Category Archives: Coronavirus

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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

Continue reading...

Germany weighs up mandatory FFP2 masks in shops and on transport

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Coroner’s Covid findings stoke calls for inquiry into pandemic policy

Posted on by

Analysis: bereaved families concerned that lessons were not learned after first wave

The failures and concerns highlighted by a senior coroner, Alison Mutch, following the deaths of two men, Anthony Slack and Leslie Harris, from Covid-19, have reinforced bereaved families’ calls for a government inquiry into the handling of the pandemic, and for more inquests.

Very few inquests have been held into deaths of people from coronavirus, following the then chief coroner’s guidance in March that Covid-19 is “a naturally occurring disease” and inquests are not normally necessary unless a person died due to additional factors, for example neglect.

Continue reading...

WHO: just 25 Covid vaccine doses administered in low-income countries

Posted on by

Director-general warns of ‘catastrophic moral failure’ if richer countries hoard treatment

The world is on the edge of a “catastrophic moral failure” in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, with just 25 doses administered across all poor countries compared with 39m in wealthier ones, the head of the World Health Organization has said.

It was the sharpest warning so far from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the dangers of vaccine hoarding since inoculations started being administered in 49 mostly high-income countries.

Continue reading...

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro sends oxygen to tackle Brazil’s Covid crisis

Posted on by
  • President orders convoy to border in politically charged gesture
  • Patients in Amazon city of Manaus reportedly ran out of oxygen

Venezuela’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, has sent an emergency shipment of oxygen to his country’s border with Brazil in a politically charged gesture he said was to help alleviate “Jair Bolsonaro’s public health disaster”.

In recent days the Brazilian state of Amazonas, which borders southern Venezuela, has been plunged into coronavirus chaos for the second time in under a year.

Continue reading...

Italian PM battles for coalition’s survival over Covid recovery plan

Posted on by

Italia Viva party’s departure deprives Conte of majority, with crunch vote on Tuesday

Italy deserves a “cohesive government”, its prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has said as he began the fight for his coalition’s survival.

Conte told the lower house of parliament on Monday that the political crisis triggered last week by the former prime minister Matteo Renzi was “unfounded” and risked severely damaging the country at a time when Italians were struggling with health and financial worries.

Continue reading...

London to start trialling first 24-hour Covid vaccination centres in January

Posted on by

Nadhim Zahawi says over-70s being invited for jabs and hints teachers could be prioritised in next phase

The first 24-hour vaccination centres will be piloted in London before the end of January, the UK’s vaccines minister has said.

Nadhim Zahawi said that by the beginning of February the scheme would be under way in hospitals in the capital and also pledged that 50 large vaccination centres would be open. He said that at present about 140 people a minute were being vaccinated against Covid-19.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus Australia live: Australian Open tennis quarantine disarray; Victoria opens border to most of Sydney as NSW records no local cases

Posted on by

Victoria premier Daniel Andrews says people in most of Sydney can apply for a permit to travel to the state while 10 LGAs still remain in red zones. Follow latest updates live

The ABC has spoken to one of the tennis players who is isolating as part of strict restrictions applied to those who travelled for the Australian Open.

#AusOpen player Artem Sitak happy to be in Melbourne for the tournament. A lot of the players have now realised it's an unfortunate situation. News of the long Victorian lockdown & of Australians unable to return home is making them feel very lucky to be in Melbourne. #Springst pic.twitter.com/EgQ9CEix9P

Of course I’m happy. As I said, I was prepared for the worst and unfortunately it happened to me, but I’m – I’m definitely happy. I’m here, I love Australian Open. I think it’s going to be any sixth or seventh Australian Open and I love playing here. There’s always a really – a really vocal huge crowd. Hopefully this time it will be – I don’t know the percentage of spectators that are allowed but there will still be a lot of people. We haven’t played in front of spectators since back in August. And this is going to be a lot of fun.

The Victorian police union is less welcoming of news that Covid-19 fines in Victoria will be waived. Here’s what Victorian Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said on radio station 3AW earlier today, according to AAP:

It’s a wee bit frustrating.

None of this was fun for our members. It was bit of a thankless job.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: UK had world’s highest Covid death toll last week; more countries record new variant

Posted on by

UK had highest Covid death toll in week to 17 January with 16.5 deaths per 1m people; Czech Republic and Japan find Covid variant first detected in UK

Hauliers require a negative Covid-19 test before travelling from Britain to Denmark and the Netherlands, the UK government has said.

Last week the French government said people travelling from non-EU countries to France will no longer be allowed to enter by presenting a negative result from a quick Covid-19 test, but cross-Channel truck drivers would be exempt.

Nigeria has written to the African Union to request 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to supplement the COVAX programme and has allocated $26 million for licensed vaccine production, the health minister said.

Nigeria, like other countries across Africa, is grappling with a second wave of coronavirus. As of Monday, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country of 200 million inhabitants, had 110,387 confirmed cases and 1,435 deaths.

Continue reading...

Bolsonaro rival hails Covid vaccinations as ‘triumph of science against denialists’

Posted on by

São Paulo governor João Doria takes aim at Brazil’s president after his state beat federal authorities to secure first coronavirus vaccines

Brazil’s first Covid-19 vaccine has been administered after more than 209,000 deaths, sparking an outpouring of emotion and a ferocious political skirmish that saw one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s key rivals accuse him of revelling in the “stench of death”.

The China-made CoronaVac was injected into the arm of a frontline nurse in São Paulo at 3.30pm local time, after Brazil’s health regulator approved the emergency use of vaccines produced by China’s Sinovac and Oxford/AstraZeneca.

Continue reading...

NHS in most precarious position in its history, says chief executive

Posted on by

Hospitals and staff ‘under extreme pressure’, says Simon Stevens, as over-70s invited to get jabs from Monday

Dealing with the deadly second wave of Covid has left the NHS in the most precarious position in its 72-year history, chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has warned, as ministers said they were aiming to get all adults in the UK vaccinated by September.

The over-70s and clinically extremely vulnerable, who number more than 5.5 million nationwide, will be invited to receive the vaccine from Monday in areas where most of the first priority groups of care home residents and the over-80s have now had the jab.

Continue reading...

Eurostar warns of ‘risk to survival’ without government help

Posted on by

The cross-Channel train service has seen a 95% fall in passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Eurostar has said it is facing an existential threat, as business leaders pleaded with the government to step in and save the “vital link” with Europe.

A 95% drop in passenger numbers has brought the cross-Channel train service to its knees, and the company reiterated on Sunday that while government loans had been extended to aviation, international high-speed rail had also been severely affected by the pandemic.

Continue reading...

‘Hate-wear’ and ‘sadwear’: fashion’s new names for lockdown dressing

Posted on by

NYT and Esquire coin terms for the ways people are expressing frustration through clothes

With online sales booming but retail in sharp decline, the pandemic has changed shopping for ever. Practical, comfortable items suitable for a lifestyle of working from home and occasional trips outside – such as Ugg boots, Crocs and trousers with elasticated waistbands – have seen rising sales.

But with many of us grappling with our emotions during lockdown, the way we feel and speak about our clothes has altered too.

Continue reading...

‘We are worried’: Indians hopeful but anxious as vaccination drive begins

Posted on by

India launches bid to vaccinate 300m people amid fears over efficacy of domestically produced vaccine

Emerging from Holy Family hospital in New Delhi, Ram Verma, a sanitation worker, breathed a deep sigh of relief. As one of the first in India to receive a coronavirus vaccine on Saturday – marking the start of the world’s largest vaccination programmes – he had been feeling a little jittery.

“I must admit I was nervous,” said Verma, who had received his Covaxin jab in a centre set up in the hospital car park. “A lot of us were. I thought I might faint or have side-effects. After all, it is something totally new. But I’m fine. There is nothing to worry about.”

Continue reading...

Covid patients admitted to England hospitals ‘every 30 seconds’, says NHS chief – video

Posted on by

Speaking on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, Sir Simon Stevens says the NHS has never been in a more precarious position. With 3.5m doses of the Covid vaccines being delivered by 16 January, Stevens said that meant the NHS was vaccinating four times faster than people were newly catching coronavirus

Continue reading...

All UK adults to get first Covid vaccine dose by September, says Raab – video

Posted on by

The foreign secretary has said every adult in the UK will be offered a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by September. In an interview on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Raab said he hoped that by the early spring, some restrictions could be lifted gradually so the country could ‘get back to normal’. He added that people arriving in the UK could be asked to stay in quarantine hotels under plans being considered by ministers

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live: UK ‘considering all measures’ including quarantine hotels; Sydney struggles to quash cluster

Posted on by

Dominic Raab says UK needs to respond to variants from Brazil and South Africa; New South Wales records six new cases

Reaction has been coming today from Russian sources after Brazil’s health regulator said it was seeking further data on Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before considering its approval for emergency use.

Documents supporting drugmaker Uniao Quimica’s application for emergency use of the vaccine have been returned to the company because they did not meet its minimum criteria, the watchdog said on Saturday.

While people over 75 living at home will be able to get vaccinated from Monday in France, there are concerns in the field that there are not enough doctors, Le Monde reports today.

Jacques Battistoni, president of MG France, a trade union for general practitioners, said: “We expect tensions and a difficult start to the week.”

Continue reading...

Joan Bakewell: ‘The world is full of such interesting people’

Posted on by

Joan Bakewell had been a broadcasting pioneer for more than half a century. And she’s still as forthright as ever. Here, she talks to Sophie Heawood about the empowerment of women, her newly streamlined life and why Boris has got it all wrong about the virus

Joan Bakewell writes in her memoir, The Centre of the Bed, about the moment she became an adult. It was 1949 and she was 17, a hard- working grammar schoolgirl from the industrial north, when her frustrated, depressive mother found a photograph of Joan kissing a boy and set fire to it in front of her eyes. Joan felt deep shame, but the shame began to transmogrify.

“Suddenly I was savagely and tremblingly angry,” she writes. “I was being forged in some bitter fire of my mother’s will, and I must survive the moment and emerge as myself. That was the end of innocence, not the loss of virginity or any fumbling that fell short of it. It was when I crossed into adulthood, knew my own mind and was sure of who I was.” Soon afterwards she left for university, where she joyfully discovered the world of ideas, as well as the one of sex, even though, as a student of the Cambridge women’s college Newnham, such things were banned.

Continue reading...