Thursday, January 28, 2021:

First cases of South Africa coronavirus variant detected in US

State health officials in South Carolina said they found two cases of Covid-19 linked to a more transmissible coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, the first cases of the mutated virus discovered in the United Sates.

Viruses are constantly changing, but the presence of the South African variant in the United States is especially concerning because several laboratory studies have shown that it reduces vaccine effectiveness.

So far, vaccines made by Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc/BioNTech still appear protective against this variant of the coronavirus, but the companies this week said they are considering making new versions of their shots just in case. 

With new record virus deaths, Portugal curbs travel

Portugal extended a nationwide lockdown until mid-February and announced curbs on international travel, as Prime Minister Antonio Costa accepted blame for the world's worst coronavirus surge, with hospitals on the verge of being overrun.

With a population of 10 million, Portugal reported a record 303 Covid-19 deaths and 16,432 new cases, and now has the world's highest per capita seven-day averages of both new cases and deaths.

Costa told TVI broadcaster overnight the situation was "not bad, but terrible ... and we'll face this worst moment for a few more weeks".

Italy reports 492 coronavirus deaths, 14,372 new cases

Italy reported 492 coronavirus-related deaths, up from 467 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 14,372 from 15,204.

Some 275,179 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, against a previous 293,770, the health ministry said.

Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 20,778, compared with 21,161 a day earlier.

Too early to ease virus curbs in Europe, says WHO

The World Health Organization's European branch said it is too early to ease virus restrictions in Europe despite a drop in new cases in most countries.

Hans Kluge, the WHO's regional director for Europe, said 30 of the WHO European region's 53 countries had "seen a significant decrease in 14-day cumulative incidence."

"Yet, transmission rates across Europe are still very high, impacting health systems and straining services, making it too early to ease up," Kluge told an online press conference.

The regional director also noted that since only three percent of people in the region had already had a confirmed infection, areas that had been "hit badly once can be hit again."

Kluge described the current situation as a "pandemic paradox", noting that while the rollout of vaccines offered "remarkable hope... newly emerging variants of concern are presenting greater uncertainty and risk."

UK records dip in Covid deaths, rise in cases

The United Kingdom recorded a further 1,239 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test, down from 1,725 the day before, and a further 28,680 cases of the disease, an increase from a day earlier.

Official data also showed that 7.45 million people have been given the first dose of a vaccine, up from a figure of 7.16 million people announced a day earlier.

Turkey reports over 7,200 new coronavirus cases

Turkey reported over 7,200 new coronavirus cases, according to the Health Ministry data.

A total of 7,279 cases, including 670 symptomatic patients, were confirmed across the country, the data showed.

Turkey's overall case tally is over 2.45 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 25,605, with 129 fatalities over the past day.

The latest figures show that the number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition stands at 1,751.

Morocco starts coronavirus vaccination campaign

Morocco started a national coronavirus vaccination campaign after receiving vaccine shipments from AstraZeneca and Sinopharm, state media said.

Inaugurating the campaign, King Mohammed was given the vaccine at his palace in Fez, the state news agency MAP said.

Morocco has received 2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and 500,000 doses of a vaccine made by China’s Sinopharm. 

It began distributing them to centres around the country this week.

The palace said vaccinations would be available to all Moroccans over the age of 17. 

Health, security and teaching staff will receive the first shots

Britain wants the vaccines it has ordered

Britain wants to ensure that it receives all the vaccines it has ordered and paid for, Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove said on after the European Union asked AstraZeneca if it could divert supplies from the United Kingdom.

"I think we need to make sure that the vaccine supply that has been bought and paid for, procured for those in the UK, is delivered," Gove told LBC Radio.

"But of course, we're always going to work with our friends and neighbours, we have to make sure that we can do everything we can to help them."

Russia reports 19,138 new virus cases, 575 deaths

Russia reported 19,138 new Covid-19 cases, including 2,897 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 3,793,810 since the pandemic began.

Authorities said 575 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 71,651.

WHO-led team in Wuhan probing Covid origins, leaves quarantine hotel

A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the pandemic left its quarantine hotel to begin fieldwork, two weeks after arriving in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus emerged in late 2019.

The team boarded a bus and departed the hotel shortly after 3 pm local time (0700 GMT) without speaking to journalists. 

Taiwan says has asked Germany to help obtain vaccines

Taiwan's Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said that she had met with Germany's de facto ambassador in Taipei and asked him for Germany's help for Taiwan to obtain Covid-19 vaccines.

Germany, in a letter from its Economy Minister Peter Altmaier to Wang, has asked Taiwan to persuade Taiwanese manufacturers to help ease a shortage of semiconductor chips in the auto sector which is hampering its fledgling economic recovery from the pandemic. 

German minister sees vaccine shortage well into April

Germany's health minister expects the current shortage of coronavirus vaccines to continue well into April, he said as the government faced new criticism over the pace of its vaccination programme.

"We will still have at least 10 tough weeks with a shortage of vaccine," Jens Spahn said in a Tweet, adding that he wanted to call a summit of federal and regional leaders in Germany to discuss vaccinations.

More rules for returning New Zealand travellers

Travellers returning to New Zealand will face stricter rules at quarantine hotels as health authorities investigate how up to three people got infected with the coronavirus while isolating at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel.

The people were released before testing positive and were potentially contagious, but so far testing has shown no evidence the virus has spread in the community. New Zealand has managed to stamp out community transmission of the virus.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that as an interim measure, travellers would need to stay in their hotel rooms for the final days of their 14-day mandatory quarantine, and would also face stricter controls around leaving their rooms at other times.

South Korea to begin Covid-19 vaccinations for general public 

South Korea said it would begin Covid-19 vaccinations for the general public in the third quarter of this year, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a news briefing.

Inoculations would begin in February starting with key groups, including medical workers and the elderly in nursing homes, Jeong said.

The country said it aimed to reach "herd immunity" levels through mass vaccinations by November. 

Brazil's Covid-19 response worst, New Zealand's best – study

Brazil's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been ranked the world's worst, while New Zealand topped the class, according to research published by a leading Australian think tank. 

Sydney's Lowy Institute assessed almost 100 countries on six criteria, including confirmed cases, deaths and testing metrics. 

Aside from New Zealand – which has largely kept the virus at bay with border closures and "go early, go hard" lockdowns and testing regimes – Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka made the top 10 for their responses.

In bottom place at number 98 was Brazil, closely followed by Mexico, Colombia, Iran and the United States. 

Philippine regulator approves emergency use of AstraZeneca vaccine

The Philippines' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the emergency use of AstraZeneca PLC's Covid-19 vaccine, the second to be approved in the Southeast Asian nation.

The known and potential benefits of AstraZeneca's vaccine outweighed the risks to date, FDA chief Rolando Enrique Domingo told a news conference.

The Philippines' FDA has previously approved Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine. Covid-19 vaccines from Russia's Gamaleya, China's Sinovac Biotech and India's Bharat Biotech are awaiting approval.

AstraZeneca to produce 90 mln vaccine shots in Japan 

AstraZeneca Plc will make more than 90 million coronavirus vaccine shots in Japan, the top government spokesman said, as concerns mount over whether the country will have enough doses to begin its delayed inoculation campaign.

The British company confirmed to Japan's health ministry it will make the bulk of the vaccines within the Asian nation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.

Tokyo Olympic test event postponed over virus restrictions

The first Tokyo Olympics test event of 2021 has been postponed because of travel restrictions under Japan's coronavirus state of emergency, organisers confirmed.

The artistic swimming event will double as the sport's final qualifier for the virus-postponed Games. It was due to be held on March 4-7 in Tokyo but will now take place two months later.

Tokyo 2020 organisers said a decision to delay it had been taken for reasons including "ensuring the fairest possible conditions for athletes to participate" and ongoing entry restrictions in Japan.

Foreigners without face masks punished with push-ups in Bali

Foreigners caught not wearing face masks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali are being subject to an unusual punishment: push-ups.

Video footage circulating on social media this week shows tourists in T-shirts and shorts being made to do the exercise in sweltering tropical heat as masked security officials stood over them.

Bali authorities made wearing a face mask in public mandatory last year as Indonesia battled a raging Covid-19 outbreak.

In recent days, however, scores of foreigners have been caught without face coverings, said security official Gusti Agung Ketut Suryanegara.

New Zealand confirms two more virus cases in community

New Zealand confirmed two new cases of the more virulent South African Covid-19 strain in the community, as investigators scrambled to determine how the virus breached border controls.

Health officials said the pair, an adult and child, caught the virus in the same quarantine facility as a woman who tested positive over the weekend, ending a run of more than two months with no cases in the community.

They said the facility – the Pullman Hotel in Auckland -- was allowing no quarantine arrivals or departures as teams examine how the infection spread.

English Covid-19 infections starting to fall, but prevalence still high, study finds

The number of Covid-19 infections in England is starting to fall, possibly reflecting the impact of a new lockdown, but cases are not coming down quickly enough and prevalence remains very high, a large study has showed.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier indicated that the Covid-19 lockdown in England would last until at least March 8, dashing any lingering hopes that schools would be able to fully reopen in February.

The Imperial College London study found that the numbers infected with coronavirus are at their highest since the study began last May.

The authors of the study, which is known as REACT-1, said they had found that any effect of the English lockdown, introduced on January 5, had been slow in lowering prevalence of infections, with the impact uneven across regions.

The United Kingdom as a whole has recorded 101,887 deaths from Covid-19 – the world's fifth-highest official toll.

Mexico reports 17,944 new coronavirus cases, 1,623 deaths

Mexico's health ministry has reported 17,944 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 1,623 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,806,849 cases and 153,639 deaths.

The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases. 

Mexico, one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, released new figures showing that the death toll was far higher than first reported for much of last year.

The figure is more than 68 percent higher than the 64,414 deaths from the new coronavirus reported at the time by the health ministry for the same period.

China reports 54 new Covid-19 cases in mainland vs 75 a day earlier

China has reported 54 new Covid-19 cases in the mainland, down from 75 cases reported a day earlier, the national health authority said.

The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 41 of the new cases were locally transmitted infections compared with 55 a day earlier. The number of asymptomatic infections, which China does not classify as confirmed Covid-19 cases, fell to 28 from 61 a day earlier.

The total number of Covid-19 cases reported in mainland China now stands at 89,326, while the death to ll remained unchanged at 4,636.

Vietnam reports first two locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 in 55 days

Vietnam's health ministry has confirmed its first two locally transmitted Covid-19 cases for nearly two months.

The latest patients include a support staff worker at Van Don international airport who was responsible for taking infected passengers from abroad to Covid-19 quarantine facilities, and a factory worker who came into contact with a Vietnamese national who later tested positive for the new UK variant of the virus upon arrival in Japan. 

Australian state borders to reopen with zero local virus cases

Australia's most populous state of New South Wales has recorded its 11th day of zero local coronavirus cases, allowing neighbouring Queensland state to lift border restrictions while Victoria state also hinted at relaxing travel. Australian states imposed quarantine or hard border restrictions for travellers from New South Wales (NSW) after an outbreak in Sydney in late December, throwing Christmas holiday plans of thousands of Australians into chaos.

The Sydney clusters have now been curbed, giving other states the confidence to reopen borders. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said her state would welcome NSW residents from Febraury1.

Regeneron works on UK, S.African Covid variants: company

Regeneron's synthetic antibody treatment remains effective against the British and South African variants of the novel coronavirus, the US biotechnology company announced.

The therapy used on ex-president Donald Trump has had emergency approval since November for people with mild to moderate symptoms and a high risk of becoming seriously ill.

REGEN-COV – featuring potent neutralizing antibodies called imdevimab and casirivimab – remained effective against both variants, the company said in a statement, although casirivimab's potency against the South African variant was "reduced."

Colombia restricts flights to and from Brazil over new coronavirus strain

Colombia will restrict flights to and from Brazil for a month to prevent the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus circulating there, President Ivan Duque said.

Monitoring at the border between Brazil, Latin America's largest country, and Colombia will also be increased, the president said.

"As a preventative measure, for a period of 30 days while all observations are carried out, restrictive measures will be taken on flights from Colombia to Brazil and from Brazil to Colombia," Duque said.