Diana Dasrath and Erik Ortiz
2h ago / 3: 01 PM UTC
Sundance Film Festival cancels Southern California drive-in screenings
A record surge in Covid-19 cases in Los Angeles County has forced the Sundance Institute to shelve plans to hold drive-in screenings in Southern California as part of its 2021 film festival beginning later this month.
Instead, festival-goers can watch the film entries online, which will include live Q&A events with filmmakers and actors.
“We wanted to gather in person where possible and planned to dial elements up and down based on the health situation in our locations at the time of the event,” Sundance Institute organizers said in a statement.
Los Angeles County has been the epicenter of the pandemic in California, recently surpassing 10,000 Covid-19 deaths and grappling with 40 percent of the deaths in the state, overwhelming hospital systems.
Other major annual events in Los Angeles have also been modified because of the pandemic. The Recording Academy announced Tuesday that the 2021 Grammy Awards will no longer take place this month and will broadcast in March.
Tim Fitzsimons
3h ago / 1: 48 PM UTC
Congressman contracts Covid after receiving first vaccine dose
A Texas Republican in the House of Representatives has tested positive for Covid-19 less than one month after first receiving a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Rep. Kevin Brady tweeted a photo on December 18 of him receiving the shot, thanking President Trump and Operation Warp Speeding for making “it possible to have this safe and effective vaccine in record time.”
Late Tuesday, Brady wrote again on Twitter to announce that he is in quarantine after the House Physician told him he tested positive for Covid.
“As recommended, I received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine Dec 18 & also recently tested negative for Covid on New Years Day,” Brady wrote. “Begin treatment tomorrow. Shld be fine.”
According to published data, the Pfizer-BioNTEch Covid-19 vaccine is roughly 95 percent effective.
Joe Murphy
3h ago / 1: 22 PM UTC
U.S. counts 21 million Covid cases
The U.S. registered its 21 millionth Covid-19 case Tuesday, as there were 3,326 reported deaths and more than 250,000 cases tallied, according to NBC News’ count.
As of Wednesday morning, 357,958 have died and 21.1 million in the U.S. have had the disease.
These states set single-day records Tuesday:
- Alabama, 5,498 cases
- Arizona, 253 dead
- Mississippi, 91 dead
- West Virginia, 46 dead
The Associated Press
3h ago / 1: 19 PM UTC
European Union agency approves Moderna’s Covid vaccine
AMSTERDAM — The European Union’s medicines agency gave the green light Wednesday to Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine, a decision that gives the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the virus rampaging across the continent.
The approval recommendation by the European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee — which must be rubber stamped by the EU’s executive commission — comes amid high rates of infections in many EU countries and strong criticism of the slow pace of vaccinations across the region of some 450 million people.
“This vaccine provides us with another tool to overcome the current emergency,” said Emer Cooke, Executive Director of EMA. “It is a testament to the efforts and commitment of all involved that we have this second positive vaccine recommendation just short of a year since the pandemic was declared by WHO.”
The Associated Press
5h ago / 11: 25 AM UTC
Mutant strain confirmed to be in Georgia, too
ATLANTA — Georgia officials say they have confirmed the state’s first case of the coronavirus variant that was first seen in the United Kingdom.
The Georgia Department of Health said Tuesday that lab tests found an 18-year-old Georgia man is infected with the variant. It says the man had no travel history and is in isolation at his home.
Cases of the United Kingdom variant have also been reported in Colorado, California, Florida and New York.
Georgia health officials say preliminary information suggests the variant is significantly more contagious. State health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey urged residents to continue wearing masks, practicing social distancing and washing their hands frequently.
Erika Edwards
5h ago / 11: 19 AM UTC
Loss of smell and taste can linger after Covid or come back different
Before the pandemic, Dr. Jennifer Spicer used to savor waking up early. In those quiet morning hours, she’d get precious alone time with her dog and brew up a mug of her favorite coffee, using beans from an Atlanta roaster.
Now, she can barely take a sip without spitting the coffee out.
“I cannot even go in a coffee shop. It smells so bad,” said Spicer, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. “It’s really awful.”
The abrupt change in Spicer’s senses has, by now, an all-too-common culprit: Covid-19.
A study published Wednesday in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that 86 percent of patients with mild forms of Covid-19 developed loss of sense of taste and smell, compared with 4 percent to 7 percent of those with moderate to severe cases.
Reuters
6h ago / 10: 40 AM UTC
China says still working on details of WHO Covid visit after criticism over delays
China said Wednesday it was still negotiating with the World Health Organization the dates and itinerary for a visit by international experts looking into origins of Covid-19, after the head of the agency criticized Beijing for not finalizing permissions for the mission.
The dates and itinerary need to be finalized, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
An international team of experts had been due to visit the central city of Wuhan in January, where the pandemic first appeared a year ago. China has strongly opposed calls for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, saying such calls are anti-China, but has said it’s open to a WHO-led investigation.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that members of the international scientific team began departing from their home countries as part of an arrangement between WHO and the Chinese government. China however, didn’t authorize their entry into the country.
NBC News
5h ago / 11: 20 AM UTC
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