Coronavirus live news: Merkel will receive AstraZeneca vaccine; Northern Ireland lockdown easing to be unveiled | World news

A coronavirus variant with potentially worrying mutations that was first detected in India has been found in the UK.

In total, 77 cases of the variant, known as B.1.617, have been recorded in the UK up to 14 April, according to the latest update from Public Health England (PHE), released on Thursday. Of these, 73 were recorded in England and 4 in Scotland.

It is the first time PHE has reported the variant in the UK.

The US is preparing for the possibility that a booster shot will be needed between nine to 12 months after people are initially vaccinated against Covid-19, Reuters reports.

While the duration of immunity after vaccination is being studied, booster vaccines could be needed, David Kessler, chief science officer for president Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response task force told a congressional committee meeting.

“The current thinking is those who are more vulnerable will have to go first,” he said.

People in Israel will no longer have to wear masks outdoors starting from Sunday as the number of virus infections plummets, health minister Yuli Edelstein said, AFP reports.

“The rate of infection in Israel is very low thanks to the successful vaccine campaign in Israel, and therefore it is possible to ease (restrictions),” Edelstein said.

He said however that masks will still be required indoors.

Most regions in Portugal will enter the third phase of easing the Covid-19 lockdown next week, but stricter rules will stay in place in municipalities where transmission rates remain high, prime minister Antonio Costa said.

Reuters reports:

These set of measures are neither prizes nor punishments,” Costa told a news conference.

“They are public health measures for the safety of the population, of people.”

Portugal, which imposed a lockdown in January to curb what was then the world’s worst Covid-19 surge, started lifting restrictions last month and has since reopened some schools, restaurant and cafe terraces, museums and hair salons.

Over the last two weeks, people have flocked out of doors to enjoy the warmer spring weather, to see friends and relatives, and enjoy a meal outside after more than two months stuck at home.

From Monday, high schools, universities, cinemas, shopping malls and indoor areas of restaurants will reopen in the vast majority of the 278 municipalities in mainland Portugal but under restrictions designed to reduce the risk of contagion.

Outdoor events, weddings, christenings can also resume but under capacity rules. However, in municipalities where the limit of 120 cases per 100,000 people has been reached, the rules will be different.

The U.N. humanitarian chief has warned that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen is getting even worse with the Covid-19 pandemic “roaring back” in recent weeks.

Associated Press reports:

In an update to the U.N. Security Council, Mark Lowcock said tens of thousands of people already are starving to death, with another five million just a step behind.

In order to stop the “unfolding catastrophe,” Lowcock called for urgent action on protecting civilians, access for humanitarian aid, funding, support for Yemen’s economic and progress toward peace.

In France, there were 38,045 new coronavirus cases on Thursday compared with 43,505 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 5.18 million.

Health ministry data also showed that 5,924 people were in intensive care units on Thursday, up from 5,902 a day earlier, Reuters reports.

Earlier it was announced that the Covid-19 death toll in the country had risen to more than 100,000.

Argentina’s national government and authorities in the capital Buenos Aires are in disagreement over tightened Covid-19 restrictions and the closure of schools in and around the city.

Reuters reports:

The mayor of Buenos Aires slammed the national government over new measures that include a two-week closure of schools and restrictions on movement after 8pm in the populous metropolitan area that is a hot spot for new cases.

“Yesterday, the national government decided to break the mechanism of dialogue and consensus that we had for more than a year,” Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, head of the city government, told a news conference. “I want to be very clear: we were not consulted about any of the measures taken.”

Larreta, part of the political opposition, called for immediate talks with center-left Peronist President Alberto Fernandez and said his administration would take the matter to the country’s supreme court.

Argentina has recorded a total 2.6 million coronavirus infections, with 58,542 deaths.

The US administered 198,317,040 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Thursday morning and distributed 255,400,665 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

The head of Pfizer has said the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, among the priciest on the market, is no more expensive than the cost of a meal and will not be sold to poor countries for a profit.

The head of the US-based company defended the cost of the jabs, which he said are saving lives and can help countries emerge from the pandemic.

Albert Bourla said in an interview with Les Echos in France, Germany’s Handelsblatt, Italy’s Corriere Della Sera and El Mundo in Spain:

Vaccines are very expensive.

They save human lives, they allow economies to reopen, but we sell them at the price of a meal.

Developed jointly with Germany-based BioNTech, the Pfizer vaccine is, along with Moderna, the vaccine that has cost the European Union the most, according to data released several months ago by a member of the Belgian government.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov warned earlier this week that Brussels was facing a huge price hike as it negotiates nearly two billion additional doses of the vaccine for the coming years.

“Pfizer was 12 euros ($14), then it became 15 euros. Contracts are now being signed… at a price of 19.50 euros,” Borissov said on Sunday.

The prices are in sharp contrast to the vaccine produced by British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca, which vowed not to make a profit on its product during the pandemic and sold it to the EU for less than two euros a unit.

Bourla did not confirm the price of the Pfizer vaccine but admitted that it was sold at a higher price to developed countries like those in the EU or the United States.

He said:

In middle-income countries, we sell it for half the price. In poorer countries, including in Africa, we sell it at cost.

However, many observers doubted the Pfizer vaccine was being widely distributed in African countries because the product has to be stored in ultra-cold freezers of about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit) or below.

In Northern Ireland, Stormont’s leaders announced a sweeping range of Covid-19 lockdown relaxations.

The reopening of the tourism and hospitality sectors were fast-tracked as part of a series of measures agreed by ministers on Thursday.

The plan signed off by the devolved executive includes three key relaxation dates, April 23, April 30 and May 24.

The measures were outlined by first minister Arlene Foster and deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill to a special Assembly committee on Thursday evening.
Under the plans, hairdressers can reopen on April 23, pubs and cafes can serve people outdoors from April 30 and indoors from May 24.

Hotels will be able to fully reopen on May 24 as well.
The May 24 date is indicative and subject to another Executive review earlier in that month.

After lengthy discussions through Thursday, ministers brought forward a series of reopening dates they had been initially considering.

With Northern Ireland having marked one million Covid-19 vaccines by last weekend and with other key health and scientific indicators going in the right direction, ministers have agreed the most significant steps out a lockdown that started just after Christmas.

Foster said:

This is a landmark day for Northern Ireland as we step firmly and with confidence on our pathway to recovery.

I am pleased and proud that through our collective efforts we have reached a point where we have established a good level of control over the virus.

We are now entering brighter and better times. This balanced package of relaxations will restore those familiar aspects of everyday life that have been missed dearly.

I urge everyone to stay with us and keep following the health advice so that we can continue with our plans to more fully open up our society over coming weeks.

Turkey recorded 297 deaths due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest daily number since the beginning of the pandemic, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday, bringing the total toll to 35,031.

Data also showed 61,400 new cases were recorded in the same period, bringing the total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,086,957, Reuters reports.

Turkey currently ranks fourth globally in the number of daily cases based on a seven-day average, according to a Reuters tally.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday announced several new restrictions and a “partial closure” for the first two weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to curb the surge in cases.

Scotland’s first minister has said she was “emotional” after receiving her first Covid-19 vaccine, and paid tribute to NHS staff involved in the rollout.

Nicola Sturgeon became one of more than 2.5 million Scots to have received at least one dose of the vaccine on Thursday, being inoculated at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

Allocated the Oxford/AstraZeneca dose, she said it would help to bolster her defence of the jab, which has caused concerns over some very rare instances of blood clots.

Speaking to the PA news agency after her vaccination, the first minister said:

It was totally pain free, I didn’t feel a thing. The lovely woman who vaccinated me made it all really easy.

I guess like many people I felt quite emotional, because it’s so important, this vaccination programme, in helping us all get back to normal.

My message to everybody – as soon as you get the invite to be vaccinated, come forward, be vaccinated, because it’s such an important part of our route back to normality,” she said.

Sturgeon also praised the work of those who are working to vaccinate the population.

She said:

Thoroughly impressed with the well-oiled machine I saw in there.

I just want to say such a huge thank you to everyone across the country who’s delivering this programme – they’re heroes, each and every one of them.

I’m actually quite glad I got AstraZeneca, because there have been concerns raised and I said that I’m confident it’s safe, but now I’m not just saying that, I’ve also had the AstraZeneca vaccine, so I’m glad about that.

Russia has extended a ban on flights to and from Britain until June as a measure against a variant of the coronavirus first detected there.

The news was reported by the Tass news agency on Thursday, citing a statement by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency.

Venezuela has received a batch of 50,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the health minister, Carlos Alvarado, said on Thursday, as Covid-19 cases spike in the South American nation.

Venezuela had previously acquired 250,000 Sputnik V vaccines and 500,000 doses of the shot developed by China’s Sinopharm, which so far have been administered to public officials, health workers, teachers and some senior citizens, Reuters reports.

The new round of vaccines will also be administered to firefighters, civil protection personnel and workers who take oxygen to hospitals, said Alvarado.

“They are not part of the sector health, but they are exposed,” he said.

Venezuela has reported 178,094 cases of the coronavirus and 1,834 deaths, according to official figures.

Ukraine on Thursday launched a vaccination drive to innoculate its athletes against the coronavirus ahead of the 2021 summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A total of 30 athletes set to represent the country in Tokyo received their first jab of China’s CoronaVac vaccine in front of cameras at a hospital in the capital, Kiev.

Daria Tykhova, a 35-year-old sports shooter, said her team was waiting for the vaccine impatiently, hoping to return to their pre-pandemic life.

“Now everything is resuming and I want to have some kind of protection,” Tykhova told AFP.

When the Olympics were postponed in 2020 “it was a tragedy for athletes and coaches”, shooting coach Volodymyr Ivanchuk said.