Country,	Total	New	Total
Other	Cases	Cases	Deaths
World	161,820,979	744,082	3,358,215
USA	33,626,097	39,825	598,540
India	24,046,120	343,288	262,350
Brazil	15,436,827	75,141	430,596
France	5,841,129	19,461	107,250
Turkey	5,083,996	11,534	44,059
Russia	4,913,439	8,380	114,723
UK	4,444,631	2,657	127,651
Italy	4,139,160	8,085	123,745
Spain	3,598,452	5,701	79,281
Germany	3,575,644	17,496	86,276
Argentina	3,242,103	26,531	69,254
Colombia	3,067,879	19,160	79,760
Poland	2,845,762	3,730	71,021
Iran	2,722,007	14,246	76,231
Mexico	2,371,483	3,090	219,590
Ukraine	2,135,886	6,813	47,333
Peru	1,873,316	7,677	65,316
Indonesia	1,731,652	3,448	47,716
Czechia	1,649,947	1,261	29,825
South Africa	1,605,252	3,221	55,012
Netherlands	1,583,767	6,013	17,413
Canada	1,312,414	6,644	24,825
Chile	1,266,601	6,153	27,520
Iraq	1,132,092	4,512	15,883
Philippines	1,124,724	6,385	18,821
Romania	1,069,770	953	29,308
Sweden	1,027,934		14,267
Belgium	1,023,583	3251	24,630
Pakistan	870,703	3,265	19,336
Portugal	840,929	436	16,999
Israel	839,059	29	6,379
Hungary	795,200	1,416	28,970
Bangladesh	778,687	1,290	12,076
Jordan	722,754	418	9,203
Serbia	704,398	901	6,629
Switzerland	677,210		10,728
Japan	658,629	7,058	11,165
Austria	634,893	933	10,444
UAE	542,158	1,512	1,623
Lebanon	534,968	580	7,569
Morocco	514,670	238	9,091
Malaysia	458,077	4855	1,788
Nepal	431,191	8,842	4,466
Saudi Arabia	430,505	1,116	7,122
Bulgaria	413,320	506	17,194
Ecuador	405,783	1,151	19,442
Slovakia	386,868	328	12,135
Belarus	372,242	837	2,671
Greece	371,712	2,158	11,266
Panama	369,455	525	6,288
Kazakhstan	350,591	2,283	3,984
Croatia	348,158	1,064	7,623
Azerbaijan	328,668	509	4,742
Georgia	326,441	776	4,379
Bolivia	324,868	2,290	13,345
Tunisia	324,823	720	11,693
Paraguay	307,457	2,568	7,427
Palestine	303,270		3,401
Kuwait	289,243	1,059	1,674
Costa Rica	279,926	3,039	3,514
Dominican Republic	274,319	822	3,560
Ethiopia	264,960	593	3,951
Denmark	263,514	1,355	2,499
Lithuania	262,335	1,136	4,071
Ireland	254,450	437	4,937
Moldova	253,386	213	5,995
Slovenia	248,046	597	4,308
Egypt	242,120	1193	14,150
Guatemala	238,787	1,105	7,832
Uruguay	231,901	3,799	3,318
Honduras	222,992	874	5,853
Armenia	220,217	267	4291
Qatar	212,423	299	522
Venezuela	211,838	890	2,352
Oman	202,713		2,148
Bosnia and Herzegovina	202,003	207	8,958
Bahrain	196,105	1816	715
Libya	181,179	234	3085
Nigeria	165,612	53	2,066
Kenya	164,720	334	2,968
North Macedonia	154,494	123	5,168
Myanmar	143,004	7	3,212
Sri Lanka	135,796	3269	892
Albania	131,890	45	2,426
S. Korea	129,633	715	1,891
Latvia	126,378	689	2,240
Estonia	126,364	300	1,212
Algeria	124,889	207	3355
Cuba	120,561	1186	778
Norway	118,315	320	774
Kyrgyzstan	99,645	329	1681
Montenegro	98,619	73	1,551
Uzbekistan	95,826	359	667
Thailand	93,794	4887	518
Ghana	93,159	34	783
Zambia	92,262	51	1260
China	90,808	9	4636
Finland	89,532	262	930
Cameroon	74,946		1,152
El Salvador	70,915		2,173
Suriname	11,572	145	221
Vietnam	3,710	87	35

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

C.D.C. Relaxes Mask Guidance for Vaccinated People

 

Federal health officials on Thursday advised Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus that they could stop wearing masks or maintaining social distance in most settings, the clearest sign yet that the pandemic might be nearing an end in the United States.

The new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention caught state officials and businesses by surprise and raised a host of difficult questions about how the guidelines would be carried out. But the advice came as welcome news to many Americans who were weary of restrictions and traumatized by the past year.

“We have all longed for this moment,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said at a White House news conference on Thursday. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

Masks had come to symbolize a bitter partisan divide. Setting them aside in restaurants and sidewalks, in museums and shops, would represent not just the beginning of the end of the pandemic but hope for a return to normalcy.

Permission to stop using masks also offers an incentive to the many millions who are still holding out on vaccination. As of Thursday, about 155 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but only about one-third of the nation, 119 million people, had been fully vaccinated.

And the pace of vaccination has slowed: Providers are administering about 2.09 million doses per day on average, about a 38 percent decrease from the peak of 3.38 million reported in mid-April.

At the White House on Thursday, President Biden hailed the new recommendations as a “milestone” in the nation’s effort to beat back the pandemic and urged Americans to roll up their sleeves for vaccinations.

While there may well be scientific justification for the guidelines, they raised a host of questions for which there are no easy answers: How to trust that unvaccinated neighbors will wear masks when they should? What about younger children, for whom no vaccinations have been authorized, and schools? Is it possible to enforce such guidelines?

 

 

 

U.S. Begins Vaccine Rollout for Children Ages 12 to 15

 

Children across the country began receiving the coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, after the federal government recommended making the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available to those aged 12 to 15. The U.S. is the first in the world to launch a mass vaccination campaign for children.

 

Eduardo Torres, 53, was up early in Chicago on Thursday morning when he heard the news on the television: Younger adolescents, including his 14-year-old daughter, Raquel, were now eligible for the coronavirus vaccine.

“I told my wife, ‘I’ve got to take her to get vaccinated — immediately,’” he said.

The world’s first mass coronavirus inoculation campaign for children kicked off in earnest in the United States on Thursday after the federal government recommended making the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available to those aged 12 to 15. Vaccinations of adolescents had already begun this week in a few states, like Maine.

There are about 17 million children between the ages of 12 and 15 in the United States, representing about 5 percent of the population. The changes — which mean that people ages 12 and up are now eligible — also opened the possibility that many more children may soon return to a semblance of normalcy, attending camps this summer and returning to in-person school by fall.

By 9:30 a.m., Raquel was among the first wave of children in her age group to be vaccinated at a site near Wrigley Field and was excitedly listing the things she could do once she is fully vaccinated. Go to her high school in person again. See her friends without worrying. Return to playing volleyball and bowling.

“It’s just a beautiful thing that this is available,” Mr. Torres said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged parents to have their children vaccinated to protect their families. “Parents, let’s get our zoomers off of Zoom and back to life as normal,” he said Thursday morning.

To encourage more New Yorkers to get shots, the mayor announced that people who’ve been vaccinated can win tickets for two outdoor music festivals, the Governors Ball at Citi Field and Global Citizen Live in Central Park.

The Shake Shack restaurant chain said it would give vouchers good for a free hamburger or sandwich to people who are vaccinated at a city mobile clinic. And for the next month, it said, customers who show a vaccination cards can get a free side order of french fries.

 

 

 

Desperate for vaccines in India, regional leaders struggle to stretch supplies.

 

A vaccination center in New Delhi on Thursday. A government panel has again recommended widening the gap between the first and second doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots.Credit...Prakash Singh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With new infections now engulfing rural regions across India even as the daily death toll in crowded cities remains staggeringly high, regional leaders across the country are engaged in a desperate struggle to secure vaccines and stretch the doses they have on hand.

The states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, where case numbers are surging, have suspended vaccination altogether for people under 45 so that older people can receive second doses.

And a government panel on Thursday recommended widening the gap — for the third time since March — between the first and second doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as Covishield in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is facing increasing pressure to quickly expand the scope of the country’s fledging Covid-19 vaccination campaign as major cities run out of doses.

Some states and cities have started floating their own global tenders to import vaccines.

In a rare show of unity, a dozen opposition parties called for free, universal vaccination in a letter that said the pandemic had “assumed unprecedented dimensions of a human catastrophe.”

The parties also said that Mr. Modi’s government should invoke an order temporarily suspending patent protections for vaccines — a proposal India and South Africa jointly made for all virus vaccines globally that is under consideration by the World Trade Organization. In India, the order would allow more factories to make Covaxin, the indigenous vaccine codeveloped by the Indian government’s top scientific research body and the Hyderabad-based company Bharat Biotech.

Covaxin is in such short supply that the capital, New Delhi, has had to shutter about 100 vaccination centers. All of the doses produced by the Serum Institute of India, which is producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots and is the world’s largest vaccine maker, are staying in India, but still falling far short of the requirements for a population of nearly 1.4 billion people.

The ad hoc approach could also further fuel the skepticism and hesitancy that greeted the rollout of shots this winter. Leaders of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the virus had been all but defeated in India, possibly tempering interest in a vaccine.

Jairam Ramesh, leader of the opposition Indian National Congress party, questioned the validity of widening the intervals between doses.

“Is this because there are not enough stocks of the vaccines for all who are eligible or because professional scientific advice says so?” Mr. Ramesh wrote on Twitter.

India reported about 362,000 cases on Wednesday, with infection numbers appearing to level off in Delhi and in the financial capital, Mumbai, but picking up in the southern city of Bengaluru and across rural India.

Less than 3 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Lockdown restrictions are in place in many parts of India, but on Thursday, when Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, people were seen crowding markets.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/13/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases?name=styln-vaccines-combo®ion=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=1_Show&is_new=false#covid-vaccine-teens

 

 

 

Doctors' union in Japan calls on government to cancel Tokyo Games

From CNN’s Emiko Jozuka in Hong Kong

 

The Olympic Rings are displayed by the Odaiba Marine Park Olympic venue in Tokyo, Japan, on May 12. Carl Court/Getty Images

 

A doctor’s union in Japan has urged the government to cancel the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

Members of the union went to Japan’s Health Ministry on Thursday to present a written request addressed to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

“It’s tough for the athletes, but someone has to say that the Games should be canceled. We made the request (to the government) as we think medical workers have to speak up,” Naoto Ueyama, the head of the national doctor’s union, said in a press conference on Thursday.  

In the written request, Ueyama cautioned that the Games could become a superspreader event as tens of thousands of athletes, coaches, officials and journalists come to Japan from around the world. Ueyama said that even if there are no spectators, the event could lead to the circulation of variants that are resistant to vaccines.

“It is impossible to hold a safe and secure Olympic Games" amid the coronavirus pandemic, wrote Ueyama. “I strongly oppose holding it.”

Ueyama added that Japan’s vaccination rate is the lowest among OECD countries. He also added that anger and confusion are rampant among Japanese health care workers, who are forced to work extra hours to fight the pandemic. 

The Opening Ceremony for the Games is set for July 23, but questions remain over how Tokyo can hold a massive sporting event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials -- and the Japanese public -- safe from Covid-19.

That concern has been amplified by Japan's battle with a fourth wave. The country’s coronavirus cases stand at 660,884 as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. Several prefectures -- including Tokyo -- are under a state of emergency until the end of May.

 

 

 

As Covid cases rise, Nepal's Prime Minister is reappointed leader

From journalists Nishant Khanal, Kosh Raj Koirala and Asha Thapa in Kathmandu, Nepal, and CNN's Sugam Pokharel in Atlanta

 

Nepal's leader K.P. Sharma Oli speaks at parliament in Kathmandu, Nepal, on May 10. Nisha Bhandari/AFP/Getty Images

 

Nepal’s leader K.P. Sharma Oli was reappointed as the country’s Prime Minister Thursday after losing a vote of confidence earlier in the week as a deadly second wave of Covid-19 ravages the country.

What happened?

Nepal's cases have grown dramatically over the past month, with the country now reporting more than 9,000 new Covid-19 cases a day.

Critics said Oli could have done more to stop the second wave, which has stretched hospitals to breaking point. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) -- which was earlier part of the ruling party --- withdrew its support for Oli's government.

Oli then sought a confidence vote in Parliament Monday -- which Oli lost.

That threw the country into political turmoil. Oli was forced to step down, and the opposition parties were given until Thursday to form a coalition government.

But the opposition parties failed to gather support of majority lawmakers to form the next government by the deadline set by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

What's next?

Oli will take an oath of office on Friday, according to Nepal's Office of the President.

The Prime Minister now needs to prove majority in Parliament within 30 days. If he fails to do so, the country will go to midterm elections so leaders can win a fresh mandate.

Why is this important?

Onlookers worry that Nepal could soon face a crisis as bad as neighboring India. Already, oxygen is in short supply and patients are running out of beds.

And in Nepal, which has a fragile health care system at the best of times, things may only get worse.

Despite that, some critics worry that Nepal's leaders are more concerned with politics than the unfolding health crisis.

 

Retrieved from:  https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-05-14-21/index.html

 

 

 

New Zealand weighs reopening borders to vaccinated tourists

By Katerina Ang

 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is considering opening her country's borders to vaccinated foreigners in a move that would boost its international tourism sector. (Mark Coote/Bloomberg)

One of the world’s most geographically isolated nations is considering reopening its borders to vaccinated tourists.

New Zealand has emerged as a covid-19 success story off the back of a swift but strict lockdown last year and a near-total ban on foreigners entering the country. But authorities said this week that they were exploring allowing people vaccinated elsewhere to enter the country, in a potential reversal of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision that borders would remain largely closed until New Zealand’s population was vaccinated, according to local media.

“We will be relying heavily on emerging evidence about how effective vaccines are in preventing not just symptoms of the disease, but transmission between vaccinated individuals,” she said.

The prospect of easier international travel to one of the world’s more picturesque destinations comes as the United States and much of Europe begin to open up and Asia-Pacific nations that had successfully contained the virus re-examine the cost of social distancing and border closures. (New Zealand allows unvaccinated travelers from Australia and the tiny South Pacific island of Niue to enter the country without quarantine.)

Life in the country of 5 million has largely returned to a pre-pandemic normal, but loosening border controls could mean tightening domestic restrictions in New Zealand, which had an international tourism sector worth about $12.5 billion annually before the pandemic. New Zealand is also popular with international students, who haven’t been able to enter the country in over a year.

New Zealand’s top health bureaucrat said on Thursday that stricter restrictions could include a 10-person cap on social gatherings. But Ardern said Friday that such measures were unlikely even if tourism restrictions were lifted, the New Zealand Herald reported.

As of May 13, New Zealand has recorded 2,288 covid-19 cases and 26 deaths. It has administered almost 390,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines.

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/14/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/