Name: France hospitals in 'crisis organisation' – as it happened
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France hospitals in 'crisis organisation' – as it happened

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This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year old This blog is now closed. We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest: Vaccination doses per 100 people, courtesy of ourworldindata.orgIt is “absolutely” too soon to lift mask mandates in the United States, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, with case numbers still more than double the level seen in summer, despite recent declines.Dr Rochelle Walensky’s warning came just days after governors in Iowa and Montana eliminated long-standing mask mandates in their states, Reurters reports.Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Walensky said preventing further coronavirus surges is crucial to returning to a level of normalcy until the vaccination rollout is complete.Whether Americans can look forward to walking down the street without wearing a mask by the end of the year “very much depends on how we behave right now,” she said. Asked if it was still too early for states to eliminate rules requiring the use of face masks in public, Walensky replied, “Absolutely.”While infection rates and hospitalisations appear to be falling, the United States has a long way to go before it can safely return to mask-free life, she said.Brazil registered 24,759 further confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 713 more deaths from Covid-19, the Ministry said on Sunday.The Latin American country has registered more than 9.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, Reuters reports, while the official death toll has risen to 239,245, according to ministry data.Average daily new coronavirus cases in the US have dipped below 100,000 for the first time in months, but experts cautioned on Sunday that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.The seven-day rolling average of new infections was well above 200,000 for much of December and went to roughly 250,000 in January, according to Johns Hopkins University. That average dropped below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since 4 November. It stayed below 100,000 on Saturday.Australia has suspended quarantine-free travel with New Zealand after it locked down Auckland following the detection of three new community cases.Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, convened an urgent meeting late on Sunday and it was decided that all flights originating in New Zealand would be classified as “Red Zone” flights for an initial period of 72 hours from Monday, Reuters reports.“As a result of this, all people arriving on such flights originating within this three-day period will need to go into 14 days of supervised hotel quarantine,” Australia’s Department of Health said on its website.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that genomic sequencing showed the new cases were the highly transmissible UK variant.“We were absolutely right to make the decision to be extra cautious because we assumed it was going to be one of the more transmissible variants,” Ardern said in a Facebook Live post.An Israeli study of more than half a million fully vaccinated people indicated the Pfizer/BioNTech jab offered 94% protection against Covid-19, according to the country’s largest healthcare provider. Clalit Services said that its researchers tested 600,000 patients who had received the recommended two doses of the US-German Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the same number of people who had not been inoculated.“There was a 94% reduction in the rate of symptomatic infection and a 92 percent decrease in the rate of serious illness compared to 600,000 similar (subjects) who were not vaccinated,” Clalit said in a Hebrew-language statement reported by Reuters.“Vaccine efficacy is maintained in all age groups, including those aged 70+,” it added.Israel’s vaccine drive has seen 3.8 million people receive a first dose, while 2.4 million have also received a second shot.Italy has prevented ski resorts from opening, a day before skiing was due to be allowed for the first time this winter season due to coronavirus restrictions.Minister Roberto Speranza signed a measure extending the ban on skiing at resorts until 5 March, the health ministry said, after new data showed that the UK variant now makes up 17.8% of new infections in Italy. Reuters reports:“Concern about the spread of this and other variants of SARS-CoV-2 has led to similar measures being taken in France and Germany,” the ministry said.The reopening of the ski season had been met with great relief in Italy’s northern regions, where just four days ago authorities said ski resorts would be allowed to reopen.In Lombardy, the region hardest hit by the pandemic that has killed over 93,000 people in the country, ski operators had to limit the daily number of skiers to no more than 30% of the hourly capacity of cable cars and ski-lifts.Other regions, too, had been allowed to reopen their slopes on Monday as long as they were considered “yellow” areas, signifying a lower risk of virus infections.But on Sunday, due to the new data, new restrictions came into effect in the regions of Abruzzo, Liguria, Tuscany and the autonomous province of Trentino, which were moved up to the medium-risk “orange” category from “yellow.”The ministry said it would begin compensating ski lift operators as soon as possible.France has reported 16,546 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, down from 19,715 last Sunday. The country’s total number of cases now stands at 3,465,163, Reuters reports.The French health ministry reported 167 new Covid-19 deaths in hospitals, compared to 171 last week. The death toll stands at 81,814.The United States has dispensed 52,884,356 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and delivered 70,057,800 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.This includes both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, according to Reuters.The agency said 38,292,270 people had received one or more doses while 14,077,440 people have received the second dose as of Sunday.A total of 5,822,871 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.Around 1,000 people have been caught flouting restrictions in a Belgrade nightclub, Serbia’s interior ministry said on Sunday. The country’s coronavirus restrictions allow gatherings of up to five.Three suspected organisers were held for 48 hours, the ministry said in a statement reported by AFP. They face fines and potential prison terms of up to three years, according to a report on broadcaster RTS.Although the Balkan country has reported regular instances of rule-breaking, parties rarely exceed a few dozen participants.Serbia has recorded more than 4,200 deaths from Covid-19 from around 420,000 infections.Lebanon has started vaccinating high-risk groups, including healthcare workers and elderly people.Health workers and over-75s were first in line to receive Pfizer/BioNTech jabs at three hospitals in Beirut hospitals. The capital received a batch of 28,500 doses on Saturday.The World Bank has set aside $34m to vaccinate an initial two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants. AFP’s report continues:“Finally there’s a glimpse of hope that things will get back to normal,” said medical student Dana Chatila, who was waiting in her white lab coat and mask outside the American University Medical Center, where she works in the emergency department. “It’s going to take time of course, but the darkness is ending.”The pandemic has compounded the woes of a country battling a dire economic crisis and still reeling from a massive port explosion last summer that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital Beirut.More than half the population lives in poverty and rights groups have warned millions will struggle to survive without help if coronavirus restrictions last too long.Caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab said: “We hope to reach adequate community protection so life can gradually return to normal in Lebanon as soon as possible.”Brazil has confirmed two cases of the UK variant in the state of Goiás after sequencing test samples taken on 31 December, Reuters reports, citing the state’s health department. It did not say if these are the first cases of the variant detected in Brazil.In a statement on Friday, the authorities said the two people who have caught the UK variant live on the outskirts of the federal capital Brasília.The people who caught the variant had contact with a relative who lives in England, traveled to Brazil for the holidays and had been diagnosed with Covid-19, the Goiás health department said.A total of 15,062,189 people in the UK have now had a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest government figures.That’s 22.5% of the UK population and 28.6% of adults.PA media has this breakdown of the data:EnglandA total of 12,675,663 people had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine up to February 13, according to NHS England.This is the equivalent of 22.5% of the total population of England, and 28.6% of people aged 18 and over, based on the latest population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.By this 7 February, an estimated 91.3% of people aged 80 and over had received their first dose, along with 95.6% of people aged 75-79 and 74.0% of people aged 70-74.A total of 93.2% of residents of older adult care homes in England eligible to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine had received the jab.WalesAs 13 February, 771,651 people had received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to Public Wales – 24.5% of the total population of Wales, and 30.6% of people aged 18 and over. A total of 89.3% of people aged 80 and over had received their first dose, along with 89.9% of people aged 75-79 and 88.3% of people aged 70-74.The latest figure for care home residents is 81.4%, and for care home workers it is 84.3%.Public Health Wales said people may appear more than once in these totals (e.g. an individual who is over 80 and lives in a care home).ScotlandAs 14 February, 1,223,774 people had received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Scottish government – 22.4% of the total population of Scotland, and 27.6% of people aged 18 and over.Some 99% of people aged 80 or over living in the community have had their first dose, along with 99% of people aged 75-79 and 78% of people aged 70-74. (These totals do not include care home residents.)Some 94% of residents in all care homes have had their first dose. The figure for staff in older adult care homes is 91%, while the figure for staff in all care homes is 79%.Northern IrelandA total of 391,101 people had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of February 13, according to the Northern Ireland Department of Health – 20.7% of the total population of Northern Ireland, and 26.9% of people aged 18 and over.As of 4 February, 100% of care homes in Northern Ireland had been visited and offered the first dose of the vaccine, while 90% of care homes had been visited and offered the second dose.A recent breakdown of vaccine doses by age group is not available.

This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year old This blog is now closed. We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest: Vaccination doses per 100 people, courtesy of ourworldindata.orgIt is “absolutely” too soon to lift mask mandates in the United States, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, with case numbers still more than double the level seen in summer, despite recent declines.Dr Rochelle Walensky’s warning came just days after governors in Iowa and Montana...

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TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and Guardian Unlimited, is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.

France hospitals in 'crisis organisation' – as it happened

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