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| The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday there was a "premature push" to rule out the theory that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese government lab in Wuhan. |
| "I was a lab technician myself. I'm an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen. It's common," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. |
| In March, the WHO concluded a lab leak was an "extremely unlikely pathway." The U.N. health agency's on-site team of investigators was allowed only limited access to laboratories studying similar viruses and to data about the earliest cases. |
| It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the USA TODAY Network. Here's more news you need to know: |
| • | The U.S. is once again reporting more than 1,000 new infections every hour, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data for the week ending Wednesday. | | • | Dr. Vivek Murthy issued his first advisory as President Joe Biden's surgeon general on Thursday, warning of the "urgent threat of health misinformation" during the pandemic. | | • | A new global study in the Lancet identified more than 200 symptoms of long-haul COVID-19 spanning 10 organ systems, with the majority of respondents still recovering several months after their diagnoses. The most common symptoms after six months were fatigue, cognitive dysfunction and post-exertional malaise. | | • | New coronavirus cases surged to 1,308 in Tokyo on Thursday, a six-month high, days before the start of the Olympics. | | • | More than 600,000 white flags will cover the National Mall this fall in a public art installation honoring of the victims of COVID-19 in the U.S. Maryland artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg announced the "In America: Remember" project Thursday. | |
| Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 33.9 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 608,200 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 188.6 million cases and more than 4 million deaths. About 56% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 48% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. |
| Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines. |
| – Grace Hauck, USA TODAY breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck |
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