DETROIT – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has promised to continue pushing the White House for more COVID-19 vaccines as the state experiences an increase in cases.
The Democrat told CBS “Make the Nation” on Sunday that he intends to work with the White House, but wants to do everything he can to get extra doses of the vaccine.
President Joe Biden said Washington will provide Michigan with more federal resources to support vaccinations and testing, but not additional vaccines.
Michigan has the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections in the United States. The state reported 6,900 cases on Saturday and another 74 deaths. Michigan does not report COVID-19 data on Sunday.
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VIRUS FIRE:
– Ecuador and Peru are heading to the polls under strict virus measures
– COVID-19 produces division in the European Union
– Thailand reaches a new daily record with almost 1,000 cases of the virus
– Watch AP pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
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Here’s what happens:
TORONTO – Canada’s most populous province reported a new one-day high for new infections, with nearly 4,460 cases in Ontario.
The latest figures released on Sunday also show a sharp rise in new confirmed cases in Toronto, which rose by almost 400 to more than 1,350.
Up to 3.1 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Ontario so far. The province has a population of 14.5 million.
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HONOLULU – The governor of Hawaii has issued another emergency proclamation in response to the coronavirus pandemic that extends the nationwide evacuation moratorium for another two months and details plans for vaccinated travelers.
Democratic Gov. David Ige signed a proclamation on Friday extending the statewide moratorium on residential evictions until June 8. It was due to expire on Tuesday.
Under the moratorium, landlords are prohibited from evicting tenants for non-payment.
The emergency proclamation also revealed plans to allow vaccinated passengers to bypass mandatory quarantine and COVID-19 testing.
The provision must be approved by the Director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths this year on Sunday, bringing the total number of pandemic deaths in the country to nearly 64,500, state television reported.
According to the report, 258 new deaths were recorded in 24 hours. Iran’s deadliest pandemic day was in mid-November, when more than 480 deaths were reported.
Sunday’s news report said health officials had also confirmed more than 21,060 new COVID-19 cases since the previous day, bringing Iran’s total number of confirmed cases to more than 2,070,000.
On Saturday, Iran began a 10-day blockade in the capital Tehran and other major cities amid a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. Iran’s vaccination campaign has been slow, with about 200,000 doses administered in the country by 84 million people, according to the World Health Organization.
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BEIJING – In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese vaccines COVID-19, the country’s chief disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government plans to mix them up to get a boost.
Chinese vaccines “do not have very high protection rates,” Gao Fu, director of China’s Centers for Disease Control, told a conference in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Saturday.
Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses abroad, trying to promote doubt about the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine made using the previous experimental messenger RNA or mRNA process.
Officials at a news conference on Sunday did not directly answer questions about Gao’s comment or possible changes to official plans. But another CDC official said developers are working on mRNA-based vaccines.
Experts say mixing vaccines or sequential immunization could increase effectiveness. Researchers in the UK are studying a possible combination of Pfizer-BioNTech and the traditional AstraZeneca vaccine.
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PARIS – The French health minister said on Sunday that residents over the age of 55 will be given access to COVID-19 vaccinations starting Monday, which is earlier than anticipated.
Health Minister Olivier Veran said citizens over the age of 55 would be eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine, which is expected to arrive in France a week ahead of schedule.
The shortened deadline comes as France tries to increase the pace of its vaccination program, which has been criticized as slow, and gain ground on the spread of the more contagious virus variant first identified in the UK.
At the same time, French officials have defended a policy of reserving the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 55 with serious health problems. Unusual blot clots were found in a small number of younger recipients of that vaccine.
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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea says it will resume administration of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to all eligible people between the ages of 30 and 60.
Last week, South Korea suspended the use of AstraZeneca vaccines for people under 60, pending the outcome of a review by the European Medicines Agency.
The Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Sunday it would resume use of the AstraZeneca vaccine starting Monday, citing studies showing that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risk of side effects.
A statement from the agency said people under the age of 30 would be excluded, as British authorities had recommended taking alternative vaccines.