Clément Beaune says French would not accept such risks, as he defends EU’s slower progress
Britain has taken “a lot of risks” in its Covid vaccination programme that would be intolerable to the French public, France’s Europe minister, Clément Beaune, has said in defence of the EU’s record on vaccines.
With 14% of the UK adult population having received a first jab, compared with 3% of people across the 27 EU member states, there is growing discontent in the bloc.
Continue reading...A majority of 58% has confidence vaccinations will effectively stop the virus within Australia, the latest Essential poll suggests
Voters think the Morrison government will be able to manage the rollout of Covid vaccines safely and effectively despite the obvious downside risks, and a majority believes an early election would be an act of opportunism, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The data also suggests that Labor has been broadly competitive with the Coalition over the past quarter, despite some in the opposition fearing their leader, Anthony Albanese, can’t get a grip on Scott Morrison – a morale slump that has fuelled open speculation about whether Anthony Albanese will lead the ALP to the next election.
Continue reading...Authorities revoke £2,600 penalty after it emerges debt collectors had abducted him from self-isolation
A Taiwanese man penalised for breaching Covid quarantine regulations has had his fine revoked after it emerged he had been kidnapped by debt collectors.
The man, whose surname is Chen, returned from Hong Kong in late October and began his 14 days of mandatory home quarantine at a friend’s home in Nantou county. The next day, however, men identified as debt collectors arrived at the house and mistook Chen for his friend, who owed them money.
Continue reading...Racked by war, cholera and now coronavirus, the country faces the world’s worst famine in decades
Ten years after the rage and hope of the Arab spring filled the public spaces of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital has become a curiously quiet place.
Traders and customers alike shuffle through the streets of the old city, ground down by the repression of the Houthi rebel occupation and the economic hardship caused by the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition blockade.
Continue reading...Much of Western Australia shut down, with politicians returning to the ACT for parliament forced to isolate. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
And you may be surprised to learn that Gladys Berejiklian has no advice for Mark McGowan over what he should do.
Surprised, because the NSW premier had a LOT of advice for her Queensland counterpart ahead of Queensland’s election. Which Annastacia Palaszczuk won, with an increased majority.
I would not presume to have any advice for any of our colleagues apart from saying that please judge New South Wales on our record of how we manage things here, it is not for me to suggest what other premiers should do, that is a matter for them. All of us have to be considerate of what is happening inWA at the moment. Our thoughts are with everyone in WA at the moment.
NSW premier Gladys Bereiklian says there will be extra screening for WA travellers - but the states borders will remain open:
I have confidence that they would do all the due diligence as we have done in the past, when New Zealand or Brisbane went through this, we make sure we had those procedures in place, the key is to make sure we act quickly and to provide as much information as possible, but also to make a proportional response. We don’t know of any community transmission within WA apart from the security guard, so we are acting according to that risk.
Continue reading...EU aims to vaccinate 70% of adults by the end of summer; WHO mission at ground-zero Wuhan market; Israel extends lockdown as Covid variants offset vaccination drive
A World Health Organization team has visited the Huanan food market in Wuhan as part of its fieldwork in a politically sensitive mission to investigate the origins of the pandemic, AFP reports.
Their visit is being tightly controlled, and the WHO has already lowered expectations of pinpointing the source of the virus, which is known to have infected more than 102 million people so far with over 2.2 million deaths.
AstraZeneca will increase its coronavirus vaccine deliveries to the EU by 30%, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday as the bloc sought to claw back time lost rolling out the jabs, AFP reports.
The British-Swedish company had announced last week that it could deliver only a quarter of the doses originally promised to the bloc for the first quarter of the year because of problems at one of its European factories.
Continue reading...Dutch minister’s comments come as country says primary schools still to reopen next week; experts say easing could cause spike in cases
Elderly people in Poland will not be given the AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab, the vaccination minister said on Monday, adding that the final call will be made following advice from medical experts.
Europe’s medicines regulator approved AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s jab for over-18s on Friday, but said there were not yet enough results for people over 55 to determine how effective the vaccine will be.
“If we are talking about the decision of the medical council, we expect it in the coming days or possibly hours, but it is clear that elderly people will not be vaccinated with this shot,” Michal Dworczyk, the prime minister’s top aide, who has been put in charge of vaccinations, told a news conference. “We are waiting for a clear recommendation from the medical council and then... we will take a decision,” he added.
South Africa's first batch of lifesaving #COVID19 #Vaccine doses have officially touched ground! #IChooseVaccination #VaccineRolloutSA #WeChooseVaccination pic.twitter.com/V8ztEmdSKo
Continue reading...Restrictions imposed in Perth, Peel and south-west, with schools suspended and residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons
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Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s south-west region amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
South Australia and Victoria shut its borders to the affected areas late on Sunday evening, and in other states and territories, WA residents were told to immediately go into self-isolation, potentially creating chaos in Canberra where MPs had flown in for the resumption of parliament this week.
Continue reading...Trade secretary had previously hinted supplies may not be diverted until UK population was vaccinated
The UK could help the EU and other nations with coronavirus vaccine supplies even before the domestic vaccination programme has been completed, the international trade secretary, Liz Truss, has said.
As ministers sought to smooth relations with Brussels after the EU’s much-criticised and swiftly rescinded decision to impose a vaccine border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Truss sought to stress the need for international cooperation.
Continue reading...Leading infectious disease expert predicts that deadlier British strain will become dominant this spring
A leading infectious disease expert predicted on Sunday that the deadlier British variant of Covid-19 will become the dominant strain of the virus in the US and could hit the country like a hurricane.
The worrying forecast came as the total of confirmed infections in the US passed the 26m mark, with the death toll advancing steadily towards the grim milestone of half a million after on Sunday surpassing the total of 440,000, by far the highest in the world according to data gathered by the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus research center.
Continue reading...Lisa Enroth was chosen from 12,000 applicants to be Gothenburg film festival’s castaway on Pater Noster
Scandinavia’s biggest film festival is going ahead this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, but will be hosted on an isolated island and admit only one attendee – a healthcare worker, who has been selected from 12,000 applicants.
Lisa Enroth, a Swedish nurse and film fan, was chosen to be the 2021 Gothenburg film festival’s castaway who will spend a week on the remote island of Pater Noster watching film after film.
Continue reading...The UK can help EU nations with coronavirus vaccine supplies, the international trade secretary, Liz Truss, has said, but only if it does not affect the government’s timetable for vaccinating its own population. She told Sky News's Sophy Ridge: 'We first need to make sure that our population is vaccinated ... It’s a bit too early to say how we would deploy vaccines but we certainly want to work with friends and neighbours, we want to work with developing countries'
As the death toll mounts, even for those with health insurance medical bills can run into tens of thousands of dollars
For more than 50 years, Pedro Martínez would drive his truck through the mountains of Jalisco state, carrying stock for clothing business in the week, and taking his family on excursions at the weekend.
Martínez, 90, was long retired when he was admitted to hospital in early October with coronavirus-linked complications. His family prayed he would soon recover and return home, but 33 days later he died, leaving them emotionally and financially ruined.
Continue reading...As a hospital consultant working in intensive care, the reality of coronavirus and patients’ fear is brought home to me every day
I’m not ready,” the patient implores me through her CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] hood. She’s breathing at more than triple her normal rate and I’ve been asked to intubate her as she’s deteriorating, despite three days in intensive care. She is 42 years old.
There’s terror in her eyes. A tear runs down her cheek. She’s looking at the patient opposite who is in an induced coma, intubated and ventilated, and isn’t doing well.
Continue reading...A leading linguist pleads for moderation as a huge outbreak of ‘Greenglish’, much of it Covid-related, spreads
Usually, Professor Georgios Babiniotis would take pride in the fact that the Greek word “pandemic” – previously hardly ever uttered – had become the word on everyone’s lips.
After all, the term that conjures the scourge of our times offers cast-iron proof of the legacy of Europe’s oldest language. Wholly Greek in derivation – pan means all, demos means people – its usage shot up by more than 57,000% last year according to Oxford English Dictionary lexicographers.
Continue reading...First there was Pfizer, then AstraZeneca, now Moderna and Novavax. How do they differ? And which might you get?
Continue reading...A new rule on exports from Europe suddenly blew up into a threat to the withdrawal agreement – and a hasty backtrack
It started with a tweet by a blogger at 4.36pm on Friday. It ended with the prime ministers of the UK and Ireland warning the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, during late night calls, that she had put peace at risk by effectively seeking to erect a vaccine border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
“OK, I’m not usually on here any more, but I’m making an exception because this is very interesting: the EU’s regulation on export controls for vaccines *does* include vaccines going to Northern Ireland, and the EU is invoking Article 16 of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol,” @dijdowell had tweeted. “I really didn’t have Article 16 being used *by the EU* in the first month of the Protocol’s operation on my list of predictions for 2021. I would be fascinated – *fascinated* – to know what the Irish Government makes of setting this precedent.”
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:
We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:
Here is a quick re-cap of recent events from the UK and around the world:
Continue reading...Tory MPs use short-lived announcement of export ban to call for overhaul of trade deal, as EU chief is attacked over U-turn
The European Union’s threat to impose a vaccine border between Northern Ireland and the Republic risks reigniting one of Brexit’s bitterest disputes, as senior Tories said the move proved the need for an immediate overhaul of the bloc’s treatment of Northern Ireland.
The renewed demands emerged with the EU facing an extraordinary backlash over its bungled announcement of potential export controls on vaccines produced within the bloc. The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned the move and the pharmaceutical industry warned that the measures would damage their vaccination efforts.
Continue reading...Demonstrators, including gilet jaunes activists, also protested against Covid restrictions
Tens of thousands of protesters turned out in dozens of French cities on Saturday to oppose a security bill they say will restrict the filming and publicising of images of police brutality.
Demonstrators also protested against the restrictions imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus and to stand up for the cultural sector, which has been especially hard-hit by the measures.
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