WASHINGTON (AP) — A crucial question has eluded governments and health agencies around the world since the COVID-19 pandemic began: Did the virus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab?

Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has assessed with “low confidence” in that it began with a lab leak, according to a person familiar with the report who wasn’t authorized to discuss it. The report has not been made public.

But others in the U.S. intelligence community disagree.

“There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. government about exactly how COVID started,” John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday. “There is just not an intelligence community consensus.”

The DOE’s conclusion was first reported over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal, which said the classified report was based on new intelligence and noted in an update to a 2021 document. The DOE oversees a national network of labs.

White House officials on Monday declined to confirm press reports about the assessment.

In 2021, officials released an intelligence report summary that said four members of the U.S. intelligence community believed with low confidence that the virus was first transmitted from an animal to a human, and a fifth believed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab.

While some scientists are open to the lab-leak theory, others continue to believe the virus came from animals, mutated, and jumped into people — as has happened in the past with viruses. Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years — if ever.

CALLS FOR MORE INVESTIGATION

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the report. All 18 offices of the U.S. intelligence community had access to the information the DOE used in reaching its assessment.

Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, said she isn’t sure what new intelligence the agencies had, but “it’s reasonable to infer” it relates to activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. She said a 2018 research proposal co-authored by scientists there and their U.S. collaborators “essentially described a blueprint for COVID-like viruses.”

“Less than two years later, such a virus was causing an outbreak in the city,” she said.

The Wuhan institute had been studying coronaviruses for years, in part because of widespread concerns — tracing back to SARS — that coronaviruses could be the source of the next pandemic.

No intelligence agency has said they believe the coronavirus that caused COVID-19 was released intentionally. The unclassified 2021 summary was clear on this point, saying: “We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon.”

“Lab accidents happen at a surprising frequency. A lot of people don’t really hear about lab accidents because they’re not talked about publicly,” said Chan, who co-authored a book about the search for COVID-19 origins. Such accidents “underscore a need to make work with highly dangerous pathogens more transparent and more accountable.”

Last year, the World Health Organization recommended a deeper probe into a possible lab accident. Chan said she hopes the latest report sparks more investigation in the United States.

China has called the suggestion that COVID-19 came from a Chinese laboratory “ baseless.”

SUPPORT FOR ANIMAL THEORY

Many scientists believe the animal-to-human theory of the coronavirus remains much more plausible. They theorize it emerged in the wild and jumped from bats to humans, either directly or through another animal.

In a 2021 research paper in the journal Cell, scientists said the COVID-19 virus is the ninth documented coronavirus to infect humans — and all the previous ones originated in animals.

Two studies, published last year by the journal Science, bolstered the animal origin theory. That research found that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was likely the early epicenter. Scientists concluded that the virus likely spilled from animals into people two separate times.

“The scientific literature contains essentially nothing but original research articles that support a natural origin of this virus pandemic,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who has extensively studied COVID-19′s origins.

He said the fact that others in the intelligence community looked at the same information as the DOE and “it apparently didn’t move the needle speaks volumes.” He said he takes such intelligence assessments with a grain of salt because he doesn’t think the people making them “have the scientific expertise … to really understand the most important evidence that they need to understand.”

The U.S. should be more transparent and release the new intelligence that apparently swayed the DOE, Worobey said.

REACTION TO THE REPORT

The DOE conclusion comes to light as House Republicans have been using their new majority power to investigate all aspects of the pandemic, including the origin, as well as what they contend were officials’ efforts to conceal the fact that it leaked from a lab in Wuhan. Earlier this month, Republicans sent letters to Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, Health Secretary Xavier Beccera and others as part of their investigative efforts.

The now retired Fauci, who served as the country’s top infectious disease expert under both Republican and Democratic presidents, has called the GOP criticism nonsense.

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has asked the Biden administration to provide Congress with “a full and thorough” briefing on the report and the evidence behind it.

Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, emphasized that President Joe Biden believes it’s important to know what happened “so we can better prevent future pandemics” but that such research “must be done in a safe and secure manner and as transparent as possible to the rest of the world.”

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By Amber Dance

Pandemic escalated crises for people affected by disasters

COVID-19 has compounded the economic and psychological struggles of people already affected by tropical storms, particularly for low-income homeowners and people of color.

A new study details the double whammy suffered by Texans who dealt with the pandemic in the wake of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey and 2019’s Tropical Storm Imelda. Those previous disasters left them more vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. 

The survey, spearheaded by the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative and published in Environmental Research, found that people who lost income due to the hurricane were four times more likely than others to lose income during the pandemic, too. People severely impacted by Harvey were also five times more likely to experience pandemic-related anxiety.

Black and Hispanic people were more than twice as likely as white survey respondents to report having trouble with rent or bills during the pandemic.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has also impeded recovery from 2016’s Hurricane Matthew and 2018’s Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, report Hannah Shoenbaum and Gary D. Robertson at AP News. Labor shortages and supply-chain difficulties are slowing the rebuild effort, said officials.

The Children’s Environmental Health Initiative authors suggest emergency-response programs should consider how multiple crises can build on each other to affect health and wellness.

COVID worries decrease as WHO declares ‘end in sight’

As the U.S. case rate continues to decline, Americans’ concerns about the pandemic have dropped to all-time low, reports Julia Mueller at The Hill.

That’s according to the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, which found 57% of Americans are “at least somewhat concerned about COVID-19.” Nearly half of people surveyed said they’d returned to their pre-COVID activities, such as in-person gatherings and vacations.

In another sign that the focus on the pandemic is fizzling, Ipsos, which has been collecting data since March of 2020, says these latest polling data will be its last regularly scheduled installment.

“Most Americans have turned the page on the COVID pandemic,” Ipsos president of U.S. public affairs told Herb Scribner at Axios.

The COVID-19 Dashboard from Johns Hopkins also announced it will begin scaling back its work, mostly because fewer high-quality data points are available to aggregate. The dashboard will drop testing results, and while it will continue to update global case, death, and vaccination rates, it will do so daily instead of hourly.

Despite these changes, many Americans are still worried about catching COVID-19 at work, writes Zach Shonfeld at The Hill. New data from Gallup indicated that 33% of employed adults are very or moderately concerned about exposure at work, down just a bit from 36% last November.

Women, Democrats, and frontline workers reported the highest levels of concern.

A World Health Organization statement last week also indicated the pandemic is waning. The worldwide death rate is at its lowest since March 2020, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight.”

He added, “Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap all the rewards of our hard work.”

There are still nearly 400 Americans dying of COVID every day — mostly people older than 75 — and it’s possible fall could bring an uptick in cases, notes Arielle Mitropoulos at ABC News.

About half of wastewater sites being monitored for the coronavirus have shown an increase over the past two weeks, Mitropoulos reports.

Commission report skewers worldwide pandemic response

The global COVID response was a “massive global failure,” according to a group writing in The Lancet after a two-year collaboration that culminated in the report on “lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic,” released Sep. 14.

The problems they detail include World Health Organization delays in acknowledging the outbreak and airborne transmission of the virus; shortfalls in money and supplies for low- and middle-income nations; and lack of protection for vulnerable populations such as Indigenous people and people with disabilities.

“Over a year and a half since the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered, global vaccine equity has not been achieved,” said co-author Maria Fernanda Espinosa, former president of the UN General Assembly, in a press release. “In high-income countries, three in four people have been fully vaccinated, but in low-income countries, only one in seven.”

The authors recommend additional funding for the WHO and a “vaccination-plus” strategy that combines high vaccine coverage with public health measures.

However, the recommendations risk being overshadowed by the fact that the commission’s chairperson, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, has publicly supported the lab-leak theory of COVID origins, writes Dan Diamond at The Washington Post.

The report brings up “the possibility of a laboratory-related outbreak” in its second paragraph, and urges further investigation into both the lab-leak idea as well as a potential natural origin.

Most experts, including other commission members, say a natural origin for the virus is far more likely.

As for the role of the U.S. in the global response, the White House released a new framework last week to guide its efforts moving forward. The Biden administration plans to cooperate with other groups to further vaccination of people who are hard to reach or high risk; scale up testing and treatment; and prepare for future variants and viruses.

With these efforts, the government is aiming to bring an end to the “emergency phase” of the pandemic.

Will Novavax eliminate religious exemptions?

Since Novavax’s authorization, at least one employer is taking a new stance on religious exemptions to its vaccine mandate, signaling “a blow to vaccine holdouts in the workplace,” reports Sophie Putka at MedPage Today.

Many people who requested religious exemptions pointed to fetal material used to develop Pfizer’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, but this concern does not apply to Novavax’s protein-based shot.

Froedtert Hospital in Wisconsin has told people with previous exemptions to get vaccinated or resign, though employees may submit a new exemption application.

Anti-mandate advocates encourage people to raise other concerns, such “blood in the vaccines,” in their exemption applications. But these arguments are unlikely to hold up in court, experts told Putka.

Texas researchers report progress on variant-proof vaccine

Testing in small animals suggests a novel vaccine design from scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch could outsmart the ongoing evolution of the coronavirus’ spike protein, reports Corinne Purtill at the Los Angeles Times.

The team is using the same mRNA technology as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but with mRNA encoding two viral proteins: the spike, like other vaccines, plus a separate protein called the nucleocapsid. While the spike is constantly morphing, allowing new variants to evade immune responses, the nucleocapsid faces less pressure to evolve.

“We think of it as a one-time solution for all the COVID variants,” said senior author Haitao Hu.

Vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit, who wasn’t involved in the research, called it “a great idea.”

The researchers reported their results in Science Translational Medicine. Mice and hamsters immunized with their vaccine and then exposed to the coronavirus had less or no evidence of viral infection compared to unvaccinated rodents.

The vaccine, which is based on the original coronavirus, also showed evidence of working against the delta and omicron variants.

It’s unknown if the vaccine will work in people, and how long the immunity will last. The next step is to test it in non-human primates.

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The grim milestone, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents poised for a surge in new infections amid holiday parties and family gatherings forced indoors by a series of winter storms.

The first coronavirus case in California was confirmed Jan. 25, 2020. It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on Nov. 11 of that year, and 44 days from then to top 2 million.

California’s caseload is also ahead of other large states. Texas had more than 4.4 million and Florida topped 3.9 million as of Sunday.

California has recorded more than 75,500 deaths related to COVID-19.

The state has fared far better than many other states that are dealing with a coronavirus surge, with areas in the Midwest and Northeast seeing the biggest jump in cases and hospitalizations amid frigid temperatures that have kept people indoors.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists California as a place with “high” transmission of the virus, along with nearly everywhere else in the country. But in the last week California averaged 16.4 new cases per 100,000 people, less than a third of the national rate.

Meanwhile, coronavirus related hospitalizations have been rising slowly in California, up about 12% in the last 7 days to 4,401. That’s less than half as many as during the late summer peak and one-fifth of a year ago, before vaccines were widely available.

On Tuesday, San Francisco announced it was canceling its New Year’s Eve fireworks show because of the rising caseload, while Contra Costa County in the Bay Area announced that it would require masks to be worn in all public indoor places as of Wednesday. Previously, some vaccinated people had been allowed to remove them. The timeline of COVID-19 in America often comes back to California. It had some of the earliest known cases among travelers from China, where the outbreak began.

The Feb. 6, 2020, death of a San Jose woman was the first known coronavirus fatality in the U.S. That same month, California recorded the first U.S. case not related to travel and the first infection spread within the community.

On March 19, 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order, shuttering businesses and schools to try to prevent hospital overcrowding.

It is unclear how many of the newly reported cases were attributed to the omicron coronavirus variant. Much about omicron remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness.

Scientists say omicron spreads even easier than other coronavirus strains, including delta, and it is expected to become dominant in the U.S. by early next year. Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection but even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.

With cases surging, the nation’s largest state-based health insurance marketplace urged more than 1.1 million uninsured Californians to sign up by Friday for subsidized coverage that would then start with the new year.

Covered California said the average cost of an intensive care coronavirus hospitalization is $127,000, but estimated that 85% of those eligible for the state-brokered health insurance can get coverage free of charge, with government assistance.

Those who sign up after Friday will have their coverage start on Feb. 1.

AP News | Contributed

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s coronavirus death toll reached another once-unfathomable milestone — 70,000 people — on Monday as the state emerges from the latest infection surge with the lowest rate of new cases among all states.

Last year at this time, cases in the state started ticking up and by January California was in the throes of the worst spike of the pandemic and was the nation’s epicenter for the virus. Daily deaths approached 700.

The latest surge started in summer and was driven by the delta variant that primarily targeted the unvaccinated. At its worst during this spike, California’s average daily death count was in the low 100s.

Data collected by Johns Hopkins University showed the state with 70,132 deaths by midday Monday. It’s the most in the nation, surpassing Texas by about 3,000 and Florida by 13,000, although California’s per capita fatality rate of 177 per 100,000 people ranks in the bottom third for the U.S.

“There’s very little if anything ever to compare that to,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health secretary, said of the level of deaths.

”Take a moment of silence and reflection on what that’s meant for Californians,” he said. “Families that have lost more than one family member, key breadwinners, people who couldn’t protect themselves.”

The most populous state is in a much better situation as it enters the colder months this year. It has been a national leader in vaccinations while others who survived the virus acquired a natural immunity that also helps prevent severe illness and death.

Even if there is a new surge, “the level of life-altering behaviors may be different this time around than we saw last winter,” Ghaly told The Associated Press.

He does not expect California to lock down as it did last year with business closures, social distancing requirements and capacity restrictions.

“That is not what we’re talking about,” he said. “I think vaccines plus masks in certain (indoor) settings is going to be a significant support of us getting through anything that COVID throws at us in the future.”

A year ago, “there were all these debates, should we have Halloween vs. no Halloween,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco. “I think this winter is going to be a lot better than last winter, especially in California.”

More than 70% of Californians are now fully vaccinated and another 8% partially so, she noted. That compares to about one-third who had antibodies against the coronavirus in February, before the rollout of vaccines and as California was recovering from a surge that strained hospitals to the breaking point.

Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz, projects that the current level of immunity is still too low to avert another surge, particularly because people are tired of safety precautions.

Still, “it will primarily be those people who have not been infected before and those who are not vaccinated that will suffer the highest consequences,” Kilpatrick said.

California was the first to impose a statewide stay-at-home order, in March 2020, and that aggressive action by Gov. Gavin Newsom was credited by many with sparing the state from the kind of surge that devastated New York City early in the pandemic.

But later Newsom faced criticism that he was too slow to remove restrictions on businesses and activities. He ultimately faced a recall election last month and voters overwhelmingly chose to keep him in office.

Even as cases fell, Newsom recently announced the nation’s first plan to require all eligible schoolchildren to be vaccinated. The state also requires masks in school.

But the state’s local governments have been imposing and lifting requirements on their own, creating a confusing patchwork of regulations.

In Los Angeles County, a vaccine requirement just took effect for customers at indoor bars, wineries and a small group of other businesses. But in the city of Los Angeles, a far more aggressive vaccine mandate that applies to virtually all indoor businesses is set to take effect next month. No counties around Los Angeles County have such mandates.

In Northern California, San Francisco and several nearby counties announced plans to begin easing masking requirements as conditions improve. On Friday, Newsom called that “an encouraging sign,” while also offering caution about moving too quickly.

“This time last year we were experiencing not dissimilar optimism, only to experience that winter surge,” he said.

California has the lowest per capita rate of new coronavirus cases in the country. It is one of only two states that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rates as having a “substantial” rate of transmission, which is a step below the “high” rate that all other states have.

California recorded 67 cases per 100,000 people in the last week; the nation’s average is 195. And the state’s positivity rate in the last seven days was 2.5% while the country averaged 6.1%

The rate at which each infected person spreads the disease, known as the R-effective, has been dropping steadily in California since mid-July and now is at 0.78 statewide. Anything below 1 means the number of infected persons will decrease.

Statewide, hospitalizations crested at nearly 22,200 and ICU admissions at almost 5,000 in January. There are now about 4,100 hospitalizations and 1,100 intensive care cases, down from 8,220 and 2,100, respectively, a month ago.

Gandhi thinks California is nearing levels where it could lift most precautions and accept living with a virus that won’t go away but one that isn’t likely to kill or seriously injure most vaccinated people. She said California seems unlikely to lift restrictions until children 5-11 are widely vaccinated and there are improvements in the rest of the nation.

Meantime, the upcoming flu season will present its own challenges as health care providers test patients to sort out common symptoms from the coronavirus.

Ghaly said the state has been preparing for a crush of testing. Dr. Lee Riley, chairman of the Division of Infectious Disease and Vaccinology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, expects problems.

“We’re probably going to overwhelm the testing service,” Riley said. Moreover, he said the flu can make even vaccinated people more susceptible to lung damage and other severe symptoms.

With that caution, Ghaly predicted that this winter the vaccinated, perhaps while masked, can “continue to move around the cabin, if you will, and enjoy some of the things that last year we didn’t get to enjoy.”

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U.S. health officials may soon recommend COVID-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans. A look at what we know about boosters and how they could help fight the coronavirus:

WHY MIGHT WE NEED BOOSTERS?

It’s common for protection from vaccines to decrease over time. A tetanus booster, for example, is recommended every 10 years.

Researchers and health officials have been monitoring the real-world performance of the COVID-19 vaccines to see how long protection lasts among vaccinated people. The vaccines authorized in the U.S. continue to offer very strong protection against severe disease and death.

But laboratory blood tests have suggested that antibodies — one of the immune system’s layers of protection — can wane over time. That doesn’t mean protection disappears, but it could mean protection is not as strong or that it could take longer for the body to fight back against an infection.

The delta variant has complicated the question of when to give boosters because it is so much more contagious and much of the data gathered about vaccine performance is from before the delta variant was widely circulating. Delta is taking off at the same time that vaccine immunity might also be waning for the first people vaccinated.

Israel is offering a booster to people over 50 who were vaccinated more than five months ago. France and Germany plan to offer boosters to some people in the fall. The European Medicines Agency said it too is reviewing data to see if booster shots are needed.

WHEN WOULD THEY BE GIVEN?

It depends on when you got your initial shots. One possibility is that health officials will recommend people get a booster roughly eight months after getting their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Officials are continuing to collect information about the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was authorized for use in the U.S. in late February, to determine when to recommend boosters.

WHO WOULD GET THEM?

The first people vaccinated in the United States would likely be first in line for boosters too. That means health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were the first to be vaccinated once the shots were authorized last December.

BOOSTER? THIRD SHOT? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Transplant recipients and other people with weakened immune systems may not have gotten enough protection from vaccines to begin with. They can now receive a third dose at least 28 days after their second shot as part of their initial series of shots needed for them to be fully vaccinated. For those with normal immune systems, boosters are given much later after full vaccination — not to establish protection, but to rev it up again.

WHAT QUESTIONS REMAIN?

Still unknown is whether people should get the same type of shot they got when first vaccinated. And the nation’s top health advisers will be looking for evidence about the safety of boosters and how well they protect against infection and severe disease.

Global access to vaccines is also important to stem the pandemic and prevent the emergence of new variants. Booster shots could crimp already tight global vaccine supplies.

WHAT ABOUT THE UNVACCINATED?

Dr. Melanie Swift, who has been leading the vaccination program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says getting more shots into people who haven’t yet been vaccinated at all is “our best tool, not only to prevent hospitalization and mortality from the delta variant, but to stop transmission.” Every infection, she says, “gives the virus more chances to mutate into who knows what the next variant could be.”

“People who took the vaccine the first time are likely to line up and get their booster,” Swift says. “But it’s not going to achieve our goals overall if all their unvaccinated neighbors are not vaccinated.”

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Chen, a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, has long been a fixture of policy battles in Washington, advising high-ranking Republicans – notably 2012 Presidential nominee and current Utah Sen. Mitt Romney – along with serving as a Senate-confirmed appointee of President Barack Obama.

In the latter post, Chen was tapped to serve on the Social Security Advisory Board, which provides advise to the President, Congress and Social Security Administrator on policies related to the entitlement.

Now, he’s hoping to take his talents to Sacramento and serve as the state’s chief fiscal officer. The office of the Controller holds considerable power, not only to disburse taxpayer funds, but serve as a watchdog for government programs.

For Chen, the latter is a target rich environment in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, where fraud, abuse, and incompetence has led to a bungled unemployment benefits system, along with California’s stagnant and ever-pricier high-speed rail program.

“If they had been more aggressive at regularly auditing, I really think we wouldn’t be in the position we find ourselves in today,” he told the Associated Press regarding the state’s unemployment crisis.

Betty Yee is the incumbent state controller in California, though she terms out of office in 2022. In her first election to the job, she faced stiff competition as the California Republican Party attempted to ramp-up it’s then “bottom up” ballot strategy to elect former Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin to statewide office.

Swearengin lost the race by 7.93 percent.

The only other declared candidate is Democrat Malia Cohen, a member of California’s Board of Equalization.

Alex Tavlian | Contributed

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California ranked 35th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data .shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 10.4% from the week before, with 92,148 cases reported. With 11.87% of the country’s population, California had 5.61% of the country’s cases in the last week. Across the country, 28 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Many places did not report cases and deaths around the Fourth of July, which would shift those cases into the following week and make week-to-week comparisons inaccurate.

Kern County reported 163 cases and three deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 166 cases and three deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 111,111 cases and 1,408 deaths.

Across California, cases fell in 33 counties, with the best declines in Santa Clara, Fresno and Imperial counties. California ranked 12th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 61.9% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 54.9%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Sunday, California reported administering another 770,335 vaccine doses, including 384,216 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 833,443 vaccine doses, including 367,852 first doses. In all, California reported it has administered 43,082,412 total doses.

Within California, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Sierra, Lake and Del Norte counties. Adding the newest cases overall were Los Angeles County, with 2,999 cases; Sacramento County, with 649 cases; and Orange County, with 513. Weekly case counts rose in 22 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week’s pace were in Los Angeles, Orange and Sacramento counties.

In California, 61 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 254 people were reported dead.

A total of 3,820,921 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 63,650 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 33,717,567 people have tested positive and 605,526 people have died.

Mike Stucka | Contributed

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HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong says it will ban all passenger flights from the U.K. starting Thursday as it seeks to curb the spread of new variants of the coronavirus.

It said in a statement Monday that the U.K. has been classified as “extremely high risk“ because of the “recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the U.K. and the widespread delta variant virus strain there.”

More than 95% of COVID-19 cases in the U.K. are of the delta variant, which was first identified in India. Cases have spiked in recent weeks as British authorities have relaxed coronavirus restrictions, allowing indoor gatherings and businesses including restaurants, cinemas and gyms to reopen. Scientists say the delta variant is much more transmissible than previous versions of the coronavirus, although it is uncertain if it is more deadly.

Under the classification, people who have stayed in the U.K. for more than two hours will be restricted from boarding passenger flights to Hong Kong.

It is the second time that the Hong Kong government has banned flights from the U.K., following a restriction imposed last December.

Dr. Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester who previously worked in Hong Kong, said the ban makes sense from a scientific point of view.

“The U.K. has never been good at controlling the virus and overconfidence in the vaccine is likely now spurring this (latest) wave,” he said, adding it makes “perfect sense” for Hong Kong to ban travel from Britain.

He said previous surges of COVID-19 in Hong Kong have been tiny and that exported cases in a largely unvaccinated population would be worrying.

“They want to keep that Chinese territory as pristine as possible until they can persuade people to get vaccinated,” Tang said. “And that’s going to take a long time.” He estimated that countries need to have at least 80% of their populations immunized to stop the spread of the delta variant.

The ban comes amid heightened tensions between the U.K. and China over semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which was a British colony until it was handed over to China in 1997.

The U.K. has criticized China for imposing a national security law on Hong Kong and tightening control over its media, saying Beijing is undermining the city’s autonomy.

The flight ban was triggered by a policy put in place by the government to prevent coronavirus variants from spreading in Hong Kong.

A suspension of passenger flights is imposed if five or more passengers arriving from one place test positive on arrival for a particular coronavirus variant, or a relevant virus mutation within a seven-day period.

A ban is is also triggered if 10 or more passengers from one place are confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus via any tests, including tests conducted during quarantine, within a seven-day period.

The U.K. reported more than 22,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, while more than 66% of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Hong Kong, which for months imposed a 21-day quarantine for arrivals from most countries and implemented strict social-distancing regulations, reported three new cases of the coronavirus on Monday. It has confirmed a total of 11,921 cases since the pandemic began.

The U.K. flight ban comes as Hong Kong is looking to relax quarantine measures for most other countries, including the U.S. and Canada.

Several other countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, also face flight bans to Hong Kong.

Last week, the World Health Organization said the delta variant is the “most transmissible” variant identified to date and said it is spreading in at least 85 countries.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The coronavirus already changed the way we work. Now it’s changing the physical space, too.

Many companies are making adjustments to their offices to help employees feel safer as they return to in-person work, like improving air circulation systems or moving desks further apart. Others are ditching desks and building more conference rooms to accommodate employees who still work remotely but come in for meetings.

Architects and designers say this is a time of experimentation and reflection for employers. Steelcase, an office furniture company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says its research indicates half of global companies plan major redesigns to their office space this year.

“This year caused you to think, maybe even more fundamentally than you ever have before, ‘Hey, why do we go to an office?’” said Natalie Engels, a San Jose, California-based design principal at Gensler, an architecture firm.

Not every company is making changes, and Engels stresses that they don’t have to. She tells clients to remember what worked well — and what didn’t — before the pandemic.

But designers say many companies are looking for new ways to make employees feel safe and invigorated at the office, especially as a labor crunch makes hiring more difficult.

That’s what drove food and pharmaceutical company Ajinomoto to overhaul the design of its new North American headquarters outside Chicago last year.

Ajinomoto’s employees returned to in-person work in May to a building with wider hallways and glass panels between cubicles, to give them more space and try to make them feel more secure. To improve mental health, the company transformed a planned work area into a spa-like “relaxation room” with reclining chairs and soft music. A test kitchen is wired for virtual presentations in case clients don’t want to travel. And a cleaning crew comes through twice a day, leaving Post-it notes to show what’s been disinfected.

“Maybe it’s over the top, but maybe it provides comfort to those that have sensitivities to returning to an in-person work environment,” said Ryan Smith, the executive vice president of Ajinomoto North America. Smith estimates 40% of the new headquarters design changed due to COVID.

Shobha Surya, an associate manager of projects and sales at Ajinomoto, is energized by the space.

“The office gives you a balance of work and home life,” she said. “You are more focused here and don’t have any distractions.”

Surya said she’s also thrilled to be working alongside her co-workers again.

She’s not alone. Surveys show the thing employees miss most about office work is socializing and collaborating with colleagues, said Lise Newman, workplace practice director at architecture firm SmithGroup. Companies are trying to encourage that rapport by building more social hubs for employees. Some mimic coffee houses, with wood floors, booth seating and pendant lamps.

“Companies are trying to create the sense that this is a cool club that people want to come into,” Newman said.

Steelcase has divided one of its lobbies into cozy meeting spaces of varying sizes, separated by plant-filled partitions. Mobile video monitors can be wheeled in so that people working remotely can be included in discussions.

But after a year of working from home, some employees crave privacy, so Steelcase added more glassed-in booths for private calls and cocoon-like cubicles with small sliding doors.

Mark Bryan, a senior interior designer with Columbus, Ohio-based M+A Architects, expects a more fluid office culture in the future, with different places to work on any given day. Introverts might choose a small, private room; extroverts, a table in the office café.

Some office changes reflect a new commitment to hybrid work. Valiant Technologies, which provides tech support and other services to businesses, is letting its employees work primarily at home but has them reserve a desk for the days they want to come to the office. The New York company has removed rows of desks and put more space between the remaining ones. Employees leave their keyboard, mouse and headsets in lockers.

Megan Quick, a sales associate with Valiant, said she appreciated the company allowing her to ease back into office life this month.

“It will take a lot of time for us to readjust,” she said. “Valiant letting us set our pace for returning makes me feel safe.”

Not every design change will stick. Last summer, when Steelcase started bringing back some workers, they pushed tables in the cafeteria far apart from each other and only allowed one person per table. It made the space so depressing that no one wanted to sit there, Steelcase CEO Jim Keane said.

“An important lesson is that, yes, it has to be safe, but also has to be inspiring,” he said. “People are actually going to expect more from offices in the future.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California, the first state in America to put in place a coronavirus lockdown, has turned a page on the pandemic.

The nation’s most populated state lifted most of its restrictions Tuesday, meaning no more state rules on social distancing or capacity limits at restaurants, bars, supermarkets, gyms, stadiums or anywhere else.

And masks — one of the most fraught symbols of the pandemic — are no longer mandated for vaccinated people in most settings, though businesses and counties can still require them.

Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated the milestone by hosting a lottery-style selection of 10 winners who will get $1.5 million each simply for being vaccinated. It was the grand finale to the nation’s largest vaccine incentive — $116 million in COVID-19 lottery jackpots and cash card giveaways.

“Finally we are here, June 15th, to turn the page,” Newsom declared from a stage at Universal Studios Hollywood during festivities to mark what he called the “full reopening” of the state’s economy.

The Democratic governor pointed to the more than 40 million doses of vaccine administered and the resulting plunge in cases as the reason for the reopening.

“Foundationally, that’s why we’re here today,” Newsom said.

Just in time for summer, California wants to send the message that life is getting much closer to normal. The economy is fully reopen for the first time in 15 months and people can largely return to pre-pandemic lifestyles.

Fans can cheer maskless at Dodgers and Giants baseball games. Disneyland is opening to all tourists after allowing just California residents since April. People can pack indoor bars and nightclubs from the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles to the Castro in San Francisco.

Tourism was among the hardest hit industries during the pandemic and now wants to make up for lost time.

“In terms of our incredible cities, our iconic attractions, the industry is ready to roll out the red carpet to visitors in California, around the nation and even the world,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California.

Pandemic highs and lows saw California go from being a success story to the U.S. epicenter of the virus. As the first in the country to impose a statewide lockdown in March 2020, California’s businesses were just starting to reopen last June when cases started rising and restrictions were imposed again.

By summer’s end, a darker reality set in as California hurtled toward a deadly winter surge. Shutdowns, curfews and harrowing images from overwhelmed hospitals became the norm as the state set records almost daily for infections and deaths.

More people tested positive for the virus in California (3.8 million and counting) and more people died (63,000 plus) than anywhere else in the country, although the nation’s most populous state had a lower per capita death rate than most others.

California now has one of the lowest rates of infection in the country, below 1%. That dramatic drop in infections combined with an increasing number of vaccinated residents — over 70% of adults have had at least one dose — led Newsom to announce in April that most COVID-19 restrictions would be lifted June 15.

The reopening doesn’t necessarily mean people will immediately flock to places and events they once packed or that businesses will opt to return to full capacity immediately. But a palpable feeling of anticipation has replaced the anxiety, frustration and sadness that ushered in summer 2020.

For Angie Barragan, who was born in Los Angeles and visited last week from Las Vegas, so many things that were once normal feel new, awkward and amazing: strolling in public without a mask, socializing for the first time in ages.

“It’s kind of learning how to be a human again,” she said as she shopped and strolled on LA’s historic Olvera Street, a restored Mexican marketplace once clogged with tourists. “But it’s great to be among people.”

The reopening doesn’t mean the pandemic is over, Newsom has repeatedly stressed as an explanation for retaining his statewide emergency declaration.

Some public health measures will stay for “megaevents.” People attending indoor concerts, sporting events or other large gatherings of more than 5,000 people will have to show proof that they are vaccinated or have a recent negative COVID-19 test. Those going to outdoor events with more than 10,000 people are “strongly encouraged” to do the same.

While fully vaccinated people will no longer be required to wear masks in most places, those who are unvaccinated are expected to, but it won’t be enforced. Businesses have three choices: operate on an honor system, require customers to show proof of vaccination or require everyone to cover their face.

Many question if the honor system will work, including the California Nurses Association, which said the new rules essentially call on businesses and essential workers to be the vaccination police.

“This is not a sound public health strategy,” said Sandy Rending, a president of the association, which is calling on people to keep masks on indoors and in crowds.

For now, masks are still required in places like public transit, airports, health care settings and indoor school classes.

While applauding the reopening, some business owners said ever-shifting mask rules are confounding.

“We’re excited — and a little confused,” said Tom La Torre, owner of Sabella & La Torre Restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, a tourist haven that transformed into a ghost town during the pandemic.

Until now, his restaurant was limited to 50% capacity.

“That will be nice to fill the place up. However, we are still confused about the mask mandate,” La Torre said.

It’s also unclear if people will come.

For Rita Torres, a retired university administrator in Oakland, the last 15 months were “mindboggling.” She has missed dancing at live concerts and hugging her girlfriends at weekly happy hours. But for her, the reopening is just another day.

“Deep down, I want to rejoice,” Torres said, but she’s going to take it slow. “Because it’s kind of like, is it too soon? Will we be sorry?”

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