Chief medical officers of all four UK nations expected to formally announce change later on Friday
Governments across the UK are to announce a reduction in the coronavirus self-isolation period, from 14 to 10 days, it is understood.
It is expected the chief medical officers of all four UK nations will formally announce the change later on Friday.
Continue reading...Australia had ordered 51m doses of the UQ/CSL vaccine. Follow latest updates
In better news for Victoria, another doughnut day:
Yesterday there were 0 new local cases, 0 new cases acquired overseas and 0 lost lives reported. Thanks to all who were tested: 9,760 results received #EveryTestHelps #StaySafeStayOpen
More info https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/6Ts9mijiD9
So it looks like the website to apply for the Victorian government’s tourism vouchers is still down.
The site crashed after being inundated as holidaymakers rushed to snap up the first batch of the $200 vouchers.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says quarantine rules to be tightened for airline crews and UQ vaccine trial abandoned. This blog is now closed
That’s where I’ll leave you for this evening. Thanks as always for reading.
Here’s what we learned today:
Five asylum seekers, who were transferred to Australia under Medevac, have been released from immigration detention this week, it has been confirmed.
Three asylum seekers were released today – including musician and artist Farhad Bandesh – and two people were released on Tuesday, according to the Refugee Advocacy Network.
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The Trump administration, which had arranged five federal executions before the president leaves office, plans to kill Brandon Bernard – a 40-year-old man that activists say was wrongfully convicted.
Berard was 18 at the time of the crime he as been convicted fo occured.
The planned killing of #BrandonBernard tonight is a national disgrace. https://t.co/vA6bbG9h0R
Related: Justice department plans to execute five inmates before Biden's inauguration
Matthew Cantor reports:
Each election season as campaigns ramp up get-out-the-vote efforts, socially awkward Americans face a dilemma: is it possible to help salvage democracy without having to cold-call anyone?
Related: Letter-writers look to get out the vote in Georgia – with a personal touch
Continue reading...Recommendation signals formal FDA approval for Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the US could be imminent
An advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration has recommended the emergency approval of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The recommendation is expected to signal that the first approval of a Covid-19 vaccine for use in the US is imminent. That would mark a major milestone in a pandemic that has killed more than 285,000 Americans and 1.5 million people globally.
Continue reading...Learning will move online, in contrast to England’s plans for mass testing of students
Secondary schools and colleges in Wales will close to almost all students next week and lessons will move online in an effort to stem the growing spread of coronavirus, the Welsh government has announced.
The Welsh education minister, Kirsty Williams, said the public health situation in Wales was deteriorating and she had been advised by the chief medical officer that learning should be moved online for secondary school pupils as soon as possible.
Continue reading...Nordic country culled 15 million mink after discovering mutated version of coronavirus
Decomposing mink buried in mass graves in Denmark after being culled because of coronavirus fears may have contaminated the groundwater, local radio has reported, as parliament announced a commission to investigate the government’s actions.
Denmark, the world’s largest exporter of mink fur, announced early last month it would cull up to 15 million mink after discovering a mutated version of the virus that could have jeopardised the effectiveness of future vaccines.
Continue reading...Workers face destitution after the collapse of fashion retailers – and despite beatings and police crackdowns vow they will protest until they are paid
It was 4.30am when the police charged the hundreds of garment workers sleeping under makeshift shelters and in sleeping bags on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh. As blows rained down, the workers fled.
By morning the streets had been cleared of the non-violent protest that more than 700 garment workers had been peacefully staging outside the Dhaka Press Club calling for their unpaid wages as they faced mounting destitution and hunger.
Continue reading...Deals struck by wealthy nations to secure treatments could leave the world’s poorest people unvaccinated without urgent action
It could be too late for any kind of fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines because of the deals already made by rich countries, according to Mark Suzman, chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite the unprecedented pace of scientific progress on the development of vaccines, he said it remains “really, really complicated” to ensure they are produced and distributed fairly.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Life expectancy has regressed to 2010 levels, say scientists, with poor hardest hit
The Covid-19 pandemic has cut life expectancy in England and Wales by roughly a year, scientists have estimated, reversing gains made since 2010.
A study, conducted by Oxford researchers, found that life expectancy at birth (LEB) had fallen by 0.9 and 1.2 years for females and males relative to 2019 levels respectively.
Continue reading...The pandemic has devastated small businesses across the US, and San Francisco’s Chinatown has been particularly hard-hit
Iron gates and metal doors appeared to shutter the fronts of every other shop, their once-bustling entrances overflowing with brightly colored knickknacks now quiet and tightly contained. Some art stores still had ornate sculptures visible, collecting dust in the dark behind the gates. Others were completely empty, cavernous and blank.
Related: Fatigued Californians are back in lockdown. Will it work?
Continue reading...I feel pride, but can’t shake my sense of failure that the World Food Programme’s media moment comes as hunger rages
I have done the usual things you do before an awards ceremony. After extensive high-level consultation, I think I now have the right suit and tie. Carefully folded in my pocket is a long list of people to praise, many far more deserving of praise than I. I am ready.
Growing up in a small South Carolina town, I never imagined life would bring me to this moment and allow me to be part of the wonderful, blessed enterprise I have found in WFP, the World Food Programme.
Continue reading...Italy reports 887 coronavirus-related deaths, up from 499 on previous day; Israel abandons Covid-19 curfew plan ahead of Hanukkah
Bolivia’s cholita wrestlers are making a comeback to the ring after the iconic female fighters were forced to hang up their billowing skirts and bowler hats due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.
I’ve been wrestling for about 10 years. I am a single mother of two children, and I have a trade. Because of the trade I am in, I am able to dedicate enough time to my children, to take them to school and to study.
Before the pandemic, we were a part of the cultural heritage that wasn’t recognised, tourists came from all over the world to see just us, the fighting cholita luchadores of wrestling.
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A record 555 people are in hospital with serious symptoms, with military nurses requested to help overstretched health services
Japan has reported a record daily number of coronavirus cases, prompting health experts to urge people not to travel in the run-up to the New Year holidays.
The country reported 2,811 new infections on Wednesday, as well as a record 555 people with serious Covid symptoms, the Kyodo news agency said.
Continue reading...Australian mum desperate for flight home after autistic son stops talking without vital therapy
A four-year-old Sydney boy with autism stranded in India and separated from his father since March has missed specialist treatment for so long he has become non-verbal.
Concerns for the health of Yuvraj Krishna and other Australians stranded overseas have been raised by Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, who is urging the Morrison government to intervene and help reunite the family.
Continue reading...A deadly surge in coronavirus cases has sent large swathes of the state back under strict lockdown rules
California’s Lake Tahoe is temporarily shutting down to outside tourists, the latest economic blow as a deadly surge in coronavirus cases is forcing millions in America’s most populous state back under lockdown restrictions.
Continue reading...TV interview outside hospital after getting jab makes 91-year-old an internet hit
A 91-year-old man whose interview with CNN after he was vaccinated for coronavirus became an internet hit said he was bemused by the commotion he caused by talking about the jab, and described anti-vaxxers as “very silly”.
Martin Kenyon, 91, was outside Guy’s hospital in London after receiving the Pfizer Covid vaccine when he encountered the CNN correspondent Cyril Vanier. Asked how it felt to be one of the first people in the world to receive the jab, he said: “I don’t think I feel much at all, except that I hope that I’m not going to have the bloody bug now.”
Continue reading...First results released from trial of Sinopharm shot involving 31,000 people
The United Arab Emirates said a Chinese coronavirus vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms has 86% efficacy, in a statement that provided few details but marked the first public release of information on the performance of the shot.
The announcement brought yet another contender into the worldwide race for a vaccine to end the pandemic, a scientific effort in which China and Russia are competing with western firms to develop an effective inoculation.
Continue reading...Prime minister tells Commons conditions for trade deal are unacceptable before later heading to Brussels for last-ditch talks
Scotland came close to eliminating Covid during the first nationwide lockdown, according to genomic sequencing for Sage of 5,000 samples of the virus, the Scottish government believes.
Jason Leitch, the Scottish government’s national clinical director, said analysis by scientists in Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews on the COG-UK consortium found that around 300 different strains of the virus were circulating in Scotland during the first wave.
That allows us to say this did get us incredibly close to eliminating the virus in our communities, but as we opened up, inevitably people began to travel across the UK [and] travel abroad. New strains were imported again into Scotland.
[This] indicates that, while lockdown in Scotland is directly linked with the first wave case numbers being brought under control, travel-associated imports (mostly from Europe or other parts of the UK) following the easing of lockdown are responsible for seeding the current epidemic population.
This demonstrates that the impact of stringent public health measures can be compromised if, following this, movements from regions of high to low prevalence are not minimised.
Public Health Wales has recorded 2,238 further coronavirus cases. That is a new record daily high for recorded cases. The previous daily record was 2,021, on Monday. A week ago today the figure was 1,480.
There have also been 31 further deaths. A week ago today the figure was 51.
The rapid COVID-19 surveillance dashboard has been updated.
https://t.co/zpWRYSUbfh
https://t.co/HSclxpZjBh
Read our daily statement here: https://t.co/u6SKHz0zsG pic.twitter.com/sAk8sFy5NQ
Donald Trump mocked Germany over its climbing coronavirus death rate, even though the US death toll remains significantly higher than Germany’s.
Trump said in a new tweet, “Germany has consistently been used by my obnoxious critics as the country that we should follow on the way to handle the China Virus. So much for that argument. I love Germany - Vaccines on the way!!!”
Germany has consistently been used by my obnoxious critics as the country that we should follow on the way to handle the China Virus. So much for that argument. I love Germany - Vaccines on the way!!! https://t.co/hEeKIqDMQn
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
Here’s what the blog is keeping an eye on today: Joe Biden will formally introduce his nominee to lead the defense department, Lloyd Austin, at an event in Wilmington, Delaware.
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