We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see previous days’ live updates and all our other coronavirus coverage, and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington and the world.
Gov. Jay Inslee will hold a press conference today at 2:30 p.m. to discuss the 2021 legislative session and the state’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch here:
Table of Contents
Denmark pauses AstraZeneca vaccine jabs to probe blood clots
Denmark has temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine after reports of blood clots in some people, but its health authority said Thursday it has no evidence the vaccine was responsible.
Other experts pointed out that of the millions of AstraZeneca vaccine shots administered elsewhere, including in Britain, there have been no reported cases of the vaccine causing blood clots or related problems.
Denmark’s Health Authority said its decision was “based on a precautionary principle” and that one person who developed a blood clot after vaccination had died.
Brazil hospitals buckle in absence of national virus plan
COVID-19 patients lie on beds at a field hospital built inside a sports coliseum in Santo Andre on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday. (Andre Penner / The Associated Press)
Brazil’s hospitals are faltering as a highly contagious coronavirus variant tears through the country, the president insists on unproven treatments and the only attempt to create a national plan to contain COVID-19 has just fallen short.
For the last week, Brazilian governors sought to do something President Jair Bolsonaro obstinately rejects: cobble together a proposal for states to help curb the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak yet. But the final product is a one-page document with general support for restricting activity but no specific measures.
Piaui state’s Gov. Wellington Dias told The Associated Press that unless pressure on hospitals is eased, growing numbers of patients will have to endure the disease without a hospital bed or any hope of treatment in an intensive care unit.
The deaths have already started. In Brazil’s wealthiest state, Sao Paulo, at least 30 patients died this month while waiting for ICU beds, according to a tally published Wednesday by the news site G1. In southern Santa Catarina state, 419 people are waiting for transfer to ICU beds. In neighboring Rio Grande do Sul, ICU capacity is at 106%.
Cambodia reports first COVID-19 death, 1 year into pandemic
Cambodia on Thursday confirmed its first death from COVID-19 since the pandemic began more than a year ago as it battles a new local outbreak that has infected hundreds of people.
The 50-year-old man was confirmed infected last month and died Thursday morning, the Health Ministry said.
Cambodia has confirmed only 1,163 cases of infection with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, but it is battling a new local outbreak traced to a foreign resident who broke quarantine in a hotel and went to a nightclub in early February.
Former presidents, first ladies urge Americans to get shots
Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura and former President Bill Clinton and his wife former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Jan. 20 stand at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery during Inauguration Day ceremonies in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)
Four former presidents are urging Americans to get vaccinated as soon as COVID-19 doses are available to them, as part of a campaign to overcome hesitancy about the shots.
Two public service announcements from the Ad Council and the business-supported COVID Collaborative feature Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter as well as first ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn Carter. All of them have received doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Former President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, do not appear in the campaign. A Trump adviser revealed last week that the Trumps were vaccinated in private before leaving the White House on Inauguration Day.
EU regulator recommends using J&J’s one-shot vaccine
The European Medicines Agency on Thursday gave the green light to Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine, handing the European Union’s 27 nations a fourth vaccine to try to speed up the bloc’s much-criticized vaccination rollout.
The EU medicines regulator advised that the vaccine be cleared for use in all adults over 18 “after a thorough evaluation” of J&J’s data found the vaccine met the criteria for efficacy, safety and quality.
The EMA has already recommended COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca — but all of those vaccines require two doses, several weeks apart. Production delays have also plagued all three vaccine manufacturers.
Why easing COVID-19 restrictions too soon could be a boon for coronavirus variants
COVID-19 vaccine rollout has accelerated to more than 2 million shots per day in the United States. A more transmissible coronavirus variant from the U.K. is muscling its way across the country. And governors from Texas to Massachusetts are racing to loosen mask mandates and strictures on gatherings and reopen gyms, restaurants, workplaces and schools.
For a virus in search of new ways to spread and sicken, this convergence of events is a moment of unique opportunity, and new research underscores the peril.
Two studies published this week in the journal Science explore some of the circumstances that are known to give rise to new genetic variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In both a mathematical modeling exercise and a genetic deep dive into 1,313 coronavirus samples, researchers show that worrisome genetic changes to the virus are most likely to take root and spread when infection rates surge, when many people have only partial immunity, and when the virus is made to work harder to find its next victim.
The findings suggest the coming months could bring new challenges to a country already battered and exhausted by pandemic and eager for life return to normal.
Will the coronavirus ever go away? (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)
Will the coronavirus ever go away?
No one knows for sure. Scientists think the virus that causes COVID-19 may be with us for decades or longer, but that doesn’t mean it will keep posing the same threat.
The virus emerged in late 2019 and it’s difficult to predict how it will behave over the long term. But many experts believe it’s likely the disease will eventually ease from a crisis to a nuisance like the common cold.
That would happen as people build up immunity over time, either through infection or vaccination. Other viruses have followed a similar path.
The 1918 flu pandemic could also offer clues about the course of COVID-19.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that a third of the world’s population became infected with that virus, which originated in birds. Eventually, after infected people either died or developed immunity, the virus stopped spreading quickly. It later mutated into a less virulent form, which experts say continues to circulate seasonally.
AP-NORC poll: 1 in 5 in US lost someone close in pandemic
FILE – In this April 22, 2020, file photo, pallbearers, who were among only 10 allowed mourners, walk the casket for internment at the funeral for Larry Hammond, who died from the coronavirus, at Mount Olivet Cemetery in New Orleans. Hammond was Mardi Gras royalty, and would have had hundreds of people marching behind his casket in second-line parades. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
About 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the pandemic.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a two-tiered recovery. The public’s worry about the virus has dropped to its lowest point since the fall, before the holidays brought skyrocketing cases into the new year.
But people still in mourning express frustration at the continued struggle to stay safe.
“We didn’t have a chance to grieve. It’s almost like it happened yesterday for us. It’s still fresh,” said Nettie Parks of Volusia County, Florida, whose only brother died of COVID-19 last April. Because of travel restrictions, Parks and her five sisters have yet to hold a memorial.
"There is real reason for hope," President Joe Biden will tell Americans as he delivers his first prime-time speech at 5 p.m. Pacific time tonight, a year to the day after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. Expect to hear about his pandemic plans for the next few months and a renewed call to take precautions against COVID-19.
Will you cuddle your grandkids, now that the CDC has released new guidance on what vaccinated people can do? For one woman, it was doctor’s orders. Read her prescription and watch the sweet moment that followed.
Biden is doubling the U.S. order of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, meaning the nation would have more than what's needed to vaccinate every American. States could soon see their shipments grow as much as 50%, bringing new challenges.
How will Washington's cities get vaccines to homeless people? As advocates and officials grapple with that question, some hope J&J's vaccine will be a game-changer.
Parents in Idaho are organizing their own promwith a bold slogan that's painfully inaccurate these days.
—Kris Higginson
Do you have questions about the coronavirus that causes COVID-19?
Ask in the form below and we'll dig for answers. If you're using a mobile device and can't see the form on this page, ask your question here.
If you have specific medical questions, please contact your doctor.
