The South African health regulator has recommended the pause on the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine be lifted under stricter protocols screening for blood clots.
A second person in Canada has experienced rare blood clots with low platelets after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Saturday.
France will order a strict 10-day quarantine for all travellers coming from Brazil from 24 April, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday, in a bid to prevent the spread of a coronavirus variant first found in the South American country.
Brazil recorded 67,636 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 2,929 deaths from the virus.
More than 600,000 first and second doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered in the UK in the space of 24 hours, according to data released on Saturday.
Israel will lift its mandatory requirement to wear a mask outdoors on Sunday, but wearing masks in closed spaces will remain compulsory, as almost 57.5 percent of the population have had at least their first jab.
The US Oscars ceremony next week will have the look and feel of a movie, giving winners more time for personal speeches, while coronavirus masks will play a major role, producers of the show said on Saturday.
South African health regulator recommends use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine under stricter protocols screening for blood clots
South Africa’s health regulator on Saturday recommended that the government lift the pause on the use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, as long as certain conditions are met.
Reuters reports:
“These conditions include, but are not limited to, strengthened screening and monitoring of participants who are at high risk of a blood clotting disorder,” the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said.
“In addition, measures are to be implemented to ensure the safe management of any participants who develop vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT),” the statement added.
SAHPRA said on Wednesday that it had recently reviewed data from Johnson & Johnson’s local research study immunising healthcare workers and found no major safety concerns.
South Africa suspended the rollout of the J&J vaccine in the “implementation study” on Tuesday, after US health agencies recommended pausing its use because of rare cases of blood clots in six people inoculated with it, out of some 7 million people who have received the shot in the United States.
A US panel will meet again next week to discuss whether the pause on the use of the vaccine should continue, after delaying a vote on the matter earlier this week.
Canada reports second rare blood clot case after AstraZeneca jab
A second person in Canada has experienced rare blood clots with low platelets after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Saturday.
The agency said in a statement it received the report about an individual in Alberta. The agency added that such reports remain very rare.
Brazil recorded 67,636 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 2,929 deaths from the virus, the health ministry said on Saturday.
A week ago, Brazil had logged 71,832 new infections and 2,616 fatalities from Covid-19.
The country has registered more than 13.9 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 371,678, according to ministry data.
Partygoers at a hall in Sao Paulo, Brazil, wait to have their ID cards photographed by police after the force broke up their social gathering in an operation against illegal and clandestine gatherings. Photograph: Marcelo Chello/AP
France to introduce 10-day quarantine for all arrivals from Brazil
France will order a strict 10-day quarantine for all travellers coming from Brazil from 24 April, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday, in a bid to prevent the spread of a coronavirus variant first found in the South American county.
This from Reuters:
France decided this week to suspend all flights to and from Brazil. The measure will be extended until April 23, the prime minister’s office said in the same statement.
Starting April 24, only people residing in France or holding a French or European Union passport will be allowed to fly to the country.
The government will impose a 10-day quarantine on all travellers upon arrival, the prime minister’s office said, and authorities will make checks before and after the flight that the travellers made the proper arrangements to isolate themselves.
The police will also be used to ensure the quarantine is respected, it said. Prior to boarding on the plane, authorised travellers will be required to present a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that is less than 36 hours old.
The same measures will also gradually be put in place by April 24 for people returning from Argentina, Chile and South Africa, where the presence of other coronavirus variants were detected, the prime minister’s office said.
A 10-day quarantine will also be imposed on travellers coming from the French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the northeast coast of South America.
Here’s a bit more detail on the news that Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga asked US drugmaker Pfizer Inc on Saturday to provide additional supplies of Covid-19 vaccine to Japan this year from Reuters:
Pfizer confirmed in an email that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla met with Suga virtually to discuss vaccine supply on the last day of Suga’s three-day visit to Washington. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the only one approved in Japan.
Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported earlier that Suga asked Pfizer to provide more vaccine doses.
Inoculations of Japan’s sizable elderly population began on Monday, but some experts cautioned that the general population may not have access to vaccination until late summer or even winter because of constrained supplies.
Japan was among the last major economies to begin Covid-19 inoculations when it started in mid-February, after domestic trials to ensure safety.
Only 0.9% of the Japanese public received their first vaccine shot as of Friday, compared with 2.5% in South Korea, and 48% in the United Kingdom.
Japan’s top health experts have acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic has entered a fourth wave.
Japan has exhibited “poor performance” in containing virus transmission, along with limited testing capacity and a slow vaccination rollout, according to a commentary of health experts published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday.
Tokyo’s Olympics chief said on Friday that Japan was committed to holding a safe Games this summer, as a surge in Covid-19 cases prompted an expansion of contagion controls and with fresh calls for the Games to again be postponed or canceled.
The US Oscars ceremony next week will have the look and feel of a movie, giving winners more time for speeches, while coronavirus masks will play a major role, producers of the show said on Saturday.
Reuters reports:
The coronavirus pandemic and a trio of new producers have led to a reinvention of the traditional show where the world’s highest movie honors are handed out before a seated theater audience of more than 4,000 A-list stars and industry executives.
Much of the April 25 ceremony will instead be held at the Art Deco Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, where a stage is being built and where presenters will be doing more than opening an envelope with the winner’s name.
“It’s not going to be like anything that’s been done before,” director Steven Soderbergh, who is producing the show with Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins, told a news conference.
Soderbergh, who directed the 2011 movie “Contagion,” said the pandemic had “opened up an opportunity to try something that hasn’t been tried.”
“We want the show to have a voice,” he added. Soderbergh said the ceremony would be shot like a movie, with presenters including Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford and Halle Berry “playing themselves, or at least a version of themselves.”
Speeches by Oscar winners were previously limited to around 45 seconds. This year, Soderbergh said, “we’re giving them space. We’ve encouraged them to tell a story, and to say something personal.”
The producers said strict testing and Covid protocols would be in place, much of them following standards developed last year to get movie and TV production running again.
They also have consulted extensively with epidemiologists who worked 10 years ago on “Contagion,” which eerily foreshadowed the devastating effects of a virus on the world and which saw a bump in rentals and streaming last year.
Asked about masks at the ceremony, Soderbergh gave what he called a deliberately cryptic reply. “Masks are going to play a very important role in the story,” he said. “That topic is very central to the narrative.”
Nominees unable to travel to Los Angeles for the ceremony will be able to take part via satellite hookups from venues around the world but there will be no Zoom appearances.
An Oscar statue appears outside the Dolby Theatre for the 87th Academy Awards in Los Angeles in 2015. Photograph: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
Tokyo confirmed 759 new infections on Saturday, the highest since late January and topping 500 for the fifth consecutive day, while the city of Osaka recorded 1,161 fresh infections, it’s fifth straight day of over 1,000.
The Japan Times reports:
The figure in the capital comes after stricter virus counter measures were implemented Monday for its 23 wards and six cities. Saturday’s daily number is the highest since January 30 when Tokyo reported 770 infections.
Tokyo’s daily coronavirus tally averaged 569 in the last week, up 24.1 % from the preceding week.
Among Saturday’s new cases in Tokyo, 239 people were in their 20s, 156 were in their 30s and 112 were in their 40s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said in a statement. Those age 65 or older totaled 73 cases.
The number of severely ill Covid-19 patients under the metropolitan government’s criteria rose to 45 from 43 on Friday.
The cumulative number of cases in the capital is now 129,540.
Along with its 1,161 cases, Osaka also recorded 12 deaths as Kansai struggles in the midst of a fourth wave of infections. Neighboring Hyogo Prefecture reported a new high of 541 cases on Saturday.
[...] On Friday, the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Japan came to 4,532, surpassing the 4,000 mark for the third consecutive day.
Osaka reported 1,209 new coronavirus cases on the day, rewriting its daily record high.
A passerby wearing a protective face mask walks on a street in Tokyo, Japan on 16 April, 2021. Photograph: Reuters
Mexico recorded another 4,157 coronavirus cases and 535 new deaths on Saturday, according to health ministry data, bringing the total number of cases to 2,304,096 and 212,228 deaths.
Persons over 60-years-old wait in observation after receiving their second dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the University Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. Photograph: Marco Ugarte/AP
Israel will lift its mandatory requirement to wear a mask outdoors on Sunday, but wearing masks in closed spaces will remain compulsory.
Haaretz reports:
This comes as a result of Israel’s Health Minister Yuli Edelstein’s instruction to his ministry’s director general Chezy Levy on Thursday to sign an order lifting the restriction, after the opinion of ministry professionals stated that masks can be dispensed with in open-air areas due to low coronavirus morbidity.
The statement from Edelstein’s office on Thursday stressed that Israelis would still be required to wear a mask indoors, and this message was echoed by Israel’s coronavirus czar, Professor Nachman Ash.
In an interview on Saturday, he said that “the big challenge” will be to ensure that masks are used in closed spaces. “I hope that we can count on us to keep a mask in a pocket and to use it when it is needed,” he added.
So far, according to Haaretz’s tracking of Health Ministry data, 5,341,887 Israelis have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, almost 57.5 percent of the population.
There are currently 2,680 active Covid patients in Israel. Of those, 201 are in serious condition, and 109 are on ventilators. Since the pandemic’s onset, 6,315 people have died of Covid in Israel.
People without face masks enjoy the weather on the beach of Tel Aviv. Israel ends obligatory use of face masks outdoors starting from 18 April following a successful vaccination campaign, but it is still required to wear them indoors. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
Music lovers in Liverpool will get the chance to enjoy the uninhibited intimacy of a gig once again, after the government announced a pilot event without social distancing.
PA reports:
The live concert at Sefton Park on May 2 will not require the audience to be socially distanced, but attendees will have to provide proof of a coronavirus negative test before gaining entry, ministers have confirmed.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said he hoped the Events Research Programme (ERP) test event, being held in the city famous for The Beatles and other musical heavyweights, meant the wait for gigs to return would not be “too much longer”.
Operating slightly below its capacity of 7,500, researchers on site will examine the movements and behaviour of the 5,000-strong crowd at Sefton Park next month.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the audience will not be socially distanced or required to wear face coverings in the controlled setting of the test event, meaning gig-goers will be able to enjoy the experience without physical restraints.
All attendees must have proof of a negative Covid-19 test result beforehand and will also be asked to take a test after the event, as ministers and scientists look to assess the safety of outdoor settings for masses of people not wearing face masks.
Ticket-holders will be required to take a lateral flow test, which can produce a result within 30 minutes, at a local testing centre before entry, to trial the role such facilities could play in the return of large-scale events, officials said.
The gig-goers will also have to provide contact details for NHS Test and Trace to ensure everyone can be reached in the event of a positive test.
