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Colombia’s daily confirmed cases of coronavirus reached their highest level since mid-August on Thursday, as the government warned people against large holiday gatherings.
The Andean country, which has had a total of 1,468,795 confirmed cases and 39,787 deaths, recorded 12,196 new cases on Thursday, according to health ministry data.
The figure was the highest since Aug. 19, when there were 13,055 new cases.
Morning/afternoon/evening, wherever these words find you. This is Ben Doherty here in Sydney, Australia, taking over our continuing live coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic. My many thanks to my colleagues for their stewardship thus far.
As ever, comments, contributions and correspondence all welcomed at ben.doherty@theguardian.com or by twitter @BenDohertyCorro.
The city where I sit is braced for further lockdowns or restrictions, with a new cluster of infections, still small in number, discovered after a long period of no community transmission. We will have more details on that in about an hour, and I shall bring you those.
US president-elect Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19, after an incoming White House adviser, Cedric Richmond, contracted the virus, a spokeswoman for Biden said in a statement.
Richmond was not in close contact with Biden as defined by the Centers for Disease Control, spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said.
Summary
Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus developments across the world over the last few hours:
- Macron ‘very likely’ infected with Covid-19 during EU council. President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days.
- Six week lockdown to start in Northern Ireland from Boxing Day. Northern Ireland is preparing for a sweeping lockdown and the deployment of paramedics from the Republic of Ireland in an effort to control Covid-19. Health officials on Thursday proposed a six-week lockdown and approved a plan to reinforce the ambulance service with units from across the border.
- Portugal imposes overnight curfew on New Year’s Eve. An overnight curfew from 11pm will come into force in Portugal on New Year’s Eve, prime minister António Costa said, as the country introduces measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus during the usually busy night.
- Australia’s largest city of Sydney told to brace for more Covid-19 cases. Australia’s largest city of Sydney should brace itself for more Covid-19 cases, New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned, as authorities rushed to contain a new virus cluster in the city’s northern coastal suburbs.
- Colombia daily coronavirus cases reach highest since August. Colombia’s daily confirmed cases of coronavirus reached their highest level since mid-August on Thursday, as the government warned people against large holiday gatherings.
- King of Sweden blasts country’s ‘failed’ coronavirus response. The king of Sweden has said the country has failed in its response to Covid-19, as hospitals in the Stockholm region warned they were struggling to cope with a surge in cases and polls showed public confidence in the authorities had plunged to a new low.
- US surpasses 17m coronavirus cases as vaccines are distributed. The United States on Thursday surpassed a total of 17m coronavirus cases, with infections rising by more than a million a week during the early winter surge – while at the start of the year it took three months for the US to accumulate its first million cases.
Colombia daily coronavirus cases reach highest since August
Colombia’s daily confirmed cases of coronavirus reached their highest level since mid-August on Thursday, as the government warned people against large holiday gatherings.
The Andean country, which has had a total of 1,468,795 confirmed cases and 39,787 deaths, recorded 12,196 new cases on Thursday.
The figure was the highest since 19 August, when there were 13,055 new cases.
President Iván Duque and health officials have repeatedly warned Colombians against gathering in crowds at shopping areas and urged them to keep family celebrations limited in order to reduce spread of the virus.
Duque on Wednesday said rising cases numbers could be traced to celebrations to mark the feast of the Immaculate Conception - known locally as Night of the Candles - when families gather to put candles in their windows or outside their homes.
The daily death toll also rose past 200 on Wednesday and Thursday, reaching 204 and 227 respectively. Daily new recorded deaths have not surpassed 200 since September.
Colombia expects to vaccinate about 15 million people against Covid-19 in 2021, including health care workers, those over 60 and those with pre-existing conditions.
Intensive care units in Bogotá, a centre for infection, were at 74% capacity on Thursday, according to local health department figures.
Brazil and Colombia are reporting the highest number of new cases in South America, the World Health Organization said this week.
A panel of outside advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration have endorsed emergency use of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, virtually assuring a second option for protecting against Covid-19 for a pandemic ravaged nation.
The committee voted 20-0 with one abstention that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks in people aged 18 and older, one week after the same panel backed a similar vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, leading to an FDA emergency use authorisation (EUA) a day later.
The FDA is expected to grant the EUA as early as late Thursday or Friday, providing another ray of hope to a nation that has lost more than 300,000 lives to Covid-19 - including a one-day high of 3,580 deaths on Wednesday - while record numbers of patients threaten to overwhelm US hospitals.
The Moderna vaccine is set to begin distribution as soon as the FDA gives the green light. Health and human services secretary Alex Azar told CNBC on Thursday that 5.9m doses have been allotted for state governors and were ready to ship nationwide.
The vaccines are not a panacea, however, as they will take months to roll out to a nation where the virus is running rampant and public health measures such as social distancing and mask wearing are being rejected by large parts of the population.
Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, which comes with complex distribution challenges due to its need to be shipped and stored at -70C, Moderna’s vaccine does not require specialised ultra-cold freezers or vast quantities of dry ice, making it easier to supply rural and remote areas.
US officials have said they expect to have 40m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines by the end of the year - enough to inoculate 20 million people.
Both vaccines were about 95% effective at preventing illness in pivotal clinical trials with no serious safety issues.
The first wave of doses are expected to be earmarked for healthcare workers who treat Covid-19 patients and vulnerable residents and staff of nursing homes.
Documents prepared by FDA scientists and released ahead of the meeting, said a two-dose regimen of the Moderna vaccine was highly effective in preventing Covid-19 and did not raise any specific safety issues.
Perhaps even more significant, as hospital intensive care units fill to capacity across the country, there were no cases of severe Covid-19 among those who got the vaccine in the trial versus 30 such cases in the placebo group.
The vaccine, based on the new technology of synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA), is administered in two shots about 28 days apart. The Pfizer/BioNTech shot is also an mRNA vaccine.
Australia's largest city of Sydney told to brace for more Covid-19 cases
Australia’s largest city of Sydney should brace itself for more Covid-19 cases, New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned, as authorities rushed to contain a new virus cluster in the city’s northern coastal suburbs.
About a quarter of a million residents in the affected suburbs in Sydney have been asked to stay home for three days and people from outside areas urged not to visit as authorities set up more emergency testing centres.
“We’re bracing ourselves for more cases today, no doubt about that.... the next 24-48 hours will be critical,” Berejiklian told the Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
“We’re taking this extremely seriously. We want to get on top of it as soon as we can, to give people as normal a Christmas as possible.”
Berejiklian said the original source of the virus was an international strain and that genomic experts were trying to find how it reached the local community.
The number of coronavirus cases jumped to 17, authorities said late on Thursday just hours after reporting two new cases.
New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, have been easing social distancing curbs in recent days due to low or no local cases. The new cluster has prompted other states to tighten their internal borders.
Australia has reported just over 28,000 coronavirus cases and 908 deaths since the pandemic began and estimates most active cases in the country are returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.
Brazil recorded 1,092 new Covid-19 deaths on Thursday, the highest number in over three months.
Brazil, which has the second deadliest outbreak behind the US, also reported 69,826 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus as daily infections rocket up once more after a brief lull.
Ireland, which has the second lowest Covid-19 infection rate in Western Europe, is set for a “serious increase” in cases following the relaxation of restrictions, its health minister said, as officials called for new curbs.
Only Iceland has a lower infection rate among the 31 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, after a six-week lockdown introduced in Ireland in mid-October drove rates down.
But cases hit a five-week high of 484 on Thursday, while forward-looking indicators like the number of people being referred for testing and the proportion of tests being returned positive were both rising quickly, officials said.
“The situation is precarious,” health minister Stephen Donnelly told parliament.
The lead indicators “are all pointing to a serious increase in cases,” he said, speaking after what he described as a “very sobering” talk with the country’s chief medical officer.
Prime minister Micheál Martin later said health officials had told him tighter Covid-19 restrictions should be introduced before the end of the year.
The government will take the recommendation “very seriously,” he told state broadcaster RTÉ.
Earlier on Thursday, the head of the Irish Health Service Executive warned of an “explosive concoction” of factors pointing towards a surge in cases.
The government has focused on the reproduction number, which measures the number of people who become infected as a result of each positive case. It increased from 0.9-1 last week to between 1.1 and 1.3 this week, Donnelly said.
Ireland reopened restaurants earlier this month and was due to lift restrictions on people visiting other homes and travelling around the country on Friday.
Portugal imposes overnight curfew on New Year's Eve
An overnight curfew from 11pm will come into force in Portugal on New Year’s Eve, prime minister António Costa said, as the country introduces measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus during the usually busy night.
“We have to totally cut out on New Year celebrations,” Costa told reporters after a meeting with ministers, adding people would not be allowed to leave their homes between 11pm and 5am from 1-3 January.
Two weeks ago, Costa had said people would be able to return home before a 2am curfew on New Year’s Eve. But a previously announced reevaluation of measures took into consideration the current pandemic situation and forced the government to take a step back.
“The number of cases per week are dropping but not as fast as they were before,” Costa said, explaining the government decided to toughen New Year’s Eve measures so rules over Christmas were not as severe.
There is no limit on how many people can gather per household for Christmas and a ban on domestic travel will not be imposed between 23-26 December.
“Christmas celebrations have to be carried out with the utmost care,” he said, urging people to avoid poorly ventilated spaces and to use face masks during family gatherings whenever possible.
After a relatively mild first wave of the disease compared with countries such as Spain or Italy, Portugal has had a record number of infections and deaths during the second wave though the daily tally has dropped slightly in recent weeks.
Portugal, which has a population of just over 10 million, has recorded 362,616 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 5,902 deaths.
Updated
Coca-Cola will cut 2,200 jobs globally, including 1,200 in the US, as the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic forces the world’s largest soda maker to accelerate its business restructuring.
The company said in August it was offering voluntary separation packages to 4,000 workers in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, as it looked to streamline itself while its sales were taking a hit from the health crisis.
Coca-Cola said on Thursday it will not disclose the number of employees who have accepted the package. It also did not give details about the timeline for the job cuts.
The news of job cuts come as millions of Americans are already stuck on unemployment benefits as a relentless wave of new Covid-19 infections hobble business operations.
“The pandemic was not a cause for these changes, but it has been a catalyst for the company to move faster,” Coca-Cola said in a statement.
It had about 86,200 employees at the end of last year, of which 10,400 were located in the US. About 500 job cuts will be in metro Atlanta, where Coca-Cola’s headquarter is based.
One of Italy’s most notorious killers, Donato Bilancia, who admitted to murdering 17 people, has died from coronavirus in prison, news agencies have reported.
Bilancia had been serving 13 life sentences for a bloody rampage between October 1997 and April 1998 mostly in Liguria, in northern Italy.
His victims included four sex workers, night-watchmen, a gas station attendant and a number of women murdered apparently at random in train toilets.
Bilancia was at a loss to explain his crimes to psychiatrists, but said he had a splitting headache before each of his murderous acts.
He was found guilty of 13 counts of murder by a Genoa court in April 2000.
He was initially held in a prison in the city before being transferred to Padua, where he died.
There is growing frustration in Germany towards the European Medicines Agency (EMA) over its perceived slowness to approve coronavirus vaccines, particularly as the German infection rate soars to another record high, of over 30,000 on Thursday.
The German tabloid Bild vented its anger by posting a photographer outside the agency’s headquarters in the Amsterdam district of Zuidas.
What the photographer saw, the paper said, rubbished the claim by EMA chief, Emer Cooke, that it has been “working round the clock” on the vaccine approval process.
The paper writes: “The lights were on in some offices on Tuesday until shortly before 11pm”. It then shows the building plunged into virtual darkness, “before going on again at 7am”(on Wednesday).
Jens Spahn, the health minister, reportedly put pressure on EMA to speed up its process after facing growing pressure from Germans over why countries like Britain and the US had already been vaccinating for days, having given emergency approval to the vaccines, while Germany was still waiting for the green light.
Germany is expecting to be able to start its vaccine programme along with the rest of the EU on 27 December.
Six week lockdown to start in Northern Ireland from Boxing Day
A six-week lockdown starting on Boxing Day has been agreed by the Northern Ireland executive amid rising Covid-19 cases.
Deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill described the situation as “quite dire”.
It’s very clear from the positive cases we’re seeing every day that an urgent intervention was required.
The Executive had detailed discussion about what that needed to be: around the duration of that and the specifics.
What has been decided today is that there’s going to be a six-week lockdown that begins on December 26.
But she added that it would be reviewed after four weeks.
Ministers met for several hours into the evening on Thursday, as the region struggles to suppress the virus.
Measures to be announced are expected to include the closing of all non-essential retail as well as close-contact services, while the hospitality sector will be confined to takeaway services only.
The PA news agency understands there will be no changes made to the Christmas bubble arrangements.
Case numbers continue to rise in Northern Ireland despite the latest two-week circuit-breaker.
Health chiefs have cited low compliance with the regulations and guidance as a reason infections, hospital admissions and death rates remain relatively high.
Hospitals across the region are running over capacity.
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service announced on Thursday that paramedics from the Irish Republic are set to bolster their numbers this weekend.
Michael Bloomfield, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS), said the move is “relatively unusual” and reflects the pressure they are under.
On Tuesday, queues of ambulances were witnessed at accident and emergency departments (EDs) across Northern Ireland as patients were treated in car parks due to a lack of capacity inside the hospitals.
At one point 17 ambulances containing patients were lined up outside the ED at Antrim Area hospital.
Ahead of Thursday’s executive meeting, economy minister Diane Dodds said Northern Ireland was in an “extremely challenging position” in terms of the virus’s transmission.
“I have said over and over again how difficult this cycle of lockdown is for the economy, we have published data on the cost of the cycle of lockdown to the economy, but we’ll wait and see what the discussion at the executive brings forward,” she said.
On Thursday, the Department of Health’s dashboard revealed a further 12 people with Covid-19 had died in Northern Ireland, bringing the region’s toll to 1,154.
Another 656 new cases of the virus were recorded, while figures indicated pressure remained high on hospitals with 460 Covid-19 positive patients, including 32 in intensive care. The hospital occupancy rate was 104%.
Updated
Summary
- The French president Emmanuel Macron became the latest world leader to test positive for Covid-19 and went into self-isolation for a week. No further detail was given on his condition though he would continue to work remotely. The French presidency said it was “very likely” he contracted the virus during last weeks EU Council. Macron’s wife Brigitte tested negative on Thursday. An early proponent of “barrier gestures”, the French president has shown signs of letting his social distancing guard down in the past couple of weeks, having recently been photographed greeted leaders with handshakes, pats on the back and embraces. World leaders including the UK prime minister Boris Johnson wished him a speedy recovery.
- A host of leaders who came into contact with Macron also went into isolation while awaiting test results, including the EU chief Charles Michel, the prime ministers of Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Luxembourg, and the French PM Jean Castex. The full list is here. Despite several of them having tested negative at the time of writing on Thursday, a number of leaders have said they will stay in self-isolation as a precaution.
- The EU will start Covid-19 inoculations on 27 December, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said. The rollout is conditional on the European Medicines Agency authorising the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine when it meets on Monday. The watchdog also says it had brought forward the date for a decision on authorising Moderna’s vaccine by nearly a week to 6 January.
- Sweden’s king said his country had failed in its handling of Covid-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly. Carl XVI Gustaf, 74, whose son and daughter-in-law tested positive last month, used an annual royal Christmas TV special to highlight the growing impact of the virus, in a rare intervention from a monarch whose duties are largely ceremonial.
- Large parts of south and east England will be added to the “very high alert” Covid-19 category this weekend, placing two-thirds of the population under the toughest tier of restrictions. From Saturday, 68% of England’s population will be in tier 3 and 30% in tier 2. Fewer than a million people will be in the more relaxed tier 1. The UK government also said most secondary school pupils would have a week of remote learning before returning to classrooms from 11 January.
- A two-week lockdown in the West Bank that appears certain to curtail Christmas celebrations was announced by the Palestinian PM. With a coronavirus outbreak raging, Mohammad Shtayyeh said there will be a nighttime curfew from 7pm to 6am. On Fridays and Saturdays, the local weekend, the lockdown will be around the clock. The restrictions, which are to be in effect through 2 January, will greatly restrict travel throughout the West Bank. Most businesses, with the exception of pharmacies and bakeries, will be forced to close during the curfews, Shtayyeh said.The lockdown appears to mean that public celebrations in Bethlehem, revered by Christians as Jesus’ birthplace, will be greatly scaled back. Shtayyeh said that “special protocols” were still being sorted out for public prayers, but didn’t elaborate.
- Poland will enter a three-week national quarantine from 28 December to 17 January, entailing the closure of all hotels, ski slopes and shopping malls, the health minister Adam Niedzielski said, as the health system struggles to grapple with the country’s second wave. While no new restrictions would be imposed for Christmas, there will be a curfew on NYE from 7pm on 31 December to 6am on 1 January and a 10-day quarantine for those returning to Poland by public transport.
- Cases in the Netherlands rose by nearly 13,000 in 24 hours, hitting a new record for the second day in a row, just days after a tough, five-week lockdown was imposed in the country.
- Uruguay will temporarily close its borders next week to non-commercial traffic, and urged citizens to limit holiday gatherings due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. Borders will be closed from 21 December to 10 January, except for cargo transportation, the government said late on Wednesday.
Macron 'very likely' infected with Covid-19 during EU council
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, was “very likely” infected with Covid-19 during last week’s European council, the French presidency said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Macron’s office announced the French president had tested positive, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between Macron and EU leaders.
Updated
France recorded 18,254 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, health director Jerome Salomon said on Thursday, a tally not seen since 20 November as infections showed an upward trend again.
He spoke at a news conference hours after Emmanuel Macron’s office announced the French president had tested positive, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between Macron and EU leaders.
Salomon, who spoke of a “worrying development of the pandemic” a week before Christmas, said the reproduction rate of the disease had gone above 1 again, at 1.03. A level below 1 is needed to gradually contain the disease.
With more than 2.42 million cases, France is the fifth-worst infected country in the world.
After peaking at almost 87,000 on 7 November, the daily number of new cases had dramatically decreased in subsequent weeks, mainly thanks to a second national lockdown from 30 October to 15 December.
But cases failed to fall below the 5,000 target set by the government, and so it replaced the lockdown with stricter measures than initially planned. The seven-day moving average of new cases, at 12,764, stands at a 20-day high.
The death toll was up by 258, at 59,619, the seventh-highest in the world, versus 289 on Wednesday and a seven-day moving average of 383.
The Palestinian prime minister on Thursday announced a two-week lockdown in the West Bank that appears certain to curtail Christmas celebrations, AP reports.
Mohammad Shtayyeh said that with a coronavirus outbreak raging, there will be a nighttime curfew from 7pm to 6am throughout the West Bank. On Fridays and Saturdays, the local weekend, the lockdown will be around the clock.
The restrictions, which are to be in effect through 2 January, will greatly restrict travel throughout the West Bank. Most businesses, with the exception of pharmacies and bakeries, will be forced to close during the curfews, Shtayyeh said.
The lockdown appears to mean that public celebrations in Bethlehem, revered by Christians as Jesus’ birthplace, will be greatly scaled back.
Large crowds usually throng the town on Christmas Eve before Midnight Mass is celebrated at the Church of the Nativity. But the restrictions will prevent people from reaching Bethlehem from either Israel or other parts of the West Bank, and the nighttime curfew will presumably prevent even local residents from celebrating.
Shtayyeh said that “special protocols” were still being sorted out for public prayers, though he didn’t elaborate.
Local officials have already said celebrations would be scaled back in Bethlehem, with prayers likely limited to religious leaders and local dignitaries. Gift shops and hotels have been closed during the normally busy holiday season.
Palestinian officials on Thursday reported 1,134 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in Palestinian areas of the West Bank to 86,594. More than 860 Palestinians in the territory have died.
Updated
Sri Lankan doctors performed emergency surgery on Thursday to save a pregnant patient with Covid-19, delivering quadruplets who tested negative for the virus, a state-run hospital said.
The 25-year-old woman was rushed into a C-section surgery to deliver the babies prematurely as her condition deteriorated, the director at the De Soysa maternity hospital, Sagarika Kiriwandeniya, said.
“We had to deliver the babies before full term because the mother was developing complications,” Kiriwandeniya told reporters in Colombo. “The mother and her four babies are in a stable condition but under intensive care.”
The hospital assembled a team of 35 medical staff, including 19 doctors, to perform the procedure on the woman, who was in her 32nd week of pregnancy.
A rapid antigen test showed that the babies – two boys and two girls weighing between 1.1kg and 1.6kg – do not have Covid-19, Kiriwandeniya said, adding that the multiple births added new challenges because the mother had Covid-related complications.
Virus cases have surged in Sri Lanka since October, when the number of infections increased more than tenfold to 35,387, with 160 deaths.
Updated
Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, has tested negative for the coronavirus but will stay in self-isolation, his office said on Thursday, a day after he met the French president Emmanuel Macron, who has the virus.
“I feel good and without any symptoms,” Costa, 59, wrote on Twitter shortly after he cancelled all of his in-person public activities, including an official trip to Sao Tome and Principe and Guinea Bissau between 18 December and 20 December.
Costa’s office said he would work remotely and wait for the health authority to decide how long he will have to stay home.
Macron and Costa had a working lunch at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday to discuss priorities of Portugal’s upcoming European Council presidency, which starts next month.
Earlier on Thursday, Macron’s office said he had tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting a track and trace effort across Europe, following meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days, including Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, who tested negative.
Reuters images showed Macron warmly welcoming Costa to the palace, with both wearing face masks as they stood shoulder to shoulder outside the building’s entrance.
Em virtude da confirmação do teste positivo do Presidente francês @EmmanuelMacron, com quem estive ontem no Palácio do Eliseu, estou em isolamento profilático preventivo até avaliação do grau de risco por parte das autoridades de saúde. pic.twitter.com/V0D4mHsr8S
— António Costa (@antoniocostapm) December 17, 2020
No quadro da preparação da minha deslocação a São Tomé e Príncipe e Guiné Bissau, de 18 a 20 de dezembro, já estava previsto que realizasse hoje um teste para deteção de #COVID19, o que já aconteceu esta manhã.
— António Costa (@antoniocostapm) December 17, 2020
Decidi cancelar e deslocação a África, bem como toda a agenda pública que implique a minha presença física. Mantenho toda a atividade executiva e a agenda de trabalho à distância. Sinto-me bem e sem quaisquer sintomas.
— António Costa (@antoniocostapm) December 17, 2020
Updated
Lockdown restrictions will tighten in parts of western Athens from Friday to contain a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, authorities said.
Greece has seen a rapid rise in infections since October, forcing it to impose a second nationwide lockdown. But, despite those curbs, infections have shown no sign of abating in three western boroughs of Athens, the deputy civil protection minister Nikos Hardalias said in a televised briefing.
In those areas, a curfew will be extended by four hours and run from 6pm to 5am local time from Friday, Hardalias said. Bookstores, hair salons and some of the few retailers that Greece allowed to re-open on Monday will also close for a week.
“It is the only way to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus,” Hardalias said. Greece reported 1,115 new infections on Thursday, bringing the national total to 128,710. It has recorded 3,948 Covid-19-related deaths.
The French president’s wife Brigitte Macron, 67, has tested negative for coronavirus, her office told Reuters on Thursday. Emmanuel Macron, 42, tested positive for Covid-19, prompting a track and trace effort across Europe following meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days.
From bows to handshakes, Reuters has explored how, over time, Emmanuel Macron let social distancing slip.
Once an early adopter of the coronavirus-proof “namaste” greeting, the French president was showing signs of letting his guard down almost a year into the pandemic.
On Monday, three days before his office said he had tested positive for Covid-19, Macron greeted OECD chief, Angel Gurría, with a warm hand clasp in the Élysée palace courtyard, pulling the 70-year-old into a loose embrace, a Reuters picture shows. They were wearing masks, but Macron broke his government’s No1 pandemic rule: stick to what the French call “barrier gestures” and avoid handshakes, hugs and kisses.
“You know them, they save lives: barrier gestures are not an option!” Macron said in a tweet on 12 July. His office did not return a request for comment about his welcome for Gurría.
Macron was always very tactile before the pandemic, sharing hugs with leaders such as the US president, Donald Trump, and kissing and patting members of the public on the back.
In the past couple of weeks, the French leader fist-bumped EU counterparts at a summit in Brussels and greeted the EU chief Charles Michel and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, at the Élysée with pats on the back and elbows, TV footage shows.
Now Sanchez, Michel and Gurria are self-isolating.
Macron also hosted a lunch at the Élysée on Tuesday with about 20 parliamentary leaders and dined with a dozen lawmakers on Wednesday, parliamentary sources said, despite his government recommending no more than six guests at the table during end-of-year holidays.
That contrasted with his careful following of social-distancing guidelines earlier in the pandemic.
In March, days before he put the nation on lockdown, he replaced the traditional handshake with the “namaste” when he greeted Spain’s king and queen in Paris, pressing his palms together and bowing slightly.
He repeated this greeting with the UK’s Prince Charles on 18 June and maintained social distance outside 10 Downing Street with the prime minister Boris Johnson.
But on 28 October, when he announced a second lockdown, he included himself among those who had let social distancing slip.
“We should all have respected barrier gestures more, especially with family and friends,” he said on TV. “Is now the time for regrets?”
Updated
The European leaders self-isolating following Macron's positive test
A host of European leaders are quarantining and scrambling to get tested after the French president Emmanuel Macron tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.
Macron had attended a number of high-profile events in recent days, including the European council summit in Brussels last week, and has received several leaders at the Élysée Palace this week.
It has not yet been determined how or when the French president contracted the virus and when he became contagious.
Among those who are now self-isolating having met Macron this week and are the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who earlier today tested negative but will work remotely from quarantine, the European council chief, Charles Michel, and the OECD secretary-general, Angel Gurría.
Micheál Martin, Ireland’s taoiseach, has tested negative. He limited his contacts on Thursday while awaiting his results.
The Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, has cancelled all official trips and is isolating while he awaits test results, after attending a working lunch with Macron at the Élysée Palace yesterday.
Alexander De Croo, the Belgian prime minister, and Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister, are also self-isolating following contact with Macron.
The French prime minister, Jean Castex, and the parliamentary speaker, Richard Ferrand, are also in quarantine, their offices confirmed on Thursday.
Updated
This is from Virgin Media’s Gavan Reilly, who reports the Irish PM Micheál Martin’s coronavirus test has come back negative. The taoiseach earlier restricted movements and limited contacts after meeting the French president, Emmanuel Macron, last week at the European council summit.
UPDATE: The Taoiseach's test has come up negative. https://t.co/sxtcPExIAa
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) December 17, 2020
Updated
Turkey’s daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high of 243 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Thursday, bringing the total so far to 17,364.
Turkey also recorded 27,515 new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic ones, in the last 24 hours, down more than 2,000 from a day earlier. For four months, Ankara only reported daily symptomatic cases, but it has reported all since 25 November.
The country has registered 1,955,680 Covid-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic in March, the data showed. The government has imposed weekday curfews and full weekend lockdowns to curb the surge in infections.
Announcing Thursday’s numbers on Twitter, the health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said the measures and restrictions had begun to yield results.
Bugün tespit edilen 4.209 hastamız var. Ağır hasta sayımız uzun bir aradan sonra düştü. Aktif hasta sayısı da azalmaya devam ediyor. Tedbir ve kısıtlamalar netice vermeye başladı. Bunu sürekli hale getirecek olan bizleriz. Sonuç alana kadar mücadele edelim https://t.co/RVlhe7oIYm
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) December 17, 2020
Updated
Italy reported 683 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday against 680 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new cases rose to 18,236 from 17,572.
There were 185,320 swabs carried out in the past day, down from a previous 199,489 the ministry said.
Italy has seen 67,220 Covid-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world. It has also registered 1.906 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 stood at 26,427 on Thursday, down by 470 from the day before, and there were 183 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 191 on Wednesday. The number of intensive care patients decreased by 71 to 2,855, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, tested negative for Covid-19 on Thursday but will quarantine until 24 December after being in contact with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who has contracted coronavirus, his office said.
Sanchez, who earlier on Thursday suspended all public activities, will take another test before the end of his self-isolation, it added. Sanchez and Macron met on Monday in Paris at the Élysée Palace.
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Large areas of England will be added to the “very high alert” Covid-19 category this weekend, placing two-thirds of the population under the toughest tier of restrictions to tackle a rising number of infections.
The UK, like other countries, is struggling to contain a second wave of coronavirus cases and deaths, and the government is having to defend a plan to relax measures for five days over Christmas.
In a sign of mounting anxiety over the potential consequences of Christmas socialising, the UK government said most secondary school pupils would have a week of remote learning before returning to classrooms from 11 January. Only those in exam years, those considered vulnerable and the children of critical workers will be allowed back to school on 4 January.
The health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, said cases in the south-east of England were up by 46% in the last week, while hospital admissions were up by more than a third. In the east of England, cases were up by two-thirds, and hospital admissions by nearly half.
“It is therefore necessary to apply tier 3 measures across a much wider area of the east and southeast of England,” he told parliament, referring to the strictest of three levels of Covid-related restrictions being applied in England.
He said the new measures would be in force from Saturday. A small number of areas - Bristol and north Somerset - had their restrictions eased.
London was placed into tier 3 this week after an emergency review identified a surge in infections.
The changes mean that from Saturday, 68% of England’s population will be in tier 3 and 30% in tier 2. Fewer than a million people will be in the more relaxed tier 1.
In tier 2, bars are shut and households are banned from mixing to socialise indoors. Tier 3 also shuts dine-in restaurants, hotels, theatres and cinemas, and places more rules on socialising and travel. Shops, workplaces and schools mostly stay open in all tiers.
On Wednesday, the UK government refused to change course on the relaxation of the rules over Christmas and has allowed family members to travel to visit relatives over a five-day period in England. It followed days of warnings from MPs and scientists that the plan would inevitably see a surge of coronavirus infections - and deaths - as households mix indoors for extended periods.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, urged families to severely limit the length and scale of gatherings over Christmas and exercise extreme caution, issuing a grave message to consider postponing reunions with elderly relatives until they receive a vaccine.
However, the Welsh government changed tack and announced it would legislate to reduce the number of households permitted to mix at Christmas from three to two, and Scotland advised that a maximum of two households should gather and recommended limiting reunions to one day, if at all.
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Gustavo Delgado walks every day from his home in La Boca, a hard-scrabble neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, to a nearby community pantry to find the only food that he and his family are sure to be able to eat that day.
Delgado, an office cleaner aged 52, lost his job after the company he worked for went bust due to Covid-19. Unable to find a new job so far, he lives in a small house with his wife and granddaughter. They are three months behind on rent.
“The company forced us to resign and accept the miserably small severance they were offering. That only sustained us for a few days,” he told Reuters.
Argentina’s recession, which began in 2018 due to investors’ distrust in the policies of the former president Mauricio Macri, worsened in 2020 due to Covid-19.
The president, Alberto Fernandez, who took office about a year ago, locked the country down in March. Many of those restrictions have been lifted but the virus continues to spread, with more than 41,365 fatalities so far.
Poverty, according to the Argentine Catholic University (UCA), increased in the third quarter to 44.2% of Argentines from 40.8% registered in the country a year earlier. On Thursday the national statistics body (INDEC) will release the unemployment rate for the July-September period.
“Much of the increase in poverty is explained as a consequence of the pandemic and the measures that the government used to contain it,” said Juan Ignacio Bonfiglio, researcher at the UCA’s Social Observatory, which managed the poll.
The situation also “impacted on the labour market, particularly on less structured occupations and the informal sector of the economy”, he explained.
According to the latest survey of analysts by the central bank, the economy will shrink by 10.9% this year before rebounding by 4.8% in 2021.
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A senior White House appointee in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) urged health officials in July to intensify the “herd immunity” approach to combating the Covid-19 pandemic, writing “we want [Americans] infected”.
Paul Alexander, a former aide to the HHS assistant press secretary Michael Caputo and a known herd immunity advocate, wrote an email to Caputo on 4 July – just as virus cases were spiking in the Sun Belt – laying out his case for herd immunity.
“Allow the nation to develop antibodies. Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk… So we use them to develop herd… we want them infected,” Alexander wrote in the email, which was obtained and published by Politico.
Read more here:
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A cemetery in the German city of Hanau has started to temporarily store the bodies of people who have died from Covid in a shipping container because hospital mortuaries are already full, according to Reuters.
Alexandra Kinski, head of cemeteries and crematoriums in Hanau, near Germany’s financial hub Frankfurt, said:
Unfortunately the situation in Hanau has changed so much that we now need to make use of containers that we have had here since April, initially as a precaution.
If a person passes away and there is no space in the clinic then they come here and stay for a short while until the deceased is taken to a final resting place, for example here in the cemetery.
She said two corpses were already being stored in the metal container, which has space for 25 bodies, adding that people are only kept there for a short time after dying.
Germany, which was praised for its handling of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring, entered a strict lockdown on Wednesday as infections and deaths soar in a second wave.
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Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, began isolating on Thursday pending a test result after he had attended the EU summit last week. It comes as a host of European leaders and top French officials rushed into isolation on Thursday after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, tested positive for Covid-19, upending political agendas across the continent.
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Here is a video clip of the king of Sweden saying his country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic had been a failure. Carl XVI Gustaf sharply criticised policies partly blamed for a high death toll among elderly people.
The king used an annual royal Christmas television address to highlight the growing impact of the virus as hospitals in the Stockholm region warned they were struggling to cope with a surge in cases and polls showed public confidence in the authorities had plunged.
The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced that the furlough scheme is now being extended until the end of April. It was last extended in November and was due to run until the end of March.
More on our UK coronavirus live blog:
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Dutch cases hit record increase of almost 13,000
Coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by nearly 13,000 in 24 hours, hitting a new record for the second day in a row, data released by Dutch health authorities on Thursday showed.
The steep increase in infections comes just days after a tough, five-week lockdown was imposed in the Netherlands, where more than 10,000 people have died of Covid-19 during the pandemic.
Poland to enter three-week national quarantine from 28 December
Poland will enter a national quarantine from 28 December to 17 January, entailing the closure of all hotels, ski slopes and shopping malls, the health minister Adam Niedzielski said on Thursday.
Poland’s health system has struggled to grapple with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with new daily cases reaching over 27,000 a day at its peak in November.
Niedzielski warned about a third wave of the pandemic in the new year and told Poles to remain vigilant.
“I call on every Pole to be responsible for themselves and their loved ones. But I know that calls won’t help,” Niedzielski told a press conference.
While no new restrictions would be imposed for Christmas, he said there would be a curfew on New Year’s Eve from 7pm on 31 December to 6am on 1 January to limit the virus’s spread and that there would be a 10-day quarantine for those returning to the country by public transportation.
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One of Ukraine’s best known veteran politicians, Gennady Kernes, died in Germany early on Thursday from Covid-19 complications, local authorities and members of his family said.
Kernes, 61, the mayor of the largest eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, went into politics after making his fortune in the post-communist 1990s.
After protesters toppled the pro-Moscow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, he supported calls for Kharkiv to become independent from Kyiv’s pro-European leaders.
In 2014, Kernes, one of Ukraine’s most prominent Jewish politicians, was shot in the back by an unknown assailant. After the assassination attempt, he used a wheelchair.
He contracted coronavirus in September, and was later moved to a German hospital.
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Sweden, whose unorthodox pandemic strategy placed it in the global spotlight, registered a record 8,881 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, health agency statistics showed. The increase compared with a previous high of 7,935 daily cases recorded last week.
Sweden registered 91 new deaths, taking the total to 7,893. The deaths registered have typically occurred over several days and sometimes weeks, and are added into the health agency’s tally which is updated four times per week.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is several times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours but lower than several European countries, including the UK, Italy, Spain and France, which all opted for lockdowns.
Earlier, the Swedish king said his country had failed in its handling of Covid-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly.
Carl XVI Gustaf, 74, whose son and daughter-in-law tested positive last month, used an annual royal Christmas TV special to highlight the growing impact of the virus, in a rare intervention from a monarch whose duties are largely ceremonial.
Sweden has stood out from most countries by shunning lockdowns and face masks, leaving schools, restaurants and businesses largely open and relying mainly on voluntary social distancing and hygiene recommendations to slow the spread.
An official commission said on Tuesday systemic shortcomings in elderly care coupled with inadequate measures from the government and agencies contributed to Sweden’s particularly high death toll in nursing homes.
“I believe we have failed,” the king said in an excerpt from the programme broadcast by SVT on Wednesday. The full show airs on 21 December. “We have had a large number of deaths and that is terrible. That is something that brings us all suffering.”
The king has no formal political power and rarely comments on current and political issues, though he has addressed the nation to offer encouragement during the outbreak.
In the spring, the government’s response to the pandemic was widely supported by Swedes who carried on much as normal while most of Europe entered lockdown. But the rising death toll – particularly among elderly residents of care homes – has drawn increasing criticism.
A poll in daily Dagens Nyheter on Thursday showed about a third of Swedes expressed a high level of confidence in authorities’ handling of the pandemic, down from 42% in March and a peak of 56% after the summer lull in infections.
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Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, is to restrict his movements while waiting for the results of a Covid-19 test, following a positive test for the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
“The taoiseach and President Macron were both attendees at the EU council meeting in Brussels last week. The taoiseach is limiting his contacts this afternoon as a precaution while he is tested,” a spokesman said on Thursday. The result of the test is expected this afternoon.
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The German chancellor Angela Merkel tested negative for Covid-19 after last week’s EU summit, at which she met the French president Emmanuel Macron, the government press office said after Macron tested positive for the virus on Thursday.
“The chancellor was tested a few days after the EU summit, as is routine,” a spokeswoman said, adding that the result of the test was negative. “The chancellor sends the French president her best wishes for a speedy recovery.”
Saudi Arabia kicked off a three-phase Covid-19 vaccination programme on Thursday, AFP reports, with the health minister among those inoculated after the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the kingdom.
Along with the health minister, Tawfiq al-Rabiah, a woman in a wheelchair and another man were among the first to be administered the vaccine at a centre in Riyadh, an AFP photographer reported.
“This is the beginning of the end of the crisis,” Rabiah told reporters.
People aged over 65 as well as those with chronic ailments or at a high risk of infection would receive the vaccine in the first stage, and those aged over 50 in the second, the health ministry said this week.
Everyone else would be vaccinated in the third stage, the ministry said, without specifying the dates for each phase or how long the mass campaign would take.
The Gulf kingdom has a population of more than 34 million, according to official figures. More than 100,000 people had registered so far through an online application called “Sehaty”, the ministry said, adding that the vaccine would be “free for all citizens and residents”.
Last week, the kingdom approved the use of the vaccine developed by US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, becoming the second Gulf country to do so after Bahrain.
The UK, Canada and the United States have also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and have already launched mass inoculation campaigns. Neighbouring Jordan sanctioned the drug on Monday.
Saudi Arabia has so far recorded more than 360,000 novel coronavirus cases, including more than 6,000 deaths - the highest among the Gulf Arab states. But the kingdom has also reported a high recovery rate.
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Angela Merkel has faced down a member of the rightwing populist AfD in the German parliament who implied that the government planned to force all Germans to be immunised against coronavirus using a genetically modified vaccine.
Uwe Witt asked the chancellor during parliamentary questions whether the intention was to vaccinate “all the residents of the Fatherland” in order to achieve herd immunity, and whether people would be allowed to make their own choice as to what vaccine they received, particularly as one of them had been, he said, “genetically manipulated”, referring to the mRNA vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Vaccinations in Germany are due to start on 27 December, following approval by the European Medicines Agency. Merkel insisted that the government would not be forcing anyone to receive a vaccine, although she stressed the more people who were vaccinated, the quicker life in Germany would be able to return to normal.
We will not be introducing a vaccine obligation. There will be those, and I say this totally neutrally, who will not want to be vaccinated. Should that turn out to be more than 40, 50, 60% of the population then we will be wearing a mask for a very long time, because we will not reach herd immunity... That’s just the nature of this.
She said to Witt:
I would urge you to stick to the facts. Rather than to talk about some genetically-modified stuff, with mRNA we’re talking about a vaccine which contains genetic components and as a result is able to be very precise, at least according to the results of the phase three [clinical] study.
Merkel said once Germany had secured sufficient vaccine doses “there will surely be the opportunity to say you’d like one and not the other. At some point we’ll be better able to say which vaccine is maybe better for which group. We don’t know that yet.”
The AfD has frequently accused the government of exaggerating the dangers of the coronavirus, and its members have regularly rebelled against the obligation to wear a mask, some even appearing in parliament with face coverings fashioned out of loosely woven net.
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Migrants must not be left stranded at the back of the Covid-19 vaccine queue, the president of the Red Cross has said.
Speaking ahead of International Migrants Day on Friday, the president of the IFRC, Francesco Rocca, warned that inclusive action was urgently needed to safeguard the health and dignity of migrants across the world and to ensure they were not left behind as the first Covid-19 vaccines start being distributed.
He said:
As the first Covid-19 vaccines begin to roll out, migrants – irrespective of their status – must not be left at the back of the queue. The pandemic is having a catastrophic impact on people on the move, who are too often left to fall through the cracks when it comes to accessing essential health services. It is imperative that we address the many barriers to universal health coverage and that migrants are fully included in national vaccination campaigns.
A recent IFRC report revealed that migrants and refugees had been disproportionately exposed to, and affected by, the virus this year due to often limited access to essential health, water, sanitation and hygiene services, as well as poor and unsafe living and working conditions that make it harder to comply with basic preventative measures.
It also showed that migrants were being hit hardest by the economic fallout of Covid-19, were widely neglected from formal protection and safeguarding measures, and regularly faced stigma and discrimination – sometimes in the form of violence.
As countries begin their vaccination campaigns, the IFRC warned that migrants were at massive risk of being excluded again and the inequitable distribution of vaccines between and within countries not only threatened to leave the most marginalised behind, but also risked undermining shared health if the virus was not checked within unprotected communities.
Rocca added:
For many months now, IFRC has called for a people’s vaccine that is delivered based on our shared humanity and commitment to defeat this pandemic by protecting the most vulnerable in society first. None of us will be safe until we are all safe. When future generations read about this pandemic in the history books, let them be proud that the world treated migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with dignity rather than ashamed that we turned our backs in this hour of greatest need.
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Uruguay will temporarily close its borders next week to non-commercial traffic, and urged citizens to limit holiday gatherings due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. Borders will be closed from 21 December to 10 January, except for cargo transportation, the government said late on Wednesday.
Uruguay’s lockdown measures largely held the virus at bay during the first months of the pandemic. “The second wave to hit the world is our first wave,” the president, Luis Lacalle Pou, said in an evening televised event.
“We cannot compromise what has been achieved so far,” said Rafael Radi, coordinator of the government’s Covid-19 advisory group. He said the hardest hit areas are the capital Montevideo and surrounding areas.
On Wednesday the country registered 476 new coronavirus cases, four deaths and - for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic - the virus reached all provinces.
Since 13 March, Uruguay has registered 10,893 cases and 102 deaths. Fernando Paganini, a scientist in the advisory group, told a news conference that projections from the current trend showed the country would reach 1,200 new cases a day by the end of the year, putting a strain on the healthcare system.
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The EU commission has said that Ursula von der Leyen will not self-isolate following Macron’s positive test result.
She met with the French president during a European council meeting in Brussels last week, where the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, were among those also present.
Von der Leyen “has no plan on self-isolating,” a commission spokesman said on Thursday. She met Macron earlier in the week, but French authorities said the meeting did not constitute a close contact that required self-isolation, the spokesman added.
As we reported earlier, the president of the European council, Charles Michel, has decided to self-isolate for precaution after meeting Macron.
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The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, is making a statement to MPs about the review of Covid-19 tiers in England.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow is covering it on our UK live blog, here:
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The Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, has cancelled official trips after meeting the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Wednesday and is awaiting coronavirus test results, Reuters reports.
Costa met Macron at the Élysée Palace less than 24 hours ago. His office said he had no Covid-19 symptoms and was awaiting the result of a test he got earlier on Thursday, which had already been scheduled before his official trip to Sao Tome and Principe and Guinea Bissau between 18 and 20 December.
“The prime minister decided to cancel the trip, as well as any public agenda that implies his physical presence,” the statement said. “He will keep all executive activities and work schedule, which will be carried out remotely.”
Reuters images from Wednesday showed Macron welcoming Costa to the Élysée Palace, with both leaders wearing masks but coming into physical contact outside the building’s entrance. They had a working lunch to discuss priorities of Portugal’s upcoming European council presidency, which starts next month.
This is from Reuters’ Catarina Demony.
Breaking: Portugal @antoniocostapm cancelled official trips after meeting France's Macron on Wednesday and is awaiting coronavirus test results, @Lusa_noticias reports
— Catarina Demony (@CatarinaDemony) December 17, 2020
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Pope Francis urged world leaders on Thursday to divert funds used for armaments to confront problems such as the Covid-19 pandemic and ensure vaccines reach the poor and most vulnerable nations.
In his message for the Roman Catholic church’s World Day of Peace, which is celebrated on 1 January, Francis also repeated a call for the establishment of a global fund with money intended for weapons to be used instead to help eradicate poverty.
The annual message, this year titled A Culture of Care as a Path to Peace, is traditionally sent to heads of state, government, international organisations and other religions.
How many resources are spent on weaponry, especially nuclear weapons, that could be used for more significant priorities such as ensuring the safety of individuals, the promotion of peace and integral human development, the fight against poverty, and the provision of health care..
Global problems like the present Covid-19 pandemic and climate change have only made these challenges all the more evident.
Under Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic church has hardened is stance against nuclear weapons and called for their total abolition. In 2017, he said countries should not stockpile them even for the purpose of deterrence.
What a courageous decision it would be to establish a ‘Global Fund’ with the money spent on weapons and other military expenditures, in order to permanently eliminate hunger and contribute to the development of the poorest countries.
Francis, who has repeatedly condemned so-called “vaccine nationalism”, said the poorest nations should not be left behind in the fight against coronavirus.
I renew my appeal to political leaders and the private sector to spare no effort to ensure access to Covid-19 vaccines and to the essential technologies needed to care for the sick, the poor and those who are most vulnerable.
He paid tribute to medical staff and other frontline workers who risked their lives by helping coronavirus victims, especially those who died in the process.
In the face of the pandemic, we have realised that we are in the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together.
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Brigitte Macron, the wife of the French president, is self-isolating at present although she is not showing any symptoms of Covid-19, her office said on Thursday. The French presidency had said earlier in the day that Emmanuel Macron had tested positive for Covid-19 and was self-isolating.
The European council president, Charles Michel, will self-isolate as a precaution after seeing the French president, Emmanuel Macron – who has tested positive for Covid-19 – in person on Monday, an EU spokesman said.
[Michel] was informed by the French authorities that he is not considered to be a close contact. He is tested regularly and tested negative on Tuesday. However, as a matter of precaution the president will go into self-isolation.
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As we reported earlier, European Union countries will begin inoculating people against the coronavirus from 27 December.
The president of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has just tweeted:
It's Europe's moment.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 17, 2020
On 27, 28 and 29 December vaccination will start across the EU.
We protect our citizens together. We are #StrongerTogether#EUvaccinationdays pic.twitter.com/6VxDumysBL
She had previously called for a coordinated start to inoculations on the same day in all 27 EU countries.
Good morning from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next eight hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts about what we should be covering here are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Many people in India appear hesitant to get vaccinated for Covid-19 as infections have fallen sharply since a mid-September peak and some people are worried about possible side-effects, a survey of 18,000 released on Thursday suggested.
India reported 24,037 new infections on Thursday – fewer than 30,000 for a fourth straight day – taking its total to 9.96m, the second highest in the world. More than 144,000 people have died.
India wants to begin vaccinations in a few weeks, initially focusing on people more exposed to the virus and over 50, but a survey by the New Delhi consultancy LocalCircles reported by Reuters found that about 69% of respondents saw no urgent need to get immunised.
“It appears some of the key reasons for the hesitancy are limited information about side-effects, efficacy levels and a growing belief in parts of the population that Covid cannot affect them because of their high immunity levels,” LocalCircles said in a statement.
Many people in the survey, which had responses from nearly a third of India’s districts, said they believed “we are moving towards herd immunity”.
Jiaul Haque, a software engineer from the eastern state of Assam, said he thought he had already developed some kind of immunity to Covid-19 and would to see how the various vaccines work on other people before he signs up for one.
“The vaccine has not passed the regular duration of testing,” the 36-year-old said.
That’s it from me. My colleague Lucy Campbell will take over shortly.
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Switzerland has reported 5,058 new coronavirus cases as well as an additional 102 deaths, Reuters said.
Here’s my colleague Jon Henley’s full report on the news that Emmanuel Macron has contracted Covid-19.
The British ambassador to Turkmenistan has said he is recovering from coronavirus in the authoritarian Central Asian country whose leadership insists there have been no cases of the infection.
The British ambassador Hugh Philpott wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that he needed to “recuperate from covid” before singing again, after a pro-government website shared a video of him singing a local folk song.
He wrote in a separate tweet Wednesday: “I am recuperating from a virus trending in the ‘physical world’” without giving further details.
Dear all, I am not fully on social media at the moment. I am recuperating from a virus trending in the ‘physical world’. More of that later. But I hear from other little birds that many of you like my song. That makes me genuinely happy and is helping me to recover.
— Hugh Philpott (@HughPhilpott) December 16, 2020
Philpott earlier this month participated in the opening of a market selling local handicrafts in the capital, Ashgabat, indicating that he is probably located inside Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan implemented a lockdown following a visit by a World Health Organization delegation in July, but has yet to declare any coronavirus infections.
The autocratic leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, last month described zero official cases as a “big achievement” even as he opened a hospital that appeared to be equipped specifically to treat virus patients.
A pro-government website recently shared a music video in which a Philpott was shown singing a Turkmen song called “Turkmen Steppe” about the country’s natural beauty.
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Spanish PM goes into quarantine after Macron positive test
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez – who had lunch with Macron in Paris on Monday - announced that he was suspending all official engagements and going into quarantine for a week following Macron’s diagnosis.
In a statement on Thursday morning, Sánchez’s office said he would remain in quarantine until 24 December, which will be 10 days after his meeting with Macron.
“The prime minister will undergo an immediate diagnostic test to determine his situation and will then decide, based on the results, how to manage his agenda over the coming days,” the statement added.
Ángel Gurría, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), also attended Monday’s lunch, as did Charles Michel, the president of the European council.
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EU states to start vaccinations on 27 December
European Union member states plan to start vaccinations against Covid-19 from 27 Dec,German health minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday.
“In Germany we will start, if the approval comes as planned, on Dec 27. The other countries in the EU want to be able to start and want to start from Dec 27,” he said ahead of a meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and executives of the vaccine maker BioNTech.
A senior EU official said on Wednesday the bloc could give its final approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 23 Dec.
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A Vietnamese pharmaceutical company began testing a coronavirus vaccine on volunteers in Hanoi on Thursday, as developing countries jostle with richer nations to access affordable inoculations.
Nanogen’s Nanocovax is one of four under development in Vietnam, and a company representative said it is expected to cost around $5 a dose.
Three volunteers received the jab on Thursday and will be monitored for 72 hours at the Vietnam Military Medical University.
Nguyen Ngo Quang from the health ministry said 60 participants will receive the vaccine in the first phase of the trial.
University director Do Quyet said medical personnel were well prepared in case any participants developed problematic side-effects.
“All of us think that Covid is our enemy, so we are preparing for a battle... We have to prepare very carefully and we have to win (this battle),” he told reporters, describing the work on the clinical trial.
We’ll return to the news of Macron’s positive test as and when more news emerges. In the meantime, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said he has yet to be inoculated with a Russian-made vaccine against Covid-19 but would do so when possible.
Speaking at his annual press conference, the 68-year-old said citizens in other age groups were receiving the Russian-made vaccine against Covid-19 before he could have access to it.
“I am a fairly law-abiding person,” Putin said, in comments reported by Reuters. “I listen to the recommendations of our specialists. So I haven’t had the shot yet. But I will absolutely do it as soon as that becomes possible.”
The Russian leader has gone to great lengths not to contract the novel coronavirus, running the world’s largest country mainly from his residence outside Moscow rather than working from the Kremlin.
Putin said Russia’s vaccine was safe and effective. He called for all Russians to get inoculated but told journalists that the government lacks equipment to produce enough of the vaccine and needs time to increase capacity.
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France earlier this week eased restrictions imposed to battle the second wave of the coronavirus but infection rates remain high.
There is still a nationwide overnight curfew from 8 pm to halt the spread of the virus while restaurants and cafes as well as theatres and cinemas remain closed.
Over 59,300 people have died in France of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to official figures.
French PM Castex to self-isolate after Macron tests positive
French President Emmanuel Macron will cancel all his forthcoming trips, including a scheduled visit to Lebanon. The French prime minister Jean Castex will also be self-isolating after Macron’s positive test, the head of the French Senate, Gerard Larcher, said.
There will now be questions over whether other political figures will have to self-isolate as a result of Macron’s diagnosis. Macron attended a European Union summit at the end of last week, and he met Wednesday with the prime minister of Portugal. There was no immediate comment from Portuguese officials, AFP said.
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Le Figaro reports that Macron’s staff told the newspaper earlier this week that he had been been tested several times since the start of the epidemic, but had not yet returned a positive result. His wife, first lady Brigitte Macron, had already been quarantined because of contact with somebody who had the virus, but did not test positive.
In a brief statement, the Elysee Palace said that Macron took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced.
Macron will now isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and take care of his activities at a distance,” the Elysee said.
Macron tests positive for coronavirus
France’s presidential palace says President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for Covid-19, AP reports.
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We have failed to protect the elderly, says king of Sweden
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf says he believes his country has failed to protect the elderly in care homes from the effects of the pandemic.
“I think we have failed. We have a large number who have died and that is terrible. It is something we all suffer with,” the monarch said, in comments reported by AP.
His comments followed the conclusions presented Tuesday by an independent commission that looked into Sweden’s handling of the pandemic. It said that elderly care in Sweden has major structural shortcomings and authorities have proved unprepared and ill-equipped to meet the pandemic.
Sweden has stood out among European and other nations for the way it has handled the pandemic, long not mandating lockdowns like other nations but relying on citizens’ sense of civic duty. The Scandinavian country has seen nearly 7,700 virus-related deaths.
“You think of all the family members who have not been able to say goodbye to their deceased family members,” the king said in an excerpt of a pre-recorded Christmas interview to be broadcast Dec. 21 on Swedish broadcaster SVT. “I think it is a heavy and traumatic experience not to be able to say a warm goodbye.”
The excerpt was broadcast on SVT.
“The Swedish people have suffered enormously in difficult conditions,” Carl Gustav said, adding, “Lately, it has felt more obvious, it has crept closer and closer. That’s not what you want.”
His son, Prince Carl Philip who is fifth in the line of succession, and his wife Princess Sofia have both tested positive and had milder flu symptoms. They were quarantined at home with their two children.
Carl Gustaf is Sweden’s head of state, but his duties are ceremonial, and he holds no political power.
South Africa, the country worst-hit by the coronavirus on the continent, has registered more than 10,000 daily cases as infections surge at an exponential rate, the health minister said.
The Covid-19 positivity rate - the proportion of tests that come back positive - has topped 21 percent, far exceeding the “ideal” rate of 10 percent, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a tweet reported by AFP.
South Africa reined in its first wave of the virus which occurred in July, when the new cases topped 12,000 daily.
Numbers then gradually came down, to below 1,000 in September.
On Monday, the figure had risen to around 8,000, prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce new restrictions, in particular a curfew from 11 pm and the closure of some beaches in the southeast at the start of the southern hemisphere summer.
“Today we have breached the ten thousand mark for new cases,” Mkhize said. “Our daily cases are growing exponentially.”
The worst-hit region is the Western Cape in the south, including the tourist destinations of Cape Town and the country’s wine country.
“Our beaches are known for overcrowding during this time and people tend to be carefree,” the minister said.
He urged holidaymakers who may be heading to those beaches that are open “to ensure that it does not become a day of regret where people get infected and lives are lost.”
As of late Wednesday, the country of around 58 million people had recorded 23,827 deaths from 883,687 cases.
South Africa accounts for more than a third of the coronavirus cases reported across the African continent.
Bulgaria will keep secondary schools, shopping malls, restaurants, cafes and gyms closed until the end of January to contain coronavirus infections that have strained the poorly funded healthcare system, the government said on Thursday.
The restrictions, which were due to end on Dec. 21, have helped decrease a surge in new infections, but the country of 7 million people still has one of the highest per capita Covid-19 death rates in the EU.
Kindergartens and primary schools will reopen after the New Year holidays, the government said in a statement.
“We need to act fast and be flexible in the measures, in support for the business and the people, in supply of medicines and vaccine shots, because the pandemic globally is getting more complicated,” prime minister, Boyko Borissov, said, according to Reuters.
On Thursday, Bulgaria reported 1,959 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 186,246, including 6,196 deaths. Over 7,000 people were in hospitals, with 570 in intensive care.
Bulgaria’s chief health inspector said the country is ready to start Covid-19 vaccinations once they are approved in the EU, and expressed hopes that inoculations of its frontline medics can start before the end of this year.
Updated
The head of Ireland’s health service on Thursday said he was concerned that the country could see an “explosive concoction” that would lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases after Christmas.
“The concern is that we get this kind of explosive concoction when we have a major impact post-Christmas,” Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Paul Reid told RTE radio, citing an increase in positive tests and a 30% surge in test requests over the past week and expected socialising over Christmas.
Ireland currently has one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 infections in Europe and earlier this month reopened its retail and hospitality sectors, with the exception of bars and clubs.
Updated
Tokyo’s hospitals are struggling to provide routine care because of a sharp spike in coronavirus cases, officials warned Thursday as new infections in the capital of Japan hit another record high.
The city raised its alert level for availability of medical services to the top of a four-tier Covid-19 warning system for the first time since it was introduced.
Japan has so far avoided imposing strict lockdown measures and has seen a smaller outbreak than many other countries, with only around 187,000 infections and 2,700 deaths recorded overall.
But with cases on the rise, this week the prime minister urged citizens to reconsider holiday travel, and suspended a controversial domestic tourism campaign in an attempt to slow the spread of infection.
Tokyo logged 822 new cases on Thursday - breaking its record for the second day running and marking a jump from around 600 per day in recent weeks.
Beijing will welcome an international team of Covid-19 investigators due to travel to China in January, said the World Health Organization (WHO), which is leading the mission.
China has strongly opposed calls for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, saying such calls are anti-China, but has been open to a WHO-led investigation.
However, it was unclear whether the WHO investigators will travel to the city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected, with discussions on the itinerary ongoing.
“WHO continues to contact China and to discuss the international team and the places they visit,” Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, told a news conference on Thursday, Reuters reported.
“Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming the international team and their visit...This is anticipated, as far as we are aware, to happen in early January,” he said.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin did not directly comment on the WHO visit during a daily media briefing on Thursday.
“China stands ready to enhance its cooperation with WHO to advance the global tracing efforts and contribute our share in our early victory against the pandemic,” he said.
Updated
In Wales, an extra 11,000 positive Covid tests have not yet been counted in the official figures because a computer system was down for maintenance, it has emerged.
The anomaly means the number of cases for the week up to 15 December is likely to be about double what had originally been thought.
Opposition politicians in Wales expressed deep concern, with one calling the news “staggering”.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Meanwhile in Russia, 28,214 new coronavirus cases have been announced in the last 24 hours, including 6,711 in Moscow, pushing the national tally to 2,762,668.
Authorities said 587 people had died overnight, taking the official death toll to 49,151.
In Russia, the AP reports that members of the public have not been rushing to get the country’s own vaccine.
“While excitement and enthusiasm greeted the Western-developed coronavirus vaccine when it was rolled out, the Russian-made version has received a mixed response, with reports of empty Moscow clinics that offered the shot to health care workers and teachers — the first members of the public designated to receive it,” the agency’s Daria Litvinova writes.
She goes on:
Kremlin officials and state-controlled media touted the Sputnik V vaccine as a major achievement after it was approved Aug. 11. But among Russians, hope that the shot would reverse the course of the COVID-19 crisis has become mixed with wariness and skepticism, reflecting concerns about how it was rushed out while still in its late-stage testing to ensure its effectiveness and safety.
Russia faced international criticism for approving a vaccine that hasn’t completed advanced trials among tens of thousands of people, and experts both at home and abroad warned against its wider use until the studies are completed.
Despite those warnings, authorities started offering it to certain high-risk groups, such as front-line medical workers, within weeks of approval.
“I don’t so much worry about Sputnik V being unsafe or less effective than we need it to be,” said Judy Twigg, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University specializing in global health. “I worry about whether or not people are going to be willing to take it in Russia.”
A poll conducted in October by the Levada Center, Russia’s top independent pollster, showed that 59% of Russians were unwilling to get the shots even if offered for free.
Some medical workers and teachers expressed skepticism about the vaccine because it hasn’t been fully tested.
Dr. Yekaterina Kasyanova of Siberia’s Kemerovo region said she didn’t trust it enough to get the shot and has advised her mother, a teacher, not to get it either, adding: “The vaccine is several months old. Long-term side effects are not known, its effectiveness hasn’t been proven.”
Dzhamilya Kryazheva, a teacher in Krasnogorsk near Moscow, echoed that sentiment.
“I don’t intend to experiment on my body. I have three children,” she said.
For other health care workers, the choice to be vaccinated was easy.
“People are dying here every day,” said Dr. Marina Pecherkina, an infectious disease specialist in the Far East city of Vladivostok. “Every day, we carry out corpses. What’s there to think about?”
Updated
This is Archie Bland, picking up coronavirus live in London, and beginning with a piece recently published by Cas Mudde and Jakub Wondreys about the impact of coronavirus on the far-right in Europe. The authors, political scientists, have conducted a study of 31 countries which shows other rightwing populists have not been ‘exposed’ by Covid-19 in the way Donald Trump has:
By now it is almost received wisdom that “populists” (often used as a euphemism for “the far right”) have ignored the threat of Covid-19, that populists have been the electoral victims of the pandemic, and that the pandemic has exposed the political incompetence of populists in government.
Most of this speculation is based on one or two individual cases, most notably the US president, Donald Trump. But he is the exception rather than the rule.
You can read about what they found here:
Saudi Arabia’s economy shrank more slowly in the third quarter as the government eased some coronavirus restrictions but the pandemic-hit oil sector continued to weigh on the broader economy, official data showed on Thursday, Reuters reports.
The economy shrank 4.6% in the third quarter, rebounding slightly from the 7% slump in the previous quarter but marked by declines in both the oil and non-oil sectors, the data showed.
Saudi Arabia is facing its worst economic decline in decades after the Covid-19 pandemic curbed global crude demand and measures to contain it also hurt other sectors.
The world’s largest oil exporter said on Tuesday it expects the economy to shrink by 3.7% this year but to swing back to growth of 3.2% next year.
“This negative growth originated mainly from the contraction in the oil sector by 8.2% and a negative growth rate of 2.1% recorded in the non-oil sector,” the General Authority for Statistics said on Thursday about the third quarter data.
The private sector, the main focus in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to diversify the economy away from oil, shrank by 3.1%, while the government sector grew by 0.5%.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.
I leave you with a very Australian surprise beneath the Christmas tree:
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The US Food and Drug administration has announced that extra doses of coronavirus vaccine contained in Pfizer’s vials can be used, potentially expanding the US supply of the drug by 40%, according to reports. The news, reported initially by Politico, comes after pharmacists discovered that some of the vaccine bottles contained enough liquid for up to two extra doses.
-
Biden, Pence to take vaccine publicly in coming days. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence are set to receive the Covid-19 vaccine soon.
According to two transition officials familiar with the matter, Biden will receive the vaccine publicly as early as next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to discuss it publicly. The White House says Pence and his wife, Karen, will receive the vaccine publicly on Friday. - Biden’s swearing in to have reduced capacity. A day after Biden’s own organising committee announced that his swearing-in would take place on 20 January outside the Capitol Building, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that permitted attendance at the event will be drastically reduced due to Covid-19 precautions. Instead of the usual 200,000 tickets distributed to members of Congress and passed out to their constituents, organizers will allow just over 1,000 tickets — one for each of the 535 members of Congress and one guest each.
- 11,000 positive tests missing from Welsh figures. Public Health Wales has announced that due to the “planned maintenance” of some of its IT systems, positive tests in the country were significantly underreported.The BBC reports that 11,000 positive tests will be included on Thursday, doubling the country’s recent figures:
- Tokyo raises alert level to highest amid record case increase. In Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has raised its medical system alert level to “Under strain” the highest of four levels. It is the first time since the alert system was established in July that the level has been reached. The warning comes as the city is set to confirm 800 cases, a one-day record, according to NHK. The previous record was set a day earlier, at 678 cases.
- India reports fewer than 30,000 cases for fourth straight day/ India reported 24,037 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 9.96 million, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday. This is the fourth straight day that daily cases have stayed below 30,000, keeping with the country’s trend of declining daily cases since hitting a peak of 97,000 single-day infections in September.
- Ardern unveils New Zealand Covid vaccine deals as economy rebounds. New Zealand has ordered 15m courses of Covid-19 vaccine from four providers as the country approaches the end of 2020 on a promising note, with a recovering economy and plans to open numerous travel corridors in the new year. New Zealand’s economy rebounded in the September quarter, growing 14%. Stats NZ said on Thursday the growth was the strongest quarter in New Zealand’s modern history, coming off the back of an 11% drop in the June quarter.
- In Australia, a Covid-19 cluster developing on Sydney’s northern beaches has grown to five. Twelve consecutive days without local Covid-19 cases in NSW ended on Wednesday after a Sydney airport driver was confirmed to have the virus and two mystery cases popped up on the northern beaches.
- Australian state violated human rights in Covid lockdown - report. An Australian state’s decision to lockdown more than 3,000 people in public housing towers to contain a second Covid-19 outbreak was not based on direct health advice and violated human rights, Victoria’s state Ombudsman said in a report.
- South Korea reported a record number of coronavirus deaths on Thursday as the country’s largest wave of infections strains hospitals and contact tracers. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported that there had been 22 additional deaths as of midnight on Wednesday, sharply up from a previous high of 13 earlier in the week. Overall the country reported 1,014 new cases of the novel coronavirus, including a daily record of 423 in the densely populated capital city of Seoul.
- WHO: Vaccination in Asia-Pacific expected mid or late 2021. The World Health Organization said Thursday that countries in the Asia-Pacific region are not guaranteed to have early access to Covid-19 shots and urged them to adopt a long-term approach to the pandemic.
- Germany suffered a record number of Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, its first day of partial lockdown, with a total of 952 people dying in the previous 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control centre, a figure that could rise as the hard-hit Saxony region was not included in Tuesday’s numbers.
- Germany aims to roll out BioNTech/Pfizer Covid vaccine on 27 December. Germany will begin coronavirus vaccinations on 27 December with elderly care home residents, health minister Jens Spahn announced, with the EU aiming for all 27 member states to begin on the same day.
- Brazil sees record daily Covid-19 infections as cases top 7 million. Brazil registered over 70,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, a daily record, as a second wave of infections spreads across the country.
- Twitter bans harmful false claims about Covid-19 vaccinations. Twitter has said users will be required to remove new tweets that advance harmful false or misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccinations, in an expansion of its rules on coronavirus misinformation.
The Palestinian Authority hopes to get vaccines through a WHO-led partnership with humanitarian organisations known as Covax, which aims to provide free vaccines for up to 20% of the population of poor countries, many of which have been hit especially hard by the pandemic.
But the program has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion doses it hopes to buy over the next year, has yet to confirm any actual deals and is short on cash. Rich countries have already reserved about 9 billion of the estimated 12 billion doses the pharmaceutical industry is expected to produce next year.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Palestinians have only one refrigeration unit — in the oasis town of Jericho — capable of storing the Pfizer vaccine. They are among nearly 3 billion people worldwide for whom lack of adequate refrigeration capacity could pose a major obstacle.
Palestinians left waiting as Israel is set to deploy vaccine
Israel will begin rolling out a major coronavirus vaccination campaign next week after the prime minister reached out personally to the head of a major drug company. Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control will have to wait much longer, AP reports.
Worldwide, rich nations are snatching up scarce supplies of new vaccines as poor countries largely rely on a World Health Organization program that has yet to get off the ground. There are few places where the competition is playing out in closer proximity than in Israel and the territories it has occupied for more than half a century.
Next year could bring a sharp divergence in the trajectory of the pandemic, which until now has blithely ignored the national boundaries and political enmities of the Middle East. Israelis could soon return to normal life and an economic revival, even as the virus continues to menace Palestinian towns and villages just a few miles (kilometers) away.
Israel reached an agreement with the Pfizer pharmaceutical company to supply 8 million doses of its newly approved vaccine — enough to cover nearly half of Israel’s population of 9 million since each person requires two doses. That came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally reached out multiple times to Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla, boasting that at one point he was able to reach the CEO at 2am.
Israel has mobile vaccination units with refrigerators that can keep the Pfizer shots at the required minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit). It plans to begin vaccinations as soon as next week, with a capacity of more than 60,000 shots a day. Israel reached a separate agreement with Moderna earlier this month to purchase 6 million doses of its vaccine — enough for another 3 million Israelis.
Israel’s vaccination campaign will include Jewish settlers living deep inside the West Bank, who are Israeli citizens, but not the territory’s 2.5 million Palestinians.
They will have to wait for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank in accordance with interim peace agreements reached in the 1990s. Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories the Palestinian seek for their future state, in the 1967 Mideast war.
Updated
More now on the World Health Organisation’s visit to Beijing in January to investigate the origins of Sars-CoV-2.
Beijing will welcome an international team of Covid-19 investigators due to travel to China in January, said the World Health Organization, which is leading the mission, Reuters reports.
China has strongly opposed calls for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, saying such calls are anti-China, but has been open to a WHO-led investigation.
However, it was unclear whether the WHO investigators will travel to the city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected, with discussions on the itinerary ongoing.
“WHO continues to contact China and to discuss the international team and the places they visit,” Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, told a news conference on Thursday.
“Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming the international team and their visit...This is anticipated, as far as we are aware, to happen in early January,” he said.
On Wednesday, a WHO member and diplomats told Reuters the mission was expected to go to China in the first week of January to investigate the origins of the virus.
The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticised its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research.
Chinese state media have suggested the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan, citing its presence on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers claiming it had been circulating in Europe last year.
Olowokure said the exact timing of the trip would depend on “obtaining the results of some other tests that are being carried out initially”, without giving further details.
Referring to the ongoing discussions with China over the trip, Olowokure said: “These are of course important for us, and to get an overall picture of how the investigation will go.”
11,000 positive tests missing from Welsh figures
Public Health Wales has announced that due to the “planned maintenance” of some of its IT systems, positive tests in the country were significantly underreported.
Across Wales, tomorrow, we will be reporting in the region of 11,000 new positive cases. Full breakdown by local regions are currently being analysed and will be available in tomorrow’s dashboard update. pic.twitter.com/qCPqh0WQoR
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) December 16, 2020
The BBC reports that 11,000 positive tests will be included on Thursday, doubling the country’s recent figures:
Currently, recorded figures for that week stand at 11,911 - so the additional 11,000 cases would mean recent cases of the virus are twice as high as previously thought.
103,098 people have tested positive in Wales since the pandemic began, meaning the 11,000 additional cases that will be reported on Thursday will represent more than a 10% of the new total.
Updated
India reports fewer than 30,000 cases for fourth straight day
India reported 24,037 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 9.96 million, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday.
This is the fourth straight day that daily cases have stayed below 30,000, keeping with the country’s trend of declining daily cases since hitting a peak of 97,000 single-day infections in September.
India has recorded the second-highest number of infections in the world after the United States.
Deaths rose by 382, the ministry said, taking the total to 144,451.
Helen Sullivan here – as always, it would be great to hear from you.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Tokyo raises alert level amid record case increase
In Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has raised its medical system alert level to “Under strain” the highest of four levels, Bloomberg reports. It is the first time since the alert system was established in July that the level has been reached.
The warning comes as the city is set to confirm 800 cases, a one-day record, according to NHK. The previous record was set a day earlier, at 678 cases.
Despite a sharper tone from authorities and new restrictions, Sweden, which has famously relied on non-coercive measures, is struggling to contain a strong second wave of Covid-19 it thought it could avoid.
AFP: Stockholm is once again at the epicentre of the epidemic and this week called on members of the public with medical training to help offset some of the burden on healthcare.
Lars Falk, a doctor at an intensive care unit at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, told AFP the second wave had hit much harder than they expected.
“We got three different scenarios from the Public Health Agency this summer. We prepared for the worst, and it turned out twice as bad,” Falk told AFP.
While the Swedish capital is the worst-hit region in the country, many others are also seeing resources stretched thin.
On Monday, the number of people receiving hospital care reached 2,406, near the peak of 2,412 on April 20.
For now, the number of people in intensive care is still only at half the level seen in April, according to Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare.
The total number of deaths associated with Covid-19 in the country of some 10.3 million reached 7,802 on Wednesday, with more than 500 in the last week and over 1,800 since the beginning of November.
WHO: Vaccination in Asia-Pacific expected mid or late 2021
The World Health Organization said Thursday that countries in the Asia-Pacific region are not guaranteed to have early access to Covid-19 shots and urged them to adopt a long-term approach to the pandemic.
“The development of safe and effective vaccines is one thing. Producing them in adequate quantities and reaching everyone who needs them is another,” WHO Regional Director Dr. Takeshi Kasai told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
While some countries that have independent vaccine purchase agreements might start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, others could see vaccination begin in the middle or late 2021, said Dr. Socorro Escalante, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies.
While some countries that have independent vaccine purchase agreements might start vaccination campaigns in the coming months, others could see vaccination begin in the middle or late 2021, said Dr. Socorro Escalante, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies.
“It’s important to emphasise that most, if not all, the countries in the Western Pacific region are a part of the Covax Facility,” said Escalante.
“Within the Covax Facility we are expecting that the vaccines will be coming in on the second quarter of 2021.”
Updated
The Australian government’s projected deficit will shrink to $197.7bn this year, as better jobs numbers, higher tax receipts and decreased spending on wage subsidies boost government coffers.
On Thursday the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and finance minister, Simon Birmingham, released the mid-year economic and fiscal update showing the effects of Australia’s return to growth in September at the tipping point of the Covid-19 recession.
Frydenberg told reporters in Canberra that unemployment is set to reach the pre-pandemic level of 5.25% in four years, after peaking at 7.5% in March 2021.
Despite the faster-than-expected labour market recovery, Frydenberg announced the jobseeker coronavirus supplement will be extended to March.
He also signalled the government will not aim to pay back debt until unemployment is “comfortably below” 6%, which he suggested was back in the range of 5.25% to 5.5%:
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 26,923 to 1,406,161, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.
The reported death toll rose by 698 to 24,125, the tally showed.
Australian state violated human rights in Covid lockdown - report
An Australian state’s decision to lockdown more than 3,000 people in public housing towers to contain a second Covid-19 outbreak was not based on direct health advice and violated human rights, Victoria’s state Ombudsman said in a report.
Reuters: Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, locked down nine public housing towers for several days in July due to a surge in coronavirus cases.
Victoria’s acting chief health officer had only 15 minutes to consider and approve the lockdown, including the potential human rights impacts, Ombudsman Deborah Glass said in her report released on Thursday.
“The rushed lockdown was not compatible with the residents’ human rights, including their right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty..., the action appeared to be contrary to the law,” she said.
Residents in eight towers were confined in their apartments for five days but the ninth tower, which had the highest number of infections, went through a total lockdown for two weeks.
Some were left without food and medicines while many others waited more than a week to be allowed outside, the report said.
The state government conceded mistakes were made, but said decisions were made to ensure the safety of the residents.
Asian markets were mixed Thursday as investors kept an eye on US stimulus progress and the rollout of vaccines, while the pound was holding around 19-month highs on Brexit optimism, though surging infections and new lockdowns were keeping the mood subdued, AFP reports.
Lawmakers on both sides said they were hopeful of passing a much-needed rescue package for the troubled US economy as they haggle over details of a bipartisan proposal that appears to have broken months of deadlock.
With the two most contentious items removed from the plan, which is said to amount to around $900 billion, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said leaders “made major headway toward hammering out a targeted pandemic relief package that would be able to pass both chambers with bipartisan majorities”.
He added they had “agreed that we will not leave town until we’ve made law”, while top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said: “It’s not a done deal yet, but we are very close.”
Wall Street ended broadly higher with the Nasdaq chalking up another record, but Asia struggled to gain traction with hopes for a new stimulus offset by the imposition of strict containment measures around the world as coronavirus infection and death rates spike.
Tokyo and Hong Kong were flat, while Shanghai edged up slightly and Wellington rallied on data showing New Zealand’s economy grew more than expected in the third quarter. There were also gains in Sydney and Jakarta but Seoul, Taipei, Singapore and Manila all slipped.
As the stimulus talks continued, the Federal Reserve held its final policy meeting of the year at which it gave an upbeat assessment of the outlook for the world’s top economy next year and pledged to maintain its huge bond-buying, monetary-easing programme until it is back on an even keel.
But bank chief Jerome Powell reiterated the need for US lawmakers to reach a stimulus agreement, saying: “The case for fiscal policy right now is very strong. I think that is widely understood.”
US Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, a representative for the department said.
Bernhardt was asymptomatic and would continue to work while in quarantine, Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin told Reuters by email.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that China had welcomed an international team of investigators into Covid-19 expected to travel to the country in early January.
Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, told a news conference that the organisation was in talks with Beijing over where the investigators would travel to within the country.
Australia's new coronavirus cluster grows to five
In Australia, a Covid-19 cluster developing on Sydney’s northern beaches has grown to five, including an aged care worker from Avalon Beach, AAP reports.
Twelve consecutive days without local Covid-19 cases in NSW ended on Wednesday after a Sydney airport driver was confirmed to have the virus and two mystery cases popped up on the northern beaches.
In total, three new local cases of Covid-19 were uncovered in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, as well as six cases in hotel quarantine.
Another three cases on the northern beaches have been identified since 8pm on Wednesday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed on Thursday.
Two cases are a Palm Beach woman in her 50s who worked at the Pittwater Palms aged care facility at Avalon Beach and her partner, while the third is in a man in his 60s who lives in Frenchs Forest.
Pfizer vaccine: FDA says extra doses in vials can be used, potentially expanding US supply
The US Food and Drug administration has announced that extra doses of coronavirus vaccine contained in Pfizer’s vials can be used, potentially expanding the US supply of the drug by 40%, according to reports.
The news, reported initially by Politico, comes after pharmacists discovered that some of the vaccine bottles contained enough liquid for up to two extra doses.
The FDA has told Pfizer that these doses can be used rather than being thrown away, in a change of the agency’s guidance from last week which indicatedeach vial held only five doses – a rule pharmacists in some states had been advised to stick to.
Biden and Pence will soon receive Covid vaccine as storm threatens to delay deliveriesRead more
“Given the public health emergency, FDA is advising that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable,” an FDA spokesperson confirmed to Politico.
It quotes an academic saying it was common for manufacturers to overfill vials in case of spillage and other waste. Erin Fox, a pharmacy expert at University of Utah said: “It’s pretty unusual to have a full extra dose or more though – but it does seem to be there.”
Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in a statement to the Washington Post: “The amount of vaccine remaining in the multidose vial after removal of five doses can vary, depending on the type of needles and syringes used.”
Pfizer has not confirmed the FDA’s advice and told Politico vaccinators needed to “consult their institution’s policies for the use of multi-dose vials”:
South Korea reports record deaths
South Korea reported a record number of coronavirus deaths on Thursday as the country’s largest wave of infections strains hospitals and contact tracers.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported that there had been 22 additional deaths as of midnight on Wednesday, sharply up from a previous high of 13 earlier in the week, Reuters reports.
Overall the country reported 1,014 new cases of the novel coronavirus, including a daily record of 423 in the densely populated capital city of Seoul.
The most daily deaths in previous waves of infections was nine, and for much of the year South Korea had managed to keep cases low through aggressive tracing and testing.
This new wave emerged from multiple clusters in the Seoul region, challenging tracing efforts. Tighter social distancing rules have failed to reverse the spike in infections and the government has warned it may have to impose a harsher lockdown on business activity to blunt the spread.
Hospitals were at a breaking point with only three critical care beds available as of Wednesday in greater Seoul, an area with a population of almost 26 million people, officials said.
South Korea has now reported a total of 46,453 cases of the novel coronavirus, with 634 deaths.
US Representative Joe Wilson is the latest member of South Carolina’s congressional delegation to test positive for the coronavirus, announcing his test result Wednesday just hours after speaking on the US House floor, AP reports.
In a statement released by his office, the Republican said that he tested positive earlier in the day, adding, “I feel fine and do not have any symptoms.”
Wilson, 73, said he would quarantine “through the Christmas holiday.”
“It is so important that we all do our part to help prevent the spread of this virus,” he said.
Wilson was at the US House on Wednesday, when he delivered a floor speech lauding President Donald Trump “for his efforts to bring a vaccine to the United States faster than any other vaccine in history.”
Wilson was wearing a face covering during his remarks. His office did not immediately respond to a message regarding other elements of the congressman’s recent schedule.
Elected to a 10th term in November, Wilson is the latest of South Carolina’s seven-member US House delegation to contract Covid-19. Tom Rice, a Republican representing Myrtle Beach, tested positive this year, along with several members of his immediate family.
Democratic US Representative Joe Cunningham of Charleston also tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this year, as has Nancy Mace, the Republican who unseated Cunningham in the November election.
Ardern unveils New Zealand Covid vaccine deals as economy rebounds
New Zealand has ordered 15m courses of Covid-19 vaccine from four providers as the country approaches the end of 2020 on a promising note, with a recovering economy and plans to open numerous travel corridors in the new year.
On Thursday, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, confirmed the treatment would be free for everyone, with health workers and border officials prioritised. The vaccine will be made available in the second quarter of next year.
Ardern said readiness for New Zealand’s “largest-ever immunisation programme” was progressing well, and the country had now pre-ordered vaccines from four providers: 750,000 courses from Pfizer, 5m from Janssen, 3.8m from Oxford/AstraZeneca and 5.36m from Novavax. One course refers to all the doses needed for one person:
Everything we know about the new cases in Sydney, Australia from my colleagues Naaman Zhou and Ben Smee:
New South Wales has recorded an additional two cases of Covid-19 on Sydney’s northern beaches, only a day after two mystery cases were first diagnosed in the area.
The state now has five cases of coronavirus with no known source of infection, ending a streak of 14 days without a locally acquired case.
Visitors will be prohibited from certain aged care homes on the northern beaches, under a new directive from NSW Health, until the source of the new infections are known. Meanwhile, Queensland has warned it may impose border restrictions on NSW if the outbreak could not be contained:
European nations vowed Wednesday to get their coronavirus vaccination campaigns rolling before the end of the year while a surge in infections prompted tighter restrictions across several countries, AFP reports.
Germany will begin vaccinations on December 27, its health minister said, detailing a timeline expected to be mirrored across the European Union’s 27 member states.
France said it would receive around 1.16 million vaccine doses by year-end, with a further 2.3 million coming over the next two months.
The vaccination drive cannot come too soon to the embattled continent, which is fast approaching 500,000 deaths from the disease.
Germany saw a record high of 952 deaths in 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control centre Wednesday, a figure that could rise as the hard-hit Saxony region was not included in Tuesday’s numbers.
“It feels like a Sunday,” said Ines Kumpl, 57, observing the deserted streets of Berlin on the first day of a new partial lockdown. “These measures are necessary but it’s stressful.”
Denmark, France, Turkey and the Netherlands have all tightened coronavirus restrictions and Spain’s prime minister expressed alarm at rising infection numbers there.
“To get to the end of the pandemic, we will need up to 70 percent of the population vaccinated,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs.
Pressure has been mounting on the bloc since Britain and the United States started their programmes, using a vaccine developed in the EU by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The British government said more than 137,000 people had received a first dose in the week since inoculations began.
Mexico’s health ministry on Wednesday reported 10,297 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 670 more fatalities, bringing the country’s totals to 1,277,499 cases and 115,769 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Did anyone convey the topsy-turvy world of pandemic life better than two ultra-competitive labradors? When the first lockdown was announced back in March and sports events were cancelled across the country, the Scottish commentator Andrew Cotter found himself staring at a grim year ahead. And so he decided to simply continue commentating … on his dogs.
“You can feel the tension,” he said in his soothing soft Scottish accent, over a video of his dogs, Olive and Mabel, racing to empty their bowls. “Olive focused, relentless, tasting absolutely nothing.”
He posted it to Twitter and, within seconds, it had gone bananas, eventually being viewed more than 30m times. “People like Armando Iannucci were saying they loved it,” he marvels. “There were messages from people saying it helped cheer up a sick relative.”
And so he began making more. Yet, despite the winning combination of canine cuteness and comic talent, Cotter says Olive and Mabel would never have found global fame without the communal experience of lockdown. “Those first two videos were very much of that moment,” he says. “The world’s turned upside down, nothing makes sense any more, and here’s a sports commentator having to commentate on his dogs.”
Cotter had never made a video like this before. He was surprised the first one took off and even more surprised when his follow up of the dogs fighting over a bone (“the difficult second album,” he jokes) outperformed it.
Some sports are slower. More about the strategy. pic.twitter.com/JMBaGJ1tSd
— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) April 9, 2020
Such success became stressful to deal with. “You get messages saying ‘When’s the next one, hurry up’, and then you’re panicking slightly and bullying your dogs into situations – go and do something for me, God!” By the third video, of the dogs sitting in a fetid pond, he says he’d “lost all sense of perspective, my judgment had totally gone as to what was good and what was not”. Yet the hits still came rolling in:
The first Covid-19 vaccinations are underway at US nursing homes, where the virus has killed more than 110,000 people, even as the nation struggles to contain a surge so alarming it has spurred California to dispense thousands of body bags and line up refrigerated morgue trucks, AP reports.
With the rollout of shots picking up speed Wednesday, lawmakers in Washington closed in on a long-stalled $900 billion coronavirus relief package that would send direct payments of around $600 to most Americans. Meanwhile, the US appeared to be days away from adding a second vaccine to its arsenal.
At the same time, a major snowstorm pushing its way into the Northeast raised concern it could disrupt distribution of the first vaccine.
Nursing home residents in Florida began receiving shots Wednesday, after nearly 2,000 such vaccinations were administered in West Virginia on Tuesday. Thousands more are scheduled there in the coming days. Other states are expected to follow soon.
The elderly and infirm in long-term care have been among the most vulnerable to the virus and, together with health workers, are first in line to get the limited, initial supplies of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Nursing home residents and workers account for more than one-third of the nation’s 300,000 or so confirmed deaths from Covid-19.
Updated
US to get extra doses out of Pfizer vaccine vials
The US Food and Drug administration has said that Pfizer’s vaccine vials my contain up to 40% more vaccine doses than previously thought, drastically expanding the US supply.
Politico reports:
Pharmacists have found a way to squeeze extra doses out of vials of Pfizer’s vaccine, potentially expanding the nation’s scarce supply by up to 40 percent.
The Food and Drug Administration said late Wednesday that those extra doses could be used, clearing up confusion that had caused some pharmacists to throw away leftover vaccine for fear of violating the rules the agency set last week
Sales of sherry in the UK have soared during lockdown and could smash all records over Christmas, thanks to its appeal to a new generation for its versatility – as an early evening “snifter” or a base for homemade cocktails.
Retailers are predicting “the biggest year ever” for sherry this festive season, after a long-term decline in sales was reversed as a result of families trying out different drinks while unable to visit pubs, bars and restaurants.
The market research company Nielsen said sales of sherry leaped by more than 20% in March – when hospitality venues were first forced to close – with sustained growth propelling the UK to become the biggest world market and overtaking Spain, the traditional home of the fortified wine.
Traditional sweet cream sherries remain popular, but dry styles are in vogue as a base for cocktails, from new-style martinis with a “sherry rinse” to exotic modern confections such as spritzers made with elderflower water:
Australia confirms two new cases in Sydney
Two new community cases of Covid-19 have been recorded this morning on Sydney’s northern beaches, in addition to two cases yesterday.
The premier for the state of New South Wales says genomic testing is in “overdrive” and NSW Health are trying to figure out if the two new cases are linked to the cases yesterday.
Australia had gone two weeks without a single local case.
Biden’s swearing in to have reduced capacity
A day after Biden’s own organising committee announced that his swearing-in would take place on 20 January outside the Capitol Building, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that permitted attendance at the event will be drastically reduced due to Covid-19 precautions.
AP: Instead of the usual 200,000 tickets distributed to members of Congress and passed out to their constituents, organizers will allow just over 1,000 tickets — one for each of the 535 members of Congress and one guest each.
Despite this week’s rollout of the new vaccine, its availability to the general public is still months away. Committee Chairman Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in a statement that concerns about spiraling virus numbers around the country “warranted a difficult decision to limit attendance at the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies to a live audience that resembles a State of the Union.”
In a way, it’s a fitting culmination for a historic presidential campaign that was conducted almost entirely under pandemic conditions. Biden’s own inaugural committee, which works with the congressional committee, had already asked supporters to stay away from Washington and plan safe inaugural celebrations at home.
“We know that many Americans would have wanted to attend the Inauguration in-person. At the same time, safety must be our top priority,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and member of the committee, said in the statement.
“While the pandemic has forced us to limit in-person attendance, it also brings opportunities to honor our democracy in innovative ways so that Americans across the country can experience Inauguration Day from home.”
Biden’s team has turned to the same production team that handled the largely virtual Democratic National Convention. Features of that convention, such as the virtual roll call from every state, may be incorporated into a virtual inauguration experience.
Blunt said planners were developing “enhanced opportunities to watch the ceremonies online, in addition to the traditional televised national broadcast.”
Biden to take vaccine publicly next week
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence are set to receive the Covid-19 vaccine soon.
According to two transition officials familiar with the matter, Biden will receive the vaccine publicly as early as next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to discuss it publicly.
The White House says Pence and his wife, Karen, will receive the vaccine publicly on Friday.
Biden said on Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, advised him to get the vaccine “sooner than later.” Biden has said that he wants to keep front-line health care workers and vulnerable people as the top priority as the vaccine is rolled out throughout the country.
But he’s also noted the importance of him getting the vaccine publicly to build confidence among Americans to get vaccinated.
Biden said, “I don’t want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take.”
Pence plans to take vaccine live on TV on Friday – reports
Vice President Mike Pence hopes to take the vaccine live on TV on Friday to inspire confidence in its safety, Axios journalist Jonathan Swan reports, citing administration officials.
The news came after Trump, who recovered from Covid-19 in October, said he would not initially be taking the shot and was reversing an administration directive to vaccinate top officials while public distribution is limited to frontline health workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus with me, Helen Sullivan.
I’ll be bringing you the latest global updates as they happen. You can find me on Twiteer @helenrsullivan for the latest good tweets (other people’s) as they happen.
Vice President Mike Pence hopes to take the vaccine live on TV on Friday to inspire confidence in its safety, Axios journalist Jonathan Swan reports, citing administration officials.
Meanwhile Germany suffered a record number of Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, its first day of partial lockdown, with a total of 952 people dying in the previous 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control centre, a figure that could rise as the hard-hit Saxony region was not included in Tuesday’s numbers.
- Germany aims to roll out BioNTech/Pfizer Covid vaccine on 27 December. Germany will begin coronavirus vaccinations on 27 December with elderly care home residents, health minister Jens Spahn announced, with the EU aiming for all 27 member states to begin on the same day.
- Brazil sees record daily Covid-19 infections as cases top 7 million. Brazil registered over 70,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, a daily record, as a second wave of infections spreads across the country.
- Twitter bans harmful false claims about Covid-19 vaccinations. Twitter has said users will be required to remove new tweets that advance harmful false or misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccinations, in an expansion of its rules on coronavirus misinformation.
- France reports biggest daily jump in Covid-19 cases since 21 November. France reported 17,615 new confirmed Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, sharply up from the 11,532 on Tuesday and 14,595 a week ago.
- Israel PM Netanyahu to get vaccine this week. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will become one of the first world leaders to get vaccinated when he gets the jab on Saturday.
- Danish PM confirms Christmas lockdown. Shopping malls will close starting on Thursday and other stores, with the exception of supermarkets and food shops, will close from 25 December. Students still in school will be sent home as of Monday.
- The global scheme to deliver vaccines to poorer countries faces a “very high” risk of failure, potentially leaving billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024, internal documents have revealed. The risk of failure of the Covax project is higher because the scheme was set up so quickly, operating in “uncharted territory”, one internal report says.
