Coronavirus live news: UK PM to end curbs as cases reach January highs; Indonesia says no vaccine, no entry | World news

Parts of Indonesia lack oxygen supplies as the number of critically ill Covid patients who need it increases, the nation’s pandemic response leader said Monday, after dozens of sick people died at a public hospital that ran out of its central supply, AP reports.

“Due to an increase of three to four times the amount (of oxygen) needed, the distribution has been hampered,” said Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the coordinating maritime affairs and investment minister.

The government is asking oxygen producers to dedicate their full supply to medical needs and will import it if needed, Pandjaitan said at the virtual news conference.
This statement comes after Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikit said the government guaranteed oxygen supply for Covid patients on 26 June.

At least 63 Covid patients died during treatment at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital in Yogyakarta city since Saturday — 33 of them during the outage of its central liquid oxygen supply even though the hospital switched to using oxygen cylinders during that period, hospital spokesman Banu Hermawan said.

“Their deteriorating condition contributed the most to their deaths,” Hermawan said.

America’s top infectious disease expert says about 99.2% of recent Covid deaths in the United States involved unvaccinated people. And Dr. Anthony Fauci says “it’s really sad and tragic that most all of these are avoidable and preventable.”

He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” it’s frustrating “where you have a formidable enemy” in the coronavirus and “yet we do have a countermeasure that’s highly, highly effective. And that’s the reason why it’s all the more sad and all the more tragic why it isn’t being completely implemented in this country.”

Fauci cited the reasons for opposition to the vaccine by some Americans, whether it’s “ideological” or whether some “are just fundamentally anti-vax or anti-science.”

He said the country does “have the tools to counter” the pandemic and he’s asking people to “put aside all of those differences and realise that the common enemy is the virus.”

Fauci noted the United States is “very fortunate” that it has “enough vaccines to vaccinate essentially everybody in the country. And there are people throughout the world who would do anything to get vaccines.”

The United States has registered over 605,000 deaths in the pandemic, the highest national toll in the world.

Indonesia is requiring foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated as one of the entry requirements as the country tries to curb the spread of coronavirus, AP reports.

Ganip Warsito, National Task Force for Covid-19 Mitigation Chief, said Sunday that starting on July 6, both foreigners and Indonesian nationals entering the country have to show digital or physical proof that they have been fully vaccinated.

The obligation to show vaccination cards can be excluded in some cases, including diplomatic visas and service visas, and during official visits at ministerial level.

The government is also extending the quarantine time for foreign travelers from five days to eight days.

Indonesia recorded 27,233 new cases and 555 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. It brings the total to 2,284,084 cases and 60,582 death tolls as of Sunday.

Boris Johnson is to announce that the lifting of most remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England will go ahead on 19 July amid a backlash from government scientific advisers who have warned that doing so would be like building new “variant factories”.

Despite cases having risen to their highest level since January 2021, the prime minister is set to press ahead with the final stage of unlocking in two weeks.

In a Downing Street press conference on Monday afternoon, he is expected to announce that, with 86% of adults in the UK having had at least a first jab, the government will move from relying on legal curbs to control people’s behaviour to letting individuals make their own decisions.

Changes to be announced include allowing fully vaccinated adults to travel to amber list countries without having to self-isolate when they return; making the wearing of face masks voluntary, apart from in hospitals and other healthcare settings; and no longer requiring fully vaccinated adults to self-isolate if they have come into contact with an infected person.

Aubrey Allegretti and Linda Geddes report:

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to announce that the lifting of most remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England will go ahead on 19 July amid a backlash from government scientific advisers who have warned that doing so would be like building new “variant factories”.

Meanwhile Indonesia is requiring foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated as one of the entry requirements as the country tries to curb the spread of Covid. Both foreigners and Indonesian nationals entering the country will have to show digital or physical proof that they have been fully vaccinated.

More on these stories in a moment. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• Coronavirus has killed at least 3,972,934 people around the world since it first emerged in China in December 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on Monday set to confirm the fourth and last step to lifting lockdown will go ahead on July 19, despite warnings that doing so would be like building “variant factories”.
• The UK has recorded 24,248 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, according to official figures.There were a further 15 deaths, bringing the overall death toll to 128,222. Meanwhile, 86 % of adults have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 63.8% received both doses.
• The Oakland zoo in northern California has administered an experimental Covid-19 vaccine to animals deemed at highest risk. The two-dose jab has been approved by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and distributed to nearly 70 zoos.
• Brazil has seen recorded 27,783 new Covid-19 cases and 830 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday.The news comes as8tens of thousands took to the streets of the South American country’s biggest cities on Saturday to demand the removal of President Jair Bolsonaro, who they deem responsible for the death of over half a million people.
• Iran announced today it was reimposing coronavirus restrictions on major cities, as the spread of the highly contagious delta variant spurs fears of another devastating surge in the nation, the Associated Press reports.
• Russia has recorded 25,142 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday – the highest number since January 2. The news comes after Covid deaths in the country hit at a record high for five days in a row this week. President Vladimir Putin has for now refrained from calling another lockdown.
• South Africa recorded more than 26,000 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, its highest daily number since the pandemic broke out.
• Bangladesh recorded 153 deaths, its highest daily toll yet, in the 24 hours to this morning, the Dhaka Tribune reports.
• The Luxembourg prime minister, Xavier Bettel, was admitted to hospital on Sunday morning. Bettel tested positive for coronavirus last week.
• Schools in England are “bleeding out” with thousands of teachers having to isolate under a bubble system that is harming the most vulnerable children, ministers have been warned, The Guardian’s Josh Halliday reports.