Coronavirus: The Hill and the Headlines, April 30 2021

In Washington:

• The Biden administration will ban most travel from India starting Tuesday amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the country. "On the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Administration will restrict travel from India starting immediately," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.  The move comes on top of international travel restrictions already in place requiring people to have a negative test result before coming to the United States. The move is not expected to apply to U.S. citizens.

• The White House said Friday that 100 million Americans are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said at a briefing that over 300 million doses have been shipped and 220 million shots have been administered. The average daily vaccination rate has begun falling, down from a high of 3.38 million on April 13, to about 2.6 million on Thursday, according to figures from Our World in Data. About 55 percent of U.S. adults now have at least one vaccine dose; about 40 percent are fully vaccinated.

• President Biden on Friday in an interview said mandatory military vaccinations would be a “tough call.” Roughly 780,000 service members, or one-third of the total force, are partially or fully vaccinated, according to the Defense Department. But thousands have refused the shot. Because the vaccines were approved under the FDA's emergency-use authorization, military officials can’t yet mandate inoculation. National security advisor Jake Sullivan said Friday a vaccine mandate is under consideration.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that dozens of Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients experienced adverse physical reactions because of anxiety and not the vaccine itself, according to a report published Friday. The agency investigated clusters of anxiety-related events at five mass vaccination sites. Symptoms included dizziness, fainting, and vomiting. Researchers called on vaccine providers to be “aware” of anxiety-related incidents after the shot and observe all recipients for 15 minutes post-shot.

• Consumer spending and personal income rose sharply in March, according to data released Friday by the Commerce Department, driven in part by the recent coronavirus relief bill. Personal income rose 21.1 percent in March after falling 7 percent in February, thanks in part to direct payments and other aid in the relief law. Personal consumption expenditures, which drive roughly 70 percent of U.S. economic growth, rose 4.2 percent in March after falling 1 percent in February.

In the News:

• Los Angeles’s mass coronavirus vaccination site at Dodgers Stadium will shut down by the end of May as the city adds more appointment-free options, Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) announced Friday. Garcetti said in a press release that in addition to expanded options for city residents to get the vaccine, more doses will be distributed to walk-up centers and mobile clinics. The mayor said the plans to close the stadium site are part of an initiative to focus on community-based options. More than 420,000 doses have been administered so far from the Dodgers’ home field.  

• The gates to the Disneyland in California opened again on Friday morning for the first time in 412 days — the longest closure for Disneyland in its 65-year history. 

• San Bernardino County officials said most new cases are being seen in younger people aged 18 to 49, despite increased COVID-19 vaccinations and an overall decline in infections. While people aged 18-49 make up about 43% of California’s population, infections in the age group have accounted for greater than 57% — or more than 2 million — of the state’s total confirmed cases, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Authored by Ivan Zapien