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Summary of key events
Here are some of the key Covid-19 developments this evening:
- Britain will send another 1,000 ventilators to India, the government announced on Sunday, stepping up its support as India’s healthcare system struggles to cope with the surge of positive Covid-19 cases.
- Saudi Arabia to open land, sea, and air borders as of May 17, the interior minister announces on Twitter.
- Oman to ban the movement of people and vehicles from 7 pm to 4 am from May 8 to May 15, the state news agency said.
- South Africa to get the first delivery of its 4.5 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccines as the country begins to increase its vaccination efforts.
- The English city of Liverpool hosted a one-off music festival to test whether significant events spread Covid-19. Nearly 5,000 people took off their masks and ditched social distancing rules in the name of science and music.
- A maximum of 1,000 fans will be allowed on-court at Roland Garros this year, with capacity capped at 35%.
Nigeria to ban entry to non-Nigerian passengers
Nigeria will ban entry to non-Nigerian passengers who have been in Brazil, India or Turkey in the last fortnight due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus, health authorities have said.
While the travel ban does not apply to passengers who have just transited through these countries, all passengers will now have to show a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel rather than the previous 96-hour period.
According to data released by the national health ministry, Brazil recorded 1,202 Covid-19 deaths and 28,935 new cases on Sunday. The South American country has now registered 407,639 total coronavirus deaths, and 14,754,910 total confirmed cases.
Cases in Brazil have fallen since a late March peak, although they remain high by historical standards. Brazil’s Covid-19 death are second to those of the U.S.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson tweets about the 1,000 ventilators sent to help India.
We are playing our part in the fight against the coronavirus surge in India:
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 2, 2021
▪️ Sending 1,000 more ventilators to help the most severely affected
▪️ @CMO_England providing advice and expertise to his Indian counterpart
Find out more ➡️ https://t.co/vYj3Dp8CSU pic.twitter.com/gmaktUGmnj
A maximum of 1,000 fans will be allowed on-court at Roland Garros this year with capacity capped at 35%, French sports minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Sunday.
As part of the country’s progressive relaxation of restrictions, the “limit will be 35% of the capacity of the courts with a maximum of 1,000 people per court,” said Blanquer.
This year’s Roland Garros tennis tournament has already been pushed back by one week and will run from May 30 to June 13, with organisers hoping the Covid-19 situation in France will have improved enough that the number of fans increases.
The announced 1,000 people cap should rise to a ceiling of 5,000 spectators on the three main courts and a 65% limit from June 9, which will cover the final five days of the tournament.
Last year’s Roland Garros was delayed by four months due to the pandemic, AFP reports.
The English city of Liverpool hosted a one-off music festival to test whether big events spread Covid-19. Nearly 5,000 people took off their masks and ditched social distancing rules in the name of science and music.
After having tested negative for the virus, they attended the outdoor event and are supposed to get themselves tested again five days after the festival.
Their data will be used by the government’s Events Research Programme to help understand the effect of crowds on the spread of the virus.
Reuters reports:
It just feels so good, so amazing - it’s been too long,” said 19-year-old student Meghan Butler.
Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, said he hoped his pilot project would play a crucial part in getting outdoor events back on the calendar this year.
“Once they get into the show, they can party as though it’s 2019,” he said. “You can feel that the burden of the last 12 months, the last 15 months, has just been lifted a little.”
Sunday’s line-up in a purpose-built tent consisted of three acts: local singer-songwriter Zuzu, up-and-coming indie group The Lathums and headliners Blossoms.
Getting to headline the event was an honour, said Blossoms lead singer Tom Ogden: “It’s been 413 days since we were last on stage ... It’s been a long time, and we’re delighted to be here.”
Lasting less than six hours and with a 10 p.m. curfew, the festival was a far cry from the multi-day hedonism of bigger events like Glastonbury, but those attending said there was nowhere else they’d rather be.
“Let’s enjoy life, lets get back to normal!” said 25-year old labourer Harry Smith.
We’ll cherish this moment forever.
— THE LATHUMS (@TheLathums) May 2, 2021
Thank you Liverpool x pic.twitter.com/SPjV0fcuHo
Updated
South America produced some of the most horrific episodes of the pandemic last year, with mass graves dug in the Brazilian Amazon and bodies dumped on pavements in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil.
But at the end of 2020, there was some hope that with the onset of vaccination, the worst might have passed. Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, even claimed the crisis had reached its “tail-end” in December.
Such predictions have proved grotesquely misguided. Brazil’s death toll has since more than doubled to more than 400,000 after an explosion of infections caused a catastrophic healthcare collapse. At least 100,000 Brazilians have died in the last 36 days, and 100,000 more are expected to lose their lives before July.
Many of Brazil’s neighbours are also in dire straits, including Uruguay, which was once heralded as a regional success story but in April suffered its deadliest month. On Thursday, Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia all registered their highest daily death tolls with 561, 505 and 106 fatalities respectively.
The mayor of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, urged residents to stay at home, warning they faced “the most difficult two weeks – not of the pandemic, but of our lives”. The situation in authoritarian Venezuela is harder to gauge but also appears to be deteriorating.
Last week South America, home to 5.5% of the world’s population, suffered nearly 32% of all reported Covid deaths. “What’s happening is a catastrophe,” Argentina’s health minister, Carla Vizzotti, admitted as her country’s Covid restrictions were extended until late May.
Public health experts say South America’s agony is partly the result of longstanding structural problems, including underfunded health systems and poverty. Effective quarantine policies have proved impossible to enforce in a region where between 30% and 60% of workers are employed in the informal sector.
More on South America’s political and social crisis here:
Mexico’s health ministry reported 1,093 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 65 more deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,348,873 and fatalities to 217,233.
Outside Forum, a concert venue turned coronavirus test centre in Copenhagen’s university district, the queue was starting to build up before a sunny Labour Day weekend.
As he waited, Casper Beckers, 25, was monitoring the WhatsApp group where the night’s festivities were being planned, starting with a board game bar, then cocktails.
“It’s huge, such a stark contrast,” he said of the shift since Denmark introduced its coronapas (coronavirus pass) system last month, allowing much of the country to open up.
“The bars are all open and I finally get to see people again almost like normal. Last time I was at a bar, it was crowded to a point that I thought it was a little bit irresponsible.”
Since 21 April, places such as bars, cafes, restaurants, museums, sports stadiums and tattooists have been open for anyone who can show a negative test result less than 72 hours old, or a completed vaccination, using a coronapas digital certificate.
Currently, people have to provide evidence via the MinSundhed (My Health) app, or on a paper printout. At the end of May, the digital coronapas will be released in its final form. It will also be enough for people to be able to show that they have tested positive for coronavirus and recovered within the previous 180 days.
Test centres have been set up in every district across the nation, allowing a record 1 million people to be tested last week – about one in every four adults. Many get tested several times a week.
More on Denmark’s coronavirus pass here:
Turkey records 340 coronavirus-related deaths and 25,980 new cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday after three days into a nationwide lockdown.
Included in the rules of the 17-day lockdown are curfews, closed schools and many shuttered businesses, while funerals are to be held with fewer than 10 people who keep social distance.
According to a Reuters tally, Turkey ranks fourth globally in daily cases based on a seven-day average, down from second briefly last month.
After easing measure in early March, President Tayyip Erdogan’s government reversed course as infections surged to record highs. Turkey had a record 394 virus-related deaths on Friday, though new cases have dropped since April 21.
South Africa to get its first delivery of its 4.5 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccines as the country begin to increase its vaccination efforts, AFP reports.
In a statement, health ministry Zweli Mkhize said 325,260 doses were scheduled to land late on Sunday, with a similar number expected weekly until the end of the month.
“Thereafter, the vaccine supply will increase to an average of 636,480 doses weekly from 31 May, which will see us accumulating close to 4.5 million doses by the end of June,” Mkhize said.
As Africa’s worst affected country with over 1.5 million infections, including 54,406 fatalities, it has only vaccinated 318,670 people, of which are mainly health workers so far.
Earlier this year, South Africa purchased AstraZeneca vaccines and then sold them to other countries following fears that it would be less effective against a local variant of coronavirus.
Oman to ban the movement of people and vehicles from 7 pm to 4 am from May 8 to May 15, the state news agency said, citing the Supreme Committee for Combating Coronavirus.
During the same period, the country will also ban commercial activity except for supermarkets, gas stations, health institutions, and pharmacies.
Delivery services for all good are also exempt, Reuters reports.
UK to send 1,000 more ventilators to India
Britain will send another 1,000 ventilator’s to India, the government announced on Sunday, stepping up its support as India’s healthcare system struggles cope with the surge of positive Covid-19 cases.
India has reported more than 300,000 daily cases for more then 10 days straight, leaving hospitals, morgues and crematoriums overwhelmed.
The British government had previously agreed to send 600 medical devices, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators.
In a statement by the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said:
“This support will help urgently meet some of India’s acute needs, particularly oxygen for patients. We are determined to help our Indian friends in their hour of need.”
Reuters reports,
Top British health officials have also spoken to their Indian counterparts to offer advice.
Other nations, including the United States, Germany and Pakistan, are also providing support as the number of infections daily in India reached 392,488, with a total death toll of over 215,000.
The latest support from Britain comes ahead of a call between prime ministers Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi, scheduled for Tuesday, which will look at deepening bilateral ties.
The meeting replaces an in-person visit Johnson was due to make in April, but had to cancel due to the surge in infections.
Modi’s government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown, but nearly 10 Indian states and union territories have imposed some form of restrictions.
Updated
France reports 113 deaths and 9,888 new cases. The number of patients in intensive care units rose by 4 to 5,581 on Sunday, halting five consecutive days of decline, health ministry data showed. However, deaths were down from yesterdays figure of 195.
Updated
Italy recorded 144 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, down from yesterday’s figure of 226, the health ministry reports. New infections have also fallen to 9,148 compared to 12,965 the day before.
Since the outbreak first began in February last year, Italy has registered 121,177 deaths linked to Covid-19, the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK and the seventh-highest in the world.
Stable Covid-19 infection numbers in Germany are fueling hopes that intensive care units will not be overwhelmed, the head of the German hospital federation (DKG) told the tabloid newspaper Bild.
DKG President Gerald Gass was quoted as saying:
“The majority of hospitals in Germany are feeling a first, slight easing.
We are looking at about two weeks of relatively constant numbers in terms of new infections, which gives us confidence that we don’t have to be concerned about an exponential rise in patients in need of intensive care.”
Health officials said that a record number of vaccinations should help with the cases on Thursday, but they cautioned that it was too soon to sound the all-clear as hospitals remain overloaded.
Bild reports that 5,091 were currently being treated in intensive care units around Germany, down from a peak of 5,106 hits on April 26 amid the country’s third wave of the pandemic.
The UK records 14 deaths and 1,671 new cases of Covid-19. The case numbers are down by -10.2% and deaths down by -31.2% since the previous 7 days, Public Health England reports.
So far, 34.51m people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Updated
Saudi Arabia to open land, sea, and air borders as of May 17, the interior minister announces on Twitter.
Saudi citizens who have been vaccinated, those who have recovered from Covid-19 and those under 18 are allowed to travel.
اعتماد سريان رفع تعليق سفر المواطنين إلى خارج المملكة، ابتداءً من الساعة 1:00 من صباح يوم الاثنين 5 شوال 1442هـ الموافق 17 مايو 2021م. pic.twitter.com/dvlnIhJxdZ
— وزارة الداخلية (@MOISaudiArabia) May 2, 2021
More Covid-19 aid arrived in India as the daily death toll reached a new record. The country continues to struggle to contain one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, with nearly 400,000 new infections reported.
The United States, Russia and the UK sent emergency supplies, including oxygen generators, face masks and vaccines.
On Saturday, India expanded its vaccination programme to all adults, but many states struggle with vaccine shortages despite a vaccine export freeze.
Across the nation this weekend, there were long queues at vaccination centres, with many people desperate to be inoculated against the raging virus that has overwhelmed both hospitals and crematoriums, AFP reports.
Megha Srivastava, 35, at a private immunisation centre in the capital New Delhi, said, “We are here early in the morning to get vaccinated.”
“It is a necessity now. We are seeing so many people testing positive.”
Other Covid-19 surges in Brazil and Canada have seen death toll approaching 3.2 million even as many nations ramp up vaccination drives.
Hi, I’m Edna Mohamed; I’ll be taking over the blog for the next few hours and giving you the latest coronavirus news as it happens. If you have any tips, you can message me on Twitter or drop me an email here: edna.mohamed.casual@theguardian.com
Summary
- India recorded a number of deaths on Sunday. New coronavirus cases fell slightly on Sunday but deaths due to the infection jumped by a record 3,689, with one more state going into lockdown as the nation’s healthcare system struggles to cope with a massive caseload.
- Secondary school pupils in England will be offered Covid-19 vaccinations from September under plans being developed by the NHS, according to The Sunday Times.It reports that “core planning scenario” documents compiled by NHS officials include the offer of a single dose of the Pfizer jab to children aged 12 and over when the new school year starts.
- A major new pilot scheme could see the end of people in England having to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone who has Covid. The government-backed research will trial giving people daily lateral flow tests for seven days instead of asking people quarantine for 10 days.
- Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has urged the British public to keep their resolve for the “last lap” of the fight against coronavirus, saying there is only “a little bit more time” until all legal restrictions on social interaction are removed.
- Campaigners call for urgent action to prevent oxygen shortage in Covid-hit countries. They warn that scenes in India of families desperately searching for oxygen for critically ill Covid patients will be repeated in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other countries in Africa and around the world unless a significant international effort is made to ensure all countries have good oxygen supplies.
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A total of 41,730,517 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between December 8 and May 1, according to NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 452,789 on the previous day.
In the UK, the first “near-normal” post-Covid concert in the UK will take place in Liverpool tonight, with 5,000 giddy music lovers crowding into a festival tent with no masks, and no social distancing, write North of England Editor Helen Pidd.
The bands and audience have agreed to act as guinea pigs for scientists studying the safety of mass events as part of the government’s Event Research Programme. A negative Covid test is a condition of entry, with concert-goers asked to take a further test next week.
Blossoms will headline their first gig since 15 March 2020, eight days before Boris Johnson put the UK into a then-unprecedented lockdown.
The guitar group, from Stockport in Greater Manchester, thought they might be out of action for a few months. Their accountant worked out they could spend 18 months off the road before they’d have to get other jobs, but they quietly hoped they’d at least be able to hit the festival circuit to tour their number one album, Foolish Loving Spaces.
In the end, they stayed at home for all of 2020 and will make their 2021 live debut in Sefton Park on Sunday evening.
Ticket holders had to be over 18 and registered with a GP in the Liverpool city region to attend. Contractors from outside the area, including journalists, had to take live Covid tests on Zoom on Saturday in order to gain accreditation.
The concert will be the biggest seen in the UK since Covid hit last March, though there were smaller experiments last summer, including a pop-up venue in Newcastle called the Virgin Money Unity Arena, which saw 2,500 people sitting in their household bubbles in 550 viewing spaces. Andrew Lloyd Webber also organised a series of indoor concerts for socially distant audiences at his Palladium venue in London, which had been fitted with door handles that use silver ions said to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses.
Beforehand, Blossoms said they weren’t nervous, despite all being far too young and healthy to qualify for a vaccine yet.
Two of them had caught Covid in autumn while recording their fourth album, along with their producer, James Skelly from the Coral.
They got off lightly. Frontman Tom Ogden compared it to ‘“a bad cold”, while drummer Joe Donavan said he wouldn’t even have known he had Coronavirus had he not taken a test.
They were all pleased to have been asked to play the pilot, with Ogden reasoning that they received the invitation because “we’re big enough to get a crowd in but not big enough to say no.”
They have all missed playing live. “We made our name touring being a prolific live band, so it’s where we belong,” said Ogden. “It’s a real honour,” said Charlie Salt, the bassist. “If we end up being the catalyst for live music to come back again, it’s great.”
The incumbent chief minister’s party in India’s West Bengal state has defeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in a state election held as the coronavirus pandemic surged to crisis levels.
From Reuters:
Modi has been criticised for focusing on the elections instead of making the pandemic his top priority.
Some expert blame the federal election commission for allowing rallies and voting in which large crowds flouted rules on social distancing and mask-wearing.
Mamata Banerjee, 66, is set to be the chief of West Bengal for the third time after her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) won a two-thirds majority, taking more than 200 seats in the 294-seat state assembly, election commission officials said. Final counting for some seats was still underway.
Banerjee is now India’s only woman chief minister.
Despite the defeat, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made substantial gains, making it the main opposition party as its tally in the state legislature went to nearly 80 seats from just three seats won in 2016.
Modi, his colleagues and regional politicians campaigned aggressively in five state elections despite the pandemic.
England carries out 41.7m vaccinations between December 2020 and May 2021
A total of 41,730,517 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between December 8 and May 1, according to NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 452,789 on the previous day.
NHS England said 28,895,159 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 123,619 on the previous day, while 12,835,358 were a second dose, an increase of 329,170.
Regional breakdown:
London: 3,611,726 first doses and 1,527,060 second doses (total: 5,138,786)
Midlands: 5,550,858 first doses and 2,379,828 second doses (total: 7,930,686)
- East of England: 3,462,371 first doses and 1,547,278 second doses, making 5,009,649 in total
- North East and Yorkshire: 4,565,870 first and 2,080,505 second doses (6,646,375)
- North West: 3,669,516 first and 1,715,269 second doses (5,384,785)
- South East: 4,723,171 first and 2,068,576 second doses (6,791,747)
- South West: 3,134,123 first and 1,476,043 second doses (4,610,166)
India’s prime minister has suffered a rare political defeat in a key state election, amid signs of a voter backlash over his handling of the coronavirus disaster as the country recorded a record number of deaths.
Narendra Modi had been expected to make significant gains on Sunday in West Bengal, one of few states where his rightwing Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) does not have a parliamentary majority. Instead, Mamata Banerjee, a powerful regional politician and prominent Modi critic, won a third term as chief minister.
The results gave Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress a comfortable majority, with her party clocking up 216 seats in the 294-seat assembly. The BJP won 75 seats, up on its performance in 2016 when it got just three but well short of predictions.
Updated
This is heartbreaking reporting from Amrit Dhillon in Delhi:
During the past week, when oxygen was periodically running out at Ganga Ram hospital, one thing Dr Chahat Verma found unbearable was the look on the faces of patients when the oxygen saturation levels of another patient in the ward plunged.
“They’d lie there, watching the patient gasping, unable to breathe, and they knew we weren’t giving oxygen because there wasn’t any. The look in their eyes was one of pure terror. They knew it could be their turn next,” she said.
Verma, 26, is in her second year at Sir Ganga Ram, one of the most respected hospitals in the Indian capital. With so many of her colleagues testing positive for coronavirus, on some days she has been looking after 25-30 patients single-handedly.
To watch a patient die is, for fellow patients, deeply harrowing, particularly if as neighbours in the ward they had shared stories about their lives, families and plans. Then without warning they see a panicked scramble around the bed when the oxygen levels dip.
Verma said the clinical symptoms of the current strain of the virus that has engulfed the country seemed to be different from last year’s. “Young patients are perfectly stable. Suddenly their oxygen levels crash,” she said.
Also unlike last year, doctors and nurses have been unable to give patients oxygen that might save them. “It was very distressing. I saw them become drowsy, not reacting, as the heart and brain felt the effect of being denied oxygen. Every organ of the body needs oxygen. Its toll on the body when the body isn’t getting what it needs is awful,” Verma said.
Read the full story here:
While some countries are facing ever stricter lockdowns and souring infection rates, others are trying to rebuild a new normal - which includes getting clubbers back on the dancefloor.
On Friday, the First Dance in Liverpool saw 3,000 descend on an empty warehouse in Liverpool for an outdoor rave, , as part of a government scheme to pilot large-scale events.
Spain has been trying out something similar, as Reuters reports:
Mandatory face masks could not conceal their delight as clubbers in the Spanish city of Girona moved to the thumping beats of house music put on by a live DJ.
For the first time in eight months, Girona had some of its nightlife back this weekend thanks to a pilot digital pass scheme which authorities hope will allow for socialising without spreading coronavirus.
Since October, concerts have been banned in the northeastern region of Catalonia, while restaurants and bars were required to close at night since December.
But under a scheme to revive the hospitality sector, residents in Girona could for one evening obtain a digital pass allowing them to go to a concert or dine out at five restaurants.
For this, they had to download an app to their mobile phones and undergo an antigen COVID-19 test, show a negative PCR test or proof that they had already had coronavirus.
About 250 people snapped up the tickets for Saturday’s clubnight in 20 minutes.
Susana Bergaz, 26, a factory worker from Girona, said:
It seems great to me, because all of this is affecting us mentally. We might be physically well, but not psychologically, so I think this kind of activities, controlled and with security measures, are great.
The five restaurants which took part were allowed to operate at 80% capacity. The pass is valid for up to 36 hours and costs between 2.50 euros and 8.50 euros ($3-$10.50).
Organisers Blockchain Centre of Catalonia, a public body, said in a statement on Sunday:
The Open Girona initiative is a project that aims to test a model of digital testing and vaccination passes in order to reopen Girona in a safe and controlled way.
A trial concert in Barcelona in March where 5,000 people took rapid COVID-19 tests and crammed into a venue without social distancing did not drive up infections, organisers said earlier this month, giving hope to the moribund live-music sector.
($1 = 0.8321 euros) (Additional reporting Luis Felipe Castilleja, Jordi Rubio, Nacho Doce, Elena Rodriguez Writing by Graham Keeley Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has approved a new legislative programme of more than 25 bills that will implement planning reform and a new state aid regime, as he seeks to flesh out his post-pandemic economic recovery plan, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Johnson wants the programme, to be outlined in the Queen’s Speech on May 11, to deliver the meat of the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto and signal the start of a return to “normality” after COVID-19, the newspaper reported, citing people briefed on the plans.
The FT reports:
Among the measures will be legislation intended to boost economic growth and narrow regional inequalities — Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda — including a planning bill to clear obstacles to housebuilding and broader development. Under the bill, all councils in England will have to designate land either for development or preservation, as the government aims to hit a national target of building more than 300,000 homes a year. A post-Brexit state aid regime is meant to enable the government to be more “nimble” in supporting jobs.
Nigeria will ban travellers coming from India, Brazil and Turkey over concerns about high coronavirus infection rates, a presidential committee said on Sunday.
Reuters reports:
in a statement, Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential steering committee on COVID-19, said:
Non-Nigerian passport holders and non-residents who visited Brazil, India or Turkey within Fourteen (14) days preceding travel to Nigeria, shall be denied entry into Nigeria.
The ban will take effect from May 4, the statement said.
Nigeria announced 43 confirmed new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing its total to 165,153, with 2,063 deaths.
Indian hospitals, morgues and crematoriums have been overwhelmed as the country has reported more than 300,000 daily cases for more than 10 days straight. Many families have been left on their own to find medicines and oxygen.
In Brazil, new coronavirus cases have fallen off a late-March peak, but remain high by historical standards. Total deaths in the country are second only to the United States.
Turkey imposed a nationwide “full lockdown” on Thursday, lasting until May 17, to curb a surge in coronavirus infections and deaths, with the world’s fourth highest number of cases and the worst on a per-capita basis among major nations.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Updated
Here is the Observer’s view:
The contrast could not be starker. Here in the UK, 3,000 clubbers in Liverpool danced to indoor DJ sets as part of a pilot to trial the safety of mass events as the country gradually reopens. In cities such as Delhi, people with Covid struggle to stay alive as family members desperately try to find a hospital bed in a health system that has collapsed under the strain of India’s second wave. As experts have warned for months, the pandemic is evolving into a tale of two health crises. Richer countries such as the US and UK have suffered dreadful death tolls, but are making such speedy progress in vaccinating their populations that the end of this nightmare seems to lie just around the corner. For low- and middle-income countries, it is only getting worse.
New analysis for the Observer this weekend shows that the burden of Covid-19 deaths is shifting towards poor and lower-middle-income countries. India and Brazil are in the midst of a catastrophic second wave, which is fast spreading to their neighbours Nepal, Bangladesh, Peru and Colombia. The main difference is, of course, in vaccination, the only route out of the pandemic. More than a billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, but around four in five of those have gone to high- and upper-middle-income countries, with just 0.2% sent to low-income countries. In the UK, more than 34 million adults – 65% of those aged over 18 – have received their first dose; in India and Brazil, just 9.2% and 13.8% respectively of their populations; in the world’s poorest countries, it is around one in 500.
Read the full piece here:
Here is the Observer’s view:
The contrast could not be starker. Here in the UK, 3,000 clubbers in Liverpool danced to indoor DJ sets as part of a pilot to trial the safety of mass events as the country gradually reopens. In cities such as Delhi, people with Covid struggle to stay alive as family members desperately try to find a hospital bed in a health system that has collapsed under the strain of India’s second wave. As experts have warned for months, the pandemic is evolving into a tale of two health crises. Richer countries such as the US and UK have suffered dreadful death tolls, but are making such speedy progress in vaccinating their populations that the end of this nightmare seems to lie just around the corner. For low- and middle-income countries, it is only getting worse.
New analysis for the Observer this weekend shows that the burden of Covid-19 deaths is shifting towards poor and lower-middle-income countries. India and Brazil are in the midst of a catastrophic second wave, which is fast spreading to their neighbours Nepal, Bangladesh, Peru and Colombia. The main difference is, of course, in vaccination, the only route out of the pandemic. More than a billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, but around four in five of those have gone to high- and upper-middle-income countries, with just 0.2% sent to low-income countries. In the UK, more than 34 million adults – 65% of those aged over 18 – have received their first dose; in India and Brazil, just 9.2% and 13.8% respectively of their populations; in the world’s poorest countries, it is around one in 500.
Read the full piece here:
Updated
Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the UK “can and should do more” to help India.
She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday:
The UK has sent two small shipments of assistance to India.
But don’t forget it was India that stepped up for us when almost almost a year ago today we were in real dire straights, struggling to contain the impact of the pandemic, the Prime Minister had just left hospital, we were woefully unprepared and we had to appeal to the rest of the world for help, and India stepped forward.
There are long and deep ties between us and India, which mean that we should step up and provide more equipment, more support.
We are world leaders in genomic sequencing, we can track and map how this virus is mutating and developing. Only a few months ago Matt Hancock said we should make that capacity available to the world - we should be offering that support to India at the moment.
Openshaw said the UK could be donating about 120 million doses of vaccine to struggling countries such as India, but said it was best to work through the World Health Organisation (WHO) rather than giving it directly to specific countries.
We in this country ordered at least twice as much vaccine as we could possibly use.
That doesn’t mean we have actually got it in store houses ready to go out, but certainly we could be donating something over 120 million doses, but probably best through the WHO Covax system, which ensures equitable distribution.
There are well-established ways of doing this and rather than doing a sort of public demonstration of generosity to a particular country it really should be through the WHO.
He added that it was “very reasonable” to suggest not taking vaccines produced in India away from the country when it needs them to tackle its own coronavirus crisis.
That would seem a very reasonable arrangement to come to but it has to be managed properly with people keeping an eye on vaccine supplies.
Openshaw said it was vital people do not think that vaccines are the only thing that is going to halt the pandemic.
He told the Andrew Marr Show:
Vaccines are one of the tools in our toolbox against this pandemic and it is absolutely vital that we don’t think there’s just one thing that’s going to save us all.
We really do know that lockdown works and that public events, mass events, will feed the spread of the virus, and that we mustn’t take our concentration off that and think that just by vaccinating we are going to be out of the situation.
Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nertag) in the UK, has said he thinks that rapid coronavirus tests will find the people most likely to spread the disease.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show about replacing self-isolation periods with daily testing Openshaw said:
This is a very contentious point.
There are people who think that the lateral flow tests are going to be extremely useful and there are those who think that the accuracy, the sensitivity and specificity of these tests are so low that there is going to be an awful lot of false positives.
I’m sure lateral flow tests do have a place and, if we test repeatedly, I think you will find people who are going to be most prone to spreading disease.
These are important studies to do, important experiments to do in order to work out exactly what the role of lateral flow tests is.
A court in New Delhi has said it will start punishing Indian government officials for failing to deliver the life-saving items, as hospitals struggle to secure a steady supply of oxygen.
The Associated Press reports:
On Sunday, India recorded a slight drop in new infections with 392,488 from a high of 401,993 in the previous 24 hours. It also reported 3,689 additional deaths, bringing the total to 215,542. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
With the government unable to maintain a steady supply of oxygen, several hospital authorities sought a court intervention in the Indian capital where a lockdown has been extended by a week to contain the wave of infections.
The New Delhi High Court said it would start punishing government officials if supplies of oxygen allocated to hospitals were not delivered. The court said it would start contempt proceedings.
Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Patil said:
Water has gone above the head. Enough is Enough [...] We can’t have people dying.
The government has been using railways, the air force and the navy to rush oxygen tankers to worst-hit areas where overwhelmed hospitals are unable to cope with an unprecedented surge in patients gasping for air.
Twelve COVID-19 patients, including a doctor, on high-flow oxygen, died Saturday at a hospital in New Delhi after it ran out of the supply for 80 minutes, said S.C.L. Gupta, director of Batra Hospital.
The Times of India newspaper reported another 16 deaths in two hospitals in southern Andhra Pradesh state, and six in a Gurgaon hospital on the outskirts of New Delhi because of the oxygen shortage.
New Delhi recorded 412 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest since the pandemic started.
The army opened its hospitals to civilians in a desperate bid to control the massive humanitarian crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government also gave emergency financial powers to the army set up new quarantine facilities and hospitals and buy equipment.
The military also called up 600 doctors who had retired in the past few years. The navy deployed 200 nursing assistants in civilian hospitals, a government statement said.
On Saturday, India said all adults 18 and over could get shots. Since January, nearly 10% of Indians have received one dose, but only around 1.5% have received both, although the country is one of the world’s biggest producers of vaccines.
India has so far given more than 156 million vaccine doses. Some states have already said they don’t have enough for everyone, and even the ongoing effort to inoculate people above 45 is sputtering.
The United States, Britain, Germany and several other nations are rushing therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen to India, along with some materials needed for India to boost its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines.
Act now to prevent oxygen shortage in Covid-hit countries, say campaigners
The scenes in India of families desperately searching for oxygen for critically ill Covid patients will be repeated in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other countries in Africa and around the world unless a significant international effort is made to ensure all countries have good oxygen supplies, campaigners have said.
The focus on vaccines and tests, while important, has been obscuring the need for oxygen, which is cheap and readily available in high-income countries but in short supply elsewhere, they say. Before India, there was similarly shocking footage from Manaus in Brazil where distressed relatives pleaded for oxygen to keep a family member alive.
Kevin Watkins, the director of Save the Children, said the crisis should have been foreseen. Oxygen shortages have cost the lives of children with pneumonia in Africa for years – fewer than one in five get the oxygen therapy they need – and now the scant supplies are even being diverted from children’s wards and maternity units because of the Covid crisis.
“It is outrageous that we have sleepwalked into a crisis that was so predictable months ago,” he said. “We have been just talking into the echo chamber, because everyone is so fixated with ventilators and vaccines.”
Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has also been on Sky and the BBC this morning.
She told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that it was very welcome that the Government was exploring ways to make it easier for people to get back to normal more quickly.
When asked on Sophy Ridge on Sunday if Labour supported plans to allow people who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus to not quarantine if they take daily tests, she said:
We are certainly very keen to see it made easier for people to go about their normal lives, particularly because we have long had concerns about the economic impact of quarantine arrangements on people.
She said Labour wanted plans to follow the science and to make sure any new measures being taken did not “unravel” the progress made so far:
That’s one of the reasons we meet regularly with Sage scientists, to make sure they are robust and that we are not taking measures to unlock that people desperately want to see, that people desperately need, that will unravel the amazing progress that has been made through the national vaccination effort.
There’s light at the end of the tunnel, I think we can all see it, we can feel it, but we are not there yet.
On the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Raab was asked about the catastrophe unfolding in India and whether the UK would help provide more vaccines to the country, with the UK still having 5m vaccines on order from India.
Raab said that India had not requested vaccines from the UK. Asked if they did ask, would the UK provide them, Raab said he would not speculate on a “hypothetical scenario” but the relationship was “very important” to the UK.
We obviously want to cooperate very closely together. Right throughout this crisis we’ve said we need to keep supply chains, particularly critical supply chains, open, and we ought to resolve these kinds of issues through collaboration, and that is certainly what we’re doing with the Indians.
UK in 'last lap' of fight against Covid, says Raab
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been doing the rounds this morning.
Speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show this morning he urged the British public to keep their resolve for the “last lap” of the fight against coronavirus, saying there is only “a little bit more time” until all legal restrictions on social interaction are removed.
But steady steps out of lockdown were the “smart way to go”, despite people desperately wanting to hug family members.
Raab did not confirm that Sunday Times story about school children being vaccinated, but said “all the different contingencies” are being looked at.
He told Sophy Ridge on Sunday:
I know that people are hankering to go a bit faster but actually we feel vindicated at taking steady steps out of the lockdown is the smart way to go.
We’re very close now to really turning the corner and I think we still need to be careful to go as I said we don’t want to see the gains lost and the sacrifices that have been made undone.
By the time we get to June 21 almost all social restrictions will be lifted so there’s only a little bit more time to go, but it’s right to make sure we do that in a careful way.
We’re at the end of really the process if you like, we’ve got two more steps to take, but I do think given the rollout of the vaccine, that’s exciting. It’s got people thinking about not just social interaction but of course things like hugging your loved ones that you haven’t been able to do for a while.
I do think we just need to make sure that in the last lap, if you like, that we are careful and we don’t lose the gains we’ve made.
Updated
Cambodia reported a daily record of 730 new coronavirus cases, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday, as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections that emerged about two months ago.
Reuters reports:
The Southeast Asian nation has recorded one of the world’s smallest COVID-19 caseloads, but the recent outbreak that was first detected in late February has caused infections to climb to 14,520, with 103 deaths.
On Sunday Cambodia’s Communicable Disease Control Department posted a statement on Facebook:
Covid 19 continues to threaten us. Please continue to be vigilant by practicing hygiene, keep social distancing and don’t leave your house as it is spreading severely in the community in our country, our neighbours and the world.
The capital Phnom Penh, which has the most COVID-19 cases in the country, is under lockdown until May 5 and has declared some districts “red zones”, banning people from leaving their homes except for medical reasons.
China has administered 270.41 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.
China is accelerating the pace at which it carries out vaccinations, seeing a 5.34 million uptick since Friday when 265.06 million doses had been distributed.
Russia reports 8,697 new cases
Russia reported 8,697 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, including 2,699 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 4,823,255.
Reuters reports:
The government coronavirus task force said 342 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing Russia’s death toll to 110,862.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and reported a toll of more than 225,000 from April 2020 to February.
According to Reuters calculations based on data from the state statistics agency published on Friday, Russia recorded more than 400,000 excess deaths from April 2020 to March 2021.
Sunday Times: secondary school pupils in England to be offered vaccinations
Secondary school pupils will be offered Covid-19 vaccinations from September under plans being developed by the NHS, according to The Sunday Times.
It reports that “core planning scenario” documents compiled by NHS officials include the offer of a single dose of the Pfizer jab to children aged 12 and over when the new school year starts.
Pfizer has said trials of its vaccine in children aged 12 to 15 showed 100% efficacy and a strong immune response.
The plans, which its says have been confirmed by sources within the government and the NHS, depend on advice due this summer from scientists on the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation. But officials are preparing for a rollout in schools. A source told the paper: “No decision has been made yet but we are drawing up planning materials for the different scenarios.”
Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the committee, said the decision would depend on rates of the virus over the next few months.
We need to be in a position to immunise children, particularly teenagers, promptly and efficiently if we need to.
He said recent modelling predicts a third Covid wave after restrictions are lifted on June 21.
If rates rose significantly it would be a priority to vaccinate children to stop the closure of schools next year, he said, adding:
It is extremely important that education in the next academic year is not disrupted in any way.
The publication reports that health service officials are compiling planning documents including a measure to offer a single dose of the Pfizer jab to children aged 12 and older when the new school year starts.
Pfizer has said trials of its vaccine in children aged 12 to 15 showed 100% efficacy and a strong immune response.
Finn, a paediatrician at Bristol University, said a child vaccination programme might be unnecessary if rates dropped to a low level before the autumn, saying:
We should only be doing vaccine programmes when we need to do them.
Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, backed the plan to vaccinate pupils from the start of the new school year.
She told Times Radio on Sunday:
I think we are moving in that direction.
“I think the reason to vaccinate children... is really to add to herd immunity. If the current trials are promising then I do think (vaccinating children from September) will happen.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said:
No decisions have been made on whether children should be offered vaccinations and we will be guided by the experts once clinical trials have concluded.
As we’ve already said, we are preparing for a booster programme to take place from the autumn and we continue to plan for all scenarios.
We have hit our target of offering vaccines to everyone in phase one of the programme and we are on track to offer a jab to all adults by the end of July.
India sees record number of deaths
India’s new coronavirus cases fell slightly on Sunday but deaths due to the infection jumped by a record 3,689, with one more state going into lockdown as the nation’s healthcare system struggles to cope with a massive caseload.
Reuters reports:
Authorities reported 392,488 new cases in the previous 24 hours to push total cases to 19.56 million. So far, the virus has killed 215,542 people.
Indian hospitals, morgues and crematoriums have been overwhelmed as the country has reported more than 300,000 daily cases for more than 10 days straight. Many families have been left on their own to scramble for medicines and oxygen.
Nearly 10 Indian states and union territories have imposed some form of restrictions, even as the federal government remains reluctant to impose a national lockdown.
The eastern state of Odisha became the latest to announce a two-week lockdown, joining Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. Other states, including Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, have either imposed night curfews or weekend lockdowns.
The Indian Express newspaper reported on Sunday that the country’s COVID-19 taskforce has advised the federal government to impose a national lockdown.
Last month Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said all efforts should be made be avoid a lockdown.
The federal government fears another lockdown will have a devastating impact on the economy. The lockdown imposed last year after the first COVID-19 outbreak led to job losses as economic output fell a record 24% in April-June 2020 compared with the same period a year earlier.
Modi’s government has been criticised for letting millions of largely unmasked people attend religious festivals and crowded political rallies in five states through March and April. Daily cases in these states have spiked since then.
Reuters reported on Saturday that the federal government has been accused of failing to respond to a warning in early March from its own scientific advisers that a new and more contagious variant was taking hold in the country. (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Sam Holmes and Tom Hogue)
Surge testing will begin in parts of east London after several cases of the South African and Brazilian variants of coronavirus were detected, according to the Department of Health.
NHS test and trace will be working with the council in Tower Hamlets to provide extra testing in the E1 postcode from Sunday, along with genome sequencing, which helps establish the variant that someone has been infected with.
Authorities did not say how many cases of the variants had been discovered, saying only that several cases of the B.1.351 strain first recorded in South Africa and the P1 stain first recorded in Brazil had been identified.
All confirmed cases are now self-isolating, the department said. It also said there was no connection between the cases discovered in east London and the cluster found in south London recently.
Pilot scheme could lead to end of self-isolation in England
A major new pilot scheme could see the end of people in England having to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone who has Covid.
The government-backed research will trial giving people daily lateral flow tests for seven days instead of asking people quarantine for 10 days.
After each negative test, they can continue their lives as normal.
From 9 May, about 40,000 close contacts of people with Covid in England will be invited to take part in the study.
Currently people who are alerted that they have been in close contact with someone with Covid must self-isolate, staying in their homes and not leaving for any reason.
During the major new study, people will have to test themselves every morning for seven days and if they test negative will be exempt from the legal requirement to quarantine at home, as long as they do not show any symptoms of Covid.
Lateral flow tests give results in about 30 minutes but are considered less sensitive than PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. PCR tests which are processed in a laboratory with results returned in 24 hours or so.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said:
With around one in three people not showing any symptoms, regular testing is already playing a critical role in helping us reclaim our lost freedoms - quickly spotting positive cases, helping identify new variants and squashing any outbreaks.
At every stage of this global pandemic, the British public has stepped up and made huge sacrifices – including self-isolating when they are asked. This new pilot could help shift the dial in our favour by offering a viable alternative to self-isolation for people who are contacts of positive Covid-19 cases, and one that would allow people to carry on going to work and living their lives.
Alongside the phenomenal progress of our vaccination rollout – with over 48 million vaccines administered so far – rapid testing is allowing us to get back to doing the things we all love.
Professor Isabel Oliver, National Infection Service Director at Public Health England and study lead, said:
We know that isolating when you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 is challenging but it remains vitally important to stop the spread of infection. This study will help to determine whether we can deploy daily testing for contacts to potentially reduce the need for self-isolation, while still ensuring that chains of transmission are stopped.
Contacts of cases are at higher risk of infection so testing them is a very effective way of preventing further spread. This study will play an important part of our evaluation of daily contact testing and how the approach to testing might evolve.
Between May 2020 and April 2021 in England, more than 6.7 million close contacts were reached and told to self-isolate, NHS Test and Trace data shows.
A large study of the test-and-trace system last month found few people had followed the self-isolation rules in full.
The groups less likely to self-isolate were men, younger people and parents with young children, people from working-class backgrounds, key workers and those in financial hardship.
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