That’s it from the global blog team for now. Thanks for following our coverage, a new blog will be going live in a few hours.
A summary of today's developments
- France reported that 5,254 people were in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Friday, an increase of 145 people in one day and the highest daily increase in five months.
- Brazil has recorded 70,238 new coronavirus cases and 2,922 further deaths, Reuters reports. The country has registered more than 12.9 million cases in total and more than 328,000 deaths.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting tested for the coronavirus or going into quarantine afterward.
- Seven deaths have been reported among recipients of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in the UK, although experts say the numbers remain low.
- Turkey recorded 42,308 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Friday, the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic.
- The Netherlands has reportedly halted use of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for under 60s, following the death of a woman who had received a shot.
- 52 more people have died in the UK within 28 days of receiving a positive Covid test, according to figures published on Friday.
- Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has warned people not to meet others from different households indoors over the Easter weekend.
- The Covid reproduction number, or R value, in England is between 0.8 and 1, according to the latest government data. This compares to a figure of between 0.7 and 0.9 for the whole of the UK last week.
Of the handful of countries in the world that managed to stay completely Covid-free, almost all were islands in the South Pacific.
Most Pacific countries – protected by their remoteness and their governments’ decisions to close their borders – have kept their case numbers very low, with some notable exceptions, including French Polynesia, which restarted international travel early and suffered a devastating outbreak in the second half of 2020 and Papua New Guinea, which is now facing a very serious flare-up.
But, in these tourism-dependent economies, the closed borders that have kept them safe have also spelt financial disaster.
Before the pandemic, tourism contributed nearly 40% to Fiji’s gross domestic product – about FJ$2 billion (AU$1.4bn) – and directly or indirectly employed over 150,000 people. But as visitor arrivals fell by 87%, the economy plummeted by 19% in 2020.
Here is a look at Saturday’s Guardian front page in the UK:
Guardian front page, Saturday 3 April 2021: Patients face ‘frightening’ NHS backlog pic.twitter.com/s2gIqKqLAY
— The Guardian (@guardian) April 2, 2021
Updated
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention on Friday issued new guidance to the cruise ship industry, a necessary step before passenger voyages can resume.
Reuters reports:
CDC said the next phase of the CDC’s conditional sail order will include simulated voyages to allow crew and port personnel to practice new Covid-19 operational procedures with volunteers before sailing with passengers.
Brazil has recorded 70,238 new coronavirus cases and 2,922 further deaths, Reuters reports.
The country has registered more than 12.9 million cases in total and more than 328,000 deaths.
Updated
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting tested for the coronavirus or going into quarantine afterward.
Associated Press reports:
The CDC’s director Dr. Rochelle Walensky urged caution and said she would “advocate against general travel overall” given the rising number of infections.
“If you are vaccinated, it is lower risk,” she said.
According to the CDC, more than 100 million people in the U.S. — or about 30% of the population — have received at least one dose of a vaccine. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose.
The agency has said it would update its guidance on allowed activities for vaccinated people as more people get the jabs and evidence mounts about the protection they provide.
Mexico on Friday reported 3,089 new confirmed cases of Covid-19, bringing the country’s total to 2,247,357 infections, Reuters reports.
It also reported 190 more fatalities, bringing the total to 203,854 deaths, according to data from the health ministry.
Slovenia and Austria have promised thousands of coronavirus vaccine doses for the Czech Republic after coming under fire from Brussels for refusing to help EU partners in greater need of jabs.
AFP reports:
Slovenian Chancellor Janez Jansa pledged 10,000 doses for the Czech Republic.
Jansa tweeted: “A year ago, at the beginning of the epidemic when we had no protection gear, the Czech Republic was the first to help us and sent us 1.5 million masks and other gear.
“We said we will never forget it and we have not.”
Russia is working on a programme to offer people abroad the chance to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in Russia with its Sputnik V shot from July.
Reuters reports:
Authorities have so far been sceptical about launching a programme to allow foreigners to travel to Russia for the vaccine, saying that it needed to focus on its own population.
The two-shot vaccine is available in Russia for its own citizens or for foreigners who have a residence or temporary residence permit.
“Sputnik V vaccination in Russia! Who’s on board?” the shot’s official English-language account wrote on Twitter on Thursday, posting a photograph of people next to a plane with Sputnik written on it.
It invited Twitter users to follow its account, saying: “Our social media followers will be the first to be invited to get SputnikVaccinated in Russia when the programme starts.”
“We are working to start this programme in July,” it said.
The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson is preparing to outline the tests the government will use to determine whether foreign travel could resume this summer, after four more countries were added to the “red list” of areas from which almost all arrivals are banned.
The government announced on Friday that the Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya, and Bangladesh would join 35 other countries on the list, as ministers sought to prevent potentially vaccine-resistant variants of Covid-19 from entering the UK.
UK and Irish nationals and residents can return from red-list countries but they must pay to enter compulsory hotel quarantine.
The changes will come into effect at 4am on 9 April.
France sees highest daily increase in patients in intensive care this year
France reported that 5,254 people were in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Friday, an increase of 145 people in one day and the highest daily increase in five months.
New confirmed cases also jumped by the highest week-on-week rate since the end of November, when France was in its second nationwide lockdown. Reuters reports:
The health ministry reported 46,677 new cases, 6.2% more than a week ago, taking the total to 4.74 million cases.
It also reported 332 new deaths, taking the toll to 96,280 but the new death tally included 32 deaths in retirement care homes over three days.
Some 12.13 million people had received a vaccine so far, including just over three million second doses and more than nine million first doses.
Updated
Early evening summary
Here is a quick recap of the main Covid updates from around the world:
- Seven deaths have been reported among recipients of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in the UK, although experts say the numbers remain low.
- Turkey recorded 42,308 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Friday, the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic.
- The Netherlands has reportedly halted use of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for under 60s, following the death of a woman who had received a shot.
- 52 more people have died in the UK within 28 days of receiving a positive Covid test, according to figures published on Friday.
- Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has warned people not to meet others from different households indoors over the Easter weekend.
- The Covid reproduction number, or R value, in England is between 0.8 and 1, according to the latest government data. This compares to a figure of between 0.7 and 0.9 for the whole of the UK last week.
Russia has recorded over 225,000 Covid related deaths since the start of the pandemic in April, the Rosstat statistics service said on Friday, a figure that is more than double the death toll cited by the government coronavirus task force.
The statistics, which are reported on a monthly basis and with a lag, covering the period from April 2020 to February 2021, suggest that Russia has the third highest death toll in the world, Reuters notes.
At 225,572, the total Covid-related death toll places Russia third after the US, which has reported over 553,000 deaths, and Brazil, with over 325,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The figure is also more than double the widely-reported rolling death toll- currently at 99,633 deaths-provided by the Russian government’s Covid task force on a daily basis.
The authorities have said in the past that Rosstat’s figures are more complete, including data from autopsy reports not available for the daily tally.
Seven deaths reported in Oxford/AstraZeneca UK jab recipients
Further cases of a rare blood clotting syndrome and seven deaths have been reported among recipients of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in the UK, although experts say the numbers remain low and the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh any risks (see earlier post).
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), runs a “yellow card” scheme to pick up suspected side-effects or other concerns for medicines and medical devices.
According to the latest figures from the MHRA, there have been 22 reports of a blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) that was accompanied by a low platelet count as well as eight reports of other blood clotting problems with low platelets, among recipients of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab up to and including 24 March.
Platelets are fragments in the blood that help it to clot. Of these 30 reports, the MHRA said seven individuals had died.
You can read the full story by Nicola Davis, the Guardian’s science correspondent, here:
Turkey records highest level of new Covid cases
Turkey recorded 42,308 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Friday, the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic.
Cases have surged since the government eased measures to curb the pandemic in early March, Reuters reports.
On Monday, President Tayyip Erdogan announced a tightening of measures, including the return of full nationwide weekend lockdowns for Ramadan, which starts on 13 April.
The total number of cases stands just above 3.4m, the data showed. The latest daily death toll was 179, bringing the toll to 31,892.
Turkey has began administering Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid shots, introducing a second vaccine in its campaign.
Updated
A fresh lockdown in France will dent economic growth this year but it is too early to say by how much, the finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has warned.
Amid concerns that increasing infection rates across much of continental Europe will slow the recovery from the pandemic, Le Maire indicated on Friday that a forecast of 6% GDP growth this year may need to be revised downwards.
Phillip Inman, an economics writer for the Guardian, has the full story here:
Updated
Reuters reports:
Kenya has ordered an immediate halt to imports of Covid-19 vaccines by private companies, the health minister said on Friday, saying such shipments were unlicensed and potentially dangerous because the shots could be counterfeit.
Kenya, which went into a partial lockdown on 26 March after a surge of infections and deaths, has started vaccinating its citizens using just over 1 million shots secured through the global Covax vaccine-sharing facility.
At least one private firm has also brought in shots of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, according to Kenyan news media, who say the shots are being sold for about 16,000 shillings (around $150) for a double dose.
Health minister Mutahi Kagwe told a news conference the government had resolved to stop the practice, without identifying any company or vaccine.
“There will be no licensing of private players in the importation of vaccines and any such license given will be and is hereby cancelled,” Kagwe said.
The government, which does not charge for Covid-19 shots, will be the sole agent of vaccination until further notice, he said. Those who break the rule will be prosecuted.
This is from Louise Cullen, a BBC health reporter:
The BBC understands the Nightingale facility at Belfast City is to close shortly, as the hospital moves back to surgical provision. It was prioritised for de-escalation last month. Remaining Covid patients will be transferred to the Mater @mlchealth @LAMcbelfast
— Louise Cullen 😷 (@LouiseMCullen) April 2, 2021
Reuters has more on the halting of the use of AstraZeneca jab for under 60s:
The decision was made following new reports from medicine monitoring agency Lareb and discussions with health authorities, a health ministry statement said.
AstraZeneca said it was working with Dutch authorities to address any questions they had.
“Authorities in the UK, European Union, the World Health Organization have concluded that the benefits of using our vaccine to protect people from this deadly virus significantly outweigh the risks across all adult age groups,” it said.
Dutch agency Lareb, which tracks medication side effects, said earlier on Friday that it has received five reports of extensive thrombosis with low platelet counts after vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine, including in a woman who died. Lareb said the events had occurred 7 to 10 days after vaccination.
“These are women between 25 and 65 years old. Three patients had extensive pulmonary embolisms. One died and one also had a brain haemorrhage,” it said.
Roughly 400,000 people were vaccinated with AstraZeneca in the Netherlands in the period and the reports “seem comparable to other reports in Europe,” Lareb said.
It came a day after Germany halted use of the vaccine for people under 60 and a death was reported in the Netherlands of a woman between the ages of 25 and 65 who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Update from earlier post on Austria saying it will provide the Czech Republic with 30,000 doses of Covid vaccine:
Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš thanked the Austrian chancellor for the extra doses, saying on Twitter:
We are very grateful for this generous help, especially from friends who are also in need of more vaccines, but they understand how difficult is our situation...This is real solidarity!
Updated
Netherlands halts use of AstraZeneca vaccine for under 60s – reports
The Netherlands has halted use of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for people under 60 following the death of a woman who had received a shot, national news agency ANP said, citing the health ministry.
About 10,000 scheduled vaccination appointments will be scrapped as a result of the decision, the report added.
Dutch pausing use of AstraZeneca for under 60s. Health minister @hugodejonge said, “There should be no doubts whatsoever about the safety of vaccines. The crucial question is still whether complaints after vaccination or due to vaccination...” https://t.co/kD18BhtlFw #covid19
— anna holligan 🎙 (@annaholligan) April 2, 2021
Updated
UK reports 52 further deaths and 3,402 new cases
The latest UK coronavirus figures have been released in a continuing sign that cases are declining.
Fifty-two more people have died in the UK within 28 days of receiving a positive coronavirus test, and 3,402 new confirmed cases of coronavirus have been detected, according to figures published on Friday.
The seven-day total of deaths was 302, down 38.2% on the seven previous days; for positive tests the seven-day figure was 29,204, down 26.6%. The estimated R number was given as 0.7 to 0.9, with a daily infection growth rate range of -5% to -2% as of 26 March.
So far, 31,301,267 people have received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, while 4,948,635 have received two doses.
The figures for Friday do not include Wales, which is not reporting its numbers on the bank holiday.
Updated
Government U-turns and infighting combined with hospital vaccine blunders cast a sense of disarray over Ireland’s pandemic response, my colleague Rory Carroll reports:
Updated
Christians are marking Good Friday this year with limited religious sites open, as mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter have been placed under restrictions and outbreaks.
Associated Press reports:
Last year, Jerusalem was under a strict lockdown, with sacred rites observed by small groups of priests, often behind closed doors. It was a stark departure from past years, when tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the city’s holy sites.
This year, Franciscan friars in brown robes led hundreds of worshippers down the Via Dolorosa, retracing what tradition holds were Jesus’ final steps, while reciting prayers through loudspeakers at the Stations of the Cross. Another group carried a large wooden cross along the route through the Old City, singing hymns and pausing to offer prayers.
“We have to pray for those who can’t be here,” said Alejandro Gonzalez, a Mexican living in Israel. “Those of us who can be here have a responsibility to keep them in mind and to go in this Way of the Cross that they are going through as well.”Israel has launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, allowing it to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. But air travel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping away the foreign pilgrims who usually throng Jerusalem during Holy Week.
“Things are open, but cautiously and gradually,” said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land. “In regular years we urge people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home... This year we are somehow silent.”
In neighbouring Lebanon, Christians observed Good Friday under a coronavirus lockdown and amid a severe economic crisis exacerbated by the massive explosion that demolished parts of the capital last year. Even traditional Easter sweets are a luxury few can afford.
“People are not even talking about the feast,” says Majida Al Asaily, owner of a sweets shop in Beirut. “We haven’t witnessed anything like this year, despite the war and other difficulties that we had faced before.”
Hi everyone, this is Rhi Storer. I’ll be running the live blog for the next hour. Please feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if you have any coverage suggestions.
Updated
The ban on Kenya had been widely predicted, and reaction has been largely muted. But some in the eastern African economic powerhouse and major tourist destination accused the UK of “medical racism”.
“Once the US, UK and EU reach herd-immunity by June, it will close itself against Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Asia. It will be medical racism,” argued Donald Kipkorir, a lawyer in Nairobi, told the Nation newspaper.
Others pointed out that the ban comes days after British soldiers tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Kenya. The British Army training camp in Kenya has been placed in enhanced isolation following positive tests by a “very small number of soldiers”, the British High Commission in Nairobi said in a statement.
The decision will reinforce widespread resentment at western measures to protect economies and public health, as even wealthier African countries struggle to procure vaccines. The ban will further damage the Kenyan tourist industry, removing one of the few remaining direct transport links between the UK and sub-Saharan Africa.
The more transmissible South African variant has spread widely across southern and eastern Africa. Last week authorities placed Nairobi, the capital, and nearby counties under partial lockdown and closed schools and bars in those areas as a third wave of Covid-19 surged in the country.
In a national address, president Uhuru Kenyatta warned emergency measures were required to curb the highest rates of coronavirus infection seen in Kenya since the pandemic began a year ago.
Some 135,000 cases have been recorded in Kenya, and 2,167 deaths however official statistics are thought by experts to be a very significant underestimate of the true extent of the spread of the disease.
There has been speculation that the ban has been prompted by Kenya’s failure to close its border with Tanzania, where authorities denied the existence of Covid-19 for almost a year and have not published statistics on the spread of the virus since last May.
Updated
The Philippine foreign affairs undersecretary Brigido Dulay said on Twitter that the travel ban was “understandable, with our current surge”.
Covid infections have risen sharply in the Philippines over recent weeks, and on Friday the department of health reported 15,310 cases, the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic. The country has reported 771,497 cases so far, of which nearly one in five are active infections.
Authorities have blamed the rise on the emergence of new, more transmissible strains of the virus, including the strains that originated in the UK and South Africa. Health groups, however, say the current crisis, which has left hospitals overwhelmed, was avoidable.
“Looking at it comprehensively - that’s what we really lack most in the government response,” said Dr Joseph Carabeo, co-convenor of the campaign group, SHAPE UP, which has campaigned for changes to the Covid strategy. “It’s too militaristic and too oriented on the lockdown...Even the mass testing and the contact tracing has a very dismal performance. We are outpaced by the spread of the infection because we are fighting it blindly.”
The UK’s decision to ban travel from the Philippines was reasonable given the country’s infection rates, Carabeo said. But he added that he hoped the UK would recognise that sharing vaccine supplies fairly across the world will also protect the British public in the long term. “Even if you have heard immunity in your country, it is still a small globe,” he said.
Updated
The dramatic fall in new coronavirus cases seen since lockdown came into force is levelling off in England according to the latest estimates of the R number and epidemic growth rate.
Government figures released on Friday put R, the average number of people an infected person passes the disease on to, between 0.8 and 1.0, and the epidemic growth rate at -4% to 0%, meaning infections in England are broadly flat or shrinking up to 4% per day.
While the range in R is the same as last week, the upper estimate has risen to 1 in all seven NHS regions in England following slight rises in London and the South West compared with last week. When R is below one, the epidemic shrinks, and when it rises above one, cases rise.
The Department of Health said there was “significant variation” in transmission locally within the regions with signs of levelling off or growth in some areas and communities. The figures are based on data up to 29 March, but because estimates of R lag behind by two to three weeks, they do not reflect the full impact of schools reopening.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) did not agree a UK-wide value for R or growth rate this week because, as restrictions are lifted independently across the four nations, a UK-level estimate becomes less meaningful.
Updated
Boris Johnson urges against different households meeting indoors over Easter weekend
Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has urged people not to meet others from different households indoors over the Easter weekend, warning vaccines do not guarantee “100% protection” from Covid-19.
Groups of up to six are now able to meet up in parks and gardens after the stay-at-home order ended in England earlier this week, but socialising indoors remains banned.
The earliest date that families and friends could be reunited inside their homes under the government’s road map is 17 May.
During a Twitter question and answer session, Johnson was asked if people could meet loved ones indoors if they are vaccinated, to which he replied:
I’m afraid the answer is no, because we’re not yet at that stage. We’re still very much in a world where you can meet friends and family outdoors under the rule of six or two households. And even though your friends and family members may be vaccinated, the vaccines are not giving 100% protection, and that’s why we just need to be cautious. We don’t think that they entirely reduce or remove the risk of transmission.
This Easter weekend, please remember that outdoors is generally much safer than indoors.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 2, 2021
If you’re in England and seeing friends and family outside, keep to groups of up to six people or two households.
Let’s keep each other safe as we continue with the vaccination rollout.
Updated
PA Media reports:
Scotland has recorded four deaths of coronavirus patients and 414 new cases as the stay-at-home order was lifted across the country.
From 2 April, the order changed from stay at home to stay local, allowing for travel within a local authority area for non-essential purposes. First minister Nicola Sturgeon said the change is a “big step”.
The patient deaths in the past 24 hours bring the toll under this measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - to 7,614.
The statistics indicate the daily test positivity rate is 2.0%, up from 1.8% on Thursday.
A total of 30,507,732 Covid vaccinations took place in England between 8 December and 1 April, NHS England data shows, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 534,408 on the previous day.
NHS England said 26,576,629 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 122,410 on the previous day, while 3,931,103 were a second dose, an increase of 411,998, PA Media reports.
Updated
The US labor market went on a hiring spree in March, adding 916,000 jobs amid the fast-paced coronavirus vaccine rollout, my colleague Dominic Rushe reports:
Here are the latest London Covid vaccine figures from City Hall:
3,221,416 Londoners have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The total number of first and second doses given up to and including 1 April is now 3,716,720.
— London Gov (london.gov.uk/coronavirus) (@LDN_gov) April 2, 2021
After a tough year, the vaccine is a light at the end of the tunnel. When you're offered it, please take it.
England's Covid R value could be as high as 1
The Covid reproduction number, or R value, in England is between 0.8 and 1, according to the latest government data, compared with a figure of between 0.7 and 0.9 for the whole of the UK last week.
A latest growth rate of between -4% and 0% means that the number of new infections is broadly flat or shrinking by up to 4% every day.
The government has not released UK-wide figures for the R number this week.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect and is based on data available as of 29 March.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially, but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.
An R number between 0.8 and 1 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between eight and 10 other people.
Updated
Austria will provide the Czech Republic with 30,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s office has said.
“We will ... support the Czech Republic bilaterally with 30,000 doses of vaccine and believe it is very positive that we have also heard that other European countries are prepared to do the same,” it said.
Kurz previously said that an EU deal on Thursday on dose distribution should have given the Czech Republic more, Reuters reports.
Updated
Reuters reports:
Turkey on Friday began administering Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 shots, introducing a second vaccine in its campaign that began in mid-January, as new cases reached record highs.
Turkey has so far delivered 16.5 million vaccine doses nationwide, including more than 7 million people who have received a second dose of the shots developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
The rollout has so far included those over 60 years of age, health personnel and other priority groups.
A total of 2.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have arrived in Turkey, with that number expected to reach 4.5 million in the coming days, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.
People can choose which vaccine they would like to receive when their turn comes, Koca said, adding that the aim is to vaccinate a majority of the population by June.
Here is some reaction from the UK to the plans for Covid identity documents by Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on home affairs:
A ‘Covid pass’ system would be inherently divisive – dividing people up between those who have the right health status and those who do not. The idea that people should need a permission slip to get a pint in a pub is just not right as we look to move beyond the pandemic. https://t.co/j7zAGf47Sa
— Alistair Carmichael MP (@amcarmichaelMP) April 2, 2021
Updated
Hospitals in Pakistan’s most populated province have been put on high alert.
Pakistan has imposed lockdowns and restrictions in various cities in Punjab including its capital and the government warned it could surpass the peak of the first wave soon.
Hospitals in the country are already full and continue to fill up with cases of Covid-19.
The prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, had urged people to follow SOPs and understand the severity of the issue after he tested positive.
Khan also said the recent variant of the virus had been brought by people from the UK who had travelled to Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
Updated
Vietnam aims to have 20% of its 98 million people vaccinated against Covid by the end of the year, its health ministry has announced (see earlier post).
It said the country would receive 4.1m vaccine doses under the Covax-sharing facility by the end of May, Reuters reports.
Updated
Pope Francis has greeted some of the 1,200 homeless and vulnerable people who are being vaccinated against Covid at the Vatican this week.
The jabs are being administered at the Paul VI auditorium by health workers attached to the Vatican’s mobile health clinic in St Peter’s square.
A Vatican statement said the initiative was an act of “charity towards our poorest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters, and to give them the opportunity to access treatment and vaccination”.
The Vatican is also inviting people to pay for a vaccine for a person in need through an online donation scheme, via the pope’s charity account.
Only 40% of pubs will have the outdoor space to reopen as some restrictions in England ease in April – and they will be “loss making”, a hospitality industry chief has said.
PA Media reports:
There are around 37,500 pubs in England which could in theory open outdoors from 12 April, but just 40% of those – 15,000 – have a big enough outdoor space or beer garden to welcome back drinkers or be financially viable, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).
Emma McClarkin, the BBPA chief executive, told BBC Breakfast that being outdoors will be “a huge restriction on capacity” and that guidance which does not allow payments to be made indoors is a factor which will “complicate how we will serve people in venues”.
Noting that venues have also been asked to do extra collections of test and trace data, she added: “It is an additional burden on businesses at a very sensitive time of their recovery.”
Updated
Russia has agreements with 20 manufacturers in 10 countries worldwide to produce its Sputnik V Covid vaccine, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that markets the shot internationally, has said.
During a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Dmitriev said India and South Korea were already producing Sputnik V and that many of the 20 manufacturers would reach full capacity in April, Reuters reports.
Updated
Sachin Tendulkar has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus. The 47-year-old, India’s leading run scorer in Test cricket, revealed last weekend that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was quarantining at home with mild symptoms.
Thank you for your wishes and prayers. As a matter of abundant precaution under medical advice, I have been hospitalised. I hope to be back home in a few days. Take care and stay safe everyone.
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 2, 2021
Wishing all Indians & my teammates on the 10th anniversary of our World Cup 🇮🇳 win.
Updated
Reuters reports:
Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday criticised the European Union’s stumbling rollout of Covid-19 vaccines but said Greece would double its vaccinations in the coming weeks and inoculate everyone over 60 years of age by the end of May.
Greece, which coped relatively well during the first wave of the pandemic last year, has been forced to tighten restrictions to combat a surge in cases over recent months, with hospitals in the worst-affected areas around Athens struggling to cope.
Mitsotakis expressed appreciation for the joint purchasing of vaccines by the European commission, which has helped smaller states such as Greece.
“But at the same time it failed in getting the necessary quantities and supplying member states promptly,” he said in a speech to parliament.
Updated
This is from the World Health Organization:
Lao PDR 🇱🇦 started #COVID19 vaccination today! 👏
— World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific (@WHOWPRO) April 2, 2021
The country received its first shipment of 132,000 doses from the #COVAX facility on 20 March.
Health workers and vulnerable groups are being vaccinated first. #VaccinEquity @CEPIvaccines @gavi @UNICEF @WHO pic.twitter.com/ZdXxDTuI2C
Pope Francis has paid a surprise visit to homeless and poor people from Rome getting free Covid vaccinations in the Vatican, Reuters reports.
On Friday, the 84-year-old pontiff greeted doctors, nurses, charity workers and vaccine recipients in a makeshift clinic in the Vatican’s audience hall, largely disused because of the pandemic.
About 800 homeless or needy people have received the free vaccine so far and at least 400 more will get it, the Vatican confirmed.
Francis, who has been vaccinated, has said getting a jab is an ethical choice unless there are serious medical reasons not to.
Under Francis, the Vatican has set up a number of structures to help Rome’s homeless population, including a clinic, bathing facilities, barber and hair-cutting services.
Updated
The “stay at home” rule which has been in place in Scotland for more than three months has been lifted in time for the Easter weekend, although the public are still advised to “stay local” and should remain within their local authority boundaries for the next three weeks.
From Monday, hairdressers and garden centres can open, and cclick-and-collect shopping resume, while from 26 April all non essential retail, pubs and restaurants are expected to reopen along with gyms and swimming pools.
Police Scotland deputy chief constable Malcolm Graham issued a warning ahead of the Easter weekend, urging people to stay local unless for essential purposes.
He said:
While Easter weekend is traditionally a time for visiting friends and family, I would urge people to stay local and follow the regulations on gatherings. If you are visiting beauty spots within your local area, do so safely and respectfully – leaving no trace of your visit.
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The UK culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has said that Covid certificates could be a way of getting people back to “doing the things they love”.
Dowden told BBC News:
Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, is conducting a review, which I am of course participating in, as to whether we could make Covid status certification work. This is not about a vaccine passport, this is about looking at ways of proving that you are Covid secure, whether you have had a test or had the vaccine. Clearly, no decisions have been made on that, because we have to weigh up different factors, the ethical considerations and so on, but it may be a way of ensuring we can get more people back doing the things they love.
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Hi everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the live blog until the early evening (UK time). Please feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if you have any coverage suggestions.
The family of a 38-year-old woman who died of thrombosis after having the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is taking legal action for “manslaughter”. The family’s lawyer says they are not doing this to point the finger at anyone, but to find out what happened.
The woman, a social worker with no underlying health conditions – that is to say someone unlikely to die of Covid-19 if they caught it – died on 29 March at the Purpan hospital in Toulouse two weeks after being inoculated.
This was before France announced it would only be giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to those over 55.
Shortly after receiving the vaccine, the woman was taken to hospital and placed in a coma. The link between her death and the vaccine has not been established.
Lawyer Etienne Boittin, who is representing the family and also representing the family of a student from Nantes who died of an abdominal thrombosis in March after being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, told France Bleu Occitanie radio: “We not seeking to accuse anyone but to question them. It’s not a question of pointing the finger at a hospital or laboratory.”
Boittin said starting legal action opened the way for a legal investigation. “We need all the light to be shone on the cause of death and the possible links between that death and the AstraZeneca injection,” he said.
On 26 March, the French National Agency for Drug Safety (ANSM) said there could be a rare risk of thrombosis after the AstraZeneca vaccine but stressed: “The benefit-risk ratio of the vaccine is positive. There’s nothing to indicate for the moment that the vaccine has caused these problems.”
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UK prime minister Boris Johnson has tweeted a video of himself answering questions from members of the public about his “roadmap to freedom”, as he put it.
I answered some of your questions about our cautious, irreversible roadmap to freedom.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 2, 2021
Keep sending your questions in to https://t.co/FBynuacYFP pic.twitter.com/d5Dlb4PhVz
England adds four countries to travel ban 'red list'
Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan and the Philippines will be added to England’s so-called “red list” as of 4am Friday 9 April, the British government said in an update.
People who have been in or through any of the countries on the red list in the previous 10 days will be refused entry to the UK.
British or Irish nationals and those who have residence rights in the UK will be able to enter, but must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.
The full list of countries subjected to the travel ban now includes Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh (from 4am Friday 9 April), Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Guyana, Kenya (from 4am Friday 9 April), Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Oman, Pakistan (from 4am Friday 9 April), Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines from 4am Friday 9 April), Qatar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The UK government said in a statement:
Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya and Bangladesh have been added to England’s red list to protect the country against new variants of coronavirus (Covid-19), at a critical time for the vaccine programme.
With over 30 million vaccinations delivered in the UK so far, the additional restrictions will help to reduce the risk of new variants – such as those first identified in South Africa (SA) and Brazil – entering England.
So far, surveillance has found that few cases of the SA variant have been identified as being imported from Europe, with most coming from other parts of the world.
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Philippines sees all-time record daily rise in infections
The Philippines logged a new all-time high in fresh daily infections on Friday, as it reported 15,310 new coronavirus cases.
But the health department said this included a backlog of 3,709 cases that were supposed to have been reported on 31 March.
According to Reuters, the previous daily record was just over 10,000 new cases.
CNN Philippines reports:
The total soared to 771,497 with 153,809 active cases – also a new all-time high for currently sick patients. It does not yet include data from seven laboratories that have yet to submit their reports.
The death toll also climbed to 13,320 after 17 more people died, while 434 others recovered, raising the survivor count to 604,368.
The Philippines is among the countries that have been recently included in Ireland’s mandatory hotel quarantine list amid the threat of coronavirus variants of concern.
All travellers who have been to the Philippines and 25 other states 14 days before they arrive in Ireland will be required starting April 6 to go on mandatory quarantine in a designated quarantine facility upon arrival in the European country, the Irish government announced.
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A food bank on Portugal’s Algarve, which has two warehouses in the region, is now helping 29,000 people, almost double the number before the pandemic, after thousands of people had their lives turned upside down across the sun-drenched tourism region, with its popular beaches and golf resorts largely deserted.
“It’s the first time since the food bank began in Algarve that the numbers have reached such a level,” said the food bank’s president, Nuno Alves, as volunteers distributed food to drivers from various charities waiting in their cars outside, Reuters reports.
Poverty is spreading across the middle-class, said Alves, with people from the crucial tourism sector worst affected. Many businesses have had to shut and some may never reopen.
In February, the number of those registered as jobless in the Algarve jumped 74% from a year ago, more than in any other Portuguese region.
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Police on horseback dispersed a crowd of up to 2,000 people gathered in a Brussels park on Thursday for a fake concert announced on social media as an April Fool’s Day prank.
Agence France-Presse reports:
AFP journalists at the scene saw projectiles thrown at police in riot gear in the Bois de la Cambre park on the southern side of the Belgian capital.
Police said that three officers were wounded, one of whom was taken to hospital, and four people were arrested.
The police, wearing protective helmets and advancing in a line, moved in to enforce strict Covid-19 social-distancing rules that prohibit gatherings of more than four people outdoors.
Brussels law enforcement authorities on Wednesday had issued a warning that the announcement on social media of a “party” was illegal and that its organisers could be prosecuted.
Belgium on Saturday imposed tighter restrictions aimed at curbing surging Covid infection numbers.
They include closing schools, keeping borders closed, limiting access to non-essential shops and lowering the number of people able to meet outdoors to four.
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The UK will rank foreign getaway destinations under a traffic light system, with fewer restrictions tied to the places boasting the lowest coronavirus rates and high vaccination take-up, it has been reported.
Countries will be graded either green, amber or red, according to how well they are coping with the pandemic.
A sluggish vaccine rollout across parts of mainland Europe may mean that favoured continental destinations among British holidaymakers are deemed more high-risk than the likes of the US and Israel, where vaccination rates are good, PA reports.
Overseas holidays are currently banned due to the UK’s coronavirus lockdown measures, but prime minister Boris Johnson plans to make an announcement on Easter Monday about lifting restrictions in England.
The Times reported that travel to and from so-called red-list countries will be banned, although the Sun newspaper said those arriving back in the UK from such destinations will have to pay to stay at quarantine hotels, as is the current set-up for the worst-affected countries.
Both newspapers said green-listed countries would be exempt from quarantine measures.
PA reports:
Any restrictions could put further pressure on Britons to shun international travel in favour of a domestic holiday, amid concerns leaving the UK could increase the risk of introducing mutant coronavirus strains.
Scientific experts have repeatedly said summer staycations should be encouraged over foreign holidays this year.
Dame Anne Johnson, a professor of epidemiology at University College London, said the importation of new coronavirus variants was “one of the biggest risks” facing the UK.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday: “This is a risk where you’ve got high rates of infection. I’m for staycations.”
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UK unlikely to see third wave like other European countries, expert says
The UK is unlikely to experience a third wave of Covid-19 on the scale of the surge in infections currently sweeping through Europe, a leading expert in public health has said.
Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, told Times Radio:
I think we are in a very different position for two main reasons - the first one is that they are dealing with the B117 [variant] which unfortunately we exported to them and caused us huge challenges - still does - but much more in the winter.
More importantly, 11.6% of citizens in the EU on average have been given their first dose of the vaccine - that’s all people, not just all adults - compared to over 40% of people in the UK, so you can see they are in a different place than we are.
Russia reported 8,792 new coronavirus infections on Friday, including 1,764 in Moscow, taking the total infection tally in the country to 4,563,056 since the pandemic began.
The government coronavirus task force said 400 people had died from the respiratory disease in the last 24 hours, with Russia’s official death toll now standing at 99,633.
Russia’s statistics service, which is keeping a separate tally, has reported a much higher toll, saying more than 200,000 Russians had died of Covid-19 through to January, Reuters reports.
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Vietnam asked diplomats of several countries for help in procuring coronavirus vaccines on Friday, as it seeks to secure the 150 million doses needed to cover its adult population.
Reuters reports:
Vietnam has received about 930,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine so far and wants to diversify its procurement from more sources, including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, China’s Sinovac and Russia’s vaccine, Sputnik V.
Health minister Nguyen Thanh Long met ambassadors on Friday and asked Japan’s embassy for help with technology transfer for vaccine production and testing in Vietnam, the ministry said in a statement.
Long also asked the US ambassador for help with accelerating domestic inoculations and getting access to vaccines from US drugmakers. He told EU representatives he hoped European pharmaceutical firms would consider more investment in Vietnam.
Long on Wednesday met with Chinese, Indian and Russian diplomats to discuss vaccines.
Vietnam has been praised for its record in containing its coronavirus outbreaks through mass testing and tracing and strict quarantining, which has kept its cases to just 2,617, with 35 deaths.
It aims to immunise 70% of its population and has so far inoculated 51,200 people. The request for help came as some countries expressed concern about vaccine shortages.
Four Vietnamese companies are engaged in vaccine research and production and two are at the human trial stage. Its first home-grown vaccine, called Nanocovax, is expected to be put into use in 2022.
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In the UK, Labour’s former shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti said that engaging in local community life was a “fundamental right” when arguing against the introduction of vaccine passports.
The British government is reviewing the idea of asking people to show proof of a Covid-19 vaccination to access crowded spaces such as pubs or sports events, and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, has said a certificate is likely to be needed for international travel.
Lady Chakrabarti, the former director of human rights group Liberty, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It’s counter-productive because we have got one of the highest confidence levels in vaccine uptake.
History demonstrates, even in Britain, that when you inject an element of compulsion into public health measures, such as vaccination or symptomatic testing, you actually encourage resistance and scepticism amongst the population.
It’s one thing to have a passport to travel internationally, that is a privilege, even a luxury, but participating in local community life is a fundamental right.
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The British hospitality sector continues to raise concerns about the way social distancing restrictions will be lifted in coming months.
Under the government’s planned “roadmap” out of the pandemic, pubs in England will be allowed to serve people outdoors later this month, with a further easing of restrictions in mid-May before all measures are lifted near the end of June.
PA Media reports:
Only 40% of venues will have the outdoor space to reopen as some restrictions in England are set to ease in April and they will be “loss making”, a hospitality industry chief has said.
Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, told BBC Breakfast that being outdoors will be “a huge restriction on capacity” and the guidance which does not allow payments to be made indoors is a factor which will “complicate how we will serve people in venues”.
Noting that venues have also been asked to do extra collections of test and trace data, she added: “It is an additional burden on businesses at a very sensitive time of their recovery.”
McClarkin urged the government to “just make it practical for venues to try and recover their businesses” as some restrictions are set to ease in April.
She explained that under the guidance people will be able to go inside to use the toilets but they are not allowed to go inside the venue to pay for alcoholic beverages.
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Here is more detail on the news that the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine – out of 18.1 million doses administered up to and including 24 March.
The UK has received 30 reports of the rare blood clotting events that some scientists have linked to the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and have caused precautionary restrictions to be placed on its use in many European countries.
On Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency released information on 25 cases of severe and very rare blood clotting events, on top of five it had already reported this month.
The MHRA also clarified that it had not seen any of the same reactions in individuals that had received the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. Concern has been growing about possible links between the AstraZeneca jab and a very specific and rare type of blood clotting event.
The news that a growing number of such cases have been identified in the UK is likely to call into question the view that the phenomenon has purely been observed in mainland Europe.
Reports of similar incidents have caused France, Sweden, Finland, Canada and most recently Germany to recommend that younger people, who are much more likely to be affected by the condition, avoid the shot. In Norway and Denmark, the vaccine is still suspended.
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China administered about 6.8 million vaccines against Covid-19 on 1 April, bringing the total number of jabs given to 126.62 million, according to data released by the national health commission on Friday.
Thursday’s figure marked the highest number of daily doses administered in more than a week, Reuters report.
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New Covid-19 restrictions in France will impact economic growth in 2021 but it is too early to say by how much, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday.
“These measures will impact economic growth in 2021. We are in the process of assessing it. There will be a new evalutaion in the coming days”, Le Maire told CNews television.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of coronavirus infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
Bulgaria will receive more than 1.2 million additional doses of Covid-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer in the second quarter, prime minister Boyko Borissov said on Friday.
Most EU member states agreed late on Thursday to share part of 10 million BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine deliveries with Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, countries they said were most in need, Reuters reports.
Bulgaria, which has the slowest inoculation rate in the EU, will receive 1.26 million doses out of 2.85 million so-called “solidarity vaccines” for the five EU members.
“This is good news for us and for all of Europe. It shows that member states can show solidarity,” Borissov said in a post on his Facebook page.
The Balkan country initially opted out of purchasing its full allotment of Pfizer shots and ordered more of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and has suffered from a supply crunch caused by cuts and delays of agreed deliveries by AstraZeneca to the EU.
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India reported 81,466 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, the highest daily number in six months, as several states were hit by a second wave of the coronavirus.
Reuters reports:
Health ministry data showed the total number of cases surged to 12.3m, making India the third-most hit country from the virus after the United States and Brazil. The number of those dead rose by 469 to 163,396.
Vaccination drives have been intensified amid the recent surge of cases, and many states are considering imposing fresh curbs on movement of people.
Maharashtra, the western state that has been worst-hit from Covid-19 so far, reported as many as 43,183 new cases on Friday – its highest since the pandemic spread to India in March 2020.
Officials in the state imposed a night curfew over the weekend but are considering stricter control measures, including shutting down religious places and restricting train travel.
India imposed one of the world’s harshest lockdowns to control the coronavirus early last year, but it was eased to salvage the economy, and cases gradually fell later in the year. The new surge this year presents a challenge to the government, which already struggled to implement last year’s lockdown.
Infection numbers were also up on Friday in the states of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
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Ukraine reported a record daily high of 19,893 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, health minister Maksym Stepanov said on Friday.
He also said a record high number of coronavirus-related deaths – 433 – were registered in the past day compared with the previous record of 421 on 1 April. It was the third day in a row that deaths had hit record highs, Reuters reports.
Stepanov gave no reason for the jump in cases and deaths. Late on Thursday he said Ukraine had confirmed some cases of the novel coronavirus variant that was first discovered in South Africa.
Stepanov said 5,040 people were hospitalised over the past day, almost the same number as on Thursday.
Several of Ukraine’s biggest cities, including capital Kyiv, have already imposed a strict lockdown.
Ukraine has reported a total of 1,711,630 cases with 33,679 deaths as of 2 April.
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Australia investigates blood clotting case after AstraZeneca jab
Australia is investigating whether a blood clotting case recorded on Friday is related to the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, a health official said.
The alarm raised concern in a nation where most people are expected to receive the AstraZeneca shot.
Reuters reports:
A 44-year-old man was admitted to a Melbourne hospital with clotting days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, suffering serious thrombosis and a low count of platelets, or blood cells that stop bleeding.
“Investigators have not at this time confirmed a causal link with the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine, but investigations are ongoing,” the deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, told a televised briefing.
More was expected to be known on Saturday, he added.
On Thursday, Britain identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events following use of the vaccine, and several nations, including Canada, France, Germany and Spain, limited its use after similar reports.
Australian regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has said previously the AstraZeneca vaccine was not tied to an increase in overall risk of blood clots, however.
In a statement on Friday, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation said: “There is not a higher overall rate of relatively common types of blood clots (...) reported after Covid-19 vaccination.”
Australia launched mass vaccinations for its 25 million people in February, with most expected to receive the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
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More than 70 UK MPs oppose government's vaccine passport scheme
Hello, I’m Jedidajah Otte and I’ll be at the helm of this blog for the next few hours. As ever, feel free to flag updates you think are relevant to our pandemic coverage, you can reach me on Twitter @JedySays and via email.
More than 70 UK MPs including 40 Conservatives, the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Liberal Democrat members have forged a parliamentary alliance to oppose Covid passports.
It came as the prime minister, Boris Johnson, suggested the government would move ahead with the scheme and it was announced that pilots of mass testing at large events would take place this month.
Four former Tory cabinet ministers including Iain Duncan Smith and Andrew Mitchell are among the group, along with key Labour leftwingers such as John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Diane Abbott and Rebecca Long-Bailey.
The coalition of MPs is backed by the civil liberties groups Liberty, Big Brother Watch, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and Privacy International, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.
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