Retailers and hairdressers admit limited number of customers for first time since October
Queues formed outside hairdressers’ shops and department stores sold gifts and Christmas decorations on Saturday as France partially reopened after a month-long lockdown.
Shops selling non-essential goods, such as shoes, clothes and toys, reopened in the first easing of national restrictions since 30 October. Bars and restaurants remain closed until 20 January.
Continue reading...UK business minister to take on additional role as NHS prepares for mass deployment
Nadhim Zahawi, a minister for business and industry, has been placed in charge of overseeing the deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine, Downing Street has announced.
No 10 said the Stratford-on-Avon MP would take on the role until at least next summer.
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The chief executive of NHS Providers has urged the government to “take precautions now” to ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed in January, which is the busiest time of the year for the healthcare service.
Chris Hopson said that “winter emergencies” like slipping on ice and breaking bones caused massive demand on the NHS in January, and that if there is “a cold snap, there will be a danger that the NHS gets overwhelmed.”
Every hospital in England could be overwhelmed with coronavirus cases if new tier restrictions are not introduced, cabinet minister Michael Gove has warned.
Gove said the decision to impose the restrictions was necessary to “pull the handbrake” and avoid the “disaster” of NHS hospitals reaching capacity with coronavirus patients.
Continue reading...British tourists, chalet owners and resort staff wait for winter season decisions across Europe
British holidaymakers, chalet owners and resort staff are in limbo as countries across Europe decide whether or not this winter’s ski season will go ahead.
This week, Britain’s biggest ski operator Crystal Ski Holidays was forced to cancel all its French ski trips in December after President Macron ordered the nation’s resorts to stay shut until the new year.
Continue reading...I am 75 and taking part in the Novavax trial but the success of the Oxford jab has given me a dilemma
My third appointment with researchers this week, as a participant in Covid-19 vaccine trials, was overshadowed by the news that the Oxford vaccine will probably be available to older folk like me in the early part of next year – maybe as early as January or February.
The vaccine I am trialling – the Novavax one – will have test results in January, and probably be available in the summer. So what happens to us guinea pigs when the Oxford vaccine is available, I wanted to know. As a reasonably healthy 75-year-old, I’m likely to be – in the doctor’s words – “at the back of the front of the queue” for it. I have signed up to be in the Novavax study for a year. But if I have the Oxford vaccine, do I cease to be any use?
Continue reading...Those with conditions such as blood, bone or lung cancer put in same category on interim guidance list as over-70s
People at very high risk of contracting coronavirus due to health problems, who were made to shield during the pandemic, have been given the same priority as the over-70s to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
People aged 18 or older deemed “clinically extremely vulnerable” are in the same priority group as those aged 70 and over, according to the provisional vaccine priority list published by Public Health England.
Continue reading...Exclusive: NHS could receive first deliveries of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as soon as 7 December
Hospitals have been told to prepare for the rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in as little as 10 days’ time, with NHS workers expected to be at the front of the queue, the Guardian has learned.
NHS bosses said hospitals in England could expect to receive their first deliveries of a vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech as soon as Monday 7 December, with regulatory approval anticipated within days.
Continue reading...Fears nitrogen and phosphorus could be released in large quantities into soil at grave sites
Denmark’s government is considering exhuming and cremating the remains of millions of culled mink after decaying carcasses started to emerge from a hastily dug grave.
After a mutated version of Covid-19 was found in the animals, the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, announced a cull in early November of the estimated 15-17 million mink in Denmark, the world’s biggest exporter of mink fur.
Continue reading...MPs from tier 3 areas express concern about social and economic impact as communities secretary says rules may be eased in some areas before Christmas
Lord Frost, Boris Johnson’s Europe adviser, has insisted a Brexit deal “is still possible”.
He tweeted: “I look forward to welcoming michelbarnier and his team to London and to resuming face-to-face talks tomorrow. We are glad all are safe and well.
1/4 I look forward to welcoming @michelbarnier and his team to London and to resuming face-to-face talks tomorrow. We are glad all are safe and well.
Around a quarter of adults in Great Britain believe it will take more than a year for their lives to return to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey suggests.
Some 17% of people think it could take between four to six months, while just under a fifth (18%) believe it may be between 10 and 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Continue reading...South Korea claims to have foiled North Korean hack attempt; Germany records 22,806 new cases to go past 1m in total; Russia reports new record cases high
Russia will ship some doses of its Sputnik V trial vaccine to Hungary next week, after a visit by a team of Hungarian doctors to see the manufacturing process, Reuters reports, citing a statement by the Russian health minister, Mikhail Murashko.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said talks were also underway on how the Russian vaccine could be potentially produced in Hungary.
Concerns around the efficacy of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab in older people could lead to different age groups being given different vaccines, writes Nicola Davis, the Guardian’s science correspondent.
The partners announced last week that the vaccine had a 70% efficacy overall. For most trial participants – given two full doses, spaced a month apart – the efficacy was 62%, but for 3,000 participants mistakenly given half a dose for their first jab, the efficacy was 90%. No participants, regardless of dosing, developed severe Covid or were hospitalised with the disease.
Related: Different age groups may get different Covid vaccines, experts say
Continue reading...War, hunger and devastating aid cuts have made the plight of Yemenis almost unbearable
On a ward in Ataq general hospital in the dusty central province of Shabwa in Yemen, six-month-old Muna Bassam is lying on her back, eyes closed, her distended belly moving up and down with the labour of breathing.
In the corridor outside her room, a poster shows before-and-after photos of several children admitted to the ward who have managed to recover from acute malnutrition – still painfully thin, but smiling and alert. Muna’s family already took her to hospital once before. Worried about being able to pay for her treatment and fuel to return to the village, their prayers for her this time around are even more urgent.
Continue reading...The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine is showing promise but it is premature to say the end of the pandemic is nigh. Several rich countries have signed a 'frenzy of deals' that could prevent many poor nations from getting access to immunisation until at least 2024. Also, many drug firms are potentially refusing to waive patents and other intellectual property rights in order to secure exclusive rights to any cure.
Michael Safi, the Guardian's international correspondent, explains why 'vaccine nationalisation' could scupper global efforts to kill the virus and examines what is being done to tackle the issue
Continue reading...Oxford/AstraZeneca planning new trial of lower-dose jab to see how well it works in older people
Concerns around the efficacy of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab in older people could lead to different age groups being given different vaccines, experts have said.
The partners announced last week that the vaccine had a 70% efficacy overall. For most trial participants – given two full doses, spaced a month apart – the efficacy was 62%, but for 3,000 participants mistakenly given half a dose for their first jab, the efficacy was 90%. No participants, regardless of dosing, developed severe Covid or were hospitalised with the disease.
Continue reading...Infections rising in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, exposing failures in strategy and accusations that officials squandered valuable planning opportunities
When an elderly couple with Covid-19 were admitted to her hospital’s intensive care unit, Laura Marie and her team made sure they were put in the same room.
“They were so sweet,” said the nurse, who works in the Canadian province of Alberta. “But they were so scared.”
Continue reading...Jenrick insists some areas can ‘de-escalate’, but scientists say 16 December is too soon to decide
The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, has insisted there is a prospect of some areas in England “de-escalating” from a higher to a lower tier of coronavirus measures before Christmas, despite scientists warning that the 16 December review will be too soon to make changes.
Many Conservative MPs reacted with anger after the government announced that 99% of the population in England would be placed under the top two tightest levels of restriction – tiers 2 and 3 – when the nationwide lockdown ends next week.
Continue reading...‘I’ve given up trying to control anything now,’ I announced last Tuesday while breakfasting on a packet of jelly babies
Food has lost much of its meaning for me. Well, its meanings, to be more accurate. A typical late autumn of eating has its rhythms: shortly after decorative gourd season and past toffee apple weekend (both cancelled due to lurgy), many of us move seamlessly into pre-Christmas hoarding and restraint mode. The hoarding begins with a casually snaffled box of stollen slices or a little bag of Lindt chocolate Christmas tree decorations, chucked into the shopping basket “just to get things started”. Then a shufti around Marks & Spencer’s food hall, where the displays of shortbread in commemorative tin boxes (those nice ones your mother used for her sewing kit) always bring a sense of minor panic that holidays are comin’ and I am unprepared. Begin the lists, open the iCal, commence the slightly terse intra-family emails. Panic!
I do not have a yuletide shopping delivery slot. That dodgy shelf in my chiller will not survive a fortnight of festive season fridge Jenga, and a better woman than me would have made her own figgy pudding by now. But, as I say, the hoarding won’t happen this year. The big Dent jamboree is cancelled. And the restraint – which runs in parallel from about now to late December – is off, too. About now, I generally have in the diary at least two festive gatherings where I envision myself slinking in wearing some frock that will require me to be a bit hungry for at least 22 days and say things like, “No, I love running five miles pre-dawn dodging flashers – it centres me”, and, “Toast is too filling and carby. I’m so happy with this bircher muesli.” The only thing most of us will be wearing this party season is slightly smarter pyjamas.
Life is quite bizarre now that the usual run-up to New Year has been steam-rollered. How empty does late November feel without a low, bubbling, passive-aggressive email chain between siblings about how much room a nut roast takes up in an oven? I feel oddly bereft without any invites to a mock-Bavarian Christmas market where I can drink £8 glasses of glühwein and eat a reheated wurst on the waltzer while listening to David Guetta. This week I noticed the first of the “What to do with Christmas day leftovers” tips and tricks in the papers. The notion of having so many visitors that you might be caught with a glut of food already seems oddly archaic.
Buying, planning and hoping for things to run like clockwork is a mug’s game. The rules are that there are no rules. “I’ve given up trying to control anything now,” I announced last Tuesday while breakfasting on a packet of jelly babies. I think it was Tuesday. It may have been Thursday. The Gregorian calendar feels so meaningless these days. Anyway, each baby was so chunkily delicious, and their pudgy little lightly frosted bellies slid so soothingly down my throat, that they felt momentarily like love and order. This one lemon, yum yum. This one raspberry, schlurp. I rarely ate sweets before the pandemic, but now, in the blur of news about possible vaccines, permanent restaurant closures and the millions of wonderful hospitality workers who will no doubt need to retrain in cyber, they’re the only thing that piques my attention some days.
Boris Johnson said he was sorry that most of England would exit lockdown into tiers 2 or 3 with the toughest restrictions. Johnson said the measures 'strike a balance' between limiting the spread of the virus and protecting freedoms. 'If we ease off now, we risk losing control of this virus,' Johnson added.
Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, urged people to 'have sense' over the festive period, and bluntly warned against hugging and kissing elderly relatives at Christmas
People in tiers 2 and 3 face tight restrictions while those in tier 1 worry of influx from outside
While there was welcome relief at the news that England’s second national lockdown would finally end, Thursday’s announcement that it was to be replaced with only slightly milder restrictions across much of the country left many fearing a bleak winter in tiers 2 and 3.
Only three areas received a relative reprieve in tier 1, but, for many, happiness was tempered by a fear that an influx of visitor from riskier areas could leave them facing tougher restrictions too.
Continue reading...Passengers will have to test negative for coronavirus three times, says US airline
The US airline Delta has announced the first “quarantine-free” transatlantic flights, with pre-departure Covid testing enabling passengers to escape 14 days’ isolation on arrival in Italy.
The trial flights will start next month between Atlanta and Rome, the first of the type of transatlantic corridor that UK airlines have been seeking to establish to open up travel on their most lucrative routes.
Continue reading...Analysis: the two regions have emerged with contrasting fortunes from their dealings with Westminster
As Matt Hancock put the final touches to England’s new lockdown regime on Wednesday night, the mood of leaders in Manchester and Liverpool could not have been more different.
On Merseyside the leaders felt they had done all they could to have become the first English region to leave the strictest coronavirus measures introduced six weeks ago. The Liverpool city region has now been moved down to tier 2.
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