Critics of France’s slow Covid-19 vaccination programme - by 5pm Tuesday evening a total of 7,000 people had received the vaccine - have turned their sights on the health minister Olivier Véran.
Véran, a doctor/neuroloigist, is under intense political pressure over France’s response to the coronavirus crisis not just from opposition members of parliament, but from his own centrist LREM party.
This pressure was increased after president Emmanuel Macron criticised the slowness of the vaccine rollout.
Véran has promised the inoculation programme will be speeded up and simplified and said 500-600 vaccination centres will be opened across France by the end of the month.
At the moment, those receiving the vaccine attend a medical appointment, are given information about the vaccine and time to consider their options, then asked for written consent. This is taking time among the first patients, most of whom are in elderly care or nursing homes.
France also has a high number of vaccine sceptics: polls suggest more than half the population is unwilling to be inoculated.
However, Véran has insisted France will catch up with its neighbours in the coming days.
The French PM’s office has said between 25-30% of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses “might be lost” because of logistical problems.
This figure represents 50-60m doses of the 200m ordered by France. Officials say the figures are a “margin of security that we’re taking to evaluate the number of people who would be vaccinated by the number of doses (of vaccine) we have,” a spokesperson for the PM said.
These losses are likely to be caused by a loss of cooling - the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be stored at -70 C (-96F) - as the vaccine is transported to where it is to be used, broken phials or those that are partially used.
“The vaccine is made in multidoses but cannot be kept once it is open. It could happen that certain doses are not used,” the official added.
Updated
The University of California’s San Diego campus has launched a newly installed vending machines stocked with do-it-yourself Covid-19 tests for students.
The 11 dispensers at UC San Diego since 2 January - with nine more to be added over the next week or two - are the first of their kind to be introduced on a college or university campus in the US, according to school officials.
Adapted from conventional vending machines, the systems aim to make it easier and less costly to regularly screen the school’s student body.
All 10,000 students living on campus, accounting for about a quarter of the school’s total enrolment, are required to be tested at least once a week, up from once every two weeks last quarter, university officials said.
The test kits are free and can be obtained from the machines with the swipe of a university ID card. Students then swab their own nostrils and deposit the sample for collection and analysis by one of two on-campus laboratories.
Results are usually returned within 12 to 24 hours, UC San Diego chancellor Pradeep Khosla told Reuters.
“They’re an amazing innovation - simple, effective and impactful,” he said of the machines, which have dispensed thousands of tests a day since they began operation.
Students may otherwise avail themselves of testing provided at any of a half-dozen walk-up or drive-through sites on campus.
For anyone testing positive, the university has set up a 600-bed housing unit where infected students who are asymptomatic or suffering mild illness can recover in isolation until they are not contagious.
But the quarantine housing has so far been sparsely used. Fewer than 600 UC San Diego students have contracted Covid over the past 10 months, a university spokeswoman said.
UC San Diego also has the most advanced wastewater Covid testing program of any US college, with sewage samples collected from campus housing sites scanned every 24 hours. The wastewater surveillance enables health officials to indirectly screen all students daily and detect potential outbreaks before they occur.
Despite its ambitious testing, the campus offers fewer than 10% of its winter undergraduate courses in person, using outdoor classrooms under special Covid safety restrictions in effect for educational programs within San Diego County. All other undergraduate courses are conducted remotely.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, taking over the live blog for the next few hours. Please do send me your story tips and personal experiences if you would like to share them.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
The highest Muslim clerical council in Indonesia is hoping to issue a ruling on whether a Covid-19 vaccine is halal – days before the country is due to start a mass vaccination programme using a Chinese vaccine.
Public health responses in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, have in the past been hampered by controversy over whether vaccines meet the requirements of Islamic law. In 2018, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued a fatwa declaring that a measles vaccine was forbidden under Islam.
Indonesia is to begin its vaccination programme on 13 January, after procuring 3m doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine. “Hopefully the edict can be declared before the government starts its vaccination program,” Muti Arintawati, an official at MUI in charge of analysing food and drugs, said. She said data was still being gathered before MUI could make a final edict.
Indonesia, which has had the worst Covid-19 outbreak in south-east Asia, recorded its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections on Wednesday. The 8,854 new cases brought the total number so far detected in the country to 788,402, according to data from the country’s Covid-19 taskforce.
It also reported 187 new deaths, bringing the total toll to 23,296. Indonesia has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the region.
Updated
Coronavirus-infected patients in Irish hospitals pass first-wave peak
The number of patients in hospitals in Ireland who are infected with coronavirus has exceeded the peak set during the country’s first wave of the pandemic, official data has shown.
Health officials blamed increased socialising around Christmas after the government reopened most of the economy for a rapid shift to one of the fastest rates of infection in the European Union.
Previously, the country had one of the lowest rates.
Covid-19 hospital admissions are rising by about 10% a day, taking the number of patients being treated to 921 on Wednesday, compared with the mid-April peak of 881. Early on Wednesday, 76 patients were in intensive care units (ICU), having more than doubled in a week. The mid-April peak was 155.
Government ministers will meet on Wednesday to discuss measures, including stricter rules for travellers flying into Ireland and the closure of schools and non-essential construction.
The head of Ireland’s health service operator, Paul Reid, said on Wednesday that “healthy people are getting very sick”.
With 921people in hospital, we've now exceeded the peak level of the 1st wave (881).75 in ICU. Healthy people are getting very sick. Everyone gets how serious this is now. Let's all do what's needed, turn this around, save lives, whilst the vaccine arrives. We have to. @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) January 6, 2021
On Monday, Reid said the rate of infections meant the total in hospitals could hit 2,500 this month, with between 250 and 430 in ICU.
Public hospitals can increase ICU capacity safely to 375 and the health service was again seeking to take over private hospital ICU beds for Covid-19 admissions, he said.
Updated
China’s foreign ministry has attempted to assuage concerns about the refusal to grant entry to a team of experts from the World Health Organization due to investigate the origins of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, saying arrangements were being worked out.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told a regular news briefing in Beijing that the problem was “not just about visas” for the team. Asked about reports that the dates had been agreed upon, she said there had been a “misunderstanding” and the two sides were still in discussions over the timing and other arrangements and “remain in close communication”.
“There’s no need to overinterpret this,” she was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
China’s experts were also busy dealing with increase in coronavirus infections, with many locations entering a “wartime footing” to stop the virus, she said.
The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Tuesday he was “very disappointed” China had not authorised the entry of the team for the investigation, which he said was a WHO priority.
Much remains unknown about the origins of the virus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, and China has been sensitive about any suggestion it could have done more in the early stages of the pandemic to stop it.
The 10-strong team of international experts had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to investigate early cases of the disease.
The mission is due to be led by Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO’s top expert on animal diseases that cross the species barrier, who went to China on a preliminary mission last July.
Updated
Europe’s medicines regulator is to meet again on Wednesday to try to come to a decision on whether to approve the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, the US’s flagship vaccine, after failing to come to a decision on Monday.
The European Medicines Authority (EMA) had called an unscheduled meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss Moderna’s vaccine, which like the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine uses mRNA technology, but failed to reach a conclusion then.
The medicines regulator did not specify why it could not yet approve the vaccine, but on Tuesday said its experts were “working hard to clarify outstanding issues with the company”, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Dutch national medicines authority told Reuters it was preparing for both a positive decision on Wednesday and for a scenario in which a conclusion still could not be reached.
The EMA has set a 12 January deadline for whether to recommend Moderna’s vaccine. It recommended the Pfizer vaccine on 21 December.
Distribution of the Moderna vaccine has already begun in Canada and the US. Israel was the first country outside North America to grant authorisation.
Updated
Czech Republic reports record infections
Health authorities in the Czech Republic have reported 17,278 new cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, its highest daily tally on record and perhaps the highest increase per capita anywhere in the world.
After more or less avoiding an outbreak of Covid-19 last March, as the rest of Europe reeled from the first wave of the pandemic, the Czech Republic is seemingly on its way to becoming one of the world’s worst affected countries.
The coronavirus tracking service on the Our World in Data website showed that on Tuesday, when health authorities reported 12,901 cases, the Czech Republic had a higher number of new cases per million inhabitants than the UK and the US.
The country of 10.7 million also had a record number of active cases – 126,348 as of Wednesday morning, figures published by the health ministry showed.
A reader, who preferred to remain unnamed, described the situation in the country as “crazy”. He wrote:
Today the number of cases is again a record one – at a much worse per capita rate than the UK. Apparently the worst numbers in the world per capita last week. Still the government changed again their tier-scheme to show things in a more positive light (from today the ratio of positive tests is no longer taken into account of taking measures – maybe because it is close to 40%).
Updated
Efforts should be made to allow children to see friends as much as possible, Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, has said.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, she said that the government “really seriously” needed to look at the idea of letting children under 12 see friends in person, as has been permitted in other countries.
For children, time has a different meaning – they remember that endless period during the first lockdown and how they missed their friends.
We know that children were worried about missing friends but also about the future, what would it mean. So it’s really important to talk to children, to reassure them. But I want children to have as much contact as they can with their friends.”
Updated
South Africans banned from visiting Denmark over new strain
Residents of South Africa are to be banned from entering Denmark over fears of the spread of a new strain of coronavirus identified by South African authorities in the middle of last month.
The South African strain and another that has emerged in Britain are said to be more infectious versions of the virus, and have prompted widespread concern. There are also fears – so far unproven – that the South African strain may not be countered by vaccines developed so far to give immunity to Covid-19.
Denmark’s decision came into effect on Wednesday and will last until 17 January, according to AFP, the French state-backed news agency. “This means that foreigners residing in South Africa generally will be refused entry to Denmark during this period,” the justice ministry said in a statement late Tuesday.
The only exceptions will be for child care, family visits and for people who are sick or dying, and on submission of a negative test for the coronavirus less than 72 hours old, and for the transport of merchandise.
Although it is yet to detect any cases of the South African strain, Denmark, which is under a partial lockdown since mid-December, has almost 90 cases of the new British variant.
It has already barred entry to arrivals from Britain except for Danish nationals and permanent residents, who must present a negative virus test.
So far Denmark has suffered 1,420 deaths and almost 173,000 coronavirus cases among its 5.8 million people.
Updated
There will be a “big increase” in the number of coronavirus vaccines delivered in the UK from next week, Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine minister, has said.
Zahawi told BBC Breakfast “the NHS has a very clear plan and I’m confident that we can meet it”, as he claimed a “significant increase” in the number of vaccinations carried out from the 1.3m he said had been administered from 8 December.
Earlier, Zahawi claimed that 99% of coronavirus deaths could be avoided by vaccinating people in the nine priority categories listed by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
He told Times Radio that “the average age of a person dying from Covid is about 83 in hospital”, but “there are still people between the ages of 50 and 65 who are needing hospitalisation for two or three days for additional oxygen support before they can overcome this terrible virus”.
He added: “Ninety-nine per cent of mortality is reduced by protecting those nine categories, the most vulnerable.”
When asked how long it would take to give jabs to those groups, Zahawi said: “I’m very hopeful that by the spring we will get through the nine categories.”
"There are many, many complexities around it"
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) January 6, 2021
Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi tells #BBCBreakfast he is confident the target to immunise two million a week in England can be met despite manufacturing and supply chain challenges.https://t.co/s92yLfSJAH pic.twitter.com/Tr7w1Gm9hH
Updated
Russia reported 24,217 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours on Wednesday, including 5,142 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 3,308,601, Reuters reports.
Authorities said 445 people had died, taking Russia’s official death toll to 59,951.
MPs will return to Westminster later on Wednesday to vote on regulations enforcing the latest national lockdown in England, which came into force overnight.
Boris Johnson will update MPs on the new controls – which include the closure of schools to most pupils and a return to the stay-at-home order – before a vote due in the evening.
The stringent measures are expected to pass easily, with support from the Labour party.
Updated
UK university application deadline to be extended
Students applying to go to university in the UK next September are to be given extra time to complete their applications following the closure of schools and colleges as part of the latest lockdown measures, writes Sally Weale, the Guardian’s education correspondent.
The UK university admissions service Ucas is expecting students to apply in greater numbers this year and has extended the January deadline by two weeks to relieve pressure after studies were moved online.
The January deadline is when the vast majority of applications are submitted and has been pushed back to Friday 29 January at 6pm, to give students additional time to complete applications and references, particularly those without access to digital devices.
Although universities will accept applications beyond that date, students are being urged not to leave it until the last minute in order to give themselves the best chance to maximise their offers.
The Ucas chief executive, Clare Marchant, said:
This decision to extend the deadline is about relieving the pressure not only on students, but also teachers and advisers. We know from our data that most students have started their Ucas application and we expect to see the number of applications submitted by 29 January exceed the numbers we have seen in previous years.
This additional time also allows schools and colleges to support students who do not have readily available access to digital devices to make arrangements to put the finishing touches to their application.
The prime minister’s decision on Monday to close schools and cancel summer exams will inevitably cause huge disruption for sixth-form students who still don’t know what will replace A-levels. Education secretary Gavin Williamson will give further details on next steps when he addresses MPs in the Commons on Wednesday.
Marchant said:
Between now and the deadline Ucas will be providing students and schools and colleges with additional support, information and advice to complete applications. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will keep students informed in relation to the announcements regarding examinations and how this relates to their application, ensuring they have the information they need to make their decisions.
Universities minister Michelle Donelan said:
We recognise this is a difficult time for young people and it is vital students applying to university in 2021-22 have this extra time to carefully consider their applications and make the best choices for their future.
Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of Universities UK, which represents the sector, said university admissions teams were working hard to assess applications and ensure offers were made as quickly as possible despite the additional challenges of national lockdown.
Updated
The UK vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has described the plan to vaccinate 14 million of the country’s most vulnerable people against Covid-19 by the middle of next month as a “herculean effort” that is nonetheless achievable.
Boris Johnson, the prime minister, has set a target of vaccinating the elderly, including care home residents, the clinically vulnerable and frontline workers - about 14 million people - by mid-February.
Zahawi told Sky News on Wednesday morning:
The NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have got a very clear, delivery plan. The plan is, as we launched initially with Pfizer, a novel vaccine in hospital hubs, then into what are called Primary Care Networks – so a network of five or six GPS coming together – that has grown massively.
We then go to national vaccination hubs that the NHS have got planned. And of course the community pharmacies and the independent pharmacy sector as well.
So it’s a massive effort by (the NHS) and they have a very clear plan.
They have delivered over 1.3m doses already – a quarter of those, so one in four 80-year-olds have already had the first vaccination, and in a couple of weeks time, that those 25% of 80-year-olds will be protected, and of course will then get their second job as well, so it is a herculean effort.
Updated
Pretty much every single UK national paper is leading with coronavirus today - as you’d expect given the new national lockdown that came (legally) into force overnight.
GUARDIAN: Tough curbs ‘for months’ as 1 in 50 now have virus #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/qvphm7oX49
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 5, 2021
The Guardian print edition leads with “Tough curbs ‘for months’ as 1 in 50 now have virus”. Politics reporters Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker write:
Britain could face harsh restrictions for many months to come, Boris Johnson and his chief scientists warned as figures suggested more than 1 million people in England are infected with coronavirus, or one in every 50.
The prime minister said the plan to emerge from a newly-imposed national lockdown in mid-February was subject to “lots of caveats, lot of ifs”. He refused to guarantee that children would be fully back at school before the summer, calling this a “fundamental hope”.
Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, warned some restrictions on normal life may still be necessary next winter. Covid-19 would not disappear “in a single bound”, he said, though he said he believed measures would be significantly eased through the warmer months.
Wednesday's Times: "Millions more vaccines on way" #BBCNews #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/7FuHsAa3Vz pic.twitter.com/LgIBfg3LdR
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) January 5, 2021
“Millions more vaccines on way,” the Times says, as it reports on a faster rollout as the third national lockdown begins. According to the paper:
Millions more coronavirus jabs will reach vaccination centres within days, The Times has been told, as Boris Johnson announced that almost a quarter of the over-80s had been given a dose.
Two million doses of the Pfizer jab held back for booster shots will be distributed this week and next after the strategy shifted to prioritising as many people as possible for a first injection.
The prime minister promised he was “using every second of this lockdown” to protect the elderly and vulnerable as he came under intense pressure to accelerate the vaccination programme to end restrictions sooner. Britain has more than five million finished doses awaiting distribution or final safety checks and health chiefs insist that both can be speeded up by next week.
Wednesday's Telegraph: "Pharmacies' offer to give jabs snubbed by ministers" #BBCNews #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/7FuHsAa3Vz pic.twitter.com/0QvX6dCWLN
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) January 5, 2021
According to the Telegraph, ministers have “snubbed” an offer by pharmacies to administer vaccines to patients (which is no doubt something to do with needing resus teams standing by in case of severe reactions to the jab):
High street pharmacies are “desperate” to roll out more than a million doses of the Oxford vaccine every week but have been snubbed by the Government, senior industry leaders reveal today.
Ministers have been urged to deploy an army of thousands of trained vaccinators at pharmacies including Lloyds and Boots to help deliver the jabs rather than relying on GPs, nurses and retired volunteers.
Simon Dukes, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Negotiating Services Committee, which represents pharmacies during talks with the Government, questioned why the NHS was “scrabbling around” for vaccinators when his industry stood ready to help.
Wednesday's Mail: Covid curbs may be back NEXT winter #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyMail #Mail pic.twitter.com/YpMnVt6rJd
— Tomorrow's Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) January 5, 2021
The Daily Mail reports that “Covid curbs may be back NEXT winter”:
Covid restrictions may still be needed next winter, the chief medical officer said last night.
Chris Whitty issued the stark warning after it emerged that more than a million people in England are now infected - a rate of around one in 50.
Saying the danger from the killer virus was ‘extraordinarily high’, the professor pleaded with the public to obey the latest lockdown
EXPRESS: 1.1m infected with virus ... as 1.3m get jabs #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/GCRnH8oRVA
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 5, 2021
According to the Daily Express, there are “1.1m infected with virus...as 1.3m get jabs”. It says:
Boris Johnson has revealed that one in 50 Britons has coronavirus - but 1.3 million, including a quarter of all over 80s, have been vaccinated.
The Prime Minister sought to reassure the nation after the daily new infection rate soared past 60,000 for the first time yesterday.
In his second address in two days, he revealed that around 1.12 million people are infected but that the vaccination programme will provide the path out. He also promised to publish the number of jabs given every day “so that you can see day by day and jab by jab how much progress we are making”.
Wednesday's Mirror: "One in 50 infected...& rising" #BBCNews #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/7FuHsAa3Vz pic.twitter.com/OEjblxNXX0
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) January 5, 2021
“One in 50 infected ... & rising,” declares the Daily Mirror this morning, as it warned of the consequences of the prime minister dragging his feet in imposing new coronavirus restrictions.
BORIS Johnson’s late lockdown could spark 20,000 deaths this month, with one in 50 people now infected by Covid-19.
And the tough new curbs could last until March as medics struggle to contain the mutant virus.
The 2.2 million jabs a week target is “not easy”, Chris Whitty warned.
Wednesday's Sun: 1 in 50 has Covid #TomorrowsPapersToday #TheSun #Sun pic.twitter.com/49PeTs9ozf
— Tomorrow's Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) January 5, 2021
The Sun takes a similar angle. “1 IN 50 HAS COVID,” says the tabloid:
The PM warned 1.2 million were infected as daily cases hit a record 60,916. But a quarter of over-80s are now vaccinated and our Jabs Army has 15,000 volunteers.
Wednesday's Star: Shove your dry January! #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyStar #Star pic.twitter.com/66HsydytUb
— Tomorrow's Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) January 5, 2021
Even the Star, which often tries to find an alternative story to lead on to its rivals, has had to follow the Covid trend today (in its own way), as it fulminates: “You can shove your keep fit, shove your diet & definitely ... SHOVE YOUR DRY JANUARY.” It reports:
CELEBRITIES have joined a growing army of people ditching Dry January and urged the nation to enjoy a lockdown booze-up.
Former I’m A Celebrity winner Vicky Pattison, Ashes cricket hero Michael Vaughan and Line Of Duty actor Daniel Mays have all taken to the booze.
And they’re joined by a growing band of drinkers who have no intention of “being good” this month, which is set to be the drabbest January ever.
Good morning from London, this is Damien Gayle in the liveblog hot seat for the next few hours, bringing you the latest coronavirus-related news and updates from the UK and around the world.
If you want to get in touch with any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage, please feel free to drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter DM to @damiengayle.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along – my colleague Damien Gayle will take it from here.
Australia says China should allow in WHO Covid investigators 'without delay'
The Australian government has called on China to allow a visit by World Health Organization experts investigating how the coronavirus pandemic started, insisting the country should grant them visas “without delay”.
Canberra raised its concerns on Wednesday over reports that Chinese authorities had blocked the arrival of a WHO team investigating the early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan.
With China arguing the team’s visas had not yet been approved, even as some members of the group were on their way to the country, the development has heightened fears among Australian politicians about whether the WHO mission will be able to uncover answers needed to better prepare the world for the next pandemic.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said she hoped “that the necessary permissions for the WHO team’s travel to China can be issued without delay”.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- WHO chief ‘very disappointed’ after China blocks’ Wuhan visit. China has blocked the arrival of a team from the World Health Organization investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that their visas had not yet been approved even as some members of the group were on their way.
- One in 50 people in England had Covid last week. One in 50 people in private households in England– more than 1.1 million – are estimated to have had the coronavirus in the week ending 2 January.
- In England, leak of November lockdown plan linked to ‘surge in new infections’. The leak of plans for a November lockdown in England to the media approximately a week before restrictions came into force has been linked by researchers to a jump in Covid-19 cases caused by people rushing to socialise before the deadline.
-
South Korea rolls out mass testing for 70,000 prisoners and staff. South Korea rolled out mass testing for 52 prisons in the country after a massive prison outbreak and may extend flight suspensions from Britain in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus cases, the health minister said on Wednesday.
- China stepped up Covid measures. The northeastern Hebei province surrounding Beijing on Tuesday entered a “wartime mode” after reporting its first local infections in more than six months. The province will set up investigation teams to trace the close contacts of those who have tested positive.
- Tokyo’s new daily coronavirus cases topped 1,500 on Wednesday – a fresh record, local media reported, as Japan braces for a renewed state of emergency for the Greater metropolitan area. The previous record for the capital was 1,337, set on 31 December.
- Brazil’s syringe manufacturers said they will supply 30 million syringes and needles for the country’s Covid-19 vaccination program after the government said it would requisition surplus supplies.
Thousands of the UK’s most vulnerable children have been sent to unregulated care homes during the pandemic at a cost of millions to the taxpayer, a Guardian investigation has found.
Council bosses say they have nowhere else to put those most at risk as there are not enough places for the number of children in need, which has soared during the Covid crisis. The result is young people are placed in supported living facilities not monitored by Ofsted and therefore deemed a safety risk. One council chief described these homes as the “wild west”.
Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, said the children’s care system had been “left to slip deeper into crisis” this year and that children were now being put at risk of “abuse or exploitation” after being let down by the authorities:
Leak of November lockdown plan linked to 'surge in new infections'
The leak of plans for a November lockdown in England to the media approximately a week before restrictions came into force has been linked by researchers to a jump in Covid-19 cases caused by people rushing to socialise before the deadline.
“There was a surge in new infections starting a couple of days before the lockdown – and running for about a week or so after the lockdown was implemented,” said the study’s lead author, Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia.
The three-tier system, with varying degrees of restrictions, was introduced in England in mid-October. On Friday 30 October multiple outlets, including the Times, Daily Mail and Sun, reported that the government planned to announce a national lockdown the following Monday, prompting the launch of a leak inquiry. The lockdown eventually came into force on 5 November and ended on 2 December.
Using data procured from 315 local authorities, the researchers observed that case numbers were increasing up to about 24 October, after which they appeared to stabilise, even declining in tier 3 areas. However, over the “notice period” between the news becoming public and the start of lockdown, case numbers started to rise again until they reached a peak around 10 November:
Australia will be among the first countries to conditionally approve the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19, following a decision to bring forward the rollout to early March, AAP reports.
The Morrison government had previously set a target date of late March for the first vaccinations but has now received fresh advice early March is achievable.
“As data and regulatory guidance have been provided we have progressively been able to bring forward our provisional rollout from mid-year to the second quarter to late March and now early March,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Wednesday.
He said comparable countries with strong records on dealing with the virus - such as New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan - were all on similar time frames for the rollout.
Setting October as a target for broad community vaccination, Mr Hunt said the first round would include frontline workers such as those involved in hotel quarantine and border control, as well as health workers and aged care residents.
“It’s a very common-sense approach - you simply follow the vulnerability and the risk of either transmission or the consequence of infection,” he said.
Pfizer is working with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, providing data for safety and efficacy as part of the approval process.
It is one of four vaccines the Australian government has purchased for a total projected supply of 134.8 million units.
Tokyo sees record new coronavirus cases
Tokyo’s new daily coronavirus cases topped 1,500 on Wednesday to a fresh record, local media reported, as Japan braces for a renewed state of emergency for the Greater metropolitan area.
The previous record for the capital was 1,337, set on 31 December.
In Australia, the state of Victoria is unlikely to lift its hard border with New South Wales until at least the end of the month, as the number of stranded people seeking permission to enter the state passes 3,000.
The state’s health minister, Martin Foley, said on Wednesday that on current projections the hard border was “unlikely” to be removed “before the end of January”:
Thailand reported 365 new coronavirus infections and one new death on Wednesday, bringing its total to 9,331 cases and 66 fatalities since it first detected the virus early last year.
The new infections included 16 cases imported from abroad and found in quarantine, the government’s Covid-19 taskforce said at a news briefing.
South Korea rolls out mass testing for 70,000 prisoners and staff
South Korea rolled out mass testing for 52 prisons in the country after a massive prison outbreak and may extend flight suspensions from Britain in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus cases, the health minister said on Wednesday.
Over half of the total 2,292 inmates and personnel in a prison in southeastern Seoul were tested positive after a first cluster infection was reported within the prison last month, Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told a briefing.
The justice ministry is separating the confirmed inmates by transferring them to a designated hospital, said Yoon.
Authorities will complete mass testing on some 70,000 prison inmates and staff nationwide, as the number of confirmed cases linked to prisons throughout the country surged to 1,191.
The health authorities will also decide whether to extend flight suspensions from Britain after at least 12 cases of a new strain of the coronavirus had been found, said Yoon.
The country had already extended a ban on direct flights from Britain until Jan. 7, and required any passengers arriving from that country or South Africa to undergo testing before departure.
The country reported 840 new cases as of midnight on Tuesday, a slight uptick from 1,029 a day before, bringing the national tally to 65,818 infections with 1,027 deaths.
The number of deaths linked to the coronavirus in South Korea passed 1,000 on Tuesday.
A reminder that you can get in touch with news (or jokes) or follow me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 21,237 to 1,808,647, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.
The reported death toll rose by 1,019 to 36,537, the tally showed.
Anonymised Facebook data on people’s travels could be used to identify the spread of Covid-19 in locations where health officials are not yet aware of it, a new Australian study has found.
Published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface on Wednesday, University of Melbourne researchers analysed anonymised population mobility data provided by Facebook as part of its Data for Good program to determine whether it could be a useful predictor in determining the spread of Covid outbreaks based on where people were travelling:
Brazil’s syringe manufacturers said on Tuesday they will supply 30 million syringes and needles for the country’s Covid-19 vaccination program after the government said it would requisition surplus supplies.
Executives of the three main manufacturers met with President Jair Bolsonaro at the Health Ministry and it was agreed that each would supply 10 million syringes to cover the initial stages of the vaccination plan.
The government has not approved any vaccine yet and hopes to start inoculating priority groups with imported vaccines before the end of the month, well behind some of Brazil’s neighbors such as Argentina and Chile.
“There will not be any shortage of syringes for the vaccines that will arrive in the country,” said Paulo Henrique Fraccaro, head of Brazil’s medical supplies and equipment industry lobby group ABIMO.
Brazil has the world’s second deadliest outbreak after the United States and its president, who has downplayed the severity of coronavirus, is facing criticism for not organizing an effective response to the pandemic.
Once Mexico has vaccinated its frontline medical workers, the government will turn its attention to the elderly living in its most remote places, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday.
AP: Ten thousand brigades made up of medical personnel and health promoters with security provided by the National Guard will target 3 million senior citizens in rural areas. The brigades will work back from isolated areas to towns and cities.
The plan will hinge on Mexico’s approval of the Chinese CanSino vaccine, which only requires a single dose and doesn’t require ultra-cold storage. So far, Mexico has approved only vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Mexico reported a near-record 11,271 new coronavirus cases Tuesday and 1,065 deaths. Mexico has now seen almost 1.47 million cases and 128,822 deaths in total. The highest one-day case report was 12,511 in mid-December.
China steps up Covid measures
Chinese authorities say they are stepping up efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus, seeking to avoid another wave of the pandemic in the country amid a rise in locally transmitted Covid-19 cases near Beijing, Reuters reports.
The northeastern Hebei province surrounding Beijing on Tuesday entered a “wartime mode” after reporting its first local infections in more than six months. The province will set up investigation teams to trace the close contacts of those who have tested positive.
Hebei accounted for 20 of the 23 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases reported in mainland China on Jan. 5, more than the 19 cases reported in the province between Jan. 2 and Jan. 4. The total number of new mainland cases, including those originating from overseas, fell to 32 from 33 a day earlier.
Though new infections remain at a small fraction of what the country saw during the height of the epidemic, which emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019, China continues to take aggressive measures to prevent another wave of the disease that has killed 4,634 people in China and more than 1.8 million globally.
Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Israel to provide coronavirus vaccine doses to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, saying the Jewish state was obligated to do so under international law.
AFP: The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, which is home to some 2.8 million Palestinians, has not publicly asked for Israeli assistance in vaccine procurement.
Hamas Islamists, who control the Gaza strip, where about two million Palestinians live, are highly unlikely to publicly coordinate with Israel in any vaccination effort.
But UK-based rights group Amnesty said Israel needed to “stop ignoring its international obligations as an occupying power and immediately act to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are equally and fairly provided to Palestinians living under its occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
The PA has said Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza will be vaccinated through the United Nations-backed Covax programme.
The Palestinian health ministry said Monday that it expected to receive its first vaccine doses next month through Covax.
Israel began inoculating its citizens, including Israeli settlers in the West Bank, on December 19, starting with medical workers and the over 60s, and has so far injected more than a million people.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday he hoped that within a month 2.25 million Israelis - a quarter of the population of nine million - would have received the two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab needed for optimum effect.
As of Tuesday, Israel’s health ministry had confirmed 451,000 cases of the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic, with over 3,400 deaths.
The Palestinian health ministry has confirmed more than 100,000 cases in the West Bank, including 1,100 deaths.
In Gaza, there were 43,134 cases, with 404 fatalities.
Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 11,271 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,065 additional fatalities in the country, bringing the total to 1,466,490 infections and 128,822 deaths.
The latest daily death toll was one of the highest since the start of the pandemic.
The real number of infected people and deaths is likely significantly higher than the official count, the health ministry has said.
Updated
The first quarantine-free flight to the Australian state of Queensland from New Zealand is set to touch down in Brisbane on Thursday.
Air New Zealand flight NZ147 is scheduled to depart Auckland at 7.40am local time for Brisbane with passengers not required to quarantine on arrival.
They will need to complete a declaration form on arrival stating they have been in New Zealand for the preceding 14 days.
Air New Zealand said it would operate five return flights a week between Auckland and Brisbane. Three will be quarantine-free flights, while the other two will be quarantine flights.
Those returning to New Zealand will still need to quarantine for two weeks on their arrival, and register and pay for managed isolation, the New Zealand Herald said:
Australia’s health minister, Greg Hunt, says the country will accelerate its Covid-19 vaccine rollout from late to early March and has left the door open to bring it forward again in line with medical advice.
Hunt made the comments on Wednesday after weeks of political pressure from Labor to hasten the rollout, a call now echoed across the political spectrum and by independent experts who want faster vaccination to respond to the UK super strain.
For all of its virulence, for all the breathtaking speed with which it spread seemingly everywhere around the globe, there are places still where Covid-19 has not reached, and might never.
Places without face masks or elbow-bumps, without QR codes or capacity limits, without lockdowns or social distancing. There are a handful of countries across the globe – many of them islands, most of them remote – that have managed to escape the pandemic. But while the virus hasn’t hit, the global shockwaves it has sent rippling around the world certainly have.
The Pacific is home to the world’s largest cluster of Covid-free nations. In the distant archipelago of the Cook Islands, coronavirus has been a spectre that never emerged from the shadows:
Mainland China reported 32 new Covid-19 cases on 5 January, down from 33 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Wednesday.
The National Health Commission said in a statement nine of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. A total of 23 new local infections were reported: 20 in Hebei province, one in the capital city of Beijing, one in Liaoning province and one in Heilongjiang province.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 64 from 37 cases a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 87,215, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
One in 50 people in England had Covid last week
One in 50 people in private households in England – more than 1.1 million – are estimated to have had the coronavirus in the week ending 2 January.
The Office for National Statistics figures were released on Tuesday, as the number of new cases of people in the UK testing positive for Covid-19 topped 60,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
The latest ONS infection survey suggests 1,122,000 people in private households in England had the coronavirus between 27 December and 2 January. The total does not include people staying in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.
The latest figure was up from an estimated 800,900 in the week ending 23 December – the previous period for which figures were collated – equivalent to 1 in 70 people:
WHO chief 'very disappointed' after China blocks' Wuhan visit
China has blocked the arrival of a team from the World Health Organization investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that their visas had not yet been approved even as some members of the group were on their way.
The WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed his dismay and said he had called on China to allow the team in. “I’m very disappointed with this news, given that two members have already begun their journeys, and others were not able to travel at the last minute,” he said.
“But I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials. And I have once again made made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.”
The WHO has been attempting to send in the team of global experts from a number of countries for some months. It has been talking with Chinese officials since July. Scientists have long said it is essential to find out how the virus jumped species into humans:
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan. As always, you can find me on Twitter here if you need me.
I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours.
China has blocked the arrival of a team from the World Health Organization investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that their visas had not yet been approved even as some members of the group were on their way.
“I am very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, in a rare rebuke of Beijing from the UN body.
Earlier this week Chinese authorities had refused to confirm the exact dates and details of the visit, a sign of the enduring sensitivity of their mission.
Meanwhile one in 50 people in private households in England – more than 1.1 million – are estimated to have had the coronavirus in the week ending 2 January.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- Students in England will not be asked to sit GCSE and A-levels this summer, the Department for Education has said.
- Germany is extending its nationwide lockdown until the end of the month and is introducing new tougher restrictions in order to get control of surging coronavirus infections, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, said.
-
Zimbabwe recorded 1,365 coronavirus cases and 34 deaths on Tuesday – its single biggest daily rise for both as it began a month-long lockdown to curb surging infections.
- Pupils in Northern Ireland will learn remotely until the half-term break, the executive has agreed, but it remains unclear whether A-level and GCSE exams will take place this summer.
-
Chilean lawmakers are considering making vaccination against the coronavirus mandatory as the country’s centre-right government pushes to inoculate most of its population by mid-year.
-
Israel’s cabinet has agreed to impose a “full lockdown” that will see current restrictions increased to shutter virtually the entire education system, including nurseries, and ban non-essential international travel, according to local media.
- People travelling to Ireland from any country will have to show a negative PCR test from the last 72 hours, the Irish Times reports.
- The UK has recorded a further 60,916 lab-confirmed cases – the highest daily total reported so far, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 2,774,479.
- There is no indication that the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa is more transmissible than the one spreading fast in Britain, the World Health Organization’s technical chief on Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, said.
Updated
