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Mainland China reported 12 new Covid-19 cases on 9 December, down from 15 cases a day earlier, the national health authority said on Thursday.
The National Health Commission said in a statement 11 of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. The commission said one locally transmitted case was reported in the Inner Mongolia region. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to five from one a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 86,673, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
The availability of intensive care beds is under pressure at hospitals across the United States as the coronavirus spread accelerates in an increasingly dark and dangerous phase of the pandemic.
As hospitals report shortages of healthcare staff and bed capacity, analyses of new data released by the federal government showed that intensive care unit (ICU) beds across the country are nearing capacity.
Here is the full report:
Brazil reports highest daily cases since mid-August
Brazil reported 53,453 additional confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily rate since mid-August, and 836 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
The country has now registered 6,728,452 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 178,995, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the United States and India.
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would start Covid-19 vaccinations from 27 December, after receiving its first batch of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
“The first vaccinations will be given on December 27,” he said in a press conference, noting the public health service would be capable of administering 60,000 inoculations a day.
Earlier in the day, the first batch of Pfizer’s eight million coronavirus vaccine doses landed in Israel.
“Tomorrow another shipment is arriving, a much larger one,” Netanyahu said. “I’m asking that every Israeli citizen be vaccinated, and to do so, requested to set an example and be the first person being vaccinated in Israel,” he added, repeating a similar statement from earlier in the day, without specifying when that might take place.
Netanyahu also said the health ministry was working on developing a “green passport”.
Whoever receives a vaccination will be able to show a certificate or application that would enable entry to events, malls and all kinds of services.
This will encourage vaccinations and help return us to normalcy quickly.
The virus has infected 349,916 Israelis resulting in 2,934 fatalities, according to a Wednesday update.
While reiterating the need to keep up with “masks, distancing, hygiene and preventing gatherings”, Netanyahu was nonetheless upbeat.
We’re bringing an end to the plague.
Updated
Police used tear gas late on Wednesday to disperse hundreds of Albanians protesting the killing by police of a young man who authorities said had violated an overnight curfew imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
A 25-year-old man identified by Albanian media as Klodian Rasha was killed early on Tuesday in what police described as an excessive use of force by an officer during a curfew introduced to prevent the surge of Covid-19 cases.
The police had first said that Rasha failed to obey a police officer’s order to stop and that he had carried a weapon. But later the police said the man was holding an object but not a weapon, as initially reported.
Protesters who were demanding the resignation of the interior minister threw objects at his ministry and set Christmas trees on fire as police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, a Reuters witness said.
Two police officers and a journalist were reported slightly injured.
The police officer who allegedly killed the man was arrested and an investigation was launched.
“The police officer did not act according to the law while using his firearm,” Albanian police said in a statement.
Albanian government has introduced different measures, including a curfew, to prevent rising number of Covid-19 infections.
South Africa has officially entered a second wave as the number of new infections per day exceeds 6,000, the health minister said on Wednesday, raising concerns that restrictions to limit the spread of the virus could be tightened.
The health minister Zwelini Mkhize said in a televised address that infections stood at over 828,000 cases with deaths at more than 22,500, the most on the continent. Daily cases peaked at around 15,000 in July.
“The increases are shown in about six of the provinces and that is why it is important for us to now recognise this is a second wave,” said Mkhize during a televised address.
South Africa is experiencing a resurgence of new cases in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. The president Cyril Ramaphosa last week tightened rules in the Eastern Cape province, but stopped short of a wider crackdown.
Mkhize also expressed concern that in the last two days the distribution of new cases had peaked in those aged between 15 and 19.
School students who attended a series of end-of-year parties were urged on Sunday to enter 10 days of quarantine after identifying four such parties as “super-spreader events”.
Updated
The number of new coronavirus infections over 24 hours in France rose again to 14,595 on Wednesday, from 13,713 on Tuesday, and 14,064 last Wednesday, further crushing government hopes for a fall towards 5,000 per day, which the government has said is one of the requirements to end a nationwide lockdown on 15 December.
The seven-day moving average of new cases - which reached a high of 54,440 on 7 November - increased for the fifth day in a row and now stands at 11,369.
The health ministry also reported the number of people who died of Covid-19 in hospitals fell to 296 from 377 on Tuesday.
The Czech lower house approved extending the government’s state of emergency powers to 23 December, a shorter period than the cabinet sought as it seeks to contain rising Covid-19 infections.
The state of emergency is the legal basis for some government measures aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus, such as limits on assembly or temporarily shutting businesses.
Hello from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Summary
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German biotech firm BioNTech said that regulation documents related to the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Pfizer had been “unlawfully accessed” after a cyberattack on Europe’s medicines regulator. Earlier, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is responsible for assessing and approving medicines, medical devices and vaccines for the European Union, said it had been targeted in a cyberattack. It gave no further details.
- Marty Wilde is to become one of the first celebrities to get the Covid-19 vaccination. The 1950s pop star, best known for his hit Teenager in Love, will be given the jab on Thursday. Vaccinations began being administered at 70 hospital hubs across the UK from Tuesday - starting with healthcare workers, people living in care homes and the elderly.
- Spain’s rate of confirmed coronavirus cases reach lowest level since August. Spain’s rate of confirmed coronavirus cases fell to 193 cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday to reach the lowest level recorded since August, health ministry data showed, Reuters reports. The ministry reported 9,773 infections since Monday, bringing the total up to just over 1.7 million, while the number of deaths increased by 373 to 47,019.
- Slovakia ordered schools and most shops closed for at least three weeks from 21st December. The central European country also ordered outside seating at restaurants to end from Dec. 11, only allowing take-away as the number of COVID-19 cases continued to rise.
- The creators of the Sputnik V vaccine have denied that Russians must quit drinking for nearly two months while receiving the jabs. Scientists attempted to head off a public row over whether millions would have to go teetotal to join the country’s mass vaccination programme. Following a day of heated deliberations, the head of the Gamaleya research centre that developed Sputnik V said that patients should avoid drinking for just six days.
- England’s chief medical officer has warned of a “disastrous” resurgence in coronavirus cases if people stop adhering to social distancing guidelines now that the mass vaccination programme has begun. Prof Chris Whitty told MPs that the winter months were high risk for the NHS, particularly because of respiratory infections. He stressed the importance of immunising an estimated 20 million people made a priority for a jab before any substantial easing of restrictions.
- Canada becomes third country to approve Covid-19 vaccine. Canada on Wednesday approved its first Covid-19 vaccine, clearing the way for doses of the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE shots to be delivered and administered across the country, Reuters reports. Canada is the third country after the United Kingdom and Bahrain to give the green light to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
- Study suggests Covid-19 circulating in Italy in late November 2019. Covid-19 was circulating in Italy in late November 2019, three months before the first local transmission was detected, a new study has shown.Analysis was carried out on a swab taken from a four-year-old child, who had respiratory problems and was vomiting, on 30 November 2019. He developed a rash the next day and the illness was mistaken for measles.
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Furious Merkel says German death rate ‘unacceptable’. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the country’s residents could be proud of what they had achieved and there was now “light at the end of the tunnel”. She said a creative, inquisitive spirit had brought about a number of vaccines – “the best scientists in the world”, she said, “have shown us the qualities that people really have in them”.
Updated
German biotech firm BioNTech said on Wednesday that regulation documents related to the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Pfizer were “unlawfully accessed” after a cyberattack on Europe’s medicines regulator.
Earlier, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is responsible for assessing and approving medicines, medical devices and vaccines for the European Union - said it had been targeted in a cyberattack. It gave no further details.
It was not immediately clear when or how the attack took place, who was responsible or what other information may have been compromised.
Following the disclosure, BioNTech said the EMA informed it that “that the agency has been subject to a cyber attack and that some documents relating to the regulatory submission for Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate ... had been unlawfully accessed”.
It added that “no BioNTech or Pfizer systems have been breached in connection with this incident and we are unaware of any personal data of study participants being accessed”.
Messages sent to BioNTech and Pfizer seeking further details about the breach were not immediately returned.
The EMA gave no details about the attack in its earlier statement, saying only that it was investigating the incident with help from law enforcement. “EMA cannot provide additional details whilst the investigation is ongoing. Further information will be made available in due course,” it said in a statement.
Hacking attempts against healthcare and medical organisations have intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic as attackers ranging from state-backed spies to cyber criminals scramble to obtain the latest information about the outbreak.
Reuters has previously documented how hackers linked to North Korea, Iran, Vietnam, China and Russia have on separate occasions been accused of trying to steal information about the virus and its potential treatments.
Marty Wilde is to become one of the first celebrities to get the Covid-19 vaccination.
The rock’n’roll star Marty Wilde is to become one of the first celebrities to get the Covid-19 vaccination, PA reports.
The 1950s pop star, best known for his hit Teenager in Love, will be given the jab on Thursday.
Vaccinations began being administered at 70 hospital hubs across the UK from Tuesday – starting with healthcare workers, people living in care homes and the elderly.
Wilde told the PA news agency:
This is one of the few times I am glad I am older than Cliff Richard because I am going to get my injection before that bugger does.
Wilde, the father of singer Kim Wilde, added:
I feel a responsibility not just to my family but people like me can be useful to the public.
I don’t say it in a conceited way. I don’t mean it that way. But I just think a lot of people count on me.
Lots of fans have been affected by Covid, lost money on hotels they have booked to see our tour earlier this year.
They can’t get their money back. I’ve got to be good for them. I know it sounds boring but it’s not. I really feel that.
Updated
Spain’s rate of confirmed coronavirus cases reach lowest level since August
Spain’s rate of confirmed coronavirus cases fell to 193 cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday, the lowest level recorded since August, health ministry data showed, Reuters reports.
The ministry reported 9,773 infections since Monday, bringing the total up to just over 1.7 million, while the number of deaths increased by 373 to 47,019.
No data was released on Tuesday as it was a national holiday in Spain.
While Spain’s infection rate has slowed in recent weeks, the health minister, Salvador Illa, urged Spaniards to stay at home over Christmas to avoid a fresh resurgence.
Updated
For a man presenting landmark results from trials of a vaccine that it is hoped will save the world from a devastating pandemic, Sir Menelas Pangalos did not look cheerful on Wednesday.
Pangalos, the executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, and his colleagues are undoubtedly exhausted, having been working round the clock on the coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University since April. But they are now dealing with a sizeable new headache – the doubts of the US regulator.
It is clear that in spite of the critical need for coronavirus vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration is not going to rush to approve this vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, even though the US, through its “Operation Warp Speed”, has put in substantial funding and ordered 300m doses.
Unlike Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA products, the AstraZeneca vaccine is cheap, it can be stored at ordinary fridge temperatures, is easy to manufacture and presents the best hope at the moment for a vaccine for the billions rather than the few.
But while the UK, the rest of Europe, and Canada and India could approve this vaccine in the coming weeks, the US, which has the world’s biggest epidemic, will have to wait.
Updated
South Africa’s health minister said on Wednesday that the country has entered a second wave of Covid-19 infection, Reuters reports.
“As South Africa we are now experiencing a second wave. A criteria was formulated by our scientists and modelling teams. As it stands, as a country we now meet that criteria,” said Zwelini Mkhize during a televised address.
Updated
Slovakia ordered schools and most shops closed for at least three weeks from 21st December as the number of COVID-19 cases continued to rise, Reuters reports.
The central European country also ordered outside seating at restaurants to end from Dec. 11, only allowing take-away.
It introduced a requirement to show negative Covid-19 tests at hotels and ski lifts from 14th December and ordered regular testing at large companies to start from 28th December.
Health minister Marek Krajci said at a news conference:
Unfortunately the situation has been worsening in the past days and it will continue to worsen in the coming days.
This Christmas holiday will be a test for our health system.
The creators of the Sputnik V vaccine have denied that Russians must quit drinking for nearly two months while receiving the jabs, attempting to head off a public row over whether millions would have to go teetotal to join the country’s mass vaccination programme.
Following a day of heated deliberations, the head of the Gamaleya research centre that developed Sputnik V said that patients should avoid drinking for just six days.
“Of course we’re not talking about a complete ban on alcohol during vaccination,” said Alexander Gintsburg, the director of the state-run centre, adding that patients should avoid “getting drunk” because it would compromise the immune system.
“You can drink a glass of champagne,” he added, according to the RIA Novosti news agency, in a nod to celebrations planned for the holiday season.
Russia has begun inoculating thousands of doctors, teachers, and other at-risk segments of the population as it races out its new vaccine at breakneck speed.
But attitudes in Russia to the vaccine remain sceptical, with nearly 59% of respondents saying they would not be vaccinated voluntarily, according to a recent poll.
And a two-month ban on alcohol certainly would not have reduced that number.
So vaccine makers reacted quickly following a bombshell statement by Anna Popova, the head of the consumer health watchdog, that people should stop drinking alcohol at least two weeks before getting the first of two injections. They should continue to abstain for a further 42 days, she advised.
Many Russians quickly deduced that meant abstaining from alcohol for about 55 days, a tall order as the country heads into the holiday season with a weeklong vacation after New Years’ Eve.
Apparently sensing that could be a dealbreaker, the drugmakers shot back by saying that this was just a guideline.
“This is just a reasonable limitation of [alcohol] consumption until the body has formed its own immune response to coronavirus infection,” Gintsburg said.
Updated
A 91-year-old man whose interview with CNN after he was vaccinated for coronavirus became an internet hit said he was bemused by the commotion he had caused by talking about the jab, and described anti-vaxxers as “very silly”.
Martin Kenyon, 91, was outside Guy’s hospital in London after receiving the Pfizer Covid vaccine when he encountered the CNN correspondent Cyril Vanier. Asked how it felt to be one of the first people in the world to receive the jab, he said: “I don’t think I feel much at all, except that I hope that I’m not going to have the bloody bug now.”
The interview racked up millions of views. But speaking to the Guardian outside his home in London, Kenyon said he thought the footage was “deeply uninteresting”. He said: “Have people not got better things to talk about?”
Kenyon said his daughters were getting “quite excited” about the interest he had received, but he had yet to have a proper conversation with them as the “press kept interrupting when they phoned him”.
He said he was feeling OK a day after being vaccinated. “I forgot to look at the information they gave me [about possible side-effects] but at my age, all sorts of things ache,” he added.
Updated
England’s chief medical officer has warned of a “disastrous” resurgence in coronavirus cases if people stop adhering to social distancing guidelines now that the mass vaccination programme has begun.
Prof Chris Whitty told MPs that the winter months were high risk for the NHS, particularly because of respiratory infections. He stressed the importance of immunising an estimated 20 million people made a priority for a jab before any substantial easing of restrictions.
He told a joint hearing of the Commons committees for science and technology and health and social care that the UK was heading into spring 2021 “in much better shape than three or four months ago”, but he warned against complacency.
He said:
That would be disastrous, because then actually the wave would come back incredibly quickly. We’re all very nervous about January and February, which is the highest risk period for the NHS in particular, March as well. The alternative is to say actually there is an end to this, we just need to get ourselves through this last period, and we really must be self-disciplined, as we have been all the way through this year.
Around 45% of Portuguese hotels have temporarily closed or are planning to do so due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports.
In a survey of more than 500 hotels released on Wednesday, Hotels Association AHP said establishments in tourist regions such as the southern Algarve and the capital Lisbon were the most affected.
Most hotels plan to remain shut for around four months, with the vast majority saying they would reopen in March next year. Around 23% still do not know when they would be able to reopen.
Canada becomes third country to approve Covid-19 vaccine.
Canada on Wednesday approved its first Covid-19 vaccine, clearing the way for doses of the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE shots to be delivered and administered across the country, Reuters reports.
Canada is the third country after the United Kingdom and Bahrain to give the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“The approval of the vaccine is supported by evidence that it is safe, effective and of good quality,” regulator Health Canada said in a statement. It has initially been authorized for use in people 16 years of age or older.
Turkey’s daily coronavirus deaths rose to a record 217 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 15,531, Reuters reports.
Health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday, and added there had been more than 1.5 million coronavirus cases in total.
For four months, Ankara only reported daily symptomatic cases, but has reported all cases since November 25th. On Wednesday, Koca said the government would publish historical data for all cases starting Thursday.
terrifying look at what is happening inside mexico city's hospitals right now.
— Natalie Kitroeff (@Nataliekitro) December 9, 2020
the red/yellow lines are the city's projections for how things were supposed to go. pic.twitter.com/OFXaSOpTfE
Study suggests Covid-19 circulating in Italy in late November 2019
Covid-19 was circulating in Italy in late November 2019, three months before the first local transmission was detected, a new study has shown.
Analysis was carried out on a swab taken from a 4-year-old child, who had respiratory problems and was vomiting, on 30 November 2019. He developed a rash the next day and the illness was mistaken for measles.
The swab, observed months later, showed that the child had been suffering from coronavirus, according to the study researchers at the University of Milan and published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers analysed oropharyngeal swab specimens collected between September 2019 and February 2020 from 39 people and one tested positive for Covid-19.
“This finding is of epidemiological importance because it expands our knowledge on timing and mapping of the SARS-CoV-2 transmission pathways,” the researchers wrote. “Long-term, unrecognised spread of SARS-CoV-2 in northern Italy would help explain, at least in part, the devastating impact and rapid course of the first wave of COVID-19 in Lombardy.”
A study in June also detected the presence of Covid-19 in sewage systems in Milan and Turin as early as December 2019. Doctors in Milan have also spoken about seeing a “strange pneumonia” in patients during the same month.
Updated
Italy reported 499 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday against 634 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 12,756 from 14,842.
There were 118,475 swabs carried out in the past day, down from a previous 149,232, the health ministry said.
Italy has recorded 61,739 Covid-19 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain. It has also registered 1.77 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 stood at 29,653 on Wednesday, down 428 from the day before.
There were 152 new admissions to intensive care units, while the number of intensive care patients decreased by 25 to 3,320, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
Updated
Turkey has ruled out buying the Russian coronavirus vaccine because its development lacked “good practice”, as Ankara steps up efforts to inoculate 50 million citizens by spring.
The Haberturk news website quoted health minister Fahrettin Koca as saying the Russian vaccine did not meet “good laboratory practice” conditions.
“Russia was not able to fulfil this. Therefore, it was not possible for the World Health Organization and the world to purchase this vaccine,” Koca said. “It is not possible for this vaccine to receive a licence from us either. Therefore, it is out of our area of interest.”
He did not specify which Russian vaccine he was referring to, but Turkey has spoken of conducting phase 3 trials for Sputnik-V, the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine.
The Russia Direct Investment Fund, which backs the Sputnik vaccine’s development and is responsible for its marketing abroad, declined to comment.
Russia was the first country to grant regulatory approval for a coronavirus vaccine, doing so before large-scale trials were complete – which stirred concern among scientists and doctors about the safety and efficacy of the shot.
Turkey, with a population of 83 million, has signed a contract to buy 50m doses of Covid-19 vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech, and expects to begin vaccinations this month, prioritising health workers.
New daily coronavirus infections and deaths on Tuesday hit the highest levels since the coronavirus was first detected in Turkey in March. With more than 33,000 cases, Turkey currently has the fourth highest daily rate globally.
Koca said Turkey needs more vaccines with the aim of inoculating 50 million people by the end of April, adding that it was working to bring forward the delivery of 25m doses of vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.
“They will be able to give us 25m doses by the end of 2021. We are trying to pull this forward. We want it before the summer. There is a fire going on. We need to extinguish it as soon as possible,” he told Haberturk.
Koca also said Turkey would not pay for the Sinovac vaccine if it “did not like it”.
“We put this in the contract when we gave our order … If our results are not effective enough, we have the right to return the vaccines and not pay even five cents.”
Ankara has imposed full weekend lockdowns and weekday curfews to combat the sharp rise in deaths and infections. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said citizens should be patient until the vaccines arrive.
Updated
Backlash after Russian official warns against drinking alcohol after having Sputnik vaccine
A health official’s warning that anyone getting vaccinated against Covid-19 with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine should give up alcohol for almost two months has sparked backlash.
Reuters reports:
Anna Popova, head of the consumer health watchdog, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station on Tuesday that people should stop drinking alcohol at least two weeks before getting the first of two injections. They should continue to abstain for a further 42 days, she advised.
Sputnik V, licensed under an accelerated process before the end of clinical trials, has been given to doctors, soldiers, teachers and social workers in the first instance with a large-scale nationwide roll out due to begin this week. There are 21 days between the two Russian vaccine jabs.
“This really bothers me,” said Elena Kriven, a Moscow resident. “I’m unlikely to not be able to drink for 80 days and I reckon the stress on the body of giving up alcohol, especially during what is a festive period, would be worse than the [side effects of the] vaccine and its alleged benefits,” she said.
Kriven was referring to the main New Year public holiday. Many Russians will spend the first 10 days of 2021 relaxing at home or abroad, a period associated with higher alcohol use.
Updated
The US health secretary, Alex Azar, said on Wednesday that he had met the Joe Biden transition team in an effort to ensure a smooth rollout in the United States of what health officials hope will be multiple Covid-19 vaccines in the coming months.
“We will ensure a full, cooperative, professional transition,” Azar told CNN. “I’m going to do anything I need to do to make sure no balls are dropped in terms of protecting the American people.”
While Donald Trump, who continues to deny his election loss, excluded Biden officials from a vaccine event at the White House on Wednesday, Biden has moved ahead with a plan to end the pandemic, announcing the names this week of top officials to lead the effort and pledging 100m vaccine shots in US in his first 100 days in office.
Updated
Brazil will “quite likely” begin vaccinations to stem the coronavirus pandemic in January or February, the health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, said in a Wednesday interview with CNN Brasil, according to a report by Reuters.
Pazuello said on Tuesday that Brazil had signed a letter of intent to receive 70m Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer starting in January
Updated
Oman will exempt nationals of 103 counties from needing an entry visa for a stay of up to 10 days, Reuters reports, in a move to support tourism and shore up its struggling economy.
Visitors must have a confirmed hotel reservation, health insurance and a return ticket, Royal Oman Police said on its Twitter account.
“Nationals of 103 counties are exempted from entry visas into the Sultanate for a period of ten days,” it said.
Ukraine will introduce tight lockdown restrictions in January, hoping to stop the rapid spread of coronavirus infection, the prime minister, Denys Shmygal, said on Wednesday, according to a report by Reuters.
The measures, which include the closure of schools, cafes, restaurants, gyms and entertainment centres and a ban on mass gatherings, will be in force from 8 to 24 January, Shiygal told the televised government meeting.
Updated
The US health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, on Wednesday vowed to make sure the transition team of the president-elect, Joe Biden, gets all the information it needs to work on distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We will ensure a full, cooperative, professional transition,” Azar told CNN. “I’m going to do anything I need to do to make sure no balls are dropped in terms of protecting the American people.”
Updated
India’s health ministry rejected reports on Wednesday that the country’s drugs regulator had declined emergency authorisation for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate and one developed locally by Bharat Biotech.
Reuters reports:
Broadcasters NDTV and CNBC-TV18 reported that India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had sought more data from the drugmakers after deliberating on applications made in the past three days.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that a decision on the vaccines would be taken “in toto” and it was too early to say whether they would be rejected or accepted.
India’s health ministry denied the reports in a statement on Twitter. The government had said on Tuesday that some vaccines may be approved in the coming weeks.
The Serum Institute of India, which is the local manufacturer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, only applied for emergency approval on Monday.
The SII did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bharat Biotech declined to comment. The CDSCO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NDTV said the CDSCO did not consider a similar application from Pfizer Inc because its US experts could not attend the Wednesday meeting.
Updated
Travellers to Norway will be able to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine in a place of their choosing if they can document that they can respect quarantine conditions, Reuters reports.
Currently, travellers to Norway must spend 10 days in a quarantine hotel chosen by local authorities if they cannot document that they own property in the Nordic country.
Travellers who can document that they rent property in Norway, or that they will borrow a property from someone in Norway, can avoid staying in a quarantine hotel.
They will still need to document that they have a negative Covid-19 test undertaken in the 72 hours before arrival.
The justice minister, Monica Mæland, told a news conference:
Some of the rules have been criticised and have felt unfair.
Updated
The direct climate impact of the coronavirus lockdown has lowered 2050 temperature projections by a “negligible” 0.01C, the UN has revealed.
A green economic recovery from the pandemic could, however, make a substantial difference, according to the UN environment programme (Unep) annual emissions gap report, potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% over the next decade and putting the world on track to meet the Paris agreement’s goal of keeping temperatures within 2C of pre-industrial levels.
Months of empty roads, empty skies and sluggish economic activity reduced this year’s global greenhouse gas discharges by an estimated 7%, the sharpest annual fall ever recorded.
But the temporary decline merely slowed the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere, leaving the world on course for a catastrophic 3.2C of warming by the end of this century, even if countries implement their existing commitments under the Paris agreement.
Updated
Cyprus ordered the closure of malls and restaurants on Wednesday until the end of the year to try to suppress a jump in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
The measures will come into effect on Friday, the health ministry said.
In addition church services will be closed to members of the public.
“There is no such thing as good or nice restrictions, these are necessary, and mainly unpleasant, but we have to safeguard life. Our health comes first,” the health minister, Constantinos Ioannou, told a news conference.
Updated
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UK regulators have issued a warning that people who have a history of “significant” allergic reactions should not currently receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine after two people who had the jab on Tuesday had allergic reactions, PA Media is reporting.
Two NHS staff members who received the vaccine on the first day of the mass vaccination programme suffered an allergic reaction, the NHS in England has confirmed.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given precautionary advice to NHS trusts that anyone who has a history of “significant” allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccines should not receive the vaccine.
The NHS in England said all trusts involved with the vaccination programme had been informed.
This means that anyone scheduled to receive the vaccine on Wednesday will be asked about their history of allergic reactions.
Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director for the NHS in England, said: “As is common with new vaccines, the MHRA has advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday.
“Both are recovering well.”
The MHRA advice states: “Any person with a history of a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food (such as a previous history of anaphylactoid reaction or those who have been advised to carry an adrenaline autoinjector) should not receive the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.
“Resuscitation facilities should be available at all times for all vaccinations. Vaccination should only be carried out in facilities where resuscitation measures are available.”
It is understood that both the staff members had a significant history of allergic reactions – to the extent where they need to carry an adrenaline autoinjector with them.
They developed symptoms of “anaphylactoid reaction” shortly after receiving the vaccine and both have recovered after the appropriate treatment.
Updated
The Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s son and son-in-law were among candidates on track to win posts in regional elections on Wednesday after polls that health experts have warned could spark new coronavirus clusters across the archipelago.
More than 100 million people were registered to vote in the polls, a mammoth logistical task even without a pandemic, with nearly 300,000 polling stations in 24 districts and 37 cities.
The vote in the world’s third-biggest democracy comes as Indonesia struggles to contain south-east Asia’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, with more than 592,000 infections and 18,000 deaths.
On Wednesday it recorded its highest daily Covid-19 death toll of 171, but voter enthusiasm did not seem significantly dampened in many areas.
“Of course, we are all worried during this pandemic but as a good citizen of this country I want to participate in this election,” said Rusdiana Jarkasih, who voted in Depok in West Java as volunteers handed out gloves and checked temperatures.
Updated
Furious Merkel says German death rate 'unacceptable'
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the country’s residents could be proud of what they had achieved and there was now “light at the end of the tunnel”.
She said a creative, inquisitive spirit had brought about a number of vaccines – “the best scientists in the world”, she said, “have shown us the qualities that people really have in them”.
The most important characteristics needed to get through the following months, she insisted, were “resilience, creativity and the ability to look beyond one’s normal comfort zone to work together”.
She said everyone was experiencing a “rollercoaster of emotions”. The optimism of the vaccines was coupled with the realisation that the crisis was far from over.
Although a “lockdown lite” introduced in November had slowed the dramatic exponential growth of the virus in Germany, the number of cases was still far too high, and especially disturbing was the number of hospitalisations and the high death rate. She compared the figures from Tuesday 29 September with those of today to illustrate the seriousness of the situation. On 29 September there were 1,827 new cases, 352 ICU beds occupied (with Covid-19 patients), and 12 deaths.
Today, there are 20,815 cases, 3,500 more than a week ago, 4,257 ICU beds occupied (with Covid-19 patients) and 590 deaths, she said. Her conclusion was that the number of contacts is “far too high”. Amid heckling calls from the ranks of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, she responded: “That’s the problem – people say it’s not so bad ... but I believe quite simply that the scientific knowledge is real and it is this we should be using to guide us.”
Merkel gave an insight into her decision to become a physicist in the communist dictatorship of East Germany, a career she would probably not have chosen had she lived in the democracy of western Germany, she said, alluding to a regime which lied to its citizens, and equating it with those who seek to downplay the virus or suggest it is a fiction. “I was sure that there are many things that one can overrule,” she said. “But certainly not gravity, and not the speed of light ... and that will continue to be the case.” Whilst heckles continued to come from the floor, a large number of MPs warmly applauded her.
The usually calm and collected Merkel then became increasingly furious in tone, even visibly shaking, as she stabbed the air, saying the current number of deaths was “unacceptable”.
And whilst measures like keeping distance and wearing masks might seem “inhuman”, they are, she added: “Not something which is going to destroy our lives.” She said that much as it pained her, in order to save lives she said she saw little alternative than to reduce all contacts as much as possible even during the Christmas period, and proposed an earlier break for Christmas followed by a tight shutdown into the new year, which would involve the closure of schools, workplaces and non-essential shops.
Updated
A coronavirus outbreak detected last month on a mink farm in France did not involve a mutated strain of the virus, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
Denmark’s discovery of a variant form of the novel coronavirus that passed from humans to mink and back to humans led the country to slaughter all of its 17 million farmed mink.
The outbreak in France led the authorities to cull all the animals at the mink farm in the Eure-et-Loir region, south-west of Paris.
Updated
Sweden’s government on Wednesday proposed new temporary legislation to expand its powers to fight the coronavirus pandemic, giving it greater leeway to implement and enforce lockdown measures such as closing shopping malls and gyms.
The legislation, which will be submitted for review to relevant stakeholders before a vote in parliament, would come into force on 15 March next year and be valid for just over a year, the coalition said in a statement.
Since summer and early autumn’s lull in the pandemic, a second wave of the virus has swept the Nordic country with infections hitting daily records, while hospitalisations and deaths have also shot up over the past two months.
Under the proposed law, the government would have greater scope to tailor and pinpoint pandemic-fighting measures, such as limiting crowds and opening hours in stores, but also to undertake sweeping outright closures as a last resort.
Updated
It is the last day of what the government described as the “student travel” window in the UK today, as those studying at university return home for Christmas.
The government published guidance on this earlier in the month. It said 3-9 December was when students would be allowed to travel home on staggered departure dates set by universities.
The student travel window will mean students can travel having just completed the four-week period of national restrictions, reducing the risk of transmission to family and friends at home.
Updated
In the UK, Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
What we should take away from it is that the vaccine is safe, it’s highly effective and one really important finding is that from 21 days after being given the first dose of the vaccine, nobody was admitted to hospital with Covid or had severe Covid disease. So, that’s a really important finding.
We also report on the efficacy against symptomatic PCR-confirmed Covid – so that is a milder form of disease where people aren’t needing to go into hospital – and, on average, the efficacy was 70% against that.
But in a subgroup who had a half dose of the vaccine first followed by a full dose, it was 90%.
Updated
France will adapt its plans to relax some Covid-19 restrictions if it thinks it is needed to fight a virus which is “resisting”, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.
Attal told CNews TV that if there were signs that the downward trend in infections was flattening out “we must adapt the second stage (of lifting lockdown measures), we will do it.”
France will hold a health defence council meeting this morning to review the situation ahead of a Thursday news conference on the government plan on next stages of lockdown easing
Updated
China has tested more than a quarter of a million people for the coronavirus after a handful of new cases were detected in the southern city of Chengdu.
An elderly couple were diagnosed as confirmed cases on Monday, and authorities have been tracing their close contacts and testing food samples.
Local health officials said the virus was detected on food stored in their fridge and on a chopping board in their flat.
As of Tuesday, 255,200 residents in the city had been swabbed for Covid-19 tests, the municipal health commission said, with six confirmed cases and one asymptomatic patient.
Schools and kindergartens in the Pidu district where the cases emerged have closed, according to local authorities, with students and teachers to quarantine and be tested for the virus.
Footage on state TV showed people in a park queueing up to be tested by health officials in hazmat suits.
China – where the virus first surfaced late last year – has largely brought domestic transmissions under control, with state media blaming recent clusters on imports of frozen food and other shipments.
The World Health Organization says there is currently no evidence that people can catch Covid-19 from food or food packaging.
Updated
On Brexit, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said the outstanding issues in the negotiations with the European Union were about sovereignty and not trade.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think at the moment the problem that the prime minister faces is that this is not any longer about a trade deal - a trade deal is sitting in the wings.
“What this is all about is sovereignty, the question of how far can the EU insist that their courts and their rules and their regulations apply to the UK as we go forward, leaving the UK trapped in the orbit of the EU without any say, and that’s simply unacceptable to the prime minister.”
The ex-cabinet minister said the “EU hasn’t budged one bit” in the negotiations and accused the bloc of showing “bad faith” towards the UK services sectors in the trade talks.
Asked whether he trusted Boris Johnson in the final stretch of the negotiations, Duncan Smith added: “I do, I completely trust him in the sense that, here is the man who wrote the manifesto and the manifesto was clear that the sovereign right of the United Kingdom to make trade deals and, where necessary, to diverge from EU regulations is in the hands of the UK government.”
In England, transport giant Stagecoach has revealed half-year profits crashed 92% to 5.4 million as slumping demand for public transport hammered revenues.
The bus group saw revenues nearly halve to 454.6 million in the six months to October 31, against 800.2 million a year earlier.
Coronavirus lockdowns and ongoing restrictions have left regional bus commercial sales at around 54% of levels seen last year, which the group said was a step back having recovered to almost 60% at one stage.
But the group said it had seen a “significant recovery” in passenger demand since May, even with the impact of the second lockdown across England.
Daniel Auminto lost his job and then his home when the coronavirus pandemic sent the Philippines into lockdown. Now he and his family live on the street, relying on food handouts to survive.
Charities are struggling to meet the ever-growing demand for food as millions of families go hungry across the country, reports AFP.
Covid-19 restrictions have crippled the economy and thrown many out of work.
“I’ve never seen hunger at this level before,” said Jomar Fleras, executive director of Rise Against Hunger in the Philippines, which works with more than 40 partners to feed the poor.
“If you go out there everybody will tell you that they’re more afraid of dying from hunger than dying from Covid. They don’t care about Covid anymore.”
The number of people going hungry has reached a record high during the pandemic, according to pollster Social Weather Stations.
Nearly one-third of families - or 7.6 million households - did not have enough food to eat at least once in the previous three months, its September survey showed.
Among them were 2.2 million families experiencing “severe hunger” - the highest ever.
The numbers have been going up since May, two months after the country went into a severe lockdown - reversing a downward trend since 2012.
Virus restrictions have been eased in recent months to allow more businesses to operate as the government seeks to revive the devastated economy, which is expected to shrink up to 9.5%this year.
For the country’s legions of poor, the pandemic is just another challenge in their lives - and not even the most serious.
Auminto, 41, spent years sleeping on the streets and making as much money as possible by selling trash for recycling. His fortunes changed in 2019 when he found stable work as a building painter.
That gave him enough money to rent a room in Manila, which he shared with his wife and their two-year-old daughter, buy food and even save a little towards their dream of opening a small store.
The United Arab Emirates said Wednesday a Chinese coronavirus vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms is 86% effective, in a statement that provided few details but marked the first public release of information on the efficacy of the shot.
The UAE, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi conducted a trial beginning in September of the vaccine by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm involving 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations. Volunteers between 18 and 60 years old received two doses of the vaccine over 28 days.
The UAE’s Health and Prevention Ministry announced the results via a statement on the state-run WAM news agency, saying they “have reviewed Sinopharm CNBG’s interim analysis of the Phase III trials.”
“The analysis shows no serious safety concerns,” the statement said, without detailing whether any participant suffered side effects.
Hello everyone. I am taking over the Guardian’s live feed today from London, where it’s 7 am GMT. Please get in touch with me while I work to share any thoughts or news tips. Thanks so much
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, who is also urging you to start your morning / end your day with this:
"I hope that I'm not going to have the bloody bug now" pic.twitter.com/gE8lhMXf9S
— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) December 8, 2020
Moldova's prime minister contracts coronavirus
Moldova’s Prime Minister Ion Chicu has contracted the novel coronavirus, his adviser Boris Harea wrote on Facebook late on Tuesday.
“The Prime Minister will run the government remotely,” he said.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Nine out of 10 people in 70 low-income countries are unlikely to be vaccinated against Covid-19 next year because the majority of the most promising vaccines coming on-stream have been bought up by the west, campaigners have said.
- US coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark. Record cases in at least three states - Arizona, Alabama and Ohio - pushed the cumulative case load to over 15 million, according to a Reuters tally of state and county data.
- UK’s science chief warned Britons may still need masks next winter. People in the United Kingdom may still be wearing face masks in a year’s time despite the country’s national vaccination programme getting under way, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, told the Telegraph. “It may be that next winter even with vaccination we need measures such as masks in place,” he said.
-
Kim Jong-un’s influential sister has launched a stinging verbal attack on South Korea’s foreign minister for questioning North Korean claims that the country does not have a single case of Covid-19. Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister, described the comments by Kang Kyung-wha as “reckless” and accused her of seeking to damage already strained ties between Pyongyang and Seoul.
- Rudy Giuliani is expected to leave hospital on Wednesday. US president Donald Trump’s lawyer said he is feeling better after contracting Covid-19 and expects to leave the hospital on Wednesday.
- South Korea reported its second-highest cases of pandemic so far. South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infection that is threatening to overwhelm its medical system. The daily tally was the second-highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. New cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week.
- Thailand will deploy drones and increase military patrols along its border with Myanmar following a small cluster of cases linked to people crossing undetected into the country. At least 19 cases of the coronavirus have been linked to people passing over the border without undergoing mandatory quarantine. Health workers have raced to trace hundreds of contacts, while some schools have also been closed as a precaution.
Hand sanitiser topped three separate search categories in Australia during a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, Google has revealed, and “US election” was the leading overall search term.
“Where can I buy toilet paper?” was the most searched for “can I” phrase followed by “Where can I buy hand sanitiser?”. People keen to make their own hand sanitiser when there was a shortage earlier in the year took it to the top three of the 2020 lists: “how to …” make it; “recipe” for it and “DIY” hand sanitiser.
“DIY ventilator” was fourth on the DIY list with “face mask pattern” and “neck hammock” second and third respectively.
Google reported that “coronavirus” was the second most-searched term overall and among news topics by Australians in 2020. Other top overall search terms related to the pandemic included “Zoom” at No 4, “coronavirus symptoms” (No 5) and “coronavirus Victoria” (No 9):
The British government’s furlough scheme should cover workers infected with Covid-19 to prevent the spread of the disease by people who cannot afford to self-isolate, according to a leading thinktank.
With Britain’s statutory sick pay the lowest of any advanced economy, the Resolution Foundation said a more generous and easier to administer system should be put in place or the multibillion-pound vaccination programme was at risk of being undermined.
Until now unions, the Labour party and MPs from both sides of the Commons have called for the government to increase statutory sick pay (SSP) from £96 a week following concerns that low income workers were being plunged into poverty if they self-isolated.
Last month the head of the government’s test-and-trace system, Dido Harding, said her organisation was struggling to persuade workers to stay at home when they test positive for the disease:
Nine out of 10 in poor nations to miss out on inoculation as west buys up Covid vaccines
Nine out of 10 people in 70 low-income countries are unlikely to be vaccinated against Covid-19 next year because the majority of the most promising vaccines coming on-stream have been bought up by the west, campaigners have said.
As the first people get vaccinated in the UK, the People’s Vaccine Alliance is warning that the deals done by rich countries’ governments will leave the poor at the mercy of the rampaging virus. Rich countries with 14% of the world’s population have secured 53% of the most promising vaccines.
Canada has bought more doses per head of population than any other – enough to vaccinate each Canadian five times, said the alliance, which includes Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam:
The full story on the North Korea-South Korea Covid spat now:
Kim Jong-un’s influential sister has launched a stinging verbal attack on South Korea’s foreign minister for questioning North Korean claims that the country does not have a single case of Covid-19.
Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister, described the comments by Kang Kyung-wha as “reckless” and accused her of seeking to damage already strained ties between Pyongyang and Seoul.
Kang said last weekend that it was hard to believe the North’s insistence that it was free of the coronavirus a year after the outbreak began:
May Parsons, the Filipino nurse who gave the first ever Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to a 90-year-old woman in the UK yesterday, is on the front page of today’s Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Today's Inquirer front page (December 9, 2020).
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) December 8, 2020
More at https://t.co/11GKG8Ybzy. 📰#INQFrontPage pic.twitter.com/CB2ANB7VO8
Parsons made history when she kickstarted the UK’s mass vaccination programme, which is by far the largest in the NHS’s 73-year history.
“It comes as no surprise that a Filipino nurse, May Parsons, administered the first vaccine,” says the paper. More than 18,000 Filipino staff work for NHS England, while many more are employed on the frontline of health service elsewhere around the world.
Parsons, who was born in the Philippines, said it was a “huge honour” to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient. She has worked for the NHS for the last 24 years.
More on Indonesia’s elections now: Over than 100 million Indonesians are eligible to vote today in regional elections, prompting concern that a large turnout could fuel the spread of the coronavirus.
The elections will span almost 300,000 polling stations in 24 districts and 37 cities across Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy. The vote had originally been scheduled for September, but was postponed as the country struggled to contain its virus outbreak.
Indonesia has recorded more than 586,000 infections and 18,000 deaths, making it one of the worst hit countries in South-east Asia.
“One hundred million Indonesians will be active all at once,” epidemiologist Pandu Riono told Reuters, warning that while Indonesia’s relatively low testing and tracing rates might obscure the initial impact “it’s very likely that new clusters will emerge.
Election officials said that staff would be deployed at polling stations to ensure that disease prevention measures were being followed, and that election workers would be given protective equipment. Voters are also being encouraged to wear masks.
Thailand to increase border patrol following new case cluster
Thailand will deploy drones and increase military patrols along its border with Myanmar following a small cluster of cases linked to people crossing undetected into the country.
At least 19 cases of the coronavirus have been linked to people passing over the border without undergoing mandatory quarantine. Health workers have raced to trace hundreds of contacts, while some schools have also been closed as a precaution.
Thailand – which has recorded 4,126 cases and 60 deaths - has been praised by the World Health Organisation for its success in handling the outbreak, including its contact tracing efforts and strict lockdown earlier in the year.
The country has been mostly shut to foreign tourists since March but it shares a porous, 1,500 mile border with neighbouring Myanmar - which has struggled to control virus cases.
The border, which stretches through dense forest and mountainous terrain, is difficult to monitor and there is concern that migrant workers who may have crossed the border illegally will be afraid to seek help if they do develop symptoms.
Prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has said border surveillance will be increased and called for calm, saying that the country is not facing a second wave.
Separately, four local cases were detected among medical staff working in quarantine facilities and a private hospital.
US passes 15m cases
US coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark on Tuesday as regulators moved a step closer to approving a Covid-19 vaccine and Britain started inoculating people, offering hope of slowing a pandemic that killed 15,000 Americans in the last week alone.
Record cases in at least three states - Arizona, Alabama and Ohio - pushed the cumulative case load to over 15 million, according to a Reuters tally of state and county data. With the virus showing no sign of abating, leading health officials are once again sounding the alarm of further spread when people gather for the year-end holidays.
“We*re in for a very challenging period,” top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told a virtual summit on Tuesday.
In a bit of welcome news, Pfizer Inc cleared another hurdle on Tuesday when the US Food and Drug Administration released documents that raised no new red flags over the safety or efficacy of the vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE.
The documents were prepared ahead of a meeting of a panel of outside advisers on Thursday to discuss whether to recommend FDA emergency use authorisation of the Pfizer vaccine.
That could eventually provide relief to hospitals buckling under a record 101,498 Covid-19 patients as of Monday, up 16% in a week. Healthcare workers are expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine it if receives an EUA.
North Korea lashes out at South Korea over zero cases doubt
The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has slammed the South’s foreign minister as “impudent” for casting doubt over Pyongyang’s claim that the country has no coronavirus cases, state media reported Wednesday.
Nuclear-armed Pyongyang closed its borders in January, sealing itself off from the outside world in an effort to avoid contamination, and has long insisted that it has had no cases.
Kim himself reiterated the claim at a huge military parade in October.
Experts suggest it is unlikely, given that the virus first emerged in neighbouring China, its main provider of trade and aid.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told a forum in Bahrain on Saturday that it was “hard to believe” that the North had no coronavirus cases, adding that Pyongyang had been unresponsive to Seoul’s offers to help tackle the disease.
The pandemic “in fact has made North Korea more North Korea - ie more closed, very top-down decision-making process where there is very little debate on their measures dealing with Covid-19”, Kang said.
“All signs are that the regime is very intensely focused on controlling the disease that they say they don’t have.”
Kim Yo Jong, sister and key adviser to the North Korean leader, condemned Kang in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday, calling her comments “impudent” and accusing her of seeking to worsen the already strained inter-Korean relationship.
“It can be seen from the reckless remarks made by her without any consideration of the consequences that she is too eager to further chill the frozen relations between the north and south of Korea,” Kim said.
“We will never forget her words and she might have to pay dearly for it.”
Indonesia pushed forward with holding previously postponed regional elections on Wednesday despite concerns about doing so amid the ongoing pandemic.
AP: At least 105 million people were eligible to vote in elections being held to choose nine governors, 37 mayors and 224 district chiefs across 270 regions. The polls were originally supposed to be held in September but were delayed because of the virus and the number of organisers who got sick.
The vote comes just days after Indonesia recorded its highest daily increase in new virus cases since the pandemic began — more than 8,000.
The pandemic was impacting the logistics of voting. Masks were required for voters and poll workers. Polling stations opened earlier than usual and each voter was given a scheduled hour during which they could vote.
Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 11,006 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 800 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,193,255 cases and 110,874 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
In the UK, for many years the word “destitution” felt like a throwback to some dimly lit Victorian past. No one was destitute in modern Britain, at least those who were eligible for social security. You might be poor, but it was rare to be regularly hungry, cold, ill-clothed, and entirely dependent on the kindness of charity.
All that started to change less than a decade ago. While headline relative poverty rates seemed to change very little, researchers noticed that the proportion of those below the breadline experiencing extreme poverty was growing. Food bank volunteers saw people going for days without eating. Debt charities helped people mired in mountains of debt over unpaid rent and utility bills.
Three years ago the veteran anti-poverty campaigner and former MP Frank Field suggested what was being witnessed day in day out in the food banks and church halls of the UK’s poorest neighbourhoods went far beyond the quotidian shock of poverty numbers. Destitution was real and growing alarmingly, he said. “Clearly something unique and horrendous is happening to the bottom end of our society.”
A passenger on board a “cruise-to-nowhere” from Singapore has tested positive for Covid-19, the operator Royal Caribbean said on Wednesday.
Singapore has been trialling the trips which are open only to the city-state’s residents, make no stops and sail in waters close by. At 2.45 am on Wednesday morning, the captain of the Quantum of the Seas informed the 2,000 passengers that the ship was to return to dock a day early and that they should stay in their rooms, the Straits Times reports.
At 8.10 the captain confirmed that a passenger had tested positive. Breakfast would be served to passengers in their rooms, he said.
“It’s important that you know that you are safe on board and we have a good plan in place to maintain your health, safety and comfort.”
Asian shares rose to a record high and US stock futures gained on Wednesday as investors tracked positive news on Covid-19 vaccines and ongoing efforts to launch more fiscal stimulus, Reuters reports.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.51%. At one point the index reached 646.10, an all-time peak.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe also hit a record high.
Australian shares gained 0.69%. Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.01% to approach a 29 1/2-year high. Sentiment got an added boost after Japanese data pointed to a rebound in capital expenditure.
Shares in China rose 0.15%. South Korean stocks also jumped by 1.26% to trade near a record high.
The US S&P 500 e-mini stock futures rose 0.11% in Asian trade after shares on Wall Street notched new record highs on Tuesday, boosted by positive vaccine news and seeming progress on U.S. stimulus talks.
South Korea reports second-highest cases of pandemic so far
South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infection that is threatening to overwhelm its medical system, Reuters reports.
The daily tally was the second-highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. New cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week.
Tougher social distancing rules took effect on Tuesday, including unprecedented curfews on restaurants and most other businesses.
The government has also introduced a new testing method to cater to surging demand, and eased rules to release some recovered patients faster to free up hospital beds.
The government has signed deals with four global drugmakers to procure Covid-19 vaccines for 44 million people.
South Korea’s total infections stand at 39,432, with 556 deaths.
Destitution levels in Great Britain are expected to double in the wake of the pandemic with an estimated 2 million families, including a million children, likely to struggle to afford to feed themselves, stay warm, or keep clean as the recession deepens, according to a study.
The estimates, carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), described “increasing, intensifying” levels of extreme poverty experienced by some of the country’s poorest households in recent years, and highlight a social security system increasingly failing to protect society’s most vulnerable:
Four lions at Barcelona’s zoo have tested positive for coronavirus, Australia’s Channel 9 reports.
The zookeepers noticed that three females, Zala, Nima and Run Run, and a male, Kiumbe, had cold-like symptoms. They later tested positive.
Four lions at Barcelona Zoo have tested positive for COVID-19 after showing unusual symptoms similar to a cold.
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) December 9, 2020
Authorities are now trying to establish if they caught the virus from an infected zookeeper.
Full details: https://t.co/6YvgQm2LuX #9News pic.twitter.com/W3YLV0Wfm6
In April, tigers and lions at the Bronx zoo contracted coronavirus.
Updated
The British government has been urged to launch a one-off wealth tax on millionaire households to raise up to £260bn in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as the crisis damages Britain’s public finances and exacerbates inequality.
The Wealth Tax Commission – a group of leading tax experts and economists brought together by the London School of Economics and Warwick University to examine the case for a levy on assets – said targeting the richest in society would be the fairest and most efficient way to raise taxes in response to the pandemic.
In a highly anticipated report, the group, which has drawn attention from the Commons Treasury committee and the former head of the civil service, Sir Gus O’Donnell, said its proposals would be preferable to a broad-based tax raid on workers’ incomes and consumer spending:
I cannot recommend highly enough that you watch this:
"I hope that I'm not going to have the bloody bug now" pic.twitter.com/gE8lhMXf9S
— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) December 8, 2020
UK science chief warns Britons may still need masks next winter
People in the United Kingdom may still be wearing face masks in a year’s time despite the country’s national vaccination programme getting under way, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, told the Telegraph.
“It may be that next winter even with vaccination we need measures such as masks in place,” he said.
Restrictions may remain in place long after a full rollout of a vaccine, Vallance suggested, according to the report.
Rudy Giuliani expected to leave hospital on Wednesday
The US president Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday said he is feeling better after contracting Covid-19 and expects to leave the hospital on Wednesday.
The 76-year-old former New York City mayor, who is spearheading Trump’s flagging effort to overturn the president’s election loss to Joe Biden, said he began to feel unusually tired on Friday.
By Sunday, when his diagnosis was announced, Giuliani said he was showing other “mild symptoms” but that currently he has no fever and only a small cough.
“I think they are going to let me out tomorrow morning,” Giuliani said in an interview with WABC Radio in New York. He was at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, two sources familiar with the situation said on Sunday.
Giuliani plans to attend a virtual hearing this week with Georgia lawmakers, another source familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live global coronavirus coverage.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours.
You can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
The UK’s chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance has warned that Britons may still be wearing masks next winter, telling the Telegraph: “It may be that next winter even with vaccination we need measures such as masks in place”. Restrictions may remain in place long after a full rollout of a vaccine, Vallance suggested, according to the report.
Meanwhile Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said he is feeling better after contracting Covid-19 and expects to leave the hospital on Wednesday.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- Deaths from Covid-19 in the US have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April.Cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record.
- Germany moving towards stricter measures. Germany inched towards stricter measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as an eastern region said it would close schools and most businesses and the health minister warned a partial lockdown had not stopped the disease.
- Dutch coronavirus cases rise for first week since October. The number of new coronavirus cases in the Netherlands has resumed rising after falling for weeks, the country’s health authority has said. There were 43,103 new cases registered in the week ended 8 December, the National Institute for Health said in its weekly update, up from 33,949 in the week ended 1 December.
- Hong Kong to impose fresh virus restrictions. Hong Kong is set to impose new virus restrictions to battle a fourth wave of coronavirus – evening dining at restaurants will be banned, fitness centres closed and people urged to work at home as the government tries to reduce the number of people on the streets.
- A 90-year-old Briton became the first person in world to receive Pfizer Covid-19 jab. UK grandmother Margaret Keenan, 90, has become the first patient in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 jab following its clinical approval as the NHS launched its biggest ever vaccine campaign.
