Coronavirus world: New Zealand to remain in lockdown, UK makes quarantine free travel changes
New Zealand lockdown to continue until next week, Aussie ex pats to benefit from big UK travel changes.
World
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New Zealand’s national lockdown will likely continue until Tuesday evening, and will last for at least a week longer for Auckland.
The country’s largest city and the neighbouring region of Northland would both stay at alert level four - the most restrictive - as that is where the vast majority of Covid-19 cases are.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said high levels of testing and compliance with the strict lockdown meant the government and health authorities were hopeful infections were stabilising and case numbers would drop in the coming days.
Ms Ardern said a review of the trans-Tasman bubble would be undertaken in September with a decision announced later in the month. She said neither NZ or multiple states and territories of Australia were in a position to re-open the bubble at present.
However, she indicated she would provide some certainty around their plans for the bubble for the remainder of the year so people could plan.
UK MAKES TRAVEL CHANGES
Australians living in the United Kingdom have more holiday destinations to choose from, with new countries added to the quarantine free travel list.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Azores have been given the go ahead for quarantine-free travel.
That means travel is allowed without completing any quarantine - as long as the traveller is fully vaccinated.
They will also require a negative test before return and a PCR test two days after they arrive home.
The announcement opens up potential quarantine-free getaways to the sunny Azores - and for ski holidays to the Swiss Alps.
The data for all countries will be kept under review, with the UK Government saying it will not hesitate to take action should the data show that countries’ risk ratings have changed.
MODERNA SCARE
Vaccine maker Moderna is investigating potential contamination of its mRNA vaccine after Japan halted 1.63 million doses due to tainted vials.
Japan pulled the vaccines on Thursday after finding almost 40 doses from eight locations across the country contaminated with unidentified “foreign substances”.
Distribution company Takeda Pharmaceutical said in a statement that they asked Moderna to urgently investigate the source contamination in the doses, which were manufactured in a Spanish factory.
The 1.63 million doses halted in Japan were manufactured in the same factory around the same time as the 39 doses found to be contaminated last week.
Japan’s health ministry said an unknown number of people may have received the contaminated vaccines, but that they have not received reports of any negative health effects.
Moderna said in a statement to Reuters that the contamination could have been due to a manufacturing issue on the production line. They added there were no safety or efficacy issues in the doses, which had been pulled as a precaution.
“Moderna confirms having been notified of cases of particulate matter being seen in drug product vials of its Covid-19 vaccine,” the statement said.
“The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address this.”
The suspended vaccines were distributed across the country’s municipalities and universities, and AP reported the withdrawal lead to several cancellations of vaccination programs.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters that discussions were underway to minimise the impact on their vaccination rollout.
JAPAN EXPANDS VIRUS EMERGENCY
It comes a day after Japan’s government extended a virus state of emergency to eight more regions amid the Paralympic Games, as rising infections put hospitals under pressure.
The step comes with summer school holidays ending and top infection experts suggesting delaying the start of classes to reduce contagion risks.
The country has been recording more than 20,000 new cases a day in recent weeks as the more infectious Delta variant spreads.
In urban areas, such as Tokyo, patients in serious condition have been left waiting for hours or travelling long distances in ambulances to find available hospital beds.
“The number of new cases has continued to hit record highs nationwide,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told ministers and government officials as he announced the expansion.
CHINA SLAMS US INTEL REPORT ON WUHAN ORIGIN
As Covid continues to disrupt the world, investigators are no closer to finding out the origins of the virus.
China attacked a classified intelligence report on the Covid-19 pandemic after US officials said the virus’s origins remain inconclusive due to the Wuhan lab’s refusal to co-operate.
The report came after US President Joe Biden ordered a “definitive” investigation into whether the virus jumped from animals to humans or if it originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
The intel assessment, which was delivered to the White House this week and is expected to be declassified within days, left the question unanswered, according to two US officials quoted by The Washington Post.
Throughout the 90-day investigation, US officials warned they might not find a “smoking gun” as China was unwilling to co-operate and refused to hand over lab records.
The Chinese slammed the report on Wednesday, saying the US was using the origin to suppress other countries and that investigators should look at the virus lab in Maryland, near Washington DC.
“The United States says it lacks information from China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at his daily press conference, according to the state-run China News service quoted by the Post.
“I can tell the United States that this is just an excuse to cover up the failure of its intelligence in origin tracing.”
Fu Cong, head of the foreign ministry’s arms control department, urged the WHO to visit the US military bio lab Fort Detrick, which is along with the Wuhan is one of the world’s leading virus research laboratories.
“If (the US) want to baselessly accuse China, they better be prepared to accept a counter-attack from China,” Cong told reporters.
“If the US thinks China is guilty, they need to come up with evidence to prove that China is guilty. You don’t blame a victim for not providing information to incriminate himself.”
CHINA CLAIMS DELTA VARIANT CURBED
While suggesting Covid-19 may have emerged in a US laboratory, China has also claimed there have been no new domestic coronavirus cases after putting the country into targeted lockdowns to curb its latest outbreak.
The latest surge began in mid-July when cleaners at a Nanjing airport tested positive, is the most severe since Covid-19 first surfaced in the central city of Wuhan.
More than a thousand people have been infected across dozens of cities. But communist authorities reacted with swift localised lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing of neighbourhoods with infections as part of their “zero case” approach to the pandemic, which has virtually sealed off China’s borders but allowed the economy to rebound.
New domestic infections have been falling for over two weeks. On Monday, National Health Commission data showed local infections returned to zero after a five week battle.
Meanwhile, health experts are attempting to shore up confidence in the country’s vaccination drive with leading virologist Zhong Nanshan saying “effective herd immunity” is on the horizon once over 80 per cent of the population is vaccinated — a target likely achieved by year-end.
US APPROVES PFIZER Covid VACCINE
In the US, meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid shot, triggering a new wave of vaccine mandates as the Delta variant batters the country.
About 52 per cent of the US population is fully vaccinated, but health authorities have hit a wall of vaccine hesitant people, impeding the national campaign.
In a televised address, US President Joe Biden called FDA approval the “gold standard” in evidence.
“Today I’m calling on … more companies in the private sector to step up with vaccine requirements that will reach millions more people,” he said.
Pfizer’s vaccine, which will now be marketed under its brand name Comirnaty, is the first to receive full approval.
More than 200 million Pfizer shots have already been administered under an emergency use authorisation (EUA) that was granted on December 11, 2020.
The decision to fully approve it among people aged 16 and up was based on updated data from the drug’s clinical trial involving more than 40,000 people, which found the vaccine 91 per cent effective in preventing Covid.
The FDA tracked data from 12,000 vaccine recipients six months out from their vaccine series.
Most commonly reported side effects were mild and included pain and swelling at the injection site, as well as headache, chills and fever.
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