Category: Covid-19

Heres what you need to know:A crowded cafe at the end of the day at Chtelet-Les Halles in Paris on Wednesday.Credit...Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times

Europe has recorded a 60 percent drop in new coronavirus infections over the past month, the World Health Organization said Thursday, encouraging news that comes as the continent plans to reopen its borders. Still, this progress is fragile, a top agency official cautioned.

On Wednesday, the 27 member states of the European Union agreed that the bloc would reopen its borders to nonessential travelers who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with an approved shot, as well as to those coming from a list of countries where the coronavirus is relatively under control.

The rules are set to become formal policy next week, and could be implemented immediately. Under the E.U. plan, the bloc would accept visitors who have completed their immunization at least two weeks before their arrival, using one of the shots approved by the unions own regulator or by the W.H.O. That covers the vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinopharm, according to a draft of the rules seen by The New York Times.

Most countries are likely to introduce changes slowly and conservatively, but some of them, like Greece, have already removed quarantine requirements for vaccinated travelers or those who have a negative PCR test from no more than 72 hours ago. England, France, Spain, Poland, Italy and other countries in the bloc have already started easing restrictions.

The W.H.O.s announcement of declining cases is welcome for the soon-reopening bloc, as tourists and other nonessential travelers who have been mostly barred for more than a year will be able to return and could invigorate the struggling tourism and hospitality sectors of many countries.

The number of new cases reported weekly across Europe dropped from 1.7 million in mid-April to close to 685,000 last week, reported Dr. Hans Kluge, the W.H.O.s European director. But as regulations are relaxed, increased social gatherings and travel during the summer holiday season could result in more transmission of the virus, he said, and worrisome variants that appeared to be spreading within the bloc remained a cause for concern.

This progress is fragile, we have been here before, Dr. Kluge told reporters at a news conference, advising vigilance over outbreaks that could quickly evolve into dangerous resurgences.

The B.1.617 variant, which was first identified in India and has been deemed a variant of concern by the W.H.O., has now spread to 26 of the 53 countries the W.H.O. includes in its European region. Dr. Kluge said that although most cases of the variant were connected to international travel, transmission of the variant was occurring within Europe.

We are heading in the right direction, but need to keep a watchful eye on a virus that has claimed the lives of nearly 1.2 million people in this region, Dr. Kluge said.

Dr. Kluge added that the vaccines had so far been effective against variants, but that the slow vaccine rollout in Europe had only reached a small percentage of the population, and that precautions like social distancing and wearing masks were still necessary.

Vaccines may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot be blinded by that light, he said.

Japan on Friday approved the Moderna and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines for use in adults, giving the country much-needed new options as it tries to speed up an inoculation campaign that has been one of the slowest in the developed world.

Previously, only the Pfizer vaccine had been authorized for use in Japan, where just 4.1 percent of the population has received a first shot. Vaccinations have been held up by strict rules that allow only doctors and nurses to administer shots, and by a requirement that vaccines be tested on people in Japan before they are approved for use.

Japan is in the midst of a fourth wave of coronavirus infections, just two months before the Summer Olympics in Tokyo are set to begin. Tokyo and eight other prefectures are under a state of emergency that will last at least until the end of this month, and Okinawa is expected to be added to that list. Japan has been reporting about 5,500 cases a day, compared to 1,000 in early March.

A Health Ministry panel recommended on Thursday night that the government approve the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. The health minister, Norihisa Tamura, said that the Moderna shots would be used at mass inoculation sites scheduled to open on Monday in Tokyo and Osaka, which will be staffed mainly by military doctors and nurses.

The government has not said when the AstraZeneca vaccine would be deployed. NHK, the public broadcaster, reported that despite the green light from the government, the use of AstraZeneca might be delayed over concerns that it could be linked to very rare cases of blood clotting.

global roundup

President Alberto Fernndez of Argentina ordered a nine-day lockdown in the worst-affected parts of the country to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as the nation struggled to contain a second wave of the outbreak.

In a speech broadcast nationally on all radio and TV stations, Mr. Fernndez ordered a lockdown that starts on Saturday and ends on May 30 in those regions. That will be followed by another nine days of restrictions, the severity of which will be determined by how much the country is able to control the spread of the virus.

We are living the worst moment since the start of the pandemic, Mr. Fernndez said. If we follow the guidelines, we will reduce the impact of this second wave. It is imperative that every local jurisdiction strictly apply these guidelines. There is no space for speculation and there is no time for delay.

Argentina, like many of its neighbors in Latin America, saw an alarming spike in cases in April that has shown little respite as the region struggles to vaccinate people quickly enough to slow the spread. In the last seven days, the countrys daily average of new cases soared to become the fourth-highest in the world, and deaths rose to be the fifth-highest.

On Thursday, Argentina recorded 39,652 new cases and 494 new deaths. So far, 18 percent of the population has received at least one dose of a vaccine and 4.7 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. Neighboring Chile has fully vaccinated 40 percent of its population.

In other developments around the globe:

Thailand has detected its first 15 domestically transmitted cases of the highly infectious coronavirus variant first found in India, Reuters reported. The cases were discovered among construction workers in Bangkok, the Thai coronavirus task force said on Friday.

Prime Minister Pedro Snchez of Spain announced on Friday that visitors from Britain, Japan, China and a handful of countries would be allowed back into the country from Monday, while Americans and other people who have been vaccinated will be able to visit Spain from June 7. The return of British tourists, who form the largest contingent of holiday makers in many Spanish resorts, was seen as essential to help guarantee the recovery of the Spanish tourism sector. Spain will be very happy to welcome British tourists, Mr. Snchez said, during a tourism conference in Madrid. They are welcome into our country without restrictions.

While the government of Britain still advises against international cruises, a ship embarked on a domestic journey on Thursday night, the first time any such vessel had set sail from the country for more than a year. Passengers for the four-night cruise around the British Isles had to test negative for the virus before boarding and social distancing and masks are still required in public areas

Norway plans to ease some virus restrictions beginning May 27, Reuters reported. Larger groups of people will be allowed to meet and alcohol will be allowed to be served until midnight, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Friday. In some places, though, local restrictions will remain tougher than the national rules to prevent regional flare-ups of the virus.

Raphael Minder and Anna Schaverien contributed reporting.

Its not every day that an American governor appears alongside a man dressed as a lottery ball.

But thats exactly what happened on Thursday as Gov. Larry Hogan announced that Maryland would partner with the states lottery to provide $2 million in prize money for residents who get vaccinated.

Our mission is to ensure that no arm is left behind and were committed to leaving no stone unturned and using every resource at our disposal to achieve that goal, Mr. Hogan said.

Beginning May 25, the Maryland lottery will randomly select and award $40,000 to a vaccinated Marylander every day through July 4, when a final drawing will be held for a grand prize of $400,000. Any Maryland resident who has been vaccinated in the state will be automatically enrolled in drawings.

The sooner you get your shot, the more lottery drawings you will be eligible for, he said, adding, Theres no better time than now and there should be no more excuses.

The state has administered about 5.7 million vaccines, and 44 percent of the state is fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database. But like other states across the country, vaccination rates have tapered off. States have turned to an array of incentives including beer, money, transit cards and joints to get shots into the arms of more Americans.

Promotions like this are just one more way that were reinforcing the importance of getting every single Marylander we can vaccinated against Covid-19, Mr. Hogan said. All funding will be provided from Marylands lottery marketing fund.

Get your shot for a shot to win, he said, adding, thats a good line.

Maryland isnt alone in trying to lure residents with the chance of big winnings. This month, Ohios governor, Mike DeWine, offered a $1 million lottery prize for five people who get vaccinated. That effort would be paid for by federal coronavirus relief funds, Mr. DeWine said during a statewide televised address. Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon also announced a variety of lottery prizes for all vaccinated Oregonians 12 and older, including a $1 million dollar grand prize and five $100,000 college scholarship winners. The campaign will also be funded by coronavirus relief funds.

And in New York, the state will hand out free scratch-off tickets for the Mega Multiplier lottery to those 18 and older who get their shot at 10 state mass vaccination sites next week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday. The pilot program lasts from next Monday to Friday. The tickets could yield prizes from $20 to the $5 million jackpot, he said.

People in Africa who become critically ill from Covid-19 are more likely to die than patients in other parts of the world, according to a report published on Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The report, based on data from 64 hospitals in 10 countries, is the first broad look at what happens to critically ill Covid patients in Africa, the authors say.

The increased risk of death applies only to those who become severely ill, not to everyone who catches the disease. Over all, the rates of illness and death from Covid in Africa appear lower than in the rest of the world. But if the virus begins to spread more rapidly in Africa, as it has in other regions, these findings suggest that the death toll could worsen.

Among 3,077 critically ill patients admitted to the African hospitals, 48.2 percent died within 30 days, compared with a global average of 31.5 percent, the Lancet study found.

The study was observational, meaning that the researchers followed the patients progress, but did not experiment with treatments. The work was done by a large team called The African Covid-19 Critical Care Outcomes Study Investigators.

For Africa as a whole, the death rate among severely ill Covid patients may be even higher than it was in the study, the researchers said, because much of their information came from relatively well-equipped hospitals, and 36 percent of those facilities were in South Africa and Egypt, which have better resources than many other African countries. In addition, the patients in the study, with an average age of 56, were younger than many other critically ill Covid patients, indicating that death rates outside the study could be higher.

Cruises from United States ports came one step closer to restarting this summer when the House approved a measure on Thursday that will temporarily allow large cruise ships to sail to Alaska and bypass a legal requirement to stop at Canadian ports, which have banned cruise ships until 2022 because of the pandemic.

Most major cruise lines had canceled their summer Alaska voyages because most of the ships are foreign-owned and under maritime law they are required to visit at least one foreign port when traveling between states. Cruises between Washington and Alaska typically stop in Canada. Canadas ban had effectively killed the Alaskan summer cruise season, which provides many of the states tourism dollars.

The scenic port town of Skagway, set along a popular cruise route in southeast Alaska, usually sees close to 1.3 million tourists over the course of the summer, with $160 million flowing into its economy from the cruise industry each year.

The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, which the House passed Thursday, was passed by the Senate last week and still needs to be signed into law by President Biden. It will allow cruise ships to sail directly to Alaska without having to visit Canada.

The development comes as a relief to the United States cruise industry, which has been grounded for over a year and is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to restart sailings by mid-July.

The C.D.C. has gradually eased restrictions for vaccinated passengers in its Conditional Sailing Order, which outlines the steps that cruise companies are required to follow to restart operations in American waters. Last week the agency issued updated guidance saying that cruise lines are not required to test fully vaccinated passengers for Covid-19 before they embark on a ship or when they return to port.

Norwegian Cruise Line resumed ticket sales for voyages to Alaska after the bill passed the Senate last week and on Thursday, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line announced plans to resume Alaska cruises from July for fully vaccinated guests.

We are excited to once again serve our guests from the U.S., and we express our deep gratitude to all national, state and local officials who have worked collaboratively with us, the C.D.C. and our entire industry to make this possible, Arnold Donald, the chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation, said in a statement on Thursday.

TAIPEI, Taiwan A crush of new coronavirus infections has brought a swift end to the Covid-free normality that residents of Taiwan had been enjoying for more than a year, while many other developed countries were struggling with the pandemic.

By shutting its borders early and requiring two-week quarantines of nearly everyone who arrives from overseas, Taiwan had been managing to keep life on the island mostly unfettered. But all that changed after enough infections slipped past those high walls to cause community outbreaks.

For most of the past week, the government has ordered residents to stay home whenever possible and to wear masks outdoors, though it has not declared a total lockdown. Local authorities are expanding rapid testing, but some health experts worry that too few tests are being done to stay ahead of the viruss spread.

Schools are closed and restaurants are offering takeout only. Lines at testing sites stretch around the block. Politicians on television urge the public to stay calm.

Taiwans latest statistics between 200 and 350 new cases a day for the past several days, and a few deaths are still low by the standards of the hardest-hit countries. But they have jolted a population that, until last Saturday, had recorded only 1,290 Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths during the entire pandemic.

Adding to the concern: Only around 1 percent of the islands 23.5 million residents have been vaccinated against the virus so far.

This day was bound to come sooner or later, said Daniel Fu-chang Tsai, a professor at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The slow pace of immunizations combined with more transmissible variants to create a perfect window, Professor Tsai said, for the island to experience a flare-up.

New York ROUNDUP

New York City public health officials are now trying to reach out to unvaccinated people to overcome vaccine hesitancy in the Black and Hispanic communities.

The citys vaccination campaign alrealy looks successful by many measures. A second virus wave is receding fast. Pandemic restrictions are loosening. About 59 percent of the citys adults have received at least one dose.

But Black and Hispanic New Yorkers are getting vaccinated at significantly lower rates than other groups. Citywide, only about 33 percent of Black adults have gotten a vaccine dose. For Hispanic adults, the rate is 42 percent. And demand for the vaccine is dwindling.

The racial disparities are partly the result of access, with more robust health care and vaccine distribution in some neighborhoods than others. But reluctance about the vaccine, which has been well documented in conservative rural areas, also runs strong in major cities, including New York, the epicenter of the pandemic just a year ago.

City officials are urging community groups to start knocking on doors to persuade people to get vaccinated. Those who agree get appointments for vaccine shots in a temporary clinic nearby.

And the city has also hired companies to do door-to-door outreach and talk up the vaccine on street corners, largely in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

One contract went to a Virginia firm that worked on Defense Department contracts in war-torn countries before expanding into contact tracing. Some of the companies have little public health experience, including one owned by a recent New York University graduate who usually works on political campaigns.

From May through September, the city anticipates that these firms will send about 700 people a day to knock on doors and do street outreach in the hopes of reducing racial disparities and increasing overall vaccination rates, which are key to reopening efforts.

City officials say they anticipate that much of the outreach campaigns costs, which could be up to $60 million, will be reimbursed by the federal government.

Skepticism about the vaccines safety is a significant factor contributing to hesitancy, especially among Black New Yorkers, interviews with more than 40 Black and Hispanic residents across the city show.

Elsewhere in the region:

Next week, New York State will run a pop-up vaccination sites at seven New York airports that will offer the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to all U.S. residents and airport workers, the governor said Thursday. The airports include La Guardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The sites will be open on a first come, first serve basis from next Monday to Friday.

In an effort to boost the states vaccination rate, New York will hand out free scratch-off tickets for the Mega Multiplier lottery to those 18 and older who get their shot at 10 state mass vaccination sites next week, the governor said. The pilot program lasts from next Monday to Friday. The tickets could yield prizes from $20 to the $5 million jackpot, he said. Earlier this month, Ohios governor, Mike DeWine, offered a $1 million lottery prize for five people who get vaccinated. That effort would be paid for by federal coronavirus relief funds, Mr. DeWine said during a statewide televised address.

Amanda Rosa contributed reporting.

Indias federal health ministry raised an alarm on Thursday, asking state governments to immediately report all cases of a potentially deadly fungal infection that appears to be spreading quickly among Covid-19 patients.

The rare condition, mucormycosis, commonly known as black fungus, was present in India before the pandemic, but it is affecting those with Covid or those who have recently recovered.

Many health experts blame the spread on a central coronavirus treatment, steroids. These drugs can limit inflammation of the lungs, but they also dull the response of the immune system, which can allow infections like the black fungus to take hold.

More broadly, Covid patients with weakened immune systems and underlying conditions, particularly diabetes, are especially vulnerable to black fungus, which has a high mortality rate.

Making matters worse, a shortage of antifungal drugs, like amphotericin B, has made it hard to fight the infection once it attacks. Relatives of the sick have been desperately sending messages over social media seeking the drug.

Courts are pressuring local governments to make antifungal drugs available and pushing for stepped up investigations to stop black-market drugs from being distributed.

Before the pandemic, a vial of amphotericin B would cost around $80, but some relatives of sick people say they have paid as much as $500 on the black market.

Video of a woman saying she would jump off the roof of a hospital if it failed to arrange injections of the medication for her husband spread widely on social media early this week.

The woman, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, said, If I dont get the injection today, then I will jump off the roof of the hospital and commit suicide. I have no other option left. She added that the hospital had none of the medication and said of her husband, Where should I take him in this condition?

In the western state of Maharashtra, which includes the commercial hub of Mumbai, the authorities said at least 90 people had died of fungal infections and more than 1,500 patients were being treated in hospitals.

Rajesh Topai, the health minister of Maharashtra, told reporters on Wednesday that the state was desperate for more supplies of the medicine and begged the federal government, do anything, but give more vials to Maharashtra.

In Delhi, the capital, badly hit by the pandemic, hospitals have recorded 185 fungal infection cases and the local government is setting up three dedicated centers inside government-run hospitals to treat the condition.

M.V. Padma Srivastava, a professor and head of neurology department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said the number of black fungus cases was increasing every day and the condition was appearing across the country like never before.

She said hospitals received few cases during the first wave of the pandemic but certainly not the numbers they are registering now, amid a virulent second wave.

Of the medication for the disease she said: It is not one of the common over-the-counter medications. This is a toxic medication by itself. It cant be given by all and sundry. It is not something which you can take at home. It needs strict monitoring of body parameters because it is a toxic drug.

The federal government directive requiring state governments to immediately disclose cases follows those of many Indian states that had already required hospitals to report cases of mucormycosis.

Scientists have discovered a new canine coronavirus in a child who was hospitalized with pneumonia in Malaysia in 2018. If the virus is confirmed to be a human pathogen, it would be the eighth coronavirus, and the first canine coronavirus, known to cause disease in humans.

It is not yet clear whether this specific virus poses a serious threat to humans, the researchers stress. The study does not prove that the pneumonia was caused by the virus, which may not be capable of spreading between people. But the finding, which was published on Thursday in Clinical Infectious Diseases, highlights the need to more proactively search for viruses that could jump from animals into humans, the scientists said.

I think the key message here is that these things are probably happening all over the world, where people come in contact with animals, especially intense contact, and were not picking them up, said Gregory Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Duke University who is one of the studys authors. We should be looking for these things. If we can catch them early and find out that these viruses are successful in the human host, then we can mitigate them before they become a pandemic virus.

Seven coronaviruses are currently known to infect humans. In addition to SARS-CoV-2, which is the causes of Covid-19, there are coronaviruses that cause SARS, MERS and the common cold. Many of these viruses are believed to have originated in bats, but can jump from bats to humans, either directly or after a stopover in another animal host.

Scientists have known for decades that coronaviruses can cause disease in dogs, and recent studies have shown that the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can infect both cats and dogs. But there has not been any evidence that dogs transmit it, or any other coronavirus, to humans.

Health officials and international aid groups are watching to see if nearly two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants led to a wave of new coronavirus cases in Gaza.

The United Nations had warned on Monday, at the start of the second week of fighting, of a potential surge of new cases as tens of thousands of Gazans took shelter in 50 U.N.-run schools. A cease-fire was declared on Friday.

The schools were overcrowded and there was basically no social distancing in them, said Dr. Majdi Dhair, director of preventive medicine for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. If someone was sick in any one school, that person could have infected everyone around them.

A majority of Gazans likely hunkered down in their homes during the two weeks of fighting and had less contact than usual with others, which could ultimately temper the size of any new outbreak, Dr. Dhair said. It would take several days for the case data to show the extent of a possible spike.

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Covid News: W.H.O. Notes Sharp Drop in New Cases in Europe Over Past Month - The New York Times

Passengers wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19 are seen on an escalator at Orlando International Airport.

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When the coronavirus pandemic started to sweep around the world in 2020, a number of governments and health authorities appeared to pin their hopes on "herd immunity."

This approach would see the virus spread though society and cause infections, but also provoke an immune response in those who have recovered.

If enough people gained these antibodies say, around 60-70% of the population then the transmission of the virus would gradually decrease, and those who had not yet been infected would be protected by the increasingly small opportunity the virus had to spread.

That was the theory.

In reality, Covid-19 swept through the Asia, Europe and the Americas prompting millions of infections from which millions of people recovered but also hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and deaths. To date globally, the virus has caused over 164 million infections and 3.4 million deaths.

The strategy of targeting herd immunity was quickly abandoned by most countries with some notable exceptions such as Sweden and lockdowns became the primary way of trying to prevent the spread of Covid as vaccines were rapidly developed.

Now we have highly effective vaccines and immunization programs are continuing apace across the world. This has sparked hope that once enough people in populations have been vaccinated, herd immunity could be achieved that is, once enough people are vaccinated, the virus will have nowhere to go and will die out.

But yet again, Covid-19 is proving to be unpredictable, and we still don't know how long protection from vaccines, or natural immunity acquired by previous infection, lasts.

Vaccine hesitancy, the role of children in transmission (young children are not eligible for vaccines) and, most importantly, the emergence of new Covid variants around the world are also unknowns that could also prevent herd immunity, experts warn.

Most of them believe Covid-19 will become endemic like the flu (meaning it will continue to circulate in parts of the population, likely as a seasonal threat) while hoping it will become less dangerous over time.

Epidemiologist LaurenAncelMeyers, director of the University of Texas Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, described herd immunity as "the idea that if we vaccinate enough people around the globe, the virus will have nowhere to spread, and the pandemic will completely fade out."

"Unfortunately, we are very far from that reality on a global scale," she told CNBC.

"The virus continues to spread rapidly on many continents, more contagious variants that can possibly break through immunity are continually emerging, and many countries lag far behind the U.S. in rolling out vaccines."

She noted that even in U.S. cities there are critical pockets of low immunity: "Where I live in Austin, Texas, we estimate that vaccination coverage ranges from under 40% to over 80% depending on which neighborhood you live in. Everywhere, children under age 12 cannot yet get vaccinated. As long as there are pockets of low immunity, this stealthy virus will continue to spread and produce new variants."

Nonetheless, Meyers noted that even if we don't achieve full herd immunity, "vaccines may help us get to a place where Covid-19 is a significantly less lethal threat."

There has been a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the herd immunity threshold, according to Meyers."Simply speaking, the herd immunity threshold is the fraction of the population that must be immunized before the virus will fade away.But in the real world, it's complicated."

"With emerging variants and pockets of low vaccination coverage, there is no guarantee we'll get there," she said, noting that it's important people realize: "The more people vaccinate, the faster the threat will fade."

"We may never hit herd immunity on a global stage and fully eradicate the virus. But that doesn't mean we won't get back to a sense of normalcy soon. We are already seeing the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations beginning to decline," Meyers added.

After a year, the coronavirus has undergone some significant mutations and a number of variants have become dominant due to their increased transmissibility such as those first detected in the U.K. and South Africa last year.

Now a variant first detected in India in October 2020 is rampaging through the country and beyond. As with previous mutations, experts are investigating whether it is more transmissible (early evidence suggests so), more deadly (early evidence suggests not) and could render Covid vaccines less effective (early evidence suggests not).

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick's Medical School in the U.K., told CNBC that the pursuit of herd immunity was likely unachievable when it comes to Covid-19.

"Pursuing herd immunity in terms of allowing people to be infected and then recover is not great because obviously with Sars-Cov-2 people are getting sick but also, the issue is what is the herd immunity threshold and what proportion of the population would you need to be protected? And that so much depends on the transmissibility of the virus," Young noted.

"We're dealing with variants that have different abilities to spread and I think that's what makes achieving herd immunity, or indeed relying on herd immunity, quite challenging."

He stressed that there were still lots of "unknowns" about Covid-19.

"And I think trying to get herd immunity through vaccination is going to be impossible. Variants and the fact that you don't necessarily get immune protection for life once you're vaccinated makes it more difficult," Young said.

Asked whether there's a possibility that the coronavirus could be eradicated, Young said: "it's not going to happen."

"We're going to have to live with it, like flu, and we just need to get as many people vaccinated in order to stop them getting sick."

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As Covid mutations spread, will herd immunity ever be possible? - CNBC

Ambassadors met virtually to examine how to address root causes of conflict while promoting post-pandemic recovery in Africa.

Many communities and countries are already facing a complex peace and security environment, the UN chief Antnio Guterres said, and challenges such as long-standing inequalities, poverty, food insecurity and climate disruption, are raising risks of instability.

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, as we face the possibility of an uneven recovery, it is clear that the crisis is feeding many of these drivers of conflict and instability, he said.

Since the pandemic began, the Secretary-General has repeatedly warned of the risks it poses to people and societies across the world, especially in countries affected by conflict.

This was the backdrop to my appeal for a global ceasefire to enable us to focus on our common enemy: the virus, he recalled.

With continued chronic violence in some countries, and re-emergence of old conflicts in others, he said the appeal is more relevant than ever.

Mr Guterres pointed out that violent extremist groups in Western and Central Africa and Mozambique, including those associated with Al-Qaeda and ISIL, have continued and even increased attacks on civilians, creating additional major challenges for societies and governments.

The Secretary-General listed some of the fallouts of the pandemic in Africa.

Economic growth has slowed, remittances are drying up, and debt is mounting. Meanwhile, some governments have also restricted civic space, while hate speech, divisive rhetoric, and misinformation have risen along with caseloads.

The severe impact of the pandemic on young people especially in Africa, the youngest continent is contributing to increased risks. Loss of opportunities for education, employment and income drive a sense of alienation, marginalization and mental health stress that can be exploited by criminals and extremists, he warned.

COVID-19 is also deepening existing gender inequalities, and threatening hard-won gains made in womens participation in all areas of social, economic and political life, including peace processes.

I urge Member States to make proactive efforts to include women and young people when shaping post-pandemic recovery, he said.

Guaranteeing equal opportunities, social protection, access to resources and services and inclusive and meaningful participation in decision-making are not simply moral and legal obligations. They are a necessary condition for countries to exit the conflict trap and get firmly on the pathway of peace and sustainable development.

UNICEF/Milequem Diarassouba

A health worker in Abidjan, Cte d'Ivoire, becomes one of the first people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the global rollout of COVAX in Africa.

Meanwhile, Africa has received less than two per cent of COVID-19 vaccines administered globally, the Secretary-General reported.

He said although African governments have shown commitment to fight the pandemic through a unified continent-wide approach, limited supply and access to vaccines, as well as insufficient support for pandemic response, are now hampering and delaying recovery.

Out of 1.4 billion doses administered around the world today, only 24 million have reached Africa less than two per cent, Mr Guterres said.

The Secretary-General emphasized that equitable and sustainable vaccine roll-out worldwide is the quickest path to fast, and fair, recovery from the pandemic.

He said this requires countries to share doses, remove export restrictions, ramp up local production and fully fund global initiatives that promote equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

Following the meeting, the Security Council issued a statement expressing grave concern about the devastating impact of COVID-19, noting its repercussions, and that the crisis has further exacerbated existing conflict drivers in Africa.

Referring to the low percentage of vaccines the continent has received, ambassadors reiterated the need for equitable access, as well as support to strengthening health systems to ensure effectively delivery continues.

They also called for developed countries to increase and accelerate donation of doses, and acknowledged ongoing discussions towards waiving intellectual property related to vaccines.

The Council further emphasized the importance of addressing the fundamental root causes and drivers of conflicts in Africa, and called for all stakeholders to intensify efforts towards realization of development agendas outlined by the African Union and the UN, respectively.

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COVID-19 pandemic 'feeding' drivers of conflict and instability in Africa: Guterres - UN News

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration appears to be losing interest in issuing temporary emergency regulations related to COVID-19 safety practices. Changing science and diminishing infection rates due to vaccinations have lessened the usefulness and need for a comprehensive nationwide workplace standard. As an alternative, OSHA is focusing its enforcement efforts on industries that are the source of employee complaints and concerns over infection control compliance.

On March 12, OSHA announced and Interim Enforcement Response Plan for COVID-19. Instead of applying a specific COVID-19 regulation, OSHA is using the General Duty Clause and existing respirator standard to inspect and potentially cite businesses that are the subjects of high rates of employee complaints and/or suspected sources of workplace COVID-19 transmission. To date, most of OSHAs enforcement efforts have involved the healthcare industry, including hospitals and long-term or other residential care facilities. Depending on the area of the U.S. and OSHA district office involved, health care employers, meat processors and a few other types of businesses have received numerous citations and penalties.

Other businesses may be next in line for special emphasis inspections. As state indoor dining restrictions continue to loosen, OSHA may conduct inspections to determine whether COVID-19 safety protocols remain in place. These include personal protective equipment, sanitation procedures, and recording and reporting of suspected workplace transmission of COVID-19 infections. Increasing travel may also result in extension of such inspections to hotel and other hospitality industry employers.

In addition to the federal OSHA effort, states such as California, Virginia, Michigan and Oregon continue to enforce their own state COVID-19 safety regulations. Employers in all states should fight COVID-19 fatigue by continuing to enforce their own internal requirements.

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OSHA-Targeted COVID-19 Inspections Could Impact Health Care and Hospitality Industries - JD Supra

There are seven new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the states death toll to 2,601, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.

Oregon Health Authority reported 394 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 196,787.

Vaccinations in Oregon

Today, OHA reported that 24,280 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 17,217 doses were administered on May 18 and 7,063 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on May 18.

The 7-day running average is now 27,118 doses per day.

Oregon has now administered a total of 1,994,644 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,491,984 first and second doses of Moderna and 125,435 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 1,635,033 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 2,097,233 people who have had at least one dose.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the states ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

To date, 2,441,205 doses of Pfizer, 1,968,260 doses of Moderna and 269,300 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to sites across Oregon.

These data are preliminary and subject to change.

OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregons dashboard has been updated today.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 306, which is 25 fewer than yesterday. There are 78 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is one fewer than yesterday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 2,338, which is a 0.9% increase from the previous seven days. The peak daily number of beds occupied by COVID-19 positive patients in the most recent seven days is 351.

The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (6), Clackamas (31), Clatsop (5), Columbia (4), Coos (1), Crook (11), Curry (6), Deschutes (36), Douglas (8), Grant (1), Harney (3), Hood River (1), Jackson (31), Jefferson (8), Josephine (11), Klamath (9), Lake (1), Lane (22), Lincoln (1), Linn (24), Malheur (4), Marion (42), Morrow (1), Multnomah (57), Polk (8), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (10), Union (1), Wallowa (2), Wasco (4), Washington (32) and Yamhill (10).

Oregons 2,595th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man from Marion County who tested positive on May 12 and died on May 17 at Salem Hospital. He had underlying conditions.

Oregons 2,596th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old woman from Deschutes County who tested positive on April 24 and died on May 10 at St. Charles Medical Center Bend. She had underlying conditions.

Oregons 2,597th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman from Linn county who tested positive on May 6 and died on May 18. Place of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

Oregons 2,598th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man from Umatilla County who tested positive on March 26 and died on April 3 at Trios Health Southridge Hospital in Kennewick, WA. He had underlying conditions.

Oregons 2,599th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive on May 7 and died on May 16 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregons 2,600th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive on May 13 and died on May 18 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregons 2,601st COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old man from Deschutes County who tested positive on May 8 and died on May 18 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.

See more here:

Oregon reports 394 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 7 new deaths - Tillamook Headlight-Herald

Overview

Workplaces outside of healthcare facilities can be also settings for transmission of COVID-19. Outbreaks of COVID-19 has been reported in various types of workplaces and job categories.

All workers should be protected from acquiring COVID-19 because of their work. The prevention of COVID-19 in work settings should be combined with measures for protecting physical and mental health, safety and wellbeing of workers from other occupational hazards in the operation, closures and reopening of workplaces.

This joint WHO/ILO policy brief provides a summary of the evidence for transmission of COVID-19 in general workplaces and an overview of WHO and ILO recommendations for prevention and mitigation of COVID-19 and for protecting health and safety at work in the context of the pandemic.

The document is intended for public health and labour authorities, businesses, employers, workers and their representatives at the national, local and workplace levels to facilitate the implementation of public health and social measures for COVID-19 while maintaining full and productive employment and decent work during the pandemic.

Go here to see the original:

Preventing and mitigating COVID-19 at work - World Health Organization

SEDONA, AZ Across Arizona, lives are getting closer to normal with half of adults now vaccinated, mask guidelines being relaxed, and cases of COVID-19 are declining week after week. But, while theres progress, theres still devastation as we continue losing lives to COVID-19.

FULL COVERAGE: COVID-19 vaccine in Arizona

Peggy Ann Riley, 60, died just four days after Mothers Day after becoming sick with COVID-19.

Peggy, a mother of two, and broker and real estate agent in Sedona, was known for being the crazy lady running in pink shorts while it would be snowing outside.

She was dedicated to run every day, said her son, Kole Riley.

Kole tells ABC15 that the family thought they were out of the woods, and while his mother was inside a Cottonwood ICU, the CDC announced that they were relaxing mask guidelines.

All I can think of is how is this happening when my mom is dying right now of COVID-19, he said.

The Riley family tells ABC15 they'd not been vaccinated yet because family members were positive for COVID-19 in December and they assumed they all had antibodies.

Peggy was married to her husband, Bob, for four decades where they raised their two children in Sedona.

Bob was a firefighter before becoming injured and eventually teaching an automotive technology class at the high school. He is known as the rock of the family but it was his wife Peggy who gave him that strength.

Bob said his wife would give him a hard time for showing little to no emotion as he was known as the tough guy, but he says theres so much irony now.

She always said that I was so hard, I never cried, and never had any issues, but she got me, he said. She said, 'One of these days Im going to get your emotions going,' and she did.

Bob is handicapped, and unable to work from his injury on the job he now relies on mechanic work around Sedona to stay afloat. But now with the loss of his wife, his children are hoping to raise funds to help pay their fathers mortgage, and some bills for a few months to help relieve some of the burden.

This fundraiser is in loving memory of Peggy Riley. All contributions, small or large, are greatly appreciated and will go directly towards Peggy's service and helping her husband Bob and their family with other costs, the online fundraiser said.

Over $15,000 has been raised by the Sedona community in just days on the crowdsourcing site, Fundly.

The Riley family hopes sharing their story will be a reminder that while we're closer to the end of the pandemic, it is not the end yet.

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Sedona mother dies 4 days after Mother's Day from COVID-19 - ABC15 Arizona

The following is information about the City of San Joss response to slow and reduce the spread of COVID-19 and support our most at-risk communities.

SOURCE:City of San JosEmergency Operations Center

Contact:Carolina Camarena / Vicki Day, City of San Jos Media Line: 408-535-7777City of San Jos Customer Contact Center: 3-1-1 or 408-535-3500

Email: News/Media: EOC_PIO@sanjoseca.govResidents: 311@sanjoseca.govBusinesses: covid19sjbusiness@sanjoseca.govNon-Profits: covid19sjcbo@sanjoseca.gov

Moving to Yellow Tier: Effective today Santa Clara County enters the least restrictive Yellow Tier under the State's Blueprint for a Safer Economy. The move to the yellow tier means many businesses such as bars, restaurants, gyms and movie theaters will be allowed to expand their capacity for indoor operations to 50 percent, and for the first time bars not providing meals can resume indoor operations at 25 percent capacity.

The County has placed a limited local health order that will:

Registration for swim lessons is open in-person and online at the PRNS Registration System. There are also scholarships available for those who qualify. Families must apply in-person at a community center and scholarships can be used at any program location.

In preparation for summer Swim San Jos programming, PRNS is recruiting for part-time, unbenefited Lifeguard; Lifeguard Instructor; Pool Manager; and Assistant Pool Manager positions. A Lifeguard Training certificate is not required to apply or interview. If selected for a position, the Swim San Jos program will provide training upon request. The application deadline is May 26 at 11:59 p.m.

For more information about swimming pool locations, lessons, hiring positions and scholarships, please visit the PRNS swimming and pools web page.

Appointments can be made starting seven days in advance of the testing date until all slots are reserved at http://www.sccfreetest.org. Appointments at the Fairgrounds site are now available five days in advance. Testing is free at all these sites.

All healthcare systems are required by the County order to offer free testing to symptomatic persons, persons who have been exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case, and all essential workers. For more information on testing rights, see our Frequently Asked Questions page.

All test sites are mapped on the Countys website at http://www.sccfreetest.org. The site is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Tagalog. Information is also available by calling 2-1-1.

Esta informacin est disponible en espaol enwww.sanjoseca.gov.

Thng tin ny c sn bng Ting Vit trn trang:www.sanjoseca.gov.

http://www.sanjoseca.gov

A persons risk for COVID-19 is not related to race, ethnicity or culture. City employees must abide by the Discrimination and Harassment policy, and treat colleagues and members of the public with courtesy and respect. Discrimination and/or Harassment of any kind is a violation of the policies and will not be tolerated.

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FLASH REPORT #160 - COVID-19 Response and Recovery | News - City of San Jose, CA

2:04 PM ET

Greg WyshynskiESPN

The NHL retested players from the St. Louis Blues and Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday after false positive results for COVID-19 were reported from one U.S.-based lab on Tuesday.

Wednesday's retests confirmed that the originals were in error, the league said, and all players involved were made available for their next games.

For the Blues, that meant Wednesday night against the Colorado Avalanche for Game 2. Though the names of St. Louis' players involved in the retesting were not released, there were four Blues -- Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, Marco Scandella and Jordan Binnington -- who missed the morning skate on Wednesday. All four were on the ice for pregame warm-ups in Denver, and they played in Game 2.

"Those reported results emanated from the same laboratory, and due to other peculiarities and similarities as among the test results themselves, an investigation was initiated into the possibility that the initial test results reported may have been in error," the league said in a statement. "All affected players were immediately isolated and further testing was done involving collected samples. Those tests have returned uniformly negative results, therefore confirming that the initial reported test results were in error. As a result, all affected players will be eligible to play in their team's next game."

The Blues were without forward David Perron, their leading scorer, for Game 1 because of protocols. Forward Nathan Walker and defenseman Jake Walman also were on the list. They did not dress for Game 2.

Walman was a notable absence because the Blues said he was the rare "breakthrough case" of COVID-19 after vaccination. He was placed on the list May 12 after the team asked for additional testing.

The Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild will play Game 3 of their first-round series on Thursday. That series is tied 1-1.

There is still consistent testing of players in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the NHL announced earlier in May that it would be easing COVID-19 restrictions for U.S. teams once 85% of each traveling party was fully vaccinated. Those teams could have players gather in groups and not undergo PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing on off days, among other perks.

Well over 100 NHL players missed time in the regular season after going on the NHL's coronavirus-related absences list. Multiple teams had their seasons interrupted by COVID-19 outbreaks, including the Vancouver Canucks, who finished their regular season on Wednesday with a loss to the Calgary Flames.

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After COVID-19 retesting, affected players from St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights cleared to play - ESPN

The development of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus has been the great long-term hope of ending the pandemic. However, immune system turncoats are also major culprits in severe cases of COVID-19, Yale scientists report in the journal Nature.

These autoantibodies target and react with a persons tissues or organs similar to ones that cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. In COVID-19 cases they can attack healthy tissue in brain, blood vessels, platelets, liver, and the gastrointestinal tract, researchers report. The more autoantibodies detected, the greater the disease severity experienced by patients.

And the autoantibodies paradoxically also target and interfere with many immune system proteins that are designed to fend off infections, the study found.

Its a two-edge sword, said Aaron Ring, assistant professor of immunobiology at Yale and senior author of the paper. Antibodies are crucial to fend off infection, but some COVID-19 patients also develop antibodies that damage their own cells and tissues.

It is clear that in many cases the presence of coronavirus drove the creation of the damaging autoantibodies, Ring said. But it is also likely that some COVID-19 patients had pre-existing autoantibodies that made them more susceptible to infection, he said. Mice with these same autoantibodies were more susceptible to infection by the COVID-19 virus and more likely to die, the authors report.

The existence of these long-lived rogue autoantibodies could also help explain why some people infected with COVID-19 can later develop lasting medical symptoms, so-called long COVID cases. This could be the unfortunate legacy of the virus, Ring said.

Our findings reinforce the importance of getting vaccinated, added co-corresponding author Akiko Iwasaki, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology at Yale. The fact that even mild infections are associated with autoantibody production underscores the potential for long-term health consequences of COVID-19.

For the study, Rings lab worked with Iwasakis lab and members of the Yale IMPACT team a group of scientists, scholars, and physicians developing research and clinical efforts to combat COVID-19 to screen blood samples from 194 patients who had contracted the virus, with varying degrees of severity, for the presence of autoantibodies. Specifically, they used a novel technology developed by Rings lab called Rapid Extracellular Antigen Profiling (REAP) to identify autoantibody interactions with nearly 3,000 human proteins.

Ring said the findings may lead to strategies to treat or prevent the damaging effects of autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients. In addition, the new REAP technology could be used to pinpoint important antibody responses for many other disease conditions beyond COVID-19. Rings lab has found a host of novel autoantibodies in patients with autoimmune disease and is now searching for autoantibodies in patients with cancer and neurological illnesses.

The work was led by co-first authors Eric Wang, a Yale College undergraduate, Jon Klein, a Yale M.D./Ph.D. student, and Yale Immunobiology graduate students Tianyang Mao and Yile Dai. Funding for the project was provided by the Mathers Family Foundation and the Ludwig Family Foundation.

Ring, Wang, and Dai are inventors of a patent describing the REAP technology used in the study and Ring is the founder of Seranova Bio, which seeks to market the technology.

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Rogue antibodies wreak havoc in severe COVID-19 cases - Yale News