Bhinneka News Online: Tuesday Morning Briefing: Traffic jams signal return to normal in New York

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Traffic jams signal return to normal in New York
New York City residents, gradually emerging from more than 100 days of coronavirus lockdown, celebrated an easing of social-distancing restrictions by shopping at reopened stores, dining at outdoor cafes and getting their first haircuts in months.

The usual traffic jams clogged city streets, and the sound of honking cars brought a welcome sense of a return to the ordinary. But even as New Yorkers returned to some semblance of normalcy, spikes in coronavirus infection rates elsewhere around the country worried public health experts.

Chief among the latest hotspots was Florida, one of the last states to impose stay-at-home restrictions.

Pig trial shows promise
A trial of AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine in pigs has found that two doses of the Oxford University-developed shot produced a greater antibody response than a single dose, scientists said on Tuesday.

Research released by Britain’s Pirbright Institute found that giving an initial prime dose followed by a booster dose of the shot elicited a greater immune response than a single dose - suggesting a two-dose approach may be more effective in getting protection against the disease.

Pigs are a useful research model for this type of vaccine and other trials have been able to predict vaccine outcomes in humans, particularly in studies of flu.

Meanwhile, French drugmaker Sanofi said it expects to get approval for the potential COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline by the first half of next year, faster than previously anticipated.

Local lockdown in Germany
The premier of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said he was putting the Guetersloh area back into lockdown until June 30 after a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there.

Guetersloh is the first area in Germany to go back into lockdown after the authorities began gradually lifting restrictive measures at the end of April.

More than 1,500 workers at a meat processing plant in Guetersloh had tested positive for the coronavirus, plus some of their family members and 24 people who had no connection to the plant.

The coronavirus reproduction rate in Germany is estimated at 2.76, probably mainly due to local outbreaks.

UK death toll tops 54,000

The United Kingdom’s suspected COVID-19 death toll has hit 54,089, according to a Reuters tally of official data sources that underline the country’s status as one of the worst hit in the world.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due on Tuesday to announce cinemas, museums and galleries in England can reopen next month to try to revitalize the economy. But the large death toll means criticism over his handling of the pandemic - that Britain was too slow to impose a lockdown or protect the elderly in care home - is likely to persist.

International haj pilgrims barred

Saudi Arabia said it would bar arrivals from abroad for the haj this year due to the novel coronavirus, making this the first year in modern times that Muslims from around the world have not been allowed to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, which all Muslims aim to perform at least once in their lives.

Some 2.5 million pilgrims typically visit the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long haj. Official data shows Saudi Arabia earns around $12 billion a year from the haj and the lesser, year-round pilgrimage known as umrah. International arrivals for umrah pilgrimages have also been suspended until further notice.

Track the spread with our global and US-focused live graphics.

Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Cambodia, New cars, And old ones. Read concise views on the pandemic’s financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

Special Report: Videos of alleged police misconduct went viral. Then what happened? Some U.S. authorities have moved with unusual speed to fire, suspend or charge police officers caught on video hitting and pushing peaceful protesters and targeting them with pepper spray during nationwide protests in recent weeks, a Reuters review of 44 videos recorded during the demonstrations found.

Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Emerging from lockdown

Rebekah Rosler and her husband did not intend to leave Manhattan for good in March when they packed up their three children and headed 50 miles north to wait out the coronavirus pandemic in her parents’ vacant home in upstate New York. “My kids were all dressed in their pajamas, we loaded up the car with paper towels and toilet paper and food,” said Rosler, 40, who works in mental health. “That was what I thought was going to be a commitment for a week.”

Liberian President George Weah extended a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic by 30 days, citing an exponential increase in the number of cases despite compulsory mask-wearing and stay-at-home orders. The decision runs counter to moves by other governments in West Africa that have sought to ease restrictions, despite rising case numbers.

French movie fans ventured back into cinemas for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown, helped by a new safety feature: minions placed at intervals in the seats to ensure social distancing is observed. Stuffed toy versions of the yellow, pill-shaped characters were deployed at the MK2 cinema in the south of Paris for a showing of the 2015 movie “Minions” - a spin-off from the “Despicable Me” franchise that made them famous.

Out of 31 pupils in one of Madrid teacher Clara Mijares’ online classes last month, eight were missing. Two had not been seen for some time, she said, adding that this is a fairly typical ratio these days for her lockdown sessions for 12 to 16-year-olds. Some of those who had made it to that pastoral meeting of El Espinillo secondary school in Madrid kept their webcams disabled. They were in no rush to answer when she asked how they were doing.

COVID Science

Metformin tied to lower risk of COVID-19 death in women

Women taking the widely used oral diabetes medication metformin may be at lower risk for fatal COVID-19, according to a study posted on Saturday that has not yet been peer-reviewed. Among more than 6,200 adults with diabetes or obesity and commercial insurance who were hospitalized with COVID-19, there were fewer deaths among women who had filled their 90-day metformin prescriptions than among those not taking the medicine.