May 11 coronavirus news

Although the World Health Organization now classifies the B.1.617 coronavirus variant first identified in India as a "variant of concern,” it is still classified as a "variant of interest" in the United States.

Classifications of coronavirus variants in the United States may differ from the classifications made by WHO "since the importance of variants may differ by location," the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN in an email on Tuesday. 

The agency also noted that classifications could change — to escalate or deescalate — based on scientific evidence. The CDC works with the US Department of Health and Human Service' SARS-CoV-2 Interagency Group (SIG) on its classification scheme for variants.

"Since the importance of variants may differ by location, CDC, in collaboration with the SIG, is closely monitoring the emergence of the B.1.617 variant in the United States," the email said in part. "And this variant has been prioritized for characterization by the US government to better understand the potential impact on available medical countermeasures, including vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics."

CVS pharmacies will begin administering Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in people 12-15 years old after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends it, the company told CNN on Tuesday.  

The US Food and Drug Administration authorized the administration of the vaccine in 12-to-15-year-olds on Monday.

CDC’s ACIP is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to vote on whether to recommend the use of the vaccine in this age group.  

A 14-year-old teen in Decatur, Georgia, lined up to get his Covid-19 vaccine a day after the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine to be given to adolescents as young as 12.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet Wednesday to advise the CDC on whether to recommend the use of the vaccine in this age group. But states make the decision on who gives the vaccines — and when.

Laney said he was out of his school building for a year over two grade changes. 

“We do go back to school now, but we have to be really far away and can't always talk to each other, and everyone has masks on. It's very confusing,” he said. 

Watch the interview:

Germany has passed 85,000 deaths from coronavirus, according to the Robert Koch Institut, the national agency for disease control and prevention. 

In the past 24 hours, 283 deaths were added to the now overall toll of 85,112. 

An additional 6,125 Covid-19 cases were recorded Tuesday, bringing the new total to 3,533,376.

The overall seven-day incidence rate though is going down, and it now stands at 115.4.

Vaccination in the country has picked up, with 32.8% of the population vaccinated at least once and 9.4% of the population fully vaccinated, according to the German Ministry of Health. 

The Philippines has detected its first two cases of the Indian Covid variant B.1.617, the country’s Health Department said Tuesday. The cases are from two asymptomatic people without travel history to India and were workers returning from Oman and the UAE.

The two tested positive for the virus in April, the Health Department said. They are in quarantine while other passengers that shared the flight are being monitored. The passengers who shared rows with them on the flights have tested negative. 

The Health Department also said that it will test nine samples from 11 Filipino seafarers who contracted Covid-19 on the cargo ship MV Athens Bridge that had traveled to India and made a medical evacuation in Manila on May 7.

The country has been restricting entry for people with travel history to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the past 14 days. The ban is effective until May 14.

India recorded 329,942 cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total to 22,992,517, according to figures released by the Health Ministry.

This is the second day in a row that the number of new daily cases reported has been below 400,000. India had previously recorded four consecutive days of over 400,000 cases. 

The country also reported 3,876 deaths Tuesday. Since April 28, the daily number of deaths has exceeded 3,000, with the total death toll at 249,992. 

India is the second-worst affected country after the United States with 32.7 million cases and ahead of Brazil, which has the third-highest number of cases at 15.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

To date, 172,633,761 vaccine doses have been administered in India. With 37,159,467 people having received their second dose, around 2.85% of India’s 1.3 billion-strong population is fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said this week.

The European Commission will take further legal action against AstraZeneca over delayed shipments of its Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday, an EU spokesperson said in a statement on Monday. 

Stefan De Keersmaecker, European Commission spokesperson for health, food safety and transport, said: “The second lawsuit concerns the merits of the case: on the basis of the provisions of the Advance Purchase Agreement [APA], the Commission requests the Court to adjudicate whether AstraZeneca has violated the APA.” 

“Tomorrow, the introductory hearing will take place. The Court is expected to fix the deadlines for the submission of trial briefs and hearings,” he added. 

On April 26, the EU announced it was suing AstraZeneca over an alleged breach of its vaccine supply contract, a dramatic escalation of a months-long dispute over delivery delays that hampered the rollout of shots across the continent. 

The 27 nations of the European Union had ordered 300 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the British-Swedish drugmaker to be delivered by the end of June, with an option to purchase an additional 100 million. But deliveries of the vaccine repeatedly fell short, sparking a bitter public fight over the terms of the contract. 

In his statement on Monday, De Keersmaecker said that the first case was an emergency injunction while the second is a lawsuit on the merits of the case.  

Regarding that first lawsuit, he said, “Given the urgent need of vaccine doses to continue the vaccination in the Member States, the Commission asked the court to require the company to deliver a sufficient number of doses. The court will only make a preliminary assessment of the case and assess whether there is an emergency to deliver doses. The hearing in this case will take place on 26 May.” 

He said the objective of the commission is the same through both lawsuits, that is, “ensuring, through legal actions, the delivery of a sufficient number of doses for the European citizens.”