First Edition: May 25, 2021

KHN: Pandemic Leads Doctors To Rethink Unnecessary Treatment
Covid-19 is opening the door for researchers to address a problem that has vexed the medical community for decades: the overtreatment and unnecessary treatment of patients. On one hand, the pandemic caused major health setbacks for non-covid patients who were forced to, or chose to, avoid tests and treatments for various illnesses. On the other hand, in cases in which no harm was done by delays or cancellations, medical experts can now reevaluate whether those procedures are truly necessary. (Alpert, 5/25)

KHN: Corporations Encourage Employee Vaccination But Stop Short Of Mandates
Many of the companies with the largest number of employees say they’ll do almost anything to encourage their employees to get vaccinated. But a survey of some of them found that none would be inclined to mandate shots as a condition for holding a job. Almost all 15 companies surveyed — among the largest and most influential Fortune 500 companies — have strong pro-vaccine messages from their corporate leadership, emphasizing that the shots can both help protect individuals and bring the pandemic to a close. (Almendrala, 5/25)

KHN: Colorado Lawmakers Wage Multifront Assault On High Drug Costs
Tired of waiting for federal action to reduce prescription drug costs, Colorado is acting on its own — even if it must do so with one arm tied behind its back. Unable to set prices or change patent protections, the state is exploring creative legislative and administrative approaches to lower out-of-pocket costs on medications. While none of the efforts alone would result in broad-based, deep cuts, state officials estimate the combined impact of the various measures could save Coloradans between 20% and 40% in out-of-pocket costs. (Hawryluk, 5/25)

The Hill: WHO Director-General Calls For Countries To Vaccinate At Least 10 Percent Of Their Populations By September
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general on Monday called for all countries to vaccinate at least 10 percent of their populations by September and at least 30 percent by the end of 2021 in a “Drive to December”. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared during a speech to the annual World Health Assembly that WHO member states should back the “massive push” to reach these COVID-19 vaccination goals. (Coleman, 5/24)

CIDRAP: World Health Assembly Kicks Off With Pandemic Issues At Fore
In an address to the group today, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, warned the group that the world remains in a very dangerous situation and as of today, more COVID-19 deaths have been reported in 2021 than in all of 2020. "Since our Health Assembly started this morning, almost 1000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19. And in the time it takes me to make these remarks, a further 400 will die," he said. Though global cases have dropped for the past 3 weeks, the world remains in a fragile situation, Tedros said. (Schnirring, 5/24)

CNN: WHO Coronavirus Investigators Pinpoint Overlooked Chinese Data For Further Study, Source Says
Previously overlooked Chinese data on extensive screening of animals for coronavirus around the time the pandemic erupted is among several areas identified for further study by World Health Organization (WHO) scientists investigating the origins of Covid-19, a source close to the team told CNN. The source said the records are contained in a nearly 200-page annex posted alongside the WHO panel's March report that received little attention among global experts at the time. But the data may add weight to calls from China's critics for more transparency and to the WHO team's desire to return to the country for further studies. (Walsh, 5/25)

The Hill: White House Pushes For Independent Investigation On COVID-19 Origins
The White House on Monday said that officials cannot draw a conclusion about the origins of COVID-19 without an independent investigation and more data from China. “We are and we have repeatedly called for the [World Health Organization] WHO to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins that is free from interference and politicization,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing Monday. (Chalfant, 5/24)

The Wall Street Journal: The Wuhan Lab Leak Question: A Disused Chinese Mine Takes Center Stage
On the outskirts of a village deep in the mountains of southwest China, a lone surveillance camera peers down toward a disused copper mine smothered in dense bamboo. As night approaches, bats swoop overhead. This is the subterranean home of the closest known virus on Earth to the one that causes Covid-19. It is also now a touchpoint for escalating calls for a more thorough probe into whether the pandemic could have stemmed from a Chinese laboratory. In April 2012, six miners here fell sick with a mysterious illness after entering the mine to clear bat guano. Three of them died. (Page, McKay and Hinshaw, 5/24)

Stat: Lawmakers Pitch Bill To Create $30 Billion In Drug Development 'Biobonds'
In a bid to jumpstart drug development, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill for the U.S. government to back so-called “biobonds,” which would be used to fund small companies and universities that are researching treatments for unmet medical needs. The LOANS Act, which would authorize a total of $30 billion over an upcoming three-year period, is designed to reduce what the lawmakers called a “perennial shortage of funds” and to help restart research stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic. (Silverman, 5/24)

CNN: The Abortion Fault Line Is About To Start Rumbling 
One of the original culture war conflicts may be poised for a resurgence -- with potentially explosive political consequences. The Supreme Court's recent decision to consider the legality of Mississippi's restrictive law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy could trigger the most serious and sustained political debate over the procedure since the final decades of the 20th century. And that could dramatically widen the already gaping demographic and geographic fissures between red and blue America. (Brownstein, 5/25)

Politico: Death-Certificate Omissions Stymie FEMA Funeral Assistance Program
Thousands of Americans seeking federal funeral assistance for coronavirus victims can’t collect because their family members’ death certificates do not list Covid-19, according to two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the situation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency rolled out the $2 billion pandemic funeral assistance program in April, modeling it on similar efforts it has run after major hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. The funding came from a $2.3 trillion spending package that former President Donald Trump signed in December 2020, making it the largest funeral assistance program FEMA has ever handled. (Banco, 5/24)

Axios: Axios-Ipsos Poll: Americans Are Re-Emerging From The Pandemic, But Don't Trust Others' Honesty 
Americans are taking off their masks and re-engaging publicly at levels not seen since the start of the pandemic, with the most dramatic shifts in people over 50 and those who've been vaccinated, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. It's happening despite significant distrust over strangers' honesty about their COVID-19 vaccination status and amid major confusion over Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on mask use and social distancing for those vaccinated. (Talev, 5/25)

CNN: Young Americans Are Lagging Behind With Covid-19 Vaccines. And These Threats Have Experts Pushing For Their Vaccination 
Experts are turning their focus in the fight against Covid-19 to vaccinating young Americans -- warning that though they may not face high risk for serious illness, they may still have to contend with long-term symptoms. Vaccines have been praised as the key to getting the pandemic under control in the US, and strides have been made in vaccinating the adult population. (Holcombe, 5/25)

Roll Call: Public Health Officials Target Vaccine-Hesitant Via Dating Apps 
The Biden administration is partnering with top dating apps to encourage young and healthy people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and other popular dating apps will add special vaccination badges and benefits to users’ profiles after they receive the vaccine. For example, any person on Tinder who adds a sticker to their profile promoting the COVID-19 vaccine receives a free “Super Like.” The apps will also provide information about vaccines and help people schedule appointments. (Cohen, 5/24)

CBS News: United Airlines Offers Vaccinated Customers Shots At Free Travel
United Airlines is offering vaccinated customers a shot at winning free travel as the carrier joins a national effort to get more Americans immunized against COVID-19 and derail a pandemic behind the deaths of nearly 590,000 Americans. New or existing members of United's MileagePlus loyalty program who upload their vaccination records to United airline's mobile app by June 22 can be entered to win free flights for a year's worth of travel, the Chicago-based company announced on Monday. (Gibson, 5/24)

NBC News: FAA Proposes More Than $60,000 In Fines Against Unruly Passengers Amid Mask Fights
Five unruly passengers are facing fines totaling more than $60,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency announced Monday. The passengers face fines of $9,000 to $15,000 for interfering with flight attendants who either instructed them to obey cabin crew instructions or follow federal regulations like wearing a mask, the U.S. Department of Transportation agency said in a release. Two of the passengers are accused of assaulting flight attendants on different flights. (Wong, 5/24)

North Carolina Health News: “I Figured You Were OK”: Black Patients’ COVID Symptoms More Often Dismissed, Downplayed
As the number of COVID-19 cases ticked up last fall, Douglas McClain’s wife and mother convinced him to take a flu shot for the first time ever, believing it might offer him an extra measure of protection against the coronavirus. A few days later, the 53-year-old Charlottean developed typical flu symptoms that got progressively worse and forced him to take a few days off from his finance job. Out of an abundance of caution, McClain took a COVID-19 test. The results were positive. (Newsome, 5/24)

The New York Times: Small Study Looks At Children With Covid Inflammatory Syndrome
Children who get sick from the rare but serious Covid-related inflammatory syndrome may surmount their most significant symptoms within six months, but they may still have muscle weakness and emotional difficulties at that time, a new small study suggests. Published in the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Monday, the study appears to be the first detailed look at the health status of children six months after they were hospitalized with the condition, called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. The syndrome typically emerges two weeks to six weeks after a Covid-19 infection that is often quite mild, and it can result in hospitalizations for children with severe symptoms involving the heart and several other organs. (Belluck, 5/24)

CNN: MIS-C: Most Severe Effects In Children Typically Resolve Within Six Months, New Research Suggests 
The most severe symptoms that come with MIS-C, the rare but serious Covid-19 related condition, seem to resolve within six months after hospitalization, according to a new small study of patients at one hospital in London. The study published Monday in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health looked at half a year's worth of results from nearly 46 children who were treated for MIS-C, or what is also known in the UK as PIMS-TS, which stands for Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome. (Christensen, 5/25)

CIDRAP: Age, Health Conditions Are Linked With COVID Severity In Pregnant Women
Increased age and underlying medical conditions were associated with a greater likelihood for more severe COVID-19 infections in pregnant women, according to a study late last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The researchers used the Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies Network to identify 7,950 pregnant women, 20.9% of whom had moderate-to-severe or critical illness. Mothers were identified from Mar 29, 2020, to Mar 5, 2021. Most were 20 to 39 years old (91.2%) and had Medicaid (54.5%). About one in three (36.4%) had at least one underlying condition, with the most common being pre-pregnancy obesity (28.2%). (5/24)

Reuters: Immune System Has Long-Term Defenses After Mild COVID-19
Months after recovery from mild COVID-19, when antibody levels in the blood have declined, immune cells in bone marrow remain ready to pump out new antibodies against the coronavirus, researchers reported on Monday in Nature. Upon infection, short-lived immune cells are generated quickly to secrete an early wave of protective antibodies. As the immune cells die out, antibody levels decline. But a pool of these immune cells, called long-lived plasma cells, is held in reserve after infection. Most of them migrate to the bone marrow, explained coauthor Ali Ellebedy of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. (Lapid, 5/25)

CNN: Children Are At Increased Risk Of Accidental Poisoning From Marijuana Edibles, Study Finds 
Children are at increased risk of accidental poisoning from edibles and other products made from marijuana, according to a new study analyzing calls to poison control centers from January 2017 through December 2019. Calls about poisoning as a result of consuming products such as weed concentrates, extracts, beverages, vape juice and edibles more often involved children under 10 years old, the study found, compared to calls about dried or pre-rolled cannabis plant poisonings. (LaMotte, 5/24)

Stat: A Gene Therapy Opens A New Chapter For Children, But Challenges Endure
When Rachael and Pat Brown rattle off all that their daughter Kate can do, their voices are imbued with an astonishment that eclipses even the usual parental pride. Never mind that the skills might seem meager for a 3½-year-old. Kate can pick up toys. She can scooch herself along the floor. She’s strong enough to sit and hold her head up, and that means she can join them at the dinner table and needle her older siblings. She can talk, well enough that she can ask her parents to turn on Genesis’ “Invisible Touch.” “And,” Rachael said, “she’s alive.” (Joseph, 5/25)

CIDRAP: WHO, Switzerland To Launch First BioHub Lab To Share Pathogen Samples
In a step designed to speed pathogen risk assessment and countermeasure development, as well as to broaden access, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Switzerland today signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the first WHO BioHub facility, part of the WHO BioHub system first announced in November. The biosafety lab in Spiez will safely receive, sequence, store, and prepare pathogen samples for sharing with other laboratories, the WHO said in a press release. It said the current system is slow and done bilaterally on an ad hoc basis, which leaves some countries without access to the resulting benefits and tools. (5/24)

The New York Times: Blind Man's Sight Partially Restored With 'Optogenetics' Gene Therapy
A team of scientists announced Monday that they had partially restored the sight of a blind man by building light-catching proteins in one of his eyes. Their report, which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine, is the first published study to describe the successful use of this treatment. “Seeing for the first time that it did work — even if only in one patient and in one eye — is exciting,” said Ehud Isacoff, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. (Zimmer, 5/24)

Stat: Optogenetics Used For The First Time To Help A Blind Patient See Again 
Somewhere in Paris, in a white room, seated at a white table, a man wearing a headset reminiscent of those worn by VR gamers reached out with his right hand and placed his fingers on a black notebook. This simple motion, which he executed with confidence, was notable for one very important reason: The man had been blind for close to four decades. (Molteni, 5/24)

The New York Times: Scientists Drove Mice To Bond By Zapping Their Brains With Light
Late one evening last March, just before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country, Mingzheng Wu, a graduate student at Northwestern University, plopped two male mice into a cage and watched as they explored their modest new digs: sniffing, digging, fighting a little. With a few clicks on a nearby computer, Mr. Wu then switched on a blue light implanted in the front of each animal’s brain. That light activated a tiny piece of cortex, spurring neurons there to fire. Mr. Wu zapped the two mice at the same time and at the same rapid frequency — putting that portion of their brains quite literally in sync. Within a minute or two, any animus between the two creatures seemed to disappear, and they clung to each other like long-lost friends. (Hughes, 5/25)

CIDRAP: Rapid Test Linked To Quicker Optimal Therapy For Blood Infections
Implementation of a test that provides rapid bacterial identification and susceptibility results from positive blood cultures shortened the time to optimal antibiotic therapy and reduced unnecessary antibiotic exposure in hospitalized patients with bacteremia, researchers reported late last week in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. The Improving Outcomes and Antibiotic Stewardship for patients with gram-positive bloodstream infections (IOAS) study, led by scientists from Accelerate Diagnostics (which also provided funding), evaluated clinical and antimicrobial stewardship metrics at two hospitals in Arkansas and Iowa following implementation of the Accelerate PhenoTest BC Kit (AXDX), a diagnostic platform that can identify bacteria from blood cultures and provide antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) results up to 40 hours faster than conventional methods. (5/24)

Axios: Report Finds Racial Segregation Common In Urban Hospital Markets 
Some of the least racially inclusive hospitals in the U.S. are located in the same cities — even within blocks, in some cases — as some of the most inclusive hospitals, according to a new report from the Lown Institute. In a year that has highlighted racial inequities in healthcare, the analysis shows the segregation still playing out at hospitals across the nation. (Reed, 5/25)

North Carolina Health News: Public Comments On Cone-Sentara Merger Roll In
As North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein considers whether to intervene in the proposed merger between homegrown Cone Health of Greensboro and Virginia-based Sentara Healthcare, he has gotten plenty of input on both sides of the issue. The state Department of Justice’s month-long public comment period drew more than 40 responses between late March and April 28, including one from a Cone Health physician telling Stein the proposed marriage of the two major health systems is a bad idea. (Wireback, 5/25)

The Washington Post: NYC And LA School Systems Will Return To Full-Time In-Person Learning In Fall
The two largest school systems in the United States will fully reopen for in-person learning this fall, officials announced Monday, a major step in the country’s pandemic recovery. The public school districts in New York City and Los Angeles — which together educate more than 1.6 million students — became the latest to announce their planned transitions away from virtual learning, which will also allow parents who have been supervising their children’s online classes to go back to work. (Thebault, Dou, Cunningham, Schemm and Shammas, 5/25)

AP: In NYC's Furthest Flung Neighborhood, Vaccine A Tough Sell
If there’s one place where people could fear the coronavirus more than a vaccination needle, it’s the Far Rockaway section of Queens: Nearly 460 residents of the seaside neighborhood have died of COVID-19. That’s one out of every 146 people who live there, making for one of New York City’s highest death rates. And yet, no other place in the city has a lower percentage of vaccinated people. (Lajka, 5/25)

AP: Maryland Holding 1st Lottery Drawing In Vaccine Promotion
Maryland is holding the first of its $40,000 lottery drawings for people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The drawing Tuesday is the first of 40 consecutive days of drawings for a $40,000 prize. On July 4, a final drawing will be for a $400,000 prize. The total prize pool is $2 million to encourage people to get vaccinated. The drawings will be conducted using a computer program that randomly selects a number from within the range of numbers provided to the lottery by Maryland’s health department. (5/25)

The Washington Post: D.C., Maryland, Virginia Vaccinations Outpacing Nation As A Whole
Coronavirus vaccination rates in the D.C. area are rising, and covid-19 metrics continue to fall: Case counts, hospitalizations and deaths are now a small fraction of what they were during the height of the pandemic this winter. But the threat of infection still looms among the unvaccinated, and public officials and health experts warn that the risk is growing as mask mandates and other pandemic restrictions are eliminated. (Fadulu, 5/24)

AP: Substance Abuse Prevention Group Gets $200K Federal Grant
A group fighting substance use addiction in ground zero of the opioid epidemic in one of West Virginia’s largest cities will receive a $200,000 federal grant. West Virginia’s U.S. senators announced that Recovery Point of Huntington will receive the funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program offers no-cost services for people with substance use disorder, a press release said. The grant will specifically help target recidivism among those struggling. (5/25)

The Hill: Alabama Governor Signs Bill To Prohibit Vaccine Passports
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Monday signed a bill banning private businesses and public institutions from requiring COVID-19 “vaccine passports.” As the Montgomery Advertiser reports, the bill passed the Alabama state House 76 to 16 a week ago. The legislation states that public entities such as schools "may not issue vaccine or immunization passports, vaccine or immunization passes, or any other standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying the immunization status of an individual, or otherwise require the publication or sharing of immunization records or similar health information for an individual.” (Choi, 5/24)

NBC News: Wisconsin Catholic Pastor Who Preached Against Covid-19 Vaccine Ordered To Step Down
The pastor of a Roman Catholic parish in Wisconsin who told his congregation to shun the Covid-19 vaccine and preached right-wing politics from the pulpit has been asked to step down by his bishop. The Rev. James Altman, of the St. James the Less Roman Catholic Church in La Crosse, made the announcement during his sermon at Sunday Mass, calling himself a victim of the “cancel culture.” (Siemaszko, 5/24)

WUSF Public Media: Florida Passes Milestone Vaccination Mark, But Still Lags Behind Other States 
About five months after shots began, more than 10 million people in Florida have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report released Sunday by the state Department of Health. The report showed that 7,965,477 people who had received shots — or nearly 80% of the 10,005,987 total — were considered fully vaccinated, as they had received two doses of vaccines produced by the drug companies Pfizer or Moderna or the one-dose vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson. (Saunders, 5/24)

Health News Florida: Advocates Cheer Passage Of Bill Requiring Baker Act Parental Notification 
Parents have long fretted about schools’ ability to circumvent them in critical health decisions regarding their children. Now, those loopholes are getting smaller after the Legislature approved provisions requiring parents be notified before their child is sent for an involuntary psychiatric exam. It's part of a years-long effort by parents rights groups and mental health advocates to curb the use of the state's Baker Act on children. (Hatter, 5/24)

WSB-TV: Parent Group Takes Out Full-Page Ad To Urge Gwinnett BOE To Drop Mask Mandate For Students 
The mask or no-mask controversy is growing in Gwinnett County. One group of parents bought a full-page newspaper ad over the weekend to try and convince administrators to drop the masks requirement for their kids in schools. The same group interrupted the school board meeting last week, refusing to put on masks when asked to do so. (Thomas, 5/24)

AP: Chicken Plant In California Cited Over Past Virus Outbreak
California has cited and fined a Foster Farms chicken processing plant that saw a deadly coronavirus outbreak last year, saying the company failed to protect its workers. The state Division of Occupational Health and Safety’s penalty of $181,500 is one of the steepest citations issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sacramento Bee reported Monday. A representative for Foster Farms told the newspaper that the company “does not have a comment” on the citations. (5/25)

Politico: New Jersey Lifts Mask Mandate, Social Distancing Rules In Time For Memorial Day
New Jersey is lifting its mask mandate after having been one of the few holdouts in adopting the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday. Murphy’s new directive, which takes effect Friday, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, gives New Jersey residents — even those who aren’t fully vaccinated — the green light to remove their masks and other face coverings in most cases. Matching the CDC’s guidance, the order excludes settings such as health care facilities, jails, schools, child care centers and public transportation networks. (Sutton, 5/24)

The Oregonian: Coronavirus In Oregon: 25% Drop In Weekly Cases; Multnomah County Prepares To Ease Restrictions 
The Oregon Health Authority on Monday reported two COVID-19 deaths and 284 coronavirus cases as the state’s most populous county prepares to ease business restrictions this week. Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday is expected to announce that Multnomah County can relax capacity limits effective Thursday, the same day the Portland Trail Blazers host their first playoff game against the Denver Nuggets. The county qualifies for increased capacity across many businesses because 65% of residents 16 and older are now at least partially vaccinated. (Schmidt, 5/24)

Politico: Legalization Push Faces Crunch In Rhode Island
Rhode Island lawmakers are running short on time to craft a deal on marijuana legalization. With less than six weeks remaining in the legislative session and budget negotiations poised to take center stage in Providence, cannabis supporters are hoping a new proposal from Democratic Rep. Scott Slater will spur lawmakers to take action. “I definitely think there’s enough time to address this,” Slater, a longtime champion of establishing a regulated, adult-use market in the state, said in an interview this week. “It’s not like this is something that's coming out of the blue. We've debated this and had hearings on it for a number of years.” (Demko, 5/24)

AP: Merkel, Macron Back Efforts To Improve WHO As Meeting Opens
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday were among leaders rallying around efforts to strengthen the World Health Organization and the world’s ability to prepare for and defend against pandemics. It came as the U.N. health agency opened its annual assembly, with a draft resolution in the works that acknowledges missteps in the response to COVID-19. The sweeping proposal would seek to boost pandemic response, stabilize WHO’s funding and ensure greater access to health care — including to vaccines, tests and treatments linked to the coronavirus. (Keaten, 5/24)

Stat: European Regulatory Body Plans 'Joint Action' To Boost Clinical Trial Reporting
The Heads of Medicines Agencies, an umbrella group for regulators in 30 European Union countries, plans to launch a “joint action” with the European Commission and the European Medicines Agency to bolster required clinical trial reporting by drug makers and universities. The move, which emerged from an HMA meeting last week, follows ongoing criticism that too many clinical trial sponsors fail to report study results, an issue that has embroiled drug makers, universities, and policy makers in the U.S. and Europe. (Silverman, 5/24)

The New York Times: A Variant First Detected In India Is Spreading Fast In Britain, Highlighting The Dangers Of Faltering Global Vaccinations
A new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has begun to outpace other versions of the virus in Britain, putting pressure on the government to shorten people’s wait for second doses of vaccines and illustrating the risks of a faltering global immunization drive. The new variant, which has become dominant in India since first being detected there in December, may be responsible in part for a virus wave across Southeast Asia, including Nepal. (Mueller, 5/25)

AP: Japan Says US Travel Warning For Virus Won't Hurt Olympians
The Japanese government Tuesday was quick to deny a U.S. warning for Americans to avoid traveling to Japan would have an impact on Olympians wanting to compete in the postponed Tokyo Games. ... Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference Tuesday that the warning does not prohibit essential travel and Japan believes the U.S. support for Tokyo’s effort to hold the Olympics is unchanged. (Yamaguchi, 5/25)

CNBC: Covid: Argentina, Nepal And Others See Cases Rising Rapidly Like India
India is currently at the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic — but it is not the only country with a worsening Covid-19 outbreak. From Argentina in Latin America to Nepal in Asia, many other countries have also reported record increases in Covid cases in the last few weeks, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Lee, 5/25)

AP: Haiti Imposes Curfew, Orders Mask Use For Pandemic Emergency
Haiti’s government imposed a nightly curfew and other restrictions Monday under an eight-day “health emergency” meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus. All outdoor activity will be banned from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. under the decree issued by President Jovenel Moise .... The decree also makes the use of face masks mandatory for anyone out in public, while temperature checks and handwashing stations are required for all public or private buildings such as banks, schools, hospitals and markets. (5/24)

The New York Times: Delhi Considers Lifting Covid Limits, Despite Vaccine Shortage
Delhi is considering relaxing its Covid-19 restrictions six weeks after a devastating coronavirus surge rocked the Indian capital, with a pledge to ramp up vaccinations to protect the city’s more than 20 million people from another wave. But the vow came after a weekend in which city officials were forced to close vaccination centers for lack of supply, a problem plaguing the entire country as the coronavirus continues to spread. India does not have the vaccine manufacturing capacity to inoculate a big portion of its population anytime soon, while the prospect of importing new supplies from abroad has bogged down amid squabbling between the central and local governments. (Deep Singh, 5/24)