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Summary
Here the latest developments at a glance:
- Germany will close shops from the middle of next week in a tightening of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, and possibly also schools and nurseries. Full details of the new lockdown will be decided on Sunday in a meeting between chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of the country’s 16 states.
- Italy on Saturday became the European country with the highest official number of Covid fatalities, as its new total of 64,036 deaths overtook the UK toll of currently 64,026 reported deaths.
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The United States reported 244,011 new cases on Saturday, the highest daily increase since the beginning of the pandemic, while the number of deaths rose by 3,013 to 294,535.
- The share of Brazilians unwilling to take any Covid-19 vaccine grew to 22% this week, from 9% in August, and most said they would not accept one made in China, as president Jair Bolsonaro’s comments stoked wider scepticism in the badly hit country with, as of Saturday, 179,765 deaths, the second-highest in the world.
- France recorded 13,947 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to Saturday, while the Covid-19 death toll rose by 199, compared with Friday’s 304 deaths. France currently has the third-highest overall death toll in Europe.
- Top US Food and Drug Administration regulators said on Saturday that most Americans with allergies should be safe to receive the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech SE, which will have been distributed to 145 locations across the country by Monday morning.
- The UK recorded 21,502 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday and 519 deaths, compared with Friday’s 21,672 new cases and 424 deaths.
That’s all from me, I’m now handing over to my colleagues in Australia.
Updated
Updated
Australian state of Victoria records one new Covid case in hotel quarantine
From Australian Associated Press
Victoria has recorded one new case of Covid-19 in its revamped hotel quarantine system but no new cases in the community. The case in quarantine, which was acquired overseas, is a boy under the age of five whose parents have also been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Victoria has now reached hit 44 days without local Covid-19 transmission.
The hotel quarantine case is the sixth recorded Covid-19 case since the Victorian government resumed its hotel quarantine programme earlier this week. Five of those Covid-19 cases were reported on Saturday, from a total of 6,233 tests.
There were 735 international arrivals in quarantine hotels by 11pm on Friday, according to the state government, including 55 with symptoms or complex health needs at the Novotel “hot hotel” in Melbourne’s South Wharf.
Those who test positive are obliged to remain in hotel quarantine until they have tested negative and been cleared by officials.
The deputy chief health officer, Ben Cowie, told reporters on Saturday that symptomatic and non-symptomatic arrivals are separated almost immediately at the airport, with major precautions in place for those who are symptomatic.
Meanwhile, the Victorian government on Saturday pledged that new $200 regional travel vouchers would be made available to residents after the first 40,000 vouchers offered through the scheme ran out.
An extra 30,000 vouchers for the Regional Travel Voucher Scheme will be made available from midday on Monday to 22 January.
Business Victoria’s website on Friday morning crashed within minutes under the weight of applicants for the voucher programme.
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Brazil reported 43,900 additional confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and 686 fatalities from Covid-19, its Health Ministry said on Saturday.
The South American country has now registered 6,781,799 cases since the pandemic began, while its official death toll has risen to 179,765, according to ministry data.
Charley Pride, the pioneering black country singer known for hits such “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” has died at the age of 86 from complications related to Covid-19, his publicist said on Saturday.
The Rolling Stone magazine writes:
Born in Sledge, Mississippi, in 1934, Pride picked cotton, played baseball in the Negro league, worked in a smelting plant in Montana, and served in the U.S. Army before becoming country music’s first black superstar.
He scored 52 Top 10 country hits, including 29 Number Ones, and was the first African-American performer to appear on the Grand Ole Opry stage since Deford Bailey made his debut in the 1920s. Pride became an Opry member in 1993. In 2000, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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Markus Soeder, the premier of Bavaria, told Germany’s Bild newspaper that the country’s new measures would be wide-ranging, including schools, kindergartens, contacts and shops.
“We definitely have to take the necessary measures before mid-week,” he said.
Germany was more successful than many European countries in keeping the pandemic under control in the first wave in March and April.
But it has been struggling to turn the tide in the second wave with what has been dubbed a “lockdown lite”.
Daily new infections have climbed to 28,438, while the daily death toll was 496, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.
“We must take steps in the coming days that are very far-reaching and very hard-hitting,” the German finance minister, Olaf Scholz, told members of his Social Democratic party at an online event, Reuters reports.
Opponents of lockdown measures have regularly protested in German cities over curbs.
On Saturday, police in Frankfurt and Dresden were dressed in riot gear and armed with water cannon to enforce a ban on such demonstrations.
The economy minister, Peter Altmaier, told the RND newspaper group on Saturday that hospital intensive care units were beginning to be stretched to their limits and that Germany could not wait until after Christmas to react.
Merkel has favoured stricter pan-German measures but was unable to get agreement from the nation’s 16 states. But some states have since clamped down on their own.
Starting on Saturday, a night curfew will be in force in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, except for people going out to work and for essential reasons.
Updated
Germany to close shops before Christmas as part of tougher restrictions
Germany will close shops from the middle of next week in a tightening of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The decision came ahead of a meeting planned for Sunday between German chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders.
The federal and state governments have largely agreed on a lockdown to contain the corona pandemic, which is expected to be implemented on 16 December at the latest, Business Insider reports.
A final decision should be made on Sunday morning. According to the report, the question of whether schools and nurseries will be kept open is controversial.
Germany has been in partial lockdown for six weeks, with bars and restaurants closed, while stores and schools have remained open.
Some regions have already imposed tougher measures.
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Italy overtakes UK as European country with highest death toll
Italy on Saturday became the European country with the highest official number of Covid fatalities, as its new total of 64,036 deaths overtook Britain, according to an Agence France-Presse tally.
The Italian health ministry said that 649 people had died from the virus in the previous 24 hours and that 19,903 new cases had been diagnosed.
Worldwide, the US has reported the highest number of Covid-19 deaths, with 295,539 as of Saturday morning, followed by Brazil, India and Mexico.
According to the AFP tally for Europe, Italy overtook Britain, which has reported 64,026 deaths and is followed by France with 57,567 and Spain with 47,624.
Italy was the first European country to suffer a wave of infections earlier this year.
The UK’s toll overtook that of Italy on 6 May, with close to 30,000 fatalities, and for a while over the summer the southern European nation appeared to have weathered the storm.
But despite the introduction of mass testing, cases began rising again in early autumn, as they did in many other nations - and deaths inevitably followed.
Italy’s national medical association said Friday that a total of 251 doctors have now died from the virus.
“In this second wave, it is mainly general practitioners who are paying the highest toll,” warned Filippo Anelli, head of the FNOMCeO association.
He blamed “greater circulation” of asymptomatic patients, but added that all doctors did not have the necessary protective equipment.
“We must put an end to this massacre,” he said.
The share of Brazilians unwilling to take any Covid-19 vaccine grew to 22% this week, from 9% in August, and most said they would not accept one made in China, a new poll showed on Saturday, as president Jair Bolsonaro’s comments stoked wider scepticism.
The survey by pollster Datafolha found 73% of respondents plan to take a shot and 5% do not know if they will, compared with 89% and 3%, respectively, in August.
Late last month, Bolsonaro said he would not take any coronavirus vaccine that becomes available.
One of the world’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, Bolsonaro said refusal was his “right” and expressed concerns specifically about the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac and produced in conjunction with Sao Paulo state government’s Butantan Institute, Reuters reports.
According to Datafolha, only 47% of participants would take a vaccine made in China, while 50% said they would not take it and 3% said they were undecided.
The figures showed a correlation between vaccine rejection and trust in Bolsonaro.
A total of 33% of people who said they always trust Bolsonaro are unwilling to take a shot, against 16% of those who say they would never trust the president.
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France recorded 13,947 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to Saturday, while the Covid-19 death toll rose by 199, compared with 304 deaths recorded on Friday.
Friday’s new infections stood at 13,406, and Thursday’s at 14,750. The country’s overall official coronavirus death toll climbed to 57,761.
On 30 October, France put its second national lockdown in place to contain the second wave of infections.
Some of the restrictions have since been eased, and non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on 28 November.
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US reports new daily record increase in cases
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 15,718,811 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 244,011 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 3,013 to 294,535.
It is a new record in daily infections. On Friday, the country reported more than 231,700 new cases, which was the highest daily rise recorded since the pandemic began.
On Friday, the office of the governor of California, one of the worst affected states in the US, issued emergency alerts as intensive care units across the state came close to being at capacity.
We have issued emergency alerts across the state. With ICU capacity at less than 10% statewide all Californians need to understand the crisis is real and happening now across California.
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) December 12, 2020
Here’s what you can do to help prevent more deaths: Stay home. Wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/jwJdgdRF0v
Public health officials warned that Los Angeles County could see “catastrophic suffering and death” in the coming weeks, as the nation’s most populous county reported a record 13,737 cases on Friday, bringing the county’s total to more than 500,000.
California officials reported 37,124 cases on Friday, the highest one-day total of the pandemic so far.
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Scores of shoppers flocked to central London on the second-to-last weekend before Christmas.
Regent Street, one of the British capital’s busiest shopping streets, has been pedestrianised in the lead-up to Christmas to encourage more shopping and safe distances.
It comes as British health secretary, Matt Hancock, said it is “not inevitable” that London will be placed under tighter coronavirus restrictions ahead of next week’s review of the three-tier system in England.
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Top US Food and Drug Administration regulators said on Saturday that most Americans with allergies should be safe to receive the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech SE.
The FDA, which authorised the nation’s first Covid-19 vaccine on Friday night, said that only people who have previously had severe allergic reactions to vaccines or ingredients in this particular vaccine should avoid getting the shot, Reuters reports.
After Britain began inoculations this week, two people with severe allergies reported side effects and the British medicine regulator advised that anyone with a history of anaphylaxis to a medicine or food should not get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“About 1.6% of the population has had a severe allergic reaction of some sort or another to a food or some environmental aspect and we would really not like to have that many people not be able to receive the vaccine,” Dr Peter Marks, director of the FDA division that authorised the vaccine, said at a press conference.
The vaccine is seen as a key tool in stemming the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 people in the United States.
The FDA advised people with allergies to consult with their doctors to make sure that they are not allergic to any of the component of the vaccine.
Pfizer executives said on Friday that there had been no cases of severe allergic reactions to the vaccine during its nearly 44,000 volunteer late-stage clinical trial.
That trial excluded people with a history of severe allergic reactions to any vaccine or to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s ingredients.
Updated
The US is poised to hit a record 16 million Covid-19 cases in the coming days and deaths are closing in on the 300,000 mark, even as millions of doses of a new vaccine are expected to start being distributed across America before Sunday.
The first vaccine was approved late Friday by the US Food and Drug Administration and is expected to kick off an unparalleled mass-inoculation campaign to end the pandemic that has upended daily life in the United States and devastated its economy.
The first US Covid-19 vaccine shipments will arrive at 145 locations around the country on Monday morning, US Army General Gus Perna said on Saturday during a press briefing, Reuters reports.
The United States authorised the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine on Friday evening.
Perna, who is chief operating officer of the government’s Operation Warp Speed programme, said it would start to ship the vaccine on Sunday.
“Make no mistake, distribution has begun,” Perna said.
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The Philippines recorded 1,301 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, pushing the country’s total to more than 448,000, the Department of Health said.
The agency’s case bulletin showed that 30,168 or 6.7% of the people who tested positive in total are active or currently ill, CNN Philippines reports.
Of these active cases, at least 85.8% have mild symptoms, 7% have no symptoms, 4.6% are in critical condition, 2.3% are severe cases and 0.24% are moderate cases.
Updated
For the first time in decades, Mexico’s Roman Catholics have been forced to abandon what many consider the world’s largest religious pilgrimage, in which millions visit Mexico City’s Basilica of Guadalupe on 12 December.
The pilgrimage marks the day in 1531 when the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron of Latin America’s Catholics, is said to have appeared on a hillside behind the basilica.
Millions come each year, many walking or cycling for days from distant towns, the Associated Press reports.
This year, church officials agreed to close the basilica to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and offered virtual services and candle-lighting to mark the day without gathering.
Pope Francis has granted an indulgence to Roman Catholics so that they do not have to physically visit the shrine.
It was the first time the church has not welcomed huge crowds since the modern basilica was being built in the 1970s, and since religious conflict in the 1920s shuttered an older basilica nearby.
Police have erected barricades to block the entrance to the vast plaza in front of the basilica.
The faithful usually come carrying pictures of the Virgin, some advancing on their knees and many fulfilling promises they made in exchange for her help in difficult situations.
Instead, the church has set up video and internet links to watch the lighting of candles to the Virgin. The basilica is scheduled to reopen on Monday, but Mexico City is in the grips of what officials called a “coronavirus emergency,” with rapidly rising infection rates and 78% of its hospital beds full.
About 18,600 people are confirmed to have died of Covid-19 in the city.
Updated
The UK recorded 21,502 new Covid-19 infections as of 9am on Saturday and 519 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus, according to official data.
Friday’s data had shown 21,672 new cases and 424 deaths.
As we reported earlier, the government will decide on Wednesday whether it will tighten restrictions on London’s 9 million inhabitants after infections in the capital rose sharply.
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Summary of recent updates
I’m going to be handing over the blog to my colleague Jedidajah Otte shortly, but before I go, here’s a summary of recent developments in the coronavirus pandemic:
- Peru has suspended trials of China’s Sinopharm vaccine after a “serious adverse event” occurred with one of the volunteers for the study, the government has said.
- The head of the US FDA has insisted it is not rushing to approve a vaccine and that reports Donald Trump had forced him to do so by a certain date were false.
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Boris Johnson has told the UN’s virtual climate ambition summit of his commitment to climate action and the promise of green initiatives as a way to get people back into employment in the aftermath of the pandemic.
- There are not enough nurses to safely care for patients in the UK, according to the body that oversees the profession. The Royal College of Nursing said many of those working are suffering from anxiety and burnout after a gruelling nine months treating Covid patients.
- The British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to buy the US drugmaker Alexion for $39bn in cash and shares, in an attempt to bolster its work in immunology and rare diseases.
Thank you all for reading along. I hope you’re all safe and well.
Updated
France is to give care home residents and their families greater freedom for the Christmas holidays, enabling them to see their loved ones even if they have tested positive for coronavirus.
The new regulations were announced Saturday and will apply from Tuesday until 3 January. The deputy health minister in charge of elderly affairs said it was essential to maintain family ties and fight loneliness.
Around a third of France’s coronavirus deaths, which currently stand at more than 57,500, have occurred in care homes. Residents have been subjected to strict confinement measures, including being limited to their rooms, to curb infections.
Under the revised regulations, residents who have not tested positive will be allowed out again to spend time with their families, and residents who have tested positive will be allowed to receive up to two visitors in their room.
Updated
Chile is preparing to launch an immunisation campaign with Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, if it wins approval, the country’s health minister said on Saturday.
The state institute of public health will review data on the performance of the vaccine next week.
“I cannot give you any dates, but we will make every effort ... to start the coronavirus vaccination program as soon as possible,” Enrique Paris said.
Despite the progress, he encouraged people to keep wearing face masks and follow social distancing measures, particularly because the vaccination campaign will not be completed by the end of the first half of 2021.
The number of people to have died of Covid-19 in Chile stands at 15,846.
Updated
A growing number of churches and cathedrals in England are offering their city and town-centre buildings to be converted into mass vaccination and Covid testing centres, even though it could mean restricting worship for a year.
As authorities press ahead with logistical plans for the country’s biggest ever public health programme, the Church of England said offers by churches to turn over their buildings were “a great act of service and witness”.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
The pandemic has illuminated deprivation and inequalities, while reminding us of the power and beauty of nature and humanity, writes Jonathan Freedland in this piece, which explores what it has revealed about our world.
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Peru suspends trials for China's vaccine after 'serious adverse event'
Peru has suspended trials of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine due to a “serious adverse event” that occurred with one of the volunteers for the study, the Peruvian government has said.
The country’s health ministry said the event is “under investigation to determine if it is related to the vaccine or if there is another explanation.”
The trial, which involves 12,000 volunteers, was due to complete its first phase in the next few days.
This is not the vaccine which has begun to be administered in the UK.
Peru has lost 36,544 lives to the coronavirus pandemic so far.
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The head of the US Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, said he was ready for a vaccination as soon as available and defended the speed of the vaccine development.
Speaking during a press conference, Hahn said the agency did not sacrifice safety in return for speed.
He also denounced press reports that said the Trump administration had threatened to fire him if the FDA did not approve the authorisation by a certain date as “inaccurate”.
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Supermarkets in the UK are to use digital queueing systems, 24-hour trading, door marshals and incentives to shop early in an attempt to provide socially distanced shopping during what is expected to be their biggest ever Christmas sales period.
With government restrictions to control coronavirus limiting eating out and pub visits, British shoppers are expected to spend a record £12bn in supermarkets and convenience stores in December, about £1.5bn more than last year, according to analysts at Kantar.
But social distancing measures mean retailers must cap the number of shoppers in their stores at any one time, prompting fears that the Christmas rush could result in long queues and angry customers.
You can read the full report here:
In the UK, the Labour party has called for the pay freeze affecting many key workers to be scrapped, in recognition of their work during the coronavirus pandemic.
“They’ve worked long hours, put themselves at risk and sacrificed time with their families to serve their community and country. Many have tragically lost their lives,” a Labour petition said. “Now, the government is freezing their wages.”
“The government is handing out millions of pounds worth of contracts to its wealthy friends and donors – but won’t give key workers what they deserve,” it added.
Workers on the front line have kept our country going through this pandemic – and many have lost their lives. Now the Government plans to repay them by freezing their pay. This needs to change. Agree? Add your name.https://t.co/bJGuAiZIdN
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) December 12, 2020
Updated
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has urged world leaders to “stop the assault” on the planet and declare a state of climate emergency in their countries until they have become carbon neutral.
“Today, we are 1.2C hotter than before the Industrial Revolution. If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3C this century,” he said. “Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?
“That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a state of climate emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.”
He said that the world needs meaningful cuts now to reduce global emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.
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Johnson said the UK was committed to reducing carbon emissions by 68% on 1990 levels, and encouraged countries around the world to work together over the climate emergency.
“Lets do it together, lets make it our collective commitment … to get to net zero by 2030,” he said.
In true Boris Johnson style, he added: “We’re not doing this because we’re hair-shirt-wearing, tree-hugging, mung bean-munching eco-freaks,” though he insisted he had nothing against those people and assumed that mung beans were very nice.
Instead, Johnson said his motivation was to save the environment and create new jobs following the deep damage done to economies around the world by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are doing it because we know that scientific advances will allow us, collectively as humanity to save our planet and create millions of high-skilled jobs as we recover from Covid,” he said.
Johnson also heralded the scientific breakthrough of the coronavirus vaccine.
“We are coming to the end of an extraordinary year with I think a sudden surge of scientific optimism, because of after barely 12 months of the pandemic we are seeing the vaccine going into the arms of the elderly and the vulnerable,” he said.
“Vaccines that are the produce, each and everyone of them, of vast international efforts in laboratories around the world and my message to you all is that together we can use scientific advances to protect our entire planet, our biosphere against a challenge far worse, far more destructive than coronavirus.”
Updated
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a drop in greenhouse gas emissions, but experts expect the levels to rebound in 2021 as lockdowns end.
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, is currently speaking at the UN climate summit, which is being held virtually due to the pandemic.
You can watch live here:
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A further 476 individuals have tested positive for coronavirus in Northern Ireland over the past 24 hours, and another 9 deaths have been reported, the Department of Health has said.
The Department of Health #COVID19 dashboard has been updated with latest data.
— Department of Health (@healthdpt) December 12, 2020
476 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Sadly, a further 9 deaths have been reported (3 of the deaths were outside the 24 hour period).https://t.co/YN16dmGzhv pic.twitter.com/j1XEvTWQB8
Updated
There are not enough nurses to safely care for patients in the UK, according to the body that oversees the profession, and many of those who are working are suffering from anxiety and burnout after a gruelling nine months treating Covid patients.
A year after the prime minister pledged during the 2019 election campaign to add 50,000 nurses to the NHS, the Royal College of Nursing has accused Boris Johnson of being “disingenuous” for claiming the government is meeting this 2025 target.
Johnson claimed last week that the government had “14,800 of the 50,000 nurses already” during prime minister’s questions in the Commons.
Yet the latest NHS figures show there were 36,655 vacancies for nursing staff in England in September, with the worst shortages affecting mental health care and acute hospitals. Staff in some intensive care units (ICUs) have quit since the pandemic, with those whom the Observer spoke to choosing to work instead in supermarkets or as dog-walkers.
Read the full report here:
The British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to buy the US drugmaker Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39bn in cash and shares, in an attempt to bolster its work in immunology and rare diseases.
AstraZeneca is one of the frontrunners in the race for a coronavirus vaccine, and said on Saturday that Alexion shareholders would receive $60 in cash and 2.1243 AstraZeneca American depositary shares (ADSs) for each Alexion share.
“This acquisition allows us to enhance our presence in immunology,” AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said in a statement. “Alexion has established itself as a leader in complement biology, bringing life-changing benefits to patients with rare diseases.”
The firm said the boards of both companies had approved the deal, but it remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. It is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.
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Summary of recent events
Here’s a summary of key developments in the global coronavirus pandemic over the past few hours:
- Schools in England could face legal action if they attempt to switch to online learning in the run up to Christmas.
- Dogs are being trained to sniff out coronavirus, following indications they can detect illnesses such as malaria.
- Japan has recorded more than 3,000 new coronavirus infections in a day for the first time.
- The World Bank has approved a $300m loan for Ukraine to help support low-income families during the pandemic.
- Wales is facing an “incredibly serious situation”, its health minister Vaughan Gething said, warning of “rising tide of infections”.
- The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to meet state leaders on Sunday to discuss tightening lockdown restrictions as the number of new coronavirus cases continues to rise.
- Up to 40% of care workers in the UK might refuse to have the coronavirus vaccine, Nadra Ahmed, the chair of the National Care Association, said.
- Community testing will be introduced in parts of England on Monday, as the government pushes to identify asymptomatic cases and bring down the transmission rate.
Updated
Poland is hoping to administer 3.4m doses of coronavirus vaccine a month, the prime minister’s top aide said on Saturday. The operation is likely to be the biggest logistical challenge the country’s health service has ever faced.
Michal Dworczyk told a news conference that 8,319 vaccination teams had applied to take part in the programme.
He had previously said there could be around 8,000 vaccination points in Poland.
The number of new coronavirus cases in Poland has fallen after a surge in October and early November, but the number of deaths has remained high, frequently exceeding 500 a day.
Updated
Schools in England which are planning to allow pupils to learn remotely in the run-up to Christmas could face legal action to force them to provide in-person teaching.
New powers introduced through the Coronavirus Act allow the government to issue directives to headteachers on teaching during the pandemic. If schools fail to comply with directives to stay open, the government could apply for a high court injunction.
The Department for Education said the move would only be used as a “last resort”.
A headteacher in Ware, Hertfordshire, whose school was planning to switch to remote learning in the run-up to the festive break, was sent a “minded to direct” letter from the schools minister, Nick Gibb, warning that the emergency powers could be used. The school changed its approach following the letter.
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, criticised the approach. He said it marked “a low moment when a government threatens legal action against its own school and college leaders, all of whom have worked tirelessly throughout this crisis to make sense of last-minute and chaotic decisions from Westminster.
“The government’s approach undermines the much-vaunted trust it once said it had for leaders and governors in their communities to make the right decisions on behalf of their pupils, parents and staff.”
You can read more here:
Updated
It’s no secret that dogs have a remarkable sense of smell. They have already been used to detect drugs and weapons in police forces, but their recent feat might be their most impressive yet.
Dogs are being trained to smell coronavirus, following indications that they can sniff out other illnesses such as cancer and malaria.
“Viruses themselves do not produce odours. When the virus has infected our cells, this can have a knock-on effect on various systems within the body, which results in odours being released through our skin and breath. So there was a really strong likelihood that coronavirus would produce a distinct odour as well,” one expert said.
Meet the super sniffer canines here:
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The head of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Vietnam has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for overstating the cost of coronavirus equipment.
Nguyen Nhat Cam, 57, was found guilty of overstating the cost of Covid-19 testing systems during a transaction, causing a loss of 5.4 billion dong (around £17,000) to the state budget, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. Nine other people were also sentenced to between three and 6-1/2 years in prison for their involvement in the incident.
The ministry said that the actions of Cam and his accomplices would negatively impact the image of doctors and the anti-coronavirus agency.
With its strict quarantine and tracking measures, Vietnam has managed to quickly contain outbreaks of coronavirus. It has registered a total of 1,395 cases and 35 deaths.
Updated
Japan records a record 3,000 daily cases
Japan has recorded more than 3,000 new coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time, the public broadcaster NHK reported.
A total of 3,041 people were newly infected, with the capital of Tokyo confirming 621 new cases.
Japan has not suffered as seriously from the pandemic as countries such as the UK and the US, but infections have increased as winter has set in.
So far, 2,588 people have died of Covid-19 in Japan.
Updated
With some London boroughs currently recording more than twice the average case rate for England, calls are growing for the capital to move into tier 3 restrictions.
Some experts on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) say privately that London should have moved straight into tier 3 after the end of England’s national lockdown on 2 December.
Pressure is also mounting from the north of England. With many areas in the north enduring months of tier-3-level restrictions, it will seem deeply unfair if the capital avoids the same fate.
So should London move into tier 3, and more pressingly, will it? My colleagues explore in this report:
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Some people are taking up new hobbies, others are bingeing television, but people in Estonia have come up with an unusual way of keeping their spirits up during coronavirus restrictions: swimming on mass in near-freezing waters.
More than 500 swimmers took to the icy waters of Tallinn port in Estonia on Friday as part of a giant winter swimming relay. The sport has been a popular escape from the tedium of Covid restrictions.
The participants each swam the 25-metre course in a former submarine dockyard.
The swimmers, many attired with funny hats, ranged from a nine-year old boy to an 83-year old woman.
Aivar Tugedam, one of the event’s organisers said the country’s coronavirus lockdown had triggered a huge rise in interest in the sport.
“Let’s say from spring until now, I would say the count of the winter swimmers have tripled in Estonia. It’s gone wild and really popular,” he said.
Anyone fancy a dip?
Updated
A year after Chinese scientists alerted their colleagues to a new virus, what do we know about the origins of coronavirus?
The first clue was the market, but what looked like a slam dunk at first is now uncertain. Of a sample of 41 early confirmed cases, 70% were stall owners, employees or regular customers of the Huanan market, which sold seafood but also live animals, often illegally captured in the wild and slaughtered in front of the customer. But the first confirmed case had no apparent connection.
The Guardian’s health editor Sarah Boseley reports:
Festive lights twinkle on the outside terrace of Upminster’s Osteria Due Amici Italian restaurant with outdoor tables placed beneath heaters, and indoor tables separated by Perspex screens.
Owner Edward Xhetani, 38, has done everything to entice customers and be Covid-compliant. It was due to be fully booked on Friday night. “But if we go into tier 3, I’m done. That’s the truth. I don’t have a chance,” he said.
At the furthest eastern reach of the District line, Upminster lies in the London borough of Havering, where coronavirus infection rates are among the highest in the capital.
You can read the full report here:
Overseas tourism to the UK is expected to pick up in early 2021 after a significant slump caused by the coronavirus, but is unlikely to reach pre-pandemic levels all year, the British tourism board has said.
Visit Britain forecasts a gradual increase in the value of inbound tourism from January to March, but it is not expected to reach normal levels, even by the end of 2021.
The body also suggested there could be 16.9m inbound visits in 2021 - an increase of 73% on this year, but less than half of the 40.9m in 2019.
Inbound visitor spending is forecast to reach £9bn next year, an increase of 59% on 2020 but less than a third of the all-time spending high of £28.4bn in 2019.
The tourism minister, Nigel Huddleston, said the government was committed to bringing inbound tourism back to full strength.
Updated
Relaxing coronavirus restrictions throughout the UK over Christmas is a mistake which will have consequences, a public health expert has said.
Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said she was concerned about the impact of people travelling from areas with high infections to areas with lower rates of transmission, and taking the virus with them.
In the UK, three households are allowed to meet between December 23 and 27.
“From a public health perspective, I have to be perfectly honest, I think this is a mistake,” Prof Bauld said. “I think people have to think very carefully whether they can see loved ones outside, or do it in a very modest way.”
Bauld said she understood why governments had chosen to make the move, because people were “fed up”, but that it was a risk.
Bauld is not the only expert to raise concerns about the policy; a number of scientists and government advisers have urged people to rethink Christmas plans and ignore the easing of regulations amid fears over rising cases and hospitalisations.
You can read more about Christmas concerns and the current data on coronavirus in the UK here:
Updated
Italy could soon reclaim the undesirable record of having the highest death toll in Europe.
It was the first western country to suffer badly with coronavirus, and it was hoped that greater experience with the virus would equip the country to cope with further waves of the pandemic. However, Italy has lost a further 28,000 lives since 1 September.
Italy counted a further 761 victims on Friday, bringing its official total to 63,387. This is narrowly short of Britain’s 63,603 deaths, currently the highest in Europe. Both numbers are likely to considerably underestimate the true tolls, due to unrecorded infections with limited testing and different counting criteria.
After Japan, Italy has the world’s second-oldest population, with the elderly at high risk from coronavirus.
The average age of Italian victims of coronavirus is around 80. Roughly 65% of those who died in Italy had three or more other health problems, such as hypertension or diabetes, before they tested positive, according to Italy’s Superior Institute of Health.
However, this doesn’t provide a full explanation; Germany has a similarly old demographic and yet its death toll is one-third of Italy’s, despite its larger population of 83 million. Germany spends more on healthcare so has greater ICU capacity, more doctors and nurses proportional to the population, and better testing capacities. It also imposed a lockdown earlier, and its measures were more stringent.
Updated
The World Bank has approved a loan of $300m for Ukraine to help support low-income families during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The new funds will help finance Ukraine’s Covid-19 social protection emergency response by introducing fast cash transfers to individuals and households who have lost their jobs or income sources because of the pandemic,” the World Bank said in a statement late on Friday night.
Ukraine was given $150m in April as part of the Social Safety Nets Modernization Project. The bank predicts poverty in Ukraine could increase by 4%, reaching around 23% by the end of 2020.
The country has registered 12,811 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 885,039. Almost 15,000 people have died in Ukraine since the start of the pandemic.
Updated
Wales is facing an “incredibly serious situation” over the coronavirus pandemic, the health minister, Vaughan Gething, has said.
There had been a “rising tide of infections” since the relaxation of rules on 9 November, he said.
“This is hugely serious. It’s for all of us to play our part,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“All those people doing the right thing should keep on doing that. Everyone needs to think again about how many people they are seeing, what contact they are having with them, and think about how you can reduce your contact to protect yourself and each other.”
Gething said that while the Welsh government could theoretically break the agreement between Westminster and the devolved administrations to relax social distancing rules for five days over the festive period, it would cause a loss of trust.
“There are huge issues here about trust in the government. If we were to upset those rules, we would lose lots of trust from a large number of people who have stuck with us, and we would also see, I’m afraid, a range of people prepared to ignore the rules,” he said.
“Even with the agreement in place we’re likely to see a number of people go beyond that anyway. That’s why we are anticipating an increase after Christmas and why I expect there will be an increase after New Year’s Eve as well.”
Updated
The UK government needs to make swifter progress in getting rapid coronavirus tests to English care homes to allow visits over Christmas, a leading care director has said.
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group and boss of four care homes in North Yorkshire, said “time was running out” to get relatives to be able to visit their loved ones in care homes over the festive period.
“We haven’t had all the tests delivered yet. We want to get visiting up and running as soon as possible but time is running out because Christmas is a short time away,” he said. “It’s quite a laborious exercise; we’ve got to be trained, each test takes 45 minutes to an hour to do.
“I fear some people will be disappointed. Even if we started today and I did 20 visits a day I still wouldn’t get through to everyone by Christmas. We will somehow reunite people as much as we can.”
But Caroline Abrahams, the director of the Age UK charity, told BBC Breakfast that “not all care homes are as keen on getting visiting going”.
“Some of the big chains are more risk-averse. Probably partly because they have got their insurance breathing down their necks,” she said. “We have heard some people say: ‘Why don’t we wait until the vaccine comes?’ That would mean another really lengthy delay for families and older people.”
Updated
Angela Merkel to discuss stricter lockdown in Germany, reports say
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to meet state leaders on Sunday to discuss tightening lockdown restrictions amid a rising number of coronavirus infections.
Germany has been in a partial lockdown for six weeks, with bars and restaurants closed but shops and schools remaining open. However, as the number of coronavirus infections rise, some regions have already imposed tougher measures.
Merkel is expected to discuss measures such as closing shops before Christmas, sources “familiar with the matter” told the Reuters news agency.
On Saturday, the economic affairs minister, Peter Altmaier, said hospital intensive care units were reaching their peak capacity, and that measures must be introduced before Christmas “otherwise the pandemic will get completely out of control”.
Updated
Up to 40% of care workers in the UK might refuse to have the coronavirus vaccine, Nadra Ahmed, the chair of the National Care Association, said.
“We know that between 50%-60%, depending on individual services, the staff are actually saying they will definitely have the vaccine and are very keen,” she told BBC Radio 4. “We understand between about 17-20% of staff in services are saying they definitely won’t have it, and then you have the rest who are waiting to see. So we are looking at potentially 40% who decide not to have it.”
“I do think people will start to change their minds as the vaccine becomes more readily available and they see colleagues having it,” Ahmed added. “I think the uncertainty rests somewhere around fear but then also there are people with conditions who are being advised not to have it, so the picture is a little bit hazy at the moment but we are doing all we can.”
Ahmed also said that regular testing and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) would likely remain in use even after the vaccine rollout.
“We will be having visits into the care services, we will have residents potentially who can’t have the vaccine, so I think PPE remains in place and we will be advising everyone to continue to use PPE,” she said. “I don’t think PPE is something that is just going to disappear once the vaccines have been taken.”
Updated
Community testing will begin in England on Monday
Community testing will be rolled out in parts of England on Monday. The government said it was sending out 1m rapid coronavirus tests to areas under tier three restrictions, with 67 local authorities involved in the scheme.
Tier 3 is the toughest level of coronavirus restrictions in England, and covers large swaths of the north of England and the Midlands. These tests will be used for greater mass testing to identify cases of the virus.
We are launching the first wave of community testing.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) December 12, 2020
From Monday, more than one million rapid turnaround lateral flow tests will be sent to Tier 3 areas.
This will help:
▶️identify people without #COVID19 symptoms
▶️reduce transmission
▶️put areas on a path towards Tier 2
👇
However, there have been some concerns about whether these rapid tests are fit for mass testing.
Government figures from the mass testing programme in Liverpool revealed the tests missed 30% of those with a high viral load, and detected only five out of ten positive cases that the standard coronavirus tests picked up.
Here is a list of the 67 local authorities involved in the scheme:
:: Amber Valley
:: Bolsover
:: Chesterfield
:: Derbyshire Dales
:: North East Derbyshire
:: South Derbyshire
:: Darlington
:: Stockton-on-Tees
:: Ashford
:: Canterbury
:: Dartford
:: Dover
:: Folkestone and Hythe
:: Gravesham
:: Maidstone
:: Sevenoaks
:: Swale
:: Thanet
:: Tonbridge and Malling
:: Tunbridge Wells
:: Medway
:: Blackburn with Darwen
:: Blackpool
:: Burnley
:: Chorley
:: Fylde
:: Hyndburn
:: Lancaster
:: Pendle
:: Preston
:: Ribble Valley
:: Rossendale
:: South Ribble
:: West Lancashire
:: Wyre
:: Bolton
:: Bury
:: Manchester
:: Oldham
:: Rochdale
:: Salford
:: Stockport
:: Tameside
:: Trafford
:: Wigan
:: Barnsley
:: Bradford
:: Kirklees
:: Birmingham
:: Dudley
:: Sandwell
:: Cannock Chase
:: East Staffordshire
:: Lichfield
:: Newcastle-under-Lyme
:: South Staffordshire
:: Stafford
:: Staffordshire Moorlands
:: Tamworth
:: Stoke-on-Trent
:: North Warwickshire
:: Nuneaton and Bedworth
:: Rugby
:: Stratford-on-Avon
:: Warwick
:: Wolverhampton
:: Solihull
The government said that while the scheme was limited to England, it would be supporting devolved administrations to “roll out similar exercises”, with a pilot already ongoing in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The government also said that the administrations will also receive their population share of testing capacity, including lateral flow testing.
Updated
Russia has reported 560 new coronavirus deaths, taking the country’s official death toll to 46,453.
The country also confirmed 28,137 new cases, 6,622 of these in Moscow, bringing the national tally to 2,625,848 since the pandemic began.
![A train arrives at Delovoy Tsentr [Business Centre] station in Moscow.](https://media.guim.co.uk/1bc26e9e1119d2feff7c1ecdd8714c2b4a23d93d/0_0_4556_2873/1000.jpg)
Updated
Hi everyone, I’m Molly Blackall, I’m taking over the live blog for the next few hours. I hope you’re all safe and well.
If you spot something we should be reporting on in this blog, you can drop me a message on Twitter. Thanks in advance!
What has happened so far today
I’ll be handing over the blog now to my colleagues in the UK. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Michael McGowan for running the blog earlier.
Stay tuned for the latest news across the UK and Europe.
Here’s what has happened over the past few hours:
- The US president, Donald Trump, said the first US citizens will receive a Covid-19 vaccine in “less than 24 hours” after the country gave emergency approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
- Mexico also approved emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine, a day after it recorded 12,253 new cases of coronavirus and 693 additional deaths.
- Australia’s acting chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, said Australia will not rush through the Pfizer vaccine and it “will be going through the full regulatory process”. The country has already ordered doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but also has a deal for millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
- South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, said the country was in “an emergency situation”, after its highest day of new case numbers. The country reported 950 new cases, the highest daily count since the peak of 909 reported on 29 February.
- Peru temporarily suspended clinical trials of the Chinese Covid vaccine after detecting neurological problems in one of its test volunteers. That vaccine is made by drug giant Sinopharm.
-
Germany recorded 28,438 new cases and 496 new deaths.
- New Zealand announced it would create a quarantine-free travel bubble with Cook Islands in the first quarter of 2021.
- Brazil’s health ministry is studying 58 suspected cases of Covid-19 reinfection after confirming the first case of a person getting reinfected with coronavirus, a ministry spokeswoman said. The first case was a health worker in the northern city of Natal, a 37-year-old woman who tested positive in June and again 116 days later in October, the ministry said.
- Indoor dining restrictions will be reinstated indefinitely in New York City, governor Andrew Cuomo has announced as coronavirus cases and hospitalisations continue climbing in the city and throughout the state.
Updated
A firebrand cleric in Indonesia has turned himself in to authorities after he was accused of inciting people to breach pandemic restrictions by holding events with large crowds.
Rizieq Shihab, leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, arrived at Jakarta police headquarters a day after police warned they would arrest him after he ignored several summonses.
Wearing a white robe, turban and face mask, Shihab told reporters that he never ran away or hid from police, Reuters reports.
“With God’s permission, I can come to the Jakarta police for an investigation according to the laws and regulations,” he said ahead of questioning.
Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told a news conference on Friday that Shihab is accused of ignoring measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 by holding an event to commemorate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and the wedding of his daughter last month that pulled in thousands of his supporters.
He said Shihab could face up to six years in prison if found guilty of inciting people to violate health regulations amid an outbreak and of obstructing law enforcement.
Shihab’s presence in several events in Jakarta and West Java attracted large crowds with attendants visibly ignoring physical distancing and many failing to wear masks.
Jakarta’s governor, Anies Baswedan, and West Java’s governor, Ridwan Kamil, have been questioned as witnesses in the case.
The gatherings took place less than a week after his arrival from a three-year exile in Saudi Arabia.
Updated
Today the Guardian is launching “The lost year” – a special supplement about the past 12 months and how it has changed during the pandemic.
The first piece is from Jonathan Freedland who says the best metaphor for the year isn’t a face mask, or an elbow bump, but is the magnifying glass.
Updated
Peru temporarily pauses trials of Chinese Covid vaccine
Peru has temporarily suspended clinical trials of a Covid vaccine made by Chinese drug giant Sinopharm after detecting neurological problems in one of its test volunteers, Agence France-Presse reports.
The country’s National Institute of Health said Friday that it had decided to interrupt the trial after a volunteer had difficulty moving their arms, according to local media.
“Several days ago we signalled, as we are required, to the regulatory authorities that one of our participants (in trials) presented neurological symptoms which could correspond to a condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome,” said the chief researcher, German Malaga, in comments to the press.
Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare and non-contagious disorder which affects the movement of the arms and legs. Peru declared a temporary health emergency in five regions in June last year following multiple cases.
In the 1970s a campaign to innoculate Americans against a supposedly devastating strain of swine flu ground to a halt after some 450 of those vaccinated developed the syndrome, which can also cause paralysis.
Peru’s clinical trials for the Sinopharm vaccine were due to conclude this week, after testing around 12,000 people.
If they are successful – which won’t be known until mid-2021 – the Peruvian government was expected to buy up to 20m doses to inoculate two-thirds of its population.
Some 60,000 people across the globe have already taken the Sinopharm vaccine, including volunteers in Argentina, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Peru has one of the world’s highest per capita death rates from the virus, which as of Friday had caused 36,499 deaths and 979,111 infections.
The pandemic has hit the South American country’s economy hard, with GDP plunging more than 30% in the second quarter.
Updated
A new coronavirus case in northern China, on the border with Russia, has sparked a lockdown, Agence France-Presse reports.
China has put the northern city of Dongning in lockdown and launched citywide coronavirus testing in Suifenhe, after two local infections involving workers at a port and trade zone respectively, authorities have said.
Both cities recorded a new case, and sit on the border with Russia.
In Dongning, a 40-year-old maintenance worker at a port tested positive on Thursday, triggering the latest measures.
Officials there said on Saturday it would enter “wartime mode” – temporarily suspending public bus services and road transport, while requiring anyone leaving the city to produce a negative Covid-19 test from the preceding 24 hours.
Schools will suspend classes and dine-in will be banned at restaurants, while in higher-risk areas only one member of each household will be allowed to leave the home once every two days to buy daily necessities – for no longer than two hours each time.
In the Suifenhe case, a 39-year-old man who works as a loading and unloading worker at a trade zone tested positive.
Both cities on Friday announced the launch of citywide testing, expected to be completed in three days.
State media blamed the recent clusters on imports of frozen food and other shipments.
After a recent outbreak in Chengdu, officials said the virus was found on food stored in an elderly couple’s fridge.
There is currently no evidence that people can catch Covid-19 from food or food packaging, according to the World Health Organization.
Updated
Police have clashed with climate protesters in Melbourne, as they glued and chained themselves to each other and the pavement before being arrested by officers carrying bolt-cutters.
Updated
South Korea in 'emergency situation', president says
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has described today’s new coronavirus cases as “an emergency situation”.
Earlier, we reported that the country logged 950 new cases, the highest daily count since the peak of 909 cases reported on 29 February.
“This is indeed an emergency situation,” Moon said. “We plan to extensively expand drive-through and walk-through coronavirus testing methods ... as preemptive measures to track down infected people and block the spread.”
South Korea is likely to see a further rise in the caseload with significant increases in testing, he added.
He has now ordered the mobilisation of police, military personnel and public medical doctors in an effort to curb the further spread of the coronavirus, according to Reuters.
Updated
Germany records 28,438 new cases and 496 new deaths
Germany has recorded 28,438 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total in the country to 1,300,516, according to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.
An additional 496 people died from the virus, taking the total death toll to 21,466.
Updated
In Australia, parts of New South Wales and Queensland are on flood watch as heavy rains continue.
Overnight, Coffs Harbour received 180mm in less than 24 hours and Bowraville got 195mm.
In Queensland, more than 200mm of rain is forecast for Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine coasts from Saturday.
Updated
Australia won't rush approval of Pfizer vaccine
Hi everyone, it is Naaman Zhou here on the blog. Thanks to my colleague Michael McGowan for all his work today.
Australia’s acting chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, has just been on the ABC and said Australia will not rush through the Pfizer vaccine that has been given emergency approval in the US and UK.
Earlier today, the US president, Donald Trump, announced the emergency approval and said the first US citizens would be vaccinated in 24 hours.
Kelly said that Australia had ordered the Pfizer vaccine, but “we will be going through the full regulatory process”.
Australia also has millions of doses of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine to be rolled out in March.
Kelly said:
[It is] quite a different situation in the UK, in Canada and now in the United States in terms of what is happening with the pandemic and their need ...
But to just stress, this is not full approval that the FDA has given and neither has the UK, neither has Canada. These are emergency authorisations to allow the vaccine to roll out.
Also overnight, and this is part of the reason why the FDA is confident to give that authorisation, in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the premier medical journals in the world, Pfizer has reported on their phase three trial results, their interim results, and it is very encouraging. We have heard some of the headlines before, but there is now more detail and it is peer-reviewed scientific literature, and that is how to move forward, with scientific expertise. Ninety-five per cent effective, effective in old and young people, effective in healthy and people with chronic disease and a very good safety profile.
These are interim results and we will get more detail and much more detail will come to the Therapeutic Goods Administration to allow them to make their own independent assessment of these matters and give us regulatory approval and confidence that we absolutely need for any new vaccine, that it is safe and effective.
Updated
That is where I will leave you for today. I’ll hand you over to my colleague Naaman Zhou who will be with you for the next few hours.
An emergency-room doctor whose dedication throughout the coronavirus pandemic garnered praise from Joe Biden has claimed he was fired by the Arizona hospital where he worked for tweeting about the outbreak’s impact.
Updated
Healthcare workers and elderly people in long-term care facilities are expected to be the first recipients for vaccine shots in the US, with initial limitations on supplies meaning most of the general public will have to wait months for the vaccines to become widely available.
Reuters reports that the Indiana University Health centre, one of the first hospitals designated to administer the vaccine, rehearsed its vaccination procedures on Friday, with pharmacists, nurses and doctors taking part in drills for storing, transporting and giving actual shots to patients.
“We want to make sure that we are perfectly ready and open with a bang,” Kristen Kelley, director of infection prevention at IU Health, told Reuters.
Elsewhere, however, many healthcare workers were struggling just to keep up with a staggering caseload while facing shortages of staff and personal protective equipment (PPE), including surgical gloves, gowns and rapid diagnostic test kits.
“We don’t have nearly enough. They’re not readily available, they take too long, and the supply chain isn’t working consistently,” said Konnie Martin, the chief executive officer for San Luis Valley Health, which runs the Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, Colorado.
The Alamosa hospital serves six mostly rural counties in southern Colorado that are home to some 50,000 residents.
Updated
In Australia, Melbourne’s Flemington racetrack has welcomed back crowds for the first time since March.
AAP reports that up to 1,000 guests will attend the Living Legends Race Day on Saturday, the first Flemington race meet since the first crowd-free Melbourne Cup Day on 3 November.
It comes after the Victorian government last week granted permission for 500 spectators on Saturday, which they extended on Wednesday to 1,000 people.
The Victorian Racing Club said up to 900 members could sit in the club stand, while up to 100 owners were also permitted to attend the meet. All patrons will be allocated a seat and social distancing will be enforced.
The entire spring racing carnival in 2020 was held behind closed doors as Victoria slowly emerged from its devastating second coronavirus wave.
Updated
The FDA’s statement explains the Pfizer vaccine is administered as a series of two doses, three weeks apart.
Available safety data to support the emergency approval included 37,586 participants enrolled in an ongoing randomised, placebo-controlled international study. Of those participants, 18,801 received the vaccine and 18,785 received a saline placebo. They were followed for a median of two months after receiving the second dose.
The FDA says the most commonly reported side-effects, which typically lasted several days, were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever.
Trials of the vaccine showed it was 95% effective in preventing Covid-19 among the participants. There were eight Covid-19 cases in the vaccine group and 162 in the placebo group. One case in the vaccine group was classified as severe.
However, the FDA statement also makes clear that “at this time” there is no available data “to make a determination about how long the vaccine will provide protection, nor is there evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person”.
But the director of the FDA’s centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Peter Marks, has said the emergency approval “holds the promise to alter the course of this pandemic in the United States”.
While not an FDA approval, today’s emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine holds the promise to alter the course of this pandemic in the United States.
With science guiding our decision-making, the available safety and effectiveness data support the authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine because the vaccine’s known and potential benefits clearly outweigh its known and potential risks.
The data provided by the sponsor have met the FDA’s expectations as conveyed in our June and October guidance documents. Efforts to speed vaccine development have not sacrificed scientific standards or the integrity of our vaccine evaluation process.
Updated
The US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn has released a statement also confirming the authorisation of the Pfizer vaccine:
The FDA’s authorization for emergency use of the first Covid-19 vaccine is a significant milestone in battling this devastating pandemic that has affected so many families in the United States and around the world.
Today’s action follows an open and transparent review process that included input from independent scientific and public health experts and a thorough evaluation by the agency’s career scientists to ensure this vaccine met FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization.
The tireless work to develop a new vaccine to prevent this novel, serious, and life-threatening disease in an expedited timeframe after its emergence is a true testament to scientific innovation and public-private collaboration worldwide.
In its statement the FDA said the vaccine “has met the statutory criteria for issuance” of an emergency approval. The FDA said the “totality of the available data provides clear evidence that Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine may be effective in preventing Covid-19”.
It states:
The data also support that the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks, supporting the vaccine’s use in millions of people 16 years of age and older, including healthy individuals. In making this determination, the FDA can assure the public and medical community that it has conducted a thorough evaluation of the available safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality information.
Updated
Trump says first US citizens will receive vaccine in 'less than 24 hours'
The US president, Donald Trump, has released a video confirming the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine.
He begins by saying: “I have really good news.”
Trump:
Today our nation has achieved a medical miracle. We have delivered a safe and effective vaccine in just nine months. This is one of the greatest scientific accomplishments in history. It will save millions of lives and soon end the pandemic once and for all. I am thrilled to report that the FDA has authorised the Pfizer vaccine. We have given Pfizer and other companies a great deal of money hoping this would be the outcome, and it was.
Trump says the government has already begun shipping the vaccine, and that the first person will receive it in “less than 24 hours”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2020
Updated
US reportedly grants emergency approval to Pfizer vaccine
The US Food and Drug Administration has reportedly given emergency approval to a coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the first drug to prevent Covid-19 approved in the US.
It makes the US the sixth country – following Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico – to approve the vaccine. The news was first reported by the New York Times.
Updated
South Korea reported 950 new coronavirus cases as of Friday midnight, the highest daily count since the peak of 909 cases reported on 29 February, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Saturday.
Reuters reports that of the new cases, 928 were locally transmitted and 22 were imported, which bring the total tally to 41,736 infections, with 578 deaths.
More than 70% the domestically transmitted cases were from Seoul and its neighbouring areas.
Despite tougher social distancing rules that took effect on Tuesday, including unprecedented curfews on restaurants and most other businesses, South Korea is suffering a third wave of coronavirus outbreaks.
The new cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week. The surge has been a blow to South Korea’s vaunted pandemic-fighting system, which successfully used invasive tracing, testing and quarantine to avoid lockdowns and blunt previous waves, and keep infections below 50 a day for much of the summer.
Calling the current wave a critical crisis, the prime minister, Chung Sye-kyun, said on Friday he would dispatch around 800 military, police and government workers in every district of the greater Seoul area to help track down potential patients.
Updated
New Zealand announces quarantine-free travel bubble with Cook Islands
New Zealand and the Cook Islands have agreed to a travel arrangement, the leaders of the two countries have announced.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and her Cook Islands counterpart, Mark Brown, instructed officials to put in place measures to safely recommence two-way quarantine-free travel in the first quarter of 2021.
Updated
Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, says the first “quarantine-free” flight to arrive in Queensland from New Zealand is not due until Wednesday.
In a statement on Saturday, Young said although Queensland’s border with NZ will lift from today, the state had implemented national protocols to split flights between people “who have only been in safe travel zone countries, versus those who have also been in other countries”.
“Anyone who travels to Queensland from New Zealand on a quarantine-free flight – where every passenger has only been in New Zealand in the past 14 days – will not be required to quarantine on arrival,” Young said.
“Anyone who doesn’t travel on a quarantine-free flight is still subject to 14 days mandatory quarantine. We have a New Zealand flight arriving in Brisbane today that isn’t a quarantine-free flight, which means those people will need to complete quarantine.”
Young said the department is working with hospital and health services across the state to determine which travellers from New Zealand currently in hotel quarantine can leave quarantine today.
“Our staff are working quickly on the ground to determine those who arrived in Queensland on a quarantine-free flight, so we can let them out of quarantine, provided they return a negative Covid-19 test,” she said.
Updated
Mexico approves emergency use of new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine
Mexico’s health regulator Cofepris has approved the emergency use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, the deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said on Friday.
Mexico has registered 12,253 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 693 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,229,379 cases and 113,019 deaths.
Updated
While many countries saw supermarkets stripped bare of toilet paper at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, AFP reports that in Albania it is donkey milk that has seen a rise in demand.
Touted as rich in vitamins and a boost for the immune system, the high-priced milk has been flying off the shelves during the coronavirus pandemic – a time when many in Albania are looking for an extra health kick.
“The demand for donkey milk is rising sharply” alongside virus infections, says 37-year-old Elton Kikia, the manager of the small farm in the village of Paper, where around a dozen of the small, knobbly-kneed animals romp around a green pasture.
The high demand is good news for the donkeys themselves, whose comfortable lifestyle on the farm is a welcome respite from their traditional roles as beasts of burden.
Typically enlisted to carry heavy loads and pull carts through Albania’s mountainous terrain, donkeys are frequently subject to mistreatment, in the form of beatings, overwork or saddle sores.
“Yet it is a very delicate animal, which to produce its milk needs tenderness and love,” Kikia told AFP.
Two years ago he left his job as a journalist to take over the family farm, which is only one of two in the country to raise donkeys for their milk.
At 50 euros a litre, the price of their milk is exorbitant in a country where the average wage barely reaches 400 euros a month.
But fears around Covid-19 have set off a flurry of interest.
While no one is branding the milk as a cure for the virus, aficionados are convinced its nutritional profile – which is close to human milk – helps strengthen the body’s natural defences.
Klea Ymeri, a student in agro-environmental engineering, recently travelled to Paper to buy two 250ml bottles to help her parents recover from Covid-19.
“On top of the medicines they are taking, donkey’s milk could be a good natural remedy for the respiratory system”, she told AFP.
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After Victoria recorded its first cases of Covid-19 in its new hotel quarantine system, the state’s chief medical officer, Brett Sutton, has assured the state’s residents the results were “expected”.
“All arrivals are tested if they show symptoms, as well as at Day 3 and Day 11 of their 14-day quarantine,” he said in a statement.
“Evidence from our earlier hotel quarantine program showed that just over one in every 100 returned travellers tested positive during their quarantine period.
“The likelihood of a positive case will vary depending on which country someone has arrived from, but we would expect to see at least a similar rate of positive cases being diagnosed in the coming weeks.”
Victoria resumed its hotel quarantine operations on 7 December. It previously began on 29 March and ended after Victoria requested the federal government suspend international flights to Melbourne on 30 June. During that period 21,821 travellers were processed and 236 tested positive.
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Hi, my name is Michael McGowan. For the next little while I’m your guide through the latest coronavirus news from around the world.
In Australia, hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine are increasingly being pinned on the British-developed AstraZeneca-Oxford University candidate, after the Australian-led Covid-19 vaccine in development by the University of Queensland and pharmaceutical company CSL was abandoned after some participants in early trials returned false-positive HIV tests.
Australia responded by increasing its stake in the AstraZeneca vaccine to 53.8m, enough to cover the country’s entire population.
It came as Victoria recorded its first cases of Covid-19 inside the state’s relaunched hotel quarantine system on Saturday. Five people – two men and three women – tested positive for the virus, but health authorities say they are confident the revamped quarantine system will not suffer the same breaches that led to the deadly second-wave outbreak.
At the same time, the US government exercised its option to buy an additional 100m doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, bringing its confirmed order commitment to 200m doses. In a statement to investors, Moderna said about 20m doses of the vaccine would be delivered “by the end of December 2020”. The remaining 80m would be delivered in the first quarter of 2021, while the additional 100m announced today would come in the second quarter of 2021.
In other developments:
- The World Health Organization warned that Christmas celebrations could turn to “sadness” if people fail to keep up their guard against Covid-19 during the festive season. The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the number of deaths in the coronavirus pandemic was surging and urged people to think very carefully about holiday season plans.
- Brazil’s health ministry is studying 58 suspected cases of Covid-19 reinfection after confirming the first case of a person getting reinfected with coronavirus, a ministry spokeswoman said. The first case was a health worker in the northern city of Natal, a 37-year-old woman who tested positive in June and again 116 days later in October, the ministry said on Thursday.
- Indoor dining restrictions will be reinstated indefinitely in New York City, governor Andrew Cuomo has announced as coronavirus cases and hospitalisations continue climbing in the city and throughout the state.
- The UK reported 424 new Covid-related deaths on Friday, as the number of coronavirus patients admitted to hospital increased week on week.
- Portugal reported 95 deaths linked to Covid-19 on Friday, its worst daily toll since the pandemic started.
- Switzerland has ordered restaurants, bars and shops to close down from 7pm across much of the nation, the government said on Friday, as the country continues to face a persistently high level of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
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