Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, decried what he called a “radical tantrum” on Saturday after his home in Kentucky was vandalised with messages apparently protesting against his refusal to increase Covid aid payments from $600 to $2,000.
The attack followed a similar one on the home of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, in San Francisco.
The planned reopening of schools in England has descended into disarray, as unions advised teachers not to return to the classroom, heads took legal action over the government’s plans and senior Tories warned that school gates may have to remain shut for weeks to come.
With warnings that some primary heads would arrive at work on Monday morning unsure about whether they would be able to reopen to pupils, teachers accused the government of making an “utter shambles” of school reopening and demanded a last-minute delay. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, was also facing renewed calls to resign over the chaos.
Greece reimposes Covid curbs after Christmas easing; just under 3 million Americans vaccinated so far as US death toll continues to rise; Israel vaccinates more than a million people
Russia has said it has vaccinated more than 800,00 people, and more than 1.5m doses have been dispatched.
People who have had the jab will get an electronic vaccination certificate, according to the TASS news agency. The health ministry is keeping a database of Russians who have had the Sputnik V vaccine.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is the latest union to call for all schools in England to close for two weeks, in response to rising Covid-case numbers.
The body, which represents headteachers and other school leaders, held an emergency meeting of its executive committee this afternoon. Its general secretary, Geoff Barton is set to write to education secretary Gavin Williamson.
It is very clear that the government’s plans for the start of the spring term are untenable. The arrangements it has announced are hopelessly confused and we have seen no scientific rationale for them. Many school and college leaders have no confidence in the government’s approach, and we are very concerned about the safety of families, staff, and the wider community.
We are calling for a short period of remote education in order to protect all concerned and allow time for the government to work with the profession on a joint plan for safe opening. We fully support keeping education functioning as fully as possible during the Covid crisis but this has to be done safely, or the long-term consequences and disruption will be much worse.
In the wake of Covid, doctors and designers are radically adapting their thinking about what a hospital can be and what it should deliver
St Mary’s hospital was slated for a £1bn redevelopment before the pandemic struck, with work due to start in 2027. The main emergency and specialist hospital serving north-west London will still get its upgrade, but it might look quite different now. “Covid-19 has dramatically changed things,” says James Kinross, a surgeon who works at St Mary’s and sits on its redevelopment planning committee.
Before the pandemic, Kinross says, the committee’s goal was to improve the efficiency of existing care pathways; now it’s to rethink those pathways entirely. St Mary’s is a test case, but the shape of healthcare is being reconsidered everywhere and that has major implications for the way hospitals will look in future.
The US is braced for a post-holiday coronavirus surge as its death toll passed 350,000, with thousands more predicted to die in the coming month and doctors warning they are at “breaking point” and fighting “world war three”.
Officials have defended England’s vaccine regimen after details of a contingency plan to mix the two approved jabs in a small number of cases emerged.
Public Health England’s Covid “green book” recommends that “it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule” if the same vaccine used for the first dose is not available. But it adds: “There is no evidence on the interchangeability of the Covid-19 vaccines although studies are under way.”
The announcement that all London primary schools will remain closed next week is the latest in a string of government U-turns on education since the pandemic began.
Under the government’s initial plan, schools in the City of London and Kingston were due to reopen but those in 22 other London boroughs would have remained closed.
Georgina George had a tough time at school and struggled for years afterwards to work out what she wanted to do with her life.
Then just before the pandemic hit, it all came together: she discovered a passion for aviation engineering and found a job in the sector that she loved. Shaking off the problems from her past, the 23-year-old began to forge ahead.
Gladys Berejiklian announces new measuresfor greater Sydney and $200 on-the-spot fines, as Victoria’s hard border takes effect
The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said she does not want to “restrict business activity, jobs or economic activity”, announcing new restrictions including mandatory masks, as seven new cases of community transmission of coronavirus were announced on Saturday.
Ireland is bracing for 9,000 more Covid cases to be added to the official tally as the system struggles to handle a surge in positive results, with health officials warning hospitals will not be able to cope if the trend continues.
The sharp rise in positive results led to delays in formal reporting, said Professor Philip Nolan from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), though he said it “does not affect case management or contact tracing or our overall monitoring and modelling of the pandemic”.
Western Australia has recorded three new cases, but all of them are in hotel quarantine.
Acting premier and health minister, Roger Cook, said he was pleased with testing numbers, which increased from 827 yesterday to 2,179, and pointed out the state had now gone 266 days without community transmission.
266 days is an extraordinary fact, but it is a fact we cannot take for granted. It is a testament to the professionalism and hard work of so many people on the frontline, day in, day out, keeping us all safe from Covid-19. They deserve our respect and support for what they do.
An emergency bushfire warning has been issued to part of Red Gully in the shire of Gingin, north of Perth.
The warning is for people north of Marri Heights Road, south of Dandaragan-West Road and east of Cowalla Road.
The American infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said he does not agree with the UK’s approach of delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
On Friday, Dr Fauci told CNN that the United States would not be following in the UK’s footsteps and would follow Pfizer and BioNTech’s guidance to administer the second dose of its vaccine three weeks after the first.
Many low- and middle-income households will face financial hardship unless ministers maintain support for those who have lost their jobs or experienced steep cuts in income during the second wave of Covid-19, Labour has said.
The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, said in a new year message to Rishi Sunak that the chancellor must extend a range of Covid-19 rescue measures due to run out over the next three months “to protect struggling households from financial ruin”.
Visitors from UK and North America tell of finding themselves with a pass to one of the best-rated pandemic responses in the world
For Christmas 2019 Efrain Vega de Varona gave his partner plane tickets to New Zealand – her dream holiday destination. It has proved a gift that keeps on giving.
A year later they are still in New Zealand, having decided to stay put at the end of their two-week holiday in mid-March rather than return to Los Angeles. “We’ve been living out of two suitcases for 10 months,” says Vega de Varona from their latest Airbnb rental (number 50-something this year) in Island Bay, Wellington.
US has almost twice as many confirmed coronavirus cases as the next worst-hit country, India, and almost 350,000 have died
The US marked the first day of 2021 by surpassing the dismal landmark of 20 million coronavirus cases, as hospitals, undertakers, vaccine administrators and ordinary families struggled across the nation.
More than 10,000 Americans died in the last three days of 2020 as the year finished with the pandemic, which has never been under control in the US since the start of the outbreak last January, breaking all the wrong world records.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is central to the government’s plans for ending social distancing in the UK and returning to some sort of normality. It has invested in seven different vaccines, but the biggest order is for 100m doses of the AstraZeneca jab, most of which will be manufactured in the UK. While the prime minister was jubilant that the UK was first in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, he is now able to claim a British triumph. More to the point is the ease of use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Unlike Pfizer’s, it does not have to be kept in the long term at -70C. Pfizer’s vaccine can be stored in a fridge for five days, but AstraZeneca’s can be kept for months at fridge temperature, which is 2-8C and will be easy to take to care homes to administer to residents, the first priority group for vaccination.
BioNtech has criticised the EU’s failure to order more doses of its coronavirus vaccine, saying it is now racing with its US partner, Pfizer, to boost production amid fears of a European “gap” left by the lack of other approved vaccines.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first to be approved by the bloc late last month, after being accepted by the UK, Canada and the US. They and other countries have also since approved the Moderna or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, leaving the EU trailing behind.
Latest updates: German biotech startup warns of ‘gaps’ in vaccine supply; re-analysis Covid tests in US raises questions about origin of B117 ‘UK strain’
India has asked China to allow two Indian cargo ships which have been stranded for months near two Chinese ports because of the pandemic to rapidly unload their cargoes or replace their 39 crew members.
“There is growing stress on the crew members on account of the long delay,” Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said. “We expect that this assistance will be provided in an urgent, practical and time-bound manner, given the grave humanitarian situation that is developing onboard the ships.”
The UK economy begins 2021 on the back foot as record numbers of coronavirus infections and tougher restrictions cloud the outlook for growth and limit the chances of a rapid recovery from the country’s worst recession in 300 years.
There had been hopes that the arrival of successful Covid vaccines could prompt a rebound in activity. But with new government controls to combat the rising infection rate, the outlook is deteriorating.
England’s chief nurse has said that NHS and care staff are working incredibly hard to cope with record numbers of Covid-19 patients, amid concern that frontline staff are close to burnout.
Ruth May pleaded with the public to follow the coronavirus advice to help relieve the pressure on hospital staff, after two days of record hospital admissions.
Global humanitarian figures and NGOs have urged world leaders to urgently make Covid-19 vaccinations available to millions of refugees and others displaced by war, as the pandemic continues to overwhelm some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
The impact of the contagion has sharply intensified across the Middle East in recent weeks, matching soaring global numbers. However, it has been further amplified by drastically underresourced medical responses that cannot cope with the numbers of dying or seriously ill.