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Restriction-free holidays to Greece could be on the cards for Britons who have been vaccinated, a Greek minister has said.
The Greek tourism minister revealed on Thursday that his government is in “preliminary discussions” with the UK government over a potential travel agreement for Britons who have been vaccinated.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Haris Theoharis said he was hoping for a “semi-normal summer” this year.
He suggested that a ‘vaccine passport’ scheme could facilitate travel between Britain and Greece:
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will lead efforts to fend off accusations that the world’s richest countries are hoarding Covid vaccines by pledging at a G7 summit that the UK will donate surplus doses to poorer countries and cut to 100 days the time it takes to produce new jabs.
Both Russia and China are threatening to win an escalating vaccine diplomacy war by sending their vaccines direct to Africa, while the G7 club of wealthy nations continues to pile up surplus supplies as insurance against stocks running out.
Johnson, who is chairing the first meeting of the G7 attended by new US president Joe Biden, found himself forced to share some of the limelight with the French president Emmanuel Macron. On Thursday Macron announced a parallel plan for 5% of Europe’s vaccine stocks to be sent to Africa now, saying his proposal had the backing of the German chancellor Angela Merkel:
Hi, Helen Sullivan taking over the blog now.
I’ll be with you for the next few hours – as always, it would be great to know you’re out there: scream back from the void on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Boris Johnson to pledge surplus Covid vaccine to poorer countries at G7
Boris Johnson will lead efforts to fend off accusations that the world’s richest countries are hoarding Covid vaccines by pledging at a G7 summit that the UK will donate surplus doses to poorer countries and cut to 100 days the time it takes to produce new jabs.
Both Russia and China are threatening to win an escalating vaccine diplomacy war by sending their vaccines direct to Africa, while the G7 club of wealthy nations continues to pile up surplus supplies as insurance against stocks running out.
Johnson, who is chairing the first meeting of the G7 attended by new US president Joe Biden, found himself forced to share some of the limelight with the French president Emmanuel Macron. On Thursday Macron announced a parallel plan for 5% of Europe’s vaccine stocks to be sent to Africa now, saying his proposal had the backing of the German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Read the full story here:
Updated
20.5m years of life may have been lost to Covid across 81 countries, study finds
More than 20.5 million years of life may have been lost to the coronavirus pandemic in 81 countries of the world, according to a new study that exposes the fallacy that those who die would have soon done so even if they had not caught Covid-19.
While Covid deaths are often compared dismissively to those from flu, which kills many elderly and frail individuals every year, the study shows the coronavirus has taken a significantly greater toll. In those countries that are badly affected, the number of years of life lost to Covid is between two and nine times more than from seasonal flu.
Years of life lost is the difference between an individual’s age at death and their life expectancy. Men have fared substantially worse than women – their years of life lost were 44% higher. Even though it is older people who are most at risk of dying in richer countries, the greatest number of years of life lost was among people between the ages of 55 and 75.
Read the full story here:
Pfizer and BioNTech have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their Covid-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies said on Thursday.
Pregnant women are at higher risk of developing severe Covid-19, and some public health officials in the US have recommended women in high-risk professions take coronavirus vaccines even without proof they are safe for them, Reuters reports.
Dr William Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development for Pfizer, said in an interview the company could have results by the fourth quarter of 2021.
Gruber said data so far suggests that pregnant women with Covid-19 have higher rates of severe disease.
They also have higher rates of pregnancy complications, such as premature birth, compared with pregnant women not infected by coronavirus.
That increased risk is why US regulators and public health advisers “are interested in doing this in the first place – so people can be fully informed about the safety profile,” he said.
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Israel has extended its coronavirus border closure for 14 more days in a bid to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
It will extend the closure of its airports and land borders until 6 March, except for urgent reasons, AFP reports.
Israel had suspended international flights on 24 January, before also closing the border crossings with Jordan and Egypt.
However, the immigration ministry said that six special flights were still authorised to land, carrying about 900 immigrants from Ethiopia, France, Russia, Ukraine and South America.
The new arrivals will be subject to quarantine upon arrival, the ministry said in a statement.
Despite what has been termed the world’s fastest vaccination campaign per capita, Israel has been registering a daily average of 4,000 new Covid-19 cases, down from around 8,000 in mid-January, official figures show.
A strict nationwide lockdown was imposed on 27 December and extended four times to combat the infection rate.
On 5 February, Israel had announced a gradual easing of lockdown measures, with airports and land borders set to reopen on 21 February.
According to latest figures from the health ministry, Israel, with a population of 9 million, has registered more than 741,000 cases of Covid-19, including 5,501 deaths.
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Africa’s coronavirus death toll has now passed the 100,000 mark, as a second wave of infections overwhelms hospitals in the continent.
So far, the region has reported 3,818,608 cases and 100,003 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
As per the tally, South Africa alone accounts for nearly half of all the reported cases in the continent with 48,478 reported deaths.
Updated
Nearly one in five people aged 80 and over in London were yet to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine at the start of this week, new figures suggest.
An estimated 81.2% of those aged 80 and over in the UK capital had received their first jab up to 14 February, according to provisional figures from NHS England.
This is the lowest proportion for any region.The estimate for the whole of England is 93.4%, PA Media reports.
Boris Johnson said on 14 February that everyone in England in the top four priority groups, including those aged 80 and over, had been offered the vaccine.
The Department of Health said many people will have booked their appointments for this week or a future date convenient to them and that the statistics in the weeks going forward will provide a clearer picture.
They also said there can be a number of reasons why someone who has been offered a vaccine might not have come forward to get it yet, including if they have Covid-19 at the time.
The spokesman added that uptake so far has been higher than anticipated.
Martin Machray, joint chief nurse for the NHS in London, said:
We are continuing to reach out to eligible groups, working with local authorities, care homes, faith and community groups and others to encourage uptake of the safe, effective vaccines which will help save lives.
The south-west of England had the highest estimated first doses given by Sunday, at 97.9%.
The figures for the rest of the country were north-east England/Yorkshire 95.1%, the Midlands 94.6%, south-east England 94.2%, north-west England 93.6%, eastern England 93.6%.
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Venezuela’s government said it has started vaccinating health workers with the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, adding it hopes to inoculate 70% of the country’s population against Covid-19 by the end of the year.
The government has received 100,000 doses of the Russian vaccine, and is in talks with the opposition to pay for more using funds frozen in the United States under a sanctions program, Reuters reports.
“Today [we] begin the plan to serve those who are on the front lines” in the fight against coronavirus, said the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, in televised comments.
“In the coming months, we will have more than 70% of the population vaccinated and we will achieve the so-called herd immunity,” said the health minister, Carlos Alvarado.
Official figures as of Wednesday showed Venezuela has had a total of 134,319 Covid-19 cases and 1,297 related deaths. Medical experts and opposition leaders have said the figure is likely much higher.
Venezuela has about 1 million health workers, according to medical organisations.
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British radio presenter Jo Whiley is missing her BBC Radio 2 evening show after her sister, who has learning difficulties and diabetes, was admitted to hospital with coronavirus.
On Thursday, Whiley wrote on Twitter that her sister Frances is “v poorly in hospital with Covid”.
I can’t do my @BBCRadio2 show this evening. My sister Frances is v poorly in hospital with Covid. I don’t feel shiny or happy tonight, I feel very scared. However I’ll be listening to @willyoung who I know will light up our kitchen in the depths of our darkness 💜 pic.twitter.com/cAaUBWyiPo
— Jo Whiley (@jowhiley) February 18, 2021
“I don’t feel shiny or happy tonight, I feel very scared,” she said.
She added that singer Will Young will be standing in for her.
The news comes two days after she described “living through a nightmare” after being being offered the coronavirus vaccine before her sister.
She later learned her sister had tested positive for Covid.
Evening summary
- Reported daily coronavirus infections have been falling across the world for a month and on Tuesday hit their lowest since mid-October, figures that suggest the seasonality of the virus show (see 5.04pm).
- Doctors and public health officials have pleaded with Germans to take up AstraZeneca Covid vaccines (see 4.01pm). AFP reports that officials in Italy, Austria and Bulgaria were also starting to signal some public resistance to the British vaccine, and France’s health minister, Olivier Véran, got the jab live on television to drum up support, amid similar reports in Sweden (see 2.56pm).
- A night-time curfew to limit coronavirus transmissions looks set to remain in place in the Netherlands as most parties in parliament voiced support for an emergency government bill which would circumvent a court order that the measure be dropped (see 3.41pm).
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A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies have said (see 12.26pm).
- The Vatican moved to clarify a decree (see 5.46pm) that implied employees could lose their jobs if they refuse to get a Covid vaccination without legitimate health reasons (see 3.15pm), following criticism.
- The World Health Organization urged nations producing Covid vaccines not to distribute them unilaterally but to donate them to the global Covax scheme to ensure fairness (see 5.14pm).
- Protesters in Spain flouted coronavirus restrictions for a second consecutive night to demonstrate against the imprisonment of a rapper who had posted tweets insulting police and the Spanish monarchy, with more than 50 people arrested and dozens injured following clashes with officers (see 12.45pm).
Updated
The French health ministry reported 22,501 new confirmed Covid cases today, compared with 25,018 yesterday and 21,063 last Thursday.
The seven-day moving average of new cases - which evens out daily data reporting irregularities - rose by 205 to 18,566 and the cumulative total of cases rose to 3.54 million. Week-on-week, the new cases tally rose by about 3.80%, the lowest percentage increase since 5 January.
France also reported 271 new coronavirus-related deaths over the previous 24 hours, after 310 on Wednesday, with the total virus death toll now at 83,393.
Health minister Olivier Veran said it was too soon to ease up on coronavirus containment measures and that the isolation period for positive cases would be increased to 10 days from seven from Monday, Reuters reports.
He also said that the weekly death toll of Covid-19 was now at about the same level as the number of deaths in France from traffic accidents in an entire year.
Over the past seven days, 2,590 people died after having Covid-19 in France. Last year, 2,550 people died on French roads, a drop of more than 20% compared with 2019 and the lowest in more than a decade as Covid lockdowns and curfews led to a sharp drop in traffic accidents, based on French government data.
The health ministry also reported that the number of people in hospital with the virus fell by 212 to 25,762, while the number of people in intensive care rose by 44 to 3,394, the highest level since early December.
Pfizer and BioNTech have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their Covid-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies have said.
Reuters reports:
Pregnant women are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, and many public health officials have recommended some women in high-risk professions take coronavirus vaccines even without proof they are safe for them.
Last week, the US national institutes of health called for greater inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in Covid-19 vaccine research. Bioethicists, vaccine and maternal health experts have argued for years that pregnant women should be included early in trials of pandemic vaccines so they would not need to wait until long after a successful one emerges.
Nevertheless, pregnant women were excluded from the large US trials used to obtain emergency use authorisation of Covid-19 vaccines. Pregnant women in the United States have already received their first doses, the companies said.
Zanzibar’s popular vice president, Seif Sharif Hamad, has been buried in his home village in Tanzania’s Pemba Island, following his death yesterday, aged 77.
His cause of death has not been officially announced, however the BBC reports that his death came nearly three weeks after his party, ACT Wazalendo, announced he had Covid-19.
Mourners paid their respects in the capital Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar’s main island of Unguja before Hamad’s body was flown to his final burial site.
In October, ACT Wazalendo, which has repeatedly accused the government of undermining democracy and curtailing fundamental freedoms, said Hamad had been arrested on the eve of elections which were won by the incumbent Tanzania president, John Magufuli.
The was dismissed by the opposition as a “travesty” due to widespread irregularities. Authorities in Tanzania then launched a wide-ranging crackdown on opposition parties.
Updated
The Vatican has moved to clarify a decree that implied employees could lose their jobs if they refuse to get a Covid vaccination without legitimate health reasons (see 3.15pm), following criticism, Reuters reports.
An 8 February decree by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, the governor of Vatican City, said getting a vaccine was “the responsible choice” because of the risk of harming other people.
Vatican City, at 108 acres the world’s smallest state, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. Its vaccination programme began last month and Pope Francis, 84, was among the first to get the vaccine.
The decree said that those who cannot get vaccinated for health reasons may be given another position, presumably where they would have contact with fewer people, but would receive the same pay even if the new post is a demotion.
But the decree also said those who refuse to get a vaccination without sufficient reason would be subject to a specific provision in a 2011 law on employee rights and duties. The article in the 2011 law says employees who refuse “preventive measures” could be subjected to “varying degrees of consequences that could lead to dismissal”.
After news stories about the decree, many Italians took to Twitter to criticise it, with some saying it was contrary to Pope Francis’s general call for mercy.
Tonight, Bertello’s office issued a statement saying that “alternative solutions” would be found for those who do not want to get the vaccine. It said the reference to the article in the 2011 law which specifically mentioned the possibility of dismissal should not be seen as “sanctioning or punitive” and that “freedom of individual choice” would be respected.
Pope Francis is a big supporter of vaccines to stem the spread of the coronavirus and the Vatican has made a Covid-19 vaccination obligatory for journalists accompanying the pope on his trip to Iraq next month. There have been fewer than 30 cases of coronavirus in the Vatican City, most of them among the Swiss Guard, who live in a communal barracks.
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Marriages are becoming increasingly rare in Italy, all the more so during the pandemic, official data shows.
In the first quarter of 2020 – when the country was struck by the virus – the number of Italians who tied the knot was down by about 20% year on year, the national statistics office Istat said.
In the second quarter of last year, when a strict lockdown was in place for most of the time, marriages dropped by 80% and separations and divorces by around 60%, AFP reports. Lockdown restrictions included a ban on wedding parties.
But marriages have long been decreasing in Italy. In 2019, Istat registered about 184,000 weddings, down 6% from 2018 and about 25% fewer than in 2008.
On the contrary, divorces have become more common, mainly thanks to changes in legislation that sped up procedures, Istat said, noting they went up from about 54,300 in 2008 to more than 85,000 in 2019. Italy has long had a falling birth rate and an ageing population.
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The World Health Organization has urged nations producing Covid vaccines not to distribute them unilaterally but to donate them to the global Covax scheme to ensure fairness, Reuters reports.
The WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the plea as China makes agreements across Africa, Russia distributes shots in Latin America and the EU eyes giving vaccines to poorer countries, all outside of the Covax facility.
Tedros said nations striking one-on-one deals undermine Covax’s goal of equitable access, adding the WHO’s scheme could accommodate requests from governments that “prefer to give their donations to certain countries, because they are their neighbours or because they have some relationship”.
What we can do, if that comes through Covax, is the earmarked donation can go to those countries and the Covax stocks can go to other countries. So we can strike a balance.
Updated
Covid infections worldwide fall to lowest point since mid-October
Reported daily coronavirus infections have been falling across the world for a month and on Tuesday hit their lowest since mid-October, figures that suggest the seasonality of the virus show.
But optimism over a way out of the crisis has been tempered by new variants of the virus, raising fears about the efficacy of vaccines, Reuters reports.
“Now is not the time to let your guard down,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on Covid-19, told a briefing in Geneva. “We cannot let ourselves get into a situation where we have cases rise again.”
There were 351,335 new infections reported worldwide on Tuesday on a seven-day average, the figure falling from 863,737 on 7 January. There were 17,649 deaths on 26 January, falling to 10,957 on 16 February.
Covid infections are decreasing in the US, with 77,883 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 31% of the highest daily average reported on 8 January.
So far, 85 countries have begun vaccinating people for the coronavirus and have administered at least 187,892,000 doses, according to the Reuters figures.
Updated
Airbus plummeted to a loss of more than €1bn last year and will continue to withhold shareholder payouts after deliveries of its aircraft fell by a third. The European aerospace giant warned aircraft would remain under pressure in the year ahead amid a “volatile environment” created by the coronavirus pandemic.
Airbus delivered 566 commercial aircraft in 2020, down sharply from 863 the year before, and expects to deliver the same number in 2021.
The company warned last summer that it would face the “gravest crisis” in its history due to the pandemic, and planned to cut as many as 15,000 jobs, including 1,700 in the UK.
Fifth of Australians unlikely to get jab; most more afraid of climate change
More than one in five Australians say they will “probably” or “definitely” not be vaccinated against coronavirus, with the spike in vaccine hesitancy potentially spelling trouble for the rollout.
A longitudinal study of almost 4,000 people conducted by the Australian National University found a “significant and substantial” increase in hesitancy since the same people were asked about getting the jab in August 2020.
Another new survey has found Australians are more afraid of climate change than catching Covid-19 – and they want government to do something about it. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer asked 1,350 Australians questions on a range of topics between October and November 2020.
As Britain prepares to host the G7 club of wealthy nations tomorrow under the chairmanship of Boris Johnson, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has proposed that 5% of its vaccines are sent to poorer countries, especially in Africa.
Johnson is expected to advance a parallel plan to cut the amount of time it takes to create vaccines, and may be unimpressed it has been upstaged by Macron.
The French proposal comes as G7 leaders face accusations they have collectively preordered more than 1.5bn vaccines above the amount their populations require and are being outmanoeuvred by the Russians and Chinese, who are already providing vaccines direct to poor countries while the wealthy west stores up a vast surplus.
Macron’s initiative acknowledges the perception that the west is ignoring the plight of the poor when, in fact, it is funding a complex plan to provide vaccines – but mainly at the turn of the year.
Many of the vaccines that the international system is funding have yet to meet World Health Organization approval, and may not be suitable for distribution in remote rural areas.
Updated
Italy has reported 347 coronavirus-related deaths against 369 yesterday, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 13,762 from 12,074 the day before.
Some 288,458 tests for Covid were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 294,411, the health ministry said, according to Reuters.
Updated
Doctors plead with Germans to take AstraZeneca jab as public resistance also starts in Italy, Austria and Bulgaria
Doctors and public health officials have pleaded with Germans to take up AstraZeneca Covid vaccines, AFP reports. German healthcare facilities have reported several hundred thousand vials sitting unused and rampant no-shows at scheduled appointments.
Officials in Italy, Austria and Bulgaria were also starting to signal some public resistance to the British vaccine, and France’s health minister, Olivier Véran, got the jab live on television to drum up support.
“If you are given the choice between AstraZeneca now or another vaccine in a few months, you should definitely take AstraZeneca now,” implored Carsten Watzl, general secretary of the German Society for Immunology.
The health minister, Jens Spahn, echoed the message, calling all three vaccines approved in the EU – AstraZeneca, BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna – “safe and effective” despite varying levels of efficacy.
AstraZeneca has been shown to be about 60% effective in trials, while studies point to about 95% efficacy for the latter two products. However the British jab has the advantage of not requiring deep-freeze storage, with a regular refrigerator sufficing.
As of yesterday, only 3.6% of the population had received the first of the necessary two jabs of any vaccine.
Updated
Governments worldwide are using the pandemic to push through destructive development projects and roll back protections of indigenous groups, according to a global report on deforestation and rule of law.
AFP reports that an assessment by the Forest People’s Programme of post-pandemic stimulus plans in Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and Peru found that projects such as mines, industrial agriculture plantations and dams were fuelling a rise in rights abuses. Those five countries contain the majority of the world’s tropical forests.
Myrna Cunningham, president of the Filac indigenous rights group, said:
During the pandemic, governments have not only failed to stop land grabs and human rights violations by corporate actors, but have rewritten and reversed hard-won policies that are vital at protecting human rights.
In Brazil, where deforestation of the Amazon last year reached the highest level in more than a decade, the government had instigated a “campaign to roll back protections of indigenous people’s rights,” according to Sofea Dil, a researcher at Yale law school who worked on the report.
In Colombia, deforestation of the Amazon has accelerated by 80% during the Covid lockdown, as the government pushed through measures to weaken protections for people living in the forest.
In DRC, the authors said the government had used the pandemic as a pretext for new policies that “circumvent longstanding moratoriums on resource extraction” on indigenous lands.
In Indonesia, a new law, ostensibly aimed at job creation, “weakens environmental protection laws” and protections for indigenous peoples’ rights, according to the report.
Meanwhile, in Peru, the government has declared that the economy would reopen starting with the forestry, mining and oil sectors. It is deferring environmental fines and suspending environmental and social monitoring reports to kickstart its recovery.
Updated
Dutch curfew set to remain after parliament circumvents court ruling
A night-time curfew to limit coronavirus transmissions looks set to remain in place in the Netherlands as most parties in parliament voiced support for an emergency government bill which would circumvent a court order that the measure be dropped, Reuters reports.
The district court of The Hague ruled on Tuesday that the curfew should be scrapped immediately as it lacked sufficient legal basis, leaving authorities to try to draft a new law before an appeal hearing tomorrow.
A majority of parliament expressed support for the new bill, before a vote later today. The bill will be debated in the Senate tomorrow, where approval seems certain.
Updated
The UAE is sending 20,000 doses of the Russian coronavirus vaccine to Gaza, a rival to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has announced, in a decision that could have repercussions for upcoming elections, AP reports.
The announcement by Mohammed Dahlan came a day after Abbas’s government managed to deliver 2,000 vaccines to Gaza and appeared to be aimed in part at embarrassing the Palestinian president.
Dahlan called the shipment a “generous grant” from the UAE “at a sensitive time where the pandemic is targeting all our beloved”. An aide to Dahlan said the Sputnik V vaccines will be delivered to Gaza via Egypt on Sunday.
Dahlan, a former senior member of Abbas’s Fatah party, has lived in exile in Abu Dhabi since falling out with the Palestinian president in 2011. Dahlan was subsequently sentenced in absentia to three years in prison over alleged embezzlement.
May’s parliamentary elections are to pit Fatah against Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group. Abbas has blocked Dahlan from running in the election, which would be the first Palestinian vote in 15 years. But Dahlan’s allies, running as a Fatah splinter group called the Democratic Reform Bloc, are planning on contesting the race and could emerge as kingmakers.
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The Vatican has issued a decree suggesting staff who refuse vaccination could be fired, AFP reports.
An employee must have a documented medical reason for refusing a jab or face “consequences of various degrees which may go as far as the termination of employment”, the decree states.
The same document also details fines of between €25 and €50 (£21–£43) for failing to wear a mask or to observe social distancing, and up to €1,500 for breaking quarantine rules.
The Vatican began vaccinating its employees for free last month. Both living popes – Pope Francis, 84, and his predecessor Benedict XVI, 93 – have received the jab.
Updated
Life expectancy in the United States fell by a full year in the first six months of 2020, according to figures reported by the US federal government.
The drop is the largest recorded in a single year since the second world war. The average American’s lifespan dropped to 77.8 years from 78.8 years in 2019.
The gap between black and white Americans also widened to six years with overall fatalities skewing younger people among black and hispanic ethnic groups.
Updated
France, Germany and Sweden seeing resistance to AstraZeneca vaccine
Health authorities in some European countries – including France, Germany and Sweden – are facing resistance to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine after side-effects led hospital staff and other frontline workers to call in sick, Reuters reports.
Such symptoms, as reported in clinical trials for the AstraZeneca shot, can include a high temperature or headache and are a normal sign that the body is generating an immune response but symptoms usually fade within a day or so.
The other shots approved in Europe, developed by Pfizer and Moderna, have been linked to similar temporary side-effects, including fever and fatigue.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson said:
Currently, the reactions reported are as we would expect based on the evidence gathered from our clinical trial programme ... There have been no confirmed serious adverse events.
Updated
Earth had its quietest period in decades during 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic significantly reduced human activity.
Urban ambient noise fell by up to 50% at some measuring stations during the tightest lockdown weeks, as buses and train services were reduced, aircraft grounded and factories shuttered.
The experts, led by Thomas Lecocq from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, were able to track the “wave of quiet” around the world as lockdown came first in China, then Italy, before spreading across the rest of Europe and in the Americas.
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China will donate 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Namibia, reports Reuters.
China has already donated vaccines to a number of African nations as they struggle to obtain doses, including Zimbabwe and Congo Republic.
Ambassador Zhang Yiming told Namibia’s first lady Monica Geingos during an event at the Chinese embassy that Beijing had decided to give priority to 53 developing countries including Namibia to acquire Chinese vaccines.
“This fully reflects the high-level bilateral relations between our two countries,” said Ambassador Yiming.
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Denmark’s supreme court has sentenced a man to four months’ imprisonment for coughing at two police officers while shouting “corona” during a routine traffic stop in March last year.
The incident, which took place when the country was under full coronavirus lockdown, led to the defendant being arrested on charges of threatening behaviour, although he later tested negative for Covid-19, Reuters reports.
First acquitted in a local court, he was later convicted at Denmark’s western high court. At his supreme court appeal against that conviction, prosecutors sought a jail term of three to five months.
The Danish defendant, a man in his early 20s, was also convicted of fleeing the police following his preliminary questioning at the city court.
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US workplace safety regulators have announced more than $4m (£2.8m) in penalties have been imposed on more than 300 employers they say put workers at risk during the pandemic, but about two-thirds of these employers are not paying, Reuters reports.
Only 108 companies had paid a total of about $897,000 in fines as of last week to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since the pandemic hit the US last year.
Those who haven’t paid include the meatpacking companies Smithfield Foods and JBS USA – which had outbreaks infecting thousands of workers – as well as the packaged foods company Conagra Brands. All three firms have appealed the citations and say they are without merit.
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Zimbabwe has begun its vaccination programme after receiving a donation of 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China earlier this week.
The country’s vice-president, Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the country’s health minister, was first to receive the jab, at Harare’s Wilkins hospital.
Zimbabwe aims to vaccinate about 60,000 healthcare and other frontline workers in the first round of vaccinations. The elderly and those with chronic conditions will follow, Reuters reports.
The southern African country of almost 15 million has so far reported more than 35,000 Covid cases and more than 1,400 deaths.
Chiwenga told parliament on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s vaccination programme, which is free of charge, was targeting at least 10 million people, roughly 60% of the population.
Updated
Singapore has launched what it billed as a coronavirus-secure hotel and meeting complex where visitors communicate via intercom through glass panels, AFP reports.
Short-stay business travellers to Singapore will be able to avoid the official 14-day quarantine rule if they stay at Connect@Changi, a purpose-built facility near Changi Airport. They will, however, be required to remain within the facility for the duration of their stay to prevent possible transmission to the wider community.
“The resumption of business travel and international meetings is important for catalysing economic recovery, in Singapore and the region,” the deputy prime minister, Heng Swee Keat, said. It will “preserve our role as a global business hub”, he added at the launch of the complex, which will receive its first guests in March.
Upon arrival at the airport, guests will be “bubble wrapped” – meaning they will be tested and then ferried directly to the facility. The complex will initially have 150 guest rooms which will later be expanded to 660, each with a shelf outside where staff can leave meals without coming into contact with guests.
A red light stays illuminated outside their room until their test comes back negative and then they can go about their business within the complex. They are tested regularly during their stay and prior to departure.
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Saudi Arabia’s food and drug administration has approved the Covid vaccine made by AstraZeneca, state TV reports.
Deputy minister for public health Hani Jokhdar said that the kingdom now had capacity to give 200,000 Covid-19 vaccinations per day. “We will be able to deliver 1.4 million doses every week,” he said, according to the Hindustan Times, with plans to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine this weekend.
It has already administered 460,000 shots among its population of about 34 million, with the Pfizer jab. The kingdom has reported more than 370,000 coronavirus cases and 6,000 deaths.
According to the Hindustan Times, Jokhdar said vaccination would not be compulsory, and that people would not be able to choose which company’s shot they received. Saudi Arabia plans to vaccinate 70% of the elderly and those with chronic diseases by the June.
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Turkey has vaccinated more than 5 million people with the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac as part of a campaign launched one month ago, health ministry data shows.
Ankara launched the vaccinations on 14 January, starting with health workers and the elderly. By Thursday afternoon more than 5.2 million people had received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the data. About 900,000 of them, including senior government officials, had received a second dose, Reuters reports.
Turkey plans to vaccinate teachers later this month ahead of a nationwide re-opening of schools on 1 March. President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey would begin a gradual return to normal life in March on a province-by-province basis.
Turkey, which has a population of 82 million, has reported more than 2.6 million infections and about 27,000 deaths from Covid-19 since March, and in December imposed weekend lockdowns, nightly curfews and other curbs in the face of rising cases.
Updated
Protesters in Spain have been flouting coronavirus restrictions to protest against the imprisonment of a rapper who had posted tweets insulting police and the Spanish monarchy.
More than 50 people were arrested and dozens injured during a second night of protests yesterday that turned violent in several Spanish cities.
The protests began peacefully late Wednesday in dozens of Spanish provincial capitals and other towns in the northeastern Catalonia region, home to the rapper Pablo Hasél, AP reports. But as the evening wore on there were clashes.
In Madrid, Barcelona and smaller cities, anti-riot police fired rubber or foam bullets at baton-charged protesters, who threw objects at officers and set trash containers alight. Some used overturned motorbikes to block streets amid rioting.
The rapper and his supporters say that Hasél’s nine-month sentence for writing a critical song about the former King Juan Carlos I and dozens of tweets that judges said glorified some of Spain’s extinct terrorist groups violates free speech rights.
More than 200 cultural figures, including the film director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem, have signed a petition against his jail sentence.
Updated
A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies have said.
The study found the vaccine was still able to neutralise the virus and there is not yet evidence from trials in people that the variant reduces vaccine protection, the companies said. Still, they are making investments and talking to regulators about developing an updated version of their mRNA vaccine, or a booster shot, if needed, Reuters reports.
South African scientists will meet later on Thursday to discuss the study in advance of advising government ministers (see 9.05am).
It comes after research suggested the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offers as little as 10% protection against the Covid variant first seen in South Africa, leading the country to halt its planned rollout of the jab.
Updated
All mink farms are at risk of becoming infected with Covid-19 and spreading the virus, and staff and animals should be regularly tested, EU disease and food safety experts have warned.
My colleagues Tom Levitt and Sophie Kevany report that mink are highly susceptible to coronavirus, which spreads rapidly in intensive farms that often breed thousands of animals in open housing caged systems (outdoor wire cages covered with a roof). Humans are the most likely initial source of infection.
Denmark, the world’s largest exporter of mink fur, announced that it would cull up to 15 million mink in November, after discovering a mutated variant of the virus that scientists feared might have jeopardised the effectiveness of future vaccines.
Updated
China has accused Taiwan of “carrying out political manipulation and hyping up political issues”.
The foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, added: “We wish to provide necessary assistance Taiwanese compatriots in their fight against the epidemic,” without addressing whether China had played any role in a delayed vaccine deal.
The Taiwanese health minister, Chen Shih-chung, said yesterday that negotiations with German firm BioNTech to acquire 5m shots of its vaccine developed jointly with Pfizer fell through in December “because someone doesn’t want Taiwan to be too happy”.
His comments raised concerns China might be trying to hinder Taiwan’s inoculation drive, AFP reports.
In a statement earlier today (see 4.14am), BioNTech said discussions to supply Taiwan with doses were still ongoing.
“BioNTech is committed to help bringing an end to the pandemic for people across the world and we intend to supply Taiwan with our vaccine as part of this global commitment,” it said.
Beijing regards democratic and self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and tries to keep the island diplomatically isolated – including keeping it locked out of the World Health Organization.
Updated
Police in Brazil are investigating allegations that healthcare workers are giving fake Covid inoculations, amid reports of nurses injecting people with empty syringes.
Cases of what local media are calling “wind vaccination” have been reported in four states, adding to the woes of the country’s halting and uncoordinated immunisation programme.
Police announced a criminal investigation on Wednesday, amid speculation that the nurses were either anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists, or were pocketing vaccine shots to be sold on the black market.
Carla Domingues, an epidemiologist who coordinated Brazil’s national immunisation programme between 2011 and 2019, said:
This initially seemed an isolated case, but, although they are still exceptions, it is very concerning that we are seeing this in several places. Either these health professionals were poorly trained or they did it in bad faith. In both cases it is inadmissible.
Updated
Joe Biden and his team have promised to extend the bipartisan olive branch like no previous administration in a move that on the surface appears to match the new president’s long political history of seeking support from Republicans.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has stressed a willingness to work with Republicans on its major initiatives such as a Covid relief bill. Behind the scenes, it has initiated a broad push to reach out to as many congressional offices as possible, getting in contact with both former and current Republican lawmakers and their staffs, and hosting a high-visibility meeting between almost a dozen Republican senators and Biden himself.
But, it seems that the president’s outreach – perhaps to the relief of the party’s left and observers long used to cynical Republican obstructionism – has its limits when it comes to actual decision-making.
Updated
France’s ski resorts cannot operate their lifts under the country’s tight Covid restrictions. But Courchevel, a favourite in normal years with Britons and Russians, has opened a single run that can be reached by car, Reuters reports.
“It’s good for learning because we repeat the run over and over,” said one skier. The resort has opened the piste for the February school holidays when the French traditionally decamp to the mountains. Although lifts aren’t operating, the resort is 40% full this week, according to the tourism office.
From Courchevel’s hotels and chalets to the top of the run above the resort’s small mountain airport is a 20-minute drive. Police make sure no one parks up – it is strictly drop-off only.
Another skier said:
We didn’t expect to be able to ski this year! It’s a bit tedious to take the car, but it’s worth the effort. We feel very lucky.
The resort normally boasts access to the world’s largest ski area, known as Les 3 Vallées, with about 600km of slopes.
Local businesses – from ski hire shops to restaurants – will lose an estimated 90% of their revenues this season. Government financial aid will only plug some of the hole.
The Cote Brune chairlift misses you...
— Les 3 Vallées (@3Vallees_france) February 17, 2021
📸 @mh2ski #meribel #WeWillSkiAgain #Les3Vallees #MyPlayground pic.twitter.com/CBatNEsOr0
Mattha Busby here taking over from my colleague Jedidajah Otte. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading. Drop me a line on Twitter or via email mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk with any tips or thoughts.
Updated
Guinea is in talks to obtain 400,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine and expects to have the doses by the end of February, the health ministry official Mohamed Lamine Yansane said on Thursday.
Sixty doses of the vaccine were previously provided to the west African country on an experimental basis, with president Alpha Conde and some ministers among those vaccinated, Reuters reports.
Updated
The British state must take a bigger role in supporting businesses and the public just like it did in the aftermath of the second world war, the opposition Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, will set out in a speech on Thursday.
Starmer, who took over as leader of the main opposition to the prime minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party in 2020, will map out his alternative vision for the country’s post-Brexit and post-Covid future.
He will say:
I believe people are now looking for more from their government – like they were after the second world war.
They’re looking for government to help them through difficult times, to provide security and to build a better future for them and their families.
To invest wisely and not to spend money we can’t afford. Those are my guiding principles. But I think that Covid has shifted the axis on economic policy: both what is necessary and what is possible have changed.
Starmer will argue that the crisis has paved the way for a permanently larger state, calling on the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to extend some of the temporary support measures for low earners and businesses forced to close by lockdown restrictions.
Updated
AstraZeneca’s contract to supply the UK with 100m Covid-19 vaccine doses commits the company to making “best reasonable efforts”, the same language used in its deal with the EU, which critics blamed for the bloc’s delayed inoculation program.
CNN reports:
The details of the contract are contained in a redacted version published online without fanfare months ago, long before the UK and the EU became embroiled in a bitter dispute over vaccine supply. British officials had earlier declined to provide the contract to CNN, making no mention of the redacted version, and have repeatedly refused to give details on the country’s vaccine supplies, citing “security reasons”.
A junior UK government minister said in a recent interview that publishing the contract would risk national security.
Yet in response to a freedom of information request from CNN, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) this week provided CNN a link to the redacted 52-page contract, which had been published on a website that hosts details of UK government contracts.
Details such as the number of doses to be delivered to the UK and the dates of delivery have been redacted.
The redacted contract has, technically, been publicly available since at least 26 November, according to the date the page was last edited. [...] But the link is difficult to find on the government website without using precise search terms and it appears to have gone largely unnoticed.
Lawyers who examined the EU’s contract with AstraZeneca disagreed over the company’s duty to supply vaccines to the EU according to what the bloc considers a contractually binding timetable.
Some legal experts warned that AstraZeneca appears to be in danger of breaching its contract to supply the EU, and may have to renegotiate its contract to supply vaccines to the EU, the UK or both.
AstraZeneca has claimed that its vaccine contract with the EU obliges it only to make “best efforts” to supply the bloc.
Last week, AstraZeneca unveiled plans to build a new Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing facility in Germany, in a move aimed at speeding up production and defusing the row with the EU over supplies.
Updated
Malaysia reported 2,712 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, as well as 25 further deaths, a new daily high.
The total number of fatalities now stands at 1,030.
The cumulative total of infections is now at nearly 275,000 cases.
Hungary mulls making vaccinated people exempt from certain restrictions
Hungary has raised the prospect that citizens who have already had the coronavirus or been vaccinated against it could receive waivers from certain restrictions.
Reuters reports:
The waivers, outlined in a nationwide survey launched late on Wednesday, would be linked to certificates to be issued to those deemed to be protected from the virus. They include exemptions from restrictions in place since November such as a night-time curfew.
Governments and developers around the world are exploring the potential use of “vaccine passports” as a way of reopening the economy by identifying those protected against Covid-19.
The country’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, who faces a parliamentary election early next year, has regularly used similar surveys to test public opinion on key issues, such as immigration, underpinning policy decisions.
It was unclear whether Hungarians, many of whom are reluctant to get inoculated against Covid-19, would be ready to back such privileges for those deemed to be protected. The survey also includes an option for curbs to stay until the end of the pandemic.
The 57-year-old Orban is under pressure to reopen the economy in the run-up to next year’s ballot, with Hungary’s tourism and hospitality sector reeling under a partial lockdown.
However, any reopening of the economy remains a distant prospect, because of a slow pace of vaccinations and a renewed surge in coronavirus infections. On Thursday, data showed the number of new daily cases rose to its highest since the start of the year.
Updated
Bosses from leading UK airlines are calling on the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to outline a recovery road map for the industry so they can plan for the summer.
PA reports:
The chief executives of British Airways, easyJet, Jet2.com, Loganair, Ryanair, Tui and Virgin Atlantic said that without a clear indication of intent from the government that aviation will restart in the coming months, the UK faces a year of limited connectivity to the rest of the world, and the economic recovery will be hampered.
They said that when the prime minister makes his announcement on the lockdown next week, a road map would be critical for airlines and consumers to help them plan for the summer and pave the way for the safe reopening of international travel.
Airlines also called for further economic support for UK aviation to stimulate and strengthen any recovery when it comes.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: “The prime minister needs to indicate the intent for international travel to reopen again this summer and provide much-needed reassurance that travel will be possible, helping to restore consumer confidence.
“We do not expect travel restrictions to be lifted tomorrow, but it is important that the country has a clear view on the plan for international travel as we emerge from lockdown.
“We expect every other domestic economic sector, from hospitality to retail to leisure, will have a road map announced - so must aviation.”
Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, said: “We know people are looking for some reassurance about when they will be able to return to some normality.
“To be able to achieve this we need to know that government is planning for travel to return when it is safe and stand ready to work with them on a road map that could help us reunite people with their loved ones or enable people to take a much-needed holiday this year.”
Updated
Russia plans to register CoviVac, its third Covid-19 vaccine, on 20 February, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing a government website about the coronavirus.
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, on Thursday visited a factory that can make 10m syringes a month and plans to double capacity to prevent shortages as the nation rolls out its coronavirus vaccination campaign next week.
Reuters reports:
South Korea will begin inoculating some 750,000 healthcare workers against Covid-19 on 26 February, as it struggles to tame its third and largest wave of outbreaks.
It plans to reach herd immunity across its population of 52 million by November.
Moon visited Poonglim Pharmatech, one of several suppliers of special syringes to be used for the programme.
The plant makes low dead space syringes, which improve the efficiency of vaccines by 20% by minimising drug residues left in needles, officials said.
Poonglim has beefed up its capacity to 10m syringes a month from 4m since December, assisted by technology and financial aid from Samsung Electronics and funding and regulatory support from the government.
Updated
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, is awaiting new data on the impact of vaccines on coronavirus after stressing he will take a “cautious and prudent approach” to easing England’s third national lockdown.
PA reports:
The prime minister is understood to be expecting evidence on the impact of the UK’s jabs programme on hospital admissions and deaths by the end of Friday, ahead of setting out his “road map” next week.
But it was unclear whether the early data would include the impact on transmission, with the results of two key Public Health England (PHE) studies potentially not ready until next month.
Meanwhile, major research showed lockdown measures were significantly driving down infection levels across the nation, but that they remained high and at similar levels to those observed in late September.
Imperial College London’s React study, which tested more than 85,000 people in England between 4 and 13 February, suggested infections had dropped to just one in 200 people.
The study suggested infections were halving every 15 days, and the R number – which expresses how many people the average infected individual spreads the virus to – is at 0.72.
But, with the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals remaining higher than during the first wave in April, experts called for caution in easing restrictions.
Updated
South African scientists will meet on Thursday to discuss a laboratory study that suggests the dominant local coronavirus variant may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by two-thirds, a health ministry spokesman told Reuters.
“I do know that our scientists will be meeting to discuss [the Pfizer study] and they will advise the minister,” the spokesman Popo Maja said. “We are not going to be releasing a statement until advised by our scientists. We will also be guided by the regulator.”
Updated
Russia on Thursday reported 13,447 new coronavirus cases, including 1,950 in Moscow, pushing the national infection tally to 4,125,598 since the pandemic began.
This compares with 12,629 new cases recorded yesterday and 14,803 a week ago.
The government coronavirus taskforce said that 480 people had died of the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 81,926.
Updated
The British chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must take action to tackle the rent debt crisis in the forthcoming budget, housing charities and groups representing landlords and renters have said.
In a joint statement released by organisations including the Big Issue, Crisis, Shelter, Citizens Advice, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Nationwide Building Society, Sunak was called upon to act now to avoid renters “being scarred by debts they have no hope of clearing and a wave of people having to leave their homes in the weeks and months to come”.
The statement, which they said was from “organisations with the aim of sustaining tenancies wherever possible” said at least half a million private renters in the UK are in arrears due to the economic impact of Covid-19.
My colleague Nicola Slawson reports.
Updated
Africa’s total reported death toll from Covid-19 was approaching 100,000 on Thursday, a fraction of those reported on other continents but rising fast as a second wave of infections overwhelms hospitals.
Reuters reports:
The continent’s reported deaths, at 99,800, compare favourably with North America, which has registered more than half a million, and Europe, which is approaching 900,000, a Reuters tally shows.
But deaths are rising sharply across Africa, driven by its southern region, especially South Africa, which accounts for nearly half.
South Africa was ravaged by a second wave caused by a more contagious variant that has jammed up casualty wards.
“The increased number [of infections] has led to many severe cases and some of the countries really found it quite difficult to cope,” Dr Richard Mihigo, coordinator of the immunisation programme at the World Health Organization’s Africa office, told Reuters. “We have seen some countries getting to their limit in terms of oxygen supply, which has got a really negative impact in terms of case management for severe cases.”
Mihigo said the rise in deaths was pronounced in countries near South Africa such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, raising the possibility that the 501Y.V2 variant identified in South Africa late last year had spread through the southern Africa region – although more genomic sequencing needs to be carried out to prove that.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) this month called for urgent vaccine distributions in southern Africa to counter the spread of the new variant, as most African countries have lagged richer Western nations in launching mass vaccination programmes.
Updated
Record number of people in Czech Republic hospitalised in serious condition with Covid
The Czech Republic reported a record number of people admitted to hospital in serious condition due to Covid – 1,227 – on Thursday, as the country’s capacity to care for such cases dwindled.
As of Thursday morning, the country had 14% of capacity free in intensive care and high dependency units, including 154 beds for Covid patients, Reuters reports.
The country of 10.7 million has had the most cases per capita in Europe except Portugal on a two-week basis, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s data showed.
The head of the Czech Republic’s medical chamber, Milan Kubek, has come out strongly against government plans to ease some coronavirus measures.
Czech Radio reports:
Dr Kubek said the epidemic was accelerating and heading for the wall that is the capacity of country’s health service. Instead of braking we are about to step on the gas, which only a madman would do, he said.
The minister of industry and trade, Karel Havlíček, has proposed allowing shops and malls to reopen from Monday, under strict conditions. There are also plans for some pupils and students to return to Czech schools.
Hospitals in the country report being close to the limit as regards accepting Covid patients and finding places for serious cases in ICUs.
The Czech Republic reported 12,668 new infections on Wednesday, up from 10,283 cases recorded a week earlier.
On Wednesday, the health minister, Jan Blatný, said hospitals across the country might be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients in two or three weeks, forcing the country to seek help abroad and hospitals to select which patients will get treatment.
Updated
Thailand reported 150 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths on Thursday, its Covid-19 taskforce said.
Eight of the new infections were imported from abroad, the taskforce said, and detected in quarantined arrivals from Pakistan (1), Bangladesh (1), Uganda (1), Nigeria (1), South Africa (2) and Bahrain (2).
The new infections took the overall total to 25,111 cases while fatalities remained at 82.
The Bangkok Post reports that authorities tasked with the gradual reopening of the country’s economy will propose that disease control measures be relaxed in 54 provinces, up from the current 35.
Thailand is to begin Covid-19 vaccinations in March, with shipments of the first batch of vaccines being expected at the end of February.
Electronics shops in Hong Kong have registered a sharp increase in demand for cheap burner phones as the Chinese-ruled city’s government eases coronavirus restrictions but pushes the use of a contact-tracing app which has raised privacy concerns.
Reuters reports:
Anti-government and anti-China protests erupt in Hong Kong in 2019 and a sweeping national security law was imposed by Beijing in 2020 in response, along with the arrest of most of its prominent pro-democracy activists.
The swift authoritarian turn taken by the government, which denies curbing the rights and freedoms of the special administrative region’s 7.5 million residents, has resulted in deep-seated mistrust of public policies, including of measures to curb the coronavirus.
The health secretary, Sophia Chan, said the app posed no privacy risks as it only stored data on users’ phones and no third party collected it. The app notifies users if they had been in the same place with a person confirmed with Covid-19.
“I’m buying a burner phone because the government clearly doesn’t trust Hong Kong people, so why would I trust them?” said Vincent, 28, an accountant who gave only his first name because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Contact-tracing apps have sparked similar privacy and trust issues around the world, from Singapore to the United States.
Hong Kong on Thursday lifted limits on how many people could sit together in restaurants to four from two and the cut-off time for dining to 10pm from 6pm.
Restaurants and other venues just reopening, such as gyms or beauty salons, are required to write down customers’ details or ask them to scan a QR code with the LeaveHomeSafe app, which authorities use for contact tracing.
Civil servants have been asked to scan the code before entering and leaving government offices.
Updated
Germany reported 10,207 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said, compared with yesterday’s 9,598 new cases and 9,928 cases a week earlier.
The institute also recorded 534 further deaths, raising Germany’s overall death toll to 66,698.
According to the RKI, the seven-day incidence throughout Germany is 57. The federal government is aiming for a value below 35.
Representatives of Germany’s small and medium-sized business sector are clamouring for chancellor Angela Merkel to publish an exit plan from lockdown.
In a letter from the Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (BVMW) to the economics minister, Peter Altmaier, it says: “Germany has to get out of the lockdown. The lockdown in Germany now causes more economic damage than it brings medical benefits.”
The letter also called for an “economic summit” with Merkel, the German Press Agency reports.
Updated
Australia said on Thursday it had gone more than 48 hours since detecting the last locally acquired case of coronavirus, as Victoria state ended a lockdown letting thousands of tennis fans back in Melbourne Park for the last days of the Australian Open.
Reuters reports:
Victoria lifted a five-day lockdown late on Wednesday, having ordered one after a spate of cases mostly linked to workers at quarantine hotels for people arriving from abroad.
Authorities said the only case of Covid-19 detected across the country in the past 24 hours involved a person that was already in hotel quarantine after arriving from overseas.
Australia’s minister for health, Greg Hunt, heralded the result but said the toll worldwide illustrated the need for a “broad-scale national vaccination programme”.
Australia’s inoculation programme will begin on Monday, starting with hotel quarantine workers.
“We believe that vaccinating the quarantine and border workers will substantially protect them from transmission, we hope, but certainly from getting symptomatic Covid,” the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, told reporters in Canberra. “That’s our single highest priority in the first few weeks.”
Australia has largely avoided the high rate of Covid-19 cases and deaths seen in other developed countries thanks to border closures and effective contact tracing systems. It has reported just under 29,000 cases and 909 deaths.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be taking over for the next few hours. As always, feel free to contact me with updates and comments, I’m on Twitter @JedySays or you can email me.
Updated
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- US agents seized 10m fake N95 masks. US federal agents have seized more than 10m fake 3M brand N95 masks in recent weeks, the result of an ongoing investigation into counterfeits sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies.
- Hong Kong has fast-tracked China’s Sinovac vaccine approval. Hong Kong’s government on Thursday approved the Chinese-made Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for emergency use after a panel of experts fast-tracked its recommendation despite the drug’s comparatively low efficacy.
-
India will make Covid molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil in an attempt to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries.
-
The United Nations on Wednesday led calls for a coordinated global effort to vaccinate against Covid-19, warning that gaping inequities in initial efforts put the whole planet at risk. Secretary-General António Guterres voiced alarm that just 10 nations have administered 75% of doses so far – and 130 countries have received no doses.
- Demand for UK nursing degrees has risen by a third during the pandemic. The Covid pandemic has inspired a new generation of students to become nurses, with a third more applying to study the subject at university than last year, though professional leaders say the rise only brings numbers back to the level of five years ago.
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Australia will begin its first coronavirus vaccinations from Monday in about 240 aged care homes across more than 190 locations around the country. The rollout will begin with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine due to join the rollout from early March.
- Covid infections in England fall by two-thirds but spreading fastest among young, a study suggests. The React 1 study from Imperial College London points to the third national lockdown having significantly curbed the spread of the coronavirus despite the emergence of new variants.
- New Zealand’s birthrate dropped to its lowest ever level in 2020, well below the population replacement rate of 2.1. According to Statistics New Zealand, the country’s total fertility rate dropped to 1.61 births per woman of child-bearing age (15–49 years), the latest fall in a decade-old trend.Most babies registered in 2020 were conceived before New Zealand moved to Covid-19 lockdown on 25 March last year, said Hamish Slack at Statistics NZ.
- Devastating winter storms sweeping the US have injected confusion and frustration into the US Covid-19 vaccination drive, snarling deliveries and forcing the cancellation of thousands of shots around the country. Across a large swath of the US, including deep south states such as Georgia and Alabama, the snowy, slippery weather either led to the closing of vaccination sites outright or held up the necessary shipments, with delays expected to continue for days.
- BioNTech says it will provide vaccines to Taiwan, talks ongoing. Germany’s BioNTech SE plans to provide Covid vaccine to Taiwan, the company said, after the island complained the firm in December pulled out of a deal to buy 5m doses at the last minute, possibly due to Chinese pressure.
Updated
Nepal approved on Thursday the emergency use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by an affiliate of China’s Sinopharm, a government official said, the second vaccine cleared after AstraZeneca’s product, Reuters reports.
The move paves the way for China to donate 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to the Himalayan nation, which last month received 1m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine free of charge from its other big neighbour India. Nepal will also buy the AstraZeneca vaccine from India.
“Conditional permission has been granted to the Chinese vaccine for its emergency use in Nepal,” said KC Santosh, a senior official in the department of drug administration.
Nepal launched its immunisation drive on 27 January beginning with medical workers, and plans to eventually cover 72% of the south-Asian country’s 30 million people.
The health and population minister, Hridayesh Tripathi, told Reuters Nepal would soon buy 2m doses of the AstraZeneca shot, made by the Serum Institute of India, for $4 each, the same price that Bangladesh is paying.
“We have received a good price, we must not miss this opportunity to purchase it,” Tripathi said.
Authorities say Nepal is also expecting vaccines from alliances backed by the World Health Organization, which distribute shots to poorer countries.
Two other vaccines – Russia’s Sputnik V and one made by India’s Bharat Biotech – are waiting to be cleared by the government.
In recent years, China and India have jockeyed for influence in Nepal and poured millions of dollars into aid and investment in infrastructure.
But demand for vaccines in the country with poor health infrastructure has offered India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, a way to claw back ground. India has donated or sold Covid shots to two dozen countries.
Nepal has reported 273,070 cases and 2,055 deaths.
Updated
A video campaign urging ethnic minority communities to take the Covid-19 vaccine is to be aired simultaneously by the main British broadcasters on Thursday.
The national television broadcast, which features personalities including Adil Ray, Moeen Ali, Denise Lewis, Romesh Ranganathan, Meera Syal, David Olusoga and Beverley Knight, addresses cultural concerns about the vaccine in minority communities.
The video will be screened at 9.56pm by the commercial broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as by Sky TV channels. The BBC’s charter prevents it from taking part in campaigns, but the public broadcaster will cover the campaign on key TV and radio programmes throughout the day.
Updated
India to test travellers from Brazil, South Africa and the UK after detecting new virus strains
India will make Covid molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil in an attempt to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries, Reuters reports.
India, which has reported the highest number of overall Covid cases after the United States, detected the South African variant in four people last month and the Brazilian one in one person this month.
The government has said the South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person’s lungs than the UK mutation. India has so far reported 187 cases of infection with the UK variant.
The government late on Wednesday said airlines would be required from next week to segregate inbound travellers from those countries. India does not have direct flights with Brazil and South Africa, and most people travelling from these countries generally transit through Middle Eastern airports.
Updated
Australia's coronavirus vaccine rollout to start next week in 240 aged care homes
Australia will begin its first coronavirus vaccinations from Monday in about 240 aged care homes across more than 190 locations around the country.
The rollout will begin with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine due to join the rollout from early March.
The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said phase 1a of the vaccine rollout would include three priority groups, including aged care and disability residents and staff, quarantine and border workers, and frontline health workers.
“Our frontline border and quarantine workers, and people living and working in residential aged and disability care facilities will be the first to receive their vaccines,” he said.
Updated
Hong Kong fast-tracks China’s Sinovac vaccine approval
Hong Kong’s government on Thursday approved the Chinese-made Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for emergency use after a panel of experts fast-tracked its recommendation despite the drug’s comparatively low efficacy, AFP reports.
“The first batch of 1m jabs of Sinovac vaccines will arrive in Hong Kong soon,” the government statement said.
Local media reported that the first vaccinations could arrive as soon as Friday, finally kicking off the financial hub’s delayed inoculation drive.
But officials may face an uphill task persuading residents to take Sinovac’s shots in a city where public distrust of Chinese authorities runs deep.
On Tuesday, a government advisory panel unanimously supported Sinovac saying the benefits of authorising its use outweighed the risks.
Unlike rival vaccines such as those from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca, SinoVac has yet to submit its third phase clinical trial data to medical journals for peer review.
Sinovac has been exempted from that hurdle by Hong Kong officials and told they could instead give the information directly to the experts.
Updated
US agents seize 10m fake N95 masks
US federal agents have seized more than 10m fake 3M brand N95 masks in recent weeks, the result of an ongoing investigation into counterfeits sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies, AP reports.
The most recent seizures occurred Wednesday when Homeland Security agents intercepted hundreds of thousands of counterfeit 3M masks in an east coast warehouse that were set to be distributed, officials said.
Investigators also notified about 6,000 potential victims in at least 12 states including hospitals, medical facilities and others who may have unknowingly purchased knockoffs, urging them to stop using the medical-grade masks. Officials encouraged medical workers and companies to go to 3Ms website for tips on how to spot fakes.
“Not only do they give a false sense of security, how dangerous is the exposed individual without any protective gear? They have no utility whatsoever,” the homeland security secretary, Ali Mayorkas, said of the fake masks.
The masks do not come through 3M’s regular distributors, they come from outside the normal supply chain, officials said. But hospitals and medical groups have increasingly gone around normal purchasing routines during mask shortages in the global pandemic, officials said. They said the scams are taking advantage of the panic over masks.
Homeland Security officials would not say which states the counterfeit masks were sent to, but said criminal charges would be forthcoming.
The masks are not tested to see whether they meet strict N95 standards and could put frontline medical workers at risk if they are used while treating patients.
Updated
A first shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against Covid could reach Mexico as soon as Saturday, Mexico’s Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell said on Wednesday.
The Mexican government has agreed to purchase 24 million doses of the vaccine, he added.
BioNTech says it will provide vaccines to Taiwan, talks ongoing
Germany’s BioNTech SE plans to provide Covid vaccine to Taiwan, the company said, after the island complained the firm in December pulled out of a deal to buy 5 million doses at the last minute, possibly due to Chinese pressure, Reuters reports.
Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung on Wednesday said officials were on the verge of announcing the deal in December when BioNTech pulled the plug, though added that the deal was still pending and had not been torn up.
While he did not directly say China was to blame, Chen implied there was a political dimension to the decision and that he had been worried about “outside forces intervening,” hence his caution in discussing the planned deal publicly at the time.
In an emailed statement late Wednesday, the company said it was planning on providing vaccine to Taiwan.
“BioNTech is committed to help bringing an end to the pandemic for people across the world and we intend to supply Taiwan with our vaccine as part of this global commitment. Discussions are ongoing and BioNTech will provide an update.”
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly sparred with the island over the coronavirus pandemic.
Taiwan has been angered by China’s assertion only it can speak for the island on the international stage about the subject, while Taiwan has accused China of lack of transparency.
Demand for UK nursing degrees rises by a third in pandemic
The Covid pandemic has inspired a new generation of students to become nurses, with a third more applying to study the subject at university than last year, though professional leaders say the rise only brings numbers back to the level of five years ago.
Figures show that applications to enrol in nursing degrees have reached more than 60,000, a rebound after years of decline following the removal of government support for tuition fees and living costs.
Mike Adams, a director of the Royal College of Nursing, said the increase was still insufficient to fill tens of thousands of NHS nursing vacancies. “This starts by providing full tuition funding and living cost support to make sure none of these students are forced to leave because of financial pressures,” he said.
Nursing is especially popular among mature students, where there was a 39% rise in applications. But there were increases in applications across all age groups in the UK, with a record 16,560 applications from 18-year-old school leavers, an increase of 27%:
A new report suggests the pandemic could present an opportunity to make the New Zealand’s tourism sector less environmentally harmful, but some operators are not so sure – the Guardian’s Elle Hunt takes a look:
Snowstorms throw US vaccine distribution into disarray
Devastating winter storms sweeping the US have injected confusion and frustration into the nation’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, snarling deliveries and forcing the cancellation of thousands of shots around the country.
Across a large swath of the US, including deep south states such as Georgia and Alabama, the snowy, slippery weather either led to the closing of vaccination sites outright or held up the necessary shipments, with delays expected to continue for days.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that states would face serious delays in receiving doses, with dangerous road conditions and power outages hampering delivery. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio said doses expected this week were delayed by weather elsewhere in the country, forcing the city to hold off making 30,000 to 35,000 vaccination appointments:
New Zealand birthrate sinks to its lowest ever
New Zealand’s birthrate dropped to its lowest ever level in 2020, well below the population replacement rate of 2.1.
According to Statistics New Zealand, the country’s total fertility rate dropped to 1.61 births per woman of child-bearing age (15–49 years), the latest fall in a decade-old trend.
Most babies registered in 2020 were conceived before New Zealand moved to Covid-19 lockdown on 25 March last year, said Hamish Slack at Statistics NZ.
“Fertility rates in New Zealand were relatively stable between 1980 and 2012, but have generally decreased since then,” said Slack. “Since 2013, the number of women of reproductive age has increased by 11% and the number of births has decreased by 2%.”
In 2020, there were 57,753 live births registered in New Zealand, down 2,064 (3%) from the previous year:
China reported 11 new mainland Covid cases on 17 February official data showed on Thursday, up from seven a day earlier but once again there were no locally transmitted infections.
The National Health Commission said in a statement that all new cases were imported infections that originated from overseas. New asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed Covid cases, rose to 20 from six a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid cases in mainland China now stands at 89,806, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.
Japanese Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto intends to accept the job of head of the beleaguered Tokyo 2020 games – postponed last year due to the pandemic – the organising committee for the games in Japan, Kyodo news agency said on Thursday, replacing Yoshiro Mori, who resigned after making sexist remarks.
Sewing machinists and others with jobs in garment factories have among the highest rate of coronavirus deaths among working women in the UK, according to an analysis by the Office for National Statistics.
Twenty-one Covid-19 deaths among women aged between 20 and 64 in the “assemblers and routine operatives” category were registered between 9 March and 28 December 2020, giving the group a death rate of 39 per 100,000 women.
The analysis, published in January and now highlighted by the campaign group Labour Behind the Label (LBL), found that sewing machinists as a subgroup had the highest fatality rate among women of any group, at about 65 deaths per 100,000 – although with 14 deaths recorded, the ONS cautions that the small size of the underlying group makes that calculation less reliable, and the rate may be as low as 35 or as high as 110 per 100,000.
The central estimate for sewing machinists is almost four times the overall rate of deaths among women in the UK, of about 17 per 100,000:
Covid infections in England fall by two-thirds but spreading fastest among young
Covid infections have fallen by two-thirds in a month in England but the virus is now spreading most among primary-age children and young people, research suggests.
The React 1 study from Imperial College London points to the third national lockdown having significantly curbed the spread of the coronavirus despite the emergence of new variants.
Prevalence remains high however, with about one in 200 people infected with Covid between 4 and 13 February, compared with about three times that number between 6 and 21 January, the interim findings showed.
The Guardian’s Nicola Davis and Sarah Boseley report:
Here is the full story on the UN warning that 130 countries have yet to receive a single vaccine dose:
Pfizer says vaccine offers two-thirds less antibody protection against South African variant
A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on Wednesday.
Reuters: The study found the vaccine was still able to neutralise the virus and there is not yet evidence from trials in people that the variant reduces vaccine protection, the companies said.
Still, they are making investments and talking to regulators about developing an updated version of their mRNA vaccine or a booster shot, if needed.
For the study, scientists from the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) developed an engineered virus that contained the same mutations carried on the spike portion of the highly contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa, known as B.1.351. The spike, used by the virus to enter human cells, is the primary target of many Covid vaccines.
Researchers tested the engineered virus against blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine, and found a two- thirds reduction in the level of neutralizing antibodies compared with its effect on the most common version of the virus prevalent in US trials.
Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Because there is no established benchmark yet to determine what level of antibodies are needed to protect against the virus, it is unclear whether that two-thirds reduction will render the vaccine ineffective against the variant spreading around the world.
However, UTMB professor and study co-author Pei-Yong Shi said he believes the Pfizer vaccine will likely be protective against the variant.
“We don’t know what the minimum neutralising number is. We don’t have that cutoff line,” he said, adding that he suspects the immune response observed is likely to be significantly above where it needs to be to provide protection.
Even if the concerning variant significantly reduces effectiveness, the vaccine should still help protect against severe disease and death, he noted. Health experts have said that is the most important factor in keeping stretched healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed.
Updated
21% of Covid patients with diabetes die within 28 days of hospital admission
One in five diabetes patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 die within 28 days, research suggests.
PA media: Results from an ongoing study by the University of Nantes in France also showed that one in eight diabetes patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus were still in hospital 28 days after they first arrived.
Diabetes UK said understanding which people with the condition are at a higher risk if they are admitted to hospital with Covid-19 will help to improve care and save lives.
The findings show that within 28 days of being in hospital 577 of the 2,796 patients studied (21%) had died, while almost 50% (1,404) had been discharged from hospital, with a typical stay of nine days.
Around 12% remained in hospital at day 28, while 17% had been transferred to a different facility to their initial hospital.
The authors of the Coronado (Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and Diabetes Outcomes) study, published in the Diabetologia journal, said: “The identification of favourable variables associated with hospital discharge and unfavourable variables associated with death can lead to patient reclassification and help to use resources adequately according to individual patient profile.”
In May last year, earlier results from the study, based on smaller sample of people, suggested that 10% of Covid patients with diabetes died within seven days of a hospital admission.
Dr Faye Riley, senior research communications officer at Diabetes UK, said the study supports previous research which showed certain risk factors, such as older age and a history of diabetes complications, “put people with diabetes at higher risk of harm if they catch coronavirus”.
“It also provides fresh insight into factors that are linked with a quicker recovery from the virus,” she said.
Updated
UN says 130 countries have not received a single vaccine dose
The United Nations on Wednesday led calls for a coordinated global effort to vaccinate against Covid-19, warning that gaping inequities in initial efforts put the whole planet at risk, AFP reports.
Foreign ministers met virtually for a first-ever UN Security Council session on vaccinations called by current chair Britain, which said the world had a “moral duty” to act together against the pandemic that has killed more than 2.4 million people.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced alarm that just 10 nations have administered 75 percent of doses so far - and 130 countries have received no doses.
Just 10 countries have administered 75% of all #COVID19 vaccines.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) February 17, 2021
Yet, more than 130 countries have not received a single dose.
Those affected by conflict & insecurity are being left behind.
Everyone, everywhere, must be vaccinated as soon as possible.
“The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities,” Guterres said.
He said the Group of 20 major economies was in the best position to set up a task force on financing and implementation of global vaccinations and offered full support of the United Nations.
“If the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire in the Global South, it will mutate again and again. New variants could become more transmissible, more deadly and, potentially, threaten the effectiveness of current vaccines and diagnostics,” Guterres said.
“This can prolong the pandemic significantly, enabling the virus to come back to plague the Global North.”
Henrietta Fore, head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF, said: “The only way out of this pandemic for any of us is to ensure vaccinations are available for all of us.”
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
As always, you can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
After the good news yesterday from the WHO that global new infections had dropped by 16% in the last week, and new deaths by 10%, today the UN has a bleaker message: 10 countries have administered 75% of the world’s vaccines while 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose.
This comes from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who, speaking at the UN Security Council, said, “The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities.”
Here is a summary of the key developments from the last few hours from my colleague Nicola Slawson:
- The pandemic has added $24tn to the global debt mountain over the last year a new study has shown, leaving it at a record $281tn and the worldwide debt-to-GDP ratio at over 355%.
- Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday the country would enter a gradual normalisation period, province by province, in March. Weekend lockdowns, which have been in place since December, would be lifted gradually on a provincial basis subject to low infection numbers, he said.
- Spain will administer AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine to people aged 45 to 55 in the next phase of its national inoculation plan, as new figures showed the third wave of infection receding further.
- Cyprus plans to reopen its airports with the help of a colour-coded health risk assessment from 1 March, applicable to travellers from its main tourism markets and the EU, authorities said on Wednesday.
- One in five diabetes patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 die within 28 days, research suggests. Results from an ongoing study by the University of Nantes in France also showed that one in eight diabetes patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus were still in hospital 28 days after they first arrived.
- Central European countries asked the European council president, Charles Michel, to help ease tighter controls imposed by Germany on the Czech and Austrian borders to free up the flow of goods and industrial components, the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babis, said on Wednesday.
