Coronavirus Updates

Pfizer and its partner, Germany's BioNTech, announced Thursday that they have agreed to donate vaccines to competitors and staff at the Tokyo Games, set to be held this summer despite ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the pharmaceutical companies said that they had signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Olympic Committee outlining the delivery of initial vaccine doses "expected to begin at the end of May where possible with the aim to ensure participating delegations receive second doses ahead of arrivals in Tokyo."

In its own statement, the IOC said it would work with national Olympic committees to distribute the vaccines, but said many national governments were already vaccinating participants.

"It is expected that a significant proportion of Games participants will have been vaccinated before arriving in Japan," the IOC said.

The announcement comes amid persistent concerns about proceeding with the Summer Olympics and Paralympics — already delayed a year due to the coronavirus. On Wednesday, officials in Tokyo, where the games are to be held, asked the central government to extend a coronavirus state of emergency there until May 31. A decision on Tokyo and three other prefectures — Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto — is expected as early as Friday.

Japan had hoped that imposing what had been advertised as a "short and powerful" emergency would tamp down a fourth wave of infections in time for the games, which are set to begin July 23.

Instead, a surge in new cases apparently driven by a highly infectious N501Y coronavirus variant has added to skepticism about holding the games. Osaka, Japan's third most populous city, has been especially hard hit, with hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients in recent days, according to Japan Times.

Just a week ago, on April 29, Japan recorded 7,914 new cases — its largest number of daily infections since the start of the pandemic.

Last month, organizers of the games said that competitors would be tested daily for coronavirus infection.

After weeks of hand-wringing as the scope and severity of the pandemic became increasingly clear, Japanese Olympics officials last year decided to postpone the 2020 Games until July 2021.

But now, a year later, many in Japan see the decision to go ahead as ill-advised. A poll taken by Japan's NHK broadcaster in January showed that roughly 80% of those surveyed thought the games should be canceled or postponed.

As a sign of that concern, the world's oldest woman according to Guinness World Records, 118-year-old Kane Tanaka, who had been scheduled to participate in the torch relay for the games – suddenly backed out.

Tanaka was going to take part in a wheelchair pushed by relatives in the May 11 leg of the torch relay in Shime, Fukuoka Prefecture.

But her relatives deemed it too risky due to the continuing spread of the coronavirus. They also did not want to subject Tanaka to the subsequent two week quarantine in the elderly care facility where she lives, Mainichi newspaper reported.

"It's unfortunate, because I wanted people to feel hope in the sight of her cheerfully carrying the torch," Tanaka's great-granddaughter, 24-year-old Junko Tanaka, said.

Less than three weeks after launching a quarantine-free "travel bubble" between New Zealand and Australia, officials in Wellington, New Zealand's capital, announced Thursday that flights from Sydney would be temporarily suspended after new coronavirus cases were detected there.

New Zealand's COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that flights from the Australian state of New South Wales would be suspended for 48 hours from 11:59 p.m. Sydney time (9:59 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

Hipkins said health officials needed more time to evaluate the situation in Australia "and obviously we'll make decisions where we need to."

"We do acknowledge this has the potential to disrupt people's travel," he said, adding that the pause would be extended if necessary. "This isn't a decision we take lightly."

He said travel from New Zealand to Australia would still be allowed.

The news comes exactly a month after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced plans to create what she has described as a "Trans-Tasman bubble" to allow quarantine-free travel between the two countries. It was officially launched on April 19.

New Zealand and Australia have done better than most developed countries in controlling the spread of COVID-19 – closing their borders early in the pandemic and taking other measures to prevent the disease from gaining a foothold in their populations.

Although Australia imposed a prolonged lockdown in Melbourne, it has been largely successful at keeping COVID-19 at bay. New Zealand, a country of 5 million people, has also faced occasional, small outbreaks.

An overseas traveler from the U.S. who was quarantined at a hotel in central Sydney last month was found to be infected with the B.1.617 coronavirus variant. Subsequently, an Australian couple with no known links to the man or the hotel also tested positive for the virus, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Hipkins on Thursday said there didn't appear to be any "obvious link" between the Australian cases. He characterized the pause in the travel bubble as precautionary and noted that the ability to turn on and turn off quarantine-free travel between the two countries had been built into the system when it was launched last month.

President Biden threw his support behind a World Trade Organization proposal on Wednesday to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, clearing a hurdle for vaccine-strapped countries to manufacture their own vaccines even though the patents are privately held.

"This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures," U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. "The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines."

The pace of vaccinating against COVID-19 in the U.S. is slowing down. In some places, there are more vaccine doses than people who want them.

Meanwhile, India is now the epicenter of the pandemic, and just 2% of its population is fully vaccinated.

The WTO is considering a proposal to address that inequity, as India, South Africa and over 100 other nations advocate to waive IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines and medications, which could let manufacturers in other countries make their own.

The consequences of not passing the waiver are "staggering," Mustaqeem de Gama, South Africa's World Trade Organization counselor, told NPR — "not only on the level of the loss of human lives but also on the economic level."

"We believe that intellectual property rights constitute a very substantial barrier to ensure equitable access," he said. "We believe that if we could have a limited, targeted waiver to ensure that we can ramp up production in various parts of the world, we would go a long way to ensure that we address not only the prevention but also the treatment of COVID-19."

Previous to Wednesday's announcement, the U.S. was among several other wealthy nations — including the U.K., Canada and Japan — that resisted WTO negotiations about the proposal.

In response to the administration's support, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug industry trade group, expressed strong opposition and argued that the move represents a break in long-standing U.S. policy over medical patents amid global inequities.

"In the midst of a deadly pandemic, the Biden Administration has taken an unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and compromise safety," a statement from PhRMA reads. "This decision will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines."

The trade group added that the decision will compromise U.S. job creation and the country's place as a leader in biomedical innovation.

The battle mirrors the one during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1990s, when drug companies warred with global health officials who sought to produce generic treatments. Drugmakers eventually retreated after former South African President Nelson Mandela accused the companies of using patents to profit from his country's health crisis.

The HIV crisis gave way to a precedent in relaxing patent restrictions: In 2001, the WTO added the Doha Declaration to its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to allow low-income nations to import and develop generic versions of patented medicines.

The head of the World Health Organization praised the Biden administration's intent to lift the proprietary limits on COVID-19 vaccines.

"This is a monumental moment in the fight against #COVID19," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. "The commitment by @POTUS Joe Biden & @USTradeRep @AmbassadorTai to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of leadership to address global health challenges."

The coronavirus pandemic has reached the top of the world, where it has reportedly disrupted the annual climb up Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks just as the window for summiting the mountains opens up.

In recent days, reports have emerged of an outbreak at Everest Base Camp in Nepal, at 17,597 feet (5,364 meters), where hundreds of climbers assemble each year to adjust to the oxygen-starved altitude as they prepare to ascend the 29,032-foot (8,849-meter) peak.

The BBC and The Guardian have reported recently what climbers have anecdotally been seeing, and posting to social media — rising numbers of positive coronavirus tests and climbers with COVID-19 symptoms.

According to the BBC, base camp officials say there have been 17 confirmed cases after tests at hospitals in the capital, Kathmandu, where climbers with symptoms were sent for treatment. It said that staff at a private hospital in Kathmandu had confirmed that climbers tested positive after arriving from Mount Everest.

Last month, Polish climber Pawel Michalski posted to Facebook that "more than 30 people have already been evacuated [by air] to Kathmandu, with suspicion of pulmonary edema - later found to be positive for coronavirus."

Prem Subedi, the undersecretary at Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, told the BBC, "None of the COVID cases at Everest Base Camp have been reported so far to the Ministry."

May usually presents 10 to 15 days of good weather for reaching the summit of Mount Everest and the country's other peaks.

The apparent infections at Everest Base Camp come as Nepal, like neighboring India, has been battling a new surge in coronavirus cases and deaths. On Wednesday, Nepal's health ministry recorded 58 new COVID-19 deaths, with a new daily record of 8,605 coronavirus infections, according to The Kathmandu Post. While those numbers pale in comparison with India's more than 382,000 cases on Wednesday, Nepal's population of 29 million is a tiny fraction of its neighbor to the south.

Last month, Nepal's Department of Tourism reported that despite the pandemic, it expected the number of climbing permits this year nearly to equal the record 381 issued in 2019.

Nepal's Himalayan Times on Wednesday reported a similar outbreak at Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-tallest peak, with more than 10 climbers — both foreigners and Sherpas — evacuated by air from the mountain's base camp to Kathmandu after preliminary reports of COVID-19 infection.

It said that five climbers, including one foreigner, were similarly airlifted out of the base camp on Tuesday.

MUMBAI, India — India's top diplomat and his entourage have been forced to self-isolate, participating in a G-7 foreign ministers meeting only virtually — from hotel rooms near the venue in London — after at least two members of the Indian delegation tested positive for the coronavirus.

India is currently battling the world's biggest COVID-19 wave, and is thus on the United Kingdom's Red List, meaning travel from India into the U.K. is restricted. The rules stipulate that while regular Indians are barred from entering the U.K., diplomats may do so, but are required to self-isolate.

It appears that India's minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, was granted an exception to that rule, because he has held several in-person meetings, including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, since arriving in London on Monday.

British media reported that two members of Jaishankar's delegation had since tested positive.

In a tweet, Jaishankar said he had been made aware of the exposure Tuesday evening. "As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode," he wrote. "That will be the case with the G7 Meeting today as well."

"We deeply regret that Foreign Minister Jaishankar will be unable to attend the meeting today in person but will now attend virtually, but this is exactly why we have put in place strict COVID protocols and daily testing," a senior British diplomat was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Jaishankar's meeting Monday with Blinken was their first in-person meeting since the Biden administration assumed office. U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel also met Tuesday with Jaishankar, tweeting a photo of them wearing masks.

The news of Jaishankar's trip to London, as well as the positive coronavirus tests among his staff, sparked criticism back home in India. Some Indians questioned the wisdom of his travel at an all-hands-on-deck moment in the pandemic.

The country has confirmed more than 300,000 coronavirus cases daily for the past two weeks, and its health care system is collapsing. On Wednesday, India confirmed more than 382,000 new cases and 3,780 deaths — its highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began.

"Man travelled to London just to hold virtual meeting with G-7 leaders. Why wasted so much money and time?" one Indian wrote on Twitter. "You should have stayed in India and held meeting virtually."

In a report issued last week, the World Health Organization said India now accounts for nearly half of all new global cases. Crematoriums in the country have been overwhelmed, and scientists say the real number of deaths may be much higher than the officially reported numbers. Meanwhile, coronavirus testing has fallen sharply in India, so it's not clear whether the surge has peaked.

In late April, the United Kingdom imposed travel restrictions on anyone arriving there after having transited India in the previous 10 days. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month called off a planned visit to India "in view of the prevailing COVID situation." The U.S. has imposed similar restrictions.

Although India itself is not a member of the G-7 – which includes Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — it was among the countries invited to attend the first such meeting of the group's foreign ministers in more than two years. Australia, South Korea and South Africa were also invited to the gathering, which sets the stage for the G-7 leaders summit in Cornwall, England, next month.

Jaishankar and his delegation arrived in London on Monday for a four-day visit at the invitation of British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

The Indian delegation had been expected to attend a face-to-face bilateral meeting with Raab in Kent on Thursday, but that is now expected to be held virtually, India's Economic Times reports.

NPR's Scott Neuman reported from Washington.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old, a decision that could come by some time early next week. The vaccine is currently authorized only for people age 16 and older.

A ruling should come "shortly," Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla told investors in a conference call Tuesday morning.

The company announced in late March that it would ask the FDA to expand its emergency use authorization to allow younger people to receive the vaccine, citing clinical trials that showed the vaccine elicits "100% efficacy and robust antibody responses" in adolescents from 12 to 15 years old.

News of the pending authorization comes as children now represent a rising proportion of new coronavirus cases in the U.S., where more than 100 million adults have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Pfizer is conducting pediatric studies to determine the safety and benefits of administering its vaccine to young children. The company plans to submit two new emergency use authorization requests in September, with one request covering children from 2 to 5 years old and a second applying to ages 5 to 11. A separate batch of results and a possible request, for children who are from 6 months to 2 years old, are expected in the fourth quarter.

"We also expect to have Phase 2 safety data from our ongoing study in pregnant women by late July/early August," Bourla said, according to his prepared remarks.

Looking further into the future, Bourla said he anticipates "durable demand" for the COVID-19 vaccine, similar to that for flu vaccines. And he said that later this month, Pfizer will ask the FDA to give full approval — not just emergency authorization — for administering its vaccine to people ages 16 and up. The company is also studying how a third booster shot could help protect people who have already undergone the two-dose regimen.

Pfizer and BioNTech, its partner in developing the vaccine, expect to be able to produce at least 3 billion doses in 2022, the Pfizer chief said.

The COVID-19 vaccine has already brought billions of dollars to Pfizer; Bourla said that in the first quarter of 2021 alone, the vaccine added $3.5 billion in global revenue. For the year overall, he said, Pfizer expects to bring in around $26 billion based on the vaccine.

The company and BioNTech have shipped some 430 million doses to 91 countries and territories, Bourla said.

India has now reported more than 20 million coronavirus infections, including nearly 3.5 million people who are actively being treated for COVID-19. The country's health system is in a state of collapse as hospitals and clinics face dire shortages of beds and lifesaving supplies.

In just the past week, India has seen its COVID-19 cases jump by 2,646,526 — a figure that, if it stood alone, would currently make India the 14th worst-hit nation in the world, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On April 27, the government reported 17,636,307 total cases; by Tuesday, the number had risen to 20,282,833.

As alarming as the recent figures are, experts say they are almost certainly an undercount — possibly by a whole lot.

"At this pace of infection, India is probably only detecting 3 or 4% of its cases," says Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. "So we're talking about every day, maybe 5 million infections a day in India right now. That's a huge number."

Oxygen shortages are blamed for deaths at even the best-equipped urban hospitals. On Saturday, in the capital New Delhi, 12 patients died at Batra Hospital after the facility ran out of medical oxygen. A tanker delivery had arrived just 90 minutes late.

Meanwhile, at Ballia district hospital, a facility in a rural area of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, a local reporter saw more than 20 patients on the floor, struggling to breathe. "Helpless cries of pain filled the air. Not a single doctor was in attendance," she reported.

On Saturday, India expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility, theoretically allowing everyone over 18 to register to get the potentially lifesaving shots. But the country has nowhere near enough vaccine doses for its adult population, and the vaccination effort has slowed across India. Clinics in several states have closed completely due to a lack of supply.

As of Tuesday, nearly 159 million vaccine doses had been administered in a country whose population is nearly 1.4 billion.

Seven Indian states have each reported more than 1 million COVID-19 cases, and others are soaring toward that mark. The most confirmed cases are in Maharashtra, which has reported nearly 4.8 million cases — roughly equal to Russia's total.

At least 222,408 people have died from COVID-19 in India, according to the country's health ministry. Only Brazil and the U.S. have higher death tolls.

The U.S. continues to have the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world with nearly 32.5 million. More than 577,000 Americans have died from the disease.

NPR's Lauren Frayer contributed reporting from Mumbai, India.

The number of children contracting COVID-19 in the U.S. is much lower than the record highs set at the start of the new year, but children now account for more than a fifth of new coronavirus cases in states that release data by age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's a statistic that may surprise many: Just one year ago, child COVID-19 cases made up only around 3% of the U.S. total.

On Monday, the AAP said children represented 22.4% of new cases reported in the past week, accounting for 71,649 out of 319,601 cases. The latest report, drawn from data collected through April 29, illustrates how children's share of coronavirus infections has grown in recent weeks.

Experts link the trend to several factors – particularly high vaccination rates among older Americans. The U.S. recently announced 100 million people were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But other dynamics are also in play, from new COVID-19 variants to the loosening of restrictions on school activities.

It's also worth noting that for the vast majority of the pandemic, the age group with the highest case rates has been 18 to 24 in the U.S., as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes.

To get a sense of what's behind the rising proportion of cases in children, we spoke to Dr. Sean O'Leary, vice chair of the AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases. O'Leary is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Medical Campus and Children's Hospital Colorado.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Does it surprise you, the kind of numbers we're seeing for children right now?

Well, yes and no. I think there are several things going on. One, of course, are the new variants that are circulating. This B.1.1.7 variant that's really becoming dominant in a lot of the country is more transmissible. I think the jury is still a bit out on if it's more severe. It's not clear if it's particularly more transmissible in kids. But at this point, it appears it's just more transmissible in everyone, including kids.

Certainly, vaccination is playing a role in terms of the changing in the demographics of who's getting infected.

In many parts of the country, depending on how states track their data — 60 and older, 65 and older, 70 and older — very high proportions of those populations in some places have been vaccinated.

We've seen a dramatic drop in the proportion of cases that are happening in those individuals, which is great news. But that, just by simple math, is going to change the proportion of cases that are happening in the other demographics.

In terms of raw numbers, the worst stretch of coronavirus infections for children was in a 13-week stretch from early November to February. The numbers fell as the U.S. exited its end-of-year wave. But since around mid-March, child coronavirus cases have not fallen at the same rate as adult cases.

We are seeing more outbreaks than we had related to school and school activities. We've seen those all along, and we're seeing a little bit more of those now proportionately than we had. And I think that's also due to a combination of factors. Again, the variants, but also more kids in the last couple of months are in in-person school than they had been in prior months.

With mitigation measures in place in school, it still appears that transmission is much lower than it is in the surrounding community. But when you have a surge in the surrounding community, it's inevitable that you're going to see it in schools.

The other thing that we've seen is more outbreaks in school-related activities, particularly sports and indoor sports in particular.

What do you make of the most recent data, showing kids accounted for about 20% of new cases in the past week?

As older portions of the population get vaccinated and we're still seeing circulation, it just stands to reason that the kids who are not eligible for vaccination yet are going to make up a larger share of that pie. I mean, the hope is that the overall pie itself gets smaller — the number of infections overall. But yeah, if it's circulating, it's going to hit the people that are most vulnerable, which are the people that haven't been vaccinated.

Now, the good news is we may, in the coming weeks, have the vaccine approved down to age 12. We don't have any official dates on that yet, but it may be soon. Pfizer submitted their data to the FDA last month. So that could be a big game changer because we've known all along that adolescents tend to be both more likely to get infected and to spread the infection relative to the younger kids. So getting that population vaccinated is also going to make a difference in these dynamics. And I think it also can make a big difference for a lot of families' summer plans.

We should note that kids still represent a really small proportion of the worst-case outcomes.

Yeah, that is true. It's a somewhat nuanced conversation though. In Michigan, they've been reporting higher rates of hospitalizations in kids than they had [been]. It's unclear to me if that simply represents intense transmission versus actually increased severity. I think that's not entirely clear yet. Here in Colorado, we have a little surge going on. In most states actually, cases are going down. We're still kind of in a plateau, maybe increasing a bit here in Colorado. We have seen a slight uptick of kids hospitalized with COVID-19 here at Children's Hospital, but it's not dramatically so, not like what we were seeing in November, December or January.

Now, the part where that conversation about severity gets a little bit more complicated is yes, it is absolutely true that it's less severe in kids than it is in adults, and particularly older adults. But it's also not true to say that it's completely benign in kids. Fortunately, pediatric death is a fairly rare event. But when you look at the top 10 causes of death, on an annual basis, this year, we've had, depending on whose numbers you use, somewhere between 300 and 600 pediatric deaths from COVID-19 so far. That's probably an undercount. And that would fit it somewhere in the top 10, somewhere between like No. 6 and No. 9 in terms of causes of death for children.

So the point I'm making, there is that yes, it's less severe, but it's still potentially a very severe disease. We've seen tens of thousands of hospitalizations already. So we do need a vaccine for children, not just to protect, not just to achieve herd immunity, but also to protect the children themselves.

What about "long COVID" – are kids showing extended months of symptoms from the disease?

In kids, we have seen it, but it doesn't seem to be as common as adults. We're taking care of a few kids now who are still having symptoms well over a month past their infections. I think, as little as we know about long COVID in adults, we know even less in kids. We really have even less of an understanding of the overall epidemiology of how common it is in kids.

The other question mark in my mind around this phenomenon is, many viruses can trigger sort of longer-term symptoms. A classic example would be mononucleosis: Some kids will have fatigue and symptoms for six to 12 months, occasionally even longer. So what's unclear to me at this point is if long-term symptoms are more frequent with COVID-19 than with some of the other viruses we've seen. But I wouldn't say that we're seeing sort of an epidemic of long COVID kids the way we have in adults.

How difficult is it to get data on children and COVID-19? I know that for its weekly reports, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association compile data from 49 states, along with New York City, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and Guam. That leaves out the rest of New York state. And Texas only reports on the lower age range for a small percentage of the state's cases.

That's correct. There have been problems with data around this pandemic all along, including this particular situation. I think as long as you're comparing apples to apples, recognizing the limitations, I think that you can interpret the data. But, yeah, it's clearly an undercount.

Standardized data about COVID-19 cases across states has been pretty hard to get. From early on, it seemed like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies did not comprehensively standardize the different data that was out there.

Yeah, I mean, that's been a frustration throughout the pandemic. It was kind of shocking to me, frankly, even though I kind of worked in this field for a long time, that the AAP was really the best source of pediatric data through much of the pandemic for the U.S. And the AAP is a big organization, but we have a fairly small research shop, and it was the AAP that was compiling this data.

I absolutely adore my colleagues from the CDC. And they have really done herculean work through this pandemic. But they had so many things they had to deal with related to the pandemic — crisis after crisis with adults – that they just didn't have the capacity at the time to be able to track the kids who were, as we know, less severely affected.

What else should people understand about children and the COVID-19 pandemic?

We've been answering these questions about children and infections for almost a year, I guess. And what we've seen all along is that what is happening in children is simply reflective of what's going on in the surrounding community. It's not really driving what's going around in the surrounding community. And I think that's still the case, actually.

You know, where there are lots of cases happening in a given state that are going to be lots of cases and kids. But it's not to say that the kids are driving those numbers. And I think that that although we have seen increases in the proportion of kids, I think that that is still true.

Traditionally, people think of children sharing viruses among each other and then giving them to adults. And this seems like that dynamic is almost the inverse.

It's a strange virus, isn't it?

The head of the European Commission said Monday that she is recommending that nonresident travelers vaccinated against COVID-19 and those from "countries with a good health situation" be allowed to travel to the European Union this summer.

However, von der Leyen cautioned in a tweet Monday that if variants of the coronavirus emerge, "we have to act fast: we propose an EU emergency brake mechanism."

Current EU restrictions allow only travelers from seven countries to enter the 27-member bloc, regardless of whether they've been vaccinated.

Last week, von der Leyen said U.S. travelers would be allowed to resume travel to EU countries but did not give a time frame. The economies of many EU nations, such as Spain and Italy, rely heavily on tourism and have been hard hit by the prolonged absence of Americans due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The recommendation is set to be discussed on Tuesday and must be approved by all EU member states to come into force, according to Reuters. Individually, countries could still decide to honor the recommendation even if some don't, the news agency said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, in a letter to President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, several groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others representing the airline and travel industries in both the U.S. and the U.K., urged the two leaders to reopen their travel markets.

A planned G-7 summit in the U.K. on June 11 — the first since the start of the pandemic — "would be an ideal opportunity for a joint announcement of the full reopening of the U.S.-UK air travel market for both U.S. and UK citizens," they suggested.

"We are confident that the right tools now exist to enable a safe and meaningful restart to transatlantic travel," the industry groups wrote, according to Bloomberg.

Among the groups that signed on to the letter are Airlines for America, the Global Business Travel Association, the Air Line Pilots Association, Virgin Atlantic, the Association of UK Airlines and the Aerospace Industries Association.

Although air passenger numbers in the U.S. remain historically low, the country has been rebounding, with the Transportation Security Administration reporting that more than 1.6 million people were screened at airports on Sunday, compared with only around 170,000 a year ago.

Following days of deadly protests across Colombia against a planned nationwide tax increase, President Iván Duque has withdrawn the proposal that he insisted was needed to fix the country's pandemic-battered economy.

Protests that began last week have led to multiple deaths, and they continued over the weekend despite a promise by Duque on Friday to remove some of the bill's most controversial provisions. On Sunday, he announced the proposed overhaul would be shelved and replaced.

"I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the finance ministry and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus, in order to avoid financial uncertainty," he said in a video.

Ordinary Colombians have been hit hard by the pandemic with the country's economy shrinking by 6.8% last year. Unemployment has spiked, and many Colombians are struggling to find work.

The proposed tax increase would have affected anyone making more than $656 a month — lowering the threshold and eliminating key exemptions and increasing the number of goods subject to a value added tax (VAT).

The government proposed the tax changes amid a recent round of coronavirus-related lockdowns as the country experiences a new surge in coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths. More than 74,000 Colombians have died from the illness since the start of the pandemic.

The vaccine rollout has been slow.

In the video, Duque said there was consensus that temporary taxes on businesses and dividends, and higher income taxes on the wealthiest Colombians, were needed along with government austerity measures.

"It is a moment for all of us to work together without malice," he said.

Starting Wednesday, tens of thousands of people turned out for protests — many organized by unions — to express outrage at the tax bill. They ignored warnings from health officials who said the protests could become coronavirus superspreader events.

Although most of the protests were peaceful, police in riot gear used tear gas and clashed with protesters, some of whom looted and vandalized buildings and vehicles.

There is no definitive count as yet for how many people died in the confrontations between police and protesters, but the prosecutor's office said Sunday afternoon that it was investigating 14 deaths nationally, while human rights groups said police abuses — especially in the third-largest city of Cali — had resulted in more than 20 deaths, according to Reuters. A police officer was also reported killed in Soacha on the outskirts of the capital, Bogotá.

Wearing a face mask will continue to be a requirement at airports, aboard commercial flights and on other public transportation across the country through the summer.

The federal mask mandate, which was set to expire on May 11, will remain in effect through Sept. 13, according to updated guidance issued by the Transportation Security Administration on Friday.

The rule, which also applies to buses and rail systems, was first put in place by President Biden shortly after he took office in January.

For about a year, major U.S. commercial airlines have required all passengers who are older than 2 to wear face masks on flights. The policy has sparked some backlash from people refusing to keep their masks on, often delaying flights.

The TSA's extension comes as the average number of confirmed U.S. cases of COVID-19 and deaths as a result of the coronavirus continue to decline.

"The federal mask requirement throughout the transportation system seeks to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation," senior TSA official Darby LaJoye said in a statement.

"We will continue to work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate the need for these directives and recognize the significant level of compliance thus far," she added.

Just this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear a mask when they're outdoors unless they're in a crowd.

According to NPR's vaccine tracker, over 40% of the U.S. population has received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and about 30% is fully vaccinated. CDC data also projects that close to 85% of the country could be fully vaccinated by the end of August.

Travel numbers are also rising. TSA reported that 1.56 million people traveled through airport checkpoints on Friday, compared with about 171,000 on the same day in 2020. Just weeks earlier, TSA reported its highest point of air travel since the pandemic began, with over 1.58 million people traveling. That said, numbers remain significantly lower than in 2019.

At the beginning of April, the CDC announced that Americans who are fully vaccinated can safely travel in the U.S. while still wearing a mask and social distancing. The guidance specifically notes that nonessential travel should continue to be avoided when possible.

While the prospect of Americans traveling internationally faces additional roadblocks, fully vaccinated Americans will be permitted to travel to countries within the European Union this summer. Currently, travel to the U.S. from much of Europe is restricted.

A handful of international travel bans remain in place for the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and other countries where contagious variants of the virus have originated.

India is the latest country to face heightened restrictions from the U.S., following a continuing surge of COVID-19 cases throughout the country. The ban on travelers from India is set to officially take effect Tuesday.

The Biden administration is set to enact a travel ban on any non-U.S. citizens or permanent residents coming to the country from India as multiple coronavirus variants have driven India's COVID-19 outbreak to troubling new heights. The policy will take effect starting on Tuesday, the White House said.

India had already been under a Level 4 – Do Not Travel advisory from the State Department, which issued or updated scores of travel advisories related to the continued spread of the coronavirus last week. The new ban will take the precaution to a new level.

The policy will not apply to U.S. citizens, a Biden administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Lawful permanent residents and other people with exemptions would also be allowed to travel from India to the United States.

As part of existing restrictions on international passengers, anyone arriving in the U.S. would still be subject to coronavirus testing measures and must enter quarantine if they have not been vaccinated.

The travel ban is being imposed on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

In a statement issued Friday, Psaki said, "The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating" in India.

Like many countries, India dealt with an initial wave of the coronavirus in 2020. But it's now enduring a tsunami of new cases, forcing a shortage of key resources, from hospital space to oxygen tanks.

Unlike some nations that have been able to avoid a new spike in deaths and critical hospitalizations despite recent outbreaks, India is also seeing an unprecedented number of deaths. The country reported nearly 3,500 deaths on Friday alone. And some health professionals allege that local officials have pressured them to underreport COVID-19 deaths, as NPR's Lauren Frayer and Sushmita Pathak reported. Testing kits are also in short supply in India, feeding speculation that the scale of the outbreak is even larger than official reports suggest.

India has been setting, and breaking, world records for the most daily reported COVID-19 cases for the past week as its citizens and public health officials watch infection rates rise at terrifying rates. It reached a new high mark Friday when India's Health Ministry reported 386,453 new infections.

The rate of new cases in India has steadily eclipsed the previous world record of more than 312,000 cases that the U.S. reported in early January. The U.S. remains the country with the most reported COVID-19 cases, with more than 32.3 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. India has reported nearly 18.8 million cases.

The U.S. is sending several emergency relief shipments to India; the State Department said late Thursday night that the first flight landed.

Vice President Harris also told reporters Friday that a plane loaded with aid, including oxygen, was leaving the U.S. for India that night. "We have long-standing, decades-old relationships with India, with the Indian people in particular, around public health issues," Harris said.

Brazil surpassed 400,000 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday at the tail-end of the country's deadliest month of the pandemic yet.

At last count, 401,186 people had died in Brazil based on data tracked by Johns Hopkins University, a toll only the U.S. has topped.

More Brazilians have died from the virus in the first four months of this year than in all of 2020, with the death toll having jumped from 300,000 to 400,000 in the past five weeks alone.

The daily average of deaths has dipped recently, from over 3,000 two weeks ago to an average of fewer than 2,400 deaths, according to Brazil's health ministry.

Health systems remain under intense pressure and — between the relaxation of COVID-19 measures, a sluggish vaccine rollout and the spread of a more contagious virus variant — experts predict the pandemic will soon get worse.

Fewer than 7% of Brazilians are fully vaccinated. A shortage of vaccine supplies has prevented some from getting their crucial second dose.

Brazilians are increasingly resisting social distancing as towns and cities ease restrictions, cheered on by President Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro, who continues to attack COVID-19 restrictions, has been widely criticized for his handling of the health crisis. In a television interview on Friday, the president accused governors of using lockdowns to suppress the public's right to freedom of movement and threatened to use military force to intervene.

A Senate commission will scrutinize Bolsonaro's conduct as part of an investigation it launched this week into the government's response to the pandemic. Senators want to know why Bolsonaro defied medical expertise to promote anti-malarial drugs as a coronavirus cure and why he blocked the purchase of some vaccines last year.

In a brief video message after his country reached the latest benchmark, Bolsonaro said in a video broadcast posted to his social media accounts that "a big number of deaths has been announced," according to The Associated Press, and that he is "sorry for every death." But he repeated his opposition to social distancing measures.

"I pray to God so there is not a third wave," Bolsonaro said. "But if the lockdown policies continue this country will be dragged to extreme poverty."

New York City, which one year ago was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, will "fully reopen" for business on July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. The announcement marks a stirring rebound for a city that lost more than 10,000 people in just the first month of the pandemic.

"We are ready for stores to open, for businesses to open," de Blasio said on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Offices and theaters, he said, would be able to operate at "full strength."

City officials are confident that they can get life back to the normal level it was before the pandemic, De Blasio said.

"This is going to be the summer of New York City," the mayor said. "You're going to see amazing activities, cultural activities coming back. I think people are going to flock to New York City, because they want to live again."

De Blasio acknowledged the threat of new variants — but he said the vaccines are proving very capable of quashing new outbreaks from those recently identified strains of the coronavirus. He attributed the progress to the "extraordinary" number of people who have gotten vaccinated against the coronavirus.

To date, de Blasio said, the city has recorded 6.3 million vaccinations, in a population of about 8.3 million.

"We've got to keep working hard at that," de Blasio said of the vaccination effort.

The mayor also noted that the American Museum of Natural History is hosting free vaccinations under its blue whale exhibit, adding that the museum is giving away four free admissions to people who get their shot.

New York City is currently reporting levels of new hospitalizations and positive-test rates that meet its benchmarks for reopening. It's either close to meeting or trending toward other "milestone" marks, according to the latest statistics. The city saw a large second wave of new cases around the start of 2021 — but thankfully, the rates of deaths and hospitalizations stayed far below the heights they hit last spring.

De Blasio's announcement comes one day after New York's embattled governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced that as of May 3, people will be allowed to sit at bars in New York City. On the statewide level, Cuomo plans to lift a midnight curfew on food and beverage service for outdoor and indoor areas by the end of May.

New York City has been steadily moving toward reopening. Last month, its restaurants and bars were allowed to offer indoor seating at 50% capacity. And the city started reopening schools to its youngest students in December. The phased-in process expanded to grades 6-8 in February, and 9-12 in March.

Despite its success in beating back the coronavirus, COVID-19 has taken a horrible toll on New York City. Overall, more than 920,000 residents have had confirmed or probable coronavirus cases. More than 100,000 people were hospitalized, and more than 32,000 people have died, according to the city's health department.

Both New York City and New York state were able to clamp down on the coronavirus' spread last spring, in a success that officials attributed to the public's adherence to social distancing and face mask requirements.

A statewide mask order took effect in mid-April of 2020. By the time summer arrived, New York was seeing a sustained drop in new cases, and states in the South and West had begun to be the main sources of new outbreaks.

The organizers of Japan's Summer Olympics, due to start just weeks from now, say they will administer daily coronavirus tests to athletes and will decide in June on what is a safe number of spectators.

At a virtual meeting on Wednesday, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and representatives of the other organizers discussed measures to keep the coronavirus in check during the games, which begin July 23.

"The IOC is fully committed to the successful and safe delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020," Bach said in his opening remarks.

He said organizers will "strictly enforce" the restrictions, according to Kyodo News, which said that the revised rules are part of the newest version of the organizers' "playbook."

The games — already delayed by a year due to the pandemic — are set to go ahead despite reluctance among the Japanese public. Recent opinion polls have shown that more than half are not in favor of hosting the games this year.

Japan has had relatively few coronavirus infections to date — around 600,000, with around 10,000 deaths.

Even so, despite securing the largest number of doses of any country in Asia and having among the best health care systems in the world, Japan has struggled to vaccinate its 126 million people. It has one of the lowest vaccination rates among wealthy countries, with less than 2% of its population fully inoculated against COVID-19. That figure is far lower than the U.S. (29.1%) and also lags behind most of Asia.

By the end of the month, Japan will have imported 17 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a schedule from the Cabinet Office that was cited by Reuters.

Tokyo on Wednesday confirmed 925 infections — its largest single-day figure since the end of January. Osaka, the country's third-most populous prefecture, reported 1,260 cases on Wednesday, Japan Times reports.

Young people who get the COVID-19 vaccine in West Virginia won't just gain protection against a deadly virus — they'll also make money.

The state will offer a $100 savings bond to everyone between the ages of 16 and 35 who gets vaccinated, Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, announced at a Monday briefing. It's part of an ongoing push to get shots into the arms of younger residents, who have been largely slow to roll up their sleeves so far.

"Our kids today probably don't really realize just how important they are in shutting this thing down," Justice said. "I'm trying to come up with a way that's truly going to motivate them — and us — to get over the hump."

The initiative will apply retroactively to people in this age group who have already gotten their shots. It is funded with money from the CARES Act, with Justice adding that officials have "vetted this in every way that we possibly can."

West Virginia's vaccine rollout got off to a famously strong start earlier this year. Despite challenges such as a widespread lack of Internet access, the largely rural state had managed to fully vaccinate such a large percentage of its eligible population by late February that, had it been a country, it would have ranked third in the world.

But as eligibility expanded, the pace of vaccinations slowed. The state now ranks 29th in the country, according to NPR's vaccine tracker, which says 29% of the population has been fully vaccinated and 35.3% has had at least one dose.

West Virginia opened vaccinations to residents ages 16 and older in mid-March but is continuing to prioritize vaccinations for those 65 and older. As of Monday, Justice said, more than 78% of people in the older age group have received at least one dose, while 68.5% have been fully vaccinated.

Demand for vaccines has dipped in recent weeks, with West Virginia Public Broadcasting noting that "most who wanted to be vaccinated have been, and the remaining West Virginians just don't want the shot, leaving local health officials scrambling to use up their shipments."

So the state has turned its attention to vaccinating young people, who are now getting infected at noticeably higher rates.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported earlier this month that people younger than 20 were accounting for 26% of all cases statewide, compared to 16% over the course of the pandemic. More than 30 school outbreaks had been reported at the time, many tied to extracurricular activities and social events.

Justice said Monday that the state's 380,000 residents between 16 and 35 are "not taking vaccines as fast as we'd like them to take them."

"If we really want to move the needle, we've got to get our younger people vaccinated," he added.

Justice's goal is to get more than 70% of West Virginia's eligible population vaccinated. He said that if approximately 80% of people in this age group who have not yet gotten the shot choose to do so, the overall statewide vaccination rate will exceed that number.

"If we can get to 70%, we'll shut this virus down," he said. "If we do that, the masks go away, the hospitalizations go away, and the deaths become minimal."

As of Monday, the state's health department had recorded 151,671 total coronavirus cases and 2,821 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The United States will release 60 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from drugmaker AstraZeneca to other countries over the next several months, the White House announced Monday.

The vaccine, which has not been authorized for use in the U.S., will be released once it clears safety reviews by the Food and Drug Administration. That could happen in the "coming weeks," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing.

The White House did not specify which countries would receive the vaccine, but about 10 million doses are ready to ship once regulatory clearance has been granted, Psaki said. The remaining doses are expected to be distributed throughout May and June.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has been widely used across Europe and elsewhere around the world. But the company has not yet applied for emergency authorization in the U.S. The vaccine is reported to be effective at preventing transmission and hospitalization, but the company has faced questions from U.S. regulators about data from its trials.

In the absence of FDA authorization, the U.S. government has been sitting on a stockpile of millions of doses, with more on order.

"We do not need to use AstraZeneca in our fight against COVID in the next few months," Psaki said at Monday's briefing.

The White House has expressed confidence that the supply of the vaccine doses made by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will be sufficient for the ongoing vaccination campaign in the United States. More than half of American adults have received at least one shot of the vaccine.

Monday's announcement comes as the Biden administration has been under increased pressure to assist other countries in the fight against the virus, especially India, which has in recent weeks rapidly become the world's worst COVID-19 hot spot.

"The U.S. has a tremendous number of resources at its disposal, and so if the U.S. government really gets involved and decides it's going to help an ally and a fellow democracy, I think it can make a big difference," Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, said in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition.

The White House announced Sunday it would work to send India therapeutics, testing supplies and equipment to help generate and transport more oxygen. The White House also said Sunday it would divert some orders of vaccine materials made by U.S. companies to India so that more vaccine doses can be manufactured there.

On Monday, President Biden reiterated those pledges in a call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Asked about criticisms that the White House has taken too long to send aid to India, Psaki defended the administration's timing.

"The United States has been one of the largest providers of assistance to address the COVID pandemic around the world, including to India," she said. "I will also say that we are continuing to fight a pandemic here."

Public health experts welcomed the news about the Biden administration's decision to share the AstraZeneca vaccine. Many of them had been calling on the administration to release the doses.

"There's only one path out of this pandemic that we are in, and that is getting the world vaccinated," Jha said. "If we don't, we're going to be dealing with this for many, many years. So this has got to be priority No. 1."

The Navajo Nation has vaccinated more than half of its adult population against COVID-19, outpacing the U.S. national rate and marking a significant turnaround for what was once the site of the highest per-capita infection rate in the country.

About half of the tribe's more than 300,000 enrolled members live on its reservation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and is considered the largest in the country. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez celebrated the success of the vaccine rollout but urged continued caution in a statement on Sunday.

"Over half of the adult population on the Navajo Nation has been vaccinated, but to reach herd immunity we need more people to get vaccinated," he said. "The great work being done by our frontline health care workers is being recognized nationally and rightfully so. ... Please help them by continuing to take all precautions and staying safe."

According to the Navajo Times, 87.8% of the eligible population — or more than 8 out of 10 people — had received at least one dose as of Friday, and 38.4% had been fully vaccinated. In contrast, NPR's vaccine tracker reports as of Monday, that 42.2% of the U.S. population has had at least one dose and 28.5% has been fully vaccinated.

The Navajo Nation recorded 26 new cases and 10 deaths over the weekend — a marked departure from the end of last year, when it was reporting an "uncontrolled spread" of coronavirus across 75 of its communities.

The coronavirus has hit tribal communities across the U.S. disproportionately hard: Native Americans are among the most at risk when it comes to contracting the virus, and have died at more than twice the rate of white people.

The Navajo Nation specifically has seen some of the country's highest infection rates compared to other states, and in May was home to the highest per-capita infection rate in the U.S.

Cases surged again in November and December, driven largely by social gatherings, and prompted a series of lockdown orders. And while the Navajo Nation's public health orders have been strict, the states that it encompasses have taken different approaches. As Nez told NPR in January, Arizona did not have a statewide mask mandate, while New Mexico did.

"We're like an island, the Navajo Nation within these three states," he said. "If other areas around us are not taking it seriously, it does impact the Navajo Nation."

The rapid spread of the disease has also been attributed to challenges that the reservation has faced for years, like the lack of clean, running water and reliable electricity in many households and the fact that hospitals are few and far apart. The vast geography and lack of infrastructure only made contract tracing efforts even more difficult.

The Indian Health Service has been "underfunded since its inception," Nez told CBS' Face the Nation earlier this month. On a more optimistic note, he said that healthcare professionals have been making the most of their limited resources and that the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan is expected to help facilitate its economic recovery.

Despite logistical challenges and initial vaccine hesitancy, the Navajo Nation's vaccine rollout got off to a strong start — and by the end of January, 1 in 5 residents had received at least one dose. The numbers rose quickly from there.

"I think just because of how hard hit the Navajo Nation was, we've seen a big increase in participation in taking the vaccine," Nez told Face the Nation.

First Lady Jill Biden got a glimpse of that effort last week during a two-day visit to the reservation, where she met with students, educators, women leaders, business owners and health care workers. One of her stops was a vaccination site, which Nez said demonstrates the Biden administration's commitment to "the Navajo Nation and all of our health care workers."

Now, the Navajo Nation is taking steps toward easing certain public health measures.

It moved into "yellow status" on Monday, allowing marinas, parks, museums and indoor dining to open at 25% capacity and most other businesses to operate at 50% capacity.

A separate order allows gatherings of no more than 15 people with face masks and social distancing required, and permits church services and drive-through gatherings with limited occupancy. Gyms and movie theaters remain closed, and a curfew is in place between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

In his statement, Nez urged people to continue "pushing back on the virus" by staying home as much as possible, avoiding large gatherings, wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and washing their hands often.

"The pandemic has led to many challenges, but it is also making us stronger and giving us a renewed appreciation for our blessings in life," said Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer. "We have to continue to pray for more strength every day and keep supporting one another. We are in this together and we are overcoming this pandemic day by day."

Last year, the coronavirus pandemic forced many summer camps to close and families to change their plans. Now, new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says camps will be able to open for in-person activities, provided they take specific steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The guidance was released over the weekend and applies to both day and overnight camps. It emphasizes the importance of wearing masks, social distancing and getting vaccinated as soon as possible.

"Consistent and layered use of multiple prevention strategies can help camps open safely for in-person activities; protect children, families, and staff; and slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19," it reads.

While fewer children have gotten sick with COVID-19 than adults, the CDC explains, they can still get infected and spread the virus to others. The guidance notes the key role that camps play in individuals' social, emotional and physical development, and goes on to outline strategies they can use to maintain healthy environments and prepare to respond to potential infections.

The CDC stressed this guidance is intended to supplement state and local health measures with which camps must comply, and its implementation should be tailored to the specific needs of each community.

"Camp administrators, working with local public health officials, should assess the level of community transmission to understand the burden of disease in the community," it says. "The higher the level of community transmission, the more likely that the virus that causes COVID-19 will be introduced into the camp facility from the community, which could lead to in-camp transmission if layered prevention strategies are not in use."

While all American adults are now eligible to get vaccinated, and a growing number have done so, none of the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. have been authorized for use in children under the age of 16.

For that reason, the guidance says that camps must continue prevention measures such as mask-wearing and physical distancing even after employees have been fully vaccinated.

Everyone in camp facilities must wear well-fitting masks at all times, with exceptions for certain activities such as eating, drinking and swimming. The guidance recommends disposable masks or cloth masks with two or more layers of fabric, and says they should be stored properly and washed regularly. Staff and campers are urged to have multiple masks on hand to replace ones easily that get wet or dirty.

Camp policies must promote physical distancing indoors and outdoors in line with the current recommendations for K-12 schools, the guidance adds.

It suggests creating cohorts, or groups of campers and staff that stay together throughout the day, and limiting exposure between them. Camps should require at least 3 feet between campers within a cohort, while 6 feet of distance is required in other situations, including during mealtimes and between campers and staff.

Most activities should take place outdoors, and camps should adopt ventilation and disinfection practices for indoor spaces. They should also teach and reinforce hygiene practices such as frequent hand-washing and limiting sharing of objects.

The guidance discourages close-contact and indoor sports, noting the increased risk of spreading COVID-19 in those situations.

It also suggests modifying a number of activities and traditions for safety's sake, such as avoiding group activities where distance cannot be maintained, limiting nonessential visits from other individuals and organizations, and performing activities such as singing and chanting outdoors only.

Campers can take trips to places where they will not mix with others outside of the camp population, such as hiking trails or beaches, it adds.

Several sections of the guidance discuss communication strategies, such as signage and announcements for campers and outreach to their families.

There are specific recommendations for what to do if someone gets sick while at camp, and when campers or staff should stay home. An additional section for overnight camps discusses screening testing, symptom checking and contact tracing policies in more detail.

It also outlines steps campers should take before their arrival, such as quarantining in line with travel guidance and getting either vaccinated or tested within a certain time frame. Upon their return home, campers and staff who are not fully vaccinated should get a viral test after three to five days and self-quarantine for one week.