Health News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a robust annual rate of 6.4% in the first three months of this year, unchanged from the government’s initial estimate. The recovery from last year’s deep recession gained steam at the beginning of this year, helped by vaccines to combat the virus and trillions of dollars in government assistance.

The rise in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, was the same as the government’s first look one month ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Upward revisions in spending by consumers, who account for two-thirds of economic activity, were offset by weaker growth in exports.

Economist believe GDP growth could top 10% in the current April-June quarter.

“When provided with the ability to spend in a safe way, consumers have the will and the desire to do so,” said Lydia Boussour, lead U.S. economist for Oxford Economics.

Boussour said she expected GDP in the current April-June period would be around 13% and the gains this quarter will allow the economy to recoup all of the output lost during the recession. With the first quarter advance, GDP is just 0.9% below the level in the fourth quarter of 2019, before the country’s longest economic expansion ended in the first quarter of 2020.

Many economists are forecasting the economy will grow between 6% and 7% this year, which would be the strongest performance since a 7.2% surge in 1984, another year when the economy was recovering from a deep recession. But Oxford Economics is forecasting growth this year of around 7.7%. That would be the strongest annual gain sine 1951.

The 6.4% first quarter performance represented an improvement after GDP growth slowed to a 4.3% rate in the final three months of last year, a time when rising coronavirus cases and waning government support raised fears that the country could tip back into recession.

But passage of nearly $3 trillion in extra government support in December and March, as well as wide-spread introduction of vaccines, has allowed thousands of businesses to reopen and millions of people to go back to work.

Thursday’s report was the government’s second of three looks at GDP performance in the first quarter.

It showed that consumer spending grew at a sizzling annual rate of 11.3%, even better than the 10.7% estimate made a month ago. Business investment spending was also up and residential construction, which has been a standout performer over the past two years, grew at 12.7% annual rate, better than the 10.8% gain first estimated

However, those areas of stronger growth were offset by weakness in U.S. export sales, which fell at an annual rate of 2.9%, larger than the 1.1% rate of decline reported a month ago.

While exports were falling, imports were rising with the U.S. economy is emerging from the pandemic recession more quickly than many other parts of the world.

With strong demand from U.S. consumers, imports rose at a 6.7% annual rate in the first quarter. The trade deficit, the gap between imports and exports, widened in the first quarter and subtracted 1.2 percentage points from overall growth.

Business inventories were also drawn down in the first quarter as companies were not able to keep up with rising demand. The drop in inventories subtracted 2.788 percentage points from first quarter growth. However, that should translate into stronger growth in the second quarter as businesses work to restock empty store shelves.

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MADRID (AP) — Expanding the Davis Cup Finals to more venues will help attract more fans and avoid some of the late finishes that hurt the revamped event’s first edition, organizers said Thursday.

Madrid was the sole host of the inaugural edition of the restructured Davis Cup Finals in 2019. This time the Spanish capital will co-host the tournament along with the cities of Innsbruck in Austria and Turin in Italy.

The 18-nation men’s tennis competition will take place on hard courts from Nov. 25-Dec. 5. Last year’s event in Madrid was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Barcelona captain Gerard Piqué, co-founder of the Kosmos group behind the new Davis Cup Finals, said the changes will give more fans a chance to watch the matches and will help fix some of the problems that affected the first edition.

“Some of the matches ended very late, so we made the decision to go to other cities and to play in 11 days instead of seven,” Piqué said at the event’s official launch on Thursday. “The event has been evolving, maturing.”

Organizers had said after the tournament’s first edition that tweaks were needed to improve the new format of the international team event, which for 120 years had been played throughout the year and in different venues around the world. The 2019 competition brought the nations to play in a single week in Madrid.

Organizers had been considering building more courts to help fix the scheduling problems that led to very late finishes in Madrid. The Italy-United States tie was among the many that finished after midnight, ending at 4:04 a.m. local time. Other ties took nearly nine hours to conclude and went well into the later sessions, prompting complaints from players, coaches and fans.

The location of the event in Madrid was changed from the “Caja Mágica” tennis complex to the Madrid Arena, which for now is expected to be at 50% capacity because of the pandemic.

“We will see when we can sell more tickets,” Piqué said. “I’m optimistic that we will be able to play with nearly full capacity.”

The venue in Innsbruck will be the Olympia-Halle and Turin will stage matches at the Alpitour Arena. Each city will host two of the six groups in the team event. Madrid will stage two groups as well as two quarterfinal series, the semifinals and the final. Innsbruck and Turin will get one quarterfinal each.

Each city will host the country’s national team at the group stage.

The revamped Davis Cup is the result of a 25-year partnership between the International Tennis Federation and Kosmos to make the traditional team competition more attractive and lucrative.

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More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni

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LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected claims by his former chief aide that he botched Britain’s coronavirus response and is unfit for office.

Johnson denies an allegation by Dominic Cummings that his government oversaw tens of thousands of needless deaths. The prime minister says, “at every stage, we’ve been governed by a determination to protect life, to save life.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock also hit back after Cummings singled him out for criticism in an excoriating attack on the government. Cummings accused Hancock of lying to the public, saying he “should have been fired.”

The U.K. has recorded almost 128,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe.

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MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— AMA Journal: 2 China vaccines appear safe and effective

— Britain’s Johnson defends virus record after ex-aide’s attack

— Ohio announces $1 million Vax-a-Million lottery winner

— Can employers make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory?

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Follow more of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

MOSCOW — UNICEF says it has signed a conditional supply agreement to procure up to 220 million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine by later this year.

The deal is contingent on the vaccine being approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization and on vaccines alliance Gavi signing a purchase agreement to buy vaccines on behalf of the U.N.-backed initiative known as COVAX.

Sputnik V is currently being assessed by the U.N. health agency for safety and efficacy. Research published in the journal Lancet this year suggested the vaccine is about 91% effective. The shot is currently used in numerous countries.

In a statement on Thursday, UNICEF says it is “ready to deliver as soon as regulatory milestones have been met.” The announcement could help bolster stocks for the COVAX effort, which aims to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.

The vast majority of COVAX’s supplies are from the Serum Institute of India, which is keeping most of its vaccines to deal with a coronavirus surge of cases and deaths.

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STOCKHOLM — Sweden, with coronavirus cases declining, is easing some restrictions.

Longer opening hours at restaurant and bars will start June 1, along with changes to the maximum number of people who can gather indoors and outdoors.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven says, “Let’s continue to do this together, until the day when this is over.”

The Scandinavian country didn’t go into lockdowns or closed businesses, relying instead on citizens’ sense of civic duty to control infections. Sweden has registered more than a 1 million cases and 14,451 confirmed deaths.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Two vaccines made by China’s Sinopharm appear to be safe and effective against COVID-19, according to a study published in a medical journal.

The report, published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded the two vaccines are about 73% and 78% effective, as Sinopharm has previously claimed.

Scientists have been waiting for more details about the two vaccines, even though they already are used in many countries and one recently won the backing of the World Health Organization.

Researchers from Sinopharm and its local partners in the Middle East say the trial involved 40,380 participants with the company’s two vaccines — one developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products — and a placebo. The trial was carried out in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. However, the study provided data for just Bahrain and the UAE.

Health experts say there’s not enough data in the study to show whether the vaccines provide protection against severe disease. The study also involved many more men than women, which means there is not enough data to determine if there are safety concerns that impact women.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Gov. Tim Walz hopes new giveaways will pick up the pace of coronavirus vaccinations in Minnesota, which has slowed recently.

Walz is expected to announce a list of incentives Thursday, including tickets to the Minnesota State Fair, fishing licenses and state park passes. According to Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann, 100,000 people who are vaccinated between Memorial Day weekend and the end of June will be eligible for the items.

The goal is to have 70 percent of Minnesotans 16 and older vaccinated by July 1, a target President Joe Biden has set for the country. About 64 percent have received at least one shot of a COVID vaccine.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb wants all state employees to return to the office by early July.

The transition from a March 2020 stay-at-home order starts with senior staff who must return by June 7. Other employees should spend at least 50% of their time at the office by June 21 and return full-time by July 6, the Indianapolis Star reported.

The state will offer a vaccination clinic at the Indiana Government Center in Indianapolis on June 21-22. More than 2.4 million Indiana residents are fully vaccinated.

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WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health is betting a chance to win a trip to the Super Bowl, a Bermuda vacation or cash prizes will bring in more customers for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The drugstore chain officials say they’ll launch a sweepstakes on June 1 with weekly drawings and more than 1,000 potential prizes for customers who get shots through CVS or register for them. Other prizes include cash giveaways, Target gift cards, trips to Miami and stays in Wyndham hotels.

Customers ages 18 and older can enter the sweepstakes, which will run until July 10.

The CVS Health announcement comes as the pace of vaccinations begins to lag nationally, and several states have created lottery prizes to entice residents to get shots.

President Joe Biden has set a goal of delivering at least one dose of vaccine to 70% of adult Americans by July 4 and fully vaccinating at least 160 million by then.

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia has procured more vaccines and aims to accelerate inoculations starting next month as the government struggles to contain a worsening coronavirus crisis.

The science minister says the government has bought an additional 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, bringing the total to 44.8 million doses, enough to cover 70% of Malaysia’s population.

More than 11 million people, or about a third of the population, have registered for vaccinations but only 1.7 million have received at least one dose.

The health ministry on Thursday reported 7,857 new infections, a record that pushed the country’s total confirmed cases above 541,000. It was the third straight day in which new cases soared above 7,000. Total deaths have spiked to nearly 2,500.

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MADISON, Wis. — The number of COVID-19 deaths has now surpassed 7,000 in Wisconsin, but data shows the number of coronavirus cases declining and more people being vaccinated.

The state Department of Health on Wednesday reported five new deaths and 330 new cases of the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of 7,003 people in Wisconsin.

The average number of cases in the past seven days is 307, down from 394 daily cases a week ago.

A total of 5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Wisconsin, with nearly 79% of residents age 65 and older having been fully vaccinated.

About 16% of the state’s 12- to 15-year-olds received their first doses of vaccine, according to health officials. That age group became eligible May 13.

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LONDON — The British government says a fast-spreading new coronavirus variant could delay its plans to lift remaining social restrictions next month.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says “we may need to wait” beyond the planned date of June 21. Health Secretary Matt Hancock says it’s “too early now to say” whether the step could take place.

Hancock says a variant of the virus first identified in India was spreading throughout the U.K. Scientists say the new strain is more transmissible than Britain’s previously dominant variant. They say existing vaccines appear to be largely effective against it.

The government has been lifting restrictions in stages, with indoor eating, drinking and entertainment venues reopening last week. Social distancing and mask-wearing rules are still in place.

Johnson says lifting the remaining measures would depend on how much the new variant drives an increase in cases and how quickly the population is vaccinated.

Almost three-quarters of British adults have had one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 45% have had both doses.

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea is allowing younger adults who aren’t yet eligible to get coronavirus vaccines to use smartphone apps to sign up for spare doses as officials try to speed up vaccination.

Health officials didn’t immediately say how many people applied for leftover vaccines after the services went live on Thursday. But a flood of requests temporarily forced mobile chat service Kakao to reboot its servers, said Kim Ki-nam, an official from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

Anyone 30 years or older could also use the mobile services of Naver, the country’s biggest website, to register on standby lists.

South Korea has so far administered first doses to just over 4 million people, which is less than 8% of its population. Priority groups have included medical workers, people in long-term care settings, and adults 75 and older.

Officials are hoping that the pace of vaccination will pick up in the coming weeks as they start to inoculate people in their mid-60s and early 70s.

South Korea reported 629 new cases of the virus on Thursday, bringing its caseload to 138,311 and 1,943 confirmed deaths.

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BEIJING — China is accusing the Biden administration of playing politics and shirking its responsibility in calling for a renewed investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that was first detected in China in late 2019.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Thursday that President Joe Biden’s order shows that the U.S. “does not care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing.”

Biden told U.S. intelligence officials to redouble their efforts to investigate the origins of the pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory.

After months of minimizing that possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden administration is joining worldwide pressure on China to be more open about the outbreak, aiming to head off Republican complaints the president has not been tough enough to press China on alleged obstruction.

Zhao said the U.S. must open itself up to investigations into its biological laboratories, including at the Naval Medical Research Center’s Biological Defense Research Directorate at Fort Detrick in the state of Maryland.

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PARIS — Production of another potential vaccine against COVID-19 will begin within weeks, its developers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday as they launched a large Phase III trial enrolling 35,000 adult volunteers in the United States, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The study will test the effectiveness of vaccine candidate formulas against the virus that spread from Wuhan, China, and against a variant first seen in South Africa, the pharmaceutical firms said.

If the trial is successful, regulators could approve the vaccine for use in the last three months of the year, the companies said in a statement.

“Manufacturing will begin in the coming weeks to enable rapid access to the vaccine should it be approved,” they added.

Their statement also quoted Thomas Triomphe, who leads vaccine research and development at Sanofi Pasteur, as saying:

“We are encouraged to see first vaccinations starting to take place in such an important, pivotal Phase 3 study.”

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DHAKA, Bangladesh — The government in Bangladesh has approved a proposal to procure 15 million doses of Chinese vaccines after India banned exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

A Cabinet committee approved the $150 million plan on Thursday, Cabinet Division spokesperson Shahida Akhter said. Under the plan, each dose of China’s Sinopharm vaccine would cost $10 and the shipments would arrive in Bangladesh in three phases, starting in June.

Bangladesh had run its COVID-19 immunization campaign with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine supplied by the Serum Institute of India, which it had bought at $5 per dose. India suspended vaccine exports last month amid a crisis in domestic cases last month.

Bangladesh received only 7 million doses under a purchase deal with the Serum Institute. Another 3 million doses were donated by Indian government.

Desperate to obtain more doses, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed deals with Russia for the Sputnik V vaccine and with China for Sinopharm. China previously donated 500,000 doses to Bangladesh after the government stopped giving first doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to facilitate the administration of second vaccine doses.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus will scrap an overnight curfew and allow all government workers to return to their offices on June 10 following a steady decrease in the number of COVID-19 infections over the last few weeks.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said Thursday that authorities are pleased with the infection rate’s downward trend but cautioned against people letting their guard down by not sticking to social distancing and mask-wearing.

He said on June 1, all restrictions on indoor seating in bars and restaurants will be lifted, while indoor spaces where people gather in large numbers, including places of worship, theaters, cinemas and casinos, will be permitted to operate at 50% capacity.

He says nightclubs will re-open on June 10 after a pandemic-induced hiatus of more than a year – a key step forward for the tourism-reliant country.

The health minister said infection rates have improved largely because of the government’s stepped-up vaccination program. A little over half of the population of 900,000 has so far received at least one vaccine shot, while one-fourth has received two shots.

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MELBOURNE, Australia — The city that was once Australia’s worst COVID-19 hot spot on Thursday announced a seven-day lockdown, its fourth since the pandemic began.

The lockdown for Melbourne and the rest of Victoria state comes after a new cluster in the city rose to 26 infections, including a person who was in intensive care.

Victoria Acting Premier James Merlino said: “Unless something changes, this will be increasingly uncontrollable.”

The new Melbourne cluster was found after a traveler from India became infected with a more contagious variant of the virus while in hotel quarantine in South Australia state earlier this month. The traveler was not diagnosed until he returned home to Melbourne.

Australia’s second largest city last year underwent a second wave of infections that peaked at 725 new cases in a single August day at a time when community spread had been virtually eliminated elsewhere in the country.

That lockdown lasted for 111 days. A third lockdown that lasted for five days in February was triggered by a cluster of 13 cases linked to hotel quarantine near Melbourne Airport.

Victoria accounts for 820 of Australia’s 910 coronavirus deaths during the pandemic.

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HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities for the second year have banned the June 4 candlelight vigil commemorating the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, organizers said Thursday.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organizes the candlelight vigil annually, said in a statement that the police had objected to the event because of social distancing restrictions, which prohibit large gatherings.

For years, Hong Kong and Macao were the only cities in China where people were allowed to mark the 1989 anniversary of Beijing’s crushing of the Chinese democracy movement.

The ban on the vigil comes as Beijing has tightened control over the semi-autonomous Chinese city, after months of anti-government protests in 2019.

Beijing and local authorities have cracked down on dissenting voices, conducted mass arrests of pro-democracy activists and imposed a sweeping national security law to penalize crimes such as secession and subversion.

Hong Kong’s security minister, John Lee, warned residents not to organize or take part in unauthorized assemblies on June 4 because they could be violating the national security law.

On Thursday, the legislature passed a bill amending electoral laws that drastically reduces the public’s ability to vote, while increasing the number of pro-Beijing lawmakers making decisions for the city.

Last year, the June 4 vigil was banned for the first time, with police citing public health risks from the coronavirus pandemic. Still, thousands turned up at Victoria Park — where the vigil is held each year — singing songs and lighting candles. No arrests were made at the time.

More than 20 people, including activist Joshua Wong, media tycoon Jimmy Lai and Lee Cheuk-yan, a leader of the alliance, were arrested later and charged with taking part in an unauthorized assembly. Wong and three district councilors were sentenced on May 6 to between four and 10 months in jail after pleading guilty.

Organizers this year have urged people to light a candle no matter where they are on June 4.

Separately, security minister Lee on Thursday also confirmed that he had sent letters to companies that managed assets for Lai, the founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, warning them against dealing with Lai’s property.

Lai is currently in prison for taking part in unauthorized assemblies and is also being investigated under the national security law for alleged collusion with foreign powers to intervene in the city’s affairs.

“As regards my written notice to companies and institutions regarding property which are offenses-related property under the National Security Law, I am exercising the power, because Lai has been charged with two offenses of collusion with other countries, or external forces to endanger national security,” he said.

“It is my duty to specify in my notice to the relevant parties what will be the consequences if they fail to comply with my direction.”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry are continuing their mental health series with a virtual town hall featuring Lady Gaga, Glenn Close and others.

Apple TV+ announced Wednesday that it will release on Friday “The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward.” The free town hall arrives a week after the mental health series co-created by Winfrey and the Duke of Sussex, “The Me You Can’t See,” was released on the streaming platform.

The series features a mix of stories of celebrities and everyday people and their mental health struggles and breakthroughs. In one episode, Gaga revealed the trauma of a rape she said left her pregnant at age 19.

Harry discussed his own anxiety, therapy and coping techniques for the series, which debuted last week. The duke and his wife Meghan are living in California while they await the birth of their second child.

Harry told The Associated Press he felt compelled to discuss his struggles in the hopes it will help other people. “I see it as a responsibility. I don’t find it hard to open up,” he told the AP last week. “Knowing the impacts and the positive reaction that it has for so many people that also suffer, I do believe it’s a responsibility.”

Other notable participants include NBA players DeMar DeRozan and Langston Galloway, boxer Virginia “Ginny” Fuchs, and celebrity chef Rashad Armstead.

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