WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Biden administration continues to support phase two of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus despite China's decision to reject the probe, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Thursday.
"The US supports the WHO plan for phase two, which commits to ensuring these studies are scientific, transparent, expert-led, and free from interference. We have certainly seen the PRC’s [China's] comments, again, rejecting phase two of the WHO study. We are deeply disappointed. Their position is irresponsible, and frankly, dangerous", Psaki said during a press conference.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Biden administration has allocated $3 billion to invest in economically-disadvantaged communities, particularly those unduly hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Thursday.
The Economic Development Administration plan, or EDA, is the largest of its kind initiated by the Commerce Department in decades, Raimondo said in a statement.
"EDA’s investments, made possible by the American Rescue Plan, will directly benefit communities that have been denied full access to economic prosperity and who have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic," she said.
TOKYO (Sputnik) - The Dutch Olympic team remains calm and collected despite detection of COVID-19 cases among its members, the leader of the Netherlands' delegation in Tokyo, Pieter van den Hoogenband, said on Thursday.
A total of three people — two athletes and a staffer of the Dutch rowing team who wished to remain anonymous — tested positive for COVID-19. For skateboarder Candy Jacobs and taekwondo fighter Reshmie Oogink, the infection means they will not be able to participate in the iconic global competition this year.
"It is clear that everyone would like to avoid such a scenario, but we are ready for it. There is a calm atmosphere in the team. Everyone knows what to do and that they do not need to panic, worry," van den Hoogenband was quoted as saying by Dutch newspaper AD.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US jobless claims rose by 14 percent to 419,000 last week, according to Labour Department data on Thursday that suggested a continued challenge for the fragile labour market recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"In the week ending 17 July, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 419,000, an increase of 51,000 from the previous week's revised level", the Labour Department said in a statement.
Economists polled by US media had anticipated 350,000 jobless claims filings for the week hat ended on 17 July.
"It certainly is disappointing to have the jobless claims move higher, and back above the 400,000 level", economist Greg Michalowski said in a post on ForexLive. "As a result, it puts a negative initial spin for that number."
Continuing claims for the week that ended on 26 June - reported with a one-week lag - was at 3.24 million versus the 3.27 million reading for the week to 10 July.
The modest change in continuing claims left the weekly reading for unemployment unchanged at 2.4 percent.
More than a year into the coronavirus crisis, restoring job growth remains one of the main concerns of US policy makers.
The Labor Department said there were only 850,000 job additions for June. But as a whole, the United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April 2020, at the height of business lockdowns forced by the coronavirus measures. More than 7 million of those jobs have yet to return, officials say.
The US economy itself shrank 3.5 percent in 2020, although first quarter data for 2021 showed a dynamic rebound of 6.4 percent.
The Federal Reserve has forecast a 6.5 percent economic growth for all of 2021 although Jerome Powell, chairman of the central bank, says he does not expect "full employment" - defined by a monthly unemployment rate of 4 percent or lower - to occur anytime soon. The monthly unemployment rate stood at 5.9 percent in June.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - A total of 200 million people in the European Union have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which amounts to almost 55% of the adult population, European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant said on Thursday.
"As of now, 200 million people, or 54.7% of adult population, have been fully vaccinated in the EU. A total of 68.4% of the adult EU population have received at least one dose of the vaccine. These are great figures, but it is very much important to see proportionate vaccination throughout the EU", Spinant said at a briefing.
It was reported earlier that Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia have lower vaccination level than other EU member states.
The bloc seeks having 70% of adult population fully vaccinated by the end of the month.
BERLIN (Sputnik) - Germany could start preparing tougher measures against COVID-19 in light of a sharp increase in new cases, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Thursday.
"This is already possible, and some lands have already adopted relevant resolutions. I want to note that it is already possible to promote the introduction of additional measures amid growing incidence. I will say once again that we can study ... when the healthcare system will be overloaded", Merkel said at her annual summer press conference.
Germany is again seeing an "exponential" increase in new cases, chiefly those of the Delta strain, the chancellor added.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) -Russia registered 24,471 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, up from 23,704 the day before, taking the overall tally to 6,054,711, the federal response centre said on Thursday.
"Over the past day, 24,471 COVID-19 cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 2,417 cases (9.9%) without clinical symptoms", the centre said, adding that the rate of increase grew to 0.41%.
Moscow has the highest number of new cases with 4,287 daily infections, up from 3,254 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 1,943 cases, up from 1,939, and the Moscow region with 1,835 cases, down from 2,161.
The response centre reported 796 new deaths linked to the coronavirus, up from 783 the day before, raising the country's total death toll to 151,501.
In the same 24 hours, 22,660 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals across the country, up from 22,584 the day before, bringing the total to 5,427,457.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik) – India has confirmed 41,383 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 31,257,720, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.
The death toll from the disease has reached 418,987 people, with 507 new fatalities being recorded over the past day.
More than 30.42 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 42,015 new coronavirus cases, with 3,998 fatalities.
