Monthly Archives: February 2021

The good news is that Texas is finally seeing COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases trend downward after a holiday season marked by a record-breaking surge that pushed hospital systems and health care workers to their limits.

The bad news is that there are still more Texans getting sick and being hospitalized for the coronavirus than this summer, when the state was in the throes of the first wave.

And while vaccinations are reaching more people every day, health care experts warn that this doesnt mean Texas is out of the woods. They say people should remain vigilant and continue following safety guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing, especially as new variants of the virus continue to emerge. With Super Bowl Sunday around the corner, many are concerned about super spreader events that could undo the modest progress the state has experienced in the past few weeks.

Cases peaked in mid-January at an average of more than 22,000 per day. By Thursday, the average had decreased to around 16,500 per day. COVID-19 hospitalizations have also dipped from an all-time high of more than 14,000 patients on Jan. 12 to 10,523 reported patients on Thursday.

Texas is still experiencing more than 40% more daily cases on average than it saw during the previous summer peak for confirmed cases.

The fact that things are decreasing, it doesn't mean that we [get] to relax because every time we've done that, things go back really, really bad, said Cesar Arias, a professor of infectious diseases at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Broadly, Texas health officials say the reason for the recent dip in numbers is because the state is coming off a spike related to gatherings from Thanksgiving and the December holiday season. But a combination of vaccines for health care workers and a decrease in large gatherings could also be contributing to the downward trends, said Philip Huang, director of health and human services in Dallas County.

Vaidehi Shah, Waco-McLennan Countys senior epidemiologist, added even before the pandemic began, January and February usually didnt see as much travel a trend that has helped lower positive case rates this year.

Still, more than 37,000 Texans have died, and there is still a long way back to normal, Arias said.

Comparatively, we are nowhere near to where we should be, to be able to control this pandemic, Arias said. Were getting to the peak of that exposure, and theres probably much more people that are infected than we have been able to detect. So maybe its scratching the surface.

Shah said she hopes hospitalization patterns in Waco will continue to improve at similar rates. By the beginning of January, COVID-19 patients were being treated in more than 30% of hospital beds in that region, a number that has since dropped in half.

During the pandemic, Shah said the trend has been a rise in cases, followed by a rise in hospitalizations, then a rise in deaths.

And when the numbers go down, it goes in a similar pattern, Shah said. So [our region] did start seeing a reduction in cases about two to three weeks ago Were really hopeful well see that same thing with fatality numbers as well.

Medical professionals are also worried by the new COVID-19 mutations that have emerged in Texas and across the country over the past few months. The variants have the potential to be more contagious and could lead to another increase in case rates and hospitalizations down the line.

But Arias said hes hopeful proliferation of the COVID-19 vaccines will help mitigate that spread. While the vaccine may be effective on new mutations as well, Arias said there are still factors that prevent vulnerable populations, like people of color, from receiving a dose in the first place.

I dont think we still have a very good plan to cover those at the moment, Arias said. Those are most likely where these situations are going to emerge in terms of the system viruses or mutated viruses that transmit better. So aggressive vaccination is really the only way out.

Stephen Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, said hes worried about Super Bowl parties as another source of spread. Love said while people are often vigilant in settings like grocery stores, that level of caution tends to diminish at small gatherings.

They get lax when they get home, Love said. I think a lot of the spread weve seen, especially during the holidays,and right after the holidays, didnt occur out in public it occurred in the home.

Mandi Cai contributed to this report.

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Texas COVID-19 cases trend down from record highs, still higher than summer - The Texas Tribune

Since last year humanity was shaken by fear and uncertainty due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, bringing to light the fragility and vulnerability of human existence. To fight against the propagation of this virus, the human family tried to adapt itself to this unprecedented and challenging situation by observing social distancing and lockdowns, the closing of borders and the massive use of digital technology. Pope Francis has often said that the virus brought us together and only in solidarity can we get out of this pandemic.

This year, vaccines have become available, thus, bringing much hope, but also a wider gap in inequality. The rich nations of the Global North that poured money into the production of the vaccines are now waiting for a return on their investment. It is believed that the miracle of the vaccines would reignite the global machinery. This has led to a kind of focus on the North, shown in nationalism and protectionism. The Global South, where the majority of the poor live, is left out.

Pope Francis encouraged people to get vaccinated because it was one way of exercising responsibility towards others and collective well-being. He reiterated the need for vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy in all regions on the planet. Before all others: the most vulnerable and needy! We are at a crucial moment, an opportunity to live the miracle of charity, through addressing together the present challenge.

The access to vaccines across the world has not been as equitable as it should be. It is sad to note that not all nations and those who want or need the vaccine can get it because of supply issues, while in our interconnected world, the vaccines must be made available equitably.

Since every life is inviolable, nobody must be left out. The poor, minorities, refugees, the marginalised are the most exposed to the virus. Taking care of them is a moral priority because abandoning them puts them and the global community at risk. Our collective well-being depends on how we care for the least.

As we face a global emergency, political leaders must look beyond the interests of their own nations and political groups. This pandemic is a global human security problem that threatens the whole human family. Addressing the vaccines issue from the perspective of a narrow national strategy might lead to a moral failure in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable across the globe.

The current vaccines crisis must be seen in the wider context of the global health situation. Many of the least developed nations still lack basic medical infrastructures and the means of storing the vaccines. Moreover, people in distant rural areas are not sensitised and are exposed to other infectious diseases that remain prevalent.Given this context, the international community should have a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach to avoid the danger of the pandemic getting out of hand in the Global South which may then lead to a global humanitarian crisis again.

The debt of low-income countries should be reviewed. The remission of debt could be a means for generating funds for the multi-stakeholders, Faith-Based Organisations in particular, to upgrade the medical services and facilities in these countries. The money that is meant to pay a poor countrys debt could be spent for strengthening health security.

The question of the patent on the vaccines must also be considered urgently to identify localised production in Africa, Latin America and Asia and accelerate access to the vaccines before it is too late. Involving local actors, in particular Faith-based Organisations, is important because they have the basic structures and the necessary contact with the most vulnerable people such as migrants, the internally displaced and the marginalised.

In line with the observations made by the Dicastery for promoting Integral Human development Vaccines for all: 20 points for a fair and healthier world, Caritas Internationalis urges the decisions makers and the United Nations to act on the following, namely:

Call for a Security Council meeting to address the issue of access to the vaccines as a global security problem with firm political decisions based on multilateralism.

Undertake the debt remission of the poorest countries as quickly as possible and use the funds obtained to upgrade the medical and health systems in these countries.

Promote the local production of vaccines in different technical hubs in Africa, Latin America and Asia and make them available in the next six months by addressing the issue of patent and technical collaboration with the poorer nations.

Allocate financial and technical support to the local Civil Society Organisations, and to Faith-Based Organisations in particular, to ensure the preparation of local communities awareness and capacity building to prepare them to have access to preventive care.

H.E. Luis Antonio Card. Tagle,President of Caritas Internationalis

H.E. Peter Kodwo Appiah Card. Turkson,Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development

Aloysius John,Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis

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Urgent action for access to COVID-19 vaccines nobody should be left out - World - ReliefWeb

Feb. 5, 2021 -- The Biden administration is pushing to make quick at-home tests for COVID-19 available to more Americans.

In a media call on Friday, Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for the pandemic response, told reporters that the administration was working with six companies under the auspices of the Defense Production Actto surge manufacturing of at-home test kits with the goal of, by summer, having millions of Americans being able to access at-home tests.

So far, the plan is short on details. He didnt name the companies or the tests but said more announcements would be coming shortly.

At-home tests are one of the key steps to getting back to normal life, Slavitt said.

While the U.S. waits for vaccines to quench the pandemic, experts believe an important way to control the virus and fully reopen the economy could be to use quick, cheap paper strip tests to find people who could spread COVID-19.

The tests use saliva or a swab from inside the nose, mixed into a bit of solution. Users drop the solution onto a paper strip, much the way home pregnancy tests work.

The tests use proteins embedded in the paper to recognize and grab onto key pieces of the virus. When the virus is found, another indicator -- like a line or a plus sign -- changes color to show the result.

Because the tests latch on to a part of the coronavirus that is not mutating, they should still work well to detect even the new variant forms of the virus.

Regulators have been wary of approving them because they have a higher rate of false negatives, compared to gold-standard PCR tests, which are run in a lab.

Instead, the results are most accurate when a person has a lot of virus circulating in their body, typically a day or two before they start showing symptoms to a few days after getting sick.

While that may make them less reliable for diagnosing a COVID-19 infection in someone who has been sick or carrying the virus for a while, testing experts say that makes them great to use as screening tools -- a way to catch people who are contagious and isolate them before they can spread the virus.

Michael Mina, PhD, an assistant professor at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an expert in diagnostic testing, has been a vocal proponent of rapid tests to control the spread of the virus. He said he has taken no funding from any testing companies, though he has been talking to many of them about their technologies.

This test is as powerful as it is because it will find you when youre positive. It wont tell you that you were positive 2 weeks ago, like PCR will tell you that you were positive 2 weeks ago, he said, And it will give it to you in a time when it is actionable, in 15 minutes.

Mina says if the tests are cheap enough, people could test themselves before they go to work, two to three times a week, for example, to know when they need to stay home so they dont run the risk of infecting their co-workers. The tests could be used at the entrances of sports arenas, concerts, and airports to help catch people who are contagious and may not know it because they arent showing any symptoms.

He said the strategy many people are trying to use now -- testing themselves a few days before they travel or visit family -- is useless, and I can't say it enough. That is a pointless waste of money, he said in a call with reporters on Friday.

The best thing you can possibly do is test yourself the moment right before youre walking into whatever it is, whether it's work or school or an event or the grocery store, whatever it might be, he said.

The success of a plan like this depends on having many rapid tests and making them cheap enough so people can use them regularly.

Slavitt said the U.S. was on its way to that goal.

In addition to the tests announced on Friday, Slavitt said the U.S. would be working with an Australian company called Ellume to get 8.5 million of their tests to Americans by the end of the year. That test uses a device that connects to a smartphone app to give people test results in about 15 minutes. It can also connect to public health reporting systems to help health authorities track positive cases.

Mina said he doesnt think the Ellume test can be an effective screening tool. For one thing, its price may put it out of reach for regular use. When it was authorized in December, the company said the kit to do the test would cost about $30, which is too expensive for people and businesses to use frequently. Mina said the quantity ordered by the U.S. would only amount to about 3,000 tests a day, not nearly the millions of daily tests the U.S. would need to be using for a while to control the spread of the virus.

Thats nothing, he said. We have wasted money on it.

So far, the FDA has declined to approve other rapid, fully over-the-counter tests for home use, saying their results so far have not been accurate enough to meet the agencys standards for diagnostic tests. Two other tests that deliver results at homehave been approved but they require a prescription.One is being made by a company called Lucira and costs$50. The other is the $25 BinaxNow test, which is made by Abbott.

Mina says that if the rules were more flexible, the FDA could approve several new tests and get them to Americans very quickly.

I don't think that waiting until the summer is good, he said in a call with reporters on Friday. I am encouraged that the administration is making multiple steps right now to try to signal that they are going to be pushing for speedier access to testing, but I think that we have these tests in front of us this moment. We just need to listen to the science a bit more.

WebMD Health News

Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for the pandemic response, Washington, DC.

Michael Mina, PhD, assistant professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA.

White House COVID Response Team Press briefing, Feb. 5, 2021.

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Article: Government Seeking More Rapid COVID-19 Tests - WebMD

Faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences will present a webinar for the Meredith community about vaccine science and COVID-19.

Presenters will be Assistant Professor Carolina Perez-Heydrich, Professor Jason Andrus, and Professor Karthik Aghoram. They will explain the role of vaccines in combating COVID-19, immune responses against coronaviruses, and the development of mRNA vaccines. The presenterswill also discuss the benefits and risks associated with vaccination.

The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Kelsieanne Schmidt, 21, a public health and biology major. Meredith Director of Student Health Services Mary Johnson and Director of Human Resources Pam Galloway will also participate in the panel discussion along with Perez-Heydrich, Andrus, and Aghoram.

There will be two opportunities to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts webinar.

Covid-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts Session 1Tuesday, February 16 at 5:30 p.m.Register in advance for this webinar

Covid-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts Session 2Friday, February 19 at 10 a.m.Register in advance for this webinar

COVID-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts is open to Meredith students, faculty/staff, and alumnae.

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Meredith Webinar to Share Facts about the COVID-19 Vaccine - Meredith College News

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of February 5, 2021, there have been 1,970,429 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 123,641 total cases and 2,100 total deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 60-year old male from Mason County, an 83-year old male from Wood County, a 77-year old male from Raleigh County, a 71-year old female from Ohio County, a 92-year old female from Harrison County, a 24-year old male from Berkeley County, a 49-year old male from Ohio County, a 59-year old female from Harrison County, a 72-year old male from Cabell County, an 89-year old male from Berkeley County, a 94-year old female from Hancock County, a 71-year old female from Ritchie County, a 73-year old male from Hardy County, an 88-year old female from Mercer County, a 66-year old male from Mason County, a 79-year old male from Raleigh County, a 79-year old female from Mingo County, an 86-year old female from Putnam County, an 86-year old female from Putnam County, and a 71-year old female from Grant County.

As this pandemic continues, it doesnt get any easier to report the deaths of our residents, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Our sincere condolences are extended to these families.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,138), Berkeley (9,127), Boone (1,473), Braxton (752), Brooke (1,932), Cabell (7,256), Calhoun (215), Clay (360), Doddridge (421), Fayette (2,468), Gilmer (658), Grant (1,010), Greenbrier (2,301), Hampshire (1,421), Hancock (2,521), Hardy (1,234), Harrison (4,570), Jackson (1,591), Jefferson (3,394), Kanawha (11,311), Lewis (894), Lincoln (1,147), Logan (2,514), Marion (3,455), Marshall (2,874), Mason (1,700), McDowell (1,285), Mercer (3,977), Mineral (2,521), Mingo (1,976), Monongalia (7,262), Monroe (899), Morgan (881), Nicholas (1,080), Ohio (3,438), Pendleton (595), Pleasants (777), Pocahontas (564), Preston (2,452), Putnam (3,925), Raleigh (4,283), Randolph (2,252), Ritchie (573), Roane (472), Summers (681), Taylor (1,036), Tucker (475), Tyler (585), Upshur (1,551), Wayne (2,447), Webster (271), Wetzel (1,023), Wirt (331), Wood (6,643), Wyoming (1,649).

Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 2-5-2021 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

Abstract

As the United States prepares for a COVID-19 recovery, policymakers need to understand why some cities and communities were more vulnerable to the pandemics economic consequences than others. In this paper, we consider the association between a citys core industry, its economic susceptibility to the pandemic, and the recessions racially disparate impact across six select metropolitan areas. We find that areas with economies that rely on the movement of peoplelike Las Vegas with tourismfaced substantially higher unemployment at the end of 2020 than cities with core industries based on the movement of information. Further, we find the hardest-hit areas have larger Hispanic or Latino communities, reflecting the demographic composition of workers in heavily impacted industries and susceptible areas. We conclude by recommending targeted federal policy to address the regions and communities most impacted by the COVID-19 recession.

Contents

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More so than any prior economic downturn, the COVID-19 recession has crushed certain industriesthose that depend on the movement of peoplewhile leaving others relatively unscathedthose that depend on the movement of information. City economies are concentrated in different industries: Las Vegas and Orlando in travel and tourism, Seattle and San Francisco in technology, and Washington D.C. in government. Thus, the COVID-19 recessions economic geography is uniquely impacted by the pandemics effect on a citys primary industry. Overlaying geography with race reveals another under-appreciated impact of this recession: an increase in the economic hardship faced by Hispanic or Latino communities.

This piece explores the economic implications of the COVID-19 recession using select metropolitan areas (often referred to by the name of the metros primary city), identifying problems and offering policy responses. We examine six metropolitan areas: three with heavy concentration in industries negatively impacted by COVID-19 (Las Vegas, Orlando, and Reno) and three with economies heavily concentrated in industries less negatively, or even positively, impacted by COVID-19 (Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.). We find that the cities with industries more acutely impacted have a higher concentration of Hispanic or Latino residents.

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Cities and metropolitan areas often specialize in select industries, creating agglomeration economies. Put simply, there is an economic benefit when firms producing similar goods are located near each other. For example, the auto industry is headquartered in Detroit, finance in New York, entertainment in Los Angeles, information technology in Seattle, and so on. The performance of core industries spills over to supporting industries and affects the entire regional economy; restaurants and retail stores do better when the core industry is booming and struggle when it is not. In this section, we discuss the primary industries in each metropolitan area of interest prior to COVID-19.

Before COVID-19, Orlando had the largest tourism industry in the nation, producing $26 billion per year, while Las Vegas came in second at over $19 billion.1 However, Las Vegas total GDP is smaller than Orlandos, so the impact of tourism is relatively largerhospitality and leisure employed more than a quarter of Las Vegas workers in 2019.2 There are a larger share of leisure and hospitality workers in Las Vegas than government workers D.C. Orlando and Reno have similarly high employment concentrations in hospitality and leisure, although production as a portion of their economy is sizably smaller than in Las Vegas. Figure 2 shows that roughly one in five workers in Orlando (21%) worked directly in hospitality and leisure in 2019, as did 16% (roughly one in seven) of Renos workforce.3 In these cities, many secondary industrieslike the professional or business sectorare driven by their primary economic engines.

Seattle and San Francisco, on the other hand, specialize in technology, an industry that may have benefitted from COVID-19. Seattle is the well-known birthplace of Microsoft and the home of Amazon. San Francisco is the modern-day home of enormous tech conglomerates like Salesforce and Adobe and features major corporate offices for many of the Silicon Valley giants located nearby. Anchor industries employ different types of workers; employment in Seattle and San Francisco are both over two times (2.36 and 2.14 respectively) more concentrated in their largest occupational group, computer and mathematical occupations, than the national average.4 Orlando, by contrast, has slightly less than the national rate of employment in computer and mathematical occupations, while that figure plummets in Las Vegas (50%) and Reno (54%).5Put another way, San Francisco and Seattle have more than four times as many employees in computers and math than Las Vegas and Reno, proportionate to the total number of workers in each metro.

Moving beyond the technology versus tourism binary, we add the nations capital and government hotspot, Washington, D.C., where one in five workers are employed directly by the government. The corresponding army of lawyers is a good indicator of how the primary industry of a city drives secondary workforces; D.C. has almost three times (2.76) as many legal service workers per capita as the national average. With governing also comes a demand for research (military and civilian) and, as a result, D.C. has an even greater share of employees in computer and mathematics than Seattle or San Francisco (2.46 times the national average), approaching five times as many as Las Vegas and Reno, as a proportion of each metros workers.6

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COVID-19, which devastated some industries like leisure and hospitality, barely impacted others. Table 1 shows the change in the unemployment rate among our comparison metros; Las Vegas unemployment increased by nearly eight percentage points from November 2019 to November 2020almost five percentage points more than the nation as a whole. Las Vegas and Orlando are among the metros with the current highest unemployment rates in the country; Las Vegas had the fourth highest unemployment rate of all metropolitan areas, over five points higher than the national rate in November 2020.7 Las Vegas and Orlando also had among the top 10% highest employment declines of all metro areas from November 2019 to November 2020 (the most recent data available at the metro level).8 Meanwhile, the technology- and government-based metros tend to have lower unemployment than the national average, even if they started with rates similar to (or even slightly higher than) Orlando.

In this section, we examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the leisure and hospitality sector (the hardest-hit industry and core sector of Las Vegas, Reno, and Orlando), the pandemics effect on COVID-19-resilient industries (like technology in Seattle and San Francisco or government in Washington, D.C.), and discuss economic outcomes for the Hispanic or Latino population in each city.

Cities with core industries that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 recession have broader spillover effects (e.g., an unemployed casino worker in Las Vegas is less likely to buy new clothes). In the aggregate, the devastation of a core industry can mean the decline of others nearby, like with manufacturing in the Rust Belt in the second half of the twentieth century. As a result, metropolitan areas concentrated in hard-hit industries are likely to see negative ripple effects throughout their economy (lower tax revenue, less spending, etc.). As we will explore, the metropolitan areas concentrated in industries susceptible to COVID-19 tend to have larger Hispanic or Latino populations as well. Thus, the pandemics economic geography magnifies existing disparities, exacerbating the racial wealth gap for Hispanic or Latino families. This is particularly concerning given that the federal governments initial COVID-19 relief policies failed to appreciate the economic and geographic realities of this recession and were implemented in a way that reduced benefits for many Hispanic or Latino families.9

Ten months since the initial wave of closures due to COVID-19, leisure and hospitality workers continue to face the highest unemployment rate amidst the pandemic; over 16% of the sectors labor force is unemployed.10 While every metropolitan area has hotels, only a few stake their economies on them. Being a destination city for travel includes the economic benefit of both personal tourism and corporate conferences; COVID-19 devastated both as people stopped travelling altogether. The $100 billion a year U.S. conference industry, which fills hotels during the week for conferences in cities that become hotspots for vacationers on the weekends, is at a near standstill.11 In November 2019, 88% of Las Vegass hotel or motel rooms were occupied; in November 2020, that figure was just 47%.12 Similarly, 59% fewer passengers passed through Las Vegas McCarran International Airport in November 2020 than a year earlier, and 52% fewer tourists visited the city. Orlando is suffering a similar fate; 44% fewer flights were serviced at Orlandos airport in October 2020 compared to a year before.13

To demonstrate the broader impact COVID-19 is having on economies like Las Vegas or Orlandos, we compare a metro areas employment concentration in hospitality and leisure before the pandemic with its change in unemployment. Figure 3 shows the portion of nonfarm workers employed by the leisure and hospitality sector in a metro area in 2019, the change in the total unemployment rate (percentage points) from November 2019 to November 2020, and the proportion of the metro area that is Hispanic or Latino for areas with data for each metric.14

We see the spillover effect in force; cities that depend on hospitality and leisure also had higher overall unemployment, suggesting that the performance of the core industry impacted the performance of a metro areas overall economy. Las Vegas, for example, has the second highest concentration of jobs in hospitality and faced the second largest increase in unemployment (behind Atlantic City). Orlando also stands out with a particularly large hospitality workforce and substantial increase in overall unemployment; both rank among the top 50 metros in November 2020 unemployment. Seattle and Washington D.C., by contrast, are below average in both concentration in hospitality and leisure and change in unemployment, demonstrating again how COVID-19-resilient industry concentrations have helped temper overall job loss.

Figure 3 also overlays the size of a metros Hispanic or Latino population: the bigger the circle, the larger the Hispanic or Latino share of the metros population. Tourism-dependent cities like Las Vegas and Orlando also tend to have larger Hispanic or Latino populations, while cities with below-average changes in unemployment like Seattle and Washington D.C. tend to have smaller Hispanic or Latino populations.

The decline in travel and hospitality employment was similar across the cities we analyze. The leisure and hospitality industry in Las Vegas suffered a 21.4 percentage point decline in employment since November 2019, but the leisure and hospitality industry in Orlando, D.C., San Francisco, and Seattle all declined by 30 percent or more.15 Reno is the only city in our sample that faced a smaller unemployment decline in the sector (16%) than Las Vegas (21%).16 In other words, there was nothing unique about working in the hospitality industry in Las Vegas, Orlando, or Reno as compared to Seattle, San Francisco, or Washington, D.C. except the portion of employment in the sector. If anything, employment held up better in cities core industries. However, the employment effects in non-core industries seemed to have been compounded or mitigated by core industry performance. Over a quarter of Las Vegas workers are in the hard-hit leisure and hospitality industry, and the metros information, financial activities, and professional business service industries also fared the worst of our comparison metros. Unsurprisingly, Las Vegas overall unemployment is also the highest among this group. By contrast, almost a quarter of Washington, D.C.s employment is in government, a sector that performed better in November 2020 in the metro than in 2019; D.C. also faced the second smallest increase in unemployment among our comparison metropolitan areas.

While COVID-19 wreaked havoc on industries that depend on in-person contact, distancing restrictions caused a sharp increase in the usage of technology for remote work and business transactions. Businesses of all types invested more in technology, with one survey by McKinsey finding that, about the impact of the crisis on a range of measures, [executives] say that funding for digital initiatives has increased more than anything elsemore than increases in costs, the number of people in technology roles, and the number of customers.17 That survey also found a sharp increase in the share of North American consumers who interact digitally, rising by over 58% as a result of the crisis.

Relative to other industries, information technology and government have done well. Between February and April 2020, sales for non-store retailers (i.e., online shopping) increased by 15%Amazon added 400,000 jobs this year, nearly doubling its workforce in response to the pandemic.18 While these jobs are spread throughout the nation, Amazons corporate headquarter(s) will likely see disproportionate economic gain from the companys growth. Facebook also announced plans to hire 10,000 additional workers in April 2020.19 Meanwhile, the 12-month change in information and government industry unemployment is less than half that of leisure and hospitality.20

As Table 2 indicates, job losses in information and technology were generally in-line with or slightly below total job loss rates for technology hub cities like Seattle and San Francisco, as well as for D.C., Orlando, and Reno. Interestingly, only in Las Vegas and D.C. were the proportion of job losses greater in information than overall job losses. This could be the result of classification, where information industry jobs that are part of hospitality and leisure or government are classified differently, although one might expect similar impacts in Orlando and Reno.

Acceleration of long-run trends towards increased technology use benefits technology firms and, consequently, the communities where technology firms are located. When Amazon and Facebook grow in both employment and value (see Amazon, Facebook stock prices), wealth is disproportionately created in their headquarter cities. As the growth of the auto industry powered Detroits rise in the 20th century, growth in technology is powering Seattle and San Franciscos rise in the 21st century. COVID-19, while a net loser for all of society, is a relative winner for technology firms and correspondingly, on a relative basis, for their main cities.

Likewise, COVID-19 has put the federal government to the test and Washington responded with money and new jobs. The federal government grew by over 50,000 jobs from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020 and the D.C. metros government employment grew by over two percent, one of the few positive figures in Table 2.21 The old Washington adage that the most secure job is a federal government job held and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, secure employment is incredibly valuable. One caveat to our analysis is that while federal government hiring has remained strong, state and local government has not. State and local governments across the country lost over 1.1 million jobs during over the same period, more than offsetting the federal employment boost.22Thus, state capitals may not be experiencing similar government booms to Washington D.C.

Perhaps over the long run, structural changes allowing for increased remote work started by the response to COVID-19 will weaken the link between cities and their major industry. If so, this will likely be stronger in the IT sector, where a greater share of remote work is possible than in service sectors such as hospitality, leisure, and gaming. Put simply, the amenities that Las Vegas and Orlando offer cannot be as easily substituted by people sitting behind a computer a thousand miles away as may be the case for technology or government jobs.

Hispanic or Latino workers are particularly negatively impacted by the COVID-19 recession, as has been found in prior studies. In December 2020, the Hispanic or Latino unemployment rate was 9.3%, over three points higher than the white unemployment rate.23When COVID-19 initially struck, the Hispanic or Latino unemployment rate skyrocketed, surpassing the Black unemployment rate. By the end of 2020, the gap between Hispanic or Latino and white workers was still larger than when COVID-19 unemployment first struck around March.

Our metro-level analysis confirms the race gap in unemployment; metropolitan areas with above-average unemployment at the end of 2020 are 31% Hispanic or Latino, compared to 10.9% Hispanic or Latino in metro areas with below-average unemployment. Thus, the geographic spillovers in industry performance likely drive the increase in the racial disparity between the Hispanic or Latino and white unemployment rates.

Compounding the geographic effects are industrial concentration differences between racial or ethnic groups. Prior to COVID-19, nearly a quarter of the hospitality sectors labor force was Hispanic or Latino. COVID-19 has decimated tourism, driving the hospitality and leisure industry to the highest unemployment rate among major industries.24 Figure 5 shows select industries change in employment from November 2019 to November 2020 and the portion of Hispanic or Latino workers in each industry in 2019.

With unemployment also comes a number of other issues; employees often receive health benefits from their employer and losing a job may mean losing affordable health care. These impacts compound existing racial inequity in health care access as the Hispanic or Latino population is also disproportionately likely to contract COVID-19. Las Vegas coronavirus rates per 1,000 residents are much higher among Hispanic or Latino people than white people. This helps explain why data through mid-January 2021 indicate that one out of twelve Hispanic or Latino Las Vegans have had COVID-19, while only one in twenty white residents have.25 On an age-adjusted basis, death rates for Hispanic residents in Nevada are nearly three times as great as that of white residents.26

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Federal aid has so far been suboptimal in allocating economic assistance to those who need it the most. Over half of coronavirus aid went directly to businesses, many of which were not compelled to keep their employees or prove that they were negatively impacted by the pandemic.27 By contrast, only about a fifth went directly to workers and families, and the aid that did was not always well-targeted. For example, initial direct payments (stimulus checks) excluded children if they had one parent who was an undocumented immigrant.28Direct stimulus payments were also administered slowly, with millions of American families waiting months to receive their funds.

For the purpose of this analysis, the most well-targeted program was supplemental unemployment insurance. By tracking unemployment and incorporating a broader definition of unemployed workers, enhanced unemployment benefits should have flown disproportionately to those in more impacted industries such as leisure and hospitality. As a result, enhanced benefits did more to support the economies of Las Vegas and Orlando than their relative impact in San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Likewise, we would expect Hispanic or Latino workers to make up a disproportionate number of claims given that they faced disproportionately high unemployment. Herein lies one serious potential problem. Many states continue to struggle with significant difficulty in administering the new unemployment insurance aid.

Multiple factors are at play, including specific states difficulty modernizing their systems to accommodate the new federal rules and the sudden spike in demand. Florida, for example, had an archaic system that made it difficult for newly eligible workers to qualify.29 Nevadas difficulty in expanding eligibility and processing record levels of unemployment claims were also well-documented, leading to a class-action lawsuit against the states employment department.30 Delays in processing claims and providing payments are particularly harmful for people with little savings and difficulty accessing short-term credit at a reasonable cost, burdens that apply disproportionately to Hispanic or Latino Nevadans. This could be one reason why enhanced unemployment insurance benefits were not equitably taken up by those who need it; about the same proportion of workers who filed for unemployment benefits are Hispanic or Latino as are in the workforce, even though Hispanic or Latino workers were disproportionately unemployed (see Figure 4).31

The heralded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which offered affected businesses and workers forgivable loans (in effect grants), saved many fewer jobs than the lofty anticipated 30 million; in the first two months of the program, researchers estimate that only 2.3 million jobs were saved, at a price of $286,000 each.32 The PPP grants that were distributed seemed mismatched with the unemployment rate in those sectors. According to a Washington Post analysis, 32% of jobs lost were in the lodging, restaurants, and bar industry (a core component of hospitality and leisure), but the industry only received 8% of PPP grants. Similarly, the arts, entertainment & recreation industry had a job loss rate three times higher than the portion of PPP grants it received. Correspondingly, finance and insurance companies that relatively prospered throughout the pandemic received over $8 billion in PPP funds. Put another way, finance and insurance received over $350,000 in PPP funding per job lost from February to April as compared to about $8,000 in arts, entertainment, and recreation, and $7,800 in accommodation and food services.33

Much of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act money allocated directly to state and local governments was allocated by population, despite the demonstrated disparate geographic and economic effects of COVID-19.35Allocating by population rather than economic impact results in too little money going to states and local government suffering larger economic consequences. Because the economic geography of COVID-19 fell disproportionately Hispanic or Latino workers, this error will have consequences for racial equity; funding misallocation exacerbates existing racial income and wealth gaps.

Even if all unemployment benefits, PPP loans, and other COVID-19 aid were distributed in the most equitable way possible, people of colorespecially Hispanic or Latino workersare more likely to be unemployed in general and because of COVID-19, more likely to live in the key metro areas disproportionately hit by the recession, and are more likely to contract COVID-19. The impacts of the recession will also not disappear in the years to come. Hispanic or Latino workers who lost their job over the course of the pandemic may not be able to find work for months or years after the final COVID-19 aid has been distributed. There will also be a long lag in tourisms recovery. Even if most Americans who want to be have been vaccinated, international tourism and close contact among people may take months or years to recover. Stimulus spending and temporary aid are a great starting point, but policymakers should pay attention to the industries and people who will face an uphill battle in the foreseeable future.

For government aid to maximize its assistance to vulnerable Americans, increased attention to actual need is necessary. Specific improvements include:

Full PDF version of this report available here.

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Explaining the economic impact of COVID-19: Core industries and the Hispanic workforce - Brookings Institution

MADISON (WKOW) -- One year ago, Wisconsin's first coronavirus case was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The patient was treated at UW Hospital in Madison.

Dr. Louis Scrattish was on duty in the emergency department that day.

He told WISN-TV about his concern for the patient, the other 30 patients in the ER and the medical team.

"I remember that the charge nurse had gone up to me and said that they had a patient that had just checked in whom had just traveled from China ---- and was coming in with symptoms consistent with possible COVID," Dr. Scrattish said. "There was a lot we did not know about the coronavirus at that time, and how sick it could make people. So I think there certainly was some fear there."

The patient came in days before the case of COVID-19 was confirmed. It took some time to get the test results back because the test had to go all the way to the CDC in Atlanta.

Originally posted here:

UW Health doctor reflects on treating first Wisconsin COVID-19 patient - WKOW

A 10-year-old Latino boy from East County who died on Jan. 23 is now the regions youngest COVID-19-related death, according to San Diego Countys latest coronavirus tracking report released Friday.

It was a day for grim records. In addition to the youngest, a 106-year-old man, also from East County, became the oldest local COVID-related death among the 2,777 announced to date.

Previously, the youngest to suffer such stark consequences after novel coronavirus infection was a 19-year-old man who died on Jan. 3. The previous-oldest COVID-19 casualty was a 104-year-old woman from the north central part of the county who died on Jan. 1, according to county records.

Both the oldest and youngest were said to have had other health problems present in addition to testing positive for the virus. Thirty-seven of the 39 deaths announced in Fridays report had other health problems present.

It was not immediately clear why it took nearly two weeks for the 10-year-old boys death to be reported to the public. Generally, the county health department has said in the past, reporting delays can be caused by the time it takes to process death certificates or to a lag in a hospital reporting the loss to public health.

As is always the case, the county released no information on the specific circumstances including what other illnesses were involved in the losses. Such details are not connected to individual deaths for fear that doing so may make it easier to identify those who have died.

Generally, death has been very uncommon among those who are younger than age 18. According to provisional death counts listed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67 children age five through 14 have died after a confirmed coronavirus infection among more that 421,000 COVID-related deaths nationwide. That figure is known to be incomplete given the sometimes weeks-long reporting delays.

While the community continues to record the deaths of those hospitalized during the patient surge in December and January, the local pandemic continues to run far below previous daily new case totals that topped 4,000 several times after the holidays.

Fridays report, though, showed a slight uptick. After two days under 1,000, the daily case total was 1,453 Thursday following Wednesdays tally of 1,598.

Total COVID-related hospitalizations continued to fall, reaching 1,183 with 353 in intensive care beds.

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Ten-year-old boy is San Diego's first pediatric COVID-19 death - The San Diego Union-Tribune

The chance to get the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will be at a premium in Los Angeles County next week as a continuing supply crunch and a hefty queue of those needing a second shot will leave few opportunities for those looking to start their inoculations, a top health official said Friday.

Most appointments offered at the major county-run vaccination sites will be needed for second doses, according to Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the L.A. County Department of Public Health. At the countys five mega-PODs, or mass points of distribution, only a very limited number of people will be able to receive their first doses Monday.

Were just struggling with the supply, the limited supply, and feeling an obligation to make sure that people that had a first dose are able to get their second dose, he said during a briefing. But we know, just based on the numbers, next week at least in our sites, beyond Monday, we really have to stick with the second doses. When we get to the following week, it may be a slightly different story if we are able to get a larger supply of a vaccine. But well have to wait and see.

In the face of constrained and inconsistent supplies, the county is reserving sufficient doses to ensure there is enough for everyone who has already received the first shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

Both vaccines require two shots, administered three and four weeks apart, respectively.

Because of that, residents who receive their initial dose need to get back in line weeks later. When the countys total vaccine supply remains flat, or goes down, that leaves little wiggle room to also offer first doses.

In L.A. County, 193,950 doses arrived the week of Jan. 11, but only 168,575 were delivered the following week and 146,225 the week after that.

County officials said 184,625 doses arrived this week. While a boost from last weeks total, shipments need to be much larger to keep up with demand and allow additional pools of Angelenos to receive their first shots.

If we do continue to receive increasing supplies, obviously well be able to expand and continue to offer first doses, Simon said. Certainly, we want to do that.

Cumulatively, more than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in L.A. County, and nearly 850,000 people or about 11% of the population of those 16 and over have received first doses. Roughly 2.6% of Angelenos in that age range are fully vaccinated.

The bottleneck isnt unique to L.A. County. Regions throughout California have reported similar problems and have had to take similar steps to make sure people dont miss out on the second shots.

First-dose clinics have been paused in Napa County as officials catch up on giving second inoculations.

Although its amazing that the vaccine is here now, we just dont have enough of it, said Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa Countys public health officer. Supplies are unpredictable. Were running on thin margins.

So far, more than 4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered throughout California.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 7 million doses of the vaccine have been shipped, and 6.8 million have been delivered to health providers in the state. That means, nearly 62% of the available supply has been used.

Officials said the state is expecting a vaccine allocation of more than 1 million doses next week, and a similar amount the week after. Previously, the state had been allocated roughly 300,000 to 500,000 doses per week.

The supply, while increasing, remains low compared to whats needed, and eligibility is limited. California health departments can currently administer vaccines to healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and adults who are at least 65 years old.

They also have the option of doling out doses to those who work in the fields of education, emergency services and food and agriculture but many counties have yet to open eligibility to those groups, given supply constraints.

L.A. County, for instance, is accepting appointments only for healthcare workers, residents of long-term care facilities and adults who are at least 65 years old.

Together, those groups comprise about 2 million people, meaning 4 million doses would be needed to fully vaccinate those who are currently eligible to say nothing of the millions more Angelenos who still need to be inoculated.

Unfortunately, the biggest issue we continue to face in our ability to vaccinate is a scarcity of supply and variability in the amount of vaccines we receive from week to week, Simon said. This has been an issue across the country, and it makes planning very challenging.

Times staff writer Faith E. Pinho contributed to this report.

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L.A. County severely limited in 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccines - Los Angeles Times

The Chinese Communist Party reached deep into private business and the broader population to drive a recovery, an authoritarian approach that has emboldened its top leader, Xi Jinping.

The order came on the night of Jan. 12, days after a new outbreak of the coronavirus flared in Hebei, a province bordering Beijing. The Chinese governments plan was bold and blunt: it needed to erect entire towns of prefabricated housing to quarantine people, a project that would start the next morning.

Part of the job fell to Wei Ye, the owner of a construction company, which would build and install 1,300 structures on commandeered farmland.

Everything the contract, the plans, the orders for materials was all fixed in a few hours, Mr. Wei said, adding that he and his employees worked exhaustively to meet the tight deadline.

There is pressure, for sure, he said, but he was very honored to do his part.

In the year since the coronavirus began its march around the world, China has done what many other countries would not or could not do. With equal measures of coercion and persuasion, it has mobilized its vast Communist Party apparatus to reach deep into the private sector and the broader population, in what the countrys leader, Xi Jinping, has called a peoples war against the pandemic and won.

China is now reaping long-lasting benefits that few expected when the virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and the leadership seemed as rattled as at any moment since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

The success has positioned China well, economically and diplomatically, to push back against the United States and others worried about its seemingly inexorable rise. It has also emboldened Mr. Xi, who has offered Chinas experience as a model for others to follow.

While officials in Wuhan initially dithered and obfuscated for fear of political reprisals, the authorities now leap into action at any sign of new infections, if at times with excessive zeal. In Hebei this January, the authorities deployed their well-honed strategy to test millions and isolate entire communities all with the goal of getting cases, officially only dozens a day in a population of 1.4 billion, back to zero.

The government has poured money into infrastructure projects, its playbook for years, while extending loans and tax relief to support business and avoid pandemic-related layoffs. China, which sputtered at the beginning of last year, is the only major economy that has returned to steady growth.

When it came to developing vaccines, the government offered land, loans and subsidies for new factories to make them, along with fast-tracking approvals. Two Chinese vaccines are in mass production; more are on the way. While the vaccines have shown weaker efficacy rates than those of Western rivals, 24 countries have already signed up for them since the pharmaceutical companies have, at Beijings urging, promised to deliver them more quickly.

Other nations, like New Zealand and South Korea, have done well containing the virus without heavy-handed measures that would be politically unacceptable in a democratic system. To Chinas leaders, those countries do not compare.

Beijings successes in each dimension of the pandemic medical, diplomatic and economic have reinforced its conviction that an authoritarian capacity to quickly mobilize people and resources gave China a decisive edge that other major powers like the United States lacked. It is an approach that emphasizes a relentless drive for results and relies on an acquiescent public.

The Communist Party, in this view, must control not only the government and state-owned enterprises, but also private businesses and personal lives, prioritizing the collective good over individual interests.

They were able to pull together all of the resources of the one-party state, said Carl Minzner, a professor of Chinese law and politics at Fordham University. This of course includes both the coercive tools severe, mandatory mobility restrictions for millions of people but also highly effective bureaucratic tools that are maybe unique to China.

In so doing, the Chinese Communist authorities suppressed speech, policed and purged dissenting views and suffocated any notion of individual freedom or mobility actions that are repugnant and unacceptable in any democratic society.

Among the Communist Party leaders, a sense of vindication is palpable. In the final days of 2020, the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the countrys top political body, gathered in Beijing for the equivalent of an annual performance review, where in theory they can air criticisms of themselves and their colleagues.

Far from even hinting at any shortcomings the rising global distrust toward China, for example they exalted the party leadership.

The present-day world is undergoing a great transformation of the kind not seen for a century, Mr. Xi told officials at another meeting in January, but time and momentum are on our side.

In recent weeks, as new cases kept emerging, the governments cabinet, the State Council, issued a sweeping new directive. There cannot be a shred of neglect about the risk of resurgence, it said.

The dictates reflected the micromanaged nature of Chinas political system, where the top leaders have levers to reach down from the corridors of central power to every street and even apartment building.

The State Council ordered provinces and cities to set up 24-hour command centers with officials in charge held responsible for their performance. It called for opening enough quarantine centers not just to house people within 12 hours of a positive test, but also to strictly isolate hundreds of close contacts for each positive case.

Cities with up to five million people should create the capacity to administer a nucleic test to every resident within two days. Cities with more than five million could take three to five days.

The key to this mobilization lies in the partys ability to tap its vast network of officials, which is woven into every department and agency in every region.

The government can easily redeploy volunteers to new hot spots, including more than 4,000 medical workers sent to Hebei after the new outbreak in January. A Communist Party member goes to the frontline of the people, said Bai Yan, a 20-year-old university student, who has ambitions to join the party.

Zhou Xiaosen, a party member in a village outside of Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million people that was among those locked down, said that those deputized could help police violations, but also assist those in need. If they need to go out to buy medicine or vegetables, well do it for them, he said.

The government appeals to material interests, as well as to a sense of patriotism, duty and self-sacrifice.

The China Railway 14th Bureau Group, a state-owned contractor helping build the quarantine center near Shijiazhuang, drafted a public vow that its workers would spare no effort. Dont haggle over pay, dont fuss about conditions, dont fall short even if its life or death, the group said in a letter, signed with red thumb prints of employees.

The network also operates in part through fear. More than 5,000 local party and government officials have been ousted in the last year for failures to contain the coronavirus on their watch. There is little incentive for moderation.

Residents of the northeastern Chinese city of Tonghua recently complained after officials abruptly imposed a lockdown without enough preparations for supplying food and other needs. When a villager near Shijiazhuang tried to escape quarantine to buy a pack of cigarettes, a zealous party chief ordered him tied to a tree.

Many measures seemed over the top, but as far as theyre concerned it was necessary to go over the top, said Chen Min, a writer and former Chinese newspaper editor who was in Wuhan throughout its lockdown. If you didnt, it wouldnt produce results.

The anger has faded over the governments inaction and duplicity early in the crisis, the consequence of a system that suppresses bad news and criticism. Chinas success has largely drowned out dissent from those who would question the partys central control. The authorities have also reshaped the public narrative by warning and even imprisoning activists who challenged its triumphant version of events.

In the beginning, the pandemic seemed to expose the fundamental pathologies of Xi-style governance, said Jude Blanchette, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

In fact, with time and hindsight, we see that the system performed in large part as Xi Jinping was hoping it would do, he added.

The measures in Hebei worked quickly. At the start of February, the province recorded its first day in a month without a new coronavirus infection.

In many countries, debates have raged over the balance between protecting public health and keeping the economy running. In China, there is little debate. It did both.

Even in Wuhan last year, where the authorities shuttered virtually everything for 76 days, they allowed major industries to continue operating, including steel plants and semiconductor factories. They have replicated that strategy when smaller outbreaks have occurred, going to extraordinary lengths to help businesses in ways large and small.

Chinas experience has underscored the advice that many experts have suggested but few countries have followed: The more quickly you bring the pandemic under control, the more quickly the economy can recover.

While the economic pain was severe early in the crisis, most businesses closed for only a couple of weeks, if at all. Few contracts were canceled. Few workers were laid off, in part because the government strongly discouraged companies from doing so and offered loans and tax relief to help.

We coordinated progress in pandemic control and economic and social development, giving urgency to restoring life and production, Mr. Xi said last year.

Zhejiang Huayuan Automotive Parts Company missed only 17 days of production. With the help of regional authorities, the company hired buses to bring back workers, who had scattered for the Lunar New Year holiday and could not return easily since much of the country was locked down at the beginning. Government passes allowed the buses through checkpoints restricting travel.

Workers were only allowed to go back and forth between the factory and dormitories, their temperatures checked frequently. BYD, a large customer, started manufacturing face masks and shipped supplies to Huayuan.

Soon, the company had more orders than it could handle.

An ambulance manufacturer in Anhui Province increased production immediately, buying screws, bolts and other fasteners that Huayuan produces. Then Chinese automakers started needing them as the virus spread and overseas suppliers shut down.

We just said no to clients who only wanted standard parts we wanted to sell more specialized parts, with higher profit, said Chen Xiying, the companys deputy general manager. Clients who were slow to pay we rejected outright.

Like China itself, Huayuan rebounded quickly. By April, it had ordered nearly $10 million of new equipment to start a second, highly automated production line. It plans to add 47 technicians to its work force of 340.

Before the pandemic, multinationals were looking beyond China for their operations, in part prodded by the Trump administrations trade war with Beijing. The virus itself added to fears about dependence on Chinese supply chains.

The pandemic, though, only reinforced Chinas dominance, as the rest of the world struggled to remain open for business.

Last year, China unexpectedly surpassed the United States as a destination for foreign direct investment for the first time, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Worldwide, investments plummeted 42 percent, while in China they grew by 4 percent.

Despite the human cost and disruption, the pandemic in economic terms was a blessing in disguise for China, said Zhu Ning, deputy dean of the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.

Last February, while the coronavirus ravaged Wuhan, one of the countrys biggest vaccine manufacturers, Sinovac Biotech, was in no position to develop a new vaccine to stop it.

The company lacked a high-security lab to conduct the risky research needed. It had no factory that could produce the shots, nor the funds to build one.

So the companys chief executive, Yin Weidong, reached out to the government for help. On Feb. 27, he met with Cai Qi, a member of Chinas Politburo, and Chen Jining, the mayor of Beijing and an environmental scientist.

After that, Sinovac had everything it needed.

The officials gave its researchers access to one of the countrys safest labs. They provided $780,000 and assigned government scientists to help.

They also cleared the way for the construction of a new factory in a district of Beijing. The city donated the land. The Bank of Beijing, in which the municipality is a major shareholder, offered a low-interest $9.2 million loan.

When Sinovac needed fermentation tanks that typically take 18 months to import from abroad, the government ordered another manufacturer to work 24 hours a day to make them instead.

It was the sort of all-of-government approach that Mr. Xi outlined at a Politburo Standing Committee meeting two days after Wuhan was locked down. He urged the country to accelerate the development of therapeutic drugs and vaccines, and Beijing broadly showered resources.

CanSino Biologics, a private company, partnered with the Peoples Liberation Army, working with little rest to produce the first trial doses by March. Sinopharm, a state-owned pharmaceutical company, got government funding in three and a half days to build a factory.

Mr. Yin of Sinovac called the project Operation Coronavirus in keeping with the wartime rhetoric of the countrys fight against the outbreak. It was only under such comprehensive conditions that our workshop could be put into production, he told The Beijing News, a state-controlled newspaper.

Less than three months after Mr. Yins Feb. 27 meeting, Sinovac had created a vaccine that could be tested in humans and had built a giant factory. It is churning out 400,000 vaccines a day, and hopes to produce as many as one billion this year.

The crash course to vaccinate a nation ultimately opened a different opportunity.

With the coronavirus largely stamped out at home, China could sell more of its vaccines abroad. They will be made a global public good, Mr. Xi promised the World Health Assembly last May.

Although officials bristle at the premise, vaccine diplomacy has become a tool to assuage some of the anger over Chinas missteps, helping shore up its global standing at a time when it has been under pressure from the United States and others.

This is where China can come in and look like a real savior, like a friend in need, said Ray Yip, a former head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China.

Chinas efficiency at home has not translated into an easy triumph abroad. Chinese vaccines have lower efficacy rates. Officials in Brazil and Turkey have complained about delays. Still, many countries that have so far signed up for them have acknowledged that they could not afford to wait months for those made by the Americans or Europeans.

On Jan. 16, Serbia became the first European country to receive Chinese vaccines, some one million doses from Sinopharm. The countrys president, Aleksandr Vui, stood in chilly winds with the Chinese ambassador to welcome the first planeload of supplies.

He told reporters that he was not afraid to brag of the countrys relationship with China.

Im proud of that and will invest more and more of our time and efforts to create and even improve our great relationship with the Chinese leadership and the Chinese people.

Coral Yang, Amber Wang, Claire Fu and Elsie Chen contributed research.

Read more from the original source:

How China Beat Covid-19 and Revived Its Economy - The New York Times