Covid News: New Virus Variant Races Through Britain and Poses Fresh Threat as Global Vaccination Drive Falters – The New York Times

Heres what you need to know:A vaccination site at Brent Central Mosque in London in early April.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times

A new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has begun to outpace other versions of the virus in Britain, putting pressure on the government to shorten peoples wait for second doses of vaccines and illustrating the risks of a faltering global immunization drive.

The new variant, which has become dominant in India since first being detected there in December, may be responsible in part for a virus wave across South Asia.

Efforts to understand the variant picked up once it began spreading in Britain, one of at least 49 countries where it is present. Scientists there are sequencing half of all coronavirus cases.

The preliminary results out of Britain, drawn from a few thousand cases of the variant, contained both good and bad news, scientists said.

The variant, known by evolutionary biologists as B.1.617.2, is highly likely to be more transmissible than the variant behind Britains devastating wintertime surge, government scientists have said.

Helpfully for Britain and other wealthy nations, the variant has emerged at a less dire moment of the pandemic. More than four out of every five people in England above age 65 have been given both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, driving down hospitalizations and deaths.

And a new study by Public Health England offered reassuring signs that fully vaccinated people were well protected from the variant.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered 88 percent protection against the variant first sampled in India, only a slight drop from the 93 percent protection given against the variant from Britain, Public Health England said. The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was 60 percent effective against the variant from India, compared with 66 percent against the one first seen in Britain.

Because people in Britain started receiving AstraZenecas vaccine later than Pfizers, they have been followed for a shorter period, meaning that the effectiveness figures for that vaccine may underestimate the true numbers, scientists said. Other studies in England have shown little to no difference between the effectiveness of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.

For now, a rise in cases of the variant from India has not caused an overall surge in the virus in Britain. And not all scientists are convinced that the variant is as contagious as feared. The true test will be whether it surges in other countries, especially those unlike Britain that are grappling with high case counts of other variants, Andrew Rambaut, a professor of molecular evolution at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, wrote on Twitter.

In Britain, part of its rapid growth may have to do with the particular places it was first introduced. Bolton, in northwestern England, where the new variant is most advanced, is a highly deprived area with tightly packed housing that could be hastening its spread, scientists said.

Local officials in eight areas of the country where the variant has been found to be spreading criticized the government on Tuesday for not doing more to publicize new, stricter guidelines on social distancing in those areas. The recommendations, which are not legally binding, also discourage travel into and out of the areas, which include towns in north and central England.

Local lawmakers said many residents were unaware of the new guidance, which comes ahead of a holiday weekend during which people would typically travel domestically.

*Peru reclassified many deaths

New York City will no longer have a remote schooling option come fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday, a major step toward fully reopening the nations largest school system and a crucial marker in the citys economic recovery after more than a year of disruptions caused by the pandemic.

The announcement represents the single most important decision the city was facing on school reopening, and means that all students and staff members will be back in buildings full time. Many parents will also be able to return to work without supervising their childrens online classes, which could prompt the revitalization of entire industries and neighborhoods.

You cant have a full recovery without full-strength schools, Mr. de Blasio said during an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe.

New York is one of the first big cities in the country to remove the option of remote learning altogether for the next school year. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that he expected all schools in the state to reopen full-time in the fall.

As virus cases drop across the country, and with no uniform federal guidance on the issue, officials in each state are weighing their options.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey announced last week that the state would no longer have remote classes come fall. Leaders in Massachusetts and Illinois, along with San Antonio, have said there will be extremely limited remote options.

Education officials in Florida have indicated they will significantly reduce or even eliminate online classes next school year. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has said districts will have to offer in-person classes this fall, but can also provide remote instruction. Houston, one of the largest districts in the country, will keep a remote option for fall, as will Philadelphia.

While Mr. de Blasios announcement eliminated the largest logistical obstacle to fully reopening the school system, he still has to convince hesitant families and staff that its safe for schools to return to normal.

This school year, the majority of the citys roughly one million students about 600,000 stayed home for classes. A disproportionate number of the families who chose online learning were nonwhite, a reflection of the harsh health outcomes suffered by Black and Latino families in particular when the city became a global epicenter of the virus last spring.

The mayor also said that teachers and school staff members, who have been eligible for the vaccine since January, will no longer be granted medical waivers to work from home. Nearly a third of city teachers are working remotely, which has forced some schools to offer only online learning, even from school buildings. Some parents who chose remote learning said they did so to avoid the unpredictability of hybrid learning. Their issues will be mostly resolved by the elimination of remote classes.

Last summer, Mr. de Blasio battled with the citys powerful teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, over reopening. But now, that union, and the citys principal union, are on board with the citys plan.

There is no substitute for in-person instruction, Michael Mulgrew, the U.F.T.s president, said in a statement. New York City educators want their students physically in front of them.

Still, many families are still concerned about the virus. Though reopened classrooms have been relatively safe since last fall, with very low positive test rates and few outbreaks in schools, the pandemic has revealed a profound lack of trust between many families of color in particular and the city school system.

The citys school system is currently planning for masks to be required in school buildings, Ms. Porter said. Schools would also follow the C.D.C.s social-distancing protocol, which currently recommends elementary school students remain at least 3 feet apart in classrooms. Both those policies could change by the fall. Children 12 and older recently became eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. And Pfizer and BioNTech plan in September to submit requests for authorization of the vaccine in children ages 2 to 11.

The data has been unbelievably clear, Mr. de Blasio explained on Monday. Vaccination has worked ahead of schedule; its had even more impact than we thought it would.

As the coronavirus pandemic ebbs in the United States and vaccines become available for teenagers, school systems are facing the difficult choice of whether to continue offering a remote learning option in the fall.

When Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City took a stance on Monday, saying that the city will drop remote learning in its public schools, the move may have added to the pressure on other school systems to do the same.

Some families remain fearful of returning their children to classrooms, and others have become accustomed to new child care and work routines built around remote schooling, and are loath to make major changes.

But it is increasingly clear that school closures have exacted an academic and emotional toll on millions of American students, while preventing some parents from working outside the home.

Several states have already indicated that they will restrict remote learning. In New Jersey, Gov. Philip D. Murphy, has said families in his state will no longer have the option of sending their children to school virtually in the fall. Illinois plans to strictly limit online learning to students who are not eligible for a vaccine and are under quarantine orders.

Connecticut has said it will not require districts to offer virtual learning next fall. Massachusetts has said that parents will be able to opt for remote participation only in limited circumstances.

In California, which lagged behind the rest of the nation in returning to in-person schooling this spring, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would compel districts to offer traditional school in the fall, while also offering remote learning for families who want it. Some lawmakers there have proposed an alternative approach that would cap the number of students enrolled in virtual options.

It is a major staffing challenge for districts to simultaneously offer both traditional and online classes. Before the pandemic, teachers unions were typically harsh critics of virtual learning, which they called inherently inferior. But with some teachers still hesitant to return to full classrooms, even post-vaccination, many unions have said parents should continue to have the choice to opt out of in-person learning.

Some teachers, parent groups and civil rights organizations have also argued that families of color are the least confident that their children will be safe in school buildings, and thus should not be pushed to return before they are ready.

As the 2020-2021 school year draws to a close, about one-third of American elementary and secondary students attend schools that are not yet offering five days a week of in-person learning. Those school districts are mainly in areas with more liberal state and local governments and powerful teachers unions.

Disputes among administrators, teachers and parents groups over when and how to reopen schools have led to messy, protracted public battles in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.

Governors, mayors and school boards around the country almost all now say that traditional in-person teaching schedules will be available in the fall, but there is still limited clarity on what rights parents will have to decline to return their children to classrooms. Many districts and states have yet to announce what their approach will be.

Among urban districts, the superintendent in San Antonio, Pedro Martinez, has said he will greatly restrict access to remote learning next school year, in part because many teenagers from low-income families have taken on work hours that are incompatible with full-time learning, a trend he wants to tamp down. The Philadelphia and Houston schools have said they will continue offering virtual options.

The superintendent of the nations fourth-largest district, Miami-Dade, has said he hopes to welcome back 100 percent of students to in-person learning in the fall, but that students will retain the option to enroll instead in an online academy that predates the pandemic.

Children 12 and older recently became eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech plan in September to submit requests for authorization of the vaccine in children ages 2 to 11.

Vaccine passports will not be at play in the state of Alabama.

On Monday, the states governor, Kay Ivey, signed into law legislation that bans government institutions, along with schools and private businesses, from refusing goods, services or admission to people because of their immunization status.

The law, which goes into immediate effect, says that state and local governments may not issue vaccine or immunization passports, vaccine or immunization passes or any other standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying the immunization status of an individual.

Under the law, educational institutions can still require students to prove their vaccination status, but only for specific vaccines that were required as of Jan. 1 and if the institution gives an exemption for students with a medical condition or religious belief that is contrary to vaccination.

More than 400 college campuses are requiring students to be inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine before enrolling this fall semester, with most of the mandates coming from states that voted for President Biden.

In a statement on Monday, Ms. Ivey said that although she had received the coronavirus vaccine and was glad for the peace of mind it brings, people should not be required to be inoculated.

I am supportive of a voluntary vaccine, and by signing this bill into law, I am only further solidifying that conviction, Ms. Ivey wrote.

In the United States, vaccine passports are not mandatory but allow people to easily prove that they are vaccinated. The passports have become a cultural flash point as the shots become more accessible. In Alabama, almost 29 percent of the states population is fully vaccinated, about 10 percent less than the U.S. average, as of Monday, according to a New York Times database.

Republican governors in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Montana and Texas have denounced the use of vaccine passports and have issued executive orders similar to Alabamas new law. On Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed an executive order that prohibits state agencies from implementing a vaccine passport program or requiring proof that people have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Vaccination is a personal decision between each citizen and a medical professional not state government, Mr. Kemp wrote on Twitter in response to the order.

In March, New York State introduced the Excelsior Pass, a digital version of a vaccine passport, which allows residents to show businesses and venues that they have proof of vaccination or that they have received a negative virus test.

At the federal level, the Biden administration has said the government will not issue a digital system that tracks peoples coronavirus vaccination status.

The government is not now nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in April. There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.

Children who get sick from the rare but serious Covid-related inflammatory syndrome may surmount their most significant symptoms within six months, but they may still have muscle weakness and emotional difficulties at that time, a new small study suggests.

Published in the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Monday, the study appears to be the first detailed look at the health status of children six months after they were hospitalized with the condition, called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or MIS-C. The syndrome typically emerges two weeks to six weeks after a coronavirus infection, often quite a mild one. MIS-C can result in hospitalizations for children with severe symptoms involving the heart and several other organs.

A major question has been whether children who survive MIS-C will end up with lasting organ damage or other health problems. The new study, which looked at 46 children under 18 who were admitted to a London hospital for MIS-C (it has a different name and abbreviation, PIMS-TS, in Britain), suggests that many of the most serious problems can resolve with time.

To be honest, I think we all didnt know what to expect, said Dr. Justin Penner, a pediatric infectious disease physician at the hospital involved in the study, Great Ormond Street Hospital. We didnt know which body systems would require assistance or become a problem one month, three months, six months down the line.

The children in the study were hospitalized between April 4 and Sept. 1, 2020, part of the first wave of the inflammatory syndrome. They all had systemic inflammation, and most had symptoms involving multiple organ systems, such as the heart, kidneys or circulatory system. Forty-five had gastrointestinal symptoms, and 24 had neurological symptoms like confusion, memory problems, hallucinations, headaches or problems with balance or muscle control.

Sixteen of the children were placed on ventilators, 22 needed medication to help their hearts pump more effectively and 40 were treated with immunotherapies like intravenous immunoglobulin. All survived.

Six months after they were discharged from the hospital, one child still had systemic inflammation, two had heart abnormalities and six had gastrointestinal symptoms. All but one were able to resume school, either virtually or in person.

Still, 18 were experiencing muscle weakness and fatigue, scoring in the bottom 3 percent for their age and sex on the six-minute walking test, a standard test of endurance and aerobic capacity. And 15 were experiencing emotional difficulties like anxiety or severe mood changes, according to questionnaires answered by either the parents or the children.

India on Monday became the third country to surpass 300,000 known deaths from the coronavirus, joining Brazil and the United States.

By Monday morning, a recorded 303,720 people in India had died with the virus, a number that experts say is likely to be a vast undercount, and 222,315 new daily cases were reported, according to the Indian Health Ministry.

While Indias official total of 26.8 million infections is second only to that of the United States, which has recorded more than 33 million, experts have cautioned that Indias figures severely undercount new infections and deaths because of a lack of testing and other resources in the vast country of 1.4 billion people.

Amid the steadily growing number of deaths nationally, the country has struggled to scale up its vaccination campaign. But in New Delhi, numbers of new cases have dropped in recent days, six weeks after a devastating surge, and officials are considering relaxing coronavirus restrictions.

Even so, the vaccination campaign in New Delhi has struggled. The public schools and stadiums in the capital, where thousands have been waiting in lines for hours for a shot, were shuttered on Sunday as the city ran out of doses.

That abrupt suspension to the inoculation campaign in the capital came just three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modis government had expanded Indias vaccination program to people ages 18 to 44.

Arvind Kejriwal, Delhis top elected official, said in an online news conference on Saturday that he had written a letter to Mr. Modi pleading for the central government to increase its quota for the city of 20 million. Weeks of lockdown in the capital have helped quell the outbreak somewhat, but potentially dangerous new variants of the virus are circulating widely.

The city needs eight million doses per month to vaccinate all adults in three months. Instead, it received 1.6 million doses in May, and is set to receive only 800,000 in June, Mr. Kejriwal said. At that rate, it would take two and a half years to vaccinate all the adults in the capital, he said.

By then, no one knows how many waves will arrive and how many deaths will occur, Mr. Kejriwal said.

India has fully vaccinated around 43 million people which amounts to just 3 percent of its population. While the pace of infection has slowed in Indias two largest cities Delhi and the financial hub of Mumbai the disease is still spreading quickly in rural areas with limited hospital capacity.

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, Arlington National Cemetery and more than 150 national veterans cemeteries across the United States will drop many of the restrictions they imposed during the coronavirus pandemic and will allow vaccinated visitors to gather in large groups at graves without wearing masks.

Last Memorial Day, with the country in the grips of the first wave of coronavirus cases, Arlington, the national cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. shut down or modified many of its hallowed traditions. No more than 10 family members could attend each funeral; the soldiers of the Armys Old Guard wore masks; and the folded flag usually presented by hand to the family was instead laid on a table next to the grave. Arlington closed the Tomb of the Unknowns to visitors, though the Armys watch on the tomb continued uninterrupted.

Ceremonies were suspended at the National Cemetery Administrations sites across the country in 2020. So while the perfect rows of white headstones were hosting an elevated number of veterans funerals because of the pandemics toll, the burials often happened with no bugle sounding Taps, no rifle salute and because of travel restrictions, no family in attendance.

This Memorial Day will still be pared down in comparison with years past, with no plans for big events at the national cemeteries, cemetery officials said, but they welcomed the loosening of restrictions that would allow more visitors. They said the traditional graveside ceremonies are being gradually restored as conditions allow.

With the number of new cases dropping and the number of vaccinated people climbing in the United States, Arlington National Cemetery reopened its Metro stop on Sunday; its visitor center will reopen on Thursday; and the Tomb of the Unknowns is once again welcoming visitors. Thousands of veterans and relatives typically gather at the cemetery to honor the dead on Memorial Day.

Masks will still be required for everyone indoors, and unvaccinated visitors will have to wear masks both indoors and out.

We are very happy families and visitors are able to have a full visitors experience to honor, remember and explore, said Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of Arlington National Cemetery.

By promoting free Uber rides to vaccination sites and new features for vaccinated dating app users, the Biden administration is trying aggressively to entice young technophiles to get shots in their arms. On Monday, the White House unveiled its latest strategy to reach young adults, by turning President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci over to several young YouTube influencers.

So Ive heard rumors about, you know, of course, a vaccine passport, when you need to confirm whether you have the vaccine or not to travel or to go to concerts, et cetera, Manny Gutierrez, a YouTube beauty star known as Manny MUA, asked the president in a YouTube video posted by the White House on Monday. Do you feel like thats going to be something thats going to be implemented more?

These rumors of vaccine passports, I think it just plays to paranoia, Mr. Biden said as Dr. Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, looked on with his hands clasped.

Totally, Manny said.

Mr. Biden and Dr. Fauci, who filmed the interviews from the Blue Room of the White House last week, also answered questions from Nathaniel Peterson (known as Coyote) and Mark Vins, who are the pair behind the YouTube nature show Brave Wilderness, and Jackie Aina, a YouTube star and makeup artist who pushes the beauty industry to include people with dark skin tones.

There was a reason Mr. Biden fielded questions from makeup artists and the nature enthusiasts, some serious and some not. (His desert-island beauty product choice? Sunscreen.) Their three accounts have a combined 27 million followers, many of whom are in the exact demographic the White House is trying to reach as it focuses on reaching younger adults in their late teens and early 20s, many of whom became eligible for vaccination last month.

That group is crucial to Mr. Bidens goal of at least partly vaccinating 70 percent of adults before July 4. More than 60 percent of adults have received at least one shot, according to a New York Times database, but healthy young adults or young invincibles are traditionally hard to reach. Members of Generation Z in particular, recent polling shows, are more reluctant to get vaccinated immediately than people who are older than them.

It was a reluctance that the YouTubers have addressed with their own followers. In a video labeled I COLLABED WITH PRESIDENT BIDEN! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! posted to his own account, Manny MUA said that getting vaccinated was a personal choice.

You can do whatever you guys want, he says in the video, but I am pro-vaccine.

Later, he stepped back and commented on the experience on Twitter: A man in full makeup and lashes got to interview the president . progress.

Stephen Colberts late-night talk show will return to filming in front of a studio audience on June 14, CBS said on Monday.

About 400 audience members will be allowed in the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in Manhattan, provided they can show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus, such as through the Excelsior Pass issued by New York State or an original physical vaccination card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There will be no capacity restrictions, and masks will be optional.

CBS said that staff and crew members will be tested for the virus before starting work and will be screened daily for symptoms, monitored by a Covid-19 compliance officer. The network said the plan comports with New York State guidelines.

The shows changes will come just a few months before Broadway shows are expected to return, and about a month after baseball stadiums in New York began designating separate seating sections for people who have been vaccinated and those who have not.

Last week Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo relaxed the states capacity restrictions, allowing businesses to serve as many patrons as they like as long as there is enough space for people to adequately socially distance. He also ended the mask mandate for vaccinated people indoors and outdoors, though individual businesses are allowed to have stricter mask policies.

The pandemic put a stop to many late-night talk shows for a time in mid-March 2020, when New York and Los Angeles, where many of them are produced, introduced strict social distancing and quarantine guidelines.

Since then, the shows have had to get creative, interviewing guests by video conference and filming in empty studios or from the hosts homes, with family members sometimes serving on the crew.

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Covid News: New Virus Variant Races Through Britain and Poses Fresh Threat as Global Vaccination Drive Falters - The New York Times