This blog is closed. Follow the latest updates on the pandemic from around the world:
Here’s a summary of tonight’s developments
- South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced new lockdown restrictions – including a ban on all gatherings and alcohol, school closures and a curfew – in a bid to contain the spread of the Delta variant. He also said that South Africa has received 1.4m doses of the Pfizer vaccine through Covax and that over 50s would begin being vaccinated soon.
- UK opposition leader Keir Starmer said there are “huge questions still to answer” following the resignation of health minister Matt Hancock after footage emerged of him kissing an aide.
- Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel has tested positive for coronavirus and will spend 10 days in isolation while continuing to work from home remotely.
Thanks for reading. Handing over to my colleague Helen Sullivan in Australia now who will lead you through global coronavirus developments.
Updated
The Greek ministry of tourism has announced that all Russian travellers will have to show a negative coronavirus test to enter the country - whether or not they are vaccinated - because of the “propagation of the Delta variant”.
The new requirement will be introduced on June 30, AFP reports, and tourists from Russia will also have to have another test when they arrive.
Greek tourism officials have repeatedly said they would recognise Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, but the country was reportedly criticised by German and French leaders at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday for accepting Chinese and Russian vaccines.
Updated
Here’s Reuters’ report on South Africa’s new lockdown restrictions:
South Africa will tighten Covid-19 restrictions for 14 days as current containment measures are insufficient to cope with the speed and scale of new infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
The country, the worst-hit on the African continent in terms of recorded cases and deaths, is in the grip of a “third wave” of infections.
It recorded almost 18,000 new cases on Saturday, approaching the peak of daily infections seen in a second wave in January, and local scientists say the Delta coronavirus variant first identified in India seems to be spreading fast.
“Additional restrictions are necessary... Our focus is on limiting social contacts while preserving the economy,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation.
Under the measures announced, all gatherings will be prohibited, there will be a curfew from 9 pm to 4 am and the sale of alcohol will be banned.
Schools will start closing from Wednesday but beaches and parks will remain open. Restaurants will only be able to sell food for takeaway or delivery.
“We will assess the impact of these interventions after 14 days to determine whether they need to be maintained or adjusted,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africa recently received 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine via the Covax facility and an additional 1.2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the president added.
So far the vaccine rollout in South Africa has been slow, with only around 2.7 million doses administered among a total population of 60 million.
Faced with opposition protests, the government has set a target of more than doubling the rate of daily vaccinations over the next month.
Updated
Saudi Arabia is to start vaccinating children aged 12 to 18 with Pfizer, Reuters reports the health ministry has announced.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa also announced that vaccinations will soon be opened to people aged 50-plus:
President #Ramaphosa: Registration will soon be opened to those aged 50 & above. You can:
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 27, 2021
•Register online https://t.co/0YtMI3ijVs
•Dialling *134*832#
•Sending the word “register” via WhatsApp to 0600 123 456 or call the national toll-free centre on 0800 029 999#StaySafe pic.twitter.com/tf1HOPkiZj
Updated
South African president announces new lockdown restrictions including ban on gatherings and curfew
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that all gatherings and alcohol will be banned, schools closed and a curfew put in place in a bid to contain the spread of the Delta variant.
The adjusted alert level 4 restrictions, which will include a 9pm to 4am curfew, will be in place for 14 days, reports Reuters.
Addressing the nation this evening, the president said that the rapid spread of Delta is extremely serious and that the current containment measures are insufficient to deal with the speed and scale of coronavirus infections.
Ramaphosa said schools will start closing from Wednesday.
He also said that South Africa has received 1.4m doses of the Pfizer vaccine through Covax.
President @CyrilRamaphosa addresses the nation on Government's response to the #CoronaVirusSA pandemic https://t.co/c6xUNpNZNd
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 27, 2021
Read our full story here:
Updated
The US has administered 323,327,328 doses of Covid vaccines as of this morning and distributed 381,282,720 doses.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 179,261,269 people have been given at least one shot and 153,028,665 have had two.
Britain’s new health minister Sajid Javid is expected to confirm tomorrow that final Covid restrictions will be eased in England on Monday 19 July.
Andrew Sparrow and Aubrey Allegretti report:
Sajid Javid is set to announce on Monday that England will wait another three weeks until the final easing of Covid restrictions.
In a statement to the Commons, the new health secretary is expected to confirm that step 4 of lockdown easing will take place on Monday 19 July – in line with the four-week delay from the original target, 21 June – and not Monday 5 July.
Boris Johnson floated the prospect of 5 July when he announced that the rise of the Delta variant meant restrictions would probably remain in place for an extra month, but he never pretended it was a likely option, and at the time his decision to raise this as a possibility was seen as an olive branch to anti-lockdown Tory MPs.
Here’s their full story:
Here’s AFP’s report on Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel testing positive for coronavirus:
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is self-isolating for 10 days after testing positive for Covid shortly after a European Union summit, his office said Sunday.
But none of the other 26 EU leaders who attended the Brussels summit Thursday and Friday is considered a contact case, a statement said.
Under the rules in Luxembourg for containing the spread of the virus, close contact with a Covid sufferer is defined as spending more than 15 minutes with them at a distance of less than two metres (six feet) without a mask.
A spokeswoman for Bettel said he had respected the rules during the summit.
“No head of state or government figures on the list of the prime minister’s close contacts,” she added.
The statement from Bettel’s office said he had “light symptoms” including fever and headaches but “he will continue to carry out his tasks and functions” from home.
Bettel, 48, has so far received only a first vaccine dose.
The landlocked country of some 600,000 residents has recorded 70,600 cases of Covid and 818 deaths.
France reported 1,345 coronavirus patients in intensive care today - four less than yesterday - and updated its overall death toll to 84,512, reports Reuters.
UK opposition leader Keir Starmer says "huge questions still to answer" on Matt Hancock
UK opposition leader Keir Starmer says there are “huge questions still to answer” following the resignation of health minister Matt Hancock.
Asked if Sajid Javid is a good replacement for Hancock, who resigned after footage emerged of him kissing an aide, PA reports that the Labour leader said:
We need a strong Health Secretary as we come through the pandemic.
But obviously there’s huge questions still to answer. If anybody thinks that the resignation of Matt Hancock is the end of the issue, I think they’re wrong and I think the incoming Health Secretary and the Prime Minister now have serious questions to answer about the CCTV, about the access, the passes, the contracts, etc.
So the resignation is far from the end of the matter.
Updated
The UK has administered a total of 76,774,990 Covid vaccinations (44,314,799 of which were first doses) up to yesterday. It marks a 234,441 rise on Friday.
Luxembourg PM tests positive for Covid-19, according to reports
Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel has tested positive for coronavirus, reports RTL Today.
According to the site, Bettel immediately isolated himself after doing a self test this morning which was followed up with a PCR test and will now spend 10 days in isolation while continuing to work from home remotely.
Bettel reportedly received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 6 May and was due to have his second dose next Thursday.
Associated Press GMS reporter Philip Crowther also reports:
#Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel has tested positive for Covid-19. He is now in isolation for ten days and has light symptoms (headaches and fever) according to the Luxembourg government.
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) June 27, 2021
Updated
Italy reported 782 new coronavirus cases and 14 new deaths today. The figures are a decrease on yesterday’s figures which were 838 and 40 respectively.
UK records 14,876 new Covid cases and 11 new deaths
The UK recorded 11 new coronavirus deaths and 14,876 cases today. It marks a decrease on yesterday’s figures which were 23 and 18,270 respectively.
However, the government coronavirus data website notes that due to a technical issue, information for England for today is not complete:
Because of a technical issue, there was a delay to the processing of a subset of cases data in England yesterday. This means that the reported number of cases would be lower than expected. Outstanding cases will be reported in the next update.
I’m taking over the liveblog from my colleague Kevin. Please get in touch with any tips or suggestions: miranda.bryant@guardian.co.uk
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- South African authorities appeared set to impose new restrictions in a belated attempt to stem a rise in Covid-19. The wave of infections has been driven by the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, weak countermeasures and public fatigue with existing restrictions.
- The Delta variant is likely to spread across Europe, a British scientist suggested. Sir Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said “stronger border measures” may have delayed its spread in the UK.
- English health authorities said they expect to have jabbed half of the country’s under 30 by the end of the weekend. More than 4.2 million people aged between 18 and 29 years in the England have received a Covid vaccine in the three weeks since the programme was opened up to those in their 20s, the NHS has said.
I’m now handing over to my colleague, Miranda Bryant.
South Africa expected to impose new restrictions
Authorities in South Africa appeared set to impose new restrictions on Sunday in a belated attempt to stem a rise in Covid-19 that is ravaging the country’s economic heartland.
The wave of infections has been driven by the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, weak countermeasures and public fatigue with existing restrictions.
South Africa’s rising cases are part of a resurgence across Africa with a peak expected to exceed that of earlier waves as the continent’s 54 countries struggle to vaccinate even a small percentage of their populations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly appealed for vaccines for Africa, saying a “fast-surging” Covid third wave is outpacing efforts to protect populations, “leaving more and more dangerously exposed”. Last week, the WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said:
The third wave is picking up speed, spreading faster, hitting harder. This is incredibly worrying. With rapidly rising case numbers and increasing reports of serious illness, the latest surge threatens to be Africa’s worst yet.
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford have started new trials to test a modified vaccine against the Beta variant, which first emerged in South Africa, Agence France-Presse reports.
The booster vaccine’s trial will involve around 2,250 participants from Britain, South Africa, Brazil and Poland.
They include people who have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the original Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer as well as those who have not got the jab at all.
The new vaccine, known as AZD2816, has been designed using the same base as the main AstraZeneca shot but with minor genetic alterations to the spike protein based on the Beta variant. Andrew Pollard, the chief investigator and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, said:
Testing booster doses of existing vaccines and new variant vaccines is important to ensure we are best prepared to stay ahead of the pandemic coronavirus, should their use be needed.
Northern Ireland’s vaccination drive has passed the landmark of two million jabs, the health minister Robin Swann has said.
The total includes all first and second doses administered in the region. Around 80% of the adult population have now received their first jab and almost 60% are fully vaccinated with both doses.
The two million mark was passed on the same day as a walk-in vaccination option was offered for the first time.
From Sunday, people are able to receive a first dose of the Pfizer jab at the SSE vaccination centre in Belfast without a prior appointment slot. Swann said:
This has been achieved thanks to immense work across our health and social care system. I again pay tribute to everyone involved in our vaccination programme. I also pay tribute to the good sense of the people of Northern Ireland – coming forward in very large numbers to get protected from the virus.
The drive continues to get as many people fully vaccinated as quickly as possible. My message to anyone holding back is simple - do it now.
Covid has hit South Africa’s preparations for the British and Irish Lions tour as three players test positive.
The entire Springboks squad has been put into isolation and Sunday’s planned training session in Johannesburg was cancelled. SA Rugby said that “a decision on further team activities will be made shortly”.
The Lions fly to Johannesburg from Edinburgh on Sunday night, with their opening tour match taking place in the city next Saturday. SA Rugby said:
The Springboks cancelled Sunday’s planned training session in Johannesburg as a precautionary measure when scheduled testing protocols returned three positive Covid-19 test results when the team assembled on Saturday.
Three players tested positive for the virus following stringent real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing procedures on arrival at the team base. Team management immediately put the squad into self-isolation as a precaution until specialist medical advice is sought from the Castle Lager Lions Series Medical Advisory Group (MAG). A decision on further team activities will be made shortly.
SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus emphasised that the team had followed all the necessary precautions since the start of the three-week conditioning camp hosted in Bloemfontein, which included mandatory Covid-19 testing three times a week, and that they would be led by specialist advice before any action is taken.
As mentioned this morning, at 11.44, Indonesia has hit a record of more than 21,000 daily virus infections.
According to the AFP news agency in Jakarta, the real number is believed to be much higher due to low testing rates and hospitals are flooded with patients in Jakarta and other Covid-19 hotspots across Southeast Asia’s hardest-hit nation.
Fears are growing that Indonesia’s creaky health system could collapse and there are reports of some overflowing hospitals being forced to turn patients away.
Indonesia’s Covid-19 case rates have soared in recent weeks after millions travelled at the end of the Ramadan in May, and as authorities identified the presence of highly infectious newer virus strains.
“We predicted there would be a surge in the number of cases,” said Covid-19 taskforce spokeswoman Siti Nadia Tarmizi.
“The peak is expected in the next two to three weeks,” she added.
Hospitals in the hard-hit capital Jakarta as well as West and Central Java have been flooded with patients, including those infected with the highly transmissible Delta variant, first identified in India.
Indonesia’s government, widely accused of responding inadequately to the pandemic, has moved to temporarily beef up restrictions on movement, but it has so far held off imposing strict lockdowns seen in some other virus-wracked nations.
The country is aiming to inoculate more than 180 million of its 270 million people by early next year, but only about five percent of the population has so far been fully vaccinated.
On Saturday, the government said it had reached its goal of inoculating more than one million people in a single day.
According to Reuters news, Oman reported a record number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the past 72 hours, with 119 dying from the disease during this period, the newspaper Oman News said on Sunday.
A total of 5,517 people were diagnosed with the virus in the same period, it said.
Last weekend, the Gulf state reinstated a curfew and ban on commercial activity following a spike in cases. It has had the region’s slowest vaccine rollout due to procurement difficulties.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has urged people to overcome their hesitancy and get vaccinations as soon as possible, as concerns grow about the highly infectious Delta variant being detected in some states.
After a fall in infections from May’s daily peak of 400,000, India has redoubled its efforts to inoculate the country’s 940 million adults amid supply constraints and fears of a third wave of pandemic, Reuters reports.
“Get vaccinated,” Modi said in his monthly radio address, urging the public to adhere to social distancing and wear masks. “That is a good safety shield. Think about that.”
India must administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of inoculating all adults by December, experts say. But the country has fully vaccinated fewer than 6% with two doses.
Interacting with some villagers in a virtual meeting, Modi asked community leaders to foster awareness among villagers about the benefits of vaccination and curb rumours about ill effects.
Germany expects Moderna to deliver vaccines faster than previously thought, helping it ramp up vaccinations in coming months, the health ministry has said. Reuters reports:
Moderna will increase its deliveries to 1.33m doses a week in July from 733,000 previously expected, raising the figure to 2.57m a week in August and 2.95m a week in September, the ministry said.
Moderna said last week it hopes to be able to deliver the vaccines it has promised to Germany more quickly than originally planned, without giving figures.
The health minister Jens Spahn said on Saturday that supply of vaccines in Germany will soon outstrip demand, which will allow it to offer shots to passers-by in city centres or at places of worship.
The government will deliver an additional 5m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 1m from Johnson & Johnson to the regions next week, the ministry said.
Spahn said on Saturday there were already hundreds of thousands of doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in Germany that were not immediately being used in doctors’ practices. Many Germans favour the vaccine made by Pfizer/ BioNTech.
Germany has now fully vaccinated 35% of its total population, while 53% have had a first shot, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) public health agency reported on Saturday.
The total number of cases in Germany increased by 538 to 3.727m on Sunday, while the death toll rose by six to 90,754.
The professor said there is not yet strong enough evidence to change definitions of Covid-19 symptoms. He told the BBC the UK was “monitoring the symptom clusters” seen in people testing positive for the disease.
At the moment, there is some suggestion that the symptom profile might be slightly different, but not any evidence that’s strong enough yet to change the case definitions in the recommendations.
And he said the route out of the Covid-19 pandemic would be “a bumpy road” with “twists and turns”.
We’ve seen Sydney reintroduce lockdown measures, we’ve seen Israel reintroduce masks, we’ve seen the Alpha variant and now we’ve seen the Delta variant and how many letters are in the alphabet? We will see many more.
So we have to expect that it will be a bumpy road out and that there will be twists and turns that we’re not wishing to see.
One of the questions is how far can this virus change ... what’s the envelope of plasticity of the virus? Can it really keep on changing forever? Will it sort of settle down? It probably will settle down I think.
Horby said that, despite people being vaccinated there will be “breakthrough infections” and individuals can still be “pretty sick” from Covid-19.
It’s really important for people to realise that, as we increase the vaccination rates and most older people are vaccinated, we will see breakthrough infections ... that does not mean that the vaccines don’t work, breakthroughs were expected.
What we want to do is to prevent hospitalisations and deaths and the vaccines do that very effectively.
You can be pretty sick and not end up in hospital ... I’m in my 50s and many of my friends of a similar age have had pretty severe illness and have been close to trying to commit themselves to hospital, so you can get quite a nasty disease.
Updated
Delta variant will spread across Europe, expert says
The Delta variant will spread across Europe and “stronger border measures” may have delayed its spread in the UK, Horby added. He said modelling of the Alpha, or Kent, variant allowed scientists to predict it was going to be “very transmissible” and “spread very widely”.
That same modelling for the Delta variant would suggest that that’s a more transmissible strain, it will be very difficult to control and so I think we will see it spreading in Europe, unfortunately.
Asked if the Delta variant’s spread was due to not having strong enough border measures earlier in the summer, Prof Horby said: “It’s clear that the Delta variant started to transmit within in the UK because of introductions from other countries.
So I think there is a case to be said that that did happen and stronger border measures may have delayed that, may even have prevented it. But there is an obvious trade-off that policymakers and politicians have to make between absolute complete restrictions and stopping various viruses coming in.
Updated
Horby, the chairman of the UK’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said “encouraging” Covid data suggested restrictions in England could be eased by 19 July.
We always have to be driven by the data, not the dates. So we’re watching it very carefully and there will be a lot of analysis of the data coming up to that date, to make sure we’re comfortable with that release.
At the moment, the data is encouraging that we can do that. But we have to make sure that we follow the data.
He said he would not bring the restrictions easing date forward, adding that it had been “very sensible” to delay the previous 21 June target date by four weeks.
I don’t think we should rush into anything, we really want to make sure that we can release all restrictions and not have to backtrack at all.
Vaccinations have “weakened” the link between infections and hospital admissions, but it is not “completely broken”, an expert in the UK has said. Sir Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show:
They’ve certainly weakened the link, we’re seeing quite a different situation now. We’re definitely seeing increasing infection rates, but what we’re seeing is a much lower level of hospitalisation.
So that link is really, really much weaker, which is really fantastic. But it’s not completely broken. As we see increasing infections, we will see increasing hospitalisations. But, at this stage, we’re able to make sure that the health system isn’t overwhelmed and vaccination is really key to that.
Indonesia has recorded its biggest daily increase in infections, with 21,342 cases on Sunday, taking the total tally to 2,115,304, according to data from the country’s task force. The data also shows 409 new deaths overnight, taking the total to 57,138. Indonesia has the highest number of cases and deaths in Southeast Asia.
Heading back to their student halls with a bottle of wine, 19-year-olds Roz Monaghan and Mackenzie Bradley-Wilkinson are feeling tense. The pair live in the Hyde Park area of Leeds, where Covid-19 rates are the highest in the country, more than 10 times the average.
A combination of a majority-unvaccinated population, a return to face-to-face teaching, good weather and the end of exams has sent Covid rates in Leeds’s student area sky-high.
While the UK average is 105 cases per 100,000 people, the case rate in the Hyde Park ward is a huge 1,547 per 100,000 people and it is rising rapidly. In neighbouring Hyde Park Corner and Woodhouse Cliff, there are 1,044 cases per 100,000 people.
The 144 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours in Moscow is the worst toll in a Russian city since the start of the pandemic, Agence France-Presse reports, citing official data. The new agency reports:
Moscow’s record comes a day after one set by Euro 2020 host Saint Petersburg, where a quarter-final is to be held on Friday in front of thousands of fans.
Covid-19 infections have been surging in Russia for weeks, blamed on the highly transmissible Delta variant first identified in India. Dozens of Finland supporters caught coronavirus in Saint Petersburg after they travelled to the city last week for their team’s defeat against Belgium.
Theatres, music venues, pubs and bars should “fully reopen” in a little more than three weeks, the mayor of London has said. Sadiq Khan told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show:
Theatres have worked so hard to make themselves Covid-secure. I think they should fully reopen on 19 July, as well as live music venues, as well as pubs, as well as bars. The two things that are crucial over the next period is: one, to make sure everyone gets the vaccine, but also secondly, that we make sure we have a rapid recovery.
Germany has confirmed another 538 cases, taking its total since the pandemic began to 3,726,710, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases shows. The reported death toll rose by 8 to 90,754, the tally indicates.
Mexico’s health ministry has reported 5,051 new confirmed cases and 175 more fatalities, bringing the totals to 2,503,408 infections and 232,521 deaths.
Russia has reported 20,538 new cases, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,451,291.
Citing the government coronavirus task force, Reuters said 599 people had died in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 133,282. The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has said Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths from April 2020 to April 2021.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has removed an option for visitors to apply for vaccines from a dedicated mobile app, although a hotline run by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) last week said tourists were eligible. Reuters reports:
SEHA, which operates the emirate’s health infrastructure, had said that visitors with visas issued by Abu Dhabi and passport holders eligible for tourist visas upon entry can book free vaccines, and its app had shown a ‘visitor’ function.
Vaccinations had previously been restricted to UAE citizens and residency visa holders.
Abu Dhabi Media Office, which had not responded to a Reuters’ request for comment on tourists’ eligibility, issued a statement on Thursday saying vaccines are available to those with an expired residency visa or expired entry visa, ‘which does not include holders of valid tourist or visit visas’.
It has not responded to requests to clarify the issue.
Job losses and travel restrictions during the pandemic mean some people’s residency visas have expired or have been cancelled when they were made redundant.
The UAE, which has run one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns, comprises seven emirates which have set some of their own Covid-19 and vaccine policies.
There is no indication that Dubai, the most populous emirate and a business and tourism hub, has opened vaccines up to visitors.
UAE health authorities said this month nearly 85% of the eligible population had received at least one vaccine dose, but did not say how many had had two doses.
Coronavirus infections have risen in the past month in the UAE, which does not give a breakdown for each emirate. On Saturday, it recorded 2,282 new infections to take its total to 624,814 cases and 1,792 deaths.
Abu Dhabi still has restrictions on entry, including home quarantine and PCR testing at intervals after arrival. People driving from other emirates are tested to show they are not infected.
Australia’s New South Wales has recorded 30 new cases, authorities have said, as Sydney and its surroundings woke up to the first day of a two-week lockdown imposed to quell an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Sunday numbers, collected before 8pm on Saturday (UTC), take the number of infections linked to the Bondi outbreak to 110 and two other cases remain investigation. Some 52,000 tests were conducted. The state premier Gladys Berejiklian told a news briefing:
Given how contagious this strain of the virus is, we do anticipate that in the next few days, case numbers are likely to increase beyond what we have seen today because we are seeing that people in isolation, unfortunately, would have already transmitted to all their house contacts.
On Saturday, several million of people in Sydney and the regions of Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, which surround Australia’s largest city, were ordered into a lockdown.
Neighbouring Queensland reported on Sunday two locally acquired cases, with authorities saying both infections were of the Alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom in September of 2020.
Half of adults under 30 in England now jabbed
More than 4.2 million people aged between 18 and 29 years in England have received a Covid vaccine in the three weeks since the programme was opened up to those in their 20s, the NHS has said.
By the end of the weekend, health authorities expect to have reached half of all adults in that age bracket.
The achievement comes as hundreds of walk-in vaccination sites, including at stadiums and shopping centres, opened in England this weekend in a bid to boost vaccine numbers amid rising coronavirus cases.
In Malaysia, citizens were expecting to be released from a national lockdown, but have been told it will now be extended beyond Monday. Citing the prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the state news agency Bernama reported that lockdown measures will not be eased until daily cases fall below 4,000. Malaysia reported 5,803 cases on Saturday.
