive multiplier effect on the economy.
He listed the electrification of rural households through a pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) solar service and cashless transactions via telecom propelled mobile money platforms as examples of infrastructural intervention projects that could be used to tackle poverty in Nigeria.
The report stated that those with existing mobile money account would have a higher chance of accessing new home solar power systems and mini-grids the federal government is targeting to install for over five million low-income households by the end of 2023.
Oyekan said: "Our analysis shows that a PAYGo loan would make solar kits affordable for about half of the 31 million households that do not have reliable electricity and may also considered being in the low-income bracket.
"What's more, we found that 3.2 million out of 17 million households currently using kerosene and candles as their lighting source could afford the monthly PAYGo payments based on their current spending on lighting, plus about 10 per cent of their nonfood budget."
He highlighted a recent USAID research which estimated that between 15 to 30 per cent of PAYGo solar customers would create a credit history for the first time when they purchase a solar home system with a PAYGo plan, adding that "credit history could, in turn, lead to other loans for large expenses, such as school fees, which can consume up to 40 percent of a family's annual income.
"Credit histories are also a critical driver of growth for small-business enterprises and first-time business entrepreneurs.
"We continue to believe that the best course for the government is to accelerate economic policy reforms and investments that accentuate inclusive development and position the country for a stronger post-pandemic economic recovery."
He, therefore, stated that inclusive approach to economic recovery could protect the most vulnerable populations in the short term and improve their prospects in the long term.
Commenting on the probable economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, Oyekan made a strong case for financial inclusion via enhanced electronic payment system as way to ameliorate poverty that is currently ravaging almost 83 million Nigerians (about 40 per cent of its population) that still live below the country's poverty line of $381.75 per household, per year, according to the 2018-2019 living standards survey by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
"Specifically, the government should focus on expanding mobile smartphone service, digital financial services, and home-based solar electricity for low-income households.
"We expect that the scaling up of mobile money accounts, along with home solar power kits financed with installment loans, will have a sustained economic impact on low-income populations well beyond any 2021 recovery.

Nigeria reports COVID-19 uptick on Wednesday with more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.
According to NCDC’s figures, Nigeria reports 1,131 new cases, with eight deaths on Wednesday.
The 1,131 new cases represents a slight rise in infections from the 1,056 cases reported the previous day.
However, the eight deaths posted represents a reduction in death rate from the 21 deaths reported the previous day.
This takes the overall national COVID-19 deaths to 1,702, with Lagos leading in overall deaths among states, posting 352 and Edo coming second with 148 and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, with 134 deaths.
Of the 1,131 new cases, Lagos rakes in 297, up from the 214 cases it reported the previous day, while Abuja reports 194 fresh cases, a rise from the 116 cases it posted on Tuesday.
Others are: Kaduna (83), Kano (59), Oyo (58), Taraba (53), Imo (52), Osun (47), Plateau (45), Edo (43), Akwa Ibom (42), Rivers (42), Ogun (29), Kwara (24), Benue (21), Nasarawa (16), Ekiti (7), Bauchi (6), Delta (6), Bayelsa (4), Sokoto (2), and Gombe (1).
Till date, 142,578 cases have been confirmed in Nigeria and 116,947 cases have been discharged in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
It seems that the situation is not better than expected, and it is still very bad. When will our lives return to normal?

The Federal Government, yesterday, declared that millions of Nigerians had so far been impacted by the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) COVID-19 stimulus packages.
This came as ministers and heads of agencies reported further progress in the implementation of the Federal Government’s ESP at a meeting of the committee presided over by Vice President Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Highlights of the reports presented to the committee include the release of N37 billion for the survival fund covering schemes like N50,000 payroll support for three months to over 300,000 beneficiaries, one-time grant of N30,000 to about 100,000 artisans, and 100,000 business name registrations paid for by the Federal Government.
While the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum, reported the progress of the survival fund to the committee, the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, gave reports on the bank’s intervention, including disbursement of over N192 billion for household/MSMEs grants to 426,000 beneficiaries across the country, with plans to do over N100 billion more in that category named Targeted Credit Facility.
The CBN governor also disclosed that under the collateral-free agric-business/small and medium enterprise investment scheme, there were ongoing grants of concessionary loans from between N150,000 to N2.5 million. In that category, the governor disclosed that over N106 billion had been disbursed so far to over 27,000 beneficiaries.
In the agric sector, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, reported that under the ESP, 5.4 million farmers had been enumerated to get the support under the plan.
He added that for the enumeration, which involved geospatial tagging, almost 73,000 N-Power volunteers were trained and 30,000 of them deployed to all the 774 local councils. For the purposes of funding through the CBN, the minister said 2.9 million of the farmers had their BVN enrollment validated.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, briefed the committee that broadband penetration in the country had moved from 38 per cent last year to 45 per cent now, while over 170 institutions had been registered to conduct the NIN. He also said that Telcos would be licensed for the enrolment, while over 1,060 registration centres had been activated across the country for the NIN.
He said that 56.18 million NINs had been collected by mobile network operators. Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement, yesterday, said others who briefed the committee included Labour, Employment and Productivity Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige and his Minister of State colleague, Mr. Festus Keyamo.
The statement explained that Ngige, in his presentation, listed the Federal Government’s efforts to prevent the retrenchment of members of staff in the private sector because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola reported on the ministry’s co-ordinated FG Public Works programme, while Mr. Keyamo reported on the progress of the Special Public Works that hired 774,000 workers across all local councils of the country.

A calendar coincidence means the human loss from the coronavirus will not be reflected in the 2020 census, and that could save a congressional seat for New York but cost Alabama one.
Because the start of the pandemic in the U.S. and the April 1 reference date used for the census fell so close to each other last year, the deaths that began in mid-March will not show up in the state population figures that determine political representation in Congress.
The timing will paper over the losses from the virus, which has killed over 44,000 people in New York state, including concentrations in some New York City neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Alabama has reported around 8,000 virus-related deaths.
New York still is projected to lose at least one seat, but the quirk in the calendar should ensure that the state gets the last of the 435 congressional seats by a margin of more than 20,000 people, and that would save it from losing a second congressional seat, said Kimball Brace, a redistricting expert at Election Data Services.
“When you get to that last seat or two, any little change could have an impact,” Brace said.
The once-a-decade headcount of every U.S. resident determines the number of congressional seats, and Electoral College votes, each state gets. Redistricting experts estimate that 10 congressional seats will shift among 17 states when the Census Bureau releases apportionment numbers by April 30.
The division of congressional seats is sometimes decided by relatively small numbers — just thousands or even hundreds of people.
Brace drew the conclusions using population estimates released in December. Getting that last available spot during the apportionment process would keep New York from losing its 26th congressional seat, but it would cost Alabama its seventh seat in the House.
The April 1 reference means people were required to use that date in answering census questions. If the reference date had been July 1, Alabama would keep its seventh seat by a more than 6,200-person margin. But that would cost New York a second seat, reducing its number of representatives in the House from 27 to 25, according to Brace's analysis. By the start of July last year, New York had experienced more than 32,000 virus-related deaths.
Brace cautions that those scenarios are tempered by the accuracy of the December estimates and the 2020 census, which took place amid the pandemic and natural disasters. The count was also dogged by concerns that the participation of immigrants and Latinos could be suppressed by the Trump administration's failed efforts to exclude people who are in the country illegally from the process of allocating congressional seats.
Both Brace and William Frey of the Brookings Institution predict that Texas will gain three seats, Florida two seats, and an extra seat each will go to Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon.
On the flip side, Alabama, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia each stand to lose a congressional seat, according to Frey and Brace, though Brace estimates that New York could lose up to two seats.
The loss would be a first for California, the nation's most populous state.
Other states have close margins for either gaining or losing a seat. Montana's seat gain would be by less than 5,000 people, and Rhode Island is expected to lose a congressional seat by less than 17,000 people, according to Brace.
Even though the numbers will not be released for months, Alabama has been fighting to save its seventh congressional seat through a lawsuit filed more than two years ago. The case seeks to exclude people who are in the country illegally from the apportionment process, even though the Constitution spells out that every person in each state should be counted. President Donald Trump issued a similar directive last year, but President Joe Biden rescinded it upon taking office.
Including people in the U.S. illegally “will place Alabama at substantial risk of losing political representation," the state of Alabama said Thursday in a court filing.
Alabama officials are optimistic their push to get residents to participate in the census made a difference, said Mike Presley, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.
“When the Census Bureau releases the data from the 2020 count, we are hopeful that the state’s strong effort, which resulted in a higher self-response rate than in 2010, will lead to positive news for Alabama," Presley said.
In New York, where more than 40% of residents live in New York City, the virus made it more difficult to reach hard-to-count minority communities. Advocacy groups were prevented from going door to door to convince people to answer questionnaires, and many residents of wealthy neighborhoods fled the city during the census, said John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York.
Plus, New York City has been undercounted in past censuses, countering any advantage New York may have had because of the April 1 reference date, said Melva Miller, CEO of the Association for a Better New York.
“We know New York City is a terribly hard place to count, and numerous people are historically undercounted,” Miller said. “In terms of whether we did better because we might have had some people counted, I can’t see that is the case.”

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits declined to 779,000 last week, a still-historically high total that shows that a sizable number of people keep losing jobs to the viral pandemic.
Last week’s total, the third straight, declined from 812,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It left the weekly figure at its lowest point in two months but nevertheless elevated: Before the virus erupted in the United States in March, weekly applications for jobless aid had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession.
Thursday’s report reflects a U.S. job market that is still suffering from the pandemic, with hiring having weakened for six straight months. It is a key reason why President Joe Biden is pushing Congress to enact a $1.9 trillion economic rescue program, on top of a $900 billion federal aid package that was approved late last year.
The decline in applications for unemployment aid over the past few weeks suggests that layoffs have eased slightly as several states have loosened restrictions on restaurants, bars and other service firms, causing these businesses to retain workers.
And the pace of new confirmed viral infections is slowing, a trend that has lowered hospitalizations across the country. Average daily reported cases have fallen 30% in the past week to about 140,000 — one-half the peak level of a month ago.Even so, the persistence of elevated layoffs remains a cause for concern, economists say.
“Total initial claims fell, but the magnitude is still a huge problem,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist for Indeed.com, the job postings website. “We continue to see the effect of the coronavirus on the labor market. At no point has it let up.”
In January, applications for jobless benefits had accelerated, but that surge might have been driven up, at least in part, by laid-off workers re-applying for benefits after two federal extended programs expired late last year. Those programs were belatedly renewed on Dec. 27, after former President Donald Trump signed the $900 billion stimulus package into law, one day after the programs had expired.
All told, 17.8 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the week that ended Jan. 16, the latest period for which data are available. That’s down from 18.3 million from the week before.

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has revealed that the demand for oxygen by coronavirus patients has increased to 400 cylinders per day across state-owned treatment facilities.
This is as the government is working hard to ensure that oxygen supply very easily meets and even surpass demand.
This disclosure is contained in a statement, issued on Sunday, January 31, in which the Governor provided an updated report to Lagosians on the management of the coronavirus disease in the state.
Sanwo-Olu reiterated that government does not charge for use of oxygen in its centres as it is free in all Lagos State-owned Covid-19 treatment centres.
What the Lagos State Governor is saying
The statement from the Governor partly reads, ‘’The Government wishes to reiterate that Oxygen is free at all Lagos State-owned Covid-19 Treatment Centers. The Lagos State Government does not charge for the use of Oxygen in its centres.’’
“Considering that oxygen demand has spiked to between 300 and 400 cylinders per day across state-owned treatment facilities, the government is working hard to ensure availability and supply are very easily able to meet and even surpass the demand.
“To this end, a second oxygen plant is under construction at the Gbagada General Hospital and will come on-stream within the next seven days. It is expected that this will boost the in-house capacity and availability of oxygen across all state government-managed treatment centres, ‘’ he said.
Sanwo-Olu said that the Lagos State Government was making efforts to transform the state-owned isolation centre in Gbagada into a fee-paying facility that people could elect to be treated at.
He said that the decision was due to the growing clamour by patients and families who were willing to pay for COVID-19 treatment, but would like to do so at a cost that was lower than what was currently obtainable at private facilities.
Sanwo-Olu said, ‘’Lagos State Government is making efforts to transform the State-owned Isolation Centre in Gbagada into a fee-paying facility that people can elect to be treated at.
“While the treatment facility in Yaba will continue to offer free and high-quality treatment to all persons, Gbagada centre will offer treatment at a moderated and affordable cost to those who wish to take advantage of extra offerings like private treatment rooms and more personalised levels of care.’’
What this means
The spike in the demand for oxygen in the Lagos can be attributed to a surge in the number of Covid-19 infections in the state, which is regarded as the epicentre of the disease in the country. This is as oxygen is a key component in the treatment of Covid-19 patients especially the severe cases.
This means more pressure on isolation centres and other health facilities in the state.


Even the production of oxygen needs attention in our country. Before vaccination, I think we need to wear masks if you need to go out. I also suggest that our government not only focus on the current difficulties, but also take this opportunity to cultivate healthy living and health habits among the whole people.

In January 2021, the number of deaths from COVID-19 increased so rapidly that it has clearly become the number one cause of death in the U.S., with an average of more than 3,000 people per day dying of COVID-19 in the U.S. as of Jan. 26. That number is significantly higher than other leading causes of death and is nearly 50% higher than the next leading cause. Heart disease, which is typically the number one cause of death in the U.S. each year, leads to the death of about 2,000 Americans per day, and cancer claims about 1,600 American lives per day.
The chart above combines data on COVID-19 mortality rates from KFF’s tracker with data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on weekly counts of death by jurisdiction and cause of death. COVID-19 deaths in the chart represent the average daily deaths in January 2021 (as of January 26, 2021). Deaths from other causes represent the weighted daily mortality rate averaged over MMWR weeks 1-52 during the year 2020. This CDC dataset does not include deaths due to accidents (which, before the pandemic, were typically the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer), nor does it include suicides (which were typically the tenth leading cause of death before the pandemic). To avoid double-counting, the dataset excludes deaths confirmed to have an underlying cause of COVID-19. The chart could, however, understate the severity of COVID-19 because some of those deaths may have been misclassified as other causes. There were many more deaths in 2020 than expected, and confirmed COVID-19 cases only accounted for about three in four excess deaths.
With two vaccines available now in the United States that are more than 90% effective at preventing illness from the virus, these data are just one more way of illustrating the urgency of expediting COVID-19 vaccination. While the number of new COVID-19 cases appears to have taken a turn for the better in the latter half of January, it is difficult to know what the future holds, particularly with the potential spread of new variants.

The Nigerian government has said it may suspend flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and The Netherlands due to the new COVID-19 protocols introduced by both countries for incoming travellers.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Musa Nuhu, while speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday said both countries recently requested that passengers from Nigeria must carry out a PCR test four hours before departing the country.
“In addition to the requirements are a requirement for PCR test before passengers depart from Nigeria to their countries. They are adding an extra requirement of having a rapid test done four hours before departure or before you board,” he said.
“For us, passengers do the test 72 hours before departure and then the PCR test and the PTF recognizes the rights of all countries to put in measures to protect their citizens just like Nigeria has done,” Mr Nuhu said.
“If they insist on having these additional tests being done, then PTF has decided that their operations will be suspended into Nigeria.”
Mr Nuhu said the countries and airlines coming from there cannot determine for Nigeria who to approve or how these tests will be done.
He said the government will be discussing with the airlines and countries involved.
This will enable the PTF to have a clear and transparent process on determining who will do these test “based on the requirement for accreditation by NCDC, National Laboratory Council, Lagos state government for Lagos airport and FCT for Abuja airport.”



I support the official safety protocol to limit COVID-19. I hope the epidemic will end soon.

On March 10, it was named B.Z. Of netizens initiated a petition post on the White House petition website "WE the PEOPLE", asking the US government to announce the real reason for closing the Fort Detrick Biolab in July last year to clarify whether the laboratory is the cause of the new crown virus Research unit, and whether there is a virus leakage problem.
Fort Detrick, which is only an hour’s drive from the U.S. Army Medical Command in Washington, is doing what experiments and whether it caused a large-scale leak? What did the CDC find when it inspected Fort Detrick?
The secret history of Fort Detrick: CIA Mind Control Experimental Base
In September last year, the US "Politician" News Network published an article saying: "Today Fort Detrick is a cutting-edge laboratory. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the darkest experimental center of the US government."
The article stated that 76 years ago, the US military chose Fort Detrick as the location for secretly launching a germ war. For many years, it has been the CIA's secret chemical experiment and mind control experiment base, and most of the base's activities are also "secret."
During World War II, Fort Detrick began experimenting with biological and chemical weapons.
In 1942, the U.S. Army hired Ira Baldwin, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin, to secretly develop chemical weapons, and asked Baldwin to find suitable sites for the new biological research complex. Baldwin chose the National Guard base that was abandoned at the time and named it "Detrick Test Field."
In 1943, the Army announced that it would be renamed "Camp Detrick" and designated it as the headquarters of the Army's Biological Warfare Laboratory. At the same time, it purchased several adjacent farms to ensure more space and privacy.
In the spring of 1949, the Army established a small and highly classified team of chemists at Camp Detrick called the "Special Operations Division" whose mission was to find military uses for toadstools.
At the same time, the CIA formed a chemical special force. CIA officials in Europe and Asia hope to develop new methods to induce arrested spy suspects to reveal secrets unconsciously. Alan Dulles, who was in charge of the CIA's covert operations department at the time, believed that his mind control plan (MK-ULTRA plan) was extremely important.
In 1951, Dulles hired chemist Sidney Gottlieb, hoping to further promote the MK-ULTRA program. Gottlieb has long sought a way to destroy human consciousness. He tested a surprising number of compound mixtures, and these drugs were basically related to mental torture.
After the MK-ULTRA project ended, Fort Detrick was officially named in 1956. Since then, it has been retained as Gottlieb's chemical base for the development and storage of CIA poisons. Gottlieb stores pathogenic biological agents that may cause smallpox, tuberculosis, and anthrax in the freezer, as well as a large number of organic toxins, including snake venom and paralytic shellfish toxins.

It is no longer news that Nigeria inflation rose to 15:78 per cent in December, the highest in 34 months.
But worthy to note is that the standard of living of the ordinary Nigerian which has been depreciating in the last five years peaked at over 50 per cent of 2015 standards.
Coming out from the 2016 recession, economic growth  fragile until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic whose negative effect on the economy was worsened by insecurity along the food producing areas of the country and the #EndSARS protests that rocked the country in October.
It is further predicted that the inflation would not only remain at two digits but could hit 20 per cent in Q1 2021.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this can only be reversed if the Federal Government reviews the monetary policy and floats the currency. However, Prof Sera Olanrewaju Anyanwa, Head of Department of Economics, University of Abuja; said in order to end the crushing poverty the Nigerian masses has fallen into will entail improving the country’s economic productivity and opportunities for its citizens.
“This will mean investing in human capital potential and creating jobs for women and young people, increasing financial access and opportunities to these groups in rural communities, and advancing technological innovation,’ she said.

Dr. Deborah Birx, who had been one of the White House's chief coronavirus response coordinators, said Friday she considered quitting under former President Donald Trump, whose cavalier attitude toward combatting the disease created consternation among public health officials.
Birx, in a clip of released by CBS News' "Face The Nation," said she "always" considered quitting, particularly once colleagues began to view her differently after becoming one of the faces of the response to the coronavirus pandemic under Trump. The full interview will air on Sunday.
"I mean, why would you want to put yourself through that every day? Colleagues of mine that I've known for decades — decades — in that one experience, because I was in the White House, decided that I had become this political person, even though they've known me forever," she said in the interview.
"I had to ask myself every morning: is there something that I think I can do that would be helpful in responding to this pandemic? And it's something I asked myself every night," Birx said.
Birx, who came under some criticism for traveling and hosting Thanksgiving with her family as Covid-19 cases skyrocketed, was in the White House briefing room in April 2020 when Trump suggested that injecting bleach, or other disinfectants — as well as light — could kill the virus. She was noticeably uncomfortable as the president turned to her and asked whether she had ever heard about heat killing the virus in humans.
Her comments comes a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the government’s other top public health experts, said he feels free to speak honestly about Covid-19 now that Trump is out of office. Fauci said that the new administration was committed to being "completely transparent, open and honest," a sharp break from the Trump White House when Fauci said he often felt there would be repercussions for speaking honestly about the pandemic.
Birx, who said she never withheld information from the public, suggested in the interview that she felt stuck trying to effectively work with the Trump administration on combating Covid-19, prompting her to recraft public messaging.
"And, when it became a point where ... I wasn't getting anywhere, and that was right before the election, I wrote a very detailed communication plan — what needed to happen the day after the election, and how that needs to be executed," she said "And, there was a lot of promises that would happen."
This past December, Birx said in an interview with the news site Newsy that she plans to retire but did not give a timeframe for her exit. She said at the time she wants to first help President Joe Biden’s team "in any role" with its coronavirus response.

The number of coronavirus patients needing oxygen to survive has risen fivefold as a second wave of the pandemic hit Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city and commercial hub.
The demand for oxygen has risen from 70 six-litre cylinders per day to 350 six-litre cylinders in our Yaba Mainland Hospital, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of the state said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “This is projected to more than double to 750 six-cylinders, before the end of January 2021,” he said.
The rise in cases in recent weeks has forced the state to reopen previously closed isolation centers where the illness is treated. All malaria symptoms should now be first treated as a case of Covid-19 “unless and until proven not to be one,” the governor urged.
The state has opened discussions with vaccine manufacturers, according to the statement.

Not even months of quarantine orders that confined millions of Americans to their homes were enough to unseat transportation as the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States — and cars are the biggest polluters in the sector, a new study finds.
According to preliminary estimates from the Rhodium Group, transportation-related emissions were still the United States’ single biggest driver of climate change in 2020, despite historic drops in vehicle miles travelled and a relatively large drop in tailpipe smog compared to prior years.
Planes, trains and automobiles (and presumably to a lesser extent, boats) accounted for an estimated 31 percent of total net emissions in 2020, and the transportation industry experienced the largest drop in total emissions of any sector — though not enough to dethrone it as the nation’s top polluter. And if the Rhodium estimates hold, the industry’s slice of the climate change pie will actually be larger than it’s been in years past; it was just 28 percent in 2018, the most-recent year for which the Environmental Protection Agency has provided final data.
And a closer look at the data reveals that not all modes contributed equally to the transportation sector’s historic emission declines — because decreases in driving were considerably lower than decreases in flying.
Demand for jet fuel fell to as low as 32 percent of 2019 levels at the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns, and barely achieved 65 percent of those levels even when travel demand rose in around the December holidays. Gasoline demand, by contrast, had already rebounded to about 90 percent of its pre-pandemic levels by the last month of the year, and diesel demand was roughly the same as it was  in December 2019 — a surge which the Rhodium analyst says was “likely spurred by holiday deliveries.”
National vehicle miles travelled, meanwhile, were only down about 15 percent in 2020 compared to the 2019 annual total — and that’s even accounting for a historically unprecedented 40-percent VMT drop-off in April, when more states and cities had implemented shelter-in-place orders than at any other point in the pandemic.
The Rhodium analysts say our national patchwork of quarantine mandates probably explain most of the transportation sector’s emissions seeming “wins.” (Before you ask: no, this was far from banner year for fuel emissions standards, electric vehicle adoption, or even the sale of plain-old fuel-efficient vehicles.) But some advocates are wondering why 2020’s driving-related emissions weren’t even lower — and if a global pandemic couldn’t do it, it what it might take to finally get Americans out of their cars at large scale.

Scientists are sending the U.S. a warning: What's happening right now in the United Kingdom with the new coronavirus variant could likely happen in the U.S., and the country has a short window to prepare.
"I feel a sense of déjà vu right now about the situation we were in back in the spring," says epidemiologist Emma Hodcroft at the University of Bern in Switzerland. "I think a lot of countries are looking at the U.K. right now and saying, 'Oh, isn't that too bad that it's happening there, just like we did with Italy in February.
"But we've seen in this pandemic a few times that, if the virus can happen somewhere else, it can probably happen in your country, too."
The new variant, called B.1.1.7, appears to be significantly more contagious than previous versions of the virus. It has been spreading rapidly in the U.K. and causing a huge surge in cases, hospitalizations and death. Last week, the U.K. reported a record-breaking 419,000 cases. The governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland issued strict lockdowns, urging people to stay inside their homes.
Studies suggest the new variant increases the transmissibility by about 50%. While restrictions have largely suppressed previous versions of the virus in the U.K., B.1.1.7 has continued to grow exponentially.
Now scientists say the virus is already here in the U.S., and circulating widely-- albeit at very low levels, says computational biologist Trevor Bedford at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
"A rough estimate, for across the U.S., would be a frequency of about 1 in 1000," he told NPR last week. "So about 1 in every 1000 COVID infection is due to the variant."
Bedford expects that percentage to rise quickly. In England, B.1.1.7 took about three month to take over and become the dominant strain in the outbreak. Scientists believed the variant first emerged in September. By December, it had become the dominant version in London.
"So I roughly expect a similar timeline of three months, from the variant's initial arrival in the U.S. in December to starting to dominate the virus population around March," Bedford said.

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is continuing its results-based subsidy programme in Nigeria. The government agency has signed grant agreements with seven solar home system suppliers operating in rural Nigeria. Although the names of the companies benefiting from this funding facility have not been disclosed, REA estimates that the grants will enable the electrification of one million households and 90,000 micro, small and medium enterprises in rural Nigeria.
The grant is part of the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), a federal government initiative, led by the private sector, which aims to provide electricity access to households, micro, small and medium enterprises in off-grid communities across the country through renewable energy sources. NEP is being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency in collaboration with the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other development partners.
“With the signing of these grant agreements, it is expected that the market for solar home systems in Nigeria will increase significantly to enable REA to electrify one million homes by the end of the project,” REA says. Under NEP, the agency has already subsidised the US company Lumos Global to the tune of US$75 million. It has pledged to distribute solar home systems to 1 million homes by 2025.
The OBF also benefits A4&T Integrated Services, Asolar Systems Nigeria, Greenlight Planet, Smarter Grid International and Solar Energy by D. light. REA grants have also been awarded to suppliers of solar mini-grids such as Renewvia Energy and PowerGen Renewable Energy. Both companies received performance-based grants (PBG).

As part of its plan to inoculate at least 40% of its population, the Nigerian government expects to receive its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines by the “end of the month,” Faisal Shuaib, the head of the country's National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said Tuesday. The country also plans to get the vaccine to a further 30% of its population by next year, the BBC reports.
The first batch of expected Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will contain 100,000 doses and will be acquired through the global vaccine-sharing scheme known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility. Shuaib said in a briefing that the country hopes to get 42 million vaccines through the COVAX Facility to cover one-fifth of Nigeria’s population.
Frontline health workers, first responders, the elderly, national leaders, and people who are vulnerable to the coronavirus will receive the vaccine first, according to Shuaib.
COVAX is a global collaboration — co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) — to help poorer countries gain equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines amidst fears that the economic advantages of wealthier countries could cause a shortage for their less-wealthy counterparts.
New variants of the virus have also emerged on the continent with mutations already confirmed in Nigeria and South Africa.
Although getting a vaccine is a good thing, many people remain skeptical about the side effects of the vaccine. Whether the vaccine has the same effect on the mutated virus is not known.

Nearly 60 percent of all Covid-19 spread may come from people with no symptoms, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Using mathematical modeling, CDC researchers estimated that 35 percent of Covid-19 spread is from people who are contagious before they develop symptoms, called presymptomatic transmission. Another 24 percent comes from people who are truly asymptomatic, and never go on to develop symptoms. 
Such widespread asymptomatic transmission means that simply identifying and isolating people who have symptoms of Covid-19 "will not control the ongoing spread of SARS-CoV-2," the virus that causes Covid-19, the study authors wrote. 
Rather, the findings mean that everyday behaviors to mitigate the spread of the virus are even more critical.
"Measures such as wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distancing and strategic testing of people who are not ill will be foundational to slowing the spread," the study authors wrote, "until safe and effective vaccines are available and widely used."

A more contagious and faster spreading strain of the virus discovered in the UK and designated VUI-202012/01 has already made its way to the US, including the state of New York.
"We estimate that it will take about six weeks for the new, more contagious variant to replace the old one," said Scott Braithwate, a professor of population health at NYU School of Medicine, quoted by local NY1 TV.
According to the scientist, the city will have to vaccinate almost half of its population during this period to avoid another wave of the virus.
"We have to vaccinate about 40 to 50 percent of people in the next six weeks - that is our challenge," he noted.
According to recent estimates, over 8.3 million people live in five city districts. According to earlier plans, a million people were to be vaccinated by the end of January. According to the NYC Health portal on Wednesday, 129,624 people have received the first dose and the second 2,492.
"Many people accuse the city of not being prepared for a more efficient vaccine, even though it was expected to arrive," Braithwaite said. However, he added that it was easy to point a finger and praised how far vaccination efforts have come, writes NY1.
As the scientist adds, in the next six weeks it is possible to administer the vaccine from 40 to 50 percent. residents.
"I think with sufficient effort and resources it is feasible," argued Braithwaite.
Meanwhile, as reported on Wednesday by Bloomberg, citing its data and the statistics of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 5.2 million doses have been administered nationwide since the launch of the vaccination campaign in the US on December 14. More than 15.6 million people have been vaccinated in 37 countries around the world.
Bloomberg points out that delivering billions of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide will be one of the greatest logistical challenges ever addressed.

I'm glad the U.S. is finally responding effectively to the outbreak in their own country, it's come to this and the fight is global.

The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) show that between 431,000 and 470,000 excess deaths have occurred since the Covid-19 pandemic began. An additional 200,000 deaths are projected by April.
Along with strong mitigation measures to curb the spread, vaccines are powerful tools that will enable us to subdue and eventually end the pandemic. Last month’s emergency use authorization of two vaccines offers real hope in this regard. But, availability of vaccines is not the same thing as actual uptake.   
Trump Administration officials had previously predicted there would be 20 million first dose vaccinations by the end of December, but as of January 2nd, only about 4.2 million people have had their first dose, according to a CDC tracker.

JACKSON, Miss. — Four days before Christmas, Chiquikta Fountain watched as a growing line of cars stretched down a mile of road in the Mississippi Delta.
From her vantage point, it seemed like every resident in the rural town of Shaw was en route to the holiday meal giveaway at Delta Hands for Hope, a nonprofit she runs to support the area’s children.
The Dec. 21 event was meant to be a cheerful affair, despite the desperate need. Hams had been purchased from a mom-and-pop grocery store. There were bags of freshly picked greens, potatoes and onions for sides. With schools on winter break, volunteers tucked cereal and cases of orange juice into bags to help tide over families with children into the new year.
There were only 140 meals to distribute in the town of roughly 1,700. The meals were meant for a group of families and senior citizens who have relied heavily on the nonprofit for weekly assistance. But word spread quickly and it soon became clear that the food on hand wouldn’t be enough.
As supplies dwindled, the group began passing out the remnants. Produce for one person, a few boxes of cereal for another.
“To have to turn these families away,” Fountain said, “I can’t even describe what it felt like to you to do that.”
Before the pandemic, Bolivar County knew hunger. Almost 40 percent of its residents live in poverty. In areas like Shaw, trying to make ends meet has become even more fraught as the county struggles with the highest Covid-19 infection rate in the Mississippi Delta.
Weekly case counts in December have surpassed the peak of the county’s summer surge, when so many fell ill that the county coroner asked the board of supervisors to purchase an extra refrigerator for fear he would run out of space to store the dead.
That the recent surge has so far claimed fewer lives compared to previous peaks has left little room for comfort. Cases in the county quadrupled in the weeks after Thanksgiving.
Statewide, hospitalizations for patients with the virus spiked, plummeting the number of available intensive care unit beds in the state’s rural areas and larger cities alike. By the third week of December, Bolivar Medical Center in Cleveland, the county’s only hospital, ran out of ICU beds, a situation that could recur as cases rise.

A Wisconsin-based hospital on Wednesday said an employee who removed 57 vials of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine from the refrigerator earlier this week which resulted in 500 doses being discarded, acted intentionally.
In a statement to Fox News, Advocate Aurora Health said it was led to believe the act was an error, but the employee in question "today acknowledged that they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration."
The employee is no longer with the company, it said. 
"We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic," the company said. "We are more than disappointed that this individual's action will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine."
Aurora officials initially said the employee at the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton forgot to put the vials back in refrigeration after removing them. Each vial contained 10 doses of the vaccine, according to local reports. 
The former employee's actions were "a violation of our core values" and have been reported to authorities for further investigation, the company said.

Dec. 29, 2020 -- The U.S. has distributed more than 11.4 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, and more than 2.1 million of those had been given to people as of Monday morning, according to the CDC.
The CDC’s COVID Data Tracker showed the updated numbers as of 9 a.m. Monday. The distribution total is based on the CDC’s Vaccine Tracking System, and the administered total is based on reports from state and local public health departments, as well as updates from five federal agencies: the Bureau of Prisons, Veterans Administration, Department of Defense, Department of State, and Indian Health Services.
Health care providers report to public health agencies up to 72 hours after the vaccine is given, and public health agencies report to the CDC after that, so there may be a lag in the data. The CDC’s numbers will be updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
“A large difference between the number of doses distributed and the number of doses administered is expected at this point in the COVID vaccination program due to several factors,” the CDC says.
Delays could occur due to the reporting of doses given, how states and local vaccine sites are managing vaccines, and the pending launch of vaccination through the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program.
“Numbers reported on other websites may differ from what is posted on CDC’s website because CDC’s overall numbers are validated through a data submission process with each jurisdiction,” the CDC says.
On Saturday, the agency’s tally showed that 9.5 million doses had been distributed and 1.9 million had been given, according to Reuters.
Public health officials and health care workers have begun to voice their concerns about the delay in giving the vaccines.

COVID-19 is hitting a handful states harder than anywhere else — California, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee. And in Tennessee, hospitals are having to improvise, as nearly 3,000 people are hospitalized for COVID-19 and treatment is underway for far more COVID patients than ever thought possible.
Clinicians say they are trying to bend but not break as they wait for vaccines.
"If we have another surge after Christmas and New Year's like we did after Thanksgiving, it will completely break our hospitals," Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said this week.
A couple of Tennessee's rural hospitals have requested ventilators from the state's emergency stockpile. A federal emergency team has been sent to the mountainous northeast part of the state. And alternative care sites that were set up months ago, to deal with this kind of patient surge, are empty — rendered useless because there's no staff to run them.
From outside the hospital walls, it's impossible to see how serious the situation is. Visitors are largely kept out. Patients aren't spilling into the street. Ambulances don't line up around the block.
But inside, hospitals are frantically constructing new COVID units.

The situation is still not optimistic, it can be said to be very bad! More and more people are infected, and even hospitals have become dangerous places. Everyone must keep social distance and take protective measures!

The U.S. is looking at why several people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine have developed allergic reactions, according to a report.
Alkis Togias, an official with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNBC on Monday that "several hundred people" who have a history of severe allergic reactions will be involved in a study.
"We are a little bit concerned that people who have had a lot of allergies who have had reactions like this to all kinds of things, not just vaccines, may be afraid to get vaccinated now," Togias, chief of the NIAID’s Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch, told the outlet.
"We just don’t want that to happen. We want to find a way for them to get vaccinated," he added.
Togias’ department will lead the study, which researchers hope to begin in a few weeks, CNBC reported.
While the reactions have been reported by those who received the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, the study also may look at shots made by Moderna, according to the report.
Researchers at the NIAID — an agency within the National Institutes of Health — became interested in the rare phenomenon after reports that a few people developed anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, to Pfizer’s vaccine, Togias said.
Last week, a clinician in Alaska suffered anaphylactic symptoms after receiving the Pfizer inoculation — becoming the third health-care worker in the state to suffer an adverse reaction to it.
It’s unclear why some people have experienced allergic reactions to the two shots, which use messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology – a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to spark an immune response, CNBC reported.
US health officials say the jabs are safe, with only 10 percent to 15 percent of volunteers in clinical trials reporting "significantly noticeable" side effects, according to the outlet.

Severe allergies may also lead to life-threatening. It is hoped that researchers can find out the cause of allergies and find out whether the vaccine has other hazards.

Police, firefighters, teachers and grocery workers will be among those next in line for a COVID-19 vaccine, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel decided Sunday. 
The committee voted 13-1 to recommend that Phase 1b include people 75 and older and front-line essential workers. Phase 1c will include people 65 to 74 and people 16 to 64 who have high-risk medical conditions, along with other essential workers. 
"My hope is that these short-term recommendations will support efficiency and equity in every phase of vaccination until we can get to the time when all individuals have access to safe and effective vaccines in the U.S. and worldwide," said Dr. Grace Lee, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and committee member.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices began its deliberations Sunday morning and spent the day discussing who would follow front-line health care workers and people in long-term care facilities in receiving vaccines, a second phase that could begin in February. The committee is responsible for recommending who gets what vaccines when. 
They made difficult decisions that were based on getting a vaccine as quickly as possible to people at the greatest risk of contracting COVID-19 and those who will suffer the most severe outcomes, said Dr. Sharon Fry of the Saint Louis University Medical School and a committee member.
"There are no perfect recommendations. and people will continue to become ill with this disease and die from the disease until there are adequate vaccines. So please, I will plead also for our leaders and the government to move quickly on this and support this effort," she said.
There are now two COVID-19 vaccines in use in the United States. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11. The Moderna vaccine was authorized Friday and should begin arriving at hospitals on Monday.
The United States has created a phased vaccination plan for the coronavirus because there won't be enough vaccine in the beginning of the rollout.

I hope this plan can be implemented as soon as possible, rather than just talking about it!

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told his staff in an email that his wife had tested positive for coronavirus, NBC News reported. Azar and his children both tested negative.
“Today, my family learned that my wife Jennifer has tested positive for COVID-19,” Azar said. “Jennifer is experiencing mild symptoms but otherwise doing well and has been self-isolating at home from the moment of her first symptoms (she scrupulously followed public health guidelines: she isolated upon mere aches and received a negative instant test, but stayed in isolation pending results of the non-instant PCR test today). I have been tested as have our children, and thankfully we have received negative results and are not exhibiting any symptoms.”
Azar said he will be following CDC guidelines for essential workers, and carrying out his essential duties, while “continuing to practice social distancing, wearing a mask, and monitoring for any symptoms.”
“In addition, I have been tested every day and will be tested every day until my exposure period has concluded,” Azar added.

A northwestern Nigerian state announced the closure of schools due to an upsurge in coronavirus infections, local media reported Tuesday.
According to the decision taken by the Kaduna’s Education Ministry, all schools in state will remain closed as of Wednesday, as part of measures to curb the spread of the virus, The Punch local news website said.
The state’s Health Ministry confirmed the new wave of COVID-19 particularly affects those aged 10-35, State Commissioner for Education Shehu Makarfi said.
Health authorities in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, confirmed a total of 1,197 deaths due to COVID-19. The tally of cases stands at 73,374, including 66,314 recoveries.

For states with severe infections, closing schools is the right way. Nowadays, the situation in many regions in Europe and America is serious, and it has also affected my country and other countries. Now vaccines have also been developed. I hope that most people can get vaccinated and COVID-19 will disappear as soon as possible.

Amid fears of a possible resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, Proprietor of the Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Centre in the United States, Dr Godwin Maduka has advised the federal government to support local research initiatives into tropical diseases and other viral infections.
At a news conference yesterday in Abuja, Dr Maduka lamented the worsening state of healthcare in the country, noting that Nigeria must develop its capacity to respond to future pandemics. He said; “Healthcare in Nigeria is something we have to take very seriously. For that to happen, we need to go into research in terms of the tropical diseases and viral infections as we have seen with the COVID-19 so that in future if something like this happens, we will not be caught napping as experienced recently which caused a lot of panic among the populace. “It is about time we put our heads together and changed the direction of healthcare not just in Anambra but in the whole of Nigeria. That was why we put up a 17-storey building to be able to conduct research and training of health workers. It might not be a hospital for everybody but those diseases which need experts from all over the world to work there. We already built hospitals to take care of the local community. “I am calling on the federal government to assist us in our quest to build a research hub, just like you have Cleveland clinic in America which they use for research. Our healthcare delivery is not at par with the rest of the world and the time has come to revolutionise the sector to reduce dependency on other countries”. Maduka also advised well-established Nigerians in the diaspora to come back home and contribute their quota to national development. On debates regarding zoning of political offices in the country, Dr Maduka who is also a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP from Anambra State, called on the political class to de-emphasize tribalism in Nigeria’s leadership recruitment process.

Andrea Araujo still can't believe her father's gone. Nine days after she lost him, Araujo remembers the last conversation she had with him, before he passed away from Covid-19.
"He told me that, despite everything, he was happy with what he had accomplished. It was a good talk. I wish I could have hugged him for the last time," Araujo, 22, told Noticias Telemundo.
Dr. Carlos Araujo-Preza, 51, a pulmonologist from El Salvador, had been treating hundreds of serious Covid-19 cases in Houston until he contracted the coronavirus in October. He would soon be treated by his colleagues in the same intensive care unit he ran.
After having spent two weeks on a ventilator, Araujo-Preza died Nov. 30.
"He was very brave. From March to April, when little was known about this disease, he woke up every day motivated to go to attend to patients," his daughter said. "He slept for weeks in the hospital. Because he was aware of the patients and the new cases that arrived, he wanted everyone to have the necessary care."
Araujo-Preza's death has shaken the Latino community, especially in Texas, where there have been more than 1.3 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 22,000 deaths. The state has not issued stay-at-home orders in recent months — even though case numbers are rising and cities like Lubbock report that they no longer have any open hospital beds.
His longtime partner, Paige King, takes comfort in knowing how dedicated he was to his patients until the end of his life. "Carlos died by his own terms — he sacrificed himself in order to save the lives of others," she wrote in a Facebook post.
Araujo-Preza came to the U.S. from El Salvador in 1994 to pursue his education at Staten Island University Hospital and Tulane University. He moved to Houston in 2001 to dedicate his career to medicine, eventually becoming the critical care medical director at HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball in Tomball.
"We are saddened by the passing of Dr. Carlos Araujo-Preza," HCA Houston Healthcare said in a statement. "His clinical excellence, compassionate care and kindness will be greatly missed. Dr. Carlos Araujo-Preza touched so many of our lives and will always be remembered for his profound commitment to his patients. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to his family, friends and colleagues."
His daughter has been moved by support the family has received.
"The number of patients and colleagues who have given me messages of support and described the experiences they had with him makes me very proud," she said. "Outside of working hard, he always made time for his family. He was a responsible son and a loving father. I'll be forever grateful for that."

By the end of the year, the United States government hopes to have close to 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
It plans to distribute half of those in December and hold back the other half to give the same people their second dose of the two-shot regimen.
But Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer board member and former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner, says that's a bad idea. Instead, Gottlieb says he would give out 35 million doses now, and presume the second doses will be available when people need them.
That way, he says, a lot more people can be protected as the U.S. endures the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We should get as many shots in our arms as possible right away,” he told the USA TODAY Editorial Board on Monday. “The idea that we need to cut (the doses) in half and give half of it now and hold onto it, so we have supply in January to get the second dose … I just fundamentally disagree with that.”
As the U.S. continues to suffer from a surge with nearly 200,000 new cases each day, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data, Gottlieb says the government should focus on vaccinating as many people as possible with first doses. He anticipates another 40 million doses should be ready in time for the second shot of the two-dose regimen.
The inability to do so would indicate a manufacturing process problem exceeding that of people not getting their second dose on schedule, he argues.
“I don’t think we should be holding onto supply now, anticipating something goes wrong that’s going to cause a lot of other challenges,” said Gottlieb. “We should be taking some risk.”
Arthur Caplan, professor and founding head of the division of medical ethics at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City, agrees.

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — COVID-19 testing is up 20 percent for USA Health since Thanksgiving. The healthcare group partners with the City of Mobile helping with public testing. Currently, USA Health reports about 200 patient tests each day, numbers not seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
Sarah Kahalley said, “It is mimicking what happened pre-surge back in the Summer when things were so rough.”
Nurse Sarah Kahalley runs the USA Health testing center currently located at Expo Hall at the Civic Center. We first met her as one of WKRG News Five’s Healthcare Heroes, leading a team at the Ladd-Peebles Covid testing site. She said she’s seeing a difference in testing.
Kahalley said, “Before we were seeing a lot with just travel, precautionary screening, low symptoms, but what we’re seeing now is, I’ve noticed a more wider range in age.”
She says in particular, they’re seeing more pediatric patient tests. Kahalley said, “Mostly due to being in respiratory season, so this is something we expect, but also a lot more symptomatic patients in general.”
What is causing cases to climb? Kahalley said there is not just one answer. She said, “The holidays and more and more gatherings, large quantities and things like that, I think it’s partly what we call Covid exhaust. I think people are tired of all of the restrictions and tired of the disease, I think we all are, so we’re getting more lax in our practices.”
She added, the increased numbers are an even bigger reason to continue to take precaution.
She said, “I think that’s what it’s indicative of is that we’re headed towards a second wave and that we should just be even more careful than we’ve ever been.”

Private U.S. companies have the right under the law to require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but are unlikely to do so because of the risks of legal and cultural backlash, experts said.
Companies are still in the early stages of navigating access and distribution of vaccines against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but inoculation is considered the key to safely resume operations at crowded warehouses, factory lines and on sales floors.
“Companies have every good reason to get all of their employees vaccinated and also have an obligation to keep all employees and customers safe,” said Lawrence Gostin, a global health law professor at Georgetown University.
But Robert Field, a law and public health professor at Drexel University, said companies considering mandates should wait for vaccines to undergo a full-fledged regulatory review process.
U.S. courts that have ruled on lawsuits by healthcare workers opposing employer-mandated flu vaccines have largely sided with hospitals as long as they provided reasonable exemption policies, court records showed.
And in the UK, the government has no legal power to compel vaccination and employers attempting to mandate vaccines would likely confront human rights concerns, employment lawyers at Morgan Lewis wrote in a blog post. 
U.S. agencies to date have not weighed in on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the past has said employers have the right to mandate vaccines.
OSHA referred a request for comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which did not respond.