Australia suspends quarantine-free travel with New Zealand; Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine gives 94% protection, US daily Covid cases drop below 100,000
- WHO investigator claims China refused to hand over key information
- Daily new Covid cases in US dip below 100,000 for first time in months
- England ministers flatly reject Tory demands to end Covid controls by May
- Vaccine hesitancy among England health workers ‘may undermine rollout’
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Aucklanders are waking up on Monday to a new lockdown, hoping the short and sharp three-day restrictions ordered by Jacinda Ardern arrest the spread of Covid-19, AAP reports.
The prime minister said genomic testing had shown that the three community cases were the UK variant of Covid-19, the first to be detected in the country, according to Yahoo News.
Related: New Zealand's Auckland Covid outbreak is UK variant, says Ardern
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday it is “absolutely” too soon to lift mask mandates, citing daily coronavirus case numbers that despite recent declines remain more than double the levels seen last summer, Reuters reports.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s warning that face-covering requirements are still critical came just days after governors in Iowa and Montana lifted long-standing mask mandates in their states.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Walensky said preventing further surges of infection is key to safely reopening schools and regaining some level of social normalcy until collective immunity can be achieved through mass vaccinations.
from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37bsTCM
