Hefei to Nyc Continue to Book With
With cases rising, Mayor Eric Adams is keeping New York City's preschool mask mandate.
Video
Mayor Eric Adams announced on Friday that New York City will keep its school mask mandate in place for children under 5 in response to rising coronavirus cases in the city.
Mr. Adams had planned to lift the mask mandate starting on Monday if coronavirus cases remained low. But he decided on Friday that preschoolers should continue to wear masks because they are too young to be vaccinated and cases are increasing again in the city, a rise fueled by an Omicron subvariant, BA.2, that is now dominant in the United States.
"New Yorkers, we want you to be prepared, not panicked," Mr. Adams said at a news conference at City Hall.
A judge on Staten Island had issued an order earlier in the day to strike down the mask mandate, but the city appealed that decision and announced on Friday night that an appellate judge had ruled in the city's favor. Mr. Adams said on Twitter that children under 5 should wear masks to school on Monday.
Cases in New York City have risen, from about 500 daily cases in early March to about 1,250 daily cases now, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2.
BA.2 accounts for about 70 percent of cases in the C.D.C. region that includes New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico, and about 55 percent of cases nationally, though the numbers remain far lower than in the Delta or Omicron surges. However, some experts believe the actual case numbers are higher because home tests are so widely used, without the results being officially reported.
The city's health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, asked parents for "patience and grace" as the city tried to keep New Yorkers safe, and that he wanted to use an "abundance of caution" for young children, who had higher hospitalization rates during the Omicron surge than in previous waves.
More broadly, Dr. Vasan encouraged New Yorkers to get booster shots and to wear masks in public indoor settings, pointing out that he was wearing a mask at the news conference. The city could soon move from a low risk level to a medium risk level "in a matter of weeks," Dr. Vasan said. Manhattan in particular is on the cusp in the city's new color-coded alert system based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mr. Adams also said that the city planned to distribute about six million home tests this month. Asked if he would consider reinstating a mask mandate for older students, Mr. Adams said he would "pivot and shift" depending on the data and advice from his health team.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat who took office in January, has been almost singularly focused on the city's recovery from the pandemic and has rolled back some restrictions, including removing a mask mandate for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and proof-of-vaccination requirements for restaurants and gyms and for athletes and performers.
Virus cases in New York dropped sharply in February after the first Omicron-driven surge. Hospitalizations have remained low over the last month and are currently at about 13 per day. There were about 1,000 hospitalizations a day in January.
Two high schools in New Jersey reinstate mask mandates following outbreaks.
Image
South Brunswick High School, in Middlesex County, N.J., announced that beginning on Friday masks again became mandatory in classrooms and will be required through next week in order to curb the spread of coronavirus during a significant spike of cases. The move signals a potential resumption of mitigation strategies in schools as the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant of Omicron spreads across the country.
The high school also dismissed students early on Friday to avoid crowding in the cafeteria during lunchtime. Superintendent Scott Feder said in a letter to parents and staff that the school has "identified the root cause of the outbreak" and expect the early release and the wearing of masks will "allow us to maintain our normal routines."
Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat who tested positive for the coronavirus himself this week and is isolating, lifted the mask mandate for schools beginning on March 7, but local districts are able to enforce individual mandates.
Coronavirus cases in New Jersey have increased by 45 percent from the daily average two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database.
The debate about masks in schools is complicated by competing legitimate interests. Doctors say that removing masks puts immunocompromised or disabled students at an increased risk, and may inhibit their classroom experience. But experts say keeping students in masks for extended periods of time also inflicts harm, even if that harm is more difficult to measure.
The decision from South Brunswick coincides with the announcement from New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, that, because of rising cases, the city would keep its school mask mandate in place for children under 5, who are too young to be vaccinated.
It also follows similar guidance from Milburn High School, in Essex County, N.J. — which is also responding to a recent outbreak of 74 positive cases. The superintendent, Dr. Christine Burton, wrote to parents and families on Thursday recommending that masks be worn on Friday and Monday, though the school may consider extending that requirement. One classroom with five cases was moved to virtual instruction for both days.
South Brunswick will "re-evaluate the need for masks" after next week.
"We will follow the data and expect to see a steady decline in cases and then move back to a mask-optional environment," said Mr. Feder in an email. "We have kept our schools open and have no plans to move to a virtual environment."
North Korea is linked to a cyberattack disguised as a Covid vaccine registration site.
Image
Hackers linked to North Korea were suspected of carrying out a cyberattack on South Koreans in emails disguised as official messages sent from a medical journal calling recipients to book appointments for a new coronavirus vaccine, a South Korean cybersecurity company said in a statement on Friday.
The cyberattack, which came less than a week after North Korea conducted its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile test to date, was sent from an email address belonging to the Korean Society for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, the company said. This was possible because the hackers had infiltrated the medical journal's server and email account in what the company, ESTsecurity, called a phishing attack.
"We have confirmed that the camouflage methods and tactical commands used to steal the account exactly matched the other cases of cyberattacks linked to North Korea," the company said, adding that the email's header contained a code found in previous attacks that analysts have linked to North Korea.
Previously, North Korean hackers have used cyberattacks on governments, companies and financial institutions to steal information and millions of dollars to fund their own government. ESTsecurity has also attributed to North Korea similar phishing attacks sent from email addresses belonging to agencies such as the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Unification.
The latest email attack targeted mostly South Koreans working in fields dealing with North Korea, the company said, and appeared to be designed to trick the recipients into providing personal information to the hackers by making them believe they were registering for the new vaccines.
A screenshot of the email included in ESTsecurity's statement showed language advertising "the newest Covid-19 vaccine," information on when it would be available to "purchase" and a link that the company said was disguised as a vaccine registration site.
"On March 25, 2022, the vaccine was researched and developed by the N.I.H., a national medical research institute under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services," the email said, adding that the new vaccine was effective for people ages 65 and over against new variants, including Delta and Omicron. The emails were sent on Tuesday.
The C.D.C. confirms it will lift a public health order restricting immigration.
Image
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that it would lift an emergency public health order that had restricted immigration at U.S. land borders since the beginning of the pandemic, citing "current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight Covid-19."
Federal officials expect the policy change, which will go into effect on May 23, to draw thousands more migrants to the southwest border every day, in addition to the already high number of people who have been arriving over the past year from Latin America and across the globe. Republicans, who have described the border situation as out of control under President Biden, immediately condemned the C.D.C.'s decision.
The order has been used to expel migrants about 1.7 million times over the past two years.
"These measures, along with the current public health landscape where 97.1 percent of the U.S. population lives in a county identified as having 'low' Covid-19 community level, will sufficiently mitigate the Covid-19 risk for U.S. communities," the C.D.C. said in a statement. The C.D.C. also said it has the right to issue the order again if necessary.
The order, known as Title 42, gives officials the authority to turn away migrants at the border, including those seeking asylum. The process takes about 15 minutes, a factor that has helped the Border Patrol manage the sometimes overwhelming number of undocumented migrants gathering at the border. Without the order in place, stations will be more overcrowded and backed up while officials go through the typical screening process, which can take more than an hour per person.
The continuation of the public health order over the past two years thrust the typically apolitical C.D.C. into the heated immigration debate.
The agency had been under growing pressure from Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, to not only end the rule but also provide justification for why it was necessary. Public health experts have questioned the order's value in containing the coronavirus, especially at this point in the pandemic.
News of the decision broke on Wednesday; it is expected to face legal challenges.
The case of four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan's governor over Covid rules goes to the jury.
Image
The government's accusations were jarring: Several men with militia ties had schemed to abduct Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan at her vacation home. The group, prosecutors and witnesses said, had held a series of "field training exercises" and discussed killing or stranding her in a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan.
As the trial of four men unfolded over the last month, federal prosecutors presented a barrage of alarming messages and surreptitious recordings that they said revealed the group's plan to storm Ms. Whitmer's home, eliminate her security detail and detonate a bridge to slow any police response to the kidnapping.
Ms. Whitmer, a first-term governor with a national profile, took a more restrictive approach to the pandemic in 2020 than some other Midwestern governors, keeping many rules in place even when case numbers dropped.
Testimony during the trial, one of the highest-profile domestic terrorism prosecutions in recent memory, has provided a glimpse into increasingly brazen and violent discourse among some on the far right. But the case has also raised questions about when hateful political speech and gun possession cross a line from constitutionally protected acts to crimes.
During closing arguments on Friday, defense lawyers asserted that there never was any firm plot to abduct Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, and that the defendants, who could face life in prison if convicted, were lured into the discussions by a network of F.B.I. informants and undercover agents. Prosecutors described the defendants — Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft, Adam Fox and Daniel Harris — as threats to America's democratic order who spoke openly about political violence as their frustration with Covid-19 restrictions mounted before the 2020 election.
The jury will reconvene on Monday.
Senators near a deal to slash the stalled Covid aid package to $10 billion.
Image
Senate Democrats and Republicans neared agreement to slash an emergency coronavirus response package to $10 billion from $15.6 billion, as they worked to break a logjam over a stalled package of federal money urgently requested by President Biden for vaccines, therapeutics and preparation against future variants.
The day after Mr. Biden pleaded with Congress to approve the money, senators on Thursday were discussing removing as much as $5 billion in aid for the global vaccination effort as they scrambled to resolve disputes over how to finance the package. Republicans have refused to devote any new funding to the federal pandemic response effort, arguing that unspent money that has already been approved should be used, but the two parties have been unable to agree on which programs should be tapped.
Without that consensus, it was not clear that they would have the votes to move forward in the evenly divided Senate, where 60 votes — including at least 10 Republicans — would be needed.
The package now under consideration would be less than half the White House's original $22.5 billion request.
At a news conference, the White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said the president had been clear about the urgent need for aid, adding that "we're very hopeful that Congress is going to come to a solution."
Asked about the possibility that funding for global efforts could be removed, she avoided saying that Mr. Biden would oppose a package without that aid. But, Ms. Bedingfield noted, "We're not going to be able to put this pandemic behind us until we stop the spread and proliferation of new variants globally."
Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said that any votes would likely be delayed until next week before Congress leaves for a two-week April recess, as lawmakers toiled to hammer out a deal, write the bill and get a cost assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. He and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, have been leading talks, along with other senior senators.
Under the emerging deal, Mr. Romney, said, most of the $10 billion would be repurposed from the $1.9 trillion pandemic law Democrats muscled through without Republican support last March. But direct funds for state and local governments would likely not be touched, after Democrats balked at this money being clawed back. Mr. Romney said negotiators had discussed taking back some funding from a program that allowed states to give grants to local businesses.
Other potential funding sources, multiple senators said, included transportation money, agricultural programs and some money for live venues, like theaters, that had to close during the pandemic.
"I generally tried to not let perfect be the enemy of better," said Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota. "But again, we don't have enough specific flesh on the bone."
Efforts to tuck the aid into a $1.5 trillion spending package Mr. Biden signed into law earlier this month collapsed when rank-and-file Democrats and governors objected to claiming $7 billion that was supposed to go to state governments to help finance the package. Mr. Biden has warned that without another round of aid from Congress, his administration would be forced to scale back the nation's pandemic response, jeopardizing its ability to be prepared for another variant or wave of infections.
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said it was still unclear whether an agreement would be possible.
"It's kind of a work in progress," Mr. McConnell said at an event with Punchbowl News, saying the package would likely have been "skinnied down" to $10 billion.
"That has the potential to take out the international vaccine part, which I think is terribly unfortunate," he added. "But that's where we are at the moment — whether that's going to completely come together is not clear."
Mr. Romney said it was unclear whether some of the global aid would remain in the package. Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware and one of the negotiators, told reporters "my hope is that we will find a path toward adding more for the international side."
But leaders in both parties signaled optimism that a final agreement could be reached.
"The gap has been narrowed greatly, and we're intent on working with Republicans to cross the finish line, because this is vital for our country," said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader.
But it also remained unclear whether House progressives would agree to a deal that was a fraction of what Mr. Biden had initially said was necessary and lacked the global vaccination funds.
"This is shameful — we have to get the money," Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said at her weekly news conference. She added, "Everyone knows that none of us are safe until all of us are safe."
Multiple House Democrats, including Representative Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, suggested they would not support a package that did not have the international aid. Vaccination rates continue to lag in low-income countries while they are vastly higher in high- and upper-middle-income countries.
Catie Edmondson and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
U.S. labor force growth continues as the pandemic's workplace impact eases.
Falling coronavirus cases, rising wages and abundant job opportunities are bringing Americans back into the work force.
The U.S. labor force grew by more than 400,000 people in March, the Labor Department said Friday. The share of adults who are working or actively looking for work rose to 62.4 percent, just a percentage point below the level on the eve of the pandemic. Among people in their prime working years, those ages 25 to 54, the rebound has been even stronger.
The rapid growth of the labor force in recent months represents a reversal from earlier in the recovery, when economists bemoaned the slow return of workers and worried that the pandemic might have pushed many workers to the sidelines for good. Those concerns haven't disappeared entirely — workers in their retirement years, in particular, left the labor force en masse early in the pandemic and many have yet to return.
But on the whole, recent data suggests that many workers were being kept away from work by pandemic-related factors that have now begun to ease. March represented the first full month since the Omicron wave of coronavirus cases passed in much of the country, and the strong rebound is a sign that people are feeling safer returning to work. Schools and child care centers, too, are becoming more predictable, allowing more parents to get back to work.
At the same time, rapidly rising wages may be enticing people to come back to work, while rising prices and dwindling savings may be forcing them to do so.
Still, the growing labor force doesn't necessarily mean an end to employers' hiring woes, said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan. That's because strong demand for workers is outstripping even growing supply. There were more than 11 million job openings at the end of February, compared to about 6 million unemployed workers.
"It's not like the rising participation rate is going to be the cavalry that comes to save the day," Mr. Feroli said.
In 'How to Survive a Pandemic,' the race for a vaccine.
A decade after receiving an Oscar nomination for his documentary "How to Survive a Plague," about the work of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power in the 1980s and '90s that led to the development of antiviral treatments for AIDS, the director David France returns with what we might — depressingly — call a sequel: "How to Survive a Pandemic," about the global effort to develop and disseminate vaccines for the coronavirus.
Unlike the retrospective perspective of the 2012 film, "How to Survive a Pandemic" unfolds in medias res — which, given the immensity of the still-ongoing crisis, is both the film's strength and weakness. In its first half, filmed in 2020, France follows the science journalist Jon Cohen as he interviews policymakers and researchers racing to create and approve Covid-19 vaccines.
Cohen tells his interviewees that he's assembling a "time capsule" of the moment. This opportunity inspires striking candor in some: Peter Marks, one of the Food and Drug Administration's highest-ranking regulators, admits to the pressures he was facing under a Trump administration that was eager for a well-timed win.
The second chapter, which traces the distribution of the vaccines worldwide, has less investigative heft. Its events are too recent and unresolved to acquire the hindsight of a time capsule, and its images of hospitals and cremation grounds too familiar to inspire anything other than jadedness.
Here, the film ventures beyond the United States — to South Africa, India and Switzerland — to cover the failure of the United Nations' vaccine initiative and the unwillingness of manufacturers to release patents. The message — that science cannot succeed without a politics of solidarity — is important, but the film ends on a note of uncertainty that feels defeatist rather than urgent.
How to Survive a Pandemic
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on HBO platforms.
Correction :
March 30, 2022
An earlier version of this review misstated the places the science journalist Jon Cohen visited. The film covered South Africa, India and Switzerland, but Cohen did not travel to South Africa.
The Malaysia-Singapore land border reopens fully for the first time in two years, to cheers and fireworks.
Image
The land border between Malaysia and Singapore fully reopened on Friday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, letting thousands of vaccinated people through to reunite with families and friends they had not seen for more than two years.
People cheered, honked their horns and set off fireworks, local news media reported.
The crossing was one of the world's busiest before the pandemic. More than 300,000 travelers passed through every day in 2019, the Singaporean government said. It was closed in March 2020.
Early Friday, the roadways linking the two Southeast Asian countries were filled with parades of cars, motorcycles and people walking.
Those crossing the border had to be fully vaccinated, unless they were children 12 and younger, government officials had said. They could travel by any means starting at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday and without having to quarantine or get tested for the coronavirus.
Even before midnight, hundreds had begun waiting in line at the checkpoints, photos and videos on social media show.
Malaysia and Singapore allowed limited travel between their borders starting in August 2021, when travelers could cross if they had been tested beforehand. They had to enter mandatory quarantine upon arrival at their destination.
Since November 2021, when the two countries established a travel lane, fully vaccinated travelers have been allowed to travel between both countries without having to quarantine if they got coronavirus tests. Using the lane, which had to be reserved in advance, required costly tests and travel insurance.
The full reopening on Friday, with no tests necessary, came as Malaysia also opened its borders to other international travelers. The Singaporean government said the move, which it announced on March 24, was a "significant step towards living with Covid-19."
Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry said that travelers should expect "some traffic congestion at the checkpoints," advising people not to travel without an urgent need, such as employment or family reunions.
Singapore recorded an average of 6,184 daily cases in the past 14 days, 49 percent lower than the average from two weeks ago, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Malaysia's cases are also falling: It recorded a 34 percent drop in cases over the past two weeks, recording 17,525 daily cases in the past 14 days on average.
England ends free coronavirus testing for most, as some argue it's too soon.
Image
LONDON — England stopped giving free coronavirus tests to most people on Friday, a landmark moment in the government's decision to "live with the virus" even as cases have surged in the past month.
Before Friday, residents in England could acquire P.C.R. or rapid antigen tests for free at testing centers or get them delivered to their homes, a move meant to allow people to test themselves routinely and a pillar of the government's plans to try to keep the coronavirus in check.
Free testing for some groups remains, the government said, including health and social care workers and those at risk of serious illness from Covid-19 if they have symptoms. But others who developed symptoms of a respiratory infection were advised to stay at home and avoid contact with others until they felt well enough to interact.
"Thanks to our plan to tackle Covid, we are leading the way in learning to live with the virus," Sajid Javid, Britain's health secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday, confirming a change announced in February by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mr. Javid added that vaccines remained the best defense against the virus and encouraged residents to come forward for spring boosters.
The government lifted all legal restrictions in England in February, saying it would treat the coronavirus like other infectious viruses such as influenza. It said that free universal testing had been a necessity earlier in the pandemic, when much of the population was not vaccinated. (Nearly 75 percent of Britain's population is now fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.) The government said that the testing, tracing and isolation program had cost taxpayers over 15.7 billion pounds, or about $21 billion, from 2021 and 2022.
Critics say the country is moving too fast to scrap restrictions, in part because it leaves vulnerable people further isolated as the country opens up for most people. Cases in Britain, which had declined after reaching record levels in January, rose again in March, with the country reporting an average of 76,230 daily cases in the past week, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
7–day average
8,104
Source: Data for the United Kingdom comes from the Department for Health and Social Care, Public Health England, Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales, Public Health Agency of Northern Ireland and the Chief Medical Officer Directorate. Population data from U.K. Data Service Census Support. The Office for National Statistics also produces a weekly report on the number of deaths that mention Covid-19 on a death certificate. This figure, which includes deaths outside of hospitals, is many thousands of deaths higher than the reported daily death toll. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are for now still offering some free testing, though each has different policies and end dates.
Some people in England who had come to rely on the free tests expressed disappointment at the decision. Keep Our NHS Public, an activist group, said that more than 300,000 people had signed a petition calling on the government to continue to offer free lateral flow tests.
Abdo Hussein, a 33-year-old London resident, worried that the change would particularly affect communities that could not afford testing, saying that "they already suffered a lot because of this pandemic."
Tests had already been difficult to find at local pharmacies and supermarkets in the month leading up to the end of the free program, he said.
"I assume it will still be hard."
As Biden pleads for more Covid aid, states are awash in federal dollars.
Image
President Biden is out of money to pay for the most basic means of protecting people during the pandemic — medications, vaccines, testing and reimbursement for care. Republicans have refused to sign off on new spending, citing state recovery funds as an example of money that could be repurposed for urgent national priorities.
Meanwhile, a huge infusion of coronavirus relief aid that Congress approved when the pandemic was still raging is helping to fuel record budget surpluses in many states. Most states will get another round of "fiscal recovery funds" — part of President Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan — next month. And states are allowed to use the funds for far broader purposes than combating the coronavirus.
"These states are awash in money — everybody from Kentucky to California," said Scott Jennings, a former aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. "People are like: 'We've printed all this money; we've sent it out. These states have these massive surpluses, and now you need more?'"
Republicans were never fans of Mr. Biden's rescue plan, which Democrats muscled through Congress without their support. Despite the many ways it is benefiting his state, Mr. McConnell once called it a "multitrillion-dollar, nontargeted Band-Aid" that would dump "another huge mountain of debt on our grandkids."
On Capitol Hill on Thursday, a day after Mr. Biden made a public appeal to Congress for more money, Senate Republicans and Democrats were nearing a deal on a $10 billion emergency aid package — less than half of Mr. Biden's initial request. But they had not resolved crucial differences over the size and how to pay for it. Republicans want to use unspent money already approved by Congress, but the parties have been unable to agree on which programs should be tapped.
Since the outset of the pandemic, the Trump and Biden administrations have injected $5 trillion into the American economy, including the rescue plan. With midterm elections approaching, the gush of federal stimulus spending will draw even greater scrutiny as Republicans accuse Democrats of wasting funds and fueling inflation, and demand a precise accounting of how the money has been spent.
An outbreak at a Shanghai hospital reveals a challenge to China's Covid policy: protecting older adults.
Image
A coronavirus outbreak is ravaging a hospital in Shanghai for older adults, underscoring the difficulties officials have had in containing cases even as the city imposed a 10-day staggered lockdown.
Two orderlies at the Shanghai Donghai Elderly Care Hospital said in interviews that the virus was spreading widely among the mostly older patients in the facility, and that people had died on each of the past three days. The two, who declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs, said that on a recent night they had been asked to carry a body into a room where other bodies were being stored.
The two said that they did not know how the people had died, but that many had been infected with the virus, and that there was a shortage of tests and other resources.
The situation points to an unfolding health care crisis in China's largest city, and exposes a vulnerable group in the country's otherwise highly effective Covid strategy: the elderly.
China's efforts to eliminate infections with lockdowns, travel restrictions, mass testing and surveillance had largely kept Covid out since it first emerged more than two years ago. But with the rise of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, China has in recent months struggled to quash outbreaks.
The crisis in the Donghai hospital lays bare a deeper challenge: how to protect older people, who are already more vulnerable to the virus, particularly if they live in facilities besieged by it. Making matters worse, just over half of people 80 and older have had two shots, and less than 20 percent of people in that age group have received a booster, Zeng Yixin, a vice minister of the National Health Commission, said recently.
It is not clear how many people have died at the Donghai hospital, and whether the deaths are directly linked to the Covid outbreak there.
A woman who picked up the phone at the hospital confirmed an outbreak of Covid there, but declined to say how many cases there were or to provide other details. Bloggers shared photos and descriptions of the outbreak on Chinese social media, but it went unreported by official Chinese media. Shanghai has not yet officially reported any deaths from Covid. Calls to the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention went unanswered on Friday.
global ROUNDUP
Officials in New Zealand say anti-vaccination protesters seeded cannabis at Parliament, and other global news.
Image
When anti-vaccination protesters cleared out of New Zealand's Parliament grounds after a three-week occupation, they left behind a scene of destruction and disorder: the charred remains of a children's playground, camping equipment, human waste — and apparently cannabis seedlings.
The discovery of the seedlings this week by a man eating lunch in the Parliament garden prompted a swift operation by groundskeepers to find, uproot and destroy the plants.
"We are weeding out the weed," Trevor Mallard, the speaker of Parliament, assured New Zealanders in a statement.
A representative for the grounds told the national broadcaster that "a lot" of marijuana seeds had been scattered around by protesters.
The protest over the country's strict vaccine mandates lasted 23 days and attracted hundreds of people from across the country. The crowd grew to include conspiracy theorists and others who descended on the site to rage against various grievances. What began as a peaceful protest ended in dramatic and sometimes bloody clashes with the police. Fires broke out. Protesters wielded fire extinguishers, paint-filled projectiles and other homemade weapons. Dozens of officers were injured.
Weeks later, relations between the government and protesters against the vaccine mandate remain strained.
In other global news:
-
South Korea is allowing fully vaccinated international travelers to enter without quarantining on arrival, reversing a seven-day quarantine requirement it introduced when the highly contagious Omicron variant began spreading around the world. A negative P.C.R. test result is still required for entry.
John Yoon contributed reporting.
Remote work steadily declines in the U.S., but some resist a return to the office.
Image
At the height of the pandemic lockdowns in May 2020, more than one-third of U.S. workers were doing their jobs at least partly from home, shifting perceptions of workplace flexibility. Ever since, the share of workers telecommuting because of Covid-19 has steadily declined, falling to 22.7 percent of the work force in February 2021 and 10 percent last month, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now those numbers appear likely to dip lower. Many employers have heightened their calls for workers to come to the office in recent weeks, with companies including Goldman Sachs, Meta, Microsoft and Chevron asking some employees back, even as Covid case counts begin to climb again in some areas and mask mandates drop.
"You see now lots of companies, big and small, starting to put stakes in the ground saying we want our people back in the office," said Mark Ein, the chair of Kastle Systems, a building security firm whose tracker placed U.S. office occupancy at 40 percent last month.
But return-to-office plans have been met with skepticism from people who say working from home improves productivity and mental health. Some workers of color said telecommuting enabled them to avoid insensitive comments they faced in the office.
"When I'm in a room that's not as diverse, they automatically think of me as the secretary," said Eleanore Fernandez, 50, an arts employee in the Bay Area who switched to working remotely during the pandemic.
Some employers are reopening their workplaces but making commitments to long-term flexibility. AppDirect, a software company with 850 employees worldwide, called its return-to-office plan Janus — for the Roman god of transitions and beginnings — to signal that the next phase of on-site work won't look like prepandemic times. Employees are not required to come back if they prefer to stay home.
"We're not saying that in office is better or working at home is better — we're leaving it to be a choice," said Deb Tenenbaum, AppDirect's head of human resources.
Ms. Tenenbaum joined the company just before the pandemic and said she was excited by the prospect of building relationships and learning more about colleagues through in-person meetings: "Maybe how tall they are," she said jokingly.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/01/world/covid-19-mandates-cases-vaccine
0 Response to "Hefei to Nyc Continue to Book With"
Post a Comment