Thursday brought further good news from the global effort to produce a safe and effective vaccine against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.  A report published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet says that a potential vaccine developed by British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford was safe and produced a strong immune response in both younger and older participants. 
The two-dose vaccine was given to 560 healthy adult volunteers in a second-stage clinical trial, including 240 volunteers 70 years of age and older.  Dr. Maheshi Ramasamy, a  University of Oxford researcher and co-author of the study, described the antibody and T-cell responses in the older volunteers as “robust.”  Pfizer Says Its Coronavirus Vaccine is 95% EffectivePfizer to seek approval within days for emergency use of vaccine COVID-19 poses the greatest risk for older adults and people with preexisting health conditions.  “We hope that this means our vaccine will help protect some of the most vulnerable people in society,” Ramasamy said, but he noted that further research still needs to be conducted.  The vaccine is currently undergoing final late-stage global clinical trials to prove its ultimate safety and efficacy.  The data from the Oxford-AstraZeneca Phase 2 trial comes as two U.S.-based  pharmaceutical companies report their COVID-19 vaccines are more than 90% effective against the virus.  Pfizer announced Wednesday that it will seek emergency approval for the vaccine it has developed in collaboration with Germany’s BioNTech. Moderna announced earlier this week that its vaccine is nearly 95% effective after an interim analysis of its late-stage study.   Moderna Announces  Second COVID Vaccine More Than 90% Effective Vaccine may be more accessible in rural areas and developing countries than Pfizer’sThe apparent progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine comes as many nations reimpose strict restrictions or lockdowns to fight a new wave of the virus.   Authorities in Tokyo announced Thursday it has raised its coronavirus alert level to its highest mark on a four-level scale after reporting a record-high 534 new COVID-19 cases.  The number of nationwide cases also surpassed 2,000 cases on Wednesday, another single-day record.   The Japanese government imposed a nationwide state of emergency in April, in the early days of the pandemic, but was not empowered to impose a mandatory quarantine under its constitution, which weighs heavily in favor of civil liberties.Russia has also reached a grim milestone, surpassing 2 million total coronavirus cases on Thursday after reporting 23,610 new cases over a 24-hour period, including 463 deaths. Of the more than 56.3 million total worldwide cases, Russia is in fourth place behind the United States, India, Brazil and France.  
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As the deadly coronavirus continues to rage across the U.S. and around the world, people are turning to COVID-19-related apps to figure out their day-to-day risks. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
Producers: Julie Taboh, Adam Greenbaum
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The United States has surpassed 250,000 coronavirus deaths as new cases surge in many parts of the country.New York City on Wednesday announced the closure of its school system, the nation’s largest, with the city recording a seventh consecutive day with a COVID-19 positivity rate above 3%.“Public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, out [of] an abundance of caution. We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter.New York City has reached the 3% testing positivity 7-day average threshold. Unfortunately, this means public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, out an abundance of caution. We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19.— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 18, 2020In-person school resumed for New York children between late September and early October, when the seven-day positivity rate was under 2%.Other major cities, including Boston and Detroit, have made recent moves to halt in-person classes for their schools.Across the United States there have been more than 11.5 million confirmed cases since the pandemic began.The current wave of infections is adding to that number at an increased rate with an average of nearly 160,000 new cases each day during the past week. That is about triple the number of new daily cases in the United States one month ago. More than 1,100 people are dying per day.Health care workers are dealing with the strain of a record number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.The surge has pushed leaders in many states to reimpose certain restrictions in order to try to slow the spread of the virus.Among the latest, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday that all restaurants, bars and gyms would close for four weeks. Minnesota is adding four times as many new infections each day as it was in mid-October.Officials are expressing concerns about the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, a time when millions of Americans typically gather with family members and often travel to other parts of the country.Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam urged people in his state to stay home, saying doing so would be “an act of love.” He added that if people do decide to celebrate with others, they should do so in small groups and be outdoors.U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar urged similar caution in a Wednesday briefing.“Gathering indoors with people who aren’t members of your household is a high-risk activity for spreading the virus,” he said.There has been some optimistic news this week with two pharmaceutical companies announcing preliminary results showing their COVID-19 vaccines have been effective in trials.Azar said those developments mean that within weeks the Food and Drug Administration could authorize the vaccines and they could be ready for distribution.“Because of this work, by the end of December, we expect to have about 40 million doses of these two vaccines available for distribution, pending FDA authorization—enough to vaccinate about 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans—and production would continue to ramp up after that,” Azar said.The U.S. government has pursued a vaccination development program with the intention of making it so that no one in the country has to pay out of their own pocket to get a vaccine.
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The World Health Organization’s emergencies program director said Wednesday that vaccines alone would not end the COVID-19 pandemic and would do nothing to stop the current global surge in coronavirus infections.Mike Ryan made the comments during a virtual question-and-answer session from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.His comments came the same day that pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced that final results from the late-stage trial of their COVID-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective.The companies said they had the required two months of safety data and would apply for emergency U.S. authorization within days.On Monday, Moderna released preliminary data for its vaccine, showing similar effectiveness.Ryan said the world would have to get through this current wave of COVID-19 infections without vaccines, which he said were not the total answer.”Some people think that vaccines will be, in a sense, the solution, the unicorn we’ve all been chasing. It’s not,” he said.He said the most important thing people could do now to keep hospitals and intensive care units from overflowing was to stop the spread of the disease through physical distancing measures. Once a viable vaccine is widely available, he said, it will be another tool that can be used.”Adding vaccines is going to give us a huge chance. But if we add vaccines and forget the other things, COVID does not go to zero,” Ryan said. “We need to add vaccination to the existing physical measures” to taking care and practicing good hygiene.  “And if we add that physical distancing and hygiene and care to vaccines, I think we will go a long way to getting rid of this virus.” 
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The World Health Organization has officially declared an end to the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Equateur Province, nearly six months after the first cases were reported. Health officials are hailing the end of this outbreak as a milestone and cause for celebration.  Combating Ebola in the remote, heavily forested region posed numerous logistical challenges, not least of which was reaching communities scattered across this geographically vast area and then gaining their trust.Bob Ghosn is head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Ebola Response Operation in the DRC   Speaking on a telephone line from Goma, he tells VOA tackling Ebola in itself is difficult enough.   But tackling two epidemics, Ebola and COVID-19, at the same time has proven to be a nightmare.“It also made the supply chain for Ebola response much more difficult because everything slowed down, borders have closed,” Ghosn said.  “There obviously were requests from all countries in the world for PPE equipment that was needed here.  So, that made things more difficult and last, but not least, the economic impact of COVID-19 is mind boggling in a country like DRC.” Equateur province, DRCThis was the third Ebola outbreak in DRC in the last three years.   It came just as another more serious epidemic in North Kivu province was winding down.  That epidemic, which lasted nearly two years, infected more than 3,400 people, killing nearly 2,300.  By comparison, the final toll in Equateur Province was 119 cases, including 55 deaths.  Ghosn says everyone in the affected areas is happy to be free of Ebola.  At the same time, he says this is no time for complacency.“Ebola could start again.  So, it is very important to keep it at zero,” Ghosn said.  “So, we got it at zero.  Now keeping it at zero requires a lot of work.  And, also to make sure that communities in DRC who really suffered through the whole Ebola outbreak and COVID-19 obviously, continue to get the support and the help they need because these are the most vulnerable communities in the world for that matter.”   Ghosn says outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola and COVID-19 cannot be prevented.  However, much can be done to be prepared to tackle these threats when they arise.  He says medical tools such as vaccines and treatments are important.  He says informing people ahead of time on how to protect themselves from epidemic-prone diseases is a necessity.
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Thousands of demonstrators rallied Wednesday in central Berlin to protest the parliamentary vote that would give Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government powers to enforce restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.Germany’s lower and upper houses of parliament are due to vote and pass laws Wednesday that could allow the government to impose restrictions on social contact, rules on mask-wearing, drinking alcohol in public, shutting shops and stopping sports events.
 
Although most Germans accept the latest limited lockdown to tackle a second wave of the virus, a minority of right-wing critics say the law gives the government too much power. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has even compared the measures to the Enabling Act of 1933 that paved the way Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship.
 Germany Sees Signs for Cautious Optimism in COVID-19 Cases Infectious-disease expert says while new numbers are still high, the infection rate is down Berlin police, bolstered by forces from around the country, cordoned off a wide perimeter around the capital’s government center, and a series of protests planned outside of Germany’s Bundestag parliament building were banned due to security concerns.
 
At one point, security officers used a water cannon to subdue protesters and keep them away from the parliament building.  
 
One protester wore a face mask with the words “Merkel-Muzzle,” others held banners with slogans such as “For Enlightenment. Peace and Freedom.” But most protesters were neither wearing masks nor socially distanced.  
 
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, was widely praised for keeping infection and death rates below those of many of its neighbors in the first phase of the crisis but is now in the midst of a second wave, like much of the rest of Europe.
 
The number of coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 17,561 to more than 833,307, according to data Wednesday from the Robert Koch Institute. The death toll stands at more than 13,119.
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Iota continues to pound Nicaragua with strong winds and heavy rains even after weakening from a hurricane to a tropical storm. As of late Tuesday night, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Iota was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers an hour on a path towards Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Forecasters say Tropical Storm Iota will dump between 7 to 20 kilometers of rain on a stretch of Central America from southern Nicaragua to southern Belize overnight, leading to “significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding,” along with mudslides in higher areas. The storm is expected to weaken to a tropical depression through the night before dissipating sometime Wednesday.A woman sits near her house damaged the passing of Hurricane Iota, in Puerto Cabezas, Nov. 18, 2020.Iota made landfall Monday on the northeastern coast of Nicaragua Monday carrying maximum winds of 210 kilometers an hour, then grew in speed to 250 kilometers an hour, becoming a Category 5 storm — the top level on the five-level scale that measures a storm’s potential destructiveness.   The storm left scores of communities cut off from the outside world and forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.  At least eight people across the region have been killed, including two children who reportedly drowned while trying to cross a flooded river in Nicaragua. At least one person died in Providencia island, located in Colombia’s Caribbean archipelago, while another person was killed in Panama’s western Ngabe Bugle indigenous community.Iota is the 30th named storm of this year’s record-setting Atlantic hurricane season.  It struck just south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall on November 3 as a Category 4 storm, triggering flash flooding and landslides over parts of Central America and killing more than 130 people. 
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An agreement announced Tuesday paves the way for the largest dam demolition in U.S. history, a project that promises to reopen hundreds of miles of waterway along the Oregon-California border to salmon that are critical to tribes but have dwindled to almost nothing in recent years. If approved, the deal would revive plans to remove four massive hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River, creating the foundation for the most ambitious salmon restoration effort in history. The project on California’s second-largest river would be at the vanguard of a trend toward dam demolitions in the U.S. as the structures age and become less economically viable amid growing environmental concerns about the health of native fish. Previous efforts to address problems in the Klamath Basin have fallen apart amid years of legal sparring that generated distrust among tribes, fishing groups, farmers and environmentalists. Opponents of dam removal worry about their property values and the loss of a water source for fighting wildfires. Lawsuits challenging the agreement are possible. “This dam removal is more than just a concrete project coming down. It’s a new day and a new era,” Yurok Tribe chairman Joseph James said. “To me, this is who we are, to have a free-flowing river just as those who have come before us. … Our way of life will thrive with these dams being out.” FILE – The Iron Gate Dam, powerhouse and spillway are on the lower Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif., March 3, 2020.A half-dozen tribes across Oregon and California, fishing groups and environmentalists had hoped to see demolition work begin as soon as 2022. But those plans stalled in July, when U.S. regulators questioned whether the nonprofit entity formed to oversee the project could adequately respond to any cost overruns or accidents. The new plan makes Oregon and California equal partners in the demolition with the nonprofit entity, called the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, and adds $45 million to the project’s $450 million budget to ease those concerns. Oregon, California and the utility PacifiCorp, which operates the hydroelectric dams and is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway, will each provide one-third of the additional funds. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must approve the deal. If accepted, it would allow PacifiCorp and Berkshire Hathaway to walk away from aging dams that are more of an albatross than a profit-generator, while addressing regulators’ concerns. Oregon, California and the nonprofit would jointly take over the hydroelectric license from PacifiCorp while the nonprofit will oversee the work. Buffett said the reworked deal solves a “very complex challenge.” “I recognize the importance of Klamath dam removal and river restoration for tribal people in the Klamath Basin,” Buffett said in a statement. “We appreciate and respect our tribal partners for their collaboration in forging an agreement that delivers an exceptional outcome for the river, as well as future generations.”  Removed would be the four southernmost dams in a string of six constructed in southern Oregon and far Northern California beginning in 1918.  They were built solely for power generation. They are not used for irrigation and not managed for flood control. The lowest dam on the river, the Iron Gate, has no “fish ladder,” or concrete chutes, that fish can pass through.  Importance of salmonThat’s blocked hundreds of miles of potential fish habitat and spawning grounds, and fish populations have dropped precipitously in recent years. Salmon are at the heart of the culture, beliefs and diet of a half-dozen regional tribes, including the Yurok and Karuk — both parties to the agreement — and they have suffered deeply from that loss. FILE – A man looks at a tank holding juvenile chinook salmon being raised at the Iron Gate Hatchery at the base of the Iron Gate Dam near Hornbrook, Calif., March 3, 2020.Coho salmon from the Klamath River are listed as threatened under federal and California law, and their population in the river has fallen anywhere from 52% to 95%. Spring chinook salmon, once the Klamath Basin’s largest run, has dwindled by 98%. Fall chinook, the last to persist in any significant numbers, have been so meager in the past few years that the Yurok canceled fishing for the first time in the tribe’s memory. In 2017, they bought fish at a grocery store for their annual salmon festival. “It is bleak, but I want to have hope that with dam removal and with all the prayers that we’ve been sending up all these years, salmon could come back. If we just give them a chance, they will,” said Chook-Chook Hillman, a Karuk tribal member fighting for dam removal. “If you provide a good place for salmon, they’ll always come home.” Lawsuit to stop demolitionResidents have been caught in the middle. As tribes watched salmon dwindle, some homeowners around a huge reservoir created by one of the dams slated for removal have sued to stop the demolition.  They say their waterfront property values have already fallen by half because of news coverage associated with demolition, and they worry about losing a water source for fighting wildfires in an increasingly fire-prone landscape. Many also oppose the use of ratepayer funds for the project. More than 1,720 dams have been dismantled around the U.S. since 2012, according to American Rivers, and 26 states undertook dam removal projects in 2019 alone. The Klamath River project would be the largest such project by far if it proceeds. 
 
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A group of major U.S. utilities, Tesla, Uber and others said on Tuesday they are launching a new group to lobby for national policies to boost electric vehicle sales. The new Zero Emission Transportation Association wants to boost consumer electric vehicle (EV) incentives and encourage the retirement of gasoline-powered vehicles. It also advocates for tougher emissions and performance standards that will potentially enable full electrification by 2030. Under President Donald Trump, the White House rejected new tax credits for electric vehicles as it proposed to kill existing credits and made it easier to sell gas-guzzling vehicles. President-elect Joe Biden promises new tax incentives, including new rebates to buy EVs and a dramatic expansion of charging stations for electric vehicles – policy measures automakers have long advocated. “We can own the electric vehicle market – building 550,000 charging stations – and creating over a million good jobs here at home – with the federal government investing more in clean energy research,” Biden said Monday. Biden’s measures are in line with the group’s call for “strong federal charging infrastructure investments” and its goal to reach 100% electric vehicle sales by 2030. Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the group will support “Uber’s work to move 100% of rides to EVs in (the United States), Canadian and European cities by 2030 and go fully zero-emissions by 2040. It will take all of us working together to address the urgent crisis of climate change.” Automakers in the United States sold 326,000 EVs in 2019, accounting for about 2% of total U.S. auto sales. Tesla sold nearly 60% of the total.  Other members include ConEdison, Duke Energy and PG&E; EV charging companies Chargepoint and EVgo; and fledging automakers including Lordstown Motors, Rivian and Lucid Motors. Also taking part are Albemarle Corp, the world’s largest producer of lithium for electric vehicle batteries; Piedmont Lithium and Siemens. In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state plans to ban the sale of new gasoline powered passenger cars and trucks starting in 2035 in a dramatic move to shift to electric vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. California is the largest U.S. auto market, accounting for about 11% of all U.S. vehicle sales. Many states have adopted its green vehicle mandates. 
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The World Health Organization’s 194 member states have agreed to push for the global elimination of cervical cancer, a disease that every year affects 570,000 women and kills more than 300,000. A new strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer was adopted at this year’s World Health Assembly.Cervical cancer is a vaccine-preventable disease and curable if detected early and adequately treated. Health officials say the tools are available to eliminate this disease, the fourth most common cancer among women globally.   WHO’s three-point strategy calls for all girls to be vaccinated for HPV or human papillomavirus before age 15. It says women should be screened twice between the ages of 35 and 45 and those found to have the cancer should receive treatment. WHO’s assistant director-general, Princess Nothemba Simelela, says new technology based on artificial intelligence can be used to screen women for cervical cancer.    “If these technologies are used, we would be able to get a diagnosis of cervical cancer within 15 to 20 minutes,” she said. “At this point in time, turnaround from the laboratories can be anything up to a month or longer and women do not get their results because most of them do not stay or live near a facility.”   Simelela says the rapid diagnosis will be a lifesaver for many women in developing countries. She says they will be able to be treated immediately on site for a pre-cancerous condition without having to return.    FILE – Women sign up for free breast and cervical cancer screenings organized by nonprofit Junior Chamber International at the Philippe Maguilen Senghor health center in Yoff, Dakar, Senegal, April 22, 2017. (S. Christensen/VOA)WHO reports sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of cases and deaths from cervical cancer, followed by countries in Southeast Asia. Simelela warns cases and deaths will continue to rise in countries that do not invest in vaccines, screening and testing. “The African continent is the only continent that will be reporting higher populations beyond 2030. So, they will be dealing with a double burden there in that they will be having a bigger number of young people to get to with the vaccine and a larger population of older women who will be having cervical cancer who have not been treated,”  she said.Cases and deaths in high-income countries are much lower than in low-income countries because of the wide use of the preventable vaccine, which can run as high as $110 a dose. Simelela says developing countries can obtain the HPV vaccine at an affordable price of less than $5 a dose through the GAVI Alliance procurement system. GAVI helps vaccinate children against infectious diseases.
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Hurricane Iota made landfall along the northeastern coast of Nicaragua late Monday night and flash flooding and landslides are expected across Central America. The National Hurricane Center said Iota struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm, with winds of 210 kilometers per hour. Many people hunkered down in shelters while the Nicaraguan government evacuated thousands of residents in low lying coastal areas ahead of the storm. One resident in the seaside town of Bilwi, business owner Business owner Adán Artola Schultz, described the sound of metal structures banging and buckling in the wind as “like bullets” to the Associated Press.  Jason Bermúdez, a university student from Bilwi, told AP a lot of houses have lost their roofs, fences and fruit trees that got knocked down. Bermúdez said “(W)e will never forget this year.” “The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Iota is making landfall in almost the exact same location that category 4 Hurricane Eta did a little less than two weeks ago,” the Hurricane Center said in a statement. Iota came ashore south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall Nov. 3, also as a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Eta killed more than 130 people as the heavy rains caused flash flooding and landslides over parts of Central America. 
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