(Bloomberg) —
A federal judge temporarily blocked New York City’s school system, the largest in the U.S., from imposing a vaccine mandate for teachers and other staff. The state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, released plans to expand the pool of health-care workers after Monday’s deadline for them to receive a first dose of vaccine.
China’s latest cluster, in the northeastern city of Harbin, remains “severe and complex,” according to the province’s official social media site. Macau is stepping up travel restrictions as the city tries to prevent an outbreak that could threaten its gaming industry ahead of a week-long holiday in China.
South Korea is preparing to offer booster shots to people over 60, medical workers and other high-risk groups. Australia’s Prime Minister called on states to open their borders.
Key Developments:
- Global Virus Tracker: Cases pass 231.3 million; 4.7 million deaths
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 6.1 billion shots given
- Profiling coronavirus mutations help scientists find weak spots
- To reach vaccine holdouts, scientists look to digital marketing
- Pandemic dashboards win followers in search of latest Covid data
- Understanding the debate over booster shots: QuickTake
France Doubles Vaccine Pledge (3:25 p.m. HK)
French President Emmanuel Macron said France will double the number of vaccine doses it donates to poorer countries to 120 million. “The injustice is that in other continents vaccination is far behind because of us, collectively,” Macron said in a message broadcast during the Global Citizen fundraising concert in Paris.
France will also commit to helping UNICEF and health systems with vaccine distribution, Macron said, noting that only 3% of Africa’s population is vaccinated.
South Korea Readies Booster Rollout (3:08 p.m. HK)
South Korea will start offering booster shots to “high-risk groups,” including people over 60 and medical workers, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said during a COVID-19 response meeting, adding that the country also plans to expand vaccine eligibility to teenagers and pregnant women.
Three-quarters of the population have received at least one vaccine dose, with less than half fully vaccinated, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s website Sunday. The Seoul metropolitan area remains under the government’s strictest social distancing measures.
Australia PM Calls on States to Open Borders (11:21 a.m. HK)
Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison said state premiers must not keep borders closed once the 80% of eligible Australians are vaccinated, a threshold he expects to reach by the end of the year.
“I can’t see any reason why Australians should be kept from each other,” the leader said on a Sunday television program. “That puts a heavy, heavy responsibility on those who would seek to prevent that from happening.”
On Sunday, Australia’s second most populous state Victoria reported 779 new local cases of Covid-19, down from the pandemic high set a day earlier. New South Wales recorded 961 new infections. Other states, like Queensland and Western Australia, have recorded very few cases recently.
China Adds Cases in Harbin (10:15 a.m. HK)
China reported three more infections in the northeastern city of Harbin, a new cluster, and nearby Suihua city recorded one more. Harbin raised risk levels to “mid-level” for five residential complexes and the province’s official Weibo account described the coronavirus situation as “severe and complex.”
A larger outbreak that started earlier this month in southeast China’s Fujian province is ebbing, with five cases reported from Xiamen in the province and none from Putian.
Judge Halts NYC Schools Shot Mandate (6:40 a.m. HK)
New York City’s school system, the largest in the U.S., has been temporarily blocked from imposing a mandate forcing teachers and other staff to get vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a ruling from a federal judge.
That mandate was scheduled to go into effect on Monday at midnight.
Late Friday, a judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit referred the case to a three-judge panel “on an expedited basis.” The hearing will take place on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Rwanda Bars Reopen (5:35 p.m. NY)
Bars in Rwanda opened for the first time since the pandemic started in March 2020, with social distancing and other virus-control measures still in place, the New York Times reported.
The nation had one of the strictest lockdowns in Africa, but it has met a World Health Organization goal of vaccinating 10% of the population as positive test rates continue to fall.
Illness from Ivermectin Doubles, FT Reports (4:30 p.m. NY)
Serious cases of poisoning from the anti-parasite drug ivermectin, generally used on livestock but misused as a treatment for Covid-19, have more than doubled in 2021, the Financial Times reported, citing U.S. Food and Drug Administration data.
The FDA has received 49 reports of poisoning and other serious illness from the drug this year so far, and 14 of those people died, the newspaper reported. The FDA could not determine if ivermectin was the direct cause of death.
In 2020, the agency received reports of 23 cases. The drug, approved in smaller doses to treat parasites in human beings, is falsely touted on social media and some more mainstream outlets like Fox News as an alternative to Covid-19 vaccination. Prescriptions for the drug have increased 24 times compared with before the pandemic, the newspaper reported.
N.Y. Prepares for Medical Staff Shortages (10:15 a.m. NY)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul released a plan to expand the pool of health-care workers after Monday’s deadline for them to receive a first dose of vaccine. She said 84% of hospital workers and 77% of nursing home staff are fully vaccinated. Those who refuse the shot or who don’t receive an exemption face termination.
The plan anticipates declaring a state of emergency to help fill any shortfalls, easing the way for out-of-state workers, recent graduates or retirees to practice in New York state. Medically trained National Guard members could also be called into service.
“I am monitoring the staffing situation closely, and we have a plan to increase our health care workforce and help alleviate the burdens on our hospitals and other health care facilities,” the Democratic governor said in a press statement on Saturday.
Iran to Get First Batch of Pfizer Vaccine (8:23 a.m. NY)
Iran will receive its first batch of the Pfizer vaccine in the near future, the country’s Food and Drug Administration said in a statement, reversing a ban on the imports of the shot for being co-developed by an American company. The Pfizer jabs will be imported from Belgium and only given to pregnant women as well as to health care workers as a booster, the administration said.
Delta Variant Extinguishes Beta in South Africa, Study Shows (8:10 a.m. NY)
The more infectious nature of the delta mutation of the coronavirus has seen it almost completely displace the beta variant in South Africa, the discovery of which led to widespread travel bans.
A study, released by two South African genomics institutes on Sept. 23, showed that the delta variant, first identified in India, drove a third wave of infections in the country. “The dominance of delta was consistently observed through increased genomic surveillance during the third wave, with the detection of beta drastically decreasing to almost none in the last weeks,” the scientists said in the report.
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