This blog is now closed. You can find the latest pandemic news at the link below:
Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to dismiss the health minister who has faced criticism for the slow pace of the nation’s coronavirus vaccination effort, AP reports.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, held the health minister, Maksym Stepanov, responsible for the failure to quickly procure more vaccine. Shmyhal says the nation of 41 million people has so far received only 2.3m doses, and only 948,3300 Ukrainians had received at least one shot as of Tuesday.
Stepanov argued in his defence that the ex-Soviet nation has faced tough competition as nations try to procure vaccines amid the pandemic. Supplies of the Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccine were suspended after infections in India surged.
Ukraine has registered more than 2.1 million infections and 48,469 deaths from Covid-19.
Updated
Argentina reported a record one-day coronavirus death toll of 745 on Tuesday as the country is hit by a second wave of infections that has brought the number of positive tests recorded in a 24-hour period to 35,543.
Since the pandemic began in the first quarter of 2020, Argentina has confirmed a total 3.371 million infections and 71,771 deaths.
According to data compiled by Reuters, the daily average of infections and deaths reported by Argentina places it among the worst five countries in the world.
“This greater number of cases is a consequence of people behaving as if nothing was happening,” the president, Alberto Fernández, told local radio, calling for people to step up protective measures like mask wearing and social distancing.
The president signed a decree a few weeks ago mandating new restrictions on leaving home, and the suspension of face-to-face school classes in the areas with the highest number of infections. The measures are set to expire on Friday, but the government may decide to extend current lockdown rules.
Updated
Sudan will restrict all travellers who have visited India within the prior two weeks, the country’s health emergency committee said in a statement. India’s Covid-19 caseload topped 25 million on Tuesday, and there are concerns about the spread of a new, highly infectious variant, B.1.617, first found there.
Sudan’s health emergency committee warned that the country’s total Covid-19 cases could top the 100,000 mark by mid-June if restrictions were not imposed. Its fragile health system has been strained by the coronavirus epidemic, with patients struggling to access hospital beds, oxygen and medications.
Travellers coming from Egypt and Ethiopia would be retested, the committee said.
The committee also ordered schools and universities in Sudan to be closed for one month, starting immediately, and restricted large social gatherings as well as mass prayers. It set a mask mandate in markets, workplaces and public transport.
The committee reported a total of more than 34,707 cases as of 16 May. However, officials have said real numbers are likely to be much higher, given low rates of testing.
Updated
Bahrain will vaccinate adolescents aged 12-17 with two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, state news agency BNA said, citing the country’s national medical taskforce for combatting the coronavirus on Tuesday.
The decision by the health ministry’s vaccination committee followed recommendations by the World Health Organization’s strategic advisory group of experts on immunisation, and the US Center for Disease Control, BNA added.
A guardian must grant approval and be present during the vaccination, BNA reported.
Bahrain had authorised six types of vaccines, by China’s Sinopharm, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, AstraZeneca plc, Johnson & Johnson, and Russia’s Sputnik and Sputnik-Light.
Updated
Kuwait’s cabinet said on Tuesday that direct commercial flights for India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are limited to departing flights only, while cargo flights will continue, until further notice, the cabinet wrote on Twitter.
The cabinet also ended requiring quarantine for incoming travellers who are vaccinated or those who have recovered from Covid-19 not more than 90 days ago, provided they conduct a PCR test within three days from their arrival date.
Mexico aims to ensure its population has had at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot by October before the onset of colder weather, the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Tuesday.
Mexico has so far distributed nearly 24m vaccine doses to its population of 126 million, and López Obrador said he was sure it would receive more shots from the US.
By July, health authorities will begin providing vaccinations to people as young as 40, he told a regular news conference.
Over the next month and a half, the pace of vaccinations in the country should accelerate as tens of millions of new doses arrive, the government says.
During the news conference, López Obrador initially suggested Mexico could conclude its vaccination rollout before the winter, but he later clarified that the aim was to ensure everyone had had at least one shot by October.
Last month, the president said Mexico would soon receive at last 5m additional AstraZeneca vaccination doses, on top of a previous US donation of 2.7m doses of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company’s Covid-19 vaccine.
On Monday, the US president, Joe Biden, announced a plan to provide 20m doses from several vaccine developers to countries in need of more supplies.
Speaking alongside López Obrador, the foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, told reporters that Mexico expects another 38m vaccine doses to arrive between the end of May and 4 July.
Depending on the spread of the virus and how vaccinations proceed, Mexico and the US would look at easing some restrictions on their shared border beginning 22 June, the Mexican foreign ministry said.
Updated
Algeria has backed off a decision to reopen land borders closed because of the coronavirus pandemic but will go ahead with a plan to partially resume international flights from next month, the presidency said on Tuesday.
The country said on Sunday it would reopen land and air borders on 1 June, but with only five flights a day to and from Algerian airports.
“It was decided to keep land borders closed, except in case of necessity,” the presidency said in a statement after a meeting of the High Security Council chaired by the president Abdelmadjid Tebboune. It did not elaborate.
Algeria has reported 125,693 coronavirus cases, including 3,388 deaths.
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_
Early evening summary
Here is a quick recap of all the main Covid related updates from around the world:
- An extended halt to exports of Covid-19 vaccines from India risks undermining vaccination efforts already underway in Africa, according to one of the continent’s top health officials.
- Residents of two tower blocks in Germany have been put under quarantine after a woman was diagnosed with the infectious Covid Indian variant, an official said.
- Malaysia reported 47 new coronavirus deaths, a new record in fatalities for a second successive day.
- Singapore has authorised the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in order to extend protection to more groups.
The pandemic induced pressure on French hospitals eased further on Tuesday, with the number of Covid patients in intensive care units down by 171 to 4,015, Reuters reports.
From Wednesday, non-essential retail outlets will be able to reopen to customers for the first time in six weeks as France gradually winds down its third national lockdown in little more than a year.
The daily Covid-19 death tally in hospitals increased by 187 to 81,692, compared with an increase of 196 on Monday.
Updated
GAVI, the Global Vaccine Alliance, hopes deliveries of Covid vaccines from India can be resumed in the third quarter of this year, it has confirmed.
GAVI told Reuters:
We remain in regular and close contact with both the government and SII (Serum Institute of India), and remain hopeful that deliveries could resume, in reduced quantity, in the third quarter.
India's halt to vaccine exports 'very problematic' for Africa- health chief
Reuters reports:
An extended halt to exports of Covid-19 vaccines from India, where authorities are battling a wave of domestic infections, risks derailing vaccination efforts already underway in Africa, one of the continent’s top health officials said on Tuesday.
India stopped vaccine exports a month ago and, according to a Reuters report earlier on Tuesday, is now unlikely to resume major exports before October, dealing a major setback to the global Covax initiative on which many poor countries rely.
Africa has lagged far behind other regions due to supply issues and meagre financial resources but had planned to vaccinate 30-35% of its population by the end of the year and 60% within the next two to three years.
“This is very problematic as it means unpredictability of our vaccination programmes and a serious risk of not achieving our stated target... on time,” the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, wrote to Reuters.
The top infectious diseases expert in the US, Anthony Fauci, has said the new federal guidance on mask-wearing is “not a mandate to take your mask off”, amid continuing confusion about last week’s mask announcement.
In an interview with the Pod Save America podcast, Fauci said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted mask restrictions for fully vaccinated people last week to assure vaccinated people about the effectiveness of vaccines.
Amanda Holpuch, a reporter for Guardian US, has the full story here:
This has been shared by Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security:
This recalls early efforts to restrict diagnostic testing to people who were hospitalized. More information is better (though have to balance with reporting burden on health departments). Also wish more detailed data were made publicly available - case report form has lots. https://t.co/v8YdhbNlmF
— Caitlin Rivers, PhD (@cmyeaton) May 18, 2021
Residents of two German tower blocks in quarantine after Indian variant found
Residents of two tower blocks in western Germany have been put under quarantine after a woman was diagnosed with the infectious Covid Indian variant , an official has confirmed.
Several of the 179 residents in Velbet-Birth, North Rhine Westphalia, have since been tested for coronavirus, public health officer Marcus Kowalczyk said, adding that sequencing the samples to establish if they too had the Indian variant would take several days.
Authorities around Europe are on high alert for the variant, which caused devastation in India before establishing a foothold in Britain, Reuters notes.
The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Germany rose by 4,209 to 3,603,055, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases indicated on Tuesday.
The reported death toll rose by 221 to 86,381.
Updated
Britain is expected to be put on a “white list” of countries from where tourists will be accepted into the EU, but holidaymakers may still be required by cautious governments to quarantine and take Covid-19 tests.
The successful vaccination programme in the UK and limited level of infection will probably allow EU member states to add Britain to an extended list of countries from where tourists will be permitted on Friday.
As it stands, only Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand are on the list from which non-essential travel is permitted into the EU but the threshold is being lowered and the UK will easily meet the criteria.
My colleagues Daniel Boffey and Jessica Elgot have the full story here:
That’s it from me, Caroline Davies. Handing back to my colleague Yohannes Lowe. Thank you for your time.
The Greek island of Corfu welcomed its first cruise ship of the new season on Tuesday, hoping much awaited tourists will help salvage losses incurred during 2020 due to coronavirus.
Corfu port authorities said some 600 tourists from countries including Italy, France and Germany were on board the Costa Luminosa, operated by Italy’s Costa Cruises, and all safety measures were being adhered to in the port.
Some of the passengers expressed their delight at being able to travel again.
“It’s freedom, enjoying life, you really feel much better. You’re not in prison anymore, you’re free and that really does you good,” French tourist Robert Maran from Lyon told Reuters.
Greece opened its doors on Saturday to tourists from the EU and other key markets such as the United States, Israel and Britain, lifting the need for people to quarantine as long as they have been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19.
The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it would offer a booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine from China’s state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm for those who have already received two doses.
The move is part of the UAE’s “proactive strategy to provide maximum protection for society”, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) said, with priority given to those aged above 60 or suffering a chronic disease, Reuters reports.
The country of 9 million has vaccinated around 73% of the eligible population, NCEMA said. The UAE is providing four vaccines for free but does not provide a breakdown for each one.
The UAE, a regional business and tourism hub, on Tuesday reported 1,270 new coronavirus infections to take the total to 548,681 cases with 1,637 deaths.
The World Health Organisation, which last week approved Sinopharm for emergency use, has said a large phase 3 trial of Sinopharm had shown that two doses, administered at an interval of 21 days, have an efficacy of 79% against symptomatic infection, 14 or more days after the second dose.
The UAE has started manufacturing the Chinese vaccine under a joint venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42.
Updated
A report into France’s handling of coronavirus has criticised the government for not providing enough care for older adults living in retirement homes.
The report’s authors concluded that people over age 85 were more heavily affected by Covid-19 in France than they were in the United Kingdom or the United States, AP reports.
But the report acknowledges that the situation in France was not as bad as it was in countries such as Spain and Poland.
France has Europe’s third-largest pandemic death toll after the UK and Italy, and infections have continued to rage in recent weeks.
“With 1,332 deaths per million inhabitants, it is well above the European average (1,092 deaths per million),” the report said of France’s Covid-19 mortality rate. The authors attributed the discrepancy mainly to the first wave of the pandemic, which was particularly strong in parts of eastern France.
Five experts heard from around 200 representatives from the French government, health care system and scientific community.
Their report recommends “improving the care system for the elderly in institutions” in France, including by strengthening the medical facilities in care homes and coordinating them better with hospital support.
Updated
Hi. Caroline Davies here. I’m taking over the blog for a short while. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Updated
India’s Biological E. will produce the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine alongside its own candidate, its managing director told Reuters on Tuesday, which could boost the country’s overall supplies amid a shortage.
“The infrastructure and plants are completely separate for both the products and we will be producing both independent of each other,” Mahima Datla said in a text message, declining to give any timeline or other detail.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced more Italians into poverty, with the number of “new poor” – those who had never previously turned to a charity for help – rising by almost 25% between September and March, according to the Catholic church-run charity, Caritas.
Caritas said it assisted 544,755 people during the seven-month period. This follows a 45% rise in the number of “new poor” between May and September 2020.
Many people who sought food or help with paying bills from the charity were shop-owners or self-employed.
Meanwhile, 514,000 jobs have been lost in Italy’s hospitality sector since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a report on Tuesday from Fipe-Confcommercio, the restaurant and bar association.
The report said the restaurant sector was “in bits”, with six out of 10 restaurants incurring losses in 2020 that were more than half of what the businesses earned in 2019.
As spending on home deliveries of food increased by €6bn in 2020, the amount spent in bars and restaurants fell by €31bn, the report said.
Updated
Swatch Group chief executive Nick Hayek has said he is sure the Tokyo Olympic Games, sponsored by the group’s flagship Omega brand, will take place in August.
He told Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft in an interview published on Tuesday:
I’m convinced the Games will take place even if they can just be viewed on television. Even if many Japanese are currently sceptical with regards to the execution, their pride to have organised the Games successfully under these circumstances will be more important in the end.
Swatch Group’s Omega brand was first appointed official timekeeper of the Olympics in 1932, Reuters notes.
GlaxoSmithKline has unveiled positive interim results from mid-stage trials of a Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with the Canadian biotech firm Medicago, a day after releasing strong data from its vaccine collaboration with the French drugmaker Sanofi.
The double dose of positive vaccine news gives GSK a boost at a time when its chief executive, Emma Walmsley, is under intense pressure from a new activist investor, the New York hedge fund Elliott Management, which took a sizeable stake in April.
The UK drugmaker and Quebec-based Medicago said the vaccine, a plant-based jab, triggered protective antibody levels 10 times higher than in patients recovering from Covid-19.
The response was similar in all age groups who were given two doses three weeks apart, without serious side-effects.
My colleague Julia Kollewe has the latest here:
Reuters reports:
India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use, three government sources said, a longer-than-expected delay set to worsen supply shortages from the global Covax initiative.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker producing the AstraZeneca vaccine, responded by saying that it hoped to restart deliveries to Covax and other countries by the end of this year.
“We would like to reiterate that we have never exported vaccines at the cost of the people of India and remain committed to do everything we can in the support of the vaccination drive in the country,” SII said in a statement.
The sources, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media on the subject, said India’s vaccination drive will now take priority as its tally of coronavirus infections crosses 25 million and daily death toll hits a record high.
“We don’t have to officially convey to all countries as we are not obligated to do,” one of the sources said about the decision to hold back exports. “It was internally discussed and some countries were asked not to expect export commitments given the current Indian situation.”
This was shared earlier by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization:
I join @MoetiTshidi in welcoming #Tanzania President @SuluhuSamia's leadership in strengthening the national #COVID19 response and joining #COVAX. We stand ready to sustain our support and partnership. Only together can we beat this virus! https://t.co/s7KhSaAnJu
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 18, 2021
Updated
Mexican president Andres Manuel López Obrador has said his government aims to conclude vaccinating the country’s population against Covid-19 by October.
López Obrador added that by July, health authorities will begin providing jabs to those as young as 40, Reuters reports.
Updated
Update from earlier post:
Sweden has recorded a sharp fall in the number of cases and intensive care patients in recent weeks, with more than 40% of the adult population having received at least one dose of vaccine, Reuters reports.
The Nordic country has experienced a powerful third wave of the virus with the number of people testing positive per capita among the highest in Europe for months.
However, with about 12% of the adult population fully vaccinated, the number of people in intensive care has still fallen more than 30% from a peak three weeks ago.
The vaccine rollout is also credited for deaths being relatively low this year compared with previous waves of the disease, as data suggests no excess mortality so far in 2021.
Updated
A literary auction raising money to help vaccinate the world against coronavirus has made more than £23,000 so far, as book lovers bid to win signed novels by authors including Hilary Mantel, as well as mentoring sessions from star publishers and agents.
Bidding at Books for Vaccines for a personal consultation with literary agent Jonny Geller has reached £1,000, while a signed box set of the Wolf Hall trilogy, with handwritten first sentences from Mantel, has topped £600.
The auction is running until 21 May, with other lots including the chance to have a character named after you in the next novel by Sarah Pinborough, author of the Netflix hit Behind Her Eyes, a signed copy of Marian Keyes’s novel Grown Ups, and the chance to write the dedication at the front of Jill Mansell’s new novel.
You can read the full story by Alison Flood, the Guardian’s books reporter, here:
Sweden has registered 10,017 new coronavirus cases since Friday, health agency statistics indicated on Tuesday.
The figure compared with 13,812 cases during the corresponding period last week, Reuters reports.
The country of 10 million registered 26 new deaths, taking the total to 14,301.
Updated
Leaders of the world’s largest economies back “voluntary licensing” of Covid vaccine patents, the draft conclusions of a summit show.
The draft document, seen by Reuters, lists commitments of G20 nations – and other countries – and is to be adopted on Friday at a Global Health Summit in Rome, one of this year’s major events to coordinate global actions against the pandemic.
The draft, which is still subject to changes, is the result of a compromise among experts from G20 nations which remain divided over the waiving of intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines.
The Biden administration earlier in May joined India, South Africa and many other developing countries in calling for a temporary waiver of patents for Covid vaccines, in the hope that it would boost production and allow a fairer global distribution of shots.
The EU and other vaccine-making countries, however, raised doubts, saying the removal of US export restrictions on vaccine raw materials and voluntary cooperation among vaccine makers would ensure a much quicker ramping up of global production.
The health summit’s draft conclusions reflect these differing views and make no mention of patent waivers.
G20 leaders are to commit instead to “patent-pooling”, a less radical measure to encourage the sharing of patents, according to Reuters.
Under a patent pool, drugmakers decide voluntarily to share licences for the manufacturing of their products in poorer nations.
Updated
Reuters reports:
Vietnam’s northern province of Bac Giang ordered on Tuesday four industrial parks, including three that house production facilities of Taiwan’s Foxconn, to temporarily shut down due to an outbreak of Covid-19.
The industrial parks will be closed until further notice, the province’s People’s Committee said in a statement.
“We hope the measure will be in place for just two weeks, but it depends on the situation of the outbreak, said Le Anh Duong, chairman of Bac Giang People’s Committee.
Foxconn on Tuesday confirmed its operations in the province had been suspended.
Updated
Four global Hepatology societies have recommend all patients with liver disease get immunised against Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, with any authorised Covid vaccine offered to them.
In a statement, it read:
We recommend that patients with advanced chronic liver disease, liver cancer, and those post-liver transplant should be prioritised for vaccination for Sars-CoV-2. Whilst the vaccine trials have not comprehensively evaluated safety in patients with chronic liver disease, there are no data to suggest that Covid-19 vaccines cause any adverse outcomes in this group of patients, including organ rejection or flares of autoimmune disease.
The signatories were: the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver, the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver and the European Association for the Study of the Liver.
You can read their full joint statement here.
Updated
This has been shared by the European Medicines Agency:
EMA’s human medicines committee #CHMP recommended to change the storage period of unopened frozen vials of #Covid19vaccine Comirnaty.
— EU Medicines Agency (@EMA_News) May 18, 2021
Stored in a fridge at 2-8°C, the #vaccine can be kept for up to 31 days, instead of 5 days: https://t.co/IDfKHz42AP pic.twitter.com/QViUgA9646
Qantas will use a different laboratory to screen passengers flying from India to Australia after some of the people stopped from boarding a repatriation flight out of the country later tested negative for Covid-19.
But despite a review revealing “issues” with the laboratory used to process the tests, the airline has stood by the initial results which saw nearly half of the 150 people who had been scheduled to board the first repatriation flight out of Covid-ravaged India denied entry to the flight.
My colleague Michael McGowan has the full story here:
Malaysia reports record Covid-19 deaths for second successive day
On Tuesday, Malaysia reported 47 new coronavirus deaths, a new record in fatalities for a second successive day, Reuters reports.
The health ministry also reported new infections of 4,865, bringing the total number of Covid cases in the country to 479,421.
Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 45 new Covid-19 deaths, which was its highest daily number up to that point.
Singapore approves Covid vaccine for use in 12 to 15-year-olds
Singapore has authorised the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in order to extend protection to more groups, as the country tackles a recent increase of infections, Reuters reports.
In a statement, the health ministry said:
The data showed that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated high efficacy consistent with that observed in the adult population. Its safety profile is also consistent with the known safety profile in the adult population.
The government will also extend the interval between two-dose Covid vaccines to six to eight weeks, from three to four weeks currently, it added.
Updated
A Spanish study on mixing Covid vaccines has found that giving a dose of Pfizer’s drug to people who already received a first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine is highly safe and effective, the researchers have said.
The so-called Combivacs study, run by Spain’s state-backed Carlos III Health Institute, found the immune response in people who received a Pfizer shot was between 30 and 40 times greater than in a control group who only had AstraZeneca dose.
Few serious side-effects were reported among the 600 participants, the authors said, according to Reuters.
Updated
This has been shared by the New Scientist:
For more #covid19 news, read our daily summary. https://t.co/k5rWzo3qC4 pic.twitter.com/nlziAo5BLt
— New Scientist (@newscientist) May 18, 2021
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 suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic so far, with 4,329 deaths in 24 hours. The devastating toll comes as India’s case total passes 25 million, according to the health ministry.
- As Cyclone Tauktae hit the Gujarat coast , Mumbai shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients from field hospitals “to safer locations”. In Gujarat, all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within five kilometres of the coast were moved. One Covid-19 patient died in the town of Mahuva after he could not be moved in time before the storm hit.
- Reports claim India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use.
- Two people have died in Taiwan, where authorities reported a further 240 new local cases on Tuesday. All schools across Taiwan have been told to close until the end of the month.
- The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature for much longer than previously recommended, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
- Israeli airstrikes have destroyed the only Covid-19 testing laboratory in Gaza and damaged the office of Qatar’s Red Crescent.
- A top medical organisation has thrown its weight behind calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympics, saying hospitals are already overwhelmed as the country battles a sharp rise in coronavirus infections less than three months from the start of the Games.
- George Eustice, the UK’s environment secretary, confirmed that local lockdowns might be needed if the situation were to deteriorate in some areas of England. Bedford’s director of public health said she was “really worried” about the local increase in Covid-19 cases linked to the Indian variant. There were strong words for the UK government from Dr Zubaida Haque, who said ministers should have “stalled” the lifting of restrictions on Monday.
- Eurostar, operator of the trains that run under the Channel, has secured a €290m (£250m) rescue package to keep it afloat while waiting for Covid-19 travel curbs to be lifted.
- Tax documents released by his office show that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s contract with publishers for his book about dealing with the coronavirus pandemic was worth $5 million.
- Egypt is prioritising the vaccination of tourism workers to support the sector’s recovery and is on track to announce full inoculation of two resort areas this month, its tourism minister has said.
- Germany will scrap its Covid vaccine priority list and start offering jabs to all adults from 7 June, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn said.
Yohannes Lowe will be along presently to take over this live blog, which will continue to carry global coronavirus news. Andrew Sparrow has our UK Covid live blog.
Eurostar, operator of the trains that run under the Channel, has secured a €290m (£250m) rescue package to keep it afloat while waiting for Covid-19 travel curbs to be lifted, the company said.
AFP report that the company, which had been on the verge of bankruptcy, said the capital injection provided by its shareholders, including French rail operator SNCF, and associated bank loans would “secure Eurostar’s future”.
Eurostar has lost nearly all its passengers to the coronavirus pandemic. Only a single Eurostar train is currently running daily between London and Paris and London and Brussels.
Russia’s incredibly consistent official coronavirus case figures continue. Reuters report that there were 8,183 new Covid-19 cases, including 2,430 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 4,957,756.
The government coronavirus task force said 364 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 116,575.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count, and has said Russia recorded around 250,000 deaths related to Covid from April 2020 to March 2021.
Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK Covid live blog for today. He writes:
There are concerns that the Covid variant first detected in India is set to be the dominant strain in the UK within days. Some experts think it was a mistake for Boris Johnson to go ahead with the easing of lockdown restrictions implemented yesterday, and there is increasing doubt about whether the further lifting of lockdown measures will be able to go ahead as planned next month.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, was speaking for the government on the morning news programmes, and he confirmed that local lockdowns might be needed if the situation were to deteriorate in some areas.
You can join Andrew over here: UK Covid live news: minister confirms return to local lockdowns an option if India variant situation deteriorates – live
Stick with me here and I’ll be bringing you the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.
The impact of Cyclone Tauktae hammering the Gujarat coast on Monday evening on India’s coronavirus victims is beginning to become clearer. The deadly weather system hit just as India’s healthcare system struggles and a record 4,329 people died in one 24 hour period.
AFP report Mumbai shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients from field hospitals “to safer locations”. In Gujarat, all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within five kilometres of the coast were moved.
Authorities there scrambled to ensure there would be no power cuts in hospitals and 41 oxygen plants.
“Out of the 1,400 covid hospitals, power was disrupted in only 16. In 12 hospitals power has been restored and four are working on generators,” Rupani said. However one Covid-19 patient died in the town of Mahuva after he could not be moved in time before the storm hit, doctors said.
The state also suspended vaccinations for two days. Mumbai did the same for one day.
“This cyclone is a terrible double blow for millions of people in India whose families have been struck down by record Covid infections and deaths,” said Udaya Regmi from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Updated
There’s always money for someone somewhere in a crisis. Tax documents released by his office show that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s contract with publishers for his book about dealing with the coronavirus pandemic was worth $5 million.
Cuomo was initially lauded for his handling of a crippling coronavirus outbreak in New York, but praise turned to blame when media reported allegations of misconduct, including the under-reporting of nursing home deaths.
Reuters remind us that he is also being investigated for alleged sexual harassment. The governor has denied any wrongdoing and said he was sorry if his behavior had made “people feel uncomfortable.”
Cuomo’s book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic”, was published in October 2020 by The Crown Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House.
According to the documents, the group paid him $3.12 last year, and will pay him the remainder in two installments worth around $2 million each in 2021 and 2022.
Bedford’s director of public health said she was “really worried” about the local increase in Covid-19 cases linked to the Indian variant. Vicky Head said cases in the borough had jumped from “three or four” a day to up to 10 times that figure over the past month.
Bedford has the second-highest rate of coronavirus in England, with 214 new cases recorded in the seven days to 13 May.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Luke Powell for PA reports that Head said there had been 80 confirmed cases of the Indian variant recorded in Bedford. She said: “What we know is what we’ve been seeing locally, which is a really massive rise in cases. About three or four weeks ago we were having three or four cases a day. We are now up to 10 times that.”
She added: “What we think now is that pretty much all of our cases are likely to be the variant from India.”
Head said a “surge” in Covid-19 testing was being planned for parts of the borough to identify those who have the virus, but are not showing symptoms, and to ensure they self-isolate.
Asked if she was worried about the spread of the variant, Ms Head said: “I am really worried about it. Everyone needs to understand just how transmissible this variant is. If someone goes to school and tests positive, we are then seeing their whole family test positive.”
Polly Toynbee’s latest column for us is up, and she asks if Covid experts warn against foreign holidays, why is Boris Johnson so keen?
How much like deja vu this feels, how like last summer. The dash to places like Greece brought back more than half of imported Covid cases, according to a Public Health England paper. This was when the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was subsidising the country to eat meals sitting indoors, breathing on each other, but not for a takeaway sandwich with a friend on a park bench. “Paying people to sit inside, studies show, did harm,” says Prof Susan Michie, a participant in the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) through the behavioural science group.
Here we go again, opening up foreign travel and pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues indoors, despite the health secretary, Matt Hancock, warning that this new variant transmits faster and could spread “like wildfire” among the unvaccinated. Ministers ignore their own preconditions for easing up, the fourth of which requires that our “assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of concern”. But that test has surely been failed, with the risk fundamentally changed as new variant hotspots multiply. University of Warwick models indicate that if it is 40% more transmissable, that would mean 6,000 hospitalisations a day – above the second wave’s peak.
Read more here: Polly Toynbee – Covid experts warn against foreign holidays, so why is Boris Johnson so keen?
Christina Maxouris writes for CNN today about the state of play in the US over masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced that it was fine for vaccinated people to go without masks. It is leading, Maxouris reports, to confusion:
Experts are worried about the rapid changes, and say that without verification systems, parts of the country are now having to rely on an honor system to ensure unvaccinated Americans are masking up a system that some say, does not work.
“I say this respectfully to the CDC but we really need to get back to a point where it’s encouraging (people) to get vaccinated and more of that focus rather than celebrating our newfound freedoms,” the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, told CNN on Monday. “Because the honor system just ain’t working here, I don’t think it’s going to work in a lot of parts in this country,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said.
Now, the mayor said, local officials are worried about how to move forward.
“It creates these sort of challenges where, how does the store clerk check it? How does our health department actually enforce any rule at all? So, while I respect many of the jurisdictions that are trying to, I think, really have adherence to the CDC (guidance), it’s a challenge for us,” the mayor said.
Read more here: CNN – More places in the US lift mask mandates. One local leader says the honor system is already not working
Some strong words for the UK government from Dr Zubaida Haque, a member of independent Sage, who has told Good Morning Britain that ministers should have “stalled” the lifting of restrictions on Monday.
She said: “What the Government should have done was to stall this stage of the road map, particularly because we didn’t pass test four - test four of the Government’s road map said that if we think that there’s any further risk from new variants of concern, we should stall - they completely ignored that and have gone ahead.”
She also poured scorn on the idea that blame for the spread was down to vaccine hesitancy, with PA reporting her saying: “The Health Secretary has suggested that this is about vaccine hesitancy, but at the moment his conclusion seems to be based on hospitalisations in Bolton of 18 people, of which a third have been vaccinated.
“Now he’s suggesting that of the 11 or 12 they didn’t have their vaccine when they were offered, but we don’t know why they didn’t take up their vaccine - it may have been medical reasons, it may have been other reasons.
“This whole notion that, that at the moment, everyone’s freedom is threatened because of vaccine hesitancy groups, is absolute nonsense.
“The main threat at the moment is this variant is highly transmissible - it’s 50% more transmissible than the Kent variant - and it is rapidly spreading across the country.”
UK unemployment drops as businesses hire amid Covid easing
UK employers preparing for the easing of lockdown started hiring again in March, driving down unemployment for a third consecutive month, according to official figures.
The number of adults seeking work fell to 1.6 million in the three months to March, compared with 1.7 million in the three months to February, the Office for National Statistics said.
You can follow reaction to that and the latest business news with Graeme Wearden on our business live blog:
Egypt prioritising vaccination of tourism workers – minister
Egypt is prioritising the vaccination of tourism workers to support the sector’s recovery and is on track to announce full inoculation of two resort areas this month, its tourism minister has said.
While Egypt’s tourism industry is still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector has picked up in recent months, with more visitors heading to resorts along the Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts.
“We will prioritise workers in the tourism industry, which is an essential sector for Egypt’s economy,” tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Enani told AFP.
“In May, I will announce, along with the minister of health, the complete vaccination of Egyptian workers in hotels, resorts, businesses and restaurants in South Sinai and the Red Sea,” he said on the sidelines of a travel industry conference in Dubai.
Egypt, which has a population of approximately 100 million, has administered 1m doses, according to authorities.
“We hope the numbers will increase again in the near future with the opening of some countries and the easing of restrictions, including in Arab countries, Europe and Russia,” he said.
“The return of tourism in Egypt does not only depend on us, but remains linked to other countries.”
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India to delay vaccine exports until 'at least October' – reports
India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use, three government sources have told Reuters, a longer-than-expected delay set to worsen supply shortages from the global Covax initiative.
India halted vaccine exports a month ago after donating or selling more than 66m doses. The move has left countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and many in Africa scrambling for alternate supplies.
The sources said India’s vaccination drive will now take priority as its tally of coronavirus infections crosses 25m and daily death toll hits a record high.
“We don’t have to officially convey to all countries as we are not obligated to do,” one of the sources said about the decision to hold back exports. “It was internally discussed and some countries were asked not to expect export commitments given the current Indian situation.”
The sources did not name the countries told about the delay, and said the exact timing for resuming exports could change depending on how soon India is able to control the second wave of cases that has overwhelmed the health system.
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Also doing the UK media round today is Steven Riley, a professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London. He has been talking about the potential impact of the variant first detected in India.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The timing of the variant is bad in some ways because it is happening as we are trying to open up and taking a significant step in relaxation.
“It is good in other ways because we are at very low levels of infections, cases and hospitalisations. This is the point in the road map where we would have expected perhaps an increase in infections anyway. I think that most people would be expecting an increase, it is just the degree of the increase.”
PA Media reports that Riley said people need to get vaccinated in case there is another wave of infection and that “so far” the evidence is that the vaccine is still effective against this strain of the virus.
Laboratory studies are under way that will give more information and time is needed to observe the virus in the population, he said.
He added his voice to those calling for people to step forward and get vaccinated: “If people decide this week to get a vaccine their antibodies are going to grow pretty strongly over the next two or three weeks and that would be the same period of time, if there is an increase in the number of infections, that their risk increases.
“If you look two or three weeks down the road, the decisions that people make today about choosing to have a vaccine will directly affect them.”
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Audette Exel writes for us an appeal for global vaccine equity this morning:
The World Health Organization tells us that only 0.3% of Covid-19 vaccine supply is going to low-income countries. They are urging countries to consider donating vaccine to poorer nations before vaccinating children, through the Covax global vaccine sharing system. What an act of grace that would be.
Our world is dividing – perhaps more than ever before. Into those who think the pandemic is behind them and those who know it is all just beginning. Into those who look forward to the future, and to those who fear it. Into medical oases, and medical deserts.
We are all connected, even across these ever-increasing chasms and Covid-19 will not be over for any of us, until it is over for all of us.
My plea on this chilly May afternoon is simple: for those who can, to do all they can.
Read more here: Audette Exel – In Australia we celebrate economic recovery as Covid ravages our neighbours
Local lockdowns not ruled out in England over variant spread – minister
UK environment secretary George Eustice has not ruled out the prospect of local lockdowns being imposed in response to the coronavirus variant first discovered in India.
PA Media reports Eustice told Sky News that the government could not rule out some areas being held back as restrictions are eased elsewhere.
He said ministers still wanted the planned lifting of restrictions in England on 21 June to go ahead but “we can never rule out that there may have to be a delay”.
Asked whether it was possible for parts of the country to move ahead on 21 June while others are kept under restrictions, Eustice said: “That would be an option and we cannot rule anything out, obviously, at this stage.
“But our preferred outcome is that we really double down and get the vaccination rates up in those areas that are seeing these problems so that we can give them the immunity that they need to this virus and then we won’t have to have any such local lockdowns.”
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Taiwan reports two deaths, 240 new local cases, closes all schools
Two people have died in Taiwan, where authorities reported a further 240 new local cases on Tuesday.
A woman in her 60s who began showing symptoms last week, and a man in his 80s were the first deaths reported from the latest outbreak, Taiwan’s worst since the pandemic began. A total of 14 people have died of Covid-19 in Taiwan.
Addressing media a short time ago, officials from the central epidemic command centre said 106 of the cases were in New Taipei (about a third in Chonghe), and 102 in Taipei (48 in Wanhua). The rest were detected in Taoyuan, Changhua, Keelung, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu and Yunlin.
The source of infection is not yet known for 51 cases, while 88 were connected to the Wanhu teahouse clusters and another 67 to other Wanhua venues.
All schools across Taiwan have been told to close until the end of the month, building on some localised closures.
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Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine has approved storage period extended
The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature for much longer than previously recommended, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Benjamin Cooper reports for PA Media that the EMA said in a statement it had extended the approved storage period for an unopened thawed vial when kept in a fridge between 2C and 8C from five days to one month.
“The change was approved following assessment of additional stability study data submitted to EMA by the marketing authorisation holder,” the agency said.
Its increased flexibility in the storage and handling of the vaccine is expected to have a “significant impact” on the planning and logistics of vaccine rollout in EU member states.
Previous advice was the vaccine needs to be kept at an ultra-low temperature, between -70C and -80C, until a few days before use when it can be transferred to a standard medical fridge.
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Perhaps go to the pub – but not for long – and do not go abroad, that’s the advice from scientists and clinicians that Nicola Davis and Natalie G spoke to for us about what they’d feel comfortable doing out of England’s newly unlocked activities.
“While there are concerns over variants, I wouldn’t go to the cinema or on holiday abroad or visit a care home,” Prof Susan Michie, a member of the government’s Covid-19 behavioural science team said. “But I would consider going to a restaurant or pub if well-ventilated and not crowded – but infrequently, and not for a long period of time.”
Michie said it is difficult to make an informed choice about whether to go to a gym, because it is hard to know how well-ventilated gyms are, adding that when people exercise they do two problematic things.
“They exhale deeply, and so if you are infected you are more likely to spread the virus than if you are sitting in a theatre, and secondly, you inhale a lot, and so if there is any virus in the air, you are more likely to get infected,” said Michie.
Read more here: ‘I would want to be vaccinated first’: Covid experts on England’s relaxed rules
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Strikes destroy Gaza’s only Covid testing laboratory
Israeli airstrikes have destroyed the only Covid-19 testing laboratory in Gaza and damaged the office of Qatar’s Red Crescent.
The rate of positive coronavirus tests in Gaza has been among the highest in the world, at 28%.
Hospitals in the poverty-stricken territory, which has been under Israeli blockade for almost 15 years, have been overwhelmed by patients.
In more news from Japan, the country’s economy contracted 1.3% in the three months to March after the government reimposed coronavirus restrictions in major cities as infections surged, data showed Tuesday.
The quarter-on-quarter fall came after the world’s third-largest economy grew for two quarters to December, but the expansion was stopped in its tracks by a winter increase in coronavirus cases.
The government imposed new virus states of emergency in January in response, urging people to stay at home and calling for restaurants to close earlier.
The contraction was largely in line with economists’ expectations.
“Personal consumption has been particularly hard-hit by the Covid-19 emergency measures,” Naoya Oshikubo, senior economist at SuMi TRUST, said in an analysis issued ahead of the official data.
The figures released by the cabinet office shortly before markets opened showed private consumption fell 1.4%, following two quarters of expansion, reflecting slower spending in the services sector.
Capital expenditure, including manufacturing, was down 1.4%, but economists said that was only relative to a sharp increase in the previous quarter and the overall recovery trend was on track.
The drop in private consumption was not as bad as some had feared, said Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics.
The two “big disappointments”, he wrote in a note, came from drops in non-residential investment and public demand. Meanwhile, housing investment rose 1.1%.
And while exports were up 2.3&, imports rose by a larger 4.0%, “so net trade knocked 0.2%-points off GDP growth,” Thieliant added.
Economists warn that the slowdown is likely to continue, with the government forced to impose a third state of emergency in several parts of the country - including economic engines Tokyo and Osaka – earlier this month.
The emergency measures are tougher than in the past, and have been extended to the end of May as well as expanded to several other regions in recent days.
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Tokyo doctors call for olympics to be cancelled
A top medical organisation has thrown its weight behind calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympics, saying hospitals are already overwhelmed as the country battles a sharp rise in coronavirus infections less than three months from the start of the Games, Reuters reports.
The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association representing about 6,000 primary care doctors said hospitals in the Games host city “have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity” amid a surge in infections.
“We strongly request that the authorities convince the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that holding the Olympics is difficult and obtain its decision to cancel the Games,” the association said in a 14 May open letter to prime minister Yoshihide Suga, which was posted to its website on Monday.
A jump in infections has stoked alarm amid a shortage of medical staff and hospital beds in some areas of the Japanese capital, promoting the government to extend a third state of emergency in Tokyo and several other prefectures until 31 May.
“The medical institutions dealing with Covid-19 have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity,” the medical association said in its letter.
Doctors would soon face the added difficulty of dealing with heat exhaustion patients during the summer months and if the Olympics contributed to a rise in deaths “Japan will bear the maximum responsibility”, it added.
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India suffers record deaths as case total passes 25m
India has suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic so far, with 4,329 deaths in 24 hours.
The devastating toll comes as India’s case total passes 25 million, according to the health ministry, with 25,230,000 cases confirmed over the course of the pandemic so far.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
India reported a record 4,329 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry, as a monster cyclone lashed the country’s west coast, leaving at least 20 people dead and interrupting its vaccine programme.
Meanwhile, a top medical organisation has thrown its weight behind calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympics saying hospitals are already overwhelmed as the country battles a rise in coronavirus infections less than three months from the start of the Games.
The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association representing about 6,000 primary care doctors said hospitals in the Games host city “have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity” amid a surge in infections.
Here are the other key recent developments:
- Germany will scrap its Covid vaccine priority list and start offering jabs to all adults from 7 June, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn said.
- Italy’s ruling parties have agreed to put back a nationwide nightly curfew to 11 pm from 10 pm with immediate effect, government sources told Reuters.
- France reported there were 4,186 people in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Monday, a fall of 69 and the 14th consecutive decline.
- The World Economic Forum has cancelled a summit planned to take place in August in Singapore, saying it was impossible to convene an in-person meeting because of the uncertainties of the Covid pandemic.
- Malaysia reported 45 new Covid-19 deaths, its highest daily number so far. The health ministry also recorded 4,446 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number of infections to 474,556 with 1,947 deaths, Reuters reports.
- The Netherlands will ease its coronavirus lockdown measures this week as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations has eased pressure on hospitals, health minister Hugo de Jonge said.
- The long-awaited Hong Kong-Singapore “travel bubble” has been deferred again, amid the surge in Covid cases in Singapore, the two governments have said.
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