Coronavirus updates: US vaccine recipients report rare allergic reaction, CDC study shows; Maryland to deploy National Guard support teams

USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as a pair of vaccines join the U.S. fight against a virus that has killed nearly 360,000 Americans since the first reported fatality in February. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates surrounding the coronavirus, including who is getting the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, as well as other top news from across the USA TODAY Network. Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates directly to your inbox, join our Facebook group or scroll through our in-depth answers to reader questions for everything you need to know about the coronavirus.

In the headlines:

► Georgia has become the fifth state to report a case of the more contagious virus strain first identified in the United Kingdom, joining Colorado, California, Florida and New York. The state's Department of Health said the case was found in an 18-year-old man with no travel history. He is isolating at home.

► The European Union’s medicines agency gave the green light Wednesday to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, clearing the way for a final approval from the EU’s executive commission. The EU has ordered 80 million doses of the Moderna vaccine with an option for a further 80 million.

► Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said that starting Wednesday, the National Guard will begin sending support teams across the state to help local health departments expand vaccination capacity.

► China blocked a visit from experts with the World Health Organization who were supposed to start investigating the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a media briefing in Geneva Tuesday he was “very disappointed with this news.”

► Four police officers in Palm Springs, Calif., have been put in quarantine for 10 days after being exposed to the coronavirus by a man who spit on them while being detained.

► California’s Department of Public Health confirmed 459 new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, amid the state's soaring infection numbers and hospitalizations.

► As England enters a national lockdown, Britain's Office for National Statistics says one in every 50 people has been infected with COVID-19 in the last week. The office says the number of people infected in London is even higher. The figure doesn't include people in hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.

📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 21.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 359,900 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 86.9 million cases and 1.87 million deaths.

States don't have to stick to vaccine roll out plan, HHS Secretary says

In a Wednesday news conference Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar urged governors to get COVID-19 vaccines into as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and not let "perfection be the enemy of the good."

The initial focus has been on vaccinating health care workers and nursing home residents. But with as much as 70% of distributed vaccines still sitting on pharmacy shelves, Azar said the focus should shift to vaccinating more people rather than on precisely who is getting the shots.

He praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for allowing senior citizens to have access to the shots alongside health care workers.

"We would much rather see states move as quickly as possible and use every possible avenue to meet demand – as places like Florida are trying to do – then to leave the vaccines sitting in freezers," Azar said. "It would be much better to move quickly and end up vaccinating some lower priority people than to let vaccine sit around while states try to micromanage this problem. Faster administration could save lives right now."

– Karen Weintraub

CDC study reports severe allergic reactions after COVID-19 vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said early safety monitoring has detected 21 cases of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Eighty-six percent of the cases began presenting symptoms within 30 minutes of vaccination, and 81% of them occurred in people with a history of allergies or allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis events. Most of the patients who reported having this severe allergic reaction – 90% –were women.

The 21 cases were detected in a pool of 1,893,360 administered first doses, making it extremely rare, the CDC said. Anaphylaxis can be life-threatening and requires immediate medical attention.

The agency said it will continue to monitor for adverse events, including anaphylaxis, and will regularly assess the benefits and risks of vaccination. However, the COVID-19 vaccine continues to be “an important tool in efforts to control the pandemic.”

Thousands of mostly maskless Trump supporters gather in DC protest

Chaos erupted in the nation's capital Wednesday as supporters of President Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol building, prompting Vice President Mike Pence to be swept to a secure location and the Senate chamber to be evacuated.

While some rioters wore red “Make America Great Again” masks, most were tightly packed without face coverings as they chanted “USA” and “stop the steal.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said for months that wearing masks slows the spread of COVID-19, but some politicians, including President Donald Trump, have been called out for not wearing one. As the nation edged further into the stay-at-home era, viral videos of conflicts over mask requirements at businesses have become common.

On Saturday, “Burn the Mask” protesters blocked the entrance of a Fresno, California, Trader Joe’s, causing the grocer to close in the afternoon, the Fresno Bee reported.

– Ryan Miller and Kelly Tyko

$Feds allocate $22B to states and municipalities for vaccine effort

States and localities will receive more than $22 billion to support their COVID-19 pandemic response, including testing and vaccine-related activities, the federal government announced Wednesday.

The bulk of the money will be allocated by population and will be used to monitor and suppress the spread of the virus. The remaining $3 billion will be designated for the COVID-19 vaccination effort.

“We’re making these billions in new funds available to states as quickly as possible to support our combined efforts to end the pandemic,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a prepared statement.

– Karen Weintraub

FBI warns of COVID-related fraud schemes

For the past year, federal law enforcement agencies have received tens of thousands of complaints of fraud tied to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100 cases have been prosecuted, and authorities are expecting this number to rise as states continue to rollout vaccines.

"We've been concerned about fraud schemes regarding the vaccine as soon as the vaccine went from an idea to reality … The one thing that we've learned throughout this pandemic is that when there's money to be made, criminals will figure out how to do it," said FBI Financial Crimes Section Chief Steven Merrill.

Merrill said he can't say how many complaints the FBI has received regarding vaccine-related fraud, or how many have been elevated to criminal investigations. But he said officials have seen instances involving websites advertising fake vaccines.

– Kristine Phillips

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID news: Georgia virus strain; Montana mask mandate; 21M US cases