Summary
Here’s a roundup of events from this evening
- Hospitals in the UK have started receiving batches of the newly approved Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in preparation for its rollout on Monday.
- Millions in France face tighter restrictions from Saturday night to combat a high rate of Covid-19 cases, including a 12-hour curfew in 15 departments. The country announced 157 more deaths today.
- Teaching unions and charities have called for the UK government to postpone the reopening of schools for at least a fortnight, over fears for staff safety amid rising cases.
- Turkey has reported 202 new deaths and 11,180 more positive cases in the last 24 hours, according to data from its health ministry.
- In Italy, 364 more people have died from the virus, a drop compared with Friday’s total of 462. The number of new cases has also fallen, from 22,211 to 11,831.
- The US is braced for a post-Christmas surge of coronavirus cases and deaths, as the number of people killed nears 350,000, with thousands predicted to die in the coming month and doctors warning they are at “breaking point”.
- Russia has said it has vaccinated more than 800,000 people, and more than 1.5m doses have been dispatched. The health ministry is keeping a database of Russians who have had the Sputnik V vaccine.
- Gibraltar has imposed a second lockdown in an attempt to stem the tide of Covid infections. Its 34,000 residents can now only leave home for essential shopping, work, exercise or medical reasons.
- Italy is delaying opening its ski resorts until 18 January, after regional authorities asked for more time to meet coronavirus rules. The government’s scientific technical committee had said that crowds created a “medium-high” risk.
- Another 314 people have died from coronavirus in Brazil, amid another 15,827 positive cases being recorded in the last 24 hours. The South American country has the second highest death toll in the world.
That’s all for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Brazil announces 15,827 new coronavirus cases and 314 deaths
Another 314 people have died from coronavirus in Brazil, amid another 15,827 positive cases being recorded in the last 24 hours.
According to its health ministry, the country has registered more than 7.7m cases of the virus since the pandemic began. The official death toll has risen to 195,725.
Teaching unions in Wales have also called for the reopening of schools to be delayed.
NASUWT and the headteachers body NAHT Cymru said concerns over increased transmissibility of the new Covid-19 variant, and its risk to teachers, meant schools should move to home learning.
A number of councils in Wales have already made the decision to teach pupils remotely for at least a week in January, but some are still planning to reopen on 6 January for face-to-face teaching.
Neil Butler, NASUWT’s national officer for Wales said: “The whole of Wales is in tier 4 and yet there are schools in Wales planning to open this week to full face-to-face teaching.
“There is chaos and confusion in the education service in Wales as the buck has effectively been passed to local authorities and some authorities have passed it down to individual schools.”
Blood Cancer UK, has recommended parents suffering from the disease consider keeping their children at home if they are in an area of high coronavirus infection rates.
The charity, which funds research into blood cancers including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, said people with blood cancer are at high risk from the virus. “We are now at a point where the infection rate is very high and yet we are just weeks away from getting vulnerable people vaccinated,” a statement on Twitter said.
It comes as teaching unions and councils are lobbying the government to introduce a blanket closure of primary schools across England until mid-January, amid rising case numbers and increased pressure on hospitals.
Hospitals in London are set to cancel urgent surgery in a move that could mean cancer patients waiting months for potentially lifesaving operations.
The charity added: “No parent with blood cancer should feel under any pressure to send their children to school over the next few weeks if they think keeping them off is the right thing for their family.”
Updated
France records 157 more Covid-19 deaths ahead of new restrictions
Nearly 65,000 people have died from coronavirus in France, as part of the country enters tougher restrictions.
According to its health ministry, 157 people died from the virus in the last 24 hours. New data also showed 3,466 new cases.
The increase is within the government’s target of 5,000 or less per day. More than 2.6m people in the country have had positive tests since the start of the pandemic. The death toll stands at 64,921.
Tighter rules on public movement are being introduced from Saturday, including a night time curfew.
Updated
NHS bosses are set to cancel urgent surgery across London in a move that could mean cancer patients waiting months for potentially lifesaving operations.
NHS England chiefs are considering the drastic action because hospitals across the capital are becoming overwhelmed by people who are very sick with Covid-19.
The operations likely to be cancelled, known as “priority two” procedures, mainly involve surgery for cancer where specialists have judged that the patients need to be operated on within four weeks. Any delay could allow their tumour to grow, the disease to spread or both, thus reducing their chances of survival.
Health service executives and cancer experts fear patients’ cancers may worsen, or even become inoperable, if surgery is postponed for an unknown length of time.
Updated
Zimbabwe has extended a national curfew, banned gatherings and ordered non-essential shops to close for a month.
Vice president Constantino Chiwenga, who is also health minister, said some of the restrictions come in immediately and include a 6pm to 6am curfew and ban on travel between cities. The closure order for shops comes into place from Tuesday.
In the last week the country has had 1,342 Covid-19 cases and 29 deaths. This is the highest rate during the pandemic, according to Chiwenga. Last week the government postponed the reopening of schools planned for Monday, in light of a surge in cases and a tropical storm.
India’s drugs regulator is likely to approve giving people two vaccine doses, with a four week break between them, according to Reuters.
Officials had already approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, and another locally developed one by Bharat Biotech. A final decision is expected to be announced by the chief of the central drugs standards control organisation (CDSCO) on Sunday.
Italy is delaying opening its ski resorts until 18 January, after regional authorities asked for more time to meet coronavirus rules.
An order signed on Saturday by health minister Roberto Speranza delays the reopening of its ski lifts and facilities. Authorities in the north and centre of the country had told the government its planned 7 January target date wasn’t realistic.
In a joint letter, they said: “At the present time, due to the recent epidemiological trend at international level that has not facilitated the taking of the necessary decisions, it is believed that the conditions do not exist to allow initiatives and actions to allow the opening of the facilities on 7 January”
The Italian government’s scientific technical committee had said that crowds inside gondolas, in lift lines and during après-ski created a “medium-high” risk.
Gibraltar has imposed a second lockdown in an attempt to stem the tide of Covid cases.
Starting at 10pm on Saturday (9pm GMT), its 34,000 residents can only leave home for essential shopping, work, exercise or medical reasons. In the last month, the number of cases have more than doubled from 1,035 to 2,304 today. There are fears from officials that the rising rate may be linked to the new Covid-19 variant identified in the UK.
Chief minister Fabian Picardo said: “The numbers of new infections with COVID-19 in our community are remarkably high and concerning. He added the virus was spreading “more quickly than we can control it.”
Russia has said it has vaccinated more than 800,00 people, and more than 1.5m doses have been dispatched.
People who have had the jab will get an electronic vaccination certificate, according to the TASS news agency. The health ministry is keeping a database of Russians who have had the Sputnik V vaccine.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is the latest union to call for all schools in England to close for two weeks, in response to rising Covid-case numbers.
The body, which represents headteachers and other school leaders, held an emergency meeting of its executive committee this afternoon. Its general secretary, Geoff Barton is set to write to education secretary Gavin Williamson.
In a statement, the ASCL said it believes all schools and colleges should move to remote learning for a fortnight.
Barton said
It is very clear that the government’s plans for the start of the spring term are untenable. The arrangements it has announced are hopelessly confused and we have seen no scientific rationale for them. Many school and college leaders have no confidence in the government’s approach, and we are very concerned about the safety of families, staff, and the wider community.
We are calling for a short period of remote education in order to protect all concerned and allow time for the government to work with the profession on a joint plan for safe opening. We fully support keeping education functioning as fully as possible during the Covid crisis but this has to be done safely, or the long-term consequences and disruption will be much worse.
It comes as Brighton and Hove Council has also written to Williamson asking for permission for schools to stay closed until January 18.
Updated
Millions in France face tighter restrictions from Saturday night to combat a high rate of Covid-19 cases, as police arrested hundreds of people who broke anti-Covid measures on New Year’s Eve.
A night time curfew has been extended by two hours in 15 of France’s 101 departments, many of them in the east of the country. Paris has not been included in the new measures.
Under the new rules, people won’t be able to leave their homes between 6pm and 6am, unless they have a permit for exceptional circumstances.
Updated
In a chink of light amongst the darkness, an Italian nurse has proposed to his girlfriend - using his PPE to convey the message.
Giuseppe Pungente shared the photo of himself in a corridor of the respiratory ward of the Ostuni hospital in Puglia, with his back turned to the camera.
On the back of his plastic gown, it said: “Carmeli, do you want to marry me?” with a “Yes” and “No” underneath. Carmeli said yes.
In a Facebook post sharing the news, according to AFP, Pugente said that as a nurse “in the front line in the fight against the virus” who had recovered himself from Covid-19, “I’ve developed the idea that real life is made of small and simple things...”
#nòtiziebelle #Covid_19 “Carmelì, mi vuoi sposare? Si o no?”. A Giuseppe Pungente, infermiere di #TorreSantaSusanna, che lavora nell’ospedale di #Ostuni, Carmeli’ ha detto sì. Auguri e buona vita! pic.twitter.com/V5gMiOoZMZ
— sandro ruotolo (@sruotolo1) January 2, 2021
The US is braced for a post-Christmas surge of coronavirus cases and deaths, as the number of people killed nears 350,000, with thousands predicted to die in the coming month and doctors warning they are at “breaking point”.
New Year’s Day saw 160,606 new cases and 2,051 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, bringing the total number of cases to 20.1m and the death toll to 347,788.
Friday’s figures were down on previous days: more than 10,000 died of Covid-19 in the US in just the last three days of 2020. But given record-keeping backlogs caused by the holiday period, numbers are expected to rise again.
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has projected that more than 100,000 could die in the next month alone.
UK hospitals get first batches of Oxford/AstraZeneca jab
Hospitals in the UK have began receiving batches of the newly approved Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in preparation for its rollout on Monday.
About 530,000 doses of the vaccine will be available from the beginning of next week, with already identified vulnerable groups the priority for immunisation.
One of the first hospitals to take delivery of a batch on Saturday morning was the Princess Royal hospital in Haywards Heath, part of Brighton and Sussex University hospitals NHS trust.
Dr George Findlay, the trust’s chief medical officer and deputy chief executive, said hundreds of staff members a day were expected to be vaccinated at the site.
Updated
The public sector union Unison has joined the GMB in calling for all schools in England to delay reopening for two weeks. The National Education Union (NEU) said earlier on Saturday that it was advising members in primary schools that returning to work was unsafe.
Unison has agreed, saying that teaching and support staff should not have to work in unsafe conditions, according to PA Media.
The union’s head of education, Jon Richards, said:
Ministers have had weeks to get this right instead of leaving parents, staff and whole communities confused.
The union is clear that members who work in schools have a right to a safe working environment. They shouldn’t have to work where they face serious and imminent danger.
Updated
Turkey has reported 202 new deaths from Covid-19 and 11,180 more cases in the last 24 hours, according to data from its health ministry.
Across the Mediterranean, 364 more people have died from the virus in Italy, a drop compared with Friday’s total of 462. The number of new cases has also fallen, from 22,211 to 11,831.
Updated
Here is a quick summary of recent events:
- The UK recorded a further 57,725 cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, and another 445 deaths, official data showed.
- In a bid to help schools reopen, Greece will tighten Covid curbs for a week from Sunday, meaning businesses including hair salons and book stores will close. A 9pm night-time curfew also comes into effect on 3 January.
- The US Covid vaccine distribution effort has been criticised as inept and in chaos, as the federal government fell 17 million short of its target to inoculate 20 million people by the end of last year.
- A health official in Ireland has said the virus is “absolutely rampant”, as the country braces for 9,000 more Covid cases to be added to the official tally.
- Vietnam confirmed it had detected its first imported case of the new Covid variant that is spreading around Britain. A woman, 44, who was quarantined upon her return to Vietnam from Britain tested positive for the virus on 24 December.
Updated
UK registers 445 further Covid-linked deaths
The UK recorded a further 57,725 cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, the fifth day running that the figure has topped 50,000, and another 445 deaths, official data showed.
Friday’s data had shown 53,285 new coronavirus infections and 613 deaths.
Updated
A nurse at the Whittington hospital in north London has told of the “unbearable” conditions in their hospital as Covid-19 patient numbers continue to rise.
The nurse described patients being left in corridors, with some spending up to three hours in ambulances because of a lack of beds and one being left without oxygen when their cylinder ran out.
Speaking anonymously, they told PA media: “I’m worried about patient safety because if these little things are happening now when we’re short and it’s busy, it’s only going to get worse.”
A spokesperson from Whittington Health said:
Whilst we do not comment on anonymous claims, we take these allegations very seriously. Like the whole NHS, Whittington Health is currently experiencing pressure as a result of a rapid increase in Covid-positive patients. However, the safety of our patients remains our top priority and our staff are working tirelessly to ensure that we can continue to provide safe, effective and compassionate care to those who require it.
Updated
In England, a further 383 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 51,051.
Patients were aged between 27 and 100 years old. All except 11 (aged 36 to 95 years old) had known underlying health conditions.
Increased socialising around Christmas - and not a new Covid variant - has driven Ireland’s rapid transformation from having the lowest infection rate in the European Union to the fastest rate of deterioration, according to health officials.
Ireland’s top virologist, Cillian De Gascun, said late on Friday laboratories had found 16 instances of the variant, discovered in neighbouring Britain, from a sample of 169 positive cases, Reuters reports.
Philip Nolan, the head of Ireland’s Covid-19 modelling group, said the following day that he believed the variant represented between 5% and 17% of the current prevalence.
Nolan told national broadcaster RTE:
Right now we believe the UK variant is here at a relatively low level, even with that small sample... We saw an even more intense level of socialisation and viral transmission over Christmas than we might have expected and that’s what’s leading us to the really precarious position we’re in now.
He added that cases could peak anywhere between 3,000 to 6,000 a day and Ireland was set to report more than 3,000 cases on Saturday, a near doubling of its daily record.
Updated
David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary and MP for Tottenham, has criticised the actions of three Tottenham Hotspur players and one from West Ham who breached lockdown rules over Christmas.
Lo Celso, Lamela, Reguilon and Lanzini breaking lockdown rules over Christmas! So damn stupid and selfish. It just beggars belief. https://t.co/7ALrUAk5Ym
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) January 2, 2021
Updated
A petition to close all nurseries and places of education until 15 January continues to gain momentum, as it surpasses 21,000 signatures.
Petitions require 100,000 signatures to be considered for debate in parliament.
Updated
The National Education Union has published a full release explaining its call for all primaries in England to move to online learning:
Today, the National Education Union has taken the difficult decision to advise its members in primary schools that it is unsafe to return to work on Monday. #MakeSchoolsSafe to #ProtectCommunities. Click here for full statement: https://t.co/Ib9AsKEAa4 pic.twitter.com/ExjBruRlKK
— National Education Union (@NEUnion) January 2, 2021
Hi everyone, I am back on the blog now until 4pm. In case you missed it earlier, please feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
The GMB, the union for school support staff, has called on the UK education secretary, Gavin Williamson, to postpone the reopening of all schools in England until appropriate safeguards can be put in place.
In a statement released on Saturday, the GMB said the continued differing arrangements across higher tiers was a “dangerous recipe for chaos” and was causing additional stress for parents, pupils and school staff.
Stuart Fegan, the GMB’s national officer, said:
Gavin Williamson is at sixes and sevens over the re-opening of schools. His shambolic approach is a recipe for chaos and danger. It’s causing huge stress.
As infection rates rise, we need a consistent approach, not a postcode lottery. The education secretary now needs to apply some common sense, make a full U-turn, and delay re-opening all schools in England until proper safeguards are in place.
Updated
Officials have defended England’s vaccine regimen after details of a contingency plan to potentially mix the two approved jabs in small numbers of cases emerged.
Public Health England’s Covid “green book” recommends that “it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule” if the same vaccine used for the first dose is not available. But it adds: “There is no evidence on the interchangeability of the Covid-19 vaccines although studies are under way.”
Criticism erupted following the publication of a New York Times report which quoted virologist Prof John Moore, from Cornell University in the US, who said “there are no data on this idea whatsoever” and that British officials “seem to have abandoned science completely now and are just trying to guess their way out of a mess”.
The American infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said on Friday he did he not agree with the UK’s approach of delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
On Friday, Dr Fauci told CNN that the United States would not be following in the UK’s footsteps and would follow Pfizer and BioNTech’s guidance to administer the second dose of its vaccine three weeks after the first.
There have been a further 2,764 cases of coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 151,300, PA Media reports.
Public Health Wales reported another 70 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,564.
Updated
Hi, I’m Aamna Mohdin and I’ll be taking over the blog while Yohannes goes on his lunch break. If you want to get in touch, you can email me (aamna.mohdin@theguardian.com) or message me on Twitter (@aamnamohdin)
Updated
The National Education Union has called for all primary schools to move to online learning for at least two weeks (see earlier post), saying it will advise its members of their legal right not to have to work in an unsafe environment.
The union’s joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said:
We will be informing our members that they have the right to work in safe conditions which do not endanger their health. This means that they can be available to work from home and to work with key worker and vulnerable children but not available to take full classes from Monday 4 January. We realise that this late notice is a huge inconvenience for parents and for headteachers. The fault, however, is of the government’s own making and is a result of their inability to understand data, their indecisiveness, and their reckless approach to their central duty - to safeguard public health.
Updated
More than 20 new Covid testing centres for hauliers heading to France are being set up in the next few days, the transport secretary has said.
Grant Shapps revealed that 10 of the sites would open on Saturday, with a further 10 on Sunday, and more due to be added during the week.
The government is also offering help to firms that wish to set up a testing location at their own premises.
To keep lorries moving steadily across the #Channel, hauliers heading for France must get tested BEFORE arriving in #Kent or any UK port
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) January 2, 2021
We’ve opened 10 #covid testing centres & working w/ @DHSCgovuk so businesses can start testing at depots – see here: https://t.co/X01uI1v2yS
Updated
The Netherlands will start vaccinating 30,000 emergency care workers as soon as possible, the health ministry said on Saturday, as the government is criticised for lagging behind in launching immunisations.
The government had previously said its national vaccination campaign would start on 8 January, the latest date for any EU country.
The first doses were intended to go to healthcare personnel working in at-risk settings such as care homes, rather than emergency care workers as well.
Despite a surge in Covid cases however, it remains unclear when these workers will be vaccinated, as the ministry says it will provide more details on Monday.
“The concerning situation in urgent care is partly driven by coronavirus related sick leave by care workers,” it said in a statement.
Updated
Health experts have said infection levels are putting hospitals under increasing pressure and are causing healthcare workers to become “really worried” about the coming months.
Prof Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the current case figures are “fairly mild” compared with what is expected in a week’s time.
He told the BBC:
All hospitals that haven’t had the big pressures that they’ve had in the south-east, and London and south Wales, should expect that it’s going to come their way. This new variant is definitely more infectious and is spreading across the whole of the country. It seems very likely that we are going to see more and more cases, wherever people work in the UK, and we need to be prepared for that.
Updated
Headteachers have commenced legal action against the Department for Education.
The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College leaders instructed Queen’s Counsel to write to the government, asking ministers to reveal why they think it is safe to reopen schools on Monday, given the higher transmissibility of the new variant - particularly among children.
The unions have given the government until the end of the working day on Monday to share any information and scientific data they are privy to which suggests that it is safe for schools to return.
The NAHT also plans to issue guidance to headteachers, which will not recommend any kind of action against staff who refuse to return to work because they feel it is unsafe.
A judicial investigation has been opened to identify and prosecute the organisers of an underground party that drew at least 2,500 people in western France, despite a curfew amid the pandemic.
Israel has given Covid jabs to over one million people
Israel has given vaccinations against Covid-19 to more than 1 million people, the highest rate in the world.
It has a rate of 11.55 vaccination doses per 100 people, followed by Bahrain at 3.49 and the UK at 1.47, according to Our World in Data, a global tracking website affiliated with Oxford University that measures the number of people who have received a first dose of the Covid vaccine.
Beginning vaccinations on 19 December, and securing supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Israel is now delivering jabs to around 150,000 people a day, with priority given to the over-60s, health workers and the clinically vulnerable.
How fast are different countries vaccinating their population against COVID?
— Our World in Data (@OurWorldInData) January 2, 2021
Israel: 11.6%
UK: 1.5%
US: 0.9%
Germany: 0.2%
World: 0.13%
→ Data for more countries you find in our COVID vaccine dataset here:https://t.co/3imP7PqURn pic.twitter.com/Lc3KEGHh4q
Updated
Greece will tighten Covid restrictions for a week from Sunday, closing hair salons, bookstores and some other shops that had been allowed to reopen in the run-up to Christmas, the government has announced.
While most shops remained closed during December, there was a seasonal easing of curbs that provided a little relief for some hard-hit retail businesses.
The more stringent rules will come into force on 3 January, and a night-time curfew will start at 9pm - an hour earlier than before.
In a televised statement, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said the measures were aimed at helping schools reopen on 11 January.
Greece, which started the first vaccinations against the coronavirus last week, has reported 139,447 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,881 related deaths.
Updated
The National Education Union’s (NEU) joint general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, has said her union will be holding an emergency meeting to discuss the “chaos which is engulfing our schools”.
Explaining why it is calling for schools to close for the first two weeks of term, she told BBC Breakfast:
It will be helpful with two weeks’ Christmas break where there was mixing over Christmas and unfortunately that has raised levels of infection, but you would hope that for a month where there largely has been less mixing, viral levels will go down in the community and they will go down in schools. If they haven’t, then we’re in a really dangerous situation.
The NEU is set to warn teachers not to return to their classrooms on Monday, my colleague Donna Ferguson reports.
Updated
India officially approves AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine
India’s information and broadcasting minister, Prakash Javadekar, has confirmed reports that the country on Friday approved the Covid vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Javadekar said at least three more vaccines- local company Bharat Biotch’s Covaxin, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Russia’s Sputnik-V- were awaiting approval, stating: “India is perhaps the only country where at least four vaccines are getting ready.”
“One was approved yesterday for emergency use, Serum’s Covishield.” he said, referring to the fact that the shot is being made locally by the Serum Institute of India.
India has reported more than 10 million Covid cases, though its rate of infection has fallen significantly from a mid-September peak.
The country hopes to inoculate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people in the first six to eight months of this year.
Updated
VIDEO: On the first day of 2021, Wuhan residents express gratefulness and hope when asked about their expectations for this year compared to 2020, a year marked by the Covid-19 epidemic which first emerged from the central Chinese city pic.twitter.com/V3CSStZdOq
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 2, 2021
The deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Prof Anthony Harnden, has defended government plans to delay the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine from three weeks to 12 weeks after the first jab.
Prof Harnden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that patients he had dealt with accepted the decision, explaining:
When it was explained to them that the vaccine offers 90% protection for one dose, and the priority was to get as many people vaccinated in the elderly and vulnerable community as possible, they understood. I think the country is all in this together. And, I think we really, really want to pull together to try and do the best strategy possible.
Updated
Thai health authorities have recommended tougher restrictions on businesses and people’s movement in 28 provinces, including the capital, Bangkok, as the number of new Covid cases rises.
The measures include suspending some businesses and crowded activities, as well as advising people in affected provinces to work from home and avoid unnecessary travel.
They will need final approval from the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, before coming into effect on Monday.
Thailand, which managed to keep infection rates relatively low since the initial outbreak, on Saturday confirmed 216 new coronavirus cases and one new death.
Now, in a second wave, many cases are linked to a cluster among migrant workers in the Samut Sakhon province south of Bangkok, and another associated with illegal gambling dens in eastern Thailand.
#COVID19 symptoms
— WHO Thailand (@WHOThailand) January 2, 2021
อาการของโรค #โควิด19 pic.twitter.com/rv4AFYF4zE
Updated
Tokyo metropolitan officials are expected to ask the central government on Saturday to declare a state of emergency amid a resurgence of Covid cases, local media reported.
The Tokyo governor, Yuriko Koike, will make the request in a meeting with the economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, who coordinates government measures to fight the pandemic, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
It is understood that Saitama prefecture, just north of Tokyo, will make a similar request of the government.
The Japanese capital raised its Covid-19 alert level to its highest measure on 17 December and has requested restaurants and other businesses to close by 10pm.
New coronavirus infections in Tokyo hit a record 1,337 on New Year’s Eve.
Updated
India has begun nationwide drills to start one of the world’s largest Covid vaccination programmes, as the drug regulator moved to approve the first vaccine.
A government panel on Friday recommended emergency use of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University shot and the first injections could be given in the coming week once the Drugs Control Authority of India gives final approval.
India, which has the world’s second-highest number of cases – more than 10.2 million – aims to inoculate 300 million of its 1.3 billion people by the middle of 2021.
Updated
Just under three million Americans were vaccinated by midnight on New Year’s Eve, far behind the federal government’s target of inoculating 20 million by the end of last year.
More than 10,000 people died in the US in the last three days of 2020 alone, bringing the national death tally close to 350,000.
Despite big hopes of the vaccine being able to halt the spread of the virus and reduce deaths, the US distribution of the jab has been described as “chaos” and inept.
Updated
Ireland is bracing for 9,000 more Covid cases to be added to the official tally, as health officials warn hospitals will become overwhelmed following a surge in positive results.
On Thursday, the National Public Health Emergency Team estimated the number of positive tests still pending registration was 4,000, more than doubling to 9,000 the next day.
On Friday, Ireland officially reported a daily record 1,754 confirmed cases, surpassing 1,500 daily cases for the fourth day in a row.
The chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said:
We are now admitting between 50 to 70 people a day to our hospital system. Unfortunately, we expect this to get worse before it gets better. Our health system will not continue to cope with this level of impact.
Updated
Morning everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the live blog until the afternoon. Please feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if you have any story tips or coverage suggestions.
Vietnam reports first case of new Covid variant spreading in Britain
Vietnam has detected its first imported case of the new Covid-19 variant that is spreading rapidly around Britain, the health ministry said on Saturday.
The variant was identified in a 44-year-old woman returning to Vietnam from Britain, who was quarantined upon arrival and tested positive for the virus on December 24.
“Researchers ran gene-sequencing on the patient’s sample and found the strain is a variant known as “VOC 202012/01”, the ministry said in a statement.
Vietnam, which has recorded 35 Covid linked deaths, is still operating repatriation flights to bring its citizens stuck in the UK home amid the pandemic.
Updated
