May 6 coronavirus news

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday, according to a new schedule posted on the CDC website.

A draft agenda posted on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices website for Wednesday includes discussion on the use of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds, and an update on rare blood clotting events following the Johnson & Johnson vaccination.

The US Food and Drug Administration is considering a request to extend its emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. A federal official has told CNN that authorization should be straightforward and could be expected by next week.

If and when the FDA grants EUA, then the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices would have to meet to vote on whether to recommend the use of the vaccine in the new age group, and the CDC director would then have to sign off on it.  

ACIP will not meet about the use of the Pfizer vaccine in adolescents until after the FDA expands the vaccine’s EUA to that age group.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says he expects results from tests of booster vaccines and newly formulated vaccines in the coming months.

Bourla spoke as part of a panel discussion with CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb. The discussion was pre-recorded on April 30 and was streamed on Thursday as part of the Fifth International Vatican Conference.

Pfizer rival Moderna reported data Wednesday from its trial of booster doses and its reformulated vaccine made to match the B.1.351 variant first seen in South Africa.

The Pfizer CEO says the company can produce a booster or variant-specific vaccine in 90 days. “From the day we make the decision that this is a variant, that we need to do something about it, within 90 something days to be able to have a product ready,” Bourla said.

When asked by Gupta if the boosters or new vaccines will have to be reauthorized, Bourla likened the process to the reauthorization of new flu vaccines every year, which are targeted to different strains circulating each year. The US Food and Drug Administration and other regulators around the world approve the new formulations without requiring a lengthy new clinical trial process.

Gottlieb noted that when assessing flu vaccine effectiveness, instead of doing large trials to determine efficacy, researchers can run lab tests to see if the vaccines elicit an immune response.

The Cura Foundation’s Fifth International Vatican Conference is a partnership among the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, the Cura Foundation, and the Science and Faith Foundation that brings together leaders of faith and science to discuss issues of health care and medicine. 

India’s Madhya Pradesh state has extended its strict lockdown until May 15 to combat the spread of coronavirus infections, the state’s Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Thursday.

The "janta curfew," or people's curfew, means no weddings or mass gatherings will be allowed during the month of May, Chouhan said.

Local district authorities will be charged with enforcing it and crisis management groups should include citizen volunteers, ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials and opposition representatives, he added.  

The chief minister said more than 500 hospitals are now treating Covid-19 patients in the state.

Any efforts to charge patients more than is required for medical care will be punished, he warned, saying “we have started investigations.”

Madhya Pradesh began administering its first Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday after Chouhan said Friday it would be unable to administer shots at the start of a national rollout on May 1 because it couldn’t get the vaccines by that date.

On April 19, the Indian government announced everyone over the age of 18 will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine from May 1.

Madhya Pradesh was one of the first major states run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP to acknowledge its incapacity to start the nationwide program on time.

America's vaccination pace is slowing. To tackle the issue, President Biden announced a shift from mass vaccination drives to utilizing more community clinics and pharmacies in an effort to reach younger Americans, people living in rural areas and those reluctant to get the shot.

CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers viewers' question and reports on the latest on US vaccine efforts. Watch:

New York City has now administered 6,809,451 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

City officials also announced an intention to offer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to any tourist who visits New York City, pending state approval.

De Blasio announced that the city wants to install mobile Covid-19 mobile vaccination sites at various tourist attractions throughout the city — such as Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Highline — to offer the J&J vaccine. The mayor said the city needs state approval to vaccinate non-New Yorkers and that they plan to begin as soon as they get that approval. 

India reported a 412,262 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, a new single-day record, according to a CNN tally compiled from figures released by the Indian Health Ministry. 

To date, authorities have identified 21,077,410 cases of coronavirus.

The country also reported 3,980 Covid-19 related deaths on Thursday, another new single-day record. It was the ninth consecutive day that the number of fatalities identified in a 24-hour period exceeded 3,000.

To date, 230,168 who have contracted the virus in India have died.

India is in the midst of a severe second wave of cases. In the past 30 days, the country has recorded 8.3 million cases. Since April 22, more than 300,000 cases have been added every day.

Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, has shown an efficacy of 96% among teens in early data, CEO Stéphane Bancel announced during an earnings call on Thursday.

 Moderna's trial in teens, called the TeenCOVE study, includes people ages 12 to 17.

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine is currently authorized for use in people ages 18 and older.

US Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are at their lowest points in nearly seven months. Deaths from Covid-19 have not been this low since July. 

The seven-day average of Covid-19 cases is at its lowest point in nearly seven months, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Deaths are also at their lowest point in many months.

Hospitalizations are also down significantly, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

India's health ministry denied reports that oxygen concentrators arriving from other countries are pending at customs.

India has received 3,000 oxygen concentrators from across the world as part of Covid-19 aid efforts, the ministry added. 

Mauritius sent 200 oxygen concentrators, Russia sent 20, UK sent four shipments totaling in 669 concentrators, Romania sent 80, Ireland sent 700, Thailand sent 30, China sent 1,000, Uzbekistan sent 151, and Taiwan sent 150, according to the ministry.

Some background: As India's Covid-19 crisis worsens, dozens of countries have pledged critical aid. However, medical workers and local officials continue to report the same devastating shortages that have strained the health care system for weeks now — raising questions, even among foreign donors, of where the aid is going.

Any media reports alleging that the concentrators are pending at customs are "totally incorrect," the ministry said.

"The oxygen concentrators are either delivered to the identified tertiary care institutions, or been dispatched for delivery," the ministry added. "There are no oxygen contractors lying in the warehouse of the Customs Department."

Customs are working 24/7 to "fast track and clear the goods on arrival" and the Covid-19 equipment are given "high priority for clearance," according the ministry.

The same clarification was also given to the Delhi High Court by government's counsel recently, the press release added.