US President Biden said Chinese officials have worked to prevent investigators from assessing origins of COVID-19 and that the US will work with partners to press China to share information. The US probe of COVID origins was reportedly inconclusive without help from China and found some evidence the origin could be from animals or a lab, while the intelligence community in US remained divided on the most likely origin.
US President Biden said they are considering starting booster shots earlier and he discussed a booster shot timeline with NIH's Fauci in which an additional shot after five months was reportedly being discussed, while the NIH launched a study of an extra COVID vaccine dose in people with autoimmune disease. However, the White House later stated that official guidance for a COVID booster shot remains eight months and that nothing has changed regarding the eight-month timeline.
New Zealand PM Arden confirmed that Auckland will remain on level 4 for another two weeks and all areas outside of Auckland will move to level 3 from a level 4 lockdown with the level 3 to be in effect for a week.
