People queue at a vaccination centre in Ebersberg near Munich, Germany. A case of the Indian variant has been found in the north-west of the country. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP
People queue at a vaccination centre in Ebersberg near Munich, Germany. A case of the Indian variant has been found in the north-west of the country. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP
Qantas will use a different laboratory to screen passengers flying from India to Australia after some of the people stopped from boarding a repatriation flight out of the country later tested negative for Covid-19.
But despite a review revealing “issues” with the laboratory used to process the tests, the airline has stood by the initial results which saw nearly half of the 150 people who had been scheduled to board the first repatriation flight out of Covid-ravaged India denied entry to the flight.
Singapore approves Covid vaccine for use in 12 to 15-year-olds
Singapore has authorised the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in order to extend protection to more groups, as the country tackles a recent increase of infections, Reuters reports.
In a statement, the health ministry said:
The data showed that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated high efficacy consistent with that observed in the adult population. Its safety profile is also consistent with the known safety profile in the adult population.
The government will also extend the interval between two-dose Covid vaccines to six to eight weeks, from three to four weeks currently, it added.
A Spanish study on mixing Covid vaccines has found that giving a dose of Pfizer’s drug to people who already received a first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine is highly safe and effective, the researchers have said.
The so-called Combivacs study, run by Spain’s state-backed Carlos III Health Institute, found the immune response in people who received a Pfizer shot was between 30 and 40 times greater than in a control group who only had AstraZeneca dose.
Few serious side-effects were reported among the 600 participants, the authors said, according to Reuters.
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until the evening (UK time). As always, feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
India has suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic so far, with 4,329 deaths in 24 hours. The devastating toll comes as India’s case total passes 25 million, according to the health ministry.
As Cyclone Tauktae hit the Gujarat coast , Mumbai shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients from field hospitals “to safer locations”. In Gujarat, all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within five kilometres of the coast were moved. One Covid-19 patient died in the town of Mahuva after he could not be moved in time before the storm hit.
Reports claim India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use.
Two people have died in Taiwan, where authorities reported a further 240 new local cases on Tuesday. All schools across Taiwan have been told to close until the end of the month.
The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature for much longer than previously recommended, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Israeli airstrikes have destroyed the only Covid-19 testing laboratory in Gaza and damaged the office of Qatar’s Red Crescent.
A top medical organisation has thrown its weight behind calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympics, saying hospitals are already overwhelmed as the country battles a sharp rise in coronavirus infections less than three months from the start of the Games.
George Eustice, the UK’s environment secretary, confirmed that local lockdowns might be needed if the situation were to deteriorate in some areas of England. Bedford’s director of public health said she was “really worried” about the local increase in Covid-19 cases linked to the Indian variant. There were strong words for the UK government from Dr Zubaida Haque, who said ministers should have “stalled” the lifting of restrictions on Monday.
Eurostar, operator of the trains that run under the Channel, has secured a €290m (£250m) rescue package to keep it afloat while waiting for Covid-19 travel curbs to be lifted.
Tax documents released by his office show that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s contract with publishers for his book about dealing with the coronavirus pandemic was worth $5 million.
Egypt is prioritising the vaccination of tourism workers to support the sector’s recovery and is on track to announce full inoculation of two resort areas this month, its tourism minister has said.
Germany will scrap its Covid vaccine priority list and start offering jabs to all adults from 7 June, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn said.
Yohannes Lowe will be along presently to take over this live blog, which will continue to carry global coronavirus news. Andrew Sparrow has our UK Covid live blog.
Eurostar, operator of the trains that run under the Channel, has secured a €290m (£250m) rescue package to keep it afloat while waiting for Covid-19 travel curbs to be lifted, the company said.
AFP report that the company, which had been on the verge of bankruptcy, said the capital injection provided by its shareholders, including French rail operator SNCF, and associated bank loans would “secure Eurostar’s future”.
Eurostar has lost nearly all its passengers to the coronavirus pandemic. Only a single Eurostar train is currently running daily between London and Paris and London and Brussels.
Russia’s incredibly consistent official coronavirus case figures continue. Reuters report that there were 8,183 new Covid-19 cases, including 2,430 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 4,957,756.
The government coronavirus task force said 364 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 116,575.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count, and has said Russia recorded around 250,000 deaths related to Covid from April 2020 to March 2021.
There are concerns that the Covid variant first detected in India is set to be the dominant strain in the UK within days. Some experts think it was a mistake for Boris Johnson to go ahead with the easing of lockdown restrictions implemented yesterday, and there is increasing doubt about whether the further lifting of lockdown measures will be able to go ahead as planned next month.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, was speaking for the government on the morning news programmes, and he confirmed that local lockdowns might be needed if the situation were to deteriorate in some areas.
