Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Johnson & Johnson has announced Tuesday it will "proactively delay the rollout of our vaccine in Europe" after six women in the US developed a rare disorder involving blood clots.

"The safety and well-being of the people who use our products is our number one priority. We are aware of an extremely rare disorder involving people with blood clots in combination with low platelets in a small number of individuals who have received our Covid-19 vaccine. The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are reviewing data involving six reported US cases out of more than 6.8 million doses administered. Out of an abundance of caution, the CDC and FDA have recommended a pause in the use of our vaccine," the company said. "In addition, we have been reviewing these cases with European health authorities. We have made the decision to proactively delay the rollout of our vaccine in Europe. We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities, and we strongly support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public."

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday that the B.1.1.7 Covid-19 variant is now the most common strain in the United States.

"Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B.1.1.7 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States," Walensky said

The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued a warning of a potential fourth Covid-19 wave, as the country sees a rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

"I’m going to lose the script and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. Right now I’m scared," Walensky said during a press conference. "We do not have the luxury of inaction. For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge."

Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to "hang in there", adding it "will be a race between the vaccine and what’s going on with the dynamics of the outbreak, and we can win this by just hanging in there a bit longer."

A study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shown that both BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 90% effective at preventing infections, including asymptomatic infections, with the first dose showing 80% efficacy.

“Reducing the risk for transmissible infection, which can occur among persons with asymptomatic infection or among persons several days before symptoms onset, is especially important among health care personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers given their potential to transmit the virus through frequent close contact with patients and the public,” the report concluded.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Monday released its first guidelines for fully Covid-19 vaccinated Americans, recommending adhering to face coverings and social distancing rules in public spaces while relaxing safety measures indoors with other vaccinated people.

“We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love,” said CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH. “There are some activities that fully vaccinated people can begin to resume now in their own homes. Everyone – even those who are vaccinated – should continue with all mitigation strategies when in public settings. As the science evolves and more people get vaccinated, we will continue to provide more guidance to help fully vaccinated people safely resume more activities.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of a fourth Covid-19 wave as more contagious and potent variants of the novel Coronavirus are spreading across the country and Americans are getting lax with safety measures.

"Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained," so Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC. "Similarly, the most recent seven-day average of deaths has also increased more than 2% ... to nearly 2,000 deaths per day."

Walensky said she was worried "bout reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19" and urges people to continue "wearing your well-fitting mask and taking the other public health prevention actions."

Under ex-President Trump, the proposal by the US Food and Drug Administration was rejected - but has now been implemented on the instructions of his successor Biden: From next week onwards, masks will be compulsory in public transport in the USA. Last week, the new US President Joe Biden had instructed federal authorities to take measures to make masks mandatory on public transport. If a passenger refuses, however, he or she is now in violation of federal law under the CDC's regulation, so that flight attendants or conductors, for example, can better enforce the obligation.

President-elect Joe Biden's first executive order will be a nationwide mask mandate, not as a "political statement" but for the "health of our families, and economic recovery of our country."

"This executive action will direct the agencies to take action to require compliance with CDC guidance on mask wearing and physical distancing in federal buildings, on federal lands, and by federal employees and contractors," Biden’s counselor and Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said. "And the President will call on governors, public health officials, mayors, business leaders and others to implement masking, physical distancing and other public measures to control Covid-19."

After President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths of the "China Virus is far exaggerated" because of the CDC's "ridiculous method of determination", US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams responded that there was "no reason to doubt" the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistics.

"From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers," Adams said in an interview with CNN. "And I think people need to be very aware that it's not just about the deaths, as we talked about earlier. It's about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact in an array of ways and people need to understand there's a finish line in sight, but we've got to keep running toward it."

In the first week of the United States's mass inoculation campaign, the CDC reports that 556,208 people have received a shot of the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine. Among the first to be vaccinated were front-line health care workers, the elderly and politicians.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that he had been in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. Though he "has been tested and is negative", he will be in quarantine "in accordance with CDC guidelines" and will be "closely monitored by the Department's medical team," so a spokesperson of the State Department.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday recommended the "universal use of face masks" while in indoor places other than one's home to curb the spread of Covid-19. The agency also urges people to avoid "non-essential indoor spaces" and to postpone travel.

Covid-19 may have been present in the United States weeks earlier than scientists and public health officials previously thought and before the first cases were publicly reported in China, a new study suggests.

The first Covid-19 case was officially confirmed on January 21 in the state of Washington, a patient who recently had returned from Wuhan. Scientists from the US CDC have published their research in the peer-reviewed medical journal 'Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggesting that "SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized." Their conclusion was based off routine blood samples collected by the Red Cross between December 13 and January 17, 2019, from residents of nine states.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against travel for Thanksgiving and has posted updated guidelines for safely celebrating the holiday.

"The reason that we made the update is that the fact that over the week we've seen over a million new cases in the country," Dr Erin Sauber-Schatz, the CDC's lead for Community Intervention and Critical Population Task Force, told reporters in a conference call.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reversed their testing guidelines Friday, which previously stated that asymptomatic people who were in contact with an infected person "do not necessarily need a test."

The update now states that "due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, this guidance further reinforces the need to test asymptomatic persons, including close contacts of a person with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection."

The CDC recommends testing for "all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection" as it is "important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested."

President Donald Trump claimed Dr Robert Redfield was "confused" when he stated masks may be effective Covid-19 protection and that results from coronavirus vaccination would be visible on the second or third quarter of 2021.

Redfield, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), made both claims during a session of the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday.

Trump, answering reporters, said: "I think he made a mistake when he said that. It's just incorrect information."

"I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70%. And if I don't get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will," the director of the CDC told lawmakers in the Senate.

Nine biopharmaceutical companies have signed a safety pledge, committing to "developing and testing potential vaccines for COVID-19 in accordance with high ethical standards and sound scientific principles."

AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Merck have signed the pledge just a week after the CDC's vaccine distribution plans surfaced, suggesting a vaccine would be available by as early as late October.

The CDC has told health officials to be ready to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine by late October or early November. Officials from all 50 states and five large cities were told to prepare the distribution of the vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups by that time.

The possibility of a rollout in the proposed timeline has heightened concerns that the Trump administration is seeking to rush the distribution of a vaccine — or suggest that one is near — before Election Day on November 3.

Fourteen individuals of the Miami Marlins have tested positive for coronavirus, hours before the team's first home game. The Marlins were scheduled to play the Baltimore Orioles as part of a three game series on Monday, 27 July.

Marlins CEO Derek Jeter released a statement, claiming the "health of our players and staff has been and will continue to be our primary focus."

Per the CDC, the Marlins' home state of Florida has the second highest number of cases at 418,844 as of 28 July.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a call to reopen schools, two weeks after President Trump called the agency's previous recommendations on the reopening of school's "very tough and expensive."

"Reopening schools creates opportunity to invest in the education, well-being, and future of one of America’s greatest assets — our children — while taking every precaution to protect students, teachers, staff and all their families," so the CDC's statement published on Thursday.

The statement further states that " best available evidence indicates that COVID-19 poses relatively low risks to school-aged children," and lists the benefits of in-person attendance.