Category Archives: Coronavirus

How the Covid shock has radicalised generation Z

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Analysis: young people’s testimonies show they are ready to draw systemic conclusions from the handling of the pandemic by political elites

They have been tested, examined, judged and graded since childhood; told they must excel, compete and succeed. But thanks to Covid-19, across Europe a generation of school and college leavers face a bleak present and an uncertain future.

When the Guardian asked Europeans in their late teens and early 20s how the pandemic has made them feel, you might have expected an outpouring of frustration: over jobs lost, friendships forcibly attenuated, dates cancelled. What arrived was a critique of capitalism.

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EU delays adding UK to Covid ‘white list’ over fears of Delta variant

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Decision not to lift travel restrictions follows rise in cases linked to variant first identified in India

The EU has delayed putting the UK on a “white list” of countries from where non-essential travel into the bloc is approved because of concerns about the rise in cases linked to the Delta variant first identified in India.

Japan, which is in an extended state of emergency during which there has been a sustained reduction in the number of new infections, has been added to the list, diplomatic sources said. The country is due to host the Olympic Games on 23 July.

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‘So many revolutions to lead’: Europe’s Gen Z on their post-Covid future

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As part of the Guardian’s 200th anniversary, we asked young people how the worst global pandemic in a century has affected their lives, hopes and dreams. Fifty from Europe’s Generation Z tell us how they see their future

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Boris Johnson on lifting Covid restrictions in England: ‘The data is ambiguous’ – video

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Boris Johnson has said there are currently no clear signals that he needs to scrap or delay plans to lift all remaining restrictions on social contact in England on 21 June, but he added that data on how effective vaccines would be at preventing a third wave was ambiguous.

Despite calls from some scientists for the government to push back the planned final stage of unlocking, the prime minister suggested he saw no reason yet to deviate from the roadmap

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Coronavirus live news: Vietnam reverses international travel ban; Cyprus reopens internal crossings

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Temporary flight suspension in Vietnam lifted; people will be able to cross from Turkish to Greek side for first time since December

Vietnam’s health minister has said that Russia has agreed to provide it with 20m doses of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine this year, Reuters reports.

The southeast Asian country approved the Russian vaccine in March but has stepped up its procurement push after being hit by its biggest outbreak so far, although its overall cases and fatality numbers remain relatively low.

At least 220 million people globally are expected to remain unemployed this year, well above pre-pandemic levels, with a weak labour market recovery exacerbating existing inequalities, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said.

The UN agency forecast the outlook improving to 205 million unemployed next year – still well above the 187 million recorded in 2019 before the onset of the pandemic, Reuters reports.

Employment growth will be insufficient to make up for the losses suffered until at least 2023.

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Warning over pilots’ mental health as planes return to skies

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Researchers say industry practice should change to encourage workers to seek help when they need it

Airlines are overlooking the mental health and wellbeing of pilots and other aviation workers in their scramble to get planes flying again, according to researchers.

Many aviation workers experienced anxiety, stress and depression during Covid-19 lockdowns, but they report feeling discouraged from acknowledging problems or seeking help, creating potential safety hazards and health problems.

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‘Waiting to happen’: the California region where masks are taboo – and cases are rising

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Rural northern California has been forceful in its pushback against masks, business restrictions and vaccine mandates

Rural northern California is seeing a troubling rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, an alarming trend that comes as residents and businesses continue to protest against safety measures and vaccinations – with one Mendocino cafe threatening to charge customers $5 for wearing a mask.

While the region makes up a small proportion of the state’s population, the growth in its caseload has been considerable, and comes at a time when the state overall is enjoying some of the lowest rates of Covid in the country. After largely avoiding the worst of the pandemic, a block of far northern California counties now leads the state with nearly 40 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week, according to statistics maintained by the Los Angeles Times. Tehama county ranked the highest in the LA Times case ratings with 139 cases per 100,000 residents. Meanwhile 10 of the 21 total Covid deaths in nearby Siskiyou county have occurred since the beginning of May.

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‘Zero’: how the UK papers covered a day without a single reported Covid death

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All eyes now turn to whether this makes an easing of England’s Covid measures on 21 June more likely

Good news is broadcast across Wednesday’s front pages, as editors seize a rare opportunity to report on hope in the battle against the coronavirus.

Many papers suggest that the first day without a single Covid death for 10 months means the complete easing of lockdown restrictions will go ahead in England as planned on 21 June.

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‘Our society is totally nuts’: Fauci emails lift lid on life in eye of the Covid storm

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Communications from America’s top infectious diseases expert shed light on panic and confusion in early stages of pandemic

As Anthony Fauci, the US’s leading infectious diseases official, grappled with the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, he was pulled in many directions.

Donald Trump’s White House, which was downplaying the dangers, was demanding he portray the outbreak on their terms; the media was hungry for answers; and Fauci’s email inbox was constantly full with officials, the public and celebrities offering advice and seeking information about the world’s deadliest health crisis for a century.

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UK Covid dashboard showing ‘zero deaths’ but also flashing warning signals

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Analysis: vaccine programme could sever link between infections and deaths but there are reasons to be seriously doubtful

For those who are urging the government to push ahead with easing of lockdown restrictions later this month, Tuesday’s announcement of ‘zero deaths’ in the UK will be cited as further proof of the necessity to end the delay.

Certainly, the country has come a long way since the new year Covid surge, when the daily number of infections reached a peak of more than 68,000, and the number of people in hospital would later rise to almost 40,000. Daily death tolls of more than 1,000 were common during the bleakest weeks of winter.

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Coronavirus live news: India aims for 10m Covid jabs a day by July; WHO approves Chinese Sinovac jab

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So far nearly 45 million people fully vaccinated, 4.7% of India’s adult population; Sinovac is second Chinese vaccine approved as safe by WHO

The Coachella music festival will return to the US in April 2022, organisers have announced.

The 2020 event was scheduled for April of that year before being pushed to October.

New infection control guidance to help keep NHS workers safe from Covid-19 “falls short”, leading nurses in the UK said.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said that the updated official Covid-19 infection prevention and control guidance “focuses too much on aerosol generating procedures as the main risk”. But doctors have welcomed the new guidance as a “step in the right direction”, PA reports. Concerns were raised early on in the pandemic that medics were not able to get access to appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) amid a worldwide shortage.

The guidance, issued jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as well as public health agencies across the UK’s four nations and NHS England, has been updated to “strengthen existing messaging”, it states.

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‘Michelangelo of Middlesbrough’ hailed for 27,000-hour model project

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Lockdown hobbyist painted 1m tiny cobbles for scale model of Yorkshire town’s demolished St Hilda’s district

Lockdown has inspired many of us to take up new hobbies, but for one Middlesbrough man, the pandemic just meant more time to devote to a mammoth project already nine years in the making.

“It was business as usual,” says Steve Waller, 61, a model artist and historian known affectionately as the “Michelangelo of Middlesbrough” who has spent almost a decade recreating the town’s historical St Hilda’s district in his bedroom.

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Zero daily Covid deaths announced in UK

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Britain records no new deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test for first time since July 2020

The UK has announced no deaths from Covid-19 for the first time since July last year.

Official figures showed all four nations of the country recorded no new deaths on Tuesday within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test and 3,165 new cases of the virus. It means the official UK total number of deaths remains at 127,782, the first time the daily total has not risen since 30 July 2020.

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‘Shameful’: Bolsonaro denounced for hosting Copa América amid pandemic

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  • Brazil president accused of mishandling Covid outbreak
  • Football tournament moved from Colombia and Argentina

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has sparked outrage after approving plans to hold South America’s answer to the European Championship in his Covid-stricken country despite warnings Brazil is steaming into a potentially calamitous third wave of infections.

The Copa América was originally due to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina, but their struggles with deadly street protests and coronavirus put paid to those plans.

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Human challenge: the people volunteering to be infected with Covid

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Amid claims PM wanted to be infected with Covid on TV, volunteers tell of taking part in a human challenge trial

If Dominic Cummings is to be believed, Boris Johnson was so sceptical that Covid-19 was a threat early last year that he was willing to inject himself with the virus that causes the disease on television. But there are actual volunteers – young and healthy people – who elected to be infected with the virus, all in the name of science.

These volunteers lined up to participate in “human challenge trials”, which have long been successfully employed to develop vaccines for diseases from typhoid to cholera.

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Peru has world’s worst per capita Covid toll after death data revised

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Updated figures give country a per capita death toll of 500 per 100,000 people – double that of Brazil

Peru has almost tripled its official Covid-19 death toll to 180,764, after a government review, making it the country with the highest death rate per capita, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Peru has been among the hardest hit Latin American countries during the pandemic, with its hospitals overcrowded and demand for oxygen outstripping availability.

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‘When will you know?’: Richard Colbeck can’t say how many aged care workers are vaccinated – video

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The aged care minister Richard Colbeck has not been able to tell Senate estimates how many workers in the aged care sector have been vaccinated. 

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records three more Covid cases amid speculation over lockdown extension

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Minister Richard Colbeck comes under fire over aged care failures after outbreak in two Melbourne homes. Follow live updates

This has been an ongoing frustration for Mike Bowers and the visual reporters – some committees are throwing their weight around about where photographers and camera operators can stand to do their jobs – which means a lot of photos of the back of people’s heads.

The helpful people at the estimates Economic committee placed our photographic positions behind the heads of the Treasury Officials and Minister giving evidence, do I really have to explain again to members of the Aust senate why this will not work? #notTodayPlease @AmyRemeikis pic.twitter.com/ysRVbOttpy

Katy Gallagher asks Richard Colbeck who is responsible for vaccinating aged care staff.

Three minutes later, Colbeck says it is a “combined” program.

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Covid-19 variants to be given Greek alphabet names to avoid stigma

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WHO unveils new names for variants of concern to replace ones linked to where they were discovered

Coronavirus variants are to be named after letters of the Greek alphabet instead of their place of first discovery, the World Health Organization has announced, in a move to avoid stigma.

The WHO has named four variants of concern, known to the public as the UK/Kent (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351), Brazil (P.1) and India (B.1.617.2) variants. They will now be given the letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta respectively, to reflect their order of detection, with any new variants following the pattern down the Greek alphabet.

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MPs tell Johnson: you have a duty to help vaccinate the world

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Exclusive: group urges prime minister to tackle ‘desperate shortage’ in developing nations

Boris Johnson has a “moral duty” to immediately start matching each vaccine administered at home with a donated dose to poorer countries across the world, a cross-party group of MPs and peers has said.

Several Tory backbenchers joined the call, which puts further pressure on the prime minister to boost supplies given to developing nations facing a “desperate shortage” of jabs.

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