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Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and Covid-19 public exposure sites in Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra in Australia, and what to do if you’ve visited them.
A summary of today's developments
- Brazil recorded 73,602 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 2,032 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Thursday. Brazil has registered more than 18.2 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 509,141, Reuters reports.
- Malta and the Balearic Islands will be added to England’s green list of places that are safe to visit without requiring quarantine on return, British transport minister Grant Shapps said on Thursday. “Six countries including Tunisia and Haiti will be put on the red list,” Shapps said on Twitter. He added that British residents who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will not have to isolate when travelling from countries on the amber list, according to government plans that will be explained in more detail next month.
- Mexico’s health regulator has given approval to U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine for use in children 12 years old and older, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Twitter on Thursday.
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African Union special envoy Strive Masiyiwa accused the world’s richest nations of deliberately failing to provide enough Covid-19 vaccines to the continent. Masiyiwa, the union’s special envoy to the African vaccine acquisition task team, said the Covax scheme had failed to keep its promise to secure production of 700 million doses of vaccines in time for delivery by December 2021.
- The pandemic, and responses to it, is pushing more people into drug use, while illegal cultivation could also get a boost as joblessness increases globally, the UN said. The Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said its report showed that drug markets swiftly resumed operations after initial disruption at the onset of the pandemic – demonstrating the resilience of the market amid record demand for many substances.
- The French president Emmanuel Macron joined the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and urged EU countries to coordinate more closely on how tourists from outside the bloc are able to come, amid calls for all UK arrivals to the EU to have to quarantine.
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The World Health Organization forecasts that people most vulnerable to Covid-19, such as the elderly, may need to get an annual vaccine booster to be protected against variants, but the evidence on its potential effectiveness is scarce.
- Japan’s emperor has voiced concern over the possible spread of coronavirus during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in an unexpected intervention in the debate over holding the Games during a pandemic.
- Ohio, the US state that offered millions of dollars in incentives to boost vaccination rates, is to conclude its program — still unable to crack the 50% vaccination threshold.
- A former soldier has fired gunshots in a coronavirus field hospital in Thailand, killing a 54-year-old patient after earlier shooting dead a convenience store employee, police said. The suspect, 23, was said to believe that the patients in the hospital in Pathum Thani near Bangkok were people dependent on drugs, who he despises.
Updated
Brazil recorded 73,602 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 2,032 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Thursday.
Brazil has registered more than 18.2 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 509,141, Reuters reports.
Updated
Royal Caribbean Group said on Thursday two guests on its cruise liner, Adventure of the Seas, had tested positive for Covid-19.
Both guests were not vaccinated and had been quarantined before they disembarked on Thursday in Freeport, The Bahamas, Royal Caribbean International, a unit of the company said in a statement.
The news comes a week after the company said it would delay the launch of its new cruise liner by nearly a month after eight crew members tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters report.
Responding to the changes in the UK’s Covid travel restrictions, shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The Government’s approach to securing our borders against Covid and its variants has been chaotic and dangerous.
“Boris Johnson’s failure to act let the Delta variant take hold and held back our reopening with the British people paying the price.
“Labour wants to see travel reopen and is supportive of a limited and safe green list.
“We have been calling for an international vaccine passport and will look seriously at the details of proposals for travel or quarantine arrangements for people who have been double-vaccinated.
“Ministers must urgently publish the data that supports their decisions and scrap the amber list, which is still causing confusion, with too many people travelling to countries not deemed safe.”
Mexico’s health regulator has given approval to U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine for use in children 12 years old and older, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Twitter on Thursday.
“It’s the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized for adolescents in our country,” he said, Reuters reports.
The easing of restrictions on UK travellers heading to the Balearics has prompted elation among officials and businesses in the islands, even as an outbreak of 394 coronavirus cases among Spanish students who had recently travelled to Mallorca highlighted the risks of opening up.
On Thursday, Britain’s transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that the Spanish archipelago was among the territories added to the UK’s green list as of next Wednesday, meaning travellers will not need to quarantine when returning to the UK.
Last month Spain began allowing British travellers into the country without the need to provide a negative Covid test, a move that sharply contrasts with the growing push by EU leaders to tighten restrictions on British tourists.
San Francisco city workers will be required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus when a vaccine receives full federal approval, Associated Press reports.
The policy covering 35,000 municipal workers may be the first by any city or county in the U.S., the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.
Employees who refuse to get vaccinated and don’t get an exemption could be fired, the Chronicle said.
The three Covid-19 vaccines currently available in the U.S. are being dispensed under emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.
They are expected to receive full approval in several months. San Francisco city employees will then have 10 weeks to get their shots.
A guide to all the changes in the latest update of the UK’s Covid traffic-light system
Venezuela received its first shipment of doses of Cuba’s Abdala coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, the South American country’s vice president said, while criticising wealthy countries for “sabotaging” the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.
Authorities did not specify how many doses had arrived from Cuba, but did say that Venezuela had signed a contract to purchase 12 million doses of the shot.
Cuba said earlier this week that the three-shot Abdala vaccine had proved 92.28% effective in last-stage clinical trials, Reuters reports.
“This is true international cooperation, the brotherhood and friendship that we must demonstrate and be an example for other governments,” vice president Delcy Rodriguez said in a state television address.
Mexico’s health ministry on Thursday reported 5,340 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country and 221 more fatalities, Reuters reports.
It brings the total figures to 2,493,087 infections and 232,068 deaths.
Italy reported 28 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday compared to 30 the day before, Reuters reports.
The health ministry said the daily tally of new infections fell to 927 from 951 on Wednesday.
Italy has registered 127,380 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eight-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.26 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 2,027 on Thursday, down from 2,140 a day earlier.
There were 12 new admissions to intensive care units, up from four on Wednesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 328 from 344.
The World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts that people most vulnerable to Covid-19, such as the elderly, will need to get an annual vaccine booster to be protected against variants, an internal document seen by Reuters shows.
The estimate is included in a report, which is to be discussed on Thursday at a board meeting of Gavi, a vaccine alliance that co-leads the WHO’s COVID-19 vaccine programme COVAX.
The forecast is subject to changes and is also paired with two other less likely scenarios.
The document shows that the WHO considers annual boosters for high-risk individuals as its “indicative” baseline scenario, and boosters every two years for the general population. The document, which is dated June 8 and is still a “work in progress,” also predicts under the base case that 12 billion vaccine doses will be produced globally next year.
Malta and the Balearic Islands will be added to England’s green list of places that are safe to visit without requiring quarantine on return, British transport minister Grant Shapps said on Thursday.
“Six countries including Tunisia and Haiti will be put on the red list,” Shapps said on Twitter.
He added that British residents who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will not have to isolate when travelling from countries on the amber list, according to government plans that will be explained in more detail next month.
Russia will deliver a batch of second-dose shots of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to Argentina early next week, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said, Reuters reports.
“In addition, next week Argentina’s Laboratorios Richmond will start manufacturing the second component of the Sputnik V vaccine at its production facility,” RDIF said on the official Twitter account of the vaccine.
The authorities in Hong Kong have re-classified Britain as a “very high-risk” country - moving it from the “high-risk” category - as delta variant continues to spread across the UK.
The new categorisation, which is to take effect on Monday 28 June, will mean that passengers from the UK to Hong Kong will have to go through an extended period of monitoring after arriving in the city. There will be no reduced quarantine period even for fully-vaccinated travellers. https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202106/24/P2021062400893.htm
Under the new rules, UK travellers will have to go through a 21-day compulsory quarantine at designated hotels, with four tests to be conducted during the period, followed by a seven-day self-monitoring period as well as compulsory testing on the 26th day of arrival at any Community Testing Centre.
A negative result of a nucleic acid test conducted within 72 hours before the flight, and the confirmation of a room reservation in a designated quarantine hotel, will also be required for Hong Kong-bound UK travellers, the authorities said.
The announcement came as Hong Kong on Thursday confirmed a likely first community case involving the delta variant, breaking the city’s 16-day run of zero local infections.
The government said it is working to identify the source of the transmission and has put 180 people under quarantine.
Updated
Today so far...
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African Union special envoy Strive Masiyiwa accused the world’s richest nations of deliberately failing to provide enough Covid-19 vaccines to the continent. Masiyiwa, the union’s special envoy to the African vaccine acquisition task team, said the Covax scheme had failed to keep its promise to secure production of 700 million doses of vaccines in time for delivery by December 2021.
- The pandemic, and responses to it, is pushing more people into drug use, while illegal cultivation could also get a boost as joblessness increases globally, the UN said. The Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said its report showed that drug markets swiftly resumed operations after initial disruption at the onset of the pandemic – demonstrating the resilience of the market amid record demand for many substances.
- The French president Emmanuel Macron joined the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and urged EU countries to coordinate more closely on how tourists from outside the bloc are able to come, amid calls for all UK arrivals to the EU to have to quarantine.
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The World Health Organization forecasts that people most vulnerable to Covid-19, such as the elderly, may need to get an annual vaccine booster to be protected against variants, but the evidence on its potential effectiveness is scarce.
- Japan’s emperor has voiced concern over the possible spread of coronavirus during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in an unexpected intervention in the debate over holding the Games during a pandemic.
- Ohio, the US state that offered millions of dollars in incentives to boost vaccination rates, is to conclude its program — still unable to crack the 50% vaccination threshold.
- The UK prime minister Boris Johnson said while it would be “more difficult” to take a holiday this summer, full vaccination may help to open up travel. Speaking hours before a meeting where changes to England’s green travel list were due to be signed off, Johnson said he not ruled out taking a holiday abroad himself.
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The UK government has confirmed it is to introduce a pre-9pm ban on junk food advertising on TV and tighten restrictions online, from 2023, with high rates of obesity and associated lifestyle-related conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, linked to worse Covid-19 outcomes.
- A former soldier has fired gunshots in a coronavirus field hospital in Thailand, killing a 54-year-old patient after earlier shooting dead a convenience store employee, police said. The suspect, 23, was said to believe that the patients in the hospital in Pathum Thani near Bangkok were people dependent on drugs, who he despises.
- Catalonia’s traditional festival of human towers has returned to the medieval city of Valls in a scaled-down form after a 15-month Covid hiatus.Towers were limited to 50 people, a far cry from the 500-strong constructions of past “castells” events. The tallest reached as high as town hall’s first-floor balcony, just over half the usual height.
This blog will be on pause for a while – please follow the UK live blog for updates
Updated
Researchers at Oxford University have said they have developed a method to predict the efficacy of new Covid-19 vaccines based on a blood test, potentially offering a short-cut around large clinical trials.
The researchers looked at the concentration of a range of virus-fighting antibodies in the blood of trial participants after they had received the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, now known as Vaxzevria.
Reuters reports that by looking at which of those trial volunteers later contracted symptomatic Covid-19 and which did not, the researchers came up with a model they hope will predict how effective other vaccines will be, based on those blood readings.
“The data can be used to extrapolate efficacy estimates for new vaccines where large efficacy trials cannot be conducted,” they said in their paper which was posted online today and submitted for peer-review.
The Oxford researchers cautioned more work was needed to validate their model for many of the highly contagious new virus variants of concern. They noted that they did not look into the so-called cellular immune response, a major weapon of the human body against infections alongside antibodies, but more difficult to measure.
“There is an urgent need to increase supply of vaccines for the world, but development and approval of new vaccines takes many months. We hope that the use of correlates by developers and regulators could speed up the process,” said Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine group.
Traditional “gold-standard” clinical trials also require many participants to get a placebo as a comparison to those who receive the experimental vaccine, posing an ethical dilemma where approved shots are available.
But many experts insist that the “gold-standard” trials are the best way of assessing the efficacy and safety of drugs, and there are also concerns over a lack of longitudinal data behind the Covid vaccines.
With safety issues regarding the Vaxzevria jab continuing to emerge, some eyebrows will be raised that the Oxford researchers are now proposing an even swifter potential route from lab to rollout for future medicines.
White House extends pandemic eviction ban, likely for the final time
The Biden administration has extended the nationwide ban on evictions for a month, but said this is expected to be the last time it will do so.
As of the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Nearly 1 million said eviction was very likely in two months, and 1.83 million said it was somewhat likely in the same period.
You can read more on this here in our US live blog.
Updated
Bhutan’s prime minister has said he “has no problem” in mixing-and-matching Covid-19 vaccine doses to immunise a population of about 700,000 people in the tiny Himalayan nation.
Bhutan, nestled between India and China, has one of the world’s lowest Covid-19 fatality counts, with just one person dying from the infectious disease since the pandemic began.
The prime minister, Lotay Tshering, who is also a practicing urologist, said more than 90% of the country’s eligible population had received a first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and that the deadline to administer the second dose after a gap of 12 weeks was scheduled to end this month.
“Knowing immunology, knowing how our body reacts to vaccines, I am comfortable to secure a second dose of any vaccine that is, of course, approved by the WHO,” he said.
Several countries, including Canada and Spain, have already approved mixing doses, mainly due to concerns about rare and potentially fatal blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A Spanish study found that giving a dose of the Pfizer shot to people who had already received the AstraZeneca vaccine is highly safe and effective, according to preliminary results.
But the evidence base remains weak and there are some concerns that there may be unexpected reactions between the shots, though there have not been any such indications.
Tshering, 53, said preventing more deaths required ongoing vigilance since Bhutan shares a porous border with India, which continues to report high numbers of Covid-19 cases.
“I have no problem in giving Moderna or Pfizer for the second dose ... We have reached out to those companies,” he told Reuters. “There are no countries that don’t face vaccine problems ... I will have to be frank with my people,” he said, speaking about mixing doses and the shortage of supplies.
Today, Bhutan reported seven new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 1,970 Covid-19 cases.
Updated
The World Health Organization has made a new appeal for vaccines for Africa, saying a “fast-surging” third wave of Covid-19 is outpacing efforts to protect populations, “leaving more and more dangerously exposed”.
More than 200 people have been vaccinated against Covid in north-east Syria’s densely-populated al-Hol camp for the displaced and families of defeated jihadists, a government official said.
The vaccination drive, using AstraZeneca jabs under the Covax programme for low-income parts of the world, covers government-held areas and territory run by a Kurdish local administration, AFP reports.
Syrian health ministry teams had inoculated 205 people up until yesterday in al-Hol camp of Hasakeh province, said the ministry’s provincial chief, Issa al-Khalaf.
The camp houses about 62,000 people, mainly women and children, including tens of thousands of family members of foreign Islamic State group fighters. According to medical sources inside the camp, foreign wives of suspected fighters were being excluded from the vaccination drive, a charge denied by Khalaf.
Updated
Covid can infect brain cells, leading to a reaction that could possibly trigger neurological and psychological complaints, Dutch researchers have said.
AFP has the story:
Although the spread of coronavirus rapidly stops, leading to limited damage after entering the brain via the nose, it triggers cytokines, small proteins that act as messengers within the immune system, said the study published in the US-based mSphere microbiology journal.
These can play a role in local infections ... that possibly contribute to neurological and psychological complaints among many (ex) patients,” said the study, done by the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam.
“What we saw was similar to the fact that infection by SARS-CoV-2 seldom leads to serious encephalitis in which the virus spreads uncontrollably through the brain,” said Dr Debby van Riel, virologist at Erasmus University. “But the fact that SARS-CoV-2 possibly can enter the brain via the olfactory nerve and locally infect cells, which leads to an inflammatory response, can certainly contribute to neurological disorders,” she said in a statement.
Since the coronavirus pandemic started, patients around the world have reported neurological and psychiatric disorders such as memory problems, headaches, rare psychoses and in some cases encephalitis.
One in three people who contracted Covid were diagnosed with these disorders within six months of being infected, said a large study published in April in the Lancet Psychiatry specialist journal.
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WHO suggests vulnerable will need booster shots, but evidence scant
The World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts that people most vulnerable to Covid-19, such as the elderly, may need to get an annual vaccine booster to be protected against variants, an internal document seen by Reuters shows.
The estimate is included in a report, which is to be discussed today at a board meeting of Gavi, a vaccine alliance that co-leads the WHO’s Covid-19 vaccine programme Covax. The forecast is subject to changes and is also paired with two other less likely scenarios.
Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer, with its German partner BioNTech, have been vocal in their view that the world will soon need booster shots to maintain high levels of immunity, Reuters reports, but the evidence for this is still unclear.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which set up Gavi in 1999, is a key partner “in vaccine market shaping”, according to its website.
The document shows that the WHO considers annual boosters for high-risk individuals as its “indicative” baseline scenario, but does not say how these conclusions were reached.
The document, which is dated 8 June and is still “work in progress”, also predicts under the base case that 12bn Covid-19 vaccine doses would be produced globally next year.
It does not signal which technologies could be phased out, but the EU, which has reserved the world’s largest volume of Covid-19 vaccines, has bet heavily on shots using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, such as those by Pfizer and Moderna, and has forgone some purchases of viral vector vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
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The European Commission estimates EU countries will receive about 900m doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the second half of the year, compared with nearly 1bn jabs it expected a month ago, an internal document showed.
The document, which the EU executive shared with EU leaders at a summit in Brussels today, shows that the bloc expects to get about 500m doses in the third quarter of the year from four vaccine makers: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Another 400m shots are expected in the last three months of the year, according to the document, which was seen by Reuters.
Updated
Stricter restrictions will be imposed across the Lisbon region and Algarve tourism destination Albufeira as Portuguese authorities try to control a rise in infections.
“We are in a fight against time between the progression of the disease and the process of vaccination,” cabinet minister Mariana Vieira da Silva told a news conference. Portugal was still “far from its red lines but on the increase,” she said.
More than half of cases in Lisbon are of the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India. From 3pm on Friday until 6am on Monday, people must present a negative coronavirus test or a vaccination certificate to leave or enter the Lisbon area. The tests must be PCR or antigen tests. Antigen tests are available for free in Lisbon pharmacies, Reuters reports.
Restaurants, cafes and non-food shops across the region must close at 3:30pm. over the weekend. Supermarkets and grocery stores must close at 7pm. These rules will also be in force in two other municipalities, including Albufeira in the southern Algarve region, famous for its beaches and golf courses.
New coronavirus cases rose by 1,556 on Thursday, the biggest jump since late February. In total, Portugal – population 10 million – has recorded 869,879 cases and 17,079 deaths.
Catalonia’s traditional festival of human towers has returned to the medieval city of Valls in a scaled-down form after a 15-month Covid hiatus.
Towers were limited to 50 people, a far cry from the 500-strong constructions of past “castells” events. The tallest reached as high as town hall’s first-floor balcony, just over half the usual height.
“This means a lot, although it’s very different from previous years, to feel again this emotion of castells,” said 20-year-old Eleonor Boada, one of the competitors.
The participants had to show a negative coronavirus test during the rehearsals and before today’s performance, which coincided with St John’s Day, Reuters reports.
“We’ve had great security ... we are really very proud and happy with how well everything has been done,” said Yolanda Gonzalez, 46.
The human towers are a deep-rooted part of Catalan culture, sometimes associated with the separatist movement. Jordi Turull, one of the nine Catalan leaders jailed after the region’s failed 2017 independence bid, came to the festival on Thursday a day after his release from prison following a government pardon.
He thanked the castellers from Valls who had built human towers outside the prison in support of him and his fellow inmates. “We decided that one of the first things we would do when we left prison would be to come and thank these people,” he said. “That was a very emotional moment.”
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Boris Johnson has confirmed that fully vaccinated people in England could face fewer travel restrictions, as the government prepares to announce the addition of Malta and the Balearic islands to England’s green list.
Britain recorded 16,703 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, marking the highest total since early February, according to government data.
There were also 21 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive test, up from 19 on Wednesday.
Those leaving or entering the Lisbon region each weekend will need a negative coronavirus test or a vaccination certificate, the Portuguese government said, with restaurants, cafes, and shops forced to close earlier.
“We are in a fight against time between the progression of the disease and the process of vaccination,” the cabinet minister Mariana Vieira da Silva told a news conference.
Coronavirus cases rose by 1,556 on Thursday, the biggest jump since late February, when the country of just over 10 million was still under lockdown.
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Theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber on Thursday joined legal action against the UK government ultimately aimed at bringing back crowds to theatres and cinema halls.
He joined senior figures from Britain’s entertainment sector and the live music trade body Live to force the release of data from a project testing the safe return of mass events.
High-profile events such as football’s FA Cup final and music’s Brit Awards ceremony have formed part of the Events Research Programme, which scraps social distancing if participants test negative before entry.
Lloyd-Webber, whose hits have played in London’s West End theatre district and Broadway in New York, said: “We must see the data that is being used to strangle our industry so unfairly.”
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Finnish football fans returning from Russia after Euro 2020 matches have caused a spike in their country’s daily coronavirus cases, Finnish health authorities said on Thursday.
The Finnish national team suffered two defeats in St Petersburg this month and nearly 100 infections have since been recorded at two border crossings, mostly among returning fans, authorities said.
The total of daily new cases has since risen from about 50 to more than 100, according to official data.
“These are people who have been at the games. Clearly, it has spread surprisingly well there, considering that Finns have mostly interacted with each other but contracted the virus in just a few days,” Risto Pietikainen, chief physician for the hospital district covering the main crossing point, told Reuters.
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said almost 100 infections had been diagnosed among Finns who had traveled to St Petersburg and the number was likely to grow.
Mika Salminen, head of security at the health institute, said a majority of those who contracted Covid in St Petersburg were football fans.
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San Francisco authorities are the latest US municipality to mandate Covid vaccination for all of its 35,000 of its employees, with those refusing to risk their jobs.
But the requirement would only take effect once a Covid vaccine receives full authorisation from US regulators, as they are currently only approved for emergency use due to a lack of longterm safety data.
“With those two things in mind — the safety of our employees and the safety of the public we serve — we made this decision. We believe this step is a simple one to take. It’s safe, it’s very effective, and it’s going to guarantee the safety of all,” claimed Carol Isen, San Francisco’s director of human resources, according to the New York Times.
San Francisco has one of the highest vaccination rates of any major US city, with 80% of residents 12 and older having received at least one dose and 70 percent fully vaccinated, mayor London Breed said this month.
A public health group that manages the UN-backed vaccine sharing program is cutting back its supply forecast for this year by more than 100m doses.
Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said it now projected that the Covax program could supply just under 1.9bn doses this year – including about 1.5bn provided for free to 92 poor countries – down from original targets of more than 2bn doses.
The shortfall has been blamed on the Serum Institute of India, a pivotal producer of vaccines for Covax, has reverted supplies to people in India, as its government scrambled to fight a spike in infections, AP reports.
So far, Covax has only distributed about 90m doses, far short of its original plans.
Uncertainties remain in the new supply forecast, including when large-scale exports of vaccines will resume from the Serum Institute; regulatory processes for candidate vaccines such as one from Novavax, another key potential supplier; and when countries actually donate doses.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly urged wealthy countries to do more to release stockpiles of, or rights to, vaccines to offset unequal access to coronavirus shots
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The five million residents of Australia’s largest city, Sydney, are now subject to renewed restrictions after a cluster of cases grew to 49.
The New York Times there is now a travel ban and a return to mandatory mask-wearing – with residents being asked to work from home, where gatherings are now limited to five people – after at least one state government minister was among those infected.
The stay-at-home orders come at the start of winter break for schools, forcing tens of thousands of families to cancel travel plans.
Joe Biden has warned that the Delta variant Covid-19 strain is “more contagious, it’s deadlier, and it’s spreading quickly around the world” as he urged unvaccinated people to get the vaccine.
In a tweet Biden said the Delta variant, which could become the dominant strain in the US within two to three weeks, leaves “young, unvaccinated people more vulnerable than ever”.
Read more in our US live blog:
Covid vaccines ‘deliberately' kept from Africa by rich countries, says envoy
African Union special envoy Strive Masiyiwa has accused the world’s richest nations of deliberately failing to provide enough Covid-19 vaccines to the continent.
Masiyiwa, the union’s special envoy to the African vaccine acquisition task team, said the Covax scheme had failed to keep its promise to secure production of 700 million doses of vaccines in time for delivery by December 2021.
Masiyiwa told a panel discussion hosted by CNBC”
It’s not a question of if this was a moral failure, it was deliberate. Those with the resources pushed their way to the front of the queue and took control of their production assets.
Imagine we are in a village and there is drought and there will not be enough bread and the richest guys grabs the baker and they take control of the production of bread and we all have to go to those [rich] guys to ask for a loaf of bread.
The telecommunications mogul said that if ever there was an inquiry into how vaccines have been distributed, Covax – an initiative by the World Health Organization to enable poor countries to get free vaccines – would be found culpable, “because we were misled”.
We were led down the garden path … We got to December believing that the whole world was coming together to purchase vaccines, not knowing that we had been corralled into a little corner while others ran off and secured the supplies.
He said that when he met vaccine manufacturers in December, he was told that all production capacity for 2021 had been sold. “So, the people who bought the vaccines and those who sold them the vaccines, knew that there would be nothing for us,” he said.
Spain will lift capacity restrictions in professional football and basketball games from the next season, the health minister, Carolina Darias, has said, paving the way for a return to full stadiums in La Liga.
Reuters reports that grounds in the top two divisions have mostly lain empty since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020, although a small number of top-flight clubs such as Valencia and Celta Vigo welcomed supporters back in the final two rounds of games, albeit with limited capacity and strict social distancing rules.
The government’s decision means local authorities will decide whether fans can attend matches and in what numbers. La Liga president, Javier Tebas, said earlier this month stadiums would be at 70% capacity from the start of the campaign, although the central government’s announcement means clubs in regions with low virus incidence could have full stadiums.
Spain has played in front of more than 12,000 fans in group games at Euro 2020 in Seville after supporters were also let in for pre-tournament friendlies against Portugal and Lithuania.
The national team will count on an even bigger crowd when it meets Croatia in a last-16 game at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium, which has hosted about 24,000 fans for Denmark’s group games.
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An influential cleric in Indonesia has been sentenced to another four years in prison for concealing information about his coronavirus test result.
AP reports that a three-judge panel at East Jakarta district court, which was under heavy police and military guard, ruled that Rizieq Shihab had lied about his Covid-19 test result, which made contact tracing more difficult.
Shihab has been detained since 13 December. The judges ordered the time he has already served to be deducted from his sentence.
Authorities blocked streets leading to the court as thousands of Shihab’s supporters tried to stage a rally to demand his release. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse followers who tried to approach the court. Hundreds who refused to leave were detained.
Shihab has been facing a series of criminal trials since returning from a three-year exile in Saudi Arabia last November. Judges at the same court on 27 May sentenced him to eight months in prison for violating health protocols by holding a religious gathering and the wedding of his daughter, both attended by thousands of supporters during the coronavirus outbreak. He was also fined 20m rupiah ($1,400, £995) for a mass gathering in West Java.
After the gatherings, he was treated at Ummi Hospital in Bogor, a city just outside the capital, Jakarta, for Covid-19, but hospital officials kept his condition secret. Shihab’s presence at gatherings attracted large crowds, with many ignoring physical distancing.
He said he rejected the verdict and would appeal. During the trial, he said he was worried that revealing he was ill would be “politicised” by his opponents and claimed he said he was the victim of political persecution.
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The French prime minister, Jean Castex, has urged more people in the country to get their first Covid vaccine dose, acknowledging that fewer people are signing up for slots as the summer holidays approach.
“We’re vaccinating 200,000 people a day” with an initial jab, Castex said during a visit to the Landes department of southwest France, where the more contagious Delta variant of the virus now accounts for 70% of all new cases.
“That’s not enough,” he said, after initial doses peaked at nearly 500,000 a day last month. “We’ve done much better, and we have to do much better.”
The government wants 35 million people to be completely vaccinated with the two doses by end-August, or more than half of the French population, up from the current 28%, amid serious and longstanding scepticism in France.
Castex also issued a “solemn appeal” to health workers in particular to get the jab, as many are refusing. “It’s imperative that all care workers and retirement home staff be vaccinated, let’s say between now and end-August,” Castex said.
“If not, we will obviously have to do what’s necessary,” he said, though he declined to specify if the vaccines would be required for them to continue working.
Nationwide, the Delta variant now accounts for about 10% of all new cases, up from just 2% to 4% last week.
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Macron joins Merkel in call for coordinated EU quarantine for non-EU visitors
The French president has joined the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and urged EU countries to coordinate more closely on how tourists from outside the bloc are able to come.
For me one of the issues of discussion is to be really taking coordinated decisions in terms of opening of borders to third countries and on recognising vaccines because at this stage we have to limit this to the vaccines that have been approved by the European medical authority.”
Yesterday, Merkel said: “In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine – and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see.”
The UK government responded today, saying it was for individual countries to decide what travel restrictions those arriving from Britain would face.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said:
Currently it is down to individual EU member states to decide on the rules governing their borders. We are moving at speed through our vaccination programme to help us curb this latest variant and that will allow us to move to Step 4, and we are confident that over time it will bring cases down, and that’s the approach we are taking.
We will continue to have discussions with our European partners on the reopening of international travel but we’re very confident that our vaccination programme is providing a good way forward.”
Pressed on whether Johnson agreed with his German counterpart, the spokesman added: “It is a matter for individual countries to decide their own policies, as we do ours.”
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A nightclub in Sardinia owned by the former Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore has been accused of “epidemic negligence” after an outbreak of Covid-19 there last summer brought the 2020 tourism season on the island to an abrupt halt and was linked to clusters of infections across Italy.
AFP reports that vaccine sceptics in Russia are rushing to buy fake Covid jab certificates. Here’s its dispatch from Moscow, after the country ordered mandatory vaccinations for service industry workers, after only about a million of its 12 million residents got jabbed in the six months they were available. A host of other Russian regions followed suit.
Watching as Russia’s drive to vaccinate its citizens against coronavirus stumbled earlier this year, Sergei had a hunch that authorities would eventually make inoculations mandatory. But the 30-something in the southern Krasnodar region had no plans of getting a jab.
So he found a dealer online hawking fake vaccine certificates, sent his personal details over encrypted messenger Telegram and transferred 15,000 rubles ($200/£150).
Three weeks later, Sergei logged on to Russia’s government services portal to find a certificate showing he had received both doses of the country’s homegrown Sputnik V vaccine – without ever having been jabbed.
Many Russians are wary of the vaccine, with about 60% saying they do not plan to be inoculated, according to independent polling.
Sergei said he believed the jab had side effects, and fears the vaccine is experimental. “I don’t want to die because of what the government wants,” Sergei said in an exchange on Telegram, showing AFP a redacted screenshot of his personal government portal showing his vaccine certificate.
“I’m getting asked to vaccinate whole companies,” one seller boasted in an exchange on Telegram. At the low end of the black market, Russians can get a paper booklet certifying they were vaccinated for 2,000 rubles. At the top end, for 30,000 rubles, middlemen say they can get a medical worker to pour out vaccine doses and upload falsified medical records to the government portal.
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Ohio, the US state that offered millions of dollars in incentives to boost vaccination rates, is to conclude its program — still unable to crack the 50% vaccination threshold.
Republican governor Mike DeWine’s incentive program initially had the desired effect, leading to a 43% boost in state vaccination numbers, but numbers of jabs have dropped since then.
Multiple other states followed Ohio’s lead, including Louisiana, Maryland and New York state. Under New Mexico’s Vax 2 the Max sweepstakes program, vaccinated residents could win prizes from a pool totaling $10m.
The rewards include a $5m grand prize that will be drawn later this summer. The sweepstakes kept the vaccination rate from declining further but the initial boost was small, AP reports.
According to the governor’s office, the seven-day average of new vaccination registrations was 1,437 per day during the first week of the contest — just 85 more per day than the previous week. But it rose in the subsequent week.
California awarded $116.5m in prizes – the country’s largest pot of vaccine prize money – but the direct impact on jab rates is unclear.
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Egypt will allow travellers who have taken full doses of approved Covid vaccines to enter without taking a PCR test, the health ministry has said.
Travellers must present QR-coded certificates that they have received their full doses of one of six Covid-19 vaccines approved by Egypt and the WHO at least two weeks before their arrival, Reuters reports.
Those from countries impacted by coronavirus variants will be subject to a rapid test upon arrival, while all non-vaccinated travellers must present a PCR test.
Egypt reported 466 new coronavirus cases today, bringing its cumulative total to 278,761. However, officials and experts say the real number of infections is far higher because of low testing rates and the exclusion of private test results. There have been almost 16,000 reported deaths.
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The Japanese emperor, Naruhito, is concerned about the possibility the Olympic games could cause Covid to spread, as feared by many in the public, Kyodo News quoted an official at the Imperial Household Agency (IHA) as saying.
“The emperor is extremely worried about the current status of coronavirus infections,” IHA grand steward Yasuhiko Nishimura said. “Given the public’s worries, he appears to be concerned about whether the event would cause infections to spread.”
Emperor Naruhito is honorary patron for the Tokyo 2020 Games, which are due to start on 23 July after being delayed for a year by the pandemic.
Many Japanese remain sceptical about the possibility of holding even a scaled-down Games safely during the pandemic. Organisers have excluded foreign spectators and limited the number of domestic ones. Alcohol, high-fives and talking loudly will also be banned, Reuters reports.
Japan has largely avoided explosive coronavirus outbreaks, and has recorded less than 15,000 deaths over the pandemic.
Earlier in the week, the World Health Organization’s head of emergencies programme, Dr Mike Ryan, said infection rates in Japan had been falling, and that they compared favourably to other countries that were hosting big events.
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The pandemic, and responses to it, is pushing more people into drug use, while illegal cultivation could also get a boost as joblessness increases globally, the UN has said.
The Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which each year pulls together data from its wide network of member countries in its annual report, said its report showed that drug markets have swiftly resumed operations after initial disruption at the onset of the pandemic.
Top opium producer Afghanistan reported a 37% jump in the amount of land used for illicit poppy cultivation during 2020 compared with the previous year, the report said.
Inequality, poverty and mental health conditions – known factors that push people into drug use – are also on the rise across the world, it said in a chapter entitled “Covid-19 fallout likely to be felt in drug markets for years to come”, AFP reports.
Most countries have reported a rise in the use of cannabis during the pandemic, it said, noting generally people decreasingly saw risks in its use. The crisis has also seen an increase in the non-medical use of pharmaceutical drugs, while consumption of drugs that are “typically used in social settings”, such as cocaine, has dropped.
Before the pandemic, global cocaine manufacture doubled in output between 2014 and 2019, when it reached a record of an estimated 1,784 tons, according to the report. Cocaine supply chains to Europe are “diversifying, pushing prices down and quality up and thereby threatening Europe with a further expansion of the cocaine market”, it said.
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A former soldier has fired gunshots in a coronavirus field hospital in Thailand, killing a 54-year-old patient after earlier shooting dead a convenience store employee, police said.
The suspect, 23, believed that the patients in the hospital in Pathum Thani near Bangkok were people dependent on drugs, who he despises, the regional police chief, Amphol Buarabporn, told Reuters.
The field hospital was once a drug rehabilitation centre and was reorganised to treat Covid-19 patients. Closed-circuit camera footage that circulated online showed the man walking into a hospital in combat uniform and red beret brandishing a firearm.
Hours earlier, the suspect shot and killed a convenience store employee in Bangkok over a dispute, Amphol said. The suspect was later arrested.
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With high rates of obesity and associated lifestyle-related conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, linked to worse Covid-19 outcomes, the UK government has confirmed it is to introduce a pre-9pm ban on junk food advertising on TV and tighten restrictions online, from 2023.
However, as my colleague Mark Sweney notes, the new restrictions include a significant number of “carve-outs” and exemptions, which mean they will fall short of the total ban proposed last year.
For example, brand-only advertising online and on TV will continue to be allowed. This means a company often associated with poor dietary habits such as McDonald’s will be able to advertise as long as no products high in fat, salt and sugar appear.
Junk food advertising will still be allowed through audio media, such as podcasts and radio, and there will be no new restrictions for the out-of-home sector, which includes billboards, poster sites, on buses, and in locations such as railway stations and airports.
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When lockdown hit, Kelli María Korducki became distracted, unfocused – and overwhelmed. But there are ways to recover ...
Beginning in the spring of last year, with the first lockdown, I’d often get distracted and overwhelmed, then lose the plot of my task – a common Covid-era affliction. (The simple act of folding laundry became a slapstick-worthy fiasco.) But now I was fully vaccinated, making plans, and even socializing indoors again. Life was starting to appear almost, well, normal. I felt good. Why had my brain missed the memo – and could I get my trusty pre-pandemic brain back?
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Today so far…
- The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said this morning Europe was “on thin ice” in its battle against the coronavirus, as the highly contagious Delta variant threatens to undo progress made in reducing infections.
- Merkel said the further response to the pandemic would be a main topic of discussion among European Union leaders at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. “We need to remain vigilant,” Merkel added. “In particular the newly arising variants, especially now the Delta variant, are a warning for us to continue to be careful.”
- Russia has reported 20,182 new Covid cases. That is the most confirmed in a single day since 24 January. The government coronavirus taskforce also confirmed 568 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours. Twenty million people out of the country’s 114 million population have so far received a vaccine shot.
- The US Food and Drug Administration will add a warning to the Covid vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults, the agency announced on Wednesday.
- A Pfizer official in Israel has said their vaccine is highly effective against the Delta variant of Covid. However, they may have jumped the gun slightly, as asked to comment on the claims, Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at Israel’s health ministry, said the country still lacks enough data to provide any insight.
- In one of the airline industry’s toughest policies yet, Cathay Pacific have said that all Hong Kong-based pilots and flight attendants would need to be vaccinated against Covid by 31 August or risk losing their jobs.
- Hong Kong will ban passenger flights from Indonesia from Friday, deeming the country’s arrivals “extremely high risk” for the coronavirus.
- Singapore says it expects to administer up to 80,000 daily doses of coronavirus vaccine from 26 June, up from 47,000 currently. It might later ease some restrictions on gatherings and travel for those who are inoculated.
- Prof Kevin Fenton, regional director for London for Public Health England (PHE), has defended Euro 2020 crowd arrangements in the capital, saying allowing 40,000 people into Wembley next week was a controlled situation.
- The UK government is expected to announce changes to its international travel restrictions, with Malta and the Balearic islands among destinations that may be green-lit for travel.
- With the 4 July holiday approaching, the White House has acknowledged this week that Joe Biden’s administration will fall short of his 70% goal and an associated aim of fully vaccinating 165 million adults in the same time frame. White House officials, while acknowledging they are set to fall short, insist they’re unconcerned. “We don’t see it exactly like something went wrong,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said earlier this week, stressing that Americans’ lives are still better off than they were when Biden announced the goal.
- In Australia, New South Wales has recorded another 11 locally acquired cases of Covid-19, as the state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said this was the “scariest period” the state had faced during the pandemic.
- A police investigation in Australia into the limousine driver who sparked Sydney’s current Covid outbreak has expanded to include the company that employed him to drive international aircrews to and from Sydney airport.
Updated
Tom Wilkinson at PA media reports that a new type of coronavirus detector is being used in an experiment at Teesside International Airport in the north-east of England.
Manufacturers Kromek have developed the technology to trace levels of Covid-19 within 30 minutes, which could be used in shops, lobbies and other busy public places.
The firm, based in Sedgefield, County Durham, usually produces radiation detection technology for the medical, nuclear and security sectors, and has now developed what it claims is a biological threat detection system.
It works by drawing large volumes of air – 400 litres per minute – and analyses the biological content, which it then tests to detect the presence of coronavirus.
The developers said that by sensing the virus particles before individuals show symptoms, it can reduce exposure to the disease and limit the spread of localised outbreaks.
Kromek chief executive Dr Arnab Basu was “proud” the technology was being tested at Teesside International Airport.
He said: “The device we are trialling is the only technology of its kind which can autonomously detect the presence of Covid-19 from huge areas. The technology has the capacity to deliver near-real time monitoring of the presence and prevalence of the virus, enabling a return to normal life.”
Another quick Reuters note here that Singapore says it expects to administer up to 80,000 daily doses of coronavirus vaccine from 26 June, up from 47,000 currently. It might later ease some restrictions on gatherings and travel for those who are inoculated.
“If supplies continue to arrive as planned, we will be able to substantially cover most of our population with a first dose sometime in July,” its health ministry said.
Around 3 million people, or just over 50% of Singapore’s population, have received the first dose of a vaccine. About 2 million of those have received the second dose also.
A Pfizer official in Israel has said their vaccine is highly effective against the Delta variant of Covid. However, they may have jumped the gun slightly, as asked to comment on the claims, Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at Israel’s Health Ministry, said the country still lacks enough data to provide any insight.
Maayan Lubell reports for Reuters that Alon Rappaport, Pfizer’s medical director in Israel, told local broadcaster Army Radio: “The data we have today, accumulating from research we are conducting at the lab and including data from those places where the Delta variant, has replaced the British variant as the common variant, point to our vaccine being very effective, around 90%, in preventing the coronavirus disease, Covid-19.”
A spokesperson for Pfizer did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment when asked to provide further details.
An earlier analysis by Public Health England (PHE) found that both the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines provide more than 90% protection against hospitalization from the Delta variant.
Yesterday, Alroy-Preis told reporters that so far Israel had only seen around 200 cases of the Delta variant.
Quique Kirszenbaum and Peter Beaumont report for us:
Uruguay was once hailed for its model response to the pandemic, but its recent policies have delivered one of the world’s worst infection rates, with its government single-minded in avoiding new restrictions.
All of which has left the nation of 3.5 million – which last June was toying with the idea of declaring itself Covid-19-free – asking how things went so wrong – and offering grim lessons for other countries.
According to experts, the situation is the fruit of a decision by the government of Luis Lacalle Pou to abandon a successful policy of social restrictions in favour of a much more permissive regime that has instead relied almost exclusively on vaccination.
During the most recent wave, the president has rejected calls for a national lockdown, making veiled allusions to the “police state” in a country in which the military dictatorship ended only in 1985.
Instead Lacalle Pou, like some Republicans in the US and British Conservative politicians, has insisted on the importance of “responsible freedom” – insisting that a strategy of vaccination, which began only in March, would be enough, while rejecting calls by the country’s scientific advisory group for the reintroduction of social distancing requirements.
All of which has baffled many of the country’s health professionals who have been working on the frontline. After his shift at a Montevideo hospital, intensive care doctor Gustavo Grecco summarized the problem: “The government stopped listening to science, to its scientific advisory group, to its doctors, to the universities. Since February the government has been entirely divorced from the recommendations of the scientific community.”
Read more here: Uruguay accused of squandering early Covid success amid deadly surge
A police investigation in Australia into the limousine driver who sparked Sydney’s current Covid outbreak has expanded to include the company that employed him to drive international aircrews to and from Sydney airport.
Questions are also being asked about whether a loophole in public health orders in New South Wales meant the driver was not required to wear a mask while working.
As the state’s coronavirus outbreak grew to 48 cases on Thursday, the NSW deputy police commissioner, Gary Worboys, told reporters that an investigation into the coronavirus outbreak was not contained to the man in his 60s, whose positive result on 16 June started the cluster.
“That investigation continues, as we think more about the offences that may have been committed,” Worboys said.
Read more of Michael McGowan’s report here: Police probe into Sydney limousine driver expanded as health minister seeks tougher mask rules
Merkel: Europe and Germany 'on thin ice' over Delta variant
Speaking of Germany, chancellor Angela Merkel said this morning that Europe is “on thin ice” in its battle against the coronavirus, as the highly contagious delta variant threatens to undo progress made in reducing infections.
Associated Press report that in what may be her last government declaration to the German parliament, Merkel said the further response to the pandemic would be a main topic of discussion among European Union leaders at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
She noted that the number of Covid cases in the 27-nation bloc continue to decline, while vaccination rates climb.
“But even though there is reason to be hopeful, the pandemic isn’t over, in particular in the world’s poor countries,” she said. “But in Germany and Europe we’re also still moving on thin ice.”
“We need to remain vigilant,” Merkel added. “In particular the newly arising variants, especially now the Delta variant, are a warning for us to continue to be careful.”
EU health officials predicted Wednesday that the delta variant will make up 90% of all cases across the bloc by the end of August, showing the need for as many people to be fully vaccinated as possible.
In Germany, the delta variant now makes up about 15% of new cases, according to the country’s disease control agency.
Officials say a vaccination center was flooded during heavy storms in southwestern Germany overnight.
All appointments for Thursday at the vaccination centre in Tuebingen were canceled after the site was swamped by torrential rain late last night.
Associated Press report police said five people were injured in the nearby town of Reutlingen after they were struck and injured by hail the size of tennis balls.
Andrew Sparrow has started the UK Covid live blog for today, which will be leading on those possible changes to international travel rules. I’ll be continuing here with global coronavirus news.
Russia reports 20,182 cases – highest daily total since late January
A quick snap from Reuters: Russia has reported 20,182 new Covid cases. That is the most confirmed in a single day since 24 January. The government coronavirus taskforce also confirmed 568 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours
Professor Kevin Fenton, regional director for London for Public Health England (PHE), has been defending Euro 2020 arrangements in the capital, saying allowing 40,000 people into Wembley next week was a controlled situation.
“With all of these large programmes, they’re done under very controlled circumstances,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“So a lot of testing beforehand, measures are placed in the stadium to manage the crowd as well as... to do lateral flow device testing before people enter, and there are marshals across the stadia to ensure that people social distance as best as they can and to follow the rules.
“So there are really strict protocols in place... and the data that we get from events such as these will help us to plan further events in the future, so we need to understand how to live with the virus and to do so safely.”
That isn’t going to do much to pacify parents being told they can’t attend a school sports day when they see tens of thousands of fans at a game.
On the topic of the vaccine roll-out, PA report he added: “We have an ambition to ensure that every Londoner over 18 is offered their vaccine by the end of July... and we want to ensure that some high risk groups, for example, care homes, residents and staff, staff working in the NHS and those who may be at increased risk, those aged over 40, all get their second doses in time before 19 July 19”
The Interfax news agency has a figure for Russian vaccinations this morning – it claims that 20 million people out of the country’s 114 million population had received a shot, with data going up to 18 June.
By the way, at the moment we don’t have a timing for the UK government to release its updated travel advice. It has been heavily trailed that Malta and the Balearics might be moved to the “green list”.
There are, however, transport questions in parliament at 9.30am. We also expect an updated stats bulletin from Public Health England at 2pm today.
Cathay Pacific threatens 'future employment review' for unvaccinated pilots and cabin crew
Cathay Pacific have said that all Hong Kong-based pilots and flight attendants would need to be vaccinated against Covid by 31 August or risk losing their jobs. It is one of the airline industry’s toughest policies yet.
Cathay said it had struggled with staff rostering due to Hong Kong’s strict quarantine rules on return that have been loosened for crew that have been vaccinated. There are also requirements that only fully vaccinated crews can operate to certain high-risk destinations and on quarantine-free “bubble” flights.
Cathay said 90% of pilots and more than 65% of cabin crew had been vaccinated already, or had appointments for vaccinations, following a previous warning that vaccination was highly likely to become compulsory.
“We understand there will be some who cannot take a vaccine and we will look into accommodating them on a short-term basis where we can,” the airline said in a statement, Reuters report.
“However, we will review the future employment of those who are unable to become vaccinated and assess whether they can continue to be employed as aircrew with Cathay Pacific.”
China administers over 24m vaccine doses in one day – total stands at over 1bn
The vaccine numbers that come out of China are always mind-boggling. Reuters report this morning that yesterday China administered 24.1m doses, bringing the official national total to 1.096bn.
Here’s a bit more from UK environment minister George Eustice on Sky News, who sounded a little impatient to ditch his face mask:
What we want to do on the 19 July, and the prime minister said that the data looks good, is to remove all of the legal restrictions. That’s all of the legal requirements to do things to be taken away completely. Now, whether there will still be some people who might choose to wear masks, or whether it may be advisory in some settings, that’s a separate matter but the the objective of that final stage is to remove the legal requirement to do these things.
Asked whether he would continue to wear a face mask indoors once there is no legal compulsion:
I wouldn’t. I’d have to be honest, once I’m told that it’s safe not to, I want to get back to normal. I think a lot of people will want to shed those masks. But, while it’s contributing to controlling the pandemic, yes I will when I’m asked, like everybody else.
"What we want to do on 19 July is remove all of the legal restrictions."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 24, 2021
George Eustice says the objective is to end the 'legal compulsion' to wear face coverings indoors, adding 'a lot of people want to shed those masks'.
Latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/2nGnoLdpbL #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/IU01c6Q6eK
With the July Fourth holiday approaching, the White House has acknowledged this week that Joe Biden’s administration will fall short of his 70% goal and an associated aim of fully vaccinating 165 million adults in the same time frame.
White House officials, while acknowledging they are set to fall short, insist they’re unconcerned. “We don’t see it exactly like something went wrong,” press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week, stressing that Americans’ lives are still better off than they were when Biden announced the goal.
A half-dozen officials involved in the vaccination campaign, speaking on the condition of anonymity to Associated Press discuss the missed target candidly, pointed to a combination of factors, including: the lessened sense of urgency that followed early success in the vaccination campaign; a decision to reach higher than a play-it-safe lower goal; and unexpectedly strong recalcitrance among some Americans toward getting a shot.
Zeke Miller writes for AP that nonetheless, the White House says it’s not letting up on its vaccination efforts. Joe Biden will be in North Carolina today urging Americans to roll up their sleeves as part of a nationwide “month of action” to drive up the vaccination rate before the holiday. The White House is continuing to roll out increasingly localized programs to encourage specific communities to get vaccinated.
When the 70% goal was first announced by Biden seven weeks ago, on average more than 800,000 Americans were getting their first vaccine dose each day — down from a high of nearly 2 million per day in early April. Now that figure is below 300,000.
Paradoxically, officials believe the strong response to the early vaccination campaign has served to reduce motivation to get a shot for some. One of the most potent motivators for people to get vaccinated was the high rate of cases and deaths. Now that those figures have dropped to levels not seen since the onset of the pandemic, officials say it’s become harder to convince Americans of the urgency to get a shot — particularly for younger populations that already knew they were at low risk of serious complications from the virus.
Indonesian cleric Rizieq Shihab has been sentenced to another four years in prison on Thursday for concealing information about his coronavirus test result.
A three-judge panel at East Jakarta District Court, which was under heavy police and military guard, ruled that he had lied about his test result, which made contact tracing more difficult. Shihab has been detained since 13 December.
Reuters report that authorities blocked streets leading to the court as thousands of Shihab’s supporters tried to stage a rally to demand his release. Police fired tear gas and water canons to disperse followers who tried to approach the court. Hundreds who refused to leave were detained.
The indictment said Shihab’s false statement that he was healthy, which was aired by several news network and went viral on social media, put the community at risk, considering that he had attended several events involving thousands of people.
Shihab’s case was part of a series of criminal trials he has been facing since returning from a three-year exile in Saudi Arabia last November. Shihab, 55, was the leader and grand imam of the now-banned Islam Defenders Front, widely known by the Indonesian acronym FPI.
My colleague Frances Ryan writes for us this morning that during Covid, to be ‘vulnerable’ is to be told by the state that your life doesn’t matter:
High-risk people who hoped ministers would protect them ended up becoming victims of inaction and indifference. A shielding programme in England so inept that nearly two million people were missed off it. Staff sent into care homes without adequate PPE. Shielding workers with no financial support forced into workplaces to pay their bills. This is what institutional neglect looks like: a perfect storm of systematic injustice and old-fashioned disregard.
“Vulnerable” has become a key word in the pandemic lexicon, but it is one that has often done more harm than good. It implies that the mass deaths of disabled and old people were inevitable, and conveniently exonerates the state from responsibility. It suggests that the decision to send untested residents back to care homes was not to blame for subsequent deaths, but rather it was the faulty bodies of the individuals in question.
The truth is, disabled and older people were not “vulnerable” to the virus simply because of their health or age: they were vulnerable because the government did not bother to keep them safe. What happened to our “most vulnerable” during the pandemic was not some terrible tragedy. It was the all too predictable consequence of a system that decided the lives of disabled and older people mattered less than those of the rest.
Read more here: Frances Ryan – During Covid, to be ‘vulnerable’ is to be told your life doesn’t matter
UK minister George Eustice on Sky News has also just been suggesting that when England lifts all restrictions, that may not include all face mask requirements in all settings.
Environment Sec George Eustice says the final lifting of restrictions will mean there will be "no legal compulsion" to wear masks. He says there may still be advice to in some settings. But adds that he would not wear a mask if he is told it is safe not to.
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) June 24, 2021
Sky News are very heavily pushing the line that they’ve been tipped off that the Balearic Islands will be moved on to England’s “green list” later today. If you can’t point at them on a map off the top of your head, the four largest are Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera.
There’s also speculation that there may be further details on the idea floated by health secretary Matt Hancock previously, that people who have had both shots of the vaccine may be exempted from quarantine restrictions.
A reminder that these changes due to be announced by minister Grant Shapps today would only apply to England. Travel restrictions are devolved and so the other nations in the UK have control of their own rules.
Microsoft urged to keep corporate travel to 2020 levels for good
Microsoft is being urged to limit its corporate travel to 2020 levels for good, to set an example that others can follow by using its videoconferencing tools to limit its impact on the environment.
The Just Use Teams campaign, launched by a group of climate activists and Microsoft customers, says the company has spoken about the urgent need to tackle climate change but remains among the top 10 corporate flyers globally, despite being the only one to own and operate a videoconferencing platform.
“Microsoft is such a loyal partner to the fossil-fuelled aviation industry, its employees have their own check-in lane at Seattle airport,” the campaigners note. “Before the pandemic, Microsoft’s business travel emitted more greenhouse gases than some entire countries.
“If Microsoft was to go back to emitting as much through business flights as before the pandemic, it would risk undermining the meaningful contributions its sustainability team, its partners and its customers make every day.
I regret to inform you that in the UK Kay Burley just said “holibobs” on Sky News. Pressed on international travel regulations, minister George Eustice said that nobody likes the obstructions to travel that have been put in place. He said:
We want to support people who want to travel to be able to do so, but it is difficult. We are being cautious because the biggest threat still to our progress against this pandemic, and the great progress we’ve made on vaccination, is that there will be another variant somewhere, that maybe hadn’t been properly detected in another country, and that variant is more resistant to the vaccination. So that’s the great challenge that we’ve got, and that’s why we are proceeding with caution, but obviously Grant Shapps will say more later.
Environment Secretary George Eustice tells @KayBurley the "biggest threat" to the UK's progress against the pandemic "is another variant that is more resistant to vaccination".
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 24, 2021
Latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/2nGnoLdpbL #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/K7HaNah0XI
Updated
Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over from our Australian crew. I’m expecting George Eustice to be the government minister doing the media round in the UK this morning. And I’m expecting the main topic to be international travel.
The government is due to update its travel advice, which might see some holiday destinations – Malta and the Balearic Islands have been touted – moved from the “amber list” to the “green list”.
Yesterday the travel industry in the UK was lobbying hard for a relaxation of rules, and let’s not forget, it isn’t just people wanting a fortnight in the sun – many people have been unable to visit loved ones abroad for months on end.
The longest of Covids: the man infected for 10 months
Like thousands of people, Dave Smith became infected with coronavirus at the start of the first wave in the UK in 2020. But while most people, including those who suffer “long Covid”, eliminate the live virus from their bodies within a couple of weeks, Smith experienced a very different sort of long-term problem: a persistent infection lasting more than 290 days, or almost 10 months. This has been the longest recorded active Covid-19 infection to date.
During that period, Smith, 72, from Bristol, recorded 42 positive PCR tests and was admitted to hospital seven times. He said: “Whenever I went bad, I went really bad – down to death’s door. My wife started to arrange a funeral five times.”
In an interview in which he revealed his harrowing and rare experience for the first time, he added jokingly: “I called all the family in to make my peace with them. I wish I’d kept my mouth shut now.
Read the full story from Linda Geddes
New South Wales imposes restrictions as Australian state records 11 new cases
New South Wales has recorded another 11 locally acquired cases of Covid-19, as premier Gladys Berejiklian warned this is the “scariest period” the state has faced during the pandemic.
“This is probably, if not the most, concerning times I have experienced during the pandemic because we’re dealing with a virus that is extremely contagious,” Berejiklian told reporters on Thursday.
“I do want to stress that my level of concern is medium to high across NSW.”
Berejiklian began her press conference by announcing she had tested negative to the virus, after being in a room with Nationals MP Adam Marshall, who has contracted the virus.
Hong Kong suspends all flights from Indonesia
Hong Kong will ban passenger flights from Indonesia from Friday, deeming the country’s arrivals “extremely high risk” for the coronavirus.
The Hong Kong government said late on Wednesday it was suspending flights after the number of imported cases from Indonesia crossed thresholds they had set.
Hong Kong previously banned arrivals from India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines, using a flight suspension rule triggered when there are five or more passengers who test positive for one of the variant cases on arrival, or 10 or more passengers found to have any strain of the disease while in quarantine.
Photograph: Jérôme Favre/EPA
The Chinese special administrative region has recorded over 11,800 cases and 210 deaths due to the coronavirus. Most of the city’s recent cases over the past month have been imported.
Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Hong Kong’s ban was “temporary” and that migrant workers affected by the new regulation should contact their employers and agents.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to include new warnings from FDA
The US Food and Drug Administration will add a warning to the Covid vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults, the agency announced on Wednesday.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory groups, meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condition after vaccination, found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines, but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk.
Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and, if so, how serious.
Brazil sets single-day record for coronavirus cases
Brazil has registered a single-day record of 115,228 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, showing new signs of accelerating despite long-delayed vaccination efforts finally gaining steam.
Brazil has also recorded the world’s highest Covid-19 death toll outside the United States, with more than half a million lives lost, according to the ministry’s official tally.
But while the situation in the United States and most wealthy nations improves thanks to higher vaccination rates, Brazil and many neighbours in South America this month have seen their biggest outbreaks yet.
Brazil’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases and deaths is now the highest in the world, having surpassed India last week, according to data compiled by Reuters.
The country has been slow to roll out vaccines with only 12% of Brazilians fully immunized, according to Health Ministry data. Efforts have accelerated recently, with certain states such as Sao Paulo predicting shots for all adults by September.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Brazil has confirmed its highest one-day case total, with a national record of 115,228 infections confirmed in the 24 hours to Wednesday.
Meanwhile the US Food and Drug Administration will add a new warning to fact sheets for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults.
We will have more on this shortly but in the meantime, here are some of the key developments from the past few hours:
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The US will ship 3m doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-jab Covid-19 vaccine to Brazil on Thursday, the country with the second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world.
- The European Union’s top diplomat in Washington said the US should ease Covid-19 travel restrictions on Europeans, calling it a mistake to prevent business executives from overseeing US investments.
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The share of infections caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus has doubled in Germany in a week and is likely to gain more traction over other variants, the Robert Koch Institute public health agency said.
- Tunisia has detected six cases of the Delta variant, the health ministry said on Wednesday, amid a rapid spread of the virus in the North African country.
- Angela Merkel said travellers from the UK should be quarantined wherever they arrive in the EU, as the union’s agency for disease control forecast that the Delta variant of Covid will account for 90% of cases in member states by the end of August.
- The Australian federal government announced it will shelve the controversial AstraZeneca vaccine by October after safety fears, suggesting it will have enough supplies of other vaccines to meet “allocation horizons” for vaccinating the population by the end of the year.
- A UK-backed study is investigating anti-parasite drug Ivermectin as a possible Covid treatment after a pilot showed promising signs of efficacy and a number of authorities around the world rolled out the cheap drug, reporting significant benefits – with data from January already suggesting Covid mortality falls where it is being used.
- Switzerland will scrap most of its remaining coronavirus restrictions this weekend, the government confirmed, including for entry into the country, but non-Schengen arrivals will need to have been vaccinated.
- Greece is to end the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors and ease other remaining restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic, authorities said, with infections now clearly on the wane.
- Over 150 staff at a hospital in Texas, US, were forced to leave their jobs after refusing to be vaccinated against Covid. Employees had been told they had to be inoculated by 7 June or face a fortnight’s suspension as dozens protested over the mandatory vaccine policy and filed an unsuccessful lawsuit.
- The US embassy in Thailand turned down a direct appeal to fly in coronavirus vaccines for its citizens even as French officials begin a rollout to its expatriates in the country.
