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Summary
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Australia’s Victoria state reported no community coronavirus cases on Wednesday, on the day the state’s five-day lockdown is due to end.
- The Dominican Republic has begun vaccinating healthcare workers against Covid-19 following the arrival of the first 20,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
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South Africa has said it will offer its doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to the African Union (AU) after suspending the vaccine’s use due to efficacy concerns.
- At least 24 people have tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a presentation hosted by the founder of a Covid-19 vaccine company in California.
- In the UK, extra community testing will be carried out in Norfolk, Southampton and Surrey as well as an expanded area of Manchester, after the South African variant was detected.
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France has registered 586 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, a sharp fall from 724 last Tuesday while the seven-day moving average of deaths fell to 381, the first time the average was below 400 since late January.
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Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that a phased return to school for younger pupils in Scotland will start from Monday. This will include children aged four to seven and secondary school pupils required to carry out practical assignments.
Dominican Republic starts vaccinating medical staff
The Dominican Republic has begun vaccinating healthcare workers against Covid-19 following the arrival of the first 20,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The country has acquired 110,000 doses of the vaccine from the Serum Institute of India due to delays by other vaccine makers, President Luis Abinader said.
The government aims to inoculate the country’s 7.8 million adults in three phases by the end of the year.
The Dominican Republic is the Caribbean country worst hit by the pandemic, registering 2,975 deaths and around 231,950 infections to date.
A snowstorm of rare vigour and durability has forced the Greek government to delay the country’s Covid-19 vaccination drive after citizens were advised to remain at home.
Inoculation centres, including mega facilities capable of vaccinating up to 20,000 people a day, were ordered to close as the unusually cold front swept across Greece.
Report by Helena Smith here:
Australia’s Victoria state reported no community coronavirus cases on Wednesday, on the day the state’s five-day lockdown is due to end.
Australia’s second-most populous state entered a snap lockdown on Friday, following an outbreak linked to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne. It has been reporting low single-digit cases during much of the lockdown, suggesting the outbreak is under control.
Residents of the state, more than a quarter of Australia’s 25 million population, were ordered to stay home except for work, buying essential items, exercise and caring responsibilities, Reuters reports.
Brazil’s environment minister has tested positive for Covid-19, the ministry announced in a statement.
Ricardo Salles is, at least, the 15th member of the Bolsonaro administration to be diagnosed with the illness so far.
Salles had mild symptoms but was otherwise well and self-isolating at the direction of doctors, the ministry said. Bolsonaro, who has sought to downplay the severity of the pandemic, also tested positive for the coronavirus last year.
Updated
Brazil recorded 55,271 additional confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, along with 1,167 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Brazil has registered more than 9.9 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 240,940, according to ministry data.
At least 24 people have tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a presentation hosted by the founder of a Covid-19 vaccine company.
Hundreds watched the event online, but dozens more attended Peter Diamandis’s California summit in person last month. According to Diamandis, around a quarter of the in-person attendees tested positive.
He had said it would be safe, with on-site doctors and regular tests. The entrepreneur was among the 24 to test positive for the virus.
“I thought creating a Covid ‘immunity bubble’ for a small group in a TV studio setting was possible,” Diamandis recently wrote on his personal website. “I was wrong.”
He said that not making mask-wearing mandatory for the entire summit was one of his “biggest failings”.
At current rates, the NHS could offer a coronavirus vaccine to the 32 million people in the UK’s first nine priority groups by Easter – four weeks ahead of the official schedule – according to analysis by the Guardian.
Government and health sources have described the ambition as to “under-promise and over deliver” amid an expectation that short-term pressures on the supply of Pfizer vaccine in February can be compensated for in March.
The initial administering of doses have been running at an average of 2.75m over the past four weeks and if that rate were to be maintained over the next seven weeks the 32-million target would be hit on Easter Sunday, 4 April.
Updated
South Africa has said it will offer its doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to the African Union (AU) after suspending the vaccine’s use due to efficacy concerns.
The country halted its vaccine rollout, which was meant to begin with the AstraZeneca jabs earlier this month, after a study found the jab failed to prevent mild and moderate illness caused by a variant found in South Africa.
“The doses we purchased have been offered to the African Union to distribute to those countries who have already expressed interest in acquiring the stock,” health minister Zweli Mkhize told parliament.“There will be no wasteful and fruitless expenditure.”
The AU has procured some 270 million doses through its African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team and last week said it would not “walk away” from the AstraZeneca formula.
Countries where the more transmissible South African variant has not been found are recommended to proceed with the AstraZeneca rollout.
Before halting their use of the jab, South Africa had acquired a million doses of Covishield, a copy of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India, and was set to receive an additional 500,000.
Extra community testing will be carried out in Norfolk, Southampton and Surrey as well as an expanded area of Manchester, after the South African variant was detected.
The testing will take place within targeted areas of the following postcodes: IP22, SO15 and GU22.
In Manchester, testing will be rolled out to specific areas within the M40 and M9 postcode. Manchester city council said that it will be setting up extra testing sites after a single case was found in Moston and Harpurhey.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: Enhanced community testing– Moston and Harpurhey.
— Manchester City Council #StayHome #StaySafe (@ManCityCouncil) February 16, 2021
Last week we announced that a small number of cases of the Covid variant first found in Kent had been found in parts of Manchester.
1/14 pic.twitter.com/zmRbOlYoAm
Residents living in these areas are being advised to take a Covid-19 test this week, regardless of whether they have symptoms.
People with symptoms should book a test in the usual way while others should visit their council website for more information.
The South African variant has recently been classified as a “variant of concern”.
Investigations are under way to understand if the virus has spread further in the community.
Summary
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South Africa is preparing to give its first Covid-19 vaccinations, shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine still being tested, to health care workers this week as part of a large scale trial, the health minister has said.
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Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard has said that his government is to present a complaint at the United Nations security council tomorrow about the unequal access to Covid vaccines globally, Reuters reports.
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France has registered 586 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, a sharp fall from 724 last Tuesday while the seven-day moving average of deaths fell to 381, the first time the average was below 400 since late January.
- Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are three times more likely to die with Covid-19 than the population as a whole, Reuters reports.
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Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that a phased return to school for younger pupils in Scotland will start from Monday. This will include children aged four to seven and secondary school pupils required to carry out practical assignments.
- The EU is adding clauses to contracts with vaccine makers to allow the bloc to gain access to possible upgraded shots that may offer better protection against variants of the virus, sources have told Reuters.
- The Norwegian government will lift all the extra restrictions imposed on the capital region to stop the spread of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus on Thursday, the government has said.
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Germany is to offer free Covid-19 antigen tests for all from March, the health minister, Jens Spahn, has said, as the country cautiously began allowing some children to return to schools.
- The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has called on the country to respect a night-time curfew, saying it was still needed to fight the pandemic despite a court ruling earlier today that the measure lacked a legal basis.
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Morocco has received a second batch of 500,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine, health ministry sources have told Reuters.
Updated
In related news, US passenger airline traffic fell 60% in 2020 to the lowest number since 1984, the US transportation department said. In total, there were 368 million passengers in 2020, down from 922.6 million in 2019. The previous yearly low was 351.6 million in 1984, the department said.
For all of 2020, US domestic air travel fell by 58.7%, while international travel fell 70.4% as many countries imposed significant travel restrictions. US airlines say air travel demand remains down more than 60% through early February, Reuters reports.
Airlines for America, an industry trade group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others, said the nine largest U.S. airlines lost $46 billion before taxes in 2020 and said that passenger volumes are unlikely to return to pre-Covid-19 levels before 2023 or 2024.
US citizens are still barred from travel to much of Europe and other countries, and business travel remains severely depressed. The number of flights operated by US carriers remains down about 45%.
A $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill making its way through Congress would allocate another $14 billion to extend payroll assistance to US airlines to keep thousands of workers on the job through 30 September. Congress has previously approved $40 billion in payroll assistance for US airlines and $25 billion in low-interest loans.
Spain hopes the introduction of vaccination passports combined with pre-travel Covid-19 testing would allow British tourists to return to Spanish destinations this summer, a tourism ministry source told Reuters.
We support the vaccination certificate but not as the only way to recuperate mobility, rather, as one of the means within a portfolio of measures including social distancing, pre-travel tests, mask-wearing.
The government has no plans to introduce quarantines on foreign visitors, and was also counting on a wider agreement to be hammered out between Europe and Britain to remove restrictions on non-essential travel, the official added.
Over 2020, as global travel was dramatically curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, foreign tourism to Spain - one of the world’s most visited countries - fell 80% to just 19 million visitors, a level not seen since 1969.
South Africa to vaccinate healthcare workers with unapproved Johnson & Johnson vaccine
South Africa is preparing to give its first Covid-19 vaccinations, shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine still being tested, to health care workers this week as part of a large scale trial, the health minister has said.
AP reports that the first batch of 80,000 doses of the single dose vaccine, which has not been authorised for general use in South Africa or anywhere else in the world, is expected to arrive in the country imminently and will be administered to health care professionals across the country, Zweli Mkhize told parliament.
The vaccines are to be administered as an observational study, in which no placebo shots will be given and the health and future infections of all participants will be tracked.
Tests so far suggest the vaccine is safe and effective at preventing severe illness or death from Covid. Another 500,000 doses are expected to be flown to South Africa within four weeks for the vaccination campaign.
The first phase of South Africa’s campaign is to vaccinate the country’s 1.25 million health care workers. More than 380,000 health care workers have already registered for vaccination, Mkhize said, encouraging all front-line health workers to register on the government’s internet site.
We salute the health care workers who have chosen vaccination for their own protection and the protection of their colleagues, families and community members.
As more doses arrive the service will be ramped up accordingly to ensure that we maintain a good rate of daily vaccines.
Early results from the trials showed the vaccine has 57% efficacy against moderate to severe cases of Covid-19 caused by the variant in South Africa.
South Africa does not have plans to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine which a small, preliminary test shows offers minimal protection against mild to moderate disease caused by the variant here, said Mkhize, following an abrupt halt to the plans after the study.
It comes after South Africa announced it planned to share 1m unwanted doses of the vaccine with other countries via the African Union (see 9.13am).
Updated
France has registered 586 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, a sharp fall from 724 last Tuesday while the seven-day moving average of deaths fell to 381, the first time the average was below 400 since late January.
The 586 deaths included 351 deaths in hospitals, from 412 on Monday, and 351 deaths in retirement homes over the past four days, Reuters reports.
Updated
As arctic temperature freeze rivers and lakes in northern Germany, workers at houseboat charter companies are already gearing up for what they expect to be a busy summer season, Reuters reports.
Cross-border travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic last summer prompted a run on domestic tourism, including on floating accommodation. Many expect that 2021 will be no different.
“I think that big trips abroad and flying will still not be the dominant type of vacation for people this summer,” said Dagmar Kuhnle, spokeswoman at a houseboat charter company in the northeastern Mecklenburg lake district.
The White House has said it is increasing the supply of coronavirus vaccines sent each week to states to 13.5 million doses, and is also doubling the amount shipped to pharmacies to 2 million doses this week, Reuters reports.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the boost in distribution to states marked a 57% increase since president Joe Biden was inaugurated on 20 January.
With a brutal winter storm hitting Texas, causing massive power outages and freezing almost all activity in the state, the White House is working to keep vaccine distribution going there, Psaki said.
It’s something we’re very mindful of and we contingency plan to ensure people are getting the doses they need at an appropriate timeline.
The US has administered 55,220,364 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of this morning and delivered 71,657,975 doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 15,015,434 people have got the second dose.
In other US news, subways in New York are soon to resume running longer into the night, as part of what officials described as the beginning of a “phased reopening,”
From Monday, the subway network would close for cleaning only from 2am local time to 4am, instead of from 1am to 5am, although officials did not say when trains would again operate all night.
“New York is starting to return to normalcy,” said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of the New York City Transit Authority, which manages the subways, according to the New York Times
The regular overnight closure was the first in the system’s history after it began last May.
Updated
Malta has credited the EU’s joint procurement for its success in its vaccination rollout, but stressed moves need to be made to counter worrying virus variants, AFP reports.
Health minister Chris Fearne, a former surgeon who is also the small Mediterranean country’s deputy prime minister, said the “unprecedented” pooled purchasing by Brussels of vaccine doses had prevented competition that would have left Malta out in the cold.
Imagine the situation had we not done this together: had member states gone their own way... there would have been a race between member states, so the larger member states would have probably had access to the vaccines while the smaller member states would have lagged behind, possibly not even having had access at all.
As of today, Malta had given at least one jab to 10% of its population of 515,000 people, with more than 3% of those over 16 now fully vaccinated with two doses from BioNTech/Pfizer or Moderna. As of last week, it also started vaccinating with AstraZeneca doses, though only for those aged between 18 and 55.
2nd COVID19 #vaccine dose taken at Mater Dei this morning: Believe in #science 🙏🇲🇹 pic.twitter.com/vm63yQLwjL
— Chris Fearne (@chrisfearne) February 16, 2021
Fearne said Malta is also acutely aware that vaccinating against the coronavirus may be a long haul, not least because of variants that have emerged from Britain, Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria, some of which appear to reduce the effectiveness of current doses being deployed.
If the immunity will wane then we will need booster doses, so possibly an annual dose. Hopefully not, but that is a possibility ... [The virus] is going to continue to mutate, which means we might need at some point different vaccines or different changes to the vaccines to cope with the variants.
He expressed caution at the idea of what many are calling “vaccine passports”, at least for now – explaining that there was still insufficient data on whether a vaccinated individual can transmit the coronavirus.
What I would call proof of vaccination certificates needs to be enabling or empowering rather than restrictive. We still need to sanction the scientific evidence that a vaccine not only decreases the consequences of getting infected... but also decreases transmissibility.
Updated
At least 11 billionaires in Australia last year received dividends totalling tens of millions of dollars from companies that received jobkeeper subsidies designed to keep workers employed, new research shows.
The research, commissioned by the opposition frontbencher Andrew Leigh, shows that retail moguls Solomon Lew and Gerry Harvey were among those receiving the payments.
Leigh said the payments came against a backdrop of the rich doing extremely well during the pandemic, with Forbes estimating that the average Australian billionaire’s wealth increased by 59% over the past year, while workers struggled with wage stagnation and a spike in unemployment caused by the pandemic.
As part of an ongoing diary, chef Jake Turner, from New South Wales, Australia, tells of how the stress he has encountered throughout the pandemic has helped him to grow and learn.
We’re now a month-and-a-half into the new year and, after a bit of a rough time, I’ve decided to stay at my new job. I was having trouble with the amount of stress I felt under. So at the end of my shift a couple of weeks ago I built up the strength to talk to my boss and tell him about the feelings I was having. I was scared at first but, after speaking to him, I realised I did not have to be.
Updated
The United Nations children’s agency is encouraging airlines to prioritise delivering COVID-19 vaccines, medicine and other critical supplies, Associated Press reports.
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative brings together airlines covering routes to over 100 countries as part of the UN’s Covax programme, which supplies the world’s poorest people with the vaccine.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are three times more likely to die with Covid-19 than the population as a whole, Reuters reports.
An estimated 207,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon after being driven from their homes or fleeing the conflict surrounding Israel’s 1948 creation, the vast majority in cramped camps where social distancing is impossible.
In the year since Lebanon registered its first case, about 5,800 have been infected with the coronavirus and about 200 of them have died, said a spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
That is three times the COVID-19 mortality rate for the country as a whole of just over 1%.
Most Palestinians who died after contracting the disease in Lebanon had health conditions such as cardiac or pulmonary issues, which are aggravated by poverty and conditions in the camps, said UNWRA spokeswoman Hoda Samra.
The head coach of the French rugby team, Fabien Galthie, has tested positive for Covid-19.
The news could have implications for France’s involvement in the Six Nations Tournament. The team is scheduled to play Scotland on 28 February, after beating Ireland 15-13 on Sunday.
Updated
Millions of medical-grade N95 face masks manufactured in American factories are being held in storage despite US doctors and nurses warning of a lack of supplies, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The reporters uncovered a logistical breakdown at the heart of the perceived mask shortage, which is rooted in federal failures to coordinate supply chains and provide hospitals with clear rules about how to manage their medical equipment.
Before the pandemic, medical providers followed guidelines that called for N95s to be discarded after each use. As the masks ran short, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified guidelines to allow for extended use and reuse if supplies are “depleted,” a term left undefined.
Hospitals have responded in a variety of ways, the AP has found. Some are back to pre-COVID-19, one-use-per-patient N95 protocols, but most are doling out one mask a day or fewer to each employee. Many hospital procurement officers say they are following guidelines for depleted supplies, even if their own stockpiles are robust.
Chester “Trey” Moeller, a political appointee who served as the CDC’s deputy chief of staff until President Joe Biden’s inauguration last month, said efforts to increase US mask production succeeded, but the government has failed to connect new suppliers with customers.
“We are forcing our health care industry to reuse sanitised N95s or even worse, wear one N95 all day long,” he said.
Updated
Italy reported 336 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 258 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 10,386 from 7,351 the day before, Reuters reports.
Italy has registered 94,171 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 2.74 million cases to date.
Updated
Johnson & Johnson has applied for EU vaccine approval with a decision possible from the middle of March, AFP reports.
The single-shot vaccine would be the fourth jab to be approved for use across EU if it gets the green light from the European Medicines Agency.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Mattha Busby. Send any tips and thoughts to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
Updated
The gorilla troop in the US that saw several of its members contract Covid is now meeting guests at San Diego zoo safari park after they all recovered.
Lisa Peterson, executive director at the zoo, said:
We’re so grateful for the outpouring concern and support we’ve received while the troop safely recovered. We’re thrilled to share the joy that this beloved troop brings to our community and to our guests.
We’re incredibly thankful for the collaboration across various areas of expertise to ensure the best health for our troop and a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things.
Guest access to see the eight gorillas, who were born in captivity, had been limited over the last month. The zoo said that several members troop had tested positive for the virus on 11 January.
“The entire troop remained under close observation following the diagnosis, when some gorillas showed symptoms including mild coughing, congestion, nasal discharge and intermittent lethargy,” it said.
It is believed the infection came from a member of the park’s wildlife care team who also tested positive for the virus but has been asymptomatic.
The gorilla cases were believed to be the first reported from a zoo in the US and possibly the world.
Updated
Around 850 people in the north western German city of Osnabrück have been placed under quarantine after at least 200 people tested positive with coronavirus at an ice cream factory.
Several of those infected are confirmed to have the British mutation, according to a spokesperson for the city, which said the first cases of coronavirus were discovered at the factory at the end of last week.
The ice cream factory run by the company Froneri is said to be one of the biggest in Europe. Almost all of its employees have been put under quarantine.
A spokesperson for the company said it had been “struck by an incredibly fast-moving contagion” and that the factory would remain closed until at least 26 February.
Earlier today, the health minister Jens Spahn said from 1 March every German citizen would have access to regular free rapid antigen tests (see 1.17pm).
Growing nervousness over the variant of coronavirus first discovered in Britain has led to four blocks of flats being placed under police surveillance in the western city of Hamm (see 12.58pm).
Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard has said that his government is to present a complaint at the United Nations security council tomorrow about the unequal access to Covid vaccines globally, Reuters reports.
Ebrard said the government would set out concerns of Mexico and Latin America on Wednesday about “inequality” of access before the council, on which Mexico currently sits.
“The countries that produce [vaccines] have very high vaccination rates, and Latin America and the Caribbean much less,” Ebrard told reporters at a regular government news conference, adding that the situation was “not fair.”
Speaking alongside Ebrard, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the government would like to see the UN address vaccine hoarding and equity so that “all countries have the possibility of vaccinating their inhabitants.”
Mexico has signed agreements with international pharmaceutical firms for millions of doses for its 126 million people amid global delays and shortages of some vaccines. It is awaiting more vaccine shipments after beginning its vaccination campaign, firstly for healthcare workers, in December.
Yesterday, it began the task of vaccinating millions of senior citizens, with dozens of Mexicans over 60 years old waiting in line for hours.
Wall Street’s main indexes, such as Dow Jones and Nasdaq, opened at all-time highs today, with investors piling into economically sensitive stocks on hopes of more fiscal aid to lift the world’s biggest economy from a coronavirus-driven slump, Reuters reports.
Scottish schools to begin phased reopening
Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that a phased return to school for younger pupils in Scotland will start from Monday. This will include children aged four to seven and secondary school pupils required to carry out practical assignments.
Scotland’s first minister also warned that schools’ return would not mark the start of a broader easing of restrictions, telling MSPs that the core stay-at-home requirement would remain in place until at least the beginning of March, and possibly beyond that.
In England, Boris Johnson is expected to set out a roadmap also on Monday for easing lockdown there – including the date schools can start to reopen. Primary schools in Wales are to start a phased reopening from next Monday, and in Northern Ireland schools will remain closed to most pupils until at least 8 March.
Updated
Thousands of people have demonstrated in the Algerian town of Kherrata to voice support for the Hirak protest movement that ousted Algeria’s veteran president in 2019 before the Covid crisis forced it off the streets last year, Reuters reports.
More than 5,000 protesters chanted: “A civilian state, not a military state” and “The gang must go” as they waved Algerian flags today, on the second anniversary of the start of demonstrations in 2019, which began in Kherrata, east of the capital Algiers, before spreading across the country.
Nassima, a protester, said:
We came to revive the Hirak that was stopped for health reasons. They didn’t stop us. We stopped because we care for our people. Today coronavirus is over and we will get the Hirak back.
Another protester, Hamid, said:
It is a revolutionary process for a very precise goal, which is the departure of the regime, the whole regime with all its components.
The Hirak movement demanded a complete removal of Algeria’s entrenched political elite and continued to mobilise tens of thousands of protesters every week even after Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down from the presidency – with Hirak supporters dismissing the subsequent election as a charade and criticising limited concessions given to the movement.
The weekly mass protests stopped a year ago when the pandemic led to a lockdown in Algeria.
Updated
The EU is adding clauses to contracts with vaccine makers to allow the bloc to gain access to possible upgraded shots that may offer better protection against variants of the virus, sources have told Reuters.
In new contracts with vaccine manufacturers, the EU is adding clauses that explicitly cover variants, according to three EU officials involved in talks with the companies. Vaccine makers are testing their shots against variants and are also working on tweaks that could make them more effective against virus mutations.
One official said the clauses would allow the EU not to buy vaccines that are not effective against widespread variants, and to order upgraded versions instead. However, the source said clauses were vague on the definition of variants and the actual legal power they would give the EU.
The three officials said that an anti-variant clause was included in a second contract finalised earlier in February with Pfizer and BioNTech for the supply of 300 million additional doses of their Covid-19 vaccine.
Studies have shown the Pfizer vaccine can be effective against the British and the South African variants. The company is also working on a booster shot that would be tailored against variants.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has called on the country to respect a night-time curfew, saying it was still needed to fight the pandemic despite a court ruling earlier today that the measure lacked a legal basis (see 12.11pm), Reuters reports.
Rutte’s coronavirus policy was dealt a major blow when a court said his government had failed to make clear why it was necessary to use emergency powers at this stage of the pandemic. The government said it would appeal against the ruling.
Rutte said:
It would be very unwise to lift the curfew at this moment. We installed it in order to control the coronavirus as much as possible and to make it possible to regain our freedom in a safe way.
He said his government was working on an emergency law to give the curfew a better legal footing and urged everyone in the Netherlands to limit their social contacts.
In its ruling, the court said:
The curfew is based on a law for emergency situations, where there is no time for debate with parliament. There was no such pressing need in this case. Far-reaching measures such as these need to be based on proper laws.
Updated
Norway local authorities get greenlight to relax restrictions
The Norwegian government will lift all the extra restrictions imposed on the capital region to stop the spread of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus on Thursday, the government has said.
It will now be up to local authorities to decide whether to have local restrictions. If they so choose, essential stores located inside shopping centres could reopen and restaurants could again serve alcohol with food, Reuters reports.
The affected municipalities now have a better overview of the situation and government restrictions are no longer deemed necessary, health minister Bent Hoeie said, citing advice from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI).
“It is not necessarily so that ending national measures means that they will easy in the municipality you live in.”
Oslo and its surrounding region in January saw an outbreak of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus, first identified in Britain, which prompted stricter measures including the closure of all non-essential stores for the first time in the pandemic.
There has been 66,854 confirmed Covid cases in Norway, which has a population of over 5 million, and 593 deaths.
Updated
We reported earlier that the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was meeting in emergency session with emergency response leaders as a heavy snowstorm sweeping the county halted its vaccination drive and left residents in blacked-out areas and villages cut off by the snow.
Fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis said more than 600 calls had been received for assistance in greater Athens.
The calls mainly concerned downed trees and transporting people stuck in their vehicles to a safe place, but also to transport kidney dialysis patients to receive treatment.
Vaccinations have been postponed but we have helped transport doctors and medical staff where they are needed and we helped power technicians get to damaged electricity pylons in areas where access was difficult.
Heavy snowfall has blanketed the Acropolis and other ancient monuments in Athens and halted Covid-19 vaccinations in the Greek capital as many services across the country were brought to a standstill.
Updated
Germany is to offer free Covid-19 antigen tests for all from March, the health minister, Jens Spahn, has said, as the country cautiously began allowing some children to return to schools.
Ab 1. März sollen alle Bürger kostenlos von geschultem Personal mit Antigen-Schnelltests getestet werden können. Sie sind mittlerweile ausreichend am Markt verfügbar. Die Kommunen können ihre Testzentren oder Apotheken mit solchen Angeboten beauftragen. (1/2)
— Jens Spahn (@jensspahn) February 16, 2021
Unlike PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests that must be analysed in a lab, antigen testing can be done from saliva with a result given on the spot within 30 minutes.
That makes it easier and faster to test large numbers of people, though antigen tests are less reliable in detecting Covid-19 in people who are not showing symptoms.
Germany is also planning to roll out self-administered antigen tests after their approval by national drug regulator BfArM, which “is expected soon”, Spahn added. Germans would be asked to pay €1 ($1.20) each for the home tests, according to media reports.
Hairdressers were also given the green light to reopen from 1 March. Schools in Saxony reopened to some pupils from Monday, with most other states planning to follow suit on 22 February.
Germany today recorded 3,856 new cases of Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours and 528 deaths, according to the RKI.
Updated
Japan has outlined a cautious coronavirus vaccine rollout, a day before inoculations begin, with the minister overseeing the process admitting he had “no idea” how much of the population will be vaccinated by this summer’s Olympics, AFP reports.
About 40,000 targeted healthcare workers will receive their first jabs starting Wednesday, around double the previously reported number as more people than expected agree to get vaccinated.
The government hopes to begin jabs for the elderly in April, minister Taro Kono said, but he was unable to offer details about the schedule beyond that point.
“I want many people to receive the vaccine, once we have an accurate understanding of the benefits and risks,” he told reporters. “We have been focusing on how to smoothly vaccinate the elderly, so we haven’t yet been strategically thinking about future” shots for young people, he added.
Japan has reached deals with three major pharmaceutical firms to buy enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for its population of 126 million.
Growing nervousness in Germany about B117, the variant of coronavirus first discovered in Britain, has led to four blocks of flats being placed under police surveillance in the western city of Hamm.
A man who was tested positive with coronavirus was found to be infected with the more infectious variant, which has now spread across all 16 German states. A week ago, the B117 variant was said to be responsible for around six per cent of coronavirus infections in Germany, according to the government disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, a figure which was expected to rise.
The 145 inhabitants of the blocks of flats are undergoing tests, having been placed under immediate quarantine on Monday night, authorities said. It was the first known case of the mutation in Hamm, a city of 180,000 inhabitants.
The man was said to be a Bulgarian citizen, who worked on a building site in the city. Five of his close contacts were also found to be positive, but it was as yet unclear if they also had the B117 variant.
Four mobile testing teams were dispatched to the blocks of flats in the west and north of the city on Monday night. Most of the inhabitants who must remain in quarantine for 14 days, are believed to be Bulgarian. Police are to guard the blocks around the clock to ensure none of the inhabitants break the quarantine.
The mayor, Marc Herter, told the regional newspaper, the Westfälischer Anzeiger, authorities had no choice but to be on high alert to stop the variant from spreading.
The British mutation of the coronavirus is highly infectious, and in order to prevent its spread, these measures were absolutely the order of the day. It happened in the interest of all the citizens of Hamm, as well as of those persons directly affected.
The British variant, along with the so-called South African and Brazilian variants, are said by epidemiologists to be spreading fast in Germany, though B117 is spreading the fastest.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week she believed these three mutations were responsible for 20 per cent of new infections and has argued that uncertainty about their effect on the virus’ development meant current lockdown measures should remain in place.
The Ukrainian health minister has claimed that Kyiv’s vaccine purchases are being hampered by “dirty information attacks” that had triggered a corruption probe against his ministry, Reuters reports.
Maksym Stepanov denied wrongdoing after the anti-corruption agency NABU this month launched a probe into the procurement of China’s Sinovac vaccines through an intermediary importer, Lekhim.
Ukraine lags behind most European countries in procuring Covid-19 vaccines and has yet to start mass vaccination. The corruption row deepened this week when the government announced new legislation on NABU’s status, which a leading activist group, AntAC, described as revenge for the probe.
Stepanov claimed a disinformation campaign was intended to disrupt Ukraine’s vaccination campaign and force it to turn to Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Kyiv has dismissed the idea of buying Sputnik because of enduring anger over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, has fired the heads of his government’s Covid-19 taskforce, in what is being seen as his first decisive move during the pandemic.
The president fired the head of the disaster management department and the taskforce’s co-chair, and suspended further officials, some “for failing to maintain proper records of how such critical funds were used and others for defying my directive to submit reports weekly to my office”. He said the pandemic called for “strong leadership”.
The suspensions will pave the way for a full forensic audit, which the national audit office has already begun, and a full and independent investigation, which the director of public prosecutions has requested the Malawi police service to conduct as a matter of urgency.
Every Covid-19 death is tragic and to be mourned, and, although it is God who ultimately has power over life and death, the deaths that are preventable are even more heartbreaking. We therefore have a moral and civic duty to do everything we can to ensure that no penny meant for saving lives is stolen or abused, or wasted by anybody.
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Dutch government to appeal against ruling to scrap curfew
The Dutch government is to appeal against a court ruling (see 9.36am) which ordered it to end a night-time curfew on the grounds that it lacked any legal basis, news agency ANP reports.
It has asked the court to suspend its verdict until an appeal is heard, and the court is to decide on this request later today.
The court order dealt a blow to the government’s response to the pandemic, as it has repeatedly said the measure was required to prevent a surge of new infections due to more contagious new variants of the virus, though many other countries have not imposed curfews.
The court sided with an anti-lockdown group in finding the 9pm until 4.30am curfew, the first in the Netherlands since the second world war, amounted to an unwarranted limitation of personal freedom and lacked proper legal basis. It said in its ruling:
The curfew is based on a law for emergency situations, where there is no time for debate with parliament … There was no such pressing need in this case. Far-reaching measures such as these need to be based on proper laws.
The court ruled it should be lifted before the scheduled end on 3 March. However, it said the verdict did not automatically mean the curfew would end, as that was for the government to decide.
But police would abide to the ruling, the police trade union told ANP, adding that it raised questions over the validity of the almost 15,000 curfew fines handed in the past two weeks.
The curfew sparked several days of riots by anti-lockdown protesters when it was introduced on 23 January.
“We’ll have a party tonight,” anti-lockdown group Viruswaarheid spokesman Willem Engel said on Dutch public radio. “I’m happy and relieved that justice in the Netherlands still exists.”
There have been over 1 million confirmed cases in Holland, which has a population of 17 million, throughout the pandemic, with 14,843 deaths.
Updated
Morocco has received a second batch of 500,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine, health ministry sources have told Reuters.
The 1 million Sinopharm doses add to 6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by India’s Serum Institute which Morocco has received so far.
Morocco has ordered 66 million doses of the vaccines, which require two doses per person, under plans to inoculate 80% of its 36 million-strong population for free.
As of yesterday, Morocco had Africa’s largest vaccinated population of 1.7 million people. The number of infections had reached 478,595, including 8,491 deaths in total.
Despite a drop in daily registered cases, Morocco extended a night curfew for two weeks starting today to contain the spread of new coronavirus variants.
Aung San Suu Kyi charged for breaking Covid restrictions, her lawyer says
Police in Myanmar have filed a new charge against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer has said, which may allow her to be held indefinitely without trial, AP reports.
Khin Maung Zaw said after meeting a judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, that Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with violating Article 25 of the Natural Disaster Management Law, which has been used to prosecute people who have broken coronavirus restrictions.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a military coup on 1 February, has already been charged with possessing walkie talkies that were imported without being registered. She is under house arrest. Details of her alleged Covid restriction transgression remain unclear.
The maximum punishment for the violation is three years’ imprisonment. However, the new charge may allow her to be held indefinitely without trial because a change in the Penal Code instituted by the junta last week permits detention without court permission.
Protests with thousands of people demanding that the elected leader and members of her ousted government be freed from detention are taking place in defiance of an order banning gatherings of five or more people.
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Singapore is to provide a fresh multibillion-dollar package to help struggling businesses and fund a vaccination drive, as part of the city-state’s annual budget, AFP reports.
Finance minister Heng Swee Keat announced the new package totalling Sg$11bn (US$8.3bn) as he unveiled the budget in parliament. A substantial chunk will be allocated to helping workers and businesses still affected by the pandemic, including in the travel and aviation sectors.
More than 40% of the funds will go to financing public health and measures to ensure a safe reopening of the economy, he said. This includes inoculation efforts – vaccines are given for free to all residents – as well as the tracking of people possibly exposed to a coronavirus carrier.
Heng said close to 250,000 people have received their first dose, and 55,000 have had their second jab. Singapore has had a relatively mild outbreak with nearly 60,000 cases and 29 deaths, and in recent times has recorded very few local transmissions.
Updated
Public health experts in New York City are warning locals not to rush back into restaurants, which have reopened at 25% capacity following months of restrictions, Miranda Bryant reports.
Although eating out is a pastime for which the city is famous, New Yorkers were mostly tentative about returning to their favourite spots over the Valentine’s Day reopening. Restauranteurs said that diners were apprehensive about sitting inside, preferring to opt for more Covid-secure outdoor heated areas.
Last spring, New York City was at the global centre of the pandemic that has killed 28,341 in the city as of Monday, according to official figures.
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Coronavirus on the rise in Poland
The Covid-19 pandemic is on the rise again in Poland after case numbers had stabilised following a second wave of infections last autumn, Reuters reports.
Poland has loosened some of its restrictions, and scenes of partying tourists ignoring rules about wearing masks and social distancing at Poland’s main ski resort at the weekend have raised fears of a new rise in infections.
On Tuesday, Poland reported 5,178 new cases and 196 deaths. The European Union member state has reported a total of 1,596,673 cases and 41,028 deaths.
Updated
The first 550,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine have arrived in Budapest and will be used to inoculate people after authorities have examined the shots, Reuters reports.
Hungary announced in January that it had reached a deal with Sinopharm to buy 5m doses of its Covid vaccine, becoming the first EU member state to approve and purchase the shot.
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Palestinians have accused Israel of blocking a vital first shipment of 2,0000 Covid-19 vaccines intended for frontline health workers from entering Gaza, Oliver Holmes reports.
The Palestinian Authority said a planned transfer of Russian Sputnik V vaccine doses to the coastal enclave, which is geographically disconnected from the West Bank where the authority is headquartered, was blocked on Monday at an Israeli checkpoint.
“[T]he occupation authorities prevented their entry,” the authority’s health minister, Mai al-Kaila, said in a statement. “These doses were intended for medical staff working in intensive care rooms designated for Covid-19 patients, and for staff working in emergency departments.”
An Israeli security source told the Guardian the authority had previously made a request to the national security council, a body that belongs to the Israeli prime minister’s office, to send vaccines to Gaza, but that it had not made a decision.
The Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is meeting in emergency session with civil protection officials as media outlets report that the heavy snowstorm sweeping the county, which has halted its vaccination drive, has now resulted in the death of a man on Crete.
With widespread power cuts in Athens the leader called the meeting to coordinate efforts to deal with snowfall described as unprecedented. People have been “strongly advised” to avoid leaving their homes with all Covid-19 vaccination centres closed until the bad weather passes. Two mega facilities capable of vaccinating 20,000 people a day were opened in the capital and the northern city of Thessaloniki only on Monday.
The 56 –year- old man was found dead outside an animal pen, on the southern island of Crete after suffering what is believed to have been a heart attack.
Calls have mounted this morning for refugees living in tents in Elaionas, a camp in central Athens, to be relocated because of the snowfall forecast to last through Wednesday.
On Monday, the migration minister Notis Mitarachis said the estimated 100,000 refugees in Greece would receive the Covid-19 jab when it is rolled out. To date, the centre-right government has focused inoculating those in care homes, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
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A Catholic priest in Ireland is providing takeaway ashes in plastic sauce containers so parishioners can honour Ash Wednesday despite coronavirus restrictions.
A Centra shop in Clonmany, county Donegal, has helped Fr Brian Brady to pack and distribute ashes in 200 containers usually used for dips and sauces.
Parishioners have snapped up the containers so they can administer their own ashes by placing them in the form of a cross on their foreheads tomorrow. The ritual signifies repentance and marks the first day of Lent, a six-week period of penitence before Easter.
“A lot of our parishioners would come every year for their ashes and it’s so important that we honour those traditions - even at these most difficult times,” Fr Brady told the BBC. “We really did have to stretch the old imagination on this one though.”
The ashes are from burnt palms. Containers also include a prayer and are limited to one per household.
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Hong Kong to ease strict coronavirus restrictions
Hong Kong will reopen sports and entertainment facilities and extend dining hours from 18 February as daily cases in the city have dropped into single digits, Reuters reports.
The city’s health secretary Sophia Chan said catering businesses would be able to extend opening hours by 4 hours until 10 pm. Beauty salons, theme parks, cinemas and sports facilities would be allowed to resume, with conditions in place. The ban on gatherings of more than two people in public places and opening swimming pools, nightclubs and mahjong parlours will continue.
The city has recorded around 10,700 infections and 193 deaths since January last year. Daily reported cases have fallen to low single-digit numbers over the past two weeks, from more than 80 at the end of January.
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Slovenia’s right-wing prime minister has survived a no-confidence motion tabled by the opposition, who accused him of using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to curb democratic freedoms, Associated Press reports.
Prime Minister Janez Jansa survived the vote held by parliament late Monday, when the opposition only mustered 40 votes in the 90-member assembly, leaving it six votes short of the needed majority to oust the government.
Jansa, a nationalist politician with close links to hardline Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has described the opposition attempt as a “destructive farce” and a waste of public money.
The center-left parties that filed the motion said the vote was necessary to try and avert Jansa’s bid to undermine democracy in the traditionally moderate European Union nation.
Dutch curfew should be lifted, court ruls
The Dutch government has been ordered to scrap the night-time curfew imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus following a court ruling, Reuters reports.
The court ruled that the 9pm until 4.30am curfew, the first in the Netherlands since World War Two, lacks any proper legal basis and should be lifted before the scheduled end on 3 March. It sparked several days of riots by anti-lockdown protesters when it was introduced on 23 January.
The government said it would examine the court ruling before taking any action.
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North Korean hackers tried to break into Pfizer’s computer systems looking for information on the coronavirus vaccine, despite the country’s leader claiming it has no coronavirus cases, AFP reports.
The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world, killing more than two million people.
Leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly insisted that the country has had no coronavirus cases, although outside experts doubt those assertions.
And the closure has added to the pressure on its tottering economy from international sanctions imposed over its banned weapons systems, increasing the urgency for Pyongyang to find a way to deal with the disease.
Seoul’s National Intelligence Service “briefed us that North Korea tried to obtain technology involving the Covid vaccine and treatment by using cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer”, MP Ha Tae-keung told reporters after a hearing behind closed doors.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Martin Belam for the morning. Do send over any thoughts or tips to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
It’s fast-moving in South Africa today. Reuters have just snapped that the country is not planning to return 1m doses of the AstraZeneca to the Serum Institute of India, as earlier reported.
Health ministry deputy director-general Anban Pillay has said that the plan is instead to share the 1m doses with other countries via the African Union.
South Africa’s roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine was paused following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant dominant in the country.
Snow in Athens causes Greek authorities to cancel vaccinations
An unusually heavy snowfall has paralysed Athens in Greece, and led authorities to cancel planned vaccinations.
Associated Press report that authorities have been warning residents – particularly in the Greek capital’s northern and eastern suburbs – to avoid leaving their homes this morning.
It has had a knock-on effect for the nation’s vaccination plans. Health authorities announced they were postponing all coronavirus vaccinations across the greater Athens region of Attica for today.
One line of the Athens subway that runs partially above ground to the northern suburbs was halted, while most buses were withdrawn from the capital’s streets for safety reasons. Snow is common in Greece’s mountains and in the north of the country, but much rarer in the capital. Parts of Athens experienced electricity cuts from downed power lines
More than a quarter of Australians 'unsure' about getting a Covid-19 vaccine – survey
Just 64% of Australians will “definitely” get a Covid-19 vaccine while more than one quarter (27%) are unsure, according to government research.
Some 9% of Australians aged over 16 said they will “definitely not” get the vaccine, according to the poll of 4,001 people commissioned by the health department.
The research was released by the government on Tuesday after the arrival of Pfizer vaccines and approval of AstraZeneca for a rollout to begin on Monday.
The government is confident that achieving full approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration for both vaccines will help support the rollout, and public confidence will improve as vaccines are administered.
But other data sources point to an uptick in vaccine hesitancy. Between August and January the Guardian Essential poll found the proportion of people who said they would “never” be vaccinated rose from 8% to 11%.
In September, the Australian National University found that 5.5% of Australians would definitely not get the vaccine and a further 7.2% would “probably not” – results that are expected to deteriorate when it releases the next phase of its longitudinal research later this week.
According to the health department research, 48% of Australians would choose to get the vaccine as soon as it is available. A total of 71% would choose to do so by October.
The top three motivators for taking the vaccine were to protect oneself from catching Covid, to keep Australia safe from Covid, and to protect the elderly and most vulnerable.
The top three barriers were that long-term side effects are still unknown, that “vaccines have been developed too quickly” and concerns about having an allergic reaction.
Read more of Paul Karp’s report here: Two-thirds of Australians ‘definitely’ want Covid vaccine, while 27% are unsure
Earlier we noted that South Africa has asked the Serum Institute of India to take back 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that the company had sent in early February. There’s another vaccine move in South Africa too.
While they may have suffered a setback with the rollout of the AstraZeneca shot, Reuters report progress with another source. The manufacturers of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine have today submitted documentation to the local South African regulator the SAHPRA for registration.
The Health ministry said in a statement that it was “continuously engaging” with the manufacturers of the vaccine.
Updated
India’s case number are plummeting, which is always good news – however experts are somewhat perplexed as to why.
Krutika Pathi and Aniruddha Ghosal report for the Associated Press from New Delhi that India is reporting about 11,000 new cases a day, compared to a peak of nearly 100,000. The strain on the country’s hospitals has also declined in recent weeks, a further indication the virus’s spread is slowing.
Many possible explanations have been suggested for the sudden drop — seen in almost every region — including that some areas of the country may have reached herd immunity or that Indians may have some preexisting protection from the virus.
The Indian government has also partly attributed the dip in cases to mask-wearing, which is mandatory in public in India and violations draw hefty fines in some cities. But experts have noted the situation is more complicated since the decline is uniform even though mask compliance is flagging in some areas.
It’s more than just an intriguing puzzle; determining what’s behind the drop in infections could help authorities control the virus in the country, which has reported nearly 11 million cases and over 155,000 deaths
“If we don’t know the reason, you could unknowingly be doing things that could lead to a flare-up,” said Dr. Shahid Jameel, who studies viruses at India’s Ashoka University.
That success can’t be attributed to vaccinations since India only began administering shots in January — but as more people get a vaccine, the outlook should look even better, though experts are also concerned about variants identified in many countries that appear to be more contagious and render some treatments and vaccines less effective.
A nationwide screening for antibodies by Indian health agencies estimated that about 270 million, or one in five Indians, had been infected by the virus before vaccinations started — that’s far below the rate of 70% or higher that experts say might be the threshold for herd immunity from the coronavirus, though even that is not certain.
“The message is that a large proportion of the population remains vulnerable,” said Dr. Balram Bhargava, who heads India’s premier medical research body, the Indian Council of Medical Research.
But the survey offered other insight into why India’s infections might be falling. It showed that more people had been infected in India’s cities than in its villages, and that the virus was moving more slowly through the rural hinterland.
“Rural areas have lesser crowd density, people work in open spaces more and homes are much more ventilated,” said Dr K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.
If some urban areas are moving closer to herd immunity — wherever that threshold lies — and are also limiting transmission through masks and physical distancing and thus are seeing falling cases, then maybe the low speed at which the virus is passing through rural India can help explain sinking numbers, suggested Reddy.
The mental health of postgraduate students is starting to receive the attention it needs. While undergraduate wellbeing is often in the limelight, postgrads are six times more likely to experience depression and anxiety than the general population, according to global research into 2,279 mostly PhD candidates. But universities are ramping up support that can make students more resilient, while mental wellbeing is also associated with superior productivity.
Coronavirus has been the catalyst. More than 50% of students think their mental health has suffered since the pandemic struck, according to a survey from the National Union of Students. The switch to remote teaching has made many experience anxiety and depression. Research students face some unique challenges, given that a PhD has always been a potentially isolating experience that relies on a good relationship with a research supervisor.
Seb Murray reports for the Guardian:
Summary
Here are the key global pandemic developments from the last few hours:
- UK to consider giving excess vaccine to other countries. The UK will look at making excess doses of coronavirus vaccinations available to other nations after it has vaccinated its adult population, vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday. “My priority is to make sure I vaccinate the UK adult population as quickly as we can and then if there are any excess doses, we will look at how we make those excess doses available to other countries,” Zahawi told LBC radio.
- Bars and pubs in the UK continue to pose a risk for the spread of Covid despite best efforts to make premises safe, researchers have said. Hospitality venues were told to shut up shop in March 2020 as the first UK lockdown was announced. As restrictions were eased, however, venues were once again allowed to trade.
- South Africa asked the Serum Institute of India to take back 1m vaccine doses. South Africa has asked the Serum Institute of India to take back 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that the company had sent in early February, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday. Last week, South Africa’s health minister said the government may sell doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, after the country paused its rollout following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant dominant in the country.
- Boris Johnson said a ‘very low’ Covid case rate key to easing lockdown. In case you missed this earlier:Boris Johnson is closely monitoring coronavirus case rates as a requirement for easing restrictions in England, stressing the need for a layer of caution alongside four key criteria set out at the beginning of lockdown.
- Andrew Cuomo insisted New York didn’t cover up nursing home Covid-19 deaths. Under fire over his management of the coronavirus’ lethal path through New York’s nursing homes, Andrew Cuomo insisted Monday the state didn’t cover up deaths – but the governor acknowledged that officials should have moved faster to release some information sought by lawmakers, the public and the press.
- Three sailors tested positive for Covid on USS Theodore Roosevelt. Three sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for Covid, the Navy said Monday, less than a year after a massive outbreak on the ship sidelined it in Guam for nearly two months.
- South Korea purchased additional vaccines. South Korea has arranged to buy coronavirus vaccines for 23 million more people, its prime minister said on Tuesday, a day after authorities decided to scale back initial vaccination plans, citing delays and efficacy concerns.
- Syringe shortage hampers Japan’s vaccination roll-out. Fears are growing in Japan, where an inoculation drive against Covid-19 will begin on Wednesday, that millions of doses of Pfizer vaccine could be wasted due to a shortage of special syringes that maximise the number of shots used from each vial.
- China reported 16 new cases versus nine the day before. All the cases were imported infections originating overseas, and there was no new death or new suspected cases reported, the National Health Commission said in a statement.
- Mexico began vaccinating senior citizens in more than 300 municipalities across the country Monday after receiving some 860,000 doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Most of the effort was concentrated in remote rural communities, but in a few far-flung corners of the sprawling capital, hundreds of Mexicans over age 60 lined up before dawn for the chance to get vaccinated.
- South Africa reopens major land borders. South Africa has reopened its major land borders with neighbouring countries after closing them last month to prevent the spread of coronavirus, AP reports.At least 20 border posts reopened Monday, with officials saying steps will be taken to avoid tightly-packed crowds of travellers gathering at the immigration posts which would spread the virus.
- New Zealand reported zero new cases overnight. New Zealand has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 overnight, either in the community or in managed isolation. It follows a testing blitz after three people tested positive for the UK variant on the weekend. Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, is current at level 3 restrictions, requiring people to stay at home. The rest of the country remains on level 2, which includes the return of social distancing rules, caps on gathering and increased mask wearing.
- AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine approved by Australia’s drug regulator. Australia’s regulator has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, ending months of delay to give full approval while other countries begin vaccinations with emergency approvals.
- WHO approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use. The World Health Organization has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab for emergency use, meaning the vaccine can be rolled out globally and participate in the Covax programme that aims to bring vaccines to poorer countries.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.
A reminder: avoid skating on thawing bodies of water where at all possible:
Syringe shortage hampers Japan’s vaccination roll-out
Fears are growing in Japan, where an inoculation drive against Covid-19 will begin on Wednesday, that millions of doses of Pfizer vaccine could be wasted due to a shortage of special syringes that maximise the number of shots used from each vial, Reuters reports.
The government has made urgent requests, but manufacturers are struggling to ramp up production fast enough, creating the latest headache for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who suffers from weak public support.
UK Bars and pubs still pose Covid risk despite safety efforts, experts say
Bars and pubs in the UK continue to pose a risk for the spread of Covid despite best efforts to make premises safe, researchers have said.
Hospitality venues were told to shut up shop in March 2020 as the first UK lockdown was announced. As restrictions were eased, however, venues were once again allowed to trade.
But experts say despite efforts to adhere to precautionary measures, hospitality venues remain a risk for the spread of Covid with research carried out in Scotland over the summer revealing problems from crowding to customers singing, and staff failing to effectively intervene:
Something a little different:
New Yorkers who once thrived on chance encounters and interconnection with Manhattan’s pace and energy are beginning to find creative footholds in the abnormalities of pandemic life.
Expressions are varied, but each point to the embrace of a profoundly altered state and a DIY punk ethos featuring a partial rejection of commercial imperatives, branding, the internet and politics.
Years after the demise of alternative newspapers like the Village Voice, two of those expressions have taken form in print: the NewNow, from thee former Paper magazine editor Kim Hastreiter, and the Drunken Canal, a self-described “biased news source”, that treats Brooklyn as a foreign land, runs a horoscope of mostly bad omens and a column entitled: “Uh-oh … sorry to hear you’ve been cancelled”.
The founders of the Canal, Gutes Guterman and Claire Banse, both 23, said the concept came to them in July while sitting on a park bench.
“Covid made everyone feels so separate, and we wanted to create some kind of community that people could recognise,” Guterman told the Guardian. “We ran with it in the hope that for someone out there it would better their day. With the chaos and total depression of the pandemic – and we’re not making light of it – the only thing we could do was laugh.”
With four issues to date, and print run of just 1,000, the latest being the Valentine’s themed Love & Life issue, the Canal is a hotly anticipated downtown print that eschews the internet and its discourse – or lack thereof:
Podcast: why mix and match Covid vaccines?
The Com-Cov trial run by the Oxford Vaccine Group in the UK will be testing the efficacy and safety of a ‘mix and match’ approach to immunisation. By giving some participants either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and a second dose of the other, the trial aims to find out if combining different jabs offers sufficient protection.
Sarah Boseley speaks to Dr Peter English about where this technique has been used in the past, why it could be beneficial, and how mixing vaccines actually works:
China reports 16 new cases versus nine the day before
China reported 16 new coronavirus cases in the mainland for 15 February, compared to nine a day earlier, the health commission said on Tuesday.
All the cases were imported infections originating overseas, and there was no new death or new suspected cases reported, the National Health Commission said in a statement.
There were 11 new asymptomatic infections, which China does not classify as confirmed Covid-19 cases, versus 10 a day earlier.
China saw a resurgence of the disease in January, when a new cluster emerged in Hebei and later took hold in northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, in the country’s worst outbreak since March.
Authorities in these provinces introduced lockdowns, travel curbs and mass testing in a bid to contain the disease.
Data from recent days suggests that China has been able to avoid another full-blown Covid crisis over the Lunar New Year holiday.
As of Monday, mainland China had 89,788 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The Covid death toll remained at 4,636.
Fiji is considering a “vaccination passport” for visitors to help re-start the country’s embattled tourism industry.
The country’s attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told parliament a vaccine passport would provide proof its holder had been vaccinated against the Covid-19 and would also assure visitors to Fiji the country “was safe and open for business”.
Sayed-Khaiyum said the vaccination passport could be an app on a mobile device, a QR code, or barcode printed on a physical certificate.
“We’re actively exploring all possibilities.”
Fiji will take delivery of 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine as part of the first distribution round of the COVAX global initiative. The doses are expected to arrive in the country the first quarter of this year.
“We cannot afford to jeopardise our safety and chances of economic recovery, which can only truly begin once the target population is completely vaccinated,” Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
“The sooner the process begins, the easier our rollout will be. This vaccine will protect us. It will save lives. But it will also be a shot of life for our economy.”
More now on South Africa asking the Serum Institute of India to take back the one million Covid vaccine doses the company had sent in early February, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday, a week after the country said it will put on hold use of AstraZeneca’s shot in its vaccination program, via Reuters.
Serum Institute of India, which is producing AstraZeneca’s shot, has emerged as a key vaccine supplier. One million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine landed in South Africa last week and another 500,000 were due to arrive in the next few weeks.
The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
South Africa’s health minister has said the government may sell doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, after the country paused its rollout following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant dominant in the country.
AstraZeneca has said its vaccine appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant, based on data from a study by South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University.
The African country, which is yet to launch its Covid-19 vaccination program, has decided to start vaccinating health workers with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in the form of an “implementation study” with researchers.
The Economic Times report also comes as the World Health Organization on Monday listed the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine for emergency use.
Peru on Monday appointed its sixth foreign minister in less than a year following a fresh resignation over a growing coronavirus vaccinations scandal, AFP reports.
Veteran diplomat Allan Wagner, 79, was sworn in less than 24 hours after Elizabeth Astete became the second top official to step down over the scandal.
Peru has been gripped in recent days by the news that government officials received the Covid-19 vaccination weeks or even months before the South American country launched its immunization program.
Health minister Pilar Mazzetti stepped down last week following a newspaper report that former president Martin Vizcarra had received a shot of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in October.
Peru only began its immunisation drive, starting with healthcare workers, in early February after receiving 300,000 doses of vaccine.
But there is still no official start date for the immunisation of the general population.
Peruvian media reported at the weekend that Attorney General Zoraida Avalos had opened a “preliminary investigation” against Vizcarra and others responsible for the early vaccination of senior officials.
Astete tweeted on Sunday that she received the shot last month, calling it a “serious mistake” and saying she would not get the second dose.
Vizcarra, who was impeached and removed from office in November, insists he took part in a vaccine trial and had kept the news quiet due to volunteer “confidentiality.”
However, the university leading the trial on Sunday denied Vizcarra had been a volunteer, a statement to which he expressed “great surprise” while reiterating his claim.
Vizcarra, who left office with high approval ratings, apologized Monday to his compatriots “for not having reported that fact at that time,” but insisted again that he had volunteered for the trial, along with his wife and brother.
“I submit to the investigations in order to clarify this situation,” he added, denying that he had “lied” or committed a crime.
AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine approved by Australia's drug regulator
Australia’s regulator has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, ending months of delay to give full approval while other countries begin vaccinations with emergency approvals.
The head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, John Skerritt, told reporters in Canberra it had placed no upper age limit on use of the AstraZeneca vaccine because it had “no reason to suspect” it won’t be fully effective in older age groups:
Updated
South Africa asks Serum Institute of India to take back 1m vaccine doses
South Africa has asked the Serum Institute of India to take back 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that the company had sent in early February, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday.
Reuters: Last week, South Africa’s health minister said the government may sell doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, after the country paused its rollout following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant dominant in the country.
More on South Korea’s vaccination plans:
The government cut its first-quarter vaccination targets from 1.3 million to less than 760,000, also citing delayed shipments from global vaccine-sharing scheme Covax, via AP.
The director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Jeong Eun-kyeong, said the first-quarter adjustments were not expected to affect the goal of achieving “herd immunity” by November, though some independent health experts have cast doubts on the feasibility of that timeline.
The additional Pfizer deal of 6 million doses was intended to help meet that goal, and the American drugmaker agreed to move up the shipment date for another 1 million doses to the second quarter, Chung said.
The KDCA reported 457 additional coronavirus cases as of midnight on Monday, as the daily tally rebounds to the 400s in four days amid increased testing following last week’s Lunar New Year holidays.
South Korea’s total infections rose to 84,325 with 1,534 deaths.
South Korea purchases additional vaccines
South Korea has arranged to buy coronavirus vaccines for 23 million more people, its prime minister said on Tuesday, a day after authorities decided to scale back initial vaccination plans, citing delays and efficacy concerns, AP reports.
The deals include vaccines from Novavax Inc for 20 million people and Pfizer products for 3 million, bringing the total number of people to be covered to 79 million, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said.
“The government has been working to bring in sufficient early supplies, but there is growing uncertainty over our plan for the first half due to production issues with global drugmakers and international competition to adopt more vaccines,” he told a televised meeting.
The US-based Novavax also issued a statement that it has signed a license agreement with South Korea manufacturer SK Bioscience to produce 40 million doses of its vaccines for South Korea.
With a population of 52 million, South Korea had already secured enough doses for 56 million people from Covax, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, aiming to begin inoculating healthcare workers and the elderly on 26 february.
But authorities said on Monday they would not use AstraZeneca vaccines on people aged 65 and older, reversing an earlier decision, because of insufficient efficacy data.
New South Wales, Australia’s’s most populous state, on Tuesday recorded 30 straight days without a local Covid case, the first time since the pandemic began. The virus has been effectively eliminated in other states and territories.
Australia has reported a total of just under 29,000 cases and 909 deaths, with border closures and speedy tracking systems helping keep numbers relatively low compared with other developed countries.
Australia will begin inoculations for its 25 million population from 22 February after receiving its first shipment of the vaccine on Monday.
Australia’s Victoria state is well placed to begin easing out of a snap five-day coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday, Premier Daniel Andrews said, as it reported just two new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Victoria, the second most populous state in the country, was plunged into hard lockdown from midnight on Friday after a fresh outbreak linked to a quarantine hotel.
The state’s six million-plus residents are required to stay home except for essential shopping and work, caregiving and outdoor exercise.
Andrews reported two new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the recent cluster to a total of 19 people.
“This strategy is working,” Andrews told reporters. “We are well-placed to be able to make changes tomorrow night. As I said yesterday, I’m not in a position to definitively commit to that, because these next 24 hours will be crucial,” Andrews said.
Three sailors test positive for Covid on USS Theodore Roosevelt
Three sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for Covid, the Navy said Monday, less than a year after a massive outbreak on the ship sidelined it in Guam for nearly two months, AP reports.
The Navy said the three sailors have not had any symptoms, and they and others who were exposed to them are currently isolated on the aircraft carrier, which is conducting operations in the Pacific. They tested positive Sunday.
In a statement, the Navy said it is “following an aggressive mitigation strategy,” including masks, social distancing, and proper handwashing and hygiene measures.
“US Pacific Fleet is committed to taking every measure possible to protect the health of our force,” the fleet said in the statement.
The outbreak on the ship last year was the largest the military has seen so far, with more than 1,000 sailors testing positive. One sailor died. Eventually all of the 4,800 crew members were sent ashore in Guam for weeks of quarantine, in a systematic progression that kept enough sailors on the ship to keep it secure and running.
Mexico starts vaccinations
Mexico began vaccinating senior citizens in more than 300 municipalities across the country Monday after receiving some 860,000 doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, AP reports.
Most of the effort was concentrated in remote rural communities, but in a few far-flung corners of the sprawling capital, hundreds of Mexicans over age 60 lined up before dawn for the chance to get vaccinated.
The government has designated 1,000 vaccination sites, including schools and health centers, mostly in the country’s poorest communities.
The goal, as stated by Michoacan Gov. Silvano Aureoles on Twitter, is to lower the death rate among the most vulnerable. He noted that the elderly are often infected by the youth who continue gathering for parties or other large events.
Boris Johnson says 'very low' Covid case rate key to easing lockdown
In case you missed this earlier:
Boris Johnson is closely monitoring coronavirus case rates as a requirement for easing restrictions in England, stressing the need for a layer of caution alongside four key criteria set out at the beginning of lockdown.
Last month Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said the success of the vaccine programme, reducing hospitalisations, reducing deaths and controlling the spread of new variants were the four criteria used to decide when the strictest measures could be lifted.
On Monday the prime minister struck a cautious note as he repeatedly emphasised his desire for a slow, controlled easing of restrictions that would not have to be rolled back again – a process he described as “cautious but irreversible”. Johnson said he would “like to see the rates of infection come down very low indeed … we’ll want to see those rates really, really low”:
Britain’s foremost economics thinktank has urged Rishi Sunak to use next month’s budget to announce a targeted extension of government support to tackle a “triple challenge” to the economy from Brexit, Covid and global heating.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor needed to steer clear of raising taxes in response to record peacetime borrowing of about £400bn inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic and called on him instead to focus on supporting the UK’s economic recovery from lockdown.
In an intervention as Sunak prepares to deliver the 3 March tax and spending set-piece in the Commons, the IFS said additional support was needed to help Britain adjust to the triple economic challenges presented by Brexit, Covid and meeting targets for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The leading thinktank on the public finances said that despite record sums being borrowed this year, an extension in the multibillion-pound furlough wage subsidy scheme beyond the end of April was needed:
Here is something a little lighter to kick the day off with (or end your night with, depending on where you’re reading this):
Five birdwatchers have been fined for breaking Covid-19 restrictions after they travelled to Devon to try to see a rare specimen after a Twitter tipoff.
They were looking to catch sight of a northern mockingbird, normally found in North America, which had been spotted by Exmouth resident Chris Biddle.
Biddle shared pictures on Twitter on 6 February of a bird in his garden along with the caption: “Spotted this little chap in our garden in Exmouth over the last few days, mainly in the holly and palm flowers. We think a northern mockingbird, any ideas?”
He also wrote on the Rare Bird Alert website that the mockingbird was first seen eating flowers in a palm tree on 23 January, and it had become a regular visitor to his garden, the Independent reported:
Andrew Cuomo insists New York didn't cover up nursing home Covid-19 deaths
Under fire over his management of the coronavirus’ lethal path through New York’s nursing homes, Andrew Cuomo insisted Monday the state didn’t cover up deaths – but the governor acknowledged that officials should have moved faster to release some information sought by lawmakers, the public and the press.
“All the deaths in the nursing homes and hospitals were always fully, publicly and accurately reported,” the Democratic governor said, weeks after the state was forced to acknowledge that its count of nursing home deaths excluded thousands of residents who perished after being taken to hospitals.
He explained the matter Monday as a difference of “categorization”, with the state counting where deaths occurred and others seeking total deaths of nursing home residents, regardless of the location:
New Zealand reports zero new cases overnight
New Zealand has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 overnight, either in the community or in managed isolation. It follows a testing blitz after three people tested positive for the UK variant on the weekend.
Some 15,000 tests were done in the past 24 hours and nearly 5,000 results had already been returned by midday on Tuesday: all negative. Ten thousand of the tests were carried out in Auckland.
Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, is current at level 3 restrictions, requiring people to stay at home. The rest of the country remains on level 2, which includes the return of social distancing rules, caps on gathering and increased mask wearing.
Currently those levels are due to expire at midnight on Wednesday night.A decision will be made tomorrow on whether the lockdown will be lifted or extended, the Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, said.
The levels were introduced after a woman and her daughter tested positive for the UK variant of the virus on Saturday night, and the father tested positive on Sunday morning. All were moved to quarantine facilities.
Authorities have identified 109 close contacts.
The woman worked for LSG sky chefs, which carries out food and laundry services for flights out of Auckland. Investigations continue at this workplace. The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, thanked the employer for their cooperation.
The daughter’s Papatoetoe high school was closed on Monday and Tuesday. So far 14 negative out of 36 tests at the high school have come back as negative.
The family visited more than 20 locations while they were possibly infectious.
Air New Zealand has cancelled dozens of flights in and out of Auckland in response to the snap lockdown.
“We have cancelled 44 domestic jet services and 12 turboprop services into or out of Auckland today due to customers opting to change their bookings or choosing not to fly,” an airline spokesperson told Stuff.
Quarantine-free flights to Australia were suspended at midnight on Sunday for three days
Updated
South Africa reopens major land borders
South Africa has reopened its major land borders with neighboring countries after closing them last month to prevent the spread of coronavirus, AP reports.
At least 20 border posts reopened Monday, with officials saying steps will be taken to avoid tightly-packed crowds of travellers gathering at the immigration posts which would spread the virus.
Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi, who is to inspect the reopening of the Lebombo border post with Mozambique on Monday, said South Africa is working with neighboring countries to ensure simpler movements of people.
Other border posts to be reopened include the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe and crossing points with Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland).
Before the borders were closed in January, there were reports of problems at the immigration offices, including travelers using fake Covid tests.
WHO approves AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use
The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab for emergency use, meaning the vaccine can be rolled out globally and participate in the Covax programme that aims to bring vaccines to poorer countries.
A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.
WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the vaccine’s production needed to be scaled up further before it could be more widely distributed.
“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” Tedros said.
Reuters reports:
The listing by the UN health agency comes days after a WHO panel provided interim recommendations on the vaccine, saying two doses with an interval of around 8 to 12 weeks must be given to all adults, and can be used in countries with the South African variant of the coronavirus as well.
The AstraZeneca/Oxford shot has been hailed because it is cheaper and easier to distribute than some rivals, including Pfizer/BioNTech’s, which was listed for emergency use by the WHO late in December.
UK to consider giving excess vaccine to other countries
The UK will look at making excess doses of coronavirus vaccinations available to other nations after it has vaccinated its adult population, vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday.
“My priority is to make sure I vaccinate the UK adult population as quickly as we can and then if there are any excess doses, we will look at how we make those excess doses available to other countries,” Zahawi told LBC radio.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours – as always, it would be good to hear from you on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
The UK will look at making excess doses of coronavirus vaccinations available to other nations after it has vaccinated its adult population, vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab for emergency use, meaning the vaccine can be rolled out globally and participate in the Covax programme that aims to bring vaccines to poorer countries.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
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Incoming World Trade Organization head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has warned that “vaccine nationalism” will slow progress in ending the global pandemic.
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The Czech Republic’s government is to reopen schools from 1 March despite high levels of Covid infection.
- An agreement between Greece, Cyprus and Israel will allow people with Covid vaccination certificates to travel unimpeded between the three countries.
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The Palestinian authority has accused Israel of blocking 2,000 vaccines set to be delivered to Gaza health workers in the blockaded coastal strip.
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The European Council’s president, Charles Michel, said he welcomes Boris Johnson’s support on cooperating on the pandemic treaty.
- Nigeria is evaluating four coronavirus vaccines for possible approval, including Russian, Indian and Chinese jabs, the health minister has said, according to AFP.
- Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said he had been nervous entering the White House when many there were coming down with Covid-19 late in Donald Trump’s presidency.
- Colombia’s first Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in the country, according to Reuters, with distribution due to begin in the next few days.
