CoronavirusCovid News: Unvaccinated Yankees and Mets Can’t Play in New York

Unvaccinated Mets and Yankees players can’t play in New York.

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It is not yet known how many players on the Mets and Yankees are unvaccinated.Credit...Adam Hunger/ Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — Some players on the Mets and Yankees may be unable to play in New York when the 2022 Major League Baseball season begins next month because of a city vaccination mandate.

Under a New York City regulation enacted on Dec. 27, people who perform in-person work or interact with the public in the course of business must show proof that “they have received a COVID-19 vaccine.” The proof of vaccination must show that a worker is fully vaccinated, has received a single-dose vaccine or, if only the first shot of a two-dose vaccine has been administered, then there must be evidence of a plan to receive the second dose within 45 days of the first.

While Mayor Eric Adams loosened some vaccine requirements this month, he left in place the private-sector mandate. According to the mayor’s office, the regulation applies to the Mets and Yankees, whose home stadiums are Citi Field in Queens and Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

The Yankees open the season on April 7 with a home game against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets’ home opener is against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 15. With those games several weeks away, the mayor’s office said it couldn’t predict if circumstances could change in the intervening period.

The mandate has been a point of contention for Nets guard Kyrie Irving and the N.B.A. Irving has played in only 19 of the team’s 69 games in part because he is unvaccinated against Covid-19 and the regulation has barred him from playing home games. Irving is allowed to play in road games where cities do not have vaccine mandates. He set a single-game franchise record with 60 points in a 150-108 win against Orlando on Tuesday, but he will not be eligible to play the Nets’ next three games.

(The private sector mandate grants an exception for visiting professional athletes and anyone who accompanies them, along with performing artists and college athletes.)

On Monday, the N.B.A. fined the Nets $50,000 for allowing Irving to enter the team’s locker room during Sunday’s game against the Knicks. While he was allowed at the game, he was not allowed to be in team facilities at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

If the city mandate doesn’t change by the first home games for the M.L.B. teams, it would presumably affect the Mets more than it would the Yankees.

By the end of last season, the Mets were among the six teams (out of 30 in M.L.B.) that had not reached the league’s vaccination threshold of 85 percent that allowed teams to loosen pandemic protocols. The Yankees reached the vaccination threshold, but they endured multiple virus outbreaks — many of which were breakthrough cases.

Asked on Tuesday if he was vaccinated, given the city’s mandate, Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge said, “I’m so focused on just getting these first games of spring training so I think we’ll cross that bridge when the times comes. But right now, so many things could change. So I’m not really too worried about that right now.”

Judge was placed on the league’s Covid-19 related injured list after attending the 2021 All-Star Game in July in Denver and testing positive for the coronavirus. He proceeded to miss nine games. Because of other positive cases, potential exposures and testing, the league postponed the Yankees’ first game back from the All-Star break, on July 15 against Boston, which had not reached the vaccination threshold.

The Red Sox, who had a significant virus outbreak last season, were the only one of the 10 teams in the postseason last year that had not reached that mark. Since arriving to spring training, Red Sox players such as Xander Bogaerts and Christian Arroyo told reporters they have since been vaccinated.

M.L.B. and the players’ union each declined to comment on Tuesday, as did the Mets.

“On behalf of the Yankees, Randy Levine is working with City Hall and all other appropriate officials on this matter,” a Yankees spokesman said in a statement, referring to the team’s president, a former deputy city mayor. “We will have no further comment at this time.”

Over the weekend, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone told reporters that he was concerned about his players not being able to play in Canada, saying, “We still have a few guys, at least, who are not vaccinated.”

Canadian border restrictions currently do not allow unvaccinated foreign visitors to enter the country without special exemptions. And a special status issued by the Canadian government for unvaccinated athletes, which allowed them to cross last year, ended in January.

As M.L.B. and the union negotiated a new labor agreement, they also agreed that any player who is unable to play in any games as a result of any government regulation because of his vaccination status “may be placed” temporarily on the restricted list, where pay and service time are lost. Service time determines players’ eligibility for salary arbitration and free agency.

The Yankees are in the same division as the Blue Jays and will play nine games in Toronto this season.

Despite initial resistance from many players last year, the vaccination numbers steadily rose in M.L.B. By the end of the season, 88 percent of all players and key staff members were fully vaccinated. Still, some team executives were openly frustrated during the season with their players’ reluctance to be vaccinated.

The vaccination rates are higher in other professional leagues, such as the N.B.A. and the N.H.L., both of which also have teams based in Canada.

Pfizer asks the F.D.A. to authorize a second booster shot for older Americans.

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Doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a pharmacy in New Mexico.Credit...Paul Ratje for The New York Times

Pfizer and BioNTech said on Tuesday that they had sought emergency authorization for a second booster shot of their coronavirus vaccine for adults 65 and older.

The companies’ request to the Food and Drug Administration was based heavily on data from Israel, where such shots are authorized for a somewhat broader group. Their move could further inflame a tortuous debate among scientists over when and how the vaccines’ protection should be bolstered, and for whom.

Pfizer’s chief executive, Dr. Albert Bourla, said repeatedly over the past week that he believed an additional dose would be necessary to counteract waning protection after the third dose, now authorized for all Americans 12 and older. “The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It’s not that good against infections.”

Previous requests last fall for a booster shot set off a fierce public debate. Some public health experts vigorously opposed them for the general population last fall, only to change their minds after the Omicron variant proved more agile at evading the vaccines’ shield. Scientists have continued to clash over how long the vaccines’ protection really lasts and how much benefit added shots offer.

In an interview with Business Insider on Monday, Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna, whose vaccine is the second most widely used in the United States, sounded a more cautious note than Dr. Bourla.

“For those who are immune-compromised, those who are older adults, over the age of 50 or at least 65, we want to strongly recommend and encourage” a fourth shot, he said. But he did not say how soon he thought it would be needed. Like a number of other experts, he suggested that most people would need an annual shot to protect them against the coronavirus, just like the flu.

In their justification, Pfizer and BioNTech cited in part two recent studies from Israel, both published on preprint servers without peer review. One study, done in conjunction with Israel’s Ministry of Health, reviewed the health records of 1.1 million people and concluded that they were less likely to become infected with the virus or to develop severe illness after a fourth dose of Pfizer’s vaccine.

But since Israel only recently began its second booster program, researchers could not determine whether the added protection was short-lived. Israel began offering fourth doses to health care workers in late December, then quickly broadened eligibility to those 60 and older and other vulnerable groups.

The second study, of Israeli health care workers, showed that while fourth shots of either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccine boosted antibody levels, it was not very effective at preventing infections. Researchers said those findings underscored the urgency of developing vaccines that target whatever variant is circulating.

The National Institutes of Health in the United States and various vaccine manufacturers have been studying how the vaccines could be updated.

Some senior administration officials say a fourth shot for all older Americans may make sense now, but that the general population should probably wait until the fall. The F.D.A. is expected to convene a meeting of its expert advisory committee next month to discuss the issue of fourth shots. Developments on Pfizer’s request were reported earlier by The Washington Post.

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New Zealand accelerates its border reopening, welcoming back foreign tourists early.

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New Zealand’s border closures during the pandemic were among the strictest in the world.Credit...Mark Tantrum/Wellington International Airport, via Getty Images

New Zealand, whose border closures were among the strictest in the world, plans to welcome back foreign tourists months ahead of schedule in a bid to bolster the country’s economic recovery, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Wednesday.

Vaccinated Australians will be allowed to enter from just before midnight on April 12. Vaccinated travelers with valid visas and those from visa-waiver countries such as Canada and the United States can enter from May 1.

“We are sending a very clear message that we are accelerating our economic recovery,” Ms. Ardern said at a news conference on Wednesday. She added, “In short, we’re ready to welcome the world back.”

The announcement comes as cases remain near peak levels in New Zealand, which, like other countries, is facing economic uncertainty and rapidly rising inflation. The government on Tuesday announced cuts to the cost of fuel among other measures to tackle a “cost of living crisis.”

New reported cases by day
Mar. 2020
Oct.
May 2021
Dec.
Jul. 2022
Feb. 2023
10,000
20,000 cases
7-day average
1,634
Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days.

Incoming travelers will not be required to quarantine on arrival, but must take a supervised rapid coronavirus test before entering and two additional tests in the first week of their stay. These tests are intended to prevent the spread of new variants, Ms. Ardern said.

The government had intended to allow tourists back starting in July, with a full reopening planned for October. But after an outbreak of the Omicron variant sent cases in the country surging to more than 20,000 per day, tourism operators and businesses pushed to bring forward that timeline. They argued that borders should not remain closed to try to keep the variant out because of it has already spread around the globe.

New Zealand closed its borders early in the pandemic, allowing only a trickle of citizens to return, and later essential workers, and mandating a two-week hotel quarantine on arrival. The border closures allowed New Zealand to maintain a “zero-Covid” policy for most of the pandemic, with total deaths and hospitalizations among the lowest in the world.

But the policy also crippled its international tourism sector, which previously catered to millions of foreign visitors each year. Some companies say revenues have plunged by 95 percent since the pandemic began, while others have had to target the less lucrative domestic market.

White House public tours are set to return in April.

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Dr. Jill Biden, the first lady, guides second graders through the East Wing on Valentine’s Day. Plans have been announced to resume public tours of the White House.Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times

The White House is set to open for public tours on April 15, more than two years after they were suspended because of the pandemic.

The free tours will operate on Fridays and Saturdays only, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.

The White House “reserves the right to adjust availability of the public tours as necessary to adhere to the latest health guidance,” the statement said.

The White House did not say why it was resuming tours, which were suspended in March 2020, although caseloads in Washington, D.C., have reached lows not recorded since last summer, according to a New York Times database.

Masks will be optional on the tours, and the White House statement makes no mention of vaccines. Guests cannot attend if they have experienced Covid symptoms, come into contact with someone with a confirmed or suspected case, or tested positive for the virus in the previous 10 days.

As was the case before the pandemic, people must request a public tour through a Congress member’s office between 21 to 90 days in advance. In past years, White House tours went through parts of the East Wing and the Residence, with Secret Service agents stationed in every room, available to answer historical questions.

Information about the annual spring garden tour and the Easter Egg Roll, which has been canceled twice because of the pandemic, will be available in the coming days, the White House said.

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Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, tests positive.

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Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, in the White House last month.Credit...Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday.

He said on Twitter on Tuesday night that he had mild symptoms and that he had received a booster shot. He also encouraged people to get vaccinated and boosted.

Ms. Harris tested negative the same day, Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the vice president, said in a statement. It was not clear where Mr. Emhoff contracted the virus or if he had any symptoms.

The vice president had been scheduled to speak alongside President Biden and Jill Biden, the first lady, at a women’s history month event at the White House on Tuesday night. Ms. Singh said she would skip the event.

On Friday, Mr. Emhoff was in Denver to visit the U.S. Mint with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They also had lunch with Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado.

Mr. Polis tested negative for the coronavirus on Tuesday, said Conor Cahill, his spokesman. A representative for Ms. Yellen did not immediately respond to a question about whether she had tested positive.

This is not the first time Ms. Harris has been exposed to the coronavirus. In September, she was pulled out of a live in-studio interview on the set of “The View” after two cohosts, Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin, tested positive. She tested negative in December after she was exposed to a staff member who later tested positive.

An audit finds that the Cuomo administration ‘misled the public’ on nursing home deaths in New York.

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E.M.T.s placed a woman in an ambulance outside a nursing home in Brooklyn in April 2020. More than 15,000 nursing home residents in New York have died of coronavirus-related causes.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

The administration of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo failed to publicly account for the deaths of about 4,100 nursing home residents in New York during the pandemic, according to an audit released on Tuesday by the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli.

The audit found that Health Department officials at times underreported the full death toll by as much as 50 percent from April 2020 to February 2021, as Mr. Cuomo faced increasing scrutiny over whether his administration had intentionally concealed the actual number of deaths.

“The public was misled by those at the highest level of state government through distortion and suppression of the facts when New Yorkers deserved the truth,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement.

The report found that the underreporting of the death data was initially a result of poor data collection by the Health Department when New York unexpectedly became the epicenter of the pandemic in March 2020. But officials still failed to release the full extent of nursing home deaths even as the data gathering improved.

By May 2020, the report suggests, health officials possessed mostly reliable numbers that could have been made public.

More than 67,000 people have died because of the coronavirus in New York since the beginning of the pandemic. As of Tuesday, 15,360 of those were nursing home residents, according to state data.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, eventually resigned in August as a result of the controversy over nursing home deaths and other scandals that engulfed his administration, including accusations of sexual harassment from numerous women.

The audit’s release comes as Mr. Cuomo is wading back into public life, seeking to rehabilitate his image.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.

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The White House says it’s already scaling back some Covid response plans amid uncertainty on funding.

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White House officials say the money already approved for vaccines, testing and treatment is running short and that more is needed. Credit...Leigh Vogel for The New York Times

Prospects looked bleak on Tuesday for congressional approval of billions of dollars in new emergency aid to fight Covid-19, and White House officials said they had already scaled back plans to purchase treatments and reimburse doctors who care for uninsured Covid patients because pandemic relief money has run out.

The impasse is a major change in Washington’s approach to the two-year-old pandemic. Until now, both the Trump and Biden administrations have been able to secure emergency money for coronavirus relief with no strings attached. But most Republicans in Congress say they will not approve another aid package unless the White House finds a way to pay for it.

“We need to have this money,” Jeffrey D. Zients, President Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, said in an interview on Tuesday. “This is not nice to have; this is need to have.”

Neither side, though, seemed willing to bend. Mr. Zients said the administration was focused on securing emergency funding with “no offsets,” noting that pandemic funding had always been provided that way. But the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, John Thune of South Dakota, told reporters that a spending bill would be a “much heavier lift” if the administration did not come up with some way to pay for it by repurposing existing funds.

Mr. Biden has been seeking $22.5 billion in Covid relief money to pay for treatments, tests, vaccines and research; senior administration officials, speaking on a conference call with reporters, reiterated that request on Tuesday. Congress slashed the amount to $15.6 billion, and was poised to pass the measure as part of a broader spending package it adopted last week.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi stripped the Covid money from the broader bill in response to pushback from governors and rank-and-file Democrats, who complained that $7 billion of it was going to be taken back from states. Ms. Pelosi has discussed voting on a stand-alone bill this week, but is unlikely to do so without assurance it will pass the Senate.

“We had a chance to get that last week, and the House progressive wing blew it up,” Mr. Thune said, adding, “They torpedoed it.”

Mr. Thune’s view was echoed by other Republican senators, including Mitt Romney of Utah, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Rob Portman of Ohio. All are demanding a more thorough accounting of how the Biden administration has already spent hundreds of billions in pandemic aid.

At least nine House Democrats test positive for the coronavirus after a party retreat and late-night voting.

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Representative Andy Kim of New Jersey, one of the Democrats who recently tested positive, speaking at an event last year.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — At least nine House Democrats have announced in the last five days that they tested positive for the coronavirus, with more than half of those cases emerging after lawmakers attended a party retreat last week in Philadelphia.

It is unclear what drove the wave of cases or where the representatives had been infected. But members of the House spent hours on the floor without masks for votes that stretched late into the night last Wednesday before Democrats boarded buses to travel to their gathering.

The infections offered a jarring reminder that, even as top officials seek to pivot away from strict restrictions and encourage Americans to learn to live with the coronavirus, the pandemic rages on. The White House announced on Tuesday that Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, had tested positive for the virus.

The uptick was all the more striking given that Democrats, including members of Congress and President Biden’s team, have generally been far more supportive of strict precautions against the virus, while Republicans have been vocal opponents of mask mandates and other measures, arguing that they are excessive and an encroachment on personal freedom.

Still, even as reports of the infections circulated in Washington and cases continued to spike globally, there was little indication that officials at the White House or in Congress would reimpose a series of precautions that they have just begun to roll back. It reflects decisions across the country, where leaders are dropping pandemic-era restrictions and mandates.

The White House announced on Tuesday that public tours would resume in April, after being suspended at the start of the pandemic. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, senior lawmakers and officials on Capitol Hill are discussing plans to reopen the building to tourists, according to aides briefed on the discussions, after House Democrats moved this month to lift a mask mandate in their chamber.

Fully vaccinated lawmakers will not be required to wear a mask on Wednesday, as members of the House and the Senate gather in a joint session for a virtual address by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. (Unvaccinated lawmakers will have to wear a mask, though it is unclear how rigorously that will be enforced.)

Representatives Jared Golden of Maine, Joe Neguse of Colorado and Andy Kim of New Jersey announced within about an hour of one another on Tuesday morning that they had tested positive for the coronavirus. Mr. Neguse attended the retreat along with four others who reported testing positive in recent days: Representatives Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Zoe Lofgren of California, Kim Schrier of Washington and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.

Two other House Democrats, Representatives Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia and Peter Welch of Vermont, also said they tested positive on Friday and Monday, respectively. They were not present at the retreat, according to a person in attendance who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss attendance at the private gathering.

Representatives, their staff members and their families were required to take P.C.R. or rapid antigen tests before the event, and attendees were required to take rapid tests in their hotel rooms on Thursday and Friday.

Mr. Biden delivered an in-person speech at the retreat on Friday. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on Tuesday that because all representatives at the retreat were vaccinated, a change in the president’s behavior would not be warranted according to C.D.C. guidelines. She reiterated that Mr. Biden received a negative test result on Sunday.

Many members of the House were also together on the floor late Wednesday night to pass a major spending bill before they departed for Philadelphia, though it is unclear which members were physically present because remote voting was allowed. Most of the Democrats who tested positive emphasized that they were vaccinated, and said it was a reminder that the pandemic was not yet over.

“I caught COVID on 2yr anniversary of pandemic,” Mr. Kim wrote on Twitter. “Yes I feel miserable. Woke up in middle of night with fever, but I’m not scared like I would have been year or 2 ago. That doesn’t mean I’m not worried.”

The outbreak among House Democrats comes amid rising concerns about a surge in coronavirus cases in parts of Europe and Asia, as well as warnings from public health experts that the United States could see a summer or fall surge.

The Democrats were joined on Tuesday by a Republican colleague, Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, who said on Twitter that he was experiencing mild symptoms after a “routine test” came back positive.

Annie Karni contributed reporting.

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As virus data grows, the J.&J. vaccine holds its own.

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Johnson & Johnson vaccinations in Soweto, South Africa, last year.Credit...Alet Pretorius/Associated Press

Roughly 17 million Americans received the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine, only to be told later that it was the least protective of the options available in the United States. But new data suggest that the vaccine is now preventing infections, hospitalizations and deaths at least as well as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

The reasons aren’t clear, and not all experts are convinced that the vaccine has vindicated itself. But the accumulating data nonetheless offer considerable reassurance to recipients of the vaccine and, if confirmed, have broad implications for its deployment in parts of the world.

In Africa, for example, distribution of a single-dose vaccine that can be refrigerated for months is by far the most practical option.

Johnson & Johnson has at least temporarily shut down the only plant making usable batches of the vaccine. But the South Africa-based Aspen Pharmacare is gearing up to supply large quantities to the rest of the continent. Only about 13 percent of Africans are fully vaccinated, and only about 1 percent have received a booster dose.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was billed as an attractive option for communities with limited access to health care, including some within the United States, because of its ease of delivery and mild side effects. But it has had a bumpy journey.

The shot seemed to produce a weaker initial immune response, and more people who got the single-dose vaccine had breakthrough infections, compared with those who got two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, the mRNA vaccines.

In April, federal health officials in the United States and in South Africa paused the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s distribution as they examined reports of a rare blood-clotting disorder in women. Though both countries resumed the rollouts soon after, the vaccine’s reputation never fully recovered.

But the notion that the vaccine is inferior has grown outdated, some experts said.

The U.S. Senate cast a symbolic vote to end the public transit mask mandate.

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Passengers wearing masks on a train in Chicago last month.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

The Senate voted on Tuesday to repeal a federal mask mandate in place for travelers on public transportation, in a symbolic act that emphasized the growing pressure to undo the pandemic-era restrictions still in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The resolution, which passed 57 to 40, would repeal a mandate that requires masks to be worn on planes, buses and trains, just days after the Transportation Security Administration announced plans to extend it through mid-April. It is not expected to become law: the House is not likely to take up the measure and the administration said President Biden would veto it if it reaches his desk.

“Public transportation and transportation hubs are places where people across communities congregate, often for extended periods and in close quarters,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy. “The determination of the timeline and circumstances under which masks should be required in these settings should be guided by science, not politics.”

But in a sign of how lawmakers in both parties are increasingly in support of undoing pandemic restrictions as much of the country moves to reopen, the vote was notably bipartisan. Republicans have repeatedly forced votes against vaccine mandates in recent months, as they move to pressure Democrats ahead of the midterm congressional elections.

“Today, the Senate said enough is enough, and sent a message to unelected government bureaucrats to stop the anti-science, nanny state requirement of travel mask mandates,” declared Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who forced the vote.

Eight centrist or politically vulnerable Democrats facing re-election this year joined all but one Republican present in voting in favor of the resolution: Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosen of Nevada, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana.

One Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, joined the majority of Democrats in voting against the resolution.

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Across the Asia-Pacific region, countries diverge on their virus approach as cases surge.

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Testing in a Shanghai neighborhood under lockdown on Monday. China has attempted to maintain its “zero Covid” approach.Credit...Qilai Shen for The New York Times

As coronavirus cases surge across the Asia-Pacific region, countries that were once similarly stringent in their virus control measures are taking drastically divergent paths with the pandemic now in its third year.

In mainland China and Hong Kong, the spike in cases has led to clampdowns reminiscent of the early days of the virus’s spread. On the mainland, production lines have been halted, malls and convention centers have closed, travel has been cut off between cities, and the authorities are attempting to test entire cities for the virus. In Hong Kong, new quarantine centers are being built, and grocery store shelves have emptied.

Much of the rest of the region, however, has stayed the course in easing social restrictions and border controls, following in the steps of the United States and Europe, where normal life has mostly resumed despite continuing deaths and infections.

Australia, which reopened to vaccinated tourists last month, said this week that it would lift a two-year ban on cruise ships, and some states have eased masking requirements. South Korea has stopped mandating QR-code check-ins at restaurants and businesses, and has discontinued efforts to trace the contacts of each positive case. Next week, the country is scrapping quarantine requirements for incoming travelers.

Japan, which has maintained some of the tightest entry barriers, is also considering removing quarantine requirements for foreign businesspeople and students. More Southeast Asian countries are admitting tourists, though travelers were frustrated with unclear guidelines on quarantines and testing.

The shift throughout much of Asia, which has come as vaccinations have become widespread and the Omicron variant has thwarted many control measures, is a marked contrast to the first two years of the pandemic. Over that period, the cautious, restrictive approach prevalent in Asia kept infection rates and deaths far lower than in the West.

Now, the region is seeing some of the world’s steepest spikes in cases. South Korea and Vietnam are logging record daily infections, while China is being plagued by outbreaks in two-thirds of its provinces, with case levels the highest they have been since the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are maintaining a “zero Covid” approach, attempting to stamp out outbreaks as they happen and doubling down on the drastic measures that have been the mainstay of their governments’ coronavirus responses.

China has restricted 24 million residents in the northeastern province of Jilin from moving between cities or leaving the region. And the Chinese government remains concerned about lagging vaccination rates among older people, who are most at risk of death from the virus.

China’s Covid lockdowns are set to further disrupt global supply chains.

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The Yantian port in Shenzhen in June 2021, when a rise in infections forced extended closings of container terminals.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Trucks are being delayed by the testing of drivers. Container rates are rising as ships wait for many hours at ports. Products are piling up in warehouses.

As Chinese officials scramble to contain the country’s worst outbreak of Covid-19 since early 2020, they are imposing lockdowns and restrictions that are adding chaos to global supply chains. The measures in China, home to about one-third of global manufacturing, are disrupting the production of finished goods like Toyota and Volkswagen cars and Apple’s iPhones, as well as components such as circuit boards and computer cables.

Cases rose on Tuesday to more than 5,000 new infections nationwide. That tally is small compared to many other large countries’. But China has taken a zero tolerance approach to outbreaks that calls for stringent lockdowns as well as mass testing and quarantine in government facilities.

Because several of the country’s largest industrial cities are now fighting outbreaks, such measures are taking a toll on the factory and transportation networks that are the backbone of China’s manufacturing.

Officials in Beijing and an ever-lengthening list of cities and provinces say that the virus is still spreading and that the government must take ever tougher measures to stop it.

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The U.K. lifts its remaining international travel restrictions as British airlines scrap some mask mandates.

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International passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport in November. Credit...Leon Neal/Getty Images

The British government said on Monday that it would scrap its remaining international travel measures this week, noting it was one of the first major economies to do so and calling the move a “landmark moment.”

After nearly two years, Britain has been at the forefront of efforts to end coronavirus pandemic restrictions and shift toward a strategy of living with the virus, relying on vaccines to offer protections.

“These changes are possible due to our vaccine rollout,” Grant Shapps, the British Transport Secretary, said on Twitter, “and mean greater freedom in time for Easter.”

According to the British government, about 86 percent of the population has received a second vaccine dose and 67 percent a booster or third dose.

On Feb. 24, the government stopped legally requiring people in England to self-isolate if they tested positive for the virus; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which set health measures separately, have also moved to ease restrictions. Since then, cases have gone up, but the number of deaths has stayed stable, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Starting on 4 a.m. on Friday, travelers will no longer be required to fill out a passenger locator form with details about their trip and their vaccination status. Those who are not fully vaccinated will no longer be required to get tested to enter the country.

“Today’s announcement sends a clear message to the world — the U.K. travel sector is back,” Tim Alderslade, the chief executive of Airlines UK, a trade group, said in a statement. “We can now look forward to the return to pre-Covid normality.”

Last month, Iceland announced it would drop coronavirus requirements at its border regardless of the traveler’s vaccination status. In Ireland, starting on Mar. 6, entering passengers were no longer required to show proof of vaccination status or fill out a passenger locator form.

London’s Heathrow Airport said that starting Wednesday, masks would no longer be mandated in the airport’s terminals, rail stations or office buildings. Masks are already no longer required indoors in England, but the airport said in a statement that it still strongly encouraged people to wear them.

British Airways, the U.K. flag carrier, and the British airline Virgin Atlantic said they were also revising their mask requirements.

As of Wednesday, passengers on British Airways flights will only have to wear masks onboard if their destinations require it, Jason Mahoney, British Airways’ chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Corneel Koster, the chief customer and operating officer for Virgin Atlantic, said that the airline would also scrap mask requirements on routes where international mask-wearing regulations did not apply, starting from flights to the Caribbean from Heathrow and Manchester.

“Customers should have the personal choice whether to wear a mask onboard,” Mr. Koster said in a statement, adding that masks would still be required on many of their routes, including those into and out of the United States, until at least April 18.

In Africa, a mix of vaccines drives an uncertain Covid inoculation push.

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Christiana Dora Dumbuya, left, and Abdul K. Bangura, center, at a vaccination pop-up in Kathantha Yimbo, Sierra Leone. James S. Conteh, right, received a blue card documenting his first dose.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

Supplies of Covid-19 vaccines in the lowest-income countries are growing more plentiful, but they are often an unpredictable hodgepodge, arriving on an irregular schedule, making planning difficult. Underfunded health systems still lack the storage, personnel and transportation needed to carry out broad vaccination campaigns.

Scientific understanding is continuously evolving about what it takes to achieve full and strong protection against existing and new coronavirus variants. The United States and many wealthy countries have been pushing booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which use new technology seen as the gold standard, in line with the latest thinking about the best chance for protection.

But African countries continue to rely in part on products and dosing schedules that many researchers believe offer lower levels of protection, further clouding the prospect of stopping potential variants. Many are sticking with regimens that are no longer preferred by the World Health Organization, which developing countries look to for guidance on how and when to give Covid vaccines.

In Sierra Leone, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is still being used as a single shot, although the W.H.O. recommended in December that it should be given as two doses when possible.

“What we say is, better one dose than zero,” Austin Demby, Sierra Leone’s health minister, said in an interview in the capital, Freetown. “And I would prefer two doses any time. But the logistics of it is just unbelievable. Imagine trying to track these multiple vaccinations, different dates, different times, different expiration dates. It’s a medley of protocols. It’s a nightmare.”

With Covid vaccination rates averaging about 14 percent across the continent, public health experts expect Africa to experience a fifth wave of the virus in the coming months, potentially from a new variant that could be more lethal.

The target in Sierra Leone is to give primary immunizations to 40 percent of the population by June, but Dr. Demby acknowledged that this is hugely ambitious. Currently the figure is just 12 percent, and almost no one has received a booster shot.

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A research team in Atlanta is at the center of a race to test the coronavirus tests.

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A member of the clinical pathology team at Emory holds up a BinaxNOW coronavirus test at one of their labs.Credit...Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

When the pandemic hit two years ago, the United States faced an acute shortage of reliable coronavirus tests. It was the nation’s first major pandemic failure, blinding health experts and the public to the spread of the virus and allowing the pathogen to spread across the country unchecked. And for much of 2020, getting tested required waiting hours just to be swabbed and a week or longer for results.

Now, hundreds of millions of rapid, at-home tests are pouring into the American market every month. The federal government is mailing out free tests, Americans are trading swabbing tips on social media and children are spitting into collection tubes at school.

The flashiest developments in medicine typically involve treatments and cures, but the pandemic has been a case study in the importance of diagnostics, our first line of defense against disease.

Over the last two years, a group of researchers at Emory and other Atlanta institutions has played a key, but largely hidden, role in getting tests into the hands of Americans, working with the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.

More than 200 physicians, engineers, biochemists and other researchers have worked late nights and early mornings to accelerate the development of new tests and ensure that existing products can detect an alphabet of new variants, including Omicron.

Developing new tests, especially those designed to be used by the average consumer, is tricky, and the work that the Atlanta team has done illustrates how much meticulous research is required to get it right. The team’s work also provides a model that could help us be better prepared for future pandemics and usher in a new era of at-home diagnosis for all kinds of diseases.

Oil prices fall below $100 a barrel as China’s Covid-19 outbreak threatens demand.

Brent crude oil price

As of 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

Source: FactSet

By The New York Times

Oil prices dropped on Tuesday, falling below $100 a barrel, as China, the world’s largest oil importer, imposed new lockdowns to combat an outbreak of the coronavirus, moves that could threaten demand.

The swing in oil prices, which approached $130 a barrel last week, reverberated through the stock market: Airlines stocks rallied, and shares of oil producers slid.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped 7.4 percent to $99.91 a barrel, its lowest price since late February. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, fell 6.4 percent at $96.44 a barrel.

Over the past week, crude prices have plunged more than 20 percent, reversing much of the surge after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine added turmoil to an already-tight energy market. Tens of millions of residents in Chinese provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are under lockdown amid an outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Travel has been cut off between cities, production lines have stopped and malls have been closed.

The measures could snarl global supply chains that are still struggling to recover from pandemic disruptions by slowing down key factory and transportation networks. Companies in China, including Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics firm that assembles Apple iPhones, have suspended operations in the country.

The new measures have hammered the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong, where many Chinese companies are listed. With a drop of 5.7 percent on Tuesday, the index was down 10 percent so far this week and was at its lowest level since February 2016.

On Wall Street, falling energy costs helped lift share prices on Tuesday. The S&P 500 rose 2.1 percent, with gains led by airlines. American Airlines and United Airlines gained more than 9 percent on Tuesday, while JetBlue rose more than 7 percent. A data analysis released on Tuesday found that ticket sales for domestic flights in February exceeded those for the same month in 2019, a first since the pandemic began. The trend was expected to continue in March, according to early data from Adobe.

Oil producers tumbled. Chevron and Exxon Mobil both fell more than 5 percent, and Valero Energy was down 6.8 percent, making them among the worst performers in the S&P 500.

Gas prices, which have been rising for weeks amid the conflict in Ukraine, also fell slightly on Tuesday. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $4.316, down from a high of $4.325 the day before, according to data from AAA.

Wall Street has been battered this year as threats to the global economy have mounted. Inflation is climbing at its fastest pace in 40 years, threatening consumer sentiment, and the sudden rise in oil prices in recent weeks has exacerbated the situation. Tuesday’s rally followed three days of losses that had left the S&P 500 down more than 12 percent for the year.

Federal Reserve officials began a two-day meeting on Tuesday and are expected to announce on Wednesday that they will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, as they begin a campaign to cool down the economy.

Investors have also been weighing mixed messages about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as a fourth round of negotiations between the countries’ officials resumed on Tuesday. Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian representative, said Russia and Ukraine had discussed a possible cease-fire and the withdrawal of troops from Ukrainian territory.

“There is so much information investors are taking on board,” said Fiona Cincotta, senior financial markets analyst at Forex.com. Ms. Cincotta said investors might be weighing domestic concerns against news from overseas and deeming the United States a safer place to invest right now.

“With Covid spreading in Asia and the geopolitical tensions in Europe, America seems like the best of a bad bunch right now,” she said.

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Australia is expected to lift its ban on cruise ships next month.

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A cruise ship in Sydney Harbour, Australia, in March 2020. The government will lift a ban placed on cruise ships arriving and departing the country.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times

Australia will lift a ban on cruise ships at the country’s ports next month, the government said on Tuesday, citing medical advice that the measure was no longer needed to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The measure, first enforced in March 2020, will not be renewed on April 17, though some steps will continue to be required, including identifying the risk of disease among passengers and mandating that each has had at least two doses of a vaccination against the virus, the government said.

“Lifting the cruise ban is consistent with the reopening of Australia’s international border,” Greg Hunt, Australia’s minister for health, said in a statement, adding that the change in the rules showed Australia had “successfully navigated” its response to the pandemic.

The move is part of a shift away from stringent travel restrictions designed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the risk of traveling by cruise ship from “high” to “moderate.”

In 2019, before the beginning of the pandemic, more than 600,000 cruise ship passengers, and close to 350 boats, landed in Australia, according to the country’s minister for home affairs, Karen Andrews. Their return was a key part of the government’s plan to help the country’s economy recover, she added.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least one in seven people in Australia have been infected, a total of 3.6 million cases, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. About 81 percent of the population has received two doses of the vaccine.

Half of Hong Kong residents may already have had the coronavirus, researchers say.

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Customers purchased Covid-19 rapid antigen test kits from a store in Hong Kong. Results of home tests often are not reported for inclusion in official statistics. Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Nearly half of Hong Kong’s 7.4 million residents have probably been infected by the coronavirus, according to new research that underscores the challenge officials face in trying to eradicate the virus.

Some 3.6 million people in Hong Kong — five times the official case count — have had the virus already, and another million could become infected before the current outbreak is over, researchers at the University of Hong Kong estimated, based on disease modeling and their analysis of data since the current wave of cases began. At least 5,100 more people in the territory are likely to die from Covid-19 by May 1, the researchers estimated.

The researchers noted that immunity conferred by vaccines or past infections tends to wane with time, but they did not specify how many of the forecast new infections were expected to be breakthrough cases.

The figures are striking for a city that has taken very strict precautions through most of the pandemic and until recently had reported only tiny numbers of coronavirus cases, while figures soared in many other countries around the world. Hong Kong is now grappling with a major surge that has overwhelmed its world-class health care system and depleted staffing for many of the public services that keep the city functioning.

Hospital officials have had to turn away the sick and treat patients on gurneys in hospital parking lots. Bodies have accumulated in hospital wards and corridors. Ambulance services, banks, prisons and even the post office have scaled back services as employees have fallen ill.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, is under pressure from the national government in Beijing to get the outbreak under control, and has drawn criticism from senior Chinese figures, including the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city, must hew to Beijing’s zero- Covid policy, which calls for intensive action against even the smallest outbreaks. But the city lacks the resources to stamp out the virus as quickly as municipalities try to do in the rest of China, where officials have at times restricted the movement of millions of people over a handful of cases. Hong Kong affords its people more freedom than other Chinese cities do.

Hong Kong’s health authority has recorded more than 748,000 cases and 4,568 deaths over the past two months, dating back to when the Omicron variant began to spread through the city. It currently has one of the highest rates of new coronavirus fatalities in the world, with an average of 3.8 deaths a day for every 100,000 residents.

According to Hong Kong government data, 80 percent of the population has been vaccinated with two shots, a figure that has risen in recent weeks. Residents can choose between the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and one developed by Sinovac, a Chinese company.

Officials reported 27,761 new cases on Tuesday. Public health experts say daily figures are almost certainly an undercount because many residents test themselves at home and do not report the results, fearing being ordered into a government quarantine if the test is positive.

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