Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Ben Doherty (now); Lucy Campbell, Yohannes Lowe, Damien Gayle, Martin Belam, Helen Sullivan (earlier)

Brazil records almost 58,000 deaths in a month; French schools to close for three weeks - as it happened

Patients in makeshift hospital
Covid patients in a field hospital in Santo Andre, Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Photograph: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images

We will close this liveblog now before opening a new one in a few hours. To finish, a summary of the day’s major developments:

  • France has imposed a nationwide month-long lockdown to curb a rising third wave of coronavirus. Schools will close for at least three weeks, workers will work from home, and travel within the country will be banned for a month after Easter. “We will lose control if we do not move now,” president Emmanuel Macron said.
  • Italy has made coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for all health workers, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against significant ‘no-vax’ sentiment in the country.
  • Brazil has detected a new Covid variant in São Paulo state that is similar to the one first seen in South Africa, it was reported earlier.
  • Finland’s government has withdrawn a proposal to confine people largely to their own homes in several cities to help curb the spread of Covid, the prime minister said.
  • Europe’s drug regulator is investigating 62 cases worldwide of a rare blood clotting condition which has prompted some countries to limit the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, its chief said in a briefing.
  • Sweden’s government will postpone a planned easing of some Covid restrictions until at least 3 May amid a severe third wave, the prime minister said.

Rates of stillbirth and maternal deaths rose by around a third during the Covid-19 pandemic, with pregnancy outcomes getting worse overall for both babies and mothers worldwide, according to an international data review published on Wednesday.

Reuters reports the review pooled data from 40 studies across 17 countries, and found that lockdowns, disruption to maternity services, and fear of attending healthcare facilities all added to pregnancy risks, leading to generally worse results for women and infants.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on healthcare systems,” said professor Asma Khalil, who co-led the research at St George’s University of London.

“The disruption caused ... has led to the avoidable deaths of both mothers and babies, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”

Published in the Lancet Global Health journal, the review found an overall increase in the risks of stillbirth and maternal death during the pandemic, and found the impact on poorer countries was disproportionately greater.

It also found significant harm to maternal mental health. Of the 10 studies included in the analysis that reported on maternal mental health, six found an increase in postnatal depression, maternal anxiety, or both.

The study did not analyse the direct impact of Covid-19 infection itself during pregnancy, but was designed to look at the collateral impact of the coronavirus pandemic on antenatal, birth and postnatal outcomes.

Commenting on the findings, Jogender Kumar of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in India said they highlighted worrying disparities in healthcare.

“In resource-poor countries, even under normal circumstances, it is a challenge to provide adequate coverage for antenatal checkups, obstetric emergencies, universal institutional deliveries and respectful maternity care,” he wrote in a commentary.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has widened this gap.”

In the Pacific, the archipelago nation of Palau (which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world), is opening a travel bubble with Taiwan, a close diplomatic ally.

Bernadette Carreon reports from Koror, with Erin Hale in Taipei.

Tourists from Taipei will be the first visitors to Palau in over a year, and they will be escorted into the country, personally, by Palau’s new president, Surangel Whipps Jr.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, wherever these words find you. Ben Doherty here in the Guardian’s Sydney newsroom taking carriage of our liveblog coverage of the pandemic. My many thanks to Lucy Campbell, and the roll-call of colleagues who have kept the blog rolling thus far.

I can be contacted at ben.doherty@theguardian.com or by twitter @BenDohertyCorro. Comments, correspondence, offers of coffee, always welcome.

We begin: AP reports from San Juan that the US territory of Puerto Rico has begun a mass vaccination program.

Puerto Rico’s mass vaccination effort on Wednesday.
Puerto Rico’s mass vaccination effort on Wednesday. Photograph: Carlos Giusti/AP

Thousands of people were vaccinated against Covid-19 on Wednesday as part of a mass inoculation event in Puerto Rico’s capital that was scheduled to last 15 hours.

It was the first event of its kind since the US territory began vaccinating people in mid-December.

Officials hoped to vaccinate 10,000 people with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot during the event that would run from 7am to 10pm

By late Wednesday afternoon, more than 5,000 vaccines were given, according to health secretary Carlos Mellado.

For now, Puerto Rico is vaccinating only those 35- to 49-years-old with chronic health conditions and all those 50 years and older, along with all workers in the food and telecommunications industries, among others.

Wednesday’s event was meant only for people who qualified and made an appointment, but Mellado said someone sent a fake message via social media claiming that all those 21 years and older could show up without an appointment.

Hundreds did so, and some of them were vaccinated amid grumbling from those who had an appointment and were waiting in line.

More than 1 million vaccines have been administered in the US territory of 3.2 million people. The government has reported more than 195,500 confirmed and suspected cases and more than 2,000 deaths.

Fiammetta Melis, 10, studies with her laptop at the Samoclevo mountain pasture, Italy. She would normally attend the fourth primary school but since the school is closed due Covid-19 restrictions, and in order not to stay at home alone, she follows the lessons in DaD (didactics at a distance) at the mountain pasture with her father Massimiliano, who is a shepherd. A table like a school desk and two old stools are her classroom and goats are her playmates.
Fiammetta Melis, 10, studies with her laptop at the Samoclevo mountain pasture, Italy. She would normally attend the fourth primary school but since the school is closed due Covid-19 restrictions, and in order not to stay at home alone, she follows the lessons in DaD (didactics at a distance) at the mountain pasture with her father Massimiliano, who is a shepherd. A table like a school desk and two old stools are her classroom and goats are her playmates. Photograph: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

AFP reports that coronavirus restrictions in most of Italy that closed restaurants, shops and museums through Easter will be extended through April.

But “an easing of measures” could be decided if the trend of the epidemic and the vaccination rollout warrant it, according to the decree approved late on Wednesday by the government of the prime minister Mario Draghi.

Under the new decree, schools for lower grades will remain open, and it makes vaccines for healthcare workers compulsory.

Anyone refusing to be vaccinating can be reassigned, where possible, in roles away from the public. If not, their pay will be suspended.

Two weeks ago, on 15 March, new restrictions went into effect on three-quarters of the country. The health minister Roberto Speranza said then that the clampdown might allow a relaxation of measures in the second half of spring.

Italy recorded 467 new deaths on Wednesday linked to Covid-19 and 23,904 new infections. Nearly 110,000 people have died in Italy since the coronavirus hit the country over a year ago.

The government has already tried to ensure that Italians do not congregate or travel during Easter, with the entire country considered a high-risk “red zone” over the weekend of 3-5 April.

In a red zone, residents have to stay home except for work, health or other essential reasons.

Between 7 April through 30 April, all of Italy’s regions will be considered either “red” or “orange” zones, with the latter having slightly looser restrictions.

For the moment, no regions are considered “yellow”, which would allow seated dining in restaurants until 6pm and more mobility for residents.

Qatar is stepping up its coronavirus vaccination drive, officials said Wednesday, with new daily cases almost quadrupling since January and prompting calls for a renewed lockdown, AFP reports.

While the country’s death toll per capita is low, almost 5 percent of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic were during the past week, with authorities blaming the more potent UK variant.

Medical experts have called for a return to the strict summer lockdown that saw new daily cases plummet from 2,355 at the end of May to 235 by 31 July.

But Rashid Andaila, a manager at a vaccination point south of Doha, said the vaccine drive was gathering steam, with a second drive-through clinic opened on Sunday for second doses. “Our capability is 5,000 at each site,” he said. “This stage of the vaccine [programme] is getting bigger and bigger.”

Over 25,000 vaccine jabs were administered on Tuesday, bringing the total to 816,484 doses, according to official data. Qatar has a mostly expatriate population of 2.75 million.

“We are expecting more people will come,” Andaila said, as dozens of cars and trucks queued with the Al-Janoub World Cup stadium in the background.

Qatar reported 780 new infections on Wednesday as well as two deaths, bringing the total Covid-19 death toll in the country to 291, while active cases reached 571 per 100,000. Nearly one in five of the new cases were among residents and citizens returning from abroad, official statistics showed.

And despite the accelerating vaccine drive, some officials have called for a renewed lockdown.

“A full lockdown, like we had during last summer when roads were empty and people worked at home, is the best way to stem the virus’ spread,” Ahmed al-Mohammed, chair of Qatar’s intensive care service, told state television this week.

The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care has more than doubled since March, he added, with 338 people in ICU beds as well as a further 1,668 patients receiving acute care.

“It is clear that people are becoming sicker and experiencing more severe symptoms in this second wave,” Mohammed said.

A senior expatriate advisor to the health authorities resigned earlier this year following disagreements on how to tackle mounting cases and the new variants, three sources told AFP.

Household visits and weddings are currently banned in Qatar, communal pools and gyms closed, and cinemas restricted to over-18s. But offices, shops, bars and restaurants all remain open, with capacity limits. Mosques face fewer restrictions but are limited to opening at set prayer times only.

Major sports events including WTA and ATP tennis tournaments and the FIFA Club World Cup have proceeded in recent months with reduced crowds.

The rollout of Qatar’s vaccination programme was initially slowed down after Pfizer failed to fully deliver three shipments of inoculations, a medical source told AFP, but it has since proceeded as planned.

Brazil has closed out a month in which it recorded a staggering 57,606 Covid-19 fatalities, with hospitals overwhelmed and doctors forced to make agonising decisions over whom to give life-saving care, AFP reports.

“Never in Brazilian history have we seen a single event kill so many people in 30 days,” said Dr Miguel Nicolelis, response team coordinator for the impoverished northeast.

With the southern hemisphere winter now approaching and the virus spreading fast, Brazil is facing “a perfect storm,” he told AFP.

Epidemiologist Ethel Maciel warned that “the worst is yet to come” as the country’s vaccination campaign is advancing slowly due to a shortage of doses.

Health experts say the explosion of cases is partly driven by a local virus variant known as “P1”, which is believed to be more contagious, able to re-infect people who have had the original strain, and has already spread to more than two dozen countries, including the US, the UK and Japan.

Turkey has recorded 39,302 new coronavirus cases in the space of 24 hours, the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic, health ministry data showed on Wednesday.

The government eased measures to curb the pandemic in Turkey earlier this month, prompting a surge in new cases. On Monday, the president Tayyip Erdogan announced a tightening of measures, including the return of full nationwide weekend lockdowns for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which will start in two weeks.

The latest daily death toll was 152, bringing the cumulative toll to 31,537, according to the health ministry.

“We have diagnosed 180,448 cases of the variant first identified in Britain...the variant currently reached 75% of total cases in our country,” the health minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Koca also said the government was determined to vaccinate the majority of the population by the end of June.

Turkey has until now been using Covid-19 vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd and procured the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The country has carried out 16.04 million inoculations, with 9.14 million people having received a first dose, since Jan. 14 when the nationwide rollout began.

Here is my colleague Jon Henley’s report on tonight’s announcement that French schools are to close for at least three weeks and travel within the country will be banned for a month after Easter.

It comes amid a dramatic surge in Covid-19 cases that threatens to overwhelm hospitals in several parts of the country. Here is an extract:

In a televised address to the nation, the president, Emmanuel Macron, said the government had waited “until the last moment” to impose further restrictions, winning the country “precious weeks of freedom”, but that “we now have to make one more big effort”.

In January, Macron rejected scientific advice to impose a strict lockdown and instead ordered an evening and night-time curfew, but kept schools and shops open in a “third way” intended to limit repercussions on the economy and mental health.

The government this month also shut non-essential shops and limited movement in Paris and 20 other hard-hit areas, measures criticised by many health professionals as insufficient to counter the more contagious UK variant driving France’s third wave.

But with daily infections doubling to 40,000 since February and more than 5,000 Covid patients in intensive care – the highest since October – tougher restrictions became inevitable, with many experts saying only a full lockdown would be enough.

Macron said the rapid spread of the more contagious variant meant restrictions already in place in 20 départements would be extended throughout the country from Saturday, with most shops closed, people barred from travelling more than 10km from their homes and working from home to be the rule.

Inter-regional travel will be banned from 5 April, to allow Easter journeys that were already planned, he said, but he added: “We must limit all contact as much as we can, including family gatherings. We know now: these are where the virus spreads.”

All schools would switch to distance learning from next Tuesday, Macron said, followed by a two-week holiday for all pupils. Junior school pupils will return to the classroom on 26 April but secondary school students will have a further week of online classes.

Macron also announced an additional 3,000 intensive care beds, concentrated in the hardest-hit regions, bringing the total to just over 10,000. “We have endured a year of suffering and sacrifice,” he said, “but if we stay united and organised, we will reach the end of the tunnel. April will be a critical month.”

On Tuesday, health authorities reported 569 new ICU patients in 24 hours, the highest number since April last year during the first wave of the pandemic. The death toll has also started to rise, averaging nearly 350 a day over the past seven days, compared with just under 250 last week.

Macron, who faces presidential elections next year, has said he has “no regrets” about his choices, describing every day out of lockdown as a bonus. His decision not to follow scientific advice to lock down in January was popular with voters.

After a dismally slow start, mainly as a result of a shortage of doses, France’s vaccination campaign has accelerated, with 350,000-400,000 shots a day now being administered and the country on course to meet its targets of vaccinating 20 million people by 15 May and 30 million – roughly half the population – by mid-June.

Emmanuel Macron delivering a televised address on Covid-19 restrictions.
Emmanuel Macron delivering a televised address on Covid-19 restrictions. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

Italy makes Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for health workers

All health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said on Wednesday, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against ‘no-vax’ sentiment, Reuters reports.

Italy has an entrenched anti-vaccination movement and the recent discovery of clusters in hospitals after staff refused to have shots has sparked outcry in a country where more than 109,000 people have died of the disease.

However, government critics have questioned the legality of forcing only some categories of workers into having a vaccine.

Wednesday’s decree approved by the prime minister Mario Draghi’s cabinet says health workers, including pharmacists, “are required to undergo vaccination”. Those who refuse could be suspended without pay for the rest of the year.

“The aim of the measure is to protect as much as possible both medical and paramedical staff and those who are in environments that may be more exposed to the risk of infection,” the government said in a statement.

The decree also introduces legal protection for those who administer the shots, a measure doctors and nurses had demanded after medics were placed under investigation for manslaughter following the death of a vaccinated man in Sicily.

Italy, whose vaccine campaign has been hampered by supply delays which have also hit other European Union countries, has pledged to reach 500,000 daily inoculations in April from around 230,000 at present.

Some 10 million doses have been administered here since late December, with around 3.1 million of Italy’s 60-million-strong population receiving the recommended two shots.

Italy has seen a resurgence in coronavirus infections and deaths over the last month and the government has tightened restrictions on businesses and movements to contain the virus.

Curbs are calibrated in the country’s 20 regions according to a four-tier, colour-coded system (white, yellow, orange and red) and are normally based on local infection levels.
Wednesday’s decree said everywhere would remain a tougher red or orange zone until 30 April, giving time for the vaccines to work. This means that restaurants, bars and gyms will remain closed and much regional travel will be banned.

However, in a concession to coalition parties that have complained about the lengthy restrictions, the decree said it will be possible to loosen some curbs in those areas which have a high vaccination rate and low infections.

Lockdown restrictions in Wales will ease on 12 April to allow cross-border travel between the country and the rest of the UK, the first minister Mark Drakeford is due to announce on Thursday.

Outdoor hospitality in Wales - including cafes, pubs and restaurants - could reopen from 26 April, the Welsh government added.

The potential changes will be confirmed at the 22 April review of restrictions, it said, as Welsh ministers set out further plans to restore freedoms in the country.

Drakeford will set out a series of new measures on Thursday that will see Wales move fully into Alert Level 3 by 17 May, “subject to public health conditions remaining favourable”.

He will confirm that all remaining non-essential retail and close contact services will be allowed to reopen from 12 April, while the rules will also be changed to allow travel into and out of Wales from the rest of the UK and Common Travel Area.

Students in Wales will also return to face-to-face education from the same day.

Drakeford is also expected to signal on Thursday further changes which will be confirmed at the 22 April review, which include reopening outdoor attractions and outdoor hospitality from 26 April.

By early May, plans include allowing organised outdoor activities for up to 30 people and for gyms, leisure centres and fitness facilities to reopen for individual or one-to-one training but not exercise classes.

Here is Reuters’s report on the new nationwide restrictions just announced for France which, though fairly strict, are not as much so as the first lockdown last year.

Emmanuel Macron extended movement restrictions to cover the whole of France and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of Covid-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

The president said he was extending the lockdown rules already in place in Paris, swathes of the north and parts of the south east to the whole country for at least a month, from Saturday.

“We will lose control if we do not move now,” the president, who has long resisted calls for fresh national lockdown measures, said in a televised address to the nation.

The epidemic has killed 95,337 people in France and left intensive care units in the hardest-hit regions at the point of breakdown.

Schools will close for three weeks after Easter, which falls this weekend.

“It is the best solution to slow down the virus,” Macron said, adding that France had succeeded in keeping its schools open for longer during the pandemic than many neighbours.

France to close schools for at least three weeks

France will close its schools and child care centres for three weeks, the president Emmanuel Macron has announced as part of new national measures to combat rising Covid-19 infections.

France had closed its schools for two months during the first Covid-19 lockdown but had left them open during the second lockdown in November and has kept them open since, although with some limits on attendance numbers.

“It is the best solution to slow down the virus, “ Macron said. “We have done everything to delay these decisions for as long as possible and only do this when necessary, which is now.”

A summary of the schools announcement from Kim Willsher.

Updated

France to widen new lockdown measures to entire country

From Saturday, for at least four weeks, the rules currently in operation in 19 French departments including the Paris region will be extended to the rest of the country, Emmanuel Macron has confirmed in a televised speech as France combats a third wave of coronavirus cases.

Announcing the month-long nationwide measures, the French president, who has long resisted calls for such another national lockdown, said:

We will lose control if we do not move now.

The Guardian’s Kim Willsher has this summary of the measures just announced:

Updated

The Guardian’s correspondent in France, Kim Willsher, is live tweeting Macron’s address. You can follow her thread here:

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is due to deliver a televised address to the nation shortly (8pm local time), as a fast-growing third wave of Covid-19 infections threatens to overwhelm hospitals in several parts of the country.

Macron is expected to announce tough new restrictions to tackle the spread of the virus as the country’s death toll nears 100,000, though this is unlikely to be a fresh national lockdown.

The number of patients in intensive care with Covid increased by 98 on Tuesday to breach the 5,000 threshold, the highest number this year. Public health experts say the burden on intensive care is evidence that the current set of restrictions do not go far enough.

France has been under a nightly curfew since mid-December and in parts of the country, including the Paris region, the movement of citizens has been restricted and some non-essential stores closed. Bars, restaurants and cinemas have been closed for months.

Updated

Welsh outdoor attractions and outdoor hospitality venues including cafes, pubs and restaurants, are to re-on Monday 26 April as long as coronavirus levels remain in check, the Welsh government is to announce on Thursday.

Students in Wales are to return to face-to-face education on Monday 12 April. All remaining non-essential retail and close contact services will be allowed to reopen from the same date.

The rules will also be changed to allow travel into and out of Wales from the rest of the UK and common travel area. Again, the changes remain subject to public health conditions continuing to remain favourable.

By early May, plans include allowing organised outdoor activities for up to 30 people to take place, and for gyms, leisure centres and fitness facilities to reopen for individual or one-to-one training but not exercise classes.

Early evening summary

Here is a quick recap of the main Covid-related events from around the world:

Reuters reports:

The French stadium that hosted World Cup finals in soccer and rugby is taking on a new role in response to the Covid-19 pandemic: it is becoming a vaccination centre.

Workers at the Stade de France venue were on Wednesday putting up tents for use as vaccination cubicles inside a hall in the bowels of the stadium that in pre-pandemic times was used to host conferences and VIP receptions.

The Stade de France is due to host the French soccer cup final in May, the final of the domestic rugby competition in June, and a concert by US performer Lady Gaga in July, but these should be unaffected because the pitch and locker rooms are not part of the vaccination centre.

“We’re very pleased that this flagship of French sport can also be a vaccination centre,” said Loic Duroselle, head of programmes at the stadium.

The stadium will start vaccinating people on 6 April. It is aiming to inoculate around 10,000 a week, said Duroselle, and will employ 150 staff each day.

The 80,000-seat Stade de France was the venue of the 1998 soccer World Cup final, won by the home team, and it also hosted the 2007 rugby World Cup final.

Italy reported 467 Covid-related deaths on Wednesday against 529 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 23,904 from 16,017.

About 351,221 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 301,451, it added.

Italy has registered 109,346 deaths linked to the coronavirus since its outbreak, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world.

The country has recorded 3.58 million cases to date, Reuters reports.

Doctor Annalisa Giordano of the USCA special care unit of ASL (local health centre) of Cuneo, visits Don Ruggero Massimino, an elderly priest infected with Covid-19 in Festiona, in the Stura di Demonte Valley, near Cuneo, north-western Italy on March 31, 2021.
Doctor Annalisa Giordano of the USCA special care unit of ASL (local health centre) of Cuneo, visits Don Ruggero Massimino, an elderly priest infected with Covid-19 in Festiona, in the Stura di Demonte Valley, near Cuneo, north-western Italy on March 31, 2021. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Brazil detects new Covid variant similar to South African one

Brazil has detected a new Covid variant in São Paulo state that is similar to the one first seen in South Africa, Dimas Covas, the president of the state’s Butantan biomedical institute, has said. We will bring you more on this as updates come in.

Updated

Finland withdraws Covid lockdown plan after it was deemed unconstitutional

Finland’s government has withdrawn a proposal to confine people largely to their own homes in several cities to help curb the spread of Covid-19, the prime minister, Sanna Marin, has said.

The decision followed a statement from a constitutional law committee that deemed the proposal too vague and not in compliance with the constitution, Reuters reports.

“Because of the statement from the committee the government has decided we have to withdraw the proposal,” Marin said on Twitter.

Last week, the government proposed locking down residents of five cities, including the capital, Helsinki, and only allowing people to leave their homes for limited reasons, to curb rising infections and hospitalisations.

Updated

This graphic showing daily new confirmed Covid cases is from Our World in Data:

In the UK, second doses of Covid-19 vaccine have outnumbered first doses for the first time, PA Media reports.

A total of 270,526 second doses were registered on 30 March, compared with 224,590 first doses, according to the latest government figures.

The Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, has ruled out a general lockdown while acknowledging the country was going through a third wave of the pandemic.

Pakistan reported 4,757 new infections and 78 deaths on 30 March, with two thirds of ventilators and about 80% of beds with oxygen facilities in major cities occupied, Reuters reports.

Khan told a national coordinating committee meeting:

We have to adopt a balanced policy where the spread of the virus can be prevented and where the poor man and the country’s economy are least affected.

Pakistan has opted for what officials call “smart lockdowns”, with short-term restrictions imposed often at neighbourhood level.

Updated

EU drug regulator investigating 62 reports of rare clotting worldwide

Europe’s drug regulator is investigating 62 cases worldwide of a rare blood clotting condition which has prompted some countries to limit the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, its chief, Emer Cooke, said in a briefing on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

That includes 44 cases in the European Economic Area out of a total of 9.2 million people who have received the vaccine in the region, she added.

The total cited by the European Medicines Agency does not include all the cases of the condition, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, which have been reported in Germany, Cooke said.

Updated

Here is a full report on why the leaders of some Covid-hit states in Germany are calling for a national lockdown, as referenced in an earlier post:

Moldovan lawmakers have voted to introduce a state of emergency for 60 days to contain the pandemic, a move which allies of pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, cast as a ploy to delay a snap election, Reuters reports.

The eastern European country of 3.5 million has been in political limbo since Sandu defeated the pro-Moscow incumbent, Igor Dodon, in the presidential election last November.

Updated

Forty-three more people have died in the UK within 28 days of receiving a positive coronavirus test, and 4,052 new confirmed cases of coronavirus have been detected, according to the latest figures published on Wednesday.

The seven day total of deaths was 332, down 39.9% on the seven previous days; for positive tests the seven day figure was 33,907, down 11.5%. The estimated R number was given as 0.7 to 0.9, with a daily infection growth rate range of -5% to -2% as of 26 March.

So far, 30,905,538 people taken a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, while 4,108,536 have received two doses.

Updated

Hundreds of children in Iraq are being infected every day with the variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK, with reports of children dying according to the charity Save the Children.

Figures from Iraq’s ministry of health, reported by the charity, show that almost 2,000 under-10s have been infected in the past two weeks alone. But doctors have said that figure underplays the true extent of the outbreak, Save the Children said, since many young patients are not taken to hospitals or are only diagnosed in clinics and pharmacies, where they are not officially recorded.

Dr Taha Abdulmawjoud, from Ninawa, who works with Save the Children, said:

We have seen children as young as 10 admitted to hospital and there is a higher percentage of children with the virus in primary healthcare centres and paediatric hospitals than before. We worry that many children will catch the virus without having access to proper testing or isolation, which risks them spreading among their friends and older family members.

Ishtiaq Mannan, Save the Children’s country director in Iraq, said:

These are worrying signs that Covid-19 is taking a heavy toll on children in Iraq. Infants and children under 10 have been either infected or have reportedly died because of this virus.

We are worried that the new variant will start spreading undetected among children. It could be a matter of time before Iraq’s healthcare system is overwhelmed.

Updated

A court in Belgium has ordered the government to either lift all coronavirus measures within 30 days or frame them properly in law, after a case brought by a human rights organisation challenged the use of ministerial decrees to implement them.

A night-time curfew and a ban on non-essential travel are among the restrictions currently in place in Belgium. The court in the capital, Brussels, said the state would have to pay fines of €5,000 (£4,256) a day if it fails to abide by the ruling.

The case was brought by the Belgian League of Human Rights, a nonprofit group which has repeatedly called on the government to cease its use of ministerial decrees without parliamentary oversight. The league said in a statement:

We believe that in view of the restrictions on fundamental freedoms imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, a debate in parliament was essential.

While restrictions on these rights and freedoms may of course be made, given the importance of the issues at stake and the need to protect the rights to life and health of individuals, they must be fair and proportionate.

The Associated Press reports that the Belgian government has been working on a “pandemic law” to present to MPs.

Updated

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has said he will be vaccinated against Covid next week, according to Reuters.

“The doctors recommended that I get vaccinated,” he said during his regular morning news conference, without disclosing which day he planned to receive the shot.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addresses the crowd on the 100th day of his third year of tenure, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, 30 March 2021.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador addresses the crowd on the 100th day of his third year of tenure, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, 30 March 2021. Photograph: José Méndez/EPA

Updated

Jordan reported 111 new deaths from Covid-19 on Wednesday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic first appeared in the Middle Eastern kingdom a year ago, the health ministry said.

The ministry also reported 6,570 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 611,577 cases along with 6,858 deaths, Reuters reports.

Updated

Sweden postpones easing of some Covid curbs amid third wave

Sweden’s government will postpone a planned easing of some Covid curbs until at least 3 May amid a severe third wave, the prime minister, Stefan Lofven, has said.

“The situation is serious,” Lofven told a news conference. “The spread of infection is at a high level.”

The health agency on Tuesday asked the government to postpone the previously announced easing, which included raising the limit on the number of visitors to amusement parks, concerts and football matches, Reuters reports.

Yesterday, it was reported that Sweden registered 16,427 new coronavirus cases since Friday. The figure compared with 14,063 cases during the corresponding period last week.

Updated

EMA says 'no evidence' to support restricting use of AstraZeneca vaccine

Europe’s medicines regulator has said it had not yet identified any risk factors such as age, sex or a previous history of blood clotting disorders, for clotting cases reported after inoculation with AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, Reuters reports.

The EMA’s executive director, Emer Cooke, said there was “no evidence” to support restricting the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in any population.

The vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks, the European Medicines Agency reiterated, but cautioned that people should be aware of the remote possibility of rare blood clots occurring, and must seek immediate medical attention in case of symptoms.

Updated

NHS England data shows a total of 3,567,683 vaccine were given to people in London between 8 December and 30 March, including 3,175,857 first doses and 391,826 second doses.

This compares with 5,103,206 first doses and 538,302 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 5,641,508, PA Media reports.

The breakdown for the other regions is:

  • East of England: 3,156,951 first doses and 331,546 second doses, making 3,488,497 in total
  • North-east and Yorkshire: 4,109,389 first and 588,546 second doses (4,697,935)
  • North-west: 3,348,384 first and 414,564 second doses (3,762,948)
  • South-east: 4,305,499 first and 546,336 second doses (4,851,835)
  • South-west: 2,937,145 first and 352,038 second doses (3,289,183)

Updated

These are the latest Covid figures from the Scottish government:

Austria will likely order 1 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine next week, Reuters reported the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, as saying on Wednesday.

“We are in the final metres and a Sputnik order can probably be placed next week,” Kurz said in a statement issued by his office after he met Russia’s ambassador to Austria.

The deal would involve 300,000 doses being delivered in April, 500,000 in May and 200,000 in early June, the statement added.

Only two other EU countries, Hungary and Slovakia, have ordered the Russian vaccine and only Hungary has used it.

Updated

German regional leaders demand tighter lockdown -reports

Reuters reports:

The premiers of two southern German states badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic urged leaders in the rest of the country to reintroduce tougher lockdown measures to try to contain a third wave of infections, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Markus Söder, Bavaria premier and a possible conservative candidate to succeed the chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Winfried Kretschmann, the leader of Baden-Wuerttemberg, wrote in a joint letter that the situation was “more serious than many believe”.

“That is why we must live up to our responsibility now and not discuss it any longer,” they wrote in a letter reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily.

Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are among the German states that have seen the highest number of deaths in the pandemic, with 13,239 and 8,684 respectively.

The number of new coronavirus cases in Germany as a whole jumped by 17,051 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 2.8 million with a death toll of 76,342.

Updated

The Spanish tourist industry has reacted with dismay to the government’s decree that face masks must be worn in all outdoor spaces, including beaches and swimming pools, even when it is possible to maintain social distancing.

My colleague Stephen Burgen has the latest:

In England, Nottingham has closed two of its parks after “appalling scenes” of large crowds following the easing of Covid curbs.
City council leader David Mellen said:

We have taken steps to prevent a repeat of the appalling scenes we witnessed at the Arboretum on Monday evening. Today, the Arboretum is closed along with Lenton recreation ground, where similar problems arose. We regret having to take this action, since everyone has been looking forward to the chance to visit our parks, now that easing of restrictions means we can meet up to six other people outdoors. Sadly, the actions of a thoughtless minority has spoilt that. We will keep the situation under review and hope to reopen parks as soon as possible.

Updated

In England, a see-through face mask that makes lip-reading possible has been developed by a team at a Cambridge hospital and approved for NHS use.

The transparent mask, designed at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, is now registered with the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency as a CE marked medical mask, PA Media reports.

This means it conforms to health, safety, and environmental protection standards in Europe and can be utilised by hospitals, care homes and in primary care.

The rate of diagnosed Covid-19 infections is rising in most Spanish regions, the health minister, Carolina Darias, has said.

She told a news conference:

We are at a crucial moment. There is an increase, a slow one but still an increase of the incidence, and a prevalence of the Britain variant.

Darias added the government was expecting the delivery of more than 1m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday, Reuters reports

Updated

The White House has also welcomed Pfizer Inc’s announcement.

“This is good news,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in an interview with CNN. “I know for parents ... it makes you feel even more confident about your kids, potentially be back in the classroom soon.”

Updated

Israel plans to give Pfizer's Covid vaccine to adolescents upon FDA approval

Israel plans to administer the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech Covid vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds upon FDA approval, the health minister said after the manufacturer deemed the shots safe and effective on the cohort (see earlier post):

Yuli Edelstein said:

The Pfizer announcement is terrific news. There is nothing more in order now than a speedy approval of more vaccine procurements (by Israel), so we can be poised to vaccinate immediately upon FDA approval.

Updated

This from Gareth Thomas, Labour & Co-op MP for Harrow West:

In the UK, hospitality and retail bosses have warned that the use of vaccine passports or certification for customers entering venues could face “legal concerns” and create enforcement problems for businesses, PA media reports.

Last week, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, said pubs and other venues could use vaccine passports, before backtracking slightly to clarify that this may only be introduced once all UK adults have been offered a vaccination.

Speaking as part of a webinar hosted by the Confederation of British Industry, Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UKHospitality, said certification could pose a problem for frontline staff.

She said:

This is quite a challenging issue for a lot of people to wrestle with. If you are in a consumer environment, you have legal concerns regarding age, ethnicity, gender, and I don’t think considering a valid test alongside a vaccine certificate is enough. From a consumer position, you will also have issues regarding frontline staff having to enforce the law about this.

Updated

Ukraine reports record daily high of Covid-linked deaths

Ukraine registered a record daily high of 407 Covid-related deaths over the past 24 hours, with infections likely to rise further over the next one to two weeks, its health minister said on Wednesday.

The capital Kyiv, with the highest infection rate in the country of 41 million, could be forced to restrict public transport, close schools and kindergartens, its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, told reporters.

He said the city’s hospitals dedicated to Covid treatment were now 80% full.

A major spike in infections last week to a 24-hour record of 18,132 prompted almost half the country’s regions to impose a tight lockdown.

Maksym Stepanov, Ukraine’s health minister, said on Facebook 11,226 new infections were reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the total to 1,674,168 since the pandemic began a little over a year ago.

The previous daily high of 362 deaths was on 25 March. A total of 32,825 Ukrainians have died from the coronavirus.

Updated

Update from earlier post: Poland will reach the peak of the third wave of the pandemic this week or next according to government forecasts, its health minister Adam Niedzielski has said. We will bring you more on this as developments come in.

In the UK, the shadow health secretary has reacted to the Pfizer vaccine efficacy news (see earlier post):

Updated

EU states are expected to receive 107m doses of Covid vaccines by the end of March, an EU commission spokesperson has said, hitting an earlier target but far below initial plans, according to Reuters.

Under contracts signed with drugmakers, the bloc had expected to receive 120m doses by the end of March from AstraZeneca alone, and tens of millions of more doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

After major cuts from AstraZeneca, however, the EU had revised down its target until the end of March to about 100m doses.

The commission spokesperson told a news conference that AstraZeneca was expected to deliver 29.8m doses by Wednesday, in line with the altered goal.

Pfizer/BioNTech will deliver 67.5m doses and Moderna nearly 10m-figures that the EU has said are in line with their initial commitments.

The EU expects a major ramp-up of deliveries in the second quarter that it says will be sufficient to inoculate at least 70% of its adult population by July.

Updated

Yemen has received its first Covid vaccines, a week after the war-ravaged country’s internationally-recognised government declared a health emergency in response to a second wave of the pandemic, Reuters reports.

The 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine arrived by plane at Aden, part of a consignment from the global Covax vaccine-sharing scheme expected to total 1.9 million doses, UN Children’s Fund Unicef said.

The Covax vaccines will be free, and distributed across the divided country, the spokesperson for the government’s health ministry confirmed last week, with more shots due to arrive in May.

Health workers walk at a coronavirus disease quarantine center in Aden, Yemen March 27, 2021.
Health workers walk at a coronavirus disease quarantine center in Aden, Yemen March 27, 2021. Photograph: Fawaz Salman/Reuters

Updated

Pfizer says Covid vaccine 100 percent effective in children aged 12-15

Pfizer says its Covid vaccine is safe and 100% effective in preventing the illness in young people aged 12 to 15.

Pfizer hopes that vaccinations of the group could begin before the next school year, Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chair and chief executive, said in a statement.

In the trial of 2,260 adolescents aged 12 to 15, there were 18 coronavirus cases in the group that got a placebo shot and none in the group that got the vaccine, resulting in 100% efficacy in preventing Covid-19, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said in a statement.

Pfizer’s vaccine is already authorised for use in people starting at age 16, Reuters reports.

Bourla added that the company planned to seek emergency authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration “in the coming weeks and to other regulators around the world, with the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year”.

Updated

This UK polling on vaccine passports has been shared by Ben Page, the chief executive of Ipsos Mori:

Russia registers world's first Covid vaccine for animals

Reuters reports:

Russia has registered the world’s first vaccine for animals against Covid-19, its agricultural regulator said on Wednesday, after tests showed it generated antibodies against the virus in dogs, cats, foxes and mink.

Mass production of the vaccine, called Carnivac-Cov, can start in April, the regulator Rosselkhoznadzor said.

The World Health Organization has expressed concern over the transmission of the virus between humans and animals.

The regulator said the vaccine would be able to protect vulnerable species and thwart viral mutations. Russia has so far only registered two cases of Covid-19 among animals, both in cats.

Denmark culled all 17 million mink on its farms last year after concluding that a strain of the virus had passed from humans to mink and that mutated strains of the virus had then turned up among people.

Rosselkhoznadzor said Russian fur farms planned to buy the vaccine, along with businesses in Greece, Poland and Austria. Russia’s fur farm industry accounts for about 3% of the global market, down from 30% in the Soviet era, according to the main trade body.

Alexander Gintsburg, head of the institute that developed Russia’s Sputnik V human vaccine, was quoted in Izvestia newspaper on Monday as saying Covid-19 was likely to hit animals next.

Updated

Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swann, has said he is looking forward to receiving his Covid-19 vaccine as the rollout is expanded to all those aged 45 and over (see earlier post).

Swann, 49, said he will get his jab “very shortly”.

Malta has become the latest country to announce it will welcome the return of British tourists this summer, PA media reports.

The small island nation in the Mediterranean, which usually attracts about 500,000 British tourists per year, said UK travellers who have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will be allowed to enter from 1 June.

Passengers will need to show their vaccination card before boarding flights, according to the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA).

But the UK is on Malta’s red list of countries, which means non-vaccinated travellers are banned from entering.

Tolene Van Der Merwe, director for the UK and Ireland at MTA, said:

Malta is a very popular destination for British holidaymakers and is a key contributor to Malta’s economy, so we are excited to welcome back fully vaccinated travellers from the United Kingdom from 1 June. The people of Malta are looking forward to tourists returning who have loved our sunshine, culture, food and warm spirit year in, year out.

Malta is second to the UK in terms of European countries which have vaccinated the largest proportion of their population.

Updated

China will launch mass Covid vaccinations in four border cities and counties in the south-western Yunnan province, including Ruili, from 1 April, the official news agency Xinhua has reported.

The city of Ruili, which recorded six new coronavirus cases and three asymptomatic patients on Wednesday, has ordered a one-week home quarantine for residents, and banned vehicles and people from leaving the city, Reuters reports.

Updated

People aged from 45 to 49 are now eligible for Covid vaccinations in Northern Ireland, meaning they can book to have their jab at a vaccination centre or participating community pharmacy.

Those eligible for vaccination can also wait for their GP to contact them to arrange their jab, the BBC reports.

Surge testing is being deployed in Bolton, Greater Manchester after one case of the South African variant of coronavirus has been identified.

Dr Helen Lowey, Bolton’s director of public health, said that “the risk of any onward spread is low” and there was no evidence that the variant caused more severe illness.

Public Health England identified the case in the area of Wingates Industrial Estate. Everyone over the age of 16 who works on the estate is now being strongly encouraged to take a Covid-19 test, even if they do not have any symptoms or have been recently vaccinated.

The largest businesses will be given testing kits to hand out to their staff members. Workers at other businesses will need to book a test at the mobile testing site, based on an inflatable and trampoline park on the industrial estate.

According to the latest government figures, Bolton currently has 108.5 cases per 100,000 people. The UK average is 56.2 cases per 100,000 people.

Dr Matthieu Pegorie from Public Health England North West said that there was no link to international travel, therefore suggesting that there are some cases in the community.

The Department of Health says that enhanced contact tracing will be deployed where a positive case of a variant is found. This is where contact tracers look back over an extended period in order to determine the route of transmission.

Updated

Hi everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the live blog now so please feel free to send me a message on Twitter if you have any coverage suggestions.

Today so far…

  • Emmanuel Macron will give a televised address in France at 8pm local time tonight. He is expected to announce new measure, which could include the emergency movement of patients to ease pressure on France’s hospitals, and the closure of schools.
  • The US and the UK have sharply criticised a World Health Organization report into the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, implicitly accusing China of “withholding access to complete, original data and samples”.
  • Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron discussed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and its use in Europe on a conference call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
  • At least nine people have tested positive for Covid-19 in a Chinese city on the border with Myanmar. The city of Ruili, with a population of about 210,000 people, said all residents would be tested for Covid and would have to home quarantine for one week.
  • A UK government minister defended the AstraZeneca vaccine, following Germany’s decision to restrict its use on the under-60s over concerns about side effects.
  • Four million people with clinical vulnerabilities in England and Wales will be freed from advice to keep themselves shielded from Covid from tomorrow.
  • Ecuador’s health system is under severe strain from a spike in Covid and some hospitals in the capital, Quito, are working above capacity to treat patients.
  • States in the US are lifting their mask mandates, against federal advice. Arizona and Arkansas are the latest Republican-led states to lift mask requirements even as the US federal government urges people to continue wearing masks to slow spread to unvaccinated people.
  • Poland has reported its highest number of daily coronavirus-related deaths so far this year, and Hungary has reported its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. Hungarian media have petitioned the government to be allowed access into healthcare settings to report on Covid.

And that’s it from me, Martin Belam, today. I’m handing over to Yohannes Lowe, who will take you through the next few hours…

Updated

Malaysia will receive its first 600,000 doses of Covid vaccines made by AstraZeneca in June, the country’s science minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, has said.

The south-east Asian nation, which began its national vaccination programme last month, has secured a total of 12.8m doses from AstraZeneca, half of which will come via the global Covax facility.

Reuters reports from Kuala Lumpur that the first shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines to Malaysia will be part of the batch procured directly from the company.

Jamaluddin said Malaysia was not expected to be affected by India’s decision to temporary halt exports of AstraZeneca’s shot made by the Serum Institute of India, which includes supplies to the Covax facility.

“While we are still waiting for the delivery details from Covax ... I don’t believe the ban from India will affect us,” he said, adding that Malaysia’s AstraZeneca vaccine supplies from Covax were expected to be manufactured by South Korea’s SK Bioscience.

Malaysia plans to inoculate at least 80% of its 32 million people by February next year. Malaysia has also secured doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, and from Russian and Chinese vaccine manufacturers.

Updated

Macron could announce strict lockdown when he addresses country tonight

A quick further update on developments in France – a government source has told Reuters that three scenarios were being examined:

  • A massive operation to transfer intensive care patients from overloaded hospitals to lesser-hit regions.
  • School closures.
  • A strict lockdown in the hardest-hit parts of France.

President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation on television at 8pm local time tonight.

The number of patients in intensive care breached 5,000 on Tuesday, the highest number this year and exceeding the peak hit during a six-week long lockdown in the autumn. Thousands of school classes have already been closed down.

Gilbert Deray, a senior clinician at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, has told Europe 1 radio this morning that: “What we needed earlier was a strict lockdown and huge vaccination drive, but it’s still not too late.”

France used medical evacuations to ease the load on overwhelmed hospitals during the first two waves of the epidemic but there has been more resistance from families in recent weeks. The government source said the evacuations under discussion would not require family consent.

Ten days ago, the government closed non-essential stores and limited people’s movements in Paris and other regions ravaged by the virus. Mobility data analysed by Reuters showed those measures were having markedly less impact than prior lockdowns.

Updated

Amid concern over the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine in several countries, Melissa Davey has written for us this morning on why Australia still has confidence in the shot, and also includes this useful section on vaccine side effects:

There are some social media posts doing the rounds spreading misinformation and fear about adverse events and side-effects. It is important to remember that almost every health regulator in the world, as well as independent panels of consumer advocates, researchers, doctors and scientists are reviewing safety and side-effect data all the time. It would be impossible to hide any serious adverse reactions.

For any drug, whether a vaccine or other medicine, rare, “one in a million” side-effects can only ever be known once it is rolled out widely. There can never be enough people in a clinical trial to detect these events. But these are so rare that the disease itself, in this case Covid, is often much riskier to health.

“When you give a drug to 50 million people, when you search for side-effects, you need to remember some of the issues detected are things that just happen anyway and would have happened whether the person was vaccinated or not,” Doherty said.

The most common side-effects are mild and are similar across the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines: tenderness and pain at the injection site, feeling tired, chills or fever, headache, and joint pain or muscle ache. People receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine may also more frequently experience nausea than those receiving Pfizer’s, though it is still common with the Pfizer vaccine.

Independent expert review in Australia of cases of suspected anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) following the AstraZeneca vaccine concluded that there is no increased risk of anaphylaxis associated with the vaccine above the expected rate for any other vaccine.

“Anaphylaxis is a very rare side-effect that can occur with any vaccine,” the TGA said, and it is important to note people are monitored for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine.

Read more of Melissa Davey’s report here: Why Australia remains confident in AstraZeneca vaccine as two countries put rollout on ice

Updated

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is to give a televised address at 8pm local time later today, where it is anticipated that he will be forced to announce further restrictions due to rising numbers of Covid cases across France.

There’s no clarity on what he will announce yet – and he doesn’t have much room for manoeuvre on top of the existing measures that persist.

Charlotte Chaffanjon at Libération writes:

What to do? “To hold”, according to the expression in vogue in the corridors of power, to not restrict freedoms yet and wait for this third wave to pass? Or to put the country back under lockdown, close schools, force parents to work from home – if it is possible to work with children at home – or even reintroduce the infamous “sworn declarations”? This is the question that Macron must answer on Wednesday morning during the health defence council, which will be followed by the presidential address.

Lea Guedj and Yiming Woo report for Reuters from Saint-Maur-des-Fosses in the Paris suburbs that schools are saying that Covid is pushing them to breaking point.

“The teams are getting exhausted,” said the headteacher Laurence Coureul of her staff at the Joan of Arc junior school, where this week another two classes were ordered home because some pupils were infected.

“Getting by day-by-day cannot go on for a long time. At a certain point, one needs to make the tough decisions,” said the 48-year-old headteacher. “If we need to close down, we need to do it soon.”

Macron’s government has made it a point of pride that – unlike many other countries – France has not closed its schools through most of the pandemic. Officials say they are doing everything in their power so schools can stay open safely, including rolling out testing and vaccines.

But the policy is being severely tested. The number of positive cases among people under 18 was up 28% week-on-week, according to official data released on 25 March.

The education wing of the CGT trade union said of the impact of the coronavirus: “It’s a catastrophe.”

Staff at the Eugène Delacroix high school in Drancy, on the northern edge of Paris, have asked for the school to be closed. The deaths of 20 parents of pupils at the school have been linked to Covid-19, according to the local teacher’s union.

Jenoshan Easwarakumar, a 16-year-old pupil, said his class has been in quarantine five times. “For us, the only answer is to close the school,” he said.

Updated

Experts in the US appear increasingly concerned that despite the nation’s improved pace of vaccinations – 96 million adults in the US have now received at least one dose of a vaccine – the risk posed by new coronavirus variants may out-pace their efforts. Christina Maxouris reports for CNN that:

The B117 variant, first spotted in the UK, is more contagious, may cause more severe disease and is rapidly infecting younger populations, the epidemiologist Michael Osterholm told CNN on Tuesday night. Recent research suggests the strain may also be more deadly.

“If we can just hold out, if we can just get enough vaccine between now and the summer, we can actually beat this one,” Osterholm said. “But ... we’re impatient.”

The CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said on Monday: “The trajectory of the pandemic in the United States looks similar to many other countries in Europe, including Germany, Italy and France looked like just a few weeks ago.”

But it doesn’t have to get that bad.

“In the United States it’s going to be totally up to how much are we going to open,” said Osterholm, who noted the US is the only country that is easing safety measures while the B117 variant is spreading. “In a sense, we’re creating the perfect storm.”

That, Osterholm said, could mean more lives lost.

You can read more here: CNN – A dangerous coronavirus variant is wreaking havoc in parts of Europe. Experts fear US could be next

Updated

Poland has reported its highest number of coronavirus-related deaths so far this year, amid a third wave of the pandemic that is putting the country’s health service under extreme strain.

Poland reported 653 deaths, health ministry data showed. There were 32,874 new cases, according to a Reuters report.

Earlier today Hungary announced that it had recorded a new record daily death toll.

Jane Kirby, PA’s health editor, has put together this guide to what is currently happening with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

The German medicines regulator has reported 31 cases of a type of rare brain blood clot among the nearly 2.7 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the country. The country has consequently suspended its use for people aged under 60.

Nine of the 31 people suffering clots have died, and all but two of the cases involved women who were aged 20 to 63, Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute said. The two men were aged 36 and 57. The concerns centre on cerebral venous sinus thrombosis blood clots, which stop blood draining from the brain properly.

Several senior regulators, including the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), have said there is no evidence to suggest the vaccine has caused these rare blood clots.

While a definitive link cannot be ruled out, they say the benefits of having the vaccine far outweigh any potential risks and both have declared it “safe and effective”.

This view is echoed by the World Health Organization, which has urged countries to continue using the jab. Covid in itself can cause an increased risk of blood clots – a risk that is far higher than any posed by the vaccine.

The EMA and MHRA are continuing to monitor cases but say millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered with very few reports of clots.

The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis has also recommended that all eligible adults continue to receive their Covid-19 vaccine.

Canada has also suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people under 55 due to the concerns raised in Europe. France already limits the use of the jab to those aged over 55.

But several European countries are using the AstraZeneca vaccine without such restrictions following the EMA’s ruling that it is safe. These include Italy, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Portugal.

Scientists in the UK have been largely unconcerned and say there is no data to directly link the vaccine with blood clots.

Prof Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol and a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said on Monday: “It remains uncertain whether the vaccine caused these cases and the mechanism by which these blood clotting abnormalities come about and why they affect this very small proportion of individuals has still not been properly worked out.

“What seems clear is that the risks to individuals in age groups currently being targeted for vaccination in the UK of death and of dangerous blood clots are greatly reduced by receiving this vaccine, because it reliably prevents severe Covid-19 which definitely causes many deaths and blood clots and which poses a much larger and clearer risk than any possible rare vaccine side effects that may exist.

“Right now the biggest risk to our lives and livelihoods in this country and throughout the world is Covid-19.”

AstraZeneca has previously said its own review found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, or in any particular country.

Updated

In Japan, a surge of Covid cases in Osaka has raised fears that the eastern Japanese metropolis is entering a fresh wave of infections that could become the worst yet, having emerged from a state of emergency just a month ago.

“I expect that the number of infections in Osaka will soon exceed the previous record,” the prefectural governor, Hirofumi Yoshimura, said in a televised briefing. “The mutant strains seem to be having an influence but it’s difficult to say scientifically and objectively what the extent is.”

Rocky Swift reports for Reuters from Tokyo that Osaka prefecture reported 599 new cases, a jump from 432 on Tuesday and close to the all-time high of 654 on 8 January.

Osaka and 10 other prefectures declared a state of emergency in January amid Japan’s third and most-deadly wave of infections to date. All but the four prefectures that make up greater Tokyo lifted the measures early in February as cases and the burden on hospitals subsided.

An earlier lifting of the state of emergency is the most likely “reason for the recent surge of cases in Osaka”, the Kyoto University professor Yuki Furuse said, stressing that he had not done a thorough investigation of the data yet.

Cases have also been trending higher in Tokyo, where 414 new infections were reported on Wednesday, which was still well below the peak of more than 2,000 per day.

Updated

Hungarian media petition government to allow them access to health care system

Hungary recorded 302 coronavirus deaths yesterday, the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic. There were 6,700 new Covid-19 cases across the country, the government said.

Hungary’s health care system has come under extreme stress, the government has said, despite a vaccination programme that has reached a fifth of the population already, one of the fastest inoculation drives in Europe.

Reuters reports that dozens of independent Hungarian news outlets have published an open letter today asking Viktor Orbán’s government to end restrictions on reporting on the health system during the pandemic. The government has said only state media are allowed into hospitals and vaccination centres, but has denied restricting reporting.

The news outlets said they were barred from speaking to medics. Calls are regularly referred to the health ministry. “Doctors and nurses are not free to talk to the public, while journalists are not allowed in hospitals, so we cannot assess what happens there,” read the letter published in 28 independent newspapers, websites and other outlets.

The journalists asked Orbán to let them work inside hospital premises and vaccination centres, allow health care workers to talk to reporters and replace limited daily briefings with real-time information.

“At a minimum, it has a moral message which we wanted to send,” said Tamas Onody-Gomperz, who writes for the magazine jelen.hu. “The government has operated censorship in the most important public matter for a year. It’s a scandal.”

There were more than 12,000 coronavirus patients in hospital on Tuesday, 1,492 of them on ventilator, the government said. The central European country of 10 million has recorded the highest daily per capita fatalities in the world for several days, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Updated

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu at CNN have written this morning that the issue of “vaccine passports” is going to be the next front of the “culture war” over Covid in the US. In their Meanwhile in America newsletter, they write:

Growing numbers of businesses, hospitality industries, and even sports teams are considering requiring proof of vaccination for customers, once the world begins to open up. For both patrons and staff, such a system might offer peace of mind – and could stop a cruise voyage around the Caribbean, for example, from turning into a floating super spreader.

Countries where Covid-19 rates are low might soon start demanding inoculation information before they let tourists in. It’s not that different from parents showing proof of vaccination typically required to enroll kids in American schools, or those little yellow vaccine cards already required to travel in countries threatened by yellow fever, tuberculosis or other scourges. Yet the idea of “vaccine passports” has become the latest object of right-wing politicians’ outrage.

Everyone’s favourite conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of Congress from Georgia, branded vaccine passports as “Biden’s mark of the beast” and “fascism or communism or whatever you want to call it”. The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican 2024 presidential candidate, has also seized on the idea as an issue that will play to the Republican base. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” DeSantis said.

For the record, President Joe Biden is not actually planning to mandate vaccine passports or to set up a central vaccines database that raises the spectre of Big Brother surveillance trampling American individualism. The White House says it is trying to work with companies to set standards for vaccine passports and to ensure people’s privacy is protected.

Updated

British minister defends AstraZeneca vaccine after Germany under-60s ban

The UK government’s communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, has this morning defended the AstraZeneca vaccine on television, following Germany’s decision to restrict its use on the under-60s over concerns about side effects [see 8.21am].

Speaking on Sky News, and asked if the UK government needed to reassess the vaccine, the minister said: “No, we don’t, we’re 100% confident in the efficacy of the vaccine, that’s borne out by study after study, by our own independent world-class regulators and by recent research, for example, by Public Health England that’s shown that thousands of people’s lives have been saved since the start of this year alone thanks to our vaccine programme.”

“People should continue to go forward, get the vaccine, I certainly will when my time comes, it is a safe vaccine and the UK’s vaccine rollout is saving people’s lives right across the country every day.”

Just a quick note from Reuters here that, perhaps unsurprisingly, a senior Chinese health official has pushed back on international reactions today, and said that there was no factual basis to accusations that China did not share data with researchers appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to look into the origins of Covid-19.

Liang Wannian, who was co-leader of the joint study into the origins of the novel coronavirus by China and the WHO published yesterday, told reporters that the Chinese and international researchers had access to the same data.

Liang Wannian, head of expert panel on Covid-19 response at China’s National Health Commission, pictured at a press conference earlier this year.
Liang Wannian, head of expert panel on Covid-19 response at China’s National Health Commission, pictured at a press conference earlier this year. Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

He also said the Chinese part of the joint research had now been completed, and the world now needed to look further into potential early cases of Covid-19 outside China in the next phase of its research into the origins of the pandemic.

The US and the UK are among 14 nations who have sharply criticised the report, implicitly accusing China of “withholding access to complete, original data and samples”.

Shielding for clinically vulnerable people in England and Wales to end tomorrow

Today marks the last day when nearly 4 million people in the UK are being asked to shield to protect themselves from the serious side-effects of Covid. Shielding will come to an end in England and Wales on 1 April, while plans for Scotland and Northern Ireland have not yet been finalised.

An initial list of 2.2 million clinically extremely vulnerable people were advised to take the measures to avoid potential infection, and 1.7 million more were added to the list in February.

The first list included people with single risk factors such as those with various cancers, people on immunosuppression drugs or those with severe respiratory conditions. But as the pandemic has progressed, medics found that some people are at higher risk than others because they have multiple risk factors, report PA.

Earlier this month, Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said: “With the prevalence of the virus in the community continuing to decrease, now is the right time for people to start thinking about easing up on these more rigid guidelines.”

However, it is not a complete return to normal living. Harries said “If you have been shielding, we strongly urge you to take extra precautions following 1 April to keep yourself as safe as possible, such as continuing to observe social distancing and working from home. We will continue to monitor all of the evidence and adjust this advice should there be any changes in infection rates.”

Updated

From today Germany is changing the way it is delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine – limiting use to those over-60. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, consulted on the issue with the heads of the country’s 16 states last night.

It is another change of position on the use of the vaccine. Initially, Germany’s vaccine commission approved the use of the jab only in people under 65, citing insufficient data on its effects on older people. But the vaccine was cleared for all age groups on 4 March.

Overnight, Philip Oltermann reported for us from Berlin:

Younger people, including those who have already received a first dose, will still have the option to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot after being advised on the risks by their GP, Der Spiegel reported.

About 2.7 million people in Germany have been given a first shot of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in total, with about 800 people having received a second dose. The Paul Ehrlich Institute, the German medical regulatory body for vaccines, has recorded 31 cases of cerebral venous thromboses in those who have received the jab, 19 of which occurred together with lowered platelets (thrombocytopenia). Twenty-nine of these cases were among females under the age of 70.

The Paul Ehrlich Institute reported nine deaths as a result of these side-effects. The latest data would suggest a risk of blood clots that could be as high as one in 100,000, higher than the one in 1 million risk believed before.

Updated

There’s some differing outlooks in China and Australia at the moment on their respective vaccination programmes. Reuters report that the Chinese national health commission says China carried out about 3.7m vaccinations on 23 March, bringing the total number administered to over 114 million.

However, new figures from Australia show that it has fallen far behind its target, with only about 670,000 people inoculated against an initial target of 4 million by end-March.

The slow rollout, which puts Australia behind many other developed countries, has been blamed by the government on supply issues from Europe, while recent floods across the east coast have slowed the delivery of vaccines.

State governments have also complained about slower-than-expected distribution and a lack of certainty on supplies, while local media have reported errors by private contractors hired to assist with the rollout.

The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, however, pointed to a record 72,826 vaccinations on Tuesday, which he said showed the inoculation programme was accelerating following the start of domestic production of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The missed target comes as an outbreak of Covid cases in Queensland state has led to a snap three-day lockdown of its capital Brisbane, throwing Easter holiday plans for thousands in disarray.

Updated

French president Emmanuel Macron to give address to nation this evening

Just a very quick snap here from Reuters that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to deliver a speech to the nation at 8pm local time. It is expected that he will announce new Covid restrictions.

Also in France in the last few minutes, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has said on television that schools should be closed to rein in the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking ahead of possible new restrictive measures to be announced later in the day by the government, she said: “I think the schools should be closed.”

Updated

Mexican officials said yesterday that many of the more than 120,000 excess deaths Mexico suffered so far during the pandemic may have been indirectly caused by the coronavirus, even if those people did not die of Covid-19.

A “very significant part” of those deaths were people who were suffering heart problems but were too afraid to go the hospital for fear of getting infected, said Dr Ruy López Ridaura, the country’s director of disease prevention and control.

“Clearly, even those cases that aren’t directly associated with [coronavirus] infection ... in some way are associated with the pandemic, right, because they were associated with the burden on hospitals, the fear that people had,” López Ridaura said.

“It is not unreasonable to think that a very significant part is due to people not seeking medical attention,” he said. “They were in a certain way afraid to go to a system that was caring for a lot of Covid patients, for fear of getting infected.”

The knock-on effect of Covid restrictions on patients with other pre-existing conditions or medical emergencies has frequently been cited as a concern by those opposed to strict lockdown measures.

The Associated Press reports that the number of deaths from heart disease and diabetes in Mexico skyrocketed during 2020. For example, deaths from cardiac ailments increased 36% last year compared with 2019, and deaths from complications of diabetes were up 46%.

Diabetes has long been the leading cause of death in Mexico according to the World Health Organization. An assessment from 2017 found that the disease claims nearly 80,000 lives each year, and forecasters expected the health problem to get worse in the decades to come.

Fear may not have been the only factor, though. Many hospitals in Mexico have been overwhelmed at times during the pandemic, and simply did not have room for non-Covid patients, or treatment may have been delayed because ambulances were tied up during the pandemic, or because some hospitals would not treat emergency patients until they had been tested for the coronavirus.

Not including the indirect deaths, officials list 322,263 deaths directly caused by Covid. While case numbers have been declining, Mexico recorded 807 test-confirmed deaths on Tuesday, a relatively high number compared to recent weeks.

Updated

A chorus of activists are calling for changes to intellectual property laws in hopes of beginning to boost Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing globally, and addressing the gaping disparity between rich and poor nations’ access to coronavirus vaccines.

The US and a handful of other wealthy vaccine-producing nations are on track to deliver vaccines to all adults who want them in the coming months, while dozens of the world’s poorest countries have not inoculated a single person.

As it stands, 30 countries have not received a single vaccine dose. Roughly 90m vaccine doses expected to be distributed through Covax, the global alliance to distribute vaccines to poor countries, have been delayed through March and April by a Covid-19 outbreak in India. In Europe, rising Covid-19 cases and a slow vaccination campaign have also prompted vaccine export controls.

Activists have dubbed the disparity a “vaccine apartheid” and called for the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to share technical know-how in an effort to speed the global vaccination project.

“The goal of health agencies right now is to manage the pandemic, and that might mean not everyone getting access – and not just this year – in the long-term,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s access to medicine programme.

“If we want to change that, if we’re not going to wait until 2024, then it requires more ambitious and a different scale of mobilization of resources,” said Maybarduk. Right now, “it’s not even clear the goal is to vaccinate the world”.

The pressure to get more vaccines to poor nations has also weighed on the Joe Biden administration in the US, which is now considering whether to repurpose or internationally distribute 70m vaccine doses. After outcry, the US has shared 4m AstraZeneca vaccine doses with Canada and Mexico.

“There’s no question poorer countries are having a hard time affording doses,” said Dr Howard Markel, a pandemic historian at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Even if they were at wholesale or cost there are a lot of different markups.”

Read more of Jessica Glenza’s report here: How wealthy nations are creating a ‘vaccine apartheid’

Updated

China reports Covid outbreak on border with Myanmar

At least nine people have tested positive for Covid-19 in a Chinese city on the border with Myanmar, health officials have said. The first case was identified on Monday, and subsequent testing of close contacts and others turned up the other ones.

Five are Chinese citizens are four are Myanmar nationals, the Yunnan province health commission said in a report posted online. They ranged in age from 22 to 42 years old.

The city of Ruili, with a population of about 210,000 people, said all residents would be tested for Covid and would have to home quarantine for one week. The residential compound where the infections were found has been locked down.

The Associated Press reports from Beijing that the city has also ordered a crackdown on people who cross the border illegally, anyone who shelters them and those who organise such border crossings. Checkpoints were set up to restrict entry to epidemic-related vehicles. It was not immediately clear how the outbreak started.

China has to a large extent eradicated the spread of the coronavirus in the country, and has been taking strict measures whenever a new cluster emerges. Ruili has closed all businesses except supermarkets, drugstores and food markets.

China is facing international criticism for the way it has complied with the World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. The UK and US are among 14 nations including Australia and Canada who are implicitly accusing China of “withholding access to complete, original data and samples”.

Updated

Merkel, Macron and Putin in talks about using Sputnik V jab in Europe

Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron discussed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and its use in Europe on a conference call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.

Moscow’s statement said that among other subjects the Russian, German and French leaders discussed prospects for the registration of the vaccine in the EU and the possibility of shipments and joint production in EU nations. It did not say who raised the topic.

The EU’s sluggish vaccine rollout has been dogged by an early shortage of doses, but those shortfalls were expected to ease significantly from the beginning of next month with more than 300m doses of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines set to arrive in April, May and June:

Updated

WHO chief says lab leak theory worth examining further

The US and the UK have sharply criticised a World Health Organization report into the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, implicitly accusing China of “withholding access to complete, original data and samples”.

The statement, also signed by 12 other countries including Australia and Canada, came hard on the heels of an admission on Tuesday by the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that the investigation was “not extensive enough” and experts had struggled to access raw information during their four-week visit to Wuhan in January.

Tedros also said there should be continued examination of the theory that the virus had escaped from a Wuhan institute of virology laboratory, even though the report deemed it “extremely unlikely” as a source of the pandemic – a theory promoted by some in the Trump administration.

The long-awaited report by experts appointed by the WHO and their Chinese counterparts said the global pandemic probably came to humans from animals:

Hospitals in Quito, Ecuador overwhelmed

Ecuador’s health system is under severe strain from a spike in Covid and some hospitals in the capital Quito are working above capacity to treat patients, doctors said on Tuesday.

Ecuador suffered a brutal outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020, primarily in the largest city of Guayaquil. Authorities controlled the situation after several months, but in recent weeks have seen cases jump in cities around the country.

“The saturation of the health system is not only in Quito but at the national level,” Dr. Victor Alvarez, president of the doctors association of the state of Pichincha, where Quito is located, told reporters. “Seeing images of patients lying on the ground, or perhaps on a military mattress, receiving oxygen in emergency units, that’s sad.”

In some Quito hospitals, entire families wait in emergency areas in hopes of being given an open bed, Dr. Edison Ramos, a coordinator at Carlos Andrade Marin hospital, said in a local TV interview.

Ecuador registered 2,201 new infections in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of cases to 327,325, according to official data. A total of 16,780 people either died of Covid or were suspected of having it but passed away before being diagnosed.

Summary

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next little while. You can find me on Twitter here.

The United States led a chorus of concern on Tuesday over a WHO-backed report into the origins of the coronavirus in China, with accusations swirling that Beijing failed to give proper access to investigators.

Ecuador’s health system is under severe strain from a spike in Covid cases and some hospitals in the capital Quito are working above capacity to treat patients, doctors said on Tuesday.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • Greece reported 4,340 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, its highest daily tally.
  • A World Health Organization team probing the new coronavirus’s origins cited problems accessing raw data, the health agency’s chief said.
  • Germany’s standing vaccination commission (Stiko) has recommended that no-one aged under 60 should be given Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines, according to a report in Augsburger Allgemeine. (See post at 16:06)
  • Residents in Canada’s nursing homes didn’t receive enough medical care during the first wave of the pandemic, according to a new study.
  • In the Netherlands, despite the lockdown, new Covid cases increased for a seventh consecutive week, health authorities said earlier.
  • The number of people in Sweden needing intensive care as a result of Covid-19 infection increased 9% compared to last week, health officials said.
  • Germany will only administer AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to people aged 60 and above following reports of rare blood clots in the brains of 31 people following the first dose. The decision contravenes recommendations from the EMA and WHO over the safety of the vaccine.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Elvis Presley's 1968 Pool-Side Furniture Captures the Retro Look Designers Say is Set to be on All the Chicest Patios in Summer 2026
Ornate metal outdoor furniture was everywhere in Elvis' era, but nearly 60 years on, it's making a reappearance in a big way
Homes & Gardens
Homes & Gardens
Hilary Duff visited by late, ex-boyfriend Aaron Carter during psychic session
Singer and actress Hilary Duff was visited by her late, former boyfriend Aaron Carter, who died in 2022 aged 34, during a psychic reading.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Is YTB Fatt Dead? Truth Behind Grandma's House Shootout as New Details Reveal What Really Happened
Viral social media posts falsely claimed rapper YTB Fatt was shot dead. Discover the truth behind the incident and how misinformation spread.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
World’s oldest tortoise caught in viral crypto death scam
Fake X account posing as his vet sparked global false reports of Jonathan’s death while soliciting crypto donations
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Flirting like it’s 1890: I gave this Victorian-inspired ‘acquaintance card’ to a stranger. Here’s how it went
Unlucky in love? Maybe ditch the apps. This new twist on Victorian-era ‘flirtation cards’ could spark your next meet-cute
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Donald Glover shares promising Community movie update 11 years after series ended
‘I swear to you, I’m not lying about this,’ sitcom star said
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play