Coronavirus live: global record 314,835 new India cases; Covid no longer England and Wales leading cause of death | World news

Just under 4.8m lateral flow device tests for Covid-19, or rapid tests, were conducted in England in the week to 14 April, the latest Test and Trace figures show. This figure is up from 4m in the previous week.

The number of LFD tests, which give results in 30 minutes or less without the need for processing in a laboratory, peaked at just in excess of 7.6m in the week to 17 March.

Europe took delivery of, and administered, nearly 17m doses of Covid vaccines last week, according to a regular monitoring report that showed that a total of 116m shots had been given.

A total of 134m doses have been sent to countries in the EU and European Economic Area, working out at 35.9 doses per 100 people, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The figures, as reported by Reuters, were contained in the ECDC’s weekly report , which was published on Thursday and covered the week ending last Sunday.

This letter from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has been shared by Asian News International. The country is in the grip of a vicious second wave and an acute oxygen shortage is raising more fears about its overwhelmed health care system (see earlier post).

Norway is to lend 216,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it has in stock to Sweden and Iceland, the country’s health ministry has said.

On 11 March, Norway suspended the rollout of the vaccine after a small number of younger inoculated people were hospitalised for a combination of blood clots, bleeding and a low count of platelets, some of whom later died.

Sweden and Iceland will be able to receive the doses from Norway for as long as the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout is suspended, Reuters reports.

“We will get the doses we lend back as soon as we ask for it,” health minister Bent Hoie said in a statement.

Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until the evening (UK time). As always, feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.

• India’s desperate Covid situation has worsened. The country has set a new world record for daily recorded infections at 314,835 cases.
• Some hospitals in New Delhi have run out of oxygen, with officials complaining that neighbouring states are refusing to send supplies.
• Australia will reduce the number of its citizens able to return from India and other red-zone countries to contain the risk of more virulent strains of Covid-19 spreading, the government has said.
• Pfizer has said it is in discussions with India, and has committed to make its Covid-19 vaccine available for deployment in the country on a not-for-profit basis.
• The global vaccine-sharing initiative Covax has so far delivered about one in five of the Oxford/AstraZeneca doses it estimated would arrive in countries by May, according to a Guardian analysis, starkly illustrating the cost of exports bans, hoarding and supply shortages on a scheme that represents a key lifeline for many in the developing world.
• There are more concerns in Japan about whether it can really host the Summer Olympics. Tokyo has announced it will not host its motor show in October-November this year because of the global pandemic, and a police officer who was assisting with the Olympic Torch relay at the weekend has tested positive for coronavirus, further denting optimism about the Olympics.
• Coronavirus was no longer the leading cause of death in both England and Wales in March, new figures show. That’s the first time since October.
• Spain’s tourism minister Fernando Valdes has said the country is “desperate to welcome” UK visitors this summer.
• Russia has accepted in principle a request by Thailand to provide the Sputnik V Covid -19 vaccine to the South-east Asian country.
• Singapore’s manpower ministry said authorities were investigating the possibility of Covid-19 re-infections among residents in a migrant workers’ dormitory, after finding about a dozen positive cases in the facility.

That is it from me, Martin Belam. I’ll be back next week. Yohannes Lowe will be here shortly to take you through the rest of the day’s UK and global coronavirus news.

Michael Safi and Ashley Kirk report for us this morning: Revealed – big shortfall in Covax Covid vaccine-sharing scheme:

The global vaccine-sharing initiative Covax has so far delivered about one in five of the Oxford/AstraZeneca doses it estimated would arrive in countries by May, according to a Guardian analysis, starkly illustrating the cost of exports bans, hoarding and supply shortages on a scheme that represents a key lifeline for many in the developing world.

The organisations that run Covax had predicted that countries would receive fewer vaccines that expected after the Indian government restricted exports from its largest manufacturer in response to a catastrophic second wave there, but the figures reveal the shortfall to be severe, leaving many governments scrambling to secure doses elsewhere.

Large countries such as Indonesia and Brazil have so far received about one in 10 of the Oxford/AstraZeneca doses they were expecting by May, while Bangladesh, Mexico, Myanmar and Pakistan are among those that have not received any doses of the vaccine through the program so far.

A handful of countries such as Moldova, Tuvalu, Nauru and Dominica have received the full amount they were allocated, but the vast majority of those in the scheme have so far received a third or less of what they were allocated.

The shortage is leading to panic in countries such as Bangladesh, where a source in the vaccine industry said supplies of Oxford/AstraZeneca doses would run out within a fortnight, with no prospect of an imminent resupply.

“We have already given first doses to 5.7 million people and we have to give them the second dose, but we don’t have any supply,” he said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to media. “How do we immunise those 5.7 million people?”

Read more of Michael Safi and Ashley Kirk’s report: Revealed – big shortfall in Covax Covid vaccine-sharing scheme

New Delhi’s deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia, has said that some hospitals in the city had run out of oxygen, and authorities in neighbouring states were stopping supplies being taken to the capital to save it for their own needs. Harshit Sabarwal reports for the Hindustan Times:

“We’ve been making internal arrangements for now, but it will become tough to save lives after some time,” Sisodia said at a press conference and added he has been receiving emails and messages regarding the shortage.

“Some Delhi hospitals have run out of oxygen completely. They have no options left,” he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader also accused the neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh of blocking Delhi’s oxygen supply.

He accused “governments, officers and police” of not letting oxygen supplies from other states come to Delhi.

Sabarwal reports he questioned why neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were behaving as if they had some dispute with Delhi, and added that all have to be united against the pandemic.

Russia has accepted in principle a request by Thailand to provide the Sputnik V Covid -19 vaccine to the South-east Asian country, a Thai government spokesman, Anucha Burapachaisri, has said.

Details on the amount of vaccine, the price and the timeframe for delivery would be determined in future discussions, Reuters report.

Tokyo will not host its motor show this year because of the global pandemic, organizers said, underscoring Japan’s struggle to contain both a resurgent outbreak and the widening economic fall-out.

Reuters report the cancellation comes as the government is expected to issue a third state of emergency for Tokyo and a number of other prefectures that could last for about two weeks, according to media reports.

The halting of the auto show, a marquee event of the country’s most important industry, is also likely to raise more questions about the government’s insistence that the delayed Tokyo Olympics will go ahead this summer. The show is normally held around late October to early November.

The chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Akio Toyoda, said the group felt it was difficult to provide a safe environment amid surging coronavirus cases.

Such cancellations are bad news for an economy that, like many around the world, has been badly hit by the pandemic. Some analysts said another state of emergency could push Japan back into recession if retailers are asked to close during the Golden Week holidays, which start next week and run through early May.

On the domestic UK front, PA report that coronavirus was no longer the leading cause of death in both England and Wales in March for the first time since October, new figures show.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in both countries in March, accounting for 9.2% of all deaths registered in England and 6.3% in Wales. It was previously the leading cause of death each month from November to February.

The leading cause of death was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in England, accounting for 10.1% of all deaths registered in March.

The new data comes a day after the government said a further 22 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the UK total to 127,327.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 151,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

If it is purely UK news you are after, then my colleague Andrew Sparrow has started our UK live blog for the day over here…

We’ll be continuing here with live coverage of coronavirus developments in the UK around the world.

Another quick one from Reuters here – Hungary is expected to reopen restaurant terraces and shorten its night curfew from Saturday as the vaccination campaign allows for a further reopening of the economy,

Prime minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas told a press briefing that by Friday, 3.5 million Hungarians could be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics have been looking anxiously on for any developments that might further dent confidence in Japan’s ability to host the games in the summer, and they will not be heartened by the news today that a police officer helping with the Olympic Torch relay has become the first participant in the event to be diagnosed with Covid-19.

The man in his 30s tested positive for the virus after working on the relay in Kagawa prefecture on Japan’s southern island of Shikoku, Tokyo 2020 said in a statement.

The officer was guiding traffic in the town of Naoshima on Saturday, and came down with a fever on Sunday, the Asahi Newspaper reported, citing organisers and prefectural police. The man wore a mask and had no contact with runners, the report said.

Reuters note that public support for the Games has waned amid concern the event will exacerbate Covid-19 infections, now battering the country in a fourth wave. Japan’s government is expected to declare a state of emergency, the third in the past year. The 2020 Olympics, already delayed by one year, are due to start in 92 days.