Doses of newest COVID-19 vaccine shipped

WASHINGTON — Nearly 4 million doses of the newest COVID-19 vaccine will be shipped Sunday night, and will begin to be delivered to states for injections starting on Tuesday.

The White House said the entire stockpile of the newly approved single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will go out immediately. J&J will deliver about 16 million more doses by the end of March and 100 million total by the end of June, but the distribution would be backloaded.

Though the new shot is easier to administer and requires only one dose, the administration is not altering its distribution plans.

The White House is encouraging Americans to take the first dose available to them, regardless of manufacturer.

Astronauts work to upgrade space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year.

NASA’s Kate Rubins and Victor Glover put the first set of mounting brackets and struts together, then bolted them into place next to the station’s oldest and most degraded solar wings. But the work took longer than expected, and they barely got started on the second set before calling it quits.

Rubins will finish the job during a second spacewalk later this week.

‘Tom & Jerry’ bring some cheer to theaters

NEW YORK — A not-sodistant recovery for movie theaters could be glimpsed Sunday, as Warner Bros.’ live-action-animation hybrid “Tom & Jerry” debuted with $13.7 million in ticket sales, the best domestic opening of the year.

The better-than-expected opening came despite just 42% of U.S. theaters being open, according to data firm Comscore. “Tom & Jerry” also played in 2,475 North American cinemas simultaneously as it did in the home, where it’s streaming on HBO Max for a month.

Yet “Tom & Jerry” still managed the second-best opening of the pandemic following Warner Bros.’ “Wonder Woman 1984,” which launched with $16.7 million in December.