This blog is now closed. For up to date coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, head to the link below:
Boris Johnson: easing lockdown will increase Covid infections and deaths
Easing lockdown will inevitably create a rise in coronavirus deaths, Boris Johnson has said, crediting the lockdown rather than vaccines for “the bulk of the work” in reducing recent infection rates.
While the prime minister’s comments were intended as a reminder to people to take care amid the latest loosening of rules in England, they are likely to annoy some Conservative backbenchers who are eager for reopening to happen more rapidly.
On Tuesday afternoon all Tory MPs were sent a letter from Matt Hancock, the health secretary, hailing the success in offering at least a first vaccination to everyone in the first phase of priority groups by mid-April. It argued that “it is because of the success of the vaccination rollout” that restrictions can be lifted:
If you’d like a short break from coronavirus news:
Brazil’s Senate leader Rodrigo Pacheco said a congressional inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will include federal health resources distributed to states, Reuters reports.
The decision merges two rival proposed congressional inquiries, one into the federal response and another looking at states and municipalities but falls short of investigating local government responses outright.
People over 16 in households of adults with a weakened immune system are to be prioritised for Covid-19 jabs in Wales.
Adults who are immunosuppressed have a weaker immune system to fight infections naturally and are more likely to have poorer outcomes after contracting coronavirus.
This includes those with blood cancer, HIV or those who are having immunosuppressive treatment.
Arrangements are being made to invite people aged over 16 who live with these individuals for vaccination, the Welsh Government has announced, following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Brazil registered 3,808 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday and 82,186 further coronavirus cases, according to data released by the country’s health ministry.
The South American country has now registered 358,425 total Covid-19 deaths and 13,599,994 total confirmed cases.
Venezuela’s government wants funds frozen in the US to be put toward paying for coronavirus vaccines and will keep working with the opposition to negotiate this payment, the head of the government-controlled legislature said.
Allies of opposition leader Juan Guaido have for months been in talks with state officials to buy vaccines through the COVAX program using funds frozen by the U.S. Treasury as part of sanctions against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, Reuters reports.
Maduro over the weekend said his government had paid some $64 million to the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, spurring doubts as to whether the government would pull the plug on talks to use the frozen funds for the inoculation campaign.
Jorge Rodriguez, head of the National Assembly dominated by the ruling Socialist Party, said talks regarding the “kidnapped” funds would continue.
“If more of the kidnapped resources are used, it would be to buy the vaccines that are needed via the (Pan American Health Organization) and the (World Health Organization),” Rodriguez said.
Updated
The Covid-19 crisis in Brazil is increasingly affecting younger people with hospital data showing that last month the majority of those in intensive care were aged 40 or younger, according to a report.
The report, released by the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine, is based on data from over a third of all the country’s intensive care wards, Reuters reports.
It found a significant increase in younger people being admitted to beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
For the first time since the outbreak reached Brazil last year, 52% of ICU beds were filled by patients aged 40 or younger. That is a jump of 16.5% compared to the occupancy of that age group between December and February.
Updated
Pfizer Inc has ramped up production of its Covid-19 vaccine and can deliver 10% more doses to the US by the end of May, chief executive officer Albert Bourla wrote on Twitter.
Pfizer will supply the full 300 million doses two weeks earlier than expected, Bourla said.
Moderna Inc said its Covid-19 vaccine still showed strong protection against the illness six months after people received their second shot, with efficacy of more than 90 percent against all cases and more than 95 percent against severe Covid-19.
The vaccine maker, which will be updating investors on the progress of its vaccines at an event on Wednesday, said the six-month follow-up of its original late-stage study of the vaccine showed that vaccine efficacy remained consistent with its previous updates.
The company has also started testing new versions of the vaccine that target a new variant of the coronavirus, which was first identified in South Africa, Reuters reports.
A summary of today's developments
- The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it was reviewing cases of rare blood clots in women who had taken Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after US federal health authorities recommended pausing the use of the shot.
- Johnson & Johnson has made the decision to “proactively delay the rollout of our vaccine in Europe”, the company said.
- Canada said it had recorded its first case of blood clotting with low platelets after someone received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, according to a health ministry statement. The person, who was not identified and who received the inoculation produced at the Serum Institute of India, is at home and recovering.
- Canada is to reinstate enhanced screening measures for travellers who have been in Brazil in the previous 14 days, Reuters reports.
- A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered health regulator Anvisa to decide within 30 days whether it would approve the emergency import of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine by the government of Maranhao state, Reuters reports.
- South Africa has temporarily suspended the rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, its health minister said on Tuesday, after US federal health agencies recommended pausing its use because of rare cases of blood clots.
- Turkish president Tayyip Recep Erdogan announced several new restrictions and a “partial closure” for the first two weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to curb a rise in coronavirus infections.
Canada is to reinstate enhanced screening measures for travellers who have been in Brazil in the previous 14 days, Reuters reports.
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered health regulator Anvisa to decide within 30 days whether it would approve the emergency import of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine by the government of Maranhao state, Reuters reports.
The order came following legal action by Maranhao, which is one of several northeastern states that has been trying to import the vaccine directly.
The US has administered 192,282,781 doses of vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 245,364,805 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
It comes as US federal health agencies recommended pausing the use of J&J Covid-19 vaccine for at least a few days after six women under age 50 developed rare blood clots after receiving the shot.
Mexico’s government reported 4,293 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 592 more fatalities, according to data from the health ministry on Tuesday.
It brings the country’s total to 2,286,133 infections and 210,294 deaths, Reuters reports.
The government says the real case numbers are likely significantly higher and separate data published by the health ministry suggested the actual coronavirus death toll may be at least 60% above the confirmed figure.
Some 40,107,877 jabs have been administered in the UK so far, according to government data.
There were 32,250,481 first doses, a rise of 59,905 on the previous day.
Some 7,857,396 were second doses, an increase of 201,191.
The Irish government is considering delaying the second Pfizer jabs in order to allow more people to receive a first dose, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.
Egyptians are celebrating the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in more normal conditions despite concerns about a rise in coronavirus cases and a possible third wave of infections.
Reuters reports:
Last year, cafes and restaurants were only open for take-away, mosques were shut and a night-time curfew was in place. This year, restaurants are operating again and mosques are open for prayers, though physical distancing and hygiene rules are meant to be observed.
Ahead of the beginning of Ramadan on Tuesday, residents packed streets and markets in the capital Cairo, shopping for colourful Ramadan lanterns and sweets, many not wearing masks.
“There is a stark difference between this year and last year,” said one shopper, Amira Karim. “This year, I can feel Ramadan.”
gypt has so far recorded 211,307 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 12,487 deaths.
Covid-19 infections confirmed by the government have increased in recent weeks, rising above 800 confirmed daily cases ahead of Ramadan. Officials have urged people to take precautions to guard against a possible third wave of infections.
Experts say official numbers likely only reflect a small fraction of Covid-19 cases in Egypt due to relatively limited testing and the non-inclusion of private test results.
The government is rolling out a vaccination campaign but has so far received limited supplies of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility.
Canada reports first blood clot case in patient who had AstraZeneca jab
Canada on Tuesday said it had recorded its first case of blood clotting with low platelets after someone received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, according to a health ministry statement.
The person, who was not identified and who received the inoculation produced at the Serum Institute of India, is at home and recovering.
Canada has limited the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those above 55 due to concern about the rare reaction.
South Africa pauses Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout
South Africa has temporarily suspended the rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, its health minister said on Tuesday, after US federal health agencies recommended pausing its use because of rare cases of blood clots.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize told reporters:
I had urgent consultations with our scientists, who advised that we cannot take the decision by the FDA lightly. Based on their advice, we have determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated.
He said there had not been reports of such clots in South Africa after almost 290,000 vaccinations.
In South Africa, the J&J vaccine has been given to health workers in a research study that is further testing it in the field, Reuters reports. The government expects to receive its first batch of commercial doses later this month, as part of a bilateral deal with J&J for 31 million doses.
South Africa is the worst-hit country on the African continent in terms of recorded coronavirus infections and deaths. It suffered a severe “second wave” of infections that was driven by a more infectious virus variant called 501Y.V2.
The country had initially planned to kick-off its vaccination campaign in February with AstraZeneca’s vaccine. But it put plans to use that shot on hold after a small local trial showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant.
Updated
EMA is reviewing cases of rare blood clots in women after Johnson & Johnson jab
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday it was reviewing cases of rare blood clots in women who had taken Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after US federal health authorities recommended pausing the use of the shot.
In a statement to Reuters, the EMA said it was “currently not clear whether there is a causal association between vaccination” and the conditions.
“EMA will further communicate once the evaluation has concluded,” it added.
The Dutch health minister on Tuesday said he did not yet know whether the Netherlands will commence its rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine this week as planned.
“I can not say at this moment, it depends on the messaging we get tomorrow, I expect tomorrow, from the EMA (European Medicines Agency),” Hugo de Jonge said at a press conference in the Hague.
The Netherlands received its first shipment of 79,200 vaccines from the company on 12 April, reuters reports.
The Netherlands’ prime minister Mark Rutte said on Tuesday most lockdown measures in place to combat the country’s coronavirus outbreak must remain in place until at least 28 April.
Rutte said the country’s hospitals are too full and new infection rates are too high to permit any significant easing of measures until the third wave of infections has passed.
Under the current regime the country is under an evening curfew and there is a ban on public gatherings of more than two people.
Updated
Canada said on Tuesday it was talking to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) about reports its Covid-19 vaccine might cause rare blood clots.
Reuters reports:
Health Canada, the federal health ministry, said it was working with the manufacturer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other international regulators.
“Health Canada has asked Janssen to provide information on any cases of these rare blood clotting events,” it said in a tweet.
Canada has approved the vaccine but deliveries are not due to start until the end of April.
The news is the latest potential challenge for an inoculation effort that is already dragging.
Canada is due to import enough doses to ensure every person can receive a shot by the end of June, but the spread of new variants risks overtaking the pace of vaccination.
“More contagious and dangerous variants are spreading and threatening the progress we’ve made,” [prime minister] Trudeau told a briefing, saying the situation was extremely serious as the number of cases jumps and the healthcare system struggles to respond.
Ontario, the most populous of the 10 provinces, reported a single-day high of new Covid-19 cases on Sunday and has closed schools to in-person learning.
Frustration about shutdowns is rising across the country and rioters in Montreal smashed windows in the downtown area over the weekend.
Chief public health officer Theresa Tam said new cases had risen by 33% over the last week. The number of daily cases is now over 8,100, about the same as during the peak of the second wave earlier this year.
Although more than half its population has been inoculated, Israel may not be able to keep up the momentum of its world-beating inoculation drive, just as its leaders saw herd immunity as within reach.
Reuters reports:
Paralysed by repeated elections and political infighting, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s caretaker government has been unable to push through a deal for additional doses.
A source familiar with the issue told Reuters that the new deal [with Pfizer/BioNtech] is for around 2 million doses, following the 10 million or so already delivered.
Israel and Pfizer have not disclosed the exact number of doses delivered so far.
Some of the additional ampoules have already been shipped to Israel but have not been paid for because feuding ministers won’t convene to approve the payment and officials are at odds over the contract. Pfizer has halted the rest of the shipments until it is paid.
This has led to finger-pointing among the country’s political leadership, as Netanyahu tries to put together a ruling coalition following Israel’s fourth election in two years.
Particularly sensitive is the fact that some of the stalled doses are earmarked for children.
Israel has a relatively young population - a third of the country is under 16 - and some experts say that it can’t reach herd immunity without protecting them.
Herd immunity refers to a situation where enough people in a population have immunity to an infection to be able to effectively stop that disease from spreading.
“If children will be able to get vaccinated that will probably bring us to herd immunity,” said Nadav Davidovitch, an epidemiologist and public health expert at Ben-Gurion University.
He said Israel should ensure there were enough vaccines for children, but added: “I don’t think there’s cause for alarm.”
In addition to Pfizer, Israel has secured millions more doses from Moderna and has reached an understanding with AstraZeneca over vaccine supplies.
Turkey recorded 59,187 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Tuesday - the highest daily rise since the beginning of the pandemic.
The total number of cases now stands at 3.962 million.
The also reported a further 273 deaths from the virus, bringing the total death toll to 34,455.
Italy could revitalise the smartphone app it launched last year to trace coronavirus infections and use it for so-called vaccine passports, innovation minister Vittorio Colao said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
The app, called Immuni (immune) and developed by a Milan tech start-up Bending Spoons, sends notifications to people who come into contact with a person who tests positive for coronavirus.
But it had a lukewarm reception, with only 10.4 million people out of a 60 million-strong population downloading it so far.
“The Immuni app did not have a great success with the public but it could in the future, and could become useful for vaccination passports,” Colao told a parliamentary committee.
As the rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 gather pace, countries are exploring how documents, mostly digital, could help reopen borders by identifying those who are protected against the virus.
Immuni data can currently be exchanged with similar apps being used in other European countries such as Spain, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Austria and Poland, a website by the health ministry showed.
Colao said Rome was keeping Immuni updated so that it could be used again in the future. He did not elaborate further.
So far, Immuni has registered over 16,000 positive cases amongst its users and sent almost 96,000 notifications, mainly in the northern regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, ministry data showed.
France saw the number of people in intensive care units with Covid-19 rise by 36 to a new 2021 high of 5,952, health ministry data showed on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The country also reported 324 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals, compared to 385 on Monday, taking the cumulative toll since the start of the epidemic close to the 100,000 mark.
Updated
The first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine arrived in Hungary today, which was confirmed by the national chief physician Cecília Müller in Tuesday’s briefing of the operative staff, Daily News Hungary reports.
István György, the head of the National Vaccination Working Group, said:
28,800 doses of the single-dose Janssen vaccine have been received and will be used on vaccination buses. For the time being, soldiers are being vaccinated, but they will return to the small settlements by next week. The single-dose vaccine will be used for the first time in Tolna County.
Turkey announces 'partial' lockdown during first two weeks of Ramadan
Turkish president Tayyip Recep Erdogan on Tuesday announced several new restrictions and a “partial closure” for the first two weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to curb a rise in coronavirus infections.
Reuters reports:
Turkey ranks fourth globally in new Covid-19 cases, which hit nearly 56,000 on Saturday - a five-fold jump from early March when Erdogan loosened social curbs. On Monday the health minister warned of a “third peak” in the pandemic.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said the duration of a weekday curfew had been extended, announced limitations on intercity travel and public transport, and banned all events in closed spaces until after Ramadan. He also said some grades would go back to online schooling.
The new measures will go into effect on Wednesday night and the steps would be re-evaluated in two weeks.
The EU should first implement its already agreed 750 billion euro post-pandemic recovery scheme before thinking of expanding it, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
Speaking at the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings, held virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gentiloni stressed the cash that is to be jointly borrowed and repaid by all EU countries, was not meant to be an emergency response to the health crisis.
“This is not emergency money. The emergency reaction was very strong from member states,” Gentiloni said referring to massive national fiscal stimulus of individual governments of the 27-nation bloc.
“This common money is for quality growth, it should be connected to green and digital transitions and reforms,” Gentiloni said in a discussion with IMF head Kristalina Georgieva.
“At EU level we should first implement the national recovery plans. To open the discussion on the amount ... when we are finalising the plans and ratification would be quite counterproductive,” he added.
The progress Canada has made against Covid-19 is being threatened by the spread of more contagious and dangerous variants, prime minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.
“The situation we’re facing with Covid-19 remains extremely serious [ ..] this is not the place anyone wanted to be,” Trudeau told reporters, citing a rapid rise in the number of cases and an increasingly strained health care system.
Friday 9 April marked the first day since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 that Canada averaged more confirmed cases per million people than the US, CBC reported, with that trend continuing over the weekend.
The UK on Tuesday reported 2,472 new coronavirus infections, down from 3,568 a day earlier, government data showed, as well as a further 23 deaths within 28 days of a Covid-19 positive test.
Over 32.25 million people have received a first dose of a vaccine, a government update said.
Italy reported 476 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, compared to 358 the day before and 421 a week ago, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 13,447 from 9,789 recorded on Monday.
A week ago, the country had logged 7,763 fresh cases.
Italy has registered 115,088 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, and 3.79 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 26,952 on Tuesday, down from 27,329 a day earlier.
There were 242 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 167 on Monday.
The total number of intensive care patients slightly decreased to 3,526 from a previous 3,593, Reuters reports.
WHO 'watching closely' but awaiting data review results of rare blood clot reports after Johnson & Johnson jab
The World Health Organization, asked about reports of rare blood clots after vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 shot, told Reuters on Tuesday that it awaited reviews by the US and European regulators and was monitoring global data.
“We’re watching closely, waiting for EMA (European Medicines Agency) and FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) reviews and monitoring the global database of adverse event reports to see if there have been cases anywhere else,” the WHO said. “It will take a little time to review the data.”
My colleague Jessica Glenza has written up a handy report about Johnson & Johnson’s blood clot controversy:
South Africa has not yet taken a decision on how to proceed with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, a top government adviser said, after US health agencies recommended pausing use of the vaccine because of rare cases of blood clots.
The Ministerial Advisory Committee on vaccines would “be looking at all the issues shortly,” the committee’s chair Barry Schoub told Reuters.
South Africa has vaccinated almost 290,000 healthcare workers with the J&J vaccine in an ongoing research study.
The European Commission is seeking clarification from Johnson & Johnson about its “completely unexpected” announcement of delays in deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines to the EU, an official said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
The company had confirmed at a meeting on Friday that it would aim to deliver the contracted 55 million doses to the EU by the end of June, the official said.
“The European Commission is in contact with the company” to get clarification on the decision, the official added, declining to be named because discussions are confidential.
A Commission spokesman said the EU executive was looking into the matter but had no comment at this stage.
J&J did not immediately reply to questions on whether the delay could affect delivery targets in the EU.
The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) insisted Johnson & Johnson’s decision to delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe would not derail the country’s inoculation programme to offer a jab to all adults by the end of July.
PA reports:
The UK has 30 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson product on order, but it has yet to be authorised for use by the independent Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
A DHSC spokesman said: “Our vaccination programme continues to make phenomenal progress - with over 40 million vaccines administered so far.
“We have hit our target to offer a vaccine to everyone in phase one of the vaccination programme and we are on track to offer a jab to all adults by the end of July.”
The 30 million doses are expected to arrive in the second half of 2021 if approved by the MHRA.
The regulator’s director of licensing Dr Siu Ping Lam said: “No vaccine would be authorised for use in the UK unless the expected high standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.
“Vaccine safety is of paramount importance and we will monitor and evaluate any safety reports received promptly and robustly before a decision is made, working and sharing safety data with international regulators as necessary.”
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it expected the recommended pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout to be in place for a short period only.
Reuters reports:
FDA acting commissioner Janet Woodcock said it expected the pause to be a matter of days, and it was aimed at providing information to healthcare providers so that they can diagnose, treat and report such blood clots.
FDA official Peter Marks said that part of the reason for the pause was to warn doctors that administering the standard treatments for clots can cause tremendous harm, or be fatal.
US health officials said during a press briefing there had been no similar blood clot cases reported among recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet on Wednesday to review the cases, and the FDA will review the analysis, the agencies said in a joint statement.
All six cases involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, and the symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination.
In the cases, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was seen in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia).
Updated
Norway will start to relax some of its coronavirus restrictions and allow more people to gather in private homes and at events from Friday, prime minister Erna Solberg said.
The easing of rules at national level will not affect those in areas where the infection rate is the highest, such as in the capital region, she said.
Norway has had some of Europe’s lowest rates of infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic, but imposed stricter measures after a rapid increase in hospitalisations in March led by more contagious variants of the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Updated
India is to fast-track emergency approvals for Covid-19 vaccines, paving the way for possible imports of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna shots.
Reuters reports:
The move, which will drop the need for companies to do small, local safety trials for their vaccines before seeking emergency approval, follows the world’s biggest surge in cases in the country this month.
India has the biggest vaccine manufacturing capacity in the world and had exported tens of millions of doses before its own demand skyrocketed and led to a shortage in some states.
Its need for imports would be a blow to dozens of poor countries that had relied on the country to run their inoculation drives.
India’s health ministry said vaccines authorised by the World Health Organization or authorities in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan “may be granted emergency use approval in India, mandating the requirement of post-approval parallel bridging clinical trial”.
Pfizer said it would work towards bringing its vaccine to India after withdrawing its application in February.
India has administered more than 108m doses, sold more than 54.6m vaccine doses abroad and gifted more than 10m to partner countries.
It is using the AstraZeneca shot and a homegrown vaccine for its own immunisation drive, and this week approved Russia’s Sputnik V shot for emergency use.
Since 2 April, India has reported the world’s highest daily tallies of infections, exceeding 100,000 for the first time last week. It reported 161,736 cases on Tuesday, taking the total to 13.7 million. Deaths rose by 879 to 171,058.
Updated
France will suspend all flights to and from Brazil, French prime minister Jean Castex said in parliament on Tuesday.
“We take note that the situation is getting worse and we have decided to suspend all flights between France and Brazil until further notice,” Castex said.
Several leading French doctors have been calling on the government for days to stop all air traffic with Brazil, Reuters reports.
A month ago, health minister Olivier Veran said that around 6% of Covid-19 cases in France were from the more contagious variants first found in Brazil and South Africa.
A new wave of coronavirus infections in recent weeks has seen fresh cases surge to over 13.5 million, while Brazil’s official death toll now stands at over 354,000, according to health ministry figures released on Monday.
Updated
White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said a recommended pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine will not have a significant impact on the country’s vaccination plan and was taken out of “an abundance of caution”.
Zients said in a statement:
This announcement will not have a significant impact on our vaccination plan: Johnson & Johnson vaccine makes up less than 5% of the recorded shots in arms in the United States to date.
Updated
Dr Robert Klugman at the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Massachusetts said about the US federal health agencies’ recommendation to pause use of the Johnson & Johnson jab:
The FDA recommendation to pause the administration of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine out of an abundance of caution makes sense in terms of the nature of the unusual and serious side-effect.
[...] While the incidence is very low, the severity and potential for brain damage and other blood clot-related injuries is of great concern.
Dr Amesh Adalja, infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, told Reuters:
It’s important to remember the ‘hold’ is only on federal vaccine sites – not all.
I think this is a very low risk issue, even if causally linked to the vaccine: six cases with about 7m doses (lower than the risk of clots with oral contraceptives) is not something to panic about, but the federal government has been overly cautious with many aspects of this pandemic.
People are asking me if they should cancel their J&J vaccine appointments and I have told them not to. But I know many well and this will stall progress in controlling the pandemic.
Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, said:
Whilst a causal link between Covid-19 vaccination, platelet abnormalities and blood clots has not, so far, been confirmed, the index of suspicion is rising that these rare cases may be triggered by the adenovirus component of the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines.
Whilst more data need to be collected, and the implications carefully considered, it remains the case that for the vast majority of people the risks associated with contracting Covid-19 far, far outweigh any risk of being vaccinated.
Moreover, increasing awareness of the possibility of such side-effects means that they should be diagnosed more quickly and treated more successfully.
Updated
Slovakia will open shops in a limited capacity for customers with negative Covid-19 tests as part of an easing of pandemic restrictions from next week, finance minister Igor Matovic said on Tuesday.
The central European country, coming out of its worst wave of the pandemic, will also reopen churches and libraries, also with limited capacity, and zoos, government ministers told a televised news conference.
Slovakia’s seven-day average has been steadily declining since early March.
Updated
Russia is expecting 50m doses of its Sputnik V Covod-19 vaccine to be made each month in India this summer, Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russian RDIF fund, told reporters on Tuesday.
Dmitriev also said manufacturing of Sputnik V would also begin in Serbia and Iran in the “nearest future”, while production of the vaccine in Italy is expected in the next few months, Reuters reports.
Updated
Johnson & Johnson will 'proactively delay' vaccine rollout in Europe over blood clot reports
Johnson & Johnson has made the decision to “proactively delay the rollout of our vaccine in Europe”, the company said on Tuesday.
Here the full statement:
The safety and well-being of the people who use our products is our number one priority. We are aware of an extremely rare disorder involving people with blood clots in combination with low platelets in a small number of individuals who have received our Covid-19 vaccine. The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are reviewing data involving six reported US cases out of more than 6.8 million doses administered. Out of an abundance of caution, the CDC and FDA have recommended a pause in the use of our vaccine.
In addition, we have been reviewing these cases with European health authorities. We have made the decision to proactively delay the rollout of our vaccine in Europe.
We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities, and we strongly support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public.
The CDC and FDA have made information available about proper recognition and management due to the unique treatment required with this type of blood clot. The health authorities advise that people who have received our Covid-19 vaccine and develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their healthcare provider.
Updated
The Dutch medicines regulator (CBG) on Tuesday said the benefits of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine outweigh the possible risks, after US federal health agencies recommended pausing the use of the shot after six female recipients developed a rare blood clot disorder.
“Together with the European Medicines Authority we are monitoring the situation very closely”, the CBG said. “For now, the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the possible risks.”
Updated
New coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose in the week ending 13 April, the country’s health authorities said, resuming an upward trend in place since January after a brief pause.
The National Institute for Health (RIVM) reported 51,240 new cases in its weekly review, up 6% from the week before, with a higher concentration of new cases in young adults.
The government is expected to extend most of the country’s current lockdown measures, which include a night-time curfew and a ban on public gatherings, at a news conference later on Tuesday.
Irish authorities expect new restrictions on the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine should have a “fairly minimal” impact on the country’s vaccine rollout in the coming months, the country’s acting chief medical officer said.
Reuters reports:
Ireland said Monday it would limit AstraZeneca’s vaccine to those over 60, but Ronan Glynn said there were still a significant number of eligible people to use the doses.
“I would hope that on the basis of last night’s recommendations that the impact on the overall rollout at the population level should be fairly minimal when you look to where we would be now by the end of May, the end of June,” Glynn told a parliamentary briefing.
Updated
Sweden will decide how to use Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine within the coming days, the Health Agency said on Tuesday, following reports of rare blood clots similar to those reported for the AstraZeneca shot.
US federal health agencies on Tuesday recommended pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after six recipients developed a rare disorder involving blood clots.
Sweden is due to receive its first doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine later this week. It paused the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March but later resumed use for people aged 65 and older, Reuters reports.
“We are looking at the issue and the data available from the European Medicines Agency and our American colleagues,” Sweden’s Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told a news conference. “Expect a decision within one or a few days.”
The country of 10 million inhabitants has administered 2.1 million shots so far, using the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
Mexico aims to have developed a vaccine against Covid-19 that could be granted approval for emergency use by the end of this year, a senior official said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Maria Elena Alvarez-Buylla, head of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), told a regular news conference that the vaccine under development known as “Patria” could be granted approval in November or December of this year.
About 190,000 deaths could have been avoided in Mexico last year had the government managed the pandemic better, according to a study commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mexico News Daily reports:
Entitled Mexico’s Response to Covid-19: A Case Study, the study by the Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS) notes that there were 43% more deaths in Mexico in 2020 compared to the average for 2018 and 2019.
Carlos del Río, a professor of medicine at Emory University and one of the study’s author’s, told the news website Animal Político that among 39 countries analyzed, Mexico had the fourth highest excess death rate behind only Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Del Río noted that the United States – which easily has the highest official Covid-19 death toll in the world – had an excess mortality rate of just 20% last year, less than half that of Mexico.
The study notes that there were 326,609 excess deaths in Mexico in 2020, according to official data. That figure is 2.6 times the official Covid-19 death toll for 2020, which stood at 125,807 at the end of last year.
India wants Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to seek licences for their Covid-19 vaccines as soon as possible, a senior government official said on Tuesday, shortly after the government announced it would fast-track emergency approvals.
“We hope and we invite the vaccine makers such as Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and others … to be ready to come to India as early as possible,” Vinod Kumar Paul, a senior government health official, told a news conference.
Updated
Israel will start allowing the limited entry of vaccinated tourist groups next month as its own inoculation campaign has sharply brought down Covid-19 infections, an official statement said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
All foreign visitors will be required to present a negative PCR test before boarding a flight to Israel, and a serological test to prove their vaccination upon arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
A statement issued by the health and tourism ministries said “a limited number of groups will start to arrive on May 23” in the initial phase of the plan. No exact figures were given.
At a later stage, group entry will be expanded and individual travellers will also be let in, with Israel’s health situation determining the timeline, the statement said.
“Israel is the first vaccinated country, and the citizens of Israel are the first to enjoy this result,” said Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.“After opening the economy, it is time to allow tourism in a careful and calculated manner.”
Israel a month ago began to re-open its economy on the heels of a world-beating inoculation drive, in which some 5 million of the country’s 9.3 million population have already received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
There are currently 3,369 active Covid cases, and daily infections have fallen to around 200.
Last week, after a public outcry, the government started allowing non-Israeli, immediate relatives to visit Israel for special events such as births and weddings.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday the benefits of all the approved Covid-19 vaccines outweighed risks, after US authorities recommended a suspension of the shot developed by Johnson & Johnson.
Sanchez added though that authorities would slow down the rollout of vaccines to evaluate the risks if and when serious side effects are reported.
Sweden has registered 19,105 new coronavirus cases since Friday, health agency statistics showed on Tuesday.
The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 39 new deaths, taking the total to 13,660. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.
Sweden’s 7-day average of new infections climbed above 6,000 again last week.
The Local reports:
More Covid-19 patients are currently being treated in intensive care in Sweden than at any other point in 2021, according to the latest figures from Swedish authorities.
A total of 391 Covid-19 patients received intensive care treatment in Sweden on Monday, according to the Intensive Care Register’s latest data.
That’s approximately a 65% increase since the start of March, and a higher number than the peak of the second wave which hit Swedish intensive care the hardest in early January. At the time, 389 people received intensive care for Covid-19 on the busiest day.
They are still fewer than during the first wave, at the end of April 2020, when Sweden’s intensive care wards treated as many as 558 Covid-19 patients on the same day.
Iran on Tuesday reported a record 24,760 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, as the worst-hit country in the Middle East faced a fourth coronavirus wave.
Reuters reports:
Authorities have blamed the latest surge on millions travelling across the country for Iranian New Year last month and taking part in family gatherings in defiance of health precautions promoted by the government.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV on Tuesday that 24,760 new daily cases were identified, taking the total to 2,118,212 cases.
The daily death toll rose to 291, the highest since December 9, to bring the total to 65,055. Lari said 295 counties have been classified as very high-risk “red” zones, and 99 as high-risk “orange” areas, while 45 counties were rated “yellow” and just 9 as low-risk “blue” zones.
On Saturday, Tehran imposed a 10-day lockdown across most of the country. The lockdown affected 23 of the country’s 31 provinces.
Non-essential businesses, schools, theatres and sports facilities have been forced to shut and gatherings are banned during the holy fasting month of Ramadan that begins on Wednesday in Iran.
University campuses in England will not reopen until mid-May, ministers are expected to confirm, depriving up to a million students of more face-to-face tuition after a year of disruption due to the pandemic.
The further delay will come as a major blow for students who say they have already missed out on their education, as well as much of the university experience that goes with it, while continuing to pay tuition and accommodation costs.
University leaders had hoped to persuade the government to ease Covid restrictions in higher education sooner, in line with the lifting of other lockdown measures across England this week to allow the reopening of pubs, hairdressers and zoos.
Ministers are understood to have rejected their pleas, however, favouring a later return, meaning the majority of students are unlikely to be back on campus before 17 May, when most universities will have already finished their teaching year, with only assessments remaining in the final weeks.
Full story here:
Jakarta’s newly renovated Istiqlal Mosque – south-east Asia’s largest – welcomed worshippers for the first time on Monday night after more than a year of closure because of the pandemic.
Mohamad Fathi, a resident of the Indonesian capital, told AFP this year’s Ramadan was happier than in 2020, when people were banned from taking part in tarawih (evening) prayers.
He said:
Last year, it was gloomy as we were not allowed to go to the mosque for tarawih prayers.
But this year, I am so happy finally we can go to the mosque to perform tarawih prayers at the mosque although we are under strict health protocol during the prayer.
The government of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has imposed limits, with mosques only able to host people at a maximum of 50% capacity. Worshippers are required to wear masks and bring their own prayer mats.
According to the Reuters Covid-19 Tracker, Indonesia is reporting 4,836 new infections on average each day, 38% of the peak – the highest daily average reported on 1 February.
1,571,824 infections and 42,656 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the country since the pandemic began.
Updated
Scotland will ease some lockdown restrictions for domestic travel and outdoor meetings earlier than expected, the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said on Tuesday.
She said people would be permitted to travel anywhere within Scotland to see family and friends for outdoor meetings from 16 April, 10 days earlier than planned, and those meetings could from then take place with six people from up to six households rather than four from two households.
Addressing the coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, the first minister said:
We are now extremely confident that those parts of the country currently in Level 4 will move to Level 3 on 26 April, that’s now less that two weeks away.
That means, amongst other things, that on that day shops will fully reopen, pubs, cafes and restaurants will also be able to fully open outdoors on 26 April and will be able to open indoors on that date, but on a restricted basis.
The first minister also announced that, while Scotland’s islands would be able to move to Level 2, the decision has been made to align them with the rest of the country to stop the need for travel restrictions to the islands, PA Media reports.
Updated
US health agencies to call for pause of Johnson & Johnson jab amid blood clot concerns
US federal health agencies on Tuesday will call for an immediate pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine after six US recipients developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within two weeks of getting the jab, the New York Times reported, citing officials briefed on the decision.
The paper reports:
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control will stop using the vaccine at federal sites and urge states to do so as well while they examine the safety issues.
All six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second woman in Nebraska has been hospitalized in critical condition, officials briefed on the cases said.
Nearly seven million people in the United States have received Johnson & Johnson shots so far, and roughly nine million more doses have been shipped out to the states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Today FDA and @CDCgov issued a statement regarding the Johnson & Johnson #COVID19 vaccine. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” the Food and Drug Administration announced on Twitter at 7 a.m. A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m.
The move from the US regulators comes less than a week after Europe’s drugs regulator said it was reviewing rare blood clots in four people in the US who received the shot, Reuters reports.
Updated
German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday her decision to ask parliament for temporary powers that enables her government to enforce nationwide coronavirus lockdowns was necessary to curb a third wave of the pandemic.
Reuters reports:
“For the situation to improve we need to stop the third wave, break it, and reverse it, and the measures to fight the pandemic need to be stricter,” Merkel said during a news conference after the cabinet approved a draft law enabling a mandatory nationwide “emergency brake” if the number of new infections per 100,000 residents in a district or city exceeds 100 for three consecutive days within a week.
“One thing is helping us enormously: as we prepare for those restrictions, the vaccination campaign is in progress and building momentum every day.”
Updated
Concern is growing in Brazil about the rising number of young people who are critically ill in hospital with Covid-19, the BBC reports.
Research suggests more than half of patients being treated in intensive care last month were under 40.
The BBC’s Mark Lowen visited Latin America’s largest cemetery, a makeshift hospital and a vaccine hub to find out why the handling of the pandemic in Brazil has become a public health disaster.
Novavax Inc has pushed back the timeline for hitting its production target of 150m Covid-19 vaccine doses per month until the third quarter due to supply shortages including bags used to grow cells, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
Novavax executives had previously said full-scale vaccine production could be achieved by mid-year. The company told Reuters in January it expected to reach full production capacity by May or June.
Novavax communications director Amy Speak said by email on Monday:
We said during our earnings call that we expect all capacity being online by around mid-year. We’re continuing to refine that timing as we get closer, which now leads us to think we’re online/at full capacity by Q3.
There are some supply shortages that come and go that have contributed to the revision in timing.
These have included things like the bioreactor bags and filters.
Novavax could receive UK regulatory authorisation for its vaccine as early as this month after releasing impressive UK trial data. It anticipates clearance in the US could come as early as May after soon-to-be released data from its US vaccine trial are reviewed by regulators.
The Maryland-based company is one of several Covid-19 vaccine makers that have had to push back production timelines due to industrywide shortages of raw materials and difficulties getting plants up and running.
Reuters reported last month that Novavax had delayed a planned deal to ship at least 100 million doses of its two-shot vaccine to the EU, in part because of supply challenges.
Updated
British prime minister Boris Johnson said Covid-19 infections and deaths would start to rise again as restrictions were eased despite the successful rollout of vaccinations to those aged above 50 and vulnerable groups.
Johnson said on Tuesday:
The bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown.
So, as we unlock the result will inevitably be that we will see more infections and sadly we will see more hospitalisations and deaths.
Here a clip of Johnson shared by the Daily Mail’s John Stevens:
Here’s the clip 👇 pic.twitter.com/CPWIX3uxQs
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) April 13, 2021
In south London, extra coronavirus testing facilities are being set up in two boroughs after dozens of new cases of the South African variant were detected, PA Media reports.
A total of 400 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 2 April mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - the lowest number since the week ending 2 October.
The figure is down 44% on the previous week’s total, although the ONS said the number of deaths registered was affected by the Good Friday bank holiday.
Updated
The Dutch government is expected to delay the long-awaited easing of lockdown restrictions including a night-time curfew in an announcement later on Tuesday, due to stubbornly high Covid-19 infection rates that are putting pressure on hospitals.
The office of the prime minister, Mark Rutte, said on Sunday “it is still too early” to allow more people to gather in public places.
Authorities had hoped to reopen outdoor cafes and restaurants next week, but roughly six months after they shut, infection rates remain high and intensive care admissions are on the rise, Reuters reports.
Current measures in the Netherlands include the first nighttime curfew since the second world war and a ban on public gatherings of more than two people.
The country has recorded 1.3 million coronavirus cases and more than 16,700 death to date, while nearly 70% of Dutch intensive care beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.
Rutte is due to announce his cabinet’s latest decision during a televised news conference at 1900 CET (1700 GMT).
The Dutch National Institute for Health (RIVM) said last week that it expected the third wave of the pandemic to decline from a late April peak as vaccination levels slowly increase.
Updated
Airlines could check new EU Covid certificates before allowing onboard passengers going on summer holidays, a senior official said on Tuesday as the bloc seeks to restart the travel sector.
Reuters reports:
The EU’s proposed Covid travel certificate would contain information on vaccination, tests or recovery, and would be valid until the World Health Organization declares the pandemic over, the EU justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, told lawmakers.
“What we want is to give to citizens and member states a tool that provides the necessary trust and confidence. A tool that competent authorities can rely on wherever needed to facilitate free movement,” he said.
“Similarly, an airline company could […] verify the validity of the certificate in a simple way at the check-in,” Reynders told an EU parliament committee. “Long discussions at the gate should be avoided.”
Europe is in the midst of its third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic but southern EU countries that rely on tourism are already pushing for an instrument to help their hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions this summer. They face off against more sceptical Belgium, France or Germany.
Reynders stressed the certificate did not amount to a “vaccination passport” since having been inoculated could not on its own give people the right to travel freely as that would discriminate against those who cannot or would not get the jab.
Under the proposal, the 27 countries in the bloc would have to honour EU-approved vaccinations but could also chose to recognise others, such as Russia’s Sputnik V, he said. But he also added it was unclear how long immunity lasts.
EU lawmakers raised data privacy issues and practicalities of checking such certificates for millions of people crossing borders in cars and trucks every day in what is normally the bloc’s open travel zone, now criss-crossed by often disjointed health and public safety restrictions on movement.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be rounding up all pandemic related key developments on this blog for the next few hours. If you have anything to flag, you can get in touch with me on Twitter @JedySays.
Updated
Kate Connolly in Berlin
The German cabinet has paved the way for an amendment of the Infection Protection law (Infektionsschutzgesetz) that will allow the federal government to centralise decision-making on measures to tackle the pandemic. These include triggering a notbremse or emergency brake when the incidence rate climbs too high, which would prompt stricter rules on contact and movement, including the introduction of a nighttime curfew. The next stage of the amendment will be a debate in the Bundestag.
The amendment has been controversial as it takes power away from the 16 Länder which have until now been setting the rules to steer Germany through the pandemic.
But with the rate of infections rising and mounting confusion as different states take widely differing approaches to tackling the virus, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, has insisted on more central control in an effort to get the virus under control and to offer more clarity.
Some have referred to the law change as a power grab.
The opposition Greens have said they would in principle support the amendment, but want to see clarification on areas such as obliging employers to provide coronavirus tests for workers, and allowing people to work from home wherever possible.
The pro-business FDP has raised objections including rejecting the planned night-time curfews, which would be imposable whenever the infection rate reaches an incidence rate of 100 per 100,000 people over a seven-day period. The party has called such measures disproportionate and unconstitutional.
Critics of the law say the 100 incidence rate makes little sense, not least because it fails to take into account other variables, such as an increase in testing, which is arguably leading to the discovery of more positive coronavirus cases, and the situation on Germany’s intensive care wards as an indicator as to whether the health system is able to cope.
A vote on the law is expected in the Bundestag this week. If it is passed there, it would then have to go through the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament.
Germany has an incidence rate of more than 140, and rising, but with major regional differences. There were just under 11,000 infections registered on Tuesday and 294 deaths were reported, with intensive care doctors warning that currently Covid 19 patients are occupying 18% of ICU beds, a figure that is expected to rise considerably before the end of the month. The association for intensive care medicine has welcomed the plans to amend the law.
Germany’s vaccination campaign is now continuing to pick up speed, after a sluggish start with the Robert Koch Institute, the disease control agency, reporting on Tuesday that 6.2% of Germans are now fully inoculated, and 16.3% have had one jab.
Updated
Today so far …
- India is to fast-track emergency approvals for Covid-19 vaccines that have been authorised by western countries and Japan, paving the way for possible imports of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Moderna shots. Since 2 April, India has reported the world’s highest daily tallies of infections, reaching more than 100,000 a day in the last week.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a halt to the sale of live wild mammals in food markets to prevent the emergence of new diseases. The WHO said that while traditional markets play a central role in providing food and livelihoods for large populations, banning the sale of live wild mammals could protect the health of market workers and shoppers alike.
- Amnesty International has called this morning for a more equitable distribution of vaccines by South Asian governments. “Marginalised groups across south Asia have been effectively locked out by practical barriers. South Asia’s governments must ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for everyone,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.
- Thousands of supporters of a Pakistan Islamist party who blocked major roads to protest against the arrest of their leader also disrupted critical oxygen supplies for Covid-19 patients, health officials said.
- US infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci said if safety concerns about AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine were “straightened out” it had good efficacy, but it might not be needed for Americans because of supplies of other shots.
- Austria’s health minister, Rudolf Anschober, said on Tuesday he is stepping down as he is overworked because of the Covid-19 pandemic and his health has suffered.
- Germany’s government is expected to agree today on controversial changes to a national infections control law that would hand Berlin more centralised power to impose sweeping measures to curb the raging coronavirus pandemic.
- All over-50s and high-risk groups in the UK have been offered a coronavirus vaccine before the mid-April government deadline. The second phase of the rollout to younger cohorts is now beginning. England will follow Wales and Scotland and start using the Moderna vaccine at over 20 sites this week.
That’s it from me – Martin Belam – today. I’ll be back tomorrow. Jedidajah Otte will be along shortly to take you through the rest of the day’s global coronavirus news. And if you prefer your Covid news with a distinctly UK angle, then Yohannes Lowe has our UK live blog.
Updated
Following Dr Fauci’s comments earlier about the AstraZeneca vaccine [see 8.12am], it’s also worth looking at how the US is approaching another vaccine where there has been concern over rare blood clots. Elizabeth Cohen reports for CNN:
US health agencies are taking concerns about blood clots and the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine “seriously” and are working to assess whether the shot is associated with a very small increased risk of rare blood clots, a federal official told CNN.
“The CDC and the FDA are taking these concerns about blood clots and the J&J vaccine seriously and are diligently assembling data,” the official said. “The CDC is very concerned and they’re very working hard on this and monitoring this closely.”
The concern in the United States isn’t just about the Johnson & Johnson shot per se. At a time when US health officials are encouraging Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they can, there’s a worry that news coverage about clots being studied in relation to Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine might make some Americans more hesitant to get any Covid-19 vaccine.
Vaccine hesitancy is already an issue in the US, and officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration are “thinking through how to communicate about the issue without creating the impression that something might be wrong with the [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine,” the federal health official said.
Read more here: CNN – Federal official: CDC, FDA taking reports of blood clots and J&J Covid-19 vaccine ‘seriously
We reported earlier that Austrian health minister Rudolf Anschober is stepping down. Associated Press has a few quotes from his press briefing this morning, when he announced the move.
Anschober, who suffered a burnout nine years ago, said he had experienced two episodes of sudden fatigue in the past month, as well as high blood pressure and tinnitus.
He said he had “clearly overworked” and hadn’t felt completely fit for several weeks. This wasn’t a burnout, he added, but doctors advised him to take a break.
“In the most serious health crisis for decades, the republic needs a health minister who is 100% fit,” Anschober said. “I am not at the moment, and I won’t be in the coming weeks if I don’t pull the emergency brake.”
“This pandemic takes no breaks and so a health minister can’t take a break either,” he added.
Under his watch Austria has been unable to break a succession of lockdowns and has an infection rate significantly higher than that of neighbouring Germany.
“On the whole, I think we have done good work,” Anschober said. “In a pandemic, no one is free of mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes … We were in uncharted territory.”
“My impression is that it isn’t 15 months, more like 15 years,” he said of his time in office.
Updated
The holy month of Ramadan has begun in Turkey accompanied by a nationwide lockdown to combat a surge in cases driven by more infectious variants of the coronavirus.
Turkey hit a record of 54,562 new cases a day on Monday with 85% of the new caseload due to the UK variant of the virus, health minister Fahrettin Koca said, warning that even stricter measures may be necessary to combat Turkey’s massive third wave.
Afraid of the impact on its already struggling economy, to date Turkey has avoided closing down the economy, but officials now appear to be briefing that a total “shutdown” may be needed to bring the numbers down.
“There is no dramatic increase in the bed occupancy rate of 59% or the intensive care occupancy rate of 67.4%, but the developments are serious and the data is cautionary,” Koca told reporters on Monday night.
As was the case for Ramadan (or Ramazan in Turkish) last year, weekends will be locked down, with just food shops allowed to operate, and restaurants and cafes will only be able to provide delivery services. Gatherings for the pre-dawn sahur and sunset iftar meals are banned, as are tarawih, the special nighttime prayers usually held at mosques. A nationwide curfew between 9pm - 5am remains in place.
While Turkey’s mortality rate is lower than that of many European countries, opposition politicians and healthcare unions have repeatedly accused the government of covering up the virus’ true impact.
On the positive side, Turkey’s vaccination programme ranks among the fastest in the world, with 9.1% of the 83m population fully vaccinated and 18.5m shots administered, according to data compiled by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to announce any extra measures to tackle the pandemic after a cabinet meeting in Ankara on Tuesday evening.
India to fast-track emergency approvals for Covid-19 vaccines approved elsewhere
India is to fast-track emergency approvals for Covid-19 vaccines that have been authorised by Western countries and Japan, paving the way for possible imports of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Moderna shots.
The move, which will drop the need for companies to do small, local safety trials for their vaccines before seeking emergency approval, came following the world’s biggest surge in cases in the country this month, report Reuters.
Vaccines authorised by the World Health Organization or authorities in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan “may be granted emergency use approval in India, mandating the requirement of post-approval parallel bridging clinical trial”, the health ministry said in a statement.
“The first 100 beneficiaries of such foreign vaccines shall be assessed for seven days for safety outcomes before they are rolled out,” it said.
India, the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, has so far administered more than 106 million doses of Covid-19 shots, but many states are now running short of supplies as inoculations expand due to surging cases. India is currently using the AstraZeneca shot and a homegrown vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech.
Since 2 April, India has reported the world’s highest daily tallies of infections, reaching more than 100,000 a day in the last week, compared with fewer than 10,000 a day earlier in the year.
The widely read Hindustan Times newspaper called for an immediate halt to mass gatherings in the country amid the Kumbh Mela festival and an election campaign: “Governments have happily allowed mega religious festivals, and political leaders are still, even in the middle of this nightmarish pandemic, addressing hundreds of thousands,” it said in an editorial.
Amnesty International call for 'equitable access' to vaccines in South Asia
Amnesty International have called this morning for a more equitable distribution of vaccines by South Asian governments.
“As vaccine campaigns have been rolled out, marginalized groups across South Asia have been effectively locked out by practical barriers. South Asia’s governments must ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for everyone irrespective of caste, socio-economic or other status, race, or nationality,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.
“The lack of access to vaccine supply in most countries across the region is a real and pressing concern that needs to be urgently addressed. However, this must not provide cover to these countries to unduly limit access to vaccines, for example, by not reaching out to vulnerable groups to tell them how they can get vaccinated. Who you are and where you live should not determine access to the vaccine.”
Amnesty International specifically note “slum dwellers, Dalits, ethnic minorities, workers including labourers, daily wage earners, sanitation workers, garment workers and tea plantation workers, people in rural areas, prisoners, and internally displaced people” as being excluded from vaccine access.
“International cooperation is key to contain the spread of the virus and make the vaccine universally available as quickly as possible. South Asian countries with the capacity to produce the vaccine at affordable prices must ensure equitable distribution and call on global bodies, pharmaceutical companies, and other vaccine manufacturing states to prioritize resource and technology transfer to produce vaccines locally,” said Mishra.
WHO urges pause on sale of live wild mammals in food markets
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a halt to the sale of live wild mammals in food markets to prevent the emergence of new diseases.
The WHO said that while traditional markets play a central role in providing food and livelihoods for large populations, banning the sale of live wild mammals could protect the health of market workers and shoppers alike.
It urged countries to suspend the sale of live animals captured from the wild in food markets as an emergency measure, saying some of the earliest known cases of Covid-19 had a link to a wholesale traditional food market in Wuhan in China, with many of the initial patients stall owners, market employees or regular visitors to the market.
AFP reports the interim guidance was drawn up alongside the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
“The guidance calls on countries to suspend the sale of captured live wild mammals in food markets as an emergency measure,” the WHO said.
“Animals, particularly wild animals, are the source of more than 70% of all emerging infectious diseases in humans, many of which are caused by novel viruses. Wild mammals, in particular, pose a risk for the emergence of new diseases,” it said.
“Traditional markets, where live animals are held, slaughtered and dressed, pose a particular risk for pathogen transmission to workers and customers alike,” said the guidance.
It also called on governments to close sections of food markets selling live wild mammals unless adequate risk assessments were in place.
Updated
Austrian health minister to step down citing exhaustion
Just a very quick snap from Reuters here that Austrian health minister Rudolf Anschober of the Greens, the junior partner in the country’s conservative-led coalition, said on Tuesday he is stepping down as he is overworked because of the Covid-19 pandemic and his health has suffered.
“I do not want to break myself,” Anschober, 60, said in a short-notice statement to the media, adding that he has recently been suffering from blood-pressure problems and exhaustion.
He will step down on Monday with a successor expected to be appointed imminently. Austria has so far had 578,950 coronavirus cases and 9,706 deaths.
Updated
Over the last couple of weeks there has been some mystery and speculation over the health of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. He has been absent from the public eye for a fortnight.
AFP report that in a pre-recorded speech released yesterday he said he will “waive” his chance to get a Covid-19 vaccine, arguing that elderly people like him should not be prioritised.
“I will waive. Whoever wants to get my slot, I will give (it to them). Let’s prioritise those who, once they get a vaccine, there’s a chance that he would live and live productively,” said the 76-year-old. “Most of the senior citizens are no longer that productive.”
Just over one million people in the Philippines have received their first shot since the beginning of March. The slow rollout and limited supply have fuelled criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic as a record surge in infections threatens to overwhelm hospitals in the locked-down capital and surrounding provinces.
The vaccination campaign initially targeted healthcare workers and soldiers, but it has since widened to include the elderly and those with co-morbidities.
Duterte has made a series of conflicting speeches about vaccines, having previously offered to be the first person to trial the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in the Philippines, and suggesting he would be willing to be inoculated in public.
His spokesman Harry Roque has said this morning that he hopes Duterte will again change his mind.
“Supply is limited. Once supplies come in, maybe that’s the time he will get vaccinated,” Roque told reporters. Vaccine hesitancy has been a significant issue in the Philippines, with a recent survey showing around 60 percent of people unwilling to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
South Korea’s health authorities have said today that they would consider the use of coronavirus self-test kits despite their lower accuracy, after the new mayor of Seoul called for their approval.
Hyonhee Shin reports for Reuters that the government had been reluctant to allow self-test kits, citing their lower accuracy than industry-standard PCR tests and specialist-administered rapid tests which are already in place. The possibility of false negatives is higher, authorities say, as a high viral load in the nasal passageways is often essential to secure a reliable result.
But some local government chiefs and experts have highlighted the need for the use of self-test kits as a supplementary tool in recent weeks amid fears of a potential fourth wave of outbreaks of Covid-19.
Oh Se-hoon, who became mayor of the capital Seoul following last week’s special election, called on the drug safety ministry to approve those kits to be used at homes, restaurants, shops and religious facilities as a quick and easy device to detect possible infections.
Oh had blamed the government for failing to contain a third wave of Covid-19 and reduce the hardships of small business owners by sticking to ineffective distancing curbs.
“It is burdensome to maintain the anti-virus system as it is. We need to try new ideas and change our way of thinking,” Oh said at a cabinet meeting, the first he has attended since taking office. “I urge the drug safety ministry to grant approval for the use of self-test kits in the near future.”
Drug safety minister Kim Gang-lip said the kits might be helpful if used on a limited basis, but the current rules allow products with 90% accuracy – compared with 98% accuracy proven by PCR tests.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 542 new cases of Covid-19 as of Monday, marking a slight fall due to fewer tests during the weekend after the daily tally soared above 600 for six straight days. Total infections in South Korea stand at 110,688 since the pandemic began, with 1,775 deaths.
Updated
Hospital oxygen supplies disrupted by protests in Lahore, Pakistan
Thousands of supporters of a Pakistan Islamist party who blocked major roads to protest against the arrest of their leader also disrupted critical oxygen supplies for Covid-19 patients, health officials said on Tuesday.
Agence France-Presse reports that major intersections remained closed in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-biggest city, after the arrest on Monday of Saad Rizvi, the leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
Yasmin Rashid, a leading health official in Punjab, said the disruption of oxygen supplies during protests Monday night had been a “crisis”.
“Please do not block roads for ambulances and for visitors to the hospitals. Some ambulances are carrying oxygen cylinders, which are extremely essential for Covid patients,” Rashid said.
Punjab pandemic pointman Asad Aslam said several hospitals had faced oxygen shortages Monday night, but the situation had stabilised after roads were cleared by authorities.
Pakistan is in the grip of a deadly third wave of the coronavirus amid a shortage of vaccines.
The TLP party has led calls for the expulsion of the French ambassador from Pakistan, after the government of President Emmanuel Macron expressed support for a magazine’s right to republish cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed – an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.
Updated
Maybe leave it a little while until you attempt to use the NHS site to book your vaccine in England if you are in the 45- to 49-year-old age group who have just been invited to come forward. It looks like the site has crashed under the demand.
Updated
Adam Finn of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation also had some words of caution about socialising in England in the next few weeks. PA Media reports Prof Finn told BBC Breakfast:
The vaccines are only one part of the solution to the problem. People do need to continue to be careful and to avoid infecting each other. I certainly for one am going to continue to take a lot of care to avoid exposing myself to other people, and to avoid exposing other people to me, over the coming weeks and months.
I’m going to wear a mask outside. I’m going to continue to use hand hygiene and I’m going to avoid close social contact. I think we all need to continue to do that otherwise there is a real risk that there will be another surge in cases and we’ll start seeing hospitalisations and deaths again.
If I did [go to a beer garden] I would certainly avoid contact with other people. I think the risks of transmissions outside are relatively low but not if you start coming into close contact with people … if you cough or sing or really basically confront someone in the face.
If you happen to have the virus, and the virus is still circulating, then infections will occur. People need to see this in relative terms, it’s not like it’s over and we can all go back to normal, because otherwise there will be risks.
Updated
Also doing the morning media round in the UK today has been Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
He has told Sky News that the country is “halfway up the hill” after the news that the government has met its target of offering a jab to all those at highest risk of Covid-19.
“It’s an enormously significant milestone because this really represents the culmination of phase one, which was really aimed at trying to rescue the NHS from the enormous surge of cases that we had at the beginning of the year. Of course, the lockdown has contributed very significantly to that success as well.
“We’re halfway up the hill if you like, we can look back and be pleased with what we’ve achieved, but we need to look forward to get to the summit, and really finish this off.”
He added: “We’ve certainly got an important job to do to communicate the importance of the vaccination programme to younger people – they perhaps have less fear of this disease than older people quite understandably have had, but nevertheless I think people can be helped to understand that the ultimate exit from this catastrophe involves building up immunity in the population.
“We need to get to a point where so many people are immune to it that the virus is left with nowhere to go and that means that younger people do need to come forward in large numbers, as older people have done, in order to achieve that goal.”
PA Media reports he said during a later appearance on BBC Breakfast that the UK vaccine programme needed three things: supplies of vaccines, teams of NHS staff and volunteers, and people coming forward to “roll up their sleeves”, in order to keep rollout steady.
“As long as we can go on putting those three things together we can get the job finished, but it will take another two or three months to get everyone their first dose,” he said.
Updated
Fauci says that US may not 'need' to use Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine
US infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci has been on the media in the UK this morning, and said if safety concerns about AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine were straightened out it had good efficacy, but it might not be needed for Americans because of supplies of other shots.
“I think that the AstraZeneca vaccine from a standpoint of efficacy is a good vaccine, and if the safety issue gets straightened out in the European Union … the efficacy of that vaccine is really quite good,” he told BBC radio.
“The way the United States has made contractual relationships with a number of companies, we clearly have enough vaccine – or will get enough vaccine – that does not include AstraZeneca, which would be enough quantitatively to vaccinate everybody in the United States.”
Reuters reports that he added: “Whether or not we ever use AZ is unclear but it looks right now at this point in time that we will not need it. It’s not a negative indictment of AZ, it is just possible that given the supply that we have from other companies that we may not need to use an AZ vaccine.”
So far, 120.8 million people have received one or both doses of a vaccine in the US, and the Joe Biden administration has been keen to emphasise the speed at which it is being administered.
In the last 7 days, we've reported administering almost 22 million shots -- over 8% of the adult population in a single week.
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) April 13, 2021
This pace is unprecedented, but we're continuing to increase vaccine supply, the number of places to get vaccinated, and the number of vaccinators.
Updated
England opens up Covid vaccination to anybody aged 45 or over
All over-50s and high-risk groups in the UK have been offered a coronavirus vaccine a few days before the mid-April deadline set by the government – meaning the second phase of the rollout to younger cohorts can now begin.
Despite fears of a supply slowdown and a possible knock in confidence after a change in advice on who could get the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday hailed the passing of “another hugely significant milestone”.
And this morning the NHS website is offering those in England 45 and over the opportunity to book their shot. The service is available if:
- you are aged 45 or over
- you are at high risk from coronavirus (clinically extremely vulnerable)
- you have a condition that puts you at higher risk (clinically vulnerable)
- you have a learning disability
- you get a carer’s allowance, get support following an assessment by your local authority or your GP record shows you are a carer
You can use this NHS service here.
For information on the latest vaccination situation in other parts of the UK you can use:
Updated
It isn’t just the number of cases and deaths that people are looking at closely as the UK gradually eases out of lockdown – it is the economic impact too. Graeme Wearden reports:
The UK economy returned to modest growth in February, but remains sharply below its pre-pandemic peak amid the third Covid-19 lockdown.
Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show that UK GDP rose by 0.4% in February, having shrunk in January.
Growth was led by the production sector and construction, with the large services sector only expanding modestly due to pandemic restrictions.
That leaves the economy around 7.8% below the levels seen in February 2020.
You can follow more analysis of those figures with Graeme Wearden over on our daily business live blog:
If you missed it yesterday, this video is well worth four minutes of your time. Israel became the first country in the world to test vaccine passports when it announced the “green pass” scheme in February. The passes allow people who have had two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine to return to restaurants, theatres and sport events.
With many countries planning to reopen after their vaccination campaigns, in this video the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Oliver Holmes, examines the lessons that could be learned from Israel’s rollout.
Updated
Officials are deploying surge testing in parts of south London after detecting dozens of cases of the South African variant, which appears to be more resistant to current vaccines.
About 44 cases have been confirmed, chiefly in the boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth, while a further 30 probable cases have also been identified, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
It coincides with the relaxation of restrictions in England, and this morning Ruth Hutt, director of public health for Lambeth council, has told the BBC that local people can still enjoy the easing of lockdown.
PA Media reports she told Radio 4’s Today programme that “We want everybody to follow the advice that still stands around ‘hands, face, space’. We want them to enjoy the easing of lockdown but to do that safely, and it is a really good opportunity now to mobilise all this testing just to check we don’t have any further cases of this variant in either Lambeth or Wandsworth.”
She added: “It is really important to know that these, a lot of these, cases were picked up through asymptomatic testing, so we have really good testing processes in place, particularly in care homes where one of these clusters was picked up, for people who have no symptoms – they routinely test all their staff and residents on a weekly and monthly basis.
“Many of these people didn’t have symptoms and, as a result of that, what we want to do is a wider testing across the general public of anybody who doesn’t have symptoms to check there aren’t further cases out there that we may have missed.”
Hutt said she was “fairly confident” that the local authority had managed to trace the contacts of people who had tested positive for the South African variant, which has been proven to evade some of the vaccines being deployed in the UK.
Updated
The German government is expected to agree later today on controversial changes to a national infections control law that would hand Berlin more centralised power to impose sweeping measures to curb the raging coronavirus pandemic.
Agence France-Presse is teeing up the developments this morning, reporting that the proposed changes, criticised by some states, could give Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government the power to impose night-time curfews and close schools in areas with high infection rates.
In a draft seen by AFP over the weekend, the measures included a night-time curfew between 9pm and 5am, the closing of non-essential shops and restricting private gatherings to five people from two households.
The move aims to end a political tug-of-war between the federal government and powerful regions over coronavirus measures, as Germany remains gripped by a dangerous third wave of the pandemic which is putting increased strain on the country’s health system.
Currently coronavirus measures are decided on in consultation with Berlin and – in theory – implemented by the federal states. Yet in many cases, regional leaders have failed to put in place shutdown measures to which they agreed with Merkel, with some even allowing shops and cinemas to reopen.
Most notably, some states have not followed through on an agreement to row back on the easing of measures in areas where the seven-day incidence rate exceeds 100 new infections per 100,000 people. The adjusted law set to pass cabinet on Tuesday would give Berlin the power to enforce this “emergency brake”.
At a press conference yesterday, Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the new law aimed to create “uniform national” rules. “The aim is to bring the country as quickly as possible to a situation with much lower infection rates at which we can responsibly ease restrictions with testing,” he said.
The controversial move away from Germany’s strict federal structures comes as Europe’s biggest economy struggles to contain rising infection rates. “The numbers are too high at the moment. The pressure on our intensive care stations is growing and we have to say that this third wave is perhaps the hardest one to break,” said Merkel.
Health authorities warned last week that hospitals could become overwhelmed without tougher national measures. “If we don’t go into lockdown, a lot of people will lose their lives,” said Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute infectious disease agency.
Updated
PA Media has helpfully produced these crib notes to give some extra background on the Moderna vaccine, which gets its first rollout in England today.
Moderna is a US pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Country singer Dolly Parton is credited with helping fund the jab after donating $1m (about £716,000) to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tennessee, which participated in the research.
The phase III results trial suggested vaccine efficacy against the disease was 94.1%, and vaccine efficacy against severe Covid-19 was 100%.
More than 30,000 people in the US took part in the trial, from a wide range of age groups and ethnic backgrounds. Two doses were given 28 days apart so researchers could evaluate safety and any reaction to the vaccine.
The analysis was based on 196 cases, of which 185 cases of Covid-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 11 cases observed in the active vaccine group. All 30 severe cases occurred in the placebo group and none in the group which had received the vaccine.
One benefit of the Moderna vaccine is that it can be safely stored at temperatures of around minus 20C (minus 4F) – achievable in a standard pharmaceutical fridge – making distribution much easier. The Pfizer vaccine on the other hand has to be stored at minus 70C (minus 94F) and is only stable for a short period at higher temperatures, making it difficult to administer away from hospital hubs.
The company also said in late January that it was effective against both the strain first detected in south-east England and the mutation which first emerged in South Africa.
The UK government has bought 17m doses – enough to vaccinate about 8.5 million people.
Like all medicines, the vaccine can cause possible side-effects – but not everyone gets them. Common side-effects with the Moderna vaccine can include flu-like symptoms and pain or swelling at the injection site, and most can be treated by paracetamol.
Updated
England to begin using Moderna vaccine from today
After yesterday’s rule relaxation, there’s another milestone in England’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic today – England will start using the Moderna vaccine. It will be used at over 20 sites this week as the third shot that is available in Britain for Covid-19.
Wales and Scotland had already started administering the shots last week, and health officials had said it would be rolled out across the rest of the United Kingdom in the coming days.
“More than 20 sites, including Reading’s Madejski Stadium and the Sheffield Arena, will initially use the newest vaccine, as the NHS continues to expand the vaccination programme,” the health service said in a statement, report Reuters.
Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, said: “We now have a third jab in our armoury and NHS staff will be using it at more than 20 sites from this week, with more coming online as supplies expand.”
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Martin Belam is waiting in the wings.
Thank you for following along – and if you have any information on the whereabouts of this hefty rabbit please let its owner know:
Thailand reported 965 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday after registering record daily rises in the past two days as the country deals with a third wave of infections and a highly contagious variant.
No new deaths were reported. The new cases took the total number of infections to 34,575, with deaths remaining at 97.
England’s mosques ready as second Ramadan in Covid lockdown begins
Muslims have begun fasting on the first day of Ramadan, as mosques in England prepare to welcome worshippers in smaller groups due to Covid restrictions.
Much like last year, Ramadan will be drastically different from usual for Muslims, with many customs and practices changed due to the restrictions.
In 2020, Ramadan began almost a month into the first lockdown with mosques closed and people told to stay at home. As a result, many Muslims were not able to take part in congregational prayers and visit family and friends to break their fast together at sunset:
Muslims open second pandemic Ramadan
Muslims began marking Ramadan with communal prayers Tuesday in a socially distanced contrast to the empty mosques of a year ago when Islam’s holiest month coincided with the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid cases are spiking in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, but vaccines are being administered and the government is loosening restrictions. Mosques were allowed to open for Ramadan prayers with strict health protocols in place, and with malls and cafes open, passers-by could again see curtains shielding the sight of food from people fasting.
Neighbouring Muslim-majority Malaysia also eased its restrictions, including last year’s ban on “taraweeh” nighttime prayers and allowing popular open-air bazaars selling food, drinks and clothes to open.
Indonesia’s Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas announced in a televised address Monday evening that the new Ramadan moon had been spotted. The holy month is marked by intense prayer, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts.
Last year, authorities shuttered all mosques and clerics issued a fatwa, or edict, urging Muslims to pray at home over the holy month rather than congregate in crowded spaces and risk spreading the virus.
Muslims this year are expecting a virus resurgence but all mosques will be continuing to adhere to social distancing and other precautions, which will significantly reduce crowds, said Nasaruddin Umar, imam of Jakarta’s Istiqlal grand mosque.
In the capital, Jakarta, authorities disinfected 317 mosques on Sunday in preparation for Ramadan, said Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan. Social distancing markers have been installed and soap and hand sanitisers have been prepared.
India approves Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine
India has approved the use of Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Monday, confirming earlier reports of its imminent endorsement, Reuters reports.
India overtook Brazil to become the nation with the second highest number of infections worldwide after the United States, as it battles a second wave, having given about 105 million doses among a population of 1.4 billion.
The RDIF, which is responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, said the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the use of Sputnik V.
“India, the world’s 2nd most populous nation, became the 60th country to register ŁSputnikV after positive results of local Phase 3 clinical study. Sputnik V is now authorised in 60 countries with population of over 3 bln people,” a post on the Sputnik V official Twitter account said.
Earlier on Monday, two people familiar with the matter said the panel of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had recommended the authorisation.
The RDIF has signed deals to produce more than 750 million doses of Sputnik V in India with six domestic firms.
India has so far used two vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and the other by domestic firm Bharat Biotech.
Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, has proved 91.6% effective against COVID-19 and has been approved for use in more than 50 countries.
The Indian drugs regulator did not respond to a request for comment on the expert panel’s approval of the Russian vaccine.
Indian pharmaceutical firm Dr. Reddy’s, which is marketing the vaccine in India, said it was awaiting formal word from the authorities.
Pandemic hits ‘critical point’ as Europe deaths top one million
Europe passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus deaths on Monday, as the World Health Organization warned that infections are rising exponentially despite widespread efforts aimed at stopping them, AFP reports.
The death toll across Europe’s 52 countries, compiled by AFP from official sources, totalled at least 1,000,288 by 1830 GMT.
“We are in a critical point of the pandemic right now,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19.
“The trajectory of this pandemic is growing... exponentially.
“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, when we have proven control measures,” she told reporters.
The coronavirus has already killed more than 2.9 million people and infected nearly 136 million across the world.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Europe passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus deaths on Monday, as the World Health Organization warned that infections are rising exponentially despite widespread efforts aimed at stopping them.
Meanwhile India has approved the use of Russian Sputnik V vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said on Monday, confirming earlier reports of its imminent endorsement.
India overtook Brazil to become the nation with the second highest number of infections worldwide after the United States, as it battles a second wave, having given about 105 million doses among a population of 1.4 billion.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The UK has reported the highest number of new Covid-19 cases since 1 April on Monday, with 3,568 new cases reported. A further 13 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths on the measure to 127,100.
-
Turkey’s coronavirus taskforce will recommend a tougher set of restrictions as the country battles its third wave, health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday in comments reported by Reuters.
- Authorities are rolling out surge testing in parts of south London after cases of the South African Covid-19 variant were detected.
-
The Canadian province of Ontario is shutting schools and moving to remote learning due to rising infection levels, premier Doug Ford said on Monday. He did not say when pupils would return to in-person teaching, Reuters reports.
-
Ireland will only administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people over 60, the country’s chief medical officer said Monday, after it was linked to rare blood clotting cases, according to AFP.
-
Three Covid-19 patients died on Monday in an intensive care unit in Bucharest after the oxygen supply system failed, the emergency situations department (DSU) said in a statement reported by AFP.
-
All over-50s in England have been offered a coronavirus vaccine a few days before the mid-April deadline set by the government – meaning the second phase of the rollout to younger cohorts can now begin.
- Brazil’s Supreme Court is set to approve a congressional inquiry into President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic but will leave the Senate to decide when it takes place, a source told Reuters.
- Confusion and complacency in addressing Covid-19 means the pandemic is a long way from being over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
- Japan has expanded its vaccination programme to people aged over 64, amid concern that the country is entering a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.
