A summary of today's developments
- The World Health Organization proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities. The initial investigation and report faced criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not evaluating the lab-leak theory more deeply - a mere 440 words of the report were dedicated to discussing and dismissing it.
- Mexico City’s government will speed up Covid-19 vaccinations to its more than nine million inhabitants starting next week as infections and hospitalisations have risen significantly, mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said.
- People arriving in England from France must continue to quarantine for 10 days at home or in other accommodation, even if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the government said.
- Scott Morrison has been accused of misrepresenting advice from the government’s immunisation advisers, Atagi, who he has sought to blame for the slow rollout of Australia’s vaccination program. The prime minister has incorrectly claimed that Atagi made an “assumption” in its vaccine approval planning that Covid-19 cases would remain low – when their advice on AstraZeneca vaccines in fact warned the opposite.
- Spain’s two-week coronavirus contagion rate rose to 537 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday, according to health ministry data, as the country struggled to cope with a surge in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
- France reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases again as the rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant led to a jump in new infections, but hospital numbers continued a sustained fall.
- Canada is set to open its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by September, prime minister Justin Trudeau said, if current trends continue. The plans are likely to cause some controversy after Trudeau said unvaccinated travellers from abroad entering Canada was a scenario “that’s not going to happen for quite a while”, with the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, saying it would “further exacerbate inequities”.
- New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said discussions between Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations have “moved us beyond vaccine nationalism”, which she blamed for helping the development of the fast-spreading virus variants which are now fuelling the pandemic.
- Covid-19 cases are rising in every US state, with some states seeing as much as double the number of cases as last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Public health experts point to the more transmissible Delta variant, a slowdown in vaccinations and surges from the Fourth of July weekend as the main factors behind the surge.
- Barcelona and the surrounding north-east corner of Spain is to impose a curfew from 1am to 6am again amid rising Covid cases. Regional authorities received judicial approval for their request to restore a nightly curfew, their latest effort to ratchet up restrictions and discourage gatherings.
- Irish families with young children were finally told they will be free to travel without PCR tests when the border re-opens for non-essential travel on 19 July. Vaccinated adults would not have to provide a PCR test or quarantine on entry.
- Senegal’s president Macky Sall threatened to close the borders and re-impose a state of emergency after the country registered a new record number of daily Covid-19 cases for the third time in a week.
- Hungary is to make vaccines mandatory for all health workers, after similar moves by France and a few other European countries, but prime minister Victor Orban said the country was otherwise “not in favour of coercion”.
- Boris Johnson’s plan to lift virtually all of England’s pandemic restrictions on Monday is a threat to the world and provides fertile ground for the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, international experts say.
- The mayor of Moscow suggested that measures compelling people to present a QR code demonstrating they have been vaccinated against Covid, or have immunity, to sit inside cafes were sticks to encourage people to get vaccinated after the restrictions were dropped.
Senegal’s president Macky Sall threatened to close the borders and re-impose a state of emergency after the country registered a new record number of daily Covid-19 cases for the third time in a week.
The health ministry reported 738 new cases on Friday, more than the previous records of 733 on Wednesday and 529 on Sunday.
“I would like to say very clearly that if the numbers continue to rise, I will take all necessary measures including if it means returning to a state of emergency or closing the borders or banning movements,” Sall said in a televised address.
There have been 49,008 infections and 1,209 coronavirus-related deaths reported in Senegal since the pandemic began, Reuters reports.
A spokesman for Abta - The Travel Association responded to the news that fully vaccinated holidaymakers returning to England from France must quarantine, saying: “While we understand that public health must come first, this announcement will undoubtedly dent consumer confidence in overseas travel just as we are about to see many amber-listed countries opening up for UK visitors in time for the summer holidays.
“Continuing changes to travel restrictions will delay any meaningful recovery for the industry and this news is just the latest example of why a tailored package of financial support for the travel and tourism sector must be introduced.”
US president Joe Biden said social media platforms like Facebook “are killing people” for allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to be posted on its platform.
“They’re killing people. ... Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people,” Biden told reporters at the White House when asked about misinformation and what his message was to social media platforms such as Facebook Inc’s.
The company has introduced rules against making specific false claims about coronavirus and vaccines for it, and says it provides people reliable information on these topics, Reuters reports.
“We will not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts,” Facebook spokesman Kevin McAlister said.
“The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about Covid-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet.
“More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine. The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period,” he said.
Brazil registered 1,456 Covid-19 deaths on Friday and 45,591 additional cases, according to data released by the country’s health ministry.
The South American country has now registered a total of 540,398 coronavirus deaths and 19,308,109 total cases, Reuters reports.
UK travellers in France have described their “frustration” after discovering they will need to quarantine when returning home from Monday despite being fully vaccinated.
Georgina Thomas, a nurse from Buckinghamshire, has been visiting her parents in the countryside between La Rochelle and Bordeaux for the last three weeks with her baby daughter.
“I’m frustrated with the inconsistent approach the Government are taking, it doesn’t all appear logical,” the 32-year-old told PA.
“If a quarantine is necessary then so be it but I’m confident that my risk will be higher when I return to the UK.”
Graham McLeod, from Bolton, is staying in his holiday home in Charente Maritime on France’s Atlantic coast with his partner.
“In terms of government messaging, we’d say it’s inconsistent, irregular, unclear and frankly unworkable,” the 63-year-old retiree said.
Updated
The US sent two million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to Ukraine via the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program on Friday, a White House official said, and plans to send 3.5 million Moderna doses to Bangladesh over the weekend.
The doses for Bangladesh will arrive on Monday, the official said.
The doses are part of President Joe Biden’s promise to share doses of US vaccine with other countries around the world, via COVAX or directly, Reuters reports.
Scott Morrison has been accused of misrepresenting advice from the government’s immunisation advisers, Atagi, who he has sought to blame for the slow rollout of Australia’s vaccination program.
The prime minister has incorrectly claimed that Atagi made an “assumption” in its vaccine approval planning that Covid-19 cases would remain low – when their advice on AstraZeneca vaccines in fact warned the opposite.
Morrison made the comments on Thursday, doubling down on an earlier attempt to blame the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation for the botched rollout.
Oman’s civil aviation authority said it has removed Singapore and Brunei from its entry-ban list of countries.
The UK, Tunisia, India, Iran and Pakistan are among those to stay on the banned countries list, Reuters reports. The authority added that exceptions for citizens, diplomatic personas and health workers and their families are still in place.
As countries look for a post-pandemic pathway back to “normal”, New Zealand is making no promises – and its population seems startlingly happy with that.
Around the world, some governments are hitting full throttle with rhetoric about a “return to normal” and the freedoms of a pre-pandemic world. New Zealand’s approach has been cautious by contrast. The government has made no assurances of a return to normal anytime soon, announced no multi-step “pathway out”, and put forward no timeline for re-opening borders even to vaccinated travellers.
For the population, that messaging seems to have sunk in: the vast majority of New Zealanders – 91% – do not expect life to return to normal, even once they are vaccinated.
In recent speeches and media interviews, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has likened the Covid-19 pandemic to the 9/11 terror attacks in the US – in the sense that even after the immediate damage was cleared, the experience continued to transform the way countries approached security, travel and immigration. “After 9/11 our borders changed forever, and our borders are likely to change quite permanently as a result of Covid-19,” Ardern said.
A summary of today's developments
- The World Health Organization proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities. The initial investigation and report faced criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not evaluating the lab-leak theory more deeply - a mere 440 words of the report were dedicated to discussing and dismissing it.
- Mexico City’s government will speed up Covid-19 vaccinations to its more than nine million inhabitants starting next week as infections and hospitalisations have risen significantly, mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said.
- People arriving in England from France must continue to quarantine for 10 days at home or in other accommodation, even if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the government said.
- Spain’s two-week coronavirus contagion rate rose to 537 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday, according to health ministry data, as the country struggled to cope with a surge in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
- France reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases again as the rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant led to a jump in new infections, but hospital numbers continued a sustained fall.
- Canada is set to open its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by September, prime minister Justin Trudeau said, if current trends continue. The plans are likely to cause some controversy after Trudeau said unvaccinated travellers from abroad entering Canada was a scenario “that’s not going to happen for quite a while”, with the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, saying it would “further exacerbate inequities”.
- New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said discussions between Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations have “moved us beyond vaccine nationalism”, which she blamed for helping the development of the fast-spreading virus variants which are now fuelling the pandemic.
- Covid-19 cases are rising in every US state, with some states seeing as much as double the number of cases as last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Public health experts point to the more transmissible Delta variant, a slowdown in vaccinations and surges from the Fourth of July weekend as the main factors behind the surge.
- Barcelona and the surrounding north-east corner of Spain is to impose a curfew from 1am to 6am again amid rising Covid cases. Regional authorities received judicial approval for their request to restore a nightly curfew, their latest effort to ratchet up restrictions and discourage gatherings.
- Irish families with young children were finally told they will be free to travel without PCR tests when the border re-opens for non-essential travel on 19 July. Vaccinated adults would not have to provide a PCR test or quarantine on entry.
- Hungary is to make vaccines mandatory for all health workers, after similar moves by France and a few other European countries, but prime minister Victor Orban said the country was otherwise “not in favour of coercion”.
- Boris Johnson’s plan to lift virtually all of England’s pandemic restrictions on Monday is a threat to the world and provides fertile ground for the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, international experts say.
- The mayor of Moscow suggested that measures compelling people to present a QR code demonstrating they have been vaccinated against Covid, or have immunity, to sit inside cafes were sticks to encourage people to get vaccinated after the restrictions were dropped.
Mexico City’s government will speed up Covid-19 vaccinations to its more than nine million inhabitants starting next week as infections and hospitalisations have risen significantly, mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said.
The number of people in Mexico City hospitalised with Covid-19 rose by 650 from last week to 1,871. Infections are hitting 18- to 39-year-olds, many of them unvaccinated, Reuters reports.
“This increase we’re seeing in hospitalisations, the only way to reduce it is getting vaccinated and being mindful of sanitary measures,” said Sheinbaum.
British broadcaster Evan Davis has said he has “no obvious symptoms” after testing positive for coronavirus after returning to his presenting duties on BBC Radio 4’s PM.
The journalist, 59, revealed he had tested positive for Covid earlier this week. He has been presenting the programme from home since Thursday while he self-isolates. Davis said during Friday’s episode of PM: “I’m a double vaccinated case of relatively light symptoms, no obvious Covid symptoms.”
On Tuesday, Davis said he was “living the story” after surge testing in the area where he lives revealed he had the virus. He added he has “a record of assiduous mask-wearing and I’m weeks beyond my second vax”. He added: “Haven’t sat indoors at a bar or restaurant since March 2020.”
People arriving in England from France must continue to quarantine for 10 days at home or in other accommodation, even if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the government has said.
From Monday, UK residents arriving from amber countries who are fully vaccinated will no longer have to quarantine, but the government has now said this will not apply to France following the persistent presence of cases in France of the Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa.
Anyone who has been in France in the last 10 days will need to quarantine on arrival to England in their own accommodation and will need a day two and day eight test, regardless of their vaccination status.
Updated
Boris Johnson is set to lift Covid restrictions across England on Monday despite Downing Street last night conceding concerns over rapidly rising case numbers as more than 1,200 international scientists and health experts urged the government to scrap the “dangerous experiment” of “freedom day”.
New daily infections in the UK broke the 50,000 threshold on Friday for the first time since mid-January and official figures showed one in 95 people in England are estimated to have the virus – more than quadruple the rate in the middle of June when the prime minister set 19 July for lifting most of the country’s last infection control measures.
A No 10 source said that “in terms of case numbers and projections” the picture was now “worrying”, with the UK over half way to the 100,000 daily infections predicted by the health secretary Sajid Javid after curbs are lifted. Johnson had warned of 50,000 daily cases by 19 July but said the link with hospital admissions and deaths was all but broken.
The US administered 336,604,158 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 389,359,835 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 336,054,953 vaccine doses the CDC said had been administered by July 15 out of 388,738,495 doses delivered, Reuters reports.
The agency said 185,424,899 people had received at least one dose while 160,686,378 people are fully vaccinated as of Friday.
Covid cases are rising in all 50 US states as the Delta variant spreads coast to coast, news outlets reported on Friday , and with less than half the US population fully vaccinated, public health chiefs warned of an “extraordinary surge”.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a White House briefing: “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Walensky said the US was seeing an average of 26,000 new coronavirus cases a day – a seven-day average that is 70% higher than last week.
Hospitalisations and deaths are also seeing increases – about 36% and 26%, respectively, with Walensky noting this was another “critical moment” in the outbreak.
Spain’s two-week coronavirus contagion rate rose to 537 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday, according to health ministry data, as the country struggled to cope with a surge in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
Tourist magnet Catalonia has been the hardest hit, with the 14-day contagion rate rising to 1,160 cases per 100,000 people, according to health ministry data.
In Spain, 4,100,222 people have tested positive for coronavirus while 81,096 have died since the start of the pandemic, according to health ministry data on Friday.
US White House press secretary Jen Psaki has continued its criticism of Facebook for allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to be posted on the social media platform, Reuters reports.
“Obviously there are steps they have taken. They’re a private sector company. There are additional steps they can take. “It’s clear that there are more that can be taken,” she said at a White House briefing. Facebook has introduced rules against making certain false claims about coronavirus and its vaccines.
France reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases again as the rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant led to a jump in new infections, but hospital numbers continued a sustained fall.
The health ministry reported 10,908 new cases today, taking the total to more than 5.84 million. The daily new case tally was last over 10,000 at the end of May. The seven-day moving average of new cases rose further to 5,795, after jumping over the key threshold of 5,000 on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Hospital numbers for Covid-19 continued their weeks-long fall, but the rate of decline slowed further. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital fell below 7,000 for the first time since early October and the number of people in intensive care with the disease fell below 900. The ministry also reported 22 new deaths from Covid-19, taking the total to 111,451.
Some 92 Cuban doctors and nurses who assisted to Mexico during the pandemic in recent months have been flown home, Mexico’s foreign ministry has said.
Communist-led Cuba has exported doctors as a central part of its diplomatic efforts since its 1959 revolution. Its doctors were in the front lines in the fight against cholera in Haiti and ebola in West Africa in the 2010s, Reuters reports.
In Mexico, the doctors worked mostly in the eastern part of the capital Mexico City as the healthcare system was stretched to a breaking point.
“Mexico ... returned to Havana, Cuba, 92 doctors and nurses who in recent months provided their services in our country to help address the Covid-19 pandemic,” the foreign ministry said. “The support of Cuban doctors is proof of the historical friendship that Mexico has with Cuba.”
In January, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador thanked the Cuban medical staff for their help in fighting the pandemic. It is not clear why the doctors left as Mexican hospitals are under increased pressure amid another wave of coronavirus cases, Reuters reports. It was also not immediately clear if any Cuban medical practitioners remained in Mexico.
Today so far...
- The World Health Organization proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities. The initial investigation and report faced criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not evaluating the lab-leak theory more deeply - a mere 440 words of the report were dedicated to discussing and dismissing it.
- Canada is set to open its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by September, prime minister Justin Trudeau said, if current trends continue. The plans are likely to cause some controversy after Trudeau said unvaccinated travellers from abroad entering Canada was a scenario “that’s not going to happen for quite a while”, with the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, saying it would “further exacerbate inequities”.
- New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said discussions between Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations have “moved us beyond vaccine nationalism”, which she blamed for helping the development of the fast-spreading virus variants which are now fuelling the pandemic.
- Covid-19 cases are rising in every US state, with some states seeing as much as double the number of cases as last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Public health experts point to the more transmissible Delta variant, a slowdown in vaccinations and surges from the Fourth of July weekend as the main factors behind the surge.
- Barcelona and the surrounding north-east corner of Spain is to impose a curfew from 1am to 6am again amid rising Covid cases. Regional authorities received judicial approval for their request to restore a nightly curfew, their latest effort to ratchet up restrictions and discourage gatherings.
- Irish families with young children were finally told they will be free to travel without PCR tests when the border re-opens for non-essential travel on 19 July. Vaccinated adults would not have to provide a PCR test or quarantine on entry.
- Hungary is to make vaccines mandatory for all health workers, after similar moves by France and a few other European countries, but prime minister Victor Orban said the country was otherwise “not in favour of coercion”.
- Boris Johnson’s plan to lift virtually all of England’s pandemic restrictions on Monday is a threat to the world and provides fertile ground for the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, international experts say.
- The mayor of Moscow suggested that measures compelling people to present a QR code demonstrating they have been vaccinated against Covid, or have immunity, to sit inside cafes were sticks to encourage people to get vaccinated after the restrictions were dropped.
Updated
Ministers have shelved proposals to urgently overhaul the Covid contact tracing app in England as cases surge, prompting claims they have lost control of the so-called “pingdemic” days before restrictions are dropped.
As the number of people “pinged” and told to isolate rose 46% in a week to more than 520,000, the knock-on effects ballooned and prompted concerns that growing numbers will delete or ignore the app.
The head of NHS Providers warned that the number of health workers being told to self-isolate was “significantly impacting” patient care while South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS foundation trust asked staff to postpone their holidays due to the “extreme pressure” of patients suffering Covid, which rose from two to 80 in a month.
From 19 July face masks will become optional in England, after having been a legal requirement in public spaces including shops, hospitals, places of worship, theatres, taxis and other forms of transport for many months.
Although face covering have been, as stated in government guidance, largely intended to protect others, not the wearer, against the spread of infection with Covid-19, from Monday people will be able to decide for themselves whether to wear masks or not, unless required otherwise by a business or body such as Transport for London, where they will remain compulsory.
Eight Guardian readers tell us why they will or won’t be planning to wear a mask on Monday.
Shares of Italy’s Stevanato Group, which makes glass vials for Covid-19 vaccines and other healthcare products, fell more than 20% in their New York Stock Exchange debut, giving the company a market capitalisation of over $5bn.
Stevanato’s shares opened at $16.65 today. The company had priced its initial public offering (IPO) at the lower end of its target range of $21 to $24 per share, Reuters reports.
The Padua, Italy-based company offered 32m shares in its IPO, raising about $672 million. It had earlier planned to sell 40m shares.
Stevanato saw demand for its products and service go up due to the pandemic, Reuters reports, it provides glass vials to about 90% of currently marketed Covid-19 vaccine programs, the company estimates, based on public information.
The medical packaging company was originally founded as Soffieria Stella, a specialty glass manufacturer, by billionaire Sergio Stevanato in 1949.
Updated
France should consider whether to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory for the general public so that the government can act quickly if the epidemic worsens, the country’s health authority has said.
The government this week made it mandatory for all health workers to get vaccinated against Covid, and set out controversial plans for severe measures for those unvaccinated.
France’s HAS health authority said in a statement that the debate should focus on widening mandatory vaccination beyond the current government draft law and consider whether to make vaccination mandatory for all people vulnerable to Covid infection, for professionals who are in contact with the public, and even for the general public.
“The dynamic of the epidemic now calls for a massive increase in vaccine coverage ... notable for the most vulnerable people,” HAS said.
On Wednesday, thousands of people in Paris demonstrated against Macron’s plan for a health pass to enter public places.
Readers who have been fully vaccinated describe the anguish and uncertainty of not have their jabs accepted as proof of immunity, and being unable to work or see family in the UK.
Ardern: 'vaccine nationalism' helped fuel variant spreads
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said discussions between Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations have “moved us beyond vaccine nationalism”, which she blamed for helping the development of the fast-spreading virus variants which are now fuelling the pandemic.
The unprecedented talks brought together heads of state from the 21-nation APEC group, including US president Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, AFP reports.
Leaders vowed to ramp up the production and distribution of vaccines and signalled they would be looking at digital documentation to streamline travel and trade across international borders.
Ardern said:
We are pushing for collaborative and practical solutions on safely reconnecting with the world by continuing to explore options including vaccine passports, travel green lanes and quarantine-free travel bubbles. We need to suppress transmission and do everything we can to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible.
For the first time in APEC’s history, leaders have come together for an extraordinary meeting focused exclusively on Covid-19 and how our region can navigate out of the worst health and economic crisis in living memory.
Front of mind for leaders is achieving widespread access for vaccines globally and working collaboratively to provide them to everyone as soon as possible.
A joint statement from the APEC leaders said “we will redouble our efforts to expand vaccine manufacture and supply” with Ardern saying there was also a determination to cut tariffs on vaccines and associated medical equipment.
Underlining the diplomatic battle for influence the pandemic has created, White House officials said in the lead-up to the talks that the US intended to serve “as an arsenal of vaccines for the region”, though China said it had already supplied developing countries with more than 500 million Covid-19 vaccine doses.
But Ardern said there was no sign of tension between Xi and Biden at the meeting. “No, that wasn’t an issue that I had to navigate as chair at all,” she said, adding all the participating leaders were “totally focused on the issues that we as a region face”.
WHO calls for 'audits' of Wuhan laboratories after first mission controversy
The World Health Organization has proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus presented the plan to member states a day after saying that investigations were being hampered by the lack of raw data on the first days of spread of Covid-19 in China.
Phase two work would require studies of humans, wildlife and animal markets in Wuhan, including Huanan wholesale market, he said in remarks released by the agency, Reuters reports.
It would also require “audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019”, Tedros said.
Diplomats said that China, which has resisted a return by international scientists, voiced objections at the closed-door talks saying: “This plan is not a basis for future studies.”
In their long-delayed report published in late March, the international team and their Chinese counterparts drew no firm conclusions, instead ranking a number of hypotheses according to how likely they believed they were, after four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan, AFP reports.
The report said the virus jumping from bats to humans via an intermediate animal was the most probable scenario, while a theory involving the virus leaking from a laboratory was “extremely unlikely”, but Adhanom Ghebreyesus undermined the conclusion just days later, saying that all hypotheses remained under consideration.
The investigation and report have faced criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not evaluating the lab-leak theory more deeply - a mere 440 words of the report were dedicated to discussing and dismissing it.
Countries including the US and some scientists have since demanded further investigation, particularly into the Wuhan Institute of Virology which was conducting research into bats.
“Finding the origins of this virus is a scientific exercise that must be kept free from politics. For that to happen, we expect China to support this next phase of the scientific process by sharing all relevant data in a spirit of transparency,” Tedros said.
China has called the theory that the virus may have escaped from a Wuhan laboratory “absurd” and said repeatedly that “politicising” the issue would hamper investigations.
At a regular news briefing today, when asked about Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ earlier comments on the need for more data from China, its foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that some data was unable to be copied or leave China as it involved personal information.
US TV host Seth Meyers last night address president Joe Biden’s door-to-door community vaccination outreach program, which conservative figures from Laura Ingraham to Tucker Carlson have derided as a boogeyman of a surveillance state.
“In reality, it is a volunteer effort and all they’re doing is trying to raise awareness of life-saving vaccines amid the deadly pandemic,” Meyers explained. “And look, I get that if you still don’t have the vaccine and you watch Fox News, you are not going to be convinced by someone knocking on your door.”
Updated
Holidaymakers and Balearic Islands residents have criticised the UK government for its U-turn on the region after it was moved from the country’s “green list” of quarantine-free destinations to “amber”.
British residents of the islands said the last-minute changes – which were announced on Wednesday and come into force at 4am on Monday – are “enormously unfair” because vaccinated UK holidaymakers won’t have to quarantine on the islands, but for islanders travelling to the UK, quarantine is still necessary. British holidaymakers criticised the government for “chopping and changing” and throwing their plans into disarray.
Italy reported 11 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday against nine the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 2,898 from 2,455.
Reuters reports:
Italy has registered 127,851 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eight-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.28 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 1,088 on Friday, edging down from 1,089 a day earlier.
There were 13 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 11 on Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients rose to 161 from a previous 153.
Some 205,602 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 190,922, the health ministry said.
The likely next president of Peru, socialist Pedro Castillo, has called for China to accelerate the supply of vaccines against Covid-19 as part of closer ties between the countries.
Reuters reports:
Castillo and his economic adviser Pedro Francke went on Thursday to the Chinese embassy in Lima, the first diplomatic headquarters to get a visit from the leftist politician after his strong showing in the June 6 election.
Peru announced in January a deal with the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm for the purchase of some 38 million doses of vaccines. The supply to the country has been taking shape little by little. This week three million doses were added to the pact.
“The issue of vaccines was discussed, we want to ensure the rapid supply of vaccines because it is important for the health system and also for the country’s economy,” Francke told Reuters by telephone. He is expected to serve as economy minister if Castillo is confirmed as president elect.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said he plans to be back in action soon after a short but serious illness, posting a tweet saying “we still have much to do” in one of the countries worst-affected by coronavirus.
Bolsonaro tweeted in Portuguese: “I will soon be back in action, God willing. We’ve done lots, but we still have much to do for our Brazil. Thanks for the support and well wishes. A warm embrace to all.”
Bolsonaro was rushed to hospital on Wednesday night for emergency surgery following ten days of hiccups.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Mattha Busby - please do email over anything we’ve missed to rachel.hall@theguardian.com and I’ll add it in.
Updated
Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga has told the APEC meeting that he was determined to hold a safe and secure Olympics, and no leaders expressed concern that the games could help spread coronavirus infections, a government spokesman said.
Deputy chief cabinet secretary Naoki Okada made the comment at a media briefing following an online meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific trade group, Reuters reports. The Tokyo Olympics, postponed for a year due to the pandemic, are scheduled to start on 23 July.
Updated
China has financed the setup of a fund under the Asia-Pacific trade group to respond to the pandemic and fuel economic recovery, president Xi Jinping said, according to Xinhua news agency.
Reuters reports that Xi also said that China supported waiving the intellectual property rights of Covid vaccines – opposed by the UK, Germany and other major nations – and was willing to cooperate with other countries to ensure a stable and safe supply chain for vaccines.
China has provided more than 500m vaccine doses to developing countries, Xi said. At a G20 health summit in May, Xi pledged an additional $3bn in aid over the next three years to help developing countries recover from the pandemic.
Updated
Covid-19 cases are rising in every US state, with some states seeing as much as double the number of cases as last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Public health experts point to the more transmissible Delta variant, a slowdown in vaccinations and surges from the Fourth of July weekend as the main factors behind the surge.
You can follow US-focused updates with my colleague Lauren Aratani.
Staying with Russian news, Vladimir Putin has told a meeting of the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC that global barriers to vaccine production and deliveries need to be removed
The Russian president said his country, unlike others, had actively encouraged other countries to produce their homegrown vaccines such as Sputnik V and had transferred the technology to enable them to do so. But he said more needed to be done to remove barriers that slowed the process.
“The [global] problem with the availability and equitable distribution of tests, vaccines, medicines and protective equipment has not been solved,” Putin said. “We consider it important to work further on creating new vaccine production facilities in the Asia-Pacific region by removing administrative and other barriers which hamper their production and delivery.”
He claimed that Russia had overcome the consequences of the pandemic and that its economy has largely recovered.
Updated
Russia has reported 799 coronavirus-related deaths, the most in a single day since the pandemic began and the fourth day in a row it has set a record.
It comes amid a surge in cases that authorities have blamed on the contagious Delta variant and the slow rate of vaccinations. The coronavirus task force confirmed 25,704 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports.
It said the official national Covid-19 cumulative case tally now stood at 5,907,999. It said the national death toll had risen to 146,868. The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and said Russia recorded around 290,000 deaths related to Covid-19 from April 2020 to May 2021.
Canada set to open borders for fully vaccinated travellers from September
Canada is set to open its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by September, prime minister Justin Trudeau has said.
He told a meeting with Canadian regional leaders that if current trends continued, “Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by early September.”
The plans, if they were to bar unvaccinated non-citizens from entering Canada, are likely to cause controversy. Last week, Trudeau said unvaccinated travellers from abroad entering Canada was a scenario “that’s not going to happen for quite a while.”
A statement released by Trudeau’s office summarising the meeting said:
First ministers continued their discussions on the Covid-19 situation, noting that case numbers and severe illness continue to decline across the country as vaccination rates continue to increase.
The prime minister noted that Canada continues to lead G20 countries in vaccination rates with approximately 80% of eligible Canadians vaccinated with their first dose and over 50% of eligible Canadians fully vaccinated.
First ministers also discussed how to continue safely adjusting border measures. The prime minister noted that, if our current positive path of vaccination rate and public health conditions continue, He noted the ongoing discussions with the US on reopening plans, and indicated that we could expect to start allowing fully vaccinated US citizens and permanent residents into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel.
The New York Times reports that Canada’s regional authorities have recently lifted restrictions, as hospitalisations and deaths related to Covid have been declining.
John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, tweeted: “This decision by Canada will further exacerbate inequities and make it harder to win the global fight against Covid-19.”
Updated
Nearly 50 African countries are to receive 25m Covid-19 vaccine doses donated by the US, with the first shipments to Burkina Faso, Djibouti and Ethiopia in coming days, officials and the Gavi vaccine alliance have said.
“In partnership with the African Union and Covax, the United States is proud to donate 25 million Covid-19 vaccines to 49 African countries. The Biden administration is committed to leading the global response to the pandemic by providing safe and effective vaccines to the world,” Gayle Smith, the US state department’s coordinator for Covid-19 recovery and global health, said.
Reuters reports that almost 1m doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be delivered to Burkina Faso, Djibouti and Ethiopia in coming days, the statement said. The remainder will be shipped in coming weeks, it added.
African Union special envoy Strive Masiyiwa said the US donation – as part of a pledge to send 80m doses worldwide rolling its domestic rollout – was appreciated “especially at this moment when we are witnessing the third-wave in a number of African countries”.
The much-criticised Covax dose-sharing programme has so far shipped 121m doses to 136 mostly low and middle income countries, far short of its original targets, due to supply constraints since India suspended vaccine exports.
Covax had pinned its hopes largely on sourcing jabs from plants in the country, a shortsighted decision, according to critics, though it remains to be seen whether enough jabs would have been able to be sourced through that route.
The programme is run by the Gavi vaccine alliance – founded and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has extensive financial interests in vaccines – and the WHO. Gates has been criticised for “intellectual property stubbornness” over his opposition to a patent waiver which would allow for a swifter global vaccine rollout.
Updated
Vietnam “believes that Cuba will overcome the current socio-economic difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequences of the embargo”, the foreign ministry has said.
It urged the US to end its “hostile policy” and lift its longstanding trade embargo on Cuba, following this week’s rare anti-government protests on the island.
“The US needs to take concrete steps in the direction of normalising relations with Cuba for the benefit of the two peoples, contributing to peace, stability and development in the region and the world,” ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said.
Thousands of Cubans staged the biggest anti-government protests in decades on Sunday, demonstrating against an economic crisis and the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and curbs on civil liberties, Reuters reports.
Vietnam and Cuba are among the last five communist-ruled countries in the world, along with China, Laos and North Korea. Washington has maintained a crippling, ideological trade embargo against Cuba since the early 1960s, which authorities in Havana blame for some of the country’s economic problems.
The US lifted its trade embargo against Vietnam – which has embraced wide-ranging market-based reforms – in 1994, and relations between former foes have warmed in recent years. The US is Vietnam’s largest export market.
Updated
It is not just humans who have changed their habits as a result of the pandemic. On the Farne Islands, in north-east England, seabirds have used Covid as an opportunity to try out new nesting spots while rangers and tourists stayed away.
Updated
Barcelona area nighttime curfew imposition approved by court
Barcelona and the surrounding north-east corner of Spain is to impose a curfew from 1am to 6am again amid rising Covid cases.
Regional authorities have today received judicial approval for their request to restore a nightly curfew, their latest effort to ratchet up restrictions and discourage gatherings, AFP reports.
The curfew order is to affect towns with a population over 5,000 which surpass the rate of 400 infections per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days. It will affect a total of 161 municipalities, including popular beach resorts like Sitges and Salou.
Catalonia, the epicentre of Spain’s jump in infections, has already ordered all public gatherings to finish by 1230am and restricted gatherings to no more than 10 people.
It comes as Valencia, the neighbouring region, earlier this week won court approval to restore a curfew in 32 towns. The northern Navarra region also said today it would also seek court permission to restore a nightly curfew.
Cases in Catalonia are double the Spanish average and it is among the hardest-hit areas in Europe with more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days. Only Cyprus is worse off in Europe, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Scenes of revelry became common in many of Spain’s cities once the government lifted a six-month night-time curfew in early May. The government had hoped to give some relief to businesses and send the message abroad that Spain was open again for its all-important summer tourist season, AP reports.
Updated
Eiffel Tower reopens after eight-month closure
Staying in France, the Eiffel Tower in Paris reopened today after an eight-month shutdown because of the pandemic, its longest closure since the second world war.
As a countdown clock at the foot of the tower turned to zero, there were cheers and applause from visitors queuing to get in, a brass band played and people starting filing through the entrance, AFP reports.
“We feel pretty lucky to be here,” said Patrick Perutka, an 18-year-old from Croatia who had been waiting for three hours for the gates to open. He was on his first visit to the Eiffel Tower. “It’s a big deal,” he said of the tower. “Everyone knows about it.”
Masks remain compulsory for anyone over 11, and each elevator car will carry only half the normal number of visitors, AFP said.
From 21 July, visitors will need to show a French government “health pass” to demonstrate they are either vaccinated or have had a recent negative test for Covid-19.
Updated
French authorities have said that masks are to be required in all public spaces indoors and out in a southern region bordering Spain, after Covid infections soared this week.
AFP reports that alcohol drinking would also be prohibited outdoors in the Pyrenées-Orientales department on the Mediterranean coast north of Spain, which is also seeing a surge in Delta cases.
Masks will not be required, however, on beaches or in wide open spaces such as mountain trails, regional authorities said in a statement. “More measures could be announced depending on the evolution of health indications and pressure on the hospital system,” the prefecture said.
The Pyrenées-Orientales department has the highest Covid incident rate in France at 257 per 100,000 people, up from 130 on Monday – well above the alert level of 50.
Rates are even higher in neighbouring Catalonia and elsewhere in Spain, and French officials have urged people not to cross the border for holidays, AFP reports. Overall in France the incident rate stands at 40, according to the health ministry, but daily case numbers have been rising rapidly as the Delta variant spreads.
Updated
Boris Johnson’s plan to lift virtually all of England’s pandemic restrictions on Monday is a threat to the world and provides fertile ground for the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, international experts say.
At an emergency summit on Friday government advisers in New Zealand, Israel and Italy sounded alarm bells about Downing Street’s policy, while more than 1,200 scientists backed a letter to the Lancet journal warning that the strategy could allow vaccine-resistant variants to develop.
The letter said: “We believe the government is embarking on a dangerous and unethical experiment, and we call on it to pause plans to abandon mitigations on July 19, 2021.”
Updated
The mayor of Moscow has suggested that measures compelling people to present a QR code demonstrating they have been vaccinated against Covid, or have immunity, to sit inside cafes were sticks to encourage people to get vaccinated after the restrictions were dropped.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Moscow residents would no longer have to abide by the measure at restaurants and bars from 19 July. He said the rate of vaccination had sped up in the capital and that the restriction could therefore be relaxed.
Since 28 June, Muscovites have had to present a QR code that proves they have had a vaccine, a negative test or immunity to be able to sit inside, but outdoor terraces remained open to all, Reuters reports.
Updated
Vietnam has jailed a man for 18 months for breaking strict Covid-19 quarantine rules, spreading the virus to others and causing financial damage to authorities, state media reported.
Dao Duy Tung, 30, was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases” at a one-day trial at the people’s court of northern province of Hai Duong, the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
“Tung illegally entered Vietnam from Laos on 22 April and breached the 14-day quarantine regulations,” the news agency said. “After having been notified that his contacts in Laos tested positive for the virus, Tung failed to show up at medical facilities to get tested … Instead, he travelled to other cities, came into contact with many people, and visited several places.”
Hai Duong province, which is adjacent to the capital, Hanoi, has reported only 51 cases since late April, much lower than the 22,000 cases in the country’s coronavirus epicentre of Ho Chi Minh City in the south, Reuters reports.
Tung’s violations allegedly caused financial damage of more than 3bn dong ($130,372.43) to the authorities, according to the VNA report. It did not elaborate nor say how many people Tung had infected.
In late March, a court sentenced a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant to a two-year suspended jail term on the same charges.
Updated
The coronavirus has taken a heavy toll among Roman Catholic priests and nuns around the world, killing hundreds of them in a handful of the hardest-hit countries alone.
AP reports:
The dead include an Italian parish priest who brought the cinema to his small town in the 1950s; a beloved New York pastor who ministered to teens and the homeless; a nun in India who traveled home to bury her father after he died from Covid-19 only to contract the virus herself.
In some countries, most of those lost were older and lived in nursing or retirement homes where they didn’t regularly engage in person-to-person pastoral work. Other places, though, saw a bigger hit to active clergy, accelerating a decades-old decline in the ranks that Pope Francis in 2017 called a “ haemorrhage.”
Coronavirus deaths among clergy are not just a Catholic problem, said Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, with faith leaders across denominations having elevated exposure rates as “spiritual front-line workers” ministering to the sick and dying in hospitals and nursing homes.
But the impact is particularly acute for a church that is experiencing a “perennial priest shortage” in most countries amid difficulties in recruiting seminarians, he added. And with Catholicism placing a greater emphasis on the role of the priest compared with some other denominations, the losses are keenly felt.
“If you already have so few priests and they’re being decimated by Covid-19,” Chesnut said, “of course that affects the church’s ability to minister to its parishioners.”
Catholics are a small minority in India, comprising about 20 million of the 1.38 billion people in the mostly Hindu nation, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. But soaring reports of deaths among the clergy have caused alarm, with more than 500 priests and nuns lost since mid-April.
The Pacific archipelago of Wallis and Futuna has declared itself Covid-free, with no cases among the French remote island’s 11,500 inhabitants since 1 April, authorities said.
Many remote Pacific island nations have remained free of the virus after shutting their borders soon after the pandemic began. The French overseas collectivity’s administrator superior said it is “unanimously … free of circulation of the Covid-19 virus”.
Mask-wearing in public spaces remains mandatory and authorities claimed that vaccination was “the only way to get out of the epidemic for good”. So far, 41% of the population are fully vaccinated and over 55% have received one shot.
Fiji, which managed 12 months without community transmission, has reported rising cases since April. Wallis and Futuna recorded 445 coronavirus cases between March and April, with seven deaths.
Updated
Here’s a bit more on Hungary making vaccines mandatory for all health workers, courtesy of Agence France-Presse, after similar moves by France and a few other European countries.
“We are not in favour of coercion, with the exception of one area, where we have made a decision that vaccination will be mandatory for healthcare workers,” said the prime minister, Victor Orbán, in his weekly radio interview. He did not say when the requirement would take effect.
In Hungary, more than 30,000 people infected with coronavirus have died, making the 9.8-million population central European country one of the hardest hit EU member states, according to AFP data.
Hungary, an EU member, carried out one of the fastest vaccine rollouts in the 27-member bloc in part thanks to its use of the Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik V jabs.
The infection case numbers have dropped quickly since May, while all coronavirus restrictions including mandatory mask-wearing indoors were lifted in early July.
Since June, however, the vaccination tempo has slowed. Orbán said today that elderly people who had not taken the vaccine would be visited in person to offer them a jab.
A third shot will be made available to people four months past their second Covid jab in August. Vaccinations will also be made available to those aged 12 and over in schools during the two days before the start of the school year on 1 September.
Hello and greetings to everyone reading, wherever you are in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Martin Belam for covering the blog up until now. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.
Updated
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has encouraged states to administer AstraZeneca at mass vaccination centres and boost vaccination rates on weekends, in a sign that Australia is shifting away from its GP-led rollout model.
It comes after the federal government announced it would shelve the controversial AstraZeneca vaccine by October, suggesting it would have enough supplies of other vaccines to meet “allocation horizons” for vaccinating the population by the end of the year.
The commonwealth last month announced changed health advice for the AstraZeneca shot, restricting it to over-60s because it has been linked to an extremely rare blood-clotting condition.
Updated
Irish families with young children have finally been told they will be free to travel without PCR tests when the border re-opens for non-essential travel on 19 July.
In an update to its website, the government made clear that vaccinated adults would not have to provide a PCR test or quarantine on entry. It has also loosened the rules for children over seven to bring them into line with the rest of the EU, eliminating the prohibitive costs of Covid tests for under-12s.
“Currently, children between the ages of seven and 17 must have a negative RT-PCR test in order to travel into Ireland, even with fully vaccinated or recovered adults. Children aged six and under do not need to take a RT-PCR test prior to travelling to Ireland. From 19 July, children aged 12 and over will be required to have a negative RT-PCR test to travel into the country,” it said.
Today so far…
- The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak, and said he was asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.
- China has responded today by saying some data was unable to be copied or leave China as it involved personal information.
- Indonesia reported a record increase of 1,025 deaths from Covid, bringing the country’s total tally of fatalities to more than 71,000.
- Russia also reported a new record 799 coronavirus-related deaths in a day, the fourth day in a row it has set a record.
- The Philippines has detected its first locally acquired cases of the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant, the health ministry
- Thailand reported a daily record of 9,692 coronavirus infections on Friday, taking total cases to 381,907 since the start of the pandemic
- Hungary will offer the option of taking a third dose of a vaccine from 1 August, and will make coronavirus vaccines mandatory for all healthcare workers, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told state radio today.
- Abu Dhabi has announced a partial lockdown and new entry requirements in the emirate starting 19 July from midnight until 5am.
- Spain’s 14-day infection rate surpassed 500 per 100,000 people for the first time since mid-February, health ministry data showed.
- Los Angeles will return to mandatory mask-wearing indoors, even for people who have been vaccinated, amid a rapid and sustained increase in Covid-19 cases in the US’s largest county.
- A non-athlete in their 60s from the Nigerian delegation to the Tokyo Olympics tested positive for Covid at an airport in Japan with mild symptoms. They have been hospitalised because of age and pre-existing conditions.
- The Australian basketball star Liz Cambage has withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics. Campage says she has been having panic attacks at the thought of entering the Olympics bubble. The tennis player Alex de Minaur has also pulled out of the Tokyo Games after becoming the first member of Australia’s Olympic team to test positive for Covid-19.
- In Australia, epidemiologists have warned of more breakthrough Covid infections as the number of fully vaccinated people catching the Delta variant rises. Queensland reported a Covid case in a fully vaccinated person on Thursday, a worker at the Brisbane international airport.
Nicola Slawson has the UK Covid live blog. Mattha Busby will be taking over here shortly with the latest Covid news from around the world. I’m off to go and revise for the Olympics and Paralympics – at the end of next week I will be moving off this live blog and instead will be writing our Tokyo 2020 daily briefing. You can sign up to join me via email here.
Updated
Indonesia reports record 1,025 daily deaths
Indonesia reported on Friday a record increase of 1,025 deaths from Covid, bringing the country’s total tally of fatalities to more than 71,000.
Reuters says the south-east Asian country also reported 54,000 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases to 2.78 million.
Updated
There’s been a little bit of pushback from China, as you might expect, on the words of the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who yesterday acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak, and said he was asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.
Reuters reports that at this morning’s regular briefing in China, the foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, when asked about Tedros’ comments, said some data was unable to be copied or leave China as it involved personal information.
You can read more about what Tedros said here…
Updated
Member of Nigerian delegation to Olympic Games hospitalised in Japan with Covid
Reuters is carrying news at the moment of the first member of a party travelling to the Olympics in Tokyo being admitted to hospital with Covid.
The broadcaster TV Asahi has reported that the individual, a non-athlete in their 60s from the Nigerian delegation, tested positive on Thursday evening at the airport with mild symptoms. They were hospitalised because of age and pre-existing conditions, the broadcaster said, without giving details.
Updated
Nicola Slawson is at the helm of our UK Covid live blog today, which has just started. So if it is UK news you are after, you need to head over to join her…
I’ll be continuing here with the latest global lines on the pandemic.
Russia records highest Covid death figures for fourth consecutive day
Russia on Friday reported 799 coronavirus-related deaths, the most in a single day since the pandemic began and the fourth day in a row it has set a record.
Reuters notes that the Russian coronavirus taskforce confirmed 25,704 new Covid infections in the last 24 hours.
It said the official national case tally now stood at 5,907,999 and the national death toll had risen to 146,868.
It is worth remembering that the federal statistics agency in Russia has kept a separate count and it says the country recorded about 290,000 deaths related to Covid from April 2020 to May 2021, which is nearly double the official figures.
Updated
Shaun Keasey is the general manager of Gorgeous nightclub in Dudley, in England’s West Midlands. He has been on Sky News explaining the precautions staff will be taking when they reopen on 19 July and they are … not much, to be honest.
He told Sky News:
We were expecting this huge freedom celebration. It’s not quite turning out that way though, with cases rising, but we’ve got to make the best of it. We’re a bit nervous, but we can’t wait to open the doors of the club, which will happen at one second past midnight from Sunday going into Monday.
Asked about whether people would need to check in or show vaccination proof or test results, Keasey said:
No, we won’t be insisting on that. The majority of our customers are younger people. They haven’t yet had the opportunity to have two jabs. If anyone wants to wear a mask, they’re free to wear it. There will still be hand sanitisation points to make sure that we encourage the best personal hygiene, but we just want to get on with business now. We will still have our entry procedures where you show your age, and the door staff will be looking for people who potentially don’t look well. But other than that, you know, we’re a nightclub, we’re not a medical facility.
Good luck if you are working there, I guess.
"We just want to get on with business."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 16, 2021
Gorgeous Nightclub owner Shaun Keasey tells Sky News he is "a bit nervous" but "can't wait to open the doors one second past midnight from Sunday into Monday".
Latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/mlHZu2H5I1 pic.twitter.com/uviIMz60gT
Updated
Delta variant cases in Australia rise among fully vaccinated people
In Australia, epidemiologists warn of more breakthrough Covid infections as the number of fully vaccinated people catching the Delta variant rises. Queensland reported a Covid case in a fully vaccinated person on Thursday, a worker at the Brisbane international airport.
In New South Wales, a nurse at Westmead hospital tested positive on Tuesday despite being fully vaccinated and wearing personal protective equipment while working in a Covid-19 ward.
The case was picked up by routine testing, and NSW Health confirmed the nurse was asymptomatic and that no other transmission had been detected.
Hassan Vally, an associate professor in epidemiology at La Trobe University, said although vaccination and PPE reduced the risk of transmission, they were not fail-safe measures.
Epidemiologists warn of more breakthrough Covid infections as the number of fully vaccinated people catching the Delta variant rises.
Queensland reported a Covid case in a fully vaccinated person on Thursday, a worker at the Brisbane international airport.
Read more of Donna Lu’s report here: Australia Covid outbreak – Delta variant cases rise among fully vaccinated people
Updated
The organisers of the British Grand Prix are confident they can safely hold the biggest sporting event since the pandemic began. More than 140,000 spectators will attend the race at Silverstone on Sunday, with approximately 350,000 expected over the three days of the meeting. Strict Covid protocols are in place as part of its role in the government’s Event Research Programme (ERP).
Hosting a full crowd at Silverstone is the toughest test yet of whether the UK can put on major sporting events safely, and it is understood it will play a fundamental role in deciding on whether full crowds can return to football next season. Alongside the Open golf championship, it represents a major step up from the attendances at Wimbledon and Wembley for Euro 2020.
Those in attendance will have to show a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours of arrival or full vaccination concluded two weeks before arrival, but the real challenge, and indeed advantage, Silverstone possesses is the scale of the event. The track is a 550 acre outdoor venue with grandstands that seat as many fans as a large Premier League stadium but spread out over three-and-a-half miles, with 19 entry gates over a five-and-q-half mile perimeter.
Read more of Giles Richards’ report from Silverstone here: Silverstone organisers defend decision to allow 140,000 fans at F1 British GP
Updated
Prof Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol and a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), has been on Sky News, and PA Media is carrying these quotes from him. He said he thought people aged 50 and over would be offered a free NHS flu vaccine this year, together with older children.
He told Sky News that flu was a “more serious illness” than Covid in some respects, especially for children, adding: “The truth is that we see epidemics of influenza every winter, with one exception and that was last winter.
“The restrictions that were in place before and during the second wave were sufficient to stop influenza from being passed around almost entirely, and as a consequence of that we actually are really concerned that we might see a much bigger epidemic of flu this year, simply because all of the immunity that that epidemic would have created doesn’t exist.
“So, if you have then a coincidence of a big flu epidemic, and a further wave of Covid, that doubles the pressure on the health service and means that we’re in a much more vulnerable place.”
He also said that the country must go slowly when restrictions ease in England on 19 July.
He told Sky News he will “continue to use a mask indefinitely, particularly if I have symptoms, in order to protect other people, particularly in enclosed spaces and so on.
“I think what we’re hearing and seeing here is a readjustment in the rhetoric, partly because of the continuing rise in number of cases and this is a balancing act that we’ve got going on at the moment, and partly also in reflection of the fact that it seems clear that quite a large proportion of the public are actually very concerned about the relaxation.
“It’s not as though everyone’s throwing their hands up with glee and saying ‘thank goodness it is all over’, and people are recognising that it’s not all over and that things are still really quite dangerous out there.”
Updated
Mohamed Adow and Tasneem Essop write for us this morning:
Only a few weeks ago, before the prime minister hosted the G7, Boris Johnson promised the group of wealthy nations would vaccinate the world by the end of the year.
After failing dismally to deliver on this pledge, the UK government is trying to rush delegates to Cop26 a Covid vaccine in order to keep its climate conference on the road at all costs. The sudden and hurried announcement pushes those who want to attend Cop to register for a vaccination by 23 July. This puts many people, especially in poorer nations and from vital civil society groups, in the invidious position of having to choose to get a vaccine before the frontline workers and vulnerable groups in their own countries.
This moral dilemma could be avoided if rich nations at the G7, under the UK’s leadership, had stepped up with a real plan to achieve global vaccine equity. They did not. Instead, they have perpetuated the vaccine apartheid we are experiencing.
Read more here: Mohamed Adow and Tasneem Essop – On vaccine equality, the UK has failed to show the leadership the world needs
A quick note from Reuters that China administered about 11.7m doses of Covid vaccines yesterday, taking its official total to 1.426bn doses.
Updated
Health bosses in Sunderland have asked staff to postpone holidays as the trust came “under extreme pressure” due to a surge in coronavirus cases.
Staff at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust – dealing with one of the highest infection rates in the country – are seeing hospital cases doubling week-on-week.
PA Media reports that in an internal note to staff earlier this week, bosses said there were 80 Covid-19 patients receiving hospital treatment compared with just two exactly a month before.
The message started: “The trust is currently under extreme pressure due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. Many people are seriously ill and receiving intensive care support.”
Just to keep you up-to-date with the latest UK figures – the official government dashboard says that cases are up by 32% in the last seven days – a rise of 64,368.
Hospitalisations, one of the key figures for this phase of the pandemic in the UK, are up 47%, a rise of 1,254 in the last week.
There were 257 deaths in the last week, a rise of 48%.
Updated
A lot of debate in England at the moment centres around whether the NHS Covid app is notifying too many people to isolate, if you are on the side of worrying about the economy, or too few people to isolate, if you are on the side of worrying about escalating case numbers.
Sir Jonathan Montgomery, former chair of the ethics advisory board for the NHS Covid app, has been on LBC this morning and he said he would not change the function of being “pinged” by the app but rather what is required afterwards.
PA Media reports that the professor of healthcare law at University College London said: “We need to think about the consequences of being pinged. When the app was designed, we didn’t have the ability to reliable home test, we didn’t have very many people jabbed, and the big worrying thing about this virus is that you can pass it on before you know you have it.
“So, I wouldn’t be changing the pinging but I would be changing the consequences of being pinged.”
Updated
In Australia, Victoria has recorded six new cases linked to the Sydney removalist cluster on the first day of a five-day lockdown and placed a two-week ban on removalists entering the state from New South Wales.
The six cases are in addition to four cases announced on Thursday, bringing the official total reported on Friday to 10.
The new infections include two cases linked to the Young and Jackson’s pub near Flinders Street station in the city; one person who was in the members’ reserve stand of the MCG (bringing the total number of people believed to have caught the virus at the grounds to four); and a household contact of a case in Barwon Heads.
It also includes two more teachers at Bacchus Marsh Grammar in central-western Victoria, bringing the number of cases connected to that school to three. The Bacchus Marsh Grammar principal, Andrew Neal, later said four teachers had tested positive.
The state also announced a new round of grants for businesses affected by the lockdown but confirmed that 22,000 businesses that applied for funding during the last lockdown in May have still not been paid.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, said the number of new cases “confirms the decision to lock the state down” for five days.
Read more of Calla Wahlquist’s report here: Victoria Covid update: removalists from NSW banned after six more cases
Hungary to offer third vaccine dose from 1 August
Hungary will offer the option of taking a third dose of a vaccine from 1 August, and will make coronavirus vaccines mandatory for all healthcare workers, prime minister Viktor Orbán told state radio today.
Orbán said doctors will decide which vaccine people should take as a third dose, and it should come at least four months after the second shot, unless doctors advise otherwise.
Updated
In cities across Java island, hospitals are so overwhelmed that they are turning patients away. Burial workers are working until after dark to keep up with the fatalities. Almost 70,000 people have died since the pandemic began, according to official records, though this is though to be a huge underestimate.
As the crisis has worsened, a growing number of volunteer groups have assembled to fill in gaps in the government response. They offer rooms to people who have no space to isolate, run networks helping to locate oxygen tanks, build coffins and even recover the dead.
Herlambang Yudho Darmo, a photographer and an artist, never thought that, at the age of 57, he would learn how to make coffins. Now he knows by heart the length and the width of the panels, and how many millimetres thick the wood should be to make strong but still affordable caskets.
The initiative started when volunteers heard that Sardjito hospital, the largest hospital in Yogyakarta, was facing a shortage of coffins. Capung Indrawan, Herlambang’s friend, decided they should build them free, and opened his home’s front yard for volunteers. Now they make as many as 30 coffins a day, supported by donations from the public.
As well as delivering coffins to Sardjito hospital, they have been contacted by facilities elsewhere, including a hospital in Klaten, West Java.
“On Sunday we brought five coffins to the hospital in Klaten. They need more than that. The doctor there said usually they see 70 bodies in a month. Now just in a few days they have to prepare 70 bodies,” Herlambang said.
“The bodies of Covid-19 patients lay there for four hours waiting for the coffins to come. We don’t want that to happen,” Herlambang said. “All we want to do is to honour their deaths to appreciate the lives that they have been given.”
Read more of Gemma Holliani Cahya’s report from Jakarta: Making coffins, giving shelter – volunteers step in as Covid overwhelms Indonesia
Updated
In the UK, the NHS medical director for primary care has been on the TV and hailed the success of the walk-in vaccination centres at convincing vaccine-hesitant people from ethnic minority communities to get jabbed.
PA Media reports Dr Nikki Kanani, who is also deputy SRO for the vaccine programme, told Sky News: “I’m seeing it in our own practice as well. It really does build confidence when someone you love, someone you know, almost takes you by the hand and mentions that they’ve had the vaccine or that you’re in a place that’s familiar like the shop or the park and you see other people getting it.
“So if … you’ve had your vaccine but you know that a loved one hasn’t had one, please check our NHS website later today because there are so many opportunities to get your vaccine and make sure that you get protected and you get your loved ones protected.”
Updated
Good morning, it’s Martin Belam here in London. If I never have to write again about who is and who isn’t wearing face masks in England from Monday it will not be a day too soon, but I suspect I’ve got a lot more to write yet.
PA Media reports this morning that Goldman Sachs will require staff at its London head office to wear masks from Monday despite the easing of pandemic restrictions.
While people will no longer be required by law to wear masks from Monday, the government has bizarrely said that people will still be expected to wear them in certain situations, thus rendering the dropping of the mandate a source of confusion.
A Goldman Sachs spokesman said the US investment bank would require staff to wear masks in the London office “when not at their desk”.
They also confirmed the bank would not require staff to be vaccinated against Covid before coming into the office – there has been some chatter that their staff in the US would need to be vaccinated.
Updated
That’s it from me for today. If you’d like a bit of a buzz before the bad news continues:
It’s a tough day for Australian Olympians.
Australian basketball star Liz Cambage has withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics.
Campage says she has been suffering from panic attacks at the thought of entering the Olympics bubble.
— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) July 16, 2021
The tennis player Alex de Minaur has pulled out of the Tokyo Games after becoming the first member of Australia’s Olympic team to test positive for Covid-19.
De Minaur, Australia’s top men’s player and ranked 17th in the world, had recently appeared at Wimbledon, where he suffered a first-round exit in the singles, and was due to fly to Tokyo from his base in Spain on Sunday.
He underwent mandatory coronavirus testing before his scheduled departure and has been left “shattered” by the results, according to Australia’s chef de mission, Ian Chesterman.
“We have been advised that Alex de Minaur has had a positive test, as a consequence, Alex, sadly will be unable to join the Australian team,” Chesterman said.
“We are very disappointed for Alex and he is shattered at not being able to come. It has been his dream to represent Australia at the Olympic Games since he was a child, but he sent his best wishes for the team”:
Updated
Los Angeles to require mask-wearing indoors again as cases climb
Los Angeles will return to mandatory mask-wearing indoors, even for people who have been vaccinated, amid a rapid and sustained increase in Covid-19 cases in the nation’s largest county.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, LA county’s public health officer, Dr Muntu Davis, said that a public health order requiring masks indoors would go into effect on Saturday.
Davis said the county had been recording more than 1,000 new cases each day for a week and that there was now “substantial community transmission”. Nearly 400 people were hospitalised with Covid-19 as of Wednesday, up 275 from the week before. Nine new Covid-19 deaths were reported on Wednesday.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” he said:
Updated
First local Delta cases detected in Philippines
The Philippines has detected its first locally acquired cases of the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant, the health ministry said on Friday.
Of the 16 new Covid cases with the Delta variant, 11 were tagged as locally acquired cases, health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a news conference.
The variant, first detected in India, has been blamed as the key factor for a surge in cases in neigbouring countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Record cases in Thailand
Thailand reported a daily record of 9,692 coronavirus infections on Friday, taking total cases to 381,907 since the start of the pandemic, as authorities struggle to tackle the country’s biggest wave of infections so far.
The Covid taskforce also reported 67 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 3,099.
Updated
WHO chief calls on China ‘to be transparent, open and cooperate’
The head of the World Health Organization has acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak, and said he was asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.
In a rare departure from his usual deference to powerful member countries, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said getting access to raw data had been a challenge for the international team that travelled to China earlier this year to investigate the source of Covid-19. The first human cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Tedros told reporters that the UN health agency based in Geneva is “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic”:
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
The head of the World Health Organization has acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak, and said he was asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile Thailand reported a daily record of 9,692 coronavirus infections on Friday, taking total cases to 381,907 since the start of the pandemic, as authorities struggle to tackle the country’s biggest wave of infections so far.
More on those stories shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
- The World Health Organization’s emergency committee has maintained its stance that proof of Covid-19 vaccination should not be required for international travel, amid controversy over countries blocking the entry of travellers if they are unvaccinated.
- The head of the WHO has called on China to cooperate better in the next phase of an investigation into the origins of the pandemic, demanding more access to raw data.
- Abu Dhabi has announced a partial lockdown and new entry requirements in the emirate starting 19 July from midnight until 5 am.
- European Union member states have agreed to add Ukraine to a list of countries from which travel is permitted, while Rwanda and Thailand were removed.
- Spain’s 14-day infection rate surpassed 500 per 100,000 people for the first time since mid-February, health ministry data showed.
- Within 72 hours of the French learning they would soon need to be vaccinated or tested to go to the cafe, more than 3 million had booked appointments and France had broken its vaccination record, administering 800,000 shots in a single day.
- Millions of Chinese people face bans from public spaces including schools, hospitals and shopping malls unless they get a Covid-19 vaccine, under new edicts covering nearly two dozen cities and counties.
- Coronavirus-linked deaths in Africa surged by 43% in a week, driven by a lack of intensive-care beds and oxygen, according to the World Health Organization.
- Barcelona and the surrounding north-east corner of Spain is to impose a curfew from 1am to 6am again amid rising Covid cases.
- Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 120 people allegedly suspected of supplying or procuring fraudulent coronavirus vaccine and test certificates, official media said, two days before a tightly controlled hajj amid some of the strictest and most controversial rules in the world
- More than twice as many children and adolescents were referred to mental health services year on year in England as cases hit a record high, amid warnings that waiting lists are so long that significant numbers of young people would not get treatment in time to prevent them growing into adults with “entrenched mental health issues that could have been avoided had we been able to intervene earlier”.
- Hundreds of thousands of people left the Bangladesh capital on Thursday after authorities lifted a coronavirus lockdown despite rising infections and deaths.
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The Canadian government has rejected proposals to have Ontario residents line up inside a US border tunnel to tap into a surplus of Covid-19 vaccine held by Michigan, a mayor said.
