The GAVI vaccine alliance is in talks with Chinese drugmaker Sinovac to expand the Covax dose-sharing portfolio available to poor countries following the World Health Organization’s approval of its Covid-19 vaccine earlier today, a GAVI spokesperson said.
“Gavi, on behalf of the Covax Facility, is in dialogue with several manufacturers, including Sinovac, to expand and diversify the portfolio further and secure access to additional doses for Facility participants,” a statement reported by Reuters said.
Union criticises ‘pitiful’ £1.4bn Covid catch-up plan for England pupils
The main Covid focus in England today hasn’t been the pandemic itself, but government proposals to help pupils “catch-up” on learning they may have missed. The package has been roundly criticised, as Haroon Siddique reports:
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), hit out at the government on Wednesday as it faced scrutiny over why the money is about a 10th of the £15bn total understood to have been recommended by the education recovery commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins.
Barton said the government package was “dispiriting” and accused the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, of having lower ambitions for children than those of his union’s members.
“It’s pretty pitiful, only yesterday we were hearing stories about extending the school day and even if some people disagreed with it, at least there was a sense of ‘let’s do something radical, let’s do something different’,” he told Sky News.
“Today’s announcement essentially equates to £50 per head, you compare that with the USA which is putting £1,600 per head, per young person, or the Netherlands, £2,500 per head. So what is it about those children in the Netherlands or the USA that makes them worth more than our government seems to say? It’s time to stop the rhetoric I think and start the action on behalf of children and young people.”
During a series of interviews of Wednesday, Williamson struggled to explain the discrepancy between the announced government spending and that recommended by Collins, who was appointed in February by Downing Street to lead efforts to make up for the damage done by the coronavirus pandemic, particularly to pupils from more deprived backgrounds.
Poland to raise limits on gatherings next week in further restriction easing
Poland will raise the limit for the number of guests at large gatherings such as weddings to 150 from 50 from 6 June, the health minister said, as the country eases Covid-19 restrictions further due to a falling number of cases.
People who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus will not be counted as part of this limit, Reuters report that Adam Niedzielski told a news conference.
Many countries in the world have been looking on enviously at the very small number of cases in Australia over recent months, but a new cluster has left people asking questions about the country’s approach. Michael Toole writes for us this morning:
Just two weeks ago, Australians were living in a Covid-19-free environment that was unthinkable this time last year. Even in Melbourne, people were once again meeting family and friends at cafes, pubs and cinemas. Football games were played in front of packed stadiums.
But that came to an abrupt halt when a new cluster of cases was identified in Melbourne early last week. This outbreak has now grown to 60 known cases across the greater metropolitan area, including several aged care workers and two residents. Genomic sequencing links all these cases to a man who was infected while staying in an Adelaide quarantine hotel.
As Melbourne moves into a second week of lockdown, it’s worth asking why we’re back in this all too familiar situation. Two issues that loom the largest in explaining how we got here are a hotel quarantine system that clearly doesn’t work as well as it could, and a more concerning virus variant that seems to have taken full advantage of the time it circulated undetected from the Wollert man to case number five – the key piece of rotten luck in this outbreak. Add to that a painfully slow rollout of vaccines and, deeply worryingly, the related lack of attention to the safety of aged care home residents and staff.
International flights to Vietnam’s two biggest cities are to resume, AFP reports, reversing a short-lived ban imposed over fears of a new coronavirus wave.
The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam on Monday announced a temporary suspension for international passenger arrivals at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport from 1-7 June.
A similar decision was in force for the airport in commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City until 14 June, as the country struggles to contain a virus outbreak in more than half of its territories.
But today the aviation authority told airports and airlines that it had reversed the suspension, without mentioning a timeframe or giving an explanation.
Vietnam has managed to keep infection rates low, but cases have more than doubled in the past month and now stand at more than 7,500, with 48 deaths.
With less than two months left until the start of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Japan’s Asahi Breweries still doesn’t know whether fans will be allowed into stadiums to buy its beer.
Japan has scaled back its Olympic plans amid the pandemic and a slow national vaccine rollout. Foreign spectators won’t be allowed in the country and organisers have yet to decide how many domestic spectators, if any, can attend.
More than 60 Japanese companies together paid a record of more than $3bn to sponsor the Tokyo Games, an event most Japanese want cancelled or delayed again. Sponsors paid another $200m to extend contracts after the Games were delayed last year.
Many are uncertain how to proceed with advertising campaigns or marketing events, according to 12 officials and sources at companies directly involved in sponsorship who spoke to Reuters.
Asahi has the exclusive rights to sell beer, wine and non-alcoholic beer at the stadiums, but even if spectators are allowed, the Tokyo government has no plans to allow alcohol at its public viewing sites outside venues, a representative said.
Sponsors have grown frustrated with what they see as slow decision-making and have complained to the organisers, Eimi Yamamitsu and Maki Shiraki report. “There are so many different scenarios that we can’t prepare,” said the source.
Some domestic firms, worried about opposition to the Games, have called off plans for commercials featuring Olympic athletes or supporting Japanese national teams, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
“I’m worried that by airing Olympic ads, it could be negative for the company,” said a source at a domestic sponsor. “At this point, no amount of publicity we could get would make up for what we paid.”
Some top-tier global sponsors, whose contracts run until 2024, are scaling down Tokyo promotions and deferring budgets for Beijing in 2022 or Paris in 2024, said a second person with direct knowledge of the matter, and the employee of the sponsor company who was briefed on the issue.
But domestic sponsors don’t have another Olympics. “That’s why we can’t simply quit,” said the source at the domestic sponsor.
Data shows Russia's third vaccine CoviVac is more than 80% effective – reports
Bit of a reporting chain here, but Reuters is quoting Interfax saying that Russia’s third vaccine against Covid-19, CoviVac, is more than 80% effective according to preliminary data.
The Chumakov Centre could produce six times more than the previously planned 10m doses of the vaccine a year, Interfax added.
Australia’s Covid vaccination programme has lacked urgency at every stage, with the government forced to revise its own targets and never seeming to meet its own goals. Victoria’s latest outbreak has exposed Scott Morrison government’s failure to successfully get the vaccine out to even the most vulnerable in the community.
The outbreak has hit unvaccinated aged care workers, despite federal promises they would be vaccinated by March. Along with mixed messages about the urgency of getting Australia vaccinated, the Morrison government became mired in a debate about whether Australia’s coronavirus vaccination rollout is or is not a race.
Our multimedia team has put together this video report:
'Up the front' to 'it's not a race': how Australia's bungled Covid vaccine rollout unfolded – video
Taiwan has announced 372 new cases of Covid-19 and 12 deaths in its latest daily update.
The CECC also announced 177 cases across the preceding five days from the backlog of test results. The number is a significant increase from yesterday, when 262 new cases were reported, with just 65 from the backlog. The backlog is clearing, authorities have assured, but in the meantime it has continued to cause problems in analysis of trends and response measures.
Health and welfare minister Chen Shih-Chung said it wasn’t clear if today’s rise was due to an increase in cases or faster reporting times, local media said.
Chen also gave some updates about Taiwan’s vaccination process – a complicated issue, which involves accusations of geopolitical interference as well as of government bungling. The government has procured around 1m doses so far for 23.5 million people, and has ordered tens of millions more – a significant proportion of which are domestically produced vaccine candidates in trial stage.
Chen told the media he hopes that once they have enough supply, they will be able to administer 1m doses per week, through Taiwan’s 300 hospitals, 800 clinics and 200 other locations.
According to local media he said any businesses with more than 1,000 employees can host a vaccination stop.
Chen said the government hopes to have 60% of the population receive at least one dose by October. It’s potentially a tall order, requiring about 14m doses.
Currently Taiwan has received 850,000 doses, a mix of AstraZeneca and Moderna.
It has ordered about 4.5m more from Moderna, 9.2m from Astrazeneca, and 4.7m via Covax, but the imminent arrival of any of these is far from confirmed given the aforementioned complications and global shortages.
Another 10m have been ordered via two Taiwan producers, but these vaccines are still in trial stage. Producers have said they intend to apply for emergency use this month – international approval likely a long way after that.
In the UK, Labour’s opposition spokesperson on education, Kate Green, has called for more support for extra-curricular activities in schools as part of the Covid catch-up package being proposed by the government.
She told BBC Breakfast: “What we’re proposing is that there should be a range of measures in a package of support for children and young people.
“Yes more time for small group tutoring and catching up on lost learning, but children can’t learn well if they’re worried, if they’re anxious, if they’re not having time to play and develop.
“So we’re also suggesting support for extra-curricular activities, play, drama, art and so on, and of course in putting in mental health support in schools.”
PA Media reports she added: “Children need some time to relax and enjoy life, over the summer and into the new school year we think the important thing is to make sure the fabulous facilities that schools have, the sports fields, the art rooms, the music rooms and so on, can be used for out-of-school activities too.
“So we’re talking about school being open for longer but not for lots of extra formal learning, we don’t want children doing maths at five and six in the evening when they’re really tired.”
