April 8 coronavirus news

As colleges and universities nationwide make plans to welcome back students in the fall, a growing number have announced they will require all students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning to campus. So far, at least eight colleges have said the vaccine will be required, and that number is expected to grow.

Two universities, St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and Nova Southeastern University in Broward, Florida, are going a step further, requiring students and all campus employees to be vaccinated, saying they have a responsibility to provide a safe learning environment for students, faculty, and staff.

“With the extra protection of widespread vaccination, the NSU community will be able to resume more activities and operations sooner, leading to a more engaged educational and professional experience,” said Nova Southeastern University’s announcement on April 1.

Since the announcement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order saying that vaccines are available but not mandated, and prohibited any government entity or business from requiring a vaccine passport.

On Thursday, NSU posted an update that it is now reviewing the executive order and how it relates to its vaccine requirements.

“Additionally, the President’s Office has been hearing from the NSU community in the past few days—some expressing support and others sharing your questions and concerns. All of this is being considered thoughtfully and we will have more details for you by next week,” a statement from the university said.

Universities have been implementing vaccination policies since late March, when Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, became one of the first to say that having all students vaccinated will allow for an “expedited return to pre-pandemic normal,” making more in-person classes possible, as well as more on-campus events that will be allowed.

Rutgers faculty and staff members are also being strongly urged to get vaccinated, but the statement did not say that it was required for them.

Cornell, Brown, Northeastern, and Fort Lewis College in Colorado have made similar announcements, though all will make exceptions for medical or religious reasons.

Cornell anticipates all members of the university community will be vaccinated in the spring or summer. Individuals who are not able to be vaccinated prior to their arrival to campus, “will be expected to be vaccinated as soon after their arrival as possible, and Cornell is investigating ways to facilitate this process,” a statement from the university said.

Cornell has also created an online registration COVID-19 Proof of Vaccination tool, so students and staff can register their vaccination status.

Brown University said in its announcement that it plans to return to a schedule of “mostly in-person operations” when the fall semester begins, and will require the Covid-19 vaccine for any student who will be on campus.

“Our plans to loosen current limitations on in-person activities for Fall 2021 are based on achieving a high level of immunity among students and employees who will be on campus,” said University President Christina Paxson in a statement.

Northeastern is also planning to be fully reopened by the fall for all students to return and for all classes to resume in-person.

“We expect to be back fully in-person at regular occupancy, including fully in-person teaching, and normal occupancy in residence halls and dining facilities,” said Ken Henderson, chancellor and senior vice president for Learning at Northeastern. 

Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, was one of the first schools to shut its campus at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last March. It will now require students to enter their proof of vaccination through an online portal.

CNN’s Laura Ly, Rebekah Riess and Alta Spells contributed to this report.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced on Thursday starting April 19 the state will open Covid-19 vaccine eligibility to all people age 16 and older regardless of residency.

Currently, there are about 240,000 first dose appointments available to New Hampshire residents between now and Memorial Day, the governor said. 

“There’s still an immense amount of opportunity for folks to come into the system,” he said. “We’ve made sure that obviously New Hampshire residents have first shot at it.”

New Hampshire residents still have about 10 days to make sure they are prioritized before the vaccination eligibility is expanded, Sununu said.

With vaccine availability and eligibility expanding in the US, many are beginning to contemplate what daily life will look like once things normalize — or at least reach a “new normal.”

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta answered your coronavirus questions.

Watch:

Video Ad Feedback

9db40ef3-0c7f-404b-821a-5bc56bb5f0bd.mp4

10:13 - Source: cnn

Maryland residents receive their second dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at the Cameron Grove Community Center on March 25, 2021 in Bowie, Maryland. 

About a quarter of adults in the United States – more than 66 million people – are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than a third of the total US population – more than 112 million people – have received at least one dose of vaccine, including more than 43% of adults and nearly 77% of people age 65 or older.

CDC data shows that 174,879,716 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been reported administered – about 76% of the 229,398,685 doses delivered.

That’s more than 3.4 million doses reported administered since yesterday, for a seven-day average of more than 3 million doses per day.

Note: Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.

A health technician loads up a syringe with a dose of the AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine on the day in which health personnel in line for immunity are being inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at Multiusos de Gondomar on February 12, 2021 in Gondomar, Portugal. 

Portuguese health authorities are only recommending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for those above 60 years of age.

“The [Portuguese] Directorate General of Health recommends, until further information is available, the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people with more than 60 years,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

With this decision, Portugal becomes the latest European country to restrict use of AstraZeneca following the announcement by the European Medicines Agency yesterday that it had found a “possible link” between the jab and the occurrence of very rare blood clots. 

In its statement, the Portuguese Directorate General of Health goes on to remind people who have already been vaccinated with AstraZeneca that these events are “extremely rare,” while recommending that those vaccinated remain vigilant to the appearance of symptoms within two weeks of vaccination. 

It also calls on people who have only received one dose of the vaccine to await further instructions. 

A medical worker with Northwell Health holds up doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine at the Northwell Health pop-up coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination site at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Staten Island on April 08, 2021 in New York City. 

The number of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine shots allocated to states and other jurisdictions by the federal government is expected to drop 84% next week, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week, nearly 5 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were allocated to states and other jurisdictions, but only about 785,000 are slated for next week.

Allocations of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for next week, however, will remain steady compared to this week. About 4.7 million first doses of Pfizer and 3.5 million first doses of Moderna have been allocated for next week, along with corresponding second doses.

Allocations of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been largely consistent week to week. However, weekly allocations of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have varied widely. 

According to data from the CDC, the first allocation of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – for the week of March 1 – included more than 2.8 million doses. There are no allocations of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine logged for the week of March 8, and allocations dropped to less than 500,000 doses for the two following weeks. Then, for the week of March 29, allocations jumped to nearly 2 million, before more than doubling for this week.

Here are the total allocations for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to states and other jurisdictions each week, according to data from the CDC: 

About 4.5 million people have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, accounting for about 7% of people who are fully vaccinated in the US, according to the latest data from the CDC.

Vials of AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine for COVID-19 are seen at a filling lab at the Serum Institute of India, Pune, India, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021.

The African Union has announced it is dropping plans to buy additional doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine directly from the Serum Institute of India and will instead focus on securing further vaccines from Johnson & Johnson. 

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), said the decision was not related to recent safety concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine but “because we work very closely with COVAX,” the vaccine-sharing facility for the world’s poorest countries.

Addressing a virtual news briefing from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia Thursday, Nkengasong explained the pivot to Johnson & Johnson was to ensure, the “Indian Serum Institute was enabled to be able to supply doses to the COVAX mechanism.”  

“It was just a clear understanding of how not to duplicate efforts with the Serum Institute, so that we complement each other rather than duplicate efforts,” he added.

Last week, the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) signed an Advance Purchase Agreement with Johnson & Johnson for 220 million doses on behalf of the 55 member states of the African Union (AU).

Nkengasong said he hoped the vaccines would “begin to be available at the beginning of the third quarter.”

The AU will now explore options of securing an additional 180 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, he said.

The AU’s decision comes a day after EU regulator European Medicines Agency (EMA) found that there was a “possible link” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and “very rare cases of blood clots.”

However Nkengasong said, “this (AstraZeneca) vaccine continues to be safe. We will still recommend that the vaccines be used.” He also reiterated the findings of the EMA saying, “the recommendation still stands that the benefits of receiving the vaccine outweighs the risk of the unusual and rare side effects of the vaccine.”

Nkengasong confirmed that “a total 33.8 million vaccine doses have been acquired by Member States, with approximately 12.9 million doses administered” so far.  

He welcomed the news that “Seychelles and Mauritius have received enough COVID vaccine doses to reach 20% target vaccination benchmark, which was what the COVAX facility promised.”

“I think every little step and progress that we observe in the continent is good progress” and “it’s always good to highlight those success stories,” he added.

A hospital worker prays as health workers from the Portuguese charity hospital in Belem, Para State, Brazil, sing and pray for colleagues and COVID-19 patients inside the hospital wards and ICU areas as part of Easter celebrations, on April 4, 2021.

As coronavirus cases in Brazil continue to surge at alarming rates and vaccine rollout has been slow at best, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the adoption of restrictive measures against the virus could help curb its spread. 

Fauci’s comments come as Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro continues to oppose lockdowns and restrictive measures, and criticizes governors and mayors with insulting language for implementing them.

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro once again told supporters that a national lockdown is out of the question, although the country registered a record 4,195 Covid-19 deaths the previous day. 

“Public health restrictions are crucial to gain control over epidemics,” Fauci said.

“We have seen in many other countries where there have been a large number of cases that, when public health measures were implemented, the number of cases has dropped dramatically,” he continued. “So, this is one of the things that Brazil should seriously think about and consider given the very difficult period that it is going through.”

Why Fauci is making those remarks: The Covid-19 P1 variant, first founded in Brazil, is causing a rise in cases in neighboring countries, including Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, and Argentina. It’s also causing a sharp rise in hospitalizations. Intensive care occupancy rates in most Brazilian states are at or above 80% and some local healthcare systems have already collapsed. 

Fauci said he preferrers not to refer to Brazil as a “global threat,” a term used by foreign and Brazilian media to describe the ongoing crisis in the country, but said “there is no doubt that severe public health measures, including lockdowns, have been very successful.”

A man is being held in custody in the Netherlands after plotting to blow up a vaccine center, a spokesperson for the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) told CNN on Thursday. 

Police arrested the 37-year-old man on March 18 on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack on the former town hall of Den Helder on the Drs. F. Bijlweg. The building has been in use as a coronavirus vaccination center since March 8.

The police investigation so far has revealed the suspect, from Den Helder in North Holland, intended to cause an explosion with a firework bomb, according to the Public Prosecution Service, which classified the actions as an act of terror.

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, OM said the suspect tried to sabotage a crucial government process, namely the nationally coordinated vaccination program, in an “extremely violent way.” 

The man has been detained since his arrest and will be remanded in custody for at least 90 days while police gathered more information, the spokesperson said. He will appear later for trial.

An investigation is also being carried out into possible co-suspects.

Correction: A previous version of this post stated the man had been found guilty. A verdict has not yet been made in the case.

The European Union's vaccine chief Thierry Breton speaks during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, on March 17.

The European Union is on track for herd immunity by mid-July, the EU’s vaccine chief Thierry Breton told CNN.

He insisted the EU was working extremely hard to make this happen and said it was possible. Once the doses are produced, it is up to each member state to administer the vaccines, Breton said, adding that he was in contact with all EU countries who are “doing the right things” to make sure people will get vaccinated.

Breton said he had confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying it is a “good vaccine,” adding, it’s “extremely important that all of our fellow citizens understand that we are extremely cautious…and when we give it (a vaccine) the green light, we can go.”

Asked whether the EU would use Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, he said approval was in the hands of European medical regulators. But he said even if it was approved, it wouldn’t change the situation in Europe immediately.

“Our citizens believed maybe at the beginning that you order and you get, the following day, the vaccine. No it doesn’t happen like that, you need at least 10 to 12 months to transform the facility to adapt to the vaccine. When it will be approved, you will need maybe another 10 months,” he explained.

Watch Thierry Breton’s full interview on CNN’s First Move with Julia Chatterley here:

Chile’s Institute of Public Health authorized the emergency use of the new CanSino Biologics vaccine on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Health Ministry.

President Sebastián Piñera highlighted the need for the acquisition of 1.8 million single doses from the Chinese-Canadian laboratory CanSino, and said the vaccinations would take place between April and May.   

Chile already uses vaccines from Sinovac, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca. It has vaccinated 7,111,354 people so far, of which 4,192,320 have received the complete dosage.

There have been 1,043,022 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 23,796 deaths associated with the disease, according to the latest figures by Chilean health authorities. 

A person walks through an empty street after curfew in Marseille, France, on April 2.

France is beginning to see encouraging signs after the latest lockdown measures aimed at curbing the surge in Covid-19 infections, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Thursday during his weekly press conference.  

The restrictions — extended to the rest of France since Saturday — allow individuals to go outdoors to walk or exercise, but they cannot go further than 10km from their home or travel between regions without a valid reason. There’s also a nationwide curfew at 7 p.m. CET.  

The number of hospitalizations is still on the rise. On Wednesday, the number of people in intensive care units (ICU) with Covid-19 in France reached a new 2021 record of 5,729 people, according to official data. 

The last time France had seen a higher number of patients in ICUs was nearly a year ago on April 19, 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic.

According to the Health Ministry, 3,362,472 people have been fully vaccinated in France and 9,797,957 have received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. 

Sachin Tendulkar in Berlin in February 2020.

Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar been released from hospital but will remain in isolation at home following treatment for Covid-19, according to a statement posted on his official Twitter account on Thursday.

In the tweet, Tendulkar wrote: “I have just come home from the hospital and will remain isolated while continuing to rest and recuperate.”

The 47-year-old was admitted to hospital last week after testing positive for the coronavirus. He was previously quarantining at home after experiencing “mild” symptoms.

Tendulkar retired from professional cricket in 2013 but remains the highest run scorer in Test cricket history and the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries.

Belgian Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke in Brussels, Belgium, on February 26.

Belgian Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke sought to reassure the country about the AstraZeneca vaccine, following a decision to temporarily pause administering it to those aged 18 to 55.

“There is no doubt about that it is a good vaccine. It protects against the disease,” he said.  But he cautioned that it does have side effects, “like any vaccine.” 

The decision by Belgium to suspend using AstraZeneca came after a finding by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that there was a “possible link” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and “very rare cases of blood clots” but that the benefits of the vaccine continue to out weigh the risks.

Following the advice of Belgium’s Superior Health Council, Vandenbroucke said the country would now, “use AstraZeneca for the somewhat older people and use the other vaccines earlier for the younger people.”

He added that this was only possible, “Because we have the luxury of choosing from a variety of vaccines and we can spread the risk without impacting our vaccination strategy.”

On the data presented by the EMA to a virtual meeting of European Health Ministers Vandenbroucke said, “We found that EMA actually still had homework,” adding he was not the only Minister to have raised this concern.

“We are not so happy that the EMA has not taken the analysis a little further, namely what is the best choice between the different vaccines for the different age groups

Last month Belgium had decided to continue its vaccination campaign for all people aged over 18 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, while other European countries suspended using the vaccine over blood-clotting concerns pending an investigation by the EMA.

Asked why Belgium had continued when others hadn’t, Vandenbroucke said: “If we had then decided not to use the vaccine anymore, we would have had to turn the campaign upside down. Fortunately we did not do that then, because that would certainly have cost lives.”

Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou arrives for a press conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, on April 7.

Uruguay recorded 3,935 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday – the highest number of new cases since the start of the pandemic. That brings the number of total cases for the country to 126,987, according to the health ministry. 

The country also recorded 40 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,231. On Monday, Uruguay registered a daily record of 45 deaths. 

Lacalle Pou said the measures implemented on March 23, that include the closure of public offices, clubs, gyms, amateur sports practices, as well as public shows, will be extended untl April 30. 

He said the current intensive care unit occupancy rate for the country stands at 74%.

The Norwegian Jewel cruise ship, operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, is moored near the Port of Long Beach in California on January 29.

Norwegian Cruise Line President and CEO Frank Del Rio said that the company is proposing that all passengers and staff be vaccinated in order to start cruises again on July 4. 

“The [US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has shut us down for over a year now,” he said. “… There are many — if not all — travel, tourism and hospitality venues that are open throughout the country that never shut down or are certainly open today. We want to be treated fairly, we want to be treated just like every other industry. And the CDC is not cooperating up until now.”

CDC guidance on Friday did not give a date by which the agency planned to allow US sailings again for the first time since March 2020. Norwegian, Carnival and Royal Caribbean all suffered massive losses last year, totaling $6.8 billion between them.

The cruise line would also require passengers to have a negative coronavirus test before boarding, mandate the wearing of masks indoors and would limit capacity to 60%. The return-to-service proposal was submitted to the CDC on Monday, Del Rio said, but the company has not heard back from the agency yet. 

“If people are not vaccinated, they’re not getting on board a Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings vessel. … So we will source vaccines for our crew or else we won’t sail,” Del Rio said. 

In the CDC’s technical instructions for Covid-19 mitigation for cruises, there’s a requirement for cruise lines to submit daily reports.

“Do hotels report daily? Do airlines report daily? No one does. Why should the cruise industry be exposed to that kind of draconian requirements? It’s just not fair. It’s discriminatory, and we hope the CDC comes to the table soon to discuss all these issues because up to now, they haven’t,” Del Rio said. 

Watch more:

Peru’s Health Ministry reported 314 new deaths due to Covid-19 on Wednesday evening, the highest number since the pandemic started. The country’s death toll reached 53,725. 

At least 9,305 new coronavirus cases were also reported, bringing the total number in the country to 1,607,898. The South American country has averaged over 8,000 cases for the last two weeks, with 12,916 cases being reported on April 1, its highest daily total since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Earlier this week, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte told CNN’s affiliate TV Peru that the Brazilian variant P1 has been identified in almost all regions in the country, particularly in the areas bordering with Brazil. The same variant has been also been detected in almost 40% of the cases in the capital Lima, the Minister reiterated.

The UK variant has been detected but in very few cases, the minister added. 

Peruvians will go to the polls on April 11 to choose a new President as well as 130 members of Congress. 

Voting is mandatory and authorities have increased the number of polling stations, extended voting hours and encouraged voters to cast their votes according to a staggered schedule in order to avoid risks while the country struggles fighting a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Peru has the fifth highest Covid-19 case count in Latin America, after Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

A teacher prepares Covid-19 tests for members of her staff at a school in London on March 8.

More than half of the people who tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK did not have symptoms, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Thursday in its latest Infection Survey. 

But how did the others feel? Fatigue, headache and a cough were the most reported symptoms from people who tested positive for Covid-19. Nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea were among the less commonly reported symptoms.

“Asymptomatic” describes a person who is infected but does not have symptoms. With Covid-19, asymptomatic carriers can still easily infect others without knowing it. So if you’re infected but don’t feel sick, you could still get others very sick.

Find more information about Covid-19 and vaccines here:

Japan’s Osaka Prefecture reported a record 905 Covid-19 daily cases on Thursday, logging a new daily high for the third consecutive day amid a fourth wave of the pandemic. 

Tokyo reported 545 new cases on Thursday, exceeding 500 for two days in a row – the first time doing so since the state of emergency lifted on March 21st. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she has requested that the central government allow her to employ stricter measures. 

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the government plans to designate stronger measures for Tokyo due to a rise in infections and increasing pressure on hospitals in the capital.

On Wednesday the city of Osaka took its Olympic torch relay off public roads as it declared a state of emergency amid rising infections. Read more:

Actor Satomi Ishihara (L) and Paralympian Aki Taguchi (R) light the celebration cauldron on the first day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch relay in Naraha, Fukushima prefecture on March 25, 2021. (Photo by KIM KYUNG-HOON / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KIM KYUNG-HOON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Osaka takes Olympic torch relay off public roads as it declares state of emergency amid Covid-19 surge

The rate of new coronavirus infections has levelled off in England, researchers at Imperial College London have found. 

According to a report released Thursday, one in 500 people are currently infected in England, a fall of almost two thirds since February.

Moreover, infections now result in fewer hospital admissions and deaths. The authors suggest these trends are likely due to a combination of factors, including schools reopening and the nationwide vaccination program. 

Commissioned by the government, the research is based on swabs taken from 140,000 people selected to represent England’s population. Of those tested, 227 had a positive result, giving a rate of 0.2%, or one in 500 people. 

Primary school-aged children (aged 5-12) had the highest number of infections at 0.41%, while those aged 65 and above had the lowest at 0.09%. 

The researchers also estimated that the reproduction number (R) is 1.0, which means the epidemic is neither growing nor shrinking as each infected person infects, on average, one other individual. 

More than 5.7 million people have now been fully vaccinated with two doses in the UK, while 31.7 million have had a first dose.