Prosecutor say 22-year-old not alone in organising event that shocked a country in lockdown
French authorities have charged a suspected organiser of an illegal new year rave at which 2,400 people defied coronavirus rules, in a decision condemned by his supporters as an injustice.
The wildcat rave party in Brittany shocked the country as people continued to observe strict bans on gatherings to battle the coronavirus.
Continue reading...UK health officials also allowing combining doses from different manufacturers
UK health officials have decided to delay giving second doses of Covid-19 vaccines and even permit combining doses from different manufacturers, prompting international concern. What is the scientific justification for this decision?
Why has the UK decided to lengthen the gap between the first and second doses of vaccine?
The original plan was to offer priority groups an initial shot of vaccine, followed by a second dose three weeks later. But a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, combined with the emergence of a more transmissible variant and uncertainty about the supply of vaccine stocks, prompted the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to consider other options.
UN body says scientists were due to be deployed to country on Tuesday, but China says negotiations ongoing
China has attempted to downplay concerns over its refusal to authorise a fact-finding mission to the country by the World Health Organization to study the origins of Covid-19, saying it is still negotiating access with the UN body.
A day after the head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “very disappointed” that China had not authorised the entry of the 10-strong research team, led by Dr Peter Ben Embarek, China insisted there had been a “misunderstanding” between the two sides about agreed dates for the visit, adding that discussions were ongoing.
Continue reading...The project has counted 2,921 healthcare worker deaths, with the majority of people who died under the age of 60
As of 6 January, Lost on the frontline has counted 3,132 healthcare worker deaths. The pandemic is not over, and this project is therefore a work in progress, with new names added weekly.
Continue reading...Latest updates: PM says people should be ‘extremely cautious’ about timetable of return to classrooms after February half-term
The Metropolitan police have said Londoners are “increasingly likely” to face fines in the new lockdown. In a statement explaining its intention to adopt a slightly stricter approach to enforcing the rules than has applied in the past, it says:
Although officers will still apply the 4 Es approach of engaging, explaining, and encouraging – only then enforcing, the Met has issued refreshed instructions to officers to issue fines more quickly to anyone committing obvious, wilful and serious breaches.
In practice this will mean that all those attending parties, unlicensed music events or large illegal gatherings, can expect to be fined – not just the organisers of such events. Similarly, those not wearing masks where they should be and without good reason can expect to be fined - not reasoned with.
Johnson says some of the individual parts of the lockdown package are not susceptible to “iron logic”. But cumulatively they are there to protect the public.
Continue reading...Wanting to emerge from lockdown ‘better’ versions of themselves, some people are turning to drastic measures
When Kaafiya Abdulle gave birth to her son in April 2017, she chose to breastfeed. A year later, she switched to baby formula, hyper-vigilant of the effects nursing had on her breasts. Unhappy with the sagging and shrinking that had occurred, she began to research breast lifts – a procedure she desperately wanted but never had the courage to pursue. Until the pandemic, that is.
Related: Why you should ignore the pressure to be productive during lockdown
Continue reading...Researchers say big Facebook accounts still condemn vaccines while anti-vaxxers banned from Facebook have fled to Instagram
Conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine are still spreading on Facebook and Instagram, more than a month after Facebook pledged it would take them down.
Under pressure to contain an avalanche of falsehoods, Facebook announced on 3 December that it would ban debunked claims about the safety and efficacy of vaccines now being distributed worldwide. The company said it removed more than 12m pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram between March and October, and that it worked with factcheckers to place labels on 167 million more pieces of content over the same period.
Continue reading...English Heritage and Church of England back extending traditional January deadline to brighten gloom of lockdown
In other years, the threat of bad luck if you fail to take your Christmas decorations down by Twelfth Night might have meant something.
In 2021, the idea that things could get any worse seems blackly comic. And so it is that for some people, baubles, lights, and trees are staying in place this year.
Continue reading...Foreign minister Marise Payne issues mild statement, but opposition parties attack China’s ‘unacceptable’ actions and ‘paranoia’
The Australian government has called on China to allow a visit by World Health Organization experts investigating how the coronavirus pandemic started, insisting the country should grant them visas “without delay”.
Canberra raised its concerns on Wednesday over reports that Chinese authorities had blocked the arrival of a WHO team investigating the early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan.
Continue reading...People who attended venues in Merrylands, Parramatta, Mays Hill and Pendle Hill in Sydney urged to get tested. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
If you are one of the thousands of people in Victoria who are off to get a Covid-19 test following that press conference, please allow me to share some of the advice that has been coming in from readers over the past few days.
Overwhelmingly, people who had the best experience at testing sites are those who booked in to a respiratory clinic. You can find a list here. You book online, then turn up for your appointment. People who have used respiratory clinics over the past week or so have told me they were in and out between 10 and 25 minutes of their appointment time.
NSW will hold its daily press conference at 11am, as usual. We’ll bring you that as it happens.
Continue reading...Moderna is second vaccine to get EU approval; Japan under pressure to impose state of emergency for Tokyo
Ukrainian police and health officials are investigating reports that some citizens have been illegally getting inoculated against Covid-19 with vaccines that have not been officially approved, prime minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Ukraine, which has registered more than one million Covid-19 infections and 19,357 deaths so far, has yet to approve any of the newly developed vaccines, though it signed a contract in December to buy 1.9m doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine and the shots are expected to be delivered soon.
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Moderna is expected to also be effective against the new variant of coronavirus detected in Britain, the Dutch national drugs authority CBG said.
The CBG said the European Commission was expected to give the final stamp of approval to the Moderna jab on Wednesday, after the European Medicines Authority gave its approval earlier.
Continue reading...The prime minister’s first Downing Street press conference kept up his veneer of acting as if he knew what he was doing
Let’s take the positives first. There have been no changes in government policy on coronavirus in the past 24 hours. After the confusion of the past few days, weeks and months, that is in itself cause for celebration. A sign of some much needed stability in Westminster.
Boris Johnson’s narcissism is an open secret. What’s less clear is whether he is at heart just deeply cynical: a politician who is aware of his own failings and goes out of his way to conceal them. Or whether he is a man who is merely the product of his own imagination: bending reality to suit his personality. It’s hard to know which is the more disturbing prospect. But then maybe it’s a bit of both.
Continue reading...PM says lifting lockdown is subject to ‘lots of caveats’ as figures show 1m people in England have Covid
Britain could face harsh restrictions for many months to come, Boris Johnson and his chief scientists warned as figures suggested more than 1 million people in England are infected with coronavirus, or one in every 50.
The prime minister said the plan to emerge from a newly-imposed national lockdown in mid-February was subject to “lots of caveats, lot of ifs”. He refused to guarantee that children would be fully back at school before the summer, calling this a “fundamental hope”.
Continue reading...More than 1.1 million people are estimated to have had coronavirus in the week ending 2 January, the government's chief medical officer said. The latest figure was up from an estimated 800,900 in the week ending 23 December, the previous period for which figures were collated. Whitty added that even with the arrival of the vaccine, restrictions could need to be brought back next Christmas if the virus resurges.
Continue reading...The prime minister said 1.3 million people across the UK have been vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 650,000 people over 80 – 23% of the cohort - have received their jab, he added. Johnson also pledged that 1,000 more vaccination stations would be open by the end of the week
Figure for people outside hospitals and care homes revealed as number of new daily cases in UK tops 60,000 for first time
One in 50 people in private households in England – more than 1.1 million – are estimated to have had the coronavirus in the week ending 2 January.
The Office for National Statistics figures were released on Tuesday, as the number of new cases of people in the UK testing positive for Covid-19 topped 60,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Continue reading...Empty streets and shuttered shops as England grits its teeth for a new lockdown, with people allowed to leave their homes for limited reasons only, and measures expected to stay until mid-February or even March
Continue reading...Rules vary from country to country but many European nations face severe restrictions
After a brief and partial relaxation of the rules over Christmas and New Year, many continental European countries have returned to the tough anti-Covid regimes that were imposed this autumn – with some tightening measures further.
According to the latest update from the World Health Organization, in the final week of 2020 the UK had a 14-day new-case notification rate of 720 for every 100,000 people, more than double that in France, Germany, Italy and Spain but lower than the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Continue reading...Italy has decided to keep nationwide restrictions in place while relaxing curbs on weekdays; Russia reports 518 deaths and 24,246 new cases
Hungary’s government is lifting a ban on passenger flights from Britain with effect from Wednesday, the government’s coronavirus taskforce told an online briefing on Tuesday.
The government imposed the ban on 22 December to limit the spread of a more contagious variant of the virus that emerged in Britain. The ban was originally due to last until 8 February.
Hi. Caroline Davies here, taking over the blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Continue reading...Minister says time needed for vaccine to take effect means restrictions cannot definitely be lifted in mid-February
The third national lockdown imposed in England to try to deal with the huge increase in Covid-19 cases is likely to remain in place into March at least, with some measures lasting even longer, the government has indicated.
The cabinet secretary, Michael Gove, said he hoped the gradual lifting of restrictions could begin in mid-February, but that the time it took for the vaccines to take effect meant it was likely to be at least another couple of weeks before measures could start to be eased.
Continue reading...