Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Reinfection Death: Woman In Netherlands Dies
The Hill: The First Death From A Coronavirus Reinfection Has Been Reported In The Netherlands
The first known death from a coronavirus reinfection has been reported in the Netherlands. A paper accepted for publication in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases details the death of an 89-year-old Dutch woman who has become the first known person to die after contracting COVID-19 twice. (Guzman, 10/13)
AP: EU Countries Adopt Common Travel Guidelines Amid Pandemic
European Union countries on Tuesday approved a series of guidelines including a “traffic-light” system aimed at facilitating free movement across the bloc and avoiding further travel disruption during the coronavirus pandemic. ... The criteria used to define the colored zones — green, orange and red — are the number of newly notified cases per 100,000 in the past 14 days as well as the testing rate and the test positivity rate in the past week. Member states agreed that they should not restrict free movement of people traveling from or to green areas, but national EU governments will continue to set their own restrictions such as quarantines or mandatory testing upon arrival for people coming from orange or red zones. (Petrequin, 10/13)
AP: World Bank Approves $12B To Finance Virus Vaccines, Care
The World Bank has approved $12 billion in financing to help developing countries buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines, tests, and treatments, aiming to support the vaccination of up to 1 billion people. The $12 billion “envelope” is part of a wider World Bank Group package of up to $160 billion to help developing countries fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank said in a statement late Tuesday. (10/14)
AP: Pandemic Leaves American Samoa Residents Stranded, Homesick
Makerita Iosefo Vaʻa hasn’t been home for nearly eight months — the longest she’s ever been away from American Samoa. ... Vaʻa left the U.S. territory in the Pacific in February with her husband for medical treatment. They planned to fly home in March from San Francisco but decided to postpone after hearing a security worker at the airport had contracted the virus. Since then, they haven’t been able to leave because American Samoa Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga closed the territory on March 13 to protect those on the islands from COVID-19 — and it hasn’t reported any cases. (Sagapolutele and Sinco Kelleher, 10/14)
