The U.S. registered 4,375 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, the second-highest single-day total since the pandemic started. The country has recorded more than 4,000 deaths in a 24-hour period only twice before, on Jan. 8. and Jan. 12.

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• The U.S. recorded 182,695 new cases on Wednesday. It has reported more than 24.4 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with at least 406,000 deaths.
• 122,700 people were hospitalized as of Wednesday, according to the COVID-19 Tracking Project. This marked the eighth straight day hospitalizations fell.

Vaccination Update:

• According to the CDC, more than 17.5 million doses have been administered and nearly 38 million doses have been distributed.
• President Biden's chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci said the U.S. will join the WHO's COVAX program to provide low-income countries with COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
• Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to increase production of the vaccine.
• CNN reports the Trump administration did not leave the Biden administration a vaccine distribution plan.

Facebook said that its independent Oversight Board will determine if the company should reinstate former U.S. President Trump's account. Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts were suspended after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. Trump's accounts will remain suspended until the Oversight Board makes a decision.

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• A five-member panel will first review the case and present its findings to the Oversight Board, which has 90 days to make a decision, Facebook said.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives won't be able to overrule the decision.
• The Oversight Board was formed in 2018 to oversee content moderation. It consists of scholars, journalists, and former lawmakers from around the world.
• Twitter, Twitch, and Snapchat have all permanently suspended Trump's accounts.

Amazon has sent a letter to President Biden offering help with vaccine distribution. The company said that it is ready to turn its sites into vaccination facilities and mentioned its technological capabilities to help in vaccination efforts.

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• In the letter, Dave Clark, head of Amazon's consumer division, also requested the early vaccination of employees who can't work from home. Amazon has around 800,000 employees and is the second-largest employer in the U.S. behind Walmart. As of September last year, about 19,000 Amazon employees had contracted COVID-19. 
• On Tuesday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced a vaccine distribution plan, "Washington State Vaccine Command and Coordination Center (WSVCCC)" to administer vaccines for 45,000 people every day. While companies including Microsoft, Costco, and Starbucks were included, Amazon is not currently a part of the plan.
• Amazon spent $7.5B in COVID-19 related expenses through Q3 2020 and estimated an additional $4B expense for Q4 2020. 

In other news:

• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that the sluggish rollout of vaccines in the state is due to CVS and Walgreens' inefficiency, particularly the latter. The state has 8.8 million in population, while only 432,000 vaccines have been administered out of the 898,550 distributed. However, both companies have denied the claim and said that the first dose in all nursing homes and facilities would be completed by the end of this month.
• Since CVS and Walgreen struck a deal with the U.S. government last October to administer the vaccine in long-term care facilities, the companies' stock price increased by around 40%.

This story first appeared in Inside Business. You can read the full issue here. 

Apple is designing a $300-500 VR headset that will act as a precursor for its more mainstream AR headset, Bloomberg reported. The "mostly VR" headset will have limited AR capabilities. It's expected to be released next year and compete with Facebook's Oculus and Sony's PlayStation VR.

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• The battery-powered, standalone headset is said to have a fabric exterior and be of a similar size to the Oculus Quest. It might feature more powerful chips than the M1 Apple Silicon processors, which are currently used in MacBooks. The Verge noted that Apple is also testing the ability to track hand movement and include software features like a virtual keyboard.
• Initial prototypes were too heavy and large for extended wear due to the headset's fan, which is meant to cool its internal processors. Its later-stage prototype, codenamed N301, could still be canceled, reports noted.
• Last year Apple acquired NextVR, which offers a VR video streaming service, for $100M. Apple also acquired Spaces, which provides a platform to create AR/VR based experiences for public locations, including theme parks and retail. Spaces shifted its focus to immersive VR headsets for virtual conferences after the beginning of the pandemic. 

Big Tech's AR/VR plans:

• Last September, Facebook announced its new VR headset Oculus Quest 2, priced at $299. The company also demoed the "infinite office" feature, which allows users to work in a virtual multi-screen environment built on the Oculus browser.
• During the Oculus Quest 2 launch, Facebook introduced the research endeavor Project Aria to build AR devices. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that a lot of people are trying to take shortcuts when it comes to building AR glasses by "just showing some heads-up information." He added: "I call that 'putting an Apple Watch on your face.'"
• In June 2020, Google acquired smart glass manufacturer North to strengthen its ambient computing efforts. Microsoft also released its mixed-reality glasses Microsoft HoloLens 2, in 2019.

A version of this story first appeared in Inside XR. You can read the full issue here. 

QUICK HITS:

• How are companies deciding on privacy management solutions in 2021? This eGuide breaks it down. *
• The Philadelphia Eagles hired Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni as their head coach.
• President Biden said former President Trump left a "very generous" letter but refused to reveal the contents until he's spoken to his predecessor.
• U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein ruled Amazon can remove Parler, an app popular with Trump supporters, from its web hosting services. Amazon removed Parler following allegations that the app was used to coordinate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• Nexo manages $4B in assets and has over 1M users. See why fintech consumers are banking on crypto. *

* This is sponsored content.

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