Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key moments of this evening:
- Coronavirus-related deaths in Europe surpassed 1 million on Friday as vaccination efforts attempt to keep up with new variants causing a third wave of infections that could once again overwhelm hospitals.
- The UK on Friday said it had given 660,276 doses of Covid-19 vaccine in a single day, a new daily record, in a boost to the rollout before the country prepares for a drop-off in the “bumper” supplies of shots.
- Ireland is to resume the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine within days for all those aged 18 and over, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee said on Friday.
- Greece will lift some Covid-19 restrictions next week as part of a plan to gradually reopen a fragile economy even as its hospitals remain under severe pressure from stubbornly high infections, authorities said on Friday.
- Queen Elizabeth has thanked the millions of people who stepped up to volunteer during the pandemic in Britain, including those who delivered food, medicines and friendship to vulnerable people shielding at home for months.
- Parisians packed inter-city trains leaving the French capital and crammed into shops Friday ahead of a new lockdown aimed at stemming a surge in coronavirus infections.
- A White House official on Friday said the US government has distributed 22 million Covid-19 shots to locations across the United States this week, as it pushes to deliver enough vaccines for all Americans by the end of May.
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British prime minister Boris Johnson has received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a central London vaccination centre.
- Almost eight out of 10 Brazilians think the Covid-19 pandemic is out of control in their country and more than half are “very afraid” they will get infected with coronavirus, a new Datafolha poll said on Friday.
- Brazil had a record 90,570 cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours and 2,815 Covid-19 deaths, the second deadliest daily toll since the pandemic began a year ago, the health ministry said on Friday.
- Ecuador’s health minister has resigned less than three weeks on the job, the Andean country’s government said on Friday, as prosecutors investigate allegations of favouritism in the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.
- Germany’s foreign ministry said it was classifying Poland as a “high incidence area” of Covid-19 from Sunday.
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Ecuador’s health minister has resigned less than three weeks on the job, the Andean country’s government said on Friday, as prosecutors investigate allegations of favouritism in the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.
Surgeon Rodolfo Farfan was named health minister on March 1. Reuters could not reach Farfan for comment on Friday. He has not been accused of wrongdoing, Reuters reports.
Farfan replaced Juan Carlos Zevallos, who resigned in late February while under investigation after participating in an inoculation effort at a nursing home where his mother lives.
Farfan resigned after police raided the health ministry and a hospital in the capital Quito as part of its investigation. In a statement, the government said it was willing to cooperate with the investigations.
Accusations of nepotism in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines have caused political turmoil in several South American countries including Ecuador, Peru and Argentina.
Official data show Ecuador has administered the first dose of the vaccine to more than 120,000 people. Authorities say they have arranged to purchase 20 million doses to vaccinate 60% of the population above the age of 18 by the end of the year.
President Lenin Moreno, along with his wife and 10 people who had provided medical care to Moreno, had been vaccinated, the government statement said.
Updated
Brazil sees a record 90,570 cases in the last 24 hours
Brazil had a record 90,570 cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours and 2,815 Covid-19 deaths, the second deadliest daily toll since the pandemic began a year ago, the health ministry said on Friday.
Ending the most lethal week yet in a surge of the virus driven by a more contagious local variant, the South American country has now registered 11,871,390 cases in all, while the death toll has risen to 290,314, according to ministry data.
Updated
Germany’s foreign ministry said it was classifying Poland as a “high incidence area” of Covid-19 from Sunday.
“Poland is very severely affected by Covid-19,” the ministry said on its website on Friday, pointing to an incidence exceeding 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days.
“Non-essential, tourist travel to Poland is warned against due to high infection rates,” it added.
Updated
Some of Royal Caribbean Group’s cruises will resume sailing in the Caribbean in June with vaccinated adult guests, ending a year-long hiatus brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Adventure of the Seas and Celebrity Millennium ships will also have vaccinated crews and accept children under the age of 18 with a negative Covid-19 test, Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises said on Friday.
“Returning to the Caribbean ... marks the measured beginning of the end of what has been a uniquely challenging time for everyone,” said Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, chief executive officer of Celebrity Cruises, a division of Royal Caribbean.
The governments of The Bahamas and St. Maarten said the return to sailing could help boost their economies.
“The vaccines are clearly a game changer for all of us,” Royal Caribbean International Chief Executive Officer Michael Bayley said.
Mexico registered another 613 coronavirus fatalities on Friday, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 197,219, according to health ministry data.
The ministry data also showed an additional 5,722 confirmed infections, for a total of 2,187,910 cases, Reuters reports.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
The Acropolis in Athens and other ancient sites nationwide will shortly reopen despite a surge in coronavirus cases, Greece’s governmenthas announced.
Free weekly rapid tests for Covid-19 will also be offered to all the country’s residents as it prepares to restart the tourism season in mid-May, Associated Press reports.
The measures were announced despite an ongoing surge in daily infections to 20.9 per 100,000 residents, as a seven-day rolling average, with private hospital space being used by the state-run health service to cope with treatment demand.
Starting Saturday, a weekend curfew will be relaxed. It will be followed on Monday by a series of other measures including a limited opening of barbershops and hair salons, and ancient sites for people on brief outings. Museums will remain closed.
Akis Skertsos, a deputy minister for government coordination said:
What we are talking about are pressure-release valves.
This is to help people comply with restrictions that have been in effect for such a long time.
The reopening of ancient sites was announced despite strong reservations from an association of state employees at ancient sites which warned that “procedures required for secure safety protocols have not been completed” but did not give further details.
Free tests will be made available to all residents of Greece with a social security number before the end of the month, officials said.
Medical, nursing, and administrative staff at public hospitals who have not yet been vaccinated will receive mandatory rapid tests twice weekly, according to a Health Ministry order, effective immediately.
The government says that despite the current surge, it expects to open to tourism, a key driver of the economy, in mid-May.
Lockdown measures have been in effect since early November.
Almost eight out of 10 Brazilians think the Covid-19 pandemic is out of control in their country and more than half are “very afraid” they will get infected with coronavirus, a new Datafolha poll said on Friday.
Reuters reports:
Those concerns come as president Jair Bolsonaro swaps the health minister for a third time and Brazil becomes the epicenter of the pandemic with more death each day than any country.
Datafolha said 79% of those surveyed said the situation is out of control, up from 62% in the last poll in January.
Brazil had its second deadliest day on Thursday, with 2,724 lives lost to Covid-19, just two days after a record 2,841 coronavirus deaths. On Wednesday, the health ministry reported a record 90,303 new cases of infection, more than the United States, which has had the most cases to date.
Datafolha said 55% of those surveyed are very frightened they will get the virus, up from 44% in January. Even young Brazilians and also richer ones are more afraid of being infected, the poll showed.
Datafolha polled 1,023 people by telephone March 15-16 and the poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
British prime minister Boris Johnson has received his coronavirus vaccine at a central London vaccination centre.
Johnson received his first dose of the AstraZeneca jab at St Thomas’ Hospital.
Johnson had confirmed he would be receiving the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at a press briefing on Thursday in which he dismissed concerns it was linked to blood clots and told the nation it was “safe”.
A White House official on Friday said the US government has distributed 22 million Covid-19 shots to locations across the United States this week, as it pushes to deliver enough vaccines for all Americans by the end of May.
US president Joe Biden has urged states to offer shots to all adults in May and said there will be enough doses for every adult who wants a shot by the end of that month.
Jeff Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said the administration has delivered 1 million shots to community vaccination sites across the country, around 60% of which have been given to ethnic and racial minorities.
“The federal pharmacy program... has allowed millions of Americans to get a shot in a local pharmacy, the same way they get their flu shot,” Zients said on a Friday press call.
The United States has shipped out more than 150 million shots and dosed nearly 120 million people, according to federal data.
Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc expect to deliver together 240 million Covid-19 shots to the United States by the end of March, and 800 million by mid-summer.
The Biden administration has urged states to make a push to get all teachers and childcare workers vaccinated by the end of March to assist with safe public school reopenings.
Zients said that U.S. regulators are expected to take action on AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 shot in the next several weeks.
Germany will supply general practitioners with vaccines and deliver additional doses to regions on the Czech and French borders as it seeks to get its campaign back on track following a three-day pause in using the AstraZeneca shot.
Reuters reports:
“The motto is vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” German chancellor Angela Merkel said after a meeting with the leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states.
Case numbers have been rising in Germany, driven by an easing of restrictions in recent weeks just as a more transmissible variant of the virus has spread, underlining the need to accelerate vaccinations to protect the vulnerable.
The suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine was the latest hurdle in Germany’s vaccination campaign, which has been plagued by delivery delays and news reports of side-effects. As of Friday, just 8.5% of the population had received a first shot, far behind other countries like the United States and Britain.
“I think we have a good chance of offering a vaccine to every resident by the end of the summer,” Merkel said.
Health Minister Jens Spahn earlier on Friday warned that vaccinations alone would not be able to contain the third wave of the pandemic as there are not enough doses, and said restrictions that were lifted may have to be reimposed to contain the spread of the virus.
“The rising case numbers may mean that we cannot take further opening steps in the weeks to come. On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards,” Spahn said.
Merkel and the state leaders are due to meet again on Monday to discuss extending a lockdown that has been in place since mid-December, as well as a reversal of plans to gradually re-open the economy.
Parisians flee capital to escape new lockdown
Parisians packed inter-city trains leaving the French capital and crammed into shops Friday ahead of a new lockdown aimed at stemming a surge in coronavirus infections.
AFP reports:
The new restrictions, announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex late Thursday, apply from midnight Friday to around a third of the country’s population affecting Paris and several other regions in the north and south.
The government has insisted the new month-long lockdown will be more limited than two others imposed last year, with schools open and outdoor exercise allowed for an unlimited amount of time.
President Emmanuel Macron even insisted Friday that the word “lockdown” (“confinement” in French) was not appropriate to describe the government’s strategy.
“What we want is to put a brake on the virus without shutting ourselves in. This is not being locked down,” he said at a meeting at the Elysee Palace.
“Strictly speaking, the term lockdown is not right,” he added.
But travel curbs that will ban people from leaving the Paris region encouraged many to leave the notoriously cramped city for areas with lighter restrictions, such as Brittany, the southwest Atlantic coast and Lyon in the southeast.
A spokesperson for national rail operator SNCF told AFP that trains for those destinations were now fully booked after having a 60-70 percent level of occupancy on previous Fridays.
Trains leaving Montparnasse station in southern Paris - which serves destinations in Brittany and the southwest - were completely full after a rush of bookings late Thursday.
German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that the country is ready to order to order Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine if the EMA approves it.
Merkel also said on Friday she would take AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot.
“I would get vaccinated with AstraZeneca,” Merkel told a news conference after a meeting with state leaders.
The French health ministry said on Friday 5,960,223 people have received a first Covid-19 vaccine shot since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in the country, Reuters reports.
Queen Elizabeth has thanked the millions of people who stepped up to volunteer during the pandemic in Britain, including those who delivered food, medicines and friendship to vulnerable people shielding at home for months.
Reuters reports:
The 94-year-old Queen joined Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall and wife of heir-to-the throne Prince Charles, on a video call to meet and thank volunteers from the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) which helped to coordinate the national response.
“I think it’s wonderful work,” the Queen told the five volunteers on the call. “Thank you to everybody - and all the others too who have been volunteering. It has been a great help.”
Camilla added: “We couldn’t have done without you”.
The RVS helped mobilise volunteers at the start of the pandemic, working with the National Health Service. Buckingham Palace said the queen wanted to thank the 12.7 million people in the UK who had volunteered since March last year.
Greece will lift some Covid-19 restrictions next week as part of a plan to gradually reopen a fragile economy even as its hospitals remain under severe pressure from stubbornly high infections, authorities said on Friday.
Reuters reports:
Hair and beauty salons and archaeological sites will open from March 22, deputy minister to the prime minister Akis Skertsos told a regular weekly briefing.
A nighttime curfew nationwide will start two hours later, at 9 p.m. during weekends, he said.
Ireland to resume rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine for all over-18s
Ireland is to resume the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine within days for all those aged 18 and over, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee said on Friday.
But it said that recipients should be informed that “very rare, complicated clotting events have been reported in a small number of people who have recently received the AstraZeneca vaccine,” the committee said in a statement.
Ireland last Sunday halted the rollout on concerns about blood clots, one of a number of European Union countries to do so, Reuters reports.
It is reversing the move after the EU’s drug watchdog on Thursday declared the vaccine safe and effective.
Updated
The US has administered 118,313,818 doses of coronavirus vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 154,199,235 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The tally is for Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines as of 6am ET on Friday, the agency said.
According to the tally posted on March 18, the agency had administered 115,730,008 doses of the vaccines, and distributed 151,108,445 doses.
The agency said 77,230,061 people had received at least one dose while 41,934,629 people are fully vaccinated as of Friday.
A total of 7,630,706 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
The UK on Friday said it had given 660,276 doses of Covid-19 vaccine in a single day, a new daily record, in a boost to the rollout before the country prepares for a drop-off in the “bumper” supplies of shots.
Reuters reports:
The single day record for first and second doses comes as Britain approaches the milestone of giving half their adult population at least one Covid-19 vaccine.
Israel is the leader in vaccinating its population, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Chile and then the United Kingdom - and investors are watching closely to see which economies could recover first.
Britain’s official data showed that 26.264 million people had received a first dose of the vaccine, and 2.011 million people had received a second.
It also recorded 101 new deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid-19 within 28 days, and 4,802 new cases of the disease.
Covid deaths in Europe surpass 1 million mark, according to Reuters tally
Coronavirus-related deaths in Europe surpassed 1 million on Friday as vaccination efforts attempt to keep up with new variants causing a third wave of infections that could once again overwhelm hospitals.
Reuters reports:
Since the pandemic began, at least 37,221,978 infections and 1,000,062 deaths were reported in the European region, according to a Reuters tally.
The region, which includes 51 countries, has about 35.5% of all coronavirus deaths and 30.5% of all cases in the world. The region includes Russia, the United Kingdom, the 27 members of the European Union and other countries.
The European region has administered about 12 vaccine shots for every 100 people, behind the United States which has administered about 34 doses per 100 people, according to figures from Our World in Data.
Israel leads the world in vaccination efforts with about 110 shots given for every 100 individuals. Some vaccines require two doses.
With the number of EU Covid-19 related deaths above 550,000 and less than a tenth of the population inoculated, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said the situation was worsening. “We see the crest of a third wave forming in member states, and we know that we need to accelerate the vaccination rates.”
Updated
Excited German tourists touched down at Mallorca airport on Friday, among the first to arrive on the island after Germany last week lifted quarantine requirements for travellers returning from the Balearic Islands.
Reuters reports:
Tourists are still not allowed to stay in hotels or holiday lets in Germany, leaving foreign holidays one of the few options for those wanting to get away, although the German government still advises against non-essential travel.
“It is very, very, very exciting and it feels wonderful to be flying again, even if it is for only one week,” said tourist Bettina, who works for a travel company, as a group of exuberant young holidaymakers danced outside the airport.
The new arrivals had flown in from various German cities including Berlin, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Hamburg. They all had to provide test results not more than 72 hours old at the airport showing they were Covid-free.
Italy reported 25,735 fresh cases on Friday, up from 24,935 the day before and compared to 26,790 a week ago.
The health ministry said a further 386 coronavirus-related deaths had been reported on Friday, against 423 the day before.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 26,858 on Friday, up from 26,694 a day earlier.
There were 244 new admissions to intensive care units in Italy, slightly down from 249 on Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 3,364 from a previous 3,333.
AstraZeneca vaccine has 'tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths', says WHO
The World Health Organization’s vaccine safety panel said on Friday that data from AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot do not point to any overall increase in clotting conditions but it would continue to monitor its effects.
“The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine (including Covishield) continues to have a positive benefit-risk profile, with tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths across the world,” the WHO’s global advisory committee on vaccine safety said in a statement issued after its independent experts met on Tuesday and on Thursday to review data.
Updated
The UK reported 101 new deaths from Covid-19 on Friday, up from 95 a day earlier, official daily data showed.
The country reported 4,802 new cases of the disease, down from 6,303 a day earlier.
The data showed that a total 26.264 million people had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 2.011 million people had received a second dose.
Half of adults in England are likely to have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, new figures suggest.
PA reports:
A total of 22,337,590 people had been given a first jab as of March 18, according to NHS England.
This is the equivalent of 50.5% of the population of England aged 18 and over, based on the latest estimates by the Office for National Statistics.
England is the first of the four nations to pass the symbolic milestone.
Wales is currently at the equivalent of 47.7% of adults, Scotland 46.6% and Northern Ireland 45.1%.
A separate milestone has been passed in Wales, where one in 10 of the total population is likely to have had both doses of the vaccine.Latest figures show that 318,976 people in Wales have received two doses, the equivalent of 10.1% of the population.
Russia delivered on Friday the first batch of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to St Petersburg since late February, after shortage problems prompted the city to partially suspend its inoculation programme.
Reuters reports:
Russia has said it has vaccinated 3.5 million of its 144 million population with both shots of the Sputnik V vaccine since it began in early December.
Since then several Russian regions, excluding Moscow, have reported shortages, with some Russians voicing frustration about Russia sending vaccines abroad, arguing that more shots should be made available at home.
In St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, there has been a shortage of the first component of the two-shot vaccine in more than 30 out of around 120 vaccination points, said Olga Ryabinina, the local health committee’s spokeswoman.
The city has not received new vaccines since late February, she said.
The European Commission’s president last month questioned why Russia is offering its Sputnik V vaccine to countries around the world when its own population still needs to be inoculated.
On Friday, St Petersburg, a city of more than 5 million, received 15,300 doses of the two-component vaccine, the municipal authority said on its website.
“(The doses) will be delivered to vaccination points in the near future,” it cited St Petersburg’s governor, Alexander Beglov, as saying.
Since December 2020, more than 217,000 people in St Petersburg have been inoculated with both shots, and more than 101,000 other people have had the first shot.
Updated
Senegal crossed the threshold of 1,000 Covid-19 deaths on Friday, just as the West African country was scheduled to ease virus-related restrictions.
AFP reports:
Like many African countries, Senegal’s infection rate is far below that of the West. However the country has faced a second wave of Covid-19 cases since December.
On Friday, health authorities said that they had recorded 37,541 cases since the pandemic began, with 1,003 deaths.
Senegal reinstated a night-time curfew in the capital Dakar, and the western city of Thies, in January in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.
The rate of new infections appears to have slowed after reaching a peak in early February. Senegal also launched a Covid-19 vaccination campaign on February 23.
A government spokesperson told AFP on Friday that the country would lift its curfew in Dakar and Thies at midnight.
Some observers have argued that the deadly protests which swept Senegal this month were partly fuelled by frustrations over virus-related restrictions.
Updated
Finland has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine while it investigates two possible cases of blood clots, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said on Friday.
The institute said it estimated that the investigation would take at least one week.
Updated
The US government on Friday updated its Covid-19 guidance to narrow the acceptable distance between students who are wearing masks to at least 3ft from at least 6ft, potentially easing the path for schools that have struggled to reopen under previous recommendations.
Reuters reports:
The new recommendation from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a boost to the Biden administration’s goal of reopening in-person learning for millions of public school students without sparking outbreaks of the virus.
Many schools continue to teach students remotely more than a year after the novel coronavirus prompted widespread closures across the United States.
The new guidance applies to students from kindergarten through high school and in areas with low, moderate, and substantial community transmission of Covid.
Middle and high school students in communities with high levels of Covid-19 should stay 6ft apart unless their schoolday contact can be limited to a single small group of students and staff.
Students should continue to maintain 6ft of distance when interacting with teachers and other school staff and when eating, the CDC said.
Updated
Despite assurances from Italy’s Superior Health Council that people in the country can choose which vaccines they get, the Italian government and regional leaders are scrambling to alleviate vaccine scepticism in the population and get the inoculation programme back on track.
This from my colleague Angela Giuffrida, our Rome correspondent:
Italy will resume AstraZeneca vaccinations from Friday afternoon, although the government now has the job of restoring confidence in the jab as it seeks to accelerate its vaccination programme.
Thousands of people had cancelled appointments in the days before the vaccine was temporarily suspended, and now leaders fear a similar reaction as they strive to make up for lost time. According to Corriere della Sera, 200,000 vaccinations were postponed due to the temporary stop.
Regional leaders are mulling measures against those who snub the vaccine. “Those who don’t take it will have to go to the back of the queue,” said Luca Zaia, the president of Veneto.
Since last Saturday, Zaia said that half the number of people who were booked in for the vaccine had cancelled.
Other regions, including Emilia-Romagna, Puglia, Friuli Venezia-Giulia and Lombardy, are considering similar action. “Nobody can choose for themselves which vaccine they take,” said Raffaele Donini, the health councillor for Emilia-Romagna. “Those who reject it [AstraZeneca] will end up at the end of list.”
Italy originally said AstraZeneca would only be administered to those under the age of 65, before backtracking earlier this month. Over 1m doses of the vaccine have so far been used.
As it tries to boost confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines, the government is reportedly devising an advertising campaign featuring high-profile people, including footballer Francesco Totti, to encourage people to take the jab when offered.
So far, Italy has administered 7.4 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, out of which 2.3 million people have received two doses.
Italy registered 24,935 new coronavirus infections on Thursday and 423 deaths.
Updated
Italians who decline to receive the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine will be given an alternative later on, the head of the health panel advising the government said on Friday.
Reuters reports:
Italy resumed use of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine on Friday after a three day pause due to concerns about possible blood clotting side effects, following a green light from Europe’s medicines watchdog EMA.
“If someone is called for the AstraZeneca vaccine and declines it, they’ll be reconsidered later for another type of vaccine,” Franco Locatelli, the chief of Italy’s Superior Health Council, said at a news conference.
Italy, one of more than a dozen European Union states that temporarily halted use of AstraZeneca, is concerned that public confidence in the vaccine may have been dented despite EMA’s judgment, hurting Rome’s already sluggish vaccine roll out.
Giovanni Rezza, another member of Italy’s health council, said no vaccine would go to waste even in the face of any hesitancy over AstraZeneca.
“If some people don’t show up there will in any case be long waiting lists of people who hope and want to be vaccinated,” he said.
Italy resumed using AstraZeneca on all age groups following the EMA report, along with numerous other countries.
A few have been more cautious. France’s medical regulator approved it only for people over the age of 55, [with] Sweden’s health agency saying its suspension remained in place and it would take “a couple of days” to decide what to do.
As we reported earlier, the Philippines recorded 7,103 new coronavirus cases on Friday, a record daily increase in infections, as authorities tightened coronavirus curbs in the capital and approved Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for emergency use.
Reuters reports:
A new wave of cases in the Philippines, which has the second highest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia, is threatening hopes of a strong economic rebound after a record contraction last year and the loss of millions of jobs.
The health ministry said there were now 648,066 confirmed coronavirus cases and 12,900 deaths, including 13 more fatalities on Friday.
“The ministry continues to appeal for us to stay home and avoid going out if not necessary,” it said. The previous record was 6,958 cases on August 10.
The latest outbreak is again concentrated on the congested Manila region, and includes the more transmissible variants.
The coronavirus task force on Friday reduced the number allowed at religious gatherings and conferences to 30% of capacity from the previous 50% until April 4.
It also ordered cinemas, driving schools, libraries, museums and cockfighting arenas to close.The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved the Sputnik V vaccine developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.
The first deliveries of Sputnik V from Russia are expected in April, the head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, which markets the shot abroad, told Reuters.
Updated
Switzerland has postponed plans to relax its Covid-19 restrictions, the government said on Friday, citing an increasing number of coronavirus cases and insufficient progress on vaccinations.
Switzerland had originally planned to allow outdoor events like football matches and concerts with audiences of up to 150 people from Monday, but has opted for a more cautious approach as neighbouring France and Germany also halted plans on easing restrictions, Reuters reports.
The Swiss government said in a statement:
The risk of an uncontrolled increase in the number of cases is currently too great for further openings, after the number of infections has been increasing again since the end of February.
In addition, too few people have yet been vaccinated to prevent a sharp rise in hospitalisations.
The number of coronavirus cases in Switzerland and neighbouring Liechtenstein has risen in recent days, with 1,750 fresh cases being recorded on Thursday, well above the seven-day average of 1,285 infections.
German researchers are said to have succeeded in developing a therapy with which the rare cases of blot clotting in the brain after an AstraZeneca vaccine can be successfully treated.
However, treatment with the active ingredient is only possible after a blood clot has formed, not as a precaution.
Zeit reports:
Scientists in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have now demonstrated the mechanism behind the [incredibly rare brain thrombosis].
In total, more than 20 million people in Europe have now been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. In just under 20 cases, rare blood clots had appeared in the hours and days after the vaccination.
According to the Greifswald University Clinic, a team of researchers found that the agent had triggered a defense mechanism in the body of the person affected, which activated the blood platelets.
“These then act like wound healing and trigger thrombosis in the brain,” said a statement from the clinic. The NDR previously reported on it. The results have not been checked by independent experts or published in a specialist journal.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be taking back over from my colleague Tobi Thomas. If you would like to flag any updates or share comments, you can get in touch on Twitter @JedySays.
Reuters reports that the Seychelles has now approved the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.
The island nation with a population of 98,000 has reported 3,566 coronavirus cases and 16 deaths.
Updated
The UK’s R value is estimated to be between 0.6 and 0.9, according to the latest government figures.
The value represents the rate at which the virus is reproducing, and this latest figure indicates that the epidemic is shrinking within the UK, since the value is below 1.
PA reports:
An R number between 0.6 and 0.9 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between six and nine other people.
The latest growth rate is between minus 6% and minus 3%, which means the number of new infections is shrinking by between 3% and 6% every day.
Nepal has granted emergency authorisation to India’s coronavirus vaccine, Covaxin, Reuters reports.
The permission to use the vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech and a state-run research institute, was granted by the Department of Drug Administration in the country.
Updated
Sweden has reported 5,735 new coronavirus cases, and a further 26 deaths as of today.
This brings the total amount of deaths following a positive test to 13,262.
Sri Lanka’s cricket board has announced that it will revive a Test series that was postponed last year due to the pandemic, and will host Bangladesh next month.
Since October, Sri Lanka has recorded a surge in coronavirus cases. There have been almost 90,000 coronavirus infections, and a further 538 people are reported to have died.
AFP reports:
Sri Lanka’s cricket board Friday announced that it will host Bangladesh next month and revive a Test series that was postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
‘The series was originally scheduled to be played during October - November 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19,’ the board said in a statement.
Sri Lanka were originally scheduled to play three Tests, but under the revised schedule only two matches will be played.
Sri Lanka Cricket said Bangladesh will arrive in Sri Lanka on April 12 and play their first Test on April 21 in Kandy followed by the next match, also at the same venue, from April 29.
Sri Lanka hosted its first international match during the pandemic when they played against England in January at an empty stadium where spectators were barred under health regulations.
Updated
Good afternoon, Tobi Thomas here. I’m covering for my colleague Jedidajah while she has a break. If you’d like to get in touch you can reach me on Twitter here.
Updated
Germany’s health minister warned on Friday there was not enough vaccine in Europe to contain the third wave, as the country sought to get its rollout back on track following a three-day pause in using the AstraZeneca shot.
Reuters reports:
Case numbers have been rising in Germany, driven by an easing of restrictions in recent weeks just as a more transmissible variant of the virus has spread, underlining the need to accelerate vaccinations to protect the vulnerable.
Health Minister Jens Spahn defended the suspension, which was lifted on Thursday after European Union regulators said the benefits outweighed the risk, as providing transparency.
“We can reintroduce AstraZeneca but prudently with informed doctors and appropriately educated citizens,” he said in a weekly news conference.
But he warned that vaccinations alone would not be able to contain the third wave as there are not enough doses, and said restrictions that were lifted may have to be reimposed to contain the spread of the virus.
“The rising case numbers may mean that we cannot take further opening steps in the weeks to come. On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards,” Spahn said.
State leaders are also due to discuss with Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Friday ways to speed up the vaccination campaign, among other by allowing family doctors to start administering doses at their surgeries.
Netherlands records sharpest rise in new cases since beginning of the year
Coronavirus cases in the Netherlands jumped by around 7,400 in the past 24 hours, marking the biggest increase since early January, Dutch justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus told national news agency ANP on Friday.
The Dutch government is set to decide in the coming days whether there is any room to ease a broad lockdown, which includes a nighttime curfew and the closure of all bars and restaurants in the country, Reuters reports.
Belgium still has time to avert a third wave of coronavirus infections, the country’s health ministry said ahead of a government announcement of new measures to contain the virus due later on Friday.
Reuters reports:
Prime minister Alexander De Croo said two weeks ago that the number of daily infections was likely to rise further in Belgium but this was no reason to panic. However, the expected increase is now happening earlier than models had forecast.
“After a long plateau phase, we are now at the foot of what could become a new wave. It is still possible to turn a wave into a wavelet,” the health ministry spokesman, Yves Van Laethem, told a news conference.
After five months of lockdown restrictions that have only allowed schools, shops and, more recently, hairdressers to operate, Belgium’s restaurants, bars, gyms and cinemas are set to reopen on 1 May.
However, the government could postpone that plan when it meets on Friday afternoon to discuss closing non-essential shops and other more restrictive measures.
Daily new infections have been creeping higher in Belgium in recent days and the latest seven-day average now stands at 3,266, a rise of 34% from last week.
“We haven’t seen such an increase since the second wave in October,” Van Laethem said.
If the increase in new cases continues at this rate, he said the milestone of 1,000 patients in intensive care would be reached on 10 April. That is deemed to be the level at which hospitals would struggle to provide quality care.
New hospital admissions in the last three days rose to more than 200 per day, from 146 per day in the previous week.
More than 22,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Belgium, among the world’s highest per capita fatality rate. But the number of deaths, particularly in hard-hit nursing homes, has been falling, thanks in part to vaccinations.
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The Danish health agency said on Friday it will decide next week whether the AstraZeneca jab will be used again.
On Thursday, the Danish Medicine Agency reported that 10 cases of blood clots have been found in Denmark in people who had had the AstraZeneca vaccine, but the agency stressed that it has not yet established a connection between the vaccine and blood clots.
“It cannot be concluded at the current time whether there may be a connection with the vaccine, because the cases have not been fully processed,” it added.
A total of 140,000 people in Denmark have received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, The Local reports.
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Georgia’s health ministry said on Friday that coronavirus vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot would continue only in fully fledged medical centres following the death of a nurse, the Tass news agency reported.
A 27-year-old Georgian nurse who suffered an anaphylactic shock after having the AstraZeneca vaccine died on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported earlier.
Updated
Infections in England at lowest level since September
The prevalence of coronavirus infections in England has fallen again, with around one in 340 people infected in the week ending 13 March, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday.
This is the equivalent of 160,200 people, the lowest figure since the week to 24 September 2020, when the estimate stood at one in 470, or 116,600 people, PA reports.
The number is down from one in 270 people estimated to have coronavirus in the previous week’s ONS Infection Survey, an estimate of community prevalence of Covid-19 infections.
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Taiwan will begin its Covid-19 vaccination programme on Monday, the health minister, Chen Shih-chung, said on Friday, with the help of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was approved for use this week by the government.
Reuters reports:
Taiwan’s first vaccines – 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca shot – arrived on the island earlier this month from a South Korean factory.
Chen told reporters that officials had now given the go-ahead for the shots to start being administered from Monday, and that they would be given at 57 vaccination sites around the island.
Around 60,000 people are in line to get the first vaccinations and Taiwan is prioritising health workers to get the shots.
In December, Taiwan said it had agreed to buy almost 20 million vaccine doses, including 10 million from AstraZeneca.
Chen said he would have “no problem” taking the shot himself.
Taiwan’s government has played down concerns about the late start to the vaccination programme, saying that with such a low case rate there is not the urgency that exists in other countries where the pandemic remains rampant.
Only 35 people remain in hospital being treated for Covid-19 in Taiwan. The island has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention, including largely closing its borders.
Updated
Vaccinations with the AstraZeneca jab in France can resume with immediate effect, the national authority for health announced on Friday.
However, the agency recommended the jab be only given to people aged 55 and older for the time being.
When the AstraZeneca vaccine started being rolled out in France, it had initially only been recommended for those under 65 due to concerns over lacking data from vaccine trials.
The agency’s latest recommendation comes after a small number of cases of a rare blood clotting disorder was reported in several European countries in people under 55 who had received the vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency said on Thursday that the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh the risk of side effects, but acknowledged that “the vaccine may be associated with very rare cases of blood clots associated with thrombocytopenia”.
“A causal link with the vaccine is not proven, but is possible and deserves further analysis,” the EMA stated.
Updated
The new coronavirus variant first discovered in the UK, known to be highly contagious, makes up more than 60% of cases in Poland and will soon reach 80%, a Polish health ministry spokesman said on Friday.
Poland is grappling with the third wave of the pandemic and has seen a sharp recent spike in cases driven by the variant originating in the UK, Reuters reports.
“Today, the British mutation makes up for about 60% (of cases) ... we are moving towards 80%,” spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz told a news conference.
Poland entered a new lockdown on Monday, which will remain in place until 28 March. Hotels, cultural institutions and sports facilities are shut and shopping centres can only open in a limited capacity.
Poland has received a new batch of 65,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from the Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, with a further 72,000 expected next week, the head of the government reserves agency has told PAP.
By the end of March, Poland should receive an additional 660,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to Michał Kuczmierowski, the head of the Material Reserves Agency.
The company has declared it will supply about 6 million doses of its vaccine to Poland in the second quarter of this year, he added, First News reports.
Updated
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said on Friday he would be in favour of signing a national supply deal with Russia for its Sputnik V vaccine for Covid-19.
“I can also well imagine that we conclude contracts – and conclude them quickly,” he told a weekly news conference, adding that Germany was in close contact with Russia on questions to do with the vaccine.
A prerequisite, however, is that there is more detail on how many doses could be delivered, he said. “I am actually very much in favour of us doing it nationally if the European Union does not do something.”
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be at the helm of this blog for the next few hours. Feel free to get in touch with updates and comments, I’m on Twitter @JedySays or you can email me.
Updated
The UK will not be able to keep the South African variant at bay for ever, a senior scientific adviser has warned.
Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said a small but growing percentage of cases in some countries were of the South African variant, which may be resistant to some vaccines according to early studies.
France is entering a new four-week lockdown as it faces a third wave of the virus, driven in large part by the Kent variant.
Ferguson said a group of European countries were seeing increasing levels of cases, and although they were in large part due to the Kent variant, there were also growing numbers of the South African variant.
You can read the full report here:
Nearly a dozen countries resume use of AstraZeneca vaccine
Nearly a dozen countries have today resumed use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccination, after European and British regulators said the benefits outweighed any risks.
The countries had suspended the vaccines after reports of rare instances of blood clotting in those who had had the vaccine. The European Medicines Agency investigated the instances and confirmed it was safe. The EMA came to what it called a clear conclusion that the vaccine’s benefits in protecting people from coronavirus-related death or hospitalisation outweighed the possible risks.
It said it would continue scrutiny of the vaccine, as a link between rare events of blood clots in the brain and the shot could not be definitively ruled out.
Indonesia, France and Germany resumed AstraZeneca jabs on Friday, while the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said Italy would follow suit, echoing sentiments from Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania.
Spain will resume from Wednesday, while Canada also gave its backing to the vaccine.
Now, scientists and political leaders are scrambling to restore public trust in the vaccine. The prime ministers of both France and the UK will be receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine today.
Updated
German official warns 'exponential' rise of Covid cases could overwhelm hospitals
Health authorities in Germany have warned of an “exponential” rise in Covid cases which threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
Highly contagious variants are driving up case numbers in the EU’s biggest country, with figures rising at a “very clearly exponential rate”, the vice-president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, Lars Schaade, told reporters, according to AFP.
“It is very possible that we will have a similar situation over Easter to the one we had before Christmas, with very high case numbers, many severe cases and deaths, and hospitals that are overwhelmed,” Schaade said.
On Friday, the institute reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and a further 226 deaths in Germany. The seven-day incidence rate rose to 96 per 100,000 people, despite a months-long lockdown.
Updated
The developer of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has signed a partnership with an India-based drugmaker for the production of 200 million doses of its jab, it revealed on Friday.
AFP has this report:
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which backed the development of Sputnik V, said in a statement it had partnered with Stelis Biopharma “to produce and supply a minimum of 200 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine”.
Stelis Biopharma is expected to be able to start supplying the vaccine from the second half of the year.
RDIF added that Stelis – the biopharma unit of global pharmaceutical company Strides – will work with the Russian wealth fund to provide supplies “beyond the initial agreement”.
RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said that the “significant vaccine volumes” produced with Stelis “will help widen access to the vaccine on a global scale”.
RDIF said Friday that 52 countries have approved the use of Russia’s Sputnik V, named after the Soviet-era satellite.
Moscow registered the jab in August before large-scale clinical trials, but leading medical journal The Lancet has since said it is safe and over 90% effective.
Updated
The total number of cases of coronavirus in Poland has passed 2 million, as the country grapples with a third wave of the virus. The figures come from health ministry data, Reuters reports.
Poland has recorded 2,010,244 coronavirus cases and 48,807 deaths in total since the start of the pandemic, the data showed.
It counted a further 25,998 new coronavirus cases on Friday
Updated
Russia has reported 9,699 new Covid-19 cases, including 1,809 in Moscow.
This brings the country’s national case tally to 4,437,938 since the pandemic began.
Paris prepares for new lockdown at midnight
Paris and its surrounding area, along with 15 other French departments, will go into a new “lockdown” from midnight on Friday for four weeks. But this is really “lockdown lite” and there’s a sense of relief among Parisians, who were fearing being confined to their homes every weekend in a repeat of last year’s strict three-month lockdown, and feel they have got off relatively lightly.
The main constraints in the new rules announced by prime minister Jean Castex are that non-essential shops must close and that people are not allowed to travel out of their home region without an “imperative reason”.
This effectively means no going away for the Easter weekend for those in the 16 departments unless the infection rate falls and pressure is taken off intensive care units in the worst-affected areas, meaning the rules might be eased.
However, the four weeks is up just before the half-term school holidays for the Paris region, so that is some consolation. Again, unlike last year’s March’s lockdown, residents of the 16 departments can go out to walk, bike, exercise and do sport for as long as they like but within a distance of 10km from home. They can protest, attend outside gatherings and go to places of worship and even the hairdressers, as these will remain open.
People in the 16 départements are being urged to work from home at least four out of every five days if their job does not require their physical presence.
The curfew is still in place across the country but has been pushed back an hour to 7pm from 6pm until 6am to reflect the change of clocks to summer time on 28 March.
We do, however, have the return of the sworn attestation: the declaration either on paper or on smartphone that must be carried when outside during curfew hours or between 6am to 7pm at weekends, justifying being away from home. The interior ministry does not appear to have yet updated its site with a link for the new attestation.
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Shattock also said the vaccine rollout would not necessarily prevent outbreaks or spreading, but rather was designed to prevent hospitalisation:
A study has warned that vaccinations alone are unlikely to contain #COVID19 infections in the UK.@imperialcollege professor Robin Shattock says the report is "not definitive" and the main focus of the rollout is to stop people from being hospitalised.https://t.co/hKiKHZouOz pic.twitter.com/PcfGbTJdx6
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 19, 2021
Updated
A leading professor in Covid-19 vaccine research has said that jab supply problems in the UK are “manageable”, but that the rollout of second doses will cause further delays.
Robin Shattock, of Imperial College London, told Sky News that current supply difficulties will have an impact over the next “few weeks” as people are due their second doses.
“What’s going to have much more of an impact on rollout is that now people are due their second dose ... everybody who’s had their single dose will require their second dose,” he said. “It’s unrealistic to imagine the first dose rollout will be as fast because we’ll have to catch up with the second doses.”
He also warned against putting firm dates to the rollout.
"Predicting exact dates when people are going to get vaccines is an art rather than a science"@imperialcollege professor Robin Shattock says the vaccine rollout is going "as fast as possible" but providing exact dates could create a "false expectation".https://t.co/hKiKHZouOz pic.twitter.com/jyjcB1S1Lw
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 19, 2021
“There are always going to be delays and bumps in the road and the reality is we are moving faster than most countries in the world and we’re using vaccines as soon as it’s coming off the production line,” he added.
“So there is a vulnerability there but that is the reality we’re working in, and if there’s a hold up at any point, there will be some delay, but it is manageable.”
Updated
Pollard also said that it was too early to say whether there are particular groups experiencing rare blood clots from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
It comes after the European Medicines Agency found that most clots occurred in people under 55 and the majority were women.
“It’s immensely rare what they’re dealing with, which is why there’s so much uncertainty, and they don’t even know whether this is a genuine signal or not at this stage,” Pollard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “That just tells you how unusual these rare clots are. At the moment it’s too early to say whether there are particular groups affected or not, or even if there is any link.
“At this moment there’s no proven link.Even if there is anything, it is so vanishingly rare that we have to get on and protect ourselves against the real threat, which is a virus that kills us.”
Updated
The European Medicines Agency confirming the safety of the the AstraZeneca vaccine will help “rebuild confidence”, the director of the Oxford vaccine group has said.
Prof Andrew Pollard told BBC Radio that it was “extremely good news and we should be reassured that process is working exactly and moving along exactly as it should”.
“I think what they have very clearly stated is that we absolutely are confident in use of the vaccine, that it’s not associated with the blood clots as was originally raised,” he said. “We’re really not in a battle with each other or the vaccine, we’re battling a ruthless killer that within the European Union has killed 600,000 people in the past year.”
Updated
Vaccine supply chain difficulties are “inevitable”, a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government has said.
“All the evidence is that the vaccines are being rolled out at an extraordinary rate. We should cross 26 million people having received their first dose of vaccine today and that includes a large majority of the most vulnerable people,” Prof Sir Mark Walport told Times Radio on Friday morning.
“It has been an extraordinary effort and these are vaccines that are being rolled out at a pace and scale that’s never been done before so it’s almost inevitable that from time to time there will be supply chain difficulties.”
You can get up to speed on the vaccine delays with this explainer:
Updated
A UK minister has insisted that the roadmap out of lockdown will not be delayed by current vaccine supply issues.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told LBC radio that “we remain on course for the next easing on (March) 29,” but that that there was still not a “full picture” on the impact of schools returning on coronavirus rates.
“It is worth bearing in mind though, we still need to fully analyse the effect of schools returning. We don’t see any problems at the moment but we won’t get a full picture for a while,” he said. “If there is concerns around that, obviously we would have to review the dates.”
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden denies India is ‘withholding vaccines’ from the UK and tells LBC the nation is on course to meet targets.@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/IDxiudoOVA
— LBC (@LBC) March 19, 2021
Updated
The Philippines has also approved Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the 52nd country to do so, its developer said.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which backed the development of Sputnik V, said in a statement that the jab had been registered “under the emergency use authorisation procedure.” This means a combined population of 1.4 billion people have approved Sputnik V for use, the firm said.
Amid rising cases, the Philippines has announced new restrictions this week. It plans to close its borders to foreigners beginning March 20 and limit entry to its own citizens to halt the spread of new cases.
The Philippines records highest daily jump in Covid cases
The Philippines has recorded its biggest daily increase in infections, with a 7,103 new coronavirus cases on Friday, its health ministry said.
The country also recorded 13 further deaths.
The ministry said total confirmed cases have increased to 648,066 while confirmed deaths have reached 12,900, Reuters reports. The country is in the throes of a spike in new cases, particularly in its capital region.
Hungary could have a summer free of coronavirus restrictions, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio on Friday, according to Reuters.
Orban said the country would begin to ease coronavirus restrictions once a further one million citizens have been vaccinated.
Around 1.5 million Hungarians have been vaccinated so far, and Orban said curbs could start to be eased once that number rose to 2.5 million - equivalent to a quarter of the population.
According to Orban, the daily tally of coronavirus-related deaths stood at a record 213, with more than 10,000 people in hospital.
Like some European countries, Indonesia is also set to resume vaccinations using the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Indonesia’s Food and Drug agency approved the renewed usage after reviewing reports that the vaccine had caused blood clots among some recipients in Europe, it said in a statement on Friday.
“The benefit of administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks, so the usage... may be started,” the statement said, according to Reuters.
UK considering Covid certificates for sports events
The UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden said the government is considering Covid certificates to allow crowds to return to sports events.
“Another thing that we are considering is a Covid certification, and we’ll be testing whether we can use Covid certification to help facilitate the return of sports,” he told Sky News.
“(We’re) working with many, many people to see how we can get people back safely in large numbers, because if we don’t manage to do it this summer... I’m really worried about the future of those industries,” he added, also referring to theatres.
Updated
In the UK, the public sector borrowed more last month than during any other February since 1993, according to the Office for National Statistics. In total, £19.1 billion was borrowed last month.
Net debt has risen by £333 billion since the start of April when the Covid-19 lockdowns began, bringing the total to £2.131 trillion.
But chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted that this was the right thing to do.
“Coronavirus has caused one of the largest economic shocks this country has ever faced, which is why we responded with our 352 billion package of support to protect lives and livelihoods,” he said. “This was the fiscally responsible thing to do and the best way to support the public finances in the medium-term.
“But I have always said that we should look to return the public finances to a more sustainable path once the economy has recovered and at the Budget I set out how we will begin to do just that, providing families and businesses with certainty.”
There is no reason for the French people to turn down the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, government spokesman Gabriel Attal told RTL radio on Friday, according to Reuters.
France is set resume the use of the vaccine on Friday after joining more than a dozen other nations in a brief suspension due to concerns about reports of blood clots in patients who had had the vaccine. Germany and Italy will also resume uses today.
Following an investigation into the reports, The European Union’s drug watchdog said on Thursday that it was convinced the benefits outweighed any risks.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to get the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine himself on Friday.
Updated
Good morning, I’m Molly Blackall. From London, I’ll be bringing you the latest updates in the coronavirus pandemic around the world. I hope you’re all safe and well, wherever you’re reading from.
If you spot something we should be reporting on in this blog, please do feel free to ping me a message on Twitter. Thanks in advance!
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, from a wet and windy Sydney. Thanks for following along – and stay tuned for more updates.
My weekend plans are as follows – how about you?
草食系のお食事会 pic.twitter.com/EdpigWEait
— もふもふ動画 (@tyomateee2) March 17, 2021
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- French PM announced limited Covid lockdown for Paris and other regions. French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday announced a limited month-long lockdown for Paris and several other regions to combat surging Covid-19 cases, AFP reports, while insisting the measures would be less strict than in the past.
- India reported its highest infections since November. India reported 39,726 new coronavirus cases on Friday, its highest since 28 November, when more than 41,000 cases where confirmed. The worst-hit states, such as western industrialised Maharashtra, adopted fresh curbs to restrain the spread of the disease.
- Tanzania to swear in first woman president after death of John Magufuli. Tanzania’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan was due to be sworn in as president on Friday, a government official said, a historic move that is set to make her the East African country’s first female head of state. Hassan’s ascension to the presidency comes after the death of President John Magufuli, 61, whose death due to heart disease was announced on Wednesday, more than two weeks after he was last seen in public.
- Biden said US to hit 100m vaccination goal on Friday. With the US closing in on President Joe Biden’s goal of injecting 100 million coronavirus vaccinations weeks ahead of his target date, the White House announced Thursday the nation is now in position to help supply neighbours Canada and Mexico with millions of lifesaving shots.
- Cuba approves second homegrown vaccine. Cuba’s drug regulatory authority on Thursday approved a second Covid vaccine candidate for late-stage clinical trials as the country races to secure a homegrown shot to quell its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic and sell abroad.
- European countries to resume AstraZeneca jabs after ‘safe’ verdict. Leading EU countries said Thursday they would resume AstraZeneca vaccinations after the European medical regulator said the jab is “safe and effective” and not associated with a higher blood clot risk after days of commotion around the shot.
- Norway, Sweden to wait before using AstraZeneca vaccine again, even though it has been declared safe by Europe’s medical regulator. The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) said that after an investigation the AstraZeneca vaccine was “safe and effective” and not linked to an increased risk of blood clots. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said it “took note” of the EMA’s finding, but deemed it “premature” at this point to come to a final conclusion.The NIPH said it would issue its own guidance at the end of next week.
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro says health minister swap takes effect on Friday. Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that the replacement of his health minister will take effect on Friday with publication in the official gazette, as the country had its second-worst day of deaths caused by Covid.
- Brazil suffered second-highest daily Covid death toll. Brazil registered its second deadliest day in its Covid pandemic, with 2,724 deaths, according to the Health Ministry on Thursday. The country had 86,982 new cases. The country is facing a dangerous new shortage of staff in intensive care unit.
- China confirmed first local case since 14 February. China reported 11 new Covid cases on 18 March, up from six cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Monday. The National Health Commission, in a statement, said one of the cases was a locally transmitted infection in Shaanxi province, marking China’s first local Covid case since 14 February Reuters reports. The other 10 cases were infection that originated from overseas.
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Philippines approved emergency use of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine. The Philippines has approved Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine for emergency use, the country’s Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
Boris Johnson to receive AstraZeneca vaccine as he reassures public over safety
The British prime minister is due to receive his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a host of European countries announced they would return to using the jab following fresh safety assurances.
A slew of countries, including Germany and France, reversed their decision to temporarily pause its use over blood clot concerns after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) called the vaccine “safe and effective”.
Boris Johnson is due to receive the AstraZeneca jab when he is given his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Friday.
France, Italy and Germany have confirmed they will resume rollout of the Oxford shot on Friday, while Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands said they will follow suit next week, although Spain said it could exclude certain groups.
The French prime minister Jean Castex is also expected to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday.
Johnson, 56, told a Downing Street press conference on Thursday: “The Oxford jab is safe and the Pfizer jab is safe.
“The thing that isn’t safe is catching Covid, which is why it is so important that we all get our jabs as soon as our turn comes.”
He urged the population to continue taking up the offer of a shot to ensure coronavirus cases continue to plummet so he can keep to his current timetable for easing the lockdown in England.
Tanzania to swear in first woman president after death of John Magufuli
Tanzania’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan was due to be sworn in as president on Friday, a government official said, a historic move that is set to make her the East African country’s first female head of state.
Reuters: Hassan’s ascension to the presidency comes after the death of President John Magufuli, 61, whose death due to heart disease was announced on Wednesday, more than two weeks after he was last seen in public.
Magufuli’s absence since 27 February had fuelled speculation about his health and sparked rumours he had contracted Covid, although officials had denied he was ill.
In a tweet on Friday morning, confirmed by the presidency, government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said Vice President Hassan, 61, will be sworn in at 10am local time (0700 GMT) on Friday.
Described as a soft-spoken consensus-builder, Hassan is poised to be the country’s first female president and the first to be born in Zanzibar, the archipelago that forms part of the union of the Republic of Tanzania.
Her leadership style is seen as a potential contrast from Magufuli, a brash populist who earned the nickname ‘Bulldozer’ for muscling through policies and who drew criticism for his intolerance of dissent.
On Thursday the opposition had called for quickly swearing in Hassan to avoid a constitutional vacuum.
After months of depression and isolation, the 2021 season on the warm sands of Florida’s Miami Beach is off to a banging start, fuelled by “Roaring Twenties” anticipation of post-pandemic life, AFP reports.
The shore is once again packed with revellers - a sight that Americans view either as a proof of long-awaited progress against Covid-19, or of a recklessness that could set back the nation’s recovery.
For James Mitchell, 45, newly-arrived from freezing Chicago, the haters need to lighten up.
“We just got to start back living, man,” he told AFP. “For real.”
India reports highest infections since November
India reported 39,726 new coronavirus cases on Friday, its highest since 28 November, when more than 41,000 cases where confirmed. The worst-hit states, such as western industrialised Maharashtra, adopted fresh curbs to restrain the spread of the disease.
The tally of infections stands at 11.51 million, the highest after the United States and Brazil. Deaths rose by 154 to 159,370, data from the health ministry showed.
Updated
Cuba approves second homegrown vaccine
Cuba’s drug regulatory authority on Thursday approved a second Covid vaccine candidate for late-stage clinical trials as the country races to secure a homegrown shot to quell its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic and sell abroad, Reuters reports.
The Communist-run Caribbean island nation, which has long experience with developing and exporting vaccines, is one of a handful in the region that have not started vaccinating against Covid, as it is counting on its own candidates. This month, Cuba started late-phase trials of its most advanced experimental vaccine, named Soberana (Sovereignty) 2, reflecting national pride in its relative self-reliance in areas like healthcare despite the decades-old US trade embargo.
On Thursday, the Cuban regulatory authority gave the green light for it to start such trials for Abdala, named after a poem by 19th century Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, which like Soberana 2 targets the spike protein of the novel coronavirus.
Authorities will start recruiting about 48,000 volunteers between the ages of 19 and 80 in Cuba’s eastern provinces for a randomised, placebo-controlled trial of the three-shot vaccine next week, according to Cuba’s official registry of clinical trials.
The study is to be completed in July, with first results due for publication in August.
Cuba is going through its worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic after opening its borders late last year.
The island of 11 million inhabitants is registering 600-1,000 daily cases, well above the scores or a handful per day for most of last year, although its cumulative tallies of cases and deaths at 64,414 and 384 respectively remain well below the global averages per capita.
The government has vowed to vaccinate the entire population this year with one of its five experimental shots in development.
Critics argue any vaccine development is a gamble and it should be acquiring shots already approved to start immunising the most vulnerable sectors of the population while it awaits results from its own trials.
The Tokyo operator of a restaurant famous for its cinematic links to the movie “Kill Bill: Volume I” has agreed to shorten its hours as the city government began enforcing fines for businesses failing to comply with infection controls, Reuters reports.
Global-Dining Inc, which runs the Gonpachi restaurant that inspired a fight scene in the Quentin Tarantino film, had flouted requests by the city government when a state of emergency over Covid was declared in January.
The company said on Thursday it would close Tokyo-area restaurants at 8 p.m. through Sunday, obeying the request for just the last four days of the emergency period before it expires.
Global-Dining president Kozo Hasegawa had harshly criticised the closure requests and their economic impact, saying in a 11 March letter to the Tokyo government it was like “cutting off one’s arm at the shoulder because the fingertip got infected.”
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Thursday issued orders against 27 restaurants that had not complied with requests to close early as a means to control the Covid virus.
Under revised laws, businesses can be fined ¥300,000 ($2,752.55) if they don’t obey.
A representative of Global-Dining, which operates 43 eateries centered around Tokyo, said the company had not been cited under the new regulations and that it had a policy to comply with government orders.
Its Gonpachi restaurant, with a cavernous inner courtyard, inspired a bloody fight scene in Tarantino’s first “Kill Bill” film and it was the site of a dinner between former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and US President George W Bush in 2002.
Biden says US to hit 100m vaccination goal on Friday
With the US closing in on President Joe Biden’s goal of injecting 100 million coronavirus vaccinations weeks ahead of his target date, the White House announced Thursday the nation is now in position to help supply neighbours Canada and Mexico with millions of lifesaving shots.
AP: The Biden administration revealed the outlines of a plan to “loan” a limited number of vaccines to Canada and Mexico as the president announced the US is on the cusp of meeting his 100-day injection goal “way ahead of schedule.”
“I’m proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into our administration, we will have met our goal,” Biden said. He promised to unveil a new vaccination target next week, as the US is on pace to have enough of the three currently authorised vaccines to cover the entire adult population just 10 weeks from now.
Ahead of Biden’s remarks, the White House said it was finalizing plans to send a combined 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine to Mexico and Canada in its first export of shots. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the details of the “loan” were still being worked out, but 2.5 million doses would go to Mexico and 1.5 million would be sent to Canada.
Updated
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has refused to put a firm date on the opening of the Trans Tasman travel bubble, but says a timeframe will be announced “very soon”. Yesterday Radio New Zealand reported it would be in place by the end of April, allowing for quarantine-free travel between the two countries where it presently only exists from New Zealand to Australia.
Tourism firms that have been struggling in the absence of international visitors say the change cannot come soon enough, with business analysts saying New Zealand – as the smaller country – stands to gain more from the free travel arrangement than Australia does.
But tourism minister Stuart Nash has signalled that tourism to New Zealand will look different in the future, so as to mitigate the negative costs and consequences of international visitors and make it more sustainable.
“Regions heavily reliant on international tourism, dare I say it overly reliant on international tourism, should have a range of alternatives because we don’t want to be in this situation again,” Nash said.
Children’s entertainers The Wiggles say they received death threats after they were granted a spot in managed isolation at the New Zealand border. The group caused a row when space was found for them in the highly limited quarantine system while Kiwis overseas face a weeks-long wait to return home, prompting complaints of “wriggle room for The Wriggles”.
Anthony “Blue Wiggle” Field said on The Project that they were oblivious to the feeling over quarantine within New Zealand: “We were in Australia when it happened, we were just following orders ... so we thought we’d done everything right, and then we started getting death threats on email. ...”
Of course, if we took someone’s place that we shouldn’t have, we would give that place up tomorrow or yesterday. Apologies for all that kerfuffle that we caused inadvertently.”
The Wiggles’ tour of New Zealand gets under way in Invercargill today.
Philippines approves emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V Covid vaccine
The Philippines has approved Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine for emergency use, the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday.
The vaccine, developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, is the fourth to get emergency use authorisation in the Southeast Asian nation as it battles a renewed surge in infections, reports Reuters.
“The known and potential benefits of the Gamaleya Sputnik V vaccine...outweigh the known and potential risks of said vaccine,” FDA chief Rolando Enrique Domingo told a news conference.
People may shed more coronavirus in the afternoons, suggesting this may be the best time of day to take tests, while separate research indicates that school attendance has a minimal impact on serious Covid-19 infections.
The phased return of children to classrooms across the UK has prompted widespread concern that this could lead to an increase in infections. Because of this, college and secondary schoolchildren are required to take twice weekly lateral flow tests, to monitor rates of infection in the community.
However, new research, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggests Covid-19 tests may be less likely to give false negative results if taken during the early afternoon, compared with other times of day. Candace McNaughton at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, US, and colleagues examined the results of 30,000 PCR-based tests performed in the Nashville area between March and June last year, and found a twofold variation in the proportion that gave a positive result across the 24-hour day, with a peak at around 2pm:
China confirms first local case since 14 February
China reported 11 new Covid cases on 18 March, up from six cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Monday.
The National Health Commission, in a statement, said one of the cases was a locally transmitted infection in Shaanxi province, marking China’s first local Covid case since 14 February Reuters reports. The other 10 cases were infection that originated from overseas.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to five from six cases a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 90,083, while the death toll remained at 4,636.
Updated
The UK video games market hit a record £7bn last year as lockdown fuelled an unprecedented boom in the popularity of mobile games, consoles and virtual reality headsets.
The gaming industry has proved to be a coronavirus winner, with tens of millions of consumers looking for relief from indoor boredom. Gaming fans were joined by millions of newbies seeking out home entertainment, resulting in £1.6bn more being spent on games compared with 2019, an unprecedented 30% year-on-year increase:
Brazil’s Bolsonaro says health minister swap takes effect on Friday
Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that the replacement of his health minister will take effect on Friday with publication in the official gazette, as the country had its second-worst day of deaths caused by Covid, Reuters reports.
Bolsonaro, who is under pressure from the worsening pandemic, defended his opposition to lockdowns on a social media webcast.
He said his government has asked the Supreme Court to stop what he termed “abuses” by governors in locking down economic activity, and sent a bill to Congress that would define as essential activities “anything that puts bread on the table.”
On Monday, he named cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga to replace Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, a three-star army general who has come under fire for toeing the president’s policies and failing to deliver timely supplies of vaccines to a country fast becoming the world epicenter of the coronavirus.
Pazuello’s job was on the line after a week that saw record Covid fatalities in Brazil. More than 287,000 Brazilians have died so far in the outbreak that killed more people in Brazil than any other nation last week.
Brazil had its second deadliest day in its Covid outbreak on Thursday, with 2,724 deaths, two days after reporting a record 2,841, according to the Health Ministry.
Bolsonaro said he was not “obsessed” with being president or running for re-election next year.
Polls this week showed that most Brazilians do not approve of his handling of the pandemic and former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would beat him if the 2022 presidential elections were held today.
Brazil suffers second-highest daily Covid death toll
Brazil registered its second deadliest day in its Covid pandemic, with 2,724 deaths, according to the Health Ministry on Thursday.
The country had 86,982 new cases.
The country is facing a dangerous new shortage of staff in intensive care unit, Reuters reports.
Some medical professionals are burned out after months of grueling, soul-sapping work. Others are simply unable to keep up with the endless flow of critical Covid patients pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink.
“Intensive care doctors are a commodity in short supply,” César Eduardo Fernandes, the president of the Brazilian Medical Association (AMB) told Reuters on Wednesday. “There’s no way to meet this brutal, catastrophic demand.”
Driven by an infectious new variant, a lack of containment measures, a chaotic federal response and a patchy vaccine rollout, Latin America’s biggest country has become the epicenter of the global pandemic. More than 284,000 Brazilians have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic - the highest death toll outside the United States.
French PM announces limited Covid lockdown for Paris and other regions
French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday announced a limited month-long lockdown for Paris and several other regions to combat surging Covid-19 cases, AFP reports, while insisting the measures would be less strict than in the past.
While non-essential businesses will close and movement outside will be restricted in the affected regions, schools will stay open and outdoor exercise allowed up to 10 kilometres (6 miles) from home, he said.
The lockdown will begin at midnight on Friday.
President Emmanuel Macron had so far resisted imposing a nationwide lockdown this year but his premier said the situation in Paris and elsewhere made the regionally-targeted measures affecting around a third of the country’s population unavoidable.
“We are adopting a third way, a way that should allow braking (of the epidemic) without locking (people) up,” Castex told reporters.
He said the measures were due to an increased number of Covid-19 cases due to a “third wave” of the virus, with around 1,200 people in intensive care in the Paris region alone.
The other regions affected by the new measures notably also include the Hauts-de-France region of northeast France which covers the city of Lille as well as the Alpes-Maritimes on the Mediterranean, as well as Seine-Maritime and the Eure in the north.
Health Minister Olivier Veran said that there were more people in intensive care in the Paris region than during the second wave in November, with hospital capacity now saturated.
As in previous lockdowns, a form written out or downloaded on the phone will be needed to justify why a person has left the home in areas under the new restrictions.
Residents in affected regions will not be allowed to travel to other areas, except for essential business, said Castex.
But Castex said that “while this is not good news” for people living in those regions, the restrictions were less severe this time.
“These confinement measures will not be a repeat of those we imposed in March and last November,” said Castex.
Meanwhile, a curfew that has been in place nationwide will also relaxed all over France so it ends at 7:00 pm rather than 6:00 pm to take account of the longer days, Castex said.
Norway, Sweden to wait before using AstraZeneca vaccine again
Norway and Sweden said Thursday they would wait before resuming use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, however, even though it has been declared safe by Europe’s medical regulator.
AFP: The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) said that after an investigation the AstraZeneca vaccine was “safe and effective” and not linked to an increased risk of blood clots.
The ruling, which was similar to the World Health Organization’s ruling, led to European heavyweights Germany, France, Spain and Italy all saying they would soon resume vaccinations with the jab.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said it “took note” of the EMA’s finding, but deemed it “premature” at this point to come to a final conclusion.
The NIPH said it would issue its own guidance at the end of next week.
“Vaccinations with AstraZeneca will remain suspended until we have a full view of the situation,” institute director Camilla Stoltenberg told the media.
Neighbouring Sweden also said it would maintain its suspension of the vaccine.
AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, based in Britain.
European countries to resume AstraZeneca jabs after ‘safe’ verdict
Leading EU countries said Thursday they would resume AstraZeneca vaccinations after the European medical regulator said the jab is “safe and effective” and not associated with a higher blood clot risk after days of commotion around the shot, AFP reports.
The closely-watched announcement from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) came after the WHO and Britain’s health watchdog both said the vaccine was safe, adding that it was far riskier to not get the shot as several countries face a worrying rise in coronavirus cases.
After the EMA’s announcement a raft of European countries said they would soon resume vaccinations, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.
France on Thursday became the latest nation to toughen Covid restrictions, announcing a month-long limited lockdown for Paris and several other regions to try and stave off a third wave of infections that has overwhelmed hospitals.
The EMA’s chief Emer Cooke said Thursday that after an investigation into the AstraZeneca jab, its “committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine”.
“The committee also concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots,” she added.
However, the agency said it “cannot rule out definitively” a link to a rare clotting disorder.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
I’m on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Leading EU countries said Thursday they would resume AstraZeneca vaccinations after the European medical regulator said the jab is “safe and effective” and not associated with a higher blood clot risk after days of commotion around the shot.
Meanwhile French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday announced a limited month-long lockdown for Paris and several other regions to combat surging Covid-19 cases, while insisting the measures would be less strict than in the past. The lockdown is set to begin on Friday at midnight.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is “safe and effective” and its benefits outweigh the risks, Europe’s medicines regulator announced, but it will continue to study possible links between the shot and a very rare blood clotting disorder.
- Following the review, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Latvia, Lithuania and Cyprus are to resume the use of the vaccine. Ireland said they would make their decision tomorrow, while Sweden said it would report back publicly next week after “analysing the situation”.
- The EU is to send a formal letter to AstraZeneca in an attempt to resolve its dispute over vaccine supplies as it emerged that capitals including Paris, Berlin and Rome backed the bloc’s threat to halt vaccine exports to countries that were not reciprocating, including Britain, amid further delays over jab deliveries.
- Several French regions, including the Ile-de-France region around Paris, are to be subject to a new four-week lockdown from tomorrow, but schools will remain open and confinement will be less strict than in previous nationwide lockdowns, prime minister Jean Castex has said.
- The Ukrainian capital Kyiv will go into a strict lockdown for three weeks from 20 March to contain the spread of coronavirus, elsewhere Bulgaria will close schools, restaurants and shopping malls for 10 days from 22 March in a bid to stem rising Covid-19 infections that are putting pressure on its hospitals.
- The head of a World Health Organization team working with Chinese colleagues to finish a long-awaited report into Covid’s origins has acknowledged its authors could face “pressures”. But he insisted the final product would require unanimous approval from all of the team’s science experts.
- German regional leaders have urged the EU to speed up its review of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and ensure that it could be rolled out efficiently across the bloc once approved.
- The World Dental Federation warned that dentists around the globe are witnessing the collateral damage of the pandemic on oral health and that there is a higher incidence of tooth decay and more advanced gum disease.
