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New York State this week will drop face mask requirements in most public spaces for those vaccinated against Covid-19, conforming to the latest US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, the governor, Andrew Cuomo, said on Monday.
In California, the governor, Gavin Newsom, said his state would keep its mask order in place for another month, despite the CDC’s new recommendations.
Cuomo and Newsom, both Democrats, have drawn criticism for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Newsom faces a Republican-led recall election.
New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, also a Democrat, said he would lift mask restrictions outdoors but keep in place a mandate to wear them indoors. Murphy said schools would be required to provide full-time, in-person classroom instruction again in the autumn.
On Saturday, the CDC said students in schools across the United States should wear masks for the 2020-2021 academic year because not all will be inoculated.
New York will still order public transportation riders to wear face coverings and mandate them in schools and some other communal settings, Cuomo said, adding:
Unvaccinated people should continue to wear a mask.
Cuomo said New York health officials decided to lift the mask order after reviewing the CDC’s new guidance. About 52% of New York adults have been fully inoculated and 61.8% had received at least one shot as of Monday.
Cuomo, speaking to reporters at Radio City Music Hall, said it would be up to each business or venue how they should determine vaccination status.
“I’m sure when people are coming into Radio City Music Hall, they are going to ask, ‘I’m sitting next to someone. I don’t know who they are. Are you sure they were vaccinated?’” he said. “That’s why it’s on the operator’s best interest to say ‘Yes! They had a card and they were checked when they walked in the door.’”
The three-term governor said he expected that some New Yorkers might keep wearing masks as a precaution after this week’s rule change.
Cuomo, 63, has resisted calls to resign in the face of investigations by the state attorney general and legislature over accusations of sexual harassment, his office’s reporting of nursing home deaths and his use of staff members and resources in the writing of a book on his handling of the pandemic.
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Updated
Italy’s government on Monday approved a decree pushing back with immediate effect a nightly coronavirus curfew to 11pm from 10pm and easing other curbs in the regions where infections are low, Reuters reports.
Mario Draghi’s government agreed the curfew would begin at midnight from 7 June and be abolished altogether from 21 June in those areas, a statement said, in line with a plan to gradually relax restrictions across the country.
Italy, which has the second-highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe after the UK, has seen its daily deaths and cases decline in recent weeks, and more people are being vaccinated.
“The figures of the last few months have imposed difficult, sometimes painful choices, but today they give us reason for relief,” said the health minister, Roberto Speranza.
As of Monday, about 8.8 million Italians, or 14.8% of the population, have been fully vaccinated, while slightly over 30% have received at least one dose.
Italy has registered over 124,000 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year. But the daily toll has fallen steadily in recent weeks, with less than 100 fatalities reported on Sunday for the first time since October. Monday saw an increase to 140 deaths.
Late in April, the government reinstated a four-tier colour-coded system, from white to red, to calibrate curbs in its 20 regions, allowing bars and restaurants to serve clients at outside tables in the low-risk yellow and white areas.
Some 19 out of 20 Italian regions are currently yellow, and one, the tiny Valle d’Aosta, is orange, the third-highest risk level. None are currently deemed high-risk red, and six - including the northern Veneto around Venice - will become white by the end of the first week of June, a government source said.
In low-risk white regions, no curfew will be imposed and only face masks and social distancing will remain compulsory.
The cabinet has also allowed restaurants to serve customers at inside tables for dinner as of 1 June, and is bringing forward the reopening of gyms to 24 May from 1 June in yellow and white regions. Mountain lifts will be allowed to reopen as of Saturday.
As part of an effort to boost summer tourism, Italy has scrapped mandatory quarantine for visitors from the European Union, the UK and Israel who test negative for Covid-19.
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The Covid variant first detected in India is set to be become the dominant strain in the UK within days, experts have said, with the government and health teams struggling to contain cases which have risen by more than 75% since Thursday.
With the rapid spread of the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant threatening to reverse moves to ease lockdown, the government faced intense pressure to more fully explain the delay in adding India to the so-called red list of countries.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is now set to delay plans to announce an end to social-distancing rules, postponing the conclusion of a review expected by the end of the month, casting significant doubt over the wider plan to relax most lockdown rules on 21 June.
Full story here:
Updated
The world’s thirstiest beer drinkers finally clinked their pilsner mugs in the drizzle on Monday, as beer gardens opened despite unseasonably cold grey weather in the Czech Republic, a landmark event after five months of Covid-19 lockdown.
“Finally I am sitting here as a human,” Martin Krisko told Reuters as he savoured his cold beer with a meal served hot, on a plate, rather than lukewarm in a plastic takeaway container, at the Beer Time pub in Prague’s former industrial quarter Smichov.
The Czech Republic, home to the original pilsner, consumes the most beer per capita in the world, and reopening its pubs for outdoor service is seen as an important step in its plans to relax its Covid-19 restrictions.
The country was hit hard by the second wave of Covid-19, with one of the highest per capita death rates in the world.
Lately, it has been reporting steadily decreasing numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalisations. As of Monday morning, the seven-day count of new cases per 100,000 people decreased to 71, on course for further easing of restrictions.
A vaccination programme has gathered pace, with the government opening inoculations on Monday to those over 40. As of the beginning of the week, 4.1 million doses had been distributed in the country of 10.7 million people.
In Prague’s historic centre, locals gathered for beer in places usually taken by tourists, although gloomy weather with rain and temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius (60°F) kept the numbers thin.
“When everyone is inoculated and the weather turns nice, things will roll,” said Jiri Zaman, tapping pints at one of the restaurants in the cobblestoned Old Town Square.
Secondary schools are still shut, and some Czechs are critical of the government’s priorities in opening restaurant terraces first. But gyms opened too on Monday.
Gabriela Chomikova, headed to her fitness centre for the first time this year, said she was just grateful to be around other people, “rather than to be locked at home”.
Brazil will receive ingredients from China to produce up to 25 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines on Saturday and early next week, Health Ministry and political officials said on Monday.
Rodrigo Cruz, executive secretary at the Health Ministry, said the Fiocruz biomedical center will receive two lots of ingredients for 18 million AstraZeneca shots on Saturday, while São Paulo governor João Doria said the state’s Butantan biomedical institute will receive ingredients for 7 million shots on 26 May.
“The good news is that today I received confirmation that these two lots will be shipped on May 21. It’s enough to produce approximately 18 million doses,” Cruz told a congressional committee hearing on the Covid-19 crisis.
Cruz said the two lots were originally meant to be shipped separately on 21 and 28 May, arriving the following day.
“Good news! The arrival of the new batch with 4 thousand liters of inputs, capable of producing 7 million vaccine shots, is scheduled for 05/26,” Doria tweeted.
Both Fiocruz and Butantan depend on ingredients from China to produce the two most common Covid-19 vaccines being used in Brazil.
Butantan last week stalled production due to a lack of supplies from China’s Sinovac Biotech, while Fiocruz said production of AstraZeneca doses would stop this week until new supplies arrived.
Only 17% of Brazilians have received at least one dose of vaccine and only 8% have been fully vaccinated. The country ranks 30th in the world based on first doses given, according to a Reuters analysis.
The pressure on French hospitals has eased further but two days before France reopens restaurants’ outdoor terraces again, the slowdown in the number of new cases seen in the past two weeks came to a halt, Reuters reports.
The health ministry reported 3,350 new cases on Monday - when the case count usually drops due to the weekend - an increase of 1.74% compared to last Monday and the same week-on-week as on Sunday, when nearly 14,000 new cases were reported.
In the past five weeks, week-on-week percentage increases have dropped from over six percent mid-April to under two percent last week and an 11-month low of 1.66% on Saturday.
The French government closely monitors week-on-week changes in the case tally, which feeds through to hospital and death tallies a few weeks later.
The seven-day moving average of new cases increased slightly to 14,394 on Monday, after falling virtually without interruption from a 2021 high of over 42,000 per day mid-April.
France also reported there were 4,186 people in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Monday, a fall of 69 and the 14th consecutive decline. Health ministry data also showed that the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell again, by 214 to 22,749, after rising on Sunday for the first time in nearly two weeks.
The daily Covid-19 death tally increased by 196 to nearly 108,000, compared to an increase of 292 last Monday. The seven-day moving average of deaths fell to 161 from 222 a week ago and around 300 mid-April.
The Dutch port city of Rotterdam is preparing for a slimmed down version of the Eurovision song contest this weekend with a limited live audience, amid falling but still significant Covid-19 infection rates in the Netherlands.
“When we made the decision to try and unite everyone here in Rotterdam we knew the pandemic unfortunately would still be around. We’re doing everything we can to minimise the impact of it,” Martin Osterdahl, the contest’s executive supervisor, told Reuters on Monday.
All 39 participating countries and their delegations are tested before they can enter the venue. Some 3,000 fans can attend through the Dutch trial scheme for events during the pandemic. They will also have to show a negative coronavirus test.
This past weekend the organisers announced there had been infections found in members of the delegations from Poland and Iceland. Both delegations are in quarantine and waiting for more tests.
“If an artist tests positive we will go to the back-up tape,” Osterdahl said, stressing that no one gets in the Eurovision venue without a negative test.
The Netherlands is hosting the 65th edition of the event, which draws a television audience of about 200 million, this weekend after Dutch singer-songwriter Duncan Laurence won the 2019 contest with the song Arcade. The event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands have dropped by more than a quarter this month, after climbing to their highest levels of the year in April.
The Dutch health minister on Monday announced the country will go ahead with easing Covid-19 curbs, which will result in amusement parks, zoos, gyms and outdoor swimming pools reopening on Wednesday.
Good evening from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
A summary of today's developments
- Germany will scrap its Covid vaccine priority list and start offering jabs to all adults from June 7, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn said. The move means anyone aged 16 and up will be eligible for a vaccine in Germany, scrapping the existing priority criteria based on age, jobs and pre-existing medical conditions, AFP reports
- Italy’s ruling parties have agreed to put back a nationwide nightly curfew to 11 pm from 10 pm with immediate effect, government sources told Reuters. Speaking after a meeting of medical advisers to Mario Draghi’s government and coalition representatives, the sources said the curfew will begin at midnight from June 7, and be abolished altogether from June 21. Italy reported 140 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday against 93 the day before, the country’s health ministry said.
- France reported there were 4,186 people in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Monday, a fall of 69 and the 14th consecutive decline. Health ministry data also showed that the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell again, by 214 to 22,749, after rising on Sunday for the first time in nearly two weeks, Reuters reports.
- The World Economic Forum has cancelled a summit planned to take place in August in Singapore, saying it was impossible to convene an in-person meeting because of the uncertainties of the Covid pandemic.
- Malaysia has reported 45 new Covid-19 deaths, its highest daily number so far. The health ministry also recorded 4,446 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number of infections to 474,556 with 1,947 deaths, Reuters reports.
- The Netherlands will ease its coronavirus lockdown measures this week as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations has eased pressure on hospitals, health minister Hugo de Jonge said. Amusement parks and zoos will be allowed to reopen as of Wednesday, while outdoor service at bars and restaurants will be extended by two hours until 8pm.
- The long-awaited Hong Kong-Singapore “travel bubble” has been deferred again, amid the surge in Covid cases in Singapore, the two governments have said.
The Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines should remain highly effective against two coronavirus variants first identified in India, according to research carried out by US scientists.
The lab-based study was carried out by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Center and is considered preliminary because it has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. “What we found is that the vaccine’s antibodies are a little bit weaker against the variants, but not enough that we think it would have much of an effect on the protective ability of the vaccines,” senior author Nathaniel Landau told AFP.
Experts appointed by Tanzania’s new president have declared Covid-19 vaccines to be effective and recommended joining the COVAX facility that shares the inoculations, in the latest sign suggesting official scepticism about the pandemic is waning.
The recommendations by a coronavirus committee formed in April by President Samia Suluhu Hassan were given by the chair of the group at a press conference at State House in Dar es Salaam. In its other recommendations, the experts proposed the government publish accurate statistics on the disease and urged that any alternative medicines pass scientific standards, Reuters reports.
New York state will no longer require people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to wear masks in many public spaces, adopting the new guidance issued by federal health officials, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said.
“Unvaccinated people should continue to wear a mask,” governor Cuomo said.
Masks will still be required on public transit, in schools and in some other communal settings, even among the vaccinated, the governor said.
He also said private businesses could still impose their own masking rules on customers and other visitors, Reuters reports.
France reported there were 4,186 people in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Monday, a fall of 69 and the 14th consecutive decline.
Health ministry data also showed that the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell again, by 214 to 22,749, after rising on Sunday for the first time in nearly two weeks, Reuters reports.
US president Joe Biden plans to announce on Monday that he will send 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to other countries by the end of June, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
It will bring the total number of doses to be sent abroad to 80 million, Psaki said.
The new exports will include vaccines approved for use in the US, Reuters reports.
Germany to offer vaccines to all over-16s from June
Germany will scrap its Covid vaccine priority list and start offering jabs to all adults from June 7, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn said.
The move means anyone aged 16 and up will be eligible for a vaccine in Germany, scrapping the existing priority criteria based on age, jobs and pre-existing medical conditions, AFP reports. “We have agreed to lift the priority system on June 7... in doctor’s practices, among company doctors and in vaccination centres,” Spahn said after talks with Germany’s 16 regional health ministers.
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Italy reported 140 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday against 93 the day before, the country’s health ministry said.
The daily tally of new infections fell to 3,455 from 5,753, Reuters reports. Italy has registered 124,296 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.16 million cases to date. Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 12,024 on Monday, down from 12,134 a day earlier. There were 69 new admissions to intensive care units, slightly up from 60 on Sunday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 1,754 from a previous 1,779.
Johnson & Johnson has cut by half expected deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines to the European Union this week, an EU official told Reuters.
Under its contract with the EU, J&J has committed to shipping 55 million doses of its one-shot vaccine in the second quarter. But midway through the quarter, it had delivered less than 5 million doses, less than 10% of its target, Reuters reports.
In addition to these initial delays, the drugmaker “is cutting deliveries this week by half,” one EU official involved in talks with vaccine makers said, adding that it is not clear how many doses will be delivered next week. The official did not say how many doses were expected this week. “We understand there is only a limited temporary reduction of deliveries which is expected to be caught up at a later stage,” a spokesman for the European Commission said, declining to say how many doses short this week’s delivery will be.
Both the EU source and the spokesman said the company was still aiming to deliver the contracted 55 million doses by the end of June.
Panama raised capacity on public transportation across the country Monday, a day after celebrating the first day in 14 months without a coronavirus death, Associated Press reports.
The pause in Covid-19 deaths came despite a slight rise in confirmed infections that led to quarantines being imposed in two western provinces.
On Sunday, health minister Luis Francisco Sucre announced that there were no new deaths to announce for the previous 24-hour period.
The government urged people to continue to be cautious however. Neighboring Costa Rica has been experiencing its most difficult moment of the pandemic in recent weeks.
Panama has reported more than 370,000 confirmed infections and 6,296 Covid-19 deaths.
On Monday, the government said that buses could now operate at 80% capacity, but that riders would have to use face shields and masks.
Updated
Italy 'puts back nightly curfew to 11pm'
Italy’s ruling parties have agreed to put back a nationwide nightly curfew to 11 pm from 10 pm with immediate effect, government sources told Reuters.
Speaking after a meeting of medical advisers to Mario Draghi’s government and coalition representatives, the sources said the curfew will begin at midnight from June 7, and be abolished altogether from June 21.
Italy - which has the second-highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe after Britain - is gradually loosening curbs on business and people’s freedom of movement as daily deaths and cases decline and more people are vaccinated.
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Supporters of a proposal to waive patent rights on Covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization are expected to call on opponents to join the negotiations, stressing the gravity of the pandemic, a draft document showed.
Talks at the WTO on temporarily waiving IP rights have been deadlocked for months, but U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to back talks for a waiver has raised hopes that the few remaining opponents could also switch, Reuters reports.
The EU has since backed a U.S. proposal to discuss waiving patent protections, although Switzerland said it left many questions unanswered. “The cosponsors call on all delegations who have not yet indicated that they will join text-based discussions, to do so as soon as possible,” the 62 proponents of the waiver, including India and South Africa that initially floated the proposal, said in a co-authored draft statement. “Continuous mutations and emergence of new variants of SARS-COV-2 highlight the significant uncertainties and complexities of controlling SARS-COV-2 and underscore the urgency of this proposal. “A failure to respond in a timely manner on the waiver proposal undermines the legitimacy and credibility of the WTO.”
The head of the World Health Organization has said the protection of health workers and facilities in Gaza “is imperative in all circumstances”, amid attacks on the coastal territory by Israeli warplanes.
In his first comments about the crisis, in which more than 200 people have been killed in the past week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “the health situation is also highly concerning.”
Tedros told reporters:
In the recent escalation of conflict, dozens of incidents involving health workers and health facilities have occurred.
Furthermore, Covid-19 testing and vaccination has been severely impacted. This creates health risks for the world as a whole. Protection of health workers and health facilities is an imperative in all circumstances.
It is essential that the norms of international humanitarian law be fully respected. Health workers and infrastructure should always be protected and I call for leaders on all sides to ensure respect for these vital humanitarian laws.
Israel launched its air campaign on 10 May in response to rocket attacks by the Hamas militant group. Since then, some 200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including at least 59 children, and more than 1,300 wounded, according to Gaza authorities.
Israel says 10 people, including one child, have been killed and more than 309 wounded in a campaign of rocket fire by Hamas, which has been described as the most intense it has ever carried out.
Updated
More than 20.2m people in the UK have now been given two doses of coronavirus vaccine, and a further 16.4m people have received their first dose.
#COVID19 VACCINE UPDATE: Daily figures on the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses that have been given in the UK.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) May 17, 2021
As of 17 May, 56,992,075 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given in the UK.
Visit the @PHE_uk dashboard for more info:
▶️ https://t.co/cQkuLQglz1 pic.twitter.com/e0aiyXbKV3
The UK also earlier reported 1,979 new cases of coronavirus on Monday and five deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test.
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Singapore 'Davos' set for August is cancelled
The World Economic Forum has cancelled a summit planned to take place in August in Singapore, saying it was impossible to convene an in-person meeting because of the uncertainties of the Covid pandemic.
Global political, economic and business leaders are traditionally brought together by the WEF for an annual summit each January in Davos, a village in the Swiss Alps. But it has already been shifted around and pushed back several times due to the coronavirus crisis.
The latest postponement was down to “the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination rollout and the uncertainty around new variants” the WEF said in a statement.
In a statement posted to the WEF website, Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and executive chairman, said:
It was a difficult decision, particularly in view of the great interest of our partners to come together not just virtually but in person, and to contribute to a more resilient, more inclusive and more sustainable world. But ultimately the health and safety of everyone concerned is our highest priority.
The meeting will now take place in the first half of 2022, the WEF said.
With ongoing pandemic restrictions hindering mass parties, Pride marches in Europe are opting for smaller gatherings focused on fighting for LGBTQ+ rights this year, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
According to a news report by the foundation, the charitable arm of the Reuters news agency, WorldPride, one of the world’s biggest parades, has announced it is scaling back plans for less year’s event.
The event, which was due to be held this August in Copenhagen, Denmark, and had expected to draw up to a million people, said it was scrapping its main parade in favour of activist-led “protest walks”.
Steve Taylor, the director of communications and marketing at Copenhagen 2021, the umbrella body that was to organise this year’s WorldPride, said:
For WorldPride in Copenhagen, whilst we could pivot to being more of a demonstration, the impact would still be thousands of people gathering on the streets.
So our decision is to replace the parade with a series of smaller protest walks, taking place several times over the week along different routes in the city.
Organisers of Pride marches in Germany and Spain have made similar decisions. Madrid Pride, which often attracts crowds of 2 million, has scrapped floats in favour of a series of politically focused events between 25 June and 4 July. Berlin’s Christopher Street Day, which drew 800,000 in 2019, will also be more focused on LGBTQ+ campaigning than on partying.
Ulli Pridat, a board member of CSD Berlin, said:
We’re going political because there are many reasons to protest here in Germany, such as the blood donation ban still in place or equal parenting rights for rainbow families.
In the UK, there have been calls for organisers of London Pride to return the event to its roots as an LGBTQ+ rights march. The event is due to be held on 11 September, but the veteran human rights activist Peter Tatchell is calling for a grassroots “Reclaim Pride” march to take place in late June.
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The head of the World Health Organization called on manufacturers to make Covid-19 vaccine doses available to a vaccine-sharing facility earlier than planned due to a supply shortfall left by Indian export disruptions.
“While we appreciate the work of AstraZeneca who have been steadily increasing the speed and volume of their deliveries, we need other manufacturers to follow suit,” said the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual briefing, mentioning Pfizer and Moderna specifically, Reuters reports.
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The Moulin Rouge in Paris will be back on stage in September after the longest shut down in more than a century, AFP reports.
The first cancan of the post-pandemic era is due to take place on September 10 under the iconic windmill in Montmartre.
The Moulin Rouge has been shut since 12 March 2020, the longest closure since the theatre was destroyed by a fire in 1915.
“Today, the planets are aligning. We are pleased to be working on this restart,” said Jean-Victor Clerico, director general of the cabaret.
Updated
The European Medicines Agency regulator said it has recommended extending the storage time for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech to 31 days from five days for an unopened vial stored in normal refrigerators at 2°C to 8°C, Reuters reports.
The change is applicable for unopened vials, the EMA said, adding that its suggestion came after the assessment of additional stability study data submitted by Pfizer and BioNTech.
U.S. authorities in February had approved storage and transportation of the vaccine at standard freezer temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius for up to two weeks instead of the ultra-cold temperatures between -80 to -60 degrees Celsius it usually requires.
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A surge of coronavirus infections in Taiwan, one of the world’s Covid-19 mitigation success stories, has led to its stock of 300,000 doses rapidly running out, with only about 1% of its 23 million people vaccinated.
AstraZeneca said that through the Covax facility it was committed to broad and equitable access to the vaccine, including to supply Taiwan, Reuters reports.
Taiwan’s health minister, Chen Shih-chung, told reporters there was “no new progress” to report on the arrival of more vaccines but more would gradually be coming.
Updated
The Tokyo Olympics are due to begin on 23 July, but calls for the Games to be cancelled are growing due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in Japan. The Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent, Justin McCurry, looks at the current state of play.
A recent spike in coronavirus cases has caused many prefectures to enter a state of emergency, including Tokyo. Japan has been reporting nearly 7,000 daily cases and the surge has put pressure on the country’s healthcare system, with the rollout of its vaccination programme slower than anticipated.
About 90,000 Indian doctors armed with medical degrees from Russia, China and Ukraine are urging the government to put them to work in the battle against Covid-19 instead of standing idly by while waiting for local licences.
Graduates from overseas medical schools including Bangladesh, Philippines, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan have to pass local exams in India before they are allowed to practise, Reuters reports.
Many have either cleared the exams and are waiting for their licences to be issued, while others are to sit for the test next month.
“We are not demanding that foreign graduates should be allowed to conduct surgeries, but they must be allowed to work as frontline workers at such a critical juncture,” said Najeerul Ameen, the president of All India Foreign Medical Graduates Association.
Health experts are warning that India will soon face a shortage of medical staff in critical care units as the second wave takes its toll.
Updated
Britons landed in Portugal on Monday on the first flights since a four-month coronavirus travel ban between the two countries was lifted at midnight.
Reuters reports:
Twenty-two flights from Britain were due to land in Portugal, with most heading to the southern Algarve region.
Tourism businesses hope the return of Britons, who pumped around €3.2bn ($3.9bn) into Portugal’s economy in 2019, will provide a much-needed boost to the sector, accounting in normal times for 15% of the country’s GDP.
“We were massively affected by the pandemic. It was so sad to see the arrivals gate empty. But today it’s better. It’s a breath of fresh air,” said Maria Joao, 55, whose shop in Lisbon airport sells drinks and snacks.
Visitors from Britain must present evidence of a negative coronavirus test taken 72 hours before boarding their flights to Portugal and there is no need to quarantine for Covid-19 when returning home.
Portuguese doctor Rute Castelhano, who has been battling the pandemic in Britain, was another of the arriving passengers, exhausted but delighted to see her parents at Lisbon airport after months apart.
“I’m so happy to see my family again,” she said. “It’s great to be back home.”
Tourists from European countries with fewer than 500 infections per 100,000 people were also allowed in for the first time on Monday.
Portugal, which imposed a strict four-month lockdown in order to tackle a Covid-19 surge this year, has reopened restaurants and shops but some capacity limitations remain in place and restaurants must close at 10.30pm.
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I’m grateful today to have my Covid-19 vaccine pledge realised. My wife Leah and have just received our vaccinations against the virus from @WestCapeHealth. We urge all senior citizens to register for vaccination. We wish you good health#DesmondTutu#VaccinesSaveLives pic.twitter.com/lF6gWN7BzZ
— DesmondTutu Official (@TheDesmondTutu) May 17, 2021
The UK’s government said the concern about the spread of the Indian variant was not confined to people unwilling or able to take a vaccine but the risk that people who had received a jab would still be vulnerable.
In a worst-case scenario, where the Indian variant is far more transmissible than the existing UK strain, prime minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “What we would be talking about then is a situation where not just individuals who are vaccine resistant or vaccine hesitant or those who have not sought out their first jab might catch coronavirus but those who have had the first does or those who have had two doses but for whom vaccine efficacy is reduced.
“That would then lead to increased hospitalisations and put unsustainable pressure on our NHS. That’s the situation we are attempting to avoid here.”
Updated
Malaysia records highest daily Covid-19 death toll
Malaysia has reported 45 new Covid-19 deaths, its highest daily number so far.
The health ministry also recorded 4,446 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number of infections to 474,556 with 1,947 deaths, Reuters reports.
Malaysia has recorded the third highest number of infections in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia and the Philippines
Indonesia set up roadblocks on Monday to screen for Covid-19 among travellers returning from Muslim holidays, as fears rose that mass gatherings and virus variants could trigger a surge of new cases in the world’s fourth most populous nation.
Each year millions of Indonesians fan out across the sprawling archipelago after Ramadan to celebrate Eid al-Fitr and visit extended families, in a tradition known as “mudik”, Reuters reports.
To try and avoid mass transmission of the virus, the authorities banned travel between May 6 and 17, during the Eid period, but government data suggests that at least 1.5 million people left their homes ahead of the ban.
Police are stopping cars at checkpoints around Jakarta in an attempt to identify and isolate positive cases. They were asking people about their travels, requesting to see test results and instructing some people to undergo tests.
Updated
India has found 26 suspected cases of bleeding and clotting among recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine, describing the risk as “minuscule” out of the 164 million doses administered.
This is the first time India has reported any serious reaction to the use of the jab, branded locally as Covishield, Reuters reports.
The country’s adverse events committee reviewed 498 instances of serious and severe side effects following the injection of the shot, the ministry said, 26 of which were potentially “thromboembolic” - meaning the formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might break loose and plug another vessel.
The ministry said the rate of these events in India was about 0.61 per million doses, much lower than Britain’s 4 and Germany’s 10.
“Bleeding and clotting cases following Covid vaccination in India are minuscule and in-line with the expected number of diagnoses of these conditions,” the ministry said.
The vaccine “continues to have a definite positive benefit risk profile with tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths due to Covid-19”, it said.
Updated
Netherlands to relax lockdown restrictions
The Netherlands will ease its coronavirus lockdown measures this week as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations has eased pressure on hospitals, health minister Hugo de Jonge said.
Amusement parks and zoos will be allowed to reopen as of Wednesday, while outdoor service at bars and restaurants will be extended by two hours until 8pm.
De Jonge added that the next steps to ease the lockdown are expected in the coming three weeks, Reuters reports.
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In a village in northern India engulfed by Covid-19, the sick lie on cots under a tree, glucose drips hanging from a branch. Cows graze all around, while syringes and empty medicine packets are strewn on the ground.
Reuters reports:
There is no doctor or health facility in Mewla Gopalgarh in India’s most-populous state of Uttar Pradesh, a 90-minute drive from the national capital Delhi.
There is a government hospital nearby but it has no available beds and the villagers say they cannot afford private clinics.
Instead, village practitioners of alternative medicine have set up an open-air clinic where they distribute glucose and other remedies to patients with symptoms of Covid-19.
Some believe lying under the neem tree, known for its medicinal properties, will raise their oxygen levels. There is no scientific basis for this belief or for some of the other remedies being offered.
“When people become breathless, they have to go under trees to raise their oxygen levels,” said Sanjay Singh, whose 74-year-old father died a few days ago after developing a fever. Singh said his father was not tested and died in two days.
“People are dying and there is nobody to look after us.”
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Hong Kong-Singapore 'travel bubble' deferred again after case surge
The long-awaited Hong Kong-Singapore “travel bubble” has been deferred again, amid the surge in Covid cases in Singapore, the two governments have said.
This is not the first time the authorities on both sides have decided to suspend the quarantine-free corridor, which was scheduled to be launched on 26 May. In November last year, the plan was suspended due to a resurgence of cases in Hong Kong.
In a statement on Monday, the Singapore government said recent increase in “unlinked community cases” has resulted in the city state not being able to meet the criteria for this initiative.
“Both sides remain strongly committed to launching the Air Travel Bubble (ATB) safely,” said Singapore’s Ministry of Transport. “However, in the light of the recent increase in unlinked community cases, Singapore is unable to meet the criteria to start the Singapore-Hong Kong ATB.”
Meanwhile, the authorities in Hong Kong said on Monday that it will announce further updates on or before 13 June, when Singapore’s current virus-control measures expire.
Singapore has in the last few days seen a resurgence of locally-transmitted Covid cases. On Monday, the government reported 28 new cases. Among them, seven were imported.
Also on Monday, Hong Kong reported one additional case – imported by a 25-year-old woman who arrived from Indonesia, the government said on its website. In the past two weeks, a total of 40 cases have been reported. This included eight local cases, of which one is from an unknown infection source, it said.
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Today so far …
- Taiwan has been left it scrambling to get vaccines as its stock of 300,000 doses starts running out with only about 1% of its 23 million people vaccinated. It reported 333 new community transmission cases on Monday, a record daily total for the fourth consecutive day.
- Thailand announced 9,635 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday – the biggest daily increase recorded in the country, by far – following outbreaks in its notoriously overcrowded prisons.
- India reported a further decline in new coronavirus cases, but daily deaths remained above 4,000. Experts said the count was unreliable due to a lack of testing in rural areas where the virus is spreading fast.
- Cyclone Tauktae is moving toward India’s western coast as authorities tried to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people and suspended Covid-19 vaccinations in one state.
- Some Covid restrictions have been relaxed in England, Wales and Scotland today. Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon posted a message urging people in the nation to “continue to be cautious and very careful”.
- UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has urged people not to drink alcohol too heavily on the first day of being permitted to eat and drink inside pubs again in England.
- Gatwick airport chief executive Stewart Wingate has said welcoming holidaymakers for the first time in months is a “big relief” and that he expects the numbers of travellers to increase tenfold by the end of May – but this will still be less than 15% of the traffic seen in pre-pandemic times.
- Dubai has eased some Covid-19 restrictions, allowing hotels to operate at full capacity and permitting concerts and sports events where all attendees and participants have been vaccinated.
- Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on citizens travelling out of the Gulf state without prior permission from authorities.
- France is reopening outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants from Wednesday 19 May, as well as reopening all shops and pushing back the nightly curfew to 9pm.
- GlaxoSmithKline and French partner Sanofi said interim results from a phase 2 trial on their vaccine showed a “strong neutralising antibody response” in all adult age groups, and raised no safety concerns, clearing the way to move to phase 3.
- Ireland is considering allowing the use of vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson for those aged between 40 and 49 in addition to the over-50s.
- South Africa has launched a large-scale Covid immunisation campaign, targeting about 5 million people aged over 60 by the end of June. The government, which has been widely criticised for the sluggish immunisation campaign, says it has ordered enough doses to vaccinate at least 45 million of the estimated 59 million population.
- Virgin Airlines in Australia is standing by its chief executive’s comment that Australia’s borders should reopen sooner than the middle of next year even though “some people may die”. Prime minister Scott Morrison rebuffed calls for a swifter reopening of the borders, saying Australians understand the government taking a “cautious approach”.
- More than 80% of Japanese people oppose hosting the Olympics this year, a poll showed, with just under 10 weeks until the Tokyo Games.
That’s it from me, Martin Belam. I’ll see you tomorrow. Andrew Sparrow has the UK Covid live blog, and Nadeem Badshah will be here shortly to continue bringing you the latest global coronavirus news.
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GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi report strong results in trials of Covid vaccine
GlaxoSmithKline is in the running to bring a new Covid-19 vaccine on to the market by the year end, thanks to positive results from early trials that will allow the formula to enter into late-stage studies within weeks.
The news will offer some relief for GSK as it plays catchup with rivals, and to its chief executive, Emma Walmsley, who has come under pressure since activist investor Elliott Management took a sizeable stake in the company in April.
The vaccine, created with its French partner, Sanofi, was originally expected to gain regulatory approval in the first half of 2021, but was delayed in December after it failed to produce a strong immune response in older people.
GSK said on Monday interim results from a phase 2 trial showed a “strong neutralising antibody response” in all adult age groups, and raised no safety concerns, clearing the way to move to phase 3.
“We believe that this vaccine candidate can make a significant contribution to the ongoing fight against Covid-19 and will move to phase 3 as soon as possible to meet our goal of making it available before the end of the year,” Roger Connor, the president of GSK’s vaccines arm, said.
The vaccine uses similar technology deployed in Sanofi’s seasonal flu vaccine, and will be used alongside a so-called adjuvant created by GSK, which will act as a booster to the jab.
The phase 3 trial is expected to start in the coming weeks and involve 35,000 adults from a wide range of countries. It will also assess the efficacy of two vaccine formulas against variants that first emerged in Wuhan (D614) and South Africa (B.1.351). The pharmaceuticals firm said it hoped to gain regulatory approval for the vaccine in the fourth quarter of the year.
Read more of Kalyeena Makortoff’s report here: GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi report strong results in trials of Covid vaccine
Dubai eases restrictions on hotels, concerts and sporting events
Dubai has eased Covid-19 restrictions, allowing hotels to operate at full capacity and permitting concerts and sports events where all attendees and participants have been vaccinated.
Social distancing and compulsory face masks will continue, Dubai’s Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management said. Capacities for restaurants and entertainment venues also increased.
Reuters note that the UAE has in recent weeks banned entry from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to guard against the spread of the highly contagious variant first detected in India.
Thailand announced 9,635 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday – the biggest daily increase recorded in the country, by far – following outbreaks in its notoriously overcrowded prisons.
Over the past two weeks, health teams have tested about 24,000 inmates, and found more than 40% (10,748) had the virus, according to ministry of foreign affairs deputy spokesperson Natapanu Nopakun. About 2,200 are awaiting their results. Inmates who have tested positive have since been moved to field hospitals and other medical facilities for treatment.
Conditions in Thailand’s prisons came under the spotlight when several prominent pro-democracy activists, who were in detention awaiting trial for lese majesty charges, recently tested positive for the virus.
There are 380,000 inmates across the country, and rights groups have warned about the lack of social distancing inside cramped facilities. Human Rights Watch said in a statement last week that the Thai government should “swiftly reduce overcrowding by releasing people who do not pose a serious and concrete risk to others.”
Outside of Thailand’s prisons, the majority of recent Covid infections are in Bangkok, where the virus has spread among construction workers and in densely populated areas of the capital.
Thailand was widely praised for its success in containing the virus last year, when it imposed a strict lockdown and robust contact tracing measures. By January it had recorded fewer than 7,200 cases and 63 deaths. Infections have since risen to 111,082, while the death toll now stands at 614.
A full lockdown has not been announced, though officials have closed schools, parks and businesses such as gyms and massage parlours. Restrictions in high risk areas, including Bangkok, were eased on Monday, allowing restaurants to open at 25% of their usual capacity.
Last week, the daily average caseload was 2,582, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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Taiwan scrambling for more doses as vaccine stocks run low amid case surge
Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee report for Reuters that the surge of coronavirus infections [see 8.15am] in Taiwan has left it scrambling to get vaccines as its stock of 300,000 doses starts running out with only about 1% of its 23 million people vaccinated.
While Taiwan has begun vaccinations, it has only received about 300,000 shots, all AstraZeneca ones, having been caught up in the global shortage despite having 20 million on order, including from Moderna.
The GAVI Vaccine Alliance has said today that it expected Taiwan to get its allocated AstraZeneca vaccines by the end of June at the latest
Health authorities last week stopped giving shots to people who are not on priority lists that include the elderly and medical staff. One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the issue of vaccines was both “sensitive and confidential”, which was why few details had been made public.
It isn’t just the pandemic – India is about to have to deal with a cyclone. Cyclone Tauktae is moving toward India’s western coast as authorities tried to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people and suspended Covid-19 vaccinations in one state.
The cyclone, which has already killed six people in parts of southern India, was expected to make landfall on Monday evening in Gujarat state with winds of up to 175km (109 miles) per hour, the India Meteorological Department said.
The storm has already led to the suspension of some vaccination efforts and there is greater risk of virus transmission in crowded evacuation shelters. Virus lockdown measures, meanwhile, could slow relief work after the storm, and damage from the storm could destroy roads and cut vital supply lines for vaccines and medical supplies needed for virus patients.
In Gujarat, Associated Press report that vaccinations were suspended for two days and authorities worked to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people to temporary relief shelters. The state’s chief minister, Vijay Rupani, asked officials to ensure that oxygen supplies for hospitals are not disrupted.
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France is reopening outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants from Wednesday 19 May 19, as well as reopening all shops and pushing back the nightly curfew to 9pm. But there is controversy over nightclubs which have been closed since March 2020 and have no date for re-opening.
Fifteen mayors in beach resorts and popular holiday areas, including St Tropez and La Baule, have written an open letter to the government arguing that it would be safer to open nightclubs in a controlled way than risk what the mayor of Biarritz called the “anarchy” of illegal and drunken mass-gatherings after-dark on beach-fronts.
The government has suggested it will look at the issue in June.
Virgin Airlines in Australia is standing by its chief executive’s comment that Australia’s borders should reopen sooner than the middle of next year even though “some people may die”.
The airline CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, told a Queensland University of Technology business lunch on Monday that Australia risked being left behind if it did not reopen borders once a sufficient portion of the population had been vaccinated.
“Covid will be part of the community, we will become sick with Covid and it won’t put us in hospital, and it won’t put people into dire straits because we’ll have a vaccine,” Hrdlicka said in widely reported comments that were not disputed by the airline.
“It will make us sick but won’t put us into hospital … some people may die, but it will be way smaller than with the flu.
“We’re forgetting the fact that we’ve learnt how to live with lots of viruses and challenges over the years and [Australia] has to learn how to live with this.”
Hrdlicka reportedly told the forum that it was a mistake to believe that Australia could keep the virus out “forever”, and said that remaining isolated from the rest of the world posed both a health and economic risk to the country.
Read more of Michael McGowan’s report: Virgin boss says Australia’s borders should reopen sooner than mid-2022 even though ‘some people may die’
Ireland may expand use of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to those 40-49
A quick snap from Reuters that Irish health officials are considering allowing the use of vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson for those aged between 40 and 49 in addition to the over-50s, a senior health official said.
The Irish Health Service’s chief clinical officer, Colm Henry, said an expert group had recommended the consideration of the use of the two vaccines in those aged 40-49 “with some conditions” and that a final decision would be announced soon.
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India reported a further decline in new coronavirus cases, but daily deaths remained above 4,000. Experts said the count was unreliable due to a lack of testing in rural areas where the virus is spreading fast.
Even with a downturn over the past few days, experts said there was no certainty that infections had peaked, with alarm growing both at home and abroad over the highly contagious B.1.617 variant first found in India.
“There are still many parts of the country which have not yet experienced the peak, they are still going up,” World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan was quoted as saying in the Hindu newspaper.
Swaminathan pointed to the “very high” national positivity rate, at about 20% of tests conducted, as a sign that there could be worse to come. “Testing is still inadequate in a large number of states. And when you see high test positivity rates, clearly we are not testing enough.
“And so the absolute numbers actually don’t mean anything when they are taken just by themselves; they have to be taken in the context of how much testing is done, and test positivity rate.”
Reuters report that is widely accepted that the official figures grossly underestimate the real impact of the epidemic, with some experts saying actual infections and deaths could be five to 10 times higher.
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Andrew Sparrow is up and running for the day with our UK live blog, and he’s leading with the lifting of Covid restrictions around the UK, and the warnings that we are being advised that we should be approaching doing newly allowed things with some caution. You can find that here …
I’ll be continuing here with the latest coronavirus news from around the globe.
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Ryanair has posted the biggest annual loss in the company’s 35-year history, after Covid travel restrictions and national lockdowns nearly wiped out traffic last year.
The airline swung to an €815m (£701m) loss in the 12 months to 31 March, compared with a €1bn profit a year earlier, after passenger numbers plunged 81% in what it said was its “most challenging” year to date.
But the airline struck a hopeful note, suggesting the vaccine rollout would help the company recover from an unprecedented year of disruption for the aviation industry. Ryanair said it could break even this year, in the absence of further disruption.
You can read more on that story from Kalyeena Makortoff here: Ryanair reports record £701m loss as Covid forces it to slash flights
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South Africa launches bid to vaccinate 5 million people by end of June
After much delay and on the cusp of a third wave, AFP report that South Africa has finally launched a large-scale Covid immunisation campaign, targeting around 5 million people aged over 60 by the end of June.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said late Sunday that the target would be achieved if the anticipated orders of vaccines were delivered on time. “We will begin to vaccinate citizens 60 years and older, who are the most vulnerable for becoming ill or dying of Covid-19,” the minister said during a webinar.
South Africa has so far vaccinated fewer than 480,000 people or 1% of its population, mainly health workers in a mass clinical trial operation. The immunisation of health workers started in February when it became the first country worldwide to administer inoculations by US pharma group Johnson & Johnson.
The government, which has been widely criticised for the sluggish immunisation campaign, says it has ordered enough doses to vaccinate at least 45 million of the estimated 59 million population. “By the end of June we expect to have received 4.5m doses of Pfizer and 2m doses from Johnson & Johnson,” Mkhize said.
South Africa earlier this year purchased AstraZeneca vaccines and then sold them to other African countries following fears that they would be less effective. Then, after it started inoculating health workers, using the Johnson & Johnson jabs, it had to pause for two weeks mid-April to vet risks over blood clots that had been reported in the US.
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Gatwick Airport chief executive Stewart Wingate has said welcoming holidaymakers for the first time in months is a “big relief” and that he expects the numbers of travellers to increase tenfold by the end of May - but this will still be less than 15% of the traffic seen in pre-pandemic times.
Speaking on the airport’s runway as the first green and amber list planes took off, Mr Wingate said: “It’s a big relief for everybody at Gatwick Airport that finally UK citizens can travel internationally again.
“It’s an important day for us, and important first step, and very much we’re looking forward to seeing more countries added to the green list in the weeks ahead as the vaccination programme has continued to accelerate and being rolled out across Europe, and hopefully the infection rates fall.”
PA report he added: “What you should expect as a passenger going through the airport is that we’ve got very high levels of hygiene, we’ve got ultraviolet for example cleaning the security trays, we’ve also got enhanced cleaning regimes, passengers and staff wearing face masks - so, things people have become familiar with on the high street.
“We’ve been used to operating the airport through the pandemic and passengers should expect to be safe as they travel through the airport.”
As Thailand struggles to deal with its worst wave of coronavirus infections, Athit Perawongmetha reports for Reuters from Bangkok that taff in the intensive care unit of the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital are fearful of what may be to come.
The Southeast Asian country had managed to contain Covid-19 cases for much of the pandemic, but a third wave that began in April and includes more contagious variants has proven harder to control, putting a strain on medical facilities.
More than a dozen nurses dressed in full personal protective equipment care for Covid-19 patients at the ICU ward each shift, along with up to four doctors.
“Each time I wear three layers of plastic protection. It is extremely hot,” said nurse Veena Samutkalin, 45.
Since starting work at the 40-bed ward about a month ago, Veena has stopped visiting her relatives, worried about the risk of infecting them. “I am very concerned about my father, who is now 80 years old,” she said. “I don’t want to cause any problems for my family.”
Veena hopes her father will be able to get vaccinated soon. In the meantime, she urges people take precautions. “I want the public to follow the social distancing rules until this period is over,” she said.
Thailand has administered 2.2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to frontline workers and high-risk groups, and expects a broader vaccination drive to start in June with locally manufactured AstraZeneca doses.
UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has been on media round duties this morning, and in one of his appearances on LBC radio, he has urged people not to drink alcohol too heavily on the first day of being permitted to eat and drink inside pubs again.
Asked how people could exercise caution at the pub, the minister said: “It is fairly clear to me in terms of common sense that what you can do is socialise in a normal way but obviously we advise ordinarily against excessive drinking, endangering people, getting too many large groups together if that can be avoided.
“That’s what he means, that we need to be cautious because if we get too carried away and the mutant variant spreads too quickly, that could endanger our ability to open up on 21 June.”
PA, meanwhile, are carrying pictures of pub re-openings.
Kwarteng will be heartened to see customers inside the Mile Castle pub in Newcastle mostly seem to be sticking to tea and coffee so far.
On air transport in England, British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle said the airline has received “an awful lot of interest” from people planning trips “to reunite with their loved ones”.
Speaking from Heathrow Airport, he told BBC Breakfast: “There’s a human cost to this, in that a lot of people have been separated from friends and family for over 12 months now.
“That’s a segment that we see grow, and a lot of people who are here today are taking part in the opportunity to reunite after a long period of separation.”
PA reort that he said he expects travel restrictions to be eased for countries which are “vaccinating at pace”.
He said: “The US has vaccinated 59% of all adults, and infections are falling, so we’d be very optimistic about the United States. And if we look at places like Germany and you look at France, again they’re making great progress, as is Europe.
“So we think Europe and the US certainly should be in scope for inclusion in the green list as we see the trends on vaccination and prevalence.”
Taiwan posts 333 new cases in worsening outbreak
Taiwan reported 333 new community transmission cases on Monday, a record daily total for the fourth consecutive day.
Taiwan is widely considered to have produced one of the best pandemic responses in the world, keeping its toll to around 1,200 cases with the vast majority imported and in hotel quarantine, while the community has been mostly Covid-free.
But the growing outbreak, which is believed to have begun among flight crews and employees of an airport quarantine hotel in April, has since infected hundreds across northern Taiwan, with major clusters in the capital Taipei, and neighbouring city New Taipei.
About 91% of Taiwan’s total local caseload has come in the past four days, with 29 on Friday, 180 on Saturday, and 206 on Sunday.
Health minister Chen Shi-chung told media this afternoon 158 of the new cases were in Taipei – concentrated around Wanhua – and 148 in New Taipei. He urged people to “cut down their activities as much as possible”, but did not extend current business restrictions which allows socially distanced indoor dining.
Schools in Taipei and New Taipei are closed for two weeks, while hospitals have reduced patient intake and established stricter protocols, and suspended international medical services. Already-tight border controls shrunk to bar entry of non residents and transit passengers.
Taipei and New Taipei, home to about 6.5 million of Taiwan’s 24 million residents, is currently on level three of a four-tier alert system. In response to the outbreak the cities’ populations largely stayed home over the weekend, leaving the usually busy streets, shops and temples empty.
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Sturgeon urges Scotland to 'continue to be cautious and very careful'
Much of mainland Scotland is being moved to the lower level two restrictions today, but first minister Nicola Sturgeon has posted a message this morning urging people in the nation to “continue to be cautious and very careful”.
Covid restrictions ease further today as many parts of Scotland move to level 2 (sadly not yet Glasgow City or Moray) and many islands to level 1. This is a long awaited moment but remember that the virus still poses a big threat, so please continue to be cautious & very careful.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May 17, 2021
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The British media may have all its eyes on people departing from airports in England today for leisure travel for the first time in month, but it isn’t the only set of airports where travellers can enjoy lifted restrictions today.
Reuters report that there was excitement but no crowds early on Monday morning at Riyadh’s international airport as Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on citizens travelling out of the Gulf state without prior permission from authorities.
Saudi nationals who have received at least one Covid-19 vaccination shot a minimum two weeks prior to travel, those who have recovered from the coronavirus disease within the last six months, and those under 18 will be allowed to travel for the first time since March 2020.
“It’s a great feeling, thank God, we are happy, especially after the difficult period we and the entire world have suffered,” said Bandar Al Nawash, a passenger waiting in the departure lounge of King Khalid International Airport.
Fellow national Faisal Al Tamimi said he had expected large crowds at the airport, but there were only a few travellers early on Monday after the suspension was lifted at 1am local time.
Mohammed Benmansour reports for Reuters from Riyadh that there are 13 countries Saudi nationals are still banned from visiting without prior permission, whether through direct or indirect flights due to Covid-19 risks. Authorities said on Sunday more than 11.5m vaccines had been administered in the Gulf Arab state so far.
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UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has told Sky News said he thinks it “very likely” that all coronavirus restrictions will be scrapped on 21 June, despite the threat of the variant first detected in India.
Defending the decision to ease the lockdown, PA Media reports he said: “Yes, things are opening up but people should have common sense, they should use judgment and I think if we act in a reasonable way, there is no reason to suppose that we can’t reopen the economy entirely on 21 June.
“I think there has to be a degree of common sense, a bit of caution and people shouldn’t be running away being too exuberant, I suppose. I think we just need to be measured and cautious.”
(I’m going to go out on a limb and say that later today we will see lots of pictures on social media of people in England being exuberant about reopening and not in any way measured and cautious.)
Asked whether the unlocking next month could still happen despite a growing number of Indian variant cases being recorded, Kwarteng said that he “fully expects” to be reopened by 21 June, adding: “I think it is very likely to happen.
“I’ve said the vaccines are working against the Indian variant, I think we’ve got to look at the numbers so we’ve got some flexibility but there is nothing I have seen and nothing the prime minister has seen up to now that suggests we are going to delay that 21 June date.”
Here’s a reminder that Prof Sir Mark Walport, a former director of the Wellcome Trust and a chief scientific adviser until 2017, called on the public to be cautious. “My personal judgement is that I will do things outside as far as possible,” he said. “My advice is that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.”
Asked by Sophy Ridge on Sky News if that meant he would avoid going inside a pub, he replied: “For the moment, yes.”
Read more here: Ignore lockdown easing to curb Indian Covid variant, health experts urge
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London mayor calls for vaccination expansion over 400 Indian variant cases in capitol
Newly reelected mayor of London Sadiq Khan has confirmed that 400 Londoners have tested positive for the coronavirus variant first detected in India.
Mayor @SadiqKhan says 400 Londoners have tested positive for the Indian variant. @itvlondon
— Simon Harris (@simonharrisitv) May 17, 2021
He has said 100 of the cases are linked to overseas travel, and called for the expansion of the vaccination programme to cover all adults over-18 in five London boroughs affected.
Younger Londoners in five boroughs should receive the #COVID19 vaccine, @SadiqKhan tells @BBCr4today . Mayor of London says there have been 400 cases of the Indian variant in the city, with 100 linked to international travel.
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) May 17, 2021
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Australian PM rejects calls for quicker border reopening, citing ‘cautious approach’
In Australia, the prime minister Scott Morrison has rebuffed calls for a swifter reopening of the borders, saying Australians understand the government taking a “cautious approach” that will see a gradual easing of restrictions.
Following calls from the New South Wales government for a clear timetable for reopening linked to vaccination targets, Scott Morrison said on Monday that border restrictions would remain in place, with a “sliding scale” towards reopening.
“Australians by and large share the view that Australia has done incredibly well throughout the course of the pandemic and we have been able to not only save lives but save livelihoods as well, and Australians want to see that continue,” Morrison said.
“I think they understand the importance of a cautious approach when it comes to maintaining our border arrangements.
“Now those border arrangements, it’s not one day the borders are open, one day the borders are closed. That’s not how it works. There’s a sliding sort of scale here,” the prime minister said.
“But the key thing is the overall border arrangements – they remain in place until it’s safe to do anything different.”
Read more of Sarah Martin’s report here: Scott Morrison rejects calls for quicker Australia border reopening, citing ‘cautious approach’
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There’s quite a contrast between the excitement we are seeing in parts of the UK about reopening from Covid restrictions – even as we remember that on the government dashboard the numbers of cases and deaths in the UK are both rising again – and events elsewhere in the globe. One stated threat to the UK reopening is variant B.1.617.2 which was first detected in India.
Reuters have a quick update from India, reporting that a top Indian virologist has resigned from a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government to detect variants of the coronavirus, weeks after questioning the authorities’ handling of the pandemic. Shahid Jameel, who we’ve quoted several times previously during the pandemic, who was chair of the scientific advisory group of the forum known as INSACOG, declined to give a reason for his resignation.
Reuters noted earlier this month that INSACOG, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium, warned government officials in March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country. Asked why the government did not respond more forcefully to the findings, Jameel had told Reuters he was concerned authorities were not paying enough attention to the evidence as they set policy. India’s government has been widely cirticised for allowing religious festivals and large election rallies to go ahead while case numbers were rising.
There’s a big change in England today too for domestic tourist attractions, which can open indoors again. Four museums have told us how they’ll showcase new exhibitions after a particularly tough year. Here’s the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds:
After an 18-month closure to upgrade the museum, including building work setbacks, Covid came as a kick in the teeth for the team at Thackray. But they’ve continued to work throughout the pandemic to adapt for a Covid-safe reopening on 17 May, and have incorporated an outdoor cafe seating area.
Staff had to think long and hard about the new interactive, tactile displays . “Some interactives will be in ‘quarantine’ when we open but for most we’ve adapted procedures so we can keep our galleries interactive,” says Sue Mackay, director of collections and programming.
As fate would have it, one of the new galleries, Response to Crisis, includes a wall dedicated to epidemics. Now the museum is collecting evidence related to the Covid pandemic, such as vaccine vials and oral histories, to add to its archive. Another exhibit, Disease Detectives, is about understanding germs – a topic that has never seemed more pertinent.
You can read more here: ‘I am desperate to bring people in again’: small museums in England on reopening
Is it cynical of me to suspect that a large number of people at England’s airports today will actually be the media looking to do interviews, rather than people jetting off for some sun? Probably.
PA have been speaking to people at Gatwick airport outside of London today, as the restrictions on international travel are lifted. Retired couple Keith and Janice Tomsett, aged 72 and 71, from West Chiltington in West Sussex, were “looking forward to” a break to the Portugese island of Madeira.
Mr Tomsett said: “We’ve gone through all the hoops, PCR testing ... after 15 months of being locked up this is unbelievably good.”
The couple, who are both vaccinated, said they found their pre-flight drive through testing at the airport “easy”, but Mr Tomsett expressed frustration at the need to complete another test after returning to England from their holiday.
He said: “We’re fully vaccinated, we’re going to a green list country and we will be having a test 48 hours before we fly, so why we have to have another one two days later I do not understand.”
Both travellers, who booked their holiday in October on the “off chance” it would go ahead, said they would not travel to Madeira if it was not on the green list.
Some passengers catching flights at Gatwick Airport on Monday morning were travelling to amber list destinations.
Nathan Priestley, 31, from Wokingham in Berkshire, was heading to Corfu with five friends. Asked if he minded having to quarantine after returning to England from the Greek island he said: “For me, I work from home at the moment so it’s neither here nor there.”
Asked if he had any health worries over his trip, the software sales worker added: “I’m still fairly young and fairly active. I haven’t had anything wrong with me, nothing underlying, so for me, a negative test and away you go.”
17 May reopening: how Covid measures across Britain are changing
Good morning, it is Martin Belam taking over in London from my colleague Helen Sullivan. If you are in England, Scotland or Wales, then today marks a changing of the Covid restrictions in place. Clea Skopeliti has a breakdown for us of what is changing:
England
The rules on gatherings are changing to allow bigger groups and indoor household mixing. The government is also reviewing its social distancing guidance to emphasise “personal responsibility rather than rules”.
- Groups of up to six people or two households can meet indoors and overnight visits are allowed.
- People can meet in groups of up to 30 outdoors.
- Up to 30 people can attend weddings, receptions wakes and other life events.
- The number of people who can attend a funeral is determined by how many people the venue can accommodate with social distancing.
- Care home residents can have up to five named visitors (two at a time), provided visitors test negative.
Restrictions on leisure, hospitality and entertainment are also being relaxed in a long-awaited development for pubs, restaurants and cinemas among others. There’s more detail on the gov.uk site here.
Wales
The rules are easing to allow hospitality venues to serve customers indoors, but restrictions on household mixing in private homes remain in place. Indoor socialising in homes remains limited to extended households, meaning two households can mix with each other (and no one else).
- Indoor hospitality can reopen, with venues allowed to seat six people from up to six households (not including children under 11) together at a table
- Six people from six households can meet outside
- All holiday accommodation can fully reopen
- Entertainment venues, such as cinemas, bingo halls, bowling alleys, indoor-play areas and theatres can begin welcoming back customers
- Indoor visitor attractions, including museums and galleries, can reopen
- Up to 30 people can attend indoor wedding receptions and wakes, while the cap is raised to 50 for organised outdoor events
- International travel can resume, in line with the traffic light system used by England and Scotland – but the government continues to advise against non-essential foreign travel.
Scotland
Unlike England and Wales, Scotland has continued to use a tiered system, meaning different levels of restrictions are imposed depending on local infection levels.
With the exceptions of Moray and Glasgow, which will remain in level three, mainland Scotland is moving to level two restrictions on 17 May. Most Scottish islands will be in level one.
There are a lot of other changes – you can find a fuller breakdown here: 17 May reopening – how Covid measures across Britain are changing
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.
In non-Covid news, and in case you have been spending sleepless nights worrying about when the next Ever Given disaster might occur in the Suez, rest easy:
India reports 281,386 cases and 4,106 deaths
India on Monday reported 281,386 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose by 4,106.
The South Asian nation’s total case load is 24.97 million with the death toll at 274,390, health ministry data showed.
Four out of five in Japan oppose Olympics
More than 80% of Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics this year, a new poll published on Monday showed, with just under 10 weeks until the Tokyo Games, AFP reports.
The latest survey comes after Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency Friday as the nation battles a fourth wave of virus infections.
The surge has put pressure on the country’s healthcare system, with medical professionals repeatedly warning about shortages and burnout.
The weekend survey by the Asahi Shimbun daily found 43% of respondents want the Games cancelled, and 40% want a further postponement:
Updated
Parts of UK ease lockdown despite India variant fear
People should ignore Monday’s easing of lockdown and avoid socialising indoors in pubs and restaurants to prevent the new Covid-19 variant first detected in India sparking a third wave of the disease, health experts say.
A former government chief scientific adviser, a leading public health specialist and the union representing Britain’s doctors are urging the public to stick to meeting outdoors to reduce the risk of catching or spreading the variant.
Prof Sir Mark Walport, a former director of the Wellcome Trust and a chief scientific adviser until 2017, called on the public to be cautious. “My personal judgement is that I will do things outside as far as possible,” he said. “My advice is that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.”
Denis Campbell and Jessica Elgot report:
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
People should ignore Monday’s easing of lockdown in parts of the UK and avoid socialising indoors in pubs and restaurants to prevent the new Covid-19 variant first detected in India sparking a third wave of the disease, health experts say.
Meanwhile more than 80% of Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics this year, a new poll published on Monday showed, with just under 10 weeks until the Tokyo Games.
Here are the other key recent developments:
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Health experts in the UK have said people should ignore Monday’s easing of lockdown and avoid socialising indoors in pubs and restaurants to prevent the new Covid-19 variant first detected in India sparking a third wave of the disease.
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A public inquiry must examine whether Boris Johnson’s decision to delay adding India to the travel “red list” of countries was influenced by his desire to start trade talks with Delhi, the chair of a cross-party Covid inquiry group has said.
- Saudi Arabia has announced that travellers flying from most countries will no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
- Italy’s daily death toll fell below 100 for the first time since October, with 93 Covid-related deaths reported on Sunday.
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A decision on whether all legal restrictions can be ended in England next month will be made on 14 June, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said.
- More than 20 million adults in the UK have had both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. More than two-thirds (69.4%) of adults have had a first dose while and 38.2% have had both.
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Dr Anthony Fauci has said that “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to severe health disparities that especially impacted African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
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A top Indian virologist has resigned from the government’s panel of advisers on coronavirus variants, he told Reuters on Sunday, weeks after questioning the authorities’ handling of the pandemic.
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The number of Covid-19 patients in France’s intensive care units has dropped for the 13th consecutive day, with 4,255 reported on Sunday.
- Algeria will reopen its air and land borders on 1 June, but strict measures will be imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the presidency announced on Sunday.
