A terrace bar at Playa de Palma beach in Palma de Mallorca. EU officials recommended easing restrictions on travel into Europe by vaccinated people to enable holiday-making. Photograph: Enrique Calvo/Reuters
A terrace bar at Playa de Palma beach in Palma de Mallorca. EU officials recommended easing restrictions on travel into Europe by vaccinated people to enable holiday-making. Photograph: Enrique Calvo/Reuters
Matt Hancock, the UK health secretary, has expressed certainty over a “great British summer” ahead.
In a video posted on Twitter, he said:
It seems like only yesterday that Margaret Keenan was getting the first clinically authorised vaccine in the world and now we’ve delivered 50 million. And this is so important of course because it is a life-saving vaccine that helps protect you, helps protect those around you, and it is our route out of this pandemic. And it’s because of the vaccination programme that we’re able to keep going down this road map, and I know we’re going to have a great British summer.
We’ve just delivered the 50 millionth jab across the UK!
Massive achievement from the team.
These jabs are saving lives and helping us get back to normal.
Thank you to everyone who has played their part in our national effort.
The UK government has reported 1,649 new coronavirus cases on Monday, down 22 from the previous day.
There has also been one new death within 28 days of a positive coronavirus death. A total of 34.59 million people have received at least one vaccination dose.
My colleague Daniel Boffey reports that the coronavirus vaccine rollout is rapidly gathering pace across Europe.
Like the Netherlands, although for different reasons, Belgium’s rollout was not quick in the early months of this year. Faced with some of the worst death statistics in Europe, the government focused on getting jabs to its most vulnerable: 86.8% of over 80s are fully vaccinated and 84.18% of 65- to 84-year-olds. But it is now firing through the younger, more easily accessed age groups, reducing the time between delivery of doses and administration from 18 days in March to around four in the last week.
This evolution is being witnessed elsewhere in the EU. Apart from the stragglers of Bulgaria, Latvia, Croatia and Romania, solidly over 20% of the population in each of the other EU member states has now received a vaccine jab, with the tiny island state of Malta leading the way with 52.43%, and as the difficult-to-get-to priority groups are being ticked off the pace of jabs is increasing.
Denmark becomes first country to exclude Johnson & Johnson's vaccine
Denmark’s health authority has said that the country will exclude the Johnson and Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine from its vaccination programme, becoming the first country to do so.
The decision was made due to the vaccine’s potential link to a rare but serious form of blood clot.
Last month, Denmark stopped the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to its possible links with blood clots.
In a statement, the Danish health authority said that “the benefits of using the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson do not outweigh the risk of causing the possible adverse effect in those who receive the vaccine”.
Reuters reports:
Denmark, which has so far fully vaccinated 11.5% of its population, has gradually been reopening society since early March as infection rates has slowed, including indoor service at restaurants and cafes and allowing football fans into stadiums.
“Taking the present situation in Denmark into account, what we are currently losing in our effort to prevent severe illness from COVID-19 cannot outweigh the risk of causing possible side effects in the form of severe blood clots in those we vaccinate,” the health authority said. It added that the vaccination rollout is progressing satisfactorily with other available vaccines.
The country has recorded over 253,000 coronavirus cases and 2,490 coronavirus-related deaths.
Reuters reports that Kuwati citizens who have not received a coronavirus vaccine will not be able to travel abroad from 22 May, the information ministry has said.
The ban does not include people in age groups not eligible to receive the vaccination yet.
Boris Johnson has said that the UK is doing “everything we can” in the interests of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as officials downplayed reports from Iran that Britain would pay £400m to secure her release.
PA reports:
Boris Johnson has said the UK is doing “everything we can” in the interests of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as officials downplayed reports from Iran that said Britain would pay a £400m debt to secure her release.
Iranian state TV claimed on Sunday that a deal had been struck over the long-running dispute, which has been suggested as a reason for the British-Iranian charity worker’s detention.
But UK officials have since downplayed the idea that payment of the debt would mean Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imminent release, while the prime minister said on Monday they were “two entirely separate issues”.
“We of course make sure that we do everything we can to look after the interests of Nazanin and all the very difficult dual national cases we have in Tehran,” Mr Johnson told reporters during a campaign visit to Hartlepool.
Tobi Thomas here, taking over while my colleague Yohannes Lowe has a break. If you would like to get in touch with any tips, please do email tobi.thomas@theguardian.com - thanks!
Severe Covid-19 vaccine shortages have hampered India’s plan to administer jabs to all adults, with fewer then half of India’s states able to begin vaccinating over-18s amid warnings the shortfall could last months.
Over the weekend, more than 600 million Indians became eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in a policy that was introduced in the wake of a deadly second wave hitting the country last month.
However, as many had predicted, vaccine shortages have proved a huge impediment to the rollout and so far only 12 of India’s 36 states and union territories have had enough vaccines in stock to begin vaccinating over-18s, and many only in small numbers.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen, the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, has the latest here:
Cambodian capital to end blanket lockdown despite surge
On Monday, Cambodiaregistered a record 841 new Covid cases, but prime minister Hun Sen ordered the end to a blanket lockdown in the capital Phnom Penh, saying there would be only be lockdowns in areas where infections had surged.
The south-east Asian country has recorded one of the world’s smallest coronavirus caseloads, but infections have climbed from about 500 in late February to 15,361 now, with a total 106 deaths.
It reported 730 new cases on Sunday and a second highest daily record of 841 on Monday, according to Reuters.
Authorities put Phnom Penh and the nearby town of Takhmau, where most of the cases have been recorded, under a hard lockdown on 15 April.
Under the lockdown, authorities declared some districts “red zones”, banning people from leaving their homes.
The World Health Organization representative in Cambodia, Li Ailan, warned on Sunday against easing curbs too soon.
Ailan said in a tweet:
Relaxing Covid-19 measures too fast and too soon means a possible surge.
