May 3 coronavirus news

The continuing spread of Covid-19 will only fuel the rise of more variants, US Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said Monday.

 “We just have to be on our guard," she added.  

Woodcock said variants may easily evade some current antibody treatments like Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab, but vaccines so far appear to protect well against variants. Monoclonal antibodies are lab-engineered immune system proteins that work against specific targets. Vaccines elicit a broad immune response.

“We've already seen that with the variants in the United States, with bamlanivimab, and that it's no longer effective against a number of the variants circulating in the United States,” Woocock said.

“This was expected with the monoclonals because they're just monoclonal, of course. And so they have an exquisite specificity and they're vulnerable to this type of shift. The vaccine is more robust because you're having a human response, a polyclonal response."

Woodcock said increased viral surveillance is important in understanding what needs to be done to combat variants.

President Biden touted vaccination progress on Monday and predicted a return to some normalcy "by the end of the summer."

He also addressed vaccine hesitancy, citing some promising statistics.  

“What's happening now is all the talk about how people were not going to get shots and were not going to be involved, we were told that was most likely to be among people who are 65 years of age. But now, people over 65 years of age over 80% have now been vaccinated, and 66%, fully vaccinated. And there's virtually no difference between white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American,” he said.

He touted ongoing efforts to expand vaccine access and steps toward promoting vaccine equity.

“What we've done, under some criticism, is we have expanded access to vaccinations to familiar places — 40,000 drugstores now, also all of the community health centers that are available all across the nation, mobile units going out, and it's getting better and better and better,” he said.

Watch the moment:

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the chief of the Naval staff Monday to discuss initiatives taken by the Navy to help with the second wave of Covid-19.

The Navy has deployed its medical personnel to hospitals across the country.

"Naval Personnel are being provided Battle Field Nursing Assistant Training to augment medical personnel deployed in Covid hospitals," read the statement.

The Navy is also assisting in the transport of "oxygen containers as well as other supplies from Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore to India."

India is struggling to contain the second wave that began in April and has left hospitals struggling with shortages of basic medical supplies like oxygen and ventilators.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that MTA subway service will return to a 24/7 schedule beginning May 17, coinciding with a curfew lift.

“Subway trains have never been cleaner than they are now,” Cuomo said Monday.

Beginning May 19, most Covid-19 capacity restrictions will end across the tri-state area, including retail, food services and gyms, according to Cuomo.

Restaurants, museums, theaters, Broadway, retail and shops are all included in the lifting of capacity restrictions.

In New York State, outdoor food and beverage curfew lifted on May 17, Cuomo said.

Indoor food and beverage curfews will be lifted on May 31.

Outdoor large stadiums will go to 33% capacity on May 19, according to Cuomo.

Also in New York State, the governor said they will keep the six-foot social distancing requirement. “Our capacity is subject to the six feet guidelines," Cuomo noted.

Gatherings of events in New York State may occur in excess of six-foot distance if all people present proof of full vaccination or a recent negative PCR test.

The governor thanked Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy for their continued efforts in reopening.

The statewide positivity rate for New York stands at 1.94%, with 37 deaths reported Monday according to the governor. At least 7 million New Yorkers are fully vaccinated, according to Cuomo.

“You follow the science and you follow the data and you disregard the politics, which drove the Covid response in this nation last year.” 

Note: These numbers were released by the state's public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Globally, there have been more cases of Covid-19 reported in the last two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic, the director-general of the World Health Organization said during a news briefing in Geneva on Monday. 

WHO is providing equipment and supplies, such as oxygen concentrators, to India as well as providing advice on how to provide care at home for people who are unable to find hospital beds for patients. 

The WHO Foundation is also raising funds to support the need for oxygen and related supplies globally, he said.  

Tedros called upon everyone to continue following WHO and national advice around public health safety measures. 

“What’s happening in India and Brazil could happen elsewhere unless we all take these public health precautions that WHO has been calling for since the beginning of the pandemic,” Tedros said. “Vaccines are part of the answer, but they are not the only answer.” 

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a letter Monday the company is discussing with the Indian government how to expedite approval of its Covid-19 vaccine.

Bourla said that the company is “deeply concerned” by the critical Covid-19 situation in India and is committed to being a partner in India’s fight against the coronavirus, “quickly working to mobilize the largest humanitarian relief effort in our company’s history.”

Bourla said Pfizer is rushing shipments of medicines from the company that the government of India has identified as part of their treatment protocol. These medicines, valued at over $70 million, are being donated to India and include steroid medications and anticoagulants.  

Pfizer Foundation funding is also supporting humanitarian organizations that provide equipment such as ventilators and oxygen concentrators to India. 

Nepal will ban all international flights starting at midnight on May 6 to May 14, Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli said in a televised address to the nation on Monday.

Domestic flights are also suspended starting at midnight Monday until May 14.

Oli said that 13 land border checkpoints between Nepal and India will operate to allow Nepali citizens to return home but they must obtain a negative Covid-19 test at the checkpoints. All arrivals of foreigners by land have been banned.

Every person coming via land or rescue flight will be tested for Covid, Oli added.

India's devastating Covid-19 outbreak broke new records last weekend, with authorities reporting more than 400,000 cases for the first time on Saturday and a record-high number of deaths on Sunday.

CNN's Sam Kiley was live in New Delhi reporting on the latest and answering viewers' questions:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated a “turning point moment” Monday for the city as 80,000 city workers returned to the office.

“City hall is abuzz today – it’s a great feeling,” he said.

Approximately 80% of the city’s workforce has been working in the field throughout the pandemic, he said, and he thanked them.

New York City has administered over 6.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, he said.

He also celebrated the downturn in Covid-19 metrics, saying “we got to keep earning it.”

Hospitalization rates are particularly “well well well below the threshold” with 95 patients admitted for suspected Covid-19, with a hospitalization rate of 1.76 per 100,000.

There were at least 1,202 new and suspected Covid-19 cases reported on a seven-day rolling average marking a 2.78% positivity which the mayor called “a great number.”

Note: These numbers were released by the City health dept and may not line up with JHU’s Covid Tracking project.