As the world passes that grim milestone, Spain has logged a record 40,197 new Covid cases over the past 24 hours, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 2,252,164. The health ministry said 235 people had died between Thursday and Friday, taking the country’s death toll to 53,314.
The number of cases per 100,000 people was also up to 575 from 522.7 on Thursday. The new record comes two days after Spain hit a previous high of 38,869 daily cases. On Wednesday, the health minister, Salvador Illa, described the rise as “very worrying” and warned that the pressure on hospitals and their ICUs was building.
“I ask people to scrupulously respect the measures adopted by each autonomous region,” said Illa. “It’s the only way we have of controlling the virus.”
Spain began vaccinating its population of almost 47 million people at the end of December. The central government has so far distributed 1,139,400 doses of the vaccine to the country’s 17 self-governing regions, of which 768,950 have been administered.
It comes as Catalonia postponed a parliamentary election considered a litmus test for the separatist movement scheduled for 14 February until 30 May due to surging cases across Spain.
“The current evolution of Covid-19 shows that to continue with the election is an unacceptable risk,” said acting regional chief, Pere Aragones.
Catalonia is one the hardest-hit regions in Spain, with over 400,000 cases and almost 9,000 deaths.
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Vaccine passports, which would allow people with immunity to Covid to prove they were at low risk of spreading the disease, are being investigated by companies and countries around the world. But the proposals have also raised fears among critics that they could underpin an oppressive digital ID system, and put sensitive medical records in the hands of authorities and employers.
Global Covid-related deaths pass 2m
The number of people who have lost their life after having Covid now exceeds two million as yet another grim pandemic milestone was passed.
John Hopkins University data shows that the US remains the worst affected country by the virus – followed by Brazil, India, Mexico and the UK – across the world in which more than 7.5 billion people reside.
“What was never on the horizon is that so many of the deaths would be in the richest countries in the world,” said Dr Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter, UK. “That the world’s richest countries would mismanage so badly is just shocking.”
It comes just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The number of dead is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna.
In 2019, there were more than 55 million deaths worldwide, often from heart disease, stroke, COPD and lower respiratory disease, according to the latest World Health Organization statistics. However, death rates in many countries rose last year due to the pandemic.
While the count is based on figures supplied by government agencies around the world, the real toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of inadequate testing and the many fatalities that were inaccurately attributed to other causes, especially early in the outbreak, the Associated Press reported.
It took eight months to hit 1 million dead. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million.
“Behind this terrible number are names and faces — the smile that will now only be a memory, the seat forever empty at the dinner table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres. He said the toll “has been made worse by the absence of a global coordinated effort.”
“Science has succeeded, but solidarity has failed,” he said.
There are fears that an uneven distribution of the vaccine rollout could hinder global efforts to stifle the virus.
In wealthy countries including the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Germany, millions of citizens have already been given some measure of protection with at least one dose of vaccine developed with revolutionary speed and quickly authorised for use.
But elsewhere, immunisation drives have barely got going. Many experts are predicting another year of loss and hardship in places like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil, which together account for about a quarter of the world’s deaths.
The majority of the world’s COVID-19 vaccine doses have already been snapped up by wealthy countries. COVAX, a UN-backed project to supply shots to developing parts of the world, has found itself short of vaccine, money and logistical help, AP reported.
As a result, the WHO’s chief scientist warned it is highly unlikely that herd immunity — which would require at least 70% of the globe to be vaccinated — would be achieved this year.
Meanwhile, in Wuhan, where the scourge was discovered in late 2019, a global team of researchers led by WHO arrived on Thursday to investigate the origins of the virus, which is believed to have spread to humans from wild animals.
The Chinese city of 11 million people is bustling again, with few signs it was once the epicentre of the catastrophe, locked down for 76 days, with over 3,800 dead.
“We are not fearful or worried as we were in the past,” said Qin Qiong, a noodle shop owner. “We now live a normal life. I take the subway every day to come to work in the shop. ... Except for our customers, who have to wear masks, everything else is the same.”
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US 'expected' to hit half a million Covid deaths next month
US president-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff Ron Klain has said he expects the country to hit 500,000 Covid deaths next month.
In an online interview with the Washington Post, Klain added that he was confident that law enforcement would ensure a safe inauguration for Biden on 20 January.
The US, which has a population of 328 million, has had 389,000 Covid-linked deaths, as well as more than 23 million confirmed cases.
Italy has reported another 477 coronavirus-related deaths, against 522 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections declined to 16,146 from 17,246.
Italy, which has a population of 60 million, has now registered a total of 81,325 Covid-related deaths since the virus came to light last February, the second-highest toll in Europe and the sixth-highest in the world. The country has also reported almost 2.4 million cases to date, the health ministry said.
Health minister Roberto Speranza said that more than 1 million people had now been vaccinated in Italy since the inoculation campaign began on 27 December.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 22,841 on Friday, down 269 from a day earlier. There were 156 new admissions to intensive care units, against 164 the day before. The total number of intensive care patients fell by 35 to 2,522, according to Reuters.
Earlier today (see 3.14pm) the government issued a new decree extending curbs to keep lid on infections after the health ministry warned that the epidemic was getting worse.
Credibility of vaccine programmes at risk due to Pfizer slowdown, EU states warn
European governments have said the credibility of their vaccination programmes is at risk after US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer announced a temporary slowdown of deliveries of its Covid vaccines.
Shots developed by Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech began being delivered in the EU at the end of December, but around nine of the 27 EU governments complained of “insufficient” doses at a meeting this week, a participant told Reuters (see 11.28am).
Pfizer initially said deliveries were proceeding on schedule, but today announced there would be a temporary impact on shipments in late January to early February caused by changes to manufacturing processes to boost output (see 12:41pm).
“This situation is unacceptable,” the health and social affairs ministers of six EU states said in a letter to the EU commission about the Pfizer delays.
“Not only does it impact the planned vaccination schedules, it also decreases the credibility of the vaccination process,” the ministers, from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said.
Germany, Europe’s largest purchaser of the Pfizer vaccine, called the decision surprising and regrettable, while Canada said it was also affected, because its supplies come from a Pfizer factory in Belgium.
“This is a temporary delay and we remain on track to have enough approved vaccines for everyone who wishes to get vaccinated by the end of September 2021,” procurement minister Anita Anand said.
Norway and Lithuania had earlier said the company was reducing supplies across Europe. “What we want is for Pfizer-BioNTech to restore their deliveries to the agreed schedule,” Lithuanian health minister Arunas Dulkys told Reuters.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Pfizer had reassured her that deliveries planned to the EU in the first quarter would not be delayed.
Pfizer, which is trying to deliver millions of doses at a breakneck pace to curb a pandemic that has already killed nearly 2 million people, said its changes would “provide a significant increase in doses in late February and March”.
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No need for vaccine proof to travel, says WHO
The World Health Organization has refrained from advising proof of Covid vaccination or immunity as a condition for international travel, citing “critical unknowns” regarding their efficacy in reducing transmission and limited availability.
“At the present time, do not introduce requirements of proof of vaccination or immunity for international travel as a condition of entry as there are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission and limited availability of vaccines,” the WHO panel said.
“Proof of vaccination should not exempt international travellers from complying with other travel risk reduction measures.”
However, efforts to create a global framework for Covid-safe air travel are continuing within the private sector.
The WHO’s 19-member panel of independent experts, in a list of recommendations, also urged countries to monitor virus variants such as those identified by the UK and South Africa to assess the effects on the efficacy of vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests.
It called for the promotion of technology transfer to low- and middle-income countries with the potential capacity to accelerate global production of Covid vaccines.
Further research was also needed on “critical unknowns about Covid vaccination efficacy on transmission, duration of protection against severe disease and asymptomatic infection” as well as the duration of immunity following infection or vaccination, and protection after a single dose, the panel said.
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The #COVID19 Dashboard has been updated: https://t.co/qw05K5kAUg
— Public Health England (@PHE_uk) January 15, 2021
On Friday 15 January 2021, 55,761 new cases and 1,280 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported across the UK.
A total of 3,234,946 people have now received the first dose of a #vaccine.
Paraguay has become the fourth Latin American country to approve the use of the Russian-developed Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, according to Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, RDIF.
In a statement reported by the Reuters news agency, RDIF said Paraguay will begin use of the vaccine without any additional clinical trials. Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia have also approved use of the vaccine while Chile is in talks about doing so.
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the fund, said in the statement:
We expect that more countries in the region will approve it soon and are ready to create new partnerships to pool efforts in the fight against the pandemic.
A total of 119,640 people in Paraguay have so been tested positive for coronavirus, of whom 94,983 had been recorded as having recovered, while 2,466 had died.
RDIF claims a greater than 90% efficacy for Sputnik V is more than 90%, with full protection against severe cases of Covid-19.
“Supplies of the vaccine will be facilitated by RDIF’s international partners in India, China, South Korea and other countries,” it added.
More than 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V, it said. The vaccine has also been approved in Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Algeria and Palestine.
“The process to approve the vaccine in the European Union has been initiated,” the statement said.
Portugal begins new lockdown as daily deaths reach new high
Businesses closed and most people were confined to their homes in Portugal on Friday, as the country began the first day of a new lockdown – although parents were still able to take their children to school.
All non-essential businesses must remain closed with remote working compulsory where possible. Fines for breaking the rules will double. Restrictions on movement will be eased on 24 January so voters can go to the polls for the presidential election.
Some parents were nervous about the decision to keep schools open, which the prime minister, Antonio Costa, said was based on studies showing that they were not a major point of contagion.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. I live far away and I have to work … if the government says we have to do it, then we have to do it,” Pedro Salgueiro was quoted as saying by Reuters, as he dropped his child off at school in Lisbon.
Portugal reported a record 159 Covid-19 deaths on Friday and new cases, at 10,663, reached their second-highest level since the start of the pandemic.
The country has reported a total of 528,469 cases and 8,543 deaths from Covid-19. The health ministry is monitoring more than 140,000 active cases - more than 1% of its 10m population.
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A political crisis is brewing in Slovenia, where five opposition parties on Friday filed a motion of no-confidence in the government, accusing it of failing to deal with coronavirus and using the crisis as a pretext for authoritarian policies.
Friday’s motion, which was supported by 42 out of 90 MPs, brings to a head a backlash against the conservative prime minister, Janez Janša. It will be put to a formal vote before 22 January, where some MPs in the governing coalition may vote to oust him.
Slovenia has been registering a high mortality rate from the coronavirus epidemic with over 3,100 deaths among the 2m population, more per capita than the UK, as well as Italy and Slovenia’s other close neighbours.
Karl Erjavec, the leader of the opposition DESUS party, said: “The main problem now is that this government has been exceptionally unsuccessful when it comes to the fight with the epidemic.”
Erjavec is being proposed as an alternative candidate for prime minister by the centre-left opposition parties who have proposed the no-confidence motion.
“We have to stop this madness and put the country back in the right direction,” he told public television on Thursday.
“The question in this case is whether to continue to support (Janša’s) brutal and populist politics … that will lead us into the ‘Orbànisation’ of Slovenia,” Erjavec said, referring to Janša’s ally, Viktor Orbàn, the nationalist prime minister of Hungary.
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Hullo everyone, Damien Gayle here for the next hour or so covering Mattha’s break. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions in the meantime then drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter DM to @damiengayle.
The Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has issued a decree extending coronavirus restrictions in an attempt to control the rising number of cases after the health ministry warned that the epidemic was getting worse.
Recorded daily cases have settled at 15,000-20,000, compared with a peak of about 40,000 in mid-November, but pressure on hospitals remains high. Between 400 and 600 people die from the virus each day and the government fears that number will grow.
“In the past week there has been a generalised worsening of the epidemic. We are back to an expansionary phase,” the health minister, Roberto Speranza, told parliament on Wednesday.
The new decree extends a nightly curfew between 10pm and 5am until 5 March and confirms the zoning system designed in November to calibrate the curbs between Italy’s 20 regions according to infection levels.
Gyms and swimming pools will remain closed across Italy and in-person take-away services will not be allowed after 6pm.
The decree also extends to 15 February a ban on movement between regions, with people allowed to travel only for reasons of work, health or other emergencies. Ski resorts will not be allowed to reopen until 15 February.
However, the government said most curbs could be lifted in individual regions when their infection rates are sufficiently low.
Italy, the first western country hit by the virus, has reported almost 81,000 coronavirus-related deaths since its outbreak came to light in February, the sixth highest tally in the world. The country with a population of more than 60 million has recorded 2.33m confirmed cases.
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Canadian Covid cases are set to continue growing rapidly, driven higher by a sharp rise in the populous provinces of Ontario and Quebec, health officials said in a long-range forecast.
It said that by 24 January the total death toll could be between 18,570 to 19,630 while total cases could range from 752,400 to 796,630. Canada, which has a population of 38 million, has recorded 17,538 deaths and 688,891 cases so far.
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The consultant behind an informal recommendation at an NHS trust in the north-east of England to provide Covid patients with high doses of vitamin D has spoken to the BBC about the reason behind the unusual move.
Endocrinologist Dr Richard Quinton, whose hospital in Newcastle began megadosing Covid patients with vitamin D in March, says its efficacy is almost certainly proven 'on balance of probabilities' - with data suggesting it could well have saved lives locally pic.twitter.com/PaEJngeIGk
— Mattha Busby (@matthabusby) January 15, 2021
German toddlers called Fritz or Adele could be invited for a Covid-19 vaccination while octogenarian Peters and Brigittes will not, as an overzealous interpretation of data privacy laws in one state has forced officials to guess people’s ages from their first names.
Authorities in the northern German state of Lower Saxony claim legal hurdles blocked them from accessing official records when trying to send a written invitation for a vaccination appointment to all citizens aged over 80.
The state decided instead to use post office records, which it said met data protection requirements. But since the Deutsche Post database only partially includes dates of birth, officials have used people’s first names to estimate their ages and “increase the chances of reaching the right recipients”, a spokesperson told the newspaper Bild.
The US state of New Jersey has defended its policy of prioritising smokers for the vaccine access due to the “significant risk” of worst Covid outcomes posed to people from tobacco smoking.
NJ department of health director of communications Donna Leusner said:
Nicotine is one of the most powerful addictions. Smoking put individuals at higher risk for more severe disease. If an individual who smokes gets Covid, they get sicker much quicker. Our goal is to save as many lives as possible and to promote vaccination among the highest risk groups. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the US as well as in NJ (except for Covid-19). We encourage anyone who smokes to quit, and to seek support through our Quitline.”
It comes after state health commissioner Judith Persichilli said on Wednesday that “smoking puts you at significant risk for an adverse result from Covid-19,” according to NBC.
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Three people in Ireland have been fined by police for traveling 50 miles from County Meath to Dublin to buy burgers after flouting the country’s strict Covid-19 travel rules.
They were stopped by Irish police and given €100 (£89) fines after reportedly admitting their transgression. The BBC said the story has given headline-writers artistic licence, with some including the phrases “Cheeky burgers” and “Do you want a virus with that, sir?”.
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US president-elect Joe Biden has chosen David Kessler, the ex-head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to help lead the Covid vaccine push, his transition team has announced.
The news came as Biden was due to outline his plans to ramp up vaccinations amid soaring infections and an early rollout by the Trump administration that Biden has called “a dismal failure”.
Kessler, a paediatrician and lawyer who headed the FDA under presidents George Bush senior and Bill Clinton, will be chief science officer of the administration’s Covid response.
That expanded role will include replacing Moncef Slaoui as the chief adviser for the vaccine distribution effort the Trump administration called Operation Warp Speed. Kessler is expected to provide advice on vaccine manufacturing, distribution, safety and efficacy.
Kessler has been a co-chair of Biden’s advisory board on the pandemic. As head of the FDA, Kessler cut the time needed to approve drugs to treat Aids and moved to try to regulate the tobacco industry, Reuters reported.
Biden has vowed to get 100m Covid-19 vaccine doses injected into Americans in his first 100 days in office. That pace is more than double the current rate but still would leave most of the country without the shot by the end of April.
Donald Trump’s administration had aimed to give vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 – but only 11.1m shots had been administered as of Thursday, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Several internal and confidential emails about the evaluation process of Covid vaccines have been leaked on the internet in a cyber attack on the European Medicines Agency that it disclosed last month, the regulator has said.
The EU watchdog did not provide more details, but was critical of its impact. “Some of the correspondence has been manipulated by the perpetrators prior to publication in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines,” it said.
“There has always been consensus across the EU not to compromise the high-quality standards... Authorisations are granted when the evidence shows convincingly that the benefits of vaccination are greater than any risks of the vaccine.”
The EMA has not so far named any third parties affected by the breach, but Pfizer and BioNTech have said that their documents were accessed in the cyber attack.
FC Barcelona has postponed its presidential election originally scheduled for 24 January due to a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the region of Catalonia, Spain, the Catalan government has announced.
The regional government, who met with club representatives on Friday, had extended restrictions a day earlier to fight the spread of the virus, preventing people from leaving their municipality unless for work, education or medical reasons.
Former president Joan Laporta, entrepreneur Victor Font and former director Toni Freixa are the final three candidates for the election, which is being held to choose a successor after Josep Maria Bartomeu resigned last October.
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Sweden, whose unorthodox pandemic strategy placed it in the global spotlight, has registered a further 138 coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 10,323, officials statistics show.
The country of 10 million inhabitants also registered 4,703 new coronavirus cases since Thursday. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and weeks with many from the Christmas period being registered with a significant delay.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is several times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours but lower than several European countries that opted for lockdowns.
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Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses secured by the African Union (AU) will be allocated according to countries’ population size, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
Current AU chairman Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca would be available this year, but he did not specify how much each African country would get.
No African countries have begun large-scale coronavirus vaccination campaigns and the AU’s 270m shots, if administered two per person, would still only cover about 10% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people.
“The Africa CDC has already worked out the allocations that each country will be able to get, and the allocation is going to be worked on the size of your population,” Ramaphosa said, referring to the AU’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Africa has been the world’s second least-affected continent by the virus, next to Oceania, with less than 80,000 recorded Covid deaths across dozens of countries. Some experts believe this could be explained in large part by vitamin D levels.
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Raia Alkabasi, an Iraqi woman in the northern Jordan city of Irbid, and her husband Ziad, have become some of the first refugees known to have received a Covid-19 vaccine.
They were administered their shots on Thursday, and the UN’s refugee agency is publicising their story - including with this video below - both to applaud the Jordanian government for including its large refugee population in its pandemic response, and to make the point that displaced communities elsewhere also need to be included in national vaccination plans.
The refugee agency says that of the 90 countries known to be formulating vaccine rollout plans, around 50 have explicitly included refugees. Jordan has said anyone living in the country - citizen, refugee or asylum seeker - will be entitled to the vaccine.
UNHCR says that since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in a refugee camp in Jordan last September, around 1,928 people in the camps have tested positive for the virus. That’s about 1.6% percent of the refugee population, compared to a 3% infection rate among the wider Jordanian population.
Pfizer temporarily reduces vaccine deliveries to EU
Pfizer will temporarily reduce its deliveries to Europe of its Covid vaccine while it upgrades its production capacity, the company has said.
The reduction in deliveries is reportedly due to Pfizer limiting output so that it can upgrade production capacity to 2 billion vaccine doses per year from 1.3 billion currently.
“This temporary reduction will affect all European countries,” said the the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. “It is as yet not precisely clear how long time it will take before Pfizer is up to maximum production capacity again.”
Pfizer said it had to make modifications to the process and facility that will require additional regulatory approvals, Reuters reported. “Although this will temporarily impact shipments in late January to early February, it will provide a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March,” it said in a statement.
Non-EU Norway is getting access to the vaccines obtained by the European bloc thanks to Sweden, an EU member that will buy more than it needs and sell them to Norway.
The institute said there would be no delays in the rollout of the vaccines to Norwegians as it had built reserves of vaccines in Norway since it had begun receiving deliveries.
Earlier, we reported that EU officials have told Reuters that some member states are receiving lower-than-expected supplies of Covid vaccines and complain in internal meetings of uncertainty over future deliveries, as distribution proceeds unevenly among EU states (see 11.28am).
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Philippine senators have questioned the government’s preference for the Chinese Covid vaccine after latest data suggested it has a lower efficacy rate than others.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s office said on Monday it was next month expecting to receive the first batch of coronavirus shots developed by Sinovac Biotech, which at that time had not yet filed an emergency use request with local regulators.
The initial shipment was part of the 25 million doses the Philippines has secured from the Chinese vaccine manufacturer, which some senators want scrapped after new data from Brazil indicated efficacy was much lower than initially announced.
“There are other vaccines with a much higher efficacy at lower, if not more competitive, cost. Why are we insisting that we buy Sinovac?” senator Franklin Drilon asked members of the government’s coronavirus task force. “The insistence or preference for Sinovac cannot be denied and will not augur well for building up confidence of people in our ability to address the pandemic.”
An opinion poll showed on Thursday that less than a third of Filipinos are willing to get inoculated against the coronavirus as many have voiced concerns over the safety of vaccines.
The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration has yet to begin evaluating Sinovac’s emergency-use request, which the FDA only received on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the FDA said it had authorised emergency use of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the first to be approved in the Philippines.
The Philippines has among the greatest number of coronavirus cases in Asia – almost 500,000 in the country of 108 million, with just under 10,000 deaths. Manila hopes this year to inoculate 70 million people, or two-thirds of the population.
Turkey has vaccinated more than 500,000 people against Covid in the first two days of administering jabs developed by Chinese biotech company Sinovac, according to health ministry data.
Ankara launched the nationwide programme on Thursday, vaccinating health workers first, and inoculated more than 285,000 people on the first day. Around midday GMT, the total was 523,338, making it one of the world’s speediest initial rollouts.
The government has said the rapid pace has been helped by a nationwide distribution of the vaccines at the start of the week, and also by digitised health records and hospital services.
“We are an experienced country in implementing nationwide inoculation programmes. Our infrastructure is more than capable of conducting this programme in a controlled way. We will win the battle with the pandemic together,” health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan received his first dose of the vaccine in Ankara on Thursday and urged other politicians to endorse the programme, calling on Turks to ignore criticism of the CoronaVac shot.
Turkey, a country of about 82 million people, has reported more than 2.3 million Covid infections and 23,000 deaths since March.
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Greece is to increase fines for violating coronavirus restrictions to €500 from ¢300, the country’s prime minister has said.
Speaking in parliament, Kyriakos Mitsotakis also said the country’s retail sector may begin to gradually reopen next week, if the scientists advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic recommend it is safe to do so today,
Lockdown restrictions were imposed nationwide in Greece in early November amid rising Covid cases; shutting down restaurants, bars, cafes, retail stores, schools, entertainment venues and anything not considered an essential business.
Primary schools and kindergartens reopened this week, but high school lessons are being held online only. People are allowed to leave their homes only for a limited number of specific reasons, and must send a telephone text message to authorities or carry a self-declaration in order to do so.
Greece has had just under 150,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 5,387 deaths since the start of the pandemic in the country of about 11 million people.
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Venezuela will send oxygen to Brazil, where hospitals in the northern state of Amazonas have run out of it to treat Covid patients, Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza has tweeted.
He said his announcement followed instructions given by president Nicolas Maduro, who is not recognised by Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro as the country’s rightful president. “Latin American solidarity above all,” Arreaza added.
Nearly 6,000 people have died from Covid in Amazonas. The oxygen deliveries come after dozens of patients in the Amazon rainforest’s biggest city were set to be flown out of state as the local health system collapses.
“I want to thank those governors who are giving us their hand in a human gesture,” Amazonas governor Wilson Lima said on Thursday. “All of the world looks at us when there is a problem as the Earth’s lungs ... Now we are asking for help. Our people need this oxygen.”
Brazilian vice-president Hamilton Mourao said on Twitter that the country’s air force had taken more than eight tons of hospital items including oxygen cylinders, beds and tents to Manaus.
Federal prosecutors in the city, however, asked a local judge to put pressure on President Bolsonaro’s administration to step up its support. The prosecutors said later in the day that the main air force plane in the region for oxygen supply transportation “needs repair, which brought a halt to the emergency influx”.
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EU officials have told Reuters that some member states are receiving lower-than-expected supplies of Covid vaccines and complain in internal meetings of uncertainty over future deliveries, as distribution proceeds unevenly among EU states.
Delivery of the vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech being in the EU at the end of December. The US biotech firm Moderna started deliveries of its shot this week after the bloc approved it on 6 January.
Yet about one-third of the 27 EU governments cited “insufficient” doses of vaccines at a video-conference of health ministers on Wednesday, according to a person who attended the virtual meeting. They also complained about uncertain timetables for future deliveries, the official added, without naming any country.
Belgium has said it expects to receive only about half of the planned doses of the Pfizer vaccine in January due to a logistical issue, while Lithuania says it was told this week its supplies would be halved until mid-February.
“The manufacturer told us the cuts are EU-wide,”, Lithuanian health ministry spokesman Vytautas Beniusis told Reuters.
Lower-than-expected amounts were delivered to Italy at the beginning of January, but the issue seemed now largely resolved, an Italian official said.
Deliveries were proceeding “according to the schedule agreed”, a spokeswoman for Pfizer said. There was no production problem to report, but timelines were “aspirational” and subject to change, she added.
Pfizer and BioNTech have two contracts with the EU for the supply of up to 600m doses this year. They have agreed to deliver 75m doses in the second quarter and more later in the year. It remains unclear how many doses can be distributed in the first three months.
Moderna has committed to delivering 10m doses by the end of March and 35 million each in the second and third quarter. Another 80 million doses are also to be delivered this year but without a clear timetable yet.
The vaccine manufacturers have not published detailed calendars of deliveries for each of the 27 EU countries, which are expected to receive a portion of vaccines in proportion to their share of the EU’s 450 million population. Pfizer said the information was confidential.
“At this stage we can only confirm that the doses will be distributed on a pro-rata basis between EU countries,” a spokesman for Moderna said.
But deliveries do not seem to be proceeding evenly, according to Reuters. The German health ministry says on its website that the country, with a population of 83 million, will receive nearly 4 million Pfizer doses by the end of January.
Romania, with a population four times smaller, says it expects to receive only 600,000 doses in the same period. Bulgaria, with less than one-tenth of Germany’s population, expects to receive only about 60,000 Pfizer shots in January, proportionally much less than Germany.
Pfizer will temporarily reduce its deliveries to Europe of its Covid vaccine while it upgrades its production capacity, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said.
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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, its Mattha Busby here taking the blog from my colleague Ben Quinn. Do drop me a line on Twitter or via email mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk if you have any news tips.
Staff at an Irish hospital who have yet to get a date for vaccinations have recorded a message challenging the country’s health minister and stating that they have seen workers at a private hospital getting vaccinated.
“We’re so angry. We’re scared. We’re afraid.”
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) January 15, 2021
Nurses, doctors and staff at Nenagh Hospital - treating #COVID19 patients - say they’ve not been given a date for vaccination.
They say staff are getting sick every day - and they’re being left without any clarity.@VirginMediaNews pic.twitter.com/awbvz1RxNC
Irish hospitals had more than 1,800 patients confirmed with Covid-19 as of on Friday morning, according to the chief executive of Ireland’s health service.
Public health officials said the pressure on hospitals is expected to peak next week, the Irish Times reported, though officials predict a “huge number” of patients will still require treatment, even after admissions start to decline.
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Greece could ease some restrictions and reopen shops and other parts of its economy next week after a nationwide lockdown helped contain a surge in Covid-19 infections, according to prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The government imposed the strict lockdown, the second since the start of the pandemic, in early November following a spike in infections, mainly in northern Greece and the Athens area.
Cases had eased since a rise in December, Mitsotakis told parliament today.
“The government stands ready to implement its policy (to reopen the economy) from Monday, if there is a positive recommendation by experts,” he said.
Updated
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to meet the heads of German state administrations to discuss Covid-19 restrictions as the country surpassed 2 million infections and the death toll from the pandemic reached almost 45,000.
The meeting is being brought forward after Merkel demanded “very fast action” to curb the virus.
Part of the debate is expected to be on whether companies should be forced or incentivised to have more people work from home.
The prime minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, told broadcaster ZDF that she hopes for new consultations to take place early next week, “hopefully on Tuesday”.
Updated
Amid some confusion about the nature of arrangements governing aspects of movement between France and the UK, it has emerged British lorry drivers crossing the English Channel will be exempt from requiring a PCR coronavirus test.
Britain’s transport secretary, Grant Shapps, indicated said PCR tests (the standard diagnostic method of testing for Covid-19) would be required for passengers but hauliers could use the lateral flow system.
Concern had been raised that chaos could be caused by France demanding truck drivers have the PCR tests, which can take 72 hours to give a result, before entering.
When asked about reports France would not recognise the “red circle” antigen test for people trying to enter the country from Monday, Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “I think this is in reference to the French requiring what they call the PCR test.
“First of all, no one should be going to France. No one should be travelling. Secondly, we have a particular arrangement with the French regarding the hauliers, this is the lorry drivers, with tests which are called the lateral flow tests. And that remains in place at the moment.”
France announced last night that people travelling from non-EU countries will no longer be able to get into the country by presenting a negative result from a quick, readily available Covid-19 test.
⚠️ Travel to 🇫🇷: From Monday 18/01, travellers coming from outside of the EU, including from the UK will need to:
— French Embassy UK (@FranceintheUK) January 14, 2021
➡️show a negative PCR test before their travel
➡️Self-isolate during 7 days upon arrival
➡️Take a second test after their 7-day isolationhttps://t.co/pJ1QK8mQUR
Updated
More Americans are dying of Covid-19 than at any time during the pandemic, the most complex mass vaccination campaign in history is off to a rocky start, and more transmissible strains of the coronavirus are emergent. January is going to be a bleak month.
The most pessimistic outlook published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts up to 438,000 people may be killed by Covid-19 by the end of the month in a staggering upward trend.
However, even in this bleak outlook, epidemiologists said there are still reasons for optimism, buoyed by the power of changing human behavior.
“My hope is this month will be the peak and things will start to look better in February,” said Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, whose work focuses on pandemic response. “I don’t think it will be vaccination that will bend the curve. It will be washing your hands and staying home.”
Predictions of a horrific death toll come from the CDC’s “ensemble” forecast, which takes in predictions from three dozen academic centers, all considering different criteria. Ensemble forecasts are known to be more accurate than single forecasts.
Updated
In Scotland, the Conservative party has immediately suspended one of its candidates for May’s elections to the devolved parliament there after reports that he suggested people queuing for food banks in the UK during the pandemic were overweight.
The Daily Record this morning reported comments made last year by Craig Ross, the candidate for Glasgow Pollok constituency, in his podcast, which he advertises as including “reaction to the Guardian newspaper from the centre-right”.
Referring to interviews with food bank users he had watched on Channel 4 news, Ross said: “I’m not saying that every single person who claims to be really hungry and is reliant on charity is also very overweight, but what I am saying is if Channel 4 News is having a reasonable go at showing the reality of food bank usage, then we know that the people that they film are far from starving. If anything, their biggest risk is not starvation, it’s diabetes.”
He also complained about the anti-poverty campaigner and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, saying: “Has Marcus Rashford stood for election to anything? Not that I’m aware of.”
A Scottish Conservative party spokesman said: “We have suspended this candidate and an investigation is under way. These unacceptable comments do not reflect the views of the party.”
Updated
Since first being recorded in late 2019 in China, the Covid-19 coronavirus has spread around the world, and been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. However, differences in testing mean that the number of cases may be understated for some countries.
We’ve been mapping the data on where the virus has spread, and where it has been most deadly. Here’s the latest update:
France says lateral flow tests not enough to enter country
France has announced that people travelling from non-EU countries will no longer be able to get into the country by presenting a negative result from a quick, readily available Covid-19 test.
The new rules, which come into force from 18 January and are set out in a French government document, say people will no longer be able to use antigen, or lateral flow, tests that can deliver results within minutes.
Those quicker tests have been heavily used by truck drivers transporting goods across the Channel between Britain and France.
For the past several weeks, France has been requiring people who enter France from Britain to prove they don’t have Covid-19.
It was not immediately clear what impact the new testing rules would have on cross-Channel goods transport, which has already been affected by Britain’s departure from the European Union.
Updated
In China, a drive to immunise 3.5% of the population in weeks comes ahead of the lunar new year festival and as three major cities are locked down, report Helen Davidson in Taipei and Michael Standaert in Shenzhen.
Battling its worst outbreak in 10 months, the nation is pushing ahead with its aim to vaccinate about 3.5% of the population before the start of the lunar new year holiday on 11 February, when hundreds of millions of people crisscross the country to visit family and celebrate.
China has committed to using its own vaccines to inoculate its people, and to share them with the rest of the world, particularly developing nations. The drive seeks to bolster - or repair - China’s reputation on the global stage after accusations of cover-up and early missteps in supplying protective equipment.
There are logistical advantages to China’s offerings, but with major transparency concerns around late stage clinical data and some contradictory reports, health experts have urged caution.
A British epidemiologist and member of a governmental advisory panel has said last week’s data on an apparent decline in cases in England “probably relates to the lockdown measures”.
But he told Times Radio: “My concern is that what we’ve really got going on here is we’ve more or less split the population in two - those who can afford to stay at home and work and those who can’t.”
Professor Andrew Hayward, director of the University College London (UCL) Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), added: “I suspect what we’re really seeing is a very fast decline in those who are staying at home, and either a levelling off or potentially even a continuing increase in those who are continuing to work.”
He said the national picture was also feeling the impact of the two different strains of the virus. He was concerned about more activity than in the first lockdown, with three times as many people now using the London Underground and twice as many people using cars and buses.
A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of Covid-19 are to begin virtual meetings with their Chinese hosts from a hotel in Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged, on Friday.
Their arrival at the city in central China on Thursday was disrupted by the absence of two members who failed Covid-19 antibody tests in Singapore. One of the missing members has since passed a test and their travel to China is being arranged, according to China’s foreign ministry.
The team has been “treated very well by our hosts”, tweeted team member Peter Daszak, a zoologist.
Finally here in Wuhan! Team now undergoing the mandatory 14 days quarantine & being treated very well by our hosts. Work begins today, day 1, in teleconf. mtgs w/ China team. https://t.co/gi7Mjr1iBf
— Peter Daszak (@PeterDaszak) January 15, 2021
Updated
Health authorities in England have published weekly surveillance statistics on Covid-19 (and respiratory illnesses) that show hospital admission rates for coronavirus are at their highest in London and have increased in all regions except the north-east.
ICYMI: We've published our weekly #COVID19 surveillance report: https://t.co/a6mN93iPod
— Public Health England (@PHE_uk) January 15, 2021
It shows hospital admission rates for covid-19 are highest in #London and have increased in all regions except the North East. pic.twitter.com/Hzgj9OKHxn
Updated
In France, experts and member of the public are mulling over what difference two hours will make in the form of a new evening curfew that will begin nationally from at 6pm (17:00 GMT) on Saturday.
The move is a tightening of restrictions in place since December, which restricts movement from 8pm to 6am. Epidemiologists say the data is still not clear on the difference that the change will make, reports Le Monde today.
A new lockdown will be introduced if the curfew doesn’t work, according to a minister for the economy, Bruno Le Maire.
EN DIRECT - Bruno Le Maire avertit: si le couvre-feu "ne suffit pas", "il y aura un confinement"https://t.co/3gY8WpKDeK pic.twitter.com/itUxn1Op7q
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 15, 2021
Indonesia records biggest daily increase in Covid-19 cases
Indonesia recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases on Friday with 12,818 new infections, taking the total to 882,418, data from its Covid-19 taskforce showed.
It also reported 238 new deaths overnight, taking the total to 25,484. It has recorded among the most coronavirus infections and fatalities in Asia.
The co-director of 76 Days, an extraordinary documentary of how Wuhan’s hospitals coped with the initial wave of Covid, has been speaking of how he wanted to take viewers to the “Eye of the storm”.
As China approaches the anniversary of the start of its first lockdown, on 23 January, the precise source of the outbreak and the degree of subsequent cover-up remainS contested. The country is determined to celebrate its resilience and relative success at returning to something approaching normal life.
But 76 Days is not an overtly political film. While the co-director, Hao Wu, has trenchant views on why Chinese officials lied about the spread of the pandemic, it is not a film that takes its audience backstage on decision-making or fallout management.
Such a film could not be made, says Wu. Instead, 76 Days is a memory of a trauma. It is stripped of music, commentary, news clips, talking heads and almost all footage outside the hospital.
“I want to take the viewers to the eye of the storm and let them experience it, rather than manipulate their feelings,” he says. “The reality is horrific enough.”
The footage was taken by two local cameramen: one, a photojournalist who remains unidentified for his own safety; the other, Weixi Chen, a video reporter for Esquire China.
Wu, who is based in New York, has made two revelatory films about China, focusing on its soulless consumerism. He chose his colleagues for their craftsmanship, their ability to capture emotion by letting the camera linger.
Updated
The pope’s newly appointed scientific adviser said the coronavirus pandemic has forced world leaders to face up to the “existential risk” of the climate crisis.
Prof Ottmar Edenhofer said rich countries had a moral duty to compensate poor countries already suffering the impacts.
Edenhofer, the director of the climate research institute MCC in Berlin and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, was appointed to provide scientific advice to the Vatican agency focusing on justice for refugees, the poor and the stateless.
His appointment follows Pope Francis’s 2019 declaration of a climate emergency in which he said failing to act would be a “brutal act of injustice” towards the poor and future generations. Edenhofer told the Guardian he hoped his input would help drive action by governments.
Updated
A city in northern China is building a 3,000-unit quarantine facility to deal with an anticipated overflow of patients as Covid-19 cases rise ahead of the lunar new year travel rush.
State media on Friday showed crews levelling earth, pouring concrete and assembling pre-fabricated rooms in farmland outside Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei province that has reported the bulk of new cases.
That recalled scenes last year, when China rapidly built field hospitals and turned gymnasiums into isolation centres to cope with the initial outbreak linked to the central city of Wuhan.
Updated
Britain’s transport minister said scientists think that Covid-19 vaccines will work on a new variant of the coronavirus found in Brazil and a decision to ban flights from South America and Portugal was made over concerns it spreads faster.
Grant Shapps told the BBC
We had a look at this particular mutation, as opposed to many other thousands very carefully, saw there may be an issue, not so much that the vaccine won’t work, in fact scientists think it will work, but just the fact it is more spreadable.
Asked about how the new system requiring people entering the UK from Monday to produce a negative Covid test would work, Shapps also told the BBC:
“The carrier would need to first of all check that you had a coronavirus test, and indeed, that you had filled in a passenger locator form before you are actually able to get on the flight.
“And, only if you can show within the last 72 hours a negative test, and only if that test is up to very specific standards, may you board that plane. So that is where the check takes place.”
Updated
Philippines extends travel ban
The Philippines has extended by two weeks a ban on travellers from more than 30 territories and countries where a more transmissible Covid-19 variant has been detected, with the restriction also now covering Filipinos who want to come home.
The south-east Asian country, which has recorded its first case of a new variant that was first found in Britain, has the second highest number of Covid-19 cases and casualties in south-east Asia, next to Indonesia.
The flight ban, which has been expanded from the initial 19 countries and territories and was initially imposed for two weeks until 15 January, will be in effect until 31 January, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.
The prohibition also covers travellers from China starting from 13 January and the US beginning on 3 January.
The flight ban now covers all travellers coming from or transiting through the flagged countries, which also include Japan, Australia, Israel, Hong Kong, France, Germany and Italy, a statement said.
Previously, Filipinos from those areas were allowed to come home on condition that they underwent a 14-day quarantine in a government-designated isolation facility.
Updated
On the front pages of Friday’s national newspapers in the UK, the Guardian leads with an exclusive from Josh Halliday that plans to test millions of schoolchildren for coronavirus every week appear to be in disarray after the UK regulator refused to formally approve the daily testing of pupils in England.
Guardian front page, Friday 15 January 2021: Mass school Covid testing not approved by regulator pic.twitter.com/QzTsWN6tnH
— The Guardian (@guardian) January 14, 2021
In other front pages carrying Covid-19 news, the Mail reports on early figures indicating that there are signs of falling infections
MAIL; At last....infection rates in retreat #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/FY80Ddt3cz
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 14, 2021
The Telegraph reports on outbreaks at care homes, an issue which is causing increasing concern even after the introduction of the vaccine to people living in those locations.
TELEGRAPH: Shocking care home outbreaks at levels not seen since first peak #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/m3mj9JKyA0
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 14, 2021
The Daily Mirror reports on plans to involve high street pharmacies in delivering vaccine doses but also on criticism to delay a travel ban on people coming to the UK from South American states and Portugal.
MIRROR: Jabs on the high street #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ROupBouptt
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 14, 2021
Brazil variant significant enough to justify travel ban - UK minister
A Brazilian variant of the coronavirus is significant enough to justify stopping flights from South America as a precaution, Britain’s transport minister has said.
Speaking this morning, Grant Shapps, added, however, that it did not mean vaccines would not work.
“As with the variant that we saw in Kent (southern England) or the one in South Africa, it’s significantly enough of interest to us just to take this precautionary approach of stopping all those flights from Brazil (and) South America,” Shapps told Sky News.
“Our scientists aren’t saying that the vaccine won’t work against it … (but) we do not want to be tripping up at this last moment (of vaccine rollout) which is why I took the decision as an extra precaution to ban those flights.”
Updated
Hungary’s government has said it has reached a deal with China’s Sinopharm to buy its coronavirus vaccine, the country’s latest move to break away from Brussels as it tries to speed up inoculations to lift curbs on the economy.
Hungary would be the first EU country to accept a Chinese vaccine if approved by Hungarian authorities.
Under European Union rules, it would have to give an ultra-fast emergency use approval, rather than waiting for the European drug regulator EMA to give the go-ahead for the Chinese vaccine.
Hungary’s medical regulator will hopefully give a “clear answer” in a few days on whether the country can start using a coronavirus vaccine developed by China for mass inoculations, prime minister Viktor Orbán told state radio today.
Updated
UK heads for double-dip recession as GDP falls 2.6%
The UK economy is heading for a double-dip recession after official figures confirmed a renewed slump in November as the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 2.6% in November from a month earlier, a period when the government launched the second national lockdown in England and amid tougher controls in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. City economists had forecast a steeper fall of 5.7%.
Confirming the first step towards a double-dip recession, the latest official figures end six consecutive months of growth over the summer, when the UK economy had been recovering from the first wave of the crisis.
Updated
Good morning. This is Ben Quinn picking up the blog now in London on the morning after it was announced that travellers from across South America and Portugal would be banned amid growing concerns about a mutant coronavirus strain in Brazil.
However, the government is being taken to task over the introduction of the policy, with the opposition accusing it of failing to put in place an effective policy on testing before the entry and a quarantine system.
There is also criticism of an announcement that the start of the policy will be delayed until Monday. The British minister with the transport portfolio tweeted:
UPDATE: To give international arrivals time to prepare ⏱️ passengers will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before departure to England from MONDAY 18 JANUARY at 4am 📅
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) January 13, 2021
It’s also a day when the chancellor of the exchequer, who controls Britain’s national purse strings, is coming under renewed pressure to provide more financial support as official figures are expected to confirm the UK has slumped into a double-dip recession.
On the plus side, there is optimism that the UK can hit a target of vaccinating the 15 million most vulnerable people to Covid-19 by mid-February, while the prime minister, Boris Johnson, announced that the UK had exceeded the 3m point in terms of the number of vaccine dose delivered.
Outside of the UK, the World Health Organization’s senior official in Europe has called for tighter public health controls and France has extended a 6pm curfew to the entire country.
We’ll be continuing to keep up informed of all news developments both across Europe globally. Let me know if there are any major stories which we should be picking up on by contacting me on Twitter (@BenQuinn75) or by email.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan.
But before I go, there is a very important twist in the tale of this famous pigeon. Please make sure you are up to date:
MILKSHAKE DOVED https://t.co/WHx3iOjCZr
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) January 15, 2021
Summary
Here are the key global developments from the last few hours:
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Global deaths near 2m. The global coronavirus death toll currently stands at 1,993,699, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. With daily death tolls at around 16,000 per day in recent days, the world will likely pass the devastating milestone of 2 million dead from coronavirus in just over a year within the next few hours.
- UK South America flight ban comes into force. Travellers from across South America have been banned from entering the UK amid growing concerns about a mutant coronavirus strain which has emerged in Brazil. The ban which, also covers the Central American state of Panama and Portugal - due to its strong travel links with Brazil - and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, came into force at 4am on Friday.
- China’s worsening outbreak in Hebei does not appear to be slowing down, with yet another rise in case numbers on Thursday. After consecutive days above 100 confirmed cases, health authorities announced 144 new Covid-19 infections, including 135 local transmissions yesterday. It is the highest increase in 10 months, since 202 cases were reported on 1 March 2020. 90 of the 135 cases were found in Hebei province, and 43 in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
- Struggling London hospitals sending Covid patients to Newcastle. Seriously ill Covid patients are being transferred from overstretched London hospitals to intensive care units almost 300 miles away in Newcastle, the Guardian can reveal.
- US officials warned ‘full resurgence’ of Covid in major population centers, saying the country could see an additional 92,000 deaths in less than a month. White House coronavirus taskforce reports from 10 January, obtained by CNN, said they were seeing a “full resurgence” of the virus in “nearly all metro areas” and advocated for “aggressive action.
- The US government executed an inmate with Covid. The US government has executed an inmate for his involvement in a series of killings in Virginia’s capital city in 1992, despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his recent Covid-19 infection. Corey Johnson, 52, was the 12th inmate put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, since the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus. He was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m.
- Joe Biden has unveiled a $1.9tn stimulus package proposal that aims to bring new urgency to the nation’s coronavirus vaccination campaign and usher in another round of economic relief for struggling Americans.The US is facing its deadliest period of the pandemic so far. Detailing the plan in a speech on Thursday evening, Biden described the moment as “a crisis of deep human suffering”.“There’s no time to waste,” Biden said. “We have to act and we have to act now.”
- Denmark leads the EU in vaccinations against the novel coronavirus thanks to a swift and smooth roll-out, and even more people would have got the jab if it had more available doses. So far, 2.2% of Denmark’s population of 5.8 million has been vaccinated since the campaign began on 27 December.
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China’s economy grew last year at its slowest pace since the 1970s, according to an AFP poll of economists, but finished the year strongly on an accelerating coronavirus recovery. The average forecast of analysts from 13 financial institutions was a 2.0% expansion for the world’s second-largest economy, down sharply from 6.1% in 2019, itself a three-decade low.
- Hospitals in Brazil’s Amazonas short of oxygen. Health workers in Brazil’s largest state are begging for help and oxygen supplies after an explosion of Covid deaths and infections that one official compared to a tsunami and said could be linked to a new variant.
- France imposes 6 pm nationwide virus curfew. The French government will impose a daily nationwide curfew at 6 pm starting Saturday to combat a worrying increase in Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday. Up to now, most of France has been under an 8 pm curfew, with some parts of the country, especially in the hard-hit east, already under the stricter 6 pm curfew that Castex said had resulted in an infection rate two or three times lower than in the rest of the country.
- WHO convenes emergency committee early over coronavirus variants. The World Health Organization’s emergency committee will meet two weeks early on Thursday to discuss the new coronavirus variants from South Africa and Britain that have rapidly spread to at least 50 countries and sparked widespread alarm.
UK South America flight ban comes into force
Travellers from across South America have been banned from entering the UK amid growing concerns about a mutant coronavirus strain which has emerged in Brazil.
The ban which, also covers the Central American state of Panama and Portugal - due to its strong travel links with Brazil - and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, came into force at 4am on Friday.
PA: Scientists analysing the Brazilian variant believe the mutations it shares with the new South African strain seem to be associated with a rapid increase in cases in locations where there have already been large outbreaks of the disease.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps described the ban as a “precautionary” move to ensure the vaccination programme rolling out across the UK was not disrupted by new variants of the virus.
“We don’t want to trip up at this late stage. We don’t have cases at the moment but this is a precautionary approach,” he told BBC News.
“We want to make sure that we do everything possible so that vaccine rollout can continue and make sure that it is not disturbed by other variants of this virus.”
British and Irish nationals and others with residence rights are exempted from the measure, which was backed by the Scottish Government, though they must self-isolate for 10 days along with their households on their return.
There is an exemption also for hauliers travelling from Portugal to allow the transport of essential goods.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the ban was a “necessary step” but accused ministers of incompetence and “lurching from one crisis and rushed announcement to another”.
The move came as the latest figures showed the number of people across the UK to have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine has passed 2.9 million.
Updated
WHO convenes emergency committee early over coronavirus variants
The World Health Organization’s emergency committee will meet two weeks early on Thursday to discuss the new coronavirus variants from South Africa and Britain that have rapidly spread to at least 50 countries and sparked widespread alarm.
The newly identified variants, which appear to be significantly more infectious than the strain that emerged in China in 2019, come as spiking virus numbers force many nations to enforce new lockdowns.
The committee normally gathers every three months but the WHO said the director-general pulled the meeting forward “to consider issues that need urgent discussion”.
“These are the recent variants and considerations on the use (of) vaccination and testing certificates for international travel,” the global body said Wednesday.
There are concerns that the new mutations may render certain vaccines less effective, undermining hopes that inoculations offer the best hope of recovery from the global pandemic.
The committee of experts is overseen by France’s Didier Houssin and its recommendations will be published after the meeting.
The meeting comes as global infections soared past 91 million and deaths approached two million, with governments around the world reimposing painful economic lockdowns and social restrictions.
The newly discovered variants can only be identified by sequencing their genetic code, an analysis that is not possible everywhere.
A third mutation, originating in the Brazilian Amazon and whose discovery Japan announced on Sunday, is currently being analyzed and could impact the immune response, according to the WHO.
Migrant doctors and other healthcare professionals who have contracted Covid-19 while caring for NHS patients sick with the virus say they are devastated that a parliamentary bill that would have given them the right to remain in the UK has been postponed.
The healthcare workers said they were holding out hope that the second reading of the private members’ bill – which had been scheduled for 15 January and is now cancelled – could give them immigration security if passed.
The immigration (health and social care staff) bill 2019-21 calls for migrant healthcare workers to be granted indefinite leave to remain. It is similar to the citizenship being granted in France to frontline migrant workers:
Ministers face calls to extend the deadline for purchasing a house in England using the help-to-buy loan scheme, as buyers face losing thousands of pounds because of Covid-related delays in construction.
The government’s help-to-buy equity loan scheme, launched in 2013, allows people to buy a new-build home with a 5% deposit. The scheme was extended in July due to the pandemic, but ministers have refused to postpone the deadline any further.
Delays on building sites will mean that many developers are unable to build homes on time to meet the deadline at the end of March, leaving prospective buyers unable to take advantage of the loan scheme despite having paid out for legal and broker fees:
Updated
US government executes inmate with Covid
The US government has executed an inmate for his involvement in a series of killings in Virginia’s capital city in 1992, despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his recent Covid-19 infection.
AP: Corey Johnson, 52, was the 12th inmate put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, since the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus.
He was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m.
When he was asked if he had any last words, Johnson appeared surprised and distracted, focusing on a room to his left designated for members of his family. Still, glancing around, he responded to the question, “No. I’m OK.” Several seconds later, he said softly while gazing intently at same room, “Love you.”
As the lethal drug began flowing through IVs into his arms, which were strapped down on a cross-shaped gurney, Johnson lifted his arm at the wrist and waved to someone in a room for his family. A low murmur emanated from the room for Johnson’s family in which someone seemed to be praying and offering words of assurance to Johnson. For two minutes after the lethal injection began, Johnson continued to try to speak to someone out of view of reporters. But suddenly, his eyelids drew down hard and his mouth fell agape. He moved only slightly after that.
Johnson’s execution and Friday’s scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs are the last before next week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who opposes the federal death penalty and has signalled he’ll end its use. Both inmates contracted Covid-19 and won temporary stays of execution this week for that reason, only for higher courts to allow the lethal injections to move forward.
Thailand reported 188 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking its total infections to 11,450.
There were no new deaths reported and 34 of the new cases were imported from abroad or found in quarantine, the country’s Covid-19 taskforce said at a briefing. Thailand has recorded 69 coronavirus-related deaths since a year ago.
China Hebei outbreak not slowing down
China’s worsening outbreak in Hebei does not appear to be slowing down, with yet another rise in case numbers on Thursday.
After consecutive days above 100 confirmed cases, health authorities announced 144 new Covid-19 infections, including 135 local transmissions yesterday. It is the highest increase in 10 months, since 202 cases were reported on 1 March 2020.
90 of the 135 cases were found in Hebei province, and 43 in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 66 from 78 a day earlier. Authorities are enacting lockdowns of cities, mass testing drives, and travel restrictions across Hebei, which surrounds the capital city of Beijing. Yesterday authorities also reported the first Covid death in eight months, a woman in Hebei.State media has reported most of the cases are middle-aged and elderly people in villages away from city centres.
The Global Times on Friday reported concerns that some patients had visited village doctors upon feeling unwell, but weren’t tested, potentially delaying containment of the outbreak.”I was given a drip for seven days when I had a cough. The clinic neither gave me a nucleic acid test nor asked me to take one,” 56-year-old Fan Li told the paper.
The article quoted an unnamed doctor saying villagers chose to visit the clinic instead of city hospitals because they feared getting a nucleic acid test would see them immediately quarantined.
“Therefore, many village doctors like me would be reluctant to report patients with light symptoms to the city’s disease control center or suggest that they get tested,” he said.
Denmark leads EU in Covid vaccinations with smooth roll-out
Denmark leads the EU in vaccinations against the novel coronavirus thanks to a swift and smooth roll-out, and even more people would have got the jab if it had more available doses.
So far, 2.2% of Denmark’s population of 5.8 million has been vaccinated since the campaign began on 27 December.
Unlike other countries which have, amid delivery concerns, set aside half their vaccine allotment to ensure patients get their second dose, the Scandinavian country has barrelled ahead and used up its first Pfizer-BioNTech doses.
“The government’s clear position is that the moment the vaccines touch Danish soil is the moment they have to be used,” said Denmark’s Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
With well-oiled logistics and a swift campaign in nursing homes - where almost all who wanted the vaccine have now received it - Denmark tops the EU in vaccinations, far ahead of Italy and Slovenia and at a pace almost three times higher than the EU average, according to data compiled by AFP.
As of Thursday, 129,170 people in Denmark had received their first jab.
China’s 2020 GDP growth slowest in over four decades – report
China’s economy grew last year at its slowest pace since transformative market reforms of the 1970s, according to an AFP poll of economists, but finished the year strongly on an accelerating coronavirus recovery.
The average forecast of analysts from 13 financial institutions was a 2.0% expansion for the world’s second-largest economy, down sharply from 6.1% in 2019, itself a three-decade low.
China, where the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, was also the first country to emerge from its grip. It is expected to be the only major world economy to post positive 2020 growth.
Last year was a roller-coaster one for the country, with an unprecedented contraction in the first quarter caused by pandemic-related lockdowns quickly followed by a rebound as business and consumption returned.
The comeback gained pace through the fourth quarter, the analysts said, with encouraging data on consumer spending, factory activity and exports.
The poll produced an average forecast of around 6.3% growth for the final quarter of 2020, putting China back on its pre-pandemic growth trajectory.
“We expect a further pick-up in Q4 GDP growth, driven by strong exports, robust investment growth and a recovery in household consumption,” said Tommy Wu, lead economist with Oxford Economics.
In the latest positive sign, exports jumped 18% in December and were up 3.6% for the full year, according to figures released Thursday.
Official GDP growth figures are due for release on Monday.
The analysts’ expectations exceed the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of Chinese full-year 2020 growth at 1.9%.
Either figure would be the worst performance since 1976, when the economy shrank by 1.6%.
Two years after that, former leader Deng Xiaoping set in motion a shift away from communist-style central planning, turning China into an industrial, trade and tech powerhouse.
The rapid expansion of Covid-19 vaccinations to senior citizens across the US has led to bottlenecks, system crashes and hard feelings in many states because of overwhelming demand for the shots, AP reports.
Mississippi’s Health Department stopped taking new appointments the same day it began accepting them because of a “monumental surge” in requests. People had to wait hours to book vaccinations through a state website or a toll-free number Tuesday and Wednesday, and many were booted off the site because of technical problems and had to start over.
In California, counties begged for more coronavirus vaccine to reach millions of their senior citizens. Hospitals in South Carolina ran out of appointment slots within hours. Phone lines were jammed in Georgia.
“It’s chaos,” said New York City resident Joan Jeffri, 76, who had to deal with broken hospital web links and unanswered phone calls before her daughter helped her secure an appointment. “If they want to vaccinate 80% of the population, good luck, if this is the system. We’ll be here in five years.”
Up until the past few days, health care workers and nursing home patients had been given priority in most places around the US But amid frustration over the slow rollout, states have thrown open the line to many of the nation’s 54 million senior citizens with the blessing of President Donald Trump’s administration, though the minimum age varies from place to place, at 65, 70 or higher.
On Thursday, New Jersey expanded vaccinations to people between 16 and 65 with certain medical conditions — including up to 2 million smokers, who are more prone to health complications.
Updated
No time to waste': Biden unveils $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus package
Joe Biden has unveiled a $1.9tn stimulus package proposal that aims to bring new urgency to the nation’s coronavirus vaccination campaign and usher in another round of economic relief for struggling Americans.
The US is facing its deadliest period of the pandemic so far. Detailing the plan in a speech on Thursday evening, Biden described the moment as “a crisis of deep human suffering”.
“There’s no time to waste,” Biden said. “We have to act and we have to act now.”
Details of the aid package had been released by Biden’s transition team earlier on Thursday. They include $160bn in funding for vaccination and testing and other health programs; $1tn in relief to families, via direct payments and unemployment insurance; $440bn for aid to and businesses and communities; and $350bn for state, local and tribal governments.
Stimulus payment checks would be issued for $1,400 – topping up the $600 checks issued under the last congressional stimulus legislation. Supplemental unemployment insurance would also increase to $400 a week from $300 a week and would be extended to September:
Struggling London hospitals sending Covid patients to Newcastle
Seriously ill Covid patients are being transferred from overstretched London hospitals to intensive care units almost 300 miles away in Newcastle, the Guardian can reveal.
The crisis engulfing the capital’s hospitals is so severe that in recent days patients have also been moved 67 miles to Northampton, 125 miles to Birmingham and 167 miles to Sheffield.
NHS England has told hospitals in the north of England, the Midlands and other areas to open up hundreds of extra ICU beds to take patients from London, the south-east and east, where the new variant has pushed Covid hospital admissions to new levels:
The UK education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has put mass testing for coronavirus at the heart of his strategy to reopen schools after the lockdown. It is a controversial strategy that has divided scientists. Some believe mass testing can help reduce outbreaks at schools, while others argue it could make matters worse by giving teachers and pupils false reassurance.
Mass testing relies on lateral flow tests, or LFTs, which contain antibodies that bind to the virus. When a nasal swab is tested in an LFT, any virus present in the sample sticks to the antibodies and produces a dark band, a bit like a pregnancy test’s indicator. LFTs are not as accurate as the standard NHS lab-based PCR tests, but they are cheap and produce results fast – within 30 minutes:
US officials warn ‘full resurgence’ of Covid in major population centers
As coronavirus continues to tear across the US without any sign of slowing down, officials have warned there is a “full resurgence” in most major population centers – and that the country could see an additional 92,000 deaths in less than a month.
There have been more than 23m confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US and 385,503 deaths, Johns Hopkins University’s most recent data revealed.
White House coronavirus taskforce reports from 10 January, obtained by CNN, said they were seeing a “full resurgence” of the virus in “nearly all metro areas” and advocated for “aggressive action”.
The report, which is sent to states, suggested measures such as using “two or three-ply and well-fitting” masks, enforcing “strict” social distancing” and more aggressively testing young adults:
Rishi Sunak is coming under renewed pressure to provide more financial support to businesses across the UK, as official figures are expected to confirm the UK has slumped into a double-dip recession.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the chancellor needed to launch a new package of cash grants, and extend and expand a range of tax cuts to help businesses struggling to stay afloat while tougher coronavirus restrictions were in place.
Calling for immediate action, the business lobby group said firms could not afford to wait until the budget on 3 March, which Sunak has indicated will be the next date when he refreshes the government’s pandemic response:
France imposes 6 pm nationwide virus curfew
The French government will impose a daily nationwide curfew at 6 pm starting Saturday to combat a worrying increase in Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday.
The measure will remain in force for at least two weeks, Castex told a news conference.
Except for emergency services, all services and shops will have to close at that time, he said.
“The virus is still spreading actively,” Castex said.
AFP: Up to now, most of France has been under an 8 pm curfew, with some parts of the country, especially in the hard-hit east, already under the stricter 6 pm curfew that Castex said had resulted in an infection rate two or three times lower than in the rest of the country.
The nationwide curfew “will allow us to respond gradually and avoid having to taking more difficult measures.... It let’s us reduce social interactions at the end of the day, without limiting essential activities during the day,” Castex said.
He added that while a much-feared infection surge following the year-end holidays had not happened “thanks to your behaviour,” a new lockdown could be imposed “without delay” if the health situation were to deteriorate badly.
The situation in France is “under control compared to neighbouring countries but still fragile,” he warned, with pressure on hospitals still “high but stable.”
Schools will remain open, but indoor sports activities have again been banned for now.
Global deaths near 2m
The global coronavirus death toll currently stands at 1,988,290, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
With daily death tolls at around 16,000 per day in recent days, the world will likely pass the devastating milestone of 2 million dead from coronavirus in just over a year within the next 24 hours.
Hospitals in Brazil's Amazonas short of oxygen
Health workers in Brazil’s largest state are begging for help and oxygen supplies after an explosion of Covid deaths and infections that one official compared to a tsunami and said could be linked to a new variant.
Amazonas, and particularly its riverside capital Manaus, were pummeled by the epidemic’s first wave last April, when authorities were forced to dig mass graves for victims.
But at a press conference on Thursday, the state governor, Wilson Lima, admitted the situation was now even more dramatic and declared an immediate 7pm to 6am curfew to slow the outbreak.
“We are facing the most critical moment of the pandemic, something unprecedented in the state of Amazonas,” Lima told reporters as he announced the restriction.
As he spoke, horrific details were emerging of a breakdown in Manaus’s public health system, with reports of many patients dying after public hospitals and emergency care units ran out of oxygen. More than 206,000 people have now died across Brazil, the second highest total in the world after the US:
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Hospitals in Brazil’s northern state of Amazonas ran short of oxygen and made an urgent call for help from the United States on Thursday.
Amazonas, where nearly 6,000 people have died from Covid-19, is now suffering a devastating second wave that is pushing emergency services to a breaking point.
Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said the situation in Manaus, the state’s capital city, was extremely serious, with its hospital system collapsing and oxygen lacking.
Meanwhile the global coronavirus death toll currently stands at 1,988,290, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. With daily death tolls at around 16,000 per day in recent days, the world will likely pass the devastating milestone of 2 million dead from coronavirus in just over a year within the next 24 hours.
Here are the other key recent global developments:
- US officials warn ‘full resurgence’ of Covid in major population centres. As coronavirus continues to tear across the US without any sign of slowing down, officials have warned there is a “full resurgence” in most major population centres – and that the country could see an additional 92,000 deaths in less than a month.
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Israel reaches two million vaccinated milestone. The number of people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine in Israel has passed the two million threshold, with the prime minister saying there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.
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UK records 1,248 new Covid-19 deaths, down from record level. Britain reported 1,248 new deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test on Thursday, down from a record high of more than 1,500 the previous day.
- Brazil’s largest state declares immediate curfew. The governor of Brazil’s largest state, Amazonas, has declared an immediate curfew amid reports of an explosion in coronavirus-related deaths and claims an entire hospital wing of patients had died after its oxygen supply ran out.
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UK bans travel from Brazil and other South American countries. The UK has taken the “urgent decision” to ban arrivals into the country from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Incoming flights from these countries will stop tomorrow.
- Sweden reports record number of daily coronavirus deaths. Sweden, whose unorthodox pandemic strategy placed it in the global spotlight, reported a record number of Covid-19 deaths for a single day on Thursday, taking the total toll above 10,000, although new infections appear to be easing.
