(Reuters) - Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Ambulances put on alert as Los Angeles hospitals swamped
Los Angeles health officials have told first responders to stop bringing adult patients who cannot be resuscitated to hospitals, citing a shortage of beds and staff as the latest COVID-19 surge threatened to overwhelm healthcare systems in America’s second-largest city.
The order, issued late on Monday and effective immediately, marked an escalation of measures being taken by state and local officials nationwide in the face of alarming increases in COVID-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
Ambulances have been forced to wait several hours to unload patients at some Los Angeles hospitals, causing delays throughout the county’s emergency response system.
China steps up COVID-19 measures near Beijing
Chinese authorities shut sections of highways running through Hebei province that surrounds Beijing on Wednesday and closed a long-distance bus terminal in the provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, in efforts to stave off another coronavirus wave.
The province, which entered a “wartime mode” on Tuesday, accounted for 20 of the 23 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases reported in mainland China that day, more than the total of 19 cases in the province in the three previous days.
China hasn’t granted entry to coronavirus experts
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “very disappointed” that China has still not authorised the entry of a team of international experts to examine the origins of the coronavirus.
The 10-strong team had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to investigate early cases of the coronavirus, first reported over a year ago in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Ahead of the trip, China has been seeking to shape the narrative about when and where the pandemic began, with senior diplomat Wang Yi saying “more and more studies” showed that it emerged in multiple regions.
Updated advice on splitting or halving vaccine doses
People should get two doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine within 21-28 days, the WHO said on Tuesday, as many countries struggled to administer the shots that can ward off the COVID-19 virus.
Joachim Hombach, executive on WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), said spacing out the two Pfizer inoculations could be acceptable for countries unable to implement the main recommendation. The panel said countries should have leeway to spread out shots over six weeks so that more people at higher risk of illness can get them.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc may take about two months to determine whether doses of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine can be halved to double the supply of the shots in the United States, according to the agency. The U.S. government has been considering halving the doses of Moderna’s vaccine, which requires two injections, to free up supplies for more vaccinations.
Compiled by Karishma Singh
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