New York City, it's bars, restaurants and tourist sites will have a "full reopening' on July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
"We are ready to bring New York City back fully on July 1st, all systems go, because you've earned it," de Blasio said. He said that Broadway might take more time because they had been aiming for a September return, but that "some of the smaller, more intimate shows, we might be looking more like July, August, and we'll move heaven and earth to help them get that done."
He said he expected at least 400,000 jobs lost to the pandemic to return by year's end. The mayor cited the city's vaccination rate as crucial to the effort, saying 6.4 million New Yorkers have already been jabbed.
The city was among the hardest hit in the early stages of the pandemic, when long lines formed at hospital emergency rooms and ventilators were at a premium. More than 32,000 New Yorkers have died and more than 900,000 have tested positive for the virus.
"This is going to be the summer of New York City," de Blasio said. "We're all going to get to enjoy the city again. And people are going to flock here from all over the country to be a part of this amazing moment in New York City."
Also in the news:
►The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that it will resume in-person performances in May after not playing for live audiences for more than a year due to the pandemic.
►Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer unveiled a plan to tie the lifting of restrictions to Michigan’s vaccination rate, setting specific benchmarks that must be reached to return to normal. About half of residents ages 16 and older have received at least one dose.
►More than 1 billion doses of vaccines have been administered globally but 82% of them were in high- and upper-middle-income countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Just 0.3% were were used in low-income countries, he said.
►Congo wants to return 1.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses, citing much vaccine hesitancy in the central African nation of 87 million people. Africa Centers for Disease Control Director John Nkengasong said there is a five-week timeline to get the doses administered elsewhere.
►Cruising could restart in midsummer in American waters, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said late Wednesday in a letter to the cruise industry that USA TODAY obtained.
? Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 32.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 574,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 149 million cases and 3.1 million deaths. More than 301.8 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 234.6 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
? What we're reading: Have a loved one who doesn't want to get the COVID-19 vaccine? Here's how to talk to them.
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Chicago reopens Navy Pier, United Center, lakefront beaches
Chicago peeled back capacity restrictions and announced a series of reopenings Thursday following a decline in new infections. Speaking at the city’s iconic Navy Pier, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the reopening of the pier, lakefront beaches, and the United Center indoor arena.
“It’s time for the pier and the city to be open,” Lightfoot said. “Today is a day so many of us having been waiting for a very long time.”
Restaurants and bars can increase capacity, and large indoor venues – including spectator events, theaters, conventions and places of worship – can operate at 25% capacity. Fully vaccinated guests won’t count towards capacity, she said. Chicago paused reopening in March amid the threat of a case surge. “Since then, we’ve made significant progress in reversing this rise,” Lightfoot said, largely due to vaccinations. More than half of adults in the city have received at least a first dose, Lightfoot said.
– Grace Hauck
'Huge victory': 92% of Americans who got first shot return for second
About one in 10 Americans haven't gotten their second scheduled dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and while that worries epidemiologists, the follow-through is far better than other adult two-dose vaccines. According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 92% of people who got the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine made it back for their second shot. Experts noted such completion numbers for the two-dose regime of the most widely used vaccines against the coronavirus are a cause for celebration.
"With the biggest mass vaccination program in history, 92% of people coming back for their second shot is a huge victory," said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
– Elizabeth Weise
Moderna could make 4 billion vaccines by end of 2022
COVID-vaccine maker Moderna announced early Thursday that it will make as many as 1 billion doses of its shots this year and up to 3 billion next year. Most of next year’s doses will go toward vaccinating young children and for booster shots, which are likely to be needed as immunity wanes with time and in the face of new variants. Three COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for use in the United States, including Moderna’s, one based on similar mRNA technology made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech and a single-dose shot by Johnson & Johnson.
“As we follow the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, we believe that there will continue to be a significant need for our mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and our variant booster candidates into 2022 and 2023,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a prepared statement.
– Karen Weintraub
US relief reaching overwhelmed India
The first of several emergency relief shipments to India was scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Thursday from Travis Air Force Base in California. The shipment includes 440 oxygen cylinders and regulators donated by the state of California, 960,000 Rapid Diagnostic Tests and 100,000 N95 masks to protect India’s front-line health care heroes, U.S. Aid for International Development said. USAID said it has already provided over $23 million in assistance since the start of the pandemic, directly reaching nearly 10 million Indians.
India's coronavirus problem continues to worsen: 379,308 cases and 3,645 deaths reported on Wednesday alone, Johns Hopkins University data shows. The death toll has doubled in just the last 10 days. Cases have doubled in the last 15 days. India accounted for 42% of the world's cases on Wednesday, and the share continues to increase quickly.
– Mike Stucka
Biden mum on push for fourth stimulus check
Biden did not raise the issue of a possible fourth stimulus check when he spoke before Congress on Wednesday night. Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are clamoring for a fourth round of checks to help Americans who are still struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic. Such a move could lift more than 7 million people out of poverty, according to a recent analysis from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
“Are we recovered? Are people still hurting? There’s some evidence that we’re not out of the woods yet," Elaine Maag, a principal research associate for the center.
Vaccines aplenty but some Californians struggle to get one
Hearing of excess vaccine and unfilled appointments frustrates Dr. Aaron Roland, a family physician who has been lobbying for doses to inoculate his patients, many of whom are low-income, immigrants or elderly. The San Francisco Bay Area doctor has more than 200 patients who have inquired when he will offer inoculations against the coronavirus. One patient, who is 67, said he walked into a Safeway supermarket because signs said doses were available.
“But they said, ‘Oh no, they’re not really available. You just have to go online, just sign up online.' It’s not something he does very easily," said Dr. Roland, whose practice is in Burlingame, south of San Francisco.
California, swimming in vaccine, is in far better shape than just weeks ago when scoring an appointment was cause for celebration. Today, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego and other populous counties are advertising that anyone can walk in for a shot and the state is texting reminders that plenty of appointments are available. Rural Humboldt County even declined 1,000 extra doses last week because of lackluster demand.
More than 18 million of an estimated 32 million eligible for vaccine in California are fully or partially vaccinated, including nearly half of people in economically vulnerable ZIP codes hardest hit by the pandemic and 73% of residents 65 and older. The country's most populous state, like much of the U.S., appears to have hit a vaccine plateau.
But that doesn't mean everyone who wants a vaccine can get one – as some of Dr. Roland's patients can attest.
- Janie Har, Palm Springs Desert Sun
US may finally be turning corner on pandemic
Potential COVID surges may have collapsed in nearly all states, a USA TODAY analysis of the data shows. National case-count leaders New York, Michigan and now Florida all have reported falling case counts. But the threat has also fallen in most states with smaller populations.
"We should be mostly heading down toward a new normal," tweeted Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of Brown University's school of public health, noting that most U.S. adults are now at least partially vaccinated. Clinical trials are underway for vaccinating children as young as 6 months old.
Florida, which still leads the nation in new cases, has seen those case counts fall 12% from the previous week. It only became the leader because counts in Michigan have plunged more than 36% from earlier this month.
– Mike Stucka
Contributing: The Associated Press
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