Vaccinations Will Ease Door Open To International Travel

Bloomberg: EU Vaccine Passports For Travel Are Months Away, Memo Shows
The European Union is still months away from issuing Covid-19 immunity certificates, raising the risk of another lost tourism season for the bloc’s aviation and hospitality industries. Technical work on a digital platform to authenticate travelers’ health status could take three to four months, according to a briefing note circulated to national delegations in Brussels on Tuesday. Beyond that, there are legal hurdles, the challenge of agreeing the scope of the program, and resolving thorny medical questions. The system being developed by the European Commission would confirm holders have recently tested negative, been fully vaccinated, or recovered from the coronavirus and are thus presumed to be immune. (Chrysoloras, 3/3)

The Washington Post: Royal Caribbean Is Starting ‘Fully Vaccinated’ Cruises From Israel 
As cruise lines await an uncertain future in the United States, one major player is announcing plans to sail from Israel with vaccinated passengers and crew. Royal Caribbean International announced Monday morning that its newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, will start sailing from Haifa in May with Israeli passengers. The operator said it will be the first to offer “fully vaccinated sailings,” with crew and passengers older than 16 required to have a full course of the vaccine against covid-19. (Sampson, 3/1)

The Washington Post: Mexico’s Riviera Maya Eases Covid-19 Restrictions Ahead Of Spring Break 
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo is softening its coronavirus restrictions following a decrease in confirmed covid-19 cases in the area, officials announced Thursday on Twitter. The entire state, which includes the major tourist destinations of Cancún, Tulum and Playa del Carmen, will begin to permit hotels, restaurants, shops, theaters and theme parks to operate at 60 percent capacity next week. Previous limits on hotel and restaurant capacities were 30 percent. (McMahon, 2/26)

And in health news from other nations —

Bloomberg: Brazil Hits Record For Covid Deaths As Hospitals Near Collapse
Brazil reported a record daily number of Covid-19 deaths as a resurgence of the virus fills up hospital beds and pushes local governments to call for more drastic measures to contain contagion. The Health Ministry reported 1,641 people died from the disease in the last 24 hours. Brazil is among the hardest-hit countries globally, with 10,646,926 confirmed cases and 257,361 deaths from Covid-19. While the virus recedes in most of the world, Brazil is battling a spike in infections, which has been made worse by carnival and year-end gatherings. About 20 states have more than 80% of ICU beds filled, leading the National Council of Health Secretaries to call for tough measures including a national curfew and closure of airports to avoid a collapse of public and private healthcare systems networks. (Gamarski, 3/2)

Bloomberg: Stockholm Hit By 100% Spike In Covid Cases In Just 3 Weeks
In Sweden’s capital, the rate of coronavirus infections just doubled over the past three weeks, making a third wave seem almost inevitable. The surge in new cases follows a warning from the government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven that Sweden might need to enforce legislation enacted earlier this year, allowing the authorities to impose what would be the country’s first lockdown since the pandemic erupted roughly a year ago. With the current infection rates, the capital area has seen a “small” increase in the number of people “so seriously ill that they are in need of hospital care,” Johan Bratt, the acting health and medical care director for the Stockholm region, said in a statement on Wednesday. (Daly, 3/3)

CNN: Kenya Receives More Than 1 Million Vaccines Through COVAX
Kenya has received more than 1 million Covid-19 vaccines as part of the global COVAX program, according to a news release from the country’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday. A plane carrying 1.02 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine touched down just before midnight Tuesday in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. (3/3)

AP: Nigeria Receives Nearly 4 Million Vaccines From COVAX
Nearly 4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, the third and largest delivery so far to an African country by the global COVAX initiative, which was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have fair access to vaccines. (Petesch, 3/2)

AP: Blast At Dutch Virus Testing Center; No One Hurt
Dutch police say a blast smashed windows at a coronavirus testing center in a small town north of Amsterdam in the early morning. Nobody was hurt. Police in the North Holland province tweeted that “an explosive went off” near the test center in Bovenkarspel just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday. (3/3)

In updates on the HIV/AIDS crisis —

Fox News: Scientists Find 'HIV Elite Controllers' Living In Congo, Possibly Paving Way For Vaccine, Cure
Scientists have claimed to discover a rare group of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo who have tested positive for HIV antibodies but are living with low to non-detectable levels of viral load without the aid of antiretroviral medicines, potentially paving the way for vaccine development or possibly even a cure. Abbott announced in a news release posted Tuesday that the prevalence of this group, dubbed HIV elite controllers, was 2.7%-4.3% in the DRC, compared to 0.1%-2% prevalence worldwide. Findings from the study, which was published in EBioMedicine, could help uncover links between natural virus suppression and future treatments. (Hein, 3/2)