Moving a Covid-19 patient at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, in April. Just 1.42 percent of the population of Africa has been fully vaccinated.Credit.Brian Inganga/Associated Press
When the pandemic began, global health officials feared that the vulnerabilities of Africa would lead to devastation. More than a year later, the rates of illness and death from Covid in Africa appear to be lower than in the rest of the world, upending scientists’ expectations.
But if the virus begins to spread more rapidly on the continent, as it has in other regions, new findings suggest that the death toll could worsen.
Administering Covishield, the Serum Institute version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, in Bengaluru, India.Credit.Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press
As inoculations help a sense of normalcy return in the lives of many Americans, much of the world remains gripped by the pandemic, with little hope that a significant number of vaccine doses will be made available soon.
The effort to vaccinate enough of the world’s population to get the virus under control already a huge struggle, experts said was set back again this week after the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, signaled that it would not be able to export doses until the end of the year.
Stocks Fall, as Cryptoâs Volatility Bleeds Into Broader Markets: Live Updates
RIGHT NOW
Source: Factset
Hereâs what you need to know:
Source: FactSet
By: Ella Koeze
Wall Street and corporate America have finally bought into Bitcoin, just in time for one of the ugly crashes the cryptocurrency regularly experiences.
Stocks slumped for a third day as a bust in the world of crypto â until recently considered a side show to actual financial activity â bled into the broader markets and hammered shares closely linked to the difficult-to-define digital assets.
The S&P 500 was down about 1 percent by midday, after dropping 0.9 percent on Tuesday with a sudden sell-off in the final hour of trading. The Nasdaq composite was down about 0.8 percent. Technology stocks led the declines.
A Gaza City building destroyed by an early morning Israeli airstrike on Tuesday.Credit.Khalil Hamra/Associated Press
Ten days into the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, diplomatic efforts to end the devastating violence gained urgency on Wednesday as a growing chorus of international parties urged the Israeli military and Hamas militants to lay down their weapons. France is leading efforts to call for a cease-fire at the United Nations Security Council, but it remains unclear when a resolution will be put to a vote.
Israel and Hamas have signaled a willingness to reach a cease-fire, diplomats privy to the discussions say, but that has not reduced the intensity of the deadliest fighting in Gaza since 2014.
The bakery La Antioquena VII, in Flushing, Queens on Wednesday, is ready for customers as the city opens up.Credit.Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
New York City’s reopening a milestone longed for over the last 14 months, aloud among friends six feet apart or in frustrated silence, waiting in line in the rain to enter a store arrived at last on Wednesday. It was less a grand gala than a soft opening, a finish line at the end of a long race that no one wanted to be the first to cross.
Four hundred and twenty three days since the city shut down, on a Sunday in March 2020, when it accounted for half the nation’s coronavirus cases, its first day fully back in business was messy and inconsistent and confusing. It short, it was New York City, and a single set of new rules was widely superseded by the personal comfort levels of its millions of residents.