Coronavirus UpdatesCovid-19: Australia’s Biggest City Will Lock Down as Outbreak Spreads

Sydney will enter a full lockdown as an outbreak grows in Australia’s biggest city.

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A train station in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday.Credit...Loren Elliott/Reuters

Officials in Sydney announced on Saturday that Australia’s largest city would enter a full lockdown until July 9 as an outbreak linked to the Delta variant continued to grow.

The decision expands a partial lockdown ordered a day earlier, when Sydney’s central business district and eastern suburbs were ordered to close for at least a week.

Officials in New South Wales, which includes Sydney and is Australia’s most populous state, announced an additional 22 cases on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 65, the city’s largest outbreak in six months. They warned that many more cases were likely to emerge in the coming days because of a cluster centered on a hair salon that some 900 clients visited while several employees were infectious.

The lockdown will affect Sydney’s five million residents and follows a return to mandatory mask wearing and a ban on travel outside the city, which were announced this week.

The new restrictions reflect a mix of widening concern about the infectiousness of the Delta variant — some of the confirmed infections appear to have occurred after only a few seconds of contact — and an effort to keep the outbreak contained.

“We don’t want to see this situation linger for weeks,” the premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, said on Friday. “We would like to see this situation end sooner rather than later.”

Officials are especially worried about a handful of possible superspreader locations, including a child’s birthday party last weekend where at least 17 attendees had tested positive as of Thursday evening. The rest of the people at the party are also expected to be infected, along with the household contacts of nearly everyone there.

The hair salon has the potential to add dozens or hundreds more cases. Everyone who passed through over the past several days has been asked to get tested and to isolate.

Across Africa, the Delta variant is driving a third wave of the virus, experts say.

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Lining up to register for a coronavirus test in Kisumu County, Kenya, this month. Hospitals in the area have been stretched, causing the authorities to impose a partial lockdown and extend an overnight curfew.Credit...Brian Otieno for The New York Times

The Delta variant is playing a significant role in a resurgence of the coronavirus in Africa, where the peak of a third wave of new cases is set to surpass previous ones, all at a time when nations are struggling to vaccinate their populations.

The Delta variant, which is highly contagious and was first identified in India, has so far been detected in 13 African countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some of those countries — including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zambia — the battle against the virus has left hospitals stretched, depleted oxygen stocks, and overwhelmed health care workers.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa C.D.C., said in a news conference on Thursday, “It’s frightening to see what’s happening across the continent.”

“This third wave is extremely brutal,” he added. Health experts said it was important to deploy vaccines to beat back the virus. Even as the third wave surges, only about 1 percent of Africa’s population of 1.3 billion people have been fully immunized.

“We have to vaccinate at speed and at scale,” Dr. Nkengasong said. “We are racing against time.”

Africa has now recorded more than five million coronavirus cases and almost 140,000 deaths, despite the continent’s largely having been spared the worst of earlier waves of the pandemic. Since May, Covid cases have risen consistently, and the World Health Organization has predicted that the current wave could be the region’s worst yet.

“The third wave is picking up speed, spreading faster, hitting harder,” Matshidiso Moeti, the W.H.O.’s regional director for Africa, warned in a statement.

The global health organization has detected the Delta variant in most of the samples it has sequenced in the past month. In Uganda, 97 percent of the cases were attributed to the Delta variant, and in Zambia, that version accounted for 77 percent, according to Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, a virologist at the W.H.O.’s regional office for Africa.

The W.H.O. said it was deploying experts to the worst-affected nations to monitor and analyze cases of the variant.

The Delta variant has been identified in at least 85 countries and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations, according to the W.H.O. “It’s becoming so dangerous,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization’s director general, said on Friday, referring to the surge of coronavirus cases and deaths in Africa. “And the difference now is between having a vaccine, and not having a vaccine. The difference is between the haves and the have-nots.”

The overall problem for Africa, experts say, is not demand but supply, as wealthy nations have captured an overwhelming share of the vaccines. High- and upper-middle-income countries have administered 85 percent of vaccine shots, while only 0.3 percent of doses have been administered in low-income countries, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. “There is no allocation if there is no vaccine,” said Dr. Tedros. “What do you share if there is nothing to share?”

In Uganda, where more than a dozen lawmakers have tested positive, the drastic rise in deaths and new infections has pushed President Yoweri Museveni to close schools and ban travel between districts.

In Kenya, hospitals in the western county of Kisumu where the Delta variant was first reported have been stretched, causing the authorities to impose a partial lockdown and extend an overnight curfew. Hospitals in Zambia have also been stressed and new restrictions imposed as the country fights to curb rising new infections — the second-highest on the continent, after South Africa, for the week ending June 20, according to the Africa C.D.C.

“This third wave has come with a severity that many countries were not prepared for,” Dr. Nkengasong of the C.D.C. said.

Health care more broadly is also suffering, including maternal and pediatric services, as hospitals face a strain on resources and as many people avoid them for fear of the virus, said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, the executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

Dan Levin contributed reporting.

Tracking the Coronavirus ›

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Celebrity Cruises will be the first cruise line to resume sailing from a U.S. port.

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The Celebrity Edge, docked at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will sail at 35 percent capacity on Saturday.Credit...Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

The Celebrity Edge is poised to set sail out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Saturday, becoming the first major cruise ship to restart operations from a United States port since the pandemic all but hobbled the industry over a year ago.

The ship will sail at 35 percent capacity, with at least 95 percent of passengers and all crew members fully vaccinated, its owner, Celebrity Cruises, said in a statement. Vaccines are not mandated for the cruise because of a new Florida state law banning businesses from requiring proof of immunization, but unvaccinated guests will face more stringent coronavirus protocols.

All guests over the age of 16 who do not show proof of vaccination will be required to wear masks on board and take a series of antigen tests during the cruise at an additional cost. (Testing for vaccinated guests will be free of charge.)

“We’re definitely finding that cruisers prefer to be vaccinated and to share this information with us,” said Susan Lomax, associate vice president for global public relations at Celebrity Cruises.

The sailing is a major milestone for the $150 billion global cruise industry, which has been decimated by the pandemic and spent months in a battle with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over its requirements for the safe resumption of cruising.

Earlier this month, Celebrity Cruises tested its Covid protocols during a seven-day sailing in the Caribbean, the line’s first international cruise with American passengers. All adult passengers and crew members were fully vaccinated, and they were not required to wear masks or socially distance during the sailing.

Halfway through the cruise and following two shore excursions on the islands of Barbados and Aruba, a vaccinated couple tested positive for the virus and were immediately put into isolation. Other passengers who had come into contact with them were required to quarantine and get tested.

Before the ship reached its final destination, all passengers on board were tested, and no further positive cases were identified. Celebrity said the handling of the incident demonstrated that the company’s virus protocols worked in preventing the spread of the virus.

Other major lines, including Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean, are preparing to restart U.S. operations in July. As of July 18, cruise ships departing from and arriving in Florida will not be required to follow C.D.C. guidance, after a judge ruled last week that the order was based on “stale data” and failed to take into account the prevalence of effective vaccines.

Louisiana, lagging in vaccinations, gambles on a lottery.

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Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana and his wife, Donna Edwards, at a news conference last week announcing cash prizes and scholarships to encourage vaccination.Credit...Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate, via Associated Press

Like many states in the South, Louisiana’s vaccination rate has lagged significantly behind the national average, particularly among older adults, a trend that has troubled public health officials.

Some 22 percent of adults 65 and older still have not been vaccinated, compared with 12 percent nationally, according to a New York Times database. Just 34 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, compared with 46 percent nationally.

Louisiana is one of the latest states to resort to dangling financial incentives to get more shots into arms, a strategy that has kindled a broader debate over the effectiveness and wisdom of monetary enticements. It is holding a lottery, which will be paid for with federal coronavirus relief funds.

At the lottery’s unveiling last week, a jazz band played the state song, “You Are My Sunshine,” and Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, revealed a giant check for $1 million.

Mr. Edwards said amid the festivities that the money would go to a Louisiana adult who had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. He said that the state would give away a total of $2.3 million in cash prizes and scholarships over a month. Registration for the lottery — marketed as “Shot at a Million” — began this week.

“Before launching our own program, we wanted to see how well it worked in other states, and, quite frankly, we’ve been impressed by the success that they’ve had,” Mr. Edwards said in announcing the lottery.

Louisiana’s vaccination rate, as a share of its population, is lower than every state but Mississippi. Six of the bottom eight states are in the South: They include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee.

The Biden administration has made a concerted push to overcome vaccine hesitancy, particularly in the South. This week, the first lady, Jill Biden, visited Tennessee and Mississippi to encourage people to get vaccinated, while President Biden visited a mobile vaccination site in North Carolina on Thursday.

Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio announced in May that five people would each win $1 million; the last winners were announced on Wednesday. On Thursday, Mr. DeWine said the state would focus on smaller incentives, like $25 DoorDash gift cards at select locations, and on expanding outreach and access to shots.

“We want our people to be protected,” Mr. Edwards said. “This is the way that we accomplish that. It is the way we can make sure that we return to normalcy and are able to safely gather.”

Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design, said in an interview that there was a compelling case for conducting lotteries but that they should be open only to people who were fully vaccinated.

“The people that we need to reach to get vaccinated, independent of their political affiliation, have been shown to be those populations who are likely to buy lottery tickets,” he said.

Dr. Fendrick, a primary-care physician who has studied consumer incentives for health care behavior for three decades, said it was too early to determine the effectiveness of the lotteries. In some states, he said, the lotteries coincided with making the vaccine available to teenagers, which could skew the numbers. He suggested comparing the vaccination rates in states with lotteries to those without them.

“I really want to see Michigan versus Ohio,” he said.

On Wednesday, North Carolina held its first lottery drawing as part of a similar vaccination push. Every other week, it will give away $1 million and a $125,000 scholarship to an adult and a teenager who get the vaccine.

Similar initiatives have been promoted by California, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico and Washington.

In Oregon, however, the pace of vaccinations slipped since May, when Gov. Kate Brown announced a $1 million giveaway, The Oregonian reported this month.

Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Ms. Brown, said in an email on Tuesday night that the drop-off in vaccinations was to be expected as more residents had the shot. Oregon, he said, needed to inoculate less than 42,000 people to reach its target of at least 70 percent of adults having received at least one shot.

Mr. Boyle said that the “Take Your Shot, Oregon” campaign was part of a broader strategy that included using more and smaller vaccine clinics to lift the vaccination rate.

“No individual strategy is expected to have a singularly massive impact or to wholly reverse vaccination rate trends,” he said. “Each strategy adds a little energy to the overall effort.”

Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting.

A correction was made on 
June 25, 2021

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the date of North Carolina's first vaccination lottery drawing. It was June 23, not June 30.

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In India, concern mounts over a variant called Delta Plus.

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Checking on a Covid-19 patient at a hospital in Mumbai, India, this month.Credit...Rajanish Kakade/Associated Press

As India begins to reopen after a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections, concern among virologists is growing that another, possibly more virulent version of the virus could hasten the start of a third wave within just a few months.

The version, which has become known locally as Delta Plus, is described by scientists as a sub-lineage of the highly contagious Delta variant that has spread rapidly through India, Britain, the United States and other countries. The new variant carries a spike protein mutation that is also found in the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa, though it’s unclear how that shared mutation might affect the variant’s function.

Reports suggest that cases of Delta Plus have been found in nearly a dozen countries, including the United States. In India, Delta Plus was first detected in April in the western state of Maharashtra. The authorities in India this week declared it a new “variant of concern” in the country after finding more than 40 cases across three states: Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.

The Indian Health Ministry said this week that Delta Plus had showed increased transmissibility. The states where the variant has been found have been asked to bolster testing, enhance surveillance and speed up contact tracing to try to prevent its spread.

Because of its recent discovery, there have not yet been any studies of this particular variant, so scientists have limited information. They have begun to speculate about its ability to spread, however.

“It is most likely capable of dodging immunities,” said Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University in Sonipat, India. “That is because it carries all symptoms of the original Delta variant and also from its partner Beta variant.”

Officials at the Indian Health Ministry emphasized that both Covid vaccines in wide use in the country — the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and the Covaxin shot made by the Indian company Bharat Biotech — are likely to be effective against variants, including Delta Plus.

India’s vaccination drive has gathered speed this week, with more than 6.7 million people nationwide receiving shots on Thursday, according to official data. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has declared that the shots should be offered free to all adults, aiming to shore up an inoculation effort that had been hampered by mismanagement and a lack of supplies. About 5.5 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, and 18 percent have received at least one shot.

In Maharashtra, one of the hardest-hit states, officials said that Delta Plus was becoming a significant concern and warned that they would reimpose restrictions if cases rose.

“We are at the end of a second wave and we will be careful with how we unlock,” said Rajesh Tope, the state health minister. “The lessons we have learned dealing with the second wave are being used to stop the spread of any new variant.”

Delta Plus was also identified this month by health officials in Britain, who called it Delta-AY.1. They wrote in a June 11 report that they had detected 36 cases, the first five of which were contacts of people who had recently traveled through Nepal and Turkey. Half of the 36 cases occurred in people who had not been vaccinated and none of the cases had led to death, but the report cautioned that there was “limited epidemiological information available” about the variant.

Doctors in Indonesia were vaccinated with Sinovac. Some still died.

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A vaccination center in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, in June. Some countries are discovering that certain shots may not be as effective as others in preventing infections caused by variants.Credit...Dita Alangkara/Associated Press

Dr. Suhendro Sastrowiwoho was fully vaccinated and eager to help this month as Indonesia faced a new and deadly wave of Delta variant coronavirus cases. His daughter and son-in-law, both trained as doctors, told him to rest. He was 74 years old, they warned, and the virus was evolving in unexpected ways.

On June 18, Dr. Suhendro died just days after testing positive for the coronavirus. Like other frontline medical workers in the small town of Kudus, on the island of Java, he had received a double dose of Sinovac Biotech, the Chinese-made vaccine.

“His love was taking care of his patients and helping people,” said Angeline Dewi Suhendro, his daughter, whose husband is now also hospitalized with Covid. “We forbade him to practice because Covid cases were shooting up, but he insisted.”

While the West appears to be recovering from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, some countries without access to plentiful vaccines are facing their most devastating outbreaks yet, as more contagious variants spread quickly. Other countries are discovering that certain vaccines may not be as effective as others in preventing infections caused by these variants.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, is facing both problems at the same time. On Thursday, the country recorded more than 20,000 cases of Covid-19, the highest number since the pandemic began. Oxygen is again running out at hospitals in the capital, Jakarta, and the national percentage of positive virus tests reached 14.6 percent this past week. By comparison, the weekly positivity rate in the United States is now 1.8 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since the pandemic began, 401 doctors in Indonesia have died, according to the risk mitigation team of the Indonesian Medical Association. At least 20 of them were fully vaccinated with Sinovac. (The vaccination status of another 31 doctors who died between Feb. 1 and June 24 is still being investigated.)

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Israel, a world leader in fighting the virus, grapples with a new outbreak.

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Showing virus passes before entering a concert in Tel Aviv in March.Credit...Dan Balilty for The New York Times

JERUSALEM — Israel has been a trailblazer in the post-pandemic world, largely returning to normal in May following one of the world’s fastest vaccination drives.

But dozens of new cases recently emerged at schools in two cities, Modiin and Binyamina, leading to hundreds of people being quarantined. Israel has made 12- to 15-year-olds eligible for vaccination, but many have yet to get shots.

Despite the new outbreak, the country’s current death rate remains close to zero, and only 26 of 729 active coronavirus patients were hospitalized, according to data released by the Health Ministry. And the overall daily caseload remains far from the country’s peak in mid-January, when the average hit more than 8,000 daily cases.

The containment effort has struggled to have an impact as the virus continues to spread through several cities. Many of those who contracted the virus had been vaccinated, according to the director general of the Health Ministry, Prof. Chezy Levy, though he did not specify if they had had one or two doses.

The Delta variant is unlikely to pose much risk to people who have been fully vaccinated, experts have said. The country has relied on the two-dose mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Some Israeli officials and health experts have attributed the outbreaks to the Delta variant, and point to international travelers as a potential source of the outbreaks.

According to Anat Danieli, a Health Ministry spokeswoman, the Delta variant had been identified in 180 samples as of last Sunday. But it was unclear how many of the new cases involved the variant, as the testing can take up to 10 days.

Since last Saturday, the country’s rolling seven-day average of new cases has grown from fewer than 25 to more than 72, according to the Our World in Data project at Oxford University.

Before the recent outbreak, the daily caseload had fallen close to zero. About 57 percent of the country’s population has already been given two shots of Covid vaccine.

To deal with the sudden outbreak, the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, reinstated a ministerial crisis committee, known as the coronavirus cabinet. On Wednesday, Israel’s Tourism Ministry said that it would postpone its resumption of issuing individual tourist visas from July 1 to Aug. 1.

Israeli officials fear the country may have eased too many of its antivirus restrictions too quickly, and on Thursday, the Health Ministry said that the government would assess whether to reintroduce a requirement for people to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, should the daily caseload exceed 100. On Friday, after the daily caseload hit 227, the ministry said it went ahead with the requirement, which began at midday, and thousands of participants at a pride march in Tel Aviv were advised to wear masks.

The announcement came less than two weeks after the country’s indoor mask mandate was lifted and less than a month after the end of capacity restrictions in public spaces, as well as the requirement to show proof of full vaccination against the coronavirus.

Nachman Ash, a senior official overseeing the Israeli pandemic response, also asked residents to avoid unnecessary international travel.

In a blow to many New York restaurants, to-go cocktails are halted.

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A purchase of to-go cocktails from Factory 380 in Manhattan last year. Over the past year, the drinks were allowed under a rule from the New York State Liquor Authority that was intended to help struggling restaurants.Credit...Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

A financial lifeline for many restaurants during the pandemic, to-go cocktails are no more as of Friday, after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo abruptly ended New York’s coronavirus emergency order, and the state’s liquor authority shut down off-premises rights.

Over the past year, the drinks were allowed under a new rule from the New York State Liquor Authority that was intended to help struggling restaurants during a time of uncertainty.

With vaccinations topping 70 percent in New York and coronavirus cases on the decline, the governor rescinded the state of emergency on Wednesday, leaving many businesses that have not yet fully recovered economically with a surplus of supplies for the to-go drinks, as well as the drinks themselves.

Owners had expected the temporary exemption to last longer. Sother Teague, the beverage director of Amor y Amargo, a bar in the East Village, said he was stuck with bottles, tamper-proof caps and custom labels that would have allowed him to continue selling takeout cocktails for months.

“The emergency aspect of the pandemic may be ending, but the lingering injury needs time to heal,” said Mr. Teague, who in November opened General Store by Amor y Amargo close by, selling bottled cocktails. “To finally arrive at shore doesn’t automatically mean we are saved.”

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Global Roundup

Some British Olympians say they don’t want shots, and other news from around the world.

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Torchbearers during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Torch Relay in Gotemba, Japan, on Friday. As Japan prepares, some British Olympians do not want to be vaccinated.Credit...Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With the Tokyo Olympics set to begin next month after a yearlong delay, some athletes are hesitating about whether to get vaccinated.

Andy Anson, the head of the British Olympic Association, said that although most British athletes would have their second doses of a coronavirus vaccine before the start of the Games, a minority did not want to be immunized.

Mr. Anson, in an interview with the BBC, said that “nearly everyone” would have at least one dose and that “well over 90 percent” would be fully vaccinated by July 23 when the Olympics begin. But, he added, there were still some holdouts.

“There are individuals who didn’t want to be vaccinated, and we’re trying to convince them it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “But again, it’s not mandatory. People have got the right to choose, and we have to respect that. But it’s not necessarily that helpful.”

A spokesman for the British Olympic Association said that fewer than half a dozen members of the country’s delegation to the Games did not want to take the vaccine, adding that those cases involved “isolated issues of time scale, location and performance in respect of athletes’ activities.”

The challenge of bringing together thousands of athletes and support staff who will travel to Japan from around the world for the Games — as well as some domestic spectators — has been a cause for concern in the weeks leading up to the event.

Cases among athletes who have arrived in Japan have already been detected. Two members of the Ugandan Olympic team tested positive for the coronavirus this week, despite having been fully vaccinated and having tested negative before their departure.

Mr. Anson said that it would be “naïve” not to anticipate new cases of coronavirus infections involving British athletes in the Olympic Village, which has a capacity of 18,000, and that “contingency plans” were necessary to manage any outbreaks.

In other news from around the world:

  • In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received the first dose of an Iranian-made vaccine live Friday on state television. Mr. Khamenei, 82, sat next to an Iranian flag with his left arm bare as a medical worker in full protective gear jabbed him with the homegrown CovIran Barakat vaccine. Iran, with a population of 83 million, faces yet another wave of a raging pandemic that has killed over 83,000 Iranians. It has so far given at least one shot to just under 5 percent of its population, according to the Our World In Data project. The country has secured vaccines through the global Covax program and from China, Russia and India.

  • As coronavirus cases surge in the country, 18 regions in Russia have made vaccinations mandatory for employees in government offices, retail, health care, education, restaurants, and other service industry sectors in an effort to reduce infections. Only about 14 percent of the Russian population received at least one shot of the vaccine as of Friday, according to Our World In Data.

  • Travelers who enter Taiwan will no longer be allowed to complete their mandatory two-week quarantine at home, the island’s government said on Friday. Instead, they must do so in designated hotels or centralized facilities. And if they have spent time in the two weeks before entering in any of seven “high-risk” countries — Bangladesh, Brazil, Britain, India, Indonesia, Israel and Peru — they must stay in quarantine centers, not in hotels. The new rules, which take effect on Sunday, are meant to keep out the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Taiwan’s daily case counts have fallen somewhat over the past few weeks, though health officials say caution is needed to prevent a resurgence.

  • The Balearic Islands of Spain have been added to Britain’s list of destinations from which travelers do not have to quarantine upon return. The move is a boost to the summer season on the islands, including Majorca, Ibiza and Minorca, which are major tourism destinations in the Mediterranean. The revised British travel list also included Malta and will come into effect on June 30, London said.

  • The United States will provide three million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to Afghanistan, the White House said on Thursday. The vaccines, part of a pool of 55 million doses the United States was sending abroad, could be shipped as soon as next week to help counter an outbreak in Afghanistan, said Karine Jean-Pierre, a White House spokeswoman. The United States plans to withdraw its remaining troops and military contractors from Afghanistan in the next few weeks and President Biden met with the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, at the White House on Friday.

Lots of people turned to hobbies during the pandemic. Some even made money off them.

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Jenny Eisler started embroidering sweatshirts during the pandemic, since that’s what everyone was wearing. She expanded her product line and said she has netted $20,000 so far.Credit...Eric Striffler for The New York Times

The coronavirus spawned an army of sourdough seers, bakers, cooks, weavers, painters, gardeners and bird-watchers. For many, such hobbies have been a way to relieve boredom and stress, to give form to shapeless days.

Others, such as Jenny Eisler, 25, turned pandemic pastimes into income-generating ventures.

When New York City locked down last spring, Ms. Eisler was stuck in her studio apartment without much to do. So she ordered embroidery hoops, needles and thread on Amazon.

“The first thing I embroidered was the word ‘quarantine’ in green thread on my gray hoodie,” said Ms. Eisler, who works at an online fashion retailer. “I embroidered all my clothes,” she continued. “And then when I ran out of my own stuff to embroider I started embroidering things for my sister.”

Ms. Eisler decamped to her parents’ house in Scarsdale and began documenting her progress on Instagram. People started placing orders — 100 in the first few weeks — for tie-dyed custom-embroidered sweatshirts. “My friends all wanted them because everyone was at home and wearing sweat clothes,” Ms. Eisler said.

According to a recent survey by LendingTree, the online loan marketplace, close to six in 10 of the 1,000 respondents started a hobby during the pandemic; nearly half of them have earned money.

For some, it’s a pretty respectable figure. Ms. Eisler said that, so far, she has netted $20,000 from a product line that has expanded from sweatshirts to sweatpants, socks, baby blankets and onesies.

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Home renovations are loud and dusty, and they upend your life. But during a pandemic?

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Credit...Trisha Krauss

Millions of Americans decided that this past year was an opportune time to rip out some walls and build a new kitchen, bathroom or addition.

For those who muscled through and stayed in their homes while the work was underway, the experience was of a 24-7 construction site. With offices closed, conference calls took place against a noisy backdrop of hammering and sanding. So much for Zoom school when the Wi-Fi goes down without warning. Need a quick meal because the kitchen is gutted down to the studs? It’s not so easy when restaurants are closed for indoor dining.

Rajiv Surendra, a calligrapher and actor in his early 30s who is best known for his role in the 2004 movie “Mean Girls,” renovated the kitchen in his Upper West Side one-bedroom last year. He installed wainscoting, sanded cabinets, and made bracket shelves and a peg rail by hand. With his entire apartment turned into a work site, he had almost no space that felt like his own.

So he found something that could mentally take him away from a space he rarely left. Every night, he would spend two hours practicing the harp and the piano, teaching himself Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2. “That was a very good thing, for me to get my mind away from that stuff,” he said.

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