More than 40% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, CDC data shows
From CNN's Deidre McPhillips
People sit in the observation area after receiving a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the American Museum of Natural History vaccination site in New York, , on Friday, April 30. Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/Getty Images
More than 105.5 million people in the United States are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 — including more than 40% of the adult population and nearly 70% of the senior population — according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that 246,780,203 total doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, about 79% of the 312,509,575 doses delivered.
That’s about 1.2 million more doses reported administered since Sunday, for a seven-day average of about 2.3 million doses per day. The average daily rate of vaccinations has been declining for about two weeks.
Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.
2:29 p.m. ET, May 3, 2021
Global Covid-19 spread turns world into a "petri dish," acting US FDA commissioner says
From CNN’s Virginia Langmaid
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.
“With so much virus replication going on in many parts of the world, it's like a giant petri dish. And so they're going to be spitting up variants all the time because there's so much virus replication,” Woodcock told Dr. Marc Siegel on SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio Reports.
“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.
1:56 p.m. ET, May 3, 2021
President Biden predicts some normalcy in the US "by the end of the summer"
From CNN's Betsy Klein
President Biden touted vaccination progress on Monday and predicted a return to some normalcy "by the end of the summer."
“I think by the end of the summer, we’ll be in a very different position than we are now,” he said when asked to predict a timeline for a return to normalcy, citing his administration’s work to ramp up vaccine production and commitment to scaling it up to help other countries “once we take care of all Americans.”
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:
12:35 p.m. ET, May 3, 2021
Indian Navy deploys its medical personnel to Covid-19 facilities
From CNN's Swati Gupta in New Delhi
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.
12:33 p.m. ET, May 3, 2021
New York governor announces he's lifting more Covid-19 restrictions. Here's a look at the changes.
From CNN's Brian Vitagliano
Grand Central station in Manhattan, New York on April 27, 2021. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
“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.
“This is a major reopening of economic and social activity and it is coordinated regionally, which is smart,” Cuomo said.
The governor thanked Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy for their continued efforts in reopening.
“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.
11:55 a.m. ET, May 3, 2021
More global Covid-19 cases reported in last 2 weeks than first 6 months of the pandemic, WHO says
From CNN’s Naomi Thomas
A health worker wearing personal protective equipment holds the hand of a patient at the Doctor Ernesto Che Guevara Public Hospital where patients infected with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, are being treated on April 30, 2021 in Maricá, Brazil. Buda Mendes/Getty Images
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.
“More cases of Covid-19 have been reported globally in the past two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic,” WHO’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “India and Brazil account for more than half of last week’s cases. But there are many other countries all over the world that face a very fragile situation.”
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.”
11:51 a.m. ET, May 3, 2021
Pfizer is discussing expedited approval for Covid-19 vaccine with Indian government, CEO says
From CNN's Naomi Thomas
People line up to get the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in a school-turned-vaccination centre in New Delhi on May 3, 2021. Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
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.
“Pfizer is aware that access to vaccines is critical to ending this pandemic. Unfortunately, our vaccine is not registered in India although our application was submitted months ago,” Bourla wrote in a letter to Pfizer colleagues in India. “We are currently discussing with the Indian government an expedited approval pathway to make our Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available for use in the country.”
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.
3:22 p.m. ET, May 3, 2021
Nepal will ban all international flights starting May 6
From CNN's Asha Thapa in Kathmandu
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.
11:12 a.m. ET, May 3, 2021
Go There: CNN answers your questions from New Delhi about India's worsening Covid-19 crisis
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:
