Category Archives: Coronavirus

Ursula von der Leyen issues Covid vaccine export warning at EU summit

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Commission head reassures leaders she will ban vaccines leaving EU if suppliers fail to deliver again

Ursula von der Leyen has reassured EU leaders she will ban coronavirus vaccines from leaving the EU if suppliers such as AstraZeneca fail to deliver again, as she faced questions over her handling of shortages.

The European commission president’s pledge at a virtual summit came as leaders issued a statement promising to “accelerate the provision of vaccines”, with just 8% of the adult population having received a jab compared with 27% in the UK.

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Canada’s Covid plan under fire as air passengers evade hotel quarantine

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Some arriving passengers are dodging mandatory three-night hotel stay while claims of sexual assault tarnish health plan

Less than a week after the introduction of new rules obliging international air travellers to quarantine at a hotel on arrival in Canada, the plan is facing criticism after allegations of sexual assault and reports that some passengers are ignoring the rules.

Amid growing concern that international travellers could pose a risk of spreading variants of the coronavirus, Canada began requiring anyone arriving from abroad to isolate at a hotel for up to three nights, beginning Monday.

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Australia is the Covid lucky country. But we risk becoming cruel | Brigid Delaney

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When you emerge relatively unscathed in a devastated world, there is a risk of being out of step, of lacking empathy

Most mornings, as soon I wake, I retrieve some voice messages left overnight on WhatsApp. Sent from friends in the Northern hemisphere, they are missives from the pandemic, a granular account of what daily life is like in lockdown over there.

For almost a year now, various friends and I record and send audio messages back and forth that contain the sort of ephemera that seems too slight and unimportant for email but satisfying to listen to in the morning as I have my first coffee.

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California death toll from Covid-19 tops 50,000 after winter surge

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  • Most populous US state has highest most coronavirus deaths
  • LA county health director: ‘It is heartbreaking’

California’s Covid-19 death toll rose above 50,000 on Wednesday, after Los Angeles county reported another 806 deaths during the winter surge.

The county, which has a quarter of the state’s 40 million residents, said the deaths mainly occurred between 3 December and 3 February. The department of public health identified them after going through death records that were backlogged by the sheer volume of the surge’s toll.

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Coronavirus live news: Finland announces lockdown plan; Ukraine registers 40% jump in new cases

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Finnish PM announces three-week lockdown from 8 March; Ukraine registered 8,147 cases on Wednesday; EU leaders to debate certificates for people who had Covid jabs

Coronavirus is continuing to spread at high rates across Europe, with two variants posing the greatest threat, according to Dr Hans Henri Kluge, the World Health Organization’s director for Europe.

Speaking at a news conference, Kluge said that less than 1 million new cases have been reported for a second week in a row as transmission is slowing across Europe, while new reported cases have declined by almost a half since end of 2020. However he cautioned against complacency given that the number of new cases in Europe is 10 times higher than in May last year, and most countries still have very high levels of community transmission.

One in ten Covid-19 sufferers remain unwell after 12 weeks, and many for longer, he added. He advised health authorities to listen to the symptoms of long Covid sufferers in order to better understand the condition. This is a priority for the WHO, and should be for every health authority, he said.

Hungary is predicting a difficult few weeks ahead as a result of rising coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.

There’s not much available detail yet, but an update should follow shortly.

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Not a sprint: endurance experts on how to make it through lockdown

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Marathon runner Eddie Izzard, solo sailor Pip Hare and explorer Levison Wood explain what they have learned about enduring the seemingly unendurable

It just goes on and on, doesn’t it? Despite the millions of vaccinations, and Boris Johnson’s “roadmap” for easing the lockdown, this pandemic is feeling increasingly like an endurance test – a marathon, followed by another marathon, followed by another. Or trudging for miles and miles across the desert for day after day. Or sailing alone around the world, battling storms and loneliness. How do you keep going? There are people who know a thing or two about that – keeping going, endurance, deserts and storms. Perhaps they might even have some advice.

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Nearly half with cancer symptoms in the UK did not see GP in first wave of pandemic

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People avoided seeking medical help during first lockdown because they did not want to burden NHS

Almost half of those who had a potential symptom of cancer during the pandemic’s first wave did not see a GP, even when they coughed up blood or developed a lump, a new study shows.

People held off seeking medical help because they did not want to waste health professionals’ time, add to the pressure on the NHS or go to hospital in case they caught Covid-19.

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Pfizer Covid vaccine 94% effective, study of 1.2m people finds

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A major study of data from Israel showed Pfizer shot cut symptomatic cases drastically across all age groups

The first major real-world study of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be independently reviewed shows the shot is highly effective at preventing Covid-19, in a potentially landmark moment for countries desperate to end lockdowns and reopen economies.

Until now, most data on coronavirus vaccines has come under controlled conditions in clinical trials, leaving an element of uncertainty about how the results would translate into the real world.

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‘A huge relief’: families welcome priority vaccination for those with learning disabilities

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Three families react to government’s U-turn to prioritise their loved ones for coronavirus inoculation

On Wednesday, the government announced that all individuals on the learning disabilities register will be prioritised for a coronavirus vaccine. The move came after an outpouring of public outrage when DJ Jo Whiley revealed that she was invited for a vaccine before her sister Frances, who has a genetic disorder and lives in residential care. Frances Whiley was later hospitalised for the virus, but has since returned home.

Three families whose loved ones have a learning disability spoke about what the change means for them.

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Manhattan district attorney reportedly subpoenas Bannon’s financial records – live

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Joe Biden is meeting with a bipartisan group of Congress members to discuss improving US supply chains to better prepare for future crises.

“The last year has shown some of the vulnerability we have with some of the supply chains, including the PPE we needed badly but had to go abroad to get,” Biden told reporters at the start of the meeting.

Biden, meeting in Oval with members of Congress about supply chain problems, including a shortage of computer chips for the autos industry, says it’s causing some production lines to slow down and “people might be laid off.” pic.twitter.com/nHNN2CofN5

Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the interior department, faced more pointed questions from Republicans during her second confirmation hearing today.

Republican Senator John Barrasso pressed Haaland, who would be the first Native American cabinet secretary if confirmed, on her past statements against fracking on public lands.

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NHS warns against Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘kombucha and kimchi’ Covid advice

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Hollywood actor urged to stop spreading misinformation after promoting ‘intuitive fasting’

Gwyneth Paltrow has been urged to stop spreading misinformation by the medical director of NHS England after she suggested long Covid could be treated with “intuitive fasting”, herbal cocktails and regular visits to an “infrared sauna”.

The Hollywood star, who markets unproven new age potions on her Goop website, wrote on her latest blogpost that she caught Covid-19 early and had since suffered “long-tail fatigue and brain fog”.

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Calls for mandatory Covid jabs conflict with Britons’ right to say no

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Analysis: idea is not as simple as it seems, due to the fact vaccination is not mandatory under UK law

The UK government has always said there will be no compulsory Covid vaccination. It is only nervously dipping a toe in the waters of the vaccine passport issue, which could have implications for those who do not have one. But some employers appear prepared to dive straight in. “No jab, no job,” says Charlie Mullins, who runs Pimlico Plumbers. He wants to be able to tell his customers they have nothing to fear from a visit to fix their leaking pipes.

Care homes are understandably thinking hard about it too. They have vulnerable people to protect and the families on the outside will be more than anxious to know that an elderly mum or dad is being looked after by somebody who is fully vaccinated. Barchester Healthcare, the second-biggest care home provider in the UK, has spelled it out to its 17,000 staff that if they do not get vaccinated even though they are eligible, there will be no more shifts for them from the end of April, said the chief executive, Dr Pete Calveley.

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Greece in talks with UK to allow holidays with vaccine passports

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Greek tourism minister says he hopes to ‘dovetail’ with Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown

Greece is in “technical” talks with the UK over allowing Britons carrying a vaccine passport to travel to its tourist hotspots from May despite concerns in Brussels and other EU capitals.

Haris Theoharis, the country’s tourism minister, said he hoped to “dovetail” with Boris Johnson’s roadmap for allowing Britons to travel but refused to be drawn on whether Greece would break with Brussels to establish the scheme.

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Ghana receives 600,000 vaccines in first Covax delivery – video

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Covax has delivered its first Covid-19 vaccine doses to Ghana as part of a programme to ensure equitable distribution to poorer countries. Anne-Claire Dufay, of Unicef, said it was ‘an historic moment’.

Covax aims to distribute enough vaccines over the next six months to inoculate 3% of the population of 145 countries and tens of millions more by the end of the year

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Boris Johnson ‘a liar’ who will blame Brexit costs on Covid, says diplomat

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Sylvie Bermann, former French ambassador, puts PM’s handling of pandemic alongside Donald Trump’s

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

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Key Biden aide said pandemic was ‘best thing that ever happened to him’, book says

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  • Anita Dunn said privately what aides ‘would never say in public’
  • Cautious campaigning won Covid battle with Trump
  • US politics – live coverage

A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed “Covid is the best thing that ever happened to him”, a new book reports.

Related: Ruling on Trump tax records could be costliest defeat of his losing streak

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Meatless school menu sparks political row in France

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Temporary decision by Green mayor of Lyon to take meat off menu met by protests

A decision by the Green mayor of Lyon, seen by many as the country’s culinary capital, to temporarily take meat off the menu in school canteens during the coronavirus pandemic has sparked a major political row in France.

Government ministers have accused the mayor, Grégory Doucet, of “ideological” and “elitist” behaviour after the measure, which is also being studied by several other cities including Paris, came into force in Lyon’s schools on Monday.

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Covax delivers first Covid vaccines in ‘momentous occasion’

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Doses land in Accra as part of scheme seeking to offset ‘vaccine nationalism’

Covax has delivered its first Covid-19 vaccine doses in a milestone for the ambitious programme that seeks to offset “vaccine nationalism” by wealthy countries and ensure poor ones do not wait years to start inoculating people.

An aircraft carrying 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine landed in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Wednesday, where jabs will be administered to frontline health workers on Tuesday. Vaccine doses will arrive on Friday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and will be given from Monday.

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Yazidis have been forgotten during Covid. They need justice, jobs and a return home | Nadia Murad

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Survivors of Islamic State brutality are pushed further into the margins as the pandemic causes the world to turn inward

Staring at the same four walls day after day, unable to find work, reunite with relatives, or send your children to school. The Covid pandemic has rendered this bleak picture a reality for many people across the globe. Yet for many who have survived or are living through conflict, these hardships are hardly novel.

For the Yazidi ethnic minority in Iraq, Islamic State’s 2014 genocide created adversity long before the pandemic ever did. For more than six years, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have been in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) staring at the same four walls of their tents. They are unable to find work because Isis razed their farms and businesses. They cannot reunite with relatives still in Isis captivity or attend the burials of family members whose bodies remain in mass graves.

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