May 19 coronavirus news

The US needs to help mobilize global Covid-19 vaccine production to save millions of lives, Dr. Anthony?Fauci said Wednesday.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the US is doing well in the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to its own citizens.

Fauci said its necessary to mobilize global vaccine production capability, so there isn’t a two-to-three-year lag for people in low- and middle-income countries to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

“Because that will literally mean a million deaths, if we wait that long – and maybe more –and that’s unacceptable,” he said.

The US needs to work with other wealthy countries like the UK, Australia and Canada, to “get those plants that are making vaccines revved up to make billions of more doses,” he added.

It’s possible for the US to vaccinate younger people and support vaccinations in low- and middle-income countries at the same time, Fauci noted Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation.?

After supermarket chain Kroger announced today that fully vaccinated employees and customers no longer need to wear masks in the company’s stores, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents 1.3 million essential food and retail workers, cautioned against “the growing trend” of major retailers ending mask requirements for vaccinated customers and employees.

UFCW is calling on the CEOs of retailers to take action to “reassure the public that the majority of those in stores will still wear masks to keep shoppers and workers safe given ongoing COVID risks.”

“With more than 200 million Americans still not fully vaccinated, now is not the time to let our guard down,” Perrone added.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved a label change for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine to allow storage of its product for up to one month at normal refrigeration temperatures.

“This change should make this vaccine more widely available to the American public by facilitating the ability of vaccine providers, such as community doctors’ offices, to receive, store and administer the vaccine,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement Wednesday.

For long-term storage, the label for Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine says?it should be stored in ultra-cold freezers between -80 degrees Celsius to -60 degrees Celsius until the expiry date printed on the label.?

Coronavirus vaccines based on a platform known as a protein subunit will be important for stopping the pandemic, former?US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?director?Dr. Robert Redfield?predicts.

The vaccine platform, which is being developed and tested by?Maryland-based biotech company?Novavax and others, uses a specific isolated spike protein from coronavirus particles?to?elicit an immune response.?

“Eventually, we (have) got to approve the protein platforms. I think the protein platforms are ultimately going to be the most important platforms for the world,” Redfield said during an interview Tuesday on?SiriusXM Doctor Radio’s “Doctor Radio Reports.”

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use messenger RNA or mRNA to elicit immunity, while Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, and one made by AstraZeneca but not yet authorized in the US, uses an adenovirus to deliver genetic material and prompt an immune response.

Utah’s House on Wednesday passed a bill that prohibits public schools and universities in the state from requiring mask mandates after the end of this school year.

The bill also prohibits colleges and universities from requiring proof of a vaccination unless it allows for medical and religious exemptions. So far, CNN has not tracked any colleges or universities in Utah that are requiring students to be vaccinated for Covid-19 before the fall semester begins.

The bill passed 50-24, with one member absent or not voting. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had asked for Wednesday’s special session to be called to have this issue and others considered by lawmakers.

Rep. Val Peterson, the bill’s sponsor, called it a “return to some normalcy.”

According to the bill, schools will be banned from “requiring a face covering to participate in or attend instruction, activities, or in any other place on the campus of the institution after the end of the spring semester in 2021.”

There is nothing in the bill which would prevent students or teachers from wearing a mask if they wished to do so.

Salt Lake City School District announced Tuesday it will require masks on campuses through the end of the 2020-21 school year, which ends June 7.

“We’ve come too far to let go of proven safety practices like mask-wearing with just a few days left in the school year,” Superintendent Larry Madden said in a tweet. “The last thing we want to do is increase risk in our city just as school is about to be let out for the summer.”

Residents get the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Emerald Court senior living community in Anaheim, California on Friday, January 8.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines?both reduce?asymptomatic and symptomatic coronavirus infections among vulnerable nursing home residents in the real world, according to new data.

The incidence of Covid-19 has decreased over time among both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents in?280 nursing homes across 21 states, researchers wrote in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday.

The researchers?– from Brown University in Rhode Island and long-term care provider Genesis HealthCare in Pennsylvania –?examined data on 18,242 nursing home residents who received at least one dose of vaccine as of mid-February and 3,990 residents who were unvaccinated as of March 31. Among those who had received at least one dose, 13,048 completed two doses.?

The residents were tested every three to seven days, the researchers said.

The incidence of Covid-19 dropped among those who had received at least a first dose, from 4.5% of vaccinated residents within two weeks after receiving a first dose to 1.4% between 15 and 28 days?later, the researchers found.

Among the residents who completed two doses,?coronavirus infections were seen among 1% of them within two weeks after receiving the second dose compared with 0.3% after two weeks, the data showed.

Among the unvaccinated residents, coronavirus infections were seen among 4.3% of them within two weeks after the first vaccination clinic began to 0.3% 42 days?later.

Emergent BioSolutions CEO Bob Kramer testified Wednesday that it was his understanding that the US Food and Drug Administration has “for the past week or two” been inspecting some of the material that Emergent had already produced for Johnson & Johnson‘s Covid-19 vaccine, to see if it is safe. This would be for a total of about 100 million doses that Emergent made the material for before manufacturing at the plant was put on pause.

The plant has not yet been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA, meaning no doses produced by this facility have been distributed.

In late April, the FDA said the vaccines that Emergent had already manufactured would undergo additional testing before being cleared for distribution.?

“For the vaccines already manufactured, the products will undergo additional testing and will be thoroughly evaluated to ensure their quality before any potential distribution. We will not allow the release of any product until we feel confident that it meets our expectations for quality,” said an FDA statement on?April 21.?

That vaccine material, Kramer said, has passed all of his company’s control measures and is ready for potential release if the FDA gives the OK.?

“As far as I understand, there have been requests for some additional testing on all of those lots and doses, that have been provided by J&J to the FDA, and it’s under their evaluation right now,” Kramer said at the hearing.?

Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC’s new mask guidance for fully vaccinated people is a step in the right direction, but that the agency’s decision to wait to issue the guidance contributed to vaccine hesitancy.?

Redfield added that early in the pandemic he was a strong advocate for not shutting down schools and industries due to the spread of coronavirus, but instead “to keep them open in a safe, responsible way.”

“I think it’s important. I’ve argued all along that we didn’t have to sacrifice our economy to control this pandemic,” he said.

“I was always disappointed that it was an either/or, rather than a partnering together and learning how to do it safe and responsibly. And obviously the mitigation steps, including masks, was a critical component of that,” he added.

Redfield said the CDC’s new guidance is appropriate because it’s backed by science.

“If you’ve been vaccinated, I personally don’t believe you need to wear a mask, and I do think you could be a billboard for letting the rest of the American public know that we believe these vaccines really work,” he said.

A?coalition of businesses, including McDonald’s, JP Morgan Chase and Uber, have teamed up to support women, whose exodus from the labor market have alarmed leading economists and corporate executives.??

The coalition, Time’s Up Care Economy Business Council, calls on the business community to create workplaces that support women in the wake of the impact of the pandemic.??

According to economists from Moody’s Analytics, some 440,000 prime-age women workers are now sitting on the sidelines because of pandemic-related child care responsibilities.

The council says the situation for women of color has been especially dire, “as they endure crisis levels of unemployment.”

The unemployment rate for?adult?Black women remained high, at 8.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.?

The group says it is assembling a coalition of companies “spanning every industry” to “push for the creation of a comprehensive care infrastructure at this critical moment.”

Patients sit in an observation area for 15 minutes after receiving a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at an event put on by the Thornton Fire Department on March 6, 2021 in Thornton, Colorado.

About 125.5 million people in the United States are fully vaccinated, including about 48% of adults, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 19 states, at least half of adults are now fully vaccinated: Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, DC.

More than 3.5 million children under the age of 18 have now received at least one dose of Covid-19, CDC data shows. About a third of vaccinations among children have been reported in the past week, since eligibility was expanded to children between 12 and 15 years old to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Overall, 277,290,173 total doses have been reported administered – about 79% of the 349,210,095 total doses delivered.

That’s about 1.8 million more doses reported administered since Tuesday, for a 7-day average of about 1.8 million doses per day.

Note: Data reported by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been administered on the day reported.

Dr. Ayoade?Alakija

Orders are in place for “up to 400 million doses” of Johnson & Johnson as a result of ongoing shipment delays, according to the co-chair of the African Union’s vaccine delivery alliance.??

Speaking to CNN’s Bianna Golodryga on the?Amanpour?program, Dr. Ayoade?Alakija said that the African Union have now “had to go to Johnson &?Johnson and actually have orders?in place or options in place for?up to 400 million doses.?240 million we are expecting?this year.”?

Numerous African countries had been heavily reliant on AstraZeneca vaccines from the global vaccine sharing initiative, COVAX.?COVAX had been largely dependent on supplies from the Serum Institute of India (SII)- the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. Due to a devastating second wave of the virus that has swept India, the SII have said that they do not expect to export vaccines again until the end of the year.?

On Wednesday, the Kenyan Health Minister told CNN that the AstraZeneca vaccine is unlikely to remain the “vaccine of choice for the African continent” after ongoing delays in shipments. Kenya is weeks away from finishing its stock of doses having vaccinated less than 2% of its population.

Alakija co-chairs the AU’s vaccine delivery alliance who are charged with acquiring and delivering vaccines on the continent. While she says orders have been made for Johnson & Johnson vaccines, shipments will face extreme delay.

“It is morally wrong.?It is what is being described as?vaccine apartheid.?It’s not about choosing to go to?AstraZeneca or Johnson &?Johnson.?It’s just let us have vaccines,?period.?We desperately need them,” she said.

With the United States and other wealthy countries in a position of excess vaccines, Alakija said leaders needed to look past the “geopolitical mud fight” and share vaccines as it is in their interest.?

“We could have a more?dangerous variant if we don’t?vaccinate the rest of the world.?You can’t isolate yourself. No man is an island,” she said.

A "Mask Required" sign at the entrance to a Kroger Co. grocery store in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, March 10.

Supermarket chain Kroger announced on Wednesday that fully vaccinated employees and customers no longer need to wear masks in the company’s stores,?distribution centers, plants, and offices, according to a company spokesperson.

The updated policy, which will adhere to state and local guidelines, states that non-vaccinated associates will be required to wear a mask.

Associates in pharmacy and clinic locations will be required to continue wearing a mask due to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for health care settings, the spokesperson said.??

Other retailers, including Best Buy, CVS, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Costco, and Starbucks, are also no longer requiring masks.?The CDC announced last week that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear face coverings or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances.

Vials of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine are seen at a mobile vaccination clinic at the Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA on May 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Pfizer plans to produce six billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine over the next 18 months, CEO Albert Bourla said in a conversation with Axios on Wednesday.

Bourla was discussing the possibility that current manufacturing capabilities may not be enough to vaccinate the world.

“I think it’s good to have more vaccines in the market from different manufacturers but I want to say that, ourselves, we will do enough,” he said.

“In the next 18 months, I expect to do six billion doses. We are going to make three billion doses this year – one that we had in the first half, so two billion doses more in the second half. That means on an annualized basis in 2022: four billion doses.”

“That’s only one company, so I think there will be enough quantities,” Bourla said.

Military personnel of the Brazilian Army vaccinate elderly over 89 years of age, with the second dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine against the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, at a drive-through vaccination centre in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on May 1, 2021.?

Covid-19 cases have dropped throughout the Americas in the last month offering some reprieve to health systems but Latin American and the Caribbean countries urgently need more vaccines, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Carissa Etienne, said on Wednesday.??

Last week the Americas reported over 1.2 million new Covid-19 infections and 31,000 deaths.

“Three out of five countries in the world with the highest numbers of new infections are in the Americas,” Etienne said during PAHO’s weekly briefing.?

The United States has seen a sharp reduction in infections, deaths and hospitalizations with almost half of Americans now vaccinated with at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, Etienne said.?

Although over 400 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the region, most of them have been in the US, Etienne explained.

“Indeed just 3% of Latin Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and we still have a long way to go to ensure that everyone is protected,”?the PAHO director warned.?

Asked about the US administration’s offer to share millions of additional vaccine doses overseas, Etienne said, “Of course we welcome any initiatives to donate excess doses for our countries and we are already and able to deploy these vaccines. So it is my fervent hope that the US, as one of our member states, will have filled the access gap that is existing in our region by donating vaccines to the Americas.”

Other countries such as Spain, Sweden, New Zealand and France have also indicated they would donate additional vaccines via Covax, the PAHO director mentioned.

“The harsh reality is that in most Latin America and Caribbean countries, Covid-19 vaccines have reached less than 4% of these?countries population, which is really a far cry from the 70% or more that we need to protect our people.” Etienne said.

Emergent expects to resume production of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine drug substance possibly as early as this week, according to the company’s CEO Bob Kramer who was testifying in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Wednesday.

Kramer said that the US Food and Drug Administration gave the company a detailed number of steps that the company needs to complete before it could resume production. Kramer said that it is “very close to completing them.”

“I would expect that we will be in a position to resume production within a matter of days, Kramer said.

Some background: The company stopped manufacturing the vaccine substance after an inspection found there was cross contamination between the J&J vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine that the facility was making at the same time. Emergent has since stopped making the AstraZeneca vaccine substance at its Baltimore facility.?

For the past week or two, Kramer said the FDA has also been inspecting material that Emergent had already produced for the J&J vaccine to see if it would be safe for the public. This would be a total of about 100 million doses, that Emergent made the material for before the plant was shut down.

“As far as I understand, there have been requests for some additional testing on all of those lots and doses, that have been provided by J&J to the FDA, and it’s under their evaluation right now,” Kramer said.?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss the on-going federal response to Covid-19 on May 11, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

A Covid-19 booster vaccine, when authorized, will likely be needed within a year following initial vaccination, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said Wednesday.

“I believe it likely will be within a year,” Fauci said during an Axios interview on vaccine rollout.

“We know that the vaccine durability of the efficacy lasts at least six months, and likely considerably more, but I think we will almost certainly require a booster sometime within a year or so after getting the primary,” Fauci said.

A 15-year-old receives a first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at a mobile vaccination clinic at the Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA on May 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.?

The rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 has been?“better than expected,”?Dr. Lisa Costello, a pediatrician at West Virginia University Medicine Children’s Hospital and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on State Government Affairs, told CNN.

Costello said that the rollout for that age group?in the United States has been reminiscent of when the vaccine was first authorized for adults in December – and those very first doses were administered.

It has been one week since the rollout for younger teens and pre-teens began.?The US Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in the new age group last Monday and then on Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended using the vaccine in that age group.?

“In less than one week, we have vaccinated more than 600,000 12- to 15-year-olds,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing on Tuesday.

In total, about 3.5 million children 12-17 have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine so far, according to the latest CDC data. Walensky said that her own son was one of them.?

Both CVS and Walgreens pharmacies confirmed to CNN via email on Tuesday that their locations are continuing to vaccinate adolescents ages 12 to 15 and Walgreens noted that there was “a spike in booked appointments, indicating early interest from parents to vaccinate their children.”?Yet neither company provided data on just how many young people have received their first dose of vaccine yet so far.

It’s still too early to tell exactly how the rollout is going nationwide and where it’s heading – but it seems that there has been a “pretty brisk uptake” of the vaccine among this younger age group so far, Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told CNN on Tuesday.

In West Virginia, there has been a lot of demand for the vaccine and enough supply to meet that demand, Costello said.

“Our state took preparatory action to make sure that there would be enough Pfizer product in supplies so that we would have enough to be able to offer a vaccine to that age group,” Costello said.

“But certainly I think we need to continue to work to boost confidence and share information,” she added. “We have to continue to inform the public as to where the vaccines are.”

Parents and guardians can visit vaccines.gov to find where vaccines may be available for young teens in their area.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued a “safety communication” to remind Americans that SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests should not be used to evaluate whether someone is protected – or immune – from infection. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes Covid-19.

“The FDA is reminding the public of the limitations of COVID-19 antibody, or serology, testing and providing additional recommendations about the use of antibody tests in people who received a COVID-19 vaccination,” Dr. Tim Stenzel, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, said in a statement.

New York will lift many capacity restrictions on businesses starting today, including retail, food services, and gyms. The state will also adopt the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines to not require masks or social distancing for vaccinated people starting today.

CNN’s Alexandra Field was live in New York City with the latest. Watch:

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Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies at a hearing on May 19 in Washington, DC.

The Covid-19 pandemic would have been “extraordinarily different” if the United States had stronger public health infrastructure, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

Walensky spoke in response to a question from Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, on how things would have been different in the US had the country invested in tools such as genomic sequencing capabilities earlier.?

“I think the testing – the inability of our public health systems to be able to conduct these tests in massive scale – didn’t allow us to find the disease where it was. Certainly we hadn’t done genomic sequencing until January,” Walensky said.?

“We didn’t know anything about the variants that were circulating here. There are numerous ways that this could have gone better if we had had a more robust public health infrastructure across all of those domains,” she added.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced updated Covid-19 guidance and protocol for child care, day camps and overnight camps including mask and distancing requirements for unvaccinated staff.

Programs and facilities must collect vaccination status of all staff and children and implement mandatory health screening practices of staff and visitors, including temperature checks, according to a statement from Cuomo.?

It adds that “facilities and programs must provide and require the use of face coverings for individuals who are not fully vaccinated.”

Each site must also implement a property specific limitation for children and campers that ensures social distancing, and staff that are not fully vaccinated must maintain a 6 ft. distance from other unvaccinated staff, the release said.

Paramedics get ready to load the bodies of Covid-19 victims into an ambulance for cremation in Kathmandu, Nepal, on May 12.

Nepal reported at least 246 new Covid-19 deaths Wednesday, its highest daily jump since the pandemic began. The country’s death toll now stands at 5,657.

At least 8,173 new Covid-19 cases were also reported Wednesday, bringing the nationwide total to 480,412.

The country has been thrown into political turmoil after Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli was forced to step down a week ago following public anger over his response to a?deadly second wave?of coronavirus. ?

Just a month ago, the Himalayan nation of 31 million people was reporting about 100 cases a day, but now cases are skyrocketing and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed.

Read more about Nepal’s fight with Covid-19 here

A nurse holds a nasal swab to test for coronavirus on April 27 in New York.

Ensemble forecasts published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project that the number of newly reported Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths will likely continue to decrease over the next four weeks.

The forecast predicts a total of 594,000 to 604,000 US Covid-19 deaths reported by June 12.

The previous ensemble forecast, published May 12, projected up to 602,000 deaths would be reported by June 5.

Several Indian states are facing a shortage of an antifungal drug used to treat Black Fungus, or Mucormycosis, a disease Indian Health officials have increasingly been detecting among patients who have recovered from Covid-19.

At least 52 people have died from Black Fungus in the state of Maharashtra, where the disease is on the rise among patients who have recovered from Covid-19, Dr Tatyarao Lahane, a senior state health official told CNN on Wednesday.

At least 2,000 cases of Black Fungus have been detected in Maharashtra, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health on Friday.?

“We are now getting 100 cases daily on average…there was a shortage (of the drug for treating black fungus) initially because it was not expected, but that’s been resolved now, 16,000 doses arrived just yesterday,” Lahane added.?

Maharashtra’s health minister Rajesh Tope said last Wednesday an order had been placed for 100,000 vials of Amphotericin B, a drug used to treat Black Fungus.?

“There are very few districts where there aren’t patients (of Black Fungus),” Tope also said, as states across the country, such as Uttar Pradesh, Maydhya Pradesh, Delhi and Telangana have made appeals for deliveries of the drug as they face shortages.

The western Indian state of Gujarat is also facing an increase in Black Fungus cases. The?local government has placed an order for 100,000 vials of Amphotericin B and Liposomal injections used to treat the disease, after Gujarat’s High Court issued an order on Monday noting “the rapid increase in the cases of flesh eating Black Fungal infection called ‘Mucormycosis’”.

“The shortage of injections being administered for the said disease and the cost of its treatment are also the issues which deserve to be seriously and immediately?considered by the State,” the order added.?

Mucormycosis is commonly found among patients of diabetes or those with weakened immune systems. While the disease is not caused by Covid-19, Indian health officials have increasingly detected it among Covid-19 patients, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health on Friday

“This fungus infection is caused by a fungus called mucor…it is found on wet surfaces…when there is uncontrolled diabetes mucor attacks,” V K Paul, head of India’s covid task force said on Friday.

“If someone has a disease or takes medication which suppresses the immune system. or is exposed to wet surfaces they can contract the disease…(for Covid-19) we are using drugs which suppress our immune system…when Covid-19 patients receive oxygen which has a humidifier which has water collection which can increase the tendency of the fungus,”?Paul added.?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, arrives for a hearing on May 11 in Washington, DC.

Dr. Anthony?Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Axios that people are “misinterpreting” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new mask guidance by thinking the guidelines say no one needs to wear a mask.

Fauci?said that this wasn’t their fault.

“People either read them quickly, or listen and hear half of it. They are feeling that we’re saying: ‘You don’t need the mask anymore.’ That’s not what the CDC said. They said: If you are vaccinated, you can feel safe – that you will not get infected either outdoors or indoors. It did not explicitly say that unvaccinated people should abandon their masks.”

The European Union will begin to ease travel restrictions to the bloc, with the EU Council agreeing on measures to allow fully vaccinated foreign visitors in.?

The bloc’s 27 ambassadors green-lit a plan to implement waivers for vaccinated people and relax criteria to lift restrictions for third countries on Wednesday. The proposal also includes an emergency brake mechanism that would allow the EU to react quickly to variants of interest or concern, an EU Portuguese presidency spokeswoman said on Twitter.

An EU official told CNN that if member states accept proof of vaccination to waive travel restrictions, such as testing or quarantine, they should in principle lift restrictions on non-essential travel for third-country visitors. The EU will also take into account reciprocity, according to the EU official, who asked not to be named as the recommendation had not yet been adopted.

The EU Council is expected to formally adopt the recommendations, which are not legally binding for member states, on Thursday, the EU official added.?

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

Kenya is just days away from running out of Covid-19 vaccines with only about 100,000 AstraZeneca doses left, the country’s health minister Mutahi Kagwe told CNN, blaming vaccine nationalism for eroding supply chains and triggering shortages.

Many African countries like Kenya had relied heavily on vaccines from the global vaccine sharing initiative, COVAX, which largely depended on vaccine supplies from the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. But a vicious second wave of coronavirus in India has led to an export restriction by the country, and the SII said Tuesday they will be unable to ship vaccines until the end of 2021.

To cope with shortages, Kenya’s health ministry will take back doses from regions where uptake has been slow and redistribute them to begin the process of second jabs by the first week of June. Kenya is expecting an additional 150,000 doses from neighboring countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is no capacity to administer doses before they expire in June.

“We are still vaccinating, but we are at the tip, we need vaccines like, yesterday,” Kagwe said.

Less than 2% of Kenya’s population of more than 52 million have had their first shot, according to Our World in Data.

After ongoing delays in shipments from India, AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is unlikely to remain the “vaccine of choice for the African continent,” Kagwe said.

“It is very likely that we are going to discuss and agree on Johnson & Johnson. First it is being produced here in Africa and secondly, there is an arrangement for a number of doses that are going to come to (the) Africa platform.”

Kenya has ordered 30 million vaccines from Johnson & Johnson. The health minister hopes the majority of the adult population will be vaccinated by next year, urging, “the sooner we have our 30 million doses, the sooner we finish.”

Leaders across the globe have decried the inequity of vaccine nationalism in light of Africa having only carried out fewer than 1% of the global vaccinations, according to the WHO.

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the setup was “unfair and inefficient” and called for patents on vaccines to be lifted so countries in Africa could manufacture them locally.

Numbers are handed out to people waiting to receive the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at a health center in Blantyre, Malawi, on March 29.

While many African nations are still struggling to get enough Covid-19 vaccines to protect their populations, those that have managed to shore up doses are struggling to administer them in time. Now they’re facing the bitter reality of having to destroy thousands of expired doses.

South Sudan has announced plans to discard about 59,000 of 191,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it received in donations. In Malawi, at least 19,000 expired doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be publicly incinerated on Wednesday, the country’s health ministry said in a statement to CNN. Meanwhile, more than 1 million AstraZeneca doses acquired through vaccine-sharing facility COVAX have been returned by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), following concerns that the shots may expire before they make it into arms.

A spokesperson for GAVI, the vaccines alliance that runs COVAX with the World Health Organization, told CNN that vaccines were only delivered through the scheme to countries who were ready to hit the ground running with immunizations and that all COVAX participants were informed of vaccine expiry dates in advance.

But African nations trying to scale up rollouts against the backdrop of weak health infrastructures, hard-to-reach rural areas and vaccine hesitancy are facing an uphill battle.

WHO told CNN that the destruction of expired vaccines was “deeply regrettable,” especially in a context where doses are already scarce. But that the move was ultimately justified, especially in trying to build confidence among the public that vaccination programs are safe and effective.

“Discarding vaccines is deeply regrettable in the context of any immunization program,” said Kate Ribet, spokesperson for WHO Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

“However, given the complex process required to verify their stability, and the risk of negative perception related to the use of expired doses, WHO recommends that COVID-19 vaccines already in the distribution chain should not be used beyond their labeled expiry date and should be safely disposed of.”

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ZOMBA MALAWI, March 11, 2021 -- A local resident receives the COVID-19 vaccine in Zomba, Malawi on March 11, 2021. Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera and his deputy, Saulos Chilima, on Thursday led the country in getting the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to mark the official rollout of the vaccination campaign. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Joseph Mizere via Getty Images)

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French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and French Prime Minister Jean Castex (L) are having coffees at a cafe terrace in Paris, France on May 19.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed a return to normal life over a “café en terasse” in Paris on Wednesday as bars, restaurants and cultural venues reopened at partial capacity for the first time in six months.

“Here we are! Terraces, museums, cinemas, theaters … Let’s find what makes our way of life. While respecting social distancing,” Macon said on Twitter, sharing a video of himself laughing and chatting with French Prime Minister Jean Castex at one of the city’s beloved café terraces.

Wednesday marked a key step in government plans to carefully ease restrictions, six months after a second nationwide lockdown was issued in October amid mounting Covid-19 cases.

Infections have continued to drop since France hit the peak of its third Covid-19 wave in late April, falling to 14,000 daily cases over the last week compared to nearly double that figure three weeks ago. On Tuesday, France recorded 4,352 patients hospitalized in intensive care units, down from 6,001 patients at the peak.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced tightened Covid-19 restrictions on Wednesday after the island reported 275 new cases.

Some 267 of the infections were locally transmitted, with around 70 in the capital, Taipei, and 129 in the surrounding New Taipei City.

The?Covid-19 alert level for the whole island will be raised to level 3, the second-highest grade, Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said. Taipei and New Taipei City were already placed under level 3 since last weekend.

Chen said Covid-19 cases have been detected in more cities across the island, which made it necessary to raise the alert level.

Changhua county on the island’s central west coast reported 28 new cases Wednesday, the highest number it has seen since the pandemic began.

Under the new restrictions,?no more than five people may gather indoors at any one time, and no more than 10 people may gather outdoors.?Some non-essential facilities will also be closed.

The island’s current Covid-19 outbreak is relatively small compared to those in other parts of the world, but is an unfamiliar situation for Taiwan, which has until now managed to avoid a serious spike in cases.

Taiwan is expected to receive 400,000 additional doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines?from the Netherlands on Wednesday, according to the official Central News Agency.

The island has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the world, with fewer than 1% of its 23 million-strong population inoculated, according to?data compiled by CNN.?

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach (on screen) delivers an opening speech at a meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in Tokyo, Japan on May 19.

Less than 10 weeks out from the?postponed start to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, organizers have promised athletes they are doing everything they can to ensure the Games take place safely.

Japan is struggling with a renewed outbreak of coronavirus, with only about 1% of the population vaccinated –?renewing calls for the Olympics to be canceled.

Speaking at a meeting of the coordination committee Wednesday, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said Japanese and Tokyo 2020 officials would make the right decision on managing the situation, and the risks had been managed well so far.

Bach and other officials – both from the IOC and Japanese sporting bodies – pushed back against critics, with the IOC president saying his organization has offered to provide additional medical personnel to help pull off strict anti-Covid measures alongside the Tokyo government.

He added that 75% of people who plan on being in the Olympic Village have already been vaccinated, while organizers hope the final number will be more than 80%.

Bach said the existing plans have been tested with foreign athletes in?several test events?– none of which turned into super spreader events.

Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto, also speaking at the opening of the meeting, said the purpose of Wednesday’s session was to focus on the protection of athletes and the public. She said the two main focuses would be the frequent testing of athletes and separating them from the Japanese public.

Earlier this month, an online petition calling for the Games to be canceled?garnered 350,000 signatures in nine days, while the CEO of leading Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has?called plans to host the Games a “suicide mission.”

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A man takes a photograph near the Olympic Rings on January 22, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

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Residents queue to receive Covid-19 vaccines at Hefei Olympic Sports Center on May 17 in Anhui province, China.

As vaccination hesitancy?slows inoculation rates in some Western countries, China is going into overdrive.

Over 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have now been administered in China, according to the National Health Commission?– more than in?the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany combined.

Of course, 400 million doses doesn’t even cover half of China’s population of?1.4 billion?people, but the vaccination rate is speeding up. Chinese authorities announced the first 100 million people had been vaccinated?on March 27. After that, it took another 26 days to reach 200 million, and then 17 days to hit 300 million.

The latest 100 million doses were given in just nine days.

While there has been a?concerted push?for vaccines by the central government and local authorities, that campaign has been helped recently by another factor – fear.

What happened? Anhui and Liaoning provinces have both seen a large spike in vaccinations over the past two weeks, following?small local outbreaks?of Covid-19 – 17 and 25 cases, respectively.

But that was all it took for Anhui to inoculate?more than 1.1 million people?in a day on May 16. The province’s average daily vaccination rate was more than 840,000 in the past week.

In Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, there have been?more than 100,000 vaccinations?a day since May 12, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

The impact of the new outbreaks has also been felt nationwide: on Friday alone, 14 million people were vaccinated across China, days after the news broke of cases in Anhui and Liaoning.

And in Beijing, almost 80% of those age 18 and over have now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine,?the state-run Global Times?said this week, bringing the capital close to the coveted goal of achieving herd immunity.

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CHINA VACCINES

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A superspreader event at a Hong Kong fitness center highlights the risk of Covid-19 transmission in confined spaces with poor ventilation, according to a study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday.

Researchers with the University of Hong Kong studied how a trainer infected with Covid-19 was connected to 101 subsequent cases among gym visitors and 53 close contacts.

On March 10, a 27-year-old trainer at a fitness center in Hong Kong with no symptoms tested positive for Covid-19, according to the study. Since the trainer had been teaching in-person classes between?February 28 and March 8, the gym was closed to the public and local health authorities began contact tracing.

About 300 people who visited the fitness center between?February 25 through March 10 were required to be tested, and of those, seven staff members and 94 customers tested positive.

More than 80% of those cases were detected within three days of the trainer testing positive. The team also reported 53 close contacts of those cases tested positive for Covid-19, despite having no link to the fitness center.

Of the 102 cases connected to the gym, 46 showed no symptoms when they were tested – a much higher proportion of asymptomatic cases than in the general Hong Kong population, researchers noted. The team said it wasn’t clear why that was, although they noted the 102 cases were younger on average than the general population.

How it happened: The team used virus sequencing to determine the event had been caused by a “single virus introduction.”

Visitors to the fitness center were not required to wear masks at the time of the outbreak and the gym had poor ventilation, which researchers said may have played a major role in the outbreak.?

After the outbreak, new recommendations were put in place to prevent similar outbreaks.

A person is administered with a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on May 13.

Taiwan’s presidential office has criticized China for blocking its access to Covid-19 vaccines as the self-ruled democratic island faces a new outbreak of the virus.

Kolas Yotaka, the office’s spokesperson, said Wednesday that Taiwan’s access to vaccines had been “slowed down by Chinese interference.”

The comments came after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Monday that Beijing was willing to “spare the most efforts in helping our Taiwan compatriots win the fight against the epidemic as soon as possible.”

Taiwan has repeatedly accused Beijing of slowing its vaccine procurement from around the world. In February, Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said during a radio show that a deal with Germany’s BioNTech was unsuccessful due to political pressure from China.

In response to China’s statement, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said Monday that “the opposite shore does not need to fake good intentions.”

China has been increasing its air deployments around Taiwan in recent months, sending dozens of warplanes into the island’s air defense identification zone.

Vaccine research: Separately, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said the island is currently developing two Covid-19 vaccines, and they are expected to be made available as early as the end of July. The two vaccine candidates are currently at the end of stage 2 clinical trials, and the government will continue to offer support, she added.

Taiwan has one of the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the world, with less than 1% of the 23 million population immunized, according to data collated by CNN.

Reported Covid-19 cases worldwide declined for the third week in a row, although the numbers confirmed are still at some of the highest levels over the course of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Another 4.8 million new Covid-19 cases were reported around the world this week,?along with nearly 86,000 new deaths,?according to WHO’s Covid-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, which compiled data from national health authorities through May 16.

Declining cases: Cases fell 12% overall on the previous week. Europe reported the sharpest decline, with 26% fewer cases on the week before.

“All regions reported a decline in new cases this week apart from the Western Pacific Region, where the incidence of new cases was similar to the previous week,” the report said.

Record highs: The global drop in recent weeks comes after Covid-19 cases reached an all-time peak in April. Covid-19 is continuing to spread at high rates in many countries.

The highest number of new cases was in India, with 2.3 million more people falling ill this week – a 13% decrease from the last week. In Brazil, there were 437,000 new cases, up 3% from the previous week.

While India is in crisis, there are also worrying spikes in cases and hospitalizations in many nations including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Egypt, WHO Director-General?Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing Friday.

People mourn the death of family members who died of Covid-19 in New Delhi, India on May 18.

India reported 4,529 new Covid-19 related fatalities Wednesday morning, the highest daily death toll the country has seen since the start of the pandemic.

It’s the first time India has reported more than 4,500 deaths in a single day, and brings the country’s total Covid-19 death toll to 283,248.?

India has reported more than 3,000 new Covid deaths every day since April 28.

The South Asian country reported 267,334 new cases of Covid-19 Wednesday, the third consecutive day it has seen fewer than 300,000 cases amid a devastating second wave of infections.

Wednesday’s tally brings the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 25,496,330, according to the Indian health ministry.

To date, 185.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in India, with 1,279,896 shots recorded on Tuesday, according to the health ministry.

Thailand reported its highest number of Covid-19 deaths in a single day Tuesday as officials struggle to contain a?third coronavirus wave?ripping through?overcrowded prisons.

The Southeast Asian country’s justice minister said authorities are hoping to prioritize vaccinating more than 300,000 inmates and jail staff by diverting doses from the health ministry.

On Monday, Thailand reported?9,635 new coronavirus cases?– the highest number of new infections since the pandemic began, according to its Covid-19 task force (CCSA). Of those cases, 6,853 – more than 70% – were found in eight prisons and detention facilities across the country.

By Tuesday morning local time, 2,473 new Covid-19 cases had been confirmed, of which 680 were from prisons. Thailand also reported 35 related deaths nationwide on Tuesday, its highest number of daily fatalities, according to CCSA.

The new figures bring the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 127,184, with 649 related deaths – relatively small numbers compared to those in other parts of the world. Thailand has managed to keep overall cases low until the most recent outbreak emerged in early April from a Bangkok entertainment district before spreading to a slum area.

Thailand’s prison clusters came to light when several pro-democracy protest leaders, accused of insulting the monarchy and held in pre-trial detention following popular demonstrations last year, announced they had tested positive for Covid-19 after being released on bail. Following the news, Thai authorities began mass testing the country’s prison population.

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coronavirus inmates Thailand HANDOUT

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The US has reached a “landmark day” in the Covid-19 pandemic as 60% of American adults have gotten at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In addition, more than 3.5 million people ages 12 to 17 have received their first dose, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

And more people of color are getting vaccinated – marking “encouraging national trends,” said White House Covid-19 Response Team senior adviser Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.

In the past two weeks, 51% of those vaccinated in the US were people of color. That’s higher than the 40% of the general population these groups represent.

Meeting people where they are and bringing vaccines to communities seem to be working, she said.

Black, Latino and Native American communities have been hit particularly hard by Covid-19. And some in those groups were hesitant about getting vaccinated because of?medical mistreatment in the past.

But efforts to protect minority communities appear to be paying off. From all the federal vaccination sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about 60% of shots have been given to people of color, Nunez-Smith said.

And about 70% of shots administered through the federal government’s community health centers have been given to people of color, she said.

But the need to vaccinate more Americans to?help stop the virus from resurging?is far from met.

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Customers wear protective masks as they browse in the retail shopping district of the SoHo neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York, Friday, May 14, 2021. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has yet to say whether he will change his state's mask mandate in light of new federal guidance that eases rules for fully vaccinated people.

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