Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Merkel says British variant more dangerous to children

A variant of the virus first detected in Britain, and now spreading in Germany, is more dangerous to young people, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

"The British mutant, and this is the difference with the spring, is proven to be more dangerous in children and young people so we need to put the protection of schools more front and centre than with the original virus," she told lawmakers.

Mexico reports over 5,700 new cases

Mexico has reported 5,714 new confirmed cases and 579 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 2,208,755 cases and 199,627 deaths, health ministry data showed.

The ministry has said the real number of cases and deaths are likely substantially higher than the confirmed ones.

Italy adds over 21,000 cases

Italy has reported 460 deaths against 551 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 21,267 from 18,765 the day before.

Italy registered 106,339 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world.

The country has reported 3.44 million cases to date.

UK sees 5,600 more cases

The United Kingdom has reported 98 new deaths, down from 112 a day earlier, official daily data showed.

The country reported 5,605 new cases of the disease, up from 5,379 a day earlier.

The data showed that a total 28.65 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine and 2.53 million people had received a second dose.

Turkey reports over 29,700 new infections

Turkey has recorded 29,762 new cases, including asymptomatic ones, in the last 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed.

Turkey's death toll rose by 146 in the last 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 30,462.

Total cases since March, when the first case was identified in Turkey, stood at 3,091,282, the data showed.

Zimbabwe president gets vaccine

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some opposition politicians have received Sinovac's vaccine in the tourist resort of Victoria Falls as part of efforts to encourage citizens to get inoculated.

Zimbabwe has registered vaccines from China, India and Russia for emergency use but none so far from Western manufacturers.

Finland to use AstraZeneca again

Finland will resume using the AstraZeneca vaccine against the virus from Monday, but only for those aged 65 and over, the country's Institute of Health and Welfare has said.

Poland offers vaccines to NATO staff in Brussels

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has confirmed that Poland would be donating vaccines to the staff of NATO headquarters in Brussels as "a gesture of solidarity."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the vaccine gift, calling it a demonstration of the country's commitment to the alliance.

Brazil hoping for surplus US vaccines, says minister

Brazil has "good prospects" of receiving surplus vaccines from the United States, but those surplus doses would only arise "slowly" given US priorities, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said.

In a congressional hearing on efforts to get vaccines to curb Brazil's surging coronavirus outbreak, Araujo said vaccine-producing countries like the United States, India and China had legislation restricting exports of shots and active ingredients.

India delays big exports of AstraZeneca as infections surge

India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to meet demand at home as infections rise, two sources told Reuters.

The move will also affect supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed COVAX vaccine-sharing facility through which more than 180 countries are expected to get doses, one of the sources said.

France to impose virus lockdowns on three more regions

The French government has said that virus lockdowns would be expanded to three more areas, including Lyon, as doctors grapple with a third wave of new cases.

Most businesses in the Rhone, Auge and Nievre departments will have to close and residents stay home except for essential outings, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said after a weekly pandemic crisis meeting chaired by President Emmanuel Macron.

Belgium reverts to strict lockdown as cases spike

Belgium has reintroduced strict lockdown measures in response to a worrying surge of new infections, with the government saying that schools would close and residents would have limited access to non-essential businesses.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the virus variant first identified in Britain is taking a heavy toll on the health of the country's people as confirmed cases increased 40 percent over the last week, and hospital admissions rose 28 percent following a long stable period.

Vietnam seeks to diversify vaccine sources

Vietnam has called for urgent diversification of its sources for vaccines amid global supply problems, as the Southeast Asian country pushes forward with an inoculation program that began earlier this month.

Vietnam's Drug Administration has asked importers to try to secure as soon as possible safe vaccines from more sources, including Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson , Russia's Sputnik V, Moderna and China's Sinovac, the statement said.

Sweden registers over 7,600 new cases

Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, has registered 7,649 new cases, health agency statistics showed.

The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 42 new deaths, taking the total to 13,357. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.

Sweden's death rate per capita is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours' but lower than in several European countries that opted for lockdowns. 

India reports double mutant variant as deaths spike

India has detected a new "double mutant variant" of the novel coronavirus, the health ministry has said, adding to concern as the government struggles with the highest single-day tally of new infections and deaths this year.

Genome sequencing and analysis of samples from Maharashtra state found mutations in the virus that do not match previously catalogued "variants of concern" (VOC), the ministry said in a statement.

Maharashtra is one of India's worst-affected states but the ministry said it was not clear if the new variant was causing an upsurge there or in other states.

"Though VOCs and a new double mutant variant have been found in India, these have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish a direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some states," the ministry said in a statement.

India has already reported several cases of a variant first detected in Britain, as well as ones first found in South Africa and Brazil.

On Wednesday, India reported 47,262 new infections over the previous 24-hour period, the highest since early November, taking its overall tally to 11.7 million. 

Germany to scrap strict Easter virus shutdown

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany's 16 states will reverse their plan to toughen virus shutdown measures over Easter, a government source has told AFP.

The leaders had agreed at a meeting on Monday that almost all shops were to be closed from April 1 to 5, with only grocers allowed to open on Saturday, April 3. 

But at a crisis meeting on Wednesday amid fierce criticism of the measure, the leaders agreed instead to ask the public to stay at home over the Easter weekend, the source said.

Paris-Roubaix cycling race cancelled due to Covid situation

The Paris-Roubaix cycling event will not take place on April 11 as planned due to the Covid-19 situation, Le Parisien paper has reported on its website. 

EU Commission should start talks to buy Sputnik V vaccine, Germany says

The European Commission should hold preparatory talks with member states for possible procurement of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V, a German government source said on Wednesday.

"Such negotiations have not started yet," the source said, saying Germany would welcome starting talks soon.

Russia reports 8,861 new Covid-19 cases, 401 deaths

Russia has reported 8,861 new Covid-19 cases, including 1,431 in Moscow, pushing the national case tally to 4,483,471 since the pandemic began.

The government coronavirus task force said that 401 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing its death toll to 96,219.

France still facing several difficult weeks

France is facing several difficult weeks ahead due to the new spread of the Covid-19 virus, which has led the government to enforce a new lockdown in some parts of the country, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said.

"We still have several difficult weeks ahead of us", he told BFM TV.

The coming month will be "infernal" for the French hospital system due to the third wave of the Covid-19 disease, Jean-Francois Timsit, head of the intensive care unit (ICU) at a Paris hospital, told France Inter radio.

The Pfizer and the AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots have the same efficiency in severe cases of the disease, French infectiologist Odile Launay told RTL radio.

Ukraine reports record high deaths for second day in a row

Ukraine has registered a record daily high of 342 coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours, health minister Maksym Stepanov said.

The previous high of 333 deaths was on Tuesday.

Stepanov said 14,174 new infections were reported over the past 24 hours. Ukraine has reported a total of 1,579,906 coronavirus cases and 30,773 deaths.

China triples output of vaccines from early Feb

China's daily output of Covid-19 vaccines has reached about 5 million doses, more than tripling the 1.5 million-dose daily production rate on Feb. 1, official media said.

China has supplied more than 100 million doses domestically, the Xinhua news agency said on its social media page, citing Xiao Yaqing, the minister of industry and information technology.

A total of 82.85 million vaccine doses were given by Tuesday, China's National Health Commission said. That compares with 74.96 million administered as of the end of Saturday, indicating a significant acceleration of the vaccination drive.

China aims to vaccinate 40% of its 1.4 billion people by the middle of the year, according to state media and a top health adviser.

India reports most Covid-19 deaths this year

India has reported 275 new Covid-19 deaths, the most this year, as a second surge in cases fills up hospital beds in big states such as Maharashtra.

Infections rose by 47,262 in the past 24 hours, the highest since early November, to a total of 11.7 million, data from the health ministry showed. India has recorded the most number of cases after the United States and Brazil.

Total deaths have shot up to 160,441 in India.

Hong Kong suspends vaccinations of two Pfizer/BioNTech batches amid defective packaging

The Hong Kong government has said that it has suspended Covid-19 vaccinations from two batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot while it investigates a report of defective packaging but added it had no reason to believe product safety was at risk.

The government said in a statement it had received a written notice from distributor Fosun Industries regarding "packaging imperfections" and suspended vaccinations as a preventive measure.

Bulgaria reports record-high 4,851 daily cases

Bulgaria has reported 4,851 new cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, its highest daily tally on record, government health data showed.

In total, the Balkan country of 7 million people has recorded 312,741 cases since the start of the pandemic, including 12,307 deaths.

Sweden to end travel ban for people travelling from Norway and Denmark on March 31The Swedish government will on March 31 end the travel ban for people travelling from Norway and Denmark to Sweden as the measure is no longer necessary for reducing the spread of the coronavirus, it said.

All people travelling to Sweden will still need a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country.

"This means, among other things, that Norwegians and Danes can travel to their holiday homes in Sweden and that families and friends across borders can meet each other," Mikael Damberg, Minister of the Interior, told a news conference.

Brazil's daily deaths surpass 3,000 for first time

Brazil's daily Covid-19 death toll has soared past 3,000 for the first time as the hard-hit country struggled to contain a surge of cases that has pushed many hospitals to breaking point.

The health ministry registered a record 3,251 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing Brazil's overall death toll to nearly 299,000 – second only to the United States.

The latest bleak milestone came on the same day President Jair Bolsonaro installed his fourth health minister of the pandemic, facing pressure to change tack after downplaying the virus and flouting expert advice on containing it.

Cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga, 55, took over the post from Eduardo Pazuello, an army general with no medical experience whose handling of Covid-19 was widely criticised.

China reports 10 new mainland cases

Mainland China reported 10 new Covid-19 cases on March 23, up from nine cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Wednesday.

The National Health Commission, in a statement, said all of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to eight from 14 a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 90,125, while the death toll remained at 4,636.

EU to tighten export rules to stop one-way flow of vaccines

The European Commission will tighten its export guidelines to prevent what it sees as an unfair one-way flow of vaccines.

Brussels has been infuriated that Britain has laid claim to vaccines produced at a plant in the Netherlands by AstraZeneca, while the UK-based firm falls short on deliveries promised to the EU.

While negotiations with the British government continue behind the scenes to head off the threat of a general vaccine export ban, the EU is moving to tighten its export rules.

The measure, put in place to monitor exports from EU territory and if necessary to block them, has already been used once to prevent an AstraZeneca shipment leaving Italy for Australia.

But the draft of the updated rule complains of countries preventing exports to the EU "either by law or through contractual or other arrangements concluded with vaccine manufacturers."

Colombia imposes new restrictions to avoid counter third wave

Colombia President Ivan Duque has impose new restrictions on movement and enact nightly curfews in municipalities with high occupancy levels in intensive care units as it tries to avoid a severe third wave of Covid-19.

The South American country has reported more than 2.3 million coronavirus infections and 62,274 deaths. It has administered more than 1.23 million vaccine doses so far.

From Friday to Monday and then from March 31 to April 5, people will be restricted as to when they can enter supermarkets, banks and shopping centers, depending on their national identity card numbers in all municipalities where ICU occupancy exceeds 70 percent.

Restrictions on mobility will also be imposed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. over those dates in municipalities where ICU occupancy tops 70 percent, Duque said.

Argentine economy shrank 9.9% in 2020

Argentina's economy has shrunk by 9.9 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the worst fall in almost 20 years, the national statistics institute said.

The fall - the worst since GDP plunged by 10.9 percent in 2002 - was nonetheless not as bad as the 11.8 percent drop projected by the IMF.

The worst affected industries were hotels and restaurants (down 49.2 percent), community, social and personal services (-38.9) and construction (-22.6).

Fishing (-20.9), domestic services (-18.6), transport and communications (-17), and mining exploitation (-10.5) were also hit hard.

Manufacturing wasn't as badly hit but still shrank by 7.7 percent.

On the flip side, financial mediation grew by 2.1 percent and electricity, gas and water saw an increase of 0.9 percent.

The worst period in 2020 was between April and May when measures to restrict the spread of the coronavirus were at their strictest.