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Summary
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Australia has suspended quarantine-free travel with New Zealand after it locked down Auckland following the detection of three new community cases.
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Average daily new coronavirus cases in the United States have dipped below 100,000 for the first time in months, but experts cautioned on Sunday that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.
- An Israeli study of more than half a million fully vaccinated people indicated the Pfizer/BioNTech jab offered 94% protection against Covid-19, according to the country’s largest healthcare provider.
- Around 1,000 people have been caught flouting restrictions in a Belgrade nightclub, Serbia’s interior ministry said on Sunday. The country’s coronavirus restrictions allow gatherings of up to five.
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Lebanon has started vaccinating high-risk groups, including healthcare workers and elderly people.
- Brazil has confirmed two cases of the UK variant in the state of Goiás after sequencing test samples taken on 31 December, Reuters reports, citing the state’s health department. It did not say if these are the first cases of the variant detected in Brazil. The country registered 24,759 further confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 713 more deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday.
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Rwanda has started vaccinating healthcare workers and other high-risk groups, its health ministry has said, making it the first country in east Africa to start its rollout.
- The UK has reported a further 10,972 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases, according to government data – a fall from last Sunday’s figure at 15,845. A total of 4,038,078 people have tested positive.
Vaccination doses per 100 people, courtesy of ourworldindata.org
It is “absolutely” too soon to lift mask mandates in the United States, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, with case numbers still more than double the level seen in summer, despite recent declines.
Dr Rochelle Walensky’s warning came just days after governors in Iowa and Montana eliminated long-standing mask mandates in their states, Reurters reports.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Walensky said preventing further coronavirus surges is crucial to returning to a level of normalcy until the vaccination rollout is complete.
Whether Americans can look forward to walking down the street without wearing a mask by the end of the year “very much depends on how we behave right now,” she said. Asked if it was still too early for states to eliminate rules requiring the use of face masks in public, Walensky replied, “Absolutely.”
While infection rates and hospitalisations appear to be falling, the United States has a long way to go before it can safely return to mask-free life, she said.
Updated
Brazil registered 24,759 further confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 713 more deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The Latin American country has registered more than 9.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, Reuters reports, while the official death toll has risen to 239,245, according to ministry data.
Average daily new coronavirus cases in the US have dipped below 100,000 for the first time in months, but experts cautioned on Sunday that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.
The seven-day rolling average of new infections was well above 200,000 for much of December and went to roughly 250,000 in January, according to Johns Hopkins University. That average dropped below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since 4 November. It stayed below 100,000 on Saturday.
Australia suspends quarantine-free travel with New Zealand
Australia has suspended quarantine-free travel with New Zealand after it locked down Auckland following the detection of three new community cases.
Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, convened an urgent meeting late on Sunday and it was decided that all flights originating in New Zealand would be classified as “Red Zone” flights for an initial period of 72 hours from Monday, Reuters reports.
“As a result of this, all people arriving on such flights originating within this three-day period will need to go into 14 days of supervised hotel quarantine,” Australia’s Department of Health said on its website.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that genomic sequencing showed the new cases were the highly transmissible UK variant.
“We were absolutely right to make the decision to be extra cautious because we assumed it was going to be one of the more transmissible variants,” Ardern said in a Facebook Live post.
Summary
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Around 1,000 people have been caught flouting restrictions in a Belgrade nightclub, Serbia’s interior ministry said on Sunday. The country’s coronavirus restrictions allow gatherings of up to five.
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Lebanon has started vaccinating high-risk groups, including healthcare workers and elderly people.
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Brazil has confirmed two cases of the UK variant in the state of Goiás after sequencing test samples taken on 31 December, Reuters reports, citing the state’s health department. It did not say if these are the first cases of the variant detected in Brazil.
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Rwanda has started vaccinating healthcare workers and other high-risk groups, its health ministry has said, making it the first country in east Africa to start its rollout.
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The UK has reported a further 10,972 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases, according to government data – a fall from last Sunday’s figure at 15,845. A total of 4,038,078 people have tested positive.
- A total of 15,062,189 people in the UK have now had a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest government figures.
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An Israeli study of more than half a million fully vaccinated people indicated the Pfizer/BioNTech jab offered 94% protection against Covid-19, according to the country’s largest healthcare provider.
- There is growing controversy over a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic after one of its members said China had refused to hand over key data, and the US national security adviser said he had “deep concerns” about the initial findings.
Updated
Pfizer/BioNTech jab gives 94% protection, Israeli study suggests
An Israeli study of more than half a million fully vaccinated people indicated the Pfizer/BioNTech jab offered 94% protection against Covid-19, according to the country’s largest healthcare provider.
Clalit Health Services said that its researchers tested 600,000 patients who had received the recommended two doses of the US-German Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the same number of people who had not been inoculated.
“There was a 94% reduction in the rate of symptomatic infection and a 92 percent decrease in the rate of serious illness compared to 600,000 similar (subjects) who were not vaccinated,” Clalit said in a Hebrew-language statement reported by Reuters.
“Vaccine efficacy is maintained in all age groups, including those aged 70+,” it added.
Israel’s vaccine drive has seen 3.8 million people receive a first dose, while 2.4 million have also received a second shot.
Updated
Italy has prevented ski resorts from opening, a day before skiing was due to be allowed for the first time this winter season due to coronavirus restrictions.
Minister Roberto Speranza signed a measure extending the ban on skiing at resorts until 5 March, the health ministry said, after new data showed that the UK variant now makes up 17.8% of new infections in Italy. Reuters reports:
“Concern about the spread of this and other variants of SARS-CoV-2 has led to similar measures being taken in France and Germany,” the ministry said.
The reopening of the ski season had been met with great relief in Italy’s northern regions, where just four days ago authorities said ski resorts would be allowed to reopen.
In Lombardy, the region hardest hit by the pandemic that has killed over 93,000 people in the country, ski operators had to limit the daily number of skiers to no more than 30% of the hourly capacity of cable cars and ski-lifts.
Other regions, too, had been allowed to reopen their slopes on Monday as long as they were considered “yellow” areas, signifying a lower risk of virus infections.
But on Sunday, due to the new data, new restrictions came into effect in the regions of Abruzzo, Liguria, Tuscany and the autonomous province of Trentino, which were moved up to the medium-risk “orange” category from “yellow.”
The ministry said it would begin compensating ski lift operators as soon as possible.
France has reported 16,546 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, down from 19,715 last Sunday.
The country’s total number of cases now stands at 3,465,163, Reuters reports.
The French health ministry reported 167 new Covid-19 deaths in hospitals, compared to 171 last week. The death toll stands at 81,814.
The United States has dispensed 52,884,356 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and delivered 70,057,800 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
This includes both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, according to Reuters.
The agency said 38,292,270 people had received one or more doses while 14,077,440 people have received the second dose as of Sunday.
A total of 5,822,871 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
Around 1,000 people have been caught flouting restrictions in a Belgrade nightclub, Serbia’s interior ministry said on Sunday. The country’s coronavirus restrictions allow gatherings of up to five.
Three suspected organisers were held for 48 hours, the ministry said in a statement reported by AFP. They face fines and potential prison terms of up to three years, according to a report on broadcaster RTS.
Although the Balkan country has reported regular instances of rule-breaking, parties rarely exceed a few dozen participants.
Serbia has recorded more than 4,200 deaths from Covid-19 from around 420,000 infections.
Updated
Lebanon has started vaccinating high-risk groups, including healthcare workers and elderly people.
Health workers and over-75s were first in line to receive Pfizer/BioNTech jabs at three hospitals in Beirut hospitals. The capital received a batch of 28,500 doses on Saturday.
The World Bank has set aside $34m to vaccinate an initial two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants. AFP’s report continues:
“Finally there’s a glimpse of hope that things will get back to normal,” said medical student Dana Chatila, who was waiting in her white lab coat and mask outside the American University Medical Center, where she works in the emergency department. “It’s going to take time of course, but the darkness is ending.”
The pandemic has compounded the woes of a country battling a dire economic crisis and still reeling from a massive port explosion last summer that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital Beirut.
More than half the population lives in poverty and rights groups have warned millions will struggle to survive without help if coronavirus restrictions last too long.
Caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab said: “We hope to reach adequate community protection so life can gradually return to normal in Lebanon as soon as possible.”
Updated
Brazil has confirmed two cases of the UK variant in the state of Goiás after sequencing test samples taken on 31 December, Reuters reports, citing the state’s health department. It did not say if these are the first cases of the variant detected in Brazil.
In a statement on Friday, the authorities said the two people who have caught the UK variant live on the outskirts of the federal capital Brasília.
The people who caught the variant had contact with a relative who lives in England, traveled to Brazil for the holidays and had been diagnosed with Covid-19, the Goiás health department said.
Updated
A total of 15,062,189 people in the UK have now had a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest government figures.
That’s 22.5% of the UK population and 28.6% of adults.
PA media has this breakdown of the data:
England
A total of 12,675,663 people had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine up to February 13, according to NHS England.
This is the equivalent of 22.5% of the total population of England, and 28.6% of people aged 18 and over, based on the latest population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
By this 7 February, an estimated 91.3% of people aged 80 and over had received their first dose, along with 95.6% of people aged 75-79 and 74.0% of people aged 70-74.
A total of 93.2% of residents of older adult care homes in England eligible to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine had received the jab.
Wales
As 13 February, 771,651 people had received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to Public Health Wales – 24.5% of the total population of Wales, and 30.6% of people aged 18 and over.
A total of 89.3% of people aged 80 and over had received their first dose, along with 89.9% of people aged 75-79 and 88.3% of people aged 70-74.
The latest figure for care home residents is 81.4%, and for care home workers it is 84.3%.
Public Health Wales said people may appear more than once in these totals (e.g. an individual who is over 80 and lives in a care home).
Scotland
As 14 February, 1,223,774 people had received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Scottish government – 22.4% of the total population of Scotland, and 27.6% of people aged 18 and over.
Some 99% of people aged 80 or over living in the community have had their first dose, along with 99% of people aged 75-79 and 78% of people aged 70-74. (These totals do not include care home residents.)
Some 94% of residents in all care homes have had their first dose. The figure for staff in older adult care homes is 91%, while the figure for staff in all care homes is 79%.
Northern Ireland
A total of 391,101 people had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of February 13, according to the Northern Ireland Department of Health – 20.7% of the total population of Northern Ireland, and 26.9% of people aged 18 and over.
As of 4 February, 100% of care homes in Northern Ireland had been visited and offered the first dose of the vaccine, while 90% of care homes had been visited and offered the second dose.
A recent breakdown of vaccine doses by age group is not available.
Italy reported 221 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, the health ministry said, against 270 the Sunday before.
The daily tally of new infections fell to 11,068 from 11,640 last Sunday.
Italy has registered a total of 93,577 coronavirus deaths – the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK and the sixth-highest in the world.
The country has reported 2.72 million cases to date, Reuters reports.
Rwanda has begun vaccinating healthcare workers and other high-risk groups, its health ministry has said, making it the first country in east Africa to start its rollout.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the ministry said the vaccinations had begun with “WHO-approved Covid-19 vaccines acquired through international partnerships in limited quantities”.
“This initial phase will be followed by a wider rollout this month with supplies expected from” the global Covax initiative to provide vaccines as well as an African Union programme.
@RwandaHealth National Vaccination Program has begun vaccinating high-risk groups. pic.twitter.com/Fpq1yDAC8m
— Ministry of Health | Rwanda (@RwandaHealth) February 14, 2021
Sources told AFP that Rwanda had procured an initial batch of 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, and that the country had started inoculations on Thursday.
“Next the government expects to acquire 128,000 doses and another batch of 96,000 doses before the end of February,” the source said.
Updated
UK registers 10,972 cases, 258 deaths
There have been a further 10,972 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data – a fall from last Sunday’s figure at 15,845. A total of 4,038,078 people have tested positive.
A further 258 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported, bringing the total to 117,166. There were 373 last Sunday.
There have been 121,674 fatalities where Covid-19 is mentioned as a cause on the death certificate, registered up to 29 January.
The seven-day rolling average, which evens out reporting irregularities in the daily figures, shows that cases are down by 28.1% compared to the previous week (1-7 February). Fatalities have decreased by 25.5% by the same measure.
Sunday figures are often lower because of reporting delays over the weekend.
I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be manning the global blog for the next few hours. Please do get in touch with any suggestions for coverage via Twitter DM – thanks in advance.
Updated
Summary
• There is growing controversy over a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic after one of its members said China had refused to hand over key data, and the US national security adviser said he had “deep concerns” about the initial findings.
• Germany has partially closed its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol after a surge in coronavirus mutations, drawing a swift rebuke from the European Union.
The Czech authorities have meanwhile approved a new state of emergency to approve one that was due to end tonight, following last minute negotiations with regional governors.
• There is still “a long way to go” and “there will be bumps in the road”, UK prime minister Boris Johnson has said in a video which Downing Street had tweeted in the wake of the news that some 15 million people in Britain have had a first does of a Covid-19 vaccine.
• Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab has hit back at what he called “arbitrary” targets demanded by some MPs in the ruling Conservative Party to lift coronavirus restrictions in England, urging caution even as he said the government was on track to meet its target to vaccinate the most vulnerable people.
• Lockdown measures will be introduced across Auckland from midnight on Sunday, while restrictions will also be increased elsewhere in New Zealand, after three local cases were reported over the weekend.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the government was taking a cautionary approach, and acting under the assumption that they involved new, more transmissible strains of the virus.
Czech Republic approves new state of emergency
The Czech government has approved calling a new state of emergency, the country’s interior minister Jan Hamacek has said.
Czech authorities tweeted that an extraordinary meeting had been held by the government to resolve the issue after it lost a parliamentary vote on Thursday to extend another state of emergency. The move came after a last-minute deal with the country’s regional governors.
The vote on Thursday would have meant the end from tomorrow of shop closures and curfews.
Vláda zasedla k mimořádnému jednání, kde má vyřešit, jaká protiepidemická opatření mají platit od dnešní půlnoci. Na žádost hejtmanů kabinet projedná návrh na nové vyhlášení nouzového stavu. Jednání se účastní i předseda Asociace krajů a ředitelé krajských hygienických stanic. pic.twitter.com/f6qcV7Zbyl
— Úřad vlády ČR (@strakovka) February 14, 2021
Parliamentarians had rejected the pleas of prime minister Andrej Babiš (pictured above) to extend the powers beyond today despite his warnings of a healthcare collapse as infections spread.
The country of 10.7 million has been in various levels of lockdown almost continuously since October.
Updated
China hit back at US criticism of the World Health Organisation and its investigation into the origins of Covid-19, the South China Morning Post reports.
Accusing Washington of “severely undermining” the world health body, the Chinese embassy in Washington referred to the US withdrawal from the WHO and subsequent post-Trump return.
“But the US, acting as if none of this had ever happened, is pointing fingers at other countries who have been faithfully supporting the WHO and at the WHO itself,” the embassy added.
“It is hoped that the US will hold itself to the highest standards, take a serious, earnest, transparent and responsible attitude, shoulder its rightful responsibility, support the WHO’s work with real actions and make due contribution to the international cooperation on Covid-19.”
Prince Charles has spoken of his sadness at the variable uptake of Covid-19 vaccines in Britain and the challenges faced in “particular sections of our society, especially in some ethnic minority communities”.
He made the comments in a video for a webinar on “Covid-19 Vaccine – Facts for the BAME Community,” to be held on Thursday by the British Asian Trust, a development organisation delivering programmes in south Asia.
He said:
Recently, I fear we have reached a most sobering milestone in this seemingly interminable campaign as we marked the tragic loss of a hundred thousand souls. It is clear that the virus has affected all parts of the country, and all sections of society – but it is also clear that there are particular challenges faced in particular sections of our society, especially in some ethnic minority communities.
What saddens me even further is to hear that those challenges are being made even worse by the variable uptake of the vaccines which finally offer us a way out of the suffering of the past year.
Updated
Johnson: 15m vaccinations a milestone but 'a long way to go'
There is still “a long way to go” and “there will be bumps in the road”, UK prime minister Boris Johnson has said in a video which Downing Street had tweeted in the wake of the news that some 15 million people in Britain have had a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
“But after all we’ve achieved, I know we can go forward with great confidence,” he added.
Today we have reached a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s national vaccination programme.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 14, 2021
This country has achieved an extraordinary feat - administering a total of 15 million jabs into the arms of some of the most vulnerable people in the country. pic.twitter.com/wPKCXPT8Td
Updated
Fifteen million Britons have had first vaccine dose
More than 15 million people in the UK have had a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine – the equivalent of everyone in the British government’s top four priority groups – Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, has said.
15,000,000! Amazing team ❤️ We will not rest till we offer the vaccine to the whole of phase1 the 1-9 categories of the most vulnerable & all over 50s by end April and then all adults. @NikkiKF @Emily_JR_Lawson @Comd101LogBde 💉💉💉 https://t.co/NqOZl5e0aG
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) February 14, 2021
Hugo Gye, the deputy political editor at the iPaper, notes that Saturday’s figure for vaccinations in Northern Ireland is still to come.
But excluding that, the number of people who have had a vaccine dose in the UK is 15,058,859.
Updated
UK hits target of offering first Covid jab to four most vulnerable groups
The UK government has reached its target of offering at least first vaccinations to the four groups of people seen as most vulnerable to coronavirus by mid-February, it has announced.
The government has set a series of targets for offering vaccinations to a series of groups, with the priority order set out by the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation.
Updated
Guinea records first Ebola deaths since 2016
The Guinean government has officially declared a new Ebola outbreak after cases detected in the south-east of the west African nation were confirmed to be positive for the virus, the health ministry said on Sunday.
“Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus,” Sakoba Keita, the head of Guinea’s health agency, said after an emergency meeting. He called it an “epidemic situation”.
It is the first known resurgence of the virus in West Africa since the 2013-16 epidemic that started in Guinea and killed more than 11,300 in the region.
A World Health Organization representative said it would rapidly send assistance.
Updated
One in six children may never be able to catch up on lost school time during the pandemic without the right support, England’s children’s commissioner has warned.
Anne Longfield said measures needed to be in place ahead of plans for schools to reopen next month for children who have been struggling with learning at home.
Talking to Sky News, she said: “Part of that really needs to be as well about helping children to build back those social skills and that confidence. There’s a group of children who won’t make up the time they’ve lost, these are the ones who started behind, who are struggling. Potentially about one in six children, if they don’t get that level of support and boost, won’t ever catch up during their time at school.”
In an interview with the Observer, Longfield added that the pandemic had brought home the importance of schools and other local institutions in a child’s life, as well as highlighting the impacts of deprivation and abuse that had remained invisible for years.
“We will have had almost a billion school days lost by mid-April in this country, which is astounding,” she said.
“The place we all in some ways took for granted was whisked away. Over the pandemic, everyone has come to understand how important schools are, not just the education part, but friends, relationships with teachers, mental health. But also, for those kids where home is not a safe place, it’s schools that know that. We saw the drop in referrals [to social services] in the first few weeks and it’s still not back to where it should be.”
Updated
Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard ,has said shipments of the Pfizer’s Covid vaccine are expected to resume on Tuesday. The next shipment was expected to include about 494,000 doses, Reuters reports.
Mexico had been relying on the Pfizer vaccine for weekly deliveries before the company delayed shipments globally.
Updated
The virus that causes Covid-19 may not have emerged in China, a World Health Organisation (WHO) scientist has suggested.
Prof John Watson, who was part of the WHO team that travelled to China to investigate the origins of the pandemic, said the virus’s leap from animals to humans may have occurred outside the country’s borders.
He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that the pandemic most likely started with an infection in an “animal reservoir” that was then passed on to humans through an “intermediate host”.
Asked if he was sure the virus emerged in China, Prof Watson, who previously served as England’s deputy chief medical officer until 2017, said “no”.
Updated
In Ireland, about 3,000 GPs and nurses will be receiving their first Covid-19 vaccine today, though concerns remain about the potential impact of travel on the state’s attempts to contain the spread of new variants.
An infectious diseases consultant, Dr Cliona Ní Cheallaigh, told RTE this morning that Ireland could not afford to have people travelling in and out of the country at the current rate.
Investment was needed in public health teams to carry out work such as contact tracing, who she said needed to become “like SWAT teams”.
Updated
French health service to enter 'crisis organisation' in preparation for surge in variant cases
The French health ministry has asked regional health agencies and hospitals to go into “crisis organisation” from 18 February to prepare for a possible surge in coronavirus cases due to highly contagious variants, Le Journal du Dimanche reported.
The move, which would echo measures taken in March and November 2020 when France went into national lockdowns, involves increasing the number of hospital beds available, delaying non-urgent surgery and mobilising all medical staff resources.
“This crisis organisation must be implemented in each region, regardless of the level of hospital stress and must be operational from Thursday 18 February,” the health authority DGS said in a memo cited by the newspaper.
Updated
In an echo of others around the world, businesses in London’s Chinatown have been speaking about their fears for their future as lunar new year celebrations go virtual.
Alan Lau’s family business is one of the oldest in London’s Chinatown. Since the 1970s, the Wen Tai Sun art and crafts store in Soho has supplied decorations for the lunar new year, the most important festive holiday for Chinese people around the world. “Usually this would be the pinnacle of our trading year,” he said.
But last week was “scarily quiet” in Chinatown. Every year the area hosts the biggest lunar new year celebrations outside Asia, a massive tourist attraction for domestic and international visitors.
Lau, whose shop supplies restaurants, supermarkets and schools around the country, would normally have sold about 150 boxes of paper dragons for events across the UK’s Chinatowns, from Newcastle to London. This year, he’s sold about 20.
“It’s just felt very flat, you wouldn’t have known it was lunar new year,” he said.
Updated
Czech governors ask for new state of emergency
Tensions are rising in the Czech Republic after the government lost a parliamentary vote on Thursday to extend a state of emergency, leading to the end of shop closures and curfews from tomorrow and eliminating its main tool against a raging coronavirus pandemic.
But after fresh talks, all governors have agreed they will ask for a state of emergency, according to the governor of the Moravia-Silesia region, Ivo Vondrack.
“It is the only way to deal with the crisis in our country at the moment,” he tweeted.
Parliamentarians had rejected the pleas of prime minister Andrej Babiš to extend the powers beyond today despite his warnings of a healthcare collapse as infections spread.
Babiš’s minority government said it would be unable to extend nationwide limits on movement, including a night-time curfew and public gathering ban, and the closure of retail stores and services. Pubs and restaurants could stay closed while some other measures could remain under different legislation.
The country of 10.7 million has been in various levels of lockdown almost continuously since October.
Updated
Israel and Cyprus have agreed in principle a deal allowing coronavirus-vaccinated citizens of the two countries to travel between them without limitations, once flights resume, Israel’s president said on Sunday.
Israel reached a similar agreement last week with Greece, as the Mediterranean nations seek to revive tourism industries battered by the pandemic.
“Let me say how pleased I am with the recent understandings that will allow the renewal of flights between Israel and Cyprus and call on more countries to adopt the ‘green pass’,” Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, said in a statement after meeting his Cypriot counterpart, Nicos Anastasiades.
Updated
There is growing controversy over a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic after one of its members said China had refused to hand over key data, and the US national security adviser said he had “deep concerns” about the initial findings.
An international delegation travelled to the Chinese city of Wuhan last month as part of efforts to understand how the outbreak began. Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious disease expert who was part of the team, said it had requested raw patient data but were only given a summary.
Dwyer told Reuters on Saturday that sharing anonymised raw data is “standard practice” for an outbreak investigation. He said raw data was particularly important in efforts to understand Covid-19 as only half of 174 initial cases had exposure to the now-shuttered market where the virus was initially detected.
“That’s why we’ve persisted to ask for that,” Dwyer said. “Why that doesn’t happen, I couldn’t comment. Whether it’s political or time or it’s difficult.”
On their Twitter accounts, other members of the team have been rejecting reports that Chinese authorities refused to hand over data
This was NOT my experience either on the Epi-side. We DID build up a good relationsship in the Chinese/Int Epi-team! Allowing for heated arguments reflects a deep level of engagement in the room. Our quotes are intendedly twisted casting shadows over important scientific work. https://t.co/elL5qrKCxk
— Thea K Fischer, Prof. i PH Virus Inf. og Epidemier (@TheaKFischer) February 13, 2021
Updated
Germany partially closes borders with Czech Republic
Germany has partially closed its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol after a surge in coronavirus mutations, drawing a swift rebuke from the European Union.
A thousand police officers have been mobilised to ensure strict border checks, which recall the much-criticised early days of the pandemic when EU countries hastily closed their frontiers to each other.
At the Kiefersfelden crossing in southern Bavaria, officers in yellow high-visibility vests and wearing balaclavas to stave off the chill in -15C (5F), meticulously stopped each vehicle coming from Austria.
Under the new rules, in place until 17 February, only Germans or non-German residents are allowed to enter, and they must provide a recent negative coronavirus test.
Some exceptions are allowed for essential workers in sectors such as health and transport, as well as for urgent humanitarian reasons, the interior ministry has said.
Updated
The Thai government has defended its decision not to join the WHO-sponsored coronavirus vaccine programme, saying that to do so would risk the country paying more for the shots and facing uncertainty about delivery times.
The government has been criticised by opposition politicians and protesters for lacking transparency and being too slow in procuring vaccines. While the country of 66 million people has had low numbers of cases and deaths, it is dealing with a second wave of infections.
A government spokesman, Anucha Buraphachaisri, responded to media reports that Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country to skip the WHO’s Covax scheme by saying that as a middle-income country Thailand is not eligible for free or cheap vaccines under the programme.
“Buying vaccines directly from the manufacturers is an appropriate choice … as it’s more flexible,” Anucha said.
“If Thailand wants to join the Covax programme, it will have to pay for vaccines itself with a high budget and there is also a risk,”
Updated
Britain’s foreign minister, Dominic Raab, said on Sunday he shared concerns about the level of access given to a World Health Organization Covid-19 fact-finding mission to China, echoing criticism from the US.
The White House on Saturday called on China to make available data from the earliest days of the novel coronavirus outbreak, saying it had “deep concerns” about the way the findings of the WHO’s Covid-19 report were communicated.
Asked about the US reaction, Raab told the BBC: “We do share concerns that they get full cooperation and they get the answers they need, and so we’ll be pushing for it to have full access, get all the data it needs to be able to answer the questions that I think most people want to hear answered around the outbreak.”
In a separate BBC interview, a member of the WHO’s delegation to China said that, while Chinese authorities had not given them all raw data, they had seen a lot of information and discussed analysis of the first cases.
“It would be unusual for them to hand over the raw data, but we looked at a great deal of information in detail in discussion with the Chinese counterparts,” said John Watson, an epidemiologist who travelled to China as part of the WHO team.
Updated
One of the team of experts sent to China by the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the possible origins of Covid-19 has said that the visit had provided some new clues which the scientists involved had agreed most likely pointed to an animal origin within China or south-east Asia.
Peter Daszak, an animal disease specialist, was asked by the New York Times if there was any particular animal which was suspected to have had a link, more strongly than others. He replied:
It’s too up in the air. We don’t know if civets were on sale. We know they are very easily infected. We don’t know what the situation is with the mink farms in China or the other fur farms, like raccoon dogs, even though they’re normally farmed in a different part of China. That needs to be followed up on, too.
But if you were to say which pathway would you put the most weight on, I think the virus emerging either in south-east Asia or southern China from bats, getting into a domesticated wildlife farm.
I’ve been to many of these, and they often have mixed species – civets, ferret badgers, raccoon dogs. Those animals would be able to get infected from bats.
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Malaysia has reported 2,464 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of recorded infections to 264,269.
The health ministry also reported seven new deaths, raising total fatalities from the pandemic to 965.
Key figures from Oxford University who were involved in the development of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine have been speaking about their work, started exactly a year ago, on an enterprise set to have a profound impact on the health of our planet.
On 11 February, research teams led by Prof Andy Pollard and Prof Sarah Gilbert – both based at the Oxford Vaccine Centre – decided to combine their talents to develop and manufacture a vaccine that could protect people from the deadly new coronavirus that was beginning to spread across the world.
It has been a remarkable journey for the Oxford Vaccine Group and in particular for its leaders, Gilbert and Pollard, who have worked tirelessly to create their cheap, easy-to-distribute vaccine and to defend it, patiently and politely, from attacks by pundits and politicians.
Some US observers have criticised protocols for the vaccine’s trials, while French president Emmanuel Macron recently claimed the Oxford vaccine was “quasi-ineffective” for people over 65. These claims were firmly debunked last week by the World Health Organization, which gave the vaccine its glowing recommendation. For good measure, the WHO also fell into line with the UK’s decision to delay second dose vaccinations to increase primary protection against the disease.
“I think we really need people to make positive statements about vaccines to build confidence. Negative comments pose the risk of undermining that confidence,” Pollard told the Observer last week.
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New Zealand lockdown measures from midnight
Lockdown measures will be introduced across Auckland from midnight on Sunday, while restrictions will also be increased elsewhere in New Zealand, after three local cases were reported over the weekend.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the government was taking a cautionary approach to the cases, and acting under the assumption that they involved new, more transmissible strains of the virus. The source of the infections is not yet known.
From midnight on Sunday, Auckland will enter tougher level 3 restrictions for three days, with a border placed around the city.
Under the rules, which have not been imposed upon Auckland since August last year, people are required to work from home where possible, and schools will be open only to the children of essential workers.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has hit back at what he called “arbitrary” targets demanded by some Conservative MPs to lift coronavirus restrictions in England, urging caution even as he said the government was on track to meet its target to vaccinate the most vulnerable people.
Ministers have set a date of Monday by which a first coronavirus vaccination should have been offered to the top four priority groups, going down to all those aged 70 or over, taking in around 15 million people.
It is anticipated a formal announcement could be made later on Sunday, with Raab saying he was “confident we’re on track” to meet the target.
“The numbers look good, but I want to wait until we’ve got the formally published figures so that we’re doing it accurately and in the right way,” the foreign secretary told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show.
Israel to reopen restaurants around March 9
Israel plans to reopen restaurants around March 9 as part of its gradual return to normality as a Covid-19 vaccination campaign gathers pace, an official said today.
With more than 41% of Israelis having received at least one shot of Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, Israel plans to partially reopen hotels and gyms on Feb. 23 to those deemed fully inoculated, or immune after recovering from Covid-19.
Nachman Ash, the national pandemic-response coordinator, said the reopening of hotel dining rooms, restaurants and cafes would follow two weeks later.
“That would be around March 9,” he told Ynet TV. “We want to open gradually, carefully so we don’t have another breakout of another wave, and another lockdown.”
The country is on course to fully inoculate 30% of its 9 million population with the two-dose vaccine regimen this month, a benchmark for a preliminary easing of curbs. It hopes for 50% coverage and a wider reopening next month.
The health and safety watchdog in Britain has failed to shut down any workplaces that put employees at risk of coronavirus even though there have been over 3,500 outbreaks at work since the start of the pandemic, the Observer has discovered.
Analysis of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) enforcement database reveals there have been no Covid-related prohibition notices, which allow inspectors to immediately halt activity in workplaces deemed injurious or damaging to health, since last March.
This comes after the government defended the HSE’s decision not to place Covid in its highest risk category in response to a parliamentary question from Labour’s shadow employment minster Andy McDonald.
Catalonia has been voting in an election overshadowed by the pandemic and which Madrid hopes will unseat the region’s ruling separatists more than three years after a failed bid to break away from Spain.
The vote in the wealthy northeastern region could see a high level of abstentions as Spain battles a third wave of coronavirus infections, the AFP news agency reports.
Regional authorities ramped up restrictions to slow soaring case numbers after the Christmas holidays and while the situation has slightly improved, the figures are still high.
Polls suggest turnout could be around just 60 percent, compared to roughly 80 percent during the last regional election in December 2017. Some 5.5 million people are eligible to vote.
But over 40 percent of the 82,000 people assigned to help staff polling stations on the day have asked to be recused, despite pledges they will receive full protective suits.
Nearly two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not want rich countries to get priority access to Covid-19 vaccinations over poorer countries amid warnings that a huge swathe of the world is yet to administer a single dose of the life-saving jab.
Two-thirds of people questioned also said the UK government should press pharmaceutical companies to share their Covid vaccine formula to allow doses to be rolled out faster.
The poll, commissioned by Christian Aid, comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations’ children’s agency said that 10 countries accounted for three-quarters of the 128m vaccine doses administered worldwide by the middle of last week.
Almost 130 countries with a population totalling 2.5 billion had yet to vaccinate anyone, they said.
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Lebanon started its Covid-19 vaccination drive today by inoculating the head of critical care at its biggest public hospital, followed by the 93-year-old actor and comedian Salah Tizani.
Battling a sharp rise in infections in recent weeks that has overwhelmed its healthcare system, Lebanon took delivery of 28,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Saturday, the first batch of 2.1m doses set to arrive in stages throughout the year.
Delays in signing a deal to purchase a vaccine and the rollout of an inoculation programme have caused frustration in Lebanon. The World Bank, which helped fund the first batch of doses, has said it would monitor the inoculation drive to ensure the shots go to those most in need.
“I will not be receiving the vaccine today, for today is not my turn and the priority is for the medical sector that has done its duty and presented big sacrifices,” the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, told reporters at the Rafik Hariri hospital, where Lebanon’s first coronavirus case was quarantined about a year ago.
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Raab was also asked why the UK was not taking action like Austria, which has been stepping up its response to the European Union’s biggest outbreak of the so-called South African coronavirus variant in its Alpine province of Tyrol, by requiring those leaving Tyrol to show a negative test result as of Friday.
Raab was asked: ‘Shouldn’t there be a complete ban on travel into the UK?’ He responded that this was complicated by the need to ensure that freight came into Britain, though he added: “there are different ways of looking at it.”
He told Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News: “I’m not sure that’s proportionate, and of course having blanket bans on any, for example, air travel into the UK would be very difficult for the supply chains, things like freight.”
Raab said the data is assessed very carefully and they want to make sure the measures are “as targeted as possible”.
He said: We think we’ve got the right balance - robust measures, but targeted measures.”
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UK foreign secretary cautious about reopening schools on 8 March
Britain’s foreign secretary was sounding particularly cautious in relation to the question of schools reopening on 8 March.
The Sunday Times reports today that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, will announced next week that all schoolchildren in England will return to the classroom on 8 March under plans to start lifting the lockdown.
Adults will initially have only small new freedoms so as to prioritise the return of schools, according to the newspaper.
However, Raab told Sophy Ridge that “we need need to wait” to see the data before deciding how schools will reopen.
Raab also appeared to be leaving Boris Johnson the job of announcing tomorrow that the UK had reached a target to vaccinate 15 million people in the four designated most vulnerable groups.
“We’re confident we’re on track to do so, the numbers look good.” he added.
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Britain would have to “know with confidence” that it would be able to continue rolling out its domestic vaccine plan before it started to started to give other country’s any of its own 450m doses, according to Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab.
He was speaking to Sky News, where he emphasised that the UK was supporting other states through the global Covax programme, which is intended to help developing countries and others.
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Samba troupes in Brazil have been fighting to stay positive amid the cancellation of carnival parades, which have hurts jobs and dampened hope in the favelas.
For the Academics of Rocinha, the samba school from Brazil’s most famous favela, 2021 was supposed to herald a new dawn.
Twelve months ago the troupe had hit one of its lowest ever ebbs: drowning in debt, riven by infighting and relegated to the third division of Rio’s carnival championship after coming bottom of its group. This month, as the annual festivities returned, its new directors were determined to bounce back.
“I’m extremely competitive,” said Marcos Freitas Ferreira, a Rocinha native who became president after last year’s debacle and dreams of leading his school back to the Grupo Especial, carnival’s premier league. “We need to do things people will still be talking about a century from now.”
The coronavirus outbreak, which has killed nearly 240,000 Brazilians, has temporarily scuppered Ferreira’s fightback, forcing the cancellation of Rio’s official samba parades – which should have kicked off on Friday – for the first time since they started in 1932. Not even the second world war managed to extinguish the spectacular all-night processions for which Brazil’s cultural capital is famed (Full story).
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Japan’s health ministry says it has approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for use, reports Reuters.
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UK Prime Minister under pressure from own MPs
Lockdown-sceptic MPs of Britain’s ruling Conservative party have piled pressure on Boris Johnson, calling on the prime minster to commit to a timetable for lifting coronavirus restrictions with a complete end to controls by the end of April.
In a letter to the prime minister, the leaders of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), a grouping organised within the Conservative party’s MPs, said the “tremendous pace” of the vaccination rollout meant restrictions should begin easing from early March.
They said ministers must produce a cost-benefit analysis to justify any controls that remain in place after that date, with a “roadmap” stating when they would be removed.
The letter was organised by the CRG chair and deputy chair, Mark Harper and Steve Baker, and was said to have the backing of 63 Conservative MPs in all. However, scientists advising the government are warning that lifting restrictions too quickly risks another wave of the disease as big as the current one.
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Good morning from London. This is Ben Quinn picking up the blog on a day when lockdown-sceptic members of the British prime minister’s own party are continuing to put pressure on him to commit to a timetable for lifting Covid-19 restrictions with a complete end ot controls by the end of April.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab will be responding to questions about those plans on morning television news shows this morning, starting with Sky News in about 10 minutes.
Also this morning, the latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows that 62% of people now approve of Britain’s vaccine rollout, and 45% name management of the vaccination programme as the aspect the government has handled best.
It is only the second time since May last year that more people think the government is acting proportionately (39%) to the crisis than think they are under-reacting (38%). A month ago, 30% of the public thought the government was acting proportionately compared with half (51%) who thought it was under-reacting.
I’ll also continue to bring you coverage of global developments here. You can flag up any news stories which you feel we should be covering by emailing or contacting me on Twitter at @BenQuinn75
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Summary
- Lockdown measures will be introduced across Auckland from midnight on Sunday, while restrictions will also be increased elsewhere in New Zealand, after three local cases were reported over the weekend.
- Germany has tightened border restrictions, banning travel from Czech border regions and Austria’s Tyrol after a rise in contagious strains.
- The European Union’s health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the bloc will fast-track approvals of coronavirus vaccines adapted to combat mutations.
- Australia is expecting 80,000 vaccine doses to arrive in the country before the end of the week. Health minister Greg Hunt said Australia’s vaccine campaign will commence late in February.
- China accused the US of damaging the World Health Organization in recent years, after the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, cited “deep concerns” about the way the findings of the WHO’s investigation into the origins of Covid-19 were communicated.
That’s all from me, I’m now handing over to my colleague in London, Ben Quinn.
A Pakistani lab will soon receive Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for commercial sale, Reuters has reported, making Pakistan one of the first countries to market shots privately as it scrambles to secure supplies.
Despite concerns over fairness and higher prices, Islamabad agreed this week to allow the commercial import and sale of vaccines without price caps, in contrast to most countries, which are importing and administering vaccines through government channels.
“We are told the first shipment is expected within the next week,” Chughtai Lab director Omar Chughtai told Reuters, adding it would be receiving several thousand doses.
Pakistan’s decision to allow private sales of vaccine without a price cap in a lower-income country of 220 million people faces criticism.
Former health minister Zafar Mirza, while praising government efforts to procure and distribute free vaccine, said that avoiding a price cap for private sales “will deepen inequality in society at a time when there is a need to have widespread coverage.”
The government launched a vaccination drive this month with 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by longtime ally China. But aside from the donated Chinese doses, Islamabad has not completed any deals to buy vaccines.
Russia reported 14,185 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, including 1,559 in Moscow, taking the national infection tally to 4,071,883 since the pandemic began. Authorities said 430 people had died of the disease in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 80,126.
The press conference in Wellington, held in response to the discovery of three community cases in Auckland, has now finished. As of 11.59pm tonight Auckland will be placed under tougher restrictions, at level three, while the rest of the country will be moved to level two restrictions. (Details of the alert levels can be found online here).
Ardern said she was asking the public “to be strong and to be kind”:
I know we all feel the same way when this happens, we all get that sense of ‘not again’. But remember we have been here before and that means we know how to get out of this again, and that is together. If you know someone in Auckland, reach out, please check on them. If you are in Auckland, please check on your neighbours and ensure they are looked after and supported.
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Dr Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s director-general of health, said officials were working under the assumption that the new Auckland cases were one of the new variants of Covid-19. “Regardless of where people have come from, these are the common variants and we do know they are more transmissible,” he said.
Ardern said that the decision to introduce tougher restrictions was “not taken lightly”. However, the cost to the economy would be far greater, she said, if the country was slow to react.
Ardern said that officials should get “an earlyish picture” of the extent of the outbreak within 24 hours. Priorities for officials were testing contacts at the affected workplace and school, and obtaining information from the genome sequencing.
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A border will be in place around Auckland, and mask-wearing will be required on planes, trains, buses and ferries, Ardern said.
Health officials will be expanding testing capacity across the Auckland region, said Ardern. “We ask anyone who is experiencing cold or flu symptoms to get tested,” said Ardern. She added that people who were well and who had not visited a site that is of interest should not to get tested, warning that this risks clogging up the system.
Outside of Auckland, businesses and schools will remain open with social distancing.
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New Zealand announces snap lockdown over Auckland cases
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is addressing media in Wellington, following the discovery of three positive community cases in Auckland.
She said New Zealanders had been able to enjoy more freedom than in many other countries around the world, but that “with Covid raging outside our borders and new more transmissible strains of Covid 19 we have had to make both continual improvements to strengthening our border while continuing to plan and prepare for managing any potential resurgence”.
Ardern said there was a need “to go hard and early” and take a cautious approach.
As of 11.59pm tonight Sunday, Auckland will move to level 3 for three days. The rest of New Zealand will move to level 2 for the same period, she said.
In Auckland, this means people should stay home, and work from home if possible. Schools will be open for the children of essential workers.
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Here is the Guardian’s full report on the fresh Covid outbreak in New Zealand, where three members of the same South Auckland have tested positive. The source of the infections is not known.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to speak at a press conference at 7pm local time in Wellington.
Germany reports 6,114 new Covid cases and 218 deaths
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 6,114 to 2,334,561, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 218 to 64,960, the tally showed.
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Saudi Arabia has extended by 20 days restrictions on entertainment activities, gatherings and dine-in restaurant services to curb the spread of coronavirus, state news agency SPA said on Sunday, citing an interior ministry statement.
The announcement extends a set of measures brought in 10 days ago. The restrictions, which come into effect from 10pm local time on Sunday evening, could be extended again, the ministry statement said.
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US Marine in Darwin infected with Covid
A US military serviceman in Australia’s Northern Territory has tested positive for Covid after arriving to join the marine rotational force in Darwin, Australian Associated Press reported.
The 21-year-old was diagnosed with the virus on Saturday after arriving on an international flight on Thursday with the first deployment of Marines to the Top End for 2021.
The Marine has been placed in quarantine at Royal Darwin hospital and remains asymptomatic, an NT Health spokeswoman told AAP on Sunday.
“Due to strict quarantine measures in place for all arriving Marines, this case of Covid-19 was promptly detected and the Marine had no direct contact with the general community,” the department said in a statement.
About 2,200 marines will arrive in Darwin by June in batches of 200-500 servicemen and women.
It’s the 10th Marine Rotational Force to train with the Australian defence force.
Australia’s defence minister Linda Reynolds has previously said all US personnel would undergo Covid-19 testing within 72 hours of departure for Australia and must present a negative result before boarding their flight.
They are also required to complete mandatory 14-day quarantine with virus testing on arrival in Australia and again before exiting the quarantine facility.
The Marine force has rented a secure facility outside Darwin – understood to be Bladin Point, about 20km south of Darwin – for the majority of personnel to complete their quarantining.
However, the first two groups will stay in isolated accommodation on an ADF base, understood to be RAAF Base Darwin.
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The European Union will fast-track approvals of coronavirus vaccines adapted to combat mutations, the bloc’s health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a newspaper interview on Sunday.
“We have now decided that a vaccine that has been improved by the manufacturer on the basis of the previous vaccine to combat new mutations no longer has to go through the entire approval process,” she told Bavaria’s Augsburger Allgemeine.
“So it will be faster to have suitable vaccines available without compromising on safety.”
The European Commission has come under fire from EU member states over delays to deliveries of vaccines which has seen the bloc lag behind countries such as Britain, a former member, and the US.
Kyriakides is a member of a new task force, led by the industry commissioner, Thierry Breton, to eliminate bottlenecks in production plants and adjust output to new variants.
While vaccinations in the first quarter of 2021 have started slowly, the second quarter would see a pick-up and by the end of September the EU expects to have received sufficient doses from licensed producers to cover over 70% of its population, Kyriakides said.
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Germany tightens borders to keep out mutant strains
Germany on Sunday implemented more measures to keep coronavirus variants at bay, banning travel from Czech border regions and Austria’s Tyrol after a rise in contagious mutations, AFP has reported.
A thousand police officers have been mobilised to ensure strict border controls and state-owned rail company Deutsche Bahn suspended services to and from the affected areas.
Interior minister Horst Seehofer announced Thursday that the states of Bavaria and Saxony had asked the government “to class Tyrol and border regions of the Czech Republic as virus mutation areas, and to implement border controls”, and that Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed to do so from Sunday.
Germany in late January banned most travellers from countries classed as so-called mutation areas or places hardest hit by new, more contagious coronavirus variants. These include Britain, South Africa, Brazil and Portugal.
Only a handful of exceptions are allowed to enter Germany from these countries, including returning Germans and essential workers such as doctors. Trade links will also be maintained.
Europe’s biggest economy has halved its daily infections rate after more than two months of curbs that shuttered most shops, schools and restaurants.
But fears are growing that the positive trend could be compromised by travellers from border regions that are reporting high case rates.
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Asked whether he has confidence in Victoria’s systems for containing Covid, Hunt said:
We have strong confidence in all states and terriroties. As we see from New Zealand, we have a highly infectious disease. Strong hotel quarantine systems in Australia have protected Australians but they are not impermeable.
More than 220,000 people have returned to Australia through quarantine hotels, he said.
Quarantine hotels were the first ring of containment, but testing, tracing and distancing were also crucial.
That’s the end of the press conference with Australia’s health minister Greg Hunt.
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Australia is expecting 80,000 doses to arrive before the end of this week, Hunt said.
He outlined several groups who would be prioritised for the vaccine: border and quarantine workers, aged care residents and staff, as well as disability residents and staff.
“We think that will take the best part of six weeks but we will see along the way,” he said, adding that the vaccines would be checked by the Therapeutic Goods Administration when they arrive.
“The TGA will ensure the numbers are correct, that they haven’t had any in-flight actions that damaged quality, such as a loss of temperature. The [regulator] will look to see that all of the vials are intact and haven’t had seals broken. They will also do testing as part of that.”
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Paul Kelly, Australia’s chief medical officer, said there would be no change to green zone flights arriving in the country from New Zealand, where three community cases were announced this morning.
The flights had been operating very successfully with tens of thousands of people travelling for some months, he said. Australian officials were in contact with New Zealand on a daily basis to monitor the situation.
“The sort of things we look for – are there cases? Are they in the community? And if so, what’s happening in terms of chasing down those chains of transmission?… We will continue to have very close conversations with [New Zealand] as they go through and progress with that work,” said Kelly.
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Pfizer vaccines due to land in Australia this week
Australia’s federal health minister, Greg Hunt, is addressing media. He has told reporters that Australia is on track for its vaccine rollout, which is due to commence late in February.
“We have said that the vaccine rollout would commence in late February and I can confirm that the vaccine rollout is on track ... with the first jab expected in late February,” he said.
Hunt added that the vaccine delivery was “the most precious of cargo”. The government was being cautious about releasing exact details, but said that the vaccines are scheduled to land in Australia before the end of the week, if not earlier. About 80,000 doses are expected in this initial delivery.
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In England, a ban on bailiff-enforced evictions is to be extended until the end of March, the government has announced.
The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the ban – introduced at the start of the pandemic last March to protect private renters – would remain in place for all but the most serious cases for another six weeks.
The latest extension came after ministers announced last month that it would continue until 22 February, having been due to expire on 11 January.
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Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, is asked whether, given the thousands of negative test results coming back, the lockdown was an overreaction. He says no:
This is a high-stakes game, when a virus that has caused devastation across the northern hemisphere and many, many other countries in the world and may soon be the predominant variant of concern globally, and we cannot afford to be wrong here. As the premier said, we do not want to be in a situation a week from now or two weeks from now, where we wish we’d done that. Because we’ve now got mystery cases or wastewater [positive results] or cases that are beyond us.
We have to be precautionary. It’s an awful situation to have a circuit breaker of any kind, but it’s done because we must get on top of this. There is really no alternative.
Sutton, and Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, also said they were not concerned about the positive test result in Greek tennis player Michail Pervolarakis after he departed Melbourne.
“This particular individual tested negative on the day of departure, but was on a long flight, mixed with other international travellers. Again, with a significant risk of cases on the subsequent levels of flight,” Sutton said.
“We will go through the normal processes in the national incident room and go through the information with South Africa and tie it off.”
Foley pointed out Pervolarakis departed Melbourne through the international terminal, so could not be linked to the Terminal 4 exposure site.
That’s the end of the Victorian press conference for today.
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Victoria’s head of contact tracing, Jeroen Weimar, has said the infection rate of the UK variant in the Holiday Inn outbreak is wildly variable.
If I go back to the four staff, [hotel quarantine] staff, who originally contracted the virus on the third floor: two of the staff have, I think, transmitted it to nobody else at all. One of them has only transmitted within the household and from there on in, the trail goes cold. We have one of the staff members who in turn has transmitted to the household and they, in turn … may have transmitted on to other people.... So we’re seeing different rates of transmission from people who are currently positive in the cluster of 16.
The state’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, says most people do not pass on the virus, but points out there can be super-spreader events, which means there needs to be an abundance of caution.
That’s why we’re just assuming that everyone here is significantly infectious and might pass it on in an open airport setting, might pass it on in a cafe. And absolutely at risk in a household setting. But in each and every circumstance, we are identifying those individuals. We are shutting down their close contacts and the contacts of those contacts on that basis.
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Victorian health minister, Martin Foley is asked why the state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, is not holding the press conference on day two of the five-day lockdown. Foley says he is working from home.
The premier is, like all Victorians, working from home. He is deeply engaged in a management of this cluster, I know that. He has several meetings on this issue over the course of the day and if you can work from home, you should work from home.
Question: Given that there is growing discrepancy between what the man accused of starting the outbreak says, surely he should be here in answering questions?
What everyone put on the record yesterday is on the record. I am the minister for health and this is a public health emergency. Since I have been the minister for health, I have made it crystal clear that I do not comment on individual cases and put people and families through trauma. And I will not be starting that today. This family needs to put all of its effort into getting well. That is my message and what is on the record from yesterday stands on the record.
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Key Victorian exposure sites return negative results
Victoria’s head of contact tracing, Jeroen Weimar, says the contact tracing team has closed out a number of lines of inquiry over potential outbreak sites.
Those sites include two schools including Camberwell Grammar, and the RAAF site at Point Cook.
At the Brunetti cafe at Terminal 4 at Melbourne airport, all 12 colleagues of a positive staff member have returned negative results.
Of the 44 customers who visited at the time, 19 are now interstate and being supported by interstate health officials.
Of the 15 who are in Victoria, 13 have returned negative results, with the remaining two expected later today.
All 1,600 people who travelled through the terminal on 9 February have been contacted.
Weimar said the investigation around the terminal outbreak is “in a steady state.” All the close contacts of a cleaner who worked in the same terminal have tested negative.
There are concerns the mother of the three-year-old who tested positive overnight has returned different results, so they are still testing. Weimar flagged there would be workplace contacts at Alfred Health, which are already being managed.
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China reported seven new coronavirus cases in the mainland for 13 February, compared to eight cases a day earlier, Reuters reported.
All of the new cases were imported infections, the National Health Commission said in a statement. New asymptomatic infections, which China does not classify as confirmed Covid-19 cases, rose to 17 from 14 a day earlier.
China saw a major resurgence of the disease in January, when a cluster emerged in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing. The disease spread to northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in the country’s worst outbreak since March, triggering an aggressive package of measures including lockdowns in the worst-hit areas to curb the spread of the virus.
But data from recent days adds to evidence that China was able to effectively stamp out the latest wave of infections and avoid another full-blown Covid-19 crisis heading into the current lunar new year holiday. As of Saturday, mainland China had 89,763 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The death toll remained at 4,636.
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Mexico’s health ministry on Saturday reported 9,741 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,214 more fatalities, bringing its total to 1,988,695 infections and 173,771 deaths.
The real number of infected people and deaths is likely significantly higher than the official count, the health ministry has said.
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Foley says there are 940 primary close contacts have been identified connected to the Holiday Inn outbreak, and resulting exposure sites. This is down from 996 that had been identified yesterday, and he said this would fluctuate day by day.
Of that, 129 are direct family, workplace and immediate close contacts, 127 have tested negative, with two more results due shortly.
Foley is also defending the state’s contact tracing system, stating close contacts were contacted by health authorities within 48 hours over 98% of the time.
He also defends the state’s pathology system, stating that for the recent positive cases the average turnaround time is now 17 hours.
If you include the time it took for those test results to be analysed and returned by our labs, the average time from arriving at a testing site, getting swabbed, being interviewed as a positive case was 17 hours. This is a rapid turnaround by both our public and private labs and I want to thank our pathology team for their continued effort in improving over the course of the past 12 months as they get better and better at their job.
The number of test results that Victoria can process and turn around in these 24-hour timeframes as a result of that has significantly increased. In fact, from October until now, our testing process capacity has more than tripled in our eight public laboratories.
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The head of Tennis Australia, Craig Tiley, has said the Australian Open tennis tournament will continue as normal after Greek player Michail Pervolarakis tested positive for Covid-19 in South Africa, after departing Australia on 9 February.
Pervolarakis had arrived in South Africa and tested positive earlier this week, and has said he believes it was likely he picked up Covid-19 on his flight, or in his stopover in Doha, rather than being connected to the Holiday Inn hotel quarantine outbreak which has led to a five-day snap lockdown in Melbourne.
Tiley told Nine on Sunday Tennis Australia was following health advice, but given Pervolarakis tested negative on the day he flew out of Australia, there is a higher chance he was infected outside of Australia.
“There was a fair bit of travel time and he was travelling to two of the hotspots in the world and the chance to become infected is fairly high in those places. We will leave all the information for the authorities and then continue until we get any advice from them, if any at all.”
He said the current practice of isolating and testing any players or staff who have symptoms at the Australian Open would continue, but said if health officials requested more testing then that would be conducted.
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China accuses the US of 'severely undermining' WHO
China said the US has damaged multilateral cooperation and the World Health Organization in recent years, and that Washington should not be “pointing fingers” at China and other countries that supported the WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese embassy said on Saturday.
A spokesperson for the embassy, responding to a statement from the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said China welcomed Washington’s decision to reengage with the WHO, but it should hold itself to the “highest standards” instead of taking aim at other countries.
Sullivan on Saturday called on China to make available data from the earliest days of the Covid-19 outbreak, citing “deep concerns” about the way the findings of the WHO’s investigation into the origins of Covid-19 were communicated.
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Victorian press conference begins
The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, is holding a press conference providing the latest on the five-day lockdown in the Australian state.
As we have heard already, two new locally-acquired cases both linked to the Holiday Inn at Melbourne airport, bringing the total linked to that cluster to 16.
The two cases are a child and a woman from separate households who attended a private function in Coburg on 6 February. They’ve been in isolation since 12 February.
The exposure sites I listed earlier are the sites connected to these two people, and anyone who attended at the same time must get tested and isolate for 14 days:
- Elite Swimming, Pascoe Vale, Monday 8 February, 5pm-6pm
- Woolworths Broadmeadows Central, Broadmeadows, Tuesday 9 February, 12.15pm-12.30pm
- Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses, Broadmeadows, Tuesday 9 February, 12.30pm-12.45pm
- Oak Park Sports and Aquatic Centre, Pascoe Vale, Wednesday 10 February, 4pm-7.30pm
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Victorian press conference for 12pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, will hold a press conference at 12pm AEDT with the chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, and the head of contact tracing Jeroen Weimar on the latest on the Covid situation in Victoria on day two of the five-day snap lockdown.
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New Zealand reports three new community Covid cases
New Zealand’s minister for Covid-19 response, Chris Hipkins has confirmed there are three new cases in the community and one at managed isolation facility.
The community cases involve a mother, father and daughter from the same south Auckland household. Officials are currently investigating whether the infections are one of the more transmissible strain. The source of the cases is not known.
The mother works at an airport laundry and catering facility, LSG Sky chefs in Mangere, where staff undergo regular testing. The last time she was at work was on 5 February. “Based on current timelines we do not consider that she would have been at work while she was infectious,” said director-deneral of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Two of the confirmed cases visited areas of New Plymouth on 6-7 February, though it is not known if they were infectious at the time. They also visited Pak N Save Manukau on 12 February, which has been temporarily closed. The daughter’s school, Papatoetoe High School, has been shut.
The family followed the correct procedures by isolating and getting tested as soon as they developed symptoms, Bloomfield said.
“There is no such thing as no risk while Covid-19 is out there, so we need to stay vigilant,” Hipkins said, adding that the government would act with an abundance of caution, and that prime minister Jacinda Ardern would return to Wellington in the afternoon to address the situation.
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Hello, this is Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok, taking over from my colleague Josh Taylor.
Here is an update from Britain, which will begin giving Covid-19 shots to people aged 65 and over on Monday as it closes in on its target to offer vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups.
The government set Monday as the deadline to deliver a first vaccine dose to everyone in its top four priority segments, including all those aged 70 and over, a goal it looks likely to reach, Reuters reported.
According to the latest official figures, 14.56 million people have received a shot, allowing health officials to expand the programme to those aged 65 to 69, and to other clinically vulnerable people.
The National Health Service said about 1 million people had already received invitations.
“Every jab in the arm is another step closer to returning to normality in the future and that’s why we’re now inviting the next priority group to book their appointments,” vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said in a statement.
Britain, which has recorded more than 120,000 deaths from Covid-19, was the first western country to begin mass vaccinations in December, and is ahead of other European countries in rolling out the shots.
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New South Wales records 28th consecutive day of no new local cases
The Australian state of New South Wales recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 for the 28th consecutive day.
There were two cases in hotel quarantine reported, with 16,302 tests to 8pm.
The NSW health department says this is the first time NSW has gone 28 days with no locally acquired cases since the start of the pandemic last year.
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For those wondering how federal MPs from the Australian state of Victoria will manage the upcoming sitting week in parliament with the lockdown in place, worry no longer – most arrived in the Australian Capital Territory before the lockdown, under advice from the sergeant-at-arms, so they could attend the coming sitting.
Those who elected to stay at home can attend via virtual sittings from their offices.
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Just some more information on the two cases in Victoria today, the ABC’s Raf Epstein says they’re linked to a private function at Coburg, where most others have tested negative.
We are expecting a press conference soon. Just checking on the timing.
These two new cases are from the function in Sydney Rd, Coburg.
— Rafael Epstein (@Raf_Epstein) February 13, 2021
Most at that private function have tested negative https://t.co/MpW788dbCT
Boris Johnson urges G7 leader to unite to defeat 'common foe' Covid
The British PM Boris Johnson will urge world leaders to work together to defeat the “common foe” of coronavirus when he hosts his first meeting of the UK presidency of the G7, AP reports.
Johnson will call for an end to the “nationalist and divisive politics” which marred the initial response to the pandemic when he chairs the virtual gathering on Friday.
According to Downing Street, Johnson will say the rollout of vaccines offers a fresh opportunity to demonstrate the value of international cooperation.
The online meeting – ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall in June – marks US president Joe Biden’s first major multilateral engagement since entering the White House last month.
Among those involved with the G7, there is reportedly relief at the prospect of dealing with a president committed to upholding the international order after the turbulent years of Donald Trump.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Johnson said: “The solutions to the challenges we face – from the colossal mission to get vaccines to every single country, to the fight to reverse the damage done to our ecosystems and lead a sustainable recovery from coronavirus – lie in the discussions we have with our friends and partners around the world.
“Quantum leaps in science have given us the vaccines we need to end this pandemic for good,” he said. “Now world governments have a responsibility to work together to put those vaccines to the best possible use.”
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Queensland has reported no cases of Covid-19.
Sunday 14 February – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) February 13, 2021
• 0 new cases
• 7 active cases
• 1,320 total cases
• 1,855,311 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,301 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/sERtC7xV4W
It’s still a couple of weeks until Australians start to get vaccinated against Covid-19, and health minister Greg Hunt has flagged the government will be developing communications to ensure everyone in Australia is able to receive the vaccine, AAP reports.
Hunt said it is critical that communications around the vaccine program are also targeted for culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse communities.
“The government recognises that people from multicultural communities are a significant part of the health, aged care, child care and disability workforce and will be among the first people in Australia to receive vaccinations,” Hunt said in a statement on Sunday.
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Australia’s shadow federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is concerned that Australia is languishing in rolling out the vaccine program which he says is creating uncertainty in communities and the economy more broadly, AAP reports.
He said some 90 countries have their vaccinations program under way.
“After the prime minister said we were at the front of the queue, 160m people have been vaccinated around the world, while zero Australians have been vaccinated,” Chalmers told Sky News on Sunday.
The Australian rollout is not due to begin until later this month.
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Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s global coronavirus live blog.
I’m Josh Taylor, reporting to you from Melbourne where we are in day two of a five-day snap lockdown, following an outbreak from the Holiday Inn Melbourne airport quarantine hotel.
As of Sunday morning, there are now 16 cases associated with the Melbourne outbreak, with two new cases reported today, with one other case in hotel quarantine.
Here’s the latest from the rest of the world at a glance:
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UK prime minister Boris Johnson has said he is “optimistic” he will be able to begin announcing the easing of restrictions when he sets out his “roadmap” out of lockdown in England on 22 February.
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Australia’s Victoria state is gearing up to rethink its hotel quarantine programme, as the state enters its second day of a five-day “circuit-breaker” lockdown in response to an outbreak of the more infectious UK variant at a Melbourne airport quarantine hotel, and two new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and one in hotel quarantine were reported.
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Iran is heading towards a “fourth wave” as cases rise in certain areas, its president has warned.
- Talking about UK pubs reopening in April is “premature” and pub bosses need to realise there is a danger of going “back to square one”, an expert has said.
- Uptake of the coronavirus vaccine among care home staff in the UK remains “far too low”, according to the deputy chair of the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), who said only 66% of care home staff had taken up the offer of the jab.
- A coronavirus strain found on a Polish mink farm can be directly transmitted from the animals to humans and vice versa, the country’s agriculture ministry said on Saturday.
- Venezuela has received the first 100,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine on Saturday.
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Lebanon on Saturday received its first coronavirus vaccines, a day before an inoculation drive is set to launch.
- Infections in Germany continue to fall nationwide, as the country reported 8,354 new infections on Saturday, around 2,100 fewer than a week earlier.
- South Africa will reopen 20 of its land borders to allow normal travel after restrictions were implemented to control rising Covid-19 infections last month, the Home Affairs ministry said on Saturday.
- China refused to hand over data on early Covid cases to the investigation into the origins of the pandemic, a member of the member of the World Health Organization-led team has said.
If you want to read more on these developments the previous blog can be found here.
Let’s get into it.
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Victoria adds new Covid exposure sites; Greek tennis player tests positive hours after leaving Melbourne
In Victoria overnight, four new Covid exposure sites were added:
- Elite Swimming, Pascoe Vale, Monday 8 February, 5pm - 6pm
- Woolworths Broadmeadows Central, Broadmeadows, Tuesday 9 February, 12.15pm - 12.30pm
- Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses, Broadmeadows, Tuesday 9 February, 12.30pm - 12.45pm
- Oak Park Sports and Aquatic Centre, Pascoe Vale, Wednesday 10 February, 4pm - 7.30pm
Anyone who visited these locations must isolate, test and remain isolated for 14 days. For a full list of exposure sites and locations where you can get a Covid test, visit: http://dhhs.vic.gov.au/case-locations.
The Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, has reportedly rejected suggestions from Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, that hotel quarantine numbers should potentially be slashed to only those on compassionate grounds, stating Victoria should return to its pre-outbreak numbers at the end of the five-day lockdown.
It comes as Greek tennis player Michail Pervolarakis has tested positive for Covid-19 after leaving Melbourne following the Australian Open, he flew on a 24-hour flight to South Africa, where he is now in isolation and asymptomatic.
The number 463 in ATP rankings has clarified he tested negative prior to leaving Melbourne, and believes he was infected on his flight or at his stopover in Doha.
Pervolarakis announces he has tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival to South Africa from Australia pic.twitter.com/ze7pvRV5P4
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) February 13, 2021
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