Here’s a summary of events:
- Global Covid response programme ‘running on fumes’ amid budget shortfall, WHO says
- Canadian truckers block bridge to US as Trudeau demands end to protest
- Hamsters can transmit Covid to humans, data suggests
- Pfizer accused of pandemic profiteering as profits double
- France, Greece and Portugal relax Covid travel restrictions
- Italy to ease mask mandate in most outdoor spaces
- UK recorded 66,183 new Covid-19 daily cases and 314 Covid-related deaths
- England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has written to NHS staff telling them it is their “professional responsibility” to get vaccinated
- Japan reported 155 daily deaths today - a new daily record
- Poland has pushed back indefinitely a deadline for teachers, police, armed forces and firefighters to be vaccinated because it cannot be met
- A quarter of British employers cite long Covid as the main reason behind long-term sickness absences, a survey has found.
- Hundreds of people blocked streets outside New Zealand’s parliament today to protest against vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions, inspired by demonstrations in Ottawa, Canada
- The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has defended his government’s pandemic response over the last two years, citing high economic growth and middling inflation
- Scientists in China say they have developed a new coronavirus test as accurate as a PCR that gives results within four minutes
Updated
Mexico’s health ministry reported 132 more deaths from Covid-19, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country since the pandemic began to 309,884.
Updated
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the half a million Covid-19 deaths recorded since the Omicron variant was discovered is “beyond tragic”.
The WHO’s incident manager Abdi Mahamud said that 130 million cases and 500,000 deaths had been recorded globally since Omicron was declared a variant of concern in late November, reports Agence France-Presse.
Mahamud told a live interaction on the WHO’s social media channels:
In the age of effective vaccines, half a million people dying, it’s really something.
While everyone was saying Omicron is milder, (they) missed the point that half a million people have died since this was detected.
It’s beyond tragic.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said the sheer number of known Omicron cases was “astounding”, while the true number would be much higher.
“It makes the previous peaks look almost flat,” she said.
“We’re still in the middle of this pandemic. Many countries have not passed their peak of Omicron yet.”
She added she was extremely concerned that the number of deaths had increased for several weeks in a row.
“This virus continues to be dangerous,” she said.
Updated
Global Covid response program 'running on fumes' amid budget shortfall
A global initiative to get Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines to poorer nations is “running on fumes” because of a budget shortfall.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other aid groups, the initiative has only received 5% of the donations sought to deliver on its aims this year.
Reuters reports that the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator budgeted $23.4 billion (£17.27 billion) for its efforts from October 2021 to September 2022, of which it hoped $16.8 billion (£12.4 billion) would come in the form of grants from richer countries.
However, so far it has had just $814 million (£601 million) pledged, leaders of the initiative told a media briefing on Tuesday.
The ACT-Accelerator hub encompasses the COVAX initiative, which has focused on equitable access to vaccines. It also involves providing tests and treatments to low and middle-income countries, as well as personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.
In addition to the WHO, the project is backed by organisations including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, The Global Fund, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
WHO’s global ambassador for health financing and former UK prime minister Gordon Brown said: “That’s just a minuscule 5% of what we require. It is time to awaken the conscience of the world.”
Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO official who acts as coordinator for the initiative, said: “The global response is running on fumes.”
On Wednesday, a number of world leaders are set to support publicly the push for more funding, calling for the investment to end the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic this year.
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A further 18 companies were given so-called “VIP lane” access in the rush to supply the UK with an adequate amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the first Covid-19 wave, according to a campaign group.
The Good Law Project said it had been leaked information which suggested the additional firms, which are on top of the 50 acknowledged by the government, were awarded contracts worth almost £1 billion without competition.
REVEALED: Ministers have misled Parliament about the size of the VIP lane 🚨https://t.co/vpkjdI4dEe
— Good Law Project (@GoodLawProject) February 8, 2022
It comes after the high court last month ruled that the government’s use of a so-called “VIP lane” to award millions of pounds’ worth of contracts for protective gear was unlawful, PA Media reports.
And last week, the Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) annual accounts stated that £8.7 billion spent on PPE during the pandemic had been written off, with around £673 million worth of equipment found to be totally unusable.
Declaring that it had discovered a further £984 million in “VIP lane” agreements, Good Law said PPE contracts worth £173 million had been awarded to Chinese suppliers which have been “linked to the Uyghur human rights abuses in Xinjiang”, while another £96 million deal was agreed with a firm that “operated out of a hotel room in Beijing”.
The not-for-profit group said a Hong Kong-based firm was handed a £25 million contract in June 2020, but the details of the agreement with the UK government has yet to be disclosed.
Jo Maugham, director of the project, said: “The Department of Health’s annual report revealed that of every £13 we spent on PPE, £10 was wasted.
“How long must hard-working taxpayers carry the heavy burden of this government’s waste and sleaze?”
Labour’s Angela Rayner said:
We already know in a minister’s own words that the Government was ‘paying dramatically over the odds’ for contracts that lined the pockets of Tory donors and cronies.
Today’s revelation suggests that the so-called ‘VIP lane’ for the politically connected was even bigger than they have admitted.
They must now come clean and tell us the truth about these new contracts, and if ministers have misled Parliament, there must be consequences.
Some of the suppliers may not have been aware they were in the “VIP lane” for PPE deals, Good Law said, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is inaccurate to claim that all of these companies were referred by the High Priority Lane route.
“The purpose of the High Priority Lane was to efficiently prioritise credible offers of PPE, and our efforts have helped deliver over 17.5 billion items of PPE to the frontline to protect healthcare workers during the pandemic.”
Updated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stands by its mask-wearing guidance for pupils aged 5-12 at public schools.
CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky told Reuters on Tuesday:
Right now our CDC guidance has not changed ... We continue to endorse universal masking in schools.
She added that she is “cautiously optimistic” that Covid-19 cases will fall below crisis levels at some point, but “we are not there right now.”
On Monday officials in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, California and Oregon said they plan to lift indoor mask mandates for schools and other public places in the coming weeks.
Walensky noted the US is currently seeing around 290,000 Covid-19 cases each day and higher rates of hospitalisation than it did during the peak of cases caused by the Delta variant in 2021.
Hospital capacity is “one of the most important barometers” for whether Covid-19 should be considered a pandemic-level public health crisis, she said and right now, US hospitals remain “overwhelmed” by Covid-19 cases.
Protests in Canada that have blocked a key bridge to the United States have broadened beyond their original focus on vaccine requirements, the White House said.
Jen Psaki, White House press secretary said:
It is clear these disruptions have broadened in scope beyond the vaccine requirement implementation.
We are of course in touch with our Canadian counterparts.
The busiest land crossing from the United States to Canada remained shut on Tuesday after Canadian truckers blocked lanes on Monday in protest at their government’s pandemic control measures.
While traffic in both directions was initially blocked, US-bound lanes have since reopened, Windsor Police tweeted.
U.S. bound is open at the Ambassador Bridge and can be accessed from the Wyandotte St. West entrance. dg 12833.
— Windsor Police (@WindsorPolice) February 8, 2022
The so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’, which is demanding an end to federal Covid-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border traffic, began blocking the streets of Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on 28 January.
Since Sunday night, police have started slowly taking back control, seizing thousands of litres of fuel and removing an oil tanker truck.
Ottawa deputy police chief Steve Bell said on Tuesday that police have immobilised many of the heavy vehicles taking part in the blockade.
He said about a quarter of the 418 protest trucks in the downtown area have children in them, and police are concerned for their welfare in relation to cold, noise, carbon monoxide risks and access to sanitation.
Canada’s public safety minister Marco Mendicino said he had been in touch with the mayor of Windsor and local legislators about the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge, connecting Detroit, Michigan, with Windsor, Ontario.
He said: “We will continue to work...so that we can keep the supply chains moving across the Ambassador Bridge, as well as the wheels of our economy turning.”
Canada sends 75% of its exports to the United States, and the bridge usually handles around 8,000 trucks a day.
On Monday Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau denounced the demonstrators’ tactics at an emergency debate in the House of Commons.
Trudeau said:
Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives. It has to stop.
New York is considering making outdoor dining a permanent fixture, reports Reuters.
Pavement dining was first allowed in 2020 as a temporary measure to help blunt the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Restaurants were quick to set up makeshift structures, “sheds”, of plywood and plastic sheeting, and many later installed more elaborate structures, some with heaters.
The New York City Council held a hearing on Tuesday to consider the plan to give permanent status to thousands of “streateries” outside of restaurants and bars.
It has the support of the mayor, Eric Adams, and the New York Hospitality Alliance, an industry association.
However, opponents say outside dining created unsanitary conditions, encouraged more rats, drew noise complaints in some neighbourhoods and reduced the number of available parking spaces.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association has complained that the sheds have narrowed streets so much as to delay their response and prevent them from safely raising ladders to windows.
The Coalition United for Equitable Urban Policy, an alliance of local businesses and residents, held a “Chuck the Sheds” protest rally over the weekend.
The 51-member council body will vote on the bill at a later date if it makes it through a committee vote.
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he has tested positive for the coronavirus, but was continuing to work remotely, Reuters reports.
In a Facebook post he wrote: “I feel good, self-isolating, but working.”
Updated
Brazil recorded 177,027 new coronavirus cases and 1,189 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said.
Brazil has registered 26,776,620 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 633,810, according to the ministry.
A Conservative MP has accepted it was incorrect for him to claim more people were dying in road accidents than of Covid-19, reports PA Media.
Former minister Sir Desmond Swayne raised a point of order in the House of Commons to correct the record this evening.
On 14 December, Sir Desmond told a debate on coronavirus restrictions: “Notwithstanding the carnage on our roads, which is certainly killing more people than Covid at the moment, some of us still decide to drive. It is a matter of opinion.”
There were an estimated 1,390 reported road deaths in the year ending June 2021, a smaller number when compared to those people who died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
Sir Desmond told the Commons this evening:
On 14 December in a debate on the Covid regulations, I said that more people were dying in the carnage on the roads than of Covid-19.
I’ve now seen the statistics, that was incorrect. I thought it appropriate to correct the record.
Updated
As more of us are considering heading abroad again, travel restrictions in a number of popular tourist destinations have been relaxed.
France, Portugal and Greece have each updated their entry requirements for fully vaccinated travellers, with changes coming into effect in time for half-term.
Read the full report here:
PA Media reports health secretary Sajid Javid has said there needs to be “more investment in staff” in the NHS.
Javid was speaking during a hospital visit in east London today hours after setting out in the Commons how the NHS would tackle the backlog of care built up during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Asked about what is being done to increase staff and why a workforce plan has not been published, Mr Javid said:
I can not thank staff enough throughout the NHS and social care for how they have handled the huge challenge, probably the biggest in a lifetime, throughout the pandemic. They are all heroes in what they have done.
There needs to be, of course, more investment in staff. The workforce is at the heart of the NHS and that is why we have seen 10,000 more nurses over the last year and 5,000 more doctors.
We have got more doctors and nurses than ever before in the NHS’s history but we will continue to invest, that is also why I have asked the NHS for a long-term workforce plan.
He also spoke of the Government’s commitments to tackle waiting times adding:
What we have committed to is that by 2025 the NHS, in terms of total activity, will be at least 30% more a year than what it was pre-pandemic.
Linda Geddes writes:
Pet hamsters can transmit Covid to humans and are the likely source of a recent outbreak of the Delta variant in Hong Kong, data suggests.
The research confirms fears that a pet shop was the source of a recent Covid outbreak in the city, which has seen at least 50 people infected and led to the culling of more than 2,200 hamsters.
However, virologists emphasised that, although the pet trade could provide a route for viral spread, existing pet hamsters are unlikely to pose a threat to their owners and should not be harmed.
Read the full report here:
Maya Yang writes:
An Arkansas doctor accused of prescribing ivermectin to inmates in his state without their consent has been praised by local officials for a “job well done” despite widespread outrage at his actions.
In January, the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Dr Robert Karas, the physician at Arkansas’s Washington county detention center, on behalf of four inmates who said they were given ivermectin to treat Covid-19 as a form of “medical experiment”.
“Plaintiffs ingested incredibly high doses of a drug that credible medical professionals, the FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all agree is not an effective treatment against Covid-19 and that if given in large doses is dangerous for humans,” the lawsuit said.
Read more here:
Ireland will resume its traditional St Patrick’s Day diplomatic blitz next month, sending 32 ministers to destinations around the world after Covid-19 kept officials at home last year.
Reuters reports that successive Irish governments have used the 17 March holiday to launch trade missions and meet influential politicians.
Last year the engagements were conducted virtually after a pared-back contingent travelled just as Ireland’s Covid-19 outbreak began in 2020.
The 2022 programme includes a meeting with US president Joe Biden, who speaks proudly of his Irish heritage, as well as trips to eight other US cities and countries including Colombia, Chile, Lebanon and South Korea.
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Health secretary Sajid Javid has said that “big, bold and ambitious” targets have been included in the plans of how the NHS would tackle the backlog of care built up during the Covid-19 pandemic.
PA Media reports that earlier Javid had told the Commons that this would include new targets for reducing long waits and getting people checked for illnesses more quickly.
Asked about whether factors such as buildings and personnel would make the targets impractical at the moment, Javid said:
I think it is right to have some targets but of course they need to be big, bold and ambitious but ones that can be met where the NHS rightly feels they are sensible targets, that is what we have today.
This is a plan published by the NHS with the full support and the backing, with investment and in other ways, of the government.
Some people would say ‘why don’t you have more targets for every type of procedure?’ The problem with that would be that you would have too many targets and it might hold the NHS back.
Updated
Uganda is preparing legislation to make Covid-19 jabs mandatory in an effort to tackle low vaccination levels, a senior health official said.
The head of the national immunisation programme, Alfred Driwale, told Reuters:
It is to help prevention of a disease, it’s about prevention of deaths. Considering the impact the pandemic had on the economy this law is needed.
Uganda has a population of about 45 million people but only about 12.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have so far been administered, according to the health ministry.
Legislation is now with parliament and the health committee is scrutinising it.
Julia Kollewe reports that Pfizer has been accused of profiteering off the global pandemic, having made nearly $37bn (£27bn) in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine last year.
This amount makes the Pfizer vaccine one of the most lucrative products in history – and has forecast another bumper year in 2022, with a big boost coming from its Covid-19 pill Paxlovid.
The US drugmaker’s overall revenues in 2021 doubled to $81.3bn, and it expects to make record revenues of $98bn to $102bn this year.
The bumper sales prompted accusations from campaigners of “pandemic profiteering”. The group Global Justice Now said the annual revenue of $81bn was more than the GDP of most countries and accused Pfizer of “ripping off public health systems
You can read the full report on the Guardian below:
The UK government has been accused of using coronavirus vaccine donations to developing countries to cut aid spending “on the sly”.
The PA reports on analysis by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) claimed that by overestimating the cost of providing the vaccines to developing countries, the Government could reduce the amount it spent on aid by around 171 million.
You can read the full report by the PA below.
PA reports:
Ranil Dissanayake, a policy fellow at the CGD, said the move would be “immoral” and “illogical” and claimed it would cut real spending on aid by more than the Government donated to Uganda and Tanzania combined last year.
He said: “The UK has made many bad calls with its aid budget, but this one is truly scandalous: they plan to make a fiscal ‘profit’ on donated vaccines by claiming a larger ODA [official development assistance] value than we paid for them.”
The UK has promised to donate 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries by June 2022, including 80 million AstraZeneca vaccines and 20 million from Johnson and Johnson.
Although the price paid for the vaccines has not been published, both the British Medical Journal and the CGD have estimated the cost to the UK at three dollars per dose for AstraZeneca and between 8.50 dollars and 10 dollars per dose for Johnson and Johnson.
This would give an average of around 4.40 dollars per dose donated by the UK, but proposals being discussed by major donors would allow countries to claim they cost 6.72 dollars per dose when calculating their spending on international aid.
Donors argue that this better reflects the global average price per vaccine, but it is well above the level the UK is likely to have paid and would allow the Government to claim it has spent more on aid than it actually had.
Dissanayake said: “It’s immoral to cut aid because we’re giving away vaccines we bought for ourselves already; it’s illogical to plan public finances to spend 0.5% of GNI of ODA and then to cut it back on the sly like this; and it’s unpopular with MPs across the spectrum.
“Our global partners deserve better than these tricks to minimise our help to them.”
CGD polled MPs on the subject, finding that 92% thought the UK should only claim at most the price paid for the vaccines as aid spending, rather than claiming the higher, global price.
A group of 30 international development organisations have gone further, calling for plans to count vaccine donations towards aid spending to be scrapped entirely.
In a statement on Tuesday, the group, which includes ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children, said: “These vaccine doses were never purchased in the interest of development partners and should not be counted as such. Indeed, excess purchases of doses in a context of limited global supply were directly responsible for denying access to these life-saving tools in developing countries.”
They added: “Tapping into existing ODA budgets to pay for doses never originally intended for developing countries risks, in some cases, diverting funds away from other vital humanitarian and development programmes.”
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been approached for comment.
In the US, the Associated Press reports that fellow Republican conservatives rallied behind a Kansas physician-legislator who’s under investigation by the state medical board, and in this way advancing his measures to protect doctors pursuing potentially dangerous treatments for coronavirus and to weaken childhood vaccination requirements.
The AP reports:
As a Senate health committee member, Senator Mark Steffen successfully pushed a proposal that would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions of the anti-worm medication ivermectin, the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and other drugs for off-label uses as coronavirus treatments. Steffen is among the Republican-controlled Legislature’s biggest vaccine skeptics and a critic of how the federal government have handled the coronavirus pandemic.
Steffen also successfully persuaded the Republican-dominated committee to add a proposal to make it easy for parents to claim religious exemptions from vaccine requirements at schools and day cares. Kansas requires children to be vaccinated against more than a dozen diseases — including polio and measles.
You can read more about this story from the Guardian here:
Italy to ease mask mandate in most outdoor spaces
Italy has lifted coronavirus restrictions which require people to wear masks outdoors under most circumstances in response to an improving coronavirus situation, with Italy’s government also saying that they aim to raise attendance limits at stadiums.
Reuters reports:
Under new rules set by Health Minister Roberto Speranza, from 11 Feb until at least 31 March it will be necessary to wear protective masks only in crowded areas and at indoor public venues.
Earlier, Speranza and Sports Minister Valentina Vezzali said the government aimed to steadily increase the attendance limits at sports stadiums from March 1.
The ministers said in a statement that from that date they intended to raise attendance ceilings to 75% of capacity for outside stadiums and 60% for indoor ones. The limits currently stand at 50% of capacity outside and 35% inside.
Italy’s rate of new COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations has been gradually declining in recent weeks, but the death toll remains stubbornly high, with between 300 and 450 fatalities on most days.
Updated
The European Union’s drug regulator launched a review to evaluate whether the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine can be used as a third booster shot in adolescents aged 12 to 15, even after several countries in the region have already started such a campaign
In its statement made today, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) added that a review of booster shots given to 16- and 17-year-old teenagers was ongoing.
This news comes after Germany’s vaccine committee last month recommended that all children between the ages of 12 and 17 receive a booster, following the initial two-shot course, as infection rates continue to soar among youngsters in particular. Other states in the region followed suit.
Reuters reports:
EMA added on Tuesday that “advice on how vaccinations should be given remains the prerogative” of member states’ advisory groups.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a separate report on Tuesday that findings so far suggest an increase of vaccine effectiveness against infection in adolescents who received a booster compared to adolescents who have recently completed the primary vaccination course.
It added, however, that no data was yet available on the duration of protection from a booster dose and on the additional effectiveness against severe disease.
The ECDC said 10 countries in the European Economic Area, which comprises the 27 EU member states plus Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway, had already recommended a booster dose for those under 18 years of age.
France has reported a total of 105,882 coronavirus deaths in hospital, an increase by 360 compared to the previous day, as well a 235,267 new coronavirus cases.
The country has also reported 3,555 people in intensive care for coronavirus, a decrease of 67.
Updated
Turkey has recorded 111,096 new Covid-19 infections in the space of 24 hours, just below the record daily high from the previous week, as well as its highest daily death toll in months, health ministry data has showed.
Reuters reports that in late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. On Friday, Turkey reported a record 111,157 infections.
Data on Thursday also showed 241 people died due to coronavirus in the same 24-hour period, the highest daily toll since 3 November, while Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged citizens to complete their vaccination and the elderly to exercise more caution.
The UK has delivered a total of 52,447,403 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine, a rise of 10,106 the previous day, have now been delivered in the UK by February 7, the latest Government figures show.
Some 48,617,355 second doses have been delivered, an increase of 22,861.
A combined total of 37,586,043 booster and third doses have been given, a day-on-day rise of 32,627.
Separate totals for booster and third doses are not available.
Italy reported 101,864 COVID-19 related cases on Tuesday, against 41,247 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths rose to 415 from 326.
Italy has registered 149,512 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth highest in the world, Reuters reports.
The country has reported 11.77 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 18,337 on Tuesday, down from 18,675 a day earlier.
UK records 66,183 new cases and 314 Covid-related deaths
A further 314 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the UK total to 158,677, the government said. These figures now include deaths in England following possible reinfections of Covid-19.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 182,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
There were 66,183 cases of Covid-19 reported in the UK on Tuesday, the government said, which includes reinfections in England and Northern Ireland that are more than 90 days after a previous positive test.
The total is based on positive lab-confirmed PCR tests in all four nations of the UK, plus most positive lateral flow tests reported in England and all lateral flow tests reported in Northern Ireland.
Updated
Pfizer made nearly $37bn (£27bn) in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine last year – making it one of the most lucrative products in history – and has forecast another bumper year in 2022, with a big boost coming from its Covid-19 pill Paxlovid, my colleague Julia Kollewe reports.
The US drugmaker’s overall revenues in 2021 doubled to $81.3bn, and it expects to make record revenues of $98bn to $102bn this year.
Albert Bourla, the chairman and chief executive, said that at the start of the pandemic it had “committed to use all of the resources and expertise we had at our disposal to help protect populations globally against this deadly virus”.
“Now, less than two years since we made that commitment, we are proud to say that we have delivered both the first FDA-authorised vaccine against Covid-19 (with our partner, BioNTech) and the first FDA-authorised oral treatment for Covid-19,” he said.
Read the Guardian report here:
Spain scraps outdoor mask rules
Spain is scrapping a mandate to wear masks outdoors, as COVID-19 infection rates drop and hospitals report lower admissions, AP reports.
Mask-wearing will not be necessary outside beginning Thursday, a government spokeswoman said on Tuesday after a weekly Cabinet meeting.
The rule change includes children at school during their breaks outside between classes.
However, masks remain mandatory in indoor public spaces, including public transportation, and when people are unable to keep a safe distance of 1.5 metres (4 feet) between them.
Updated
A decision about whether secondary school pupils in Scotland will continue to have to wear face coverings in class will be made before pupils return after the February break, Nicola Sturgeon said.
The first minister said the Scottish government’s education advisory group was meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue.
Sturgeon said:
The Scottish government will consider carefully any further advice that the sub-group provides, and confirm any decisions as quickly as possible and in advance of the return to school after the February break.
Updated
Scotland is through the worst of the Omicron wave, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said.
In a statement to the Scottish parliament, Sturgeon said:
The situation now remains much more positive than it was at the turn of the year – and thanks to a combination of vaccinations, targeted protective measures and the responsible reaction of the public, it is much more positive than we feared it might be at this stage.
It seems reasonable, based on the data, to conclude that we are now through the worst of this wave of Omicron.
That has enabled the removal of virtually all the additional measures that we introduced in December and a return to normality in much of everyday life.
We are on a good track at this stage. To stay on this track, though, continued care and caution remains necessary.
While much more stable than it was, the virus is still widespread; (coronavirus rate of) one in 30 remains a high level of infection.
The first minister further announced that coronavirus restrictions such as wearing face coverings in schools and shops will remain in place.
Updated
Responding to research published today stating that a quarter of UK employers say Long Covid is one of the main causes of long-term sickness absence among their staff, Layla Moran MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said:
While much of the focus of the past two years has been on fighting the pandemic, the government has paid almost no attention to the severe impact Long Covid will continue to have on both people and the economy.
Long Covid presents a huge workforce challenge, it is crucial that the government recognise it as an occupational disease, provide formal guidance to employers and create a compensation scheme for key workers who are unable to return to work after catching the virus protecting others.
Updated
A judge in Italy ruled that blood from Covid-vaccinated donors is “absolutely safe” after anti-vaccine parents of a boy, in need of an urgent blood transfusion, had refused to receive blood for their child from vaccinated donors.
Last weekend, a couple from Modena, in northern Italy, informed Bologna’s Sant’Orsola hospital that they were “adamant that our child – before undergoing a delicate heart surgery – will only get unvaccinated blood”.
The hospital replied to the request with a note, saying “the surgery cannot be postponed” and that it was “necessary to proceed urgently given the severity of the boy’s pathology”.
On Tuesday, a judge in Modena turned down the parents’ appeal, citing that there were “guarantees of absolute safety in using blood from vaccinated donors”.
The couple’s lawyer said they may appeal, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The lawyer told ANSA that the parents had requested non-vaccinated blood for “religious reasons”.
Updated
In England and Wales, people aged 80 and over are accounting for more deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales than at any point since December 2020, analysis shows.
However, the number of deaths in the current wave of the virus remains well below levels reached during the second wave last winter.
PA Media reports:
Some 856 of the 1,355 of deaths that occurred in the week ending January 21 2022 and which mentioned coronavirus on the death certificate were among over-80s - the equivalent of 63.2%.
This is the highest proportion since the week to December 18 2020, when it stood at 64.0% (2,115 of 3,306 deaths).
The proportion had dropped to nearly half this level during the summer of 2021, dipping to 37.9% in the week to July 2 2021.
It follows a period in November and early December 2021 when the over-80s and people aged 60-79 each accounted for around 43% of deaths.
But a gap opened up sharply at the end of December and widened at the start of this year.
People aged 60 to 79 accounted for 30.7% of deaths in the week to January 21 2022, compared with 63.2% of over-80s.
The last time the gap was this wide was just before Christmas 2020, when the figures were almost identical (30.7% and 64.0% respectively).
Updated
Pfizer has said that it has raised its forecast for full-year sales of its Covid-19 vaccine to about $32bn from $29bn, and said it expects another $22bn from sales of its oral antiviral pill for the disease, Reuters reports.
Updated
The Scottish Conservative party is set to publish a policy paper today, with one of the main recommendations to wind down Scotland’s Test and Protect scheme.
PA Media reports that the “Back to Normality” document will call for the end of contact tracing in the coming months, with funds instead redirected towards bolstering the NHS.
The Scottish Tories also said the performance of Test and Protect has declined in recent months, adding that the requirement for confirmatory PCR tests after a positive lateral flow test being dropped has made the scheme “less useful”.
On 5 January, the day before the change was made, the first minister Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots who receive a positive lateral flow test to report their result online to begin the contact tracing process.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, a Tory health spokesman, said:
“We are urging the government to adopt a new, more targeted approach to Covid.
“We would place a higher emphasis on protecting vulnerable groups and trusting the public, instead of blanket restrictions such as mandating face masks in classrooms.
“One of the key proposals is replacing Test and Protect. It was incredibly useful in earlier stages of the pandemic but it has become increasingly redundant in recent months.
“We are nearing the point where Test and Protect is no longer an effective use of scarce NHS resources.
“As we start to move beyond the pandemic, our approach must adapt to fit the new situation.”
However, the plans have been described as “reckless” by health secretary Humza Yousaf.
“Call from Scot Tories to stop funding Test and Protect at this stage of the pandemic is reckless,” he said on Twitter on Tuesday.
“It is a vital tool in helping us control transmission with testing vital for our future management of the virus. We would oppose any immediate withdrawal of universal testing offer.”
Updated
Germany’s health minister has decried calls from the main opposition party to suspend the implementation of a Covid-19 vaccination mandate for health workers, saying this would send a dangerous signal that authorities are caving to anti-vaccine protests, the Associated Press has reported.
Here is a short summary of the report, and you can find the full report here.
Germany’s parliament in December approved the legislation that will require staff at hospitals and nursing homes to get immunised against the coronavirus, with the main centre-right opposition Union bloc among those supporting it. Under the new law, those workers will need to show they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 by mid-March.
But in recent weeks, some local officials have complained that they lack the resources to implement it and the rules are unclear. On Monday, Bavaria’s conservative governor said he plans not to implement the requirement at least for now, citing concerns about worker shortages.
Updated
Here's a summary of the latest developments...
- England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has written to NHS staff telling them it is their “professional responsibility” to get vaccinated. He tweeted a copy of the letter.
- Japan reported 155 daily deaths today - a new daily record. The country also recorded more than 100,000 new infections, a level it last hit on Saturday.
- Poland has pushed back indefinitely a deadline for teachers, police, armed forces and firefighters to be vaccinated because it cannot be met. Last year, the government said those workers and medics must be vaccinated by 1 March to continue in their jobs.
- A quarter of British employers cite long Covid as the main reason behind long-term sickness absences, a survey has found. Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that 26% of employers include long Covid as a main cause of long-term sickness absence.
- Hundreds of people blocked streets outside New Zealand’s parliament today to protest against vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions, inspired by demonstrations in Ottawa, Canada. The “convoy for freedom” – formed of trucks and campervans – gathered outside the Beehive in Wellington ahead of prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s first speech of the year.
- Deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales have fallen for the first time this year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. There were 1,385 deaths registered in the week ending 28 January mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, down 7% on the previous week.
- The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has defended his government’s pandemic response over the last two years, citing high economic growth and middling inflation. Growth is estimated at 9.2% for the fiscal year ending in March, reports Reuters, and at 8% to 8.5% for the next, following a contraction of 6.6% in 2019/20. Retail inflation is around 5.5%, within the central bank’s target of 2-6%.
- Scientists in China say they have developed a new coronavirus test as accurate as a PCR that gives results within four minutes. Researchers at Fudan university in Shanghai say they have a solution, in the form of a sensor that uses microelectronics to analyse genetic material from swabs.
That’s it from me for today. Handing over now to Tobi Thomas. Thanks for reading.
England's chief medical officer tells NHS staff it's their 'professional responsibility' to get vaccinated
England’s chief medical officer has written to NHS staff telling them it is their “professional responsibility” to get vaccinated.
Prof Chris Whitty tweeted a copy of the letter today, saying:
I have written to NHS colleagues about the professional responsibility to protect patients from Covid-19. This includes getting vaccinated, as the great majority have.
The letter was also signed by chief midwifery officer Prof Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, chief nursing officer Ruth May, and NHS medical director Prof Stephen Powis.
With the Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Midwifery Officer, Medical Directors and others, I have written to NHS colleagues about the professional responsibility to protect patients from COVID-19. This includes getting vaccinated, as the great majority have. pic.twitter.com/1MxfWWP9OQ
— Professor Chris Whitty (@CMO_England) February 8, 2022
It comes after health secretary Sajid Javid told the Commons last month that ministers plan to scrap the legal requirement for frontline NHS staff in England to be vaccinated.
Japan reports record 155 daily Covid deaths
Japan reported 155 daily deaths today – a new daily record.
The country also recorded more than 100,000 new infections, a level it last hit on Saturday, reported Reuters.
Updated
Poland indefinitely pushes back vaccination deadline for all but medical staff
Poland has pushed back indefinitely a deadline for teachers, police, armed forces and firefighters to be vaccinated because it cannot be met.
Last year, the government said those workers and medics must be vaccinated by 1 March to continue in their jobs.
But today health ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz said the pace of vaccination means the deadline cannot be met, reports the Associated Press. The requirement remains only in force for medical staff.
Poland is undergoing its fifth pandemic wave, with 36,000 new cases and nearly 290 Covid-related deaths reported today. 57% of the population of 38 million is fully vaccinated.
Updated
Quarter of UK employers cite long Covid as main cause of long-term absence
A quarter of British employers cite long Covid as the main reason behind long-term sickness absences, a survey has found.
Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that 26% of employers include long Covid as a main cause of long-term sickness absence, reports Reuters.
The study analysed 804 organisations representing more than 4.3 million employees. The CIPD said 46% of the organisations had employees that had experienced long Covid and called for employers to do more to help workers with the condition.
“Long Covid remains a growing issue that employers need to be aware of, and they should take appropriate steps to support employees with the condition,” said Rachel Suff, the CIPD’s senior policy adviser for employment relations.
The UK has reported nearly 18 million Covid cases in total. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that at the start of the year, 1.3 million people were living with self-reported symptoms of long Covid.
Updated
The three-month election campaign for the Philippines’ presidential election started today with a raft of Covid restrictions.
Candidates for president, vice-president and half of the 24-seat Senate are banned from shaking hands, kissing, hugging and tightly packed crowds, reports the Associated Press.
Social media has become a key battleground for the elections on 9 May, amid fears that disinformation could intensify the race.
More than 67 million people have registered to vote.
Updated
Hundreds block streets outside New Zealand parliament, inspired by Ottawa
Hundreds of people blocked streets outside New Zealand’s parliament today to protest against vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions, inspired by demonstrations in Ottawa, Canada.
The “convoy for freedom” – formed of trucks and campervans – gathered outside the Beehive in Wellington ahead of prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s first speech of the year, reports Reuters.
Mostly not wearing masks and holding placards calling for “freedom”, the protesters said they would camp outside parliament until the coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
Ardern said the protesters did not represent the views of the majority. “I think it would be wrong to in any way characterise what we’ve seen outside as a representation of the majority,” she said in a press conference.
“The majority of New Zealanders have done everything they can to keep one another safe.”
In her parliamentary speech earlier in the day, Ardern said the pandemic would not end with Omicron and that the country needed to prepare for more virus variants this year.
Updated
Here’s more on the latest Covid announcement in Hong Kong (see also 07:58) from the Associated Press:
Hong Kong’s leader announced on Tuesday the city’s toughest social-distancing restrictions yet, including unprecedented limits on private gatherings, as new daily cases surge above 600.
Chief executive Carrie Lam said gatherings in private premises of more than two families will be banned starting on Thursday.
Public gatherings will be restricted to two people, and hair salons and places of worship will be closed until 24 February, when the city launches a “vaccine pass” that will require people to show proof of vaccination to enter shopping malls, markets and eateries.
The tightened measures come as the city grapples with a new wave of the coronavirus driven by the omicron variant. Over 600 local cases were reported on Tuesday.
“I appeal to the public to join us in the fight against the virus,” Lam said at a news conference. “Please try to avoid going out as far as possible.”
Hong Kong has aligned itself with China’s “zero-Covid” policy, which aims to totally stamp out outbreaks, as many other countries shift their approach to living with the virus.
Authorities impose lockdowns on residential buildings wherever clusters of infections are identified, and have banned public dining after 6pm.
Lam said that approach would remain in effect until vaccination rates rise. “We will continue to adhere to the current strategy of trying to contain the spread of the virus, or what we call maintaining this dynamic zero regime,” Lam said.
“But when vaccination rates increase, when omicron disappears and other things happen, then of course we will continue to revisit our strategy. But nothing will change our commitment to safeguard the life and the safety of the people of Hong Kong.”
Lam also announced a new round of subsidies worth 26bn Hong Kong dollars ($3.3bn) for businesses and individuals impacted by the pandemic.
Those who are temporarily unemployed due to Covid will receive a one-time payment of $1,300. Frontline workers including cleaners and security guards will receive about $250 a month for five months.
Updated
England and Wales record first weekly fall in deaths this year
By Niamh McIntyre and Georgina Quach
Deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales have fallen for the first time this year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
There were 1,385 deaths registered in the week ending 28 January mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, down 7% on the previous week.
About one in nine (11.2%) deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 28 January mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate. This brings the overall death toll across the UK since the start of the pandemic to over 180,000.
Care home resident deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales have also fallen slightly. There were 333 deaths in the week to 28 January, compared with 363 a week earlier. This takes the total number of care home resident deaths to almost 45,000.
12,401 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week ending 28 Jan 2022.
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) February 8, 2022
This was
▪ 375 fewer than the previous week
▪ 9.3% below the five-year average (1,269 fewer deaths)
➡️ https://t.co/mcmW0Nceit pic.twitter.com/PeXxiN8p20
11.2% of all deaths registered in the week ending 28 Jan 2022 mentioned #COVID19 on the death certificate in England and Wales (1,385 deaths).
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) February 8, 2022
This was a decrease in the number of deaths from the previous week (1,484 deaths, 11.6% of all deaths).
Updated
Indian prime minister defends government's pandemic response
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has defended his government’s pandemic response over the last two years, citing high economic growth and middling inflation.
Growth is estimated at 9.2% for the fiscal year ending in March, reports Reuters, and at 8% to 8.5% for the next, following a contraction of 6.6% in 2019/20. Retail inflation is around 5.5%, within the central bank’s target of 2-6%.
“I want to assure everyone that while the pandemic lasts, we will protect the poor,” Modi told the upper house of parliament, and accused opposition parties of creating panic.
“We have moved further on the growth path,” he said.
India’s official Covid death toll exceeded 504,000 on Wednesday – a figure that some analysts say was reached last year.
Modi has been criticised by the opposition for his handling of the pandemic who have cited that last year the country fell from 94 to to 101 on the Global Hunger Index.
P Chidambaram, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party, said: “Welfare has been thrown to the wind.”
Updated
The world’s largest tourism operator, TUI, has reported a big loss in the last quarter but said passenger numbers have recovered significantly from the impact of the pandemic.
AFP reports that Fritz Joussen, CEO of the German company, said: “The path out of the pandemic is becoming increasingly clear. Demand for travel is high across all markets.”
The company expects passenger numbers for the European winter season to come in at 60-80% of pre-pandemic capacities.
Updated
In the US, a white-tailed deer on Staten Island, in New York, has been infected with Omicron.
It marks the first time that the variant has been reported in wild animals, reports the New York Times.
The newspaper reports that the discovery could fuel fears that the deer, which can be found across the US, could become a “reservoir for the virus and a potential source of new variants”.
The US department of agriculture has reportedly confirmed infections of earlier variants of the virus in 13 states including Arkansas, Maine, New Jersey and Oklahoma.
Updated
Most families want masks in schools – so why did Virginia’s new governor make them optional? Melody Schreiber reports from the US:
Emily Paterson was finally feeling able to relax. Her two sons were now fully vaccinated, and with mask policies in place at their school in northern Virginia she felt safe sending them every day, even as the Omicron variant surged.
Then Virginia’s new governor, Glenn Youngkin, took office on 15 January of this year – and, with his second executive action, he made masks in schools optional.
A Virginia judge has blocked Youngkin’s order for now, allowing school districts to continue to enforce mask mandates in schools.
But the decision “immediately threw the whole state into an uproar”, Paterson said. “It felt really like a slap in the face. We felt really happy that this year wasn’t virtual, and that we could rely on our kids going back to school in person and being safe. So it was pretty shocking.”
The Scottish Conservatives have called for the country’s coronavirus contact tracing system to be shut down.
They said Test and Protect has been “incredibly useful” but lately has becoming “increasingly redundant”, reports the BBC.
Instead, they want it replaced by a cheaper systems and the rest of funds to be distributed across the NHS.
But first minister Nicola Sturgeon said testing is one of the measures that the country is likely “to ask people to follow for longest”.
Updated
Hong Kong to limit social gatherings to two and close churches and hair salons
Hong Kong is to limit social gatherings to maximum two people and close more public spaces including churches and hair salons amid record Covid infections.
Leader Carrie Lam announced today that the government will make HK$26bn available to support people, including small companies hit by the pandemic, reports Reuters.
She also said that existing social distancing measures – including a ban on dining in restaurants after 6pm and the closure of gyms and cinemas – will be extended until 24 February.
It comes after Lam said Hong Kong will stick to a “dynamic zero” Covid strategy to contain the virus, which she said on Monday hit a “shocking” new record of more than 600 infections (see 05:18).
Updated
Chinese scientists develop new Covid test which they say is accurate as a PCR
Scientists in China say they have developed a new coronavirus test as accurate as a PCR test that gives results within four minutes.
PCR tests are seen as the most accurate and sensitive method of checking for Covid, but usually it takes several hours to get results.
Researchers at Fudan university in Shanghai say they have a solution, reports AFP, in the form of a sensor that uses microelectronics to analyse genetic material from swabs.
The findings were published in a peer-reviewed article published on Monday in the Nature Biomedical Engineering journal.
“We implemented an electromechanical biosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 into an integrated and portable prototype device, and show that it detected (virus RNA) in less than four minutes,” the paper said.
The trial took samples from 33 people in Shanghai who were infected with Covid and were also tested using PCRs.
Hi, I’ll be looking after the Covid blog for the next few hours. Please get in touch with any tips or suggestions: miranda.bryant@guardian.co.uk
Updated
For more than a week, the centre of Canada’s capital city has been paralysed by protesters who have blockaded the downtown area with trucks and cars. City police have described the protest as a “siege” and on Sunday the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency.
If you’re a bit confused about how this all began and what’s it all about read on below:
Updated
Get involved: As New Zealand and Australia’s Covid-19 border restrictions ease, we would like to hear from people affected - have you been stranded abroad or not been able to leave to see friends and family? Are you planning a reunion?
Let us know us here:
As New Zealand hits new records for daily case numbers, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said she expects Omicron infections to start peaking in late March.
The country reported 202 cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, following several days of numbers sitting around the 200 mark – including a record 243 cases on Saturday. The past seven days are among the highest weeks of case numbers since the pandemic began.
On Tuesday morning Ardern told RNZ, the national radio broadcaster, that she expected New Zealand’s cases to peak at between 10,000 and 30,000 cases a day.
“It’s widely variable and ultimately the defining feature of where we will peak will be booster uptake. The more people who take a booster, the lower the likelihood of our peak,” she said.
“While there’s uncertainty in case numbers, if you looked at low case profiles in a place like say South Australia and you applied that to New Zealand, you would have something like 10,000 cases a day at its peak.”
Read more here:
Ten million jobs in creative industries worldwide were lost in 2020 as a result of the Covid pandemic, and the increasing digitisation of cultural output means it is harder than ever for artists to make a living, a Unesco report has said.
Covid has led to “an unprecedented crisis in the cultural sector”, said Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of Unesco, the UN’s cultural body, in a foreword to the report. “All over the world, museums, cinemas, theatres and concert halls – places of creation and sharing – have closed their doors …
“What was already a precarious situation for many artists has become unsustainable, threatening creative diversity.”
Although the cultural and creative sector is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, it is also one of the most vulnerable and is often overlooked by public and private investment, said the 328-page report, Reshaping Policies for Creativity.
Read more here:
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organising Committee has said that a total of six new Covid-19 cases were detected among games-related personnel on 7 February, Reuters reports.
No cases were found among new airport arrivals, according to a notice on the Beijing 2022 official website.
All six cases 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 team official, the notice said.
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, today, I’m handing over to my colleague Virginia Harrison.
I leave you with news that the major aluminium-producing Chinese city of Baise has reported its third straight day of rising local Covid-19 infections with the outbreak in the locked-down city likely to compound worries about disruption to supplies of the metal, according to Reuters.
The city of 3.6 million in Guangxi region on the border with Vietnam recorded 64 new confirmed locally transmitted cases on Monday, the National Health Commission reported, up from 37 on Sunday and six on Saturday.
Baise has already ordered residents to stay indoors when not out to buy daily necessities. Non-essential trips in and out of the city have also been banned, under tough national guidelines aimed at quickly quelling Covid outbreaks as they appear.
The city has also suspended non-essential businesses, school and public transport, and delayed opening of ports of entry along its international border. Essential workers require special passes for movement within Baise.
Some of Baise’s alumina production – used in the making of aluminium – has been hit by the Covid restrictions and more producers have seen transport disruptions, according to Antaike, a government-backed consultancy.
Concerns about production disruptions helped lift London aluminium prices to a near four-month high on Tuesday.
Nationwide, China reported 105 new confirmed cases on 7 February, up from 79 a day earlier.
Excluding imported infections, 65 were locally transmitted, with Baise accounting for all but one, according to the National Health Commission, compared with 45 a day earlier.
Overall, China reported 46 new asymptomatic cases, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, compared with 51 infections a day earlier.
There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.
If you’re doing the washing up or on your daily commute and you need something to listen to, check out our Science Weekly podcast, which this week looks at the new Omicron subvariant BA.2.
Canada’s public safety minister has said that US officials should stay out of his country’s domestic affairs, joining other Canadian leaders in pushing back against prominent US Republicans who have offered support for demonstrators protesting Covid-19 restrictions and have besieged central Ottawa for more than a week.
Prominent Republicans including Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton complained after crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it would refund the vast majority of the millions of dollars raised by demonstrators, Associated Press reported.
The site said it cut off funding for protest organisers after determining that their efforts violated the site’s terms of service by engaging in unlawful activity. Ontario provincial premier Doug Ford has called the protest an occupation.
In response, Paxton tweeted: “Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers’ worthy cause.” Texas senator Ted Cruz said on Fox News that “government doesn’t have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates.”
Public safety minister Marco Mendicino shot back: “It is certainly not the concern of the Texas attorney general as to how we in Canada go about our daily lives in accordance with the rule of law.”
“We need to be vigilant about potential foreign interference ... Whatever statements may have been made by some foreign official are neither here nor there. We’re Canadian. We have our own set of laws. We will follow them,” Mendicino said.
Many members of the GOP have made comments supporting the demonstrations, including former president Donald Trump, who called Trudeau a “far left lunatic” who has “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.”
Ottawa declared a state of emergency on Sunday and on Monday the mayor pleaded for almost 2,000 extra police officers to help quell the raucous nightly demonstrations staged by the so-called Freedom Truck Convoy, which has used hundreds of parked trucks to paralyse the Canadian capital’s business district.
The protests have also infuriated people who live around downtown, including neighbourhoods near Parliament Hill, the seat of the federal government.
“Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives,” prime minister Justin Trudeau said in an emergency debate in parliament, while the protest continued outside. “It has to stop.”
Trudeau said everyone was tired of Covid-19 but this was not the way. He said the restrictions wouldn’t last forever and noted that Canada had one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. “Canadians trust science,” Trudeau said.
“A few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are.”
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam has said the Asian financial hub will stick to a “dynamic zero” Covid-19 strategy to contain the virus, Reuters reports, as authorities face their biggest test yet to control a record number of infections.
Lam who was speaking at a weekly news briefing said she would announce further Covid restrictions later in the day after the city saw a “shocking” new record of over 600 infections on Monday.
For now, Lam said, the best option was to adhere to the “dynamic zero” strategy employed by mainland China to suppress all coronavirus outbreaks as soon as possible.
“We should contain the spread of the virus as much and as fast as possible,” she said. “We need your support, we need your cooperation. You only need to stay at home.”
Hong Kong’s stringent coronavirus policies have turned the once top global travel and business hub into one of the world’s most isolated major cities.
The economic and psychological tolls from the hardline approach are rapidly rising, with measures becoming more draconian than those first implemented at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Flights are down around 90%, schools, playgrounds, gyms as well as most other venues are shut. Restaurants close at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT), while most people, including the majority of civil servants, are working from home.
Government quarantine facilities are also nearing their maximum as authorities struggle to keep up with their rigid contact tracing scheme.
Many health experts have said the city’s current strategy of shutting itself off as the rest of the world shifts to living with coronavirus, is unsustainable.
Doctors say mental health is suffering, particularly in families where people are earning less, or children cannot go to school due to the restrictions.
The official Chinese Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, said in an editorial on Monday that a “dynamic zero infection” strategy is the scientific option for Hong Kong.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam has said the Asian financial hub will stick to a “dynamic zero” Covid-19 strategy to contain the virus a day after the city saw a “shocking” new record of over 600 infections. “We should contain the spread of the virus as much and as fast as possible,” she said.
Canada’s public safety minister has said US officials should stay out of his country’s domestic affairs, joining other Canadian leaders in pushing back against prominent Republicans who offered support for demonstrators protesting Covid-19 restrictions who have besieged central Ottawa for more than a week.
Here’s what else has been happening over the past 24 hours:
- In the UK, MPs from all sides have angrily rounded on Boris Johnson and accused him of whipping up political poison after the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, was set upon by protesters who accused him of protecting the paedophile Jimmy Savile. Johnson provoked widespread fury last week when he falsely suggested Starmer had protected Savile during his time as director of public prosecutions.
- Sweden will lift its travel restrictions for foreign nationals travelling to Sweden from Nordic countries and the rest of the European Union and European Economic Area from Wednesday, the government has announced.
- The German government is working on plans to relax coronavirus restrictions after the peak in new cases has passed, most likely by the end of February.
- Australia will open its border for fully vaccinated tourists and all visa holders on 21 February, almost two years after borders were first closed.
- Democratic leaders in the US Congress are holding a moment of silence on Monday to commemorate the 900,000 American lives lost to the Covid-19 pandemic.
-
Turkish prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for former Olympic swimmer Derya Buyukuncu over tweets appearing to express relief that president Recep Tayyip Erdogan tested positive for Covid-19.
- The number of positive Covid-19 cases in the English Premier League, the most watched sports league in the world, has doubled in a week to 22 cases, but with a far higher number of tests being carried out.
- Hong Kong has reported a record 614 cases and many of its residents have begun to crowd supermarkets in an effort to stock up on food and other necessities. One vegetable vendor told Reuters supplies had dropped by 30%.
- Prof John Bell, an Oxford scientist who worked on the AstraZeneca vaccine, has accused scientists and politicians of having “probably killed hundreds of thousands of people” by damaging its reputation.
