We’re now closing this live blog. Thanks for reading along with us.
France has reported 66,732 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The European Union’s drug watchdog has approved Moderna’s Covid jab for children aged six to 11, the second vaccine to be approved for younger children in the 27-member bloc, AFP reports.
“The EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has recommended granting an extension of indication for the Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax to include use in children aged 6 to 11,” the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.
The jab, developed by US-based pharmaceutical company Moderna, has already been approved for adults and children aged 12 and above
“As in the older age group, the vaccine is given as two injections in the muscles of the upper arm, four weeks apart,” the EMA said.
France reported 109,649 coronavirus deaths in hospital, up by 197.
France also reported that 2,656 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, down by 97, Reuters reports.
UK death toll increases by 125
A further 125 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 161,104, the government said.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 184,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Summary
Here is a round-up of today’s main Covid news stories:
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The legal requirement to self-isolate with Covid ends today in England. Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
- Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.
- Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals. From early March, foreigners will be allowed to enter for business purposes, including inspection, investment, employment or fulfilling contractual obligations.
- A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests.
- Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
The most disadvantaged areas of Melbourne in Australia have been hit hardest by Covid-19 deaths during Victoria’s Omicron wave, further underscoring the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on communities with lower employment and income levels, and poorer access to services.
Data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia shows that in Melbourne’s most disadvantaged local government areas (LGAs), Covid deaths occurred at a rate of 26 deaths per 100,000 residents. This substantially outweighs deaths in areas of greater socioeconomic advantage.
Updated
Summary
That’s all from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, on the global coronavirus blog as I head over to our Ukraine coverage. Do join me there if you’d like. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of everything you might have missed:
- Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus. Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.
- From today, people in England who test positive for the coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate themselves. Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
- Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals, in a move to slightly ease restrictions in one of the few places still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy. Authorities announced restrictions would ease from early March for foreigners coming in for business purposes.
- The UK government health secretary, Sajid Javid, has defended the Covid response against accusations that MPs were unable to scrutinise controversial provisions in emergency legislation during the early stages of the pandemic. Ministers had to “act quickly”, Javid said, as he addressed the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on the Coronavirus Act ahead of its two-year anniversary.
- Several high-end countries have vaccinated 90% of their populations while some African nations have completed only 10% of inoculation, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said. Speaking in a panel discussion as part of BioAsia 2022, she suggested that there was a need for a distributed manufacturing network across the globe.
- The Queen has postponed two scheduled virtual audiences on Thursday after her Covid-19 diagnosis, Buckingham Palace said. The 95-year-old monarch tested positive for the virus on Sunday when she was said to be suffering from mild cold-like symptoms.
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A group of shouting protesters chased the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests. Anti-vaccine and anti-vaccine mandate protesters have been occupying New Zealand’s parliament grounds for more than two weeks and blocking a number of streets in Wellington’s central business district with their cars.
- Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak. The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever Covid wave, registering thousands of cases every day and overwhelming hospitals.
- The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to Covid restrictions.
- Most pregnant women in the UK are still shunning Covid vaccines despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows. Data reveals 73% of Asian women, 86% of black women and 65% of white women were unvaccinated at the time of giving birth in October 2021.
Several high-end countries have vaccinated 90% of their populations while some African nations have completed only 10% of inoculation, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist said.
Although the scientific achievement with regards to tackling the pandemic has been commendable, there was no global coordination and several countries did not abide by the framework put out by the WHO, Soumya Swaminathan said.
Speaking in a panel discussion as part of BioAsia 2022, she said:
I think that while the scientific achievements have been absolutely outstanding, the fact that we have a vaccine in less than a year … Where we fell short was on really global coordination and harmonised ways of approaching pandemic.
Though the world no longer faced an acute vaccine supply shortage that was seen throughout 2021, the challenge remains that many countries are not able to carry out massive vaccination programmes.
Swaminathan said the WHO was working on scenarios where variant-proof vaccines were developed and suggested that there was a need for a distributed manufacturing network across the globe.
Updated
The UK government health secretary, Sajid Javid, has defended the Covid response against accusations that MPs were unable to scrutinise controversial provisions in emergency legislation during the early stages of the pandemic.
Ministers had to “act quickly”, Javid said, as he addressed the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on the Coronavirus Act ahead of its two-year anniversary.
The health secretary accepted that ensuring parliament could properly debate emergency legislation may be one of the “lessons learned” from the crisis, adding that he did not “envisage” ever having to bring back provisions in the act which are set to expire at midnight on 24 March.
The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said there was a view among some MPs that decisions which had a “major impact” on the public had at times seemed like a “fait accompli”.
At times, when it’s come to announcements in parliament, there is a view among some parliamentarians that actually it’s almost been like peeping through the keyhole or shouting through the letterbox of Number 10 rather than participating in the decision-making process of such fundamental issues.
Scottish National party MP for Inverclyde, Ronnie Cowan, asked Javid:
You don’t think it would have been preferable at some point to have had a wider debate in parliament on some of those provisions?
Javid replied:
I see what you’re getting at and I think that should be part of the lessons learned.
I guess your point is that whilst the overall act is needed, could individual provisions, could parliament have more say on them... even if it’s not all the provisions, some of the more, let’s say, controversial ones, and I think it’s a very fair point to think about that now.
The government had to “act quickly” and strike a balance between enabling parliamentary debate on the laws and rolling out measures to protect the British public at pace, he said.
Updated
Hong Kong’s Covid-19 vaccine pass came into effect today, requiring people entering restaurants, shopping centres and supermarkets to have received at least one Covid-19 jab.
Masks are also required for all outdoor exercise and people are not permitted to remove face coverings to eat or drink on public transport.
From Thursday, people must also use their phone’s LeaveHomeSafe contact tracing app to scan a QR code to enter specified premises.
Restaurants will proactively scan people’s vaccination records, while higher traffic venues such as malls and supermarkets will only see spot checks.
To qualify for a vaccine pass, the person must have received at least one Covid-19 jab, or have a doctor’s certificate certifying they are medically unfit to be inoculated. Anyone caught using somebody else’s vaccination records as their own could face legal consequences, authorities said.
Updated
Covid isolation rules end in England
From today, people in England who test positive for the coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate themselves.
Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
Unveiling his government’s strategy for “living with Covid” on Monday, Boris Johnson told the public:
Until April 1 we will still advise people who test positive to stay at home but after that we will encourage people with Covid-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others
England’s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, said people should still isolate if they had the virus, despite the legal requirement ending on Thursday.
He said it was “standard public health advice” and warned that while rates were coming down it was “still a very common infection”.
Self-isolation support payments of £500 for people on low incomes have also ended today, as has the legal obligation for workers to tell their employer that they need to isolate.
Routine contact tracing has also ended, meaning people will no longer be advised to test or isolate after coming into contact with someone who has the virus.
Isolation rules are not changing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, meaning people will still be required to isolate for at least five full days after testing positive.
Updated
Iceland to lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday
Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.
Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.
Speaking at a government meeting today, Thórsson said:
We can truly rejoice at this turning-point, but nonetheless I encourage people to be careful, practice personal infection prevention measures and not to interact with others if they notice symptoms
Iceland, with a population of 368,000 people, has reported between 2,100 and 2,800 daily infections recently. More than 115,000 infections have been recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic and 60 have died due to the virus.
Updated
Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals, in a move to slightly ease restrictions in one of the few places still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy.
Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) announced restrictions would ease from early March for foreigners coming in for business purposes, including inspection, investment, employment or fulfilling contractual obligations.
Chen Tsung-yen, deputy head of the CECC, said:
We will open to foreign business people starting March 7 in line with some relaxations in the overall pandemic prevention measures.
Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau residents can only apply for entry to fulfil business contracts or due to transferrals within multinational companies.
Also from 7 March, the 14-day mandatory quarantine for all arrivals will be cut to 10 days, in addition to a week of monitoring at home.
A mask mandate and some other restrictions will be eased from 1 March, authorities said.
Chou Jih-haw, head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said:
We had some domestic cluster infections before Lunar New Year but the number of local cases continued to fall in recent weeks.
The domestic situation is stable and under control.
Updated
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Tom Ambrose to bring you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
We start with the news that the Queen has postponed two scheduled virtual audiences on Thursday after her Covid-19 diagnosis, Buckingham Palace said.
The palace said the 95-year-old monarch was “continuing with light duties”. The update comes amid heightened concerns for her health, given her age, frailer appearance of late and recent health scare.
The Queen tested positive for the virus on Sunday when she was said to be suffering from mild cold-like symptoms.
A palace spokesperson said today:
The two virtual audiences that had previously been scheduled to take place today will now be rescheduled for a later date. Her Majesty is continuing with light duties. No other engagements are scheduled for this week.
Updated
Summary
Here is a round-up of today’s main Covid news stories:
- A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests.
- Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
-
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to Covid restrictions.
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Japan has said international travellers showing proof of a Covid vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot would be allowed in and be eligible for a shorter time in quarantine when border controls are eased next month.
- The Omicron BA.2 sub-variant of Covid appears to be more infectious than the original BA.1 sub-variant, according to data from South Africa.
- The rollout of the coronavirus vaccination programme has been praised by the UK’s public spending watchdog for meeting “stretching and unprecedented targets” and saving lives.
- Most pregnant women in the UK are still shunning Covid vaccines despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows.
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Hong Kong reported a new record of 8,798 Covid infections on Thursday, health authorities said.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, until tomorrow. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to take over the global Covid live blog. Bye for now.
Updated
The Omicron BA.2 sub-variant of Covid appears to be more infectious than the original BA.1 sub-variant, according to data from South Africa.
However, it does not cause more severe disease, the head of Africa’s top public health body said on Thursday.
Japan to accept J&J vaccine for border entry next month
Japan has said international travellers showing proof of a Covid vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot would be allowed in and be eligible for a shorter time in quarantine when border controls are eased next month.
The J&J shot, which has not been approved in Japan, will join a list of three other shots that have been approved by regulators as sufficient for non-residents to enter, after a nearly two-year ban on such travellers.
The other approved vaccines on a list that the foreign ministry released on Thursday are the ones developed by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, Reuters reported.
Vaccines developed by Chinese and Russian makers are not included.
From 1 March, authorities will raise the number of people allowed in to Japan to 5,000 a day, from 3,500, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters last week. The easing applies to students, workers, and other visa holders, but not to tourists for the time being.
The quarantine period will be reduced to three days in some conditions, from seven, and it will be waived entirely depending on the traveller’s point of origin, and if they have had a booster shot.
Hong Kong reported a new record of 8,798 Covid infections on Thursday, health authorities said.
It comes as the global financial hub struggles to control a worsening outbreak that has overwhelmed its health system ahead of a citywide compulsory testing scheme in March.
The rollout of the coronavirus vaccination programme has been praised by the UK’s public spending watchdog for meeting “stretching and unprecedented targets” and saving lives.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said securing a supply of vaccines early was “crucial to the successful rollout” which helped “to save lives and reduce serious illness and hospitalisation”.
The independent watchdog said there were risks ahead for the programme, including staff burnout and reaching groups with a lower rate of uptake, PA Media reported.
But in a report released on Friday, which covers a period up to the end of October 2021, the NAO said wastage of around 4.7m vaccine doses - around 4% of the total supply - had been “much lower than the programme initially assumed” and that the whole operation had been “an effective use of public money”.
The report said the vaccine programme spent £5.6bn up to the end of October last year, out of a total available pot of £8.3bn available over two years up to March this year.
The NAO said its calculations had found the average procurement cost per Covid vaccine dose had been £15.02 including VAT, but this varied between suppliers and over time, while the average deployment cost was £25.70 per dose.
The report said the programme now “needs to maintain the high levels of vaccine uptake it has achieved among the general population”.
Updated
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to Covid restrictions.
Trudeau said the “threat continues” but the acute emergency that included entrenched occupations has ended. His government invoked the powers last week and lawmakers affirmed the powers on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
“The situation is no longer an emergency, therefore the federal government will be ending the use of the emergencies act,” Trudeau said. “We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are sufficient.”
The emergencies act allows authorities to declare certain areas as no-go zones. It also allows police to freeze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts and compel tow truck companies to haul away vehicles.
The trucker protest grew until it closed a handful of Canada-US border posts and shut down key parts of the capital for more than three weeks. But all border blockades have now ended and the streets around the Canadian Parliament are quiet.
“We were very clear that the use of the emergencies act would be limited in time,” Trudeau said.
Updated
Most pregnant women in the UK are still shunning Covid vaccines despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows.
Data from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford shows 73% of Asian women, 86% of black women and 65% of white women were unvaccinated at the time of giving birth in October 2021.
The charity Wellbeing of Women, which funded the study with the National Institute for Health Research, called for “urgent action” to address “stark racial and social inequalities” among pregnant women, PA Media reported.
The study found that severe Covid infection in pregnant women, particularly in the third trimester, significantly increased the risk of giving birth early, having an induction or a Caesarean, having a stillborn baby or a baby that needed intensive care.
In the UK, an estimated 1.1 million women gave birth between 1 March 2020 and 31 October last year. Overall, 4,436 pregnant women were admitted to hospital with Covid during this period in the UK, of whom 65% had mild disease, 21% had moderate illness and 14% had severe infection.
Some 77% of all the women were in their third trimester of pregnancy. Of the 1,761 women whose vaccination status was recorded in this group (from when vaccines became available), 97% were unvaccinated, 2% had received their first dose, and 1% had received two doses.
During the study period, 22 women died with severe Covid-19 during pregnancy, 59 babies were stillborn and 10 babies died around the time of birth.
A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school, amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests.
Jacinda Ardern, who was visiting a primary school in Christchurch, was met by a crowd of people shouting “shame on you” and “traitor”. Some held signs saying that the prime minister would be “put on trial” and “held responsible”, and one man brandished a fabricated arrest warrant – references to conspiracy theories that a cohort of world leaders and powerful people are secretly using vaccines to commit a genocide, and would soon be put on trial and hanged for treason.
Police officers formed a barrier to allow the prime minister to pass through.
TVNZ deputy political editor, Maiki Sherman, who was attending the event, reported that parents and teachers at the school were “visibly upset”. The incident came as the country reported 6,137 new cases of Covid-19, almost a doubling from the previous record, set one day earlier.
Anti-vaccine and anti-vaccine mandate protesters have been occupying New Zealand’s parliament grounds for more than two weeks and blocking a number of streets in Wellington’s central business district with their cars.
Updated
Hong Kong to allow in doctors from mainland China
Hello. Tom Ambrose here and I’ll be bringing you all the latest Covid news from around the world over the next few hours.
We start with the news that Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
“The regulation will provide a legal framework for the CPG (central people’s government) to render the necessary emergent support to Hong Kong in a more effective and expeditious manner,” the government said in a statement.
The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever Covid wave, registering thousands of cases every day, overwhelming hospitals and the city’s requirement that all patients are isolated in dedicated units.
Local authorities adopted a zero-Covid strategy similar to China to keep infections mostly at bay for two years. But they were caught flat-footed when the highly infectious Omicron variant broke through those defences and have increasingly called on the Chinese mainland for help.
“Hong Kong is now facing a very dire epidemic situation which continues to deteriorate rapidly,” the government said in its statement announcing the use of emergency powers.
Chinese mainland medics are not currently allowed to operate in Hong Kong without passing local exams and licensing regulations.
