Almost everyone I know who was petless in their pre-pandemic life is now sharing their home with some kind of creature, be it a dog, a cat or a fish. Nationwide, more than 12 million U.S. households got a new pet since the outbreak began, per the American Pet Products Association, as people sought companionship, comfort and joy in an uncertain time.
But as my colleague Melissa Chan reports, as more companies reopen their offices and ask (or demand) employees to return, many pet owners are getting anxious about leaving their animals at home. "In the summer of 2020, a survey of 3,000 pet owners found that 1 in 5 worried their pets would have separation anxiety," Melissa writes. "In the spring of 2021, as vaccinations augured a return to normal life, another survey found this fear shared by 69%." In yet another survey, nearly 70% of dog owners said they would think about finding a new job if their company no longer offered remote work. (Us remote-working cat owners, meanwhile, know that our pets will probably murder us in our sleep if we don't start regularly leaving the house soon.)
As Melissa reports, at least some companies reopening their offices are trying to stave off an exodus by allowing workers to bring their companions along with them—in one survey, about 60% of executives said they were implementing new pet-friendly policies as a retention strategy, joining longtime pet-friendly companies like ice cream giant Ben & Jerry's. "The ability to bring a dog to work is a real tangible piece of compensation," Jonathan Cherins, CEO of dog breeding platform PuppySpot, told Melissa.
Will corporate pet-friendly policies last, or are they just a temporary carrot to ease workers' transitions back into office life? Dogs and other animals have well-documented mental health benefits, after all, but it could be hard for some people to be productive in an office full of pups—to say nothing of those with allergies or phobias. Whether dogs are a permanent fixture of office life moving forward is yet another question that'll get shaken out like a wet Collie amid this strange liminal phase between late pandemic and post-pandemic life.
About 383 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this morning, of which nearly 331.2 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 47.5% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
More than 184.6 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 4 million people have died. On July 6, there were 453,360 new cases and 8,569 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 3 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 33.7 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Almost 606,000 people have died. On July 6, there were 23,839 new cases and 338 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 7, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Delta variant, formally known as B.1.617.2, now accounts for more than half of U.S. cases, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up from about 30% of the share as of June 19, a spike that underscores the strain's remarkable virality. While existing vaccines have largely been shown to work well against the Delta variant—which is more transmissible and causes more severe illness than earlier forms—those who are unvaccinated remain at high risk.
Yet New York City, home to one of the worst U.S. coronavirus outbreaks of the entire pandemic, is scaling back its virus-monitoring efforts just as the Delta variant is taking hold in the area, the New York Times reports. The city's Pandemic Response Lab, which had been sequencing about 1,500 cases a week in March and April to track the spread of variants like Delta, is now sequencing less than 60. Experts are concerned. "There are these embers that can flare up any time,” said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, in reference to neighborhoods with increasing cases and low vaccination rates.
Speaking of embers: the Biden Administration is sending a "COVID-19 surge team" to lend a hand in southwest Missouri, CNN reports, where local hospitals have been overwhelmed as the Delta variant spreads in the area. Missouri overall is reporting a slight uptick in cases, with a seven-day average of about 15 new daily cases per 100,000 people, compared to about 6.2 in early June. Meanwhile, about 40% of Missouri residents are vaccinated. However, all of these figures can vary widely on the local level.
A lockdown in Sydney, Australia that was supposed to last for two weeks has been extended for a third amid an outbreak of about 330 cases so far, officials announced today. While Australia has largely kept COVID-19 at bay through tight border controls and lockdown measures, it's been slow to vaccinate residents; only about 8% of Aussies are fully inoculated. That's left the country vulnerable to outbreaks, with lockdowns the only viable public health solution despite their drain on residents' psyches.
Biotechnology firm Moderna, best known for its mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine, has inoculated the first participant in a Phase 1/2 study of its experimental influenza vaccine built on a similar mRNA platform, the company announced today. About 180 participants ages 18 and over will take part in the study, and the vaccine is designed to target four influenza lineages, including H1N1. If the shot is successful, it could further cement mRNA technology's status as the future of vaccine design.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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