Africa\u2019s crisis.<\/b>
\nThis is the Coronavirus Briefing, an informed guide to the pandemic. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Africa is now in the deadliest stage of its pandemic as the Delta variant sweeps across the continent. Hospitals are filling up, oxygen supplies and medical workers are being stretched thin. Recorded deaths jumped 40 percent last week alone. There is little prospect of relief in sight: Only about 1 percent of Africans have been fully vaccinated, and even the African Union\u2019s goal of vaccinating 20 percent of the continent by the end of this year seems unlikely. Rich nations have bought up most of the world\u2019s doses long into the future, often far more than they could conceivably need. Unable to strike early deals for vaccines, African countries relied on Covax, a global partnership, to deliver free doses to countries that needed them. But hundreds of millions of doses never arrived after India restricted the exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine as it dealt with its own resurgence this year. \u201cThe blame squarely lies with the rich countries,\u201d said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, a commissioner with Africa Covid-19 Response, a continental task force. \u201cA vaccine delayed is a vaccine denied.\u201d A month after California\u2019s \u201cgrand reopening,\u201d Los Angeles County announced that face masks would once again be required indoors starting Saturday night to get ahead of the surging Delta variant. New coronavirus cases have nearly tripled statewide, and California isn\u2019t an outlier: Every state in the nation has reported increases in the number of cases in recent days. California, which is recording 3,000 new cases a day (a blip compared with the winter peak of 44,000), is actually doing slightly better than the national per capita average. \u201cWe\u2019re not where we need to be for the millions at risk of infection here in Los Angeles County, and waiting to do something will be too late, given what we\u2019re seeing now,\u201d said Dr. Muntu Davis, the county\u2019s health officer. The move puts the county at odds with the state\u2019s health department and the C.D.C., which both say that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks indoors. As The Los Angeles Times notes, it also \u201cputs officials in the precarious position of asking the inoculated to forfeit one of the benefits recently enjoyed.\u201d While jarring, such reversals should not be entirely surprising. The situation in L.A. reminded us of a widely read essay from the early days of the pandemic called \u201c The Hammer and the Dance,\u201d by Tomas Pueyo, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Pueyo argued that, in order to successfully manage the virus, the \u201chammer,\u201d or strict initial lockdown measures, would need to be followed by the \u201cdance,\u201d made up of shifting containment measures like social distancing and mask wearing that would wax and wane in tandem with the virus. After we asked readers for their stories of pandemic silver linings, they wrote in telling us about extra time with loved ones, Covid romances and a host of hobbies. We also noticed an unexpected trend among some of our readers: While the pandemic caused untold economic hardship, for some people it actually improved their financial situation. \u201cI\u2019ve been working from home, so I\u2019ve saved some extra money because I don\u2019t spend it on public transportation or restaurants,\u201d wrote F\u00e9lix Forero from Zipaquir\u00e1, Colombia. \u201cNow, I could afford postgraduate studies abroad.\u201d Ivan Edwards, from Seattle, went into the pandemic with poor credit and a high interest rate on a used car he had recently purchased. He said the stimulus checks helped keep him afloat as he moved to Utah and found a new job. A year later, he said he\u2019s paid off his car and saved thousands of dollars. Stories like these have been relatively common during the pandemic, said Ron Lieber, The Times\u2019s \u201c Your Money \u201d columnist. \u201cThe data tells us all we need to know,\u201d Ron said. \u201cThe savings rate is higher than it\u2019s been in a really long time. And when you think about it, the reasons are obvious. Whole categories of spending were essentially shut down \u2014 travel, any spending that involved leaving the house, clothing, commuting expenses for people who didn\u2019t have to leave home to do their jobs.\u201d In March 2020, the personal savings rate was about 13 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Last March, it was 27.6 percent. In a survey from the Pew Research Center released in March, 30 percent of Americans said their family\u2019s financial situation had improved. That added stability, Ron said, is about much more than a safety net. \u201cSavings is about power,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the ability to remove yourself from a harmful situation, whether psychologically of physically, like a harmful relationship, or neighborhood, or job.\u201d Of course, not everyone fared so well during the pandemic, especially lower-income and Black adults, who, according to the Pew study, are more likely to \u201chave taken on debt or put off paying their bills in order to cover lost wages or salary.\u201d Overall, more than 20 percent of Americans said their financial situation had gotten worse; nearly half said it was about the same. \u201cI think it behooves us to think about how hard these last 18 months were for those of us who lost our jobs, and are dealing with a ragged governmental safety net, or how difficult things may become if some disaster interferes with our financial situations,\u201d Ron said. If you\u2019re looking for help getting your financial house in order, you might want to try The Times\u2019s 20-day money challenge. Ron, along with Tara Siegel Bernard, The Times\u2019s personal finance reporter, picked 20 essential lessons \u2014 on topics like debt reduction, savings and investment \u2014 and paired them with simple tasks that can help improve your financial situation, one day at a time. See how the vaccine rollout is going in your county and state. Let us know how you\u2019re dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter. Sign up here to get the briefing by email. Email your thoughts to briefing@nytimes.com.<\/p>\n