Live updates: New vaccine developments raise hopes even as virus variants proliferate
Here are some significant developments:
- The Food and Drug Administration has declared Johnson & Johnson’s new single-shot vaccine to be safe and effective, setting the stage for it to be authorized as soon as this weekend.
- The anticipated authorization of a third coronavirus vaccine has raised a new question for many Americans: Which shot should I get? The answer, experts say, is whichever one you can.
- New unemployment claims decreased by 111,000 last week, the biggest drop in new claims since August, and a positive sign as the coronavirus pandemic spread has slowed in recent weeks.
- Just hours after D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser confirmed 1,000 covid-19 deaths in her city, she made another somber announcement, this one far more personal: Her sister had died of the virus.
- More than 500,000 people have died of covid-19 in the United States, and more than 28 million cases have been reported. The past few weeks, however, have seen a steady decline in fatalities and rates of new cases.
- A new, more transmissible coronavirus variant detected in California this winter rapidly became dominant in the state over five months and now makes up more than half of the infections in 44 counties, according to new research.
- Costco, which has been paying employees an extra $2 an hour during the pandemic, is raising its minimum wage from $15 to $16 next week, making it the latest major retailer to pump up pay in recent months.
Source: WP
