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Immediately’s Enterprise and Markets Information: Dwell Updates

There is growing concern among some large investors in Exxon that the oil giant could suffer in the future if the demand for oil falls rapidly.

Daily Business Briefing

May 27, 2021Updated just nowCredit…Yuri Gripas/Reuters

Exxon Mobil was dealt a stunning loss at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday from an unlikely opponent: a small new activist investor focused on climate change, Engine No. 1. The hedge fund won at least two seats on the oil giant’s 12-member board. It may yet claim a third nominee when the counting is over.

For corporate America, the DealBook newsletter reports, the upset victory for Engine No. 1 and its allies is a clear sign that company boards and leaders need to pay attention to environmental, social and governance issues (known as E.S.G.) — or suffer rebukes.

Exxon was the first activist campaign for Engine No. 1, which was founded last year by an energy and tech investor, Chris James. Its head of active engagement is Charlie Penner, a veteran hedge fund executive who helped lead campaigns against companies like Apple while at Jana Partners.

Engine No. 1 began agitating against the oil giant in December, calling on the company to diversify away from fossil fuels and reduce its carbon emissions. But it began work on the campaign last March, courting large investors like public pension funds that held far larger stakes in Exxon, and thus had more sway. That’s how it parlayed a stake of just 0.02 percent into getting its preferred nominees on the company’s board.

Exxon’s shares rose 1.2 percent Wednesday.

The fund’s campaign was a bet on a confluence of events, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, including longstanding investor dissatisfaction with Exxon’s corporate governance and a growing appreciation on Wall Street for E.S.G.

That position appeared to be supported after the Exxon meeting. In a note explaining why it backed some of Engine No. 1’s board candidates, BlackRock — which owns nearly 7 percent of Exxon — said the company’s directors “need to further assess the company’s strategy and board expertise against the possibility that demand for fossil fuels may decline rapidly in the coming decades.”

Exxon had largely played down Engine No. 1’s concerns, and pressured the firm to drop its challenge after a much bigger hedge fund, D.E. Shaw, called off a campaign. But Engine No. 1 persisted, and also benefited from timing: It began its campaign while oil prices were still depressed by the pandemic. Had oil not rebounded in recent months, Engine No. 1 executives believed, all four of its proposed directors might have been elected, the people with knowledge of the matter said.

Exxon’s loss was just one sign on Wednesday that Big Oil is facing a climate reckoning. A Dutch court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell must speed up its efforts to cut its carbon emissions. And Chevron shareholders backed a proposal to compel the company to help customers reduce their own emissions.

Read moreAn Exxon Mobile oil refinery in Channahon, Ill. Shareholders say the oil giant should invest more heavily in renewables like wind and solar energy.Credit…Tannen Maury/EPA, via Shutterstock

Big Oil was dealt a stunning defeat on Wednesday when shareholders of Exxon Mobil elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company toward cleaner energy and away from oil and gas.

The success of the campaign, led by a tiny hedge fund against the nation’s largest oil company, could force the energy industry to confront climate change and embolden Wall Street investment firms that are prioritizing the issue, The New York Times’s Clifford Krauss and Peter Eavis report.

Engine No. 1, the hedge fund leading the campaign, was seeking to defeat four of the company’s 12 director candidates. Its victory is a sharp rebuke to Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, and is the culmination of years of efforts by activists to force the oil giant to change its environmental policies and approach. Engine No. 1 and its allies had argued that Exxon’s stance on climate change and the oil and gas business was not just bad for the planet but that it would hurt the company’s profits in the future as governments required businesses to reduce and eventually eliminate emissions of greenhouse gases.

Gregory Goff, former chief executive of Andeavor, a refiner, and Kaisa Hietala, an environmental scientist and former executive at Neste, a Finnish energy company that produces biofuels, were the two nominees declared winners. The company said the final results would not be publicly available Wednesday, and an independent inspector will determine the timing of an announcement.

“This isn’t really about ideology, it’s about economics,” Chris James, founder of Engine No. 1, said. “And economics is what has driven the adoption of some of the alternative fuel sources versus fossil fuels. We want there to be an acceptance of change.”

“We welcome the new directors,” said Mr. Woods, the Exxon head. “While there is still more to do, we are proud of the progress we have made to reduce emissions and clear plans for further reductions.”

“This signals a new era for the role of corporations in climate change and a new era for corporate governance,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor.

The vote reveals the growing power of giant Wall Street firms that manage the 401(k)s and other investments of individuals and businesses to press chief executives to pursue environmental and social goals. Some of these firms are run by executives who say they see climate change as a major threat to the economy and the planet. The loss of at least two seats on its board will almost surely energize activists to pressure Exxon, other oil companies and businesses in various industries that they believe are not doing enough to address climate change.

Read moreThe audience at an AMC theater in Manhattan in March. Shares in AMC have risen sharply this week.Credit…Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press

U.S. stock futures fell slightly on Thursday before fresh data is released later in the day on state unemployment benefit claims and durable goods sales. The jobless claims are expected to fall for a fourth week to the lowest level since before the pandemic.

Investors will be watching jobs data closely in the United States, as a measure of how the economic recovery is progressing and how much monetary stimulus the economy still needs.

The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate to keep inflation stable and reach full unemployment, and recent data has shown a sharp rise in prices. Policymakers say the increase is likely to be temporary, but they have been “talking about talking” about when the central bank will be ready to slow down its bond-buying program. The monetary stimulus has helped keep stock prices high.

That said, the strength of the labor market is being vigorously debated. In April, job gains slowed sharply and some employers have complained about struggling to fill vacancies even as millions of people remain unemployed.

Randal K. Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision, said on Wednesday that he thought the central bank should start discussing how and when to slow its big bond purchases.

  • The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.1 percent, creeping up for a sixth day and touching another record high.

  • Oil prices fell. Futures of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 0.8 percent to $65.70 a barrel.

  • Shares in Eli Lilly fell 1 percent in premarket trading after the drugmaker said in a regulatory filling that it had received a subpoena from the Department of Justice for documents concerning its manufacturing plant in Branchburg, N.J. Reuters has reported about accusations of irregularities in quality control at the plant, where Lilly makes a Covid-19 treatment.

  • Shares in AMC, the big movie theater chain, dropped 6 percent and was one of the most traded stocks in premarket trading, while shares in video game retailer GameStop fell 4 percent. AMC shares have jumped 62 percent this week and GameStop rose 37 percent as the popular “meme stocks” picked up steam again.

  • Shares in Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.4 percent on Thursday after a Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, must speed up its reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to tackle climate change. The court said Shell was “obliged” to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of its activities by 45 percent at the end of 2030 compared with 2019.

  • Exxon Mobil shares slipped in premarket trading after shareholders of the largest oil company in the United States elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to move the company away from oil and gas to cleaner energy.

Read moreA job fair organized by High Road Restaurants in New York. New claims for state jobless benefits fell to their lowest weekly level since before the pandemic.Credit…Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock

  • Initial claims for state jobless benefits fell last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

  • The weekly figure was 420,000, a decline of 34,000 from the previous week and the lowest weekly total since before the pandemic. New claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally funded program for jobless freelancers, gig workers and others who do not ordinarily qualify for state benefits, totaled 93,500, a slight decline from the prior week. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.

  • New state claims remain high by historical levels but are less than half the level recorded as recently as early January. The benefit filings, something of a proxy for layoffs, have receded as business return to fuller operations, particularly in hard-hit industries like leisure and hospitality.

  • More than 20 Republican-led states have said they will abandon federally funded emergency benefit programs in June or early July, saying the income is deterring recipients from seeking work as some employers complain of trouble filling jobs. Those programs include not only Pandemic Unemployment Assistance but also extended benefits for the long-term unemployed.

  • In a separate report, the government on Thursday issued its second reading for U.S. growth in the first three months of the year. It said that the economy expanded by 6.4 percent in the first quarter, the same rate as reported last month.

California’ s CA Notify app is based on the Apple-Google software. About 65,000 people have used it to notify others of possible exposures to the virus.Credit…Paresh Dave/Reuters

When Apple and Google collaborated last year on a smartphone-based system to track the spread of the coronavirus, the news was seen as a game changer. The software uses Bluetooth signals to detect app users who come into close contact. If a user later tests positive, the person can anonymously notify other app users whom the person may have crossed paths with in restaurants, on trains or elsewhere.

Soon countries around the world and some two dozen American states introduced virus apps based on the Apple-Google software. To date, the apps have been downloaded more than 90 million times, according to an analysis by Sensor Tower, an app research firm. Public health officials say the apps have provided modest but important benefits.

But Natasha Singer of The New York Times reports that some researchers say the two companies’ product and policy choices have limited the system’s usefulness, raising questions about the power of Big Tech to set global standards for public health tools.

Computer scientists have reported accuracy problems with the Bluetooth technology. Some of the app users have complained of failed notifications, and there has been little rigorous research on whether the apps’ potential to accurately alert people of virus exposures outweighs potential drawbacks — like falsely warning unexposed people or failing to detect users exposed to the virus.

“It is still an open question whether or not these apps are assisting in real contact tracing, are simply a distraction, or whether they might even cause problems,” Stephen Farrell and Doug Leith, computer science researchers at Trinity College in Dublin, wrote in a report in April on Ireland’s virus alert app.

Read moreMs. Guzman and Vice President Kamala Harris with President Biden when he signed an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program in March.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Isabella Casillas Guzman, President Biden’s choice to run the Small Business Administration, inherited a portfolio of nearly $1 trillion in emergency aid and an agency plagued by controversy when she took over in March. She has been sprinting from crisis to crisis ever since.

Some new programs have been mired in delays and glitches, while the S.B.A.’s best-known pandemic relief effort, the Paycheck Protection Program, nearly ran out of money for its loans this month, confusing lenders and stranding millions of borrowers. Angry business owners have deluged the agency with criticism and complaints.

Now, it’s Ms. Guzman’s job to turn the ship around. “It’s the largest S.B.A. portfolio we’ve ever had, and clearly there’s going to need to be some changes in how we do business,” she said in an interview with The New York Times’s Stacy Cowley.

“The S.B.A. needs to be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses we serve,”
she added. “What I really, truly mean by that is that a more customer-first approach.”

The S.B.A. is by far the smallest cabinet-level agency, with an annual operating budget that is typically less than half of what the Defense Department spends in a day. It was long viewed within the government as a sleepy backwater.

But when the pandemic sent unemployment claims soaring, Congress responded with a plan to give businesses money to keep their workers employed. Just seven days after President Donald J. Trump signed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in late March 2020, the Small Business Administration began accepting applications for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Despite lots of speed bumps — including confusing, often-revised loan terms and several technical meltdowns — the program enjoyed some success. Millions of business owners credit it with helping them survive the pandemic and keep more workers employed.

Read moreWarehouses are sprouting up in fields in the Lehigh Valley, part of a boom driven by the area’s proximity to New York.Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

In recent decades, the area in and around Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley has evolved from its agricultural and manufacturing roots to also become a health care and higher education hub.

Now there’s a new shift, The New York Times’s Michael Corkery reports.

Huge warehouses are sprouting up like mushrooms along local highways, on country roads and in farm fields. The boom is being driven, in large part, by the astonishing growth of Amazon and other e-commerce retailers and the area’s proximity to New York, the nation’s largest concentration of online shoppers, roughly 80 miles away.

But the warehouses are being built at such a dizzying pace that many residents worry the area’s landscape, quality of life and long-term economic well-being are at risk.

E-commerce is fueling job growth, but the work is physically taxing, does not pay as well as manufacturing and could eventually be phased out by automation. Yet the warehouses are leaving a permanent mark. There are proposals to widen local roads to accommodate the thousands of additional trucks ferrying goods from the hulking structures.

Developers are confident in the industry’s growth, however, particularly after the pandemic. Big warehouse companies like Prologis and Duke Realty are investing billions in local properties. Many of the warehouses are being built before tenants have signed up, making some wonder whether there is a bubble and if some of these giant buildings will ever be filled.

“People are calling it warehouse fatigue,” said Dr. Christopher R. Amato, a member of the regional planning commission. “It feels like we are just being inundated.”

But some, like David Jaindl, a third-generation farmer, said the concerns in the area about warehouses were unwarranted.

“They are certainly good for our area,” said Mr. Jaindl, who is developing land for several new warehouses. “They add a nice tax base and good employment.”

Manufacturing jobs in the Lehigh Valley pay, on average, $71,400 a year, compared with $46,700 working in a warehouse or driving a truck. The region is still home to large manufacturing plants that produce Crayola crayons and marshmallow Peeps candies.

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Juan Williams, a Liberal Outlier at Fox Information, Is Leaving ‘The 5’

Juan Williams, a Liberal Outlier at Fox News, Is Leaving ‘The Five’

Fox News host Juan Williams said Wednesday that he was leaving his longtime spot on “The Five,” the weekday afternoon chat show on which he had served as the liberal runaway of an otherwise reliably conservative quintet of hosts.

Mr Williams abruptly announced his exit at the end of the show on Wednesday, partially citing his battle with the coronavirus that he signed late last year.

“Covid taught me a lot of lessons,” Williams told viewers in brief remarks, adding that he would stay with Fox News as the chief political analyst in Washington, where he lives. “It’s been seven years since I’ve hosted this show every day. The show’s popularity has grown every year. So thank you very much. Many thanks to you the viewers. “

Fox News said it would fill Mr. Williams’ role with another liberal-minded commentator in order to maintain the show’s ideological makeup. Until then, a rotating group of replacement hosts will appear on “The Five”. Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent, and former representative Harold Ford Jr. have made guest appearances on the show’s “liberal” slot.

Among the hosts, Mr. Williams was often the only defender of Democratic politicians, and in recent years he has often been the only commentator who dared heavily criticize former President Donald J. Trump. His remarks met with violent recoil from his colleagues, including pro-Trump personalities Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters.

His tournament with peers was part of the show’s appeal, which is formatted as a sharp discussion of news and politics. But the Trump era gave the exchanges a tougher advantage.

For example, earlier this month, Mr Williams said on the air that Mr Trump “committed a lie that led to violence,” adding that the former president “damaged our country” with his false statements about a stolen election and the subsequent January 6 uprising in the Capitol.

Herr Gutfeld interrupted immediately. “That’s your opinion, Juan, that’s your opinion!” he cried. When Mr. Williams brought up Rep Liz Cheney’s overthrow from the Republican leadership of the House, Mr. Watters interjected, “Let’s just stop this, Juan.”

In a statement distributed by Fox News on Wednesday, Megan Albano, a network vice president responsible for The Five, described the exit as the election of Mr. Williams.

When Fox News made plans to bring The Five back to its New York studio after months of remote production because of the pandemic, “Juan decided to stay in Washington, DC permanently,” Ms. Albano wrote. “We complied with his request, understood and appreciated his desire to be closer to his family, and realized that a remote co-hosting role in a roundtable in-studio program was not a long-term option.”

After Mr Williams announced his exit on Wednesday, the program aired a tribute package of clips from his appearances over the years. Afterward, his co-host, Dana Perino, congratulated Mr. Williams (“It’s a real honor and a pleasure to work with you, Juan”) and encouraged him to appear on her own Fox News, America’s Newsroom.

Mr. Watters, who hosts the weekend show “Watters’ World”, spoke up.

“Maybe not ‘Watters’ World’,” he said to Mr. Williams, grinning. “But I will miss you.”

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World News

Covid-19 Information: Stay Updates on Circumstances and Vaccines

Digging graves for coronavirus victims at a cemetery in São Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images

GENEVA — Deaths from Covid-19 and Covid-related causes are likely to be two to three times the number that countries have recorded in their official data, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Some six to eight million people may have now died from Covid-19 or its effects since the start of the pandemic, compared with 3.4 million deaths recorded in countries’ official reporting, Dr. Samira Asma, assistant director of the W.H.O.’s data division, told reporters.

The W.H.O. also estimates that at least three million people may have died from Covid-19 in 2020, compared with 1.8 million recorded in official data, the W.H.O. reported in annual statistics released on Friday.

The W.H.O. based its assessment on a statistical model that estimates the excess deaths attributable to Covid-19. The technique involves taking the total number of officially recorded deaths and then subtracting the number of deaths that would have been expected on the basis of previous mortality trends if the pandemic had not occurred.

On that basis, the W.H.O. said it estimated that 1.1 million to 1.3 million people in 53 European countries died from Covid-19 in 2020, roughly double the number recorded in official data. The organization also calculates that, over the same period, 1.3 million to 1.5 million people died in 35 countries in the Americas, compared with the 900,000 deaths officially recorded.

The huge discrepancy between the W.H.O.’s estimates and official data underscores the limited capacity of many countries to test their populations for the coronavirus and other weaknesses in official health data. For example, some Covid victims had died before being tested and their deaths did not appear in official reporting, William Msemburi, a W.H.O. data analyst said.

The W.H.O. will present its statistics to the annual meeting of its policymaking assembly in Geneva next week. The numbers will help make the case for countries to invest urgently in bolstering data systems and their capacity to monitor and report health developments.

“We can only be better prepared with better data,” Dr. Asma said.

United States › United StatesOn May 20 14-day change
New cases 29,701 –36%
New deaths 654 –14%
World › WorldOn May 20 14-day change
New cases 636,014 –23%
New deaths 12,828 –6%

U.S. vaccinations ›

Where states are reporting vaccines given

Moving a Covid-19 patient at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, in April. Just 1.42 percent of the population of Africa has been fully vaccinated.Credit…Brian Inganga/Associated Press

When the pandemic began, global health officials feared that the vulnerabilities of Africa would lead to devastation. More than a year later, the rates of illness and death from Covid in Africa appear to be lower than in the rest of the world, upending scientists’ expectations.

But if the virus begins to spread more rapidly on the continent, as it has in other regions, new findings suggest that the death toll could worsen.

People in Africa who become critically ill from Covid-19 are more likely to die than patients in other parts of the world, according to a report published on Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The report, based on data from 64 hospitals in 10 countries, is the first broad look at what happens to critically ill Covid patients in Africa, the authors say. The increased risk of death applies only to those who become severely ill.

Among 3,077 critically ill patients admitted to the African hospitals, 48.2 percent died within 30 days, compared with a global average of 31.5 percent, the Lancet study found.

The study was observational, meaning that the researchers followed the patients’ progress, but did not experiment with treatments.

For Africa as a whole, the death rate among severely ill Covid patients may be even higher than it was in the study, the researchers said, because much of their information came from relatively well-equipped hospitals, and 36 percent of those facilities were in South Africa and Egypt, which have better resources than many other African countries. In addition, the patients in the study, with an average age of 56, were younger than many other critically ill Covid patients, indicating that death rates outside the study could be higher.

Reliable data on a country’s deaths and their causes have been hard to come by. As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world in 2020, it has became increasingly evident that in a majority of countries on the African continent, most deaths are never formally registered.

The other eight countries in the study were Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Nigeria. Leaders of 16 other African nations had also agreed to participate, but ultimately did not.

Reasons for the higher death rates include a lack of resources such as surge capacity in intensive care units, equipment to measure patients’ oxygen levels, dialysis machines and so-called ECMO devices to pump oxygen into the bloodstream of patients whose lungs become so impaired that even a ventilator is not enough to keep them alive.

But there was also an apparent failure to use resources that were available, the authors of the study suggested. Proning — turning patients onto their stomachs to help them breathe — was underused, performed for only about a sixth of the patients who needed it.

The slow introduction of vaccines across the continent has underscored global problems of vaccine inequality. Just over 24 million vaccines have been administered in Africa, according to the Africa C.D.C., with just 1.42 percent of the population fully vaccinated. In the United States, about 126.6 million people are fully vaccinated and more than 60 percent of adults have received at least one shot.

Facing a resurgent coronavirus and plagued by delays with vaccine supply, South Africa began the second phase of its public vaccination campaign on Monday, opening appointments for people aged 60 or older. The country has a 14.5 percent positivity rate, according to the Africa C.D.C.

Signing up for vaccinations in Kochi, Japan, last month.Credit…Kyodo News, via Associated Press

Japan on Friday approved the Moderna and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines for use in adults, giving the country much-needed new options as it tries to speed up an inoculation campaign that has been one of the slowest in the developed world.

Previously, only the Pfizer vaccine had been authorized for use in Japan, where just 4.1 percent of the population has received a first shot. Vaccinations have been held up by strict rules that allow only doctors and nurses to administer shots, and by a requirement that vaccines be tested on people in Japan before they are approved for use.

Japan is in the midst of a fourth wave of coronavirus infections, just two months before the Summer Olympics in Tokyo are set to begin. Tokyo and eight other prefectures are under a state of emergency that will last at least until the end of this month, and Okinawa is expected to be added to that list. Japan has been reporting about 5,500 cases a day, compared to 1,000 in early March.

A Health Ministry panel recommended on Thursday night that the government approve the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. The health minister, Norihisa Tamura, said that the Moderna shots would be used at mass inoculation sites scheduled to open on Monday in Tokyo and Osaka, which will be staffed mainly by military doctors and nurses.

The government has not said when the AstraZeneca vaccine would be deployed. NHK, the public broadcaster, reported that despite the green light from the government, the use of AstraZeneca might be delayed over concerns that it could be linked to very rare cases of blood clotting.

Scientists have known for decades that coronaviruses can cause disease in dogs, but there has not been any evidence that dogs transmit it to humans.Credit…Alen Thien/Alamy

Scientists have discovered a new canine coronavirus in a child who was hospitalized with pneumonia in Malaysia in 2018. If the virus is confirmed to be a human pathogen, it would be the eighth coronavirus, and the first canine coronavirus, known to cause disease in humans.

It is not yet clear whether this specific virus poses a serious threat to humans, the researchers stress. The study does not prove that the pneumonia was caused by the virus, which may not be capable of spreading between people. But the finding, which was published on Thursday in Clinical Infectious Diseases, highlights the need to more proactively search for viruses that could jump from animals into humans, the scientists said.

“I think the key message here is that these things are probably happening all over the world, where people come in contact with animals, especially intense contact, and we’re not picking them up,” said Gregory Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Duke University who is one of the study’s authors. “We should be looking for these things. If we can catch them early and find out that these viruses are successful in the human host, then we can mitigate them before they become a pandemic virus.”

Seven coronaviruses are currently known to infect humans. In addition to SARS-CoV-2, which is the causes of Covid-19, there are coronaviruses that cause SARS, MERS and the common cold. Many of these viruses are believed to have originated in bats, but can jump from bats to humans, either directly or after a stopover in another animal host.

Scientists have known for decades that coronaviruses can cause disease in dogs, and recent studies have shown that the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can infect both cats and dogs. But there has not been any evidence that dogs transmit it, or any other coronavirus, to humans.

global roundup

Treating a patient in Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, on May 8. The country hit its highest daily death rate on Thursday.Credit…Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press

President Alberto Fernández of Argentina ordered a nine-day lockdown in the worst-affected parts of the country to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as the nation struggled to contain a second wave of the outbreak.

In a speech broadcast nationally on all radio and TV stations, Mr. Fernández ordered a lockdown that starts on Saturday and ends on May 30 in those regions. That will be followed by another nine days of restrictions, the severity of which will be determined by how much the country is able to control the spread of the virus.

“We are living the worst moment since the start of the pandemic,” Mr. Fernández said. “If we follow the guidelines, we will reduce the impact of this second wave. It is imperative that every local jurisdiction strictly apply these guidelines. There is no space for speculation and there is no time for delay.”

Argentina, like many of its neighbors in Latin America, saw an alarming spike in cases in April that has shown little respite as the region struggles to vaccinate people quickly enough to slow the spread. In the last seven days, the country’s daily average of new cases soared to become the fourth-highest in the world, and deaths rose to be the fifth-highest.

On Thursday, Argentina recorded 39,652 new cases and 494 new deaths. So far, 18 percent of the population has received at least one dose of a vaccine and 4.7 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. Neighboring Chile has fully vaccinated 40 percent of its population.

In other developments around the globe:

  • Thailand has detected its first 15 domestically transmitted cases of the highly infectious coronavirus variant first found in India, Reuters reported. The cases were discovered among construction workers in Bangkok, the Thai coronavirus task force said on Friday.

  • Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain announced on Friday that visitors from Britain, Japan, China and a handful of countries would be allowed back into the country from Monday, while Americans and other people who have been vaccinated will be able to visit Spain from June 7. The return of British tourists, who form the largest contingent of holiday makers in many Spanish resorts, was seen as essential to help guarantee the recovery of the Spanish tourism sector. “Spain will be very happy to welcome British tourists,” Mr. Sánchez said, during a tourism conference in Madrid. “They are welcome into our country without restrictions.”

  • While the government of Britain still advises against international cruises, a ship embarked on a domestic journey on Thursday night, the first time any such vessel had set sail from the country for more than a year. Passengers for the four-night cruise around the British Isles had to test negative for the virus before boarding and social distancing and masks are still required in public areas

  • Norway plans to ease some virus restrictions beginning May 27, Reuters reported. Larger groups of people will be allowed to meet and alcohol will be allowed to be served until midnight, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Friday. In some places, though, local restrictions will remain tougher than the national rules to prevent regional flare-ups of the virus.

Raphael Minder and Anna Schaverien contributed reporting.

  1. ParisAndrea Mantovani for The New York Times
  2. AthensLouisa Gouliamaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  3. BerlinLena Mucha for The New York Times
  4. LondonLeon Neal/Getty Images
  5. MadridEmilio Parra Doiztua for The New York Times
  6. Krakow, PolandOmar Marques/Getty Images
  7. Florence, ItalySusan Wright for The New York Times

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After 14 months of lockdowns — some light, some draconian — many in Europe are again allowed to grab a coffee at a cafe or a pint in a pub, and to stay at a hotel or at a bed-and-breakfast.

Lockdown rules intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have been eased in England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, among other places — with many of the restrictions falling away this week.

The virus has killed more than 3.4 million people and sickened more than 165 million. But in Europe, with vaccinations rising, normalcy is once again at hand. After a rough start, 33 percent of people in the European Union have gotten at least one vaccine shot, according to Our World in Data, a University of Oxford tracking site. In Britain, 37 million people have received one dose of the vaccine and 21 million are fully vaccinated.

On Wednesday in Paris, where cafe terraces were once again open, Saïd Belkhiati, a 27-year-old account manager was dressed in a suit and having a drink with a friend.

“It really changes everything,” he said. “For a year, I felt like I was imprisoned, in an open-air jail. Now we are free. I’m enjoying this first breath of freedom. I took a day off to enjoy the reopening. Having a drink here, it’s so nice. Terraces are what make the charm of Paris!”

Noëlle Roche, a 75-year-old retiree, ventured out in the rain in Paris to catch up on a beloved pastime, going to the movies.

“I just watched the movie ‘DNA,’” she said. “I’m happy to be able to go to the movies again,”

“I missed it so much,” she added. “I usually go to the movies several times a week.”

In England, where indoor dining was allowed to restart and movie theaters and museums reopened, there was a note of caution because a variant of the virus that is circulating in India has also been found in Britain.

“We must be humble in the face of this virus,” the health secretary, Matt Hancock, told Parliament on Monday, adding that the variant, with a higher transmission rate, “poses a real risk.” While the overall case numbers remain low, they have been multiplying rapidly.

In Berlin, terraces, beer gardens and outdoor seating at restaurants opened on Friday. Despite some clouds and rain, owners and staff had been preparing all week, taking chairs and tables out of storage, and setting up the kind of tent-like structures that will allow customers nearly all the comforts of indoor dining while staying in line with the current coronavirus guidelines.

Those enjoying the outdoor services will have to present either a vaccination documentation, proof of an old Covid infection or a negative antigen test, which can be taken in one of hundreds of free test stations that the government has funded.

Other attractions, like museums, memorials and some outdoor theaters and cinemas, were opening on Friday under a reservation-only system, under the same testing-vaccine rules as the restaurants.

“It’s just grand — we are so happy that we can open up again and that we can have tourists sitting on our terrace,” said Jan Bubinger, 36, one of the managers at the Ständige Vertretung, a pub and restaurant on the Spree River right in the middle of Berlin’s tourist district.

Mr. Bubinger, who has had to shutter his restaurant for seven months, added that he would make antigen tests available to those without documents so that they don’t have to go to a test center before being served.

Volker Pradel, 61, said, “We are very happy of course,” after welcoming his first guest to the Schleusenkrug, a beer garden close to the Berlin Zoo on the west side of the city. Mr. Pradel, the manager of the eatery, noted, however, that it was difficult finding servers because most people in that profession now work at test or vaccination centers.

A doctor attending to a Covid-19 patient at a hospital in Kotputli area of Rajasthan in India, last week.Credit…Rebecca Conway/Getty Images

India’s federal health ministry raised an alarm on Thursday, asking state governments to immediately report all cases of a potentially deadly fungal infection that appears to be spreading quickly among Covid-19 patients.

The rare condition, mucormycosis, commonly known as black fungus, was present in India before the pandemic, but it is affecting those with Covid or those who have recently recovered.

Many health experts blame the spread on a central coronavirus treatment, steroids. These drugs can limit inflammation of the lungs, but they also dull the response of the immune system, which can allow infections like the black fungus to take hold.

More broadly, Covid patients with weakened immune systems and underlying conditions, particularly diabetes, are especially vulnerable to black fungus, which has a high mortality rate.

Making matters worse, a shortage of antifungal drugs, like amphotericin B, has made it hard to fight the infection once it attacks. Relatives of the sick have been desperately sending messages over social media seeking the drug.

Courts are pressuring local governments to make antifungal drugs available and pushing for stepped up investigations to stop black-market drugs from being distributed.

Before the pandemic, a vial of amphotericin B would cost around $80, but some relatives of sick people say they have paid as much as $500 on the black market.

Video of a woman saying she would jump off the roof of a hospital if it failed to arrange injections of the medication for her husband spread widely on social media early this week.

The woman, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, said, “If I don’t get the injection today, then I will jump off the roof of the hospital and commit suicide. I have no other option left.” She added that the hospital had none of the medication and said of her husband, “Where should I take him in this condition?”

In the western state of Maharashtra, which includes the commercial hub of Mumbai, the authorities said at least 90 people had died of fungal infections and more than 1,500 patients were being treated in hospitals.

Rajesh Topai, the health minister of Maharashtra, told reporters on Wednesday that the state was desperate for more supplies of the medicine and begged the federal government, “do anything, but give more vials to Maharashtra.”

In Delhi, the capital, badly hit by the pandemic, hospitals have recorded 185 fungal infection cases and the local government is setting up three dedicated centers inside government-run hospitals to treat the condition.

M.V. Padma Srivastava, a professor and head of neurology department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said the number of black fungus cases was increasing every day and the condition was appearing across the country like never before.

She said hospitals received few cases during the first wave of the pandemic but certainly not the numbers they are registering now, amid a virulent second wave.

Of the medication for the disease she said: “It is not one of the common over-the-counter medications. This is a toxic medication by itself. It can’t be given by all and sundry. It is not something which you can take at home. It needs strict monitoring of body parameters because it is a toxic drug.”

The federal government directive requiring state governments to immediately disclose cases follows those of many Indian states that had already required hospitals to report cases of mucormycosis.

A mobile vaccination clinic in Los Angeles last week.Credit…Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Los Angeles is taking its vaccination efforts on the road.

The city is gradually winding down its mass vaccination sites and will be fully mobile starting Aug. 1, marking what one deputy mayor called “the end of an era.”

“It’s a natural evolution,” said Jeffrey Gorell, the deputy mayor for public safety, who is overseeing vaccine efforts in the city. “Rather than having fixed sites where we ask community members to come to us, the natural progression is for us to move into more of a mobile approach where we can go to the populations where we need to be for areas with the lowest vaccination rates.”

With mobile sites, “we believe we can get to the most challenged areas,” he said.

Mobile vaccine units have been a part of the city’s vaccine program. But as the city’s 10 mass vaccination sites close over the coming weeks, the city will up its mobile units from 10 to 14. The city stopped offering vaccines at Dodgers Stadium on Thursday but other mass sites remain open.

Specially outfitted vans and trailers will give the city “tactical vaccination capabilities” so they can get into communities that may be underserved, hesitant or simply don’t have the time because of work requirements, Mr. Gorell said, adding that mobile teams will be able to extend evening and weekend hours.

“Rather than hunker down at a fixed site waiting for them to come to us, we can be in their neighborhood and available,” Mr. Gorell said. “We’re going to be a truly mobile presence in the city.”

The mobile units will offer all three federally authorized vaccines — the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and the single-shot Johnson & Johnson — and will be able to travel to multiple neighborhoods a day or stay for an entire week. Mr. Gorell said they also plan to target community events, grocery stores, street fairs and other highly trafficked areas. Appointments will not be necessary.

As of Thursday, 54 percent of California residents have received at least one shot and 40 percent are fully vaccinated according to a New York Times database. In Los Angeles County, 40 percent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated.

“With a growing number of residents getting inoculated, we are putting our resources where they will do the most good — delivering doses directly to undervaccinated communities, engaging and educating vulnerable populations, and eliminating barriers to this life-saving vaccine,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.

Los Angeles joins a growing fleet of mobile Covid-19 vaccine clinics that are rolling up to neighborhoods in Delaware, Minnesota and Washington State to reach people who have been unable to travel to vaccination centers.

The city is working with community based organizations to help residents understand the science of the vaccine and access the mobile sites.

For Denise Villamil, the director of youth development services at Alma Family Services in East Los Angeles, outreach has been both personal and professional. Ms. Villamil lost her aunt to Covid-19 in December, just a month before vaccines started becoming available in the United States.

“Every person I can get through the line, every person I can get through the registration is one more person who is luckier than those who didn’t in the pandemic,” Ms. Villamil said. “Fear spreads, so does hope. So we’ve seen that in the communities and that’s been the beautiful part of this process. We’ve been able to give hope and see the ripple effect.”

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland has enlisted the help of the state’s lottery to get more people vaccinated.Credit…Patrick Siebert

It’s not every day that an American governor appears alongside a man dressed as a lottery ball.

But that’s exactly what happened on Thursday as Gov. Larry Hogan announced that Maryland would partner with the state’s lottery to provide $2 million in prize money for residents who get vaccinated.

“Our mission is to ensure that no arm is left behind and we’re committed to leaving no stone unturned and using every resource at our disposal to achieve that goal,” Mr. Hogan said.

Beginning May 25, the Maryland lottery will randomly select and award $40,000 to a vaccinated Marylander every day through July 4, when a final drawing will be held for a grand prize of $400,000. Any Maryland resident who has been vaccinated in the state will be automatically enrolled in drawings.

“The sooner you get your shot, the more lottery drawings you will be eligible for,” he said, adding, “There’s no better time than now and there should be no more excuses.”

The state has administered about 5.7 million vaccines, and 44 percent of the state is fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database. But like other states across the country, vaccination rates have tapered off. States have turned to an array of incentives — including beer, money, transit cards and joints — to get shots into the arms of more Americans.

“Promotions like this are just one more way that we’re reinforcing the importance of getting every single Marylander we can vaccinated against Covid-19,” Mr. Hogan said. All funding will be provided from Maryland’s lottery marketing fund.

“Get your shot for a shot to win,” he said, adding, “that’s a good line.”

Maryland isn’t alone in trying to lure residents with the chance of big winnings. This month, Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, offered a $1 million lottery prize for five people who get vaccinated. That effort would be paid for by federal coronavirus relief funds, Mr. DeWine said during a statewide televised address.

And in New York, the state will hand out free scratch-off tickets for the “Mega Multiplier” lottery to those 18 and older who get their shot at 10 state mass vaccination sites next week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday. The pilot program lasts from next Monday to Friday. The tickets could yield prizes from $20 to the $5 million jackpot, he said.

A summer camp in Michigan last year.Credit…Emily Elconin/Reuters

As vaccinated Americans return to many parts of their prepandemic lives this summer, one group will be left out: children under 12, who cannot yet be vaccinated. So what should families with young children do when everyone else starts socializing again?

We asked experts as part of an informal New York Times survey. The group of 828 who responded included epidemiologists, who study public health, and pediatric infectious disease physicians, who research and treat children sick with diseases like Covid-19.

They noted that this phase was temporary. Pfizer has said vaccines for children ages 2 and up could come as soon as September. Of the survey respondents with young children, 92 percent said they would vaccinate their own children as soon as a shot was approved.

In the meantime, families with young children may need to retain more precautions, like masking and distancing, than their childless friends do. But they said some minimally risky activities could help counteract the mental health effects of pandemic living.

“Kids need to be able to be kids,” said Mac McCullough, an associate professor at Arizona State. “Outdoor activity isn’t perfectly safe, but its benefits are likely to outweigh its risks across an entire population.”

Dining in Florence, Italy, this week. Pressure has built on the government to be more flexible to save the tourism season and to allow Italians to get vaccinated in sun-and-surf regions far from home.Credit…Susan Wright for The New York Times

ROME — As Dr. Mario Sorlini sits patients down in a vaccination center near the badly affected Italian town of Bergamo, he explains a potential complication of the coronavirus vaccine.

The second dose, he tells patients with terror-stricken faces, will fall on a date during the summer holidays.

“‘But I’ll be in Sardinia then,’” he said that some had responded with distress. Others moan about hotel rooms they’ve already booked. Some, he said, get up and leave.

For months, Italians have hungered for the vaccines that would give them safety, freedom from lockdown and a taste of normal life. After initial pitfalls and hurdles, the vaccination campaign is finally speeding up, but it is heading smack into the summer holidays that are sacred for many Italians and prompting fears among officials that a significant number would rather get away than get vaccinated.

“I am certain that many, after such a hard year, will risk delaying the vaccine” until after the summer holidays, said Renata Tosi, the mayor of Riccione, a beach town that is so identified with summer flings that it lent its name to a recent vacation anthem. That could create a significant danger next autumn, Ms. Tosi wrote in an open letter to the region’s president.

“The Second Shot Blocks Vacation,” read a headline in Messaggero Veneto, a newspaper in northeastern Italy, echoing concerns in papers, websites and social media accounts across the country.

An estimated 20 million Italians — mostly 40- and 50-somethings — face the prospect of getting their second shots in the middle of July or worse, in the riptide that is the Italian August, which pulls people out of cities and into swelling seaside towns.

This year, people have sought vacations with such a vengeance that tourism operators have started using the term “revenge travel” to describe the way Italians are trying to get even with the cruel months of lockdown. Surfing the web for holiday homes has become the new doom scrolling.

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Politics

Biden says count on excellent news in subsequent 24 hours

Biden says expect good news in next 24 hours

UPDATE, 5:15 p.m. ET: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm just announced that the Colonial Pipeline is resuming gas pipeline operations.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Wednesday he was expecting good news “in the next 24 hours” of the ongoing cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline that has been hampering fuel deliveries to the east coast in recent days.

“We have been in very close contact with Colonial Pipeline, the area you are talking about – one of the reasons gasoline prices are rising,” Biden said at an event on Wednesday afternoon.

“I think you will be hearing good news in the next 24 hours. And I think we will get this under control.”

The remarks came as Americans in the southeast and mid-Atlantic faced pump fuel shortages from late Monday, which showed little sign of deterioration until Wednesday afternoon. Panic buying in some states exacerbated supply chain problems.

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“I’ve meanwhile made it easier for us to lift some of the restrictions on the transportation of fuel, as well as access to the US military that provides fuel, and vehicles to get it there, places where it’s badly needed becomes.” “said Biden.

The Biden administration’s recent moves, according to the White House, represent a large-scale mobilization of the government to respond to the crisis that began when Colonial informed federal authorities on Friday that it had been the target of a ransomware attack .

The government said Tuesday it would initiate a “comprehensive federal response” to restore and secure US energy supply chains.

The attack forced the company to shut down approximately 5,500 miles of pipeline, cutting off nearly half of the fuel supply on the country’s east coast.

The attack on Colonial Pipeline was traced back to a hacking group called DarkSide, an organized group of hackers set up on the ransomware as a service business model. This means that the DarkSide hackers develop, market and sell ransomware hacking tools to other criminals who then carry out attacks.

DarkSide is believed to operate out of Russia, but the White House has said there is no evidence to date that the attack was state sponsored or directed by the Kremlin.

The question that remains open is how Colonial Pipeline is solving the attack, including whether Colonial paid the ransom that hackers typically demand in these scenarios.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday refused to answer specific questions about the collaboration between Colonial Pipeline and the Biden administration, but said the company and relevant authorities are working closely together.

The Department of Energy leads the federal government’s response in coordination with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. A FireEye Mandiant spokeswoman confirmed to CNBC that the US cybersecurity company is working with Colonial Pipeline following the incident.

The national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline rose to $ 2.985 on Tuesday, up 6 cents over the past week, according to the AAA.

However, regionally, the price increases were sharper, noted AAA. In South Carolina, for example, gasoline prices have increased more than 6 cents since Monday and 13 cents last week. In Georgia, drivers paid $ 2.87 a gallon on Tuesday, an increase of more than 10 cents in just one day and 17 cents a week.

An increase of 3 cents per gallon would bring the average US sales price to its highest level since November 2014.

“We are currently seeing full-fledged panic in a few places that I suspected we could see,” said Tom Kloza, head of global energy analysis at OPIS. “There aren’t enough drivers to get trucks from terminals filled with gasoline to gas stations. We see a lot of gas stations running out. Georgia appears to be Ground Zero.”

Kloza said he expected gasoline prices to rise, but not to spike. The bigger problem is that gasoline will be scarce in the area as it will take some time to replace once the pipeline is turned on and the outages could continue.

Gasoline in the pipeline travels at only 5 miles per hour.

CNBC’s Eamon Javers, Amanda Macias and Patti Domm contributed to the coverage.

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Business

Here is The Newest Information on the Colonial Pipeline Shutdown

Here's The Latest News on the Colonial Pipeline Shutdown

HOUSTON – Drivers scrambled to refuel their vehicles at gas stations in the southeast on Tuesday in a panic frenzy that left thousands of gas stations out of gas because of an important fuel line stretching 5,500 miles from Texas New Jersey stretches largely shut down after last week’s ransomware attack.

The shutdown has also left the airlines vulnerable. Several said they were flying on jet fuel to make sure the service wasn’t disrupted.

Gasoline in Georgia and several other states rose 3 to 10 cents a gallon on Tuesday, a price surge normally only seen when hurricanes disrupt refining and pipeline operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 2 cents on Tuesday, with higher prices reported in the southeast, according to the AAA automotive group. A gallon of gasoline rose, on average, nearly 7 cents in South Carolina and 6 cents in North Carolina, while gasoline in Virginia rose about 3 cents per gallon. Gas stations in the southern states were selling two to three times their normal amount of gasoline on Tuesday, according to the Oil Price Information Service, an organization tracking the oil sector. Some stations are running out of fuel while others limit purchases to 10 gallons.

Gas Buddy, a service that tracks gas prices, reported that nearly 8 percent of gas stations in Virginia ran out of gas, due more to panic buying than a lack of gas.

The heads of state responded with measures to keep the flow of fuel stable and to stabilize prices.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order suspending his state’s gasoline tax by Saturday, which is approximately 20 cents a gallon. He said the move would “help level the price for a while,” and warned of panic buying, which he felt was unnecessary. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam each declared a state of emergency to suspend some regulations governing the transportation of fuel.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that he was ready to administer the state’s price cut law, making excessive congestion a criminal offense. “I urge everyone to be careful and patient,” said Wilson. “I urge citizens to remain vigilant and notify my office immediately if they think they are witnessing or are aware of price cuts.”

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan on Tuesday issued an emergency air-fuel waiver to alleviate fuel shortages in states whose gasoline supplies are affected by the pipeline shutdown, including the District of Columbia, Maryland , Pennsylvania and Virginia. The waiver will continue until May 18.

Colonial Pipeline, the company that operates the pipeline, hopes to restore most operations by the end of the week. The attack carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation by an organized crime group called DarkSide exposed the vulnerability of the American energy system. The pipeline supplies the eastern United States with nearly half of its transportation fuel.

Industry analysts said the impact would be relatively minor as long as the artery is fully restored soon. “With a solution to the shutdown in sight, the cyberattack is now being treated as a minor disruption by the market and prices are reducing panic gains on Monday,” said Louise Dickson, oil market analyst at Rystad Energy.

Gasoline prices usually go up at this time of year as the summer driving season approaches. Even before the Colonial Pipeline ceased operations, average national gas prices rose nearly a cent per gallon every day.

Higher fuel prices affect workers and people on lower incomes the most, as they spend the highest percentage of their income on gasoline and tend to drive less efficient vehicles. This makes rising gasoline prices a potential political problem after several years of relatively low prices at the pump.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki made a statement Monday evening that President Biden is monitoring fuel shortages in the southeast.

Several airports in the south and in the Washington region could be affected in the next few days as they are connected to the pipeline and usually only have a few days of supply.

The interstate pipeline system for supplying airports with jet fuel had become increasingly vulnerable to costly disruptions in recent years, the industry trading group Airlines for America said in a 2018 report. And if there are disruptions, airlines have few options other than flying on extra fuel, stopping flights or canceling and rerouting flights altogether.

“Pipelines play a vital role in supplying our nation with jet fuel and ensuring air service – for passengers and cargo – for communities large and small,” said the group at the time. “Unfortunately, our national pipeline system is fragile today.”

After the disruption last weekend, American Airlines announced that two daily flights from Charlotte, NC One, to Honolulu, Dallas, where customers will switch planes, have been halted. The other, to London, will stop in Boston to refuel. Flights are expected to return to their original flight schedules on Saturday. Southwest Airlines said it was flying to Nashville on extra fuel and United Airlines said it was flying extra fuel to Baltimore; Nashville; Savannah, Ga .; and Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina. United, Southwest and Delta Air Lines said they had not detected any operational disruptions so far.

Gillian Friedman contributed to the coverage.

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Politics

DeSantis indicators Florida election regulation whereas shutting out all media however Fox Information

DeSantis signs Florida election law while shutting out all media but Fox News

Governor Ron DeSantis speaks out on safety protocols and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic during a panel discussion with theme park leaders on Wednesday, August 26, 2020.

Joe Burbank | Orlando Sentinel | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a comprehensive election draft Thursday containing allegations that he will suppress voter turnout and is already facing a legal challenge.

DeSantis signed the SB 90 bill in a closed event that blocked all reporters and media coverage – except Fox News, who in a live interview applauded the Republican governor for his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

DeSantis said in a press release that the new voting rules are intended to increase voting security. “The Floridians can rest assured that our state will continue to lead the way in electoral integrity,” he said.

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However, civil and electoral groups promptly filed a complaint in federal court alleging the law violated the US Constitution, the Suffrage Act, and the Disabled Americans Act.

The NAACP, Disability Rights Florida, and Common Cause argue that the law imposes onerous identification requirements for postal voting and severely restricts dropboxing, among other things, provisions that negatively affect color voters and people with disabilities.

“I’m not a fan of Dropboxing at all, to be honest, but lawmakers wanted to keep it,” DeSantis said of Fox.

The governor, who signed the bill at a Hilton hotel near Palm Beach Airport, was flanked by supporters who clapped and cheered his responses during the interview.

In the meantime, local outlets reported that they had been banned from the event.

“The news media will not be allowed to participate in the signing of the controversial electoral law by Governor Ron DeSantis,” tweeted Steve Bousquet, columnist for Sun Sentinel in South Florida. “DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske says signing the bill is exclusive to Fox.”

CBS reporter Jay O’Brien said his outlet and others were also “not allowed into the event”.

DeSantis “signed a bill today that will affect ALL Floridians. And only some viewers were allowed to see it. That’s not normal,” O’Brien tweeted.

The DeSantis office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on why journalists were not allowed into the signing room.

Florida is just the latest GOP-led state to push for new voting restrictions. Georgia passed a law in March that drew heavy criticism from Democrats, corporate leaders and sports leagues alike. The Texan legislature is due to vote on its own electoral law on Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump, who remains a de facto GOP leader despite his loss to President Joe Biden, has repeatedly expressed doubts about the integrity of the 2020 election before and after he left office. Trump has spread a number of baseless conspiracy theories about widespread electoral fraud, falsely claiming he beat Biden.

Senior US officials in the Trump administration said the election was safe and no evidence of widespread fraud was found that would undo Biden’s victory.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney from Wyoming urged her colleagues on Wednesday to reject Trump’s “personality cult”.

“Trump is trying to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work – confidence in the outcome of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this,” Cheney wrote in a Washington Post statement.

Growing numbers of House Republicans, as well as Trump and his allies, now say they no longer support Cheney as a leader.

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World News

Covid-19 Information: Dwell Updates on Vaccine, Instances and India

Darwin Albania received a vaccine dose in Miami last week.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Saul Martinez for The New York Times

President Biden will announce Tuesday afternoon that he is directing tens of thousands of pharmacies to offer walk-in appointments for coronavirus vaccine shots, creating more pop-up and mobile clinics and shipping more doses to rural clinics, all aimed at vaccinating 70 percent of American adults at least partially by July 4.

The efforts reflect a shift in strategy by the administration as the pace of the nation’s vaccination effort slows. The federal government has also decided that if states do not order their full allocation of doses in any given week, that supply can be shifted to other states that want more.

In an afternoon address, the president plans to pledge more funding for outreach campaigns designed to convince those reluctant to get shots of the need to protect their own health and that of others. The number of shots administered daily has slowed by about half since a peak in mid-April, despite a flood of vaccine available.

Senior health officials have decided that herd immunity — the point at which the virus dies out for lack of hosts to transmit it — will likely remain elusive. But if the 70 percent to 85 percent of the population is vaccinated, the infection rate will be low enough so that normal life will be within reach, senior administration officials said.

The president will call for about 160 million adults to be fully vaccinated by Independence Day. As of Monday, more than 105 million Americans were fully vaccinated and at least 56 percent of adults — or 147 million people — had received at least one shot. That has contributed to a steep decline in infections, hospitalization and deaths across all age groups, federal officials said.

To increase availability of shots, the White House informed states that if they choose not to order their full allocation of vaccine each week, the doses will go back into a federal pool so that other states can draw on it, according to state and federal officials.

States that do not claim their full allotment one week will not be penalized because they will still be able to request the full amount the next week, officials said.

The shift, reported earlier Tuesday by The Washington Post, makes little difference to some states like Virginia that have routinely drawn down as many doses as the federal government was willing to ship. But it could help some states that are able to use more doses than the federal government allotted to them based on their population. They will now be allowed to ask for up to 50 percent more doses than the government allotted them.

Until now, White House officials had been unwilling to shift doses to states that were faster to administer them out of concern that rural areas or underserved communities would lose out to urban or richer areas where residents were more willing to get shots.

But with the pace of vaccination slowing nationwide, officials have determined that freeing up unused doses week by week will not exacerbate equity issues Some state officials have been arguing for the change for weeks.

United States › United StatesOn May 3 14-day change
New cases 50,058 –26%
New deaths 751 –3%
World › WorldOn May 3 14-day change
New cases 682,232 +6%
New deaths 10,714 +12%

U.S. vaccinations ›

Where states are reporting vaccines given

In Midtown Manhattan last week.Credit…Gabby Jones for The New York Times

Three U.S. states that were once at the center of the pandemic — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — are taking steps to relax nearly all their coronavirus restrictions, raising hopes among many residents that life is returning to normal, but causing angst for others who are still worried about the virus.

Many people who own or work for establishments that have been hard hit by pandemic closures, like restaurants and bars, nightclubs and cultural institutions, expressed optimism.

But for some others, it may be too soon to celebrate.

Felipe Perez, 48, a construction worker who lives in Brooklyn, said that he did not trust Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s move to ease capacity limits for nearly all businesses starting on May 19.

“It’s too fast,” Mr. Perez added.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan says businesses should still abide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social distancing guidelines requiring six feet of separation between people.

Businesses that monitor whether everyone inside has been vaccinated or has a negative coronavirus test can allow more people inside, as can restaurants that introduce barriers between tables.

Mr. Cuomo said that the New York City subway, which has been closed nightly to allow for thorough cleaning since last May, will resume operating 24 hours a day on May 17.

About 80,000 municipal workers in the city had already returned to the office when the governor announced the reopening plan.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said on NY1 Monday night that it was time for remote municipal workers to return, even though some may still have concerns about the virus.

Mr. de Blasio said that returning to the office was a necessary step “so we can supercharge this recovery,” adding that the city would continue safety precautions like requiring workers to wear masks in the office.

The mayor said last week that he hoped to reopen the city on July 1, more than a month after the timeline Mr. Cuomo laid out on Monday. The accelerated reopening is the latest in a series of conflicting announcements and political squabbles between the mayor and governor.

“I don’t tend to be surprised by his particular choices lately, let’s put it that way,” Mr. de Blasio said.

Some major employers in the city, like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, will require that their employees return to the office this summer.

Other industries were somewhat taken aback by the announcement. New York City’s theaters and arts venues, for instance, will now face pressure to expedite productions and will have to work around the social distancing requirements.

Broadway is not expected to reopen until September, the Broadway League said in a recent statement. Many performing arts organizations are waiting for clarity about seating rules before putting tickets on sale.

Across the Hudson River, Al Pilone, who has owned the Our Hero sandwich shop in Jersey City, N.J., for 40 years, was reluctant to leap back to normal.

Mr. Pilone, 72, said the shop had been operating through most of the pandemic, but that he was wary about resuming indoor dining, which New Jersey establishments have been allowed to do with limitations since last summer.

He said he was waiting until 70 to 80 percent of the population is vaccinated, because “I don’t want to subject the staff to anybody if I don’t know they’ve vaccinated.”

According to a New York Times database, the average number of new cases reported daily has dropped by 44 percent or more in all three states over the past two weeks, as of Monday, and more than one-third of each state’s population has been fully vaccinated.

Still, experts have warned that in New York, and some other major cities, the slowing pace of vaccinations, the prevalence of undervaccinated areas and the spread of worrisome variants mean that the pandemic is far from over, and that reopening might be premature.

“It just seems poorly thought through, and almost a little reckless,” Dr. Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the City University of New York, said Monday.

In the nation’s other large cities, plans for reopening have been mixed amid shifting case counts as vaccinations roll out.

In Chicago, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Tuesday that she plans to fully reopen the city by July 4, officials already have relaxed many restrictions on restaurants, churches, bars and other indoor gatherings, and allowed popular street festivals to resume this summer.

In Los Angeles, restrictions on restaurants were loosened early last month, and in Anaheim, Disneyland reopened on Friday. And that other symbol of California life seems to have returned as well: Traffic is back on the highways.

But in Seattle’s King County, where restaurants and other businesses are still under orders to have a maximum capacity of 50 percent, state leaders are considering a plan to restore more restrictions on Tuesday amid a rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

Reporting was contributed by Nate Schweber, Kevin Armstrong, Winnie Hu, Luis Ferré-Sadurní Kate Kelly, Julie Bosman, Manny Fernandez and Mike Baker.

A Covid-19 patient receives oxygen in a parked car while waiting for a hospital bed to become available in New Delhi, as a volunteer checks her oxygen saturation level.Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

India on Tuesday passed the milestone of 20 million reported coronavirus cases, with many more undetected, according to experts, spurring new calls for a national lockdown.

With those reported numbers, India became the second country after the United States to cross 20 million infections. Although aid has begun to pour in from other countries, hospitals are still unable to help many of those who are critically ill, and families have been left to hunt for much-needed oxygen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been sharply criticized by many for underplaying the virus earlier this year, and on Tuesday the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said a national lockdown was desperately needed, calling it “the only option.”

Mr. Gandhi accused the authorities of helping the virus spread. “A crime has been committed against India,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Modi has been reluctant to impose strict nationwide lockdown measures like the ones last spring, which remained in place for months.

While experts say that the lockdown helped reduce the number of cases in the first wave of the pandemic, it also triggered the biggest internal migration since the partition of the country in 1947. Millions of workers fled the cities, dealing a blow to the economy.

The economy had been recovering in recent months, but the current wave of disease has dampened hopes for a full recovery, and Mr. Modi asked states to consider lockdowns as “a last option.” Many states, including some governed by Mr. Modi’s party and its allies, have issued stay-at-home orders.

The regional authorities in Bihar in eastern India on Tuesday ordered a two-week lockdown. The southern state of Kerala also announced restrictions this week. The states of Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka already have lockdowns, and many states have weekend and night curfews.

Amid the scramble to try to contain the virus, the Indian Premier League announced on Tuesday that it was suspending all the remaining matches of the season after several players and staff tested positive. The league had drawn intense criticism for going ahead with its matches in cities that have been among the worst hit.

Made up of eight teams, the Indian Premier League is the biggest cricket league in the world.

Since the league’s season started last month, some of the biggest cricket stars have traveled across the country in so-called bubbles and played in empty stadiums. But even the stringent safety protocols couldn’t stop team members from being infected. At least five people on three teams have tested positive. The competition had been scheduled to finish at the end of the month.

“These are difficult times, especially in India and while we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times,” the league said in a statement.

India reported over 368,000 new cases and 3,417 deaths on Monday. It has reported more than 222,000 Covid-19 deaths, although actual figures are most likely much higher.

With aid being shipped from countries like the United States and Britain, there was hope among weary residents that the situation could start easing.

Eight oxygen generator plants from France, each of which can supply 250 hospital beds, were earmarked for six hospitals in Delhi and one each in Haryana and Telangana, states in northern and southern India. One of the generators was installed at the Narayana hospital in Delhi within hours of being delivered, according to The Times of India. Italy has also donated an oxygen generation plant and 20 ventilators.

As criticism has mounted over the delay in dispatching oxygen concentrators and other equipment, the government announced on Monday that it was waiving all duties and taxes on lifesaving equipment and relief material that had been donated. But the authorities have faced calls for more transparency on the deployment of the international aid shipments.

The Indian Red Cross receives all shipments that arrive by air, then hands them over to a government agency in charge of distributing the supplies based on regional requests. The authorities have released a list of hospitals that received aid shipments, but did not specify which equipment was going where.

Keidy Ventura, 17, received a dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in West New York, N.J., last month.Credit…Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Medical experts welcomed the news that the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine could be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use in adolescents ages 12 to 15 by early next week, a major step forward in the U.S. vaccination campaign.

Vaccinating children is key to raising the level of immunity in the population, experts say, and to bringing down the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths. And it could put school administrators, teachers and parents at ease if millions of adolescent students soon become eligible for vaccinations before the next academic year begins in September.

Pfizer’s trial in adolescents showed that its vaccine was at least as effective in them as it was in adults. The F.D.A. is preparing to add an amendment covering that age group to the vaccine’s existing emergency use authorization by early next week, according to federal officials familiar with the agency’s plans who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the father of two adolescent daughters, said the approval would be a big moment for families like his.

“It just ends all concerns about being able to have a pretty normal fall for high schoolers,” he said. “It’s great for them, it’s great for schools, for families who have kids in this age range.”

This is big. FDA set to authorize Pfizer for 12-15 year-olds. Soon

About 16 million humans in this age group in US

Getting them vaccinated will help US effort to get high levels of population immunity

I have 2 such humans at home ready to get the shothttps://t.co/aXjYxE8ddL

— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) May 3, 2021

But with demand for vaccines falling among adult Americans — and much of the world clamoring for the surplus of American-made vaccines — some experts said the United States should donate excess shots to India and other countries that have had severe outbreaks.

“From an ethical perspective, we should not be prioritizing people like them over people in countries like India,” Dr. Rupali J. Limaye, a Johns Hopkins University researcher who studies vaccine use, said of adolescents.

Dr. Jha said that the United States now had a big enough vaccine supply to both inoculate younger Americans and aid the rest of the world. As of Monday, the United States had about 65 million doses delivered but not administered, including 31 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to figures collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 105 million adults in the United States have been fully vaccinated. But the United States is in the middle of a delicate and complex push to reach the 44 percent of adults who have not yet received even one shot.

While adolescents so far appear to be mostly spared from severe Covid-19, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administration’s top Covid adviser, has repeatedly stressed the importance of expanding vaccination efforts to include them and even younger children. In March, Dr. Fauci said that he expected that high schoolers could be vaccinated by fall and elementary school students by early 2022.

Dr. Richard Malley, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said that immunizing adolescents was worthwhile because they can spread the virus, even if they transmit it at a lower rate than adults.

A group of activists gathered outside City Hall to call for an extension of the moratorium on evictions and for a roll back of the city’s rents for tenants in New York on Monday.Credit…Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock

New York State lawmakers on Monday passed legislation that would extend a statewide moratorium on residential and commercial evictions through Aug. 31.

The extension would provide additional relief for tenants, who have had broad protection from being taken to housing court since the start of the pandemic, just as New York is expected to start distributing $2.4 billion in rental assistance to struggling renters.

That financial aid will provide up to a year’s worth of unpaid rent and utilities, a financial lifesaver for not just tenants but also their landlords, many of whom have endured more than a year of little income.

Together, the moratorium extension and rental assistance comes just as New York State, along with New Jersey and Connecticut, announced plans to lift almost all their pandemic restrictions later this month, offering a chance to boost the economy a year after the region became a center of the pandemic.

The state’s eviction moratorium would extend the state’s previous protections, which expired on May 1, and goes further than the nationwide moratorium, which expires on June 30 and were imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new state eviction order would go into effect once Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signs it into law.

Since the start of the pandemic, nearly 49,000 eviction cases have been filed in New York City Housing Court, the highest number among any American city, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. While most evictions are on pause, cases can still be filed with the courts.

An analysis of court data shows that the areas in New York City hit hardest by the virus — largely Black and Latino neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens — have had the highest number of eviction cases. On average, renters owe $8,150 in unpaid rent, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a coalition of housing nonprofits.

Tenants cannot be evicted if they can show a financial or health hardship because of the pandemic. Lawmakers said that without an eviction moratorium, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, if not more, could be at risk of losing their homes.

In addition to protections for renters, the new legislation in New York would also safeguard smaller landlords who have been unable to pay their mortgages, protecting them from tax lien sales or foreclosures. Commercial tenants with fewer than 50 employees can also file a hardship declaration to receive eviction protections.

global roundup

Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia spoke to reporters in Sydney last month.Credit…Joel Carrett/EPA, via Shutterstock

The Australian authorities have faced a growing backlash from human rights groups and opposition politicians after they barred Australian citizens stranded in India from coming home, prompted by India’s record-breaking Covid-19 outbreak.

It is a travel ban with no equivalent in other democratic countries. Introduced on Monday and in place until May 15, it wields a possible punishment of up to five years in prison and a fine equivalent to about $50,000 for anyone trying to return from India. It is believed to be the first time that Australia has made it a criminal offense for its citizens and permanent residents to enter.

Michael Slater, an Australian cricket commentator who was in India covering the sport, said in a tweet on Monday that the ban was a “disgrace” and a form of government neglect. “Blood on your hands PM,” Mr. Slater wrote, referring to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

After the policy was announced, the Australian Human Rights Commission said it raised “serious human rights concerns,” and Tim Soutphommasane, Australia’s former race discrimination commissioner, wrote in The Guardian that the measure “undermines the very status of citizenship.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Morrison said that it was “highly unlikely” that anyone would be fined or go to jail for breaching the ban.

In an interview with the Australian broadcaster 9News, he said that the likelihood of imprisonment under the rule was “pretty much zero” and defended it as a necessary safety measure.

“I’m not going to fail Australia,” Mr. Morrison said. “I’m going to protect our borders at this time.”

In other news from around the world:

  • The European Union’s drug regulator has begun a rolling review of China’s Sinovac vaccine for Covid-19. The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday that it would review laboratory and clinical-trial data provided by the company until it could determine that the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks and if it was fit to receive authorization. The World Health Organization has also been reviewing Sinovac’s vaccine and one manufactured by the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, with decisions expected this month.

  • Tourists traveling to Italy won’t need to quarantine starting after mid-May, Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced on Tuesday, anticipating the introduction of a European Digital Green Pass for travelers. Visitors will be able to enter and travel through the country only if they are fully vaccinated or can show a negative PCR test taken in the 72 hours before traveling to Italy. They will still need to respect restrictions like wearing masks and keeping social distance. “We look forward to welcoming you again soon,” Mr. Draghi said at a news conference.

  • After a major dairy product manufacturer in South Korea was accused of deliberately spreading misinformation that one of its drinks could fend off the coronavirus, the chairman and chief executive tendered their resignations this week. Local news media reported that sales of the Bulgaris yogurt drink and stocks for Namyang Dairy Products both soared after a research director claimed at a conference last month that the drink reduced the chances of contracting the coronavirus by more than 70 percent. Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety accused the company of illegally spreading misleading information, and the police raided Namyang’s headquarters and factory last week.

President Xi Jinping on a screen in Beijing last month. The Chinese government’s aggressive brand of “wolf warrior” diplomacy has drawn criticism from other countries.Credit…Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Even in China, where propaganda has become increasingly pugnacious, the display was jarring: A photograph of a Chinese rocket poised to blast into space juxtaposed with a cremation pyre in India, which has been overwhelmed by a wave of coronavirus infections.

“Chinese ignition versus Indian ignition,” the title read.

The image drew a backlash from internet users who called it callous, and it was taken down on the same day by the Communist Party-run news service that posted it. But it has lingered as a provocative example of a broader theme running through China’s state-run media, which often celebrates the country’s success in curbing coronavirus infections while highlighting the failings of others.

Chinese leaders have expressed sympathy and offered medical help to India, and the controversy may soon pass. But it has exposed how swaggering Chinese propaganda can collide with Beijing’s efforts to make friends abroad.

“You’ve had this growing tension between internal and external messaging,” said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin who studies Chinese propaganda. Ms. Ohlberg said of the Chinese authorities, “They have an increasing number of interests internationally, but ultimately what it boils down to is that your primary target audience still lives at home.”

A woman pleaded for oxygen for her husband at a Sikh temple, in Ghaziabad, India, on Monday.Credit…Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Savita Mullapudi, an international development consultant in Pittsburgh, heard the ping of a WhatsApp message on her phone around 4 p.m. on Thursday. The sender was a former colleague who, like her, was an Indian immigrant who had lived in the United States for years. He had an urgent favor to ask.

With India’s health care system overwhelmed by the nation’s unprecedented Covid-19 surge and hospitals running out of lifesaving oxygen, an Indian charity was scrambling to find oxygen concentrators, which filter oxygen from the air. One manufacturer was based in Pittsburgh. Could Ms. Mullapudi visit the site to vet the equipment?

Like many members of the Indian diaspora who have watched and mobilized from afar as a deadly second wave of the coronavirus has swept across India in recent weeks, Ms. Mullapudi, whose parents and in-laws live there, leapt at the opportunity to help. She called the company a few minutes later but was told the earliest date for a visit was May 8 — far too late.

So Ms. Mullapudi, 44, said she did “the next-best thing.” She asked a few local doctor friends to tap their networks in Pittsburgh and across Pennsylvania for their opinions of the company and the quality of its products.

By 9 a.m. the next day, she had received texts and long emails from medical professionals and hospital executives with “rave reviews” of the manufacturer, she recalled, as well as detailed descriptions of the machines’ electricity costs and how long they lasted.

Credit…Aria M. Narasimhan

“The minute I said ‘India Covid,’ I was inundated with responses,” Ms. Mullapudi said. “These networks of people that we all work with or know as friends just churned it around, and that’s what really gave the organization confidence to go ahead.”

Before noon on Friday, the foundation ordered more than 400 oxygen concentrators to be flown to India. Though Ms. Mullapudi described her role as just “one drop in an ocean,” she acknowledged the profound impact of so many small acts of human kindness in the face of such dire challenges.

“Eventually it’s just people helping people,” she said. “That’s the story of hope.”

Pfizer’s vaccine is disproportionately reaching the world’s rich.Credit…Dado Ruvic/Reuters

On Tuesday, Pfizer announced that its Covid vaccine brought in $3.5 billion in revenue in the first three months of this year, nearly a quarter of its total revenue. The vaccine was, far and away, Pfizer’s biggest source of revenue, report Rebecca Robbins and Peter S. Goodman of The New York Times.

The company did not disclose the profits it derived from the vaccine, but it reiterated its previous prediction that its profit margins on the vaccine would be in the high 20 percent range. That would translate into roughly $900 million in pretax vaccine profits in the first quarter.

Pfizer has been widely credited with developing an unproven technology that has saved an untold number of lives.

But the company’s vaccine is disproportionately reaching the world’s rich — an outcome, so far at least, at odds with its chief executive’s pledge to ensure that poorer countries “have the same access as the rest of the world” to a vaccine that is highly effective at preventing Covid-19.

As of mid-April, wealthy countries had secured more than 87 percent of the more than 700 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines dispensed worldwide, while poor countries had received only 0.2 percent, according to the World Health Organization. In wealthy countries, roughly one in four people has received a vaccine. In poor countries, the figure is one in 500.

Foreign domestic workers waited to be tested for the coronavirus in Hong Kong on Sunday.Credit…Jerome Favre/EPA, via Shutterstock

The Hong Kong government on Tuesday backpedaled from a plan to require coronavirus vaccinations for all foreign domestic workers after several days of sharp criticism from foreign diplomatic missions and some residents, who called the requirement discriminatory.

Officials had announced on Friday that the domestic workers — largely low-paid, female migrants from Southeast Asia who clean, cook and perform other household tasks — would have to be vaccinated in order to renew their employment contracts. The government has not issued vaccination requirements for any other group in the city, including other foreign workers.

But officials said it was necessary after two domestic workers recently tested positive for variant strains of the coronavirus. Sophia Chan, the secretary for food and health, said that because domestic workers had a habit of “mingling” with each other during their time off — which, under Hong Kong law, is only one day a week — the entire group of roughly 370,000 workers was considered high-risk.

Hong Kong’s vaccine uptake has been slow, and none of its major outbreaks of the coronavirus have been attributed to domestic workers gathering on their days off.

The announcement provoked an immediate backlash, with critics alleging that the government was making scapegoats of the domestic workers, who make up about 5 percent of Hong Kong’s population of 7.5 million and have long endured poor treatment.

The consuls general of the Philippines and Indonesia — the two main sources of Hong Kong’s foreign domestic workers — said that if there were vaccination requirements, they should be applied to all foreign workers. The Philippines’ outspoken foreign secretary tweeted that the move “smacks of discrimination.”

The government denied that it was discriminating against the workers, but on Tuesday, Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive, said that in light of the “discussion and attention” that the plan had elicited, she would ask the labor department to “study the specific situation again” and consult foreign consulates. A decision on the plan would be announced later, she said.

Still, the government has said that all foreign domestic workers who have not been fully vaccinated must be tested for the coronavirus by May 9.

Vaccinations have begun at Castello di Rivoli, a contemporary museum near Turin, Italy. The art installation is a wall painting by Claudia Comte, a Swiss artist.Credit…Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

These days, visitors to the website of one of Italy’s most renowned contemporary art museums are met with a twofold invitation: “Book your visit in advance” and “Book your vaccination.”

The Castello di Rivoli, once a palace owned by the Savoy dynasty, recently became one of several Italian museums to join the country’s vaccine drive, following in the footsteps of cultural institutions throughout Europe.

With the rallying cry of “Art Helps,” the museum near Turin has set aside its third-floor galleries for a vaccination center run by the local health authorities. During their shots, patients can enjoy the wall paintings by Claudia Comte, a Swiss artist.

Comte worked with the composer Egon Elliut to create a soundscape that evokes “a dreamlike feeling,” the artist said, and lulls vaccine recipients as they move from room to room before and after the shot.

“Art has an extraordinarily important effect on well-being,” said Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the museum’s director. She said that she couldn’t have commissioned “a more perfect” backdrop than Comte’s works for a “space to merge the art of healing the body and the art of healing the soul and the mind,” noting that in Italian the words for “to heal” and “curator” came from the same Latin word, “curo.” In history, she said, some of the first museums were former hospitals.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania has taken a different approach from her virus-denying predecessor, stating that the nation could not ignore the pandemic.Credit…Associated Press

Less than two months after Tanzania’s first female president took office, the government on Monday announced new steps to tackle the pandemic, in what could be the start of a shift for the East African nation, whose former leader had denied the seriousness of the virus before he died in March. His political opponents said he had died from Covid, but his government denied it.

Beginning Tuesday, all travelers arriving in Tanzania are required to present proof of a negative coronavirus test taken in the previous 72 hours and must pay for a rapid test after they land, the health ministry said.

The new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was sworn into office in March, formed a committee in her first weeks in office to advise her on the status of pandemic in the country, and the steps needed to keep people safe.

Ms. Hassan, however, has not spoken publicly about whether she supports vaccinations or whether vaccines are even available in the country. She has also drawn criticism at times for not wearing a mask, including at her own swearing-in ceremony, and for addressing large gatherings of unmasked supporters. But she has worn one during foreign trips.

Under the previous president, John Magufuli, Tanzania stopped sharing data about coronavirus cases or deaths with the World Health Organization in April 2020. Ms. Hassan’s government also has not submitted any data to the World Health Organization on new cases and deaths, and has not said if, or when, Tanzania would change course.

Ms. Hassan has stated, nevertheless, that Tanzania could not ignore the virus.

“We cannot isolate ourselves as an island,” she said in a speech last month.

The new measures announced on Monday appear to be focused on stopping coronavirus at the country’s borders. The health ministry said that foreigners arriving from countries with new Covid-19 variants would be placed in a mandatory 14-day quarantine at a government-designated facility, while returning residents would be permitted to isolate themselves in their homes.

Truck drivers crossing borders will be permitted to stop only at designated locations and could be tested for the coronavirus at random while in Tanzania.

The moves signal a departure from the blithe approach taken by Mr. Magufuli, the former president. He long opposed masks and social distancing measures, promoted unproven treatments as cures, argued that vaccines didn’t work and declared that God had helped Tanzania eradicate the virus.

Two weeks before he died, Mr. Magufuli changed course and told citizens to take precautions against the virus, including wearing masks and observing social distancing.

Cafes and restaurants have reopened in Greece for sit-down service for the first time in nearly six months.Credit…Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press

Greece has reopened to many overseas visitors, including from the United States, jumping ahead of most of its European neighbors in restarting tourism, even as the country’s hospitals remain full and more than three-quarters of Greeks are still unvaccinated.

It’s a big bet, but given the importance of tourism to the Greek economy — the sector accounts for one quarter of the country’s work force and more than 20 percent of gross domestic product — the country’s leaders are eager to roll out the welcome mat.

In doing so, Greece has jumped ahead of other European countries. On Monday, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said it would recommend its member states to allow visitors who have been vaccinated. But it remains up to individual countries to set up their own rules.

“We welcome a common position” on restarting tourism in the European Union, Greece’s tourism minister, Harry Theoharis, said in an interview. “All we’re saying is that this has to be forthcoming now. We cannot wait until June.”

Park Avenue between 46th and 59th Streets will go through renovation over the next few years, giving the city a unique opportunity to rethink the famed malls.Credit…Oscar Durand for The New York Times

At a moment when the pandemic has unleashed demand for open space, plans could transform the medians of Park Avenue in Manhattan and restore them to their original splendor.

Among the options New York City is considering: bringing back chairs and benches, expanding the median, eliminating traffic lanes and carving out room for bike and walking paths.

The revamping of Park Avenue is being driven by a major transit project below ground. A cavernous shed used by Metro-North commuter trains that travel in and out of Grand Central Terminal is over a century old and in need of major repairs.

The work requires ripping up nearly a dozen streets along Park Avenue, from East 46th to East 57th Streets, making possible a new vision.

Removal of traffic lanes is likely to elicit backlash from drivers who complain that pedestrian plazas and bike lanes across the city have made it difficult to get around.

But others say the city would be more livable with fewer cars, making streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as polluting less.

Categories
World News

Covid-19 and Vaccine Information: Dwell International Updates

People comforted a man infected with Covid-19 who was receiving oxygen while he waited outside a hospital for a bed in Delhi on Sunday.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

As a second wave of the pandemic rages in India, which set a global record new cases for the fifth consecutive day on Monday, countries around the world are trying to help. But their efforts to send oxygen and other critical aid are unlikely to plug enough holes in India’s sinking health care system to end its deadly catastrophe.

The Indian health ministry reported almost 353,000 new cases and 2,812 deaths on Monday. Enormous funeral pyres have spilled into parking lots and city parks. Experts say that India’s reported overall toll of more than 195,000 deaths could be a vast undercount.

The emergency in India, where a worrying virus variant is spreading rapidly, has global implications for potential infections worldwide, as well as for countries relying on India for the AstraZeneca vaccine, millions of doses of which are manufactured there.

“It’s a desperate situation out there,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, the founder and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, adding that donations will be welcome, but may make only a “dent on the problem.”

Scientists fear that part of the problem is the emergence of a virus variant known as the “double mutant,” B.1.617, because it contains genetic mutations found in two other difficult-to-control versions of the coronavirus. One of the mutations is present in the highly contagious variant that ripped through California earlier this year. The other mutation is similar to one found in the variant dominant in South Africa and is believed to make the virus more resistant to vaccines.

Still, scientists caution it is too early to know with certainty how pernicious the new variant emerging in India really is.

In the early months of 2021, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi acted as if the coronavirus battle had been won, holding huge campaign rallies and permitting thousands to gather for a Hindu religious festival.

Now, Mr. Modi is striking a far more sober tone. He said in a nationwide radio address on Sunday that India has been “shaken” by a “storm.” And countries, companies and powerful members of the diaspora have pledged to pitch in.

Patients are suffocating in the capital, New Delhi, and other cities because hospitals’ oxygen supplies have run out. Frantic relatives have appealed on social media for leads on intensive-care-unit beds and experimental drugs. The government has extended New Delhi’s lockdown by another week.

India’s Supreme Court last week ordered the government to come up with a “national plan” for distributing oxygen supplies.

The problems in India’s hospitals go beyond oxygen shortages. In the western state of Gujarat, more than a dozen patients were evacuated from a hospital on Sunday night after an air-conditioning unit caught fire, the Press Trust of India reported, the third accident involving virus patients in India in the past seven days.

Mr. Modi appears to be looking to the rest of the world to help India quell the wave. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have promised oxygen generators. The United States has pledged raw material for coronavirus vaccines and intends to share up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other nations, so long as the doses clear a safety review conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, officials said Monday. Indian-American businessmen have pledged millions in cash from the companies they lead.

At a news conference on Monday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, called the situation in India “beyond heartbreaking.” He said the organization has deployed 2,600 staff to India to provide surveillance and vaccination help.

A global coronavirus surge, driven largely by the devastation in India, continues to break daily records and run rampant in much of the world, even as vaccinations ramp up in wealthy countries. More than one billion shots have now been administered globally.

On Sunday, the world’s seven-day average of new cases hit 774,404, according to a New York Times database, higher than the peak average during the last global surge, in January. Despite the number of shots given around the world, far too small a percentage of the global population of nearly eight billion have been vaccinated to slow the virus’s steady spread.

United States › United StatesOn Apr. 25 14-day change
New cases 33,662 –16%
New deaths 282 –3%
World › WorldOn Apr. 25 14-day change
New cases 378,263 +15%
New deaths 7,655 +4%

U.S. vaccinations ›

Where states are reporting vaccines given

People getting vaccinated at a government hospital in Mumbai, India, this month.Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

President Biden, under intense pressure to do more to address the surging pandemic abroad, including a humanitarian crisis in India, intends to make up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine available to other countries, so long as federal regulators deem the doses safe, officials said Monday.

The announcement came after Mr. Biden spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and the two pledged to “work closely together in the fight against Covid-19.” It is a significant, albeit limited, shift for the White House, which has until now been reluctant to make excess doses of coronavirus vaccine available in large amounts.

But the commitment is a tricky one to make: The AstraZeneca doses are manufactured at the Baltimore plant owned by Emergent BioSolutions, where production has been halted amid fears of contamination. The New York Times has reported extensively on problems at the plant, which had to throw out millions of doses of AstraZeneca vaccine between October and January, and later discarded up to 15 million doses of the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, also because of concern about possible contamination.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine, unlike those of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, has also not been granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. And the administration would not specify which countries will receive the vaccine.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, cautioned at a news conference that the donations of doses would not happen right away. She said about 10 million doses could be released “in the coming weeks” if the F.D.A. determines that the vaccine meets “our own bar and our own guidelines,” and that another 50 million doses are in various stages of production.

“Right now we have zero doses available of AstraZeneca,” Ms. Psaki said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for AstraZeneca said that the company would not comment on specifics but that “the doses are part of AstraZeneca’s supply commitments to the U.S. government. Decisions to send U.S. supply to other countries are made by the U.S. government.”

Correction: April 26, 2021

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to a safety review that the Food and Drug Administration is required to conduct before AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses are shared with other nations. The doses themselves must clear an F.D.A. safety review, not the plant where the doses are manufactured.

A Sputnik V vaccine production line in Saint Petersburg, Russia in February. Brazil’s health regulator rejected the Sputnik Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, citing safety concerns.Credit…Emile Ducke for The New York Times

Brazil’s health authority, Anvisa, said late on Monday that it would not recommend importing Sputnik V, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia.

Anvisa said that important safety tests had not been performed, and that questions remained about the vaccine’s development, safety and manufacturing.

Data about the vaccine’s efficacy were “uncertain,” Gustavo Mendes Lima Santos, Anvisa’s manager of medicine and biological products, said in a lengthy presentation explaining the health authority’s decision.

A tweet from the official Sputnik V Twitter account — in Portuguese — pushed back on Monday, saying that the vaccine’s developers had shared “all the necessary information and documentation” with Anvisa. In another tweet, it urged Anvisa that “we have no time to waste — let us start saving lives in Brazil. Together.”

Russia is using Sputnik V in its mass vaccination campaign, and the vaccine has been approved for emergency use in dozens of other countries. Its rollout has been entangled in politics and propaganda, with President Vladimir V. Putin announcing its approval for use even before late-stage trials began. For months, it was pilloried by Western scientists.

The Gamaleya Research Institute, part of Russia’s Ministry of Health, developed the vaccine, also known as Gam-Covid-Vac. A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet in February said the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 91.6 percent.

Skepticism from Western experts has focused mostly on its early approval, not the vaccine’s design, which grew out of decades of research on adenovirus-based vaccines. Other Covid-19 vaccines are also based on adenoviruses, such as one from Johnson & Johnson using Ad26, and one by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca using a chimpanzee adenovirus.

While Sputnik V’s developers have yet to release detailed data on adverse events observed during the trials, the Russian government has been using the vaccine to inoculate its own citizens for months. Russia has also exported Sputnik V to Belarus, Argentina and other countries, suggesting that any harmful side effects overlooked during trials would by now have come to light.

As vaccine supply woes in Europe worsened, the European Union’s drug regulator announced last month that it was reviewing the Sputnik V vaccine after member nations began announcing they would acquire the shot on their own.

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E.U. Sues AstraZeneca

The European Union has sued AstraZeneca over its failure to deliver hundreds of millions of Covid vaccination doses by the end of June as promised.

Indeed, the commission has started last Friday a legal action against the company AstraZeneca on the basis of breaches of the advance purchase agreement. The reason indeed being that the terms of the contract or some terms of the contract have not been respected, and the company has not been in a position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure the timely delivery of those. What matters to us in this case is that we want to make sure that there’s a speedy delivery of a sufficient number of doses that the European citizens are entitled to and which have been promised on the basis of the contract. So the commission has indeed started legal action on its own behalf and on behalf of the 27 member states that are fully aligned in their support for this procedure.

Video player loadingThe European Union has sued AstraZeneca over its failure to deliver hundreds of millions of Covid vaccination doses by the end of June as promised.CreditCredit…Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

The European Union has sued AstraZeneca over what the bloc has described as delays in shipping hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines, a sharp escalation of a longstanding dispute between the bloc and the maker of one of the world’s most important vaccines.

AstraZeneca has said that it would be able to deliver only a third of the 300 million doses that European officials had been expecting by the end of June. As a result, European officials said on Monday that they believed AstraZeneca had broken its contract, and that they were seeking speedier deliveries than the company said it could muster.

The two sides’ relationship had grown acrimonious in January when AstraZeneca slashed its expected deliveries for the first quarter of the year, setting back the bloc’s vaccination campaign by weeks as cases picked up across the continent and political leaders faced scorching criticism for inadequate planning.

For AstraZeneca, whose cheap and easy-to-store shot is being used by 135 countries, the lawsuit could create further difficulties in a bruising stretch. No company had been as instrumental in the race to vaccinate poorer countries around the world, but AstraZeneca has been buffeted in recent weeks by the discovery of an exceedingly rare, though serious, side effect that has prompted restrictions on its use in parts of Europe.

At issue in the legal dispute was whether AstraZeneca had done everything in its power to meet its delivery schedule. Pascal Soriot, the company’s chief executive, has said that the contract required only that it make its “best efforts” to deliver the purchased doses on time.

Vaccine production is a notoriously fickle science, with live cultures needing time to grow inside bioreactors, for instance. In an effort to supply doses not only to richer nations that had purchased them well in advance, but also to poorer nations, AstraZeneca had partnered with manufacturing sites around the world, rather than relying on only a few factories, as Pfizer and Moderna have.

AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine with the University of Oxford, has also said that the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, finalized its contract months after Britain did, giving the company less time to iron out any manufacturing difficulties.

Legal experts said that the “best efforts” language in the contract raised the burden on the Europeans to prove that AstraZeneca did not act diligently enough to supply the promised doses. But they also said that it did not entirely insulate the company from being deemed in breach of contract.

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Men walk on an empty street after a coronavirus curfew in Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday.Credit…Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey ordered a national lockdown for three weeks, closing nonessential businesses and sending all students home, as the nation struggles to contain the latest surge in cases of the coronavirus.

Turkey ranks fourth in the world in new daily cases per person, averaging 63 cases per 100,000 people, according to a New York Times database. Its seven-day average for deaths ranks 11th in the world.

The lockdown starts on April 29 and will end on May 17, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Mr. Erdogan said after meeting with his cabinet. Schools and restaurants will close and travel within Turkey will require a permit, he said. Government employees will either work from home or in shifts. Essential businesses like those in the food, manufacturing and health sectors will be exempt, Mr. Erdogan said.

“In a period where Europe is opening up, we have to pull the number of cases’’ lower, Mr. Erdogan said. “Otherwise, it would be inevitable to face a heavy cost from tourism to trade to education.’’

So far, about 16 percent of its total population has received at least one dose of the vaccine from Sinovac or Pfizer-BioNTech, according to data from the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.

Turkey reported about 63,000 new cases on April 16, its highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic.

In other updates from around the world:

  • Brazil’s health regulator rejected the use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine late on Monday, citing “inherent risks” and a lack of information about the vaccine’s safety and quality, Reuters reported.

  • The governments of Singapore and Hong Kong said on Monday that a long-delayed travel bubble between the two Asian financial centers would begin next month, allowing travelers on designated flights to bypass quarantine. The travel arrangement, which was originally supposed to begin last November, was suspended at the last minute when Hong Kong experienced a sudden surge in cases.

  • The Philippines surpassed the one million mark on Monday in the total number of coronavirus cases it has reported, as the country struggles with newer, deadlier forms of the virus. The Philippines reported very few cases last year, and did not see a significant surge until recently. In response, Manila and four other suburbs went into lockdown earlier this month.

  • For the first time in nearly nine months, Portugal’s health authority on Monday reported no coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, according to Reuters. Portugal has reported nearly 17,000 Covid-19 deaths and more than 830,000 cases.

  • Health authorities in Germany will allow all adults to sign up for vaccine appointments beginning in June, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday. The announcement came after a meeting with lawmakers to discuss lifting social restrictions for fully vaccinated people, a sign that Germany may be moving closer to emerging from its latest lockdown.

  • More than 78,000 people attended an Australian rules football match in Melbourne on Sunday night in what is believed to be the world’s biggest crowd at a sporting event since the coronavirus pandemic began. Just three days earlier, the government of the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, had increased the attendance cap for the 100,000-capacity venue, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, to 85 percent from 75 percent.

A pub in Glasgow, Scotland on Monday.Credit…Andy Buchanan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Scotland and Wales reopened restaurants, cafes, and nonessential shops on Monday, marking the next phase of a gradual relaxation of coronavirus restrictions that have been in place for months.

In Scotland, restaurants can serve food but not alcohol indoors until 8 p.m., and they can serve food and alcohol outdoors without restrictions. Stores, beauty salons, museums and galleries also reopened, and people are permitted to book travel in the rest of Britain.

The first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, said she was hopeful that the country would continue its progress and lift more restrictions by the summer. But she cautioned that the virus was more infectious now than it had been in earlier waves and, therefore, “We must stick to the rules.” Free rapid tests will be available to the public.

In Wales, places of worship and retail stores reopened, and restaurants resumed outdoor service. Outdoor wedding receptions with up to 30 people can take place.

Cases remain low in Britain, with more than 40 percent of the population having received at least one dose of a vaccine. On Sunday, the country reported just over 1,700 new cases and 11 deaths, according to a New York Times database.

Health care workers prepared doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in Buffalo, W.Va., last month. Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to give savings bonds to young people who get vaccinated.Credit…Stephen Zenner/Getty Images

West Virginia will give $100 savings bonds to 16- to 35-year-olds who get a Covid-19 vaccine, Gov. Jim Justice said on Monday.

There are roughly 380,000 West Virginians in that age group, many of whom have already gotten at least one shot, but Mr. Justice said he hoped the money would motivate the rest to get inoculated, as “they’re not taking the vaccines as fast as we’d like them to take them.”

The state will use federal funds from the CARES Act to pay for the bonds, Mr. Justice, a Republican, said at a news conference, adding that he had “vetted this every way that we possibly can” to ensure that the unconventional use of the funds was allowed.

The bonds will be also be available to anyone in that age group who has already been vaccinated, Mr. Justice said.

West Virginia has the 16th highest rate of new coronavirus cases per person among U.S. states and ranks 12th in hospitalizations, according to a New York Times database.

Mr. Justice said the state needed to stop the virus “dead in its tracks,” and that if it did, “these masks go away, the hospitalizations go away, the death toll and the body bags start to absolutely become minimal.”

Earlier this year, at the start of the country’s vaccination effort, West Virginia had stood out for its success in vaccinating its residents. At one point, it had administered second doses to more of its population than any other state; it was also behind only Alaska for the percent of its residents that had received a first dose.

But now West Virginia is fallen behind, ahead of only nine states for the portion of its residents that have had a first dose, according to a New York Times database tracking vaccines.

Mr. Justice said that young West Virginians could “always stand an extra dose of patriotism.” He urged them to “accept that wonderful savings bond” — which will allow the recipient to retrieve the $100, plus interest, at a later date — adding, “I hope that you keep it for a long, long, long time.”

State Senator Lora Reinbold of Alaska in Juneau in March.Credit…Pool photo by Becky Bohrer

Alaska Airlines has suspended an Alaska state lawmaker from its flights for violating its mask policies, the company said.

Lora Reinbold, a Republican state senator, was arguing with employees at Juneau International Airport about the airline’s mask rules, according to footage posted on Twitter.

“We need you to pull the mask up, or I’m not going to let you on the flight,” an employee is heard saying to Ms. Reinbold on the videos, which were posted on Thursday.

“It is up,” Ms. Reinbold responds.

“It is not,” an employee says. “It’s down below your nose. We can’t have it down.”

The airline said it had told Ms. Reinbold that she was “not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy,” adding that the suspension is being reviewed.

The clash over the company’s rule was the latest to surface in the country about masks during the pandemic. Mask mandates have become a rallying cry for some activists and a divisive political talking point. Disputes about the rules have sometimes led to angry confrontations.

The European Union will ease travel restrictions for vaccinated Americans.Credit…Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

U.S. airlines have been bolstered by the return of customers eager to travel within the country or just outside its borders, but the nation’s largest carriers are still lamenting the loss of two particularly lucrative parts of the business: international and corporate travel. At least one of those could rebound this summer.

In an interview with The New York Times over the weekend, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said she expected the European Union to ease travel restrictions for vaccinated American tourists, a move that could let the airline industry cash in during the year’s busiest travel season.

“Long-haul international flying represents a significant opportunity for United,” Andrew Nocella, the chief commercial officer for United Airlines, told investors last week. “We have seen in recent weeks that immediately after a country provides access with proof of a vaccine, leisure demand returns to the level of 2019 quickly.”

American Airlines and United said this month that international travel remained about 80 percent lower than in 2019. They and other airlines expect strong demand for domestic flights this summer, and the restoration of trans-Atlantic travel could provide the industry a much-needed boost as it works to generate profits again.

American, Delta Air Lines and United each reported a loss of more than $1 billion in the first three months of the year. Southwest Airlines reported a small profit, of $116 million, though its chief executive said the airline would have lost $1 billion without federal aid.

The news of the E.U. reopening to vaccinated American tourists was also welcomed by Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, a global airline industry group, who said it could bode well for carriers elsewhere, too.

He said in a statement that coordination between the European Commission and the industry was essential “so that airlines can plan within the public health benchmarks and timelines that will enable unconditional travel for those vaccinated,” not just Americans but passengers from other countries as well.

A small number of guests enjoying the pool at a resort in Phuket, Thailand, this month.Credit…Adam Dean for The New York Times

Only a few weeks ago, Phuket seemed poised for a comeback. After a year of practically no foreign tourists arriving in Thailand, the national government decided that Phuket would start welcoming vaccinated visitors in July, without requiring them to go through quarantine. The project was called Phuket Sandbox.

But Thailand is now gripped by its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the pandemic began, spread in part by the well-heeled Thais who partied in Phuket and Bangkok with no social distancing. The confirmed daily caseload — albeit low by global standards — has increased from 26 on April 1 to more than 2,000 three weeks later, in a country that in early December had about 4,000 cases total.

The opening that Phuket had planned for July 1 now appears unlikely, Thailand’s tourism minister acknowledged this month.

“If you ask me how optimistic I am, I cannot say,” said Nanthasiri Ronnasiri, the director of the tourism authority’s Phuket office. “The situation changes all the time.”

The virus’s resurgence after so many months of economic hardship is devastating for the majority of Phuket’s residents, who depend on foreign tourists for their livelihoods.

Centner Academy in Miami sent teachers a letter repeating false claims that being vaccinated made people a health risk. People waited to receive a shot at Miami Dade College.Credit…Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

A private school in the fashionable Design District of Miami sent its faculty and staff a letter last week about getting vaccinated against Covid-19. But unlike institutions that have encouraged and even facilitated vaccination for teachers, the school, Centner Academy, did the opposite: One of its co-founders, Leila Centner, informed employees “with a very heavy heart” that if they chose to get a shot, they would have to stay away from students.

In an example of how misinformation threatens the nation’s effort to vaccinate enough Americans to get the coronavirus under control, Ms. Centner, who has frequently shared anti-vaccine posts on Facebook, claimed in the letter that “reports have surfaced recently of non-vaccinated people being negatively impacted by interacting with people who have been vaccinated.”

“Even among our own population, we have at least three women with menstrual cycles impacted after having spent time with a vaccinated person,” she wrote, repeating a false claim that vaccinated people can somehow pass the vaccine to others and thereby affect their reproductive systems. (They can do neither.)

In the letter, Ms. Centner gave employees three options:

  • Inform the school if they had already been vaccinated, so they could be kept physically distanced from students;

  • Let the school know if they get the vaccine before the end of the school year, “as we cannot allow recently vaccinated people to be near our students until more information is known”;

  • Wait until the school year is over to get vaccinated.

Teachers who get the vaccine over the summer will not be allowed to return, the letter said, until clinical trials on the vaccine are completed, and then only “if a position is still available at that time” — effectively making teachers’ employment contingent on avoiding the vaccine.

Credit…Romain Maurice/Getty Images for Haute Living

Ms. Centner required the faculty and staff to fill out a “confidential” form revealing whether they had received a vaccine — and if so, which one and how many doses — or planned to get vaccinated. The form requires employees to “acknowledge the School will take legal measures needed to protect the students if it is determined that I have not answered these questions accurately.”

Ms. Centner directed questions about the matter to her publicist, who said in a statement that the school’s top priority throughout the pandemic has been to keep students safe. The statement repeated false claims that vaccinated people “may be transmitting something from their bodies” leading to adverse reproductive issues among women.

“We are not 100 percent sure the Covid injections are safe and there are too many unknown variables for us to feel comfortable at this current time,” the statement said.

The Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and many other authorities have concluded that the coronavirus vaccines now in emergency use in the United States are safe and effective.

The Centner Academy opened in 2019 for students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, promoting itself as a “happiness school” focused on children’s mindfulness and emotional intelligence. The school prominently advertises on its website support for “medical freedom from mandated vaccines.”

Ms. Centner founded the school with her husband, David Centner, a technology and electronic highway tolling entrepreneur. Each has donated heavily to the Republican Party and the Trump re-election campaign, while giving much smaller sums to local Democrats.

In February, the Centners welcomed a special guest to speak to students: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the prominent antivaccine activist. (Mr. Kennedy was suspended from Instagram a few days later for promoting Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.) This month, the school hosted a Zoom talk with Dr. Lawrence Palevsky, a New York pediatrician frequently cited by anti-vaccination activists.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Teenagers in Scampia, a district on the outskirts of Naples, Italy.Credit…Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

The number of students that dropped out of school in Italy because of the coronavirus pandemic is rising, aggravating what was already a crisis before the disease spread across the nation.

Italy had among the worst dropout rates in the European Union, and the southern city of Naples was particularly troubled by high numbers. When the coronavirus hit, Italy shuttered its schools more than just about all the other European Union member states, with especially long closures in the Naples region, pushing students out in even higher numbers.

While it is too early for reliable statistics, principals, advocates and social workers say they have seen a sharp increase in the number of students falling out of the system. The impact on an entire generation may be one of the pandemic’s lasting tolls.

Italy closed its schools — fully or in part — for 35 weeks in the first year of the pandemic — three times longer than France, and more than Spain or Germany.

And experts say that by doing so, the country, which has Europe’s oldest population and was already lagging behind in critical educational indicators, has risked leaving behind its youth, its greatest and rarest resource for a strong post-pandemic recovery.

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Business

Is an Activist’s Dear Home Information? Fb Alone Decides.

Is an Activist’s Pricey House News? Facebook Alone Decides.

The Post’s editors wrote that Facebook and other social media companies “claim to be” neutral “and that they are not making editorial decisions to ward off cynical regulations or legal responsibilities that jeopardize their profits. But they act as publishers – only very bad ones. “

Updated

April 25, 2021, 5:35 p.m. ET

Of course you need one to know one. The Post, always a mix of strong local news, big gossip and conservative politics, is currently bidding for the title of the worst newspaper in America. It has published a number of scary stories about Covid vaccines, the culmination of which was a headline linking vaccines to herpes, part of a broader effort to expand its digital reach. Great stuff if your looking for traffic in anti-vax telegram groups. The piece about the Black Lives Matter activist that blocked Facebook was pretty weak too. Without evidence, she assumed that her fortune had gone bad and mostly just scoffed at how “the self-described Marxist bought a house for $ 1.4 million last month.”

But then you probably hated a story about someone you didn’t like buying an expensive house. For example, when Lachlan Murdoch, the co-chair of the Post’s parent company, bought the most expensive house in Los Angeles, it received wide and occasionally derisive coverage. Maybe Mr. Murdoch didn’t know he could have the stories deleted from Facebook.

Facebook does not maintain a central register of news articles being deleted for these reasons, although the service also blocked a Daily Mail article about the Black Lives Matter activist’s real estate. And it doesn’t keep track of how many news articles it blocked, though it regularly deletes offensive posts from individuals, including photos of the home of Fox News star Tucker Carlson, a Facebook employee said.

The conflict between Facebook and The Post really showed – and what surprised me – that the platform doesn’t postpone news organizations at all when it comes to judging news. A decision by the Post or the New York Times that someone’s personal assets are current will not affect the company’s opaque enforcement mechanisms. Nor did Facebook’s attorney say that there is a nebulous and reasonable human judgment that the country has found nervous over the past year, and that a black activist’s concern for her own safety was warranted. (The activist did not respond to my request, but mentioned in an Instagram post the coverage of her personal finances “doxxing” and a “tactic of terror”.)

The whole point of the Facebook bureaucracy is to replace human judgment with some kind of strict corporate law. “The policy in this case prioritizes security and privacy, and that enforcement shows how difficult these tradeoffs can be,” said Tucker Bounds, vice president of communications for the company. “To understand if our guidelines are in place, we refer the guidelines to the Oversight Board.”

The board is a promising type of supercourt that has not yet established a meaningful policy. So this rule could change at some point. (Let your stories be erased while you can!)

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Politics

Biden job approval hits 53%, majority assist infrastructure plan: NBC Information ballot

Biden job approval hits 53%, majority support infrastructure plan: NBC News poll

United States President Joe Biden speaks about his $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan during an event at Carpenters Pittsburgh Training Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 31, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

More than half of Americans say they support President Joe Biden’s performance to date and agree with his sweeping proposal for an infrastructure, according to a new NBC News poll.

Poll results, released on Sunday, showed that 53% of respondents approve of Biden’s inauguration, including 90% Democrats, 61% of Independents and 9% of Republicans, while 39% of respondents disapprove of Biden’s performance.

The president also received support for his coronavirus bailout package, approved in March, and his $ 2 trillion infrastructure proposal, which is designed to help boost the post-pandemic economy.

The poll found that 46% of Americans thought the president’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, which included direct payments to Americans and expanded unemployment insurance, was a good idea. while 25% thought it was a bad idea and 26% had no opinion.

Additionally, 61% of respondents said the worst of the U.S. pandemic is over, while only 19% think the worst is yet to come.

Biden’s infrastructure plan, which aims to revitalize U.S. transportation infrastructure, water systems, broadband, manufacturing, and combat climate change, was also popular with respondents. 59% said the plan was a good idea, 21% disagreed, and 19% disagreed.

Reactions varied across party lines: 87% of Democrats, 68% of Independents and 21% of Republicans said they supported the infrastructure plan.

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

“What we don’t know is whether this is part of a 100-day honeymoon or something that is more permanent and permanent for the Biden-Harris administration,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the poll with the Republican pollster Bill McInturff conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, NBC News told.

“What we do know is that Joe Biden’s presidency is timely,” said Horwitt.

The president also received high marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which received 69% approval, as well as his handling of the economy, which received 52% approval.

Regarding the unification of the country and dealing with racial relations, 52% and 49% of respondents agreed.

Participants were less satisfied with Biden’s handling of relations with China, arms issues, and border security and immigration. The poll also found that 80% of people still believe the US is largely divided, despite Biden’s promises to unite the country.

The survey polled 1,000 adults across the country from April 17th to 20th. The error rate is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.