The massive outbreak in India has been blamed on more contagious variants of the virus, as well as an early relaxation of restrictions and a slow-moving vaccination campaign.
Human excrement an ‘increasingly serious problem’ as lockdown lifts in Britain
LONDON — With Britain slowly easing its way out of its third nationwide lockdown, people across the country are enjoying a return to a sense of normalcy. Shops and gyms have reopened and parks are once again heaving with groups of up to six people — for many, it’s a welcome step forward and a joy to be back socializing outdoors.
But what happens when nature calls?
The issue of where to relieve oneself in a world where so many facilities have been shut down in recent months has long been a concern in Britain. Public bathrooms, in particular, were closed during the various lockdowns.
While current restrictions stipulate that venues such as restaurants and pubs can reopen to serve food outdoors, some public toilets remain closed — a result of facilities across the country being run by different councils making different decisions.
E.U. is considering ‘all options’ in battle with AstraZeneca over vaccine shortfalls
The European Union has not decided whether to take legal action against Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca for failing to supply the vast majority of vaccine doses it was contracted to deliver, news agencies quoted a European Commission spokesman as saying Thursday.
But the 27-member bloc was “looking at all options” to ensure the delivery of the doses, Stefan De Keeresmaecker said.
“What matters is that we ensure the delivery of a sufficient number of doses in line with the company’s earlier commitments,” Reuters and the German news agency DPA quoted Keeresmaecker as saying.
“Together with the Member States, we are looking at all options to make this happen,” he said.
Keeresmaecker’s remarks came as reports Thursday suggested the Commission, which serves as the bloc’s executive arm, was preparing to launch legal proceedings against the company.
Politico Europe reported Wednesday that the matter was raised at a meeting of ambassadors, during which the majority said they would support taking legal action against AstraZeneca. Reuters also reported the commission was drawing up plans to sue the company, quoting an E.U. official involved in talks with drugmakers.
The dispute between the two sides started in January when AstraZeneca informed the European Union that it would deliver less than half of the 100 million doses it pledged to provide in the first quarter, out of a total of 300 million doses for the year.
Since then, the company has said that it will only deliver 70 million doses of the 180 million required in the second quarter.
The Commission Thursday also said it would not take an option as part of the contract to buy an additional 100 million doses, instead relying on other vaccine makers to bolster the bloc’s vaccination campaigns.
Hair donation charities overwhelmed as pandemic locks finally cut
Diane Brewer couldn’t enjoy her pandemic hair. Her strawberry-blonde locks, which typically grazed her shoulder blades, now flowed to her waist for the first time since elementary school.
She yearned for a haircut, but she didn’t want to undertake the exposure risk of going to a salon. She waited until March, three months after she was vaccinated for the coronavirus, to visit a hair salon. She walked out with a short bob and a Ziploc baggie containing 14 inches of braids, which she plans to donate to a charity.
The coronavirus pandemic has made the needs of others more visible, motivating some Americans to give what they can. And even in a year when many are struggling financially, one thing they can still give, after a year with no haircuts, is hair. As a result, charities that turn donated hair into wigs have been swamped in recent months.
Virginia school district envisioning a ‘pre-pandemic normal’ fall — as much as possible
Come fall, instruction in Virginia’s largest school district will look as close to “pre-pandemic normal” as possible, the superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools promised this week.
The vast majority of students will head into classrooms five days a week for in-person lessons, Superintendent Scott Brabrand said at a board meeting Tuesday. Exceptions will be granted only to children who have a documented medical or social-emotional need for virtual schooling. And almost all teachers will be required to report to work in person.
The “classroom monitor” program, which secured temporary workers to effectively babysit classes taught by teachers working remotely, will end forever come fall, Brabrand said. Ditto for the “concurrent” model of teaching, which asked teachers to simultaneously instruct children learning remotely and children learning inside the classroom.
Japanese police officer assisting with Olympic torch relay tests positive for coronavirus
A Japanese police officer who assisted with the Olympic Torch relay was diagnosed with covid-19, the first event participant to test positive for the virus, organizers said in a statement Thursday.
The man, who is in his 30s, began showing symptoms Sunday after helping guide traffic around the relay the day before, on the southern island of Shikoku, news agencies reported.
Local media quoted police and event organizers as saying that the officer wore a mask and was not in contact with any runners.
The torch relay is a ceremonial passing of the Olympic flame and this year involves some 10,000 participants running across Japan, which is hosting the Summer Games in Tokyo in July.
The relay is scheduled to end at the National Stadium on July 23 to mark the start of the opening ceremony.
The new coronavirus case comes as Japan is battling a new wave of infections — and is facing calls to delay the games. Last year, Japan postponed the Olympics as the world grappled with the pandemic.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to decide Friday whether to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo, Osaka and other areas. Health authorities in Tokyo recorded more than 800 new infections Thursday for the second day in a row.
If declared, the state of emergency would cover nearly a quarter of Japan’s population of 126 million, Reuters reported.
China says it has administered 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses
China has administered about 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses as part of an effort to inoculate 40 percent of its population by mid-June, senior officials said this week.
The nation’s top health authority, the National Health Commission, made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday, the same day President Biden also said that 200 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States.
Chinese state media has for weeks touted the immunization drive as more ambitious than or even superior to the vaccination campaign in the United States.
China has approved multiple coronavirus vaccines for domestic use, most of which require two doses to reach acceptable levels of immune protection.
Some outside scientists have raised questions about the true efficacy rates of China’s vaccines, however, citing a lack of transparency on the part of the drug companies, which did not release late-stage trial results.
A health commission spokesman did not reveal how many people in China were fully vaccinated with their required doses. According to Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious-disease specialist based in Shanghai, China has given at least one dose to 12 percent of the population of 1.4 billion.
Some residents there say they received a first shot but have faced difficulty booking appointments for a second dose.
One woman in the city of Guangzhou said on the popular social media site Weibo that her employer forced her to get the vaccine but that now she can’t reserve an appointment for her second shot.
“I’m so speechless. … It’s almost past the recommended date for my second jab and I don’t have any instructions from anyone,” she said. “I just want to ask those in charge: so you just force everyone to have a first shot and then don’t care about their second shot?”
After a pandemic year of virtual learning, expanded summer school options are looking attractive
Summer school.
In the past, no two words provoked more dread for American students. And many teachers didn’t feel much differently. The mention of summer school conjured up images of sweaty classrooms and dreary assignments meted out as makeup work for a year of flunked tests, missing projects or excessive absences. It wasn’t meant as punishment, but it could feel like it.
As schools approach the end of a full year of pandemic learning, however, summer school is being reimagined and broadened into what is likely to be the most expansive — and expensive — summer programming in modern history, funded in large part by the recently passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act. Education leaders see it as a desperately needed remedy for a calamitous school year that left many students across the country struggling and falling behind.
IOC confident Games will carry on despite rising coronavirus cases
Even as Japan’s government prepares for a third state of emergency in Tokyo, Olympic officials remain confident they will be able to successfully stage a Summer Games and say they aren’t entertaining a cancellation.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call Wednesday, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said Tokyo organizers are moving forward with plans for the event. He said they are basing their optimism on planned safety precautions and restrictions, combined with coronavirus testing on the ground and an anticipated high vaccination rate among Olympic athletes.
“I think everybody should take into consideration and slowly give more room to confidence and hope and then start to leave the doubts a little bit behind,” Bach said.
India records world’s highest number of new infections in a single-day period
The populous nation is in the grip of a terrifying outbreak that spread swiftly through major cities and has overwhelmed the country’s medical infrastructure, sapping supplies like oxygen and leaving little bed space for critical patients.
The case count Thursday surpasses a previous world record set by the United States earlier this year, when more than 313,000 infections were reported on Jan. 8, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. India now has nearly 16 million confirmed cases, second only to the United States, and a death toll of more than 184,000. Its total population is more than 1.3 billion.
The staggering tsunami of new cases has been blamed on more contagious virus variants, a slow-moving vaccination campaign and recent changes in behavior that saw many abandon public health restrictions in recent months.
“Once the cases from the first wave began dropping and reached a low, there had been an overwhelming feeling among the general public that the worst was behind and they were out of danger,” Rijo M. John, a health economist at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in Kerala, told Reuters.
“It was partly fueled by irresponsible statements from several political leaders, many from the ruling government itself, leading people to inadvertently believe that India had defeated covid-19,” John said.
The devastating wave has led to grim and chaotic scenes of bodies piling up at crematoriums, while patients struggle for beds at crowded coronavirus wards as oxygen supplies run low.
On Wednesday, at least 22 covid-19 patients died at a hospital in the western part of the country after an oxygen tank leaked, disrupting supply.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter Thursday that “oxygen demand & supply is being monitored round the clock.”
On Wednesday, the New Delhi High Court ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to ameliorate the crisis, the Associated Press reported.
“You can’t have people die because there is no oxygen. Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency,” the AP quoted the judges as saying in response to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking its intervention.
The last-mile problem with America’s vaccination program
It’s often the case that the hardest part of any big task is nailing the final details.
This is called the last-mile problem. It also applies to wide-scale vaccination efforts, in which ordering and obtaining millions of doses of vaccines (as the Trump administration did) is relatively easy compared with getting those shots in arms, as the saying goes.
The Biden administration is justifiably proud of its expansion of vaccine access in the past several months. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain had lamented the Obama administration’s errors in distributing a vaccine to deal with the H1N1 virus in 2009; the coronavirus vaccination program has been much bigger and much smoother.
But now there’s a new last-mile problem. How can the government complete the job of vaccinating enough American adults that we reach herd immunity, meaning that the virus is effectively stamped out in the United States?
Unprecedented drop in U.S. vaccinations over the past week
Daily coronavirus vaccinations have slowed significantly for the first time since February, a sign that demand is slipping even though every American adult is now eligible for the shots.
About 3 million Americans are getting vaccinated daily, an 11 percent decrease in the seven-day average of daily shots administered over the past week. The unprecedented drop is rivaled only by a brief falloff that occurred in February, when winter storms forced the closure of vaccination sites and delayed shipments nationwide.
The downturn hits as half of all eligible Americans have received at least one vaccine dose. And it coincided with the pause last week of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is under review by a panel of experts following a handful of cases of severe blood clotting.
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