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Summary
Here are some of the day’s main developments:
- The Czech Republic, battling the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 infections, tightened lockdown restrictions amid concerns the healthcare system could collapse due to a record number of patients in a serious condition. The new measures seek to confine people mostly to their home districts, but the prime minister Andrej Babis faces heavy criticism that the new measures are insufficient as factories remain open.
- People in France aged over 65 with existing health problems can be given the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the health minister said on Monday, departing from Paris’s earlier stance that the vaccine should be for under-65s only. When the vaccine was approved for use by EU regulators, France mandated it would only go to eligible people under 65 because data from trials in older age groups was limited.The president Emmanuel Macron was quoted as saying the AstraZeneca jab was “quasi-effective” for over-65s.
- Nicaragua will begin its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Tuesday. People with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, kidney failure and cancer, will be given priority. Last week, the country received its first batch of vaccine doses from an initial donation of Russia’s Sputnik V.
- Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo became the first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine under the global Covax scheme. Akufo-Addo received his AstraZeneca shot live on television along with his wife, while in neighbouring Ivory Coast a presidential spokesman got the country’s first jab, also part of a Covax delivery. Ivory Coast received some 504,000 doses from Covax, while Ghana got 600,000 that it will start to roll out this week.
Just 4% of scientific research published on Covid-19 is relevant to Africa despite the continent containing close to a fifth of humanity, according to an analysis published Tuesday.
With nearly four million confirmed cases across the continent, the authors of the study said the relative lack of research on Africa or authored by Africans added to the growing body of “evidence of coloniality in global health research and decision-making”.
Researchers analysed more than 2,000 peer-reviewed articles published in the 10 leading health and medical journals between 1 January and 30 September 2020.
Just 94 out of 2,196 articles studied - around 4% - contained content related to Africa or a specific African country, the analysis found. In the articles relevant to Africa, just 210 out of 619 listed authors who were African - 34%.
That means that two-thirds of the authors of Covid-19 research related to the continent were non-African, compared with African authors making up 3% of the authors of non-Africa-focused research.
Africa is home to 17% of the world’s population.
The authors of the analysis, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health, said the results were not surprising given how African authors have historically been under-represented across scientific research.
“Health policy is not only informed by original research; sensible, contextually appropriate guidelines, opinions and commentary are also essential to improving the functioning of healthcare systems,” they wrote.
“This is especially true during times of surge, when original research can be challenging to produce in low resource settings, like those in Africa.
“African voices and research are needed to guide the local pandemic response,” they concluded.
The authors called for governments to increase research funding, particularly into infectious diseases, and said that scientific journals had a role to play in ensuring their studies are more representative of the global population.
“The time has come that authoritative journals need to turn to authors and ask where local representation is on papers describing health systems in regions that are not their own,” they wrote.
A separate analysis reinforced the findings, looking at research linked to African researchers or institutions between November 2019 and August 2020.
It found that African countries produced 3% of the global share of Covid-19 publications during this period. Almost two thirds of these came from just three countries: South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria.
The P1 coronavirus variant that originated in Brazil has been found in at least 15 countries that are not on the UK government’s red list – those from which travel is banned for all but UK residents, who must quarantine in a hotel on arrival for 10 days – it has emerged.
Six cases of P1, which originated in Manaus on the Amazon river in Brazil, have been identified in the UK – three in England and three in Scotland. The variant is worrying scientists and public health experts because it has mutations that could allow it to escape the vaccines currently available.
Five people with the variant are isolating, but the identity of the sixth is unknown. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, told Monday’s Downing Street briefing it was possible that person took a test during a local authority surge – house-to-house testing aimed probably at detecting the variant that originated in South Africa and is similar to P1.
Residents arriving from red-listed Brazil or South Africa would face quarantine in a hotel, while non-residents cannot travel to England at all. In Scotland, all international arrivals are quarantined. The three Scottish cases are residents who flew to Aberdeen from Brazil via Paris and London, according to the Scottish government.
But according to a list compiled by the World Health Organization, P1 has been found in 15 countries that are not on the UK red list. These include Canada and the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Mexico, India, Italy and the Republic of Korea. Cases have also been detected in six more countries including Ireland and Switzerland, but these are not yet verified, the WHO says.
The WHO report said there were further reports of the variant being found in other countries it was still working on verifying, including China, Croatia, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
Full story here:
Chile plans to ramp up its purchase of vaccines from China’s Sinovac and hopes to sign a deal shortly with Johnson & Johnson, the health minister said on Monday, as the nation moves to strengthen its widely lauded coronavirus vaccination campaign.
Chile has jumped ahead of the rest of Latin America and many countries globally with its inoculation programme. The country has already inoculated 3.35 million of its 19 million citizens against Covid-19, officials said on Monday.
Health minister Enrique Paris said new talks with Sinovac Biotech were progressing quickly and that Chile was negotiating a “significant increase” atop the 10 million doses the Chinese pharmaceutical company had already promised the country.
Paris said officials were also discussing contract details with US-based Johnson & Johnson and seeking to firm up a date for initial shipments. “If Johnson & Johnson cannot move forward with [shipments] ... we will have to continue negotiating hard with other companies,” the minister said.
The country moved fast and early to lock down vaccines, signing deals with US-based Pfizer, British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca and Sinovac. Paris said Chile would soon receive the first batch of 890,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the global Covax programme.
The Chilean undersecretary for international economic relations, Rodrigo Yanez, told foreign correspondents later that this year’s $200m budget for vaccines would have to be expanded. “Because of the amounts involved, the dose prices, we believe it will be over or close to $300m,” he said.
There have been 20,660 Covid-19 deaths in Chile and more than 825,000 cases.
Updated
Brazilian states blast Bolsonaro over pandemic during worst phase yet
Angry with President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic in its most severe phase, 16 Brazilian governors accused the far-right leader of misleading the country and state authorities urged a nationwide curfew and closure of airports.
A year after Brazil’s Covid-19 outbreak began, it has killed over 255,000 Brazilians and yet little more than 3% of the 210 million population has been vaccinated, raising criticism of Bolsonaro for failing to secure timely supplies of vaccines.
Last week was the deadliest yet for Brazil’s outbreak, averaging nearly 1,200 confirmed deaths per day according to the health ministry data. Intensive care units in the country’s main cities have reached critical occupancy levels not seen since the first peak of the pandemic last July.
State governors have again adopted restrictions limiting all but essential services, including in Brazil’s capital city, Brasilia, which decreed a 24-hour lockdown.
Bolsonaro, who has played down the gravity of the virus and said it was fine if people refused to be vaccinated, turned up his attacks on the governors in recent days, saying they were destroying jobs of Brazilians who want to work.
Over the weekend, Bolsonaro, his sons and some government ministers accused the governors on social media of not having properly used federal funds to tackle the pandemic.
“Closing a city or state so you can say you’re doing something is like being an anonymous dictator,” said federal senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the president’s eldest son, at an event in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. “A lockdown is a sign of a poor manager.”
Sixteen of Brazil’s 26 state governors, including three governors who are Bolsonaro allies, issued a public retort on Monday in which they said the president was lying to the nation and providing false data on federal funding to the states.
Hours later the national association of state health secretaries CONASS criticised the federal government for the lack of coordination across the country in fighting Covid-19.
They complained of a piecemeal approach by each state and city, calling for a national curfew and the closure of airports to stop the spread of the virus.
“The whole country is collapsing, all the states,” said João Gabbardo, head of the Covid-19 task force in Sao Paulo. “We cannot continue facing this pandemic without a unified approach and a single direction given to the public.”
Updated
World won't be done with Covid-19 this year, warns WHO
It is unrealistic to think the world will be done with the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of the year, the World Health Organization warned on Monday.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said it might however be possible to take the tragedy out of the coronavirus crisis by reducing hospitalisations and deaths.
But the virus remains in control, he added, especially given that global new case numbers increased last week after six consecutive weeks of decline.
“It will be very premature, and I think unrealistic, to think that we’re going to finish with this virus by the end of the year,” Ryan told journalists. “But I think what we can finish with, if we’re smart, is the hospitalisations, the deaths and the tragedy associated with this pandemic.”
Ryan said that vaccinating front-line health care workers and those most vulnerable to severe disease would “take the fear... out of the pandemic”.
But he added that recent progress could not be taken for granted and “right now the virus is very much in control”.
The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said new case numbers rose last week in Europe, the Americas, southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.
“This is disappointing, but not surprising,” he said. “Some of it appears to be due to relaxing of public health measures, continued circulation of variants, and people letting down their guard.”
He added: “Vaccines will help to save lives, but if countries rely solely on vaccines, they’re making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the response.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said: “If the last week tells us anything, it’s that this virus will rebound if we let it - and we cannot let it.”
Tedros wants Covid-19 vaccination under way in every country within the first 100 days of 2021 - meaning there are 40 days left to go.
Updated
The coronavirus variant on the rise in New York City contains the same E484K mutation seen in variants in Brazil and South Africa believed to make Covid-19 vaccines and antibody therapies less effective, as well as a mutation called S477N that helps it bind more tightly to cells when it breaks into them.
A report by New York State Department of Health researchers posted on Monday on medRxiv ahead of peer review adds new information. All versions of the variant circulating in New York harbour a mutation called D235G that might reduce the efficacy of neutralising antibodies.
The variant “has increased in the circulating virus population in New York state by almost 26-fold in a little over a month,” the researchers said. “The combination of E484K or S477N with a D253G mutation that might confer immune escape, and the increased number of Covid-19 cases associated with these variants, warrants further monitoring.”
The Ecuadorean president, Lenin Moreno, has named an experienced surgeon as the country’s health minister, after the previous minister’s resignation following accusations of irregularities in a pilot programme for coronavirus vaccinations.
Rodolfo Farfan, 63, will replace Juan Carlos Zevallos, who is under investigation by state prosecutors for mishandling the vaccine rollout after he participated in an inoculation effort at a nursing home where his mother lives. Zevallos resigned on Friday.
His resignation followed scandals in Latin American countries including Peru and Argentina over nepotism and favouritism in the distribution of scarce Covid-19 vaccines.
Farfan had been serving as vice minister for comprehensive care within the ministry.
Ecuador is aiming this year to vaccinate 60% of its population over age 18. Moreno has said he has secured 20 million vaccine doses for the country of some 17 million people.
The country last year faced one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the region when hospitals and morgues in the city of Guayaquil were overwhelmed, forcing the government to collect dead bodies from homes.
The country has officially reported some 286,000 cases and 11,078 deaths. The government says a further 4,754 deaths are likely due to novel coronavirus.
Updated
Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday became the first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine under the global Covax scheme.
The scheme, designed to ensure poorer countries do not miss out on vaccinations as worries grow that rich nations are hogging the doses, is aiming to deliver at least two billion jabs by the end of the year.
Akufo-Addo received his AstraZeneca shot live on television along with his wife, while in neighbouring Ivory Coast a presidential spokesman got the country’s first jab, also part of a Covax delivery.
Ivory Coast received some 504,000 doses from Covax, while Ghana got 600,000 that it will start to roll out this week.
“It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it, so that everybody in Ghana can feel comfortable about taking this vaccine,”Akufo-Addo said.
The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the first Covax shots:
It’s encouraging to see health workers in lower-income countries starting to be vaccinated, but it’s regrettable that this comes almost three months after some of the wealthiest countries started their vaccination campaigns.
On Monday, 1st March 2021, my beautiful Rebecca and I were at the 37 Military Hospital to take the COVID-19 vaccine publicly. The vaccine is safe, and it will help protect us against the impact of COVID-19 on our health. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/4MVXOioOIo
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) March 1, 2021
It is also a major catalyst to restoring livelihoods and the national economy to the robust level it belongs. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/1UKpwd1ASO
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) March 1, 2021
Nicaragua will begin its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Tuesday, giving priority to people with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, kidney failure and cancer, the vice president Rosario Murillo said on Monday.
Last week, the country received its first batch of vaccine doses from an initial donation of Russia’s Sputnik V product.
Israel will discuss the possibility of a Covid-19 vaccine venture with Austria and Denmark, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen are expected in Israel this week to see Israel’s rapid vaccine rollout up close, Netanyahu said in public remarks.
The leaders will also talk about the idea of “an international corporation for manufacturing vaccines,” he said.
Netanyahu has made Israel’s successful vaccine program, and what he has highlighted as his personal role in securing sufficient doses, a showcase of his campaign in the run-up to the 23 March national election.
France eases ban on AstraZeneca vaccine for over-65s
People in France aged over 65 with existing health problems can be given the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the health minister said on Monday, departing from Paris’s earlier stance that the vaccine should be for under-65s only.
When the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use by European Union regulators, France mandated it would only go to eligible people under 65 because data from trials in older age groups was limited.
The French president Emmanuel Macron was quoted as telling journalists the AstraZeneca vaccine was “quasi-effective” for over-65s. That position contrasted with the UK, which was first to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine and approved it for use in all age categories.
Since that decision, more data from trials has shown the efficacy of the vaccine, while France has also struggled with a shortage of vaccines from its other suppliers, Pfizer and Moderna.
Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV, the health minister Olivier Veran said:
Anybody aged 50 or over who is affected by co-morbidities can get the AstraZeneca vaccine, including those between 65 and 74.
People aged 75 and over would continue to get the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines only, Veran added.
The Czech Republic, battling the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 infections, deployed more police officers and soldiers on Monday to help enforce new lockdown measures that seek to confine people mostly to their home districts.
The prime minister Andrej Babis has said the healthcare system faces collapse without the new restrictions due to a record number of patients in a serious condition.
The country of 10.7 million has recorded the highest per capita infection rate in the world over the last week, according to the Our World in Data website, 11 times higher than neighbouring Germany.
Exactly a year from when the first Covid-19 case was reported, authorities deployed around 26,000 police officers and 3,800 soldiers to enforce the three-week order limiting free movement, though there were exemptions for work-related travel.
They also shut pre-schools and classes for first and second grade pupils. Other pupils were already learning from home.
“People did not want to keep the rules before today and that is why Covid is here. Maybe this will help,” Pavel Novotny, a train conductor, told Reuters outside a largely empty station in Prague.
Babis has faced criticism that the new measures do not go far enough as factories remain open. He is balancing this with public frustration over lockdowns that have seen non-essential shops, restaurants and entertainment largely shut since October.
Babis has rejected calls to shut industry, saying this would cause job losses, and has instead proposed more testing in factories.
The deputy prime minister Jan Hamacek, who leads the junior governing party the Social Democrats, has argued for a reduced workforce until more testing can take place.
“According to experts, it’s necessary to control companies, otherwise in one month, we will end up exactly where we are now,” he said.
The country enacted tough measures a year ago when the pandemic started, and the biggest manufacturers idled then for several weeks, costing the economy dear.
New, more contagious variants of the virus have added to the latest surge, and a slow vaccine rollout is not helping. The death toll has doubled since mid-December to reach 20,469.
Robin Sin, a regional vaccination coordinator and crisis medicine expert, said missteps such as opening shops for a time before Christmas added to the country’s woes. Shutting some non-critical industry for a while could help, Sin said, adding:
Limiting movement between districts is completely insufficient.
Israelis returning home from abroad have a new option that will exempt them from being sent to a quarantine hotel: They can wear a bracelet monitor that will notify authorities should they violate a mandatory isolation period, Reuters reports.
The pilot program began on Monday with 100 tracking systems available at Ben Gurion airport, where traffic has dropped dramatically due to restrictions meant to reduce the risk of Covid-19 variants entering the country.
Incoming passengers have been forced to stay at hotels, paid for by the government, for up to two weeks to make sure they are virus-free before they can move around freely. Should someone choose the new system - which includes an electronic bracelet, a smartphone and a wall-mounted tracker - they can self-isolate at home.
“We said we want it,” said 44-year-old Alejandro Quil, who wore the slim, lightweight and waterproof bracelet on his wrist. “They gave us the service, it’s great for us so we won’t have to go to a hotel, so we will can do the quarantine at home as it should be.”
The system alerts the authorities if someone removes the bracelet or ventures too far from the home monitor.
“There is potential for the pilot to quickly expand into a project consisting of thousands of units for more wide scale use to assist in quarantine compliance in Israel,” said SuperCom, the company behind the technology.
Summary
Here the latest key developments at a glance:
- The number of new coronavirus infections globally rose last week for the first time in seven weeks, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
- France reported that the number of people being treated in intensive care units for Covid-19 was up by 52, at 3,544, going above the 3,500 threshold for the first time since 1 December last year.
- Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines are effective in reducing Covid-19 infections among older people aged 70 years and over, a new study shows.
- The Czech Republic tightened lockdown measures on Monday, beefing up police presence to restrict movement throughout the country as the government battles the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 infections.
- The UK recorded the lowest daily death toll and the lowest number of new cases since October.
- The European Commission will present a proposal in March on creating an EU-wide digital Covid-19 vaccination passport that may allow Europeans to travel more freely over the peak summer holiday period.
- The UK variant of Covid-19 is the main cause of the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic in Poland, the health minister said on Monday.
- Austria plans to let cafe and restaurant terraces reopen this month in a further loosening of its coronavirus lockdown.
- Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive the country’s Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe Covid-19 was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said on Monday.
- The Israeli government is looking to buy an additional 36 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in case booster shots are needed later in the year.
- China is lagging in its coronavirus vaccination rollout, but plans to inoculate 40% of its population by June.
- The Finnish government has declared a state of emergency over rising coronavirus infections, mainly in order to be legally able to close restaurants.
- Zimbabwe on Monday eased a coronavirus lockdown and overnight curfew imposed in January by allowing businesses to fully reopen after the rate of new infections slowed in the last two weeks.
- Vaccine doses in Ukraine and Japan have been wasted due to vaccine scepticism among doctors and fridge failures respectively, it emerged on Monday.
That’s all from me, I’m now handing over to my colleague Lucy Campbell.
In Jamaica, which won praise for containing its coronavirus outbreak last year, patients now overflow into corridors on chairs and stretchers in some hospitals, prompting the Caribbean nation to open three emergency field hospitals.
Reuters reports:
While global new infections start to decline, a handful of countries across the Caribbean, including the larger islands of Jamaica and Cuba, are suffering their worst outbreaks since the start of the pandemic following social gatherings over year-end, quarantine violations by visitors and growing complacency.
The number of total confirmed cases has almost doubled in the first two months of the year in Jamaica. It has risen around fourfold in Cuba, eightfold in Barbados and around tenfold in St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data database.
In one of the most tourism-dependent regions of the world, authorities have had to reimpose lockdowns and curfews, while reducing flights and hiking quarantine restrictions, further delaying a revival of their fragile economies.
Some Caribbean nations have started inoculating citizens - thanks, in particular, to an Indian donation of the AstraZeneca vaccine - yet broad coverage still looks far off. Cuba is launching late phase trials of two of its own vaccine candidates this month.
The effect of Covid-19 in Caribbean countries has been mixed. In Jamaica, deaths have risen 1.4 times since the end of the year and now stand at 422.
Cuba’s death toll of 324 is well under the world average per capital - a statistic the government largely puts down to a good healthcare system and experimental treatments - but the number of deaths has doubled there so far in 2021, Reuters reports.
Tiny St Vincent and Grenadines registered its first coronavirus death this year and has recorded eight deaths.
While most the Caribbean islands still have adequate hospital capacity to deal with the crisis, in Jamaica, all beds dedicated to Covid-19 isolation were full as of 26 February, according to the health ministry.
US president Joe Biden is not currently considering sharing coronavirus vaccines with Mexico but is instead focused on ensuring every American is vaccinated, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.
The remarks came hours before Biden is slated to meet virtually with Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is expected to ask the Democratic leader to consider sharing part of the US.coronavirus vaccine supply with its poorer southern neighbor, Reuters reported.
Lopez Obrador said he hoped Biden would heed a request by Mexico on Covid-19 vaccines when the two hold a virtual meeting later on Monday that is also likely to encompass immigration and trade.
Mexico has been frustrated by bottlenecks in supply and raised concerns that wealthy countries are hoarding vaccines.
“We’d like to get an answer on a request that we’ve already made ... about the vaccines,” Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference while discussing the Biden meeting.
“Provided he’s of the view the matter should be addressed. We must be respectful.”
France reports highest number of intensive care Covid patients in 3 months
French health authorities said on Monday that the number of people being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) for Covid-19 was up by 52, at 3,544, going above the 3,500 threshold for the first time since 1 December last year.
The country reported 375 further deaths from the virus, taking the overall death toll to 86,803, the seventh-highest death toll globally.
A week earlier, France had reported 313 further fatalities.
Between 17 and 27 February the seven-day average of new infections rose daily.
France also reported 4,703 new cases, versus 4,646 new cases last Monday. On Mondays France’s infection numbers are typically much lower due to reporting delays over the weekend.
On Sunday, France had reported 19,592 fresh cases, versus 22,046 a week earlier.
England’s planned route out of lockdown, starting with the reopening of schools next week, can proceed despite six reported cases of a Brazilian coronavirus variant of concern, health minister Matt Hancock said on Monday.
Hancock said that there was no evidence a sixth person who has had the Brazilian coronavirus variant and is not accounted for had broken quarantine rules.
He said:
In the case of the sixth case... we’re trying to track down this individual, but we also have not seen any further community spread.
It doesn’t change our assessment of the roadmap right now, not least because our goal is to contain this transmission to just these six people.
Hancock has urged Britons not to break coronavirus rules and “blow” progress, despite “exciting” data suggesting the two vaccines being used in the UK reduce hospital admissions in over-70s by 80%.
He added that the number of admissions to hospital was falling faster than that of cases - particularly among the older age groups who were vaccinated first.
Austria to ease restrictions on hospitality sector
Austria plans to let cafe and restaurant terraces reopen this month in a further loosening of its coronavirus lockdown that will get an early start in a small Alpine province because of its lower infection rate, the government said on Monday.
Reuters reports:
Austria first loosened its third coronavirus lockdown three weeks ago despite stubbornly high infections, arguing that the economic, social and psychological effect of keeping all of its restrictions in place would have been too great.
Non-essential shops, schools, hairdressers and museums are now open but restaurants, bars, hotels and theatres are not. Ski lifts have been open since Christmas Eve but with hotels closed they have almost only been used by locals and day-trippers.
A nighttime curfew has replaced all-day restrictions on movement.
Infections have, however, risen since the lockdown was eased. Daily new infections are now regularly above 2,000, having hovered above 1,000 before, though they peaked at more than 9,000 in November before the second lockdown.Warmer weather and accelerating vaccinations should help slow the spread of the virus after Easter, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober told a government news conference.
With infections per 100,000 people by far their lowest in the small, mountainous province of Vorarlberg that borders Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the next loosening will happen there first, on March 15, the government said. The rest of the country should follow on March 27.
Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig added that sport in schools would be allowed as of the same day.
The government hopes to take further loosening steps in the culture and tourism sectors in April, depending on how the situation develops, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.
Turkey will lift weekend lockdowns in low and medium-risk cities and limit the restrictions to just Sundays in high and very high-risk cities as it starts a “controlled normalisation” of coronavirus measures, president Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, was categorised as high risk, while the capital Ankara was in the medium-risk category.
Erdogan said the list of measures would be updated every two weeks on a province-by-province basis.
The European Commission has signed a contract with US drugmaker Moderna for 300 million coronavirus vaccine doses.
The German MEP Peter Liese wrote on his website on Monday afternoon:
The contract will help to make a vaccination offer really to all Europeans by the end of the summer, to enable a possibly necessary third vaccination due to mutations and to provide the rest of the world with vaccine. But other measures are necessary to vaccinate faster in Europe in the short term.
150 million doses are expected to be delivered in the third and fourth quarters of this year. There is also an option for a further 150 million doses by 2022. The vaccine from Moderna has been approved in the European Union since January 6 as one of three vaccines in total. In addition to the vaccine from Moderna, vaccines from Biontech/Pifzer and AstraZeneca are approved as part of a regular approval process.
AstraZeneca sold its stake in rival Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna for roughly $1bn over the course of last year as the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker cashed in on the meteoric rise in the US company’s shares.
Public Health England (PHE) has submitted a pre-print of a real-world study that shows that both the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines are both effective in reducing Covid-19 infections among older people aged 70 years and over.
Since January, protection against symptomatic Covid, 4 weeks after the first dose, ranged between 57 and 61% for one dose of Pfizer and between 60 and 73% for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Several countries, including France, Germany, Poland and Sweden, have so far been administering the AstraZeneca jab to under 65s only, due to initial concerns over a lack of data involving elderly people over 65.
An Israeli study from last month found that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine gives people 85% protection from Covid-19.
Pfizer has consistently said that two doses of the vaccine are needed for high efficacy. In clinical trials, it reported efficacy of 52.4% after one dose, but 95% after two doses.
More data is needed to access the effectiveness of vaccines against the so-called Brazil variant of Covid-19, a British health official said on Monday.
“The current vaccines have not yet been studied against this variant, and we will need to wait for further clinical and trial data to understand the vaccine effectiveness against this variant,” Susan Hopkins from Public Health England told a news conference.
Updated
China will donate 50,000 shots of its Sinopharm vaccine to Lebanon, its ambassador tweeted on Monday as the crisis-hit country fights a Covid-19 outbreak that has killed nearly 4,700 people.
Lebanon, deep in the throes of a financial crisis, launched its inoculation drive last month after receiving its first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with aid from the World Bank.
UK records lowest daily death toll and lowest number of new cases since October
The UK government said a further 104 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the country’s total death toll to 122,953.
It is the lowest daily figure since 26 October, when there were 102 further deaths.
A further 5,455 lab-confirmed cases were also confirmed, the lowest number since 2 October.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 143,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
In total, the UK has recorded 4,182,009 cases since the pandemic began.
Global infections rose for first time in 7 weeks in last week of February
The number of new coronavirus infections globally rose last week for the first time in seven weeks, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
Reuters reports:
“We need to have a stern warning for all of us: that this virus will rebound if we let it,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead for Covid-19, told a briefing. “And we cannot let it.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the rise in cases was “disappointing but not surprising” and urged countries not to relax measures to fight the disease.
It was too early for countries to rely solely on vaccination programmes and abandon other measures, he said: “If countries rely solely on vaccines, they are making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the response.”
Tedros noted that Ghana and Ivory Coast became the first countries on Monday to begin vaccinating people with doses supplied by COVAX, the international programme to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries.
But he also criticised rich countries for hoarding vaccine doses, saying that it was in everyone’s interest for vulnerable people to be protected around the world.
“It’s regrettable that some countries continue to prioritise vaccinating younger healthier adults at lower risk of diseases in their own populations, ahead of health workers and older people elsewhere,” Tedros said.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, said the global fight against the coronavirus was in a better state now than it was 10 weeks ago before the roll-outs of vaccines had begun. But it was too early to say the virus was coming under control.
“The issue is of us being in control of the virus and the virus being in control of us. And right now the virus is very much in control.”
Slovakia has acquired 2 million Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, with the first 1 million doses expected to be delivered in March and April, prime minister Igor Matovic said on Monday.
The country could start using the vaccines, which would be voluntary, in the next two weeks, government officials said in a televised briefing at an airport where the first batches arrived by plane.
South Africa is unlikely to reach its herd immunity target and should “recalibrate” expectations around Covid-19 jabs, according to a leading vaccinologist.
AFP Reports:
A more transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa late last year fuelled the country’s second infection wave and delayed the start of vaccinations in February.
Studies have shown the variant to be more resistant to most of the existing vaccines than the virus’ original form and other mutations.
Vaccinology professor Shabir Madhi, lead investigator on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine trial in South Africa, said the local variant and a third wave of infections expected later this year were likely to hinder inoculation plans.
“We need to recalibrate our understanding of what we can actually achieve with Covid-19 vaccines,” Madhi told a virtual panel discussion.
“The notion of getting to herd immunity...at least with this first generation of Covid-19 vaccines, is extremely slim.”
Italy reported 246 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday against 192 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 13,114 from 17,455 the day before.
Some 170,633 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 257,024.
Italy has registered 97,945 Covid deaths since February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 2.94 million cases to date.
The WTO’s new director-general has called for more vaccine plants in developing countries.
“People are dying in poor countries,” said Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a speech to the WTO’s 164 members at a meeting in her first day in the job.
“We must focus on working with companies to open up and license more viable manufacturing sites now in emerging markets and developing countries,” she said, adding that technology transfers were also required.
China says it aims to vaccinate 40% of population by June
Chinese health experts say China is lagging in its coronavirus vaccination rollout because it has the disease largely under control, but plans to inoculate 40% of its population by June.
AP Reports:
Zhong Nanshan, the leader of a group of experts attached to the National Health Commission, said the country has delivered 52.52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Feb. 28. He was speaking at an online forum between U.S and Chinese medical experts hosted by the Brookings Institution and Tsinghua University.
The target is the first China has offered publicly since it began its mass immunisation campaign for key groups in mid-December.
China has been slow to vaccinate its people relative to other countries, inoculating only 3.56% of its population of 1.4 billion so far, according to Zhong. Ranked first in the world in terms of percentage of population is Israel, which has vaccinated over 90% of its people. The U.S. has vaccinated about 22% of its population.
Chinese health experts say the country has enough vaccine supply for its population, although the country has pledged to provide close to half a billion doses abroad, roughly 10 times the number it has delivered at home.
Israel looking to buy 36 million more Covid vaccine doses
The Israeli government are looking to purchase an additional 36 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in case booster shots are needed later in the year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today.
Israel have been at the forefront of the global vaccine roll-out in part due to their small population of 9 million and universal public healthcare system.
More than half the Israeli population has received a single dose of the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine, and about 3.4 million of them have received two shots.
With one eye on the ballot box, Netanyahu has been keen to highlight his personal role in securing sufficient doses ahead of the 23 March Knesset elections.
Netanyahu said:
We are working on bringing a further 36 million vaccines for the citizens of Israel...the entire world will compete for those vaccines ...I am again determined to bring Israel to the top of the list.
Updated
62% of Russians don't want Russian Covid-19 vaccine
Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive the country’s Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe Covid-19 was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said on Monday.
Reuters reports:
The Levada Center said a poll it conducted last month showed that 62% of people did not want to get Russia’s domestically produced vaccine, and that the highest level of reluctance was identified among 18- to 24-year-olds.
Most respondents cited side-effects – which can include fever and fatigue – as the main reason for not wanting to get vaccinated.
The poll, which sampled 1,601 people in 50 regions, also found that 64% of people thought the new coronavirus was created as a biological weapon.
The origin of Covid-19 has been highly politicised, but the majority of virologists and infectious disease experts say it is most likely to have evolved naturally.
A World Health Organization (WHO) mission to China said last month that it was not looking further into whether the virus escaped from a lab, which it considered highly unlikely.
The mission has said its main hypotheses are that the virus originated in a bat, although there are several possible scenarios for how it passed to humans, possibly first by infecting another species of animal.
The belief that the virus was created as a biological weapon is predominant in Russians aged 40-54, with 71% of them holding that view, the poll found. Only 23% think the virus emerged naturally.
Russia, which has recorded nearly 4.3 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, has approved three vaccines against Covid-19.
The country of around 145 million people launched a mass vaccination campaign with Sputnik V in December.
On 10 February, the health minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 2 million Russians have been vaccinated with at least the first dose of Sputnik V.
Updated
University students sharing bathrooms in large halls of residence were most at risk of contracting Covid-19 when outbreaks occurred at UK campuses last autumn, according to research commissioned by Sage that will inform how universities reopen their campuses in March.
Social scientists from several universities found that students who arrived from parts of the country with high infection rates were more likely to import coronavirus into halls. In some cases, this was then spread to neighbouring non-student residents living close to campuses.
In a press briefing, the researchers warned that universities must exercise extreme caution when students on practical courses return on 8 March, especially where they have a high proportion of students arriving on campus.
“Opening universities will have an impact on the R number,” said Mike Tildesley, associate professor at the University of Warwick. “If we do see a rise in incidence as reopening happens we need to be prepared to hit the brakes.”
The researchers also found limited evidence that a staggered return would have an impact on overall transmission, and recommended instead that universities focus on ensuring student compliance with testing every three days and self-isolation. However, they warned that the spread of more infectious variants could reduce the effectiveness of regular testing.
Updated
Uzbekistan’s government has approved a Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biofarmaceutical for use in the Central Asian nation, the Uzbek ministry of innovation said on Monday.
Uzbekistan has taken part in stage III trials of the vaccine known as ZF2001, Reuters reports.
UK variant main driver of third wave in Poland
The UK variant of Covid-19 is the main cause of the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic in Poland, the health minister said on Monday.
Adam Niedzielski added that the British variant’s share in infections is growing very rapidly.
First News reports:
The health minister told a Monday press conference that the British strain’s responsibility for the third wave had been confirmed by genome research into the virus in those regions of the country that have a high number of infections.
He pointed out that last week such research was conducted in the north-western Warminsko-Mazurskie province and showed that the British variant accounted for 70% of cases. Similar research was carried out recently in the northern Pomorskie province.
“There we have a share of the British mutation in the order of 77%,” Niedzielski said.
Poland has so far reported 43,793 deaths from the virus, and the seven-day average of new infections has contiously risen since 9 February.
Polish president Andrzej Duda has talked with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about buying the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine, his aide told state-run news agency PAP on Monday, as the country looked for ways to speed up vaccination of its residents.
Reuters reports:
While the Sinopharm vaccine has not yet received European Union regulatory approval, Hungary last week became the first member state to start using the shot in a bid to accelerate its vaccination programme.
“At the request of prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the president also raised the question of Polish-Chinese cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, including the possibility of Poland purchasing vaccines produced in China,” PAP quoted Szczerski as saying.
Szczerski said any potential purchase would be subject to further talks.
A government spokesman did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Like other EU countries, Poland’s vaccination programme has been hampered by delays in deliveries from producers like AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
Updated
Zimbabwe on Monday eased a coronavirus lockdown and overnight curfew imposed in January by allowing businesses to fully reopen after the rate of new infections slowed in the last two weeks.
Reuters reports:
The news comes a day after neighbouring country South Africa eased restrictions to allow liquor sales under normal trading time and shortened curfew hours from midnight to 4am, as cases in the country fell after a new coronavirus variant led to widespread infections in December and January.
Infections in Zimbabwe peaked in January, forcing the government to close or limit most businesses as well as curb the movement of people.
In the past 48 hours, Zimbabwe has recorded only 45 new infections and no Covid-19 related death.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in a televised address Zimbabweans could now travel without restrictions, informal businesses would re-open and companies would resort to normal business hours. An overnight curfew would start from 10om to 5.30am.
But restaurants would open for take-away only, while nightclubs and gyms remain closed.
Mnangagwa said schools, which have remained closed since mid December, should get ready to re-open but did not give a date.
The government last month began Covid-19 vaccinations after receiving a donation of 200,000 doses from the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
Zimbabwe has purchased 600,000 more doses that it expects this month from Sinopharm.
Zimbabwe has to date reported 36,089 Covid-19 cases and 1,463 deaths, a majority of which have been recorded this year.
Updated
Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi on Monday fired Italy’s special Covid-19 commissioner Domenico Arcuri and replaced him with an army general, as the country attempts to speed up vaccinations.
Gen Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, the new commissioner, has been head of army logistics since 2018, Draghi’s office said in a brief statement, thanking Arcuri for his “commitment and dedication … in a moment of particular emergency for the country.”
Updated
Italy’s public debt soared last year, rising more than 20 percentage points as the coronavirus pandemic savaged the economy, official data showed Monday.
AFP reports:
Total accumulated national debt jumped to 155.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) last year from 134.6% in 2019.
Italy had by the end of 2020 accumulated a colossal debt of €2.57tn, up from €2.41tn in 2019, according to national statistics agency Istat.
GDP in the eurozone’s third-largest economy fell 8.9% last year, thanks to restrictions imposed by the government to stem a devastating coronavirus outbreak that has killed almost 100,000 people.
Italy is banking on a windfall of more than €200bn from the European Union’s post-virus recovery fund to help get back on its feet.
Istat also published figures on provisional inflation data on Monday, showing consumer prices in February rising by 0.1% compared with the previous month, and 0.6% year-on-year.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the La Stampa newspaper last week that while the outlook for Italy’s economy had improved, it was “critical to maintain well-targeted fiscal support until the recovery is firmly established”.
“It is therefore essential that Italy put in place a credible medium-term fiscal plan to anchor a debt reduction strategy underpinned by economic reforms that boost productivity and long-term growth and make the budget more efficient,” Georgieva said.
Updated
Public Health Wales said a total of 925,669 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have now been given in the country, an increase of 2,054 from the previous day.
The agency said 103,819 second doses had also been given, an increase of 7,411.
In total, 91.2% of over-80s in Wales have received their first dose, along with 93.4% of those aged 75-79, 93% of those aged 70-74, 77.7% of those aged 65-69, 28.6% of those aged 60-64, 21.7% of those aged 55-59 and 19.4% of those aged 50-54.
For care homes, 86% of residents and 83.5% of staff have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Public Health Wales said 86.3% of healthcare workers had received their first dose, along with 87.7% of people in the clinically extremely vulnerable category and 16.4% of those in clinical risk groups.
A further 127 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 83,250, NHS England said on Monday.
Patients were aged between 46 and 99. All but one, aged 58, had a known underlying health condition.
The deaths occurred between 9 December and 28 February, with the majority being on or after 24 February.
A total of 17,812,739 coronavirus vaccinations took place in England between 8 December and 28 February, according to provisional NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 170,947 on the previous day’s figures.
Of this number, 17,212,804 were first vaccine doses, a rise of 161,559 on the previous day, while 599,935 were a second dose, an increase of 9,388.
Updated
Stricter lockdown imposed in Czech Republic amid world's worst rise in cases
The Czech Republic tightened lockdown measures on Monday, beefing up police presence to restrict movement throughout the country as the government battles the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 infections.
Reuters reports:
Prime minister Andrej Babiš announced the stricter measures last week, saying hospitals were nearing collapse as the number of patients in serious condition jumped to records.
Babiš has faced criticism the measures do not go far enough as factories remain open. He is balancing this with public frustration over lockdowns that have had non-essential shops, restaurants and entertainment largely shut since October.
“People did not want to keep the rules before today and that is why Covid is here. Maybe this will help,” Pavel Novotny, a train conductor, said outside a largely empty station in Prague.
The country of 10.7 million has the highest per capita infection rate in the world over the last week, according to the Our World in Data website, 11 times higher than Germany.
New restrictions limiting people’s travels to their home towns and districts – except for trips to work or other exemptions – started on Monday, exactly one year from when the first coronavirus infection was detected in the country.
Around 26,000 police officers and 3,800 soldiers were deployed to enforce the three-week order.
Babis and some ministers have rejected calls to lock down industry. Companies will instead need to test workers.
“If the whole industry shuts down, then exporting companies would lose contracts and eventually could go bankrupt and there will be a lot of unemployed people,” Babiš told CNN Prima News on Sunday.
The country enacted tight measures a year go when the pandemic started. The biggest manufacturers idled for several weeks then, costing the economy.
New variants of the virus, like the British variant, have added to the latest surge. A slow vaccine rollout is also not helping.
There were 8,531 Covid-related deaths in January and February, nearly as many as in the 10 months before. The death toll totals 20,469.
Updated
More than 1,000 shots of coronavirus vaccine went to waste in Japan after storage temperatures deviated from a required range due to a freezer malfunction, the health ministry said on Monday, the country’s first such case of wasted vaccines.
Reuters reports:
Japan became the last member of the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations to begin its vaccination drive against Covid-19 on 17 February.
It has so far received three shipments of vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, comprising around 1.4 million shots.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has to be stored at a temperature of around -75C (-103F).
A medical institution reported that the freezer malfunction had occurred over the weekend, rendering 172 vials of the vaccine, or 1,032 doses, useless, the ministry said.
It declined to identify the name of the medical institution or the manufacturer of the freezer in question, but said the freezer maker would start looking into the cause of the malfunction on Tuesday.
Updated
The UK’s former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said the discovery of six cases of the Brazilian P1 variant of the coronavirus in the UK showed the need for tighter controls.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One programme:
Absolutely we have got to look at what has gone wrong.
It shows that it needs to be tightened up still further because if we are going to protect the road map out of lockdown then the name of the game is going to be stop new variants coming in, some of which may end up being immune to the new vaccines.
Where we need to get to is a much, much more thorough combination of test and trace and genetic sequencing so we are not just testing the people who have been near someone who tested positive, but we also are working out where the original infection happened and which variant it is.
You can only do that if you bring the cases right down.
Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he would take the “opposite” approach to international travel to the one taken by the UK government, and have a list of countries from where people can travel to the UK, instead of a list of countries deemed high risk, meaning travellers need to enter mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival.
PA reports:
Mr Drakeford told a press conference in Cardiff that he “remained concerned” about travel into the UK, particularly due to new variants being seen in different parts of the world.
Last September, Covid-19 cases in Wales were “undoubtedly driven up” partly because people returned from holidays abroad and brought the virus with them, he said.
“I would do it in the opposite way to the UK government, this is the case I’ve tried to make to them,” Mr Drakeford said.
“The UK government’s approach is that all international travel is OK apart from 33 countries that are on a red list.
“I would do it the opposite. I would say we shouldn’t be having international travel but here is a list of countries where we are confident that things are under control, where there are testing regimes, where we will be confident that people returning from there would not be posing a threat to us.”
Brazil’s health ministry will deliver 140 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines between now and the end of May, lower house speaker Arthur Lira said on Monday, without giving details on where they will come from.
Speaking in an interview with TV Record and later confirming on his Twitter account, Lira also said emergency monthly cash transfers to millions of poor Brazilians of 250 reais ($45) will be made through June.
The constitutional amendment paving the way for a resumption of these aid payments, however, has not yet been agreed upon, and therefore has not yet been put to a vote in Congress, Reuters reports.
British prime minister Boris Johnson said on Monday there was no reason to think that Covid-19 vaccines were ineffective against new variants of the coronavirus.
“We don’t have any reason at the present time to think that our vaccines are ineffective against these new variants of all types,” Johnson told broadcasters.
Health authorities said on Sunday that up to six cases had been detected in Britain of the “P.1” variant identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, against which current vaccines appeared to be less effective.
Ukrainian medical facilities have thrown away some unused Covid-19 vaccines after doctors failed to show up for their own appointments to be vaccinated, ruling party lawmakers said on Monday.
Reuters reports:
Ukraine has just begun vaccinating its 41 million people against Covid-19 after receiving a first batch of 500,000 doses of Indian-made AstraZeneca shots last week, but faces a battle against vaccine scepticism that predates the pandemic.
The government has prioritised giving shots to frontline medical workers but cited statistics showing that 47% of Ukrainians do not want the vaccine.
“It is important for us to understand how all the processes are set up, why doctors refuse to be vaccinated,” Oleksandr Korniyenko, the head of president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party, told a televised meeting.
“This is very bad, but there is no other option... if a person does not come, it [vaccine bottle] can be kept open for 2-3 hours, after which it must be disposed of,” the head of parliament’s health committee Mykhailo Radutskyi said.
Ukraine on Monday reported 4,285 new cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country since the start of the pandemic to over 1.3 million.
In the past 24 hours, 1,701 Covid-19 patients have recovered and 68 have died. Over 1.17 million people have recovered from Covid-19 and 26,050 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.
90 people were given their first dose of vaccine against Coronavirus on 27 February, bringing the total number of Ukrainians who received their first dose to 3,141 as of 28 February, the Kyiv Post reports.
European Commission to propose digital EU-wide vaccine passports
The European Commission will present a proposal in March on creating an EU-wide digital Covid-19 vaccination passport that may allow Europeans to travel more freely over the peak summer holiday period.
Reuters reports:
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced the coming legislative proposal in a speech to German conservative lawmakers on Monday, providing a few more details in subsequent tweets.
The “digital green pass” would provide proof that a person has been vaccinated, results of tests for those not yet vaccinated and information on recovery for people who have contracted Covid-19.
“The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the European Union or abroad - for work or tourism,” she said in a tweet.
EU leaders agreed last week to work on vaccine certificates, for which southern countries such as Spain and Greece are pushing to unlock tourism this summer.
However, a number of countries say it will first need to be established that vaccinated people cannot transmit the virus to others. Some countries, such as France and Belgium, also expressed concern that easing travel only for inoculated people would be unfair.
The Commission said it would seek to avoid discrimination against citizens who have not received a vaccine.
EU countries agreed in January on the basic data requirements of a vaccination certificate. A Commission spokesman said the EU executive would seek to coordinate on security standards and help connect the national health systems.
US Americans should be able to receive Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine within the next 24 to 48 hours, its chief executive said on Monday after US regulators approved it, making it the country’s third available vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The drugmaker was still on track to deliver 4 million vaccine doses this week, and 100 million doses by June, J&J chief executive officer Alex Gorsky told NBC News’ Today program in an interview.
Nepal has had a successful start of its Covid-19 vaccination campaign, but authorities are worried about future supplies as the country competes with dozens of other nations for much-sought vaccines produced by a handful of manufacturers.
The Associated Press reports:
The government is negotiating with India’s Serum Institute to obtain 5 million doses for the second stage of the campaign, in which 3.7 million elderly people are to be inoculated starting this weekend, health minister Hridayesh Tripathi said Monday.
Nepal received a gift from the Indian government in January of 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine manufactured under license by India’s Serum Institute. Nepal also purchased another 2 million doses from the company at a subsidized rate with the help of the Indian government.
“There is huge worldwide demand for vaccines from a handful of companies and we could be at the very end of the list,” Tripathi said. “So far, we have been able to get vaccines with both political and administrative help from India. However, I am very worried now.”
He said he is hopeful that Indian authorities will again help their small northern neighbor.
“We will not be able to get the vaccine through simple commercial deals with the company because we are competing with dozens of other countries, so we need the influence of the [Indian] government,” he said.
Nepal is also receiving a gift of 500,000 doses of a Chinese vaccine this month.
[...]
Nepal has reported 274,216 Covid-19 cases, including 2,777 deaths.
Egypt will start registering millions of gig workers in order to offer them health insurance and emergency state aid during the coronavirus pandemic, which has taken a particularly heavy toll on the nation’s ad-hoc employees, officials said.
Reuters reports:
There are at least 14 million gig workers in Egypt, and while some workers and campaigners welcomed the government’s drive, others warned that many workers could be reluctant to sign up - fearing tax and social security payment demands.
The government said it plans to identify and support 2 million gig workers in the country of 100 million people by the end of this year, labour ministry spokesman Haitham Saad El-Din said on Saturday.
“It is part of a government plan to give assistance to this segment of the society which has been majorly affected by the pandemic,” he said, adding that officials were focusing first on identifying casual construction labourers.
Gig workers who have their employment status registered on their national identity cards under a new “irregular employment” category will be given free social security insurance and be eligible for state welfare programmes.
Egypt’s state-run insurance plan includes life insurance and disability cover, as well as covering healthcare costs.
The announcement is the latest in a series of government measures aimed at shielding vulnerable groups from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
Soon after the coronavirus outbreak began, it launched a programme that supports irregular workers with monthly aid, and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for financial support to be boosted when a second virus wave took hold.
State welfare spending surged 36% in the first half of the current fiscal year, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said recently.
Mexico has admitted that its controversial coronavirus tsar, Hugo López-Gatell, is in hospital with Covid after initially calling such reports “fake news”.
López-Gatell, who is a 52-year-old epidemiologist, tested positive for Covid on 20 February and has been in hospital since last Wednesday. But authorities only revealed the fact on Sunday after press reports that the health ministry initially denied.
On Sunday night health official Ruy López Ridaura said he hoped López-Gatell could be discharged on Monday or Tuesday and claimed he was doing well after being admitted to hospital last week with a “moderate” case and requiring supplemental oxygen.
Mexico’s official Covid death toll now stands at more than 185,000, the world’s third highest after the US and Brazil, with more than two million cases reported. However, many believe low testing rates and under reporting, mean the true situation is even worse.
López-Gatell has faced heavy criticism for undermining the use of face masks and carrying out insufficient testing. In January he caused outrage by taking a beach holiday in Oaxaca despite government calls for citizens to remain at home. During his trip López-Gatell was photographed on a famous Pacific coast beach without a mask.
Mexico’s nationalist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was also struck down with Covid at the start of the year but subsequently recovered. On Monday López Obrador will reportedly ask the US president Joe Biden to consider sharing its stock of Covid vaccines with Mexico.
Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday banned the government from the sweeping use of mobile phone tracking of coronavirus carriers, calling the measure a grave infraction of civil liberties.
Reuters reports:
Used on and off since March 2020 in efforts to curb the pandemic, the Shin Bet counter-terrorism agency’s surveillance technology matched carriers’ locations against other mobile phones nearby to determine with whom they came into contact.
From the outset, civil rights groups had mounted court challenges over privacy concerns while lawmakers cast doubt about the efficacy of the contact-tracing tool.
In its ruling, the court said it feared the mobile phone tracing, imposed as a temporary emergency measure, was slowly becoming permanent.It gave the government until March 14 to end indiscriminate use of the surveillance and limit it to confirmed coronavirus carriers who refuse epidemiological questioning.
“We hope this ruling will lead the government and the Knesset (parliament) to pause and change course from this slippery slope of using extreme and undemocratic means in the fight against the epidemic,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of the groups that petitioned the court, said in a statement.
As of December, surveillance alone had accounted for 7% of case detections in Israel, according to the Intelligence Ministry, with questioning by Health Ministry investigators accounting for the rest. But officials have argued that it has helped save many lives.
“I think this is a crime against the health of Israeli citizens,” Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch said on Twitter after the Supreme Court verdict.
The Shin Bet phone tracing technology was previously known mostly as a means to track down wanted Palestinian militants.
Israel has so far reported 778,172 coronavirus cases and 5,758 deaths.
With a third wave of infections peaking in January, contagion has been falling in recent weeks as authorities have administered at least one of two Covid-19 vaccination doses to more than half of the country’s population of 9 million.
Sardinia has become the first region in Italy to be classified as a “white zone”, meaning many coronavirus restrictions have been dropped, while other regions have been upgraded to ‘orange’ or ‘red’ zones amid a sharp rise in infections nationally.
From Monday, bars in Sardinia can stay open until 9pm and restaurants until 11pm, half-an-hour before a nightly curfew kicks-in. Elsewhere, the curfew begins at 10pm.
The obligatory wearing of face masks remains as do social distancing measures. Christian Solinas, the president of Sardinia, said if the situation progresses well over the next week, then gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and theatres could reopen.
“A white zone does not mean a ‘free all’ approach,” said Solinas. “Instead we need to use it as a motivation to continue observing the highest degree of responsibility.”
The island, which has a population of 1.6 million, registered 77 new infections on Sunday. Sardinia came under fire last summer for reopening nightclubs, which then prompted an increase in cases in other Italian regions due to returning holidaymakers.
Experts fear Italy, which registered 17,455 more infections on Sunday, is heading towards its third wave.
There were 192 more Covid-19-related fatalities on Sunday, bringing the total death toll to 97,699 - the highest in mainland Europe. Hospitalisations and admissions into intensive care have also been creeping up.
Health minister Roberto Speranza said on Monday that the coming weeks will be tough. “It would be nice to say that everything is over…but the truth is that the coming weeks will not be easy.”
Italy is striving to accelerate its vaccination programme, which has been hampered by delays in vaccine deliveries. At the same time, over one million vaccine doses have not been used. As of Monday, over 4.3 million had been vaccinated, of whom 1.4 million have received both doses.
“We have a vaccination campaign to step up in these weeks, and today the numbers are going in the right direction but they need to increase further, and at the same time we have a very strong epidemic,” added Speranza.
Updated
Teachers are not at a higher risk of infection in their jobs than people in other professions, data released by Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Monday, ahead of a planned reopening of schools in England next week.
Reuters reports:
Prime minister Boris Johnson has prioritised the reopening of schools as he plots a route out of England’s third national lockdown. They are set to reopen on 8 March.
Johnson has said schools are safe but the mix of households can contribute to the spread of the virus. Britain’s Office for National Statistics found no statistical evidence of a difference between school staff testing positive for coronavirus antibodies compared with the wider working-age population in the same local authorities.
“Early findings suggest that school staff were not at higher risk of infection than working age adults in the wider community, but also that there are some Covid-19 infections in schools,” Sinéad Langan, professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), told reporters.
“There is always a potential for transmission and it’s difficult to say if infection is occurring in schools or in the wider community.”
[...]
The survey found high levels of implementation of measures to keep schools Covid-19 secure, which Shamez Ladhani, consultant paediatrician at PHE, said was a likely reason that levels were not higher.“One of the most likeliest reasons that we don’t see large and widespread infections in schools must be because of all the mitigation processes that are in place,” he told reporters.
“Difficult as they may be, they clearly do work to keep the infection rates at least close to the community rate.”
Updated
Finland declares state of emergency amid rising infections
The Finnish government has declared a state of emergency over rising coronavirus infections.
Prime minister Sanna Marin last week had made an in-principle decision on declaring a state of emergency, the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported.
The main reason for the decision is that restaurants cannot be closed under the current Infectious Diseases Act, the paper reported.
Reuters reports:
The decision comes as new variants contribute to a sharp rise in infections in the country, which has already closed its borders.
The state of emergency would also allow the government to further shut schools and limit movement between regions.
“The government sees it necessary that we all have fewer contacts,” prime inster Sanna Marin told a news conference. “Everyone now has the opportunity to impact how the spring and summer will turn out.”
Several Finnish regions have seen a rapid rise in Covid-19 infections in the past two weeks, with outbreaks among skiers in Lapland and workers at shipping yards and construction sites.
Finland, among the European countries least affected by the virus so far, has recorded 58,064 cases and 742 deaths since the start of the pandemic with 210 people currently hospitalised.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and am taking over for the next few hours. Feel free to get in touch with updates and tips, you can reach me on Twitter @JedySays or via email.
Tokyo has requested Beijing to stop taking anal swab tests for Covid-19 on Japanese citizens as the procedure causes psychological pain, a government spokesman said on Monday.
Reuters reported that chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government has not received a response that Beijing would change the testing procedure, so Japan would continue to ask China to alter the way of testing.
“Some Japanese reported to our embassy in China that they received anal swab tests, which caused a great psychologial pain,” Kato told a news conference. It was not known how many Japanese citizens received such tests for coronavirus, he said.
Some Chinese cities are using samples taken from the anus to detect potential Covid-19 infections as China steps up screening to make sure no potential carrier of the new coronavirus is missed.
China’s foreign ministry denied last month that US diplomats in the country had been required to take anal swab tests for Covid-19, following media reports that some had complained about the procedure.
On that bombshell, I’m handing over the blog to my colleague Jedidajah Otte.
Updated
Chinese state-backed hackers target Indian vaccine makers, cyberintelligence firm says
A Chinese state-backed hacking group has in recent weeks targeted the IT systems of two Indian vaccine makers whose coronavirus shots are being used in the country’s immunisation campaign, cyber intelligence firm Cyfirma told Reuters.
Rivals China and India have both sold or gifted COVID-19 shots to many countries. India produces more than 60% of all vaccines sold in the world.
Goldman Sachs-backed Cyfirma, based in Singapore and Tokyo, said Chinese hacking group APT10, also known as Stone Panda, had identified gaps and vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure and supply chain software of Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker.
“The real motivation here is actually exfiltrating intellectual property and getting competitive advantage over Indian pharmaceutical companies,” said Cyfirma Chief Executive Kumar Ritesh, formerly a top cyber official with British foreign intelligence agency MI6.
He said APT10 was actively targeting SII, which is making the AstraZeneca vaccine for many countries and will soon start bulk-manufacturing Novavax shots.
“In the case of Serum Institute, they have found a number of their public servers running weak web servers, these are vulnerable web servers,” Ritesh said, referring to the hackers. “They have spoken about weak web application, they are also talking about weak content-management system. It’s quite alarming.”
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
SII and Bharat Biotech declined to comment. The government-run Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, with whom Cyfirma said it had shared its findings, had no immediate comment.
Indonesian resort island Bali has launched a drivethrough vaccination campaign targeting thousands of hospitality workers, as the popular tourist destination eyes reopening to foreign visitors.
Billed as the first such campaign in Southeast Asia, Bali’s drive-thru vaccinations kicked-off at the weekend, AFP reported. The programme aims to inoculate around 5,000 workers in hospitality and ride-sharing services by the end of this month.
The campaign was rolled out at Nusa Dua Bali Convention Center in Bali’s capital Denpasar, set up in partnership with Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab.
“This drive-thru programme is good, because for us drivers who work on the street every day, we are very vulnerable to being exposed to the virus,” a ride-hailing driver Zul Widodo said.
In August, Bali closed the door to foreign tourists over coronavirus concerns, battering its key tourism sector.
“The Covid-19 vaccine is paramount for Indonesia’s tourism industry recovery,” Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno said in a weekend statement.
“The availability of vaccines continues to be a source of hope for people to return to normalcy and boost confidence that they can travel safely.”
The island has recorded 923 deaths and just over 34,000 virus cases.
People began to queue early as the Ivory Coast prepared to become the first country to launch a Covid-19 inoculation drive on Monday with doses from the Covax vaccine sharing facility.
Ivory Coast received 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine on Friday, and plans to roll it out to medical workers, security forces members and teachers before vaccinating people over 50, those with chronic diseases and travellers.
More than a hundred people were lining up early on Monday at a sports complex in the Treichville neighbourhood of Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan to receive their first shot, Reuters reported.
Covax, which is led by the GAVI vaccines alliance along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, is meant to ensure fairer distribution. It aims to deliver nearly 2bn doses to over 90 low- and middle-income countries, covering up to 20% of their populations.
The initiative hopes to level a playing field that has seen wealthier nations vaccinate millions while comparatively few have received shots in poorer parts of the world. Only a handful of African countries have begun inoculating their citizens with vaccines purchased bilaterally or received as donations.
Africa has reported relatively few Covid-19 deaths compared to other continents, but the death toll is rising fast as a second wave of infections overwhelms hospitals.
Ivory Coast’s neighbour Ghana, which last week became the first country to receive a delivery of vaccines from Covax, plans to officially begin its vaccination campaign on Tuesday.
On Monday, Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo and his wife received the vaccine at a military hospital in an effort to boost public confidence ahead of the campaign.
“It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it,” Akufo-Addo said.
Updated
Hairdressers reopen in Germany
Hairdressers across Germany reopened for business on Monday after a two-and-a-half month closure, another cautious step as the country balances a desire to loosen restrictions with concern about the impact of more contagious coronavirus variants.
AP reports that the move came after many elementary students returned to school a week ago, following a decision on 10 February by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors. They will confer again on Wednesday to decide how to proceed with the rest of Germany’s coronavirus restrictions, which at present run until 7 March.
Some states also allowed businesses such as florists and hardware stores to open on Monday. Most stores have been closed nationwide since 16 December. Restaurants, bars, sports and leisure facilities have been closed since 2 November and hotels are allowed only to accommodate business travellers.
“This week will set the course for the coming months,” Bavarian governor Markus Soeder, an advocate in recent months of a cautious approach, said. He called the virus situation “unstable”.
“It’s really important that we make smart decisions this week,” he said. “Smart decisions means that the mood must be taken on board – we must find the right balance between caution and opening, and we absolutely must not lose our nerves … and simply fulfil all wishes.”
Germany’s disease control center reported 4,732 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, compared with 4,369 a week earlier. Another 60 deaths were reported, bringing the total to 70,105.
Germany had given 4.7% of its population a first vaccine shot as of Friday, while 2.4% had received a second jab – relatively slow progress that has drawn sharp criticism.
Updated
Children in Republic of Ireland begin phased return to classroom
More than 320,000 children returned to school in Ireland on Monday in the first phase of a staggered reopening of schools.
It is the first easing of a strict lockdown imposed in late December when Covid-19 cases exploded, briefly giving Ireland the world’s highest infection rate.
About 260,000 of the children are junior primary pupils and about 60,000 are final year secondary school pupils preparing for Leaving Certificate exams. Other classes are to return to school later in March and April.
Health officials implored parents and the rest of society to continue to avoid household mixing, saying Ireland needed to adhere to restrictions through March.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said its members supported the reopening of schools and would be vigilant about safeguards. “There is understandable anxiety among all in school communities, particularly given concerns around new strains of the virus,” Michael Gillespie, the union’s general secretary, told RTE.
The Irish Times reported that authorities will approve the use of of antigen kits to monitor outbreaks in schools and other locations.
Updated
Andrew Sparrow’s UK-facing coronavirus live blog is now up and running. You can follow that here:
Syria’s health ministry said on Monday it had started administering Covid-19 vaccinations to frontline healthcare workers.
“For the second day in a row Covid-19 vaccinations are being given to frontline healthcare workers that are working within coronavirus isolation centres across governorates,” a ministry statement reported by Reuters said.
The statement did not make clear what type of vaccine Syria had acquired or the quantity.
Syria had said on Thursday it had received vaccinations from a “friendly country” that it did not name.
Health officials had said Syria was engaged with Russia and China on vaccines but no bilateral deals have been announced.
The health ministry detected a rise in infections recently, the statement said. Syria had recorded 15,588 coronavirus cases with 1,027 deaths up to Sunday.
As well as speaking on the cases of the Brazil variant in the UK, Nadhim Zahawi said this morning that March will be a “very big month” for vaccinations.
“We have already been for now over 10 days reserving second doses,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“You have seen the numbers tick up of second doses – yesterday I think we were at 800,000 second doses. And in March you will see that number increase even more, because obviously those who had the first dose in January will be getting their second dose.
“The NHS have got all the protocols in place to deliver that, as well as of course continuing to do the first dose. March will be a very big month for us. We’ll probably going to be twice the rate over the next 10 weeks as we have done over the past 10 or 11 weeks.”
Updated
Russia on Monday reported 11,571 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 2,097 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 4,257,650. The country also reported another 333 deaths, raising the official toll to 86,455.
Postal service helping locate person who tested positive for Brazil variant in UK, minister says
In the UK, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said authorities were working with the postal service to locate a person infected with a concerning variant of coronavirus first found in Brazil.
Asked if it is known if the person had travelled to the UK or contracted the virus here, he told BBC Breakfast: “We don’t. Part of the reason why we want to locate them quickly is to understand more about them and their movements.
“They could have had a home test kit or a test kit provided to them by their local authority. But they didn’t fill in the contact details. We are working with the postal service to try and get other data to try and locate them, and this appeal is a belt and braces to try and make sure we locate them as quickly as possible.”
Speaking to Sky News about the two cases identified in South Gloucestershire, Zahawi said one had travelled from Sao Paulo through Zurich to London prior to the hotel quarantine.
“They did take a pre-departure test and filled in their passenger locator form, which is why we are able to deal with them so effectively and work with South Gloucestershire council,” he said.
“There is minimal reason to believe that there may be further spread because they have been isolating correctly. But we will be doing asymptomatic testing in South Gloucestershire.”
Updated
The new head of the World Trade Organization has said she is “ready to go” as she takes up her post today, with a pledge to “forget business as usual” with its member states in the grip of the coronavirus crisis.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO’s first female and first African director-general, begins with a meeting of its top decision-making body, the General Council. The 164 member states will discuss topics such as trade rules on Covid-19 vaccine distribution which Okonjo-Iweala has identified as a priority.
After a long campaign that was derailed in the late stages by a Trump administration veto, the 66-year-old Nigerian was finally confirmed as boss last month. The WTO has faced difficulties during the coronavirus crisis, with struggles striking new deals and its arbitration functions are paralysed.
“It feels great. I am coming into one of the most important institutions in the world and we have a lot of work to do. I feel ready to go,” Okonjo-Iweala told a Reuters reporter on arrival at the WTO’s lakeside Geneva headquarters.
Updated
UK government is raising unrealistic hopes of summer holidays, MP warns
In the UK, Yvette Cooper, chair of the parliamentary home affairs select committee, has said the news that up to three cases of the highly transmissible Brazil variant have been identified in the country “show the problems with some of the delays we’ve had from the government in bringing stronger measures in, because these cases seem to have arrived about a month after the Brazil variant was first identified and we were raising with the government the need to bring in stronger measures and stronger action”.
“Only 1% of international travellers are covered by the hotel quarantine system,” she pointed out. “What it also shows I think is some of the gaps in the rest of the system … You can’t fully rely on the pre travel testing because people are likely to have been tested before they fly, but there is evidence to show that those tests maybe up to three days beforehand still leave a significant proportion of cases being undetected.
She continued: “It also shows … the risk of people travelling home from the airport across the UK once they arrive on public transport.”
Asked if there should be a complete ban on flights going forward, she said “there will always be international travel”, for example of people returning home after the expiration of a visa. But she cautioned: “The government is raising expectations about summer holidays that they may not be able to meet.” She said border measures would only become more important as society opens up and domestic cases fall.
Updated
Hi, this is Archie Bland, taking over the coronavirus live blog in London, and beginning with a Reuters report which quotes a source saying that the EU drug regulator is auditing the manufacturing site of the Serum Institute of India (SII), as a precursor to importing doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine made there.
The Reuters report goes on:
SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, for dozens of poor and middle-income countries.
The precise reason for the audit of SII’s manufacturing processes and facilities was not clear, but a green light would mean the drug could be exported to the European Union, the source said, declining to be identified because the review is confidential.
The EU and Britain are mainly supplied by local facilities, but production problems have cut deliveries by the British-Swedish drugmaker to the EU, forcing it to look elsewhere.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, and over to Archie Bland.
Signing off with this lovely moment from the coronavirus Golden Globes earlier:
the way lee isaac chung’s daughter jumped into her dad’s arms hugged him tight and shouted, “i prayed! i prayed!” when minari won a golden globe 🥺 pic.twitter.com/IBimiBUZYF
— William Yu (@its_willyu) March 1, 2021
Updated
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Covid vaccine acceptance has risen in some countries: study. Willingness to get a Covid-19 vaccine is on the rise compared with last year, a survey of six industrialised countries published on Monday showed. More people in the UK, the US and even vaccine-sceptical France now accept the idea of getting a coronavirus jab. The survey also covered Germany, Japan and Sweden where a similar trend was clear, it said.
- The Philippines kicked off its Covid vaccination programme on Monday, with health workers the first to be inoculated in a delayed campaign as the country tries to secure supplies to address one of Asia’s most stubborn coronavirus epidemics.
- Ardern under pressure over latest Auckland lockdown. New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has expressed frustration over rule-breaking by people implicated in the recent cluster of coronavirus cases, leading to further restrictions for Auckland.
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Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was inoculated with the first dose of a home-grown coronavirus vaccine on Monday, kicking off an expansion of the country’s immunisation campaign that began in mid-January with healthcare workers, Reuters reports.
- South Africa’s coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from three to one following a fall in infections, president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced, with the change coming into effect at midnight.
- AstraZeneca has sold its Moderna stake for over $1bn – report. AstraZeneca Plc has sold its 7.7% stake in Moderna Inc for more than $1bn after the US biotechnology company’s shares soared on the back of its coronavirus vaccine breakthrough.
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The Norwegian capital Oslo is ramping up its coronavirus restrictions after a surge in infections connected to the more transmissible variant first detected in the UK.
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Cases of the virus variant first detected in Brazil have been discovered in the UK for the first time, Public Health England has said. Three cases have been found in England and three in Scotland. Officials will begin surge testing in the South Gloucestershire postcodes of BS320, BS328, BS329, BS345 and BS346 tomorrow.
- Nigeria will receive its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines this week, with nearly 4m of its 16m vaccines due to arrive in Africa’s most populous nation via the Covax scheme.
Updated
Here is our report from a socially distant pandemic Golden Globes.
“With spotty wifi, lagging sound and Zoom chaos, the 78th Golden Globes was a half-virtual ceremony once again dominated by British stars but marred by technical difficulties and renewed scrutiny on the awards’ lack of diversity,” writes Adrian Horton.
These photos from a quiet Blackpool in lockdown are beautiful:
AstraZeneca sells Moderna stake for over $1bn – report
AstraZeneca Plc has sold its 7.7% stake in Moderna Inc for more than $1bn after the US biotechnology company’s shares soared on the back of its coronavirus vaccine breakthrough, The Times of London reports.
The report said it was not clear over what period AstraZeneca sold its holding in Moderna.
Reuters: US eyes Tuesday deliveries of J&J vaccine Initial deliveries of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine should start on Tuesday, senior Biden administration officials said on Sunday, saying they hoped to boost lagging vaccination rates among minorities.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, encouraged Americans to accept any of the three approved shots.
Coronavirus has “completely taken the wind out of Dutch politics”, analysts say, predicting little change in the makeup of the coalition government after March elections as the prime minister, Mark Rutte, begins cautiously easing restrictions.
Despite three nights of rioting and 400 arrests after the night-time curfew, the first since the second world war, was imposed in January, and one of Europe’s slowest vaccine rollouts, Rutte enters the last two weeks of the election race in a dominant position.
Last week he extended the country’s nationwide 9pm-4am curfew by two weeks – until at least the morning of 15 March – when voting is due to begin in elections that will be held over three days to to limit the spread of the virus:
Philippines starts vaccinations
The Philippines kicked off its Covid vaccination programme on Monday, with health workers the first to be inoculated in a delayed campaign as the country tries to secure supplies to address one of Asia’s most stubborn coronavirus epidemics, Reuters reports.
Healthcare workers in six government hospitals in the capital region received Sinovac Biotech vaccines donated by China on Sunday, the only doses the Philippines has received so far.
“You truly are the heroes during this time of the pandemic so it is just right that you be the first in line to receive the vaccines,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told health workers.
The Philippines has reported 576,352 Covid cases overall, including infections with the more infectious British coronavirus variant. It has recorded 12,318 deaths.
It aims this year to inoculate 70 million of its 108 million people to achieve herd immunity and reopen an economy that in 2020 saw its worst contraction on record, due largely to tight restrictions on movement in place since mid-March.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 4,732 to 2,447,068, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
The reported death toll rose by 60 to 70,105, the tally showed.
Modi takes home-grown vaccine as India widens immunisation drive
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was inoculated with the first dose of a home-grown coronavirus vaccine on Monday, kicking off an expansion of the country’s immunisation campaign that began in mid-January with healthcare workers, Reuters reports.
People above 60, and those who are 45 or more and suffering from certain medical conditions, are now eligible for the vaccinations.
India, which has reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world after the United States, has so far vaccinated more than 12 million health and front-line workers.
“Remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in quick time to strengthen the global fight against Covid-19,” Modi said on Twitter, posting a picture of him getting the shot at a government hospital in New Delhi.
“I appeal to all those who are eligible to take the vaccine. Together, let us make India Covid free!”
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo urged citizens of the West African state on Sunday to ignore conspiracy theories surrounding coronavirus vaccines, Reuters reports, ahead of the launch of its nationwide inoculation campaign against the virus on Tuesday.
In a nationwide address on Sunday night, Akufo-Addo said:
Fellow Ghanaians, I know there are still some who continue to express doubts about the vaccine, others have expressed reservations about its efficacy, with some taking sides with conspiracy theorists who believe the vaccine has been created to wipe out the African race. This is far from the truth.
...
Taking the vaccine will not alter your DNA, it will not embed a tracking device in your body, neither will it cause infertility in women or in men.”
Ghana was the first country to receive vaccines as part of the global Covax scheme aimed at providing poorer nations vaccines to fight the Covid pandemic.
Akufo-Addo added that as president, and to reassure the public that the vaccine is safe, he and the first lady, together with the vice president and second lady, would take the vaccine publicly on Monday.
Ghana has recorded 84,023 coronavirus cases and 607 deaths, with nearly 200 deaths in the past month alone, hit by a second wave of infections.
In Australia, the New South Wales state government says it remains without key details of the vaccine rollout and needs “certainty” from the commonwealth to allow it to better plan distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Australia’s first 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Sydney on Sunday, but the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the state still had little idea how many doses it would receive and when:
Mexico’s coronavirus czar has been hospitalised over the past five days for Covid-19 treatment but is recovering well, Reuters reported a health official as saying on Sunday, as the country marks the one-year anniversary of its first confirmed infection.
Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the face of Mexico’s response to the pandemic, has drawn criticism for downplaying the need for masks and for spearheading a strategy of limited testing.
Initial deliveries of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine should start on Tuesday, helping to boost vaccination rates across the country, senior administration officials said on Sunday, Reuters reports.
The officials acknowledged that vaccination rates among minorities were “not where we ultimately want them to be”, but said federal officials were closely monitoring distribution to ensure it was equitable.
They urged everyone in the United States to get a vaccination as soon as it was their turn, and said Black and brown Americans should understand that safeguards had been put in place after past cases of discrimination in the medical field.
A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel voted unanimously on Sunday to recommend Johnson & Johnson’s Covid shot for widespread use, and US officials said initial shipments would start on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Providing a final clearance for the vaccine a day after it was authorised by US regulators, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 12-0 to recommend the vaccine from J&J as appropriate for Americans 18 and older. There was one abstention due to prior conflicts of interest.
“We believe today’s recommendation from the CDC to begin use of our vaccine as part of the US national immunization program will add a critical tool in the fight against Covid,” Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, said in a statement.
“We’re getting these doses out the door as soon as they’re available to ensure vaccines get into arms as quickly as possible,” one senior US official told reporters late on Sunday, adding that initial deliveries were expected by Tuesday.
State and local public health authorities will use Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC guidance as they administer the first 3.9m doses, which will be shipped through distribution partner McKesson Corp.
Updated
Ardern under pressure over latest Auckland lockdown
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has expressed frustration over rule-breaking by people implicated in the recent cluster of coronavirus cases, leading to further restrictions for Auckland.
The city re-entered lockdown with level-three restrictions in place for at least a week from Sunday following the discovery of a community case of unknown origin.
Health officials investigating over the weekend successfully established that the person, known as Case M, had been infected through contact with a family counted among the recent Papatoetoe cluster:
Brazil Covid variant hits UK
The government is facing urgent calls for tougher border measures after UK officials said they were searching for one of six people infected with the highly transmissible Brazilian coronavirus variant.
Public Health England said on Sunday that three cases of the variant had been detected in England and three in Scotland, but that the identity of one of those carrying the virus was unknown as they had not provided their contact details.
The P1 variant, also known as the B1128 variant, shares some of the same mutations as the highly transmissible South African variant and was first identified in Manaus, Brazil, in January. It is thought that it could respond less well to current vaccines.
Two of the English cases are from a single household in south Gloucestershire, a member of whom returned from Brazil a month after the variant was first identified and five days before the hotel quarantine policy came into force:
South Africa lowers alert level from three to one
South Africa’s coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from three to one following a fall in infections, president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced, with the change coming into effect at midnight.
“As we ease restrictions, we cannot let our guard down. The few remaining restrictions under Alert Level 1 are meant to maintain low levels of infections and, in particular, to prevent super-spreading events,” Ramaphosa said.
“We were able to emerge from the second wave because most people adhered to the tighter restrictions and observed the basic health protocols, including wearing masks in public and social distancing.”
The country has also signed a deal with Johnson & Johnson to secure 11m vaccine doses, Ramaphosa announced on Saturday, with 2.8m doses set to arrive in the second quarter.
The rest will be spread over the rest of the year.
Unlike most available vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not require a second shot.
Covid vaccine acceptance rises in some countries: study
Willingness to get a Covid-19 vaccine is on the rise compared to last year, a survey of six industrialised countries published on Monday showed.
AFP: More people in the United Kingdom, the United States and even vaccine-sceptical France now accept the idea of getting a coronavirus jab, KekstCNC, an international consultancy, said in the survey conducted in February.
The survey also covered Germany, Japan and Sweden where a similar trend was clear, it said.
“As vaccine rollouts commence, higher numbers of people in all countries say they would take the vaccine,” the study said.
The highest percentage was found in the UK with 89% of those questioned in favour of taking a vaccine, up from 70% in December.
In Sweden, the rate was 76% against 53% in December, in the US 64% against 58%, in Germany 73% against 63% and in Japan 64% against 50%.
France was the country in the study with the least enthusiasm at 59%, but favourable opinions about vaccines were still sharply up from the 40% level seen in December.
Some people were, meanwhile, highly critical of the vaccine rollout in their country.
While 76% of Britons surveyed felt their government had gotten the rollout speed “about right”, that percentage fell to 32% in the US, 28% in Germany and Japan, 22% in France and only 20% in Sweden.
People in the six countries judged that Israel and Britain had done the world’s best jobs with their vaccine rollout.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,526,075 people since it emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on Sunday.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 511,998 deaths.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Willingness to get a Covid-19 vaccine is on the rise compared to last year, a survey of six industrialised countries published on Monday showed.
More people in the United Kingdom, the United States and even vaccine-sceptical France now accept the idea of getting a coronavirus jab, KekstCNC, an international consultancy, said in the survey conducted in February.
Meanwhile South Africa’s coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from three to one following a fall in infections, president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced, with the change coming into effect at midnight.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- South Africa’s coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from three to one following a fall in infections, president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced, with the change coming into effect at midnight.
-
The Norwegian capital Oslo is ramping up its coronavirus restrictions after a surge in infections connected to the more transmissible variant first detected in the UK.
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Cases of the virus variant first detected in Brazil have been discovered in the UK for the first time, Public Health England has said. Three cases have been found in England and three in Scotland. Officials will begin surge testing in the South Gloucestershire postcodes of BS320, BS328, BS329, BS345 and BS346 tomorrow.
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Nigeria will receive its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines this week, with nearly 4m of its 16m vaccines due to arrive in Africa’s most populous nation via the Covax scheme.
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The UK has recorded its lowest rise in cases since late September, with a further 6,035 infections registered on Sunday.
- In the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official, said he would take the newly approved Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine as he encouraged Americans to accept any of the three approved shots.
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The Johnson & Johnson jab is likely to be approved for use in the European Union in early March, a French minister said on Sunday.
- More than 20 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of coronavirus vaccinations, new figures released on Sunday showed.
Updated
