This blog is closing for tonight, thanks for following. Our colleagues will be bringing you more Covid updates in a few hours.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a roundup of tonight’s updates:
- An official in Brazil has urged women to put off getting pregnant until the worst of the pandemic has passed.
- Italy will ease restrictions in many areas in ten days time, its government confirmed on Friday, but warned caution was needed to avoid any resurgence in the virus.
- Moderna is struggling to supply promised shots to the UK because of issues with increasing production at its European plant.
- El Salvador and Honduras will receive a combined $70m (£50m) from the World Bank for vaccine purchasing and distribution.
- Scientists at US firm Johnson & Johnson have refuted allegations that the design of its Covid-19 jab, which is similar to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, may be why both are linked to rare blood clots.
- Businesses are defying new restrictions in Argentina, as infections surged to record highs.
- The Canadian province of Ontario has announced sweeping new police powers to enforce an extended stay-at-home order amid a record level of new cases.
- Brazil’s health regulator lacks the necessary information to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, according to documents seen by Reuters on Friday.
- Kyrgyzstan will use a herbal tonic to treat Covid, according to its health minister, despite warnings from experts that it contains a potentially lethal poison.
Updated
From the moment public health officials started to track new variants of coronavirus, it became clear that the same mutations were cropping up time and again and making the virus more troublesome. What are these mutations, what do they do, and what do they mean for the pandemic?
Brazil’s health regulator lacks the necessary information to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, according to documents seen by Reuters on Friday.
The documents were sent to the nation’s supreme court as part of an emergency request to import the jab by the state of Maranhão.
In the documents the regulator, Anvisa, lists types of data it lacks, including mass trial results and quality assurances. It says it does not have the sufficient information to carry out a “positive benefit-versus-risk analysis of the vaccine”. It has been given 30 days to make a decision on the emergency request by a judge.
Brazil is ahead of some of its neighbours in Latin America in its vaccination programme, but is still behind many developed countries and has missed its own targets due to a shortage of doses.
The country is suffering its worst period of the pandemic, with more daily deaths than anywhere else in the world. Earlier on Friday a health official urged women to delay getting pregnant until after the worst of the pandemic had passed.
Ontario has announced sweeping new police powers to enforce an extended stay-at-home order, in the latest sign that officials in Canada’s most populous province have lost control of the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
With a record number of new cases, there is growing worry among experts that the already-strained healthcare system is being further pushed to the brink.
“We’re losing the battle between the variants and vaccines,’’ Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, said on Friday as he announced the new measures. “We’re on our heels. If we dig in, remain steadfast, we can turn this around.”
Updated
Businesses are defying new restrictions in Argentina, as infections surged to record highs.
The country’s daily per capita case rates have risen above hard-hit neighbour Brazil. The new measures have effectively introduced a curfew after 8pm, indoor activities in public spaces are banned and schools are closed.
But according to Reuters, many restaurants, gyms and bars appear to be defying government orders.
In the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Almagro, bar owner Marcelo said he didn’t want to stick to the new regulations that only allow people to be served outdoors, adding he needed to protect the business he had run for 18 years.
“The president does what he has to do. I do not agree with these measures,” he said. “Last year was very tough.”
President Alberto Fernández said the country needed to buy time in its battle against Covid. Nearly 59,000 people have died from the virus during the pandemic.
“For me we can’t have this rebellion. I am not going to tolerate letting them do what they want,” he said.
Scientists at US firm Johnson & Johnson have refuted allegations that the design of its Covid-19 jab, which is similar to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, may be why both are linked to rare blood clots.
The US paused its distribution earlier this week to investigate six cases of rare blood clots in US women, out of 7 million who have had the vaccine.
The clots are similar to the 169 cases in Europe from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine from 34 million doses. Both are based on a new technology that uses a modified version of adenoviruses, which cause the common cold, as vectors to ferry instructions to human cells.
Reuters reported that in a letter on Friday to a US medical journal, scientists from the pharmaceutical company refuted a case report which said the blood clots could be down to using adenoviral vectors.
Macaya Douoguih, a scientist with J&J’s Janssen vaccines division, said that the vectors used in its vaccine and the AstraZeneca shot are “substantially different” and that those differences could lead to “quite different biological effects”.
Updated
Brazil asks women to delay pregnancy until after peak of pandemic
An official in Brazil has urged women to put off getting pregnant until the worst of the pandemic has passed, saying that the variant affecting the country can affect expectant mothers more than earlier versions of the virus.
According to Reuters, a health ministry official, Raphael Parente, told a news conference: “If it’s possible, delay pregnancy a little until a better moment.
“The clinical experience of specialists shows that this new variant acts more aggressively in pregnant women.”
He added that the request was partly due to the pressure on the health service, but also due to a more easily transmissible Brazilian variant.
Hospitals are buckling under the strain and stocks of drugs needed for intubating severely ill patients are running perilously low, with Brazil turning to international partners for help with emergency supplies. More than 350,000 people in the country have now died. Data shows that the latest wave is affecting more younger people.
Parente said previously cases were focused on the final trimester and birth, whereas there had been more serious cases in the second and first trimester.
Updated
Italian restrictions to relax from 26 April
Italy will ease restrictions in many areas in ten days time, its government confirmed on Friday, but warned caution was needed to avoid any resurgence in the virus.
Restrictions on business and movement have been in place for most of 2021 in the country. It has the seventh highest death toll in the world and still reports hundreds of deaths a day.
Reuters reports that current restrictions were set to expire at the start of May, and no decision had been taken on how to replace them.
Prime minister Mario Draghi set out a timetable for reopening after pressures from other parties in his government, particularly the League.
He said: The government is taking a reasonable risk based on data that is improving, although not dramatically.”
Italy abandoned its four-tier, colour-coded system in March as new infections and hospitalisations rose. From 26 April, more lenient yellow and white zones will be reinstated where case numbers are low.
Bars and restaurants will be able to serve customers at outside tables, and cinemas and theatres will reopen with limits on the number of people allowed in audiences.
Health minister Roberto Speranza added: “Our idea is to allow open-air swimming pools from 15 May and restart some gym activities on 1 June.”
Updated
Kyrgyzstan will use a herbal tonic to treat Covid, according to its health minister, despite warnings from experts that it contains a potentially lethal poison.
Minister Alymkadyr Beishenaliyev drank a solution made from the roots of aconitum soongaricum at an online briefing in a bid to show it was safe, Reuters reports.
It has also been praised by its president Sadyr Japarov, despite a former health ministry adviser Bermet Baryktabasova saying aconitum was “the most poisonous plant in Kyrgyzstan”.
She added: “Even the smallest doses of its extract have strong negative effect on the body and the person might quickly die.
“We are falling back into the Middle Ages.”
The country has reported more than 90,000 cases and in excess of 1,500 deaths.
El Salvador and Honduras will receive a combined $70m (£50m) from the World Bank for vaccine purchasing and distribution.
According to Reuters, El Salvador will get $50m while its neighbour will be sent $20m. The sums will also be used to boost their healthcare systems.
“This financial support will enable affordable and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for El Salvador and Honduras and will play a critical role in strengthening the countries’ capacity to deliver quality health services for their citizens,” said Michel Kerf, World Bank director for Central America and the Dominican Republic.
France passed the grim milestone of 100,000 people dead from Covid-19 this week, but a warden at a Paris cemetery has already been witnessing the death toll as she oversees a constant procession of burials, reports Reuters.
The number of burials carried out at Raymonde Boulon’s cemetery in Thiais, a south-eastern suburb of Paris, was 700 higher in 2020 than in the previous year.
She recalled the point early last year when she and her colleagues realised the COVID-19 epidemic was exacting a heavy toll.
“When we crossed the threshold of 15 burials, 15, then 17, then 19, up to 20, we said ‘Ooh la’,” said Boulon, surrounded by freshly-filled burial plots with temporary wooden markers standing in for headstones.
During the peak of mortality from the epidemic, between March and June 2020, one section of the cemetery alone carried out 305 burials, a figure she said was “enormous.”
Some caskets arrive at the cemetery direct from hospitals and mortuaries – for cases where there is no family to organise the burial, or they cannot afford it. Normally they would come twice a week, but during the worst period, these caskets were arriving almost daily, said Boulon.
“We just said to ourselves: ‘We need to get organised and make sure everything runs smoothly,” said Boulon, a 49-year-old mother of two. “We realised the scale.”
Ordinarily, many families from immigrant communities repatriate deceased relatives’ bodies for burial in their country of origin. The pandemic closed international borders, so they were buried in Paris instead, further ramping up the pressure on the cemetery.
The US pharmaceutical company Moderna, which produces the newest vaccine to be rolled out in the UK, is struggling to supply promised shots because of issues with increasing production at its European plant, in the latest problem to hit global vaccination plans.
In a statement on Friday, the company suggested supply of the vaccine would be reduced this month, with doses earmarked for the UK, Canada and other countries expected to be affected.
While Moderna produces vaccines for the US market at its facility in Massachusetts, the company said issues with its European supply chain, which it is undertaking in partnership with the Swiss company Lonza Group AG, had caused the shortfall.
Summary
Here’s a round-up of this evening’s coronavirus news:
- Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women in the UK have been given the green light to receive a Covid vaccine in a move welcomed by bereaved families and campaigners.
- Funeral home operators staged a protest in Rome over a desperate situation where 2,000 coffins in the Italian capital are waiting weeks or even months to be cremated.
- China’s Coronavac vaccine is 67 percent% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and 80% effective at preventing death, according to real-life result.
- The first of the 77 cases of the India variant of coronavirus found in the UK were detected in specimens dating back to February, the Guardian has learned.
- Angela Merkel received her first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, more than two weeks after German authorities recommended the use of the jab only for people aged 60 and over.
- A US panel will meet again next week to discuss whether the pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines should continue.
- France has given a first Covid-19 vaccination injection to virtually 100% of retirement care home residents and three quarters have received two shots.
-
Latvia has opened up a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination scheme to allow anyone who wants it to get the AstraZeneca vaccine in order to clear a growing backlog of the shot often refused by older people.
This is Harry Taylor, taking you through the latest Covid-related developments from across the globe for the rest of tonight. If you’ve got any tips or suggestions, you can reach me by email or Twitter, where my DMs are open.
Funeral home operators staged a protest in Rome on Friday over a desperate situation they say has left almost 2,000 coffins in the Italian capital waiting weeks or even months to be cremated.
While coronavirus has not helped the situation, the increase in deaths and limited access to public services caused by the pandemic has exposed a longstanding problem blamed on Italy’s old nemesis: bureaucracy.
Giovanni Caccioli, the national secretary of the Italian Federation of Funeral Homes, told AFP at the protest:
We appeal to the mayor of Rome to end the current procedures needed to authorise a cremation.
Standing alongside their hearses, the funeral workers laid wreaths around the Roman Temple of Hercules Victor, near the office of the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, with notices reading: “Sorry, they will not let us bury your loved ones.”
According to Caccioli, Rome registers about 15-18,000 requests for cremations every year, for which families must go through a “tortuous” bureaucratic journey involving the local cemetery, the municipal agency AMA and the registrar office.
Earlier this week, Oberdan Zuccaroli, a bereaved son, staged a very personal protest by putting up billboards around Rome with the message: “Mum, sorry I’ve not been able to have you buried yet.”
But he is far from the only one for whom the delays have exacerbated the pain of losing a loved one.
Lorella Pesaresi, whose husband died in January after testing positive for coronavirus while undergoing chemotherapy, said:
It’s been three months that I’ve been waiting for my husband’s cremation, and still nothing has been done.
It’s not fair – coronavirus and now this.
Updated
China’s Coronavac vaccine is 67% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and 80% effective at preventing death, according to real-life results unveiled by Chile’s inoculation campaign.
“These figures should convey peace of mind to the country,” the Chilean health minister, Enrique Paris, told journalists as he announced the outcome of two months’ of vaccination in Chile, in February and March.
The results were obtained from a comparison between people who were fully vaccinated, partly vaccinated with one dose and non-vaccinated – a sample size of about 10.5 million in total.
They also showed the vaccine was 85% effective at preventing hospital admission with serious coronavirus symptoms, and 89% effective at preventing intensive care admissions.
Chile’s government wants to inoculate 80%, or 15.2 million, of its population. It is far ahead in Latin America, and has one of the most advanced vaccine campaigns in the world.
As of Friday, the country had given at least one vaccine dose to 7.6 million people, and both doses to more than 5 million – about a third of the target population.
Updated
Pregnant women in UK given green light to have Covid jab
Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women in the UK have been given the green light to receive a Covid vaccine in a move welcomed by bereaved families and campaigners.
All pregnant women would be offered the Pfizer or Moderna jab based on their age and clinical risk group after real-world data from the US showed about 90,000 pregnant women had been vaccinated without any safety concerns, the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said on Friday.
Pregnant women, who had previously been advised not to take the vaccine because of a lack of data on the impact, will be able to have the vaccine at any stage of pregnancy. About 700,000 women give birth in England and Wales each year, with thousands more trying to get pregnant at any one time.
The new guidance states that women who are trying to conceive, recently had a baby or are breastfeeding can be vaccinated with any jab, depending on their age and clinical risk group.
Read the full story from my colleagues Alexandra Topping and Nicola Davis:
Updated
Latvia has opened up a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination scheme to allow anyone who wants it to get the AstraZeneca vaccine in order to clear a growing backlog of the shot often refused by older people.
Here are a few pictures from today:
Updated
Why were Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups worst hit by the UK’s second wave?
Laura Bear, a professor of anthropology at LSE and leader of the Sage ethnicity subgroup’s report has this to say on the topic:
How can we prevent enduring, unequal transmission of Covid-19 in specific communities and places? Some answers to this question come from a recent report by the ethnicity subgroup of Sage on the causes of the tragic loss of life among Bangladeshi and Pakistani British communities in the second wave of the pandemic.
While all minority ethnic groups remained at greater risk of death from Covid-19 compared with white ethnic groups in the period from October 2020 to January 2021, Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups were at the greatest risk. The Sage advice, which I led on, uncovered the effects of inequality and policy on health outcomes and the urgent measures needed to support hard-hit communities and prevent future tragedies.
The recent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities reports that this was a result of “risk of infection”, “as opposed to ethnicity alone being a risk factor”. To the contrary, our findings show that multiple disadvantages faced by ethnic groups join together to produce infection and death from Covid-19.
Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups experience more chronic, debilitating health conditions at a younger age due to health disparities. They mainly work in jobs in small-scale retail, transportation and hospitality, leading to greater exposure to Covid-19. Being precarious employees or business owners means that they are less able to negotiate paid sick leave or to stay home when unwell.
They are more likely to live in crowded housing providing social support to older and younger family members under one roof. This increases risks of transmission within families from workplaces and schools, and prevents self-isolation of sick family members. Stigma and racism are common experiences, due to their ethnic and religious identity, causing physiological effects on health outcomes and creating a barrier to accessing services.
Read the full opinion piece here:
Moderna said a shortfall in Covid-19 vaccine doses from its European supply chain will lead to a delay in deliveries to some countries including Canada.
Canada had earlier said the drugmaker would be delivering only 650,000 doses by the end of April as opposed to 1.2m, and that 1-2m doses of the 12.3m scheduled for delivery in the second quarter would be delayed until the third.
Moderna officials in Europe did not immediately comment on the reason for the shortfalls in the second quarter or give the total number of countries that would be impacted, Reuters reports.
Patricia Gauthier, an executive at Moderna Canada:
Vaccine manufacturing is a highly complex process and a number of elements, including human and material resources have factored into this volatility.
Swiss contract drug manufacturer Lonza makes active ingredients for Moderna’s vaccine in Visp, but it is still ramping up three new production lines that once fully operational would have a capacity to produce 300m shots annually.
Updated
Modelling shows that cases of Covid-19 in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, could treble by the end of May unless tough restrictions are imposed, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Friday.
Some hospitals say they are already close to breaking point as a rapidly worsening third wave rips through the province, and the head of its main nurses organisation has called for a full lockdown including a curfew.
Ontario premier Doug Ford, who has so far resisted such wide-ranging steps but is under increasing criticism for how his government has handled the epidemic, is due to make an announcement later today, Reuters reports.
Ontario, which accounts for 38% of Canada’s population, announced a record 4,736 daily cases on Thursday and the CBC cited sources as saying this could rocket to 18,000 by the end of May if current trends continued.
Updated
France has given a first Covid-19 vaccination injection to virtually 100% of retirement care home residents and three quarters have received two shots, health minister Olivier Veran said on Friday.
During a visit to a vaccination centre in southern France, Veran also told reporters that more than two thirds of all health staff and 80% of health staff over the age of 50 had received at least a first injection.
France’s focus on care home residents has led to a sharp drop in deaths, Reuters reports.
At the start of the vaccination campaign in late December-early January, France was registering about 700 deaths a week in retirement homes, accounting for nearly a third of all weekly deaths nationwide.
By early March, that number had dropped to around 300, by the end of March to 80 and last week France reported fewer than 50 deaths in retirement homes.
On Thursday, as France’s Covid-19 death toll crossed 100,000, the seven-day moving average of Covid-19 deaths stood at nearly 300 a day, with the average of retirement home deaths among those stood at just seven.
Veran also told reporters that with still some 35,000 new Covid-19 cases a day in France, it was too soon to consider easing restrictions on people’s movements, and he reiterated that there were no plans to lift a curfew that has been in place since mid-December.
Updated
A US panel will meet again next week to discuss whether the pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines should continue, after delaying a vote on the matter earlier this week.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel will meet on 23 April, according to a notice posted on the regulator’s website.
US health regulators recommended earlier this week that use of the J&J vaccine be paused after reports of six cases of rare brain blood clots in women.
The advisory panel on Wednesday called for more data before making a decision on how and whether to resume use of the one-dose shot, Reuters reports.
Updated
This time last year in the UK, NHS bosses asked doctors and nurses to wear aprons and work without protective full-length gowns when treating Covid-19 patients, as hospitals were within hours of running out of supplies.
This is just one example of how the UK government has been slammed for its handling of the pandemic, through a series of missteps, U-turns, lockdowns, denials – and more than 150,000 deaths.
Twelve months on, the Guardian looked at three major areas where officials were out of line with the data on coronavirus infections and deaths available at the time.
A government spokesperson responded:
Throughout the pandemic, our approach has been guided by data and the advice of scientific and medical experts … As new evidence emerged, we acted quickly and decisively to implement life-saving measures, including restrictions and lockdowns, to protect lives, livelihoods and our economy.
We are doing everything we can to ensure care home residents and staff are protected, including providing more than 9.9bn items of PPE to the frontline.
Watch the full video from my colleagues Pamela Duncan, Monika Cvorak and Nikhita Chulani here:
Updated
India Covid variant found in UK specimens taken in February
The first of the 77 cases of the India variant of coronavirus found in the UK were detected in specimens dating back to February, the Guardian has learned.
On Thursday, Public Health England (PHE) revealed that 77 cases of a variant first detected in India, called B1617, had been found in the UK, with 73 cases in England and four in Scotland.
It is designated a “variant under investigation” but is worrying researchers as it contains two mutations that it is thought may help the virus to evade the body’s immune responses. There are also concerns the variant might be more infectious than early forms of Covid-19.
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while there was yet to be proof to support such worries, there was anecdotal evidence from India.
He said:
I think it’s fair to say that this is a candidate for becoming a variant of concern pretty soon.
Read the full story here:
Updated
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged parliament to pass a bill that would mandate a nationwide “emergency brake” when the spread of the coronavirus becomes too rapid, saying that it was needed to prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed.
“The situation is serious, very serious, and we need to take it seriously,” she told lawmakers. “There is no way around it. We need to stop this third wave of the pandemic ... and to achieve this we need to better combine the strengths of the federal, state and local governments than we have been.”
Passing the bill is an uphill battle for Merkel, with state governments reluctant to cede any authority over healthcare to the federal government.
Updated
Angela Merkel received her first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, more than two weeks after German authorities recommended the use of the jab only for people aged 60 and over.
“I am delighted to have received my first vaccination with AstraZeneca today. I thank everyone involved in the vaccination campaign and everyone who gets vaccinated. Vaccination is the key to getting out of the pandemic,” the 66-year-old said in a tweet posted by her spokesman, Steffen Seibert.
Updated
By the end of May, one in three Germans should have been offered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the health minister, Jens Spahn, has said.
Germany should be able to abandon its strict prioritisation list for coronavirus vaccinations towards the summer, Spahn told a news conference.
Updated
Covid-19 infections across all parts of the UK have fallen to the lowest level since the autumn, new figures suggest.
According to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), around one in 480 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to 10 April – down from one in 340 the previous week.
This is the lowest figure since the week to 19 September 2020, when the estimate stood at one in 500.
Meanwhile in Wales, about one in 920 people was estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to 10 April – down from one in 800 in the week before and the lowest level since the week to 10 September.
In Northern Ireland, the estimate was around one in 710 people, a drop from one in 300 in the previous week and the lowest since estimates there began in October.
The estimate for Scotland was about one in 500, falling from one in 410 and again the lowest since estimates began in October.
The drop in infection levels across the UK marks a contrast to rising case rates in other parts of the world.
World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said coronavirus cases globally were rising at “worrying” rates and highlighted that the number of new cases confirmed per week had nearly doubled during the past two months.
Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday, he said the number of new cases “is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far in the pandemic”.
It comes as Downing Street insisted that the government’s red list of travel ban countries was “under constant review” when asked why India did not feature on it.
India has seen soaring Covid-19 rates, with more than 13.9 million confirmed cases and 172,000 deaths recorded.
Updated
Germany on Friday removed the UK from the list of risk zones for coronavirus infections, meaning that travellers will no longer need to quarantine upon arrival with effect from Sunday.
The Robert Koch Institute for infections diseases said on its website:
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland including Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the British Overseas Territories … is no longer considered as [a] risk area.
It also struck Barbados, the Pirkanmaa region of Finland and the mid-west and south-east regions of Ireland from the risk list, Reuters reports.
With the exception of a handful of countries including Japan, Israel and Vietnam, most countries are on a virus risk list.
Germany had in December included the UK on a no-arrivals list after a new more infectious coronavirus variant appeared in the country but the pandemic situation has dramatically improved since then.
Updated
Latvia offers mass vaccinations to clear AstraZeneca backlog
People in their 30s showed up in their hundreds on Friday morning as Latvia offered the AstraZeneca vaccine to anyone who wanted it in order to clear a growing backlog of the shot often refused by the old.
Latvia is now vaccinating people over 65 and those with chronic illnesses, but many do not show up when told they will be given AstraZeneca, Reuters reports.
“We queued two and half hours before opening, around 6:30 in the morning, because this is the only way out of this for us,” Riga resident Vladlens Kovalevs told Reuters at a converted convention centre in the city.
Partly due to hesitancy over AstraZeneca, Latvia has been lagging in vaccination, with only 7.8% of adults getting at least a single dose by Sunday, the worst result in the European Union, according to European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
A total of about 8,000 doses were distributed to seven vaccination centres around the country, to be used over the weekend, in one of the first open-to-all Covid-19 vaccination schemes in the EU.
Eva Juhnevica, the chief of Latvia’s vaccination programme, said:
We had an AstraZeneca surplus and to avoid keeping vaccines in the warehouse we decided to make this walk-in line open to anyone.
Latvia and neighbouring Lithuania asked Denmark to sell them its leftover vaccines to speed up their own efforts.
In the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, a similar backlog of vaccines was cleared after being offered to the young, who were not expecting to get a shot so early.
Vilnius mayor Remigijus Simasius told Reuters:
People over 65 in Vilnius are extremely reluctant to take AstraZeneca vaccine – so we began giving them Pfizer vaccine, and opened up AstraZeneca vaccination to priority groups containing younger people.
And the vaccination is now going smoothly.
Updated
Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 7,658 new coronavirus cases on Friday, health agency statistics showed.
The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 27 new deaths, taking the total to 13,788. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours but lower than in most European countries that opted for lockdowns.
Updated
Vaccine giant tweets Biden to end US raw materials 'embargo'
The head of the world’s largest vaccine maker directly tweeted the US president Joe Biden on Friday urging him to lift an export ban on raw materials desperately needed to make more coronavirus shots.
The unusual step by Serum Institute (SII) chief Adar Poonawalla underlined the crisis in providing vaccines to developing nations, many of which rely heavily on the firm for supplies, AFP reports.
Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details. 🙏🙏
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) April 16, 2021
There was no immediate response from the president on Twitter.
The world’s biggest vaccine producer by volume, SII has struggled to meet demand for the AstraZeneca jab, which it manufactures, after India put the brakes on allowing exports of the shots as it battles a ferocious second wave.
Poonawalla said last week that production was “very stressed” and called on the Indian government to provide it with financial assistance.
Updated
Johnson & Johnson reached out to rival Covid-19 vaccine makers to join in an effort to study the risks of blood clots, but Pfizer and Moderna declined, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Only AstraZeneca, which had been buffeted by similar blood-clotting concerns for weeks, agreed, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
You can read that story here (£).
Updated
Workers on zero-hours contracts and other insecure jobs are twice as likely to have died of Covid-19 as those in other professions, a report has found.
The research from the Trades Union Congress in England and Wales showed those on the frontline of the pandemic, such as care workers, nurses and delivery drivers, were at a higher risk of death.
It said many of these key workers were in insecure work, such as zero-hours contracts and agency employment, landing them with a “triple whammy” of no sick pay, fewer rights and endemic low pay, while having to shoulder more risk of infection.
Read the full story here:
Australia’s medicine regulator has determined the death of a 48-year-old woman with diabetes who developed blood clots after receiving AstraZeneca was “likely” linked to the vaccine.
On Friday night, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said experts had concluded the New South Wales woman’s death four days after receiving the vaccination was likely linked to the jab.
“In the absence of an alternative cause for the clinical syndrome, VSIG believed that a causative link to vaccination should be assumed at this time,” the TGA said in a statement.
Read the full story here:
Updated
The discovery of 77 UK cases of a coronavirus variant first detected in India could be a cause for concern, an expert has said.
Public Health England (PHE) reported that 73 cases of the B.1.617 variant have been confirmed in England as well as four cases in Scotland.
The figures come from the latest update of PHE’s surveillance of the distribution of variants across the UK, based on data up to 7 April.
Officials have designated it a “variant under investigation” (VUI) rather than a “variant of concern” (VOC), such as the Manaus (Brazil) or South African variants.
In India, Covid-19 rates are soaring, with more than 13.9 million confirmed cases and 172,000 deaths.
The country is not on the government’s “red list” of travel ban nations, which refuses entry to the UK of people who have been in those countries in the previous 10 days.
British or Irish nationals, or people with UK residency rights, are able to return from red list countries but must isolate in a quarantine hotel for 10 days.
Boris Johnson has scaled down a planned trip to India due to its worsening Covid situation.
The prime minister was due to spend four days there at the end of the month but, following talks with Narendra Modi’s administration, the “bulk” of the meetings could be fitted into one day.
Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, told PA it is “not surprising” that the variant has come from India.
If you think about where the main variants have arisen – South Africa, the UK, California, Brazil, and now India – all of these are countries that have really struggled to keep case numbers down.
So it’s not surprising. India has got a huge pandemic, and therefore that’s where you’re going to be getting the variant.
The big, big anxiety with this one is that it seems – and again this is still a little bit speculative because it hasn’t been confirmed – but … there are two mutations here that are causing people to be concerned.
Updated
Today so far …
- The number of new Covid-19 cases per week has nearly doubled globally over the past two months, approaching the highest rate seen so far during the pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said this morning.
- India’s daily Covid-19 vaccinations have slowed from their record high early this month while new infections have set a record in eight of the past nine days.
- The CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, has urged US president Joe Biden to lift an embargo on exports of raw materials that it says is hurting its production of Covid -19 shots.
- Vietnam’s health ministry called for the acceleration of its Covid-19 vaccine rollout on Friday as the expiry date of the south-east Asian country’s first batch of jabs supplied through the Covax scheme approaches.
- More than 16,000 expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 doses are to be destroyed in Malawi as concerns over vaccine hesitancy increase. The vaccines are among 102,000 doses donated by the African Union (AU) to the Malawian government last month.
- Thailand will close close schools, bars and massage parlours, as well as ban alcohol sales in restaurants, for at least two weeks starting from Sunday, after a jump in Covid-19 cases.
- Sweden will ease restrictions on citizens who have had at least one vaccination shot against Covid-19.
- In Scotland, changes in the rules mean people will be allowed to meet in groups of up to six adults from six households in outdoor settings from today for socialising, recreation and exercise. They will also be permitted to travel across Scotland for the first time since December – provided they do not stay overnight.
- Denmark advanced its reopening plan on the back of stable infection rates, allowing indoor serving at restaurants and bars and some football fans to cheer from the stands from 21 April, weeks earlier than originally planned.
- French president Emmanuel Macron told local mayors that the epidemic was likely to progress over the next eight to 10 days, with a peak of infections in France between the 25 April and 30 April, and a peak in hospital admissions between now and the end of the month.
- Monaco has announced it is easing health restrictions, without resolving fully whether fans would be allowed at its Formula One grand prix next month.
That’s your lot today from me, Martin Belam. My colleague Nicola Slawson will be along to take you through the rest of the day shortly. I’ll see you here again on Monday. Take care and have a great weekend.
With infections again on the rise and Europe’s vaccine rollout delayed over clotting concerns, the Spanish government is under pressure to extend a state of emergency to fight the pandemic.
Activated in October, the measure allows the central and regional governments to adopt measures that curb individual freedoms, such as imposing curfews and closing regional borders to anyone moving without just cause. It is due to expire on 9 May.
Agence France-Presse reports that the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said his government does not intend to prolong it, arguing the regional authorities had “sufficient tools” to tackle the crisis and that a vaccine was now available.
“The circumstances are different,” he said during a debate in parliament earlier this week. “The alternative to a state of emergency is a vaccination programme, which is intensifying.”
But many regional governments – which are responsible for healthcare – fear that lifting it will throw them into a legal limbo that will hurt efforts to control the spread of Covid-19 and are pushing for an extension.
Iñigo Urkullu, head of the northern Basque Country region, has warned it would remove the “legal guarantees” for imposing measures such as restrictions on mobility.
Regions popular with domestic tourists are especially worried about losing the ability to ban travel in and out of their territory, fearing an influx of visitors from areas with higher infection rates once the emergency ends.
The government has continued to insist it will meet its target of vaccinating 70% of Spain’s population by the end of August.
Updated
Thailand to impose additional Covid restrictions for at least two weeks
Just a bit more from Thailand here. As expected, the country will close schools, bars and massage parlours, as well as ban alcohol sales in restaurants, for at least two weeks starting from Sunday, after a jump in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
Activities involving more than 50 people will also be prohibited, Thailand’s coronavirus taskforce spokesman, Taweesin Wisanuyothin, said, adding that 18 provinces including Bangkok had been labelled as red zones with the rest of the country categorised as orange zones.
Updated
The French president Emmanuel Macron told local mayors in a video-link up last night that the epidemic was likely to progress in France over the next eight to 10 days, with a peak of infections between the 25 April and 30 April, and a peak in hospital admissions between now and the end of the month.
The government spokesman said this morning that creches, nursery schools and primary schools would definitely reopen as planned on 26 April, with secondary schools following on 3 May. The government has not yet set a date for gradually reopening outdoor dining or museums, which could progressively begin from mid-May, and might be organised by region.
France was placed in a third, partial lockdown at the beginning of April, as new infections were rising and hospitals struggling to find beds for patients. The total number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care in France surged past 5,900 this week. Schools have been closed with a ban on most domestic travel and the shutting of most non-essential shops. An overnight nationwide curfew has been in place since mid-December, and all France’s restaurants, bars, gyms, cinemas and museums have been closed since October.
Updated
Monaco has announced it is easing health restrictions, without resolving fully whether fans would be allowed at its Formula One grand prix next month.
“Monaco is taking its decisions in the light of its own situation, in full sovereignty but also in mutual agreement with France,” the principality’s minister of state Pierre Dartout told a press briefing.
He said that from Monday, the curfew would move to 9pm local time and there would be a controlled reopening of restaurants in the evening.
Reuters reports that restaurants, which have been able to open only at lunchtime, may serve customers in the evening until 9.30pm but they are not allowed to play music and customers must return home by 10pm with a certificate from the restaurant owner. The provisions extend to 2 May, three weeks before the Monaco Grand Prix , which is scheduled for May 23.
“It is not a question of complacency, but a certain number of favourable developments have taken place,” Dartout said, saying an infection rate of the virus had fallen to 80 per 100,000 on Wednesday.
For the grand prix, a centrepiece of Monaco’s calendar, there will be a closed practice session on Friday but a crowd, limited to local residents and employees, will be allowed for qualifying on Saturday and for the race on Sunday, the government announced.
Monaco has not yet given any public indication of whether fans would allowed to watch from the stands, terraces and balconies, or whether the traditional influx of visiting fans would be permitted.
Updated
Vietnam’s health ministry called for the acceleration of its Covid-19 vaccine rollout on Friday as the expiry date of the south-east Asian country’s first batch of jabs supplied through the Covax scheme approaches.
Since it began its vaccination programme last month, Vietnam has inoculated about 73,000 people despite receiving nearly 1m AstraZeneca doses, 800,000 of which were obtained via the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme.
“The [AstraZeneca] Covid-19 vaccine has a shelf life of six months but the batch delivered to Vietnam on 1 April under the Covax scheme only has two months left till expiration,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
“We have to speed up the inoculation. It is not acceptable that a single dose of the vaccine is thrown out because of a failure in the rollout,” the statement added.
The health ministry requested all 19 localities which have started vaccine programmes to finish no later than 5 May, 26 days before the vaccines expire.
Vietnam has been praised globally for its record in containing the virus through targeted mass testing and a strict, centralised quarantine programme.
Phuong Nguyen notes for Reuters that the country has kept its tally of cases to 2,800, and reported only 35 deaths since the pandemic began. Authorities are aiming to immunise 70% of Vietnam’s population and are seeking to obtain a total of 150m vaccine doses through direct purchases and via Covax.
Updated
The coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions that Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, enacted in March last year were among the nation’s toughest, and the governor’s leadership is thought to have saved lives. It also drew high marks from many in the state.
The same approach proved effective last fall when the second wave hit. Now, as Michigan faces another surge of cases and hospitalizations, its worst yet, Whitmer has changed tack.
Despite past success and growing calls for another lockdown from public health experts, and doctors managing hospitals with Covid patients, the governor is resisting further restrictions, and is instead largely relying on a vaccination rollout and a voluntary suspension of in-person dining services.
Several factors are driving the new approach, experts say. Among them is a growing sense of pandemic fatigue, and sustained pressure from conservatives. Eroding support from independents and Whitmer’s looming 2022 re-election race have also played a role. Many of those bearing the economic brunt of her lockdowns are donors and influential business leaders, said Bill Ballenger, a Michigan political analyst, and the governor appears to have been “scared straight”.
“I really do think the constant pressure over the last year is catching up, not just from the right and conservatives, but there are a growing number of people in the population, including independents and business persons who are Democrats, who are really angry at Whitmer,” Ballenger said.
The pressure to remain open continues even as cases and hospitalizations rise, putting Whitmer in an exceedingly difficult position. The surge hit soon after she lifted restrictions in early March, and Michigan’s two-week per-capita caseload now leads the nation. The state reached a bleak mark on Tuesday when over 4,000 people were reported hospitalized – the highest daily total of the pandemic. A high number of cases from Covid variants is also fueling the surge.
Among supporters strongly urging the governor to once again put restrictions in place are Dr Abdul El-Sayed, the former director of the Detroit health department. He noted that an increase in deaths has followed spikes in caseloads and hospitalizations, and said a new lockdown “would have a profound impact over the next couple weeks”.
He said: “Governor Whitmer showed a tremendous level of leadership last spring and fall, and that came with a lot of political blowback from conservatives, but she did the right thing – evidence shows that she saved lives, and we need that leadership now.”
Read more of Tom Perkins’ report from Detroit: ‘Alarm is growing’: Michigan governor faces shutdown dilemma as Covid cases rise
India’s daily Covid-19 vaccinations have slowed from their record high early this month while new infections have set a record in eight of the past nine days, government data show, underscoring a lack of doses in the country.
After giving and selling tens of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad, India has suddenly found itself short of shots. It has abruptly changed rules to allow it to fast-track vaccine imports, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer.
Reuters note that vaccinations peaked at 4.5 million doses on 5 April but have averaged about 3 million a day since then, according to the government’s Co-Win portal to coordinate immunisations.
In a further developoment, the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, has this morning urged US President Joe Biden to lift an embargo on exports of raw materials that it says is hurting its production of Covid -19 shots.
“Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can ramp up,” SII Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said in a tweet.
Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details. 🙏🙏
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) April 16, 2021
SII is committed to making the AstraZeneca shot for export as part of the COVAX programme, and will soon additionally start producing the Novavax vaccine. Poonawalla has previously appealed to the Indian government for financial assistance, saying that the inability to export doses was reducing revenue and hampering investment in increasing production capacity.
The number of new Covid-19 cases per week has nearly doubled globally over the past two months, approaching the highest rate seen so far during the pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said this morning.
“Cases and deaths are continuing to increase at worrying rates,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing focused on Papua New Guinea and the western Pacific region, Reuters reports.
He said he was very concerned about the potential for a much larger epidemic in Papua New Guinea, and it was vital the country received more Covid-19 vaccines as soon as possible.
"🇵🇬 is a perfect example of why #VaccinEquity is so important. It has held #COVID19 at bay for so long, but with:
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 16, 2021
Rising infections
Social restrictions fatigue
Low levels of immunity among the population
Fragile 🏥 system
it’s vital that it receives more vaccines ASAP"-@DrTedros
Updated
Sweden to ease some lockdown restrictions for people who have had a vaccination shot
Sweden will ease restrictions on citizens who have had at least one vaccination shot against Covid-19, the Public Health Agency has said.
Reuters reports that around one fifth of Swedes have been vaccinated, including almost all those living in care homes for the elderly, and vaccinations are gradually being expanded to people in their 60s.
Authorities said that three weeks after their first shot, people could meet others from outside their socially distanced bubble - even indoors - and that communal activities in care homes for the elderly could resume. Pensioners who have been vaccinated can also go to the shops again.
“Now it is OK for a vaccinated grandmother to hug her grandchildren,” Public Health Agency chief Johan Carlson told reporters.
However, he stressed the changes were “a small easing” of restrictions and that even those who had been vaccinated would still not be able to live their lives as normal by meeting in large groups or by ceasing to work from home when possible.
With the rate of new Covid-19 infections the second-highest in Europe after San Marino, authorities said it was not the time to ease restrictions for other groups. “So far, not enough people have been vaccinated so that it makes a difference to the pressure on the health system or on the spread of the infection in general,” health minister Lena Hallengren said.
The country’s vaccine coordinator Richard Bergstrom said Sweden was among several European countries negotiating with Russia over purchasing its Sputnik V vaccine. “The ambition on the part of several EU countries is to have a contract in place when - or if - the vaccine is approved,” Bergstrom said.
Updated
Russia reaches 8m vaccinations milestone
Russia has vaccinated more than 8 million citizens so far against Covid-19, the deputy prime minister, Tatiana Golikova, was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying on Friday, out of a total Russian population of about 144 million.
Reuters notes it is an increase of about 3 million in the past six weeks. Golikova said on 5 March that 5 million Russians had received at least the first shot of the two-dose vaccine.
Updated
Reuters has the latest from Thailand, which reported its fifth record daily tally of coronavirus cases this week.
All positive cases have to be admitted into care under Thai rules and with 10,461 patients currently being treated, the medical sector could be put under additional strain.
The government has set up more than 20,000 beds at field hospitals across the country at community centres and gyms. Hotels and hospitals are also partnering up to set up so-called “hospitels” to treat asymptomatic patients, the health ministry said.
Currently 5,000 beds across 23 hotels had been readied, it said in a statement. About 2,000 beds are occupied and an additional 7,000 more could be added.
Hotels already hosting travellers to Thailand for quarantine were best positioned for this, Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, the president of the Thai Hotels Association, told Reuters.
“They have all the processes in place such as preventing cross-contamination, wearing PPE suits, cleaning, making sure floors are not carpeted,” she said.
Hotels register through the health ministry and are matched up with hospitals that require extra beds. The hotels range from three- to five-star facilities and are mostly on the outskirts of Bangkok, the centre of the latest outbreak, which saw 312 new infections on Friday.
Authorities aim to get the new outbreak under control within a month, the health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said ahead of an announcement of a series of new measures later on Friday.
The measures being discussed include closing entertainment venues, clubs, bars, massage parlours and schools nationwide for at least two weeks, Anutin said on Thursday.
Updated
There’s been some strong words from the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, this morning.
She told lawmakers to approve new federal powers that would allow her to force coronavirus lockdowns and curfews on areas with high infection rates, saying a majority of Germans were in favour of stricter measures.
“The third wave of the pandemic has our country firmly in its grip,” said Merkel. “Intensive care workers are sending one distress call after the other. Who are we to ignore their pleas?”
Reuters reports her speech was interrupted by heckles from lawmakers of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party who are opposed to lockdowns.
Updated
India extended its record daily run of new Covid-19 infections on Friday, spurred by hundreds of positive tests at a major religious gathering, as politicians pushed ahead with election rallies against advice that holding them could worsen the outbreak.
Reuters reports that India is battling a massive second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with new restrictions imposed in Mumbai, New Delhi and other cities. There are also growing calls for officials to speed up the country’s vaccination programme as hospitals are swamped with patients.
Deaths in India rose by 1,185 over the past 24 hours – the highest single-day rise in seven months – to reach a total of 174,308, the health ministry reported. Total cases stand at nearly 14.3 million now, with 217,353 new daily cases, and India’s case count is second only to the United States.
“The biggest fight we have is in the society, over a period of time, people have adopted a casual approach,” the health minister, Harsh Vardhan, said on Friday.
Several senior leaders and opposition lawmakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, have been holding large rallies for supporters amid elections in five regions. Pictures from the rallies have shown thousands of mask-less people crowded together and chanting slogans as they listen to speeches from politicians, in clear violation of social distancing and other Covid-19 norms.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people at a religious gathering in Haridwar in the north of the country tested positive for Covid-19 as tens of thousands of devout pilgrims jostled to take a holy dip in the Ganges. One local official called it a “super-spreader” event.
India has so far injected 115 million vaccine doses, the highest globally after the United States and China, but that covers only a small fraction of its 1.4 billion people. In the heat of the latest wave of infections, India has shifted from being a mass vaccine exporter to a major importer.
Officials abruptly changed the rules to allow vaccine imports to be fast-tracked, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer. It will import Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting this month to cover as many as 125 million people.
India is also seeking to inoculate more of its population using domestically produced shots.
Updated
Defence minister calls for quarantine-free travel from Australia met with caution
The Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, has called for hotel quarantine-free international travel for fully vaccinated Australians “sooner rather than later” but the opposition Labor party and several states have warned that shouldn’t be considered before the entire population is protected.
Dutton supported today a proposal by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, who has asked health authorities to plan for allowing Australians who have had both vaccine doses to travel overseas and return without having to go into hotel quarantine for two weeks.
Morrison’s suggestion comes after he convened twice-weekly national cabinet meetings to prepare for mass vaccinations by mid-year. That’s prompted an angry reaction from states which said they would need more information about vaccine supply first.
The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said on Tuesday that “vaccination alone is no guarantee you can open up” – prompting concern from the more than 40,000 Australians stranded overseas.
Read more of Paul Karp’s report here: Covid jabs – Dutton’s call for quarantine-free travel met with caution
Updated
Denmark brings forward plans for lockdown easing measures
Denmark advanced its reopening plan on the back of stable infection rates, allowing indoor serving at restaurants and bars and some football fans to cheer from the stands from 21 April, weeks earlier than originally planned.
Nikolaj Skydsgaard reports for Reuters that Denmark has avoided a third wave of the Covid-19 epidemic after imposing wide lockdown measures in December, which slowed the epidemic considerably to between 500-700 daily infections from several thousands in December.
As part of the deal agreed by the government and most of parliament early today, the limit on outdoor public gatherings will also be raised to 50 from 10 on 21 April.
If you are just trying to get yourself quickly caught up on the latest Covid news in the UK, then likely to be high on the agenda today are concerns about the mass expansion of rapid coronavirus testing, which estimate that as few as 2% to 10% of positive results may be accurate in places with low Covid rates, such as London. There is also a worry over the detection in the UK of a coronavirus variant with potentially worrying mutations known as B.1.617, first seen in India.
Also liable to provoke debate today – especially among those opposed to the vaccination programme, are the quotes from Dr Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, suggesting that annual re-vaccinations may be necessary. He told CNBC:
A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed. Protection goes down by time. It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus.
Just a quick reminder that if you are in Scotland, then some of the coronavirus restrictions are changing today.
People will be allowed to meet in groups of up to six adults from six households in outdoor settings from today for socialising, recreation and exercise. You’ll also be permitted to travel across Scotland – as long as you do not stay overnight.
The further changes coming up in the next few weeks include that on 26 April, mainland Scotland and the islands at Level 4 restrictions are expected to move to Level 3. Islands currently at Level 3 restrictions will remain there until 17 May. The intention is then to move all of Scotland to Level 2 restrictions from 17 May.
You can find fuller details on the Scottish government website here.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been tweeting this morning in praise of the fundraising “One World Protected” campaign yesterday. It is an attempt to raise $2bn USD (£1.4bn GBP) for the global fight against Covid-19, in order to supply vaccines to low income nations.
I thank 🇸🇪, 🇳🇱, 🇩🇰, 🇱🇮 and 🇵🇹 for their financial commitments to #COVAX at the “One World Protected” event today, as well as to all the philanthropy organizations for their support. We welcome 🇳🇿's decision to share 1.6 million doses of #COVID19 vaccines to COVAX. #VaccinEquity
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 16, 2021
We’ve shown that #COVAX works. But to realize its full potential, we need all countries to step up with the political and financial commitments needed to fully fund COVAX and end the #COVID19 pandemic. We must #ACTogether, now, for #VaccinEquity!
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 16, 2021
More than 16,000 expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 doses are to be destroyed in Malawi as concerns over vaccine hesitancy increase. The vaccines are among 102,000 doses donated by the African Union (AU) to the Malawian government last month.
Health campaigners are concerned that the possible link with rare cases of blood clots and rumours that people were being given out-of-date doses of the vaccine were putting people off coming forward.
Currently, about 230,000 doses have been administered, enough to vaccinate nearly 1% of the population. As well as doses from the AU, the country received more than 400,000 AstraZeneca shots from Covax and the Indian government.
Initially, Malawians responded to the vaccine enthusiastically, with long queues at vaccination points and hospitals since the rollout began last month. But numbers have dropped off.
“From what I know, vaccine hesitancy has contributed to reduced uptake,” said Dr Ben Chilima, director of the Public Health Institute of Malawi. “I know some people did not go for the vaccine because of the hesitancy. There are some people who hesitate because they want to understand, other people because of religion and some people who simply think, ‘I will go tomorrow’.
“In the last week, people were also spreading messages that they will receive the expired vaccine, causing damage to the effort of the government.”
Read more of Charles Pensulo’s report from Lilongwe here: Malawi to bin 16,000 AstraZeneca doses amid fears of rise in vaccine hesitancy
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along – I’ll be back next week.
Over to you, Martin Belam.
Covid cases continue to surge in Cambodia, Thailand and India
India and Thailand reported record daily coronavirus cases on Thursday, as a new wave of infections, combined with a shortage of hospital beds and vaccines, threatens to slow Asia’s recovery from the pandemic, Reuters reports.
India breached 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday and the financial hub of Mumbai entered a lockdown, as many hospitals reported shortages of beds and oxygen supplies.
“The situation is horrible. We are a 900-bed hospital, but there are about 60 patients waiting and we don’t have space for them,” said Avinash Gawande, an official at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur, a commercial hub in Maharashtra.
The surge was the seventh record daily increase in the last eight days and takes the total caseload to 14.1 million, only second to the United States.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims thronged to a religious festival in the north of the country on Wednesday, stoking fears of another surge in Covid-19 cases.
Rising infections have also put strain on the healthcare system in Manila and Bangkok.
The Philippines saw many hospitals in its capital region, home to around 13 million people, filling up, as cases rise. Confirmed coronavirus cases in the last 30 days alone reached 266,489, accounting for 30% of the country’s total infections.
Some families of Covid patients have taken to social media to share their ordeals in finding hospitals. Some travelled outside the capital to find a healthcare facility, or spent long hours in line.
Thailand reported 1,543 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the sharpest increase since the start of the pandemic and the fourth record rise this week.
The spike has increased hospital bed occupancy rates as all positive cases have to be admitted into care under Thai rules. A total of 8,973 patients are being treated.
While the country considers lockdown measures, its neighbour Cambodia imposed a lockdown in its capital and a satellite district on Thursday as an outbreak that started in late February saw cases spike almost ten-fold to 4,874 within two months.
Bangladesh also began a week-long lockdown with strict restrictions on Wednesday as infections have reached around 7,000 cases a day in the last two weeks from below 300 in February.
Japan to expand quasi-emergency measures
Japan is set to raise the coronavirus alert level in Tokyo’s three neighbouring prefectures and a forth area in central Japan to allow tougher measures as a more contagious coronavirus variant spreads, along with doubts whether the Olympics can go ahead, AP reports.
The move comes only four days after Tokyo was placed on alert while the vaccination campaign has covered less than 1% of the population.
The government is expected to official approve the alert status for Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba and Aichi prefectures in central Japan at a meeting later Friday. It will allow heads of the prefectures to mandate shorter hours for bars and restaurants, along with punishments for violators and compensation for those who comply.
The measures are to begin Monday and continue through 11 May.
Many of the cases have been linked to nightlife and dining spots, but they have recently spread to offices, elderly care facilities and schools.
Japan added some 4,300 cases on Wednesday for a total of about half a million with 9,500 deaths.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the measures cover the areas hit by rapid spikes fueled by a new virus variant first detected in the U.K.. “The government will respond firmly even during my US trip,” he said before departing for Washington for talks with President Joe Biden.
Suga’s government has been criticized for being too slow in enacting anti-virus measures out of reluctance to further damage the economy.
The surge has also prompted concern among many Japanese about hosting the Tokyo Olympics 23 July to 8 August. On Thursday, two top officials said there was a possibility the Games could be canceled or even if they proceed, it might be without fans.
The new alert comes with binding orders but only for businesses to close early while measures for residents are only requests, leading some experts to doubt their effectiveness.
Osaka recently declared a medical emergency after its hospitals became overwhelmed with new cases.
Updated
Brazil ‘running out of sedatives’
Reports are emerging of Brazilian health workers forced to intubate patients without the aid of sedatives, after weeks of warnings that hospitals and state governments risked running out of critical medicines, AP reports.
One doctor at the Albert Schweitzer municipal hospital in Rio de Janeiro told the Associated Press that for days health workers diluted sedatives to make their stock last longer. Once it ran out, nurses and doctors had to begin using neuromuscular blockers and tying patients to their beds, the doctor said.
“You relax the muscles and do the procedure easily, but we don’t have sedation,” said the doctor, who agreed to discuss the sensitive situation only if not quoted by name. “Some try to talk, resist. They’re conscious.”
Lack of required medicines is the latest pandemic problem to befall Brazil, which is experiencing a brutal Covid outbreak that has flooded the nation’s intensive care units. The daily death count is averaging about 3,000, accounting for a quarter of deaths globally and making Brazil the epicenter of the pandemic.
“Intubation kits” include anesthetics, sedatives and other medications used to put severely ill patients on ventilators. The press office of Rio city’s health secretariat said in an email that occasional shortages at the Albert Schweitzer facility are due to difficulties obtaining supplies on the global market and that “substitutions are made so that there is no damage to the assistance provided.” It didn’t comment on the need to tie patients to beds.
The newspaper O Globo on Thursday reported similar ordeals in several other hospitals in the Rio metropolitan region, with people desperately calling other facilities seeking sedatives for their loved ones.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Japan is set to expand quasi-emergency measures to 10 regions on Friday as a fourth wave of Covid-19 cases spreads, casting doubt on whether the Summer Olympics can be held in Tokyo.
Meanwhile reports are emerging of Brazilian health workers forced to intubate patients without the aid of sedatives, after weeks of warnings that hospitals and state governments risked running out of critical medicines.
- A coronavirus variant with potentially worrying mutations that was first detected in India has been found in the UK. In total, 77 cases of the variant have been recorded in the UK up to 14 April, according to the latest update from Public Health England (PHE). Overall Covid-19 case rates have fallen in all regions of England.
- France’s coronavirus death toll passed 100,000. The country of 67 million is the eighth in the world to reach the symbolic six figure mark, and the third in Europe after the United Kingdom and Italy.
- Most regions in Portugal will enter the third phase of easing the Covid-19 lockdown next week, but stricter rules will stay in place in municipalities where transmission rates remain high, prime minister Antonio Costa said.
- The US is preparing for the possibility that a booster shot will be needed between nine to 12 months after people are initially vaccinated against Covid-19, David Kessler, chief science officer for president Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response task force, said.
- India’s daily coronavirus caseload has doubled in 10 days, with a record 200,000 new infections logged Thursday as authorities grapple with shortages of vaccines, treatments and hospital beds.
