The women employment in the banking sector increased by 1407 in July-December period of 2023, and the overall perrcentage of women employees at banks stood at 16.37 percent in Bangladesh. Meanwhile just 13.51% of board members in the banks are women.  Bangladesh Bank’s (BB’s) latest report on gender equality revealed this information. There are 33346 women employees in 61 banks in the country, which is 16.37 percent of the total employees of banks, according to the report. The BB report shows that among the scheduled banks in 2023, 43 private commercial banks have the highest number of women employees 22,248, which is 16.32 percent of the total employees. Foreign commercial banks have the highest proportion of female officers, 24.18 percent as compared to other banks. In the period July-December 2023, the participation of women as board members was only 13.51 percent. Among them, foreign commercial banks have the highest female board member participation rate at 17.54 percent. Read more: Bangladesh's women empowerment showcased in Myanmar On the other hand, there is no participation of women board members of specialized commercial banks in the discussed period. According to the reports submitted by banks during the period July-December 2023 shows that the participation rate of women employees is higher at the entry-level 17.04 percent and mid-level 15.79 percent than at the higher levels 9.36 percent. Analysis of the obtained data shows that the participation of women in the banking sector is high at the initial stage. At the same time, the participation rate of female employees under thirty years of age 20.99 percent is more than double that of female officers above 9.58 percent in scheduled banks. Bangladesh’s place has improved by 12 steps in the gender gap report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2023, as women's employment increased in the country. The BB report shows that Bangladesh is holding the 59th position in 2023 improving from 71st in 2022 in the gender gap of WEF, among 146 countries in the world. Read more: PM Hasina keen to create more scopes for women in every sector: Nasrul Hamid Executive Director of CDP Dr. Fahmida Khatun said that women's employment is usually increasing with the developing socio-economic scenario of the country and decreasing the ratio of women's employment does not match that calculation. She focused on the need to study why the ratio of women employment has been decreasing in the banking sector. Bangladesh Bank’s spokesperson Mezbaul Haque told UNB that women's employment has increased in the banking sector following the central bank’s policy to reduce the gender gap in banks and financial institutions. The central bank prefers women both in employment and entrepreneurship development. Loan disbursement and interest incentives have been given to women encouraging them involved in financial inclusion. The BB is still working to ensure a sound environment in the workplace of banks. Facilities including maternity leave and daycare opportunities for women’s employees have increased, he said. Read more: Proven Passive Income Ideas for Women in 2024

In Bangladesh, we may expect that whatever comes out of the tap will be drinkable. The data, however, suggests a very grim reality. Bangladesh scored 26.90 out of 100 in the 2022 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), meaning the local tap water is one of the most dangerous in the world. Bangladesh ranked fifth in terms of access to safe drinking water in South Asia and 128th overall. In South Asia, Bangladesh is only ahead of Nepal (25.90), India (18.30), and Pakistan (15.30). Read More: On India’s shore, rising salinity means daily water struggle Meanwhile, Sri Lanka ranked first in the region with a score of 46.70, followed by the Maldives (41.2), Bhutan (31.5), and Afghanistan (27.80). The Yale University’s EPI index looks at the quality of drinking water in 180 countries around the world based on the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to exposure to unsafe drinking water. All of the countries on the list are ranked by a score from 0 to 100, with a score of 100 indicating very safe drinking water and a score of 0 indicating the most unsafe. QS Supplies, one of the UK's largest independent bathroom wholesalers and retailers, has used EPI and CDC data to create a new set of data visualizations to illustrate the severity of the situation and to flag the countries where it is and is not safe to consume the tap water. Read More: Dhaka for enhanced international cooperation for advancing Water Action Agenda   The data from the CDC suggests that the water coming out of the tap in Bangladesh is “not safe to drink.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than a quarter of the world's population lives in water-stressed countries, and a similar number uses a drinking water source contaminated with feces. These conditions cause diarrheal diseases including cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio to spread through drinking water each year. Common chemical contaminants include lead, mercury, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics. Read More: Momen for sustainable water management for promoting global peace, stability While the large cluster of 100-rated nations in the centre of the data visualization consists entirely of European nations, the 24 countries with the lowest rating are all in Africa. Among the 180 countries, there are only 50 that the CDC lists as having drinkable tap water. The US disease control agency discourages drinking tap water in much of Asia and Latin America and in every country in Africa. According to the CDC's safety advisory on tap water, no country in South Asia has access to drinkable tap water. Read more: How to Build Dhaka as a Water Wise City

Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely take a break from wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 is easing its grip, with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals. The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said. The agency is still advising people, including schoolchildren, to wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That’s the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of Americans live. The new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren’t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. And the agency says people with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive shouldn’t stop wearing masks. “Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news briefing. “We want to make sure our hospitals are OK and people are not coming in with severe disease. ... Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.” Some states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, are at low to medium risk while others such as West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida and Arizona still have wide areas at high levels of concern. Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Positivity rate declines further, 10 more die CDC’s previous transmission-prevention guidance to communities focused on two measures — the rate of new COVID-19 cases and the percentage of positive test results over the previous week. Based on those measures, agency officials advised people to wear masks indoors in counties where spread of the virus was deemed substantial or high. As of this week, more than 3,000 of the nation’s more than 3,200 counties — greater than 95% — were listed as having substantial or high transmission under those measures. That guidance has increasingly been ignored, however, with states, cities, counties and school districts across the U.S. announcing plans to drop mask mandates amid declining COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. With many Americans already taking off their masks, the CDC’s shift won’t make much practical difference for now, said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. But it will help when the next wave of infection — a likelihood in the fall or winter — starts threatening hospital capacity again, he said. “There will be more waves of COVID. And so I think it makes sense to give people a break from masking,” Noymer said. “If we have continual masking orders, they might become a total joke by the time we really need them again.” The CDC is offering a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow or green — to help guide local officials and residents. In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious. Orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal. How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community. Taking hospital data into account has turned some counties — such as Boulder County, Colorado — from high risk to low. Also read: Learning from Covid, Modi govt plans big AI push for disease surveillance across India Mask requirements already have ended in most of the U.S. in recent weeks. Los Angeles on Friday began allowing people to remove their masks while indoors if they are vaccinated, and indoor mask mandates in Washington state and Oregon will be lifted in late March. In a sign of the political divisions over masks, Florida’s governor on Thursday announced new recommendations called “Buck the CDC” that actually discourage mask wearing. In Pennsylvania, acting health secretary Keara Klinepeter urged “patience and grace” for people who choose to continue masking in public, including those with weakened immune systems. She said she’ll keep wearing a mask because she’s pregnant. State health officials are generally pleased with the new guidance and “excited with how this is being rolled out,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “This is the way we need to go. I think this is taking us forward with a new direction going on in the pandemic,” Plescia said. “But we’re still focusing on safety. We’re still focusing on preventing death and illness.” The CDC said the new system will be useful in predicting future surges and urged communities with wastewater surveillance systems to use that data too. “If or when new variants emerge or the virus surges, we have more ways to protect ourselves and our communities than ever before,” Walensky said.

The nation’s leading health officials said Wednesday that the U.S. is moving closer to the point that COVID-19 is no longer a “constant crisis” as more cities, businesses and sports venues began lifting pandemic restrictions around the country. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing that the government is contemplating a change to its mask guidance in the coming weeks. Noting recent declines in COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths, she acknowledged “people are so eager” for health officials to ease masking rules and other measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. “We all share the same goal – to get to a point where COVID-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives, a time when it won’t be a constant crisis – rather something we can prevent, protect against, and treat,” Walensky said. With the omicron variant waning and Americans eager to move beyond the virus, government and business leaders have been out ahead of the CDC in ending virus measures in the last week, including ordering workers back to offices, eliminating mask mandates and no longer requiring proof of vaccine to get into restaurants, bars and sports and entertainment arenas. Also read: CDC posts rationale for shorter isolation, quarantine Philadelphia officials on Wednesday said the city’s vaccine mandate for restaurants was immediately lifted, though indoor mask mandates remain in place for now. At Disney World, vaccinated guests will no longer have to wear masks at the Florida theme park starting Thursday. Professional sports teams including the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards and Capitals have stopped requiring proof of vaccine for fans. The most populous county in Washington — where Seattle is located — announced Wednesday it will no longer require COVID vaccination checks to enter restaurants, bars, theaters and gyms beginning March 1. Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said Philadelphia’s average daily case count had dropped to 189 cases per day in the city of more than 1.5 million people. Bettigole said the plunge in infections has been steeper in Philadelphia than elsewhere in the state or the country, making it easier to lift the vaccine mandate for restaurants and other businesses announced in mid-December and that just fully went into effect this month. “Our goal has always been to the least restrictive as possible while ensuring safety,” she said. In Provincetown, Massachusetts, a seaside town that became a COVID hot spot with an early outbreak of the delta variant last summer, officials on Tuesday lifted a mask mandate and vaccine requirement for indoor spaces like restaurants and bars. Town Manager Alex Morse said the community of about 3,000 recorded zero active cases last week among Provincetown residents — something that hasn’t happened since the surge following last year’s July 4 celebrations. “We are learning to live with, and mitigate, the impact of the virus on our community,” Morse said. COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have fallen sharply in the U.S., with the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases dropping from about 453,000 two weeks ago to about 136,000 as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Hospitalizations are at levels similar to September, when the U.S. was emerging from the delta variant surge. Almost 65% of Americans are fully vaccinated. “As a result of all this progress and the tools we now have, we are moving to a time where COVID isn’t a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat,” said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. Walensky said the CDC “will soon put guidance in place that is relevant and encourages prevention measures when they are most needed to protect public health and our hospitals.” She suggested any changes will take into account measures of community transmission, as well as hospitalization rates or other gauges of whether infected people are becoming severely ill. They also would consider available bed space in hospitals. Several states with indoor mask mandates announced last week they would be lifted in coming weeks, also citing promising numbers. Two music festivals that draw thousands of people to the California desert town of Indio in April and May, Coachella and Stagecoach, also said this week there will be no vaccination, masking or testing mandates in accordance with local guidelines. Coachella also noted that could change along with COVID conditions. In Philadelphia, Bettigole said the vaccine mandate helped spur “a very large” increase in pediatric vaccinations, pushing the city way ahead of the national average for first doses among kids ages 5 to 11. More than 53% of Philadelphia residents in that age group have received a first dose, compared to closer to 30% nationally, she said. Not all businesses plan to immediately change course. Philadelphia Irish sports bar and restaurant O’Neals will keep asking to see customers’ vaccination cards for now, said managing partner Greg “Spoonie” Rand, even though the city is lifting its vaccine mandate. “Guests are more compliant and employees are more happy for us to continue doing vaccine cards inside,” he said. He thinks vaccinated people will be wary of coming in if the pub stops checking cards. Walensky said the CDC wants to “give people a break from things like mask-wearing” when circumstances improve, though be able to mask up again if things worsen. She also said there will be instances where people should continue to wear masks even if prevention measures ease. Examples include when individuals have symptoms of COVID-19 or are within 10 days after being diagnosed with it.

Three studies released Friday offered more evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are standing up to the omicron variant, at least among people who received booster shots. They are the first large U.S. studies to look at vaccine protection against omicron, health officials said. The papers echo previous research — including studies in Germany, South Africa and the U.K. — indicating available vaccines are less effective against omicron than earlier versions of the coronavirus, but also that boosters doses rev up virus-fighting antibodies to increase the chance of avoiding symptomatic infection. The first study looked at hospitalizations and emergency room and urgent care center visits in 10 states, from August to this month. Read: Omicron cases rise to 55 in Bangladesh It found vaccine effectiveness was best after three doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in preventing COVID-19-associated emergency department and urgent care visits. Protection dropped from 94% during the delta wave to 82% during the omicron wave. Protection from just two doses was lower, especially if six months had passed since the second dose. Officials have stressed the goal of preventing not just infection but severe disease. On that count, some good news: A third dose was at least 90% effective at preventing hospitalizations for COVID-19, both during the delta and omicron periods, the study also found. The second study focused on COVID-19 case and death rates in 25 states from the beginning of April through Christmas. People who were boosted had the highest protection against coronavirus infection, both during the time delta was dominant and also when omicron was taking over. Those two articles were published online by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the third study, also led by CDC researchers. It looked at people who tested positive for COVID-19 from Dec. 10 to Jan. 1 at more than 4,600 testing sites across the U.S. Three shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were about 67% effective against omicron-related symptomatic disease compared with unvaccinated people. Two doses, however, offered no significant protection against omicron when measured several months after completion of the original series, the researchers found. “It really shows the importance of getting a booster dose,” said the CDC’s Emma Accorsi, one of the study’s authors. Read: Govt school in Chandpur charging students Tk 50 per jab of vaccine! Americans should get boosters if at least five months have passed since they completed their Pfizer or Moderna series, but millions who are eligible have not gotten them. “If you are eligible for a booster and you haven’t gotten it, you are not up to date and you need to get your booster,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday explained the scientific rationale for shortening its COVID-19 isolation and quarantine recommendations, and clarified that the guidance applies to kids as well as adults. The CDC also maintained that, for people who catch COVID-19, testing is not required to emerge from five days of isolation — despite hints from other federal officials that the agency was reconsidering that. The agency announced the changes last week, halving the isolation time for Americans who catch the coronavirus and have no symptoms or only brief illnesses. Isolation should only end if a person has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and if other symptoms are resolving, the CDC added. It similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine, from 10 days to five. CDC officials previously said the changes were in keeping with evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop. Some experts have questioned how the new recommendations were crafted and why they were changed amid a spike in cases driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. Some also expressed dismay that the guidelines allowed people to leave isolation without getting tested to see if they were still infectious. Also read: Snow storms and pandemic ground flights, delay holiday's end On Tuesday, the CDC posted documents designed to address those — and other — questions about the latest recommendations. The new guidance applies to school children as well as adults, the CDC said, responding to questions raised by school leaders around the country. In laying out the scientific basis for the revisions, the agency said more than 100 studies from 17 countries indicate that most transmission happens early in an infection. The CDC acknowledged the data come from research done when delta and other pre-omicron variants were causing the most infections. But the agency also pointed to limited, early data from the U.S. and South Korea that suggests the time between exposure and the appearance of symptoms may be shorter for omicron than for earlier variants. The CDC also took up the question of why it didn’t call for a negative test before people emerge from isolation. On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the White House’s top medical adviser — said the CDC was considering including the negative test as part of its guidance. Also read: FDA paves way for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations in young kids The agency said lab tests can show positive results long after someone stops being contagious, and that a negative at-home test may not necessarily indicate there is no threat. That’s why, the agency said, it was recommending that people wears masks everywhere for the five days after isolation ends. It did offer tips for those who have access to the tests and want to check themselves before leaving isolation. Dr. Eric Topol, the head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, accused the agency of furthering confusion. He agreed that it is appropriate to shorten isolation time, but only with testing. “We do need to come up with a strategy that limits isolation time, but we don’t want it to be one that’s adding to the spread of the virus and unwittingly leading to the virus circulating,” he said. Yale University’s Dr. Howard Forman said the updated recommendations were communicated poorly last week, but he also applauded the CDC for trying to be more nimble while dealing with limited science, a short supply of tests and an intensifying wave of infections. Under the previous isolation and quarantine recommendations, “it was obvious that ... society was literally going to be disrupted. If you expected people to comply with those (old) rules, you might as well have a lockdown,” said Forman, a radiologist who teaches public health policy. The agency acknowledged people weren’t following the longer recommendations: Research suggests only 25% to 30% of people were isolating for a full 10 days under the older guidance, the CDC said. The CDC also suggests that people exposed to the virus quarantine for five days, unless they have gotten booster shots or recently received their initial vaccine doses. The agency said anyone exposed — regardless of vaccination status — should get tested five days later, if possible.  

Most Americans should be given the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead of the Johnson & Johnson shot that can cause rare but serious blood clots, U.S. health officials said Thursday. The strange clotting problem has caused nine confirmed deaths after J&J vaccinations — while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don't come with that risk and also appear more effective, said advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The panel recommended the unusual move of giving preference to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and late Thursday the CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, accepted the panel's advice. Until now the U.S. has treated all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans as an equal choice, since large studies found they all offered strong protection and early supplies were limited. J&J's vaccine initially was welcomed as a single-dose option that could be especially important for hard-to-reach groups like homeless people who might not get the needed second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna options. Also read: Pfizer confirms COVID pill’s results, potency versus omicron But the CDC's advisers said during a meeting Thursday that it was time to recognize a lot has changed since vaccines began rolling out a year ago. More than 200 million Americans are considered fully vaccinated, including about 16 million who got the J&J shot. New data from unprecedented safety tracking of all those vaccinations persuaded the panel that while the blood clots linked to J&J's vaccine remain very rare, they're still occurring and not just in younger women as originally thought. In a unanimous vote, the advisers decided the safer Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are preferred. But they said the shot made by J&J's Janssen division still should be available if someone really wants it — or has a severe allergy to the other options. “I would not recommend the Janssen vaccine to my family members” but some patients may -- and should be able to -- choose that shot, said CDC adviser Dr. Beth Bell of the University of Washington. The clotting problems first came up last spring, with the J&J shot in the U.S. and with a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca that is used in other countries. Eventually U.S. regulators decided the benefits of J&J's one-and-done vaccine outweighed what was considered a very rare risk — as long as recipients were warned. European regulators likewise continued to recommend AstraZeneca's two-dose vaccine although, because early reports were mostly in younger women, some countries issued age restrictions. COVID-19 causes deadly blood clots, too. But the vaccine-linked kind is different, believed to form because of a rogue immune reaction to the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines because of how they're made. It forms in unusual places, such as veins that drain blood from the brain, and in patients who also develop abnormally low levels of the platelets that form clots. Symptoms of the unusual clots, dubbed “thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome,” include severe headaches a week or two after the J&J vaccination — not right away — as well as abdominal pain and nausea. Also read: US expands Pfizer COVID boosters, opens extra dose to age 16 While it’s still very rare, the Food and Drug Administration told health care providers this week that more cases have occurred after J&J vaccinations since the spring. They occur most in women ages 30 to 49 -- about once for every 100,000 doses administered, the FDA said. Overall, the government has confirmed 54 clot cases— 37 in women and 17 in men, and nine deaths that included two men, the CDC's Dr. Isaac See said Thursday. He said two additional deaths are suspected. The CDC decides how vaccines should be used in the U.S., and its advisers called the continuing deaths troubling. In comparing the pros and cons of all the vaccines, the panelists agreed that side effects from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines weren't as serious — and that supplies now are plentiful. Nor is J&J still considered a one-and-done vaccine, several advisers noted. The single-dose option didn't prove quite as protective as two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Plus, with extra-contagious virus mutants now spreading, booster doses now are recommended. For J&J recipients, a booster is recommended at least two months after vaccination. U.S. health officials had previously OK’d mixing vaccines for booster shots. Several countries, including Canada, already have policies that give preference to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. But J&J told the committee its vaccine still offers strong protection and is a critical option especially in parts of the world without plentiful vaccine supplies or for people who don't want a two-dose shot. While blood clots are rare, “unfortunately cases of COVID-19 are not,” J&J’s Dr. Penny Heaton said. The U.S. is fortunate in its vaccine availability and Thursday's action shouldn't discourage use of J&J's vaccine in places around the world where it's needed, said CDC adviser Dr. Matthew Daley of Kaiser Permanente Colorado. The FDA also warned this week that another dose of the J&J vaccine shouldn't be given to anyone who developed a clot following either a J&J or AstraZeneca shot. The committee also heard some of the first data on reported side effects of Pfizer vaccinations in younger children. Early last month, the CDC recommended a two-dose series for that age group, and more than 7 million doses have been given so far. But few problems have been reported. Of the 80 reported cases of serious side effects, about 10 involved a form of inflammation that has been seen in male teens and young adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans, opening a major new phase in the U.S vaccination drive against COVID-19. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on a series of recommendations from a panel of advisers late Thursday. The advisers said boosters should be offered to people 65 and older, nursing home residents and those ages 50 to 64 who have risky underlying health problems. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot. However, Walensky decided to make one recommendation that the panel had rejected. The panel on Thursday voted against saying that people can get a booster if they are ages 18 to 64 years and are health-care workers or have another job that puts them at increased risk of being exposed to the virus. But Walensky disagreed and put that recommendation back in, noting that such a move aligns with an FDA booster authorization decision earlier this week. The category she included covers people who live in institutional settings that increase their risk of exposure, such as prisons or homeless shelters, as well as health care workers. Read:CDC panel grapples with who needs a COVID-19 booster shot The panel had offered the option of a booster for those ages 18 to 49 who have chronic health problems and want one. But the advisers refused to go further and open boosters to otherwise healthy front-line health care workers who aren't at risk of severe illness but want to avoid even a mild infection. The panel voted 9 to 6 to reject that proposal. But Walensky decided to disregard the advisory committee's counsel on that issue. In a decision several hours after the panel adjourned, Walensky issued a statement saying she had restored the recommendation. “As CDC Director, it is my job to recognize where our actions can have the greatest impact,” Walensky said in a statement late Thursday night. “At CDC, we are tasked with analyzing complex, often imperfect data to make concrete recommendations that optimize health. In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good.” Experts say getting the unvaccinated their first shots remains the top priority, and the panel wrestled with whether the booster debate was distracting from that goal. All three of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. are still highly protective against severe illness, hospitalization and death, even with the spread of the extra-contagious delta variant. But only about 182 million Americans are fully vaccinated, or just 55% of the population. “We can give boosters to people, but that’s not really the answer to this pandemic,” said Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University. “Hospitals are full because people are not vaccinated. We are declining care to people who deserve care because we are full of unvaccinated COVID-positive patients.” Thursday's decision represented a dramatic scaling back of the Biden administration plan announced last month to dispense boosters to nearly everyone to shore up their protection. Late Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration, like the CDC panel, signed off on Pfizer boosters for a much narrower slice of the population than the White House envisioned. The booster plan marks an important shift in the nation's vaccination drive. Britain and Israel are already giving a third round of shots over strong objections from the World Health Organization that poor countries don't have enough for their initial doses. Read:‘Soul-crushing’: US COVID-19 deaths are topping 1,900 a day Walensky opened Thursday's meeting by stressing that vaccinating the unvaccinated remains the top goal “here in America and around the world.” Walensky acknowledged that the data on who really needs a booster right away “are not perfect.” “Yet collectively they form a picture for us,” she said, "and they are what we have in this moment to make a decision about the next stage in this pandemic.” The CDC panel stressed that its recommendations will be changed if new evidence shows more people need a booster. The CDC advisers expressed concern over the millions of Americans who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots early in the vaccine rollout. The government still hasn’t considered boosters for those brands and has no data on whether it is safe or effective to mix-and-match and give those people a Pfizer shot. “I just don’t understand how later this afternoon we can say to people 65 and older, ‘You’re at risk for severe illness and death, but only half of you can protect yourselves right now,’” said Dr. Sarah Long of Drexel University. About 26 million Americans got their last Pfizer dose at least six months ago, about half of whom are 65 or older. It's not clear how many more would meet the CDC panel's booster qualifications. CDC data show the vaccines still offer strong protection against serious illness for all ages, but there is a slight drop among the oldest adults. And immunity against milder infection appears to be waning months after people's initial immunization. Read: Biden aims to enlist allies in tackling climate, COVID, more For most people, if you’re not in a group recommended for a booster, “it’s really because we think you’re well-protected,” said Dr. Matthew Daley of Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Public health experts not involved in Thursday’s decision said it is unlikely people seeking third doses at a drugstore or other site will be required to prove they qualify. Even with the introduction of boosters, someone who has gotten just the first two doses would still be considered fully vaccinated, according to the CDC's Dr. Kathleen Dooling. That is an important question to people in parts of the country where you need to show proof of vaccination to eat in a restaurant or enter other places of business. Among people who stand to benefit from a booster, there are few risks, the CDC concluded. Serious side effects from the first two Pfizer doses are exceedingly rare, including heart inflammation that sometimes occurs in younger men. Data from Israel, which has given nearly 3 million people — mostly 60 and older — a third Pfizer dose, has uncovered no red flags. The U.S. has already authorized third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Other Americans, healthy or not, have managed to get boosters, in some cases simply by asking.

New US studies released Friday show the Covid-19 vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalisations and death even as the highly contagious delta variant swept the country. One study tracked over 600,000 Covid-19 cases in 13 states from April through mid-July. As delta surged in early summer, those who were unvaccinated were 4.5 times more likely than the fully vaccinated to get infected, over 10 times more likely to be hospitalised and 11 times more likely to die, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Vaccination works," Dr Rochelle Walensky, CDC's director, told a White House briefing Friday. But as earlier data has shown, protection against Covid infection is slipping: It was 91% in the spring but 78% in June and July, the study found. So-called "breakthrough" cases in the fully vaccinated accounted for 14% of hospitalisations and 16% of deaths in June and July, about twice the percentage as earlier in the year. An increase in those percentages is not surprising: No one ever said the vaccines were perfect and health experts have warned that as more Americans get vaccinated, they naturally will account for a greater fraction of the cases. Read: Global vaccine disparity gets sharper amid talk of boosters Rochelle said Friday that well over 90% of people in US hospitals with Covid are unvaccinated. The CDC released two other studies Friday that signalled hints of waning protection for older adults. One examined Covid hospitalisations in nine states over the summer and found protection for those 75 and older was 76% compared to 89% for all other adults. And in five Veterans Affairs medical centres, protection against Covid hospitalisations was 95% among 18- to 64-year-olds compared to 80% among those 65 and older. It is not clear if the changes seen over time are because immunity is waning in people first vaccinated many months ago, that the vaccine is not quite as strong against delta – or that much of the country abandoned masks and other precautions just as delta started spreading. But the US health authorities will consider this latest real-world data as they decide if at least some Americans need a booster, and how soon after their last dose. Next week, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will publicly debate Pfizer's application to offer a third shot.

The U.S. will restrict travel from India starting on May 4, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden’s administration made the determination on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read CDC says many Americans can now go outside without a mask “The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in the India,” she said. With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported 18.7 million Covid cases since the pandemic began, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry on Friday also reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount, but it’s unclear by how much. Read Around 6,000 Americans contracted Covid after being fully vaccinated, 74 died: CDC The U.S. action comes days after Biden spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the growing health crisis in his country and pledged to immediately send assistance. The U.S. has already moved to send therapeutics, rapid virus test and oxygen to India, along with some materials needed for that country to boost its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, a CDC team of public health experts was expected to soon be on the ground in India to help health officials there move to slow the spread of the virus. The White House waited on the CDC recommendation before moving to restrict travel, noting that the U.S. already requires negative tests and quarantines for all international travelers. Other restrictions are in place on travel from China, Iran, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa, which are or have been hotspots for the coronavirus. Superville reported from Philadelphia. Read Half of US adults have received at least one COVID-19 shot