Coronavirus daily news updates, May 10: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world – The Seattle Times

Susan Rice, the White House domestic policy adviser, has become the latest member of the Biden administration to report testing positive for the coronavirus, announcing Monday on Twitter that she had received the result that morning.

Rice is among a handful of high-ranking officials and members of the media who have tested positive for the coronavirus, renewing concern about Biden’s potential exposure.

On Wednesday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who attended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner April 30, had tested positive. A spokesperson for the department said that Blinken, who had mild symptoms, had not seen Biden in several days.

George Cheeks, the president and CEO of CBS, tested positive Thursday; he had been sitting beside Biden at the dinner, the network confirmed Friday.

Many had questioned whether it was advisable to pack 2,600 people into a windowless hotel ballroom. Proof of vaccination and a same-day negative test were required and boosters were strongly encouraged, but masks were optional.

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The city of Shanghai is doubling down on pandemic restrictions after a brief period of loosening up, frustrating residents who were hoping a more than monthlong lockdown was finally easing as the number of new cases falls in China’s financial center.

On Tuesday, service was suspended on the last two subway lines that were still operating, marking the first time the city’s entire system has been shut down, according to The Paper, an online media outlet.

Teams in white protective suits have begun entering the homes of coronavirus-infected people to spray disinfectant, prompting worries among some about damage to clothes and valuables, and about leaving their keys with a community volunteer when they are taken to quarantine — a new requirement so disinfectant workers can get in.

In some areas, people have been ordered to stay in their homes again for a “quiet period” after being let out for limited shopping in recent weeks.

China’s adherence to a “zero-COVID” strategy, as many other countries loosen restrictions and try to live with the virus, is exacting a growing economic and human cost. Evermore extreme measures have been required to bring outbreaks under control because the omicron variant spreads so easily. China’s ruling Communist Party, with an eye on a major party congress this fall, is showing no signs of backing off anytime soon.

Fengxian district, a suburban area in southern Shanghai, entered a “quiet period” on Monday, with permits for residents to leave their compounds suspended and shops and supermarkets closed except for delivery, the Shanghai Media Group reported.

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As Anayo Mbah went into labor with her sixth child, her husband battled COVID-19 in another hospital across town. Jonas, a young motorcycle taxi driver, had been placed on oxygen after he started coughing up blood.

Jonas would never meet his daughter, Chinaza. Hours after the birth, Mbah’s sister-in-law called to say he was gone. Staff at the hospital in southeastern Nigeria soon asked Mbah and her newborn to leave. No one had come to pay her bill.

Mbah began the rites of widowhood at the home where she lived with her in-laws: Her head was shaved, and she was dressed in white clothing. But just weeks into the mourning period that traditionally lasts six months, her late husband’s relatives stopped providing food, then confronted her directly.

“They told me that it was better for me to find my own way,” Mbah, now 29, said. “They said even if I have to go and remarry, that I should do so. That the earlier I leave the house, the better for me and my children.”

She left on foot for her mother’s home with only a plastic bag of belongings for Chinaza and her other children.

“I decided that I might die if I continue to stay here with my children,” she said.

Across Africa, widowhood has long befallen great numbers of women — particularly in the continent’s least developed countries where medical facilities are scarce. Many widows are young, having married men decades older. And in some countries, men frequently have more than one wife, leaving several widows behind when they die.

Now, the coronavirus pandemic has created an even larger population of widows on the continent, with African men far more likely to die of the virus than women, and it has exacerbated the issues they face. Women such as Mbah say the pandemic has taken more than their husbands: In their widowhood, it’s cost them their extended families, their homes and their futures.

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Norwegian health authorities said Tuesday that the country has a surplus of COVID-19 vaccines and has already discarded more than 137,000 doses because there is declining demand in low-income countries.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said it plans a further disposal of doses if global demand does not change. In Norway there is high vaccine coverage while globally a demand for donations has fallen.

Earlier this month, health officials in neighboring Denmark said that 1.1 million excess COVID-19 vaccines would be discarded because their expiration date is near, and efforts to donate them to developing countries have failed.

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