Follow our latest coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s what you need to know:
Texas, Indiana and Georgia are making all adults eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.
Hong Kong suspends use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after the discovery of faulty packaging.
U.S. health officials question results from AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial, less than a day after they’re released.
AstraZeneca’s latest stumble again clouds the European vaccination campaign.
Putin, months after becoming eligible, has finally gotten a vaccine shot.
Germany introduces a strict, five-day lockdown over Easter, and asks citizens to stay home.
Study results strengthen the case for using Regeneron’s antibody cocktail in high-risk Covid patients.
Vaccinated people can still get Covid, but it’s probably very rare.
Texas, Indiana and Georgia are making all adults eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.
Texas, Indiana and Georgia announced Tuesday that residents 16 years and older will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations starting Thursday for Georgia residents, Monday for Texans and on March 31 for Indianans. They joining a growing list of states that plan to broaden vaccine eligibility to all adults ahead of a May 1 deadline set by President Biden.
“With every dose, Texas gets closer to normal and protects more lives from COVID-19 hospitalization and death,” the state’s health department said in a Twitter post.
West Virginia, Alaska and Mississippi are the only states where all adults are eligible to receive shots. Others, like Texas, Georgia and Indiana, have announced future expansions; Utah, for example, will open eligibility to all adults on Wednesday. And Tennessee announced last week that all residents 16 and older would be eligible for vaccinations starting April 5. Some states, such as New York, have been gradually expanding eligibility: New Yorkers 50 years and older became eligible on Tuesday.
Widening the eligibility for vaccines comes at a time when federal health officials have warned of a possible fourth surge of the virus as troubling new variants spread, urging Americans to get vaccinated. Mr. Biden has said there would be enough vaccines available by the end of May for all adults and has suggested that Americans could see a return to normalcy by July 4 if they got vaccinated and kept following health precautions, like mask wearing.
Virus case numbers in the country “have plateaued — that’s not good, they should keep going down and down,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases and a top adviser to Mr. Biden, said Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” As of Monday, the seven-day average of new virus cases nationwide was 54,000 a day, according to a New York Times database, a level comparable to that of mid-October.
“When you plateau like that, there really is a danger of a resurgence,” Dr. Fauci said.
About 25 percent of the total U.S. population has received at least one shot, and 14 percent are fully vaccinated. The pace of vaccinations has been steadily increasing in recent weeks to an average of about 2.5 million shots daily, well above the daily rate of fewer than one million shots two months ago. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Tuesday that a total of 27 million doses would be allocated to states, pharmacies and other jurisdictions and programs, 4 million of which would be of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
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