Wednesday Summary
Here’s Wednesday’s top headlines on Covid from around the world.
- The US Pentagon is expected to approve the deployment of 700 to 800 unarmed national guard troops to the nation’s capital, as trucker convoys plan protests against pandemic restrictions next week.
- Hong Kong reported a record-breaking 8,674 new Covid infections, as the city state prepares for compulsory testing of its residents.
- South Korea’s prime minister called for calm after a record 170,000 Covid cases, amid warnings that the latest surge had yet to peak.
- Meanwhile, South Korean officials approved Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for children aged five to 11, expanding the country’s immunisation programme in the face of a massive Omicron outbreak.
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Poland will lift most of its restrictions from 1 March, but will continue with mandatory face coverings indoors and isolation rules.
- Iceland will lift all restrictions from Friday.
- Novavax said it has started shipping doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to European Union member states, with France, Austria and Germany expected to be the first to receive shots.
- The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) warned the Caribbean was falling behind in its effort to fight Covid – as only 63% of its eligible population was vaccinated.
- The World Heath Organization (WHO) set up a hub in South Korea to train low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines and is expanding its vaccine project to a further five nations.
- The tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique relaxed its entry requirements for vaccinated travellers.
- The UK reported 39,656 new cases, a 41% drop on two weeks ago today. A further 164 people died from Covid-related causes.
- Meanwhile, fraud and error cost the UK government as much as £16bn across the Covid-19 emergency loan schemes, according to parliament’s spending watchdog.
- Italy will end its Covid state of emergency on 31 March, prime minister Mario Draghi said.
That’s all for the blog today. Bye for now.
• This post was amended on 24 February 2022. The WHO’s new training hub is in South Korea, not South Africa, as earlier posts at 23.02 and 19.04 GMT said.
Updated
Lithuania detected 8,977 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, national broadcaster LRT reports, a 25% fall on the 11,983 positive tests two weeks ago today.
The country’s Omicron wave spiked earlier in February, and has since fallen.
A further 16 people were reported to have died from Covid-related causes, LRT reports, a 6% fall on the 17 deaths on Wednesday two weeks ago.
Lithuania has a death toll of 8,316, the 67th highest worldwide. (The country has the 142nd highest population.)
Germany detected 209,052 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, Deutsche Welle reports, a 17% drop on the 252,813 cases reported two weeks ago.
Germany’s record-breaking Omicron wave spiked earlier this month and has since begun to fall.
A further 299 people were reported to have died from Covid-related causes, a 26% jump on the 238 deaths two weeks ago.
The national seven-day incidence rate decreased again, DW reports, from 1,306.8 to 1,278.9 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days.
Germany has a death toll of over 122,000, the 14th highest worldwide. (The country has the 19th highest population.)
Denmark detected 29,040 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, a 48% drop on the 55,120 new cases two weeks ago today.
Denmark’s Omicron wave peaked in late-January and early-February – seeing record-breaking case numbers – but infections have dropped off recently.
A further 47 people were reported to have died from Covid-related causes in the past 24 hours, more than double the 21 recorded on two weeks ago.
Denmark has recorded 4,422 total Covid deaths, 86th highest globally and less than China’s official death toll. (Denmark has the 115th highest population.)
Bulgaria reported 4,667 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, state broadcast BNT reports, a 37% fall on the 7,263 new cases two weeks ago today.
Bulgaria’s Omicron wave spiked in late-January before falling in recent weeks.
A further 60 people died from Covid-related causes in the past 24 hours, BNT reports, 44% down on the 108 deaths two weeks ago.
The country – which has the lowest vaccination rate in the European Union – has a confirmed death toll of 35,245, the 27th highest in the world. (Bulgaria has the 107th highest population.)
Russia detected 137,642 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours, the Moscow Times reports, a 24% decline on the 181,791 new cases reported two weeks ago.
Russia went through it’s biggest ever Covid wave in recent weeks, recording subsequent record-breaking daily infections. There are signs, however, cases have peaked and are falling.
But deaths are still climbing. A further 785 people died from Covid-related causes in the past 24 hours, the Moscow Times reports, a 19% jump on the 658 deaths two weeks ago.
Russia has a death toll of over 717,000, according to a Reuters analysis that suggests the country significantly under-reports its Covid deaths, making it second-highest tally in the world to only the US. (Russia has the 9th highest population worldwide.)
Ukraine reported 25,062 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, public broadcaster Ukrinform reports, a 37% decline on the 39,569 new cases detected two weeks ago today.
Ukrine has experienced peak case levels recently, driven by Omicron, but there are signs the wave has spiked and is falling back.
A further 297 people died from Covid-related causes in the past 24 hours, an 18% rise on the 251 deaths two weeks ago.
The country has a death toll of over 105,000, the 16th highest globally. (Ukraine has the 35th highest population.)
Updated
Let’s take at the UK’s Covid figures in context during the pandemic. Here’s daily case numbers, which spiked a few weeks ago before falling:
Hospitalisations, which climbed amid the Omicron wave – although significantly less than last year’s wave – have also receded recently:
Deaths – significantly reduced after the impact of vaccination – climbed amid Omicron, but have fallen in recent weeks:
This is Jem Bartholomew in London taking charge of the international Covid blog for tonight. Do get in touch via email or Twitter with tips from around the world.
Updated
Summary
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Poland has said it will be lifting most of its coronavirus restrictions from 1 March, but will continue with mandatory face coverings indoors and isolation rules.
- Iceland is to lift all coronavirus restrictions from Friday, local news outlets are reporting.
- The World Heath Organization (WHO) has said it has set up a hub in South Korea to train low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines and is expanding its coronavirus vaccine project to a further five nations.
- The tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique has relaxed its entry requirements for vaccinated travellers and now accepts either a 24-hour negative antigen test result taken one day before travel to Grenada or a 72-hour pre-departure PCR test.
- US health officials have said that some people getting Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccines should consider waiting up to eight weeks between the first and second doses, instead of the three or four weeks previously recommended.
- Novavax Inc has said it has started shipping doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to EU member states, with France, Austria and Germany expected to be the first to receive the shots in the coming days.
- The UK has reported 39,656 new coronavirus cases today, compared to 41,130 recorded yesterday. 164 coronavirus deaths within 28 days of a positive test have also been reported, compared with 205 recorded the day previous, bringing the overall total to 160,979.
- Italy has reported 49,040 new coronavirus cases, down from 60,029 the day previous, as well as 252 coronavirus deaths, down from 322 the day previous.
- The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) warned on Wednesday that the Caribbean was falling behind in its effort to fight Covid-19 as only 63% of its eligible population was vaccinated and large regional discrepancies persist.
- France has reported 66,833 new coronavirus cases, and has reported 2,753 people are in intensive with coronavirus, a decrease of 89 compared to the previous day.
- NHS England has said that patients will still be required to wear face masks in GP practices and hospitals.
- This post was amended 24 February 2022. The WHO’s new training hub is in South Korea, not South Africa, as earlier posts at 23.02 and 19.04 GMT said.
Updated
NHS England has said that patients will still be required to wear face masks in GP practices and hospitals,
PA reports:
In a letter published on Wednesday, NHS England highlighted rules that may be changing as a result of the Prime Minister’s plan, which he set out earlier this week.
There will be “no immediate changes” to infection prevention and control requirements, it said, adding: “This includes the requirement for staff, patients and visitors to wear a mask/face covering in healthcare settings.”
From Thursday, people who test positive for Covid are no longer legally obliged to self-isolate under Boris Johnson’s plan.
But NHS England said its workers should continue to stay home and follow previous rules if they are infected.
“Healthcare staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 should not attend work until they have had two negative LFD (lateral flow device) test results taken 24 hours apart,” NHS England said, adding that the first test should be taken no earlier than day five after the initial positive result.
GP practices “must ensure” that Covid-positive staff are not required to work, it added.
The letter said updated guidance for staff and patients exposed to the virus will be released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday.
With the Government axing free Covid testing for most of the general public in England from April 1, NHS England said it will write to staff “in the coming weeks” with details of testing protocols for patients and staff.
Current testing protocols will stay will be in place until then, with NHS staff still having to report the results of their twice-weekly asymptomatic tests.
Restrictions on visiting hospitals are being reviewed, NHS England said.
Colombia will no longer require the use of face masks outdoors in areas where more than 70% of the population has been vaccinated against Covid-19, the president Ivan Duque has said.
Reuters reports:
The move is a further softening of measures adopted by the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as well as an incentive for people to get vaccinated.
Colombia is aiming to vaccinate at least 80% of its 50 million inhabitants.
“Those municipalities with vaccination above 70% can lift the use of face masks in public spaces,” Duque told journalists.
More than 33 million people have been fully vaccinated in Colombia, according to the health ministry, while over 8 million have received a booster shot.
Colombia has reported more than 6 million coronavirus infections over the course of the pandemic with 138,285 COVID-19 deaths, according to official numbers.
The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) warned on Wednesday that the Caribbean was falling behind in its effort to fight Covid-19 as only 63% of its eligible population was vaccinated and large regional discrepancies persist.
Reuters reports:
Out of 13 countries and territories in the Americas that have not yet reached the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal of 40% coverage, 10 are in the Caribbean, the PAHO’s director, Carissa Etienne, said.
The region registered 2.2m new Covid cases last week, down 28% compared with the previous week.
“And, after six consecutive weeks of increases, we saw deaths fall for the first time since the beginning of the Omicron wave, to 29,000 new deaths reported in our region, a drop of 9%,” Etienne said.
She cautioned that while cases and deaths are dropping, the improvements have not been uniform across all countries and territories in the region.
“Many places are still in the midst of the Omicron surge, so we must stay vigilant and uphold the measures proven to save lives,” said Etienne.
Updated
France has reported 2,753 people are in intensive with coronavirus, a decrease of 89 compared to the previous day.
France has also reported 66,833 new coronavirus cases.
Updated
The Italian government will end the Covid-19 state of emergency on 31 March, the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said on Wednesday, promising a gradual return to normal after more than two years of the health crisis.
Reuters reports:
The state of emergency, which allows officials to intervene swiftly and bypass bureaucracy, was first introduced on 31 January 2020 and has been repeatedly renewed since then.
“We will continue to closely monitor the pandemic situation, ready to intervene in case of an outbreak. But our goal is to reopen fully, as soon as possible,” said Draghi in a speech in Florence.
Updated
The Italian government has said it will gradually phase out the mandatory use of coronavirus heath passes, the Italian health minister has said.
Updated
Italy has reported 49,040 new coronavirus cases, down from 60,029 the day previous, as well as 252 coronavirus deaths, down from 322 the day previous.
Reuters reports:
Italy has registered 153,764 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth highest in the world. The country has reported 12.6 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 12,527 on Wednesday, down from 13,076 a day earlier.
There were 81 admissions to intensive care units, down from 82 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 886 from a previous 896.
Up to 479,447 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 603,639, the health ministry said.
Updated
The UK has reported 39,656 new coronavirus cases today, compared to 41,130 recorded yesterday.
164 coronavirus deaths within 28 days of a positive test have also been reported, compared with 205 recorded the day previous, bringing the overall total to 160,979.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 184,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Updated
Novavax Inc has said it has started shipping doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to EU member states, with France, Austria and Germany expected to be the first to receive the shots in the coming days.
Reuters reports:
Shipments of Nuvaxovid to additional EU member states from the company’s Netherlands distribution centre are expected to quickly follow, adding to the stockpile in the region as it struggles with a surge in infections due to the Omicron variant.
Novavax’s recombinant protein vaccine uses a more established technology than mRNA, the novel method behind the two most commonly used Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
The initial doses of Nuvaxovid were manufactured by Novavax’s partner, the Serum Institute of India, the company said.
Public health leaders have voiced hopes that Novavax’s product could convince as-yet unvaccinated people who are sceptical about the novel mRNA technology to get a shot.
“Today’s announcement paves the way for vaccination with Nuvaxovid to begin in Europe within the coming days. The Novavax Covid-19 vaccine provides a differentiated option to bolster vaccination rates across Europe,” the chief executive officer, Stanley Erck, said.
The EU authorised the use of Novavax’s vaccine in people 18 years and older in December and has ordered 27m doses for the first quarter of this year, as part of a contract for 100m vaccines and another 100m optional.
Updated
US health officials have said that some people getting Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccines should consider waiting up to eight weeks between the first and second doses, instead of the three or four weeks previously recommended.
You can read the full report here:
The Associated Press reports:
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention officials said they were reacting to research showing that the longer interval can provide more enduring protection against the coronavirus. Research suggests that 12- to 64-year-olds — especially males ages 12 to 39 — can benefit from the longer spacing, the CDC said.
They also say the longer wait may help diminish an already rare vaccination side effect: a form of heart inflammation seen in some young men.
The change won’t affect many people, coming 14 months after the beginning of the US vaccination campaign. The CDC says 73% of people aged 12 and older already have two doses of vaccine.
Also, the suggestion to wait up to two months doesn’t apply to all. The original, shorter interval is still recommended for people with weakened immune systems; people 65 and older; and anyone who needs fast protection due to risk of severe disease.
Updated
The tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique has relaxed its entry requirements for vaccinated travellers and now accepts either a 24-hour negative antigen test result taken one day before travel to Grenada or a 72-hour pre-departure PCR test.
All travellers must also submit a travel health declaration form to the Ministry of Health.
Petra Roach, the CEO of Grenada Tourism Authority, said: “We’re delighted to make it even easier for UK travellers to explore Grenada. Offering an antigen test means that visitors have extra flexibility, choice and a more cost-effective option to visit our islands.
“Throughout 2021 we saw strong visitor numbers from the UK and we believe the measures announced today will boost numbers further in 2022.”
Updated
The World Heath Organization (WHO) has said it has set up a hub in South Africa to train low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines and is expanding its coronavirus vaccine project to a further five nations.
Reuters reports:
The new training hub comes after the UN agency set up a technology transfer hub in Cape Town, South Africa, last year to give companies from poor and middle-income countries the knowhow to produce Covid-19 vaccines based on mRNA technology.
The new hub will provide workforce training to all countries wishing to produce products such as vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies, the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said during a press briefing.
The WHO also said five more countries – Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Serbia and Vietnam – will receive support from its mRNA technology transfer hub in South Africa.
Last week six African countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – signed up as the first on the continent to receive the technology to manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards.
On Wednesday, Tedros said so far 20 countries had expressed interest in training by the South African hub on developing an mRNA vaccine.
Updated
Coronavirus infection levels have decreased in England butincreased in Scotland, according to figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
PA reports:
In England, around one in 25 people in private households are estimated to have had the virus in the week to 19 February, or 2.1 million people – down from one in 20, or 2.4 million people in the week to 12 February.
In Scotland there was an increase in cases week on week, up from one in 25, or 219,300 people, to one in 20, or 240,700.
In Wales the estimate is down from one in 25, or 112,600 people, to one in 30, or 98,200, although the ONS described the trend in the most recent week as “uncertain”.
For Northern Ireland the trend is also uncertain, with the proportion of people with Covid-19 broadly unchanged (one in 14, down from one in 13) and the total down from 146,600 to 132,700.
Updated
Iceland to lift all restrictions
Iceland is to lift all coronavirus restrictions from Friday, local news outlets are reporting.
The Reykjavic Grapevine reports that all coronavirus restrictions, domestic and at the border, will be lifted from midnight on Friday. The lifting of border restrictions will apply to arrivals to Iceland.
In a statement, the Icelandic Health Ministry said that “widespread societal resistance to coronavirus is the main route out of the epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement, citing infectious disease authorities.
“To achieve this, as many people as possible need to be infected with the virus as the vaccines are not enough, even though they provide good protection against serious illness,”
The Reykjavic Grapevine reports:
The announcement follows several days in a row of there being over 2,000 daily cases of the coronavirus reported and increased workload at area hospitals and health clinics, with hundreds of Landspítali staff in isolation and now 59 people hospitalised with the virus.
In terms of daily numbers, there were 2,689 recorded domestic cases of the coronavirus in Iceland yesterday, with an additional 196 reported cases at the border. 241 are in border screening quarantine, with 12,273 in isolation. There are currently 59 people in hospital with the coronavirus and two in intensive care.
289,020 people aged five and older have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of 23 February comprising 81% of this age group, or 78% of the total population. 202,818 have also received booster shots.
Updated
About 1,000 Bulgarian demonstrators gathered in Sofia on Wednesday to protest against Covid-19 restrictions at a rally organised by the opposition ultra-nationalist Revival party.
Reuters reports:
Holding banners reading ‘I want a normal life’ and ‘Covid is a tyranny, not a pandemic’, the demonstrators booed as the prime minister, Kiril Petkov, addressed them.
Bulgaria, where scepticism about vaccines and entrenched distrust of government institutions has meant fewer than one in three adults are inoculated against the coronavirus, has seen infections drop in recent weeks after they peaked at the end of January, prompting the government to start easing restrictions.
But Wednesday’s protesters demanded that the compulsory health pass to access leisure venues and testing for the virus in schools as well as wearing of face masks in enclosed spaces be scrapped immediately.
Updated
There’s more from Reuters on the situation in Hong Kong, where infections are surging, and which is pursuing a similar “zero Covid” strategy to mainland China, aiming to eradicate outbreaks instead of trying to live with the virus.
Reuters has spoken to parents and teachers about their frustrations that students will start their summer holidays in March to enable campuses to be used as testing and vaccination sites. The holiday break will run until 17 April, with the last day of the school year pushed back to August, disrupting teaching and learning.
One parent, insurance agent Emily Kwong, 30, said she was struggling to home-school her five-year-old daughter and is worried she has learned nothing. Plans to close schools early in March are “disturbing the whole year”, she said.
For many children, the absence from friends and a physical space to learn is adding to anxiety. One teacher at an international school said:
The kids are broken. I absolutely feel for them, there is nothing left in them.”
Belinda Greer, chief executive of the English Schools Foundation which has 18,000 pupils across 22 schools, said she had relayed concerns to the government and was working to minimise disruption. For pupils taking external exams this year, there would be some flexibility, she added.
Many families in the Chinese-ruled territory live in tiny, high-rise apartments with several people over three generations, making online learning particularly difficult, with sometimes patchy WiFi connections.
Updated
Poland to lift most curbs in March
Poland has said it will be lifting most of its coronavirus restrictions from 1 March, but will continue with mandatory face coverings indoors and isolation rules.
The Associated Press reports:
Adam Niedzielski, the Polish health minister, said the lifting of most of the restrictions was possible because the number of new daily infections and hospitalisations was falling significantly, and herd immunity was above 90% as a result of both vaccinations and infections.
Discos and clubs can reopen on Tuesday, and the 50% capacity limit on the number of people on public transport and in malls, restaurants, theatres and sports venues will also be lifted.
State and regional administration workers can return to work in the office.
Niedzielski said mask-wearing in indoor public places will still be required, and those infected will still need to isolate for seven days to prevent transmission of Covid-19. The government will decide whether to lift the mandatory wearing of masks in coming weeks.
Poland reported almost 20,500 new infections and 360 Covid-19 related deaths today. At the peak of the most recent infection rise in mid-January, almost 60,000 new daily infections were reported in this nation of 38 million. More than 22 million people have been fully immunised with vaccines.
Updated
Sanofi, a French drugs manufacturer, and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline, are seeking regulatory approval for its coronavirus vaccine to be used as a booster and a standalone two-dose shot, after facing several setbacks.
The companies said they intended to submit data to regulators from a late-stage trial of the vaccine, and another testing it as a booster, with full results for both studies expected to be published “later this year”.
Sanofi is hoping for a comeback after falling behind in the race for coronavirus vaccines, while GSK, the world’s biggest vaccine maker by sales, has not developed its own candidate and is instead supplying its adjuvant technology to developers.
Reuters reports:
Sanofi-GSK’s shot relies on a conventional protein-based approach, compared with the newer mRNA technology used in established Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
It is similar in technology to one of Sanofi’s seasonal influenza vaccines, and is coupled with GSK’s adjuvant, a substance that boosts the effectiveness of a shot. It is also easier to store and transport than some rival shots.
The companies said final analysis of the booster trial, which included participants previously given shots based on mRNA technology or adenovirus viral vectors, showed it could increase neutralising antibodies by 18 to 30 times.
“We are confident that this vaccine can play an important role as we continue to address this pandemic and prepare for the post-pandemic period,” said the president of GSK Vaccines, Roger Connor.
Early data from the late-stage trial of the vaccine as a standalone two-dose shot showed it was 100% effective against severe Covid-19 and hospitalisation, with 75% efficacy against moderate or severe disease.
“No other global Phase 3 efficacy study has been undertaken during this period with so many variants of concern, including Omicron, and these efficacy data are similar to the recent clinical data from authorised vaccines,” said Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president for Sanofi Vaccines.
Updated
Slovakia to end most curbs next month
Slovakia will lift most of its coronavirus restrictions over the next month, according to plans approved by the government today.
The first phase of the change in rules will begin with loosening measures for the unvaccinated, and cancelling crowd limits at a later date.
The first phase of the loosening will begin on 26 February, and a second phase will follow on 26 March to end limits on crowds and opening hours.
Updated
Heathrow has recorded its lowest annual passenger numbers in almost half a century, figures have revealed.
Up to 19.4 million people travelled through the airport last year, a decrease of 12.3% on the previous 12 months, and is the lowest annual total since 1972.
The airport has said that it’s performance in comparison with rival airports in Europe has been due to the UK’s tighter restrictions on European travel.
These tighter restrictions include the fact that quarantine hotels remained in operation in the UK for several months after they were scrapped in most other European nations, and that later in 2021, the UK was the only country in Europe requiring both a pre-departure test and post-arrival test for all arrivals, regardless of vaccination status.
In contrast to Heathrow, European hub airports which recorded a year-on-year increase in passengers in 2021 include Frankfurt (up 32.2%), Amsterdam’s Schiphol (up 22%) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (up 17.7%).
John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow Airport, said that 2021 was “the worst year in Heathrow’s history”.
He told PA:
I think it will take a long time because of course we’re a global hub airport, so it’s not about just the rules for travel in the UK, it’s about other countries as well.
Today, two-thirds of all the markets we fly to have some kind of travel restriction in place, testing or quarantine.
To get back to normal we need all of those to be removed and no chance of a handbrake turn with new restrictions being brought in when there’s variants of concern.
I think it’ll take a while still for the pandemic to run its course.
But Holland-Kaye said demand is “starting to recover” and the airport is working with airlines to “scale up our operations”.
Heathrow Terminal 4 will be reopened by July for the peak summer season when passenger numbers are expected to increase.
Holland-Kaye added: “We’re excited to welcome more passengers back to Heathrow to experience the joys of travel and get Britain’s economy firing on all cylinders again.”
Updated
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If you would like to share your experiences, please have a look at the link below.
Updated
During the pandemic, more than 14,000 “ghost flights” from UK airports operated, figures show.
“Ghost flights” – international flights in which no more than 10% of seats are filled – departed from 32 airports between March 2020 and September 2021, according to government analysis.
Heathrow had the most, with 4,910 flights, followed by Manchester (1,548 flights) and Gatwick (1,044 flights).
PA reports:
Airlines have traditionally run ghost flights when they need to hit the 80% threshold for using valuable takeoff and landing slots at congested airports to retain the right to use them during the following year.
This has led to concern about the environmental impact of the flights.
But slot rules have been eased during the virus crisis due to the lack of demand for travel.
Roberts Courts, the aviation minister, who published the analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data in response to a parliamentary question, said: “Departing flights may operate with a low number of passengers for a range of reasons.
“Since the onset of the pandemic, the government has provided alleviation from the normal slot regulations that require airlines to operate 80% of their slots in order to retain them for the following season.
“This means that airlines have not been required to operate empty or almost empty flights solely to retain their historic slots rights.”
Updated
Transport for London, the body responsible for the London Underground, buses, and other transport, has said it will end its requirement to wear face masks from Thursday.
TfL has said it has “considered a variety of factors including the shift in the government’s approach towards living with the virus and decreasing infection rates in London”.
The government scrapped the requirement for people in England to wear face coverings on public transport on 27 January, but TfL kept the rule on its services.
Despite face coverings being dropped as a condition of carriage, TfL said it “strongly encourages” passengers to continue to wear them to “keep each other as safe as possible”.
You can read the Guardian’s full report on this here:
Updated
About four in five primary school-aged children are believed to now have coronavirus antibodies, analysis has suggested.
The analysis, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), is the first of its kind to prioritise a higher threshold for antibodies, which better reflects the proportion of people likely to have a strong enough antibody response to provide some protection from a Covid-19 infection.
PA reports:
The estimates, which are for eight- to 11-year-olds, are as high as 82.0% in both England and Scotland, with 79.7% in Wales.
Northern Ireland has a slightly lower figure of 72.2%.
The presence of coronavirus antibodies suggests someone has had the infection in the past or has been vaccinated.
But only a small number of children aged eight to 11 in the UK outside clinical trials have received any Covid-19 vaccine, meaning most people in this age group with antibodies will have them due to a coronavirus infection.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended in December that five- to 11-year-olds in clinically vulnerable groups should be offered two doses of Covid-19 vaccine, delivered eight weeks apart.
This rollout had only recently begun in the period covered by the latest antibody estimates.
Updated
Hi, Tobi Thomas here taking over the blog from my colleague Tom. As ever, please do email me with any tips at tobi.thomas@theguardian.com. Thanks!
Morning Summary
Here is a round-up of today’s Covid stories:
- South Korean health officials have approved Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for children aged five to 11, expanding the country’s immunisation programme in the face of a massive Omicron outbreak.
-
The global project to share Covid vaccines is struggling to place more than 300m doses in the latest sign the problem with vaccinating the world is now more about demand than supply.
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Hong Kong reported a record 8,674 new Covid infections on Wednesday, as the city prepares for compulsory testing of its residents after authorities extended the toughest social restrictions imposed since the pandemic began.
-
Mexico registered 18,309 new confirmed Covid cases and 706 more deaths from on Tuesday, according to health ministry data.
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Fraud and error are likely to have cost the UK government as much as £16bn across the Covid-19 emergency loan schemes, according to parliament’s spending watchdog, which described the losses as “unacceptable”.
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The Pentagon is expected to approve the deployment of 700 to 800 unarmed national guard troops to the nation’s capital, a US official said, as trucker convoys plan protests against pandemic restrictions next week.
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Primary school-aged children produce about four times fewer aerosol particles when breathing, speaking or singing compared with adults, which could help explain why they seem to be at lower risk of spreading Covid.
- Forcing people arriving in England in summer 2020 to quarantine for 14 days helped reduce the spread of coronavirus, according to research. Cambridge scientists found that the measure was particularly effective for travellers aged 16-20, PA Media reported.
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The international community should form a strategy to provide North Korea with at least 60m doses of Covid vaccines to head off humanitarian disaster, an independent UN human rights investigator said on Wednesday.
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Patient care may suffer as a result of cuts to the NHS budget to fund the continuing costs of Covid, NHS leaders and Labour have said, after Sajid Javid refused to say where the axe would fall.
-
A limited number of Moderna Covid vaccines will be made available to Spanish citizens in China, according to a statement on the website of the Spanish foreign ministry.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back tomorrow but my colleague Tobi Thomas will be along shortly. Bye for now.
Updated
Forcing people arriving in England in summer 2020 to quarantine for 14 days helped reduce the spread of coronavirus, according to research.
Cambridge scientists found the measure was particularly effective for travellers aged 16-20, PA Media reported.
The requirement for people arriving in England to self-isolate for a fortnight was introduced on 8 June 2020, after the first few months of the pandemic. Exemptions were only available for certain people, such as those arriving from destinations where a travel corridor was in place.
The list of travel corridors was repeatedly amended for several months, with popular destinations such as Spain, France, Portugal and Italy added and removed. The restrictions received fierce criticism from the travel industry due to the impact on demand.
In research published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists analysed contact-tracing data from NHS Test and Trace and genome sequences made available through Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (Cog-UK).
They compared the number of contacts reported per case for international arrivals before they were diagnosed with the virus. The analysis estimated that travellers with Covid arriving from a location without a travel corridor had an average of 3.5 contacts.
Those who did not need to quarantine had an average of 5.9 contacts, meaning they were more likely to pass on the infection to others. The number of contacts was highest in the 16-20 age group.
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NHS cuts to cover Covid costs may hit patient care, Labour warns
Patient care may suffer as a result of cuts to the NHS budget to fund the continuing costs of Covid, NHS leaders and Labour have said, after Sajid Javid refused to say where the axe would fall.
The Department of Health and Social Care is trying to make savings from its budget to fund free lateral flow tests for elderly people, Covid surveillance studies and genomic sequencing, after the Treasury refused its request for £5bn in extra funding.
Although the government announced an end to most free mass testing and contract tracing on Monday, remaining Covid measures are expected to cost more than £1bn.
The Treasury and the DHSC refused to say exactly how much cash would be needed or which services would have to be cut back, prompting fears the NHS could have to find savings at a time of a huge waiting list backlog.
It is understood that DHSC officials are working on identifying savings in the department’s £178.5bn budget for 2022-23, to fund the measures agreed on Monday, including maintaining a “baseline” testing capability that can be scaled up if necessary.
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Hong Kong reported a record 8,674 new Covid infections on Wednesday, as the city prepares for compulsory testing of its residents after authorities extended the toughest social restrictions imposed since the pandemic began.
Health authorities reported 24 deaths compared with Tuesday’s 32, as they step up measures, with assistance from their mainland counterparts, to contain the outbreak. On Tuesday, Hong Kong reported 6,211 new cases.
With the city’s testing, treatment and isolation capacity already stretched to the maximum, University of Hong Kong researchers predicted new infections could peak at 180,000 a day next month.
“We are really at the limit,” Lau Ka-hin, chief manager for quality and standards of the Hospital Authority, an oversight department, told reporters.
Earlier on Wednesday, Finance Secretary Paul Chan unveiled tax breaks, handouts and subsidies to small businesses and residents, in a 2022/23 budget that aimed to mitigate the impact of curbs that will last at least until 20 April.
The Pentagon is expected to approve the deployment of 700 to 800 unarmed national guard troops to the nation’s capital, a US official said, in the face of trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week.
The District of Columbia government and the US Capitol police are requesting the national guard assistance. The troops would be used largely to help control traffic and are expected to come from the district’s national guard and three states, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss aid not yet formally approved.
Modeled after recent trucker protests in Canada, separate truck convoys have been planned through online forums with names like the People’s Convoy and the American Truckers Freedom Fund – all with different starting points, departure dates and routes. Some are scheduled to arrive in time for Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next Tuesday, 1 March, though others may arrive afterward.
John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the DC government and Capitol police had requested national guard personnel “to provide support at traffic control points in and around the district” and stand ready in case of “possible disruptions at key traffic arteries”. He too said no formal decision on the requests had been made.
Primary school-aged children produce about four times fewer aerosol particles when breathing, speaking or singing compared with adults, which could help explain why they seem to be at lower risk of spreading Covid.
Various studies have suggested that young children are about half as susceptible to catching Covid as adults, and, despite carrying a similar amount of virus in their noses and throats, appear to pass it to fewer people if they do become infected.
One possibility is that the size and shape of their lungs and respiratory tracts means they emit fewer tiny airborne droplets called aerosols as they breathe and speak. These particles can linger in the air, particularly in enclosed space such as classrooms, so fewer aerosols could mean other people are less likely to be infected if they also occupy those spaces.
To investigate, Dr Mario Fleischer at Charité University Medicine Berlin, and colleagues recruited 16 healthy children aged eight to 10 and used a laser particle counter to measure how many aerosol-sized particles they emitted when breathing at rest, and during speaking, singing and shouting.
The results, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggested that shouting produced the most particles, followed by singing, speaking and then breathing. However, particle emission rates and volumes for singing, speaking and breathing were around four times lower for children, compared with measurements taken from 15 adults.
The international community should form a strategy to provide North Korea with at least 60 million doses of Covid vaccines to head off humanitarian disaster, an independent UN human rights investigator said on Wednesday.
The vaccines could be a way to persuade the country to ease lockdowns that have left some of its 26 million people on the verge of starvation, Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, told a briefing in Seoul.
“It is imperative that the population of North Korea start to be vaccinated... so that the government will have no excuse to maintain the closing of the borders,” he said.
North Korea is not known to have imported any Covid vaccines, and the COVAX global vaccine-sharing programme has scaled back the number of doses allocated for the country, Reuters reported.
Last year North Korea rejected planned shipments of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine that were being organised under COVAX due to concerns over side effects, a South Korean think-tank said at the time.
Pyongyang also turned down an offer of three million doses of China’s Sinovac Biotech, UNICEF said last year.
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Poland will remove most Covid restrictions from 1 March, while keeping the obligation to wear face masks, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Wednesday.
“After medical consultations and watching what’s happening in other countries we can introduce far-reaching changes in our restrictions policy,” Morawiecki told reporters.
A limited number of Moderna Covid vaccines will be made available to Spanish citizens in China, according to a statement on the website of the Spanish foreign ministry.
The Moderna doses will be used as a booster for those aged 18 and older who have completed primary vaccination with shots approved by the European Medicines Agency or Chinese vaccines, and there should be at least six months between the booster and the second dose, said the statement published on Tuesday.
China has yet to approve of any foreign Covid vaccines.
The vaccination is expected to take place in the first week of March and the doses will only be supplied in the city of Beijing, according to the statement.
The global project to share Covid vaccines is struggling to place more than 300 million doses in the latest sign the problem with vaccinating the world is now more about demand than supply.
The Reuters news agency reports:
Last year, wealthy nations snapped most of the available shots to inoculate their own citizens first, meaning less than a third of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated so far compared with more than 70% in richer nations.
As supply and donations have ramped up, however, poorer nations are facing hurdles such as gaps in cold-chain shortage, vaccine hesitancy and a lack of money to support distribution networks, public health officials told Reuters.
In January, COVAX, the global vaccine programme run by Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO), had 436 million vaccines to allocate to countries, according to a document published in mid-February.
But low-income nations only asked for 100 million doses for distribution by the end of May - the first time in 14 allocation rounds that supply has outstripped demand, the document from the COVAX Independent Allocation of Vaccines Group said.
Asked to comment, a Gavi spokesperson said COVAX was now in a situation where there was enough current supply to meet demand, but acknowledged that the roll-out of vaccines was an issue in several less developed nations.
“We will only close the vaccine equity gap once and for all if we are able to help countries roll out vaccines rapidly and at scale,” the spokesperson said.
UK lost up to £16bn due to fraud and error in Covid loans schemes
Fraud and error are likely to have cost the UK government as much as £16bn across the Covid-19 emergency loan schemes, according to parliament’s spending watchdog, which described the losses as “unacceptable”.
A report from the public accounts committee published on Wednesday said the Treasury should by the end of the year come up with estimates of fraud and error losses across the individual schemes and how much it intends to recover.
The government guaranteed or gave out loans worth £129bn to people and companies during the coronavirus pandemic to support them financially through lockdown restrictions. However, ministers were warned from the start that the speed of the schemes would open them up to fraud.
Since then government agencies have found large-scale frauds across several parts of the system, ranging from the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) for furloughed workers, the bounce back loan scheme (BBLS) for small companies, and the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) for mid-sized businesses.
Reports from crime and bankruptcy agencies have shown some loans were used to fund gambling, luxuries and home improvements.
Mexico registered 18,309 new confirmed Covid cases and 706 more deaths from on Tuesday, according to health ministry data.
The latest figures bring the country’s overall number of confirmed cases to 5,436,566 and its death toll to 316,492.
South Korea approves Pfizer vaccine for children aged five to 11
Hello. Tom Ambrose here and I’ll be bringing you all the latest Covid news over the next few hours.
First off is the news that South Korean health officials have approved Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for children aged five to 11, expanding the country’s immunisation programme in the face of a massive Omicron outbreak.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported a record 171,452 new virus cases on Wednesday, nearly a 40-fold increase from levels in mid-January when Omicron first emerged as the country’s dominant strain. The 99 new deaths were the highest daily tally since 31 December, when the country was grappling with a Delta-driven surge that buckled hospital systems.
More than 500 virus patients are now in serious or critical condition, up from around 200 in mid-February, the Associated Press reported.
In a long-awaited announcement, the Ministry of Drug and Food Safety said it approved the Pfizer vaccine as the country’s first shot to be used for children aged five to 11. The KDCA said it will announce a vaccine rollout plan for this age group in March.
The Pfizer shot is already used for children aged five to 11 in more than 60 countries, including the United States and in the European Union, the MDFS said in a press release. The vaccine will help protect younger children from infections or serious illness amid South Korea’s fast-developing Omicron surge, it added.
Teenagers and younger children have been linked to a rising number of infections in recent weeks, according to KDCA data.
The country had earlier approved vaccinations for people 12 years and older. As of Wednesday, 86.4% of South Korea’s more than 51 million people have been vaccinated and nearly 60% have received booster shots.
