The Senate confirmed a soft-spoken physician as President Joe Biden’s surgeon general Tuesday. While Dr. Vivek Murthy says ending the coronavirus pandemic is his top priority, he’s also raised concerns over a relapsing opioid overdose crisis. The vote on Murthy was 57-43, giving him bipartisan support. Biden’s coronavirus response can already count on plenty of star players, but Murthy has a particular niche. As a successful author he’s addressed issues of loneliness and isolation that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. For Murthy, this will be his second tour as America’s doctor, having previously served under former President Barack Obama. COVID-19 has taken the lives of several members of Murthy’s extended family.

As Israelis stream to the polls on Tuesday, the coronavirus situation in the country continues to dramatically improve, with the number of seriously ill patients falling below 500 for the first time since December. The Health Ministry confirmed 942 new coronavirus patients on Tuesday, with tests showing a positivity rate of only 1.6%. The basic reproduction or R number has decreased to 0.6. There are currently 499 seriously ill virus patients, including 255 in critical condition. The death toll has risen to 6,114. Over 5.1 Israelis have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine (55.80% of the population), and over 4.6 million have been fully vaccinated. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The number of Floridians eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine expanded on Monday as the state allowed anybody age 50 and up to get the shot, and the county that is home to the state’s biggest theme parks set the bar even lower by allowing anyone age 40 and up to get an injection. With the loosening of the statewide qualifications, more than a third of Floridians were now eligible to get a vaccine solely based on age at all vaccination sites in the state. Starting Monday, Orange County expanded the age eligibility a decade lower than the statewide requirement at its county-run facility at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Reservations were required for the drive-thru site at the convention center, and 7,000 appointments were filled within 13 minutes, officials said.

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against sickness and eliminated hospitalizations and deaths from the disease across all age groups in a late-stage study in the United States, the company announced Monday. AstraZeneca said its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including finding no increased risk of rare blood clots identified in Europe. Although AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been authorized in more than 50 countries, it has not yet been given the green light in the U.S. — and has struggled to gain public trust amid a troubled rollout. The study comprised more than 30,000 volunteers, of whom two-thirds were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots.

A new Israeli study found that the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus is highly effective in protecting pregnant women. A Yisrael Hayom report last week said that the study, carried out by the Kupat Cholim Maccabi on two-thirds of the Kupah’s pregnant clients, shows that the vaccine is 97% effective in protecting pregnant women. The percentage of unvaccinated pregnant women who contracted the coronavirus while pregnant was 8.1% versus 0.05% of the vaccinated pregnant women. All of the 62 pregnant women who have been hospitalized with the coronavirus in Israel (of whom 41 are still hospitalized) were unvaccinated. Two Arab-Israeli sisters, aged 23 and 31, recently passed away within three weeks of each other after contracting the coronavirus while pregnant.

In a landmark ruling, the Tel Aviv Labor Court on Sunday denied a petition filed by a teaching assistant to overturn a decision by a local council to ban her from entering the school where she is employed without being vaccinated or presenting a negative virus test. “The local authority is responsible for the health of students, their families, and the teaching staff and the teaching assistant’s rights do not outweigh that,” the judge wrote in the ruling. The petition was filed by a teaching assistant at the Nof Tzurim school for children with special needs in the Kochav Yair-Tsur Yigal local council.

U.S. health officials are relaxing social distancing recommendations for schools, saying students can sit as close as 3 feet apart in classrooms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, announced Friday, signal the agency’s turn away from the 6-foot distancing recommendation. The new guidelines advise at least 3 feet of space between desks in elementary schools, even in towns and cities where community spread is high, so long as students and teachers wear masks and take other precautions. It recommends 3 feet in middle and high schools, so long as there’s not a high level of spread in the community. If there is, spacing should be at least 6 feet.

The scientist who won the race to deliver the first widely used coronavirus vaccine says people can rest assured the shots are safe, and the technology behind it will soon be used to fight another global scourge – cancer. Ozlem Tureci, who co-founded the German company BioNTech with her husband, was working on a way to harness the body’s immune system to tackle tumors when they learned last year of an unknown virus infecting people in China. Over breakfast, the couple decided to apply the technology they’d been researching for two decades to the new threat, dubbing the effort “Project Lightspeed.” Within 11 months, Britain had authorized the use of the mRNA vaccine BioNTech developed with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, followed a week later by the United States.

The U.K. says half of the country’s adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, a milestone in the government’s drive to reach everyone over age 18 by the end of July. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Saturday that more people received injections on Friday than any day since the country’s vaccination program began in early December. “It’s a huge success,” Hancock said in a video posted on Twitter. “And I want to say many, many thanks to all those involved, including the half of all adults who have come forward. It’s so important because this vaccine is our way out of this pandemic.” But the celebration comes amid growing concerns about the failure of wealthy countries to share scarce vaccine supplies with developing nations.

At last it’s official after countless unsourced news reports and rumors: spectators from abroad will be barred from the postponed Tokyo Olympics when they open in four months. The decision was announced Saturday after an online meeting of the International Olympic Committee, the Japanese government, the Tokyo government, the International Paralympic Committee, and local organizers. Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during a pandemic. The Japanese public has also opposed fans from abroad. Several surveys have shown that up to 80% oppose holding the Olympics, and a similar percentage opposed fans from overseas attending. Japan has attributed about 8,800 deaths to COVID-19 and has controlled the virus better than most countries.