Covid live news: Germany to build vaccine reserves for future pandemics; EU adds Japan to safe travel list | World news

The EU has delayed putting the UK on a “white list” of countries from where non-essential travel into the bloc is approved because of concerns about the rise in cases linked to the Delta variant first identified in India.

Japan, which is in an extended state of emergency during which it has enjoyed a sustained reduction in infection cases, has been added to the list, diplomatic sources said. The country is due to host the Olympic Games on 23 July.

The decision in principle was made during a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday. Sources said the UK’s status would be examined again on 14 June.

Daniel Boffey, the Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief, has the full story here:

Lack of effective political leadership has hampered efforts to stop the Covid-19 pandemic in Latin America, where infections are dangerously on the rise again, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said.

While the United States, Canada, and Mexico are reporting overall reductions in Covid-19 cases and deaths, new infections are increasing in the rest of the Americas, PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said.

Colombia is reporting the highest rate of infections in South America, where new cases have nearly tripled in some regions, and Brazil is seeing a rise in new infections and hospitalizations, she said.

But without effective leadership, Latin American countries are failing in their response to the illness.

“Sadly, across our region, we’ve seen misinformation about Covid-19 sow doubt on proven health measures, often in the context of political disputes,” Etienne said in a briefing.

“By stoking controversy where there is none, our leaders are sending mixed messages to the public and standing in the way of effective measures to control the virus,” she said.

Of greatest concern now is Haiti, where despite sharp increases in cases, hospitalisations, and deaths, public health measures required to stop transmission are being largely ignored by the population, Etienne said.

Britain is in talks with AstraZeneca for additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine that will have been modified to better target the Beta coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa, health minister Matt Hancock said.

Britain has previously secured 100 million doses of the vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca.

“We’ve started commercial negotiations with AstraZeneca to secure a variant vaccine: future supplies of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine that have been adapted to tackle the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa,” Hancock said in a speech at the university.

Italy has reported 62 coronavirus deaths and 2,897 cases, according to the latest data.

The United States, Canada, and Mexico are reporting overall reductions in Covid-19 cases and deaths, though overall new infections are on the rise again in the rest of the Americas, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, said.

Colombia is reporting the highest rate of infections in South America, where new cases have nearly tripled in some regions, and Brazil is seeing a rise in new infections and hospitalizations.

Despite sharp increases in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in Haiti, public health measures required to stop transmission there are being largely ignored by the population, Etienne warned.

Britain reported a further 4,330 cases of coronavirus and 12 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to official data.
The total number of people to have received the first dose of a vaccine stood at 39,585,665, the figures showed.

Japan’s prime minister announced Wednesday an additional $800m contribution to the U.N.-backed initiative to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries, a four-fold increase of Japanese funding for the COVAX program.

The pledge by prime minister Yoshihide Suga comes as his government attempts to accelerate vaccinations in Japan, one of the world’s least inoculated countries, only about 50 days before it hosts the Olympics amid a continuing surge in infections.

He spoke as Japan co-sponsored a fundraising event for COVAX with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which helps run the program. The program managers are seeking about $2bn more to reach a target of $8.3bn for its effort to fund free vaccines for low- and middle-income countries around the world.

Global airline body IATA increased pressure on governments to ease travel restrictions on Wednesday, pointing to UK testing data that showed low incidence of Covid-19 in arriving passengers, Reuters reports.

“These data tell us we can do better,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh said, citing a 2.2% positive rate among 365,895 tests carried out in February-May, according to the NHS figures.

Germany plans to pay vaccine manufacturers an annual reservation fee to build up reserve capacity of around 600-700m doses per year to help it fight future pandemics, health minister Jens Spahn has said.

The government plans to launch a call for tenders for so-called pandemic preparedness contracts with a five-year term so that vaccine doses “can be activated quickly if the worst comes to the worst,” Spahn told a news conference.

Manufacturing setbacks and an over-reliance on EU approval for supplies slowed Germany’s rollout of Covid vaccines.

It wants to boost domestic production to ensure it is not deprived of shots in future pandemics, Reuters reports.

The stand-by contracts will help maintain know-how acquired during the pandemic so that next time “we don’t have to ramp up production from zero to 100,” Christoph Krupp, head of the vaccine production task force told reporters.

“We want to bet on several companies and several vaccine types and not just one,” Krupp added.

Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, has appealed to the public to get vaccinated against Covid-19, after data showed the government was far behind its immunisation targets, Reuters reports.

In a televised address, Duterte said:

I invite all our countrymen to be vaccinated at the earliest possible opportunity because this is the most, if not the only way, effective way, to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic. Let us all keep in mind that the vaccine will not only protect you from the virus, it will also protect your loved ones, especially the sick and elderly.

John Wong, a data analyst on the government’s Covid taskforce, said that in the three months since early inoculations started, just 14% of senior citizens and 8% of people with health conditions had received first doses of a vaccine, short of the 21% target.

Wong attributed the slow rollout to limited vaccine supplies, vaccine hesitancy and accessibility problems.

As Reuters reports, the chairman of the Gavi vaccine alliance, Jose Manuel Barroso, has said that a pledging summit secured nearly $2.4bn, bringing total contributions nearly to $9.6bn for the Covax dose-sharing programme to buy vaccines and deliver them to poorer nations (see earlier post).