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China has reported seven new cases in the mainland for Saturday, compared with eight cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.
All the new infections were imported cases, it said in a statement. There were no new deaths.
China also reported six new asymptomatic patients, compared with 13 a day earlier. China does not classify asymptomatic cases as confirmed Covid-19 cases.
As of Saturday, mainland China had 89,831 confirmed coronavirus infections, while the death toll remained at 4,636, it said.
In northern China, there are some concerns and complaints among residents who have been in lockdown for more than 40 days.
China recently experienced its worst outbreaks since the early months of the pandemic. Gaocheng, a district of Shijiazhuang city home to 800,000 people, was one of the worst affected, with more than 880 cases.
The South China Morning Post reports there have been no new cases since Monday, and authorities have adjusted the risk level designations of most of the district. But some locals in Jiumen town said they hadn’t been told of restrictions lifting and had been prevented from leaving. They’ve been in lockdown since mid January, and residents are saying they’re running out of food, and have been ordered to take tests multiple times.
“I have done the test 16 times. I have not stepped out of the house for over a month.” He Pengfei, a 30-year-old restaurant owner in Lianzhou town, told the Post. He said he has been forced to shut his business and was going into debt.
Updated
Australia’s health minister and prime minister are addressing the media now.
Health minister Greg Hunt opens with a line about Australians standing shoulder to shoulder during the pandemic and now putting their shoulders forward to get vaccinated... and now here’s Morrison.
He’s out of the sports t-shirt and suited up for what he says is a historic day for Australia.
“What we’re demonstrating today is our priorities on those [vulnerable and frontline worker] Australians,” he says.
“I said at the outset we were going to make our Australian way through this pandemic, and the Australian way has proved to be, when you look around the world, one of the most effective there is. And the reason for that, in my view, has consistently been the strength and resilience of the Australian people.”
He urges people to follow the medical direction and scientific advice, and says it’s right for people to ask questions and they’ve worked to make sure there is information available to answer them.
“It’s safe, it’s important, join us on this Australian path that sees us come out of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Updated
The majority of the state’s population will be getting it around the middle of the year according to Queensland’s plan, says state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and shouldn’t just turn up to clinics tomorrow. It will be made clear to those who are getting the vaccines, she says.
Queensland authorities are providing details of their rollout, focusing on vulnerable and priority groups.
Phase 1A starts at the Gold Coast tomorrow, and will reach 125,000 Queenslander, including 37,000 quarantine and border workers, and the frontline healthcare workers managing the five cases in the state. It will also focus on aged care facilities.
It’s dependent on getting the doses on hand, but it should take 4-6 weeks, says Dr Jeanette Young, the Queensland chief health officer.
Phase 1B is one million including other healthcare workers, non-Indigenous people aged 70 and older and Indigenous people aged over 50. The non healthcare workers will probably receive the vaccine from their regular GP.
Phase 2A will aim to vaccinate another 1.3m adult Queenslanders, who Young is describing as anyone who’s in the state at the time.
Phase 2B, another 1.5 million people aged over 18 who haven’t already been vaccinated in earlier phases.
They’re waiting for further research on vaccinating kids.
Morrison has just received the Pfizer vaccination, who will speak to the press shortly. The health minister, Greg Hunt, said earlier that having the country’s leaders lining up first was “about confidence”.
“Research shows that people want to see that if we believe it’s safe, then that will give them greater confidence.”
Yesterday hundreds of people rallied in Sydney, Melbourne, and other Australia cities, protesting against having the vaccination. The vaccine is not compulsory.
According to an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, men (76%) are more likely than women (71%) to agree or strongly agree with getting the jab.
There is also stronger support for it among people aged over 65 than younger Australians.
— heldavidson (@heldavidson) February 21, 2021
Hello, this is Helen Davidson in Taipei, here to take you through the next few hours of updates.
Thanks to Clea for the coverage so far.
Right now Australia is beginning its vaccine rollout, with the first dose given to a woman named Jane Malaysiak just a short time ago. There’s a lot of press at the medical centre in the Sydney suburb of Castle Hill, where prime minister Scott Morrison is on deck for the event.
Morrison, Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly and the chief nursing officer Alison McMillan will all get the Pfizer vaccine today, along with two aged care residents and care staff.
Updated
Summary
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All adults in the UK will be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of July, Boris Johnson has said ahead of an announcement on how England will begin to ease its third lockdown.
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A further 21 cases of the virus variant first discovered in the UK have been detected in Morocco, its health ministry has said, taking the number of reported cases with the mutation to 24.
- Coronavirus cases are rising in a number of Indian states, including Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. The rise in infections comes amid the detection of new virus variants in Maharashtra, the Times of India reports.
- France’s number of new coronavirus cases compared with a week earlier increased for the third day in a row, with the health ministry reporting 22,371 new cases on Saturday.
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Micheál Martin, the taoiseach, has ruled out reopening Ireland’s hospitality sector until mid-summer due to the high level of Covid-19 cases in the country.
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Israel has reported a 95.8% drop in Covid-19 infection among those who have received two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, its health ministry announced on Saturday.
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Mexico’s deputy health minister has announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19, adding that his symptoms are mild.
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Iran has closed several crossing points at its border with Iraq in an effort to curb the spread of the Covid variant first detected in the UK after it was found in the country.
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The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, acted unlawfully by failing to publish multibillion-pound Covid-19 government contracts within the 30-day period required by law, a high court judge has ruled.
- More than 17 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to government figures.
Morocco detects 21 new UK variant cases
A further 21 cases of the virus variant first discovered in the UK have been detected in Morocco, its health ministry has said, taking the number of reported cases with the mutation to 24.
The country has not found any cases of the Brazilian or South African variant yet, according to a report in news outlet Hespress.
Health authorities called on citizens to remain vigilant and continue to observe social distancing rules and wear masks.
The country has reported a cumulative total of 480,948 cases and 8,548 deaths since the pandemic began.
Updated
Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, will be among a small first group to be vaccinated against Covid-19 on Sunday – a step the government says is intended to build public confidence in the safety of the vaccines.
On Sunday the Australian prime minister will receive the Pfizer jab in an initial group that includes several aged care residents, aged care staff, the chief medical officer and the chief nursing and midwifery officer, according to the health minister, Greg Hunt.
All UK adults to be offered jab by 31 July – Johnson
All adults in the UK will be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of July, Boris Johnson has said ahead of an announcement on how England will begin to ease its third lockdown.
The prime minister is set to unveil the government’s ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown on Monday, having reached its goal of vaccinating 15 million high-risk Britons by mid-February.
The UK has also moved its target for giving all over-50s a first dose forward. It now plans to administer shots for this cohort by 15 April, having previously indicated it wished them to receive the shot by May.
“We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place,” Johnson said in a statement reported by Reuters.
“But there should be no doubt - the route out of lockdown will be cautious and phased, as we all continue to protect ourselves and those around us.”
The UK has given a first dose of vaccine to 17.2 million people so far. You can read more on this topic here
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/20/ban-on-outside-sport-can-end-top-scientist-urges-johnson
Updated
Brazil registered 1,212 further Covid-19 deaths and 57,472 new confirmed cases of the virus on Saturday, according the country’s health ministry.
The South American nation has now recorded 245,977 total coronavirus deaths and 10,139,148 confirmed cases, Reuters reports.
Updated
Healthcare workers prepare and administer Pfizer vaccines at the HSE (Health Service Executive) mass vaccination centre for people over 85 years old at The Helix theatre, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dublin, Ireland Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Algeria has reported 182 new coronavirus infections and four deaths in the past 24 hours, a health official has said.
The figures compare with 210 cases and three deaths last Saturday.
The country has registered a cumulative total of 111,600 cases since the pandemic began, while its death toll stands at 2,954, Liberte newspaper reports.
Venues selling alcohol in the northern city of Tizi Ouzou have also been authorised to open their doors to customers after being shut for almost eleventh months.
Updated
Coronavirus cases are rising in a number of Indian states, including Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.
The rise in infections comes amid the detection of new virus variants in Maharashtra, the Times of India reports. The variants are understood to be more transmissible.
Local authorities have imposed lockdowns on the state’s Vidharbha region, as well as Mumbai.
The country has reported a rise in daily case numbers for five consecutive days, following a consistent fall in numbers over recent months. 13,993 cases were reported on Saturday.
Infections hit a peak of nearly 98,000 cases in a day in September and the country has not seen cases rise for five consecutive days since November.
Updated
People hold signs reading “+ Vaccine - Bolsonaro” during a motorcade to protest against Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro’s government in Sao Paulo, Brazil February 20, 2021. Photograph: Carla Carniel/Reuters
France’s number of new coronavirus cases compared with a week earlier increased for the third day in a row, with the health ministry reporting 22,371 new cases on Saturday. There were 21,231 last Saturday.
France reported 183 coronavirus deaths in hospitals in past 24 hours, Reuters reports, compared with 199 last Saturday.
Hospitality in Ireland to remain shut until mid-summer, Martin says
Micheál Martin, the taoiseach, has ruled out reopening Ireland’s hospitality sector until mid-summer due to the high level of Covid-19 cases in the country.
The country has been under national lockdown since December, and bars, restaurants and cafes have been shut for much of the last year.
Ireland has the 16th highest rate of infection of the 30 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Control, Reuters reports, while cases have fallen to less than a fifth of its mid-January peak.
No consideration will be given to opening hospitality until mid-summer ... the numbers of the virus are far too high,” Martin said in an Irish language interview with state broadcaster RTE. “Any easing of the restrictions has to be slow and cautious because of the threat from new variants of the disease,” he said.
Despite recent improvement in the country’s coronavirus situation, the government remains cautious about unlocking, as about 90% of coronavirus cases are of the more transmissible strain of the virus first detected in the UK.
Updated
Israel has reported a 95.8% drop in Covid-19 infection among those who have received two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, its health ministry announced on Saturday.
The analysis examined results from people who had had the second dose at least two weeks previously, meaning some 1.7 million were eligible to be included.
The vaccine was also 98% effective in preventing infections that caused fever or breathing problems and 98.9% effective in preventing hospitalisations and death, Reuters reported the ministry as saying.
Updated
Mexico’s deputy health minister has announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19, adding that his symptoms are mild.
Hugo Lopez Gatell has led the country’s coronavirus response, hosting regular updates updates on the pandemic. He said an antigen test was positive, and is now waiting for a PCR result.
“I have Covid-19,” Lopez Gatell, an epidemiologist, wrote on Twitter. Lopez Gatell said his symptoms started on Friday and are mild.
Comparto públicamente que tengo #COVID19. Inicié con síntomas ayer por la noche, afortunadamente son leves. La prueba de antígenos dio resultado positivo y espero el de la PCR. Estaré trabajando desde casa, pendiente de la estrategia de vacunación.
— Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez (@HLGatell) February 20, 2021
Mexico has reported 2,030,491 official cases of COVID-19 in the country and a total 178,965 deaths. Health authorities have said the real figures are significantly higher than that.
Updated
Greece reported 1,424 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, as well as 23 further deaths.
This compares with 1,222 cases and 26 deaths last Saturday.
Of the new infections, 680 were in the Athens area.
There are 325 patients on ventilators.
The country has registered a total of 178,918 confirmed cases and 6,272 fatalities since the pandemic began.
1,424 new #coronavirus cases in #Greece, 23 new deaths.
— Elena Becatoros (@ElenaBec) February 20, 2021
Total confirmed cases: 178,918
Total deaths: 6,272
Intubated in ICU: 325 (+/- 0)
Discharged from ICU: 1,270 (+3)
New hospitalizations: 247 (-30)
Total tests: 3,488,888 (+20,982)
Total rapid tests: 1,430,491 (+22,418)
Updated
There have been more than 3.8 million confirmed Covid-19 cases on the African continent, and more than 100,000 fatalities.
The number is understood to be an underestimation, with the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying last week that it was “definitely not counting all the deaths, especially in the second wave”.
Over 3.8 million confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 3.3 million recoveries & 100,000 deaths cumulatively.
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) February 20, 2021
View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/FKav40Cbdd pic.twitter.com/QaygLU6nic
Updated
Iran has closed several crossing points at its border with Iraq in an effort to curb the spread of the Covid variant first detected in the UK after it was found in the country.
Iraq’s health minister said on Monday that the variant had been found in the country, which has been suffering a sharp rise in cases, Reuters reports.
Crossing points to Iraq from Khuzestan province and the nearby provinces of Ilam and Kermanshah were being closed to travellers, the Iranian health minister, Saeed Namaki, told state TV on Saturday. He said:
The main source of infection ... with the British coronavirus in Khuzestan province were travellers who came from Iraq, and for this reason we have closed the borders of this province until further notice.
Iran reported its first three deaths connected to the variant last week, while the health minister warned that soon it “may be found in any city, village or family”.
Iran is the worst-hit country in the Middle East, with a death toll of 59,409 and a total of 1,566,081 infections recorded.
Updated
The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, acted unlawfully by failing to publish multibillion-pound Covid-19 government contracts within the 30-day period required by law, a high court judge has ruled.
The judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, ruled the failure to do so breached the “vital public function” of transparency over how “vast quantities” of taxpayers’ money was spent.
- DHSC spent £15bn on PPE by early October, but only published £2.68bn worth of contracts
- Departments have to publish contracts worth more than £10,000 within 30 days
- Several contracts were not published within the time frame, including: a £252m contract for the supply of face masks with a finance company, Ayanda Capital; a £108m contract with Clandeboye Agencies, which had previously supplied only confectionery products; PPE contracts worth £345m with a company trading as Pestfix
Read David Conn’s full report on the judgment here:
Updated
More than 17 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to government figures.
The total number of first doses stands at 17,247,442, while 604,885 have received a second dose.
For first doses, this is rise of 371,906 on the previous day, while for second doses it was 15,294.
Updated
UK reports 10,406 cases, 445 deaths
There have been a further 10,406 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data – a fall from last Saturday’s figure of 13,307.
A total of 4,105,675 people have tested positive.
A further 445 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported, bringing the total to 120,365. There were 688 last Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average, which evens out reporting irregularities in the daily figures, shows that cases are down by 19.2% compared to the previous week (7 - 13 February). Fatalities have decreased by 28.2% by the same measure.
There have been 129,498 fatalities where Covid-19 is mentioned as a cause on the death certificate, registered up to 5 February.
I’m taking over the blog from Kevin Rawlinson now – you can reach me with any suggestions for coverage via Twitter DM. Thanks in advance.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- More than 200m vaccine doses have administered worldwide, according to Agence France-Presse. The agency said wealthy G7 countries have pledged to more than double aid to support access for the less well-off.
- Italy suffered another 251 coronavirus-related deaths. However, according to health ministry data, that compared favourably to the 353 seen the day before. Reuters reports that the daily tally of new infections fell to 14,931 from 15,479 the day before.
- Several French cities are facing tougher lockdown measures. The health minister Olivier Véran is warning that Nice and its surrounding département will require further restrictions and local media reports that he has not ruled out a total lockdown.
- British officials are being urged to donate vaccine doses to developing nations. The new head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged Downing Street to act now as it was “in the interest” of rich countries as well as poor countries to have “equitable access”.
- Argentina’s health minister resigned after claims surfaced of the improper allocation of vaccines. Ginés González García said individuals were able to sidestep proper procedure for vaccinations due to “involuntary confusion” in his office. A prominent journalist had said he was given a dose after speaking to García personally.
That’s it from me. I’m now handing over to my colleague Clea Skopeliti, who’ll be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
Italy suffers 251 more Covid deaths
Italy has recorded 251 more coronavirus-related deaths, compared with 353 the day before, the health ministry has said. Reuters reports that the daily tally of new infections has fallen to 14,931 from 15,479 the day before.
Some 306,078 tests were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 297,128, the ministry said.
Updated
In Scotland, a further 803 new cases have been confirmed in the last 24 hours, while 29 deaths have been recorded.
It brings the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 6,945.
The test positivity rate stood at 4.6% and 102 people were in hospital with recently-confirmed Covid-19. A total of 1,412,643 Scots had received their first dose of a vaccine; an increase of 26,491 from the previous day.
A total of 15,046,635 vaccinations took place in England between 8 December and 19 February, according to provisional NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 327,697 on the previous day’s figures.
Of this number, 14,537,978 were the first dose of a vaccine; a rise of 323,802 on the previous day, while 508,657 were a second dose; an increase of 3,895.
The NHS England data shows a total of 1,753,957 jabs were given to people in London between those dates, including 1,687,471 first doses and 66,486 second doses. This compares with 2,792,010 first doses and 75,706 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 2,867,716. The breakdown for the other regions is:
- East of England – 1,733,088 first doses and 62,450 second doses, making 1,795,538 in total
- North East and Yorkshire – 2,283,536 first and 86,124 second doses (2,369,660)
- North West – 1,914,631 first and 70,710 second doses (1,985,341)
- South East – 2,370,975 first and 88,042 second doses (2,459,017)
- South West – 1,684,203 first and 58,760 second doses (1,742,963)
More than 200m vaccine doses administered worldwide
The number of vaccine doses administered worldwide has passed 200m, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), which says wealthy G7 countries have pledged to more than double aid to support access for the less well-off.
With 45% of injections so far among the rich club – which accounts for just 10% of the global population – the G7 on Friday said its aid to projects like the World Health Organization’s Covax now amount to $7.5bn (£5.35bn).
The increased pledges from the US, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Japan and Canada came as permanent UN Security Council member UK showed a draft resolution to other countries on the global body, calling for wealthy nations to share doses with poor and war-torn states.
Seen by AFP, the text “emphasises the need for solidarity, equity, and efficacy and invites donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low and middle-income countries and other countries in need”.
Meanwhile, Russia pressed ahead with its home-grown vaccination programme, saying 120,000 doses of its third authorised coronavirus vaccine, CoviVac, will reach people by March, following in the footsteps of the Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona shots.
The new vaccine, still in final stage clinical trials, was produced by the state-run Chumakov Centre based in Moscow and employed a different method of development from Sputnik and EpiVacCorona, using an inactive virus.
Today, Russia is the only country in which there are already three vaccines for the prevention of Covid infection,’ the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, said.
And New Zealand began what the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, called a “small but important step in a long journey” by launching jabs for high risk citizens and those returning from overseas, along with border and quarantine workers.
Neighbouring Australia is set to start its own scheme on Monday.
Updated
The Czech Republic, hard-hit by the pandemic, has ordered 12,000 doses of an antibody treatment made by Regeneron ahead of its registration by European authorities and will start receiving it in March, the country’s prime minister, Andrej Babiš, has said.
Reuters reports that Czech authorities are close to clearing emergency use of Regeneron’s cocktail of casirivimab and imdevimab, which was authorised for emergency use in the US in November, and was given to then US president Donald Trump during his infection.
“We have managed to order Regeneron,” Babiš said on Twitter. “In total, 12,000 doses. Four thousand will come in March, the same in April and May.”
The treatment is aimed at patients with mild to moderate disease who are at risk of their condition worsening.
Covid-19 antibody therapies, by Regeneron and rival Eli Lilly, are given through one-time intravenous infusion and require patients to be isolated. This complexity has led to lacklustre demand for the drugs.
The Czech Republic has also granted emergency approval to Eli Lilly’s therapy and ordered 500 doses.
Europe’s drugs regulator EMA said on 4 February it was reviewing data on both therapies for use in some patients. Italy has given emergency-use approval to the two therapies.
The Czech Republic, a country of 10.7 million, has reported 19,097 deaths. Daily infections have risen to over 10,000 in the past days, leading to the highest two-week incidence in Europe according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control data.
The country has administered 538,448 vaccines, which includes 204,795 people who have received both doses as of Friday, Health Ministry data showed. The figures put the Czechs below the European average, according to http://www.ourworldindata.org.
Updated
In the UK, the vast majority of Conservative voters are among those backing a big increase in the support given to those self-isolating, with some of the government’s own advisers warning that the level of help on offer remains the “huge gaping hole” in the UK’s Covid response.
With the chancellor Rishi Sunak set to announce a continuing support package in just a few weeks as the UK contemplates the process of loosening lockdown measures, almost three-quarters of Tory voters believe workers should be awarded full pay while self-isolating.
Under current rules, anyone self-isolating can apply for a £500 grant to help them, but many are turned down. There have been a series of calls to increase statutory sick pay, which stands at just £95 a week.
Handing people full pay while self-isolating is backed by 76% of voters overall, according to polling commissioned by the Royal Society for arts, manufactures and commerce. It includes 74% of Tory voters and 81% of Labour backers. There is also backing for other areas of state support. A majority of Tory (62%) and Labour (70%) voters back an extension of the furlough scheme, expected to be contained in the budget. Maintaining the £20-a-week uplift in universal credit is also backed by 51% of Conservative voters.
Updated
Pope Francis and Italy’s president have marked a newly established annual day to honour doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, exactly one year after the nation’s first known native case of Covid-19 emerged, the Associated Press reports.
In a message to honour those caring for patients, Frances hailed the “generous involvement, at times heroic, of the profession lived as mission.”
On the evening of 20 Feb 2020, a hospital in Codogno, northern Italy confirmed that a 38-year-old Italian man was infected. The man had no links to anyone who had been in China, where the outbreak first erupted.
A year on, Italy has seen more than 95,000 known dead, the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK.
Expressing gratitude to doctors, nurses and other health care workers, Francis likened their dedication to “a vaccine against individualism and selfishness”. He said such dedication “demonstrates the most authentic desire that dwells in the heart of man – be near to those who have the most need and give of oneself for them”.
President Sergio Mattarella marked the first National Day of Health Care Personnel by mourning the many medical workers who contracted Covid-19 and died.
According to professional associations in the sector, at least 326 doctors and 81 nurses have died.
Mattarella said the professionalism and self-denial shown by the medical workers contributed to efforts “to avoid the epidemic’s precipitating into an irreversible catastrophe”.
The Italian leader said despite its many shortcomings, the national health care system has proven to be an institution “to preserve and to invest in, in order to protect” Italians collectively.
Some of the €209bn (£189bn, $265bn) in European Union funding to help Italy rebuild from the economic and other devastation of the pandemic will be earmarked to shore up and improve Italy’s public health care system.
More anniversary commemorations are scheduled for Sunday in Italy, especially in the hard-hit north, where the outbreak first pummelled the nation.
Updated
An Irish cluster of three cases of the variant first discovered in Brazil has been completely contained, a senior health official has said.
All three were infected outside of Ireland and all were discovered during a 14-day quarantine following the patients’ arrival from Brazil, Cillian De Gascun, the head of Ireland’s national virus laboratory, told RTÉ radio.
The infections, the first of the Brazil variant to be discovered in Ireland, were announced by health officials on Friday evening, Reuters reports.
Updated
Thailand’s prime minister has survived a no-confidence vote in parliament amid allegations that his government bungled the provision of Covid vaccines, abused human rights, mismanaged the economy and fostered corruption, AP reports.
Nine other ministers also survived the vote. It marked the second no-confidence test that prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government has faced since taking office in July 2019, following a contested election after Prayuth seized power in a 2014 coup as the army chief. In February last year, he and five Cabinet ministers easily defeated a no-confidence vote in the lower house.
But a more serious allegation was that Prayuth has deepened divisions in society by using the monarchy as a shield against criticism of his government.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a popular politician who was forced out of parliament last year, was charged last month with lese majeste for alleging that the government’s procurement of Covid-19 vaccines was late and inadequate, and that there was possible favouritism in the awarding of the main contract.
The criticism relates to the monarchy because most of the vaccines that Thailand has ordered are to be produced by Siam Bioscience, a private Thai company owned by the king.
Russia has announced the registration of its third Covid vaccine and promised to introduce the jab to the Russian population by March, AFP reports.
Russia was the first country to register a vaccine against Covid-19 in August ahead of clinical trials, and the Sputnik V jab has been authorised in more than two dozen countries around the world.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said
Today we note that a third vaccine, CoviVac, has been registered ... And already in mid-March, the first 120,000 doses will be distributed within the civilian circulation ... Today Russia is the only country in which there are already three vaccines for the prevention of Covid infection.
He added that Russia had produced 10m doses of Sputnik and 80,000 batches of the EpiVacCorona vaccine developed by the Siberian Vektor laboratory.
President Vladimir Putin announced in October that the country had registered its second vaccine, EpiVacCorona, which health officials had said would enter mass production this month.
CoviVac was produced by the state-run Chumakov Centre based in Moscow, which employed a different method of development from Sputnik and EpiVacCorona, using an inactive virus.
The vaccine is due to complete final stage clinical trials with 3,000 participants in March and has so far been recommended for people below the age of 60.
Updated
Almost 300 homeless people have been vaccinated against coronavirus in Romania, making it one of the first European countries to single out people who are street homeless, health authorities have said.
AFP reports:
“These people are among the most exposed to infection risk. It’s hard for most of them to follow infection control measures,” junior health minister Andrei Baciu said.
Bucharest decided to move the homeless up the priority scale - following in Denmark’s footsteps - after pressure from charity groups. Now people who are street homeless are on par with the over-65s, chronically ill people and teachers, and just below health workers.
Mobile vaccination teams have visited shelters in several towns including the capital over the past few days. Over 1,300 people are registered as homeless in Romania - with the real number estimated to be several times larger - and 282 of them have received a first vaccine dose and 246 have had both.
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- Several French cities are facing tougher lockdown measures. The health minister Olivier Véran is warning that Nice and its surrounding département will require further restrictions and local media reports that he has not ruled out a total lockdown.
- British officials are being urged to donate vaccine doses to developing nations. The new head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged Downing Street to act now as it was “in the interest” of rich countries as well as poor countries to have “equitable access”.
- Argentina’s health minister resigned after claims surfaced of the improper allocation of vaccines. Ginés González García said individuals were able to sidestep proper procedure for vaccinations due to “involuntary confusion” in his office. A prominent journalist had said he was given a dose after speaking to García personally.
Updated
Reuters quotes Véran as saying:
There are a few cities and areas in France where the virus is circulating much more quickly than elsewhere and this may require regional confinement measures.
The French government has used local curfews and lockdowns in other areas but has generally preferred nationwide measures. Christian Estrosi, the conservative mayor of Nice who accompanied Veran on his visit, was quoted as saying:
If the government decides we need to go to a partial lockdown, for instance each weekend, I will support it and encourage it.
Following its second national lockdown in November, France imposed a nationwide 8pm curfew, which was tightened to 6pm in mid-January.
Véran said that the nationwide trend of infections has worsened in recent days. France reported 24,116 new infections on Friday, an increase of nearly 4,000 on the previous Friday. The seven-day average of new infections rose above 19,000 per day after falling to about 18,300 a week ago.
The country also reported 571 new deaths from the virus, taking the cumulative death toll to nearly 84,000.
Reporting the news, the French newspaper Le Figaro says Véran has not ruled out a total lockdown of the broader Alpes-Maritime département – roughly equivalent to a British county – within which Nice sits.
And it says the city itself will be given additional vaccine doses to try to protect the most vulnerable.
France braces for further restrictions
Several French cities are facing tougher lockdown measures because of the spread of the virus, health minister Olivier Véran has said.
According to Reuters, Véran warned that, in particular, the Mediterranean city of Nice and its surrounding region will require further measures to curb the contagion, with a decision due to be taken this weekend.
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Argentina's health minister resigns over vaccine allocations
Argentina’s health minister resigned on Friday after claims surfaced of the improper allocation of vaccines.
Ginés González García said in a letter posted on Twitter that individuals were able to sidestep proper procedure for vaccinations due to “involuntary confusion” in his office while he was away from the capital in another province.
Expreso mi gratitud a la inmensa mayoría del Pueblo argentino por su compromiso y apoyo a las políticas que implementamos para reconstruir un sistema de salud federal, con más equidad, acceso y calidad. pic.twitter.com/uBu8KY6PSB
— Gines González García (@ginesggarcia) February 20, 2021
Reuters cited two senior sources as saying the president, Alberto Fernández, had asked for his resignation after allegations were made in the media of at least 10 people receiving vaccinations without following the proper procedure; among them a veteran journalist who claimed he had received a shot after speaking directly with the minister.
The growing scandal throws a spotlight on wider fears in the region over corruption and access to vaccines, which are in short supply.
Earlier this month, Peru’s health and foreign ministers quit and its former president was placed under criminal investigation after reports of hundreds of Peruvian officials and others receiving vaccine doses outside of clinical trials and before the national immunisation program began, Reuters reports.
In Argentina, well-known local journalist Horacio Verbitsky said he had received a shot after approaching the minister. He told the local radio station El Destape:
I called my old friend Ginés González García and he told me to go to the Posadas hospital.
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Helping to vaccinate people doesn’t feel like work, says Camille Edmonds, a senior nurse manager in Hull. “There’s a productive buzz in the air,” she says. “The usual stresses and anxieties aren’t there.”
Edmonds, 49, a nurse for 28 years, works for Hull university teaching hospitals NHS trust, which she feels has been “really organised” in deploying the vaccine. She started inoculating people at the beginning of January.
Rachel Obordo and Alfie Packham report that 10 bays are used with 10 nurses each working five-hour shifts. “It’s a brilliant system,” Edmonds says. “There are so many people volunteering, from reception staff to those working in IT. Some even came out of retirement to help. By the second week, we received an email saying they had enough volunteers and that there was now a waiting list.
Shortly before the UK’s epidemic began, I started working as an adviser to shareholders – mostly local authority and trade union pension funds – on labour rights concerns in the companies in which they invest. Circumstances changed very quickly, but this has led me to speak, from my living room, on a weekly basis to people in frontline services about their working situations. I’ve talked to their union representatives and employers as part of formal meetings on behalf of the company shareholders.
I have heard about countless instances of dangerous practices and rash decisions by companies. In the scramble to balance workforce safety with protecting their bottom line, mistakes have been made – often repeatedly and in some cases systemically. Someone working in a food plant recalled colleagues being asked to wear cake boxes as masks. A union rep took a call from a woman in tears who was expected to clean care home rooms of deceased Covid patients with just a cloth and disinfectant spray. People across the UK took public transport to work while unwell because they couldn’t afford not to.
In England, plans for visits to care homes allowing hand-holding have been given a cautious welcome by organisations in the sector.
There have been calls for clarification on the details of the new arrangements, and a warning that staff resources will be key to implementing them. Care home residents will be allowed to hold hands with a regular indoor visitor from 8 March under the government’s plan to ease lockdown restrictions in England.
Visitors will be required to take a lateral flow test, which gives quick results, before entry and personal protective equipment (PPE) must be worn.
Residents will be asked not to hug or kiss their relatives, and guidance for care homes is expected to be published in the next fortnight, PA Media reports.
The UK’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, said he was “pleased” that it would soon be possible for people to be “carefully and safely reunited with loved ones who live in care homes”.
The charity Age UK said people can now have hope their “nightmarish, prolonged separation” from loved ones might be nearing an end. Its director, Caroline Abrahams, has said:
It makes sense for the first step to be to allow ‘essential care giving visitors’ back into care homes because these individuals are so crucial to the health and wellbeing of the residents they support.
In their absence, we know that some older people have stopped eating and drinking, despite the best efforts of staff to take their place. Sometimes, only the person you love most in the world will do and it’s to the government’s credit that they have recognised this.
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A year ago, Laura Ricevuti and Annalisa Malara – both doctors at Codogno hospital in Lombardy, Italy – had a hunch something was different about a patient in the intensive care ward.
As Reuters reports, their decision to take matters into their own hands ended up triggering a national emergency – they had identified the first case of Covid-19 in the area that would become Europe’s first lockdown zone.
A previously healthy 38-year-old man, now known as Mattia, his first name, or “patient one”, had gone to the hospital with a high fever, cough and shortness of breath on 18 February 2020. He refused to be admitted so was given antibiotics and went home.
He returned that evening in a worse condition and was put on oxygen. Two days later, Mattia’s wife told doctors that a few weeks earlier he had gone to dinner with a colleague who had been in China.
But Mattia did not fit national criteria for mandatory coronavirus testing because he had not been in China personally.
“I had to explain many times why I wanted to perform it [a Covid-19 swab] anyway,” Malara told Reuters.
“Doctor Malara and myself decided to break protocol,” Ricevuti recalled. They performed the nasal swab and sent it to a lab in Milan.
At 9:30pm the phone rang. The test was positive. Ricevuti said:
We couldn’t believe it. We thought this was a far away problem that had to do with China, but it was already here with us, and not just from that February 20th but probably from much earlier.
In the days that followed Codogno, a town of 15,000 residents, became the “capital” of the first “red zone” in Europe to be locked down. Malara said:
In the beginning I hoped – we all hoped – that the virus would be limited to a few people. But, after a few hours, a lot of people came to the emergency room with the same symptoms and after a few days it was clear that it had spread into the population.
Since then, 95,000 people have died in Italy, the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK and the seventh-highest in the world. Both doctors are still treating Covid-19 patients. Ricevuti said:
This is our mission. We cannot really retreat. Day by day, we go forward, facing the difficulties and the changes that life presents us ... you need a lot of physical and mental strength.
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The Philippines’ health ministry has reported 239 new deaths, the second-highest daily increase in casualties since the pandemic started, Reuters reports. The agency says there were also 2,240 new infections.
The previous daily high death toll was 259 deaths, reported on 14 September. The ministry said total confirmed cases have increased to 559,288 while confirmed deaths have reached 12,068.
The president, Rodrigo Duterte, is to decide next week whether to further loosen curbs in the capital, Manila, to allow more economic activity.
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Staying in the UK, the chair of the National Care Association has welcomed the news on English care home visits after a “gruelling” year, but said the approach must be one of caution. Nadra Ahmed told BBC Breakfast:
I think it is a welcome step forward. I think we need to be very careful and cautious and make sure that everybody understands the implications and the risks that might be attached.
But if everybody does what they’re asked to do and follows the rules then certainly we hope that this will be the start of a bit more as we go forward.
She said having just one nominated person is about “mitigating risks” and that she understands it could be “up to the resident sometimes to nominate that person”. Ahmed added that the biggest issue will be having enough staff to sort testing and cleaning after visits.
It’s doable as much as we possibly can and it will depend on the resources. Staff resource is our biggest problem. We have staff who are exhausted, we’ve got staff who are going down with Covid and also getting long Covid.
We have no insurance in our services for Covid-related risks – that still hasn’t been sorted out by government in any way, so there will be all sorts of things about mitigating risks, but the default is we want to enable this visiting.
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UK urged to donate Covid vaccines now
In the UK, officials are being urged to donate vaccine doses to developing nations straight away, rather than wait until it develops a surplus.
The new head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged Downing Street to act now as it was “in the interest” of rich countries as well as poor countries to have “equitable access”.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, promised to donate the majority of the UK’s surplus vaccines at cost to poorer nations in the lead-up to Friday’s virtual G7 meeting. He told world leaders that there is “no point in us vaccinating our individual populations – we’ve got to make sure the whole world is vaccinated because this is a global pandemic”.
But Okonjo-Iweala told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that, while the move was welcome, there should not be a delay.
I don’t think we should wait to get surplus when other people have been served. I think that any donations that are coming must come now. The reason is very simple. It’s in the interest of rich countries as well as poor countries to have equitable access.
“I don’t think we should wait … any donations that are coming must come now”
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 20, 2021
New director of the WTO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tells @Marthakearney she welcomes UK plans to donate surplus vaccines to the developing world but they are needed now or “all countries lose”#R4Today pic.twitter.com/6Qdu8i9Hf1
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Russia has reported 12,953 new cases in the last 24 hours, including 1,623 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 4,151,984. Reuters reports that local authorities also recorded another 480 deaths, raising the official toll to 82,876.
Ghana has granted emergency authorisation for the use of the Sputnik V vaccine, Reuters reports, citing Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund. It makes the west African nation the 31st country in the world to do so – and the fifth on its continent. The Russian vaccine was approved by the Ghanaian health ministry, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said.
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Poland’s health minister Adam Niedzielski has not ruled out imposing restrictions at the country’s borders with Slovakia and the Czech Republic due to their rising numbers of cases, Reuters reports. It quotes him as telling the local station Radio Zet:
Borders will be open for persons with negative test results, but this is as of today, as the dynamics of the situation may change.
“Yes, definitely,” he said, when asked whether the government was considering restrictions at the southern borders with the two countries.
Reuters said Niedzielski expects the peak of the third wave of the pandemic in March or April and says the Polish government is also considering reimposing curbs on social life in regions with highest numbers cases, including the northeast.
Poland has loosened some restrictions, recently opening ski slopes as well as cinemas, hotels and theatres at up to 50% capacity, but authorities have warned that these measures may have to be rolled back depending on the pandemic situation.
Two die in anti-lockdown protets
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s coronavirus live blog. We’ll be bringing you rolling coverage of the pandemic from across the world. Here’s a quick summary of the latest events:
- Italian police are investigating fake Covid-19 drugs and vaccines. Officers interviewed a Veneto regional official reported to have received an offer to buy 27m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside of the EU procurement system.
- Greece extended lockdown restrictions to more areas of the country. The authorities are trying to stem the spread of infections, Reuters reported. But they also lifted lockdown in others where infections receded.
- US land borders with Canada and Mexico are to remain closed to non-essential travel. The measure has been extended until at least 21 March to address Covid-19 concerns, Reuters reported, citing the US government.
- About 200,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine are on their way to Mexico. The North American country’s foreign minister announced the news amid a global scramble to secure tight supplies.
- France reported an increase in the daily death toll. Officials said on Friday that 328 people had died, compared with the 271 announced on Thursday and 310 on Wednesday.
- The Irish Department of Health has reported three cases of the Brazilian variant. The cases were identified as having been directly related to recent travel from Brazil.
- Two people died amid anti-lockdown protests in Gabon. The country’s president said the deaths occurred as the protests against new Covid-19 restrictions degenerated into a street standoff.
If you’d like to draw my attention to anything, your best bet’s Twitter, where I’m, KevinJRawlinson.
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