EU deal on Covid passes to open travel – as it happened

South Korea has said it will conduct a clinical trial that mixes Covid vaccine doses developed by AstraZeneca Plc with those from Pfizer Inc and others, Reuters reports.

It comes as a growing number of countries consider using different coronavirus vaccines for first and second doses amid supply delays and safety concerns that have slowed vaccination efforts.

A health official said the trial would include about 500 military personnel who were vaccinated with a first dose of AstraZeneca’s shot.

The study will examine T cells – immune cells that can destroy virus-infected cells – and neutralising antibodies in those who were given a combination of doses, the health official told reporters.

Dogs are better at detecting Covid-19 in humans than many fast lateral flow tests (LFTs), according to a French study which could see canines more widely deployed for mass virus screening in crowded places including airports.

The trial, conducted in March and April by France’s national veterinary school and the clinical research unit of Paris’s Necker-Cochin hospital, showed dogs were able to detect the presence of the virus with 97% accuracy.

The dogs were also 91% correct in identifying negative samples, the study showed. A recent review of 64 studies found LFTs correctly identify on average 72% of people infected with the virus who have symptoms, and 58% who do not.

“These results are scientific confirmation of dogs’ capacity to detect the olfactory signature of Covid-19,” the Paris hospital board said, adding that the study – which is due to be published in a scientific review – was the first of its kind.

Jon Henley, the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, has the latest here:

Reuters reports:

India has ordered tighter surveillance of a rare fungal disease hitting Covid-19 patients, officials said on Thursday, piling pressure on hospitals struggling with the world’s highest number of daily infections of the novel coronavirus.

Mucormycosis, or “black fungus”, usually infects people whose immune system has been compromised, causing blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood.

Doctors believe that the use of steroids to treat severe Covid-19 could be causing the rash of cases because those drugs reduce immunity and push up sugar levels.

The health secretary, Lav Agarwal, said in a letter to state governments that mucormycosis had emerged as a new challenge for Covid-19 patients on steroid therapy and those with pre-existing diabetes.

“This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality among Covid-19 patients,” he said in the letter reviewed by Reuters on Thursday.

He gave no numbers of the mucormycosis cases nationwide but Maharashtra, one of the states worst hit in the second wave of coronavirus infections, has reported 1,500 cases.

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has tested negative for Covid-19 after a worker at her residence tested positive, the presidential office has confirmed.

“The president is healthy and safe,” it said.

Taiwan is dealing with a spike in domestic Covid infections, Reuters notes.

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Pfizer Inc and its German partner, BioNTech SE, have said they will supply Turkey with 60m additional doses of their Covid vaccine as part of an agreement that includes the option for an extra 30m doses, Reuters reports.

This latest pact follows a deal in December when the companies agreed to supply Turkey with 30m doses of the two-dose vaccine.

Canada is poised to overtake the US in the proportion of population with one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, following early delays in its rollout. But Canada’s success in quickly vaccinating residents has raised questions over what more it can be doing as the pandemic persists in poorer nations.

For months, Canada has trailed its neighbour in vaccination rates, prompting envy and frustration among residents. In March, the US was vaccinating at a rate three times that of Canada.

Canada’s initial rollout was hampered by limited supply and confusion: in December, officials in Ontario, the country’s most populous province, apologised for shutting down vaccine clinics for the holidays.

But with nearly 47% of its population covered by a single dose and new shipments arriving, the rollout has picked up speed.

You can read the full story by my colleague Leyland Cecco here:

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.

• WHO’s Europe chief has said that the currently authorised vaccines on the continent are effective against all known Covid-19 variants.
• But Hans Kluge warned: “Right now, in the face of a continued threat and new uncertainty, we need to continue to exercise caution, and rethink or avoid international travel,” Hans Kluge said, adding that “pockets of increasing transmission” on the continent could quickly spread.
• The European commission has said in a statement that it has signed a third contract with pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer for an additional 1.8bn doses of Covid vaccine.
• The EU says the deal “will allow for the purchase of 900m doses of the current vaccine and of a vaccine adapted to variants, with the option to purchase an additional 900m doses”. Hungary has opted out.
• The latest data from India shows “a glimmer of hope”. The country recorded 276,110 new cases of Covid and 3,874 deaths in the previous 24 hours – those numbers are both dipping slightly. Data also shows the country’s daily recoveries have trumped the tally of daily cases for the seventh straight day.
• Taiwan has announced one new death and 286 new cases of Covid-19 today.
• China said it was providing Covid-19 vaccines to nearly 40 African countries. The vaccines were donated or sold at “favourable prices”, foreign ministry official, Wu Peng, told reporters.
• Singapore has ordered Facebook and Twitter to carry a correction notice to users of the social media platforms in the country over what it says is a false statement about a new virus variant originating in Singapore.
• Ukraine’s parliament has appointed Viktor Lyashko as the new health minister, urging him to speed up vaccinations against Covid-19.
• Britain’s Prince William has said he has received his first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
• The International Olympic Committee has tried to reassure an anxious Japan that the Tokyo Olympics would be safe for athletes as well as the host community, amid mounting opposition to the Games and fears it will fuel a spike in Covid cases.
• Profits from Covid-19 jabs have helped at least nine people become billionaires, a campaign group said, calling for an end to pharmaceutical corporations’ “monopoly control” on vaccine technology.

That’s your lot from me, Martin Belam. I’m off to do the Thursday quiz. Yohannes Lowe will be with you shortly to continue bringing you the latest coronavirus news from around the globe. Andrew Sparrow has our UK Covid live blog.

Progress against the coronavirus pandemic remains “fragile” and international travel should be avoided, the World Health Organization’s Europe director warned on Thursday, but stressed that authorised vaccines do work against variants of concern.

“Right now, in the face of a continued threat and new uncertainty, we need to continue to exercise caution, and rethink or avoid international travel,” Hans Kluge said, adding that “pockets of increasing transmission” on the continent could quickly spread.

The so-called India variant, which may be more transmissible, has now been identified in at least 26 of the 53 countries in the WHO Europe region, Kluge said during his weekly press conference.

But, AFP report, he said that authorised vaccines were effective against the new strain.

“All Covid-19 virus variants that have emerged so far do respond to the available, approved vaccines,” Kluge said, adding that all Covid-19 variants can be controlled with the same public health and social measures used until now.

So far only 23% of people in the region have received a vaccine dose, with just 11% having had both doses, Kluge said, as he warned citizens to continue to exercise caution.

“Vaccines may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot be blinded by that light,” he said.

Uki Goñi reports for us from Buenos Aires:

With both the Brazilian and UK variants circulating widely in Argentina, the patients now being seen by intensive care doctor Vanina Edul at the Fernández public hospital in Buenos Aires are dying faster, and younger: one recent victim was just 42 when he died.

“I am seeing people die in less than a week – young patients unresponsive to treatment. You administer oxygen, do all the mechanics – turn them face down, face up – but it doesn’t work. Then there are other patients whose oxygenation level is not so bad – but they die anyway,” Edul says.

A devastating second wave of Covid cases has caught Argentina off guard, with relaxed restrictions and a low vaccination rate. Cases have risen from a daily total of about 5,000 in early March to a record 35,000 this week, while deaths surged from 112 at the start of March to a record 744 on Tuesday. On Wednesday daily contagions set a new record, just under 40,000 cases, while deaths dropped to 494.

The figures put the country third in daily cases after India and Brazil, and fourth in Covid deaths, after India, Brazil and the US.

Relative to population, Argentina now has the highest number of Covid deaths in the world, with 16.46 Covid fatalities per million, far exceeding its giant neighbour Brazil, which saw 11.82 per million.

Read more from Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires here: ‘People die in less than a week’: Covid wave catches Argentina off-guard