Covid news - Hancock predicts ‘happy and free’ summer as UK sees record day for vaccinations

Hundreds of doctors from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds do not feel fully protected from Covid-19 at work, a study suggests.

The findings came from a survey of 7,776 doctors and medical students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in December.

Of Bame respondents, 72 per cent said they felt only partly protected, or not protected at all from infection, compared with 60 per cent for white respondents.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chairman of the BMA Council, said: “We should not have a situation in this country where health and social care workers, Bame or otherwise, are feeling unsafe or at risk from death or disease in their workplace, especially in the NHS where that work is to save the lives of others.

“It is untenable that a year into his pandemic we are seeing results like this.”

Reporter Thomas Hornall has the full story:

Hundreds of protesters descended on Romania’s health ministry in the wake of a deadly fire at one of the country’s major hospitals for Covid patients which claimed at least five lives.

Demonstrators demanded Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis, the health minister and the head of emergencies step down.

The inferno erupted early on Friday on the ground floor of the Matei Bals hospital in the capital of Bucharest – with more than 100 people forced to evacuate. In the past three months, there have been three hospital fires in Romania.

Maya Oppenheim, our women’s correspondent, has more on this:

More than one in 10 employees were on furlough in Northern Ireland at the end of last year, official statistics show.

Close to half were employed in accommodation provision, food service or wholesale and retail, according to data from HMRC.

The lockdown on all non-essential retail began straight after Christmas.

Dr Lisa Wilson, a senior economist at the Nevin Economic Research Institute, said: “The number of employees on the coronavirus job retention scheme on 31 December in Northern Ireland was just shy of 95,000.

“This equates to about 12 per cent of all employees – indicating just how important the job retention scheme has been at protecting the incomes of a significant proportion of workers through the crisis – and serving as a stark reminder that the security and protection provided by the scheme is the only reason that we have not seen a tidal-wave increase in unemployment.”

Reporter Michael McHugh has the full story:

Vietnam today reported 50 more Covid-19 infections, most linked to a new outbreak that began on Thursday in the northern province of Hai Duong, the ministry of health said. 

The outbreak has spread to at least nine cities and provinces, including economic hub Ho Chi Minh City and capital Hanoi, with 238 locally transmitted infections, the ministry said. 

That has raised the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country to 1,817 with 35 deaths.

Germany’s military is to send medical staff and equipment to Portugal, where space in hospital intensive care units is running out after a surge in coronavirus infections, the defence ministry in Berlin said on Sunday.

Portugal, which said on Saturday that only seven of 850 ICU beds set up for Covid-19 cases on its mainland were vacant, had asked the German government for help.

“We will support Portugal with medical staff and equipment,” a defence ministry spokesperson told Reuters, adding that details were expected to be announced early this week.

Portugal, which has reported 12,179 coronavirus deaths and 711,018 cases, has the world’s highest seven-day rolling average of cases and deaths per capita.

German magazine Der Spiegel said the military planned to send 27 doctors and paramedics to Portugal who were initially supposed to remain there for three weeks, as well as stationary and mobile ventilators and field beds for patients.

Responding to that report, the defence ministry spokesperson said he could not immediately provide any details.

Israel could begin overcoming the coronavirus crisis after fully vaccinating a third of its population, an official said on Sunday, indicating it would take some weeks more than previously thought.

Launching what has become the world’s fastest vaccine rollout on 19 December, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu set protecting Israel’s most vulnerable cohorts – around 24 per cent of 9 million citizens – as the benchmark for a possible reopening of the economy in February.

But a projected mid-January turnaround in curbing the spread of the illness did not transpire. Despite a third national lockdown, cases and deaths have surged among the part of the population that has not yet been vaccinated. Officials blame this on highly communicable foreign variants of the coronavirus.

Asked when he now anticipated a turnaround, deputy health minister Yoav Kisch said: “Our goal is to achieve 5.5 million (fully vaccinated citizens) and I reckon that the moment we cross the 3-to-3.5 million (mark) you will already see change.”

“Everything that the prime minister predicted will happen, possibly with a few weeks’ delay,” he told Kan public radio.

As of Saturday, 1.7 million Israelis had received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine more than a week prior, achieving the maximum 95 per cent protection, the health ministry said.

Around another 1.3 million had either received one dose and were awaiting the second or had received the second dose within the last week and so were not yet designated as fully vaccinated.

Covid-19 is constantly mutating. Most of these mutations are harmless variations of the genetic code, but some pose new and dangerous changes. 

The British, South African, and Brazilian variants of coronavirus are now the most prevalent in the world, but what are these new strains? For Independent TV Samuel Lovett explores how they differ from the original virus.

Complacency around coronavirus restrictions has led to a notable increase in daily cases in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s health minister said today.

Saudi Arabia recorded 270 new infections on Saturday, 105 of them in the capital Riyadh.

The kingdom, the largest among the six Gulf Arab states, has recorded more than 367,800 cases and 6,370 deaths so far, the highest tally in the region. It saw daily infections fall from a peak above 4,000 in June to dip below the 100 mark in early January.

“We have unfortunately in recent days registered a noticeable increase and continued rise in infections. One of the main reasons is gatherings and complacency with precautionary measures,” said health minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah.

“Lack of compliance will force us to take measures to protect society. I ask you to help us preserve the gains we made in combating coronavirus ... This is a very difficult stage.” 

Neighbouring United Arab Emirates, where the total has reached 303,609 cases so far, has seen daily infections triple in the past month following an influx of visitors to the tourism hub last month.

It recorded 2,948 new infections on Sunday, down from a peak of 3,966 last week, and reported 12 deaths for the second day in a row.

Countries in the oil-producing region had largely lifted restrictions, with the exception of mask-wearing in public and social distancing. In addition to Dubai emirate in the UAE, Oman and Bahrain have recently introduced new measures following an uptick in cases.

All Gulf states have launched immunisation campaigns. The UAE and Bahrain rank second and fourth globally on vaccine rollout per head of population.

The government is working on a recovery plan for Britain’s Covid-battered economy, a source said on Sunday, as ministers directed their attention to trying to restore growth for businesses hit hard by the pandemic.  

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have broken with the traditional, pro-market instincts of their Conservative Party and are on course to spend £280bn of public money in the current financial year to support jobs and businesses.

The government source said the finance ministry and cabinet office were working on a recovery plan after The Sunday Times reported that the government would provide a long-term blueprint that is likely to mean high state spending for a decade.

The Sunday Times also said the chancellor would use his 3 March budget to extend government relief, including the furlough job protection scheme, business support loans, cuts in value-added tax, and perhaps the cut to stamp duty on property purchases which is due to expire at the end of March, until the virus is under control.

Earlier this month, a leading British employers group called for another £7.6bn of immediate government help, saying they could not wait until the March budget.

The Sunday Times said Mr Sunak would also announce that the support programmes will be phased out, probably this autumn, in favour of “a plan for jobs” to kick-start employment and a “plan for growth” to promote new industries.

Some 403,463 people have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Wales.

Public Health Wales said 786 second doses have also been given.

In total, 73.8 per cent of those over 80 have received their first dose of the vaccine, along with 74.5 per cent of care home residents and 78.8 per cent of care home staff.