Category: Health Excercise

Portuguese hospitals in worst-hit areas running out of ICU beds; Brazil permits Oxford/AstraZeneca and Sinovac jabs; Amsterdam police break up anti-lockdown protest

• UK records 671 deaths and 38,598 cases
• Italy reports a 12,415 cases and 377 deaths
• India begins world’s biggest Covid vaccination program
• Australian Open sees fourth case as player warned for quarantine breach
• See all our coronavirus coverage

9.58pm GMT

Ghana’s Covid-19 infection rates are skyrocketing and include strains of the virus not previously seen in the country, threatening to overwhelm the health system, President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Sunday.

Since 5 January, the number of active cases has risen to 1,924 from about 900, Akufo-Addo said in a speech. There are now 120 severe cases, up from 18 a week ago.

9.10pm GMT

Schools in Malawi will be shut for at least 15 days while bars have been given an 8pm closing … Read more

As workplace infections soar, an Observer study reveals no company has been punished this year for breaching Covid safety laws

• Staff pressured to go back to work in breach of Covid rules
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Irresponsible firms are exploiting looser lockdown regulations to bring thousands of non-essential workers into sometimes busy workplaces, with little chance of enforcement action by the nation’s safety watchdog.

Analysis by the Observer shows that no enforcement notices have been served on companies by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors for Covid safety breaches since the country went into the latest lockdown, despite being contacted 2,945 times about workplace safety issues between 6 and 14 January. Overall, just 0.1% of the nearly 97,000 Covid safety cases dealt with by the agency during the pandemic appear to have resulted in an improvement or prohibition safety notice, with not a single company prosecuted for Covid-related breaches … Read more

Global coronavirus death toll reaches 2 million people; UK shuts travel corridors and requires negative Covid tests to enter; German vaccine officials forced to guess who is eligible from names

• Brazil rushes to save premature babies as Covid swamps hospitals
• Vaccine passports: what are they and do they pose a danger to privacy?
• US suffers bleak January as Covid rages and vaccination campaign falters
• ‘At the coalface’: what the Australian expert in WHO’s Covid mission in China hopes to find

10.04pm GMT

Overnight the West Australian premier Mark McGowan said his government would move Victoria to a “low risk” coronavirus category from next week, meaning some restrictions will be loosened on travellers from the state.

While Victorian travellers will still need to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in WA, from Monday they will be allowed into the state without needing a special exemption. They will also be … Read more