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Italy allegedly misled the World Health Organization (WHO) on its readiness to face a pandemic less than three weeks before the country’s first locally transmitted coronavirus case was confirmed.
Each year, countries bound by the International Health Regulations (IHR) – an international treaty to combat the global spread of disease – are required to file a self-assessment report to the WHO on the status of their preparedness for a health emergency:
Evening summary
Here is a roundup of the key moments from this evening:
- More than half a million people have died of Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country had recorded more than 28 million cases and 500,071 lives have been lost as of Monday afternoon.
- US president Joe Biden is set to mark the latest tragic milestone of Covid deaths in the US on Monday night, with a candlelit commemoration and moment of silence for the 500,000 who will have lost their lives.
- The US has administered 64,177,474 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Monday morning and delivered 75,205,940 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
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Italy allegedly misled the World Health Organization (WHO) on its readiness to face a pandemic less than three weeks before the country’s first locally transmitted coronavirus case was confirmed.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson has set out a four-stage plan for England to come out of lockdown that could pave the way for nightclubs to reopen, sports fans to fill stadiums once again and staycations to return.
- Real-world evidence from the Covid vaccination programmes in England and Scotland show that one dose of vaccine gives high protection against severe disease and admission to hospital – and protects against even mild disease with no symptoms in younger people.
- France reported a further 333 deaths from Covid-19, as well as 4,646 new infections, an increase from last Monday’s daily case tally of 4,376.
I’m handing this blog over to my colleagues in Australia now. Thanks so much for joining me this evening.
The Six Nations organisers will make a call on whether to postpone France’s match against Scotland on Wednesday after the number of Covid-19 cases in the French squad hit double figures on Monday.
France remain hopeful that Sunday’s match will go ahead despite six positive tests on Monday, including the captain, Charles Ollivon, taking the total number of players infected to 11 and plunging the fixture into serious doubt. The head coach, Fabien Galthié, and three members of his staff have also tested positive.
The Six Nations’ contingency plan would most likely be to move the fixture back a week to the championship’s second fallow weekend but that could cause problems over player release.
Scotland would need to reach an agreement with the English Premiership clubs to ensure access to a number of players, including their captain, Stuart Hogg, as well as Racing 92 for the release of the , Finn Russell.
Read the full story here:
US president Joe Biden called on Americans to observe a moment of silence on Monday to commemorate the grim milestone of 500,000 US deaths from Covid-19.
Biden, vice president Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff were scheduled to hold a moment of silence on Monday evening after the president’s remarks.
“I ask all Americans to join us as we remember the more than 500,000 of our fellow Americans lost to Covid-19 and to observe a moment of silence at sunset,” Biden said in a proclamation.
Biden also ordered all flags on federal properties and military facilities be lowered to half-staff for the next five day, Reuters reports.
Brazil recorded 26,986 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, along with 639 deaths, the health ministry said on Monday.
Brazil has registered more than 10 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, Reuters reports.
The official death toll has risen to 247,143, according to ministry data.
Public Anzac Day events will be held in Queensland, Australia this year, after being cancelled in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says dawn services, marches and public commemorations will return on April 25
She said in a statement:
In times of strife, Queenslanders do what it takes to protect each other.
We’ve done it in wartime, and we’re doing it now through the global pandemic.
Because we’ve worked together to keep safe, this year we can safely gather to mark the sacrifices of those who have served.
Last year, public Anzac Day events were cancelled across the state due to the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Instead, thousands of Queenslanders marked the day by standing in their driveways at dawn and other private commemorations.
The pandemic has thrown a harsh spotlight on the US ability to cope with such a disaster, especially during the tumultuous tenure of Donald Trump, whose administration botched the government response.
After a devastating winter surge in cases, for the first time in months, the average number of daily new coronavirus cases in the US fell below 100,000 on 12 February. Even with the decrease in cases, the US is still experiencing 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day and public health officials have warned recent progress could easily reverse.
Perhaps the biggest threat is the new variants of the virus, which appear to spread more quickly and easily. Scientists are working to understand how these variants could change the effectiveness of vaccines as the US attempts to ramp up the scale of its inoculation distribution.
Read the full story:
US death toll passes 500,000
More than half a million people have died of Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The country had recorded more than 28 million cases and 500,071 lives have been lost as of Monday afternoon.
More people have died in the US due to Covid-19 than any other country in the world.
With 4% of the world’s population, the US has 20% of all deaths and one of the highest rates of deaths per 100,000 residents, exceeded by only a few countries including the UK, Belgium and Italy.
US president Joe Biden will be marking this latest tragic milestone on Monday night, with a candlelit commemoration and moment of silence for the 500,000 who have lost their lives.
On Sunday the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci said that “decades from now” people would be “talking about this a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country.
“To have these many people to have died from a respiratory born infection, it really is a terrible situation that we’ve been through and that we’re still going through.”
Daily deaths and hospitalisations have fallen to the lowest level since before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
Portugal is aiming to have 70% of its population vaccinated by some point over summer, health minister Marta Temido said.
Temido’s comments at a news conference came with the number of new cases in the country markedly declining after having suffered the world’s worst rate of infection in January, AFP reports.
So far, some 294,000 people have received a first vaccine dose and 106,000 have been administered two doses.
National vaccine programme coordinator Henrique Gouveia e Melo said herd immunity “should be achieved in August or early September” if “the forecasts on the availability of vaccines are confirmed.”
The vaccination programme should accelerate “from the second quarter to reach the rate of 100,000 vaccines per day” compared to the current average of 22,000, he said.
After weeks as the country with the greatest number of infections in relation to its population, Portugal recorded the strongest decline last week with a 51-percent drop in new cases to 2,100 per day.
Health authorities said the country, in lockdown since mid-January, had over 24 hours recorded 61 deaths from Covid-19 and 549 new cases, the lowest number of new infections since the beginning of October.
Italy allegedly misled the World Health Organization (WHO) on its readiness to face a pandemic less than three weeks before the country’s first locally transmitted coronavirus case was confirmed.
Each year, countries bound by the International Health Regulations (IHR) – an international treaty to combat the global spread of disease – are required to file a self-assessment report to the WHO on the status of their preparedness for a health emergency.
Italy undertook its last self-assessment report on 4 February 2020. In section C8 of the report, seen by the Guardian, where countries have to evaluate their overall readiness to respond to a public health emergency, the author marks Italy in level 5, the highest status of preparedness.
The category states that a country’s “health sector emergency response coordination mechanism and incident management system linked with a national emergency operation centre have been tested and updated regularly”.
However, it emerged last year that Italy had not updated its national pandemic plan since 2006, a factor that may have contributed to at least 10,000 Covid-19 deaths during the first wave and which is a key element in an investigation into alleged errors by authorities being carried out by prosecutors in Bergamo, the Lombardy province that was severely affected in the pandemic’s early stage.
Read the whole story here:
Updated
Real-world evidence from the Covid vaccination programmes in England and Scotland show that one dose of vaccine gives high protection against severe disease and admission to hospital – and protects against even mild disease with no symptoms in younger people.
The first real data from the mass vaccination programmes is promising, and although the results do not include evidence that they prevent transmission completely, there is data to show they are stopping some people becoming infected, which should slow the spread of coronavirus.
Three studies came to similarly positive conclusions about the protection offered by the vaccines – one in Scotland and two in England – although they were set up to look at the effects in different groups of people.
In England, the Siren study in healthcare workers under 65 found that one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reduced the risk of catching the virus by 70% – and 85% after the second dose. The healthcare workers were all tested for the virus every two weeks, so the study picked up asymptomatic infections as well as those who had symptoms.
Read the full story:
Updated
Joe Biden to hold memorial as US nears 500,000 Covid deaths
Joe Biden is set to mark the latest tragic milestone of Covid deaths in the US on Monday night, with a candlelit commemoration and moment of silence for the 500,000 who will have lost their lives.
With the heart-wrenching landmark approaching, the White House was preparing for a sunset ceremony focused on those who have died and their grieving loved ones.
With his wife, Jill Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, by his side, the president was expected to echo the commemoration held for Covid victims at the Lincoln Memorial the night before his inauguration.
He said then: “To heal we must remember.”
Such events implicitly underscore the vast gulf in approach and empathy levels between Biden and his predecessor in the Oval Office. Donald Trump rarely spoke about the hundreds of thousands who died on his watch. When he did it was usually to boast about his administration’s successes in fighting the pandemic.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Vaccine developers may need to modify their vaccines to provide protection against any potential new variants of the coronavirus in the US should they fail to elicit immune response in their current form, the country’s health regulator said on Monday.
“At this time, available information suggests that the FDA-authorized vaccines remain effective in protecting the American public against currently circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2,” the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
The agency made the comments as part of a newly updated guidance for companies making vaccines, tests and therapeutics for Covid-19.
Reuters reports:
The emergence of new variants that are considered more infectious has prompted the US government to step up efforts to track coronavirus mutations and keep vaccines and treatments effective against any new variants.
As part of its updated guidance, the FDA recommended that vaccine makers test any modified vaccines in both previously unvaccinated people and vaccinated people.
The manufacturers should compare the immune response of a modified vaccine against both the new variant as well as the original virus.
The FDA also recommended monitoring test subjects’ safety for at least seven days, to support emergency use authorization for modified vaccines.
The US has administered 64,177,474 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Monday morning and delivered 75,205,940 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Reuters reports:
The tally of vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Monday, the agency said.
According to the tally posted on February 21, the agency had administered 63,090,634 doses of the vaccines, and distributed 75,204,965 doses.
The agency said 44,138,118 people had received one or more doses, while 19,438,495 people have got the second dose as of Monday.
A total of 6,579,236 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
France sees Covid hospitalisations rise for second day in a row
France on Monday reported a further 333 deaths from Covid-19, as well as 4,646 new infections, an increase from last Monday’s daily case tally of 4,376.
The number of people hospitalised with the virus as well as the number of patients treated in intensive care units increased for the second consecutive day, the health ministry said, with 25,831 people now in hospital and 3,407 people in intensive care.
France’s daily recorded cases are always markedly lower on Monday due to recording delays over the weekend. On Sunday, 22,046 new cases were recorded, versus 16,546 new infections on Sunday a week earlier.
The total official death toll now stands at 84,613.
Updated
Hospitality bosses in England have reacted with fury and consternation to prime minister Boris Johnson’s plans to not lift restrictions on indoor service in pubs and restaurants until mid May at the earliest.
Patrick Dardis, chief executive of pub giant Young’s, said Johnson’s road map meant the pub sector would be “burning cash” for another three months.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme whether the government target of allowing pubs to serve outdoor customers by April 12 and indoors by 17 May was better than the hospitality industry had hoped for, Dardis said:
No, it is a whole lot worse than we had been expecting. Non-essential retail are allowed to open on April 12 and the pub sector, a huge part of our culture in the UK, was first to close and last to open.
We were hoping to be able to open in April and worst-case scenario was that we’d be opening on the first week in May.
So May 17 - at the earliest, I may add - is three months away and three months away means that the pub sector and the wider sector which employs 3.5 million people will be burning cash for another three months.
So no, it is not great. The only positive, I would say - and I’m trying to find a positive - is that he has laid out set dates, albeit with caveats (for easing restrictions).
Conservative former minister Steve Brine asked why restaurants and cafes face another three months before they can reopen in any “meaningful way”.
He told MPs:
I want to welcome and indeed raise a hallelujah at the good sense that we’re standing with parents and children that schools for all pupils will return from March 8, it’s the right thing to do on so many levels.
Can I ask the prime minister, though, what evidence has driven his decision that outdoor sport - not in-school outdoor sport, wider outdoor sport - for those same children cannot go ahead for at least another month?
And after all the good work that they’ve done last year to create Covid-secure environments, restaurants and cafes face another three months before they can open in any meaningful way. What is the evidence that he’s seen that’s convinced him to make that decision today?”
Johnson responded:
Actually, outdoor sport for schools can go ahead from March 8, as I said earlier on, and the evidence for all the decision that we’ve taken, a massive quantity of evidence is being deposited today with the House.
The largest Dutch hospitality organisation said Monday it was suing the government over ongoing coronavirus measures that have forced bars, cafes and restaurants shut since mid-October.
AFP reports:
Caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte and his health deputy Hugo de Jonge are expected on Tuesday to announce a slight easing of a partial lockdown in the Netherlands, including the reopening of hair salons and some schools.
But a 9:00 pm to 4:30 am curfew is set to remain in place for another three weeks from early March - and an announcement on the partial reopening of hospitality’s food and drink sector was not on the cards, Dutch media reports said.
“We are very disappointed in the cabinet,” said Rober Willemsen, chairman of the Royal Horeca Netherlands hospitality group.
“We’ve tried up until the last moment to come together with a different viewpoint and formulate a strategy to see what may be possible, instead of keeping everything hermetically sealed,” he said in a statement.
“The situation is hopeless and time and again, entrepreneurs in the food and catering industry are being deprived of perspective,” he added.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, the business-friendly Dutch government has given entrepreneurs in the hospitality sector substantial support.
But the help “did not cover fixed costs which are piling up”, Willemsen said.
“The compulsory closure is putting disproportionate pressure on the industry,” he added, with many facing bankruptcy.
The umbrella organisation, which claims to represent some 20,000 businesses and 255,000 employees, now wants judges to force government to allow hospitality businesses to reopen “as soon as possible”.
It also wants compensation for financial damages.
A court date was not announced.
It is not the first time Rutte’s government is facing legal action over its measures to combat the coronavirus.
Last week, the government appealed a lower court decision that ordered it to scrap the coronavirus curfew.
Royal Caribbean Group said on Monday it was seeing an uptick in future bookings, following a disastrous year for the cruise operator, as travel enthusiasts look to sail again at a time governments globally have started mass vaccinations.
Reuters reports:
The company’s shares, down 44% last year, soared 9% in morning trading, as Royal Caribbean said it recorded a 30% increase in new bookings since the beginning of the year when compared to November and December.
Analysts have also tipped Royal Caribbean and its peers Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd to resume voyages gradually in the back half of this year, after the pandemic-triggered months-long halt.
“Now after 11 months of pandemic, I think we all know that Covid fatigue is real. People are clamoring for the opportunity to have experience outside their homes,” Chief Executive Officer Richard Fain said on an earnings call.
Royal Caribbean said bookings for the first half of 2022 were within historical ranges and at higher prices, with some on Reddit and Twitter saying they were itching to go on cruises again.
However, the operator of the “Symphony of the Seas” cruise posted a net attributable loss of $1.37 billion for the quarter ended December 31, taking its annual loss to $5.8 billion.
The World Health Organization has agreed a no-fault compensation plan for claims of serious side effects in people in 92 poorer countries due to get vaccines via the Covax scheme, Reuters reports.
The programme, which the WHO said was the first and only vaccine injury compensation mechanism operating on an international scale, will offer eligible people “a fast, fair, robust and transparent process”, the WHO said in a statement.
It added:
By providing a no-fault lump-sum compensation in full and final settlement of any claims, the COVAX programme aims to significantly reduce the need for recourse to the law courts, a potentially lengthy and costly process.
Questions of how compensation claims would be handled in the event of any serious vaccine side effects, which are likely to be very rare, had been a worry for countries due to get shots via the Covax plan.
Countries funding their own vaccine procurement also plan their own liability programmes.
The WHO-agreed plan, which has been under discussion for several months, is designed to cover serious side effects linked to any Covax-distributed vaccines until 30 June, 2022.
Italy announced there were 162 new admissions to intensive care units. Intensive care patients totalled 2,118 on Monday.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating quickly in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
🔴 #Covid19 - La situazione in Italia al 22 febbraio: https://t.co/8ciMmO9yfx pic.twitter.com/u3krM1M1L1
— Ministero della Salute (@MinisteroSalute) February 22, 2021
Updated
Spain has announced that 3,622,165 people have now received a Covid vaccine.
🔵 Actualización del informe de actividad de #vacunación en España: https://t.co/MPBGXZaZ6x
— Ministerio de Sanidad (@sanidadgob) February 22, 2021
🖥 Infórmate en: https://t.co/FEl0ROiPQV#YoMeVacuno pic.twitter.com/WkOOVw5Q5R
With more than 6% of the population vaccinated Spain reflects the average progress of the programme in the EU, according to Politico’s vaccine tracker.
Teachers could play important role in transmission, study suggests
Teachers may play an important role in the transmission of coronavirus within schools, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday, citing a study conducted in elementary schools in a Georgia school district.
Reuters reports:
The report comes after researchers from the agency last month said there was little evidence that schools were spreading Covid-19 infections in the country – based in part on a study of schools in Wisconsin – easing concerns about allowing in-person learning.
The Wisconsin study found significantly lower virus spread within schools compared with transmission in the surrounding communities.
An investigation involving about 2,600 students and 700 staff members of a Georgia school district’s elementary schools showed nine clusters of Covid-19 cases involving 13 educators and 32 students at six elementary schools, the CDC said.
Of these, two clusters involved probable teacher-to-teacher transmission that was followed by teacher-to-student transmission in classrooms, the agency said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Transmission from teachers resulted in about half of 31 school-related cases, according to the investigation.
The study was subject to some limitations including difficulty in determining whether coronavirus transmission happened in school or out in the local community, the agency noted.
[...]
The CDC said Covid-19 vaccination of educators should be considered as an additional mitigation measure to be added when available, although not required for reopening schools.
A number of countries are either mulling prioritising teachers in getting vaccines or have done so already, including Malta, Chile, Italy, Germany and Poland.
Updated
The UK reported a further 10,641 daily cases and 178 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Monday.
On Sunday, 9,834 infections and 215 deaths were recorded, and 9,765 cases and 230 deaths a week ago, on 15 February.
A total of 17.7 million people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, official data released on Monday showed.
Prime minister Boris Johnson on Monday said Britons would have to learn to live with coronavirus like with the flu, and urged people to be patient despite continued restrictions having devastating effects on various sectors of the economy.
“No one wants to see a fourth lockdown [in England],” he said.
Updated
Italy reported 9,630 coronavirus infections on Monday, compared to 7,344 a week ago.
On Sunday, the country reported 13,452 new coronavirus cases, also up from the 11,060 new cases recorded a week earlier on 14 February.
The health ministry also reported a further 274 deaths. On Sunday, 232 people were reported to have died from Covid-19.
Updated
“The threat remains substantial”, UK prime minister Boris Johnson told parliament on Monday, saying it was crucial the roadmap out of England’s national lockdown, in place since 5 January, was cautious but irreversible.
“We’re able to take these steps because of the resolve of the British public and the extraordinary success of our NHS [National Health Service] in vaccinating more than 17.5 million people across the UK,” Johnson said.
The government announced a review of travel which will report on 12 April with recommendations about how international travel should resume, while managing the risks of new variants of coronavirus.
“The government will determine when international travel should resume, which will be no earlier than 17 May,” it said in its statement.
The UK is looking at a system of allowing vaccinated individuals to travel more freely internationally, it added.
The PM’s plans for the gradual lifting of restrictions between March and late June are yet to be voted on by parliamentarians.
Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which are responsible for their own public health, will also ease restrictions over the coming months.
Updated
England's lockdown to be lifted in four stages, PM announces
A four-stage plan could lead to England’s coronavirus restrictions being lifted entirely by 21 June, prime minister Boris Johnson has announced.
In the first phase, all schools in England will open from 8 March, and people will be allowed to socialise in parks and public spaces with one other person from that date.
From 29 March, when the school Easter holidays begin, groups of up to six people or two households will be allowed to gather in parks and gardens.
The international travel ban currently in place will be reviewed further down the line, with 17 May the earliest possible date for a holiday abroad.
PA Media reports:
Other measures in the road map set out by the prime minister include:
• From 12 April at the earliest: shops, hairdressers, nail salons, libraries, outdoor attractions and outdoor hospitality venues such as beer gardens will reopen.
• From 17 May at the earliest, two households or groups of up to six people will be allowed to mix indoors and limited crowds will be allowed at sporting events.
• From 21 June at the earliest, all remaining restrictions on social contact could be lifted, larger events can go ahead and nightclubs could finally reopen.
Alongside the four-step plan, the prime minister launched a series of reviews – including on whether people should be able to show if they have had a Covid-19 vaccine or a negative test.
The work will look at whether “Covid status certification” could help reopen the economy by allowing people who have received a jab or a negative test result to do things which would not be allowed for those who could not prove their status.
Officials recognise that there are moral and ethical questions as well as practical ones for any such move, which has been highly controversial in Westminster.
A research programme will use pilot schemes involving testing and other measures to run events with larger crowd sizes.
International travel rules will also be reviewed, with 17 May targeted as the earliest possible date for a foreign holiday.
A further piece of work to conclude by 21 June will examine social distancing requirements – including hugs with friends and relatives – the use of face masks and requirements to work from home.
The measures are expected to be put to a Commons vote before the house rises for Easter in late March.
Updated
UK data shows 70% decline in infections after first Pfizer shot
England’s coronavirus vaccine campaign is significantly reducing cases of Covid-19, with a drop of around 70% in infections among healthcare workers who have had a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, British health officials said on Monday.
Reuters reports:
Data analysed by Public Health England (PHE) showed the Pfizer provided high levels of protection against infection and symptomatic disease from a single dose, and that hospitalisation and death from Covid-19 will be reduced by more 75% in elderly people who have had a first dose.
“Overall, we’re seeing a really strong effect to reducing any infection, asymptomatic and symptomatic,” PHE’s strategic response director Susan Hopkins told a media briefing.
PHE’s head of immunisation Mary Ramsay described the data as “strong evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is stopping people from getting infected, while also protecting cases against hospitalisation and death”.
“We should be very encouraged by these initial findings,” she said.PHE’s findings came from two separate analyses - one is an ongoing study in healthcare workers, and the second is an assessment of testing data in people aged 80 and over.
Evidence from the elderly group showed that one dose of the Pfizer shot is 57% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 disease, PHE said, and early data suggest the second dose improves protection to more than 85%.
“Hospitalisation and deaths rates are falling in all age groups, but the oldest age groups are seeing the fastest decline since the peak in mid-January,” a PHE statement said.
The vaccine also provides protection against the so-called British variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it added.
Singapore has been testing out a “bubble” business hotel that will allow quarantined executives arriving in the country to do face-to-face meetings and even exchange documents without fear of spreading coronavirus.
Reuters reports:
The bubble has been set up in an expo venue near the city-state’s Changi airport and features separate air ducts for visitors and guests, plus dozens of conference rooms with screens dividing those in quarantine with other attendees, who communicate via a speaker.
It also has a special compartment through which documents and other items can be safely passed from one side of the room to the other, through a UV light that sanitises the contents.
“It wasn’t long before we realised that the pandemic was likely to have a really long tail, and possibly lasting for years, so therefore it was a problem looking for solutions,” said Robin Hu of state investment firm Temasek, which came up with the idea.
When it opens next month, the facility can accommodate 150 guests and offer 40 meeting rooms. It aims to raise that to 660 guest rooms and 170 meeting rooms by May.
Rooms cost at least S$384 per night ($290).Guests will be required to commit to five swab tests, one in the departure country, one on arrival and three during the two-week quarantine phase.
Hu said the initial bookings have mainly come from business travellers, but the face-to-face format had generated interest from others too.
All secondary school students in Wales could be back in the classroom after Easter, depending on the coronavirus situation in the country, Wales’ education minister has said.
PA reports:
Kirsty Williams told a press conference in Cardiff that her “preference” would be for all children to return after the holidays, which begin on March 29, with the new term starting on April 12.
The youngest pupils, aged three to seven, began returning to face-to-face teaching from Monday along with some vocational learners who were back at college.
Most children have not been in school since December, when classes were switched online due to a steep rise in coronavirus cases.The coronavirus incidence rate in Wales is currently 80 cases per 100,000 people - the lowest of the four UK nations.
All primary school pupils, as well as those in years 11 and 13 and those doing similar qualifications in colleges, will return from March 15 if the situation continues to improve.
Ms Williams said she wanted to see other learners, such as years 10 and 12, have “flexibility” around face-to-face teaching.
“Unfortunately for those learners in secondary settings or colleges, this won’t necessarily be a return to full-time on-site learning,” she said.
“However, we will do all that we can to support those learners because I know how anxious this time can be as they consider key decisions about their next steps in life.
“Last time I spoke at the press conference, I announced how our education staff will be tested twice weekly as part of our testing strategy.
“Today, I’m pleased to say that this will be extended to older year learners in years 11 to 13, and those in further education (FE) settings.
“This testing will be done through lateral flow devices, which mean they can be done from a learner’s home and which will assist with the planned returned for older pupils from March 15.”
Ms Williams stressed that educational premises were safe but the movement around them contributed to the R number, which is currently estimated to be between 0.6 and 0.9 in Wales.
She called on pupils, parents and carers to follow guidance and restrict contact with others to ensure that more children could return to school.
“We will confirm the situation for other learners before the Easter holidays but I can tell you now that my preference is to get all learners back in school after the break.”She added: “My preference is to get all children back to face-to-face teaching after Easter but whether the virus will allow us to do that, of course, is a different thing.
“Rather than just focusing on dates, we will be focusing on what the public health situation allows us to do.”
Covid-19 has taken the life of the last male from Brazil’s indigenous Juma tribe.
The elder Aruká, who died last week in a hospital in the upper Amazon River basin, leaves behind three daughters who are now the only survivors of a group that just three centuries ago was thousands of members strong.
El Pais reports:
Aruká Juma, a native Brazilian, was aged between 86 and 90 when he died from complications caused by coronavirus on Wednesday in an intensive care unit (ICU) in a hospital in Porto Velho, a city located in the upper Amazon River basin, and 120 kilometers by road and two hours by boat from his village.
His death, just like the 1,150 other Covid-19 fatalities registered that day across Brazil, was a tragedy for his next of kin. But Aruká was also the last male from the Juma people, a living memory of ancestral wisdom and a survivor of an attempt to wipe out his kind. The three daughters he leaves behind are now the only ones left from a people who counted on between 12,000 and 15,000 members in the 18th century.
Fears over the disproportionate impact coronavirus is having on vulnerable indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon were fuelled by the death of ten Yanomami children from Covid-19 in January.
Slovakia asks EU for help due to 'tragic' Covid-situation
Slovakia’s foreign minister called on EU partners on Monday to send an advance vaccine shipment to the central European country, which he said was in a “tragic” coronavirus situation with record numbers of cases.
Reuters reports:
The country of 5.5 million has suffered about 100 deaths per day recently, the highest in the world relative to population on a one-week basis and ahead of neighbouring Czech Republic, according to data tracker ourworldindata.org.
Slovakia had 3,672 patients in hospital with confirmed coronavirus as of Sunday.
“I will inform my foreign minister colleagues about the very serious and what can be called tragic situation we have with Covid,” Ivan Korcok told reporters ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
“I will turn to them to ask them, if they have a vaccine they cannot use at the moment, to provide it to us.
“I believe it would be a very good sign of cooperation on the EU level. I fully realise that other countries have a vaccine shortage as well but Slovakia now, also based on the fact that we have the highest death rate, at the moment needs it most.”
Slovakia has asked through the EU’s emergency mechanism for the help of 10 doctors and 25 nurses from abroad.
The country has reported 6,577 deaths from coronavirus. It had vaccinated 272,341 people with at least one dose as of Sunday, according to government data, slightly ahead of the European Union average.
Updated
Italy extends ban on non-essentrial travel between regions
The Italian government on Monday extended a ban on non-essential travel between the country’s 20 regions until 27 March as it looks to slow the spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants.
Reuters reports:
The ban on travel between regions was introduced just before Christmas and had been due to expire on 25 February, but officials fear a relaxation of restrictions could lead to a new surge in cases, driven by the so-called “British” variant.
In its first decisions on Covid-19, prime minister Mario Draghi’s new cabinet also extended restrictions on visiting family and friends, with no more than two adults allowed into another person’s home at the same time.
No visits are allowed in so-called red zones, where the tightest restrictions are in place. At present, no region is classified as “red” but some provinces, towns and villages have been designated as such.
Although the number of daily Covid-19 cases has fallen from around 40,000 in mid-November to under 15,000, the infection rate, measuring the percentage of tests that come back positive, has edged up in some areas and there are several hundred deaths from Covid-19 each day.
Italy’s official death toll stands at 95,718 – the second highest in Europe after Britain and seventh highest worldwide.
Like other European Union countries, Italy launched its anti-Covid-19 vaccination campaign at the end of December, and has administered 3.5m shots including second shots.
In all, it has received 4.69m shots from vaccine manufacturers.
Updated
Chile is streaking ahead of the rest of Latin America in its campaign to vaccinate its population against coronavirus, which the Andean country’s leaders hope can help not only beat back the virus but also unite the nation.
Reuters reports:
As of 18 February the copper-producing country had given over 2.5m doses of vaccine, enough for around one shot for 12 in every hundred people, according to Our World in Data. It could fully vaccinate 10% of its population with two doses per person in just over 20 days at its current rate, Reuters data show.
That puts it in the top 10 globally of larger countries and compares to 172 days for Brazil and over 1,000 days for Mexico, which has faced delays in its inoculation program.
Rodrigo Yanez, the vice-minister for trade negotiating the deals, said in an interview that Chile had hosted multiple vaccine trials to gain priority for supply, and made use of connections with vaccine-producing trade partners who normally snap up its copper and fresh fruit.
At a soccer stadium-turned vaccine center in La Florida, a working class neighborhood of Chilean capital Santiago, mayor Rodolfo Carter said that the rapid drive could help heal the country after two terrible years when it was rocked first by violent protests and then by the pandemic.
“This global tragedy perhaps gives us the opportunity as Chileans not just to get a shot in the arm but reach out to people and soothe the nation’s soul,” he told Reuters, adding the center was averaging 7,000 people a day.
Just over a year ago, Chile was swept by intense protests against inequality and elitism that left scores dead and injured, billions of dollars in damages to businesses, and a populace deeply divided.
However, despite ongoing tensions, many Chileans are pleased at how fast the country has been to get its vaccination program up and running. On Christmas Eve, it was the first in South America to start inoculations, injecting health workers with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
With the arrival of Sinovac doses, it set up 1,400 mobile clinics around the country at the start of February and by last Thursday had given some 2.57m vaccinations.
Updated
Vietnam will begin its Covid-19 vaccination programme next month with frontline healthcare staff and the elderly in line for the first doses as the country tackles a new wave of coronavirus infections, state media reported on Monday.
This from Reuters:
The south-east Asian country expects to receive 60m doses this year, including 30m under the WHO-led Covax scheme, with a first batch of 204,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to arrive on 28 February.
“The first wave of Covid-19 vaccinations, prioritising frontline medical workers and high-risk groups, will begin in March right after the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrives and passes quality checks,” the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
Refrigerators able to store vaccines at temperatures of -86 to -40 degrees Celsius (-122.8°F to -40°F) had been prepared in the country’s three biggest cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, the paper said.
[...]
Late last month, Vietnam approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use days after the country detected the first locally transmitted cases in nearly two months.Thanks to targeted mass testing and strict quarantining, Vietnam managed to successfully contain the virus for months but a fresh outbreak has proved more difficult to stamp out.
The country of 98 million people has recorded 791 new cases since the latest outbreak started last month, or about a third of its overall caseload of 2,383 infections since cases were first detected a year ago. Vietnam has reported 35 deaths due to the virus.
Updated
Secondary school pupils in England will have to wear masks when they return to face-to-face taught lessons in March, ITV’s Robert Peston reports:
Secondary school children will be required to wear masks in the classroom as well as in corridors, I understand - as I just mentioned on @itvnews Lunchtime News
— Robert Peston (@Peston) February 22, 2021
The Royal Caribbean Group reported a billion-dollar net loss for the fourth straight quarter on Monday, as the cruise operator continued to be affected by a coronavirus-triggered halt to voyages.
The operator of “Oasis of the Seas” and “Symphony of the Seas” cruises posted a net attributable loss of $1.37bn, or $6.09 per share, in the fourth quarter to 31 December, compared with a profit of $273.1m, or $1.30 per share, a year earlier, Reuters reports.
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte will maintain the current level of coronavirus restrictions in the capital Manila until mass vaccinations start, his spokesman said on Monday, despite calls to ease curbs and revive the country’s ailing economy.
Reuters reports:
The Philippines, among the fastest growing economies in Asia before the pandemic, saw its gross domestic product slump by a record 9.5% in 2020, as one of the world’s longest and strictest Covid-19 lockdowns shuttered thousands of businesses and left millions out of work.
“The chief executive recognises the importance of reopening the economy and its impact on people’s livelihoods. However, the president gives higher premium to public health and safety,” spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
The restrictions in Manila, the epicentre of the Philippine epidemic, were set to end this month but will be extended until the mass vaccination drive is underway.
Roque said earlier on Monday that would kick off with 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech vaccines donated by China, which should arrive later this month.
The Philippines has been talking to seven vaccine makers to try to ensure sufficient supplies for more than two-thirds of its 108 million population.
Its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday granted emergency use authorisation for the Sinovac vaccine, CoronaVac.
The capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities accounting for 40% of the country’s economic output, has been under partial curbs since August, limiting the operating capacity of businesses and public transport.
Face-to-face school and university classes are also prohibited.With more than 563,000 cases and nearly 12,100 deaths, the Philippines has the second highest Covid-19 infections and casualties in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia.
Updated
The UK has the strictest lockdown in the developed world, data collected and visualised by the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford suggests.
This from the Sky journalist Ed Conway:
As the PM prepares to announce a tentative timetable for loosening lockdown, it’s perhaps worth noting that the UK currently has the strictest lockdown in the developed world (as measured by the Oxdford @BlavatnikSchool’s tracker) pic.twitter.com/lGjsBU1zLP
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) February 22, 2021
The Blavatnik School’s Covid-19 Government Stringency Index is a composite measure based on nine response indicators including school closures, workplace closures and travel bans.
Updated
Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency use authorisation for Sinovac Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine, a senior official told Reuters on Monday.
“The FDA has approved or registered Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine for conditional emergency use, effective February 22,” FDA deputy secretary-general Surachok Tangwiwat said, adding it was valid for one year.
Palestinians in Gaza began a limited Covid-19 vaccination programme on Monday after receiving doses donated by Russia and the United Arab Emirates, but a wider campaign could be further off as health officials await larger shipments.
Reuters reports:
Officials in the coastal enclave, run by the Islamist group Hamas and home to 2 million people, are administering the first of their 22,000 Russia Sputnik V doses to health workers. Patients with chronic diseases and those over 60 years old will follow.
The Gaza health ministry sent out text messages to urge those eligible to come and get their shots.
“I am proud the health sector was able to overcome this difficult time, with limited resources but great dedication,” said Riyad Zanoun, a former Gaza health minister, after receiving his first dose.
Those vaccinated received instruction cards telling them to continue wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.
While Gaza health officials praised the vaccine launch as a turning point in their fight against the pandemic, they have not said when they expect to begin receiving larger shipments.
Both Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on the coastal strip, citing security fears about Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.
Gaza received its first vaccine shipment last week after Israel approved a transfer of 2,000 doses that Russia had donated to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank. It has separately received 20,000 Russian doses from the UAE.
Health officials have said they need 2.6m doses to inoculate all people over 16, assuming a two-dose regimen.
The PA says it has large supply deals with Russia and drugmaker AstraZeneca and plans to distribute them across the West Bank and Gaza, but doses have been slow to come.
The West Bank, home to 3.1 million Palestinians, has reported 1,361 deaths and 110,294 cases. Gaza has registered 543 deaths and more than 54,000 cases.
Updated
Drug developer Novavax Inc said on Monday it has completed patient enrollment in the late-stage study of its Covid-19 vaccine in the US and Mexico.
Reuters reports:
The company said last month its vaccine was 89.3% effective in preventing Covid-19 in a trial conducted in the United Kingdom, and was nearly as effective in protecting against the more highly contagious variant first discovered in the UK.
Novavax said it had enrolled 30,000 volunteers across the United States and Mexico.
In the late-stage trial, the company said 20% of participants were Latinx, 13% were African American, and 13% were 65 and older.
In light of concerns about a potential third wave of infections in Germany, chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday highlighted three areas for which an opening strategy had to be put together: personal contacts, schools and vocational schools, and sports groups, restaurants and culture.
The aim is to put together packages of support and measures tailored to these domains of life to make an opening of society possible and then adapt, she was quoted as saying, the German Press Agency reports.
From Tuesday a working group with Merkel’s chief of staff Helge Braun and the heads of the federal states will meet on the subject of openings.
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, meanwhile, wants to start administering vaccines at family doctors’ practices as soon as 3-5 million doses are delivered weekly, he told the leadership committee of his Christian Democrats party, according to two sources, Reuters reports.
Updated
British Airways has boosted its liquidity by £2.45bn as it tries to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
PA reports:
Owner International Airlines Group (IAG) said the airline has reached final agreement on a £2bn loan underwritten by a syndicate of banks and partially guaranteed by the government’s UK Export Finance (UKEF).
The carrier expects to draw down from the five-year loan before the end of next month.
British Airways has also reached agreement with the trustee of a pension scheme to defer £450m of pension deficit contributions due between October 2020 and September 2021.
It was due to fill the hole in its pension pot by March 2023, but the deferred contributions plus interest will be made as monthly repayments after this date.
The airline closed down the New Airways Pension Scheme (Naps) in 2018, moving its employees on to a new, less-generous fund.
The Naps was a final-salary plan, which guaranteed workers would be paid a proportion of what their salary was in the year before they retired. IAG added that it “continues to explore other debt initiatives to improve further its liquidity”.
It swung to a pre-tax loss of 6.2 billion euros (£5.6bn) for the nine months to the end of September 2020. British Airways has been badly hit by the collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with long-haul routes the worst affected.
Passenger numbers are not expected to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023.
Updated
England's lockdown to be lifted step-by-step in five week intervals
England will progressively ease lockdown restrictions in five week intervals, Sky News reported on Monday, hours before prime minister Boris Johnson is due to announce details of his roadmap for re-opening the country.
Sky News said there would be five weeks between each stage of the government’s roadmap, four weeks of analysing data before a week’s notice that restrictions will be removed.
Social contact with loved ones will take precedence over the reopening of shops and hospitality, with school sports and family picnics offered as a trade-off for a longer closure of retail and restaurants.
Johnson will order the reopening of all schools on 8 March and pledge that two families or a group of six friends will be allowed to meet outdoors three weeks later, the Guardian understands.
He will set out a four-stage lockdown plan for the easing of the restrictions that touch almost every corner of daily life, with several weeks between each phase of reopening, my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Archie Bland report.
GPs across Italy will be able to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to the under-65s as the country tries to accelerate its Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
Some 40,000 GPs signed up to the health ministry agreement. From Monday, people will be able to book their first dose of the vaccination via their GP, with the second dose administered after three months. An estimated 22 million people under the age of 65 are expected to have received both doses of the AstraZeneca jab by July, La Stampa reported.
Italy registered 13,452 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, which marked the first anniversary since the country’s first local transmission was detected, and 232 more deaths, bringing the total death toll to 95,718 – the highest in Europe after the UK. About 3.5m people have so far been vaccinated since Italy’s campaign began on 27 December, of whom 1.3m have received both doses.
However, Italy’s efforts have been slowed by delayed deliveries of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. Alessio D’Amato, the health councillor for the Lazio region, said over the weekend that AstraZeneca had announced a cut of 9,000 doses in its next delivery batch to the region.
Franco Locatelli, the president of the higher health institute, said 13 million more vaccines are due to arrive by the end of March.
Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Draghi, pledged to speed up the vaccination campaign in his maiden speech last week. His government is reportedly expected to follow the UK’s example by adopting a mass vaccination programme that uses all available vaccine doses without setting aside some for second jabs.
Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England and co-lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), said about the Scottish findings regarding the positive impact vaccines have on hospitalisation risks:
This research provides encouraging early data on the impact of vaccination on reducing hospitalisations.
Researcher Dr Josie Murray, from Public Health Scotland, added:
These data show real promise that the vaccines we have given out can protect us from the severe effects of Covid-19. We must not be complacent though.
We all still need to ensure we stop transmission of the virus, and the best way we can all do this is to follow public health guidance - wash your hands often, keep two metres from others, and if you develop symptoms, isolate and take a test.
We also all need to protect ourselves, our families and friends by taking the second dose of vaccine when it is offered.
Chris Robertson, professor of public health epidemiology at the University of Strathclyde, said:
These early national results give a reason to be more optimistic about the control of the epidemic.
Updated
Scotland’s vaccination drive appears to be markedly reducing the risk of hospitalisation for Covid-19, suggesting that both the Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca shots are highly effective in preventing severe infections, preliminary study findings showed on Monday.
Reuters reports:
Results of the study […] showed that by the fourth week after the initial dose, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines were found to reduce the risk of hospitalisation by up to 85% and 94% respectively.
“These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future,” said Aziz Sheikh, a professor at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute who co-led the study.
Sheikh cautioned at a media briefing that the results are preliminary data, yet to be peer-reviewed by independent scientists, but added: “I am very encouraged. We now have national evidence [...] that vaccination provides protection against Covid-19 hospitalisations.”
He said he expected other countries using the same two vaccines and a similar strategy – such as England and Wales, for example – would see a similar positive impact in reducing the number of people being hospitalised with Covid-19.
Data for the vaccines’ effect in Scotland was gathered between 8 December and 15 February. Researchers said that during this period, 1.14m vaccines were administered and 21% of Scotland’s population had received a first dose.
Among those aged 80 years and over – one of the highest risk groups for Covid-19 – vaccination was associated with an 81% reduction in hospitalisation risk in the fourth week, when the results for both vaccines were combined.
Jim McMenamin, Public Health Scotland’s Covid-19 incident director, said the findings are particularly important “as we move from expectation to firm evidence of benefit from vaccines”.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be taking over for the next few hours. If you have anything to flag you think we should be covering, feel free to get in touch, you can reach me on Twitter @JedySays or via email.
Updated
Updated
German pupils return to schools and kindergartens in some regions
Hundreds of thousands of German pupils returned to schools and kindergartens for the first time in two months on Monday, despite fears of a third coronavirus wave fuelled by the British variant.
Schools and daycare centres reopened in 10 German regions, including the capital, Berlin, and the most populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia.
Most schools are limiting the return to pupils attending primary classes one to three. Class sizes have also been halved, alongside other precautions such as mask-wearing and airing out rooms, but critics have questioned whether the timing is right for the reopenings.
In discussions with party colleagues on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly mooted plans for a step-by-step relaxation of measures in areas such as social contact, schools and restaurants and culture.
Merkel argued that relaxation measures should be strongly tied to testing, according to participants in the meeting.
Yet experts are warning that Germany could be at the start of a third coronavirus wave, as case numbers have begun to rise again in recent days. On Monday, the nationwide seven-day incidence rate returned to 61 cases per 100,000 people after sinking to almost 50 in the past weeks.
Updated
Prime minister Boris Johnson will announce plans to start unwinding England’s third and potentially final coronavirus lockdown on Monday, as a quickening UK-wide inoculation drive relieves pressure on overstretched hospitals.
In a statement to parliament, Johnson will confirm the reopening of all English schools on 8 March in the first big step towards restoring normal life.
The Conservative prime minister, who was accused of acting too late and relaxing curbs too early last year, says he will lay out a “cautious but irreversible” plan to ensure no more lockdowns.
Mumbai imposes fresh restrictions after rise in cases
India’s financial capital, Mumbai, imposed fresh coronavirus restrictions on Monday as a rise in cases in the worst-affected region sparked fears of a new wave, while the country’s vast inoculation drive fell behind schedule.
All religious, social and political gatherings are banned in the city and the surrounding western state of Maharashtra, home to 110 million people, after infections spiked to levels last seen in October.
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said he was “worried about the severity of a second wave if it hits the state”, which has recorded nearly 52,000 deaths since the pandemic began.
“The simple mantra is wear a mask, follow discipline and avoid lockdown. We will review the situation again in the next eight days and decide on a lockdown,” Thackeray said in a live television address on Sunday.
Elsewhere in the state there were tighter restrictions.
India’s tough nationwide lockdown imposed in March has largely been relaxed, with even its famously lavish weddings and cricket crowds returning, albeit with numbers capped.
Daily new cases peaked at more than 97,000 in September but have been falling sharply, coming in at under 9,000 a day earlier this month.
But the past two weeks have seen an uptick, with about 14,000 new infections on Monday, the biggest rise coming in Maharashtra, taking India’s total past 11 million since the pandemic began with 156,000 deaths.
Updated
UN chief António Guterres on Monday criticised countries that are using the pandemic to justify cracking down on dissent, reining in the media and suppressing criticism.
Speaking at the opening of the United Nations human rights council’s main annual session, Guterres charged that authorities in a number of nations were using restrictions meant to halt the spread of Covid-19 to weaken their political opposition.
“Using the pandemic as a pretext, authorities in some countries have deployed heavy-handed security responses and emergency measures to crush dissent, criminalise basic freedoms, silence independent reporting and curtail the activities of non-governmental organisations,” he said, without naming the countries.
“Human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, political activists, and even medical professionals are being detained, prosecuted and subjected to intimidation and surveillance for criticising government pandemic responses – or the lack thereof,” he added.
In some countries, he warned, “pandemic-related restrictions are being used to subvert electoral processes, weaken opposition voices and suppress criticism”.
Updated
A World Bank report has recommended Israel consider buying Covid vaccines for Palestinians living in territories it occupies or donating surplus doses from its own supply.
The report warned there was an “uncontrolled” spread of the virus in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“While Israel has been leading the world in terms of per capita vaccinations, the Israeli [Ministry of Health] has not formulated an allocation strategy to support the territories, beyond providing 5,000 vaccines for Palestinian doctors,” the report said.
The Palestinian Authority, which is attempting to secure its own doses, is facing a $30m funding shortfall, the report said. It added a move by the authority last year to cut coordination with Israel has significantly disrupted healthcare for Palestinians.
“From a humanitarian perspective, Israel can consider donating the extra doses it has ordered that it would not be using; it could also consider procuring vaccines for priority health workers and most vulnerable populations in West Bank and Gaza,” the report said in its “recommendations” section.
The debate in Israel around vaccinating Palestinians has centred on the thousands of labourers who regularly cross into the country for work, as they are seen as a potential transmission risk for Israelis.
On Friday, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said Israel had agreed to vaccinate 100,000 Palestinians workers, although Israel did not confirm the report.
Nachman Ash, Israel’s coronavirus czar, told reporters on Sunday that a decision on vaccinating the Palestinian workers should be made soon.
“From a medical perspective, we think vaccinating the Palestinian workers is very much the correct thing to do.”
The US stood on the brink of 500,000 Covid-related deaths on Monday, while the vaccination rollout picked up pace globally including with the first shots in Australia.
The catastrophic US toll comes as some signs of hope are emerging in the world’s hardest-hit country, with millions of people now vaccinated and winter’s massive spike in infections dropping.
But deaths are still mounting, and President Joe Biden last month warned that “well over” 600,000 people in the US could die from the virus.
“It’s terrible. It is historic. We haven’t seen anything even close to this for well over a hundred years, since the 1918 pandemic of influenza,” Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, told NBC’s Meet The Press.
“It’s something that is stunning when you look at the numbers, almost unbelievable, but it’s true,” Fauci added.
The US toll stood at 498,897 by Monday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, the figure was approaching 2.5 million.
Updated
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other government officials received Covid-19 vaccines on Monday as the city begins its inoculation programme.
Lam and the city’s health minister, Sophia Chan, were among the first people to receive their vaccines in Hong Kong, after about a million doses of the vaccine by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived in the Chinese territory last week.
Hong Kong is to begin its inoculation programme on Friday after several delays in vaccine shipments to the city. Those who will receive priority for the vaccinations include the elderly, medical workers, caretakers at elderly homes and employees such as airline cabin crew and cross-border drivers.
“We are very determined, very committed to rolling out a free and universal vaccination programme for the people of Hong Kong so that we could get ourselves out of this epidemic as soon as possible,” Lam said to reporters after she was inoculated.
Efforts to fight the pandemic, including the vaccination programme, require the full collaboration of the people of Hong Kong, she said.
A recent poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong found that respondents were distrustful of the Chinese vaccine, with only about 30% willing to accept it amid concerns about its low efficacy.
In contrast, 56% of respondents were willing to take the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Hong Kong’s government has also ordered the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines. So far, only the Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been approved for use in the city.
Updated
Australia started its Covid-19 inoculation programme on Monday days after its neighbour New Zealand, with both governments deciding their pandemic experiences did not require the fast tracking of vaccine rollouts that occurred in many parts of the world.
Other countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have dealt relatively well with the pandemic either only recently started vaccinating or are about to, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore.
Catherine Bennett, an epidemiologist at Australia’s Deakin University, said countries that do not face a virus crisis benefit from taking their time and learning from countries that have taken emergency vaccination measures such as the United States.
“We’ve now got data on pregnant women who are vaccinated. Natural accidents happen in a real world rollout,” Bennett said. “All of those things are really valuable insights.”
The Australianprime minister, Scott Morrison, had his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Sunday in a show of confidence in the jab. Australia is prioritising building public confidence in Covid-19 vaccines ahead of speed of delivery.
Health and border control workers, and nursing home residents and workers started getting the Pfizer vaccine on Monday at hubs across the country. Australian health minister Greg Hunt will get the AstraZeneca vaccine when it becomes available within weeks.
The vast majority of infections in Australia are travellers infected overseas who are detected during 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine. Australia has recorded 909 coronavirus deaths.
Updated
Ukraine has agreed to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses with US maker Novavax to 15 million, health minister Maksym Stepanov said.
The first batches of the vaccine are expected to arrive in Ukraine starting July, Stepanov said on Facebook. Ukraine lags behind most European and has yet to start mass vaccinations.
“We have been confirmed (by manufacturer India’s Serum Institute) that it is possible to supply additional 5m doses of the vaccine … The total amount of Novavax vaccines that we expect in Ukraine is 15 million,” Stepanov said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this month the country had secured 12m coronavirus vaccine doses developed by AstraZeneca and Novavax from the Serum Institute.
Updated
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other government officials received a Covid-19 vaccine Monday as the city begins its inoculation program.
Lam and the city’s health minister Sophia Chan were among the first people to receive their vaccines in Hong Kong, after about a million doses of the vaccine by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived in the city last week.
Hong Kong is set to begin its inoculation program on Friday after several delays in vaccine shipments to the city. Those who will get priority for the vaccinations include the elderly, as well as medical workers, caretakers at elderly homes and employees such as airline cabin crew and cross-border drivers.
Russia on Monday reported 12,604 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 1,723 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 4,177,330. The country also reported another 337 deaths, raising the official toll to 83,630.
Cases of Covid-19 are increasing in some parts of India after months of a steady nationwide decline, prompting authorities to impose lockdowns and other virus restrictions.
Infections have been plummeting in the country since September, and life has already returned to normal in large parts of the country. In many cities, markets are bustling, roads are crowded and restaurants are nearly full.
But experts have been warning that the reasons behind India’s success aren’t really understood, and that the country of nearly 1.4 billion people can’t afford to let its guard down. Public health officials are now investigating potential mutations in the virus that could make it more contagious and render some treatments and vaccines less effective.
The spike has been most pronounced in the western state of Maharashtra, where nearly 7,000 cases were detected in the past 24-hours, accounting for almost half of India’s over 14,000 cases confirmed on Monday. The weekly average for infections has nearly doubled to 5,229 in the state in the past two weeks, and most of the cases have been concentrated in a few areas, including India’s financial capital, Mumbai.
Lockdowns have been reimposed in some parts of the state and authorities have banned all religious or cultural programs. Another wave of cases was “knocking on our door,” state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said in a virtual address Sunday, while warning people that failure to follow public health measures like wearing masks could result in a need for larger and stricter lockdowns.
Public health officials are also sequencing the virus to see if it has mutated to be able to spread more easily, said state surveillance officer Dr. Pradeep Awate. He said that the virus evolving was natural, but that consequences of it evolving to transmit faster or become more virulent could be “catastrophic.”
Federal health officials said that an increase in new infections, albeit not as sharp as in Maharashtra, have also been flagged in Punjab state in northern India, and the central states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Officials added that a team of federal health officials has also been rushed to southern Kerala state, where cases have hovered between 4,000 and 5,000 in the past month, which was much higher than other states. Government-funded research has suggested that a more contagious version of the virus could be at play in Kerala, and efforts to sequence its genome are ongoing.
But that could be because Kerala didn’t see a spike in infections last year, the way some other states had, said Dr. Amar Fettle, the state’s nodal officer for Covid-19. This meant that when lockdown restrictions were relaxed and people started moving about freely, there remained a large proportion of people who hadn’t been exposed to the virus already and were susceptible to infections, he said.
Ukraine has agreed to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses with US maker Novavax to 15 million, health minister Maksym Stepanov said.
The first batches of the vaccine are expected to arrive in Ukraine by July, Stepanov said on Facebook
Markets mostly fell Monday as falling infection rates and more good news on the vaccine front were overshadowed by growing worries about high valuations and inflation.
While the US is approaching 500,000 deaths, there is optimism that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the Covid-19 crisis as governments embark on immunisation programmes that will allow economies to reopen.
Expectations that president Joe Biden’s vast stimulus will be passed next month are also keeping spirits up, as a raft of data last week on factory and services activity indicated the financial hit to the United States and Europe might not be as bad as feared.
News that the Pfizer/BioNTech jab appeared to prevent nine in 10 people from getting the disease in Israel – which is the most advanced in its rollout – provided a positive background. Israeli officials also said the shot was 99% effective at preventing deaths from the disease.
Meanwhile, hopes for a wider distribution were given a lift after Pfizer said its drug could be stored in normal medical freezers instead of the ultra-cold conditions initially thought necessary.
Shanghai led losses, shedding more than one percent as the Chinese central bank sucked cash out of financial markets to ease bubble concerns. Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Wellington, Manila, Mumbai and Bangkok also fell, though there were gains in Tokyo, Singapore, Taipei and Jakarta.
The rally that has characterised the past few months looks to have come to a halt as traders fret that prices may have become a little too frothy.
There is growing concern that the expected recovery and Biden’s spending package will fire a surge in inflation, which could force the Federal Reserve to wind back the loose monetary policies and record-low interest rates that have been a key pillar of a near-year-long market surge.
Updated
Hello, I am Sarah Marsh, a news reporter based in London. I will be bringing you the latest information from around the world on coronavirus for the blog today. Please get in touch with any questions, comments or news tips.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along – my colleagues in London will be bringing you the latest for the next few hours.
Summary
Here are the key pandemic developments from the last few hours:
- The US is on the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus. A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost is 498,883 – roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined.
- Vaccine giant says told to prioritise India. The world’s biggest vaccine maker, India’s Serum Institute, has urged other countries to be “patient” about it supplying anti-coronavirus shots, saying it has been instructed to prioritise its home market.
- US president Joe Biden will mark the country passing 500,000 lives lost from Covid-19 with a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at the White House. Biden has made a point of recognizing the lives lost from the virus. His first event upon arriving in Washington for his inauguration a month ago was to deliver remarks at a Covid-19 memorial ceremony.
- England’s roadmap out of lockdown has been revealed. Boris Johnson will unveil the government’s roadmap out of lockdown for England on Monday. Here’s what the prime minister is expected to tell MPs: all pupils in all years can return to the classroom from 8 March; Outdoor after-school sports and activities will be allowed to restart; In a fortnight, socialising in parks and public spaces with one other person will be allowed; On 29 March, restrictions will be eased further to allow larger groups to meet in parks and gardens; Outdoor sport facilities will also reopen, as well as organised adult and children’s sport.
- Britain is accelerating its vaccine rollout. The UK government vows to offer a first coronavirus vaccine dose to every adult by the end of July – a month earlier than previously planned – as it prepares to announce a gradual easing of its third lockdown. Prime minister Boris Johnson will outline the lockdown review in parliament on Monday.
- UK homeless deaths rose by more than a third last year, a study has found. Deaths among homeless people have risen by more than a third in a year, according to an analysis by a social justice group that found that almost 1,000 unhoused people had died across the UK in 2020.
- Dr Fauci said Americans may still be wearing masks in 2022. Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said he expects a “significant degree of normality” in everyday life toward the end of the year but that it was “possible” people will still need to be wearing masks into 2022.
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Tanzania’s president finally acknowledged that his country has a coronavirus problem after claiming for months that the disease had been defeated by prayer. Populist president John Magufuli on Sunday urged citizens of the east African country to take precautions and even wear face masks but only locally made ones. Over the course of the pandemic he has expressed wariness about foreign-made goods, including Covid vaccines.
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Quarantine-free travel from New Zealand to Australia has resumed ahead of a downgraded alert level expected in Auckland today. Australia reopened the one-way travel bubble on Monday morning following a cluster of coronavirus cases in Auckland.
- Vanuatu and New Caledonia will open a safe travel corridor between the two countries – a “tamtam bubble” between the Melanesian neighbours.Vanuatu prime minister Bob Loughman said the travel bubble will open in April, with travel initially limited, at Vanuatu’s end, to the main island of Efate.
Updated
If you’re just joining us: the US is on the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus.
The Associated Press: A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,883 — roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined.
“It’s nothing like we have ever been through in the last 102 years, since the 1918 influenza pandemic,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The US virus death toll reached 400,000 on 19 January in the waning hours in office for President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis was judged by public health experts to be a singular failure.
The first known deaths from the virus in the US happened in early February 2020, both of them in Santa Clara County, California. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 dead. The toll hit 200,000 deaths in September and 300,000 in December. Then it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 and about two months to climb from 400,000 to nearly half a million.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has written an op-ed for the Guardian in which he warns that the world “faces a pandemic of human rights abuses in the wake of Covid-19”:
Covid-19 has deepened preexisting divides, vulnerabilities and inequalities, and opened up new fractures, including faultlines in human rights. The pandemic has revealed the interconnectedness of our human family – and of the full spectrum of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social. When any one of these rights is under attack, others are at risk.
The virus has thrived because poverty, discrimination, the destruction of our natural environment and other human rights failures have created enormous fragilities in our societies. The lives of hundreds of millions of families have been turned upside down – with lost jobs, crushing debt and steep falls in income.
You can read the full piece here:
Britain has circulated a draft resolution to the UN Security Council demanding that all warring parties immediately institute a “sustained humanitarian pause” to enable people in conflict areas to be vaccinated against Covid, the Associated Press reports.
The proposed resolution reiterates the council’s demand last 1 July for “a general and immediate cessation of hostilities” in major conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan and Somalia, an appeal first made by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 23 March 2020, to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The draft, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, “emphasizes the need for solidarity, equity, and efficacy and invites donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low- and middle-income countries and other countries in need, including through the Covax Facility,” an ambitious World Health Organization project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poorest people.
The British draft stresses that “equitable access to affordable Covid vaccines, certified as safe and efficacious, is essential to end the pandemic.”
In case you missed this earlier, via the Associated Press:
Italians are marking one year since their country was shocked to discover it had the first known locally transmitted Covid case in the West.
With church services Sunday and wreath-laying ceremonies, including in small northern towns which were the first to be hard-hit by the pandemic, citizens paid tribute to the dead. Italy has a confirmed death toll from the virus of 95,500.
While the first wave of infections largely engulfed Lombardy and other northern regions, a second wave, starting in fall 2020, has raced throughout Italy, which so far has registered some 2.8 million cases.
The first locally transmitted case was discovered in a 38-year-old patient in a hospital in Codogno, Lombardy. That patient survived.
But in the northeastern town of Vo, which registered the nation’s first known death on Feb. 21, 2020, officials unveiled a memorial plaque at a tree-planting ceremony.
Vaccine giant says told to prioritise India
The world’s biggest vaccine maker, India’s Serum Institute, has urged other countries to be “patient” about it supplying anti-coronavirus shots, saying it has been instructed to prioritise its home market, AFP reports.
“Dear countries & governments, as you await Covidshield supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient,” Serum chief Adar Poonawalla tweeted on Sunday.
Dear countries & governments, as you await #COVISHIELD supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient, @SerumInstIndia has been directed to prioritise the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) February 21, 2021
Serum, from its sprawling facility in Pune in western India, is producing hundreds of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Many countries around the world, particularly poorer nations, are relying heavily on the company for supplies of the vaccine, and it has already shipped millions of doses abroad.
The Serum Institute also plans to supply 200 million doses to Covax, a World Health Organization-backed effort to procure and distribute inoculations to poor countries.
Poonawalla did not say who had told the firm to prioritise India, or whether the instructions were new.
India’s aim of inoculating 300 million people by July is falling well behind schedule with just over 11 million shots given so far.
The problems however are thought to lie more with not enough people coming forward for the vaccinations rather than problems with supplies of the shots.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 4,369 to 2,390,928, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
The reported death toll rose by 62 to 67,903, the tally showed.
One of the biggest logistical exercises in Australia’s history, the delivery of coronavirus vaccines to more than 20 million people, has begun.
The government is hoping to have 4 million people vaccinated by March and the entire country inoculated by October – but the timing for when you should expect to get the vaccine is dependent on who you are, how old you are and what you do for work.
Here is what we know of the timeline so far:
The Philippines has approved Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the chief of the food and drugs agency Rolando Enrique Domingo told a briefing on Monday.
The Chinese company’s vaccines are the third candidate to get emergency use authorisation in the Southeast Asian nation of over 108 million.
Japan’s vaccine rollout has encountered a problem less than a week after it was launched.
The country’s vaccination tsar, Taro Kono, has said that supply issues mean that vaccinations for older people, due to begin in April, will proceed at a slower pace than originally planned.
Japan began vaccinating 40,000 frontline health workers last week, with 4.7 million additional medical staff to follow in March and 36 million people over 65 and over from April.
But Kono, who doubles as the administrative reform minister, said EU approval for each batch of Pfizer vaccine could mean limited supplies until May.
“We would like to start vaccinations for the elderly in April, but unfortunately the number of doses allocated to them will be very limited at first, so we want to start slowly and gradually expand,” Kono told the public broadcaster NHK.
He added that it would be difficult to achieve the government’s goal administering jabs to the older population in two months and three weeks in big cities.
Japan has secured 500 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna, but has so far only approved the Pfizer vaccine. Delays caused by its cautious approach to the rollout have been exacerbated by its dependence on imports.
The government is sticking to its pledge to secure enough doses for the entire population by June, but no date has been set for inoculating the general population.
Just over 5,000 health workers had been inoculated at 68 medical facilities as of Friday, the health ministry said.
Half of the health workers currently receiving jabs are taking part in a study to track potential side effects. They have been asked to keep daily records for seven weeks after receiving the first of two vaccinations, with the second shot coming three weeks after the first.
Vanuatu and New Caledonia to open safe travel corridor
Vanuatu and New Caledonia will open a safe travel corridor between the two countries - a ‘tamtam bubble’ between the Melanesian neighbours.
Vanuatu prime minister Bob Loughman said the travel bubble will open in April, with travel initially limited, at Vanuatu’s end, to the main island of Efate.
“New Caledonia has shown that it could manage its COVID-19 risk properly and has followed health and security rules set by the government of Vanuatu,” Loughman said.
“Also, Vanuatu and New Caledonia share a history and connections. This makes it safe and secure to pilot the travel bubble with New Caledonia. The bubble will be implemented initially with Port Vila before other islands.
“The extended focus of the bubble includes people seeking medical assistance, students traveling for education, technical experts and visitors.”
A tamtam is a traditional wooden slit drum.
New Caledonia and Vanuatu’s borders remain closed to travellers from other countries for the time being, though both are looking at ways they can safely open to travellers to help re-ignite stalled tourism industries.
Neither New Caledonia or Vanuatu has had a single Covid death. Vanuatu is currently free of the novel coronavirus. Vanuatu has had three cases in the past seven days, according to World Health Organisation figures.
Coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out across Australia in what experts says marks the start of the “final phase of the pandemic”.
Those at the highest risk of infection, including quarantine and health hotel workers, frontline health staff and airport and port workers, were the first to receive it on Monday:
Japan will only receive limited doses of Covid vaccines for the first months of the inoculation rollout and shots for the elderly will be distributed gradually, the country’s inoculation chief said.
Reuters: Pfizer Inc, the maker of Japan’s only approved vaccine, is ramping up production in Europe, but those increased supplies are not likely to reach Japan until May, Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono cautioned on Sunday in an interview with national broadcaster NHK.
“We would like to start vaccinations for the elderly in April, but unfortunately the number of doses allocated to them will be very limited at first, so we want to start slowly,” Kono said.
Japan has negotiated to receive more than 500 million doses of vaccines developed by Western drugmakers. But domestic regulators have only approved one vaccine so far, and the nation remains dependent on imported supplies that have been held up by production snags and export controls.
Since Kono, the minister for administrative reform, was tapped last month to lead Japan’s vaccination push, he has resisted giving firm timelines for when doses will arrive and be distributed. Even so, the government has stuck to a pledge to secure enough shots for the whole population of 126 million by June.
Japan has negotiated to receive 144 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine this year, and its second shipment of about 450,000 shots arrived on Sunday.
The inoculation campaign kicked off last week with doctors and nurses getting the first shots. The government is prioritising vaccinations for around 4.7 million medical workers, about 1 million more than initially estimated.
Updated
Biden to mark US crossing 500,000 deaths with moment of silence and candle ceremony
US President Joe Biden will mark the country crossing 500,000 lives lost from Covid-19 with a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at the White House, AP reports.
The nation is expected to pass the grim milestone on Monday, just over a year after the first confirmed US fatality due to the novel coronavirus.
The White House said Biden will deliver remarks at sunset to honor those who lost their lives. He will be joined by first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff. They will participate in the moment of silence and lighting ceremony.
Biden has made a point of recognizing the lives lost from the virus. His first event upon arriving in Washington for his inauguration a month ago was to deliver remarks at a Covid-19 memorial ceremony.
Here are the key dates for the England’s roadmap out of lockdown:
UK homeless deaths rise by more than a third in a year, study finds
Deaths among homeless people have risen by more than a third in a year, according to an analysis by a social justice group that found that almost 1,000 unhoused people had died across the UK in 2020.
The Museum of Homelessness (MoH), a community-driven organisation which runs the Dying Homeless Project, called for action to prevent a repeat of such “terrible loss of life”. Among cases where a cause of death was confirmed, 36% were related to drug and alcohol use and 15% were suicide.
Jess Tuttle, the organisation’s co-founder, said the findings demonstrated how the pandemic had hit a system “already cut to the bone from 10 years of austerity”. The MoH is now calling for a national confidential inquiry into homeless deaths.
A total of 976 deaths were recorded across the four nations in 2020: 693 in England and Wales, 176 in Scotland, and 107 in Northern Ireland. There were 710 deaths registered in the 2019 study, the group said:
Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Emirates are among the airlines to trial a “digital travel pass” intended to ease international travel during the pandemic.
The Travel Pass app was developed by the International Air Transport Association and launched last year, allowing travellers to store and present Covid-19 test results and their vaccination status for verification on check-in.
Air NZ’s chief digital officer Jennifer Sepull described it as “a digital health certificate that can be easily and securely shared with airlines”, Stuff.NZ reports.
Air NZ’s three-week trial will start in April, with both aircrew and customers.Vaccinations began in New Zealand on Friday, with high-risk managed isolation, quarantine and border workers the first on the list.
The programme to vaccinate 12,000 workers gets under way in Wellington today and in Christchurch on Wednesday, and is expected to take a year to complete.
New Zealand confirms one new community case
In more New Zealand news: the Ministry of Health has announced six new cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation, four of which are historical, and one case of community transmission.
The new community case is a household contact of some of the previous cases diagnosed in Auckland this month, the ministry said.
This person, known as Case H, had been previously tested and returned a negative result. They had been isolating at home since last Monday but were transferred to a quarantine facility as a precaution on Friday.
“Due to the steps already taken in identifying, testing and tracing individuals linked to the February cases, as well as Case H isolating at home since Monday and then being in quarantine for the last two days, the public health risk is considered very low,” the ministry said.
Quarantine-free travel resumes from New Zealand to Australia
Quarantine-free travel from New Zealand to Australia has resumed ahead of a downgraded alert level expected in Auckland today. Australia reopened the one-way travel bubble this morning following a cluster of coronavirus cases in Auckland. The prime minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to downgrade the alert level in the city from level 2 to level 1 this afternoon after the outbreak was contained to officials’ satisfaction.
Auckland spent three days last week in a level 3 lockdown after Covid-19 was detected in a family of three in the community. Extra conditions for arrivals in Australia from New Zealand will be effective until 1 March, with anyone who has been in Auckland in the past fortnight (excluding the airport) required to show proof of having returned a negative Covid test result within 72 hours of departure. These rules will be reviewed by the end of the month.
More now on the UK accelerating its vaccination plan:
The British government declared Sunday that every adult in the country should get a first coronavirus vaccine shot by July 31, at least a month earlier than its previous target, as it prepared to set out a “cautious” plan to ease the UK’s lockdown, AP reports.
The previous aim was for all adults to get a jab by September. The new target also calls for everyone 50 and over and those with an underlying health condition to get their first of two vaccine shots by April 15, rather than the previous date of 1 May.
The makers of the two vaccines that Britain is using, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both experienced supply problems in Europe. But U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday that “we now think that we have the supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
Britain is delaying giving second vaccine doses until 12 weeks after the first, rather than three to four weeks, in order to give more people partial protection quickly. The approach has been criticized in some countries — and by Pfizer, which says it does not have any data to support the interval — but it is backed by the UK government’s scientific advisers.
Tanzania president acknowledges need for coronavirus precautions
Tanzania’s president is finally acknowledging that his country has a coronavirus problem after claiming for months that the disease had been defeated by prayer, AP reports.
Populist President John Magufuli on Sunday urged citizens of the East African country to take precautions and even wear face masks but only locally made ones. Over the course of the pandemic he has expressed wariness about foreign-made goods, including Covid vaccines.
The president’s comments came days after the country of some 60 million people mourned the death of one of its highest-profile politicians, the vice president of the semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar, whose political party had earlier said he had Covid. The president’s chief secretary also died in recent days, though the cause was not revealed.
Magufuli, speaking at the chief secretary’s funeral in a nationally televised broadcast on Friday, urged the nation to participate in three days of prayer for unspecified “respiratory” illnesses that had become a challenge in the country.
Tanzania has not updated its number of coronavirus infections since April as the president has insisted Covid had been defeated. Tanzania’s official number of coronavirus infections remains at just 509, but residents report that many people have become ill with breathing difficulties and hospitals have seen a rise in patients for “pneumonia.”
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has added his voice to growing calls for Tanzania to acknowledge Covid for the good of its citizens, neighboring countries, and the world, especially after a number of countries reported that visitors arriving from Tanzania tested positive for the virus.
Tedros in a statement on Saturday called Tanzania’s situation “very concerning” and urged Magufuli’s government to take “robust action.” Others recently expressing concern include the United States and the local Catholic church.
Updated
Britain accelerates vaccine rollout
The UK government vows to offer a first coronavirus vaccine dose to every adult by the end of July – a month earlier than previously planned – as it prepares to announce a gradual easing of its third lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will outline the lockdown review in parliament on Monday.
Dr Fauci says Americans may still be wearing masks in 2022
Dr Anthony Fauci is calling the United States’ approaching milestone of half a million deaths from the coronavirus as “terribly historic” and stressed the need for continuing public health measures, AP reports.
Fauci says with virus infections overall going down and vaccinations continuing things are improving but that the US remains in a “terrible situation” and people should remain mindful of wearing masks and keeping social distance.
Currently there are over 497,000 deaths from the coronavirus in the US.
Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said he expects a “significant degree of normality” in everyday life toward the end of the year but that it was “possible” people will still need to be wearing masks into 2022.
He says ultimately it will depend on the trajectory of Covid variants as well as whether an “overwhelming majority” of people get vaccinated. Fauci says he wants to see infections get to a “very, very low” baseline before backing off recommendations to wear a mask, when the risk of exposure to someone with Covid has become minimal.
Fauci spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
England roadmap out of lockdown revealed
Boris Johnson will unveil the government’s eagerly awaited roadmap out of lockdown for England on Monday. Here’s what the prime minister is expected to tell MPs:
- All pupils in all years can return to the classroom from 8 March.
- Outdoor after-school sports and activities will be allowed to restart.
- In a fortnight, socialising in parks and public spaces with one other person will be allowed.
- On 29 March, restrictions will be eased further to allow larger groups to meet in parks and gardens.
- Outdoor sport facilities will also reopen, as well as organised adult and children’s sport.
Ministers will assess the success of the vaccine rollout, evidence of vaccine efficacy, new variants and infection rates before proceeding to the next step of easing restrictions. More on that here:
Updated
US death toll nears 500,000
The US is on the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus.
AP: A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,786 — roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined.
“It’s nothing like we have ever been through in the last 102 years, since the 1918 influenza pandemic,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The US virus death toll reached 400,000 on 19 January in the waning hours in office for President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis was judged by public health experts to be a singular failure.
The first known deaths from the virus in the US happened in early February 2020, both of them in Santa Clara County, California. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 dead. The toll hit 200,000 deaths in September and 300,000 in December. Then it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 and about two months to climb from 400,000 to the brink of 500,000.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan. As always, it would be great to hear from you on Twitter. Find me @helenrsullivan.
I’ll be bringing you the latest developments as US deaths edge closer to half a million lives lost – the highest toll of any country worldwide.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson will unveil the government’s much-anticipated ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown for England on Monday. We’ll have details on what the UK PM is expected to announce shortly.
Here are the other key pandemic developments from the last few hours:
- Nottinghamshire police have issued a £10,000 fine to the organiser of a church gathering in a pub car park. Officers said about 30 people in Nottingham attended the Church on the Streets service on Saturday afternoon in breach of lockdown rules.
- People living with HIV in England will no longer have to disclose their status in order to be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a report in inews.co.uk.
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Israel allowed a number of businesses to reopen their doors to customers on Sunday – with some venues only available to those who have received two Covid-19 vaccine doses.
- Coronavirus cases are rising again in Italy, a top virologist has warned in a newspaper interview, largely attributing the surge to the more transmissible variant first detected in the UK.
- Police have forcibly cleared demonstrators protesting against lockdown in Amsterdam’s Museum Square.
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India’s western Maharashtra state, home to the country’s financial hub Mumbai, is imposing new coronavirus restrictions in four districts, amid concerns about a second wave and slow vaccine rollout.
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The former neighbour of the health secretary Matt Hancock is under investigation by the UK’s medical regulator, the Guardian can reveal.
- Gaza received 20,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine from the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, a move secured by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s rival, Mohammad Dahlan, who is based in the Gulf state.
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US infectious diseases official Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that it is possible Americans will still be wearing masks in 2022, but that measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 would be increasingly relaxed as more vaccines are administered.
- Lorry drivers returning to France from the UK will not now need to have a coronavirus test if they have spent less than 48 hours in the country, UK transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Sunday.
