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U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday came one step closer to his first major political victory: passage of his coronavirus economic relief package.What is it? A $1.9 trillion bill that Democrats said would help the country defeat the coronavirus and repair the economy. Republicans say it is more expensive than necessary. The measure follows five earlier virus bills totaling about $4 trillion that Congress has enacted since last spring.What is the latest? The Senate approved the pandemic relief package over Republican opposition Saturday by a party-line vote of 50-49.What’s next? The Senate made several changes to the bill, which was passed earlier by the U.S. House. Now the bill returns to the House for final passage, which could come early next week.How does it fight the pandemic? The bill contains about $14 billion to help distribute vaccines faster and get shots into arms quicker. It also provides $46 billion to expand federal, state and local testing, and enhance contact tracing.What’s in it for jobless Americans? It would extend the expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government through September 6 at $300 a week. The first $10,200 of jobless benefits would be nontaxable for households with incomes of less than $150,000.What about health care? It would provide a 100% subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums through September so that laid-off workers can remain on their employer health plans. It also would increase subsidies for insurance through the Affordable Care Act through the end of 2022.Will there be subsidy checks? Yes, a direct payment of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple who file jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full amount, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000. The size of the check would shrink as incomes rise, with a hard cutoff at $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.What about schools? The bill calls for about $130 billion in additional help to schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The money would be used to modify classrooms to allow more social distancing, install ventilation systems and buy personal protective equipment. The money could also be used to increase the hiring of nurses and counselors and to provide summer school.Will businesses receive help? It offers $25 billion in a new program aimed at restaurants and bars hurt by the pandemic. It also has $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, and it allows more nonprofits to apply for loans that are designed to help borrowers meet their payroll and operating costs and can potentially be forgiven.Can it help renters and homeowners? It provides about $30 billion to help pay the rent and utilities for low-income households and people who are unemployed, and to provide vouchers and other support for people who are homeless. States and tribes would receive an additional $10 billion for homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments because of the pandemic.  
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Pharmaceutical giant Merck and an American laboratory announced progress Saturday in the design of an oral drug against COVID-19. Their antiviral has shown positive effects in reducing the viral load in current tests.”Knowing that there is an unmet need for antiviral therapy for SARS-CoV-2, we are encouraged by these preliminary results,” Wendy Painter, chief drug officer at Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said in a statement.Merck interrupted its work on two potential COVID-19 vaccines at the end of January but continues its research on two treatments against the disease, including molnupiravir, developed with the American company Ridgeback Bio.The drug significantly reduced the viral load in patients after five days of treatment, the company said Saturday in a meeting with infectious-disease specialists.Phase 2a of the test — the trials have three phases before possible marketing — was carried out on 202 out-of-hospital patients who had COVID-19 with symptoms. There was no alert in terms of safety, and “of the four serious incidents reported, none was considered in connection with the drug studied,” the laboratory said.Influenza drugs like oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are sometimes prescribed for seasonal flu, but research is struggling to find an antiviral for COVID-19.The results of this study, “namely a more rapid decrease in the viral load in individuals with COVID-19 in the initial phase and who have received molnupiravir, are promising,” assured William Fischer, one of the directors of the study and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.”If they are reinforced by additional studies, they could have important consequences in terms of public health, as the virus continues to spread and evolve in the world.”Merck is also working on a treatment called MK-711. The first results of clinical trials show a reduction of more than 50% in the risk of death or respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe forms of COVID-19, the group said at the end of January.  
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Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded more than 116 million global coronavirus cases. The U.S. is on the verge of having 30 million infections, followed by India with 11 million and Brazil with 10.8 million.Earlier this week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had callous words for fellow Brazilians unhappy with the president’s response to the pandemic.“Stop all this fussing and whining,” the president said. “How long are you going to keep on crying?” Bolsonaro was speaking in the Brazilian state of Goiás, where almost 9,000 people have died.Only the U.S. has more COVID deaths than Brazil. According to Hopkins, the U.S. has more than 522,000 COVID deaths, while Brazil has reported more than 262,000.Russia’s statistics agency said Friday more than 200,000 Russians diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, more than double the figure used by the government’s coronavirus task force.The figures released Friday from Rosstat, a government agency that releases coronavirus data infrequently, said it had recorded 200,432 deaths through January. Those figures include nearly 70,000 people who had the virus at the time of death, but whose main cause of death was not deemed to be COVID-19.The tally is significantly more the government’s coronavirus task force’s data, which had recorded 88,285 deaths as of Friday. The government’s task force does not count deaths in which the virus was present but is not ruled the main cause.Using the figures from Rosstat, Russia would have the third most COVID-19 fatalities in the world, behind only the United States and Brazil.Rosstat also reported Friday that Russia has recorded 394,000 more deaths since the start of the pandemic until the end of January than in the previous period — suggesting that coronavirus-related deaths in the country could be even higher.In another development Friday, the World Health Organization said investigators who conducted an inspection in China to determine origins of the COVID-19 virus would release a report on their findings in mid-March.Peter Ben Embarek, who led the mission, clarified at a regular coronavirus news briefing Friday in Geneva that an interim report would not be released as previously reported.“To clarify, there was never a plan for an interim report, first of all,” Embarek said. “It was hoped we would get a summary report out,” but “the director-general [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] will receive that report from the team in the near future and we will discuss the recommendations.”The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday the WHO team decided not to release its interim account “amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington.”Another international group of scientists has called for the WHO to conduct a new inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The scientists calling for a new probe said in an open letter Thursday that the WHO team “did not have the mandate, the independence, or the necessary accesses to carry out a full and unrestricted investigation.”The scientists also noted in their letter that the WHO investigators in China were accompanied by their Chinese counterparts.The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.Throughout his term, former U.S. president Donald Trump strongly suggested, without evidence, the coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.A global team of inspectors began its four-week investigation in Wuhan in January and finished it last month.Italy on Friday surpassed 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The health ministry reported 24,036 new confirmed cases Friday, the third straight day this week that daily new caseloads exceeded 20,000 cases.The government said it would further tighten coronavirus restrictions in three of its 20 regions after health officials warned of the increase of cases of more contagious variants.France reported 23,507 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is down from the previous week, however officials said the number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 reached its highest level this year.Canada’s drug regulator announced Friday that it had approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth such inoculation to get approval. Canada has also approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.Mickey Mouse may once again scamper on Disneyland’s streets, according to California officials who said Friday the state’s theme and amusement parks could open as early as April 1.There are, of course, COVID-19 restrictions on the openings. The parks would open under restricted capacity. They would also have to be in a county that is not under certain constraints, designed to slow the coronavirus transmission rate.A purple county has the most restrictions due to its coronavirus rate of infection, under California’s color-code system. Disneyland is in a purple country, but at the present rate of transmission, officials expect the theme park would likely be eligible for reopening sometime in April.
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For more than a century, International Women’s Day has celebrated women’s achievements across the globe, overcoming persistent gender inequality. This year’s observance comes as the UN reports women, particularly women of color, face especially high rates of unemployment. VOA’s Esha Sarai has more.
Camera: Karen Sánchez and Rebaz Majeed
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One year into the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, thousands of families are struggling with deepening poverty and unemployment.  A survey by the charity Twaweza shows 60% of Kenyan families can no longer afford three meals per day.  Brenda Mulinya reports from Nairobi.
Camera: Amos Wangwa       Producer: Henry Hernandez
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