The governor said when 2.5 million Kentuckians receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, he will remove capacity and distancing restrictions.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear issued a challenge Monday morning in the hopes of encouraging all Kentuckians to receive their COVID-19 vaccine.
Outside the new mass vaccination site at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Beshear announced the "Team Kentucky Vaccination Challenge." The goal of the challenge is to reward the state's vaccination efforts by removing COVID-19 restrictions.
The first goal of the challenge is to give out 2.5 million first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Kentucky. When the state reaches that goal, Beshear said he will remove capacity restrictions on nearly all events, businesses and venues that serve fewer than 1,000 customers. He also said he would remove physical distancing restrictions and end the curfew for bars and restaurants in the state.
"This is what you have been waiting for - a clear number and a clear goal to hit," Beshear said.
Beshear stressed that the mask mandate will remain in place due to the concern over COVID-19 variants.
You can watch the full press conference below:
On Sunday, Gov. Beshear said more than 1.5 million Kentuckianshave received their vaccine so far, so the state is about 900,000 people away from reaching the first goal. Gov. Beshear said we can reach 2.5 million people vaccinated in three and a half weeks, but more realistically four to six weeks.
The vaccination site at Cardinal Stadium opened Monday morning at 9 a.m. It will be the largest mass vaccination site in the state. Gov. Beshear said around 4,000 Kentuckians should be able to get vaccinated at that site each day. The goals of the site is to administer 200,000 vaccines in seven weeks.
A month ago there were more people who wanted the vaccine than doses available. Now the supply is available, and is ready to be administered.
Now its up to our people to do, I think their duty as citizens, their patriotic duty as Americans as we fight this disease together, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. We need you to come get your vaccine.
Eligibility for the COVID-19 has been expanded to include everyone 16 years old and older.
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COVID-19 Vaccination Sites
Below is information regarding public opportunities for vaccination appointments including; addresses, availability, as well as how to schedule your appointment, and what vaccine type is being offered at each location. These include City of Detroit locations as well as pharmacies and medical centers.
To schedule at ANY City of Detroit location please call (313) 230-0505to make an appointment (M-F 9am - 6pm). TCF Center is now accepting walk-ins on the Rooftop M-F 9am - 5pm. Please use "TCF Center Rooftop" in Google Maps.
LEES SUMMIT, Mo. If youve been waiting for a quick and easy way to get your COVID-19 shot, a large-scale clinic is operating this week at a metro soccer field.
Officials with the City of Lees Summit are working with the state of Missouri to host a large-scale clinic at Legacy Park Soccer Field on April 14 and 15. Appointments are available from noon to 8 p.m. both days.
Organizers expect to vaccinate about 2,200 people each day with the Pfizer shot. Those who go for their first dose will have to get their second dose early in May, which will be offered at another two-day event.
City officials ask participants avoid causing large lines by arriving within 20 minutes of their appointment and no earlier. Health professionals will need to access the upper arm, and masks for everyone are required.
Register online, here.
Registration is also availableby calling (877) 435-8411. See more information, including directions to the site within the park, on the Lees Summit website.
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Former President Donald Trump wants you to start calling the COVID-19 vaccine by a different name.
"Trumpcine" is the former president's desired moniker for the life-saving jab, CNN reporter Kevin Liptak said on Twitter.
Trump made this request to hundreds of donors during a rambling 50-minute speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday night, Newsweek reported.
It's the latest sign that the former president is growing increasingly frustrated that he isn't receiving credit for the development or rollout of the coronavirus shot.
Read more: Just 5 governors haven't gotten their COVID-19 vaccine, Insider found. Here's who and why.
In early March, Trump released a statement falsely asserting that he was primarily responsible for the shot's rapid development.
"I hope everyone remembers when they're getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn't President, you wouldn't be getting that beautiful 'shot' for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn't be getting it at all," the statement said.
There is no evidence to suggest that Trump's efforts would have shaved four or five years off from a COVID-19 vaccine being developed, Insider's Tyler Sonnemaker previously wrote.
In November, Insider's Mia Jankowicz reported that Trump was furious that President Joe Biden may get credit for the vaccines. He was reportedly upset that Biden would "steal" the plaudits from him, Jankowicz said.
Trump made the latest plea for credit at a speech to his most dedicated supporters during a Republican National Committee retreat.
In addition to touting the "Trumpcine," he reportedly spent several minutes deriding Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao.
VERIFY: What does your vaccine reaction say about how you would have fared with COVID-19? WUSA9.com
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NEW DELHI (AP) India reported another record daily surge in coronavirus infections Monday to pass Brazil as the country with the second-most reported infections since the pandemic began.
The 168,912 cases added in the last 24 hours pushed Indias total since the pandemic began to 13.5 million, while Brazil has 13.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
India also reported 904 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 170,179, which is the fourth-highest toll, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico.
India is experiencing its worst surge of the pandemic, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 cases per day. Hospitals across the country are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.
The latest surge also coincides with the shortage of vaccines in some Indian states, including western Maharashtra state, home to financial capital Mumbai, which is the worst hit state and has recorded nearly half of the countrys new infections in the past two weeks.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
The hard-hit Philippine capital and four nearby provinces were placed under a lighter coronavirus lockdown Monday to avoid further damage to an already battered economy despite a continuing surge in infections and deaths. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Metropolitan Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, a region of more than 25 million people, would remain under lighter quarantine restrictions up to the end of April after a two-week hard lockdown. Our emerging strategy is to increase our bed capacities instead of closing the economy, said Roque, who spoke in a televised news briefing from a Manila hospital after contracting COVID-19 like many Cabinet members. The Philippines has long been a Southeast Asian coronavirus hotspot, with about 865,000 confirmed infections and nearly 15,000 deaths.
Thailand has reported 985 new coronavirus cases, its highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic. Health officials say they are worried the number of new infections could be far higher after this weeks traditional Thai New Year holiday. Health experts said Monday that the third major surge in the country was proving more difficult to control as it was mostly a variant of the virus first found in the U.K. and has mostly affected younger people because it broke out at nightclubs and bars. Millions of Thais are traveling around the country for this weeks annual Songkran festival. The government has not prevented people from traveling, as it did when it canceled the festival last year.
New Zealand is requiring that all border workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus by the end of the month. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that beginning immediately, employers would need to consider alternative options for any of their employees who havent been vaccinated. That could mean those workers are redeployed to roles away from the border or fired. Ardern had previously set April as a deadline for vaccinating frontline workers but on Monday talked about it in stronger terms after three workers at a quarantine facility caught the virus. New Zealand has stamped out the spread of the virus within the community, so returning travelers who may have caught COVID-19 abroad are considered the biggest vulnerability.
Tokyo adopted tougher measures against the coronavirus as it struggles to curb the rapid spread of a more contagious variant ahead of the Olympics in a country where less than 1% of people have been vaccinated. Japan expanded its vaccination drive Monday to older residents, with the first shots being given in about 120 selected places around the country. The tougher COVID-19 rules allow Tokyos governor to mandate shorter opening hours for bars and restaurants, punish violators and compensate those who comply. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike urged residents to be cautious while vaccinations are in an early stage.
Bhutans COVID-19 vaccination drive was fast from the start. As other countries rolled out their vaccination campaigns over months, Bhutan is nearly done just 16 days after it started. The tiny Himalayan kingdom has vaccinated nearly 93% of its adults. Its small population helped Bhutan move fast, but dedicated volunteers and the use of cold chain storage from earlier vaccination drives are credited as well. Bhutan distributed the shots to coincide with auspicious dates in Buddhist astrology and the recipient and provider of the first shot were women born in the Year of the Monkey.
The new mayor of South Koreas capital demanded swift approval of coronavirus self-testing kits, saying that his city urgently needs more tools to fight the pandemic and keep struggling businesses open. Oh Se-hoon spoke Monday as Seoul and nearby metropolitan towns shut down hostess bars, nightclubs and other high-risk entertainment venues to slow transmissions. Similar businesses were also shut down in the southern port city of Busan. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said 350 of the countrys 587 new cases were from the greater Seoul area. The director of South Koreas National Health Institute said earlier this month that authorities are reviewing whether to approve rapid home tests. But the review has proceeded slowly with some experts saying such tests would do more harm than good because they are less accurate than standard laboratory tests. Health officials meanwhile said Maryland-based Novavax has agreed to a licensing arrangement that will allow a South Korean biotech firm to produce its coronavirus vaccines from later this year. SK Bioscience plans to produce 20 million Novavax shots through September, all of which will be used locally.
Coronavirus has hit the UK hard, with the country recording more than 4m cases and 127,000 deaths linked to the disease.
The government figures below include confirmed cases only some people who have the disease are not tested.
At the start of the pandemic, London bore the brunt of coronaviruss impact. After that, the centre of the virus shifted northwards and to areas in Northern Ireland before rising again in London and the south-east.
Everyday life in the UK has been subject to varying degrees of restriction since March 2020, and various national lockdowns currently apply in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These regulations are set by the legislative body in each nation so there are local differences.
Details of the English lockdown are listed here, Scottish lockdown here, Welsh here and Northern Irish here.
Cases in the UK first peaked in early April 2020, before falling in late spring and summer. Numbers started to increase again in the autumn, falling back briefly in November before reaching a record level in January 2021. Since then cases have declined sharply, though this fall has flattened out in March. The number of tests available affects the number of recorded cases.
The number of people in hospital with coronavirus rose sharply after records started at the end of March 2020, peaking in April. That figure began rising again in September and reached a new record in January 2021, though in line with cases, has since declined.
Deaths surpassed their first-wave peak in January 2021, with daily deaths once again standing at over 1,000.
Since UK regulators approved the Pfizer vaccine in December, the UKs vaccine rollout has picked up pace. Hundreds of thousands of people are now being vaccinated every day.
The government plans to offer 32 million people (nearly half the population) a first dose of the vaccine by the middle of April. This means vaccinating all nine priority groups, including everyone over 50, all clinically vulnerable people and frontline health and social care workers.
The government successfully reached its target of offering the first vaccine dose to everyone in the top four priority groups by mid-February.
The UKs testing capacity has increased significantly since the first wave. This meant that, when the second wave hit, a higher proportion of cases were caught on record, pushing up the overall number of recorded cases.
Daily testing hit half a million in December, as the second wave began to take off, and reached 1m when schools returned in early March.
In the first wave, daily testing capacity was under 50,000 throughout April 2020 as the UK grappled with the beginning of the pandemic.
Lockdown has brought down case rates for everyone. But different age groups have been affected differently. Throughout the pandemic working-age people aged between 20 and 60 have had the highest levels of infection. Meanwhile the over-60s have had an overall lower case rate, largely because they are more able to self-isolate.
Under-20s have also had a relatively low case rate. Scientists suggest that coronavirus is less transmissible for children, although the impact of reopening schools in England on 8 March remains to be seen.
In the table below, you can find out the number of cases per 100,000 in your area, both for the last week and since the start of the pandemic.
This data comes comes from Public Health England, working with devolved authorities in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Differences in data collection and publishing schedules may lead to temporary inconsistencies. 3 and 4 October cases totals include cases from previous days published late owing to a technical fault.
The government figures for deaths that are used in this tracker incorporate any deaths that have occurred within 28 days of a positive test. This means they are able to quickly capture deaths occurring in hospitals and care homes, both settings where testing is widespread.
The ONS, along with its counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland, captures deaths data differently. They count all deaths where Covid is on the death certificate. About 90% of these deaths are directly due to Covid while it is a contributory factor in the remaining deaths.
Due to the unprecedented and ongoing nature of the coronavirus outbreak, this article is being regularly updated to ensure that it reflects the current situation as well as possible. Any significant corrections made to this or previous versions of the article will continue to be footnoted in line with Guardian editorial policy.
Shoppers queue outside TK Maxx in Cardiff as lockdown eases
Traffic levels spiked and demand for public transport surged in England as people rushed back to the high for shopping and to visit pubs.
Vehicle usage was up in major cities, while Transport for London (TfL) reported increased demand for Tube and bus services.
Crowds gathered outside shops and pubs across the country as coronavirus restrictions eased to allow non-essential stores, beer gardens and outdoor restaurant dining to reopen.
Hairdressers, nail salons and indoor gyms have also welcomed customers back however social mixing indoors will continue to be heavily restricted.
A member of the governments Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) has warned the easing of restrictions could lead to a resurgence in coronavirus infection rates while prime minister Boris Johnson urged people to behave responsibly.
Dr Mike Tildesley, reader in infectious disease modelling at the University of Warwick, told Times Radio: "It's hard to tell categorically but I think we do need to remember that with any form of reopening there's going to be more mixing, and so we might expect that that could lead to higher risk.
"We might expect it could have a resurgence, but it's really, really important therefore that people follow the rules that are in place with this relaxation.
Behind the headline review on the week in health
Matt Mathers12 April 2021 18:15
Studentsneed clarity and deserve better amid ongoing uncertainty over the full return to campus, theNational Union of Students(NUS) have said.
The bodys vice president forhigher educationsaid the sector continues to be left in the dark about plans for the summer term.
My colleague Zoe Tidman reports:
Matt Mathers12 April 2021 18:00
Coronavirus case rates for two of the four UK nations have continued to decrease in recent weeks, whereas data show that infection rates in the other two UK nations have been broadly level.
Modelling by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 in both Wales and and Scotland have decreased in the two weeks to 3 April.
My colleagues Chiara Giordano, Samuel Osborne and Sam Hancock report:
Matt Mathers12 April 2021 17:45
One of Britains leading imams has said he believes the the tide has turned onCovid-19 vaccine hesitancy in Black and Asian communities.
Qari Asim, senior imam of the Makkah Masjid, in Leeds, and chairman of Mosques & Imams National Advisory Board (Minab), was speaking as he urged households to resist the urge to mix as the month of Ramadan begins.
Imam Asim said: The vast majority of scholars believe that taking the vaccine in the month of Ramadan will not break the fast.
The message from Muslim religious leadership is that one should not miss the opportunity to take the vaccine when they are invited to do so.
Imam Asim added: I firmly believe the vaccine hesitancy has been reduced tremendously.
The credit goes to the community champions, religious leadership, and NHS workers.
He said: I think the tide has turned. More and more people from black and Asian ethnic minorities, including Muslims, are now taking up the vaccine.
Matt Mathers12 April 2021 17:27
Tube journeys surged on Monday as lockdown restrictions were eased, Transport for London (TfL) has said.
Between 11am and noon, demand across the Tube network was 41 per cent up compared with the same period on 6 April.
Transport and traffic levels soared across England as people were given the green light to go shopping and do other activities.
Road journeys in London at 8am took an average of 42 per cent longer compared with free-flow conditions, according to location technology firm TomTom.
That is up from 32 per cent at that time on April 6, the first working day of last week.
Other cities to experience rises over the same period included Brighton (22 to 28 per cent), Birmingham (22 to 27 per cent), Bristol (25 to 33 per cent), Manchester (27 to 37 per cent) and Leeds (23 to 51 per cent).
In London, the increase at stations serving shopping areas such as Oxford Street and Westfield Stratford City was 125 per cent, TfL said.
Demand for buses up to 10am was up 15 per cent compared with April 6.
Matt Mathers12 April 2021 17:09
Footfall at all the UK's retail destinations had risen 116 per cent by 3pm today compared to the same time a week ago, according to figures from Springboard.
Shopping centre footfall rose 176 per cent, while high street footfall rose 144 per cent, the figures show. Meanwhile, retail parks saw a 5.6 per cent drop in footfall.
Across all destinations footfall was still down 26 per cent compared to Monday 15 April, 2019. It rose 410 per cent compared to Monday 13 April, 2020 - the height of the first lockdown.
Chiara Giordano12 April 2021 16:40
A senior police officer has warned terrorists could have a "greater opportunity to operate" as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased,
Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Twist, one of Counter Terrorism Policing's senior national coordinators responsible for making sure the UK is protected from such threats, urged the public and businesses to "be alert" to more than just the dangers of Covid-19 this summer.
According to a police statement, he believes "the easing of lockdown restrictions could provide a greater opportunity for terrorists to operate".
The terrorism threat level is currently listed as "substantial", meaning an attack is likely.
Chiara Giordano12 April 2021 16:25
Pub and hospitality bosses have said they will "not get too excited" despite pouring pints for customers for the first time in more than three months.
Industry leaders have called for caution, warning the sector's recovery will take a long time, while more than half of venues remain shut due to ongoing restrictions.
Around 38 per cent of licensed premises in the UK have the outdoor space needed to reopen today, according to figures from CGA and Alix Partners.
Patrick Dardis, chief executive of Young's, said the London-based pub group is still awaiting the next dates on the government's roadmap despite reopening about 140 pubs.
"Today is just a very small step towards getting our business back to anywhere near viability," he said.
"However, let's not get too excited as we still cannot serve indoors. Even on 17 May, we will not be trading anywhere near normal."
While Roger Wade, founder and chief executive of Boxpark, said he was pleased to reopen sites but was critical of the decision to keep indoor hospitality shut but allow non-essential shops to reopen.
Chiara Giordano12 April 2021 16:10
Wales has become the first nation of the UK to give a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to half its population.
Some 1.59 million people had received a first jab by April 11, according to figures from Public Health Wales.
This is the equivalent of 50.4 per cent of the population.
The other nations are a short way behind, with Scotland up to 48.8 per cent, England on 48.2 per cent and Northern Ireland at 43.6 per cent.
Wales was the first nation of the UK to roll out the Moderna vaccine, with the first batch given last week.
Scotland has also started using the Moderna jab, and England is due to follow later this month.
Chiara Giordano12 April 2021 16:00
Boris Johnson has joined millions of people having their hair cut for the first time in months, as coronavirus restrictions were lifted and hairdressers were permitted to open in England today.
Downing Street confirmed the prime minister had his hair trimmed this morning before joining MPs in parliament to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Mr Johnson was pictured leaving Downing Street for the House of Commons with his famous blond mop noticeably shorter.
The prime minister echoed the thoughts of the nation last month when he admitted he "badly" needed a haircut, with salons and barbers in London shut since before Christmas.
He had suggested he would prioritise a visit to the pub over a trip to the hairdressers, but the fanfare for the easing of restrictions has been muted by national mourning for Philip.
Prime minister Boris Johnson, who appears to have had a haircut on the first day of the easing of lockdown restrictions in England, leaving Number 10
(Aaron Chown/PA)
Chiara Giordano12 April 2021 15:44
But some developments have dampened the excitement: This week, a few vaccination sites across the US paused operations after some patients reported adverse reactions following the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The vaccine has also been linked to blood clots in four people who received the vaccine. One of the cases was fatal, European health officials confirmed.
Incidents of "breakthrough infections" have caused some concern, too: A few people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have still been infected with the virus and, in some cases, have died.
Both issues raise valid concerns, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. But the risks of getting vaccinated -- severe reactions remain incredibly rare -- are outweighed by the risks of Covid-19 infection, he said.
Health experts in the US and beyond agree: All three Covid-19 vaccines currently authorized in the US continue to be safe and highly effective at preventing Covid-19 infection.
But 90% isn't 100%, so "breakthrough infections," or cases of Covid-19 that occur in fully vaccinated people, are to be expected and don't mean the vaccines are less effective, said Dr. Anthony Fauci at a White House briefing on Friday.
"That number of individuals who were breakthrough infections is not at all incompatible with a 90 plus percent vaccine efficacy. So I don't think that there needs to be concern about any shift or change in the efficacy of the vaccine," Fauci said in response to a question from CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
Johnson & Johnson is not a 'second-class' vaccine
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was linked to four cases of blood clots, one case in a clinical trial and the remaining three during the vaccine's rollout in the US, the European Medicines Agency confirmed Friday. In one of the cases, the person died.
In a statement released on Friday, CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund told CNN, "CDC is aware of several incidents of vaccine recipients experiencing dizziness, light headedness, feeling faint, rapid breathing, and sweating (vasovagal or anxiety-related) symptoms following COVID-19 vaccines in Iowa, Colorado, Georgia, and North Carolina."
At this time, CDC and FDA "are not recommending health departments stop administering any lots of COVID-19 vaccine," the statement says. "CDC has performed vaccine lot analyses and has not found any reason for concern."
CDC officials take reports of adverse events seriously and "constantly analyze" the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, Schaffner said. Even considering those reports of adverse reactions, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is still considered a safe and important tool to combat Covid-19.
Why some vaccinated people still get sick and even die
In Friday's briefing, Fauci noted that the few deaths seen among the 200-plus breakthrough infections predominantly occurred in elderly people. That's not unexpected, he said.
Older people are more likely than the rest of the population to have underlying conditions. Older people were also among the first to be vaccinated, in addition to health care workers, Schaffner noted.
Schaffner noted the fully vaccinated elderly are already at a heightened risk of death due to their age and health status.
"Those are populations that are enriched with people who have underlying illnesses," he said. "We know that, on a day-to-day basis, adverse events in that population are going to occur."
To determine whether the vaccine directly causes adverse reactions, health experts at the CDC and other agencies compare vaccinated people to unvaccinated people within the same demographics to find if adverse events occur more commonly in the vaccinated group. If they occur at similar rates, Schaffner said, the adverse events are likely not related to the vaccine.
Side effects aren't rare, but severe reactions are
Minor side effects after receiving a vaccine aren't uncommon. In the case of the Covid-19 vaccines, an estimated 10% to 15% of volunteers in clinical trials developed noticeable side effects, a former Operation Warp Speed official said late last year.
The risk from the Covid-19 vaccine is miniscule compared to the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 itself, Schaffner said. As case numbers surge once again in the US, even as millions of people are vaccinated, it's hugely important that those who can get vaccinated do, he said.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to accurately characterize Dr. William Schaffner's comments about vaccine risks. He said the risk of Covid-19 infection outweighs the rare risk of adverse reactions to vaccines.
CNN's Jen Christensen, Katia Hetter, Betsy Klein, Amanda Watts and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
