Today so far...
- Coronavirus has killed at least 3,972,934 people around the world since it first emerged in China in December 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on Monday set to confirm the fourth and last step to lifting lockdown will go ahead on July 19, despite warnings that doing so would be like building “variant factories”.
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The UK has recorded 24,248 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, according to official figures.There were a further 15 deaths, bringing the overall death toll to 128,222. Meanwhile, 86 % of adults have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 63.8% received both doses.
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The Oakland zoo in northern California has administered an experimental Covid-19 vaccine to animals deemed at highest risk. The two-dose jab has been approved by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and distributed to nearly 70 zoos.
- Brazil has seen recorded 27,783 new Covid-19 cases and 830 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday. The news comes as tens of thousands took to the streets of the South American country’s biggest cities on Saturday to demand the removal of President Jair Bolsonaro, who they deem responsible for the death of over half a million people.
- Iran announced today it was reimposing coronavirus restrictions on major cities, as the spread of the highly contagious delta variant spurs fears of another devastating surge in the nation, the Associated Press reports.
- Russia has recorded 25,142 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday - the highest number since January 2. The news comes after Covid deaths in the country hit at a record high for five days in a row this week. President Vladimir Putin has for now refrained from calling another lockdown.
- South Africa recorded more than 26,000 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, its highest daily number since the pandemic broke out.
- Bangladesh recorded 153 deaths, its highest daily toll yet, in the 24 hours to this morning, the Dhaka Tribune reports.
- The Luxembourg prime minister, Xavier Bettel, who tested positive for coronavirus last week, was admitted to hospital on Sunday morning, RTL reports.
- Schools in England are “bleeding out” with thousands of teachers having to isolate under a bubble system that is harming the most vulnerable children, ministers have been warned, The Guardian’s Josh Halliday reports.
This blog will be closing shortly but colleagues will be back tomorrow morning bringing you the latest Covid-19 updates from around the world.
Updated
Boris Johnson is to announce that the lifting of most remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England will go ahead on 19 July amid a backlash from government scientific advisers who have warned that doing so would be like building new “variant factories”, write my colleagues Aubrey Allegretti and Linda Geddes.
Despite cases having risen to their highest level since January 2021, the prime minister is set to press ahead with the final stage of unlocking in two weeks.
In a Downing Street press conference on Monday afternoon, he is expected to announce that, with 86% of adults in the UK having had at least a first jab, the government will move from relying on legal curbs to control people’s behaviour to letting individuals make their own decisions.
Updated
A zoo in northern California has started to administer an experimental Covid-19 vaccine to animals deemed at highest risk.
Tigers, black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions and ferrets at the Oakland zoo were among the first to receive the two-dose jab, which has been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to a statement by Conservation Society of California’s website.
The experimental vaccine was donated to nearly 70 zoos by veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis, which developed the jab after gorillas at the San Diego safari park were confirmed positive with the virus.
The Oakland Zoo has begun a vaccination program to inoculate their highest risk animals from COVID-19 with an experimental vaccine that has been authorized by the USDA. https://t.co/N5Azuh1ews pic.twitter.com/YOv0u1f2bK
— ABC News (@ABC) July 4, 2021
“Up until now, we have been using public barriers at certain habitats to ensure social distancing, along with enhanced PPE worn by staff to protect our susceptible species from Covid-19,” said Dr Alex Herman, VP of veterinary services at Oakland zoo.
“We’re happy and relieved to now be able to better protect our animals with this vaccine, and are very thankful to Zoetis for not only creating it, but for donating it to us and dozens of other AZA-accredited zoos across the US.”
Updated
Brazil registered 27,783 new Covid-19 cases and 830 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday.
That brought the total number of cases in the South American country to 18,769,808 cases and 524,417 deaths, Reuters reports.
The news comes as protests against President Jair Bolsonaro continued this weekend, with tens of thousands descending onto the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities on Saturday to call for his removal.
They see Bolsonaro, who has scorned social distancing rules and infamously dismissed Covid-19 as a “little flu”, responsible for the staggering death toll, which is second only to the US.
Calls for his impeachment intensified after allegations that members of his government had sought to illegally profit from the purchase of Covid vaccines.
Daniel Melo, an 18-year-old student, came to remember his 86-year-old grandmother, Conceição, who died of Covid. “She went to hospital and never came home,” Melo said on Saturday, adding that he blamed Brazil’s “genocidal” president for failing to alert citizens to the dangers of coronavirus.
“He wanted to kill everyone,” Melo claimed.
Updated
The Portuguese archipelago of Madeira will allow entry to anyone visiting the country regardless of what vaccine they have had, Reuters journalist Catarina Demony reports.
It comes amid widespread concerns some won’t be able to travel across the EU this summer if they’ve had a jab which hasn’t been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The Guardian previously reported how the EU vaccine passport, which launched on Thursday, will only apply to those who have had a jab approved by the bloc’s regulator.
The Portuguese archipelago of Madeira will allow entry to people vaccinated with any of the jabs being administered worldwide - not just those approved by EMA https://t.co/DY1mMq54k4
— Catarina Demony (@CatarinaDemony) July 4, 2021
The scheme currently doesn’t cover those with the Indian-manufactured AstraZeneca jab, meaning they will not be automatically exempt from quarantine and mandatory testing.
The SII jab, known as Covishield, offers the same protection as the British-made one, but the company has not sought approval from the EMA.
The EU vaccine passport aims to ease travel in the 30-country European Economic Area.
Also known as the EU digital Covid certificate, it enables travellers to prove they have been fully vaccinated, recently tested negative or fully recovered from the virus.
For months, Boris Johnson has repeated the mantra that further easing of Covid-19 restrictions would be about “data and not dates”. Yet, as coronavirus cases in the UK continue to surge, and scientists warn that fully reopening society risks building “variant factories” in our own back yard, the government appears poised to put one date – 19 July – ahead of everything else. Once again, politics has trumped science.
Since Sajid Javid’s appointment as health secretary on 26 June, the UK has confirmed a further 188,538 coronavirus cases, with approximately 25,000 extra people testing positive each day. On Sunday, Javid said that the best way to protect the nation’s health was by lifting the main Covid-19 restrictions, even though this would result in a further significant increase in cases. “We are going to have to learn to accept the existence of Covid and find ways to cope with it – just as we already do with flu,” he said.
Updated
Russia has recorded a record daily number of Covid-19 infections after deaths hit at a record high for five days in a row this week.
Vladimir Putin has for now refrained from calling another lockdown, but the 25,142 infections reported on Sunday were the biggest figure since 2 January, AFP reports.
With the Delta variant causing a rise in infections, there were record deaths registered for five consecutive days, rising to 697 on Saturday before dropping to 663 for Sunday.
Amid widespread scepticism, Putin is calling on people to “listen to experts” rather than rumours and get jabbed as a mere 16% of Russia’s population has been vaccinated.
Updated
France’s health minister has warned “our country is in a race against time” as he said a fourth wave of Covid-19 could arrive by the end of the month.
In a tweet on Sunday Olivier Véran urged people to get vaccinated as he warned of a worrying rise in cases caused by spread of the Delta variant, Reuters reports.
“For five days, [the infection rate] hasn’t come down - it’s rising again. Because of the Delta variant, which is very contagious. The British example shows that a fourth wave is possible from the end of July,” he said.
“We must move even faster [on vaccination]. Our country is in a race against time.”
Updated
South Africa recorded more than 26,000 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, its highest daily number since the pandemic broke out.
The number is up from 24,000 the previous day, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and comes amid a resurgence of the virus centred Johannesburg, AP reports.
The rise in cases has been attributed to the Delta variant.
AP reports:
South Africa’s official death toll has risen above 63,000, although statistics on excess deaths suggest the country’s actual number of virus fatalities may be more than 170,000. South Africa’s 2 million cases account for more than 30% of the cases reported by Africa’s 54 countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Cyril Ramaphosa last week increased restrictions to try to reduce the spread of the virus, including extending a nighttime curfew, banning the sale of alcohol, closing many schools and stopping travel into and out of Gauteng, the country’s most populous province that includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. Gauteng accounts for more than 60% of the new cases and officials fear other provinces and cities will soon follow.
Updated
An athlete with the Serbian Olympic rowing team has tested positive for coronavirus less than three weeks before the Games in Tokyo, a host city official says.
AFP reports:
The member of the five-strong rowing team was found to have contracted the virus after a test at Tokyo’s Haneda airport upon arrival Saturday.
The case comes as organisers prepare to tighten screening procedures at airports after two members of Uganda’s team tested positive
The US president, Joe Biden, is set to host a massive Independence Day party to celebrate the US’s defeat of Covid-19 – despite concerns his vaccination target is falling short in some parts of the country.
The president and the first lady, Jill Biden, will welcome 1,000 military personnel with their families and essential workers for the largest in-person event at the White House since he took office, AFP reports.
“We do have a lot to celebrate. We are much further along than I think anyone anticipated in this fight against the pandemic,” Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told ABC.
But concerns linger over some pockets of the country being unable to meet Biden’s target of getting 70% of adults vaccinated by 4 July
This year’s celebrations were supposed to be a milestone for Americans to feel clear of the pandemic but the Washington Post reported that instead the situation varies wildly between areas.
More than 2,000 counties representing over half of the American population have not met Biden’s goal of 70% of adults receiving at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine by Independence Day, according to an analysis by the Washington Post ...
Most ominously, the highly transmissible Delta variant is on the rise and represents a quarter of confirmed cases, posing a greater risk to pockets of unvaccinated communities than earlier strains of the virus.
Updated
Italy reported 12 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, down from the 22 recorded on the previous day, the health ministry has said.
It brings Italy’s death toll to 127,649, the second-highest in Europe after the UK and the eighth-highest globally, Reuters reports.
The number of daily cases was down to 808 from 932 on Saturday, bringing the total number since the outbreak began in February last year to 4.26m.
Updated
Myanmar has recorded a daily record of 2,318 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, as well as 35 deaths.
The country has been hit by a new outbreak of Covid-19, with the rate of positive cases, currently at 22%, reported to be higher than that seen during a peak in infections late last year.
Reuters reports:
A new outbreak has grown rapidly in the south-east Asian country, where the health system and anti-coronavirus measures have foundered since a 1 February military coup. The rate of positive tests, at more than 22%, was also higher than during the previous peak in case numbers late last year. Reuters was unable to reach the junta-controlled health ministry for additional comment. The elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi had brought two waves of the new coronavirus under control with a programme of testing and quarantine. After the army took power, doctors and other health workers have been at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement in which they have stopped work in official positions to show their opposition to the junta.
Updated
Indonesia has recorded 555 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, the highest daily rise since the pandemic broke out in March last year, bringing its death toll to 60,582.
Reuters reports:
The south-east Asian nation also reported 27,233 new cases for its second highest daily increase, taking the tally of infections to 2,284,084.
Updated
UK records 24,248 new coronavirus cases
The UK has recorded 24,248 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, according to official figures.
There were a further 15 deaths, bringing the overall death toll to 128,222.
The number of new daily infections brings the total in the past seven days to 173,662, up almost 67% on the previous week.
Meanwhile, 86 % of adults have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 63.8% received both doses.
Updated
Bangladesh recorded 153 deaths, its highest daily toll yet, in the 24 hours to this morning, the Dhaka Tribune reports.
Authorities reported 153 deaths in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, taking the total number of deaths to 15,065. The previous high was 143 on Thursday.
Luxembourg PM in hospital after testing positive for Covid, reports say
The Luxembourg prime minister, Xavier Bettel, who tested positive for coronavirus last week, was admitted to hospital on Sunday morning, RTL reports.
RTL says:
He is undergoing additional tests and analyses. The ministry of state confirmed this afternoon that out of precaution, the prime minister will remain under observation for 24 hours, unless otherwise advised by doctors.
Bettel tested positive on 27 June.
Updated
Covid deaths worldwide near 4 million
Coronavirus has killed at least 3,972,934 people around the world since it first emerged in China in December 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
AFP, who have a slightly higher number of 3,974,841 deaths according to their own tally, writes:
At least 183,416,370 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some continue to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.
The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country. They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.
The World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic’s overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.
On Saturday, 7,796 new deaths and 395,360 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Brazil with 1,635 new deaths, followed by India with 955 and Uganda with 799.
The US is the worst-affected country with 605,493 deaths from 33,713,912 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 523,587 deaths from 18,742,025 cases, India with 402,005 deaths from 30,545,433 cases, Mexico with 233,580 deaths from 2,537,457 cases, and Peru with 193,069 deaths from 2,063,112 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared with population is Peru, with 586 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Hungary with 310, Bosnia-Herzegovina with 295, Czech Republic with 283, and Republic of North Macedonia with 263.
Latin America and the Caribbean have 1,287,487 deaths from 37,890,637 cases, Europe 1,172,523 deaths from 54,768,436 infections, and the US and Canada 631,831 deaths from 35,130,229 cases.
Asia has reported 584,988 deaths from 40,536,012 cases, the Middle East 151,184 deaths from 9,400,462 cases, Africa 145,692 deaths from 5,634,713 cases, and Oceania 1,136 deaths from 55,890 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.
Updated
Israel in talks to hand over surplus Pfizer jabs after UK deal fails to reach agreement
Israel is in talks with other countries about a deal to unload its surplus of Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccines, doses of which are due to expire by the end of the month, a health ministry official today (via Reuters).
Hezi Levi, the ministry’s director-general, did not provide details about the number of doses Israel was looking to hand over in an apparent swap arrangement.
In an interview with Radio 103 FM, he confirmed that such a deal had been discussed with Britain last week but said an agreement had not materialised and was “a thing of the past”.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper put the amount of doses at about 1m.
“We are negotiating with other countries,” Levi told Radio 103 FM, without naming them. “We are dealing with this day and night.”
He said the doses expire on 31 July and that any deal would have to win Pfizer’s approval.
A Pfizer spokesperson said the company “is happy to discuss potential donations requests of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine between governments on a case-by-case basis, particularly if this helps ensure the vaccine is used to protect people from this disease”.
Last month, the Palestinians rejected about a million doses from Israel, saying they were too close to their expiry date.
Israel launched in December one of the world’s fastest vaccine drives and has since vaccinated nearly 90% of people over the age of 50, a group considered to be at the highest risk from the coronavirus. Overall, however, around a fifth of all eligible Israelis have not yet had the vaccine, according to health ministry data.
With infections falling from more than 10,000 daily cases in January to single digits, Israel, with a population of 9.3 million, has dropped nearly all coronavirus curbs.
But an uptick of cases that began in mid-June, attributed to the more contagious Delta variant, may bring some restrictions back, Levi said.
Vaccination rates peaked in January and gradually fell until June, when 12- to 15-year-olds were made eligible for the jab. Delta’s spread, particularly among schoolchildren, has spurred parents to get their children inoculated and the rate has increased five-fold since early June.
Levi said Pfizer’s vaccine was about 85-88% effective against the delta variant, a high figure but lower in comparison with its effectiveness against other strains.
He based that figure on a British study as well as recent research by the health ministry. A ministry spokesperson did not immediately provide more details about the study.
Updated
Schools in England are “bleeding out” with thousands of teachers having to isolate under a bubble system that is harming the most vulnerable children, ministers have been warned.
Headteachers are growing increasingly exasperated about a lack of clarity from the government about how to deal with with Covid outbreaks among pupils, with only two weeks until most schools in England break up for summer.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is facing increasing warnings of a summer of chaos in schools and workplaces in England, amid urgent demands for clarity over the government’s plans to tackle an unpredictable escalation in Covid cases, the Observer reports.
Senior scientists warn that it is still possible for hospitals to be stretched over the summer should no Covid suppression measures stay in place after 19 July, when legal restrictions are due to be lifted. Doctors are already demanding that some measures remain over the summer, while teachers and parents are warning of a chaotic situation in schools, with different institutions applying different rules for sending children home if they have been exposed to Covid.
A “much more permissive regime” of coronavirus measures will soon come into force across England with masks due to be made optional, a cabinet minister has revealed.
Ahead of an announcement by Boris Johnson expected this week on easing the final set of curbs on 19 July, the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, said legal restrictions would be dropped to let people “exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgment”
Updated
Iran shuts non-essential businesses over fear of Delta spread
Iran announced today it was reimposing coronavirus restrictions on major cities, as the spread of the highly contagious delta variant spurs fears of another devastating surge in the nation, the Associated Press reports.
After over a year battling the worst virus outbreak in the Middle East, Iran ordered the closures of non-essential businesses in 275 cities, including the capital of Tehran.
The shutdown of all public parks, restaurants, dessert shops, beauty salons, malls and bookstores applies to the country’s “red” and “orange” zones, or municipalities ranked as having an elevated risk of Covid-19. The government said it was also imposing a travel ban between cities with high infection rates.
Iran’s new restrictions are designed to slow the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant, which on Saturday President Hassan Rouhani warned was driving a potential “fifth wave” of infections in the country. Reports of new cases have risen steadily in recent weeks, nearly doubling from from mid-June to early July.
The country has reported a total of 3.2 million infections and 84,627 deaths – the highest toll in the region. The increase comes as Iran’s vaccine rollout lags, with less than 2% of the population of 84 million fully vaccinated, according to online scientific publication Our World in Data.
Iran says it has administered some 6.3m doses so far. Those shots have mainly come from abroad, including from Covax, an international initiative meant to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. Iran also has imported Chinese state-backed Sinopharm vaccines and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
With foreign vaccines still in short supply, the country has accelerated efforts to develop its own shots. Last month, authorities granted emergency use authorisation to the domestically produced COVIran Barekat shot, without publishing data on its safety or efficacy.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who previously warned against the import of American and British vaccines amid deep-rooted distrust of the west, received the homemade vaccine on state TV and encouraged the public to follow suit.
Updated
Bulgaria is considering offering incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid, interim prime minister Stefan Yanev said today, Reuters reports.
Bulgaria is one of the few countries where people can choose between four different anti-coronavirus shots approved in the European Union. Still, only 14.5% of Bulgarian adults are fully vaccinated, putting the country far behind its EU peers.
On top of a general mistrust of authorities in the former communist country, Bulgarians often cite a fear of new medical products as their reason for refusing the vaccination. Another reason is that about 400,000 people have already been infected and developed resistance.
“We do not plan to force anyone. But we are considering the possibility to offer people who are getting the second shot some vouchers,” Yanev said.
Sofia has opened special vaccination units in parks to make it easier for busy people to get a shot and is planning campaigns in Roma neighbourhoods to try to convince those communities of the benefits of the vaccines.
Failure to boost vaccine uptake may force the country to destroy shots that are nearing their expiration dates. Yanev said Bulgaria may face such a risk at the end of August and was working with Brussels to see how it may also donate 150,000 shots to western Balkan countries.
Updated
More than 50 business leaders have written to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, urging him to encourage people in England to return to the office, the BBC reports. Current guidance tells people to work from home where possible.
Government sources told the Guardian last month that – in a significant change of approach from last summer – ministers are likely let companies make their own decisions when the final phase of lockdown restrictions are lifted on 19 July – a strategy that could lead to conflict and confusion among staff.
In a letter organised by lobby group London First, the business leaders say:
At this critical moment, we believe that it is essential that the government is unambiguous in its communications that when the stage four restrictions lift, public transport is safe, offices are safe, and working from home is no longer the default.
Signatories included Heathrow and Gatwick airport chief executives John Holland-Kaye and Stewart Wingate, Capita chief executive Jon Lewis and BT boss Philip Jansen.
Downing Street confirmed last month the government is considering legislating to make working from home the “default” option by giving employees the right to request it.
However, it stressed there would be no legal right to work from home.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said more than a third of people working from home – 36% – thought they would keep the arrangement for most of the week. However, there is less enthusiasm among managers, with as few as 24% of companies planning to use increased home working in future.
Updated
A member of Serbia’s Olympic rowing team tested positive for the new coronavirus on arrival in Japan, an official said today, the third Covid infection confirmed among Olympic team members visiting for the Tokyo Games starting this month.
A member of Uganda’s Olympic squad tested positive for the virus on arrival last month and a second member was confirmed as having the virus a few days later.
One of Serbia’s five-member rowing team tested positive during a screening at Haneda airport last night, said Takashi Ikeda, an official at the sports section of the central Japan city of Nanto, which had been scheduled to host the Serbians’ training camp.
The man in his 30s was sent to a medical facility, while the other four were isolated in a separate facility in Tokyo, Ikeda told Reuters.
“Since they are expected to be isolated for two weeks, the Serbian rowing team is unlikely to come to Nanto for training before the Games,” he said.
The group was to have travelled to Nanto in Toyama prefecture today to hold their training camp until 18 July, ahead of the start of the Games on 23 July. Rowing teams from Greece, South Africa and Russia arrived in Nanto earlier this month for training camp, he said.
The Tokyo Games, delayed by a year because of the pandemic, are proceeding amid concern that the influx of thousands of people from around the world could unleash another wave of Covid-19 infections in the country. Foreign spectators are banned, and the government is considering what limits to place on domestic spectators.
Tokyo reported 716 new Covid infections today, its highest in more than five weeks, as the nation considers extending pandemic restrictions in the capital just weeks. Cases totalled 518 today, up 132 from last Sunday, marking the 15th consecutive days of increases from week-earlier levels, said the public broadcaster NHK.
Updated
Indonesia has ordered oxygen-makers to prioritise medical needs amid growing demand from Covid patients, the government said today, after more than 60 deaths in a hospital where supply of the life-saving gas was almost exhausted, Reuters reports.
The world’s fourth most populous nation is battling one of Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, with yesterday’s 27,913 infections becoming the newest of many peaks during the last two weeks.
In a statement, the Sardjito hospital on the island of Java said 63 patients died after it nearly ran out of oxygen over the period from yesterday until early today, when fresh supplies arrived. A hospital spokesman could not confirm if all the dead had suffered from coronavirus, however.
In response, the government was asking the gas industry to increase production of medical oxygen, said the health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi.
“We also hope people don’t stock up on oxygen,” she added, referring to stockpiles that could have the effect of denying the gas to many.
The hospital said that for days before the incident it had sought more supplies of oxygen, but virus patients streaming in since Friday had pushed it beyond its capacity, consuming supply sooner than expected. The crisis eased when it began to receive more supplies just before dawn today.
Separately, the ministry overseeing Indonesia’s Covid response ordered the gas industry to prioritise production to fill estimated demand of 800 tonnes of oxygen each day for medical needs. The industry has idle capacity of 225,000 tonnes a year that can still be used, the ministry added.
Hospitals across the main island of Java are being pushed to the brink by the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant.
In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, the government said the daily figure of funerals following Covid protocols had risen 10-fold since early May, with 392 burials yesterday. That was also the day 18 days of “emergency” curbs took effect in the islands of Java and Bali to control the spread of the virus.
From Tuesday, Indonesia will clamp down on arrivals of foreign visitors, allowing in only those who are fully vaccinated and have a negative PCR test, the ministry said, although diplomatic travel is excluded.
Visitors will still have to spend eight days in quarantine upon arrival.
Updated
Russia reports 663 new deaths amid 25,142 new cases
Russia reported 25,142 new Covid cases today, including 7,624 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,610,941 (via Reuters).
The government coronavirus taskforce said 663 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 137,925. In the previous 24 hours, Russia recorded 24,439 new cases and 697 deaths.
The federal statistics agency, which has kept a separate count, says Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to Covid from April last year to April this year.
Updated
Here is another perspective on a prospective end to mask-wearing in England from 19 July, (see earlier post), from Prof Adam Finn, from the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). He told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme:
Well, on a personal level I shall certainly be continuing to wear a mask if I’ve got any symptoms or if I’m in an enclosed space with lots of other people for a prolonged period of time, indefinitely in fact …
I think, as paediatricians, we learned that we can avoid massive problems with children getting sick in the winter by doing these kind of measures.
We simply didn’t see the epidemics of respiratory viruses last winter that we’ve seen every year throughout my career. So I actually now completely understand it, whereas I was puzzled before when I saw Asian people on the tube wearing masks in the pre-pandemic era.
So I think mask-wearing is obviously something we’ve learned is extremely valuable to do under certain circumstances. That doesn’t mean I’ll wear a mask all the time but it does mean I will some of the time.
Updated
China administered about 12.9 million doses of Covid vaccine yesterday, taking the total to 1.296 billion doses, data from the National Health Commission showed today (via Reuters).
Face masks to be personal choice after final lifting of restrictions, says UK minister
Robert Jenrick, the UK’s communities secretary, suggested that coronavirus control measures in England such as the legal requirement to wear face coverings in enclosed public settings would be left up to personal choice after the final stage of the roadmap, giving weight to reports (see previous post) that a number of requirements are to be scrapped.
The Conservative politician told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme:
Like many people, I want to get away from these restrictions as quickly as I possibly can and we don’t want them to stay in place for a day longer than is necessary.
I think we are going to now move into a period where there won’t be legal restrictions, the state won’t be telling you what to do, but you will want to exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgment – different people will come to different conclusions on things like masks, for example.
“The prime minister will set out more detail on the national policy on some of those restrictions in the coming days. But there will be things we all definitely need to do – it will be essential that every adult gets fully vaccinated.
Pressed on whether he would “get rid” of his mask after 19 July if permitted to do so, Jenrick said: “I will. I don’t particularly want to wear a mask. I don’t think a lot of people enjoy doing it.”
Updated
Hello, welcome to today’s coronavirus liveblog, taking in news from around the world.
In England, there has been a lot of debate about what the rules will/should look like from 19 July, the date set for the final easing of restrictions, with plenty of speculation that some would remain in place. However, a report in the Sunday Times, quoting a government source, says:
- Mask wearing will not be required in any setting.
- The 1-metre-plus rule will be scrapped.
- Having to scan a QR code before entering a bar, restaurant or similar venue will be consigned to the past.
The source said the success of the vaccine rollout meant the government was “confident there will be no risk of additional pressure on the NHS”.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “No decisions have been made but more details will be set out soon.”
Yesterday, the government said it was considering scrapping quarantine requirements for those who have had both vaccine doses.
Updated
