Category Archives: Coronavirus

Coronavirus live: EU deal on Covid passes to open travel; two doses of AstraZeneca jab 85%-90% effective

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Covid certificates designed to open up tourism across bloc; two doses of AstraZeneca jab 85% to 90% effective against symptomatic disease

Leaders of the world’s largest economies will adopt on Friday a declaration recommending voluntary actions to boost Covid-19 vaccine production, snubbing a push from the US and other nations on patent waivers, the final text shows.

Several G20 leaders will speak at the summit, one of this year’s major events to coordinate global actions against the pandemic. The US president Joe Biden is not listed among the speakers, with vice-president Kamala Harris representing at the meeting, an EU Commission spokesman said. The White House did not immediately comment.

Good evening from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_

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Just three of 13 promised vaccine hubs for Australia’s young aged care workers have opened

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Almost two months after the dedicated Pfizer pop-ups were supposed to begin operating there are only three – all in Sydney

The federal government has established just three Pfizer pop-up Covid-19 vaccination hubs for younger aged care workers, all of which are in Sydney, almost two months after they were supposed to begin operating.

A major complaint about the vaccine rollout has been the slow and confused process for aged care workers, who were slated to be vaccinated as part of phase 1a, the highest priority stage of the rollout.

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Indian authors speak out over plan to reissue Narendra Modi exam book

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Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy attack Penguin Random House India for putting out book by a prime minister they say has mishandled Covid and persecuted writers

Leading Indian authors Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy have spoken out against Penguin Random House India’s decision to publish and promote a book by Narendra Modi during the country’s coronavirus crisis, with Mishra accusing PRH India of “enlist[ing] in a flailing politician’s propaganda campaign”.

In a letter published in the London Review of Books blog, Mishra wrote to the chief executive of PRH India, Gaurav Shrinagesh, after the publisher announced it would be reissuing Modi’s book Exam Warriors while, in Mishra’s words, “smoke from mass funeral pyres rose across India”. India suffered a world record one-day death toll from Covid-19 on Wednesday – 4,529 – with the overall figure believed to be much higher than the official death toll of 283,248.

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Covid still a threat to Europe – travel should be avoided, says WHO

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Vaccines work against new variants but ‘increased mobility may lead to more transmission’

Covid vaccines in use in Europe appear to protect against all new variants but progress in region remains “fragile” and international travel should be avoided to prevent pockets of transmission quickly spreading into “dangerous resurgences”, the World Health Organization has said.

Weekly official cases in Europe have fallen by almost 60% from 1.7m in mid-April to nearly 685,000 last week with deaths also in decline, the WHO regional director, Hans Kluge, said on Thursday, but incidence rates remained stubbornly high in eight countries.

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Britain in talks to waive Covid vaccine patents to improve global access to jabs

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Pressure growing for UK and others to follow Biden’s lead at WTO to avoid ‘moral and public health failure’

The UK government is in talks about a plan to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents to boost the production of shots in low and middle-income countries, the Guardian can reveal.

The discussions come amid growing calls for Britain and other European countries to follow the US in supporting the proposal put before the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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‘People die in less than a week’: Covid wave catches Argentina off-guard

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Cases have risen from a daily total of about 5,000 in early March to a record 35,000 this week amid relaxed restrictions and a low vaccination rate

It is 1am, and intensive care doctor Vanina Edul is trying vainly to remember the names of all the Covid patients who have died on her watch.

The 47-year-old physician still remembers the first patient she saw die of Covid last year. “He was 60, and we were surprised because that was young for that long-ago time. We thought only old people died. How wrong we were,” she says.

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Putting economics over ethics is a dismal vaccination strategy – Bulgaria shows why | Luba Kassova

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Bulgaria focused on protecting the economy over saving older people from Covid. Ultimately, it will achieve neither

April will forever be in my memory as a month of painful unfairness: it is when I had my first Covid-19 vaccine in the UK and my unvaccinated father died of the virus in Bulgaria. I’m a middle-aged, healthy woman. My father was a vulnerable 85-year-old with underlying health conditions.

I have a pile of letters from the NHS that arrived for my father since January, inviting him to get a vaccination in London, the city he left for his native Bulgaria six months before. With sadness and disquiet, I wonder why Bulgaria did not protect my father in his old age while the UK’s NHS has made every endeavour to do so. Why have I been protected in my middle age while about 90% of Bulgarians over 80 have not?

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Stench of death pervades rural India as Ganges swells with Covid victims

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Stigma and cost of wood leave families with no choice but to immerse their dead in river

There was a time before when the Ganges was “swollen with dead bodies”.

In 1918, when the great flu pandemic swept through India and killed an estimated 18 million people, the water of this river – upon which so many lives depended – was filled with the stench of death.

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Australia news live: doctors warn we are ‘sitting ducks’ until vaccinated; Australian meat could go tariff-free to UK

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Experts raise alarm about Covid vaccination rates as Coalition government explores digital certificates that could unlock international travel; trade minister confident of reaching free-trade deal with UK. Follow the latest news live

Real estate website Domain has alerted customers that is has been the victim of a phishing attack - where an email is made to look official and gets a user to hand over their login details - meaning hackers had access to the company’s administrative system, and was able to access the personal information of people who had recently made inquiries about rental properties.

They had then emailed some of those people asking them to pay a deposit in advance to secure the property, but Domain said so far it had received no reports of anyone paying the deposit.

Another day of zero cases in Victoria.

Yesterday there were no cases reported.
- 9,497 vaccine doses were administered
- 21,488 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/rTYblQWl9E

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Coronavirus live news: France begins cautious return to normality; EU to allow fully vaccinated visitors

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India passes US for record daily deaths; Greece pins hopes for recovery on upgraded airports

This blog is now closed. You can find the latest pandemic news at the link below:

UK government ministers are considering diluting plans for “freedom day” in England on 21 June and delaying the end of all social distancing rules, as new figures showed another sharp increase in the Covid variant first detected in India.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said no announcement would be made until 14 June on whether all restrictions will be lifted a week later, as planned.

Related: Ministers consider diluting plan to relax Covid rules as India variant surges

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How Australia’s vaccination ads compare with the rest of the world – video

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New Zealand has its metaphorical door to freedom, Singapore is leaning on disco, America has presidents and beer, while the UK is calling upon celebrity. As Covid-19 vaccination efforts continue around the globe, countries are using a range of communication methods, including humour and emotional connections to encourage people to get the jab. In contrast, Australia has chosen fear to scare people into what may happen if they contract Covid-19. In one ad, a young woman with oxygen tubes in her nose struggles for air. In another Australian campaign, Australians are urged to 'arm themselves' in a bland ad which has been accused of 'falling flat'

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‘We booked straight away’: first Covid vaccine tourists arrive in San Marino

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Tiny European republic is offering two Sputnik V jabs as part of holiday package

The group of four friends from Latvia had driven 26 hours in a camper van to reach San Marino, where they became the first visitors to take advantage of the microstate’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine holiday package.

One person in the group, Armens, 48, was so happy to receive the Russian jab – available to non-residents who book accommodation in San Marino hotels – that he kept the empty vial as a souvenir after receiving his first dose on Tuesday.

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British tourists to EU may have to quarantine even if vaccinated

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UK could also face travel block due to India variant and own incoming rules if altered EU policy stands

Fully vaccinated Britons could still be told to quarantine at their EU holiday destination due to concerns over the Covid variant first detected in India and a failure to allow Europeans to visit Britain freely, according to a policy agreed in Brussels.

Representatives of the 27 member states on Wednesday provisionally approved a change of the policy under which anyone from a non-EU country could travel if they were able to prove they had been fully vaccinated.

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Covid vaccines: India export delay deals blow to poorer countries

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Efforts in Africa and elsewhere hit by decision not to export AstraZeneca jab until end of year

Vaccine programmes across Africa and much of the developing world will suffer big delays after the world’s biggest producer said it would not be exporting the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine until the end of the year.

“We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritise India … We also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by the end of this year,” Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India (SII), said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Tunisia lockdown ends, despite Africa’s worst Covid death rate

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Pandemic fatigue and economic woes blamed for lack of action despite rapid rise in number of cases

Tunisia has ended its one-week lockdown, despite having the highest reported deaths per capita of any country in Africa.

Covid-19 cases in Tunisia were initially low last year, with a sweeping six-week lockdown involving the closure of borders and shutting down all but essential commercial activity appearing to halt the spread of the virus. However, since easing that original lockdown cases have increased, with daily reported infections and deaths now the highest in Africa, according to Our World in Data.

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Australia news live: Morrison labels India a ‘dangerous place’; Rex Patrick in court fight for cabinet documents

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Coalition backs $600m gas plant as IEA warns against new fossil fuel use; concerns over speed of vaccine rollout continue with Melbourne hubs below capacity. Follow latest updates

With that I shall depart, leaving the amazing Christopher Knaus in my place to take you through the afternoon.

Just a bit more from that Scott Morrison interview with 2GB earlier today:

The prime minister has brushed off criticism about the red carpet treatment he recently received at an Australian airbase.

We have nothing to do with that, I mean, I just walk out of a plane and whatever is there is there...

I have nothing to do with what the defence forces do when you step out of a plane. So it was nice of them to receive it. It wasn’t the first time that’s happened.

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Tokyo’s restaurateurs rail against alcohol ban as Covid measures bite

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Owners of izakayas in the Shimbashi district of Japan’s capital are facing an existential threat

A vivid rainbow heralds the arrival of dusk in Tokyo, but the fabled promise of a pot of gold must seem like a cruel joke to restaurateurs in Shimbashi, where office blocks stand in happy proximity to hundreds of watering holes.

In pre-coronavirus days, nightfall would be the cue for the neighbourhood’s neon lights to flicker into action and for touts armed with laminated menus to beckon office workers inside with promises of cheap food and drink.

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Covid laid bare existing weaknesses in UK government, says NAO

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Report highlights data failings, workforce shortages and disconnect between health and social care

Coronavirus has exposed decades-long weaknesses in government and divisions in wider society, an official parliamentary watchdog has said, including neglect of social care and chronic underfunding in local government.

Amid renewed questions over the reopening timetable, the National Audit Office (NAO) warned that from the very start of the pandemic a lack of planning had left ministers without a “playbook” on how to respond.

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‘Nothing conclusive’ on India variant to change route out of lockdown, says Johnson – video

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The UK prime minister said there was ‘nothing conclusive’ in data gathered on the coronavirus variant first identified in India to suggest the final stage of lifting coronavirus restrictions in England from 21 June should be delayed. 

Speaking at a mass vaccination centre in London, Boris Johnson urged people to be ‘cautious’ and said that holidaymakers should not be travelling to countries on the amber list unless for pressing family or urgent business reasons

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Nurse who cared for Boris Johnson resigns over ‘lack of respect’ for NHS workers

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Jenny McGee, who kept vigil by PM’s bedside when he was sick with Covid, derides government’s handling of pandemic

A nurse who cared for Boris Johnson when he was gravely ill with Covid-19 says she has handed in her resignation, such is her disillusionment with the “lack of respect” shown by the government for the NHS and healthcare workers.

Jenny McGee, who kept vigil by the prime minister’s bedside for two days when he was in intensive care, also revealed that his staff had later attempted to co-opt her into a “clap for the NHS” photo opportunity with him during what she thought would be a discreet thank you visit to Downing Street.

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