May 10 coronavirus news

Coronavirus vaccines can likely go into younger teens’ arms as soon as Thursday, US Food and Drug Administration officials said Monday.

The FDA extended emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine to kids ages 12 to 15 on Monday.?

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday. It’s expected to vote to recommend use of the vaccine. After that, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is expected to give her final approval, after which states can give the go-ahead to administer the vaccine to the new age group.

States regulate medical practice but things should move quickly, said Dr. Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the arm of the FDA that regulates vaccines.

“Thursday, right,” added FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.

The US Food and Drug Administration’s decision to extend emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to kids ages 12 to 15 was “straightforward,” an FDA official said Monday.

“It was a relatively straightforward decision,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the arm of the FDA that regulates vaccines, told reporters Monday evening.

The FDA looked at safety data from more than 2,000 adolescents, half who got the vaccine and half who got a saline placebo injection, before making its decision. Field efficacy data on 1,000 children showed none of the vaccinated youth became infected with the virus.

They also looked at the immune responses of some of the children who were vaccinated, and compared them to the immune responses of older teens and adults who got the shot.

“The safety profile was very similar in 12-15-year-olds as in 16-25-year-olds.”

What’s next: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday. It’s expected to vote to recommend use of the vaccine. After that, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is expected to give her final approval,?after which states can give the go-ahead to medical professionals to administer the vaccine.

Austin Beutner, left, Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District talks with freshman baseball player David Maldonado, right, in the classroom of physical education teacher and head baseball coach Ruben Torres on the James A. Garfield High School campus as freshmen students arrive for their first time on campus on Tuesday, April 27.

Only 7% of high school students enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have returned to campuses for in-person learning, according to new data from the?nation’s second largest?school district.

While the LAUSD reopened all of its schools with extensive safety measures,?including upgraded air filtration systems and a school-based Covid-19 testing and contact tracing program, data?released Monday?shows that most high school students are taking classes online at home rather than returning to school.?

LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner noted that more high school students from lower income communities are returning to school for in-person learning compared to those in higher income communities.

“In Huntington Park, where the median income is about $44,000, 12% of high school students have returned to in-person learning, while in Woodland Hills, with incomes of nearly $100,000, only 5% have returned,” Beutner said in a briefing Monday.?

The district, which has an enrollment of over 600,000 K-12 students across 1,000 schools,?has?launched?15 school-based vaccination clinics in neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic. These clinics provide access to those who may lack transportation to get to other sites or don’t have the time or technology to make an appointment on a computer, according to Beutner.

“Our aim is to bring access to the vaccine to every middle and high school in Los Angeles Unified as soon as we can,” said Beutner. “Our schools serve almost 650,000 students and there is no better place to provide vaccinations to school children than at a local neighborhood school.”

While data shows that only 7% of LAUSD’s high school students returned to campus, the rate of in-person attendance for elementary school students is about 30%.?Elementary schools have also had higher in-person enrollment in more affluent communities, Beutner noted.

“Students are allowed to use playground equipment at schools for the first time since the pandemic hit last March,” the superintendent said. “If you happened by a school at recess last week, there were smiles all around.”

The US Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for children and teens ages 12 to 15 Monday. Now pediatricians are preparing to vaccinate the youngest cohort of Covid-19 vaccine recipients yet.?

A delivery of 1,000 Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine doses arrived at?Sandhills Pediatrics in Southern Pines, North Carolina, early this morning. Dr. Christoph Diasio, a pediatrician at the office, is preparing to start vaccinating his patients as soon as possible.

For years now, Diasio’s office has been offering routine vaccinations to family members who come in with pediatric patients – which he says is a pretty common practice among pediatricians nationwide. With the Covid-19 vaccine, Diasio hopes it will also be a way to overcome some hesitancy.

“We feel that primary care is going to have a real role with the folks who are a little bit hesitant or just need some questions answered,” he said. “Maybe the community, for whatever reason, trusts their family doctor or their pediatrician more than they trust, for example, a corporate pharmacy.”

Diasio said his office has not yet offered Covid-19 vaccines to patients 16 and older, partially because his community has been able to cover the need with existing vaccine sites.

“I think we’re moving to a phase of the campaign where now we need to be giving the Covid vaccine like we do the flu vaccine, where it’s just a regular part of what we do every day,” Diasio said.

Diasio said quite a few family members have recently called the office to inquire about when their 12-to-15-year-olds can make an appointment to get vaccinated.

One of those family members is Betsy Saye, who is eager to get her 14-year-old daughter Hannah vaccinated. Hannah is the youngest member of the family and the only person in the household yet to be vaccinated against coronavirus.

She was born with a heart defect that places her at high risk for Covid-19. Her family decided that the benefits of Hannah being protected against the virus outweigh any potential risks associated with the vaccine.

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet Wednesday to discuss if and how the vaccine should be recommended for use in this age group, and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will make the final recommendation.

A nurse administers the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles in February.

At the current rate of Covid-19 vaccinations, Los Angeles County is expected to reach herd immunity to coronavirus by mid to late July, county health officials said in a briefing Monday.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer, L.A. County’s public health director, explained that at least 400,000 residents need to be vaccinated each week before the county reaches this level of community immunity.

The county still has about 1.5 million first doses to administer before 80% of all residents are vaccinated, according to Ferrer.

While over eight million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the county, there are over three million eligible residents who have not yet been vaccinated, Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said.

The county is encouraging people to get vaccinated and is now offering mobile vaccination units to go directly to the workplace for those who may have limited availability or time.

According to Ferrer, the rate of vaccinations continues to rise, but at a slightly slower pace now than earlier in the year.

With over 10 million residents, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the nation. The county has reported a total of 24,003 Covid-19 deaths and at least 1,235,797 cases.?

The US Food and Drug Administration, which extended emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to 12-15-year-olds on Monday, also scheduled a meeting of its vaccine advisers for next month to discuss authorizing Covid-19 vaccines for younger children.

The FDA had said it would not need input from advisers for the EUA for younger teens, but plans input from its outside advisers before deciding on use in children under 12.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) will convene a virtual meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on June 10, 2021, via webcast,” the FDA said in a statement.

Novavax has about 30 or 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccine stockpiled on the shelf currently, the American biotechnology firm’s?president and CEO Stanley Erck said during an investors call on Monday.

“In the third quarter, we had expected to produce roughly 70 to 80 million doses per month at the Novavax sites, excluding Serum,” Erck said, referring to the company’s manufacturing partner Serum Institute of India.

Novavax noted in a news release on Monday that the company’s anticipated manufacturing capacity has been revised to 100 million doses per month by the end of the third quarter of this year, with the remainder of capacity expected to come online in the fourth quarter to support 150 million doses per month.

Erck said earlier Monday the company?plans to apply for emergency use authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine in the US?in the third quarter of this year.

The US Food and Drug Administration has expanded the emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine to include kids ages 12 to 15.

This is the first Covid-19 vaccine in the United States authorized for use in younger teens and adolescents; the vaccine had previously been authorized for people age 16 and older. Covid-19 vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are authorized for use in people age 18 and older.

To support the extended use, the FDA reviewed data submitted by Pfizer. The company said at the end of March that a clinical trial involving 2,260 12-to-15-year-olds showed the vaccine’s efficacy is 100% and it is well tolerated.

The FDA’s independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee did not meet to vote on whether to recommend the expansion of the EUA to 12-to-15-year-olds. But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet Wednesday to advise CDC on whether to recommend use of the vaccine in this age group. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will then decide whether the agency will recommend the vaccine’s use in the new group.

Vaccinations for 12-to-15-year-olds are not expected to begin until after that recommendation. The Biden administration has said it will quickly mobilize to ready vaccinations for 12-to-15-year-olds through the federal pharmacy program, pediatricians and family doctors.

Expanding authorization to people 12 to 15 opens Covid-19 vaccination to another 5% of the US population, nearly 17 million more people. The expanded authorization means 85% of the US population is eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

Pfizer said last week it expects to submit for emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 2 to 11 years old in September. Its vaccine safety and efficacy study in children ages 6 months to 11 years old is ongoing.

Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine could be used as a booster shot later this year for people in the United States who have already been vaccinated against Covid-19, the biotech firm’s CEO Stanley Erck told CNN Monday.

“In the US, I think it will be the booster for everyone, particularly if we get it out late in the third quarter,” Erck said in a phone interview.?“It’s going to be time to start boosting — whether it’s six months or at a year point.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says vaccine types and brands are not interchangeable for the initial immunization, and there has been no decision either in the US or globally on the need for booster doses, let alone which vaccine might be appropriate for any booster.

A medical staff member holds a nasal swab as he collects samples from a person at a Covid-19 test site in Brest, France, in July 2020.

France has reported 3,292 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest number of confirmed cases since Dec. 28, official figures from the French government showed on Monday.

In an interview with Le Parisien on Monday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said, “We are finally and durably exiting this health crisis. Of course, this exit will happen progressively, carefully and with constant monitoring. But the trend is clear, we’re reaching our goal and that’s good news.”

Asked whether France was sufficiently prepared to face a potential fourth wave, Castex said “nothing should ever be excluded” and the country had to remain “hyper vigilant, particularly through controlling the spread of variants, especially at borders and where people quarantine.”

He said these controls were among “the most stringent” in Europe.

Monday’s figures bring the total number of confirmed cases in France to over 5.7 million since the pandemic began, the fourth highest figure in the world after the United States, India and Brazil according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Biotechnology company?Novavax?expects to see results from a Phase 3 study?of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and?Mexico “in a few weeks,” the company’s CEO Stanley Erck told CNN Monday.

The?trial?has enrolled?30,000 volunteers across more than 100 locations. Previously, the?Maryland-based company?announced that it was on track to have the trial results sometime in April.

“We’re still unblinding in the second quarter — that hasn’t changed. It’s just not in April, obviously, and so it’ll be in a few weeks,” Erck said?in a phone interview.

Erck added that the trial data will reveal the efficacy level of the vaccine in the United States and Mexico as well as which variants were circulating at the time of the trial and what the efficacy of the vaccine will be against those variants.

In March, Novavax announced that a final analysis of?a separate Phase 3 trial in the United Kingdom confirmed its Covid-19 vaccine had an efficacy of 96% against the original coronavirus strain and 86% against the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK.

About 262 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC reported that 261,599,381 total doses have been administered – about 79% of the 329,843,825 doses delivered.

That’s about 1.9 million more administered doses reported since yesterday, for a 7-day average of about 2.1 million doses per day.

About 46% of the population – 153 million people – have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 34.8% of the population – about 116 million people – have been fully vaccinated.

Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of a senior Muslim cleric on Sunday, flouting Covid-19 protocols and a state-wide lockdown in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Qazi Hazrat Abdul Hameed Mohammed Salimul Qadri died Sunday afternoon in Badaun district and as news of his death spread, people started collecting, Praveen Chauhan, a senior police official, told CNN.?

“He was beloved in the community so people came to pay their respects,” said Chauhan.

He added that there was a curfew but the area is such that even with barricades and check points in place people were able to get in. If not for the Covid-19 restrictions, the crowd would have been in hundreds of thousands, he said.

On Sunday, Uttar Pradesh extended its current lockdown until May 17 as India continues to battle the second wave.

Local police have filed a complaint against “unknown people” and are currently investigating the incident.?

No arrests have been made yet.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that students attending classes in person at public colleges in the state’s SUNY and CUNY system will be required to be vaccinated.

Cuomo tweeted then announcement earlier today:

Some more context: More than 100 US colleges and universities have said they will require all their students to get vaccinated against Covid-19 before they return to campus for the fall semester, according to a CNN tally.

Earlier this month, the tally indicated that at least 14 universities and colleges were adopting that policy. Since then, dozens of higher education institutions have jumped on the bandwagon, demonstrating the trajectory of vaccine requirements. Some schools have said they will make exemptions for medical, religious or personal reasons.

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday that capacity limits will be lifted at most businesses on May 21, and all businesses including restaurants, bars, and larger sports or entertainment venues on June 11, given rates of infections continue to decrease.?Residents will still be required to wear masks indoors.

The mayor said the loosening of these restrictions will be formalized in a Mayor’s Order.??

Bowser stated that residents need to get vaccinated in order to allow reopening.?

“I just want to reiterate how important the following will be for us to continue to reopen our city to get back to life, we need to get people vaccinated,” she said.?

226,566 residents have been fully vaccinated according to data from the DC Department of Health.

When asked whether she might reverse this reopening stance if the course of the pandemic changes, Bowser answered, “do?I think that we would have to put in business restrictions at a future date? I hope not. But if we think that our health system was strained by covid, we would have to.”

DC Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt echoed the warnings of health officials across the country, urging caution and stressing the immense importance of vaccines, as the District stands poised to reopen.?“We still want people to be cautious. If you are not fully vaccinated, your degree of risk is still going to be higher than someone who was fully vaccinated. The more that you want to do without a mask, the more we need people to continue to get vaccinated,” she said.

Despite the large-scale lifting of restrictions, Bowser suggested that DC’s public health emergency would remain in place for “administrative” reasons, including those having to do with reimbursements from the federal government as the District continues to recover from the pandemic. The current public health emergency expires on May 20.

Bowser also clarified to reporters that the new guidance outlined on Monday would include a lift on restrictions on dancing at wedding venues and live music venues as they open in the coming weeks.

This comes after the mayor faced backlash for a so-called “dancing ban,” due to a provision in a previous health order prohibiting “standing and dancing receptions” at wedding venues opened at reduced capacity.

People walk by the New York Public Library in July 2020.

Public libraries in New York City will reopen for limited browsing for the first time since the pandemic began, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

The New York Public Library, the?largest public library system?in the United States, will add the expanded services beginning Monday, alongside the Brooklyn and Queens public library systems, de Blasio said.

The NYPL will reopen with limited browsing at select locations. It plans to expand services at additional library branches in the coming weeks, with all available branches set to reopen with at least limited services by mid-July, according to?their website.

Min Jin Lee, a native New Yorker and author of novels such as “Pachinko” and “Free Food for Millionaires,” joined Mayor de Blasio for the announcement. Lee said she grew up going to the public library in Elmhurst, Queens, and said she “wouldn’t be a writer unless [she] had been there.”

Lee applauded the reopening of public libraries as a place to come together after the pandemic “made us afraid of each other.”

Lee also said the rise in violence against the AAPI community makes communal spaces such as libraries more important than ever.

Some more context: New York City has administered 7,048,270 Covid-19 vaccine doses to date – more doses than there are people in the state of Massachusetts, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.?

De Blasio said that approximately 3 million New York City residents are now fully-vaccinated and about 3.8 million have received at least one dose, but acknowledged that the city’s vaccine supply now exceeds the demand for them.

Nepal’s caretaker Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said the Covid-19 pandemic in his country is “turning out to be an overwhelming burden,” in an?opinion piece?in The Guardian on Monday.

He added that the government is making efforts for prevention and treatment but that “due to the constraints of resources and infrastructure, the pandemic is turning out to be an overwhelming burden.”

He wrote in the piece, “I have, therefore, appealed to the international community to help us with vaccines, diagnostic tools, oxygen kits, critical care medicines and equipment, to support our efforts to save lives. Our urgent goal is to stop preventable deaths occurring.”

But on Saturday, Oli told CNN that the Covid-19 situation in Nepal was “under control.”

In the interview, he said the government is taking measures to control the situation. He also said there had been “some mistakes” when asked about large events that were held in the country in recent weeks, though added “this should not be a political issue.”?

Meanwhile, Oli was removed from his post as prime minister on Monday after losing a confidence vote in Parliament.

CNN’s Jake Kwon and Sugam Pokharel?contributed reporting to this post.?

England is on track to start easing Covid-19 restrictions in mid-May as planned, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a press conference on Monday.

International travel to countries on the so called “green list” will be allowed without quarantining, and indoor hospitality and indoor entertainment can reopen, Johnson outlined.?

Under the “single biggest step” toward normality, as of next Monday, universities will re-open to in-person classes, all remaining outdoor entertainment can reopen and some larger events will be able to take place, including conferences, theatre and concert performances, and sports events, Johnson said.

The World Health Organization has classified the B.1.617 Covid-19 variant, which was first identified in India, as a variant of concern, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19 said during a news briefing on Monday.

A “variant of concern” label indicates that the identified variant may show, among other indicators, evidence of increased transmissibility or evidence of increased severity.

“There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B.1.617,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Covid-19 technical lead.

Quantifying the risk posed by the variant will require real-world data in addition to greater genomic surveillance, WHO officials said.

WHO said it will be releasing more information on the variant in its Situation Report on Tuesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its website currently classifies the B.1.617 variant as a “variant of interest.” CNN has reached out to the CDC to see if it has any immediate plans to reclassify B.1.617 as a “variant of concern” in the United States.

With Covid-19 vaccinations possibly on the horizon for children ages 12 to 15 in the United States, pediatricians are concerned about?the challenge of getting children up-to-date on their childhood vaccines and balancing that with scheduling potential Covid-19 shots.

Parents are urged to get their children caught up on immunizations since, Costello said, eventually younger children could soon also be eligible to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Signs first emerged around the spring of last year that childhood vaccinations have plunged since the pandemic began. One study published in May 2020 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of childhood vaccines administered in Michigan dropped by as much as 22%.

“It’s been documented over the past year that routine childhood immunizations have declined because people weren’t going for well child exams. People were avoiding health settings when not absolutely necessary, and so those rates dipped,”?Jill Rosenthal, senior program director at the National Academy for State Health Policy, told CNN on Friday.

Now, “they’re getting back to normal for some populations of kids, and some populations of kids are still a bit behind. So, there’s a real concerted effort right now to catch kids up on those routine immunizations, but there’s also a blackout period that no one can have other vaccines at the same time that they’re getting the Covid-19 vaccine,” Rosenthal said.

It’s recommended to wait two weeks after getting the Covid-19 vaccine before getting other immunizations, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

“We?do not yet know whether we?will be able to co-administer vaccines – meaning you?may?have to get the?Covid-19 vaccine solo, not with other vaccines,” Costello said.

The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which is being considered for authorization in children and teens ages 12 to 15, is administered as two doses, three weeks apart.?

“Then you have to wait two weeks after that,” Costello said. “So, it’s really important that parents now are choosing to get their children caught up on other vaccines that they may have had to miss, even if they’re under age 12.”

Costello added that she has treated children of various ages for Covid-19 in the hospital – from a?two-month-old baby having trouble breathing, the infant’s small chest slowly expanding up and down – to a 17-year-old teen needing oxygen support.?She hopes that the potential roll out of Covid-19 vaccines for children can help curb the risk of young people getting sick.

Costello said, “It’s going to be important that they are vaccinated – to help protect themselves, but also to protect their families and their loved ones and their communities.”

Some countries in Africa have been relying on a vaccine-sharing initiative to help vaccinate the population.

However, supplies are beginning to run out and the World Health Organization says it could open a door to a new wave of Covid-19 infections.?

CNN’s David McKenzie was live from Johannesburg with the latest.

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A road near Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is near-empty on May 7.

Malaysia’s prime minister has declared a nationwide lockdown from Wednesday until June 7 in an effort to contain the rise in coronavirus cases, state media Bernama News Agency reported.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the lockdown, known as the Movement Control Order or MCO, saying “Malaysia is facing the third wave of the pandemic which can trigger a national crisis.”

The prime minister added that Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases have exceeded 4,000 as of Monday. There are 37,390 active coronavirus cases and the death toll stands at 1,700 as of May 10, he said.

Yassin also warned of “the emergence of new variants with higher infection rates” that could pressure the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

Under the nationwide lockdown all social gatherings will be banned along with inter-state and inter-district travel.

The Hari Raya Aidilfitri or Eid al-Fitr prayers will also be limited to 50 people for mosques that can accommodate 1,000 people and 20 for mosques that accommodate less.

The limit also applies to Friday prayers.

Restaurants will not be allowed dine-in customers, only take-aways are permitted. No weddings or social functions are permitted during the lockdown.

Educational institutes will also remain closed.

The lockdown comes while Malaysia is still under a state of emergency, which was declared by the prime minister back in January to contain the pandemic.

The first nationwide lockdown in Malaysia was imposed on March 18?to May 3, 2020.

President Joe Biden will focus on child care, funding for states and localities, and employer assistance during remarks on the economy Monday, a White House official tells CNN.?

“Today the President will announce additional steps to get Americans back to work, including removing barriers that are preventing Americans from returning safely to good-paying work, and taking steps to make it easier for employers to hire new workers,” the official said.?

The official added, “The remarks will highlight assistance to hard-hit child care providers, funding to state and local governments, and assistance to employers to rehire and retain workers. The President will also reaffirm the basic rules of unemployment insurance benefits.”?

The remarks come after a disappointing jobs report out last week and new concerns about inflation.

It also comes as Republicans and some business owners say that enhanced unemployment benefits during the pandemic have discouraged Americans from re-entering the workforce.?

Asked Friday if he thought those unemployment benefits had an impact on the bruising jobs report, Biden told reporters, “No. Nothing measurable.”?

Biden’s remarks are set for 1:15 p.m. ET in the East Room.

Army personnel load into a vehicle the body of a person who died from Covid-19 in Kathmandu, Nepal, on May 5.

Nepal has recorded its highest daily rise in new Covid-19 cases and deaths, according to figures from the Health Ministry released on Monday.?

The country reported 9,271 new Covid-19 cases on Monday. The previous daily record was 9,196 new cases on May 7.

A further 139 Covid-19 related deaths were also reported, surpassing the previous highest daily record of 58 reported on May 5.

It comes after then Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli told CNN on Saturday that Nepal’s Covid-19 situation is “under control” on Saturday. Oli was removed from his post on Monday after losing a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Only a month ago this Himalayan nation of 31 million people was reporting about 100 cases a day. Some have linked that to India’s raging second wave spilling over into neighboring Nepal.

In the US, not a single state is reporting an increase in Covid-19 cases in the past week compared to the previous week.

A majority of states — 33 — are reporting a decrease in cases.

A full break down of which states are seeing decreases and which are reporting steady figures is below. You’ll notice that New Jersey is gray?— that’s because in late April, the state implemented an automated method to remove some duplicate case reports from the cumulative total. Despite this, state data shows declining daily Covid-19 numbers.

People visit Glendale Galleria shopping mall in California, on May 6.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says federal guidance on wearing face coverings indoors may change soon.

Sunday on ABC News, Fauci was asked whether it’s time to start relaxing indoor masks requirements. Fauci replied, “I think so, and I think you’re going to probably be seeing that as we go along, and as more people get vaccinated.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be updating its guidance almost in real time, as more Americans get vaccinated, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The CDC?relaxed its guidance?last month on wearing masks outdoors, but still advises both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to still wear masks?in indoor public spaces, such as a mall, movie theater or museum.

“We do need to start being more liberal, as we get more people vaccinated,” he added.

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 06: DC Health Nurse Manager Ashley Hennigan fills a syringe with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine during a walk-up clinic at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' outdoor Reach area on May 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Hosted by the District of Columbia Health Department, the event also provided newly vaccinated people with a free beer courtesy of Solace Brewing Co. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Related article It may be time to relax indoor face mask mandates, Fauci says

The United Kingdom’s Covid-19 alert level is being lowered from level four to level three, its Department of Health said Monday, ahead of Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing the further easing of pandemic restrictions.

According to the health department website, level four warns that transmission is high or rising exponentially. Level three warns that the Covid-19 epidemic is in general circulation.

Key indicators for de-escalation from level four to level three includes, an estimated “less than 10,000 new infections per day” and “UK weekly case rate less than 25 per 100,000 population.”

They warned that the virus is still circulating in the country, with new infections being recorded each day, “so we all need to continue to be vigilant. This remains a major pandemic globally.”

While it still has the worst death toll in Europe, the UK has emerged from its devastating second wave – buoyed?by the success of its vaccination campaign. The government said Sunday more than 50 million vaccine doses had been administered nationwide, and it remained on track to offer all adults a shot by the end of July.

Johnson’s press conference on Monday is expected to green-light the easing of more restrictions on May 17 – which will allow pubs and restaurants to serve indoors.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday morning the government wanted to see “intimate contact between friends” restored in England. Asked if that meant?hugs would be allowed again from around May 17, Gove answered: “Yes.”

Ambulance service employees seal the coffin of a Covid-19 victim before burial at a cemetery in the village of Pali, near Faridabad, in India on May 8.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under increasing pressure to impose a nationwide lockdown as the?country grapples?with the world’s worst?Covid-19 outbreak.

The?spiraling crisis?is stretching India’s health care system?beyond breaking point. Beds, oxygen and medical workers are in short supply. Some Covid patients are dying in waiting rooms or outside overwhelmed clinics, before they have even been seen by a doctor.

While more than half of Indian states and union territories have?implemented their own shutdowns?to deal with the second wave, there are intensifying demands for India to impose a second national lockdown.

Calls for lockdown: On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and top White House coronavirus adviser, also said he believed India should lock down.

In a separate interview with CNN affiliate CNN News18 on Friday, Fauci added such a lockdown was needed to “get ahead of the trajectory of the outbreak.”

Fungal infection: This comes after the Indian government flagged cases of a fungal infection, known as mucormycosis, among Covid-19 patients during a Friday press briefing.

“When it pools with the situation with?Covid-19, then you must remember there are two other elements that come into picture,” Dr. V.K. Paul, a member of Niti Aayog, an Indian government-run think-tank, said Friday. “One that we are using drugs that suppress the immune system – we are using a class of drugs which is life-saving, steroids,”

“Besides this, when a Covid patient is given oxygen, there is a humidifier which has water in it, and the tendency to get the?fungal?infection?increases,” he added.

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Indians wait to refill oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients at a gas supplier facility in New Delhi, India, Saturday, May 8, 2021. Infections have swelled in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies. (AP Photo/Ishant Chauhan)

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A nurse prepares a Covid-19 vaccine dose in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 21.

Allowing millions of people to die in poorer countries while wealthy countries immunize their populations could amount to “vaccine apartheid,” according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also expressed his support for the proposal to waive patent rights for coronavirus shots.

If the international community is “truly committed to human rights and the values of equality and non-discrimination, vaccines should be viewed as a global public good,” he said.

Signs of change: Last week, the Biden administration announced that it is supporting the temporary waiver on intellectual property rights of Covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization.

The waiver on patents that belong to pharmaceutical companies would allow other nations to develop generic versions of the drugs.

Some experts say that even with patents waivers, much of the developing world doesn’t necessarily have the means to produce vaccines at the scale needed. They say there is an urgent need to simply share more of the rich world’s vaccines and to transfer technology to help poorer countries manufacture shots further down the line.

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A member of the medical staff wearing protective equipment tends to a patient affected by the COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Machakos County Level-5 hospital in Machakos on July 28, 2020. - Kenyan President on July 27, 2020 banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants after noting an "aggressive surge" in COVID-19 cases among young people who were socialising "particularly in environments serving alcohol". (Photo by Simon MAINA / AFP) (Photo by SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images)

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A person receives the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in Düsseldorf, Germany, on May 3.

Germany will open up the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine to those under the age of 60, as long as they speak to a doctor beforehand.

In April, Europe’s medicines regulator?said it has found a possible link between the?Johnson & Johnson?Covid-19 vaccine?and rare blood clots, but emphasized that the overall benefits of getting the shot outweigh the risks.

Germany’s decision to open up the Johnson & Johnson shot to the young age groups reflects the country’s progress in immunizing seniors, Health Minister Jens Spahn told a press conference Monday.

He added that he expected everyone aged 60 and above to have been offered a shot by late May or early June.

With Germany due to receive another delivery of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – of around 10 million doses by July – Spahn said it made sense to allow the shot to be more widely available.

The announcement follows new legislation that came into force in the country over the weekend, which allows more freedoms for the fully vaccinated and those who have recovered from Covid-19.

Following a shaky start, Germany has sped up its vaccination program. So far, 32.3% of the population has received at least a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, and 9.1% are fully vaccinated, according to the health ministry.

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While?the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations?may be?slowing in the United States,?experts are optimistic about where the country will be in just a matter of weeks.

Roughly 58% of US adults – and nearly 46% of the country’s total population – have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 34% of the US population is fully vaccinated,?CDC data shows.

Once the country climbs above that 60% mark of American adults with at least one dose, Reiner says it’s likely we’ll begin to see Covid-19 numbers plummet.

Other experts have also predicted life will start to look more normal even if the US hasn’t yet reached?“herd immunity”?– when enough people are immune to the virus, either through vaccination or previous infection, to suppress its spread.

Critical juncture: Last week, President Joe Biden set a new goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose?to 70% of American adults by July 4.?But experts say getting more shots into arms?will now be an uphill battle, as officials try to reach audiences who aren’t as eager for a shot or who may still have challenges with access.

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Pedestrians pass in front of Covid-19 Vaccination Site signs outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York, U.S., on Friday, April 30, 2021. New York City is moving to?fully reopen?on July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, though Governor Andrew Cuomo said he wants it to happen sooner. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Police personnel patrol the streets of Lower Bazaar during a curfew imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19, on May 8 in Shimla, India.

At least 24 of India’s 36 states and union territories are under some form of Covid-19 restriction, according to CNN data compiled from state governments.

India is made up of 28 states and eight union territories and at least 19 are confirmed to be under complete lockdown amid the country’s Covid-19 second wave.

These are the union territories under lockdown:

These are the states under lockdown:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to impose a national lockdown. In a national address last month, he actively advocated against one.

Modi has instead advocated for “micro containment zones,” where restrictions are focused on areas of concern. It’s been up to states to decide when and how to implement lockdowns.

Three time Olympian Australian swimmer Cate Campbell receives her dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre in Brisbane on May 10.

Australia began vaccinating its Olympic and Paralympic athletes against Covid-19 on Monday, in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to start in July.

Speaking in Brisbane, Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll said it was not compulsory for athletes or staff to get the vaccine but hoped each would receive their first shot by “the end of next week.”

The athletes will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 shot. The other alternative, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, has been declared by the federal government as only suitable for over-50s.?

More than 2,000 Australian athletes and support staff will travel to Japan for the games, and those returning to Australia must quarantine in managed isolation for 14 days on arrival.

Carroll added that he is “very confident” that the Tokyo games would go ahead.

“No decision has been made about spectators as yet, obviously there’s no foreign spectators, that’s taken a load off the uncertainty for the Japanese public,” he said, adding that the International Olympic Committee is doing work to explain to the Japanese public that the risk to them is very low in the Games.

Questions remain: With less than three months to go before the start of the summer Olympics, already postponed for a year due to the coronavirus, questions still remain over how Tokyo can hold the global event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials and the Japanese public safe from virus.

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FILE - In this March 25, 2021, file photo, a "No Olympics" banner is placed by protesters in Tokyo during a demonstration against the going ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Some nurses in Japan are incensed at a request from Tokyo Olympic organizers to have 500 of them dispatched to help out with the games. They say they're already near the breaking point dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. A protest message saying that nurses were opposed to holding the Olympic went viral on Japanese Twitter recently, being retweeted hundreds of thousands of times. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

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People celebrate the end of the coronavirus curfew in Barcelona, Spain on May 9.

Hundreds of people partied in several cities across?Spain?in the early hours of Sunday, as the country ended its?11 p.m. curfew, which was lifted in 13 of the country’s 17 regions at midnight.

In one video during the final hours of curfew Saturday night, a police van patrolling Barcelona beach warns crowds over a loudspeaker: “It’s forbidden to gather in groups of more than six people, please leave the beach.”

Why now: After a strict stay-at-home order was issued last spring at the start of pandemic, Spain’s second?state of emergency?went into effect last October. It allowed more activity but still included a nationwide late-night curfew, and restrictions on social gatherings and travel within Spain.

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People crowded on the beach in Barcelona after the end of a six-month-long national state of emergency and the local curfew.

Related article Hundreds party in Spain as coronavirus curfew ends in most of the country

Health workers wearing protective gear collect swab samples from residents to test for Covid-19 in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 4.

Sri Lankan authorities reported another 2,659 Covid-19 cases on Monday, a new single-day record for the island nation.

Sri Lanka’s spike comes as other countries in South Asia, especially India, are battling their own surges of Covid-19 and shortages of equipment to treat the rising number of cases.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has asked China to help supply Sri Lanka with oxygen supplies such as nasal inflow machines and oxygen regulators.

Twenty-two Covid-19 related deaths were reported Monday as well. To date, at least 801 people in Sri Lanka have died of Covid-19.

Malaysia banned all interstate and inter-district travel for four weeks starting from Monday to curb the spread of Covid-19, the country’s Bernama News Agency reported.

People in Malaysia will not be allowed to travel between districts or states unless they receive permission from police.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has detected 46 Covid-19 clusters linked to cross-state activities since December 7. Those clusters account for 6,044 Covid-19 cases, Bernama reported.

Malaysia has confirmed 440,677 coronavirus cases throughout the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University. At least 1,683 people have died.

Athletes compete in the 400m race test event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan on May 9.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said it is up to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to decide whether or not the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead.

After being delayed one year due to the pandemic, the Games are set to begin July 23 despite significant opposition among the Japanese public..

The country’s vaccine rollout has not gone as quickly as anticipated, and cases are still spreading. Tokyo is under a Covid-19 state of emergency, which is scheduled to last until the end of the month.

Public health authorities in India are continuing to fight high numbers of new Covid-19 cases.

Authorities reported another 366,161?cases of Covid-19 on Monday, the first time the daily figure has dipped below 400,000 since May 6, according to figures released by the Health Ministry. However, case numbers from Monday – which are reported on Sunday – are often lower than on weekdays because fewer people are tested.

To date, 22,662,575, Covid-19 cases have been identified in India. At least 246,116 people have died.

More than 3,000 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported in India every day since April 28. Another 3,754 were reported Monday, authorities said.

To date, 170,153,432 vaccine doses have been administered in India. At least 35,759,005 people having received their second dose, which means 2.75%?of India’s 1.3 billion-strong population is fully vaccinated, according to a press release issued by the Health Ministry on?Sunday.

Ventilators and oxygen support: 902,291 Covid-19 patients in India are on oxygen support and another 170,841 are on ventilators, Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said Saturday.

He added that 488,861 patients out of the active caseload were in intensive care.

Curfew in Jammu and Kashmir: India’s northernmost union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has imposed curfew until May 17 across all its districts because of the rising number of coronavirus cases there.

The administration also imposed a cap of 25 people at weddings starting Sunday.

Jammu and Kashmir reported a total of 4,788 fresh cases Saturday evening and 60 Covid-19-related deaths, according to the daily government bulletin.

Lockdowns in Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh: The Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat extended their statewide lockdowns as the massive surge of Covid-19 cases across India.

Uttar Pradesh is home to about 200 million people and is India’s most populous state. Its government said in a statement Thursday that the lockdown will continue until May 15.

Gujarat has extended its lockdown of 36 different cities until May 12. Only services which the government considers essential will be allowed to operate until then.

Uttarakhand will go into lockdown Tuesday for a week. The state’s vaccination drive will go on as planned, and individuals will be “required to show the registration proof of vaccination” to be able to travel.

This is the first time during India’s second wave that Uttarakhand has imposed statewide restrictions. Earlier, curbs were put in place in districts with high case numbers.

Covid-19 infections in Uttarakhand have been spiking since Kumbh Mela in April, a festival when Hindu pilgrims across the country gather along the banks of the Ganges River to offer their prayers.

The Om Hospital and Research Center in the Nepal capital of Kathmandu is unable to admit new patients amid a “crisis of oxygen,” the facility said in a statement Sunday.

Om Hospital is one of six private hospitals in Kathmandu to stop admitting Covid-19 patients due to lack of oxygen supplies.

“We’ll resume our services as usual once the regular supply of oxygen is ensured,” the statement said. The hospital also cited a lack of staff needed to treat further patients.

Nepali authorities said Sunday that they had recorded 8,850 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total Covid-19 cases to 394,66. Kathmandu Valley alone recorded 4,198 new cases.

To date, 3,720 people in Nepal have died of Covid-19. Some 88,160 cases are considered active.