We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:
Summary
Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus developments around the world over the past few hours:
-
New Covid-19 lockdown in Portugal to come into force from Friday. A new lockdown to bring a worrying rise in coronavirus cases under control will come into force in Portugal from Friday, prime minister António Costa announced, urging people to stay indoors and protect themselves.
-
New York pleads for more Covid-19 vaccine as daily US death toll hits record. As the United States recorded its highest single-day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic began, New York mayor Bill de Blasio on said the city would fall short of its inoculation goals unless it could get more vaccine.
-
UK passes 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus. More than 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus have occurred in the UK since the disease first appeared in the country almost a year ago. Public health experts have said it is a sign of “phenomenal failure of policy and practice”.
- African Union secures 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers. The African Union has secured a provisional 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states to supplement the Covax programme, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said.
-
Cuba suspends schools and public transport as it grapples with coronavirus surge. The Cuban government is once more shutting down schools, public transport and cultural activities across swathes of the Caribbean island during its worst outbreak of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
-
Spain reports 38,869 new cases, its highest single-day rise in infections. The country also recorded 195 further deaths, while the number of cases per 100,000 people rose from 452 to 493.
- Unilever workers will never return to desks full-time, says boss. The boss of Unilever, one of the UK’s biggest companies, has said his office workers will never return to their desks five days a week, in the latest indication that coronavirus will transform modern working life.
- Switzerland brings in tough measures to head off threat of third wave. Switzerland announced tough new restrictions Wednesday in a pre-emptive strike against a feared third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by quicker-spreading variants of the virus.
Nicaragua is in talks with Russia’s Gamaleya Institute to acquire the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has said.
The poor Central American nation is among the Latin American countries with least vaccines pre-ordered to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
PAHO said Nicaragua will also begin receiving vaccines through the Covax facility coordinated by the World Health Organization to support lower-income countries as of March.
Managua’s Sputnik V talks adds to a flurry of interest from left-wing Latin American governments, with Mexico and Bolivia joining early-adopter Argentina in trying to lock down supplies of the Russian vaccine.
Mexican health authorities expect to make a decision this week on whether to authorise Sputnik V after getting access to clinical data, and are considering buying 24m doses.
Nicaragua’s vice president Rosario Murillo confirmed later on Wednesday that Nicaragua had begun to make arrangements to buy vaccines, but did not specify which ones.
“We know that there are four vaccines with greater than 90% efficacy ... we are fully in the process of signing purchase agreements as soon as possible,” said Murillo.
Cuba suspends schools and public transport as it grapples with coronavirus surge
The Cuban government is once more shutting down schools, public transport and cultural activities across swathes of the Caribbean island during its worst outbreak of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Cuba has registered new daily records of infections for the last six days, including 550 on Wednesday, and has already recorded more infections in the first 12 days of 2021 than in the entire previous month.
Cuba has 11 million people and while it still only has half the global average of daily confirmed cases per capita, at 43 cases per million, that is up from around one-tenth for most of last year when authorities were hailed for their successful containment of the virus.
Authorities say travellers from countries such as the United States who failed to follow protocols such as quarantine largely caused the surge. The government has sharply reduced flights from those countries and introduced a requirement to test negative for the virus before travelling to Cuba.
Critics say it should have required the test as soon as it opened borders last November, as some neighbouring islands did, and its mismanagement of the economy in addition to US sanctions is to blame for hours-long queues outside supermarkets that are complicating social distancing.
Cuba has four vaccine candidates in trials and said it expects one of them to be ready to start vaccinating citizens during the first half of this year, although some Cubans are concerned it has not announced a backup plan in case none of them succeed.
The government has not said it is negotiating with any other manufacturers for access to vaccines. It called its first two vaccine candidates Soberana 1 and 2 - Spanish for “sovereign”, underscoring its quest for self-reliance.
Brazil has reported 60,899 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, and 1,274 deaths from the virus.
The South American country has now registered 8,256,536 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 205,964, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak after the United States and India.
Lebanon’s caretaker health minister, Hamad Hassan, has tested positive for coronavirus and been admitted to hospital, a statement from the ministry said.
“The minister has been admitted to Saint George hospital for treatment,” the statement said.
Lebanon’s hospitals are running out of capacity to treat critically ill patients as Covid-19 infections surge after the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
Daily infections reached an all-time high of 5,440 cases on Friday. Lebanon had recorded a total of 226,948 cases with 1,705 deaths up to Tuesday.
Lebanon is currently under a three-week lockdown that ends on 2 February.
The country is also introducing a 24-hour curfew that begins Thursday until 25 January, the strictest since the start of the pandemic with even supermarkets open only for delivery services.
The pandemic hit Lebanon as it was in the middle of a devastating financial crisis that has crashed the currency, paralysed banks, and frozen savers out of their deposits. Medical supplies have dwindled as dollars have grown scarce.
African Union secures 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers
The African Union has secured a provisional 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states to supplement the COVAX programme, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said.
African nations are grappling with a second wave of the coronavirus, as the total number of cases rose to at least 3.1 million, and deaths to 74,600, according to a Reuters tally.
The vaccines will be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, through the Serum Institute of India, and Johnson & Johnson, said Ramaphosa, who chairs the African Union.
He added that all 270m doses would be made available this year, with at least 50m available “for the crucial period of April to June 2021”.
On financing, Ramaphosa said arrangements had been made with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to support member states who want access to the vaccines. Afreximbank would, upon receipt of firm orders from member states, provide advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $2bn to the manufacturers.
“There is also close collaboration between the AU team and the World Bank to ensure that member states are able to access about $5bn either to buy more vaccines or pay for delivery of vaccines committed on their behalf by Afreximbank,” Ramaphosa said.
He added: “These endeavours aim to supplement the Covax efforts, and to ensure that as many dosages of vaccine as possible become available throughout Africa as soon as possible.”
Ramaphosa said while the Covax initiative, co-led by the World Health Organization, was vital to Africa’s response, the African Union was concerned that Covax volumes to be released between February and June may not extend beyond the needs of frontline health care workers.
The Covax facility aims to make available 2bn doses of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
Updated
New York pleads for more Covid-19 vaccine as daily US death toll hits record
As the United States recorded its highest single-day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic began nearly a year ago, New York mayor Bill de Blasio on said the city would fall short of its inoculation goals unless it could get more vaccine.
The mayor said short supplies were hampering New York City’s efforts to increase its immunisation campaign. His appeal comes as the country as a whole struggles to meet an overall goal, with vaccinations now running far behind a target of 20 million people by now.
“We need the federal government, the state government and the manufacturers to step up and get us more supply immediately,” de Blasio said at a briefing.
The country’s most populous city is adding vaccination sites across its five boroughs, including its two Major League Baseball parks, and has succeeded in loosening restrictions on who is eligible for vaccination, de Blasio said.
New York is on track to inoculate one million of its more than eight million residents by the end of the month, but only if it gets enough vaccine, he said.
“I confirmed with our healthcare team yesterday that even with normal supplies that we expect to have delivered next week, we will run out of vaccine at some point next week, unless we get a major new resupply,” he added.
Nationwide, only about one third of the 29.4m doses distributed to states have been administered, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech, and a second vaccine from Moderna, for emergency use. Both vaccines require two doses spaced a few weeks apart.
The chief science officer of Johnson & Johnson said the company is on track to roll out its single-shot coronavirus vaccine in March, and it plans to have clear data on how effective it is by the end of this month or early February.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Dr Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at the company, said J&J expected to meet its stated target of delivering one billion doses of its vaccine by the end of this year as the company ramps up production.
The country’s struggle to inoculate its population comes as the number of people to die from the disease hit a daily record 4,336 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally.
That brought the number of US Covid-19 casualties to 380,524, with the number of cases at 22.7 million by Tuesday night, more than any other country.
The widely cited model of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation expects January to be the pandemic’s deadliest month so far in the US.
The virus is projected to take more than 108,000 lives this month before the death rate ebbs as more vaccine is administered, the IHME said. By 1 April, it expects a death toll of 567,000.
On Tuesday, federal health officials agreed to release millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses the government had held back for second doses, and they urged states to offer them to all Americans over age 65 or with chronic health conditions.
US health and human services secretary Alex Azar said the US pace of inoculations has risen to 700,000 per day and is expected to rise to one million per day within a week to 10 days.
A leveling-off of the number of Covid-19 patients requiring hospitalisation has emerged as an encouraging sign in the past week.
Italy has been plunged into political crisis after former premier Matteo Renzi withdrew his party from the ruling coalition, risking the collapse of the government in the middle of a raging coronavirus pandemic.
Renzi announced the resignation of two cabinet ministers and a junior minister from his Italia Viva party, in a split that deprives prime minister Giuseppe Conte of his parliamentary majority.
Tensions between the two men have been rising for weeks over the handling of the Covid-19 outbreak that has claimed more than 80,000 lives in Italy and sent the economy into a deep recession.
They came to a head over plans to spend more than €200bn ($243bn) in European Union recovery funds, that Renzi warned risked being wasted.
But critics accused him of simply seeking more power for his party, which is polling at just 3% - and warned that now is not the time to quit the coalition.
“For sure, the country would definitely not understand a crisis ... people are asking us to go on, in such a complex, difficult situation,” Conte warned earlier.
Health minister Roberto Speranza added: “It would really be an unforgivable mistake to get distracted or to slow down near the finish line.”
Updated
Turkey has approved the emergency use of a coronavirus jab developed by China’s Sinovac, paving the way for a national vaccination drive that will start with healthcare workers.
Health minister Fahrettin Koca rolled up his sleeve and received the first shot of CoronaVac after announcing plans to start administering it nationally on Thursday.
“Everyone should get vaccinated because it is the only way to get rid of this pandemic,” Koca said.
Turkey said last month that preliminary domestic testing showed 91.25% efficacy for CoronaVac. But more robust trials in Brazil demonstrated an efficacy rate of around 50% - much lower than those of rival shots from Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca.
A third trial in Indonesia showed an efficacy of 65.3%.
“This is a safe vaccine. The safety studies have been completed,” said Koca.
Turkey has signed up for 50m doses of CoronaVac. Twenty million of them are due to arrive by the end of the month.
It is also expected to receive 4.5m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab by late March, although negotiations are still ongoing.
The vaccinations will start with Turkey’s 1.1 million health workers before moving on to those aged 65 or over and people with chronic illnesses.
Turkey has seen its official daily death tolls from the virus slip back down to under 200 after imposing weekend lockdowns and other daily restrictions in November.
The nation of 83 million people has recorded 23,325 Covid-19 deaths and more than 2.3 million virus infections.
Updated
Mozambique has applied to access Covid-19 vaccines through the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization, giving it the option to buy doses for at least 20% of its population, president Filipe Nyusi said.
As a low income country, Mozambique qualifies for subsidised vaccines under the COVAX facility, which aims to make available 2bn doses of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
“We have applied to the COVAX programme and we expect to get the vaccine to vaccinate 20% of vulnerable people”, Nyusi said in an address to the nation.
Health minister Armindo Tiago said in an interview with state broadcaster Radio Mozambique earlier this month that the country expects to receive around 6m doses and plans to start vaccinations from the end of June or in July.
Nyusi on Wednesday also announced new measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, including restrictions on alcohol sales and mandatory Covid-19 testing at borders for travellers moving in or out of the country.
The nation of 30 million people has recorded nearly 24,000 Covid-19 cases with 205 deaths.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson said the government is looking at ways to stop a variant of the coronavirus found in Brazil from entering Britain.
Japan’s health ministry said on Sunday it had detected a new strain of Covid-19 in four travellers from Brazil’s Amazonas state which featured 12 mutations, including one also found in highly infections variants discovered in Britain and South Africa.
“We are concerned about the new Brazilian variant ... and we’re taking steps (to protect the country) ... in respect of the Brazilian variant,” Johnson told a parliamentary committee. “I think it’s fair to say that there are lots of questions we still have about that variant.”
Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said the Brazilian mutation did appear to have some of the features of the other coronavirus variants.
“What we’re seeing is that mutations are cropping up across the world which are quite similar in terms of the changes,” he told ITV’s Peston show, saying the Brazilian strain appeared to have similarities to the South African one.
He said there was no evidence any of the new variants made the disease more severe.“The changes that we’re seeing with the variants are largely around increased transmission; it makes it easier to get it from one person to another, it makes it easier therefore to catch,” he said.
He said there was no evidence vaccines would be ineffective against the strain which has fuelled a surge in infections in Britain, but they did not know for sure if that would be the case with the South African or Brazilian strain.
“There’s a bit more of a risk that this might make a change to the way the immune system recognises it, but we don’t know,” he said.
Brazil’s right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro has tried to sabotage efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19 in his country and pursued policies that undermine the rights of Brazilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
The Supreme Court, Congress and other institutions, have stepped up to protect Brazilians and blocked some of Bolsonaro’s most damaging policies, the rights group said in the Brazil chapter of its annual world report.
Bolsonaro wanted to remove the authority of states to restrict people’s movements, as they sought to contain the world’s second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak after the United States, but the Supreme Court ruled against him.
The top court also intervened to stop his government withholding Covid-19 data from the public. It also overturned a presidential veto of legislation requiring the use of masks in prison.
In July, it ordered the administration to draft a plan to protect Brazil’s vulnerable indigenous peoples from the pandemic, while Congress passed a bill forcing it to provide emergency health care to indigenous communities.
Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the gravity of Covid-19, calling it “a little flu” and criticising lockdowns and social distancing measures. HRW said he has disseminated misleading information about the virus.
The president’s office did not immediately reply to Reuters’ request for comment.
Bolsonaro has argued that lockdowns damage Brazil’s economy and leave many out of work.
The boss of Unilever, one of the UK’s biggest companies, has said his office workers will never return to their desks five days a week, in the latest indication that coronavirus will transform modern working life.
Alan Jope, chief executive of the consumer goods group, said the company will also encourage all of its employees to receive vaccinations against Covid-19, but will stop short of making jabs mandatory. Employees who opt not to be vaccinated, however, will face mandatory testing.
Jope said the company would look at different working patterns after it saw during the pandemic that it could adapt and make big changes far more quickly than previously thought.
Unilever, the third most valuable company on the London Stock Exchange, is the maker of brands including Dove soap, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Marmite. It also owns Hellman’s, Knorr, Lipton and Persil.
New Covid-19 lockdown in Portugal to come into force from Friday
A new lockdown to bring a worrying rise in coronavirus cases under control will come into force in Portugal from Friday, prime minister António Costa announced, urging people to stay indoors and protect themselves.
“We are at the most dangerous moment (of the pandemic),” Costa told reporters, adding remote work would be compulsory where possible. “The rule is simple: all of us should stay home.”
The rules will be similar to the six-week lockdown imposed between March and April last year during the first wave of the pandemic, except all schools - public and private - will stay open this time.
The number of cases reported from schools was not significant in the first lockdown, Costa said.
Restrictions on movement will also be eased on the day of Portugal’s presidential elections on 24 January so voters can go to the polls.
As per last March’s rules, all non-essential businesses, including hair salons, will be closed, although restaurants will be allowed to provide takeaway services. Supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries, petrol stations, and banks will stay open.
Business with employees on furlough will receive state support.
Remote working will be compulsory where possible. To ensure compliance with new measures, fines for breaking the rules will double.
Under Portuguese law, regulations must be reviewed every 15 days but Costa said on Wednesday these rules would likely last a month.
The country of 10 million people has so far reported a total of 8,236 deaths and 507,108 cases, with a steep surge in infections after Christmas placing severe pressure on the health care system.
Portugal has already vaccinated 82,000 people against the coronavirus, giving priority to frontline health workers as well as care home residents.
“The hope the vaccine gives us that we can beat the pandemic is the same hope which feeds the relaxation that makes the pandemic more dangerous,” Costa said, adding the lockdown would not interfere with the vaccination process.
Updated
France has reported 23,852 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, more than the 19,752 on Tuesday but down from 25,379 a week ago.
Health ministry data also showed that 229 people had died from the virus in hospitals, down from 355 on Tuesday.
The number of people in intensive care rose by double-digit numbers for the fourth consecutive day.
The number of people in hospital with the disease rose by 32 to 24,769. The number of people in hospital has been stable between about 24,000 and 25,500 for five weeks.
The ministry also said to date, more than 247,000 people had been vaccinated against Covid-19, up from nearly 190,000 on Tuesday and 138,000 on Monday.
Updated
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the blog for the next few hours. Please do get in touch with any suggestions or comments.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Spain reports 38,869 new cases, its highest single-day rise in infections
Spain has recorded a record 38,869 new Covid cases over the past 24 hours, the government announced this evening, marking the highest single-day rise in infections since the pandemic began.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the number of cases logged by the health ministry rose from 2,137,220 to 2,176,089. There were also 195 deaths over the same period, while the number of cases per 100,000 people rose from 452 to 493.
The country’s health minister, Salvador Illa, described the rise as “very worrying” and warned that the pressure on hospitals and their ICUs was building.
“I ask people to scrupulously respect the measures adopted by each autonomous region,” said Illa. “It’s the only way we have of controlling the virus.”
Spain began vaccinating its population of almost 47 million people at the end of December. The central government has so far distributed 1,103,700 doses of the vaccine to the country’s 17 self-governing regions, of which 581,638 have been administered.
Updated
Consumer goods maker Unilever Plc expects global consumption patterns to be suppressed in the first half of this year, even as business returns to normal in East Asia and markets in Africa and Latin America show resiliency, its chief executive told Reuters.
“We still hold that the first half of this year will be a continued period of suppressed consumption ... with that starting to come back in the second half of this year and then next year,” chief executive officer Alan Jope said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference on Wednesday.
The maker of Dove soap, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Tresemme shampoo withdrew its annual sales growth target in April and Jope said he was still wary of making any predictions about its future business due to the fluidity of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, he said the company would grow ahead of the broader market and he does not expect any hits to margins in the near term.
I am posting on the Guardian’s global feed, bringing you updates on coronavirus from around the world. Please get in touch to share news tips.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Updated
Jordan launched a Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, beginning with jabs for healthcare workers, people with chronic illnesses and those over the age of 60.
The kingdom said on Saturday that it had granted an “emergency licence” for the use of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, the second vaccine it approved after the US-German Pfizer-BioNTech.
The first injections were given at hospitals and other healthcare facilities, after the authorities designated 29 vaccination centres across Jordan, including seven in the capital Amman.
Wael Hayajneh, head of the epidemics and communicable diseases department at the health ministry, said Jordan was among the “first 40 countries” to vaccinate against the novel coronavirus.
A surge in Covid-19 infections is hitting nearly all countries in the Americas, the head of the Pan American Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that the pandemic’s toll in 2021 could be worse than last year if containment efforts relax.
Switzerland brings in tough measures to head off threat of third wave
Switzerland announced tough new restrictions Wednesday in a pre-emptive strike against a feared third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by quicker-spreading variants of the virus.
The country shut shops selling non-essential goods and ordered people to work from home in a bid to prevent an explosion in case numbers, saying the British-detected mutation had already taken root.
The Swiss government had been expected simply to extend the current closure of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities through February, but went much further with measures to be implemented from Monday.
“Case numbers are stagnating at a very high level and there is a risk that the new more infectious variants of the virus will lead to another rapid rise in cases,” it said in a statement.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin and health minister Alain Berset explained the measures at a press conference where, for the first time, they were separated by plastic screens and wore masks throughout.
Updated
The Philippines on Wednesday confirmed its first case of a British-identified coronavirus mutation that appears to be more infectious, as authorities scramble to secure vaccine supplies.
Since taking hold in Britain, the fast-spreading new variant has been detected in dozens of countries and territories globally.
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday he was working flat-out to resolve tensions within his coalition, warning voters would not forgive a crisis in the middle of a pandemic.
The government is on the brink of imploding following weeks of internal criticism from former premier Matteo Renzi, the leader of the small but pivotal Italia Viva party.
Ahead of a press conference in which Renzi was widely expected to announce his withdrawal from the coalition, Conte appealed to him to change his mind.
“I hope it won’t come to that,” he told reporters in Rome, saying he was working to keep the government together until the next scheduled elections in 2023.
He added: “For sure, the country would definitely not understand a crisis ... people are asking us to go on, in such a complex, difficult situation.”
Italy was the first European country to be overwhelmed by coronavirus cases and remains one of the worst-hit, with almost 80,000 virus deaths and a record recession.
Conte was speaking after a meeting with President Sergio Mattarella, the ultimate arbiter of Italian political crises, to discuss the situation.
Those mourning loved ones lost in the coronavirus pandemic are increasingly turning to online forums and virtual remembrance websites for support with grief, experts say.
Meanwhile, the national bereavement charity Sue Ryder and a coalition of cross-party MPs, charities and healthcare professionals are calling on the government to introduce a minimum of two weeks’ statutory paid bereavement leave for UK employees who have lost someone.
The number of deaths due to Covid-19 has exceeded 100,000, and in the absence of physical contact, people are seeking solace through social media, phone helplines and other platforms.
But experts say this will not help everyone, as some are unable to access online support while others will still struggle to overcome grief because the pandemic has put their life on hold.
UK passes 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus
More than 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus have occurred in the UK since the disease first appeared in the country almost a year ago. Public health experts have said it is a sign of “phenomenal failure of policy and practice”.
Government figures on Wednesday showed a record daily reported 1,564 new fatalities, bringing the total to 101,160.
Updated
A UK group attempting to travel to Switzerland for a ski holiday were prevented from boarding a Eurostar train at London St Pancras in breach of coronavirus restrictions.
Train manager Justin, who did not give his surname, posted on Twitter that French border police deployed at the station had turned the travellers away on Wednesday morning. A photograph shows the group was carrying at least one large bag of winter sports equipment.
Justin wrote that a ski trip “does not count as essential travel” and there are “very limited reasons for travel to France”.
He added: “I really fancy a trip with my family to eat chips in Brussels but there’s a global pandemic on right now.
“If we all do our bit and are patient for this final push, then hopefully we can get back to doing all of those things we love.”
Last week, a Eurostar passenger trying to travel to a yoga class in Paris was also turned away from London St Pancras. France only permits a limited group of people to arrive from the UK, such as transport workers, people delivering goods or those who normally live in France.
Updated
I am running the Guardian’s global feed, bringing you updates on coronavirus from around the world. Please get in touch to share news tips.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
South Africa’s government has started outlining its Covid-19 inoculation plans, despite not yet receiving a single vaccine dose, as it faces criticism over unrealistic targets and a lack of clarity.
The continent’s worst-hit country is placing high hopes on vaccines as the authorities grapple with an unprecedented surge in cases fuelled by a new virus variant.
The government is aiming to vaccinate two-thirds of its population - around 40 million out of nearly 60 million people - in order to achieve herd immunity by the end of 2021.
One million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine are expected this month - the first shipment of 20 million secured doses to be mainly delivered in the first half of the year.
“This will be the largest and most complex logistical undertaking in our country’s history,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said during an address to the nation on Monday.
After weeks of public outcry over a lack of planning, Ramaphosa finally laid out a three-phase vaccination blueprint for the year ahead.
Putin tells Russian officials to launch mass vaccination programme
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday tasked officials with launching mass coronavirus vaccinations from next week, touting Russia’s homemade jab as the world’s best.
After being the first country to register a vaccine for use, Russia is looking to leap ahead of other countries in the race to inoculate its population of 146 million.
Russia in August registered Sputnik V – named after the Soviet-era satellite – months ahead of western competitors but before the start of large-scale clinical trials, which left some experts wary.
“I ask you to begin the mass vaccination of the entire population next week,” Putin told officials at a televised government meeting.
“The Russian vaccine is the best in the world.”
Updated
Britain will make appointments for coronavirus vaccinations available 24 hours a day “as soon as we can”, prime minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday, reversing his opposition to the idea.
Johnson had days ago brushed off calls from the main opposition Labour party for night-time opening of vaccine centres, arguing there was “no clamour” for it.
But the government has come under increasing pressure to speed up its vaccination programme and is reported to be planning a pilot scheme to see if there is demand for the late-night jabs.
Updated
Coronavirus deaths in the US hit another one-day high at over 4,300 with the country’s attention focused largely on the fallout from the deadly uprising at the Capitol.
The nation’s overall death toll from Covid-19 has eclipsed 380,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, and is closing in fast on the number of Americans killed in the second world war, or about 407,000. Confirmed infections have topped 22.8 million.
With the country simultaneously facing a political crisis and on edge over threats of more violence from far-right extremists, the US recorded 4,327 deaths on Tuesday by Johns Hopkins’ count. Arizona and California have been among the hardest-hit states.
The daily figure is subject to revision, but deaths have been rising sharply over the past two and a half months, and the country is now in the most lethal phase of the outbreak yet, even as the vaccine is being rolled out. New cases are running at nearly a quarter-of-a-million per day on average.
Updated
A judge in the north-western Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela has ruled that an 84-year-old woman who lives in a care home in the city should be vaccinated against Covid despite the opposition of her daughter.
The judge, who was on duty over the weekend, accepted the care home’s submission that the woman had “a very limited” cognitive capacity that made her unable to decide for herself whether or not she should be vaccinated.
Although the woman’s daughter told the court she was worried about the possible secondary effects of the vaccine on her mother, the judge decided that vaccinating her mother would expose her to less risk than waiting any longer.
“While the act of vaccination itself carries a risk,” said the judge, “so does not getting vaccinated.”
In his ruling, the judge referred to a forensic report and WHO advice, pointing out “the longer the administration of the vaccine is delayed and the more the number of cases grows, the higher the risk”.
The manager of the care home told La Voz de Galicia the legal challenge has been brought “for the common good of the residents and staff at the home – all of whom are in a high-risk sector of the population”.
Updated
The Spanish regions of Galicia, La Rioja and Cantabria have become the latest to tighten restrictions amid a spiralling national infection rate that officials have blamed on lax adherence to the rules over Christmas.
After a lull in contagion in late November, cases skyrocketed through December and into early January, doubling the incidence of the virus as measured over the past 14 days in just three weeks, to 454 cases per 100,000 people.
Unlike other European countries – such as the UK and the Netherlands, which have extended national lockdowns – the Spanish authorities have repeatedly said a return to confinement is not necessary. Instead, it has delegated regional authorities to deploy a mixture of curfews, caps on group meetings and restrictions on business opening hours.
In north-western Galicia, which reported a record 1,047 new cases on Wednesday, regional leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo banned all non-essential travel in the seven largest cities, told bars and restaurants to close at 4pm and brought forward a curfew to 10pm.
He linked the region’s “worrying” transmission rate to high numbers visiting eateries and bars, and said the measures should help bring forward a new peak in infections to late January from mid-February.
“Nobody wants to see bars and restaurants closed, but the priority must be protecting people’s health,” he said.
Wine-producing La Rioja ordered non-essential businesses to close at 5pm and limited group meetings to four people, while shopping centres in Cantabria are banned from opening at weekends.
The moves follow a call by Castile and Leon on Tuesday for its citizens to avoid unnecessary contacts.
Spain reported 25,438 new infections on Tuesday, bringing the cumulative total up to 2,14m cases, while the death toll climbed by 408 to 52,683.
Updated
The Vatican, the world’s smallest state, has started its own ambitious vaccination programme, though it remains unclear when Pope Francis will roll up the sleeve of his cassock and get his jab.
The programme started in the atrium of the large audience hall that is normally used for papal audiences, the Vatican said. It gave no details but a source said the first doses were administered to doctors and other members of the Vatican health services.
Pictures released by the Vatican showed a medical examination table and a medical chair, both empty. Another showed a medical refrigerator in a room with a photo of the pope on a wall.
The Vatican said last week it had bought an ultra-cold refrigerator to store doses, suggesting it will use the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which must be stored at about -70C (-94F).
The pope told a television interviewer on Sunday that he would get the vaccine this week. The Vatican did not say if he had received a jab or when he would.
In the interview, Francis said people should trust doctors and not refuse the vaccine unless they had a good medical reasons because their lives and those of others depended on it.
Updated
Sweden has registered 5,337 new cases since Tuesday, health agency statistics show. The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 167 new deaths, taking the total to 9,834. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and weeks with many from the Christmas period being registered with a significant delay.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is several times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours, but lower than several European countries that opted for lockdowns.
Updated
Hello, I’m taking over from Sarah Marsh for a spell. If you’d like to get in touch, your best bet’s probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
Prime minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday that Denmark would extend its lockdown measures in an effort to combat the coronavirus, local news wire Ritzau reported.
“I believe that an extension of the restrictions is clearly necessary. Not least to ensure that the British mutation does not spread,” Frederiksen said according to Ritzau. Current lockdown measures are in effect until 17 January.
Updated
Senegal is in talks to acquire 200,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine, the government has said, intended as part of an imminent vaccination campaign against Covid-19.
The west African state is already participating in Covax, a global collaboration scheme with pharmaceutical firms to ensure equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
However, health minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr said in a video posted on social media late Tuesday that, separately, Senegal is also in talks with China to procure its Covid-19 vaccine Sinopharm.
The figure of 200,000 doses is a “working basis”, Sarr explained, adding that the ministry intends to begin a rollout “very soon”.
Updated
Summary of global news
Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:
The deadliest day in the US
The death toll in the US has hit a new daily record of nearly 4,500, the first time it has topped 4,000.
Highest infection rate
Ireland’s infection rate is the highest in the world with 1,288 cases per million people as the government demands all travellers test negative within 72 hours of arrival.
Jokowi jab
Indonesian president Joko Widodo – who is known as Jokowi – has received the country’s first jab live on television as the nation of nearly 270 million people kicks off a mass vaccination drive.
Japan emergency expands
Japan is set to expand a state of emergency in greater Tokyo to seven more regions including the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto.
Ontario lockdown
Canada’s most populous province orders residents to stay home as projections showed the number of cases could soon explode, overwhelming hospitals.
Chinese province restricted
Heilongjiang province – home to the sealed-off city of Suihua and with a population of 37.5 million people – tells residents not to leave the region unless absolutely necessary and to cancel gatherings.
Lebanon aid
The World Bank has approved a $246m aid package to help 786,000 vulnerable Lebanese reeling under the pandemic and the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Nearly 2 million dead
The pandemic has killed more than 1,963,557 million people worldwide, according to a tally compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT using official sources and information from the WHO.
The US is the country most affected with more than 380,821 deaths, followed by Brazil (204,690), India (over 151,569), Mexico (135,682) and Britain (83,203).
The number of deaths globally is broadly under-estimated. The toll is calculated from daily figures published by national health authorities and does not include later revisions by statistics agencies.
Updated
As the British coronavirus variant occupies countries’ pandemic plans due to its increased transmissibility, other mutations to the Sars-CoV-2 are provoking concern among scientists who are scrambling to work out if they will still respond to vaccines.
In particular, one mutation, known as E484K, detected initially in South Africa and on subsequent variants in Brazil and Japan, has raised alarm among researchers.
Ravi Gupta, professor of microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said it is this mutation – and not the much-covered British variant – that is “the most worrying of all”.
Although research into the new variant is limited, a Brazilian study this month looked at a patient who had recovered from Covid-19 only to become reinfected with the new, mutated strain.
The paper has yet to be peer-reviewed, but the authors found that the E484K mutation could be “associated with escape from neutralising antibodies” – meaning it could bypass the body’s natural defence memory that bestows immunity.
As countries accelerate their vaccination programmes, there is concern that the new mutation may render certain vaccines less effective.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, for example, use mRNA technology to deliver instructions to the body to produce a harmless coronavirus spike protein, which the immune system then learns to kill in anticipation of a genuine infection.
With E484K, as with the British variant, the mutation occurs on the virus’s spike protein, which allows it to bind more easily with human cell receptors, potentially heightening its infectiousness.
Updated
Italy’s health minister announced on Wednesday a partial reopening of museums, while most other coronavirus restrictions were due to be extended.
“It is the intention of the government to reopen museums, symbolic places of our country’s culture,” Roberto Speranza told lawmakers.
The measure would apply only to less-infected “yellow” regions, while “respecting all social distancing measures”.
Italy, which has recorded nearly 80,000 deaths from the pandemic, has had colour-coded regional virus restrictions since November when all the museums were shut.
Five regions are in the intermediate orange category, while 15 are classified as yellow.
Regions change colour depending on virus trends. Speranza said 12 regions were now at “high risk”, and liable for orange-level curbs.
Updated
Thanks to everyone who is following the Guardian’s live feed, and I appreciate all your comments. Please continue to contact me to share news tips via any of the channels below.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Target Corp said on Wednesday that robust online sales during the holiday season resulted in a 17.2% rise in comparable sales for the retailer. The company has been investing heavily in its online business during the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital sales more than doubled as customers shopped across all its major categories including home goods, electronics and apparel.
Store traffic increased 4.3% in the November-December period, Target said, adding that sales trends since January were strong.
US firm Johnson & Johnson is likely to apply for EU approval for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in February, a top lawmaker said on Wednesday.
“EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides announced during our (EU lawmakers) group meeting this morning that the vaccine manufacturer Johnson & Johnson is likely to submit an application for approval to the EU for their vaccine in February,” said Peter Liese, who represents health matters for the EU’s centre-right group, the assembly’s largest.
Updated
Italy’s health minister warned Wednesday against “unforgivable” distractions as the country teeters on the brink of a government crisis in the middle of a deadly coronavirus pandemic.
With the ruling coalition looking close to collapse over a row with a junior partner, Roberto Speranza urged colleagues to keep focused on the health crisis has so far killed almost 80,000 people in Italy.
“Let’s keep political infighting, real or presumed electoral tensions, far and separate from the health of Italians,” he told the lower parliamentary chamber in an update on Covid-19 regulations.
“It would really be an unforgivable mistake to get distracted or to slow down near the finish line.”
Prime minister Guiseppe Conte’s government is on the verge of imploding following weeks of internal criticism from former premier Matteo Renzi, the leader of the small Italia Viva party.
Updated
Jordan launched a Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, beginning with jabs for healthcare workers, people with chronic illnesses and those over the age of 60.
The kingdom said on Saturday that it had granted an “emergency licence” for the use of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, the second vaccine it approved after the US-German Pfizer-BioNTech.
The first injections were given at hospitals and other healthcare facilities, after the authorities designated 29 vaccination centres across Jordan, including seven in the capital, Amman.
Wael Hayajneh, head of the epidemics and communicable diseases department at the health ministry, said Jordan was among the “first 40 countries to be vaccinated” against the novel coronavirus.
“I advise everyone to take the vaccine as it is the only trusted solution to end the coronavirus,” Doctor Etimad al-Khawaja told AFP after receiving a shot.
Updated
The coronavirus mutation first found in Britain has now spread to 50 territories, according to the World Health Organization, while a similar South African-identified strain has been found in 20 regions.
The UN body also noted a third new coronavirus “variant of concern” found in Japan may impact upon immune response and needs further investigation.
“The more the Sars-CoV-2 virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to change. High levels of transmission mean that we should expect more variants to emerge,” said the WHO.
Updated
China is concentrating its pandemic prevention efforts in the rural areas as officials urge people to not travel home for the Lunar New Year festival while the country combats its most serious latest outbreak of Covid-19.
Authorities said on Wednesday local clinics and hospitals in villages need to strengthen their vigilance for any new Covid-19 cases, and local governments must take responsibility at every level – from county to town to village.
The government is bracing for the world’s largest annual migration in which hundreds of millions travel home for lunar new year break in February, many of them workers from cities going back to their home villages.
Updated
The German state of Bavaria is pushing for controversial new rules to contain the spread of Covid-19 amidst growing concerns about the mutant strain first detected in the UK.
As of the start of next week, citizens in the largest and southernmost German state will be required to wear single-use filtering facepiece respirator (FFP2) masks on public transport and in supermarkets. FFP2 masks promise to filter out at least 94% of particles but are also more expensive, usually retailing at €4-6.
“The availability [of the masks] in trade is sufficiently guaranteed, so there is no shortage of FFP2,” state premier Markus Söder promised on Tuesday, but there are some concerns that the mask’s cost could drive people to use their masks more frequently than advised, thus lowering rather than increasing protection.
Söder, a pacesetter for German coronavirus restrictions for much of 2020, has also floated the idea of compulsory vaccinations for care workers. The leader of the Bavarian CSU party said such a move could be justified to protect vulnerable people amidst a high rate of vaccine scepticism.
According to one recent survey, only 50% of care workers in Germany were prepared to take part in the first wave of vaccinations.
Health minister Jens Spahn has been quick to reject the proposal. “I gave my promise in the Bundestag”, Spahn said. “In this pandemic there won’t be compulsory vaccinations”.
Updated
Hello everyone. I am taking over the global coronavirus live feed, bringing you all the latest updates from around the world. Please email or get in touch via Twitter or Instagram to share your comments or news tips with me.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Data on the highly contagious Covid-19 variant identified in England do not suggest that vaccines will be less effective against it, while data on the South African variant should be available within weeks, a top British vaccines expert said.
“We have the most data on the UK variant. That doesn’t suggest that it will be any less well protected against by the vaccine,” Wei Shen Lim, chair of Covid-19 Immunisation on Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said in remarks reported by Reuters.
Asked specifically about the South African variant, he said that Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine trials had been conducted in South Africa which was an advantage in terms of data collection.
“We’re told that very very soon, the Oxford and AZ trials may be able to examine in quite some detail whether their vaccine will protect against the new variant. I think that is a matter of weeks.”
That’s it from me. Sarah Marsh will take over shortly.
Updated
The daily number of COVID-19 cases in the United Arab Emirates has crossed the 3,000 threshold for the first time as authorities in the Middle East’s business and tourism hub urged people to accept vaccinations.
The health ministry late on Tuesday reported 3,243 new daily infections and six deaths, Reuters said. That was the highest in the Gulf Arab region where daily cases in each of the other five states have fallen below 500.
On Tuesday Britain removed the UAE, an international travel hub, from its travel corridors list.
Most coronavirus restrictions have been lifted in the UAE, but social distancing and mask-wearing in public are still required. Visitors have flocked to Dubai during its peak winter tourism season as other countries impose new lockdowns.
The Gulf Arab state has also ramped up its immunisation campaign, ranking second behind Israel in terms of its vaccination rate. Emirati officials have said they aim to vaccinate more than 50% of its roughly 9 million population in the first quarter of this year.
“Taking the vaccine is every individual’s responsibility to protect their health, families and wider society,” UAE Vice-President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also ruler of Dubai, said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
In total, the UAE has recorded 236,225 infections and 717 deaths. The total for the six Gulf Arab states stands at more than 1.12 million coronavirus cases, with Saudi Arabia holding the highest individual count at 364,096.
Updated
US sees new record of 4,327 Covid deaths in a single day
The US recorded its highest single daily death toll of the pandemic on Tuesday, according to figures published by Johns Hopkins university.
According to the new figures, yesterday the US recorded 215,805 new coronavirus cases, and 4,327 further deaths. This takes the total death toll in the pandemic in the US to 380,485, and is the highest daily death figure recorded by the university since the pandemic began. The previous highest figure of 4,194 was recorded on 7 January.
The Covid Tracking Project reports that 131,326 people are currently hospitalized in the US with Covid-19. It is the 42nd day in a row that the figure has exceeded 100,000.
Christina Maxouris at CNN reports that over the past week, the US has averaged more than 3,300 deaths every day, a jump of more than 200% since November. She writes:
Arizona reported a record-high 5,082 hospitalized Covid-19 patients Tuesday and on the same day broke a second record: more than 1,180 patients with the virus in ICU beds. In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards extended an order which keeps Covid-19 mitigation measures in place for nearly another month, saying the state was seeing a “huge spike” in cases and hospitalizations.
Yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that more than 27.6 million vaccine doses have so far been distributed in the US, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced changes in the distribution plan to try and speed up the roll-out.
Azar said “We are telling states they should open vaccinations to all people 65 and over, and all people under age 65 with a comorbidity with some form of medical documentation.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s leading immunologists, said: “When people are ready to get vaccinated, we’re going to move right on to the next level, so that there are not vaccine doses that are sitting in a freezer or refrigerator where they could be getting into people’s arm.”
Here’s the latest edition of the Guardian’s coronavirus world map:
In Denmark, parliament will close some of its activities, including debates on several new bills, for a month due to the coronavirus epidemic, Reuters said that the news wire Ritzau reported on Wednesday, citing the parliament’s speaker.
Last week, Denmark announced it would only allow flights into the country where every passenger had tested negative for Covid-19 and issued guidance advising citizens against all travel abroad.
Updated
A unit of Sinovac Biotech could double annual production capacity of its CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine to 1bn doses by February, the Chinese group’s chairman said on Wednesday.
More than 7m doses of CoronaVac vaccine, one of the three China has included in its emergency vaccination programme, have so far been supplied to regions including the city of Beijing and Guangdong province, Sinovac Biotech Chairman Yin Weidong told a news conference, according to a Reuters report.
While the first phase of Sinovac Life Sciences’ existing production line can make 500m CoronaVac doses in one year, another with annual capacity of 500m doses could become operational by February, Yin said.
Researchers in Brazil on Tuesday released new efficacy data for the vaccine, for which there have been varying rates of success from trial sites in three countries.
The data (see earlier post) showed the vaccine was just 50.4% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in the Brazilian trial, a major disappointment for Brazil. The results are barely enough for regulatory approval and stand well below the rate announced last week based on partial data.
Trials in different countries are designed differently, but the CoronaVac doses being tested came from the same batch, Yin said.
“These phase 3 clinical trial results are sufficient to prove that CoronaVac vaccine’s safety and effectiveness are good around the world,” he added.
Updated
South African police have arrested more than 7,000 people caught without face masks in public since the end of December, the government said on Wednesday.
Officials made face coverings mandatory in May last year at the same time as they gradually eased movement restrictions imposed in March to stem coronavirus infections.
A partial lockdown was reinstated last month as the virus resurged, fuelled by a more transmissible variant.
Officials at the time vowed to be more stringent in enforcing the regulations, which include an alcohol sales ban.
In a statement reported by AFP, police minister Bheki Cele on Wednesday said more than 20,000 people had been arrested or fined since December 29 for breaching the new rules, including 7,455 people detained for not wearing face masks.
More than 830 people have also been arrested for selling, dispensing and transporting alcohol.
“Law enforcement agencies do not enjoy making these arrests,” Cele said. “However, officers … are left with no choice in the interest of saving lives.”
More than 342,000 people have been arrested for contravening coronavirus measures since South Africa declared a national state of disaster in March 2020.
The country is the continent’s worst-affected by the pandemic, with more than 1.2m coronavirus cases and 34,000 deaths recorded to date.
Updated
Indonesia has reported 11,278 new coronavirus infections and 306 new deaths, official figures showed.
Earlier on Wednesday, president Joko Widodo became the first person in the country to receive a shot of a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine, as health officials began an immunisation campaign in one of the world’s most populous countries.
There is no need to close schools in France but new restrictive measures must be taken to slow further coronavirus infections and in particular the spread of the British variant, the government’s top scientific adviser said on Wednesday.
“We think English data on the variant are not definitive enough to lead us to recommend the closing of schools in France,” Delfraissy told franceinfo radio (see earlier post).
He said the British variant accounted for an estimated 1% of the new Covid-19 infections in France. “The immediate challenge is not to eliminate it but to slow its progression by taking a number of restrictive measures,” he continued.
Updated
In the UK, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine will accelerate over the coming weeks as more supplies become available.
Hancock told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that 2.3 million people across the UK had received the jab and health services were “on track” to deliver it to 14 million by mid-February.
“The rate-limiting step on the rollout is the supply of the vaccine itself. We are now managing to get that supply more than we have done before and it will increase over the next few weeks,” he said.
“We have the capacity to get that vaccine out. The challenge is that we need to get the vaccine in.”
Updated
Taiwan health authorities said on Wednesday they had confirmed the first case of the highly transmissible South African variant of Covid-19, in an eSwatini national being treated in hospital.
Reuters reported that the central epidemic command centre said the infection had been confirmed on Tuesday by laboratory test.
The man, in his 30s, had arrived in Taiwan to work on 24 December and began developing symptoms while in quarantine and was initially confirmed to have Covid-19 on 3 January, according to details previously released by the government.
Taiwan has reported 843 Covid-19 cases including seven deaths. Almost all the cases have been imported and about 100 people are being treated in hospital.
Updated
Germany will not be able to lift all measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus at the beginning of February, health minister Jens Spahn said, stressing the need to further reduce contacts to fend off a more virulent strain of the virus.
“One thing is already evident: It will not be possible to loosen all restrictions on 1 February,” Reuters said he told German radio on Wednesday, adding it would take another two or three months for the effects of the vaccination campaign to kick in.
Bild reported on Tuesday that Chancellor Angela Merkel had told a meeting of lawmakers that the lockdown could last until the start of April.
The German cabinet is set to meet later on Wednesday to approve stricter controls on people entering the country after a national lockdown was last week tightened and extended to the end of January.
The new rules will require people arriving from countries with high case loads or where a new, more virulent strain of the virus is circulating to take a test for the disease.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases reported 19,600 new infections on Wednesday. The death toll rose by 1,060 to 42,637, the tally showed.
Updated
Hospital admissions in part of UK fall for first time since Christmas
In the UK, the Health Service Journal has reported that coronavirus hospital admissions have fallen in London and the south-east for the first time since Christmas.
According to HSJ, the news gives “the first substantive indication that the third wave may have peaked in two of the regions where it began”.
The rolling seven-day total of admissions fell by 131 to 5,919 on 10 January. But the number of admissions recorded that day – 734 – was still one of the 20 busiest days since the pandemic began.
You can read the HSJ story here.
Updated
In France, government scientific adviser Jean-François Delfraissy has said it is too late to stop the so-called “British variant” reaching the country but that it may still be possible to slow the spread of the “South African variant” by limiting travel.
Delfraissy also said that if France is able to vaccinate 12 million people by April, the crisis can be behind the country by September.
These snap lines are from Reuters – we’ll bring you fuller quotes when we have them.
Updated
NHS patients could be moved to hotels to ease pressure, says Hancock
The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, (see earlier post) has said the NHS is considering plans to move some patients into hotels to ease pressure on hospitals.
Hancock told Sky News: “There are huge pressures on the NHS and we are looking to all different ways that we can relieve those pressures.
“We would only ever do that if it was clinically the right thing for somebody. In some cases, people need sit-down care, they don’t actually need to be in hospital bed.
“It isn’t a concrete proposal by any means but it is something that we look at as we look at all contingencies.”
Updated
In South Korea, a court on Wednesday acquitted the leader of a Christian sect charged with obstructing efforts to stamp out one of the world’s first big surges of novel coronavirus infections, the Yonhap news agency said.
Lee Man-hee, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded and heads the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, had been accused of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act by providing incomplete lists of church members requested by health authorities to trace suspected coronavirus infections.
The church was at the centre of the first major Covid-19 epidemic outside China early last year, with nearly 4,200 of its 310,000 followers infected after attending a service in the city of Daegu.
Authorities at the time complained that Lee was not fully cooperating when it came to providing the names of everyone who might have attended services at the church.
Prosecutors had sought a five-year jail term and 3m won ($2,700) in fines for Lee. Lee denied any wrongdoing. He apologised that some church members had caught the virus.
The Suwon district court acquitted him of the charges, saying lists of church members did not constitute key elements of epidemiological surveys as defined in the law, Yonhap said.
The court, however, found Lee guilty of embezzling 5.6bn won ($5.11m) of church funds to build a residence, and using government facilities for religious services without approval, handing him a four-year suspended prison sentence.
The church welcomed Lee’s acquittal of the Covid-19 accusations but expressed “deep regret” that he had been found guilty of the other charges.
It said it would appeal to prove his innocence.
Updated
In the UK, health secretary Matt Hancock has said coronavirus lockdown restrictions will remain in place in England for as “long as they are necessary”.
Hancock said the vaccination programme was “on track” to deliver the jab to the 14 million most vulnerable people by 15 February. However, he told Sky News it was “impossible to know” when restrictions could be eased.
“We will keep the restrictions in place not a moment longer than they are necessary, but we will keep them in place as long as they are necessary,” he said.
“These measures that we have got in place that we hope to be able to lift, and we should be able to lift when we have been able to protect through vaccination those who are vulnerable – right now the vaccination is not in a position to do that.”
Asked about the row over food parcels given to parents during lockdown, which focused on the schools catering company Chartwell after pictures emerged of the apparently meagre contents of the firm’s parcels, Hancock said: “The company has apologised and rightly so.”
Updated
Japan expands state of emergency as infections surge
Japan is set to expand a coronavirus state of emergency on Wednesday to seven more regions including the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto, as infections surge nationwide.
AFP reported that while the country’s outbreak remains comparatively small, with about 4,100 deaths overall, there has been a sharp rise in cases this winter and medics say hospitals are under heavy strain in the worst-affected areas.
The month-long emergency measure – which unlike strict lockdowns elsewhere in the world carries no enforcement mechanism – was implemented in the greater Tokyo area last week.
It asks restaurants and bars to close by 8pm, with residents requested to avoid unnecessary outings and telework strongly encouraged.
“We want to have a declining trend in infections by 7 February, by all means,” said Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of Japan’s pandemic response, referring to the period’s planned end date.
The move, expected to be announced by prime minister Yoshihide Suga this evening, means that, from Thursday, 11 of the country’s 47 prefectures will be under the state of emergency – accounting for about 60% of its GDP.
Updated
Good morning. This is Archie Bland picking up the global coronavirus liveblog from Helen Sullivan, and beginning in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang, where the government has declared an ““emergency state”, telling residents not to leave the province unless absolutely necessary, and to cancel conferences and gatherings.
That was in response to the province of 37.5 million people finding 28 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, including 12 that were asymptomatic.
Three infections were found in the provincial capital Harbin, which is hosting a famous ice sculpture festival that is usually a big draw for tourists.
Suihua city, a short car journey north and home to more than 5.2 million people, was sealed off on Monday after reporting one confirmed case and 45 asymptomatic cases.
China has recorded the biggest daily jump in Covid cases in more than five months (see earlier post), despite three cities in lockdown, increased testing and other measures aimed at preventing another wave of infections in the world’s second biggest economy.
Here’s our latest story from China:
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today.
Before the pandemic news resumes, here is a video of hummingbirds having a pool party to bring your blood pressure down:
this is the sweetest thing I have ever seen https://t.co/KbZrGl3jAt
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) January 13, 2021
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The African Union has secured close to 300 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in the largest such agreement yet for Africa, an official said on Tuesday. The 300m doses are being secured independently of the global Covax effort aimed at distributing Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, the official said.
- New data shows 50.4% efficacy for China’s CoronaVac vaccine in Brazil. A coronavirus vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech was just 50.4% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in a Brazilian trial, researchers said on Tuesday, barely enough for regulatory approval and well below the rate announced last week.
- US CDC expands pre-flight Covid testing. Anyone flying to the US will soon need to show proof of a negative test for Covid-19, health officials announced on Tuesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requirement expands on a similar one announced late last month for passengers coming from the UK. The order takes effect in two weeks.
- English Covid rules have changed 64 times since March, says barrister. Lockdown rules in England have been changed at least 64 times by the government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a human rights barrister has calculated, amid growing calls for clearer guidance for the public.
- US Operation Warp Speed chief resigns. Operation Warp Speed Chief Adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui has resigned at the request of the incoming Biden team, in a plan that would see him stay in the role for a month to help with the transition.
- WHO mission will fly directly to Wuhan. The World Health Organization’s investigative mission will fly directly to Wuhan, China’s foreign ministry has confirmed. In a regular press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, spokesman for China’s ministry, Zhao Lijian, said the team would fly directly from Singapore into Wuhan. Zhao didn’t answer questions about whether the team would quarantine, and gave no further details.
- China sees highest daily case rise in five months. China has recorded the biggest daily jump in Covid cases in more than five months, despite three cities in lockdown, increased testing and other measures aimed at preventing another wave of infections in the world’s second biggest economy.
- Indonesia’s president receives vaccine. Indonesian president Joko Widodo became the first person in the country to receive a shot of a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday morning, as health officials began an immunisation campaign in one of the world’s most populous countries.
- Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has tested positive for coronavirus and is getting treatment to combat symptoms, according to a statement issued by his office late on Tuesday.
- Micronesia president said first Covid case not a threat to country. The president of the Federated States of Micronesia has said the country’s first case of Covid-19 – detected in a sailor on board a ship held in an island lagoon – does not pose a threat to the wider community.
- California lifts stay-home order for Sacramento region. California lifted a stay-at-home order in the 13-county Sacramento region on Tuesday as hospital conditions improved, a rare turn of good news as the state pushes through what Governor Gavin Newsom called “its most intense surge” of the coronavirus.
- Tokyo 2020 head says ‘impossible’ to delay Olympics as public opposition grows. The president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, has said preparations for the summer Olympics will continue, despite growing doubts that the Games can be held while the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
Updated
Tokyo 2020 head says 'impossible' to delay Olympics as public opposition grows
The president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, has said preparations for the summer Olympics will continue, despite growing doubts that the Games can be held while the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, said postponing the Games a second time would be “absolutely impossible”.
“Spring will always come, morning will surely come even after long nights,” he said during an online event on Tuesday organised by the Kyodo news agency. “Believing in that, to give joy and hope to many people, we will do our best until the end.”
The Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in March last year to postpone Tokyo 2020 by a year due to the pandemic, and agreed that a second delay was out of the question. The only remaining options are to go head this summer or cancel the games altogether:
More now on the resignation of Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser for Operation Warp Speed.
Slaoui will be available to the incoming Joe Biden administration as a consultant for about four weeks, a Biden transition official told Reuters late on Tuesday. Slaoui’s role leading the Covid-19 vaccine development for the government effort is expected to be diminished after 20 January, according to CNBC, which first reported the development.
The Biden team has not asked Slaoui to stay past his current contract, which includes a 30 days’ notice before termination, CNBC said.
The US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Operation Warp Speed, did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday.
Operation Warp Speed is the US government’s program to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.
The operation started last year as a national effort by the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Defense, aiming to provide substantial quantities of safe and effective vaccines for Americans by January 2021.
However, only about 2.6 million Americans had received a Covid-19 vaccine going into the last day of December, putting the United States far short of the government’s target to vaccinate 20 million people last month. “We know that it should be better and we are working hard to make it better,” Slaoui said at a media briefing late in December.
According to Politico, Slaoui had said he planned to step down by early this year, but last week he said he “decided to extend that in order to ensure that the operation continues to perform the way it has performed through the transition of administration.”
California lifts stay-home order for Sacramento region
California lifted a stay-at-home order in the 13-county Sacramento region on Tuesday as hospital conditions improved, a rare turn of good news as the state pushes through what Governor Gavin Newsom called “its most intense surge” of the coronavirus.
The order imposed 10 December banned gatherings outside a household and shuttered or restricted many businesses. With virus cases and hospitalisations more stable now, the region can resume outdoor dining and worship services, reopen hair and nail salons and other businesses, and increase capacity at retailers Gatherings of up to three households are allowed.
Newsom made the announcement in a social media post that remined people to wear masks, stay home as much as possible and offered the hopeful promise: “There is a light at the end of this tunnel.”
Three of the state’s five regions — the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California — remain under the stay-at-home order because their intensive care capacity at hospitals is severely limited.
California has seen an enormous surge of cases, hospitalizations and deaths since Thanksgiving. The state is averaging 42,000 new virus cases a day and recorded 3,500 virus deaths in the last week. On Monday the death toll topped 30,000 since the pandemic began.
Health officials are warning that hospitalizations and deaths are likely to continue to increase as people who contracted the virus during the holidays get sicker.
Our full story on the latest from China now:
More now on the African Union securing 300m vaccine doses, via Reuters:
African officials have approached at least 10 vaccine manufacturers and developers as the continent seeks to vaccinate 60% of its population of 1.3 billion people, or about 780 million people. The Africa CDC has said some 1.5bn doses are needed for that, assuming two doses per person. It estimates the effort will cost some $10bn.
Ndembi has said he’s very optimistic that can be achieved within two years. The Africa CDC has warned that taking much longer than that risks having the virus become endemic in parts of the African continent.
In an address to South Africans on Monday night, Ramaphosa announced the country had secured 20 million vaccine doses “to be delivered mainly in the first half of the year.”
He gave no further details but said “we will make further announcements as we conclude our negotiations with vaccine manufacturers.”
Africa has scrambled on multiple fronts to obtain vaccine supplies. Ramaphosa said the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team recently created under the AU “has done tremendous work to secure vaccine doses” through what he called intensive engagement with manufacturers.
“The South African government has also been engaging directly with several vaccine manufacturers for over six months,” he said.
“Given the massive global demand for vaccines and the vastly greater purchasing power of wealthier countries, we are exploring all avenues to get as many vaccine doses as soon as possible,” Ramaphosa said.
African Union secures nearly 300m vaccine doses
The African Union has secured close to 300 million COovid-19 vaccine doses in the largest such agreement yet for Africa, a continental official said Tuesday.
AP: Nicaise Ndembi, senior science adviser for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press in an interview that the current AU chair, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, is expected to announce the news on Wednesday.
The 300 million doses are being secured independently of the global Covax effort aimed at distributing Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, Ndembi said.
“We have reached the final stage of our deals,” he said, referring questions about who will be providing the vaccines and at what cost to the upcoming announcement.
The news comes as coronavirus infections spike again in parts of Africa, especially South Africa, where a rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus now makes up most of the new cases. The continent over the weekend surpassed 3 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, with more than 1.2 million in South Africa.
“We plan to have these by the end of the first quarter” of 2021, Ndembi said of the nearly 300 million doses, which will be allocated on the continental platform the AU set up last year to make it easier for Africa’s 54 countries to pool their purchasing power and buy pandemic supplies in bulk.
“We’re expecting 600 million doses from the Covax facility,” he said, but African officials are still waiting on the details, so “we’re happy we have alternative solutions.”
Updated
Micronesia president said first Covid case not a threat to country
The president of the Federated States of Micronesia has said the country’s first case of Covid-19 - detected in a sailor on board a ship held in an island lagoon - does not pose a threat to the wider community.
David Panuelo’s government announced last week that a lone sailor on board the government ship, MV Chief Mailo, had tested positive to the coronavirus after returning from the Philippines.
In a nationally televised address broadcast this week, Panuelo said the crew was permitted to return to the country after being tested for the virus, and because they feared piracy
“The crew was rightly fearful of increasing numbers of pirates in the region which contributed to their fears. So I could either abandon the ship that the government uses to service the state of Chuuk and leave its crew and the 12 year-old boy from Poluwat outside of our care or I could bring them home.”
Panuelo said the single case had been successfully quarantined, with the ship held in Pohnpei lagoon under guard.
“Citizens across the nation should remain calm… do not panic because the situation is contained.
“The individual with Covid-19 on the Chief Mailo does not present any immediate risk of the virus spreading to the broader community in Pohnpei,” he said.
The Federated States of Micronesia have recorded zero cases of Covid-19 before this case.
Schools, churches and business remain open and there is no mandated requirement to wear masks in the archipelago, though it is encouraged, along with social distancing.
Already, FSM has received 9000 doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine from the United States, with which it has a compact of free association. An inoculation program for the 100,000-strong population has already begun.
Pacific island nations have been among the most successful in the world at keeping out the virus after closing their borders early in response to the threat, despite the huge cost to tourism-dependent economies.
Several island nations which were virus-free have lost that status recently with Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu falling to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world.
However, several other island countries including Tonga, Palau, Nauru and Kiribati are believed to remain virus-free.
Updated
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales diagnosed with coronavirus
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales tested positive for the coronavirus and is getting treatment to combat symptoms, according to a statement issued by his office late on Tuesday.
“He is currently stable and is receiving medical attention,” the statement said, without providing details on his symptoms.
Last week, 61-year old Morales participated in group meetings with coca growers in Cochabamba in the central part of the country.
The critical-care wards of major hospitals in Bolivia and neighboring Peru have been near collapse after end-of-year holidays, reflecting regional health concerns as much of Latin America struggles to secure adequate Covid-19 vaccine supplies.
While daily cases remain below last year’s peak, depleted resources, weary medical workers and a recent rush of severe cases are taxing already ailing healthcare systems from Chile to Mexico, officials say.
Bolivia has had 176,761 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 9,454 deaths.
Indonesia's president receives vaccine
Indonesian president Joko Widodo became the first person in the country to receive a shot of a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday morning, as health officials began an immunisation campaign in one of the world’s most populous countries.
Indonesia, which is struggling to contain one of the worst outbreaks in South-East Asia, has approved the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use.
The vaccine will be rolled out over the coming months, with priority given to health care workers, civil servants and other vulnerable groups. It will be free to all Indonesian citizens.
To reach herd immunity, the government estimates that it must vaccinate 181.5 million people (about 67%) of its population. This will be a mammoth and complex task for health teams working across the sprawling archipelago, especially in areas where transport and infrastructure are less developed.
Two shots of the jab must be administered, and the vaccines - which have been protected by armed guards since arriving in the country - must be kept at cooler temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius.
“We know that the cold-chain distribution is not complete. This is the obstacle,” Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s health minister said on Tuesday.
Mexican health authorities will make a decision this week on whether to authorize Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine after getting access to data on it, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Tuesday.
Reuters: Lopez-Gatell said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had instructed authorities to “proceed speedily” with the process.
“The file has been under review since the weekend by (health regulator) COFEPRIS and very soon there will be a decision regarding the authorization for emergency use, as occurred with the other two vaccines,” he said at a regular government news conference.
He later said Cofepris was expected to make a decision this week on authorization for emergency use in Mexico.
Lopez-Gatell, Mexico’s coronavirus czar, said on Monday evening that Mexico was considering acquiring 24 million doses of Sputnik V.
Mexico has already authorized the vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc with BioNTech SE and AstraZeneca Plc.
Lopez-Gatell said he met with Russian officials to discuss the vaccine during a trip last week to Argentina, whose government has started rolling out Sputnik V to health workers.
China sees highest daily case rise in five months
China has recorded the biggest daily jump in Covid cases in more than five months, despite three cities in lockdown, increased testing and other measures aimed at preventing another wave of infections in the world’s second biggest economy.
Most of the new patients were reported near the capital Beijing, but a province in northeast China also saw a rise in new cases, official data showed on Wednesday.
The National Health Commission said in a statement that a total of 115 new confirmed cases were reported in the mainland compared with 55 a day earlier. This was the highest daily increase since July 30.
The commission said 107 of the new cases were local infections. Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing, accounted for 90 of the cases, while northeastern Heilongjiang province reported 16 new cases.
The number of new cases reported in recent days remains a small fraction of what China saw at the height of the outbreak in early 2020.
Hebei has put three cities - Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang - into lockdown as part of the efforts to keep the virus from spreading further, while Beijing city authorities have stepped up screening and prevention measures to prevent another cluster from developing there.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 38 from 81 cases a day earlier.
Updated
WHO mission will fly directly to Wuhan
The World Health Organisation’s investigative mission will fly directly to Wuhan, China’s foreign ministry has confirmed. In a regular press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, spokesman for China’s ministry, Zhao Lijian, said the team would fly directly from Singapore into Wuhan. Zhao didn’t answer questions about whether the team would quarantine, and gave no further details.
The WHO delegation of scientists tasked to research the origins of the virus are expected to arrive in China tomorrow, after almost a year of negotiation. They had expected to travel to Wuhan and talk with scientists on the ground, in the city where the outbreak is believed to have begun, but Chinese authorities had been cagey about the details and nothing had been confirmed.
Members of the WHO team began departing their home countries early last week, only to discover Chinese officials hadn’t finalised necessary permissions. The head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “very disappointed” but Chinese authorities said the two sides were still in discussions.
The research mission is a priority for the WHO, and has widespread international backing, however observers have urged people to manage expectations about the team coming to any conclusions on the trip, and researchers have said the mission is not about apportioning blame.
“This is about reducing the risk. And the media can help by avoiding Trump style finger-pointing. Our job is not political,” said Fabian Leendertz, professor in the epidemiology of highly pathogenic microorganisms at Germany’s public health body, the Robert Koch Institute, and part of the team, yesterday.
Updated
US Operation Warp Speed chief resigns - reports
Operation Warp Speed Chief Adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui has resigned at the request of the incoming Biden team, in a plan that would see him stay in the role for a month to help with the transition, CNBC reported on Tuesday.
The chief adviser for the US Covid-19 vaccine program, Slaoui’s role leading vaccine development for the government effort is expected to be diminished after 20 January, CNBC said.
In England, thousands of hospital patients are to be discharged early to hotels or their own homes to free up beds for Covid-19 sufferers needing life-or-death care, the Guardian has learned.
Hospital chiefs in England intend to start discharging patients early on a scale never seen before, as an emergency measure to create “extra emergency contingency capacity” and stop parts of the NHS collapsing, senior sources said.
Documents seen by the Guardian also revealed that the NHS is asking care homes to start accepting Covid patients directly from hospitals and without a recent negative test, as long as they have been in isolation for 14 days and have shown no new symptoms:
And now a break from the bad news:
English Covid rules have changed 64 times since March, says barrister
Lockdown rules in England have been changed at least 64 times by the government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a human rights barrister has calculated, amid growing calls for clearer guidance for the public.
Adam Wagner, of Doughty Street Chambers, said that new national regulations, local regulations, regulations on face coverings or rules on travel quarantine have passed into law on average every four-and-a-half days since the first restrictions were introduced in the spring:
In the UK, people who were trapped in poverty before the pandemic have suffered the most financial damage during the crisis, according to a report warning the government that more support is needed to help hard-pressed families.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said those who had been struggling to make ends meet before March last year were more likely to work in precarious jobs or sectors of the economy that had been hardest hit by lockdowns.
Calling on the government to make permanent a £20 per week rise in universal credit benefit payments – which is due to be cut from the end of March – it said that many families had been pushed to the brink during the latest lockdown and had few resources left:
US CDC expands pre-flight Covid testing
Anyone flying to the US will soon need to show proof of a negative test for Covid-19, health officials announced Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requirement expands on a similar one announced late last month for passengers coming from the United Kingdom. The new order takes effect in two weeks, AP reports.
Covid is already widespread in the US, with more than 22 million cases reported to date, including more than 375,000 deaths. The new measures are designed to try to prevent travelers from bringing in newer forms of the virus that scientists say can spread more easily.
The CDC order applies to US citizens as well as foreign travellers. The agency said it delayed the effective date until 26 January to give airlines and travellers time to comply.
International travel to the US has already been decimated by pandemic restrictions put in place last March that banned most foreigners from Europe and other areas. Travel by foreigners to the US and by Americans to international destinations in December was down 76% compared to a year earlier, according to trade group Airlines for America.
The new restrictions require air passengers to get a Covid-19 test within three days of their flight to the US, and to provide written proof of the test result to the airline.
Travellers can also provide documentation that they had the infection in the past and recovered.
Airlines are ordered to stop passengers from boarding if they don’t have proof of a negative test.
“Testing does not eliminate all risk,” CDC Director Robert R. Redfield said in a statement. “But when combined with a period of staying at home and everyday precautions like wearing masks and social distancing, it can make travel safer, healthier, and more responsible by reducing spread on planes, in airports, and at destinations.”
The CDC order is “a reasonable approach” to reducing the risk of new variants from abroad entering the US, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s school of public health.
New data shows 50.4% efficacy for China's CoronaVac vaccine in Brazil
A coronavirus vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech was just 50.4% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in a Brazilian trial, researchers said on Tuesday, barely enough for regulatory approval and well below the rate announced last week.
Reuters: The latest results are a major disappointment for Brazil, as the Chinese vaccine is one of two that the federal government has lined up to begin immunisation during the second wave of the world’s second-deadliest Covid-19 outbreak.
Several scientists and observers blasted the Butantan biomedical center for releasing partial data just days ago that generated unrealistic expectations. The confusion may add to skepticism in Brazil about the Chinese vaccine, which President Jair Bolsonaro has criticized, questioning its “origins.”
“We have a good vaccine. Not the best vaccine in the world. Not the ideal vaccine,” said microbiologist Natalia Pasternak, criticizing Butantan’s triumphant tone.
Last week, the Brazilian researchers had celebrated results showing 78% efficacy against “mild-to-severe” Covid-19 cases, a rate they later described as “clinical efficacy.”
They said nothing at the time about another group of “very mild” infections among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.
Ricardo Palacios, medical director for clinical research at Butantan, said on Tuesday that the new lower efficacy finding included data on those “very mild” cases.
Piecemeal disclosures about Chinese vaccine trials globally have raised concerns that they are not subject to the same public scrutiny as U.S. and European alternatives.
Palacios and officials in the Sao Paulo state government, which funds Butantan, emphasised the good news that none of the volunteers inoculated with CoronaVac had to be hospitalised with Covid-19 symptoms.
Public health experts said that alone will be a relief for Brazilian hospitals that are buckling under the strain of surging case loads. However, it will take longer to curb the pandemic with a vaccine that allows so many mild cases.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments from around the world for the next few hours.
As always, the best place to find me is on Twitter @helenrsullivan. You can also send an email to: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
The Chinese-developed Coronavac Covid-19 vaccine has demonstrated a 50 percent efficacy following tests in Brazil, the organization in charge of its production in the South American country said on Tuesday.
Coronavac has been given to frontline health care workers in close contact with coronavirus patients.
Meanwhile the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has approved an order expanding coronavirus testing requirements for nearly all international air travellers starting 26 January.
- Angela Merkel suggested Germany’s hard lockdown may last a further eight to 10 weeks. Health officials are particularly concerned about the spread of the new, far more contagious variant from the UK, which is thought to have been in Germany for several weeks.
-
Portuguese president tests negative after a Covid positive test. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has now tested negative for coronavirus after a positive test saw him cancel all public engagements two weeks before a presidential election.
-
Chinese coronavirus vaccine shows 50% efficacy in Brazil. The Chinese-developed Coronavac Covid-19 vaccine has demonstrated a 50% efficacy following tests in Brazil.
- French coronavirus cases up 19,753 over 24 hours. France reported 19,753 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, while the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units continued to rise.
-
Greece urges EU to adopt vaccine certificate for travel. Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged the EU to adopt a “standardised” vaccination certificate to boost travel this year.
-
Dutch extend coronavirus curbs until 9 February. The Netherlands is extending coronavirus restrictions until 9 February as infections are still high and the government is “very concerned” about the UK variant of the disease, prime minister Mark Rutte said.
- UK private Covid test companies accused of failing to deliver. Private companies have been accused of cashing in on the coronavirus pandemic by offering expensive Covid tests to customers with urgent travel plans, then failing to deliver.
