The UK’s health secretary Sajid Javid said the country is seeing “the other side of the Omicron wave”.
The PA news agency asked Javid if there will be a dedicated urgent and emergency care recovery plan, as called for by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
He replied: “There is a plan for urgent and emergency care. Just at the start of this winter, we published a 10-point plan with hundreds of millions of extra funding going into the NHS and social care to help with that winter pressure.
I think people could see especially over the last couple of months because of Omicron, which had rightly become the priority, that’s had additional pressure on the NHS.
“But it’s right now that we are seeing the other side of the Omicron wave, that things are improving, hospitalisations are falling, that the NHS is doing all that it can to deal with that Covid backlog.”
Novak Djokovic could be allowed to enter this year’s Italian Open despite the men’s world No 1 being unvaccinated, according to officials in Italy.
The country’s cabinet undersecretary for sports, Valentina Vezzali, said: “If Djokovic wants to come and play in Rome he can do it,” adding that tennis is “an outdoor sport and the tighter green pass is not required”.
“Perhaps Djokovic will most likely not be allowed in a hotel or a restaurant, but if he wants to play he can play,” said Vezzali, a former Olympic fencer and a 16-time world champion in foil.
The U.S. has shipped nearly 5.2 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Egypt and Nigeria, a White House official told AFP.
The shipments were the latest in a global campaign of donations from the U.S.
More than 400 million jabs have already been dispatched from a target of 1.1 billion.
The official, who asked not to be named, said that 2,999,880 Pfizer doses were heading to Nigeria and 2,158,650 doses to Egypt.
The shipments, which left Thursday and were due to arrive by Monday, went through Covax, the global distribution initiative co-led with public-private partnership Gavi.
France reported 108,171 coronavirus deaths in hospital, up by 258, Reuters reports.
It also reported that 3,055 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, down by 71.
France also reported 92,345 new cases.
Days before the so-called Freedom Convoy reached Ottawa, starting a weeks-long occupation of Canada’s capital and triggering a string of copy-cat blockades, the federal government was warned that violent extremist groups were deeply involved in the protest movement.
Intelligence assessments – prepared by Canada’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) and seen by the Guardian – warned in late January that it was “likely” that extremists were involved and said that the scale of the protests could yet pose a “trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorism attack”.
The assessments offer the first real glimpse in how federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have assessed the threat of Canada’s anti-vaccine and conspiracy movement.
“We knew these people were coming,” said a federal government source, who indicated that the Security Intelligence Service Canada – Canada’s main intelligence service, of which ITAC is a part – had flagged the involvement of extremist groups and individuals in official briefings.
More data from Italy. Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 14,562 on Thursday, down from 15,127 a day earlier.
There were 71 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 75 on Wednesday.
The total number of intensive care patients fell to 1,037 from a previous 1,073, Reuters reports.
Some 538,131 tests for the virus were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 555,080, the health ministry said.
Italy reported 57,890 Covid-19 related cases on Thursday, compared to 59,749 the day before, the health ministry said.
The number of deaths rose to 320 from 278 on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Italy has registered 152,282 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020. The country has reported 12.32 million cases to date.
Teachers unions are calling on the New South Wales state government in Australia to extend the supply of rapid antigen tests for staff and students, saying the program has helped to curb Covid-19 transmission in classrooms.
Despite Victoria on Thursday announcing its near-identical school plan would be extended until the end of the term, the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, indicated his state was still working through details.
More than 12,000 NSW students tested positive using rapid tests in the second week of school, an increase of nearly 50% on the 8,100 students who tested positive in week one.
Cuba’s widespread Covid-19 vaccination coverage and early move to inoculate its children proved pivotal in beating back the Omicron variant before it took hold on the island, local and international experts say.
Omicron arrived in Cuba in December but fell far short of the pronounced spike in cases seen in many other places and infections have since fallen off by more than 80%, official data shows. Deaths have remained at around 10% or less of their peak throughout the Omicron wave, according to a Reuters tally. Brazil-based virologist Amilcar Perez Riverol said that while case numbers vary widely from country to country depending on the rate of testing, it appeared that Omicron struggled to take hold in Cuba or cause surging deaths or severe illness.
It appears that Omicron is not going to have anywhere near the impact that Delta had in Cuba, or even the impact that it is having in other countries, nor will it exert the pressure on the hospital system as in other countries,” Perez Riverol told Reuters.
A total of 52,542,206 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been delivered in the UK by February 16, government figures show, a rise of 10,914 on the previous day.
Some 48,818,475 second doses have been delivered, an increase of 21,914.
A combined total of 37,911,067 booster and third doses have been given, a day-on-day rise of 34,980.
UK reports 51,899 new Covid cases and further 183 deaths
The UK recorded 51,899 new Covid cases today, government figures showed, and a further 183 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.
That is compared to 54,218 infections and 199 fatalities in the 24 hours prior.
Updated
Ministers are stopping supplies of coronavirus tests to universities in England, in the first case of ending the mass distribution of free lateral flow testing kits before dropping all remaining Covid restrictions.
Universities are currently advised that students and staff on campus should take lateral flow tests (LFTs) twice a week, even if they do not have coronavirus symptoms. But the contract to supply the kits, through NHS test and trace and the UK Health Security Agency, will be terminated on Friday and not renewed.
The move comes as the cabinet is said to be split over Covid strategy and the future of testing, with the Treasury pushing to end mass testing as a cost-saving measure, while the health secretary, Sajid Javid, wants to retain some free testing to aid community surveillance of the virus.
A government spokesperson said: “No decisions have been made on the provision of free testing. Everyone can continue to get free tests, including university students and staff who can order from the government website or their local pharmacy.”
Updated
Summary
That’s all from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, on the global coronavirus blog for today as I cross over to our Ukraine coverage. Please feel free to join me there. In the meantime, here’s a recap of all the international Covid developments:
- Almost three-quarters of people in the US are now estimated to have some level of immunity to the Omicron Covid variant that created havoc after it emerged late last year just as people hoped the pandemic was finally waning.
- Government ministers in India have dismissed a recent study that suggests the country’s pandemic death toll could be six to eight times higher than the official count as “fallacious and completely inaccurate”.
- Authorities in Hong Kong said the city’s hospitals have reached 90% capacity and quarantine facilities are at their limit. To ease the strain on the city’s healthcare system, officials said they would allow some patients to be discharged sooner.
- Most of Germany’s coronavirus restrictions are to be lifted by March 20, a day some commentators have already dubbed ‘Freedom Day’ in a nod to similar moves elsewhere.
-
Portugal has also announced that it will lift its coronavirus restrictions as the number of registered new daily Covid cases dropped to around 16,500, compared with more than 50,000 last month.
- Israel’s prime minister says the country’s coronavirus vaccination “green pass” system will be suspended as new daily cases of Covid continue to decline.
- Switzerland’s president Ignazio Cassis is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19. The news comes on the day that Switzerland lifted almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions.
- The Solomon Islands is experiencing its first major community outbreak of coronavirus and its fragile healthcare system is at risk of becoming overwhelmed, the Red Cross warned today.
- Indonesia’s confirmed Covid cases since the pandemic began crossed 5 million on Thursday, the highest in Southeast Asia.
- Police in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, have warned truck drivers blockading the city’s downtown to leave or face arrest in a crackdown seeking to end a three-week-long protest over Covid restrictions.
- Japan is to ease its strict border controls from next month, media reports said, after criticism from students, workers and family members who have been in effect “locked out” of the country for up to two years.
- Moderna has applied for patents in South Africa relating to its Covid vaccine, prompting fears the company could eventually seek to prevent a new African vaccine manufacturing hub from making its own version of the mRNA shot.
- Most Covid deaths in Australia have affected migrants, with people born in the Middle East suffering the highest death rate, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
- In the UK, cabinet splits have emerged over the government’s “living with Covid” strategy, with the health secretary, Sajid Javid, expected to push to retain some free testing and community surveillance of the virus in the face of a Treasury demand to slash the budget.
Updated
Nearly three-quarters of Americans have some Covid immunity, experts say
Almost three-quarters of Americans are now estimated to have some level of immunity to the Omicron Covid variant that created havoc after it emerged late last year just as people hoped the pandemic was finally waning.
The subsequent Omicron wave that assaulted the US this winter has, however, bolstered its defenses, leaving enough protection against the coronavirus that future surges will probably require much less – if any – dramatic disruption to society, experts reckon.
Millions of individual Americans’ immune systems now recognise the virus and are primed to fight it off if they encounter Omicron, or even another variant.
About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80m confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported.
One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of Americans are, for now, enjoying protection from Omicron, the dominant variant, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March, experts say.
This will prevent or shorten new illnesses in protected people and reduce the amount of virus circulating overall, probably tamping down new waves. Hospitals will get a break from overwhelmed ICUs, experts agree.
“We have changed,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it.”
Wales’ health minister Eluned Morgan has warned that “England alone” cannot decide to end free lateral flow tests, BBC Wales reports. She said such a move for England, by UK ministers, would affect Wales, which had already paid for many tests.
Morgan said:
There’s been some very clear messages given to the UK government on this, both from us here in Wales, but also from the other devolved administrations.
There is another meeting this week to discuss this very issue, to make sure that they understand that actually, all the decisions can’t be made by England alone, that there’s an impact on us and also that actually, we’ve paid for a lot of the provisions that they are providing already.
Morgan’s comments come after recent reports that the UK government is reviewing free tests under plans to “live with Covid” in England, expected to be announced next week.
Portugal to scrap coronavirus restrictions
Elsewhere in Europe, Portugal has also announced that it will lift its coronavirus restrictions as the number of registered new daily Covid cases dropped to around 16,500, compared with more than 50,000 last month.
People will no longer have to produce a digital vaccination certification to gain entry to restaurants and other venues, and proof of a negative test to enter sports events, bars and night clubs. There will also no longer be limits on the number of people gathering in public areas.
However, face masks must still be worn indoors and a digital vaccination certificate must be shown to enter the country and during hospital and care home visits.
Cabinet spokesperson Mariana Vieira da Silva told a press conference:
This is one more step toward normal life that was snatched away almost two years ago.
Updated
Germany to lift most Covid restrictions in March
Our Berlin correspondent, Kate Connolly, reports on the German government’s decision to lift nearly all Covid restrictions next month:
Most of Germany’s coronavirus restrictions are to be lifted by March 20, a day some commentators have already dubbed ‘Freedom Day’ in a nod to similar moves elsewhere.
The Omicron wave has reached a peak and the number of cases has been going down for several days in a row, though the 7-day incidence rate per 100,000 people remains very high, at 1385.
Government leaders who met yesterday to hammer out the new framework have been quick to point out there will be conditions attached to relaxing rules over everything from gatherings to quarantines and home office working, in order to protect health care facilities and have urged caution over believing the pandemic is over.
As part of the cautionary approach the government has become famous for, but which Karl Lauterbach, the health minister has insisted had “saved lives”, a vaccine mandate has still not been excluded despite pressure from some quarters that it is no longer needed.
The chancellor Olaf Scholz urged those who had not yet been vaccinated to go ahead and do so ahead of the autumn, when experts say infection rates might spike again. And he said he continues to back plans for a mandate saying he hoped that MPs would be able to pass such legislation by the autumn.
Around 75% of Germans have been double-jabbed. However, the rate of older people who have yet to receive a jab remains too high, Lauterbach said. Germany’s death rate is also still high, he said - 261 more deaths were reported on Thursday - and the majority of deaths are of unvaccinated people.
The proposals will initially see the lifting of the number of vaccinated and recovered people who are allowed to meet, and removes the requirement of customers in non-essential shops to show proof of their vaccination or recovery status.
On 4 March, vaccinated and recovered people will no longer need to show an up to date negative test to enter restaurants, bars and hotels. While clubs can open from 4 March if the infection rate remains stable, tests for everyone except for those who are boosted, will apply.
The wearing of FFP2 medical masks in indoor spaces, especially on public transport, which is currently mandatory, is expected to be upheld.
Scholz said he rejected use of the term ‘Freedom Day’, as it “does nothing to convey the seriousness of the situation”.
Critics pointed out that there was little discussion about children in the meeting. In many parts of Germany, the testing regime for children has been increased in recent days. In some states, they have to carry out a daily lateral flow test in order to attend school. Mask-wearing also remains a requirement from primary school upwards.
Under current rules, those children who are unvaccinated would be required to quarantine if returning from a country considered to be a high-risk area. ‘High risk’ includes all countries where the incidence rate is above 100.
The government has said it is looking to update the legislation.
Updated
Afternoon summary
Hello! I’m Léonie Chao-Fong with you on the live blog today. If you’ve just joined us, here is a quick snapshot of all the most recent news stories:
- Government ministers in India have dismissed a recent study that suggests the country’s pandemic death toll could be six to eight times higher than the official count as “fallacious and completely inaccurate”.
- Authorities in Hong Kong said the city’s hospitals have reached 90% capacity and quarantine facilities are at their limit. To ease the strain on the city’s healthcare system, officials said they would allow some patients to be discharged sooner.
- Israel’s prime minister says the country’s coronavirus vaccination “green pass” system will be suspended as new daily cases of Covid continue to decline.
- Switzerland’s president Ignazio Cassis is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19. The news comes on the day that Switzerland lifted almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions.
- The Solomon Islands is experiencing its first major community outbreak of coronavirus and its fragile healthcare system is at risk of becoming overwhelmed, the Red Cross warned today.
- Indonesia’s confirmed Covid cases since the pandemic began crossed 5 million on Thursday, the highest in Southeast Asia.
- Police in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, have warned truck drivers blockading the city’s downtown to leave or face arrest in a crackdown seeking to end a three-week-long protest over Covid restrictions.
- Japan is to ease its strict border controls from next month, media reports said, after criticism from students, workers and family members who have been in effect “locked out” of the country for up to two years.
- Moderna has applied for patents in South Africa relating to its Covid vaccine, prompting fears the company could eventually seek to prevent a new African vaccine manufacturing hub from making its own version of the mRNA shot.
- Most Covid deaths in Australia have affected migrants, with people born in the Middle East suffering the highest death rate, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
- In the UK, cabinet splits have emerged over the government’s “living with Covid” strategy, with the health secretary, Sajid Javid, expected to push to retain some free testing and community surveillance of the virus in the face of a Treasury demand to slash the budget.
Updated
Switzerland's president Ignazio Cassis self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19
In a statement today, the government said Cassis’ test “came back positive and the president went into self-isolation this morning as soon as he learned of the test result”.
It goes on to say that the president, 60, “has no symptoms and is in good health”.
The news comes on the day that Switzerland lifted almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions despite high case numbers.
Cassis announced on Wednesday that it was time to “learn to live with the virus”, telling a press conference: “The light is definitely there on the horizon.”
Updated
The New York Times has published an opinion piece by Dr Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and a longtime Aids activist, headlined: “The moral danger of declaring the pandemic over too soon”.
The early 1990s were in many ways the most terrible of those first years of the Aids outbreak in America, Gonsalves writes, but the epidemic did not end with the development of a new generation of revolutionary treatments.
“Aids still lingered and flourished in America in places that were easy for people like us to ignore,” taking root in the African American and Latino communities and moving from New York City and San Francisco to the South and into rural areas.
Nearly three decades later and in the midst of a different infection, the desire to get back to normal is palpable. But it’s also clear that Covid-19 “will follow the fault lines of social and economic inequality in America” and persist in countries where people have insufficient access to vaccines.
Gonsalves writes:
The lesson of the Aids pandemic is that it’s easy to leave people behind, even if it is at the cost of our collective peril.
No one is truly safe until we all are. Yet might we act to save millions of people not just in the interest of self-preservation but also simply because it’s the right thing to do? That would be a signal that this pandemic has changed us. For good.
Updated
Indonesia's total confirmed Covid cases surpass five million
Indonesia registered 63,956 new cases today, down from 64,718 on Wednesday, but more than the previous record set in July last year that had left hospitals on the main island of Java overwhelmed.
Health officials also reported 206 deaths on Thursday, compared with more than 2,000 a day at the peak of the surge last year. Data showed the bed occupancy rate at 33%, and 25% for intensive care units.
Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said cases and deaths are expected to increase further but hospitals are unlikely to be overwhelmed again, and the country’s national Covid-19 task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said the situation remained under control.
Updated
Government ministers in India have dismissed a recent study that suggests the country’s pandemic death toll could be six to eight times higher than the official count as “fallacious and completely inaccurate”.
The claim that Covid-19 deaths have been under-reported is “without basis and devoid of justification”, the health ministry said in a statement, The Times of India reports.
The study, published on Wednesday, estimates that the Covid death toll in the country till early November was between 3.2 million and 3.7 million, compared with the official figure of 460,000. The official count has since increased to more than 510,400.
The estimates are close to the figure provided by a separate team at the University of Toronto last year, who estimated 3.2 million Covid deaths in India between 1 June 2020 and 1 July 2021.
If these latest estimates are correct, India would become the country with by far the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in the world, overtaking the United States (928,518) and Brazil (641,096). It would also take the global coronavirus death toll till last November from 7.8 million to 8.3 million.
Updated
South Africa has approved an oral antiviral drug from Merck, the country’s health regulator, SAHPRA, said today.
“The authorisation of molnupiravir for compassionate use offers further therapy in the fight against Covid-19,” SAHPRA said in a statement.
We reported yesterday that Merck’s drug, molnupiravir, may not be granted EU approval over “problematic data”. A person familiar with the approval process told the Financial Times that it was “possible” that molnupiravir would not receive approval at all.
The European Medicines Agency’s review of Merck’s pill has been delayed after trial data published in November showed the drug was significantly less effective than previously thought.
Early data from a late-stage trial suggested that the drug cut the risk of hospitalisation and death in half, but a subsequent analysis found its efficacy is at 30%.
Updated
Our health editor, Andrew Gregory, reports on a study that suggests a much lower risk of infant hospitalisation when a mother has been vaccinated against Covid:
Babies whose mothers get vaccinated against Covid-19 during pregnancy are less likely to be admitted to hospital for the disease after they are born, a study suggests.
The new findings are the first real-world evidence that pregnant women can not only protect themselves by getting vaccinated but can also protect their newborn infants.
Babies of mothers who had two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines while pregnant had a much lower risk of being hospitalised with Covid-19 in the first six months of their lives, according to the study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr Dana Meaney-Delman, the CDC’s chief of infant outcomes monitoring research and prevention branch, told a press briefing:
The data CDC is publishing today provides real-world evidence that getting a Covid-19 vaccine during pregnancy might help protect infants less than six months of age from hospitalisation due to Covid-19.
This is likely because they are born carrying their mother’s antibodies, she said.
When people receive an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine during pregnancy, their bodies build antibodies to protect against Covid-19 and these antibodies have been found in umbilical cord blood, indicating that the antibodies have transferred from the pregnant person to the developing infant.
And while we know that these antibodies cross the placenta, until this study, we have not yet had data to demonstrate whether these antibodies might provide protection for the baby against Covid-19.
Researchers from paediatric hospitals and the CDC looked at children under six months old between July 2021 and January 2022.
Updated
Let’s return to Hong Kong, where authorities say the city’s hospitals have reached 90% capacity and quarantine facilities are at their limit.
Current policy dictates that any individual who is infected with Covid-19 must be admitted to a hospital or community isolation facility. Hong Kong reported 6,116 new cases today and 24 further deaths over the past week, the Associated Press reports.
To ease the strain on the city’s healthcare system, officials said they would allow some patients to be discharged sooner. Under the new approach, people who are infected but present mild symptoms will be allowed to leave just after seven days if they test negative on the seventh day. Those who do not meet these criteria must complete the full 14-day isolation period or wait until they test negative.
The move comes amid reports of patients being treated on beds outside a hospital in the city’s working-class neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po.
From DW News’ correspondent, Phoebe Kong:
#Covid patients, mostly elderly, lying in beds in chilly weather at an outdoor makeshift area outside an overwhelmed hospital in #HongKong. Similar arrangements are seen at various public hospitals across the city. pic.twitter.com/iqAUOqya7B
— Phoebe Kong (@phoebe_kongwy) February 17, 2022
Chuang Shuk-kwan, the head of Hong Kong’s Communicable Disease Branch, said medical staff are “very unhappy” because of the number of emergency cases where patients are being held in tents.
The public hospitals are in a “crisis situation,” said Sara Ho of Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority.
If a large number of patients are waiting outdoors and if this continues, then no matter how hard our medical professionals work around the clock, there’s no way to solve this problem relying on our own effort.
The Solomon Islands is experiencing its first major community outbreak of coronavirus, and at a frightening pace.
With just 11% of its population fully vaccinated, the Pacific Island nation’s fragile healthcare system is at risk of becoming overwhelmed, the Red Cross warned today.
The nation of some 690,000 is spread across hundreds of islands, and many are served by only small clinics or have no nearby facilities at all. The capital Honiara has only one small hospital and authorities have already turned a sports building into a field hospital.
Clement Manuri, secretary general of the Solomon Islands Red Cross Society, said the virus was spreading “faster than the wind from our cities and towns to the most remote communities”.
Local authorities said last week that one in every two people in Honiara now has Covid symptoms, but with the lack of testing it is hard to say exactly how many are currently ill with the virus.
Officials have struggled with the country’s vaccine rollout programme, particularly in hard-to-reach outlying islands. Misinformation and rumours have contributed to vaccine hesitancy, and getting vaccines out to remote island communities creates a major logistical challenge.
With the current outbreak, however, people are now rushing to be vaccinated. “People are lining up all day,” Manuri told the Associated Press:
I think the fear now is if it goes to the villages it will be a very serious problem.
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 UK government may announce an end to the provision of free lateral flow tests (LFTs) next week. James Heappey, the armed forces minister, has suggested Boris Johnson may scrap free do-at-home tests when he outlines his “living with Covid” plan.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Heappey said it was time to “reconsider” whether some measures should remain in place as he argued Britons need to “change behaviours” in the face of future variants.
Asked whether free LFTs will be “taken away”, Heappey said:
I think that is the direction of travel but the prime minister will shortly announce his conclusions on that.
There are also reports that the availability of free PCR tests could also be withdrawn as part of Boris Johnson’s blueprint for the future, amid warnings that the public could be left “flying blind” on Covid if left without free testing provision.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said ending free testing would be “a mistake, [as] Covid isn’t going away”.
Starmer said on Wednesday:
It’s still important that people test if they have symptoms or if they’re going to see someone vulnerable.
If you take away free tests, that will … make it worse in the long run. It’s not good to get rid of free tests on health grounds nor is it economically the right thing to do.
Updated
Summary
Here is a brief round-up of all the day’s top Covid news stories so far:
-
Israel’s prime minister says the country’s coronavirus vaccination “green pass” system will be suspended as new daily cases of Covid continue to decline.
- Police in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, have warned truck drivers blockading city’s downtown to leave or face arrest in a crackdown seeking to end a three-week-long protest over Covid restrictions.
- The Hong Kong government plans to make up to 10,000 hotel rooms available for Covid patients as the city battles a surge in cases and local media reported the government will make testing compulsory from March.
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Japan is to ease its strict border controls from next month, media reports said on Thursday, after criticism from students, workers and family members who have been in effect “locked out” of the country for up to two years.
- Restrictions introduced to curb the spread of Omicron across Australia’s two most populous states will be eased over the next week as cases continue to drop in New South Wales and Victoria.
-
Moderna has applied for patents in South Africa relating to its Covid vaccine, prompting fears the company could eventually seek to prevent a new African vaccine manufacturing hub from making its own version of the mRNA shot.
- Most Covid deaths in Australia have affected migrants, with people born in the Middle East suffering the highest death rate, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
- In the UK, cabinet splits have emerged over the government’s “living with Covid” strategy, with Sajid Javid expected to push to retain some free testing and community surveillance of the virus in the face of a Treasury demand to slash the budget.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back tomorrow but my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest coronavirus stories from around the world. Bye for now.
Updated
Moderna has applied for patents in South Africa relating to its Covid vaccine, prompting fears that the company could eventually seek to prevent a new African vaccine manufacturing hub from making its own version of the mRNA shot.
Moderna’s spokesperson Colleen Hussey confirmed it had filed for patents “related to both the Covid vaccine and Moderna’s platform technology” in South Africa and elsewhere, after a group of 60 Africa-based charities raised concerns about them, but said the move would not block vaccine distribution in Africa.
She reiterated Moderna’s October 2020 pledge not to enforce its Covid-related patents during the coronavirus pandemic.
But South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics, which used the publicly available sequence of Moderna’s vaccine to make its own version of the vaccine, said it had received no communication from the company about the patent filings. It plans to start making and distributing across Africa in November.
Updated
Israel to scrap Covid passport system as Omicron wanes
Israel’s prime minister says the country’s coronavirus vaccination “green pass” system will be suspended as new daily cases of Covid continue to decline.
Naftali Bennett said on Thursday after meeting health officials that Israel’s Omicron wave “has been broken” and that additional reductions in coronavirus restrictions were forthcoming.
The green pass system, Israel’s digital vaccination passport, limited entry to indoor venues and large gatherings to people who had recovered from coronavirus or received at least three doses of the vaccine.
Although new infections remain high, Israel’s health ministry has reported a steady decline in serious cases of Covid since the peak of the country’s Omicron wave earlier in February.
Updated
Restrictions introduced to curb the spread of Omicron across Australia’s two most populous states will be eased over the next week as cases continue to drop in New South Wales and Victoria.
The changes, similar across both states, will begin to take effect from Friday. However, the lifting of the indoor mask mandate remains another week away.
In Victoria, from 6pm on Friday, density limits at hospitality and entertainment venues will be removed, dancefloors can reopen and QR code checkins will no longer be required in retail settings, schools and many workplaces.
In New South Wales, from 12.01am on Friday, density limits will be scrapped, QR codes will remain only for nightclubs and music festivals with more than 1,000 attenders, and singing and dancing can resume at venues other than at festivals.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, also announced that the recommendation to work from home would be lifted, returning it to the employer’s discretion. However, masks will still be required until 25 February.
“These changes are measured and proportionate to the circumstances we find ourselves in and are particularly due to the efforts of everybody across our state,” he said.
Updated
In the UK, cabinet splits have emerged over the government’s “living with Covid” strategy, with Sajid Javid expected to push to retain some free testing and community surveillance of the virus in the face of a Treasury demand to slash the budget.
Ministers including the health secretary and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, are expected to meet on Thursday to discuss the strategy before it is announced next week.
The Guardian revealed this week that Sunak’s Treasury is seeking to cut the budget for remaining Covid provisions by up to 90%, from £15bn this year to as little as £1.3bn in future years.
The plans are likely to involve an end to all free PCR testing from March except for 1.3 million of the most vulnerable people, as well as in hospitals and high-risk settings, and an end to free asymptomatic testing with lateral flow tests (LFTs). However, there is an ongoing debate over the level of funding for free LFTs for those with Covid symptoms.
Updated
Most Covid deaths in Australia have affected migrants, with people born in the Middle East suffering the highest death rate, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
Despite just 26% of Australians being born overseas, new ABS data shows there were 2.3 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 people born in Australia, compared with 6.8 for those born overseas.
Experts say Australia’s reliance on migrants to undertake essential, insecure work and a failure to engage migrant communities early in pandemic planning is a key reason for this.
The ABS data also supports previous data gathered throughout the pandemic that found deaths are higher in older populations and in people with pre-existing conditions. Almost 70% of death certificates in Australia reported pre-existing chronic conditions such as dementia and diabetes, according to the data which analysed 2,639 deaths where people died with or from Covid-19 from the start of the pandemic to 31 January 2022.
The ABS expects to receive further data for this period once it receives information from the jurisdictional registries of deaths.
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Japan is to ease its strict border controls from next month, media reports said on Thursday, after criticism from students, workers and family members who have been in effect “locked out” of the country for up to two years.
The restrictions, which limit arrivals to Japanese citizens and returning foreign residents, have affected 150,000 students, triggering accusations from politicians and business leaders that the ban is damaging the country’s economy and international image.
Japan briefly relaxed the rules last year but tightened them again in November in an attempt to prevent the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The opening up will be incremental, however, and will not apply to tourists. The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is expected to announce later on Thursday an increase in daily arrivals from 3,500 to 5,000, as well as a reduction in quarantine from a week to three days for people with a negative test result and proof they have had a booster shot.
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Police in Ottawa warn truck drivers over blockade
Police in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, have warned truck drivers blockading city’s downtown to leave or face arrest in a crackdown seeking to end a three-week-old protest over Covid restrictions.
The interim police chief Steve Bell vowed “to take back the entirety of the downtown core and every occupied space” in “coming days”, Reuters reported.
The federal public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, accused extremist groups of helping organise protests in Ottawa and at US border crossings and repeated suggestions that some actors wanted to overthrow the Liberal government.
Police handed leaflets to truckers that said “You must leave the area now. Anyone blocking streets … may be arrested.” Police also ticketed some of the hundreds of vehicles blocking Ottawa’s downtown.
At least one large rig left while some demonstrators put the leaflets into a toilet placed in front of a truck. Some truckers blew their horns in violation of a court order forbidding such behaviour.
Wendell Thorndyke, who has parked in front of parliament for 21 days, insisted he had no intention of leaving. “We think it’s cute. They turned all the cops into meter maids,” he said as he filled his engine with oil.
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Hong Kong to make up to 10,000 hotel rooms available for Covid cases
Hello, Tom Ambrose here. I’ll be bringing you the latest Covid news over the next couple of hours.
We begin with news that the Hong Kong government plans to make up to 10,000 hotel rooms available for Covid patients as the city battles a surge in cases and local media reported the government will make testing compulsory from March.
The chief executive, Carrie Lam, renewed an appeal for support from the global financial hub’s 7.5 million people, many of whom are fatigued by some of the world’s most stringent restrictions even as most other major cities adjust to living with the virus.
Daily infections have surged by more than 40 times since the start of February and authorities have shut schools, gyms cinemas and most public venues. Many office employees have reverted to working from home.
Lam’s comments, in a statement released late on Wednesday, came after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, told Hong Kong’s leaders their “overriding mission” was to stabilise and control coronavirus in the global financial hub.
“With the utmost concern and staunch support of President Xi Jinping … all in society must now join hands in riding out the fifth wave of the epidemic, displaying the Hong Kong spirit in full,” she said.
“I am optimistic that, through the joint efforts by the government and hotel sector, at least 10,000 hotel rooms could be made available.”
In a move to free up beds for isolation, Lam said she had spoken with local hotel owners and the security chief, Chris Tang, would oversee the operation of participating hotels.
Hong Kong was expected to report around 5,000 new cases on Thursday, Now TV reported, up from the previous day’s record high of 4,285 confirmed infections and an additional 7,000 preliminary positive cases.
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