Coronavirus - 29th January 2021

Summary for Friday, 29th January

• A new coronavirus vaccine named Novavax has been shown to be 89.3% effective in large-scale UK trials
  
• The Novavax jab is said to be the first vaccine to show in trials it is effective against the new virus variant found in the UK
  
• More than 60 suspected Covid outbreaks in offices were recorded in the first two weeks of the current lockdown in England, data shows
  
• AstraZeneca still lacks a “plausible explanation” for not delivering the number of doses promised, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says
  
• There are hopes some pupils in Wales could return to school after the February half term
  
• Pupils in England losing out on significant learning time due to the pandemic should be allowed to repeat a year, say education policy experts
  
• Australian Open tennis players have begun to leave hotel quarantine after completing their 14-day isolation
  
• Two-fifths of people say they are doing less exercise in this lockdown than during the first one in spring 2020, a large UK survey suggests
  

Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage. We’ll be bringing you updates about the pandemic throughout the day. But here’s a look at some of this morning’s headlines.

• Large-scale trials in the UK of a new vaccine by Novavax have shown it is 89% effective. The vaccine is also the first to demonstrate in trials that it works against the new variant that emerged in Kent
  
• The EU Medicines Agency is expected to announce whether it will approve the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine later, amid a row over supplies
  
• Data from Public Health England suggests offices have had more outbreaks that other types of workplace, with more than 60 in the first two weeks of lockdown, a BBC investigation has found
  
• Wales is set to reveal its plan for pupils to return to school later, with the First Minister Mark Drakeford expected to say some primary school pupils could return from 22 February
  
• An education think tank has called for pupils in England who have missed school to be allowed to repeat a year
  
• Volunteers with the NHS vaccination roll-out will now be given the jab themselves as a priority, because they are being considered as front line workers
  
• Tennis players competing in the Australian Open are beginning to be released from their 14-day quarantine, with about a week before the tournament begins
  
• A large UK survey suggests during the latest lockdown people have spent less time exercising, more time watching TV and playing video games, and more time working than in the first one in spring last year
  
• And the Duchess of Cambridge has said the challenges of parenting and home schooling during lockdown have left her "exhausted".
  

Latest around Europe

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says AstraZeneca is still lacking a “plausible explanation” for saying it can’t deliver the number of doses it promised. She wants to publish the contract with the British company, possibly today, and says the EU's talking to the company to agree which parts need to be blacked out.
  
• A key article of the EU treaty could be invoked today in order to place limits on vaccine exports from the EU as well as further "urgent measures". The EU’s medicines agency will also decide whether to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine today.
  
• Portugal's hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed by a surge in cases, and new restrictions limiting travel abroad will come in at midnight. Prime Minister Antonio Costa says the situation is “terrible... and we’ll face this worst moment for a few more weeks”.
  
• A fire at a hospital in the Romanian capital Bucharest has killed at least four patients and forced more than 100 others to be evacuated. Officials say the fire started before dawn at the Matei Bals hospital for infectious diseases, where people are being treated for Covid 19.
  
• New Czech measures to stop people mixing come in at midnight tonight. People will no longer be allowed to take family members on trips to rented cottages and pass them off as business trips. The wearing of higher-protection FFP2 masks is being recommended on public transport too.
  
• Germany has reported a fall in infections over the past week and says the current transmission rate is down to 94.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to health officials. However, 839 further deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
  
• The French economy dived last year with output down 8.3%. But in the final three months of 2020 the contraction was a far slower 1.3%, official figures say.
  

New vaccine ‘highly effective’ - including against UK variant

The UK has bought 60 million doses of the vaccine from US company Novavax

The UK’s medicines regulator is starting to assess a new vaccine by Novavax after trials suggest it is 89% effective - and 86% effective against the variant first discovered in Kent.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is welcoming the “good news” of the trial.
The UK has already ordered 60 million doses of the vaccine - enough for 30 million people - which will be made in Stockton-on-Tees in north-east England.
If the vaccine is approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the doses are due to be delivered in the second half of the year.
Prof Paul Heath, Novovax’s chief investigator for the phase three trials, says it is “highly effective” and it marks a “great step forward for the UK” to have several effective vaccines.
He says the South African variant is “more difficult” but says the vaccine technology used by Novavax and others can be quickly adapted to tackle new forms of the virus “at pace”.

UK began scaling up on Oxford jab in February - vaccine chief

Limited supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have sparked a row with the EU

Former chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force Kate Bingham says the “scale-up is under way” in Teeside to manufacture the Novavax jab after its successful trial.
But she tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it will “not be rolling out tomorrow” as the factory has to go through the unpredictable process of growing the mammalian cells needed for the vaccine in high volumes.
She says the UK has to be “nimble, co-operative and supportive” to secure supplies against larger players such as the US, EU and Japan.
Part of the UK’s offer is to run high quality clinical trials quickly, using an NHS database of 400,000 volunteers, she says.
It meant the UK phase three Novavax trial had recruited all its participants before the US trial had even begun - an “absolutely phenomenal” result, Bingham says.
She says the UK also offered to procure equipment and help scale up manufacturing. In the case of AstraZeneca - now the subject of an EU row over supplies - the UK started scaling up manufacture in February, even before contracts were signed, she says.
“That’s what made the difference as to why we are so far ahead on manufacturing.”
But Bingham casts doubt on the prospect of the EU blocking vaccine exports. “I just don’t believe it will ever come to it,” she says.
“We are interdependent - the idea that there should be trade barriers is not something we should be considering.”

Summary of recent events around the world so far today:

• The European Union’s contract with AstraZeneca for its Covid-19 vaccine contains binding orders, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, demanding a plausible explanation from the drugmaker for delivery hold-ups.“There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear,” she said.
  
• A fire has killed four patients in a Covid-19 hospital in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, the second such tragedy of the pandemic.
  
• Emirates has suspended all flights out of the UK, effective from 1pm Friday (GMT).
  
• Mexico has surpassed India as the country with the third highest coronavirus death toll.
  
• Novavax Inc has said its coronavirus vaccine is 89.3% effective in preventing Covid-19 in a trial conducted in the United Kingdom, and was nearly as effective in protecting against the more highly contagious variant first discovered in the UK, according to a preliminary analysis. A mid-stage trial of the vaccine in South Africa, where a troubling new variant of the virus is common, showed 60% effectiveness among people who did not have HIV.
  
• France’s health ministry has announced supplies of the Moderna vaccine expected during February will be reduced by 25%. Elsewhere, a shortage of vaccines has forced Paris and two other regions – that together account for a third of the French population – to postpone giving out some first doses.
  
• French health authorities reported 23,770 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours on Thursday, down from 26,916 on Wednesday. The country’s Covid-19 death toll rose by 344 to 74,800, the world’s seventh-highest, after an increase of 350 on Wednesday.
  
• Brazil president, Jair Bolsonaro, who says he won’t take any Covid vaccine, has vowed to quickly inoculate all Brazilians, tempering his tone after his support fell due to a patchy vaccine rollout and a brutal second wave of infections, Reuters reports.
  
• The coronavirus crisis cost the global tourism sector $1.3tn in lost revenue in 2020 as the number of people travelling plunged, the United Nations has said, calling it “the worst year in tourism history”.
  
• A man has died of his wounds in Lebanon after clashes last night between security forces and protesters angered by the combined impact of a severe economic crisis and a coronavirus lockdown.
  
• German authorities have blocked the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on people aged over 65.
  

We need vaccines in pills, patches and nasal sprays - UK vaccine chief

Drug companies need to develop easier ways of giving vaccines, such as pills, patches or sprays that people can administer themselves, the UK's former Vaccine Task Force chair also says.
In her Today programme interview, Kate Bingham raises the issue when asked about the possibility people may need regular Covid vaccinations or top-ups to stay immune.
"We need to improve the vaccine formats because, frankly, two injections delivered by healthcare professionals is not a good way of delivering vaccines," she says.
“Whether they are pills or patches or nose sprays, we need to find better ways of developing and delivering vaccines, and we’ll do that in collaboration, just as we’ve been doing that over the last few months.”

Mexico surpasses India as country with third-highest death toll in the world

Mexico on Thursday surpassed India in confirmed Covid-19 deaths, giving the Latin American country the third-highest toll worldwide, according to a Reuters tally of official data.
Mexico’s health ministry reported 18,670 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 1,506 additional fatalities, bringing the total to 1,825,519 cases and 155,145 deaths.
The latest total death toll in India, a country with a population more than 10 times that of Mexico’s 126 million inhabitants, stood at 153,847, according to a Reuters tally.
When adjusted for deaths per head of population, Mexico’s toll is lower than several other countries, including the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Italy, the United States, Peru and Spain, according to data published by Johns Hopkins University.
Mexico’s ballooning death toll underscores its struggle to contain the pandemic, which is worsening despite government restrictions on movement and commerce.
In Mexico City hospitals are nearing capacity and a shortage of oxygen tanks has complicated treatment of patients.

Phlippines set to relax travel curbs on foreigners

The Philippines will relax travel curbs on foreigners coming from more than 30 countries that have detected cases of the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus starting from next month, the presidential spokesman said on Friday.
The move covers foreigners previously allowed to enter the Philippines, including those holding work visas and spouses of Filipinos, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement, adding that tourists would remain banned.
Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte last year barred foreigners coming or transiting from countries with confirmed cases of the British coronavirus variant.

Double blow: new data breach hits stranded Australians as Emirates suspends flights out of UK

Emirates airline has suspended all flights from the UK from Friday after the British government on Thursday announced it was closing its border to passenger flights from the United Arab Emirates in an attempt to stop new Covid-19 strains entering the country.
There will be cascading effects for nationals of third countries. The number of Australians stranded overseas could rise after the Emirates suspension, effectively cutting off one of the last major routes home for Australians in Europe.
Read more here


The full details on that Emirates suspension of flights out of the UK are here.
The airline says:
As directed by the UK government, Emirates will be suspending passenger services between Dubai and all our UK points – Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Manchester, - effective 1300hrs GMT on 29 January 2021 until further notice.
Our last flights to the UK on 29 January are:

• EK 07 from Dubai to London Heathrow
  
• EK 01 from Dubai to London Heathrow
  
• EK 39 from Dubai to Birmingham
  
• EK 27 from Dubai to Glasgow
  

Our last flights from the UK on 29 January are:

• EK 08 to Dubai from London Heathrow
  
• EK 02 to Dubai from London Heathrow
  
• EK 40 to Dubai from Birmingham
  
• EK 28 to Dubai from Glasgow
  

We regret the inconvenience caused, and affected customers should contact their booking agent or Emirates call centre for rebooking.
Travellers seeking to enter the UK should refer to the UK government website for the latest information on entry requirements and isolation / quarantine arrangements on arrival.

Australian Open players begin to exit quarantine

(L-R) Serena Williams, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Naomi Osaka left quarantine on Friday

Australian Open tennis players have begun to leave hotel quarantine after completing their 14-day isolation, about a week before the event starts.
By Sunday, about 500 players will have been released from hotels in Melbourne and Adelaide, organisers say.
High-profile stars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams have been among those allowed out on Friday.
Players have quarantined because of the Australian government's Covid-19 rules for anyone entering the country.
In early January, more than 1,700 players, staff and others tied to the Grand Slam were flown into Australia on chartered flights. The tournament begins on 8 February.
Read more here.

UK will help neighbours with vaccine supply 'where we can'

Today Programme - BBC Radio 4
The UK will help neighbouring countries with vaccine supply issues "where we can", a junior government minister tells the BBC.
However, Lucy Frazer also adds the government's priority remains vaccinating its own citizens.
It comes amid the ongoing row over vaccine supply between producer AstraZeneca and the EU.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Frazer says: "We have done a great deal of work in the UK to help support the supply chain and the manufacturing base to ensure that we have sufficient supplies within this country.
"But, as I said, our priority is to ensure we vaccinate people in the UK, but of course, where we can help our friends and neighbours, we would do that."

Why is EU’s vaccine rollout so slow?

Katya Adler - Europe Editor
Has the European Commission failed EU voters in its all-for-one and one-for-all approach to procuring coronavirus vaccines? Are member countries now regretting they didn't go it alone?
As things stand, according to EU sources, the bloc looks sets to receive only a quarter of the 100 million doses it had been expecting from pharma company AstraZeneca by the end of March - putting millions of lives at risk.
Vaccine deliveries from another pharma giant, Pfizer, have also slowed down temporarily, while the firm says it's adjusting production methods.
Dwindling supplies of coronavirus vaccines have seen Madrid cancelling first dose injections for two weeks, while regional hospitals in Paris say they're in a similar position.
Read more here.

Whitty thanks Novavax trial volunteers

Following the news the Novavax vaccine has been shown to be 89.3% effective in large-scale UK trials, England's chief medical officer offers his thanks to "all trial volunteers and those who conducted the research".
Prof Chris Whitty says that, if approved by the regulator, the new jab will increase the UK's "future resilience".

  Professor Chris Whitty:
A highly effective vaccine to add to the medical countermeasures against COVID-19 trialed in the UK. If it gets MHRA approval this increases our future resilience, including against the B.1.1.7 variant. Many thanks to all trial volunteers and those who conducted the research.

NIHR Research:
BREAKING: The Novavax #COVID19vaccine, supported by the NIHR, is 89.3% effective at preventing COVID-19 and offers a high level of protection, according to research involving over 15,000 UK participants.
Read more: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-893-effective/26720

WHO investigation team to begin field trips

Stephen McDonell - BBC News, China correspondent, Wuhan


Finding the origins of the virus may take years, says the WHO team

The World Health Organization (WHO) says its team of scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus will start doing field trips from today.
After completing two weeks' quarantine, the WHO investigation scientists have already had face-to-face meetings with their Chinese counterparts.
According to the WHO, the next step is to commence field trips on Friday, which, over the coming weeks, will include a visit to the livestock market from where the first cases were reported.
They also plan to go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology; however, team members have downplayed the possibility that the coronavirus can be traced back to a lab leak.
The main work carried out by the WHO group will be to review research already carried out by Chinese scientists. They said the process to find the origins of the debilitating virus is highly complicated and may take years to complete.
• Searching for answers in Wuhan
• China's painful year of fighting the virus
• Wuhan marks its anniversary with triumph and denial

Highest weekly death toll recorded in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland had recorded its highest weekly death toll of the pandemic, according to the NI statistics agency.
The 182 lives lost in the week up to 22 January bring the total number of people for whom Covid-19 was mentioned on their death certificate to 2,311.
Daily figures reported by the NI Department of Health, which are based on a different measure of people who died within 28 days of a positive test, are at 1,716.

How the UK discovered its first case - a year ago today

A Chinese student called 111 from this hotel with fever, a dry cough and muscle pain

A year ago today, two parademics arrived at the York Staycity apartment-hotel in white hazmat suits and headed to a first-floor room. This was the moment it was confirmed that the novel coronavirus had come to the UK.
"You were hoping, in the back of your head, that it's another false alarm," says Keith Freeman, Staycity's chief operating officer. "You're also thinking 'what are the chances?'"
The family - one of whom had returned from Wuhan a week earlier, the day the city went into lockdown - were taken by paramedics discreetly out of a fire exit to the waiting ambulance and to the regional infectious diseases unit at Castle Hill Hospital, near Hull.
Dr Anda Samson, an infectious disease specialist, had been about to go to sleep when she received the news the mother and son had tested positive - the first people in the UK to do so.
She remembers thinking how well they looked, with only "a bit of a fever and some flu-like symptoms". The main task was to ensure they did not contaminate anyone else.
"We knew this was something big and it was bigger than just us, but we never really expected that it would take over the world in the way that it did," she said.
Read more about how the UK dealt with its first case.

'Deep concern' in South Africa about low vaccine response to local variant

We've been reporting on the Novavax vaccine this morning. It has been shown to be effective in large-scale UK trials, and is the first to show in trials that it is effective against the new virus variant found in the UK.
But the head of the South African government’s Covid-19 advisory panel has expressed concern at the vaccine's reduced efficacy against the new South African strain.
"It is deeply concerning that a vaccine’s efficacy can drop from 89.3% against viruses in the UK to 49.4% against viruses in South Africa," he tells the BBC's Andrew Harding.
"This risks the creation of 'two worlds', where some countries or regions will be able to achieve viral control through herd immunity, while others with variants like 501Y.V2 [the South African variant] may not be able to reach herd immunity levels through vaccine protection.
"It points to the next big scientific challenge - developing new generation vaccines with greater neutralisation breadth to get ahead of the inevitability of yet more future immune-escape coronavirus variants across the world."
In the South African part of the Novavax trial, where most of the cases were the South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among those without HIV. This offers a level of protection similar to that given by flu shots against influenza.

 

Lockdown will continue in Wales for further three weeks

Drakeford says despite the real progress made in reduction infection levels, it is too early to start lifting lockdown.
He says although hospital numbers are stabilising, the NHS is still under "significant pressure".
There are 1,300 people so ill with coronavirus that they need hospital treatment.
Wales will have to remain at alert level four for a further three weeks, he says.

Nphet rejects zero-Covid strategy as ‘impractical and risky’

Public health officials in Ireland have rejected a “zero-Covid” strategy as as impractical and risky.
In what the Irish Times described as an unusually forthright criticism, members of Ireland’s National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) said that advocates of the strategy of making “false promises” that an end to lockdown can be achieved soon through virus elimination.
“It is an utterly false promise to say we can go to Level 0 or 1 in the space of weeks or months,” Prof Philip Nolan, chair of Nphet’s epidemiological modelling advisory group, said on Thursday evening
“That won’t happen, and it would be an incredibly risky thing to do because we will inevitably be a leaky country and get reintroduction of disease, and that could easily be new variants.”
The strategy has been proposed by Irish opposition politicians, but has also been championed elsewhere.
Prominent advocates of the approach in the UK include Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University and a member of the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 Advisory Group, who has also pointed out the need for cross border co-operation were such a strategy to be pursued.

Prof. Devi Sridhar:
Ireland can’t do zero COVID without N.Ireland which can’t do it without Scotland which can’t do it without England which can’t do it without Wales. The two islands are tied together and have to cooperate to make elimination happen.

Covid-19: Two further deaths, 14 additional cases

Public Health experts also argued for the strategy in the Guardian on Thursday, listing 16 reasons why they think all countries should at least consider an elimination approach:
All countries should pursue a Covid-19 elimination strategy: here are 16 reasons why
Michael Baker and Martin McKee - Read more

Restrictions will be eased 'carefully and gradually' in Wales

More from Wales now, where Mark Drakeford says the advice for shielded group is also being extended to 31 March.
He says people in Wales will need to stay at home and work at home for a while longer.
When it comes to easing the lockdown, the government will be "careful, gradual and always with public health safety at the forefront of our decisions", he adds.

Two 'small but important' changes to restrictions in Wales

Drakeford says because of improvements in infection rates he is announcing "two very small but important changes".
He says he hopes these will "lay the foundations" for more changes to come.
From tomorrow, two people from different households will be able to exercise outdoors together.
People will also be helped if they need to change their support bubble, he says. Guidance will be published on how to do this safely.

Little change to coronavirus infections in UK, ONS figures show

Robert Cuffe - BBC head of statistics
The number of people infected with coronavirus has changed little in the week to 23 January 2021, figures from the latest Office for National Statistics infection survey suggest.
The ONS says virus levels “remain high” in England, and are level in the other nations of the UK.
According to the figures:

• In England, 1 in 55 people tested positive for the virus
  
• In Wales, 1 in 70
  
• In Scotland, 1 in 110
  
• And in Northern Ireland, 1 in 50
  

The ONS survey swabs people at random in homes (rather than hospitals, care homes or prisons) and gives a clearer picture of how many infections there are than the daily numbers of confirmed cases, which depend on people coming forward for testing.
In the last set of figures (the week ending 16 January):

• In England, 1 in 55 tested positive (and in London roughly 1 in 35)
  
• In Wales, 1 in 70
  
• InScotland, 1 in 100
  
• And in Northern Ireland, 1 in 60
  

The figures for this week also suggested that roughly the same number of people with coronavirus “decreased slightly” in England, was “levelled off” Scotland and Wales and rose in Northern Ireland compared to the week ending 2 January.

 

Scotland's Western Isles could go into lockdown

The whole of the Western Isles of Scotland could move up to the country's toughest tier of coronavirus restrictions - level four - as part of efforts to supress the spread of the virus.
Health Secretary Jean Freeman said the Scottish government would make a decision over the "next few hours" following new cases on the islands.
Barra and Vatersay are already under level four restrictions while the rest of the isles are at level three.
Among the outbreaks is one affecting Western Isles Hospital in Lewis.

Paris civil servants accused of jumping vaccine queue

Paris city hall, in the heart of the French capital

A row has erupted in Paris over a hospital union’s allegation that civil servants are getting Covid vaccinations, despite older medical staff being first in the queue.
The CGT union at l’Hôtel-Dieu hospital in central Paris says any such VIP treatment is intolerable, as vaccines are in short supply and French medics are already having their second jabs postponed.
A CGT statement quoted by Le Parisien says: “Daily, the [vaccination] centre’s teams have to refuse medics and vulnerable elderly people, as they are obliged to vaccinate staff from Paris city hall and other VIPs who are not a medical priority!”
City hall says it is now checking all the names of its staff vaccinated at the hospital.
The hospital managers admit that l’Hôtel-Dieu has a vaccination deal with city hall. But according to city hall, it only applies to civil servants doing social or medical work, who are aged 50 or above, or who have underlying health conditions.
The Paris authorities say that under the existing rules, 2,000 civil servants are eligible for the Covid jab and, by Wednesday, 475 had received it.
A top health official in the French capital, Anne Souyris, says the city’s vaccination centres are each doing just a few hundred jabs a day – yet the target for each is at least 10,000 a week.

Greece postpones school reopenings amid infections rise

Greece has postponed plans to reopen all high schools next month following a fresh rise in Covid-19 infections, saying schools in critical “red zones” would continue with distance learning.
Athens said last week it would let high schools reopen on 1 February for the first time in more than two months as pressure on its public health system had eased in the last few weeks.
“High schools in red zones will continue to teach lessons from distance,” the deputy education minister, Zeta Makri, said in an interview with state TV ERT.
Parts of northern Greece and West Attica are the regions suffering most from a fresh surge in Covid-19 cases, which have doubled since the beginning of the week.

Vietnam reports 53 more Covid-19 infections

Vietnam has reported 53 more Covid-19 infections on Friday as a new outbreak spreads to the capital Hanoi, where the ruling Communist party is holding its key five-yearly congress.
Of the new cases, 47 were detected in Hai Duong province, the epicentre of the outbreak, the government said in a statement on its website.
The remaining were found in nearby Quang Ninh, Hanoi and Bac Ninh provinces, it said, adding that 149 people have tested positive to the virus in the outbreak which began on Thursday.

Five people confirmed dead in Romanian hospital fire

The number of people confirmed to have died at a hospital in Bucharest, Romania, where Covid patients are among those being treated, has risen to five, authorities have said, Reuters reports.

The fire broke out at about 5am local time on the ground floor of the hospital and forced the evacuation of more than 100 people. Some hospital staff could be seen still wearing protective suits and face masks after rushing out.
An unspecified number of people were injured before firefighters put out the blaze, Romanian emergency services said in a preliminary report. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.
This is the third such incident in the past several months. A fire at a Covid-19 intensive care unit in north Romania last November killed 10 people and another at a psychiatric hospital in the same region the following month killed one more person.
“We found open flame at the ground floor of the building ... There was a lot of smoke, and there was a chance the fire would spread to the second floor,” said Orlando Schiopu, the fire commander at the scene.

Portugal tightens lockdown as Covid deaths surge

Ambulances with Covid patients are queuing up at Lisbon's Santa Maria hospital

Portugal has tightened its coronavirus lockdown, banning all non-essential travel abroad and hiring foreign medics, as hospitals struggle and deaths reach record highs.
The country's pandemic death rate is now the highest in the EU.
"We really have to stop the surge under way, now," said newly re-elected President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in a TV address to the nation.
Portugal reported a record 303 deaths and 16,432 new cases on Thursday.
Ambulances carrying Covid patients are queuing up at Portugal's hospitals.
The president, re-elected last Sunday, decreed that the state of emergency would be extended for two more weeks, until 14 February.
Schools were due to reopen on 5 February, but that will not happen - instead students will have to continue studying at home and online classes will begin on 8 February.
Portugal has the highest Covid-related death rate in the EU for the past 14 days: 247.5 per million inhabitants, the EU's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reports.

Brazil to investigate deaths of several indigenous children

Brazil's health ministry says officials have been deployed to an isolated region in the north of the country to investigate reports that nine indigenous children died with Covid-19 symptoms this month.
According to health workers in the Yanomami indigenous community, the children were all under five and died in two villages in the west of Roraima state, in the Amazon region near the border with Venezuela. They all experienced difficulty in breathing and a fever.
The health workers say the virus had spread widely among their community and that at least 25 other children have shown similar symptoms. They are urging the federal government to provide help and reopen medical posts in their territories which were closed two months ago.
Indigenous groups say the situation has been made worse by the presence of illegal miners in protected areas.
There are also fears that a new variant discovered in the Amazon region, believed to be more infectious, could be behind a sharp rise in cases in the area.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticised for his handling of the pandemic. The country is one of the worst hit in the world, with more than nine million confirmed cases and 221,000 deaths.
Official numbers say at least 540 indigenous people have died with Covid-19 but community leaders say that number is above 940

What's happening around the world today?

If you're just joining us, here are the latest coronavirus developments from around the world:

• Portugal has tightened its coronavirus lockdown, banning all non-essential travel abroad and hiring foreign medics, as hospitals struggle and deaths reach record highs
  
• A single dose of a vaccine developed by Janssen prevents 66% of Covid cases, the Belgian pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson has announced
  
• It comes after a separate new jab made by Novavax was shown to be 89.3% effective in large-scale UK trials
  
• The EU has published its contract with drug-maker AstraZeneca to buy the company's Covid vaccine - to try to back its argument that the company is reneging on its commitments
  
• A row has erupted in France's capital, Paris, over a hospital union’s allegation that civil servants are getting Covid vaccinations, despite older medical staff being first in the queue
  
• Brazil's health ministry says officials have been deployed to an isolated region in the north of the country to investigate reports that nine indigenous children died with Covid-19 symptoms this month
  

Covid deaths in Scotland pass 6,000

More than 6,000 people have now died after testing positive for Covid-19 in Scotland since the pandemic began.
A further 70 deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total by that measure to 6,040.
However, separate figures released by the National Records of Scotland earlier this week showed that the virus has been mentioned on 7,902 death certificates in Scotland.
A total of 177,688 people have now tested positive in Scotland.
But the number of people in hospital with the virus has been falling in recent days.

What’s all this about anal swabbing in China?

Kerry Allen - BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst


Residents line up for testing in the Daxing district of Beijing earlier this week

You might have seen reports earlier this week about China rolling out anal swabs to test people for Covid-19.
So what’s it all about? It’s currently not a widespread trend; it's only evident that this has been carried out within a small group of people in the south of the capital, Beijing.
A school in the Daxing district "conducted a variety of tests including serum antibody tests, nasal, throat, and even anal swabs for all its staff and students", the national Global Times newspaper reported.
An infectious disease expert in the city explained the tests were being conducted following studies showing “the coronavirus survives longer in the anus or excrement” than in the upper body tracts. So such tests are more accurate at detecting “silent carriers”.
State media say these tests have been “controversial among experts”, and that they are far less efficient than tests in the upper respiratory tracts. The existing tests are preferred, as they believe most people contract the virus orally.
Anal swabbing has been a major talking point on Chinese social media this week. As national broadcaster CCTV publicised these tests, and they were carried out in the Chinese capital, people have been voicing their hopes that these tests won't become nationwide.
It’s been effective in discouraging some Chinese from travelling during the largest annual migration for Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year. Negative Covid-19 tests are a requirement this year for all travellers within seven days of their journey, and some people don't want to take the risk!

EU confirms export controls on vaccines

The EU confirms it is introducing export controls on coronavirus vaccines made in the bloc, amid a row about shortfalls in delivery.
Individual member states will decide whether to allow exports of vaccines produced in their territory.
A European Commissioner said they were being introduced to enhance transparency and to ensure that all EU citizens had access to vaccines.
Read more here.

EU approves AstraZeneca vaccine

And we've also heard that Europe's medicines regulator has just approved the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18.
Read more here.

US detects first known cases of South African variant

Health officials in the state of South Carolina have identified the first two US cases of the Covid variant initially seen in South Africa.
The duo have no connection to each other and no history of travel to countries where the variant has been seen, indicating there has likely already been local spread of the strain within the US.
It means the US has now identified three coronavirus variants from abroad.
Back in December, a member of the US Army in Colorado tested positive for the UK strain of the virus.
On Monday, a Minnesota resident who had recently traveled to Brazil tested positive for the version of the virus believed to originate there.
In addition, researchers in California say large outbreaks in the state may be attributable to a homegrown strain that is spreading rapidly.
All four variants are considered to be more contagious, but there is not yet any evidence that any of them cause more severe illness.

Algeria set to get batch of Russian Covid vaccines

Algeria is set to receive its first doses of Covid-19 vaccine today and begin immunisation tomorrow, its communication minister says.
The country will receive the Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and says other doses from China and India are expected later.
The elderly and health care workers are among first recipients of the vaccines.
The immunisation is set to begin in the province of Blida.
The country's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is still in Germany where he is being treated for complications arising from his coronavirus treatment last year.
The country has recorded 106,359 cases of coronavirus including 2,877 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Algeria has said it will share Covid-19 vaccines with its neighbouring nation Tunisia that has been affected severely as well, news agencies report.

£800 house party fines set to become law in England

Fines of £800 for people caught at house parties will become law in England - at 17:00 today.
They are part of tougher measures to crack down on illegal gatherings during the pandemic.
The penalty will apply for groups of more than 15 people and will double after each offence up to a maximum of £6,400 for repeat offenders, Home Secretary Priti Patel said last week when she announced the plans.
This supersedes current rules where the fines stand at £200.
But the £10,000 penalties for unlawful groups of more than 30 people will continue to only apply to the organiser.
The £800 fine is cut to £400 if paid within 14 days.
As well as those in private dwellings, the rule also applies to similar gatherings in "educational accommodation", the documents setting out the new law say.

 

UK cases rise by 29,079

There have been a further 29,079 coronavirus cases in the UK, according to the government's daily figures.
It a slight increase on the numbers reported in Thursday's figures, 28,680, but the seven-day average for cases is down 29.5%.
The daily death figures, usually released at the same time, are not currently availalable due to a "technical issue", the Department for Health and Social Care says.

Ukraine to ban Russian vaccine

Ukraine's parliament has approved a bill that aims to speed up the approval of Covid-19 vaccines, but also bans the approval of vaccines made in Russia.
No vaccine has yet been approved in Ukraine, but officials have previously said Kyiv will not approve or use Russian vaccines.
Ties between Russia and Ukraine are strained following the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and Moscow backing separatist fighters in the east of Ukraine.
"One political force just created some hysteria over the registration of the Russian vaccine," Ukraine's Health Minister Maksym Stepanov tells a televised briefing.
"I can immediately say that no-one will register the Russian vaccine in the country," he says, adding vaccination will begin on time in February.
However, medical staff are sceptical since no official date for a first delivery has been finalised, the AFP news agency reported earlier this month.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed the delay on richer Western countries who reserved the Pfizer and Moderna jabs in bulk.
"The richest found themselves first in the global vaccine queue," he said in December.
Ukraine has so far secured eight million doses through the UN Covax mechanism which helps poorer nations with distribution, and Kyiv expects to secure five million doses of the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac once it is registered, AFP reports.
However, those quantities may not be enough for a country of more than 40 million people.

UK travellers arrive home from Dubai before new flight ban

Passengers have been speaking after rushing to return to the UK on one of the last flights back from Dubai before a new travel ban came into force at 13:00 GMT today.
The UAE, Burundi and Rwanda have been added to the "red list" of countries from where travel to the UK is banned.
The policy is aimed at stopping the spread of the South African coronavirus variant.
Arrivals into Birmingham Airport included 21-year-old student Emma Rhodes, who had been on a two-week holiday and was due to arrive back on Friday.
Asked about criticism of those who had chosen to travel abroad for non-business trips, she said: "I had personal reasons why I went, I needed some 'me' time.
"I do agree with what the government have done but I understand why people have chosen to go (abroad) as well."
Emma had to get a negative Covid-19 test to initially fly to Dubai and then paid for a test in order to come back to the UK.
She added: "I feel like now, I wouldn't advise people to go (to Dubai) because things have changed; they don't know if they'd get back, or have to pay for hotel quarantine."

Janssen vaccine results 'extremely encouraging', scientists say

Scientists are reacting to the news that the single-dose vaccine developed by Janssen is 66% effective.
In a round-up of reaction, compiled by the Science Media Centre, Prof Kevin Marsh, from the University of Oxford, hails the "extremely encouraging" results, adding: "The real headline result is that a single-shot vaccine, capable of easy long-term storage and administration provided complete protection against hospitalisation and death.
"This is important because the immediate requirement of vaccination globally is to limit deaths as quickly as possible."
Dr Michael Head, from the University of Southampton, says the jab has "advantages in terms of cost and logistics for a large-scale roll-out. It can also be quickly manufactured at large scale.”
But Dr Alexander Edwards, from the University of Reading, says that while the results are "great news", scientists are now eagerly awaiting the release of full trial data.
Scientists also picked up on the fact the vaccine was found to be less effective against moderate disease in South Africa (57%).
Dr Simon Clarke, from the University of Reading, adds: "These data provide further evidence that, in humans, the South African variant of the coronavirus may have developed partial resistance to vaccination.”

AstraZeneca to hold press conference following EU approval of jab

Vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca is due to hold a press conference at 17:15 GMT.
The pharmaceutical company says the briefing is being held following the news that the EU's drugs regulator has approved the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for people aged over 18.
But there is also an ongoing dispute over whether Astra-Zeneca is breaking its vaccine delivery commitments to the bloc.
The European Commission has published its contract with the Anglo-Swedish drug-maker, hoping to show a breach.
Those speaking at the webinar press conference include Pascal Soriot, the firm's chief executive officer, and Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine group.
We'll bring you updates from the press conference when it starts.

Scotland's Western Isles to go into lockdown

Western Isles Hospital has reached capacity amid an outbreak affecting patients and staff

The whole of the Western Isles in Scotland will move up to the highest level of lockdown restrictions - level four - as part of efforts to suppress the spread of Covid-19.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said "quick and decisive" action was needed following new cases on the islands.
Barra and Vatersay are already under level four restrictions. The rest of the isles will move up from level three at 00:01 on Saturday.
One of the outbreaks is affecting Western Isles Hospital in Lewis.
Ms Freeman said the hospital, the largest on the island, was reaching full capacity and the isles had seen six new Covid cases on Friday and nine on Thursday.

Revealed: USA ranked as having 5th worst coronavirus pandemic response in the world

Harry Brent - Irish Post
The United States is judged to have had globally the fifth worst response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report.
Australian website Lowy Institute have created their 'Covid Performance Index' to determine how each country has been managing the international crisis.
America's pandemic response is deemed to be better than just four nations; Brazil - which was ranked bottom of the list - Mexico, Colombia and Iran.
(China wasn't included because none of its testing statistics are publicly available.)

The index surveyed 98 countries, and their scores are based on a number of factors and statistics.
It takes into account:

• Confirmed cases
  
• Confirmed deaths
  
• Confirmed cases per million people
  
• Confirmed deaths per million people
  
• Confirmed cases as a proportion of tests
  
• Tests per thousand people
  

An average score from all those indicators is then calculated, which in turn points to how well or poorly each country has handled the crisis.

Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, the US, and particularly former president Donald Trump, has been widely criticised for a rather lax approach to handling Covid.
Trump often downplayed the severity of the virus, and refused to wear a face-mask in public for the first few months of the pandemic.
Over 25 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the US, while more than 430,000 people have died from it.

Elsewhere, Ireland was ranked 43rd on the list, securing a top-half finish, while the UK was ranked 66th.

At the very top of the list was New Zealand - whose domestic response to the pandemic is deemed to have been better than any other nation.
Making up the rest of the top 10 is Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka.

Lowy Institute researcher Ms Leng told The Australian: "The results basically show that neither democracies nor authoritarian states did better than the other.
"In general, countries with smaller populations, cohesive societies and capable institutions have a comparative advantage in dealing with a global crisis such as a pandemic."

To see the full list, click here.

Canadian PM announces new travel restrictions

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is cracking down on non-essential airline travel in and out of the country.
He says the country’s main airlines have agreed to cancel service to “all Caribbeans destinations and Mexico” until the end of April.
In addition, the government will mandate new testing and quarantine requirements for people returning to Canada.
“New variants of Covid-19 pose a real challenge to Canada,” says Mr Trudeau.
“That’s why we need to take extra measures.”
It comes as media reports suggest Canadians are escaping to more sunny destinations amid the chilly and virus-afflicted winter.
“With the challenges we currently face with Covid-19, both here at home and abroad, we all agree that now is just not the time to be flying," says Mr Trudeau.

'Zero Covid' approach for Ireland 'incredibly risky'

Shane Harrison - BBC NI Dublin correspondent
A senior member of the Republic of Ireland's National Public Health Emergency Team has rejected the "zero Covid" strategy advocated by opposition politicians.
Those supporting the measure point to Australia and New Zealand's approach of suppressing the virus with much stricter lockdowns and rules on inbound travel.
But Prof Philip Nolan said it was a "false promise" to say Ireland could go from the highest level of restrictions to the lowest levels "in the space of weeks or months" - adding that it "won't happen".
Prof Nolan, who chairs the government's epidemiological modelling advisory group, said it "would be an incredibly risky thing to do because we will inevitably be a leaky country and get re-introduction of the disease and that could easily be new variants".
The Irish government has always cited the open border with Northern Ireland and the lack of restriction on travel between Northern Ireland and Great Britain as reasons why a zero Covid policy would be unlikely to work.

US Navy ship at war with the virus

The US Navy's warship USS Chafee

Several sailors aboard a US Navy warship have tested positive for Covid.
The Navy Times reports that 41 crew members aboard the USS Chafee have either been infected with the virus or been in close contact with sick shipmates.
Sailors on board told The Times there has been a lack of ship-wide testing to identify more cases and a shortage of N95 masks.
Some have used a single dirty mask for several days on end, according to one petty officer, who told the paper: "We have asked for more, but they don’t have enough."
"When we kick back, we are either told to wear the dirty mask or face (non-judicial punishment)."
An official spokesman for the ship's fleet has however disputed the reporting and said: "The ship remains able to meet its mission."
The warship - currently stationed in California - typically docks in Hawaii, which has seen over 25,000 cases of the virus and over 400 deaths.

How the US mishandled evacuees from Wuhan

In late January, a cargo aircraft carrying nearly 200 Americans - the first to be evacuated from Wuhan, China - landed at a military base in California.
They were greeted by health officials who did not wear the proper protective gear and had also been advised to avoid the "bad optics" of wearing any.
As civilians disembarked and began to quarantine at the base, there were no officials leading an effort to manage "infection control and prevention measures" and little PPE on hand for the officials present.
Days later, these officials boarded commercial airlines and flew to other parts of the country.
These details - initially the subject of a whistleblower complaint against the US health department - are the findings of a federal watchdog's investigation into how the US handled its first up-close encounter with the virus.
The “most troubling finding” is that the handling of the Wuhan evacuees “increased the risk of infection transmission not only to deployed [government] personnel, but also to the American public as a whole,” wrote lead investigator Henry Kerner in a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday.
The US is now well past 25 million total cases of the virus.
Over 433,000 Americans have died.

NZ Covid worker sacked after hotel 'encounter'

The incident happened at one of New Zealand's managed isolation hotels in Auckland

An employee at a quarantine hotel in New Zealand has been sacked after what officials described as an inappropriate encounter with a person who should have been isolating.
Officials say the pair shared notes, including one written on a face mask, before spending 20 minutes in a room together.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said it was "unacceptable": "I didn't enquire specifically into the nature of the encounter, but the fact it was a 20-minute encounter, it was long enough for me to be unacceptable," he said.
He added that the staff member had brought a bottle of wine to the room.
People returning to New Zealand have to spend at least 14 days in isolation.
The country has been hailed as one of the world's leaders in containing the virus. It has recorded 25 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Earlier this week, it reported its first case of Covid-19 outside of quarantine facilities in more than two months.
Read more here.

 

UK 'carefully considering' next steps over EU vaccine controls

The UK is "carefully considering" its next steps after the EU introduced export controls on vaccines made in the bloc, amid a row about delivery shortfalls.
Under Northern Ireland's Brexit deal, all products should be exported from the EU to NI without checks or controls.
But the EU believed this could be used to circumvent export controls, with NI becoming a backdoor to the wider UK.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has spoken with European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič to express the UK’s concern over a lack of notification from the EU about its actions in relation to the NI protocol.
"Gove told him the UK would now be carefully considering next steps," Downing Street said in a statement.

NHS chief thanks staff on anniversary of first UK cases

The anniversary of the UK's first Covid cases is an "appropriate" time for people to thank all NHS workers, the head of the health service has said.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens praised treatment innovations on a visit to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary on Friday.
The hospital treated the UK's first two Covid-19 patients a year ago.
The pair, a Chinese student and his mother, were in York when they fell ill with the virus.
Sir Simon said: "These are the staff here at this hospital in Newcastle who treated the first coronavirus patients in England a year ago.
"Since then, hospitals across the country have looked after more than 300,000 severely ill coronavirus patients so I do think, on this one year anniversary, it is appropriate for the whole country to say a huge thank you to every member of staff across the health service."
You can read more from Sir Simon here.

That’s all for today

We’re ending today’s live coverage here, but we'll be back tomorrow with more updates.
Here are this evening’s headlines:

• The EU's drugs regulator has approved the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for all adults, saying it was about 60% effective in the trials on which it based its decision.
  
• And a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has proved 66% effective against Covid-19 and protects against hospitalisation and death, although there are signs the jab is less effective against the new variant spreading in South Africa.
  
• The EU is introducing export controls on vaccines made in the bloc, amid a row about delivery shortfalls.
  
• Under the new rule, vaccine firms will have to seek permission before supplying doses beyond the EU. The EU member states will be able to vet those export applications.
  
• The number of Covid infections in the UK remained virtually unchanged in the week to 23 January, Office for National Statistics figures suggest.
  
• Primary school children in Wales could begin a phased return to school just after half-term if Covid rates continue to fall, the nation’s first minister has said.
  
• And ITV show Britain's Got Talent has been postponed until next year due to concerns about Covid safety.