05:49
The Guardian’s charity attraction this 12 months is for deprived younger folks within the UK, who’re dealing with powerful selections throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Learn my interview with YouTuber Daniel Howell on psychological well being assist and extra.
Up to date
05:46
Hungary began vaccinating healthcare staff towards the coronavirus with the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday, a authorities spokesman instructed Reuters.
Hungary acquired its first cargo of coronavirus vaccines Saturday morning that will probably be sufficient to inoculate 4,875 folks, state information company MTI reported.
Up to date
05:24
Spain acquired its first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Saturday, a day earlier than the nation is about to start its immunisation marketing campaign.
A refrigerated truck arrived at Pfizer’s warehouse in Guadalajara in central Spain with the cargo, three days after it left the corporate’s manufacturing unit in Puurs in northeast Belgium, the well being ministry stated in an announcement.
After repackaging, the vaccines will probably be redistributed to Spain’s 17 autonomous areas in order that vaccination can start throughout the nation as deliberate on Sunday, it added.
Spain will obtain 4.5m Pfizer vaccine doses over the following 12 weeks, sufficient to vaccinate some 2.3 million folks, in response to the ministry.
Up to date
05:12
Greater than 79.59 million folks have been reported to be contaminated by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,747,803 have died, in response to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in additional than 210 international locations and territories because the first instances have been recognized in China in December 2019.
05:06
Tokyo reported a report rise in coronavirus instances on Saturday, as Japan experiences a surge that now features a new, fast-spreading variant whereas the federal government urges folks to remain house.
Infections of the virus that causes Covid-19 hit a report 949 within the capital simply as Japan heads into New 12 months holidays that usually see folks stream from the capital into the provinces. Critical instances have been unchanged from a day earlier at 81.
Japan on Friday reported its first instances of a fast-spreading variant in passengers arriving from Britain. The brand new variant has additionally been detected in a person who visited that nation and a member of the family – the primary instances of contaminated folks discovered outdoors airport checks – Nippon TV reported on Saturday.
Tokyo transport hubs have been subdued, native media stated, a day after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, below stress as instances proceed to climb, urged the nation to remain house and keep away from social mixing.
With New 12 months celebrations centred round household gatherings and mass visits to temples and shrines, consultants have warned moderation will probably be important to forestall an infection charges from rising additional amid issues of pandemic fatigue.
Suga’s preliminary political honeymoon after taking his submit in September has ended, along with his recognition sliding after criticism he was sluggish to react to rising infections in Tokyo and for attending a gaggle steak dinner in defiance of his personal requires restraint.
Up to date
04:51
Ontario, a province in east-central Canada, will go right into a strict lockdown right now, forcing practically all non-essential companies to shut.
The lockdown will start at midnight on 26 December and can final till 12 Jan, CTV information reported, for all areas in southern Ontario. The well being models not in southern Ontario will stay in lockdown till 9 January. The lockdown was initially set to start on Christmas eve however was pushed again two days by the cupboard.
Up to date
04:49
It was over breakfast on the wintry morning of 24 January that Özlem Türeci and her husband Uğur Şahin determined, “we have to fireplace the beginning gun on this”.
Şahin “had concluded from a publication describing coronavirus instances in Wuhan … that there was a excessive chance {that a} pandemic could possibly be imminent”, Türeci recounted.
The choice by the couple, founders of a small German firm known as BioNTech, gave beginning to Operation Lightspeed – wherein the scientists within the firm diverted all their sources from most cancers remedy analysis to discovering a vaccine to cease Covid-19.
“Since that day… there has not been a day once we took a break from engaged on this mission,” stated Türeci.
4 days later, on January 28, Germany confirmed its first case of coronavirus an infection – additionally the primary identified human-to-human transmission on European soil.
What was an epidemic hitting China hardest quickly morphed into a world well being disaster, forcing governments to shut borders, colleges and workplaces and maintain their populations at house to halt the unfold.
As BioNTech and different pharmaceutical corporations leapt into motion in the hunt for the successful method, Germany’s military of “Mittelstand” corporations and different greater manufacturing and logistics consultants would quickly show essential.
Up to date
04:19
First vaccine doses delivered in France
France’s first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine have been delivered early Saturday to the Paris hospital system’s central pharmacy outdoors the capital, AFP reported.
After greater than 62,000 Covid-19 deaths in France, pictures are set to start with folks in two aged care houses on Sunday, the identical day the remainder of the EU begins injections.
A refrigerated truck introduced the roughly 19,500 doses from the Pfizer manufacturing unit in Puurs, north-east Belgium, to Paris, the capital’s APHP hospital authority stated, with pharmacy chief Franck Huet calling it a “historic” second within the pandemic.
After repackaging in Paris, the vaccines will probably be delivered to a long-term care unit at a hospital in Sevran, outdoors the capital, and an old-age care house in Dijon, in jap France.
The primary EU deliveries come after the European Medicines Company (EMA) gave the Pfizer/BioNTech shot its inexperienced gentle on Monday and France’s HAS well being authority in activate Thursday.
International locations are particularly keen to start their vaccination campaigns as a brand new pressure believed to be extra infectious spreads from Britain. A primary case was recognized in France on Friday.
Up to date
04:14
In Thailand there have been protests to demand extra motion to assist seafood sellers hit by a Covid-19 outbreak as the federal government urged folks to eat extra shellfish.
Thailand’s worst outbreak of the brand new coronavirus was reported simply over every week in the past, with greater than 1,500 infections now linked to a shrimp market outdoors Bangkok. Most of these contaminated have been migrant staff from Myanmar.
Seafood sellers say enterprise has fallen in a rustic whose economic system had already been badly hit by a collapse in tourism. “We wish the federal government to create confidence in shrimp consumption,” stated Piyarat Chongthep, among the many scores of protesters at Authorities Home, a few of whom briefly scuffled with police.
Up to date
04:11
A resurgence of coronavirus in South Korea has reached new heights throughout Christmas week, prompting soul-searching on how the nation sleepwalked right into a disaster.
The 1,241 infections on Christmas Day have been the biggest every day improve. One other 1,132 instances have been reported Saturday, bringing South Korea’s caseload to 55,902.
Over 15,000 have been added within the final 15 days alone. A further 221 fatalities over the identical interval, the deadliest stretch, took the demise toll to 793.
Because the numbers maintain rising, the shock to folks’s livelihoods is deepening and public confidence within the authorities eroding. Officers may determine to extend social distancing measures to most ranges on Sunday, after resisting for weeks.
Tighter restrictions could possibly be inevitable as a result of transmissions have been outpacing efforts to develop hospital capacities.
Within the higher Seoul space, extra services have been designated for Covid-19 therapy and dozens of basic hospitals have been ordered to allocate extra ICUs for virus sufferers. A whole bunch of troops have been deployed to assist with contract tracing.
At the least 4 sufferers have died at their houses or long-term care services whereas ready for admission this month, stated Kwak Jin, an official on the Korea Illness Management and Prevention Company. The company stated 299 amongst 16,577 energetic sufferers have been in severe or essential situation.
“Our hospital system isn’t going to break down, however the crush in COVID-19 sufferers has considerably hampered our response,” stated Choi Received Suk, an infectious illness professor on the Korea College Ansan hospital, west of Seoul.
04:00
Thousands and thousands get up to tighter restrictions in UK
Thousands and thousands extra folks will probably be waking as much as harsher coronavirus restrictions on Boxing Day as tier adjustments come into power in England, and restrictions are imposed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Eire.
A collection of places in tier 2 – together with Oxfordshire, most of Hampshire, West Sussex, the rest of East Sussex not already in tier 4, in addition to Brighton and Hove, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire – have been positioned below harder curbs. Elements of Essex not already in tier 4 and Waverley, in Surrey, will be part of them.
The 6 million folks residing within the areas be part of practically 18 million folks in London, the south-east and east of England who’ve endured tier 4 “keep at house” restrictions – together with the closure of non-essential retailers and strict one-on-one assembly limits outdoors between households – over Christmas.
It comes because the UK’s devolved administrations have additionally tightened restrictions to fight an increase in instances, with Wales already in one other lockdown and mainland Scotland and Northern Eire beginning new lockdowns right now.
In Scotland, hospitality companies should shut for all however takeaways and non-essential retailers should additionally shut their doorways. All non-essential shops throughout Scotland will probably be anticipated to shut on 26 December, with click-and-collect companies allowed.
Up to date
04:00
Variety of instances in Russia passes 3m
The entire variety of instances of coronavirus infections in Russia crossed the three million mark for the primary time on Saturday after officers recorded 29,258 new instances within the previous 24 hours and 567 deaths.
This introduced the overall variety of instances of coronavirus in Russia because the begin of the pandemic to three,021,964, in response to official information.
Up to date
03:52
The European Union started a vaccine rollout Saturday, at the same time as international locations within the bloc have been compelled again into lockdown by a brand new pressure of the virus, believed to be extra infectious, that continues to unfold from Britain.
The pandemic has claimed greater than 1.7 million lives and remains to be working rampant in a lot of the world, however the latest launching of inoculation campaigns has boosted hopes that 2021 may convey a respite.
Hours earlier than the primary vaccine doses arrived in France, Paris’ well being ministry confirmed late Friday that it had detected its first case of the brand new variant in a citizen returned from Britain.
A number of international locations have reported instances of the brand new pressure, which has despatched jitters by already overstretched well being companies.
There was little signal of the standard Boxing Day sale rush on the streets of Sydney Saturday, as residents largely heeded the state premier’s request they keep house confronted with a brand new virus cluster.
“Even once we entered the shop there have been lower than ten folks,” shopper Lia Gunawan instructed The Sydney Morning Herald after queueing up for the gross sales.
03:47
Sarah Marsh
Hey everybody and welcome to the Guardian’s coronavirus dwell weblog, bringing you all the newest information on the virus.
I’m working in London, and it’s 8am GMT right here on Boxing Day. If anybody has any questions, information suggestions or feedback then please do get in contact. Hoping everyone seems to be having fun with the festive interval.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
E-mail: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Up to date