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Chile to loosen restrictions for those vaccinated against Covid-19
Chileans fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be allowed to move more freely within the country, the government said on Monday, although the nation’s borders will remain closed through mid-June to tamp down a fresh rise in infections.
People in Chile who have completed their vaccination cycle will be able to move between communities that are both in and out of quarantine for some activities, as well as travel more freely inside the country starting on Wednesday, the government said.
All other sanitary measures, including mask wearing and social distancing, will remain in place for the group.
Travel within Chile has been greatly restricted amid a sharp surge in infections that kicked off following the southern hemisphere summer vacation months, leading to widespread lockdowns throughout the country.
Chile has inoculated more than 50% of its population, or 7.7 million people, with two doses of vaccine, a tally that places it among the world leaders in vaccination against Covid-19.
The country has confirmed more than 1.3 million cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 28,548 deaths from the highly contagious respiratory disease.
The new freedoms for the growing group of vaccinated citizens will not include foreign travel, health officials said, adding they would extend the closure of the country’s borders through 15 June.
Government spokesman Jaime Bellolio said the decision to allow more movement within Chile should not be considered “open season” for disregarding sanitary protocols, but rather, exemptions from some restrictions for those who “represent a lower risk for others and for themselves.”
Bellolio said a new “mobility pass” would utilise a QR code, a matrix barcode often accessed by cellphone, which would allow the government to immediately change people’s status should they become infected.
Holders of the pass will not be allowed to travel during night-time curfew, in place since the pandemic hit in March 2020, and must respect strict limits on social and work gatherings.
Officials in Chile said they were in discussions with counterparts across the globe over a similar type of pass for international travel but had yet to settle on a model.
Japan opened mass inoculation centres on Monday as it races to vaccinate most of its elderly population before the start of the Tokyo Olympics on 23 July.
The centres in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of people every day, giving a boost to Japan’s sluggish inoculation drive as the country battles a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.
“It’s better to get it early,” said Tetsuya Urano, 66, who was among the first to be vaccinated in the capital Tokyo. “It went pretty smoothly, all in all.”
Just 4.4% of Japan’s population of 125 million have received at least one vaccine dose, according to Reuters’ global tracker, the slowest rate among the world’s larger, rich countries.
The US State Department on Monday urged against visiting Japan, adding it to a list of countries with a “Do Not Travel” designation.
The Tokyo inoculation facility will operate 12 hours a day to dispense shots to 10,000 people daily for the next three months. The site in Osaka, Japan’s western metropolis, will build up to about 5,000 shots a day.
The prime minister Yoshihide Suga called for the centres last month to speed up the vaccination rollout. Large-scale inoculation sites operated by local governments also opened in the prefectures of Aichi, Miyagi, and Gunma.
The fourth wave of infections has led authorities to declare states of emergency covering much of the country, including Tokyo, raising some concerns about the Olympic Games due to begin on 23 July.
The states of emergency for most regions are due to end on 31 May, though the government is leaning towards extending the measures, several people with knowledge of the decision told Reuters.
Osaka’s governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, whose region has been among the hardest hit in the current wave, told reporters he would decide on whether to request an extension of the emergency on Tuesday.
Japan began its inoculation push in mid-February, later than most major economies. The campaign was slowed initially by scant supplies of imported doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE.
But even as shipments increased, the rollout has been hampered by manpower shortages and malfunctions in the reservation system.
The mass vaccination centres for the elderly are using Moderna Inc’s vaccine, which was approved on Friday, along with AstraZeneca PLC’s shot.
On Monday, Johnson & Johnson said it had filed for regulatory approval of its one-shot vaccine and it could begin supplying the country in early 2022.
Algeria will impose strict health measures on passengers when it partially resumes international flights next month, the prime minister’s office said on Monday.
The country last week said it would reopen air borders on 1 June, but with only five flights a day from and to three local airports.
Passengers must have a negative result for Covid-19 from an RT-PCR test dated less than 36 hours before the date of travel to Algeria, the prime minister’s office said.
All passengers would be quarantined for five days in hotels at their expense, and the quarantine would be extended to 10 days for those who test positive for Covid-19 at the end of the first five days, it added.
“These conditions must be met before boarding,” it said in a statement.
Algeria closed its borders in March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic spread. It resumed domestic flights in December last year.
It has so far reported 127,107 coronavirus cases, including 3,426 deaths.
Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine is highly effective against the coronavirus variant first discovered in Brazil, according to Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and a study conducted by researchers in Argentina.
Brazil’s P1 variant, behind a deadly Covid-19 surge in Brazil, has spread throughout hard-hit Latin America. Scientists in Brazil have found that the variant’s mutations could make it more resistant to antibodies, raising international concern over its potential to render vaccines less effective.
The Argentina-based study, carried out by the Dr Vanella Institute of Virology of the National University of Córdoba (UNC), however, found a strong immune response against the variant in those vaccinated with Sputnik V.
“The study confirmed that the immunity developed in people vaccinated with ‘Sputnik V’ neutralizes the Brazilian strain after having received two doses, and even after the first,” the RDIF said in a statement on Monday.
According to the Argentine study, viewed by Reuters and cited by RDIF, 85.5% of individuals developed antibodies against the variant on day 14 following the first dose of the vaccine. That rate rose to nearly 100% by day 42, after an individual had received both doses.
Rogelio Pizzi, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UNC, told Reuters the institute’s study showed that the Russian vaccine successfully inhibits the variant.
“The results are excellent. The vaccine works for this strain,” Pizzi told Reuters, adding that the UNC Institute of Virology is also conducting studies on the strain originally detected in the UK.
The White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday the United States could not confirm a Wall Street Journal report on the origins of Covid-19 and needed more information, Reuters reports.
Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before China reported the first cases of Covid-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a US intelligence report.
Psaki said the US hopes the World Health Organization can move into a more transparent investigation of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Good evening from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Summary of recent developments
Here’s a roundup of today’s key points:
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Many of India’s 140 million migrant workers are at risk of being left out of the country’s vaccination programme, experts have warned, despite being at high risk of illness.
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Bahrain reported its highest daily number of coronavirus deaths on Monday, with 23 further deaths registered amid a spike in cases.
- China has vehemently denied a Wall Street Journal report citing US intelligence materials that said several members of staff at a key virus laboratory in Wuhan had fallen ill shortly before the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in the city on 8 December 2019.
- One in five Brazilian cities reported a shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses last week, according to a survey of the country’s municipalities.
- Taiwan has recorded six new deaths from Covid-19, and several hundred more cases in the continuing outbreak. It is the second day in a row of six recorded deaths from the outbreak.
- Malaysia has reported a 61 further coronavirus deaths – its highest daily toll since the pandemic began. The south-east Asian country, which has a population of around 32 million, also registered 6,509 new positive cases, taking its total since the pandemic began to 518,600.
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Sri Lanka has extended its on going travel ban for another two weeks as health experts warn of a possible breakdown of the country’s health system due to rampant coronavirus infections.
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Malta has vaccinated up to 70 per cent of the adult population with least one dose of the vaccine, the first country in the EU to reach this goal.
That’s all from me for today – my colleague Lucy Campbell will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours. Thanks for reading along.
Bahrain reports record number of deaths
Bahrain reported 23 coronavirus deaths on Monday – the highest daily number registered since the pandemic began.
The country of 1.7 million people has seen cases surge in recent weeks. In response to the spike in infections, authorities restricted access to most public venues to vaccinated residents, Reuters reports.
Officials announced earlier this month that they would expand the country’s vaccination rollout to include teenagers aged 12-17.
The kingdom has recorded more than 218,000 cases and over 800 deaths since the onset of the pandemic.
Updated
Greece added 1,381 new coronavirus cases to its tally on Monday, alongside 50 deaths.
This compares with 1,395 cases and 56 a week today.
The country’s total number of confirmed infections since the pandemic began is now 391,181, with 11,822 fatalities.
The positivity rate stood at 6.52% over the past 24 hours, according to the National Organization of Public Health (EODY) which conducted more than 21,000 tests.
New data released over the weekend added to concerns about the ability of the Covid variant first detected in India – B.1.617.2 – to spread in the UK, but brought relief by suggesting that the vaccines still offer considerable protection against this growing threat.
However, many are still not eligible for vaccines or are partially vaccinated. Natalie Grover and Nicola Davis look at how this could impact the government’s roadmap out of restrictions:
Many of India’s 140 million migrant workers are at risk of being left out of the country’s vaccination programme, experts have warned, despite being at high risk of illness.
Migrant workers may be excluded from the campaign due to a lack of awareness and a strategy targeting the group as well a a severe shortage of doses, according to a feature by Al Jazeera. Adults under 45 are particularly vulnerable.
S Irudaya Rajan, chairman of the International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD) called for migrant workers’ vaccination to be prioritised due to high risk of illness. The group is often stigmatised.
Rajan told Al Jazeera: “Migration-prone age group, especially inter-state migrant workers, are mostly less than 30 years. They should be prioritised for vaccination because they are the ones moving and so their risk factor is much more compared to others.”
Just 3.8% of India’s nearly 1.35 billion population is fully vaccinated.
One in five Brazilian cities reported a shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses last week, according to a survey of the country’s municipalities.
The poll found that 1,002 from a total of 5,570 Brazilian cities said they lacked vaccine shots between 17 and 20 May, according to an article in the English language outlet the Brazilian Report.
Of this number, 79.3% reported a shortage of second doses, while 39.9% said they lacked shots to administer initial doses.
Brazil has fully vaccinated 8.8% of its population, while 19% have received an initial dose.
Updated
China has vehemently denied a Wall Street Journal report citing US intelligence materials that said several members of staff at a key virus laboratory in Wuhan had fallen ill shortly before the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in the city on 8 December 2019.
Foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said it was “completely untrue” that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) became sick in autumn 2019. The report, based on “previously undisclosed” US intelligence, said the said the lab workers staff had become sick “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness”.
“The United States continues to hype up the ‘lab-leak’ theory … Does it care about traceability or is it just trying to distract attention?” Zhao said. He also cited a March statement from WIV , in which the institute said it had “never dealt with Sars-CoV-2 before 30 December 2019”.
Italy has reported 110 coronavirus-related deaths, compared with 140 a week ago.
The country registered a further 2,490 cases – a fall from 3,454 last Monday.
Italy’s death toll since its outbreak emerged in February last year stands at 125,335 – the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.19 million cases to date.
That’s it from me, Rhi Storer, for now. I will now pass the live blog back over to Clea Skopeliti for the rest of the afternoon.
Malta 'achieves herd immunity' vaccinating up to 70% of adults
Malta has vaccinated up to 70 per cent of the adult population with least one dose of the vaccine, the first country in the EU to reach this goal.
While addressing a press conference on Monday, the health minister, Chris Fearne said the nation has now reached ‘herd immunity’ against coronavirus.
“Today we have reached herd immunity. The vaccine is a weapon against the virus,” the health minister said.
Malta is currently vaccinating people at a faster rate than its EU peers.
Fearne said by Monday evening 70% of adults will have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, while 42% of the population have been completely vaccinated at this stage.
He encouraged people aged 16-29 to come forward and register, saying 52% of this age group had signed up so far.
He was speaking as Malta entered another phase in its reopening timeline - with gyms and pools welcoming back patrons on Monday and restaurants allowed to open until midnight. People who are fully vaccinated will not have to wear a mask outdoors from July.
The health minister said a vaccine certificate would be launched in the coming days and from July authorities would be able to use this to begin to open cultural and entertainment events.
According to official figures released by Malta’s health authorities on Monday, a total of 474,475 Covid-19 vaccination jabs have been administered so far. The figures show that 302,933 of these were first doses.
Updated
Sri Lanka extends travel ban for another two weeks
Sri Lanka has extended its on going travel ban for another two weeks as health experts warn of a possible breakdown of the country’s health system due to rampant coronavirus infections.
The country is currently under a weeklong travel ban which was scheduled to be eased on May 28. But on Monday, the government announced that the lockdown-style ban will continue until June 07.
The ban will be eased for several hours on two days to allow people to buy food and other essentials from outlets within walking distance.
It will not apply to those engaged in essential services such as health, food supply, and those seeking medical treatments.
Health experts in Sri Lanka suggest coronavirus infections are rampant across the country and the actual number in communities is three times the number detected.
According to the latest statistics of the health ministry, Sri Lanka has 161,242 positive cases with 1,178 fatalities.
Updated
On Wednesday, the European Commission, which has accused AstraZeneca of failing to deliver a promised number of coronavirus vaccine doses, will attempt to persuade a Brussels court its case is urgent enough to justify the pharmaceutical company to immediately deliver its missing shots.
AstraZeneca’s contract, signed with the commission on behalf of EU member states, was for an initial 300m doses for distribution among the 27 countries, with an option for a further 100m. The doses were expected to be delivered throughout 2021, but so far only 30m have been sent during the first quarter.
According to the commission, the company is set to provide 70m doses in the second quarter. It had promised 180m doses.
While the European Union insists AstraZeneca has breached its contractual obligations, the company says it has complied with the agreement, arguing that vaccines are difficult to manufacture and it made its best effort to deliver on time.
Stefan De Keersmaecker, a European Commission spokesman, said: “We want the court to order the company to deliver 90m additional doses, in addition to the 30m already delivered in the first quarter.”
“There is a clear emergency,” De Kersemaecker told AP. “We need to reach our target to have 70% of the adult population vaccinated this summer. And to reach that goal we need all the vaccines in our portfolio, so it’s an urgent matter.”
In an interview with the Financial Times last weekend, the AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said the UK government had been guaranteed priority delivery of vaccines as part of a deal with Oxford University in return for investment. That was before AstraZeneca joined as a development partner to produce and distribute the serum.
“Of course when you do something like this as a government, you don’t do it for free,” he said. “What you want in return, and it’s fair enough, is priority.”
Here are the latest statistics on coronavirus vaccination data from NHS England via PA Media.
A total of 51,254,436 coronavirus vaccinations took place in England between 8 December and 23 May, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 321,770 on the previous day.
NHS England said 31,826,805 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 101,708 on the previous day, while 19,427,631 were a second dose, an increase of 220,062.
A regional breakdown in the same period shows 6,443,168 vaccinations were given to people in London, including 4,127,848 first doses and 2,315,320 second doses.
This compares with 6,001,023 first doses and 3,735,234 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 9,736,257.
The number of vaccinations across the other regions is as followed:
• East of England: 3,809,019 first doses and 2,323,660 second doses – a total of 6,132,679.
• North East and Yorkshire: 4,988,589 first and 3,077,612 second doses – a total of 8,066,201.
• North West: 4,059,051 first and 2,538,450 second doses – a total of 6,597,501.
• South East: 5,199,575 first and 3,152,688 second doses – a total of 8,352,263.
• South West: 3,400,483 first and 2,224,390 second doses – a total of 5,624,873.
Updated
Hi there, this is Rhi Storer taking over from Clea Skopeliti for the next hour. You can reach me on rhi.storer@guardian.co.uk, or alternatively, you can contact me on Twitter.
Switzerland has signed a deal with the World Health Organization to host a lab storing pathogens that have potential to start pandemics as the UN agency aims to boost its defences against future pandemics.
The BioHub laboratory will store and analyse viruses and bolster the rapid sharing of information between labs globally, AFP reports.
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said it would be a “reliable, safe, and transparent mechanism for member states to voluntarily share pathogens and clinical samples”.
The facility will be located at the Swiss defence ministry’s biological safety laboratories in the lakeside town of Spiez.
At present, individual countries share information about pathogens in an ad hoc manner, which can be slow and leave some countries uninformed. The BioHub lab would aid the WHO in responding to emerging threats rapidly, as the agency’s 194 member states would share biological materials with the facility under pre-agreed terms.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and other outbreaks and epidemics have underscored the importance of rapidly sharing pathogens to help the global scientific community assess the risk and develop counter-measures such as diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines,” said Tedros.
“The BioHub system is an important step towards facilitating this flow of information.”
Updated
World leaders have discussed vaccine sharing, strengthening the World Health Organization and adopting a pandemic treaty on the first day of the UN agency’s main annual gathering.
“We are at war with a virus,” United Nations chief António Guterres told the opening of the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA), as quoted by AFP. “We need the logic and urgency of a war economy, to boost the capacity of our weapons.
The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this year’s WHA, which is being held virtually until 1 June, was “arguably one of the most important” in the organisation’s history.
“This is not the time for incremental improvements or tinkering at the edges,” he told the assembly. “This is the moment for bold ideas, bold commitment and bold leadership, for doing things that have never been done before.”
A number of mainly European countries are calling for significant strengthening of the WHO, urging for its independence, flexibility and funding to be boosted. However, there is some disagreement over proposals to hand the agency more power.
Three independent panels have assessed aspects of the global pandemic response, concluding that countries and institutions had been severely unprepared to deal with the crisis. They have argued for a major overhaul of the global alarm system.
Updated
A study has found that people who are infected with coronavirus give off a distinct odour, which highly trained dogs can detect with pinpoint precision.
The paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that dogs could detect Covid-19 on clothing worn by infected people with up to 94.3% sensitivity: they would correctly identify 94 out of every 100 infected people. This compares with a sensitivity of 58-77% for lateral flow tests, and 97.2% for PCR tests.
Read the full report, by Linda Geddes, here:
Updated
The mayor of New York has said the city’s schools will return to in-person classes this autumn, with no remote options.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme, Mayor Bill de Blasio said: “We can’t have a full recovery without full-strength schools, everyone back, sitting in those classrooms, kids learning again.”
The 1 million pupils who attend the city’s state-run schools will continue to follow coronavirus measures, such as mask wearing and Covid-19 testing, de Blasio said.
“It’s time. It’s really time to go full strength now,” he said.
After closing schools in March 2020, New York City was one of the first large US cities to reopen school buildings that autumn, but most parents chose online-only learning for their children.
Updated
As India’s coronavirus death toll passed 300,000 on Monday, experts are concerned about the emergence of a usually rare fungal infection called mucormycosis among coronavirus patients.
There have been between 5,424 and 8,848 cases of mucormycosis, also known as “black fungus”, across India, according to government figures. Normally it records fewer than 20 cases a year, according to Reuters.
The fungal disease, which begins in the nose but can then spread into the brain, has a 50% mortality rate.
Doctors say one of the reasons behind the explosion in “black fungus” infections has been excessive use of steroids on virus patients.
Health minister Harsh Vardhan said imports of the main anti-fungal drug, amphotericin B, had started to arrive in the country amid a severe shortage.
Malaysia reports highest number of daily deaths
Malaysia has reported a 61 further coronavirus deaths – its highest daily toll since the pandemic began.
The south-east Asian country, which has a population of around 32 million, also registered 6,509 new positive cases, taking its total since the pandemic began to 518,600. Malaysia’s death toll stands at 2,309.
#COVID19 update for May 24. Malaysia recorded 6,509 new positive cases with the highest death tally thus far at 61 deaths. #StayHome #JagaDiriJagaKeluarga pic.twitter.com/JQ6SXv3Oos
— KKMalaysia🇲🇾 (@KKMPutrajaya) May 24, 2021
Monday’s figures follow a record jump of 6,976 new cases on Sunday.
Updated
England’s international traffic light system sorts countries into different lists depending on a number of factors including the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, infection rates and the prevalence of variants of concern.
However, some countries with large numbers of cases are on the amber list, despite having higher infection rates than other red-list countries. This has prompted concerns that the UK government will allow new cases – and variants – to be imported back into the country.
Pablo Gutiérrez and Ashley Kirk have created this interactive explainer mapping infection rates against vaccination numbers:
Updated
At least 115,000 health and care workers have died from Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic, the World Health Organization chief has said at the organisation’s annual member states’ meeting as he called for more equitable distribution of vaccines.
Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged the sacrifices made by these workers during the health crisis, adding that they have often lacked access to personal protective equipment and, more recently, vaccines.
“For almost 18 months, health and care workers all over the world have stood in the breach between life and death,” he said. “They have saved countless lives and fought for others who, despite their best efforts, slipped away.”
Tedros added: “Many have themselves become infected, and while reporting is scant, we estimate that at least 115,000 health and care workers have paid the ultimate price in the service of others.”
He underlined the inequitable global distribution of vaccines, with more than 75% of the world’s doses going to just 10 countries.
“The number of doses administered globally so far would have been enough to cover all health workers and older people if they had been distributed equitably,” he said.
Updated
Foreign climbers are continuing to summit Mount Everest despite reports of a Covid-19 outbreak at the Nepali base camp.
Nepal receives millions of dollars in income from climbers every year. The badly hit country issued 408 climbing permits for the April-May season this year, after closing the peak last year due to the pandemic, according to Reuters.
Following a sharp rise in cases at the mountain’s base camp, Lukas Furtenbach of the Austrian Furtenbach Adventures company evacuated his team this month.
“So far we have about one hundred confirmed cases in Everest base camp, confirmed by doctors, by hospitals, by insurance companies, by expedition leaders, by helicopter pilots who are flying out the patients and of course by the climbers themselves,” Furtenbach told Reuters TV in Kathmandu on Monday.
However, Mira Acharya, a director at the Department of Tourism said the government had not received any notice of a virus outbreak, saying that “If there were a few cases they were managed in time and well”.
Nepal’s caseload rose to 513,241 infections and 6,346 deaths on Sunday.
Singapore health authorities are preparing to trial a Covid-19 breathalyser test that delivers results in under a minute, according to the the startup that developed the technology.
Breathonix, a spin-off company from the National University of Singapore (NUS), said health authorities have provisionally approved the product and are working with the company to run a trial at one of Singapore’s border points with Malaysia, Reuters reports.
The test was found to be more than 90% accurate in a pilot clinical trial, the company said last year, adding that it will be used alongside the compulsory antigen rapid test.
Photograph: Chen Lin/Reuters
Any individual who is found to be positive will need to undergo a confirmatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab test, the company said.
The kit uses disposable mouthpieces and is designed to ensure there is no cross-contamination.
Hello, I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be running the blog for the next few hours. I’m on Twitter if you’d like to get in touch with any coronavirus updates. Thanks in advance!
Today so far…
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has started its annual member states’ meeting this morning.
- French president Emmanuel Macron called for the body to be empowered to visit countries rapidly in case of outbreaks with potential to spark a pandemic, and to access data.
- In separate pre-recorded remarks, German chancellor Angela Merkel called for funding to be improved and backed the idea of a new international treaty to prevent pandemics.
- Director general Tedros Adhanom is speaking at the moment, and has said a “scandalous inequity” in vaccine distribution is perpetuating the pandemic.
- India’s overall death toll from Covid crossed 300,000 on Monday, as it reported 4,454 deaths over the last 24 hours. Its daily coronavirus infections rose by 222,315.
- Taiwan has recorded six new deaths from Covid-19, and several hundred more cases in the continuing outbreak.
- Australia’s second most populous state of Victoria reported on Monday four new Covid-19 infections, all in the city of Melbourne, the first cases of community transmission in the state in nearly three months.
- The International Olympic Committee’s insistence that “sacrifices” must be made to ensure the Games go ahead in Tokyo regardless of the coronavirus situation in Japan has sparked a backlash and more calls for them to be cancelled. Japan opened its first mass vaccination centres on Monday in a bid to speed up a cautious Covid-19 inoculation programme
- Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued an apology in the US after an image showed her to be apparently violating state-mandated social distancing guidelines at an East Lansing restaurant.
- Prof Ravi Gupta has urged people to get a second vaccine dose, saying “a single dose is not particularly protective and that’s the situation that many adults find themselves in during a period of easing of restrictions”.
- The UK has reported five new deaths with 28 days of a positive Covid test. That puts the seven-day average down to just over seven deaths per day.
- The number of new daily coronavirus infections in Ukraine decreased to 1,334 cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest level since August 2020.
- Bahrain is to suspend entry for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal from 24 May.
- Israel will end local Covid-19 restrictions following its vaccine rollout that has nearly stamped out new infections, the country’s health minister said.
You can follow UK Covid news with Andrew Sparrow over here. This live blog will continue carrying international coronavirus news with Clea Skopeliti, who will be here shortly.
Updated
The World Health Organization (WHO) has started its annual member states’ meeting this morning.
AFP teed it up by reporting that with the Covid-19 crisis still raging and wealthy nations continuing to hoard most doses of life-saving vaccines, the WHO’s main decision-making body has plenty to discuss.
The 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) begins with statements from national leaders, including French president Emmanuel Macron, health ministers and other high-level representatives of the WHO’s 194 member states.
Reuters note that Macron called for the body to be empowered to visit countries rapidly in case of outbreaks with potential to spark a pandemic, and to access data.
In separate pre-recorded remarks, German chancellor Angela Merkel called for funding to be improved and backed the idea of a new international treaty to prevent pandemics.
The discussions will run until 1 June and focus heavily on efforts to rein in the pandemic and on calls to revamp the entire global health approach to help prevent future Covid-like catastrophes.
A key moment will come on Tuesday when ministers and diplomats discuss the findings of three separate independent panels that assessed aspects of the global pandemic response.
Finding that countries and institutions had been woefully unprepared to deal with the crisis, the experts argued for a total overhaul of the global alarm system. They also urged reform of the WHO to boost its independence, transparency and funding.
Updated
India’s Cadila Healthcare is aiming to triple monthly production of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate to as many as 30 million doses, its managing director has said.
Headquartered in Ahmedabad in western India, Cadila is looking to increase monthly production of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D to up to 30m doses in four to five months, from 10m now, its managing director, Sharvil Patel, told Reuters.
“We still think we should be able to submit (the vaccine for emergency use authorisation) in May,” Patel said today. The company will use both in-house capacity as well as third-party manufacturers to boost production, he added.
It is undergoing late-stage trials in nearly 30,000 adults after being found safe and immunogenic in earlier studies. It is meant to be given in three doses but Cadila is also doing trials on a two-dose application.
Updated
Koichi Nakano, professor of political science at Sophia University, Japan, writes for us this morning:
The largest urban centres of Japan, including Tokyo, are currently in the third state of emergency since the start of the pandemic, and the second this calendar year. The state of emergency has never been a hard lockdown, with schools, shops and restaurants mostly remaining open, albeit with earlier closing times and other restrictions in place, though larger venues have been more severely controlled.
The Japanese public tend to see these measures as too little, too late. A hard lockdown would not be popular, but the never-ending limbo of repeated soft lockdowns puts off even the most patient and cooperative of people. Unlike in other countries, the root cause of the cycle of denial and delay isn’t a new variant or poor public health infrastructure: it’s the Olympics.
Although Suga insists he has “never put the Olympics first”, it is hard not to see the fact the world will have its eyes on Japan this summer as having an effect. He delays making hard decisions, such as introducing states of emergency. When he finally does make them, he sets the period too short and ends up having to extend it. In the meantime, lockdown measures are starting to grate. Serving alcohol at eateries and bars has been banned, though the commuter trains remain crowded at rush hours. Incomprehensibly, theatres may continue to operate at half-capacity for live performances, whereas large cinemas were ordered to close. The arbitrariness of the measures partly comes from the failure of coordination between the national and prefectural governments, which are both keen to avoid having to take responsibility.
The most damning factor is the spectacular failure of the vaccination programme. With a mere 4.4% of the population getting their first jab to date, Japan is at the very bottom of the OECD rankings – it has yet to even finish inoculating all medical professionals.
Read more here: Koichi Nakano – In Japan most people want to cancel the Olympics, but the government won’t listen
Fenit Nirappil at the Washington Post has this on doctors from the Indian diaspora in the US trying to help the situation in India during the Covid crisis:
Anup Katyal, an intensive care physician in Missouri, was finally getting a break from treating hundreds of covid-19 patients at the hospital where he works. Then, catastrophe descended on India, his homeland.
Each day since, he has awakened to a flurry of messages from 20 relatives, friends and fellow doctors in India seeking medical advice.
And then, before bed, he has hopped on Zoom with a family in New Delhi who contracted the virus and turned to a physician 7,700 miles away because local doctors turned off their phones and shuttered their offices.
Many newly infected Indians are struggling to find medical care as urban hospitals are stretched to their limits and bare-bones health systems struggle in rural areas and villages. Misinformation and misguided claims about purported cures, such as lemon drops, have proliferated as terrified citizens fend for themselves.
In recent weeks, the St. Louis ICU where Katyal practices has treated fewer than 10 covid patients a day. “The moment we thought there was a respite here from my ICU standpoint, it’s unbearable now to see what’s going on in India.”
He stumbled upon a Facebook post advertising a free telehealth platform organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin to connect volunteer doctors to patients with mild to moderate coronavirus cases abroad. His son Aditya Katyal, an undergraduate premedical student, joins to help him use the technology and double-check medical facts during these sessions.
Read more here: Washington Post – Patients in India are desperate for care. This family turned to a doctor 7,700 miles away
Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK Covid live blog for the day – you can find that here.
I’ll be continuing here with the major coronavirus developments from around the world.
A series of coronavirus clusters among construction workers in Bangkok, including the first local cases of the variant first identified in India, has put a fresh spotlight on migrant labour rights as Thailand grapples with its deadliest outbreak so far.
Migrant workers have been crucial during Bangkok’s decade-long construction boom, but they receive limited welfare from the government and their employers, advocacy groups say. Many live onsite in crowded dormitories to save money.
Thailand last week detected its first 36 domestically transmitted cases of the highly infectious B.1.617.2 coronavirus variant among people in construction workers’ accommodation in Bangkok.
Chayut Setboonsarng has this despatch for Reuters from Bangkok, reporting that city authorities have prohibited movement of workers at such camps after 11 were among 30 active clusters in the capital.
“Migrant workers are a group that society overlooks,” Suthasinee Kaewleklai, Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) coordinator in Thailand said.
“Many were not confident that they can come in for tests and not be arrested.”
The International Organization for Migration estimates that there are 4 million to 5 million migrant workers in Thailand, many working in construction, manufacturing and seafood industries.
There are also concerns that border crossings are undermining the country’s strict quarantine system for arrivals in the country. Thailand is battling its most severe outbreak yet, fuelled by another highly transmissible variant, B.1.1.7, first detected in Britain, which authorities believe may have entered Thailand via an illegal border crossing from Cambodia.
Authorities tightened border crossings at the weekend after three local cases were found of the Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa, stemming from illegal entry. Nearly 33,000 illegal migrants had been arrested since July 2020, the defence ministry said
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Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued an apology in the US after an image showed her to be apparently violating state-mandated social distancing guidelines at an East Lansing restaurant.
Reuters report a photo circulated on social media of Whitmer with a large group of unmasked people at the Landshark Bar & Grill.
The photo, which showed Whitmer seated with about a dozen people at no fewer than three tables that had been pushed together, was posted on social media by one of the attendees, but later deleted, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“Throughout the pandemic, I’ve been committed to following public health protocols,” Whitmer said in a statement.
“Yesterday, I went with friends to a local restaurant. As more people arrived, the tables were pushed together. Because we were all vaccinated, we didn’t stop to think about it”, the governor said.
“In retrospect, I should have thought about it. I am human. I made a mistake, and I apologize”, her statement added.
Last year, Whitmer was the victim of a far-right domestic terror plot to try and kidnap her over the state’s coronavirus restrictions.
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Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge and a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) that is advising the UK government, has said that the PHE’s data showed “a single dose is not particularly protective and that’s the situation that many adults find themselves in during a period of easing of restrictions”.
PA Media reportshe told BBC Breakfast that people needed to have a second dose but “even after the first dose, the chances of severe illness and death are markedly reduced and almost close to zero on the second dose”.
He said he believed the variant first detected in India “does have a significant advantage in humans and it would explain what we’ve been seeing in India where people who have been vaccinated are getting infected, as well as people who were infected previously getting reinfected.
“So, this is good evidence that the virus is adapting. It is something to worry about in the longer term because … we are opening up and I think that we need to seriously reconsider the pathway to full opening if we want to realise the benefits of vaccines fully.”
He said there were large sections of the UK population who are unvaccinated, “particularly young individuals who are going to be mixing”, and the virus was increasing in “proportionality, in terms of infection, so we really need to be very vigilant of this because, very quickly, it could run out of control”.
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Taiwan has recorded six new deaths from Covid-19, several hundred more cases
Taiwan has recorded six new deaths from Covid-19, and several hundred more cases in the continuing outbreak.
It is the second day in a row of six recorded deaths from the outbreak, which has brought to an end Taiwan’s long run of living largely Covid-free since the pandemic began. On Monday the CECC reported 334 new local cases, and added 256 to the previous week’s total. Over the weekend hundreds of new cases were added to the previous week’s total, after authorities started to clear a backlog of thousands of tests.
Taiwan does not have mass testing set up, and the figures are coming from cases identified through targeted rapid testing stations and then confirmation tests. The CECC said the rapid testing stations were showing positivity rates of 5.9% in Taipei and about 4% in New Taipei.
Taiwan remains on a level 3 alert, which requires the closure of entertainment and recreation venues, public venues, and sporting grounds. People are encouraged to work from home and restaurants told to ensure social distancing.
There is consideration of extending level three, but the CECC has said level four - lockdown - won’t happen unless there are 14 consecutive days of 100 or more cases, with 50% untraced.
Some local governments appear to have wanted stricter measures than those ordered by the CECC. On the weekend Taipei’s mayor joined some other city governments in banning dine-in services at restaurants.
Taiwan is also under pressure over vaccines. Chairman of the Chinese vaccine manufacturer Fosun said the company has offered to provide doses of the German-developed BioNtech vaccine to Taiwan, state media reported over the weekend. Taiwan reportedly rejected a similar offer in March saying it was talking directly to BioNtech before the deal fell over, and has suggested China interfered – a charge China denies.
Dr Peter Chang, director general of the Global Taiwan Medical Alliance, and former national ombudsman, told the Guardian vaccinations were the leading solution to an outbreak, but an area where Taiwan - which has otherwise run a world-leading response to the Covid-19 pandemic - has faltered.
“I think the government started thinking seriously [about vaccines] too late. They thought we were very good with mask wearing, and people are very disciplined so social distancing, so it is OK,” he said.
“I personally think if the vaccine is good, wherever they come from we should take it,” he said, adding that he did not know the data about Chinese vaccines.
“I think we should be very neutral. We don’t need to put politics in front of the safety of our people.”
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Oxford Vaccine Group expert: 'coronavirus will find the unvaccinated'
Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, has been on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning in the UK.
Referring to Public Health England (PHE) data published at the weekend, he said more time was needed to see how the vaccines work in the longer-term as people build immunity.
Asked if people may think the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was not as good as Pfizer, according to the data, he said: “Well I think in some ways we’re looking at the wrong exam question, because this is a question about mild infection and transmission.
“But the thing that makes this a pandemic is people going into hospital. And so what we really need to know, and we don’t have the data yet for certain, is how well both vaccines are performing in preventing people from going into hospital.
On whether booster vaccines will be needed, he said work was ongoing to make new vaccines in case they were needed, but it was not certain that they would be.
PA Media reports he urged people to have their second jab and said coronavirus will find the unvaccinated, adding that the variant first discovered in India was able to spread “slightly better” whether people have been vaccinated or not.
“Of course this is the variant that’s around at the moment but future variants are going to get even better at doing that,” he said.
“That’s the evolution of this virus, that it’s going to find ways around immune responses to be able to spread a bit better, and so that gives a really important public health message, which is that if you’re unvaccinated, then the virus will eventually find those individuals in the population who are unvaccinated, and of course if you’re over 50 and unvaccinated, you’re at much greater risk of severe disease.”
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Kiyoshi Takenaka for Reuters has some more details on the pressure the healthcare system is under in Japan. They write that the speed at which Osaka’s healthcare system was overwhelmed underscores the challenges of hosting a major global sports event in two months’ time, particularly as only about half of Japan’s medical staff have completed inoculations.
“Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system,” said Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka.
“The highly infectious British variant and slipping alertness have led to this explosive growth in the number of patients.”
Just 14% of the prefecture’s 13,770 Covid-19 patients have been hospitalised, leaving the majority to fend for themselves. Tokyo’s latest hospitalisation rate, in comparison, is 37%.
By Thursday, 96% of the 348 hospital beds Osaka reserves for serious virus cases were in use. Since March, 17 people have died from the disease outside the prefecture’s hospitals, officials said this month.
Yasunori Komatsu, who heads a union of regional government employees, said conditions were dire as well for public health nurses at local health centres, who liaison between patients and medical institutions.
“Some of them are racking up 100, 150, 200 hours of overtime, and that has been going on for a year now … when on duty, they sometimes go home at one or two in the morning, and go to bed only to be awakened by a phone call at three or four.”
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Australia reports four new Covid cases in Melbourne
Australia’s second most populous state of Victoria reported on Monday four new Covid-19 infections, all in the city of Melbourne, the first cases of community transmission in the state in nearly three months.
“This is not a time to be complacent,” Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, told reporters.
The four cases, including a pre-school child, came from one extended family in two households in a northern suburb of Melbourne.
Reuters report that the source of their infection is under investigation. Officials are concerned there might be a missing link between the cluster and a man who returned to Melbourne from quarantine in Adelaide and tested positive earlier.
If you want to follow that story more closely, then Amy Remeikis has our Australian live blog:
UK government messaging this morning again appears to be that “you are allowed to travel abroad, but we’d rather you didn’t”.
Spain has been the focus, after the government in Madrid opened the doors to tourists from the UK for the first time in months.
Business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News: “The prime minister has been clear that, for now, amber means ‘please don’t go unless there is an urgent family reason and so on’ because we are still trying to slowly move through our road map to being able to open up on 21 June and we want to do that in a steady and careful way.”
PA Media reports she added that “we hope very much that, obviously, the amber numbers will become more green in due course” but “at the moment, today, that means amber countries really aren’t safe to go to”.
People returning from Spain will need to take a series of Covid-19 tests and self-isolate at home.
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With recently relaxed restrictions allowing screenings again in parts of the UK, Cineworld has hailed a “strong opening weekend” and said it expects a “good recovery” after months of pandemic closures.
The cinema chain said its first week since the UK reopening was buoyed by the success of Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which drew in family audiences.
PA Media reports the company said that the weekend performance “went beyond our expectations as customers were eager to return to the movies and enjoy the full movie experience”.
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Anger in Japan at IOC call to make ‘sacrifices’ for Tokyo Olympics
The International Olympic Committee’s insistence that “sacrifices” must be made to ensure the Games go ahead in Tokyo regardless of the coronavirus situation in Japan has sparked a backlash and more calls for them to be cancelled.
John Coates, an IOC vice-president, drew criticism in Japan after saying the Games would proceed even if the host city was still under a state of emergency due to the coronavirus. “The answer is absolutely yes,” Coates, who is overseeing preparations, said when asked on Friday if he thought they could be delivered despite the restrictions.
Social media users accused Coates and the IOC president, Thomas Bach, of ignoring the Japanese public sentiment, which is overwhelmingly opposed to holding the Games this year.
“Thomas Bach and John Coates are neck and neck in the race for the most hated pariah here. I predict a dead heat,” said a Japanese Twitter user.
On Saturday, Bach, who has been criticised for referring to the “resilience” of the Japanese people, told a meeting of the International Hockey Federation: “The athletes definitely can make their Olympic dreams come true. We have to make some sacrifices to make this possible.”
While it was not clear to whom Bach was referring when he called for sacrifices to be made, many assumed he had the Japanese public in mind.
“Does he say that the safety, health, and life of the Japanese should be sacrificed for the Olympics?” said one Twitter user. Another asked: “Why do people in Japan have to make a sacrifice for Olympics during a worldwide pandemic? It is definitely not acceptable.
Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of the SoftBank Group, said “vaccine laggard” Japan could pay a much higher price if the Games go ahead, in comments critical of apparent inability of the Japanese government to push the IOC to call off the Games without incurring huge financial penalties.
“Currently more than 80% of people want the Olympics to be postponed or cancelled. Who and on what authority is it being forced through?” the telecoms billionaire wrote in a Twitter post.
Read more of Justin McCurry’s report from Tokyo: Tokyo Olympics: anger in Japan at IOC call to make ‘sacrifices’
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The UK has reported five new deaths with 28 days of a positive Covid test. That puts the seven-day average down to just over seven deaths per day. Hospitalisations are down, although the rolling seven day average of new cases numbers was up by 1,801, or 11%.
Ukraine reports lowest level of new daily cases since August 2020
Reuters report that the number of new daily coronavirus infections in Ukraine decreased to 1,334 cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest level since August 2020.
Ukraine, which has a population of 41 million, has been among the most affected European countries so far, with around 2.2 million Covid-19 cases and 49,436 deaths,
Parliament last week fired health minister Maksym Stepanov, accusing him of failing to supply adequate vaccine doses to fight the pandemic. Ukraine has received about 2.4m doses of vaccines so far, but only around 1 million people have had their first shot, government data shows.
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Good morning, it is Martin Belam taking over the blog here in London. It may not come as much as a surprise, but our education correspondent Sally Weale brings this report of one negative outcome from the pandemic.
Many children are playing outside less with their friends, playing alone more and are less active than they were before the pandemic, according to a UK survey that will add to concerns about the lasting impact of the lockdowns on children’s wellbeing.
The Save the Children poll found that more than nine out 10 children (92%) felt the way they play had changed since the Covid pandemic. Half (51%) said they were playing outside with their friends less, a third (34%) were playing alone more, and almost a quarter (23%) were playing less sport than before.
More than 30 charities and businesses in the UK, along with child development experts, have joined forces to support a summer of play for children as part of the recovery process after the mental and physical impact of the pandemic.
Among those signed up are the Lego Foundation, Great Ormond Street hospital, the Arsenal Foundation and British Cycling, who will all be offering resources to encourage and facilitate children’s play. Organisers are calling on other organisations and the government to get involved and “take the #SummerOfPlay pledge”.
Child development experts have expressed concern about the government’s “catch-up” narrative for post-pandemic, warning that it focuses too much on academic catching up rather than prioritising children’s play and opportunities to socialise over the summer holiday.
The government is spending £200m on summer schools aimed primarily at pupils leaving primary school and moving on to year 7 in secondary school. They will offer enrichment activities such as team games, music, drama and sports, as well as academic support.
Read more of Sally Weale’s report here: Half of UK children playing out with friends less since pandemic
Japan mass vaccination centres open
Japan opened its first mass vaccination centres on Monday in a bid to speed up a cautious Covid-19 inoculation programme with just two months until the virus-postponed Tokyo Olympics, AFP reports.
The two military-run centres in Tokyo and Osaka will administer thousands of shots daily, initially to elderly residents of the cities, as the country battles a fourth wave of virus cases.
Just 2% of Japan’s population of 125 million is fully vaccinated so far – compared with about 40% in the United States and 15 percent in France.
Criticism has been mounting over the relatively slow rollout, hindered by strict medical rules and complex bureaucracy, but the first people to get a jab at the Tokyo centre said they were excited to move on with their lives.
“It’s wonderful. I can rest easy now. For a long time, a year and a half, I was feeling rather anxious and tense,” Hideo Ishikawa, 73, told reporters.
Munemitsu Watanabe, a 71-year-old engineering lecturer, also expressed relief but said the rollout could have been quicker.
“Had they done it earlier and had 80 or 90 percent of people injected by the time of the Olympics, then the Games could be held more smoothly,” he said.
The Tokyo centre aims to deliver up to 10,000 jabs a day, while the Osaka centre will give up to 5,000.
Both are using the two-shot Moderna vaccine, which was approved for use in Japan on Friday along with the AstraZeneca formula.
But the AstraZeneca vaccine will not be used immediately due to concern over very rare blood clots.
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Taiwan criticises WHO’s ‘indifference’ after meeting snub
Taiwan’s government criticised the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “indifference” to the health rights of Taiwanese people and for capitulating to China on Monday after failing to get invited to a meeting of its decision making body, Reuters reports.
Taiwan is excluded from most global organisations such as the WHO because of the objections of China, which considers the island one of its provinces not a country.
Taiwan, with the strong backing of major Western powers, had been lobbying for access to the WHO’s World Health Assembly, which opens on Monday, as an observer.
In a joint statement by Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan’s government said that they would continue to seek participation.
“As a professional international health body, the World Health Organization (WHO) should serve the health and welfare of all humanity and not capitulate to the political interests of a certain member,” Chen said, referring to China.
Wu expressed regret at the “WHO Secretariat’s continued indifference to the health rights of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people”.
China says Taiwan can only take part if it accepts it is part of “one China”, which Taipei’s government will not do, and that only Beijing has a right to speak for Taiwan on the international stage and Taiwan has in any case been given the access it needs during the pandemic.
Taiwan’s statement said China was falsely claiming that appropriate arrangements have been made for Taiwan’s WHO participation, adding that only the island’s democratically elected government can speak for its people.
Taiwan urges the WHO to “maintain a professional and neutral stance, reject China’s political interference, and allow Taiwan to join WHO meetings, mechanisms, and activities in order to protect the welfare of humanity and jointly combat disease”.
While the WHO cooperates with Taiwan’s technical Covid experts, it is up to member states whether to invite Taiwan to observe the WHO meeting, the WHO’s principal legal officer Steve Solomon said last week.
India death toll passes 300,000
India’s overall death toll from Covid crossed 300,000 on Monday, as it reported 4,454 deaths over the last 24 hours.
Its daily coronavirus infections rose by 222,315.
The South Asian country’s total coronavirus cases are now at 26.75 million, while total fatalities are at 303,720, according to health ministry data.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
India’s official overall death toll from Covid crossed 300,000 on Monday, as it reported 4,454 deaths over the last 24 hours. Its daily coronavirus infections rose by 222,315.
Meanwhile Taiwan’s government slammed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “indifference” to the health rights of Taiwanese people and for capitulating to China on Monday after failing to get invited to a meeting of its decision making body, Reuters reports.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The possibility of all safety restrictions being lifted in the UK next month is “looking good”, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency has said.
- Bahrain is to suspend entry for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal from 24 May.
- France’s daily Covid-19 death toll fell to a more than seven-month low of 70, while the seven-day average for new cases fell below the 13,000 level for the first time since 2020.
- Israel will end local Covid-19 restrictions following its vaccine rollout that has nearly stamped out new infections, the country’s health minister said.
- The US had administered 285,720,586 vaccine doses as of Sunday morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
