VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis says he is happy to return to meet the faithful in St. Peter’s Square for his traditional blessing on Sunday at noon, after weeks of blockade measures.
Italy will gradually start lifting some anti-pandemic restrictions later this month, allowing, for example, outdoor dining at cafes and restaurants in areas of the country where the COVID-19 outbreak has shown signs of improvement.
Several hundred people, including nuns and families, at a safe distance from the vast square, went to see the pope speaking from a window of the Apostolic Palace. “Thank God we can gather again in this market,” Francis said. “I have to say I miss the square.”
The last few weeks have seen Francis sitting at an otter inside the palace to expose his observations on Sunday at noon on TV, radio and the internet.
“Thank God and thank you for your presence,” Francis told those who showed up despite the clouds threatening rain in Rome.
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VIRUS FIRE:
– The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 has exceeded a staggering 3 million
– AP PHOTOGRAPHS: Photos reflect on a single pandemic photo
– The fashion industry is evolving as the virus forces a rethink
– The clammers continue digging by pandemic, but find fewer crustaceans
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Follow all the 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:
JERUSALEM – Israel has lifted its public mask mandate and fully reopened its education system by the latest reduction in coronavirus restrictions following its mass vaccination attempt.
All elementary and middle school classes returned to classrooms on Sunday, and health officials put an end to a one-year requirement to wear a mask in public spaces. Masks are still needed indoors and in large gatherings.
Israel quickly inoculated its majority of the population against coronavirus in a world-leading vaccination campaign. It lifted most of its restrictions on coronavirus and announced last week that it would reopen the country for vaccinated foreign tourists starting in May.
Israeli coronavirus Tsar Nachman Ash told Israeli public radio on Sunday that removing the requirement for an outdoor mask and resuming classroom studies was a “calculated risk.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, Israel has recorded more than 836,000 cases of coronavirus and at least 6,331 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. More than 53% of its 9.3 million citizens received two photos of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
In the months since Israel launched its vaccination campaign in December, serious cases and deaths have plummeted and allowed the economy to fully reopen.
The Israeli-occupied vaccination campaign in the West Bank and Gaza has slowed down, with Israel criticized for not sharing more supplies.
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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan reported the highest number of deaths in a single day due to COVID-19, bringing the country’s total pandemic deaths to nearly 162,430.
Federal authorities said on Sunday that 149 new deaths had been recorded in 24 confirmed hours. They also confirmed more than 6,000 new coronavirus cases from the previous day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Pakistan to over 756,285.
Pakistani authorities decided on Saturday to start vaccinating people between the ages of 50 and 59 next week.
Pakistan relied heavily on donated or imported Chinese vaccines, which had only been offered to health workers and the elderly. But these groups did not respond overwhelmingly to the vaccination campaign, prompting officials to offer vaccines to a younger cohort.
Pakistan, with a population of 220 million, hopes to receive 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the UN-backed COVAX program by next month.
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HUTCHINSON, Minnesota – Prosecutors have charged a Minnesota man with aggravated assault and assaulted a home improvement store employee and a police officer after a store worker told him to wear a mask.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the incident began Wednesday afternoon, when a cashier at a Menards in Hutchinson told 61-year-old Luke Oeltjenbruns that he could only check out if he was wearing a mask. according to a criminal complaint. Oeltjenbruns tried to leave with his goods, causing the cashier to grab his cart.
The complaint claims that Oeltjenbruns hit the cashier with a piece of timber. Police later found Oeltjenbruns sitting in his truck in the parking lot of another store.
After a slow chase, officers surrounded his truck with their team’s cars, but he refused to leave. Officer Steven Sickmann got up in the wheelchair of the truck and reached through the window. The complaint says that Oeltjenbruns closed the window on the officer’s arm, trapped him and left, hitting the team’s cars.
The complaint says that Sickmann tried to use a rescue hammer to break the window, but Oeltjenbruns took him and hit him with his head.
Oeltjenbruns was eventually arrested. The complaint states that the officer’s injuries included a head injury.
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TORONTO – The new pandemic restrictions imposed by Canada’s most populous province immediately came into opposition. Police on Saturday insisted they would not use new powers to randomly stop drivers, and health experts complained that the rules focus on outdoor activities rather than more dangerous indoor settings.
The Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, announced on Friday that it is giving the police authority to ask anyone who is not at home to explain why they are away and provide their address. Tickets can be written.
But at least a dozen forces in Ontario, including in the capital Toronto, have said there will be no random stops of people or cars.
“We are all going through a horrible year of COVID-19 and all associated with it together. (The department) will NOT randomly stop vehicles for no reason during or after the pandemic, ”Halton Police Chief Steve Tanner wrote on Twitter.
The new rules limit outdoor gatherings to those in the same household and close to playgrounds and golf courses. The decisions have sparked widespread criticism in an already blocked province. Restaurants and gyms are closed just like the school in the classroom. Most non-essential workers work from home.
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ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine who is eligible to receive more than $ 530 million in federal virus rescue funds reserved for tribes more than a year ago.
More than a dozen Native American tribes have sued the U.S. Treasury Department to keep the money in the hands of Alaska Native corporations, which provide services to Alaska Natives but do not have a government-to-government relationship with the United States.
The question raised in the case set out for oral arguments on Monday is whether corporations are tribes within the meaning of the Coronavirus Aid, Aid and Economic Security Act, which defines “tribes” under a 1975 law to strengthen their self-government.
The case has practical effects. Native Americans have been disproportionately sick and killed by the pandemic – despite extreme precautions, which included roadblocks, roadblocks, universal tests and business closures – and have historically had limited financial resources. About $ 530 million of the $ 8 billion reserved for the tribes was not distributed.
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HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe has begun releasing some 3,000 detainees under a presidential amnesty to ease congestion to reduce the threat of COVID-19 in the country’s overcrowded prisons.
About 400 prisoners were released from Chikurubi Prison and other prisons in the capital Harare on Saturday, along with others from other prisons across the country.
Zimbabwe’s prisons have a capacity of 17,000 prisoners, but held about 22,000 before the amnesty declared by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Those to be released have been convicted of nonviolent crimes.
Amnesty “will go a long way” in reducing spending and threatening to spread the virus in prisons, said Alvord Gapare, Harare’s prison commander. He said prisons in the capital had 173 confirmed infections and one death.
Zimbabwe registered 37,534 cases of COVID-19, including 1,551 deaths as of April 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa.
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RICHMOND, Virginia – The first cases of the so-called COVID-19 variant in Brazil have been identified in two samples from Virginia residents, state health officials said Friday.
In a press release, the Virginia Department of Health said a case involving P.1 had been identified in an adult resident in the Northwest region who had had an internal trip during the exposure period. The second case was identified in an adult resident in the eastern region with no history of travel, the department said.
According to the department, none of the cases had any evidence of COVID-19 vaccination before the onset of the disease.