May 25 coronavirus news

People taking methotrexate—commonly used by patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases—may not have a full immune response to mRNA vaccines, according to new research published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.?

The researchers, from New York University Langone Health and FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and?Universit?tsklinikum?Erlangen in Germany, looked at patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), some taking methotrexate and others who weren’t. They also looked at healthy control participants. All were vaccinated with BNT 162b2, Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 mRNA vaccine, and assessed at baseline and after receiving their second shot.

In both the New York and German cohort, lower numbers of people taking methotrexate achieved adequate immune responses than those who were not taking it and those who were healthy.?

The researchers found that 28 of 45 (62.2%) receiving methotrexate achieved adequate immunogenicity compared to 204 of 208 (98.1%) of healthy controls and 34 of 37 (91.9%) patients with IMID not taking methotrexate.?

It is noted that in both New York and Germany, patients who were taking methotrexate were older on average than IMID patients who were not taking it and control patients.?

The research also notes that certain essential T-cells needed for fighting off infection were induced in healthy adults and IMID patients not taking methotrexate but were not induced in those who were on the medication.?

The authors say that the research does have some limitations. These include a small sample size, the fact that they only tested the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine and that they did not include participants who had previous asymptomatic Covid-19 infections.?

The authors say that the results suggest further study is needed into how to optimally protect IMID patients against Covid-19.?

A health worker prepares an injection of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccination cener set up at the East London Mosque in London on April 14.

A new study out of the United Kingdom takes a closer look at three cases of a rare stroke event following administration of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine.?

The research, published Tuesday in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, looked at three patients who experienced ischemic stroke, where blood clots occur in arteries and block blood flow to the brain.??

These three cases are the first cases of ischemic stroke described in connection to the blood clotting previously reported alongside the AstraZeneca vaccine.??

“During the current period of Covid vaccination a high index of suspicion is required to identify thrombotic episodes following vaccination,” said Hugh Markus, a professor at the University of Cambridge who contributed to the research.?

One of the patient experienced symptoms six days after vaccine administration, while another had symptoms 21 days after receiving the vaccine. One patient died.?

Patients ranged in age from 35 to 43, and researchers said the presence of stroke in these patients highlights the need to look for vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia, the clotting condition that has been associated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine, in patients presenting with stroke symptoms.?

Several Canadian provinces are cautiously announcing reopening plans as the country slowly recovers from a third wave of Covid-19.?

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Tuesday that the infection rate has fallen about 40% since the peak of activity in mid-April.?

However, she said that hospitalizations and critical care admissions have only dropped by 15% and 10% respectively.?

Canada’s prime minister said he was hopeful the accelerating pace of vaccination would enable the country to return to a more normal way of life by fall.?

Health Canada said more than half of all Canadians are now partially vaccinated but less than 5% are fully vaccinated.??

With new, daily cases of Covid-19 dropping, both BC and Quebec announced reopening plans Tuesday that were still cautious compared to the US and the UK.

In BC, residents can now meet a few friends at a restaurant and dine indoors again and significantly, people can start inviting visitors into their homes again.?

The provincial government laid out a phased-in reopening that will allow for more organized sports, travel, and larger indoor gatherings later in spring and early summer.?

Quebec announced it would finally lift a months-long curfew throughout the province this Friday, restaurant patios can also reopen everywhere and small social gatherings outside can resume.?

But it was a different picture in Manitoba where the province is in the middle of a devastating third wave. To cope with rising intensive care admissions, public health officials said they will continue to transfer patients out of province and are even looking into the possibility of sending patients to North Dakota for treatment but only if absolutely necessary.?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced that in-person visitation at all of Kentucky’s Department of Corrections (DOC) state prisons and Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) facilities will resume the week of June 20.?

According to the governor, the new in-person visitation guidelines only apply to DOC’s 14 state prisons and not to county jails.?Visitors will have to schedule their visitation in advance, Beshear said.

According to Beshear, as of today, 76% of adult inmates housed in state custody have been vaccinated.

“And so, to those in custody – good for you! Good for you! I know you’ve seen the harms of this virus and thank you for responding in such a responsible way,” the governor said.?

Beshear said DOC will continue to offer the Covid-19 vaccine to all individuals at the time of intake and for any inmates who have declines and now want to change their mind.?

It’s been a tough year to be a child and arguably even tougher to be a parent raising one during a global pandemic.

Although US children’s lives may now be starting to look more normal as an increasing number of people get vaccinated and schools reopen, there’s a growing concern for kids’ mental health. We want to hear what your experience raising a child during this unprecedented time has been – the highs, the lows and any concerns you may have for their cognitive development.

Reply using the text box below and your responses may be used in an upcoming episode of?Chasing Life?hosted by CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

Although a vaccine for younger children likely won’t be available by the time school starts in the fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the House Appropriations committee on Tuesday that it should be safe for children of all ages to go back to in-person class then.?

Given the percentage of teachers vaccinated already now and into the fall, “there should be no reason not to get children of any age back to in-person school by the time we get to the fall term,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Several leaders of the NIH appeared before the committee to discuss the agency’s proposed budget.

There’s already a significant decline in Covid-19 infections and many more people will be vaccinated by the fall, Fauci said. A vaccine for younger children likely won’t be available until late fall, early winter, Fauci said.??

“I don’t have children that young, but I would not be concerned when we get to the fall,” Fauci said.

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 6, in Washington, DC.?

The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday updated its emergency use authorization guidance for Covid-19 vaccines to note that the agency intends to prioritize reviewing EUA requests for the remainder of the current public health emergency – even if that means declining to review other requests.

Currently, three coronavirus vaccines are authorized for emergency use in the United States – the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for ages 12 and older, the two-dose Moderna vaccine for ages 18 and older and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for ages 18 and older.

With nearly 40,000 new cases, the US saw the lowest number of weekly Covid-19 cases among children since early-October, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Children accounted for nearly 20% of the new cases reported late last week. More than 3.9 million children have tested positive since the start of the pandemic as of May 20.?

Depending on the state, children made up between 6%?and?19.5% of those who were tested for Covid-19,?and 5.2%-34.4% of children tested were positive for the coronavirus.

Children are still considered much less likely than adults to?develop severe symptoms of?Covid-19 or to die from the disease. Children?represented 1.3%?to 3.2% of total reported hospitalizations for Covid-19, based on the information provided by 24 states and New York City. Only 0.1%-1.9% of all cases of Covid-19 in children required hospitalization.?

Nine states reported zero child deaths among the 43 states that provided data on Covid-19 mortality.?

A man passes over a bridge next to a huge semi-sphere bearing the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics logos on the side of a driving school building on May 6 in Tokyo.?

US public health experts are calling for “urgent action” to assess the Covid-19 risks associated with the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo and the additional measures that could be put in place to mitigate those risks.

The experts — including Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota and other researchers — wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday that they recommend the World Health Organization “immediately convene an emergency committee” to advise on a risk-management approach for the Tokyo Olympic Games.?

Due to the pandemic, the International Olympic Committee postponed the Tokyo Olympics last year and rescheduled the Games for this summer — starting on July 23.

“We believe the IOC’s determination to proceed with the Olympic Games is not informed by the best scientific evidence. The playbooks maintain that athletes participate at their own risk, while failing both to distinguish the various levels of risk faced by athletes and to recognize the limitations of measures such as temperature screenings and face coverings,” the researchers wrote.?

The researchers noted that the IOC’s playbooks should classify various sporting events as low, moderate or high risk depending on the activity. For instance, an outdoor sport where competitors are naturally spaced out, such as archery or equestrian, could be considered low risk while indoor contact sports, such as boxing or wrestling, could be considered high risk.

The researchers called for more plans to conduct frequent Covid-19 testing and emphasized that temperature checks could miss pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic cases.

The researchers say that while vaccines are available in some countries, in Japan, where the Olympic Games will be held, less than 5% of the population is vaccinated — and not all athletes participating in the Olympics may be vaccinated. They also noted in the paper that coronavirus variants, which may be more transmissible than the original strain, are circulating widely

“Although several countries have vaccinated their athletes, adolescents between 15 and 17 years of age cannot be vaccinated in most countries, and children younger than 15 can be vaccinated in even fewer countries,” the researchers wrote. “In the absence of regular testing, participants may become infected during the Olympics and pose a risk when they return home to more than 200 countries.”

Less than 1 in 10 people in the US – about 9% of the population – live in a county considered to have “high” Covid-19?transmission, according to a CNN analysis of federal data.??

However, in seven states, more than a quarter of the population lives in a county with “high”?transmission: Delaware (76%), Colorado (47%), Wyoming (44%), Michigan (40%), Maine (39%), Montana (28%) and Florida (25%).?

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a county to have “high”?transmission?if there have been 100 or more cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 residents or a test positivity rate of 10% or?higher in the past seven days.?

About two weeks ago, closer to 3 in 10 people – about 28% of the population – lived in a county considered to have “high” transmission.?

Overall, most?people in the US live in a county that is still considered to have “substantial”?transmission?(38% of the population) or “moderate”?transmission?(about 51%?of the population).?

About 2%?of the US population – about 7 million people – live in a county considered to have “low”?transmission, defined by the CDC as less than 10 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of less than 5% in the past seven days.?

In nine states, more than 5% of the population lives in a county considered to have “low”?transmission: Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Kansas, Utah, North Dakota and New Jersey.?

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Tuesday that Covid-19 has “energized” the agency to do more to address health disparities in the United States.

“We really have to look at what’s happened with Covid-19 as another example of just how devastating health disparities are in the United States and that those same populations that have suffered from disparities like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, got hit extremely hard by Covid-19,” Collins told the House Committee on Appropriations hearing about the proposed NIH budget. “No one can look at that and not say we’ve got a serious issue here.”?

Communities of color have had a disproportionate number of hospitalizations and deaths during the pandemic.?

Collins said that while the NIH has been studying minority health and health disparities, for many years, the agency plans to go deeper to fully understand not just the causes of health disparities, but to find the best interventions.

“We can’t fix the health care system in the United States as the NIH, we’re the research organization,” Collins said, “but we can organize studies to see what would happen if you change certain approaches to health and other aspects that are contributing to this and we aim to do that.”

Maryland National Guard Sgt. Jason Grant, right, administers a Moderna coronavirus vaccine at CASA de Maryland's Wheaton Welcome Center on May 21 in Wheaton, Maryland.

Half of the adult population in the United States is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.?

This milestone has also been reached by 25 states, as well as Washington, DC.

More than 164 million people – 49.5% of the total US population – has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and more than 131 million people – 39.5% of the total US population – are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.?

Overall, 287,788,872 total doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been reported administered, about 80% of the 359,004,955 total doses delivered.?

That’s about 898,000 more doses reported administered since Monday, for a seven-day average of about 1.8 million doses per day. This is the first time in about three weeks that less than 1 million new doses have been reported administered since the day prior.

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

You can see the share of adult residents who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by state here.

Delaware state officials launched a new incentive program aimed at increasing Covid-19 vaccination rates in the state, according to?a statement?from Gov. John Carney’s office.?

As part of the program, DE Wins!, residents aged 12 and older who were vaccinated “from May 25-June 29, ?and any Delawarean ages 12-17 vaccinated to date,?will be entered to win $5,000 in cash and additional prizes in twice-weekly drawings conducted by the Delaware Lottery,” the statement said.

Delaware Lottery will hold weekly drawings on Mondays and Fridays from May 31 to June 30.

“Our goal is to reach 70% of vaccinated adults in DE in the coming weeks, & to continue vaccinating as many Delawareans as possible against COVID-19.?That’s why we launched DE Wins!, an incentive & public education campaign, to help get there,” Carney tweeted Tuesday.?

Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Delaware Division of Public Health, said “incentive programs are one of three key levers that are becoming widely recognized for increasing vaccine rates.”

Delaware is the latest state to roll out its own monetary vaccine initiative program to boost inoculations.

Ohio, New York?and Maryland are all giving away millions of dollars through special lotteries to increase vaccination rates among younger residents,?CNN has reported.

The pandemic has been a significant challenge for children’s mental health, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Tuesday.

“People sort of shrug and say, ‘well, you know, kids are resilient,’ but wait a minute, this is really an incredible unprecedented challenge to their life experience,” Collins told the House Appropriations committee.

The NIH has asked scientists to submit grant applications to study the mental health consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for children. Earlier research has shown that even otherwise healthy children have had some developmental setbacks and delays during the pandemic.

There are several questions new research will have to address, Collins said.??

Collins said he hopes that the research will provide better answers about how adults can best help kids cope with the challenges brought on by the pandemic.??

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during a news conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on March 16.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies, state service providers and state properties from requiring Covid-19 vaccine passports, according to a release from the his office.?

Under the “Prohibition of Covid-19 Vaccine Passports” executive order, vaccine passports will not be required for entry into the state. The order also says that state employers should not have different rules for employees based on vaccination status unless rules are implemented using an honor-code system.?

“While I continue to urge all Georgians to get vaccinated so we continue our momentum in putting the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview, vaccination is a personal decision between each citizen and a medical professional — not state government,” Kemp said in a statement.?

Tuesday’s executive order makes clear that data held by the Georgia Department of Public Health and their immunization system will not be used by any public or private entity for a vaccine passport program, the release stated.?

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said this Memorial Day will be different from the last one, thanks to vaccines.

“Thanks to vaccines, tens of millions of Americans are able to get back to something closer to normal visiting friends and family,” Walensky said at the White House coronavirus briefing Tuesday. Walensky said that there have been holiday weekends in the past that have resulted in a spike in cases, but the country has never before had this level of protection among adults.

There are, however, different recommendations for the vaccinated and unvaccinated.?

If people are not vaccinated, they still need to wear a mask and take other precautions like remaining physically distant from others. The number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 are all declining because millions have stepped forward to get the Covid-19 vaccine, she said.?

“If you are not vaccinated, I want to encourage you to take this holiday weekend to give yourself and your family the gift of protection by getting vaccinated,” Walensky said. “We are on a good downward path, but we are not quite out of the woods yet.”

A new study published Sunday indicates dogs might be able to lend a helping paw in the fight against?Covid-19.

In a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Durham University and the group Medical Detection Dogs, scientists completed Phase 1 of a trial examining whether, under controlled conditions, dogs might be able to smell and identify Covid-19 infection.

Six dogs participated in the study, ranging in ages from four to six years old.?The group included Labrador, Golden Retriever and Cocker Spaniel breeds. Researchers said the dogs were able to pick up the scent of Covid-19 after six to eight weeks of training.

The early results have been published in a preprint study — meaning the work has not yet been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.

Read more about the study here.

Passengers walk along terminal B of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on May 23.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, is preparing for a surge in passengers this Memorial Day weekend.??

During a news conference on Tuesday, Balram Bheodari, interim general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson, said they are expecting more than 1.5 million passengers to pass through Atlanta starting Wednesday to next Monday.?

Last year during this same time, Hartsfield saw a significant drop in passenger traffic due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Bheodari said that the airport’s flight operations are back up to 80% of what it was like before the pandemic, and passenger demand is up 70% from last year at this time.??

Bheodari said the airport has put in place robust procedures to ensure the safety of passengers including face mask requirements and enhanced cleaning protocols.?

Breakthrough infections among people who have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19 account for only a “small fraction” of cases, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By April 30, when about 101 million people had been fully vaccinated, there were 10,262 breakthrough cases reported to the CDC, according to the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Report published Tuesday.?Data in the report came from 46 states and territories.

The CDC notes that the numbers of reports Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough cases is likely a substantial undercount. The surveillance system relies on voluntary reporting, and data may not be complete. Meanwhile, many people with breakthrough infectious may be asymptomatic or might not seek testing for mild illness.

Among the breakthrough infections, nearly 30% were asymptomatic and 10% were among hospitalized patients, but that number comes with a caveat: 29% of those hospitalized cases were asymptomatic or the person was hospitalized for a reason other than Covid-19.?

Among the known breakthrough cases, 160 — 2% — were fatal, according to the report. Most of those cases were among the elderly; the median age for a patient who died was 82.

The number of breakthrough infections caused by variants was similar to the proportion of variants circulating throughout the US.?

During the time period in which this report comes from, the virus was in wide circulation in many parts of the country.?

Some more background: As of mid-May, the CDC is no longer publishing data on all Covid-19 breakthrough cases. The CDC is now reporting only severe cases that result in hospitalization and death on its website. As of mid-May, there had been more than 1,900 severe breakthrough cases; among those severe cases 93% were hospitalized and 18% were fatal.?

While the reporting of these cases has changed, the definition of a breakthrough case – a confirmed Covid-19 case at least two weeks after a second dose of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – has remained the same. The CDC still highly recommends people get the Covid-19 vaccine.?

“The number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that will be prevented among vaccinated persons will far exceed the number of vaccine breakthrough cases,” the report concluded.

A sign is seen as travelers prepare to check-in for their flights at the Miami International Airport on February 1 in Miami.

The Transportation Security Administration has opened 1,300 investigations into people violating the federal mandate to wear a mask when traveling, the agency’s acting chief said Tuesday.??

Darby LaJoye said the agency has also investigated “more than 60 incidents involving TSA employees being physically assaulted.”?

LaJoye told CNN he did not have more detailed numbers on how many reports of mask violations have been made to the TSA, nor how many citations have been issued to alleged violators.??

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said officials are addressing the violations “quite forcefully.”?

Mayorkas said the mandate would be lifted?“when the science and the data establishes that is in the best interest of the American public’s health. And we are working as quickly as possible to see that day.”?

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it has received 2,500 reports of unruly passengers including 1,900 reports of face mask violations since launching a zero-tolerance campaign in mid-January.??

The TSA mandate was issued in late January.??

Reports to the TSA and FAA are made through different methods, so incidents may be reported to both agencies.??

People walk on the Coney Island beach boardwalk in New York City on May 19.

Fewer than half?of Americans social distanced in the last week — the first time the?percent has gone below 50%?since the Axios-Ipsos poll began. The new poll data finds that 44% of Americans social distanced last week,?down 12 percentage points from two weeks ago.?

The poll, published Tuesday, was conducted May 21 to 24 and made up of a nationally representative sample of 1,102 US adults.??

Those over the age of 50 and the vaccinated are the groups?where?some of the biggest changes are taking place in, but “regardless of gender, region of the country, partisanship, or race, people are socially distancing less than before.”?

This is happening at the same time as?45% of Americans?are wearing masks whenever they leave their home, down from 58% two weeks ago.?

The change?in mask wearing?is driven?by the decreasing numbers of vaccinated Americans masking at all times; the percent has dropped “dramatically,” Ipsos said, going from 65% two weeks ago to 47% now.

?Here are some more key findings:

Americans don’t trust people who are outside of their close circle to be honest about whether they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to new poll results from Axios-Ipsos published Tuesday.?

The poll found that 71% of respondents had a great deal or fair amount of trust in their coworkers to be honest about their vaccination status, and 88% felt this way about their family and close friends. The poll was conducted between May 21 to 24 and made up of a nationally representative sample of 1,102 US adults.

Trust was a lot lower when it came to groups outside of friends and family.?

Only 38% were likely to trust people outside their close circle. People in public settings were even less likely to be trusted, such as outdoor sporting events or concerts (25%), indoor restaurants and bars (25%) and airports (24%)?

Democrats were less likely to trust people to be honest than Republicans and Americans overall, especially when it came to trusting people who were opposed to taking the vaccine. Thirty-one percent of Americans overall trusted those who were opposed to the vaccine to be honest about if they were vaccinated, including 47% of Republicans and only 19% of Democrats.?

Medical Assistant Odilest Guerrier administers a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Marie Val at a clinic in Immokalee, Florida, on May 20.

The White House expects the US will reach a new milestone when it comes to vaccinations today with 50% of adults now fully vaccinated. Officials are expected to tout the numbers during today’s coronavirus briefing at 1:30 p.m. ET, CNN has learned.?

As of Monday, the US was at?49.8% of adults fully vaccinated, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data reviewed by CNN’s Deidre McPhillips. That means nearly 131 million people are fully vaccinated?against Covid-19.?

Earlier this month, President Biden said he wanted 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by July 4.?

Boxes of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are seen in freezers at Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles, California, on May 13.

Moderna says its vaccine is safe and appears to be effective at preventing Covid-19 in adolescents.

In a Phase 2/3 trial of 3,732 children ages 12 to 17 in the United States, blood tests showed that the vaccine produced an immune response that was equivalent to earlier?findings in adults?

The company did not provide an efficacy number as the trial wasn’t designed to look specifically at efficacy. However, initial observations found that?none of the children who received the vaccine got sick with Covid-19 starting 14 days after their second dose. Four of the children who received the placebo tested positive for Covid-19, which Moderna says is “consistent with a vaccine efficacy of 100%.”?The company notes that figure could change as more data is collected.

The company also reviewed how well the vaccine worked after just one dose. The results suggest that after one dose, the vaccine was 93% effective at preventing mild cases of Covid-19, involving only one symptom instead of two or more symptoms.

Moderna announced the results Tuesday in a news release, and the results have not yet been peer reviewed or published

The company said the vaccine was “generally well tolerated” and no significant safety concerns have been identified. Side effects included headache, fatigue, muscle pain and chills after administration of the second dose. Pain at the injection site was also sometimes observed.

Moderna says it plans to submit the results to the US Food and Drug Administration in early June along with a request for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents. It also?plans to submit the data to a peer-reviewed publication.

The Moderna vaccine is already authorized for use in people age 18 and older. Another Covid-19 vaccine – one made by Pfizer/BioNTech – is authorized for use in people age 12 and older.

Delhi’s deputy chief minister said the Indian central government’s vaccine rollout is “a joke,” saying international companies including Pfizer have declined their separate requests for vaccines.?

“What kind of a joke is being made of vaccines,” Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in an online address Monday, while discussing the central government’s efforts at vaccine procurement and distribution.?

“If we ask the central government for vaccines from Indian companies, they say they will give us only 4 lakh (400,000 doses),” Sisodia said. The population of Delhi was more than 11 million in the last census in 2011.

Sisodia added that when state governments went directly to foreign companies, they were told the companies were negotiating with the federal government instead.

The deputy chief minister claimed Moderna and Pfizer had declined the local government’s requests for vaccinations, saying they would not sell to individual states.?

In a statement to CNN, Pfizer said the company would continue to engage with the Indian government on making their vaccine available for use in India.

“The allocation of doses and implementation plan within a country is a decision for local governments based on relevant health authority guidance.”

Moderna has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment.?

Sisodia questioned why India is still dependent solely on two domestically-made vaccines, which were exported without first catering to in-country demand.?

“Why are vaccines not available, where did they go? I have said many times the central government is to blame for this,” Sisodia said.

A soldier disinfects his fellow worker after a sanitization operation in Taipei, Taiwan on May 24.

Taiwan?has extended its second-highest Covid-19 alert level for three more weeks until June 14,?the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced today, as the island battles its biggest?coronavirus?outbreak since the start of the pandemic last year.

The level 3 alert?requires people to wear masks at all times in public and prohibits indoor gatherings of more than five people. The restrictions will be applicable across the island,?said?Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung.

All students have been asked to take lessons remotely until June 14.

Chen added that Taiwan is expected to receive two million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in June, though he did not specify which vaccines the island would receive.

The extension comes as Taiwan?reported 281 new local Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, Chen said.?A total of 49 of those cases were reported in capital Taipei, while 154 were reported in New Taipei City – a region in northern Taiwan that surrounds the capital.

In addition, more than 261 Covid-19 cases were found to have been left out of the total count in previous days due to reporting delays, causing the CECC to revise up Taiwan’s final number of infections.

After the revision,?Taiwan?has confirmed 5,456 Covid-19 cases. The island reported six more deaths from Covid-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll since the beginning fo the pandemic to 35.

Data on genome sequencing shared during a Covid-19 review by the Indian Minister of Health indicates that B.1.617 is the most dominant mutant variant in India.?

Out of 25,739 positive Covid-19 samples sequenced, the variant B.1.617 was found in 5,261 of them, making it “the most common mutation detected till now,” the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement Monday.

In March, India’s health ministry said the Covid-19 variant which was first detected in the UK was the most prevalent in the country. But B.1.617 has since grown in prevalence following the second wave which has torn through the country. ?

India has not only been struggling with an increasing number of mutant variants, but also a strain of infections of “black fungus” – a rare and potentially deadly disease called mucormycosis.

Many of those being infected with the “black fungus” are?coronavirus?patients, or those who have recently recovered from?Covid-19, meaning their immune systems have been weakened by the virus.

Based on an analysis of 5,424 cases of black fungus reported in the country, 4,556 cases had a history of Covid-19 infections. Health minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday said 55% of those affected also had diabetes, leaving them more vulnerable to the disease.?

The latest figures from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said there are at least 8,848 cases of black fungus in the country.?

Read more on black fungus here:

A doctor assists a Covid-19 coronavirus patient with Black Fungus, a deadly and rare fungal infection, as he receives treatments at the NSCB hospital in Jabalpur, on May 20, 2021. (Photo by Uma Shankar MISHRA / AFP) (Photo by UMA SHANKAR MISHRA/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article They recovered from Covid, only to die of 'black fungus.' Here's what we know

A health worker collects a nasal swab sample?in a mobile testing van in Amritsar, India on May 24.

India reported 196,427 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, the lowest single-day rise in cases since April 14, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.

This marks a decline from the first week of May when the country was reporting more than 300,000 cases daily.?

India also reported 3,511 fatalities on Tuesday, the lowest single-day death toll since May 4, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. On Monday, India became the third country to top 300,000 deaths from the virus, after Brazil and the United States.?

The Indian Ministry of Health said Monday that the weekly positivity rate had declined to 12.6%, and 72% of the country’s active cases were being reported from eight states.

However, the director of the National Center for Disease Control, Sujeet Singh, warned the growth rate of cases continues to be “a matter of concern,” according to a news release from the health ministry.

India has reported a total of 26,948,874 Covid-18 cases, including 307,231 deaths. There are 2,586,782 confirmed active cases in the country, according to the health ministry.

Tietê bus station on March 19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

S?o Paulo’s government on Monday announced plans to restrict the coronavirus variant first identified in India from reaching Brazil’s most populous metropolis, after one confirmed case and other suspected infections were detected in the country’s northeast.?

Symptomatic passengers coming through the Tietê bus station, one of the busiest in the country, will be sent to hospital facilities for Covid-19 tests, a city government statement said. Symptomatic truck drivers traveling on highways will also be tested.?

The move follows a news conference held this weekend by Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, who announced measures aimed at preventing the spread of the B.1.617 variant in the hopes of preventing community transmission.?

The federal government’s first measure was to send 600,000 rapid tests to the northeastern state of Maranh?o, where the first case of the new variant was detected in Brazil.

The patient is a 54-year-old man who was aboard a ship that traveled to Brazil from Malaysia. The patient has been hospitalized in S?o Luís, Maranh?o’s capital, since May 14.

The same strategy will be replicated in Guarulhos, Brazil’s busiest airport, in the state of S?o Paulo, and on the main roads and bus terminals in Rio de Janeiro and S?o Paulo.

Last week, the Brazilian government banned flights coming from or transiting through India, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland or South Africa from entering the country.?

In addition to Maranh?o, one suspected case of the variant first identified in India is being investigated in the state of Ceará, also in the northeast region, and two cases are under investigation in the state of Pará, in the north of Brazil, according to statements from those state governments.

Previously overlooked Chinese data on extensive screening of animals for coronavirus around the time the pandemic erupted is among several areas identified for further study by World Health Organization (WHO) scientists investigating the?origins of Covid-19, a source close to the team told CNN.

The source said the records are contained in a nearly 200-page annex posted alongside the WHO panel’s March report that received little attention among global experts at the time. But the data may add weight to calls from China’s critics for more transparency and to the WHO team’s desire to return to the country for further studies.

No date has been set for the team’s return to China, but the source said any future visit to the country – where the virus emerged in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, in late 2019 – may involve “smaller groups supporting specific studies first.” A larger group, similar to the 17 international experts that?visited in January, might then follow up, the source added.

The WHO report’s annex contains multiple data points providing an intriguing insight into China’s evolving knowledge of the virus and the likely timing of its emergence.

It provides details of China’s storage and destruction of positive Covid-19 samples from humans; a significant influenza outbreak that emerged in December 2019, at the same time as the virus; and the revelation that the first people known to have contracted the virus had contact with a total of 28 separate food and animal markets in December.

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TOPSHOT - Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus, wearing protective gear are seen during their visit to the Hubei Center for animal disease control and prevention in Wuhan, China's central Hubei province on February 2, 2021. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

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With nine children and one grandchild, life was hard for Mona Liza Vito and her family even before the pandemic.

Vito used to work long hours peeling sacks of garlic, making about $2 a day, while her husband worked as a day laborer in construction. But now their work has dried up, a casualty of an economic downturn in the Philippines after multiple coronavirus lockdowns. And trying to feed so many mouths has become a daily struggle for survival.

Vito lives in Baseco Compound, one of the poorest areas of Manila, where almost 60,000 people are crammed onto a patch of reclaimed land in the capital’s port area. The sprawling settlement relies almost exclusively on the economic activity around the dock – most of which has ground to a halt. And the lockdowns have included bans on fishing in the sea, a lifeline for many.

The Philippines was one of Asia’s poorest countries even before the pandemic. Towards the end of 2020, nearly a quarter of Filipinos were living in poverty, surviving on about $3 a day, according to the World Bank.

More than 3 million children in the Philippines have stunted growth, and 618,000 children are classed as “wasted” – defined by the World Health Organization as low weight for height, which usually occurs due to lack of adequate food or prolonged illnesses. That’s among the highest rates in the world – and the figures were recorded before the most recent lockdown that started in March.

Desperate to avoid more lockdowns and kickstart the faltering economy, the government is now pinning its hopes on vaccines.

But while health experts say vaccination is a crucial tool in bringing an end to the pandemic, many Filipinos are skeptical, and vaccination take-up remains dangerously low.

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The Tokyo Olympics,?postponed in 2020?during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, are facing increasing hurdles in putting on a 2021 show.

The latest troubling sign for the Summer Games came Monday when the State Department advised US citizens against?traveling?to Japan because of a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases.

The?“Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory is the highest cautionary level in the department’s hierarchy of warnings.

It’s been more than a year since Americans have paid tourist calls to the nation. Japan has been?closed to US leisure travelers?throughout the pandemic, with only “very limited” circumstances in which US citizens could enter.

The Games are still scheduled to run from July 23 to August 8 in Japan.

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