Coronavirus Global Updates 16 June ::: China agrees to send 500, 000 doses of vaccine to Malaysia

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Coronavirus Global Updates 16 June ::: China agrees to send 500,000 doses of vaccine to Malaysia

 




 



Zimbabwe COVID19 Update


COVID-19 update: As at 15 June 2021, Zimbabwe had 40 318 confirmed cases, including 37 056 recoveries and 1 637 deaths. To date, a total of 694 730 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19.



 


 

Row as India doubles gap between vaccine doses; North Korea warns of food shortages

 

Companies in Germany will from the end of June no longer be forced to allow working from home, chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff was quoted as saying.

After first introducing a working from home obligation in January, the measure was anchored in emergency temporary legislation that could be reimposed depending on the vaccine rollout and the spread of new variants, Helge Braun told the WirtschaftsWoche weekly.

However, Labour minister Hubertus Heil said in April he was working on legislation to give employees the right to work from home even when the coronavirus crisis is over.

Germany has gradually lifted lockdown measures in the last six weeks as infections have fallen, but many Germans are likely to wish to continue to work from home for at least part of the week.

Reuters reports that at the height of the third wave of the pandemic in March, almost a third of employees in Germany were working from home at least some of the time, but that had fallen to 31% in May, according to the Ifo economic institute.

Codogno, the town where the first domestic transmission of Covid-19 was detected in Italy, has registered zero infections among its inhabitants for the first time since February 2020.

Mattia Maestri, 38, tested positive for coronavirus after he was hospitalised with severe pneumonia in Codogno on 20 February, leading the town and nine others in the Lombardy region, along with one in Veneto, to become the first in Europe to be quarantined. Maestri survived the virus after several weeks in intensive care.

Codogno was at the epicentre of the early stages of the pandemic in Italy before the entire country went into lockdown on 9 March.

“For the first time since that terrible 20 February, Codogno has recorded zero Covid infections among residents,” Francesco Passerini, the town’s mayor, wrote on Facebook. “It’s an important milestone and a further step towards the return to normality for our community. The vaccination campaign continues to progress quickly and we have reached a percentage of 63.15% [of the population vaccinated].”

Meanwhile, the Italian government is reportedly considering extending the state of emergency, which gives it powers to impose coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns if needed. The state of emergency was declared by Giuseppe Conte’s government in January 2020 and has been extended several times since. It is due to expire at the end of July.

Italy registered 1,255 new infections on Tuesday and 63 deaths.

Johnson & Johnson is expected to miss its Covid vaccine supply target to the EU for the second quarter after millions of doses were banned for use in Europe over safety concerns, an EU Commission spokesman said.

Reuters reports that the European drugs regulator last week said J&J doses sent to Europe from a factory in the US would not be used as a precaution after a case of contamination. EMA said in a statement that 17m doses had been forbidden from being used in the bloc.

“Following the non-release of these batches, the company is not expected to be in a position to deliver 55m doses by the end of this quarter,” the EU commission spokesman said.

The EU has ordered a total of 200m doses from J&J, of which 55m were to be delivered by the end of June. The company has so far delivered around 12m doses.

“Johnson & Johnson remains committed to supplying 200m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union, Norway and Iceland and will continue to update the European Commission and member states in a timely manner as we refine delivery timelines,” a spokeswoman for J&J said in a statement.

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading. Mattha Busby here taking over from my colleague Martin Belam. Hope everyone reading is well. I’ll be bringing you updates for the next few hours. Do drop me a line with any tips or thoughts via Twitter or to my email (mattha.busby.freelance at guardian.co.uk).

*	India’s main opposition party, Congress, has questioned the decision by Narendra Modi’s government to double the gap between the doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, asking whether it was prompted by a vaccine shortage.
*	North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned about possible food shortages and called for his people to brace for extended Covid-19 restrictions as he opened a major political conference to discuss national efforts to salvage a broken economy.
*	Authorities in Moscow will make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for 60% of employees in the services sector. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has described the situation in Russia’s capital as “dramatic”, saying there were more than 12,000 people hospitalised with coronavirus.
*	European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visits Lisbon and Madrid today where she will begin approving recovery plans submitted by nations seeking funding from the bloc’s coronavirus recovery fund.
*	New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday 70% of adults in the state have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, a threshold he said the state would celebrate by easing many of its remaining social distancing rules and shooting off fireworks.
*	Singapore is evaluating the timing and scope of the next stage of its easing of coronavirus measures, originally planned for next Monday, after a new coronavirus cluster and cases were detected.
*	Malaysia’s foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein said China has agreed to contribute 500,000 doses of Covid vaccines made by its drugmaker Sinovac.
*	China continues to close in on administering 1bn vaccines – official figures reported by Reuters show that yesterday China administered about 19.8m doses. That takes the overall tally to 923m.
*	An outbreak of Covid-19 in southern China has combined with the rapid reopening of the world economy and a shortage of shipping containers to cause a surge in transport costs that could fuel inflation and cause shortages of goods across the globe.
*	All care home staff in England should be vaccinated, a senior government minister has urged, saying she would not want her own relatives to be looked after by unvaccinated carers.
*	The NHS National Booking Service in England has opened up vaccine shots to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time.
*	A 57-year-old man has been charged after a BBC journalist was confronted and chased by anti-Covid lockdown protesters near Downing Street.
*	A man who lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in Australia, and who works as a driver for international flight crews has tested positive to Covid-19 – and anyone who shared a cinema with him on Sunday has been ordered to isolate for 14 days.

A fraction more on Moscow – authorities in will make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for 60% of employees in the services sector, as coronavirus cases continued to tick up in the Russian capital.

Reuters note that Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the coronavirus situation in the city was developing dramatically and urged people to get vaccinated in an effort to drive down hospitalisations and deaths.




Moscow mayor describes Covid situation in Russia's capital as 'dramatic'
A couple of quick bits from Russia. The official tally of Covid cases has risen again by 13,397. That includes 5,782 new cases in Moscow.


Regular readers will know that there are always some question marks around these numbers. The government coronavirus taskforce said 396 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 127,576. However, the federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and puts the total number of deaths in Russia at over 270,000.

Separately, Reuters reports that Moscow’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, has been addressing the press, and has described the situation in Russia’s capital as “dramatic”, saying there were more than 12,000 people hospitalised with coronavirus.

A man who lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in Australia, and who works as a driver for international flight crews has tested positive to Covid-19 – and anyone who shared a cinema with him on Sunday has been ordered to isolate for 14 days.

The new case was reported by NSW Health on Wednesday afternoon, after the man in his 60s tested positive on a saliva test on Tuesday. The positive result was confirmed by a PCR test.

Health authorities in New South Wales were conducting “urgent investigations into the source of the infection”, a NSW Health statement said. Contact tracing and genomic sequencing was under way.



Singapore may delay next stage of easing Covid measures over new cluster
Another quick Reuters update: Singapore is evaluating the timing and scope of the next stage of its easing of coronavirus measures, originally planned for next Monday, after a new coronavirus cluster and cases were detected, its finance minister said.


The government was studying the situation carefully with public health experts and will provide further updates soon, said Lawrence Wong, finance minister and co-chair of government coronavirus taskforce.

That also seems like it will be bad news for the much-vaunted and repeatedly delayed Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble, which is also under review.


China agrees to send 500,000 doses of vaccine to Malaysia
A quick snap from Reuters here, Malaysia’s foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein said China has agreed to contribute 500,000 doses of Covid vaccines made by its drugmaker Sinovac BioTech to the Southeast Asian country.


“This timely contribution will bolster the vaccination process and assist the ongoing rollout of Malaysia’s national Covid-19 immunisation programme,” Hishammuddin said.

Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK live blog for the day. With parliament set to be debating the delay in the lifting of England’s lockdown restrictions he’ll be covering the UK’s Covid stories. I’ll be continuing to bring you global coronavirus news here.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visits Lisbon and Madrid today where she will begin approving recovery plans submitted by nations seeking funding from the bloc’s coronavirus recovery fund.
“This is a historic achievement,” von der Leyen told the European parliament last week in announcing the imminent activation of the landmark €750bn ($910bn) recovery plan that was drawn up nearly a year ago.

The choice to start in Portugal and Spain is symbolic, AFP suggests.

Portugal, which holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, has made the rapid adoption of these recovery plans a priority following their recommendation by the commission. And the government of Socialist prime minister Antonio Costa set a good precedent by being the first country to submit its own plan in April.

Spain is also a significant choice in that it will be the second-largest beneficiary of the rescue fund after Italy, with Madrid set to receive €140bn (£120bn), half of which will take the form of direct grants and loans.

With both countries hugely dependent on tourism, their economies have been significantly affected.




Questions in India over doubling of gap between AstraZeneca doses
India’s main opposition party, Congress, has questioned the decision by Narendra Modi’s government to double the gap between the doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, asking whether it was prompted by a vaccine shortage.


Reuters yesterday reported that the government had increased the gap without the agreement of the scientific group that it said recommended the move, citing three members of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) advisory body.

Congress leaders, including former party president Rahul Gandhi, said the government was trying to cover up a vaccine shortage. “India needs quick & complete vaccination,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

The AstraZeneca shot accounts for nearly 90% of the 257.5m vaccine doses administered in India, where some states have curtailed vaccination programmes over supply constraints.

The government said that the gap was increased based on scientific evidence and that the issue had been discussed in detail by members of NTAGI as well as its working group on Covid.

“We have a very open and transparent system where decisions are taken on scientific basis,” said NK Arora, chairman of the working group, according to a government statement.

Arora said that the decision to expand the gap to up to 16 weeks had been made to provide “flexibility” for those who may not be able to get the second dose at 12 weeks.

India’s health minister, Harsh Vardhan, said India has a robust mechanism to evaluate data, reiterating that the decision to increase the gap was based on science. “It’s unfortunate that such an important issue is being politicised” he said in a tweet.

A 57-year-old man has been charged after a BBC journalist was confronted and chased by anti-Covid lockdown protesters near Downing Street.
PA Media reports that Martin Hockridge is accused of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards another person with the intention to cause them harassment, alarm or distress.

It comes after footage shared on social media showed demonstrators shouting abuse in the face of Newsnight political editor Nicholas Watt.

Watt, who was wearing his BBC lanyard, was forced to run through the mob beyond a line of police officers as people shouted “traitor” and other abuse near Downing Street on Monday.

Hockridge, of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, is charged under Section 4A of the Public Order Act and is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday 29 June.

London’s Metropolitan police, who were yesterday branded “institutionally corrupt” by a report into the murder of Daniel Morgan, initially said an investigation would be launched into a “number of offences” but that officers “were not in the immediate vicinity of the incident”.

However, following the emergence of another longer video showing police present at the scene, the force said it would also be “reviewing our actions with a view to improving the policing of events”.


All care home staff in England should have Covid vaccine, says minister
All care home staff in England should be vaccinated, a senior government minister has urged, saying she would not want her own relatives to be looked after by unvaccinated carers.


Speaking on behalf of the government on Wednesday, the international trade secretary, Liz Truss, said it was incredibly important for staff to get the jab, though she refused to confirm reports ministers were poised to make it mandatory.

Truss said: “It’s incredibly important that staff in care homes are vaccinated. We have got a hugely vulnerable population in our care homes and making sure that staff are vaccinated is a priority.”

Speaking to Sky News, she refused to prejudge the government’s response to a consultation on the issue. But, pressed for her view if she had a parent in a care home, she said: “I would want the staff to be vaccinated, of course I would, because I would want my parent to be protected.”


All care home staff in England should have Covid vaccine, says minister
In the UK, cabinet minister Liz Truss said the government’s decision on mandatory vaccination for care home staff was “very imminent”. Our health policy editor Denis Campbell had this as an exclusive for us yesterday evening, writing:


Covid vaccinations are to become mandatory for care home staff under plans to be announced by ministers, as they consider extending the move to all NHS staff.

The controversial measure sets up a likely battle with staff in both services and could lead to the government being sued under European human rights law or equalities legislation for breaching the freedom of people who work in caring roles to decide what they put into their bodies.

The Guardian understands that ministers will confirm they are pushing ahead with compulsory vaccination for most of the 1.5 million people working in social care in England, despite employer and staff organisations in the sector warning that it could backfire if workers quit rather than get immunised. Under the plans those working with adults will have 16 weeks to get vaccinated or face losing their jobs.

There’s been some reaction on the airwaves, with Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group (ICG), which represents care homes in Yorkshire, saying he fears people will be put off entering the social care sector if vaccinations become mandatory for workers.

PA Media reports he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

It’s not unexpected, I’m disappointed because I think persuasion is the way forward still because those taking the vaccination has gone up but I also say that I do believe people should be vaccinated, every member of staff should take up the vaccine. But I just think persuasion rather than coercion or compulsion is the way we have to deal with it.

What I’m worried about is the recruitment crisis already in social care, is that we’re frightened that this is going to put more people off coming into social care and that’s going to be difficult. I’m also worried about any legal action against providers, because if you’ve only got 16 weeks and you lose your job where does that put people? We’re already short of staff.

Commentator Allison Pearson is calling for Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance to be “censured by the UK statistics authority”, for using percentages rather than raw numbers, because, as far as I can tell, she is still refusing to grasp the idea that a small number that doubles every few days rapidly becomes a larger number.

For example, at the moment the number of patients with Covid in hospital is, according to UK government data, 1,136.

On 15 September 2020, the number of patients in hospital was at a lower level, at 1,057. By 5 October, due to the rate of increase, that number had reached 3,376. Four weeks later it had reached over 14,000.

That is the scenario that Vallance and Whitty believe a four week delay to get more people in loosening restrictions can avoid again.


Kim Jong Un warns over North Korea food shortages and extended Covid restrictions
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned about possible food shortages and called for his people to brace for extended Covid-19 restrictions as he opened a major political conference to discuss national efforts to salvage a broken economy.


The North’s fragile economy has decayed further amid pandemic border closures, which choked off trade with China, while devastating typhoons and floods last summer decimated crops.

Monitors assessing the situation in North Korea have yet to see signs of mass starvation or major instability, but some analysts say conditions could be aligning for a perfect storm that undercuts food and exchange markets and triggers public panic. The Korea Development Institute, a South Korean government think tank, said last month the North could face food shortages of around a million tons this year.

Kim Tong-Hyung reports for Associated Press that experts widely doubt North Korea’s claim that it has not had a single Covid case, given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border with China, its major ally and economic lifeline.


 

 


 


 


 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2021

 


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