Covid variant news: Moderna gives update on Covid vaccine coming this fall as cases rise across the US and Canada

Republican senator J.D. Vance of Ohio has introduced a bill called the “Freedom to Breathe Act”, which aims to ban mask mandates on planes and in schools.

The bill would make it impossible for airline employees to “refuse transportation to a passenger on the basis that the passenger refuses to wear a mask or comply with a mask mandate while travelling in the national airspace system”.

Infectious disease experts criticised the move. Amesh Adalja, MD, a biosecurity expert at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, tweeted, “This is just political pandering”.

The White House announced Monday that Jill Biden tested positive for Covid-19 and would isolate in the Bidens’ Rehoboth, Delaware, home. President Biden was tested Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; each test was negative.

The president is set to visit India for the Group of 20 (G20) summit and Vietnam in the coming days. So far, the White House has not announced any changes to his travel schedule.

With Covid cases on the rise in much of Canada, officials are signalling that the public should be on alert. The government’s health authorities tweeted that residents need to be aware of the spread of respiratory viruses, including Covid, as they head into fall and spend more time indoors.

New York state will make test kits and masks available to school districts as concerns over rising Covid-19 cases grow.

“This comes amid reports of the new BA.2.86 variant and following a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations this summer,” the statement said. It went on to say that Governor Hochul is recommending that schools follow Covid-19 guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Frequent testing for COVID-19 is an important part of keeping our kids safe and preventing an outbreak,” she said in the statement.

Hospital admissions from Covid infections are rising in much of the country, including parts of Florida, Alabama, Montana, Texas, and Wyoming, per the latest CDC data.

As of 6 September the weekly change in cases was 3,565, and there were 23,381 weekly tests reported.

President Biden’s plans to travel to India and Vietnam will not change, despite his wife’s recent Covid diagnosis, the White House said. He is scheduled to depart for the Group of 20 leaders’ summit Thursday.

The First Lady has remained in Delaware since testing positive and is isolating in compliance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Former First Assistant Attorney General Jeff Mateer testified Wednesday that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton used his state’s Covid response plan to benefit a campaign donor in 2020, according to reporting from The Hill.

Attorney General Paxton—who could be removed from office and is facing 16 counts of official corruption—allegedly misused Texas’s Covid response plan to benefit indicted real estate investor Nate Paul, based in Austin.

During Paxton’s impeachment trial, Mateer accused him of shutting down foreclosures to protect Paul’s interests in properties across the state. This, Mateer said, was antithetical to the state’s Covid response plan, which was meant to keep churches, entertainment centres, and other establishments open during the pandemic.

A Maryland elementary school will require students to wear masks for 10 days after multiple students tested positive for Covid, according to reporting from WUSA9.

School principal Irwin Kennedy said in a letter that at least three students had tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday.

Students must wear masks unless they are eating or drinking; following the 10-day period, masks will become optional again.

A baby’s eyes changed colour after he was given a Covid antiviral treatment that has not been authorised or approved in the US.

The six-month-old was given the drug in Thailand after he developed a cough and fever — both symptoms of Covid-19 — and tested positive for the virus.

A report on the baby’s case, published in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics, states that the baby was the youngest known patient to receive favipiravir, which has been studied in China, Japan, Italy, Canada, Egypt, Thailand, Iran, the UK and the US.