Category Archives: Coronavirus

Food to go? Covid threatens Hyderabad’s famous street food carts

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Despite government loans and staff trickling back to work, the pandemic has made survival precarious for the city’s vendors

On a normal working day, Venkateshwara Rao would be ready by 4pm, stationed on the pavement waiting for office workers to emerge and order their favourite varieties of idli and dosa from his bandi, a food cart grandly named Kavyajyotika Tiffin Centre.

“When the lockdown was lifted, but with many restrictions still in place, the inflow of customers plummeted. However, the last few weeks have been good with a handful of workers back in offices and people lining up for takeaways at my bandi,” says Rao.

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Coronavirus live news: Germany extends partial lockdown as UK suffers record daily Covid deaths

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Germany extends lockdown to 14 February and tightens restrictions; US deaths pass 400,000; US suffers record daily deaths

Covid-19 is unlikely to ever die out, even with vaccination efforts, but it could become more transmissible and less deadly, New Zealand’s director general of health has warned.

“If you think about influenza, which was first recorded in 1172 I think, in Europe … these viruses don’t tend to die out … They change over time and in fact what we are seeing with these new variants with the Covid-19 virus is that they tend become more transmissible and less deadly over time,” Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the AM Show on Wednesday.

Related: Covid unlikely to die out, says New Zealand health chief Ashley Bloomfield

If you fancy a break from the bad news, why not spend a few minutes thinking about sphinx moths (also known as hawk moths):

Related: The nature of the sphinx moth: 'it uses its big-ass tongue to get this guy pollinated' | Helen Sullivan

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Coronavirus live: Spain reports record new cases; Italy may take legal action over Pfizer vaccine delivery delays

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Spain records 41,576 new cases; Italy considers legal action over Pfizer vaccine delivery delays; France warns against wearing home-made masks

Spain logged another record number of new infections on Wednesday afternoon, recording 41,576 new cases in the preceding 24 hours and bringing the country’s total caseload to 2,412,318. It also recorded 464 deaths.

The new record came five days after the previous single-day high of 40,197 new cases.

Health authorities in Madrid have started mass testing hundreds of young people for Covid-19 at universities in a bid to detect asymptomatic carriers.

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Coronavirus Australia live: Victoria, NSW and Queensland record no local Covid cases as three new cases linked to Australian Open

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Two tennis players have tested positive, but hard lockdown of those who shared flights remains. Follow latest updates

  • NSW hotspots; Queensland hotspots
  • State-by-state restrictions and lockdown rules explained
  • Follow the global coronavirus liveblog

    • As our West Australian readers start to log-on, I bring to you news of possible secession. I have not clicked through to see what other images/tweets etc come up under #WAXIT but please feel free to do so:

    A group of business leaders in Western Australia want the state to break away from Australia… calling the campaign #WAXIT.

    Should WA be allowed to break away and form an independent nation? #9News pic.twitter.com/mtStO3Ayzh

    A $7bn funding injection into social housing would address surging homelessness caused by the pandemic, advocates say.

    This just in from AAP:

    Social housing advocates fear a surge in homelessness stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, and are urging swift action from the federal government to ensure Australians have a roof over their heads.

    A national campaign to end homelessness, Everybody’s Home, estimates a $7bn injection into social housing would make a serious dent in homelessness, while creating 18,000 jobs a year over the next four years.

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    Talking can spread Covid as much as coughing, says research

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    Tiny aerosols of the virus emitted when speaking linger in air for longer than larger droplets from a cough

    Speaking to a friend when infected with the coronavirus could be as dangerous as coughing near them thanks to lingering particles, research has suggested.

    Covid can be spread through a number of routes, including virus-containing droplets emitted when an infected person breaths, speaks or coughs – a factor experts said could help to explain why Covid seems to spread more easily in indoor settings.

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    Giuseppe Conte wins confidence vote in Italy’s senate by slim margin

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    Prime minister faces leading an even more unstable coalition after exit of Matteo Renzi’s party

    Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has managed to cling to power, but he will plough ahead with an even more fragile government as the country battles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and recession.

    Conte, who has led two different administrations since 2018, was supported by 156 lawmakers in the senate on Tuesday, with 140 voting against and 16 abstaining. Conte also won a vote of confidence in the lower house on Monday.

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    US coronavirus death toll passes 400,000 amid grim forecast over winter

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    Thousands more deaths expected this season as more transmissible strain spreads and vaccinations move slowly

    More than 400,000 Americans have now been killed by the coronavirus, a horrific marker of the misery the virus has spread across the country, as the rate of deaths from Covid-19 increases.

    The latest death toll comes as thousands more deaths are expected in a bleak American winter with widespread Covid transmission, as a more transmissible strain spreads across the country and a mass vaccination campaign gets off to a slow start.

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    Single Covid vaccine dose in Israel ‘less effective than we thought’

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    Surge in infections dampens optimism over country’s advanced immunisation programme

    Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be providing less protection than originally hoped, as the country reported a record 10,000 new Covid infections on Monday.

    In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.

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    Sri Lankan holy man’s ‘miracle’ potion for Covid turns sour

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    Minister who publicly drank syrup touted as coronavirus cure tests positive

    A self-styled Sri Lankan holy man’s supposed miracle potion to prevent Covid-19 has turned sour after a minister who publicly drank it was taken to hospital with the virus.

    Thousands defied public gathering restrictions to swamp a village in central Sri Lanka last month to get the syrup made by Dhammika Bandara.

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    Morrison will decide ‘over the course of the year’ whether to allow international travel – as it happened

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    Meanwhile, three of four Covid cases found in Victoria hotel quarantine linked to Australian Open. This blog is now closed

    That’s where I’m going to leave you for today. Thanks as always for reading along.

    Here’s what we learned today:

    Fragments of Covid-19 have been detected in sewage at three sites in Queensland, the state’s health department has said.

    Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said in a statement released just now that viral fragments of the virus had been detected at wastewater treatment plants after samples were collected last week. The positive results were detected at three locations:

    While this does not mean we have new cases of Covid-19 in these communities, we are treating these detections seriously.

    A positive sewage result means that someone who has been infected was shedding the virus. Infected people can shed viral fragments and that shedding can happen for several weeks after the person is no longer infectious.

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    Coronavirus live news: China and WHO criticised by independent Covid panel; US nears 400,000 deaths

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    California’s state epidemiologist calls to stop 300,000 vaccinations after possible severe allergic reactions; tens of thousands skip vaccination in India

    The Times is reporting on a British Airways pilot who has returned home after a record 243 days in hospital with Covid-19.

    Nicholas Synnott, 59, was admitted to hospital in Texas in March and released just before Christmas to go home to Betchworth, Surrey.

    Staunch your tears and stay your sorrows - Helen might have departed this ‘ere blog but I, Amelia Hill, am here to walk beside for the next few hours - more like a wise guide, I like to think than that mad pontificator, the Ancient Mariner. But I guess we need to see what the next few hours bring...

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    Landlocked Lesotho faces food crisis amid Covid border closures

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    Food price increases and economic impact of lockdowns have left a quarter of the kingdom’s population reliant on food aid, UN warns

    Almost a quarter of Lesotho’s population will require food aid between January and March as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

    More than 580,000 people out of a population of 2.2 million are estimated to be food insecure, despite predictions of normal to above average rains this year and the potential for above average cereal production.

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    EU’s Covid vaccination debacle is down to institutional inflexibility

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    Supply delays underline there was no legal or economic justification for central planning

    A storm is raging over the EU’s failure to have ordered more of the approved Covid-19 vaccines ahead of time. Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of the US pharmaceutical company Moderna, which gained approval for its vaccine shortly after Pfizer/BioNTech, claims that the EU has relied too much on “vaccines from its own laboratories”.

    Did the European commission prioritise supporting its own pharmaceutical industry over protecting human lives? In fact, matters are not as simple as that. Contrary to what Bancel wants us to believe, the EU has actually ordered too little of its own vaccine. After all, the vaccine that is being administered most widely across the west was developed by a German company, BioNTech, and thus comes from the EU (though it was tested and partly produced in partnership with Pfizer in the US and with Fosun Pharma in China).

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    Space out and cover up: how to make travelling by car more Covid-safe

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    If sharing a car is unavoidable, there are a few ways to reduce the risk of transmission

    While the UK is under lockdown, travel for work and other exemptions is still allowed. We take a look at how to stay safer when cooped up together, whether in a taxi or a private car:

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    Holiday bookings surge as Covid vaccinations increase travel hopes

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    People high on list for jabs in UK ready to make 2021 and 2022 bookings

    Holiday companies have reported an increase in bookings as the UK’s coronavirus vaccine rollout gives people hope that they will soon be able to travel overseas again.

    Despite a series of negative travel announcements in recent days, including the closure of air corridors and words of caution from ministers over foreign holidays, there are signs that those among the first in line for the vaccinations are starting to plan trips, and that consumers are hopeful about taking a break later this year.

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    Covid-19: how do you tweak a vaccine?

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    The emergence of more infectious variants of Sars-CoV-2 has raised questions about just how long our vaccines will remain effective for. Although there is little evidence that the current vaccines won’t work against the new variants, as the virus continues to mutate scientists are preparing themselves for having to make changes to the vaccines in response. Speaking to Dr Katrina Pollock, science correspondent Linda Geddes asks how we can tweak the vaccines against new variants, and how likely it is we’ll end up in a game of cat and mouse with the virus

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    Global Covid report: Biden camp rejects Trump changes to travel restrictions

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    Incoming US administration criticises move to remove entry bans as independent panel criticises WHO for not declaring emergency until 30 January

    The Trump and Biden camps have clashed over future Covid travel restrictions with less than two days to go before the handover of power in Washington. It comes as an independent panel said Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully a year ago, and criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for delays in declaring an international emergency.

    In the US, a political row is brewing after Donald Trump announced he would rescind Covid entry bans on most non-US citizens arriving from Brazil and much of Europe, including the UK, effective 26 January, two officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.

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    Almost 30% of Covid patients in England readmitted to hospital after discharge – study

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    Readmission rate for Covid patients 3.5 times greater, and death rate seven times higher, than for other hospital patients

    Nearly a third of people who were discharged from hospitals in England after being treated for Covid-19 were readmitted within five months – and almost one in eight died, a study suggests.

    The research, which is still to be peer-reviewed, also found a higher risk of problems developing in a range of organs after hospital discharge in those younger than 70 and ethnic minority individuals.

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    Vaccine inequity puts world on brink of ‘catastrophic moral failure’, says WHO chief – video

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    The head of the World Health Organization has warned that as coronavirus vaccines are rolled out, the world faces a 'catastrophic moral failure' as richer countries administer the vaccine on a vast scale, while poor countries are left behind. 

    Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted that millions of doses had been given in higher-income countries while one of the world's poorest countries had administered only 25 doses

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    Germany weighs up mandatory FFP2 masks in shops and on transport

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    Respiratory masks already compulsory in Bavaria over fears of coronavirus mutations

    Germany is weighing up following Austria and Bavaria’s lead in making it compulsory to wear full protective filter masks on public transport and in shops, as the country remains on high alert about the impact of possible coronavirus mutations.

    The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Sunday that wearing single-use filtering facepiece respirator, or FFP2, masks would become mandatory on public transport and in shops from 25 January, as the Alpine state moves to extend its national lockdown until 7 February.

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