Outside Iona

Krystal Ortiz, News Editor
April 8, 2021

Throughout our hectic student lives, we should always remain aware of what is happening

around us. In this column, I find the most significant things going on around the world and

provide you with a small blurb of all the nitty-gritty details! Here are some of the major events

that have been happening:

General COVID-19 update.

With a greater availability of vaccines, now every state has administered at least one dose to at least 25 percent of the population. Almost 19 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated. Cases are still rising in some parts of the country. Despite this, many states are pushing to lifte certain restrictions, such as California, who plans to lifte virus restrictions by June if certain criteria are met. Some of the criteria include that there are enough vaccines available to individuals 16 and older and that COVID-related hospitalizations remain low and stable. In the state of New York, Governor Cuomo provided an update on progress with information including 4,533 COVID-related hospitalizations statewide (a 99-patient increase), a 4.33% statewide positivity rate, and 47 COVID-19 Ddeaths as of Monday.

Information from the New York Times, The Washington Post and NY Gov.

Large corporations refuse to pay garment workers.

As many things slowly shift back to the norm, there are many aspects of life that still struggle to bounce back, including job loss. Many corporations including Nike, Walmart, and Benetton have been refusing to pay their garment workers severance since they lost their jobs last year. Many of the factory workers’ lost their jobs in the past 12 months, as a result of large fashion brands in the U.S. and Europe cancellinged or refusinged to pay for orders after the pandemic began. To compensate for the large monetary loss, suppliers either closed factories or laid off a majority of their workers. The majority of garment workers earn low wages, with many having little to knowno savings; and thus nothing to fall back on if they are fired unexpectedly. According to a new report from the Worker Rights Consortium, the workers are being denied the severance pay from the major companies. The report acknowledged 31 garment factories in nine countries where a total of 37,637 workers who did not receive their pay. The collective amount is an estimated $39.8 million.

Information New York Times, The Guardian and Business Human Rights Resource Centre.

Major increase of migration in Honduras.

After being hit by two major hurricanes in the past year, Honduras struggles to recover. The hurricanes struck more than four million people across the nation, about half of the population. The natural disasters left many homeless as they leveled entire neighborhoods, and many Hondurans are fleeing to the U.S. InFrom 2012 andto 2019, numbers of family units arriving from Honduras to the U.S. increased from 513 to 188,368. Many of the individuals have been sent back in the past years under the Donald Trump administration. President Joe Biden has proposed spending $4 billion as a relief package for Honduras, and spoke with Vice President Kamala Harris to work with Central American leaders to better conditions in those countries.