Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
COVID Cases Stack Up In Germany After American Woman's Bar Crawl
AP: 3 More COVID Cases Linked To American's Bar Crawl In Bavaria
Authorities in southern Germany have recorded three more COVID-19 infections in people who frequented bars visited by a 26-year-old American woman suspected of flouting quarantine rules in the Alpine resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The latest cases take the total number of recent infections in the town to 59, including 25 staff at a hotel resort where the woman worked that caters to U.S. military personnel. (Jordans and Rising, 9/15)
AP: 5M People Infected, India's Virus Outbreak Still Soaring
India’s total of coronavirus infections passed 5 million Wednesday, still soaring and testing the feeble health care system in tens of thousands of impoverished towns and villages. The world’s second-most populous country has added more than 1 million cases of infection this month alone and is expected to become the pandemic’s worst-hit country within weeks, surpassing the United States, where more than 6.6 million people have been infected. (Sharma, 9/16)
AP: France Fast-Tracks Citizenship For Foreign Virus Fighters
France will reward foreign health care-workers and other front-line personnel who distinguished themselves in the fight against COVID-19 by fast-tracking citizenship applications for those who want to become French. Instructions this week from the Interior Ministry, seen by The Associated Press, ordered regional officials to prioritize naturalization requests from foreigners who “actively participated in the national effort, with devotion and courage” against the epidemic that has killed nearly 31,000 in France. (Leicester, 9/15)
The New York Times: As Covid-19 Cases Rise, Europe Enters ‘Living-With-The-Virus Phase’
In the early days of the pandemic, President Emmanuel Macron exhorted the French to wage “war” against an invisible enemy. Today, his message is to “learn how to live with the virus.’’ Much of Europe has opted for a similar strategy as infections keep rising, summer recedes into a risk-filled autumn and the possibility of a second wave looms over the continent. Having abandoned hopes of eradicating the virus or developing a vaccine quickly, people have largely gone back to work and school, leading lives as normally as possible amid a pandemic that has already killed nearly 215,000 in Europe. (9/15)
Also —
AP: The Latest: UN Assembly Head Warns Of Pandemic Unilateralism
The new president of the U.N. General Assembly is warning that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and is calling for a new commitment to global cooperation including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines. Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir, who took over the reins of the 193-member world body on Tuesday, announced that the General Assembly will hold a high-level special session on the COVID-19 pandemic in early November, though diplomats said the date may slip. (9/16)
