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Brazil records over 2,000 daily deaths for second consecutive day
Brazil reported 2,233 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the second consecutive day that fatalities have exceeded 2,000, the health ministry said on Thursday, and 75,412 new cases.
The South American country has now registered 11,277,717 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 272,889, according to ministry data, in the world’s third-biggest outbreak after the U.S. and India.
Romanian authorities have temporarily stopped vaccinating people with one batch of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine as an “extreme precaution” while deaths in Italy are investigated, but are continuing to use other doses from the company, a health agency said.
Italian health authorities have ordered the withdrawal of a batch of AstraZeneca’s vaccine following the deaths of two men in Sicily who were recently inoculated, a source close to the matter said.
Romania said it has suspended using doses from the same batch in question in Italy, adding it received 81,600 doses in early February and has used 77,049 so far. The suspension will last until the European Medicines Agency completes a probe.
This decision was made as a measure of extreme precaution without there being a scientific argument present in Romania to justify it,” Romania’s national committee in charge of COVID-19 vaccination said in a statement.
The decision to quarantine the respective batch was made exclusively based on the event reported in Italy.”
Novavax Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine was 96% effective in preventing cases caused by the original version of the coronavirus in a late-stage trial conducted in the UK, the company said, moving it a step closer to regulatory approval.
The vaccine was also about 86% effective in protecting against the more contagious virus variant first discovered and now prevalent in the UK.
It was only around 55% effective in a separate, smaller trial in South Africa, where volunteers were primarily exposed to another newer, more contagious variant that is widely circulating there and spreading around the world.
In both trials, the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing serious illness and death.
Results from the final analysis of the UK trial were largely in line with interim data released in January, which also showed the Novavax shot to be 96% effective against the original version of the coronavirus and around 86% effective against UK variant.
The company expects to use the data to submit for regulatory authorization in various countries. It is not clear when it will seek U.S. authorisation or if regulators will require it to complete an ongoing trial in the US.
Below is our story from January on the interim results:
Algeria records cases of UK variant
Algeria recorded its first 13 cases of the coronavirus variant first discovered in Nigeria and also tested positive seven other people for the variant first identified in Britain, state research centre Pasteur Institute said.
The 13 cases were detected in Algiers and other southern and eastern provinces, it said in a statement.
The seven cases, identified in the capital Algiers and neighboring province of Blida, brought the total number to 15 of infections from the variant discovered in Britain.
Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientist said the company expects to produce up to 3 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine next year, after the European Union approved the one-shot immunisation on Thursday.
The company is bringing on three manufacturing plants to produce the key drug substance. It also will have seven plants globally that will handle final production steps and bottling into vials known as fill and finish.
“All these will function together to deliver the 1 billion by the end of the year,” Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, said in an interview.
“Next year, we can do more than two billion vaccines, and even up to three if we maximize capacity. With Merck on board, we will be north of 2 billion,” he added, referring to a recent agreement for rival Merck & Co to produce J&J’s vaccine.
Stoffels also said he was confident J&J will be able to deliver a planned 55 million doses to the European Union in the second quarter. An EU official told Reuters this week that J&J had flagged possible supply issues that may complicate these plans.
“We trust that we can deliver close to that amount in Q2,” Stoffels said, adding that final production steps would be the biggest challenge.
“It’s the fill and finish which was the critical part and there we learned we had later access, we started later and had later access to facilities,” he said.
J&J’s shot is the fourth to be endorsed for use in the EU after vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech , AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Inc.
Washington has told the European Union that it should not expect to receive AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines manufactured in the US any time soon, two EU sources said.
The U.S. message could complicate vaccination plans in the 27-nation EU, which has been grappling since January with delays in deliveries from vaccine makers.
“The U.S. told us there was no way it would ship AstraZeneca vaccines to the EU,” said a senior official directly involved in EU-U.S. talks.
AstraZeneca told the EU earlier this year it would cut its supplies in the second quarter by at least half to less than 90 million doses, EU sources told Reuters, after a bigger reduction in the first three months of the year.
Later, however, AstraZeneca offered to partly plug the gap with vaccines produced outside Europe, including in the United States.
A senior EU diplomat said the European Commission told member states’ diplomats at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday that the bloc should not expect any exports from the United States “at this point in time”.
“Basically the situation is such that any exports are tricky, but there is a willingness to talk,” the diplomat said.
AstraZeneca declined to comment.
A summary of today's developments
- Portugal’s government announced it would start to gradually ease its strict rules from next week, Reuters reports, nearly two months into a lockdown imposed in mid-January to tackle what was then the world’s worst coronavirus surge. And controls on the country’s land border with neighbouring Spain will remain in place until Easter.
- The Covid-19 situation in greater Paris is “especially worrying” and the government will take extra restrictive measures there if the pandemic continues at its current pace, France’s health minister said on Thursday. While new infections are not growing exponentially, the numbers taken into intensive care have reached a new 3-1/2-months high nationally, close to 4,000, as France faces more dangerous variants
- Europe’s medicines regulator (EMA) said there appeared to be no higher risk of blood clots in those vaccinated against Covid-19 (see 3.38pm), after Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab (see 1.48pm) and another five European countries withdrew a batch (see 2.21pm).
- The governor of Brazil’s most populous state, São Paulo, declared a two-week emergency shutdown as the South American country’s coronavirus outbreak continues to spiral out of control (see 4.55pm).
- Slovakia’s health minister announced his resignation in an attempt to defuse a political crisis over the government’s mishandling of the pandemic and a row over the purchase of vaccines from Russia (see 4.08pm).
- Pfizer and BioNTech said that real-world data from Israel suggests that their vaccine is 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections, meaning the vaccine could significantly reduce transmission (see 11.52am).
- The EMA recommended conditionally approving Johnson & Johnson’s single dose Covid vaccine, following authorisations in the US and Canada (see 1.34pm).
- The Polish capital, Warsaw, will be among cities facing tougher restrictions from Monday, the country’s health minister said (see 2.54pm), as several central European nations face surges in infections.
- Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be urgently reviewed for cancer patients after a single shot was found to offer inadequate protection, researchers said.
- France is to ease some Covid restrictions on international travel outside Europe, the foreign ministry said. Travellers to or from Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Britain and Singapore will no longer have to need a compelling reason to travel.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that controls on the country’s land border with neighbouring Spain will remain in place until Easter to fight the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Costa also told a news conference that travel restrictions, such as a negative Covid-19 test at arrival or quarantine, on those coming from the UK, Brazil and South Africa will stay in force due to the new variants of the virus.
Portugal to ease lockdown rules
Portugal’s government announced it would start to gradually ease its strict rules from next week, Reuters reports, nearly two months into a lockdown imposed in mid-January to tackle what was then the world’s worst coronavirus surge.
Kindergartens, pre-schools and primary schools will reopen on Monday, as well as hair salons and book shops, Prime Minister Antonio
Costa told a news conference, adding restaurants will only be allowed to open their doors in May.
The measures to ease the lockdown will be revaluated every 15 days, Costa said.
Serbia said it plans to start domestic production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in May and China’s Sinopharm shot by mid-October.
After meeting United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Dubai, President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbian production capacity for the Sinopharm vaccine would be ready by Oct. 15.
“We will have large quantities of vaccine for us, but also for the entire region,” Vucic said on state-run RTS TV.
Vucic said within two weeks Serbia and the UAE would sign a deal covering the construction of a new vaccine factory.
“It will be an entirely ... new vaccine factory which we will build together with the UAE and the Chinese,” he said.
Also on Thursday, the office of Nenad Popovic, the minister for innovation, said Serbia plans to start local production of the Sputnik V vaccine from May 20.
“The first phase ... would include the transport of (vaccine) ingredients from Russia, packing and distribution,” Popovic’s office said after he met Russian trade minister Denis Manturov in Moscow.
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia held a church ceremony to honour the victims of the coronavirus.
The memorial service was held at the chapel of the Drottningholm Palace, just outside Stockholm, on the one-year anniversary of the first death of the pandemic in the Scandinavian nation.
The royal couple participated, but Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel could not attend as they both tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day.
The royal court said in a statement that the Crown Princess and her husband have mild symptoms and “are feeling well considering the circumstances.”
Sweden has stood out for its comparatively mild response to the pandemic. The country avoided lockdowns and relied instead on citizens’ sense of civic duty to control infections.
As of Thursday, more than 13,100 people had died of Covid-19 in the country, far more per capita than in Sweden’s neighbours but fewer than in other European countries that did implement strict lockdowns or curfews.
Updated
The Covid-19 situation in greater Paris is “especially worrying” and the government will take extra restrictive measures there if the pandemic continues at its current pace, France’s health minister said on Thursday.
While new infections are not growing exponentially, the numbers taken into intensive care have reached a new 3-1/2-months high nationally, close to 4,000, as France faces more dangerous variants.
At this moment we can say that the variants are more contagious and more dangerous and they now represent more than two thirds of infections in France”, Olivier Veran said.
He said a new patient went into intensive care in the greater Paris region every 12 minutes, adding he did not know when the current peak of the epidemic would be reached there.
France has imposed local weekend lockdowns, on top of a national 6 p.m. curfew, in northern and southern parts of the country. But the government has so far resisted such measures for greater Paris.
In the Paris region, the number of people in ICU units is now close to 1,100 and could reach 1,500 by the end of March if the current trend continues, Veran said, adding that level would be “critical” for the area’s hospital system.
AstraZeneca said it had found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis in safety data of more than 10 million records, even when considering subgroups based on age, gender, production batch or country of use.
“In fact, the observed number of these types of events are significantly lower in those vaccinated than what would be expected among the general population,” it added.
Health authorities in Denmark, Norway and Iceland on Thursday suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine following reports of the formation of blood clots in some people who had been vaccinated.
Austria earlier stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and an illness from a pulmonary embolism.
The European medicine regulator EMA said the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks and could continue to be administered.
Brazil’s hospitals are faltering as a highly contagious coronavirus variant tears through the country.
For the last week, Brazilian governors sought to do something President Jair Bolsonaro obstinately rejects: cobble together a proposal for states to help curb the nation’s deadliest Covid-19 outbreak yet.
Piaui state’s governor Wellington Dias told The Associated Press that unless pressure on hospitals is eased, growing numbers of patients will have to endure the disease without a hospital bed or any hope of treatment in an intensive care unit.
“We have reached the limit across Brazil; rare are the exceptions,” Dias, who leads the governors’ forum, said. “The chance of dying without assistance is real.”
In Brazil’s wealthiest state, Sao Paulo, at least 30 patients died this month while waiting for ICU beds, according to a tally published Wednesday by the news site G1.
Occupancy of ICUs is above 90% in 15 of 27 capitals, according to the state-run Fiocruz institute.
In southern Santa Catarina state, 419 people were waiting for transfer to ICU beds.
Neighbouring Rio Grande do Sul’s capacity was at 106%. Alexandre Zavascki, a doctor in its capital, described a constant arrival of hospital patients struggling to breathe.
Updated
Hungary said it was paying the equivalent of about $37.50 per dose for Chinese company Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine and $9.95 per dose for the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine.
“Hungary’s government stands for making vaccine contracts public,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas wrote on Facebook, attaching 30 pages of documents that appeared to be the vaccine contracts.
“We ask the European Commission that it also publish the contracts signed by Brussels,” Gulyas added.
Hungary was the first EU nation to buy and use Chinese or Russian jabs and initially came under fire for its separate approval process and negotiations for the vaccines. More recently, several European countries have also expressed interest in buying those vaccines as shipments from Western suppliers lagged, Reuters reports.
Hungary used multiple suppliers to secure the most vaccines per capita in the EU, and also inoculated the highest number of people per capita in Europe, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
It has only used 65% of its available vaccines as supply has risen in recent weeks.
Orban wants to immunise as many people as he can quickly to be able to reopen the country after a new lockdown imposed this week, closing all schools and most shops in an effort to contain a record rise of coronavirus cases.
Hungary’s latest data showed a record 8,312 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, with 172 deaths.
Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame today became the first leader in East Africa to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, which has been rolled out in the region in recent days, his office announced.
Kagame, 63, and his wife Jeannette, were pictured receiving their jabs along with a statement saying that 230,000 people had received the vaccine in the country.
The nation of 12 million has carried out more than a million tests and detected almost 20,000 cases, with 271 deaths since the outbreak of the virus.
As part of the ongoing nationwide vaccination rollout that has seen more than 230,000 people vaccinated, President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame received their #COVID-19 vaccines at King Faisal Hospital. pic.twitter.com/OylatTad9W
— Presidency | Rwanda (@UrugwiroVillage) March 11, 2021
Nearly 12 million women in poorer countries lost access to contraception in the pandemic, leading to 1.4 million unplanned pregnancies, the United Nations has said.
Reuters on estimates by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, which show women lost access to contraception as the pandemic drew resources away from family planning or hit supply chains. Women also lost out due to coronavirus travel restrictions, clinic closures and stay-at-home orders, the UNFPA said.
Agency head Natalia Kanem said:
We must ensure that women and girls have uninterrupted access to life-saving contraceptives and maternal health medicines. The devastating impact that COVID-19 has had on the lives of millions of women and girls in the past year underscores just how vital it is to ensure the continuity of reproductive health services.”
The UN data highlighted the many ways in which women have suffered disproportionately in the pandemic, be it through greater job losses, increased domestic duties or rising incidents of domestic and sexual violence. In 115 low- and middle-income countries, women faced an average disruption in their family planning services of 3.6 months over the past year, UNFPA data showed.
Summary
Here are some of the biggest stories from the past seven hours.
- Europe’s medicines regulator (EMA) said there appeared to be no higher risk of blood clots in those vaccinated against Covid-19 (see 3.38pm), after Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab (see 1.48pm) and another five European countries withdrew a batch (see 2.21pm).
- The governor of Brazil’s most populous state, São Paulo, declared a two-week emergency shutdown as the South American country’s coronavirus outbreak continues to spiral out of control (see 4.55pm).
- Slovakia’s health minister announced his resignation in an attempt to defuse a political crisis over the government’s mishandling of the pandemic and a row over the purchase of vaccines from Russia (see 4.08pm).
-
Pfizer and BioNTech said that real-world data from Israel suggests that their vaccine is 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections, meaning the vaccine could significantly reduce transmission (see 11.52am).
- The Portuguese parliament extended a state of emergency until the end of March as the government geared up to unveil a long-awaited plan to gradually lift strict lockdown rules in place since mid-January (see 5.09pm).
-
The EMA recommended conditionally approving Johnson & Johnson’s single dose Covid vaccine, following authorisations in the US and Canada (see 1.34pm).
- The Polish capital, Warsaw, will be among cities facing tougher restrictions from Monday, the country’s health minister said (see 2.54pm), as several central European nations face surges in infections.
- Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be urgently reviewed for cancer patients after a single shot was found to offer inadequate protection, researchers said.
-
France is to ease some Covid restrictions on international travel outside Europe, the foreign ministry said. Travellers to or from Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Britain and Singapore will no longer have to need a compelling reason to travel.
Updated
Not everyone in Texas, US, is ready to embrace the end of mandatory mask wearing, with most people who wandered in and out of stores still donning face coverings, and many shops requiring customers to wear one before entering.
Updated
Charities in Africa have criticised the more economically developed nations for blocking efforts to waive patents for Covid vaccines, claiming that the current system appears designed to foster the interests of pharmaceutical giants.
Reuters reports that more than 40 charities, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid, said yesterday’s move by Western nations to prevent generic or other manufacturers making more vaccines in poorer nations was “an affront on people’s right to healthcare”.
Peter Kamalingin, Oxfam International’s Africa director, told a news conference: “Ensuring every African can get a safe and effective Covid vaccine ... is the most effective way to save lives and livelihoods, keep our children in school, reduce unemployment rates and re-open our economies.”
Richer members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) blocked a push by some 80 developing countries – led by India and South Africa – to waive its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement rules on patents.
The move sent a message that African lives were less important than those of people in rich nations, Kamalingin said.
Countries such as the US and Britain argue that protecting intellectual property rights encourages research and innovation, and that suspending those rights would not result in a sudden surge of vaccine supply. However, critics say that it is imperative that as many vaccine doses are made as quick as possible, now there are a number of viable jabs, particularly given that so much taxpayers money was used to fund research and development.
“Big Pharma will praise the ‘well functioning’ patent system forever. It makes them very rich,” tweeted campaigner Nick Dearden, from Global Justice Now. “But Covid-19 shows it is no basis for a fair and healthy world. We need a very different model.”
Africa accounts for less than 4% of the 118 million cases and 2.6 million deaths recorded globally, but some health experts believe the true figures may be larger.
Updated
At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, some workers found themselves at home, momentarily (at least they thought) liberated from the many impositions of office work – including commuting. Now, instead of waking up early, getting dressed and schlepping to the office and back, people had time to do anything they want. Which is why it might be surprising that some are still pretending to commute.
Portugal extends state of emergency
The Portuguese parliament has extended a state of emergency until the end of March as the government geared up to unveil a long-awaited plan to gradually lift strict lockdown rules in place since mid-January.
Reuters has the story:
Under the lockdown implemented on 15 January to tackle what was then the world’s worst surge of coronavirus cases and deaths, all non-essential services and schools were shut, with people urged to stay home across Portugal.
The situation brought the country’s fragile health service to its knees but has significantly improved since then, with daily figures dropping sharply.
The plan to ease the lockdown will be announced by the government later today and is expected to slowly open up different services and allow certain activities depending on the pandemic situation in each region.
Updated
Sweden’s crown princess Victoria, next in the line of succession to the throne, and her husband, Daniel, have tested positive for coronavirus, the royal court has said.
“The crown princess and prince Daniel display mild symptoms, but are feeling well considering the circumstances,” the Swedish court said in a statement.
As crown princess, Victoria, 40, is next in the line to succeed her father, King Karl XIV Gustaf.
Updated
Two week shutdown in São Paulo as outbreak spirals out of control
The governor of Brazil’s most populous state, São Paulo, has declared a two-week emergency shutdown as the South American country’s coronavirus outbreak continues to spiral out of control.
“Brazil is collapsing,” João Doria warned on Thursday afternoon as he announced the new restrictions in his state, which is home to 44 million of Brazil’s 212 million citizens. “This is the only – I repeat – only way right now to try and stop the acceleration of deaths and avoid so many families being devastated, as has been happening everyday, here and across Brazil,” Doria added.
São Paulo’s health secretary, Jean Gorinchteyn, said intense pressure on hospitals and a 12% surge in fatalities in the last week meant authorities had no choice but to order the closure of businesses, beaches, parks, schools and churches. As of next Monday, a curfew will also be enforced between 8pm and 5am.
Gorinchteyn said there were currently more than 9,000 Covid patients in São Paulo’s intensive care units – many of them young Brazilians in their twenties and thirties. An average of 150 people were being admitted to intensive care each day, he said. “We all need to understand that what is happening right now is a different pandemic to the one we saw last year,” Gorinchteyn told journalists.
São Paulo is one of the Brazilian states worst-hit by Covid, having lost more than 63,000 lives. Brazil’s total death toll now stands at more than 270,000, second only to the US, with deaths expected to soar in the coming weeks.
Updated
The Paris-Nice cycling race in France will not finish in Nice as planned on Sunday because of a local coronavirus lockdown in the Riviera resort, authorities have announced.
Race organisers ASO are in talks “to change the route” of the closing two stages after the reimposition of a weekend lockdown in the area, the regional government said.
“These stages can only take place outside the confined area and behind closed doors,” the statement read, ruling out the traditional finish on Nice’s iconic Promenade des Anglais.
Yesterday, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, called for the finish to be switched from its traditional location to allow local residents the chance to use the promenade for their allotted lockdown exercise period.
Updated
AFP reports that corruption allegations and a series of pandemic setbacks have plunged German chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives into turmoil, just days before two regional polls kick off a key election year.
Support for Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance has fallen to a one-year low at around 30 percent, surveys show, as Germans sour on its pandemic crisis management. “The corona bonus of the largest ruling party is melting away,” said the top-selling Bild daily.
Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats and their Bavarian CSU sister party are bracing for a drubbing on Sunday, when voters in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg states choose new regional parliaments.
Both ballots are seen as the first test of the national mood in what media have dubbed a “super election year” of several regional votes and a general election on 26 September - the first in over 15 years that will not feature Merkel.
Germany’s ruling coalition, made up of the CDU/CSU and their junior partner the Social Democrats (SPD), won praise for taming the first Covid-19 wave last spring, when the nation rallied behind former scientist Merkel’s virus measures.
But a Covid resurgence in late 2020 proved more difficult to suppress. Frustration has grown after months of wearying shutdowns, and the country’s 16 federal states have increasingly gone their own way, leading to a patchwork of rules. A scandal over the procurement of face masks early on in the pandemic has added to a toxic mix for the conservatives.
Updated
Azerbaijan plans to import 432,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 300,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine over the next half year.
The former Soviet nation of 10 million people has not formally registered either of those vaccines for use.
Azerbaijan has already bought 4 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine and began a voluntary vaccine programme on 18 January. It will also receive 2 million doses through the Covax international scheme.
Slovakia’s health minister has announced his resignation in a bid to defuse a political crisis over the government’s mishandling of the pandemic.
“Two minor coalition parties conditioned their stay in government on my resignation. I do not want to make any obstructions therefore I am resigning from my position,” Marek Krajci said. “This is an act of responsibility.”
The SaS and Za Ludi parties had insisted on a reshuffle in the government led by prime minister Igor Matovic, chairman of the OLaNO party, following a controversial purchase of 2m Russian Sputnik V vaccines.
Matovic called the departure “an immoral decision by our coalition partners” and insisted Krajci should stay in his post until the Sputnik V vaccination campaign was in full swing. “We do not want anyone to block the usage of the Russian vaccine,” Matovic said.
The EU country of 5.4 million people currently has the world’s second highest per capita rate of Covid deaths after its neighbour Czech Republic and one of the highest contagion rates, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
Updated
The Chinese Olympic Committee has offered vaccine doses to be used for participants at this year’s Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed.
IOC president Thomas Bach said:
The IOC has received a kind offer from the Chinese Olympic Committee, hosts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, to make additional vaccine doses available to participants in both editions of the Games
The Chinese Olympic Committee is ready in cooperation with the IOC to make these additional doses available … either via collaboration with international partners or directly in countries where agreements regarding Chinese vaccines are in place.”
Europe’s medicines regulator has said there appeared to be no higher risk of blood clots in those vaccinated against Covid-19, after Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended use of the AstraZeneca jab (see 1.48pm) and another five European countries withdrew a batch (see 2.21pm).
The European Medicines Agency said:
The information available so far indicates that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is no higher than that seen in the general population.”
The Amsterdam-based regulator said it understood the Danish decision “has been taken as precaution”.
The EMA said the decision followed the regulator’s own announcement yesterday that it was “reviewing thromboembolic events reported in temporal association with the vaccine” after reports of cases in Austria.
The watchdog said it “will continue its assessment and EMA will communicate updates as soon as possible,” the agency said.
In its announcement on Austria on Wednesday, the EMA had said there had been 22 “thromboembolic events” among 3 million people who received the vaccine across the European Economic Area, which includes Norway and Iceland.
The Danish suspension, which will be reviewed after two weeks, is expected to slow down the country’s vaccination campaign.
Updated
Four more cases of the P.1 variant have been identified in England – three in South Gloucestershire and one in Bradford, West Yorkshire, public health officials have said.
In a statement, Public Health England said:
The cases in South Gloucestershire are all close or household contacts of the two existing P.1 cases in the area. They were offered testing in response to the initial cases. Specialist contact tracing teams have undertaken a comprehensive investigation to identify any further contacts and additional testing has been in place since the initial cases were identified.
The individual in Bradford tested positive for Covid-19 in late February after travelling back from Brazil via Paris on 14 February. Subsequent genomic sequencing confirmed the case as the P.1 variant. Contact tracing teams have followed up close contacts of the individual and advised them to isolate and get a test.
The latest cases bring the total number of P.1 variant cases in the UK to ten – seven in England and three in Scotland, all of which have links to travel or to a previously confirmed case that has travelled to Brazil.
Turkey plans to vaccinate 50 million people by autumn, Reuters quotes its health minister, Fahrettin Koca, as saying, after the number of daily cases surged to their highest level this year.
Turkey, with a population of 83 million, has carried out 10.56m inoculations since 14 January, when it began the nationwide rollout of Covid-19 shots developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
“If we can vaccinate 50 million of our population before autumn as we plan, the pandemic will no longer be a heavy burden for us,” Koca said in a live televised statement on the anniversary of the first Covid-19 case recorded in Turkey.
There have been 2.82m recorded cases in Turkey and more than 29,000 people have died there due to Covid-19, health ministry data shows.
Koca said 42 of Turkey’s provinces were currently assessed to be low and medium-risk areas, while 39 provinces were registered as high or very high-risk areas.
The number of new cases stood at 14,556 on Wednesday, the highest since the end of 2020 and nearly double the levels a month ago. Ten days earlier, the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced an easing of measures to curb the pandemic.
Erdoğan announced a partial opening of schools, cafes and restaurants on Monday last week. Ankara also eased weekend lockdowns, after the number of new cases fell below 10,000 daily.
Updated
The Polish capital, Warsaw, will be among cities facing tougher restrictions from Monday, the country’s health minister has said, as several central European nations face surges in infections.
According to Reuters, tighter limitations on public life will be enforced in two more Polish regions as well. The agency reports:
A highly contagious variant of the virus first identified in Britain has driven spiralling infection rates in Poland, with Thursday’s total of 21,045 coronavirus cases bringing the pandemic back to levels not seen since November.
“When we look at the pandemic situation, it looks like this increase does not show any signs of slowing down,” said the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, as he announced the return of stricter curbs in the central Mazowieckie region and Lubuskie in the west.
From Monday, these regions will have to close hotels, cinemas, swimming pools and shopping malls while children in the first three school grades will partly switch to online learning.
Mazowieckie and Lubuskie will join the northern regions of Warminsko-Mazurskie and Pomorskie as areas with the tightest restrictions.
Poland eased some restrictions last month, reopening ski slopes, as well as cinemas, hotels and theatres for up to 50% capacity, which initially resulted in massive tourist visits to popular ski resorts.
The government then resumed curbs in the northern regions as they reported a higher infection rate per 100,000 people than other parts of the country.
Niedzielski did not rule out a return to tougher rules across the entire country. “At the moment, we have decided to introduce restrictions in these two regions, but there is indeed a possibility ... that the next restrictions will be introduced nationwide.”
Updated
Italy’s decision to ban a batch of AstraZeneca vaccine was taken following the deaths of two men in Sicily who had recently been inoculated, a source close to the matter has told Reuters. The agency reports:
Italy’s medicines authority Aifa said earlier that the ban was a “precautionary” measure, adding that no link had been established between the vaccine and subsequent “serious adverse events”.
The source said Aifa had moved after Stefano Paterno, a 43-year-old navy officer, died earlier this week of a suspected heart attack the day after his jab.
A second man, 50-year-old policeman Davide Villa, died last weekend, some 12 days after his jab. Local newspapers reported he fell ill within 24 hours of his injection and never recovered.
The source said both men had received shots from AstraZeneca’s ABV2856 batch.
Updated
The UK’s medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency (MHRA) has stressed that it was not confirmed that the reported blood clot in Denmark was caused by the vaccine, adding that the Danish suspension was precautionary.
Phil Bryan, MHRA vaccines safety lead, said more than 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered across the UK and that reports of blood clots were not greater than would have occurred naturally.
Blood clots can occur naturally and are not uncommon ... We are keeping this issue under close review but available evidence does not confirm that the vaccine is the cause. People should still go and get their Covid-19 vaccine when asked to do so.
Norway and Iceland latest to halt AstraZeneca jab rollout
Norway and Iceland has suspended the rollout of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, following a similar move by Denmark (see 12.51pm).
“This is a cautionary decision,” Geir Bukholm, director of infection prevention and control at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, told a news conference. “We ... await information to see if there is a link between the vaccination and this case with a blood clot.”
Italy has also said it would suspend use of the AstraZeneca batch that was used in Austria, after the country suspended use of a particular batch of the drug because a woman died from blood clots 10 days after taking it.
Updated
The EU’s drugs regulator has recommended conditionally approving Johnson & Johnson’s single dose Covid vaccine, following authorisations in the US and Canada.
Results from a trial of about 44,000 participants show the jab was 66% effective in preventing moderate-to-severe Covid globally.
The shot is the fourth to be endorsed for use in the EU after vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech , AstraZeneca-Oxford University and Moderna, and is recommended for those over 18, the European Medicines agency (EMA) said.
EMA executive director Emer Cooke said.
With this latest positive opinion, authorities across the European Union will have another option to combat the pandemic and protect the lives and health of their citizens. This is the first vaccine that can be used as a single dose.”
EU conditional marketing authorisation allows a treatment to be sold for a year without full data on its efficacy and side-effects being available.
Updated
A small study, and the first real-world piece of research in the area, suggests cancer patients could be much less protected against Covid-19 than others after one dose of the Pfizer jab.
Gemma Peters, the chief executive of Blood Cancer UK, said:
We have been concerned about how much protection the vaccines will give people with blood cancer because vaccines do not usually work as well for people with compromised immune systems. This study, while not peer reviewed and only looking at a small number of people, is worrying news in that it adds to that concern.
This means that if you have blood cancer, it is important that you do not assume you have protection even after you have had the vaccine, particularly after just one dose, and that you continue being careful to avoid Covid. But while this news is concerning, people with blood cancer should still definitely have the vaccine, as it is safe and even a smaller chance of protection is much better than none.
She called for further research, which she said the UK government has neither prioritised nor funded, and urged officials to consider whether cancer patients should receive the second dose sooner.
The BBC has the full story.
Updated
Austria has embarked on a drive to inoculate residents of a district that has been particularly hard-hit by the virus variant first found in South Africa, a move that is part of a research project into vaccinations.
AP reports:
Around 48,500 of the 64,000 people eligible for vaccinations in Tyrol province’s Schwaz district have signed up to get shots and the goal is to have them all done by Monday, Schwaz mayor Hand Lintner told reporters. A second shot will be given four weeks later.
The district, east of the provincial capital of Innsbruck and home to about 84,000 people, has been a source of concern for weeks. It has seen the majority of the cases of the more transmissible variant in the province, peaking at 193 active confirmed cases of it, before dropping down to a current 47, authorities said.
In addition to protecting the people of Schwaz, the idea of the programme, overseen in part by the Medical University of Innsbruck, is to collect data on how well the vaccine protects people and in particular how effective it is on the South African variant. “For us here today, it is a day of joy,” Lintner said.
Updated
UK government says AstraZeneca vaccine is 'safe and effective'
The UK government has defended the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after Denmark suspended the jab’s use (see 12.51pm), and insisted it would continue with its own rollout.
Prime minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman told reporters:
We’ve been clear that it’s both safe and effective... and when people are asked to come forward and take it, they should do so in confidence. And in fact you’re starting to see the results of the vaccine programme in terms of the [lower] number of cases we’re seeing across the country, the number of deaths, number of hospitalisations.
He noted that Denmark had stressed there was no confirmed link between the vaccine and the blood clots.
Asked if the UK government’s medical and scientific advisers were in contact with Denmark, the Downing Street spokesman said it was “regular practice” for experts to exchange information with international counterparts.
Updated
France to ease restrictions on international travel from some countries
France is to ease some Covid restrictions on international travel outside Europe, the foreign ministry has said. Travellers to or from Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Britain and Singapore will no longer have to need a compelling reason to travel.
All other restrictions, such as a requirement for a negative Covid-19 test less than 72 hours before travel, would remain in place, the ministry said, adding that a decree was due to be published on 12 March.
Updated
Here’s more on Denmark’s two-week suspension of the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine after reports of the formation of blood clots in some who have been vaccinated, including one death.
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:
This is a super-cautious approach based on some isolated reports in Europe. The problem with spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions to a vaccine are the enormous difficulty of distinguishing a causal effect from a coincidence.
AstraZeneca said the safety of its vaccine had been extensively studied in human trials, and peer-reviewed data had confirmed the vaccine was generally well tolerated.
The drugmaker said earlier this week its shots were subject to strict and rigorous quality controls and that there had been “no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine”.
It said it was in contact with Austrian authorities and would fully support their investigation after the country suspended use of a particular batch of the drug because a woman died from blood clots 10 days after taking it. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg also stopped using the batch.
“We do not think that there is sufficient evidence to stop vaccination with AstraZeneca’s vaccine,” Veronica Arthurson, head of drug safety at the Swedish Medical Products Agency, told Newsagency TT.
Here’s the full story:
Updated
Iran has received a shipment of 150,000 doses of an Indian Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, local media has reported, as the Islamic republic combats the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of the illness.
“The coronavirus vaccine shipment from India arrived at [Tehran’s] Imam Khomeini airport containing 150,000 doses,” deputy customs chief Mehrdad Jamal Arvanaghi told ISNA news agency.
AFP reports:
Iran, which is in its second month of a vaccination campaign, is to receive another 375,000 doses from India next week, the health ministry’s public relations head, Kianoush Jahanpour, announced on Twitter.
Tehran, using multiple sources, started its national vaccination campaign on 9 February, but the number of people inoculated to date has not been announced. It has bought a total of 2m doses of Russia’s Sputnik V, according to Jahanpour, to be delivered in stages.
He said Tehran plans to launch the local manufacture of the Russian jab before the start of the new Iranian year on 21 March. “36 to 40 million doses of Sputnik V will be produced and distributed” in the upcoming year, he was quoted as saying on the government’s website.
Updated
AFP reports on growing calls grew for the UK to share any surplus coronavirus jabs with Ireland to address the gulf in the vaccination rollouts in the neighbouring countries.
Northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster said the lagging vaccination programme in the Republic of Ireland was “a concern” which could undermine immunity efforts in the British nation she governs.
While Northern Ireland has benefited from the UK’s speedy vaccine programme, Ireland has been tethered to an EU rollout hampered by production and supply issues.
Northern Ireland – home to 1.9 million – has delivered 650,000 doses to residents, according to latest official figures. The Republic of Ireland is lagging far behind, having delivered just 525,000 doses to a far larger population of 4.9 million.
Yesterday, Irish prime minister Micheal Martin was battered by opposition lawmakers in debates over the nation’s slow vaccine rollout. “There is no magic tree out there that we can pick vaccines off. That is an illusion,” he said in the Dáil, the country’s lower chamber of parliament.
He said he had contacted Johnson who said “he does not have surplus vaccines to give to Ireland right now”.
Updated
The EU’s medicines regulator has said it has started a review of US drug maker Eli Lilly’s mix of two synthetic antibodies to treat high-risk Covid-19 patients.
AFP reports:
The company says trials have shown that bamlanivimab and etesevimab reduce hospitalisations and deaths in coronavirus patients. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it had started a “rolling review” of the two antibodies used in combination, and of bamlanivimab used alone.
The start of the rolling review is a precursor to accelerated authorisation for use within the EU. “The decision to start the rolling review is based on preliminary results from two studies,” the Amsterdam-based regulator said. The EMA has started evaluating the first batch of data, which come from animal studies, it said.
Bamlanivimab and etesevimab are monoclonal antibodies, which are lab-made versions of the body’s natural infection-fighting defences. Giving people ready-made antibodies can help those who are at high risk of severe disease because of weak immunity or underlying conditions.
Updated
Pfizer and BioNTech have said that real-world data from Israel suggests that their vaccine is 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections, meaning the vaccine could significantly reduce transmission.
The data, collected between 17 January and 6 March, has not yet been peer reviewed. The companies also said the latest analysis of the Israeli data showed the vaccine was 97% effective in preventing symptomatic disease, severe disease and death, Reuters reports. That is basically in line with the 95% efficacy Pfizer and BioNTech reported from the vaccine’s late-stage clinical trial in December.
According to the analysis, unvaccinated individuals were 44 times more likely to develop symptomatic Covid and 29 times more likely to die from Covid than those who had received the vaccine.
Updated
Artefacts and memories of the deadliest global pandemic in a century are on display in Miami, US, in what is probably the nation’s first comprehensive coronavirus museum exhibition, forming an enduring testament to an unprecedented era.
Rolls-Royce has reported a loss of £4bn for 2020 as the jet-engine manufacturer’s business was shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, as revenues from servicing passenger aircraft collapsed. It expects to burn through a further £2bn this year.
A backlog at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – along with nearly every other port in the US – has been exacerbated by the spike in coronavirus cases in southern California tied to the holiday season. Of the 15,000 dockworkers at the two ports, about 800 have in recent weeks been infected with coronavirus – a number representing just over 5% of the ports’ total workforce.
Updated
The dating app Bumble has said it expects pent up demand from people who had been avoiding dating in-person due to the pandemic, after it reported a bigger-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter revenue.
Reuters reports:
Dating apps have benefited from social distancing restrictions that made people yearn for company as casual gatherings with friends and family became a rarity.
The company said it will build its friendship product Bumble BFF beyond its minimum viable offering as it expects friendships and platonic relationships at large to be a massive opportunity going forward.
Texas-based Bumble expects current quarter revenue to be in the range of $163 million and $165 million. Bumble boasted of 12.7% of the U.S. dating market, with close to 5.5 million average monthly active users and 2.2 million downloads in the US alone, during the quarter, according to data from analytics firm Apptopia.
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading. Mattha Busby here, thanks to my colleague Alex Mistlin for all the updates over the past few hours. Please drop me a line on Twitter or via email on mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk with any tips or thoughts.
Thanks for joining me on the live blog today. Now leaving you in the hands of my colleague Mattha Busby!
Spain’s health minister, Carolina Darias, has said there have been no cases of blood clots related to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine reported in Spain.
Darias was speaking after the news this morning that Denmark has suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine amid concerns that it could cause fatal blood clots.
Updated
France will try out a Covid-free status digital pass for air travellers with flag carrier Air France starting a month-long trial for some flights, according to the transport minister, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.
Airlines battered by travel restrictions are pushing hard for a global standard that would reassure passengers over contagion risks onboard and accelerate an eventual recovery for the sector.
For Air France flights to the French Caribbean territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe, passengers will have to present a phone app that shows either a vaccination certificate or a recent negative Covid test.
The system would require partnerships with testing facilities that would provide the digital proof.
Updated
You can follow the World Health Organization’s media briefing on Covid in Africa live here and at the top of this blog:
Denmark’s national health agency has said it is temporarily suspending inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine after blood clots formed in several people who had the jab, one of whom has reportedly died.
The agency said on Thursday that it had not conclusively established a link between the clots and the vaccine, but said it had asked the regional authorities in charge of the vaccination rollout to stop using the AstraZeneca shot for the time being.
The agency said it would reassess the situation in consultation with the Danish medicines agency in two weeks but stressed there was “good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective”.
“We are in the middle of the largest and most important vaccination rollout in Danish history,” Søren Brostrøm, the agency’s director, said. “Right now we need all the vaccines we can get. It is therefore not an easy decision to put one on pause.”
But he added: “Precisely because we are vaccinating so many people, we also need to respond promptly and carefully when we have knowledge of possible serious side effects. We need to clarify this before we can continue using the AstraZeneca vacine.”
Danish media said the suspension meant people who have had an initial shot of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine would not receive a second jab for the time being and all AstraZeneca vaccination slots had been cancelled.
Denmark has been ahead of most of the rest of the EU27 with its vaccination rollout and has already
More on the surge in central Europe as Poland reported 21,045 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest tally since November. The country faces a surge in infections driven by a highly contagious variant of the virus first identified in Britain.
In total, the country has reported 1,849,424 cases of the coronavirus and 46,373 deaths.
Denmark temporarily stops administering Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine
Denmark has temporary stopped usage of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after several cases of blood clots among vaccinated people.
The vaccine has been found to be safe and effective in all adults by UK and international authorities and is widely in use across the world.
Summary
- Brazil’s daily death toll passes 2,000 for first time. Brazil’s 24-hour death toll has for the first time passed 2,0000, as the world’s second worst-affected country in terms of the total lives lost sees records tumble.
- Biden pledges to share surplus vaccines with rest of world. US president Joe Biden has pledged surplus vaccines will be shared with the rest of the world, after he announced the purchase of an additional 100m Johnson & Johnson doses.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic one year ago today. Since then there’s been over 116 million cases and 2.5 million deaths across nearly 200 countries. The US has the highest number of deaths, with 522,818 now recorded and over 319 milion vaccines have been administered worldwide.
- The Australian government has walked away from its promise to ‘fully vaccinate’ all Australians by October. Officials told the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry that supply constraints and the longer 12-week window between AstraZeneca doses meant some may have to wait until December to get their second shot.
- Russia reports 9,270 new COVID-19 cases, 459 deaths. Russia reported 9,270 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 1,281 in Moscow, taking its total case tally to 4,360,823 since the pandemic began.
- South Korea extends AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 65 and over. South Korea will extend vaccination for people aged 65 years and older with AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its immunisation drive, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting on Thursday.
- Cambodia reports its first coronavirus death. Cambodia reported its first death from the coronavirus on Thursday amid its biggest Covid outbreak so far, after a 50-year-old man succumbed to the virus after testing positive less than two weeks ago.
- Hungary reports record high 8,312 daily tally of new Covid cases. Hungary has reported a record 8,312 new coronavirus infections and 172 deaths. There were 8,329 coronavirus patients in hospital, 911 of them needing a ventilator, putting a strain on the healthcare system, the government said on its website.
- Germany sees jump in infections amid third wave warning. Covid cases in Germany rose sharply over the last 24 hours up to 14,356, a level not seen since February 4, the latest data from disease control agency Robert Koch Institute shows.
- Rich, developing nations wrangle over Covid vaccine patents. Richer members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) blocked a push by over 80 developing countries on Wednesday to waive patent rights in an effort to boost production of Covid vaccines for poor nations.
Andrew Sparrow is now live with the UK Politics blog. But stay right here for the latest covid-19 headlines from around the world.
Germany sees jump in infections amid third wave warning
New infections in Germany rose sharply over the last 24 hours up to 14,356, a level not seen since February 4, the latest data from disease control agency Robert Koch Institute shows.
“In Europe, we should be worried,” disease control agency chief Robert Wieler told the journalists’ association ACANU in Geneva on Wednesday.
“If I reflect on Germany, we are at the beginning of the third wave,” said Wieler.
AFP: Germany began very gradually easing a partial lockdown from late February, first allowing the youngest pupils to return to school before this week letting some shops reopen again.
The relaxations came as a relief for a population weary of shutdowns that started in November with the closure of leisure, cultural and sporting facilities. Schools and most shops had followed in mid-December.
But epidemiologists, pointing to more contagious virus variants as well as surging infection rates in Germany’s neighbouring countries like the Czech Republic or Poland, have repeatedly warned against easing the partial lockdown too early.
At the same time, Wieler said there are encouraging signs that a vaccination campaign was already starting to show effect.
“We see effects already in those who are over 80. The incidence (rate of infection) is on the decline, tremendously,” he said.
Germany focussed on vaccinating the oldest within its population when it began its innoculation campaign late December, but criticism has grown over the pace of the rollout as the country lags Britain or the United States.
Updated
Premier Li Keqiang says China will continue to work with the World Health Organization (WHO) in trying to find the origins of Covid-19, Reuters reports.
Keqiang was speaking in response to a question on U.S. criticism that it was not transparent in sharing data on early cases with a WHO investigation earlier this year.
Speaking at a media briefing to mark the end of China’s annual session of parliament, he said China had “acted in a fact-based manner and with an open, transparent and cooperative approach”.
Keqiang also denied that the government’s 2021 goal for economic growth of more than 6% is not a low target. In 2019, China recorded 6.0% GDP growth, it’s slowest rate of increase in thirty years.
Analysts say the relatively low target will allow policymakers to curb market risks as the country’s economy moves beyond the pandemic.
Updated
Hungary reports record high 8,312 daily tally of new Covid cases
Hungary has reported a record 8,312 new coronavirus infections and 172 deaths.
There were 8,329 coronavirus patients in hospital, 911 of them needing a ventilator, putting a strain on the healthcare system, the government said on its website.
Hungary has been hit hard by the third wave of the pandemic, with infections surging since the second half of February and surpassing the country’s previous peak in December.
A new round of lockdown measures went into effect on Monday which required most shops to close for two weeks. Kindergartens and primary schools have also been closed until April 7.
A new antibody drug “reduces hospital admission or death from Covid-19 by 85%”, the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced.
PA reports:
The drug, called VIR-7831, is a new treatment for people with mild to moderate illness, and the study has been so successful that it has been stopped early.
GSK and its partner, Vir Biotechnology, plan to immediately seek an emergency use authorisation in the United States and approval in other countries, including potentially in the UK.
Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-produced molecules that mimic human antibodies.
The global phase 3 clinical trial based its initial analysis on data from 583 patients at risk of hospital admission.
GSK said VIR-7831 works in two ways - by blocking the virus’s entry into healthy cells and also clearing infected cells.
A separate laboratory study has found that VIR-7831 is effective against the main current Covid-19 variants, including the Kent, South African and Brazilian variants, the firm said.
VIR-7831 is designed to be given as a single intravenous (IV) infusion.
Dr Hal Barron, chief scientific officer at GSK, said: “We are pleased that this unique monoclonal antibody was able to bring such a profound benefit to patients.
“We look forward to the possibility of making VIR-7831 available to patients as soon as possible and to further exploring its potential in other settings.”
Russia reports 9,270 new COVID-19 cases, 459 deaths
Russia reported 9,270 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 1,281 in Moscow, taking its total case tally to 4,360,823 since the pandemic began.
The government coronavirus taskforce also said that 459 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing its death toll to 90,734.
The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic one year ago today
Since then:
- Over 116 million cases and 2.5 million deaths across nearly 200 countries
- The US has the highest number of deaths, with 522,818 now recorded
- Over 319 milion vaccines have been administered worldwide
UK: Heathrow’s passenger numbers have fallen to the lowest level since the 1960s, the airport has announced.
Just 461,000 people travelled through the west London airport in February, a 92% decline compared with February 2020 and is the lowest monthly total since 1966.
The airport blamed the decrease on the ban on non-essential travel, quarantine rules and the requirement for pre-departure and post-arrival coronavirus testing.
It said it is working with Boris Johnson’s taskforce to reopen international leisure travel from May 17, but warned that the “biggest single concern is the ability of Border Force to be able to cope with additional passenger numbers”.
The Australian government has walked away from its promise to ‘fully vaccinate’ all Australians by October
Labor has accused the Australian government of reneging on its commitment Australians will be “fully vaccinated” by October, reports Paul Karp and Michael McGowan, after health department officials conceded some people may only have had one dose by then.
Officials told the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry that supply constraints and the longer 12-week window between AstraZeneca doses meant some may have to wait until December to get their second shot.
The Labor chair of the committee, Katy Gallagher, said the evidence on Thursday contradicted the “clear language” from the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the health minister, Greg Hunt, of full vaccination by October.
But the health department secretary, Prof Brendan Murphy, claimed it was a “semantic debate” that “doesn’t really matter” because people would receive protection against Covid-19 from the first dose.
Hi, Alex Mistlin here taking over our global coronavirus coverage.
First up, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on nature conservation efforts, reports AFP.
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only had devastating effects on humans, it has also heavily impacted efforts to safeguard natural ecosystems and habitats around the globe, conservationists warned Thursday.
The pandemic and its economic fall-out have put rangers out of work, forced cuts to anti-poaching patrols, and sparked a range of environmental roll-backs, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said.
A special edition of the IUCN’s PARKS journal, containing a collection of new research papers on the pandemic’s various impacts on nature conservation, indicated the crisis was being felt in protected areas worldwide.
“While the global health crisis remains priority, this new research reveals just how severe a toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on conservation efforts and on communities dedicated to protecting nature,” IUCN director general Dr Bruno Oberle said in the statement.
Surveys done of protected areas across 90 countries showed that in general the impacts had been most severe in Africa, as well as in Latin America and Asia.
More than half of Africa’s protected areas reported they had been forced to halt or reduce field patrols and anti-poaching operations.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, and over to my colleague Alex Mistlin in London.
Cambodia reports its first coronavirus death
Cambodia reported its first death from the coronavirus on Thursday amid its biggest Covid outbreak so far, after a 50-year-old man succumbed to the virus after testing positive less than two weeks ago.
Reuters: With just 1,124 coronavirus infections recorded in total, Cambodia has among the fewest cases in Asia, although a sharp rise in infections since Feb. 20 has seen its overall tally more than double.
The man died mid-morning local time on Thursday, the health ministry said in a statement.
It said he tested positive on 27 February and was a driver for a Chinese national who lived in the coastal town of Sihanoukville, who was also infected.
The Southeast Asian nation of about 16 million people is located next to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, which have all been successful in keeping coronavirus outbreaks under control.
Cambodia started its Covid vaccination programme last month.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Brazil daily death toll passes 2,000 for first time. Brazil’s 24-hour death toll has for the first time passed 2,0000, as the world’s second worst-affected country in terms of the total lives lost sees records tumble.Another 2,286 Brazilians had lost their lives in the 24 hours to Wednesday. The latest high, which followed a record 1,972 deaths on Tuesday, took the South American country’s total death toll to more than 270,000, second only to the US.
- Biden pledges to share surplus vaccines with rest of world. US president Joe Biden has pledged surplus vaccines will be shared with the rest of the world, after he announced the purchase of an additional 100m Johnson & Johnson doses.
- South Korea extends AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 65 and over. South Korea will extend vaccination for people aged 65 years and older with AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its immunisation drive, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting on Thursday.
- Rich, developing nations wrangle over Covid vaccine patents. Richer members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) blocked a push by over 80 developing countries on Wednesday to waive patent rights in an effort to boost production of Covid vaccines for poor nations.
- Emirates tells staff to get vaccinated or pay for regular Covid tests. Dubai’s Emirates has told employees to take a free coronavirus vaccine or pay for tests to prove they are not infected with the deadly disease, cautioning that an unvaccinated workforce could create operational issues.
- 3,000 nurses dead, Covid exodus looming: global federation. At least 3,000 nurses have been killed by Covid-19, the global nurses’ federation said Thursday as it warned of a looming exodus of health workers traumatised by the pandemic, AFP reports. Exactly one year on since the World Health Organization (WHO) first described Covid-19 as a pandemic, the International Council of Nurses said burn-out and stress had led millions of nurses to consider quitting the profession.
- Five countries suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine. Austria’s national medicines regulator has suspended use of a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine after four patients were diagnosed with dangerous blood clotting conditions after receiving the jab, PA reports.Four other countries - Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia - have suspended its use to allow time for the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) to conduct an investigation.
- Covid cases put Ausralian Hospital under extreme pressure. An infux of Covid-19 patients from Papua New Guinea has sparked a “code yellow” emergency at the Cairns Hospital in Australia, the ABC reports. The internal emergency declaration triggers strategies to help the hospital cope when it nears capacity. The six Covid-19 patients are all being treated in isolation, and came from hotel quarantine.
- Taiwan in travel bubble talks. Taiwan officials have revealed they have been in talks since last year with several countries about the possibility of forming travel bubbles. It didn’t make clear whether all the discussions were still going, given some of the countries had seen recent resurgences of Covid cases.
- October deadline for vaccinating all Australians refers to first dose only. Opposition senators are probing health department officials the government’s commitment that Australian adults would be “fully vaccinated” by October. In fact, the health department secretary, Brendan Murphy’s, evidence today is that every adult will have received the first dose of AstraZeneca, but maybe not everyone will have had the second dose.
Emirates tells staff to get vaccinated or pay for regular Covid tests
Dubai’s Emirates has told employees to take a free coronavirus vaccine or pay for tests to prove they are not infected with the deadly disease, cautioning that an unvaccinated workforce could create operational issues.
In an internal email, seen by Reuters, the airline told cabin crew that starting March 15, those not vaccinated must pay for a test valid for seven days to the start of flight or standby duty. The policy applies to all employees in the United Arab Emirates, an Emirates spokeswoman told Reuters, declining further comment.
South Korea extends AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 65 and over
South Korea will extend vaccination for people aged 65 years and older with AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its immunisation drive, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting on Thursday.
Reuters: The country has been rolling out the vaccine since the last week of February, beginning with the elderly and health workers, but had excluded more than 370,000 over-65s in nursing homes citing a lack of clinical trial data on the age group.
Real-world data from Britain has now shown AstraZeneca and Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccines are both more than 80% effective in preventing hospitalisations in over-80s after one shot.
Rich, developing nations wrangle over Covid vaccine patents
Richer members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) blocked a push by over 80 developing countries on Wednesday to waive patent rights in an effort to boost production of Covid vaccines for poor nations, Reuters reports.
Western nations argue protecting intellectual property rights encouraged research and innovation and that suspending those rights would not result in a sudden surge of vaccine supply.
In its eighth discussion on the topic since it was first raised in October, the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Council spent three hours debating, but failed to agree.
Proposals need backing by a consensus of the WTO’s 164 members to pass. They did at least agree to discuss the matter twice again in April before the next scheduled Trips Council meeting on 8-9 June.
Brazil’s hospitals are faltering as a highly contagious coronavirus variant tears through the country, the president insists on unproven treatments and the only attempt to create a national plan to contain Covid has just fallen short, AP reports.
For the last week, Brazilian governors sought to do something President Jair Bolsonaro obstinately rejects: cobble together a proposal for states to help curb the nation’s deadliest Covid outbreak yet. The effort was expected to include a curfew, prohibition of crowded events and limits on the hours non-essential services can operate.
The final product, presented Wednesday, was a one-page document that included general support for restricting activity but without any specific measures. Six governors, evidently still wary of antagonising Bolsonaro, declined to sign on.
Piaui state’s Gov. Wellington Dias told The Associated Press that, unless pressure on hospitals is eased, growing numbers of patients will have to endure the disease without a hospital bed or any hope of treatment in an intensive care unit.
“We have reached the limit across Brazil; rare are the exceptions,” Dias, who leads the governors’ forum, said. “The chance of dying without assistance is real.”
Those deaths have already started. In Brazil’s wealthiest state, Sao Paulo, at least 30 patients died this month while waiting for ICU beds, according to a tally published Wednesday by the news site G1. In southern Santa Catarina state, 419 people are waiting for transfer to ICU beds. In neighbouring Rio Grande do Sul, ICU capacity is at 106%.
Biden pledges to share surplus vaccines with rest of world
US president Joe Biden has pledged surplus vaccines will be shared with the rest of the world, after he announced the purchase of an additional 100m Johnson & Johnson doses.
“If we have a surplus, we’re going to share it with the rest of the world,” he said.
“This is not something that can be stopped by a fence no matter how high you build a fence or a wall. So we’re not going to be safe until the world is safe. And so, we’re going to start off making sure Americans are taken care of first, but we’re then going to try and help the rest of the world.”
The president reiterated plans to have all American adults vaccinated by the end of May and revealed the country hit a record of 2.9m vaccinations in one day on Saturday
Brazil daily death toll passes 2,000 for first time
In case you missed this earlier: Brazil’s 24-hour death toll has for the first time passed 2,0000, as the world’s second worst-affected country in terms of the total lives lost sees records tumble.
Another 2,286 Brazilians had lost their lives in the 24 hours to Wednesday.
The latest high, which followed a record 1,972 deaths on Tuesday, took the South American country’s total death toll to more than 270,000, second only to the US.
Hours earlier Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, excoriated what he called President Jair Bolsonaro’s “moronic” and inept response to the pandemic.
“Lots of these deaths could have been avoided had we had a government which had done basic things,” Lula said, attacking how Bolsonaro had failed to buy vaccines and trivialized Covid-19 as a “little flu” about which only only “pansies” and “cowards” were concerned.
Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has shown scant sympathy for Brazilian victims of Covid, last week telling citizens to stop “whining” about the pandemic.
Speaking on Wednesday Lula said: “I want to express my solidarity with the victims of coronavirus, the relatives of the victims ... and above all with the heroes and heroines of our public health service.”
“Had it not been for our national health service we would have lost so many more people than we have lost,” he added.
Papua New Guinea has made facemasks compulsory as the country wrestles with an uncontrolled outbreak of community transmission of Covid-19.
The country’s police commissioner, and national pandemic response controller, David Manning, said masks would be compulsory on public transport and in any enclosed public space. Businesses and government must provide masks for workers.
PNG’s already fragile health system is on the verge of collapse, with swingeing budget cuts combining with surging infections of health care workers. Some hospitals have closed their doors, while others are running short of protective equipment for staff.
For the entire pandemic, PNG has recorded just 1741 cases, nearly half of which have been reported in the last five weeks.
But the real rate of infection is likely many times higher. Fewer than 50,000 tests have been conducted across the whole country for the entire pandemic, and in many places outside the capital there are no testing facilities at all.
Prof Glen Mola, the head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Port Moresby General Hospital said on facebook the situation at his hospital was critical.
At PMGH the Covid ward is full. Patients are dying of Covid every day now.
We are trying to look after Covid patients in other wards because there is no space in the Covid ward.
These positive cases are now infecting the nurses and doctors. Last week we had to put 10 staff off work because of Covid infection - if more staff have to go off work, then we may not be able to keep the hospital open. I think even the ‘naysayers’ will agree that if PMGH closes there will be chaos in Port Moresby.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 14,356 to 2,532,947 data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.
The reported death toll rose by 321 to 72,810, the tally showed.
October deadline for vaccinating all Australians refers to first dose only
More on Australia’s vaccination schedule: opposition senators are probing health department officials the government’s commitment that Australian adults would be “fully vaccinated” by October.
In fact, the health department secretary, Brendan Murphy’s, evidence today is that every adult will have received the first dose of AstraZeneca, but maybe not everyone will have had the second dose. Is that a contradiction?
Murphy:
I said vaccinated by the end of October because every Australian adult will be offered a vaccine by the end of October. If a small number haven’t had their second AstraZeneca that doesn’t really matter, they are fully protected by the first dose. It is entirely consistent with what the prime minister and minister have said in the media.
Asked if “fully vaccinated” meant two doses, Murphy replied:
...to complete the program [yes] but in terms of protection the first dose is fully protective.
There is full population coverage in terms of offering a vaccine. It’s a semantic debate.
The original October deadline was set when the best advice was that AstraZeneca doses should be given four weeks apart, but the advice changed that a 12-week gap makes it most effective.
Caroline Edwards, from the health department, said the government is still aiming to vaccinate everyone by the end of October.
She said:
We are still planning and hoping to have both shots by the end of October. In the event that we didn’t get all shots by the end of October, the second shot would be finished six weeks after the end of October.
Which would put us in December.
Australian health department does not have an ‘exact date’ for whole population being vaccinated
The chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, has revealed he is notified of “serious” adverse events related to the vaccine, but it’s so far so good.
He said:
There have been a few cases of anaphylaxis. There have been some deaths following immunisation but not related to immunisation.
[But] nothing unusual. The majority have been those consistent with clinical trial and real world data ... We’ve seen three cases of severe allergic reactions, but they were handled expertly and quickly, with no ongoing adverse effects.
Other adverse events are relatively minor and include pain at the injection site, some fever, body pain, headache, Kelly said, but “nothing untoward”.
Brendan Murphy said the first major “clinical milestone” will be when phases 1A and 1B are complete, when all “vulnerable Australians” are vaccinated. But health department officials can’t say when 4m Australians will be vaccinated, after Murphy signalled it will miss the original end-of-March timeline
Labor’s Katy Gallagher asks whether the October timeline means everyone will have had one or both of the AstraZeneca doses – which are ideally spaced 12 weeks apart – by that date.
Murphy said the October timeline is to have delivered the first dose, which is already “very effective” by itself.
As Gallagher notes, this contradicts the department of prime minister and cabinet secretary Phil Gaetjens’ evidence that the target relates to people having both doses. Murphy said this will be difficult.
Murphy said:
We haven’t got an exact date. We’re remodelling.
Taiwan in travel bubble talks
Taiwan officials have revealed they have been in talks since last year with several countries about the possibility of forming travel bubbles. It didn’t make clear whether all the discussions were still going, given some of the countries had seen recent resurgences of Covid cases.
According to Taiwan media, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung told colleagues on Wednesday the government is in discussions with Vietnam (current seven-day case average: seven) Japan (1,065) seven), Japan (1,065), Korea (417), Singapore (14) and Palau(no cases ever).
Both Japan and Korea’s rates are declining after a big spike in December.A bubble with Palau - A Covid-free pacific island nation and one of the few governments in the world which recognises Taiwan as a country- is the furthest along. According to reports travel could begin as soon as April, with eight flights per week carrying 200 passengers each. Tourism agencies have said tours would cost around $40,000NT per person (about US $1,400) per person, for a four-day trip - an increase on normal prices of about 166%, and not factoring in the cost of insurance and getting required Covid tests.
The next likeliest bubble is with Singapore. “The Singaporean government has the Covid-19 outbreak well under control and is most active in pursuing an opportunity to form a travel bubble with Taiwan,” Lin said.
Taiwan has kept the virus largely at bay, with just a few small local outbreaks which have been quickly brought under control. It’s borders are closed to non-residents and some select visa holders (including business travellers), and requires strict hotel or home residence quarantine on arrival (two weeks for most people, just five days for business travellers).
The government has remained extraordinarily cautious, and other attempts at travel bubbles elsewhere have been problematic, so people should perhaps not be planning holidays just yet.“We see the hope of resuming overseas travel one day, but we should not get our hopes too high as the COVID-19 situation remains serious in other countries,” Lin said.
Interim data from a late-stage study of their experimental Covid antibody therapy showed an 85% reduction in hospitalisation or death in patients, Vir Biotechnology Inc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Following the data an independent panel has recommended stopping the trial, the two companies said, adding they were planning to submit an emergency use authorisation application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment.
US nursing home residents vaccinated against Covid can get hugs again from their loved ones, and all residents may enjoy more indoor visits, the government said Wednesday in a step toward pre-pandemic normalcy.
AP: The policy guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, comes as coronavirus cases and deaths among nursing home residents have plummeted in recent weeks at the same time that vaccination accelerated. People living in long-term care facilities have borne a cruel toll from the pandemic. They represent about 1% of the US population, but account for 1 in 3 deaths, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Government officials acknowledged that isolation deepened the misery for residents as long-term care facilities remained locked down much of last year. Loneliness contributed to physical as well as mental decline. The ban on visits went into effect almost one year ago and only in the fall were facilities allowed to begin socially distanced outdoor visits and limited indoor ones.
“There is no substitute for physical contact, such as the warm embrace between a resident and their loved one,” CMS said in its new guidance, “Therefore, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and performing hand-hygiene before and after.”
So while hugs are OK again for residents who have completed their vaccination, precautions such as wearing masks and using hand sanitiser remain in place as a counterbalance to risk. CMS also underscored that maintaining 6 feet of separation is still the safest policy, and outdoor visits are preferable even when residents and visitors have been vaccinated.
Over half of the public believes the coronavirus outbreak has driven greater social inequality in the UK over the past few months, according to a study by the government’s independent advisers.
The Social Mobility Commission said its annual survey of public attitudes revealed 56% of adults believed social inequality had increased during the pandemic. A quarter said Covid had made no difference to inequality and 16% were unsure.
The commission said the survey echoed growing evidence that the most socially disadvantaged had been hardest hit by the pandemic against a range of measures, from jobs and living standards, to health and access to online schooling:
Covid cases put Ausralian Hospital under extreme pressure
An infux of Covid-19 patients from Papua New Guinea has sparked a “code yellow” emergency at the Cairns Hospital in Australia, the ABC reports.
The internal emergency declaration triggers strategies to help the hospital cope when it nears capacity.
The six Covid-19 patients are all being treated in isolation, and came from hotel quarantine.
But the specialised care they need, combined with a record 263 emergency department presentations last weekend, means the hospital is under significant pressure.
“Six or seven beds doesn’t sound like a lot but they are in specific areas, they are in highly specialised negative pressure rooms that reduce the risk of cross-infection,” Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service executive director Don Mackie has told the ABC.
“It impinges on the other functions of the hospital.”
Some non-urgent elective surgery procedures have been postponed.
Five countries suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine
Austria’s national medicines regulator has suspended use of a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine after four patients were diagnosed with dangerous blood clotting conditions after receiving the jab, PA reports.
Four other countries - Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia - have suspended its use to allow time for the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) to conduct an investigation.
Europe’s medicines watchdog said a preliminary probe showed that the batch of vaccines used in Austria was not likely to blame for the death of a nurse, aged 49, who received a jab.
The nurse died of multiple thrombosis - formation of blood clots within blood vessels - 10 days after their vaccine, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.
A second patient was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism - where blockages form in the arteries in the lungs - but is now recovering.
As of Tuesday, two other clotting conditions had been identified in patients that had received a dose from the same batch.
The EMA said there is currently no evidence that the vaccine caused the conditions, and that thrombosis is not listed as a potential side effect of the vaccine.
It said that the batch labelled ABV5300 comprised one million doses and had been delivered to 17 EU countries.
When interruptions during work video calls from home weren’t normal:
Happy 4 year anniversary to the best interview of all time pic.twitter.com/ugUdcHzjpV
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 10, 2021
Four years is a long time but not as long as the last year
If you aren’t feeling old yet, here’s the daughter in that video above pic.twitter.com/meL81Rd0fM
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 10, 2021
Brazil again suffers record deaths
The number of daily Covid fatalities has hit yet another new high in Brazil, with the news that another 2,286 Brazilians had lost their lives.
The latest high, which followed a record 1,972 deaths on Tuesday, took the South American country’s total death toll to more than 270,000, second only to the US.
Hours earlier Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, excoriated what he called President Jair Bolsonaro’s “moronic” and inept response to the pandemic.
“Lots of these deaths could have been avoided had we had a government which had done basic things,” Lula said, attacking how Bolsonaro had failed to buy vaccines and trivialized Covid-19 as a “little flu” about which only only “pansies” and “cowards” were concerned.
Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has shown scant sympathy for Brazilian victims of Covid, last week telling citizens to stop “whining” about the pandemic.
Speaking on Wednesday Lula said: “I want to express my solidarity with the victims of coronavirus, the relatives of the victims ... and above all with the heroes and heroines of our public health service.”
“Had it not been for our national health service we would have lost so many more people than we have lost,” he added.
Updated
The WHO wants to see healthcare workers in all countries being vaccinated within the first 100 days of 2021.
Catton said that was the start line rather than the finish line, and voiced “grave concerns” at the unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries.
For nurses, facing an elevated risk of infection, immunisation “is about their right to being protected at work,” he said.
“Not being protected at work adds to their distress.”
Recalling the public appreciation shown towards nurses in the early stages of the pandemic, Catton said that now, “overwhelmingly, nurses would rather be getting their vaccine than a round of applause”.
The ICN strongly recommended that all nurses take a Covid-19 jab.
“It is an issue of protection and safety for patients,” Catton said.
“If somebody doesn’t have the vaccine then it may well be that you have to look at redeploying them to other areas.”
In a report, the International Council of Nurses said the pandemic “could trigger a mass exodus from the profession”, from as early as the second half of 2021. The global nurse shortage could widen to nearly 13 million, it added.
“We could be on a precipice,” said Catton, recalling that it took three to four years of training to produce a novice nurse.
He said nurses had done a “phenomenal” job “to lead the world through this pandemic”, saying they would share an equal platform with the vaccine creators in the eventual history of Covid-19.
But once the pandemic has passed, frazzled nurses will then have to deal with all the unmet healthcare needs and waiting lists, whilst also facing likely staff shortages.
Founded in 1899, the ICN is a federation of more than 130 national nursing associations.
It called for governments to invest in training more new nurses to address the global shortage.
It also called for better pay to encourage existing staff to stay on - to bolster health systems for future crises, if nothing else.
3,000 nurses dead, Covid exodus looming: global federation
At least 3,000 nurses have been killed by Covid-19, the global nurses’ federation said Thursday as it warned of a looming exodus of health workers traumatised by the pandemic, AFP reports.
Exactly one year on since the World Health Organization (WHO) first described Covid-19 as a pandemic, the International Council of Nurses said burn-out and stress had led millions of nurses to consider quitting the profession.
And once the pandemic is over, a dwindling number of experienced nurses could be left to handle the giant backlog of regular hospital care that had been postponed due to the crisis, the ICN warned.
The known death toll of nurses killed by the disease - compiled from just 60 countries - is likely to be a gross underestimate of the full total, the federation said.
ICN chief executive Howard Catton said nurses had gone through “mass traumatisation” during the pandemic, being pushed to physical and mental exhaustion.
“They reach a point where they’ve given everything they can,” he told reporters.
Catton said the global workforce of 27 million nurses was six million short going into the pandemic - and four million were heading for retirement by 2030.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage, exactly one year since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, on 11 March 2020 (I am writing from Australia, where it is Thursday, 11 March 2021).
In that year, at least 3,000 nurses have been killed by the virus, the global nurses’ federation said as it warned of a looming exodus of health workers traumatised by the pandemic.
We’ll have more on that shortly. Meanwhile here are the other key recent developments:
- The daily number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose on Wednesday to the highest level this year, standing at 14,556, health ministry data showed.
- There is nothing to suggest so far that vaccination was responsible for the death and illness of two people who had been given AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine in Austria, the European Medicines Agency said. Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Latvia have along with Austria suspended using the vaccine to allow time for the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee to conduct an investigation.
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France reported 30,303 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Wednesday, rising above 30,000 for the first time in two weeks.
- The Maltese government has ordered non-essential shops and schools to close amid a surge in Covid-19 cases on the Mediterranean island.
- The European commission said on Wednesday it has reached a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for the supply of an additional 4m Covid vaccine doses to be delivered this month.
- The highly infectious British variant of Covid-19 is between 30% and 100% more deadly than previous strains, researchers have said.
- Poland has reported 17,260 new daily Covid cases, the highest number since November.
- Mauritius has started a two-week nationwide lockdown following 14 local Covid cases, with all residents and visitors asked to stay at home or in their hotels until 25 March.
- Far more people in Germany will receive a Covid vaccination from April when family doctors start giving them but the idea that 25% of the population can get a shot in just a month is unrealistic, its health minister warned on Wednesday.
- Bulgaria has reported 3,502 new Covid cases, its highest daily tally in three months, as government data shows the number of deaths also increased to 132.
