Category Archives: Coronavirus

Being Mr Westwood: Vivienne is ‘eccentric, serious and genuine’

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Though 25 years apart in age, their ideas are locked in sync. Andreas Kronthaler, husband of the couture queen, reveals his plans for the maverick fashion house

On 21 March 2020, days before Britain’s initial lockdown, Vivienne Westwood shared her first isolation address to the nation. Royalty, of sorts, she delivered it in her trademark fashion: she spoke of saving the planet and her new manifesto, while donning couture – and surrounded by curiosities – in her south London home.

These impassioned speeches became a year-long weekly occurrence. Westwood offered anti-racism, anti-capitalism, and a stern rebuke of the arms trade; in wig, blue dress and floral-print platforms, she spoke of the need to rescue the oceans, while standing in her tiled bathtub.

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Coronavirus live news: Calls grow for Hancock to resign; greater Sydney under lockdown after Delta variant outbreak

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UK health secretary Matt Hancock is facing mounting pressure to quit over a tryst with a colleague

Just 11% of Russia’s 146 million population is fully vaccinated – whether due to vaccine skepticism, doubts about Sputnik or other Russian-made vaccines, or “nihilism”, as a Kremlin spokesperson has suggested.

But with more than 20,000 new cases reported across Russia in the last two days, as well as tough new restrictions on those who have not received their jabs, lines at public vaccination centres are now stretching out the door.

Related: ‘I don’t have a choice’: Russians scramble to get Covid vaccine amid new restrictions

Bangladesh has announced it will impose a tough new lockdown starting on Monday, after a “dangerous and alarming” surge in Delta variant cases of coronavirus.

AFP reports:

All government and private offices will be shut for a week and only medical-related transport will be allowed, the government said late Friday.

“No one can step out of their homes except in emergency cases,” a statement added.

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Commonwealth declares Sydney a hotspot to trigger disaster support – as it happened

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Gladys Berejiklian flags help and says ‘nobody should feel stressed about their financial situation’. This blog is now closed

We’ll leave it there for today.

Before I go, here are the main developments of the day:

Three people have been arrested at a karaoke bar in Coober Pedy after they allegedly flew into South Australia from New South Wales on a private plane.

Read more here:

Related: Three people arrested after allegedly flying private plane from NSW to South Australia

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Recipe for inflation: how Brexit and Covid made tinned tomatoes a lot dearer

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Combine the pandemic with rising raw material costs, stir in a labour shortage, a twist of Brexit, add a pinch of poor weather and voila …

Tinned tomatoes are a taken-for-granted store cupboard staple, relied upon by Britons to whip up home cooked favourites such as spaghetti bolognese. But the price could soon make you take notice, amid warnings of higher shopping bills, set against a backdrop of soaring global food prices.

From the packaging to the transportation and the energy used in manufacturing, nearly all aspects of the production of this popular ingredient now cost more. The crushed tomatoes alone are 30% dearer than a year ago, at €0.48 per kilo. The same pressures are driving the prices of many foods higher, meaning Britons will probably face bigger bills for groceries or meals out this autumn.

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The Oxford vaccine: the trials and tribulations of a world-saving jab

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Amid bemusement from scientists at the deluge of often undeserved criticism, the Guardian pieces together the story behind the vaccine’s successes and failures

In January 2020, when most of the world slept soundly in ignorance of the pandemic coming its way, a group of scientists at Oxford University got to work on a vaccine to save the planet. They wanted it to be highly effective, cheap, and easy to use in even the poorest countries.

Prof Sarah Gilbert, Prof Andrew Pollard and others pulled it off. With speed crucial, they designed it and launched into trials before bringing in a business partner. The giant Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca would manufacture it, license it around the world – and not make a profit until the pandemic was over.

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NSW Covid outbreaks: Gladys Berejiklian locks down Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong

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New South Wales premier says lockdown will last two weeks and new restrictions will be in place for rest of state

All of greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong regions will enter a two-week coronavirus lockdown until 9 July and new restrictions will be in place for the remainder of New South Wales.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced the expanded lockdown – the first lockdown of greater Sydney since last year – would commence at 6pm Saturday, following crisis talks due to the growing number of exposure sites associated with the Sydney outbreak of the Delta Covid-19 variant.

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‘I don’t have a choice’: Russians scramble to get Covid vaccine amid new restrictions

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With infections at highest since January, country is introducing curbs for non-vaccinated

Russia has finally admitted it has a vaccination problem – but with an “explosion” of new cases driving the country’s daily toll to its highest since January, the question is whether that public realisation has come too late.

Just 11% of Russia’s 146 million population is fully vaccinated – whether due to vaccine skepticism, doubts about Sputnik or other Russian-made vaccines, or “nihilism”, as a Kremlin spokesperson has suggested.

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Iran’s supreme leader gets first dose of homegrown vaccine as Covid plans falter

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Queues for any jab grow with only 2% of Iranians vaccinated and fifth wave breaking

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday received the first dose of a domestically produced coronavirus vaccine, as many other elderly Iranians queued at 5am in the hope of receiving any jab.

Khamenei, wearing a surgical mask and a black turban and sitting under a picture of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, received a dose of a domestically produced vaccine licensed on 14 June. He was given a single dose of the COVIran Barekat jab, developed by the state-owned foundation Setad. Khamenei said he had been determined to wait for a homegrown vaccine.

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Coronavirus live: one in 440 people infected in England last week; Israel reintroduces indoor mask rules

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Prevalence in England rises from 1 in 520 to 1 in 440 in a week; surge in infections is blow to Israel after successful vaccine rollout

Thousands of South African opposition activists have rallied in Pretoria to demand a faster coronavirus vaccination rollout in the continent’s worst-hit country.

Protesters are urging regulators to approve more vaccines and speed up the pace of inoculations as less than 4% of South Africa’s 59 million population have been jabbed.

AFP reports:

“Our agenda is simple, give our people vaccines, we want to open our economy,” Julius Malema, leader of the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, told more than 2,500 supporters in Pretoria.

In a gathering criticised as a possible super-spreading event, EFF supporters clad in red party regalia marched to the offices of the health products regulator to demand the approval of more vaccines.

Bodies are washing up on the banks of the Ganges in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, as rains swell the river and expose bodies buried in shallow graves during the peak of the country’s latest wave of coronavirus infections.

Reuters reports:

Videos and pictures in May of bodies drifting down the river, which Hindus consider holy, shocked the nation and underlined the ferocity of the world’s biggest surge in infections.

Though cases have come down drastically this month, the Uttar Pradesh city of Prayagraj alone has cremated 108 bodies found in the river in the last three weeks, said a senior municipal official.

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Balearic officials urge Madrid to tighten Covid controls on UK tourists

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Regional government welcomes green list status but calls for Spain to set ‘strict and safe’ entry rules

Authorities in the Balearic Islands – the only Spanish region to be added to the UK’s green list for quarantine-free travel – are calling on the central government to tighten controls for holidaymakers arriving from the UK.

Last month Spain began allowing in British travellers without the need to provide a negative Covid test. The move, aimed at wooing back some of the more than 18 million British tourists who visited in the years prior to the pandemic, contrasts with the growing push for tighter restrictions on UK tourists in the EU in light of the rapid spread of the Delta variant.

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Israel restores indoor mask requirement after rise in Covid cases

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Increase is probably due to highly contagious Delta variant, says pandemic response chief

Israel has decided to reimpose the mandatory wearing of masks in enclosed public spaces owing to a rise in Covid-19 cases just 10 days after the measure was lifted – a blow for a country that has prided itself on one of the world’s most successful vaccine rollouts.

The head of Israel’s pandemic response taskforce, Nachman Ash, told public radio on Friday that mask mandates in most indoor situations would be reinstated, after the country recorded four successive days of more than 100 new cases, with 227 cases on Thursday.

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Digested week: I’ll miss face masks. They give me freedom to mouth obscenities | Lucy Mangan

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I’m as wearied by the pandemic as the next person, but anti-maskers don’t know what they’re missing

Now that he has left the tender embrace of the select committee, Dominic Cummings has taken to – is the word explaining? – himself to paying subscribers via Substack. In the unlikely event that you are not prepared to part with cash to hear what the hobgoblin of chaos is currently divulging, here is the gist:

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‘We were never a priority’: Zimbabwe Covid ‘hotspots’ face strict lockdown

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Tighter restrictions in 12 mostly rural areas come as health service struggles to cope with third wave of infections

Zimbabwe’s government has designated 11 rural areas across three provinces Covid-19 hotspots this week after a sharp rise in cases. The measures come as the country battles to contain a third wave of coronavirus.

Mashonaland West, Masvingo and Bulawayo provinces have been put into strict localised lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus. The government had already declared hotspots in three other regions, the first in May and two others in early June.

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NSW Covid update: central and eastern Sydney plunged into lockdown after 22 cases recorded

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NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says people who live or work in City of Sydney, Woollahra, Randwick and Waverley must stay at home for at least a week

Four local government areas in Sydney have been put into lockdown for at least a week, as the state recorded another 22 cases on Friday.

Residents who live or work in Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and the City of Sydney have been issued stay-at-home orders from 11.59pm on Friday, and can leave only if work or education is impossible at home, for exercise outside and to provide care for a relative.

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‘We’ve struck a deal’: Biden says agreement reached on infrastructure plan – live

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  • Republican and Democratic senators have reached deal – president
  • Speaker: ‘It is imperative that we seek the truth as to what happened’
  • Giuliani’s New York law license suspended ‘effectively immediately’
  • Biden urges unvaccinated to get shots as ‘deadlier’ Delta strain spreads

Here’s some more on Rudy Giuliani losing (potentially temporarily) his law licence in New York today, from my colleague Sarah Betancourt:

Giuliani, 77, helped lead Trump’s legal challenge of his election loss as his personal attorney. He argued without evidence that voter fraud was rampant in Georgia, and that voting machines in the state and others were rigged. He urged Georgia’s Republican electors to vote for Trump, despite the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, countering there was no evidence of fraud.

Related: Rudy Giuliani barred from practicing law in New York over election lies

Biden has pumped the brakes just a little on the infrastructure bill, saying it must be paired with a larger spending bill, which will likely only be supported by Democrats, if he is to sign it.

“If they don’t [both] come, I’m not signing it. Real simple,” Biden said.

Biden says bipartisan infrastructure deal has to be paired with D-only reconciliation bill.

"If this is the only thing that comes to me I'm not signing. It's in tandem."

Asked about Pelosi plan to hold first bill in House until second bill arrives, says he supports it.

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Covid news: UK removes quarantine requirement for arrivals from Balearics, Malta and some Caribbean islands

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Latest updates: territories are added to UK’s green list or green watchlist, while more countries added to red list

Rory Boland, travel editor for consumer group Which?, said travellers still needed to be “extremely cautious” about booking trips abroad.
He said: “Countries can be downgraded quickly and with little warning, as we saw with Portugal, while several European countries have introduced quarantine requirements for UK residents. “Restrictions around international travel are changing regularly and when they do, the cost to holidaymakers is significant. “Most providers will not pay refunds if a country is moved from green to amber, and ‘free’ amendments are often anything but, with many companies requiring significant notice of any changes and bookings for new dates usually costing hundreds of pounds. Travel insurance is also unlikely to pay out in these circumstances. “It is only advisable to book if you are able to do 14 days’ quarantine, can be flexible about destination and dates, and book with a provider that guarantees refunds in the event of traffic light changes or quarantine requirements.”

Eluned Morgan MS, minister for health and social services in Wales, said: “International travel is resuming but the pandemic is not over and protecting people’s health remains our main priority.

“Our strong advice continues to be not to travel overseas unless it is essential because of the risk of contracting coronavirus, especially new and emerging variants of concern.

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Coronavirus live: Macron joins Merkel in call for EU to coordinate quarantine for non-EU countries such as UK

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French president’s remarks come after German chancellor says all EU members should quarantine UK visitors

Mexico’s health ministry on Thursday reported 5,340 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country and 221 more fatalities, Reuters reports.

It brings the total figures to 2,493,087 infections and 232,068 deaths.

Italy reported 28 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday compared to 30 the day before, Reuters reports.

The health ministry said the daily tally of new infections fell to 927 from 951 on Wednesday.

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Africans ‘dangerously exposed’ by lack of Covid jabs, says WHO

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Third wave could be Africa’s worst yet, official says, with health systems in some parts close to overwhelmed

The World Health Organization has made a new appeal for vaccines for Africa, saying a “fast-surging” third wave of Covid-19 is outpacing efforts to protect populations, “leaving more and more dangerously exposed”.

“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,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said on Thursday.

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Rich countries ‘deliberately’ keeping Covid vaccines from Africa, says envoy

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Questions raised over failure of Covax scheme to provide promised doses to the continent

African Union special envoy Strive Masiyiwa has accused the world’s richest nations of deliberately failing to provide enough Covid-19 vaccines to the continent.

Masiyiwa, the union’s special envoy to the African vaccine acquisition task team, said the Covax scheme had failed to keep its promise to secure production of 700 million doses of vaccines in time for delivery by December 2021.

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‘Your body just stops’: long Covid sufferers face new ordeals as sick pay runs out

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Nurses, teachers and shopworkers who have lost their health and their jobs talk about their struggle for support

Working seven days a week as a nurse and a fitness instructor, while bringing up two young daughters, Rebecca Logan led an extremely active life – until she contracted Covid-19 while working in the emergency department of a hospital in Northern Ireland.

Over a year after first falling ill, the 40-year-old is still suffering from long Covid. For Logan, that means she can only walk for five minutes before needing to rest, and there is a constant ringing in her ears. Her husband has had to pick up the slack at home, alongside his job as a school principal.

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