Second pandemic year to be deadlier than first, warns WHO – as it happened | World news
18:20
Surge testing has been announced in Hackney, London, after cases of both the India variant and the South Africa variant were detected.
Everyone who lives or works within targeted areas in Shoreditch and Dalston have been advised to take a Covid-19 test.
17:57
Secondary school pupils in parts of the north of England are being told to carry on wearing face masks in the classroom next week amid concerns about the Indian variant of coronavirus.
High schools and colleges across Lancashire are being advised by directors of public health to keep face masks in class until June 21 due to the spread of the “variant of concern”.
Bolton and Bury councils are asking secondary schools and colleges to keep face coverings in place until further notice following a surge in cases.
A government spokesperson said: “The prime minister has set out the measures needed to tackle the new variant of concern.
“In line with our plans published earlier this week to address variants of concern in education, we have also agreed with directors of public health that face coverings will remain in place in Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton, Lancashire and Sefton.
“We are continuing to work closely with local authorities in these areas.”
Updated
17:37
Government records show that Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the far-right Proud Boys group, received two federal government-backed paycheck protection program (PPP) loans worth a total of $15,500, the Guardian can reveal.
Tarrio, based in Miami, Florida, was approved for an initial loan of $7,750 on 30 March, and a succeeding loan for the same amount on 16 April. The loans were issued to Henry Tarrio, an anglicised form of his name which he has used on other occasions.
PPP loans were first issued under the Cares Act in 2020, under the Trump administration, as a stimulus measure to an economy battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
17:22
Care home residents will be able to nominate five visitors for regular visits when the UK moves to the next phase of lockdown easing on Monday.
In updated guidance published on its website, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the named visitors can attend two at a time or separately.
The visitor figure does not include babies and pre-school children, so young families can visit a care home without exceeding the limit, as long as they do not breach rules on indoor gatherings.
To limit the infection risk, care home residents can not have more than two visitors in a day, PA reports.
Residents with special care needs may chose to nominate an essential carer as one of their five visitors.
The carer will be exempt from the two visitors-a-day limit.
Named visitors should be regularly tested, wear appropriate personal protective equipment and maintain social distancing, the DHSC said.
Physical contact should be kept to a minimum, it said, although visitors and residents can hold hands as long as they are aware of the increased risk of Covid-19 transmission.
Other close physical contact like hugging is still banned.
17:10
Brazil recorded 85,536 further confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours along with 2,211 deaths, the country’s health ministry said.
Brazil has registered more than 15.5 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 432,628, Reuters reports.
16:54
Deaths from Covid-19 in Colombia are estimated to pass 80,000 on Friday with intensive care units almost full in the biggest cities, where large crowds have been gathering in protests that have entered their third week.
Reuters reports:
Authorities warned this week that the protests – initially over proposed tax reforms but increasingly over other issues including inequality and police brutality – were set to prolong an already devastating third wave of the epidemic.
Bogota’s mayor echoed that warning, saying the capital had on Thursday reported its second-highest number of new cases and highest number of deaths since the pandemic began.
“I don’t know what more to say, to warn, to beg, to plead,” Claudia Lopez said in a Twitter message late on Thursday that urged people to stick to social distancing rules.
Lopez later announced she was infected and would self-isolate.
The pressure on ICUs in the capital “is worrying”, the government said on Thursday, adding that patients would be transferred by air to other cities.
ICU occupancy for Covid-19 patients in Bogota stands at 94%, according to local authorities. In Medellin and Cali, the rates are at 99% and 95% respectively.
16:35
Mexico registered 2,880 new coronavirus cases and 258 additional fatalities on Friday, according to health ministry data, Reuters reports.
It brings the overall tallies to 2,377,995 infections and 220,159 deaths.
15:26
Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine beyond the originally recommended three-week gap used by the companies in clinical trials appears to induce a stronger antibody response in the elderly, UK researchers found.
Shortly after the vaccine became available, UK health officials advised that the second dose should be given 12 weeks after the first to allow more people to get protected by a first dose early on.
In a new paper seen by Reuters and expected to appear on medRxiv ahead of peer review, researchers found that among 175 people ages 80 to 99, those who got their second dose at 12 weeks had antibody responses that were 3.5 times higher than those who got it after three weeks.
Antibodies are only one part of the immune system, and vaccines also generate T cells that fight infections.
The peak T cell responses were higher in the group with a three-week interval between doses, and the authors cautioned against drawing conclusions on how protected individuals were based on which dosing schedule they received.
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