�������ýҕ�l

American women of reproductive age score worse on just about every major health metric compared to their peers in other wealthy countries. It's no secret that the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is the highest among developed nations. But a new report from the Commonwealth Fund offers a higher resolution view of the role that cost plays as a barrier to care for women of reproductive age. "Maternal deaths and complications may be a bellwether for the U.S.’s wider failures with respect to women’s health and health care," the authors wrote. (Reed, 4/5)

The U.S. health-care system “consistently fails” to meet the basic needs of reproductive-age women, which may partly explain why women are more than three times as likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth in the United States compared with other high-income countries, according to new research from the Commonwealth Fund. The United States has among the highest maternal mortality rates of high-income countries — a well-documented trend that is even worse among people of color and has accelerated during the pandemic. But a new report by the Commonwealth Fund found that U.S. women of reproductive age also fare worse when it comes to their general health and ability to access care. (Gantz, 4/5)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer warning Americans to avoid travel to Canada because of the coronavirus. ... Other popular tourist destinations that the CDC lowered from Level 4 to Level 3 risks Monday include Antigua, Argentina, Belize, St. Lucia and Panama. (Sampson, 4/5)

Covid-19 infections in England reached their highest level in March since the pandemic began, driven by the omicron subvariant BA.2 and waning immunity among older adults, according to a new study. The overall Covid prevalence rate more than doubled last month from February when infection rates were falling from the omicron-led January peak, the React-1 study led by Imperial College London found. Since then the emergence of BA.2 -- a more-transmissible version of omicron- has accelerated new infections and become the dominant strain in England, accounting for about 90% of the samples that tested positive. (Gitau, 4/6)

As Russian forces refocus the brunt of their military assault on Ukraine’s food-producing southeast, U.S. officials and lawmakers are struggling to help ward off a deepening crisis both inside Ukraine and for fragile economies around the world already reeling from climate disasters and Covid-19. Russia’s military is pushing further into Ukraine’s wheat fields, which could jeopardize millions of tons of grain set to be harvested in July — threatening sustained shortages in countries across Africa and the Middle East that rely on Ukraine as a major source of their grain and sunflower oil to feed millions of people. The crisis has also contributed to sky-rocketing grain prices, which has made it harder for humanitarian organizations like the United Nations’ World Food Program, to respond; the agency says it needs an additional $16 billion to feed a record 137 million people for the rest of the year. (Lee, 4/5)