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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Nadeem Badshah (now); Yohannes Lowe, Tobi Thomas , Martin Belam and Alison Rourke (earlier)

India passes 20m cases; German ‘freedom jab’ criticised an unfair – as it happened

A relative of a patient who contracted the coronavirus rests by his side in Delhi, India.
A relative of a patient who contracted coronavirus rests by his side in Delhi, India. Photograph: Getty Images

We’re closing the blog now but thanks very much for reading. You can keep up to date with all our coronavirus coverage here.

A summary of today's developments

  • Australia’s deputy prime minister Michael McCormack says “nobody’s going to be jailed” for trying to return to Australia from India, continuing the federal government’s walk-back of their hardline travel ban.
  • Brazil’s former health minister told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that president Jair Bolsonaro’s government knew full well that the treatment they were advocating for Covid-19 patients had no scientific basis, Reuters reports. Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was sacked last April by Bolsonaro for not agreeing to push the malaria drug chloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment, testified before a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 408,000 Brazilians.
  • Surge testing is not being carried out in England for coronavirus variants first detected in India, despite the government claiming it would be deployed, the Guardian has learned.
  • The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson and US secretary of state Antony Blinken agreed on the need for a global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to end the pandemic, Downing Street said on Tuesday after the pair met in London.
  • Canada’s pandemic-era policy of turning back asylum-seekers trying to enter between official border crossings is unlawful and violates their rights, a legal action filed on Tuesday alleges.
  • The White House says US president Joe Biden is setting a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one dose to 70% of adult Americans by July 4.
  • The number of daily new Covid-19 infections in France slowed again on Tuesday, continuing a three-week trend, with the week-on-week increase in cases below 3% for the third day in a row.
  • Argentina’s Supreme Court has overruled president Alberto Fernandez’s decree to close Buenos Aires schools amid a surge in Covid cases.
  • A German “jab to freedom” bill that would from this weekend lift social-distancing rules, testing requirements and curfews for people who have been fully vaccinated, has been criticised for discriminating against young people still months from getting their first dose.
  • Spain’s government will pass responsibility for coronavirus restrictions on to the country’s 17 regions after a state of emergency expires next week, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo announced.
  • Singapore announced tighter restrictions on social gatherings and stricter border measures after recording locally acquired cases of Covid variants.
  • People travelling to Poland from Brazil, India and South Africa will have to quarantine, the country’s health minister said.

The US has administered 247,769,049 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 318,474,035 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday.

Those figures are up from the 246,780,203 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Monday out of 312,509,575 doses delivered.

The agency said 147,894,671 people had received at least one dose while 106,168,588 people are fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.

Updated

Australia’s deputy prime minister Michael McCormack says “nobody’s going to be jailed” for trying to return to Australia from India, continuing the federal government’s walk-back of their hardline travel ban.

But, look, the prime minister made it quite clear yesterday that nobody’s going to be jailed.

Obviously, there needs to be a hardline taken as far as the overall act being in place, but nobody’s going to be jailed... at this time. The prime minister made it clear.

We have taken this pause. We have made it in the national interests. We have done it, based on the best possible medical advice. It’s until May 15. We review it constantly, as you’d expect us to do.”

Brazil registered 2,966 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday and 77,359 additional cases, according to data released by the country’s health ministry.
The South American country has now registered 411,588 total coronavirus deaths and 14.86 million total confirmed cases, Reuters reports.

Brazil’s former health minister told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that president Jair Bolsonaro’s government knew full well that the treatment they were advocating for Covid-19 patients had no scientific basis, Reuters reports.

Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was sacked last April by Bolsonaro for not agreeing to push the malaria drug chloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment, testified before a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 408,000 Brazilians.

The Senate investigation is expected to hurt the president politically 17 months ahead of elections by showing the country that his opposition to lockdowns and social distancing measures, his failure to secure vaccines and the touting of unproven treatments deepened the crisis Brazil is now in.

“I warned Bolsonaro systematically of the consequences of not adopting the recommendations of science to fight Covid-19,” Mandetta told the commission.

The minister said he was called to a cabinet meeting with the president, where there was a plan to change the official indications for use of the old anti-malaria drug to say it could be prescribed for coronavirus.

Antonio Barra Torres, president of Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa who was also at the meeting, said that could not be done.

“The government was aware that it was prescribing chloroquine without any scientific evidence,” Mandetta said.

The Senate investigation continues.

Updated

Here is Guardian Australia’s morning mail.

North Macedonia’s Covid-19 vaccination program picked up speed Tuesday, with authorities starting to use 200,000 Sinopharm jabs bought from China.
The European Union’s top official for enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, also delivered about 5,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses to North Macedonia, Associated Press reports.

That is part of a batch of 120,000 the 27-nation bloc will donate to the country by the end of August.

“The EU has been at the side of the Western Balkans since the beginning of the epidemic and will continue to help,” Varhelyi said as he presented the vaccines at an inoculation center in the capital of Skopje.

“This is just the beginning.”

Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 3,064 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 395 more deaths, Reuters reports.

It brings the total number of cases in the country to 2,352,964 and fatalities to 217,740.

Separate government data published in March suggested the real death toll may be at least 60% above the confirmed figure.

Updated

Surge testing is not being carried out in England for coronavirus variants first detected in India, despite the government claiming it would be deployed, the Guardian has learned.

The coronavirus variant known as B.1.617 is a “variant under investigation” in the UK, together with its close relatives B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3. All three are worrying scientists because they contain either one or two mutations in their spike protein that may help them evade the body’s immune responses and be more transmissible.

Should such worries be borne out, they may be designated “variants of concern”. The Guardian understands Public Health England will not surge test – where people within particular postcodes are asked to take a test – until the variants are given that designation. This is despite the health secretary, Matt Hancock, stating on 19 April that surge testing would be carried out for the India variant.

A summary of today's developments

A worker refills an oxygen cylinder bought by family members of COVID-19 patients at a factory in Uttar Pradesh, India.
A worker refills an oxygen cylinder bought by family members of COVID-19 patients at a factory in Uttar Pradesh, India. Photograph: Prabhat Kumar Verma/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson and US secretary of state Antony Blinken agreed on the need for a global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to end the pandemic, Downing Street said on Tuesday after the pair met in London.

Reuters reports:

The prime minister and secretary Blinken agreed that the global roll out of vaccines will be key to defeating the coronavirus pandemic,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.

“They underlined the importance of G7 work in this area, including efforts to increase international manufacturing capability.”

Updated

A rise in coronavirus infections on the Greek island of Kalymnos prompted authorities to place it under lockdown on Tuesday, a day after restrictions were eased across the country.

Restaurants and bars reopened in Greece after six months on Monday, as it took a further step towards easing restrictions ahead of the official opening of the tourism season on 15 May.

The Civil Protection Ministry said it was imposing a lockdown on the Aegean island from Wednesday through 10 May “for urgent reasons of serious risk to public health” and to limit the spread of the virus.

Under the measures, residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for workplaces that remain open, to visit the doctor or pharmacy, to walk their pets or for supermarket shopping until 6pm.

Other restrictions include the suspension of construction work and religious ceremonies, excluding funerals with up to nine people. Residents are only permitted to leave the island for health reasons.

Updated

Canada’s pandemic-era policy of turning back asylum-seekers trying to enter between official border crossings is unlawful and violates their rights, a legal action filed on Tuesday alleges.
The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers filed the legal action in federal court claiming the policy is unlawful because it fails to consider the situation of asylum-seekers and whether they have reasonable alternatives available. The policy also denies asylum-seekers their right to a hearing, according to a copy of the legal action seen by Reuters. It is the first legal action against the policy.

The White House says US president Joe Biden is setting a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one dose to 70% of adult Americans by July 4.
The new goal includes fully vaccinating 160 million adults by Independence Day, Associated Press reports. It comes as demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their vaccine doses unordered. Biden will call for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and will direct many pharmacies to do the same. So far, more than 56% of American adults have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and nearly 105 million are fully vaccinated. The US is currently administering first doses at a rate of about 965,000 per day — half the rate of three weeks ago, but nearly twice as fast as needed to meet Biden’s target.

“Girls, we need Remdesivir. Sir is on a ventilator in intensive care,” says a WhatsApp message.

Our chat group attended the “best” convent in the most backward Indian state of Bihar, where the power was mostly out and the toilets never worked. But we always had one thing going for us: the teachers who treated us like important people, imparting an uncommon self-belief that we carried all the way into adulthood.

On my last visit there as a doctor, Sir, my physics teacher, tugged me into assembly. Employing selective memory, he described me as “an always good student”, but when I saw him beaming, I realised that his students really were his life’s work. I’d do anything to repay you, I thought silently. But Remdesivir? During a pandemic? Remdesivir would not have saved him even if we had been able to source any.

The number of daily new Covid-19 infections in France slowed again on Tuesday, continuing a three-week trend, with the week-on-week increase in cases below 3% for the third day in a row.
The health ministry reported 24,371 new cases, taking the total to 5.68 million, an increase of 2.64% from last Tuesday and down from week-on-week increases of more than 6% before and during the third lockdown in April, Reuters reports.

The US government is working to give Brazil access to $20m of medication used to intubate Covid-19 patients, the White House said, Reuters reports.
The medications will come from the U.S. government’s strategic stockpile and will be delivered in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “It has not yet been finalised, but we are working in partnership with the government of Brazil on that,” she said.

Updated

Early evening summary

Here is a quick recap of the main Covid updates from around the world:

Canada is working with international partners to develop a standardised vaccine certification for travel and will position itself as a safe destination once the country has reached Covid herd immunity, the tourism minister has said.

Canada’s land border with the US has been closed to non-essential travel since last March, and those arriving by plane must be tested and quarantine themselves.

The third wave gripping the country now has dimmed the hopes of airlines and the tourism sector for renewed travel this summer, Reuters reports.

On Tuesday, Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said talks are ongoing with international partners for a vaccine certification.

He told reporters:

It would make sense for us to align with partners around the world on some sort of proof of vaccination or vaccine certification.

Updated

Argentina Supreme Court overrules presidential decree on school closures

Argentina’s Supreme Court has overruled president Alberto Fernandez’s decree to close Buenos Aires schools amid a surge in Covid cases, Reuters reports.

The ruling on Tuesday said April’s presidential decree violated the autonomy of the city of Buenos Aires, which it ruled was the authority in charge of deciding if schools should close.

Fernandez had ordered schools in and around the capital to temporarily shut amid a second wave of Covid cases and deaths, initially until the end of April and then extended to 21 May.

Argentina has had over 3m confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic and almost 65,000 deaths.

Intensive care wards have been filling up amid the second wave, with three-quarters of beds occupied in and around the capital.

However, the city government, which has kept elementary schools and kindergartens open, in Buenos Aires mounted a legal challenge with the Supreme Court.

The city mayor, opposition party member Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, had argued there were little evidence that in-person classes increased infection rates.

France reported 243 new Covid deaths in hospitals on Tuesday, down from 311 on the previous day.

The number of people in hospitals with coronavirus fell again after two days of increases and was down by 523 to 28,427, health ministry data indicated.

As Reuters notes, the number of people in intensive care units with Covid-19 fell by 126 to 5,504.

This has been shared by Cameron Ahmad, Justin Trudeau’s communications director:

Sicily will start offering Covid vaccines to people over 50 to speed up its inoculation programme which is being hampered by a reluctant older population who fear potentially severe side effects, the regional governor has said.

Like many European countries, Italy briefly halted inoculations using the vaccine made by AstraZeneca in March when blood clot concerns surfaced.

It has since resumed them for those aged 60 and above after EU regulators said the benefits outweighed the risks, Reuters reports.

But in Sicily, where five people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine died, the elderly are reluctant to be inoculated with the shot.

No causal link has been established between the five deaths and the vaccine.

Sicilian governor Nello Musumeci said the shot would be offered to the over-50s age group from Wednesday in order not to waste any doses and to get Sicily’s inoculation rate up.

Italy reported 305 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 256 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 9,116 from 5,948.

Reuters reports:

Italy has registered 121,738 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.06 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 18,176 on Tuesday, down from 18,395 a day earlier.


There were 136 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 121 on Monday. The total number of intensive care patients slightly fell to 2,423 from a previous 2,490.


Some 315,506 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 121,829, the health ministry said.

Updated

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has scrapped advice that people should avoid all but essential travel to areas including mainland Portugal and Spain’s Canary Islands.

The FCDO said the updates meant the level of Covid risk in some places was no longer “unacceptably high”, prompting speculation about which countries will be put on the “green list” when international travel is allowed again.

Read the full story from Aubrey Allegretti and Nicola Davis below:

Updated

The Italian prime minister has said that he expects tourism to resume in Italy mid-May when travel between the regions opens up.

Reuters reports:

Speaking at the end of a meeting of tourism ministers from the Group of 20 wealthy nations, Draghi said a European Union health pass scheme would be up and running by the middle of June, allowing easier travel across the continent.

“Waiting for the European Certificate … we have a national green pass that will enable people to move from region to region and will be operational by mid-May, so let us not wait until mid-June for the EU pass,” Draghi said.
“In mid-May tourists can have the Italian pass … so the time has come to book your holidays in Italy,” he said.

Updated

German bill to give more freedoms to fully vaccinated people criticised

A German “jab to freedom” bill that would from this weekend lift social-distancing rules, testing requirements and curfews for people who have been fully vaccinated, is drawing criticism for discriminating against young people still months from getting their first dose.

The legislation, approved by Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Tuesday, argues that people who have either recovered from a Covid-19 infection or been fully vaccinated against the virus must regain their basic rights because they no longer pose a threat to society.

Critics say the new rules would unfairly exclude younger people who have already sacrificed their social lives out of solidarity with a high-risk older population for more than a year.

The drive to free older people of restrictions comes as Germany enters its sixth month of tough coronavirus controls and five months ahead of national elections that will give voters a chance to cast their verdict on the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Updated

Germany’s CureVac, which is publishing results of a key Covid-19 vaccine trial, has said US export restrictions on key materials are making it impossible to predict its short term supply in Europe.

Reuters reports:

“Due to the Defense Production Act we are not getting certain goods out of the USA,” CureVac chief executive Franz-Werner Haas told weekly Der Spiegel.

The Defense Production Act is a decades old U.S. law that gives federal agencies the power to prioritise procurement orders related to national defence, but it has also widely been used in non-military crises such as natural disasters.
“We are not getting all the materials that we need,” he was quoted as saying.

“At times we live from hand to mouth. That makes it hard to build up a stockpile,” Haas said, when asked how much the company would be able to deliver during the summer months.

Unlike rival German vaccine developer BioNTech, which struck a partnership with pharma giant Pfizer, CureVac has not teamed up with a US partner. BioNTech and Pfizer continue to increase global production and have not cited the Defense Production Act as a hindrance.

As CureVac’s only major supply deals, the European Union in November last year secured up to 405m doses of the immunisation.

The biotech firm has said it expects to file for European authorisation in late May or early June.

Nasdaq-listed CureVac, which is backed by investors Dietmar Hopp, GlaxoSmithKline as well as the German government, has said it aims to produce up to 300m doses of the vaccine in 2021 and up to 1bn in 2022.

Updated

Tobi Thomas here, taking over from my colleague Yohannes while they have a break. If you would like to get in touch with any tips please do email tobi.thomas@theguardian.com. Thanks!

More than a quarter of music festivals due to take place in the UK this year have been cancelled as a result of government inaction on event insurance, research has found.

According to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), which has been tracking festivals taking place in Britain this year, 26% of all festivals with a capacity of more than 5,000 people have been cancelled by their organisers.

The AIF has projected that more than three-quarters (76%) of the remaining festivals could be called off imminently if action regarding cancellation insurance policies of large-scale events is not reviewed.

My colleague Tobi Thomas has the full story here:

Spain to let regions decide Covid restrictions from 9 May

Spain’s government will pass responsibility for Covid restrictions on to the country’s 17 regions after a state of emergency expires next week, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo has said.

The six-month emergency decree, which provides a legal framework for the most restrictive curbs, expires on on Sunday.

Regional authorities will then be able to establish curfews and lock down areas but must secure the support of local courts, Calvo said.

She told a news conference:

Regions can justify, argue, propose measures to tribunals curfews or lockdowns that limit rights and freedoms, but they need a judicial authorisation.

If a local court strikes down measures proposed by a regional government, it could appeal to the supreme court, which would then set up precedents applicable to all regions, Reuters reports.

Updated

Austria will buy Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine only if the European Medicines Agency approves it, chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s office has said.

Facing public frustration at a sluggish vaccine rollout, Kurz said on 31 March that Austria would probably order 1m Sputnik V doses within a week, but completion of that order still has yet to be announced.

Hungary and Slovakia are the only EU countries to have bought Sputnik V, and only Hungary has used it so far, Reuters reports.

On 19 April, Kurz clarified that Austria would await EMA approval before using it.

Speaking at a news conference, he said:

As far as the contract negotiations are concerned, they have been completed, so we do not see that as the big challenge but rather the decisive factor is simply how long EMA needs for approval here.

A spokesman for Kurz’s office added: “EMA approval is a prerequisite for the purchase. The contract will also be based on that.”

The EMA’s decision is expected in May or June.

Updated

Airlines and travel companies’ share prices rose on Tuesday after more signals from Britain and the EU that summer holidays abroad could go ahead.

EasyJet, Lufthansa and British Airways owner IAG all rose in value by 3%, while travel group Tui’s shares were up 4% in early afternoon trading.

The moves followed a recommendation by the EU to loosen the rules on visitors from abroad who were either vaccinated or coming from low-risk countries.

The British government also confirmed that an announcement on summer travel was imminent, with the industry hoping to have the “green list” of destinations – where quarantine-free travel and return will be permitted – as early as this Friday, after local elections.

You can read the full story by Gwyn Topham, the Guardian’s travel correspondent, here:

Updated

Pfizer forecasts £19bn from annual sales of Covid-19 vaccine

US drugmaker Pfizer Inc has forecast $26bn (£19bn) in Covid vaccine sales this year, a more than 70% jump from its last projection.

This reflects new contracts with governments around the world trying to halt the pandemic through rapid vaccination.

The vaccine, which was developed with Germany’s BioNTech, contributed $3.5bn in global revenues at Pfizer in the first three months of the year, and the company had expected it to bring in $15bn over the course of 2021.

My colleague Jullia Kollewe has the latest here:

Updated

Dr Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said countries needed to be taking a “global view” on vaccines.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme:

Unfortunately, we could well see the situation in India unfold elsewhere because we have a number of countries that have these characteristics, like relatively low vaccine coverage, circulation of concerning variants, rising cases that combine to create this kind of situation. Places like Cambodia, Fiji and Mongolia are now struggling with outbreaks and lockdowns, so I think there’s some concerning signs really now and then there’s more potentially to come for a number of countries.

Updated

Singapore tightens Covid curbs on gatherings and border measures

Singapore has announced tighter curbs on social gatherings and stricter border measures after recording locally acquired cases of coronavirus variants, Reuters reports.

After reporting very few local infections for months, numbers have increased in the financial hub over the last week, mainly linked to an outbreak at a hospital.

On Tuesday, it confirmed five new locally acquired cases.

The stricter measures, which will be effective from 8 May, include extending checks on where incoming travellers have been to three weeks earlier, instead of two weeks currently.

All visitors with a recent travel history in higher risk countries and who arrive from Saturday onwards will also need to be in quarantine for 21 days, instead of 14.

Social gathering will be limited to five people, while indoor gyms and fitness studios will close.

NHS app may not be ready when foreign holidays resume- Downing Street

PA Media reports:

Downing Street has admitted the NHS app may not be ready to be used as a vaccine passport when international travel resumes and “another approach” may be needed.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has previously said the app – which is currently used to book medical appointments and order repeat prescriptions – will display evidence that someone has been vaccinated or recently tested.

But the prime minister’s official spokesman indicated that officials were working on alternative plans when international travel resumes, which is expected on 17 May.

“(Mr Shapps) set out the approach we are looking to take,” the spokesman said.

“Obviously we will be able to confirm ahead of the 17th at the earliest what measures are used for those initial countries that are available for travel, be it the app or another approach.”

The spokesman added: “There are other routes to achieving the same end goal. We are working on the app at the moment, at pace, to have it ready and we will be able to confirm ahead of the 17th at the earliest what approaches we will be using.”

Updated

This has been shared by the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK:

Sweden has registered 14,950 new Covid cases since Friday, health agency indicate.

The figure, as reported by Reuters, compared with 14,911 cases during the corresponding period last week.

The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 43 new deaths, taking the total to 14,091.

Updated

Downing Street insisted the government would stick to the roadmap for easing England’s lockdown despite positive indications about the current state of the pandemic.

The next phase is expected to be introduced on 17 May, with households allowed to mix indoors.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters:

The aim of the road map throughout is to be cautious but irreversible. We are approaching the earliest possible date for step three and we will say more about that soon.

The latest figures were “in line with expectations, which is hugely encouraging and a credit to the vaccine rollout and to the British public”.

“But that emphasises the need to adhere to the road map which provides that certainty and stability that the public and business have been asking for.”

Updated

Poland imposes quarantine for travellers from Brazil, India and South Africa

People travelling to Poland from Brazil, India and South Africa will have to quarantine, the country’s health minister said on Tuesday, as he announced outbreaks of the Covid first detected in India in the Warsaw and Katowice areas.

Adam Niedzielski told a news conference:

In the case of Brazil, India and South Africa, people travelling from these locations will automatically have to quarantine without the possibility of getting an exception due to a test.

Reuters reports:

German Covid-19 vaccine maker BioNTech has continued to ramp up production allowing it to manufacture close to 3bn doses in 2021, up from a previous target of 2.5bn.

“Our teams did a great job to further increase the manufacturing scale to come up now with numbers reaching 3bn doses,” BioNTech’s chief executive and co-founder Ugur Sahin said at a webcast event organised by the Financial Times.

“We are happy that we are not facing too many technical problems and keep our delivery schedules,” he added.

Updated

In the UK, John Drury, social psychologist at the University of Sussex, giving evidence on vaccine passports to the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said:

These schemes are intended – and if they work – will enable more safe access to more activities to more people. But by definition they exclude people and it’s likely that some groups will be excluded more than other groups. There’s lots of evidence that the public do support them for some areas of activity, international travel, live events I’m not so sure, but certainly not for others like going to the pub, going to the shops, and certainly not for work.

Updated

There have been a further 65 Covid cases of in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 211,638.

Public Health Wales said there was one new death, bringing the total to 5,551.

The agency has confirmed that a total of 1,864,400 first doses of the Covid vaccine have been given in Wales, with 772,527 second doses having also been administered.

In an interview with the Financial Times broadcast today, Melinda Gates, co-founder of one of the world’s largest private charitable foundations, said:

I think the US government is looking at their supply of vaccine and deciding, okay how much should we do through Covax, how much should we do bilaterally, so I think you’re going to start to see some movement there.

Her remarks were recorded before an announcement on Monday that she and her husband, Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, would divorce after 27 years.

UAE extends ban for travellers from India

The United Arab Emirates has extended a ban on entry from travellers coming from India to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the foreign ministry in Abu Dhabi has said.

The statement did not specify a date to lift the suspension, which was first announced on 22 April, Reuters reports.

It said:

Flights between the two countries will continue to allow the transport of passengers from the UAE to India.

India, which continues to grapple with oxygen shortages and a lack of hospital beds, has passed a grim milestone of 20m Covid-19 cases.

The Australian government has said it will introduce penalties including fines and jail time for anyone who tries to return home from India.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the UK regulator, has said there is no evidence that drinking alcohol after a Covid vaccine interferes with how it works.

It was responding to social media reports suggesting that people should abstain from drinking for up to two weeks after a vaccine.

A spokesperson for the MHRA told PA Media:

There is currently no evidence that drinking alcohol interferes with the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines. We would advise anyone concerned about this to talk to their healthcare professional.

The ONS has also surveyed people on adherence to self-isolation requirements, finding that the majority who test positive for Covid are continuing to follow the rules.

About 84% of respondents said they fully complied with the self-isolation requirements for the entire 10-day period after testing positive for coronavirus, as PA Media reports.

Just 15% of people reported at least one activity during self-isolation that broke the rules, such as leaving home or having visitors for a reason not allowed under legislation.

The figures were based on responses collected from adults in England between 12 and 16 April.

They found that more than a third (37%) of those who tested positive reported that self-isolation had a negative effect on their mental health.

The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, will hold an urgent roundtable with Indian-Australian community leaders, as the government seeks to quell anger about the government’s widely-condemned India travel ban.

Amid mounting pressure over its hardline approach, including from within Coalition ranks, Hawke will meet community leaders on Wednesday to discuss the ban that is blocking 9,000 people, including 650 who are considered vulnerable, from returning to Australia.

You can read the full story by Sarah Martin, Guardian Australia’s chief political correspondent, here:

Number of secondary school pupils and staff with Covid drops – ONS

PA Media reports:

Fewer secondary school pupils and staff in England tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after schools fully reopened following the third national lockdown compared to the autumn term, figures suggest.

Around 0.33% of pupils and 0.32% of staff in secondary schools tested positive for Covid-19 from mid to late March, compared with 1.22% and 1.64% respectively in December, according to a small study of schools.

The survey from the Office for National Statistics also suggests that the percentage of secondary school pupils and staff testing positive for Covid-19 is significantly lower than in November when 1.42% of pupils and 1.36% of staff tested positive for current infection.

You can read the full findings here.

Updated

The green list for foreign holiday destinations is not expected to be published until later this week, but UK government travel advice gives an indication of what destinations could be on it.

Tourists visiting a number of popular summer hotspots do not face a level of risk for Covid-19 that is “unacceptably high”, according to the latest updates from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The FCDO, as PA Media reports, is not advising against non-essential travel to Portugal (excluding the Azores), Spain’s Canary Islands or the Greek islands of Rhodes, Kos, Zante, Corfu and Crete.

The ban on foreign holidays is expected to be lifted for people in England from 17 May as part of the next easing of Covid curbs.

Updated

Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until the evening (UK time). As always, feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.

Today so far…

  • India has passed a grim milestone of 20 million Covid-19 cases amid growing calls for the country to go into a national lockdown. As the country continued to grapple with oxygen shortages and a lack of hospital beds and ICU facilities for coronavirus patients, as well as crematoriums overloaded with bodies, the Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called for a nationwide lockdown.
  • The Indian Premier League has been postponed with immediate effect. With multiple reports of team bubbles being breached by positive Covid cases, the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s governing council unanimously voted to suspend the action.
  • The suspension casts Australia’s ban on any citizens returning home from India in a new light, with former Test cricketer Michael Slater accusing the Australian PM of having “blood on his hands” for leaving Australian citizens stranded amid the pandemic.
  • Nepal has said it urgently needs at least 1.6m AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine doses to administer second shots as the Himalayan country is recording a surge in new coronavirus cases.
  • Data about Covid in North Korea has been scarce, but Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party, has said the pandemic was only worsening, despite the development of vaccines. It urged people to brace for a protracted pandemic, describing it as an “inevitable reality”.
  • Recent data on Covid deaths and rates of infection in the UK are “very encouraging”, and though a third wave of infections was possible in late summer it was unlikely to overwhelm the NHS, the leading epidemiologist Neil Ferguson has said.
  • UK minister Liz Truss has hinted that Britain is set to announce the green list for countries that people can travel to on holiday shortly.
  • Hong Kong authorities have rowed back on plans to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers, after human rights groups slammed the policy as being discriminatory.
  • Denmark will allow elementary schools to fully reopen and a range of indoor activities to resume this week, the health ministry has said.
  • The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorise Pfizer and German partner BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for adolescents aged between 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported. In the US, the seven-day rolling average of new cases has fallen below 50,000 for the first time since October.
  • The EU will reopen to holidaymakers from countries with low Covid infection rates, such as the UK, and to anyone who has been fully vaccinated, by the start of June under a European Commission plan.

That is me, Martin Belam, done for the day. I will see you tomorrow. Yohannes Lowe will be here shortly, and don’t forget that Andrew Sparrow has our UK live blog here.

Updated

Covid infection rates in UK ‘very encouraging’, says Neil Ferguson

Recent data on Covid deaths and rates of infection in the UK are “very encouraging”, and though a third wave of infections was possible in late summer it was unlikely to overwhelm the NHS, the leading epidemiologist Neil Ferguson has said.

Prof Ferguson, of Imperial College London who advises the government, said he was “feeling fairly optimistic that we will be not completely back to normal, but something which feels a lot more normal by the summer”.

With one Covid death reported on Monday, and infection levels at an eight-month low in the UK, Ferguson said : “The data is very encouraging and very much in line with what we expected.”

“Whilst we’re seeing cases actually plateau at the moment – and they may start edging up – mortality, deaths and hospitalisations are still going down, and we expect them to continue to go down, maybe tick up a little bit next month but only within manageable levels, and so that puts us in a very good position to be keeping to the government roadmap – relaxing some restrictions in a couple of weeks’ time and then many more in June.”

Concerns he and his team had about late summer and autumn were “diminishing”, he said, with research showing those vaccinated were less infectious. “And so that has pushed our estimates of the scale of any potential autumn wave down.”

Ferguson added that the risk of vaccines being less effective in the face of variants was “the major concern” that could still lead to a “very major third wave in the autumn”.

It was “essential we roll out booster doses, which can protect against that, as soon as we’ve basically finished vaccinating the adult population, which should finish by the summer.”

Read more here: Covid infection rates in UK ‘very encouraging’, says Neil Ferguson

Health experts worry that public scepticism about taking the relatively small number of doses African countries have battled to procure could prolong the pandemic on the continent.

Experts say a combination of warnings about possible rare blood clots, the rubbishing of vaccines by some leaders and mixed messages over expiry dates have all contributed to the slow rollout across the continent.

Covid-19 has also not hit Africa’s 1.3 billion people to the extent it has ravaged some countries in Europe, Brazil, the US and India, leaving some on the continent doubting the seriousness of the disease.

The official death toll in Africa stands at 121,000, lower than that of the UK alone. Last week, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong, again implored citizens to stay vigilant, calling India’s Covid-19 disaster a wake-up call.

But Maggie Fick reports for Reuters that the message is not necessarily getting through.

Kenya began vaccinating 400,000 frontline health staff and other essential workers in early March after receiving more than a million AstraZeneca doses from the global vaccine sharing scheme Covax. By 25 April, the country had only vaccinated 152,700 health workers, health ministry data shows.

Chibanzi Mwachonda, the head of Kenya’s main doctors’ union, said the government had offered the doses more widely because of the slow uptake of the vaccines, which the United Nations says will expire on 28 June.

Health workers were already angry and suspicious because the government had failed to provide enough protective equipment, Mwachonda said. Now, many felt the government had not adequately addressed concerns about possible side effects, he said.

“I’m not an anti-vaxxer … I have my children vaccinated up to date with everything out there, but this one? I’m not comfortable,” said a doctor in Kenya, who declined to be named. “If there is no data on long-term effects then we are all being guinea pigs. What happens in 10 years after this vaccine?”

Updated

The suspension of the Indian Premier League cricket is going to have knock-on effects in Australia, where there has already been vocal opposition to the government’s insistence that Australians cannot return home from the Covid-stricken country. More than 30 Australian cricket players, coaches and staff already in India are unable to fly home.

The travel ban runs until 15 May and – with the tournament originally slated to end on 30 May – Cricket Australia and the players’ union were hopeful those wishing to return home when the tournament concluded would be able to.

But today’s announcement to indefinitely suspend the tournament – with no clear plan on how and when to reschedule it – leaves the Australian group facing an uncertain and anxious wait for at least 11 days.

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, dismissed claims made on Monday night by former Test cricketer Michael Slater that he had “blood on his hands” for banning citizens from returning home from India.

Read more here: Australian cricketers in limbo after IPL suspended

Updated

Indian Premier League cricket has been postponed with immediate effect

The Indian Premier League has been postponed with immediate effect. The competition has been carrying on against the backdrop of a public health emergency due to a huge coronavirus surge but with multiple reports of team bubbles being breached by positive cases, the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s governing council unanimously voted to suspend the action.

“The Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in an emergency meeting has unanimously decided to postpone IPL 2021 season, with immediate effect,” a statement on the official IPL website read. “The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organising the IPL. This decision was taken keeping the safety, health and wellbeing of all the stakeholders in mind.

“These are difficult times, especially in India and while we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times. The BCCI will do everything in its powers to arrange for the secure and safe passage of all the participants in IPL 2021.”

UK minister Liz Truss has hinted that Britain is set to announce the green list for countries that people can travel to on holiday shortly.

The government has already said in mid-April it would announce which countries would be open for quarantine-free travel from England in early May, ahead of a plan to allow holidays again from 17 May at the earliest.

“I don’t think it will be much longer before we make those announcements,” Truss told Sky News. Sources have suggested to Reuters that the list could be published on Friday, after local and national elections are held in the UK on Thursday.

Portugal’s secretary of state for tourism, Rita Marques, has been on the BBC Breakfast show talking up the prospects for holidays. PA report she said:

“We are really pushing hard to open up to third countries like the UK. The rules will be pretty much the same all over Europe. The Portuguese government is expecting what other governments are expecting, so basically you need to prove that you have a vaccine, or that you have an immunisation - so that you are immune to the virus since you have been in contact with it before - or that you have a negative test.

“That’s pretty much the rules. The rules will be quite simple. At our end, we are working to have an agile process, as simple as possible, in order to provide a seamless experience to everyone that would like to travel to Portugal.”

Truss, though had some words of caution, saying “People are looking to book a holiday but I would encourage people to wait until we make that announcement.”

Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK live blog for the day, which you can find here…

Hong Kong authorities have rowed back on plans to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers, after human rights groups slammed the policy as being discriminatory.

After a domestic worker from the Philippines was found to have a more contagious variant of the coronavirus last week, authorities said all 370,000 foreign domestic workers in the city would have to get tested before 9 May.

Domestic workers would also need to get vaccinated before renewing their employment contracts, authorities said.

But Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said the vaccine policy was being suspended after a backlash from workers’ groups who said they were being unfairly singled out, and a Philippine government official criticised the move.

“I have asked the secretary for labour to review the whole policy, and to consult advisers and consulates for the countries where domestic workers primarily come from as to whether compulsory vaccinations can be done,” Lam said, report Reuters.

There has been precious little news out of North Korea about the state of coronavirus pandemic in the country, but Hyonhee Shin reports for Reuters that state media warned this morning of the prospect of a lengthy battle against Covid, saying vaccines developed by global drugmakers were proving to be “no universal panacea”.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party, said the pandemic was only worsening, despite the development of vaccines.

“Novel coronavirus vaccines introduced competitively by various countries were once regarded as a glimmer of hope for humanity that could end the fight against this frightening disease,” it added.

“But the situations in many countries are clearly proving that the vaccines are never a universal panacea,” it said, citing news reports of rising numbers of new cases overseas and safety concerns.

It urged people to brace for a protracted pandemic, describing it as an “inevitable reality”

North Korea was expected to receive nearly two million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine by the first half of this year, via the Covax sharing programme.

Professor Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Sage sub-committee advising on behavioural science, has told BBC Breakfast this morning that the public should take prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that social distancing could be scrapped in June with a pinch of salt. You are welcome to insert your own punchline about the prime minister’s reputation for honesty there.

Reicher said: “I think we should take this with a little bit of a pinch of salt. Remember, he said it in the middle of an electioneering visit to the North of England, and clearly he wants to tell a good news story... He immediately qualified it by saying it depends on the data and how many infections there are and the state of things on 21 June, nearly two months away.

“Now, if a week is a long time in politics, two months is an eternity in a pandemic. Remember, two months ago in India they were declaring the pandemic was all over, now they’re having 400,000 cases a day.

PA report him saying that “if we believe there is no risk at all, if we start mixing without restraint, then we’re going to be in real trouble. And, as the World Health Organisation put it very clearly, one of the biggest things is complacency, so I think we need to be optimistic, but vigilant as well.”

Nepal makes appeal for more AstraZeneca doses to fulfil vaccination programme

Nepal urgently needs at least 1.6m AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine doses to administer second shots as the Himalayan country is recording a surge in new coronavirus cases.

“People who have already got the first dose will be in difficulty if they don’t receive their second dose within the stipulated time,” said Samir Adhikari, a senior official of the ministry of health and population.

Gopal Sharma reports for Reuters from Kathmandu that on Monday, prime minister KP Sharma Oli urged foreign donors to supply vaccines and critical care medicines to prevent a collapse of the small country’s health infrastructure.

Nepal has already vaccinated more than 2 million people with the AstraZeneca vaccine provided by India and China’s Sinopharm. But authorities were forced to suspend the vaccination programme last month after the country failed to secure fresh dispatches of vaccine from India and China.

“I would like to request our neighbours, friendly countries and international organisations to help us with vaccines and critical care medicines … to support ongoing efforts to combat the pandemic,” Oli said in a televised address.

Oli said officials were in contact China and Russia and other manufacturers to urgently secure vaccines. Oli, who has been criticised for doing little to contain the pandemic, said vaccines and critical care medicines were “global goods” and that every one should have access.

On Monday, Nepal’s Covid-19 cases increased by 7,388 and deaths by 37, the highest daily spike since the pandemic started. Nepal has recorded a total of 343,418 cases and 3,362 deaths, according to official data.

Updated

Denmark to lift a range of Covid restrictions from 6 May

Denmark will allow elementary schools to fully reopen and a range of indoor activities to resume this week, the health ministry has said.

Indoor activities that can resume include theatres, concert venues, cinemas, indoor sports facilities and gyms, with some sites operating a cap on the maximum number of attendees.

Entrance to the reopened facilities will be dependent on showing a “corona passport”, which shows that holders have either been vaccinated, previously infected or have had a negative test in the past 72 hours.

The changes will take effect on 6 May, reports Tim Barsoe for Reuters

Updated

On the other side of the world from London, Katharine Murphy writes for us this morning on the controversy that Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has got himself into with the decision to prevent Australians returning home from India:

Serious illness and death are obvious potential consequences of Australia’s decision to “pause” returns from India, because India is currently in the grip of a humanitarian disaster. The country’s health system is collapsing under the weight of runaway Covid-19 infections.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the governments of Australia and the governments of the world to make very tough decisions. That’s what catastrophes do. But we all need to be very clear about the potential consequences of this decision for our fellow citizens who can’t get home.

We need to understand that people who had been given permission to travel to India by the Australian government are now being left by the same government to fend for themselves until authorities can clear a backlog of Covid cases currently in Australian quarantine. Former Test cricketer Michael Slater articulated this point economically with his pointed contribution on social media, noting he had “government permission” to work on the Indian Premier League “but now I have government neglect”.

Government permission to travel isn’t a warranty during a pandemic. People are ultimately responsible for the calculated risks they take.

But being abandoned by their government has evidently come as a profound shock not only to Slater – a citizen with resources and certain advantages – but also to less privileged Australians who scrambled to India to nurse their dying parents or deal with other family emergencies that they felt could not be deferred. Presumably they imagined Australian citizenship conferred certain protections.

Read more here: Katharine Murphy – Scott Morrison lectured the states against snap border closures – now he’s done exactly that

Updated

Covid patients in hospital in London fall to seven-month low

Nicholas Cecil over at London’s Evening Standard has an analysis of the latest borough-by-borough figures for the UK’s capital city, suggesting that Covid-19 cases there have tumbled by more than 98% since the second wave peak.

He writes that the figures “also show that the number of coronavirus patients in the capital’s hospitals has fallen to a seven-month low. Just over one person is dying on average a day in the city, within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, according to the latest data.”

Not surprisingly, he also uses the figures to highlight a growing argument from lockdown-sceptics that England is lifting Covid restrictions too slowly, saying:

The figures reveal how Londoners have succeeded in combating the virus and will also raise fresh questions over whether the government is risking wasting the “vaccine dividend”, gained by the world-leading rollout of jabs, by being too cautious in lifting restrictions.

I should add the caveat here that while the UK’s vaccination programme from the NHS has been impressive, it is neither “world-leading” in terms of the proportion of the population vaccinated (that is Israel) or the sheer number of doses delivered (vaccination programmes in the US and China have already surpassed the UK’s effort).

Updated

One of the much-heralded events in British politics in recent weeks was the plan for prime minister Boris Johnson to head to India to announce new trade links, which were very much seen as a showpiece for the Brexit vision of “global Britain” doing trade with the Commonwealth. The Covid crisis in India has put paid to that visit – instead Johnson and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will meet virtually today. You can imagine the latter might be somewhat preoccupied.

On Sky News this morning, Britain’s international trade minister Liz Truss has been out talking up the prospects for a deal, and PA Media reports her response when being questioned about what more the UK could do to assist India.

“It’s a heart-breaking situation in India and my heart goes out to the people of India and the severe problems they’re facing,” she said.

“The UK has already sent 600 pieces of equipment out, we’re sending oxygen out and we’ve got another shipment going out this week as well, and we’re working very, very closely with partners across the world to make sure India has the supplies it needs.

“And of course India was of huge help to the UK last year, making sure we had the paracetamol we need, they’re a close ally of the UK and we … really are working hard to make sure that we can help as much as possible.”

Updated

They are scenes we’ve seen around the world, but repeated viewing doesn’t seem to lessen their impact. This morning, our photo desk have a picture essay from Toronto, Canada, as hospital stuff struggle to cope with Ontario’s outbreak. The latest surge in the number of cases was so big that authorities this week dispatched the military and the Red Cross to help care for critical patients.

Read more and see the pictures here: Hospital staff in Toronto deal with Covid crisis – in pictures

Updated

Here’s our report from Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi on the latest on the Covid crisis in India:

India has passed a grim milestone of 20 million Covid-19 cases amid growing calls for the country to go into a national lockdown.

As the country continued to grapple with oxygen shortages and a lack of hospital beds and ICU facilities for coronavirus patients, as well as crematoriums overloaded with bodies, the Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called for a nationwide lockdown.

“The only way to stop the spread of corona now is a full lockdown” said Gandhi on Twitter. He said the government’s “inaction is killing many innocent people”.

Many of India’s worst-hit states and cities are under regional lockdowns, including Delhi and Mumbai, but prime minister Narendra Modi has resisted imposing a countrywide lock because of the huge economic toll it would take.

India’s first nationwide lockdown, imposed in March 2020, caused a disastrous humanitarian crisis among India’s day-wage workers and pushed an estimated 75 million people into poverty.

Outside the gates of Lok Nayak hospital in Delhi, which has 1,500 Covid-19 beds which are all full, the ongoing desperation of the situation in the capital was visible. Ambulances with critical patients were repeatedly turned away because there was no room.

In one ambulance lay Hasima Begum, 60, gasping for air as her oxygen levels had crashed to a deadly 30%.

“We’ve been to four hospitals already this morning but nowhere has any beds,” said her 17-year-old grandson M D Kaif. “They say she’s got maybe 10 minutes to live if we can’t get her oxygen and a bed.”

Read more of Hannah Ellis-Petersen’s report here: India passes 20m Covid cases as calls grow for national lockdown

Good morning from London, it is Martin Belam here. Overnight, Dan Diamond at the Washington Post has an interesting piece looking at vaccine hesitancy in the US, and the factors that drive people to change their minds. A new publicity drive to try to reassure people about the shots is getting under way in the US this week. Diamond writes:

The emergence of these mind-changers suggests that at least some vaccine-wary Americans are willing to reconsider when their concerns are addressed by those they regard as credible.

19 former skeptics joined a focus group last week and their conversions have drawn intense interest from White House officials and public health experts, hoping to re-create those moments for the tens of millions of Americans who remain in the “no” camp.

Lessons from the focus groups and accompanying polling also informed a new series of public service announcements produced by the de Beaumont Foundation and featuring Republican doctors in Congress, which are set to be released Monday. While some vaccine skeptics have panned pitches from politicians the Republican lawmakers say they believe their appeals will resonate with a conservative base that’s disproportionately resistant.

“What separates us from the former presidents is we’re all physicians and health-care providers,” said Ohio Republican Brad Wenstrup, head of the Republican Doctors Caucus, whose members appear in the ads. “And so we’re doing the ads in white coats, because that’s what people trust.”

Evidence increasingly shows that it is a personal intervention that can make the final difference:

Alice Chen, a senior adviser for the vaccine equity advocacy organization Made to Save, credited the wave of efforts trying to win over holdouts, saying the cumulative effects laid the ground for breakthroughs.

“Almost all of them changed their mind because somebody they love told them to, because they saw people around them getting vaccinated,” Chen said. “I think that piece is so much more important than I think I even realized, going into this.”

Read more here: Washington Post – The coronavirus vaccine skeptics who changed their minds

Updated

A quick browse of the UK front pages, and there’s plenty of coronavirus coverage across them …

“EU to open up to vaccinated Britons as UK urges caution” is the top story in the Guardian print edition today.

“Wish EU’d come here”, says the Metro, while the Mirror has “Wish EU were here” – both referring to the EU reopening to vaccinated holidaymakers or those from countries with low Covid figures.

“Europe to welcome tourists for summer” – thank you, Telegraph, which also has Boris Johnson striking a British trade deal with India.

“Reopening of holiday hotspots weeks away” – but by “weeks away” does the Times mean a long time or a short time?

The incredulous Mail clearly thinks the former: “Why wait seven more weeks?” as it jubilates in “Just ONE Covid death in latest daily figures”, though the bereaved might feel differently. (The Times also has “New scan finds heart disease in 20 minutes” and we can safely assume it means that’s a short time.)

The Express, a bit like the Mail, announces “50m vaccines milestone … and one life lost”.

The i has “Green light for England to unlock on 17 May” saying things are proceeding according to schedule.

The Financial Times zooms in on another country: “Germany to lift restrictions for people vaccinated against Covid” as Angela Merkel’s government confirms it will let people off from curfews and social restrictions if they have been inoculated against coronavirus or already had it.

Updated

Working women are facing a significant risk in the UK labour market, with far greater numbers being made redundant as a result of the pandemic than during the 2007 financial crisis, according to analysis seen by the Guardian.

Women are experiencing much higher levels of redundancies during the Covid pandemic than in previous recessions, according to the Trades Union Congress. Female redundancies in the UK hit 178,000 between September and November 2020, according to its analysis – 76% higher than the peak reached during the height of the financial crisis when female redundancy levels hit 100,000.

In the same 2020 period, 217,000 men were made redundant – 3% more than the peak of male redundancies during the financial crisis.

“Women are more likely to be on furlough than men and to work in sectors hit hardest by Covid, like retail and hospitality. And they bore the brunt of childcare while schools and nurseries were closed,” said Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC. “Without ongoing support from ministers, many more women face losing their jobs.”

You can read the Guardian’s full story below:

Updated

The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorise Pfizer and German partner BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for adolescents aged between 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing federal officials familiar with the agency’s plans.

An approval is highly anticipated after the drugmakers said in March that the vaccine was found to be safe, effective and produced robust antibody responses in 12- to 15-year-olds in a clinical trial.

You can read our full story below:

Indian opposition leader calls for national lockdown

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called for a nationwide lockdown as the country’s tally of coronavirus infections surged past 20 million on Tuesday.

“The only way to stop the spread of Corona now is a full lockdown … GOI’s inaction is killing many innocent people,” Congress MP Gandhi said on Twitter, referring to the government of India.

According to Reuters, it’s taken the country just over four months to add 10m cases, versus more than 10 months for its first 10m.

Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown due to the economic fall out, yet several states have imposed various social restrictions.

Modi’s administration came under fire in an editorial in the Times of India on Tuesday, which said: “What the recent weeks reveal is that both Centre and states have been woefully unprepared for the second wave.”

The surge in Covid-19 in India has coincided with a dramatic drop in vaccinations, due to problems with supplies and delivery.

Despite being the world’s biggest producer of vaccines, India does not have enough for itself, Reuters reports.

Public forecasts by its only two current vaccine producers show their total monthly output of 70-80m doses would increase only in two months or more, although the number of people eligible for vaccines has doubled to an estimated 800 million since 1 May.

Just 9.5% of the population of 1.35 billion has received at least a single dose.

Updated

Cambodia has reported a daily record of 938 new coronavirus cases, the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, a day after prime minister Hun Sen ordered the end of a blanket lockdown in the capital Phnom Penh.

The country has recorded one of the world’s smallest Covid-19 caseloads, but the recent outbreak that was first detected in late February has caused infections to climb to 16,299, with 107 deaths.

Updated

Johnson and Modi to meet virtually

The prime ministers of the UK and India are to meet virtually on Tuesday as the two countries agree a trade deal that is set to create more than 6,000 jobs in Britain.

Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi will hold talks after Johnson was forced to cancel his planned visit to Delhi due to the worsening coronavirus situation there.

Downing Street said the package contains more than £533m of new investment from India into the UK, expected to create more than 6,000 jobs in sectors such as health and technology, PA Media reports.

This includes a roughly £240m investment by the Serum Institute of India, supporting clinical trials, research and possibly the manufacturing of vaccines.

Meanwhile, Downing Street said British businesses have secured export deals with India worth more than £446m, which is expected to create more than 400 British jobs.

During the virtual talks, the two leaders are expected to agree an enhanced trade partnership, which No 10 said will pave the way for a future UK-India free trade agreement.

Updated

India coronavirus cases pass 20m

India’s official count of coronavirus cases has surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, after 357,229 new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to Tuesday. There were 3,449 new deaths taking the official death toll to 222,408. The true figures are believed to be far higher.

Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.

Updated

Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, with me, Alison Rourke.

India has passed 20m cases, with 357,229 cases recorded in the past 24 hours. Only the US, with 32.4m cases has more recorded infections.

It comes as the Indian PM, Narendra Modi, prepares to speak to Britain’s PM about the escalating coronavirus crisis.

In other developments:

  • In the US, the seven-day rolling average of new cases has fallen below 50,000 for the first time since October. The CDC recorded the average as of 2 May as 48,164.
  • Air travel in the US has hit its highest mark in more than 13 months ago. Nearly 1.67 million people were screened at US airport checkpoints on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration, the highest number since mid-March of last year.
  • The EU will reopen to holidaymakers from countries with low Covid infection rates, such as the UK, and to anyone who has been fully vaccinated, by the start of June under a European Commission plan.
  • The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorise the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for adolescents between ages 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing federal officials familiar with the agency’s plans.
  • In Greece, restaurants and cafes reopened their terraces on Monday after six months of shutdown, with customers flocking to soak up the sunshine.
  • In Italy, medical experts and politicians expressed concern about a possible spike in infections after tens of thousands of jubilant soccer fans converged on Milan’s main square Sunday to celebrate Inter Milan’s league title.

Updated

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