Another pharmaceutical giant announced a vaccine deal with the United States On Wednesday, and a set of coronavirus stimulation controls will soon be mailed.
Johnson-Johnson said he has reached a $1 billion deal to supply a hundred million doses of his vaccine, which is a candidate for the U.S. government. Also on Wednesday, Moderna said he planned to fully recruit another 30,000 people for a trial of his candidate vaccine next month. And a day earlier, Novavax published the promising effects of a first trial.
While the country expects a vaccine that can absolutely reopen schools and businesses, Democratic and White House negotiators say the stimulus agreement could be reached by the end of the week. This may be good news for tens of millions of unemployed Americans whose weekly accumulation of $600 in unemployment benefits has expired.
“We have to have an agreement, and we will have it,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Here are some developments:
Figures Figures today: The United States has recorded more than 156,000 deaths and only about 4.8 million instances of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been more than 701,000 deaths and 18.5 million cases.
? What we read: children are less likely to die of coronavirus. But some experts say that the lack of data on how COVID-19 contracts and transmits will leave the country unprepared when schools are reopened.
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Johnson-Johnson has announced an agreement with the U.S. government. For one hundred million doses of your SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, for use in the United States, as long as the vaccine gets approval from Food and Drug Administration. The government can also buy another two hundred million doses, the company said in delivering the $1 billion deal. A clinical trial is underway and the company has stated that it is comparing one- and two-dose regimens. The plan is to supply more than one billion international non-profit doses by 2021.
“We are expanding production in the United States and around the world to provide a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for emergency use,” said Dr. Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer of Johnson and Johnson.
More than 500 inmates at the Tucson Whetstone Unit in Arizona state have tested positive for COVID-19, the government said. The 517 inmates, nearly a portion of the population in unit 1066, are housed in a combination in separate spaces and receive medical care, according to a statement from the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation. The branch did not respond without delay to the questions, adding when the tests were performed and whether all the inmates were evaluated there. Tests took up position after inmates in the Whetstone unit staged a nonviolent march last week due to virus problems.
– Audrey Jensen, Republic of Arizona
The modern biotechnology giant said Wednesday that it planned to fully enroll 30,000 volunteers in the Phase 3 exam of its COVID-19 vaccine next month. Last week, The Modern vaccine candidate, subsidized by nearly $1 billion in federal funds, has become the first in the country to start such a giant trial. It is being tested at many sites in the United States, and effects are expected in early October.
“We have started talks with several countries for agreements for mNR-1273 (vaccine candidate) and as of July 31, we have earned approximately $400 million in visitor deposits for a potential matrix,” Moderna said in a statement.
The announcement came a day after Novavax launched the promising effects of a small initial trial. AstraZeneca, Pfizer and an organization of Chinese researchers have launched promising initial test effects, and China has begun offering its candidate vaccine to members of its armed forces.
Major Democratic and White House negotiators expressed optimism Tuesday that an agreement on the coronavirus stimulus package could be reached until the end of the week. The motion followed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat. And, assembly for the day with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
“While there are still a number of unresolved issues, I would describe the conversations as productive and a step in the right direction,” Meadows said after the assembly. “Probably the maximum production production had.”
Christal Hayes
A USA TODAY investigation into Johns Hopkins’ knowledge Tuesday night shows that a state set records for new instances in a week, while three states recorded a record number of deaths in a week. New case records have been established in Hawaii as well as Puerto Rico. A record number of deaths have been reported in California, Florida and Georgia. The United States reported 4,771,080 cases and 156,801 deaths.
Mike Stucka
Although Clorox officials said in May that store shelves are expected to fill up this summer, they now expect it to take longer.
Linda Rfinishle, president and elected CEO of The Clorox Co., says it would take until the end of the year to succeed in the “we want to be” source grades. Rfinishle and Clorox CEO and president Benno Dorer said the company’s call for disinfectant wipes had exceeded expectations and is not expected to decline.
“In fact, we are not at all satisfied with our degrees of service for our retail consumers on many products, as the request for our products has exceeded our own expectations in the face of this persistent pandemic,” Dorer said. “We have a wonderful sense of urgency about it with all our hands on the deck.”
– Kelly Tyko
There is a possibility that 4 Casino Station complexes in southern Nevada are permanently closed. Frank Fertitta III, CEO of Station’s parent company, Red Rock Resorts, revealed Tuesday in an effects call that the company knew whether Texas Station, Fiesta Henderson, Fiesta Rancho and Las Palmas off the Strip would reopen after COVID-19.
“We don’t know if, or when, we’ll reopen any of the closed properties,” Fertitta said. “We think it’s too early to make that resolution right now.”
Station Casinos had closed 20 properties in Southern Nevada for almost three months following Gov. Steve Sisolak’s sweeping shutdown order in March.
– Ed Komenda, Reno Gazette Diary
The Walt Disney company lost about $5 billion in April, May and June, while its theme parks were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a presentation Disney executives made Tuesday. It charges the company $3.5 billion just for closing the parks in the third quarter, over most of the $1 billion it charges to close at the time of March.
In all, the company posted a loss of nearly $5 billion for the third quarter, including a $2 billion loss in its parks, experiences and products segment. Disney’s domestic parks – Disney World and Disneyland, as well as Disneyland Paris, resorts and cruise operations were closed for the entirety of the quarter and the final two weeks of the previous quarter.
“This is obviously a very uncertain time,” CEO Bob Chapek said during an earnings webcast Tuesday. “We should be in good shape once consumer confidence returns.”
– Curtis Tate
One of the first school districts to reopen in Georgia confirmed its first COVID-19 case a day after they opened for the 2020-21 school year. Columbia County School District Superintendent Sandra Carraway said in an email that a student at Harlem High School who was previously tested as part of a pre-op process received positive results.
“Because the Columbia County School District has 3,400 employees and more than 20,000 students, unfortunately it can be expected that there will be instances of positive cases of COVID-19, hopefully on a very limited basis given expectations of our Collective Responsibility agreement,” Carraway said.
In her email, Carraway asked families to not send their children to school if they have been tested for the virus until test results are returned and are negative.
– Miguel Legoas, The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle
The number of COVID-19 infections in California may not be accurate due to a technical challenge in the state formula that tracks the positive effects and tests, a senior state fitness officer said Tuesday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state’s seven-day positivity rate reported Monday has been “absolutely affected.” Hospitalization data, however, has not been impacted, Ghaly said.
On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom reported that daily cases dropped by an average of 2,200 in the last week and the infection rate of 6.1% was significantly lower than the nearly 8% recorded last month.
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Contributing: The Associated Press