The Washington Post. Coronavirus Updates.

Important developments in the pandemic.

By Ben Guarino  Email We’ll be off Monday, July 5 for the holiday. We’re also changing how often this newsletter is sent. Starting next week, Coronavirus Updates will arrive every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We hope this will make a richer, more comprehensive briefing that’s easier on your inbox. In the meantime, if you want to know any major coronavirus news as soon as it breaks, sign up for our national news email alerts. As always, The Post’s coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.   The latest The story of President Biden’s Covid-19 Response Team is largely a successful one, as Post reporter Ben Terris documents with this inside look at the White House’s efforts to combat the pandemic. But the Biden administration is coming up against its limits to stop the spread of the coronavirus: The decline in new cases is flattening out, vaccination rates are stalling and the more contagious delta variant has appeared in multiple U.S. cities.  There is now evidence the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine can protect people against the delta variant, the company said in a news release Thursday. Laboratory tests of blood taken from eight people showed strong antibody responses against the variant. Though these results have not yet been peer-reviewed, the data are expected to be published online in the coming days.  “This adds to the robust body of clinical data supporting our single-shot vaccine’s ability to protect against multiple variants of concern,” Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer Paul Stoffels said in a statement. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have fared similarly well against the variant in lab studies, suggesting all three Food and Drug Administration-authorized vaccines should defend against delta.  That variant, which has now spread worldwide, was first identified in India and fueled a severe surge there. India’s official death toll from the pandemic in surpassed 400,000 Friday, though experts say that this figure is unlikely to include all of those who have died from the virus. New cases in India appear to have peaked. Australia is moving aggressively to halt the spread of the virus and the delta variant in particular. Many residents are in lockdown. And Australians attempting to enter their own country face mounting obstacles: Airlines are ceasing flights. Officials are limiting the number of people who are able to enter the country to 3,000 people per week, starting July 14. These restrictions, plus the high costs of airfare and mandated hotel quarantine, have kept some Australians from seeing their families. One dual citizen living overseas called the inability to visit her sons in Melbourne “truly devastating.” Other important news Tourists are making these picturesque French parks so crowded that the destinations’ caretakers have embarked on “de-marketing” campaigns to dissuade more people from visiting. The U.S. economy showed strong signs of recovery in June, adding 850,000 jobs. Average wages jumped, too — the leisure and hospitality sector, in particular, experienced increases in both jobs and wages. Covid wards in the D.C. area are almost empty, and some doctors are taking time off for the first time since March 2020. They credit the vaccines.   Guide to the pandemic Track confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. and the spread around the world. U.S. vaccine distribution and delivery, tracked by state. Guides: Finding vaccine appointments | Vaccines | Variants | Masks Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story or newsletter.    Your questions, answered “I contracted the coronavirus in early November 2020. I was very ill but luckily did not have to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, however, I developed a lingering cough that I can’t get rid of. I’ve been to my primary physician who prescribed a cough syrup that is a temporary fix. I have to sleep sitting up or else I have ‘coughing fits.’ Is this a symptom of a ‘long hauler’? Am I stuck with this cough forever or are there doctors treating the aftereffects of coronavirus?” — Irene in Maryland We’re sorry to hear about your persistent cough. Since we’re journalists, not doctors, we’re not in a position to diagnose whether your particular cough is a lingering symptom of covid, also known as long covid. That said: People who experience long covid report a variety symptoms, and, yes, cough can be one of them. The most common post-covid conditions that last for at least four weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also include fatigue, difficulty thinking, headache, fever and muscle pain. A severe covid-19 case can cause scarring or other lung damage, which can result in breathing problems even after the virus has been cleared from the body. As for ways to reduce the effects of long covid, anecdotally, a few people have said their persistent covid symptoms were relieved after vaccination. Scientists are still collecting data on this.  There are doctors, too, who are specifically helping people with long covid recover. This week, Scientific American profiled the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s COVID Recovery Clinic, which opened in February. It is one of a few dozen long covid specialty clinics in the United States.  The Chapel Hill clinic is, right now, designed to treat patients over 18 who’ve had covid and persistent symptoms for at least four weeks. “We’ve focused our efforts on people who have a confirmed history of covid so we can better use our resources within the clinic. And we’ve changed the evaluation measures to better target the people we see,” the clinic’s co-director John Baratta told Scientific American.  Studies will continue to follow long covid patients as the worst of the pandemic wanes in the United States. Earlier this year, the National Institutes of Health launched a program to follow these patients as part of a $1.15 billion congressionally funded initiative.  That will help address the many questions surrounding this syndrome, but those results will take time to collect. Some medical experts argue that the country is, in the meantime, ill-prepared to help long covid patients — as two researchers said in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday, this “is our next public health disaster in the making.”