© christof stache/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 climbed above 450,000 on Wednesday after close to 4,000 patients died in a single day, but case numbers and hospitalizations continue to decline and the number of people to have received at least a first vaccine dose rose to 33.9 million.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine tracker is showing that as of 6.00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, 55.9 million doses had been distributed to states as the administration of President Joe Biden had made it a key priority of its pandemic response.
So far, 27.2 million Americans have received one or more doses of vaccine. That exceeds the U.S. confirmed case tally since the start of the crisis which stands at 26.6 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. added another 118,991 new cases on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, and at least 3,843 patients died. In the past week, the U.S. has averaged 136,438 new cases a day, but that is down 30% from the average just two weeks ago.
The COVID Tracking Project recorded 91,440 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Wednesday, down from 92,880 a day earlier and marking a 23rd straight day of declining numbers.
Globally, the vaccine effort is also gaining traction and trust in vaccines is rising, according to a survey of 15 countries conducted by researchers at the Imperial College London. The survey found that as of mid-January, 54% of respondents said they would get a vaccine if one were available to them. The countries involved were Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.
Two-thirds of those polled expressed trust in the vaccines with Italians reporting the greatest level of trust at 82%, followed by the U.K. at 81%.
France reported the highest number who said they strongly disagreed when asked if they would get a vaccine if it were offered next week at 35%. As many as 40% of French people involved in the survey said they strongly agree they are worried about side effects, although that is down significantly from November.
Many of those polled reported difficulty in accessing a vaccine with South Korea and Japan most concerned. Japan has not yet begun its vaccination program.
Experts continued to urge people to comply with public safety measures, given the arrival of new variants of the virus that are more infectious. U.K. vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News that there are around 4,000 variants now circulating, forcing vaccine makers to look at upgrading their vaccines.
Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans not to mingle households during Sunday's Super Bowl, and tweeted not make it a superspreader event. at, when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday parties, people should "just lay low and cool it."
In other news:
. British scientists are starting a study Thursday to find out if it's OK to mix and match COVID-19 vaccines, the Associated Press reported. The vaccines being rolled out now require two doses, and people are supposed to get two shots of the same kind, weeks apart. Guidelines in Britain and the U.S. say the vaccines aren't interchangeable, but can be mixed if the same kind isn't available for the second dose or if it's not known what was given for the first shot. Participants in the government-funded study will get one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine followed by a dose from Pfizer or vice versa. "This study will give us greater insight into how we can use vaccines to stay on top of this nasty disease," said Jonathan Van Tam, the U.K.'s deputy chief medical officer.
Read also: As COVID-19 vaccine doses reach 10 million, U.K. cautiously eyes encouraging pandemic numbers
. North Korea, which insists it is virus-free, has requested COVID-19 vaccines through the World Health Organization-backed Covax program and is expected to be granted nearly two million doses, AFP reported. It's the first official confirmation that the secretive and isolated country has asked for help from the international community, with its medical infrastructure expected to be inadequate in dealing with a large-scale outbreak of an illness. Pyongyang closed its borders in late January last year - the first country in the world to do so - in a bid to protect itself against the coronavirus.
See also: Hoarding the COVID vaccines is a losing strategy for rich nations
. A WHO team that is currently visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus was first reported in late 2019 has had "very frank" discussions with Chinese scientists who have been cooperative with the mission, the AP reported. The team on Thursday spent around two hours meetings with managers and residents at the Jiangxinyuan community administrative center in Wuhan's Hanyang District. No details were given.
. A study has found that restrictions on international travel have had the biggest effect on death rates from COVID-19 in Western Europe, the Guardian reported. The study by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland found that a million international arrivals during the first wave of the pandemic last year was associated with a 3.4% increase in deaths. The researchers compared the 37 countries that were most affected by the first wave and looked at what factors affected transmission, including international arrivals, population density, the percentage of people living in urban areas, age, average body-mass index and smoking prevalence.
Latest tallies
There have been 104.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, the Johns Hopkins data shows, and at least 2.27 million people have died. About 58 million people have recovered.
The U.S. has the highest case tally in the world at 26.6 million and the highest death toll at 450,805, or about a fifth of the global total.
Brazil has the second highest death toll at 227,563 and is third by cases at 9.3 million.
India is second worldwide in cases with 10.8 million, and now fourth in deaths at 154,703, after being surpassed by Mexico late last week.
Mexico has the third highest death toll at 161,240 and 13th highest case tally at 1.9 million.
The U.K. has 3.9 million cases and 109,547 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has had 100,248 confirmed cases and 4,821 deaths, according to its official numbers.
What's the economy saying?
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits at the end of January fell to a nine-week low, suggesting that hiring is slowly picking up again as a record wave of coronavirus cases recedes, MarketWatch's Jeffry Bartash reported.
Initial jobless claims filed traditionally through the states declined by 33,000 to a seasonally adjusted 779,000 in the seven days ended Jan. 30, the government said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast initial jobless claims to total 830,000.
Another 348,912 applications were filed through a temporary federal-relief program.
Adding up new state and federal claims, the government received 1.17 million applications last week for unemployment benefits, based on actual or unadjusted figures. Combined claims have yet to drop below 1 million a week since last May.
Before the pandemic, new claims were running in the low 200,000s and they had never risen by more than 695,000 in any one week.
Read: U.S. private payrolls rebound in January, ADP says
A separate report found the U.S. factory sector showing solid momentum going into 2021, with orders rising for eighth straight months.
Orders for manufactured goods rose 1.1% in December after a 1.3% gain in the prior month, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were expecting a 0.7% gain.
The productivity of American workers fell by 4.8% in the fourth quarter - the biggest decline in 39 years - as the coronavirus cast another dark shadow over the economy.
The decline in productivity in the final three months of 2020 capped off a chaotic year. Although productivity rose by 2.6% last year, it only did so because hours worked fell even faster than output.
Output, or the amount of goods and services produced, slid 4.2% in 2020. Hours worked sank by an even larger 6.6%, the government said Thursday.
Productivity is determined by the difference between output and hours worked.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both higher.