Coronavirus live news: China launches virus passport; Pfizer vaccine works on Brazil variant | World news

Of all the countries to post coronavirus numbers so far today, the Czech Republic reports the highest numbers of infections, with 10,466 new cases and 110 new deaths.

So far the country has reported a total 1,335,815 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the fourth highest rate of infection in the world per million people, according to figures collated by the Worldometers website. Its 22,147 deaths gives the country the world’s third highest per capita death rate from the virus.

Public health authorities in Germany this morning report the country’s smallest rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases since last October.

The number of confirmed cases in Germany by 4,252 to 2,509,445, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed. According to the tally kept by the Worldometers website that is the lowest daily number since 11 October.

The reported death toll rose by 255 to 72,189, the tally showed.

Hello world, this is Damien Gayle picking up the live blog from London, where for the next few hours I’ll be updating you with the latest coronavirus-related news and updates from these shores and beyond.

If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for what we could be covering, please feel free to drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.

According to the most recent data made available by the French health ministry, for the end of February, France was using 24% of its AstraZeneca doses, compared with 82% for vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, and 37% for the Moderna shot.

Reuters reports that this is partly due to logistical bottlenecks, but also because some French people don’t trust the AstraZeneca shot – despite multiple scientific studies that indicate it is safe and effective – according to interviews Reuters conducted with eight people involved in France’s vaccine rollout.

That’s it from me, your faithful blogger, for today.

May I suggest reading this brilliant column (that I wrote):

China has launched a health certificate programme for domestic travellers, leading the world in plans for so-called virus passports, AFP reports.

The digital certificate, which shows a user’s vaccination status and virus test results, is available for Chinese citizens via a programme on Chinese social media platform WeChat that was launched on Monday.

The certificate is being rolled out “to help promote world economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.

However, the international health certificate is available only for use by Chinese citizens and it is not yet mandatory.

The certificate, which is also available in paper form, is thought to be the world’s first known “virus passport”. The US and Britain are among countries considering implementing similar permits. The European Union is also working on a vaccine “green pass” that would allow citizens to travel between member countries and abroad.

China’s programme includes an encrypted QR code that allows each country to obtain a travellers’ health information, state media agency Xinhua reported Monday.

“QR health codes” within WeChat and other Chinese smartphone apps are already required to gain entry to domestic transport and many public spaces in China.

The apps track a user’s location and produce a “green” code – synonymous with good health – if a user has not been in close contact with a confirmed case or has not travelled to a virus hotspot.

The system has sparked privacy concerns and fears it marks an expansion of government surveillance.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• The Covid vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE was able to neutralise a new variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Monday.
• US airlines asked Biden to back Covid travel guidelines. Major US aviation, travel and aerospace groups on Monday joined airline unions in urging the Biden administration to help establish temporary Covid health credentials to boost travel, which has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
• US House will take up Senate’s $1.9tn coronavirus bill by Wednesday – Pelosi. The US House of Representatives will take up by Wednesday the Senate version of the sweeping $1.9tn coronavirus relief package backed by President Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday.
• A Post-Covid consumer spending boom ‘implausible’, said a Treasury official. The prospects for a consumer spending boom after lockdown have been downplayed by a senior Treasury official, amid warnings that wealthier families have saved more than low-paid workers during the pandemic.
• China’s Sinovac jab is effective against Brazil variant, preliminary study suggests. Preliminary data from a study in Brazil indicates that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd is effective against the P1 variant of the virus first discovered in Brazil, a source familiar with the study told Reuters on Monday.
• Japan’s Terumo says it has made a syringe to draw 7 doses from Pfizer vaccine vials. Japan’s Terumo Corp said on Tuesday it has developed a new syringe that can get seven doses out of each vial of Covid vaccine made by Pfizer Inc , at least one more than accessible with existing syringes, Reuters reports.
• Tunisia set to receive first coronavirus jabs. Tunisia said Monday the first coronavirus vaccines were set to arrive to start mass inoculation in the North African nation using Russia’s Sputnik V jabs.
• Greece is mourning its youngest Covid victim, 37-day baby. Greece on Monday mourned a 37-day-old baby, the youngest among the country’s nearly 6,800 Covid-19 victims, AFP reports.“Sadly today we had the pandemic’s youngest victim in our country, an infant that spent 17 of its 37 days fighting the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted.“Today, grief is unbearable,” he said.
• The Dutch Covid curfew was extended, exceptions for vote: PM. The Netherlands will extend its controversial coronavirus curfew until March 31 with exceptions for a general election next week, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday.

Japan’s Terumo Corp said on Tuesday it has developed a new syringe that can get seven doses out of each vial of Covid vaccine made by Pfizer Inc , at least one more than accessible with existing syringes, Reuters reports.

The health ministry approved the design on Friday, and Terumo will begin production at the end of March, a Terumo spokesman told Reuters. The Kyodo News agency, which first reported the development, said Terumo is aiming to make 20 million units this year.

The vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, is shipped in vials initially indicated to hold five doses. Six doses can be drawn with special syringes, call low dead space, which minimise the amount of vaccine left in the syringe after use.

Japan began its Covid inoculation campaign last month, using Pfizer’s vaccine. Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the effort, said on Friday that some shots may go to waste amid a shortage of the specialty syringes.

New Zealand has opened its first large vaccination clinic as it scales up efforts to protect people from the coronavirus, AP reports.

The clinic in south Auckland will initially target household members of border workers. New Zealand has stamped out community spread of the virus and considers border workers and their families the most vulnerable to catching the disease from infectious travellers.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said that initially about 150 people a day will get vaccinated at the clinic, although the numbers will be rapidly increased. Health officials plan to open two more clinics in Auckland over the next few weeks.

“I know a lot of our old people are probably scared of getting the vaccine but getting it today, it doesn’t hurt, and it is important for everybody to get it,” said Denise Fogasavaii, the sister of an Air New Zealand employee who has already been vaccinated.

New Zealand this week announced it plans to use the Pfizer vaccine for all inoculations, and it hopes to complete its vaccination program by the end of the year.

As the Czech Republic struggles to cope with the world’s highest coronavirus infection rate, a tidal wave of disinformation and a bungled government response are hampering vaccination efforts, AFP reports.

From pseudo-scientific videos explaining how vaccines can “change your DNA” to panic-inducing stories of seniors dying en masse after receiving the jab, fake stories have overwhelmed Czech social media, messaging apps and chain mail.

“Czech readers are exposed to lies about the Pfizer vaccine 25 times more than readers in the US,” said Frantisek Vrabel, the founder and CEO of Semantic Visions, which identifies potential disinformation based on the use of language patterns online.

His company, whose clients include the US State Department, monitors about 5,000 disinformation sources in the Czech Republic alone, and over a million worldwide.

The “Czech Elves”, a loosely connected network of several hundred volunteers, have also been keeping track of the biggest fake news spreaders.

“For years, fake news here was dominated by immigration, because it had the potential to scare people,” said Bohumil Kartous, a spokesman for the group.

“Then Covid arrived, and the amount of disinformation just exploded.”

The French Pacific territories of New Caledonia and Wallis & Futuna have been forced into sudden lockdowns with Covid-19 outbreaks across both archipelagoes.

New Caledonia went into an immediate lockdown from midnight Tuesday after nine cases were detected in Noumea, with the source of infection believed to be passengers who had arrived from Wallis & Futuna.

Wallis & Futuna – a collection of islands between Fiji and Samoa – was rushed into a fortnight-long lockdown from Tuesday morning, after testing on Monday revealed 12 coronavirus cases in the community.

Previously, the two territories were the only French territories in the Pacific to remain Covid-free. Travel between the two territories had been unrestricted – because both were Covid-free (outsiders were required to quarantine) – but all flights have now been suspended.

The US House of Representatives will take up by Wednesday the Senate version of the sweeping $1.9tn coronavirus relief package backed by President Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday.

Closing in on final approval of one of the biggest US anti-poverty measures since the 1960s, Democrats aim to enact the massive legislation by Sunday, when enhanced federal unemployment benefits are set to expire.

The Senate passed its version of the bill after a marathon overnight vote on Saturday. The Senate version eliminated or pared back some provisions included in the House bill, which had increased the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and extended expanded jobless assistance through 29 August.

Now that it has passed the Senate, it must be approved again by the House before it can make its way to Biden’s desk and be signed into law.

Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol that the timing of a vote on the House floor “depends on when we get the paper from the Senate.”

“We’d take it up Wednesday morning at the latest,” she said.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman approved a range of initiatives aimed at assisting firms and individuals operating in support of Islamic pilgrimages, Saudi state news agency SPA said late on Monday.

Reuters: The initiatives are aimed at mitigating the financial and economic effects of the Covid pandemic across the sector that provides support for the haj and umrah pilgrimages, SPA said.

They include exempting accommodation facilities from the annual fees for municipal commercial activities’ licenses in the cities of Mecca and Medina, where the Islamic pilgrimages take place.