Category Archives: Coronavirus

Covid live: Brazil reports 12,273 new cases with daily deaths down to 240; Russia’s death toll passes 250,000

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Brazil’s total deaths rise to 610,036; Russia reports 1,239 fatalities to take official death toll to 250,454

There’s been a lot of news recently about reopened travel routes, including the opening of the US-Mexico border and the resumption of transatlantic flights. One person not looking to take advantage of that is the World Health Organization’s Dr David Nabarro. As part of his Sky News interview in the UK this morning he had this to say about travel:

Why am I not travelling very much? Because I don’t want to get Covid – I’m in the wrong age group and I’ve got other adverse factors as well.

So, I’m trying to say to everybody travel if you must – and there are often essential emotional reasons as well as essential economic and another reasons – but try not to travel if you don’t have to.

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Influential rightwing Christians lead opposition to Idaho Covid measures

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Christ Church leaders and aligned companies received millions of dollars in coronavirus bailouts amid campaign against mandates

The controversial rightwing Christ Church – and its pastor, Douglas Wilson – have led an uncompromising campaign of opposition to coronavirus public health measures in Idaho, revealing the church’s powerful influence in its home city of Moscow and beyond.

The campaign has included in-person protests, misinformation and encouragement of civil disobedience across media channels owned by the church, which, as the Guardian has reported, is seeking to increase its power and influence in the town as part of an aim of creating a theocracy in America.

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Hesitancy, inequity: is the US ‘making the same mistakes’ with kids’ vaccines?

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Only half of children aged 12 and above have been vaccinated, despite vaccine being available for months

When Nia Heard-Garris’s son found out the Covid vaccines were authorized for adults in the US late last year, he was thrilled, then asked, “But what about us? What about kids?”

The eight-year-old is finally signed up for his first shot later this week. Even though he’s afraid of needles, he can’t wait to get vaccinated so he can return to a greater semblance of normal kid life – hanging out with his friends, going to school, playing sports – without worrying about getting sick or bringing the virus home.

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The young taxi bikers killed in Freetown’s fuel blast died trying to scrape a living | Jonah Lipton and James B Palmer

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Riders trying to get fuel from a leaking tanker were among 100 killed when it exploded. It’s part of a bigger story of the struggle for survival in Sierra Leone, a country exploited by rich nations

More than 100 people were killed by an explosion in Freetown, Sierra Leone, last week, after a leaking fuel tanker collided with a lorry on a busy road in the capital city.

Many of those who died were young motorbike taxi drivers, after dozens of riders rushed to the leaking tanker to collect free petrol and were caught in the blast. The tanker and lorry drivers tried to keep people away but could not stop the crowd. Half an hour later, it was too late.

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Emmanuel Macron urges acceleration of France’s Covid booster rollout

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French president also announces many people will need third jab to keep valid health pass

Emmanuel Macron has called for an acceleration of Covid-19 booster shots for elderly and vulnerable people in France and announced that many citizens will need a third vaccination for a valid health pass from next month.

In a televised address, the French president said “the pandemic is not over” and warned of the emergence of a fifth wave of infections in Europe, citing a significant rise in cases in the UK and Germany. He said the incidence rate of Covid infections in France had also recently risen.

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Five reasons NSW Covid case numbers have stayed low since reopening

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Officials feared ‘freedom day’ would bring more cases and hospitalisations. But a month on, the numbers continue to drop

When New South Wales exited lockdown in October, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, warned that with extra freedoms would likely come extra cases and hospitalisations.

Modelling predicted up to 1,900 daily cases during the state’s first easing and a second, larger peak around Christmas. The Burnet Institute forecast hospitalisations would peak between 2,286 and 4,016 in Sydney by the end of September.

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Covid news live: up to 100,000 NHS England staff unvaccinated; thousands protest over New Zealand’s vaccine mandates

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Speculation mounts UK government will announce NHS vaccine mandate today; anti-vaccination mandate protesters descend on Wellington

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said he was expecting an announcement on a deadline for mandatory vaccination for NHS staff today.

PA Media quotes him telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “That’s what we’re expecting today – that there will be a mandatory vaccination deadline.”

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Covid vaccine to be compulsory for all NHS England staff by April

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Sajid Javid set to confirm to MPs decision to press ahead despite oppositions of unions and some doctors’ organisations

All 1.4 million NHS staff in England will have to be vaccinated against Covid by next spring if they want to keep their jobs, Sajid Javid will confirm to MPs on Tuesday.

The health secretary has decided to press ahead with making jabs compulsory despite health unions and some doctors’ organisations voicing strong opposition.

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Randox: how one-man-band operation became a Covid testing giant

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Healthcare firm named in Owen Paterson lobbying scandal has won £500m in UK government contracts

As the Covid-19 pandemic swept towards the UK, a senior employee of the healthcare firm Randox addressed an audience of horse racing royalty, gathered amid the neoclassical splendour of St George’s Hall in Liverpool.

Randox, which had garnered a role within the “sport of kings” via its sponsorship of the Grand National, had developed a test for Covid-19, he told them.

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New vaccine campaigns target rural Americans to address disparities

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Rural residents are older and poorer, are less likely to be vaccinated – and twice as likely to die of Covid as city dwellers

In the United States, there is a renewed campaign to vaccinate rural Americans due to the stark difference in Covid-19 cases and deaths among those living in less-populated areas compared with towns and cities.

Rural residents are now twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as Americans in metropolitan areas. Yet rural areas tend to lag at least 10% behind metropolitan areas when it comes to vaccination – and this hesitancy is exacerbating already existing health issues.

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Singapore to start charging Covid patients who are ‘unvaccinated by choice’

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Authorities say unvaccinated people make up a ‘sizeable majority’ of those needing the most intensive care

Singapore will no longer pay the Covid-19 medical bills for people “unvaccinated by choice”, the government said, as the country grapples with a surge in cases.

The government currently covers the full Covid medical costs for all Singaporeans, as well as permanent residents and long-term visa holders, unless they test positive soon after returning home from overseas.

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Chinese city offers cash for clues as Covid outbreak declared a ‘people’s war’

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Authorities announced the 100,000 yuan ($15,640) rewards for residents in Heihe, saying illegal hunting or crossing the border should be reported

Residents of a Chinese city bordering Russia have been offered major cash rewards for tips on the continuing Delta outbreak, with local officials declaring a “people’s war” on the virus.

Authorities announced the 100,000 yuan ($15,640) rewards for residents in Heihe, in the north-eastern Heilongjiang Province, as its total tally of cases in this outbreak reached 240.

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Jill Biden to kick off campaign to encourage US child vaccination – live

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The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly and David Smith report:

In his Saturday remarks, Joe Biden praised the infrastructure bill as a “once-in-a-generation investment that’s going to create millions of jobs, modernise our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a range of things turning the climate crisis into an opportunity, and a put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with China and other large countries in the rest of the world”.

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Coronavirus live: Germany sees highest ever seven-day Covid incidence rate; Auckland lockdown set to end

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Germany’s Robert Koch Institute records incidence rate of 201.1; Lockdown of New Zealand’s largest city likely to end this month

Dozens of crossings at the Mexico-US border reopened to non-essential travel on Monday after a 20-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lizbeth Diaz reports for Reuters from Tijuana that ahead of the reopening, hundreds of cars formed lines stretching back kilometres from the border, while queues at pedestrian crossings grew steadily.

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US man who survived Covid says sorry to doctors for not getting vaccinated

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Richard Soliz from Seattle, who spent month ill in hospital, thanks staff and says he ‘deeply regrets’ not getting vaccine

After being hospitalized for 28 days with Covid-19, a man returned to the Seattle hospital that saved his life – to apologize for not getting vaccinated.

Richard Soliz, a 54-year old graphic artist, developed blood clots on his lungs after contracting the coronavirus. Admitted to Harborview medical center in late August, he spent close to a month on a ventilator and heart monitor, as doctors worried one of his blood clots might transfer to his brain or his heart.

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Nigeria unlikely to reach ‘impossible’ 40% Covid vaccine target

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Lack of doses and a reluctant public make government programme unfeasible, say health experts, with malaria and conflict posing greater risk to life

It will be “impossible” for Nigeria to meet its target of vaccinating 40% of its population by the end of the year because Covid is not being taken seriously, health experts have warned.

Fewer than 1.5% of the country’s 206 million population has been fully vaccinated. But with more people killed in conflict last year and substantially more recorded deaths from malaria than Covid in Nigeria, experts believe it is further down the list of concerns for many in the country.

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Australia news live update: WA nurse charged over alleged Covid vaccine fraud; booster shots available from today; more freedoms for NSW

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Nurse accused of faking a Covid vaccination; Adem Somyurek appears before Ibac; Victoria records 1,126 cases and five deaths; NSW reports 187 cases, seven deaths; ACT has 13 new cases; Barnaby Joyce slams ex-PMs’ criticisms of PM; vaccine boosters roll out; NSW scraps home-visit limits for vaccinated. Follow the day’s news

Health minister Greg Hunt is also on the interview circuit this morning and has been asked if booster shots will be required for people to keep the freedoms given to those who have been double vaccinated:

Not at this stage. it is not our medical advice. What a booster is, is exactly as the name says. It adds to your vaccination. It boosts your vaccination. It boosts your vaccination and protection.

We are opening up today across the country to anyone who is six months or more from their vaccination.

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‘Get the vaccine’: family of Covid victim’s plea to pregnant women

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Saiqa Parveen planned to have jab after giving birth but died from disease after daughter was delivered by emergency caesarean

She was eight months pregnant and weeks from welcoming her fifth daughter to the world, but Saiqa Parveen died of Covid after putting off getting the coronavirus jab. Her family have now issued an emotional plea for pregnant women to get vaccinated.

Parveen, 37, had planned to delay having the jab until her baby was born, her family said, but she was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties in September and put on a ventilator.

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Ted Cruz condemns Big Bird for advocating Covid vaccines for kids

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The Texas senator Ted Cruz led conservatives in condemnation of a prominent public figure for advocating Covid-19 vaccinations for children. Big Bird.

This week saw final US approval for five- to 11-year-olds to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Sesame Street, which has offered Covid advice before, duly deployed its popular characters to encourage parents to protect their children.

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