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Apr112021 by adminNo Comments

Brazil’s virus outlook darkens amid vaccine supply snags

Technology

RIO DE JANEIRO -- April is shaping up to be Brazil’s darkest month yet in the pandemic, with hospitals struggling with a crush of patients, deaths on track for record highs and few signs of a reprieve from a troubled vaccination program in Latin America's largest nation.The Health Ministry has cut its outlook for vaccine supplies in April three times already, to half their initial level, and the country’s two biggest laboratories are facing supply constraints.The delays also mean tens of thousands more deaths as the particularly contagious P.1 variant of COVID-19 sweeps Brazil. It has recorded about 350,000 of the 2.9 million virus deaths worldwide, behind only the U.S. toll of over 560,000.Brazil's seven-day rolling average has increased to 2,820 deaths per day, compared with the global a...

There are some snags in free COBRA health insurance for unemployed. Here’s what you need to know

Finance

HRAUNLinda, a lawyer from California who was laid off from her job in January, is like millions of others in the Covid pandemic who are living without health insurance.But she discovered that the government would fully subsidize her COBRA health insurance premiums from April until September, thanks to a provision in the latest stimulus package. She immediately contacted her insurer to sign up. Linda (she asked not to use her full name) was eager to go to the doctor after contracting a painful urinary tract infection this month, which she feared could spread to her kidneys.The rules in the $ 1.9 trillion relief bill passed in March seemed straightforward enough: The government would pay for people's COBRA premiums for six months beginning on April 1. COBRA, or the Consolidated Omnibus Budg...

Italy enters 3-day Easter lockdown amid vaccination snags

Health

ROME -- Italy entered a three-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown Saturday to deter Easter travel and get-togethers even as the country's variant-fueled spike in new infections began to wane.The government had announced last month that it would place all regions into the strictest “red zone” lockdown over the Easter weekend to limit the chances of contagion, taking the same precautions it enforced over Christmas and New Year’s.Travel between regions and visits to relatives were being limited through Monday. Nonessential shops were closed and restaurants and bars were only open for take-out.“People are tired, but they are aware that protecting health is essential in these times,” said Maj. Fabio Palletta, a Carabinieri military police officer manning a checkpoint in Rome on Saturday, one of...