Monthly Archives: May 2021

MOSCOW -- While at the Park House shopping mall in northern Moscow, Vladimir Makarov saw it was offering the coronavirus vaccine to customers, so he asked how long it would take.

It turned out its simple here 10 minutes, he said of his experience last month.

But Makarov, like many Muscovites, still decided to put off getting the Sputnik V shot.

Russia boasted last year of being first in the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine, but it now finds itself lagging in getting its population immunized. That has cast doubt on whether authorities will reach their ambitious goal of vaccinating more than 30 million of countrys 146 million people by mid-June and nearly 69 million by August.

The vaccine reluctance comes as shots are readily available in the capital to anyone 18 or older at more than 200 state and private clinics, shopping malls, food courts, hospitals even a theater.

As of mid-April, over 1 million of Moscow's 12.7 million residents, or about 8%, have received at least one shot, even though the campaign began in December.

That percentage is similar for Russia as a whole. Through April 27, only 12.1 million people have gotten at least one shot and only 7.7 million, or 5%, have been fully vaccinated. That puts Russia far behind the U.S., where 43% have gotten at least one shot, and the European Union with nearly 27%.

Data analyst Alexander Dragan, who tracks vaccinations across Russia, said last week the country was giving shots to 200,000-205,000 people a day. In order to hit the mid-June target, it needs to be nearly double that.

We need to start vaccinating 370,000 people a day, like, beginning tomorrow, Dragan told The Associated Press.

To boost demand, Moscow officials began offering coupons worth 1,000 rubles ($13) to those over 60 who get vaccinated not a small sum for those receiving monthly pensions of about 20,000 rubles ($260).

Still, it hasnt generated much enthusiasm. Some elderly Muscovites told AP it was difficult to register online for the coupons or find grocery stores that accepted them.

Other regions also are offering incentives. Authorities in Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska, promised seniors 2,000 rubles for getting vaccinated, while the neighboring Magadan region offered 1,000 rubles. A theater in St. Petersburg offered discounted tickets for those presenting a vaccination certificate.

Russia's lagging vaccination rates hinge on several factors, including supply. Russian drug makers have been slow to ramp up mass production, and there were shortages in March in many regions.

So far, only 28 million two-dose sets of all three vaccines available in Russia have been produced, with Sputnik V accounting for most of them, and only 17.4 million have been released into circulation after undergoing quality control.

Waiting lists for the shot remain long in places. In the Sverdlovsk region, the fifth most-populous in Russia, 178,000 people were on a wait list by mid-April, regional Deputy Health Minister Yekaterina Yutyaeva told AP.

On April 28, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are enough vaccines available in Russia, adding that demand was the defining factor in the countrys vaccination rate.

Another factor in Russians' reluctance over Sputnik V was the fact that it was rolled out even as large-scale testing to ensure its safety and efficacy was still ongoing. But a study published in February in the British medical journal The Lancet said the vaccine appeared safe and highly effective against COVID-19, according to a trial involving about 20,000 people in Russia.

A poll in February by Russias top independent pollster, the Levada Center, showed that only 30% of respondents were willing to get Sputnik V, one of three domestically produced vaccines available. The poll had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Dragan, the data analyst, says one possible explanation for the reluctance is the narrative from authorities that they have tamed the outbreak, even if that assessment might be premature.

With most virus restrictions lifted and government officials praising the Kremlin's pandemic response, few have motivation to get the shot, he said, citing an attitude of, If the outbreak is over, why would I get vaccinated?

Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, echoed Dragan's sentiment and also pointed to inconsistent signals from officials and media.

Russians in 2020 were bombarded with contradictory messages first about (the coronavirus) not being dangerous and being just a cold, then that it was a deadly infection," he told AP. Then they were banned from leaving their homes.

Another narrative, he said, was that foreign vaccines were dangerous but Russian-produced ones were not. State TV reported adverse reactions linked to Western vaccines while celebrating Sputnik Vs international success.

A proper media campaign promoting vaccinations didnt begin on state TV until late March, observers and news reports note. Videos on the Channel 1 national network featured celebrities and other public figures talking about their experience but didn't show them getting injected. President Vladimir Putin said he received the shot about the same time, but not on camera.

Fruitful ground for conspiracy theorists, said Dragan, who also works in marketing.

Rumors about the alleged dangers of vaccines actually surged on social media in December, when Russia began administering the shots, and have continued steadily since then, said social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.

The rumors combined with other factors the pseudoscience on Russian TV, vaccine distribution problems and an uneven rollout of the promotional campaign to hamper the immunization drive, Arkhipova told AP.

Vlassov, meanwhile, noted the outbreak in Russia is far from over, and there even are signs it is growing.

Roughly the same number of people get infected every day in Russia now as last May, at the peak of the outbreak," he said, adding that twice as many people are dying every day than a year ago.

Government statistics say infections have stayed at about 8,000-9,000 per day nationwide, with 300-400 deaths recorded daily. But new cases have been steadily increasing in Moscow in the past month, exceeding 3,000 last week for the first time since January.

Infection rates are growing in seven regions, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on April 23, without identifying them. She blamed insufficient vaccination rates in some places.

And yet, the abundance of vaccines in Moscow has attracted foreigners who can't get the shot at home. A group of Germans got their first jab at their hotel last month.

Uwe Keim, 46-year-old software developer from Stuttgart, told AP he believes there are more vaccines available here in Russia than is demanded by the people here.

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Kostya Manenkov and Anatoly Kozlov in Moscow and Yulia Alexeyeva in Yekaterinburg contributed.

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https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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Russia lags behind others in its COVID-19 vaccination drive - ABC News

3 things to know

Minnesota nearing 2 million residents with completed COVID vaccinations

58.4 percent of Minnesotans 16 and older have received at least one dose; 44.7 percent fully vaccinated

State health officials report six more COVID deaths

Minnesota is nearing the milestone of 2 million residents with completed COVID-19 vaccinations.

As of Sundays update from the Minnesota Department of Health, the number stood at 1,972,888 completed vaccinations about 44.7 percent of the states 16-and-older population. More than 58 percent of Minnesotans 16 and older have at least one vaccine dose.

It was March 30 when the health department reported the state had reached 1 million completed vaccinations.

Looking at seven-day rolling averages, there was a slight uptick in new COVID cases and the test positivity rate as of Sunday's update. But the longer-term trend in both those metrics is downward and Gov. Tim Walz in coming days is expected to loosen some curbs on public gatherings, likely increasing capacity limits for bars, restaurants and other venues.

Newly reported COVID-19 vaccine doses in Minnesota

David H. Montgomery | MPR News

Here are Minnesotas latest COVID-19 statistics:

7,160 deaths (6 newly reported)

579,235 positive cases; 96 percent off isolation

58.4 percent of Minnesotans 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose; about 44.7 percent completely vaccinated

The pace of vaccinations has been slowing in Minnesota. Averaged over the past week, as of Sunday the state was seeing about 45,000 vaccinations a day. That average is down from more than 60,000 in mid-April.

Public health leaders remain concerned about that flattening pace and what seems to be a wavering public will around mask wearing and other precautions. They continue to implore Minnesotans to keep their guard up during proms, graduations and other spring events, noting that more contagious COVID-19 variants are driving new cases across the state.

These kinds of events are ripe for spread unless people stay on guard, Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Thursday.

The count of known, active cases fell back below 15,000 in Sundays numbers, down from the most recent peak of about 20,000 in mid-April.

The percentage of COVID-19 tests coming back positive remains just below the 5 percent threshold that experts find concerning.

Hospitalizations had been climbing the past few weeks, hovering at levels not seen since January.

Fridays numbers showed 619 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Minnesota; 166 needed intensive care. Both figures are down from the prior week. Hospitalizations can often stay higher for several weeks following an increase in active cases.

Six deaths reported Sunday brought Minnesotas pandemic toll to 7,160. Among those who have died, about 61 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.

The state has recorded 579,235 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including the 1,713 posted Sunday. About 96 percent of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 in the pandemic have recovered to the point where they no longer need to isolate.

Regionally, all parts of Minnesota are in better shape than they were in late November and early December. Case counts had been creeping up the past few weeks across the state, but the trend appears to have peaked.

Minnesotas vaccination pace remains relatively flat as officials work now to reach out to those who havent been vaccinated.

More than 2.5 million residents 16 and older now have at least one vaccine dose, and nearly 2 million have completed their vaccinations, as of Sundays update.

That works out to about 44.7 percent of the 16-and-older population completely vaccinated and 58.4 percent with at least one shot, including 87 percent of those 65 and older.

The states vaccination efforts have been hampered the past few weeks by supply cuts, particularly of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which federal authorities paused earlier this month as they investigated the possibility of rare side effects associated with the shot.

The pace may pick up, after federal health officials lifted the pause on using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But the recent production breakdown that resulted in millions of J&J doses ruined is having an impact.

Officials also acknowledge the state must do more to connect unvaccinated people to shots.

The Health Department estimates about about 3.4 percent of Minnesotans whove received their first dose of a two-dose regimen are late for their second shot. Nationwide, about 8 percent of Americans have skipped out on their second dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last week state health officials said that out of more than 1.2 million Minnesotans completely vaccinated with two weeks logged beyond the last dose, theyve confirmed just a sliver, 1,163 cases, where a completely vaccinated person became infected with COVID-19.

While the overall trends are solid, officials are increasingly concerned about the spread of COVID-19 in younger people. Theyre urging more testing of middle and high school students and weekly testing for athletes, coaches, referees and other youth sports participants.

People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the states largest number of confirmed cases more than 106,000 since the pandemic began.

The number of high school-age youth confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 47,000 15-to-19-year-olds known to be infected during the pandemic.

Although young people are less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry they will spread it unknowingly to older relatives and members of other vulnerable populations. Those with the COVID-19 virus can spread it when they dont have symptoms.

People attending proms, graduations and other youth oriented events are a special concern now for health officials.

The work by schools and districts to build safeguards into those events can be completely undermined if students and parents dont do their part, as well, Kris Ehresmann, the states infectious disease director, told reporters Thursday.

Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., announced Wednesday that the school will require students and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall, in addition to flu vaccinations.

Macalester College in St. Paul made a similar announcement earlier this month. That school's president, Suzanne Rivera, says their decision was easy.

We want our classrooms full. We want indoor choir practices. We want spectators at athletic contests. We want to be able to have roommates in dormitories, she said.

Both schools say they will allow very limited exceptions.

Tim Nelson | MPR News

Marshall first-graders, parents grieve loss of classmate to COVID-19: School community members grieved the loss of a first-grader at Park Side Elementary School in Marshall, in southwestern Minnesota. Many families navigated the loss and helped their children try to make sense of it.

Minnesotas rental assistance program to soon begin payouts: State officials are highlighting a new rental assistance program that uses federal money to help people behind on their rent due to the pandemic. Some landlords say its taking too long to get the program running.

As parents await a vaccine for kids, one family takes part in vaccine research: Only one vaccine has been authorized for kids as young as 16, a group thats behind much of Minnesotas COVID-19 spread. But instead of waiting for a vaccine, one Twin Cities family jumped on an early opportunity to participate in vaccine research.

Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health's cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at theHealth Department website.

You make MPR News possible. Individual donations are behind the clarity in coverage from our reporters across the state, stories that connect us, and conversations that provide perspectives. Help ensure MPR remains a resource that brings Minnesotans together.

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May 2 update on COVID-19 in MN: State nearing 2 million residents with completed vaccinations - Minnesota Public Radio News

MOSCOW (AP) While at the Park House shopping mall in northern Moscow, Vladimir Makarov saw it was offering the coronavirus vaccine to customers, so he asked how long it would take.

It turned out its simple here 10 minutes, he said of his experience last month.But Makarov, like many Muscovites, still decided to put off getting the Sputnik V shot.

Russia boasted last year of being first in the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine, but it now finds itself lagging in getting its population immunized. That has cast doubt on whether authorities will reach their ambitious goal of vaccinating more than 30 million of countrys 146 million people by mid-June and nearly 69 million by August.

The vaccine reluctance comes as shots are readily available in the capital to anyone 18 or older at more than 200 state and private clinics, shopping malls, food courts, hospitals even a theater.

As of mid-April, over 1 million of Moscows 12.7 million residents, or about 8%, have received at least one shot, even though the campaign began in December.That percentage is similar for Russia as a whole. Through April 27, only 12.1 million people have gotten at least one shot and only 7.7 million, or 5%, have been fully vaccinated. That puts Russia far behind the U.S., where 43% have gotten at least one shot, and the European Union with nearly 27%.

Data analyst Alexander Dragan, who tracks vaccinations across Russia, said last week the country was giving shots to 200,000-205,000 people a day. In order to hit the mid-June target, it needs to be nearly double that.

We need to start vaccinating 370,000 people a day, like, beginning tomorrow, Dragan told The Associated Press.

To boost demand, Moscow officials began offering coupons worth 1,000 rubles ($13) to those over 60 who get vaccinated not a small sum for those receiving monthly pensions of about 20,000 rubles ($260).

Still, it hasnt generated much enthusiasm. Some elderly Muscovites told AP it was difficult to register online for the coupons or find grocery stores that accepted them.

Other regions also are offering incentives. Authorities in Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska, promised seniors 2,000 rubles for getting vaccinated, while the neighboring Magadan region offered 1,000 rubles. A theater in St. Petersburg offered discounted tickets for those presenting a vaccination certificate.Russias lagging vaccination rates hinge on several factors, including supply. Russian drug makers have been slow to ramp up mass production, and there were shortages in March in many regions.

So far, only 28 million two-dose sets of all three vaccines available in Russia have been produced, with Sputnik V accounting for most of them, and only 17.4 million have been released into circulation after undergoing quality control.

Waiting lists for the shot remain long in places. In the Sverdlovsk region, the fifth most-populous in Russia, 178,000 people were on a wait list by mid-April, regional Deputy Health Minister Yekaterina Yutyaeva told AP.

On April 28, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are enough vaccines available in Russia, adding that demand was the defining factor in the countrys vaccination rate.

Another factor in Russians reluctance over Sputnik V was the fact that it was rolled out even as large-scale testing to ensure its safety and efficacy was still ongoing. But a study published in February in the British medical journal The Lancet said the vaccine appeared safe and highly effective against COVID-19, according to a trial involving about 20,000 people in Russia.

A poll in February by Russias top independent pollster, the Levada Center, showed that only 30% of respondents were willing to get Sputnik V, one of three domestically produced vaccines available. The poll had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Dragan, the data analyst, says one possible explanation for the reluctance is the narrative from authorities that they have tamed the outbreak, even if that assessment might be premature.

With most virus restrictions lifted and government officials praising the Kremlins pandemic response, few have motivation to get the shot, he said, citing an attitude of, If the outbreak is over, why would I get vaccinated?

Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, echoed Dragans sentiment and also pointed to inconsistent signals from officials and media.

Russians in 2020 were bombarded with contradictory messages first about (the coronavirus) not being dangerous and being just a cold, then that it was a deadly infection, he told AP. Then they were banned from leaving their homes.

Another narrative, he said, was that foreign vaccines were dangerous but Russian-produced ones were not. State TV reported adverse reactions linked to Western vaccines while celebrating Sputnik Vs international success.

A proper media campaign promoting vaccinations didnt begin on state TV until late March, observers and news reports note. Videos on the Channel 1 national network featured celebrities and other public figures talking about their experience but didnt show them getting injected. President Vladimir Putin said he received the shot about the same time, but not on camera.

Fruitful ground for conspiracy theorists, said Dragan, who also works in marketing.

Rumors about the alleged dangers of vaccines actually surged on social media in December, when Russia began administering the shots, and have continued steadily since then, said social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.

The rumors combined with other factors the pseudoscience on Russian TV, vaccine distribution problems and an uneven rollout of the promotional campaign to hamper the immunization drive, Arkhipova told AP.

Vlassov, meanwhile, noted the outbreak in Russia is far from over, and there even are signs it is growing.

Roughly the same number of people get infected every day in Russia now as last May, at the peak of the outbreak, he said, adding that twice as many people are dying every day than a year ago.

Government statistics say infections have stayed at about 8,000-9,000 per day nationwide, with 300-400 deaths recorded daily. But new cases have been steadily increasing in Moscow in the past month, exceeding 3,000 last week for the first time since January.

Infection rates are growing in seven regions, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on April 23, without identifying them. She blamed insufficient vaccination rates in some places.

And yet, the abundance of vaccines in Moscow has attracted foreigners who cant get the shot at home. A group of Germans got their first jab at their hotel last month.

Uwe Keim, 46-year-old software developer from Stuttgart, told AP he believes there are more vaccines available here in Russia than is demanded by the people here.

Go here to read the rest:

Russia is falling behind on its COVID-19 vaccination drive - MarketWatch

MADRID (AP) Residents in Madrid, one of Europes worst-hit regions in the pandemic, are voting Tuesday for a new regional assembly in an election that tests the depths of resistance to lockdown measures.

The early election was called by a conservative regional chief who is trying to cling to power after her center-right coalition crumbled. Isabel Daz Ayuso has made a name for herself by resisting the strictest measures against the virus and criticizing the national governments handling of the pandemic.

Heres whats at stake during the May 4 vote:

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WHY IS MADRIDS LOCAL ELECTION IMPORTANT?

By keeping Madrids bars, restaurants, museums and concert halls open, Daz Ayuso has invigorated support for her conservative Popular Party. She has also made inroads among voters recently seduced by the patriotic populism of Vox, an upstart far-right party.

Restaurateurs have come up with dishes and menus with her name and her portrait is ubiquitous on the citys billboards and on mail-in ballots. Daz Ayuso says the election is about choosing between her promise of freedom and the lefts socialism and communism, in reference to her two rivals who are part of the ruling national coalition.

Her resistance to sweeping coronavirus closures has constantly pitched the 42-year-old conservative against Prime Minister Pedro Snchez of the Socialists and the anti-austerity United We Can Party leader, Pablo Iglesias. Iglesias quit his Cabinet position last month to run against Daz Ayuso in the regional vote.

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WHAT DOES THE HEALTH DATA SAY?

The virus ravaged the Madrid regions nursing homes, especially last year. More than 5,000 elderly died before they could be taken in by a hospital system that buckled amid the first wave of infections.

Since then, keeping the countrys economic engine up and running has become key goal for Daz Ayuso, even if that meant having to add hospitals and more beds to treat COVID-19 patients.

Daz Ayuso has firmly resisted curbing travel in and out of Madrid. Instead she has relied on mass screenings with coronavirus antigen tests and setting up large venues to speed up vaccinations.

As a result, the region that is home to 14% of the countrys 47 million people has seen more than 19% of the countrys 3.5 million infections and of a national confirmed death toll of over 78,000.

The 14-day accumulated caseload on Friday stood at 384 new infections per 100,000 residents, way beyond the national average of 229 new cases per 100,000.

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WHAT DO THE POLLS SAY?

Although a few pollsters are predicting that an absolute majority of the regional assemblys seats will go to Daz Ayusos conservatives, most estimates hint at a win of over 40% of the vote. That would potentially double the number of Popular Party lawmakers since the last election in 2019.

The polls also place the far-right Vox party as the most likely choice for an alliance that would allow Daz Ayuso to form a government.

A smaller possibility is that the center-left camp, fragmented into three parties, will clinch enough votes to form a governing alliance.

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WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

Most political analysts agree that any solid victory for Daz Ayuso will pave the way for more antagonism between the Socialist-led national government and the conservative party that has dominated Spains political landscape until recently.

It would also mean a rebuke of the recent strategy by the Popular Partys national leader, Pablo Casado, who has tried to distance his party from Voxs far-right ideology.

Whatever emerges from the ballot, the winner will have the challenge of putting Madrid back on its feet after a tough year with COVID-19 that included a winter blizzard which paralyzed the city for days.

The region, rampant with inequality, has been a stronghold of the Popular Party since 1991.

The left-wing parties want more investment to solve the social and economic crisis, especially propping up the regions public education and health systems following years of austerity and privatization.

Daz Ayuso has promised to lower taxes to attract more companies and boost consumption, as well as building more than 6,000 units of social housing.

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Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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EXPLAINER: COVID-19, far-right are top themes in Madrid vote - Associated Press

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu attends a news conference for foreign journalists in Taipei, Taiwan April 7, 2021. REUTERS/Ann Wang

Taiwan's first batch of aid to India to help it fight a surging increase in COVID-19 infections left for New Delhi on Sunday, consisting of 150 oxygen concentrators and 500 oxygen cylinders, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said.

Countries around the world have been rushing to help India alleviate the crisis. India recorded more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time on Saturday as it battles a devastating second wave. read more

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said the aid consignment left on a China Airlines (2610.TW) freighter on Sunday morning and would be received by India's Red Cross.

Taiwan will continue to provide aid as needed, it added.

"These oxygen concentrators & cylinders are love from Taiwan. More help for our friends in India is on the way. #IndiaStayStrong!" Foreign Minister Joseph Wu tweeted.

An oxygen concentrator reduces nitrogen from an air supply to produce an oxygen-enriched air supply to a patient.

While India, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, the two have drawn closer in recent years thanks to their shared antipathy of Beijing.

Taiwan sees India as an important like-minded democracy and friend, and there are close cultural and economic links too.

Last year, Taiwan accused Beijing of trying to impose censorship in India after China's embassy in New Delhi advised local journalists to observe the "one-China" principle following advertisements in newspapers that marked Taiwan's national day.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Taiwan's first batch of COVID-19 aid leaves for India - Reuters India

A leading Indian industry body urged authorities to take the strongest national steps and to curtail economic activity to save lives on Sunday as the country battles surging coronavirus cases that have overwhelmed the healthcare system.

The rate of new infections dipped marginally but deaths kept climbing. Authorities reported 392,488 new cases in the previous 24 hours, pushing total cases to 19.56 million. Deaths jumped by a record 3,689, taking the overall toll to 215,542.

Billionaire Uday Kotak, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KTKM.NS), said a "maximal response measure at the highest level is called for to cut the transmission links", as building healthcare infrastructure will take time.

He was speaking on behalf of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), where he is the president.

"At this critical juncture when toll of lives is rising, CII urges the strongest national steps including curtailing economic activity to reduce suffering, Kotak said in a statement.

Hospitals have filled to capacity, medical oxygen supplies have run short and morgues and crematoriums have been swamped as the country deals with the surge in cases: more than 300,000 daily cases for more than 10 days straight.

Concerned about the economic impact of shutting down the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown. At least 11 states and union territories have imposed some form of restrictions.

The Indian Express newspaper reported on Sunday that the country's COVID-19 taskforce has advised the federal government to impose a national lockdown.

Men walk past burning pyres of persons who died due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a crematorium ground in Tavarekere on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India, May 2, 2021. REUTERS/Samuel Rajkumar

Read More

The eastern state of Odisha and northern industrial state Haryana became the latest to announce new lockdowns on Sunday, joining Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal.

Other states, including Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have either imposed night curfews or weekend lockdowns.

LOCKDOWN FEARS

Modi said last month all efforts should be made be avoid a lockdown. He imposed strict curbs on movement and social and economic activity last year in the early months of the pandemic and economic output fell a record 24% in April-June 2020 compared with the same period a year earlier.

The current devastating second wave has also led to a shortfall in medical staff. Kotak also said healthcare workers may not be able to tackle the influx of patients, given the escalating caseloads, and they need reinforcing.

International aid has been pouring in.

Countries including United States have shipped in critical oxygen equipment, therapeutics and raw materials for vaccine production. On Sunday, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country would send more ventilators very shortly.

Modi's government has been criticised for not taking steps earlier to curb the spread and for letting millions of largely unmasked people attend religious festivals and crowded political rallies in five states during March and April.

Reuters reported on Saturday that a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Indian industry body urges curbs to economic activity to save lives - Reuters India

The Maldives had reported some 29,000 cases of the virus with 72 deaths up until 29 April.

As World Immunization Week comes to an end, Ms. Haswell explains how the UN has supported the authorities in the fight against the pandemic.

UN Maldives/Nasheeth Thoha

Catherine Haswell, the UN Resident Coordinator in the Maldives (left) meets a group of local women.

The COVID-19 crisis has been difficult for Maldivians, resulting in widespread health and socioeconomic challenges. On 15 April 2020, just two months after my arrival in the country, the capital city Mal went into full lockdown following the first positive case.

As Mal is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, this was an important preventive measure which had been considered in the Governments advanced planning and preparedness efforts.

It was also to mitigate the spread to the outlying 200 local islands. In many ways, the beautiful island geography of the Maldives has also been a major mitigating factor for slowing transmission.

The closing of Maldivian borders saw a significant economic shock, as international tourism directly accounts for over a quarter of the countrys GDP. The disruption affected childrens learning, jobs, home evictions, and threatened food security due to impacts on the global supply chain.

These surges are, as we know from global experience, a characteristic of the COVID-19 virus which we all continue to face given the very social nature of humankind

The Maldives has fought against a second surge in cases with focused, well-coordinated efforts of the Government, communities and partners, making it possible to ease restrictions, and reopen offices and public spaces by the end of 2020.

Towards February 2021, the country faced a third surge with the virus increasingly spreading out of the capital area to other atolls, causing movement restrictions to be imposed once again up until last month.

These surges are, as we know from global experience, a characteristic of the COVID-19 virus which we all continue to face given the very social nature of humankind.

Last Ramadan was spent confined to our homes and the much-anticipated cultural practices, such as exchanging food with loved ones, were sacrificed for containing the spread.

Now, one year on from the start of the lockdown, Maldivians are observing the second week of fasting while continuing the everyday battle against COVID-19. But there is also room for hope.

With the commencement of the national vaccination drive this year, I am optimistic that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.

UNICEF/Ali

100,000 syringes supplied by UNICEF arrive in the Maldives.

The Maldivian government started the national vaccination programme, COVID-19 Dhifaau (COVID-19 Defence) on 1 February 2021, with a goal to vaccinate the entire population against the virus.

Free vaccination is open to all residents and those living in the Maldives, regardless of their nationality or legal status, a fine example of ensuring that no one is left behind on the road to recovery.

To avoid a collapse of the healthcare system and mitigate severe impacts, the initial priority was given to healthcare workers and those on the frontlines as well elderly and other high-risk groups.

Given the dispersed nature of the archipelago, those who work or live away from their family and loved ones will finally be able to reunite without quarantine and COVID tests after over a year apart

Some 278,000 people, roughly over 60 per cent of the eligible resident population have received their first dose of the vaccine. Administration of the second dose is also ongoing, although the process has slightly slowed down due to limited hours available during the month of Ramadan.

Considering that no one is safe until everyone is safe, the Government is also providing free vaccines to undocumented migrant workers in the country. The Maldives approach is a good model of vaccine equity in action.

With the successful rollout of vaccines, the Government just announced an easing of travel restrictions between the islands.

Given the dispersed nature of the archipelago, those who work or live away from their family and loved ones will finally be able to reunite without quarantine and COVID tests after over a year apart.

I am personally looking forward to receiving my second dose of the vaccine and being able to talk to the Maldivian people about their challenges, hopes and dreams for the future they want in the communities where they live, across the 871 kilometer length of the country.

These conversations, particularly with the most vulnerable, will be critical for shaping how the UN in the Maldives can support building back better towards decentralized services and more inclusive communities.

Maldivian Red Crescent

The national vaccination programme in the Maldives began in February 2021.

The UN team in the Maldives has been steadfast in supporting the Governments COVID-19 response from the very initial stages of the pandemic. Through joint efforts with partners, the UN continues to provide health and medical equipment with technical support such as trainings and capacity building of stakeholders to control the spread of the virus.

In addition to the immediate health response, the UN is also supporting the socioeconomic response in areas such as ensuring the safe return of children to schools, expanding access to psychosocial support services, and supporting advocacy and community resilience through risk communications.

To supplement the national vaccination efforts, the UN is providing cold chain, supply and storage management for vaccines. Technical support is also being provided in the planning, coordination and training that entails the inoculation process.

As we approach May 2021, the future remains uncertain and with many unprecedented challenges expected in our road to recovery. I am in awe of the commitment and determination of healthcare workers and those who continue to fight on the frontlines.

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COVID-19 'vaccine equity in action' in the Maldives: a UN Resident Coordinator blog - UN News

CONNECTICUT, USA Many viewers worried about interactions with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Question: Jim wrote to FOX61, I contracted malaria while serving in Vietnam. Are there any studies on how the COVID vaccine interacts with veterans like myself?

Answer: Anybody at all can get the vaccine whether youve had malaria in the past or now. I grew up in Ghana in West Africa, and Ive had malaria many times. But I still got a vaccine, and I count myself protected because its been way more than two weeks since getting the vaccine. So there is no interaction with malaria, and we dont expect you to react any differently to the vaccine just because you had malaria, said Dr. Henry Anyimadu, MD, FACP, Infectious Disease Specialist Hartford HealthCare.

If you have a question about COVID-19 or the vaccine, email SHARE61@fox61.com or text 860-527-6161.

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You ask. We answer. | How does the COVID-19 vaccine react if you had malaria? - FOX 61

For years, scientists and doctors have treated vaccine skepticism as a knowledge problem. If patients were hesitant to get vaccinated, the thinking went, they simply needed more information.

But as public health officials now work to convince Americans to get Covid-19 vaccines as quickly as possible, new social science research suggests that a set of deeply held beliefs is at the heart of many peoples resistance, complicating efforts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.

The instinct from the medical community was, If only we could educate them, said Dr. Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, who studies vaccine skepticism. It was patronizing and, as it turns out, not true.

About a third of American adults are still resisting vaccines. Polling shows that Republicans make up a substantial part of that group. Given how deeply the country is divided by politics, it is perhaps not surprising that they have dug in, particularly with a Democrat in the White House. But political polarization is only part of the story.

In recent years, epidemiologists have teamed up with social psychologists to look more deeply into the why behind vaccine hesitancy. They wanted to find out whether there was anything that vaccine skeptics had in common, in order to better understand how to persuade them.

They borrowed a concept from social psychology the idea that a small set of moral intuitions forms the foundations upon which complex moral worldviews are constructed and applied it to their study of vaccine skepticism.

What they discovered was a clear set of psychological traits offering a new lens through which to understand skepticism and potentially new tools for public health officials scrambling to try to persuade people to get vaccinated.

Dr. Omer and a team of scientists found that skeptics were much more likely than nonskeptics to have a highly developed sensitivity for liberty the rights of individuals and to have less deference to those in positions of power.

Skeptics were also twice as likely to care a lot about the purity of their bodies and their minds. They disapprove of things they consider disgusting, and the mind-set defies neat categorization: It could be religious halal or kosher or entirely secular, like people who care deeply about toxins in foods or in the environment.

Scientists have found similar patterns among skeptics in Australia and Israel, and in a broad sample of vaccine-hesitant people in 24 countries in 2018.

At the root are these moral intuitions these gut feelings and they are very strong, said Jeff Huntsinger, a social psychologist at Loyola University Chicago who studies emotion and decision-making and collaborated with Dr. Omers team. Its very hard to override them with facts and information. You cant reason with them in that way.

These qualities tend to predominate among conservatives but they are present among liberals too. They are also present among people with no politics at all.

Kasheem Delesbore, a warehouse worker in northeastern Pennsylvania, is neither conservative nor liberal. He does not consider himself political and has never voted. But he is skeptical of the vaccines along with many institutions of American power.

Mr. Delesbore, 26, has seen information online that a vaccine might harm his body. He is not sure what to make of it. But his faith in God gives him confidence: Whatever happens is Gods will. There is little he can do to influence it. (Manufacturers of the three vaccines approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration say they are safe.)

The vaccines have also raised a fundamental question of power. There are many things in Mr. Delesbores life that he does not control. Not the schedule at the warehouse where he works. Or the way he is treated by the customers at his other job, a Burger King. The decision about whether to get vaccinated, he believes, should be one of them.

May 2, 2021, 11:15 p.m. ET

I have that choice to decide whether I put something in my own body, Mr. Delesbore said. Anybody should.

Mr. Delesbore has had many jobs, most of them through temporary agencies at a park concession stand, at an auto parts warehouse, at a FedEx warehouse, and at a frozen food warehouse. He is sometimes overcome by a sense that he will never be able to get beyond the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. He remembers once breaking down to his parents.

I told them, what am I supposed to do? he said. How are we supposed to make a living? Buy a house and start a family? How?

Like many people interviewed for this article, Mr. Delesbore spends a lot of time online. He is hungry to make sense of the world, but it often seems rigged and it is hard to trust things. He is especially suspicious of how fast the vaccines were developed. He used to work at a factory of the drug company Sanofi, so he knows a bit about the process. He believes there is a lot that Americans are not being told. Vaccines are just one small piece of the picture.

Conspiratorial thinking is another predictor of vaccine hesitancy, according to the 2018 study. Conspiracy theories can be comforting, a way to get ones bearings during rapid change in the culture or the economy, by providing narratives that bring order. They are finding fertile ground because of a decades-long decline in trust in government, and a sharp rise in inequality that has led to a sense, among many Americans, that the government is no longer working on their behalf.

Theres a whole world of secrets and stuff that we dont see in our everyday lives, Mr. Delesbore said. Its politics, its entertainment, its history. Everything is a facade.

The moral preference for liberty and individual rights that the social psychologists found to be common among skeptics has been strengthened by the countrys deepening political polarization. Branden Mirro, a Republican in Nazareth, Pa., has been skeptical of nearly everything concerning the pandemic. He believes that mask requirements impinge on his rights and does not plan to get vaccinated. In fact, he sees the very timing of the virus as suspicious.

This whole thing was a sham, he said. They planned it to cause mass panic and get Trump out of office.

Mr. Mirro, who is 30, grew up in a large Italian-American family in northeastern Pennsylvania. His father owned a landscaping business and later invested in real estate. His mother battled a yearslong addiction to methamphetamine. He said she died this year with fentanyl in her bloodstream.

From an early age, politics was an outlet that brought meaning and importance. He has volunteered for presidential campaigns, watched inaugurations, and gone to rallies for Donald J. Trump. He even went to Washington on Jan. 6, the day of the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

He said that he went because he wanted to stand up for his freedoms, and that he did not go inside the Capitol or support the violence that happened. He also said he believed that Democrats have been hypocritical in how they responded to that event, compared with the unrest in cities last summer following the murder of George Floyd.

Democrats, he said, used to fight for things that were good. He has a picture of John F. Kennedy up on his wall. But they have become dangerous, he said, canceling people and creating racial divisions by what he sees as a relentless emphasis on racial differences.

This isnt the country I grew up in, he said. I have a love for this country, but its turning into something ugly.

Vaccine skeptics are sometimes just as wary of the medical establishment as they are about the government.

Brittany Richey, a tutor in Las Vegas, does not want to get one of the vaccines because she does not trust the drug companies that produced them. She pointed to studies that she said described pharmaceutical companies paying doctors to suppress unfavorable trial results. She keeps a folder on her computer of them.

Ms. Richey said that when she was 19, she was put into a line of girls waiting for the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical and other cancers, after a routine doctors appointment. She said she did not fully understand what the shot was and why she was being asked to get it.

Thats not informed consent, thats coercion, said Ms. Richey, who is now 33.

Ms. Richey is also worried about the ingredients of the vaccines. She is trying to get pregnant, and she knows that pregnant women were excluded from vaccine trials. She does not want to risk it.

A portion of those who are hesitant will eventually get vaccinated. According to Drew Linzer, the director of the polling firm Civiqs, fewer people are unsure about the vaccines now than in the fall, but the percentage of hard noes has remained fairly constant. As of last week, about 7 percent say they are unsure, he said, and about 24 percent say they will never take it.

Mary Beth Sefton, a retired nurse in Wyoming, Mich., who is a moderate conservative, is not opposed to all vaccines: She usually gets a flu shot. But she worries that the Covid-19 vaccines were developed so quickly that there might be side effects that have not surfaced yet. So she has not gotten a vaccine yet despite being eligible for several months.

Ms. Sefton, who is 73 and describes herself as a person who doesnt like being told what to do, says the politicization of the virus has made it hard to find information she trusts.

The polarization makes it much harder to figure out what is real, she said.

She thinks she might eventually get a vaccine. Her husband is bedridden and she is his primary caregiver. And she would be cut off from some in her family if she remains unvaccinated. But she is nervous.

I still feel exceedingly cautious, she said. It is a basic gut feeling.

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What Covid-19 Vaccine Skeptics Have in Common - The New York Times