We continue to monitor reports emerging from various corners of the world, both positive and negative, as the coronavirus crisis continues. This comes alongside a sharpening focus on issues around vaccination. The African Union has recently secured commitments for 400 million more vaccine doses, aiming to vaccinate 60% of the continent in the next two to three years. Though COVID-19 has not hit Africa as badly as some experts had feared - the entire continent still has fewer reported deaths than many individual nations, including the United States - there are concerns that wealth disparities, logistical difficulties, and “vaccine nationalism” by wealthier nations will put the world’s poorest continent at a disadvantage. 
 
An outlier among other African nations, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has falsely claimed that vaccines are a foreign plot to spread illness and steal Africa’s wealth, and he urged Tanzanians instead to “trust God.” In contrast, in South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has stressed the importance of the vaccine. However, distrust in many forms is widespread in the country, with one report finding that 52% of South Africans do not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Freedom of Religion SA has approached the high court in Johannesburg on an urgent basis to ask that the government's indefinite ban on faith-based gatherings be lifted. This comes after South African police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse a group of about 250 people who had gathered for a church service in early January. Meanwhile, Reverend Dr. Thabo Cecil Makgoba, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, has joined the People’s Vaccine Campaign (PVC) of South Africa in calling on the United States to invest in facilitating knowledge and supply transfers to South Africa and other countries in the Global South. A South African Muslim group has expanded its mission to provide safe body preparation and burials for victims of COVID-19, respecting both expert medical advice and Islamic traditions. 
 
Israel has recently been averaging over 6,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus each day, but also has one of the world’s highest rates per capita of vaccination. It continues to face challenges around large gatherings for the funerals of prominent religious leaders (including for an Arab sheikh who died in Jaffa last week and for an ultra-Orthodox rabbi on Sunday) in blatant violation of lockdown restrictions. Recent weeks have also seen violent clashes between members of the ultra-Orthodox community and police officers trying to enforce lockdowns.
 
There are various reports of new forms of interreligious cooperation in response to COVID emergencies. A mosque in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is cooking and delivering free meals to the needy from different faiths, with donations and volunteers coming from a variety of religious groups. (Time will tell how the ongoing coup will affect such operations.) In Iraq, 87 religious leaders from different religious sects came together for an eight-day online training session that focused, among other topics, on enhancing coexistence during the COVID-19 pandemic and on helping religious leaders to disseminate accurate information about COVID-19 to the public.
 
Positive religious support for the national vaccination campaign in the United States comes from diverse quarters. Churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues are serving as vaccine distribution sites. Pastor Derrick Scobey in Oklahoma said he was “ecstatic” after they were able to vaccinate over 1,100 people in one day. He utilized his network of fellow faith leaders to reach out widely: “We got on the phone, texted and called pastors around the city probably the last hour of the day and just said if you do have anyone else 65 and older send me their name and their age and tell them to come now.” Another minister in Florida organized a statewide task force and is working with the government and hospitals to set up primarily black churches as distribution sites, part of an effort to help build trust in the vaccine. Leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals and the Orthodox Union, a Jewish organization, also offered their sacred spaces for vaccine distribution. In a joint editorial the leaders of the two groups said, “Many of our congregations have facilities with large social halls that can handle significant numbers of people coming through efficiently and safely…. Aside from the logistical benefits, members of our communities will feel reassured if they can come to their neighborhood houses of faith for the vaccination.” To explore what clergy are doing to support the vaccine effort, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the former CEO of the Conservative Jewish movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, is interviewing a series of faith leaders about their tradition’s views on public health and vaccination. The first two episodes are with Imam Mohamed Magid, former president of the Islamic Society of North America and executive imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center, and Rev. Jacques Andre DeGraff of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem.

Evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 emergencies on religious beliefs, based on surveys, is mixed. The Pew Research Center recently found that nearly 3 in 10 American adults say the outbreak has boosted their own faith, and the same share believe the religious faith of Americans overall has strengthened. Smaller shares in other parts of the world say religious faith has been affected by the coronavirus. Majorities or pluralities in all countries surveyed do not feel that religious faith has been strengthened by the pandemic, including 68% of U.S. adults who say their own faith has not changed. Anecdotally, leaders from several faiths say that their membership has increased, in part because the move to online services has made it easier for people to participate.