Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 448 new positive cases and 1 new death on April 22.
Washington: The state reported 362,276 cases and 5,422 deaths as of April 22.
United States: The CDC reports 31,602,676 cases and 565,613 deaths as of April 21.
Global: WHO reports 143,445,675 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,051,736 deaths as of April 22.
Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Update
Total Vaccine Doses Administered: 230,728
- Total first dose: 127,101
- Total second dose: 103,627
As of April 20, 2021.
UW Medicine in the News
The New York Times: The Years We’ve Lost to Covid
Featuring: Christopher Murray, IHME
“For the past year, experts and journalists have struggled to express what Covid-19 has taken. But health statisticians are increasingly using a calculation called years of life lost, which counts how much time the victims could have lived if they hadn’t died. They say it can help us determine which communities have lost the most and prioritize how to recover.”
Science Magazine: Here’s how scientists are designing vaccines that can ditch the fridge
Featuring: Deborah Fuller, Microbiology
“‘To avoid cold storage entirely, another option is to use DNA instead of RNA. DNA, the more stable of the two nucleic acids, “could be sitting in a warehouse at room temperature for months,’ says Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who helped design the HDT Bio vaccine. DNA vaccines have not had much clinical success despite years of research, Fuller says, though a number of DNA vaccines for COVID-19 are in clinical trials.”
KOMO News: Health leaders say vaccinated people need to still mask up, avoid large crowds
Featuring: Christopher Sanford, Global Health, Ali Mokdad, IHME
“‘If there’s people spilling out the front door, I don’t go in,’ said University of Washington Medicine Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Global Health Christopher Sanford. Sanford said he strongly advises those who are vaccinated to avoid crowded spaces indoors right now like packed bars, restaurants and businesses. That’s because even those who get their vaccine have at least a small risk of contracting and transmitting coronavirus. Because experts said not enough people are vaccinated yet, the virus is still spreading, mutating into variants and targeting those who are vulnerable.”
COVID-19 Literature Report
COVID-19 Literature Situation Report is a daily (M-F) newsletter put together by the Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness that provides a succinct summary of the latest scientific literature related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Takeaways: COVID-19 Literature Situation Report April 19, 2021
- Few kidney transplant recipients (n = 51/136) who had been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine developed an antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, suggesting that this population may remain at risk of infection despite vaccination. More.
- Among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the antibody response rate was 39.5% at a median of 15 days after the second dose. More.
- Nursing homes that had earlier vaccine clinics (December 18, 2020, and January 2, 2021) had 5.2 fewer infections per 100 at‐risk residents and 5 fewer hospitalizations and/or deaths per 100 infected residents over 5 weeks than expected based on data from matched facilities with later clinics (January 3 and January 18, 2020). More.
- A study of household SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Denmark showed that index cases infected with B.1.1.7 were 1.5-1.7 times more likely to transmit than cases infected with other lineages. More.
COVID-19 Literature Surveillance Team, is an affiliated group of medical students, PhDs and physicians keeping up with the latest research on SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 by finding the newest articles, reading them, grading their level of evidence and bringing you the bottom line.
Read the latest report: April 19 | Daily COVID-19 LST Report.
Tweet of the Week
The emergence of dozens of vaccine candidates in less than a year suggests "we're going to have an amazing toolbox to use to combat infectious disease for a long time to come," says Deborah Fuller @FullerLab_UW. https://t.co/oXw0tLNImi
— UW Medicine Newsroom (@uwmnewsroom) April 21, 2021
