Thank you all for following tonight’s latest developments. You can keep up with the Guardian’s coverage of Covid-19 through our coronavirus keyword tag and our team in Australia but that’s it from me Nadeem Badshah.
A summary of today's developments
- Brazil recorded 58,718 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 1,111 deaths, the Health Ministry said. It is the worst daily death toll reported by the ministry since September 15th.
- Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, has announced the first case in the US of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same more transmissible strain discovered in the UK earlier this month.
- The Canadian province of Quebec has urged the federal government to require COVID-19 testing for residents returning from year-end vacations, after images of maskless tourists frolicking on overseas beaches hit social media as cases rise.
- Denmark has extended a hard lockdown for two weeks, until 17 January, to limit the spread of Covid-19, following a drastic spike in new infections over the past month, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
- The UK has recorded 53,135 new daily infections, health data showed on Tuesday, as well as 414 deaths.
- The French heath ministry reported 11,395 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, jumping above the 10,000 threshold for the first time in four days. The French health minister, Olivier Véran, said the government could soon impose an earlier curfew that would start at 6pm instead of 8pm in eastern areas due to the spread of the coronavirus.
- Ireland reported the highest Covid-19 cases in a single day on Tuesday with 1,546 infections, up from a previous record of 1,296 on Saturday.
- The Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has returned home after being treated for Covid-19 in Germany, state television reported on Tuesday.
- Germany could offer shots against the coronavirus to all who want them by the summer if a third vaccine from either Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca or CureVac wins EU approval, the country’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said.
- Chile said on Tuesday it had recorded its first case of the British variant of coronavirus, prompting health authorities to reinstate a mandatory quarantine period for all visitors entering the South American nation from abroad.
- Argentina began to vaccinate its citizens against the coronavirus on Tuesday using 300,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V treatment delivered last week, the government said.
- More areas of England could be placed under tougher coronavirus restrictions when the health secretary outlines changes to tiers on Wednesday. Matt Hancock will address the recalled House of Commons after MPs have passed key legislation on the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
- The United Arab Emirates has discovered a “limited number” of cases of people infected with the new coronavirus variant in the country, a government official has said.
A COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech is likely to be as effective for the elderly as it is for other adults, a senior official at the Brazilian biomedical institute conducting late-stage trials told Reuters.
Ricardo Palacios, medical director for clinical research at the Butantan Institute, said his expectations were based on a Phase 1 and 2 study of the vaccine, called CoronaVac, with older volunteers in China, which is pending publication.
He said results from that study will show immune responses were about as widespread among participants aged 60 years and older as they were in 18- to 59-year-olds, about 97% of whom showed antibody-related immune response.
From that, we can infer that age is not such a relevant factor in the immunogenicity and it shouldn’t be for efficacy either. That’s what this fact seems to suggest,” Palacios said.
He declined to comment on efficacy data from Brazil’s Phase 3 trial, which was expanded to some 13,000 volunteers in September, adding elderly participants.
Last week, Butantan delayed releasing the results of that trial for the third time, citing contractual obligations to Sinovac and adding to concerns about the transparency of the Chinese vaccine maker’s research.
Turkish researchers estimated last week that CoronaVac was 91.25% effective based on an interim analysis, but a Butantan official said its research showed efficacy between 50% and 90%.
California has extended its strict stay-at-home orders in areas where hospital ICU capacity is rapidly dwindling, as the state’s governor warned residents to brace for a “surge on top of a surge” following the holiday season.
The state’s top health official, Dr Mark Ghaly, said that southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin valley still have effectively zero ICU capacity and that the state’s restrictions would continue longer there.
Footage has emerged on social media which appears to show ambulances waiting outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital in England.
Just getting out of a&e after another loooooooong day.. Almost all these ambulances are waiting With patients inside them For more than 3 hours Because there's no place in hospital to bring them in..😩 #hospitalisfull#birmingham #qehb #covid19 #nobeds pic.twitter.com/XTn9SG2HnM
— Punith Kempegowda (@drpunith) December 29, 2020
Updated
The Canadian province of Quebec has urged the federal government to require COVID-19 testing for residents returning from year-end vacations, after images of maskless tourists frolicking on overseas beaches hit social media as cases rise.
Canada’s travel restrictions are among the world’s toughest, with non-essential foreigners normally denied entry and citizens returning from abroad mandated to quarantine.
But a second wave of the novel coronavirus has led to calls for increased airport testing, as hospitals fill up in the country’s two most populous provinces.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said he is asking for vacationers returning to the province to be tested before departure, and stricter enforcement of a 14-day quarantine after they are home. Both Quebec and Ontario have asked the government for airport testing for international arrivals.
Dubé said his office was conferring with Canadian Minister of Health Patty Hajdu.
“The federal government tells us about the implementation of these measures in early January,” he told reporters. “To us this is not fast enough.”
Quebec, which has shuttered all non-essential businesses and limited restaurant service to takeaways, on Tuesday reported an additional 2,381 cases and 64 deaths, stressing the health system, Dubé said.
COVID-19 cases in Canada reached 555,207 as of Dec. 28.
Dubé denounced videos circulating on social media of Quebec tourists drinking alcohol in close proximity, such as one depicting revelers in Cancun, Mexico on the beach without masks.
The situation for me is very worrisome,” he said.
Brazil has urged producers of COVID-19 vaccines to speed up their applications for use in the country, as a senior Health Ministry official vowed to improve dialogue with Pfizer after it complained of an onerous emergency use application.
President Jair Bolsonaro is under growing pressure to explain why Brazil has not begun vaccinating its population against the coronavirus.
In a news conference, Deputy Health Minister Elcio Franco said the government could only sign vaccine purchase agreements once producers have emergency use authorisations or full authorisations.
Moderna Inc said it was in discussions with the South Korean government to potentially provide 40 million or more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Potential distribution of the two-dose vaccine in South Korea is expected to start in the second quarter of 2021, the company said in a statement.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency citing the presidential office reported that South Korea will sign a deal with the vaccine developer to offer COVID-19 vaccines for 20 million people.
This comes a day after officials vowed to speed up efforts to launch a public coronavirus vaccination programme as the country detected its first cases of the virus variant linked to the rapid rise in infections in Britain.
First case of UK variant detected in the US
Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, has announced the first case in the US of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same more transmissible strain discovered in the UK earlier this month.
Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK.
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) December 29, 2020
The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely. pic.twitter.com/fjyq7QhzBi
Updated
Coronavirus patients at a hospital in England are having to be treated outside in ambulances before entering the building as rising numbers put “significant pressures” on health services.
Footage shared on social media of Queen’s Hospital in Romford appears to show dozens of emergency vehicles queueing outside the hospital.
A statement released by the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, urged people to only contact ambulance services in the case of real emergencies.
“Along with the rest of the NHS, we are under considerable pressure as we look after a rising number of Covid-19 patients, some of whom are being cared for safely in ambulances before entering Queen’s Hospital,” it said.
You can help us by calling NHS 111 if you need medical advice, and only coming to our emergency departments in a real emergency.”
Multiple ambulances were also seen lining the streets near to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, as the Barts Health NHS Trust announced it had moved into a “very high pressure” phase.
Magda Smith, the Trust’s chief medical officer, said: “London’s NHS is under significant pressure from high Covid-19 infection rates and non-Covid winter demands, with staff in all services going the extra mile and we are opening more beds to care for the most unwell patients.
“It is more important than ever that Londoners follow Government guidance and do everything possible to reduce transmission of the virus.”
US president-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration Tuesday for the pace of distributing COVID-19 vaccines, saying it is “falling far behind.”
Biden said “it’s gonna take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people” at the current pace.
He vowed to ramp up the current speed of vaccinations five to six times to 1 million shots a day, but acknowledged it “will still take months to have the majority of Americans vaccinated.”
The president-elect, who takes office on January 20, said he has directed his team to prepare a “much more aggressive effort to get things back on track.”
I’m going to move heaven and earth to get us going in the right direction,” Biden said.
Brazil records highest death toll since mid-September
Brazil recorded 58,718 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 1,111 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
It is the worst daily death toll reported by the ministry since September 15th, adding to concerns of a growing second wave of infections in Latin America’s largest country.
Brazil has registered nearly 7.6 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 192,681, according to ministry data.
A summary of today's developments
- Denmark has extended a hard lockdown for two weeks, until 17 January, to limit the spread of Covid-19, following a drastic spike in new infections over the past month, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
- The UK has recorded 53,135 new daily infections, health data showed on Tuesday, as well as 414 deaths.
- The French heath ministry reported 11,395 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, jumping above the 10,000 threshold for the first time in four days. The French health minister, Olivier Véran, said the government could soon impose an earlier curfew that would start at 6pm instead of 8pm in eastern areas due to the spread of the coronavirus.
- Just four in 10 people in France want to have a vaccination against Covid-19, a poll showed Tuesday, as concern also grows over the slow start to the country’s immunisation campaign.
- Ireland reported the highest Covid-19 cases in a single day on Tuesday with 1,546 infections, up from a previous record of 1,296 on Saturday.
- The Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has returned home after being treated for Covid-19 in Germany, state television reported on Tuesday.
- Germany could offer shots against the coronavirus to all who want them by the summer if a third vaccine from either Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca or CureVac wins EU approval, the country’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said.
- Chile said on Tuesday it had recorded its first case of the British variant of coronavirus, prompting health authorities to reinstate a mandatory quarantine period for all visitors entering the South American nation from abroad.
- Argentina began to vaccinate its citizens against the coronavirus on Tuesday using 300,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V treatment delivered last week, the government said.
- More areas of England could be placed under tougher coronavirus restrictions when the health secretary outlines changes to tiers on Wednesday. Matt Hancock will address the recalled House of Commons after MPs have passed key legislation on the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
- The United Arab Emirates has discovered a “limited number” of cases of people infected with the new coronavirus variant in the country, a government official has said.
The first study of the safety and effectiveness of a coronavirus vaccine in Iran began on Tuesday, state TV reported, with dozens due to receive the domestically developed shot even as details about its production remained slim.
The vaccine, the first in the country to reach human trials, is produced by Shifa Pharmed, part of a state-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate known as Barekat.
The company’s website describes it as involved in the large-scale production of antibiotics and penicillin, without offering any details about its coronavirus research, results of animal trials or previous vaccine development since its founding in 1995.
Iran has struggled to stem the worst virus outbreak in the region, which has infected over 1.2 million people and killed nearly 55,000.
The study, a phase 1 clinical trial, will enrol a total of 56 volunteers to receive two shots of the Iranian vaccine within two weeks, according to Hamed Hosseini, a clinical trial manager.
Results are to be announced roughly a month after the second shot. Three people received the first injections on Tuesday in a ceremony at a Tehran hotel attended by the country’s health minister.
State TV announced that none of the injections had so far caused any “fevers” or “bodily shocks.”
I am happy that the scientific process went ahead in a proper way,” said Tayebeh Mokhber, daughter of the Setad Foundation chairman, who was the first to get jabbed. “I hope the conclusion will be health for our people.”
Updated
The Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has returned home after being treated for Covid-19 in Germany, state television reported on Tuesday.
Tebboune’s absence since the end of October has fuelled speculation over whether he will finish his first term.
Updated
The French health minister, Olivier Véran, said the government could soon impose an earlier curfew that would start at 6pm instead of 8pm in eastern areas due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Veran added there were currently no plans to impose a third lockdown, despite the daily new Covid-19 case count being more than twice as high as the government’s target of less than 5,000.
Updated
Germany could offer shots against the coronavirus to all who want them by the summer if a third vaccine from either Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca or CureVac wins EU approval, the country’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said.
Spahn was grilled during an interview broadcast live on the website of mass-selling Bild newspaper about media reports that Germany had so far only received 4m doses of Pfizer Inc’s and BioNTech’s vaccine compared with 5m shots secured by Israel, whose population is one-tenth of Germany’s.
“We have not ordered insufficiently,” Spahn said. “We expect on the whole some 130 million doses from Moderna and BioNTech, which will be enough to offer the vaccine to anyone wishing to be vaccinated.”
Asked when the country would be in a position to make the vaccine available to all those wishing to have it, Spahn said: “It depends if we get more approvals, meaning Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and CureVac. If one or two additional vaccines get approval, I think we will reach that point toward summer.”
Germany at the weekend rolled out the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine developed by the German biotech company with its US partner, starting in care homes where death rates are highest.
Updated
Denmark extends lockdown for a fortnight
Denmark has extended a hard lockdown for two weeks, until 17 January, to limit the spread of Covid-19, following a drastic spike in new infections over the past month, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
The situation regarding infection rates, hospitalisations and deaths is now even more serious than in the spring,” Mette Frederiksen told a press briefing.
The extension of the current country-wide restrictions announced on December 16 will keep schools, shopping malls, restaurants, bars and other non-essential shops closed, Frederiksen said.
The Nordic country had fared relatively well through the pandemic until December, when the number of new infections more than doubled compared with the previous month. “The scenario we feared in the spring may become a reality in the coming weeks and months if we don’t act now,” Frederiksen said. Denmark on Tuesday reported 2,621 new cases among its population of 5.8 million over the past 24 hours, while the number of new hospitalisations rose by 28 to a record 900, close to the maximum capacity of its Covid-19 wards.
Updated
France records rise in people admitted to hospital for Covid-19
The French health ministry reported 11,395 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, jumping above the 10,000 threshold for the first time in four days.
France, which launched its gradual vaccination campaign on Sunday, saw the number of people hospitalised for the disease rise for the fourth day running, a sequence unseen since 13 November.
France’s cumulative total of cases now stands at 2,574,041, the fifth-highest in the world.
The seven-day moving average of new infections, which averages out weekly data reporting irregularities, stands at 11,871, more than twice as high as the government’s target of fewer than 5,000.
The Covid-19 death toll was up by 969, at 64,078, versus a seven day moving average of 339.
Updated
A man charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of a couple in the US has died from Covid-19 complications while in custody awaiting trial, an official said.
Craig Pennington, 56, died at Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Marion County detention center‘s chief of security, Irvin Mann, told news outlets.
Mann said Pennington was taken to hospital on 11 December for shortness of breath and tested positive for Covid-19.
Pennington was charged in July 2016 with killing 38-year-old Robert K Jones and 35-year-old Crystal J Warner.
Warner and Jones, both of Florence, went missing on 3 July and their bodies were later found in different counties.
Pennington had pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges and was scheduled for a pretrial conference on 15 January, according to court records.
Ten out of about 215 inmates at the jail were infected with Covid-19 as of Tuesday morning, Mann said.
Updated
Ireland records highest daily tally of cases
Ireland reported the highest Covid-19 cases in a single day on Tuesday with 1,546 infections, up from a previous record of 1,296 on Saturday.
The government is to meet on Wednesday to consider additional restrictions to try to control a surge that began after public health measures were eased in early December when Ireland had the lowest infection rate in the European Union.
Updated
Nigeria faces oxygen supply challenges to treat coronavirus patients in parts of the country and unacceptable laboratory delays as case numbers rose to the highest recorded in a single week, health authorities said.
The warnings from officials come as the resurgent virus strikes across much of the world, bringing greater case loads and hospitalisations.
“There is an on-going review of the chain for the supply of medical oxygen for our medical facilities across the nation,” said Boss Mustapha, chairman of Nigeria’s coronavirus task force, naming the capital of Abuja as an area of concern.
Labs’ “inability to function optimally has resulted in unacceptable levels of delay in receiving results,” he added, calling on Nigeria’s state governments to reopen all laboratories, ensure prompt testing and keep open treatment centres.
“This is not helping our national response.”
Nigeria has recorded few coronavirus cases compared to others on the continent.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, officials count 84,811 as of Tuesday evening, with 1,264 deaths.
A senior US public health official said on Tuesday the coronavirus testing the United States now is requiring for travellers from Britain should probably be extended to other countries as well.
“I think that probably should be extended to other countries,” US assistant secretary for health Brett Giroir told MSNBC.
Only four in 10 people in France plan to get Covid vaccine
Just four in 10 people in France want to have a vaccination against Covid-19, a poll showed Tuesday, as concern also grows over the slow start to the country’s immunisation campaign.
According to the poll by Ipsos Global Advisor in partnership with the World Economic Forum, just 40% of French people want to have the vaccine.
This puts it behind even other laggards like Russia on 43% and South Africa on 53%, let alone those countries where eagerness to have the vaccine is high such as China on 80% and Britain on 77%.
Fear of side-effects is the reason most often given for not wanting the vaccine, according to the poll.
In the United States, where a mass vaccination campaign has now begun in earnest, 69% of people now want the vaccine, a rise on October.
France began its vaccination campaign on Sunday along with most of the rest of the EU, targeting residents in care homes first, Agence France-Presse reports.
However fewer than 100 people were immunised in the first three days in France, a far slower pace than in neighbouring Germany, let alone in the US or UK.
Rebuffing criticism on social media, a health ministry official said: “We have not set out for a 100-metre sprint but a marathon.”
“The start is cautious but we will step it up and vaccinate on a very wide scale,” the official said, noting that the authorities face a “very strong scepticism on the part of the French population”.
The official said there was no problem with supplies, with 500,000 vaccine doses now set to arrive in France every week.
Updated
Kamala Harris, the vice-president-elect of the US, has received the coronavirus vaccine.
Updated
Chile records first case of coronavirus variant
Chile said on Tuesday it had recorded its first case of the British variant of coronavirus, prompting health authorities to reinstate a mandatory quarantine period for all visitors entering the South American nation from abroad.
The variant, which could be up to 70% more transmissible, has spread rapidly from Britain, where it was first identified, to countries across the globe, including Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Israel, among others.
The Chilean undersecretary of health, Paula Daza, said a Chilean woman who returned to her home country on 22 December after having travelled to London had tested positive for the variant.
Once in Chile, she boarded another plane to the south-central city of Temuco. Her movements prompted a scramble among health authorities in Chile to track down those she may have contacted during her journey, Reuters reports.
Daza said the woman was asymptomatic, in quarantine and in good health.
Her arrival, however, prompted authorities to mandate a 10-day quarantine for all visitors to Chile, beginning on 31 December.
Travellers can take a PCR test beginning on day seven of the quarantine period.
If negative, they would be released from quarantine, Daza said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is not enough information to determine whether the new variants could undermine vaccines being rolled out internationally.
Updated
My colleague Jonny Weeks returned to University hospital in Coventry, England in the week the Covid-19 jab started being rolled out for this photo essay.
University hospital is one of about 70 hospitals around the UK participating in the vaccine rollout.
Initial priority is being given to people aged over 80, care home workers and vulnerable NHS staff. Every day, about 300 people are being vaccinated at University hospital alone.
Brazil’s government has extended zero import taxes on 298 products considered essential in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic for six more months, the country’s foreign trade authority, Camex, said on Tuesday.
In a statement on the economy ministry website, Camex said the zero import tax rate on a range of products covering medicines, supplies and testing equipment for virus detection and vaccines will be extended to 30 June next year from the previous cut-off of 31 December this year, Reuters reports.
That should increase the supply of medicines and supplies, reduce the cost of manufacturing products in Brazil to tackle the crisis and boost their availability throughout the national health system, Camex said.
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the severity of Covid-19, said on Monday a vaccine would be available in the country within five days of being approved by federal health regulator, Anvisa.
Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll related to the virus and third-highest confirmed case count.
Updated
Schools in England may have to remain shut in order to control coronavirus transmission, senior scientists have warned.
Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said there had been a “balancing act” since lockdown was initially eased between keeping control of the virus and maintaining “some semblance of normal society”.
But he said planned school reopenings from next week may have to be postponed.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Clearly nobody wants to keep schools shut. But if that’s the only alternative to having exponentially growing numbers of hospitalisations, that may be required at least for a period.
“There are no easy solutions here. My real concern is that even if universities, schools, do have staggered returns or even stay closed, how easy it would be to maintain control of the virus is unclear now, given how much more transmissible this variant is.”
Earlier, Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) members Prof Andrew Hayward and Dr Mike Tildesley signalled the possibility of a “slight delay” to having pupils back on site, with latest figures from NHS England on Tuesday afternoon showing that a further 365 people who tested positive for Covid-19 had died, taking the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 49,225.
The government said it was “still planning for a staggered opening of schools” after Christmas but is keeping the plan under constant review.
This from the FT’s Sebastian Payne on the UK’s new infections record:
Oh my. Can't see how schools can reopen next week with infection rates this high. https://t.co/Cflkjp28YS
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) December 29, 2020
Updated
Dr Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser for Public Health England, said the “unprecedented levels” of Covid-19 infection across the UK was of “extreme concern”.
“Whilst the number of cases reported today include some from over the festive period, these figures are largely a reflection of a real increase,” she said.
“It is essential, now more than ever, that we continue to work together to stop the spread of the virus, bring the rate of infection down and protect the most vulnerable and the NHS.
“A critical part of this is each and every one of us abiding by the restrictions in place however hard it may seem at this time of the year.
“It is critical that we reduce our contacts, especially mixing between households. We must observe the basic measures - wash your hands, wear a mask and keep your distance from others.”
My colleague Sarah Marsh spoke to a junior doctor on the front line in a busy London hospital.
Updated
UK hits new record of over 50,000 new daily infections
The UK has recorded 53,135 new daily infections, health data showed on Tuesday, as well as 414 deaths.
The daily increase in infections is a new record, and significantly higher than Monday’s 41,385 new new lab-confirmed cases, the previous record since the start of the pandemic and the first day new daily cases rose above 40,000.
2,322 new patients were admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours.
The UK’s total official death toll now stands at 71,567.
Updated
Italy reported 659 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 445 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,212 from 8,585.
At Italy’s peak of infections since the beginning of the pandemic, the country had recorded over 40,000 new infections in a single day on 13 November.
There were 128,740 swab tests carried out in 24 hours to Tuesday, the ministry said, up sharply from a previous 68,681.
Italy has seen an official total of 73,029 Covid-19 deaths since its outbreak came to light on 21 February, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.
The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 was 23,662 on Tuesday, down by 270 from the day before.
There were 256 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 167 on Monday. The current number of intensive care patients decreased by 16 to 2,549, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day, Reuters reports.
Updated
Turkey has recorded 15,805 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, as well as 253 new Covid-19 deaths, Turkish authorities said on Tuesday.
The country’s total death toll is 20,388, with Turkey’s total cases since the beginning of the pandemic now at 2,178,580.
Ankara has imposed full weekend lockdowns and weekday curfews to curb infections.
Turks will also be on lockdown from 9pm on 31 December to 5am on 4 January as part of the measures.
Updated
Argentina begins inoculation with Russian vaccine
Argentina began to vaccinate its citizens against the coronavirus on Tuesday using 300,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V treatment delivered last week, the government said.
Latin America’s third largest economy has been hit hard by Covid-19, logging nearly 1.6m cases of the disease and 42,868 deaths.
Officials said frontline health workers would be the first to be vaccinated, followed members of the security forces, teachers, the elderly and other high-risk groups.
Argentina became the third country to approve the Sputnik V vaccine, after Russia and Belarus. Critics in Argentina and abroad have questioned the drug’s efficacy, side effects and the transparency of its trial results. Russia says those criticisms are unfounded.
“You have to be afraid of the disease, not the vaccine,” Argentine health minister Ginés González García told reporters on Tuesday.
Reuters reported on Monday that the vaccine sent to Argentina, Russia’s first major international shipment, consisted only of the first dose of the two-shot vaccine, which is easier to make than the second dose.
Russian and Argentinian officials did not immediately comment on when the second dose might arrive.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has referred to a single-component option as a “light vaccine”, which he said would provide less protection than the two components, but would still reach 85% effectiveness.
Argentina has also approved the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Updated
Stricter restrictions for more areas in England
More areas of England could be placed under tougher coronavirus restrictions when the health secretary outlines changes to tiers on Wednesday.
Matt Hancock will address the recalled House of Commons after MPs have passed key legislation on the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
A decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the government’s Covid-19 Operations committee on Tuesday evening, to be chaired by Boris Johnson.
With case rates rising in all regions of England, as well as the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals, any changes are likely to involve areas moving up a tier rather than down.
Some parts of the east Midlands, such as Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, could be moved up from tier 3 to 4, while other counties such as Lincolnshire and Derbyshire may stay in tier 3, the Press Association reports.
All the areas within the West Midlands metropolitan county – Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton – might be facing a move from tier 3 to 4.
Hartlepool in north-east England, along with a handful of areas in Lancashire – Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Ribble Valley – could also be upgraded from tier 3 to 4.
Cumbria might be moved from tier 2 to 3, as could Worcestershire and North Yorkshire.
Pressure has been mounting on ministers to expand tier 4 restrictions in the face of increasing strain on hospitals in England, where the number of patients has surpassed the April peak of the first wave.
Updated
The United Arab Emirates has discovered a “limited number” of cases of people infected with the new coronavirus variant in the country, a government official has said.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the official also said those affected had travelled from abroad, without specifying from where or the number of the cases.
Meanwhile, the UAE reported 1,506 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall national tally of those infected to 204,369.
Updated
Scotland’s first minister has urged people to stay in their own homes on Hogmanay and over the new year after a surge in confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Nicola Sturgeon said the 1,895 positive cases recorded on Tuesday, which is the highest daily number yet reported in Scotland, illustrated a growth in cases which could be substantially attributed to the much more infectious variant of Covid-19, B117.
There were seven additional deaths reported, but this is believed to be a significant underestimate given that registration offices have been closed over the Christmas period. The first minister is due to update MSPs on the latest totals on Wednesday.
She said:
That really must make all of us yet again sit up and take notice of this. We also think that the new strain is contributing to faster spread of the virus and so my main message to people really is to make sure that you are not visiting other people’s houses right now.
That is the most important thing of all and, unfortunately, that includes Hogmanay and new year. This year I know we are all desperate to kick 2020 into touch but we must do that safely and the safest way to do that this year is to be in our own homes with our own households.
Updated
A 90-year-old woman who became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine this month has been given her second dose.
Margaret Keenan was given the follow-up injection at Coventry’s University hospital in England on Tuesday, three weeks after making history with the first jab.
She received an initial injection on 8 December, and NHS England said at the time that she would have a “booster jab” 21 days later “to ensure she has the best chance of being protected against the virus”.
Prof Andy Hardy, the chief executive of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS trust, said:
We were delighted to welcome Margaret Keenan back to Coventry’s University Hospital today to safely receive the second dose of the vaccination, after she became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine following its clinical approval.
Our hardworking staff who have been involved in the vaccination programme have remained in contact with Margaret’s family since that day and we are delighted that Margaret has been continuing to recover well at home following her discharge from hospital.
The most recent figures published by the Department of Health last week showed the number of people to have had their first jab between 8 and 20 December in the UK was 616,933.
But speaking on Christmas Eve, Boris Johnson said almost 800,000 people had been given their first dose of the two-step vaccine.
Since the initial jabs were administered in hospitals, the rollout has widened to GP-led sites and care homes.
Updated
Secondary schools in England are unlikely to fully reopen until after mid-January at the earliest, according to new plans being thrashed out within government that would also see school staff be given high priority for Covid vaccinations.
According to government sources, ministers are torn between heeding its scientific advisers over the rapid spread of the new Covid variant, and warnings from the Department for Education that switching to remote learning for the whole of January would make it hard for schools and colleges to reopen again before Easter, jeopardising next year’s exams.
The revised timetable being discussed would mean only older students who are taking exams, such as A-levels and GCSEs, would receive remote teaching for the week from 4 January, in effect giving most secondary pupils an extra week’s holiday while schools and colleges gear up for mass testing.
You can read the full report from my colleagues Richard Adams and Simon Murphy here:
Updated
In England, a further 365 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 49,225.
NHS England said the patients were aged between 26 and 101. All except 12, aged between 43 and 92, had known underlying health conditions.
The deaths were between 12 and 28 December. There were 11 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
The European Union has criticised the jailing of a citizen-journalist in China who reported on the early outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic from Wuhan.
Zhang Zhan, who reported at the peak of the crisis in the city where the coronavirus first emerged, was sentenced to four years imprisonment on Monday. Her lawyer said Zhang was jailed on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
The EU called for Zhang’s immediate release, as well as for freedom for jailed human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and several other detained and convicted human rights defenders and individuals who engaged in reporting in the public interest.
“According to credible sources, Ms Zhang has been subject to torture and ill-treatment during her detention and her health condition has seriously deteriorated,” an external affairs spokesman for the 27-member EU said.
Citizen-journalist Zhang was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic than the official narrative.
Critics say China deliberately arranged for Zhang’s trial to take place during the holiday season in the west, to minimise scrutiny.
“The restrictions on freedom of expression, on access to information, and intimidation and surveillance of journalists, as well as detentions, trials and sentencing of human rights defenders, lawyers, and intellectuals in China, are growing and continue to be a source of great concern,” the EU spokesman said.
Updated
Ireland began administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday, amid surging Covid-19 cases.
Annie Lynch was the first person in the country to receive the vaccine at Dublin’s St James’s Hospital, Ireland’s health service said. Health staff and patients at four hospitals were also vaccinated.
“Today is a new day. It marks a new chapter in our fight,” health minister Stephen Donnelly told RTE Radio.
Donnelly said Ireland expected to vaccinate all 75,000 people who live or work in nursing homes and tens of thousands of other health workers by the end of February.
Earlier on Tuesday, a senior official said Ireland may be able to provide a Covid-19 vaccine to everyone in the country who wants one by August in a “fairly positive scenario” that would depend on the timing of approval of other vaccines.
The seven-day average number of daily cases of Covid has tripled in Ireland to almost 1,000 over the last two weeks, after restrictions were eased in the run-up to the Christmas holiday.
The government has since closed restaurants and is to meet on Wednesday to consider additional restrictions.
It also brought forward the vaccine programme by a day following criticism it was acting too slowly after receiving the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 26 December, as part of a coordinated European Union-wide roll-out.
A total of 86,894 have been infected in Ireland since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and 2,205 people have died as a result, health ministry data showed on Monday.
Scotland has recorded a further seven deaths among people confirmed to have had Covid-19 and nearly 2,000 new infections over the last 24 hours, but health officials have warned many more fatalities have not yet been officially reported.
The latest data showed 1,092 people were in hospital, the fifth daily increase since 24 December and the highest daily total since late November, and 65 in intensive care. The test positivity rate jumped to 14.4% of the 14,179 people who were tested.
Registration offices have been closed over the Christmas period. Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, is due to provide a full update of deaths involving people with confirmed Covid-19 in the Scottish parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
In the days before Christmas, Scotland recorded 30-40 deaths a day but only eight fatalities have been registered since Christmas day, bringing the total number of confirmed Covid deaths to 4,467.
Updated
A former senior health official has called the Netherlands’ coronavirus vaccination strategy “embarrassing,” as the country waits until 8 January to begin administering shots, while other countries in Europe and elsewhere have started vaccinations.
Roel Coutinho, a respected former director of the Center for Infectious Disease Control at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, told the Dutch current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Monday night: “Every week counts.”
Delaying the start of the vaccination programme means “the overburdening of healthcare will continue for a long time. That means it has an effect not only for people who have Covid, but also for others, because they cannot be admitted or operations have to be postponed.”
The first batch of vaccines made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have arrived in the Netherlands but will not be administered until 8 January.
The government has said it is still involved in preparations, including getting IT systems ready to register all the vaccinations and training staff, the Associated Press reports.
“Ultimately, our goal is the highest possible vaccination coverage,” health minister Hugo de Jonge said this month. “We can only achieve this if people have confidence in the vaccine and in the vaccination process.”
De Jonge declined comment Tuesday on Coutinho’s criticism.
The country has registered more than 10,500 Covid-19 fatalities.
Updated
President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday said Romania would donate 200,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to Moldova, offered as a gesture of solidarity after the election of the pro-western president Maia Sandu.
A former World Bank economist, Sandu defeated the pro-Moscow incumbent Igor Dodon in last month’s presidential polls, promising to fight endemic corruption and putting Moldova’s relations with the EU back on track.
The eastern European country of 3.5 million, where the west and Russia vie for influence, has been rocked in recent years by instability and corruption scandals, including the disappearance of $1bn from the banking system.
Though Moldova rolled out a political and trade agreement with the EU in 2014, the EU has become increasingly critical about Moldova’s track record on reforms and fighting corruption.
Romania has access to 10m doses as part of the EU’s agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech, and began vaccinating frontline healthcare workers on Sunday.
Updated
Spain to log names of people refusing vaccine
Spain has said it will log the names of those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, creating a database that could be shared with countries across Europe.
Days after EU countries began rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Spain’s health minister said on Monday that those who reject the vaccine for “whatever reason” would be documented.
“A registry will be kept, that will also be shared with our European partners … to record those who have been offered it and rejected it,” Salvador Illa told the broadcaster La Sexta. “The document will not be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for the legislation on data protection.”
My colleague Ashifa Kassam reports from Madrid.
Thailand said it would allow undocumented migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to work in the country legally for about two years to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Migrants have to sign up online and be registered by an employer before mid-September in order to receive a work permit until February 2023, according to a resolution by the cabinet.
They will first have to undergo health checks at a cost of about 7,200 baht ($240), a Thai government spokeswoman said, according to Reuters.
The announcement came as Thailand deals with its worst coronavirus outbreak to date, with more than 1,500 cases since mid-December having been linked to mostly Burmese migrant workers at a seafood market in central Samut Sakhon province.
“The government has been screening migrants in areas at risk, resulting in some employers moving illegal migrant workers out of certain areas to avoid breaking the law,” the deputy government spokeswoman, Traisuree Taisaranakul, told reporters.
“Also, illegal workers are panicking and moving out of certain areas, which risks spreading Covid-19,” she said, referring to the resolution during a weekly press conference.
Once the registration period ends in mid-February, authorities should “check, crack down on, arrest and prosecute” undocumented migrant workers, according to the resolution.
Thailand has about 2.2 million registered migrant workers – mainly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos – but many others work informally in sectors from fishing to farming, activists say.
The UN International Organization for Migration welcomed the resolution but said access to healthcare and Covid-19 testing for migrants “without discrimination” was vital to containing the country’s latest coronavirus outbreak.
“Fear of discrimination, arrest, detention and restrictions on movement ... act as a primary barrier to migrants in accessing medical treatment,” Geraldine Ansart, IOM’s chief of mission in Thailand, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Updated
German policymakers are considering a law change, which would prevent the private sector from asking customers to either show proof of vaccination against Covid-19, or be denied entry.
With airlines, restaurants and leisure facilities such as cinemas signalling they may only allow access to customers who have been vaccinated, legal experts have expressed their concern that current laws are inadequate to protect those not vaccinated, from discrimination.
“We are looking to see how we can legally prevent the discriminatory treatment in the private sector of those who have not been vaccinated against those who have,” Johannes Fechner, legal policy spokesman for the Social Democrats told Die Welt.
He warned that if airlines and restaurants were allowed to go ahead and block entry to those who were not vaccinated, “it would lead to societal division. It would be intolerable,” he said.
The announcement by the Australian air carrier Qantas in November that in future air travellers would have to prove they had been vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to board its flights, has become something of a benchmark reference for businesses in Germany looking at how they can start to emerge from the confines of the pandemic.
Representatives of the entertainment industry have led the calls for a coronavirus vaccine pass. Dirk Bamberger, vice president of the German Association of Discotheques and Dance Halls, said such passes “could be conceivable during a transition phase when deciding who gains entry”. Sport clubs, restaurants and cafes have also been part of the debate, with owners arguing that a passport would be more efficient than demanding proof of a negative test result.
But Ingrid Hartges, the head of the German Hotel and Catering Association (Dehoga), said it was only possible to discuss a return to normality when the majority of people had been vaccinated. “Until everyone who wants to has had the chance to be vaccinated, it’s to early to talk about any possible advantages for those who have been vaccinated,” she said.
Germany began its nationwide vaccination programme three days ago. By Tuesday morning almost 42,000 people had received the jab. Priority is being given to those 80 years old and over and those in need of care.
According to estimates by Germany’s health ministry, whilst the bulk of those who choose to be vaccinated can expect to have received the jab in the summer, it is expected to take up to a year to reach everyone who wants one. Lawmakers have strictly rejected making the vaccination programme mandatory, out of fear it would not help its acceptance.
Volker Ullrich, legal policy expert for the conservative Christian Social Union, said current law prevented discrimination in public places, including public transport. “But there is a legal loophole in the private sector, which we must address,” he said.
The German Foundation for Patient Protection warned that the loophole meant that care facilities could choose to turn away both in- and outpatients if they had not been vaccinated. Its chairman, Eugen Brysch, said: “Those in need of care cannot be discriminated against if they are not vaccinated”.
Whilst a significant number of Germans – just under 50% - have persistently voiced their scepticism about being vaccinated, ethics experts have warned against any enforcement of the policy. But evidence shows acceptance increasing the closer the prospect of being vaccinated comes.
Fechner has suggested an appendix to the German civil code which would clarify the rules governing general terms and conditions of business (AGBs). “It could be established that AGBs are invalid if for example, they attach the condition of only transporting people who have an immunisation status,” he said.
The health minister, Jens Spahn, and the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, have repeatedly spoken out against giving a privileged status, referred to in Britain as a “freedom pass”, to those who have been vaccinated.
“Many are waiting out of a sense of solidarity whilst those who need to be vaccinated first receive it. And those who have not yet been vaccinated will expect solidarity from those who have been vaccinated,” Spahn told the Funke-Mediengruppe. “No one should demand special rights until everyone has been vaccinated.”
Thorsten Kingreen, a professor of constitutional law from Regensburg, said it would be highly problematic to argue that those who were not vaccinated only had themselves to blame “particularly as long as there are not enough vaccine doses to go round”. There is also the issue of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
Epidemiologists have warned that while evidence as to whether those who have been vaccinated are still capable of spreading the virus is still outstanding, it is premature to talk of how to treat the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
The German biotechnology company BioNTech, which produced the first vaccine, is expecting the results of its study on the subject in February.
Updated
The Irish government will hold an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday to decide whether additional measures are required to control the “exponential growth” of Covid-19 in the country, the health minister, Stephen Donnelly, said.
“We will look right across the spectrum ... and see in light of the rising cases and the rise in hospitalisations what the appropriate thing to do is,” Donnelly told RTE radio.
The government has closed all bars and restaurants and will ban all household visits from 1 January, but non-essential retail and schools remain open, Reuters reports.
Updated
Britain had received 22 deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine by 25 December, providing the country with a sufficient supply for its vaccination programme, a spokesman for prime minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
“We have continued to receive deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine throughout December and as of 25 December we have received 22 deliveries in total of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which means we have sufficient doses to maintain our vaccination programme,” he told reporters.
Updated
Sweden has registered 32,485 new coronavirus cases since 23 December, Health Agency statistics showed on Tuesday.
The country registered 205 new deaths in the period, taking the total to 8,484.
The deaths registered have typically occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.
The Health Agency has said statistics over the Christmas period are less reliable than usual due to less testing and delays in reporting of deaths.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is several times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours but lower than several European countries that opted for lockdowns.
The UK government is “still planning for a staggered opening of schools” after Christmas but is keeping the plan under constant review, Downing Street has said.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: “We’re still planning for a staggered opening of schools and we are working to ensure testing is in place.
“As we have said throughout the pandemic, we obviously keep all measures under constant review.”
The spokesman also confirmed that the health secretary, Matt Hancock, would announce any changes to tier areas in a statement to the Commons on Wednesday afternoon.
Updated
There have been a further 2,510 cases of coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 144,425.
Public Health Wales reported another 33 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,416.
New virus variant has been in Germany since November
The new coronavirus variant sweeping Britain has been in Germany since November, health officials said on Tuesday, after detecting the variant in a patient who died in the north of the country.
Researchers were “able to sequence the variant of the B117 virus in a person infected in November this year”, the health ministry of Lower Saxony said in a statement referring to the new variant.
This is the same variant “responsible for a large proportion of the infections detected in the south of England,” it said.
The variant was found in an elderly patient with underlying health conditions who has since died. His wife was also infected but survived, Agence France-Presse reports.
The couple caught the virus after their daughter returned from a trip to Britain in mid-November, where she “in all likelihood” became infected with the new strain.
Teams from the Hannover medical school (MHH) were able to identify the new strain after sequencing the genome.
The results were then confirmed by a team at Berlin’s Charité hospital, which included top German virologist Christian Drosten.
Germany had previously reported only one case of the new variant, in a woman who flew in from London on Thursday.
Britain sounded the alarm earlier this month over the variant, which authorities say is significantly more contagious.
Concerns over the strain have prompted many countries to suspend travel to and from Britain.
It has since been detected in several other nations, including Portugal, France, Jordan and South Korea.
Germany has banned arrivals from the UK by road, sea and air until 6 January.
Updated
The European Union on Tuesday criticised the jailing of a citizen-journalist in China who reported on the early outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic from Wuhan.
A Chinese court handed down a four-year jail term on Monday to Zhang Zhan, who reported at the peak of the crisis in the city where the coronavirus first emerged.
Her lawyer said Zhang was jailed on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
The EU called for Zhang’s immediate release, as well as for freedom for jailed human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and several other detained and convicted human rights defenders and individuals who engaged in reporting in the public interest.
“According to credible sources, Ms Zhang has been subject to torture and ill-treatment during her detention and her health condition has seriously deteriorated,” an external affairs spokesman for the 27-nation EU said in a statement.
The EU criticism over the affair comes a day before EU and Chinese leaders are expected to clinch a deal to give European companies better access to the Chinese market.
Zhang was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicentre than the official narrative.
Critics say that China deliberately arranged for Zhang’s trial to take place during the holiday season in the West, to minimise scrutiny.
“The restrictions on freedom of expression, on access to information, and intimidation and surveillance of journalists, as well as detentions, trials and sentencing of human rights defenders, lawyers, and intellectuals in China, are growing and continue to be a source of great concern,” the EU spokesman said.
England could see tougher 'tier 5' Covid restrictions
England might see the introduction of further coronavirus restrictions akin to a “tier 5”, a government source has suggested, as experts warn tier 4 might not be enough to shrink the epidemic.
Tier 4 restrictions came into force in London and parts of the south-east and the east of England on 20 December and have since been extended to a large swathe of the country, from Cambridgeshire to Sussex and parts of Hampshire.
Under these restrictions, people have been told to stay at home, with household mixing banned outside support bubbles, although one person can meet up with one other person outdoors.
With the incubation period for the virus lasting up to 14 days, experts say the impact of such measures in some areas might be expected to be seen in the coming days – although the picture may be muddied by delays in testing and reporting of results due to the Christmas break.
My colleague Nicola Davis reports.
Updated
European Medicines Authority unlikely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine this month
The European Medicines Authority (EMA) will most likely not be able to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in January, the watchdog’s deputy executive director, Noël Wathion, said.
“They have not even filed an application with us yet”, he said in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad on Tuesday. European regulators had only received some information about the vaccine, Wathion said.
“Not even enough to warrant a conditional marketing licence”, he added. “We need additional data about the quality of the vaccine. And after that, the company has to formally apply.”
This made it “improbable” that an approval could be granted next month, Wathion said.
The EMA could not be reached for comment.
AstraZeneca told Reuters last week that its Covid-19 vaccine should be effective against the new coronavirus variant, adding that studies were under way to fully investigate the impact of the mutation.
It had submitted a full data package about its vaccine to the British medicines regulator, the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, said.
Updated
Summary
Greece’s tourism sector is expected to recover next summer after a dramatic fall in revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic, a senior industry official said.
Tourism is the main driver of Greece’s economy, accounting for about 20% of its output and employing one in five workers. How the sector fares is crucial for the country which emerged from its third international bailout in 2018 after a decade-long debt crisis, Reuters reports.
Yannis Retsos, the head of the country’s tourism confederation, said tourism revenues this year had reached €4bn, down from €18bn in 2019, because of global travel restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Greece expects its economy to shrink by about 10% this year and is pinning its hopes in the second half of 2021 for an economic recovery.
“We need to wait for the second half of the year to see some sort of action in tourism,” Retsos told a Greek radio station. “Anything we see from May on would be a very positive surprise.”
Based on the latest official data from the Bank of Greece, tourism arrivals fell 76% in the January-October period.
Greece has reported 135,931 infections since it documented its first case in February and 4,672 deaths. The country has been in a nationwide lockdown since early November and allowed only hair salons and bookstores to reopen for the Christmas season.
Updated
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
The Italian order of doctors has launched an investigation into at least 13 Covid-denying and anti-vax doctors.
Ten have been sanctioned, while another three are awaiting further investigation. According to a note from the order of doctors, some physicians under investigation have claimed Covid does not exist and is little more than a seasonal flu. Others argue that vaccines, in general, are dangerous.
While Italy is grappling with an anti-Covid-vaccination campaign, the theories of these doctors and their fake news, appearing on social networks and television, has misled, confused and misinformed patients, the order says.
In an interview with la Repubblica newspaper, the president of the order of doctors, Antonio Magi, said: “It is not a witch-hunt, but I have the ethical obligation to sanction those who declare falsehoods. Anyone who gives incorrect information to the population must be punished.
“There is a code of ethics to follow. And we have a civic and moral duty to vaccinate. I understand there may be perplexities, since the experimentation was fast, unlike with other vaccines, but it is also true that a lot of money has been invested to speed up the process, given the urgency and absolute necessity.”
Italy officially launched its programme of mass vaccination against Covid-19 last Sunday. The first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were given to a researcher, a nurse and a social health worker at Rome’s Spallanzani infectious diseases hospital.
The government’s strategy is to vaccinate health workers first. However, according to several media reports, at least one in five health professionals have refused to be vaccinated.
Updated
Reopenings of schools in England next week may be delayed as part of measures to tackle soaring coronavirus case numbers, scientists advising the British government have suggested.
School leaders have also warned that teachers and pupils may be put at risk if secondary schools reopen, as planned, while the new ultra-transmissible strain of Covid-19 is driving a rise in hospital admissions.
Earlier this month, the government said exam-year students would go back to school as normal after the Christmas holidays, but the majority of secondary school pupils would start the term online to allow headteachers to roll out mass testing of children and staff.
But experts have suggested any reopening may have to be delayed.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Select Committee, said he “hope(d) very much” that schools would reopen from Monday, but called on prime minister Boris Johnson to “set out a long-term plan for education” and end confusion about the future of schooling during the pandemic, the Press Association reports.
Teaching unions are asking for more effective testing to be introduced and a better strategy in place before ploughing ahead with plans.
It comes as debate is under way within the government over the risk of a surge of infections as ministers are understood to be divided over the announcement by the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, about a phased return for pupils.
The pressure grew as NHS England said it had a record 20,426 people in hospital being treated for Covid-19 as of 8am on Monday, surpassing April’s peak of 18,946. Health officials in Wales and Scotland have also said they fear becoming overwhelmed.
My colleague Sarah Marsh has more.
Updated
We asked the Guardian and Observer’s team of photographers to pick an image that represented something interesting about covering the pandemic in 2020.
From heatwave swims to anti-racism demonstrations in the summer to lockdown imagery and individual tragedy, these images and the thoughts of the photographers form a very personal take on the experience of covering the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Poland’s confirmed coronavirus infections have increased by 7,914 since Monday and reached 1,268,634 in total, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Another 307 people have died, bringing the country’s death toll to 27,454.
17,299 people with confirmed coronavirus infection have been hospitalised, and 156,453 are under quarantine.
Poland will enter a ‘national quarantine’ from 28 December to 17 January.
Shopping centres, gyms, hotels and ski slopes have been closed and there will be restrictions on New Year’s Eve.
Large furniture stores remain open, and restaurants are only allowed to open for takeaways or home deliveries.
Summary
Here’s a summary of the most recent developments:
- Indian officials confirmed that six people who recently arrived in the country from the UK have tested positive for the new variant of the virus. All six patients have been kept in isolation, the health ministry has said, adding that their fellow travellers were being tracked down and their close contacts being put under quarantine.
- The country’s civil aviation minister said the country was likely to extend a ban on flights from the UK. Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters: “I foresee a slight extension of the temporary suspension. I don’t expect that extension to be a long or indefinite extension.”
- The Philippines announced a ban on travellers from 19 countries and territories to keep out the new variant. Its transport ministry said the ban would come into effect at midnight on 29 December and run until 15 January.
- The Netherlands’ death rate is at its worst level since the second world war, the Dutch national statistics office (CBS) has said. Up to last week, about 162,000 deaths were reported in the country of 17 million this year; 13,000 more than would have been expected, the CBS said.
I’m handing over to my colleague Jedidajah Otte, who will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
The pandemic has shone a light on the importance of science, yet many people continue to ignore warnings about the climate crisis, the environmental activist Greta Thunberg has said.
The Swedish teenager argued that people were “only listening to one type of scientists” during a joint interview alongside the author Margaret Atwood that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as part of the two-times Booker prize-winning writer’s guest-editing of the Today programme.
Thunberg was asked if the pandemic’s impact on people’s appreciation of science would have an effect on climate information as well.
It could definitely have. I think this pandemic has shone a light on how ... we are depending on science and that we cannot make it without science.
But, of course, we are only listening to one type of scientists, or some types of scientists ... for example, we are not listening to climate scientists, we’re not listening to scientists who work on biodiversity and that of course needs to change.
The environmental campaigner expressed scepticism when questioned about countries’ pledges to reduce their carbon emissions, such as China, which has committed to reach a net zero target by 2060.
That would be very nice if they actually meant something. We can’t just keep talking about future, hypothetical, vague, distant dates and pledges. We need to do things now. And also net zero ... that is a very big loophole, you can fit a lot in that word net.
Updated
India likely to extend ban on flights from UK
India’s civil aviation minister has said the country is likely to extend a ban on flights from the UK that it has imposed in an attempt to contain a new variant of the virus. Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters:
I foresee a slight extension of the temporary suspension. I don’t expect that extension to be a long or indefinite extension.
Last week, India suspended all flights from the UK until the end of the month.
Updated
Iran has launched human trials of its first domestic vaccine candidate, state media has reported, which Tehran says could help it defeat the pandemic despite US sanctions interfering with its ability to import vaccines.
Setad, a giant state-affiliated conglomerate controlled by Iran’s supreme leader, said production of the vaccine developed by one of its companies, Shifa Pharmed, could reach 12m doses per month, six months after a successful trial ends.
The first volunteers to take the vaccine were officials of the conglomerate and the daughter of its head, in an apparent effort to boost public confidence in the vaccine. According to the state broadcaster IRIB, the health minister Saeed Namaki said:
The message of this act was that we do not see ourselves apart from the people, and we brought our family first to test this vaccine.
Iran has been the worst-hit country in the Middle East by the pandemic. It complains that its ability to buy vaccines is hampered by US financial sanctions, reimposed after the Trump administration abandoned a 2015 nuclear agreement. Food and medicine are exempt from the sanctions but banks have been discouraged from financing Iranian deals.
Tehran said last week it had received approval from US authorities to buy coronavirus vaccines from the World Health Organization-led Covax alliance. Iran’s Red Crescent Society has said that, separately from the government, it was planning to import a Chinese vaccine.
Updated
Ireland may be able to provide a vaccine to everyone in the country who wants one by August in a “fairly positive scenario”, a senior official tasked with vaccine rollout has said.
While it was impossible to be precise, one “fairly positive scenario that we’d be looking at for the month of August would be over 2m doses of vaccine arriving”, the chair of the government’s Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force, Brian MacCraith, told RTÉ radio.
If all things come to pass that are in that model in terms of expected approval dates and expected delivery schedules, one would be looking at that stage of being very close or at the point of closing out the vaccination of as much of the population of Ireland that want to receive vaccines.
MacCraith said this was based on modelling that excluded under-18s and pregnant women, who were not allowed to take the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and the fact that a minority of the population was likely to refuse vaccination.
Ireland is due to administer its first vaccines on Tuesday at four hospitals.
Updated
Belarus has begun administering the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, both countries have said, after the first consignment arrived in Minsk.
Last week, many Russians expressed anger on social media after 300,000 doses of the vaccine were dispatched to Argentina, when only 650,000 had been administered in Russia by 24 December, according to the developer, the Gamaleya Institute.
Belarus expects to vaccinate around 200,000 people with Sputnik V in the first stage of its national programme, the health minister, Dmitry Pinevich, said last week.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is marketing the vaccine abroad, declined to comment on how many doses had been dispatched to Belarus.
Updated
The number of deaths in the Netherlands increased at the highest rate since the second world war this year due to the pandemic, the Dutch national statistics office (CBS) has said.
Up to last week, about 162,000 deaths were reported in the country of 17 million this year; 13,000 more than would have been expected, the CBS said.
Such an increase of the number of deceased has not been reported since World War Two.
About 9,000 people more than normal died during the first wave between early March and early May, the CBS said, while more than 6,000 extra fatalities have been reported since the start of the second wave mid-September.
The number of deaths was lower than normal in most other weeks, the statisticians said.
A total of 770,400 people in the Netherlands have tested positive since the start of the pandemic. More than 11,000 patients are known to have died from the disease.
The actual number of infections and fatalities is likely to be significantly higher, as a shortage of testing and lab capacity meant only seriously ill patients were tested during the first months of the pandemic.
Staying with the UK, a leading social scientist has accused the government of failing to make schools safe. Dr Zubaida Haque, the former deputy director of race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust, said:
The key question is are schools safe enough right now? Has the government made schools safer and, in making it safer, can we then keep schools open?
Speaking to the Good Morning Britain TV programme, she said:
Right now, we have a critical situation. Yesterday, we had the highest number of daily Covid cases, over 41,000 cases of coronavirus in this country. By Christmas Day, we had more people in hospitals than at the peak in April this year, so we are in a crisis situation now.
The government has delayed opening Parliament because we are in a crisis situation but yesterday we had Michael Gove saying: ‘No, it’s fine, we’re going to have schools open next week and we’ll have a staggered return’ and, frankly, that’s not acceptable, and that’s not safe.
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National restrictions are needed to prevent a “catastrophe” in the UK at the start of 2021, a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) has warned. Andrew Hayward, a professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think we are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic and we’re going to need decisive, early, national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February.
A 50% increase in transmissibility means that the previous levels of restrictions that worked before won’t work now, and so Tier 4 restrictions are likely to be necessary or even higher than that.
I think we’re really looking at a situation where we’re moving into near lockdown, but we’ve got to learn the lessons from the first lockdown.
A study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has also concluded that the UK must vaccinate 2 million people a week to avoid a third wave. It said:
The most stringent intervention scenario with tier 4 England-wide and schools closed during January and 2 million individuals vaccinated per week, is the only scenario we considered which reduces peak ICU burden below the levels seen during the first wave.
In the absence of substantial vaccine roll-out, cases, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those in 2020.
An accelerated uptake of 2 million vaccinated per week “is predicted to have a much more substantial impact”, it added. The study has yet to be peer reviewed.
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Russia has reported 27,002 new cases, including 5,641 in Moscow, taking the total to 3,105,037 since the pandemic began. Authorities also reported 562 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 55,827.
South Korea will sign a deal with Moderna to offer vaccines for 20 million people, the Yonhap news agency has reported, citing the presidential office.
This comes a day after officials vowed to speed up efforts to launch a public vaccination programme as the country detected its first cases of the virus variant linked to the rapid rise in infections in the UK.
South Korea has reported 40 new deaths – its worst daily toll – bringing the total death tally to 859, as the country grapples with a third wave of infection centred around nursing homes and a prison in the capital Seoul. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency also confirmed 1,046 new cases, bringing the total to 58,725. Of the new cases, 1,030 were locally transmitted and more than half were found in Seoul.
NHS hospitals are “very pressurised” and “very, very busy” because of the surge in cases, the head of a London NHS trust has said. Matthew Kershaw, the chief executive of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We have expanded our capacity here in Croydon, as have hospitals around the capital and indeed across the country. So we have increased our critical care capacity, we’ve also got expansion capacity for general beds as well. So we have responded, thus far, well to the needs of our population.
It is very, very busy... and it’s a really important and difficult moment but we are responding well at this moment.
As the pressure builds in the UK, the head of one of the biggest teaching unions called for schools to remain closed until Covid-19 testing schemes have been set up properly. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) told BBC Breakfast:
Eminent scientists have said that schools should remain closed; that’s what unions I think have been responding to.
Barton said the ASCL union supported the phased opening of schools with a testing system already in place, set up with the support of health services and the military.
What that would then allow would be the phased introduction of children from next week and for us not to be on the back foot in implementing something we haven’t heard about until the day before Christmas Eve, but to be able to do it in a planned way.
Those people that are calling for a delay to young people coming back (to school) are doing it on the principle that we should get this testing right and we should listen to what the scientists are saying.
If a government minister says ‘whatever the scientists say, we think young people should be in school’ then we have every right to say ‘can you tell us why you know better than the scientists please?’
Mexico’s health ministry has reported 5,996 new confirmed cases and 429 additional fatalities, bringing country totals to 1,389,430 cases and 122,855 deaths. The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases, Reuters reports
Thailand confirmed 155 new cases; the majority of which were locally transmitted infections, the public health ministry has said. The new cases include 10 imported from abroad. Thailand has confirmed a total of 6,440 cases and 61 deaths since its first case in late January.
Germany suffered another 852 deaths and confirmed 12,892 additional cases, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases shows, taking its cumulative death toll to 30,978 and its overall caseload to 1,664,726.
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Indonesia is finalising deals to secure 50m doses of the Pfizer/BoiNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines, its new health minister has said.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the deal with the latter would be finalised before the end of the year, while an agreement with the former would be signed in the first week of January.
Speaking at his first official news conference, the minister said 1.3 million frontline health workers would get priority in the vaccination drive. The country has suffered the loss of 500 of its health workers already. He said:
They are the most important group of people in our battle against the pandemic.
The world’s fourth most populous country has struggled to contain the outbreak. It has had nearly 720,000 confirmed cases and 21,500 deaths, among the highest tallies in Asia.
Medical workers will be included in the first wave of vaccinations between January and April, along with public servants. The second wave will cover those in infection “red-zone” areas.
While other countries have vaccinated the elderly first, Indonesia has said that after healthcare workers and public servants, those aged between 18 and 59 would be next in line in an effort to safeguard the working population.
Bambang Heriyanto, the corporate secretary of the state-owned drugmaker Bio Farma, said the strategy would allow Indonesia to reach herd immunity.
If herd immunity is reached, anyone below 18 and above 59 can hopefully be protected, too.
In total, Indonesia has secured 329m vaccine doses, including about 125m from China’s Sinovac, 50m from Novavax and 54m from the global vaccine programme Covax.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2021 and the Pfizer/BioNTech doses in the third quarter. The companies were not immediately available for comment.
The country has also approved a clinical trial for the vaccine of Johnson & Johnson’s unit Janssen, the head of its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said.
The trials could begin in the next few weeks, FDA head Rolando Enrique Domingo told a media briefing. The FDA is still evaluating the late-stage trial applications of Sinovac and Clover, Domingo said.
Philippines extends travel ban
The Philippines will ban travellers from 19 countries and territories until mid-January as a measure to keep out a new variant of the coronavirus, its transport ministry has said.
The regulation will be in effect from midnight of 29 December to 15 January and covers Filipinos and foreigners arriving from the “flagged countries”, the transport ministry told reporters.
The Philippines previously imposed and later extended a flight ban from the UK until mid-January as the more contagious variant of the virus was first detected in England.
The new variant, which British scientists have called “VUI - 202012/01”, has renewed fears about the virus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide.
The flagged countries include France, Australia, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Singapore and Japan.
With more than 470,000 infections and 9,124 deaths, the Philippines has the second highest number of cases and casualties in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia. The new variant has not been detected in the Philippines.
Philippine health officials said the travel ban could be expanded to include more countries should those report the presence of the new Covid-19 variant.
India finds new strain in travellers from UK
India has found six people who returned from the UK in recent weeks with the more infectious strain of the virus that has prompted border closures around the world, Reuters reports.
Nevertheless, the country’s daily increase in cases fell to a six-month low.
All six patients have been kept in isolation, the health ministry has said, adding that their fellow travellers were being tracked down and their close contacts being put under quarantine.
India has suspended all flights from the UK until the end of the month but about 33,000 passengers had flown in from late November, before the ban, the ministry said.
Of those arrivals, 114 people were found positive and their samples were being checked for the new variant, which has been detected across parts of Europe and Asia.
With 10.22m confirmed infections, India has the second-highest case load in the world, behind only the United States. But, on Tuesday, the health ministry reported 16,432 new cases, the lowest daily rise since 25 June.
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Authorities fear new variant has spread around the world
Hello and thank you for reading our live coverage. I’ll be with you for the next few hours. Here’s a brief summary of where we stand:
- Several countries are on alert over the new, more virulent variant of the virus. South Africa, one of the first to suffer, is facing tighter restrictions after it is believed to have caused a sharp increase in cases.
- The UK – where it has also hit – must vaccinate 2m people per week to avoid a third wave, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Without a substantial vaccine rollout, the researchers said, 2021 could be even worse than 2020.
- England in particular was bracing itself as it emerges the latter’s hospitals have more Covid-19 patients than during April’s first-wave peak and a health boss warns doctors and nurses are “back in the eye of the storm”.
- More than 80.86m people have been reported to have been infected globally and 1,768,392 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified.
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