VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is happy to greet the faithful again in St. Peter’s Square for the traditional blessing of Sunday at noon after weeks of closing measures.
Italy later this month will begin to gradually lift some restrictions against the pandemic, allowing, for example, outdoor dining in cafes and restaurants in areas of the country where the outbreak of COVID-19 has been showing signs of improvement.
A couple of hundred people, including nuns and families, located at a safe distance from the vast square, came to see the pope speak from a window of the Apostolic Palace. “Thank God we can meet again in this square,” Francis said. “I have to say I miss the square.”
In recent weeks, Francis watched as he stood on a lectern inside the palace to deliver his comments on Sunday at noon via TV, radio and the internet.
“Thank God and thank you for your presence,” Francis told those who showed up despite the clouds threatening a downpour in Rome.
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VIRUS BROUGHT:
– The worldwide number of deaths from COVID-19 has exceeded the staggering 3 million
– AP PHOTOS: Photographers reflect on a single pandemic feature
– The fashion industry is evolving, as the virus forces us to rethink
– The clams continue to dig through the pandemic, but find less seafood
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Follow all AP pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
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HERE IS WHAT HAPPENS MOST:
JERUSALEM – Israel has lifted a public mask mandate and completely reopened its education system in the latest reduction of coronavirus restrictions following its massive vaccination push.
All primary and secondary grades returned to classrooms on Sunday and health officials ended the one-year requirement to wear a mask in public spaces. Masks are still required indoors and at large gatherings.
Israel has quickly inoculated most of its population against coronavirus in a world-leading vaccination campaign. It has lifted most coronavirus restrictions and announced last week that it would open the country to vaccinated foreign tourists starting in May.
Israeli coronavirus Tsar Nachman Ash told Israeli public radio on Sunday that removing the requirement for an outdoor mask and resuming studies in class was a “calculated risk.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, Israel has reported more than 836,000 cases of coronavirus and at least 6,331 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. More than 53% of its 9.3 million citizens have received two vaccines from the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
In the months since Israel launched its vaccination campaign in December, serious cases and deaths have plummeted and allowed the economy to reopen completely.
The Israeli-occupied vaccination campaign in the West Bank and Gaza has been slow to begin, and Israel has been criticized for not sharing more supplies.
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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has reported the highest death toll in a single day for COVID-19, accounting for the country’s total death toll from the pandemic near 162,430.
Federal authorities said Sunday that 149 new deaths were recorded in 24 confirmed hours. They also confirmed more than 6,000 new cases of coronavirus from the previous day, bringing the total confirmed cases from Pakistan to more than 756,285.
Pakistani authorities decided on Saturday to start vaccinating people aged 50 to 59 next week.
Pakistan has relied heavily on Chinese vaccines given or imported, which had only been offered to health workers and the elderly. But these groups have not responded in large numbers to the vaccination campaign, prompting officials to offer the vaccines to a younger cohort.
Pakistan, with a population of 220 million, expects to receive 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the UN-supported COVAX program next month.
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HUTCHINSON, Minnesota. – Prosecutors have charged a Minnesota man with an assault offense and allegedly attacked a home improvement store employee and a police officer after the store worker told him he wore a mask.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the incident began Wednesday afternoon when a cashier at a Menards in Hutchinson told 61-year-old Luke Oeltjenbruns that he could not leave unless a mask was put on, according to a criminal complaint . Oeltjenbruns tried to leave with his merchandise, which caused the cashier to grab his cart.
The complaint alleges that Oeltjenbruns hit the cashier with a piece of wood. Police later found Oeltjenbruns sitting in his van in the parking lot of another store.
After a slow-speed chase, officers surrounded his truck with his squadron cars, but he refused to leave. Agent Steven Sickmann got up from the truck’s operating panel and reached through the window. The complaint says Oeltjenbruns closed the window of the agent’s arm, trapping him, and left, crashing into the squadron’s cars.
The complaint says Sickmann tried to use a rescue hammer to break the window, but Oeltjenbruns pulled it out and hit him with his head.
Oeltjenbruns was finally arrested. The complaint says the officer’s injuries included a head injury.
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TORONTO – New pandemic restrictions imposed by Canada’s most populous province have immediately met with opposition. Police departments insisted on Saturday that they will not use new powers to stop drivers at random and health experts complained that the rules focus on outdoor activities rather than more dangerous indoor situations.
The government of Ontario’s Prime Minister Doug Ford announced Friday that it was giving police authority to require anyone outside the home to explain why it is out and to provide its address. Entries can be written.
But at least a dozen forces across Ontario, including the capital Toronto, said there will be no random stops of people or cars.
“We are living a horrible year of COVID-19 and all together. The (department) will NOT stop random vehicles for no reason during or after the pandemic, ”Halton police chief Steve Tanner posted on Twitter.
The new rules limit outdoor meetings to those in the same home and close playgrounds and golf courses. The decisions provoked widespread criticism in a province that was already closed. Restaurants and gyms are closed, as is the school in class. Most non-essential workers work from home.
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ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine who is eligible to receive more than $ 530 million in federal funding for helping the virus reserved for tribes more than a year ago.
More than a dozen Native American tribes sued the U.S. Treasury Department to prevent the money from falling out of the hands of Alaska Native corporations, which provide services to Alaska Natives but have no relationship from government to government with the United States.
The question raised in the case raised orally on Monday is whether corporations are tribes for the purposes of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which defines “tribes” under a 1975 law designed to strengthen their capabilities. to govern oneself.
The case has practical impacts. Native Americans have been disproportionately ill and killed by the pandemic, despite extreme precautions that included curfews, roadblocks, universal testing, and business closures, and have historically had limited financial resources. Not nearly $ 530 million of the $ 8 billion for the tribes has been distributed.
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HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe has begun releasing nearly 3,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty aimed at easing congestion to reduce the threat of COVID-19 in the country’s overcrowded prisons.
About 400 prisoners were released from Chikurubi Prison and other prisons in the capital, Harare, on Saturday, along with others from other prisons across the country.
Zimbabwe’s prisons have a capacity for 17,000 prisoners, but remain around 22,000 before the amnesty declared by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Those who had been released had been convicted of nonviolent crimes.
The amnesty will “go a long way” in reducing spending and the threat of the virus spreading to prisons, said Alvord Gapare, Harare’s prison commander. He said prisons in the capital had recorded 173 confirmed infections and one death.
Zimbabwe has reported 37,534 cases of COVID-19, including 1,551 deaths on April 17, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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RICHMOND, Va. – The first cases of the so-called COVID-19 variant from Brazil have been identified in two samples of Virginia residents, state health officials reported Friday.
In a press release, the Virginia Department of Health said a case related to variant P.1 was identified in an adult resident in the Northwest region who had a history of domestic travel during the exposure period. . The second case was identified in an adult resident in the eastern region with no travel history, the department said.
According to the department, neither case had COVID-19 vaccination records prior to the onset of the disease.