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WHO Expected to Release Report on COVID-19 Origins Tuesday

VOA News

   A new report to be released Tuesday revealsdetails about the origins of
   the COVID-19 virus. The pandemic was most likely transmitted from bats
   to humans through another animal, the draft report obtained by U.S.
   news outlets said.

   A leak from a lab is "extremely unlikely" as a cause of the coronavirus
   outbreak, which was first detected in China's central city of Wuhan in
   late 2019, the report concluded.

   The World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom
   Ghebreyesus acknowledged Monday that he had received the report over
   the weekend but declined to confirm the details in the draft copy seen
   by media outlets, including The Associated Press, which first reported
   the story.

   "All hypotheses are on the table and warrant complete and further
   studies," Tedros told a news conference from Geneva.

   The WHO sent an international team to China earlier this year to
   explore the origins of the virus. However, critics of that study say it
   had limitations due to what the government of China allowed researchers
   to see.
   FILE - Peter Daszak and Thea Fischer, members of the World Health
   Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of the
   coronavirus disease, sit in a car arriving at Wuhan Institute of
   Virology in Wuhan, China, Feb. 2, 2021.

   'Impending doom'

   U.S. President Joe Biden is urging Americans not to ease up on wearing
   face masks and other coronavirus precautionary efforts amid growing
   evidence of a surge of new COVID-19 infections.

   President Biden made the plea Monday during a White House event where
   he announced that at least 90 percent of all U.S. adults would be
   eligible for vaccination, expressing concern over a handful of states
   that have eased or completely lifted restrictions as more people are
   being vaccinated against COVID-19. The president directly appealed to
   all state and locally elected leaders around the country to either
   reinstate or maintain mandatory mask wearing.

   "Please, this is not politics" Biden said. "This is deadly serious."
   FILE - Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease
   Control and Prevention testifies during a hearing to examine the
   COVID-19 response on Capitol Hill, March 18, 2021.

   Biden's plea mirrored those made hours earlier by Dr. Rochelle
   Walenksy, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
   (CDC), during a virtual White House health briefing. Dr. Walensky grew
   emotional as she spoke of "the recurring feeling I have of impending
   doom," noting the U.S. had averaged about 60,000 new COVID-19 cases
   over the past week, an increase of 10 percent.

   Walensky said the current trajectory is putting the U.S. on the same
   course as France, Germany and Italy and other European countries who
   are undergoing a dramatic rise in new coronavirus cases.

   "I'm asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when
   you can, so that all of those people that we all love will still be
   here when this pandemic ends," she said.

   Meanwhile, the CDC issued a new report Monday saying the new two dose
   COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are 90% effective at
   preventing infections under real world conditions, with the first dose
   80% effective after the first two weeks.

   U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson announced Monday it has reached a deal
   to supply the African Union with up to 400 million doses of its
   COVID-19 vaccine beginning this summer.

   The single-dose vaccine still must receive authorization from
   regulators in African countries. However, it has already been approved
   for emergency use by the WHO, the European Union and the United States.

   In Canada, health officials said on Monday they would stop offering
   AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people under age 55 because of
   concerns of rare but serious blood clots, especially in younger women.

   The pause comes after many European countries briefly stopped using the
   AstraZeneca vaccine while investigating the reports of blood clots.
   Almost all of them resumed using the vaccine after the European
   Medicines Agency (EMA), a drug regulating agency, said the vaccine was
   "safe and effective" and said the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the
   risks of the side effects.