Last Thursday, I pulled on my mask, hopped on the subway and went to our Manhattan office, a journey that in some ways felt like a trip back through time, given how little had changed there since we went remote in March 2020. Still, some differences were noticeable: Most of my colleagues' desks had been cleared out, and the kitchen area was sadly devoid of free coffee and water-cooler chatter. However, a few colleagues were milling about, and after a lifetime's worth of Zoom calls, seeing a few friendly, familiar faces in real life cheered me up, as much as I've claimed to like working in the peace and quiet of my apartment. As I went back down the elevator at the end of the day, I promised myself I'd return. But I couldn't escape a sickening feeling of uncertainty about when I'd be coming back on a regular basis.
That uncertainty comes thanks to the Delta variant, which has thrown the best-laid plans of people and companies alike into disarray. As Kevin Delaney, co-founder of Charter, a publication focused on the future of the workplace, writes for TIME, companies that just a few months ago were readying to reopen their doors are no longer planning for a "triumphant return to the office." According to one recent survey, about 54% of U.S. professionals report that the latest surge has changed their offices' return to work plans. Now, corporate leaders are trying to navigate difficult new questions: How do you keep people safe if Delta is infecting even some vaccinated people? How do you prevent burnout as the work-from-home era drags on? (As London Business School professor Lynda Gratton told Delaney, "If [workers are] not leaving physically, they're leaving emotionally or cognitively.")
In Grotton's view, the companies that will come out ahead when the pandemic finally ends will be ones that approach the crisis as an opportunity "for reflection, to experiment and to really redesign work." If the pandemic has shown us anything, it's that the people and organizations most willing to absorb new evidence and adjust with the times have adapted best; whenever my office reopens for good, I hope it will do the same.
About 456.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of yesterday evening, of which more than 380.8 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 53.9% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
Nearly 225.3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 11 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.6 million people have died. On September 13, there were 611,188 new cases and 9,006 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 4.5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 41.2 million coronavirus cases as of 11 a.m. E.T. today. More than 662,100 people have died. On September 13, there were 262,049 new cases and 2,136 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 Sept. 14, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
COVID-19 cases are rising "exponentially" among U.S. children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warned in a report released yesterday. Nearly 500,000 kids have tested positive over the past two weeks, bringing the overall number who have done so to 5.3 million. Although kids under 18 make up just 22.2% of the U.S. population, they represented 28.9% of cases reported the week of Sept. 9. The AAP noted that while severe COVID-19 is rare in children, "there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children."
The official U.S. poverty rate rose one percentage point, to 11.4%, between 2019 and 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today, the first increase after five decades of declines. About 37.2 million people were in poverty—which is based on income thresholds and household size—in 2020, up by 3.3 million from 2019. However, the Census Bureau noted that pandemic-era federal stimulus payments moved 11.7 million people out of poverty, preventing a deeper crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is in isolation after people close to him tested positive, the Washington Post reports. The Kremlin says that Putin is healthy and has not tested positive; he received Russia's Sputnik V inoculation in March. Less than 28% of Russia's population is fully vaccinated, and cases remain stubbornly high: the country has reported nearly 565,000 cases and more than 23,000 deaths over the last month.
U.S. President Joe Biden plans to call on world leaders to bring global vaccination to 70% by Sept. 2022, according to a document obtained by the Washington Post. Per the document, the U.S. will invite other countries to join it in purchasing and donating vaccines, expediting vaccine delivery and committing billions of dollars for "vaccine readiness and administration, combatting hesitancy, and procuring ancillary supplies." The world has a long way to go to meet Biden's target; less than a third of the global population is vaccinated.
Ray Martin DeMonia, a 73-year-old Alabama antiques dealer, died of a heart attack on Sept. 1 after 43 hospitals in three states declined his doctors' requests to transfer him to a location with specialty ICU equipment amid a coronavirus-fueled bed shortage, the Associated Press reports. In his obituary, his family urged people to honor DeMonia by getting vaccinated to reduce the strain on hospitals and free up resources for others in need. "He would not want any other family to go through what his did," the family wrote.
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 Tara Law and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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