This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for April 13th, 2021.

Things have been exceedingly bad in India with the coronavirus spreading with record speed. But that did not stop tens of thousands of Hindu devotees from gathering yesterday. The pitcher festival runs through April and is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. India has a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 new cases per day and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed.

The director of the CDC said Michigan should “close things down.” The Governor is urging people to voluntarily restrict certain activities. Things are so bad there that there are calls to send in additional doses of vaccine. The director said Michigan needs to go back to where they were last spring to flatten the curve.

With the focus on vaccines it shouldn’t be forgotten that treatments for COVID-19 are still a valuable part of the mix. Regeneron is seeking U.S. approval for its monoclonal antibody cocktail as a preventative treatment after it showed 72% protection against symptomatic infections and 31% reduction in risk of progressing to symptomatic COVID in the first week.

Two CDC studies looked at trends in racial and ethnic disparities in hospitalizations and ER visits associated with COVID-19 last year and found the proportion of hospitalized patients was highest for Hispanic and Latino patients in all four census regions of the U.S. Researchers point to higher risk of exposure and higher risk for severe disease as contributing reasons.

A survey by Consumer Reports shows Americans aren’t so eager to ditch the masks. 41% would want to hear experts say it’s safe first. Nearly one-fifth said they’ll keep wearing masks for some time into the future. In other findings, over 70% are somewhat or very confident vaccines are safe and effective. 55% like having more contactless shopping opportunities. And 44% appreciated spending more time at home.

In the United States cases were up 11%, deaths are down 26%, and hospitalizations were up 10% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending up since April 5.

There are now 6,852,989 active cases in the United States. The current top 5 states by number of active cases: California, New York, Virginia, Florida, and Maryland.

The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Chattahoochee, GA. Crosby, TX. Hutchinson, TX. Carson, TX. Lamb, TX. Hockley, TX. St. Clair, MI. Otsego, MI. Garza, TX. And Gray, TX.

The five states with the highest risk levels and most daily new cases per capita over 7 days are Michigan, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and Minnesota.

There have been 562,511 deaths in the US reported as Covid-related, with a current national fatality rate of 1.81%.

The states with the most new deaths reported as COVID-related: New York 80. California 47. North Carolina 42. Florida 36. Georgia 35. New Jersey 26. Louisiana 25. Massachusetts 20. And Texas and Illinois 16.

The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s had at least one dose, New Hampshire at 50.9%, New Mexico at 44.7%, and Connecticut at 43.6%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Mississippi at 27.9%, Alabama at 28.2%, and Georgia at 28.8%.

Globally, cases were up 21% and deaths up 23% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since March 5.

There are 23,860,829 active cases around the world.

The five countries with the most new cases: India 160,694. The United States 56,522. Turkey 54,562. Brazil 38,866. And Iran 23,311.

There have now been 2,944,366 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide.

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