Coronavirus live – as it happened: UK passes 150,000 officially recorded Covid deaths; Sweden’s crown princess tests positive

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Brazil reported 49,303 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 115 deaths from the virus, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The South American country has now registered 22,499,525 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 619,937, according to ministry data.

Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll trails only that of the US and Russia, according to Reuters calculations.

Since a hacker attack on 10 December, some ministry databases have been offline, affecting monitoring of the pandemic, Reuters reports.

The US company Moderna donated 2.7m doses of coronavirus vaccine to Mexico on Saturday, after Mexico passed 300,000 test-confirmed coronavirus deaths this week.

The Associated Press reports:

[S]o little testing is done in the country that a government review of death certificates puts the real toll at almost 460,000.

Mexican officials welcomed the arrival of the shipment at the airport in Toluca, just west of Mexico City, and said the vaccines will be used to inoculate teachers.

Teachers in Mexico were second after only health care workers to be vaccinated in the spring.

In April and May, over 2.7 million teachers got initial shots. But most of them got the single-dose Chinese Cansino vaccine, whose effectiveness appears to decline over time.

Mexico has now obtained more than 200m doses of vaccines, and has been trying to reopen in-person learning at all levels.

Education secretary Delfina Gómez said: “We are grateful to recieve this donation, which will undoubtedly help more boys, girls and youths to come to classrooms with greater safety and confidence.”

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned UK prime minister Boris Johnson that axing universal free lateral flow tests would be an “utterly wrongheaded” approach to dealing with coronavirus.

She urged Johnson against the move after it was reported they could be limited to high-risk settings – such as care homes, hospitals and schools – and to people with symptoms.

Sturgeon said the Scottish government had not signed up to the move, but if Johnson was “really considering this” it would be “utterly wrongheaded”.

“Hard to imagine much that would be less helpful to trying to ‘live with’ Covid,” she tweeted.

She questioned what would happen to funding for UK nations for testing under the Barnett formula if the British government went ahead with the move, adding: “Testing so vital, we’d have to consider continued funding but it would then come from existing budgets.”

The Department of Health and Social Care is yet to comment, but a government source disputed the report and said it was too early to say what the future holds for free lateral flows, PA reports.

The rapid tests were made available to everyone in England, including those without symptoms, in April.

The US has administered more than 518m doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 639.7 million doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Reuters reports:

Those figures are up from the 516.6m vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Friday.

The agency said 246.4 million people had received at least one dose while 207.45 million people were fully vaccinated as of 6am EST on Saturday.

The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech , as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine.

More than 74.6 million people received a booster dose since 13 August, when the United States authorised a third dose of the vaccines for people with compromised immune systems who are likely to have weaker protection from the two-dose regimens.

The UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Britain’s official coronavirus death toll passing 150,000 was a “dark milestone for our country”.

“Our thoughts are with all those who have lost someone, and we thank everyone supporting the vaccination effort,” he tweeted.

“We must ensure the public inquiry provides answers and that lessons are learned.”

The British government may stop giving out free lateral flow tests under plans for living with Covid, which prime minister Boris Johnson will announce within weeks, the Sunday Times reports.

After more than £6bn of public money has been spent on testing the population with lateral flow devices, the government could move to providing free tests only in high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools, and to people with symptoms, while the tracing of people who have come into contact with the infected by NHS Test and Trace is also likely to be scaled back.

A senior Whitehall source said:

I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody for evermore. It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it up if necessary, such as in the winter.

Dissident Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin, 48, has died after contracting Covid-19 in a hospital in the capital Tehran after being released on a furlough from prison where he was infected twice, Iranian news agencies said on Saturday.

“The poet and documentary filmmaker [...], who had contracted Covid earlier also while serving his sentence, was transferred to a hospital in Tehran [but] the treatment did not succeed and he died today,” the semi-official ISNA news agency said.

Rights group PEN America said on Twitter: “Covid is a natural killer, but Abtin’s death was aided and abetted by the Iranian government every step of the way.”

Abtin was also hospitalised last year, when a picture showing him apparently shackled to a bed caused an uproar on social media, prompting the head of Iran’s prisons, Mohammad Mehdi Hajmohammadi, to tweet that those responsible had been “dealt with,” Reuters reports.

Abtin, who was serving a six-year sentence for “anti-government propaganda” and “actions against national security,” died shortly after PEN America and 18 other rights groups voiced concern over his treatment in a letter to Iran’s Supreme letter Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Unfortunately, mistreatment of prisoners and denial of medical care is a systemic problem in Iranian prisons,” said the letter, posted on the website of Human Rights Watch.

Iran denies any mistreatment and its prisons directorate said Abtin was granted furlough 35 days ago to be moved to a private hospital by his relatives, state media reported.

British prime minister Boris Johnson recognised the “terrible toll” on the UK after the total number of people to have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus passed 150,000.

In a tweeted statement, Johnson said:

Coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on our country and today the number of deaths recorded has reached 150,000.

Each and every one of those is a profound loss to the families, friends and communities affected and my thoughts and condolences are with them.

Our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven’t yet.

Prof Andrew Hayward, who advises the British government as part of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the statistic was “absolutely tragic”.

After hearing the testimony of a woman who lost two close relatives during the pandemic, the University College London academic told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme:

It is absolutely tragic and to think that’s been repeated so many times is awful.

I think we could have done better. I think some of the deaths are even more tragic for the fact that many of them were avoidable if we had acted earlier in the first and second wave.

Italy reported 197,552 Covid-19 related cases on Saturday, against 108,304 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell to 184 from 223.

A week ago, the country recorded 141,256 daily cases and 111 deaths.

Italy has registered 138,881 deaths linked to Covid-19 since the pandemic began, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world.

The country has logged 7.28 million cases to date.

The current explosion of infections with the Omicron variant in the US is causing a breakdown in basic functions and services across the country, with hospitals reaching capacity in Kansas, employee shortages in New York City causing delays in trash and subway services and diminishing the ranks of firefighters and emergency workers, and schools across the nation struggling to find enough teachers.

The Associated Press reports:

“This really does, I think, remind everyone of when Covid-19 first appeared and there were such major disruptions across every part of our normal life,” said Tom Cotter, director of emergency response and preparedness at the global health nonprofit Project HOPE.

“And the unfortunate reality is, there’s no way of predicting what will happen next until we get our vaccination numbers – globally – up.”

First responders, hospitals, schools and government agencies have employed an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the public safe, but they are worried how much longer they can keep it up.

In Kansas’ Johnson County, paramedics are working 80 hours a week. Ambulances have frequently been forced to alter their course when the hospitals they’re heading to tell them they’re too overwhelmed to help, confusing the patients’ already anxious family members driving behind them.

[...]

[The Omicron variant’s] easy transmissibility has led to skyrocketing cases in the US, which is affecting businesses, government offices and public services alike.

In downtown Boise, Idaho, customers were queued up outside a pharmacy before it opened Friday morning and before long, the line wound throughout the large drugstore. Pharmacies have been slammed by staffing shortages, either because employees are out sick or have left altogether.

In Los Angeles, more than 800 police and fire personnel were sidelined because of the virus as of Thursday, causing slightly longer ambulance and fire response times.

In New York City, officials have had to delay or scale back trash and subway services because of a virus-fueled staffing hemorrhage. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said about one-fifth of subway operators and conductors – 1,300 people – have been absent in recent days. Almost one-fourth of the city sanitation department’s workers were out sick Thursday, Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson said.

“Everybody’s working ‘round the clock, 12-hour shifts,” Grayson said.

The city’s fire department also has adjusted for higher absences. Officials said Thursday that 28% of EMS workers were out sick, compared with about 8% to 10% on a normal day. Twice as many firefighters as usual were also absent.

At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, two checkpoints at the airport’s busiest terminal were shut down because not enough Transportation Security Administration agents showed up for work, according to statements from airport and TSA officials.

Meanwhile, schools from coast to coast tried to maintain in-person instruction despite massive teacher absences.

In Chicago, a tense standoff between the school district and teachers union over remote learning and Covid-19 safety protocols led to classes being canceled over the past three days.

In San Francisco, nearly 900 educators and aides called in sick Thursday.

In Hawaii, where public schools are under one statewide district, 1,600 teachers and staff were absent Wednesday because of illness or pre-arranged vacation or leave.

Anti-vaccine protesters have rallied in cities across France, denouncing Emmanuel Macron’s intent to “piss off” people refusing COVID-19 shots by tightening curbs on their civil liberties.

The French president this week said he wanted to irritate unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting jabbed. In Paris, protesters retorted by adopting his slangy wording, chanting “We’ll piss you off”.

Others carried signs saying “No to the vaccine pass”, a reference to Macron’s legislative push to require proof of vaccination to enter venues such as cafes, bars and museums.

TV images showed skirmishes between protesters and police at one site. Protesters also rallied through the streets in Marseille, Nantes and Le Mans among other cities.

“(Macron’s remarks) were the last straw. We are not irresponsible,” said hospital administrator Virginie Houget, who has avoided a mandatory vaccine order for health workers because she caught COVID-19 late last year.

The protesters accuse Macron of trampling on their freedoms and treating citizens unequally. He says freedoms carry responsibilities that include protecting the health of others.

France recorded more than 300,000 new coronavirus infections for the second time in a week on Friday. Hospitalisations, including COVID-19 patients in intensive care (ICU), are rising steadily, putting the healthcare system under strain.

Some hospitals have reported that some 85% of ICU patients are not vaccinated against COVID-19. Data shows that 90% of over-12s eligible for the COVID shot are fully vaccinated.

People in France already have to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter restaurants and bars and use inter-regional trains. But with Omicron infections surging, the government wants to drop the test option.

Three months before a presidential election, Macron’s blunt language appeared to be calculated, tapping into a mounting frustration against the unvaccinated.

Conservative challenger Valerie Pecresse said Macron was driving a wedge through the country. Far-right candidate Eric Zemmour denounced what he called the president’s puerile remarks.

On the capital’s streets, protesters accused Macron of politicising the pandemic ahead of the election.

“I want him to piss off drug dealers and criminals, not the average person,” said one 55-year-old protester who requested anonymity because he runs a business.

Hundreds of people have rallied in Beirut to protest measures against the unvaccinated, saying individuals should have the right to decide whether to be inoculated or not.

Vaccination is not compulsory in Lebanon, but in recent days authorities have cracked down on people who are not vaccinated or who do not carry a negative PCR test result. Saturday’s protest by nearly 300 people in downtown Beirut came a day after the daily number of new coronavirus cases hit a record 7,974, the Associated Press reports.

The protest came days after authorities imposed fresh restrictions — including the requirement of a vaccination certificate or negative PCR test for entry into restaurants, hotels and similar venues.

“No to the dictatorship of vaccination,” read one banner carried by protesters.

The health minister, Firass Abiad, criticised the protesters, saying that over 20,000 people were vaccinated on Saturday alone as part of a government campaign focusing on students and teachers. Educational institutions are to resume classes on Monday.

“Vaccines are not mandatory, and are free. They are offered to everyone, including refugees and foreign migrant workers,” Abiad tweeted. “Finally, vaccines save lives, but for some, ignorance is bliss.”

“An Omicron wave that started three weeks ago in turning into a Tsunami. The situation in hospitals and ICUs remains stable, capacity is being boosted,” Abiad added.

Lebanon, with has a population of six million including a million Syrian refugees, has registered more than 760,000 cases and 9,250 deaths since discovering its first COVID-19 case in February 2020.

Superman, Cinderella and Minions were among characters from films, comics and fairy tales who greeted children at a Covid vaccination centre in Prague on Saturday to ease their nerves as they came to be inoculated.

Some children cried, but less so while talking to their favourite characters, Reuters reported. “We thought it would be better to have a day just for the kids,” said Nikola Melicharova, a vaccination centre worker dressed for the day as Snow White.

“And because kids are usually a bit afraid of vaccinations, we decided for a fairy tale day so that it was a little more pleasant.”

The Czech Republic is trying to boost vaccination rates before widespread infection by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Some 62.4% of the population in the country of 10.7 million has had a full course of coronavirus vaccines, compared to a rate of 68.6% in the whole of the EU, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The Czech Republic started giving shots to children aged 5-11 in mid-December. Figures from the health ministry showed just over 27,000 shots had been administered to this age group by Friday.

Scotland has recorded 26 new deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, and 12,602 new cases in the past 24 hours.

The figures published by the Scottish government on Saturday showed that of 57,907 completed tests for Covid-19, 25.1% were positive, up from 21.7% on Friday.

The newly recorded deaths take the toll of those who have died after recently testing positive for the virus to 9,931. The figure will be different from the number of people for whom Covid-19 appeared on their death certificate.

The figures include a note advising of delays between tests being taken and results being reported but saying Public Health Scotland is monitoring the situation.

There were 1,362 people in hospital on Friday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 39 in 24 hours, and 48 were in intensive care, the same as the day before.

A total of 4,390,076 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 4,041,550 have had a second dose, and 3,082,231 have received a third dose or booster.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, has said the country needs to step up Covid-19 vaccinations, as its campaign founders in the face of apathy from the public.

Nearly 40% of South Africa’s adult population has been fully vaccinated, higher than in many other African countries but less than the government had hoped for by this stage.

Late last year, the government was forced to defer some vaccine deliveries because of slow uptake of vaccinations in the country.

“We can do better as South Africans, so I therefore urge all of us who have not yet been vaccinated, let us go out in our great numbers (and get the vaccine),” Ramaphosa told an ANC anniversary event, according to Reuters.

“The recovery of our economy is very much dependent on many of us being vaccinated.”

The ANC wants a policy on vaccine mandates to be finalised, Ramaphosa added.

He had raised the possibility of vaccine mandates for certain places and activities in late November after local scientists warned about the Omicron coronavirus variant, but that is yet to be implemented despite months of talks between the government, businesses and trade unions.

“We now need to give our people an incentive to go and be vaccinated, because that is the only defence and shield that we have,” he said.

The ANC is due to hold a leadership contest at the end of this year at which Ramaphosa is expected to seek re-election.

An American company has suspended some of its cruise operations due to the rising number of Covid cases caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Royal Caribbean Cruises has paused the sailings of three of its ships – Serenade of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas – while its Vision of the Seas ship will not return to cruising until 7 March, the cruise line said in a statement on Friday.

“We regret having to cancel our guests’ long-awaited vacations and appreciate their loyalty and understanding,” the company said, adding that these measures had been implemented “in an abundance of caution”.

Earlier this week, Royal Caribbean called off its Spectrum of the Seas cruise for 6 January after nine guests on its 2 January trip were identified as close contacts to a local Hong Kong Covid case. They have tested negative so far.

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Two million new coronavirus cases were recorded on average across the world every day between 1 and 7 January, with figures doubling in 10 days, according to a tally kept by Agence-France Presse.

According to the French state-backed news agency, an average of 2,106,118 new daily infections were reported over the seven-day period, shortly after the 1 million case threshold was passed in the week beginning 23 December.

New global case numbers have soared by 270% since the Omicron variant was discovered in South Africa in late November. But Covid-related deaths were at their lowest level since October 2020, with an average of 6,237 per day recorded in the period between 1 and 7 January.

Europe, as well as the United States and Canada, were the world’s infection hotspots. The two regions respectively represented 49% and 33% of global Covid cases in the past week.

Covid cases skyrocketed by 47% in Europe and 76% in the United States and Canada compared with the previous week.

In the same period, Covid infections increased by 224% in Oceania, 148% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 116% in the Middle East and 145% in Asia.

The number of new cases reported in Africa remained stable but, as elsewhere, were at their highest level since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Guardian Australia reporter Christopher Knaus has written on Novak Djokovic’s court battle to enter Australia without proof of a Covid vaccination. He writes:

Novak Djokovic relied on a weeks-old Covid infection to justify his vaccine-free travel to Australia and was given a green light by the federal government just days before arriving in the country, court documents reveal.

Court documents associated with Djokovic’s challenge to his visa cancellation were published by the federal circuit court late Saturday, ahead of an urgent hearing on Monday.

The documents reveal that Djokovic relied on a very recent Covid-19 infection, recorded on 16 December by the Institute of Public Health of Serbia, to argue he was exempt from vaccine travel requirements.

They reveal he has also accused Australian government officials of unfairly pressuring him to accept a decision on his visa cancellation in the early hours of the morning, without the chance to properly talk with his lawyers or rest after 25 hours of travelling.

The most bizarre lockdown news of the day so far comes to us from India:

Pandemic restrictions have been tightened in Romania, amid a sharp rise in daily new coronavirus infections.

In mid-December, Romania was reporting fewer than a thousand Covid-19 infections a day, but over the past week, daily cases have surged to around 6,000 - the highest number of infections since early November

The new measures, which came into force on Saturday include the mandatory wearing of face masks in outdoor and indoor public spaces, and the banning of textile masks. Fines of up to 500 euros ($567) can be imposed on those who do not comply, authorities said.

Bars and restaurants must close at 10pm and operate at 50% or 30% capacity depending on the area’s infection rate, and Covid passes are required. The same goes for sporting events, gyms, and cinemas. Meanwhile, quarantine and isolation periods have been reduced.

The health minister, Alexandru Rafila, told a press briefing on Friday that Romania is “already in the fifth wave of the pandemic” and that omicron is expected to soon become the dominant virus strain.

“For the time being, there is a sporadic transmission (of omicron),” he said. “But it is very possible that in the coming days, the coming weeks, we will witness a community transmission supported by this new strain.”

The Omicron variant could make Covid endemic in the UK, a senior government adviser has said.

Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), told Times Radio that the latest mutation of the virus was more contagious but less severe than previous iterations.

“The thing that might happen in the future is you may see the emergence of a new variant that is less severe, and ultimately, in the long term, what happens is Covid becomes endemic and you have a less severe version. It’s very similar to the common cold that we’ve lived with for many years,” he said.

“We’re not quite there yet but possibly Omicron is the first ray of light there that suggests that may happen in the longer term. It is, of course, much more transmissible than Delta was, which is concerning, but much less severe.

“Hopefully, as we move more towards the spring and we see the back of Omicron, we can get more inter-relationship of living with Covid as an endemic disease and protecting the vulnerable.

“Any variant that does emerge which is less severe, ultimately, in the longer term, is where we want to be.”

Video of an NHS doctor challenging the UK health secretary over vaccine mandates for healthcare workers has gone viral on social media.

The scene, which was caught by Sky News cameras, was first broadcast on Friday after Javid visited Kings College Hospital in south London.

While on a walkabout in the hospital, Javid had asked doctors and nurses there what they thought about government plans to require vaccination for all NHS staff. After an brief but uncomfortable silence, Steve James, a consultant anaesthetist who has been working throughout the pandemic, replied: “I’m not happy about that.”

James told Javid: “I’ve had Covid at some point, I’ve got antibodies, and I’ve been working on Covid ITUs since the beginning; I have not had a vaccination, I do not want to have a vaccination. The vaccine is reducing transmission only for about eight weeks with delta. With Omicron it’s probably less. And for that I would be dismissed if I don’t have a vaccine? The science isn’t strong enough.”

“That’s your view,” Javid replied. Turning to a group of nurses he added: “And you views?” However, they did not respond.

Turning back to James, Javid continued: “I respect that but there is also many different views.”

Javid added: “I understand that but obviously we have to weigh all that up for both health and social care and there will always be a debate about it ...”

James replied: “Maybe there is an opportunity to reconsider with Omicron and the changing picture, or at least the nuance that will allow doctors who have had antibody exposure, who’ve got antibodies, who haven’t had the vaccination, to not have it, because the protection I’ve got is probably equivalent to someone who is vaccinated.”

“Yes, but at some point that will wane,” Javid said.

James said: “But if you want to provide protection with a booster you’d have to inject everybody every month. If the protection has worn off for transmission after two months then after a month you’ve still got a bit of protection. But if you want to maintain protection you’re going to need to boost all staff members every single months, which you’re not going to do.”

Javid answered his challenge by saying: “We take the very best advice that we can, from vaccine experts.”

Half a day after the video was published on Twitter, it had been watched about 1.2m times.

Vaccine experts have advised the UK government to prioritise distributing the first booster jab.

Figures from the UK Health Security Agency show that the vaccine booster is 90% effective against admission to hospital from the Omicron variant for the over-65s after three months. Meanwhile, protection for those with two doses dropped to about 70% after three months and to 50% after six months.

Taking this data into account, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised the government against giving a second booster dose, or fourth jab, to care home residents and those aged over 80, the PA Media news agency reports.

It added that priority should continue to be given to rolling out the first booster dose, and that unvaccinated people should come forward for their first two doses as soon as possible.

The UK government is planning for Covid-related absences from up to one in four teachers when all schools finally go back after the Christmas holidays.

Term has already begun at many schools across the country, but others are yet to welcome children back after the festive break.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Saturday morning, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said there is a “mixed picture” of how Covid is affecting absences in schools so far this term.

He said: “Not all schools and colleges are open yet and won’t be until Monday so we’re not going to get a proper picture of staff absence until next week.

“There’s a snatched snapshot taken from a small number of primary schools earlier in the week that suggested that might be around 10% of the staff absent. The government itself is planning potentially for 25% of staff.”

A record 26,458 confirmed new coronavirus cases were recorded in the Philippines on Saturday, according to the latest official data.

A health ministry official said confirmed cases have exceeded 2.93m. Deaths have reached over 52,000, after 265 new fatalities were recorded on Saturday.

The previous daily record in Covid-19 cases was 26,303 on 11 September 2021.

Good morning and welcome to the coronavirus news blog. I’m Damien Gayle and I’ll be your guide through the day’s latest covid-related headlines and breaking news.