Category Archives: Coronavirus

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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Hilary Mantel and JK Rowling add lots to auction for global vaccine rollout

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Fundraiser running until 21 May also includes chances to consult with star agent Jonny Geller and have a character named after you in a Sarah Pinborough novel

A literary auction raising money to help vaccinate the world against coronavirus has made more than £23,000 so far, as book lovers bid to win signed novels by authors including Hilary Mantel, as well as mentoring sessions from star publishers and agents.

Bidding at Books for Vaccines for a personal consultation with literary agent Jonny Geller has reached £1,000, while a signed box set of the Wolf Hall trilogy, with handwritten first sentences from Mantel, has topped £600. The auction is running until 21 May, with other lots including the chance to have a character named after you in the next novel by Sarah Pinborough, author of the Netflix hit Behind Her Eyes, a signed copy of Marian Keyes’s novel Grown Ups, and the chance to write the dedication at the front of Jill Mansell’s new novel.

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Coronavirus live news: India suffers record daily deathss; Tokyo doctors call for Japan Olympics to be cancelled

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India deaths rise by record 4,329 in 24 hours; Singapore authorises use as it tackles increase in infections

Leaders of the world’s largest economies back “voluntary licensing” of Covid vaccine patents, the draft conclusions of a summit show.

The draft document, seen by Reuters, lists commitments of G20 nations- and other countries- and is to be adopted on Friday at a Global Health Summit in Rome, one of this year’s major events to coordinate global actions against the pandemic.

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Scott Morrison fends off calls to reopen border as medical association urges ‘plan for 2022’

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The prime minister concedes the government has to ‘step up’ the vaccination effort as the AMA says it’s time to put a date on reopening

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is fending off mounting pressure to reopen Australia’s borders sooner than next year, as the peak medical association joins calls for a “plan for 2022” that would see the country reopen to the rest of the world.

Following last week’s budget, which assumed that Australia’s borders would remain closed until mid next year, the Morrison government has faced a barrage of calls from business, the university sector and from within Coalition ranks for a swifter reopening of borders and a bolstering of quarantine facilities.

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