Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the United States plans to share 2.5 million doses of vaccines with Mexico and 1.5 million with Canada.
Tens of millions of doses of the vaccine have been stored in factories in the United States. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in dozens of countries, including Mexico and Canada, but the vaccine has not yet been authorized by American drug regulators. Psaki said the doses to be sent to the two countries would be a loan, with the United States receiving vaccines in return in the future.
The deal could be finalized on Friday, CNN learns. On Tuesday, Mexico’s foreign minister said an announcement could be made by the end of the week.
The Biden government has pledged to have enough vaccines for all Americans before sharing doses, and if that agreement is signed, it will be the first time that the United States will share vaccines directly with another country. It would probably also give a big boost to vaccination efforts in Canada and Mexico, which are struggling to launch their vaccines compared to the United States.
Commenting on the pace of the launch on Thursday, Biden said that Americans still need to be vigilant to prevent the virus from spreading – cases are still increasing in several states.
“This is a time for optimism, but it is not a time for relaxation,” warned Biden. “I need you all to do your part. Wash your hands, stay socially aloof, keep masking yourself as recommended by the CDC and get vaccinated when your time comes.”
More than 115 million Americans have been vaccinated since the first Covid-19 vaccine was authorized in December, according to the latest data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CNN SPECIAL REPORT
The Human Cost of Covid opens on Saturday from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm Eastern Time. The documentary will be available on demand on Sunday via cable / satellite systems to CNN. It will also be available on CNNgo platforms and CNN mobile apps.
YOU ASKED. WE ANSWER.
Q: When can Americans go back to normal life?
ONE: States are moving forward with expanding access to the Covid-19 vaccine and removing restrictions on companies and large meetings, while the United States is seeking a return to normality.
“We are neglecting the large number of intermediate people who need it, who want to get the vaccine, but may have some concerns or simply don’t have time to be away from work or look for daycare centers,” emergency doctor Dr. Leana Wen told Anderson Cooper of CNN On thursday. “We need to make vaccination easier for these individuals and also to clearly demonstrate what the benefit of vaccination is, to make clear the message that vaccines are the way back to pre-pandemic life.”
WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY
The AstraZeneca vaccine is ‘safe and effective’
Much of Western Europe is now in the middle of a third wave of the virus. France on Thursday announced a limited blockade of Covid-19 to Paris and several other regions to combat emerging cases. And the pandemic is “advancing eastwards,” said Kluge, with infection and death rates in Central Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic countries among the highest in the world.
While Covid-19 deaths soar in Brazil, Bolsonaro says there is a ‘war’ against him
“Here the war has become a war against the president. It seems that people only die from Covid,” Bolsonaro, who did not wear a mask, told supporters in front of the presidential palace on Thursday. “Hospitals are 90% occupied. But we need to find out how many are from Covid and how many are from other illnesses,” he said.
In the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, intensive care units are 95% occupied. Fifteen other state capitals are similarly on the verge of collapse, with an ICU occupancy of more than 90% – a deluge of hospitalizations that has accompanied a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases in the country. While Covid-19 cases are beginning to stabilize or decline in many nations, Brazil is reporting record daily figures. More than 45,000 people were killed in Brazil in the last month alone, and the country recorded 90,303 new cases in a single day on Wednesday.
Cubans embark on treacherous sea voyages with the worsening economic crisis
When Beatriz Jimenez closes her eyes, she sees her daughter Lisbethy and two small grandchildren – and they are alive. Jimenez’s family left the small coastal town of Cabarién, on the northern coast of Cuba, on March 4, aboard a crowded smuggler boat.
Jimenez said that her daughter Lisbethy made the trip because she was separated from her husband in Florida for more than a year, after the pandemic forced Cuba to cut most international flights. Lisbethy was afraid to leave her daughter Kenna Mariana, 6, and Luis Nesto, 4, in Cuba and risk a long separation. Their boat capsized in the waters of the Bahamas, according to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs. About 12 survivors and a corpse were found by a Royal Bahamian Defense ship, but Lisbethy and her children were not among them.
ON OUR RADAR
- Transplant surgeons at Northwestern Medicine in Illinois say they successfully performed one of the first known double lung transplants in a Covid-19 patient using organs from a donor who had previously tested positive for the virus.
- Researchers working to show when and how the virus first appeared in China estimate that it probably didn’t infect the first human until October 2019, at least. And their models showed something else: it hardly became a pandemic virus.
- The coronavirus spread on an international flight, in a hotel corridor and then to home contacts, despite efforts to isolate and quarantine patients, New Zealand researchers reported on Thursday.
- Covid-19 restrictions on Japan’s first Super Nintendo World include temperature checks, mandatory mask use, hand sanitizer everywhere, social distance in line and signs in front of roller coasters asking passengers not to shout .
- Officials in the South Korean capital, Seoul, have reversed the course of controversial plans to require all foreign workers to pass Covid-19 tests, after facing a torrent of criticism from diplomatic missions and international companies.
TIPS
Are you having more nightmares? You may be ‘quaradreaming’
The phenomenon began to be noticed by doctors about a year ago, not long after blockades began around the world. Frontline workers were hard hit – a June 2020 study of 100 Chinese nurses found that 45% of them had nightmares, along with varying degrees of anxiety and depression. But the nightmares continued as the quarantines and blocks extended, experts say. One reason: an increase in “night owls”.
TODAY’S PODCAST
“There is even evidence that social isolation and loneliness influence your susceptibility to viruses and your ability to respond to a vaccine.” – Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah