Peru secures 23 million doses of vaccine.
Peru has secured enough coronavirus vaccine to give nearly three-quarters of its population at least one dose when the immunization is available, a hopeful development for a nation with one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world, reports Reuters.
The agreements announced on Friday with Pfizer Inc and global vaccine distribution program COVAX will provide 23.1 million doses for a population of 31.9 million. Some vaccine regimes will require two doses.
The Peruvian Ministry of Health said it had signed a binding agreement with Pfizer for the purchase of 9.9 million doses of its vaccine which is in testing. Another 13.2 million doses will be bought through COVAX, which is led by the GAVI vaccines alliance and the World Health Organization and aimed at promoting equitable access.
COVAX has signed agreements to buy vaccines from French drugmaker Sanofi, Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Novavax.
Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti said this week that she expects vaccines to arrive in Peru in the first quarter of 2021 before general elections on April 11, and vaccines will likely be administered in voting centers.
China’s Sinopharm and the United States’ Johnson & Johnson are conducting trials of their vaccines in the country, potentially allowing Peru to buy doses at a discount, the ministry of health said.
Peru has seen 111.55 deaths per 100,000 of its population, ranking third in the world for per capita mortality, according to a Reuters tally.
In Victoria, Australia it’s still mandatory to wear a mask while inside store and other publicly accessible buildings and when social distancing is impossible. The state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has published this reminder ahead of citizens’ weekend shop.
Good morning to everyone except those wearing their mask under their nose at the supermarket.
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) November 27, 2020
Updated
More than 1,300 people were wrongly told they had coronavirus due to a lab error with the government’s Test and Trace service.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 1,311 people who took a test from 19-23 November across the UK were incorrectly told they received a positive result. It said there was an issue with a batch of testing chemicals which meant their results were void.
A DHSC spokesman said: “Swift action is being taken to notify those affected and they are being asked to take another test, and to continue to self-isolate if they have symptoms. This laboratory error was an isolated incident and is being fully investigated to ensure this does not happen again.”
The DHSC did not comment on whether the error affected regional infection rate figures.
You can read the full story below:
UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi have been in discussions today, including how the two counties can combat Covid-19.
Thank you @narendramodi, great to speak to you. I'm very much looking forward to deepening and strengthening the UK-India relationship in 2021 and beyond! 🇬🇧🇮🇳 https://t.co/DCOczjm0AL pic.twitter.com/k63ugK2B5n
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 27, 2020
Updated
South Florida Congressman-elect Carlos Gimenez has tested positive for coronavirus.
His campaign announced Friday that the former Miami-Dade County mayor and his wife, Lourdes, tested positive Thursday for COVID-19 after having mild symptoms.
They said they’re self-isolating at home, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and advice from medical professionals.
“I will continue attending New Member Orientation virtually and preparing our office to serve the people of Florida’s 26th Congressional District from Westchester to Key West until I can resume my normal schedule,” Gimenez said in a statement.
“I am extremely grateful for all of the incredible health care workers who are tirelessly dedicated to their patients.”
Gimenez served as Miami-Dade mayor from 2011 until this month. The Republican won his congressional race in the 3 November general election and is set to assume office 3 January.
In South Australia, the business sector has called for compensation amid ongoing coronavirus restrictions in the lead-up to Christmas.
As health officials continue to grapple with a worrying Covid-19 cluster, the state government is set to implement a two-week, stepdown strategy in easing measures imposed at the start of the outbreak.
But Business SA chief executive Martin Haese says this is not enough, and restrictions mean most businesses will be operating at 25% capacity, which is not financially viable.
He has reaffirmed calls for the government to relax the eligibility criteria for the $10,000 emergency grants to help businesses get through the Christmas period.
South Australia recorded no news cases on Friday, after experiences a significant cluster and brief lockdown earlier in the month.
In vaccine news, Australians have been told by the federal health minister they can still expect a coronavirus vaccine by March, despite ongoing testing on key candidates.
Greg Hunt says Australia’s vaccine time frame is unchanged, with expectations a safe and effective vaccine will begin being rolled out in March.
“The data on all of the leading vaccines has been good, and I’m looking forward to more positive news on other vaccines in coming weeks on preliminary briefings that we’ve had,” he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
“Each day there’s news and there’s progress, and there will be ups and downs in the vaccine process.”
Updated
Hello all, Matilda Boseley here to take you through the rest of the day’s news.
If you see anything Covid-19 related in your corner of the planet that you think I should know about, make sure you send it through to me on Twitter @MatildaBoseley, or email me on matilda.boseley@theguardian.com
In Australia, the once Covid-19 ravaged state of Victoria has now recorded 29 days with no infection or virus-related deaths. This means the state has essentially eradicated the virus, however health officials have still urged citizens to be careful and restrictions, including mandatory mask-wearing while inside, are still in place.
Yesterday there were 0 new cases and 0 deaths reported. There are no active cases. #EveryTestHelps and thank you to all who came forward for testing – there were 9,403 results received. https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #StaySafeStayOpen #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/EoF59atenS
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 27, 2020
The other big news out of Victoria is the continuing fallout from the inquiry into hotel quarantine.
Late on Friday afternoon, the inquiry released hundreds of pages of emails, call records, meeting notes and affidavits obtained in the two months since the inquiry held its last hearing.
The Victorian chief medical officer, Brett Sutton, said in an affidavit released on Friday that he was aware that the emails showed an “apparent inconsistency” with his earlier evidence. But he maintained he was unaware of the use of private security guards in hotel quarantine until late May.
Former police commissioner Graham Ashton told the inquiry it was top Victorian bureaucrat Chris Eccles who led him to believe private security would be used.
The ex-police chief’s recollection of a phone call at 1.17 pm on March 27 was detailed in a fresh sworn statement tendered to the inquiry on Friday. Ashton wrote that he and Eccles spoke for 136 seconds following a meeting of the national cabinet.
“At least part of this conversation involved Mr Eccles informing me regarding the potential use of the ADF to guard returned travellers during the transfer from their flights and the use of private security to guard them at the hotels,” he wrote.
“But my belief as to what he told me in this regard is based only on the inference which I draw from the contents of the text message which I sent to AFP Commr Reece Kershaw.”
This text to Ashton’s AFP counterpart was sent just minutes after the call with Eccles, saying he had been advised private security would be used. Eccles maintained he could not recall the content of the conversation with Ashton and was adamant he had “no knowledge” of any decision to use police, the ADF, the AFP or private security.
Updated
Germany recorded more than one million cases on Friday.
Until recently, Germany’s relative success in containing the virus had offered some sense of hope, with authorities putting in place some precautions that still allowed life to carry on almost as normal.
However, its measured approach has failed during the second wave, endangering the health of Europe’s biggest economy and weighing on the mood as the northern hemisphere heads into the winter holidays.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute recorded more than 22,000 new daily cases on Friday, pushing the overall total beyond the one-million mark.
The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care has soared from around 360 in early October to more than 3,500 last week.
Updated
Australian state of Victoria reports zero cases and deaths for 29th straight day
Yesterday there were 0 new cases and 0 deaths reported. There are no active cases. #EveryTestHelps and thank you to all who came forward for testing – there were 9,403 results received. https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #StaySafeStayOpen #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/EoF59atenS
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 27, 2020
Brazil reports further 514 deaths
Brazil registered 34,130 coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours and 514 new deaths, the nation’s health ministry said on Friday.
The South American country has now registered 6,238,350 total coronavirus cases and 171,974 deaths.
A summary of today's developments
- Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said he expects more than half of Canadians to receive a Covid-19 vaccine by next September after he came under criticism for saying the country will not be among the first to get doses.
- Belgium will allow shops to reopen from Tuesday, prime minister Alexander De Croo said, but the country’s semi-lockdown will remain in place to bring down coronavirus infections. “The situation in our country is improving... but it’s important to keep a lid on things,” De Croo said, warning that the Christmas and New Year holidays would be “different” this year.
- Hospitals in England have been told to prepare for the rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in as little as 10 days’ time, with NHS workers expected to be at the front of the queue, the Guardian has learned
-
Europe remains the centre of the pandemic, with an average of 236,900 new case daily - far ahead of the US and Canada’s 174,000 a day. But the rise in infections has slowed for the second week in a row, falling back 10% with many countries in lockdown.
- The number of Covid0-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the US nearly doubled in the past month, reaching 90,000 on Friday. The rate of hospitalizations - now at the highest level since the pandemic began - has reportedly pushed some hospitals beyond capacity.
- Italy will ease coronavirus restrictions in five regions, including Lombardy, the country’s richest and most populous region, from Sunday. Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria will be downgraded from red to orange zones, while Sicily and Liguria will be designated as yellow rather than orange zones.
- Another 827 Covid 19-related deaths were reported by Italy on Friday, the highest number so far of its second wave coronavirus outbreak, and 28,352 new infections, the health ministry said. The rise in hospital admissions and intensive care occupancy has slowed.
- Russia reported a record high of 27,543 new coronavirus infections, including 7,918 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national tally to 2,215,533. Authorities also reported 496 deaths related to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 38,558.
- Iran reported a new daily record in coronavirus infections, as the country tightened its pandemic measures even further by all but closing government offices for an indefinite period. Iran recorded 14,051 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 922,397, and 406 deaths.
- In Cyprus, authorities in the war-divided island’s south have announced new curbs on movement including a nationwide nighttime curfew. While the government had decided to end local lockdowns across the island’s entire south-west, it will introduce a nationwide nighttime curfew as of 30 November.
- Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said he will not take a coronavirus vaccine, the latest in a series of statements he has made expressing skepticism toward coronavirus vaccination programmes. “I’m telling you, I’m not going to take it. It’s my right.”
- AstraZeneca may begin another trial of its vaccine. The company, which is developing a treatment with Oxford University, is working with regulators to investigate a lower dosage of its vaccine that performed better than a full dosage.
- Public health authorities in Switzerland have advised the public against oom-pah brass bands this Christmas. “Singing together and playing wind instruments can increase the risk of infection,” the federal office of public health said. Bands are usually a common sight at Christmas events and parties across Switzerland.
- Denmark plans to exhume and burn 17 million mink slaughtered to curb the spread of a mutant strain of coronavirus. The decision comes after hundreds of dead mink, tipped into trenches at a military site in western Denmark, began rising from the grave as a result of gases from their decomposition.
Updated
A study adds to evidence that people with type O or Rh*negative blood may be at slightly lower risk from the coronavirus.
Among 225,556 Canadians who were tested for the virus, the risk for a Covid-19 diagnosis was 12% lower and the risk for severe COVID-19 or death was 13% lower in people with blood group O versus those with A, AB, or B, researchers reported in Annals of Internal Medicine.
People in any blood group who were Rh-negative were also somewhat protected, especially if they had O-negative blood.
People in these blood type groups may have developed antibodies that can recognize some aspect of the new virus, co-author Dr Joel Ray of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto told Reuters.
Our next study will specifically look at such antibodies, and whether they explain the protective effect,” Ray said.
Updated
Hospitals in England have been told to prepare for the rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in as little as 10 days’ time, with NHS workers expected to be at the front of the queue, the Guardian has learned.
NHS bosses said hospitals could expect to receive their first deliveries of a vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech as soon as 7 December, with regulatory approval anticipated within days.
According to sources at several hospitals across the country, NHS England said they should expect to get stocks of vaccine on 7, 8 or 9 December.
More than 1,300 people in England were wrongly told they had coronavirus due to a lab error with NHS Test and Trace.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 1,311 people who took a test between November 19-23 across the UK were incorrectly told they received a positive result.
It said there was an issue with a batch of testing chemicals which meant their results were void.
A DHSC spokesman said: “Swift action is being taken to notify those affected and they are being asked to take another test, and to continue to self-isolate if they have symptoms.
This laboratory error was an isolated incident and is being fully investigated to ensure this does not happen again.”
Updated
Belgium to ease lockdown restrictions
Belgium will allow shops to reopen from Tuesday, prime minister Alexander De Croo said, but the country’s semi-lockdown will remain in place to bring down coronavirus infections.
“The situation in our country is improving... but it’s important to keep a lid on things,” De Croo said, warning that the Christmas and New Year holidays would be “different” this year.
So far, only retailers of essential goods, such as food, have been allowed to stay open.
But the move to allow other shops to resume business mirrors similar easing measures in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Bars, restaurants and cafes will remain closed and people will continue to be required to work from home where possible, limit social contacts. A curfew from midnight to 5am (2300-0400 GMT) will also remain in place.
This year “we will celebrate Christmas with our families, in small numbers. It will be more intimate,” the prime minister said.
There would also be no fireworks at New Year.
We mustn’t spoil in four days what we’ve achieved in four weeks,” De Croo said, but suggested a more general easing of restrictions might be possible from mid-January if infection numbers continue to come down.
The premier also advised people not to travel to other countries with higher caseloads and said that border controls would be put in place and quarantine requirements imposed for travellers returning from virus hotspots.
Belgium has recorded nearly 570,000 infections since the start of the pandemic, but recently appears to be getting the situation under control.
An average 2,765 daily cases were registered last week, just a fifth of the number last month.
Authorities hope to bring that cases down to around 500 per day by the end of the year.
Updated
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 12,823,092 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 324,358 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 3,668 to 262,673.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of Thursday afternoon compared to its previous report on Wednesday.
The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
Barcelona football club have reached an agreement with representatives of their players and coaching staff to temporarily cut salaries and postpone bonuses due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Spanish club said it expected to save around 172 million euros ($205.61 million), with 122 million from reductions to fixed wages this season and a further 50 million euros through the deferral of bonuses for three years.
This principle of agreement is pending ratification in the coming days by the group of players and technical staff affected,” the club said in a statement.
“The agreement, if it is ratified, will represent a milestone of great importance in redirecting the current economic situation.” Barcelona imposed a temporary pay cut of 70% earlier this year lasting the duration of the national state of alarm, which began in March and ended in June.
The World Health Organisation’s director general on an exercise bike to deliver his message on remaining physically active during the lockdowns.
"#COVID19 has resulted in restrictions of many types – but everyone can remain active, whether that’s doing a workout at 🏠 or going out for a 🚶, a 🏃 or a 🚴♀️. It’s one way all of us can add years to life & life to years. Every move counts"-@DrTedros https://t.co/1xIf1yxkmK
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) November 27, 2020
Updated
Canada has a deal to buy at least 20 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.
Toronto is on lockdown and the country’s largest province of Ontario reported a record 1,855 cases on Friday.
Prime minister Justin Trudeau said Canada has signed deals that could give Canada the most per capita vaccines in the world.
And he said the military will play a role in distribution of the vaccine. An army general will oversee it.
This will be the biggest immunisation in the history of the country.”
The chief medical adviser at Health Canada said Pfizer’s vaccine candidate could be approved in Canada next month.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is meeting December 10 to consider whether to give the go-ahead to Pfizer.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau said he expects more than half of Canadians to receive a Covid-19 vaccine by next September after he came under criticism for saying the country will not be among the first to get doses.
Trudeau said earlier this week Canada will have to wait for a vaccine because the first ones are likely to be given to citizens of the countries they are made in.
He noted the US, UK and Germany have mass vaccine-production facilities but Canada does not.
Trudeau said he expects vaccines to start arriving early next year — but what month Canadians will get the first doses remains an open question.
I can understand the eagerness, that people want to know when is this going to be over.”
Summary
The latest headlines in our worldwide coronavirus coverage include:
- Europe remains the centre of the pandemic, with an average of 236,900 new case daily - far ahead of the US and Canada’s 174,000 a day. But the rise in infections has slowed for the second week in a row, falling back 10% with many countries in lockdown.
- The number of Covid0-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States nearly doubled in the past month, reaching 90,000 on Friday. The rate of hospitalizations - now at the highest level since the pandemic began - has reportedly pushed some hospitals beyond capacity.
- Italy will ease coronavirus restrictions in five regions, including Lombardy, the country’s richest and most populous region, from Sunday. Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria will be downgraded from red to orange zones, while Sicily and Liguria will be designated as yellow rather than orange zones.
- Another 827 Covid 19-related deaths were reported by Italy on Friday, the highest number so far of its second wave coronavirus outbreak, and 28,352 new infections, the health ministry said. The rise in hospital admissions and intensive care occupancy has slowed.
- Russia reported a record high of 27,543 new coronavirus infections, including 7,918 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national tally to 2,215,533. Authorities also reported 496 deaths related to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 38,558.
- Iran reported a new daily record in coronavirus infections, as the country tightened its pandemic measures even further by all but closing government offices for an indefinite period. Iran recorded 14,051 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 922,397, and 406 deaths.
- In Cyprus, authorities in the war-divided island’s south have announced new curbs on movement including a nationwide nighttime curfew. While the government had decided to end local lockdowns across the island’s entire south-west, it will introduce a nationwide nighttime curfew as of 30 November.
- Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has said he will not take a coronavirus vaccine, the latest in a series of statements he has made expressing skepticism toward coronavirus vaccination programs. “I’m telling you, I’m not going to take it. It’s my right.”
- AstraZeneca may begin another trial of its vaccine. The company, which is developing a treatment with Oxford University, is working with regulators to investigate a lower dosage of its vaccine that performed better than a full dosage.
- Public health authorities in Switzerland have advised the public against oom-pah brass bands this Christmas. “Singing together and playing wind instruments can increase the risk of infection,” the federal office of public health said. Bands are usually a common sight at Christmas events and parties across Switzerland.
- Denmark plans to exhume and burn 17 million mink slaughtered to curb the spread of a mutant strain of coronavirus. The decision comes after hundreds of dead mink, tipped into trenches at a military site in western Denmark, began rising from the grave as a result of gases from their decomposition.
And that’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for today.
Health authorities in France have reported a further 957 deaths from Covid-19, the biggest single day rise in deaths in the country since mid-April. It comes the day before shops can resume selling non-essential goods.
Another 12,549 coronavirus infections were detected, health ministry data showed, a significant slowing in the spread of the virus compared to earlier in the month. Last Friday 22,882 infections were detected.
The cumulative reported total now stands at over 2.19 million. The total death toll is 50,957.
Updated
Ireland to reopen shops, restaurants and gyms next week
All shops, restaurants, gastropubs and gyms will reopen in Ireland next week, and travel will be permitted between its 26 counties from 18 December, the prime minister, Michael Martin, said on Friday.
Ireland was one of the first European countries to reimpose stringent coronavirus containment measures six weeks ago, when the government shut many retailers and limited pubs and restaurants to takeaway service.
Pubs that serve only drinks will remain shut across Ireland and be given additional financial support. People can welcome up to two other households into their homes between 18 December and 6 January.
A politician in Germany has been placed under police guard after facing death threats over restrictions imposed in his town in an attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Thomas Mueller, a lawmaker in Hildburghausen in central Germany, has been under guard since Thursday after being threatened and insulted on social media, “presumably in connection with the Corona protection measures”, police said.
With more than 600 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past week, Hildburghausen, a town of 12,000 inhabitants in Thuringia, has the highest coronavirus infection rate in Germany.
The town introduced a strict lockdown on Wednesday, with schools and kindergartens closed and residents only allowed to leave their homes for specific activities. That night, police used pepper spray to disperse around 400 protesters who had gathered in the town centre to protest the measures.
Police were also called to a testing centre on Thursday evening after being alerted to calls on social media to block the entrance.
Demonstrations against Covid-19 restrictions have grown increasingly tense across Germany in recent weeks, with protesters often clashing with police.
At a rally of nearly 10,000 people in Berlin last week, 77 police officers were injured as they used pepper spray and water cannon to disperse the crowds, making 365 arrests.
Police chief Barbara Slowik told the Tagesspiegel daily that “we have not experienced something like that in decades”.
“We are moving away from a very colourful public and are now increasingly dealing with a spectrum of people who generally reject our system and are prepared to use extreme violence,” she said.
Updated
The number of Covid0-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States has nearly doubled in the past month, reaching 90,000 on Friday - ahead of Christmas gatherings expected to propel another rise in infections.
The rate of hospitalizations - now at the highest level since the pandemic began - has pushed some hospitals beyond capacity, and comes after weeks of rising infection rates across the country, according to Reuters.
Many health experts and politicians pleaded with Americans to refrain from gathering for their traditional communal Thanksgiving feasts this year. They warned that socialising would accelerate the rate of transmission and push an already strained healthcare system to the brink.
On the day before Thanksgiving, typically one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States, more than a million people travelled through US airports - the most of any single day since the start of the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Nearly 6 million Americans traveled by air from Friday to Wednesday, it said, a number that is however less than half that of the same period last year.
State governors have also urged Americans to stay home on Black Friday, a traditionally busy holiday shopping day, encouraging them instead to take advantage of online deals and support business that have suffered during the pandemic-related economic downturn.
“Remember, skip the crowds and shop from home this Black Friday. Our local shops have curbside pickup options and need our support,” the Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, wrote in a tweet on Friday.
The world’s oldest surviving provincial zoo is being relocated from the prime location in Bristol, south-west England, that has been its home for almost two centuries as a result of the financial shock of the coronavirus crisis.
Bristol Zoo Gardens, a 12-acre plot in the Clifton area of the city, is to be sold off and animals and staff moved to its satellite Wild Place Project site over the border in South Gloucestershire.
Visitors to the zoo gardens have been declining in number for some time and the charity that runs the sites, Bristol Zoological Society, said it had made an operating loss in four of the last six years. But the stresses of Covid appear to have been the last straw.
Updated
Italy to ease Covid restrictions in five regions
Italy will ease coronavirus restrictions in five regions, including Lombardy, the country’s richest and most populous region, from Sunday, Reuters reports, citing the country’s health ministry.
Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria will be downgraded from red to orange zones, while Sicily and Liguria will be designated as yellow rather than orange zones.
Friday’s decision follows a gradual decline in hospitalisations from coronavirus in much of Italy over the past week, with the number of new cases also retreating from highs seen earlier this month.
Updated
Even if countries see a fall in coronavirus cases, they need to stay vigilant, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for Covid-19, said on Friday.
She told a virtual briefing in Geneva:
What we don’t want to see is situations where you are moving from lockdown to bringing (the virus) under control to another lockdown ...
It is in our power to keep transmission low. We have seen dozens of countries show us that it can be brought under control and kept under control.
Nearly 61 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 1.4 million have died, according to a Reuters tally. During the same briefing, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said almost half of all cases and deaths were in just four countries, and almost 70% of cases and deaths were in the top 10 countries.
He called for an expansion of testing regimes to more accurately track the spread of Covid-19 in the worst affected countries.
If you don’t know where the virus is, you can’t stop it. If you don’t know who has the virus, you can’t isolate them, care for them or trace their contacts.
Regarding potential vaccines, Kate O’Brien, WHO’s director of immunisation vaccines and biologicals, said the WHO needs to evaluate coronavirus vaccines and their immune responses based on more than just a press release.
The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine is showing promise but it is premature to say the end of the pandemic is nigh. Several rich countries have signed a ‘frenzy of deals’ that could prevent many poor nations from getting access to immunisation until at least 2024. Also, many drug firms are potentially refusing to waive patents and other intellectual property rights in order to secure exclusive rights to any cure.
Michael Safi, the Guardian’s international correspondent, explains why ‘vaccine nationalisation’ could scupper global efforts to kill the virus and examines what is being done to tackle the issue.
Another 827 Covid 19-related deaths were reported by Italy on Friday, the highest number so far of its second wave coronavirus outbreak, and 28,352 new infections, the health ministry said.
The first western country to be hit by the virus, Italy has recorded 53,677 Covid-19 deaths since February, the second highest death toll in Europe after the UK. It has recorded 1.5 million cases.
While Italy’s daily death tolls have been among the highest in Europe over recent days, the rise in hospital admissions and intensive care occupancy has slowed, suggesting the latest wave of infections was receding, according to Reuters.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 stood at 33,684 on Friday, down 354 on the day before. The number in intensive care decreased by 64, following a fall of two on Thursday, and now stands at 3,782.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by around 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
The northern region of Lombardy, centred on Italy’s financial capital Milan, remained the hardest hit area on Friday, reporting 5,389 new cases from a previous 5,697.
Updated
Justin Trudeau’s government is facing sharp criticism for its coronavirus vaccine rollout amid accusations that Canada is falling behind its peers, writes Leyland Cecco in Toronto.
In recent months, Trudeau has trumpeted a series of deals with major pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca — which gave Canada the highest per capita supply of vaccines in the world.
But this week, the prime minister acknowledged that previously upbeat predictions about access to a vaccine might have been premature. He said that Canada was at a “disadvantage” because the country “no longer has any domestic production capability” – a deficiency that could take years to fix. Instead, Canada will likely be forced to rely on other nations to produce the vaccine.
Trudeau said that countries where the drug makers were headquartered—the US, UK and Germany— would “obviously” prioritise vaccinating their citizens before shipping doses internationally. Delays to when the vaccine was ordered has also played a role: Canada didn’t place its orders with the major manufacturers until late summer.
Confusion over access and rollout timeline has prompted outrage from opposition leaders.
“Why did this prime minister sign deals that placed Canadians months behind Americans for getting a Covid-19 vaccine?” asked the Conservative leader, Erin O’Toole, with Bloc Quebecois leader, Yves-Francois Blanchet, calling the delays “unacceptable”.
Dr Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, said under an “optimistic” scenario as many as 3 million Canadians could be vaccinated in the first three months of 2021 with the Pfizer vaccine.
In the US, as many as 20 million people could be vaccinated in December.
Updated
Cyprus to impose nationwide curfew
In Cyprus authorities in the war-divided island’s south have followed Greece and announced new curbs on movement including a nationwide nighttime curfew, Helena Smith reports from Nicosia.
Against a backdrop of rising infection rates, the Greek Cypriot health minister, Constantinos Ioannou, said while the government had decided to end local lockdowns across the island’s entire south-west, it would introduce a nationwide nighttime curfew as of 30 November.
The 9pm to 5am curfew is among a host of measures that will apply until 13 December in the hope of easing curbs in the run up to Christmas.
Noting that half of the 48 deaths from Covid-19 recorded since the start of the pandemic had occurred in November, Ioannou told reporters: “This year’s holidays will be unprecedented, but we must protect our public health system and the ones we love.”
Other measures include bars, restaurants, pubs and cafes being ordered to close at 7pm, gyms also shutting and shops, malls hair salons, cinemas theatres and museums also tightening social distancing rules.
Previously restaurants outside the coastal cities of Limassol and Paphos, under strict lockdown since 11 November, had been able to operate until 10.30pm.
Government officials in the internationally recognised Greek administered south have complained increasingly of coronavirus fatigue – weariness blamed for the younger generation in particular flouting mask-wearing and other health protocols.
One in three coronavirus cases have been registered over a two-week period between 11-24 November, the Cyprus Mail reported late on Friday. Confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 220 on Thursday, bringing the total number of diagnosed infections to 9,673.
The new measures were met with fury by the hospitality sector and association of Opap Cyprus betting shops, which immediately urged the government to expedite financial support aid to cover rents and loan instalments.
“It is totally unacceptable to allow retail trade and prohibit the operation of Opap outlets,” the association was quoted as saying by the Cyprus Mail.
Updated
The spread of the coronavirus virus around the world has slowed slightly this week, but is still rising fast in South America, according to data on the pandemic processed by AFP, the French state-backed news agency.
While Europe remains the centre of the pandemic, with an average of 236,900 new case daily - far ahead of the US and Canada’s 174,000 a day - the rise in infections has slowed for the second week in a row, falling back 10% with many countries in lockdown.
But Europe is the only continent where new cases are clearly dropping, according to AFP.
While infections are stable in the US and Canada, Africa and the Middle East, they are up a 10th in Latin America and the Caribbean and 13% in Asia.
While there were only 24 new cases a day in Oceania, that was a rise of 64% on last week.
The biggest increase in the spread was in Mexico, where infections were up 113% over the week to an average of 8,400 new cases a day.
Turkey saw the world’s second biggest rise, up 76%, followed by Azerbaidjan (60% up) and Serbia (45%). Pakistan, Japan and South Africa all saw a 27% increase.
The biggest falls were all in Europe, with France down nearly a half, Belgium down 37%, Switzerland down one third and Spain and the UK down around a quarter.
All five countries have imposed lockdowns or very strict restrictions.
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Swiss health authorities advise public against watching oom-pah bands
Public health authorities in Switzerland have advised the public against oom-pah brass bands this Christmas.
“Singing together and playing wind instruments can increase the risk of infection,” the federal office of public health said of the bands, usually a common sight at Christmas events and parties across the Alpine nation. “Listen to Christmas music on your stereo instead.”
“It is better to greet others from a distance and to forgo hugs and kisses,” the office added, in advice to a population not generally known for being over-emotional.
Current Swiss guidelines already limit gathering of friends and family to 10 people, but parties should not get too cosy.
In its in “Tips for the Holidays” posted online and seen by Reuters, the agency suggested opening the windows every hour or two for 5-10 minutes, adding: “It is simplest if one person is in charge of ventilation.”
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Investors in the US are worried that slow vaccination rates or a low take-up of coronavirus vaccine could weaken an economic recovery expected next year, according to Reuters.
A recent Gallup poll found 58% of Americans said they would get vaccinated, up from 50% who were willing in a September poll. The remainder cited concerns about safety and the rushed development of the various jabs coming on the market.
Dr Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for the US government’s Operation Warp Speed, said on Sunday that 70% of the US population of 330 million would need to be inoculated to achieve herd immunity. He expected that to be achieved by May.
Ernesto Ramos, the head of equities at BMO Global Asset Management, said those estimates may be overly optimistic. “The answer is not the vaccine; it’s vaccinations. The vaccine needs to be widely adopted and accepted for it to work,” said Ramos.
Citi Research wrote in a note on Monday that herd immunity would not form until late 2021, boosting global gross domestic product growth by only 0.7% next year compared with an estimated 3% gain in 2022 as vaccination rates rise.
David Albrycht, the chief investment officer at Newfleet Asset Management, said: “To be certain that the world will be back to normal by mid-next year because a vaccine is available is an aggressive assumption.”
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Ski resorts across Italy are on standby as European leaders try to reach an agreement over whether or not to ban ski holidays over Christmas and NewYear period. Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent, has travelled to Sestriere, where she found residents who want the EU to foot bill if the Christmas skiing season is cancelled. She writes:
Paolo Di Bendinoni’s grandmother Adelina began the family’s ski hire business in the winter of 1964, when she kept a few pairs of wooden skis and boots in her home that she would rent out to tourists as they got off the bus by the square in the alpine village of Sestriere.
In the early days her trade came only at weekends, when a smattering of visitors would travel up from the nearby city of Turin. But as the village became more popular for skiing over the ensuing decades, the business flourished.
Di Bendinoni has worked for Noleggio sci Nonna Adelina since he was 18, and now runs it with his wife. All of his cousins are ski instructors. The family is emblematic of the village of 929 inhabitants, whose livelihoods depend on the ski industry.
That the season, which would ordinarily begin next week, is under threat this year owing to coronavirus restrictions is causing much anxiety.
“I have never not known a ski season,” said Di Bendinoni. “Even the years when there was little snow, we always had business. We work four months a year, seven days a week. The village basically survives on those few months of total activity.”
Iran reports new coronavirus infection record
Iran has reported a new daily record in coronavirus infections, as the country tightened its pandemic measures even further by all but closing government offices for an indefinite period.
From Saturday – the first day of Iran’s work week – “only those employees who need to be present will be at work” in government offices, state TV said, according to Associated Press. Managers will make the call on who must still come to work.
The report did not specify how long the closures would last, but asked Iranians to postpone any planned visits to government offices.
On Friday, Iran recorded 14,051 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 922,397. The country has also recorded more than 400 daily virus deaths since last Saturday, the same day new tighter restrictions came into effect.
Sima Sadat Lari, the health ministry’s spokeswoman, said the death toll reached 47,095 on Friday, after 406 people died since Thursday.
Iran’s government had recently resisted shutting down the country in an attempt to salvage an economy cratered by unprecedented American sanctions, which effectively bar Iran from selling its oil internationally.
The Trump administration reimposed sanctions in 2018 after withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
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Weeks after Denmark slaughtered 17 million mink to curb the spread of a mutated strain of coronavirus and buried them in shallow pits, its government has said it wants to dig them back up and burn them instead.
The decision comes after hundreds of dead mink, tipped into trenches at a military site in western Denmark, began emerging from the grave. The “zombie mink”, as they were dubbed by newspapers, were pushed out of the ground by what authorities say is gas from their decomposition.
The food and agriculture minister, Mogens Jensen, resigned after it was determined that the order for the cull was illegal. Jensen’s replacement, Rasmus Prehn, said on Friday he supported the idea of digging up the animals and incinerating them, according to Reuters.
He said he had asked the environmental protection agency look into whether it could be done, and parliament would be briefed on the issue on Monday.
The macabre burial sites, guarded 24 hours a day to keep people and animals away, have drawn complaints from nearby residents about possible health risks.
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The International Organization for Migration has issued an urgent call to governments not to forget migrants as they draw up plans for mass vaccinations in an attempt to halt the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at the south-east Europe health network (SEEHN) meeting coordinated from Skopje, North Macedonia, Jaime Calderon, IOM’s senior regional health adviser, said a combination of harsh winter conditions and seasonal flu could put a strain on already overburdened health services.
“Vaccines are among our most critical and cost-effective tools to prevent outbreaks and keep communities safe and healthy. For everyone to thrive, countries must intensify efforts to ensure that no one is left behind and all migrants – no matter their legal status – have access to the life-saving benefits of vaccines.”
SEEHN links the governments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia and North Macedonia, all source countries – and increasingly, transit countries – for migrants.
According to IOM, 30,000 migrants passed irregularly through the region this year, about the same as previous years, despite pandemic restrictions. There are about 12,500 currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 7,100 in Serbia.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, IOM is rushing warm clothes and sleeping bags to rough-sleeping migrants as temperatures drop below freezing.
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Germany’s government has proposed a new law banning the use of subcontractors in slaughterhouses after a string of Covid-19 outbreaks earlier this year were traced to poor working and living conditions of migrant labourers.
“We are putting an end to subcontracting in the meat industry from January 1, 2021,” the labour minister, Hubertus Heil, was quoted as saying by AFP, after a draft law was agreed by the government.
The German cabinet had agreed in May to change the law, but the two parties in the coalition government, the Social Democrats and the conservative CDU, had disagreed over the details.
The CDU had been pushing for exceptions to allow temporary workers to help produce sausages during the busy summer barbecue season.
The draft law bans subcontracting in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants but does allow for some temporary work in meat processing.
It will be debated in parliament in December.
Germany passed a million cases of coronavirus on Friday, with 22,806 new cases taking the total to 1,006,394, according to the Robert Koch Institute.
The reported death toll rose by 426 to 15,586, the figures showed.
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A report claims that the UK government tried to get doses of the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine labelled with an image of the union jack, write Rajeev Syal and Heather Stewart from the Guardian’s politics team.
No 10′s newly formed “Union unit”, which is tasked with combating calls for Scottish independence and other campaigns to break up the UK, had wanted injection kits to bear the flag, according to the Huffington Post.
The government’s vaccine taskforce was asked to ensure that manufacturers of the vaccine – developed alongside the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca – used the UK flag, according to the report.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman denied there were plans to put a flag on the vaccines, but did not deny there had been an attempt to do so.
“There are no plans for the union jack to be put on doses. It’s already the case that manufacturing has already begun for some of the leading vaccines, so they can be ready when they are approved. Manufacturers are well versed in the way to package products like this,” he said.
Eric Clapton has teamed up with Van Morrison to produce a new anti-lockdown protest song, in support of Morrison’s Save Live Music campaign. The blues track was written by Morrison and is performed by Clapton.
The new single, Stand and Deliver, will be released on 4 December. It follows Van Morrison’s previously released anti-lockdown tracks Born To Be Free, As I Walked Out and No More Lockdown.
Proceeds will go to the singer’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund which helps musicians facing difficulties as a result of coronavirus and lockdown, said a statement issued on behalf of the musician.
It quoted Eric Clapton as saying:
It is deeply upsetting to see how few gigs are going ahead because of the lockdown restrictions. There are many of us who support Van and his endeavours to save live music, he is an inspiration!
We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover.
Morrison was quoted as saying:
Eric’s recording is fantastic and will clearly resonate with the many who share our frustrations. It is heart-breaking to see so many talented musicians lack any meaningful support from the government, but we want to reassure them that we are working hard every day to lobby for the return of live music, and to save our industry.
A preview of the new track was posted to Twitter:
💥 NEW TRACK RELEASE 💥
— Save Live Music (@Save_LiveMusic) November 27, 2020
In a bid to save live venues and support musicians, @vanmorrison and @EricClapton are releasing a new single, ‘Stand and Deliver’
Download the exclusive track on December 4th to #SaveLiveMusic
Available on @AppleMusic @AmazonMusicUK @Deezer @Spotify pic.twitter.com/ehDdKGhoL0
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Finland’s business minister has said a proposal by Germany to close EU ski slopes to stop the spread of coronavirus would be fatal to business in his country.
A spokesman the for Finnish economic affairs minister, Mika Lintila, told AFP on Friday:
Here in Finland we have to remember that the majority of visitors to ski centres are domestic travellers. It would be quite odd if the ski centres were shut down in Finland because the corona situation in general is not as horrific as in some other countries.
Germany is seeking an EU-wide ban on ski tourism over Christmas to halt coronavirus transmissions, but many countries, including neighbouring Austria, have voiced strong opposition.
Lintila said Merkel’s plan to close ski centres would be “a fatal blow” to the Lapland tourist industry, where the country’s most popular resorts are situated.
“I would not close ski centres. I understand closing after-ski venues,” Lintila said.
Finland has so far reported 23,766 coronavirus infections, and 393 deaths from Covid-19.
Around a quarter of UK adults believe it will take more than a year for their lives to return to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey suggests.
Some 17% of people think it could take between four to six months, while just under a fifth (18%) believe it may be between 10 and 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) research, the PA news agency reports.
Only 2% of respondents thought it would be between one and three months, compared to 24% who said they expected it to be more than one year.
Meanwhile, just under a fifth (18%) thought their household’s financial situation would get a little worse in the next 12 months, while some 4% responded that it would get a lot worse.
The ONS questioned adults about their behaviour between 18 and 22 November as part of its Opinions and Lifestyle survey, receiving 3,631 responses. The weekly survey aims to understand the impact the pandemic on households and communities in Great Britain.
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Bethan McKernan, the Guardian’s Turkey and Middle East correspondent, has travelled to Ataq, Yemen, where war, hunger and devastating aid cuts have made the plight of people almost unbearable. She writes:
On a ward in Ataq general hospital in the dusty central province of Shabwa in Yemen, six-month-old Muna Bassam is lying on her back, eyes closed, her distended belly moving up and down with the labour of breathing.
In the corridor outside her room, a poster shows before-and-after photos of several children admitted to the ward who have managed to recover from acute malnutrition – still painfully thin, but smiling and alert. Muna’s family already took her to hospital once before. Worried about being able to pay for her treatment and fuel to return to the village, their prayers for her this time around are even more urgent.
“My wife and I had 20 children. Eleven of them died,” said the baby’s grandfather, Abdullah. “But that was a long time ago. This should not still be happening today.”
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Russia will ship some doses of its Sputnik V trial vaccine to Hungary next week, after a visit by a team of Hungarian doctors to see the manufacturing process, Reuters reports, citing a statement by the Russian health minister, Mikhail Murashko.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said talks were also under way on how the Russian vaccine could be potentially produced in Hungary.
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Concerns around the efficacy of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab in older people could lead to different age groups being given different vaccines, writes Nicola Davis, the Guardian’s science correspondent.
The partners announced last week that the vaccine had a 70% efficacy overall. For most trial participants – given two full doses, spaced a month apart – the efficacy was 62%, but for 3,000 participants mistakenly given half a dose for their first jab, the efficacy was 90%. No participants, regardless of dosing, developed severe Covid or were hospitalised with the disease.
Regulators such as the US FDA have previously said they would approve a vaccine that prevents Covid or reduces disease severity in at least 50% of vaccinated people.
The Oxford University/AstraZeneca results caused much excitement, with the 90% efficacy figure rivalling those of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
Unlike its rivals, the Oxford vaccine is cheap to produce and does not need to be stored at very cold temperatures. It also accounts for 100m of the 355m vaccine doses to which the UK government has secured early access.
However, it has emerged that the group that received the low dose of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine did not include any participants over the age of 55, meaning it is unclear whether the 90% efficacy holds for older adults, who are at higher risk from Covid.
Thailand has struck a deal to buy 26m doses of the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine candidate, enough to cover about a fifth of its 69m population.
Thailand’s national vaccine institute signed a non-refundable advance market commitment contract worth 2.38bn baht (£59m) with AstraZeneca, Oxford’s corporate partner, to reserve the supply of the vaccine candidate.
Another 3.67bn baht (£90m) agreement for the purchase of the trial vaccine, known as AZD1222, was signed by the health ministry’s disease control department.
The Thai prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, said at the signing:
We have followed the vaccine manufacturers globally, but this group has achieved very high progress. They are likely to be able to produce the vaccine early next year. Most importantly, we have to get ourselves ready for the domestic process including packaging and logistics.
A government spokesperson, Anucha Burapachaisri, said officials were still considering how to prioritise vaccine recipients.
Those who work closely with Covid-19 patients, for example doctors and nurses, should be among the first people. But this needs further discussion.
Oxford and AstraZeneca reported on Monday that their trial vaccine appeared to be 62% effective in people who received two doses, and 90% effective when volunteers were given a half dose followed by a full dose.
They did not mention at the time, but later acknowledged, that a manufacturing issue had resulted in “a half dose of the vaccine being administered as the first dose” to some participants, a development that led to criticism that its test results were flawed.
AstraZeneca has said it plans to conduct a new global clinical trial to make a fresh assessment of the vaccine’s efficacy.
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Hullo! This is Damien Gayle taking the reins of the live blog now, keeping you up to date with the latest coronavirus related news from around the globe.
If you want to get in touch to pass on any tips or suggestions for coverage then you can reach me either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
The UK communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, has insisted there is a prospect of some areas in England “de-escalating” from a higher to a lower tier of coronavirus measures before Christmas, despite scientists warning that the 16 December review will be too soon to make changes.
Many Conservative MPs reacted with anger after the UK government announced that 99% of the population in England would be placed under the top two tightest levels of restriction – tiers 2 and 3 – when the nationwide lockdown ends next week.
With suggestions that up to 70 Tory backbenchers are considering rebelling when the rules come to the House of Commons next Tuesday, Jenrick was keen to hold out the prospect of an early shift towards looser rules if compliance is high.
“There will be a review point every 14 days – so on the 16 or 17 December there will be an opportunity for those parts of the country where the judgment was finely balanced to potentially de-escalate from tier 3 to tier 2, and tier 2 to tier 1,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The wife of an 81-year-old Italian man whom he serenaded from beneath her hospital window has died.
Earlier this month Stefano Bozzini, who was unable to visit his wife, Carla, in hospital due to Covid-19 restrictions, touched the hearts of many after he was filmed playing songs that had defined their love on his accordion in the courtyard of the hospital in Castel San Giovanni, a town in Piacenza province.
Bozzini, a retired member of the Italian army’s Alpini mountain infantry, told the local press that he had lost his “alpine star”. The couple had been married for 47 years.
Carla, 74, spent 10 days in the hospital as she underwent tests for cancer and was discharged the day after her husband’s romantic gesture. The hospital does not treat Covid patients but visitors are banned in case they bring the virus in.
Speaking to the Guardian on 10 November, Bozzini said he had simply followed his heart on the day of the serenade.
A useful graphic from the World Health Organization detailing the latest coronavirus figures for much of the Middle East and parts of Africa:
#COVID19 confirmed cases and deaths in the @WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region as of 23:59 Cairo time on 26 November.
— WHO EMRO (@WHOEMRO) November 27, 2020
For more info on #coronavirus cases in the Region, visit the dashboard: https://t.co/QA0YnNd80U pic.twitter.com/2fzSF2Jnz9
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An anti-inflammatory drug normally used to treat gout, called colchicine, will be tested as a possible Covid-19 treatment in one of the world’s biggest trials.
The UK’s Recovery trial, which is the world’s largest clinical trial of treatments for hospitalised coronavirus patients, will randomly allocate at least 2,500 patients recruited to receive colchicine.
“Colchicine is an attractive drug to evaluate in the Recovery trial as it is very well understood, inexpensive and widely available,” said the Oxford University professor Peter Horby, co-chief investigator for the trial.
Colchicine costs about $124 (£92) for 30 capsules on the Drugs.com website. The scientists behind the trial said inflammation played a major role in Covid-19 and treatment with dexamethasone, another anti-inflammatory drug, has already shown that it can reduce deaths in the most severely ill patients.
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Germany will take on €180bn (£160bn) in new debt in 2021 as it grapples with the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis, according to a draft budget seen by the AFP news agency.
The normally fiscally conservative country approved a total of €179.8bn of new debt for next year after 17 hours of discussion at the parliamentary finance committee, according to a final document seen by AFP.
The agreement further shatters Germany’s constitutionally enshrined debt brake rule, with public spending now nearly €500bn, as the government continues to support the economy through the health crisis.
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Malaysia has signed a deal for 12.8m doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, the Bernama state news agency is reporting
The prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, said the first delivery of 1m doses was expected in the first quarter of 2021, with another 11.8m doses spread across the year.
Pfizer janji penghantaran 1 juta dos, 1.7 juta dos, 5.8 juta dos dan 4.3 juta dos masing-masing pada suku tahun pertama, kedua, ketiga dan keempat 2021- PM @MuhyiddinYassin pic.twitter.com/vEZOCVDYae
— BERNAMA (@bernamadotcom) November 27, 2020
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Indonesia reports record daily rise in cases
Indonesia has reported a new daily record high of 5,828 new coronavirus infections and 169 deaths, Reuters reports.
It brings the country’s total case numbers to 522,581 and coronavirus-related deaths to 16,521, both the highest in south-east Asia.
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A member of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned there is limited scope for easing coronavirus restrictions in England before Christmas.
Prof John Edmunds said they would have had little chance to assess how well the new tiered controls were working when they come up for the first 14-day review in mid-December.
He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think that is quite an early time to be able to see what the effect has been. I think we will still be seeing the effect of the lockdown at that point in time.
For me I think that is quite an early review stage. I can’t imagine there will be huge changes at that point just simply because I don’t think we will have accumulated much data by then.
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A handy graphic by the AFP news agency looking at the mammoth challenge of distributing Covid vaccines around the world:
AFP graphic on what it would take to vaccinate the world to end the Covid-19 pandemic@AFPgraphics pic.twitter.com/rwkQlRh3yv
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 27, 2020
Look away now if you’re squeamish.
Hundreds of dead mink have resurfaced from mass graves in Denmark after they were culled to prevent the spread of a novel strain of the coronavirus.
Residents have complained about possible health risks after the decaying remains became exposed less than two weeks after they were buried in shallow graves at a military area in western Denmark, Reuters reports.
The mink were buried in trenches about 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) deep and covered with about 2 metres of soil, according to the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.
Authorities say there is no risk of the graves spreading the coronavirus, but residents have complained about the potential risk of contaminating drinking water and a bathing lake less than 200 metres from the mass graves.
Russia reports record high of daily cases
Russia has reported a record high of 27,543 new coronavirus infections, including 7,918 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national tally to 2,215,533.
Authorities also reported 496 deaths related to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 38,558.
South Korea was seen as a model of how to clamp down on the coronavirus through measures such as aggressive contact tracing. But a third wave is under way in the country and it is being driven by people who do not have any symptoms, making the disease much more difficult to track.
South Korea reported 569 new cases in the 24 hours ending Thursday midnight, a level unseen in nearly nine months, Reuters reports.
Young people are at the centre of the surge and health authorities estimate that asymptomatic patients – those who do not show any of the typical Covid symptoms such as a persistent cough, high temperature or loss of taste and smell – now account for 40% of total infections, up sharply from 20-30% in June.
That compares with research suggesting about one in five infected people in general will experience no symptoms.
Authorities introduced tougher social distancing measures this week to contain transmission and encouraged people to get tested, yet cold weather is driving more people to meet inside.
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There is only one story on the front pages of England’s newspapers today. The new lockdown regime that will see 55 million people – 99% of the country – in the two toughest restrictions until at least mid-December.
Like many papers, we lead with the reaction to the news that most of the country faces tough rules for months to come. You can read Heather Stewart’s story here.
GUARDIAN: MPs’ fury as 55m people face months in top tiers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/IeFqBJwzvR
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) November 26, 2020
The Daily Telegraph reports that 34 million people will leave the national lockdown next Wednesday in tougher regulations than before it was imposed on 5 November.
TELEGRAPH: 34 million worse off than before lockdown #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/A8jXmgjQoH
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) November 26, 2020
The Mirror uses a picture of a grimacing Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, to illustrate what it calls “Tiers of despair”.
MIRROR: Tiers of despair #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/F3UgFE1jMv
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) November 26, 2020
And the Sun says it’s “all Wight for some” – a pun on the fact that only the 715,573 residents of Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight have escaped the top two tiers, meaning they can mix with up to six people indoors – unlike the rest of the population.
THE SUN: All wight for some #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/THhsXkfy39
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) November 26, 2020
Thanks very much to Ben Doherty for his masterful work. And for telling me he’s off to the beach, ahead of a heatwave weekend in Australia.
It’s Josh Halliday here in Manchester, England. It is pitch black, six degrees centigrade, and we’ve got a long winter of partial lockdowns ahead of us. But it is my birthday tomorrow. Good morning all!
So that’s my lot, Ben Doherty signing off from Sydney.
Thanks for your company, comments and correspondence today. I’m handing over to my magnificent colleague Josh Halliday in the UK now. You’re in good hands. Do read his very fine piece of a tale of two cities: the contrasting fortunes of Manchester and Liverpool.
As I go, a summary of today’s developments. Be well, and look after each other.
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Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has said he will not take a coronavirus vaccine, the latest in a series of statements he has made expressing skepticism toward coronavirus vaccination programs. “I’m telling you, I’m not going to take it. It’s my right.”
- Germany has surpassed 1 million confirmed Covid-19 cases, recording another 22,806 cases in the past 24 hours.
- South Korea’s intelligence agency foiled North Korean attempts to hack into South Korean companies developing coronavirus vaccines, a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee was quoted as saying. It follows revelations last week, that hackers working for the Russian and North Korean governments have tried to break into the networks of seven pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers in South Korea, Canada, France, India and the United States.
- AstraZeneca may begin another trial of its vaccine. The company, which is developing a tretment with Oxford University, is working with regulators to investigate a lower dosage of its vaccine that performed better than a full dosage.
- Almost all of England’s 55 million population faces tough post-lockdown restrictions. Tough new tier-based curbs will affect 99% of people in England when the national lockdown ends next week, prompting a furious backlash from MPs.
- Thanksgiving celebrations in the US have been muted. As people travelled to see families, the US reported 181,490 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a third daily rise in a row, as hospitalisations hit a record for a 16th day in succession, at 89,959.
- US president Donald Trump claims deliveries of a vaccine would begin next week. Speaking to US troops overseas via video link to mark the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said the vaccine would initially be sent to frontline workers, medical personnel and senior citizens.
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The Australian state of Victoria has achieved “Covid” elimination. The state had an almost three-month lockdown to contain a second-wave outbreak but has now had 28 days without one new case.
- Mass vaccination against Covid-19 is unlikely to start in Africa until midway through next year and keeping vaccines cold could be a big challenge, the continent’s disease control group said on Thursday.
- France reported 13,563 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, compared with 16,282 on Wednesday and 21,150 a week ago, suggesting the spread of the virus continued to slow in the fourth week of a national lockdown. Italy reported 822 Covid 19-related deaths on Thursday, up from 722 the day before.
- Croatia will close cafes and restaurants and ban weddings until Christmas as the number of coronavirus cases hit a record high for the second day in a row, the government said. The country of 4 million reported 4,009 new cases and 51 deaths on Thursday, with 21,725 active cases.
Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs has declared that Santa Claus’s travel, on or about the night of December 24 is “essential travel”. Santa is exempt but should practice social distancing, so don’t stay up late waiting for him. Be good kids! (talking largely to my children here)
Important message for children of #Ireland - #Santa is coming & will be exempt from #Covid restrictions on International Travel. However children should be aware that social distancing guidelines should apply to Santa. pic.twitter.com/AT7LTMKFFt
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 26, 2020
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero have agreed to produce over 100 million doses per year in India of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, according to a statement on the Sputnik V Twitter account on Friday.
Hetero and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has been backing the vaccine and marketing it globally, plan to start production of Sputnik V in India at the beginning of 2021, the statement said.
RDIF and Hetero, one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies, agree to produce over 100 million doses of the #SputnikV vaccine in India
— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) November 27, 2020
Read more: https://t.co/bJL0Yg60CL
Phase II-III trials are ongoing in India, the statement said. Drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has said it expects late-stage trials to be completed by as early as March 2021.
Updated
Ukraine registered a record 16,218 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, health minister Maksym Stepanov said on Friday, surpassing the previous day’s record of 15,331.
Total infections climbed to 693,407 cases, with 11,909 deaths, he said.
Samoa has confirmed its first case of coronavirus – a case imported from Australia – after nearly 11 months keeping Covid from its shores.
The positive case was detected in a 70-year-old Samoan citizen who travelled to Apia from Melbourne, landing in the capital on a repatriation flight on 13 November.
The Pacific remains the least-infected region on earth, thanks in large part to island nations’ geographic isolation. But many Pacific countries are acutely vulnerable to potential outbreaks, with fragile public health systems and populations with significant rates of co-morbidities.
Outbreaks could quickly overwhelm medical care capacity, so many states have resolutely shut borders where possible.
Covid grief is worse than other types of grief, according to the first findings of UK-wide research into how people have coped with the deaths of loved ones during the pandemic.
Family and friends bereaved by coronavirus experienced “greatly increased negative experiences” and showed higher grief and support needs compared to people suffering the loss of loved ones from other illnesses, including cancer, researchers at Cardiff and Bristol universities found.
Lots of weddings in the liveblog today, see earlier post on nuptials in Gaza...
Gibraltar was never on Bruno Miani’s list of places to visit - but that all changed when the pandemic upended his plans to marry his girlfriend in Dublin where they live.
With government offices closed due to virus restrictions, the 40-year-old photographer and his partner struggled to get the documents they needed for a wedding licence and faced a long wait for an available time slot for the ceremony.
So the Brazilian couple took a low-cost flight to Malaga and then travelled by bus to Gibraltar, a tiny British territory at the southernmost tip of Spain where on Tuesday they tied the knot at the local registry office before a portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
“The fastest way to get married now is to go to Gibraltar,” said Miani, whose eyes welled with tears when the registrar declared that he and Natalia Senna Alves de Lima were now legally husband and wife.
“We love each other a lot. We already live together as a married couple. This makes it official.”
Gibraltar requires minimum bureaucracy to get married and there are no virus border restrictions, which has helped turn it into a wedding hotspot during the pandemic.
Couples just need to present their passports and birth certificates, and stay in the territory overnight either before or after their wedding.
They then just need to have their marriage registered by the authorities in their home country.
Wedding planners report huge demand from couples from outside the territory.
“It is absolutely insane. We just can’t get enough slots and spaces,” said Leanne Hindle, the director of wedding events company Marry Abroad Simply.
Many marriages being celebrated in Gibraltar involve couples of different nationalities in long-distance relationships who could not travel to each other’s country to get married and start their lives together because of virus travel restrictions.
Often there is a pressing need to wed, such as the case of a couple whose insurance would not cover the expensive fertility treatment they needed to have a child unless they were married, said Hindle.
Another common scenario involves a person being offered a job in another country and they can only bring their partner with them if they are legally married, she added.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Hindle. “It is not just because they fancy getting married during Covid because it is a story for the grandkids.”
Gibraltar is also drawing many couples from neighbouring Spanish regions because its rules on the use of face masks in public and the size of social gatherings are less strict, said Resham Mahtani, a wedding planner at Rock Occasions.
Spain’s southern Andalusia region which surrounds the British territory limits private gatherings to a maximum of six people indoors, compared to a limit of 16 people in Gibraltar which only recorded its first Covid-19 death earlier this month.
Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told AFP he was “delighted that Gibraltar has become known as a place of love rather than a place of division.”
For anyone who needs to “make that bond of love official and legal, Gibraltar is the place for you,” he added.
Updated
To Australia, the continent from where your correspondent pens these words, and which is bracing for a scorching weekend, with temperatures approaching 50 degrees in some places...
Australia’s second-largest state, Victoria, once the country’s Covid-19 hotspot, said on Friday it has gone 28 days without detecting any new infections, a benchmark widely cited as eliminating the virus from the community.
The state also has zero active cases after the last COVID-19 patient was discharged from hospital this week, a far cry from August when Victoria recorded more than 700 cases in one day and active infections totalled nearly 8,000.
The spread of the virus was only contained after a lockdown lasting more than 100 days, leaving some 5 million people in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, largely confined to their homes.
While the lockdown has seen infections wane, it slowed Australia’s economic recovery from its first recession in three decades after large swathes of the country’s economy were shut down in March.
Australia’s economy shrank 7% in the three months to the end of June, the biggest quarterly decline since records began in 1959. The unemployment rate hit a 22-year high of 7.5% in July as businesses and borders closed to deal with the coronavirus.
The slowdown in cases, however, has seen Australian states and territories remove social distancing restrictions.
Australia’s southern island state, Tasmania, on Friday became the latest to open its border to Victoria, reuniting families who had been apart for months.
Victoria is the last state to gain access to Tasmania, which closed its borders in March.
Covid normal
While Australia is removing restrictions in contrast to other countries in Europe, which are imposing curbs to counter a surge of infections, local lawmakers have said only an effective vaccine will restore longstanding normalcy.
Australia has secured access to four vaccine candidates, but its best hope for a quick vaccination programme lies with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is already being manufactured locally.
The Australian government has committed to buying 33.8 million doses of the vaccine.
A speedy roll-out of the AstraZeneca came under the microscope, however, when the company said it will likely run an additional global trial to assess the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine.
Still, Australia’s minister for health Greg Hunt said this would not delay Canberra’s expected timetable to begin vaccinations from March.
Australia’s nearly 28,000 Covid-19 infections recorded to date, according to health ministry data, are far fewer than many other developed countries. Victoria accounts for more than 90% of the country’s 905 deaths.
Apropos not of Covid, but it’s gonna be hot here...
More on the AstraZeneca vaccine trial:
AstraZeneca is likely to run an additional global trial to assess the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine using a lower dosage, its chief executive was quoted as saying on Thursday amid questions over the results of its late-stage study.
Instead of adding the trial to an ongoing US process, AstraZeneca might launch a fresh study to evaluate a lower dosage of its vaccine that performed better than a full dosage, Pascal Soriot told Bloomberg News.
“Now that we’ve found what looks like a better efficacy we have to validate this, so we need to do an additional study,” he said, adding that the new, likely global, study could be faster because it would need fewer subjects as the efficacy was already known to be high.
The news comes as AstraZeneca faces questions about its success rate that some experts say could hinder its chances of getting speedy US and EU regulatory approval.
Several scientists have raised doubts about the robustness of results released on Monday showing the experimental vaccine was 90% effective in a sub-group of trial participants who, by error initially, received a half dose followed by a full dose.
Soriot said he did not expect the additional trial to delay British and European regulatory approvals.
Asked about the Bloomberg report, an AstraZeneca spokesman said there was strong merit in continuing to investigate the half-dose/full dose regimen. Any further insights from the data would be added to those from existing trials that are being prepared for regulatory submission, he said.
Germany passes 1 million cases
Germany has recorded another 22,806 cases, taking the overall total past 1 million to 1,006,394, figures from the Robert Koch Institute said on Friday.
The reported death toll rose by 426 to 15,586, the figures showed.
The Pakistan cricket team’s behaviour in their bio-secure facility in Christchurch had “significantly improved”, New Zealand’s ministry of Health said on Friday, 24 hours after the tourists had been warned about breaching Covid-19 protocols.
The ministry had confirmed on Thursday that six of the 53 touring party members had tested positive for the novel coronavirus upon arrival, while there was also evidence there had been breaches of bio-security rules.
“Since the team was issued with a warning, compliance with MIQ (managed isolation and quarantine) rules in the facility has significantly improved,” it said in a statement on Friday. “We thank members of the team for their co-operation.”
Earlier, New Zealand’s director of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said the government took a “dim view” of the squad’s behaviour.
“Rather than being in their own rooms, which is a requirement for the first three days, there was some mingling in the hallways, chatting, sharing food and not wearing masks,” he told RNZ, New Zealand’s public-service radio broadcaster.
New Zealand's director of public health slams the Covid-19 protocol breaches made by Pakistan's squad ⤵
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 27, 2020
The positive results had come from tests administered upon the team’s entry to New Zealand, where all arrivals have to undergo 14 days of isolation. The ministry added that the squad had undergone a second round of testing on Friday.
The team had been given an exemption to train together in small bubbles after the second round of testing but that has been temporarily rescinded after the positive results. Health officials were still conducting interviews with the squad.
Updated
North Korean vaccine espionage allegations
South Korea’s intelligence agency foiled North Korean attempts to hack into South Korean companies developing coronavirus vaccines, the News1 agency reported on Friday, citing a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee.
Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung said after being briefed by the National Intelligence Service that the agency did not specify how many and which drugmakers were targeted but said there was no damage from the hacking attempts, News1 said.
Last week, Microsoft said hackers working for the Russian and North Korean governments have tried to break into the networks of seven pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers in South Korea, Canada, France, India and the United States.
From the Associated Press in New Delhi:
A fire broke out early Friday in a privately-run hospital treating coronavirus patients in western India, killing at least five of them and injuring 28 others.
Police officer K.N. Bhukan said fire engines restricted the blaze to one floor of the hospital and extinguished it within 30 minutes.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the fire started in the intensive care unit of Uday Shivanand Hospital that was treating 33 coronavirus patients.
Some of the patients with fire burns were evacuated to another hospital in Rajkot, a city in western Gujarat state, nearly 1,100 kilometres southwest of New Delhi.
In August, a fire killed eight coronavirus patients in a hospital in Ahmedabad, another key city in Gujarat state.
Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment often causes deaths in India.
To the sound of drums and flutes, a freshly coiffed Palestinian groom dances with his brothers, cousins and friends, anxiously waiting for his veiled bride to arrive in her shimmering gown.
It might have been a normal Gaza wedding, except for the venue - not a luxurious seaside hall, but a narrow alley in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Welcome to Gaza’s new pandemic-era weddings: they are small because of strict crowd limits, they are held outdoors, and they finish early to beat the curfews.
And they are a whole lot cheaper than usual.
“I’m not entirely happy because I would have preferred to celebrate it in a wedding hall,” said the groom, Mohammed Ahmed Ashour, wearing a blazer and burgundy tie.
But for his family, the 24-year-old merchant told AFP between dances, the pared-down nuptials have also brought welcome savings at a time of economic hardship.
Weddings in the Palestinian coastal enclave are usually extravagant affairs, held in large halls that dot the Mediterranean coastline.
Despite staggering poverty and unemployment rates of around 50 percent even before the pandemic, many Gazans spend several thousand dollars on weddings.
This year the virus has further impacted the economy in the strip, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, and is currently spreading rapidly across Gaza.
In recent weeks infections have multiplied and “the situation is getting out of control,” warned Doctor Ahmad al-Jadba of Gaza City’s Shifa hospital.
To contain the spread of coronavirus, the Islamist group Hamas that runs the strip, like authorities elsewhere, has banned large indoor gatherings.
Families have been forced to hold smaller weddings in less-than-fairytale settings - like alleys and backyards - but saved bundles in the process.
Ashour said these days many couples opt for scaled-back daytime nuptials which take “a little over an hour”.
Once the Ashours’ wedding was over, the musicians - three percussionists and a player of the traditional reed flute called a ney - headed home before the evening curfew.
They had more performances booked for the next day, as their small, travelling business is now thriving.
A few days later they were in Jabaliya, a town in the north of the strip, for the wedding of Ahmed Omar Khallah, a 28-year-old postman.
Khallah said that for him, too, the timing is good: “There is no work, no money, but we have saved a lot by marrying now,” he told AFP.
He was picking up his bride from a beauty salon called “Al-Hour al-Ayn”, an Islamic expression referring to the beautiful eyes of the women of paradise.
Its proprietor, Fadwi, confirmed that “many young couples prefer to get married during the corona period because the costs are lower. They don’t have to rent wedding halls or pay for large buffets.”
Fadwi has changed his business hours to accommodate the new routine as Hamas police patrols enforce the night-time curfews.
“We now start work around 7:00 am,” he said, “because people only get married in ceremonies until 5:00 pm.”
Bolsonaro says he won't take vaccine
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday evening that he will not take a coronavirus vaccine, the latest in a series of statements he has made expressing skepticism toward coronavirus vaccination programs.
In statements broadcast live over multiple social media platforms, the right-wing leader added that Congress was unlikely to require Brazilians to take a vaccine.
Brazil has the second highest number of coronavirus deaths in the world, and Bolsonaro has for months played down the seriousness of the pandemic despite being infected with the virus in July.
“I’m telling you, I’m not going to take it. It’s my right,” he said.
Bolsonaro also expressed skepticism over the effectiveness of mask wearing in the broadcast, implying there was little conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of masks in stemming the transmission of the virus.
The president has repeatedly said Brazilians will not be required to be vaccinated when a coronavirus vaccine becomes widely available.
In October, he joked on Twitter that vaccination would be required only for his dog.
Updated
China on Friday reported five new coronavirus cases in the mainland for 26 November compared with 21 cases a day earlier, the health authority said.
All of the new infections were imported cases, the National Health Commission said in a statement. There were no new deaths.
China also reported eight new asymptomatic patients, compared with 25 a day earlier.
Mainland China had a total of 86,495 confirmed coronavirus cases, it said.
China’s death toll from the coronavirus remained unchanged at 4,634.
Mexico’s health ministry on Thursday reported 8,107 additional cases of the novel coronavirus and 645 more deaths in the country, bringing the official number of infections to 1,078,594 and the death toll to 104,242.
Health officials have said the real number of infections is likely to be significantly higher.
A tale of two cities:
As Matt Hancock put the final touches to England’s new lockdown regime on Wednesday night, the mood of leaders in Manchester and Liverpool could not have been more different.
On Merseyside the leaders felt they had done all they could to have become the first English region to leave the strictest coronavirus measures introduced six weeks ago. The Liverpool city region has now been moved down to tier 2.
Meanwhile, the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, grimly expected yet another dose of punishment for 2.8 million people who have been unable to see loved ones indoors for a period of four months. Manchester was put back into tier 3.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan’s last democratically elected leader and the great-grandson of the messianic figure who fought the British in the 19th century, has died from the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Mahdi, who was a central figure in Sudan’s political and spiritual life for more than half a century, was being treated in the United Arab Emirates.
The current premier, Abdalla Hamdok, said the 84-year-old was “one of the most important men of thought, politics, literature and wisdom in our country,” as the government declared three days of mourning.
Mahdi was last voted into office in 1986, then overthrown three years later in a military coup.
Abdelwahid Ibrahim, a UK-based Sudanese analyst, said: “Over his long years in politics, he expressed his commitment to democracy, human rights, social justice, and the quest for liberation, and in this he succeeded a lot and failed a lot, which made him a controversial figure.”
Mahdi’s family said last month he had tested positive for Covid-19. He was transferred to the UAE for treatment a few days later following a brief hospitalisation in Sudan.
Amazon has announced plans to spend more than $500m on one-time bonuses for its front-line employees in the United States who are working the holiday season amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Full-time operations staff in the United States who are employed by Amazon for the month of Decembe will receive a bonus of $300, while those in part-time roles will get $150, the online retailer said in a blog post.
Several retailers, including Walmart and Home Depot, have spent millions in bonuses to compensate staff for catering to a surge in online shopping during the pandemic.
Morning/afternoon/evening everyone. Welcome to our new blog covering the developments in the coronavirus pandemic.
- AstraZeneca may begin another trial of its vaccine. The company, which is developing a tretment with Oxford University, is working with regulators to investigate a lower dosage of its vaccine that performed better than a full dosage.
- Almost all of England’s 55 million population faces tough post-lockdown restrictions. Tough new tier-based curbs will affect 99% of people in England when the national lockdown ends next week, prompting a furious backlash from MPs.
- Thanksgiving celebrations in the US have been muted. As people travelled to see families, the US reported 181,490 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a third daily rise in a row, as hospitalisations hit a record for a 16th day in succession, at 89,959.
- US president Donald Trump claims deliveries of a vaccine would begin next week. Speaking to US troops overseas via video link to mark the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said the vaccine would initially be sent to frontline workers, medical personnel and senior citizens.
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The Australian state of Victoria has achieved “Covid” elimination. The state had an almost three-month lockdown to contain a second-wave outbreak but has now had 28 days without one new case.
- Mass vaccination against Covid-19 is unlikely to start in Africa until midway through next year and keeping vaccines cold could be a big challenge, the continent’s disease control group said on Thursday.
- France reported 13,563 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, compared with 16,282 on Wednesday and 21,150 a week ago, suggesting the spread of the virus continued to slow in the fourth week of a national lockdown. Italy reported 822 Covid 19-related deaths on Thursday, up from 722 the day before.
- Croatia will close cafes and restaurants and ban weddings until Christmas as the number of coronavirus cases hit a record high for the second day in a row, the government said. The country of 4 million reported 4,009 new cases and 51 deaths on Thursday, with 21,725 active cases.
