Summary of today's developments
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and from the global Covid blog for this evening. Here are the key events from today:
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The World Health Organization has warned that it is too early for countries to either declare victory over Covid-19 or give up attempts to halt transmission. “It is premature for any country to either surrender or to declare victory,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. “This virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes.”
- In its weekly epidemiological update, the WHO said the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, sometimes known as a “stealth” subvariant, is starting to outcompete BA.1. The BA.2 sub-variant has now been detected in 57 countries and accounted for more than half of all sequenced Omicron cases, the UN agency said.
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The UK prime minister Boris Johnson attended a leaving do for a No 10 aide during the strict post-Christmas lockdown, which is now under police investigation, the Guardian has learned. Prosecco is alleged to have been drunk by some staff, with Johnson understood to have given a speech thanking the official for their work and staying for around five minutes.
- The Pacific island nation of Tonga will go into a nationwide lockdown from Wednesday after two people tested positive for Covid-19 this week. Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said the two positive cases had been port workers helping distribute international aid following last month’s devastating volcanic eruption.
- Pfizer and BioNTech have begun submitting data to US regulators as part of a process to gain authorisation for a lower dose of their Covid-19 vaccine for children aged under 5 years. In a joint statement, the two companies confirmed they are seeking an emergency authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration.
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Portugal’s prime minister António Costa has tested positive for coronavirus, his office said. The infection was discovered through a routine self-test and was later confirmed by another antigen test. Costa, 60, is currently asymptomatic and will go into isolation for seven days.
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Norway will scrap most of its remaining Covid-19 lockdown measures with immediate effect as an ongoing spike in coronavirus cases is unlikely to jeopardise health services, the prime minister said. Restaurants will again be allowed to serve alcohol beyond 11 o’clock at night, working from home will no longer be mandatory and the current limit of 10 visitors in private homes is removed.
- Pakistan has launched a nationwide door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination drive starting today amid the continued rise in daily cases driven by the Omicron variant. About 55,000 mobile teams will provide the doses, including booster shots, to 35 million people across the country, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said.
Thank you for following along today and happy Lunar New Year to all those who are celebrating. Goodbye!
Updated
The UK’s chancellor Rishi Sunak sat in a packed House of Commons despite a close family member testing positive for Covid, according to reports.
The Daily Mirror writes that Sunak sat between Boris Johnson and the home secretary, Priti Patel, on Monday as the prime minister delivered a statement regarding the string of No.10 lockdown parties.
Sunak appeared in the Commons despite official guidance “strongly advising” people to limit close contact with others if somebody in their household tested positive, it claims.
The paper quotes a spokesperson for the chancellor as saying in response to the report: “The Chancellor has followed the legal requirements to the letter.
“He has taken daily lateral flow tests and has limited his social contact where possible, whilst also ensuring that he is able to continue to conduct important government and parliamentary business as the public would expect.”
Updated
The Pacific island nation of Tonga will go into a nationwide lockdown from Wednesday after two people tested positive for Covid-19 this week.
In an urgent address today, Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said the two positive cases had been working in the port of the capital Nuku’alofa and are now in isolation. The port workers had been helping distribute international aid to the island nation struggling to recover from last month’s devastating volcanic eruption.
From 6pm (0500 GMT) Wednesday, Tonga will enter a lockdown with the situation reviewed every 48 hours. Schools will be closed and civil servants will not be required to work. People have also been urged to wear masks in public.
Tonga closed its borders in early 2020 and has since recorded just one Covid case – until this week. However, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption on 15 January created what the Tongan government describes as an “unprecedented disaster”.
In response, foreign nations have lined up to deliver aid, with ships and planes arriving from Australia, New Zealand, France, China, the US and the UK. All of the deliveries of fresh water and medicine have been handled using strict “no-contact” protocols in a bid to keep the virus at bay.
‘Stealth’ Omicron sub-variant detected in 57 countries, says WHO
The highly transmissible Omicron variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus now accounts for nearly all of the coronavirus infections globally.
In its weekly epidemiological update today, the World Health Organization said that the Omicron variant, which accounts for over 93% of all coronavirus specimens collected in the past month, counts several sub-lineages: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3.
BA.1 and BA.1.1 – the first versions identified – still account for over 96% of all the sequenced Omicron cases submitted to the public virus tracking database GISAID, but in parts of Europe and Asia, BA.2, sometimes known as a “stealth” subvariant, is starting to outcompete BA.1.
“BA.2-designated sequences have been submitted to GISAID from 57 countries to date,” WHO said on Tuesday. It added that in some countries, the sub-variant now accounted for more than half of all sequenced Omicron cases.
The UN health agency said little was known yet about the differences between the sub-variants but several studies have suggested that BA.2 is more infectious than the original sub-lineage.
WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters that information about BA.2 was very limited, but that some initial data indicated it had “a slight increase in growth rate over BA.1.”
Omicron is generally known to cause less severe disease than previous Covid variants like Delta, and Van Kerkhove said there so far was “no indication that there is a change in severity” in the BA.2 sub-variant.
Updated
Brazil reported 193,465 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 929 Covid deaths, the health ministry said.
Ministry data shows Brazil has now registered a total of 25,620,209 cases and 628,067 deaths since the pandemic began.
Boris Johnson attended leaving do during strict January lockdown
The UK prime minister attended a prosecco-fuelled leaving do for a No 10 aide during the strict post-Christmas lockdown, which is now under police investigation, the Guardian has learned.
Sue Gray’s investigation into lockdown parties this week revealed several events that had not previously been publicised, including a gathering on 14 January 2021 “on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries”.
Sources said the event was held in Downing Street in part as a leaving do for a senior policy adviser who is now a top civil servant working in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Prosecco is alleged to have been drunk by some staff, with Johnson understood to have given a speech thanking the official for their work and staying for around five minutes.
England’s third national Covid lockdown came into force just over a week earlier, on 6 January, with a “stay at home” order banning people from leaving their home except for a handful of reasons including where it was not possible to work from home. The previous month, the prime minister had effectively cancelled Christmas for millions of people amid surging Covid cases.
The revelation places Johnson at another event under investigation by Scotland Yard. He also attended a “bring your own booze” party on 20 May 2020 and a 56th birthday celebration on 19 June that year. It is not known whether he was present at two alleged Downing Street gatherings on 13 November, the day his aide Dominic Cummings quit, including one in the private flat of Boris and Carrie Johnson.
US President Joe Biden has never been ambushed by cake, the White House has said. In a press briefing today, Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about troubles “on the other side of the Pond”.
From the Washington Post’s reporter, Matt Viser:
Responding to a question about how closely President Biden is following the controversy British PM Boris Johnson is facing, @PressSec says: "Has the president ever been ambushed by a cake? Not that I’m aware of”
— Matt Viser (@mviser) February 1, 2022
The alliance is strong, she adds, “despite cakes in anyone’s faces"
Pakistan has launched a nationwide door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination drive starting today amid the continued rise in daily cases driven by the Omicron variant.
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), which oversees the country’s pandemic response, said about 55,000 mobile teams will provide the doses, including booster shots. The first phase of the campaign will last for two weeks and officials hope more than 35 million people will be vaccinated from this initial phase.
“If you haven’t been vaccinated, then get yourself inoculated. If you have received both doses and it has been more than six months, then please get the booster dose,” NCOC chief Asad Umar said in a press conference today.
On Tuesday, Pakistan reported 32 deaths and 5,327 infections in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases stayed above 100,000 for the fourth consecutive day. Nearly 104 million people have received at least one dose, according to NCOC data.
Here’s a bit more on Bloomberg’s report on Pfizer and BioNTech submitting data to regulators in the US for authorisation of vaccines for children under five.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the data, the report said: “The rolling submission of data asks regulators to clear the shot as a two-dose vaccine, though it’s expected that ultimately a three-shot regimen may become standard.”
The Pfizer vaccine is already approved for emergency use in children in the United States aged five and older. It has full approval for adults.
Representatives for Pfizer, as well as for the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
In a statement late on Monday, Pfizer said it had not yet sought approval and was “continuing to collect and analyse data from both two and three doses in our younger age cohort.”
Updated
Good evening from London. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over from Rachel Hall to bring you all the latest Covid news from around the world and the UK. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
We’ll start with some good news for ravers and clubbers in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia. The Catalan government confirmed today that nightclubs and discotheques can fully reopen on 11 February.
Nightclubs, the last sector completely closed as part of the pandemic restrictions, have been shut since 24 December but soon will be allowed to open without any restrictive measures in place. Capacity limits will be removed and proof of vaccination will no longer be required for entry.
Since the closure of the nightlife sector ahead of the Christmas holidays, Covid-19 cases increased to an all-time high but are now declining, according to official figures by the health department. “Covid-19 figures are still high, but the outbreak risk is decreasing as well as the transmission rate,” government spokesperson Patricia Plaja said at a press conference today.
The nightlife sector has been closed for over 600 days since the start of the pandemic and the latest news has been met with relief among nightclub owners. “We hope this is the last time we have to close,” Ramon Mas, secretary-general at Barcelona’s nightclubs association, told the Catana News Agency.
Updated
Summary of the day
It’s been a bit quieter for coronavirus-related news this week, though the emergence of the Omicron subvariant BA.2 has provoked some discussion. Here are the main updates we covered today:
- The World Health Organization held an online briefing about BA.2 in which it warned that it is too early for countries to either declare victory over Covid-19 or give up attempts to halt transmission. WHO officials added that there appears to be no difference in severity between Omicron and the new subvariant, though the latter is thought to be more transmissible.
- The WHO also warned about the impact of waste from overuse of gloves and “moon suits”, and use of masks and syringes.
- Portugal’s prime minister tested postive for Covid
- Research is underway in South Africa to determine whether coronavirus may have a greater opportunity to develop mutations when it remains for long periods of time in people with weakened immune systems, such as those with untreated HIV. It’s thought this may be how Omicron originated.
- Norway announced that it would scrap most Covid-19 restrictions.
Thanks for tuning in today. I’m handing the blog over to Leonie Chao-Fong, who’ll be keeping you updated throughout the rest of the evening.
Pfizer has begun submitting its data today to US regulators for authorisation of vaccines for kids under five, according to Bloomberg sources.
Reporter Josh Wingrove tweeted that this forms part of a rolling submission that may include data to support giving a third dose.
News: Pfizer Inc. has begun submitting its data today to U.S. regulators for authorization of vaccines for kids under 5, per sources. It'll be a rolling submission that may ultimately include data to support giving a third dose. W/ @rileyraygriffin on @TheTerminal.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) February 1, 2022
Gilead Sciences Inc’s Covid-19 drug remdesivir last year overtook AbbVie Inc’s 20-year-old arthritis drug Humira as the medicine that US hospitals spent the most on, according to Vizient Inc, a purchasing group used by about half the nation’s hospitals.
Reuters reports:
Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral approved early in the pandemic for hospitalised Covid patients and authorised last month for high-risk outpatients, could retain the top spot through mid-2023, according to Vizient’s projections.
Days of protests against pandemic policies and a deep rift within Canada’s conservative movement have highlighted the growing power of rightwing populist movements in the country, writes Leyland Cecco.
Norway set to scrap most Covid-19 lockdown measures
Norway will scrap most of its remaining Covid-19 lockdown measures with immediate effect as an ongoing spike in coronavirus cases is unlikely to jeopardise health services, the prime minister said on Tuesday.
Restaurants will again be allowed to serve alcohol beyond 11 o’clock at night, working from home will no longer be mandatory and the current limit of 10 visitors in private homes is removed, Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference.
He added that restrictions may be reimposed in the future, and said that social distancing was still recommended.
Updated
Another artist has decided to pull their music from Spotify in protest over the Covid misinformation disseminated by the streaming company’s star podcaster, Joe Rogan, writes Ben Beaumont-Thomas.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singer and guitarist Graham Nash has joined his former bandmate Neil Young in taking his music off the platform.
Last week, Young accused Spotify of allowing Rogan to advance “fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them”. He later added to his criticism, accusing Spotify of “selling lies for money”.
Updated
UK records 112,458 new cases
Several countries are posting their daily coronavirus tallies. Here are some key figures:
- Italy has posted its daily tally of Covid-19 cases, which comes to 133,142 on Tuesday, against 57,715 the day before, while the number of deaths rose to 427 from 349, health ministry data shows.
- Turkey has logged more than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
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France has reported 416,896 new cases, with 3,751 people are in intensive care units for Covid-19, up by 51.
- The UK has recorded 112,458 new cases, up from 92,367 on Monday.
Updated
UK ministers spent almost £9bn on personal protective equipment for health care workers which was either substandard, defective, past its use-by date or dramatically overpriced, according to figures released on Monday.
Updated
WHO: 'premature' to declare victory over Covid
The head of the World Health Organization has warned that it is too early for countries to either declare victory over Covid-19 or give up attempts to halt transmission, AFP reports.
Speaking to reporters, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
It is premature for any country to either surrender or to declare victory. This virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes.
His comments came as Denmark on Tuesday became the first EU country to lift all of its domestic Covid curbs despite record numbers of cases of the milder Omicron variant, with a number of other countries eying similar moves.
Tedros said:
We’re concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary.
Nothing could be further from the truth … more Covid-19 transmission means more deaths.
The UN health agency chief pointed out that since Omicron was first spotted in southern Africa 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million cases have been reported to the WHO – more than in all of 2020.
And while the new Covid variant is known to be milder, he stressed that “we are now starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths in most regions of the world”.
It is vital, he said, to keep striving to halt transmission of the virus.
“We are not calling for any country to return to so-called lockdown,” Tedros said, adding though that “we are calling on all countries to protect their people using every tool in the toolkit, not vaccines alone”.
The WHO head stressed the need to continue tracking emerging variants, including the Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.
“This virus will continue to evolve, which is why we call on countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing,” he said. “We can’t fight this virus if we don’t know what it’s doing.”
According to Reuters, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid, told the briefing:
We are urging caution because many countries have not gone through the peak of Omicron yet. Many countries have low levels of vaccination coverage with very vulnerable individuals within their populations.
And so now is not the time to lift everything all at once.
WHO’s emergencies chief, Mike Ryan, addressing the same briefing, urged countries to chart their own path out of the pandemic and not blindly follow others in relaxing measures.
He said he feared that political pressure might result in some countries reopening their societies prematurely, leading to unnecessary further transmissions and deaths.
Updated
Face coverings must still be worn in Scotland’s secondary schools, Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs, as she said that the country was entering “a calmer phase of the pandemic”.
Sturgeon said that, given the current uncertainty about infection trends and relatively high levels of Covid in younger age groups, “caution is prudent at this stage”.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross underlined what he said was the inconsistency of young people still wearing face coverings in classrooms when adults do not require them sitting in the pub.
Ross went on to condemn the Scottish government’s proposed Covid recovery and reform bill, which would allow them to bring in extensive lockdown measures for any new pandemic, as a “power grab”.
Jackie Baillie for Scottish Labour highlighted the large number of pupils off school with Covid. She said they were enduring even more disruption to their education, and called on Sturgeon to make schools safer by providing air filters for every classroom.
Delivering her weekly Covid statement to the Holyrood parliament, Sturgeon said there would be no changes to baseline measures like vaccine passports, wearing face coverings when visiting indoor public places and taking a LFT before mixing with other households.
She warned that the NHS remains under “acute pressure”.
She said:
The number of people in hospital with Covid is falling – but it is still double what it was just before Christmas. As I also reported earlier, the recent fall in cases is now levelling off.
Updated
Portugal’s PM tests positive
Portugal’s prime minister, Antonio Costa, has tested positive for Covid, two days after securing a surprise absolute majority in Sunday’s snap election.
He will stay in isolation for a period of seven days, his office said in a statement on Tuesday.
A total of 26 cases of the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron have been confirmed in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has said, though this number is likely to be an underestimate.
BA.2 was recently declared a variant under investigation.
The First Minister told MSPs:
Genomic sequencing is being used to investigate this further. So far, I can confirm that in Scotland, 26 cases of BA.2 have been confirmed through genomic sequencing but we expect this number to increase as more sequencing results are reported.
And given that not all tests are genomically sequenced, it will be an underestimate of the presence of this sub-variant here.
She said there was no evidence that BA.2 led to more serious illness or had a greater chance of escaping immunity, however it appeared to be able to “out-run” Omicron.
A further 7,565 new cases of the virus were reported in Scotland and another 30 deaths.
Today, 7,565 more people have tested positive for #coronavirus
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) February 1, 2022
1,117 people were in hospital yesterday which is 30 fewer than the day before.
Sadly 30 more people who tested positive have died (10,341 in total)
Latest update ➡️ https://t.co/bZPbrCoQux pic.twitter.com/frnq2fYFkX
The World Health Organization is urging countries to ease restrictions with caution in an online briefing.
Technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said many countries have not yet gone through the Omicron peak.
While emergency chief Mike Ryan said countries should charge their own path out of the pandemic rather than blindly follow others in easing measures.
Here’s some more from Reuters on the earlier comments from the World Health Organization on the new BA.2 subvariant:
The comments come as the BA.2 subvariant begins to replace Omicron’s more common “original” BA.1 subvariant in countries such as Denmark.
Based on data from Denmark, the first country where BA.2 overtook BA.1, there appears to be no difference in disease severity, although BA.2 has the potential to replace BA.1 globally, Boris Pavlin of the WHO’s Covid-19 Response Team added.
“Looking at other countries where BA.2 is now overtaking, we’re not seeing any higher bumps in hospitalization than expected,” he said.
BA.2 is more transmissible than the more common BA.1 and more able to infect vaccinated people, according to a Danish study which analysed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households between December and January.
The subvariant is already becoming dominant in the Philippines, Nepal, Qatar, India and Denmark, Pavlin said.
He added: “Vaccination is profoundly protective against severe disease, including for Omicron. BA.2 is rapidly replacing BA.1. Its impact is unlikely to be substantial, although more data are needed.*
Updated
Scientists to investigate whether Omicron developed in patients with untreated HIV
Leading South African scientists are set to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on patients with untreated HIV, amid mounting evidence that the collision of the two pandemics could be generating new coronavirus variants.
Reuters reports:
The team at the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), which first alerted the world to the Covid variant Omicron, said it was time for a “systematic” investigation of what happens when patients with untreated HIV get Covid-19.
A number of studies, including one published by the team last week, have found that people with weakened immune systems such as patients with untreated HIV can suffer from persistent coronavirus infections, often for months.
The virus remains in their systems and accumulates mutations, some of which may give it an advantage.
Some researchers believe this could be how Omicron and some of the other Covid variants developed, although other scientists believe it may have arisen in animals before spilling back over into humans.
Updated
US regulators are urging Pfizer to apply for emergency authorisation for a two-dose regimen of its Covid-19 vaccine for children six months to five years old, according to sources.
The move could clear the way for the shots as soon as the end of February, while the companies await data on a three-dose course.
WHO says new Omicron subvariant is not more severe
Reuters has some initial lines from the World Health Organization on the emerging subvariant of Omicron, BA.2:
- There’s no evidence so far of any difference in severity between the subvariant and the original variant.
- BA.2 is understood to be more transmissible than BA.1 (the original Omicron variant), but the gap is smaller than between Omicron and Delta.
- Vaccines are equally effective against BA.2.
I’ll keep posting lines as they emerge.
Updated
WHO warns about waste from overuse of protective equipment against Covid
The World Health Organization is warning that the overuse of gloves, “moon suits” and the use of billions of masks and vaccination syringes to prevent the spread of coronavirus have resulted in a huge glut of health care waste worldwide.
Associated Press reports:
The UN health agency reported Tuesday that tens of thousands of tons of extra medical waste has strained waste management systems and is threatening both health and the environment, pointing to a “dire need” to improve those systems and get a response from both governments and people.
“Part of the message for the public is to become more of a conscious consumer,” said Dr Margaret Montgomery, technical officer of WHO’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health unit. “In terms of the volume, it’s enormous.”
“We find that people are wearing excessive PPE,” Montgomery said, referring to personal protection equipment.
The agency says most of the roughly 87,000 tons of such equipment including what she called “moon suits” and gloves – obtained from March 2020 to November 2021 to battle Covid-19 has ended up as waste. More than 8bn doses of vaccine administered globally have produced 143 tons of extra waste in terms of syringes, needles and safety boxes.
Updated
Here’s a summary on the key coronavirus developments today from AFP.
- Denmark has become the first European Union country to lift all of its Covid restrictions despite record numbers of cases, relying on its high vaccination rate to cope with the Omicron variant.
- A sub-variant of the highly contagious Omicron strain - BA.2 or “stealth Omicron” - is even more infectious than the original version, according to a Danish study.
- The World Health Organization warns that the vast amount of waste produced in tackling the pandemic poses a threat to human and environmental health.
- A pregnant New Zealand journalist who claimed to have nowhere to go but Afghanistan will be allowed to return home after officials grant her an exemption from strict Covid-19 entry restrictions.
- A senior Olympics official says venues at the Beijing Winter Games – which opens this week – could be up to half-full, countering fears that restrictions would lead to a second consecutive Games without spectators.
- The swimming world championships scheduled to take place in the Japanese city of Fukuoka in July are postponed until 2023 because of the virus.
- Wealthy Hong Kongers are chartering private jets to get them and their pets out of the city which has some of the strictest virus travel restrictions in the world.
- The coronavirus has killed at least 5,671,154 million people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on Tuesday.
- The US has recorded the most Covid deaths with 886,687, followed by Brazil with 627,138 and India on 496,242.
- Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.
Updated
An unusual angle on coronavirus here from AFP, which is reporting that pet owners are booking private jets to avoid travel bans and flight cancellations, and get their “fur babies” out of Hong Kong.
China is one of the last few places in the world pursuing a strict “zero-Covid” policy, which has resulted in bans on incoming flights and transit passengers.
AFP reports:
Typically favoured by the ultra-rich, private planes are now a mode of transport desperate pet owners are turning to when departing the increasingly isolated city.
With commercial airlines already restricting the number of animals that can be transported on a plane, the spate of flight cancellations has created a massive backlog of outbound pets stuck in the city.
Animal travel company Pet Holidays said December’s flight suspensions alone left 3,000 to 4,000 cats and dogs stranded.
“No amount of money can buy them a seat” on a commercial flight, said Fanny Liang, the company’s pet emigration consultant.
For a chartered private jet, an all-inclusive package for a house cat - and their human - runs to about $23,100 (£17,000) at Pet Holidays, though Liang said the costs vary based on the animal’s size.
Updated
Research shows there were 4,000 extra deaths in hospitals in England during the first year of the pandemic. Guardian reporter Jessica Murray has spoken to families about the deaths of loved ones while they were waiting for NHS urgent care.
One family member said: “I know they can’t save everybody and I know that he may have died anyway. But I just feel that on that Friday night he did not need to sit there for nine hours. They needed to make him comfortable.”
Updated
Here's a summary of the latest developments...
- The UK’s Covid-19 death toll has passed 180,000, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. A total of 1,264 deaths occurred in England and Wales in the week ending 21 January, which mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, taking the UK-wide total to 180,622.
- A total of 1,484 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week ending 21 January that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate. The latest figures, from the Office for National Statistics, mark a 7% rise on the previous week and is the highest number since the week to 12 March 2021 when there were 1,501 deaths.
- Romania recorded its highest daily Covid infections to date today as hospitalisations rose. A total of 40,018 new people have been infected, according to government data, as the country’s vaccination campaign struggles.
- Russia reported record daily Covid cases as Omicron spreads across the country. The country recorded 125,836 cases, a rise from 124,070 the previous day, reports Reuters.
- Labour leader Keir Starmer has said that everybody is “paying the price” for the British prime minister’s actions and that the public “feel they have been taken for mugs” by the Downing Street party allegations. He told Sky News that people have been forced to relive “dark moments” from their lives over the last two years as a result of allegations against Boris Johnson and feel guilt over following the rules.
- Dominic Raab, Britain’s deputy prime minister, insisted the public would have to “wait and see” what a police investigation into alleged Downing Street parties find but that he “gets the argument about double standards” in an interview with Sky News.
- Tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste created by the Covid pandemic are threatening human health and the environment, a World Health Organization report has found. The material – including discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles – could expose health workers to burns, needle-stick injuries and germs, the report found, and some of it could still be infectious.
That’s it from me for today. Passing on to Rachel Hall now. Thanks for reading.
Updated
The World Health Organization is among the nominees for this year’s Nobel peace prize following two years of the coronavirus pandemic.
The body, which was also nominated last year, is joined by British nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, Belarusian dissident Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, reports Reuters.
Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said: “I think the WHO is likely to be discussed in the committee for this year’s prize.”
Updated
The Associated Press reports on Lunar New Year celebrations in China amid pandemic restrictions, which has led to fewer people returning to their hometowns for the annual holiday:
Chinese people on Tuesday rang in the Lunar New Year despite pandemic restrictions, as small crowds gathered outside shut temples offering traditional prayers for the Year of the Tiger.
At the Lama Temple in Beijing, dozens of people gathered to bow in prayer before the ornate west gate of the Tibetan Buddhist site that was often thronged with worshipers before the pandemic.
Wang Ying, who works at an accounting firm, said praying outside the temple was better than burning incense at home.
“I think sincerity is more important than burning incense sticks,” she said, after finishing her devotions.
UK's Covid death toll exceeds 180,000
By Niamh McIntyre and Georgina Quach
The UK’s Covid-19 death toll has passed 180,000, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics.
A total of 1,264 deaths occurred in England and Wales in the week ending 21 January which mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, taking the UK-wide total to 180,622.
The number of deaths in the most recent weeks was above the five-year average in private homes, but below the average in hospitals and care homes.
The figures also show that there have now been just under 45,000 deaths in care homes in England and Wales since the start of the pandemic.
Around one in nine or 11.6% of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to January 21 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.
Updated
Italy’s national Catholic military chaplain has accused a vaccine-denying archbishop of inciting subordination among the armed forces and police.
Archbishop Santo Marciano issued a statement to all military and law enforcement last night in which condemned Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano for “his conspiracy theory outbursts”, reports Reuters.
It came after Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador in Washington who has been in hiding for more than three years since demanding Pope Francis resign, urged them to disobey orders and not be “automatons”.
1,484 Covid deaths registered in England and Wales in week ending 21 January
A total of 1,484 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week ending 21 January that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.
The latest figures, from the Office for National Statistics, mark a 7% rise on the previous week and is the highest number since the week to 12 March 2021 when there were 1,501 deaths.
Around one in nine (11.6%) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 21 January mentioned Covid on the death certificate.
In England, 1,378 deaths involving #COVID19 were registered in the week ending 21 Jan (compared with 1,308 deaths registered the previous week).
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) February 1, 2022
In Wales, 102 deaths involving COVID-19 were registered in this week (compared with 69 the previous week).
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Andrew Sparrow’s live blog is now up and running, covering UK politics news:
This blog will continue covering global Covid news.
Romania reports record daily Covid infections
Romania recorded its highest daily Covid infections to date today as hospitalisations rose.
A total of 40,018 new people have been infected, according to government data, as the country’s vaccination campaign struggles, reports Reuters.
Romania has the second least vaccinated population in the EU, at around 41%.
Yesterday there were 903 Covid patients in intensive care units – 84% of whom are unvaccinated.
Updated
Growing numbers of children across the US are living with long Covid.
Dr Carlos Oliveira, paediatric infectious diseases doctor at Yale Medicine, said:
It’s hard for me to say what will happen, but we are preparing for a large wave of kids … because the numbers of adolescents and children who have been infected are so high.
Hallie Golden reports:
Masks on flights will be one of the last remaining Covid restrictions globally and could stay in place for years, reports the Times.
Varying rules between countries will make it “nigh-on-impossible” for airlines to act individually on masks, experts told the newspaper.
“Until there is a harmonised lifting of mask mandates on flights by governments worldwide it is simpler for airlines to keep the rules in place,” a senior aviation source told the Times.
Updated
Russia reports record daily Covid cases
Russia today reported record daily Covid cases as Omicron spreads across the country.
The country recorded 125,836 cases, a rise from 124,070 the previous day, reports Reuters.
In the last 24 hours, 663 people died with the virus, according to government figures.
More than half of hospital beds set aside for Covid patients in Tokyo were occupied today after a sharp rise in admissions.
The city has set aside nearly 7,000 hospital beds for coronavirus patients, reports Reuters. New infections yesterday reached 14,445.
Governor Yuriko Koike previously said that 50% bed occupancy would trigger a request for an emergency declaration from central government.
Tokyo and most of Japan are under restrictions in a bid to contain record cases following the emergence of Omicron.
Keir Starmer says public 'feel they have been taken for mugs' for following Covid rules amid Downing Street party allegations
Labour leader Keir Starmer has said that everybody is “paying the price” for the British prime minister’s actions and that the public “feel they have been taken for mugs” by the Downing Street party allegations.
He told Sky News that people have been forced to relive “dark moments” from their lives over the last two years as a result of allegations against Boris Johnson and feel guilt over following the rules.
Starmer said they should feel “pride” that they saved the lives of people they will never meet through their actions.
He said it is “as damning as it could be” for police to be investigating 12 gatherings during lockdown at Downing Street and Whitehall.
"People feel like they've been taken for mugs."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 1, 2022
Labour leader sir @Keir_Starmer says the allegations of rule-breaking parties at Number 10 have "forced people to relive" their experiences from the pandemic. #KayBurley: https://t.co/xqTm74k33z pic.twitter.com/CRPTtYMfXF
UK deputy prime minister says he 'gets the argument about double standards' over Downing Street party allegations
Dominic Raab, Britain’s deputy prime minister, insisted the public would have to “wait and see” what a police investigation into alleged Downing Street parties find but that he “gets the argument about double standards”.
Responding to former prime minister Theresa May’s claim yesterday that the Sue Gray report shows that Number 10 “was not observing the regulations they imposed on members of the public,” he told Sky News: “I don’t think that’s actually quite right.”
It comes after it was revealed that detectives are investigating 300 photos and 12 events in Downing Street, including a party in Boris Johnson’s private flat.
.@DominicRaab responds to Theresa May saying the Gray report shows No 10 "was not observing the regulations they imposed on members of the public".
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 1, 2022
The deputy PM: "I don't think that's actually quite right."#KayBurley https://t.co/xqTm74k33z pic.twitter.com/RHFaOTpIge
Deputy Prime Minister @DominicRaab tells @KayBurley it is "right" for the police to "ascertain the facts" and that the Met "need the time and space to do that".https://t.co/FcHUharjJa #KayBurley
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 1, 2022
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/KuTb8IQ05f
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Tens of thousands of tonnes of Covid waste threatening health and environment, warns WHO
Tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste created by the Covid pandemic are threatening human health and the environment, a World Health Organization report has found.
The material – including discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles – could expose health workers to burns, needle-stick injuries and germs, the report found, and some of it could still be infectious.
Reuters reports that communities close to poorly managed landfills could also be impacted by contaminated air from burning waste, poor water quality or disease-carrying pests, according to the findings.
An estimated 87,000 tonnes of PPE – the equivalent of the weight of several hundred blue whales – was ordered on a UN portal before November 2021, with most of it believed to have become waste.
It called for reform and investment including in cutting plastic waste.
Hi, I’m looking after the global Covid blog for the next few hours. Please get in touch with any tips or suggestions: miranda.bryant@guardian.co.uk
Updated
Spotify has said it will add “content advisories” to episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast discussing Covid after the singers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell accused the streaming service of helping to spread Covid misinformation.
The musicians are critical of Rogan, who has recently sparked controversy over comments made by himself and some of his guests about the pandemic.
So, what does the science say about some of Rogan’s most controversial claims?
Find out more here in this handy explainer:
The discussion around Covid becoming endemic becomes even more complicated by very different views about what this translates to in practice, write Deakin University associate professor Hassan Vally and Deakin chair in epidemiology Catherine Bennett in a comment piece for the Guardian:
It’s important to emphasise it doesn’t mean we drop our guard, surrender to the virus or downgrade the threat the virus poses to individuals and the community.
We remain vigilant and respond to surges in cases when they occur, doing what’s needed to keep transmission as low as possible.
Covid becoming endemic doesn’t mean it’s mild or that we give up.
Importantly, a disease being considered endemic doesn’t mean we consider it mild. It just means it remains a part of our lives, and therefore we still protect the vulnerable from severe illness, as we do with other diseases.
It’s crucial we understand living with the virus isn’t the same thing as ignoring the virus. Instead, it represents an adjustment in the way in which we respond to the disease.
Read more here:
Updated
Another 92,000 Covid cases were reported for England on Monday, a steep rise on the day before, after reinfections were included in the statistics for the first time.
Previously daily Covid case figures – which reflect the number of new infections picked up by testing – did not include reinfections for England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, although figures for Wales did, provided the positive tests were more than 42 days apart. In other words, most people were only counted once even if they had caught Covid multiple times.
However, as the pandemic has gone on, the absence of reinfections in case data led to concerns, with experts noting that a previous infection provides little protection against Omicron, while – two years into the pandemic – there is a bigger pool of people who have had Covid at least once before.
Scientists noted that it was also important to include reinfections in order to understand the dynamics of the spread of immune-evasive variants that emerge, while it also sheds light on why some individuals may get infected over and over.
Read more here:
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee says a total of 24 new Covid-19 cases were detected among games-related personnel on 31 January.
Eighteen of the cases were found among new airport arrivals, according to a notice on the Beijing 2022 official website, Reuters reports.
Six others were among those already in the “closed loop” bubble that separates all event personnel from the public, five of whom were classified as either an athlete or a team official, the notice said.
Mainland China meanwhile reported 66 new cases on 31 January, up from 58 a day earlier, the national health authority said.
The National Health Commission in its daily bulletin said 27 of the new cases were local infections, with 39 coming from overseas. Of the local transmissions, 13 were in the province of Zhejiang, with 7 in northern Tianjin and two in the capital Beijing.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, stood at 32, down from 52 a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 106,139, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.
Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech SE are expected to submit an emergency use authorization request as early as Tuesday to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for vaccines for children aged six months to five years, the Washington Post reported (paywalled) on Monday.
Coronavirus vaccines for children younger than five could be available as soon as end-February under a plan that would lead to the potential authorisation of a two-shot regimen in the coming weeks, the Post reported, citing people briefed on the situation.
The report says that the FDA urged the companies to submit the application so that regulators could begin reviewing the two-shot data.
“The idea is, let’s go ahead and start the review of two doses,” the report quoted one of the people familiar with the situation as saying. “If the data holds up in the submission, you could start kids on their primary baseline months earlier than if you don’t do anything until the third-dose data comes in.”
Pfizer, BioNTech and the FDA did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Pfizer said in January it expected the latest results from a clinical trial for kids under the age of five by April, after it amended its study to give a third dose to everybody who’s less than five at least eight weeks after their last vaccination.
The company amended the study because children between the ages of two and four who were given two 3-microgram doses of the vaccine did not have the same immune response that a larger dose of the vaccine generated in older children.
Updated
Afghan journalist Muzhgan Samarqandi has written an open letter regarding the case of Charlotte Bellis, a New Zealand journalist who says she was forced to return to Afghanistan after becoming pregnant in Qatar – where being pregnant and unmarried is illegal – after failing to secure an emergency spot in one of New Zealand’s quarantine hotels.
She writes:
Charlotte says the Taliban have given her a safe haven when she is not welcome in her own country. This is obviously a good headline and good way to make a point. But it is an unhelpful representation of the situation. One commentary on Instagram, reposted by Charlotte, suggested her story represents the truly Muslim acts of the Taliban, which the western media have not shown. This makes me angry.
If a person in power extends privileges to someone who doesn’t threaten their power, it doesn’t mean they are not oppressive or extremist or dangerous.
Read more here:
Updated
Denmark to lift all Covid restrictions
Denmark will on Tuesday becomes the first European Union country to lift all of its Covid restrictions despite record numbers of cases, relying on its high vaccination rate to cope with the milder Omicron variant.
After a first attempt at lifting all its restrictions between September and November, the Scandinavian country is once again ditching its facemasks, Covid passes and limited opening hours for bars and restaurants, AFP reports.
“I’m so happy that this is all going to be over tomorrow. It’s good for life in the city, for nightlife, just to be able to be out longer”, 17-year-old student Thea Skovgaard told AFP the day before the lifting.
Nightclubs reopen on Tuesday, when limits on the number of people allowed at indoor gatherings also come to an end.
Only a few restrictions remain in place at the country’s borders, for unvaccinated travellers arriving from non-Schengen countries.
The easing comes as Denmark registers around 40,000-50,000 new Covid cases a day, or almost one% of the country’s 5.8 million inhabitants.
“We have an extremely high coverage of adults vaccinated with three doses,” epidemiologist Lone Simonsen of the University of Roskilde told AFP.
More than 60% of Danes have received a third dose - one month ahead of health authorities’ schedule - compared to an EU average of just under 45%.
Including those who have recently had Covid, health authorities estimate that 80% of the population are protected against severe forms of the disease.
“With Omicron not being a severe disease for the vaccinated, we believe it is reasonable to lift restrictions”, Simonsen said.
The broad spread of the Omicron variant is also expected to lead to a “more robust and long-lasting immunity”, helping the country fend off future waves, she said.
Two years after the outbreak of Covid-19, the Danish strategy enjoys broad support at home.
In a poll published Monday by daily Politiken, 64% of Danes surveyed said they had faith in the government’s Covid policy.
British foreign secretary Liz Truss tests positive
Liz Truss has tested positive for Covid, shortly after sitting in a packed House of Commons without wearing a mask.
Writing on Twitter on Monday evening, the UK’s foreign secretary said: “I tested positive for Covid this evening. Thankfully I’ve had my three jabs and will be working from home while I isolate.”
After the session in the Commons, during which she gave a statement about Russia, Truss also attended a packed meeting with Boris Johnson, Tory MPs and ministers on Monday evening at Portcullis House in Westminster, where she also did not wear a face mask.
All members of the parliamentary Conservative party were invited to the meeting, with the rooms reportedly being so full that some MPs left early.
Very few Tory MPs, including on the Commons frontbench, wore masks in the Commons on Monday; the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and health secretary, Sajid Javid, were notable exceptions.
Truss had been due to travel to Ukraine with the prime minister on Tuesday.
Updated
Welcome and summary of key developments
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
Denmark on Tuesday becomes the first EU country to lift all of its Covid restrictions despite record numbers of cases, relying on its high vaccination rate to cope with the Omicron variant. After a first attempt at lifting all its restrictions between September and November, the country is once again ditching its face masks, Covid passes and limited opening hours for bars and restaurants.
British foreign secretary Liz Truss has tested positive for Covid, shortly after sitting in a packed House of Commons without wearing a mask. Truss had been due to travel to Ukraine with the prime minister on Tuesday to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Here’s what else has been happening over the past 24 hours:
- Boris Johnson has been left desperately trying to shore up his premiership as detectives were revealed to be investigating 300 photos and 12 events in Downing Street during lockdown, including a party in the UK prime minister’s private flat.
- UK ministers have announced plans to scrap an order forcing all NHS staff in England to get vaccinated against Covid. Health secretary Sajid Javid said the U-turn would prevent the exodus of thousands of health workers.
- New research suggested that the world would be better protected against new Covid variants and there would be substantially fewer deaths in low- and middle-income countries if rich nations donated half of their vaccine doses.
- Justin Trudeau has said that Canadians were disgusted by the behaviour of anti-vaccine protesters, and said he would not be intimidated by those who hurled abuse. His comments came shortly after he tweeted that he had tested positive for the virus.
- Another 92,000 Covid cases were reported for England on Monday, a steep rise on the day before, after reinfections were included in the statistics for the first time.
- A study in Denmark has suggested that the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the more common BA.1 and more able to infect vaccinated people
- The UK government will consult on ending mandatory jabs as condition of employment in health and all social care settings, with a view to revoking the regulations.
- Amnesty International has accused Spanish prosecutors of failing to properly investigate dozens of Covid-related deaths of residents of nursing homes. Amnesty’s Spain director, Esteban Beltrán, said that in some cases authorities closed the investigations without contacting staff or victims’ families.
