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Brazil reports record number of daily deaths in spiralling outbreak
Brazil suffered a record 3,251 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, as the president Jair Bolsonaro prepared to address the nation after swearing in his fourth health minister since the country’s snowballing coronavirus pandemic began last year.
Reuters reports that the new record number of daily deaths underlines the scale of Brazil’s outbreak, which is spiralling out of control thanks to a lumpy vaccine rollout and a messy patchwork of public health restrictions that are pushing the country’s hospitals to breaking point.
Bolsonaro is under mounting pressure to control the outbreak, after repeatedly playing down the virus, sowing doubts about vaccines and fighting state and local lockdown measures.
On Tuesday, ahead of a televised national address, he swore in cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga in a closed ceremony, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Tapped by Bolsonaro on 15 March, Queiroga replaces Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general who has overseen most of the pandemic response.
It remains to be seen what path Queiroga will chart as health minister. Pazuello’s two predecessors both left government after clashing with Bolsonaro’s views on Covid-19.
Bolsonaro has gained international notoriety for his efforts to fight lockdowns, dismiss mask mandates and advocate unproven remedies such as hydroxychloroquine.
On Tuesday, he received a fresh setback when Brazil’s Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal against several states’ measures restricting economic activity to slow contagion, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The country’s federally funded Fiocruz Institute, which is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine that serves as the cornerstone of the government’s vaccine rollout, said on Tuesday it would only deliver 18.8 million shots in April, down from an initial forecast of 30 million. It said it was working as hard as possible to speed up manufacturing and deliver reliable production estimates.
Only 2.6% of Brazilian adults have so far received two vaccines doses, according to a Fiocruz survey, while 7.6% of the population, or 12.1 million people, have received one shot.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, said on Tuesday that the virus is surging “dangerously” across Brazil, and urged all Brazilians to adopt preventive measures to stop the spread.
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The Brazilian pharmaceutical company that plans to produce Russia’s coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V said on Tuesday it expects to overcome regulatory obstacles in “two or three” days to obtain authorisation to make and sell the shot in Brazil.
Reuters reports that, after a 5-hour video conference with União Quimica executives and members of Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said there was still information missing before it could approve the vaccine.
“Anvisa still requires a few more things from Moscow on their Phase 3 trials and I expect to deliver those in two or three days,” the company’s chief executive and owner Fernando Marques said.
União Quimica requested emergency use authorisation more than two months ago and Marques has complained that “political interests” have held up the approval process for vaccine that is being used in Russia and 40 other countries.
Marques said his company still hopes to start producing the vaccine in April at its Brasilia plant, but a shipment offered by Moscow of 10 million ready-made doses in the first quarter to this year has been lost.
With Brazil’s dire need of vaccines to quell a surge of Covid-19 that made it the epicenter of the pandemic, another source of shots has been sought by state governments unhappy with the slow vaccination program.
So far, less than 8% of the country’s 210 million people have had their first shot, and les than 3% both shots, while deaths from Covid-19 have surged to record levels in the last two weeks driven by a contagious new local variant.
Anvisa said in a statement the meeting dealt with “critical” issues that the developers of Sputnik V have not responded to included the full results of late stage trials in Russia and access to the data bank of studies on the vaccine.
Anvisa said it also wanted details for quality control of the vaccine’s production in Russia, though it has certified the production line based on a Turkish report for another product.
Greece will begin accepting test-run flights from the UK next month, while Spain has announced that the entry restrictions on flights from Britain that have been in place since late December will be lifted next week.
Greece’s tourism minister, Haris Theoharis, said while Athens’ ambition remained to open up to holidaymakers from 14 May, border controls would also be relaxed in April when “some” airports were allowed to receive traffic from abroad.
“When I mentioned the May start date, I said we will gradually lift restrictions in an effort to test the temperature,” Theoharis told the Guardian, adding that because tourism was not “an on-off switch” preparatory moves had to be made.
Meanwhile, the Spanish government announced that restrictions on flights from the UK would be lifted on 30 March to bring them in line with arrivals from the Schengen area.
“Flight restrictions will remain in place for flights from South Africa and Brazil, but not for those from the United Kingdom,” the government’s spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero, told a press conference.
Spain introduced the curbs on 22 December in response to the spread of the so-called British strain of coronavirus, allowing entry only to flights and ships carrying Spanish and Andorran citizens or official residents.
Those arriving from the UK from 30 March will still have to show a negative PCR result from a test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival.
On Monday, the UK government announced new Covid regulations that will ban international travel “without a reasonable excuse”, meaning those who travel abroad in order to go on holiday could risk a £5,000 fine.
My colleagues Helena Smith and Sam Jones report:
Updated
Spain’s coronavirus infection rate edged up on Tuesday, highlighting concerns that a long decline – that last week carried it to its lowest level since August – is in danger of reversing.
When the infection rate, which is measured over the preceding 14 days, stopped its decline last week, health minister Carolina Darias warned that an uptick in cases in some regions, including Madrid and Catalonia, could mean a trend change, calling for maximum caution “to avoid a fourth wave”.
The rate rose on Tuesday to 129.6 per 100,000 people from 128.7 on Monday, the health ministry said. It had fallen from a peak of nearly 900 at the end of January. The ministry also reported 5,516 new cases, bringing the country’s overall tally to 3.23 million. The death toll rose by 201 to 73,744.
Unlike some other European nations, Spain has held off imposing nationwide stay-at-home orders since late 2020. Regional authorities have instead rolled out a patchwork of curfews and limits on business opening hours and social gatherings.
Domestic travel remains restricted, but the government said earlier on Tuesday it was easing a ban on travel from the UK, three months after suspending flights for all but Spanish nationals and residents over concerns about a more contagious variant of the coronavirus first detected in England.
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This is from the Dean of Leicester, David Monteith.
A candle for every person in Leicester and Leicestershire who have died from Covid. Rest in peace. @LeicsCathedral @leicestercofe @Leicester_News @LeicsCountyHall pic.twitter.com/yHSTUJOfl9
— David Monteith (@davidrmmonteith) March 23, 2021
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon shared a picture of a burning candle in remembrance of “all those we have lost”.
Remembering all those we have lost #DayofReflection pic.twitter.com/mQYpm7n94s
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 23, 2021
As landmarks and buildings were illuminated, so too were doorsteps as thousands lit candles to remember all the lives lost to Covid-19 and to mark a year to the day since the first lockdown.
Holly Wilson, whose grandmother Ada passed away during the pandemic, stood in Belfast Cathedral before a remembrance service in partnership with Marie Curie for their National Day of Reflection.
For the vigil marking the 2,100 lives lost to Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, the cathedral lit 2,100 tea lights - one to mark each life - before the service.
Events on the UK’s national day of reflection were organised by the end-of-life charity Marie Curie, which led more than 300 organisations, community groups and charities in a minute’s silence at noon on Tuesday in remembrance of those who have died during the Covid-19 crisis.
Marie Curie also encouraged people to stand on their doorsteps at 8pm with their phones, candles and torches to signify a “beacon of remembrance”.
In the capital, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye and Wembley Stadium were among landmarks that lit up yellow at nightfall to mark the occasion. Elsewhere, Liverpool Town Hall, Blackpool Tower and St Mary’s Lighthouse shone a light for those bereaved, alongside the Lincoln Cathedral.
Joining them were parliaments and assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as Cardiff’s University and City Hall, Belfast’s Titanic Building and City Hall, and Edinburgh’s St Andrew’s House.
Matthew Reed, chief executive of Marie Curie, said:
The emotional toll of the grief so many of us have faced, at a time when so few of us have been able to connect with friends, family and community in the ways we normally would, is immeasurable.
The work of so many communities, to recognise the day, sent a strong message to those hit hardest by the death of a loved one - they are not alone.
From neighbours shining a light on their doorstep at 8pm, to political leaders respecting the minute’s silence, our nation has shown a vital acknowledgement of the challenges bereaved people have been facing during this difficult year.
He said the charity is committed to making the national day of reflection an annual event “to recognise the impact of bereavement for any cause”.
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A number of landmarks have also been lit up in blue, among them Westminster Abbey, in tribute to frontline workers in the NHS “who have sacrificed so much in the service of others”.
This evening, the Abbey is lit up in #NHS blue to remember all those who have died during the coronavirus pandemic and all who mourn. We pray too for all the front line workers who have sacrificed so much in the service of others.#DayOfReflection #BeaconOfRemembrance pic.twitter.com/leMMhN9G8R
— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) March 23, 2021
A lantern was placed on the doorstep of No 10 Downing Street as the UK marks a year to the day since the first national lockdown and remembers those who were lost.
Landmarks across the nation were lit up in remembrance as night fell.
Earlier this evening, Boris Johnson said a permanent memorial in the UK to those who have died during the coronavirus pandemic will be built “at the right moment” after a call from doctors, teachers and nurses.
The prime minister pledged that the nation will come together to commemorate the crisis as the nation marked the anniversary of the first national lockdown today.
A cross-party campaign is calling on Johnson to formally recognise an annual “Covid Memorial Day” paying tribute to the efforts of frontline workers during the pandemic.
At a Downing Street press conference, he:
At the right moment we will come together as a country to build a fitting and a permanent memorial to the loved ones we’ve lost and to commemorate this whole period.
For month after month, our collective fight against coronavirus was like fighting in the dark against a callous and invisible enemy until science helped us to turn the lights on and gain the upper hand.
The campaign has called for a minute’s silence every year on 23 March to remember the lives lost on the anniversary of the first UK-wide lockdown.
In a letter to the prime minister, MPs said the nation “must remember the lives lost and lives changed with dignity, and commemorate the efforts of our frontline and key workers with pride”.
Here are some more images from landmarks across the country, which are illuminated in tribute to those who have died during the coronavirus pandemic, those who are bereaved, and for hope.
This evening we are changing our lights to yellow as part of @mariecurieuk's #NationalDayOfReflection At 8pm there will be a minute's silence to reflect on our collective loss, as we continue to support those who’ve been bereaved and hope for a brighter future.
— The Blackpool Tower (@TheBplTower) March 23, 2021
📷@karlhoughton82 pic.twitter.com/bzkGsksyiC
Across the UK, millions of people are remembering those who have died in the last 12 months, lighting candles from their doorsteps and shining lights from torches and phones to create a “beacon of remembrance”.
On the one-year anniversary of the first national lockdown, the country has been reflecting on the lives lost during the coronavirus pandemic. A minute’s silence was held at midday in tribute to the 126,000 who have died from Covid-19.
In a Downing Street press conference earlier, the prime minister Boris Johnson hailed the “courage, discipline and patience of the nation” one year after he first announced a lockdown to combat coronavirus. He said:
We suffered so many losses.
Marking a year to the day since everyone’s lives change on 23 March 2020, landmarks across the nation, from Wembley Stadium to Lichfield Cathedral, are illuminated in remembrance.
One year on from the first national lockdown, we light the Wembley arch yellow to show our support for the National #DayofReflection.
— Wembley Stadium (@wembleystadium) March 23, 2021
Today we commemorate the tragic loss of life and stand together with everyone who is grieving. pic.twitter.com/9l5PzgE6Ni
On this National #DayofReflection we are called to #reflect on our collective loss, #support those who have been bereaved, and #hope for a brighter future.@VisitLichfield @EnjoyStaffs @LichLDTA
— Lichfield Cathedral (@LichfieldCath) March 23, 2021
Artwork by @Luxmuralis.
Projections were not advertised for public attendance. pic.twitter.com/Rq8ZeGRKmG
Updated
UK lights up in remembrance of lives lost on anniversary of first lockdown
To mark the anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown and to remember the 126,000 lives that have been lost in the UK to Covid-19, a candlelit vigil will take place from doorsteps across the country at 8pm.
People are being asked to stand on their front doorsteps and light a candle, shine a torch or hold up their phones in a show of unity, as a “beacon of remembrance”.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin has received his first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, his spokesman said. But unlike many others who were vaccinated in public, Putin’s vaccination took place in private.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the 68-year-old Russian leader was vaccinated but did not specify which jab was administered.
“Putin has been vaccinated against the coronavirus. He feels well. Tomorrow he has a full working day,” Peskov said, according to state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
Earlier today, Peskov said that Putin, who has never been media shy during his two decades in power, did not want to get a jab in front of the cameras. “We will not show this, you will have to take our word for it,” Peskov said.
Peskov said the Kremlin chief would receive one of three Russian vaccines, declining to specify which one “on purpose”. “All three Russian vaccines proved their effectiveness and reliability,” Peskov said.
Summary
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Anthony Fauci, the US’s top health official, said the AstraZeneca vaccine was likely to be very good, but that an independent review board assessing the jab’s efficacy “got concerned” that the data in its public statement “were somewhat outdated and might in fact be misleading a bit”, adding that the “unforced error” would only add to public doubts about vaccines.
- Norway is introducing new national measures to contain the pandemic, including a ban on the public serving of alcohol, and would postpone the introduction of a plan to reopen society, health minister Bent Høie has said.
- Poland is to announce new restrictions for the next two weeks by Thursday at the latest, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, as the country braces for what could be a second Easter spent under a strict lockdown.
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The Dutch government is to extend its lockdown measures by three weeks until 20 April due to rising numbers of Covid-19 infections and hospital admissions, prime minister Mark Rutte said.
- Texas is to become the largest US state to make Covid vaccines available for all adults, with the drastic expansion for the state’s nearly 30 million residents beginning from Monday.
- Spain will on 30 March lift restrictions on arrivals from Britain that have been in place since December in an attempt to contain the spread of new strains of coronavirus.
- Vladimir Putin reportedly had his first dose of a Russian-made coronavirus vaccine in private, after months of delaying his jab, in an apparent effort to boost Russia’s fledgling vaccination drive.
- General practitioners in Australia have been told the Covid-19 vaccine rollout experienced “significant” week-one delivery errors, including a failure to send some shipments of needles to accompany the vials.
- German hotel owners are unhappy over an extension to measures that bizarrely bar citizens from going on vacation in their own country but allow them to travel abroad.
Updated
The Dutch government is to extend its lockdown measures by three weeks until 20 April due to rising numbers of Covid-19 infections and hospital admissions, prime minister Mark Rutte said.
Rutte also said that a recommendation that people not travel abroad was being extended until 15 May. Rising numbers of infections and hospital admissions meant that there could be no easing of restrictions in the short term, he added.
“The number of corona patients in intensive care is on the rise. The third wave is starting to become visible. That is why the current package of measures is being extended,” the government said in a statement.
New coronavirus cases increased by 16% to more than 46,000 in the week through Tuesday, the fastest pace since mid-January, the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said.
Rutte said that, while the controversial curfew was being extended, from 31 March the start time would be pushed back by one hour to 10pm. It would continue to run until 4.30am.
Bars and restaurants in the Netherlands have been closed for five months, while many shops have only very limited options to receive customers and public gatherings are banned.
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Poland will announce new restrictions for the next two weeks by Thursday at the latest, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said, as the country braces for what could be a second Easter spent under a strict lockdown.
Reuters reports:
Faced with a fast-growing number of daily cases driven by the highly contagious variant first identified in Britain, Poland announced last week that theatres, shopping malls, hotels and cinemas would close nationwide.
But with the Easter holidays due, usually heralding packed church services and family gatherings in the deeply Catholic country, speculation about tougher measures has grown.
“The health minister and I are in constant contact with our experts from the medical council, we also analyse the environment around us and we will communicate this set of additional restrictions the day after tomorrow at the latest,” Morawiecki told a news conference.
Morawiecki refused to be drawn on what the new restrictions would be. Churches are currently open but with numbers attending limited and only small gatherings of people are allowed.
In total, Poland, a country of 38 million, has reported 2,089,869 cases of the coronavirus and 49,761 deaths.
Canada has said AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine is safe and that it would continue to be recommended for use amid criticism from US health officials of the drugmaker’s analysis of the shot’s efficacy, health officials said.
Reuters has the story:
“The message is that the efficacy and the safety of the vaccine have been shown,” senior Health Canada official Marc Berthiaume said. “It continues to be beneficial for Canadians to prevent Covid-19.”
Deliveries of coronavirus vaccines are ramping up in Canada, with some 2 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines coming in this week. The US has said it is sharing 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with Canada as early as this week.
The US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Monday that the board charged with ensuring the accuracy of AstraZeneca’s latest trial said the company may have given an incomplete view of the shot’s effectiveness. The company has since said it will publish up-to-date results from its latest trial within 48 hours.
Norway tightens measures, shelving planned loosening
Norway is introducing new national measures to contain the pandemic, including a ban on the public serving of alcohol, and will postpone the introduction of a plan to reopen society, health minister Bent Høie has said.
The government had originally planned to present a plan in late March for the gradual unwinding of its restrictions.
Norway has had some of Europe’s lowest rates of infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic early last year, but is now seeing an increase in hospitalisations led by more contagious variants of the virus.
“The situation in Norway is unstable, with rising infection rates in recent weeks,” Høie said. “We’re worried by the potential consequences if many people travel and meet others during the Easter holiday,” he said.
Anyone returning from a holiday abroad will be forced to undergo 10 days of quarantine at a designated hotel, stricter than the current rule that allows holidaymakers to leave quarantine facilities after three days if they test negative.
Norwegians should also begin keeping a two-metre distance to anyone not living in their own household, double the current recommendation, and have no more than two guests at home,Høie said.
Norway hopes to vaccinate significant parts of its adult population between April and July, the government has said.
Updated
German hotel owners are unhappy over an extension to measures that bizarrely bar citizens from going on vacation in their own country but allow them to travel abroad.
Reuters has the full story:
Berlin today extended a nationwide lockdown until 18 April in an attempt to break a third wave of the pandemic, keeping hotels and holiday apartments closed for tourists.
“It’s OK to fly to Mallorca if you’re tested? But you can’t stay in a Bavarian holiday apartment? It’s simply incomprehensible,” said Hubert Buchwieser, a holiday apartment owner in the Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Daniel Schimmer, a manager at the town’s Garmischer Hof hotel, said: “We are frustrated, sad and disappointed that our industry is being treated this way.”
Germans travelling abroad on holiday will need to present a negative Covid test result before they return to Germany, even when returning from regions where coronavirus infection rates are not high, but they do not need to quarantine.
The no-quarantine move has been a demand from airlines hoping for a recovery starting with the Easter holidays after Germany removed several regions in Spain, including the tourist island of Mallorca, and Portugal from its list of risk areas.
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Turkey has registered 26,182 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily number since mid-December, health ministry data showed, as cases continued to rise amid an easing in measures to restrict infections this month. The death toll rose by 138 to 30,316.
Daily cases have roughly doubled since the beginning of March, when restrictions were eased, Reuters reports.
The world’s top canned tuna firms are making “glacial progress” combating modern slavery in their supply chains, an advocacy group has said, warning that the pandemic had left fishers in Asia-Pacific more vulnerable to exploitation.
Reuters has the story:
Most firms have yet to take any action to stop modern slavery by implementing human rights policies, with oversight of recruitment almost non-existent, the report said. Six companies had policies to protect migrant workers but just one had evidence of having taken direct action, it added.
“The global fishing sector is rife with allegations of abuse, human trafficking, debt bondage ... and even murder,” UK-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Pacific representative Amy Sinclair said. “But despite continued high demand for canned tuna, our research found there had been glacial progress on action by leading brands when it comes to workers trapped in modern slavery in the Pacific.”
The pandemic has led to increased demand for tuna, as consumers worldwide have stocked-up on the pantry staple, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
As international borders have closed to curb the pandemic, modern slavery risks have heightened, with many fishers trapped at sea for longer periods - exposing them to heightened exploitation and abuse, the BHRRC report said. While nearly half of respondents recognised that the pandemic exacerbated modern slavery risks, only a quarter had taken any action in response, it added.
Brazil’s new health minister Marcelo Queiroga has been sworn in by president Jair Bolsonaro in a closed ceremony at the presidential palace, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Bolsonaro appointed Queiroga, a cardiologist, on 15 March to replace Army general Eduardo Pazuello as Brazil faced its most deadly phase of the pandemic. He is Brazil’s fourth health minister in a year.
Queiroga, the head of the country’s cardiology society who has in the past has spoken favourably of the country’s controversial right-wing leader, replaces active-duty army general Pazuello with expertise in logistics who landed the position last May despite having no prior health experience.
AP reports that Pazuello, who backed use and distribution of an anti-malaria drug, had presided over the healthy ministry for the longest period of his three predecessor pandemic ministers.
The revolving door reflects the challenges for the government of Latin America’s largest nation to implement effective measures to control the virus’ spread – or even agree which measures are necessary.
Bolsonaro said according to CNN last month:
Queiroga is much more knowledgeable on the health issue, he is going to take action to reduce the number of people who die from this disease that’s been affecting the whole world.
Tensions between Britain and the EU over the supply of Covid-19 vaccines show how the world deserves a “failing” grade for its past efforts to prepare for unexpected shocks, the OECD chief, Ángel Gurría, has said.
Reuters reports:
Gurría, a former Mexican finance minister who has headed the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for 15 years, said countries had done too little to ensure supply chains would remain robust in a crisis. “We don’t get a very high grade. We basically get a ‘failing’ grade,” he said.
The EU has threatened to restrict vaccine exports after manufacturers in the bloc prioritised orders placed by Britain, which approved vaccines sooner and has rolled them out more effectively so far.
“It’s a very dramatic example of how unprepared we were,” Gurría said, adding that he expected the EU vaccination programme to catch up in the coming weeks and tensions with Britain to ease. “You need to talk things out a lot better from the very beginning, rather than standing at the end of the line with your cheque,” he said.
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Miami Beach officials have extended a curfew and state of emergency into April, in response to large spring-break crowds of partygoers defying coronavirus restrictions. Police were criticised for using pellets and teargas to disperse the revellers.
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General practitioners in Australia have been told the Covid-19 vaccine rollout experienced “significant” week-one delivery errors, including a failure to send some shipments of needles to accompany the vials.
The rollout’s second stage, phase 1B, began this week, relying on roughly 1,000 GP clinics and 100 commonwealth-run respiratory clinics to start vaccinating 6 million higher-risk Australians.
The government has this week insisted that the rollout is moving as quickly as possible, despite early complaints from GPs of vaccine undersupply, missing deliveries and huge demand.
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Texas is to become the largest US state to make Covid vaccines available for all adults.
AP reports:
The announcement by state health officials adds Texas to the rapidly growing list of states that are making the vaccine available to all adults. The drastic expansion for the state’s nearly 30 million residents will begin from Monday.
“We are closing in on 10 million doses administered in Texas, and we want to keep up the momentum as the vaccine supply increases,” said Imelda Garcia, chairwoman of the state’s expert vaccine allocation panel.
For the past two weeks, Texas has been the nation’s largest state with no coronavirus restrictions after Republican governor Greg Abbott repealed a mask mandate that has divided businesses and lifted limits on restaurant and retail occupancy. Hospitalisations in Texas have fallen to their lowest levels since October.
Alaska was the first state to open up vaccine eligibility to all adults, and others are now rushing to do the same, including Tennessee and Missouri.
The UN’s human rights council has adopted a resolution calling for equitable, affordable access to Covid-19 vaccines and for fair pricing.
Reuters reports that the text, endorsed by more than 130 countries and adopted by consensus at the Geneva forum, affirmed the right of states to use the flexibility in World Trade Organization existing rules on intellectual property for Covid-19 vaccines.
China and the EU endorsed the text, brought by Ecuador and the non-aligned movement. Britain clarified that any measures taken must be in accordance with international law but joined the consensus. The US, which has observer status, did not co-sponsor the resolution.
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A Banksy painting showing a boy playing with a toy nurse as a superhero has sold for almost £17m, setting an auction record for the elusive British street artist.
Reuters has the story:
Game Changer, unveiled last May at University Hospital Southampton, paid tribute to the frontline workers of Britain’s NHS in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The black-and-white hand-painted artwork shows a boy lifting a nurse, her arm outstretched and wearing a cape, while traditional superheroes Batman and Spider-Man lie in a bin.
Through Southampton Hospitals Charity, proceeds from the sale will be used to “fund wellbeing projects for staff and patients, and distributed to a wider community of healthcare providers both within the NHS and charitable sectors,” Christie’s said.
Updated
Three people who “systematically” hacked into online school lessons during Italy’s coronavirus pandemic have been charged with sabotage, police have said.
AFP has the story:
“They did it for a laugh, or to help students who wanted to skip a test,” Roberto Surlinelli, deputy chief of the online crimes police unit in Genoa, northwest Italy, said.
The trio sabotaged dozens of lessons across the country after offering their services via social media groups on Telegram and Instagram, and receiving links to access online classes from students, a police statement said.
Sometimes they asked for money, but police found no evidence that payments ever took place. They also did not expect that officers would go after them, Surlinelli said.
“We wanted to send out a signal ... that this kind of behaviour will not go totally unpunished,” he said, while recognising that other hackers may escape justice. Two of the three people caught by the investigation in Genoa are in their early 20s, while the third is a minor.
They confessed and were charged with sabotage of public services and unauthorised entry into computer systems, but are unlikely to go to jail, Surlinelli said.
Updated
French authorities are investigating the death of a 26-year-old medical student days after he received AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, while stressing that no link has been established to the jab.
AFP reports:
The student died on 18 March in the western city of Nantes, 10 days after receiving the AstraZeneca jab. The public prosecutor in Nantes, Pierre Sennes, said that an autopsy had been carried out on him a day after his death but that “it was necessary to carry out further tests to determine the causes and circumstances of his death”.
The ANSM national drug safety watchdog said it had been informed of the man’s death “as part of our increased monitoring of thrombosis cases” and said for the moment there was no clear link with the inoculation.
“This death is the subject of an in-depth clinical investigation,” it said in a statement.
Reported rates of so-called thromboembolic events after Covid-19 vaccines were in line with the usual number of people suffering these conditions, the World Health Organization has said.
Pfizer has started an early-stage US trial of an oral Covid-19 antiviral therapy that could be prescribed to patients at the first sign of infection, the company has said.
Reuters reports:
The drugmaker said the antiviral candidate showed potent activity against Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in lab studies. Pfizer’s candidate, named PF-07321332, is a protease inhibitor that prevents the virus from replicating in cells.
Protease inhibitors have been effective at treating other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C virus, both on their own and in combination with other antivirals, the company said.
Pfizer believes this class of molecules may provide well-tolerated treatments against Covid-19, as currently marketed therapeutics that work on the same lines have not reported safety concerns.
The company is also studying an intravenously administered antiviral candidate in an early-stage trial in hospitalised Covid-19 patients.
“Together, the two (oral and intravenous candidates) have the potential to create an end-to-end treatment paradigm that complements vaccination in cases where disease still occurs,” Pfizer’s chief medical officer, Mikael Dolsten, said in a statement.
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The director general of the World Trade Organization has said she was disappointed in the EU’s export authorisation scheme for Covid vaccines, saying that she was talking to them about the measure.
“While we understand the politics of what they are doing - I have said openly I am disappointed, particularly in the fact that they extended it from March,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at a WTO online event, saying export restrictions must be temporary.
Under the scheme, which is to be extended through June, companies must get an authorisation before exporting Covid-19 shots, and may have export requests denied if they do not respect their supply commitments with the EU.
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From next week the Netherlands is to shorten a nationwide curfew, which sparked days of violent riots when it was imposed in January, by an hour, Reuters reports, citing local media.
According to national broadcasters NOS and RTL, from 31 March the start of the curfew will be pushed back to 10pm, after local authorities had said daylight savings time would make it difficult for the police to enforce the original rule.
The curfew will end, as before, at 4.30am.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte is expected to announce the change on Tuesday evening in a televised press conference.
Updated
Spain to lift restrictions on arrivals from Britain
Spain will on 30 March lift restrictions on arrivals from Britain that have been in place since December in an attempt to contain the spread of new strains of coronavirus, AFP reports, citing a government announcement.
The French news agency quoted a government spokeswoman, Maria Jesus Montero, as saying that restrictions on arrivals from Brazil and South Africa will be extended 13 April, but “not those with Britain”, because of the advanced stage of the UK’s vaccination campaign.
Since 22 December only legal residents or nationals of Spain and the neighbouring micro-state of Andorra have been allowed in by air and sea from Britain. The only exception is passengers in transit, who cannot leave the airport nor remain longer than 24 hours.
Updated
Sao Paulo, the most-populous state of Brazil, has reported a new daily record for Covid-19 deaths, with 1,021 registered on Monday according to state authorities.
According to a Reuters wire report, the death toll signals the possibility that Brazil’s total death toll for Monday, which will be released on Tuesday evening, could also be a new record.
Sao Paulo’s previous highest number of Covid-19 deaths registered was 679 last Tuesday.
The increase in the Covid-19 death toll in Sao Paulo comes as Brazil has become the latest hotspot of the coronavirus pandemic.
Brazil, with a population of 211 million, has recorded roughly 12 million cases of Covid-19 and 295,425 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Updated
Nato is to begin mass vaccinations of the thousands of staff working at its Brussels headquarters in preparation for a summit in June, which will be the first face-to-face meeting of leaders of the alliance since 2019.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and his Nato counterparts were to meet on Tuesday at the military alliance’s headquarters to prepare for the summit, the first to be attended by the new US president, Joe Biden.
Twenty Polish medical personnel were to begin inoculating some of the estimated 4,000 people who work at Nato headquarters against Covid-19, according to an Associated Press wire report. They plan to administer around 3,500 AstraZeneca vaccines.
The AP reports that Nato did not reply to questions as to why a vaccination campaign is needed and why people working at its headquarters should have priority over other Belgian residents. Belgium is vaccinating people over 65 and those with medical conditions that might endanger their lives should they catch the virus.
Updated
AstraZeneca has responded to criticisms over its use of data by US officials by promising to release the most up-to-date data from its trial results within 48 hours.
Earlier this week, US officials publicly criticised the company for using outdated information in a press release. AstraZeneca said the results it published on Monday were based on an interim analysis through to 17 February. It said on Tuesday it would “immediately engage” with the panel monitoring the trial.
The move came after the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the panel had expressed concern that the company may be giving an “incomplete” picture of the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Anthony Fauci, the US’s top health official, earlier said the vaccine, which was developed at Oxford University, was likely to be very good, but the board “got concerned” that the data in AstraZeneca’s public statement “were somewhat outdated and might in fact be misleading a bit”.
Updated
Italy’s Neosperience has developed a way to detect Covid infections by analysing a person’s speech or cough, the software company has said.
Reuters has the story:
Neosperience president Dario Melpignano said the system, which detects sounds characteristic of the respiratory disease, was more than 80% accurate.
The project was developed with partners and by using artificial intelligence embedded in a cloud platform called Neosperience Health Cloud, which has already been used to analyse chest x-rays, the company said in a statement.
“It’s just the beginning of a project that has incredible potential because the processing of this sort of data can be effectively used as a screening test,” said Alessandro Nizardo Chailly, the chief executive of Neosperience’s partner Capsula.
The recording and analysis model could help to detect and diagnose a wide range of pathogens, added Capsula’s scientific adviser Giuseppe Andreoni.
Human rights groups are warning that the pandemic has made conditions even more difficult for migrant domestic workers in Oman who come from poorer countries such as Sierra Leone. Trapped in private homes during lockdown, many have faced a greater risk of violence, are being made to work longer hours and are earning less as the economic dip hits their employers.
Such pressures have led to women running away from their employers, but their lack of rights puts them in a nightmarish situation. One group working to support domestic workers has warned that 200 Sierra Leonean women are stranded and homeless in Oman.
Updated
Here’s more from Dr Anthony Fauci, the most senior US health official, who was speaking to ABC News earlier today (see 11.57am).
A group of independent medical experts at the National Institutes of Health, which includes the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, yesterday contacted AstraZeneca with their concerns about how the company laid out its data in a press release, Fauci said.
He said that the back and forth was “unfortunate”, calling it “an unforced error” that only adds to public doubts about vaccines and could possibly lead to more hesitancy.
The US Food and Drug Administration, which will review the company’s data when it seeks approval for its Covid vaccine in the US, “will independently go over every bit of data themselves” and not rely on any one interpretation, including the company’s, Fauci added.
Updated
Vladimir Putin to be vaccinated in private
Russian president Vladimir Putin will be vaccinated in private this evening, the Kremlin said, as Russia looks to boost a vaccination campaign that is faltering despite having produced three home-grown jabs.
AFP reports:
Unlike many other world leaders who were vaccinated in public, Putin will do so behind closed doors. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the 68-year-old Russian leader, who has never been media shy during his two decades in power, does not want to get a jab in front of the cameras.
“We will not show this, you will have to take our word for it,” Peskov told reporters. “As for being vaccinated in front of the cameras, he does not like it.”
Peskov said the Kremlin chief would receive one of three Russian vaccines, declining to specify which one “on purpose”. “All three Russian vaccines proved their effectiveness and reliability,” Peskov said.
Vaccine scepticism runs high in Russia, with a recent opinion poll showing less than a third of its citizens willing to have a jab, and close to two-thirds saying they believe the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon.
Updated
India to open vaccinations to all over-45s
India has announced it will open its vaccination drive to all over-45s from 1 April in a bid to boost its massive but flagging inoculation drive as infections rise.
AFP has the latest:
India has so far vaccinated nearly 50 million people but the programme to inoculate 300 million people by the end of July is behind schedule, experts say.
Until now only “frontline” workers in healthcare and other areas, together with people over 60 and those over 45 with co-morbidities, have been eligible for either the AstraZeneca vaccine or a homegrown Bharat Biotech shot.
“Following scientific and [Covid] task force advice, the cabinet today decided to open vaccinations for everyone over 45 years from 1 April,” Prakash Javadekar, information and broadcast minister, said.
Javadekar also announced that state governments had been directed to provide the second dose four to eight weeks after the first, compared to an earlier regime of four to six weeks.
Updated
Swiss pharma company Roche has announced promising results from clinical trials of an anti-Covid cocktail developed with US biotech firm Regeneron.
AFP reports:
The results of the Phase 3 trial showed that the combination of the antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab “reduced hospitalisation or death by 70% in non-hospitalised patients with Covid-19,” it said in a statement. The cocktail also “significantly shortened the duration of symptoms by four days”, from 14 to 10.
French regulators earlier this month temporarily approved the use of two anti-Covid cocktails based on antibodies, including the one made by Roche and Regeneron, for early treatment of the disease in adults at risk of developing serious illness.
At the end of February, the European Medicines Agency provisionally approved the use of the Covid-19 therapy made by Regeneron on its own, saying it prevented patients with the disease from getting worse.
Regeneron’s synthetic antibody treatment was used to treat former US president Donald Trump after he contracted coronavirus last year. It received emergency approval from US regulators last November.
Updated
The Zoetis vaccine received by great apes at San Diego zoo in January and February is being developed especially for mink, after outbreaks in dozens of farms around the world. Sars-CoV-2 is highly transmissible between the animals and has high morbidity and mortality. Another American firm and researchers in Russia are also in the process of developing vaccines for mink, according to the New York Times.
Norwegian police have said they have begun questioning prime minister Erna Solberg over a birthday party she held last month, which could lead to a fine of 10,000 crowns ($1,165) for breaking physical distancing rules.
Reuters has the story:
“We have started an investigation and part of this involves questioning the prime minister. We have taken the initiative and the questioning has begun, but it is not formally over,” police inspector Per Morten Sending said. Police aimed to conclude the probe this week, he added.
The two-term prime minister has apologised for celebrating her 60th birthday with 13 family members at a mountain resort, despite a government ban on events attended by more than 10 people.
“We planned a dinner at a restaurant, which we believed to be in line with coronavirus guidelines. It was at a restaurant where we booked three separate tables and where we kept our distance,” Solberg said last week. “I can only apologise for the fact that we did not comprehend that this, as defined by the law, was an event.”
The birthday party has drawn criticism, including from her own health minister, Bent Hoeie, who told daily VG: “This should not have happened.”
Updated
AstraZeneca's vaccine data 'might be misleading' but jab 'likely very good', says Fauci
AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine is likely very good, but an independent review board was concerned about how the drugmaker presented data in a press release this week, top US health official Dr Anthony Fauci has said.
“This likely a very good vaccine,” the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director told ABC News. But the data and safety monitoring board “got concerned” that the data in AstraZeneca’s public statement “were somewhat outdated and might in fact be misleading a bit,” he added.
AstraZenca has said it would engage with the independent panel and would share its primary analysis with the most up-to-date data with them. It said the data was based on an analysis with a cut-off date of 17 February, adding that it had reviewed the preliminary assessment of the primary analysis and found it to be consistent with the interim report.
“We will immediately engage with the independent data safety monitoring board ... We intend to issue results of the primary analysis within 48 hours,” the drug company said.
Updated
Here’s more on French president Emmanuel Macron confirming France would offer Covid-19 shots to anyone over 70 from this weekend, as the country seeks to breathe more urgency into its vaccination campaign.
Reuters reports:
France and its neighbours are suffering a third wave of infections that threatens recovery in Europe’s largest economies.
New restrictions that closed non-essential stores and limited how far people can move came into effect in Paris and much of the north last weekend, but Macron stopped short of a full lockdown.
The president later said he hoped there would be targeted campaigns for certain professions, such as teachers, by April or May and that in a race against time public holidays should be no barrier to delivering injections.
Previously, the government had slated opening up vaccine slots for the over-70 age group in mid April. Vaccinations are available for over-75s and anyone over 50 with a serious pre-existing condition.
France’s faltering campaign has been slowed by bureaucracy and public mistrust of vaccines at home, and Europe-wide supply delays, in particular from AstraZeneca.
Updated
A judge in northern Italy has ruled that it is not illegal for health workers to be suspended if they refuse to have a Covid-19 vaccine.
Anna Travia, the judge in the court of the Veneto city of Belluno, rejected an appeal from 10 healthcare workers who were suspended without pay by two care homes in February after refusing the vaccine, Corriere del Veneto reported.
In her ruling, Travia said:
The effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing the negative evolution of disease caused by the virus is widely known, as evidenced by the drastic drop in deaths among the categories that can take advantage of it, such as health workers and care home residents.”
Although Italy’s vaccination programme has been slow, there has been a fall in Covid infections and deaths among healthcare workers and care home residents since the jabs began being administered to those in priority categories at the start of the campaign in late December.
Updated
Campaigners have called the UK prime minister’s appeal for “international cooperation” to prevent a third wave of the pandemic “pretty rich” after the country effectively rejected attempts from developing countries to secure vaccines.
Global Justice Now, an NGO, has called on the UK and EU to end the “madness” of vaccine nationalism by supporting low and middle income countries’ attempts to temporarily waive vaccine patents, so they can increase vaccine production.
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said:
It’s pretty rich to hear platitudes about ‘cooperation’ from a prime minister [Boris Johnson] who has rejected attempts from India, South Africa, and 100 low and middle income countries to secure equitable distribution of vaccines.
Both he and the EU are responsible for the disastrous vaccine nationalism that led us here. But both can end it by backing a temporary waiver of vaccine patents. It’s time to end this madness.
Johnson said yesterday:
We’re all facing the same pandemic, we all have the same problems. If there is one thing that is worth stressing is that on the continent right now you can see sadly there is a third wave under way. People in this country should be under no illusions that previous experience has taught us that when a wave hits our friends, it washes up on our shores as well. I expect that we will feel those effects in due course.
Updated
Here’s more on a US trial of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine which may have used “outdated information” on its efficacy (see 7.36am).
Prof Peter Kremnser, from Tübingen University Hospital, said:
This is indeed an extraordinary act. The negative reports about this vaccine do not stop, although my assessment is that it is well tolerated and safe, but clearly less effective than the two mRNA vaccines.
Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, said:
The NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) statement is not clear on the actual data that is causing the disquiet. I think it is generally accepted that the early trial data, while positive, did suffer from a communication issue which failed to get across a single clear message.
But any concerns that date from that time would have surely been surpassed by the data now available from actual usage, which shows an excellent safety profile and the prevention of severe disease.
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said:
One explanation might well be that this trial is currently being conducted when there is a large amount of a new variant about more recently, and, as might be expected, the efficacy against that variant might be less, so more recent data shows reduced efficacy.
Of course the other vaccines may also show such reduced efficacy and we don’t know by how much. It does not leave me concerned particularly unless they had found a safety issue that was being hidden, which does not appear to be the case.
It’s Mattha Busby here taking over from my colleague Rachel Hall. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading. Please drop me a line on Twitter with any tips or thoughts.
Updated
More than 800,000 locally manufactured doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been approved for release to Australians in a move that provides a significant boost to the country’s rollout effort, reports Christopher Knaus.
Updated
Pfizer Inc plans to tap the mRNA technology to make new vaccines for other viruses following the success of its Covid-19 shot, which was developed jointly with German partner BioNTech SE.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer is ready to pursue mRNA on its own following its experience in the past year working on the Covid-19 vaccine. It did not, however, disclose any details about the viruses it was targeting.
UK health minister Matt Hancock has said there will be no changes to England’s timings for resuming international travel after new legislation was brought in that technically extends the ban on foreign holidays until the end of June, Alexandra Topping reports.
Updated
The European commission’s chief vaccine negotiator, Sandra Gallina, said on Tuesday the European Union will use all available means to secure the Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca.
Reuters reports:
AstraZeneca said earlier in March it would aim to deliver to the European Union 10m vaccines by the end of June, three times fewer than it had committed to in the contract with the EU.
“It’s a shame, it’s reputational damage,” Gallina said and noted that only one of the five vaccine-production plants listed in the EU contract with AstraZeneca was delivering vaccines to the EU.
Updated
France will open 35 Covid-19 mass vaccination centres in the coming days to increase the pace of inoculations, following criticism that the campaign is too slow.
AFP reports:
“We are working with local representatives to put them in place,” industry minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told BFMTV channel.
France had previously baulked at setting up super-sites to rapidly dispense vaccines in large numbers after a failed experiment with “vaccinodromes” during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009.
Until now, the jabs have been dispensed in community halls, hospitals, doctor’s surgeries and pharmacies.
But with hospitals struggling to cope with a third wave of infections health minister Olivier Véran on Monday announced that France would follow the lead of countries like the US and Britain that have turned stadiums into inoculation sites.
Updated
Sweden’s decision not to lockdown has made residents of its Nordic neighbours feel less positively towards the country, according to a survey.
Reuters reports:
Almost 40% of respondents in Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland said they had become less positive about Sweden over the last year, with its pandemic strategy the most widely cited reason, the survey by the Swedish Institute, a public agency that promotes the country around the world, showed.
“People think that Sweden’s handling of the pandemic has been flawed or wrong,” the Institute said. “The reason put forward is that Sweden has failed to protect Swedish citizens well enough, especially vulnerable groups.”
Borders have been shut and relations have been strained over disruptions to the flow of people and goods between the usually tight-knit Nordic countries.
France will lower the age from which people can be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus to 70 from 75.
Reuters reports the comments from French President Emmanuel Macron:
From Saturday we will accelerate the vaccination campaign.”
Germany is urging pharmaceutical companies to fulfill contracts for Covid-19 vaccine deliveries they have signed with European Union countries, in a move that raises the pressure after the EU’s chief executive threatened Britain with an export ban.
Reuters reports:
“For us, it is very, very important that everyone lives up to their responsibilities,” German Europe minister Michael Roth said on Monday, adding questions of reciprocity played a special role in this regard.
“Everyone has to stick to their commitments, this is clearly also true for companies that have promised the delivery of vaccine contingents,” Roth told journalists ahead of a virtual meeting with his EU counterparts in preparation for the EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
Updated
Hungary’s prime minister has said the country will not reopen its economy before all citizens older than 65 who have registered for a Covid-19 vaccine are inoculated.
Hungary reported a daily rate of 252 deaths on Tuesday after a surge in hospitalisations and people put on ventilators pushed its health system to the limit.
Hungary overtook the Czech Republic on Monday for the world’s worst per capita death rate from Covid in the past seven days, according to Our World in Data.
The third wave of the pandemic crushed Orban’s tentative plan for a phased reopening of the economy from late March and early April as a partial lockdown in effect since November was extended with the closure of schools and kindergartens.
Russia and China have rejected accusations they are using coronavirus vaccines to project their influence around the world.
AFP reports:
Speaking to reporters after talks with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that both countries were guided by principles of “humanity” rather than geopolitical interests.
“Russia and China have been models of openness, cooperation, and mutual assistance,” Lavrov said in the southern Chinese city of Guilin in comments released by his ministry.
When it comes to tackling the coronavirus pandemic, he said, it is important to be guided by “humanity and the interests of saving lives” rather than “geopolitical considerations and commercial approaches”.
Updated
The Covax vaccine-sharing scheme will set aside 5% of the vaccine doses it procures to be used as a “buffer” in humanitarian settings or in the case of severe outbreaks.
Reuters reports:
The GAVI Alliance said that amounts to up to 100m vaccine doses by the end of 2021.
Updated
Yemen’s coronavirus committee has urged the government to declare a public health “state of emergency” after a surge in infections in the war-torn country.
AFP reports:
Six years of civil war has left Yemen’s weak healthcare system in ruins, and this week the country reported more than 100 cases in a day, much higher than figures at the beginning of the year.
It has officially recorded some 3,500 cases of Covid-19 including 771 deaths since the pandemic began, but testing is scant. Most clinics are ill-equipped to determine causes of death, and many fear the real toll is far higher.
Vietnam has approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use against Covid-19.
The Russian vaccine has now been approved in 56 countries, the RDIF sovereign wealth fund, which promotes the shot globally, said.
Vietnam’s health ministry said last month that a medical panel had recommended Sputnik V and Moderna’s vaccine for use.
There are no plans for travellers from Europe to be added to Britain’s travel “red-list” with mandatory quarantine in hotels on arrival despite rising infections on the continent.
Reuters reports:
“We don’t have any plans to do that … we don’t rule it out but we don’t have plans to do that now,” health minister Matt Hancock told LBC radio, adding he was unsure whether travel would be able to resume by July.
“We don’t know … we’ve got to protect this country and the progress that we’ve made, but at the same time I totally understand that lots of people want to travel abroad this summer.”
Updated
Ministers will seek to calm tensions over a potential EU ban on vaccine exports to the UK in a diplomacy blitz this week as sources raised the possibility of sharing jab supplies from a Dutch plant, Jessica Elgot, Daniel Boffey and Peter Walker report.
Updated
Lobby groups are warning that Germany’s decision to close stores over Easter could drive more businesses to bankruptcy and be counterproductive by encouraging people to flock to the shops beforehand.
Reuters reports:
The HDE association of retailers said 54% of fashion stores faced the danger of insolvency after 100 days of lockdown.
“After one year with coronavirus, the situation for many retailers is desperate. There is no longer any hope of surviving this crisis economically,” HDE president Stefan Genth said.
After talks that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would extend its lockdown until 18 April and called on citizens to stay home and reduce contacts as much as possible for five days from 1 April.
Updated
Swiss pharma giant Roche has unveiled promising results from clinical trials of an anti-Covid cocktail aimed at tackling new variants, which it is developing with US biotech firm Regeneron.
Associated Press reports:
The results of the Phase 3 trial showed that the combination of the antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab “reduced hospitalisation or death by 70% in non-hospitalised patients with Covid-19,” it said in a statement.
Several pharmaceutical companies have been developing antibody treatments which prevent the virus from replicating in the body, in the hope of finding an effective treatment to go alongside vaccines to combat emerging variants.
Roche noted that the treatment is the only monoclonal antibody combination which remains effective when confronted with the major variants, some of which are more infectious and cause more serious illness.
Updated
All people arriving in Ukraine from 23 March will have to show a negative test for Covid-19, Reuters reports.
A public inquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of the pandemic will include families who have lost loved ones, Robert Booth reports.
Denmark’s government has said it plans to further ease Covid-19 curbs by letting hairdressers, spas and other services reopen and for more students to resume in-person classes from 6 April.
Reuters reports:
Denmark has gradually reopened as infection rates have dropped following wide lockdown measures introduced in December to curb a more contagious variant.
Many of the planned reopening schemes are contingent on the use of a so-called “corona-passport”, which shows whether the holder has been vaccinated, has previously been infected or has taken a test within the last 72 hours.
Shopping malls can open on 21 April, while cinemas, music venues and restaurants will be allowed to reopen in early May.
The government also said it would extend current economic aid packages until July.
Updated
A French medical leader has warned that Covid-19 infections are rising at a “vertiginous rate” and if the situation does not improve, further lockdown measures may be needed.
Reuters reports:
“The epidemic is gathering pace, and the figures are exploding,” Frederic Valletoux, president of the French hospital federation and mayor of Fontainebleau, told LCI TV.
Official data published on Monday showed that the tally of new Covid-19 cases in France had accelerated further despite the start of a third lockdown over the weekend, with the number of people in intensive care at a new four-month high.
Updated
The eastern Indian state of Odisha may have to stop its coronavirus immunisation drive for four days due to a shortage of vaccine doses.
Reuters reports:
In a letter to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare dated 22 March, PK Mohapatra, Odisha’s additional chief secretary for health, warned the state only had enough doses to run its vaccination drive until 30 March. It is expecting another batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine, locally known as Covishield, only on 2 April.
As India battles a second surge in coronavirus infections that has lifted its caseload to 11.69 million, many states have asked the government to replenish vaccine stocks so that they can cover more people faster. India has reported the third-highest total of coronavirus infections after the US and Brazil.
Updated
Results from a US trial of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine may have used “outdated information” on its efficacy.
Reuters reports:
The concerns throw into question whether the British drugmaker can seek US emergency use authorisation for the vaccine in the coming weeks as planned, and come just one day after interim data from the trial had shown better-than-expected results.
The vaccine developed with Oxford University was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in the large trial that also took place in Chile and Peru, according to the data. It was also 100% effective against severe or critical forms of the disease and hospitalisation and posed no increased risk of blood clots.
The Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent committee overseeing the trial, has “expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data,” the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said in a statement.
Updated
The Czech Republic has announced that total Covid-19 deaths have passed 25,000.
Reuters reports:
The country of 10.7 million has one of world’s highest per capita death tolls according to the Our World in Data website. It said the overall figure had risen to 25,055.
Its death toll from the virus has more than doubled since the start of 2021.
Updated
The World Health Organization is calling for Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to follow AstraZeneca’s lead and share their technology to reduce vaccine inequity.
Reuters reports:
AstraZeneca’s shot, which new US data on Monday showed was safe and effective despite some countries suspending inoculations over health concerns, is being produced in various locations including South Korea’s SKBioScience and the Serum Institute of India.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for more manufacturers to adopt this model to boost supplies, including for the Covax vaccine sharing programme seeking to speed more shots to developing countries.
“The gap between number of vaccines administered in rich countries and the number administered through Covax is growing and becoming more grotesque every day,” Tedros told a news conference.
“The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage. It’s also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.”
Updated
Ukraine reports record death rate
Ukraine has registered a record daily high of 333 coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours following 17 March’s previous high of 289 deaths.
Reuters reports:
The former Soviet republic of 41 million people has been hit by a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks that prime minister Denys Shmygal has said is the third wave of the pandemic.
Stepanov said 11,476 new infections were reported over the past 24 hours. Ukraine has reported a total of 1,565,732 coronavirus cases and 30,431 deaths.
Last week, new coronavirus infections spiked to 15,850 cases, the highest level in the Ukraine since November, prompting the capital Kyiv and several regions to impose a tight lockdown.
Rachel Hall here taking over for the morning – please do send over any thoughts, tips or ideas to rachel.hall@theguardian.com, I’d love to hear them.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along – my brilliant colleague Rachel Hall will take you through the next while as the UK marks one year since the first Covid lockdown.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- AstraZeneca may have provided incomplete efficacy data from latest Covid-19 trial. British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc may have provided an incomplete view of efficacy data on its Covid-19 vaccine from a large scale US trial, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said on Tuesday.
- WHO warns global weekly deaths rising. A top World Health Organization expert on the coronavirus pandemic said Monday the weekly global count of deaths from Covid is rising again, a “worrying sign” after about six weeks of declines.
- The UK is marking one year since first virus lockdown. Britain on Tuesday marks the anniversary of its first coronavirus lockdown with a “National Day of Reflection”, which will see parliament hold a minute’s silence in tribute to the more than 126,000 people who have died.
- Growing global vaccine gap ‘grotesque’: WHO. The World Health Organization on Monday blasted the growing gap between the number of coronavirus vaccines administered in rich and poor countries, branding the inequity a global “moral outrage”, AFP reports.
- Merkel backed EU chief’s AstraZeneca export ban threat. German chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s threat to block AstraZeneca vaccines produced in the bloc from being exported, ahead of a crunch EU summit on the escalating row, AFP reports.“I support commission president Ursula von der Leyen,” said Merkel. “We have a problem with AstraZeneca,” she added.
- New Zealand confirms one new Covid case. New Zealand has recorded a new case of coronavirus in a cleaner employed at the managed isolation and quarantine facility at the Grand Millennium Hotel in Auckland. The ministry of health announced the case, which was picked up during routine testing, on Monday evening.
- UK bans non-essential foreign travel. Non-essential travel will be explicitly banned in England from next Monday under new coronavirus laws which could last until the end of June.Britons trying to travel abroad without a reasonable excuse will face fines of up to £5,000 under the legislation, which will come into force next week if approved by MPs.
- UK faces ‘Covid decade’ due to damage done by pandemic, says report. Britain faces a “Covid decade” of social and cultural upheaval marked by growing inequality and deepening economic deprivation, a landmark review has concluded.
- Merkel: case numbers rising ‘exponentially’ thanks to British variant. German chancellor Angela Merkel is speaking about the decision to extend Germany’s partial lockdown until 18 April, scrapping plans to loosen restrictions that have been in place since 16 December in the face of rising infection rates.
- Merkel “we’re in a very serious situation now”. Merkel has said “we’re in a very serious situation now” and that the country is in a race to complete vaccinations.The fewer the new infections recorded now, the faster vaccination will have an impact, she said.
- The German chancellor advised against all overseas travel. Merkel has warned Germans not to travel overseas, and says that the government has reached an agreement with airlines to test all returnees before they board.
- Bavarian chancellor: “We are probably now living in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic”. Bavarian premier Markus Soeder says that Germany is likely living through the most dangerous phase of the Covid pandemic as new coronavirus variants spread faster and affect more people than just the elderly.
- South Korea president receives AstraZeneca vaccine. South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in received AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday ahead of an overseas trip, as the country began inoculating more senior citizens and health workers in an effort to accelerate its vaccination drive.
- China to promote use of safe international travel pass with Russia. China will promote use of a safe international travel pass for trips with Russia, senior diplomat Wang Yi said on Tuesday. Wang, the foreign minister and a state councillor, made the remarks during a joint news briefing with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Updated
Here is the full statement from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on the AstraZeneca trial:
Late Monday, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) notified NIAID, BARDA, and AstraZeneca that it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial. The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data. We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.
Authorisation and guidelines for use of the vaccine in the United States will be determined by the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after thorough review of the data by independent advisory committees.
Updated
AstraZeneca may have provided incomplete efficacy data from latest Covid-19 trial
British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc may have provided an incomplete view of efficacy data on its Covid-19 vaccine from a large scale US trial, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said on Tuesday.
AstraZeneca said a day earlier that its Covid-19 vaccine developed with Oxford University was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large trial in Chile, Peru and the United States.
“The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data,” the US agency said, referring to the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB).
“We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.”
Updated
A year to the day since the UK went into a historic lockdown to combat a frightening and deadly new pandemic, the nation looks back in disbelief and horror. One hundred and twenty six thousand dead. A decimated economy. The reckoning will take decades to pick over.
Tuesday’s day of reflection, organised by the cancer charity Marie Curie and backed by over 110 organisations, will be observed across the nation. A minute’s silence at midday is followed by a doorstep vigil at 8pm. Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford are expected to mark the occasion. Prominent buildings and national landmarks will be illuminated in yellow, to commemorate the dead.
For the families and friends bereaved by Covid-19, it is a day to quietly contemplate those they have lost. For long Covid survivors, it is a reminder the vaccine-enabled relaxing of restrictions will not do much for the bodies they are trapped in that do not work like they used to. For everyone else, it is a day to take stock. So many taken before their time.
The nation grieves:
People will be allowed to leave the UK to prepare a second home for sale or rent, according to new coronavirus regulations coming into force later this month.
The latest restrictions, which will apply from 29 March, will include a list of specific “reasonable excuses to travel” outside the country, including what Labour branded as “the Stanley Johnson clause”.
Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, last summer apparently breached Covid guidelines by travelling to his Greek villa to make it “Covid-proof”.
The exemption allows people to travel abroad “in connection with the purchase, sale, letting or rental of a residential property”. Those activities include visiting an estate agent, developer sales office or show home, viewing residential properties to rent or buy, and preparing a property for moving in.
Other exemptions include study or competing in an elite sporting event:
Podcast: Covid-19: what happens next
On 23 March 2020, the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, announced the first lockdown in response to the growing number of cases of Covid-19. At the same time, countries around the world began to close their schools, restaurants, and offices and ask citizens to physically distance from one another. In the 12 months since, more than 2 million people have died, viral variants have emerged, and we have developed safe and effective vaccines.
One year into the pandemic, Science Weekly is asking: what happens next? Ian Sample talks to the professors Martin Landray, Mike Tildesley, and Deborah Dunn-Walters about Covid treatments, vaccines and what the next 12 months may hold:
More on a year since the UK’s first lockdown, via AFP:
On Tuesday, Johnson said the year that followed had “taken a huge toll on us all” and called the anniversary “an opportunity to reflect on the past year - one of the most difficult in our country’s history”.
“We should also remember the great spirit shown by our nation over this past year,” he added.
Britain recorded its first coronavirus death on March 5, 2020, but was criticised for its light-touch approach to containing the spread compared to more stringent measures elsewhere.
The prime minister had promised to “turn the tide” of the outbreak within 12 weeks of the initial lockdown.
But a year later, Britain is now in its third national lockdown, having recently been hit by its latest and deadliest wave.
Schools have been closed, as have pubs, bars, nightclubs, theatres, cafes, and leisure centres, and mass gatherings have been banned.
However, restrictions are being loosened as the country’s mass vaccination rollout drives down hospitalisations and deaths, with the government eyeing a return to normality by June 21.
The prime minister himself required treatment in intensive care after catching the virus shortly after announcing the first lockdown.
Johnson was in an ICU for three days and given oxygen, requiring Foreign Minister Dominic Raab to take over for three weeks during the darkest days of the first wave.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, also caught the disease early in the pandemic, but said he “got away with it quite lightly”, recovering over seven days at his Birkhall home on the royal Balmoral estate.
UK marks one year since first virus lockdown
Britain on Tuesday marks the anniversary of its first coronavirus lockdown with a “National Day of Reflection”, which will see parliament hold a minute’s silence in tribute to the more than 126,000 people who have died, AFP reports.
“A year on, it is right that we take a moment to reflect on what we as a nation have been through,” said Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons.
“None of us has escaped the ordeal of Covid-19 - from the shock of having our liberty taken away, to the heartbreak of losing someone we loved,” he added.
Lawmakers from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords will fall silent to pay tribute to “the many lives lost and the families that mourn them” and to thank frontline health workers.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered an initial three-week lockdown on March 23, 2020 as the pandemic took hold, shutting “non-essential” shops and services, and banning gatherings of more than two people.
“From this evening, I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home,” Johnson told the nation a year ago.
“Because the critical thing we must do is stop the disease spreading between households.”
The country’s death toll at that time was 335. A year later it stands at 126,172.
Justifying his action at the time, the British leader called the pandemic “the biggest threat this country has faced for decades” and said the state-run National Health Service (NHS) would be unable to cope without radical measures.
Several South Korea provinces and cities are continuing to mandate coronavirus testing for foreign workers, despite a request from the national government that prompted Seoul to end its mandate amid international outcry.
Reuters: Last week the headquarters of the nation’s pandemic control effort asked local governments to end mandatory testing for foreigners, and improve testing policies to eliminate discrimination or rights violations. But only Seoul scrapped its controversial order.
The same day, Daegu, the fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.5 million, doubled down with a second order expanding the number of foreign workers that needed to be tested. No foreign workers among 2,553 in the first round tested positive, Daegu said in a statement.
The city, once the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in South Korea, also mandated that any new foreign hires be tested between 19-28 March.
South Jeolla province kept its order to test about 14,000 foreigners in March, but said it had revised its policies to include more Koreans, a provincial official told Reuters.
So far 24,700 foreign workers have been tested, with one testing positive, the official said.
In Australia, Aboriginal community health services across Australia have overcome major challenges including floods and wild weather to deliver their first Covid-19 vaccines to Aboriginal elders.
New South Wales floods have disrupted the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine to some parts of the state, but Dr Tim Senior, from Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation’s medical service in western Sydney, said they were relieved to get their supply as planned on Thursday.
“A few general practitioners have been expecting deliveries since last Thursday and have yet to receive the vaccine, causing a real problem as patients had to be rebooked,” Senior said.
Aiesha Saunders reports for the Guardian:
Updated
Here is the full story on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s comments in the early hours of Tuesday morning:
Growing global vaccine gap ‘grotesque’: WHO
The World Health Organization on Monday blasted the growing gap between the number of coronavirus vaccines administered in rich and poor countries, branding the inequity a global “moral outrage”, AFP reports.
The WHO tore into wealthy nations now vaccinating younger people at low risk of developing Covid-19 disease, bluntly saying they were costing vulnerable people’s lives in low-income countries.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “shocking” how little had been done to avert an entirely predictable “catastrophic moral failure” to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide.
The gap was “growing every single day, and becoming more grotesque every day,” he told a press conference.
“Countries that are now vaccinating younger, healthy people at low risk of disease are doing so at the cost of the lives of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups in other countries,” Tedros said.
“The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage. It’s also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.
“Some countries are racing to vaccinate their entire populations - while other countries have nothing.”
Tedros said rich countries were giving themselves a false sense of security.
The UN health agency chief said the more transmission of the virus, the more variants are likely to emerge - and the more of those that spring up, the more likely they are to evade vaccines.
Merkel backs EU chief’s AstraZeneca export ban threat
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s threat to block AstraZeneca vaccines produced in the bloc from being exported, ahead of a crunch EU summit on the escalating row, AFP reports.
“I support Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,” said Merkel.
“We have a problem with AstraZeneca,” she added.
European officials are furious that AstraZeneca has been able to deliver its UK contract in full while falling short on its supplies to the EU.
In her tough warning to the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant last Saturday, von der Leyen said: “That’s the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.”
The warning comes as the European Union struggles to speed up its Covid-19 inoculation campaign, just as many member states are facing a third coronavirus wave and renewed curbs on public life.
Von der Leyen said AstraZeneca had delivered only 30 percent of the 90 million vaccine doses it had promised for the first quarter of the year.
Much of the frustration is over supplies to Britain, where the inoculation campaign has progressed at a much faster pace and where AstraZeneca also has production facilities.
Brussels has accused London of operating a de facto export ban to achieve its vaccine success, a claim furiously denied by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government.
Britain has in turn voiced alarm over the EU’s threat to halt AstraZeneca supplies leaving the continent.
Merkel said both herself and France’s Emmanuel Macron had spoken with Johnson on the issue, and that a summit of EU leaders later this week will address the subject.
China to promote use of safe international travel pass with Russia
China will promote use of a safe international travel pass for trips with Russia, senior diplomat Wang Yi said on Tuesday.
Wang, the foreign minister and a state councillor, made the remarks during a joint news briefing with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
South Korea President receives AstraZeneca vaccine
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in received AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday ahead of an overseas trip, as the country began inoculating more senior citizens and health workers in an effort to accelerate its vaccination drive, Reuters reports.
Moon, 68, got the shot from a community clinic near his office in Seoul to prepare for a planned visit to the United Kingdom for a G7 summit in June.
Moon’s wife and nine aides who will accompany him on the trip, including National Security Advisor Suh Hoon, were also vaccinated, his office said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has invited South Korea, India and Australia to attend the summit as guests.
South Korea’s government on Tuesday began inoculating nearly 300,000 people at care hospitals and nursing homes who are 65 or older and medical workers there as it steps up its vaccination drive.
About 680,000 high-risk healthcare professionals and critically ill people have been vaccinated since the campaign kicked off at the end of February, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Authorities aim to inoculate nearly a quarter of the country’s 52 million population by June and achieve herd immunity by November amid a third wave of Covid outbreaks.
The KDCA allowed people carrying out a key public mission such as a diplomatic or military task to be vaccinated starting this month.
The care facility patients and employees will also get an AstraZeneca shot, the KDCA said, with about 77% of the 375,000 eligible agreeing to get it.
Authorities reaffirmed on Monday that they have found no evidence of health risk despite reports of blood clots among those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe.
South Korea authorised the product for people 65 and older this month after delaying its use for that age group, citing a lack of clinical data.
“I’m willing to get an AstraZeneca vaccine first if that helps reassure people so that they feel safe about participating in the campaign,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting on Tuesday.
The KDCA reported 346 new cases as of Monday, bringing the total caseload to 99,421, with 1,704 deaths.
Updated
In the UK, small local grocery stores and online retailers are likely to benefit from permanent changes in shopping habits after a year of Covid-19 restrictions, according to a report one year on from the first lockdown.
More than nine in 10 of people who have shopped locally say they will continue to do so, a survey by Barclaycard found.
Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the UK have chosen to buy closer to home in the past year, leading to a 63% rise in spending at specialist food and drink stores such as butchers, bakeries and greengrocers last month, the debit and credit card operator said:
Dexamethasone – the inexpensive steroid that quickly emerged as a highly effective Covid therapy thanks to a large drug testing programme pioneered by UK scientists – has so far saved the lives of an estimated million people globally, including 22,000 in the UK, according to NHS England.
Called Recovery, the world’s largest randomised Covid-19 drug trial commenced in March 2020 to evaluate the suitability of a suite of different drugs to help hospitalised Covid patients. The study has since been carried out by thousands of doctors and nurses on tens of thousands of patients in hospitals across Britain.
As Covid-19 emerged in late 2019, Oxford University’s Peter Horby, an infectious disease specialist, had begun working on Covid drug trials in Wuhan. But studies were shelved as fierce lockdown restrictions dried up infections in China. Meanwhile, cases began to pop up in Europe:
For those who are confused about why Merkel and chancellor Soeder are speaking in the wee hours of Tuesday morning German time, they have been in talks that ran deep into the night.
Bavarian chancellor: 'We are probably now living in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic'
Bavarian premier Markus Soeder says that Germany is likely living through the most dangerous phase of the Covid pandemic as new coronavirus variants spread faster and affect more people than just the elderly.
“We are probably now living in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic,” Soeder told journalists in Berlin after agreeing with other state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel to extend Germany’s lockdown until 18 April.
German chancellor advises against all overseas travel
Merkel has warned Germans not to travel overseas, and says that the government has reached an agreement with airlines to test all returnees before they board.
Merkel 'we're in a very serious situation now'
Merkel has said “we’re in a very serious situation now” and that the country is in a race to complete vaccinations.
The fewer the new infections recorded now, the faster vaccination will have an impact, she said.
Merkel says that Easter will be extended and that people should stay home. 1-5 April will be a period of “quiet days” and reduced social contact, she said with no more than 5 adults from two households allowed to meet at home at the same time during this period.
Merkel: case numbers rising 'exponentially' thanks to British variant
German chancellor Angela Merkel is speaking about the decision to extend Germany’s partial lockdown until 18 April, scrapping plans to loosen restrictions that have been in place since 16 December in the face of rising infection rates.
Merkel and the heads of 16 federal states agreed to pull the emergency break on a lockdown exit agreed only three weeks earlier, the country’s media reported.
Merkel has warned that case numbers are rising exponentially thanks to the British variant, Reuters reports.
More to follow.
UK faces 'Covid decade' due to damage done by pandemic, says report
Britain faces a “Covid decade” of social and cultural upheaval marked by growing inequality and deepening economic deprivation, a landmark review has concluded.
Major changes to the way society is run in the wake of the pandemic are needed to mitigate the impact of the “long shadow” cast by the virus, including declining public trust and an explosion in mental illness, the British Academy report found.
Published on the anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown, the report brings together more than 200 academic social science and humanities experts and hundreds of research projects. It was set up last year at the behest of the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance:
The New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is in talks with employers and unions to discuss how to approach border workers who refuse to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
So far 28 border workers have refused to be innoculated three weeks into the rollout, Radio New Zealand reports.
“You’re free to do what you want, provided the things you want to do don’t pose a risk to other people,” said University of Auckland medical ethicist Tim Dare. “The question with these workers is whether working in those environments, or contexts, does pose a risk to others.”
New Zealand confirms one new Covid case
New Zealand has recorded a new case of coronavirus in a cleaner employed at the managed isolation and quarantine facility at the Grand Millennium Hotel in Auckland. The Ministry of Health announced the case, which was picked up during routine testing, on Monday evening.
The Mt Roskill Countdown, on Saturday, is a location of interest, but there is believed to have been limited exposure, as the worker was fully vaccinated. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said it was too early to know how transmission occurred but genomic sequencing is under way.
UK bans non-essential foreign travel
Non-essential travel will be explicitly banned in England from next Monday under new coronavirus laws which could last until the end of June.
Britons trying to travel abroad without a reasonable excuse will face fines of up to £5,000 under the legislation, which will come into force next week if approved by MPs.
International travel is already currently banned, bar a few exceptions, under lockdown rules, but the law is being tweaked for when England’s stay-at-home order is officially lifted on 29 March.
According to the lockdown roadmap, the earliest date by which international travel could be permitted is 17 May. A government taskforce currently looking at when, and how, foreign travel could resume is due to report to the prime minister Boris Johnson on 12 April.
WHO warns global weekly deaths rising
A top World Health Organization expert on the coronavirus pandemic said Monday the weekly global count of deaths from Covid is rising again, a “worrying sign” after about six weeks of declines, AP reports.
Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on Covid at the UN health agency, said the growth followed a fifth straight week of confirmed cases increasing worldwide. She said the number of reported cases went up up in four of the WHO’s six regions, though there were significant variations within each region.
“In the last week, cases have increased by 8% percent,” Van Kerkhove told reporters. “In Europe, that is 12% – and that’s driven by several countries.”
The increase is due in part to the spread of a variant that first emerged in Britain and is now circulating in many other places, including eastern Europe, she said.
Southeast Asia registered a 49% week-to-week jump in confirmed cases, while WHO’s Western Pacific region reported a 29% rise largely fueled by the Philippines, Van Kerkhove said. The eastern Mediterranean region saw cases rise 8% percent, while the number of cases reported in the Americas and Africa declined.
“I do want to mention that it had been about six weeks where we were seeing decreases in deaths,” said Van Kerkhove. “And in the last week, we’ve started to see a slight increase in deaths across the world, and this is to be expected if we are to see increasing cases. But this is also a worrying sign.”
WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged an urge among the public in many places to emerge from pandemic restrictions. Ryan insisted that any easing should coincide with measures such as strict case surveillance and high levels of vaccination, but said vaccines alone would not be enough.
“I’m afraid we’re all trying to grasp at straws. We’re trying to find the golden solution: So we just get enough vaccine and we push enough vaccine to people and that’s going to take care of it,’” he said. “I’m sorry, it’s not.”
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
I’ll be bringing you the latest in Covid news from around the world for the next while. As always, you can say Hi on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
A top World Health Organization expert on the coronavirus pandemic said Monday the weekly global count of deaths from Covid is rising again, a “worrying sign” after about six weeks of declines.
Meanwhile non-essential travel will be explicitly banned in England from next Monday under new coronavirus laws which could last until the end of June.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Germany is extending its partial lockdown until 18 April, scrapping plans to loosen restrictions that have been in place since 16 December in the face of rising infection rates. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the heads of 16 federal states agreed to pull the emergency break on a lockdown exit agreed only three weeks earlier, the country’s media reported.
- France reported 15,792 new coronavirus cases on Monday, more than double the 6,471 reported last Monday, Reuters reports. The number of people in intensive care with the virus rose by 142 to a new 2021 high of 4,548, health ministry data showed.
- Austria has postponed the reopening of cafe, restaurant and bar terraces planned for 27 March 27 owing to rising coronavirus cases, Reuters reports. The government is preparing for regions to adapt restrictions locally.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said he would receive a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, the Russian industry minister, Denis Manturov, said it was set to produce over 80m doses of home-grown vaccines in the first half of this year.
- The Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, has warned that any European Union restrictions on vaccine exports would be a “retrograde step” that could undermine the supply of raw materials for vaccine production.
- Jordan reported 109 new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic surfaced in the country, the health ministry said.
- Turkey recorded 22,216 new coronavirus cases in a period of 24 hours, the highest daily number since mid-December, Reuters reports. Health ministry data showed the cumulative number of cases stood at 3,035,338, data also showed, while the death toll rose by 117 to 30,178.
- AstraZeneca expects the EU drug regulator to give approval for a factory in the Netherlands that is helping make its Covid-19 vaccine later this month or in early April, a senior executive said.
