The Latest: China pledges 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses
By The Associated Press
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Ahn Young-joon
Members of the Korean Health Workers Union wearing protective gear shout slogans during a rally to call for an increase in the number of nurses assigned to Covid-19 treatment wards and for better treatment of medical personnel in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021.
Credit: Paul Chiasson
Matt Williamson
Victoria Dickens wears a mask and face shield as she waits for her class assignment at Summit Elementary School in Summit, Miss., on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, during the first day of the 2021-22 school year for students in the McComb School District. The school district is requiring face masks on buses and campuses this school year.
Eraldo Peres
A student arrives for the first day back to in-person classes at a public school during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, after a year and a half of remote learning.
Ted S. Warren
FILE - In this March 4, 2021 file photo, a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine rests on a table at a drive-up mass vaccination site in Puyallup, Wash., south of Seattle. Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine brought in more than $4 billion in second-quarter sales, Thursday, Aug. 5, pushing the vaccine developer into a profit.
Vincent Thian
FILE - In this June 1, 2021 file photo, motorists wearing face masks wait in front of the Twin Towers during the first day of Full Movement Control Order (MCO) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia’s daily coronavirus infections doubled in just three weeks despite a national lockdown, Thursday, Aug. 5. The health ministry reported new cases as daily infections have continued to surge.
Vincent Thian
A Malaysian nurse vaccinates a Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines to an elderly woman in her house in Sabab Bernam, central Selangor state, Malaysia, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Medical teams are going house to house in rural villages to reach out to elderly citizens as the government seeks to ramp up its vaccination program. Despite a strict lockdown, the pandemic has worsened with more than 844,000 confirmed cases nationwide and over 6,200 deaths.
Vincent Thian
A nurse administers a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a farmer outside his home in rural Sabab Bernam, central Selangor state, Malaysia, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Medical teams are going house to house in rural villages to reach out to elderly citizens as the government seeks to ramp up its vaccination program. Despite a strict lockdown, the pandemic has worsened with more than 844,000 confirmed cases nationwide and over 6,200 deaths.
Daniel Pockett
Healthcare staff watch as workers construct a pop-up COVID-19 testing site in the carpark of a college in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Australia's second-largest city Melbourne is into its sixth lockdown with a state government leader blaming the nation's slow COVID-19 vaccination rollout for the decision.
Kantaro Komiya
A woman wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus carries a parasol as a thermometer shows the outside temperature at 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021.
Vincent Thian
A nurse administers a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to an durian fruit vendor at his house in rural Sabab Bernam, central Selangor state, Malaysia, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Medical teams are going house to house in rural villages to reach out to elderly citizens as the government seeks to ramp up its vaccination program. Despite a strict lockdown, the pandemic has worsened with more than 844,000 confirmed cases nationwide and over 6,200 deaths.
Koji Sasahara
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk under a water mist in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. New cases surge in Tokyo to record levels during the Olympic Games.
Susan Walsh
President Joe Biden waves before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, July 28, 2021. Biden is traveling to the Lehigh Valley operations facility for Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania to advocate for government investments and clean energy as ways to strengthen U.S. manufacturing.
Esteban Felix
Meng Weining, vice president of Sinovac, fourth from right, and Chile's Health Minister Enrique Paris, second from right, pose with others for a group selfie after a press conference in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Weining announced Sinovac pharmaceutical company plans to build a vaccine production laboratory as well as an investigation center for respiratory viruses in Chile.
Rajanish Kakade
A health worker administers COVID-19 vaccine to an elderly woman who has difficulty in moving around inside their house during a door to door vaccination program in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021.
STR
A woman receive a throat swab during mass testing for COVID-19 in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. The coronavirus’s delta variant is challenging China’s costly strategy of isolating cities, prompting warnings that Chinese leaders who were confident they could keep the virus out of the country need a less disruptive approach.
Ariana Cubillos
Elderly men walk in a hall of La Providencia San Antonio, a home for the elderly, amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. Most of the elderly residents of the home, which is supported by donations, don't have relatives to come and visit them.
Mark Schiefelbein
People wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19 ride bicycles across an intersection during the morning rush hour in Beijing, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. The coronavirus’s delta variant is challenging China’s costly strategy of isolating cities, prompting warnings that Chinese leaders who were confident they could keep the virus out of the country need a less disruptive approach.
STR
Residents line up to be tested for COVID-19 in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province Tuesday, Aug. 03, 2021. The coronavirus’s delta variant is challenging China’s costly strategy of isolating cities, prompting warnings that Chinese leaders who were confident they could keep the virus out of the country need a less disruptive approach.
Marta Lavandier
Francesca Anacleto, 12, receives her first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot from nurse Jorge Tase, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. On Tuesday, the CDC added more than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases in the state over the previous three days, pushing the seven-day average to one the highest counts since the pandemic began, an eightfold increase since July 4.
Nancy Pierce
In this photo provided by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, teacher Joanne Browning works with a first grade student at Rea Farms STEAM Academy, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' summer program, in Charlotte, NC, Monday, June 21, 2021. Across the country, school districts were able to greatly expand their summer offerings by leveraging federal pandemic relief funding.
STR
A worker disinfects the flooring outside the inflated cabins at the pop-up Huo-Yan Laboratory set up in an expo center to test samples for covid-19 virus in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province Wednesday, July 28, 2021. China's worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year and a half ago escalated Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, with dozens more cases around the country, the sealing-off of one city and the punishment of its local leaders.
Andrea Comas
People queue to receive donated food in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Food requests have increased considerably in the last months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ramon Espinosa
A nurse gives a pregnant woman a shot of the Cuban Abdala vaccine for COVID-19 at a clinic during the new coronavirus pandemic in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. ≈
Christopher Dolan
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf speaks outside Cafe Rinaldi in Old Forge, Pa. on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Wolf visited the Old Forge restaurant to highlight almost $2.4 million in state grants that were awarded to hospitality industry businesses in Lackawanna County.
Nancy Pierce
In this photo provided by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, students attending Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' summer program blow bubbles at recess, at McAlpine Elementary School, in Charlotte, NC, Thursday June 17, 2021. Dubbed "Camp CMS," the district's programming aims to help students make academic progress and reconnect with their peers for in-person learning in the fall. Like many school districts across the country, the programming is an unprecedented expansion of summer opportunities powered by an infusion of federal and philanthropic funding.
Nancy Pierce
In this photo provided by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, second-grade students at McAlpine Elementary School take part in the classroom learning portion of Camp CMS, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' summer program, in Charlotte, NC, Thursday June 17, 2021. Across the country, school districts were able to greatly expand their summer offerings by leveraging federal pandemic relief funding.
Rogelio V. Solis
An individual wearing a face mask exits the Ouachita Parish Courthouse in Monroe, La., Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Signage at this and other parish offices emphasizes the necessity of wearing a face mask as Louisiana is reinstating a statewide mask mandate for both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents in all indoor locations, including schools and colleges as the state experiences the highest per capita COVID-19 growth in the nation, driven by the Delta variant and one of the country's lowest vaccination rates.
Michel Euler
Anti heath pass demonstrators stage a protest next to a cafe terrace outside the Constitutional Council in Paris, Thursday, Aug. 5,2021. France's Constitutional Council is deciding on Thursday whether the health pass that is to open the doors and terraces to cafes, restaurants, trains and hospitals starting next week is in line with the nation's most cherished principles.
Ted S. Warren
FILE - This Nov. 13, 2018 file photo a South Lake Union streetcar with an advertisement for Amazon.com's same-day delivery service passes by an Amazon office building in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood. Amazon has pushed back its return-to-office date for tech and corporate workers until January 2022 as COVID-19 cases surge nationally due to the delta variant. The Seattle Times reported on the tech giant's delay in returning to offices from internal messages.
Bob Self
Wearing layers of protective gear, RN Taylor Perri prepares her equipment tray for the next patient as she works in the COVID-19 ward at UF Health's downtown in Jacksonville, Fla., campus Friday, July 30, 2021. The second surge of COVID-19 infections in Jacksonville is stretching the capacity of area medical facilities to care for patients.
Basilio Sepe
Police officers inspect motorists at a checkpoint during a stricter lockdown as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus on the outskirts of Marikina City, Philippines on Friday, August 6, 2021. Thousands of people jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital, defying social distancing restrictions, after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown that started Friday.
Basilio Sepe
A woman crosses a highway as traffic builds up near a checkpoint during a stricter lockdown as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus on the outskirts of Marikina City, Philippines on Friday, August 6, 2021. Thousands of people jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital, defying social distancing restrictions, after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown that started Friday.
Basilio Sepe
Police inspect motorists at a checkpoint during a stricter lockdown as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus on the outskirts of Marikina City, Philippines on Friday, August 6, 2021. Thousands of people jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital, defying social distancing restrictions, after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown that started Friday.
Basilio Sepe
Police wearing protective gear inspect motorcycle riders at a checkpoint during a stricter lockdown as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus on the outskirts of Marikina City, Philippines on Friday, August 6, 2021. Thousands of people jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital, defying social distancing restrictions, after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown that started Friday.
Basilio Sepe
Police officers inspect motorcycle riders at a checkpoint during a stricter lockdown as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus at the outskirts of Marikina City, Philippines on Friday, August 6, 2021. Thousands of people jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital, defying social distancing restrictions, after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown that started Friday.
Basilio Sepe
Motorists queue at a checkpoint during a stricter lockdown as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus disease at the outskirts of Marikina City, Philippines on Friday, August 6, 2021. Thousands of people jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital, defying social distancing restrictions, after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown that started Friday.
Andy Wong
FILE - In this June 9, 2021, file photo, a man wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus browses his smartphone lining up with masked residents to receive their vaccine at a vaccination point at the Central Business District in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged 2 billion doses of Chinese vaccines would be supplied to the world through this year and $100 million would be donated to a U.N.-backed distribution program, state media reported.
Andrea Comas
A man checks his bag of donated food as he walks past people in a queue for donations, in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Food requests have increased considerably in the last months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Li Xueren
FILE - In this July 6, 2021, file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the CPC and World Political Parties Summit in Beijing. Xi pledged 2 billion doses of Chinese vaccines would be supplied to the world through this year and $100 million would be donated to a U.N.-backed distribution program, state media reported.
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged that 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be supplied to the world through this year, increasing China’s commitment as the largest exporter of the shots.
Xi’s announcement was delivered late Thursday at a vaccine forum China hosted virtually.
The figure likely includes the 770 million doses China has already donated or exported already and it’s not clear if it includes a COVAX agreement for Chinese producers to supply 550 million doses.
Xi also promised to donate $100 million to the UN-backed COVAX program, which aims to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. Vaccine distributions have been starkly unequal, as wealthy countries now consider issuing booster shots to their citizens and poorer nations struggle to get enough vaccines for a first dose.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese shots, the vast majority of which are from Sinopharm and Sinovac, have already been administered to people in many countries across the world. However, there are concerns about whether they protect adequately against the new, highly transmissible delta variant.
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MANILA —Thousands of people have jammed coronavirus vaccination centers in the Philippine capital after false news spread that unvaccinated residents would be deprived of cash aid or barred from leaving home during a two-week lockdown.
Officials placed Metropolitan Manila under lockdown until Aug. 20 as a new spike in COVID-19 infections that health officials say could be due to the highly contagious delta variant threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
The fake news reports that spread a day before Friday’s lockdown start sent large crowds heading for vaccination centers in the cities of Manila, Las Pinas and Antipolo even without prior registrations.
In Manila alone, up to 22,000 people showed up outside vaccination centers before dawn.
Police were forced to stop vaccinations in at least one of the shopping malls and asked the crowds to return home.
Critics partly blamed President Rodrigo Duterte for the confusion. Duterte warned Filipinos last week that those who refuse to get vaccinated will not be allowed to leave their homes as a safeguard against the spread of the delta variant. He acknowledged that there was no specific law for such a restriction.
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BEIJING — China recorded another 80 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Friday, as the country seeks to control its widest flare-up since the original outbreak with a combination of lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions.
Of the new cases, 58 were found in the eastern city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, where the highly contagious delta variant spread among airport workers in the provincial capital of Nanjing. Other cases were found in six provinces from tropical Hainan in the south to Inner Mongolia bordering on Russia.
That has taken the number of cases linked to the Nanjing outbreak to more than 460 since the middle of last month, prompting renewed travel restrictions, community lockdowns and the sealing off of Zhangjiajie, a city of 1.5 million.
Such measures have been implemented with much success following local outbreaks under China’s “zero tolerance” approach to the pandemic, although they are being seen as taking a major toll on society and the economy, stirring speculation that a new approach may be needed that allows for the virus to circulate to some manageable degree.
China says it has administered more than 1.6 billion doses of vaccine, although questions have been raised about the efficacy of the domestic jabs.
Another 44 imported cases were reported on Friday and 1,370 people are currently being treated for COVID-19, 34 of them in serious condition, according to the National Health Commission.
China has reported 4,636 deaths out of 93,498 cases.
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SEOUL, South Korea —— South Korea says it will extend the toughest distancing rules imposed on the greater Seoul area for two more weeks as its worst COVID-19 outbreak at home has no immediate signs of abating.
South Korea on Friday reported 1,704 new cases over the past 24-hour period, taking the country’s total to 207,406, including 2,113 deaths from COVID-19. It’s the 31st day in a row for South Korea’s daily tally to be above 1,000.
Senior health official Lee Ki-Il said the average number of daily infections this week is 1,451, a decrease from last week’s 1,506. Lee still calls the size of the ongoing outbreak “big” and says it’s unclear if the outbreak will display a downward trajectory soon.
Lee says authorities will continue to place the Seoul area under the toughest distancing restrictions until Aug. 22. He says the second highest distancing guidelines enforced on non-capital regions will also be extended for two additional weeks.
In Seoul and nearby cities and towns, private gatherings of three or more people are banned after 6 p.m. High-risk facilities such as nightclubs are not allowed to operate, and weddings and funerals can be attended by up to 49 people. ———
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey students from kindergarten to 12th grade will be required to wear masks in schools when the new year begins in a few weeks, Gov. Phil Murphy is set to announce Friday as COVID-19 cases rise in the state.
Murphy, a Democrat seeking reelection this year, will formally announce the decision Friday, according to spokesperson Mahen Gunaratna.
The decision to require masks is an about-face from just a few weeks ago when Murphy said it would take a “deterioration” of COVID-19 data to require masks.
The state’s figures, like many across the country, have been trending up in recent weeks. The seven-day rolling average of new cases climbed over the past two weeks from 512 on July 20 to 1,104 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The surging figures are part of a nationwide struggle with the contagious delta variant, which has been leading — along with vaccination holdouts — to higher hospitalization rates across the country.
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HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday signed an executive order that allows municipal leaders to require both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to wear face coverings indoors at public places within their respective cities and towns.
This latest order lets municipal leaders move beyond Lamont’s current edict, which requires only unvaccinated people to wear masks while in indoor public places. It also requires everyone to wear them in specific settings, such as health care facilities, prisons, day care sites and public and private transit.
“There are some pockets of the state that are lagging behind others and some leaders in those areas have requested the option of requiring everyone to wear masks until they can get their vaccination rates higher,” the Democrat said in a written statement.
Also Thursday, Lamont signed an order that will ultimately enable Dr. Deidre Gifford, the acting public health commissioner, to require all unvaccinated nursing home staff to be tested weekly for COVID-19. This move comes as public health officials plan to visit every nursing home to check on the number of employees who’ve been vaccinated.
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has announced new vaccination requirements for state employees who work in settings where they interact with the vulnerable — or else face strict face-covering requirements and regular coronavirus testing.
The governor said Thursday that the requirements taking effect Sept. 1 apply to employees at 48 different state facilities. They include 11 state health care facilities and 12 facilities under the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. They also include six detention centers and 18 correctional facilities as well as the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home.
Hogan adds that “we are also strongly urging the private operators of the state’s 227 nursing homes to institute similar vaccination requirements for their employees.”
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SEATTLE — Amazon has pushed back its return-to-office date for tech and corporate workers until January as coronavirus infections rise nationally due to the more contagious delta variant.
Unlike its Seattle-area rival Microsoft and other tech giants, Amazon will not mandate employees receive a coronavirus vaccine before they return to the office. Instead, the company said Thursday that unvaccinated employees will be required to wear masks in the office.
The surge of cases has upended many companies’ plans to bring office workers back this fall, a drive already complicated by efforts to accommodate widespread employee preference for flexible remote work policies, and debates over how to handle vaccine and masking policies.
Other companies that have postponed reopening plans include Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Lyft.
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BALTIMORE — Baltimore is the latest U.S. city to return to indoor mask requirements as coronavirus infections rise.
Mayor Brandon Scott said Thursday that indoor masking regulations will take effect Monday, giving businesses and citizens a few days to adjust. The indoor mask rules are mandated for everyone, regardless of vaccination status.
The order came as the city health commission said new virus cases have increased 374% over the past month. As is the case across the nation, the delta variant is driving those infections.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — The number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Oklahoma has topped 900 for the first time since February, which a University of Oklahoma doctor says is his biggest concern due to a lack of nurses.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health said Thursday that there are 954 hospitalizations, with 274 patients in intensive care.
Dr. Dale Bratzler at University of Oklahoma Health says that “back in January, February, we handled the capacity with the big numbers of cases. We can’t do it now because we don’t have enough nurses and personnel to take care of all of those patients.”
OU Health has three hospitals plus clinics around the state and says its nursing staff is 19% below what is needed, with about 400 positions unfilled.
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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — One of Iowa’s largest health care provides has announced it will require its more than 33,000 employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus — or lose their jobs.
The West Des Moines-based system announced the vaccine requirement Thursday.
CEO and president Clay Holderman says the vaccination requirement is meant to protect the system’s employees and patients. The requirement applies to all employees, regardless of whether they provide direct patient care.
UnityPoint employees must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1. Those who refuse must resign or be fired.
Employees can request an exemption for medical or religious reasons, and pregnant employees — while strongly encouraged to get vaccinated — can request a temporary deferral.
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TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas’ most populous county has ordered masks worn by students and staff in elementary schools in hopes of checking the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.
The Johnson County Commission voted 5-2 Thursday to impose the requirement for schools from kindergarten through the sixth grade.
The commission faced criticism both from health care providers who urged members to go further and from parents and other residents who opposed a mask mandate.
Johnson County, in the Kansas City area, has six public school districts with about 96,000 students or 20% of the state’s total. The mandate affects roughly 50,000 students
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MILAN — Italy will require a vaccination pass on long-distance transportation, including high-speed trains and ferries between regions, beginning Sept. 1.
Government ministers met Thursday to decide additional requirements for the so-called Green Pass, which will be required from Friday to access indoor dining, theaters, indoor swimming pools, gyms, museums and other gathering places.
Under the new restrictions, access will be granted to anyone who has had at least one dose of vaccine in the last nine months, who has recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months, or has tested negative in the previous 48 hours.
Ministers also say school will resume in September with all students present in classrooms, after a year and a half of at least part-time distance learning. All students over age 6 will have to wear masks and maintain social distancing.
