DHARMSALA, India – The Dalai Lama, the 85-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, received his first injection of the coronavirus vaccine at a hospital in the mountainous city of Dharmsala in northern India.
After receiving the injection, he urged people to come forward, be brave and get vaccinated.
Dr. GD Gupta, of the Zonal Hospital, where the injection was administered, told reporters that the Dalai Lama was observed for 30 minutes later.
Ten other people living in the Dalai Lama’s residence were also vaccinated, said Gupta. All eleven received the Covishield vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, based in the United Kingdom, and manufactured by the Indian Serum Institute.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
– Senate Democrats sign unemployment aid agreement, approval of draft relief bill
– Fast variants drive the coronavirus wave that sweeps across Europe
– California OKs reopening of ball parks, Disneyland
– Vaxi Taxi targets vaccine anxiety as minority acceptance in the UK is delayed
– Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE IS HAPPENING:
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka says it will receive 264,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on Sunday as its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX facilities.
The vaccines, which are being delivered through UNICEF, mark the first allocation of 1.44 million doses of vaccines from the COVAX Facility that the island nation of the Indian Ocean will receive, the ministry of health said. The doses will be acquired in stages until May.
Sri Lanka has so far received 1 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in neighboring India, which donated half the doses. Sri Lanka bought the rest of the Serum Institute in India.
Sri Lanka started its inoculation campaign in January, giving the vaccine to frontline health workers first. So far, more than 600,000 of the country’s 22 million inhabitants have been vaccinated.
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TORONTO – The head of Canada’s most populous province vaccine program expects all Ontario adults to receive their first vaccine by June 20.
Ontario and the country’s provincial governments are extending the interval between the two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines to four months, instead of three to four weeks, so they can inoculate more people quickly.
Retired General Randy Hillier says that on the first day of summer he wants everyone in Ontario to be able to get a shot. Hillier says the first dose offers an incredible level of protection.
Canada is also receiving a fourth vaccine to prevent COVID-19, as the country’s health regulator has released an Johnson & Johnson injection that works with just one dose instead of two.
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HELENA, Mont. – Educators in Montana will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines next week through a federal partnership with pharmacies.
President Joe Biden announced the program earlier this week, with the aim of vaccinating all daycare teachers and staff by the end of March. The federal vaccine program is open to educators in Montana, even if the state has not made its vaccine quota available to teachers.
Montana was one of at least a dozen states that did not prioritize teachers until Biden’s announcement.
Missoulian reported on Friday that in Missoula County, Granite Pharmacy has enough vaccine doses to vaccinate all 2,000 teachers in the county.
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CHASKA, Minnesota. – Minnesota health officials said on Friday that they are recommending a two-week break from youth sports in Carver County after the county saw a recent outbreak of a variant of the COVID-19 virus.
Health officials said that since the end of January, the county has recorded at least 68 cases of the COVID-19 variant first identified in the United Kingdom. These cases have been linked to sports, including hockey, wrestling, basketball, alpine skiing and others. Data from the health department show from February 24 to Thursday, there was a 62% increase in cases of COVID-19 in the municipality.
Health officials recommend a two-week break across the county at youth schools and sports clubs starting on Monday.
Due to the risk that the outbreak will spread to other counties, health officials are also recommending that other youth sports participate in active examinations, weekly tests of athletes and coaches and do not hold meetings before or after games.
They also recommend strict application of appropriate masking. ___
COLOMBIA, South Carolina – Governor Henry McMaster withdrew permits Friday for face coverings in South Carolina government office buildings and restaurants, leaving it for state officials and restaurant operators to develop their own pandemic-related guidelines. of the coronavirus.
The executive order basically reversed the governor’s similar guidance issued in July, when McMaster required anyone to enter a state office building, according to guidelines developed by the Department of Administration. At that time, McMaster also issued a similar notice to restaurant goers and employees.
But given the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, as well as the growing number of residents who have been vaccinated against the virus, McMaster said it is time to start loosening more mandates – while maintaining his recommendation that all South Carolinians use face coverings in public environments where social distance is not an option.
The move is the latest in McMaster’s efforts to undo many of the restrictions set in place to contain the pandemic. At the end of last month, he lifted restrictions on sales of alcoholic beverages late at night and meetings of more than 250 people, encouraging people to “make responsible decisions”.
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LAS VEGAS —- Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak is marking a year since COVID-19 was detected in the state as a “dark milestone and anniversary”.
The Democratic governor issued a statement to mark the anniversary of the first presumed positive coronavirus case was detected in Nevada. Since then, the state has recorded 295,460 cases of the virus and 5,020 deaths.
Sisolak said that while the pandemic was one of the biggest challenges the state has ever faced, Nevada has not been destroyed and is working to overcome all of the major challenges it faces, including the major blow to the state’s tourism industry.
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NEW YORK – A new national study adds strong evidence that mask commands can slow the spread of coronavirus and that allowing dinner in restaurants can increase cases and deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the study on Friday. He looked at counties placed under state-issued masking orders and counties that allowed dinner in restaurants – both indoors and at tables outside. The agency’s director says it shows falls in cases and deaths when people wear masks. And he found increases in cases and deaths when dining in restaurants is allowed. The study was released at a time when some states are terminating masking mandates and restaurant boundaries.
The scientists found that the masks’ mandates were associated with reduced transmission of the coronavirus and that improvements in new cases and deaths increased over time.
The reductions in growth rates ranged from half a percentage point to almost 2 percentage points. This may seem small, but the sheer number of people involved means that the impact increases over time, experts say.
The restaurant’s reopening was not followed by a significant increase in cases and deaths in the first 40 days after the restrictions were lifted. But after that, there were increases of about 1 percentage point in the rate of growth of cases and – afterwards – of 2 to 3 percentage points in the rate of growth of deaths.
Gery Guy Jr., a CDC scientist who was the lead author of the study, says the delay may be because restaurants did not reopen immediately and because many customers may have hesitated to dine immediately.
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NEW YORK – After cultivating cobwebs for nearly a year, New York cinemas are reopening, returning movie titles to Manhattan marquees that for the past 12 months have read messages like “Wear a mask” and “We’ll be back soon. ”
As of Friday, the city’s cinemas are only running at 25% capacity, with a maximum of 50 for each auditorium. As in other places, the use of a mask is mandatory, the seats are blocked and the air filters have been updated.
For a theatrical business that was punished by the pandemic, the resumption of trips to the cinema in New York – is a crucial first step towards rebirth. The screens had been closed there for almost a year.
Less than half of movie theaters are open across the country, but reopenings are accelerating.
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