We are bringing today’s blog to a close now. Here is a summary of developments:
- Free Covid tests in England will end on 1 April and those who test positive will no longer legally have to isolate from this Thursday, Boris Johnson announced in his ‘living with Covid’ plan.
- Charities have warned the ending of mandatory coronavirus rules in England will cause “huge anxiety” to immunocompromised and disabled people, leaving them feeling “abandoned” and “forgotten”.
- Iran has returned 820,000 donated coronavirus vaccines, State TV reports.
- Mexico reported 98 Covid deaths and 4,832 new cases.
- Brazil reported 318 Covid-19 deaths and 37,339 new cases, the health ministry said.
- France has reported 17,195 new daily Coronavirus cases compared with 59,003 on Sunday.
- Italy reported 201 Coronavirus daily deaths and 24,408 cases.
- Trudeau said emergency powers were still needed following the blockades caused by the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’.
- The UK recorded 38,409 new Covid cases and 15 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Monday, government data showed. That is compared to 25,696 cases and 74 deaths reported on Sunday.
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Over-75s and people with suppressed immune systems in the UK are to be offered another Covid-19 booster vaccination
in the coming weeks to increase potentially waning protection, after advice from the government’s vaccines watchdog. - Germany expects vaccinations with Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine to begin across the country over the course of this week, the health ministry said.
- Britons can now only order a free box of lateral flow Covid-19 tests every 72 hours, according to the government’s website.
- South Africa’s health department said it was changing Covid vaccination rules to try to increase uptake, as inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks.
- International tourists and business travellers began arriving in Australia with few restrictions today. On Monday the country removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.
- New Zealand will lift Covid vaccine mandates and social distancing measures after the Omicron peak has passed, its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said.
- Nurseries in England continue to be severely affected by the pandemic, with the latest official data showing record numbers of early years and childcare settings reporting Covid cases at the end of last month.
- Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher al-Khasawneh, tested positive for Covid-19 during an official visit to Egypt, state news agency Petra news agency reported.
Updated
Mexico reports 98 Covid deaths and 4,832 new cases
Mexico reported 98 deaths from Covid-19 and 4,832 new infections, the health ministry said.
This brings the overall death toll to 315,786 and the number of cases to 5,418,257.
Updated
Charities warn of 'huge anxiety' over lifting of Covid restrictions in England
More reactions to the lifting of all remaining Covid restrictions in England, as reported by PA Media.
Charities have warned the ending of mandatory coronavirus rules will cause “huge anxiety” to immunocompromised and disabled people, leaving them feeling “abandoned” and “forgotten”.
The scrapping of free universal testing has been described as “not only reckless but dangerous”, with one charity saying that vulnerable people may be forced back into isolation.
People who test positive for coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate from Thursday, and free universal testing will be massively scaled back from 1 April.
Phillip Anderson, head of policy at the MS Society said:
Throughout the pandemic, universal free testing has been a crucial tool, helping many vulnerable people to continue living normal lives by providing reassurance that those they are meeting do not have Covid.
Taking this away is not only reckless but dangerous, and instead of ‘restoring freedom’ may force vulnerable people back into isolation, with no support from the government whatsoever.
If we are to truly move forward and live with Covid, the government must ensure that friends and family of vulnerable people can get free tests, and they must improve access to antiviral treatments for those at risk.
Helen Rowntree, director of research, services and engagement for Blood Cancer UK, said:
The Government is lifting restrictions without a plan to protect immunocompromised people, for whom the vaccines are proving less effective.
The prime minister may want the country to get its confidence back, but this will cause huge anxiety among immunocompromised people and leave many of them feeling abandoned.
This will lead to people finding it more difficult to live their daily lives and, sadly, some people dying from Covid.
James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said:
Disabled people having to rely on the personal choices of others and having no control over their own freedom and safety isn’t ‘living with Covid’, it’s living with fear.
The prime minister claims that we are moving towards protecting ourselves without losing our liberties, but what he fails to consider are the liberties of disabled people, Many will be feeling forgotten by this announcement.
Ending self-isolation and phasing out testing will leave some disabled people ‘rolling the dice’ every time they leave the house, go to work or meet friends.
Even going to the supermarket could be a life-threatening situation.
Free tests have meant that anyone can access them whenever they need to, allowing people to test before visiting disabled relatives in care homes or carers to test before working with disabled adults and children.
Putting a cost on Covid tests will create a barrier for some people, especially those struggling with their finances during a cost of living crisis.
Lynda Thomas, chief executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, said:
It is promising to see that extra Covid-19 jabs will be offered to people who are immunosuppressed, including many people living with cancer.
But it’s implausible that two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the Government is still making significant changes to guidance and plans which affect half a million people, without consulting with them or the organisations which represent them.
It is critical that the Government urgently identifies who will be included in the at-risk groups and who will be eligible for free testing to enable them to quickly access the antibody treatments they need. It is unfair and unacceptable to make these people wait.
Updated
Jennifer Gonzales fears that Boris Johnson’s decision to lift all remaining Covid restrictions will end in “disaster”. The 56-old-year home educator says: “Covid is still here so we should carry on self-isolating if we get it. It is too soon to be changing that now.”
Her view is typical of much of the nervousness in Horsham on Monday afternoon as the prime minister set out plans to lift restrictions. The West Sussex market town has the highest rate of Covid in England at 930 cases per 100,000 people.
Speaking in Horsham’s Swan Walk shopping mall, Gonzales says she is also worried about the end of free testing. “Even with free testing, a lot of people haven’t been using it and if you have to pay for it even fewer will. We will be mingling with people with no restrictions who may not know they’ve got it. I think that will be a disaster.”
You can read the full report here.
Charley Piringi in Honiara reports:
Frontline health workers in Solomon Islands have warned that its health system is on the brink of collapse as the country struggles to deal with a devastating outbreak of Covid-19.
A senior doctor and two nurses at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in the capital of Honiara have told of how there are no beds for Covid patients – leading to people dying on the floor of the wards – as well as a lack of facilities and staff shortages that have led to Covid-positive nurses being recalled to work and probationary nurses tending to critically ill patients solo, when they should be supervised by a more senior nurse.
People are dying on the floor, the hospital is overcrowded … Sick people and dead bodies were all over,” a senior doctor at NRH said. “The morgue is full. It’s a sad experience. I have never seen this before.”
Read more here.
Boris Johnson’s ‘living with Covid’ strategy “fails to protect those at highest risk of harm from Covid-19, and neglects some of the most vulnerable people in society”, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned.
PA Media reports that Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said:
We recognise the need, after two years of the pandemic, to begin thinking about how we adjust our lives to manage living alongside Covid-19, but as the BMA has persistently said the decision to bring forward the removal of all protective measures while cases, deaths and the number of people seriously ill remain so high is premature.
Living with Covid-19 must not mean ignoring the virus all together - which in many respects the Government’s plan in England seems to do.
On the one hand the Government says it will keep monitoring the spread of the virus, and asks individuals to take greater responsibility for their own decisions, but by removing free testing for the vast majority of the population on the other, ministers are taking away the central tool to allow both of these to happen.
Far from giving people more freedom, today’s announcement is likely to cause more uncertainty and anxiety.
Crucially, it will create a two-tier system, where those who can afford to pay for testing - and indeed to self-isolate - will do so, while others will be forced to gamble on the health of themselves and others.
After a bruising two years in which the UK failed to prove its resilience to a pandemic, the government hopes to re-cast the nation as a scientific superpower: a country that has built on the lessons of the crisis to deliver better research, more precision healthcare, and a more streamlined pathway to new drugs and vaccines.
But the government’s decision to substantially cut back on free Covid testing, as part of Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” strategy, already threatens to undermine pioneering trials and coronavirus surveillance that are the envy of other nations. Together, they are crucial for understanding how drugs keep patients out of hospital, how immunity is holding up in vulnerable care homes and hospitals and how the epidemic is unfolding around us.
Read more here.
Iran returns 820,000 donated coronavirus vaccines
Iran has returned 820,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by Poland because they were manufactured in the United States, state TV has reported.
Mohammad Hashemi, an official in the country’s Health Ministry, was quoted as saying that Poland donated about a million doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran.
However, he added that when the vaccines arrived in Iran:
...we found out that 820,000 doses of them which were imported from Poland were from the United States.
The Associated Press reports that Hashemi said:
...after coordination with the Polish ambassador to Iran, it was decided that the vaccines would be returned.
In 2020, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on all state matters, rejected any possibility of American or British vaccines entering the country, calling them “forbidden.”
Iran now only imports Western vaccines that are not produced in the US or Britain.
This reported rejection of the vaccines comes as Iran struggles with its sixth wave of coronavirus infections as authorities say the aggressive Omicron variant is now dominant in the country.
According to official figures, Iran has had more than 135,000 deaths from Covid-19 - the highest national death toll in the Middle East.
It says it has vaccinated around 90% of its population above age 18 with two shots, although only 37% of that group has had a third shot.
Updated
Brazil has reported 318 Covid-19 deaths and 37,339 new cases, the health ministry said.
This compares with 406 deaths and 40,625 cases reported on Sunday.
The South American country has now registered 28,245,551 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 644,604, according to ministry data.
Here is a round-up of some of the Covid developments around the world from Agence France-Presse:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defends his use of emergency powers to end weeks-long trucker-led protests over Covid restrictions, warning; “This state of emergency is not over.”
Hong Kong will launch a vaccine pass scheme this week, officials say, as hospitals struggle under an Omicron-fuelled outbreak and the finance hub sees record-high departures.
Novak Djokovic’s season, derailed in January when the world number one was deported from Australia before the Open, starts in Dubai.
Coronavirus has killed at least 5,884,689 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an Agence France-Presse tally, compiled from official sources on Monday.
The United States has recorded the most Covid deaths with 935,335, followed by Brazil with 644,286 and India with 512,109.
Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the World Health Organization estimates the true death toll could be two to three times higher.
France has reported 17,195 new daily Coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
This compares with 59,003 on Sunday.
Health and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic are a significant drag on the coalition vote, with one in three Australians less likely to vote for the Morrison government due to the level of public hospital funding, according to new polling.
An Essential poll, commissioned by the Australian Medical Association, found voters who had traditionally supported the Coalition on health and hospital funding were now deserting them. Support in this key area had dropped, with 34% now questioning the government’s record.
Only the Morrison government’s handling of the climate crisis and cost of living pressures registered greater levels of disapproval. Of those polled, 37% were less likely to vote for the government on climate, while 38% were not supportive of Morrison on cost of living.
You can read the full report here.
Updated
Trudeau says emergency powers are still needed
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has said emergency powers are still needed despite the progress police made in bringing an end to weeks-long protests by truckers and others angry over Canada’s Covid-19 restrictions.
Lawmakers in parliament will vote on Monday night whether to allow police to continue to use emergency powers.
Trudeau said there were some truckers just outside Ottawa that may be planning further blockades.
His public safety minister noted there was an effort to block a border crossing in British Columbia on the weekend, the Associated Press reports.
Trudeau said:
The situation is still fragile, the state of emergency is still there.
Even though the blockades are lifted across border openings right now, even though things seem to be resolving very well in Ottawa, this state of emergency is not over.
There continues to be real concerns about the coming days.
The prime minister said he was confident lawmakers would vote to continue to allow police to use the emergencies act, which allows authorities to declare certain areas as no go zones following the protests by the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’.
It also allows police to freeze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts and compels tow truck companies to tow away vehicles.
Updated
Peter Walker outlines what the end of Covid restrictions means for people in England.
France has 2,905 people in intensive care units for Covid-19 which is down by 18, Reuters reports.
Italy reports 201 coronavirus daily deaths and 24,408 cases
Italy has reported 201 Covid-19 daily deaths compared with 141 on Sunday, the health ministry has said.
A further 24,408 cases were recorded compared with 42,081 on Sunday.
Updated
More details from Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” plan which was announced today can be found over at the politics blog here.
Free Covid tests in England will end on 1 April, Boris Johnson announces
Free Covid testing will end for the general public in England from 1 April and positive cases will no longer legally have to isolate from this Thursday, Boris Johnson has announced.
Unveiling his “living with Covid” strategy, the prime minister told the House of Commons it was time for the pandemic response to be wound down.
The strategy will end the availability of free PCR and lateral flow tests for the vast majority of people, apart from some symptomatic vulnerable and very elderly people.
For more live updates from the UK, head over to our politics blog.
Bulgaria’s prime minister Kiril Petkov has announced that the mandatory coronavirus “green certificate” will no longer be required for entry to restaurants, shopping malls and other public venues from 20 March.
The health pass - a digital or paper certificate showing an individual has been vaccinated, tested negative or recently recovered from the virus - was made obligatory for most indoor spaces in the country last October. Its introduction sparked a series of protests in Bulgaria, the EU’s least vaccinated member state.
Petkov told reporters today:
We managed to pass through the Omicron wave without massive closures of schools or businesses... Our forecasts show that around March 20 it would be possible to end all restrictions in the country linked to the Green Certificate.
Bulgaria will begin to ease coronavirus restrictions from 24 February, with access to shopping centres, cinemas, gyms and bars no longer restricted to people with a green certificate.
The UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, is preparing to make a statement to MPs to unveil the government’s long-term strategy for living with the virus, in which he will announce the plan to end all Covid restrictions in England.
For more live updates from the UK, head over to our politics blog. I will continue here with global coronavirus news, and the top Covid lines that emerge in the UK.
Updated
UK reports 38,409 new Covid cases and 15 further deathss
The UK recorded 38,409 new Covid cases and 15 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Monday, government data showed.
That is compared to 25,696 cases and 74 deaths reported on Sunday.
Updated
Summary
Hello! I’m Léonie Chao-Fong with you on the live blog today. Thanks for following along for all the latest coronavirus developments. If you’ve just joined us, here is a quick snapshot of all the most recent news stories.
- Over-75s and people with suppressed immune systems in the UK are to be offered another Covid-19 booster vaccination in the coming weeks to increase potentially waning protection, after advice from the government’s vaccines watchdog.
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Germany expects vaccinations with Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine to begin across the country over the course of this week, the health ministry said. The government hopes the new protein-based Nuvaxovid will help sway a sizeable minority that remains sceptical of the novel mRNA technology used in the most commonly used vaccines.
- Britons can now only order a free box of lateral flow Covid-19 tests every 72 hours, according to the government’s website. It comes ahead of Boris Johnson’s announcement later today that all remaining Covid restrictions in England will be lifted this week as he unveils the government’s long-term strategy for living with the virus.
- South Africa’s health department says it is changing Covid vaccination rules to try to increase uptake, as inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks.
- International tourists and business travellers began arriving in Australia with few restrictions today. Australia closed its borders to tourists in March 2020 in an effort to reduce the local spread of Covid, but on Monday removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.
- New Zealand will lift Covid vaccine mandates and social distancing measures after the Omicron peak has passed, its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said on Monday.
- Nurseries in England continue to be severely affected by the pandemic, with latest official data showing record numbers of early years and childcare settings reporting Covid cases at the end of last month.
- Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher al-Khasawneh, has tested positive for Covid-19 during an official visit to Egypt, state news agency Petra news agency reports. All other official meetings have been cancelled, Jordan’s information minister said, including a scheduled meeting with Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
Updated
Older and vulnerable people in the UK to be offered fourth Covid booster jab
Over-75s and people with suppressed immune systems in the UK are to be offered another Covid-19 booster vaccination in the coming weeks to increase potentially waning protection, after advice from the government’s vaccines watchdog.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has formally advised a rollout of an additional booster this spring for groups of people seen as most vulnerable to severe coronavirus.
The recommendation is that additional boosters should be offered to people aged 75 or over, and residents in older people’s care homes, and anyone aged 12 or above who is immunosuppressed.
The announcement came just before Boris Johnson’s formal unveiling of plans to end all domestic coronavirus restrictions across England including mandatory self-isolation.
A decision on the precise plan was delayed at the last minute amid tensions between the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, over funds for free Covid-19 testing.
Groups seen as being at the greatest risk of severe coronavirus are also likely to be offered a further booster jab this autumn, before an expected rise in infections over winter, the JCVI added.
Updated
As Hong Kong battles its worst coronavirus outbreak, pleas for the city’s large proportion of unvaccinated older population to get their jabs have been issued by authorities, medical experts and concerned family members.
While younger Hongkongers have largely embraced the vaccination programme, the majority of residents aged 80 and above are resisting, South China Morning Post reports.
Forty per cent of Hong Kong residents aged 70 and above remain unvaccinated, even though jabs became available to them last February. Many of those have cited concerns about the safety of the shots or lack of trust in the government.
Sit Pui-yu, 72, said he will not take a Covid-19 vaccine even if his refusal would mean he was no longer able to access restaurants or markets. He told the paper:
The government has never truly taken consideration of the elderly in every single measure and policy it has carried out since the start of the pandemic.
I have lost trust in the government, so I have no confidence in its vaccination programme.
I have banged on about it endlessly, but the age distribution of Hong Kong's vaccination (now covering 80% of the population) would barely be worse if you were deliberately designing it to cause the largest amount of serious illness and death. https://t.co/LJaryL3nt7 pic.twitter.com/BNwz6BITeF
— Mike Bird (@Birdyword) February 21, 2022
Hong Kong reported 7,533 new Covid cases on Monday, a record high, and a further 13 deaths including a 11-month-old child.
Updated
The provision of free lateral flow tests in the UK has been rationed ahead of the announcement of the government’s “living with Covid” plan, according to reports.
Members of the public can now only order a free box of lateral flow Covid-19 tests every 72 hours, according to the government’s website.
On Sunday, the website allowed people to order a box of tests every 24 hours. It has now been updated to say that people can order “one pack every 3 days”.
The update comes ahead of Boris Johnson’s announcement to scrap most PCR testing and restrict free lateral flows, probably to older age groups.
Updated
Here’s the full story on how tensions between the UK’s chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, have led to delays over signing off the government’s strategy to end all remaining Covid regulations in England, by my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Rowena Mason:
Plans to sign off the government’s strategy to end all remaining Covid regulations in England have been delayed at the last minute amid tensions between the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, over funds for free Covid testing.
Cabinet ministers were told of the delay as they arrived at No 10 on Monday morning amid the final wrangling over the “living with Covid” strategy expected to be announced to the House of Commons in the afternoon.
A government source said there was still no agreement between the Treasury and the Department of Health and Social Care on the extent of the testing cutbacks, although another source at the DHSC insisted Javid had accepted the fiscal position that most testing must end.
The source denied Javid was seeking new money and said that instead he wanted to “reprioritise” his existing budgets by moving funds from other areas within the department to cover the additional testing.
“DHSC are absolutely not asking for additional funding, they want to reprioritise within the existing budget,” the source said.
Last week, the Guardian reported that the Treasury was driving efforts to reduce costs from an estimated annual £15bn, with an opening suggestion of cutting the budget by more than 90%, to £1.3bn.
Javid is said to want to fund enough testing to ensure the survival of the Panoramic antiviral drugs trial, which officials believe would need free lateral flow tests for over-50s and vulnerable adults under 50 until at least September.
The Scottish unit of French vaccine-maker Valneva has received a grant of up to £20m to partly fund the research and development (R&D) of manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine VLA2001, the company said.
Valneva will receive the funds from Scotland’s national economic development agency Scottish Enterprise. The first grant of up to £12.5m will support the company’s efforts on its inactivated, whole virus coronavirus vaccine candidate. The second round of up to £7.5m will be used for Valneva’s other vaccines.
The announcement comes after the UK government decided to scrap its agreement to buy 100m doses of Valneva’s Covid vaccine, amid allegations of a breach of agreement that the company has strenuously denied.
Updated
“Rogue” antibodies that attack the lining of blood vessels may contribute to deadly blood-clotting in some coronavirus patients, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Michigan studied the blood samples of nearly 250 patients hospitalised for Covid-19. They found higher-than-expected levels of “antiphospholipid autoantibodies”, which can trigger blood clots in the arteries and veins of patients with autoimmune disorders, in about half of the patients.
While antibodies typically help the body neutralise infections, autoantibodies are antibodies produced by the immune system that mistakenly target and sometimes damage the body’s own systems and organs. In patients with autoimmune disorders, they can trigger blood clots in the arteries and veins.
In Covid-19 patients, these clots can block vessels, triggering strokes, causing long-term damage to organs and lung problems that impair patients’ ability to breathe.
More research is indeed but researchers say the study may lead to screening and treatment for Covid-19 patients at greatest risk of blood clots, both during the initial infection and later, among those who suffer from long Covid symptoms.
We’re gonna have to individualise treatment for long Covid patients, Dr Jason Knight, a rheumatologist at Michigan Medicine and co-author of the study, said:
There’s not gonna be a long COVID pill that is universally successful.
Updated
Our education correspondent, Sally Weale, looks at Covid-19 figures in nurseries in England:
Nurseries in England continue to be severely affected by the pandemic, with latest official data showing record numbers of early years and childcare settings reporting Covid cases at the end of last month.
As the government prepared to lift remaining Covid restrictions, government statistics published on Monday revealed more than 5,000 settings reported one or more cases of Covid in the week beginning the 24 January.
The total was slightly lower a week later, dropping from 5,189 to 4,559, but the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said the figures showed staff and children were still catching and becoming ill with Covid.
Purnima Tanuku, NDNA chief executive, said NDNA survey data for the second week in February showed absence rates for staff and children beginning to drop. “This will be a major relief for nurseries and parents but with absence still around 9% this shows the impact of the pandemic is not completely over for settings or children.”
It was also confirmed by Ofsted that as of today nurseries and childminders would no longer be required to report to the watchdog if there was a confirmed case of Covid. “While settings will be relieved that the administrative burden of reporting cases will be eased … it shows that staff and children are still catching and being ill with Covid-19,” said Tanuku.
“Nurseries are still telling us that Covid is impacting on how they staff and resource their setting and this must be taken into account by Ofsted inspectors when any visits take place; either by allowing deferrals or taking into account the pressures that settings and staff are under.”
Updated
The Queen is expected to speak by telephone with Boris Johnson and conduct virtual audiences this week, a day after testing positive for coronavirus.
The 95-year-old monarch, who is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms, is self-isolating at Windsor Castle where she expects to be at her desk continuing “light duties” over the coming days, Buckingham Palace has said.
She is due to speak to the prime minister on Wednesday for her regular weekly update and is planning to go ahead with other virtual diplomatic audiences scheduled with foreign ambassadors, the palace said.
Updated
Here’s an interesting thread from Dr Adam Kucharski, an associate professor in infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on where the pandemic goes from here.
A post-infection so-called “honeymoon period” can follow after an epidemic has peaked and begins to decline, he writes. As immunity accumulates in a population, we may end up in a situation where R (the effective reproduction number) drops considerably below one.
When R drops below 1, the epidemic doesn't magically end - it will continue to cause infections (and hence immunity) as it declines, meaning that the epidemic 'overshoots' the level of immunity required to get R below 1, potentially by quite a lot. 3/
— Adam Kucharski (@AdamJKucharski) February 20, 2022
But if R has dropped considerably below 1 during an epidemic, it will take some time for susceptibility to build up to sufficient levels to see a resurgence. Can therefore see a 'honeymoon period' where infection remains at lower levels for a while first. Here's a cartoon: 7/ pic.twitter.com/l51DCXnOxz
— Adam Kucharski (@AdamJKucharski) February 20, 2022
Several European countries may well have had a COVID post-vaccination honeymoon period against Alpha in early summer 2021, with vaccination + post-infection immunity driving down R. But we never saw subsequent effect of any waning, because Delta came along first. 11/
— Adam Kucharski (@AdamJKucharski) February 20, 2022
In short, we shouldn’t assume that post-Omicron levels of infection are where things will stay for good, he writes.
Updated
In the UK, a cabinet meeting where the prime minister’s plan to lift all remaining domestic Covid restrictions in England was set to be rubber-stamped has been delayed, PA news agency reports.
The meeting, due to take place on Monday morning, has reportedly been shifted to the afternoon while Boris Johnson receives more briefings. The plan is still expected to be signed off, the agency understands.
As part of Johnson’s “Living with Covid” plan, the legal requirement for anyone with Covid to isolate will be ditched a month earlier than planned. Free PCR and lateral flow tests for all will be axed to rein in public spending, which could be a point of contention between senior ministers. The tests will reportedly be kept for the over-80s.
On Sunday, the prime minister told the BBC the UK spent two billion on testing in January alone and that such high expenditure did not need to continue.
The national contact tracing service is also expected to be wound down and schoolchildren will no longer be told to get tested twice a week.
Germany to begin roll-out of Novavax's Covid-19 jab this week
Our Berlin bureau chief, Philip Oltermann, reports on the rollout of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine in Germany:
Germany will offer its population a new protein-based Covid-19 vaccine comparable to conventional flu jabs this week, in the hope of swaying a sizeable minority that remains sceptical of the novel mRNA technology used in the most commonly used vaccines.
About 1.4m doses of the Nuvaxovid vaccine developed by the US biotech company Novavax are to arrive in Germany this week, the country’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, confirmed last Friday. A further 1m doses are to arrive the week after, with the German government’s total order for the year 2022 amounting to 34m doses.
Novavax’s product has until now only been used in Indonesia and the Philippines, but was permitted for use in the EU last December. It is still awaiting authorisation in the US, as some concerns about the company’s production capacity persist.
Unlike the novel mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna or viral vector made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, Nuvaxovid is a protein subunit vaccine. It contains a non-infectious component on the surface of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which induces a protective immune response when the body’s immune cells come into contact with it.
Novavax announced last Junethat its vaccine had proven more than 90% effective against symptomatic infections with the Alpha variant, in trials including nearly 30,000 volunteers in the US and Mexico.
The company says its product is similarly effective against the Delta and Omicron variants, especially after a booster shot administered six months after the second jab. Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute notes that the data proving the vaccine’s efficacy against more infectious variants remains limited.
Surveys in Germany suggest a considerable interest in the Novavax jab among the 19.8 million people in the country who have so far declined to take a jab against Covid-19. Out of 4,000 unvaccinated hospital workers surveyed in Berlin, 1,800 expressed an interest in the protein-based vaccine.
In the northern states of Lower Saxony, the health ministry said 6,000 people had put their name on a waiting list for Nuvaxovid by early February.
Some scientists question whether the new vaccine will prove a game changer in a country whose overall vaccination rate has been flatlining around 75% for months. Lars Korn, co-author of a current survey of anti-vaxxer attitudes conducted by the University of Erfurt, told public broadcaster ZDF that two-thirds of respondents would continue to completely reject any form of vaccination.
Updated
Our Berlin correspondent, Kate Connolly, reports on how recent analysis of autopsies in Germany show how most people whose deaths were attributed to Covid-19 died of the virus.
Analysis of autopsies in Germany carried out on Covid-19 patients has shown that 86% of people died as a direct result of the virus, rather than from other causes.
Data from 1,129 autopsies on Germany’s DeRegCOVID register which was started in April 2020, have come to the definitive conclusion that most people whose deaths were attributed to Covid – even those of a higher age who would be more likely to have other conditions – died of Covid rather than with Covid.
The data has been collected from 29 different locations, most of them university clinics or hospitals, throughout Germany, of deaths that occurred up to October 2021.
The number of men who died considerably outweighed the number of women by 1.8 to 1. Among men, the majority were aged 65-69 and 80-84, while the majority of women who died were over 85.
Pathologists said they hoped the analysis would help them to gain more information about the illnesses’ development.
The evidence shows that during the first two waves of the virus, half of the patients who died, according to those who underwent a postmortem did so within two weeks of their first symptoms appearing. In the third wave, this had reduced to 41%.
The main cause of death was irreversible damage to lungs due to acute adult respiratory distress syndrome (DAD/ARDS) followed by multiple organ failure. DAD/ARDS was frequently responsible for those deaths which occurred in the first two weeks, while multiple organ failure was more likely to occur in those patients who died from two to five weeks after their first symptoms occurred.
The third most likely cause of death was bacterial or fungal infections in the lungs. In the remaining 14% of patients, Covid 19 accompanied other conditions.
However, the researchers stressed their results were a conservative estimate. The fatal heart attacks and heart failure that killed patients with coronavirus may well have been a direct result of the infection, they said.
In a statement, Saskia von Stillfried from the Institute for Pathology at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen said:
The results confirm the evaluations on death certificates that majority of the Covid 19 patients died of and not with Covid 19.
She said this was in line with data collected by the government disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute.
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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 some breaking news. Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher al-Khasawneh, has tested positive for Covid-19 during an official visit to Egypt, state news agency Petra news agency reports.
The agency quotes Jordan’s information minister as saying coronavirus tests after a meeting between Khasawneh and his Egyptian counterpart proved positive.
All other official meetings have been cancelled, the minister added, including a scheduled meeting with Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
The prime minister will isolate at home after returning to Jordan, the report said.
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Summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s top Covid news stories so far:
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South Africa’s health department says it is changing Covid vaccination rules to try to increase uptake, as inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks.
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Hong Kong confirmed on Monday that its vaccine bubble will be expanded to include shopping malls and supermarkets, but said exemptions and random inspections would happen at some sites.
- International tourists and business travellers began arriving in Australia with few restrictions today.Australia closed its borders to tourists in March 2020 in a bid to reduce the local spread of Covid, but on Monday removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.
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New Zealand will lift Covid vaccine mandates and social distancing measures after the Omicron peak has passed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
- In the UK, anti-vaxxers will be banned from “harmful and disruptive” protests outside schools and vaccination clinics after Priti Patel accepted an amendment to a bill due to be debated in parliament this week.
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Boris Johnson will proclaim that the lifting of all remaining Covid restrictions in England this week marks a “moment of pride” when he unveils the government’s long-term strategy for living with the virus, despite concerns from scientists, health experts and Labour that the move is premature.
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Companies will have to pay for testing and decide policies on self-isolation for staff, a business minister has said in advance of Boris Johnson’s formal announcement that all remaining domestic Covid restrictions in England will end.
- A vast majority of Japanese people think the rollout of booster shots against Covid is too slow and give mixed reviews to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s handling of the pandemic, polls show.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose. I’ll be back tomorrow but, for now, I’m handing over to my colleague, Léonie Chao-Fong, who will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest coronavirus news from around the world.
South Africa’s health department says it is changing Covid vaccination rules to try to increase uptake, as inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks.
The government is shortening the interval between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine from 42 to 21 days and will allow people who have received two doses to get a booster three months after their second shot as opposed to six months previously, Reuters reported.
It will also offer the option of “mixing and matching” booster jabs, with adults who were given one dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine being offered either a J&J or Pfizer booster two months after their J&J shot. Adults who received two doses of Pfizer will be allowed J&J as well as Pfizer as a third dose.
“The decision regarding which vaccine to administer as a booster should be guided by vaccine availability,” the health department said, adding that if both vaccines were available at a vaccination site, then using the same vaccine was preferred.
An exception could be made if somebody requests a different booster dose or has a history of experiencing an adverse event following immunisation.
South Africa has recorded the most coronavirus infections and deaths on the African continent.
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Tourists and business travellers arriving back in Australia - AP
International tourists and business travellers began arriving in Australia with few restrictions today.
Australia closed its borders to tourists in March 2020 in a bid to reduce the local spread of Covid, but on Monday removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.
Tearful British tourist Sue Witton hugged her adult son Simon Witton when he greeted her at Melbourne’s airport, the Associated Press reported.
“Seven hundred and twenty-four (days) apart and he’s my only son, and I’m alone, so this means the world to me,” she told reporters.
Travellers were greeted at Sydney’s airport by jubilant well-wishers waving toy koalas and favourite Australian foods including Tim Tams chocolate cookies and jars of Vegemite spread.
Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan was on hand to welcome the first arrivals on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles which landed at 6.20am local time.
“I think there’ll be a very strong rebound in our tourism market. Our wonderful experiences haven’t gone away,” Tehan said.
Danielle Vogl, who lives in Canberra, and her Florida-based partner Eric Lochner have been separated since October 2019 by the travel restrictions.
She said she burst into tears when she heard about the lifting of the restrictions, which will allow them to reunite in April.
“I actually woke him up to tell him, because I thought it was big enough news to do that,” Vogl told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“He couldn’t believe it. He was like ‘Are you sure, is this true?’ and I’m like ‘Yes, it’s happening. This is over now; we can be together again’,” she added.
Lochner was not eligible for an exemption from the travel ban because the couple weren’t married or living together.
“It’s been a very long and very cruel process for us,” Vogl said.
Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison said she expected tourist numbers would take two years to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.
“This is a really great start,” Harrison said. “This is what the industry had been asking us for, you know, just give us our international guests back and we will take it from there.”
Companies will have to pay for testing and decide policies on self-isolation for staff, a business minister has said in advance of Boris Johnson’s formal announcement that all remaining domestic Covid restrictions in England will end.
Ahead of the prime minister’s scheduled statement on the government’s long-term strategy for living with coronavirus, Paul Scully said free testing would be phased out, arguing the money spent on it could be used better elsewhere.
“We don’t test for flu, we don’t test for other diseases, and if the variants continue to be as mild as Omicron then there’s a question mark as to whether people will go through that regular testing anyway,” Scully told Times Radio.
“But if employers want to be paying (for) tests and continuing a testing regime within their workplace, then that will be for them to pay at that point,” he said, adding that while the impact on the virus on clinically vulnerable people was a concern, “we’re not going to be having a testing regime for the next 50 years”.
Under a plan being rubber-stamped by the cabinet on Monday morning, and outlined by Johnson in a Commons statement and subsequent press conference, the legal requirement for anyone with Covid to isolate will be ditched a month earlier than planned.
Hong Kong confirmed on Monday that its vaccine bubble will be expanded to include shopping malls and supermarkets, but said exemptions and random inspections would happen at some sites.
The government will launch a controversial “vaccine passport” on Thursday that allows only inoculated people to enter places such as supermarkets and clubhouses, a move some critics say raises privacy concerns in the Asian financial hub.
The plan requires those aged 12 and above, except for those with medical exemptions, to have taken at least one dose of a vaccine in order to enter the specified premises.
The final stage of the scheme, by the end of June, will see those older than 18 required to have had three vaccine doses, authorities said.
Amid concerns over how the system will be policed and implemented, authorities said certain exemptions would be granted those who must pass through shopping malls during commutes and also for those ordering takeaway food.
Random inspections will also be performed at some venues, amid limited resources.
In the UK, anti-vaxxers will be banned from “harmful and disruptive” protests outside schools and vaccination clinics after Priti Patel accepted an amendment to a bill due to be debated in parliament this week.
An opposition motion to grant councils the power to take tougher action to dispel anti-vaxx campaigners was passed by peers in the House of Lords last month. On Monday, the home secretary signalled that she would not seek to strike out the amendment when the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill returns to the Commons this week.
The bill is undergoing “ping-pong”, whereby changes to the proposed legislation are debated by each house until MPs and peers come to an agreement.
Patel will also table her own amendment, requiring a report on the nature and prevalence of “spiking” to be produced by the government. The practice has been a particular concern of ministers in light of warnings that drink and drug spiking have reached “epidemic” levels in the UK. Recent evidence submitted to the home affairs select committee showed that up to 15% of women and 7% of men had been spiked with alcohol or drugs.
An amendment by Lord Coaker, a Labour peer, requires a similar report and has already been passed, but Patel will not accept it because she says it is too narrow, in that it only covers incidents related to sexual assault.
Hong Kong was set to report 7,533 new Covid cases on Monday, a new record high, broadcaster TVB reported.
It comes as the city battles to contain a surge in cases that has overwhelmed its healthcare facilities.
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A vast majority of Japanese people think the rollout of booster shots against Covid is too slow and give mixed reviews to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s handling of the pandemic, polls show.
Anger over the Japanese government’s handling of the pandemic helped sink the administration of Kishida predecessor Yoshihide Suga, and Kishida faces a crucial election for the upper house of parliament in July, Reuters reported.
About 73% of respondents to a Kyodo news agency opinion poll over the weekend felt Japan’s rollout of booster shots has been far two slow, though 54.1% approved of how it had tackled coronavirus overall.
As of Friday, only some 12% of the population had received booster shots even though nearly 30% of the country is 65 or older and at greater risk without the protection of the booster, even with Kishida repeatedly promising to accelerate the programme.
Kishida told a news conference last week that he has yet to receive the booster, but should get one early in March.
Nearly half of respondents to the two-day telephone survey said it was “too early” to loosen border controls, which have among been the strictest among wealthy nations but were slammed by businesses and educators, a move set to take place in stages from 1 March.
About 45.7% said the decision, which will open borders to foreigners except for tourists, came too early, Kyodo said, while 34.9% said it was “appropriate” and 16.3% saw it as too late.
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Johnson to say ending Covid rules in England is a ‘moment of pride’
Boris Johnson will proclaim that the lifting of all remaining Covid restrictions in England this week marks a “moment of pride” when he unveils the government’s long-term strategy for living with the virus, despite concerns from scientists, health experts and Labour that the move is premature.
The legal requirement for anyone with Covid to isolate will be ditched a month earlier than planned, while free PCR and lateral flow tests for everyone will be axed to rein in public spending and attempt to restore people’s confidence that life can return to normality. The tests will reportedly be kept for the over-80s.
The national contact tracing service is expected to be wound down and schoolchildren will no longer be told to get tested twice a week.
Fresh guidance is expected to be issued, similar to that already published about seasonal flu, designed to let individuals make their own judgments about the risk of catching or transmitting Covid.
Following meetings over the weekend the cabinet will be assembled to rubber stamp the plans on Monday before a Commons statement by the prime minister and a press conference in the evening, likely to feature the government’s two leading pandemic advisers, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance.
The changes will be announced on Monday and start to come into effect from later in the week.
Hello and welcome to the global Covid live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest coronavirus headlines from around the world over the next couple of hours.
We start with the news that New Zealand will lift Covid vaccine mandates and social distancing measures after the Omicron peak has passed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
The announcement comes as protesters occupying the parliament grounds again clashed with police.
Inspired by truckers’ demonstrations in Canada, thousands of protesters have blocked streets near the parliament in the capital Wellington for two weeks with trucks, cars and motorcycles, piling pressure on the government to scrap vaccine mandates.
Ardern refused to set a hard date, but said there would be a narrowing of vaccine requirements after Omicron reaches a peak, which is expected in mid to late March.
“We all want to go back to the way life was. And we will, I suspect sooner than you think,” Ardern said at a weekly news conference.
“But when that happens, it will be because easing restrictions won’t compromise the lives of thousands of people â not because you demanded it,” she said, addressing protesters.
The demonstrations began as a stand against the vaccine mandates but have since spread to become a wider movement against Ardern and her government.
On Monday, eight people were arrested for disorderly behaviour and obstruction, with human waste thrown over some police officers.
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