In Greece there has been good and bad news this morning, writes Helena Smith, the Guardian’s correspondent in Athens. While epidemiologists say the epidemic is gradually being brought under control, the nation woke up to the announcement that Olympic sailing champion Leonidas Pelekanakis had succumbed to the virus.
Echoing fellow infectious disease experts, Gkikas Magiorkinis told the Guardian he was “optimistic” that the outlook was finally improving.
“Obviously we have a suppression of the epidemic at this stage,” he said in a telephone interview, adding that an anticipated resurgence in infection rates following the easing of restrictions over the holiday period had not (as yet) occurred.
“It took longer than the first wave … but then the second wave was much worse and lockdown milder too.” Nationwide lockdown measures were first enforced in Greece on 7 November.
The Organisation of Public Health (EODY) said confirmed coronavirus cases had dropped to 671 on Wednesday, down from 866 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of diagnoses since the start of the pandemic in Greece to 146,688.
Magiorkinis, an assistant professor of hygiene and epidemiology at Athens University who previously taught at Oxford University, said although infections were finally plateauing lifting the lockdown measures was going to be “very gradual.”
“I am optimistic but much still depends on [coronavirus] fatigue and people following the rules,” he said. “Ending the measures is going to be a very gradual process,” added the epidemiologist, who sits on the committee of expert that advises the government. “We want to avoid people meeting indoors and are very cautious about which activities should be allowed.”
The government allowed school children attending kindergartens and primary schools to return to class this week after announcing that restrictions would otherwise be extended for another week.
Meanwhile the death of Pelekanakis was received with shock by Greek media. The 58-year-old Olympic champion had died from Covid-19 almost two-months after he was first diagnosed with the disease but was fit and had no underlying illnesses.
The Olympic Games may not go ahead in Tokyo this summer, Japan’s administrative and regulatory reform minister has said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
“We need to do the best we can to prepare for the Games at this moment, but it could go either way,” Taro Kono told the Reuters Next conference.
“Anything is possible, but as the host of the Games we need to do whatever we can. So that when it’s a go, we can have a good Olympic Games,” he added.
The once-delayed #TokyoOlympics may not go ahead this summer as planned, Japanese cabinet minister Taro Kono said in an interview at the #ReutersNext conference https://t.co/r2us4HUNzv pic.twitter.com/1FOhGGbHp3
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 14, 2021
Updated
The coronavirus pandemic will be under control in Germany by the end of the year, the head of the country’s public health agency has claimed.
“At the end of the year we will have this pandemic under control,” said Lother Wieler, the president of the Robert Koch institute for infectious diseases, adding that enough vaccines would then be available to inoculate the entire population.
But he warned that new more transmissible strains of the virus that have evolved in the UK and South Africa risk exacerbating the situation in the meantime. Germany has so far recorded 16 cases of people with the British strain of the virus and four with the strain from South Africa, Wieler told a news conference, according to the Reuters news agency.
All cases so far have been caught by people who had travelled abroad, he said. These will not be the last variations to be seen, he said, also referring to a new coronavirus variant found in Brazil.
“We will have more variations … Therefore don’t travel.”
On Thursday, the RKI reported 25,164 new coronavirus cases and 1,244 fatalities – a record – bringing Germany’s total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 43,881, the tally showed.
Updated
€1bn in revenue lost by Europe's biggest football clubs
Twenty of Europe’s biggest football clubs lost more than €1bn in revenue over the past year while almost 10% has been knocked off players’ average values as the game struggles with the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study by the market analyst KPMG, writes Sid Lowe for the Guardian’s sports desk.
The European Champions Report, focused on the league winners across the six major leagues and carried out by the Football Benchmark Team, found Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Porto had double-digit percentage drops in revenue while Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Real Madrid experienced more modest revenue decline.
Madrid and Bayern still posted profits, with the Spanish club boasting the highest income with €681.2m (£607m). They are followed by Bayern’s income of €607.2m, Liverpool’s €557m and PSG’s €540.6m.
Updated
Doctors and nurses in Turkey have begun receiving the Chinese Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, as the country begins a nationwide vaccination programme.
Health workers will be vaccinated in a few days, before the process moves onto the next group, which includes those aged over 65, according Reuters. People older than 50 and suffering a chronic illness, plus some in specific sectors or high-risk environments, will follow. A third group includes young adults and other categories, with a fourth group covering the rest.
The vaccination programme could face problems. A poll in December by Turkiye Raporu showed nearly 35% of Turks did not want to get vaccinated, while nearly 30% said they would only get a domestically developed vaccine.
At a research hospital in Istanbul, 30 clinics were set up to administer the vaccine. Health workers, who book appointments online, were given a first dose and monitored for a short time before leaving. A second dose will be given 28 days later.
Surgeon general Nurettin Yiyit said the hospital could vaccinate around 1,800 people a day and that its 3,500 staff, including nurses and janitors, could be vaccinated in two days.
We spent around 10 months in white overalls, supporting people as they struggle for life. Health workers know very well that this situation cannot be taken lightly and that the vaccine is needed.
Turkey has reported more than 2.3 million infections since March and still reports around 10,000 new cases and 170 deaths each day after a month of weekend lockdowns and nightly curfews.
Updated
Indonesia has reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases, with 11,557 new infections, bringing the total caseload to 869,600, data from the country’s Covid-19 taskforce showed.
It added 295 Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 25,246.
Updated
The data privacy watchdog in France has condemned the interior ministry for unlawfully using drones to enforce the Covid-19 lockdown.
The CNIL said in a statement it has issued a call to order against the ministry, according to Reuters.
It said that to date, no law allows the ministry to use drones with cameras capturing images on which people can be identified.
A temporary mortuary in a former military aircraft hangar set up as a contingency measure in England’s East Anglia region is now in use, as the country reels from continuing high death rates.
The facility at the former RAF Coltishall base, north-east of Norwich, was not required during the first wave of coronavirus but is now being used by the Norfolk and Norwich university hospital (NNUH), according to the PA Media news agency.
Tom McCabe, the chairman of Norfolk’s Covid-19 strategic co-ordination group, said:
It was always anticipated that during challenging periods there would be extra pressures on mortuaries, undertakers and crematoria.
This temporary mortuary provides additional capacity to help make sure the county’s hospitals have enough flexibility of space in their own mortuaries, and to ensure we can provide the most respectful and dignified way to look after both those who have died, and their families, over this difficult period.
The former air base site is now known as Scottow Enterprise Park. McCabe continued:
Anyone whose loved one is moved to the Scottow location will be informed and we can reassure people that we have a dedicated, trained team of staff who care for those who have died and been taken there.
The temporary mortuary also received a blessing from the Bishop of Norwich back in April last year, with him making a prayer of dedication in a special address from his home.
One of the county’s hospitals, the Norfolk and Norwich university hospital, has now had to put their business continuity plans in place to use a number of these mortuary spaces.
Updated
All coronavirus restrictions have been extended in Moscow for another week, with the exception of children returning to schools from Monday, the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said.
According to a report by the Reuters news agency, Sobyanin said a vaccination programme in the city was gaining momentum, but the numbers of Covid-19 patients in hospital was still high. He wrote in a blog post:
I’ll be direct. The decision to cancel distance learning in high schools was very difficult
He warned that the risk of infection remained high and that the detection of one Covid-19 case would result in that pupil’s whole class temporarily returning to distance learning.
Moscow’s restrictions include early closing for bars and restaurants, compulsory medical masks in shops and on public transport, and limits on the number of staff in offices.
Russia on Thursday reported 24,763 new cases in the last 24 hours, including 5,893 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 3,495,816, the world’s fourth largest.
Authorities also confirmed 570 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 63,940.
Updated
Two World Health Organization investigators have been denied entry to China after they tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies, Reuters reports citing the Wall Street Journal.
Chinese officials stopped them from boarding their plane to Wuhan, where they a team from the UN health agency is to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, after blood-based serology tests during transit in Singapore, the WSJ said, citing citing people familiar with matter.
“Relevant epidemic prevention control requirements will be strictly enforced,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news briefing, when asked about the report.
They were tested again in #Singapore and were all negative for PCR. But two members tested positive for IgM antibodies. They are being retested for both IgM and IgG antibodies.https://t.co/3Yg9UoZ1mx
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2021
Updated
Lebanon begins 11-day, 24-hour curfew
An 11-day nationwide shutdown and round-the-clock curfew begins today in Lebanon, where residents must now request special permission to allowed to leave the house and even supermarkets are closed.
According to an Associated Press wire report, police were manning checkpoints around the country, checking drivers’ permits. The curfew is the strictest since the start of the pandemic. Even supermarkets were told to close their doors and open for delivery only.
Authorities came under pressure to take a tougher approach after the country’s hospitals ran out of beds and daily infections reached a new high of 5,440 cases last week in the country of nearly 6 million people.
Updated
In Germany, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has risen by 25,164, according to the latest update from the Robert Koch institute for infectious diseases.
The country, which has been lauded for its tough and fast action against the pandemic but has also experienced one of the biggest public backlashes in Europe against coronavirus restrictions, has so far recorded 1,978,590 cases.
The reported death toll rose by 1,244 to 43,881, the data showed.
Updated
The coronavirus growth rate in the UK is slowing and in some NHS regions there is a “sign of plateauing” in cases and hospital admissions, one of the country’s most influential epidemiologists has suggested.
Prof Neil Ferguson, whose modelling led to the original lockdown in March, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “much too early” to say exactly when case numbers would come down but in some NHS regions they appear to be “plateauing”. He said:
It looks like in London in particular and a couple of other regions in the south-east and east of England, hospital admissions may even have plateaued, though it is hard to tell if they are coming down.
It has to be said this is not seen everywhere – both case numbers and hospital admissions are going up in many other areas, but overall at a national level we are seeing the rate of growth slow.
Ferguson suggested that the requirement to isolate after coming into contact with a person with coronavirus could be relaxed for people who have recently had the virus to ease pressure on the health service.
Those people who have had the virus before are at less risk of getting infected and cumulatively slow the spread.
What it means for individuals is harder to say. We have a real problem at the moment, for instance with healthcare workers – a lot of healthcare workers getting infected and off work.
Whether we can relax restrictions temporarily on requirements for isolation for people who have had a positive PCR test in the last few months is a question for policy makers but it could ease pressures on, for instance, the health service.
His comments came after the first report from Public Health England’s Siren study found that antibodies from past infection provide 83% protection against reinfection for at least five months.
You can read more about that in this report by Ian Sample, the Guardian’s science editor, published this morning.
Updated
Here is a selection of this morning’s UK national papers, with the coronavirus pandemic, as ever, dominating the headlines.
Tomorrow's @Guardian: Worst day yet for #Covid deaths in Britain as toll passes 100,000
— Richard Preston (@richardpreston_) January 13, 2021
• Read our story, by @caelainnbarr; @NicolaKSDavis and @porcelinad: https://t.co/qxdLTXRNVh
• Follow coverage of Trump’s #impeachment: https://t.co/VUp7jF99SV#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/FurxSNInrO
This morning the Guardian print edition leads on the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths across the UK since the Covid-19 pandemic reached these shores last year. Caelainn Barr, Nicola Davis and Pamela Duncan write:
More than 100,000 people have died from coronavirus in Britain since the disease first appeared in the country almost a year ago, in what public health experts said was a sign of “phenomenal failure of policy and practice”.
A total of 1,564 people were reported to have died yesterday - a new record high, bringing the total to 101,160, according to analysis of figures from government and statistical agencies. The toll far exceeds some of the worstcase scenario estimates made during the first wave of the pandemic.
The news comes amid warnings that the toughest weeks of the crisis are yet to come and that Britons are facing an epidemic of grief for lost relatives and loved ones, with many forced to mourn alone under lockdown measures and curbs on funerals.
Almost one in every 660 people in Britain have died from Covid or Covid-related causes so far during the pandemic - or about one in six of all deaths. The UK has one of the highest coronavirus mortality rates in the world, at 151 per 100,000 people.
TIMES: Covid victims gain immunity #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/53oLS6s6VA
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 13, 2021
Good news from the Times, which reports on a study into coronavirus reinfections that finds that catching the virus gives an immune defence “at least as good” as a vaccine. According to the papers splash this morning:
Prior illness provided about 85 per cent protection against both asymptomatic and symptomatic reinfection, researchers said after following thousands of people who caught the virus in the spring.
Although they found that a small number among the group did get infected twice, typically they suffered a milder form of the disease.
With an estimated one in five having been infected, the findings, based on a study of 21,000 UK healthcare workers, suggested that herd immunity could already be slowing the course of the pandemic. However, scientists warned that they still did not know how long immunity lasted.
TELEGRAPH: PM pledges to ramp up vaccination rollout #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/l2orIFWyRG
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 13, 2021
The Telegraph this morning says that the prime minister has promised to “accelerate” the distribution of coronavirus vaccines (actually it uses the term “rollout”, which is fast becoming one of the most over-used vaccine cliches). The paper reports:
A plan published by the Scottish government shows that approximately 50 per cent more people will be vaccinated per week between March and May than during the current phase.
The Government has said repeatedly that the period between now and Feb 15 is vital to ensure the most vulnerable are vaccinated and lockdown can be lifted.
But yesterday ministers were forced to defend the seemingly slow rollout. Despite a target of 2million jabs a week by the end of January having been set, only around 3million jabs have been administered in total since the pro gramme began five weeks ago.
MAIL: 21 million reasons to be hopeful #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/OfgMSpJIO3
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 13, 2021
Continuing the vaccine theme, the Daily Mail reports that we have “21 million reasons to be hopeful”, in reference to the number of doses of coronavirus vaccine that are apparently in the country and ready to be administered to patients.
Covid jabs are on British soil, the Daily Mail can reveal today.
It means there are enough doses to hit the target of injecting all over-70s, care home residents and health staff by February 15.
Not all the vaccine consignments have passed regulatory checks - and many are yet to be put into vials. But the fact so many logistical hurdles have been jumped is a major victory in the fight against coronavirus.
Thursday's Express: Coming soon! Covid jabs round the clock #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyExpress #Express pic.twitter.com/9k9H5tK2eX
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) January 13, 2021
The Daily Express is trying to out-do its mid-market rival for headline exuberance, proclaiming that we will soon have “Covid jabs around the clock”. According to the paper’s lead story:
COVID vaccinations will soon be offered 24/7, Boris Johnson declared yesterday.
The Prime Minister said round-theclock jabs will be introduced by the Government “as soon as we can”.
He is understood to have given the goahead to a pilot study that will test the potential for 24/7 immunisation facilities. It will result in healthcare workers being vaccinated at the end of their shifts at all hours of the day and night.
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims have begun descending on the banks of the Ganges, India’s sacred river, for the giant Kumbh Mela festival – with many apparently trusting in faith rather than masks to shield them against the coronavirus pandemic during the giant.
According to AFP, up to 1 million people were expected in the city of Haridwar for the first day of the pilgrimage. India has the world’s second highest number of cases of coronavirus, more than 10 million, and has recorded more than 150,000 deaths from the pandemic.
Most of the people who walked into the revered but freezing river in the morning mist did not have masks and did not abide by social distancing advice.
“The pandemic is a bit of a worry, but we are taking all precautions,” an organiser Siddharth Chakrapani, was quoted as saying by AFP. “I’m sure Maa Ganga will take care of their safety,” he added, referring to the Hindu goddess of forgiveness and purification.
Kumbh Mela is recognised as a cultural heritage by Unesco, and its last edition – in Allahabad in 2019 – attracted about 55 million people over 48 days. Taking a dip in the Ganges is considered a sacred rite by Hindus, who come from across India and beyond its borders to participate.
Updated
Good morning world, this is Damien Gayle picking up the blog in rainy, cold London, where the first whistles of birdsong are piercing the darkness and the news juggernaut is coughing and spluttering into life for another day.
As usual, for the next few hours I’ll be bringing you the latest coronavirus-related news from the UK and around the world. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for what we could be covering, please feel free to get in touch, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, imploring you to watch out for these phone-stealing, ransom-demanding monkeys.
Recovering from Covid gives similar level of protection to vaccine
People who recover from coronavirus have a similar level of protection against future infection as those who receive a Covid vaccine – at least for the first five months, research suggests.
A Public Health England (PHE) study of more than 20,000 healthcare workers found that immunity acquired from an earlier Covid infection provided 83% protection against reinfection for at least 20 weeks.
The findings show that while people are unlikely to become reinfected soon after their first infection, it is possible to catch the virus again and potentially spread it to others.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- China records first local coronavirus death in eight months, highest cases in 10 months. China reported its biggest jump in cases in more than 10 months as infections in north-eastern Heilongjiang province nearly tripled, underscoring the growing threat ahead of a major national holiday when hundreds of millions of people usually travel. The national health commission said in a statement that 138 new Covid-19 cases were reported on 13 January, up from 115 cases a day earlier and marking the highest jump since 5 March. China also reported one new death, the first increase in the death toll since mid-May.
-
The WHO’s global team of researchers have Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected, to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries.
- Pharmacies in England begin vaccine rollout. England’s high street pharmacies will begin rolling out Covid vaccines, as the virus death toll across the UK climbed above 100,000. Boots and Superdrug branches will be among the six stores across England which will be able to administer the jabs from Thursday while the government aims to hit its target of vaccinating all people in the four most vulnerable groups by the middle of next month.
-
Joe Biden released a statement in which he called for the Senate to address the coronavirus pandemic while dealing with the impeachment trial. “Today, the members of the House of representatives exercised the power granted to them under our constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable,” Biden said. “This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy. I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.”
- Brazil said Wednesday it would import 2m doses of AstraZeneca’s Covishield jab from India. The inventory would add to some 10m doses of China’s CoronaVac as Brazil gears to start its vaccination campaign this month. The biggest country in Latin America is the second-hardest hit globally by the pandemic, as the novel coronavirus has killed more than 204,000 people out of Brazil’s population of 212 million.
- New York called for more Covid vaccine. New York mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said the city would fall short of its inoculation goals unless it could get more vaccine. The mayor said short supplies were hampering New York City’s efforts to increase its immunisation campaign. His appeal comes as the country as a whole struggles to meet an overall goal, with vaccinations now running far behind a target of 20 million people by now.
-
Japan is set to expand its state of emergency in greater Tokyo from Thursday to seven more regions including major cities Osaka and Kyoto and also to tighten border restrictions as cases surge. “We continue to see a serious situation,” prime minister Yoshihide Suga said, adding the measures were “indispensable”. “We must overcome this challenge that we face.”
- Colombia will extend a so-called selective quarantine until the end of February, President Ivan Duque said in a nightly address on Wednesday. The Andean country began more than five months of lockdown in March to control the spread of coronavirus. It moved to a much-looser “selective” quarantine at the start of September, allowing dining at restaurants and international flights.
- Indonesia started vaccinating health workers and public servants for Covid-19 on Thursday, a day after President Joko Widodo received the first shot of China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccine.
- The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine, its head said on Thursday. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has shown a 95% success rate, is the first vaccine the Philippines has approved. FDA head Rolando Enrique Domingo told a media briefing China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd on Wednesday submitted to regulators its emergency use authorization application.
Updated
Pre-prepared disaster plans for handling pandemics, natural disasters and terrorist attacks show London had 3,500 mortuary spaces. But the capital braced for the virus with an additional 12,000 mortuary spaces.
If cemeteries could not cope, bodies would be frozen to await their final committal. There were plans to transport scores of bodies at a time between storage locations in trucks, the official said, a practice that risks misidentifying or even losing the dead:
Pharmacies in England begin vaccine rollout
England’s high street pharmacies will begin rolling out Covid vaccines, as the virus death toll across the UK climbed above 100,000.
Boots and Superdrug branches will be among the six stores across England which will be able to administer the jabs from Thursday while the Government aims to hit its target of vaccinating all people in the four most vulnerable groups by the middle of next month.
Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield, Cullimore Chemist in Edgware, north London, Woodside Pharmacy in Telford and Appleton Village pharmacy in Widnes will be in the first group to hand out the injections, alongside Boots in Halifax, and Superdrug in Guildford.
Boris Johnson also told MPs that distribution “will be going to 24/7 as soon as we can” but said supply of doses remained the main barrier.
The Scottish Government published its vaccine delivery plan on Wednesday evening, including details of how many doses it expects to receive for each week until the end of May, prompting a row with London, which has declined to publish its numbers.
The six pharmacies have been picked because they can deliver large volumes of the vaccine and allow for social distancing, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “fantastic” that jabs would be available on the high street.
“Pharmacies sit at the heart of local communities and will make a big difference to our rollout programme by providing even more local, convenient places for those that are eligible to get their jab,” he said.
By the end of the month more than 200 community chemists will be able to give vaccines, according to NHS England.
The pharmacies join the 200 hospitals, around 800 GP clinics and seven mass vaccination centres where jabs are already being handed out.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged ministers to go further and use England’s 11,500 pharmacies to deliver round-the-clock vaccinations by the end of next month.
The expanded vaccination service in England comes as the daily reported UK death toll reached a new high on Wednesday, with 1,564 fatalities recorded within 28 days of a positive test.
The latest figures meant the grim milestone of more than 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus has now been passed in the UK, according to official data.
Thailand on Thursday confirmed 271 new coronavirus cases bringing the total number of reported infections to 11,262 since it detected its first case a year ago.
There were two additional deaths, taking total fatalities to 69. Twelve of the new infections were imported, the Covid-19 taskforce said.
China’s exports grew more than expected in December, albeit at a slower pace than the month before, as global demand for Chinese goods remained solid, while import growth quickened, customs data showed on Thursday.
Exports rose 18.1% in December from a year earlier, slowing from a 21.1% jump in November. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected exports to grow 15% year-on-year last month.
Imports meanwhile rose 6.5% in December from a year earlier, quickening from 4.5% growth in November and beating expectations for a 5% increase in the Reuters poll.
Analysts have said Chinese exports will continue to be supported by demand for medical supplies and work-from-home products in major trading partners struggling with fresh waves of coronavirus infections.
But there are some concerns that a rise in raw material prices and a recent rally in the local currency could squeeze exporters’ profits. The onshore yuan strengthened 6.7% in 2020 - its first annual rise in three years.
China posted a trade surplus of $78.17bn in December. Analysts in the poll had expected the trade surplus to narrow to $72.35bn from $75.40bn in November.
Its trade surplus with the United States narrowed to $29.92bn in December from $37.42bn in November.
The Mexican government said Wednesday that it and 10 other countries in North and Central America are worried about the health risks of Covid-19 among migrants without proper documents.
AP: The statement by the 11-member Regional Conference on Migration suggests that Mexico and Central America could continue to turn back migrants on the basis of the perceived risks of the pandemic.
The group “expressed concern over the exposure of irregular migrants to situations of high risk to their health and their lives, primarily during the health emergency.”
Over the last year, authorities in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras have turned back or stopped migrant caravans seeking to reach the US border, in some cases demanding they show visas or negative coronavirus tests.
The group expressed its support for “safe, orderly and regulated” migration.
The group has also stressed the need to improve conditions in southern Mexico and Central America, so people won’t feel forced to emigrate.
The regional conference includes the United States, Canada, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
Philippines approves Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use
The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine, its head said on Thursday.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has shown a 95% success rate, is the first vaccine the Philippines has approved.
FDA head Rolando Enrique Domingo told a media briefing China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd on Wednesday submitted to regulators its emergency use authorization application.
WHO team touches down in Wuhan
The WHO’s global team of researchers have Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected, to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries, AP reports.
The 10-member team sent to Wuhan by the World Health Organization was approved by President Xi Jinping’s government after months of diplomatic wrangling that prompted an unusual public complaint by the head of the WHO.
Scientists suspect the virus that has killed 1.9 million people since late 2019 jumped to humans from bats or other animals, most likely in China’s southwest. The ruling Communist Party, stung by complaints it allowed the disease to spread, says the virus came from abroad, possibly on imported seafood, but scientists reject that.
The @WHO team will receive both throat swabs and antibody tests at #Wuhan airport, and will be quarantined for 14 days in accordance with regulations. https://t.co/NzQybIKuyo
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 14, 2021
CGTN, the English-language channel of state broadcaster CCTV, reported the WHO team’s arrival. The members include virus and other experts from the United States, Australia, Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Qatar and Vietnam.
A government spokesman said this week they will “exchange views” with Chinese scientists but gave no indication whether they would be allowed to gather evidence.
They will undergo a two-week quarantine as well as a throat swab test and an antibody test for Covid-19, according to a post on CGTN’s official Weibo account. They are to start working with Chinese experts via video conference while in quarantine.
The Hebei death comes as China readies for the arrival of an expert team of scientists from the World Health Organization, who will start a politically sensitive investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 10-strong team is expected to arrive shortly in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus was first detected in late 2019.
Peter Ben Embarek, team lead for the mission, said the group would start with a two-week quarantine at a hotel due to China’s border requirements.
“And then after the two weeks, we would be able to move around and meet our Chinese counterparts in person and go to the different sites that we will want to visit,” he said.
He warned it “could be a very long journey before we get a full understanding of what happened”.
Beijing has argued that although Wuhan is where the first cluster of cases was detected, it is not necessarily where the virus originated.
“I don’t think we will have clear answers after this initial mission, but we will be on the way,” Embarek added.
“The idea is to advance a number of studies that were already designed and decided upon some months ago to get us a better understanding of what happened,” he said.
The long-delayed WHO trip comes more than a year after the pandemic began and has sparked political tensions over allegations that Beijing tried to thwart the project.
Updated
China records first local coronavirus death in eight months, highest cases in ten months
China reported its biggest jump in Covid-19 cases in more than 10 months as infections in northeastern Heilongjiang province nearly tripled, underscoring the growing threat ahead of a major national holiday when hundreds of millions of people usually travel.
Reuters: The National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement that 138 new Covid-19 cases were reported on 13 January, up from 115 cases a day earlier and marking the highest jump since 5 March. China also reported one new death, the first increase in the death toll since mid-May.
Hebei accounted for 81 of the 124 local infections, while Heilongjiang reported 43 such cases a day after it declared a state of emergency. More than 28 million people are already in lockdown as the two provinces try to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The exact origin of this new outbreak is unclear.
As news of the latest death emerged on Thursday, the hashtag “New virus death in Hebei” quickly ratcheted up 100 million views on Chinese social media platform Weibo, AFP reports.
More than 20 million people are under lockdown in the north of China and one province has declared an emergency, as Covid-19 numbers climb after several months of the country reporting only a handful of daily cases.
China had largely brought the virus outbreak under control through a series of strict lockdowns and mass testing. But another 138 infections were reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday - the highest single-day tally since March last year.
Infections are still small compared with many other countries that are seeing record numbers of infections, but Beijing is anxious to stamp out local clusters ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year festival when hundreds of millions of people will be on the move across the country.
Authorities last week launched a mass testing drive and closed transport links, schools and shops in Hebei’s capital city Shijiazhuang - the epicentre of the latest outbreak.
Neighbouring Xingtai, home to seven million people, has also been locked down since last Friday, as have the five million people of Langfang city.
As infections have spread, northeastern Heilongjiang declared an “emergency state” on Wednesday, telling its 37.5 million residents not to leave the province unless absolutely necessary.
Updated
Indonesian health workers receive vaccination
Indonesia started vaccinating health workers and public servants for Covid-19 on Thursday, a day after President Joko Widodo received the first shot of China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccine.
The Health Ministry is planning to vaccinate more than 1.3 million health workers and 17.4 million public officials in the first stage.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, plans to vaccinate two-thirds of its population of about 270 million people — or just over 180 million people.
“The pandemic is still going on and health care workers are the front-liners in caring for COVID-19 patients,” Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono said.
The first 25 health workers to get the jab were employees of Jakarta’s Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital.
Hospital Director Lies Dina Liastuti said a total of 6,000 will be vaccinated at a rate of 275 a day.
Japan set to expand state of emergency
Japan is set to expand its state of emergency in greater Tokyo from today to seven more regions including major cities Osaka and Kyoto and also to tighten border restrictions as cases surge.
“We continue to see a serious situation,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, adding the measures were “indispensable”.
“We must overcome this challenge that we face.”
While Japan’s outbreak remains comparatively small, with around 4,100 deaths overall, medics say hospitals are under heavy strain from spikes in the worst-affected areas.
Now for a break from pandemic news:
Colombia extends selective quarantine until the end of February
Colombia will extend a so-called selective quarantine until the end of February, President Ivan Duque said in a nightly address on Wednesday.
Reuters: The Andean country began more than five months of lockdown in March to control the spread of coronavirus. It moved to a much-looser “selective” quarantine at the start of September, allowing dining at restaurants and international flights.
The selective quarantine was due to lift on Jan. 16, but will now run until 28 February, Duque said. A health state of emergency declared by the government is due to lift on the same day.
Colombia has reported more than 1.83 million coronavirus infections, as well as 47,124 deaths from Covid-19, the disease it causes.
Mayors and governors will be able to impose restrictions on mobility as needed, Duque said, such as when occupation levels of intensive care units increases.
Following an increase in coronavirus infections, Colombia’s capital Bogota has imposed a range of restrictions on mobility in the city, including strict two-week quarantines in many of its neighborhoods.
Rail services in Britain will be reduced to 72% of pre-pandemic levels over the next few weeks, and passengers are being asked to check before they travel that their service is running.
The cuts, which will be announced from Thursday, are less than the 50% reduction in services that had been expected. Train operators have focused on retaining services at morning and evening peak travel times so that key workers such as NHS staff can get to their workplace.
The rail industry argues that the timetable cuts will mean a more reliable service for passengers because rail staff can catch the virus like other key workers and cause disruption to more extensive schedules:
Brazil, Bolivia get AstraZeneca Covid jabs from India
Amid the global scramble for coronavirus vaccines, Brazil said Wednesday it would import two million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covishield jab from India, AFP reports.
The inventory would add to some 10 million doses of China’s CoronaVac as Brazil gears to start its vaccination campaign this month.
The biggest country in Latin America is the second-hardest hit globally by the pandemic, as the novel coronavirus has killed more than 204,000 people out of Brazil’s population of 212 million.
Brazil has sent a plane to India, equipped with special freezers, to fetch the AstraZeneca vaccines - developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm in conjunction with Oxford University - a health ministry statement said.
The plane should be back on Saturday - the day before Brazil’s Anvisa health regulator is meant to announce whether or not it will give the green light for Covishield and CoronaVac to be rolled out in a nation-wide inoculation campaign.
Vaccination could begin “within a maximum of five days after authorization,” the ministry said.
“We will vaccinate in January and Manaus will be the first to be vaccinated,” said Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, referring to the hard-hit city in the Amazon rainforest.
In Manaus, where there were haunting scenes last April of mass graves and corpses piled in refrigerator trucks, the health system is once again saturated as Brazil battles a second wave of infections.
Biden urges Senate to address coronavirus response while handling impeachment
Joe Biden has released a statement in which he calls for the Senate to address the coronavirus pandemic while dealing with the impeachment trial.
“Today, the members of the House of representatives exercised the power granted to them under our constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable,” Biden said. “This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy. I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.”
Earlier today Senator Mitch McConnell said that the impeachment trial will not take place until after Biden is inaugurated.
Inconsistent vaccine supply is making it difficult for GPs in England to book patient appointments more than a few days in advance, experts have warned, as the prime minister admitted there were significant disparities in local immunisation rates.
Doctors, NHS specialists and MPs told the Guardian that batches of the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine frequently arrived with only a couple of days’ notice, requiring last-minute planning and creating uncertainty for patients.
Insiders said the distribution system was operating on a “push model” meaning that doctors could not order the vaccine but simply had to be ready to be receive batches whenever the NHS was able to deliver them:
The number of rough sleepers identified for emergency help during the coronavirus pandemic was eight times greater than official estimates, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.
Officials working on the Everyone In scheme to find accommodation for those at risk of being left on the street relied on a survey which found that 4,266 people slept rough, the National Audit Office said.
But between the end of March when the scheme was launched and November 2020, auditors said that 33,139 people participated in the scheme.
The figures have been disclosed as homelessness campaigners demand an urgent reboot of the government scheme in England to provide safe shelter for rough sleepers:
US state leaders are increasingly pushing for schools to reopen this winter — pressuring them, even — as teachers begin to gain access to the vaccine against the raging pandemic, AP reports.
Ohio’s governor offered to give vaccinations to teachers at the start of February, provided their school districts agree to resume at least some in-person instruction by 1 March.
In Arizona, where teachers began receiving shots this week, the governor warned schools that he expects students back in the classroom despite objections from top education officials and the highest Covid-19 diagnosis rate in the nation over the past week.
“We will not be funding empty seats or allowing schools to remain in a perpetual state of closure,” said Republican Governor Doug Ducey. “Children still need to learn, even in a pandemic.”
Leaders of Arizona’s major hospitals disagreed with the governor’s position, noting at a news conference Wednesday that the state is teetering on the brink of having to ration life-saving care.
“We understand that learning and bringing our children together is very important,” said Dr. Michael White of Valleywise Health. “But at this time with uncontrolled spread of the virus, we need to do things that we know will reduce the chance that the virus will spread and that is not gathering with people we don’t live with.”
California leaders are facing mounting pressure to speed up distribution of the new coronavirus vaccine, announcing major steps this week to makes doses available to more people.
On Wednesday the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said that all residents 65 and older will be able to get a vaccine. The move follows the announcement of new mass-vaccination sites at locations such as Disneyland and Dodger Stadium.
Despite high hopes, the state’s vaccine rollout program has been painfully slow. California has received the most doses of any state in the country, but currently ranks in the bottom 10 states for doses administered per 100,000 people.Here’s what you need to know about who is getting the Covid-19 vaccine in California, and when:
Nationwide in the US, slightly more than one-third of the 29.4 million doses distributed to states have been administered, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE and a second vaccine from Moderna Inc for emergency use. Both vaccines require two doses spaced a few weeks apart.
The chief science officer of Johnson & Johnson said the company is on track to roll out its single-shot coronavirus vaccine in March, and it plans to have clear data on how effective it is by the end of this month or early February.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Dr. Paul Stoffels also said J&J expected to meet its stated target of delivering 1bn doses of its vaccine by the end of this year as the company ramps up production.
New York pleads for more Covid vaccine
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said the city would fall short of its inoculation goals unless it could get more vaccine, Reuters reports.
The mayor said short supplies were hampering New York City’s efforts to increase its immunisation campaign. His appeal comes as the country as a whole struggles to meet an overall goal, with vaccinations now running far behind a target of 20 million people by now.
“We need the federal government, the state government and the manufacturers to step up and get us more supply immediately,* de Blasio said at a briefing.
The country’s most populous city is adding vaccination sites across its five boroughs, including its two Major League Baseball parks, and has succeeded in loosening restrictions on who is eligible for vaccination, de Blasio said.
Both New York and California have opened inoculations to healthy people as young as 65.
New York is on track to inoculate 1 million of its more than 8 million residents by the end of the month, but only if it gets enough vaccine, he said.
“I confirmed with our healthcare team yesterday that even with normal supplies that we expect to have delivered next week, we will run out of vaccine at some point next week, unless we get a major new resupply,” he added.
At the Javits Center in Manhattan which was pressed into service as a temporary hospital in April, health officials said they were prepared to vaccinate 10,000 people in 12 hours, with the ability to ramp up to 25,000 in a 24-hour period.
*We consider this a wartime mobilization, and that lives are on the line every minute of every day,” state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker told reporters.
Summary
Hello and welcome to our rolling live coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.
You can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned the city will fall short of its inoculation goals unless it can get more vaccine.
The mayor said short supplies were hampering New York City’s efforts to increase its immunisation campaign. His appeal comes as the country as a whole struggles to meet an overall goal, with vaccinations now running far behind a target of 20 million people by now.
Meanwhile the world has for the first time recorded more than 17,000 deaths in one day, according to Johns Hopkins University, as the global total nears 2 million.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
-
New Covid-19 lockdown in Portugal to come into force from Friday. A new lockdown to bring a worrying rise in coronavirus cases under control will come into force in Portugal from Friday, prime minister António Costa announced, urging people to stay indoors and protect themselves.
-
New York pleads for more Covid-19 vaccine as daily US death toll hits record. As the United States recorded its highest single-day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic began, New York mayor Bill de Blasio on said the city would fall short of its inoculation goals unless it could get more vaccine.
-
UK passes 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus. More than 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus have occurred in the UK since the disease first appeared in the country almost a year ago. Public health experts have said it is a sign of “phenomenal failure of policy and practice”.
- African Union secures 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers. The African Union has secured a provisional 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states to supplement the Covax programme, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said.
-
Cuba suspends schools and public transport as it grapples with coronavirus surge. The Cuban government is once more shutting down schools, public transport and cultural activities across swathes of the Caribbean island during its worst outbreak of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
-
Spain reports 38,869 new cases, its highest single-day rise in infections. The country also recorded 195 further deaths, while the number of cases per 100,000 people rose from 452 to 493.
- Unilever workers will never return to desks full-time, says boss. The boss of Unilever, one of the UK’s biggest companies, has said his office workers will never return to their desks five days a week, in the latest indication that coronavirus will transform modern working life.
- Switzerland brings in tough measures to head off threat of third wave. Switzerland announced tough new restrictions Wednesday in a pre-emptive strike against a feared third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by quicker-spreading variants of the virus.
