May 31 coronavirus news

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) today released updated guidance that modifies Covid-19 mitigation requirements for residential care facilities, including allowing fully vaccinated people to go without a mask in most places.

According to a news release, vaccinated staff and residents also will no longer have to undergo weekly Covid-19 testing. 

“We want our residents and staff members at residential care facilities in Colorado to know there are clear benefits to vaccination,” Randy Kuykendall, director of the CDPHE's Health Facilities and EMS Division, said in the release.

“These at-risk communities have been on the front-line of mitigating COVID-19 throughout the pandemic and while we aren’t quite out of it yet, making sensible, data-based decisions in regards to infection prevention and socialization will continue to help us finish strong and power the comeback.”

Residential care facilities will now also be required to submit an ongoing vaccination plan “to ensure easy access to vaccines,” the release said.

Peru’s Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez says the country has raised its estimated Covid-19 death toll from 69,000 deaths to more than 180,000.

The latest death toll of 180,764 includes the number of fatalities that occurred from March 1, 2020 to May 22, 2021. 

Speaking at a news conference Monday on CNN affiliate TV Peru, Bermudez said the number was increased based on advice taken from a panel of Peruvian and international experts. 

“It our duty to make the updated information public, not only as part of our commitment to transparency, but also to comply with our obligations as a state," Bermudez told reporters during the news conference. 

"Covid has really changed our lives," clinical psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere said.

"Whether it's someone they know that has Covid or someone that they know that died, or friends who talked about it or just seeing it in the media, all of those things caused everyone some sort of trauma," he said.

"We had gotten ourselves into a very safe bubble." But now, he said, some people "are having anxiety."

But vacationers like KerryAnn McGregor said the renewed freedom is welcome.

"It's a whole year of staying indoors, and now you come outside everybody is out riding their bikes, jogging, exercising, partying," said McGregor, who was visiting Miami Beach this weekend. "It's OK now."

The World Health Organization announced it has assigned new "labels" to key coronavirus variants so that the public can refer to them by letters of the Greek alphabet instead of where the variant was first detected – for instance, the "UK variant" (B.1.1.7) is now "Alpha," and the "South African variant" (B.1.351) is now "Beta."

"No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for Covid-19 response, tweeted Monday.

The P.1 variant, first detected in Brazil and designated a variant of concern in January, has been labeled "Gamma." The B.1.617.2 variant, first found in India and recently reclassified from a variant of interest to variant of concern, is "Delta." Variants of interest have been given labels from "Epsilon" to "Kappa."

WHO noted in Monday's announcement that the new labels do not replace existing scientific names for variants. Scientific names will "continue to be used in research," Van Kerkhove tweeted.

"While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting. As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory," according to WHO's announcement. "To avoid this and to simplify public communications, WHO encourages national authorities, media outlets and others to adopt these new labels."

New York’s statewide Covid-19 positivity rate continues to hit new record lows, marking .67%, according to a release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office Monday.

More than 19 million doses of the vaccine have so far been administered in the state, his office said.

Nearly 50,000 doses were administered in the last 24 hours over the holiday weekend, the release said.

There is still a lot of work to be done to end the Covid-19 pandemic, and any country that thinks the danger has passed would be making an error, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the closing of the 74th World Health Assembly on Monday.

“The reality is, we still have a lot of work to do to end this pandemic,” Tedros said. “We’re very encouraged that cases and deaths are continuing to decline globally, but it would be a monumental error for any country to think the danger has passed.” 

The way out of the pandemic, he said, is tailored and consistent use of public health measures, alongside equitable vaccination. 

Tedros urged member states to commit to supporting targets of achieving at least 10% of the population of all countries vaccinated by the end of September, and at least 30% by the end of the year.

“One day – hopefully soon – the pandemic will be behind us, but the psychological scars will remain for those who have lost loved ones, health workers who have been stretched beyond breaking point. and the millions of people of all ages confronted with months of loneliness and isolation,” he added.

A scientific adviser to the UK government has called for plans to lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on June 21 to be reconsidered, warning that the UK could be seeing the early signs of a third wave of the pandemic. 

“There has been exponential growth in the number of new cases and at least three-quarters of them are the new variant,” Ravi Gupta, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Cambridge, told BBC Radio 4 Monday. 

“What we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave that will probably take longer than previous waves to emerge because we do have quite high levels of vaccination in the population,” he added. 

Gupta, who is a member of the UK government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), said that while cases are still “relatively low at the moment,” they could soon rise to “explosive” levels, with a high number of infections likely to be asymptomatic. 

“Children and young adults are the individuals who are not vaccinated and many of them may not even be tested, so we may actually be missing the true number of infections to a greater extent than we would in older adults,” Gupta said. 

“If you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, I think it is heavily in favor of delay, so I think that's the key thing,” he added. 

The UK has recorded more than 3,000 daily cases for five consecutive days according to the UK government coronavirus dashboard.

The European Commission has proposed an update to earlier recommendation of free movement restrictions within the European Union, calling on member states to consider a gradual lifting of coronavirus travel restrictions within the bloc as the epidemiological situation improves. 

“We are proposing that Member States coordinate this gradual lifting of free movement restrictions, taking into account our new common tool: the EU Digital COVID Certificate,” Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, said Monday. “We now expect Member States to make best use of this instrument and the recommendation to allow everyone to move freely and safely again,” Reynders added.

The EU Digital Covid Certificate aims to restore free movement within the bloc by exempting fully vaccinated holders from travel-related testing or quarantine.  

In a statement, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides stressed that any update to travel restrictions and requirements must be carried out in a “coordinated and predictable” way. 

“Freedom of movement is one of EU citizens' most cherished rights: we need coordinated and predictable approaches for our citizens that would offer clarity and avoid inconsistent requirements across Member States,” Kyriakides said. 

“As vaccination is progressing with increasing speed, we can be confident that safe free movement without restrictions can gradually resume again,” she added, noting however that leaders must “remain cautious” and “always put the protection of public health first.”

The Memorial Day beach gatherings this year are not as worrisome to health experts as they were last year.

Fully vaccinated and generally healthy people "should feel very well protected," Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst, said.

The high number of vaccinations has meant a decrease in cases in protected people. But for those who have not been inoculated, the risk of large gatherings remains high because "the virus has fewer places to go," Wen said.

"We do have more transmissible variants, and unfortunately those individuals who don't have immunity are not protected from these variants that can wreak a lot of havoc," Wen explained.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber expressed concern over the influx of tourists this Memorial Day weekend.

Gelber said one of the problems is that "we're one of the few places open, but we're also a very attractive destination. So simply, too many people are coming."

"The virus is still here," he reminded everyone when speaking Friday with CNN. "The volume of people that have been coming here is very unprecedented, and some who are coming are looking to sort of act out."

The mayor said there will be "an enormous saturation of police officers" on patrol over the long weekend.