NO DATE: The world’s largest COVID-19 vaccine test began with the first of 30,000 volunteers expected to verify injections created through the U.S. government, one of the many applicants in the final stretch of the global vaccine race.
There is still no guarantee that the experimental vaccine, developed through the National Institutes of Health and Modern Inc., will protect. The exam began on Monday.
Volunteers may not know if they are getting the genuine photo or a fake version. After two doses, scientists will largely monitor which organization reports on maximum infections while painting daily, especially in areas where the virus is still spreading unchecked.
Modern said vaccination took place in Savannah, Georgia, the first site to begin among more than seven dozen control sites scattered across the country.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VIRUS BRUTE:
– The world’s largest COVID-19 vaccine has begun.
— WHO cites doubling of cases over the past six weeks
— White House, Senate GOP try again on $1 trillion virus aid
— Hanna ‘s rains bring flooding threat along US-Mexico border as virus surges
— Uncertainty over US-China tensions, pandemic pushes gold to record price
— Baseball’s return includes several comeback stories
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Track the AP pandemic in http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON:
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff is urging Germans to help bring down new coronavirus infections now so that the country can go into the fall and winter well-prepared.
Helge Braun said a buildup of infections in recent days was “worrying.” He stated that the reasons for the diversity of groups between seasonal staff and the meat industry to small epidemics similar to the circle of family gatherings and recreational activities.
Braun appealed on Monday, six months after the first case detected in Germany, to keep everyone at a distance and other precautions.
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FRESA, Wing. A pastor from Alabama said more than 40 people had become inflamed with coronavirus after attending a multi-day revival at a Baptist church.
Pastor Daryl Ross of Warrior Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Marshall County said the faithful, by adding themselves, tested positive after the congregation organized a series of devotees with a guest pastor for several days last week.
“The whole church has it, more or less,” Ross said, as quoted by Al.com.
Services were shut down Friday after church leaders learned that one of the provided members had performed the virus test. The limb showed no symptoms, according to the shepherd.
Ross, that over the weekend, dozens more got sick.
“We knew what we were getting into,” he added. “We knew the possibilities.”
Ross said the two-member instances were serious and that no one had been hospitalized on Sunday.
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PRISTINA, Kosovo — A one-hour strike among Kosovo’s restaurant and cafe owners has sought to raise concerns about what they see as lack of support from the government during the coronavirus outbreak.
Hundreds of restaurant owners and employees symbolically closed their restaurants and bars on Monday and threw away keys at the government building.
Protest organizer Petrit Kllokoqi said the owners want subsides for salaries, support for 50% of rent and other help.
“We are not being supported by the state. That is what we are asking for,” he said.
Kosovo saw a big increase in new coronavirus cases in May, after relaxation of measures that were aimed at slowing the spread. The government reimposed some lockdown measures.
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WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says people “stepping up to the plate” is the reason for some of the “plateauing” in coronavirus cases being seen in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said last week that “we already are starting to see some plateauing,” or leveling off of cases, in these hard-hit states.
In an interview Monday about Fox and Friends from Fox News, Azar said the idea of officials “was because other people wear their masks.” He said they also had social distances and practiced smart hygiene, and praised the governors for the final bars, where it is difficult to be socially far away and wear a mask.
“Then other people come to the paintings and do what we ask and what the governors ask and we see that it has an impact,” Azar said.
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ATHENS, Greece – The Greek government says that they will most likely expand the mandatory use of the mask in churches and the purchase of shopping malls, bringing out the developing public for government rules on pandemic security.
Greece has maintained a low infection rate since the end of the closing measures and its opening to tourism in recent weeks, but has noticed a build-up of summer infections in cities, achieving 4,193 instances in total and 202 deaths on Sunday.
“We will have to send the message that complacency is the enemy and that is what we will have to fight against,” said government spokesman Stelios Petsas.
August 15th is the main festival of the Orthodox Christian calendar, the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and is celebrated every year with pilgrimages, parish fairs and other public gatherings in Greece.
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EFFIE, Minnesota: Thousands of others showed up for what’s known as Minnesota’s largest rodeo, filling the stands for the three-day occasion despite orders to restrict crowds due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The state Department of Health and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office imposed a spectator limit at the event. The latest order from Gov. Tim Walz limits outdoor events and entertainment to 250 people who are socially distanced.
The stands remained complete or nearly complete during the 3 days of North Star Stampede’s annual 65th rodeo in Effie, northern Minnesota, the Star Tribune reported.
The occasion’s organizer, Cimarron Pitzen, wrote in a Facebook post before the occasion that it would not save others from protesting against what he described as “a ridiculous drift from the government” and his right to meet.
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MADRID – The head of the regional government of Catalonia said that the Archbishop of Barcelona is being investigated for an imaginable violation of hygiene standards by holding an unauthorized mass.
Juan José Omella held a service Sunday at Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia Basilica in memory of victims of the coronavirus.
Catalonia has implemented tight restrictions on gatherings as it tries to stem a growing outbreak of COVID-19. The region reported 133 new cases on Saturday, the second-highest increase across Spain.
Catalan leader Quim Torra said Monday that the regional fitness government had not given prior authorization for the ceremony, as required by existing rules.
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GENEVA —The coronavirus pandemic “continues to accelerate”, with a doubling of cases over the last six weeks, the World Health Organization chief says.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said around 16 million cases have been reported to the UN fitness agency, with more than 640,000 deaths worldwide.
Tedros will convene the WHO emergency committee on Thursday, a procedural requirement six months after the firm declared a public emergency of fear of the coronavirus outbreak on 30 January. The panel will advise you on the pandemic.
“COVID-19 has replaced our world,” he told reporters Monday at WHO headquarters in Geneva. “He gathered people, communities and nations, and separated them.”
He cited some points that have proven to be effective in some countries, adding political leadership, education, higher education, and hygiene and physical distance measures.
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LONDON — Budget airline Ryanair says the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on its bottom line, with pandemic travel restrictions leading to a 99% drop in passengers in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
The airline called the quarter the “most challenging’’ in its history, with a loss of 185 million euros ($216 million). It described a second wave of COVID-19 as its “biggest fear.”
Travel restrictions led to a contraction of travelers, with 500,000 passengers in the first quarter compared with 41.9 million in the same period last year.
The low-cost carrier expects air travel to be depressed in Europe for the next two to three years.
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BRUSSELS — Belgian health authorities say cases of COVID-19 are growing at an alarming rate amid a surge of infections in the port city of Antwerp.
According to the latest figures published on Monday, higher cases were observed by 71% during the week of 17-23 July until last week, with 47% of cases detected in the province of Antwerp. The higher numbers in the rest of the county, with an average of approximately 279 new instances, were consistent with the day.
The government also saw a 30% increase in other people admitted to the hospital.
Belgium has been affected by the virus, with more than 66,000 cases shown adding 9,821 deaths. The government tightened the restrictions last week, making it mandatory to use face masks in crowded spaces, while requiring bar and restaurant owners to record visitors’ tactile information.
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PARIS – Morocco is banning everything to and from some of its major cities in an attempt to stop a small increase in coronavirus cases, even though the North African country has remained less affected than its northern European neighbors.
On Monday morning, an articulation through the Moroccan ministries of physical and indoor conditioning, cited by WFP’s state news agency, said there was a travel “ban” affecting the cities of Tangier, Tetouan, Fez, Meknes, Casablanca, Berrechid, Settat and Marrakech’s popular tourist destination.
The ministries said the decision was made because many Moroccans were not complying with measures encouraged by the governments to fight the spread of the coronavirus, such as social distancing, the wearing of masks and the use of disinfectants.
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HONG KONG — Hong Kong will ban dining at restaurants completely and mandate masks in all public places, as the city battles a worsening coronavirus outbreak that has infected over 1,000 people in the last two weeks.
The tightened measures will be effective for one week from Wednesday. They are an extension of a previous ban on eating at restaurants and eateries after 6 p.m., as well as making it mandatory to wear masks on public transport.
The ban on public meetings of more than 4 people has also been strengthened, with meetings limited to two other people.
Bars, beauty salons and amusement game centers will remain closed, and swimming pools and sports venues will be closed from Wednesday. Eateries and restaurants will be allowed to provide takeout services to customers.
In the past two weeks, 1,164 people have become inflamed with coronavirus, most of whom have been transmitted locally. The outbreak is the highest in Hong Kong to date, after the city reported several weeks without cases of local transmission in May and June.
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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has reached some other low point in the death toll due to COVID-19 with 20 in the last 24 hours, the smallest accumulation since mid-June.
“This is an 87% relief in COVID-19-related deaths,” Dr. Zafar Mirza, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant, tweeted Monday.
Daily infections in Pakistan also continued to decline with only 1,176 new instances reported in the last 24 hours. Since registrations began in March, Pakistan has recorded 274,288 infections and 241,026 others have recovered from COVID-19.
Also with the Muslim holy day of Eid-ul Adha later this week, Mirza said that despite the encouraging and stable decline of infections, “there is no room for complacency.” Pakistan experienced its last peak of instances after the first Eid-al Fitr festival.
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NEW DELHI – With India registering only about 50,000 new instances of coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched facilities in 3 major cities to particularly increase testing capacity.
The 49,931 instances reported on Monday raised India’s count to more than 1.4 million. India has the third number of instances in the world after the United States and Brazil. However, the 32,771 reported deaths from the disease in India have a much lower mortality rate than in the other two countries.
Modi’s office says the testing facilities that will begin operating on Monday will help authorities track the virus. They will be put in Noida, a suburb of the capital New Delhi, and in the cities of Mumbai and Kolkata. Each is capable of analyzing as many as 10,000 tests per day.
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JOHANNESBURG – South Africa reports more than 11,000 new cases of coronavirus, and the country now has more than 445,000 in total, more than 6,700 deaths.
South Africa has the fifth highest number of instances in the world and represents more than one part of the bodies on the African continent. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the exit from the pandemic would be “long and difficult,” but the worst is yet to come.
The resource-poor eastern cape province is a developing concern, accounting for 16% of the country’s instances and more than 20% of deaths. South Africa’s public laboratories continue to face delays, with an average processing time of just over a week.
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MELBOURNE, Australia – The Australian state of Victoria on Monday released a new record of 532 new coVID-19 instances, and the head of government warned that a blockade in the City of Melbourne would continue while others continued to work.
Melbourne is almost half way through a six-week lockdown aimed at curbing community spread of coronavirus. Mask-wearing in Australia’s second-largest city became compulsory last week.
The new and six deaths reported on Monday surpassed the previous record of 484 new infections reported on Wednesday last week.
Victoria’s Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said the most important thing in new infections is that other people continued to paint after they developed symptoms.
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