Summary
- Boris Johnson strongly hinted at a month’s delay to the planned lifting of coronavirus restrictions on 21 June because of the rise in cases linked to the Delta variant. A poll in the Observer suggests the majority of the public support a delay.
- The pandemic has unsurprisingly featured prominently in the G7 summit talks with discussion on getting more vaccines to lower-income countries. Opinion is still split on how to do that but G7 nations plans to donate vaccines have been criticised as simply not enough by both aid groups and the UN’s head Antonio Guterres.
- WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they also discussed more about investigating the origins of the virus, including the theory that it may have originated in a lab.
- A study in Australia has warned that vaccine hesitancy and the increased infectiousness of new Covid-19 variants could mean the country does not reach herd immunity.
- Hospitals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital Kinshasa have been “overwhelmed” by cases, said President Felix Tshisekedi. He said he will be introducing new measures, though he did not specify them.
- Limits will be in place for the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month, including a ban on foreign visitors and other restrictions on who can take part.
- Italy will stop giving the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab to people under 60, with those who have already had one shot being offered another mRNA vaccine to complete the cycle.
- Infections in Russia have reached a three-month high, as cases rose sharply for the fifth day in a row. Moscow residents have been told to work from home next week in a bid to stem the rise in infections.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has been fined for breaking local lockdown rules when he joined thousands of motorcyclists for a rally without wearing a face mask, the AP reports.
The conservative president waved to the crowd from his motorcycle and later from atop a sound truck, where helmeted but largely maskless backers cheered and chanted as he insisted that masks were useless for those already vaccinated — an assertion disputed by most public health experts.
Sao Paulo’s state government press office said a fine — equivalent to about $110 — would be imposed for violation of a rule that has required masks in public places since May 2020. According to a survey by local authorities, 12,000 motorcycles participated in the pro-Bolsonaro event.
Bolsonaro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The procession of motorcyclists wound out of the city and back, arriving at Ibirapuera Park, where the president clambered atop a car to defend his denunciation of masks for the vaccinated.
“Whoever is against this proposal is because they don’t believe in science, because if they are vaccinated, there is no way the virus can be transmitted,” he said.
Vaccines are designed chiefly to protect recipients from getting sick, not necessarily from being infected. While studies show many vaccines reduce viral load, and likely spread, not all varieties have been fully studied.
Updated
Australia is unlikely to achieve herd immunity with current levels of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and the higher infectiousness of new variants, modelling from Melbourne medical research laboratory the Burnet Institute has found.
The scenarios modelled by researchers assume a vaccine rollout speed of either 150,000 or 250,000 doses per week, and that on detection of the first case, symptomatic testing increases, isolation of positive cases continues, masks become recommended but not mandatory, and contact tracing continues for up to 250 diagnoses per day.
The projections represent hypothetical near-worst-case scenarios, and model outbreaks that occur once Australia is Covid-free, without lockdowns and other public health measures in place.
The models reveal that public health initiatives will remain vital even in vaccinated populations and that without those measures, “thousands of Victorians would be hospitalised and die if an initially small outbreak was left to spread through the community unchecked,” the research published on Friday says.
G7 leaders discussed the origins of Covid-19, including the theory it originated in a Chinese lab, WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“We believe that all hypotheses should be open, and we need to proceed to the second phase to really know the origins,” he told reporters.
He also called to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population by the time the G7 meets again next year, asking developed nations to donate vaccines but also help scale up production.
Above all, at the root of the #COVID19 pandemic is a deficit of solidarity and sharing – of the data, information, resources, technology and tools that every nation needs to keep its people safe. @WHO believes the best way to close that deficit is with a #PandemicTreaty. #G7UK
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 12, 2021
A poll for the Observer shows more than half the British public support delaying the lifting of restrictions on social contact because of the rising number of Covid-19 cases, report Michael Savage and Ben Tapper.
With Boris Johnson poised to announce a delay to his plan to remove the remaining restrictions on 21 June, an Opinium poll for the Observer found that 54% think the move should be postponed, up from 43% from a fortnight ago.
It suggests that the public is taking a cautious view following the emergence of the Delta variant, first detected in India and thought to be 60% more transmissible than the variant previously dominant in the UK. The proportion of people who thought Johnson should push ahead with the unlocking has fallen from 44% a fortnight ago to 37% this week.
The G7 have collectively pledged to donate a billion vaccines to poorer nations, but critics say this is not enough.
Campaign group Global Justice Now claimed the donations covered only 11% of the world’s unvaccinated people and there is a push to move beyond donations from rich countries, who stockpiled vaccines, to a real global plan.
“After spending eight months blocking proposals to allow the majority of the world to produce their own doses by overriding patents, the government is offering global south countries crumbs from the table. It’s shameful,” said Global Justice Now’s director Nick Dearden.
The UN’s head Antonio Guterres has also called for a global plan.
“We need to act with a logic, with a sense of urgency, and with the priorities of a war economy, and we are still far from getting that,” he said.
I welcome the #G7 commitment to share the vaccine. The response needed to end this pandemic will require the largest global public health effort in history.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 12, 2021
The world needs a Global Vaccine Plan.
G7 leadership is crucial. #G7UK pic.twitter.com/YsbqtD9Pwf
Updated
The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo said the capital’s hospitals are “overwhelmed” by a rise in Covid-19 infections, Reuters reports.
President Felix Tshisekedi said he would be taking “drastic measures” to deal with an increase in cases related to the Delta variant but did not specify what the measures would be.
Health officials recorded 254 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, one of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began. In all, Congo has registered 35,000 cases and 830 deaths.
Congo delayed its vaccination campaign by more than a month because of concerns about very rare side effects from the AstraZeneca shot. Since the campaign finally started on April 19, fewer than 30,000 doses have been administered.“You know very well that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been and continues to be problematic, both in terms of side effects but also in terms of trust with the population,” Tshisekedi said.
Experts say that in Congo, scarce testing means cases and deaths are likely to be heavily understated by official numbers. They also say hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with a fresh wave of the virus.
“There is a big problem with (the supply of) oxygen in Kinshasa,” said Pascal Lutumba from the tropical medicine department at the University of Kinshasa.
“In Kinshasa, they don’t care about Covid-19, they don’t believe in it, that’s the big issue,” he said.
Updated
Many of the G7 nations meeting in Cornwall have ordered vaccines in numbers far larger than their populations require and aid groups have called on them to ensure the surplus is redirected to poorer nations.
“(This) requires political will and urgent action now,” Lily Caprani, head of Covid-19 advocacy for the UN children’s agency Unicef told AP. “So I think all of us should be urging our leaders to do it, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s the smart thing to do, and it’s the only way out.”
Global institutions, including the World Bank, have been pushing for greater access to vaccines in low and middle-income countries, which they say have been neglected while low-risk populations in richer countries are vaccinated.
Ahead of the G7 summit the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization said vaccination needed to push ahead to end the pandemic and allow for economic recovery.
Meanwhile, the G7 group agreed a “Carbis Bay Declaration” to battle future pandemics based on a series of commitments to health policy, including slashing the time taken to develop and license vaccines and treatments.
The rapid spread of Covid-19 in South America continues to overshadow the Copa America with 12 members of Venezuela’s delegation testing positive before the tournament starts tomorrow.
“The 12 members of the delegation include players and members of the backroom staff,” said a statement from the Health Secretariat in Brasilia, reported by Reuters.
The tournament was controversially moved to Brazil – where 2,216 were reported dead on Friday – because of an outbreak in Argentina and political unrest in co-host Colombia.
Some 484,235 people have died in Brazil, more than any country in the world bar the US.
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The EU plans to export 700m vaccines by the end of the year, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
#TeamEurope is a lead contributor to #COVAX with €3 billion in support so far.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 12, 2021
From the start the EU 🇪🇺 chose openness and solidarity and has exported half its production – that is, 350 million doses.
Our goal: 700 million doses exported by end of year. #G7UK pic.twitter.com/FtlGn7RvHi
She also tweeted that there needed to be more support for production of vaccines on all continents and better global preparedness for future pandemics.
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Though everyone agrees in principle that more vaccines need to be delivered to poorer countries, how to get them there has been fiercely debated.
Before she joined G7 meetings on Saturday, the World Trade Organization head, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. said there may now be a pathway to a solution as members begin negotiations.
South Africa and India have led the push from developing nations for a temporary patent waiver that would free up more manufacturers to quickly produce vaccines, but major pharmaceutical companies and several of the richer nations where they have their headquarters are opposed.
“It may be difficult because some of the positions, maybe, are a little bit far apart, but there is a pathway,” she said. “I would very much like to see some form of progress by July.
“We hope that this will happen in a way that can accelerate agreement into something pragmatic, that will work for developing countries and at the same time protect research and innovation.”
Updated
More than 2 million people passed through US airports on Friday for the first time since March 2020.
The moment is seen as a milestone for the travel industry after a steady recovery since February, AP reports.
Though airlines are still not at full capacity, confidence in flying has increased with the removal of travel restrictions and higher rates of vaccination.
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After Boris Johnson suggested on Saturday that the lifting of lockdown restrictions in England would be delayed beyond 21 June, my colleagues Michael Savage and James Trippier have covered the issues the prime minister will have to consider.
They include leaving more time in the hope that it will curb the spread of the Delta variant first indentified in India, which appears to be more transmissible than the previously dominant Alpha variant first discovered in Kent, and using the window to collect more data to understand how it affects the number of hospital admissions and deaths.
An extra month’s delay also gives more time to vaccinate more people, but there is also a balance to strike for businesses and a likely political backlash from Tory MPs.
Updated
Hi, this is Kaamil Ahmed taking over for the rest of this evening’s coverage of Covid-19 around the world.
The UK’s daily update for today shows 7,738 more people returned positive tests on Saturday, taking the total since 6 June to 47,868, an increase of 52.5% on the previous seven days.
There were also 12 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported on Saturday.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s coronavirus news:
- Boris Johnson has hinted that the final lifting of lockdown restrictions in England will be delayed by up to a month, as the government prepares to make a final decision over the weekend.
- Limits will be in place for the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month, including a ban on foreign visitors and other restrictions on who can take part.
- Italy will stop giving the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab to people under 60, with those who have already had one shot being offered another mRNA vaccine to complete the cycle.
- Infections in Russia have reached a three-month high, as cases rose sharply for the fifth day in a row. Moscow residents have been told to work from home next week in a bid to stem the rise in infections.
- Another 1,911 Covid cases have been confirmed in Germany, and a further 129 people have died from the virus, the country’s Robert Koch Institute has recorded.
- The Queen’s official birthday celebrations have begun with a socially-distanced parade at Windsor Castle.
- Vietnam has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use.
- Mexico has reported 243 more deaths from Covid-19 and 3,282 new infections, Reuters reports.
- Boris Johnson has hailed a “historic” action plan by G7 nations to prevent future pandemics in light of the damage wrought by Covid-19.
- India’s government has cut taxes on some medical equipment and medicines until the end of September, the country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said.
Updated
More than 425,000 jabs given in England on Friday
A total of 59,460,783 jabs have been given to people in England since its vaccination programme began on 8 December, according to NHS data.
PA Media reports that 428,780 people were inoculated on Friday, 177,139 of them with their first doses and 251,641 with their second.
The number of people to have had both doses stands at 24,961,654, and 34,499,129 have had at least one.
Updated
Boris Johnson has dropped a heavy hint that the final lifting of lockdown restrictions in England will be delayed by up to a month, as the government prepares to make a final decision over the weekend.
The prime minister, who is hosting the G7 summit in Cornwall, is expected to announce on Monday whether stage four of his Covid roadmap can go ahead as planned on 21 June.
With cases of the Delta variant that was first identified in India continuing to increase rapidly, a four-week delay is now widely expected, potentially with a break clause at two weeks.
Asked by ITV’s Robert Peston whether there would be a delay, Johnson said: “We’re setting out the position on Monday, but what I can certainly tell you is that to deliver an irreversible roadmap you’ve got to be cautious.”
Updated
More than 5 million people have contracted Covid-19 in Africa since late 2019, according to data compiled by the AFP news agency.
A total of 5,008,656 cases have been reported in 54 countries and territories, including 109,800 in the last seven days.
More than 134,000 people have died, and the daily average of 320 deaths is a 16% increase on a week ago.
The actual number of cases is likely to be higher, because of variations in testing capacity and health policies, AFP says.
Updated
Boris Johnson has said that Britain has got to be cautious but refused to say in an interview with ITV News whether the government would delay England’s planned 21 June reopening.
Here’s the transcript:
Robert Peston: So we’re delaying by four weeks aren’t we?
PM: Well we’re setting out the position on Monday but what I can certainly tell you is that to deliver an irreversible roadmap you’ve got to be cautious, we’re still looking at the data, we’re seeing unquestionably not just cases but also hospitalisations going up - there’ll be arguments about the extent to which they’re going up, extent to which feeding into fatalities. But in order to deliver an irreversible roadmap gotta be cautious.
RP: Is hospitalisations the key bit of data?
PM: I think we’ve got to do whatever it takes to protect life in this country.
RP: So hospitalisations is the key bit of data?
PM: We’re looking at all the data but what we’re wanting to do is avoid another wave of deaths that could be prevented by allowing the vaccines to work in the way that they are - the vaccine programme has been absolutely astonishing and there’s no question that if you look at the people going into hospital now they tend to be in different groups, younger groups than we saw in the first couple of waves of the pandemic, seen different outcomes but it may be that we need in the race between the vaccines and the virus, we need to make sure we give the vaccines extra legs.
RP: Do you regret not putting India on red list a bit earlier? We put it on the red list on April 23 You must have a bit of regret?
PM: We put India on the red list so that you have to spend 10 days quarantining in a hotel if you come from India, which was before the variant was identified as ... a very deep concern.
Updated
For the second year running, Saudi Arabia will restrict the annual Hajj pilgrimage to its own citizens and residents. Only those aged 18-65 who have been vaccinated and do not have chronic diseases will be permitted to take part and there will be a maximum of 60,000 participants, reports Reuters.
Updated
In the US, over 2 million airport passengers were screened yesterday – the highest number since the pandemic hit in March 2020, reports Reuters.
Updated
Public holidays have been declared in Moscow for all of next week to try and stem a surge in Covid cases.
The city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, announced that 15 to 19 June will be non-working days and that all bars, restaurants and venues should close by 11pm until 20 June following the rise in coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The country has hit a three-month high of cases and saw 399 people die on Friday.
Updated
British PM says spread of Delta variant is of 'serious, serious concern'
Boris Johnson has said the spread of the Delta variant first identified in India is a matter of “serious, serious concern” and that he is less optimistic than he was at the end of May.
PA Media reports:
The prime minister is expected to announce a delay to lockdown lifting in England of up to four weeks amid warnings the country is facing a third wave of the virus.
He told Sky News: “It’s clear that the Indian variant is more transmissible and it’s also true that the cases are going up, and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up.
“Now, we don’t know exactly to what extent that is going to feed through into extra mortality, but clearly it’s a matter of serious, serious concern.”
Asked if he was less optimistic now than he was at the end of May, he said: “Yes, that’s certainly fair.
“What we want to do is make sure that the road map is irreversible, but you can’t have an irreversible road map unless you’re prepared to be cautious. Some of the data is still open to question, but we’ll be making an announcement on Monday.”
Updated
China has reported 35 new coronavirus cases on the mainland for Friday, a rise from 22 the previous day, Reuters reports. Of the new cases, eight were local transmissions in southern Guangdong province.
Foshan Shadi airport will cancel all flights and suspend operations until 22 June, according to a Weibo post by the Foshan municipal government’s information office.
Reuters reports:
Foshan is a city in central Guangdong, which has had an outbreak of new cases since late May.
In the provincial capital of Guangzhou, mass testing of residents has been carried out in several districts while lockdowns have been imposed in certain neighbourhoods.
Authorities also imposed more restrictions on business and social activity in Guangzhou in efforts to curb the coronavirus spread.
China also reported 27 new asymptomatic infections, versus 25 a day earlier. China does not classify symptomless infections as confirmed cases.
As of Friday, China had a total of 91,394 confirmed infections. Its death toll stood unchanged at 4,636.
Hi, it’s Miranda Bryant here taking over from my colleague Harry Taylor for the next hour. If you’ve got any news or tips you can contact me by email: miranda.bryant@guardian.co.uk
Updated
Vietnam has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use.
It is the fourth to be given government approval after the AstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm jabs.
Updated
Italy to give AstraZeneca jab to over-60s only
Italy will stop giving the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab to people under 60, with those who have already had one shot having another mRNA vaccine to complete the cycle.
The change comes after the EU medicines agency found a link between the vaccine and rare blood clots but stressed that the benefits of the vaccine still outweighed the risks.
Research in the UK found the likelihood of blood clots occurring was one in 250,000 or o.0004%.
“The changed epidemiological situation has led to a reassessment of the risk-benefit ratio for age groups less at risk of severe forms of Covid-19,” the Italian government’s Technical and Scientific Committee (CTS) said.
Italy blocked the AstraZeneca jab in March over health fears, but after the EU medicines agency gave the green light, it was approved for everyone over 18, AFP reports.
There has been a sharp decline in cases in Italy recently, and restrictions will be lifted in large parts of the country from next week.
Updated
Saudi Arabia bans foreign visitors from Hajj pilgrimage
Limits will be in place for the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month, including a ban on foreign visitors and other restrictions on who can take part, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Only 60,000 people who are either Saudi citizens or residents will be able to take part in the pilgrimage, which is key tenet of Islam and would usually attract millions of people each year.
Restrictions will confine participation to people who have been vaccinated and are aged between 18 and 65.
Updated
The Queen’s official birthday celebrations have begun with a socially-distanced parade at Windsor Castle.
The ceremony will allow the guardsmen to show their marching skills while maintaining a social distance of two metres, according to PA Media.
It replaces the traditional trooping the colour ceremony usually staged in central London, but which was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Updated
India’s government has cut taxes on some medical equipment and medicines until the end of September, the country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said on Saturday.
There had previously been calls for them to be dropped to help tackle Covid-19 and widen access. The head of the West Bengal regional government wrote to the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, in May asking him to waive all duties.
Sitharaman said the country would keep its 5% tax on vaccines, according to Reuters.
Updated
Villagers in India have erected a shrine to “goddess corona” and are offering her prayers in the hope that divine intervention can banish the virus, Reuters reports.
People in Shuklapur in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have been offering prayers, holy water and flowers at the bright yellow shrine where they have placed an idol of “Corona Mata”.
“Maybe with her blessings the villagers, our village, and everyone else will get some relief,” one villager, who gave her name as Sangeeta, said.
More than 239m vaccine doses have been administered in the country as authorities reported 84,332 new cases on Saturday, the lowest daily tally in more than two months. More than 367,000 people in India have died of Covid-19, according to government data.
Updated
Boris Johnson has hailed a “historic” action plan by G7 nations to prevent future pandemics in light of the damage wrought by Covid-19.
The Carbis Bay declaration is a series of health policy commitments which includes cutting the time taken to develop and licence vaccines, treatments and diagnostics to under 100 days and reinforcing global surveillance networks, according to a government announcement made overnight.
The #CarbisBayDeclaration marks a proud and historic moment for us all.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 12, 2021
Under this agreement, the world's leading democracies will commit to preventing a global pandemic from ever happening again, ensuring the devastation caused by COVID-19 is never repeated.
Further details will be published later on Saturday. My colleague Sarah Marsh is covering events at the summit in Cornwall.
Updated
More from this morning’s radio and TV in the UK, where Prof Tom Solomon from the University of Liverpool told BBC One’s Breakfast show the country could not afford another “bad decision” on unlocking in England, as the government mulls delayingthe relaxation of rules on 21 June for four weeks.
He said:
If you look at hospitalisations, they are doubling - the numbers are small but they are doubling approximately every seven days – and so if you then suddenly say we are going to open up completely we may end up with the hospitals overwhelmed again.
So I think, unfortunately, we are just going to have to maybe give it another month until we have so many more people vaccinated.
Prof Peter Openshaw, who earlier said he was coming around to the idea of vaccination for children, said it was a “disappointing setback” that the Delta variant, first identified in India, was more transmissible than previous strains.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
This Delta variant seems to be about 60% more transmissible than that (the Alpha variant).
So it really has gone up another gear and that means that we really have to double down and not lose all the advantage that has been gained by the massive effort that has been put in so far.
Updated
New Covid cases in Russia at three-month high
Infections in Russia have reached a three-month high, as cases rose sharply for the fifth day in a row, Reuters reports.
The latest figures announced by the Russian government show 13,510 new cases on Saturday and 399 more deaths. Friday recorded a rise of 12,505 and 396 respectively.
The announcement came a day after Moscow’s mayor said he was expecting to see a peak in infections in the capital in June or July.
The new cases reported in the past 24 hours brought the national tally to 5,193,964.
The government’s coronavirus taskforce said the latest number of fatalities had pushed the national death toll to 126,073.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate tally and has said that Russia recorded about 270,000 deaths related to Covid between April 2020 and April 2021.
Updated
German death toll rises by 129
Another 1,911 Covid cases have been confirmed in Germany, and a further 129 people have died from the virus, the country’s Robert Koch Institute has recorded.
The latest count shows 89,816 people have died from Covid-19 during the pandemic, and total infections stands at 3,713,480.
Mexico reports 243 more deaths
Overnight Mexico reported 243 more deaths from Covid-19 and 3,282 new infections, Reuters reports.
It means 2,448,820 people have now had the virus in the country and 229,823 people have died, according to its health ministry. The government has said the real number of cases is likely to be significantly higher, and separate data published recently suggested the actual death toll is 60% above the confirmed figure.
Updated
China administered 18.2m doses of Covid vaccines on Friday, bringing the total number of jabs to 863.51m according to the National Health Commission, Reuters reports.
Unsurprisingly the potential four-week delay to the next relaxation of restrictions in England is leading the morning discussions on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London and a member of the government’s Nervtag group, says he believes it will be necessary to vaccinate children as the new Delta variant, first identified in India, is more transmissible among children than the original strain of Covid-19.
With these more transmissible variants it is evident that they are being transmitted more among young adults and school children and even younger children, and that seems to perhaps be a change in biological quality of the infection. It’s not causing very high diseases rates among those kids, but it does strengthen that argument on vaccination.
I think on balance I am coming to the view that vaccination of children, there’s strong arguments to show we should be going there.
It looks like it’s pretty safe and there’s no adverse signals. I think we’re all pretty concerned about the prolonged symptoms that some people do experience after acute infection.
Updated
England set to delay reopening
Good morning from London, I’m Harry Taylor and I’ll be bringing you the latest Covid updates from around the world today.
The lifting of all lockdown restrictions in England is likely to be delayed for up to a month from the planned date of 21 June, government sources have told the Guardian.
Coronavirus cases in England are rising at their fastest rate since the winter wave.
Ahead of an announcement scheduled to be made by the prime minister on Monday, a “quad” meeting for Boris Johnson and three senior ministers has been pencilled in over the weekend.
The four – Johnson; the chancellor, Rishi Sunak; the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove and the health secretary, Matt Hancock – will decide whether to suspend the planned unlocking of all legal limits on social contact.
Meanwhile, Taiwan has recorded a slight drop in new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, down from 286 to 250.
If you’ve got any news or tips, you can contact me by email or Twitter, where my DMs are open.
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