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One in four people globally may not get Covid-19 vaccines until 2022
Nearly one in four people may not get Covid-19 vaccines until at least 2022 because rich countries with less than 15% of the global population have reserved 51% of the doses of the most promising vaccines, researchers said.
Low- and middle-income countries - home to more than 85% of the world’s population - would have to share the remainder, said researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.
An effective response to the pandemic requires high-income countries “to share in an equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines across the world”, they wrote.
“The uncertainty over global access to Covid-19 vaccines traces not only to ongoing clinical testing, but also from the failure of governments and vaccine manufacturers to be more transparent and accountable over these arrangements,” they added.
As of 15 November, high-income nations had pre-ordered nearly 7.5bn doses of vaccines from 13 manufacturers, the paper said.
This included Japan, Australia and Canada who collectively have more than 1bn doses but accounted for less than 1% of current Covid-19 cases, it said.
Even if leading manufacturers’ vaccines reach their projected maximum production capacity, nearly 25% of the world’s population may not get the vaccines for another year or more, according to the paper.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance coalition last week said pharmaceutical companies should openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization so that more doses can be manufactured.
The John Hopkins researchers said WHO’s COVAX Facility could play a key role in ensuring fairer access to approved vaccines but it has only secured 500m doses, far below its target of delivering at least 2bn doses by the end of 2021.
Launched in April, the global pact aims to pool funds from wealthier countries and nonprofits to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines and distribute them equitably around the world.
It has so far secured half of the funding it needs and the US and Russia - key players in vaccine development and manufacture - have not joined, the Johns Hopkins study said.
Boutiques in the centre of the French capital shut early and shoppers hurried home to meet a new 8pm curfew that took effect on Tuesday to try to prevent a new spike in Covid-19 infections.
Around the usually bustling shopping district, shop fronts were dark and, of the few people on the streets, most were heading towards the metro station.
Tuesday brought new freedoms for people in France because it was the end of a stay-at-home order. This had meant that, around the clock, people could only venture out for a limited time and for essential trips, to shop, or to exercise.
But that was replaced instead with a nightly curfew. From 8pm until 6am people can only go out for work, on official business, or for medical reasons. Anyone breaking curfew is liable for a €135 ($165) fine.
Officials have warned they will be strictly enforcing the new rules. Interior minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday evening joined a police patrol in Yvelines, west of Paris, to check people were complying.
“The government has decided to be particularly tough on unlawful parties,” the minister said.
Infection rates in France have declined sharply since the peak of the second wave last month. But scientists warn of the risk of a third wave of infection if people let down their guard during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
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Canada has announced an agreement to receive early deliveries of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine after a surge of new cases is forcing additional health restrictions across the country.
“Canada is now contracted to receive up to 168,000 doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine before the end of December, pending Health Canada approval,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said in a news conference.
Earlier this month, Canada brought forward some deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which received regulatory approval last week. Before these agreements, the first deliveries had been expected early next year.
“We have now confirmed that next week we will receive about 200,000 of our total early order of doses from Pfizer,” he added.
Moderna’s vaccine is under review by Canada’s drug regulator, and Trudeau said its approval could come as early as next week.
The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia were poised to make their first vaccinations on Tuesday, and some 100 frontline healthcare workers were due to get shots in Ottawa, the capital, by the end of the day.
Several provinces have clamped down again on businesses and social gatherings during the second wave, and Quebec – the hardest hit province – is expected to announce new business restrictions later on Tuesday.
Canada has so far reported 468,862 cases, with 6,731 new ones on Monday, and 13,553 deaths. Health officials warned last week the country could see 12,000 new cases per day by January without new restrictions.
The country’s economic recovery from the pandemic is at a very difficult stage and a second wave of coronavirus infections “could even deepen the economic hole”, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday.
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Brazil has registered 964 additional Covid-19 deaths over the last 24 hours and 42,889 new cases, the nation’s health ministry said.
The South American country has now registered 182,799 total coronavirus deaths and 6,970,034 total confirmed cases.
Greek lawmakers have approved a 2021 budget built around weaker forecasts for a rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.
Latest projections see the Greek economy slumping 10.5% this year, worse than the 8.2% predicted in October.
Meanwhile the 2021 rebound should see 4.8% expansion, down from a previous forecast of 7.5%.
After weathering the first wave of the pandemic better than most European countries, Greece in early November resorted to a nationwide lockdown that has weighed on activity and is now expected to last until 7 January.
The economy had returned to growth in the third quarter, following a 14% quarter-on-quarter slump in April-June that was the worst in at least 25 years.
Greece faces “unprecedented circumstances, with uncertain facts and the end of the crisis unknown,” prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers before the vote.
But as inoculations get under way around the world, and with the EU expected to soon follow suit, he added “the vaccine is the boundary between the end of the pandemic and the preface of the post-covid era, and the budget is adapted to these conditions”.
Planning to spend €24bn in 2020 and €7.5bn next year to cushion the economy from the impact of the virus, Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio should climb to around 209% before falling back below 200%.
Patients were being treated in the back of ambulances in a Northern Ireland hospital car park on Tuesday, a health official said, a day after a warning that Covid-19 was putting healthcare under “unbearable pressures”.
Northern Ireland has been in and out of some form of lockdown since mid-October when it was one of Europe’s worst Covid-19 hot spots. The most recent curbs were lifted last week, when all shops, restaurants and pubs serving food reopened.
While those measures slowed the spread of Covid-19, cases have risen in the last week and are at their highest in Mid and East Antrim, near Antrim Area hospital where Irish broadcaster RTÉ showed footage of ambulances lined up with their engines on to keep patients warm inside.
“We are providing care in the car park,” Wendy Magowan, medical director of the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, which runs hospitals in the area, told BBC Radio Ulster.
They have varying degrees of ill patients. While I’ve been standing here I can see doctors and nurses going in and out of the back of ambulances. They are providing care and treatment in the back of ambulances.
Locals requiring urgent care at Antrim Area hospital and the northerly Causeway hospital were told earlier on Tuesday not to attend their emergency departments but to instead phone for advice on where to go.
The medical director of Northern Ireland’s ambulance service was quoted by the BBC as saying ambulances were queued to some degree outside all of the region’s emergency departments.
The heads of Northern Ireland’s six healthcare trusts warned on Monday of the very real risk of hospitals being overwhelmed in the event of a further Covid-19 spike in January.
Hospital capacity across the province stood at 104% on Tuesday, with non-Covid care restricted.
Northern Ireland health minister Robin Swann said he would propose new measures to the devolved government on Thursday.
The power-sharing administration’s two main parties, rivals Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party, have disagreed sharply on previous Covid-19 curbs, slowing the region’s response. Sinn Féin said on Tuesday that action was needed.
Updated
One in 10 Spaniards have had coronavirus, antibody study shows
The share of the Spanish population to have contracted coronavirus has nearly doubled to almost 10%, or about 4.7 million people, in the second wave of contagion since late summer, results from the latest stage of a nationwide antibody study showed.
More than 51,400 people were tested and surveyed across Spain in the second half of November for the prevalence study, which suggests the infections by far exceed the number of confirmed cases in Spain, of just over 1.75 million.
“One in 10 people living in Spain would have been infected ... half during the first wave and the other half during this second epidemic wave,” said Raquel Yotti, director of Spain’s Carlos III health institute, which co-led the study.
Prevalence in Madrid was the highest of all Spanish regions, with 18.6% of the population testing positive for Covid-19 antibodies.
Previous results of the study - published in July after testing nearly 70,000 people in April-June - showed a prevalence rate of just over 5%.
Spain has been one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries by the pandemic, both in terms of contagion and the economic impact. A total of 48,401 people have died from the coronavirus, with the toll climbing by 388 over the last 24 hours.
Data from the health ministry also showed 10,328 new coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday, bringing the total since the onset of the pandemic to 1,762,212 infections.
The infection rate measured over the previous 14 days is up for a second day in a row at nearly 199 cases per 100,000 people.
The government decided a second state of emergency in October with new restrictions such as night-time curfews to stem resurgent infections, which helped to reduce new cases to less than 200 per 100,000 people this month.
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Updated
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
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EU countries could begin inoculations as soon as this year, the head of the European commission said. This followed the decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to bring forward its possible approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by eight days to 21 December.
- The US Food and Drug Administration raised no new concerns over data on Moderna vaccine in documents made public on Tuesday. It prepared the way for US authorisation of a second, easier-to-handle vaccine.
- Germany, France, Italy and five other European states will coordinate the start of their Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, the countries’ health ministers said. The countries will promote “the coordination of the launch of the vaccination campaigns” and will rapidly share information on how it is proceeding, the statement said, along with other commitments on areas such as transparency.
- Turkey has recorded 235 more deaths – its highest one-day tally since the pandemic began – bringing its total death toll to 16,881. According to the health ministry, Turkey also recorded 32,102 new cases, including asymptomatic ones, in the last 24 hours. For four months, Ankara only reported daily symptomatic cases but has reported all cases since 25 November.
- The US president, Donald Trump, will “absolutely” encourage Americans to take Covid-19 vaccines and will receive a vaccine himself as soon as his medical team determines it’s best. The White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the Republican president also wanted to show that vulnerable Americans are the top priority to receive the vaccines.
- Germany had reportedly been pressuring EU authorities to speed up the approval of a vaccine. The chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and Germany’s health ministry want the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to bring forward the approval date for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 23 December from 29 December, the German newspaper Bild said, citing unnamed sources.
The US has recorded 204,748 new cases and 1,766 more deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, taking the respective cumulative totals to 16,317,892 and 300,032.
Updated
Donald Trump will 'absolutely' encourage Americans to take vaccine, says press secretary
The US president, Donald Trump, will “absolutely” encourage Americans to take Covid-19 vaccines and will receive a vaccine himself as soon as his medical team determines it’s best, the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said.
But the Republican president also wanted to show that vulnerable Americans are the top priority to receive the vaccines, she told reporters at a White House briefing.
McEnany said some career national security staff would have access to vaccines to ensure a continuity of government, along with a “very small group” of senior administration officials for the purpose of instilling public confidence.
Updated
French health authorities have reported 11,532 new infections over the past 24 hours – up from Monday’s 3,063 but largely stable from Sunday’s 11,533 – while the number of people hospitalised for the disease resumed its decline.
The number of people in France who have died rose by 790 to 59,072 from 371 on Monday. The cumulative number of cases in France now totals 2,391,447, the fifth-highest in the world.
British TV presenter Prue Leith, 80, received a coronavirus jab on Tuesday as the next phase of the UK’s vaccination campaign is rolled out.
The Great British Bake Off judge got vaccinated at a centre in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, a week after the NHS began a mass immunisation campaign. Leith said she was “thrilled to get it”, adding that she thought it was important for everyone to get vaccinated.
Updated
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised emergency use of the first over-the-counter antigen test, which can be used at home.
The test by Ellume offers a nasal swab analyser that connects to a software application on users’ smartphone, and gives results in 20 minutes.
Anyone above the age of two, including those not showing symptoms, can take the test, the agency said.
The news follows authorisation last month of the first prescription Covid-19 test for home use, and last week of a non-prescription test system allowing a lab to process nasal samples collected at home.
The regulatory nods will help expand Americans’ access to testing, reduce the burden on laboratories and test supplies, and give more testing options, Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn said.
The agency, however, cautioned that like other antigen tests, a small percentage of results from the test may be false.
Ellume said it will be shipping more than 100,000 tests a day from next month, and plans to manufacture as well as deliver 20m tests to the US within the first half of 2021.
Updated
Turkey suffers its worst day for deaths in pandemic
Turkey has recorded 235 more deaths – its highest one-day tally since the pandemic began – bringing its total death toll to 16,881.
According to the health ministry, Turkey also recorded 32,102 new cases, including asymptomatic ones, in the last 24 hours. For four months, Ankara only reported daily symptomatic cases but has reported all cases since 25 November.
The government has imposed weekday curfews and weekend lockdowns to curb the surge in cases. Turkey ranks third globally in the highest number of daily cases, behind the United States and Brazil.
Updated
Several European countries agree to coordinate vaccinations
Germany, France, Italy and five other European states will coordinate the start of their Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, the countries’ health ministers have said.
The countries will promote “the coordination of the launch of the vaccination campaigns” and will rapidly share information on how it is proceeding, the statement said, along with other commitments on areas such as transparency.
The statement was released by Italy and also signed by the health ministers of Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
The German chancellor Angela Merkel has told conservative lawmakers she is worried about the trend in the country, according to sources at the meeting. She warned the lawmakers that January and February will be very tough months in Germany, with the number of patients in intensive care rising further.
Hello, I’m taking over from Damien Gayle and will be with you for the next few hours. If you’d like to draw anything to my attention, your best bet’s probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
Mexico is considering vaccine sales pitches from five more pharmaceutical companies, including China’s Sinovac and US-based Moderna, after already approving Pfizer’s jab and ordering 34.4m doses, according to Reuters.
The offers, which Mexico’s government sought from the companies, account for at least 141 million vaccine doses, according to data provided by the foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard. Mexican health authorities would decide which of the proposed vaccines were needed, he said.
Mexico has already ordered 198m vaccine doses from other companies and the World Health Organization-backed Covax initiative, with Pfizer’s vaccine likely to be the first used in the country.
Among the new offers, Sinovac proposed 35m doses, for delivery beginning in January; Moderna would deliver 39m doses from April; German biotech firm CureVac offered another 35m doses, starting the same month; Novavax, in the US, proposed 10m doses beginning in June of 2021; and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit would deliver 22m vaccine doses, though the delivery date had yet to be determined.
The Russian makers of Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V also submitted a request to carry out clinical trials in Mexico, Ebrard said.
Mexico, a country of 125 million people, has 1,255,974 confirmed coronavirus cases and 114,298 related deaths, according to government data on Monday.
Updated
Spanish bars and restaurants are praying that coronavirus jabs can help restore their revenues by the end of next year, after the crisis wiped out 85,000 establishments.
The Spanish Hospitality Industry Association (HDE) pinned its hopes on vaccinations in its annual report, after a dismal year for the sector. Before the pandemic struck, Spain had the highest density of bars in the world with one for every 175 residents, according to a study by Nielsen consultants.
But its tourism dependent economy is one of the worst-hit in Europe, with travel bans, lockdowns and night-time curfews battering the hospitality industry.
Sars-Cov-2 has infected more than 1.75 million Spaniards and killed more than 48,000. But since the country’s second pandemic state of emergency in October, including a raft of restrictions, new infections have fallen to less than 200 cases per 100,000 people, one of the lowest in Europe.
The government plans to start free vaccinations in January after regulatory authorities give their approval, and expects to have between 15 million and 20 million people vaccinated by May or June 2021.
“With clouds still in the air, I am confident that Easter will be a turning point,” Jose Luis Yzuel, HDE president, was quoted as saying by Reuters. He said he expected the summer season to at least “look like before” the pandemic.
“And at the end of the year [2021], this will have been just a bad dream,” he added.
Updated
Police in Ukraine have used teargas to clear anti-lockdown protesters from Maidan Square in the centre of the capital, Kiev.
Several thousand protesters, including many small business owners, had gathered to take part in a rally against new lockdown measures that will close businesses, gyms and schools from two weeks from 8 January.
Police moved in to stop protesters erecting tents in Maidan (Freedom) Square, which six years ago was the scene of violent clashes that led to the downfall of the government. An AFP journalist saw ambulances heading towards the square and one injured activist being carried away from the crowd.
Kiev police said in a statement that 40 officers suffered chemical burns to their eyes and one policeman sustained an injury to his head. There have been no official figures on injuries among the protesters.
Ukraine has reported more than 909,000 coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, some 15,000 of them fatal.
Updated
Hello, this is Damien Gayle at the controls for the next hour, while Kevin takes a break. You can reach me at damien.gayle@theguardian.com or on Twitter at @damiengayle.
Updated
Anyone in Ireland who wants a Covid-19 vaccine should be able to get one by the middle of next year, the country’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, has said.
Inoculations among the most vulnerable of Ireland’s 4.9m population should start seven to 10 days after the EU’s drug regulator approves the first shot, Coveney said after the government approved a rollout plan.
That raised the prospect of the programme beginning before the end of the year after the bloc’s regulator on Tuesday brought forward a decision on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to 21 December. He told the national broadcaster RTÉ:
I think certainly by the middle of next year, we will be very hopeful that the vaccine will be available for anyone who wants it.
Last week, the government laid out who will receive vaccines first, prioritising elderly care home residents, the over-65s and healthcare workers in the initial phase.
Ireland currently has the lowest incidence rate in the European Union after it moved early to temporarily shut shops, bars and restaurants that, unlike much of Europe, are set to largely remain open for the whole of December.
The prime minister, Micheál Martin, has said ministers may need to reimpose some restrictions in January. Cases are beginning to rise slowly, ahead of people being allowed to travel throughout the country again from Friday and mix with a small number of other households until 6 January.
Updated
Sweden has registered 20,931 new cases since Friday, Health Agency statistics show.
The increase compared with 18,820 cases recorded in the corresponding period one week ago.
Sweden registered 153 new deaths, taking the total to 7,667. The deaths registered on Tuesday could have occurred over the past several weeks.
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.
Sweden failed to protect elderly people during the pandemic with the high level of community spread likely the biggest factor as the coronavirus ravaged ill-prepared nursing homes, an initial report by an official commission has said.
Sweden’s pandemic strategy, shunning lockdowns and masks, has stood out internationally. It left schools, restaurants and businesses largely open while appealing to people to socially distance and maintain good hygiene.
When announced during the spring, the strategy was coupled with a goal to “ring-fence” the elderly. But, as deaths mounted, above all at nursing homes, the commission was appointed to assess the response.
In the commission’s first findings, it said the overall spread and previously known structural problems within the elderly care system, for which the current and previous governments were ultimately responsible, were to blame for the many deaths. The commission said:
These shortcomings meant that elderly care was unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic. The employees in elderly care were largely left alone to handle the crisis situation.
The strategy has been called reckless and cruel but also won praise from people seeing it as more sustainable and business-friendly. A little less than half of Sweden’s almost 7,700 deaths have been nursing home residents.
The commission also said measures by the government and governmental agencies to protect the elderly during the spring had come too late.
We also assess that the measures were insufficient in several respects.
The prime minister Stefan Lofven has defended the overall strategy but admitted Sweden failed to shield the elderly, though stressing health and elderly care are the responsibility of regional authorities and not the central government.
In November, Sweden’s Health and Social Care Inspectorate said it had found “serious shortcomings” in elderly care – in only 6% of cases reviewed were nursing home Covid-19 patients given a physical examination by a doctor.
Sweden has suffered many times more deaths per capita than its Nordic neighbours, although fewer than some European countries that opted for lockdowns.
US a step closer to approving Moderna vaccine
The US Food and Drug Administration raised no new concerns over data on Moderna vaccine in documents made public on Tuesday, preparing the way for US authorisation of a second, easier-to-handle vaccine.
The FDA staff said the vaccine was effective without any specific safety issues in adults over the age of 18 in the documents prepared for Thursday’s meeting of outside experts, who will discuss whether to endorse a US emergency use authorisation (EUA) for the Moderna shot.
The Spanish government has called on people “to step up their prudence” as the country approaches the Christmas period amid a small uptick in the number of new cases.
Infection levels in Spain have fallen over recent weeks, from daily highs of more than 20,000 in October to fewer than 10,000 in the past few weeks. But the latest weekend figures showed that the number of cases per 100,000 people rose from 190 on Friday to 194 on Monday.
The country’s health emergencies chief, Fernando Simón, said the fall in new cases appeared to be levelling out, while the government’s spokeswoman María Jesús Montero appealed for patience and responsibility over Christmas and the new year. She said:
We’re expecting the first vaccines to arrive in Spain at the beginning of next year.
Prudence has to be our watchword for the way we move around over the coming days. We have to step it right up over the coming days if we don’t want to go back to square one.
Spain’s health minister, Salvador Illa, said he hoped some people would begin being vaccinated by the end of the year. The government plans to vaccinate health workers, care home staff and residents, and those with serious health problems in the first round of vaccinations.
Updated
EU likely to approve vaccine within days
EU countries could begin inoculations as soon as this year, the head of the European commission has said.
This followed the decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to bring forward its possible approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by eight days to 21 December.
Every day counts - we work at full speed to authorise #COVID19 vaccines that are safe & effective.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 15, 2020
I welcome @EMA_News bringing forward its meeting to discuss the @pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, before Christmas.
Likely that the first Europeans will be vaccinated before end 2020!
After possible approval by the EU regulator, the European commission is expected to formally approve the Pfizer vaccine within three days, after consultations with the 27 EU governments.
Commission decisions on approvals of medicines usually follow the EMA’s recommendations. The approval of the Pfizer vaccine by the commission is considered a formality if the EMA issues a positive recommendation.
EU countries can begin vaccinations immediately after formal approval by the commission.
Updated
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is set to issue a positive verdict on the first Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine on 23 December, a German government source told Reuters. The news put EU countries on track to catch up with the United States and Britain, where immunisation campaigns are underway.
- Germany had reportedly been pressuring EU authorities to speed up the approval of a vaccine. The chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and Germany’s health ministry want the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to bring forward the approval date for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 23 December from 29 December, the German newspaper Bild said, citing unnamed sources.
- Dutch prime minister announces five-week lockdown. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until 19 January. “We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a sombre Rutte said in a televised address to the nation.
- A new strain of coronavirus that has shown up in England’s genomic surveillance in the past two months may have spread the virus in the south of England. The strain contains a number of different mutations and has been detected in parts of the south where cases of the virus are rising fastest, according to the health secretary, Matt Hancock.
- Moderna documents accessed in cyber-attack. Moderna Inc said on Monday it was informed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) certain documents related to pre-submission talks of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate were unlawfully accessed in a cyberattack on the medicines regulator.
- South Korea’s prime minister pleaded with residents on Tuesday to abide by social distancing rules to avoid even greater restrictions in the face of the country’s largest wave of coronavirus infections. Daily infection rates are hovering at record levels with another 880 new cases reported as of midnight Monday, up from 718 a day earlier, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
- Canada kicked off its inoculation campaign against Covid-19 on Monday by injecting frontline healthcare workers and elderly nursing home residents, becoming the third nation in the world to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
- Singapore to open business travel bubble for all countries from January. Singapore will open a new segregated travel lane for a limited number of business, official and high economic value travellers from all countries, the government said on Tuesday, as part of efforts to revive its key travel and hospitality sectors.
- A record number of journalists were imprisoned during 2020, as governments cracked down on coverage of the coronavirus pandemic or tried to suppress reporting of civil unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday.
Just five days before they were due to perform before a live audience for the first time in almost two months, the singers of the Paris Opera learned they could not reopen before January as France’s caseload remained stubbornly high.
So they decided to film their performance of works by a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and 18th-century French composers Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Andre Gretry and offer it on a new video-on-demand portal launched last week by the Opera de Paris, which runs the Garnier and the Bastille opera venues. French soprano Pauline Texier said:
Of course it is sad, but we’re very lucky to be able to film this concert; especially because some pieces of music that will be played have never been recorded.
France’s government announced in November that a lockdown imposed at the end of October would be partially lifted by 15 December and would include the reopening of cultural venues.
But, last Thursday, the prime minister Jean Castex said museums, cinemas and theatres would not reopen before at least the beginning of January as the target of keeping daily new infections below 5,000 had not been met. Fernando Escalona, a countertenor from Venezuela, told Reuters during the rehearsal:
For me, it’s really a shame that we currently cannot perform. Because we, as artists, are incomplete without the public.
People from the arts and entertainment world protested in Paris on Tuesday against the government’s decision.
Castex said extra financial aid would be granted to artists and there would be a 7 January meeting to see if some reopening was possible.
Not being able to perform in front of an audience has “become the new normal”, American bass Aaron Pendleton said.
But we’re still able to share our work and we’re still able to work so we’ve been lucky to have that.
Updated
The Polish health minister, Adam Niedzielski, has said people should stay at home at Christmas and new year, as Poland plans to launch vaccinations soon.
We cannot allow that the vaccinations take place when the pandemic escalates, as it will be difficult to organise an efficient vaccination process.
Updated
Poland has already set aside about 3bn zlotys (£610m, $815m) for its vaccination programme, which will start in January, its prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said.
The Danish government will extend current lockdown measures to the entire country, the broadcaster TV2 has reported, citing unnamed sources. The measures, which were implemented last week in parts of Denmark after signs of a rapid rise in infections, include shutting bars, restaurants and museums.
Updated
Plans to relax Covid restrictions at Christmas must be reversed or many lives risk being lost, according to a rare joint editorial from two of the UK’s most eminent medical journals.
The government can no longer claim to be protecting the NHS if it goes ahead with “rash” plans to allow households to mix indoors over Christmas, the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal have said.
“We believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives,” it says.
It warns that if current trends continue, there will be 19,000 Covid patients in English hospitals by New Year’s Eve – the same as at the peak of the first wave on 12 April. Those numbers do not factor in the impact of Christmas mixing between households and the freedom to travel to see family.
Updated
A World Health Organization senior official has said that the agency was in talks with Pfizer to include its Covid-19 vaccine as part of an early global rollout.
Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s senior adviser, said that he saw a “strong commitment” on the part of its chief executive, Albert Bourla, to set prices at levels appropriate to poorer populations. He expected some news on more manufacturers joining the list of providers to the Covax vaccine facility in coming weeks, he added.
Updated
Hello, I’m taking over from Sarah Marsh and will be with you for the next few hours. If you’d like to draw anything to my attention, your best bet’s probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
Singapore will allow business travellers and visiting officials from all countries to enter from next month, authorities have said, as the financial hub seeks to recover from a coronavirus-induced downturn.
Under the new arrangements, a limited number of travellers can apply for stays of up to 14 days from mid-January, the trade ministry said.
Singapore already had arrangements allowing in selected visitors from countries including China and South Korea, but the new scheme marks a significant easing of travel curbs.
There are strict conditions, however, for those wishing to visit the city-state, which has escaped the coronavirus relatively lightly.
Travellers must undergo virus tests before leaving their home country, on arrival in Singapore and regularly during their stay, and must reside and conduct meetings at locations selected by the government.
Updated
European medical watchdog set to issue positive verdict on Pfizer vaccine
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is set to issue a positive verdict on the first Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine on 23 December, a German government source told Reuters on Tuesday, putting EU countries on track to catch up with the United States and Britain, where immunisation campaigns are underway.
“Yes, the EMA will be done on 23 December,” the source said, referring to the watchdog’s review of the vaccine.
Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn also told a news conference that he hoped European Union approval for the vaccine would be in place before Christmas, clearing a path for inoculations before the end of the year.
The EMA said in early December it planned to issue its view on the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine by 29 December, and on the Moderna vaccine by mid-January.
The Pfizer vaccine is already being rolled out in countries including the United States, Britain and Canada, following positive verdicts by regulators there.
Updated
Germany pressuring EU authorities to speed up vaccine approval
Germany is pressuring EU authorities to speed up the approval of a coronavirus vaccine as it battles a surge in infections and Britain and the US begin mass inoculations, reports have said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and Germany’s health ministry want the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to bring forward the approval date for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 23 December from 29 December, German newspaper Bild said, citing unnamed sources.
The delay in approval was raising questions over “the European Union’s ability to act”, Bild quoted a source as saying.
Berlin’s irritation is more acute as BioNTech is a German firm and the country is preparing to go into partial lockdown from Wednesday, with non-essential shops and schools to close.
Updated
Doctors can administer South Korean pharmaceutical maker Celltrion Inc’s candidate Covid-19 antibody treatment to patients with life-threatening conditions, health authorities have said.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved CT-P59 under its patient treatment scheme on Friday, its website showed.
Under the scheme, patients with life-threatening conditions and with no other means of treatment can receive drugs still undergoing clinical trials, the ministry said.
Celltrion is conducting second- and third-phase clinical trials for CT-P59, and plans to seek emergency-use approval for the treatment before year-end, a company spokesman said.
Updated
Russia on Tuesday reported 26,689 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, including 5,418 in Moscow, pushing the national tally to 2,707,945. Authorities said 577 people had died overnight, taking the official death toll to 47,968.
Germany’s health minister further increased the pressure on the European Union’s regulatory agency, demanding that it approve a coronavirus vaccine before Christmas, the dpa news agency reported Tuesday.
“Our goal is an approval before Christmas so that we can still start vaccinating this year,” Jens Spahn said late on Monday.
Spahn had already expressed impatience with the European Medicines Agency on Sunday, noting that Germany has created more than 400 vaccination centres and has activated about 10,000 doctors and medical staff and was ready to start mass vaccinations as early as Tuesday.
Spahn is pushing for quick approval of a new vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer that has already been authorised for use in Britain, the US, Canada and other countries. But Germany cannot use it because it is still waiting for approval by the EMA, which evaluates drugs and vaccines for the EU’s 27 nations.
Updated
Britain’s unemployment rate has risen to 4.9% as a record amount of jobs were wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed on Tuesday.
The reading for the three months to the end of October compared with an unemployment rate of 4.8% for July-September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
Since the start of the UK pandemic in March, the number of payroll employees has dived by 819,000 – with more than a third of this slump in the virus-plagued hospitality sector.
The ONS stressed, however, that the largest falls in payroll staff were experienced at the start of the Covid-19 crisis.
The number of UK redundancies meanwhile soared by a record 370,000 in the three months to October, despite an easing in the last month of the period.
Updated
Hello, my name is Sarah Marsh and I am anchoring the Guardian’s live feed today from London. Please do get in touch with me as I bring you the latest global developments around coronavirus.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Dutch prime minister announces five-week lockdown. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until 19 January. “We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a sombre Rutte said in a televised address to the nation.
- A new strain of coronavirus that has shown up in England’s genomic surveillance in the past two months may have spread the virus in the south of England. The strain contains a number of different mutations and has been detected in parts of the south where cases of the virus are rising fastest, according to the health secretary, Matt Hancock.
- Moderna documents accessed in cyber-attack. Moderna Inc said on Monday it was informed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) certain documents related to pre-submission talks of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate were unlawfully accessed in a cyberattack on the medicines regulator.
- South Korea’s prime minister pleaded with residents on Tuesday to abide by social distancing rules to avoid even greater restrictions in the face of the country’s largest wave of coronavirus infections. Daily infection rates are hovering at record levels with another 880 new cases reported as of midnight Monday, up from 718 a day earlier, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
- Canada kicked off its inoculation campaign against Covid-19 on Monday by injecting frontline healthcare workers and elderly nursing home residents, becoming the third nation in the world to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
- Singapore to open business travel bubble for all countries from January. Singapore will open a new segregated travel lane for a limited number of business, official and high economic value travellers from all countries, the government said on Tuesday, as part of efforts to revive its key travel and hospitality sectors.
- A record number of journalists were imprisoned during 2020, as governments cracked down on coverage of the coronavirus pandemic or tried to suppress reporting of civil unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, with a recommendation for how to see the “great conjunction” or “Christmas kiss” – when Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer to one another and brighter than they have in 800 years – or as I like to think of it, interplanetary mistletoe:
On 21 December, why not kiss beneath interplanetary mistletoe that is the great conjunction:https://t.co/CsCHoyLU1e
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) December 15, 2020
A Scottish man has reportedly been jailed for breaching coronavirus rules after he rode a jetski from Scotland to the Isle of Man to see his girlfriend.
Dale McLaughlan, 28, from North Ayrshire, met his girlfriend in September while working as a roofer on the Isle of Man, the BBC reported.
An absolute legend rode a jetski from Scotland to Isle of Man to see his girlfriend but now he is in jail for Christmas: https://t.co/F1XPFA350C
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) December 15, 2020
On Friday, determined to see her despite coronavirus rules banning non-residents from entering the island without special permission, he made the four-and-a-half-hour journey by jetski despite never having driven a personal watercraft before. He had expected the journey to take 40 minutes, prosecutors said:
Updated
Italy PM says country needs new restrictions to avoid third wave
Italy’s government will need to impose new restrictions during the holiday season to rein in contagion and avoid a third, devastating wave of the coronavirus, the prime minister said in an interview published on Tuesday.
“Further, new restrictions are now needed … we must avert at all costs a third wave, because this would be devastating, also from the point of view of the loss of lives,” Giuseppe Conte told La Stampa.
Conte’s coalition government is considering more stringent nationwide rules for the Christmas and new year holidays after crowds flocked to city centres over the weekend just after Rome had relaxed some restrictions put in place last month.
Italy is the European nation with the worst death toll, with more than 65,000 people dying since the outbreak in February.
Conte said a vaccination campaign would have to target 10-15 million people in order to “have an effective impact on immunity”, and that such a goal would be reached by the end of the spring or before the summer at the latest.
Updated
Acute malnutrition cases are on the rise in Zimbabwe, as food shortages continue to take their toll. Statistics show that one in three children in Zimbabwe suffers from malnutrition.
A Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment (ZimVac) report shows that the percentage of children receiving the minimum acceptable diet necessary for growth and development declined from 6.9% in 2019 to 2.1% in 2020.
Matabeleland, in the south-west of the country, has the highest cases of global acute malnutrition, with an estimated 74,267 children under the age of five affected, including at least 38,425 with severe acute malnutrition.
Because of the coronavirus lockdown, Mapeka, a vendor, has not been able to properly feed herself or her child. Surviving on a meal a day, supplemented with maheu, a cheap sorghum drink, Mapeka has not been able to produce enough milk:
Sturgeon to outline Scotland coronavirus restrictions
The results of the final review of Scotland’s coronavirus restrictions before the new year will be announced by the First Minister on Tuesday.
PA Media: Nicola Sturgeon will tell the Scottish Parliament which of the Government’s five levels each local authority area will be placed in.
The majority of the Scottish population are currently in the second highest tier - Level 3 - which prevents alcohol being served in hospitality and requires all leisure and entertainment premises to close.
Seven areas are in Level 1 - including Scottish Borders and Highland - with the rest in Level 2.
Ms Surgeon previously said this week’s review was likely to be the last until January 5.
She told MSPs on December 8 that she was “reluctant to give 100% certainty” as “the virus is not going to take Christmas off”.
But she added: “Subject to that caveat, in relation to the levels that we announce as part of the decisions that we take a week today on 15 December, we would seek to maintain those levels over the Christmas and new year period, along with the temporary relaxation that we announced a couple of weeks ago for the Christmas period from 23 to 27 December.
“What we announce next week, barring any of the unforeseen developments that I spoke about earlier, will continue until the first cabinet meeting of 2021, on 5 January, when we will have another review.
“I hope that we will have that period of stability from 15 December through to 5 January but, of course, we have to be prepared to act should the picture show that that is necessary.”
Last week, hospitality businesses brought a judicial review over the decision to keep Edinburgh in Level 3.
Record number of journalists jailed in 2020
A record number of journalists were imprisoned during 2020, as governments cracked down on coverage of the coronavirus pandemic or tried to suppress reporting of civil unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday.
At least 274 journalists were in jail as of 1 December, the most since the New York-based group began collecting data in the early 1990s, the report said, up from at least 250 last year.
Protests and political tensions were the cause of many arrests, with the most made in China, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, it said.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, authoritarian leaders tried to control reporting by arresting journalists. At least two journalists died after contracting the disease in custody, the report said.
“It’s shocking and appalling that we are seeing a record number of journalists imprisoned in the midst of a global pandemic,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.
The report blamed a lack of global leadership on democratic values, and in particular attacks on the media by US President Donald Trump, which it said gave cover to authoritarians to crack down on journalists in their own countries.
Asian stocks drifted lower on Tuesday as worries about increasing Covid-19 deaths and lockdowns overshadowed optimism about the roll-out of coronavirus vaccinations, Reuters reports.
Markets showed little reaction to China’s industrial output, which grew in line with expectations in November, expanding for an eighth straight month as an economic recovery gathered pace.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the United States crossed 300,000 on Monday as the hardest hit nation started its first vaccine inoculations.
“Considerable uncertainty surrounds the timeline for rollout but key safety milestones could be met by around mid 2021,” economists at Westpac said in a note.
“Meanwhile several jurisdictions continue to struggle with major outbreaks with a particularly notable rise in cases in the US,” they said.
Most Asian markets retreated in early trade, with MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan falling 0.4%, having hit a string of record highs last week. E-mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.1%.
Chinese stocks were down 0.2%.
Markets in Japan and South Korea, both grappling with surging infection numbers and growing public frustration, slipped 0.2% and 0.3%. Hong Kong gave up 0.5%.
Australian stocks fell 0.3%, pulled down by heavyweight miners on fears of higher regulatory scrutiny over surging iron ore prices in top consumer, China.
Australia’s banks remain well placed to deal with the economic shocks from the Covid pandemic, the reserve bank has found, even though its effects were likely to be worse than the global financial crisis:
Unless leaders make the right choices on recovering from the pandemic to avoid entrenching environmental problems and social inequalities, the world faces a future of lurching from crisis to crisis, reversing gains made in recent decades in health, education, social freedom and combating poverty, the UN has warned.
The unprecedented impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, combined with the environmental crises the world is facing, threaten to wind back human progress and development, leaving societies around the world vulnerable and more unequal, according to a new report from the UN development programme (UNDP).
Pedro Conceição, the director of the UNDP and lead author of its latest human development report, published on Tuesday, said governments were making such choices now, and they would affect societies around the world for many years to come.
“We are mobilising unprecedented fiscal resources to deal with the pandemic, and we can choose to make allocations in ways that add to inequalities, or in ways that reduce pressure on the planet,” he said.
These include stimulus packages that favour fossil fuels or add to unsustainable resource use, and spending that fails to address problems with health and education.
“These choices are being made as we speak,” he said. “The consequences are before our eyes. Climate change may seem remote to some people, but it is happening already, we see the evidence. We have no time to spare”:
What could be more endearing than a roomful of cats in red-and-white Santa costumes, each complete down to a hood with a white bobble and a belt?
This holiday season, come home to the cat cafe in Seoul where you can cuddle up to around 130 feline friends at tables decked out with tiny Christmas trees.
“Especially this year, it is hard to feel the festive atmosphere, but it was great to see cute cats wearing Santa suits and feel like Christmas is nearing,” said 22-year-old visitor Cha Seung-Ju.
Reuters: Park Seo-young opened the Catgarden cafe in 2016 to take in cats rescued off the streets or that were the subjects of failed adoptions, a situation that has worsened this year.
The number of abandoned pets increased by about 3.7% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
“With many people staying at home, more people are adopting cats. But at the same time, more people abandon pets as the coronavirus situation worsens,” said Park.
“Whenever I hear about such news, it really hurts me,” Park added, urging those who adopt cats to take responsibility for them for their entire lives.
The Catgarden cafe itself has been hit this year by the coronavirus pandemic. The cafe used to have about 100 visitors a day, but that has recently dropped by about a third.
Visitors lucky enough to drop by during snack time get to interact with a long queue of cats feeding in the front yard, and some said that the furry animals helped them shake off the “corona blues”.
A special feast is on the cards for the feline Santas over the festive period.
“On Christmas Day, I’m having a chicken breast party for my cats,” Park said.
Sharon Osbourne revealed she has tested positive for Covid-19, PA media reports. The TV presenter and former X Factor judge, 68, said she was briefly in hospital with the virus.
Osbourne said she has been separated from rocker husband Ozzy Osbourne, 72, while she recovers. Ozzy has tested negative for the virus, Osbourne, a host on US chat show The Talk, said.
She tweeted: “I wanted to share I’ve tested positive for Covid 19. After a brief hospitalisation, I’m now recuperating at a location away from Ozzy (who has tested negative) while The Talk is on scheduled hiatus. Everyone please stay safe and healthy.”
The Talk is filmed in Los Angeles County, where the Osbournes reportedly live.
I wanted to share I’ve tested positive for Covid 19. After a brief hospitalization, I’m now recuperating at a location away from Ozzy (who has tested negative) while “The Talk” is on scheduled hiatus. Everyone please stay safe and healthy.
— Sharon Osbourne (@MrsSOsbourne) December 15, 2020
California is in the grip of a deadly wave of Covid-19 and much of the state is under a stay-at-home order.
Osbourne’s diagnosis comes days after Carrie Ann Inaba, her The Talk co-host, also announced she had tested positive.
Inaba, 52, said she is “resting and taking care of myself” following the diagnosis. Other celebrities to publicly announce a Covid-19 diagnosis include Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, British actor Idris Elba and Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston.
Updated
Here is the video of Canada’s Anita Quidangen being given the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine:
Anita Quidangen, a personal support worker in Toronto, was one of the first people in Canada to be given Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. This is a big step forward in our fight against the virus, but we’re not out of the woods yet. pic.twitter.com/BCEkdoBWqy
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 15, 2020
Singapore to open business travel bubble for all countries from January
Singapore will open a new segregated travel lane for a limited number of business, official and high economic value travellers from all countries, the government said on Tuesday, as part of efforts to revive its key travel and hospitality sectors, Reuters reports.
Singapore has spent billions of dollars in a bid to shield its economy from its worst-ever downturn and is trying to reopen international travel as it prepares to host the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering of political and business leaders next year.
The first travellers will be able to arrive from the second half of January through the new lane, which will be open to those who are coming for short-term stays of up to 14 days, the ministry of trade and industry said in a statement.
It will complement other arrangements that Singapore has for business travel including with China, Germany and Indonesia.
Travellers under the latest arrangement will have to stick to strict health and testing protocols, and will need to stay within a “bubble” at segregated facilities.
For example, while travellers will be allowed to meet with local visitors, there will be floor-to-ceiling dividers separating them.
Pfizer Inc and partners have delivered the first Covid-19 vaccines to 141 of 145 locations targeted by the US government for the first day of a nationwide rollout on Monday, a Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said.
But healthcare facilities in four island territories - American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, the North Mariana Islands and Guam - are still awaiting their supplies, the spokeswoman told Reuters.
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE was authorised by US regulators for emergency use late on Friday, and the first shipments were sent out on Sunday.
The US government is aiming to distribute the first wave of 2.9 million vaccine doses to 636 locations nationwide by the end of the week.
US Army General Gustave Perna said on a Monday press call that severe storms expected in some parts of the country this week could pose challenges to vaccine shipments.
Canada administers first vaccines
Canada kicked off its inoculation campaign against Covid-19 on Monday by injecting frontline healthcare workers and elderly nursing home residents, becoming just the third nation in the world to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The first dose broadcast on live TV went to Anita Quidangen. The personal support worker at the Rekai Centre, a non-profit nursing home for the elderly in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, said she was “excited” to have been first in line.
Healthcare workers in masks and white coats applauded after she was injected.
“It’s a great relief. Clearly, it may only be the beginning of the end but we sense nevertheless that there will be an end to this pandemic,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, making clear he would not be pressing to have his shot immediately.
“We obviously have to give priority to the most vulnerable but the second I have a chance - like all healthy adults - I will do so very visibly and with enthusiasm,” he told French-language broadcaster Radio-Canada.
Updated
Mainland China reported 17 new Covid-19 cases on 14 December, up from 16 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Tuesday.
The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 14 of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. An additional three locally transmitted cases were also reported, two in Heilongjiang province and one in Sichuan.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, not classified by China as confirmed cases, fell to eight from nine a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in China now stands at 86,758. The death toll remains unchanged at 4,634.
South Korea warns of tougher coronavirus restrictions if rules ignored
South Korea’s prime minister pleaded with residents on Tuesday to abide by social distancing rules to avoid even greater restrictions in the face of the country’s largest wave of coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.
Daily infection rates are hovering at record levels with another 880 new cases reported as of midnight Monday, up from 718 a day earlier, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
Schools in the Seoul metropolitan area closed for a month from Tuesday as the government moves closer to imposing the toughest Level 3 restrictions, which would essentially mean a lockdown of Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Companies could allow only essential workers in offices and gatherings of more than 10 people would be banned under such a lockdown.
“While most citizens bear the inconvenience to comply with the rules, some are adding fuel to the ferocious spread of the virus with their carelessness and irresponsibility,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said in televised remarks at a government meeting.
“Considering the weight and impact of Level 3 distancing, we first need to level-headedly look back at whether all of us are properly implementing the current level.”
The government is reluctant to impose Level 3 restrictions because of the “irrevocable pain” it would cause, Chung added.
Health authorities have blamed persistent violations of distancing rules for worsening some of the recent outbreaks, including churches breaching a ban on in-person services and businesses continuing nightly operations, despite rules banning in-person service after 9 p.m.
Now for a quick – and romantic – break from coronavirus news:
On 21 December, why not kiss beneath interplanetary mistletoe that is the great conjunction:https://t.co/CsCHoyLU1e
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) December 15, 2020
Updated
Dr Yves Duroseau spent this morning reflecting on the trying year he, his colleagues, and his city have been through. The head of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, Duroseau has spent months caring for the desperately ill, worried for his own safety and that of his colleagues.
He is the first doctor – and the second healthcare worker – in the US to receive a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, three days after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization of the Pfizer BioTech drug, according to Northwell Health.
“Going in today, I was just feeling very hopeful,” Duroseau said. He was one of five healthcare workers to receive the vaccine shortly after 9am at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, part of Northwell Health, in Queens, New York.
Frontline healthcare workers and elderly nursing home residents have been given priority as the US rolls out the vaccine. Healthcare workers across the country – including in California, Texas and Florida – received their first doses of a two-dose inoculation today:
Mexico’s health ministry on Monday reported 5,930 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 345 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,255,974 cases and 114,298 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has bowed to pressure to suspend a subsidised travel programme that experts believe has helped fuel a recent surge of Covid-19 cases around the country.
Suga, a keen supporter of Go To Travel, said the scheme would be halted from 28 December until 11 January, apparently to discourage people from traveling during the New Year holidays.
The scheme, which covers about half the cost of domestic travel expenses, was introduced in July to support regional economies, hotels and airlines during the pandemic.
But a “third wave” of infections and mounting public opposition has forced the government to pause the programme, despite the damage that could inflict on the tourism industry.
Suga’s about-turn came after daily cases in Japan exceeded 3,000 for the first time on Saturday and health workers warned that hospitals were struggling to cope with new Covid-19 patients.
Nagoya and Tokyo, which have both seen sharp rises in cases, will be excluded from the scheme this week. Two other virus hotspots, Osaka and Sapporo, were removed from the scheme last month.
Suga asked people to reconsider plans to return to their hometowns ahead of the New Year holidays. “The nationwide number of infections continues to be high, and based on a number of indicators we are seeing more regions with infections spreading,” Suga told a meeting of his coronavirus task force. “We have decided to take the strongest steps possible in order to stop the spread of the infections ... so that all of you can welcome the New Year in peace and quiet.”
Suga, who became prime minister in September, is already facing criticism over his response to the pandemic. A poll by public broadcaster NHK last weekend found support for his cabinet had dropped to 42%, compared with 56% in November.
Japan has been less hard-hit than many other countries, however, with just over 183,000 cases and 2,662 deaths.
Restaurant owners and workers across New York City are fearing for their livelihoods after indoor dining was again banned across the city on Monday, as the mayor, Bill de Blasio, warned of the possibility of a “full shutdown”.
In a significant setback for the city’s struggling restaurant industry, eating inside will be suspended for at least two weeks amid soaring Covid-19 cases and hospitalisation rates.
“We have to make heartbreaking phone calls to 16 employees, and they’re going to be in limbo,” John Winterman, co-owner of Francie, a brasserie in Brooklyn, told the New York Times. “Which, in professional terms, sucks.”
It also comes as the city prepares for its biggest snowstorm in five years, expected to arrive on Wednesday.
New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced on Friday that he was reversing the decision to allow 25% capacity indoor dining – which has been in place since 30 September, following a six-month shutdown – saying it was “one of the few areas that we think we can actually make a difference”.
Takeaway, delivery and outdoor dining is still permitted:
Pre-existing social inequalities contributed to the UK recording the highest death rates from Covid in Europe, a leading authority on public health has said, warning that many children’s lives would be permanently blighted if the problem is not tackled.
Sir Michael Marmot, known for his landmark work on the social determinants of health, argued in a new report that families at the bottom of the social and economic scale were missing out before the pandemic, and were now suffering even more, losing health, jobs, lives and educational opportunities:
Moderna documents accessed in cyberattack
Moderna Inc said on Monday it was informed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) certain documents related to pre-submission talks of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate were unlawfully accessed in a cyberattack on the medicines regulator, Reuters reports.
The EMA, which assesses medicines and vaccines for the European Union, said earlier this month that it had been targeted in a cyberattack, which also gave hackers access to documents related to the development of the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Moderna said its submission to the EMA did not include any information identifying individual study participants and there is no information at present that any participants had been identified in any way.
More than half of furloughed jobs in the UK are at the highest risk of automation as the Covid crisis accelerates workplace technology change, driving up redundancies and inequality across the country, according to a report.
The two-year commission on workers and technology, chaired by the Labour MP Yvette Cooper, found that workers in sectors hit hardest by the pandemic – such as hospitality, leisure and retail – face a “double whammy” as their jobs are at the most risk of being replaced by machines.
The findings from the commission, organised by the Fabian Society and the Community trade union, show that as many as 61% of jobs furloughed in the first half of this year were in sectors where automation is most likely to lead to job losses:
Dutch prime minister announces five-week lockdown
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until 19 January.
“We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a somber Rutte said in a televised address to the nation.
As Rutte spoke from his office in The Hague, protesters could be heard blowing whistles outside.
“The reality is that this is is not an innocent flu as some people — like the demonstrators outside — think,” Rutte said. “But a virus that can hit everybody hard.”
From Tuesday, all non-essential shops will close until Jan. 19 along with businesses such as hair salons, museums and theaters. All schools and universities will have to switch to remote learning from Wednesday. Child daycare centers will be closed to all except children of key workers.
The government also urged people to receive a maximum of two guests over the age of 13 per day, but relaxed the rule slightly for 24-26 December, saying three people can visit on those normally festive days.
UK detects new Covid strain
Here is our full story on the new coronavirus strain that has been detected in the UK:
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest global developments for the next few hours.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until 19 January.
“We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a somber Rutte said in a televised address to the nation.
Meanwhile in the UK, a new strain of coronavirus that has shown up in England’s genomic surveillance in the past two months may have spread the virus in the South of England. The strain contains a number of different mutations and has been detected in parts of the south where cases of the virus are rising fastest, according to the health secretary, Matt Hancock.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- Canada began vaccinating its citizens against Covid-19 today, following the UK and New York state. Five frontline workers in Ontario were among the first Canadians to receive the vaccine at one of Toronto’s hospitals.
- It would take almost a year to vaccinate the entire UK population against Covid-19, even with no interruptions in vaccine supply, leading scientists have said.
- Intensive care units filled to capacity across California this weekend, as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to rise at alarming rates.Hospitals in the San Joaquin Valley, the state’s agricultural hub, reported on Saturday its ICU bed capacity had dropped to zero for the first time. The region’s capacity fluttered back to 1.5% on Monday, but the situation remained precarious.
- Turkey’s president, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, has said Turkey will impose a five-day full lockdown beginning on 31 December, as official data showed new daily coronavirus deaths hit a record 229. Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting, said the stay at home order would begin at 9pm on New Year’s Eve and run to 4 January.
- France has reported 3,063 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Sunday’s 11,533, but the number of people admitted to hospital with the disease went up for the third consecutive day.
- An intensive care unit nurse who became the first person in the US to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Monday called it a sign that “healing is coming”. Sandra Lindsay, who has treated some of the sickest Covid-19 patients for months, was given the vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in the New York City borough of Queens, an early centre of the country’s Covid-19 outbreak.
- Poland faces a real threat of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, health minister Adam Niedzielski said on Monday, adding he would recommend that current restrictions continue until at least 17 January.
- The UK reported 20,263 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, taking the total figure over the past seven days to 131,708, up 21.6% compared with the previous seven-day number, official data showed.
