That’s the end of our global coronavirus blog for today. Please follow developments in Australia here:
Updated
Saudi Arabia has extended a ban on people entering by air, sea and land for another week, amid fears about new coronavirus variants.
Its interior ministry said it was assessing the current situation, and that non-citizens were still being allowed to leave, and entry is permitted in “exceptional cases”.
Brazil’s vice president Hamilton Mourão has tested positive for Covid-19, on the day the country’s death toll has risen by 344 to 191,139.
His office said he had tested positive on Sunday and would self-isolate at his official residence. Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for the virus in July and recovered.
Health ministry officials also reported 18,479 new cases, as nearly 7.5 million people in Brazil have had the virus.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of this evening’s key events.
- Hospitals in England have been told to free up beds, due to the growing number of coronavirus patients. NHS England has said the entire health service will have to stay on the highest level of alert until at least the end of March. 70,572 people have now died from Covid-19 in the UK.
- Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US coronavirus taskforce said that he believes the Covid-19 variant detected in the UK must be taken “very seriously” but is not likely to cause more serious illness or be resistant to vaccines. More countries have reported citizens tested positive for it, including Jordan, Canada and Norway.
- Hundreds of British tourists quarantining in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier fled in the night, rather than finishing their period of self isolation. About 200 of the 420 tourists in the luxury Alpine resort left under the cover of darkness.
- The death toll in France’s hospitals and care homes has risen by 173 since Saturday. A total of 62,746 have now died from the virus in the country. Confirmed cases have also risen by 8,822 over the last 24 hours.
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South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, called an emergency meeting of the country’s national coronavirus command council, amid a rise that has taken the country to 1 million confirmed cases.
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Italy’s health ministry has confirmed another 298 people have died from Covid-19, bringing the total to 71,925, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
- The first delivery of a Covid-19 vaccine to Turkey has been delayed because of a coronavirus outbreak in Beijing customs, the country’s health minister has said.
- European countries launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday with elderly people and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.
Updated
The UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme continued over the festive period, the Press Association has clarified.
NHS England said people got jabs on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Sunday, as the latest figures show 70,572 people in the UK have died from Covid-19. The number is likely to rise further on Tuesday, as authorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have not released data over the festive period.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US coronavirus taskforce said that he believes the Covid-19 variant detected in the UK must be taken “very seriously” but is not likely to cause more serious illness or be resistant to vaccines.
He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it [a] more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.”
Fauci backed the decision by US officials for people entering the US to require negative Covid tests. He told CNN’s State of the Union that the worst for the US was still yet to come in the pandemic.
Updated
Lebanon will get its first delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in February, its health ministry has said.
“Lebanon will receive the vaccine in mid-February in instalments,” it said in a statement. “It will cover 15% of the population.”
The ministry said it would later secure “additional vaccines” to cover another 20% of the population. 1,394 people have died in the country since its first cases in February.
Its government allowed nightclubs and bars to reopen ahead of the Christmas holidays, despite criticism from doctors who said bed occupancy in intensive care units was already running critically low. The country is currently grappling with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The death toll in France’s hospitals and care homes has risen by 173 since Saturday. A total of 62,746 have now died from the virus in the country.
Confirmed cases have also risen by 8,822 over the last 24 hours, more than 3,000 higher than the rise on Saturday.
Hundreds of British tourists quarantining in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier fled in the night, rather than finishing their period of self isolation.
About 200 of the 420 tourists in the luxury Alpine resort left under the cover of darkness, according to the country’s SonntagsZeitung newspaper.
The Swiss government introduced a 10-day retrospective quarantine for anyone who arrived from Britain since 14 December, after the detection of a new potentially more contagious Covid-19 variant. Two cases have been detected in the country, and one in neighbouring Liechtenstein.
“Many of them stayed in quarantine for a day before they set off unnoticed under the cover of darkness,” Jean-Marc Sandoz, spokesman for the Bagnes municipality, told SZ.
He called the whole situation “the worst week our community has ever experienced”. The situation was given away by untouched breakfasts, left by visitors who had escaped, he said.
The new quarantine rules also applied to hundreds of British tourists who had planned to spend the Christmas break in Verbier, an alpine village located in the municipality of Bagnes in Canton du Valais, nicknamed “Little London” by locals for the British visitors who make up 20% of tourists during a typical winter season.
Updated
The first delivery of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine to Turkey has been delayed because of a coronavirus outbreak in Beijing customs, the country’s health minister has said.
Fahrettin Koca said the shipment would be a day or two late, after a member of staff was confirmed as having the virus. Turkey has agreed to buy 50 million doses of the firm’s vaccine, and 3 million were due to arrive on Monday.
Hospitals in England have been told to free up beds, due to the growing number of coronavirus patients.
NHS England has said the entire health service will have to stay on the highest level of alert until at least the end of March. It comes as NHS trust bosses in England said the intense pressures they were facing were “extremely challenging” and that hospitals had almost as many Covid patients now as in April.
In a letter, NHS Improvement bosses told hospitals that where possible they should send patients needing surgery to local private health facilities, discharge as many inpatients as possible and prepare for the Nightingale field hospitals to open.
South Africa's president calls emergency meeting amid 1 million case milestone
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, called an emergency meeting of the country’s national coronavirus command council, amid a rise that has taken the country to 1 million confirmed cases. He is expected to announce new restrictions to try and curb its spread. A total of 26,521 people have died from the virus.
Like the UK, it has detected a new coronavirus variant which is thought to be more contagious and has become one of the reasons behind another wave of infections.
Some of the country’s hospitals are near capacity, according to the Associated Press, and there is little sign that the current surge has reached a peak. A vaccine hasn’t been rolled out yet, with Ramaphosa saying he expected 10% of the population to get the jab in the first months of 2021.
Updated
Another 316 people have died in the UK from coronavirus. The figure’s higher than Saturday, as more areas went into stricter restrictions on movement and gatherings. 30,501 new cases were confirmed on Sunday.
A total of 70,752 people have now died from the virus. The figures are likely to grow further on Tuesday as Scotland and Northern Ireland are not releasing data over the Christmas period.
Updated
Jordan is the latest country to report cases of the new coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.
Health minister Nazir Obeidat said a Jordanian couple who travelled to the country from the UK on 19 December were found to have the variant after being tested. They are now in quarantine and being monitored by doctors, but Obeidat said they were in “excellent health”.
Italy’s health ministry has confirmed another 298 people have died from Covid-19, bringing the total to 71,925, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
The number of new cases has fallen to 8,913, down from 10,407 on Saturday. More than 2 million people in the country have had the virus since the outbreak started in February.
Norway’s institute of public health has confirmed that two people in the country have been found to have the new variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK. According to Reuters they arrived in the country from the UK earlier in December.
The country imposed travel restrictions on passengers from Britain earlier this month, amid concerns about the new variant which is thought to be more contagious.
Updated
Another 254 people have died in Turkey from coronavirus, bringing the country’s death toll to 19,878.
Its government has introduced full weekend lockdowns and curfews during on weekdays in an attempt to stop cases rising.
European countries launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday with elderly people and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.
Updated
Harry Taylor here, taking over from Matthew Weaver for the rest of this evening. If you’ve got any coronavirus news or tips to share, email me at harry.taylor.casual@guardian.co.uk and my DMs are open on Twitter.
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the main developments so far today.
- The official EU programme to vaccinate up to 450 million people across Europe got under way today. Italy, France, Austria, Portugal, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Malta and Spain all started vaccinating people on Sunday morning. Germany, Hungary and Slovakia administered their first shots on Saturday.
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The Czech prime minister became the first European leader to get the jab. Andrej Babiš was given the Pfizer vaccine at a military hospital in Prague. Soon afterwards the president of the neighbouring Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová, also received the vaccine. Both the Greek prime minister and president also got the vaccine today.
- Those getting the first jabs in their countries varied widely from prominent figures to ordinary elderly people. They included a retired archbishop in Slovenia, a 96-year-old care home resident in Spain, a 29-year-old nurse in Italy and the head of infectious diseases at a hospital in Porto.
- Canada has become the latest country to detect cases of the new strain of the virus first identified in the UK. Dr Barbara Yaffe, the associate chief medical officer of Ontario province, said the first two confirmed cases were a couple from the country’s Durham region with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts. The new strain was also detected on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
- Plans have been drawn up to roll out the Oxford coronavirus vaccine across the UK on 4 January, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be stored in ordinary fridges, is expected to be approved by regulators this week.
- The head of the firm behind the Oxford vaccine has said researchers believe the jab will remain effective against the new variant. But the AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told the Sunday Times more tests were needed to be sure, while he hailed the discovery of what he called a “winning formula” to improve the jab’s efficacy.
- A private Thai hospital has been banned from advertising Covid vaccinations for sale on the grounds that no vaccine is yet approved in Thailand. Vibhavadi hospital said its online offer for 1,000 initial reservations for the two-dose Moderna vaccine had been the result of a misunderstanding.
Updated
Vincenzo De Luca, the governor of the Italian region of Campania received a dose of the vaccine on Sunday, prompting an accusation that he abused his powers to be immunised before health workers.
Italy has officially launched its programme of mass vaccination against Covid-19, prioritising healthcare personnel, followed by people aged over 80.
As a 71-year old politician, De Luca doesn’t fall into either of the two categories.
The mayor of Naples, Luigi De Magistris, said:
What President De Luca did is an abuse of power. He is taking advantage of his institutional role to get vaccinated when the vaccine, in the first weeks, was exclusively destined for doctors, nurses, health workers and elderly, considering the very few doses available. But it looks like the health of President De Luca unfortunately comes before the people of Campania. He should be ashamed and apologise.
Updated
Another 70 deaths from Covid have been announced in Wales.
Public Health Wales also announced a further 4,142 new cases in a 48-hour period over Christmas.
(2/2) Please note that this data covers a 48 hour period (9am 24th December to 9am 26th December) instead of the usual 24 hour period.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) December 27, 2020
In Scotland 740 new cases have been announced since Christmas.
740 new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Scotland.
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) December 27, 2020
This brings the confirmed total number of cases to 119,924.
Latest update ➡ https://t.co/bZPbrCoQux
Health advice ➡ https://t.co/l7rqArB6Qu pic.twitter.com/lDLrbzQVAc
Updated
Here’s a news roundup of the vaccination rollout in Europe:
Police in Manchester said officers issued two £1,000 fines and arrested a man today after around 100 people were found gathering in empty flats in the Shudehill area of the city.
Officers were called at around 4.20am on Sunday to reports of a large gathering and loud music at the flats.
Two teenage boys – aged 17 and 18 – were each issued £1,000 fixed penalty notices. A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and remained in custody for questioning.
He had also been issued with a £200 fine.
Chief Inspector Colin MacDiarmid said:
There is no denying the blatant breach of Covid legislation that took place here last night, and inquiries are ongoing to ensure the organisers of this gathering are held accountable for their unacceptable actions.
It is clear that the people at this gathering weren’t just people from Manchester but from across the north-west, and it not only disregards the rules there to protect public health but also undermines the whole spirit of us all needing to be in this together to battle the ongoing risk of coronavirus.
Updated
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, has tweeted video of him getting the vaccine (see earlier). He said:
Today we are all smiling under our masks, as the difficult task of mass vaccination of the Greek population against Covid-19 begins in our country
Σήμερα είναι μια σπουδαία ημέρα για την επιστήμη και μια σπουδαία ημέρα για την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση. Πιστεύω ότι σήμερα όλοι χαμογελάμε κάτω από τις μάσκες μας, καθώς ξεκινάει και στην πατρίδα μας το δύσκολο εγχείρημα του μαζικού εμβολιασμού του ελληνικού πληθυσμού κατά του COVID19. pic.twitter.com/Z7nsuTq7mO
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) December 27, 2020
The new variant of coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected on the Portuguese island of Madeira, Reuters reports citing the regional civil protection authority.
In a statement, the authority said the new variant was “detected in travellers who arrived in Madeira from the United Kingdom” but it did not specify how many people were infected with it.
As unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans on Saturday, Donald Trump, who spent Christmas playing golf in Florida, continued to block a $900bn pandemic relief bill that would extend them.
The US package, which Congress passed with bipartisan support on Monday after months of negotiations, would keep unemployment benefits in place until March and expand state benefits by $300 a week – as well as extending an evictions moratorium, providing federal loans to small businesses and $600 direct payments to many Americans.
But without Trump’s signature, the entire package – set to be the second biggest in US history – is stalled and the US government now faces a shutdown on Tuesday.
“I simply want to get our great people $2,000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill. Also, stop the billions of dollars in ‘pork’,” he tweeted on Saturday morning.
Read more here:
Updated
Oman has started coronavirus vaccinations, two days ahead of plans to resume all flights and open borders that were temporarily closed amid concerns over a new variant of the disease, AFP reports.
The sultanate – which has recorded the second highest number of Covid-19 deaths in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia – is the last of the Gulf Cooperation Countries to begin inoculating people.
The health minister, Ahmed al-Saidi, one of the first citizens to get a jab at a Muscat clinic, said priority would be given to frontline health workers and people considered vulnerable.
Oman has so far recorded more than 128,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, including 1,495 deaths – the highest after Saudi Arabia which has recorded more than 6,000 deaths.
Along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the Gulf sultanate suspended commercial travel and banned entry and exit via land and sea borders last week after a new strain of the virus appeared in Britain.
Saudi Arabia has yet to announce whether it will lift the suspension this week, while Kuwait has said it plans to reopen on 1 January.
Oman is hoping to quickly start receiving tourists, especially from wealthy neighbouring countries, to boost its economy, which has been hit hard by slumping oil prices and the pandemic.
Travellers must present a negative PCR test done within 72 hours of arrival, the official Oman news agency reported on Sunday.
Updated
Joanna Herman, a consultant in infectious diseases in London, describes her battle with “long Covid” in an opinion piece for the Guardian.
Like many people with long Covid – mine was defined as a ‘mild’ case not requiring admission to hospital. Nine months on, I am seriously debilitated, with crashing post-exertional fatigue, often associated with chest pains. On bad days, my brain feels like it doesn’t want to function, even a conversation can be too much. I have no risk factors, I’m in my 50s, and have always been fit, but remain too unwell to work – ironically as a consultant in infectious diseases. Watching the pandemic unfold from the sidelines when I should have been working in the thick of it has only added to the frustration of my protracted illness.
Read more here:
Updated
A further 231 people who tested positive for coronavirus in English hospitals have died, NHS England announced in an email. It brings the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 48,542.
The patients were aged between 30 and 103 years old, with all except five having underlying health problems. Dates of death range from 9 December to 26 December 2020 with the majority being on or after 24 December.
NHS England provided this regional breakdown of the deaths:
- East of England – 21
- London - 55
- Midlands - 46
- North East & Yorkshire - 43
- North West - 29
- South East – 30
- South West - 7
Updated
Cold-chain concerns delay vaccine in Germany
Germany’s coronavirus vaccination campaign faced delays in several cities on Sunday after medical staff found potential irregularities in the cooling of the Pfizer shot, according to Reuters.
“When reading the temperature loggers that were enclosed in the cool boxes, doubts arose about the compliance with the cold chain requirements,” the district office of Lichtenfels in the north of Germany’s largest state, Bavaria, said in a statement.
The Pfizer vaccine, which uses new so-called mRNA technology, must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of about -70C (-94F) to remain effective before being shipped to distribution centres.
Pfizer has designed special shipping containers filled with dry ice to keep the vaccine from spoiling in transit. Shots can be kept in an ultra-low temperature freezer for up to six months, or for five days at 2-8C, a type of refrigeration commonly available at hospitals.
Besides Lichtenfels, the northern Bavarian cities of Coburg, Kronach, Kulmbach, Hof, Bayreuth and Wunsiedel also held off from inoculating people after uncertainty arose about whether the cold chain had been maintained.
“Vaccination against the coronavirus is not about who vaccinates the fastest or who does the most doses. Safety and conscientious work for the benefit of the population has the highest priority,” said Oliver Bär, district administrator of Hof.
Similar problems also delayed the vaccination campaign in the southern Bavarian city of Augsburg, the daily Merkur reported.
Updated
Greek president and PM among first to get vaccine
Greece has also rolled out its vaccination programme with the country’s head of state, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, among the first to get the shot.
In a nation where conspiracy theories over the merits of any vaccine have been rife, Athens’ political elite have gone out of their way to lead by example.
Sakellaropoulou, the nation’s first female president, urged all Greeks to participate in the immunisation campaign.
“It is important that as many as possible are vaccinated,” she said after her own vaccination at Athens’ Evangelismos hospital was broadcast live on TV. “The time has come to emerge victorious, to put this ordeal behind us, to take back our lives, to gain our freedom and to meet again.”
Five hospitals in the Greek capital will be administering jabs in a mass vaccination programme dubbed Operation Freedom by the centre-right government. Nationwide more than 1,000 clinics will be handing out the vaccine.
Receiving the Covid-19 jab in Athens’ Attikon hospital shortly after the president, Mitsotakis hailed the moment as “a great day for science”.
“And a great day for the European Union which succeeded in delivering the vaccine on the same day to all countries in Europe displaying in practice the message of European solidarity.”
Efstathia Kampisiouli, a nurse in a Covid-19 intensive care ward at Evangelismos, the capital’s largest state-run hospital, was the first citizen in Greece to receive the shot.
“In my person today the entire nursing profession and family of public health are being honoured,” she said.
Greece has struggled to contain a second wave of the pandemic after faring relatively well compared with other EU member states during the first wave. Public health officials have confirmed 135,114 coronavirus cases and 4,553 Covid-19 deaths to date.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the main developments so far today.
- The official EU vaccination programme has begun to inoculate up to 450 million people across Europe. Italy, France, Austria, Portugal, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Malta and Spain all started vaccinating people on Sunday morning. Germany, Hungary and Slovakia administered their first shots on Saturday.
-
The Czech prime minister became the first European leader to get the jab. Andrej Babiš was given the Pfizer vaccine at a military hospital in Prague. Soon afterwards the president of neighbouring Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová, also received the vaccine.
- Those getting the first jabs in their countries varied widely from prominent figures to ordinary elderly people. They included a retired archbishop in Slovenia, a 96-year-old care home resident in Spain, a 29-year-old nurse in Italy and the head of infectious diseases at a hospital in Porto.
- Canada has become the latest country to detect cases of the new strain of the virus first identified in the UK. Dr Barbara Yaffe, the associate chief medical officer of Ontario province, said the first two confirmed cases were a couple from the country’s Durham region with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts.
- Plans have been drawn up to roll out the Oxford coronavirus vaccine across the UK on 4 January, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be stored in ordinary fridges, is expected to be approved by regulators this week.
- The head of the firm behind the Oxford vaccine has said researchers believe the jab will remain effective against the new variant. But the AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told the Sunday Times more tests were needed to be sure, while he hailed the discovery of what he called a “winning formula” to improve the jab’s efficacy.
- A private Thai hospital has been banned from advertising Covid vaccinations for sale on the grounds that no vaccine is yet approved in Thailand. Vibhavadi hospital said its online offer for 1,000 initial reservations for the two-dose Moderna vaccine had been the result of a misunderstanding.
Updated
Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has hailed the vaccine as a “game changer” in the fight against the virus.
Tweeting after the first five Austrians were vaccinated, he said:
We know that the pandemic won’t just disappear as of today, but the vaccine is the beginning of the victory over the pandemic, the vaccine is a ‘game changer’. We have always known that, and today is the first day of this new phase.
With every vaccination that is carried out, we are gradually moving towards normality!
Heute war es möglich, die ersten 5 Menschen in Österreich impfen zu können. Die Erste war Frau Hofer & sie freut sich nun bald, ihre Enkel wieder sehen zu können! pic.twitter.com/X6efFZuanD
— Sebastian Kurz (@sebastiankurz) December 27, 2020
Wir wissen, dass mit dem heutigen Tag die Pandemie nicht schlagartig vorbei sein wird. Aber die Impfung ist der Anfang vom Sieg über die Pandemie – die Impfung ist der Game Changer!
— Sebastian Kurz (@sebastiankurz) December 27, 2020
Updated
Covid vaccine jabs have also begun in Finland.
First #COVID19 #vaccinations have taken place in 🇫🇮 at @HUS_uutisoi in Helsinki. #EUVaccinationDays #VaccinesWork @EU_Health @MSAH_News pic.twitter.com/ynaa0GTetb
— Pasi Mustonen (@MustonenPasi) December 27, 2020
And Slovenia:
.@JJansaSDS ob obisku v UKC Maribor: Iz prve pošiljke cepiva, ki je včeraj prispelo v Slovenijo, bomo uspeli cepiti tudi del zaposlenih v zdravstvu, torej tistih, ki sodijo v najbolj rizično kategorijo, ker zdravijo obolele s COVID-19. #SkupajZmoremo pic.twitter.com/asEXb9vR3N
— Vlada Republike Slovenije (@vladaRS) December 27, 2020
Updated
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, will receive the Sputnik V vaccine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state TV channel on Sunday, Reuters reports.
“He said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed,” the spokesman was quoted as saying to the Rossiya 1 TV channel on its website.
Russia launched a voluntary vaccination programme with the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine earlier in December, starting with the most vulnerable groups in Moscow.
People over the age of 60 may begin to apply for shots on Monday, the Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on his website on Sunday, the day after the Russian health ministry said the vaccine was approved for use by elderly people after a separate trial.
Putin, who is 68, said earlier that the Russian vaccine was effective and safe and he saw no reason not to be vaccinated, adding that he was waiting until it became available.
Updated
Dr António Sarmento, the director of the infectious diseases service of the Hospital de São João, in Porto, has become the first person to get the vaccine in Portugal.
“I am absolutely calm and confident with the vaccine,” he said after getting the jab live on TV.
O Dr. António Sarmento foi o primeiro vacinado contra a #COVID19 no nosso país. A vacinação arrancou hoje em toda a UE e Portugal administrou a primeira dose por volta das 10h. A vacina é segura, eficaz, facultativa mas recomendada.#EstamosOn #Vacinacovid19 #EUvaccinationdays
— República Portuguesa (@govpt) December 27, 2020
Updated
The pilot who traced that syringe in a flight path over southern Germany (see earlier) has been talking to Reuters.
Samy Kramer, 20, said he mapped out the route he would need to take on a GPS device before taking to the skies near Lake Constance in southern Germany.
The syringe-shaped route showed up on the internet site flightradar24.
He said: “There are still relatively many people opposing the vaccination and my action may be a reminder for them to think about the topic, to get things moving.
“Perhaps it was also a bit of a sign of joy, because the aviation industry has been hit pretty hard by the pandemic.”
Updated
Not to be outdone by her western neighbours, Zuzana Čaputová, the president of the Slovak Republic has tweeted an image of her being given the vaccine.
“The vaccine gives us hope we will be able to renew our personal contacts with loved ones,” she tweeted.
Hours earlier, the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš became the first Czech citizen to get the jab.
In the most difficult moments, it is scientific research that comes with good news. The vaccine gives us hope we will be able to renew our personal contacts with loved ones. Our #EU unity helps overcome any challenge. Pls protect yourselves & those around you. #EUvaccinationDays pic.twitter.com/6ysoRU037f
— Zuzana Čaputová (@ZuzanaCaputova) December 27, 2020
Updated
Plans have been drawn up to roll out the Oxford coronavirus vaccine across the UK on 4 January, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be approved by regulators this week. Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which is already being deployed, it can be stored in standard fridges.
The Sunday Telegraph also reported that mass vaccination centres at sports stadiums and conference venues are primed to launch in the second week of January.
Updated
Iran reported 119 deaths from the new coronavirus on Sunday, the lowest daily fatalities in more than three months, Reuters reports.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 5,502 people had been infected in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of Covid-19 cases in the Middle East’s worst-affected country to 1,200,465.
#Iran’s Health Ministry Spox, Lari announced on Sunday:
— IranGov.ir (@Iran_GOV) December 27, 2020
Total number of #COVID19 patients recovered: 951,860
Total number of infected cases: 1,200,465
Total number of death toll: 54,693
In the past 24 hours:
New cases tested positive: 5,502
New death toll: 119 pic.twitter.com/2l83aRfp98
Sunday’s death toll was the lowest since 12 September when it registered 116 deaths.
Iran extended a night-time traffic curfew to 330 lower-risk cities and towns on Sunday in an effort to sustain the recent decline in the number of infections and deaths.
Iran said on Thursday it had received approval from US authorities to buy coronavirus vaccines from the World Health Organization-led Covax alliance. It did not say which vaccines it was buying.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the main developments:
- The official vaccination programme has begun across Europe after three countries started administering jabs a day earlier than planned. Italy, France, and Spain all started vaccinating people this morning. Germany, Hungary and Slovakia administered their first shots on Saturday.
- The Czech prime minister became the first European leader to get the jab. Andrej Babiš was given the Pfizer vaccine at a military hospital in Prague.
- Canada has become the latest country to detect cases of the new strain of the virus first identified in the UK. Dr Barbara Yaffe, the associate chief medical officer of Ontario province, said the first two confirmed cases were a couple from the country’s Durham region with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts.
- The head of the firm behind the Oxford vaccine has said researchers believe the jab will remain effective against the new variant strain. But AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot told the Sunday Times more tests were needed to be sure, while he hailed the discovery of what he called a “winning formula” to improve the jab’s efficacy.
- A private Thai hospital has been banned from advertising Covid vaccinations for sale on the grounds that no vaccine is yet approved in Thailand. Vibhavadi Hospital said its online offer for 1,000 initial reservations for the two-dose Moderna vaccine had been the result of a misunderstanding.
More European leaders have been hailing the start of ‘vaccination day’ in their countries.
Jüri Ratas, the prime minister of Estonia, said it was “heartwarming” to see the programme beginning.
Heartwarming to see how COVID-19 vaccinations in 🇪🇪 and 🇪🇺 have started. Great news for our healthcare professionals and most vulnerable at first and to all soon. We are in this together and #EU cooperation is key for successfully beating the virus. #euvaccinationdays pic.twitter.com/I9upMaWHJ5
— Jüri Ratas (@ratasjuri) December 27, 2020
Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nauseda, said it was a “huge step forward”.
Today, #Lithuania has started the long-awaited vaccination against #COVID19. It is a huge step forward to return to normal life. #EU has shown determination & unity in fighting the pandemics. @EU_Commission @vonderleyen
— Gitanas Nausėda (@GitanasNauseda) December 27, 2020
Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, said the programme was the most optimistic message of the Christmas period.
Η ταυτόχρονη έναρξη σε όλη την ΕΕ του προγράμματος εμβολιασμού κατά του Covid19, συνιστά το πιο αισιόδοξο μήνυμα αυτές τις άγιες μέρες. Η μάχη μας θα συνεχιστεί. Όμως τα πράγματα δεν θα είναι πια ίδια. Το σκοτάδι δίνει τη θέση του στο φως που μας χαρίζει η επιστημονική κοινότητα.
— Nicos Anastasiades (@AnastasiadesCY) December 27, 2020
France president, Emmanuel Macron, has again ruled out making the vaccine mandatory.
In a Twitter thread to mark the start of vaccination in France and Europe, Macron urged the French to trust in science by agreeing to have the jab.
One in three people in France thinks vaccines in general are unsafe—the highest figure for any country, according to research by the Wellcome Trust.
Macron tweeted:
Let’s trust our researchers and doctors. We are the land of the Enlightenment and Pasteur, reason and science must guide us.
Je l’ai dit, je le répète : le vaccin ne sera pas obligatoire. Ayons confiance en nos chercheurs et médecins. Nous sommes le pays des Lumières et de Pasteur, la raison et la science doivent nous guider.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 27, 2020
Updated
A private Thai hospital has been banned from advertising Covid vaccinations for sale on the grounds that no vaccine is yet approved in Thailand.
Vibhavadi Hospital told Reuters its online offer for 1,000 initial reservations for the two-dose Moderna vaccine had been the result of a misunderstanding.
With reservations priced at 4,000 baht, the total cost of getting vaccinated would have been 10,000 baht ($330).
As the first governments begin vaccine rollouts around the world, questions have been raised over how the limited supplies are prioritised and whether people will be able to pay to jump the queue.
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that no Covid-19 vaccine had been approved for use in Thailand yet and that advertising one violated hospital regulations.
“The removal of the advertisement was ordered,” it said.
Chaisit Kupwiwat, a director at Vibhavadi Hospital, told Reuters: “There was a misunderstanding and so we’ve stopped the programme... We planned to order the vaccines, but now we’ve stopped.”
Retired archbishop, Franc Kramberger, was among the first three people to be vaccinated in Slovenia, according to a tweet by the Slovenian government.
Mass vaccination against Covid-19 in Slovenia started at 8:30 AM at care homes for the elderly. The first three residents who got vaccinated were retired Archbishop of Maribor Franc Kramberger, Angelca Butenko and Jože Pelko. pic.twitter.com/TXREnFM9FS
— Slovenian Government (@govSlovenia) December 27, 2020
In Spain, a 96-year-old living in a care home became the first person in the country to receive the Covid-19 vaccination.
“Let’s see if we can get rid of this virus,” Araceli Rosario Hidalgo told reporters that had gathered at her care home in the central Spanish city of Guadalajara, near a Pfizer storage depot, adding that she had felt “nothing” from the shot.
The vaccination, broadcast live on television, offered a moment of hope in a country hard-hit by the virus. Spain has confirmed 1,854, 951 cases of the virus and at least 49,824 deaths.
Soon after a worker at the home, Mónica Tapias, became the second person in the country to receive the vaccine, followed by residents of the care home.
The first doses in Italy’s rollout of the Pfizer vaccine were given early on Sunday to a researcher, a nurse and a social health worker at Rome’s Spallanzani infectious-diseases hospital.
“I feel great, I am excited and proud,” told reporters Maria Rosaria Capobianchi, researcher and director of the Spallanzani Virology Laboratory, who was among the first three people in Italy to receive the Covid-19 vaccine this morning. “I hope this privilege will be extended to everyone soon.”
The first shipment of 9,750 coronavirus vaccines arrived in Italy on 25 Dec from Puurs, in Belgium.
“It’s a first step but the battle is still far from being won’’, said Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza.
‘’This day will remain in history’’, said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
On Saturday Italy has registered 10,407 new cases in the last 24 hours and 261 deaths. On Thursday, the total number of coronavirus cases recorded here have passed the two-million mark.
Andrej Plenković, the prime minister of Croatia, has congratulated Branka Aničić on becoming the first in the country to get the vaccine.
In a tweet he said:
The vaccine is an opportunity to return to normal life, and the first 9,750 first doses are intended for the most vulnerable and most exposed people.
Čestitam gospođi Branki Aničić koja je prva u 🇭🇷 primila cjepivo protiv #COVID19. Cjepivo je prilika da se vratimo u normalan život, a prvih 9.750 prvih doza namijenjeno je najugroženijim i najizloženijim osobama. #EUvaccinationdays pic.twitter.com/eFPcUdVss2
— Andrej Plenković (@AndrejPlenkovic) December 27, 2020
Israel will enter what officials hope will be its last coronavirus lockdown on Sunday as they ramp up vaccinations to a pace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said may allow an emergence from the pandemic by March, Reuters reports.
If realised, that could help Netanyahu’s re-election hopes after missteps that include lifting a first lockdown with a premature declaration of victory in May, inconsistent enforcement of curbs and sluggish economic relief.
After beginning vaccinations a week before the European Union’s roll-out on Sunday, Israel’s centralised health system is now administering around 70,000 shots daily.
Netanyahu wants that raised to 150,000 by next weekend, with the opening of 24/7 vaccination stations among proposals.
Such a pace could enable the vaccination of half of Israel’s 9 million population by the end of January. The country has logged almost 400,000 Covid-19 cases and 3,210 deaths.
“As soon as we are done with this stage, within 30 days we can emerge from the coronavirus, open the economy and do things that no country can do,” Netanyahu said in a televised address.
The conservative premier is running in a March 23 election called after his governing coalition collapsed this month.
An Israel Democracy Institute poll released on Sunday found that 40.8% of the public gave the government mostly positive ratings for its handling of the crisis’ medical aspects, while 32.2% gave it mostly negative ratings. On the economic aspects, the government’s ratings were 52.8% negative and 19.7% positive.
EU countries on Sunday embarked on a vaccination campaign hailed as the “key” to defeating Covid-19, AFP reports.
The jab is a glimmer of hope for a continent still battling the pandemic in earnest, with infection rates again on the rise, lockdowns imposed and Christmas and New Year plans left in tatters for many.
The numbers vaccinated in the initial days with the Pfizer-BioNTech jab are largely symbolic and it will be months before enough are protected to envisage a return to normal from the pandemic that has killed 1.76 million people worldwide since emerging in China late last year.
In a sign of impatience, some EU countries began vaccinating on Saturday, a day before the official start, with a 101-year-old woman in a care home becoming the first person in Germany to be inoculated and Hungary and Slovakia also handing out their first shots.
A 96-year-old living in a care home in central Spain became the first person in the country to be vaccinated on Sunday, in an event broadcast by national television.
She felt “nothing” from the shot, Araceli Rosario Hidalgo Sanchez said with a smile after being injected.
Araceli y Mónica son las dos primeras personas que se han vacunado en España. Con su gesto, ambas mujeres envían al mundo un mensaje de esperanza porque ya avanzan en el proceso de inmunización. Estamos ante el inicio del fin de la pandemia.#YoMeVacuno #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/AaRG118leL
— Salvador Illa Roca/❤️ (@salvadorilla) December 27, 2020
In Italy, the EU country worst hit by the pandemic with 71,000 dead, 29-year-old nurse Claudia Alivernini was the first to receive the vaccination Sunday morning.
“It is with deep pride and a deep sense of responsibility that I got the vaccine today. A small gesture but a fundamental gesture for all of us,” said Alivernini.
“Italy is waking up today,” said Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. “This day will remain in our memory for ever.”
EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a video on her Twitter account that the campaign start was a “touching moment of unity and a European success story” and said the EU had “secured enough doses for our whole population of 450 million people.”
Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year. The #COVID19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 26, 2020
Vaccination will begin tomorrow across the EU.
The #EUvaccinationdays are a touching moment of unity. Vaccination is the lasting way out of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/pYOj5vS2gV
“The vaccination is the key to ending the pandemic,” added German Health Minister Jens Spahn. “This is a hopeful day for Europe.”
France is due to begin its campaign in two care homes for the elderly in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, a low-income area hard hit by Covid-19, and also in similar centres in the eastern city of Dijon.
Focusing its strategy on protecting the elderly and thus taking pressure off the hospital system, the government wants one million of the most vulnerable to be vaccinated by the end of February and 15 million people by the summer.
Updated
'Vaccination Day' in Italy
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has hailed Sunday Vaccine Day, after the first jabs were administered.
Oggi l’Italia si risveglia. È il #VaccineDay.
— Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) December 27, 2020
Questa data ci rimarrà per sempre impressa. Partiamo dagli operatori sanitari e dalle fasce più fragili per poi estendere a tutta la popolazione la possibilità di conseguire l’immunità e sconfiggere definitivamente questo virus.
In a tweet he said:
This date will remain forever impressed on us. Let us start with the health workers and the most fragile groups and then extend to the whole population the possibility of achieving immunity and finally defeating this virus.
Three health workers at the Rome Spallanzani hospital were inoculated shortly before 7am with the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Reuters reports citing a statement by the commissioner for the epidemic.
“The vaccine went very well and it was an exciting, historical moment,” 29-year-old nurse Claudia Alivernini told state-owned television RAINEWS24.
“It is the beginning of the end and I hope to be the first of over 60 millions of Italians”.
Hungary and Slovakia began their vaccination campaigns on Saturday with other European Union countries joining Italy in rolling out the shots from Sunday, as the pandemic surges across the continent.
Around 9,750 doses have already arrived in Italy and another 470,000 are expected to arrive from next week, the health ministry said.
A nurse has become the first person in Malta to get vaccinated, according to a tweet by prime minister Robert Abela.
Today the first person in #Malta - a nurse from the Infectious Disease Unit at @MaterDeiMalta - was vaccinated against Covid-19.
— Robert Abela (@RobertAbela_MT) December 27, 2020
Our #frontliners will be among the first to receive the #vaccine.
For #Malta, for each other. - RA @chrisfearne pic.twitter.com/qY6n1PzgTG
Another Mediterranean island nation, Cyprus, has also started vaccinating its population.
Pensioners at homes in the capital Nicosia and the towns of Larnaca and Limassol were the first to receive a shot of the two-dose vaccine, which arrived by air on Saturday.
Cyprus has reported 19,391 cases of the novel coronavirus, and 111 deaths.
A German pilot has traced the image of a syringe on a flight path to celebrate the arrival of the vaccine in Germany, Flightradar24 reports.
Simply Flying has this write-up:
Taking off from Bodensee Airport Friedrichshafen (FDH) at 10.04 local time on 24 December, the pilot proceeded to draw an intricate depiction of a syringe, complete with droplets from the needle. The flight-path pattern required rather sharp turns, but the nimble Diamond DA20 Katana aircraft with registration D-ENIG was well-suited to the task.
The pilot reached a height of 5,475ft and a top speed of 121 knots just as they were completing one side of the syringe’s barrel. The thin line of the needle was accomplished by backtracking the exact flight path they had taken to its tip.
Having completed the piece of sky-art invisible to the naked eye, the pilot landed the DA20 back at FDH one hour and 44 minutes after take-off.
Updated
First vaccine administered in Spain
A 96-year-old living in a care home in central Spain has become the first Spaniard to be vaccinated against Covid-19, in an event broadcast by national television, AFP reports.
Araceli Rosario Hidalgo Sanchez said with a smile that she felt “nothing” from the injection.
The pensioner, living in the Los Olmos retirement home in Guadalajara, got up slowly after pulling on her black jacket and walked off using a frame for support.
Carer Monica Tapias followed as the second Spaniard to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The Los Olmos home was picked to kick off the country’s inoculation campaign because it sits near a Pfizer storage depot, where vaccines were delivered from Belgium on Saturday before nationwide distribution.
No cases of Covid-19 have so far been detected among the staff or residents.
“It’s a great source of pride and a great satisfaction for us. We’re representing all the retirement homes in Spain,” the director, Marina Vadillo, said on Thursday.
After the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last Monday, the way is open for injections across the 27-member bloc.
Updated
Russia reported 28,284 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 3,050,248 after it crossed the 3 million mark the previous day.
Russia’s coronavirus crisis centre said 552 coronavirus patients had died in the last 24 hours and the overall national coronavirus death toll was at 54,778.
Число заразившихся новой коронавирусной инфекцией в России выросло за последние сутки на 28 284 и сейчас составляет 3 050 248 человек, из них 786 204 в Москве: https://t.co/xeGq1Yntu3#coronavirus #коронавирус #ТАССтатистика_коронавирус pic.twitter.com/FDA8vyFEaS
— ТАСС (@tass_agency) December 27, 2020
Updated
The Sunday Times says the jab developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca is expected to be approved for use in the UK by Thursday. In an interview, the AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said: “We think we’ve figured out the winning formula to maximise the protection offered.” He believes the vaccine will work against mutations of the virus, but admits further tests will be required to prove this.
Sunday Times: Vaccine boost for millions as hospitals near breaking point #TomorrowsPapersToday #SundayTimes #Times pic.twitter.com/kr45T3BJVc
— Tomorrow's Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) December 26, 2020
The Sun on Sunday says the Oxford jab will be approved on Monday and the first injections are expected to be rolled out a week later.
Updated
New strain detected in Canada
Cases of the new variant strain first detected in the UK have been confirmed across Europe including in France, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Iceland, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as around the globe in Australia, Japan and Lebanon.
And Dr Barbara Yaffe, the associate chief medical officer of Canada’s Ontario province, said the first two confirmed cases were a couple from the country’s Durham region with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts.
People living in Ontario, like those in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England, are now living under lockdown measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
The Czech Republic started administering vaccinations against the new coronavirus on Sunday, part of a push against the pandemic across the European Union.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis was the first to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Central Military Hospital in Prague, just before other hospitals in the capital and second-largest city Brno started to distribute the 9,750 doses the country has received so far.
“The vaccine which arrived from the European Union yesterday, that is a hope, a hope that we will return to a normal life,” Babis said before taking the jab.
Emilie Repikova, 95, a World War Two veteran, was also one of the first to be inoculated, shortly after Babis.
The country closed non-essential shops, services and ski lifts and enforced a stricter curfew from Sunday as it seeks to curb another rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations.
Summary
Welcome to a Sunday edition of our Coronavirus live blog covering both the UK and global developments on the virus.
The official vaccination programme against coronavirus gets underway in several EU countries today. In some places inoculations began last night when health workers in Hungary, Slovakia and Germany got their first injections of the Pfizer/BioNtech jab. The Czech prime minister, Andrej Babis, was vaccinated this morning at a military hospital in Prague.
In the UK there is speculation in the Sunday papers that the Oxford/AstraZeneca will get approval for use this week and perhaps as early as tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the largest hospital in Wales has used social media to appeal for help from medical students to treat intensive care patients.
Our Critical Care Department is urgently looking for assistance from medical students or other staff groups who have previously supported with proning patients.
— Cardiff & Vale UHB (@CV_UHB) December 26, 2020
If you are fit tested and available at 9am/5pm over the next few days call 02921 841174 or bleep 5490. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/HoZ5aJsIZ6
