Mexico’s health ministry on Saturday reported 12,057 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 685 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,241,436 cases and 113,704 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
From canoeing and caving to mountaineering and axe-throwing, outdoor adventures are being banished from the childhood memories of a generation because of coronavirus regulations.
In the UK, outdoor centres that provide environmental education for young people from inner cities, including those who may be deprived or disabled, are warning that they face collapse due to a lack of government support.
Residential outdoor centres – many of them charities, not-for-profit or small, family-run businesses – have been closed since March and will not open again until April 2021 at the earliest, under Department for Education guidelines. Of the 15,000 teachers and instructors employed in the sector, about 6,000 have lost their jobs and several centres have permanently closed:
Brazil releases vaccination plan that covers a quarter of population, no start date
Brazil’s government has presented a Supreme Court justice with a coronavirus immunisation plan that provides initially for only enough shots for about a quarter of the population and does not indicate a start date, AP reports.
The document, which was made public Saturday, was submitted by President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration the previous night to judge Ricardo Lewandoswki, who had ordered the report after an opposition political party filed a lawsuit seeking information on the government’s immunisation plans for the pandemic.
The plan calls for the government to provide immunisation shots for priority groups that amount to about 51 million people, just under 25% of Brazil’s 212 million people. The first of four phases for vaccinating those groups include health workers, people older than 80 and Indigenous peoples.
Signed by the Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, the document says, however, that “the interruption of the circulation of Covid-19 in the national territory depends on a highly effective vaccine” being administered to more than 70% of the population.
No date is given for starting to give out immunisation shots. Brazil’s health regulator, Anvisa, has not yet approved the use of any coronavirus vaccine in the country.
In addition, the plan says that to avoid the collapse of Brazil’s health services, it may be necessary to “maintain social distancing measures for 1 to 2 years” — the type of pandemic restriction that often criticised by Bolsonaro, who argues that economic damage from lockdowns and other pandemic strictures will cause more harm to the country than the illnesses and deaths from the virus.
Australian state of New South Wales marks nine days with no new cases
The Australian state of New South Wales has recorded a ninth straight day without a local Covid-19 case and removed the final restrictions for South Australians entering the state.
The zero locally-acquired infections in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday were accompanied by three cases found in returned travellers in NSW hotel quarantine.
NSW Health on Sunday said in a statement that orders barring entry to those connected to SA’s Parafield cluster were now lifted. NSW is now open to all people in Australia and New Zealand.
However authorities say they remain concerned with falling Covid-19 test numbers, with 9133 tests conducted in the 24-hour reporting period.
They again encouraged NSW residents to seek Covid-19 testing with even the mildest of respiratory symptoms.
“With restrictions eased, borders having reopened and Christmas just two weeks away, it is important we do not drop our guard against the virus,” NSW Health’s Dr Chatu Yapa said on Sunday.
“Don’t wait until Monday to see if your runny nose or sore throat goes away.”
NSW has now marked nine consecutive days of zero locally-acquired cases since a hotel quarantine cleaner last week picked up the virus.
Prior to that diagnosis, NSW went 26 days without a local case, which prompted the opening of the Queensland and WA borders for NSW residents.
NSW Health also on Sunday again implored those in Batemans Bay and southwest Sydney to come forward for testing with even the mildest of symptoms after fragments of the coronavirus were found in sewage.
No Covid-19 patients in NSW are currently in intensive care.
