Wednesday Summary
Here’s Wednesday’s top headlines on Covid from around the world.
- The US Pentagon is expected to approve the deployment of 700 to 800 unarmed national guard troops to the nation’s capital, as trucker convoys plan protests against pandemic restrictions next week.
- Hong Kong reported a record-breaking 8,674 new Covid infections, as the city state prepares for compulsory testing of its residents.
- South Korea’s prime minister called for calm after a record 170,000 Covid cases, amid warnings that the latest surge had yet to peak.
- Meanwhile, South Korean officials approved Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for children aged five to 11, expanding the country’s immunisation programme in the face of a massive Omicron outbreak.
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Poland will lift most of its restrictions from 1 March, but will continue with mandatory face coverings indoors and isolation rules.
- Iceland will lift all restrictions from Friday.
- Novavax said it has started shipping doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to European Union member states, with France, Austria and Germany expected to be the first to receive shots.
- The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) warned the Caribbean was falling behind in its effort to fight Covid – as only 63% of its eligible population was vaccinated.
- The World Heath Organization (WHO) set up a hub in South Korea to train low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines and is expanding its vaccine project to a further five nations.
- The tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique relaxed its entry requirements for vaccinated travellers.
- The UK reported 39,656 new cases, a 41% drop on two weeks ago today. A further 164 people died from Covid-related causes.
- Meanwhile, fraud and error cost the UK government as much as £16bn across the Covid-19 emergency loan schemes, according to parliament’s spending watchdog.
- Italy will end its Covid state of emergency on 31 March, prime minister Mario Draghi said.
That’s all for the blog today. Bye for now.
• This post was amended on 24 February 2022. The WHO’s new training hub is in South Korea, not South Africa, as earlier posts at 23.02 and 19.04 GMT said.
Updated
Lithuania detected 8,977 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, national broadcaster LRT reports, a 25% fall on the 11,983 positive tests two weeks ago today.
The country’s Omicron wave spiked earlier in February, and has since fallen.
A further 16 people were reported to have died from Covid-related causes, LRT reports, a 6% fall on the 17 deaths on Wednesday two weeks ago.
Lithuania has a death toll of 8,316, the 67th highest worldwide. (The country has the 142nd highest population.)
