This blog is now closed. You can find our latest Covid stories below.
Dominic Cummings ramped up his attacks on Boris Johnson on the eve of the former aide’s evidence session, accusing the prime minister of having no “serious plan” to protect society’s most vulnerable people from Covid.
Johnson – along with ministers, government scientific advisers and civil servants – is braced for a lambasting from the man who was his most senior adviser until November, when Cummings is questioned by MPs on Wednesday.
Cummings is expected to blame those around him for failings in the handling of the pandemic in February and March last year, and in September when Johnson rejected a “circuit-breaker” lockdown:
UK government could allow travel to islands for amber-list countries
The UK government has pledged to allow British travellers to go to island destinations even if the country is on the amber list.
Robert Courts, the aviation minister, told MPs on Tuesday the government would take this approach “where possible” as it prepares to add more countries to the quarantine-free green list when it is reviewed on 7 June.
The move could see popular holiday destinations like the Canary, Balearic and Greek islands rated green, even if Spain and Greece remain on the amber list, and could also give a green light to quarantine-free travel to various islands in the Caribbean.
Foreign Office advice currently states that the Greek islands of Rhodes, Kos, Zakynthos, Corfu and Crete, and the Canary Islands are safe for non-essential travel - unlike mainland Spain and Greece.
“The government will take an island approach for border measures where possible,” said Courts when asked whether routes to relatively low-risk regions of nations would be reopened, as they were last summer.
It is understood ministers have also asked the Joint Biosecurity Centre to provide a separate analysis of islands when it presents its data to determine green list destinations.
Spain, Greece, Italy and Croatia have opened to British travellers, but the countries remain on the amber list requiring 10-day quarantine on return.
Updated
Nearly one out of two Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, while half the citizens above the age of 18 in the country have been fully vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency said 164,378,258 people, or 49.5% of the total US population, had received at least one dose, while 131,078,608 people, or 50% of the adult population, in the country are fully vaccinated.
The United States has administered 287,788,872 doses in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 359,004,955 doses, according to the agency.
Those figures are up from the 286,890,900 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by May 24 out of the 357,250,475 doses delivered.
The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine as of 6am ET on Tuesday.
Canada’s Covid hotspot Manitoba said on Tuesday it was planning to fly more critically ill patients to other provinces, as infections multiply, Reuters reports.
A third wave reached Manitoba later than other provinces, which are now recording fewer daily cases and beginning to loosen public restrictions.
But Manitoba’s rate of daily cases, 233 people per 100,000 during the past week, is highest in Canada and triple the national average, mainly due to the spread in the city of Winnipeg.
The province has scrambled to more than double its intensive care unit capacity by cancelling surgeries and occupying other spaces in hospitals.
Even those beds are filling up now and Manitoba has flown 18 critically ill patients with Covid to Ontario hospitals in the past few days, officials said. The provincial government is also talking with Saskatchewan and North Dakota officials about receiving patients, they said in a briefing. No other province has taken such steps.
“Our hospitals are being stretched to the limits right now,” the chief provincial health officer Dr Brent Roussin said. “There are hundreds of people struggling for their lives.”
Premier Brian Pallister attributed the spread to Manitobans disobeying public health orders. A group of doctors, however, urged the Manitoba government to impose a stay-at-home order and close non-essential businesses.
The prime minister Justin Trudeau said he was looking at sending medical staff to Manitoba through the Canadian Red Cross and other support from the Canadian Armed Forces.
Quebec, Canada’s second most-populous province, will continue to ease restrictions and by 7 June all restaurants and gyms will be able to reopen, the premier Francois Legault said.
More than 25,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Canada since the pandemic began.
Portugal will accelerate its vaccination rollout in Lisbon to start with 30- and 40-year-olds in June, the country’s health secretary said on Tuesday, in an attempt to slow down a rise in cases in the capital.
Those aged 40 or older will receive the vaccine from 6 June, the health secretary Antonio Lacerda Sales said, and those aged 30 or older from 20 June.
Health authorities will also ramp up testing in the region, targeting schools, vulnerable populations like asylum seekers, and crowded areas like central train stations, setting up mobile testing units for passers-by.
Pharmacies across Lisbon already offer a free antigen test every 15 days to locals.
“We must act in a preventative, proactive manner, to break chins of transmission,” Lacerda Sales said.
Portugal has lifted nearly all restrictions in a step-by-step loosening of the rules underway since April after four months of strict lockdown.
While cases have remained relatively stable nationwide at around 300 to 600 new cases per day, Lisbon has seen a steeper rise in May, particularly among young adults, the health secretary said.
The country has reported a total of 845,840 cases and 17,021 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Just over 30% of the population of 10 million people has received a first dose of the vaccine, with 16% fully vaccinated, according to health ministry data.
The country is in the second phase of its vaccination plan, targeted at 50- to 65-year-olds. It is not known when vaccination will be extended beyond that age group nationwide.
Updated
At least 77,000 hospital staff in England caught coronavirus during the pandemic, while there were nearly a quarter of a million absences for Covid-related reasons, Guardian research has revealed.
However, the true totals are likely to be much higher, because out of the 142 acute and specialist trusts in England sent freedom of information requests, only 55% (78) provided figures on staff who were infected, while 60% (85) gave data on time off for sick leave related to the virus.
The responses, which cover the year following 1 March 2020, offer the first official data on Covid’s impact on frontline workers who risked their own health while caring for the more than 400,000 patients who have ended up seriously ill in hospital.
Updated
Updated
Early evening summary
Here is a quick recap of all the main Covid related updates from around the world:
- Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be effective in adolescents aged 12-17 and showed no new or major safety problems in a clinical trial, the developer said.
- EU leaders have agreed to donate at least 100m doses of Covid vaccines to poorer countries by the end of the year, as supplies steadily rise across Europe.
- Vietnam has widened lockdown measures in its industrialised north in an effort to contain its biggest coronavirus outbreak to date.
Reuters reports:
A leading scientist on the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 mission to China said on Tuesday that a follow-up trip could be helpful to gather additional research on the origins of the disease, but should be separate from any audit of information provided by Beijing.
The comments from Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans came after the US called on Tuesday for international experts to be allowed to evaluate the source of the coronavirus and the early days of the outbreak in a second phase of the WHO’s investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
Koopmans was part of the WHO-led team which spent four weeks in China earlier this year and in March published a report jointly with Chinese scientists that said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.
“Introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway,” its report said.
Discussions about the outbreak gained renewed attention this week as US intelligence agencies examine reports that researchers at a Chinese virology laboratory in Wuhan were seriously ill in 2019 a month before the first cases of Covid-19 were reported.
US government sources have said there is still no proof the disease originated at the lab.
Koopmans said the team would be eager to carry out additional research in China in a number of areas and was awaiting the outcome of WHO discussions.
In the US, Republicans and Democrats condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday as the far-right Georgia congresswoman continued to compare measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
But meaningful Republican action against Greene seemed no more likely than at any time in her brief but controversy-fuelled congressional career.
The Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, said his party “condemned” Greene’s remarks but also used his statement to attack Democrats for allegedly ignoring antisemitism in their own ranks.
Greene had already compared mask mandates to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust when on Tuesday morning she tweeted her opposition to companies and venues requiring proof of vaccination, a source of widespread rightwing complaint.
She wrote:
Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s [sic] forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. Vaccine passports and mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed [sic] people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.
You can read the full story here:
The number of people with Covid-19 in intensive care units in France fell by another 49 to 3,447 on Tuesday, while the overall number of people in hospital with the virus fell by 271 to 19,430, Reuters reports.
Both numbers have been on a downward trend for several weeks.
The health ministry also reported 198 news deaths in hospitals from the virus, after the death tally fell below 100 per day for three days in a row on Saturday through Monday.
This has been shared by Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, who has come under pressure over his handling of Covid figures in nursing homes:
Vaccination Update:
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 25, 2021
63.9% of adult New Yorkers have received at least one vaccine dose and 55.2% have completed their vaccine series.
-90,710 doses were administered over past 24 hours
-18,528,624 doses administered to date pic.twitter.com/U4bRWA3emx
Updated
The Biden administration has reaffirmed its support for Tokyo’s plan to hold the Olympic Games this summer despite a new wave of coronavirus cases and the US urging its citizens to avoid all travel to Japan, Reuters reports.
A senior administration official said on condition of anonymity:
Our position has not changed on the Olympics. We understand the careful considerations that the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee are weighing as they prepare for the Tokyo Olympics this summer. The government of Japan has stressed that public health remains the central priority as they plan to host the Games.”
In April, the White House issued a statement during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga saying that President Joe Biden supported Tokyo’s efforts to hold a safe Olympics.
On Tuesday, Italy reported 166 Covid linked deaths, against 110 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 3,224 from 2,490.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 8,557, down from 8,950 a day earlier, Reuters reports.
That’s it from me, Rhi Storer, for now. I will now hand over the liveblog back to Yohannes Lowe for the rest of the afternoon.
Here’s an interesting news story from The Guardian’s Europe correspondent Jon Henley on how French and German YouTubers, bloggers and influencers were offered money by a bogus UK-based PR agency to falsely tell their followers the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is responsible for hundreds of deaths.
French and German YouTubers, bloggers and influencers have been offered money by a supposedly UK-based PR agency with apparent Russian connections to falsely tell their followers the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is responsible for hundreds of deaths.
Fazze, which said it was an “influencer marketing platform … connecting bloggers and advertisers”, claimed to be based at 5 Percy Street in London but is not registered there. On Tuesday, it closed its website and made its Instagram account private.
The agency contacted several French health and science YouTubers last week and asked them, in poor English, to “explain … the death rate among the vaccinated with Pfizer is almost 3x higher than the vaccinated by AstraZeneca”.
The influencers were told to publish links on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok to reports in Le Monde, on Reddit and on the Ethical Hacker website about a leaked report containing data that supposedly substantiates the claim.
You can read more on Henley’s report below:
News coming in from Associated Press that the US will reach 50% of American adults fully vaccinated against coronavirus.
President Joe Biden had previously set a goal of having 70% of all adults receiving at least one dose of the vaccine by July 4th.
Since ramping up its vaccine distribution, coronavirus case and deaths have dramatically fallen across the nation.
There are currently three vaccines in use in the United States. The Biden administration has increased the number of inoculations it is exporting to other nations.
Hi there, this is Rhi Storer taking over from Yohannes Lowe for the next hour. Please send over your contributions to rhi.storer@guardian.co.uk, or alternatively, you can message me on Twitter.
According to Reuters, South Africa has said an agreement has been made to hold a special session of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body from 29 November to 1 December to consider negotiating a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness.
South Africa’s delegation, speaking on behalf of 26 countries sponsoring the resolution, told the WHO’s annual ministerial assembly:
Probably the most important lesson Covid-19 has taught us is the need for stronger and more agile collective defences against health threats as well as for building resilience to address future potential pandemics. A new pandemic treaty is central to this.
Poland will launch a lottery with prizes of as much as 1m zlotys ($273,000) to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, the minister in charge of the immunisation programme has said.
Michal Dworczyk said that although 69% of Poles have declared they want to be vaccinated, the biggest challenge was making sure they do it, Reuters reports.
Dworczyk told a news conference.
We are carrying out another advertising campaign... we have sports people involved, we have actors involved, influencers involved. Alongside these traditional forms... we are adding this extra proposal.
The competition will be run with the aid of state-owned companies and lottery operator Totalizator Sportowy.
Reuters reports:
Russia’s consumer health watchdog in the Yakutia region said on Tuesday that all employers must organise Covid-19 vaccines for their employees.
The regional branch of the Rospotrebnadzor watchdog added that employees could refuse to be vaccinated by providing their employer with a written justification.
Sweden will donate 3m vaccine doses to the Covax facility in 2021, up from a previous pledge of 1m doses, its government has said in a statement.
The government said:
In this way Sweden contributes to more than our share of the EU’s target of donating at least 100 million doses to low- and middle income countries in 2021.
Sweden said earlier in May it would donate 1m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Covax, Reuters reports (see earlier post).
Mexico will release its first batches of locally-produced AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 this week, a senior Mexican official has said.
Speaking at a government news conference, Alejandro Svarch, head of medical regulator Cofepris, said the first four batches would be released this week, according to Reuters.
UK trade with the EU collapsed by nearly a quarter at the start of 2021 compared with three years before as Brexit and Covid-19 disruption hit exports, while China replaced Germany as the biggest single import market, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics said total trade in goods – which includes imports and exports – with EU countries fell by 23.1% in the first three months of the year, compared with the first quarter of 2018 before the pandemic began and before Brexit uncertainty became marked.
Trade with countries outside the EU fell by just 0.8% over the same period, reflecting the impact of new border checks on exports to the continent under the Brexit deal agreed between Boris Johnson’s government and Brussels.
Richard Partington, the Guardian’s economics correspondent, has the full story here:
Spain will receive nearly 94m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine between December 2021 and June 2023 as part of a EU purchase, the government spokesperson has confirmed.
Maria Jesus Montero said the total was equivalent to twice the target population in Spain, where around 8.1m people have already received a full course of vaccines, Reuters reports.
Sweden has registered 6,034 new coronavirus cases since Friday, the lowest weekend-figure for more than six months, health agency statistics have indicated.
The figure compared with 10,017 cases during the corresponding period last week, Reuters reports.
The country of 10m registered 30 new deaths, taking the total to 14,396.
Moderna jab stops Covid transmission in people aged 12 to 18, trial finds
Mass vaccination of children against Covid-19 moved a step closer as Moderna became the second manufacturer to announce successful trial results, showing its vaccine can stop transmission in people aged 12 to 18.
Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine has already been given emergency approval for adolescents aged 12 to 15 in the United States by the regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after its trials were said to show better efficacy even than in ages 16 to 25. It has begun a trial in young children, from six months to 11 years old.
The results from both companies suggest that mass immunisation of schoolchildren could be on the cards this year, beginning in the United States, which could in theory end the anxieties of parents, pupils and teachers and allow schools to function more normally.
Pfizer applied for emergency use authorisation for 12-15-year-olds in Europe at the end of April.
Sarah Boseley, the Guardian’s health editor, has the latest here:
EU leaders agree to donate 100m doses of vaccines to poorer countries
EU leaders have agreed to donate at least 100m doses of Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries by the end of the year as supplies steadily rise across Europe.
AP reports:
Gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit, the 27 leaders backed a text in which they pledge to continue efforts “to increase global vaccine production capacities in order to meet global needs.”
Leaders also called “for work to be stepped up to ensure global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines” and reiterated their support for the UN-backed Covax program.
Covax aims to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 shots for low-and middle-income countries.
This has been shared by Barend Leyts, spokesperson for the European Council President:
#EUCO conclusions on #COVID19 adopted just now pic.twitter.com/f6YPtavPqf
— Barend Leyts (@BarendLeyts) May 25, 2021
Australian celebrity chef turned conspiracy theorist Pete Evans has again been fined for promoting an array of devices and drugs as miracle cures for ailments including the coronavirus.
The former Seven Network star was on Tuesday hit with $79,920 in fines for breaching advertising requirements.
It comes after his company was fined more than $25,000 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in April 2020 after he promoted a device called a “BioCharger” on a Facebook live stream, claiming it could be used to cure the coronavirus.
You can read the full story here:
Authorities have sealed off a hamlet in southern India after hundreds of people ignored a coronavirus lockdown and crowded the funeral of a horse considered divine in local tradition, a government official has said.
The containment measures were introduced after around 400 people in a hamlet near the town of Gokak in Karnataka state gathered at a local Hindu monastery for the horse’s funeral on Sunday, Gokak administration official Prakash Holeppagol said.
Visuals from Reuters partner ANI showed people walking shoulder-to-shoulder to the funeral, many without face masks, in violation of physical distancing norms and a state-wide lockdown.
Face masks are still mandatory across much of India, which is battling a huge wave of Covid infections.
Holeppagol said:
The people believed the animal to be God’s horse... it has been at the monastery for some 23 years. We rushed to the spot once we learned about the gathering. We took help from police to seal down the place quickly.
No one will be allowed to enter or leave the hamlet of Maradimath for at least 14 days, Holeppagol added.
Vietnam expands lockdown curbs to contain Covid outbreak
Vietnam has widened lockdown measures in its industrialised north in an effort to contain its biggest Covid outbreak to date, Reuters reports.
The health ministry announced 457 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, the biggest jump since the 190 cases seen on 16 May, driven by clusters in factory zones in two northern provinces.
Bac Ninh, home to production facilities of Samsung Electronics, started a curfew and other travel restrictions from Tuesday, according to state media.
That followed the temporary closure of four industrial parks, including three with Foxconn facilities, by authorities in neighbouring Bac Giang province.
Bac Ninh and Bac Giang are the epicentre of the new outbreak that has infected more than 2,800 people since late April.
Authorities say the outbreak, which accounts for nearly half of Vietnam’s overall cases, has spread to more than 30 of its 63 cities and provinces.
On Tuesday, the capital, Hanoi, which has recorded 220 cases since late April, closed restaurants and banned gatherings at public areas, including physical exercises in parks.
Vietnam has reported at least 5,860 infections in total, with 44 deaths. It has yet to start mass inoculations against the coronavirus, with about 1m doses of vaccines administered so far.
Updated
This has been shared by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization:
One of the greatest drivers of #COVID19 has been the lack of solidarity & sharing. That’s why we need an intl agreement that:
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 25, 2021
-represents all nations
-addresses our shared vulnerabilities
-leverages our shared humanity
-reflects what future generations need#PandemicTreaty #WHA74
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until the evening (UK time). As always, feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
Today so far…
- The European Union expects to receive over 1bn doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of September. That would be sufficient to immunise the entire EU population of 450 million, well beyond the EU’s initial goal of vaccinating at least 70% of its adult population by the end of the summer.
- The US has urged its citizens to avoid all travel to Japan, where concern is rising over new variants of the coronavirus, but officials insist the move will not complicate preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
- India’s official tally of daily infections of coronavirus fell to the lowest in nearly six weeks in the past 24 hours, offering hope that a devastating second wave is ebbing, but government leaders said shortages of vaccines were a big concern.
- Taiwan has extended its level 3 alert over a continuing Covid-19 outbreak, and schools will remain closed until at least 14 June.
- Opinion polls show vaccine hesitancy has risen sharply in Thailand, weeks away from the start of a mass inoculation programme.
- Hong Kong could soon be throwing away millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses because not enough people are taking them before they expire, a health official has warned, saying it’s “not right” while other countries are scrambling for them.
- Austria will ban direct flights from the UK from 1 June, and there are immediate restrictions on entry over concerns about the B.1.617.2 variant.
- UK minister Thérèse Coffey has said the government is still working towards lifting all coronavirus restrictions in England next month, despite issuing fresh guidance to some areas calling on people to limit their interactions.
- There’s been confusion in England after the new travel restrictions were added to the government’s website without a formal announcement of new local lockdown measures or, some claim, communication with local authorities. The return of the advice against indoor gatherings contradicts prime minister Boris Johnson’s previous assertions that rule relaxations would be “cautious and irreversible”
-
Czech health minister Petr Arenberger will resign and be replaced by a previous minister, Adam Vojtěch.
- Data analysis shows that dozens of countries are facing severe oxygen shortages because of surging Covid-19 cases, threatening the “total collapse” of health systems.
- In the US, Alabama governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill that prohibits private businesses and public institutions from requiring Covid-19 “vaccine passports” to access services or refusing those not inoculated against the coronavirus.
- A priest in Wisconsin in the US who has been ignoring Covid-19 gathering restrictions at his masses and criticised the Democratic party for their stance on vaccines says the leader of the Diocese of La Crosse has asked him to resign.
- The Victorian government in Australia is looking at opening up the vaccine rollout to those under 50 who are currently ineligible, as the state has reinforced rules stopping people ineligible from getting the Covid-19 vaccine from turning up to hubs to get their first dose.
- Madrid regional authorities have said they will allow a friendly football match between Spain and Portugal to be held with the crowd at 30% capacity in the build-up to the rescheduled Euro 2020. It will be the first professional soccer game held in Madrid with a live audience for more than a year.
That’s it from me, Martin Belam, for today. I will see you again bright and early tomorrow. If you want UK Covid news, then Andrew Sparrow has our UK live blog. Yohannes Lowe will be here shortly to continue this live blog carrying the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.
Updated
EU expects enough doses to fully vaccinate population by end of September
The European Union expects to receive over 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of September from four drugmakers, a document seen by Reuters shows.
The over 1 billion doses estimated by the end of September would be sufficient to immunise the entire EU population of 450 million, well beyond the EU’s initial goal of vaccinating at least 70% of its adult population by the end of the summer.
The estimates take into account only vaccines from four drugmakers: Pfizer-BionTech, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Moderna.
They exclude doses from German biotech firm CureVac and French drugmaker Sanofi, which have signed contracts with the EU for hundreds of millions of doses but are struggling to develop their vaccines and get them approved by EU regulators.
The EU is currently in a dispute with AstraZeneca over its earlier failure to deliver promised supplies.
Most countries see vaccination as their only viable route out of pandemic restrictions, and the US has been no exception. There are concerns that it is going to be difficult to persuade younger people to get their shots. Madeline Holcombe writes for CNN this morning:
At least 25 states, plus Washington, DC, have now fully vaccinated at least half of their adult residents, data published Sunday by the CDC shows. But many experts have identified young Americans as a critical age group for inoculation success.
People in age groups 24-years-old and younger are receiving doses at much lower rates. Leaving them unvaccinated could give the virus a chance to spread, mutate and develop a strain resistant to existing vaccines.
While vaccinated people seem to be protected against current strains, “there may be future variants for which we are not so lucky,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health.
Another tactic that the authorities in the US are now taking is warning younger Americans that even if they are unlikely to die from the novel coronavirus, it could have a life-changing impact. Holcombe writes:
“There’s a syndrome that is referred to as long Covid, which means that you get a syndrome following the clearing of the virus where it could be for months,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday at a town hall, adding that possible persisting symptoms include profound fatigue, muscle aches, temperature dysregulation, and an inability to focus.
About 1 in 5 people between ages 18 and 34 who are infected with Covid-19 reported lingering symptoms beyond two or three weeks, according to a study last year by the US for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read more here: CNN – Americans are lagging behind with Covid-19 vaccines. And these threats have experts pushing for their vaccination
Some good news for Spanish football fans in the run up to the rescheduled Euro 2020 tournament this summer. Madrid regional authorities have said they will allow a friendly between Spain and Portugal to be held with the crowd at 30% capacity.
Reuters report that the match, scheduled for 4 June, will be the first professional soccer game held in Madrid with a live audience for more than a year, since large-scale public events were suspended to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
A little bit more here from Reuters on Austria’s ban on direct flights from the UK.
The Austrian health ministry said in a statement: “Essentially, only Austrian citizens and people who are resident or habitually stay in Austria may enter the country.”
Entry would be allowed, it said, on humanitarian grounds or for visits in the national interest.
While the immigration rules take effect on Tuesday, the ban on direct flights will go into force on 1 June, it added. The statement referred specifically to the World Health Organization and Public Health England having classified the B.1.617.2 variant first found in India as a “variant of concern”.
Updated
Madlen Davies and Rosa Furneaux report for us that oxygen shortages threaten the ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems:
Dozens of countries are facing severe oxygen shortages because of surging Covid-19 cases, threatening the “total collapse” of health systems.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism analysed data provided by the Every Breath Counts Coalition, the NGO Path and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to find the countries most at risk of running out of oxygen. It also studied data on global vaccination rates.
Nineteen countries around the world – including India, Argentina, Iran, Nepal, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and South Africa – are deemed most at risk after recording huge increases in demand since March – at least a 20% rise – while having vaccinated less than 20% of their populations.
There are concerns that other Asian countries like Laos are at risk, and African countries including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, which have less mature oxygen delivery systems, meaning a small increase in need could create big problems.
Many of these countries faced oxygen shortages before the pandemic, said Leith Greenslade, coordinator of the Every Breath Counts Coalition. The extra need is pushing health systems to the brink.
“The situation last year, and again in January this year in Brazil and Peru, should have been the wake up call,” she said. “But the world did not wake up. We should have known India would happen after seeing what happened in Latin America. And now looking at Asia, we should know this will happen in some of the big cities in Africa.”
Read more here: Oxygen shortages threaten ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems
A quick Reuters snap that Czech health minister Petr Arenberger will resign and be replaced by a previous minister, Adam Vojtech, the prime minister Andrej Babiš said this morning.
Arenberger had been the fourth person to hold the post since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. He is due to hold a news conference later today.
Updated
Andrew Sparrow has our UK Covid live blog up and running, you can follow the latest developments here…
I’ll be continuing with the biggest world coronavirus developments here.
India’s official tally of daily infections of coronavirus fell to the lowest in nearly six weeks in the past 24 hours, offering hope that a devastating second wave is ebbing, but government leaders said shortages of vaccines were a big concern.
Barely 3% of the country’s 1.3 billion people have been vaccinated, the lowest rate among the 10 countries with the most Covid-19 cases, leaving India and its ill-equipped healthcare system vulnerable to a potential third wave, experts say.
Neha Arora and Manas Mishra report for Reuters that there are still serious concerns that many new infections are not being reported, due to a dearth of testing in the countryside, where the virus has spread to from the cities.
The Serum Institute of India, which is supplying the AstraZeneca vaccine, and local firm Bharat Biotech, which is providing Covaxin, have both said they are ramping up production but the supply remains way short of the millions of doses India needs.
“The vaccination drive is in shambles and people are suffering and despairing,” Anand Sharma, a leader of the main opposition party Congress said, urging prime minister Narendra Modi to put aside politics and work with state governments to help them procure vaccines.
Pfizer said it was in talks with the Indian government to supply its vaccine, which has still to be cleared by India’s drug regulator.
“Pfizer remains committed to continuing our engagement with the government of India towards making the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine available for use in the country,” a spokeswoman told Reuters, declining to provide details of the ongoing discussions.
In desperation, several Indian state governments and even cities such as Mumbai have launched their own global tenders or sought expressions of interest from firms such as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson for urgent supplies.
But Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the three firms told them they were in touch with the federal Indian government and that they will not be dealing with state level authorities.
Sisodia blamed Modi’s government for mishandling vaccine procurement and not moving fast enough to secure supplies for the country.
Updated
Talking of vaccine hesitancy, social scientist and chair of the World Health Organization’s Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination working group writes for us today saying that being open about why Australia’s vaccination take-up is low is the first step to improve it:
Hesitancy can become a tempting explanation for low vaccine coverage when governments seek to deflect attention from health system problems. For news editors, a story about a person rejecting vaccination because of their beliefs is probably more interesting than reporting a more prosaic lack of transport or inconvenient clinic hours. However, we should not paint out of the vaccination picture individuals like the two women I spoke with this week, both affected by disability and both uniquely struggling to access the Covid-19 vaccine they wanted.
Being open and curious about why vaccination take-up is low is good for public health. It starts with asking the affected community. In Romania, for instance, a large measles outbreak in 2016 was thought to be caused by active refusal of vaccination. Then a survey of 520 caregivers of children with measles asked them directly. It turns out the main barriers to these children being vaccinated were long waiting times, vaccines running out and not being aware of a vaccine due. Beliefs about side effects also featured, but not as much as expected.
Behavioural scientists have reviewed studies to find the interventions with the largest impact on vaccine uptake. Those most effective include: making vaccines free and services convenient, reminders when a vaccine is due, default appointments, performance monitoring and feedback, on-site vaccination, standing orders, incentives and requirements.
Read more here: Julie Leask – Being open about why Australia’s vaccination take-up is low is the first step to improve it
Updated
Chayut Setboonsarng reports for Reuters that opinion polls show vaccine hesitancy has risen sharply in Thailand, just weeks away from the start of a mass inoculation programme and as the country fights its deadliest Covid-19 outbreak.
Reasons for the rise in vaccine hesitancy were unclear in the polls, but there are widespread complaints at government disorganisation, delays in getting vaccines and reliance on Sinovac and locally made AstraZeneca doses.
Thailand has reported 135,439 infections and 832 deaths since the pandemic began last year.
In January, 83% of Thais surveyed by polling firm YouGov were willing to be vaccinated, but by May that dropped to 63% in the same poll, lower than Vietnam and the Philippines at 83% and 66% willingness, respectively.
Updated
About 2 million people are affected by these restrictions in England. Thérèse Coffey got the short straw of trying to defend it all in public this morning on the media round. Here’s a snapshot of her appearance on ITV’s Good Morning from PA Media.
Asked whether a family from Bolton, where new guidance calling on people to limit their interactions and travel has been issued, should go ahead with half-term holiday plans to a “green list” country, Coffey said: “I’m not going to give individual travel guidance on some hypothetical situations to people in different parts of the country. The guidance is very clear that people need to consider whether it really is essential.”
I’ve just used the government website to check how clear the advice is. On the page about the red, amber and green list countries, the word “essential” only appears once, in this paragraph:
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) travel advice continues to advise against all non-essential travel to some countries and territories.
So that’s clear.
Updated
It is always worth bearing in mind that some areas of England have had a very different experience of the pandemic from others, as Telegraph data journalist Ben Butcher notes:
Brutal for Leicester, where for only 4 days in the past year (last week) did guidance say that indoor gatherings were advised. https://t.co/JAjWqpnuCW
— Ben Butcher (@bienbutcher) May 25, 2021
Alabama governor signs bill that prohibits 'vaccine passports' in the US state
In the US, Alabama governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill that prohibits private businesses and public institutions from requiring Covid-19 “vaccine passports” to access services or refusing those not inoculated against the coronavirus.
“I’ve signed SB 267! Since the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, both Dr Scott Harris (state health officer) and I have said that we would not mandate vaccines in the state of Alabama,” the governor said in a statement on Monday.
“I am supportive of a voluntary vaccine, and by signing this bill into law, I am only further solidifying that conviction”, Ivey, a Republican, said on Monday.
The governor’s statement added that Ivey has been vaccinated and would “encourage any Alabamian who has not gotten their shot to roll up their sleeves”.
Kanishka Singh reports for Reuters that the Alabama Republican party said the law was “protecting the privacy rights of Alabamians from the federal overreach of the Biden administration”.
The administration of President Joe Biden has opposed the idea of making vaccine passports mandatory.
Updated
Austria bans direct flights from Britain
A quick snap from Reuters that Austria is again banning direct flights from Britain.
Previous such bans have been imposed because of high numbers of coronavirus infections or cases of a particular variant of the virus.
My colleague Josh Halliday adds this observation:
One public health official points out that NHS England chief Simon Stevens travelled to Bolton on Friday to visit a vaccination site.
— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) May 25, 2021
Did he know about government travel advice against all but "essential" travel?
Cabinet minister Thérèse Coffey has said the UK government is still working towards lifting all coronavirus restrictions in England next month, despite issuing fresh guidance to some areas calling on people to limit their interactions in a bid to halt the spread of the Indian variant.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think 21 June is still very much under consideration. We are taking a little bit longer to make sure that we have all the data to understand the impact of what has been happening and some of the measures that have been taken and helped by local communities in order to assess whether or not we can proceed.
“But those announcements will be made in the usual way.”
Some people may be confused over what “the usual way” is, after people in areas including Bolton, Leicester, Kirklees and the London borough of Hounslow have been advised not to meet others indoors or travel in or out of the location via an update on the government’s website rather than through a formal announcement.
PA Media reports she told the BBC that it had been “sensible” to issue additional guidance to local communities and “that’s why it is more of a targeted communication focusing on those areas most at risk”.
Updated
Ireland is expected to adopt a Covid-19 certificate to help citizens move more freely across the European Union from mid-July, the Irish Times reported on Tuesday, quoting people involved in discussions in government.
Ireland’s health minister said last week the government may introduce the so-called “green certificate” earlier than late July, as previously flagged, amid mounting pressure from airlines and employers to reopen foreign travel.
Reuters note that Ireland has the strictest travel restrictions in the 27-nation bloc. It advises citizens against non-essential travel, imposing fines on people heading to airports to go on holiday and a two-week mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from a number of countries.
A Covid certificate would be handed out for free by health authorities in EU countries to people who received a vaccine, had a negative test or are immune, having recovered from the virus.
Ireland’s government will announce its plans for the resumption of international travel on Friday, alongside a timetable for the further easing of Covid-19 restrictions on the tourism, entertainment and hospitality sectors.
Updated
'No communication' over travel guidance in England – North Tyneside director of public health
PA are carrying the words of North Tyneside’s director of public health, Wendy Burke, over the unexpected government guidance against local travel in some areas of England.
Contrary to what UK minister Thérèse Coffey has been asserting in the media this morning, Burke said there had been no indication of any additional restrictions when an announcement about extra testing was made last week.
Burke has said:
Last Wednesday it was announced in Parliament that North Tyneside, along with five other areas in England, would be subject to enhanced testing and vaccinations.
When the announcement was made there was no indication it would come with any additional restrictions for North Tyneside or the other areas.
We understand that, later, Government guidance around travel in and out of North Tyneside was posted on the Government website.
This has not been accompanied by any communication to the local authority, local residents or businesses.
We have already queried this with the Department of Health and Social Care to seek clarification.
We will continue to work with Government on our enhanced testing and vaccination plan which is now in place.
Ben Glaze at the Mirror here with a succinct summing up of why the issue of quiet government advice to restrict local travel in England is forefront in the media this morning.
Isn't the point about the #coronavirus guidance for certain areas being quietly changed that part of the lockdown easing - non-essential travel in and out of areas - is being reversed, when the PM said the relaxations would be "cautious and irreversible"?
— Ben Glaze (@benglaze) May 25, 2021
Victoria turns away under-50s trying to get Covid jab at Australian vaccination hubs
The Victorian government is looking at opening up the vaccine rollout to those under 50 who are currently ineligible, as the state has reinforced rules stopping people ineligible from getting the Covid-19 vaccine from turning up to hubs to get their first dose.
On Sunday, Guardian Australia reported that due to the low number of people in eligible categories getting vaccinated at the mass vaccination hubs in Victoria, people who were not currently eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine were able to get their first shot of AstraZeneca by turning up and explaining they still wanted to be vaccinated.
A nurse at a Melbourne mass vaccination centre had told Guardian Australia last week that on one day she delivered just one vaccination over the course of an eight-hour shift because of low demand.
The Victorian health department said on Sunday the focus was on the priority groups set out in the federal government’s schedule, and after the story was published, the state appeared to have clamped down on people trying to get the vaccine if they were not currently eligible.
Guardian Australia has heard many people were now being turned away. Yves Rees said they tried to get vaccinated at the hub at the exhibition building in Carlton on Monday night, but was turned away by a nurse.
“She was very polite but very firm … I did get the impression that in response to the article they’d been given advice from higher up to be very firm in turning people away.”
Read more of Josh Taylor’s report here: Victoria turns away under-50s trying to get Covid jab at vaccination hubs
Taiwan extends level 3 alert and school closures until at least 14 June
Taiwan has extended its level 3 alert over a continuing Covid-19 outbreak, reporting 281 new local cases today, and a further six deaths.
The largest group of new cases - who were tested yesterday - were again in New Taipei city (155), while 49 were in the capital, Taipei. Two new cases detected in Taitung means there is now community transmission of Covid-19 in every county of Taiwan.
The whole of Taiwan is currently on the third of a four-tier alert system, and all schools were ordered closed until the end of the month. The CECC said both measures were being extended until 14 June, and said all school graduation ceremonies should be cancelled or held online.
It has previously said a level 4 alert - bringing a strict lockdown - would not be triggered until there were 14 consecutive days of more than 100 cases, with 50% untraced. While it appears on track to potentially reach the 14 days threshold, the number of untraced cases is below 50%.
Second straight day drop in 7-day average, 6 more deaths, Level 3 extended to 6/14, total of 12M more vaccine doses to arrive by August. https://t.co/cUpfuDCN8V
— Chieh-Ting Yeh (@ChiehtingYeh) May 25, 2021
At the daily press conference the central epidemic command centre also announced 261 additional cases from the past week, including 155 in Taipei, as it gets through a backlog of thousands of tests. The updated daily totals revealed that Taiwan’s daily case numbers last week were mostly in the 400s - up to 510 on 17 June.
Chen Shi-chung, the health and welfare minister, said two million doses of vaccines were expected to arrive by the end of June and another 10 million by the end of August. Taiwan has so far only received 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca for its 24 million population. He wasn’t exactly clear on where the doses are coming from, but later said a locally-developed vaccine, which is currently in trial stage but is being fast tracked, was included in the 10 million.
Taiwan has orders with Covax, Moderna, and Pfizer.
“We hope all the shipments will arrive on time and urge that Covax will be free from the impact of ‘other factors’ so our vaccine will be right on time,” he said, appearing to allude to Chinese interference - an accusation Taiwan has levelled against Beijing over some vaccine supplies, but one that China denies, saying it has offered to send vaccines to Taiwan.
Katerina Ang has this for the Washington Post, writing that while Bahrain is one of the world’s most vaccinated countries, it has just reported a new daily record of 28 deaths. She writes:
Bahrain has approved five coronavirus vaccines and like the neighboring United Arab Emirates, it was an early adopter of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, which has since been authorized by the World Health Organization for emergency use. Studies have suggested the vaccine has an efficacy rate of 79 percent against symptomatic infection.
Both countries last week authorized the use of third doses for large groups of people that received their Sinopharm vaccines at least six months ago amid global concern about the efficacy of the Chinese-developed shot in so-called “real-world settings.”
About 5 percent of those who have died from the coronavirus in Bahrain had received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to government officials.
Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne has reinstated Covid-19 restrictions as authorities scrambled to find the missing link in a new outbreak that has grown to five cases.
Home gatherings will be limited to five guests, only 30 people are allowed at public meetings, and face masks will be mandatory in restaurants, pubs and other indoor venues from 6pm (0800 GMT) on Tuesday until 4 June.
Reuters note that all five cases are from an extended family across different households and could be traced back to the variant found in an overseas traveller who returned to Melbourne early this month after completing quarantine in the city of Adelaide.
Authorities, however, said they had not yet been able to determine how the latest cases contracted the virus from the traveller.
Don’t forget you can follow all the latest Australian news with my colleague Amy Remeikis…
Here’s more on that somewhat awkward exchange on Sky News involving UK minister for work and pensions Thérèse Coffey. On local travel advice, she said:
The prime minister talked about the issues of the Indian variant last week. He said that we need to be extra cautious in certain areas, including those where we had sent in that extra surge testing, and the guidance is entirely in line with that, and was issued last week. We are in regular contact with the councils and communities in that area. So this was just about formalising on the record the guidance that would go alongside the need to be extra cautious in making sure we get a grip of the situation of this particular variant.
She was challenged, with the presenter saying: “there was no official government publicised announcement, and the Labour MP for Bolton says she’s gobsmacked by the advice and wasn’t given any notice whatsoever.”
Coffey’s reply: “I’m surprised to hear that people think this has sort of come out of the blue. It hasn’t.”
Here’s the clip:
Asked whether new #COVID19 restrictions in areas linked to the Indian variant are effectively local lockdowns, Therese Coffey says the guidance helps address "the need to be extra cautious in making sure we get a grip of the situation."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 25, 2021
Follow live: https://t.co/NKmF6WDCBO pic.twitter.com/ZLaSxZrngA
And here’s Dominic Harrison, Director of Public Health at Blackburn with Darwen Council, who seems very much in the “it came out of the blue” camp.
#Covid19 Travel Advisory#localgov areas involved were not consulted with, warned of, notified about, or alerted to this guidance. I have asked to see the national risk assessment which supports this action - it has not been provided to us yet.
— Dominic Harrison (@BWDDPH) May 25, 2021
https://t.co/sq2luOi2Zb
India records lowest daily Covid case rise since 14 April
India has recorded 196,427 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its lowest daily rise in infections since 14 April. Deaths from Covid-19 rose by 3,511.
A priest in Wisconsin in the US who has been ignoring Covid-19 gathering restrictions at his masses and criticised the Democratic party for their stance on vaccines says the leader of the Diocese of La Crosse has asked him to resign.
The Rev James Altman announced the request from Bishop William Callahan during his sermon at the weekend at St James the Less Catholic Church in La Crosse.
“As the bishop has stated to me: I am ineffective. So for the record dear family, Bishop Callahan has asked me to resign as pastor as of this past Friday, two days ago, because I am divisive and ineffective,” Altman said.
Associated Press report that Altman came under fire last autumn for calling Democrats godless and warning they would go to hell if they don’t repent. Later, he called Covid-19 protocols “Nazi-esque controls”.
“Let us be clear, God damns every single one of those godless moves, whether it be in civil government or worse, in the complicity of many in the church,” Altman said during a Palm Sunday mass.
“In fact, if hell itself has many levels, the lowest, hottest levels are the final burning place for those shepherds who were complicit in the godless restrictions.”
Altman said his lawyer is challenging the bishop’s request for him to resign.
Updated
Reuters report an expansion of the vaccination programme in the United Arab Emirates – it says it will offer China’s Sinopharm vaccine to Chinese nationals visiting the area, the first non-residents to be eligible.
Chinese nationals over the age of 16 holding a short-term visa can receive two doses of Sinopharm in Dubai, the state news agency earlier this week
The UAE led phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine produced by China’s state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm and has started manufacturing it under a joint-venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42.
The Gulf Arab state, a country of 9 million people, has vaccinated about 73% of its eligible population, authorities have said.
Updated
PA Media has been carrying these quotes from people in the areas affected.
Yasmin Qureshi, Labour MP for Bolton South East and shadow international development minister, said: “I was not informed of this and I understand nor was anyone else in Bolton. I’m just gobsmacked. They’re making such an important announcement and they don’t even have the decency to tell us or tell our constituents. This is typical of this government’s incompetence.”
Layla Moran, chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said updating the guidance without a proper announcement “is a recipe for confusion and uncertainty”.
“Local people and public health leaders in these areas need urgent clarity from the government. Matt Hancock must come before Parliament and make a public statement to explain these new rules,” she said.
Newly elected West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin added the change could cause “anxiety and confusion”.
And as the BBC’s Adam Fleming points out, contrary advice was being given just yesterday.
And N Tyneside’s director of public health told Chronicle Live YESTERDAY: “It's certainly okay to visit the area and obviously we've got some fantastic things for people to come and see. We don't want to turn people away but my message is the same as the one for residents.” https://t.co/FwJe8MOOUP
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) May 25, 2021
Updated
“I think the government has made it clear” – that was the UK’s work and pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey on Sky News just now about travel advice within England. She may not be universally believed on that. Here’s how we reported on the mess overnight:
According to the guidance, which appears to have been updated on 21 May and is not law, journeys to and from the affected areas – Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Bolton, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow, and North Tyneside – should be avoided “unless essential”. Exemptions include travel for work, where working from home is not possible, and education.
The Guardian understands that the Cabinet Office guidance for Bolton was updated online on 14 May, and other areas were subsequently added. A source said the “layout of the guidance was adjusted” on Friday, hence the date mark which suggested it had been published on 21 May. However, archived webpages suggest many areas were only added to the guidance on that date.
The update did not seem to have been accompanied by an official announcement and it is also understood that local leaders and public health directors were unaware of it.
Covid vaccine hesitancy could see Hong Kong throw away millions of doses
Hong Kong could soon be throwing away millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses because not enough people are taking them before they expire, a health official has warned, saying it’s “not right” while other countries are scrambling for them.
The city of 7.5 million people has bought enough doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and China’s Sinovac, to vaccinate its entire population, but so far only 2.1 million have been administered since the vaccination programme launched in late February.
Thomas Tsang, a former controller of the Centre for Health Protection and member of the government’s vaccine taskforce warned there was only a three-month window to use the first batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines on hand in the city, which must be stored at low temperatures and used within six months.
“They cannot be used after the expiry date and the community vaccination centres for BioNTech will, according to present plans, cease operating after September,” Tsang told RTHK.
“The whole world is scrambling for vaccines and it is just not right that we can buy a vaccine overnight and we just have it. What we have is probably all we have for the rest of the year.”
Read more of Helen Davidson’s report: Covid vaccine hesitancy could see Hong Kong throw away millions of doses
US ‘travellers should avoid all travel to Japan,’ says CDC
The US has urged its citizens to avoid all travel to Japan, where concern is rising over new variants of the coronavirus, but officials insist the move will not complicate preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The state department on Monday issued its highest level 4 travel warning for Japan, where a month-long state of emergency has helped reduce cases in Tokyo but failed to have a significant impact on the country’s fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.
“Travelers should avoid all travel to Japan,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] said in new guidance issued less than two months before the Olympics are due to open.
“Because of the current situation in Japan even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants and should avoid all travel to Japan,” it added.
The state department’s warning was more blunt. “Do not travel to Japan due to Covid-19,” it said:
Updated
New Zealand pauses quarantine-free travel with Australian state of Victoria
New Zealand is pausing its quarantine-free travel bubble with Victoria for three days after a recent cluster of community cases in the Australian state grew to five.
The country’s Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, said the suspension would begin at 7.59pm NZT and would be under constant review.
Victoria introduced ten days of restrictions in greater Melbourne on Tuesday, including limits on public and private gatherings and mandatory mask-wearing indoors, after a fifth person contracted the virus in the north of Melbourne. Four community cases were announced a day earlier.
Authorities are scrambling to identify and test close contacts of the cases, and have also asked people who have visited a number of locations to get tested and quarantine.
Calls for clarity on travel restrictions in England
The UK’s all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus has called on the government to provide “urgent clarity” on restrictions in areas in England where the Indian variant is spreading.
Official guidance has been updated to advise against all but essential travel in Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Bolton, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow, and North Tyneside, where the variant is growing fastest.
The guidance appears to have been changed last week without an official announcement and Layla Moran, who chairs the APPG on coronavirus, said this risked causing “confusion and uncertainty”.
She said: “This is a major change to policy that will have a huge impact on people’s lives. Simply updating the government website without an official announcement is a recipe for confusion and uncertainty.
“Local people and public health leaders in these areas need urgent clarity from the government. Matt Hancock must come before parliament and make a public statement to explain these new rules.
“It seems crucial lessons have still not been learnt about the importance of clear messaging during a pandemic.”
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus has called on the Government to provide “urgent clarity” on restrictions in areas where the Indian variant is spreading.
Official guidance has been updated to advise against all but essential travel in Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Bolton, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow, and North Tyneside, where the variant is growing fastest.
The US State Department on Monday urged against travel to Japan because of a new wave of coronavirus cases just two months before the Tokyo Olympics are set to begin.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
-
Many of India’s 140 million migrant workers are at risk of being left out of the country’s vaccination programme, experts have warned, despite being at high risk of illness.
-
Bahrain reported its highest daily number of coronavirus deaths on Monday, with 23 further deaths registered amid a spike in cases.
- China has vehemently denied a Wall Street Journal report citing US intelligence materials that said several members of staff at a key virus laboratory in Wuhan had fallen ill shortly before the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in the city on 8 December 2019.
- One in five Brazilian cities reported a shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses last week, according to a survey of the country’s municipalities.
- Taiwan has recorded six new deaths from Covid-19, and several hundred more cases in the continuing outbreak. It is the second day in a row of six recorded deaths from the outbreak.
- Malaysia has reported a 61 further coronavirus deaths – its highest daily toll since the pandemic began. The south-east Asian country, which has a population of around 32 million, also registered 6,509 new positive cases, taking its total since the pandemic began to 518,600.
-
Sri Lanka has extended its on going travel ban for another two weeks as health experts warn of a possible breakdown of the country’s health system due to rampant coronavirus infections.
- Malta has vaccinated up to 70 per cent of the adult population with least one dose of the vaccine, the first country in the EU to reach this goal.
