The Australian Open
The roar of the crowd has returned with fans celebrating a point during a match.Alana Holmberg for The New York Times
Karen Crouse, a Sports reporter, who has been in Melbourne covering the first major international sports tournament of 2021, spoke to my colleague Melina Delkic, who writes the Asia edition of the Morning Briefing. They talked about safety measures and what it’s like to be somewhere seemingly normal.
What’s the feeling at the Open and in Melbourne?
People are feeling cautiously optimistic, but there is apprehension that I don’t think anyone in the U.S. could understand. There are health checks for everybody who enters the grounds. You have contact tracing.
In Melbourne, they had a 111-day hard lockdown, where they had a curfew and they couldn’t venture more than three miles from their homes. Only one person could go grocery shopping. Everyone here made individual sacrifices for the collective good.
They really are proud of what they collectively did to subdue the coronavirus. They don’t want a sporting event to be the cause of rolling back all of the gains they’ve made.
Is there anything that’s changing in the way tennis is played?
There are no line judges. They’re trying out an electronic system — this could end up being a technological advancement. Other than that, it’s marvelously normal. It’s almost a relief to see and feel how normal it seems. But there were fewer than 20,000 people on the grounds, and that’s much less than normal.
Another angle. Matt Futterman, a sports journalist, who is also at the Australian Open, wrote about how the event delivered a glimpse of what sports can one day be again.
Vaccine rollout
The United States is on the verge of administering 1.5 million doses a day, nearing a goal President Biden set shortly after taking office last month, but state leaders still warn of limited supplies.
An expansion of Alabama’s lagging Covid-19 vaccination program drew large crowds of people.
The 27 countries in the European Union are trying something unprecedented: casting their lot together in the vaccine hunt.
The AstraZeneca vaccine’s ineffectiveness against a fast-spreading coronavirus variant was bad news not just for South Africa, but also for other countries who were counting on the shot for their vaccine campaigns.
What else we’re following
House Democrats rolled out a plan to send $1,400 stimulus payments to Americans earning up to $75,000 a year.
Many universities tried to ramp up testing protocols in the spring semester — but they have been no match for coronavirus variants and uncooperative students.
New York’s vaccine websites weren’t working, so a 31-year-old software engineer who works for Airbnb built one for $50.
the New York Times