This blog is closed. Follow the latest updates on the pandemic from around the world:
Summary
- Phillipine president Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail anyone refusing to get the vaccine in a televised address when he expressed how “exasperated” he was by his own citizens.
- Venezuelan doctors said they are having to turn people away from appointments for second doses because they are running so low on vaccines.
- The US reached the milestone of dipping below 300 deaths linked to Covid-19 for the first time since March last year.
- The World Bank will work with the African Union to quickly deliver vaccines by helping to finance purchases under a new initiative. They hope the scheme will help reach 400 million people.
- The Biden administration is expected to fall short of the president’s commitment to shipping 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June, as demand in the US plummets.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin warned that the coronavirus situation in some Russian regions is getting worse, as authorities began promoting the idea of revaccination in an effort to stem new cases.
- India gave out a record 8.3 million vaccine doses today under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had worsened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands.
- The UAE has quietly launched vaccine tourism, with the emirate of Abu Dhabi offering visitors free jabs after approving the inoculation of all those with visas issued by its authorities.
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The industries most affected by the UK’s delayed reopening will need to find almost £50m to cover wages once the government’s furlough scheme is cut back on 1 July, according to analysis by the Labour party.
Hospitality firms and cultural and arts businesses, which still have large numbers of workers on furlough, will need to cover the higher cost of keeping workers on the scheme even though they have no choice but to limit the number of customers they serve over the next month or are forced to remain shut.
Labour said the figures, which are based on official data, showed that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, should delay the tapering of the furlough scheme until the government could safely lift restrictions on gatherings and social distancing.
The World Bank said it will support African countries with a campaign to quickly acquire and administer vaccine doses for 400 million people.
The World Bank said it will support the African Union for the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) initiative, and allow access to its $12bn fund for buying vaccines - whether through Covax or bilateral deals.
“As a result of this joint initiative between the World Bank and African institutions such as the Africa Import Export Bank and the Africa Centre for Disease Control, we now have the capacity to vaccinate at least 400 million people, or 30% of our population of 1.3 billion,” said AU special envoy Strive Masiyiwa, the coordinator of the vaccine initiative.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) welcomed the announcement that a centre for transferring vaccine technology will be set up in South Africa.
“It’s good news that the first mRNA technology transfer hub will be set up on the African continent, which has been particularly neglected when it comes to vaccine production capacity and is one of the key factors exacerbating COVID-19 vaccine inequity,” said Kate Stegeman, Advocacy Coordinator for the MSF Access Campaign in South Africa.
“What needs to happen next is Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech must immediately share their mRNA technology with the hub so that many more mRNA vaccines can be produced independently by manufacturers in South Africa and more broadly on the African continent, as soon as possible.”
MSF Access has called for a waiver on vaccine patents so that manufacturers around the world can quickly produce vaccines, which are in short supply in low and middle-income countries.
“The inequitable access to vaccines has demonstrated that in a crisis, low-income countries cannot rely on vaccine-producing countries to supply their needs,” said WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhamon Ghebreyesus at a media briefing.
“While a handful of countries have high vaccination rates and are now seeing lower numbers of hospitalisations and deaths, other countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia are now facing steep epidemics.”
There was good news for Joe Biden on Monday, as US deaths from Covid-19 dipped below 300 a day for the first time since March last year. Data from federal sources also showed the drive to put shots in arms at home approaching an encouraging milestone: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated.
Biden was however expected to fall short of his commitment to shipping 80m Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June, because of regulatory and other hurdles.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters getting the shots shipped was proving to be “a Herculean logistical challenge” – which the administration has been unable to meet.
The US death toll from Covid-19 stands at more than 601,000. The worldwide count is close to 3.9m. The real figures in both cases are believed to be markedly higher.
About 45% of the US population has been fully vaccinated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 53% of Americans have received at least one dose, the CDC also said on Monday.
New cases are at about 11,400 a day, down from more than 250,000 in early January. Deaths per day are down to 293, according to Johns Hopkins University, after topping out at more than 3,400 in mid-January.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened jail time for anyone refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
“You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,” Duterte said in a televised address on Monday, Reuters reported.
He said he was “exasperated” by citizens as the country struggles with its vaccination campaign, which has only fully vaccinated 2.1 million people of the 70 million targeted by the end of the year.
The Philippines has had 1.3 million cases and 23,000 deaths.
Venezuelans trying to get their second doses of Covid-19 vaccines are being turned away from appointments, Reuters reports.
Jamie Lorenzo, director of the Doctors United for Venezuela advocacy group said the shortage of doses was contributing to “anarchy” at vaccination centres.
“Before beginning a vaccination process, you must be sure of vaccine supply so that once you begin, you don’t run out,” said Lorenzo.
Venezuela has vaccinated 0.8% of its population since beginning its campaign in May with Russian Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm vaccines.
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More than 400,000 refugee children in Turkey are still out of school as a result of the pandemic, according to the UN’s children agency.
Unicef said coronavirus-related restrictions, reimposed earlier this year because of rising cases that peaked in April, have affected enrolment and attendance at schools, including for Syrian refugees.
They are one of the most vulnerable groups in Turkey, facing multiple child protection risks, including psychosocial distress, child labour, child marriage and other forms of exploitation and abuse. The socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, discontinuation of face-to-face learning, lack of interaction with peers and a reported increase in the level of domestic violence are likely to result in reversed learning gains and increased protection risks for vulnerable children, including refugees.
Hi, this is Kaamil Ahmed taking over the live blog for the night. Feel free to get in touch if I’ve missed anything.
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Today so far...
- The Biden administration is expected to fall short of the president’s commitment to shipping 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June, as demand in the US plummets.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin warned that the coronavirus situation in some Russian regions is getting worse, as authorities began promoting the idea of revaccination in an effort to stem new cases.
- India gave out a record 8.3 million vaccine doses today under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had worsened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands.
- The government of Qatar announced that everyone attending the World Cup in the Gulf state next year must be fully vaccinated against Covid, with the plans likely to divide opinion.
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A senior health official is urging Australians to get their second doses of AstraZeneca despite deaths from the vaccine exceeding the nation’s Covid-19 death toll this year.
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A fresh electronic lottery is to decide the fate of prospective attendees of Tokyo 2020 as organisers must refund some 910,000 tickets due to new caps of up to 50% of a venue’s capacity or a maximum of 10,000 residents of Japan announced today.
- Germany will not head into a post-Covid period of economic austerity, tax rises and geopolitical turmoil, the outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel’s potential successor said – seeking to assure the country’s electorate ahead of national elections in September.
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The UAE has quietly launched vaccine tourism, with the emirate of Abu Dhabi offering visitors free jabs after approving the inoculation of all those with visas issued by its authorities.
Turkey is further relaxing restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, president Tayyip Erdogan has said, after the number of daily cases fell to around 5,000.
From 1 July, lockdowns that had been imposed on Sunday’s and curfews after 7pm on weekdays are to be lifted, Erdogan announced.
“Public transportation restrictions will also be lifted and public institutions will return to normal working hours,” he said.
Reuters reports that Turkey started easing curbs in recent weeks, limiting the lockdown to Sunday and opening restaurants to a limited number of guests, after daily cases began to fall from a peak above 60,000 in April.
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Another obstacle to football coming home to England this summer, in addition to the manager Gareth Southgate’s caution and tactical ineptitude.
#BREAKING Italian PM Draghi opposed to Euro 2020 finals in variant-hit England pic.twitter.com/EKpOLk84Vu
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 21, 2021
Following on from news that the US is to miss its self-ascribed target of vaccines to send around the world, the World Health Organization says that more than half of poorer countries receiving doses via the Covax vaccine-sharing programme do not have enough supplies to continue.
“I would say of the 80 [low and middle-income] countries at least well over a half of them would not have sufficient vaccine to be able to sustain their programmes right now,” WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward told a briefing, referring to an advance market commitment to low and middle-income countries, saying the actual portion was probably “much higher”. Some of them had completely ran out, he added.
India gave out a record 8.3 million vaccine doses today under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had worsened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands.
India’s previous record of 4.5 million doses was on 5 April, followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million.
“If supply remains consistent, we will be on course to inoculate most of our population by the end of the year, D N Patil, a senior health official in the country’s richest state of Maharashtra, population more than 125 million, told Reuters.
Government adviser Vinod Kumar Paul said that administering 10 million shots per day was not a “set goal”. He added: “There is a demonstration by the system of how much can be done on a given day, at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the day.”
The country is using domestically made doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and Indian company Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizer’s and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports.
India recorded its highest-ever daily vaccination count on Monday as it opened up free shots to all adults 💉🇮🇳 https://t.co/6dQhKMagt1 pic.twitter.com/7PA6yZiRzz
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 21, 2021
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In other vaccine news, Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa are in talks with investors to start the production of coronavirus jabs in Africa, Rwandan president Paul Kagame has said.
Africa was “trying to find partners, to start manufacturing vaccines on our continent,” Kagame said at the Qatar Economic Forum. “We are discussing with people who will help with financing and I think in a few months we should hear a different story.”
Kagame also suggested that a Eurobond was one option to help pay for the creation of vaccine manufacturers in Africa. “Rwanda has been having a very good B+ credit rating. The Eurobond is one good option that will provide us with resources we are looking for,” he said, according to Reuters.
Biden administration set to miss target of sending 80m jabs around world
AP reports that the Biden administration is expected to fall short of the president’s commitment to shipping 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June.
The White House today laid out its plan to share 55 million US Covid-19 vaccine doses, with roughly 75% of the doses allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa through the Covax scheme, with another 20 million directed to specific allied countries.
But fewer than 10 million doses have so far been shipped around the world, including 2.5 million doses delivered to Taiwan over the weekend, and about 1 million doses delivered to Mexico, Canada and South Korea earlier this month.
Of the total doses, some 41 million would be shared through Covax, the White House said, with approximately 14 million going to Latin America and the Caribbean, some 16 million to Asia, and roughly 10 million to Africa.
The other 25%, or roughly 14 million doses, would be shared with “regional priorities,” including Colombia, Argentina, Iraq, Ukraine, the West Bank and Gaza, Reuters reports.
“As we continue to fight the Covid-19 pandemic at home and work to end the pandemic worldwide, president Biden has promised that the US will be an arsenal of vaccines for the world,” the White House said in a statement.
Last month, the US condemned the “cynical use” of Covid-19 vaccines for political purposes and criticised China. The donations come as demand for the jab in the US plummets, with 46% of its population fully vaccinated and more than 177 million Americans having received at least one shot.
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Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is squabbling with Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, after she moved to ban non-essential travel to parts of north-west England without even notifying him ahead of the announcement.
There’s more on this in Andrew Sparrow’s UK-focused blog.
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The findings of a recent study suggest that people who have social anxiety might experience increased distress related to mask-wearing during and even after the pandemic.
David Moscovitch, co-author and professor of clinical psychology at Canada’s University of Waterloo’s Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, said:
The adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depression, have been well-documented,” said . “However, little is known about effects of increased mask-wearing on social interactions, social anxiety, or overall mental health.
It is also possible that many people who didn’t struggle with social anxiety before the pandemic may find themselves feeling more anxious than usual as we emerge out of the pandemic and into a more uncertain future — especially within social situations where our social skills are rusty and the new rules for social engagement are yet to be written.
Yahoo reports that another impact of concern is that masks can function as a method of self-concealment enabling people with social anxiety to disguise their self-perceived flaws. They say that they may be difficult for some people to discard even when mask-wearing is no longer required by public health mandates.
The paper, to be published in the journal Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, also suggests that people with social anxiety may find particularly challenging periods of transition where expectations for mask-wearing are in flux.
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AFP has this on scientific research being under particular scrutiny thanks to the pandemic.
The feverish rush to study the coronavirus as it scorched its way across the planet, the unprecedented demand for information has put any mistakes under the glare of world attention and tested public trust in science, experts say.
Although serious problems are rare, in a health emergency even small errors can ripple through scientific research and onto the internet, magnifying people’s uncertainty. “I think the combination of a pandemic with social media and people deliberately putting out misinformation, that gets a lot of people thinking that all science is fraudulent, which it is not,” scientific integrity consultant Elizabeth Bik told AFP.
Catherine Paradeise, a sociologist and professor emeritus at the University of Marne-la-Vallee in France told AFP that the pressures can have adverse effects. She points to a tendency to put quantity ahead of quality or “fiddle a little bit with the conditions of a study” to save time.
Her concern was echoed in a March report commissioned by a committee of the French senate. Investigators said they found “a systematic problem inherent to the world of research” that could lead to unethical practices due to “the race to publish and pressure to produce positive results”.
One of the investigating senators said that Covid had served to “amplify the difficulties of scientific integrity” and to degrade “confidence between society and the world of science”.
A Germany no longer steered by the experienced hand of Angela Merkel will not head into a post-Covid period of economic austerity, tax rises and geopolitical turmoil, the chancellor’s potential successor has sought to assure the country’s electorate ahead of national elections in September.
The UAE has quietly launched vaccine tourism, with the emirate of Abu Dhabi offering visitors free jabs after approving the inoculation of all those with visas issued by its authorities.
AFP reports that Abu Dhabi has not officially announced that it is vaccinating tourists, but authorities in the emirate said in a brief statement earlier this month that free Covid-19 vaccines were approved for everyone with an “entry visa”.
The UAE is made up of seven emirates including the capital Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Abu Dhabi’s healthcare app has a facility for visitors to register either for the US-German Pfizer/BioNTech jab or the Chinese-made vaccine Sinopharm. The app features two separate tabs - one for Emiratis and residents, and the other for visitors.
Visitors can book appointments using their passport information on the app, which states that those with an Abu Dhabi-issued visa or with passports “eligible for visa on arrival” can register to be vaccinated. Proof of a visa or an entry stamp is required at the time of inoculation, it adds.
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, has responded to growing rightwing criticism and conspiracy theories connected to the release of thousands of his emails under freedom of information laws.
Italy reported 495 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths on Monday, down from 881 cases on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Households with recent birthdays were more likely to test positive with Covid in areas with high infection rates, according to an analysis of nearly 3m homes in the US, Natalie Grover reports.
The study is based on health insurance claims data collected in the first 45 weeks of 2020 across the country and was designed to assess the potential risk of small gatherings on the spread of Covid-19.
The analysis showed that in places with low Covid prevalence, there was no evidence of any increased rate of infection in the weeks following birthdays.
But, in areas where the virus was circulating in the community, households with recent birthdays were roughly 30% more likely to have a Covid diagnosis, compared with households with no birthdays.
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Canada will begin lifting some border restrictions for fully vaccinated citizens on 5 July.
The Canadian government announced on Monday that although Canadians and permanent residents returning to the country will be exempt from quarantine, travellers from all other countries will remain excluded, Reuters reports.
Canada first banned non-essential travel in March 2020 as a part of the effort to fight Covid-19, with measures extended on a monthly basis ever since.
Rachel Hall taking over from Mattha Busby - do email me with anything we’ve missed out.
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After a heavily armed Belgian soldier went missing threatening to kill a high-profile virologist, Belgium’s justice minister has appealed to the public to ignore conspiracy theories after he was discovered yesterday a month after he went missing.
Before he disappeared, Conings left letters for his wife and the police in which he made threats to kill Marc Van Ranst, Belgium’s best-known virologist and an adviser to the government on its tough Covid restrictions.
Conings, believed to have shot himself, was found by the mayor of the nearby town of Maaseik on Sunday morning a few hundred metres from an area searched by soldiers in recent days.
Earlier this year, the Brussels Times reported that excerpts of a speech shared online made it appear like Van Ranst from 2009 was explaining how to use a pandemic for personal gain. But he said he had sought to calm the population with clear explanations.
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In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump advocated shipping Americans who contracted Covid-19 abroad to Guantánamo Bay.
Putin: Covid in Russia has 'got worse' in many regions
Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that the coronavirus situation in some Russian regions is getting worse as authorities began promoting the idea of revaccination in an effort to stem new cases.
New cases have been rising, particularly in Moscow, which on Saturday registered a record 9,120 daily cases. The Kremlin has blamed the increase on people’s reluctance to have vaccinations and “nihilism”.
“Unfortunately, the coronavirus threat has not receded,” Putin told the lower house of parliament on Monday. “In many regions the situation has even got worse.”
Video footage emerged on social media on Sunday, purportedly showing people sick with Covid-19 lying flat on the floor of a hospital corridor in St Petersburg, Putin’s home city which is hosting some matches in the Euro 2020 soccer championship, Reuters reports. Local authorities are investigating the video to check its veracity.
The authorities are trying to coax and compel people to get vaccinated, offering those who do the chance to win new cars and flats, while threatening others with loss of earnings and dismissal.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that revaccinations were the way forward. “Revaccination will be and is inevitable - not just vaccination, but revaccination - for those who want to keep themselves, their relatives and loved ones safe,” said Peskov, according to Reuters.
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South Africa is set to host a “technology transfer hub” for coronavirus vaccines to scale up production know-how, president Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
He said French president Emmanuel Macron and World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus would join him at a media briefing to announce the initiative this afternoon, AFP reports.
“The briefing will focus on the establishment of the first messenger RNA technology transfer hub for Covid-19 vaccines, located in South Africa,” the president said.
During a visit to South Africa last month, Macron said he was pushing for faster transfer of technology to allow poorer countries to start manufacturing their own Covid-19 jabs.
Britain and Germany have been under pressure to drop their resistance to proposals that would slash the cost of Covid-19 vaccines, following accusations that an agreement at the G7 summit to fund 1bn doses will give the world’s poorest countries represents “crumbs from the table”.
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Hundreds of people ignored advice not to travel to Stonehenge, the English Neolithic monument, for annual summer solstice celebrations that were officially cancelled due to coronavirus concerns.
English Heritage had planned a live feed of the sunrise at Stonehenge but the programme had to be interrupted after “a number of people have chosen to disregard our request to not travel to the stones this morning”.
Thousands of people who tuned in to watch the sunrise at the stones online ended up watching pre-recorded footage before the live feed returned at about 5am, AP reports.
Video showed dozens of people gathering inside the stone circle, with some scaling a low fence to climb inside the restricted area to reach the stones. Some were seen dancing and others held a banner that read “Standing for Stonehenge”.
Senior druid King Arthur Pendragon said closing the sites officially had been unnecessary. “It was never going to be massive anyway,” he told the BBC. “If you think about it a lot of the people who come to the solstice fly in from America, and all around the world. That wasn’t going to happen this year, so I don’t know why they didn’t just let us in.”
Wiltshire police said despite a “minor incursion into the stone circle” today, the solstice weekend was peaceful. The BBC reported: “It all seemed very good-natured, with the security guards and police at both sites fairly relaxed.”
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the live stream of this morning's solstice sunrise at Stonehenge - over 200,000 of you!
— Stonehenge (@EH_Stonehenge) June 21, 2021
It may have been a bit cloudy, but the stones themselves never disappoint. #SummerSolstice pic.twitter.com/6aaI8ooyj4
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World Cup attendees in Qatar next year must be fully vaccinated, says government
The New York Times reports that the government of Qatar has announced that everyone attending the World Cup in the Gulf state next year must be fully vaccinated against Covid.
1.5 million fans are expected the attend the month-long tournament next November. The plans are likely to divide opinion.
The prime minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani, told state media yesterday that the government planned to obtain 1m shots to inoculate attendees if global efforts fell short.
“When the date of the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 comes, most countries of the world will have vaccinated and immunised their citizens,” he said, according to Sky News.
“Due to the possibility that some countries will not be able to vaccinate all their citizens, Qatar will not allow fans to enter stadiums without receiving a full vaccination against the virus.”
Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in February that matches would play to full stadiums in the Gulf nation next year.
Qatar is administering the Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines to citizens and residents. About 57% of the population has received one dose, and 44% have been fully vaccinated, according to data cited by the NYT.
Qatar has recorded 585 deaths and 220,800 cases during the pandemic. The Middle East’s first World Cup is due to start in November, AP reports.
Meanwhile, in an extraordinary congress of the Norway’s soccer federation it voted against boycotting the World Cup if the national team qualifies over the brutal treatment of migrant workers in the country.
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The Portuguese Society for Health Management (SPGS) has urged authorities to extend measures around Lisbon’s metropolitan area after a weekend travel plan was put in place around last week, stopping people from leaving or entering the region.
The SPGS said more measures were urgently needed. “The control of Lisbon’s metropolitan area must be more restricted and prolonged to try to avoid the spread of the virus as much as possible,” it said.
Portuguese authorities are working to bring a spike in cases under control and are to accelerate vaccinations – with just over 25% of the population fully vaccinated – and increase testing.
Lisbon’s mayor’s office said that all people, residents and non-residents, could from now get unlimited coronavirus tests for free at the city’s pharmacies and mobile sites.
The manufacturing hub of Dongguan in China’s most populous province Guangdong has today launched mass coronavirus testing and cordoned off communities, after the city detected its first infections of a flare-up in the province.
Reuters has the story:
Dongguan launched its citywide testing programme following two cases reported since Friday. City authorities told residents not to leave the city, except for essential reasons and that those leaving must show negative test results within 48 hours of departure.
A few entrances on highways to other cities were closed, while all shuttle buses linking airports in other cities and check-in terminals in Dongguan were halted. Some museums and libraries in the city also closed to visitors. Its factories are still running, however.
Guangdong has reported 168 confirmed infections since 21 May, with nearly 90% of them in its capital, Guangzhou. The cases are few compared with the rest of the world and previous outbreaks in China. But Guangdong, a key entry point for travellers and cargo, is not taking any chances.
It has sped up its vaccination effort since the outbreak. By 19 May, before any local cases were reported, the province of 126 million people had administered 39.15m doses. By 20 June, the figure was 101.12m, meaning more than 60% of its doses were injected over one month.
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GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology have said final results from a late-stage study of their monoclonal antibody confirmed it significantly reduced hospitalisation and death among high-risk Covid-19 patients when given early in the disease.
The treatment, sotrovimab, received an emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration in May, while the EU’s drug regulator has also backed it.
Reuters reports that the drugmakers also said today the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recommended sotrovimab to treat high-risk, non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate Covid-19.
The treatment appeared to “retain activity” against current variants of concern and interest, the agency said in its updated guidelines. In a study of 1,057 patients, sotrovimab resulted in a 79% reduction in risk of hospitalisation for more than 24 hours or death due to any cause, the companies said.
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Here’s a short bit on Moderna adding two new production lines at its Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing plant in Massachusetts, US, in a bid to prepare for making more booster shots, the Wall Street Journal reports. The additions will help Moderna increase overall production capacity by 50% at the plant, the report said citing company officials.
Scotland’s plans for their crucial Group D European Championship football game against Croatia at Hampden Park tomorrow have been seriously disrupted after Billy Gilmour, who played a starring role in Friday’s draw at Wembley, tested positive for Covid-19. Gilmour will now complete 10 days of isolation.
As India opened up free vaccinations to all adults today, as prime minister Narendra Modi kicked off a muted International Yoga Day hailing the practice’s “protective” properties against the virus.
In an early-morning address to the nation, Modi said that the practice had again proved itself to be a source of “inner strength”.
“When I speak to frontline warriors, they tell me that they have adopted yoga as a protective shield in their fight against coronavirus. Doctors have strengthened themselves with yoga and also used yoga to treat their patients,” he said.
Public parks were reopened in Delhi today, but the number of events for Yoga Day was cut back around the country for the second year running because of the pandemic.
Yoga Day – proposed by Modi and adopted by the United Nations in 2014 – is observed mostly in India, but also worldwide on the Northern Hemisphere’s longest day.
AFP reports that throughout the pandemic, India’s government has touted yoga and herbal medicines – sales of which have boomed – to protect and give relief to people infected with the virus, despite scant high-quality evidence.
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A fresh electronic lottery is to decide the fate of prospective attendees of Tokyo 2020 as organisers must refund some 910,000 tickets due to new caps, of up to 50% of a venue’s capacity or a maximum of 10,000 residents of Japan, announced today.
The number of spectators, all of whom must be resident of Japan, is to be capped at 2.72 million, according to Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto, meaning some 910,000 ticket holders will lose their chance to see the Games.
Organisers said today that 840,000 tickets had been refunded so far, on request of their owners after the one-year postponement, out of a total of 4.48 million sold through the initial lottery. Muto said the lottery would be conducted through an electronic system without human involvement to ensure fairness, Reuters reports.
Muto said the revenue from ticket sales would amount to less than half of the projected $817 million (90 billion yen). The organisers will discuss with the national and Tokyo governments on how to make up for the shortfall.
However, the government will review the current coronavirus “quasi-emergency” state in Tokyo on 11 July. Government experts have said that the 10,000 cap on sporting events would only apply to regions where the “quasi-emergency” has been lifted.
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A Thai temple building a 69-metre-tall Buddha statue that will be visible across Bangkok has said construction is nearly complete but the opening may be pushed back to 2022 due to delays caused by the pandemic.
The Royal Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple on the outskirts of Bangkok dates back to 1610 and is located on a island created by canals flowing from the Chao Phraya river. Work on the statue, which is as tall as a 20-storey building, started in 2017 and should be completed this year, but due to the pandemic the official opening may be pushed back to 2022, said temple spokesman Pisan Sangkapinij.
The Phra Buddha Dhammakya Thepmongkhon statue, made of copper and painted gold, sits in a seated lotus posture. Parts were produced in China before being shipped to Thailand to be assembled. It should be visible from all parts of the raised train line that spans the capital Bangkok, said Pisan.
Reuters reports that using $16 million worth of donations, the temple decided to build the statue to honour Buddhism and also as a tribute to former abbot Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro who helped develop the temple as a renowned centre for meditation, he said.
Taiwan needs a thorough review of how it handled the pandemic once it is over, president Tsai Ing-wen has said as case numbers dropped below 100 for the first time in more than a month.
Reuters reports that since last month, Taiwan has tightened curbs on private gatherings and closed entertainment venues as it battled a rise in domestic cases, a shock to an island that had previously largely kept infections well under control.
Speaking to local television, Tsai said the authorities had handled the first wave of the pandemic well. “The second wave was even more ferocious,” she said. “At the start we were somewhat caught off guard.”
Tsai’s government was heavily criticised by the opposition for a lack of preparedness, including limited testing facilities, when cases suddenly surged last month, though authorities moved fast to address those issues. “Once the epidemic is over, we must have a thorough review” to improve the epidemic prevention system, she said.
Taiwan is showing encouraging signs that the current wave is nearing its end. Speaking earlier today, health minister Chen Shih-chung announced just 75 new domestic infections.
It was the first time the daily figure had dipped below 100 since May 15, when Taiwan raised the alert level for its capital, Taipei, and the neighbouring city, after a sudden spike of 180 domestic cases. Taiwan’s tally of infections in the pandemic stands at 14,080, including 569 deaths.
French president Emmanuel Macron has invited music fans to a socially distanced techno party at the presidential palace tonight, resuming a tradition to mark the country’s annual street music festival.
AFP reports that France celebrates music in all its forms annually with a giant street party on 21 June, the longest day of the year. In 2018, Macron began throwing open the cobbled courtyard of the Élysée Palace to dance fans for the occasion, with a gig featuring stars from France’s electro scene.
This year’s Fete de la Musique comes a day after the government scrapped an 11pm curfew, one of the last steps in a phased lifting of Covid restrictions.
Last year’s festival was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic but with the number of infections at their lowest level in nearly a year the country is in party mode once more.
French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre and 1970s disco king Cerrone will headline the concert in the palace courtyard, where Macron normally greets visiting heads of state.
In contrast to previous editions, where Macron and his wife Brigitte have gamely joined in the dancing, this year’s event looks set to be a more staid affair. Attendees will be asked to remain seated and social distancing will be observed.
Updated
Socializing, parties and late-night trips are all coming back as the coronavirus pandemic recedes in the US and along with them has come a surge in the price of calling a cab. It’s good news for Uber and Lyft, but for the rideshare drivers who were hit so hard by the pandemic? Not so much.
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Flu could be a bigger problem than Covid-19 in the UK this winter, a senior government vaccine adviser has said, with low prevalence over the past months possibly leading to a drop in immunity among the population.
Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said research was being carried out on whether flu vaccines could be given alongside coronavirus vaccines this autumn.
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South Africa had many advantages over other African countries before the Covid crisis: a greater ability to borrow money, a more extensive public health system reinforced by a large private sector, world-class scientists and long experience of dealing with pandemics. Yet after a much-lauded early response, the authorities have struggled.
The pandemic delivered an unusual mixture of pain from economic loss and relief to residents of places that have gotten used to crowds of tourists. In Hawaii, locals hiked popular trails and visited beaches that are usually clogged by tourists. Traffic was noticeably lighter, and things in the islands were generally calmer.
Things are already looking much different in 2021. Around 30,000 travelers are now flying into Hawaii each day, over 80% of the number of travelers that were flying in during the same time in 2019. Around the islands, it seems that tourism as it was before the pandemic is coming back.
A senior health official is urging Australians to get their second doses of AstraZeneca despite deaths from the vaccine exceeding the nation’s Covid-19 death toll this year.
AP reports that two women in Australia have died from rare blood clots caused by the vaccine. The only Covid-19 fatality this year was an 80-year-old traveler who died in April after being infected overseas and diagnosed in hotel quarantine.
In the wake of updated health advice that AstraZeneca is not the preferred vaccine for those aged 50 and over, chief medical officer Paul Kelly told state leaders that health authorities did not recommend people follow up their first AstraZeneca dose with a different vaccine. Globally, the safety and effectiveness of switching vaccines between doses is still being tested.
He urged people not to cancel their second AstraZenca jab, which is booked three months after the first, saying the chances of developing blood clots after a second dose were 1.5 in a million.
Covid-19 has claimed 910 lives in Australia, but vaccine hesitancy is on the rise as the death rate slows. Australia last week lifted its recommended age limit for AstraZeneca from 50 to 60 after a 52-year-old woman died of clots. A 48-year-old woman died in April.
Hello to everyone reading, Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts.
Today so far…
- Olympic organizers have announced that they will allow domestic spectators at this summer’s Tokyo Games. However, attendance is capped at 10,000 people or 50% of a venue’s capacity, whichever is smaller.
- The competition schedule remains unchanged, and attendees will be expected to wear masks in venues at all times, and speaking in a loud voice or shouting will be prohibited.
- The organisers reserved the right to change these rules at any point of the Covid situation changes in Japan. The equivalent policies governing the Paralympic Games will be decided by 16 July, a week before the opening of the Olympic Games.
- Indonesia reported 14,536 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the highest daily increase since the beginning of the pandemic, taking its overall cases past the 2 million mark.
- Myanmar has reported what is believed to be its highest daily increase in Covid cases since the February coup, as concerns grow over the country’s collapsed health system and the junta’s continued crackdown on medics.
- French nightclubs will be allowed to reopen from 9 July onwards, allowing the industry to operate again for the first time since it was shut during the France’s Covid lockdown in March 2020.
- UK health secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed the government is working on a booster jab programme and should have clinical data in the next few weeks.
- Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers in England, has said that hospital admissions are “slowly rising” but are nothing like the rates seen during previous waves.
- Thailand’s health minister said Japan’s government would donate some AstraZeneca vaccines in July.
- Taiwan has reported its first day with fewer than 100 new cases for the first time since 14 May.
- Hong Kong has announced a shortening of hotel quarantine requirements to seven days for arrivals, planned for the end of the month.
- An Israeli health official has urged more 12- to 15-year-olds to be vaccinated against Covid, citing new outbreaks that attributed to the more infectious Delta variant.
- New Zealand is approving the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.
- Changes in India’s vaccination programme come into effect today, with every adult now eligible for a free vaccine paid for by the federal government. This ends a complex system of buying and distributing vaccines that overburdened states and created inequities in who got the shots.
- Shortages of Pfizer vaccines are expected to slow Australia’s rollout through June and July.
- Premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, has said Sydney’s mask mandate will likely be extended beyond Wednesday, after it recorded two new local cases of Covid-19.
- US land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least 21 July, the US Homeland Security Department said.
- The major manufacturing hub of Dongguan in China’s most populous province of Guangdong has launched mass testing today for Covid and cordoned off communities after detecting its first infections in the current outbreak.
That’s it from me, Martin Belam, today. Mattha Busby will be here shortly to take over our global coronavirus coverage. Andrew Sparrow has the UK Covid and politics news on his live blog.
Updated
Record new daily toll takes Indonesia past the 2m case mark
A quick snap from Reuters here: Indonesia reported 14,536 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the highest daily increase since the beginning of the pandemic, taking its overall cases past the 2 million mark.
Updated
French nightclubs will be allowed to re-open from 9 July onwards
French nightclubs will be allowed to re-open from 9 July onwards, said government minister Alain Griset, allowing the industry to operate again for the first time since it was shut during the France’s Covid lockdown in March 2020.
France eased its third nationwide lockdown last month with the reopening of terraces on 19 May. Reuters note that earlier in June, restaurants, bars and cafes were allowed to reopen for indoor service for the first time in seven months.
More than 100 nightclubs out of 1,600 in France have closed permanently due to the pandemic, according to hospitality trade union UMIH.
Japan to donate some AstraZeneca doses to Thailand
Thailand’s health minister said Japan’s government would donate some AstraZeneca vaccines, as the Southeast Asian country seeks to shore-up supplies after some early delays in its vaccinations.
According to Reuters, an agreement would be signed on Thursday with the vaccines to be delivered around July. The statement did not specify a quantity.
Here’s some more on that Olympics decision, with the key points of what has been agreed:
During a meeting held between the five parties earlier today, the IOC, IPC, Tokyo 2020, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Government of Japan agreed for the spectator limit for the Olympic Games to be set at “50 per cent of venue capacity, up to a maximum of 10,000 people” at all venues, taking into consideration the government’s restrictions on public events.
- The current competition schedule remains unchanged.
- In the event that a state of emergency or other priority measures aimed at preventing infection are implemented at any time after 12 July 2021, restrictions on the number of spectators at the Games, including non-spectator competitions, will be based on the content of the state of emergency or other relevant measures in force at that time.
- In the event of any rapid change in infection status and in the capacity of the medical care system, a five party meeting will be held promptly to consider further measures.
- The Japanese parties have formulated guidelines for spectators aimed at ensuring safe and secure environments. These stipulate that masks should be worn in venues at all times; speaking in a loud voice or shouting will be prohibited; congestion should be avoided by means of appropriate announcements; and visitors should leave venues in a staggered manner. Spectators will be requested to travel directly to venues and return home directly
The statement also says that “The equivalent policies governing the Paralympic Games will be decided by 16 July 2021, a week before the opening of the Olympic Games.”
Tokyo Olympics will permit maximum of 10,000 spectators at events
Olympic organizers have announced that they will allow domestic spectators at this summer’s Tokyo Games. However attendance is capped at 10,000 people or 50 percent of a venue’s capacity, whichever is smaller.
There is a warning though that this could change if the pandemic situation in Japan worsens before the Games start on 23 July.
Organizers say they have sold tickets for an average of 42 percent of venue capacity, but that will be distributed unevenly among the venues. It is unclear how access will now be allocated.
The Euro 2020 tournament had a similar issue, with ticket-holders for matches in limited capacity venues facing a second ticket ballot for access.
Australia’s vaccine rollout ‘constrained’ by Pfizer supply shortages until August
Shortages of Pfizer vaccines are expected to slow Australia’s rollout through June and July, as states and territories call on the commonwealth to sign up more GPs to dispense doses when supplies increase in August.
National cabinet met on Monday to discuss Australia’s vaccine rollout in the wake of updated health advice that AstraZeneca is not the preferred vaccine for those aged 50 and over due to the risk of rare blood clots.
At the meeting, the head of the rollout, lieutenant general John Frewen, gave states and territories projections of the maximum and minimum number of vaccines they will be allocated. The aged care minister Richard Colbeck is expected to table the figures at the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry on Monday evening.
Read more of Paul Karp’s report: Australia’s vaccine rollout ‘constrained’ by Pfizer supply shortages until August
An Israeli health official has urged more 12- to 15-year-olds to be vaccinated against Covid, citing new outbreaks that he attributed to the more infectious Delta variant.
Reuters report the health ministry will probably issue a recommendation that 12- to 15-year-olds get vaccinated, having previously left the matter up to the parents’ preference, said Nachman Ash, the national pandemic response coordinator.
“I think that would certainly be correct at this stage, when we see an outbreak of the Delta variant in the country,” he told a Tel Aviv radio station. “We should not wait for higher numbers. We have seen there were quite a few children infected over the last week.”
Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK Covid and politics live blog for the day. I’ll be continuing here with global coronavirus news.
Russia records 17,378 new Covid cases and 440 deaths
Reuters bring the latest numbers from Russia: 17,378 new Covid cases were reported for Monday, and the government coronavirus task force said 440 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the previous 24 hours
Hospital admissions in UK 'slowly rising' but nowhere near previous levels
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, has told Times Radio that hospital admissions are “slowly rising” but are nothing like the rates seen during previous waves. PA Media reports him saying:
Two weeks ago, on 4 June, we had 800 Covid-19 patients in hospital; as of Friday it was 1,170. In November there were 14,700 and in the January/February peak, there were 34,000 people in hospitals with Covid-19. It’s rising relatively slowly but it’s nowhere near anything like the kind of numbers we’ve had in previous waves.
In terms of who is coming into hospital, it tends to be younger people, people who haven’t been vaccinated, and it’s very, very few people who’ve had double vaccinations and the chance to have that two- to three-week protection build-up.
So that’s why we’re continuing to say with increasing optimism that the vaccines have broken the chain between the community infections with Covid-19, and the very high level of hospitalisations that we’ve seen in previous waves, but for this set of variants; we don’t know what variants are going to come in future.”
Updated
Hong Kong to reduce length of hotel quarantine
Hong Kong has announced a dramatic shortening of hotel quarantine to seven days for arrivals, planned for the end of the month. Chief executive Carrie Lam said it was time to “appropriately reopen” borders to places which were similar in situation to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has one of the longest quarantine periods in the world, of 21 days. Lam said the shortened quarantine requirements would be given to people who are fully vaccinated, who receive a negative test on departure and have a positive antibody test on arrival.
She expected the new measures would be in place at the end of this month for Hong Kong residents leaving Hong Kong and then returning. This group can also obtain an antibody test before departure which would be valid for three months. The next stage – for international travellers, would hopefully begin a month after that, Lam said.
From Thursday, there will also be a new round of social distancing measures, reducing mask wearing in some situations for fully vaccinated people, and increasing capacity in venues if more people are vaccinated. Lam said the new measures “would still not please everyone” with some thinking they were still stringent.
Four months since the start of Hong Kong’s vaccination programme, fewer than 30% of people were vaccinated. This was not satisfactory, Lam said.
Updated
UK health secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed the government is working on a booster jab programme and should have clinical data in the next few weeks.
He told BBC Breakfast that second jabs offer very strong protection “but there is more protection still that we think that you can get from a booster jab and we’re currently trialling which combinations of jabs are the most effective”.
“When we know the results of that, then we will set out the full plans for the booster programme over the autumn,” PA Media reports him saying.
“We’ve got to make sure we get the logistics right; for instance, GPs have been so heavily involved in this vaccination effort, but GPs have also got to do their day job, so that’s something we’re working hard on now, and, in the next few weeks, when we get the clinical data through on what’s the most effective combinations to have … then we’ll set out all the details of the booster programme for the autumn.”
Updated
80% of athletes and officials in Olympic village will be vaccinated – IOC president
There’s a quick quote here dropped on the wires from the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach. He has told reporters, ahead of going into a meeting to discuss whether spectators will be allowed at the Tokyo Olympics, that well above 80% of the athletes and officials residing in the Olympic village will be vaccinated by the time the Games start on 23 July.
Updated
Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has been quizzed on the BBC this morning about what plans are being made for a booster shot regime in the UK. PA Media reports these comments from him:
The most key question is how long do these vaccines last? Whether we can mix vaccine schedules is important and the government have commissioned a study which will be reporting on mixing the schedules of seven different vaccines.
We need to think about various vaccines and we need to think about age groups, and we need to think about mixing with flu vaccines and there is a study ongoing at the moment of combining the flu with a Covid vaccine.
One of the key things is that these vaccines have been incredibly successful and I think that if we can get two doses into the majority of the adult population, then we’ll be in a really good place, but we may not be so with flu, and flu is going to be really important this winter to get vaccinated against.
In terms of any booster campaign, we need to think about who this will target. Those that received the vaccine furthest away – when we started in December last year and January – were the very elderly and vulnerable, and, of course, it will be many months since they’d have their vaccine, so we do need to think about whether we need to boost those particular age groups.
Updated
The number of Zimbabweans in extreme poverty has reached 7.9 million as the pandemic has delivered another economic shock to the country.
According to the World Bank’s economic and social update report, almost half of Zimbabwe’s population fell into extreme poverty between 2011 and last year, with children bearing the brunt of the misery.
“The number of extreme poor is expected to remain at 7.9 million in 2021 amid continued elevated prices, and a slow recovery of jobs and wages in the formal and informal sectors,” according to the report.
The pandemic added 1.3 million Zimbabweans to the numbers of extreme poor as jobs and income were lost in urban areas. As Zimbabweans struggled with successive lockdowns, 1.4 million people went without staple foods.
Read more of Nyasha Chingono’s report from Harare: Half of Zimbabweans fell into extreme poverty during Covid
There’s been a bit of to and fro in the UK over the last couple of days over the Scottish Government’s decision to implement a ban on people entering the nation from certain parts of England. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham had called for compensation for those affected.
Deputy First Minister for Scotland John Swinney has been on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, and PA quote him saying:
We have got to take decisions based on the data and the evidence that presents itself, and take decisions which are designed to stop the spread of the virus.
In our judgment, the rising case numbers and the high levels of the virus in the Greater Manchester and Salford area justified the decision we took and we are taking that to try and minimise the circulation of the virus.
We put in place very similar provisions in relation to Bolton, which is part of the Greater Manchester area, back in May, and we’ve just followed exactly the same approach in relation to this decision.
We obviously face many challenges in the suppression of coronavirus. We have in place, in Scotland, business support that we have made available to companies to try and sustain them, there will be support in place in England for exactly the same circumstances.
Changes in India’s vaccination programme come into effect today, with every adult now eligible for a free vaccine paid for by the federal government. This ends a complex system of buying and distributing vaccines that overburdened states and created inequities in who got the shots.
The lagging vaccination drive, marred by delays and shortages, prompted the revised strategy.
Previously, states and the private sector had to procure jabs themselves and provide them to younger adults. Now, the federal government will procure 75% of all vaccines directly from manufacturers and provide them to the states for free. The remaining 25% will be purchased by the private sector.
Associated Press report that more cities and states are easing restrictions. Starting today, parks, restaurants and bars can open in New Delhi with some restrictions on capacity and timings. The southern state of Telangana has lifted its lockdown, while neighboring Karnataka state eased restrictions in 16 more districts.
In Australia, the premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, has said Sydney’s mask mandate will likely be extended beyond Wednesday, after it recorded two new local cases of Covid-19.
The two new cases were recorded after 8pm on Sunday, meaning they will be recorded in Tuesday’s numbers. Two separate cases were also reported which had already been announced on Sunday.
“Whilst this isn’t a bad outcome, our level of concern is still there,” the NSW premier said.
She said people in Sydney and surrounding areas would likely need to continue wearing masks after Wednesday.
“Given the situation we are in and given we don’t want to see further restrictions imposed more broadly across our city and our state, in all likelihood, the existing settings we have in place will continue beyond the five days,” Berejiklian said.
Asked if she expected more restrictions would be needed, NSW’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant said authorities were “just watching every new case that comes in” and monitoring for unlinked cases and new exposure venues.
Read more of Luke Henriques-Gomes’ report here: Sydney’s mask mandate ‘likely’ to be extended as NSW records two new Covid cases
It is business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng who is doing the morning media round for the government in the UK, and he has told Sky News it is “unlikely” that coronavirus restrictions in England will be lifted before 19 July.
Boris Johnson had promised there would be a review of restrictions after two weeks. PA Media reports Kwarteng told Sky News he did not expect that to lead to an earlier relaxation of the current measures.
“I would always err on the side of caution and I would look to 19 July. It could be before but I think that is unlikely. Generally we have stuck to the dates we have set,” he said.
Last week, the UK government delayed reopening from 21 June to 19 July.
Updated
City of Dongguan launches mass testing in Guangdong province, China, over Delta variant fears
The latest here from Reuters on the situation in China’s most populous province of Guangdong. The major manufacturing hub of Dongguan has launched mass testing today for Covid and cordoned off communities after detecting its first infections in the current outbreak.
The Delta variant has dominated infections in the provincial upsurge, the first time it has hit China. Dongguan launched the citywide testing programme on Monday, following two cases reported since last Friday. City authorities told residents not to leave, except for essential reasons. Even then, those leaving must show negative test results within 48 hours of departure.
The southern province of Guangdong, which is close to Hong Kong and Macau, has reported 168 confirmed infections since 21 May, with nearly 90% of them in its capital, Guangzhou.
Taiwan reports fewer than 100 new daily cases for first time since mid-May
Taiwan has reported its first day with fewer than 100 new cases for the first time since 14 May. After more than year of living relatively Covid-free, the island is battling its biggest outbreak of the pandemic, which began in late April.
The central epidemic command centre said today there were 38 new cases in New Taipei, 22 in Taipei, and 14 spread across other counties. There is the usual caveat that Mondays often produce lower numbers due to less testing over the weekend, but this is a good sign.
An additional 20 deaths were recorded, of whom 11 started showing symptoms in May, with an average of 17 days between onset of symptoms and death, local media reported.
1.56 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine so far, including more than 21,000 over the weekend.
In a welcome surprise to Taiwanese people on Sunday, the US tripled its pledged donation of vaccines, and delivered 2.5m doses of Moderna. Taiwan has now received more than 5m doses for its population of 23.5 million.
The ministry of labour has also announced new regulations for companies which employ migrant workers, including temperature and health monitoring, and better organising and spacing of people who live in dorms.
This comes weeks after major concerns were raised about the treatment of migrant workers during this outbreak, with harsh restrictions – including confining people to dorms outside of work hours – which were not applied to their Taiwanese coworkers who were free to move around under the level 3 restrictions applied to the whole of Taiwan.
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Myanmar reports highest Covid cases since coup as concerns over health system grow
Myanmar has reported what is believed to be its highest daily increase in Covid cases since the February coup, as concerns grow over the country’s collapsed health system and the junta’s continued crackdown on medics.
Myanmar’s Covid response was plunged into chaos when the military seized power on 1 February, detaining the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
State hospitals are barely functioning, and a growing humanitarian crisis is unfolding across areas such as Kayah state, where the UN estimates a total of 100,000 people have been displaced by conflict.
Fears of a further wave of Covid cases have mounted over recent months, as new, more transmissible variants have spread in neighbouring countries such as India and Thailand. More than 3,000 people in Myanmar died during a previous outbreak in the country.
On Monday, state media announced that 546 new Covid infections and seven fatalities had been registered on 19 June, which is thought to be the highest increase since 1 February. It is not clear how many tests are being carried out, or how many people have been vaccinated.
Joy Singhal, Myanmar head of delegation at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, described the increase as deeply alarming. “It’s confirming our worries that the virus is spreading fast now that the more contagious and dangerous variants are being identified in various parts of the country,” Singhal said.
Read more of Rebecca Ratcliffe’s report here: Myanmar reports highest Covid numbers since coup as concerns over health system grow
The idea that the pandemic sent a vast new wave of UK young adult “boomerangers” moving back to live in the parental home is a myth, a study has found.
A spate of media articles in the last few months have suggested that the arrival of Covid-19, followed by lockdowns, persuaded many twentysomethings to return to the supposed comfort and space of the family home to regroup.
However, a survey by the Resolution Foundation suggests that if anything the proportion of 18- to 34-year-olds living with their parents is slightly lower than it was before the pandemic.
“At the start of the crisis, many people expected an army of ‘boomerang’ millennials to return to their ‘boomer’ parents’ homes. But in fact, a year on from the onset of the crisis, young people are no more likely to live with their parents than pre-Covid,” said Maja Gustafsson, an economist at the Resolution Foundation.
The study did confirm, however, previous research findings that the proportion of those living at home for at least some of their 20s and early-30s has increased significantly over the past two decades and now appears to be a permanent feature of UK society.
One of the main reasons why the proportion of boomerangers did not increase, said Gustafsson, was that many of those young adults most affected economically by the pandemic had already moved back in with their parents before Covid hit.
Read more here: No increase in young adults living with parents after Covid, UK study finds
Updated
NHS England says 1m vaccine appointments made in two days
Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London. The NHS in England has said that more than 1m Covid-19 jabs were booked in just two days after the NHS opened its vaccination programme to all remaining adults.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: “It is fantastic to see so many young people coming forward to play their part, protecting themselves, their friends and their family – nearly 9 million people in their 20s and 30s have now had their first dose.”
The NHS has now administered about 62m doses of vaccine, with the UK government’s dashboard claiming that 81.6% of the adult population have received one dose, with 59.5% of adults having had two doses.
Data up to 20 June suggests that the number of positive cases in the UK has risen 31.1% in the last seven days, with hospitalisations rising by nearly 40%, with 1,413 patients being admitted in the last week.
Updated
New Zealand approves Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year olds
New Zealand is approving the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.
The move follows Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan, all of whom have approved Pfizer for the 12-15 age cohort.
Ardern said while children were less likely to suffer serious illness from Covid-19, there were cases of children getting sick, and they could also transmit the virus. “Put simply – when our children are vaccinated, their teachers, friends, siblings, parents and grandparents are more protected from the virus too. So it’s in all of our interests for this group to get the vaccine,” Ardern said.
The country’s medical regulator, Medsafe, had completed its assessment and provided “provisional consent”, meaning Pfizer must meet conditions including supplying more data from clinical trials as they progress.
“Medsafe’s approval has been a very carefully considered and robust process, with safety the key priority,” Ardern said.
She said there were about 265,000 children in the age bracket, and New Zealand’s existing order contained enough doses to cover the group.
Medsafe approval is the first and most significant step toward vaccination for children, but the move will still need final sign-off from the ministry of health. A decision from the ministry is expected later this month, and 12- to 15-year-olds would not be vaccinated before then.
New Zealand is still in the early stages of its vaccine rollout, with about 7.7% of the adult population vaccinated. The rollout has so far focused on targeting specific vulnerable groups, including border workers and their families, high-risk frontline workers, older people, and those with pre-existing conditions.
The vaccine rollout for the general adult population is due to start in July, and will be staggered by age group, reaching under-35s in October.
Updated
US delays easing of land border restrictions
US land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least 21 July, the US Homeland Security Department said on Sunday.
The 30-day extension came after Canada announced its own extension on Friday of the requirements that were set to expire on Monday and have been in place since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The US government held working-group meetings with Canada and Mexico last week.
Homeland Security said in a statement it noted “positive developments in recent weeks and is participating with other US agencies in the White House’s expert working groups with Canada and Mexico to identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably.”
Updated
Japan to rule on allowing fans at Olympics
Tokyo Olympics organisers and Japanese officials meet Monday to decide whether fans will be allowed at the pandemic-postponed Games, just weeks before they open.
AFP: With the opening ceremony looming on 23 July, organisers are scrambling to finalise preparations, but the decision on spectators has been left as late as possible.
Overseas spectators have already been banned, in an Olympic first that reflects the difficulties of staging the Games during the pandemic.
A coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo was lifted only on Sunday, and restrictions in place until 11 July cap crowd capacity at 5,000 people or 50% capacity, whichever is smaller.
After 11 July, that will rise to 10,000 people or 50% capacity, whichever is smaller.
Senior medical experts, including top advisers to the government, have said holding the Games behind closed doors would be “ideal” from a health perspective.
They fear crowds of fans could fuel a new surge in infections in a country still racing to vaccinate its residents.
But reports suggest organisers are leaning towards allowing in up to 10,000 fans, a figure that could swell to 20,000 at the opening ceremony, with foreign dignitaries and sponsors allowed to attend.
The ruling is expected on Monday afternoon, after five-way talks between Tokyo 2020 organisers and officials from Japan’s government, the Tokyo government, the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
US land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least 21 July, the US Homeland Security Department said on Sunday.
And Tokyo Olympics organisers and Japanese officials meet Monday to decide whether fans will be allowed at the pandemic-postponed Games, just weeks before they open.
More on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:
- Mandatory mask-wearing outdoors is being lifted and an eight-month nightly coronavirus curfew is ending in France today. The unpopular curfew has been scrapped just in time to coincide with elections in France in which the government faces pressure from a resurgent far right.
- The UK is moving towards a situation where people who have been double-vaccinated could be exempt from quarantine, Public Health England’s chief Covid-19 adviser has said. Dr Susan Hopkins, one of the key government advisers on the response to the pandemic, said a decision would be made after the results of a study that uses daily lateral flow tests as an alternative to isolation for 10 days after coming into contact with a positive case.
- More than half of the new Covid-19 cases being reported in the Lisbon region are of the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant, preliminary data showed on Sunday. Ricardo Jorge, from the national health institute, said the Delta variant represented more than 60% of cases in the Lisbon area though still less than 15% in the northern half of Portugal.
- With Covid vaccination penetration in the US likely to fall short of Joe Biden’s 70% by Fourth of July target, pandemic analysts are warning that vaccine incentives are losing traction and that “two Americas” may emerge as the aggressive Delta variant becomes the dominant US strain.
- A member of Uganda’s Olympic team has tested positive for coronavirus and was barred entry into Japan, in the first detected infection among athletes arriving for the Tokyo Games, due to open in five weeks. The athletes, who arrived on Saturday night at Tokyo’s Narita airport, were all fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca and had negative PCR tests before boarding, the Asahi newspaper reported.
- Thousands of Brazilians returned to the streets on Saturday in protest against the response of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to the pandemic, which has killed close on half a million people in the country – the most after the US. On the second day of demonstrations in less than a month, the anti-Bolsonaro mobilisation is gaining momentum amid an ascendant curve of Covid-19 infections, while only 11% of 212 million Brazilians have been fully vaccinated, according to local media.
