Biden urged to continue intel community probe of Covid origins

President Joe Biden and White House officials will resume wearing masks indoors when travelling to parts of the nation with high Covid transmission rates. The CDC is reportedly preparing to issue guidance that calls for fully vaccinated people to put on face coverings in high-risk places. Jen Psaki added that the president was briefed on the updated guidance Tuesday morning by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader said that the COVID-19 protocols governing the House will remain in place indefinitely, given the spread of the delta variant, and might even get tougher as the number of cases increases around the country. Hoyer further noted that a number of lawmakers have returned to wearing masks on the House floor.

The CDC is expected to announce that some vaccinated individuals resume wearing masks in certain situations to protect against COVID-19. The expected announcement will mark a reversal of its earlier guidance which said that only unvaccinated individuals should wear face coverings. The expected guidance comes as the Biden administration ramps up its warnings about the delta variant of COVID-19.

The Cuban embassy in Paris said that its building had been attacked with petrol bombs, causing serious damage, but no injuries to diplomatic staff. A police source said an investigation was under way. Cuba has been rocked by protests against a deep economic crisis, the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and curbs on civil liberties.

Tokyo recorded 2,848 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding the earlier record of 2,520 cases on Jan. 7. The Japanese capital has now recorded more than 200,000 cases since the pandemic began. Tokyo is under its fourth state of emergency, which is to continue through the Olympics until just before the Paralympics start in late August. City officials are concerned about the spread of the Delta variant.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday that she received the COVID-19 vaccination months ago. She also urged others in her state to be vaccinated while referring to it as the ’Trump vaccine.’ Her emphasis on the ’Trump vaccine’ followed a new report released last week that showed a majority of American voters believe Trump should receive more credit for the COVID-19 vaccine.

President Joe Biden has urged Americans to get themselves vaccinated against COVID-19, as cases of the coronavirus rise across the country due to the spread of the contagious Delta variant. The President also announced his administration would find some cases of ’long COVID’ to be a disability. He was marking the 31st anniversary of the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Czech government has approved plans to donate up to 2.39 million COVID-19 vaccines to countries in the Balkans, Africa and Asia by the end of 2021. The Czech Republic has administered almost 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the end of December, with 4.6 million people fully vaccinated. The same was confirmed by the Health Ministry of the country.

New York City workers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or face weekly testing as of Sep 13. Mayor Bill de Blasio added thousands of teachers, police officers and firefighters to the health-worker mandate he announced a week ago . Mr. de Blasio has resisted calls for a new mask mandate, saying he wants to emphasize vaccines .

The American Medical Association and dozens of medical groups have called for the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination of health workers in the U.S. The American Nursing Association, American Psychiatric Association and others said the fast-moving delta variant is putting unvaccinated children and immunocompromised people at risk, demanding more urgent measures.

Rep. Clay Higgins announced Sunday that he has COVID-19 for a second time. Referring to the disease as the ’biological attack weaponized virus’ from China, Higgins said on Facebook that the latest infection is ’far more challenging’ than his bout with the coronavirus in January 2020. It was unclear whether the earlier infection was confirmed. Higgins encouraged people to get vaccinated.

New York City will require all of its municipal workers to get coronavirus vaccines by mid-September or face weekly COVID-19 testing. The same was announced by Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of NYC, on Monday. The rule is expected to affect about 340,000 city employees. Officials hope the inconvenience and discomfort of weekly tests will persuade many to overcome a reluctance to get inoculated.

Journalist Carl Bernstein bashed former President Trump as a ’war criminal’ for ’fomenting a coup,’ and blasted him for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump is ’our own American war criminal, of a kind we’ve never experienced before,’ Bernstein said. Trump ’put his own electoral interests above the health of our people, as they were slaughtered in this pandemic,’ he added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert of the country said that Americans who are immune compromised may end up needing COVID-19 vaccine booster shots as the United States deals with increasing cases from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Health officials are also reportedly considering whether to revise mask guidance for vaccinated Americans.

Tanzania had been among the few countries in Africa yet to receive vaccines or start inoculating its population, mainly because its former leader had claimed prayer had defeated COVID-19 in the country.

Anti-riot police in France fired tear gas on Saturday (Jul 24) as clashes erupted during protests in central Paris against COVID-19 restrictions and a vaccination campaign. Police sought to push back demonstrators near the capital’s Gare Saint-Lazare railway station after protesters had knocked over a police motorbike ridden by two officers. There was heavy police presence on the streets of Paris.

Several states have allegedly scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this month just as cases across the country started to skyrocket. The shift to weekly instead of daily reporting in Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota marked a notable shift during a pandemic in which coronavirus dashboards have become a staple for Americans closely tracking case counts.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Sydney and other Australian cities on Saturday to protest lockdown restrictions amid another surge in cases. There was a heavy police presence in Sydney, including mounted police and riot officers in response to what authorities said was unauthorized protest activity. The police made a number of arrests after objects were thrown at officers.

Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary said that the administration would not place blame on unvaccinated Americans as coronavirus cases rise around the country. Psaki, however, said that the Biden administration empathizes with the frustration of leaders in states that have lagged behind in vaccination rate. Psaki said it’s not the role of the federal government to encourage vaccine mandates.

Kay Ivey, the Governor of Alabama unloaded on unvaccinated people for driving COVID cases and hospitalizations in her state, and said people are ’supposed to have common sense’. Only about a third of Alabama’s population is fully vaccinated. The top reasons people give for not getting the shot include fearing the vaccine side effects are worse than COVID-19 and not trusting the vaccine.

State officials tightened lockdown measures in Sydney, Australia, as the country’s New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in new COVID-19 cases this year. The increase in cases prompted officials to describe the situation as a ’national emergency’. Total infections in Australia’s worst outbreak since the peak of the pandemic last year have jumped to just over 1,900.

An eight-week gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is a ’sweet spot’ when it comes to generating strong immune response while protecting the UK population against the Delta variant of coronavirus. Researchers have found that when compared with a four-week gap, a 10-week interval between the doses produces higher antibody levels.

Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan acknowledged that it has been difficult to sell the Olympics to a skeptical public amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in his first-ever interview with an American outlet. The Japanese leader said he was worried that ’public opinion was so divided’ about the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but felt Japan must ’fulfill our obligation to the rest of the world.’

Actor Matt Damon has spoken out against vaccine hesitancy and misinformation amid a rise in Covid cases sweeping across the country. Damon called on people to get the vaccine. However, he made sure to note that he understands there are many reasons that people may still be hesitant. ’I fall heavily on the side of trusting science more than something you read on Facebook,’ he added.