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    Coronavirus - 10th February

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    • Post n°1

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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 11:38

    Summary for Wednesday, 10th February

    • Covid-19 doesn't discriminate and does not care about people's skin colour, England's deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam says
    • South African is not "our major threat now" - the Kent variant is "going to kill people in the next one to two months in the UK", says Van-Tam
    • No vaccine is 100% effective, Van-Tam says, adding the government has done a great deal to make sure the vaccines are safe
    • It is likely vaccines will be given annually to match variants, he adds
    • Ten-year jail sentences for travellers who try to conceal journeys to high-risk countries have been branded "extraordinarily high"
    • Former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption and former attorney general Dominic Grieve both criticised the measure, announced on Tuesday by Health Secretary Matt Hancock
    • Care home staff were without personal protective equipment early in the pandemic because the government prioritised the NHS, MPs have said
    • Beer and pub sector leaders are pressing the government to give them a reopening date and a "roadmap to recovery"
    • A French nun who is Europe's oldest person has survived Covid-19, just days before her 117th birthday


    Good morning and welcome to our coronavirus live page.
    Here is a round-up of the main stories this morning:

    • Ten-year jail sentences for travellers who try to conceal journeys to high-risk countries have been branded “entirely disproportionate”. Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the measure on Tuesday as part of a raft of stricter travel rules. But former attorney general Dominic Grieve said the extent of the punishment was a “mistake” and courts would not impose it
    • Care home staff were left without personal protective equipment early in the pandemic because the government prioritised the NHS, MPs have said. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said the adult social care sector received 10% of the PPE needed
    • Beer and pub sector leaders are pressing the government to give them a reopening date. The industry is desperate to get back to business after repeated warnings many pubs will not survive
    • The number of people scammed out of money by someone pretending to want a relationship has been on the rise during lockdown. There was a 20% increase in bank transfer fraud linked to romance scams in 2020 compared with 2019, according to UK Finance
    • A French nun who is Europe's oldest person has survived Covid-19, just days before her 117th birthday. Lucile Randon, who took the name of Sister Andre in 1944, tested positive for coronavirus on 16 January but didn't develop any symptoms.


    Latest across Europe


    • The Greek capital Athens is to go into hard lockdown tomorrow, with most shops shut and all schooling going online. Kindergartens and primary and secondary schools only reopened a couple of weeks ago, but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says higher hospital admissions are putting a strain on the Greek health service.
    • Spain has recorded another 766 deaths in 24 hours – the highest number since April – and the number of infections since the pandemic began has passed three million. The spike has been blamed on restrictions being eased over Christmas, but the weekly incidence rate has started to fall and more than two million Spaniards have been vaccinated. Key workers will start getting the Oxford-AstraZeneca drug, which Spain won’t be giving to over-55s, even though it’s been approved by the EU’s medical agency.
    • German state leaders get together on video with Chancellor Angela Merkel with full expectation that they’ll prolong the country’s lockdown beyond 14 February. Infections are down to just over 8,000 a day but Baden-Württemberg state premier Winfried Kretschmann says no-one should expect “an orgy of opening”. Intensive care expert Gernot Marx says schools and daycare centres should remain shut because he says they’re a big channel for spreading infection.
    • As soon as Italy gets a new government it’ll have to decide whether to extend a ban on travel between different regions, in place since December. Ministers will also have to decide whether to allow ski resorts to open. The regional travel ban expires on Monday and the man expected to lead the government, Mario Draghi, may not have been given parliamentary backing in time.


    People need to adhere to quarantine hotel policy, Shapps says

    Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a raft of stricter travel rules for UK and Irish residents arriving in England.
    Travellers who lie on their passenger locator forms about visiting a red list country face a fine of £10,000 or up to 10 years in jail.
    And those who are required to stay in quarantine hotels will be charged £1,750 for their stay, it was confirmed.
    Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is asked on BBC Breakfast if a woman who has travelled to Portugal following the death of her father will still be faced with a bill.
    Mr Shapps says: "If she doesn't come back before Monday, that is right.
    "You do get these cases, which we have seen throughout the whole of the coronavirus, where sadly families throughout the UK have been impacted by this and sometimes haven't been able to say goodbye to loved ones.
    "If there are harsher cases, people should of course contact the embassies and posts in various different countries.
    "The answer is 100% people will need to adhere to going into these managed quarantine hotels after Monday.
    "And we do plead with people, bear in mind, the law is that you cannot travel, people shouldn't be travelling for leisure purposes, holidays and that sort of thing, domestically or internationally."
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 11:42

    Ten-year jail terms for rule-breakers 'entirely disproportionate'

    There has been criticism of the government’s announcement that people who conceal journeys to Covid hotspots face jail sentences of up to 10 years.
    Former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption and former attorney general Dominic Grieve have both criticised the measure, announced on Tuesday by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
    Sumption told the Daily Telegraph it should not compare to sentences for violent or sexual crimes, while Grieve told the paper it was “extraordinarily high”.
    Grieve has been on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning to discuss the measure.
    He says: “Ten years is entirely disproportionate and I was trying to work out why this figure had been plucked out of the air. My impression is that it is suggesting that individuals who do this would be charged with forgery.
    “But this is a regulatory offence and no regulatory offence I can think of this type attracts a 10-year sentence. The reality is that nobody would get such a sentence anyway, the courts are simply not going to impose it.
    "To suggest that a 10-year sentence is going to result from a false declaration on a form on landing at Heathrow Airport is, I think, a mistake because it's exaggerated, it's not going to happen.
    "It's a mistake of the government to suggest something which is not going to happen."

    Shapps defends 10-year jail terms for travel-rule breakers

    Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is defending plans for jail sentences of up to 10 years for travellers arriving into England who lie on their passenger locator forms about visiting 33 so-called red list countries.
    Former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption and former attorney general Dominic Grieve have both criticised the measure.
    Shapps says it is a tariff and it is not necessarily how long someone would go to prison for.
    "But I do think it is serious if people put others in danger by deliberately misleading by saying you weren't in Brazil or South Africa or one of the red list countries..."
    He says the British public would expect "pretty strong action" because of mutations of the virus in other countries.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 11:48

    SA health workers to get Johnson & Johnson Covid jab

    BBC World Service
    The South African government has outlined its amended coronavirus immunisation plans.
    They were put on hold when a trial suggested the AstraZeneca jabs that were due to be distributed were less effective against a local variant of the virus.
    Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said a Johnson and Johnson vaccine would be used to immunise health workers, even though it has yet to be approved in South Africa.
    He said it would be deployed as part of an implementation study.
    The minister said doses of the Pfizer vaccine had also been secured.

    Too soon to start booking holidays, Shapps says

    It is "too soon" for travellers to start booking holidays, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says.
    "First of all, I should say, people shouldn't be booking holidays right now - not domestically or internationally," he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
    "The prime minister will say more about the route to unlocking this country, starting when he speaks about it on 22 February.
    "But we don't know yet whether that will include information on things like holidays, simply because we don't know where we'll be up to in terms of the decline in cases, deaths, vaccination.
    "And not just the vaccination programme here, but the vaccination programme internationally, because people will be going outside of our borders.
    "So it's too soon."

    'We're not where we want to be' - Von der Leyen


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    Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has been speaking to MEPs about the EU's vaccine rollout at the start of a debate on the bloc's vaccination strategy.
    "We’re going to work as hard as we possibly can to reach our objective so that by the end of the summer at least 70% of the population will be vaccinated," she says.
    But Von der Leyen admits that right now “we’re still not where we want to be".
    "We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production, and perhaps too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time.
    "We need to ask ourselves why that is the case and what lessons we can draw.”
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 11:54

    Care home staff left without PPE at start of pandemic, MPs say

    Care home staff were left without personal protective equipment early in the pandemic because the government prioritised the NHS, MPs have said.
    The Commons Public Accounts Committee said care homes received only a fraction of the PPE needed compared with the health service.
    It said social care "was only taken seriously after the high mortality rate in care homes became apparent".
    The government said it worked "tirelessly" to provide PPE.
    Coronavirus - 10th February Read_m10

    Ghana's parliament shuts down after virus outbreak

    Ghana's parliament will suspend sittings for three weeks due to increasing coronavirus cases among lawmakers and staff.
    The number of MPs who have contracted the virus has risen to 17 while cases among staff have passed 150.
    Speaker Alban Bagbin says sittings will resume on 2 March.
    But he says parliament's appointments committee will continue with the scheduled vetting of cabinet nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who won re-election in December.
    Lawmakers and staff will be tested in two weeks, public broadcaster Ghana Broadcasting Corporation reports.
    A surge in coronavirus cases had forced parliament last week to limit its sittings to Tuesdays and Thursdays, with entry only permitted to MPs and staff needed for the business on those days.
    Ghana has so far confirmed over 73,000 cases and 482 deaths since it reported its first case in March last year.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 12:01

    'Plausible' countries may want people to be vaccinated to travel there, Van-Tam says

    England's deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, is now answering audience questions about vaccines and Covid misinformation on the BBC's News Channel and Asian Network.
    It comes amid hesitancy in black and Asian communities about vaccine uptake.
    He is first asked by Francis from London if the vaccine will be mandatory, particular in areas of transport and employment.
    Van-Tam says in the UK vaccines have never been mandated.
    He says the UK doesn't have a culture for doing this.
    He says while this is the British position he can't say how other countries will react to the idea of international travel in a post-pandemic world.
    He says it is possible other countries may insist that visitors are vaccinated.
    "I don't know the answer to that and I don't think other countries know the answer to that."
    But he says it is "plausible people will start to frame things that way".
    He says the presence of new variants is making people very cautious.

    UK transport secretary's father in hospital with Covid


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    Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has revealed his father is on a coronavirus ward in hospital, as he praised NHS staff working under "relentless pressure".
    Shapps said his 89-year-old father has been on a coronavirus ward for "quite some time" after contracting the virus in hospital.
    Appearing on Good Morning Britain following an interview with a doctor at Whiston Hospital on Merseyside, he paid tribute to healthcare staff caring for his father.
    "The work they (NHS staff) do is incredible, I speak to them every single day, of course, we have not been able to visit my dad for two months now," he said.
    "What they have been doing for nearly a year now has been extraordinary and, as you said, it has of course been worse now, even though numbers are coming down in hospital."
    Asked about carrying out the role of cabinet minister while his father is unwell, he said: "It is very difficult. I know that quite often people think that people in authority or power or in public service live a different, gilded life.
    "The truth is, you live the same life as everyone else, and coronavirus, that gets everybody, got my dad."
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 12:05

    A summary of the latest developments in the global coronavirus pandemic
    The Guardian:

    • A member of the WHO mission to China exploring the origins of the coronavirus pandemic took a swipe Wednesday at US intelligence on the issue, after the State Department cast doubt on the transparency of their probe. Briton Peter Daszak said in a tweet as the mission ended: “Please don’t rely too much on US intel: increasingly disengaged under Trump & frankly wrong on many aspects.”
    • Estonia is working on a pilot project with the World Health Organisation on how globally recognised electronic vaccine certificates - so-called ‘vaccine passports’, might work.
    • New Zealand will administer the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to quarantine personnel, frontline health workers and airline staff, after the government formally approved its use on Wednesday.
    • People may need to get vaccinated against Covid-19 annually for the next several years, Johnson & Johnson chief executive Alex Gorsky told CNBC on Tuesday, due to mutations to the virus.
    • Venezuela will receive the first 100,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine next week, President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday.
    • Brazil has reported 51,486 new coronavirus cases, as well as 1,350 deaths, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
    • In London, Lambeth council is asking some residents to take a coronavirus test after the variant first identified in South Africa was detected in the local area.
    • The Athens region will enter a stricter coronavirus lockdown from Thursday, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said, with schools and non-essential shops closed.
    • Spain has now recorded more than 3 million Covid cases, while also registering 766 deaths over the past 24 hours - the highest daily death toll of the current third wave.
    • Two new Covid variants, one of which has been classified as a “concern”, have been identified in England with some similarities to the South African and Brazilian variants, a government advisory scientific committee said.
    • The Navajo Nation’s vaccination rollout continues to surpass the broader United States, Al Jazeera reports, having distributed 94 per cent of the doses it has received.
    • Ireland is likely to gradually emerge from its strict lockdown between April and June with outdoor dining and domestic tourism likely to be possible during the summer, deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar has said.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 12:39

    New Zealand approves Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines

    New Zealand will first administer Covid-19 vaccines to quarantine personnel, front line health workers and airline staff, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said, as the government formally approved its use on Wednesday.
    New Zealand’s medicines regulator last week provisionally approved the use of the Covid-19 vaccine jointly developed by US drugmaker Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech.
    “Now we’ve reached the crucial stage of approval for the first vaccine, we are in a much better position to start having a conversation with New Zealanders about how we plan to proceed,” Hipkins said in a statement.
    Authorities expect the Pfizer vaccine to arrive in the country by end-March but they had expressed concerns about export curbs.
    Pressure has been mounting on prime minister Jacinda Ardern to start inoculations for the country’s five million people soon even though New Zealand has virtually eliminated the virus.
    With just under 2,000 confirmed cases and 25 deaths since the pandemic began, New Zealand largely escaped the high number of cases and deaths from the virus compared with many other developed countries thanks to border closures and lockdowns.
    But the emergence of highly contagious variants abroad and more overseas residents returning home has raised concerns of the virus spreading in the community again.
    Ardern’s critics have said New Zealand has fallen behind the rest of the world after promising in November that it would be first in the queue for Covid-19 vaccines.
    “When the first batch of vaccine arrives, we will be ready to go,” Hipkins said, adding information campaigns will begin next week.
    New Zealand will get 1.5 million vaccines from Pfizer, which will provide enough doses to vaccinate 750,000 people, while the medicines regulator is in talks with AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax regarding the approval of their Covid-19 vaccines.

    A little more on New Zealand’s and other countries' Covid-19 response:

    The Lowy Institute in Australia ranked the response of 100 countries to the COvid-19 pandemic: New Zealand was number 1.
    The Top 10 was: New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia, Sri Lanka.
    As Daniel Hurst reported in the Guardian:
    The Lowy Institute’s new interactive feature - the Covid Performance Index - looks at how countries and territories have performed in responding to the pandemic.
    It’s based on crunching data for the 36 weeks that followed every country’s hundredth confirmed case of Covid-19, based on indicators such as confirmed cases, confirmed deaths, confirmed cases per million people, confirmed deaths per million people, confirmed cases as a proportion of tests, and tests per thousand people.
    Of the nearly 100 jurisdictions with publicly available and comparable data in these categories.
    The researchers say China was not included in the rankings due to a lack of publicly available data on testing, but South Korea is ranked 20th, Japan 45th, the United Kingdom 66th, Indonesia 85th and the United States 94th, with Brazil in last place at 98th.
    “Although the coronavirus outbreak started in China, countries in the Asia-Pacific, on average, proved the most successful at containing the pandemic,” the interactive says.
    “By contrast, the rapid spread of Covid-19 along the main arteries of globalisation quickly overwhelmed first Europe and then the United States.”
    Researchers Alyssa Leng and Hervé Lemahieu say smaller countries with populations of fewer than 10 million people “proved more agile than the majority of their larger counterparts in handling the health emergency for most of 2020” - but development levels or differences in political systems “had less of an impact on outcomes than often assumed or publicised”.
    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, Leng and Lemahieu said.
    American political scientist Francis Fukuyama has argued the dividing line in effective crisis response has not been regime type
    but whether citizens trust their leaders, and whether those leaders preside over a competent and effective state
    You can explore the Lowy Institute interactive, and find out more about how they crunched the data here.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 12:49

    World Health Organisation praises Ireland's 'strong' recovery from third wave of pandemic
    Rachael O'Connor - Irish Post
    The World Health Organisation has praised Ireland's "strong" recovery from the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
    The Republic had been hit hard by the third wave, as retail and hospitality reopened before Christmas, people flew home from abroad in their droves and families mixed indoors.
    The country experienced an enormous jump in cases, going from having one of the lowest incidence rates in the world to the highest; the number of cases, hospitalisations, patients in ICU and the number of those who sadly passed away skyrocketed.
    Now, with the country having been under strict Level 5 restrictions for well over a month, the national effort is making a visible difference.
    Yesterday, 556 new cases were confirmed in Ireland-- the lowest in more than seven weeks, compared to when cases soared to close to 9,000 in early January.
    Sadly, 68 additional deaths were also announced, the lasting consequence of the high infection rates last month.
    But Ireland's extraordinary turnaround has been praised by public health experts in the World Health Organisation, with special envoy on Covid-19 Dr David Nabarro saying the country is in an "exceptional position".
    "“I think the Irish recovery has been strong." Dr Nabarro said, according to BreakingNews.ie.
    "I look across Europe, the rate at which number of cases are declining, I also study rates of hospitalisation and I do see Ireland is in an exceptional position."
    He warned, however, that the virus is "capable of surging back with an incredible ferocity," and said that it is "quite likely there will be a fourth wave".
    This fourth wave is more likely if world leaders and citizens let their guard down and "take our foot off the pedal," he warned.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 14:41

    UK travel rules 'inadequate', says Scottish transport secretary

    Scotland's transport secretary has called for the UK government to apply its quarantine rules to all international travellers amid concerns arrivals to England could then cross the Scottish border.
    Michael Matheson told BBC Scotland the current UK arrangements for enforced isolation in hotels were "inadequate".
    New UK quarantine rules only apply to people arriving from 33 countries deemed "high risk", but Scotland's apply to all international travellers - who from next Monday will have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days at a cost of £1,750.
    Mr Matheson told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he believed there should be a "comprehensive system" across the UK on managed isolation to reduce the risk of importing variants of Covid-19.

    526 cases of Covid in DVLA Swansea

    Geraint Davies MP tells the Commons there have been 526 cases of coronavirus at the DVLA office in Swansea since September.
    He points out in the first lockdown there were 250 people working from the site - but now the numbers are in the thousands.
    Mr Davies asks the prime minister whether he will meet with him and the PCS union to avoid possible strike action taking place.
    Mr Johnson says the DVLA has adopted a "working-from-home" strategy and lateral flow tests were being rolled out across the workplace.
    He said the "medium-term" solution to tackle the issue was to vaccinate and roll out the vaccination programme across the UK.

    What's going on with UK holidays?

    Eleanor Lawrie - BBC News
    The rollout of the coronavirus vaccine and strict curbs on travelling abroad mean many people have started thinking about booking future UK holidays.
    But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has warned that it is "too soon" to book a holiday in the UK or abroad, and that future travel restrictions will depend on vaccination levels.
    "People shouldn't be booking holidays right now - not domestically or internationally," he told the BBC's Today programme.
    There have been mixed messages from ministers, however.
    Just 10 days previously, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "optimistic" people will be able to have summer holidays, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is planning a summer break in Cornwall.
    Read more about the UK holiday rules and your booking rights here.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 14:47

    What can you get 10 years for?

    The sentence for lying on a passenger locator form of up to 10 years in jail announced by the health secretary yesterday will come under the Forgery Act 1981.
    Remember that it's a maximum sentence - courts will decide the actual prison term.
    It is not currently expected that any extra legislation will be needed for this aspect of the regulations.
    Other offences with maximum 10-year sentences include possessing a firearm without a licence, rioting and making threats to kill.

    Outdoor education centres bid to reopen after Easter

    Judith Burns - Education reporter
    Overnight education trips should be allowed to resume after Easter, having been suspended in the lockdown, say outdoor learning leaders.
    While much of the debate about education has focused on schools and colleges, outdoor education centres have been closed for nearly a year with thousands of jobs lost.
    In the coming weeks, schools are expected to begin to reopen to all pupils on timescales which vary between the four nations of the UK - and the outdoor education industry hopes to play a part in pupils' educational and emotional recovery from the lockdown.
    A government spokesman said England's guidance on residential school trips would be reviewed this month.
    You can read more here.

    Number of likely SA variant cases in Wales still 13, health chief says

    The number of "definitive or probable" cases of the South Africa variant in Wales is still 13, according to the chief executive of the Welsh NHS.
    Dr Andrew Goodall said the number "hasn't really changed very much over the course of recent days".
    However, he added that experts were keeping an eye on the situation.
    "We always need to continue to look back on the data and the intelligence as well as look forward," he said.
    "It is a bit of a balance between the two areas, but from a public health perspective - and certainly advice internally from our professional advisers and Public Health Wales - we're not necessarily seeing that as the core problem at this stage.
    "We've probably had greater concerns about the higher level of transmissibility with a Kent variant that's been around and about us for some time now."
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 15:06


    Breaking News

    PM press conference later today


    Boris Johnson will lead a Downing Street press conference on coronavirus on Wednesday afternoon.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 15:24

    Stormont officials 'struggling to cope' amid staff vacancies

    Jayne McCormack - BBC News NI political reporter
    Some Stormont officials are struggling to cope due to "significant" pressure to deliver Covid-19 support schemes, a top civil servant has warned.
    Mike Brennan, from the Department for the Economy, told Stormont's economy committee staff vacancies are currently at about 25% - approximately 4,500 vacancies.
    He said that had led to officials being over-worked while trying to get support packages up and running.
    One senior official had to be admitted to hospital on Tuesday night because of pressures, he added.

    Headlines from the UK and around the world

    If you are just joining us here are the Covid-19 headlines from the UK and around the world:
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:11

    Lawyer feline fine after video call glitch

    The pandemic has increased the use of video calls, and some of us have hit glitches, from bad backdrops to awkward 'camera on' moments.
    The latest victim of a Zoom call fail is a Texas lawyer who went viral after accidentally appearing in a virtual court case as a cat.
    Rod Ponton has been telling Radio 4's Today programme how the filter mishap happened.
    "I did not know Zoom could turn me into a cat and I did not know that a cat Zoom could turn me into an internet celebrity," he said.
    The judge who presided over the session said it showed "the legal community's effort to continue representing their clients in these challenging times".





    Men who drove 300 miles to take no photos fined


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    Three men have been fined for making a 300-mile (483km) round trip from London to a Shropshire beauty spot to "take a photograph of the view".
    West Mercia Police said the trio had not even managed to snap a picture as their phone batteries had died.
    They were stopped and questioned in Little Stretton, south Shropshire, having driven from Kensington.
    The trio were given Covid fixed penalty notices with police saying it would be the "only souvenir" of the trip.
    Fixed penalty notices for breaking Covid lockdown rules in England and Northern Ireland start at £200.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:17

    The young people facing cancer treatment alone


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    Covid restrictions have made this year much tougher for young people already dealing with a cancer diagnosis.
    Sophie, like many other young cancer patients, has had to attend appointments and treatments alone, with no family or friends at her side.
    "My mum was crying, I was crying and she had to leave me at the door and drive off," the 24-year-old says.
    Last year, she was told she would need hospital treatment for five weeks, 70 miles away from home.
    "We had to travel to Manchester so my mum drove me," Sophie says.
    "We got to the door and I had my suitcase - I was struggling alone with this suitcase.
    "My mum was terrified leaving me, because she was probably thinking, 'I can't be there to comfort her,' and as well, if things go wrong, would she be walking back out of the hospital?"
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    Japan to throw out one in six doses of Pfizer vaccine

    Japan will have to throw away one-sixth of its doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine because it doesn't have enough specialist syringes, health officials have said.
    The country secured 144 million doses of the vaccine, enough to immunise 72 million people, on the basis that each vial contains six doses.
    However the standard syringes used in Japan can only extract five doses from each vial, cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato tells reporters.
    The remaining dose in each vial will be "basically discarded", he adds - meaning they will be able to vaccinate 12 million fewer people than previously thought.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:23

    Breaking News

    Further 1,001 deaths and 13,013 cases in UK

    There have been a further 1,001 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK, according to the latest figures.
    It brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 114,851.
    There have also been another 13,013 positive tests in 24 hours.
    As of Tuesday 13,058,298 have received a first vaccine dose, a rise of 411,812.

    Viruses related to Sars-CoV-2 'found in bats'

    Scientists say coronaviruses related to Sars-CoV-2 may be circulating in bats across many parts of Asia - giving clues to how Covid-19 may have emerged.
    One virus was found in bats at a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand, but scientists predict that similar coronaviruses may be present in bats across many Asian nations and regions, BBC Environment correspondent Helen Briggs reports.
    The discovery extends the area in which related viruses have been found to a distance of 4,800km (2,983 miles).
    The area includes Japan, China and Thailand, the researchers said in a report published in Nature Communications.
    Read the full story here


    Ten-year jail term for Covid travel lies 'utterly ridiculous' - Tory MP

    Coronavirus - 10th February 008ebf10
    Sir Charles Walker said the measure "demeans" Matt Hancock's office

    Senior Conservative Sir Charles Walker has described Health Secretary Matt Hancock's move to impose jail sentences of up to 10 years on those who lie about visiting "red list" countries as "utterly ridiculous".
    The measure was among a raft of stricter travel rules announced by the health secretary on Tuesday.
    Walker, the vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, tells Sky News: "Are we really going to lock people up for 10 years for being dishonest about the fact that they've been to Portugal?
    "By all means give them a fine, give them a hefty fine, a few thousand pounds.
    "Are you really seriously suggesting, secretary of state, that we've got enough prison capacity to start locking up 19-year-old silly kids for 10 years?
    "What a stupid thing to say, I mean a really stupid thing to say, that demeans his office and his position around the cabinet table."
    Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended the measure, saying the British public "would expect pretty strong action" from the government.
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    • Post n°16

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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:29

    Israel to allow vaccinated people back into gyms and hotels

    People in Israel who've been vaccinated are going to be allowed back into hotels, gyms and other leisure facilities in two weeks.
    The country has so far administered Pfizer vaccines to almost 40% of its population of nine million people.
    Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said the system, named "Green Pass", is expected to come into force on 23 February. It will be managed through an app that people will need to download.
    "Today - finally, finally - there is an encouraging sign, a small reduction in our morbidity," he told Ynet TV.
    "If this vector continues, we will meet all of our commitments."

    Today's PM's coronavirus briefing: What have we learnt?

    The prime minister has just finished giving a Downing Street press briefing, alongside the UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
    Here's a quick recap:

    • More than 13 million people in the UK have had their first Covid vaccine - including 90% of over 70s
    • The government's target of reaching 15 million people by mid-February is less than a week away and the UK has made "great strides", the PM said
    • He appealed to the remaining 2 million in the first four groups to come forward and book their jabs. "Now is the moment," he said
    • This is not so the government can "hit some numerical target" but "so the country can take another step on the long and hard road back to normality," the PM said
    • He welcomed support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to be used in over-18s and over-65s
    • WHO also supports the 12-week interval between the two doses "indeed they say the longer interval provides greater protection", says the PM
    • When asked about summer holidays and weddings, Johnson says it's "too early" to say and will set out more detail on the road map to lifting lockdown restrictions on 22 February
    • The government is keeping an eye on a new mutation of the UK Covid variant found in Bristol, Vallance says
    • Lateral flow tests are good at picking up people with a high viral load but they aren't as sensitive as PCR tests so are not a 100% guarantee that you haven't got it, says Vallance
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:35

    Analysis: Caution in the PM's messaging

    Ben Wright - BBC political correspondent
    The prime minister couldn’t bring himself to say people should not book a holiday right now.
    Instead he advised people to wait for the result of the government’s lockdown review in the week of 22 February. So, who should people believe?
    Ministers promising a great British summer or those telling them not to book their place by a pool quite yet?
    I imagine most people have more pressing questions - such as when they might see their grandchildren again or get to have a cup of tea with their mum…
    But it's a question that tests how the people running the country see the coming weeks and months. At the moment, caution is the watchword in government.
    Boris Johnson is desperate to ensure that this lockdown is the last but uncertainty runs through their calculations. Right now, ministers can't offer simple answers to questions that this time last year would have sounded absurd.

    Starmer: 'I know an empty threat when I see it'


    Coronavirus - 10th February 0d4d3810

    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has criticised the 10-year jail term announced on Tuesday for people who lie about having been in a "red list" country.
    The former lawyer says: "I've prosecuted many cases that have ended in a 10-year sentence and I know an empty threat when I see it."
    "The effectiveness of what happens at the border is to do with testing and quarantining but pretending there's going to be a 10-year sentence when in reality I don't think there is isn't really helping anyone," he says.
    Starmer has called for Boris Johnson to give "as much detail as possible" in his roadmap out of lockdown in the week of 22 February.
    He wants to know "roughly when the vaccination programme will be finished, the measures for controlling the variant and therefore what the milestones are", he says.
    Starmer says the government needs to "stop putting out mixed messages" over whether UK residents can expect to go on a summer holiday this year.
    "The prime minister one week was saying he was optimistic about holidays then you've got the transport secretary saying don't book holidays - that isn't helping businesses, it's not helping families," he says.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:40

    China sends message to not eat wild animals during Lunar New Year

    Kerry Allen - BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst
    It is now just under 24 hours until the Lunar New Year for people in China (12 February) and during this period it is common for people in the country to gather for family meals, or large banquet gatherings.
    This year, China’s official People’s Daily newspaper is urging people not to eat wild animals during the holidays. It is sharing posters that show the silhouette of animals including snakes, hedgehogs and turtles, and telling people to avoid contact with them.
    “Do not illegally hunt, trade or eat wild animals,” it says. The campaign, which uses the hashtag #DontEatWildAnimalsDuringSpringFestival, has so far been seen by more than 9.5 million people.
    The posters have echoes of ones that circulated nationally last year at this time, back when the first coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan drew international attention. At the time, there was evident nervousness in the country about animal consumption being a possible reason for Covid-19.
    In May, the original epicentre of the coronavirus, Wuhan, banned eating and hunting wild animals amid these fears. And over the last year, other regions have stepped up regulations to ban the consumption of animals.
    In recent weeks, Chinese officials have also been updating “China’s law on animal epidemic prevention” to limit contact between animals and humans that could lead to disease. In late January, it became a requirement that pet owners keep their dogs on leads, [url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-55763212?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=600ae230424aad02ec84d676%26China updates dog-walking rules in epidemic prevention move%262021-01-22t16%3a13%3a11.954z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:60e03421-ec5e-47d2-b8cc-3fd7febb5172&pinned_post_asset_id=600ae230424aad02ec84d676&pinned_post_type=share]to prevent potential diseases such as rabies[/url].

    Group drove 150 miles because they were 'bored of lockdown'

    Three people who travelled 150 miles because they were "bored" of lockdown have been fined and had their car seized.
    Derbyshire Police said two men and a woman drove from London to Baslow, Derbyshire, on Monday afternoon.
    After questioning the reason for their trip, officers also discovered the driver's Albanian driving licence had expired.
    Police said all three were fined £200 for breaching Covid-19 rules.
    For more on the lockdown rules in your area you can read our guide here.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:45

    England quarantine rules 'inadequate', Scottish minister says

    Scotland's transport secretary says he is pressing the UK government to close a loophole which could allow travellers to avoid new Covid quarantine rules.
    Michael Matheson told BBC Scotland the current UK arrangements for enforced isolation in hotels were "inadequate".
    New quarantine rules for people arriving into England only apply to people arriving from 33 countries deemed "high risk", but Scotland's apply to all travellers who have been abroad.
    The Scottish government has expressed concern that travellers could avoid the rules in Scotland by flying into England first.
    Read more

    Veteran gets 3,000 cards after 100th birthday party cancelled


    Coronavirus - 10th February 0eb10c10

    A D-Day veteran has been sent more than 3,000 cards after a party marking his 100th birthday was cancelled due to lockdown.
    Tommy Trotter, a former Northumberland fusilier, was "over the moon" after seeing the cards laid out at the Don War Memorial Bar in Thornaby, Teesside.
    Among the messages was a letter from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
    He said: "I've never had nowt like this before, it's lovely."
    Read more here
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 19:57

    Cambodia begins vaccine drive

    Cambodia launched its coronavirus inoculation drive on Wednesday, using 600,000 vaccine doses donated by China, with the sons of long-serving prime minister Hun Sen and government ministers among the first recipients.
    The south-east Asian nation of about 16 million has managed to limit the spread of the disease, reporting 478 infections and no deaths, although a rare cluster of cases emerged in November.
    Hun Sen had vowed to take the first dose, but later said that at 68 he was above the age to get the vaccine, made by Sinopharm. His sons and the justice and environment ministers were among the first to get it instead.
    “I feel even more confident that I have a defence system in my body against Covid,” said Hun Manet, the prime minister’s eldest son, flashing a thumbs-up sign at the Calmette hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh.
    Doctors had advised Hun Manet, a deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, not to eat seafood or drink alcohol after taking the vaccine, he told reporters, urging them to also get shots.
    China’s first consignment of 600,000 doses had arrived in Phnom Penh on Sunday by special airplane, most of them earmarked for health workers and the military.
    One of Asia’s poorest countries, Cambodia has been an important ally of China in recent years.
    Beijing has said it will send 1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Cambodia, sufficient for 500,000 people.
    “We were worried that we might infect family members with the virus, now there is the vaccine as the defence wall,” justice minister Keut Rith said after his injection.
    “A vaccine is the best defence solution for us, for family and the community.”

    Thailand reports 157 new coronavirus cases

    Thailand on Wednesday reported 157 new coronavirus cases, taking its total infections to 23,903.
    One additional death was reported, taking fatalities to 80 recorded overall, the coronavirus taskforce said.
    Thailand’s daily cases so far this week are among the lowest numbers reported since its latest and biggest outbreak emerged in mid-December.

    Malaysia reports 3,288 new Covid infections

    Malaysia has reported 3,288 new Covid infections, raising the total to 251,694 cases.
    Health authorities also reported 14 deaths, bringing that total up to 923, according to Reuters.

    Denmark says cases of more contagious UK Covid variant on rise

    Reuters reports:
    :Left Quotes:  The share of people infected with the more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain is on the rise in Denmark, authorities reported on Wednesday, citing preliminary data.
    In the first week of February, 27% of positive cases analyzed for their genetic material were carrying the B117 variant, up from 20% the week before, the State Serum Institute (SSI) said in a report.
    Denmark is a front-runner in genome sequencing being used to analyze the genetic material of the coronavirus to determine variants.
    The reproductive number for the new variant, which indicates how many one person transmits the virus to, is 0.99%, SSI said on Tuesday, meaning the virus is currently on a slight decline.
    General infection numbers are falling in Denmark after the government instituted hard lockdown measures in December, with just 470 cases registered in the last 24 hours, down from thousands of daily infections late last year.
    A total of 1,690 people have been infected with the new variant first detected in Britain.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 20:04

    Germany expected to tighten borders to control spread of Covid variants

    Germany will run up against limits on its capacity to inoculate people against Covid-19 by the end of March, health ministry documents showed, as an expected increase in supply puts its network of vaccination centres to the test.
    The country has so far been starved of shots as drugmakers faced production problems, but shortages are likely to ease as deliveries accelerate, according to a revised vaccine strategy released by the health ministry on Wednesday.
    The strategy update came as German biotech startup BioNTech launched a new facility in the German town of Marburg, expecting first vaccines made there to be distributed in early April, Reuters reports.
    Read more here

    Ireland considering increasing fines for Covid restrictions-breakers

    Ireland’s government is considering increasing fines for residents who break current Covid restrictions to travel aboard on holiday to €2,000 from €500, the prime minister, Micheál Martin, said on Wednesday.
    The government said two-thirds of Irish arrivals at airports are returning holidaymakers, which an official in Martin’s department described as “a very concerning statistic”, Reuters reports.
    Martin told parliament:
    There’s a sense €500 is not a sufficient disincentive to travel abroad. That will be increased and the government is considering increasing that to €2,000 to act as a significant deterrent.

    Italy reports a further 336 coronavirus-related deaths

    Italy reported 336 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday down from 422 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 12,956 from 10,630 the day before.
    Some 310,994 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 274,263, the health ministry said.
    Italy has registered 92,338 deaths linked to Covid-19, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the sixth-highest in the world. The country has reported 2.67 million cases to date.
    Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 19,280 on Wednesday, down from 19,512 a day earlier.
    There were 155 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 146 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 2,128 from a previous 2,143.
    When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating quickly in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
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    Post by Kitkat Wed 10 Feb 2021, 20:09

    Latest world headlines

    Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic is coming to a close.
    A lot has happened today. To sum it all up, here's a round-up of the main global headlines:

    • The president of the European Commission has admitted that the EU's vaccine rollout has been too slow. After criticism, Ursula von der Leyen said that "we're still not where we want to be", because "we were late to authorise" the vaccines
    • US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci says the country has vaccinated about 20,000 pregnant women, with no adverse side effects. Pregnant women were not included in the original clinical trials for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines
    • South Africa's government says it's considering swapping or selling the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after a small study suggested a "minimal" effect against the country's new variant
    • People in Israel who've been vaccinated are going to be allowed back into hotels, gyms and other leisure facilities in two weeks. The country has vaccinated almost 40% of its population of nine million people
    • Germany will extend lockdown measures until 7 March but hairdressers will be allowed to reopen from 1 March, Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced
    • The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca even in countries tackling new variants of coronavirus
    • The WHO and Unicef have warned of global vaccine inequality, urging world leaders to "look beyond their borders and employ a vaccine strategy that can actually end the pandemic and limit variants"


    Latest UK headlines

    And here's a look at the UK headlines before we go:

    • More than 13 million people in the UK have had their first Covid vaccine - including 90% of over-70s
    • The PM said "now is the moment" for the remaining two million people in the top four priority groups to book their jab
    • The World Health Organization has said the 12-week interval between Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses - as is currently happening in the UK - makes it "more effective"
    • Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says the government's proposed 10-year jail term for lying about overseas travel is an "empty threat"
    • Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Please don't go ahead and book holidays"
    • But his plea was "puerile and nonsensical", according to Sue Ockwell of the Association of Independent Tour Operators
    • Scotland reached the milestone of vaccinating one million people
    • But across the UK there is a worrying shortfall in the number of care staff to have had Covid vaccinations, a survey of almost 1,500 services suggests
    • And finally, 100-year-old D-Day veteran Tommy Trotter has received 3,000 cards after his 100th birthday party was cancelled due to lockdown


    Thank you and goodbye for now

    Thanks for following our live updates.
    They were brought to you by Alex Therrien, Ashitha Nagesh, Cherry Wilson, Doug Faulkner, James Clarke, Jennifer Meierhans, Jennifer Scott, Marie Jackson, Richard Morris and Sarah Collerton.
    We will be back with the latest on coronavirus tomorrow. Have a good evening.
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