Category: Covid-19

Each year, students from the University of Missouri work with students from India on joint story projects that link their two countries. This years stories deal with how various industries are faring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was overseen by Laura Ungar, an adjunct instructor at the University of Missouri and investigative and enterprise editor at The Courier Journal in Louisville, and journalist Sujoy Dhar, founder of the Indian news agency India Blooms, based in Kolkata, India.

Its been more than 400 days since the NBA announced it would be suspending its season, the first of many postponements or cancellations echoed by sports leagues across the globe in the following days.

The United States had 1,267 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by the end of that night on March 11, 2020. That number has since inched toward 170 million cases worldwide, despite national and state governments around the world declaring unprecedented lockdowns and public health and safety measures.

Over a year later, Indias highest regarded cricket league, the India Premier League, continued to play on despite over 350,000 people testing positive in India by early May.

But amid the catastrophic COVID-19 situation in India, the league which has an estimated brand value of $6.8 billion has been postponed. The decision was made after several players tested positive for the virus.

Officials had been advocating for continued play because of the leagues importance to the countrys overall well-being. An anonymous IPL official told Reuters that the IPL provides a much-needed distraction for all from the doom and gloom around us.

Another factor that may be holding the league back from canceling or postponing the season? The unknown monetary impact on the $2.55 billion dollar television deal that runs through 2022.

The league first started play in 2008 but is already the sixth-largest in terms of revenue in the world and has surpassed Major League Baseball in sponsorship revenue.

Many IPL teams have made money this year, said Thomas Abraham, co-founder of SportzPower, an independently owned media company in India.

An Asian Football Confederation Champions League match is held without spectators in India.(Photo: Courtesy All India Football Federation)

According to Abraham, COVID-19 had zero impact on the big leagues like the IPL.

Many IPL teams have made money this year. The big leagues have managed to maintain the numbers because they have a decent amount of media rights and higher levels of viewership. We do not really know what is going to happen to smaller leagues.

However, not all sporting events or leagues deliver like IPL.

Some premier domestic leagues of India, such as the Ranji Trophy, will not be held for the first time in 87 years.

As a second spike hits its peak in India, the future of the countrys most popular sport, cricket, is uncertain.

"We have lost the year 2020-2021, said Snehasish Ganguly, honorary secretary of The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), a state unit of India's cricket board, BCCI.

We are almost on the verge of losing 2021-2022 because nobody knows how long the pandemic is going to last. The year that we have lost, without cricket, has impacted the careers of youngsters, their mentality and mindset towards the game, he said.

A number of players have already opted out of the IPL due to COVID-19 concerns, similar to the NFLs decision to allow players to opt out of the 2020 season. Even newspapers had started to boycott coverage of the league because of its willingness to play during the crisis.

Meanwhile, sports teams and organizations in the United States are trying to slowly navigate through a pandemic that some state governments view as essentially over.

The Texas Rangers tried 100 percent (capacity) on their Opening Day, the Indy 500 is going to have 135,000 people at their event and golf tournaments are bringing people back in, but it still remains to be seen whether there'll be another surge again, said Jim Riordan, director of the MBA Sport Management program at Florida Atlantic University.

Outbreaks and positivity rates are going to dictate how quickly and how fast that each city can move.

The disparity between cities and allowed attendance at sporting events has been substantial in recent months. The Kansas City Chiefs allowed Arrowhead Stadium to fill to 22 percent capacity for every game, but the Chicago Bears didnt allow a single spectator into Soldier Field the entire season.

The Kansas City Chiefs football team plays before a limited crowd.(Photo: Jackson Stone)

Even teams that accommodated fans couldnt uphold their commitment to everyone who had bought tickets in advance because of the reduced capacity regulations.

It was disappointing for a lot of season ticket holders just because of the way they did the spacing in stadiums, said Chiefs season ticket member Jonathan Liddle. Many of us that had tickets for quite a while werent allowed to attend games and that was unfortunate. But, required and necessary.

The Kansas City Chiefs football team plays before a limited crowd.(Photo: Jackson Stone)

While ticket sales are an important piece of revenue for professional sports teams and college athletic departments, they only make up a portion of the revenue earned on game day. Not having spectators in the seats has been costly on many levels.

That takes away a lot of not only main revenue, but also ancillary revenue, said Riordan. You have ticket sales, but people who buy tickets to come to games also pay for parking, souvenirs, concessions, hot dogs, beer, food. All that's gone by the wayside.

Baseball, a $10 billion industry, lives off fan revenue, similar to other major sports leagues. When a family of four attends an MLB game, they spend approximately $234.38 on tickets, parking, foodand merchandise. During a typical 162-game season, gate receipts the sum of money taken at a sporting venue for the sale of tickets add up to $2.84 billion for the league.

That revenue took a big hit during the pandemic.

The New York Yankees, the highest valued MLB franchise and second most valuable franchise in the world at $5 billion, suffered a dramatic revenue drop in 2020. For the shortened 60-game season, the Yankees brought in $108 million, a steep decline from their $683 million dollar figure in 2019.

However, teams with lower payrolls and expected attendance such as the Kansas City Royals still managed to draw in $109 million in 2020. That could be in large part to the new television deal that was struck before the season that was rumored to have doubled their previous deal in terms of value. Business regulations in different areas also varied, which allowed merchandise to be bought in-person in select cities.

A socially distanced crowd of 10,000 people take in a game between the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals on April 4, 2021 in Kansas City, Mo.(Photo: Jackson Stone)

The importance of television cannot be overstated since the start of the pandemic last March. With no fans, or limited fans in the stadiums, teams and marketers have turned to television for advertising and brand recognition over in-stadium branding and ads.

The eyeballs right now during COVID and the pandemic, or through last football season and in spring training, were not in the seats so to speak, said Riordan. Most of the eyeballs are now watching on television.

In response, Riordan said FAU worked with The Ballpark of The Palm Beaches, the home of the Astros and Nationals for spring training, to display ads on the outfield wall and behind the catcher instead of on the scoreboard or sponsoring in between inning activities.

This way, more ads reach the viewer watching on cable or streaming services and marketers arent wasting money on ads in locations inside the stadium that will hardly be seen.

Teams have also started to become creative with their ballpark or arena to host events or gatherings that are unique to sporting venues.

Theyre using their parking lots to hold events like miniature car rallies, car shows, or different carnivals and fairs where people can social distance, Dr. Riordan said. A lot of the facilities are now being used as vaccination sites so thats a way of generating income as well.

A socially distanced crowd of 10,000 people take in a game between the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals on April 4, 2021 in Kansas City, Mo.(Photo: Jackson Stone)

Covid-19 has dealt a blow to the budding careers of athletes in both India and the U.S.

If tournaments and leagues do not take place, football players, especially those who are professionals, they would not get their salaries," said Subrata Dutta, senior vice president of the All India Football Federation.

According to sports administrators, COVID-19 protocols and social "bubbles" are also affecting the players' mentally.

Said Dutta: If the players are confined to a room or a place, if they cannot go out and mix with people or visit their friends and relatives, they are mentally affected.

If the players are confined during a two-month-long tournament, it definitely takes a toll on their mental health. They would be demoralised and demotivated.

The players might need a psychiatrist or sports doctor to come out of the mental agony.

As Snehasish Ganguly of CAB put it: In this situation, a lot of cricketers might have diverted themselves from sports to studies or are focusing on other parts of their careers.

Despite the differences between the two countries, one thing remains constant.

Everyone looks to sports and entertainment as an outlet, Riordan said.

Working 9-5 or a lot longer, five days a week, they look to sports and entertainment as a way of getting away from all that and getting refreshed and just enjoying themselves. Especially now since they've been cooped up in houses and not been able to do that.

While Americans may be able to watch and support their favorite teams in the stands, many in India dont have the same option.

But they are hopeful.

"Despite the fact that our way of playing sports and life in general are being affected, I believe that sports have a bright chance of picking up post the lockdown, said Sankar UV, director at the Sports School, which is one of Indias first integrated schools for sports and academics.

There will certainly be the aspect of heightened safety protocols for the foreseeable future, since the people of our country have become more conscious of their health.

According to Thomas Abraham, there is going to be a process in which the whole ecosystem figures out how to get back to play.

The momentum has been disrupted in a big way. Businesses have to come back on track, people need to have financial stability. There are many people who have lost their jobs," he said.

Financially, the potential consumers of sports have been affected. It is a process that has to start again. There is no straight answer here. The economy has a huge role to play."

Whether or not health and safety protocols allow fans around the world to celebrate their team in person by the end of the year, sports will be at the forefront of public events to bring the community back together.

When we had the 9/11 tragedy, people looked to sports, Riordan said.

People looked to the (2001) World Series and getting back to playing games a week later. We had President Bush throw out the first pitch. It was a national event. It was a national unification event.

Sports are certainly a unifier. It's bringing people together. And it'll do that here (with COVID-19) too.

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In sports stadiums worldwide, COVID-19 quiets the roar of the crowd - News-Leader

A North Olympic Peninsula woman in her 80s whose entire family was unvaccinated became Clallam Countys 12th COVID-19 fatality late last week as the travel-heavy Memorial Day weekend arrived.

The woman, who was being treated in a hospital intensive care unit, is the 16th person to die from the coronavirus in Jefferson and Clallam counties even as Jefferson stayed the second most vaccinated county and Clallam the third.

The woman, whose death was announced Friday, contracted it locally, Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry said at the last of 65 public coronavirus briefings.

Berry did not know if the family has since been vaccinated, she said Saturday in a text message.

We certainly do offer vaccinations in these kinds of cases, Berry said.

Jefferson County recorded its fourth death from the coronavirus last week, a woman in her 60s who was undergoing cancer treatment.

She contracted COVID-19 the week after she received her second shot, about a week before the vaccine would have become fully effective, the first death of a partially vaccinated individual, Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke said Saturday.

He noted that an estimated 30 percent of those who survive the disease have lingering side effects. That estimate does not include undiagnosed cases equalling four to 10 times the number of cases actually reported, Locke added.

Berry reported 83,755 doses of COVID-19 vaccine distributed among Clallam Countys 77,000 residents as of Friday.

Medical officials say, and studies have shown, the vaccine is more effective than was first thought in preventing infection and transmission.

Its nearly impossible to get this virus outdoors, Berry said at Fridays briefing.

For individuals who are testing positive for COVID-19, when we do their contact tracing, we find that three-quarters of the people they come in contact with have been fully vaccinated, and the virus has stopped there.

That really shows the power of the vaccine to decrease transmission, she said.

The troubling trend is that while we are seeing less and less infection, we are seeing more and more severe infections as we move forward.

Your risk of getting severely ill if you contract this virus if you are unvaccinated is at least higher than it used to be when we first started this, Berry said.

Get vaccinated so youre protected from these more severe strains and so that we can keep getting these numbers down and keep getting our life more back to normal.

On Memorial Day 2020, Clallam had 25 cases compared to 1,345 as of Saturday, while Jefferson had 30 cases compared to 416 Saturday, or 4.8 cases a day in the two counties over the last year.

What I am worried about is people traveling, Berry said before this years holiday weekend.

In Clallam County, 55 percent of residents over 16 are fully vaccinated, and 61 percent have received their first shots.

In Jefferson County, 72 percent of residents have received their first shot, exceeding Inslees threshold.

Locke and Berry urged unvaccinated residents to wear masks indoors this holiday weekend but said its safe to go maskless outdoors.

If we see large groups of unvaccinated people gathering indoors, we are going to see outbreaks, Berry said.

Gov. Jay Inslee has pledged to allow businesses to restore 100 percent capacity occupancy by June 30, and earlier if 70 percent of the states 16 and older population has received at least their first dose of the vaccine.

Honestly, I think June 30 is a little concerning, Berry said.

The probability that well fully hit 70 percent by June 30 is low. Were likely to still see transmission on June 30.

Locke said the problem with the 70 percent herd-immunity threshold is that on any given day, Jefferson County includes more than residents, one reason hes keeping his mask mandate in effect for people entering businesses.

Exposure is really about the likelihood of how much infection is circulating in the community and how much is moving within the community from travelers and visitors, he said.

I dont want businesses to have to battle visitors, Locke said, adding that its impractical to have them screen all customers to determine if they are vaccinated.

I dont know where the state will be in another month, but I think its possible that 70 percent of 16 and older will have their initial vaccinations.

What worries Locke is the spread of variants, which vaccines are effective in fighting. If variants make incursions among those who are unvaccinated, then a higher-percentage herd immunity may be needed to reopen the economy.

The math says the immunity level has to be in the 80 to 85 percent range to stop transmission of the current UK-type COVID variants, Locke said.

________

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at [emailprotected].

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Woman in her 80s dies of COVID-19 - Peninsula Daily News

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More than half of Illinois adults fully vaccinated for COVID-19 - KMOV.com

Sometimes runners take running for granted. You wake up, brush your teeth, eat a quick breakfast (fueling, you will say), run and then go about your day. This occurs day after day, week after week, and month after month without much thought to it. It is no different for the runner than the drive to work; it is just something you do.

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Bob Cawood: Kudos to runners who persevered through the COVID-19 pandemic | COMMENTARY - Capital Gazette

Above all, it isn't because public, hard, tested evidence is growing at pace.

The theory instead seems to persist mostly because of several massive coincidences.

Firstly, Wuhan, where the disease almost certainly began in China, is home to China's major biosafety level 4 laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). It, and two other laboratories in Wuhan, were doing research on coronaviruses, some of it in bats. The WIV sequenced the genetic code of the closest-known ancestor in bats to SARS-CoV-2, a virus called RatG13. It is 96.2% of the way identical to the novel coronavirus that caused the pandemic. One of the WIV's leading researchers, Shi Zhengli, is called the "Bat Lady."

Finally, there's a third coincidence. The Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, key to virus prevention and detection, moved its laboratory in Wuhan on December 2, 2019. The WHO report, written in conjunction with Chinese officials, notes this fact and says it could have been disruptive to a laboratory's operations. It also notes the lab moved to a location near the Huanan Seafood Market, the exotic animal trade center thought to have played a major role in the virus' early spread. The move happened just six days before the first patient experienced Covid-19 symptoms, according to China's account. (He is, the WHO report said, an accountant working for a family company, with no known history of attending crowded events, animal "wet market" contact, or exotic trips to the wilderness. These facts suggest he may have got it in the city, perhaps from another person).

These three pretty huge coincidences foster the lab-leak theory, and mean it has not yet gone away. Western intelligence officials CNN has spoken to say they cannot "disprove" the idea -- or prove it. These coincidences are perhaps why it sits in this hinterland -- never permanently debunked, never proven. Their solution is like "Occam's razor" -- the idea that the simplest explanation is the most likely.

But none of it is solid or even compelling evidence that a lab leak occurred. That evidence may exist, and be super-classified within the government that possesses it. But as it is not public, we can't presume it exists to confirm a bias that China is hiding something terrible.

But the likelihood China is hiding something is of no help either. (Even the WHO team, whose report Chinese officials helped author, admits they would like access to more material and better information -- to hospital blood bank samples from the time of the outbreak, and to raw data across Hubei about possible cases in October and November. Despite making that clear months ago, they have yet to receive it).

This "spillover idea" is messier, and also hard to definitively prove. The WHO investigators share the conclusion of most specialists in this field: that the disease most likely came from bats, via another species, known as an "intermediary animal," and then infected humans.

Why bats? One theory is that because they flap their wings very fast to fly, they have a high average body temperature. When we humans get a virus, we get a fever, which is the body raising our temperature slightly to kill the intruder. Viruses in bats learn to deal with a higher temperature as standard. So if they cross into humans, our basic defense of raising our temperature doesn't work. It also means bats are a reservoir of robust viruses that have learned to survive.

Some scientists think it's possible SARS-CoV-2 could have crossed from bats straight into humans. Most experts -- and the WHO report -- conclude it went via an "intermediary animal," another species that was infected before passing the virus on to humans.

It is in this "intermediary animal" where things could have got even more complicated. The closest bat virus we know of to the novel coronavirus in humans is the RatG13 virus, which the WIV found. Scientists think one way it could have become SARS-CoV-2 is through a "recombination event."

This is where a virus takes something from another virus it meets: a bit like fitting better wheels to a car. It can improve the virus's effectiveness. Finding out where and when this happened is a task of nightmarish complexity. China was regularly screening 69 types of animal looking for rare viruses, it told WHO, during 2019 and likely before. Any one of them -- or many other species not tested -- could have been the place where a recombination event formed SARS-CoV-2.

The Lab Leak theory has a spin-off conspiracy here. It suggests the RatG13 virus could have been turned into SARS-CoV-2 through deliberate human manipulation, called "gain of function" research. Scientists do this by altering viruses in a laboratory, to learn more about how viruses infect and impact humans. It can be dangerous, and was put on pause in the US briefly under the Obama administration. Some scientists say attributing virus changes to "gain of function" research is an easy explanation often misused to explain any change in a virus that could have occurred through natural, complex processes. These scientists discount its role in forming SARS-CoV-2.

Tracing the virus back to the animal where it was first created is extremely hard in an open, permissive environment. It is harder still in China, where a plethora of useful data has not been handed over to the WHO team by the Chinese government.

These issues all complicate the 90-day intelligence review that US President Joe Biden has ordered. On one side of the argument is a ton of circumstantial evidence and coincidence pointing to a lab leak. (US investigators will need hard evidence a leak occurred, and to assess if China even knew it had taken place). On the other side of the argument, supporting the virus' transfer or spillover in nature, is the vast preponderance of scientific research on the subject to date. Yet it too is infuriatingly inconclusive.

Amid all the blame, counter-accusations, suspicions and cover-ups, one problem remains for us humans as a species. We really need to know how and why this virus came to be, so we can stop it from happening again.

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We need to know how Covid-19 emerged so we can stop it happening again - CNN

A 3D-printed coronavirus model is seen in front of a world map and the words "CoronaVirus Disease (Covid-19)" on display in this illustration taken March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

The World Health Organization's (WHO) top emergency expert said on Friday the search for the origin of the coronavirus was being "poisoned by politics", days after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered aides to find answers.

Since the virus outbreak that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, scientists have been trying to solve the puzzle of where the virus originated.

"We would like for everyone out there to separate, if they can, the politics of this issue from the science. This whole process is being poisoned by politics," Mike Ryan told reporters.

A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around Wuhan with Chinese researchers and said in a report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.

It said that "introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway". read more

But many politicians and a number of scientists are not satisfied. read more

Biden on Wednesday ordered aides to find answers to the virus' origin, saying U.S. intelligence agencies were pursuing rival theories, potentially including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China. read more

The United States on Thursday called on the WHO to carry out a second probe.

"Every country and every entity is free to pursue their own particular theories of origin, it's a free world," Ryan said. "WHO is a member state organisation and we seek to work with all of our member states to seek answers collectively."

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, added that the issue required multiple missions and would take time.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Search for origin of COVID-19 'poisoned by politics', says WHO expert - Reuters

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of May 28, 2021, there have been 2,909,073 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 161,287 total cases and 2,792 deaths.

There were no deaths reported to DHHR over the last 24 hours.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,484), Berkeley (12,659), Boone (2,144), Braxton (970), Brooke (2,222), Cabell (8,794), Calhoun (367), Clay (537), Doddridge (621), Fayette (3,510), Gilmer (873), Grant (1,283), Greenbrier (2,852), Hampshire (1,904), Hancock (2,835), Hardy (1,552), Harrison (5,992), Jackson (2,187), Jefferson (4,704), Kanawha (15,280), Lewis (1,261), Lincoln (1,540), Logan (3,208), Marion (4,557), Marshall (3,506), Mason (2,037), McDowell (1,588), Mercer (5,043), Mineral (2,919), Mingo (2,671), Monongalia (9,326), Monroe (1,170), Morgan (1,217), Nicholas (1,840), Ohio (4,275), Pendleton (709), Pleasants (952), Pocahontas (673), Preston (2,927), Putnam (5,276), Raleigh (6,958), Randolph (2,762), Ritchie (747), Roane (649), Summers (838), Taylor (1,249), Tucker (541), Tyler (737), Upshur (1,927), Wayne (3,164), Webster (525), Wetzel (1,377), Wirt (446), Wood (7,879), Wyoming (2,023).

Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Such is the case of Marshall, Preston, and Upshur counties in this report.

Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Grant, Jefferson, Lincoln, Logan, Marshall, Mineral, Monongalia, Morgan, Putnam, and Wayne counties.

Barbour County

9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Barbour County Health Department, 109 Wabash Avenue, Philippi, WV

1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV

Berkeley County

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Ambrose Park, 25404 Mall Drive, Martinsburg, WV

Grant County

Jefferson County

10:00 AM 6:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV

12:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shepherd University Wellness Center Parking Lot, 164 University Drive, Shepherdstown, WV

Lincoln County

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Monongalia County

9:00 AM 12:00 PM, WVU Recreation Center, Lower Level, 2001 Rec Center Drive, Morgantown, WV

Morgan County

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Valley Health War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV

Putnam County

Wayne County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Wayne Community Center, 11580 Rt. 152, Wayne, WV

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WV DHHR: COVID-19 Daily Update 5-28-2021 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday the United States and India are united in trying to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic together and Washington is determined to help India with its coronavirus crisis.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who has spent the past week in the United States seeking help amid a devastating second wave of infections at home, told reporters while standing with Blinken at a State Department meetingthat India is grateful to Washington for strong support and solidarity.

"In the earlier days of COVID, India was there for the United States - something we will never forget," Blinken said. "And now we want to make sure that we're there for India as well."

Blinken said the partnership between the two countries is "vital," "strong" and "increasingly productive."

"We're united in confronting COVID-19 together," Blinken said.

He said the two countries were also united in addressing climate change, and were partnered together directly through the Quad -a four country groupthat also includes Japan and Australia -and through U.N.institutions "in dealing with many of the challenges we face in the region and around the world."

India, the worlds second most-populous country, this month has recorded its highest COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began last year. Only about 3% of Indias 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate among the 10 countries with the most cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has faced mounting criticism for its failure to secure COVID-19 vaccines for its people, even though India is one of the world's biggest producers of vaccines. Indian officials have said Jaishankar has been seeking supplies while in the United States.

Jaishankar said India was appreciative to Washington for its "strong support and solidarity at a moment of great difficulty for us."

U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for South Asia Dean Thompson later told a briefing hosted by the State Department's Foreign Press Center that vaccine manufacturing, procurement and delivery were discussed with Jaishankar, but declined to give details.

He said final decisions were still pending as to where up to 80 million vaccine doses President Joe Biden has promised to send abroad would go.

Thomson said the U.S. Government, state governments, U.S. companies, and private citizens had provided over $500 million in COVID-19 relief supplies to India.

He said the assistance had included redirecting a U.S. order of critical vaccine manufacturing supplies that would allow India to make over 20 million additional doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

India pledged last month to fast-track vaccine imports. Its insistence on local trials and a dispute over indemnity stalled discussions with U.S. firm Pfizer (PFE.N). India scrapped local trials for well-established foreign vaccines on Thursday and a government official said Pfizer shots could arrive by July.

Jaishankar met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Tuesday. Guterres' spokesman said they had a "very good discussion" on "COVID19, the issue of vaccines and also a number of other peace and security issues in general."

U.S.-India ties have grown closer in recent years amid shared concerns about China's rise and they have increased cooperation through the Quad.

U.S. President Joe Bidens Indo-Pacific policy coordinator, Kurt Campbell, said on Wednesday that the United States is looking to convene an in-person summit of leaders of the Quad in the fall, with a focus on infrastructure.

The Quad held a first virtual summit in March and pledged to work closely on COVID-19 vaccines, climate and security.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Blinken says U.S. and India united in tackling COVID-19 - Reuters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:May 28, 2020

COLUMBIA, S.C.With Memorial Day just a few days away and summer break on the horizon, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is encouraging parents to get their children, ages 12 and up, vaccinated as soon as possible to protect against COVID-19.

Getting children vaccinated is important because they can spread the virus to vulnerable people, such as elderly residents, people with preexisting conditions, or those under age 12 who cant get vaccinated. Other preventive measures, such as masks among unvaccinated residents, hand washing, and physically distancing among large groups, are also encouraged.

Children can easily infect their parents, grandparents, teachers, and others that they will have close contact with who may have a higher risk of severe illness, said Dr. Linda Bell, State Epidemiologist. For this reason, we urge parents to consider the risk of serious complications and protect their children, themselves, and others from COVID-19 infection.

As vaccinations increase and cases decline, opportunities for outdoor activities are also on the rise. Though that may spark a sense of normalcy, it is still important for eligible South Carolinians to get their COVID-19 vaccination. Ages 12 and up are eligible for the Pfizer vaccine, and adults 18 and older can also choose between the Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) brand vaccines.

While children are less likely to suffer complications from COVID-19, the virus can still cause some issues, such as Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C. MIS-C can cause kidney failure, heart problems, gastrointestinal problems and severe blood clotting that can result in strokes and organ failure. More than 100 children in South Carolina have developed MIS-C since the start of the pandemic. It is unclear what causes MIS-C, but many of the affected children had COVID-19 or were contacts of those who did. The COVID-19 vaccination will significantly decrease the chances of COVID-19 complications.

Parents who have questions about vaccinating their child ages 12 and up should talk with a trusted health care provider, pediatrician, or pharmacist to get accurate information that will help them make the best decision for their family. DHEC also has a dedicated webpage for vaccinating this age group that contains helpful information for decision-making.

Heading into Memorial Day Weekend, 1,905,275, or 44.3 percent of eligible South Carolinians have received at least one shot of a vaccine and 1,565,442, or 36.4 percent have completed their vaccination. Visit DHECs locator page to find a convenient vaccination location, and the information page to learn more about the vaccines.

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DHEC Urges Parents to Fight COVID-19 by Vaccinating Their Children Ahead of Summer Break - SCDHEC

For now, the FDA recommends using Regeneron's antibody cocktail instead.

May 28, 2021, 8:39 PM

5 min read

Federal health authorities have paused distribution of Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody cocktail in eight states over COVID-19 variant efficacy concerns.

The COVID-19 treatment will halt distribution in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington "until further notice" due to variants' elevation in those states, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response announced in a bulletin this week.

The "combined frequency" of the P.1 variant (first identified in Brazil) and the B.1.351 variant (first identified in South Africa) now exceeds 10% in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Oregon and Washington; in Illinois and Massachusetts, the P.1 variant has been "persistently elevated at a frequency exceeding 10%," the announcement said.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company Headquarters during the COVID-19 pandemic, March 24, 2020, in Indianapolis.

The stoppage is not related to the safety of the cocktail -- in which the drugs bamlanivimab and etesevimab are administered together -- but rather concerns that it is not as effective against these variant strains. The pause will not impact distribution in other parts of the country, according to the bulletin.

The treatment was issued an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in February. Monoclonal antibody treatments like these are meant to be used in the early stages of COVID-19 infection for non-hospitalized patients who are at high risk of progressing to severe illness, to help keep them out of the hospital. It must be administered within days of diagnosis.

For now, the FDA recommends health care providers in these states use the authorized Regeneron monoclonal cocktail for COVID-19 patients instead.

A coronavirus test is administered at a COVID19 testing center in Austin, Texas, July 7, 2020.

Clinical trial data so far has shown that Regeneron's cocktail is slightly more effective against current major variants than Lilly's, which in its own laboratory studies showed some diminishing efficacy among all variants except the B.1.1.7, or U.K. variant.

In a statement to ABC News, Lilly said it "continually monitors the COVID-19 environment, assessing the neutralization of our antibody therapies against a wide array of existing and emerging mutations and variants," and that it will continue to work with all government and regulating bodies to ensure their treatments go to the "appropriate patients."

Regeneron told ABC News its cocktail is "still looking good" against variants of concern, including those in India, and that it will continue testing against new variants as they emerge.

Lilly's solo monoclonal antibody treatment, bamlanivimab, was halted in March -- first in three Western states and then nationwide -- out of concerns over effectiveness against variants. The following month, Lilly asked the FDA to revoke the treatment's EUA -- a request that was fulfilled the same day -- so that the company could focus more on its cocktail treatment.

Though Lillys antibody treatment has been impacted by variants, research so far has shown that COVID-19 vaccines are effective against them. All three authorized vaccines have proven to work effectively against the U.K. variant, which is the most dominant COVID strain in the U.S.

Originally posted here:

Distribution of Eli Lilly COVID-19 therapy paused in 8 states over variant concerns - ABC News