Category: World News

Roku Q2 2021 earnings

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Post date August 4, 2021

Roku CEO Anthony Wood speaks on stage at The Future of TV Streaming & Entertainment during the Tribeca X – 2021 Tribeca Festival at Spring Studios on June 18, 2021 in New York City.

Arturo Holmes | Getty Images

Roku stock fell more than 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday after reporting second-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations but showed a slowdown in streaming TV viewing since last quarter and tight hardware margins .

Here’s how the company fared compared to Refinitiv’s consensus estimates:

EPS: $ 0.52 per share versus an estimate of $ 0.13 per share
Revenue: $ 645 million versus an estimate of $ 618 million

The company said streaming hours were down 1 billion hours from the first quarter of 2021 and stood at 17.4 billion hours in the second quarter. The company cited consumers looking for more out-of-home entertainment activities like dining and travel in the second quarter due to the backlog and the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. But Roku’s streaming hours were still up 19% year-over-year, the company said.

In his letter to shareholders it was also stated that “tight delivery conditions for components and shipping restrictions” caused costs to continue to rise faster than expected.

“In the second quarter, we protected consumers from increased Roku player costs, which resulted in player gross margins going negative for the quarter,” the letter said.

The company’s total net sales increased 81% quarter-over-quarter to $ 645 million. Platform revenue for the quarter topped half a billion US dollars for the first time in the segment’s history, reaching US $ 532 million, driven by content and advertising diffusion.

Roku also commented on the advertising plans, in which advertisers spend part of their annual budget on TV advertising. The company said it made double the money it made last year, and that 42% of all advertisers who signed up to Roku in advance didn’t participate last year.

This is evolving.

Tags earnings, Roku

World News

Collapse: Inside Lebanon’s Worst Financial Meltdown in Extra Than a Century

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Post date August 4, 2021

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Rania Mustafa’s living room recalls a not-so-distant past, when the modest salary of a security guard in Lebanon could buy an air-conditioner, plush furniture and a flat-screen TV.

But as the country’s economic crisis worsened, she lost her job and watched her savings evaporate. Now, she plans to sell her furniture to pay the rent and struggles to afford food, much less electricity or a dentist to fix her 10-year-old daughter’s broken molar.

For dinner on a recent night, lit by a single cellphone, the family shared thin potato sandwiches donated by a neighbor. The girl chewed gingerly on one side of her mouth to avoid her damaged tooth.

“I have no idea how we’ll continue,” said Ms. Mustafa, 40, at home in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, after Beirut.

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country still haunted by a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, is in the throes of a financial collapse that the World Bank has said could rank among the world’s worst since the mid-1800s. It is closing like a vise on families whose money has plummeted in value while the cost of nearly everything has skyrocketed.

Since fall 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value, and annual inflation in 2020 was 84.9 percent. As of June, prices of consumer goods had nearly quadrupled in the previous two years, according to government statistics. The huge explosion one year ago in the port of Beirut, which killed more than 200 people and left a large swath of the capital in shambles, only added to the desperation.

On Wednesday, Lebanon observed a day of mourning to mark the anniversary of the blast, and government offices and most businesses were closed for the occasion. Large crowds gathered around Beirut to commemorate the day and denounce their government, which has failed to determine what caused the explosion and who was responsible, much less to hold anyone accountable.

The blast exacerbated the country’s economic crisis, which was long in the making, and there is little relief in sight.

Years of corruption and bad policies have left the state deeply in debt and the central bank unable to keep propping up the currency, as it had for decades, because of a drop in foreign cash flows into the country. Now, the bottom has fallen out of the economy, leaving shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

All but the wealthiest Lebanese have cut meat from their diets and wait in long lines to fuel their cars, sweating through sweltering summer nights because of extended power cuts.

The country has long endured electricity shortages, a legacy of a state that has failed to ensure basic services. To cover the gaps left by the state power supply, residents rely on privately owned, diesel-powered generators.

But the currency collapse has undermined that patchwork system.

As imported fuel has gotten more expensive, power cuts from the grid have stretched from a few hours a day to as long as 23 hours. So demand for power from generators has risen, along with the cost of the fuel to run them.

The resulting price hike has turned a utility essential for business, health and comfort into a luxury many families can afford only in limited quantities, if at all.

Mustafa Nabo, from Syria, used to work long days on his electric sewing machine, powered by the grid and supplemental power from a generator.

Now, the price for generated power is nearly 10 times what it was before the crisis began, so he rushes to work as much as he can during the two hours he gets power from the grid. But less work means less money, and he has cut back on food.

“It is better to bring food than to pay for electricity,” Mr. Nabo said.

Across Lebanon, the fuel shortages have led to long lines at gas stations, where drivers wait for hours to buy only a few gallons, or none at all if the station runs out.

The supply of medicines has also become unreliable. The state is supposed to subsidize imports, but the crisis has strained that system, too.

At a pharmacy in Tripoli, a line stretched from the sidewalk to the cash register, where anxious shoppers sought medicines that are now scarce after long being easy to obtain, such as pain killers and blood pressure medications. Other products had disappeared altogether, such as drugs to treat depression.

One shopper, Wafa Khaled, cursed the government after failing to find insulin for her mother and paying five times as much as she would have two years ago for baby food and seven times as much for formula.

“The best thing for us would be for some foreign country to come occupy us so we could have electricity, water and security,” she said.

The crisis could do lasting damage to three sectors that have historically made Lebanon stand out in the Arab world.

In a country once billed as the Switzerland of the Middle East, the banks are largely insolvent. Education has suffered a blow as teachers and professors seek better opportunities abroad. And health care has deteriorated as reduced salaries have caused an exodus of doctors and nurses.

The emergency ward at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, among the country’s best, has gone to seven physicians, from 12, and lost more than half of its 65 nurses since July 2020, said Eveline Hitti, the head of the department.

They were driven out by waves of Covid-19, declining salaries and the explosion in the Beirut port last year, which flooded the ward with casualties.

“You ask yourself, why should I survive this?” said Rima Jabbour, the head nurse.

Now, Covid cases are increasing, as are food poisonings caused by poor refrigeration and alcohol overdoses.

The country’s political leaders have failed to slow the economic meltdown.

Officials have hampered the investigation into the port explosion, and a billionaire telecoms tycoon, Najib Mikati, is currently the third politician to try to form a government since the last cabinet resigned after the blast.

Mustafa Allouch, the deputy head of the Future Movement, a prominent political party, said, like many other Lebanese, that he feared that the political system, intended to share power between a range of sects, was incapable of addressing the country’s problems.

“I don’t think it will work anymore,” he said. “We have to look for another system, but I don’t know what it is.”

His greatest fear was “blind violence” born out of desperation and rage.

“Looting, shooting, assaults on homes and small shops,” he said. “Why it hasn’t happened by now, I don’t know.”

The crisis has hit the poor hardest.

Five days a week, scores of people line up for free meals from a charity kitchen in Tripoli, some equipped with cut off shampoo bottles to carry their food because they can’t afford regular containers.

Robert Ayoub, the project’s head, said demand is going up, donations from inside Lebanon are going down, and the newcomers represent a new kind of poor: soldiers, bank employees and civil servants whose salaries have lost the bulk of their value.

In line on a recent day were a laborer who had walked an hour from home because he couldn’t afford transportation; a brick layer whose work had dried up; and Dunia Shehadeh, an unemployed housekeeper who picked up a tub of pasta and lentil soup for her husband and three children.

“This will hardly be enough for them,” she said.

The country’s downward spiral has set off a new wave of migration, as Lebanese with foreign passports and marketable skills seek better fortune abroad.

“I can’t live in this place, and I don’t want to live in this place,” said Layal Azzam, 39, before catching a flight to Saudi Arabia from Beirut’s international airport.

She and her husband had returned to Lebanon from abroad a few years ago and invested $50,000 in a business. But she said that it had failed and that she worried they would struggle to find care if their children got sick.

“There’s no electricity. They could cut the water. Prices are high. Even if someone sends you money from abroad, it doesn’t last,” she said. “There are too many crises.”

Drone footage by David Enders and Bryan Denton. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

Tags century, Collapse, Economic, Lebanons, Meltdown, Worst

World News

Commerzbank earnings q2 2021

Post author By
Post date August 4, 2021

The Commerzbank AG logo sits on an illuminated sign outside a bank branch as the bank’s headquarters stand beyond at dusk in Frankfurt, Germany, on Monday, Feb. 5, 2017.

Alex Kraus | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON — Commerzbank on Wednesday reported a net second-quarter loss due to restructuring costs and an exceptional write-off to an outsourcing project.

The German lender saw a net loss of 527 million euros ($625.7 million) in the three months through to the end of June, roughly in line with analyst expectations of a net loss of 504 million euros.

This was after booking restructuring expenses of 511 million euros and a write-off for ending an outsourcing project of 200 million euros.

“We have kept our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio stable despite the high one-time write-off and restructuring expenses,” Bettina Orlopp, chief financial officer of Commerzbank said in a statement.

“This again proves that we have a very strong basis for the transformation, and it demonstrates that we are also able to deal with exceptional charges on our way to a sustainably profitable future.”

The German bank’s CET1 ratio, a measure of bank solvency, stood at 13.4% at the end of the quarter.

Other highlights of the quarter:

Revenues reached 1.86 billion euros, an 18.1% drop from a year ago.
Operating expenses stood at 1.7 billion euros, versus 1.53 billion a year ago.

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, Orlopp said: “On the customer side we are satisfied, if you look at the numbers net commission income is 7% up year-on-year, so that’s a good result.”

She also said that the bank is aiming to achieve an operating profit this year, despite the latest results.

“We are targeting definitely an operating profit, I think the whole question is what happens with net income for the year – that’s tougher to predict,” Orlopp said.

Shares dropped about 4% shortly after bourses opened in Europe.

Tags Commerzbank, earnings

World News

Dwell Coronavirus Updates: Vaccine and Delta Variant Information

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Post date August 4, 2021

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Octavio Jones/Reuters

President Biden, seeking to reiterate that the rise of the highly contagious variant in the United States is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” voiced his frustration with leaders who have been slow to provide coronavirus relief or get shots in arms.

Mr. Biden singled out Florida and Texas, where cases have risen sharply, criticizing the pandemic response by the governors in those states.

“We need leadership from everyone,” he said. “Some governors aren’t willing to do the right things to make this happen. I say to these governors, please, if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way for people who are doing the right thing.”

Mr. Biden has been under pressure to redirect the American public’s focus after days of policy whiplash, shifting directives on mask usage, and roiling debates about requiring workers to receive the vaccine.

Mr. Biden’s speech reflected in blunt terms what his top advisers have been saying, with varying degrees of success, for days: that the people who get sickest from the Delta variant are unvaccinated, and that his administration is working to make vaccines available to every person who needs one. Fully vaccinated people are protected against the worst outcomes of Covid-19 caused by the Delta variant.

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden was plainspoken and direct in his remarks, calling the rise of the Delta variant a “largely preventable tragedy that will get worse before it gets better.” He also tackled a criticism directed at his White House in recent days: that his administration had not done enough to synthesize information in a way that Americans could understand.

“I know there’s a lot of misinformation out there, so here are the facts,” Mr. Biden said. “If you are vaccinated, you are highly unlikely to get Covid-19. and even if you do, the chances are you won’t show any symptoms. And if you do, they’ll most likely be very mild. Vaccinated people are almost never hospitalized.”

Mr. Biden reiterated his earlier mandate that all federal workers must be vaccinated or subject to strict requirements.

“If you want to do business with the federal government,” he said, “get your workers vaccinated.”

He added that the private sector, including companies like Wal-Mart, Google and Tyson Foods, were taking similar steps. “Even Fox has vaccination requirements,” he quipped.

Mr. Biden had said earlier this year that he wanted to see 70 percent of eligible Americans at least partly vaccinated by July 4. The country hit that goal on Monday, about a month late and only after the Delta variant began disrupting the progress touted by the president and public health officials.

There was no celebration of reaching the delayed milestone. Instead, the Biden administration has been in a race to encourage vaccine-reluctant and vaccine-refusing Americans to receive shots as caseloads rise in states with high unvaccinated populations.

“The vaccines are doing exactly what they are supposed to do when it comes to keeping you out of the hospital, out of serious disease, and certainly, preventing your death,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top disease expert, told reporters.

The White House has also struggled to put into context the threat of the Delta variant to those who are vaccinated. Experts say that infections in vaccinated people — so called breakthrough infections — are still relatively uncommon, and that even in those cases, the vaccines appear to protect against severe illness and death.

Nationally, new cases have reached an average of about 86,000 a day as of Monday, a dramatic jump from about 13,000 daily cases a month ago but still far fewer than in January. Hospitalizations have risen as well, but hospitalizations and deaths remain a fraction of their devastating winter peaks.

Mr. Biden’s pledge to donate 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses is by far the largest yet by a single country, but it would fully inoculate only about 3 percent of the world’s population. The United States will pay $3.5 billion for the Pfizer-BioNTech shots, about $7 apiece, which Pfizer described as a “not for profit” price — much less than the $20 it has paid for domestic use.

In a fact sheet released on Tuesday, the administration said that it would work with programs focused on the equitable distribution of vaccines, including Covax, to ensure that the doses arrive in the countries that are in the most need. But health officials in countries that have received some of the doses have already warned that additional funding is needed to train people to administer the shots and fuel vehicles that transport the vaccines to clinics in remote areas.

Mr. Biden also announced during a speech at the White House on Tuesday that the United States has donated more than 110 million vaccine doses globally, a down payment on a pledge he made to send half a billion doses of vaccine to poorer countries over the next year.

Mr. Biden, who for months was under pressure to share doses of the vaccine, is now seeking to position his administration as a global leader in inoculating the rest of the world amid the spread of highly contagious variants of the virus.

“The virus knows no boundaries,” Mr. Biden said. “There’s no wall high enough or ocean wide enough to keep us safe” from the virus in other countries.

Azi Paybarah contributed reporting.

Credit…Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Recently, a 28-year-old patient died of Covid-19 at CoxHealth Medical Center in Springfield, Mo. Last week, a 21-year-old college student was admitted to intensive care.

Many of the patients with Covid-19 now arriving at the hospital are not just unvaccinated — they are much younger than 50, a stark departure from the frail, older patients seen when the pandemic first surged last year.

In Baton Rouge, La., young adults with none of the usual risk factors for severe forms of the disease — such as obesity or diabetes — are also arriving in E.R.s, desperately ill. It isn’t clear why they are so sick.

Physicians working in Covid hot spots across the nation say that the patients in their hospitals are not like the patients they saw last year. Almost always unvaccinated, the new arrivals tend to be younger, many in their 20s or 30s. And they seem sicker than younger patients were last year, deteriorating more rapidly.

Doctors have coined a new phrase to describe them: “younger, sicker, quicker.” Many physicians treating them suspect that the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which now accounts for more than 80 percent of new infections nationwide, is playing a role.

Studies done in a handful of other countries suggest that the variant may cause more severe disease, but there is no definitive data showing that the new variant is somehow worse for young adults.

Some experts believe the shift in patient demographics is strictly a result of lower vaccination rates in this group.

As of Sunday, more than 80 percent of Americans ages 65 to 74 were fully vaccinated, compared with fewer than half of those ages 18 to 39, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The vaccines are powerfully effective against severe illness and death after infection with any variant of the virus, including Delta. A vast majority of hospitalized patients nationwide — roughly 97 percent — are unvaccinated.

“I don’t think there’s good evidence yet about whether it causes more severe disease,” Dr. Adam Ratner, associate professor of pediatrics and microbiology at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said of the Delta variant.

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New York City Will Require Vaccination for Indoor Activities

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York announced that proof of vaccination would be required for many indoor activities including dining, museums, fitness centers. The policy comes as new coronavirus cases have spiked.

So today, I announce a new approach, which we’re calling the Key to N.Y.C. Pass, the key to New York City. When you hear those words, I want you to imagine the notion that because someone’s vaccinated, they can do all the amazing things that are available in this city. This is a miraculous place, literally full of wonders. And if you’re vaccinated, all that’s going to open up to you. You’ll have the key. You can open the door. But if you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things. That’s the point we’re trying to get across. The Key to N.Y.C. Pass will be a first-in-the-nation approach. It will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining and indoor fitness facilities, indoor entertainment facilities. This is going to be a requirement. The only way to patronize these establishments indoors will be if you’re vaccinated — at least one dose. The same for folks in terms of work, they’ll need at least one dose. This new policy will be phased in over the coming weeks. So we’ve been working with the business community, getting input. We’re going to do more over the next few weeks. The final details of the policy will be announced and implemented in the week of Aug. 16.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York announced that proof of vaccination would be required for many indoor activities including dining, museums, fitness centers. The policy comes as new coronavirus cases have spiked.CreditCredit…Andrew Kelly/Reuters

New York City will become the first U.S. city to require proof of at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine for a variety of activities for workers and customers — indoor dining, gyms and performances — to put pressure on people to get vaccinated, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday morning.

The program, similar to mandates issued in France and Italy last month, will start on Aug. 16, and after a transition period, enforcement will begin on Sept. 13, when schools are expected to reopen and more workers could return to offices in Manhattan. Mr. de Blasio has been moving aggressively to get more New Yorkers vaccinated to curtail a third wave of coronavirus cases amid concern about the spread of the Delta variant. He is also requiring city workers to get vaccinated or to face weekly testing, and he has offered a $100 incentive for the public.

“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” he said at a news conference. “It’s time.”

“This is going to be a requirement,” he added. “The only way to patronize these establishments is if you are vaccinated, at least one dose. The same for folks in terms of work, they will need at least one dose,” he said, holding up a single finger.

On Monday Mr. de Blasio stopped short of reinstating an indoor mask mandate even as large urban areas, including Los Angeles County, San Francisco and Washington, and at least one state did so. He said he wanted to focus on increasing vaccination rates, and was concerned that requiring everyone to wear masks would remove an incentive for those who are considering getting vaccinated now.

About 66 percent of adults in the city are fully vaccinated, according to city data, although pockets of the city have lower rates. The federal government has authorized three vaccines for emergency use in the United States: The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines both take two doses while Johnson & Johnson uses a single dose. Individuals are not considered to be fully vaccinated until two weeks after their final dose.

Fully vaccinated people are protected against the worst outcomes of Covid-19 caused by the Delta variant, but there’s a sharp drop in the efficacy if an individual has only had one dose of a two-dose vaccine.

The new program, dubbed “Key to NYC Pass,” is not a particular document, but rather the strategy of requiring proof of vaccination for workers and customers at indoor dining, gyms, entertainment and performances, including Broadway, the mayor said.

Indoor movies and concerts will also require people to show proof of vaccination to enter. People will be able to continue to dine outdoors without showing proof of vaccination.

To enter indoor venues, patrons must use the city’s new app, the state’s Excelsior app or a paper card to show proof of vaccination. The mayor did not say how the city will handle vaccinations like AstraZeneca or Sinovac that may be common among international tourists.

Children younger than age 12 will not be excluded from venues because they are not eligible to be vaccinated, he said. But the details of those plans remain to be worked out. “We have to figure out how to do things in a safe manner,” the mayor said.

The city will issue a health commissioner’s order and a mayoral executive order to put the vaccine mandate in place. The six weeks before enforcement begins on Sept. 13 will be spent educating businesses and doing outreach, he said.

The mayor said the city consulted with the U.S. Department of Justice and got a “very clear message” that it was legal to move forward with these mandates, even without full F.D.A. approval.

Only people fully vaccinated in the state of New York can get an Excelsior pass, which confirms vaccination against city and state records. Everyone, however, can use the city’s new app, NYC Covid Safe, because it is simply a digital photo album that stores a picture that a person takes of their own vaccination card and does not double check it against any registry. A paper card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must always be accepted, too.

Credit…Frank Franklin Ii/Associated Press

Reactions were largely supportive of vaccine restrictions imposed Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, the most stringent steps announced recently in any major U.S. city, though some health experts suggested they might not go far enough. Workers and customers in New York will soon have to provide proof that they have received at least one vaccine dose before engaging in activities like indoor dining, exercising in gyms and seeing performances, Mr. de Blasio said on Tuesday.

The new requirements could have been rolled out sooner, some health experts said, and vaccination and mask requirements could be further expanded.

Still, the new restrictions got a positive response from one important trade group, the N.Y.C. Hospitality Alliance, which represents restaurants and bars, a sector still recovering from months of limited capacity and other restrictions.

Andrew Rigie, the trade group’s executive director, said that the new restrictions could avert another broad lockdown. The rules “may prove an essential move to protecting public health and ensuring that New York City does not revert to restrictions and shut down orders,” he said in a statement.

At the White House, the press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration supported local efforts to control the virus.

“Different communities and states are going to take steps to protect the people living in their states, and also incentivize, whether it’s through carrots and sticks, more people getting vaccinated,” Ms. Psaki said at a news conference. The federal government, she said, has no plans to issue similar guidance on a national level.

Later in the afternoon, President Biden reiterated the point, saying he thought that more cities and states should announce rules like New York City’s.

Mr. de Blasio said the program will start on Aug. 16, and that enforcement will begin on Sept. 13, when schools are expected to open and more workers could return to the office.

Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University, said that she wished the mayor had imposed the restrictions earlier and that she did not see the point in further delaying them.

“Once vaccination was widely available to people, which was weeks ago, I think requiring vaccination for access to such venues would have been appropriate,” Dr. El-Sadr said.

The city’s vaccination program has slowed in recent months, despite efforts like a $100 payment to people who get vaccinated and inoculating people at home.

Dr. Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and an adviser to city officials, also recommended that city officials expand their message about the importance of masking and testing, even for vaccinated people, noting that “we can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

About a week ago, the federal government updated its health guidance, recommending that people wear masks indoors in virus hot spots even if they are vaccinated.

Mr. de Blasio said on Monday that he strongly recommended that people wear masks indoors, but that he would not immediately impose a requirement in the city, as many municipalities have.

Credit…Idrees Mohammed/EPA, via Shutterstock

Although most children with Covid-19 recover within a week, a small percentage experience long-term symptoms, according to a new study of more than 1,700 British children. The researchers found that 4.4 percent of children have symptoms that last four weeks or longer, while 1.8 percent have symptoms that last for eight weeks or longer.

The findings suggest that what has sometimes been called “long Covid” may be less common in children than adults. In a previous study, some of the same researchers found that 13.3 percent of adults with Covid-19 had symptoms that lasted at least four weeks and 4.5 percent had symptoms that lasted at least eight weeks.

“It is reassuring that the number of children experiencing long-lasting symptoms of Covid-19,” is low, Dr. Emma Duncan, an endocrinologist at King’s College London and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Nevertheless, a small number of children do experience long illness with Covid-19, and our study validates the experiences of these children and their families.”

The study, published on Tuesday in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, is based on an analysis of data collected by the Covid Symptom Study smartphone app. The paper focuses on 1,734 children between the ages of 5 and 17 who tested positive for the virus and developed symptoms between Sept. 1 and Jan. 24. Parents or caregivers reported the children’s symptoms in the app.

In most cases, the illness was mild and short. Children were sick for six days, on average, and experienced an average of three symptoms. The most common symptoms were headache and fatigue.

But a small subset of children experienced lingering symptoms, including fatigue, headache and a loss of smell. Children between 12 and 17 were sicker for longer than younger children and more likely to experience symptoms that lasted at least four weeks.

“We hope our results will be useful and timely for doctors, parents and schools caring for these children — and of course the affected children themselves,” Dr. Duncan said.

The researchers also compared children who tested positive for the coronavirus with those who reported symptoms in the app but tested negative for the virus. Children who tested negative — and may have had other illnesses, such as colds or the flu — recovered more quickly and were less likely to have lingering symptoms than those with Covid. They were ill for three days, on average, and just 0.9 percent of children had symptoms that lasted at least four weeks.

Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Wuhan, the city in central China where the pandemic first emerged, is planning to test all of its 11 million residents for the coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday, as they announced the first local transmission there since last spring.

The city, the first to show the world the damage the virus could wreak, had not recorded any local cases since May of last year, after a harsh two-and-a-half month lockdown helped eradicate the virus there. But city officials said they had detected three symptomatic local cases in the previous 24 hours, as well as five asymptomatic ones.

Wuhan had some of China’s strictest measures to stop the spread of the virus, and many residents continued to wear masks even as people elsewhere relaxed as the country brought the outbreak under control. But China is battling several new flare-ups as the Delta variant makes inroads, including in the cities of Nanjing and Zhangjiajie, and several more in the country’s south. The authorities in Zhangjiajie also barred residents and tourists from leaving the city, imposing a de facto lockdown.

Wuhan had previously tested all its residents in two weeks last spring, mobilizing the Chinese Communist Party’s vast network of local officials in a feat unprecedented at the time. Since then, the country has carried out several mass testing campaigns.

Officials said that Wuhan was a major transportation hub and that it was crucial to cut off any further transmission there. Liu Dongru, a provincial health official, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the authorities would “firmly protect the hard-won results against the epidemic.”

Officials also announced on Tuesday that large-scale gatherings would be prohibited. They encouraged residents not to leave Wuhan and suspended offline classes.

Amy Chang Chien contributed reporting.

Credit…Angelo Carconi/EPA, via Shutterstock

The Lazio region of Italy, which includes Rome, has been unable to offer vaccination appointments online for three days because of a cyberattack on its website over the weekend, part of what the authorities said was probably Italy’s most serious ransomware case to date.

Ransomware attacks, in which criminals break into a computer system, encrypt the data it contains and demand money to release it, have struck health care systems in many countries, paralyzing hospitals, clinics and testing centers from California to Ireland and New Zealand. The attack in Italy is one of the largest to affect a vaccination campaign, raising alarms about its potential impact.

“It’s hitting one of the things that in 2021 are fundamental,” said Stefano Zanero, a professor of cybersecurity at the Polytechnic University of Milan.

The attack against the regional information technology services began at midnight on Saturday. It came at a fraught time, as the Italian authorities are grappling with vaccine skepticism and the spread of the Delta variant, which is dominant in the country.

Italy’s postal police, who have jurisdiction over cyberattacks, are still investigating the identity of the attackers, but the president of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, said on Monday that the police knew it had come from abroad. He called the attack “very powerful and very invasive.”

A ransomware attack in May on the Colonial Pipeline, which transports fuel from Texas across the southeastern United States as far as New Jersey, caused a shutdown that lasted several days and prompted panic buying of gasoline in the United States. In Ireland, an attack paralyzed the health services’ digital systems for more than a week in June, delaying Covid-19 testing and medical appointments.

Italy’s regional governments have extensive powers over vaccinations in Italy, and the Lazio region, home to nearly 6 million people, prided itself on an efficient campaign. About 70 percent of the region’s adult population is fully vaccinated, the highest figure in the country; for Italy as a whole, the figure as of Tuesday was 53 percent, according to a New York Times tracker.

Vaccinations are going ahead in Lazio, and the 500,000 people who had booked appointments before the cyberattack will still receive their shots, the authorities said. After Aug. 13, though, the region’s vaccination schedule is empty. Alessio D’Amato, the region’s top health care official, said that bookings would become available again by the end of the week.

Several other public services have also been affected by the attack, including health care appointments, but the authorities said personal health and financial information had not been breached or stolen. Residents can still download the health pass that will be required for many social activities starting Friday.

Some vaccination sites in the region are offering shots without appointments, including one at the Rome-Fiumicino International Airport, and officials are sending vans to distribute shots in remote villages. But their capacity is limited.

The pace of Italy’s vaccination campaign has slackened in recent weeks, and many Italians over the age of 60 have not yet completed their vaccinations. “I make an appeal to all the workers and the citizens,” Mr. Zingaretti said, “Let’s go ahead and not slow down.”

Mr. Zanero, the professor of cybersecurity, said that he thought the attack was financially motivated rather than a political or terrorist attack. He expressed hope that the attack would prompt more investment in cybersecurity. “This could be an impulse in that direction,” he said.

After a backlash from Michigan residents and a rebuke from a state judge, a Republican elected official who used federal Covid relief money to give himself $25,000 in hazard pay resigned his leadership position this week.

Jeremy R. Root resigned his position as chairman of the Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners, according to a resignation letter read at a public meeting on Sunday. Mr. Root, who did not attend the meeting, said in the letter that he would retain his position as a commissioner, representing the southeast part of the county, about 26 miles west of Flint.

Telephone and email messages sent to Mr. Root on Monday evening were not returned.

The plan to use the federal funds for “Covid hazard pay for county employees” was approved by all six Republican commissioners that were present at the board’s July 15 meeting, according to a draft of the minutes.

The bonuses included $25,000 for Mr. Root, $10,000 each for two other commissioners, and $5,000 each for four other commissioners, MLive-The Flint Journal reported. After a public backlash, the commissioners reversed course a week later, and a judge later ordered them to give back the money, The Associated Press reported.

An average of six coronavirus cases per day are being reported in the county, according to data collected by The New York Times. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least one in 10 county residents has been infected, totaling more than 6,500 cases.

At Sunday’s board meeting, a commissioner read two sentences from Mr. Root’s resignation letter. In a video from the meeting, cheers could be heard after the first sentence was read aloud, announcing Mr. Root’s resignation as chairman “effective immediately.”

But when Mr. Root’s letter went on to say that he “will retain my position as a commissioner,” the cheers turned to boos.

Credit…Tom Brenner for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday imposed a new, 60-day federal moratorium on evictions in areas of the country ravaged by the Delta variant, a move aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of renters at risk of being kicked out of their homes during a pandemic.

The action was also intended to quell a rebellion among angry Democrats who blamed the White House for allowing a previous eviction ban to expire on Saturday — after the Democratic-controlled House was unable to muster enough votes to extend that moratorium.

President Biden has been under intense pressure from activists and allies for the last week to protect people who are at risk of being driven from their homes for failing to pay their rent during the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. The previous nationwide moratorium on evictions, which went into effect in September, expired on Saturday after the Supreme Court warned that an extension would require congressional action.

The end of the rental protections has triggered a flurry of recriminations in Washington and a furious effort by the White House to find a solution that prevents working-class and impoverished Americans from being evicted from their homes on Mr. Biden’s watch as billions in aid allocated by Congress goes untapped.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Tuesday announced the new order barring people from being driven out of their homes in many parts of the country, saying that “the evictions of tenants for failure to make rent or housing payments could be detrimental to public health control measures” aimed at slowing Covid-19.

The new, temporary order will expire on Oct. 3, the C.D.C. said, and applies to areas of the country “experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission” of the virus. Mr. Biden, in remarks ahead of the official order, said the moratorium was expected to reach 90 percent of Americans who are renters.

“This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the C.D.C., said in a statement. “Such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse.”

The decision to impose a new and targeted moratorium, rather than extending the previous national ban, is aimed at sidestepping a Supreme Court ruling from late June that seemed to limit the administration’s ability to enact such policies. While the Supreme Court upheld the C.D.C.’s moratorium, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh issued a brief concurring opinion explaining that he had cast his vote reluctantly and believed the C.D.C. had “exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium.”

Mr. Biden conceded on Tuesday that the new approach might be struck down by the courts as executive overreach. But he suggested the move could help buy the administration time as it tried to get states to disburse billions of dollars of aid to help renters meet their obligations to landlords.

Congress previously allocated $46.5 billion in rental assistance in two Covid relief packages but only about $3 billion had been delivered to eligible households through June, according to Treasury Department data.

“Whether that option will pass constitutional measure with this administration, I can’t tell you. I don’t know,” Mr. Biden said of a new moratorium. “There are a few scholars who say it will and others who say it’s not likely to. But at a minimum, by the time it gets litigated, we’ll probably give some additional time while we’re getting that $45 billion out to people who are in fact behind in rent and don’t have the money.”

For days, some of Mr. Biden’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, including some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress, have been publicly and privately assailing his lack of action to help renters, accusing the president and his aides of failing to find a replacement for the eviction moratorium until it was too late.

Just days before Saturday’s expiration of the ban, Mr. Biden called on Congress to pass legislation to extend it. But with the House about to leave town for a seven-week vacation period and Republicans solidly opposed to an extension, progressive Democrats described the White House call as a cynical attempt to shift blame to lawmakers. The administration, for its part, feared that any unilateral move would open the White House to legal challenges that could ultimately erode Mr. Biden’s presidential powers.

The expiration presented the president with a thorny choice: side with the C.D.C. and his own lawyers, who saw an extension as a dangerous step that could limit executive authority during health crises, or heed the demands of his party’s progressive wing to take immediate action to halt what they saw as a preventable housing crisis.

Under intense pressure from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats, Mr. Biden’s team opted for an approach that would give them a chance to satisfy both camps, creating a new moratorium, based on a recent rise in infections from the Delta variant, that cited the risks associated with the movement of displaced tenants in areas where the virus is raging.

But ultimately it came down to a simpler calculation: Mr. Biden could not ignore the call, led by Black Democrats, to reverse course.

“Every single day that we wait, thousands of people are receiving eviction notices, and some of them are being put out on the street,” said Representative Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, who has been sleeping on the steps of the Capitol since the moratorium expired in a bid to pressure her party’s leadership. “People started sending me pictures of dockets, court dockets, that were all evictions. We cannot continue to sit back, we need this done today.”

Ms. Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, were briefed on Tuesday on the C.D.C.’s plan by Ms. Walensky, the agency’s director, and Xavier Becerra, the secretary of Health and Human Services, according to a person familiar with the call. Ms. Pelosi hailed the idea of a new eviction moratorium as a victory for many Americans who were struggling because of the pandemic.

“Today is a day of extraordinary relief,” she said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Biden, the imminent fear of eviction and being put out on the street has been lifted for countless families across America. Help is Here!”

Yet for two days it was unclear how — or whether — any help would arrive as landlords prepared to turn to housing courts to evict tenants who were behind on their rent.

At a White House meeting with Mr. Biden on Friday, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer bluntly informed Mr. Biden they did not have the votes to pass an extension — and pressed him to take whatever action he could using his executive power, according to two Democratic congressional aides briefed on the meeting.

On Tuesday, House Democrats summoned Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen to explain what the agency was doing to help struggling renters who are at risk of being forced out of their homes. In a private call between Democrats and Ms. Yellen, the Treasury secretary insisted that her team was using all available tools to get rental assistance money to states and to help governments distribute those funds to landlords and renters.

“I thoroughly agree we need to bring every resource to bear,” Ms. Yellen said, according to a person who was on the call.

The White House has been scrambling to figure out exactly what their legal options are for continuing the moratorium. On Monday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Biden had asked the C.D.C. on Sunday to consider extending the moratorium for 30 days, even just to high-risk states, but that the C.D.C. had “been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium.”

A day later, however, the administration appeared ready to barrel through legal challenges and embrace a solution that did just that.

The extension is likely to intensify a legal fight with landlord groups that have argued the eviction ban has saddled them with debt.

The National Apartment Association, which filed a lawsuit last week seeking to recoup lost rent, said that the moratorium was jeopardizing the viability of the housing market. The group estimates that the apartment industry is shouldering $26.6 billion in debt as a result of the eviction ban.

“The government has intruded into private property and constitutional freedoms, and we are proudly fighting to make owners whole and ensure residents’ debt is wiped from their record,” said Robert Pinnegar, the chief executive of the association.

Legal experts said it was likely that the administration would face a new wave of lawsuits if the justification and structure of a new moratorium was similar to the one that had been in place.

“The only logic by which this could be justified is a logic that would enable them to be able to suppress virtually any activity of any kind that they can claim might spread contagious disease,” said Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University.

Credit…Amir Cohen/Reuters

Israel will add 18 countries, including the United States, to a list of locations from which travelers will need to quarantine after reaching Israeli soil, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. The requirement will come into force on Aug. 11.

Those affected include people who were vaccinated in Israel, or who have recovered from the coronavirus — none of whom were previously required to quarantine when traveling from the 18 countries.

The countries added to the list also include Germany, France, Italy and Greece.

Most studies indicate that immunity resulting from the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna is long-lasting, and researchers are still trying to interpret recent Israeli data suggesting a decline in efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine months after inoculation.

The additions to the list mean that travelers from more than 40 countries will now have to quarantine for up to 10 days after arriving in Israel, whether or not they were vaccinated.

Israel has been a greenhouse for antivirus measures since the start of the year, when the country became one of the fastest to fully vaccinate a majority of its population against the coronavirus.

Israeli society also returned far faster to normal life: By mid-June, the number of daily coronavirus infections had fallen to single figures and indoor mask mandates were lifted, as well as restrictions on gatherings and public events.

But an easing on inbound travel restrictions and the arrival of the Delta variant to Israel have contributed to a spike in infections since late June. In the past week, the average number of new infections each day rose beyond 2,400 — up from 300 at the start of July..

Credit…Zou Zheng/Xinhua, via Getty Images

Canadian health officials have fined two travelers thousands of dollars after determining that they had presented fake documents showing Covid-19 vaccinations and pre-departure Covid tests, the first fines of their kind to be issued by Canada.

The travelers, Canadian citizens whom the authorities did not name, arrived in Toronto by air from the United States during the week of July 18. Each was fined a total 19,720 Canadian dollars (about $15,700) for failing to comply with travel protocols and for presenting fraudulent documents, Canada’s public health agency said Tuesday.

Public health offenses in Canada can result in fines of 5,000 Canadian dollars ($4,000) a day for each offense; more serious breaches can be punished by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to 750,000 Canadian dollars.

Canada is gearing up to reopen its border on Monday to U.S. citizens and fully vaccinated permanent residents. The United States will keep border restrictions in place for nonessential travel at land and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico through Aug. 21.

Sixty percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated, and 72 percent have received at least one dose, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

Canada’s health ministry said last week that the country had received more than 66 million doses of vaccine in all, enough to fully vaccinate every eligible Canadian. It represented a drastic rebound from the sluggish start to the country’s vaccination campaign, which was hampered in part by shortages.

Travelers will only be granted entry if the vaccines they received have been approved in Canada, a list that includes the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines and those from the Serum Institute of India and Janssen, the brand used in Canada by Johnson & Johnson.

Tags coronavirus, Delta, Live, News, Updates, Vaccine, Variant

World News

Dow jumps greater than 170 factors in noon rally

Post author By
Post date August 3, 2021

U.S. stocks moved higher on Tuesday as strength in bank and industrials stocks outweighed the travel names held back by Covid fears.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped about 173 points, or 0.5%, almost halfway through the trading day, after briefly falling more than 100 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite was higher by 0.2%. The Dow sits about 0.5% from a record.

The 10-year Treasury yield stabilized on Tuesday after falling back to near five-month lows on Monday. As yields rebounded from their decline midday back to the unchanged mark, stocks edged higher.

Tuesday’s move for stocks served as something of a mirror image to Monday’s market action, which saw a late-day slump drag the Dow and S&P 500 into the red while the tech-heavy Nasdaq held on to a meager gain.

That sort of day-to-day volatility is to be expected after the strong run for stocks since spring of last year, said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

“Everyone knows that valuations are fairly high. The S&P 500 is up nearly 100% since the March low of last year. … So the market tends to be a little skittish to any kind of news right now,” Frederick said. “My outlook for most of Q3 has been that I’ve been expecting the market to be mostly sideways with slightly elevated volatility.”

On Monday, the Dow was boosted by stocks tied to the economic recovery, including banks, Caterpillar and 3M. Health care stocks like Amgen and Johnson & Johnson outperformed as well.

On the other hand, shares of companies that would be hit hardest by potential new health restrictions, including airlines and cruise lines, fell on Tuesday, limiting upside for the market.

The spread of the delta coronavirus variant continued to cloud the outlook for the economy. The seven-day average of daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. reached 72,790 on Friday, surpassing the peak seen last summer when the nation didn’t have an authorized Covid-19 vaccine, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, on the positive side the U.S. reached the 70% Covid vaccine milestone, according to the CDC.

“The delta variant of the virus is now rapidly spreading in the U.S. and a modest pullback in activity can’t be ruled out,” Solita Marcelli, CIO Americas at UBS, said in a note. “But any potential slowdown should be somewhat muted.”

Oil stocks moved higher as well, even as the price of West Texas Intermediate crude drifted down to about $70 per barrel. Adam Karpf, a managing director at CIBC Private Wealth focused on energy, said the move in oil was due more to trading patterns than the delta variant taking a major bite out of global growth.

“Assuming that this will be kept under control … we’ve had several months and weeks of a strong crude oil market and energy industry, and this is a breather,” Karpf said.

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Source: NYSE

Meanwhile, the second-quarter earnings season continues with Under Armour shares rose nearly 7% after the company beat estimates on the top and bottom lines. However, Clorox’s stock fell 10% after a disappointing report.

Shares of Simon Property jumped more than 2% after the mall owner said sales bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, up 80% from a year ago. It also reported a relatively high occupancy rate.

Through Friday, 88% of S&P 500 companies had reported a positive earnings surprise for the second quarter, which will mark the highest percentage since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2008.

Investors are closely monitoring progress in Washington as lawmakers move toward a bipartisan infrastructure bill that would devote $550 billion to U.S. infrastructure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer aims to rush the 2,702-page legislation through the chamber before a planned monthlong recess starting Aug. 9.

Tags Dow, jumps, midday, points, rally

World News

U.S. Reaches Biden’s 70% Vaccination Objective

Post author By
Post date August 3, 2021

Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images

The United States on Monday finally reached President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of eligible adults at least partly vaccinated.

The milestone came a month later than the president had hoped as the country faced the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

There was no celebration at the White House. The announcement today was made on Twitter by Cyrus Shahpar, the COVID-19 data director for the Biden administration. “Let’s continue working to get more eligible vaccinated!” Mr. Shahpar wrote.

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White House: 70% of U.S. Adults Have At Least One Covid Shot

The White House Covid-19 response team said the United States reached President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of eligible adults partially vaccinated. The milestone came a month behind schedule, amid a surge in Delta variant infections.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a nearly 70 percent increase in the average number of new people getting vaccinated each and every day. In the last seven days alone, three million Americans have gotten their first shot. That’s the highest seven-day total since July 4th. And just today, we hit 70 percent of adults with at least one shot, including 90 percent of seniors with at least one shot. These are significant milestones in our fight against the virus. And it’s very important to note in the states with the highest case rates, daily vaccination rates have more than doubled … As of July 26, the C.D.C. received 6,587 reports of breakthrough infections that resulted in hospitalization or death, among 163 fully vaccinated million people. That is a percentage of 0.01 percent or less. And when you look at the breakthrough cases, the percent of breakthrough cases in multiple locations, like D.C. and Virginia, the percent ranges from 0.26 to 0.03. So I’m sorry that was left out. The bottom line is they are rare and they rarely result, not rarely, but unusually result in hospitalization or death.

The White House Covid-19 response team said the United States reached President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of eligible adults partially vaccinated. The milestone came a month behind schedule, amid a surge in Delta variant infections.

The White House had hoped to announce the 70 percent vaccination benchmark four weeks ago. Mr. Biden initially used Independence Day to declare a victory of sorts over the pandemic and some kind of return to normal life.

But that goal evaporated in recent weeks as the Delta variant spread rapidly, putting pressure on hospitals in regions with low vaccination rates, including many politically conservative areas in the south. Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas, for instance, have been hard hit, swamping hospitals.

In recent weeks, there has been an uptick in the vaccination rate in some states where cases have crested. Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Florida have seen steady increases.

The Delta variant is much more contagious than other forms of the virus, and may cause more severe disease, according to an internal presentation circulated recently within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts say that infections in vaccinated people are still relatively uncommon, and even in those cases, the vaccines currently authorized in the United States appear to provide protection against severe illness and death.

Last week, federal health authorities issued new guidelines urging fully vaccinated people to wear masks indoors because breakthrough cases of the Delta variant might be able to transmit the virus onward.

After missing the self-imposed July 4 deadline, Mr. Biden initially sought to shift some responsibility to social media platforms like Facebook, saying they were “killing people” by allowing disinformation about the coronavirus vaccine to spread. He later walked back those comments.

Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina announced on Monday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and that his symptoms have been mild, which he attributed to having received the vaccine.

“I am very glad I was vaccinated because without vaccination I am certain I would not feel as well as I do now,” Mr. Graham, a Republican, wrote on Twitter. “My symptoms would be far worse.”

I was just informed by the House physician I have tested positive for #COVID19 even after being vaccinated.

I started having flu-like symptoms Saturday night and went to the doctor this morning.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 2, 2021

Mr. Graham said he would go into quarantine for 10 days.

With the Delta variant continuing to spread aggressively across parts of the country, infections in vaccinated people have become more common, though they are still rare among the vaccinated population.

Experts say the vaccines currently in use in the United State provide strong protection from serious illness and death, even in cases of infections with the Delta variant. More than 97 percent of people who have been hospitalized recently for Covid-19 have been unvaccinated.

Breakthrough cases were reported last week both on Capitol Hill and in the White House. At least six Texas Democrats, a White House aide and an aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi reported testing positive despite having been vaccinated.

A number of Republicans in Congress, particularly in the House, have not received a shot and have resisted wearing masks and other mitigation measures. But Mr. Graham has urged supporters to get vaccinated and has spoken out against disinformation related to the virus.

The announcement from Mr. Graham raised concerns that other colleagues of his in the Senate may have been exposed through recent contact with Mr. Graham.

Mr. Graham’s office confirmed that he attended a gathering of senators on Saturday aboard “Almost Heaven,” a houseboat belonging to Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia. A photograph circulated over the weekend showed senators socializing on the boat as it navigated the waters around Washington.

“There was no celebration,” Mr. Manchin, who tested negative on Monday, told reporters of the gathering. “We were just trying to keep people together. We do everything in a bipartisan way.”

At least half a dozen other senators confirmed they were on board, including Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber.

Mr. Thune’s spokesman, Ryan Wrasse, said that his boss was vaccinated and had tested negative on Monday afternoon. Other senators were awaiting results but showed up to cast votes on the Senate floor.

The news of Mr. Graham’s positive test — and the possibility that more of his colleagues may have been exposed — threw a new element of unpredictability into a week that was already expected to be a momentous one on Capitol Hill as the Senate pushes toward voting on a massive bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Mr. Graham has been a supporter of the bill, and if he remains absent long enough, his illness could cost a Republican vote on final passage. But if others become sick or are forced to quarantine, party leaders may have to cancel meetings, delay votes or adjourn the Senate altogether, as they did during similar episodes in 2020.

Already on Monday, Democrats made an in-person leadership meeting virtual instead. But Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, told reporters he believed the infrastructure debate would move forward as planned.

Credit…Brittainy Newman for The New York Times

Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers will be required to be vaccinated or face weekly testing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Monday, the state’s latest effort to boost lagging vaccination rates amid the rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant.

The new requirement applies to 68,000 employees of the M.T.A., which operates New York City’s sprawling subway and bus system, as well as commuter rails that serve the city’s surrounding counties.

It will also apply to workers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who work at New York-based facilities. The Port Authority runs La Guardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, as well as a broad network of bridges, tunnels and seaports.

Mr. Cuomo framed the new policy as a crucial step to not only help curb the spread of the virus — transit workers interact with millions of riders each day — but also to help improve confidence among riders concerned about their health and safety.

The policy goes into effect starting on Labor Day.

“If it spreads aggressively among the unvaccinated, numerically we would have a problem,” said Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat. “Worst case scenario, a large number of unvaccinated get sick and even worse than that, the delta variant mutates into a vaccine resistant virus and now we’re back to where we started.”

Janno Lieber, the acting board chair and chief executive of the M.T.A., said that about 70 percent of the M.T.A. work force has already been vaccinated, but, “we can and have to do better.”

“Transit workers have carried the city and the region on their back,” Mr. Lieber said. “If we’re going to bounce back stronger than ever, we all have to step up.”

The policy shift comes less than a week after Mr. Cuomo announced the same requirement for the state’s 130,000 employees, following the lead of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who rolled out a similar mandate for the city’s 300,000 workers. The requirement has rapidly become a model across the nation: President Biden announced a similar policy for the nation’s millions of federal employees on Thursday, too, as other local governments weigh similar mandates.

New York State, just weeks after lifting most of its coronavirus restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, has seen a steady rise in cases as a result of the new variant, even as 75 percent of adults in the state have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The state reported a seven-day average of 2,280 cases on Aug. 1, up from an average of just 328 a month ago on July 1. Hospitalizations have also ticked up, while the number of deaths has remained relatively steady, according to The New York Times coronavirus tracker.

At the same time, Mr. Cuomo said it was up to local governments, including New York City, to decide whether to adopt the new federal guidance recommending that vaccinated people wear masks indoors publicly in areas where cases are on the rise.

“It’s up to the local governments,” Mr. Cuomo said. “But local governments, you should adopt that C.D.C. mask guidance.”

The governor also urged private businesses, including bars, restaurants and venues, to require proof of vaccination from their clientele.

Here are details of some more recently announced mandates in the United States:

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said on Monday that all workers in certain state and private health care facilities and high-risk congregate settings, like jails and prisons, will have to be fully inoculated or face regular testing. Employees have until Sept. 7 to comply with the requirement.
The more than 10,000 municipal employees of Denver, Colo., have to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Sept. 30 or they cannot work on-site, Mayor Michael B. Hancock said on Monday. Private sector employees at schools and congregate care settings, like homeless shelters and correctional facilities, will also need to be vaccinated.

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De Blasio Urges Vaccinated New Yorkers to Wear Masks Indoors

Mayor Bill de Blasio “strongly” encouraged vaccinated New Yorkers to wear masks indoors again, especially when others around them could be unvaccinated.

Vaccines are the No. 1 most powerful weapon against Covid by far, but we also clearly believe there’s a place for masks. Over the last few days, where you’ve reviewed the data from the C.D.C., some of which came in on Friday — the background research — we’ve reviewed the recommendations, we’re updating our mask guidance based on the latest data and science. We want to strongly recommend that people wear masks in indoor settings, even if you’re vaccinated. Now, this is particularly true, of course, if you might be around anyone unvaccinated. If you don’t know the people you’re around, if you’re not sure if they’re vaccinated or not, or if, you know, some are unvaccinated, absolutely crucial to wear a mask, even if you are vaccinated. The difference, of course, is if you’re around fully vaccinated people, that’s a better situation. So vaccinated people around fully vaccinated people, that’s where it’s an easier situation. But if you’re not sure and that’s going to be many cases, we want to strongly recommend that people wear those masks indoors, even if vaccinated.

Mayor Bill de Blasio “strongly” encouraged vaccinated New Yorkers to wear masks indoors again, especially when others around them could be unvaccinated.CreditCredit…David Dee Delgado/Reuters

New York City has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases — more than 1,200 cases per day, roughly six times the number in June.

For weeks, city officials have been tracking the increase, and deliberating whether a broad mask mandate — similar to ones instituted in large urban areas like Los Angeles County and Washington — might be called for, to head off a more serious resurgence in New York, once the epicenter of the pandemic.

On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio decided against such a mandate, choosing instead to strongly encourage all New Yorkers, even those who have been vaccinated, to wear masks indoors.

Mr. de Blasio said he wanted to focus on increasing vaccination rates, and worried that requiring everyone to wear masks would remove an incentive for those who are considering getting vaccinated now.

With the recent rise in virus cases, New York City now falls under new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending masks in areas of high transmission.

The mayor said that he agreed with the C.D.C.’s guidance, but pointed out that he was aligned with leaders in New Jersey and Connecticut who similarly encouraged mask use but did not require it.

“We want to strongly recommend that people wear masks in indoor settings even if you’re vaccinated,” Mr. de Blasio said.

The city’s fragile economic recovery may be a factor in the city’s decision; a broader mask mandate could prompt employers to reconsider their plans to have their workers return to offices after Labor Day, and raise doubts about holding large gatherings like weddings. Mr. de Blasio said a mandate could also be difficult to enforce.

Some elected officials called on Mr. de Blasio to move more aggressively and institute a mask mandate now to curtail a third wave of cases.

“The one lesson of the last year and a half is you have to act fast, or you’re left with much more difficult choices down the road,” said Mark Levine, a city councilman from Manhattan who chairs the health committee. “I think it’s a huge mistake to delay this any further.”

Los Angeles County reinstated its new mask mandate last month, and Washington began to require masks over the weekend. The Democratic mayors of Atlanta and Kansas City, Mo., have reinstated forms of mask mandates, and Chicago’s mayor is considering one.

Mr. de Blasio has said that he wants to focus on vaccination, and he is considering France-style measures to require vaccination or a negative test to visit restaurants or movie theaters.

He believes that New Yorkers will be motivated to get vaccinated if they believe they will have more freedoms once they do so, like the ability to go about their lives without masks.

“We still want to respect the fact that vaccination can give you different opportunities and rights than unvaccinated people,” Mr. de Blasio said on Monday.

Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor, said he agreed that a mask mandate was not necessary right now.

“I don’t believe we’re there with a mandate yet, unless C.D.C. tells us, whatever the science is we must follow, but then personal responsibility must kick in,” Mr. Adams told reporters on Monday. “Also, vaccination vaccination, vaccination. Let’s get on the ground.”

New Yorkers are already required to wear masks on public transit and in hospitals and schools; Mr. de Blasio has been adamant that classes will be held in-person in September.

Mr. de Blasio also announced last week that city workers must get vaccinated or face weekly testing and offered a $100 incentive for people who get vaccinated at city sites.

On Monday, he said the city had hit an important milestone — 10 million vaccine doses administered — and announced a new policy: a vaccine mandate for new city employees.

“Every single new person hired by the City of New York — before they report to work, they must provide proof of vaccination,” he said.

Many Republican governors have resisted the idea of mask mandates. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas issued an executive order barring local governments and state agencies from mandating vaccination and reinforcing an earlier order that prohibited officials from requiring face masks.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida last week signed an executive order giving parents the power to decide whether their children should wear masks in schools, after Broward County, the state’s second-largest school district, voted to require masks.

“In Florida, there will be no lockdowns,” Mr. DeSantis said to cheers at a restaurant in Cape Coral, Fla., on Friday. “There will be no school closures. There will be no restrictions and no mandates.”

Federal recommendations call for students, teachers and parents to wear masks, regardless of their vaccination status. Both Florida and Texas are facing surges, according to a New York Times database.

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Biden Administration Pushes States to Prevent Eviction Crisis

White House officials called on state governments to extend local moratoriums on evictions and accelerate the distribution of billions in rental aid, to soften the impact of the federal moratorium’s expiration on Saturday.

Given the rising urgency of the spread of the Delta variant, the president has asked all of us, including the C.D.C., to do everything in our power to look for every potential legal authority we can have to prevent evictions. To date, the C.D.C. director and her team have been unable to find legal authority, even for a more targeted eviction moratorium that would focus just on counties with higher rates of Covid spread. One of the things that he is requesting today is that state and local governments extend or pass eviction moratoriums to cover the next two months. Right now, one out of three renters who are behind in the rent are actually protected beyond the federal eviction moratorium by extended state and local evictions moratoriums. The president is asking that all governors and mayors follow suit. This president is asking that his departments that provide mortgage backed lending extend whatever eviction moratoriums they have the power to extend. So that covers U.S.D.A. and V.A. and H.U.D. He is asking that U.S.D.A, V.A. and H.U.D., and the Treasury Department as well, make clear that those who benefit from government-backed mortgages or even tax relief related to housing should not seek evictions without first seeking emergency rental assistance funding. We are going to do an all agency review to make sure that we understand any potential reason why state and local governments are not getting funds out. The president is clear: If some states and localities can get this out efficiently and effectively, there’s no reason every state and locality can’t. There is simply no excuse, no place to hide for any state or locality that is failing to accelerate the Emergency Rental Assistance Fund.

White House officials called on state governments to extend local moratoriums on evictions and accelerate the distribution of billions in rental aid, to soften the impact of the federal moratorium’s expiration on Saturday.CreditCredit…T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

With the federal moratorium on evictions having expired over the weekend, the White House on Monday sought to limit the impact, demanding that states speed up disbursement of billions in bottled-up rental aid, while pleading with local governments to immediately enact their own extensions.

President Biden — under fire for refusing to extend the freeze and eager to prove he was taking some action — announced a series of limited moves Monday afternoon aimed at slowing evictions, directing federal agencies to consider targeted moratoriums for tenants in federally subsidized housing and asking state judges to slow-walk eviction proceedings.

The moratorium, imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last fall, lapsed on Saturday after a frenzied, failed effort on Capitol Hill to extend the freeze through the end of the year, putting hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing shelter.

“There is just a lot of fear out there right now,” said Bob Glaves, executive director of the Chicago Bar Foundation, which has been working with tenants and landlords to tap a $47 billion fund allocated by Congress to pay off back rent accrued during the pandemic.

Legal aid groups and other tenants’ organizations have reported a massive flood of phone calls and emails from renters panicked by the end of the eviction freeze, which occurred at midnight on Saturday.

On Monday, administration officials made it clear they could only do so much, blaming states for the fact that the $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program intended to avoid such a crisis has disbursed only $3 billion — or just 7 percent of the total.

“We expect these numbers to grow, but it will not be enough to meet the need, unless every state and locality accelerates funds to tenants,” Gene Sperling, who is overseeing pandemic relief efforts for Mr. Biden, told reporters at the White House.

“There is no place to hide for any state or locality failing to accelerate their emergency rental assistance funds,” he said.

But many Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have called on Mr. Biden to reconsider his decision not to act unilaterally, and have expressed anger at the White House for giving them only two days to ram through legislation to extend the freeze.

“People were promised something — help — and that has not happened,” said Representative Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, who has been sleeping on the steps of the Capitol to protest the end of the moratorium. “It is unbelievable. It is shocking. It is unconscionable. It is cruel. We can’t be sitting on our hands when people are suffering.”

On Thursday, Biden administration officials punted the issue to congressional Democrats, claiming that a recent Supreme Court ruling made it nearly impossible to order an extension without jeopardizing the right of the executive branch to implement similar emergency policies during future public health crises.

Since then, Biden administration officials have worked the phones, appealing to the states to stop, or even slow, landlords from evicting renters until the balky funding pipeline — which has been plagued by delays — is functional.

Over the weekend Mr. Biden called Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director and the official with the authority to extend the freeze, to explore the possibility of limiting an extension to areas hit especially hard by the Delta variant, but was told that was not possible.

“Everybody” in the West Wing wanted to extend the moratorium, Mr. Sperling said in an interview. “But what was clear from the legal analysis was that we had already litigated this issue all the way to the Supreme Court.”

In a related move, the Treasury Department on Monday issued guidance for how states can spend up to $10 billion in financial assistance to people in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.

The money can be doled out to borrowers who have fallen behind on mortgage payments, according to the guidance, but also to people who have taken out loans to buy mobile homes to live in, or who acquired a home in a contract for deed relationship — a loan financed by the seller of the property.

Credit…Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

With the number of migrants crossing the southern border surging and the pandemic proving to be far from over, the Biden administration has decided to leave in place for now the public health rule that has allowed it to turn away hundreds of thousands of migrants, officials said.

The decision, confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday, amounted to a shift by the administration, which had been working on plans to begin lifting the rule this summer, more than a year after it was imposed by the Trump administration.

The C.D.C. said allowing noncitizens to come over the border from either Mexico or Canada “creates a serious danger” of further spread of the coronavirus.

President Biden has come under intense pressure for months from some Democrats and supporters of more liberal immigration policies to lift the rule, which critics say has been used less to protect public health than as a politically defensible way to limit immigration.

The recent spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant has bolstered the argument that the public health rule, known as Title 42, remains necessary. And the virus’s quickening spread comes as border officials are so overwhelmed with the persistent pace of illegal migration that they say that allowing more migrants into the country by lifting the rule poses the threat of a humanitarian crisis.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union said it would move forward with a lawsuit seeking to force the administration to lift the public health order for migrant families after months of negotiations with the “ultimate goal” of ending the policy.

Credit…Thomas Watkins/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The U.S. Navy is considering reinstating a quarantine for visitors to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after the discovery that two vaccinated journalists who visited the remote base last week returned to the United States infected with the coronavirus.

The journalists were among about 80 people who traveled from the Washington, D.C., area on July 26 for a hearing in a military commissions case. The group returned to the mainland three days later, and two of the reporters discovered over the weekend that they had Covid-19. Other travelers were being tested on Monday.

About 6,000 people live at the base and more than a third of the adults there have declined vaccination, according to base health officials. Guantánamo has yet to receive vaccines for the several hundred residents under the age of 18. Most are the children of sailors who serve on longer-term assignments there.

Guantánamo, which has consistently refused to disclose its Covid infection rate throughout the pandemic, has managed to avoid a widespread outbreak through isolation of new arrivals and testing.

The Navy base lifted the quarantine requirement on vaccinated visitors about two months ago, but continued to require visitors and returning residents who are unvaccinated to spend two weeks in self-isolation, in case they were asymptomatic carriers.

Quarantining those who are vaccinated — for seven days instead of 14 — would allow base health officials to monitor the new arrivals for symptoms.

Vaccinated travelers who arrived starting Tuesday were to be tested upon arrival.

Guantánamo had eased its masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated individuals in recent weeks. Three weeks ago, spectators at a court hearing for an Iraqi prisoner sat six feet apart.

Then last week, the military permitted spectators to sit three feet apart, wearing no masks, to observe a pre-sentencing hearing of a Pakistani man who has admitted serving as a courier for Al Qaeda.

Inside the courtroom, Army guards providing security wore masks, while the Air Force judge in the case and some lawyers did not.

All the journalists who observed the proceedings were required to be vaccinated and present a negative P.C.R. test within 72 hours of flight time.

Separately Monday, lawyers for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the prisoner who is accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, asked the chief judge of military commissions to postpone a hearing in the case scheduled to begin on Sept. 6.

Mr. Mohammed’s lawyers cited a resurgence of Covid infections, the vaccination refusal rate and the lack of a full-time trial judge to evaluate the situation as their reasons for delay.

The last hearing in the case against Mr. Mohammed and four other men who are accused of being his accomplices took place at Guantánamo in February 2020, just before the declaration of the pandemic.

Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

A week of public health reversals from the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has left Americans with pandemic whiplash, sowing confusion about vaccines and mask wearing.

The crisis President Biden once thought he had under control is changing shape faster than the country can adapt. An evolving virus, new scientific discoveries, deep ideological divides and 18 months of ever-changing pandemic messaging have left Americans skeptical of public health advice.

Monday was another day that underscored the crosscurrents for the nation’s leaders as their efforts at a disciplined public health campaign collided yet again with the chaotic nature of the pandemic.

The virus continued to scramble traditional politics. In left-leaning Chicago, city officials announced that more than 385,000 people had attended the four-day Lollapalooza music festival — and Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended it. In Washington, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a longtime supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus but said his symptoms have been mild, which he attributed to being vaccinated.

Some experts say the C.D.C. is to blame for some of the confusion. After saying in May that vaccinated people could go maskless indoors and outdoors, the agency did an about-face, once again recommending indoor masking in places where the virus is spreading rapidly.

Only days later did a leaked document deliver the grim reasoning: The Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and spreading even among the vaccinated.

A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s thinking, conceded on Monday that many Americans remained perplexed.

Another administration official said Mr. Biden would address the nation later this week — the second time in less than a week — to reiterate and clarify his main takeaway points: The vaccines are safe and effective; even vaccinated people have to mask up again because so many people are unvaccinated; go get your shots and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same.

Credit…Stefanie Loos/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

As concerns grow over a rise in coronavirus cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, Germany announced Monday it will offer vaccine booster shots to older people and people with underlying health conditions starting in September.

Germany’s move came after a top European Union official criticized the bloc as falling far short of its promises to donate vaccine doses to Africa and Latin America. Many health experts say the priority should be inoculating high-risk people around the world, and scientists also still disagree on the need for booster shots.

The issue of booster shots has been hotly debated in richer countries as vaccination rates have slowed. But as the Delta variant has become dominant in much of the United States and Europe, more governments appear to be moving toward endorsing them.

In the United States, Biden administration health officials increasingly think that vulnerable populations may need additional shots. Research continues into how long the vaccines remain effective. Israel, an early leader in administering vaccines, began administering boosters to people 60 and over last week.

France is offering booster shots only to the most elderly and vulnerable residents for now. Health officials in Belgium and Italy said they were ready to start offering boosters in the fall but were still gathering data to decide who should get a third dose, and when.

Under the German initiative, vaccination teams will be sent to care homes and other facilities for vulnerable people to administer Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots, according to the draft plan. Doctors and vaccination centers will be called on to provide the extra shots for eligible people outside care homes.

The boosters will also be offered to people who received AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson shots initially.

The guidelines cite studies that indicate “a reduced or quickly subsiding immune response after a full Covid-19 vaccination in certain groups of people,” notably those who because of age or pre-existing conditions have weakened immune systems.

Studies have indicated that immunity resulting from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is long-lasting, and researchers are still working to interpret recent Israeli data suggesting a decline in efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine months after inoculation.

Pfizer, which has begun making a case for booster shots in the United States, offered its own study last week showing a marginal decline in efficacy against symptomatic infection months after immunization, although the vaccine remains powerfully effective against severe disease and death.

Britain, which remains ahead of the European Union on vaccinations, has not yet formally announced plans for a booster shot program. But officials there have been planning for them ever since a committee of government advisers in late June outlined recommendations on how the shots could be administered.

Even as wealthier nations prepare to give booster shots, though, health experts say the focus should be on giving first doses to people in countries that remain largely unprotected, especially as the Delta variant spreads.

“Wealthy governments shouldn’t be prioritizing giving third doses when much of the developing world hasn’t even yet had the chance to get their first Covid-19 shots,” Kate Elder, the senior vaccines policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders’ Access Campaign, said in a statement.

Credit…Olivier Hoslet/EPA, via Shutterstock

In an unusually public criticism of the European Union, its foreign policy chief has said that the bloc is falling radically short of its promises to donate Covid-19 vaccine doses to Africa and Latin America, creating a vacuum that China is filling.

Such donations are the responsibility of E.U. member countries. But the official, Josep Borrell Fontelles also singled out his boss, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch.

“The president of the Commission said we are going to give not 100, but 200 million doses to Africa,” Mr. Borrell said on Friday at a university summer course in Santander in Spain, his home country. “Yes, but when? The problem isn’t just the commitment, but the effectiveness.”

Mr. Borrell said that European countries had contributed about 10 million doses to Africa — a continent with a population of 1.5 billion. “It’s certainly insufficient,” he said.

In remarks cited by Politico Europe, Mr. Borrell said the issue was not just inequality, but also China’s efforts to expand its influence through vaccine donations.

“In Europe, we vaccinated 60 percent of our population, in Africa, they are at 2 or 3 percent,” he added. “Who’s the big vaccine supplier to Africa? China. Who’s the big vaccine supplier to Latin America? China.”

He said that Europe’s failure has “geopolitical consequences,” adding: “China’s expansion in Africa and Latin America should concern us and should occupy us a great deal.”

He also urged the European Union to move faster to approve association and trade agreements with Mexico and Chile, he said, “while China is landing in all parts of Latin America and occupying a predominant role.”

Mr. Borrell, 74, is a Commission vice president and former Spanish foreign minister. He has a particular interest in Latin America and Africa, and has been trying to persuade E.U. member states to respond more efficiently to crises in Libya, Ethiopia and Morocco, in part because of their impact on migration. He has also spoken often about how to do more for Cuba and Venezuela.

The Commission had no immediate comment. It has also been unwilling to identify how many doses have been donated to which countries.

Most European countries are still in the midst of their own vaccination campaigns, and the European Union has yet to define a bloc-wide strategy on vaccine donations. Italy said on Sunday that it had shipped 1.5 million doses to Tunisia, which has one of the world’s highest coronavirus death rates. Spain has promised to donate 7.5 million doses to Latin American countries. And France and Germany have each pledged to donate 30 million doses.

It is unclear how many of the doses promised have actually been delivered.

That compares with a pledge by the Biden administration to donate 80 million doses.

Credit…Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

With the coronavirus spreading across the country and hospitalizations rising again, and public health officials warning that the Delta variant carries new risks even for vaccinated people, big businesses are rethinking their plans.

Some are delaying their plans to bring workers back to the office, and others are restoring mask requirements for customers. In the last week, several have also imposed vaccine mandates, after having held off on such a step for months.

The decision to require vaccines was endorsed on Sunday by the director of the National Institutes of Health. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Dr. Francis Collins said that asking employees for proof of vaccination or regular testing were steps “in the right direction.”

Here’s how some big businesses changed their plans in late July:

Delayed return to office:

Lyft pushed back its return-to-office date to February from September, Google extended its work-from-home policy to mid-October, and Apple said employees would not be expected to return to the office until at least Oct. 1, a month later than before.
Uber said that it would not require employees to return until Oct. 25, instead of its initial September date, and that a further delay was possible if cases kept rising.
Twitter shut its San Francisco and New York offices, putting a halt to reopening plans without a timeline in place.
The New York Times Company also indefinitely postponed its planned return to the office, telling employees that they would be given four weeks notice before being expected to return. The company, which employs about 4,700 people, had planned for workers to start to return for at least three days a week in September. Its offices will remain open for those who want to go in voluntarily, with proof of vaccination.
Endeavor, the parent company of the William Morris Endeavor talent agency, closed its recently reopened offices after Los Angeles County reimposed its indoor mask mandate. An Endeavor spokesman said the company had decided that enforcement would be too difficult and would hinder group meetings.

Vaccine requirements:

Equinox, the luxury fitness company that includes SoulCycle, said on Monday that its members and employees must show one-time proof of vaccination — a physical immunization card, a photo of an immunization card or a digital vaccine card — to enter Equinox clubs, SoulCycle studios or corporate offices, starting in New York in September.
Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, with nearly 1.6 million workers, said vaccines would be mandatory for employees in its headquarters and for managers who traveled in the United States. The mandate does not apply to much of its work force — employees in stores, clubs, and distribution and fulfillment centers.
The Walt Disney Company said salaried and nonunion hourly U.S. employees at its sites must be fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated workers who are already on site will have 60 days to get the immunization, and new hires will be required to be fully vaccinated before starting work.

Masks requirements:

Home Depot said all its associates, contractors and vendors will be required to wear a mask in its stores, distribution centers and offices and at the homes and businesses of customers. Customers will also be asked to wear masks. Lowe’s also said it would require masks of its employees, regardless of vaccination status.
Walmart said it was reinstating mask requirements for associates in areas of the country with substantial or high transmission rates. The company recommended that customers wear masks in those areas, too. The retailer also doubled its reward to employees who get vaccinated from $75 to $150.
Starting Monday, the Florida-based grocery chain Publix will require employees to wear masks in all its stores regardless of their vaccination status.
Apple said employees and customers would have to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status in more than half its stores in the United States. Apple said the stores would be determined by the rate of coronavirus cases in the area. Apple also told its employees that they would have to wear masks when inside the company’s main offices in the United States, regardless of whether they were vaccinated.

Credit…Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Health officials in San Francisco and surrounding counties on Monday introduced a universal indoor mask mandate, adopting a federal health suggestion that has stirred up resistance in some parts of the country.

The order, which takes effect on Tuesday, requires people to wear masks in public indoor settings regardless of their vaccination status, though there are exceptions, for instance for children younger than 2. It applies to San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties.

“Indoor masking is a temporary measure that will help us deal with the Delta variant, which is causing a sharp increase in cases, and we know increases in hospitalizations and deaths will follow,” Dr. Naveena Bobba, San Francisco’s acting health officer, said in a statement.

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Bay Area Health Officials Reimpose Mask Mandate

San Francisco and six other Bay Area counties introduced a universal indoor mask mandate, adopting a suggestion from the C.D.C. as coronavirus cases surge.

The counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma and the city of Berkeley today issued health orders, mandating indooor masking for everyone, regardless of vaccination status. These health orders will take effect at midnight tonight. Across the Bay Area region, we are seeing Covid-19 cases surging and hospitalizations are on a steep rise again, particularly among the unvaccinated. If you are able to choose between an indoor and an outdoor space, we recommend that you choose outdoor activities. There are people who have to work indoors, though. And for that group, we want to make sure that we are protecting them, our frontline workers have been essential during the pandemic and they continue to be essential during this reopening period. So both for the fact that there are people out there that cannot get vaccinated because they aren’t eligible. And we want to protect our workers. Today’s announcement reflects both the California Department of Public Health and the C.D.C.‘s guidance for everyone to wear a mask indoors in public if you’re in an area of substantial or high transmission. Every county represented here today has substantial or high levels of community transmission. We must take this action to end this summer surge.

San Francisco and six other Bay Area counties introduced a universal indoor mask mandate, adopting a suggestion from the C.D.C. as coronavirus cases surge.

San Francisco, and California as a whole, has seen cases and hospitalizations rise sharply in the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database. Los Angeles reinstituted a mask mandate in mid-July, and last week Gov. Gavin Newsom made California one of the first states to require inoculations or regular testing for state government workers.

Public mask requirements were widespread before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance in May, when the coronavirus seemed to be waning in the United States, saying that vaccinated people largely could skip wearing masks. Most states and cities soon relaxed their mask mandates.

But the C.D.C. changed its recommendations again last week, urging vaccinated people to once again wear masks indoors in areas with high rates of transmission, and encouraging universal use of masks in schools.

The change of course was driven by a surge in new coronavirus cases around the country, especially in areas where relatively few people are vaccinated. Experts say the surge is being propelled by the Delta variant, which the C.D.C. estimates now makes up more than 80 percent of new cases in the United States.

Recent research has shown the Delta variant to be even more contagious than previously thought, and has indicated that vaccinated people could carry and potentially spread the variant, according to an internal document at the C.D.C. that noted that “the war has changed.” The vaccines are still extremely effective at preventing serious illness and death, and people with breakthrough infections rarely require hospitalization.

Many municipalities have reinstituted mask mandates or strongly recommended that their residents start wearing masks, as Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City did on Monday.

Other states, though, like Texas and Florida, have imposed rules that prevent cities and school districts from enacting mandates of their own.

Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Facebook and other social platforms have in recent weeks attracted attention for vaccine misinformation as Covid cases surge from the more contagious Delta variant and U.S. vaccination rates slow. But smaller publications have also become powerful conduits for anti-vaccine messaging.

People who spread anti-vaccine content, including those who have been listed by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate as the “Disinformation Dozen,” have appeared in articles in local publications or as guests on local radio shows and podcasts, according to a review by The New York Times.

Some of their articles are regularly published by small-town newspapers or they are quoted as experts.

Their appearances in local media outlets can have an impact, since Americans are more likely to believe what they read and hear from local news outlets. A 2019 Knight-Gallup study found that 45 percent of Americans trust reporting by local news organizations “a great deal” or “quite a lot,” compared with 31 percent for national news organizations.

Many local media publications and stations have reported responsibly and factually on the pandemic. Gannett, the publisher with 100 daily newspapers and nearly 1,000 weekly publications across 43 states, has dedicated resources to fact-checking and teaching journalists that accuracy matters more than speed.

But as the local news industry has been hit by declining advertising revenues and cuts, some outlets have sometimes unknowingly run vaccine misinformation because they have fewer employees or less oversight than in the past.

Credit…Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Last week, in what was intended to be an internal document, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the highly contagious Delta variant had redrawn the battle lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

The news came just as the first U.S. school districts were preparing to reopen; children in Atlanta and some of its suburbs head back to the classroom this week.

Over the past year, there has been contentious debate over how much schools contribute to the spread of the virus and whether, and when, they should close. For some parents, teachers and officials, keeping schools open when a new, poorly understood virus was circulating seemed like an unacceptable risk.

For others, however, it was school closures that posed the bigger danger — of learning loss, widening educational disparities and worsening mental health, not to mention the hardships for parents.

As the new school year begins, however, the C.D.C., the American Academy of Pediatrics and many other experts agree that reopening schools should be a priority.

Just a few months ago, with vaccinations for those 12 and older proceeding at a steady clip and new cases declining, the stage seemed set for at least a partial return to normal.

Delta has thrown that into question. Much remains unknown about the variant, including whether it affects children more seriously than earlier forms of the virus.

And with vaccination rates highly uneven, and most decision-making left up to local officials, the variant adds new uncertainty to the coming school year — and makes it even more critical for schools to take safety precautions as they reopen, scientists said.

“Delta, because it’s so contagious, has raised the ante,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University. “It makes all these details all the more important.”

Tags Bidens, goal, reaches, Vaccination

World News

Transport disaster strikes Black Friday purchasing amid Europe, China floods

Post author By
Post date August 3, 2021

TOPSHOT – The aerial photo shows an area in the Blessem district of Erftstadt on July 16, 2021, which was completely destroyed by the flooding.

SEBASTIEN BOZON | AFP | Getty Images

The 2021 Christmas shopping season could be impacted by out of stock and shipping delays as recent floods in Europe and China exacerbate already tight global supply chains.

Western Europe and the Chinese province of Henan – an important transport hub and headquarters of several large companies – are grappling with the aftermath of devastating floods.

The disasters damaged railways in both regions, which are used to deliver goods and raw materials. Water entered industrial areas and damaged facilities, machinery and warehouses, supply chain industry companies told CNBC.

“Black Friday and the holiday season for which products (and raw materials) are staged will have the brunt of the impact,” Pawan Joshi, executive vice president of supply chain software company E2open, told CNBC in an email.

“Consumer electronics, dorm furniture, clothing and appliances will all continue to be in short supply as shopping starts early in school and enters the main Christmas shopping season,” he said.

Delays in the distribution of raw materials needed to manufacture goods will have a cascading effect and disrupt supply chains “for weeks and months,” Joshi said.

The flood has the potential to take another blow to the auto industry, which is already suffering from a semiconductor shortage.

Pawan Joshi

Executive Vice President, supply chain software company E2open

Several companies, including Germany’s largest steel manufacturer Thyssenkrupp, have declared force majeure. A force majeure event occurs when unforeseeable circumstances, such as natural disasters, prevent a party from fulfilling its contractual obligations and release it from sanctions.

Some of the industries hardest hit by the floods include automobiles, technology and electronics, according to those CNBC spoke to.

Car production started again after lack of chips

Auto production is likely to be affected by production delays as many of the world’s largest automakers and their suppliers are based in the flood-ravaged regions.

“The flood has the potential to take another blow to the auto industry, which is already suffering from a semiconductor shortage,” said Pawan.

Production facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium are expected to bear the brunt of the flood damage, supply chain risk management company Everstream told CNBC via email. Many suppliers that provide specialty parts for the automotive, technology and aerospace industries are based there, said Shehrina Kamal, vice president of Intelligence Solutions at Everstream.

“When the floods receded, most major highways and roads were expected to be cleared this past weekend,” she said.

“Given that some companies have issued profit warnings and even declared acts of God, the effects of the flood are likely to drag on through supply chains for several weeks,” concluded Kamal.

Zurich-based company Klingelnberg, which makes transmission components, warned that the damage to its Hückeswagen plant in Germany could affect its sales targets for 2021.

Disruption of copper is bad news for electronics

The floods could also disrupt supplies of copper, which is used in many products from electronics to electric vehicles.

Flood-hit Henan Province in China is a major center of copper production, said Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Copper prices rose sharply last week on delivery concerns, he said, as Henan has seen strong growth in copper smelting in recent years.

“Hopes for copper demand are linked to the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure in central China. China’s electricity sector is a particularly strong driver of copper demand,” Dhar wrote in a note last week.

In Europe, Aurubis GmbH – a provider of high-precision copper wires for the electronics and electrical appliance industries – declared force majeure in the case of deliveries after extensive floods in their plant, according to Everstream Analytics.

With #MeToo Case In opposition to Kris Wu, China Hits Out at Celebrities

Post author By
Post date August 2, 2021

China’s ruling Communist Party has seized on the high-profile detention of a Canadian Chinese pop singer in Beijing on suspicion of rape to deliver a stark warning against what it regards as a social ill: celebrity obsession.

In less than a month, the pop singer Kris Wu, 30, has gone from being one of China’s biggest stars, with several lucrative endorsements and legions of young female fans, to perhaps the most prominent figure in the country to be detained over #MeToo allegations. The police said over the weekend that Mr. Wu was being investigated after weeks of public accusations of sexual wrongdoing against him, though officials provided few details.

Born in China and raised partly in Canada, Mr. Wu rose to fame as a member of the Korean pop band EXO, before striking out on his own as a singer and actor. He built a huge following in China with his manicured good looks and edgy swagger. He amassed endorsement deals with many domestic and international brands, including Bulgari and Louis Vuitton.

Mr. Wu has not been formally charged, but his career in China has already taken a big hit. After mounting public pressure, more than a dozen brands cut ties with him. His Weibo social media account, where he had over 51 million followers, was taken down shortly after the news of his detention. His songs have also disappeared from Chinese music platforms.

Chinese women’s rights activists have hailed the detention as a rare victory for the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement. But the Communist Party’s official news outlets have largely cast the investigation into Mr. Wu as proof that the party, led by Xi Jinping, one of its most hard-line leaders in decades, defends the interests of ordinary people.

Guo Ting, a gender studies scholar at the University of Hong Kong, said, “Xi has tried to reinvent the party as the legitimate party for the people and the party of Chinese socialism for the people.” By going after Mr. Wu, she added, the party is “targeting the so-called rich and powerful, while evading the real kind of gray area of that wealth and power within the party elite.”

When the accusations against Mr. Wu first emerged weeks ago, the party’s propaganda outlets largely stayed quiet. But after his detention, they put out commentaries and news reports hailing it as a lesson to celebrities.

“Wu Yifan has money, he’s handsome and he has the status of being a ‘top star,’” read a commentary in The Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper, referring to the singer by his Chinese name. “Perhaps he thought that ‘sleeping with women’ was his advantage, maybe even his privilege.”

“But on this precise point he has made a mistake,” the newspaper noted.

Some of the rhetoric noted that foreign citizenship did not place celebrities beyond the reach of the law, pointing in part to continuing tensions between China and Canada as well as rising anti-Western sentiment among Chinese.

CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, said in a commentary, “No one has a talisman — the halo of celebrity cannot protect you, fans cannot protect you, a foreign passport cannot protect you.”

The state news media’s approach reflects the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on the entertainment industry and the culture of celebrity worship that Beijing has accused of leading the country’s youth astray. The authorities have stepped up censorship, cracked down on the widespread practice of tax evasion within the industry and ordered caps on salaries for the country’s biggest movie stars.

Concerns about the outsize influence of celebrities on the country’s youth reached a peak in May when fans supporting contestants in a boy band competition spent huge sums of money buying — then apparently dumping — yogurt drinks to vote for their favorite idols. The government promptly issued regulations aimed at cracking down on what they called “chaotic” online fan clubs and their “irrational” behaviors. The authorities on Monday said they had already taken down thousands of “problematic groups” as part of an ongoing effort to address “bad online fan culture.”

The authorities “are concerned about the impact on the youth,” said Bai Meijiadai, a lecturer at Liaoning University in northeastern China who studies fan culture. “They want to see the youth studying and working, not spending excessive amounts of money to chase stars.”

Mr. Wu, too, had an army of fans eager to open their wallets to bolster his image by buying albums and even making donations to charities in his name. He has also sought to use his influence to pressure his critics into silence, according to his accuser and a producer of a popular showbiz program.

The producer, Xiao Wei, said his show, “Xiu Cai Kan Entertainment,” had been compelled to remove a video it had posted online in which its hosts criticized Mr. Wu after the allegations of sexual misconduct had emerged. Mr. Xiao said the short-video platform Douyin had told the program that they had been contacted by Mr. Wu’s lawyers.

“This is an age of stars, fans and traffic,” Mr. Xiao said in an interview. “Money has become the only criterion to success — this is not right.”

China’s Tightening Grip

- Xi’s Warning: A century after the Communist Party’s founding, China’s leader says foreign powers would “crack their heads and spill blood” if they tried to stop its rise.
- Behind the Takeover of Hong Kong: One year ago, the city’s freedoms were curtailed with breathtaking speed. But the clampdown was years in the making, and many signals were missed.
- One Year Later in Hong Kong: Neighbors are urged to report on one another. Children are taught to look for traitors. The Communist Party is remaking the city.
- Mapping Out China’s Post-Covid Path: Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is seeking to balance confidence and caution as his country strides ahead while other places continue to grapple with the pandemic.
- A Challenge to U.S. Global Leadership: As President Biden predicts a struggle between democracies and their opponents, Beijing is eager to champion the other side.
- ‘Red Tourism’ Flourishes: New and improved attractions dedicated to the Communist Party’s history, or a sanitized version of it, are drawing crowds ahead of the party’s centennial.

The police investigation into Mr. Wu came weeks after a university student, Du Meizhu, now 18, accused the singer of enticing young women like herself with the promise of career opportunities, then pressuring them into having sex.

Ms. Du’s public accusations were met with an outpouring of support, but also criticism from the singer’s fans, prompting debates about victim shaming, consent and abuse of power in the workplace.

Some women’s rights activists saw Mr. Wu’s detention as a sign that feminist values had finally permeated the mainstream to the extent that the authorities could no longer afford to look the other way. They said they were hopeful that it would encourage more women to come forward to share their experiences and that it could lead to wider avenues for legal recourse for sexual assault survivors.

“This time, progress was made very suddenly, but it was very satisfying,” said Li Tingting, a gender equality activist in Beijing. “Everyone is looking forward to what will happen in the future.”

But it remained unclear if the police in Beijing were looking specifically into Ms. Du’s complaints. The authorities last month released initial findings about her allegations that said she had hyped her story to “enhance her online popularity.”

Ms. Du did not respond to requests for comment. Emails to Mr. Wu’s studio and his lawyer received no response. Mr. Wu denied the allegations on his personal Weibo account last month, saying he would send himself to jail if they were true.

Despite the surprise development, activists know that China’s #MeToo movement is tightly constrained by the government’s strict limits on dissent and activism. Women who have previously come forward with accusations of sexual harassment and assault against prominent men have often become targets of threats and defamation lawsuits. Feminist activist accounts and chat groups on Chinese social media sites are routinely shut down.

The swift manner in which the authorities have addressed the complaints against Mr. Wu contrasts with how they responded to #MeToo accusations against Zhu Jun, a prominent television personality at CCTV, the state broadcaster. Mr. Zhu was accused by a former intern, Zhou Xiaoxuan, in 2018, of forcibly kissing and groping her in 2014 while she was working on his program, accusations that he has denied. Ms. Zhou has sued Mr. Zhu for damages, but three years later, her complaint remains unresolved.

Mr. Wu, by comparison, is not part of the party establishment.

Professor Guo, of the University of Hong Kong, said, “It is still a state capitalist system and Wu Yifan is not a part of that official establishment,” adding, “His nationality and his status, I think, make it easy for the party to on one hand cut him off, while still maintaining its own legitimacy.”

Tags Case, Celebrities, China, Hits, Kris, MeToo

World News

Inventory futures rise to kick off August buying and selling after S&P notches sixth-straight profitable month

Post author By
Post date August 2, 2021

U.S. stock futures rose on Monday as investors geared up for the first trading day of August.

Dow Jones Industrial average futures rose 93 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.5%. The S&P 500 and the Dow sit less than 1% from new all-time highs.

Stocks continued to shake off concerns about the delta variant of Covid, and stocks that would benefit the most from a continued economic recovery led the gains in premarket trading Monday.

Shares of Carnival Corp. were up 3% in premarket trading. Major banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America were higher. Airline shares were mostly higher.

“We believe the reopening and recovery trend is on track and continue to see upside for equities,” wrote Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of global wealth management at UBS. “We expect the S&P 500 to climb to around 4,650 by June next year, versus 4,395 at present. But we see the greatest upside for cyclical parts of the market, including energy, financials, and Japanese stocks.”

The Senate was finalizing the text of a bipartisan infrastructure bill, also bolstering optimism on Monday. The bill includes $550 billion in new spending over five years. That’s on top of previously approved funds of around $450 billion.

Caterpillar shares added 1% in premarket trading.

The S&P 500 managed to notch its sixth month of gains in July, although volatility increased amid concerns about the economic recovery in the face of the spreading delta Covid variant. It’s the best monthly winning streak for the benchmark since 2018. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively, in July, while the broad S&P 500 gained close to 2.3% last month.

The U.S. is averaging more than 72,000 new Covid cases a day the last 7 days, according to the latest CDC shows, levels not seen since February this year. However, stocks still traded near all-time highs last week even as concerns about the delta variant grew.

“At the end of the day, the stock market is driven by two things: 1) Earnings and 2) Multiples and until COVID (or China) begins to negatively impact one or both of those metrics, stocks can stay resilient,’ Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report, said in a note.

Concerns about inflation also plagued the market, however a key inflation indicator showed lesser-than-feared price pressures on Friday. The core personal consumption expenditures price index rose 3.5% in June year-over-year. It marked a sharp acceleration in inflation, but came in slightly below a Dow Jones forecast of a 3.6% jump.

Also on Friday, U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product accelerated 6.5% on an annualized basis, considerably less than the 8.4% rate of growth expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.

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On the earnings front, Amazon sank nearly 7.6% Friday after the tech giant reported its first quarterly revenue miss in three years and gave weaker guidance.

But an overall strong earnings season continues to be a tailwind for the market. So far, 88% of S&P 500 companies that have reported have topped EPS estimates, according to FactSet. For the second quarter, the S&P 500 is on track to post earnings growth of 85.1%, which would be the best growth rate since 2009, according to FactSet.

The first trading day of August comes with more big earnings on the way. Lyft, Amgen, Uber, CVS Health, General Motors, Roku and Square all report quarterly results this week.

Square shares sank in premarket trading after Jack Dorsey’s payment company announced a $29 billion all-stock deal to buy Australian installment loan provider Afterpay. Square was off by 4%.

Tags August, futures, Kick, Month, notches, rise, sixthstraight, Stock, trading, winning

World News

Delta Variant, R.S.V. Infections Rising Amongst Kids

Post author By
Post date August 2, 2021

Health officials have raised concerns about a simultaneous rise in Delta infections and cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a highly contagious, seasonal flu-like illness that is more likely to affect children and older adults.

Cases of RSV have risen gradually since early June, with an even bigger increase over the past month, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV, which can cause symptoms such as a runny nose, cough, sneeze, and fever, usually begins to spread in the fall, which makes this summer unusual.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Dr. Heather Haq, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, reported a surge in hospital admissions from coronavirus and RSV.

“After many months with no or few pediatric Covid cases, we are seeing infants, children and adolescents with Covid flow back to the hospital more and more every day,” she wrote, adding that the ages of the patients ranged from 2 weeks to 17 Years old, including some with Covid pneumonia.

“We are at the front end of a huge surge in Covid,” wrote Dr. Haq, who was unavailable for comment on Sunday. “We now have winter-level patient numbers of acutely ill infants / toddlers with RSV, and I fear we will run out of beds and staff to handle the surge.”

Coronavirus Pandemic and Life Expectancy in the United States

RSV cases in Texas began to increase in early June and appeared to peak in mid-July, according to the state Department of Health.

There has been a similar surge in RSV cases in Florida, where infections “were higher than in previous years at this point in time,” according to a surveillance report.

In Louisiana, where cases have risen 244 percent in the past two weeks, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge was nearing capacity on Friday, CNN reported.

“You start with the pandemic for the last 18 months and then with RSV for the last few months. It just seems like one thing at a time that keeps our teams very busy, ”said Dr. Trey Dunbar, president of the hospital, the network.

In Oklahoma, where RSV cases have also risen sharply, hospital beds are becoming scarce.

“We’re just asking everyone to do their best to help a tense hospital situation,” an Oklahoma children’s hospital said in a Facebook post last week.

Dr. Cameron Mantor, the chief medical officer of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital at OU Health, told The Oklahoman that RSV cases in the state have remained “exponentially off the charts” in the past two months.

“RSV is a real problem right now,” he told the newspaper. “What will happen when we have an increase in pediatric Covid cases?”

The surge in RSV cases is due to the fact that new coronavirus infections in the United States rose 148 percent in the past two weeks and hospital admissions rose 73 percent, according to the New York Times.

The rise in coronavirus infections has been largely attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant and, in some states, to low vaccination rates.

“I am concerned if the children go back to school with the circulating delta we will see huge school breakouts that we have not seen in previous waves and disproportionately affect the children,” wrote Dr. Haq. “I’ve looked after hospital patients with Covid throughout the pandemic, but this time we’ll see more pediatric Covid shots with unvaccinated, susceptible children plus Delta variant.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has banned local governments and state agencies from prescribing vaccines and preventing local officials from requesting face masks.

Florida could face similar virus challenges early in the school year. Governor Ron DeSantis has spoken out against new masking recommendations from the CDC, and his office said in a statement last week that “parents know what is best for their children”.

Excess RSV infections have also been reported from places like New Zealand, which is currently winter. Experts there say children may be more susceptible than usual to seasonal viruses and infections because they were exposed to germs during lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic.

Tags among, Children, Delta, infections, Rising, RSV, Variant

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New York City Will Require Vaccination for Indoor Activities

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White House: 70% of U.S. Adults Have At Least One Covid Shot

The White House Covid-19 response team said the United States reached President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of eligible adults partially vaccinated. The milestone came a month behind schedule, amid a surge in Delta variant infections.

De Blasio Urges Vaccinated New Yorkers to Wear Masks Indoors

Mayor Bill de Blasio “strongly” encouraged vaccinated New Yorkers to wear masks indoors again, especially when others around them could be unvaccinated.

Biden Administration Pushes States to Prevent Eviction Crisis

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Bay Area Health Officials Reimpose Mask Mandate

San Francisco and six other Bay Area counties introduced a universal indoor mask mandate, adopting a suggestion from the C.D.C. as coronavirus cases surge.

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Coronavirus Pandemic and Life Expectancy in the United States