The latest on the Covid-19 pandemic as Olympics approach

Dr. Jose Romero, chair of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, told CNN that one of his major fears for his home state Arkansas is that there will be widespread of coronavirus in school settings. 

“We’re seeing outbreaks in sites that we didn’t see last year, so we’re seeing closures in daycares, we’re seeing closures in summer camps, and all that leads me to believe that in a setting where you don’t have strict mitigation, that it will spread very, very quickly, like our schools,” said Romero, who is also Arkansas Secretary of Health. 

“The reason I’m saying this is that, because we know now from experience, from watching it over the last five or six weeks, that this virus is highly transmissible," he added.

Doctors in the state are publicly pleading on social media for people to get vaccinated as hospitals yet again become full. 

Romero said Arkansas hospitals are now seeing young, healthy and unvaccinated people sicker than they’ve ever seen.

He said that he believes the reason that they are not being vaccinated is multifactorial. First, they don’t see it as a serious illness that can affect them because they’re young and healthy, and second is the misinformation “that is being propagated through social media at this time.” 

Some background: Arkansas is one of at least nine states that have banned districts from requiring masks in schools, according to a CNN analysis and is the state with the third lowest rate of vaccination of its population.

According to the most recent data, just over 35% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated – nationally, nearly 49% of the total US population has been fully vaccinated. The state currently has the highest number of new cases per capita in the country, with the latest daily average being 38 cases per 100,000 people each day. 

Johnson & Johnson projects $2.5 billion in annual global sales of its Covid-19 vaccine for 2021 alone, as it continues to expand its manufacturing capabilities for the vaccine at 10 sites that will handle various stages of production, according to Joe Wolk, J&J’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. He spoke Wednesday on the Johnson & Johnson second quarter 2021 earnings conference call.

Since its authorization J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine has been plagued by manufacturing problems and delays, largely due to contamination issues at Emergent BioSolutions, the contracted plant that makes the drug substance that goes into its vaccine.

“We continue to work with health authorities on the approval of additional drug substance manufactured at Emergent,” Wolk said. He added that the US Food and Drug Administration has so far authorized the release of five batches of drug substance made at the Emergent facility in Bayview.

Wolk added that it is not clear what 2022 will look like for the Covid-19 vaccine.

“It is simply too early to provide specific information on a 2022 outlook for our COVID-19 vaccine given the uncertainty on the need for boosters and new variants,” Wolk said. He added that the company defers to health officials on when, or if, there was a need for a booster.

Clinical data, published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week suggests that a single dose of its vaccine protected well against the Delta variant, with protection lasting at least eight months.

Tuesday, researchers said they found some evidence that contradicts the New England Journal of Medicine and other study results and concluded that people who got the single-dose J&J vaccine might benefit from a booster dose to protect them from new variants of the virus. The study was done in the lab and does not reflect real-world effects of the vaccine and it’s published online as a preprint, meaning it was not subject to careful peer review.

Austin Public Health officials are urging people in the community to wear masks indoors and get vaccinated if they haven’t yet, warning that Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are continuing to increase in Travis County, Texas.  

Austin-Travis County has exceeded “30 new hospital admissions on the 7-day moving average,” the health department reported in a news release, meaning “moving into Stage 4 of the Austin Public Health (APH) Risk-Based Guidelines is now imminent.”

Health officials also “strongly encourage” children over the age of 2 to wear masks in order for “students to be able to safely return to in-person classes in the fall.”

“Protecting children from the virus and its variants is critically important to break the chain of transmission, prevent the spread of disease and additional mutations,” Austin Public Health said in a statement.

Starting in August, workers at New York City hospitals and health clinics will be required to either get vaccinated or take weekly Covid-19 tests, a decision New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called "fair."

De Blasio said he hopes the initiative will convince health care workers who are on the fence regarding the vaccine to get vaccinated or push others to choose the vaccine over the hassle of weekly testing. 

"I think it's time to do something different, and New York City is ready to lead the way. We're saying, get vaccinated, or get tested weekly. And that's fair," he said.

However, de Blasio said he didn't mandate the vaccine for all health care workers because the voluntary approach "did get us a substantial distance" but added that now "it's time to up the ante, say 'no longer a choice, you got to do one or the other.'"

De Blasio said he hopes to see initiatives like this one all over the country. In addition, he said he'd consider this approach for other professions, such as police officers and teachers.

However, when asked if he'd consider reissuing the mask mandate, as Los Angeles County did this past weekend, de Blasio said "a mask is a pea shooter and the vaccine is a cannon."

"The thing that will make a difference is the vaccine," said de Blasio. "The thing that stops the Delta variant, the thing that turns the tide and saves lives is the vaccine."

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Singapore reported at least 179 local and 2 imported Covid-19 cases as of noon on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said in a press release. 

According to the ministry, 130 of the new cases were linked to the Jurong Fishery port cluster.

It’s the third consecutive day of more than 150 new cases were reported in the country, according to the Ministry’s data.

About 48% of Sinagpore’s population has received two doses of coronavirus vaccines, and 71% has received one dose. 

Jordan Windle, a diver for Team USA, said that athletes inside the Olympic Village are taking Covid-19 guidelines seriously as more than 70 coronavirus cases tied to the 2020 Summer Games have been identified.

"So overall, you know, everyone is doing a great job and we're following the rules and we're going to keep it going, so hopefully have a great Olympics," he said.

Windle said the Olympics atmosphere is "definitely different" without the support of spectators and loved ones.

"It was difficult because I wanted it to be a normal Olympics. I wanted to have the atmosphere, you know, the roar of the crowd when someone hits a big dive. But also it gives off less pressure to a lot of the athletes, which makes it a little easier ... No matter what, I think this is a great experience for me and I'm going to give it my all," he said.

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For much of last year, it seemed like Indonesia had managed to keep its Covid-19 outbreak largely under control.

Now, the island nation – home to about 270 million people – has become Asia's new epicenter of the pandemic, reporting more daily cases and deaths than hard-hit India as a devastating second wave rips through the archipelago.

With tens of thousands of infections being recorded daily, experts say the country's health care system could be pushed to the brink of disaster if the spread of the virus continues unabated.

Infections started rising toward the end of May, following the Eid Al-Fitr holidays to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month – and soon grew exponentially.

According to health experts, the crisis is being fueled by the spread of the more infectious Delta variant, first identified in India.

"Every day we are seeing this Delta variant driving Indonesia closer to the edge of a Covid-19 catastrophe," Jan Gelfand, head of the Indonesian delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said in late June.

Experts have blamed the government for its slow response in not implementing strict lockdowns last year after cases were first reported in the country, and its alleged failure to invest in efficient testing and tracing systems.

As of July 20, Indonesia had recorded nearly 3 million total cases and more than 76,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. But experts fear the figures underestimate the real spread in the country due to a lack of testing.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report in July said inadequate testing continues to be a problem, with more than 50% of provinces reporting a testing rate below the recommended benchmark.

"Without appropriate testing, many provinces are unable to isolate confirmed cases on time," the report said.

Indonesia's Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told CNN in early July that authorities at first did not realize how quickly the virus had been spreading during this latest wave.

The islands of Java and Bali were placed under emergency lockdown on July 3 along with other cities across the archipelago. Domestic travel is not restricted, though it is dependent on a negative Covid-19 test.

On July 20, Indonesia extended Covid-19 restrictions to July 25.

Usually busy streets in downtown Jakarta on July 15, 2021, as the highly infectious Delta variant rips across Indonesia

The second wave has affected every age group, according to experts. However, the number of children dying from the virus in Indonesia has quadrupled in recent weeks, according to the country's pediatric society.

More than 550 children have died since the start of the pandemic – about 27% of whom died in the first few weeks of July.

Parents often mistake the symptoms for a common cold and don't get children tested, according to Aman B. Pulungan, president of the Indonesian Society of Paediatrics.

"When they realize this is Covid-19, the condition is already bad," Aman said. "When they take the children to the hospital, sometimes we do not have enough time to save the children. This is happening a lot."

Frontline workers have also been affected by the surge. In early July, more than 350 doctors and medical workers in Java caught Covid-19 despite being vaccinated with Chinese-made Sinovac. Most of the workers were asymptomatic and self-isolating at home, but dozens were hospitalized with high fevers and falling oxygen-saturation levels.

Read more about the Covid-19 crisis in Indonesia here.

CNN's Amy Sood contributed reporting.

The number of people signing up to get vaccinated in France has picked up after President Emmanuel Macron announced measures pushing French people to get vaccinated, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on TF1 on Wednesday. 

Last week marked a record in terms of appointment bookings, with around, 3.7 million French people signing up to get vaccinated, according to a tweet from medical booking site Doctolib on Monday. 

Overall, since the announcement, around 4.3 million people booked an appointment to get their first dose, according to a CNN calculation of numbers from Doctolib.

Some background: On July 12 Macron announced that all health care workers — in hospitals, nursing and retirement homes, even home-care nurses — must be fully inoculated against Covid or, quite simply, they won't be paid after September 15.

And beginning August 1, nobody will be allowed in any French bar, restaurant, shopping mall, concert hall, or any long-distance train or airplane without a "sanitary pass" attesting to full vaccination or a recent negative Covid test. Violators could face fines up to 45,000 euros ($53,000) and a year in jail.

Macron further incentivized this push toward vaccination by announcing that government reimbursement for most Covid tests are ending, making it increasingly expensive to keep current the now all but mandatory health pass.

The Biden administration is extending non-essential travel restrictions for the US northern and southern borders until August 21, according to a federal register notice set to publish Thursday. 

The US has been limiting non-essential travel along both borders since the start of the pandemic and extending those restrictions on a monthly basis. The restrictions don’t apply to cross-border trade, US citizens and lawful permanent residents, as well as people traveling for medical purposes or to attend school, among others.

But over recent weeks, the administration has come under fire for continuing to keep restrictions in place, more than a year into the pandemic, and after Canada announced it was reopening to vaccinated Americans.  

In the notices, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas notes that there have been “positive developments in recent weeks,” citing the millions of vaccines doses administered in the United States and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moving Canada and Mexico to Covid-19 Level 4 (Very High) to Level 3 (High) “in recognition of conditions that, while still requiring significant safeguards, are improving.” 

Still, DHS found that the outbreak and continued transmission and spread of Covid-19 both in the US and globally posed a risk. 

The restrictions go into effect Thursday and remain in effect until August 21, “unless amended or rescinded prior to that time.”