The Covid vaccination programme has begun in the Gaza Strip amid daily power cuts, and supply and capacity problems in the health system. Dr Ayman Rahma is part of the team responsible for the distribution of vaccines. The territory has only received 62,000 doses so far for a population of more than 2 million. With Israel disputing that it bears responsibility for vaccinating Gazans or for letting vaccines enter Gaza, Rahma explains how the political situation is impacting the health sector
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EU leaders push back against bloc’s plans to halt Covid vaccine export
More sceptical member states hope ‘stick will never be used’ amid concerns over supply chain
EU leaders are likely to shy away from supporting the use of new powers to block Covid vaccine shipments to countries such as the UK with better jab coverage than the bloc, according to a draft statement ahead of a meeting of EU leaders today.
The European commission has increased its scope for blocking vaccine exports but disquiet among capitals is set to be reflected in a muted statement at the end of the virtual summit on Thursday evening.
Continue reading...‘Saddest March of our lives’: Brazilians lament Covid devastation as critics decry Bolsonaro
As country reaches 300,000 fatalities, doctors condemn ‘politics of death’ but pledge to fight on
Like so many on Brazil’s left, Pedro Carvalho was certain Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency would prove a nightmare: for human rights, for the environment and for the national health system the 41-year-old doctor cherishes and serves.
“I felt this profound sadness, just utter, personal sadness,” Carvalho remembered of the fateful moment in October 2018 that the far-right populist was confirmed as his country’s new leader.
Continue reading...‘Just write STOP’: the teenager helping Polish women flee abuse
Schoolgirl’s fake cosmetics site helps hundreds of women as domestic violence rises during Covid
In April 2020, weeks after Poland went into its first Covid-19 lockdown, Krysia Paszko, a 17-year-old high school pupil, watched a TV report about Europe’s surge in domestic violence cases, which had increased by up to 60% on 2019, according to the World Health Organization. Poland’s largest women’s rights centre, Centrum Praw Kobiet (CPK), had reported a 50% increase in calls to its domestic violence hotline in March.
Learning from the report that France had implemented a scheme in pharmacies that women could use to report domestic violence using the codewords “Mask 19”, Paszko had an idea. With help from a graphic designer friend, she created a Facebook page for a fictitious cosmetics company.
Continue reading...Covid curfew and clock change threaten to call time on Spain’s drive-in cinemas
Country’s oldest autocine is calling for exemption from 10pm rule so it can survive summer’s later sunsets
At 7.30 on Friday evening, Godzilla and King Kong are scheduled to converge on a large lot in eastern Spain to trade blows and bellows, rip fistfuls of fur and scales off each other and generally wreak CGI havoc for an appreciative, car-bound audience.
Their titanic sparring, however, could be short-lived. This weekend, the wading reptilian metaphor for atomic warfare and the conflicted, skyscraper-bothering ape could find themselves cowed by the setting sun, the changing of the clocks and the local coronavirus curfew.
Continue reading...‘Unless you’re wealthy, don’t come back’: dismay over new rules for returning to NZ
Charge of $3,100 will have to be paid if a returnee leaves again within six months, instead of the previous three months
New Zealanders overseas have reacted with despair to news that the government has doubled the time returning citizens are required to stay to avoid paying a $3,100 quarantine fee.
The changes, announced on Wednesday, mean people coming home from overseas will need to stay six months, rather than the previous three, to be exempt from the fee – a move the government has said will help make the managed isolation system “more financially sustainable”.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson on EU vaccine exports and ‘vaccination passports’ – video
Boris Johnson has told the EU that Europe would be the loser if it imposed a Covid vaccine blockade on Britain, as Brussels empowered officials to prohibit shipments to countries with a better record in vaccinating their population. The prime minister also discussed whether pubs should be allowed to set rules on vaccine passports as a condition of entry
- Johnson warns EU not to ban Covid vaccine exports to UK
- Pubs that check Covid status may be allowed to drop social distancing
AstraZeneca plant investigated by Italian police at EU’s request
Investigation is fresh sign of breakdown in relations between Brussels and Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier
An AstraZeneca plant has come under investigation by the Italian police at the request of Brussels in a sign of the breakdown in relations between the Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier and the EU.
Officers were sent into the facility in the town Anagni, east of Rome, on Saturday evening after the European commission contacted the Italian government with concerns.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: India pauses AstraZeneca vaccine exports; Belgium, Iceland and France tighten restrictions
No exports were made on Thursday; Belgium imposes fresh lockdown; Iceland imposes three-week shutdown; France locks down more areas
- AstraZeneca dismisses claim 29m vaccine doses in Italy were aimed for UK
- Delhi reportedly halts AstraZeneca vaccine exports as cases soar
- Angela Merkel apologises as she reveres German Easter lockdown
- How Taiwan triumphed over Covid as UK faltered
- UK coronavirus updates – live
AstraZeneca has dismissed as “inaccurate” a report in the Italian press that 29m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine found in factory near Rome were destined for the UK.
La Stampa reported on Wednesday that the doses – almost twice the amount the EU has so far received from AstraZeneca – were found “hidden” in the factory following a search by Italian police on Saturday at the request of the European commission, and that they were probably destined for the UK.
Related: AstraZeneca dismisses claim 29m vaccine doses in Italy were bound for UK
Luxembourg has announced a partial reopening of its hospitality industry, with cafés and restaurants able to serve customers again in outdoor areas from 7 April.
The European country’s venues have been closed since the end of November.
Continue reading...Delhi reportedly halts AstraZeneca Covid vaccine exports as cases soar
Temporary hold put on exports of vaccines by Serum Institute of India to meet demand at home
Delhi has reportedly put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to meet demand at home as infections surge.
The move, first reported by Reuters, will affect supplies to the Gavi/WHO-backed Covax vaccine-sharing facility through which more than 180 countries are expected to get doses, one of the sources said.
Continue reading...Zoom refuseniks: why companies are banning constant video calls
This week an investment bank announced Zoom-free Fridays – and they are far from the first to question the stress and fatigue that comes with 24/7 screen time
Name: Zoom refuseniks.
Age: One year old, give or take.
Continue reading...UK singled out for failing to export Covid vaccines to EU
European commission revising export authorisation mechanism ‘to ensure vaccination of EU’
Britain has been singled out for failing to export Covid vaccines to the EU as Brussels empowered officials to prohibit shipments of doses to countries with a better vaccination coverage than within the bloc.
Valdis Dombrovskis, a European commission vice-president, said the commission was revising its export authorisation mechanism in order to “ensure vaccination of our own population”.
Continue reading...How Taiwan triumphed over Covid as the UK faltered
Taipei’s success shows lives might have been saved had the UK government acted differently
Along central Taipei’s busy Yongkang Street crowds spill out of restaurants and bars every evening, mingling with people queueing outside popular eateries for a tiny table to cram around with groups of friends. Children out way past their bedtime run amok over the play equipment in a nearby park, shrieking and laughing as their parents chat nearby.
In London, it would be unthinkable. In the Taiwanese capital, it is just another spring evening.
Continue reading...Over 30 million people ‘one step away from starvation’, UN warns
The pandemic, climate crisis and conflict combining to drive ‘alarming’ levels of global hunger, says report
Acute hunger is likely to soar in more than 20 countries in the next few months, the UN has warned.
Families in pockets of Yemen and South Sudan are already in the grip of starvation, according to a report on hunger hotspots published by the agency’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP).
Continue reading...Biden calls on Congress to pass assault weapons ban after Boulder shooting – live
President also urges Senate to pass bills to close background checks loopholes
- Biden team turns focus to $3tn infrastructure plan
- Senate confirms Boston mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary
- Photos show migrants held in overcrowded Texas facility
- Biden strikes new tone but Mexico remains US’s wall against migrants
Earlier, while he was touring the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, Biden was asked if he thinks he has the political capital to get gun control measures passed through the Senate.
“I hope so,” he said, his fingers crossed per the White House press pool report.
.@POTUS crosses his fingers as he's asked about the possibility of gun control legislation, during a tour of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/qMZ3soPuGJ
Hours after America's second mass shooting in a week, Sen. John Kennedy downplays the gun problem by noting that "we have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people. We ought to try to combat that too ... the answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers." pic.twitter.com/BvqhNvuWRJ
Getting vaccinated and following public health guidelines are patriotic duties, Biden said.
“We need all Americans to keep washing their hands, stay socially distanced, wearing their masks,” he said. “Get vaccinated, when it’s your turn. It’s a patriotic responsibility.
Boris Johnson says UK will be dealing with the fallout of the pandemic for decades – video
Prime minister Boris Johnson said the coronavirus pandemic ‘is something that we will all remember and be dealing with in different ways – certainly in my case – for as long as I live’, adding that ‘the single biggest false assumption’ made early on was misunderstanding the risk of asymptomatic transmission. Speaking during the same briefing, the chief scientific officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, said it was unlikely that Covid-19 would ever be completely eradicated
- UK Covid: Boris Johnson says country will be dealing with fallout for rest of his life - as it happened
- Boris Johnson admits regrets over handling of first Covid wave
Vladimir Putin receives first dose of Russian-made Covid vaccine in private
Russian president declines to have first dose in public after delaying jab for months
Vladimir Putin has received his first dose of a Russian-made coronavirus vaccine in private, his spokesman has confirmed, in an apparent effort to boost Russia’s fledgling vaccination drive after months of delaying his jab.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told news agencies late on Tuesday that the 68-year-old president had been vaccinated but did not specify which one of the three Russian-made vaccines was administered.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson admits regrets over handling of first Covid wave
PM says he wishes ‘many things’ were done differently as country marks one year since first lockdown
Boris Johnson has admitted there are many things he wishes he had done differently to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic as the UK marks a year since the first lockdown and remembers the 126,000 people who have died so far.
At a Downing Street press conference, England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, also conceded the country had endured “a bad outcome”, but the prime minister once again refused to commit to a public inquiry to look at the decisions taken by the government over the last year.
Continue reading...EU to widen criteria for possible Covid vaccine export bans
Bloc expected to assess countries’ Covid vaccination coverage and record in facilitating exports to EU
The EU is expected to take into account the level of vaccination coverage in a country and its record in facilitating exports to the bloc when deciding on whether to prohibit individual vaccine shipments to the UK and elsewhere.
The revision of the export authorisation scheme, widening the criteria that will guide Brussels’ decisions on export requests, is due to be announced on Wednesday. EU leaders will then on Thursday discuss going further in controlling vaccine distribution when they meet by videoconference.
Continue reading...Banksy’s NHS Covid superhero nurse gift sold for record £16.7m
‘Game Changer’ was a work the artist made as a thank you to England’s health workers amid the pandemic
A Banksy painting of a young boy ditching his Batman and Spider-Man action figures for one of a caped superhero nurse has sold for a world record price of £16.7m, the money going to UK health charities.
The artist made the work as a thank you to the NHS, delivering it out of the blue to Southampton general hospital last May.
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