Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar following a bilateral meeting in London on Monday during the G-7 foreign ministers meeting. Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar following a bilateral meeting in London on Monday during the G-7 foreign ministers meeting.
MUMBAI, India India's top diplomat and his entourage have been forced to self-isolate, participating in a G-7 foreign ministers meeting only virtually from hotel rooms near the venue in London after at least two members of the Indian delegation tested positive for the coronavirus.
India is currently battling the world's biggest COVID-19 wave, and is thus on the United Kingdom's Red List, meaning travel from India into the U.K. is restricted. The rules stipulate that while regular Indians are barred from entering the U.K., diplomats may do so, but are required to self-isolate.
It appears that India's minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, was granted an exception to that rule, because he has held several in-person meetings, including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, since arriving in London on Monday.
British media reported that two members of Jaishankar's delegation had since tested positive.
In a tweet, Jaishankar said he had been made aware of the exposure Tuesday evening. "As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode," he wrote. "That will be the case with the G7 Meeting today as well."
"We deeply regret that Foreign Minister Jaishankar will be unable to attend the meeting today in person but will now attend virtually, but this is exactly why we have put in place strict COVID protocols and daily testing," a senior British diplomat was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Jaishankar's meeting Monday with Blinken was their first in-person meeting since the Biden administration assumed office. U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel also met Tuesday with Jaishankar, tweeting a photo of them wearing masks.
The news of Jaishankar's trip to London, as well as the positive coronavirus tests among his staff, sparked criticism back home in India. Some Indians questioned the wisdom of his travel at an all-hands-on-deck moment in the pandemic.
The country has confirmed more than 300,000 coronavirus cases daily for the past two weeks, and its health care system is collapsing. On Wednesday, India confirmed more than 382,000 new cases and 3,780 deaths its highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began.
"Man travelled to London just to hold virtual meeting with G-7 leaders. Why wasted so much money and time?" one Indian wrote on Twitter. "You should have stayed in India and held meeting virtually."
In a report issued last week, the World Health Organization said India now accounts for nearly half of all new global cases. Crematoriums in the country have been overwhelmed, and scientists say the real number of deaths may be much higher than the officially reported numbers. Meanwhile, coronavirus testing has fallen sharply in India, so it's not clear whether the surge has peaked.
In late April, the United Kingdom imposed travel restrictions on anyone arriving there after having transited India in the previous 10 days. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month called off a planned visit to India "in view of the prevailing COVID situation." The U.S. has imposed similar restrictions.
Although India itself is not a member of the G-7 which includes Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan it was among the countries invited to attend the first such meeting of the group's foreign ministers in more than two years. Australia, South Korea and South Africa were also invited to the gathering, which sets the stage for the G-7 leaders summit in Cornwall, England, next month.
Jaishankar and his delegation arrived in London on Monday for a four-day visit at the invitation of British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
The Indian delegation had been expected to attend a face-to-face bilateral meeting with Raab in Kent on Thursday, but that is now expected to be held virtually, India's Economic Times reports.
NPR's Scott Neuman reported from Washington.
Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 64 additional infections statewide, bringing the states totals since the start of the pandemic to 485 fatalities and 32,794 cases.
No further information was immediately available regarding the latest death on Oahu.
The states official coronavirus-related death toll includes 375 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 52 on Maui, two on Kauai and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.
The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is more than 579,000 and the nationwide infection tally is over 32.5 million.
Todays new statewide infection cases include 40 on Oahu, eight on Maui, six on Kauai, two on Hawaii island and eight Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, state health officials removed two Oahu cases from the counts.
>> RELATED: Kauai to move into modified Tier 3 after spike in COVID-19 cases
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Monday.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 25,126 on Oahu, 3,451 on Maui, 2,711 in Hawaii County, 283 on Kauai, 111 on Lanai and 37 on Molokai. There are also 1,075 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.
Health officials also said today that of the states total infection count, 1,191 cases were considered to be active. Officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a proxy number for active cases. The number of active cases in the state decreased by 13 today.
By island, Oahu has 879 active cases, Maui has 171, Kauai has 80, the Big Island has 60, Molokai has one and Lanai has none.
Health officials counted 5,398 new COVID-19 test results in todays tally, for a 1.19% statewide positivity rate. The states 7-day average positivity rate is 1.7%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
The Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said that 1,263,836 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,163 have required hospitalizations, with 10 new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.
Nine hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 2,154 hospitalizations within the state, 1,806 have been on Oahu, 214 on Maui, 119 on the Big Island, nine on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.
According to the latest information from the departments Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 56 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Tuesday, with 10 in intensive care units and six on ventilators.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Herd immunity occurs when a large proportion of a population is immune to a virus because of previous infection or vaccination. As a result, the virus cant readily spread, because its chances of encountering a susceptible person are low.
What percentage of a population would have to be immune to achieve herd immunity?
Theres no magic number, said Dr. David Dowdy, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And the number, he added in an e-mail, depends partially on how many people have been infected, the degree of distancing that people are practicing, and the transmissibility of the virus a factor that can change with the season and the variant of the virus in circulation.
Still, many experts have recently settled on 80 percent as the likely target.
We wont know what the exact number is until we reach it and see what happens epidemiologically with cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, said Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine who specializes in infectious diseases.
Could Massachusetts achieve herd immunity by itself?
We have a better shot than most other places in the world right now, Bhadelia said in an e-mail.
But Dr. David Hamer, a physician at Boston Medical Center and a Boston University epidemiologist, said, Its going to be a challenge. The federal government has not yet authorized the vaccines for people under 16, some people remain reluctant to get the vaccines, and some people have medical or religious reasons for declining.
I think its more feasible in Massachusetts than in a number of other states, where theres much greater reticence, Hamer said.
Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College, doesnt think its likely to happen.
Given the substantial number of people who seem intent on declining COVID immunization and our open borders, we will probably never achieve full herd immunity or eradicate COVID in Massachusetts, he said in an e-mail. But if we continue on the current trajectory (and the virus does not mutate out of control), we will get it down to very low numbers.
In a Twitter thread earlier this week, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, noted that Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and South Dakota have already reached about 70 percent population immunity, when you count immunity through infections. They might get to 80 percent before long, he wrote.
We wont be done even if we get to 80%, Jha added. Well need to monitor variants, vaccinate the world, continue testing, etc. . . . But this is all manageable. Well settle into a new equilibrium as we do with many viruses.
Dr. Helen W. Boucher, chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, said that doctors and others are already planning to cope with COVID-19 for the long haul preparing to possibly give booster shots in the fall, thinking ahead to caring for patients with a fever and a cough, ensuring tests and protective equipment are in adequate supply.
Well have to be prepared to deal with a world like that, Boucher said in an interview. Those discussions are happening at many levels in this country.
How depressed should we be if we cant reach herd immunity?
If herd immunity is never achieved, said BCs Landrigan, COVID will continue to smolder in the population endemic transmission and we will have to hope that no new, resistant strain of the virus emerges.
Still, the benefits of vaccination are clear.
Even if Massachusetts doesnt attain herd immunity, Jha wrote on Twitter, as the state gets into summer and fall, infection numbers will be low, vaccinated folks will be mainly safe, and with better treatment infections may become less problematic. And life will return to a recognizable normal. And thatll be good.
Bhadelia, from BU, cautioned, We need to drive the number down through vaccination this summer because its possible cases may go up again during winter due to possible seasonality of this virus.
At the same time, experts noted, even if herd immunity were technically reached, it is not necessarily the same as completely wiping out the disease.
Were not likely to completely eradicate the virus anytime soon, said William Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Can Massachusetts protect itself on its own?
We dont live in a microcosm, said Boucher, the Tufts physician. You cant say we have herd immunity when people come in and out.
Even if Massachusetts does well in stopping COVID-19, the virus could make its way back into the state if it is still circulating around the country and the world, the experts said.
But, Hanage said, If population immunity can be kept high enough, then it wont cause large outbreaks.
Bhadelia noted that if the virus keeps getting imported into the state, chances increase that it will encounter people who cannot mount a good immune response, and that new variants will reduce vaccine effectiveness.
At the end of the day, were all connected, said Dowdy, from Johns Hopkins. As long as the virus is transmitting in one jurisdiction, reintroduction and outbreaks will be a possibility in all jurisdictions.
Martin Finucane can be reached at martin.finucane@globe.com. Felice J. Freyer can be reached at felice.freyer@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @felicejfreyer.
The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 154 million on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while the death toll rose above 3.2 million. The U.S. continues to lead the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 32.5 million cases and 578,500 deaths, or about a fifth of the worldwide tallies. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is aiming to have 70% of adults in the U.S. have at least one vaccine dose by July 4, up from 56% currently. The vaccine program has started to slow as more older adults have now been inoculated and the federal government is planning an outreach program to reach people in more remote areas. India is second to the U.S. by cases at 20.6 million and third by fatalities at 226,188. Indian hospitals are still overwhelmed by cases and lacking in supplies including oxygen. Brazil is third with 14.9 million cases and second by fatalities at 411,588. Mexico has the fourth-highest death toll at 217,740 and 2.4 million cases, or 15th highest tally. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,803 deaths, the fifth-highest in the world and highest in Europe.
Coronavirus: Moderna touts effectiveness of booster shot against some Covid variants - as it happened Financial Times
by: KSN News, KSN News, KSN News
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) Kansas has administered over two million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the governors office.
To date, the Centers for Disease Control reports that Kansas has administered 2,059,674 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. About 43% of Kansans have received at least their first dose, with nearly 33% fully vaccinated.
This is a great milestone for Kansas, but there is still more work to do,Dr. Lee Norman, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said.We encourage all Kansans who have yet to be vaccinated to take that initial step to get vaccinated.
Fourteen more deaths are linked to COVID-19, bringing the states death toll to 4,999, according to the KDHE.
Since Monday, 470 more Kansans have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 33 more were hospitalized as variants are rising across the state, the governors office said.
All Kansans are encouraged to visitVaccines.govto find the nearest location with an available vaccine.
County coronavirus cases updated: May 5, 2021Weekly doses updated May 3, 2021Sources:Kansas Department of Health and EnvironmentNebraska Department of Health and Human ServicesOklahoma State Department of Health
Coronavirus: Biden sets target of 70% of US adults with at least one dose by July 4 as it happened Financial Times
Coronavirus: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut set to end most Covid restrictions - as it happened Financial Times
MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) -- State tourism officials say the coronavirus pandemic caused a 30% decline in direct spending by tourists in Wisconsin in 2020, but they are optimistic the industry will rebound this year.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, spending dropped about $4 billion last year to $9.8 billion. All of Wisconsin's 72 counties experienced a decline in tourism activity last year compared to 2019. But officials say the first four months of this year are shaping up to be better than 2019.
National research shows 87% of Americans plan to travel in the next six months.
The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 153.5 million on Tuesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while the death toll rose to 3.2 million. The U.S. continues to lead the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 32.5 million cases and 577,523 deaths, or about a fifth of the worldwide tallies. There was positive vaccine news from the Associated Press, which said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer's PFE, +0.05% COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 15 by next week, citing a federal official and a person familiar with the process, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year. The U.S. vaccine program has slowed as more older people have been fully vaccinated and experts say inoculating young people will go a long way toward expanding it.India is second to the U.S. by cases at 20.3 million and third by fatalities at 222,408. Indian hospitals are still overwhelmed by cases and lacking in supplies including oxygen. Brazil is third with 14.8 million cases and second by fatalities at 408,622. Mexico has the fourth-highest death toll at 217,345 and 2.3 million cases, or 15th highest tally. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,799 deaths, the fifth-highest in the world and highest in Europe.
