The pandemic is still not over, experts warn

Experts around the world are reminding people that despite hope from Covid-19 vaccinations and a clearer path forward, it is much too soon to let down our guard.

In Hungary, despite the country having one of the highest per capita coronavirus death rates in the world, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that his government will not tighten restrictions and is determined to continue moving to reopen society. There were 302 deaths on Wednesday, the highest there since the start of the pandemic.

The U.S., where some states are in crisis mode, is a study in contrasts. In Michigan, a major hotspot, more than 2,200 Covid-19 patients statewide are hospitalized, a figure that has more than doubled since the beginning of March. And yet officials are relaxing mask rules and other measures to get the virus under control.

“Looking at numbers yesterday felt like a gut punch,” said a Michigan epidemiologist. “We’re going to have to go through this surge, and all this hard work again to get the numbers down.”

Italian officials are pushing health workers to get vaccinated after a rash of outbreaks in hospitals where the staff chose not to get inoculated. The government is requiring it now, a move that might be unconstitutional. “It makes no sense that a person whose job is to heal the sick gives them Covid and kills them,” said a man who believes his father contracted and died from Covid-19 because of an unvaccinated nurse.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:

A mix-up at a U.S. factory manufacturing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine ruined 15 million doses, delaying future shipments.
New data suggested that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine works against a worrisome virus variant that has overwhelmed South Africa, although experts said more studies are needed.
The New York Times