(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:
House passes Equality Act protecting LGBTQ Americans
The House on Thursday passed the Equality Act, a top agenda item for President Joe Biden that would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, in a 224-206 vote.
Three Republicans voted with all Democrats on the measure, which the House also passed two years ago but languished in the then-GOP-controlled Senate. In 2019, eight House Republicans supported the bill.
The measure would extend the protections of the Civil Rights Act to LGBTQ Americans to block discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections, deaths and vaccinations.
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 113,111,157
Global deaths: 2,509,729. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 508,314.
Number of countries/regions: at least 192
Total patients recovered globally: 63,829,881
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 28,413,949 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 508,314. California has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 51,395.
U.S. total people tested: 345,963,936
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 3,554,629 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. This ranks second in the world after England, which has 3,639,352 cases. Texas is third, with 2,632,797 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 29 million.
Latest reported COVID-19 vaccination numbers in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a total of 91,673,010 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. Of those, 68,274,117 doses have been administered, with 46,074,392 people receiving one or more doses, and 21,555,117 people receiving two doses. The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, which are the two most prevalent in the U.S., each require two doses to be effective.
UK’s Queen Elizabeth II encourages people to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is encouraging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a video call with health leaders, the 94-year-old monarch assured the public that the vaccine shot is “quite harmless” and “very quick.”
“Well, once you’ve had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you’re protected, which is, I think, very important,” the queen said in the video broadcast Friday. “And as far as I can make out it was quite harmless, very quick. And I’ve had lots of letters from people who’ve been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine.”
She added, “It is obviously difficult for people, if they’ve never had a vaccine, because they ought to think about other people rather than themselves.”
The queen and her husband, 99-year-old Prince Philip, received their first dose of the vaccine last month.
Meanwhile, a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows that anticipation for the vaccines is growing in the U.S. At least 55% of Americans have received the vaccine or plan to get vaccinated as soon as possible, according to the results released Friday, compared to 47% in January.