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Uruguay has confirmed that it has detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighbouring Brazil as the nation faces a rise in cases and deaths.
Scientists examined 175 Covid-19 samples taken from around the country and found the Brazilian P1 strain in 24 of them and the P2 variant in four.
Gregorio Iraola, a scientist with Uruguay’s Inter-Institutional Working Group (GTI) conducting genome sequencing of Covid-19 cases, said the P2 variant was now being transmitted within the wider community rather than brought in from overseas, making tackling the outbreak “more complicated.”
The Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou has called a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to address the issue.
Uruguay, which has a population 3.5 million, has in recent weeks seen a surge in new cases, deaths and demand for hospital intensive care beds, with occupancy rates for the latter reaching 64%, the Uruguayan Society of Intensive Care Medicine said in a report. Patients with Covid accounted for 22% of those beds.
It warned that if urgent measures are not taken to reduce infections, hospital bed occupancy could soar to 85% by 4 April.
Both the P1 and P2 Covid-19 strains have been identified as spreading rapidly in Brazil, which has the world’s highest daily caseload at present. Early studies suggest they can overcome some antibodies, increase a person’s chances of reinfection and diminish the efficacy of vaccines.
An Oxford University study published last week that suggested antibodies developed through both natural illness and vaccines can still neutralise such variants, albeit at lower levels.
Foreign holidays banned under England's new Covid laws
Non-essential travel will be explicitly banned in England from next Monday under new coronavirus laws which could last until the end of June.
Britons trying to travel abroad without a reasonable excuse will face fines of up to £5,000 under the legislation, which will come into force next week if approved by MPs.
International travel is already currently banned, bar a few exceptions, under lockdown rules, but the law is being tweaked for when England’s stay-at-home order is officially lifted on 29 March.
According to the lockdown roadmap, the earliest date by which international travel could be permitted is 17 May. A government taskforce currently looking at when, and how, foreign travel could resume is due to report to the prime minister Boris Johnson on 12 April.
Updated
The United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres is concerned about the rise of violence against Asians and people of Asian descent globally during the Covid-19 pandemic, a UN spokesman said on Monday.
While the UN statement does not single out any countries, it comes after a shooting in Atlanta earlier this month left eight people dead, six of them Asian-American women.
The shooting stoked fears among those in the Asian-American community, which has reported a spike in hate crimes since March 2020 when then-president Donald Trump began referring to Covid-19 as the “China virus.”
“The world has witnessed horrific deadly attacks, verbal and physical harassment, bullying in schools, workplace discrimination, incitement to hatred in the media and on social media platforms, and incendiary language by those in positions of power,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
“In some countries, Asian women have been specifically targeted for attack, adding misogyny to the toxic mix of hatred,” he said.
During a visit to Atlanta on Friday, the US president Joe Biden deplored a surge in anti-Asian violence and asked all Americans to stand together against hate during a visit to the state on Friday.
Hundreds of Brazilian business leaders and economists blasted the president Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus crisis on Monday and called for a new policy approach as the country grapples with spiking Covid-19 deaths and overwhelmed hospitals.
The letter, published in newspapers and signed by former central bank chiefs and some of Brazil’s richest bankers, underscored a growing revolt by business leaders against the far-right president whom many had backed for his 2018 election.
Without naming Bolsonaro, they upbraided “the country’s highest political leadership” for ignoring science, encouraging crowds, hyping unproven treatments and “flirting with the anti-vaccine movement.”
Speaking at an event in Brasilia, Bolsonaro did not mention the letter, but rattled off a list of economic achievements of his government during the pandemic.
He said he was still unconvinced by arguments in favor of Covid-19 restrictions, saying they only served to kill jobs and further impoverish the poor. He added that Brazil’s focus should be on destroying the virus and not attacking his government.
A surge of infections has made Brazil the latest epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, killing more than 15,000 people last week and pushing hospitals across the country to the limit.
Brazil’s government is racing to obtain fresh supplies of drugs needed to safely intubate patients, Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan American Health Organization, said on Monday, after concerns of shortages arose this month.
“We are on the verge of an explosive phase of the pandemic, and it is fundamental that, from now on, public policy be based on data, solid information and scientific evidence,” wrote the business leaders and economists.
“The country is tired of out-of-place ideas, inconsequential words and late or mistaken actions,” they said. “Brazil demands respect.”
Among the signatories were Roberto Setubal and Pedro Moreira Salles, whose families control Itau, Brazil’s biggest bank, Pedro Passos, co-founder of cosmetics maker Natura & Co , and former central bank presidents Gustavo Loyola and Arminio Fraga.
In a broadside against the government, they called for more urgency in obtaining vaccines, free masks for the needy, better federal coordination on the pandemic and consideration of a national or regional lockdown strategy.
The message from such prominent economists and bankers cut at Bolsonaro’s core political argument that he has defended jobs by opposing lockdowns, which the letter called a “false choice between saving lives and ensuring support for the vulnerable.”
“It’s not reasonable to expect an economic recovery in an out-of-control epidemic,” they wrote.
Separately on Monday, São Paulo’s state government said it had obtained guarantees from oxygen suppliers that they will be able to keep up supply for public hospitals, and announced that brewer AmBev will also produce the gas at one of its plants in the state.
Miami Beach officials have extended a curfew and state of emergency into April, in response to large spring-break crowds of partygoers who have celebrated in the area’s bars and beaches despite the coronavirus.
The throngs of young people holidaying in Miami Beach have prompted a crackdown by police, which has included the use of “pepper balls” fired into the crowds.
Miami Beach city commissioners said they were extending a curfew from Thursdays through Sundays between 8pm and 6am through 12 April.
Police say they have arrested more than 1,000 people – about twice as many as they arrested last year – during this spring break season. They say the curfews are necessary to maintain order, according to the local CBS affiliate.
More on this story here.
New York will join a handful of US states that have lowered their eligibility age for coronavirus vaccines to 50, the governor Andrew Cuomo announced.
The state, the country’s fourth most populous, had restricted eligibility to residents who are at least 60 years old, have pre-existing health conditions or are essential workers, especially those who come in contact with the public.
“We are dropping the age and vaccinating more people,” Cuomo said at a church in Mount Vernon, New York, where he launched a campaign to encourage houses of worship to make themselves available as vaccination sites.
With the change, which takes effect on Tuesday, New York joins Florida, the third largest state, which lowered its eligibility age on Monday, and a handful of others that have made vaccines available to healthy people who are 50 years old or younger.
In Arizona, the governor Doug Ducey lowered the eligibility age to 16 at state-run vaccination sites in three populous southern counties, effective Wednesday. Three other counties already have eligibility at 16, but most are at 55.
Alaska has the lowest statewide eligibility age at 16. Its vaccination rate is among the highest in the country, with 31.5% of its residents having received at least one dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
New York has administered at least one dose to 26.1% of its residents and Florida has administered it to 23.8%, according to the CDC, which updated its data on Sunday.
Nationwide, the CDC said 24.9% of US residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 13.5% are fully vaccinated.
A summary of today's developments
- Germany is extending its partial lockdown until 18 April, scrapping plans to loosen restrictions that have been in place since 16 December in the face of rising infection rates. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the heads of 16 federal states agreed to pull the emergency break on a lockdown exit agreed only three weeks earlier, the country’s media reported.
- France reported 15,792 new coronavirus cases on Monday, more than double the 6,471 reported last Monday, Reuters reports. The number of people in intensive care with the virus rose by 142 to a new 2021 high of 4,548, health ministry data showed.
- Austria has postponed the reopening of cafe, restaurant and bar terraces planned for 27 March 27 owing to rising coronavirus cases, Reuters reports. The government is preparing for regions to adapt restrictions locally.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said he would receive a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, the Russian industry minister, Denis Manturov, said it was set to produce over 80m doses of home-grown vaccines in the first half of this year.
- The Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, has warned that any European Union restrictions on vaccine exports would be a “retrograde step” that could undermine the supply of raw materials for vaccine production.
- Jordan reported 109 new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic surfaced in the country, the health ministry said.
- Turkey recorded 22,216 new coronavirus cases in a period of 24 hours, the highest daily number since mid-December, Reuters reports. Health ministry data showed the cumulative number of cases stood at 3,035,338, data also showed, while the death toll rose by 117 to 30,178.
- AstraZeneca expects the EU drug regulator to give approval for a factory in the Netherlands that is helping make its Covid-19 vaccine later this month or in early April, a senior executive said.
Nigeria has suspended the airline Emirates from flying into or out of its territory last week after the carrier imposed additional Covid-19 test requirements on passengers from the country.
Reuters reports:
Emirates said last week passenger flights to and from Nigeria had been suspended until further notice in line with government directives, but did not give details.
Aviation minister Hadi Sirika told a news conference that the airline had demanded passengers from Nigeria undertake three tests within 24 hours, leading the government to suspend its operations, with the exemption of cargo and humanitarian flights.
“To make us go through three tests within 24 hours does not make sense. Since they insist, their operations remain suspended,” Sirika said.
In addition to requiring a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before flying from Nigeria, the airline added an extra requirement of having a rapid test four hours before departure.
Dutch airline KLM commenced flights in and out of Nigeria this month, the minister added.
Turkey recorded 22,216 new coronavirus cases in a period of 24 hours, the highest daily number since mid-December, Reuters reports.
Health ministry data showed the cumulative number of cases stood at 3,035,338, data also showed, while the death toll rose by 117 to 30,178.
Daily cases have roughly doubled since the beginning of March, when Turkey eased restrictions against the pandemic.
Updated
A ban on leaving the UK without a reasonable excuse has been included in new coronavirus regulations coming into force next week.
The rules says no one may “leave England to travel to a destination outside the United Kingdom, or travel to, or be present at, an embarkation point for the purpose of travelling from there to a destination outside the United Kingdom” without a reasonable excuse.
It suggests anyone who breaks such rules could face a £5,000 fine.
There is also a £200 fixed penalty notice for failing to fill in a travel declaration form – giving person details and reason for travel – for those planning to leave the UK.
The travel ban does not apply to those going to the common travel area of the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland unless that is not the final destination.
Exemptions also apply including for those needing to travel for work, study, for legal obligations, or to vote, if they are moving, selling or renting property, for some childcare reasons or to be present at a birth, to visit a dying relative or close friend, to attend a funeral, for those getting married or to attend the wedding of a close relative, for medical appointments or to escape a risk of harm.
Updated
Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine appears to be safe and able to trigger immune responses among children and adolescents, according to preliminary results from early and mid-stage trials, the company said.
The preliminary data was from phase 1 and 2 clinical trials involving over 500 people aged between three and 17 who received two shots of either medium or low dosage of vaccine, or a placebo.
Most adverse reactions were mild, Zeng Gang, a researcher with the company, told an academic conference in Beijing.
Two children who received the lower dose were reported to have experienced higher fever, categorised as grade 3, he said, without providing details or specific temperature.
The antibody levels triggered by Sinovac’s CoronaVac were higher than those seen in adults aged 18 to 59 and in older people in earlier clinical trials, Zeng said in the presentation.
For children three to 11 years old, the lower dose could induce favourable antibody responses, and the medium dose worked well for those aged 12 to 17, he said.
Updated
More producers of Covid-19 vaccines should follow the example of AstraZeneca and license their technology to other manufacturers, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said, as he described vaccine inequity as “grotesque”.
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the drugmaker said earlier that interim data from trials found the vaccine, developed in conjunction with Oxford University, was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid -19 and, crucially, posed no increased risk of blood clots.
“This data is further evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective,” Tedros told a news conference.
Updated
Austria delays easing of lockdown restrictions
Austria has postponed the reopening of cafe, restaurant and bar terraces planned for 27 March 27 owing to rising coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The government is preparing for regions to adapt restrictions locally.
Infections have been increasing steadily since Austria loosened its third lockdown on 8 February by letting non-essential shops reopen despite high case rates. A night-time curfew replaced all-day restrictions on movement.
The number of new infections reported rose above 3,500 on Friday, the highest level since early December.
The government met with the governors of its nine provinces on Monday to review its plan to let terraces reopen next weekend in all but one of them, after the small Alpine province of Vorarlberg got a head start earlier this month.
“The experts have advised us not to carry out any more loosening of restrictions here, unfortunately,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said of most provinces, adding three hard-hit eastern ones including Vienna would work on extra measures.
Updated
Jordan reported 109 new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic surfaced in the country, the health ministry said.
Reuters reports:
The ministry also reported 9,269 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative total to 544,724 cases.
The government, which says there are 3,277 patients being treated in hospitals, is facing a crisis with some hospitals reaching capacity, especially in the capital where over four million people live.
France reported 15,792 new coronavirus cases on Monday, more than double the 6,471 reported last Monday, Reuters reports.
The number of people in intensive care with the virus rose by 142 to a new 2021 high of 4,548, health ministry data showed.
The new cases pushed the cumulative total to 4.29m and represented a week-on-week increase of 5.40%, the 14th consecutive increase in the week-on-week rate.
Updated
Italy reported 386 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections is 13,846, down from 20,159 on Sunday.
Reuters reports:
Italy has registered 105,328 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year.
The country has reported 3.4m cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 28,049 on Monday, up from 27,484 a day earlier.
There were 227 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 232 on Sunday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 3,510 from 3,448.
Updated
The US would equitably integrate AstraZeneca’s vaccine into the distribution system if the vaccine is approved by US authorities, the White House said, Reuters reports.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, noted there was still a vaccine shortage in the country and some 1,400 people were still dying each day.
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine performed better than expected in a major late-stage trial, the drugmaker said on Monday, potentially paving the way for its emergency authorisation in the US.
Meanwhile the US has administered 126,509,736 doses of vaccines in the country as of Monday morning and distributed 156,734,555 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Updated
The leader of one of the parties in Slovakia’s ruling coalition resigned his government post amid a political crisis triggered by a secret deal to buy Russia’s coronavirus vaccine.
Associated Press reports:
Freedom and Solidarity party leader Richard Sulik, who served as a deputy prime minister and as Slovakia’s economy minister, said he believed his step ’will contribute to solving the government’s crisis’.
Freedom and Solidarity, as well as another partner party in the country’s year-old governing coalition, For People, had demanded that the Slovakian prime minister, Igor Matovič, resign as a condition for the four-party coalition to survive. They threatened to leave the government, if the prime minister did not step down.
The crisis erupted when a secret deal came to light two weeks ago involving Slovakia’s agreement to acquire 2m doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. The populist prime minister orchestrated the deal despite disagreement among his coalition partners.
Matovič has defended the Sputnik V purchase, saying it would speed up the country’s vaccination program.
Updated
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has agreed to help Brazil buy sedatives and other drugs it urgently needs for patients seriously ill with Covid-19 because of a shortage in the current surge of serious cases.
Reuters reports:
PAHO Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa said the regional branch of the World Health Organization is already looking for suppliers of the so-called ’intubation kit’ that Brazil can then purchase through PAHO’s strategic fund.
“Knowing the country’s difficulty, we are already looking for supply alternatives with international producers,” Barbosa told Reuters.
Brazil is facing record deaths from Covid-19 that have overwhelmed intensive care wards in major cities, some of which are running out of the sedatives and muscle relaxants needed to treat serious cases.
The Brazilian government has also instructed its ambassadors to look for drugs and equipment supplies in countries that produce them, two diplomats told Reuters.
The supplies sought include midazolam, propofol and fentanyl, used to sedate and relax intubated patients.
Last week, Brazilian governors wrote to President Jair Bolsonaro warning his government that their supplies of these medicines were running low and covered only 20 days of hospital needs, while new stocks were hard to find and prices had soared.
Updated
The prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, will be tested for Covid-19 on Wednesday after a cabinet minister tested positive, his spokesman told Reuters.
Earlier in the day, the health minister, Hugo De Jonge, was quoted by Dutch news agency ANP as saying all the cabinet ministers should all get tested, but do not need to go into quarantine after the deputy minister for economic affairs, Mona Keijzer, tested positive for the virus.
Asked whether the prime minister planned to get tested, Rutte’s spokesman Sierk Nawijn said in a text: “He will get it done.” The test is scheduled for Wednesday, which is the period – five days from being in contact with an infected person – the Dutch health authorities advise for getting a test after such exposure.
Keijzer, who announced her infection on Twitter, was at a weekly cabinet meeting on Friday attended by Rutte and more than a dozen senior government officials.
Discussions are under way in The Hague, the seat of government, to form a new coalition after Rutte’s conservative VVD party won parliamentary elections on March 15-17.
Updated
Germany extends partial lockdown until mid-April
Germany is extending its partial lockdown until 18 April, scrapping plans to loosen restrictions that have been in place since 16 December in the face of rising infection rates.
In a video conference call on Monday, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the heads of Germany’s 16 federal states agreed to pull the emergency break on a lockdown exit agreed only three weeks earlier, the the country’s media reported.
With new Covid-19 variants driving a steep rise in infection rates and only 9% of the German population having received a vaccine shot so far, politicians fear that hospitals could be overwhelmed by April unless the government takes steps to curtail the spread of the virus.
Private gatherings are expected again to be limited to no more than one person from outside the household, excluding children under 14. Shops, museums and galleries that have started to reopen over the last few weeks are likely to have to close their doors once more.
Discussions about the closure of schools and nurseries, as well as a possible lifting of restrictions over Easter, continue.
Updated
The anti-parasite drug ivermectin should not be used to treat Covid-19 outside clinical trials, the EU medicines regulator has said after months of reports that have touted it as a miracle cure.
The European Medicines Agency said:
EMA has reviewed the latest evidence on the use of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of Covid and concluded that the available data do not support its use for Covid outside well-designed clinical trials.
The Amsterdam-based agency said it had not received any application for authorisation of the drug, which has long been used to treat parasites such as head lice and for river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa. Further tests were needed to see if it was effective against coronavirus, the EMA said.
Lab tests had found ivermectin could block replication of the virus that causes Covid-19 “but at much higher ivermectin concentrations than those achieved with the currently authorised doses”, the regulator added. Toxic effects at those higher doses could not be ruled out, it said.
“Results from clinical studies were varied, with some studies showing no benefit and others reporting a potential benefit,” the EMA added.
Facebook posts and articles endorsing ivermectin have proliferated in Brazil, France, South Africa and South Korea as governments around the world struggle with vaccination programmes.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has dismissed criticism of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which is yet to be approved for widespread use in Western countries and has been branded a propaganda tool by overseas critics.
The Russian called such comments “strange” and suggested lives were being put at risk in Europe, where vaccine distribution remains slow. In a televised meeting with health officials, seen by French news agency AFP, Putin said:
We are not imposing anything on anyone... Whose interests are such people protecting - of pharmaceutical companies or the interests of citizens of European countries?
Russia registered Sputnik V in August, ahead of large-scale clinical trials, prompting worries among many experts over the fast-track process. Nevertheless, later reviews have been largely positive, with leading medical journal The Lancet publishing results showing it safe and more than 90% effective.
On Monday Putin sought to further boost confidence in the vaccine by announcing that he would have it himself this week.
Vaccination is of course the voluntary choice of every person... By the way, I intend to do it myself tomorrow.
Russia’s vaccination campaign has been slower than in many countries, with about four million of the country’s 144 million so far receiving two doses of a vaccine, and another two million a first dose.
Vaccine scepticism runs high in Russia, with a poll this month showing less than a third willing to have a jab, and close to two-thirds saying they believe the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon.
Health authorities in Iceland have said they will not immediately resume use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, despite a ruling by the European medicines regulator that it was “safe and effective”.
“All of the Nordic countries, including Iceland, have ... decided to investigate the matter further and to cooperate together before proceeding” with vaccinations using the AstraZeneca jab, Iceland’s director of health, Alma Möller, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
Iceland joined Denmark and Norway in suspending use of the Oxford University-developed vaccine on 11 March following reports of blood clots, haemorrhaging and low blood platelet levels in some recipients that in some rare instances proved fatal. Möller said:
Going forward, we will try to evaluate if the risk varies depending for example on age or gender, and this will form the basis for future use.
Iceland’s decision was taken pending a Nordic review of side effects from all of the Covid-19 vaccines, not just AstraZeneca’s, she said.
The European Medicines Agency, the EU’s drugs regulator, last week said the vaccine was “safe and effective” and not linked to a higher risk of blood clots, recommending that vaccinations resume.
Despite that, Norway, Sweden and Denmark said they would await the outcome of further evaluations. Finland also suspended its use of the drug last Friday as a precaution after two cases of cerebral thrombosis were reported.
Iceland, where almost 38,000 people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, has reported several cases of post-jab blood clots: two with the AstraZeneca vaccine, and one each after the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna jabs, authorities said.
Updated
A record daily number of Covid-19 deaths has been recorded in Bosnia, where doctors are warning of immense strain on the healthcare system, even as people took to the streets to protest against lockdown measures.
Seventy-three deaths and 818 new cases of coronavirus were reported on Monday in the country of about 3.3m people. No mass vaccination campaign has yet begun in Bosnia, because of a shortage of vaccines, Reuters reports.
According to Reuters:
Of the new cases, 568 were recorded in Sarajevo, the capital, which has this month become a hotspot of infections and deaths, with an average daily number of 699 coronavirus cases in the last week.
While Sarajevo, which is located in Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation, imposed a stricter night curfew and closed cafes and restaurants for two weeks on 13 March, the country’s Serb Republic imposed new restrictions from Monday, prompting peaceful protests across the region.
Updated
Switzerland’s drugs regulator has approved the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, its spokesman announced on Monday.
Swissmedic had already approved the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use the new mRNA technology to provoke recipients’ own cells into producing coronavirus spike proteins, provoking an immune response.
According to an explainer in the New York Times, like those vaccines, the J&J vaccine also contains genetic code for spike proteins, but instead of encoding that in single-stranded RNA, it uses double stranded DNA which has been added into a genetically modified adenovirus.
Switzerland has so far not ordered any doses of J&J’s vaccine, Reuters reports.
This is Damien Gayle keeping you updated for the next hour or so, while Nadeem takes a rest.
Updated
A regional governor in Italy has fired the board of a company in charge of coronavirus vaccination bookings after a series of rollout delays and IT failures in the area worst-hit by the pandemic.
Reuters reports:
Lombardy, the country’s wealthiest and most populous area which includes the financial capital Milan, has repeatedly come under fire for its handling of the Covid-19 emergency and was at the epicentre of the first European outbreak in February 2020.
Thousands of residents did not show up for vaccination over the weekend because a digital platform operated by Aria, a company owned by the regional government, failed to send them details of their bookings.
“I have asked the board of Aria to step down. If they refuse to do so I will fire them,” said the Lombardy president, Attilio Fontana, who is also a member of Matteo Salvini’s rightwing League party.
Lombardy accounts for almost a fifth of Italy’s 3.37m cases and has suffered almost 30,000 fatalities out of a national total of 105,000.
“Such disruptions have caused problems to many citizens and have affected the work of the health operators,” Fontana added.
Updated
Russian scientists behind the country’s second Covid vaccine, EpiVacCorona, said it was effective against variants of the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
The country began mass trials of EpiVacCorona, which is being developed by Siberia’s Vector Institute, in November last year.
Meanwhile, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said a US firm had violated Russian patent rights on its Sputnik V vaccine.
RDIF, which actively markets Sputnik V abroad, did not disclose the name of the company.
Updated
It has been a busy day of developments in Russia. President Vladimir Putin and the European council president, Charles Michel, discussed the possible use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19, the Kremlin said in a readout of a telephone call, Reuters reports.
Putin told Michel that Russia was ready to resume cooperation with the trade bloc but that ties were currently unsatisfactory due to what he described as the EU’s at times confrontational and non-constructive policies, the Kremlin said.
Meanwhile, Russia has completed clinical trials for its one-shot “Sputnik-Light” version of its vaccine, the health minister, Denis Manturov, said on state television.
Updated
The Egyptian government hopes to sign an agreement with China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd before the end of March to manufacture its coronavirus vaccine in Egypt, Reuters reports.
Talks between the two sides reached “an advanced stage” and Egypt has asked the Chinese government for assistance over the manufacturing price, health minister Hala Zayed said.
The planned agreement would be between Sinovac and Egypt’s Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA).
Zayed said Egypt hoped to become a centre for manufacturing the vaccine, either for local use or export to African countries. No further details were given.
Sinovac has supplied 160m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to 18 countries and regions, including China, its chief executive said on Monday.
Updated
Irish PM warns vaccine export ban would be 'retrograde step'
The Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, has warned that any European Union restrictions on vaccine exports would be a “retrograde step” that could undermine the supply of raw materials for vaccine production.
Martin told Ireland’s RTE radio that representatives of vaccine-maker Moderna had expressed concern to him that EU export restrictions on vaccines might impact its supply of raw materials for vaccine production.
NEW: Irish PM @MichealMartinTD on the radio this lunchtime making clear he is against any export ban
— Darren McCaffrey (@DarrenEuronews) March 22, 2021
"If we start that, then we are in trouble"
"It would be counterproductive”
Taoiseach says it is “vital” that supply lines are kept open
Updated
Greece’s health minister is requisitioning for the services of private sector doctors from certain specialties in the wider Athens region to help fight a renewed surge in coronavirus infections that is straining hospitals to their limits.
Associated Press reports:
Vassilis Kikilias said that despite repeated appeals for private doctors to volunteer to help in the public sector, very few came forward.
Therefore, the minister said, he was ordering specialists in pathology, pneumonology and general medicine to help.
Kikilias had said Friday he would requisition private sector doctors unless at least 200 volunteered within 48 hours. Government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said on Monday that only 61 doctors had stepped forward voluntarily.
“It was the last measure, if you will, in the context of the emergency plan prepared by the health ministry, and it was decided that it was now necessary to mobilise private doctors as part of this great struggle, this national effort, after all the opportunities for voluntary participation were exhausted,” Peloni said.
The requisition order is for one month for 206 doctors, health authorities said.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin to receive Covid vaccine
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said he would receive a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, the Russian industry minister, Denis Manturov, said it was set to produce over 80m doses of home-grown vaccines in the first half of this year.
He said 12.5m doses would be produced in March and 17m doses in April.
Manturov added that Russia had transferred the technology necessary to produce its vaccines to 10 other countries so far.
Mauritius has become the 55th and latest country to approve Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use against Covid-19, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said.
Updated
France’s labour minister, Élisabeth Borne, has been hospitalised with Covid-19, a week after testing positive for the virus, AFP reports.
Borne, 59, is under medical supervision in a hospital in the Paris region and her condition is improving, the ministry said in a statement.
On 14 March, Borne tweeted that she had tested positive for Covid-19, saying that “despite a few symptoms I’m doing well” and that she would continue to do her job while respecting distancing rules.
The ministry said today that two junior ministers would take over during Borne’s absence, with the support of her chiefs of staff and in contact with the minister herself.
On Saturday, the culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot, said she tested positive for coronavirus after experiencing respiratory symptoms.
Updated
The vaccine rollout in Italy’s hardest-hit region has been badly hampered by faulty booking systems, with at least one injection centre nearly empty at the weekend, AFP reports.
Infection rates remain high in northern Lombardy and local officials said vaccines have been badly delayed since the beginning of the rollout.
“It’s been a disaster, since the start”, the mayor of Crema, Stefania Bonaldi, told the La Repubblica newspaper.
“There is a bug in the system that needs fixing.”
Updated
The press conference has now concluded.
AstraZeneca said no ingredients in the vaccine sent to the UK are coming from the EU.
And one batch from the Halix plant has yet to receive MHRA approval.
Updated
AstraZeneca says Halix plant in Netherlands on track for EMA approval soon
AstraZeneca expects the EU drug regulator to give approval for a factory in the Netherlands that is helping make its Covid-19 vaccine later this month or in early April, a senior executive said in a briefing on Monday.
The status of the Leiden-based plant, run by sub-contractor Halix, is closely watched as it is listed as a supplier of vaccines in both the contracts that AstraZeneca has signed with Britain and with the European Union.
Ruud Dobber, executive vice president of the BioPharmaceuticals business, also said the US authorities are “very excited” by its interim analysis of data from its U.S. clinical trial, which shows the vaccine is 79% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid.
But it is up to the US government to decide how they are distributed, he said.
Asked if there was any indication how the shots which will be supplied to the US government under its supply contract may be used, he said he would be “very surprised” if they were not deployed to vaccinate Americans.
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A representative from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said there is no overall risk of thrombosis from the vaccine and no concerns have been raised by the regulators at this point.
Pangalos said it was a single study with a single batch.
He added: “It’s very nice to see this study read out so positively” and give more credibility to the safety of the vaccine.
The trial in the US consisted of 141 cases.
And all the doses being released belong to the US government and the company would be “highly surprised” if they were not all used in the US.
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AstraZeneca said in the first half of April, after approval, it will release 30m doses then another 20m in same month in the US.
Subsequently it will release 15-20m doses.
The company said the findings in the US trial were similar to the trial conducted in the UK.
The trial also found the vaccine was 100% effective against “severe or critical disease and hospitalisation”.
There was an 80% efficacy for people aged 65 years and over.
AstraZeneca press conference about US trial
A press conference is under way about the AstraZeneca trial in the US.
Among the speakers is Mene Pangalos, the executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca.
Interim results showed a 79% overall efficacy.
Updated
Papua New Guinea has told pubs, clubs and gaming sites to close from Wednesday after reporting another rise in Covid-19 cases.
Reuters reports:
The new curbs came in addition to tighter internal border controls, bans on large gatherings, school closures and mask wearing mandates imposed last week as infections spiked.
PNG reported 242 new cases as of Saturday, bringing total confirmed cases in the south Pacific nation to 3,359. The death toll remained at 36.
The police commissioner, David Manning, who is running the country’s pandemic response, said part of the challenge was that many of the cases were asymptomatic.
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The backer of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine said it had signed an agreement with an India-based pharmaceuticals giant for the production of up to 200 million doses of the jab a year.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, said it has partnered with the Virchow Group.
AFP reports:
Virchow Biotech, a subsidiary of the Virchow Group, is expected to start full-scale commercial production in the first half of 2021, it said.
RDIF’s chief executive, Kirill Dmitriev, said the agreement was “an important step to facilitate the full-scale local production” of the two-dose Sputnik V vaccine in India and to supply partners around the world.
In a separate statement, RDIF said that over the past week it had secured production agreements with two other Indian manufacturers, Stelis Biopharma and Gland Pharma.
The companies will produce enough doses for 300 million people a year, RDIF said.
Updated
Hungary has approved for emergency use two new coronavirus vaccines, Reuters reports.
One is from China’s CanSino Biologics company and the other is CoviShield, the Indian version of the AstraZeneca jab.
If both are approved for mass use by the National Health Centre, Hungary will have seven sources to procure vaccines from.
It is unclear when and in what quantity the country planned to deploy the two newly authorised doses.
Poland is seeing an increase in people willing to take AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to the country’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
It comes after reports that some people had been unwilling to receive the jab due to concerns about side effects.
Poland did not suspend use of the vaccine, unlike several European countries, arguing that the benefits outweighed potential risks.
Reuters reports:
In the morning I got a report ... showing that there are more and more people willing to get vaccinated and also to get vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Morawiecki told a news conference.
“This shows that we made the right decision not to suspend vaccinations with AstraZeneca, there are definitely more people willing to be vaccinated with this vaccine,” he added.
Poland is grappling with spiralling infection rates amid a third wave of the pandemic driven by a highly contagious variant first discovered in Britain.
The health minister, Adam Niedzielski, said the numbers of daily cases would continue to grow for two to three weeks.
The country has reported 2,073,129 cases and 49,365 deaths.
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Updated
Germany could allow Easter family visits despite surging case numbers
Although Germany appears poised to tighten lockdown restrictions amid rising infections, visits to relatives over Easter are set to be allowed this year, in contrast to lockdown rules over Easter in 2020.
According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, a draft by German federal and state governments states: “The level-headed behavior of the citizens in Germany during the Christmas days has impressively shown how family get-togethers can be made safe.”
Therefore, from 2 April to 5 April, 2021, meetings with four people beyond their own household plus children up to the age of 14 from the close family circle will be allowed – even if this means more than two households or five people over 14 years of age.
The nationwide seven-day incidence rose to 107.3 on Monday, the Robert Koch Institute said.
The Greens’ health expert Janosch Dahmen warned against hesitant action in the face of a third wave. “If we always wait to be perfect and certain before we do anything, then this third wave will be worse than the second,” Dahmen told Frühstart on RTL/ntv.
Dahmen said it was possible that soon more and younger people will be in intensive care units.
I’m now going to hand over to my colleague Nadeem Badshah.
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India’s health ministry on Monday wrote to states asking them to administer second AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses to recipients within four to eight weeks, from the current guideline of four to six weeks, Reuters reports.
“The recommendation has been revised to provide the 2nd dose of Covishield at 4-8 weeks’ interval after the 1st dose, instead of earlier practiced interval of 4-6 weeks,” the ministry said in a statement, using the brand name for the vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India.
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Public schools in Los Angeles are set to reopen from next month, after a teachers’ union approved a plan for a physical and hybrid return to classes.
Reuters reports:
Many schools continue to teach students remotely more than a year after the novel coronavirus prompted widespread closures across the United States, and the Biden administration has been aiming to reopen in-person learning for millions of public school students without sparking coronavirus outbreaks.
Education officials at the Los Angeles Unified School (LAUSD) district are tentatively planning for physical classes to restart at elementary and preschools by mid-April, while grades 7-12 are scheduled to return by about the end of April.
[...]
Under the agreement, elementary teachers will be expected to teach from their classrooms unless they have a verified medical reason to stay remote, while secondary teachers will teach most classes virtually.The union said the district was also considering using outdoor tents for exceptionally large class sizes.
On Friday, the US government updated its Covid-19 guidelines, halving the acceptable distance between students who are wearing masks to at least 3ft (0.91 m) from at least 6ft.
The teachers’ union said this change would not impact the agreement or its other safety measures – which include personal protective equipment, improved ventilation, daily cleaning and disinfection.
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China’s CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) said on Monday its Covid-19 vaccine has been authorised for emergency use in Hungary, the second Chinese vaccine to receive approval in that nation.
Daily News Hungary reports:
The Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition granted the approval for its vaccine, with the trade name Convidecia, based on the interim results of its phase III trial, the company said in a statement.
Hungary has also approved a Covid-19 vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group’s (Sinopharm) for use in the country.
Hungary’s daily coronavirus infections on Friday surpassed 10,000, hitting a record of 10,759, while the daily death toll also hit a record of 213 in the central European country of 10 million.
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The Republic of the Congo’s top presidential opposition candidate, Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas, who was hospitalised with Covid-19 complications on election day, has died, a spokesman said on Monday.
The Associated Press reports:
The 61-year-old politician was last seen in a video circulating Saturday on social media in which he told supporters he was “fighting death”. Aides later said he had been flown to France for further treatment.
Spokesman Justin Nzoloufoua confirmed his death on Monday to the Associated Press.
Kolélas, who won 15% of the vote in the 2016 election, was expected to finish second to President Denis Sassou N’Guesso, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders with more than 36 years in office.
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More than 6,000 mostly unmasked people took part in an illegal street party in the southern French city of Marseille at the weekend, leading to condemnation of an “unaccceptable” breach of Covid-19 rules.
AFP reports:
The carnival-type gathering in the port city drew mostly young people, many of whom expressed frustration at restrictions on gatherings and the closure of bars and nightclubs during the pandemic.
Marseille was not among the 16 different regions which entered a fresh lockdown on Saturday, with its current caseload lower than national hotspots such as nearby city Nice along the Mediterranean coast or the capital region.
“It’s completely unacceptable at a time when all of us are making efforts, are adapting and organising ourselves to respect the different rules in order to fight against the pandemic,” interior ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize told Franceinfo radio on Monday.
Nine people had been arrested and dozens had been fined, she said.
The mayor of Marseille Benoit Payan said he was “outraged” by the event, adding on Twitter: “Nothing justifies that we undermine our collective efforts to keep the virus at bay.”
The French government introduced a limited lockdown on Saturday for around a third of the population, with all non-essential shops shut and travel banned in these zones, but schools are open and people are allowed to leave their homes at will.
Spanish tourism minister Reyes Maroto said on Monday that she hoped the number of foreign tourists coming to Spain could rebound this year to half pre-pandemic level.
“Maybe the ideal goal is ... to get half of the tourists we had in 2019. This, for the industry, would be an achievement,” she said in an event held by Europa Press news agency.
In 2019, Spain had the world’s second highest number of foreign visitors at more than 80 million. This plummeted by 80% to 19 million tourists in 2020 as a result of the travel restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic, Reuters reports.
The British social care minister, Helen Whately, warned Britons on Monday that booking international holidays would be premature.
Whately told BBC Breakfast:
My advice would be to anybody right now, it’s just to hold off on booking international travel.
The prime minister launched a taskforce looking specifically at international travel. That will be reporting back shortly. It just feels premature to be booking international holidays at the moment.
In prime minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of England’s lockdown, 17 May had been earmarked as the earliest possible date for international leisure trips, which are currently illegal.
Whately’s comments drew sharp criticism from the UK travel industry.
The Independent reports:
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, a consortium of travel agents, said: “It’s completely reckless, completely irresponsible. We know what timescales we are working to, we know the milestones.
“Politicians should be working towards those and not making reckless comments that destroy businesses and create huge emotional tensions for consumers.”
The pilots’ union, Balpa, tweeted: “Another day, another minister throwing our industry under the bus. And undermining the work of the government’s own Global Travel Taskforce to boot.”
A spokesperson for Jet2, the second-largest holiday company, said: “We are seeing increased confidence and bookings right across the board. It is clear that for many people, they want nothing more than to get away this summer.
“In response to demand, we have just this week added more flights and holidays to a range of destinations in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Canaries, Spain and Portugal.”
Updated
Trust in AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine is faltering in many European nations, a poll revealed on Monday.
The survey conducted by YouGov, a British polling firm, shows that a majority of people in some of the biggest EU member nations — including Germany, France, Spain and Italy — now deem the vaccine to be unsafe.
The poll involved around 8,000 people in seven European countries between 12 and 18 March.
Last week, a different poll found that the temporary halt of the AstraZeneca rollout in at least 13 different countries due to concerns over rare blood clots hardly affected the willingness of Germans to get vaccinated.
Overall, the willingness to vaccinate among Germans was found to have only fallen by two percentage points to 71% compared to the beginning of March, according to a survey published on Wednesday by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL and ntv.
71% of those surveyed who wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible also said that they would accept the AstraZeneca jab as soon as vaccinations with it would resume.
Updated
Russia has reached an agreement with India’s Virchow Biotech to produce up to 200 million doses a year of the Sputnik V vaccine in India.
The RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Monday full-scale commercial production would start after completing the transfer of technology in the second quarter.
The announcement follows similar deals with Indian pharmaceutical firms Gland Pharma, Stelis Biopharma and Hetero, Reuters reports.
India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has become one of the biggest producers of the Sputnik V shot outside Russia. Other countries producing it include Brazil, China and South Korea.
Thailand started human trials on Monday of a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine and expects to deploy it next year, which could give the country more freedom with its vaccine policy, according to the health minister.
Reuters reports:
Thailand’s vaccination drive is targeting the inoculation of half of its adult population by the end of the year using 61 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which will be locally produced from June.
The home-grown vaccine candidate is being developed by state drug maker, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), with Mahidol University’s Tropical Medicine Department and an American non-profit and uses an inactivated virus to trigger immunity.
“The vaccine, produced by Thais for Thais, is expected to be used next year,” Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, chairman of the Mahidol University Council, told a news conference.
Thailand’s progress comes as countries including Japan and Taiwan speed up domestic vaccine development programmes amid tight global supply and concerns about new Covid-19 variants.
Vietnam last week said its locally developed vaccine would be available by the fourth quarter of this year.
Mahidol University’s dean, Bangjong Mahaisavariya, said 460 volunteers would be accepted for the human trials, 210 of whom would be used in the first phase. Phase two is expected to begin in July, with results by year-end.The Thai vaccine candidate modifies the avian Newcastle Disease virus with a Covid-19 spike protein and is replicated using egg-based technology, the GPO said.
Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the vaccine would give Thailand more options with less constraints.
Russia on Monday reported 9,284 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 1,586 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 4,466,153.
The country also reported another 361 deaths, raising the official toll to 95,391.
Philippines reports record rise in infections
The Philippines reported 8,019 fresh infections on Monday, the highest single-day rise in cases.
The country logged 7,757 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the third consecutive day new cases breached 7,000 and just a slight drop from the record-high tally posted a day before, CNN Philippines reported.
In a bulletin, the health ministry said on Monday total confirmed cases had reached 671,792, while deaths increased by four to 12,972.
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The British government said on Monday it would remind the EU of its commitment to allow vaccine manufacturers to fulfill orders, including the export of vaccines to the UK, after speculation of a vaccine trade warintensified over the weekend.
Social care minister Helen Whately told Sky News:
One thing I think we can do is remind the EU of the commitments they have made, and particularly Ursula von der Leyen, the EU president, made the commitment to the prime minister that the EU wouldn’t block companies from fulfilling contractual obligations to supply vaccinations.
The French vaccines chief Alain Fischer said on Monday he expects the country to return to some kind of normal life by summer or autumn, thanks to an acceleration of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
Fischer added the current priority was to inoculate the most vulnerable in society.
More than 5.7 million people people in France have received a first injection and nearly 2.4 million are fully vaccinated, Le Figaro reports.
A national daily curfew is now in place between from 7pm to 6am.
Prime minister Jean Castex announced on 19 March that a new lockdown would be introduced in 16 departments of the country for at least four weeks from 20 March.
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Greece has ordered private sector doctors in the broader Athens region to assist its public health system to fight a rise in new infections, health minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Monday.
Reuters reoports:
The government had earlier called on private sector doctors to help out as Greece’s public hospitals have been overwhelmed by surging Covid-19 infections and intensive care wards are running out of beds. It said about 200 doctors were needed.
“For weeks, the Health Ministry addressed an invitation - an appeal - to private doctors, to strengthen the hospitals of the National Health Service during the third major wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, very few private doctors came,” Kikilias said.
“Taking into account the emergency conditions ... the Health Ministry is ordering the personal services of doctors in the specialties of physicians, pulmonologists and general practitioners,” he said.
Greece reported 1,514 new coronavirus infections and 41 deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths to about 7,500.
US drug trial finds AstraZeneca jab to be safe and effective
The US trial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has found that the shot is both safe and highly effective.
The BBC reports:
More than 32,000 volunteers took part, mostly in America, but also in Chile and Peru.
The vaccine was 79% effective against stopping symptomatic Covid disease and 100% effective at preventing people from falling seriously ill.
And there were no safety issues regarding blood clots.
That should further reassure some EU countries that recently paused rollout of the vaccine amid concerns about a possible link [to a small number of reports of rare blood clotting].
Some are already starting to use it again now that Europe’s medicines regulator has completed its review and has also concluded the vaccine is safe and effective.
Updated
The first shipments of China’s CanSino Biologics Covid-19 vaccine will reach Pakistan this week for commercial sale, an official at the company’s local partner told Reuters on Monday.
“We expect the first 10,000 doses to come on 25 March, and 100,000 next month and 200,000 the month after,” Hassan Abbas, an official of AJ Pharma, said.
Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow commercial imports of Covid-19 vaccines, has already received a batch of the Russian Sputnik vaccine for commercial sale, Reuters reports.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be taking over this blog for the next few hours. If you have anything to flag, you can get me on Twitter @JedySays or via email.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleagues in London will take you through the next few hours of global pandemic news.
In case you missed this earlier: Miami Beach officials voted on Sunday to extend an 8pm curfew and emergency powers for up to three weeks to help control unruly and mostly maskless crowds that have converged on the party destination during spring break.
Thousands of people have packed the city’s Art Deco Cultural District causing bedlam and lawlessness in recent days when university students typically celebrate spring break, leading some businesses to close voluntarily out of concern for public safety.
Mayor Dan Gelber told an emergency meeting of the city commission that all manner of out-of-town and out-of-state visitors, not just college students, were filling the streets since Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on 26 February called the state an “oasis of freedom” from coronavirus restrictions:
Still in the UK, the TUC has urged the government to put pressure on employers who it claims are hindering the UK’s vaccine rollout by refusing to give staff paid time off to receive and recover from their Covid jabs.
The trade union body said in a poll of private sector employers it found fewer than half were offering staff paid time-off to attend their vaccination appointments.
It said ministers needed to urgently address the barriers that workers faced in getting their jabs, and stressed that all employers should play their part in achieving this
The TUC’s survey of 1,002 firms found 45% had committed to letting staff take time off work, with pay, once they were offered an appointment:
A year of Covid lockdowns has cost the UK economy £251bn, study says
A year of Covid-19 lockdowns has cost the UK economy £251bn – the equivalent of the entire annual output of the south-east of England or nearly twice that of Scotland, according to a report published on Monday.
Analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that while the whole of the country had suffered huge damage from restrictions on activity since the first national lockdown began, some poorer regions had suffered the most.
The consultancy said the north-south gap would widen unless the government took steps to ensure that the less well-off parts of the UK did not disproportionately bear the economic losses caused by the pandemic:
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Europe can achieve herd immunity by July: EU commissioner. Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, a European Union commissioner has said. The note of optimism comes even as several European countries have started reimposing restrictions as they contend with surging coronavirus infections, and after mixed messaging on the safety of a key jab.
- Germany is considering extending restrictions into April, with a memo suggested it should be lengthened because of rising infection rates driven by virus variants.
- Chile reported its highest daily count of new coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic despite widespread restrictions and widely praised progress on vaccinations.
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South Africa has sold 1m AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the African Union, the health ministry announced on Sunday in a statement reported by AFP, after it suspended its rollout of the jab.
- The EU rebuffed UK calls to ship AstraZeneca vaccines from Europe. The European Union is rebuffing British government calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines produced in a factory in the Netherlands, an EU official said on Sunday. Former EU member Britain has so far administered many more vaccines than EU countries in proportion to the population.
- Covid cases in Papua New Guinea have tripled in a month as doctors warn of ‘danger days’ ahead. Papua New Guinea has reported a record number of Covid-19 cases over the weekend as doctors warn that the hospital system is in the brink of being overwhelmed and more people could die outside emergency rooms.
- New Zealand to announce start date for quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia on 6 April. The New Zealand government has held off on announcing a start date for quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern says the government intends to announce a start date on 6 April.
- Taiwan began the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccines. Taiwan began administering the AstraZeneca vaccine today after it received nearly 120,000 does doses earlier this month through the World Health Organisation’s Covax problem.
- India reported its highest daily Covid death toll since early January. India reported 212 new Covid deaths on Monday, the most since early January, while infections jumped by 46,951, the highest since early November. Total deaths have now swelled to 159,967 and infections to 11.65 million, the highest in the world after the United States and Brazil.
- Wales to lift ban on supermarkets selling non-essential items. The ban on supermarkets in Wales selling non-essential items is being lifted from Monday as the country slowly moves out of lockdown. All non-essential retail was ordered to close on Christmas Eve last year as Wales entered alert level 4, but shops selling essential items such as food could remain open.
Wales to lift ban on supermarkets selling non-essential items
The ban on supermarkets in Wales selling non-essential items is being lifted from Monday as the country slowly moves out of lockdown, PA Media reports.
All non-essential retail was ordered to close on Christmas Eve last year as Wales entered alert level 4, but shops selling essential items such as food could remain open.
It meant supermarkets continued to trade but they were banned from selling anything not deemed essential, such as books, DVDs and toys.
Aisles were taped off to stop customers buying non-essential goods, but this ban is now being lifted.
Garden centres are also now allowed to open for the first time this year.
It is part of a more cautious approach being adopted by the Welsh Government in leaving lockdown due to the emergence of the highly-infectious Kent variant of the virus.
It has warned that if there are strong signs of a growth in infections, relaxations may need to be slowed, paused or reversed.
On March 27 the “stay local” travel requirement will be lifted, which will move Wales from alert level 4 to 3.
Ahead of the Easter holidays, from March 27 self-contained accommodation will be allowed to resume business, libraries will reopen and organised outdoor children’s activities can resume.
From April 12 there will be a full return to schools, colleges and other education settings, all shops will reopen and close contact services will resume.
If infection rates remain stable or continue to fall, ministers will decide on April 22 whether to allow gyms and leisure centres, outdoor attractions, outdoor hospitality, weddings and organised indoor and outdoor activities to resume.
Europe can achieve herd immunity by July: EU commissioner
Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, a European Union commissioner has said, as incoming jabs are expected to speed up the continent’s sluggish vaccine rollout, AFP reports.
The note of optimism comes even as several European countries have started reimposing restrictions as they contend with surging coronavirus infections, and after mixed messaging on the safety of a key jab.
“Let’s take a symbolic date: by July 14, we have the possibility of achieving immunity across the continent,” Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for the internal market told French broadcaster TF1.
“We’re in the home stretch, because we know that to beat this pandemic there’s just one solution: vaccination. The vaccines are arriving,” he said.
More than a third of France’s population is now under renewed lockdown, while frustrations over virus curbs spilled into weekend demonstrations in Germany, Amsterdam, Bulgaria and Switzerland.
Europe’s battle to prevent a deadly third wave of infections has been complicated by a patchy vaccine drive that included several nations temporarily halting AstraZeneca’s shots in response to isolated cases of blood clots.
Most have since resumed using the vaccine after the European Medicines Agency found it “safe and effective”.
But AstraZeneca has delivered only 30 percent of the 90 million doses it promised the EU for the first quarter.
Breton said he was confident more vaccines will arrive soon, with 300-350 million doses expected between March and June.
He added that 55 factories would now be producing vaccines in Europe.
India reports highest daily Covid deaths since early January
India reported 212 new Covid deaths on Monday, the most since early January, while infections jumped by 46,951, the highest since early November.
Total deaths have now swelled to 159,967 and infections to 11.65 million, the highest in the world after the United States and Brazil.
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 7,709 to 2,667,225, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
The reported death toll rose by 50 to 74,714, the tally showed.
New Zealand is set to unveil measures on Tuesday to counter a rampant rise in property prices that has pushed younger and lower income buyers out of the market, and poses a major challenge for the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Reuters reports.
The country’s success in combating the coronavirus has made it a safe haven for returning Kiwis and investors, who have parked their funds in real estate, pushing house prices up 23% in just 12 months, far ahead of wage growth.
Billions of dollars in government stimulus and historically low interest rates have further inflamed the market, while housing affordability has fallen back to its equal lowest in nearly 20 years, making it the least affordable amongst the 36 wealthy Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said publicly that he is looking at moves to restrict loans to investors and dampen potential returns, while supporting other types of investments, but analysts warn there is no easy fix.
“The finance minister will need to throw the entire kitchen sink at this problem,” said Brad Olsen, senior economist at Wellington-based economic consultancy firm Infometrics.
“The conversation happening in Kiwi households during summer was not Covid-19, but housing. So he doesn’t need a silver bullet ... he needs to fire every damn bullet at it.”
House prices have doubled over the last decade and successive governments in the country of 5 million have struggled for years to find solutions.
Almost 1% of New Zealand*s population is ranked as homeless or “severely housing deprived”, the highest rate amongst OECD nations, and almost twice that of neighbouring Australia.
While Ardern’s government was easily returned to power last year after virtually eliminating Covid domestically and a string of domestic successes, the scrapping in 2019 of its flagship KiwiBuild project to build 100,000 affordable homes was a notable failure.
Taiwan rolls out AstraZeneca vaccines
Taiwan began administering the AstraZeneca vaccine today after it received nearly 120,000 does doses earlier this month through the World Health Organixation’s Covax problem.
Premier Su Tseng-chang and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung were some of the first in line this morning, according to Taiwanese media, and tried to calm any public anxiety about the vaccine’s safety in the wake of concerns in raised in Europe.
The vaccine is now available at 57 hospitals although priority will be given to health workers and people employed in quarantine facilities. Focus Taiwan reported that there are around 60,000 people on the immediate waiting list.
It is unclear when Taiwan will receive more doses of the vaccine although it has already agreed to buy 10 million doses of Astra Zeneca and another 10 million doses from Covax and Moderna.
For now, life remains relatively normal in Taiwan where there are no lockdown measures in place, although masks are required on public transit and in many public places.
The island, however, continues to receive imported cases from abroad, with 1,006 confirmedcases of Covid-19 as of Sunday, according to its Central Epidemic Command Center.
Travel restrictions remain stringent and anyone who travels to Taiwan is required to quarantine for 14 days and spend an additional seven days under “self-health management” avoiding crowded places.
China reported seven new Covid cases on 21 March down from 12 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Monday.
The National Health Commission said in a statement that all the new cases were imported infections. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, remained the same as the day earlier at eight.
Total confirmed Covid cases in Mainland China now stand at 90,106. The death toll remains unchanged at 4,636.
China’s CanSino Biologics Inc said on Monday its Covid vaccine has been authorised for emergency use in Hungary, the second Chinese vaccine to receive approval in that nation.
Reuters: The Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition granted the approval for its vaccine, with the trade name Convidecia, based on the interim results of its phase III trial, the company said in a statement.
CanSinoBIO’s vaccine is a single-dose vaccine that is currently also approved for treatment in China, Pakistan and Mexico.
Hungary was the first EU nation to buy and use Chinese or Russian shots and initially came under fire for its separate approval process and negotiations for the vaccines.
More recently, several European countries have also expressed interest in buying those vaccines as shipments from Western suppliers lagged.
Hungary’s daily coronavirus infections on Friday surpassed 10,000, hitting a record of 10,759, while the daily death toll also hit a record at of3 in the central European country of 10 million.
New Zealand to announce start date for quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia on 6 April
The New Zealand government has held off on announcing a start date for quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern says the government intends to announce a start date on 6 April.
She said there were a series of concerns that needed to be addressed before the bubble could be put in place, such as a response framework in the event of an outbreak in Australia, measures in place to contact trace travellers there, and regulatory mechanisms in place.
The National Party has been calling for a travel bubble with Australia to start immediately last week. It will reportedly be in place by the end of April.New Zealand’s borders have now been closed to most international visitors for a year.
The government intends to vaccinate the entire population by the end of the year, which Ardern said would move the country’s national Covid-19 defences away from a “collective barricade”.
New Zealand is exploring how to make its managed isolation and quarantine system more equitable after sustained demand.The booking system received 1m hits when vouchers for June and July were released, causing the website to crash.Radio New Zealand reports that the government is receiving 100 complaints a week about the system.
With people currently needing to reserve rooms about 16 weeks in advance, a waitlist is being considered to manage the demand.One Australia-based Kiwi likened the booking system to “fans fighting over concert tickets”.
Taiwan premier gets AstraZeneca vaccine
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang received the AstraZeneca Covid shot on Monday as the island began its vaccination campaign.
“I have just finished getting the injection, there is no pain at the injection site, and there is no soreness of the body,” Su told reporters at a Taipei hospital.
Podcast: Professor Neil Ferguson on the Covid year that shattered our way of life
Prof Neil Ferguson was one of the first scientists to raise the alarm in Britain that unless the government radically changed policy, it was heading for a disaster that the NHS could not cope with:
Covid cases in Papua New Guinea triple in a month as doctors warn of 'danger days' ahead
Papua New Guinea has reported a record number of Covid-19 cases over the weekend as doctors warn that the hospital system is in the brink of being overwhelmed and more people could die outside emergency rooms.
The news came as a photograph of a woman who died outside the Port Moresby General Hospital went viral on social media causing outrage with fears the woman’s death was due to hospital being overwhelmed due to Covid-19.
Papua New Guinea announced 242 new Covid 19 cases on 20 March bringing the country’s total to 3,359 with 36 deaths. It follows a record 295 new cases on Friday, with the country reporting a seven-day average of 181 new cases a day in the week to 20 March:
Miami Beach officials have warned that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to public safety, after 1,000 arrests were made.
At a last-minute meeting, city officials voted to extend a highly unusual 8pm curfew for another week along famed South Beach, with the possibility of extending it well into April if needed, and stressed this wasn’t the typical spring break crowd. They said it’s not college students, but adults looking to let loose in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic:
AstraZeneca has not yet sought approval in the EU for Halix, but the official and a second EU source said the request was on its way.
Without regulatory approval, vaccines produced at Halix cannot be used in the EU.
An internal AstraZeneca document seen by Reuters shows that the company expects EU approval on March 25.
AstraZeneca has declined to comment on the amount of vaccines that are currently stockpiled at Halix.
The EU official said the factory had already produced shots, but was not able to quantify the output. Under the EU contract with AstraZeneca, vaccines must be produced before approval and be delivered immediately afterwards.
Two factories in Britain run by Oxford Biomedica and Cobra Biologics are also listed as suppliers to the EU in the contract with AstraZeneca, but no vaccine has so far been shipped from Britain to the EU, despite Brussels’ earlier requests.
Officials have said that Cobra is not fully operational. AstraZeneca told EU officials that the UK is using a clause in its supply contract that prevents export of its vaccines until the British market is fully served, EU officials said.
EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca vaccines from Europe
The European Union is rebuffing British government calls to ship AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines produced in a factory in the Netherlands, an EU official said on Sunday.
Former EU member Britain has so far administered many more vaccines than EU countries in proportion to the population, reports Reuters.
“The Brits are insisting that the Halix plant in the Netherlands must deliver the drug substance produced there to them. That doesn’t work,” the official told Reuters.
The Leiden-based plant which is run by sub-contractor Halix is listed as a supplier of vaccines in both the contracts that AstraZeneca has signed with Britain and with the European Union.
“What is produced in Halix has to go to the EU,” the official added.
Britain has insisted that contracts must be respected.
“The European Commission will know that the rest of the world is looking at the Commission, about how it conducts itself on this, and if contracts get broken, and undertakings, that is a very damaging thing to happen for a trading bloc that prides itself on the rules of law,” Defence Minister Ben Wallace said on Sky News earlier in answer to a question about Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen’s threat to block exports to Britain.
The EU official said the EU was not breaking any contract.
The European Union threatened on Wednesday to block exports of COVID-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its own citizens, with Von der Leyen saying the epidemiological situation was worsening.
Updated
South Africa sells 1m AstraZeneca shots to African Union
South Africa has sold 1m AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the African Union, the health ministry announced on Sunday in a statement reported by AFP, after it suspended its rollout of the jab.
The country halted its vaccination programme with the candidate after doubts were raised over that vaccine’s efficacy against a virus variant discovered locally.The WHO has since said the AstraZeneca jabcan be used against all variants.
The doses will be distributed to 14 other African nations.Health minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement: “The first batch of vaccines that is being delivered will benefit 9 African Union member states. The balance will be collected this week to be delivered to 5 other countries.”
Germany considering lockdown extension
Germany is set to extend a lockdown to contain the Covid pandemic into its fifth month, according to a draft proposal, after infection rates exceeded the level at which authorities say hospitals will be overstretched, Reuters reports.
The recommendation is contained in a draft, seen by Reuters, prepared by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office ahead of Monday’s videoconference of regional and national leaders to decide on the next round of measures to deal with the pandemic.
At their last meeting early this month, the leaders agreed a cautious opening, overriding the objections of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said more infectious variants had made the pandemic hard to control.
The Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases said the number of cases per 100,000 population over a week stood at 103.9 on Sunday, above the 100 threshold at which intensive care units will start running out of capacity.
The draft says lockdown should continue until April 18 and that an “emergency brake” agreed at the last meeting will be applied to halt any further cautious opening measures in areas that exceed 100 per 100,000.
An earlier proposal, circulated by the Social Democrats, junior partners in Merkel’s coalition, that all returning travellers would face quarantine, even if they had not been in a coronavirus risk zone, was in brackets in the latest draft, meaning it is still under discussion.
The proposal also mentioned possible evening curfews for areas with high case numbers, though a precise curfew time was not mentioned.
The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 13,733 to 2,659,516, the Robert Koch Institute said on Sunday, and the reported death toll has risen by 99 to 74,664.
The latest draft would also tighten obligations on companies: those who were unable to offer their employees the option of working from home would have to provide them with one COVID-19 test each week, or two if sufficient supplies were available.
Chile reports record daily cases
Chile has reported its highest daily count of new coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic despite widespread restrictions and widely praised progress on vaccinations, AP reports.
The government on Saturday reported 7.084 new cases in the South American nation of some 18 million people, topping a previous record in June. It said Covid has become the country’s leading cause of mortality, causing 26% of deaths so far this year.
Chile so far has given at least one vaccine shot to more than 29% of the population and both doses to 15% — far more than in other nations in the region. But Health Minister Enrique Paris said people should remain cautious since population-level immunity isn’t likely until about 80% are vaccinated, probably by about the end of June.
Officials said hospital bed usage has reached 94%, with rising numbers among those 60 and below as older Chileans have been inoculated. The medical association said the system has been strained by depression or exhaustion affecting as many as 30% of medical personnel.
The government has imposed supposedly tight restrictions on three-quarters of the country’s municipalities and said Saturday it is tightening limits on people entering from abroad, especially from Brazil.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Germany is considering extending restrictions into April, with a memo suggested it should be lengthened because of rising infection rates driven by virus variants.
Meanwhile Chile has reported its highest daily count of new coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic despite widespread restrictions and widely praised progress on vaccinations.
- There have been a further 5,312 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data, and 33 deaths – the lowest fatality count since early October.
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Public Health England’s head of immunisation has said “lower-level” restrictions such as social distancing rules and face masks may be required for “a few years”.
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Cuba will vaccinate 150,000 key workers with its Covid-19 vaccine candidate as part of the final stage of its clinical trial, authorities have said as cases rise.
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Turkey has reported a further 20,428 cases, taking the number of infections registered since the pandemic began beyond 3 million.
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Greece has ended its ban on flights from Turkey, Albania and North Macedonia, the civil aviation authority announced on Sunday in a statement reported by Reuters.
- The Palestinian Authority is stepping up is vaccination drive after about 60,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca doses arrived in the Israeli-occupied West Bank via the Covax scheme.
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South Africa has sold 1m AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the African Union, the health ministry announced on Sunday in a statement reported by AFP, after it suspended its rollout of the jab.
- China has sent Niger 400,000 doses of its Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday.
- Brazil will no longer require local authorities to keep half their Covid-19 vaccine stockpiles for second doses as it seeks to hasten its lagging vaccination campaign amid a deadly surge.
