According to a new poll, all manner of everyday occurrences are now over for good – from sharing crisps in the pub to swapping gym equipment
Name: Kissing strangers.
Age: Ancient.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Coronavirus
New Covid variant with potentially worrying mutations found in UK
Researchers say 32 cases of B1525 in Britain, with other cases in countries including Denmark, US and Australia
Another coronavirus variant with a potentially worrying set of mutations has been detected in the UK and should be targeted in surge testing, experts have said.
The variant, known as B1525, is the subject of a report by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, who say it has been detected through genome sequencing in 10 countries including Denmark, the US and Australia, with 32 cases found in the UK so far. The earliest sequences were dated to December and cropped up in the UK and Nigeria.
Continue reading...Johnson says end of lockdown must be ‘cautious but irreversible’ – video
The prime minister said the government would provide target dates for sectors to reopen ‘if we possibly can’ when he reveals his plan for easing lockdown next week. Speaking to broadcasters in Kent, Johnson said: ‘The dates that we will be setting out will be the dates by which we hope we can do something at the earliest’
Continue reading...Israel battles Covid misinformation as vaccination drive slows
Plan for incentives to increase takeup, while study shows two Pfizer doses give 94% protection
Israel is considering a carrot and stick approach to persuade people to get vaccinated, including granting inoculated people access to restaurants, hotels and concerts, while forcing some vaccine refusers to get uncomfortable Covid tests every two days.
“Will you be eligible to enter gyms and cultural events, or will you be left behind?” tweeted the health minister, Yuli Edelstein. “Go get vaccinated!”
Continue reading...Risk of global food shortages due to Covid has increased, says UN envoy
Exclusive: Agnes Kalibata says price rises and scarcity mean people in poverty are in more danger than last year
People living in poverty around the world are in danger of food shortages as the coronavirus crisis continues, the UN’s food envoy has warned, with the risk worse this year than in the period shortly after the pandemic began.
Agnes Kalibata, the special envoy to the UN secretary general for the food systems summit 2021, said: “Food systems have contracted, because of Covid-19. And food has become more expensive and, in some places, out of reach for people. Food is looking more challenging this year than last year.”
Continue reading...How the Covid pandemic could end – and what will make it happen faster | Devi Sridhar
Pandemics are global by definition. Only travel restrictions and equal vaccine access for all countries will end this crisis
Most people have already adjusted their expectations to a spring of disruption – but most are quietly hoping that by the summer, and into the autumn, life in the UK will have returned more or less to normal. Are they right to be confident? What can we do to avoid slipping back into a cycle of lockdowns? In short: how does this pandemic end, and how can we end it faster?
Globally, the UK is in the strong position of having at least five effective and safe vaccines, but there are major challenges ahead. We already know about variants, such as those arising in Kent, Brazil and South Africa, which are proving challenging in terms of being more transmissible, and having potentially more severe health outcomes in the case of the UK variant.
Continue reading...Pakistan to allow private firms to import coronavirus vaccines
Vaccines also exempt from price caps in divisive move that health experts fear will deepen inequality
Pakistan will allow private companies to import coronavirus vaccines and has exempted the vaccines from price caps in a divisive move that health experts fear will create vast inequalities in access.
The country has been scrambling to secure vaccine supplies but so far only the Chinese-made Sinopharm treatment is being deployed. This month 500,000 doses were donated to Pakistan.
Continue reading...Peru’s foreign minister resigns in scandal over early vaccination of officials
Health minister had already quit after it emerged ministers received jabs before health workers
Peru’s foreign minister has resigned amid uproar over government officials being secretly vaccinated against coronavirus before the country recently received 1m doses for health workers facing a resurgence in the pandemic.
The president, Francisco Sagasti, confirmed that Elizabeth Astete had stepped down and told a local television channel that Peruvians should feel “outraged and angry about this situation that jeopardises the enormous effort of many Peruvians working on the frontline against Covid”.
Continue reading...Lack of Covid data may leave African countries behind in vaccine rush
Experts say continent may not be seen as priority because true extent of pandemic is unknown
African countries may suffer in the global rush for vaccines because they are unable to gather statistics that reveal the true extent of the spread of Covid among their populations, epidemiologists and other experts fear.
According to data from Johns Hopkins university, there have been 3.7m confirmed cases in Africa, and the landmark figure of 100,000 confirmed deaths is likely to be reached within days.
Continue reading...Summer in Auckland felt like a fool’s paradise – we all knew it couldn’t last | Steve Braunias
Reports of queues for inessential items have come in fast but we can still count ourselves lucky
The bananas were the first to go. “Look,” I said to my daughter. We stood and gazed at the supermarket shelves set aside for bananas. They’d been stripped bare less than an hour after the latest lockdown was announced. We sighed, and then went about stripping the shelves of nectarines. She asked, “Will six do?” I said, “No. Grab 10. You never know.”
Last night’s lockdown announcement took place at 7pm. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an urgent press conference and emergency sirens wailed from mobile phones – they’d make a good ringtone – as New Zealanders were told to return to various states of lockdown. A family of three in South Auckland had tested positive for Covid-19. The city was put in lockdown level 3 at midnight, the rest of the country in the more relaxed level 2. It’s in place till Wednesday midnight and what happens after that is largely going to depend on whether more cases are tested positive in the community.
Continue reading...Australia politics live: Daniel Andrews gives press conference update on Victoria cases; jobseeker in spotlight as parliament returns
Pressure mounts for Coalition to announce a permanent increase to unemployment payment; Australia closes quarantine-free border to New Zealand after coronavirus cases confirmed as UK variant. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
NSW has recorded no new locally acquired cases - or any cases in hotel quarantine.
So another zero day for NSW
Daniel Andrews:
Again, the types of cases, this UK strain, the fact that despite the amazing efforts of all of our contact traces and testers and lab workers and the work of so many genuine hard-working Victorians, we had a situation where at the same time as we are becoming aware of the primary case, they have already infected their close contacts, that is not something we’ve seen before.
The speed at which this has moved saw our public health team make the very difficult decisions based on the best of science and the best understanding you can possibly have on any outbreak, that this was a difficult but proportionate and necessary thing to do.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: UK variant hits New Zealand; WHO envoy expects ‘some sort’ of vaccine passports
Australia suspends quarantine-free travel with New Zealand; WHO envoy suggests vaccine passports may be needed for travel
- Israel battles Covid misinformation as vaccination drive slows
- Risk of global food shortages due to Covid has increased, says UN envoy
- Lack of Covid data may leave African countries behind in vaccine rush
- Pakistan to allow private firms to import coronavirus vaccines
- See all our coronavirus coverage
France has scrapped a law banning workers to eat lunch at their desks in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19, according to a decree published Sunday.
CNN reports:
The new rule temporarily overturns a longstanding law that protected what was once considered a sacrosanct part of the day, “la pause déjeuner” -- the lunch break.
Employers were previously forbidden to allow their workers “to have their meals in the workplace,” under the French labor code.
House sales in Spain tumbled 18% in 2020, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday, with tourist hotspots like the Balearic and Canary Islands hardest-hit.
Reuters reports:
A months-long home confinement last spring as well as restrictions on regional and global travel delivered hard blows to Spain’s real estate market, which had only recently begun to recover from a crash in 2008.
Around 415,000 houses were sold in 2020, the lowest number in four years, while property transactions fell to lows not seen since 2011, though pent-up demand drove a modest recuperation in the second half.
[...]
Regions blessed with beaches, plentiful natural space or a low population density like La Rioja, Galicia and Cantabria saw house sales soar between 37% and 28% in December compared with the same month in 2019, as buyers fled the cities seeking the green outdoors – and a lower infection risk.
New Zealand’s Auckland Covid outbreak is UK variant, says Ardern
Some 1.6 million Kiwis face bans on non-essential movement until Wednesday under strict new lockdown as Australia suspends travel bubble
Aucklanders are waking up on Monday to a new lockdown, hoping the short and sharp three-day restrictions ordered by Jacinda Ardern arrest the spread of Covid-19.
The prime minister said genomic testing had shown that the three community cases were the UK variant of Covid-19.
Continue reading...Ministers flatly reject Tory demands to end Covid controls by May
Backbenchers’ calls dismissed but clamour for a more fixed schedule seems set to increase
Downing Street is pushing back against pressure from Conservative MPs to set a swift timetable to end the lockdown in England after meeting its first major vaccination target, saying any hastiness in reopening could risk undoing the progress made in combating the coronavirus pandemic.
In a sign of the likely battle ahead in the coming weeks, ministers and officials flatly ruled out a demand from Tory backbenchers for all Covid restrictions to be over by the start of May, saying any plan needed to be both more cautious and decided step by step.
Continue reading...What are the pros and cons of Covid vaccine passports?
The UK government is reconsidering the idea of certificates of vaccination to help reopen travel and business
Desperate to return to pre-pandemic normality, many countries where vaccination campaigns for Covid-19 are in full swing are considering endorsing “vaccine passports” to reignite international travel and reopen economies.
A week ago, the UK government ruled out plans for such passports – with vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi calling them “discriminatory” – but on Sunday, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the documents were “under consideration”. Labour politicians have advocated their introduction, with the former prime minister Tony Blair making the case for domestic vaccine passports in this week’s Mail on Sunday. So what are the pros and cons of such “immunity certificates”?
Continue reading...Our understanding of Covid and the vaccines is constantly evolving. That’s a good thing | Abby Bloom
There will continue to be plenty more data gaps because the Covid-19 strain simply behaves like all influenzas and mutates continuously
By the time you read this it will be out of date.
Why? Because every day we receive new data that causes us to rethink and rewrite our response to Covid-19, notably vaccine programs. This is good. I will explain.
Continue reading...‘I never imagined it would be so long’: the couples kept apart by Covid rules
Many long-distance couples are spending Valentine’s Day apart because of travel restrictions
Helen Riddle’s husband, Tim, hasn’t been home in almost a year. He left the UK in March last year for what was supposed to be two weeks, and Covid-19 measures have prevented his return. His Christmas presents wait for him under the tree their three children insist on keeping up until he gets back.
Tim is a pilot who flies medical equipment around the world. Though he has lived in Hong Kong for the past six years, he would normally come home every six to eight weeks. Before he left again in March, Helen says they begged him not to go but he had no choice but to return to work. “At that point I thought: ‘We’re not going to see him for a while,’ but I never, ever imagined it would be as long as it has been.”
Continue reading...WHO investigator claims China refused to hand over key Covid information
Australian infection expert, part of a team visiting Wuhan, says they were provided only with a summary of data
There is growing controversy over a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic after one of its members said China had refused to hand over key data, and the US national security adviser said he had “deep concerns” about the initial findings.
An international delegation travelled to the Chinese city of Wuhan last month, as part of efforts to understand how the outbreak began. Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious disease expert who was part of the team, said they had requested raw patient data but were only given a summary.
Continue reading...Video chats and distanced picnics: how we caught the love bug in lockdown
Dating in a pandemic has very different challenges, as these brave adventurers discovered
For Martina Piercy, 54, an occupational therapist from Wellington in Somerset, going into lockdown at the start of a new relationship was “really upsetting”. “We had been dating for six to eight weeks before the pandemic started, so the idea of either living with Tony or not seeing him was difficult,” she said.
Continue reading...Life savers: the amazing story of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine
A year ago, two scientists began work on the response to a new virus. Now, as their vaccine is being given to millions, they tell of their incredible 12 months
Exactly a year ago, Oxford University scientists launched a joint enterprise that is set to have a profound impact on the health of our planet. On 11 February, research teams led by Professor Andy Pollard and Professor Sarah Gilbert – both based at the Oxford Vaccine Centre – decided to combine their talents to develop and manufacture a vaccine that could protect people from the deadly new coronavirus that was beginning to spread across the world.
A year later that vaccine is being administered to millions across Britain and other nations and was last week given resounding backing by the World Health Organization. The head of the WHO’s department of immunisation, vaccines and biologicals, Professor Kate O’Brien, described the jab as “efficacious” and “an important vaccine for the world”.
Continue reading...