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Summary
Here is a quick re-cap of recent events from the UK and around the world:
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Israel extended a national lockdown on Sunday, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet reportedly voted to extend the five-week-old national lockdown until Friday, pending parliamentary approval.
- Primary schools in the Netherlands will reopen from 8 February, the Dutch government announced on Sunday, in the first easing of lockdown restrictions in months.
- The number of Covid patients in French hospitals hit a near nine-week high on Sunday, with 27,613 Covid sufferers being treated in hospitals, up 331 on Saturday and reaching a level last seen on 1 December.
- The UK has carried out the highest number of Covid vaccinations in one day, with figures showing 598,389 received their first dose on Saturday. The government said a further 587 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 106,158.
- On Sunday, police in Brussels said they have detained scores of people in an attempt to prevent two banned demonstrations against measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. A police spokesperson said more than 200 had been arrested by around midday.
Updated
Reuters reports:
Black New Yorkers’ skepticism about vaccines developed at record speed to fight Covid-19 means they lag behind other racial groups in inoculations to fight the pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 people in the US, officials said on Sunday.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state plans to run an advertising campaign that will seek to boost trust and dispel hesitancy among many black New Yorkers to get the potentially life-saving vaccine.
New York City, once the epicenter of the US pandemic, will expand outreach to 33 communities hardest hit by the often-deadly disease, many of them extremely skeptical of vaccines, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Sunday.
While black people made up 24% of New York City’s population, according to 2019 data, they have so far sought and received only 11% of coronavirus vaccinations, he said.
By comparison, white people made up 32% of the city’s population, yet received 48% of vaccinations, he said.
“Why? We’ve got a profound problem of distrust and hesitancy” in black communities, de Blasio said.
Updated
Israel extends lockdown as Covid variants offset vaccination drive
Israel extended a national lockdown on Sunday as Covid variants offset its vaccination drive and officials predicted a delay in a turnaround from the ongoing crisis.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to extend the five-week-old national lockdown until Friday, pending parliamentary approval, Israeli media reported.
Highlighting the country’s challenges in enforcing restrictions, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews attended the Jerusalem funerals of two prominent rabbis on Sunday (see earlier post), drawing criticism from Netanyahu’s coalition partners, Reuters reports.
The prime minister has promoted a speedy vaccination of Israel’s most vulnerable cohorts – around 24% of 9 million citizens – and the lockdown as dual pathways to a possible reopening of the economy in February.
But a projected mid-January turnaround in curbing the pandemic did not transpire, as serious cases have surged among Israelis who have not yet been vaccinated.
Updated
The NHS in England will take “months” to return to normal service after the Covid crisis is finally over, because its workforce is “exhausted and traumatised”, according to a senior hospital trusts boss, who says many staff may quit altogether.
Read the exclusive report from the Guardian’s health policy editor Denis Campbell:
Updated
The head of the European Commission rejected suggestions that Europe was in a race to vaccinate its population against Covid-19 faster than other countries, saying that it was important to cooperate at this stage of the pandemic.
The EU’s civil service is under fire over the slow pace of vaccination in the bloc, with critics pointing to faster progress being made in the UK, Israel and the United States as evidence of a planning failure in Brussels, Reuters reports.
“I think the only race we are in is with the virus and against time,” Ursula von der Leyen told German television on Sunday evening, adding that she had agreed with Boris Johnson that factories in both regions would deliver doses to each region.
Updated
Ghana plans to procure 17.6m doses of Covid vaccines by the end of June with the first doses arriving in March, president Nana Akufo-Addo announced on Sunday.
Like other countries in sub-saharan Africa, Ghana is battling a second wave of the coronavirus, with its daily infection rate close to reaching record levels, data compiled by Reuters shows.
So far it has recorded over 63,000 cases and 416 deaths.
“Our aim is to vaccinate the entire population, with an initial target of twenty million people,” Akufo-Addo said in a speech to the West African nation of around 30m.
He did not say which vaccines they planned to acquire.
Updated
In a video from No 10 filmed on Sunday (see earlier post), Boris Johnson assured a member of the public who raised concerns over whether she will get her follow-up shot of the Belgian-made Pfizer vaccine that “we’re very confident that we will be able to give you your second dose”.
He said:
You will have seen all this stuff in the papers about our friends across the Channel and disputes with them,” the Prime Minister added. All I would say is whatever the toings and froings there, we’re very confident in our security of supply. We will continue to take steps to protect the UK’s security of supply and also to ensure that we ramp up our own manufacturing.
Updated
Reuters reports:
France said on Sunday it had delivered more than 1.485 million Covid-19 shots in its vaccination programme so far, reporting just a few thousand more than 24 hours earlier.
France’s faltering vaccine rollout has been bogged down by bureaucracy and, more recently, supply shortages.
Data showed France had delivered 1.479 million first doses on Saturday.
Boris Johnson has said he wants Europe and the rest of the world to receive vaccinations “at the same time” as the UK, saying “there’s no point one country on its own getting vaccinated”.
In a People’s PMQs filmed on Sunday, the prime minister said:
Britain, the UK, we can’t think of this just as a project for us and us alone.The most important thing about the Oxford vaccine is it obviously can be distributed at room temperature, which is great, but it’s also being distributed at cost around the world. We want to make sure as many people across the whole of the world, across Europe, across the whole world, get access to vaccines and we’re massively funding, the UK has put hundreds of millions into the international vaccine alliance, into Covax. We want everybody in our country to get vaccinated at the same time as the vaccination of everybody in the world, because that is ultimately the only way to fix this. There’s no point one country on its own getting vaccinated.
AstraZeneca will deliver 9m more doses of its Covid vaccine to the EU in the first quarter of this year and will start deliveries one week earlier than expected, the president of the European Commission has announced.
Step forward on vaccines.@AstraZeneca will deliver 9 million additional doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last week’s offer & will start deliveries one week earlier than scheduled.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 31, 2021
The company will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.
It was reported on Friday that the commission was forced to backtrack on its plan to effectively erect a vaccine border on the island of Ireland after both Boris Johnson and the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, spoke personally to von der Leyen.
Updated
Dutch primary schools to reopen as Covid measures ease
Primary schools in the Netherlands will reopen from 8 February, the Dutch government has said as the number of new Covid infections dropped to around 3,700 on Sunday- the lowest level in three months.
All schools and non-essential stores in the Netherlands have been closed since mid-December, following the shutdown of bars and restaurants two months earlier.
A nighttime curfew was added to the lockdown last week, as new, more contagious mutations of the virus were seen to be taking hold in the Netherlands, Reuters reports.
But proof of transmission of the disease by young children remained limited, education minister Arie Slob said on Sunday, enabling the reopening of primary schools and daycare centres as of next week.
Updated
Covid hospitalisations hit near nine-week high in France
The number of Covid patients in French hospitals hit a near nine-week high on Sunday, as the country shut its borders to all but essential travel to and from nearly all countries outside the EU.
There are 27,613 Covid sufferers being treated in hospitals in France, up 331 on the previous day and reaching a level last seen on 1 December, Reuters reports.
The country, which has reported 195 Covid hospital deaths in the past day, also recorded 19,235 new Covid cases on Sunday and said the number of patients infected with the coronavirus in intensive care increased by 45 to 3,158.
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday did not impose a third national lockdown and instead tightened border controls, shutting down large shopping malls and hardening the policing of a nightly curfew.
Updated
Captain Sir Tom Moore has tested positive for Covid-19 and has been admitted to hospital where he is being treated for pneumonia, his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore has said in a statement.
— Hannah Ingram-Moore (@Hannah_I_M) January 31, 2021
Mexico City’s international airport will set up facilities to perform Covid tests to help passengers who need to show they are free of the virus to enter other countries, the government confirmed on Sunday.
Reuters reports that The Benito Juarez International Airport will work with airlines to install the testing labs, which would be outside the terminals, the government said in a statement.
Other areas could also be used for testing if necessary, it added.
Scott Morrison will commit $1.9bn for Australia’s vaccine rollout and attempt to bolster consumer confidence while preparing the public for the withdrawal of fiscal supports in a scene-setting address ahead of the resumption of parliament.
Read the full story by my colleagues Katharine Murphy and Daniel Hurst here first:
Italy reported 237 Covid-related deaths on Sunday, down from 421 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections was equal to 11,252 compared with 12,715 on Saturday.
Updated
UK vaccinates record number of people in a day
The UK has carried out the highest number of Covid vaccinations in one day, with figures showing 598,389 received their first dose on Saturday.
The previous record was set last Saturday when the UK reported 491,970 doses in a single day.
It brings the total number of people to receive their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine to 8,977,329, with another 491,053 receiving their second dose, the BBC reports.
See the official release here.
The latest figures also show 587 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 106,158, according to government data.
This daily number is down from 1,200 on Saturday.
Updated
Around 30 people were arrested in Amsterdam when police dispersed an anti-lockdown protest on Sunday, as authorities sought to prevent a repeat of riots that raged across Dutch cities for three days last week.
Police said they had sent home around 600 people who had flouted social distancing rules and ignored a nationwide ban on public gatherings by assembling in Amsterdam’s central Museumplein on Sunday afternoon.
There were no reports of violent incidents by late afternoon, Reuters reports.
Updated
Hello everyone. This is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be taking over the global blog for the rest of the evening. As always, please do get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips or coverage suggestions.
Updated
There have also been protests against coronavirus restrictions in Vienna, Austria, Reuters reports:
Vienna police banned numerous protests planned for this weekend, including one by the far-right Freedom Party on Sunday, on the grounds that protesters have generally failed to observe rules on social distancing and often not worn face masks.
Since 26 December, Austria has been in its third national lockdown, with non-essential shops and many other businesses closed and their staff unable to work.
The opposition Freedom Party has denounced various restrictions as “corona madness” and its leaders have sent mixed messages on issues such as vaccinations.
Freedom Party deputy leader Herbert Kickl on Saturday accused the conservative-led government of banning criticism in general. He urged his supporters to go on a walk in the capital instead of attending the banned protest, and to “articulate their displeasure peacefully”.
The affiliation of many of today’s protesters was not immediately clear. Some of them, however, expressed support for the Freedom Party, and many opposed conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, chanting and waving banners saying “Kurz must go” - often without wearing masks. Many carried Austrian flags.
The crowd, which police estimated at 5,000, gathered on a square in central Vienna across the central ring road from the former imperial palace as well as from the offices of Kurz and President Alexander Van der Bellen.
Rows of police in riot gear and face masks prevented the crowd from marching down the ring road.
A Reuters witness saw police make some arrests and estimated the size of the protests at thousands. Police confirmed arrests had been made without giving numbers.
Hundreds arrested in Brussels in anti-restrictions protests
Police in the Belgian capital said Sunday they have detained scores of people in a bid to prevent two banned demonstrations against measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, AFP reports.
“We are above 200 arrested at the moment,” mainly around the rail stations in Brussels, a police spokesman said around midday.
Police evacuated one square in front of the main railway station, where some of the protesters were football supporters from Belgian clubs.
Dozens of people, responding to calls on social media for protests against measures to check the coronavirus, also began gathering at the Atomium, a landmark building in Brussels.
“We remind you that there is no authorisation to come and demonstrate this Sunday,” the Brussels police said in a Tweet.
“Those people who still intend to demonstrate in Brussels today will be approached, dissuaded from staying and if necessary” detained, it said.
Belgium has registered one of the highest death rates in the world during the coronavirus pandemic, but restrictions closing bars and restaurants since October along with a night time curfew have brought infection and hospital cases down in the past two months.
The country last week banned non-essential trips in and out of the country until 1 March.
Belgium’s neighbour, the Netherlands, was rocked by anti-curfew riots last week.
Updated
Oman will extend the closure of its land borders for another week, until 8 February to curb the spread of coronavirus, state TV said today, citing a decision by the Gulf state’s coronavirus emergency committee (via Reuters).
The borders were closed on 19 January because of concerns about a new coronavirus variant, a measure that was extended last week.
Police said today they broke up a boat party of more than 70 people breaching coronavirus regulations in west London, England, on Saturday night. The partygoers could now face fines.
Met police officers were called to the party at a moored boat Volt Avenue, North Acton, shortly after 11pm
The group was dispersed and 72 people were reported for the consideration of fixed penalty notices of £800 for attending an indoor gathering of more than 15 people in breach of the coronavirus regulations.
The organiser was identified and reported for consideration of a £10,000 fixed penalty notice.
Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Bowen, of West Area, said:
This was a blatant breach of the coronavirus rules that are in place to save lives and protect the huge pressure on the NHS.
All the people who attended this event, which appears to have been organised on social media, have quite rightly been reported for the consideration of fines.
The Met will continue to shut down and disperse events such as this, which risk spreading a virus that has already claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people in this country.
Summary
Here are the latest key developments:
- The UK’s priority is vaccinating its own population before it can think about supplying doses to help the EU or developing countries, the international trade secretary has said. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) called on the UK to halt its vaccination programme after vulnerable people and healthcare workers have been inoculated to ensure a “fair rollout”. Liz Truss’s comments suggest it may be autumn before any supplies are diverted overseas. Downing Street has previously held out the possibility of this happening once the first phase of the programme is over. In total, the UK has procured 247m vaccine doses from companies with positive phase 3 results: roughly 3.7 jabs per person, Guardian analysis has found.
- Both France and Germany have threatened legal action against the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in the row over a shortage of coronavirus vaccine in the EU. Brussels raising concerns that doses may have been diverted from plants in Belgium and Germany to the UK.
- A World Health Organization team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic today visited a market in the Chineses city of Wuhan where the virus was initially located. The team arrived at Huanan market amid heavy security, with additional barricades set up outside a high blue fence surrounding the market, and left in a convoy after about one hour. The experts did not take questions from journalists.
- Israel has agreed to transfer 5,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinians to immunise front-line medical workers, the office of the defence minister said. Israel has come under criticism from UN officials and human rights groups for not providing vaccines to the Palestinians.
- Germany said today that it will support Portugal with medical staff and equipment after an appeal for help from the Iberian country, which said on Saturday that only seven of 850 ICU beds set up for Covid-19 cases on its mainland were vacant. Austria said it would assist by taking in some intensive-care patients from Portugal.
Updated
Germany’s military will send medical staff and equipment to Portugal, where space in hospital intensive care units is running out after a surge in coronavirus infections, the defence ministry in Berlin said today (via Reuters):
Portugal, which said on Saturday that only seven of 850 ICU beds set up for Covid-19 cases on its mainland were vacant, had asked the German government for help.
“We will support Portugal with medical staff and equipment,” a defence ministry spokesman told Reuters, adding that details were expected to be announced early this week.
Portugal, which has reported 12,179 Covid-19 deaths and 711,018 cases, has the world’s highest seven-day rolling average of cases and deaths per capita, according to data tracker.
German magazine Der Spiegel said the military planned to send 27 doctors and paramedics to Portugal who were initially supposed to remain there for three weeks, as well as stationary and mobile ventilators and field beds for patients.
Responding to that report, the defence ministry spokesman said he could not immediately provide any details.
Austria will take in intensive-care patients from Portugal, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter. A spokesman for Kurz added that the number was not yet clear and the two countries were liaising. Austria has previously taken in small numbers of intensive-care patients from France, Italy and Montenegro.
Updated
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis today participated in the funeral of a prominent rabbi in Jerusalem, flouting the country’s ban on large public gatherings amid the pandemic, AP reports:
The funeral procession for Rabbi Meshulam Soloveitchik, who died at age 99, wended its way through the streets of Jerusalem in the latest display of ultra-Orthodox Israelis’ refusal to honour coronavirus restrictions.
The phenomenon has undermined the country’s aggressive vaccination campaign to bring a raging outbreak under control and threatened to hurt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March elections.
Densely packed throngs of people gathered outside the rabbi’s home in a public rejection of restrictions on outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people.
Thousands of black-garbed ultra-Orthodox funeral-goers coursed past the city’s main entrance toward the cemetery where Soloveitchik was to be buried. Police officers blocked intersections to traffic to allow participants to pass, but appeared to take no action to prevent the illegal assembly.
Israeli media said Soloveitchik, a leading religious scholar who headed a number of well-known seminaries, had recently suffered from Covid-19.
A disproportionate number of Israel’s coronavirus cases are within the country’s ultra-Orthodox minority. The strictly religious community, which makes up around 11% of Israel’s 9.2 million people, has accounted for around one-third of the confirmed cases of the virus.
Many ultra-Orthodox sects have kept schools, seminaries and synagogues open, and held mass weddings and funerals in violation of the law. Recent weeks have seen violent clashes between members of the ultra-Orthodox community flouting the rules and police officers trying to enforce them.
Israel’s Cabinet was set to extend the country’s general lockdown for an additional week on Sunday evening as the infection rate remained high.
Fines have been issued to people attending a gym, a hotel and a house party in England as police enforce new coronavirus regulations. From PA Media:
Essex Police said 18 “reckless revellers” were fined almost 15,000 after officers interrupted a house party on Saturday, while in Merseyside, police found about 200 people partying in a hotel in the early hours of Sunday morning and broke up a gathering of 20 people in a gym on Saturday night.
A spokesman for Essex Police said officers attended a house in Bury Road, Sewardstonebury, at about 5pm yesterday after reports of a party and when they arrived were initially refused entry by people inside who claimed to be making a music video.
Eighteen people inside the property, 17 from London and one from Essex, were fined 800 each following the introduction of higher penalties, the force said.
Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills said: “These selfish individuals not only have no regard for their own safety, but they clearly didn’t give a second thought for the safety of the local community, the police officers who had to attend to deal with their reckless behaviour or the NHS who are under unbelievable pressure.”
The force said an investigation is under way to establish whether two previous unlawful gatherings at the vacant, rented property were organised by the same person.
In Merseyside, police issued fixed penalty notices to 19 people who were found in Shred Fast Gym on Long Lane in Aintree at 10.30pm yesterday.
The force, which has reported the business owner to the local authority, said those attending were not wearing personal protective equipment or social distancing and had travelled from areas including Billinge, Widnes, Wirral and Southport.
At 3.15am, officers found around 200 people at the Richmond Hotel in Liverpool city centre where four parties were going on, the force said.
A police spokesman said 13 fixed penalty notices were issued, 11 documented warnings were given and everyone who was not a legitimate guest at the hotel was removed. One woman was arrested on suspicion of breaching coronavirus legislation and two counts of assaulting a constable and a man was arrested as he was wanted, the force said.
Chief Superintendent Matt Boyle said: “This sort of behaviour is unbelievable and unacceptable and officers should not be confronted with abuse and violence when attempting to uphold the law, which most people are rightly abiding by.”
The latest coronavirus regulations in England, which came into force at 5pm on Friday, include fines of £800 for people caught at house parties with groups of more than 15 people and will double after each offence, up to a maximum of £6,400 for repeat offenders.
Hundreds protest against lockdown measures in Hungary
Restaurant workers were among hundreds of people protesting against coronavirus lockdown measures today in Budapest, Hungary, and at least 100 restaurants planned to re-open even as the government threatened them with heavy fines. From Reuters:
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has said it could only start easing the measures if the number of coronavirus cases falls sharply, or if large numbers of Hungarians are inoculated.
Hungary became first in the EU this week to sign a deal for Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine and Chinese Sinopharm’s vaccine.
Current lockdown measures include a night curfew and closing secondary schools, and all restaurants and cafes, except for takeaway meals.
“We have had enough of the mass destruction of businesses,” the organisers of the rally said on Facebook.
Hungary, with a population of around 10 million, had reported a total of 367,586 cases as of today and 12,524 deaths. New infections have been dropping but more than 3,500 people are still in hospital.
The protesters wore masks but defied rules that ban public gathering, so police started asking for documents on the scene. Organisers said that well over 100 restaurants across Hungary had joined a campaign to reopen on Monday, even as the government sharply raised fines by decree yesterday. Restaurants that receive guests now face fines of between 1m forints (£2,478) to 5m forints and could be forced to close for six months.
Orban said on state radio on Friday that “people could die if we do not bear with the restrictions for a few more weeks ... It is not a solution if people go out and violate the rules.”
Updated
Saudi Arabia’s health minister said today that complacency around coronavirus restrictions had led to a notable increase in daily cases in the kingdom, Reuters reports.
Saudi Arabia recorded 270 new infections on Saturday, 105 of them in the capital Riyadh. The kingdom, the largest among the six Gulf Arab states, has recorded more than 367,800 cases and 6,370 deaths so far, the highest tally in the region. It saw daily infections fall from a peak above 4,000 in June to dip below the 100 mark in early January.
In televised remarks, health minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said:
We have unfortunately in recent days registered a noticeable increase and continued rise in infections. One of the main reasons is gatherings and complacency with precautionary measures.
Lack of compliance will force us to take measures to protect society. I ask you to help us preserve the gains we made in combating coronavirus ... This is a very difficult stage.
Neighbouring United Arab Emirates, where the total has reached 303,609 cases so far, has seen daily infections triple in the past month following an influx of visitors to the tourism hub in December. Today, it recorded 2,948 new infections, down from a peak of 3,966 last week, and reported 12 deaths for the second day in a row.
Countries in the oil producing region had largely lifted restrictions with the exception of mask-wearing in public and social distancing. In addition to Dubai, other emirates in the UAE, Oman and Bahrain have recently introduced new measures following an uptick in cases.
All Gulf states have launched immunisation campaigns. The UAE and Bahrain rank second and fourth globally on vaccine rollout per head of population.
Scandinavia’s biggest film festival is going ahead this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, but will be hosted on an isolated island and admit only one attendee - a healthcare worker, selected from 12,000 applicants, Reuters reports.
Swedish nurse and film fan Lisa Enroth was chosen to be the 2021 Gothenburg film festival’s castaway who will spend a week on the remote island of Pater Noster watching film after film.
“In healthcare I seem to have spent ages listening, testing and consoling. I feel like I’m drained of energy,” Enroth said.
Pater Noster, on the boundary of a dense archipelago off Sweden’s west coat, is known for its lighthouse.
“The wind, the sea, the possibility of being part of a totally different kind of reality for a week, all this is really attractive,” said Enroth, who will keep a daily video diary that will appear on the festival’s website.
The festival’s CEO Mirja Wester said: “It feels particularly right to be able to give this unique experience to one of the many heroes of the healthcare system who are all working so hard against Covid-19.”
Lisa Enroth, 41, an emergency nurse and film fan from Skovde, prepares to board a boat near Marstrand Island, north west of Gothenburg, Sweden yesterday Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
The Irish premier, Micheal Martin, has called for calm in the race to vaccinate populations, PA Media reports.
Martin was speaking in the wake of a move by the European Union (EU) to use a post-Brexit mechanism to interfere with supply lines of the jab.
The bloc later backtracked following outrage in London, Belfast and Dublin.
The Taoiseach said more people getting vaccinated across Europe is a good thing. He told told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show:
We were watching what’s happening in the UK and saying, ‘well done, you are vaccinating quickly and that’s important.
Overall, across Europe we all need to roll out the vaccination programme as effectively and efficiently as we can, so I would like if we can dial down the tone and work collegially is the best way to deal with this.
Asked whether he would like to see any UK surplus of the vaccination distributed to Ireland, Martin said:
The UK has a long way to go, we have a long way to go, Europe has long way to go. I think all of us have a collective responsibility to ensure that the developing world, and particularly frontline workers in the developing world, are vaccinated as well because this is a global situation.
There’s very little point in the virus raging across developing countries while we vaccinate 100% here because that would mean more mutations. We have a journey to go but I think we will get there if we can just calm down.
There’s an understandable race against time in relation to getting the vaccines out but, if you think about it, what has happened in the last 10 months has been truly remarkable that we’ve managed to facilitate the development of vaccines in such a short space of time. I understand that anxiety, but we will get there.
On the EU-AstraZeneca row, Irish PM Micheal Martin says, "the Commission took the wrong mechanism in invoking Article 16 and the Protocol to deal with it"#Marr https://t.co/ctZYEiCih2 pic.twitter.com/iufoibpVdK
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 31, 2021
Malaysia today reported 5,298 new coronavirus cases, down from yesterday’s 5,728 after two days in a row of record highs, raising the total number of recorded infections to 214,959.
The health ministry also reported 14 new deaths, up from 13 yesterday, bringing total fatalities from the pandemic to 760.
Dr Susan Hopkins, Covid-19 strategic response director at Public Health England (PHE), said experts expect to see an impact of the coronavirus vaccine on the over-80s over the next two weeks.
Asked if there was evidence the vaccination programme was beginning to reduce infections, she told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show:
We are seeing declines in all age groups at the moment. We’re starting to see declines in the over-70s and over-80s. It’s a bit early to say whether those declines are directly related to the vaccine.
What we would like to see is a divergence in the case rate in the over-70s and over-80s who have been vaccinated from the younger age groups, to show that they are declining faster.
We have now hit 80% of the over-80s being vaccinated and really fast numbers climbing in the under 80-year-old age group as well.
We expect over the next two weeks to start seeing that impact of that vaccine in that age group, and also an impact on hospitalisation.
But she warned that relaxing lockdown measures would have to be done “very slowly, very cautiously” to avoid a surge in infections:
We have learnt, as we did on the first occasion, we have to relax things really quite slowly, so that if cases start to increase we can clamp down quite fast.
The NHS is going to be under pressure until the end of March, as normal in winter, but even more so with the amount of inpatients they still have with Covid-19.
Any releases that we have will have to happen very slowly, very cautiously, watching and waiting as we go, with a two-week period to watch and see the impact of that relaxation because it takes that to see what’s happening in the population.
The UK’s international trade secretary, Liz Truss, says the EU has guaranteed there will be no disruption to Pfizer vaccines being supplied to the UK from within the EU despite the EU’s threat of export controls on vaccines produced within the bloc.
Asked if she could absolutely guarantee the Belgium-made Pfizer jabs would not be disrupted, she told BBC One’s the Andrew Marr Show:
Yes, I can. The prime minister has spoken to the president of the European Commission, she has assured him that there will be no disruption of contracts that we have with any producer in the EU.
Israel to supply 5,000 vaccine doses to Palestinians
The office of Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, says Israel has agreed to transfer 5,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinians to immunise front-line medical workers, the Associated Press reports.
It is the first time that Israel has confirmed the transfer of vaccines to the Palestinians.
Israel has come under criticism from UN officials and human rights groups for not providing vaccines to the Palestinians. Israel says it is not responsible.
Israel is one of the world’s leaders in vaccinating its population after striking procurement deals with international drug giants Pfizer and Moderna. The Palestinians have not begun to vaccine their people.
Updated
South Korea is to extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the lunar new year holidays as new Covid-19 infection clusters emerge in the country, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said today (via Reuters).
The announcement dashed earlier expectations that the government would ease the rules from the current highest levels, which include a restaurant curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than four people and have been in place since early December.
But health authorities decided to maintain the curbs after a new large outbreak emerged from missionary training schools across the country last week, reversing a recent downtrend in daily infections ahead of the lunar new year break, which begins on 11 February. Chung told an intra-agency meeting:
The government is planning to extend the current distancing levels and anti-virus standards as they are until the Lunar New Year holidays end.
The third Covid-19 wave, which had temporarily slowed, is again threatening our daily lives following the group infections from the missionary institutes.
In line with the decision, indoor cafe and restaurant dining after 9pm and any gatherings of more than four people - two key measures that have proved effective - will continue to be prohibited.
Vice health minister Kang Do-tae said the virus was spreading not only among the missionary schools, to which 379 cases have been linked so far, but also at churches, hospitals and sports facilities.
“There is a danger that it might lead to a broader re-spread of the virus, and potentially another major wave where thousands of patients emerge within a short time,” Kang told a briefing.
But the government will “positively consider” easing the curbs, including the dining curfew, if the situation improves this week.
Chung said the ongoing spread must be further dampened to facilitate South Korea’s vaccination campaign and the start of the spring school semester, which are respectively set for February and March.
About 117,000 doses of vaccines of Pfizer Inc, enough for about 60,000 people, will arrive as early as mid-February via the global distribution scheme Covax, Chung said.
Labour is asking for the UK’s advisers on immunisation to ensure frontline workers get greater priority for vaccination because of their increased risk of contracting coronavirus.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published last week showed people in some of the lowest-paid manual jobs were significantly more likely to die from coronavirus than those in higher-paid white-collar jobs.
The shadow Cabinet Office minister, Rachel Reeves, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday:
We know that some people, because of the work they do, are more exposed to the virus.If you are lucky enough to be able to work from home, you’ve got a car when you do need to get out, then you are less at risk to being exposed to the virus than if, say, for example, you are a bus driver, or a taxi-driver, or you work in a supermarket or you work on the front line in the police.
If you work in those jobs you are more exposed to the virus, so what Labour are saying is can the JCVI, the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations, look at how we can ensure that those people who are most exposed to the virus can get access to it at a bit of an earlier stage. I think that is the right thing to do.
The ONS found Covid-19 death rates among people in jobs such as machine operation, taxi driving and restaurant management were up to three times higher than the national average.
At least 5.6 million doses of two international Covid-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the Philippines in the first quarter of the year, the chief of the country’s coronavirus task force said today, Reuters reports:
The initial volume is part of the 9.4 million doses of the two vaccines - one developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, the other by AstraZeneca PLC - that are expected to be shipped in the first half, said Carlito Galvez, who also handles the government’s vaccine procurement.
Galvez said he has received a letter from Aurelia Nguyen, managing director of the World Health Organization (WHO)-led Covax facility, informing the Philippine government of the shipment schedule and volume.
Review committees from the WHO, UNICEF and the Geneva-based vaccine alliance Gavi granted the country the vaccines after the Philippines demonstrated its preparedness to receive them, he said. The country’s Food and Drug Administration has approved the emergency use of both brands.
The Philippines, with south-east Asia’s second-biggest Covid-19 outbreak at more than half a million infections and over 10,000 deaths, aims to start immunisations in February.
The country is to initially receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine around the middle of February, and 5.5 million to 9.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca brand, Galvez said. The volumes though are “indicative since it all depends on the global supply”, he said.
The government aims to secure 148 million doses, aiming to inoculate 70 million people this year, or two-thirds of the country’s population. The Philippines has also secured 25 million doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, with the first 50,000 expected to arrive in February.
Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the UK government on immunisation, said it is advising people should have a second dose of another vaccine, rather than no second dose, if supply issues make it impossible to have two doses of the same medicine.
He told BBC Breakfast:
The key thing at the moment from the JCVI perspective is to try and get the same vaccine for the second dose as the first dose.
We are recommending a second dose because that’s important for long-term protection and it will be interesting to see on the supply side whether we can deliver that.
If we can’t deliver that, JCVI advice is that it’s better to have a second dose of a different vaccine than no second dose at all, and there’s no theoretical reason why you can’t mix vaccines, just the studies are ongoing at the moment.
Updated
UK condemns vaccine nationalism
The UK international trade secretary also spoke out about vaccine nationalism after the EU’s threat of export controls on vaccines produced within the bloc.
Liz Truss told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge programme:
What we know about the vaccination programme is this is a global problem and we need a global solution.We’re only going to be able to deal with this disease if we get everybody vaccinated across the world.
“It’s vital we work together, it’s vital we keep borders open and we resist vaccine nationalism, and we resist protectionism. I’ve been working with my fellow trade ministers to make that happen. We’re pleased that the EU admitted that the Article 16 ... for the border in Ireland was a mistake and they are now not proceeding with that.
But, fundamentally, the way we’re going to get through this crisis is working together and I’m very pleased that the UK is leading the way.
'Too early' to say what UK will do with excess vaccine
Liz Truss, the UK’s secretary of state for international trade, has said it is “too early” to say what the country will do with its excess vaccine doses after the World Health Organization urged it to pause its vaccination programme after vulnerable groups have received their jabs to help ensure the global rollout of doses is fair.
In total, the UK has procured 247m vaccine doses from companies with positive phase 3 results: roughly 3.7 jabs per person, Guardian analysis has found. It has placed orders for a further 120m vaccines from Sanofi-GSK and Valneva, but these still await positive trial results.
Asked about what the WHO said, Truss gave the following response, the Telegraph’s deputy political editor reports:
Truss on UK sharing doses: "We first need to make sure our population is vaccinated.. It's a bit too early to say how we would deploy XX vaccine, but we want to work with neighbours & developing countries."
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) January 31, 2021
UK is sticking by timetable to vaccinate all adults by autumn, she adds
Authorities in Hanoi, Vietnam, announced today that all schools in the city would close, after locking down several residential areas and a factory in the northern province of Hai Duong, the outbreak’s epicentre, since the first cases of community transmission in almost two months were detected there last week, Reuters reports.
The country’s ministry of health today reported 14 new Covid-19 infections in Vietnam, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 1,781, with 35 deaths.
The WHO and its Covax programme to secure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines for poor countries and the Gavi vaccine alliance, which works to increase immunisation in poor countries, are among nominees for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, according to a Reuters survey of Norwegian lawmakers.
Last year’s winner of the prize, the result of which is rarely as predicted, was the World Food Programme.
Russia has today reported 18,359 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 2,284 in Moscow, pushing the national tally to 3,850,439 (via Reuters).
Authorities said 485 people had died in the last day, taking the official death toll to 73,182. Both the number of new cases and deaths were down on the respective figures yesterday, which were 19,032 and 512.
Good morning, this is Haroon Siddique taking over the blog. You can contact me via the following channels:
Email: haroonl.siddique@theguardian.com
Twitter: @Haroon_Siddique
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.
It was announced last week, to nobody’s excitement, that Sir Kenneth Branagh will take the role of Boris Johnson in a Sky TV drama about the first weeks of the pandemic. If Branagh’s casting indicates that this is to be conceived as a Shakespearean tragedy, with Johnson in the lead, then it would seem doomed from the start. The classic tragic hero has just a single fatal character flaw that proves his undoing. With Johnson, where do you start?
As an opening scene in that drama, it will, anyhow, be hard to beat the speech that the prime minister gave almost exactly a year ago – perhaps the last moment in which he fondly imagined that all the world lay before him:
WHO team visits Baishazhou wet market in Wuhan
In case you missed it earlier: A World Health Organization team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited a market on Sunday known to be the food distribution centre for the Chinese city of Wuhan during the 76-day lockdown last year, AP reports.
The team was seen walking through sections of the Baishazhou market – one of the largest wet markets in Wuhan – surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officials and representatives.The team, with expertise in veterinarian, virology, food safety and epidemiology, has visited two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak – Wuhan Jinyintan hospital and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine hospital.On Saturday, the members also visited a museum exhibition dedicated to the early history of Covid.
The WHO said on Twitter last Thursday that the team plans to visit hospitals and markets like the Huanan Seafood Market, which was linked to many of the first cases. It also listed the Wuhan Institute of Virology and laboratories at facilities including the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.
A single visit by scientists is unlikely to confirm the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is typically an exhaustive endeavour that takes years of research including taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.One possibility is that a wildlife poacher might have passed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan.
The Chinese government has promoted theories, with little evidence, that the outbreak might have started with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a notion roundly rejected by international scientists and agencies.
Charity shops are expecting a boom in business when they are allowed to reopen as lockdown restrictions ease, following the loss of millions of pounds of revenue since last March.
“We’re anticipating very strong trading when we open up,” Robin Osterley of the Charity Retail Association (CRA) told the Observer. The boom will be driven by two factors, he said: a surge in donations as people seek to offload unwanted Christmas gifts, and the impact of job losses and falling incomes, forcing people to cut household spending. “Unfortunately this group is likely to increase,” he said.
In a normal year, charity shops take £1.4bn in revenue, with about £330m in profit for parent charities. “It’s the quickest way of injecting cash into a charity, and a vital source of ‘unrestricted income’, which means it can be spent on anything,” said Osterley. “We’ve lost a huge chunk of that over the past 10 months. Every month that shops have been closed, UK charities have lost £28m.”
Germany threatens legal action over vaccine delivery delays
In case you missed this earlier: Germany’s government on Sunday threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the European Union on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca, AFP reports.“If it turns out that companies have not respected their obligations, we will have to decide the legal consequences,” economy minister Peter Altmaier told German daily Die Welt.
There has been growing tension in recent weeks between European leaders and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which has fallen behind on promised delivers of its Covid-19 vaccine.The company said it could now deliver only a quarter of the doses originally promised to the bloc for the first quarter of the year because of problems at one of its European factories.
Brussels has implicitly accused AstraZeneca of giving preferential treatment to Britain at the expense of the EU.The EU briefly threatened to restrict vaccine exports to Northern Ireland by overriding part of the Brexit deal with Britain that allowed the free flow of goods over the Irish border. It backed down after British prime minister Boris Johnson voiced “grave concerns”.
AstraZeneca is not the only drugs company in the firing line. Last week Italy threatened legal action against US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer over delays.
Top German officials are due to meet with the drugs manufacturers to thrash out the problems.On Friday the European Medicines Agency cleared the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca for use inside the EU, the third Covid vaccine it has approved after Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
-
Germany’s government on Sunday threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the European Union on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca.
- WHO team visits Baishazhou wet market in Wuhan. A World Health Organization team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited a market on Sunday known to be the food distribution centre for the Chinese city of Wuhan during the 76-day lockdown last year, AP reports.
- The US has administered nearly 30m vaccine doses. Almost 50m doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been distributed in the United States and nearly 30m have been administered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.
- China factory activity slows slightly on new Covid-19 wave. The purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of manufacturing activity, came in at 51.3 this month, a figure slightly below December’s reading of 51.9, although still above the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction.
-
Coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca are expected to be supplied to the UK as planned, despite the EU’s export controls and demands for British-manufactured jabs, after a discussion with EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the British Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said.
- The World Health Organization called on the UK to halt their vaccination rollouts after vulnerable people and healthcare workers have been inoculated. With many poorer countries struggling to access vaccine doses, the WHO argues this will ensure a “fair rollout”.
- French president Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to hold off on a third lockdown on Saturday, telling the public he had faith in their ability to rein in Covid-19 with less severe curbs even as a third wave spreads and vaccines are delayed.
In Australia:
- Much of Western Australia went into five-day lockdown after a hotel guard tested positive to the UK Covid variant. Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s South West amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
- The Australian government says thousands of local pharmacies will be enlisted to distribute Covid vaccines. Greg Hunt, the health minister, said on Sunday that community pharmacies would administer the vaccine for free from phase two of the Australian rollout. That begins in May, when the vaccine will be available for those over 50 and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- New Zealand to Australia flights to resume. The Trans-Tasman bubble allowing quarantine free travel from New Zealand to Australia will resume on Sunday, Australian health authorities have announced.Australia’s acting chief health officer, Prof Michael Kidd, said “green zone” flights could recommence on Sunday afternoon because they were now “sufficiently low risk”.
- Australia’s health minister says the European Union’s dramatic decision to impose export controls on vaccine manufacturers is “not expected to affect Australia”. The EU has imposed sweeping powers that would allow it to block Covid-19 vaccine shipments from the bloc and Australia was left off a list of 120 nations exempt from the measures
- The Australian state of New South Wales marked 14 days with no new cases. NSW Health has recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 from almost 9,000 tests. The result takes NSW to 14 days without a local case.
- NSW Health’s wastewater monitoring program detected traces in the sewerage network at Warriewood, Liverpool and Malabar overnight. Authorities warn that the virus could still be circulating in the community and urge more people to get tested.
- The Australian state of South Australia has lifted its Covid-19 restrictions for travellers from the Sydney region. The change comes after New South Wales reached two weeks without a locally transmitted case. The Victorian government has revealed figures that show it issued more than a million travel permits since virus border restrictions were imposed just over six weeks ago.
- No new cases in ACT, but virus fragments in sewage at Belconnen. The Australian Capital Territory has confirmed no new coronavirus cases, but ACT deputy chief health officer Dr Vanessa Johnston has urged people to get tested if they have even the mildest symptoms after virus fragments were found in sewage at a wastewater site in Belconnen.
The latest social media trend involves no ice buckets, no filters and certainly no sea shanties. Now celebrities and politicians around the world are vying to post the best “vaxxies” – selfies of the moment they receive their Covid-19 vaccination.
While vaxxies send out a strong message that the vaccines are safe, they are also an undeniable photo opportunity. The image of Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis being vaccinated with his shirt off went viral last week. With its unreconstructed masculinity, some compared it to photos of a bare-chested Vladimir Putin bare chested out hunting. Mitsotakis became something of a Twitter heartthrob as a result, with one user writing “Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis doing whatever it takes to sell his people on the #COVID19 vaccine.” Others fretted about the prospect of Boris Johnson, who might have his vaccine live on TV, doing the same:
Here is the full story on the lockdown in much of Western Australia following the discovery of the first community transmission case in nearly 10 months:
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry on Sunday welcomed the offer of the country’s group of Catholic bishops to help in the government’s coronavirus vaccination drive, which is struggling to persuade many Filipinos to get the shots, Reuters reports.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has offered to transform church facilities in the country into Covid-19 vaccination sites, and said its members were also willing to get vaccinated in public to help build confidence in the campaign.
“We are happy with the CBCP’s offer,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in a statement. “Churches really can be alternative sites to areas that lack facility, especially those in hard-to-reach municipalities.”
The health ministry has acknowledged they face an uphill struggle to persuade many people to take the vaccine shots, on top of the logistical difficulties in reaching 2,000 inhabited islands with precarious health systems.
The Philippines has the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in the region with more than half a million infections and over 10,000 deaths.
The church remains influential in the Catholic-majority country, although its relationship with the current administration has not been as cordial as with previous leaderships.
President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly lambasted the church, which had criticised him over his bloody war on drugs.
Moving away from Australia now, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 11,192 to 2,216,363, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The total is about average for the last week, and significantly lower than the weeks before.
The reported death toll rose by 399 to 56,945, the tally showed.
A few last clarifications before that presser wraps up:
If you are due to have surgery this week, do not call the hospital to clarify, says the health minister, the hospital will contact you.
Secondly, clarifying what South West means – and what the latest is with other states’ approach to their borders with WA – McGowan says:
I want to clarify that South West is the normal boundary of the South West, Harvey, Collie, Bunbury, all of those communities in the South Peel region as understood.
And I have contacted the other premiers, the prime minister, our advice to people from interstate is now is not the time to come. It’s a matter of the other states’ wish to put up a border with Western Australia or hotspot or whatever they wish to do.
We obviously have restrictions on people coming from Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales at this point in time. Those arrangements remain in place as we announced last week.
Updated
WA commissioner of police Chris Dawson is speaking now.
He starts by echoing the premier’s pleas not to panic shop:
I would ask you, just be very careful that you do not do things that you would not want done to you. Sounds like a biblical statement, but be considerate, do not do panic shopping, we just have to respond in the way that we responded previously, and we will get through this in consideration of all our vulnerable people in the community.
...
What will police be doing? We will be out in the community providing protection and reassurance for our community. We will be setting up vehicle road to check points in the lockdown areas.
Asked why he is not locking down the entire state, health minister Roger Cook says:
We are locking down about 80% of the state by locking down the population areas, but we are trying to look at where the risk is. There are no indications this person has been outside of those areas, he has not been into any of the other regional areas.
If we get into any information that suggests may have been the case, or that has been any spread further, or contacts have gone further, that we will look at that as an option. All schools will be closed, both public and private from Monday, so they will need to put in arrangements.
Updated
Western Australian restrictions: What we know so far:
Here is what we know so far, via AAP:
- Metropolitan Perth and two nearby regions will enter a five-day hard lockdown after a hotel quarantine security guard attended more than a dozen venues while infected with Covid-19.
- From 6pm on Sunday, metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the South West region will lock down until 6pm on Friday.
- All residents must stay home unless for four activities: shopping for essentials, attending to medical or healthcare needs, exercising within their neighbourhood or working if unable to do so remotely.
- Schools will remain closed for another week. They had been due to resume on Monday.
- WA had gone nearly 10 months without a virus case in the WA community.
- Premier Mark McGowan says the man in his 20s returned a positive test overnight after working at the Sheraton Four Points state quarantine facility in the Perth CBD.
- He had worked two 12-hour shifts on January 26 and 27 on the same floor as a person infected with the highly contagious UK variant of the virus.
- Genomic testing results will be known on Tuesday morning.
- Authorities are investigating how the breach happened but say the man did not enter a hotel room. They do not believe he worked in any other roles during the period in question.
Updated
McGowan is asked whether after the five days of restrictions are likely to be lifted all at once, or whether there will be a gradual easing of the restrictions.
It will be the latter, he says.
We are hopeful it will be no positives, but then a gradual scale-down, I would expect. That is something we will take health advice on over the coming week.
Updated
Infected person's flatmates have tested negative
The infected person’t housemates have tested negative, which McGowan says is a relief as (though they may test positive in coming days) means they are unlikely to be infectious. They have been placed in hotel quarantine.
Updated
Premier Mark McGowan says that the government believes the case – a hotel security guard – acquired the infection on Tuesday or Wednesday:
We think he acquired the illness on Tuesday or Wednesday of the last week. His last days were Tuesday and Wednesday. So therefore, he got tested, I think, yesterday or the day before because he was feeling unwell, he went to a GP and then to to the clinic.
We got the result last night. We are advised he has not worked a second job in the time since he last worked in hotel quarantine.
McGowan urges anyone at all who feels unwell to get tested. But, he warns:
I will just say as well, this is a hot day and there are hot days ahead. The hours that the Covid clinic operating are long, that I would be prepared but there may be a wait. This is the normal practice around Australia and around the world. We expect that there will be a wait when you go to get tested. Take a hat, take sunscreen, take water.
Updated
If you have questions or comments about the restrictions, you can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Measures go into effect from 6pm tonight
WA premier Mark McGowan says the measures announced moments ago will come into effect at 6pm tonight. But he stresses there is no need for people to rush to supermarkets:
The measures will start from 6pm this evening and in the time. Between now and then I just urge people to be sensible and do the right thing.
There is no need to rush to the supermarkets. They will not be a shortage of toilet paper or other goods. You will be able to go out and shop for essentials over the course of this week. I urge everyone to remain calm and to act responsibly. Why didn’t daily testing happened much earlier to ensure that this particular case would be called earlier?
So in case you are just joining us, the Australian state of Western Australia has imposed a lockdown on large parts of the state in response to a single coronavirus case – the first case of community transmission in nearly 10 months.
Updated
Premier Mark McGowan explains why the case is feared to be the new UK variant:
The reason why we are particularly interested around the UK variant is because we know he was on the floor with an active case, we do not know if that is the active case that he caught it from or if it is from some other interaction in the workplace. We know he did not go into a room and he did not expose himself unnecessarily and as a result of that we will undertake necessary investigations.
This is obviously a very fresh situation and we are trying to get to the bottom of it. Over the coming 24-48 hours we will be undertaking extensive contact tracing and our contact tracing teams were stood up early this morning and they are working hard.
Updated
List of possible exposure sites in Western Australia
People who have been to the following areas must be tested:
- Coles Maylands supermarket on 25 January, between 8pm-10pm.
- KFC Maylands on the 27 January from 6pm to midnight.
- Mitsubishi motors car dealership in Midland on 27 January from 7pm to close.
- Spud Shed, Coventry Village, on 27 January from 8pm to midnight.
-
ECU Joondalup on 28 January, from 11am to 2pm
- The Consulate general of India on Saint Georges Terrace in Perth on 28 January, from 12pm to 5pm.
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Halal Grocery Store in Cloverdale on 28 January, from 7pm to 9pm.
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Venus Ladies and Gentlemen Hair Design in Maylands on 29 January from 1pm-3pm.
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Perth Convention Centre on 29 January from 4pm-6pm.
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Nedlands family practice GP surgery on 29 January, from 5pm-6pm.
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Chemist Warehouse in North Perth, from 29 January from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.
- 7-11 Ascot petrol station on 29 January, from 8pm-9pm.
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Paul’s Maylands supermarket on 29 January from 8pm-9pm.
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The Puma service Station in Burswood on 13 January from 11am until midday.
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Coles express shell service station in Cloverdale on 30 January from 12pm-3pm.
- Pharmacy 777 at Mayland Park shopping centre.
Health minister Roger Cook continues:
Now people who have been to these venues on these dates must attend a Covid clinic and be tested.
In addition, people who live or work in the Kirk Avenue Maylands area including Coles, Liquor Land and the shopping precinct should present for a test also. After undertaking the test they must go home and isolate until a negative test result is returned.
Updated
Premier Mark McGowan ends – before handing over to the health minister – by saying:
I urge the community to act calmly. This is crucial ... We have maintained a careful, cautious approach throughout, and our measures have worked.
Despite our state’s success we have been well prepared to respond to any situations as they emerge. We will provide further updates as they come to hand. All relevant information will be posted on websites as it comes to hand.
Updated
Western Australia cancels some elective surgeries, extends school holidays
Further restrictions in WA following the confirmation of the first community case in nearly 10 months:
Elective surgery and procedures for categories two and three will be suspended from Tuesday, 2 February, and category one and urgent category two surgery will continue.
For a majority of schools, school was due to start tomorrow. That has now been put on hold, and schools will be closed until next week, following the lockdown measures. It is in effect an extension of the school holidays.
Updated
Certain businesses to close, weddings cancelled for five days in WA
More restrictions:
We are strongly encouraging that everyone in this area who is from another WA region, stay here. Do not travel further outside of this area until the lockdown is over. If you do need to travel outside the region ... that can only occur if you need to return to your place of residence.
The transport of essential goods into this region is permitted under our existing transport guidelines.
This lockdown means the following businesses, venues and locations need to close for the next five days:
- Pubs, bars and clubs. Gyms and indoor sporting venues;
- Playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor recreational facilities;
- Cinemas, entertainment venues, and casinos;
- Large religious gatherings and places of worship;
- Libraries and cultural institutions. Restaurants and cafes will close, and can provide takeaway service only.
10 people can attend funerals.
Weddings are cancelled for the next five days.
No visitors are permitted to your home unless caring for someone vulnerable or in an emergency. No visitors will be allowed in aged care homes unless exceptional circumstances. No visitors to hospitals, and/or disability facilities, unless exceptional circumstances.
Updated
Perth, Peel and south-west regions of Western Australia to go into snap lockdown
The areas under the restrictions below are Perth, Peel and south-west regions of WA.
In addition to this five-day stay home rule, if you do leave home for one of the four reasons you will be required to wear a mask at all times outside, and if you need to do work indoors, then wearing a mask is also mandatory.
To be clear, mask wearing on public transport is also mandatory.
People in the Perth, Peel or south-west regions need to stay inside their region for the next five days, unless for an essential reason.
Updated
Western Australia imposes Covid restrictions, lockdown in specific areas
In light of the new case, McGowan has announced restrictions for specific areas – we will list these in a moment.
Here are the restrictions so far:
Following discussions with the chief health officer and police commissioner, the following measures will be put in place from 6pm. People in these regions are required to stay home:
Except for the following four reasons:
- shopping for essentials like groceries, medicine and necessary supplies;
- medical or healthcare needs, including compassionate requirements and looking after the vulnerable;
- exercise within their neighbourhood, but only with one other person and only for one hour per day;
- work, when you cannot work from home or remotely.
Updated
“It appears this new case likely has the highly transmissible UK variant,” Mark McGowan has said. This has not yet been confirmed, however.
Updated
Western Australia hotel quarantine worker tests positive for Covid in first case in state for nearly 10 months
Western Australia has confirmed its first community transmission case in nearly 10 months, premier Mark McGowan has announced.
The case is a hotel security guard in his 20s.
Updated
Western Australia press conference begins
The emergency Covid press conference called by Western Australian premier Mark McGowan is starting now.
We’ll bring you the developments live.
Updated
WHO team visits Baishazhou wet market in Wuhan
A World Health Organization team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited a market on Sunday known to be the food distribution centre for the Chinese city of Wuhan during the 76-day lockdown last year, AP reports.
The team was seen walking through sections of the Baishazhou market – one of the largest wet markets in Wuhan – surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officials and representatives.
The team, with expertise in veterinarian, virology, food safety and epidemiology, has visited two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak – Wuhan Jinyintan hospital and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine hospital.
On Saturday, the members also visited a museum exhibition dedicated to the early history of Covid.
The WHO said on Twitter last Thursday that the team plans to visit hospitals and markets like the Huanan Seafood Market, which was linked to many of the first cases. It also listed the Wuhan Institute of Virology and laboratories at facilities including the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.
The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.
A single visit by scientists is unlikely to confirm the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is typically an exhaustive endeavour that takes years of research including taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.
One possibility is that a wildlife poacher might have passed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan. The Chinese government has promoted theories, with little evidence, that the outbreak might have started with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a notion roundly rejected by international scientists and agencies.
Updated
West Australian premier calls emergency coronavirus press conference
Mark McGowan, the premier of the state of West Australia, has called an emergency Covid media conference, the ABC reports.
Health minister Roger Cook will be present.
The state’s last community transmission of the virus was nearly 10 months ago. We will cover the conference live at 12.30pm AWST (15.30pm AEST).
Updated
Countries tighten borders against Covid variants
A number of countries tightened their borders against a surge in variant strains of the deadly coronavirus as the United States ordered travellers to wear masks on most public transport, AFP reports.
With doses of the different Covid-19 vaccines so far approved for use still in relatively short supply – and mass inoculation programs in their early stages – Britain and the EU have become embroiled in an ugly row over the shots they had been promised by AstraZeneca.
The vaccine developed by the British-Swedish firm is only the third to be rolled out in Europe. But the company has said it can deliver only a fraction of the doses promised to Brussels and London because of production problems.
As the World Health Organization warned against “vaccine nationalism” both Britain and EU said on Saturday that they were confident the problems could be resolved.
But tensions showed scant sign of easing.
France’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune warned it would pose “a problem” if the UK was given preferential treatment.
“If there is an industrial problem, that can happen, people can understand that,” he said.
“But if preferential treatment is shown to Britain, that would be a problem.”
Updated
Queensland defends call to extend jobkeeper for the tourism sector
Queensland is looking forward to a tourism windfall from NSW worth hundreds of millions of dollars as the two states bicker over jobkeeper, AAP reports.
Queensland has gone another day with no new coronavirus cases, while the state government is standing firm on its call to extend jobkeeper for the tourism sector.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and ministers have hit back at criticism from south of the border.
Now the premier is spruiking the state’s tourist attractions, saying strong bookings are expected for Easter and the school holidays from NSW with the greater Sydney hotspot ending on Monday.
“With Queensland open to all Australians again the focus is on getting people to explore and take a holiday in the Sunshine State,” Palaszczuk said in a government statement
“Opening the border to greater Sydney could result in a $350m tourism windfall alone.
“That’s what 370,000 Sydneysiders spent in 2019, visiting Queensland for Easter.”
Updated
More on China’s manufacturing activity from Reuters:
The fall in the PMI reflects weakening growth momentum due to government measures to contain the new Covid-19 wave, including tightening social distancing rules, reimposing lockdowns and travel bans in some parts of China, Nomura’s chief China economist Lu Ting told AFP.
“The inevitable, seasonal rise in population mobility and family gatherings in coming weeks, albeit likely much smaller than their pre-pandemic levels, may keep these Covid-19 prevention measures in place for a longer time,” he added.
Non-manufacturing activity could dip further in February.
But with migrant workers encouraged to stay in the cities where they work this year instead of returning home, manufacturing PMI might rebound slightly in the coming month, he said.
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China factory activity slows slightly on new Covid-19 wave
Factory activity in China slowed slightly in January, official data showed Sunday, as the country rushed to stamp out a recent coronavirus wave in northern China, AFP reports.
The purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a key gauge of manufacturing activity, came in at 51.3 this month, as the world’s second-largest economy tightened Covid-19 precautions ahead of the lunar new year.
The figure was slightly below December’s reading of 51.9, although still above the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction.
The latest data indicated that the business climate remains weak for small firms, although domestic consumption picked up ahead of the festive period.
Export demand slowed after Christmas as the pandemic continued spreading worldwide, the NBS added.
China’s non-manufacturing PMI saw a larger drop to 52.4, from 55.7 last month, taking a bigger hit from the domestic virus resurgence.
Industries including accommodation and catering saw a “more significant” drop in activity, while the construction industry went into an off-season.
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New Zealand to Australia flights to resume
The Trans-Tasman bubble allowing quarantine free travel from New Zealand to Australia will resume on Sunday, Australian health authorities have announced.
Australia’s acting chief health officer, Prof Michael Kidd, said “green zone” flights could recommence on Sunday afternoon because they were now “sufficiently low risk”.
He said:
The AHPPC at its meeting this morning noted that there had been no further confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the community in New Zealand since the initial three cases were infected with what was concerned – the B1351 variant – known as the South African variant.
As you know, the three cases all originated from transmission within hotel quarantine at the Pullman hotel in Auckland. The AHPPC has also noted that all close contacts of these three New Zealand cases have returned negative test results and there have been no further cases found to date in the casual contacts, in the previous residents of the hotel or in the staff of the hotel.
Green zone flights from New Zealand into Australia are now judged to be sufficiently low risk, given New Zealand’s strong public health response to Covid-19.
Kidd said that in an “abundance of caution” there would be “pre- and post-flight screening implemented for all safe travel zone flights from New Zealand for the next 10 days”.
As well as being screened for possible symptoms of Covid-19, this screening will check that travellers have not been identified as close contacts of the infected cases, who have not visited any of the contact tracing areas of interest in New Zealand, and if they have, that they have been tested and they have received negative test results and clearance as required by the New Zealand authorities.
In another change, those looking to travel to Australia would need to have spent 14 days in the community in New Zealand. The change is that time spent in hotel quarantine in New Zealand will not be counted in those 14 days.
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Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador continues to be only mildly affected by Covid-19, an official said on Saturday, a day after the Mexican leader broadcast a video saying his health was improving.
Reuters reports that Ricardo Cortes, a senior health ministry official, told a regular evening news conference that Lopez Obrador still had a “mild case” and had almost reached the halfway mark of his isolation phase.
Lopez Obrador announced he had Covid late on Sunday when he withdrew from his regular public schedule.
Mexico’s health ministry reported 15,337 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection and 1,495 additional fatalities on Saturday, bringing the total to 1,857,230 cases and 158,074 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely to be significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
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Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez said on Saturday that his country would receive its initial batch of Covid vaccines during the second half of February through the Covax program backed by the World Health Organization, Reuters reports.
Co-led by the Gavi vaccine alliance, WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Covax is aiming to deliver 1.3bn doses of approved vaccines to 92 eligible low- and middle-income countries in 2021.
Hernandez said on Twitter his government had been informed by Covax-Gavi that Honduras would receive up to 800,000 doses in the second half of February.
Earlier, neighbouring Guatemala said it was also expecting its first vaccines via the Covax program in February.
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US has administered nearly 30m vaccine doses
Almost 50m doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been distributed in the United States and nearly 30m have been administered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.
The amounts include the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines as of 6am ET, the agency said.
Reuters reports:
Compared to a CDC tally on Friday, the number of doses distributed increased by 716,350 and administered by almost 1.7m.
The agency said 24m people had received one or more doses while 5.3m received a second dose as of Saturday.
More than 3.5m vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
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Colombia will receive up to an initial 4.4m doses of coronavirus vaccines via the World Health Organization-backed Covax mechanism, the government said on Saturday, Reuters reports.
“The Andean country will receive vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as by AstraZenca, via the scheme, president Ivan Duque said.
“We have received information from the multilateral Covax strategy indicating that Colombia has been ratified among 18 countries in which the administration of vaccines will begin,” Duque said.
Colombia is set to get 117,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine in the first quarter of the year, according to a letter from Covax published on Twitter by health minister Fernando Ruiz.
The country will also receive between 2.6m and 4.3m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the letter said. Both vaccines require two doses per person.
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Cormac the llama lives a quiet life on a farm in Washington State, totally unaware that his unique immune system may be key to protecting the developing world from Covid-19.
“He is an extremely charismatic llama … he’s a pretty cool guy,” says TJ Esparza, a neuroscientist at the Uniformed Services University. He is part of the team attempting to transform Cormac’s nanobody cells into a drug that will coat the inside of human lungs, providing temporary but effective protection from coronavirus particles.
Camelids such as camels, llamas and alpacas produce nanobodies, which are similar to human antibodies but much smaller. The right nanobodies, from the right animal, can essentially nestle over the spikes that dot the surface of a coronavirus particle and prevent them from latching on to healthy cells:
No new cases in ACT, but virus fragments in sewage at Belconnen
The Australian Capital Territory has confirmed no new coronavirus cases. It has no active cases.
In the past 24 hours, 228 tests returned negative results, but ACT deputy chief health officer Dr Vanessa Johnston has urged people to get tested if they have even the mildest symptoms after virus fragments were found in sewage at a wastewater site in Belconnen.
The government said:
The Belconnen testing site covers wastewater from Aranda, Belconnen, Bruce, Charnwood, Cook, Dunlop, Evatt, Florey, Flynn, Fraser, Giralang, Hall, Hawker, Higgins, Holt, Kaleen, Latham, Lawson, Macgregor, Macquarie, McKellar, Melba, Page, Scullin, Spence, Strathnairn and Weetangera.
All other locations in the ACT had negative sample results on 27 January.
The detection of virus fragments does not necessarily mean the ACT has a new case of Covid-19. It may represent a person who has recovered from Covid-19 and is no longer infectious but is continuing to shed the virus. This shedding can happen for several weeks after the person is no longer infectious. This detection may be indicative of a person in this category, who has recently returned home or visited the ACT.
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A week-long, $5m advertising blitz encouraging Australians to travel domestically in 2021 kicks off today, AAP reports.
The government wants locals to holiday in Australia, including areas affected by last summer’s bushfires, to give the embattled industry a boost.
Federal trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan said the government wants Australians to get excited about holidaying domestically.
“Our country is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and this year is an opportunity for Australians to discover why,” Tehan said.
“My message to every Australian is do yourself a favour and start planning your next holiday in Australia because you’ll have the time of your life and you’ll also be supporting a lot of Australian jobs and businesses.”
Domestic tourism is worth $100bn to the Australian economy and the industry supports more than 621,000 jobs.
The “Holiday Here This Year” campaign includes national advertising, TV program and event sponsorships, and native content.
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The earliest references to the “one-stop shop” emerged during the first decades of 20th century as the fast-growing US economy spurred rapid retail innovation. A single location for various products provides obvious benefits: removing the hassle of travelling around town to visit different stores.
Jeff Bezos redefined that logic for the internet age, making Amazon a dominant (and perhaps ambivalent) force first in selling books, and then in pretty much everything else. Before 2020 Amazon was a phenomenon, but the coronavirus pandemic has made it all but ubiquitous.
The numbers in its financial results for the last three months of 2020, to be published on Tuesday, will be even bigger than Amazon’s earlier instalments in the first pandemic year. Christmas and Thanksgiving always make the final quarter of the year the strongest for Amazon. Christmas 2020 will mainly be remembered for locked-down celebrations, but analysts predict that it will also mark the first time Amazon’s revenue surpasses $100bn in one quarter:
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Victoria state health authorities investigating 'indeterminate' test result
Health authorities in the Australian state of Victoria are investigating an “indeterminate” test result.
Victoria notched up its 25th day in a row without a community transmission coronavirus case on Sunday, but one test has not yet been confirmed as negative.
The state’s health department said it would provide more information on the potential case later on Sunday.
There were 10,681 tests undertaken in Victoria on Saturday.
DHHS received a notification of an indeterminate result last night. Follow up tests are underway and precautionary public health actions are being taken.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) January 30, 2021
There will be an update on the case later today.
Updated
EU vaccine export controls not expected to affect Australia: health minister
Australia’s health minister says the European Union’s dramatic decision to impose export controls on vaccine manufacturers is “not expected to affect Australia”.
The EU has imposed sweeping powers that would allow it to block Covid-19 vaccine shipments from the bloc and Australia was left off a list of 120 nations exempt from the measures.
But Greg Hunt sounded an optimistic note on Sunday after discussions with EU representatives and key vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
He said:
We have our diplomats that are working with the World Health Organization and the European Union through the commission.
Our advice is that our vaccine supply and guidance remains on track, those dates that we provided earlier in the week followed discussions with country heads of Pfizer and AstraZeneca and took into account supply and regulatory conditions within Europe and had been reaffirmed in the last 24 hours. The guidance from the EU is provisional and preliminary at this stage, so I will remain cautious, but that guidance is that the EU regulatory steps are not aimed at Australia, and not expected to affect Australia.
Hunt said the Pfizer vaccine was expected to commence with 80,000 doses a week by late February, while approximately 1.2m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be administered in March.
There would be 50m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Australia by CSL.
Updated
Australia to enlist pharmacies to distribute vaccines
The Australian government says thousands of local pharmacies will be enlisted to distribute Covid vaccines.
Greg Hunt, the health minister, said on Sunday that community pharmacies would administer the vaccine for free from phase two of the Australian rollout. That begins in May, when the vaccine will be available for those over 50 and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Hunt said:
They are experienced, they are trained in dispensing medicines, and they would be participating from phase 2A onwards, and that means more points of presence for Australians in terms of where they can receive their Covid-19 vaccine.
Hunt said local chemists were already administered the flu shot.
From Monday, 5,800 community pharmacies will be invited to apply to participate in the $200m program.
Hunt said applicants would need to meet a standard to be included, but the program would “give more options and better access to Australians”.
General practitioners will also distribute the vaccine. The first phase of the rollout will begin in late February.
Updated
Germany threatens legal action over vaccine delivery delays
Germany’s government on Sunday threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the European Union on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca, AFP reports.
“If it turns out that companies have not respected their obligations, we will have to decide the legal consequences,” economy minister Peter Altmaier told German daily Die Welt.
There has been growing tension in recent weeks between European leaders and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which has fallen behind on promised delivers of its Covid-19 vaccine.
The company said it could now deliver only a quarter of the doses originally promised to the bloc for the first quarter of the year because of problems at one of its European factories.
Brussels has implicitly accused AstraZeneca of giving preferential treatment to Britain at the expense of the EU.
The EU briefly threatened to restrict vaccine exports to Northern Ireland by overriding part of the Brexit deal with Britain that allowed the free flow of goods over the Irish border. It backed down after British prime minister Boris Johnson voiced “grave concerns”.
AstraZeneca is not the only drugs company in the firing line. Last week Italy threatened legal action against US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer over delays.
Top German officials are due to meet with the drugs manufacturers to thrash out the problems.
On Friday the European Medicines Agency cleared the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca for use inside the EU, the third Covid vaccine it has approved after Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Updated
South Australia reopens border to Sydney travellers
In case you missed this earlier, the Australian state of South Australia has lifted its Covid-19 restrictions for travellers from the Sydney region.
The change comes after New South Wales reached two weeks without a locally transmitted case. The Victorian government has revealed figures that show it issued more than a million travel permits since virus border restrictions were imposed just over six weeks ago.
As of late Saturday 1,014,787 permits had been granted for travellers to enter Victoria, an average of almost 15 for every minute of every day since restrictions were imposed on 16 December.
But while plenty of visitors are being granted permits, authorities have detected evidence of virus fragments at six locations, including the popular tourist towns of Cowes on Phillip Island, and Castlemaine in the north-west.
Fragments have also recently been found in waste water at the satellite Melbourne suburb of Pakenham, rural Gisborne, Hamilton in the state’s south-west and the South Gippsland town of Leongatha.
The health department is urging residents and visitors to these locations to get tested if they have even mild symptoms.
On Saturday Victoria notched up 24 days since its last locally acquired case. Meanwhile Victoria’s chief health officer will allow up to 30,000 people to attend the Australian Open in Melbourne each day, about half the usual numbers.
The last players and participants still in the hotel quarantine system are expected to leave on Sunday.
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NSW Health warns virus could re-emerge
Despite 14 days with no new cases, NSW Health warns that the virus could re-emerge.
“While NSW has now seen 14 days without a known locally acquired case of Covid-19, the virus may still be circulating in the community among people with mild or no symptoms. We have previously seen successive days of no local cases, only to see cases re-emerge,” it said.
NSW Health’s wastewater monitoring program detected traces in the sewerage network at Warriewood, Liverpool and Malabar overnight. Authorities warn that the virus could still be circulating in the community and urge more people to get tested.
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Australian state of New South Wales marks 14 days with no new cases
In Australia, NSW Health has recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 from almost 9,000 tests.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) January 31, 2021
There were three cases acquired overseas, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,915. pic.twitter.com/aURefq94hj
The result takes NSW to 14 days without a local case but NSW Health’s wastewater monitoring program detected traces in the sewerage network at Warriewood, Liverpool and Malabar overnight. Authorities warn that the virus could still be circulating in the community and urge more people to get tested.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
You can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
I’ll be bringing you the latest developments from around the world – and as usual, this blog will serve as the Australian liveblog, too.
In a big development, Germany’s government on Sunday threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the European Union on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca.
We’ll be bringing you developments on that throughout the day.
Here is the other key news from the last few hours:
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Coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca are expected to be supplied to the UK as planned, despite the EU’s export controls and demands for British-manufactured jabs, after a discussion with EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the British Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said.
- Germany’s government threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the EU on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca.
- The World Health Organization called on the UK to halt their vaccination rollouts after vulnerable people and healthcare workers have been inoculated. With many poorer countries struggling to access vaccine doses, the WHO argues this will ensure a “fair rollout”.
- French president Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to hold off on a third lockdown on Saturday, telling the public he had faith in their ability to rein in Covid-19 with less severe curbs even as a third wave spreads and vaccines are delayed.
- Five in six people in the UK aged 80 and above have now received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine
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About 130,000 people in Wales who are clinically extremely vulnerable are being asked to keep shielding until the end of March
- Colombia, Bolovia and Guartemala have secured a few million vaccine doses via the World Health Organization-backed COVAX mechanism.
- The US recorded half of its 26m total infections in past two months, with the country’s latest 13m cases recorded in just 64 days.
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Portugal has warned it has just seven vacant beds left in intensive care units set up for Covid-19 cases on its mainland.
- Health officials from the US state Maryland have confirmed a case of the more contagious South African coronavirus variant.
- The Australian state of South Australia has lifted its Covid-19 restrictions for travellers from the Sydney region, after
New South Wales reached two weeks without a locally transmitted case of the virus. - Cuba will tighten measures and require visitors to isolate at their own expense for several days until they have tested negative for coronavirus.
