Coronavirus

Gothamist reports: Nearly one week before the state’s eviction moratorium is set to expire, two state lawmakers have introduced a bill to extend the deadline to August 31st, aiming to provide further relief to New Yorkers who continue struggling to pay rent. “This will keep people from being thrown out onto the streets,” Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz, a sponsor of the …

USA Today reports: With several states lifting mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccination rates on the rise, travelers are starting to ask when they will be able to fly without wearing a mask. It shouldn’t be anytime soon, flight attendants say. The federal mask mandate on planes and in airports, signed by President Joe Biden in January and due to expire …

Via press release from the Justice Department: A federal grand jury in Miami has returned an indictment charging a Florida man — Mark Grenon, 62 — and his three sons — Jonathan Grenon, 34, Jordan Grenon, 26, and Joseph Grenon, 32 — with fraudulently marketing and selling “Miracle Mineral Solution,” a toxic industrial bleach, as a cure for COVID-19, cancer, …

Courthouse News reports: An independent advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Friday to recommend the continued use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine after the single-dose jab was put on pause over blood clotting concerns. Friday’s vote followed similar concerns in the Europe Union over both the J&J jab and the AstraZeneca vaccine, …

The Associated Press reports: As the supply of coronavirus vaccine doses in the U.S. outpaces demand, some places around the country are finding there’s such little interest in the shots, they need to turn down shipments. The dwindling demand for vaccines illustrates the challenge that the U.S. faces in trying to conquer the pandemic while at the same time dealing …

From the Vatican’s official news outlet: Catholics across the globe are encouraged to dedicate the Marian month of May to praying for an end to the pandemic. The initiative, behind which the Pope has thrown his support, involves 30 Marian Shrines from various parts of the world. The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization announced the news with a …

The Washington Post reports: India on Thursday recorded the world’s highest number of new coronavirus infections in a 24-hour period since the beginning of the pandemic, reporting a staggering 314,835 cases, as a surge tears through communities and inundates the nation’s hospital infrastructure. The single-day case count surpasses a previous record set by the United States, when more than 313,000 …

Gothamist reports: New York City wants everyone else in the country and world to know that it’s (re)open for business—today, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s marketing arm, NYC & Company, announced a new $30 million tourism campaign. “Tourism accounts for hundreds of thousands of jobs in this city, and building a recovery for all of us means welcoming …

The Washington Post reports: New global coronavirus cases grew for the eighth consecutive week, the World Health Organization said late Tuesday. Deaths due to the virus also rose for five weeks straight, the agency said, as outbreaks caused new fatalities from India to Iran to Mexico to Poland. In India, a pandemic spiral drove the global surge in cases in …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Pfizer Inc. says it has identified in Mexico and Poland the first confirmed instances of counterfeit versions of the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with BioNTech SE , the latest attempt by criminals trying to exploit the world-wide vaccination campaign. Vials seized by authorities in separate investigations were tested by the company and confirmed to contain …

The Daily Beast reports: Right-wing rocker Ted Nugent expressed not a peep of concern for anybody he might have infected as he announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. “I have had flu symptoms for the last 10 days,” Nugent reported via Facebook Live on Monday evening. “I thought I was dying.” That timing meant the people who had …

The Daily Beast reports: That big vacation still seems a long way away. The State Department announced Monday that it will massively extend its “Do Not Travel” guidance to cover about 80 percent of countries around the globe. That will mean adding around 130 countries to the list of of 34, which already includes places such as Brazil, Argentina, and …

The Washington Post reports: For months, officials have been a step behind the scammers, who have openly discussed strategies to fake the cards on social media, sold them on sites such as eBay and pulled blank photos off state websites. Federal officials’ decision to use paper cards that can be easily photocopied or even printed off a template, rather than …

Haaretz reports: With the number of Israelis vaccinated against COVID-19 topping 5 million and the country experiencing fewer than 100 new daily cases, the government ended its outdoor mask mandate on Sunday, spurring widespread celebration and forcing people to change deeply ingrained habits formed by just over a year of mandatory virus precautions. While people are now allowed to walk …

Axios reports: All 50 U.S. states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have now made U.S. adults over the age of 16 eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, meeting President Biden’s April 19 deadline. The landmark speaks to the increased pace of the national vaccination campaign, but will increase pressure on the federal government, states and pharmaceutical companies to provide adequate vaccine …

“We’re going to produce a poll tomorrow night — I’ve seen the data, we’re going to release it — that’s going to show that the American people are more likely to trust the vaccine because the FDA and CDC are willing to step in and say, ‘Wait a minute, we’re not convinced of this so we want to take a …

The Hill reports: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), indicated Sunday that her state would not implement new COVID-19- related lockdown restrictions in response to a spike in new infections due to Republican-led lawsuits last year that challenged her constitutional authority to do so. Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Whitmer explained to host Chuck Todd that the lawsuits had …

Bloomberg News reports: A decision on whether and how to resume vaccinating Americans with the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus shot will probably come by Friday, the top U.S. infectious diseases specialist said. It would be surprising “if we don’t have a resumption in some form by Friday,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said …

ABC News reports: Roughly half of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released Saturday. Across the country, more than 128 million people ages 18 and older have received at least one shot, with more than 82 million fully vaccinated with one of …

The Washington Post reports: The White House announced Friday that it will allocate $1.7 billion to fight coronavirus variants as the nation races to vaccinate people before the pathogen can mutate in new and concerning ways. The funding, which will come from the most recent federal stimulus package, will target the detection, surveillance and mitigation of the variants. The original …