The Latest on COVID-19

Updated on May 3, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. PDT

According to data published on Friday, Russia had over 400,000 excess deaths between last April and this March during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of excess deaths is defined as the difference between the observed number of deaths and the expected number of deaths during a certain time period.
Los Angeles County reached a major milestone after it recorded zero COVID-19 deaths in a 24-hour period, according to the LA Times. It’s the most populous county in the U.S. and was a major hotspot for the coronavirus last winter.
As COVID-19 cases decline in the U.S., officials in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey are planning to ease restrictions. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted that many capacity restrictions and outdoor gathering restrictions would be lifted by the end of May.

We Eradicated Polio from the U.S. with Vaccines. Can We Do the Same with COVID-19?

The push to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19 is running into difficulties. We looked at if there's anything we can learn from past vaccine campaigns that helped nearly eradicate diseases like polio...

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