Disinfecting parcels and sending cards early are among scientists’ recommendations for those wanting to take extra coronavirus precautions this Christmas, PA Media reports.
Medical experts have said the risk of spreading coronavirus through the post is “really low” as laboratory experiments suggest it can live on packaging materials like cardboard for a maximum of 24 hours.
Research published by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO in October showed the virus can last up to four weeks on mobile phone screens and banknotes, but it has a much shorter survival on porous surfaces like paper.
Dr Lena Ciric, who specialises in molecular biology and described her work as “looking at where microbes lurk”, recommended sending gifts to family and friends “at the start of December” so they have time to quarantine parcels for “a few extra days”.
A shop assistant sells Christmas decorations at the Yevropeisky shopping center in Russia. Photograph: Artyom Geodakyan/TASS
Dr Ciric, who is an environmental engineering lecturer at UCL, said coronavirus thrives in “cold and dry” conditions like warehouses and trucks where parcels are held - but the transit time will make a “big difference” to the virus’ survival.
She said: “The likelihood that a gift or card sent in the post by an infected person would have enough virus on it to cause an infection is really low.” “I think chances are there’s not going to be enough stuff on the gift at the time of contamination, let alone at the time it gets there.”
Respiratory medicine specialist Professor Ashley Woodcock, who is also the University of Manchester’s Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, recommended a disinfecting procedure.
He said: “If granny gets lots of Christmas cards, what is she going to do?
“If I were an old person I would be handling Christmas cards with gloves and putting them on a radiator for a few minutes.”
Parts of west Scotland braced for Level 4 resrictions
Parts of the west of Scotland could move into Level 4 restrictions later this week, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to announce her decision on Tuesday.
On Monday, Ms Sturgeon said at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing that rates in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire health board areas are “stubbornly high”.
The First Minister suggested a “limited period” of the strictest measures - moving from Level 3 to Level 4 - could allow an easing around Christmas.
A general view of a Covid-19 mobile test centre in the car park at Bannockburn High School near Stirling. Photograph: Andrew MIlligan/PA
Under the toughest restrictions, non-essential shops will be closed, along with bars, restaurants, hairdressers and visitor attractions.
Schools will remain open, however, with the First Minister saying on Monday it is her “objective and intention” to ensure they do not close.
The First Minister also told the briefing that restrictions in at least one local authority area will be eased, although she did not say where.
Pfizer launches vaccine delivery trial for four US states
Pfizer Inc said on Monday it would start a pilot program for Covid-19 immunisation in four US states to help refine the plan for delivery and deployment of its vaccine candidate.
The four states – Rhode Island, Texas, New Mexico, and Tennessee – were selected for the program because of their differences in overall size, diversity of populations and immunisation infrastructure, the drugmaker said in a statement.
“The four states included in this pilot program will not receive vaccine doses earlier than other states by virtue of this pilot, nor will they receive any differential consideration,” Pfizer said.
South Africaon Monday recorded 1,245 new coronavirus cases and 73 further deaths. The caseload stands at 752,269 , while 20,314 people have died.
The number of cases is lower than the average daily infection totals of around 2,000 cases, that have been recorded since September in the country, which is the worst-affected in Africa, but this may be due to the weekend.
Use the COVID Alert SA app to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community. Start using this privacy preserving app today. Add your phone to the fight! Download the Covid Alert SA app now! https://t.co/8YKEqaiiRFpic.twitter.com/MwMJovMXA9
In the US, the president-elect, Joe Biden, has warned “more people may die” unless the Trump administration starts cooperating with the incoming Democratic administration.
“We are going into a very dark winter. Things are going to get much tougher before they get easier,” he said.
Biden said the biggest threat from Trump’s refusal to accept that he had lost, and the consequent delay of the transition of government, was from coronavirus.
Biden said the idea that Trump was still playing golf and doing nothing about the pandemic was “beyond my comprehension”.
The country will impose stricter social distancing rules for the greater Seoul area a month after easing them, officials said on Tuesday, warning of an even bigger crisis if anti-Covid-19 efforts fail to dampen a spike in new cases.
Reuters reports that starting Tuesday midnight, tighter curbs will ban public gatherings of 100 people or more, limit religious services and audiences at sporting events to 30% capacity, and require high-risk facilities including clubs and karaoke bars to broaden distance among guests.
The tougher restrictions came as the daily case tally hovered above 200 for a fourth consecutive day, with a series of cluster outbreaks emerging from offices, medical facilities and small gatherings in Seoul and surrounding regions where around half of the country’s 52 million population live.
Participants of an education program learn to use a KIOSK, an interactive service facility, at a senior citizen welfare center in Yangcheon District of Seoul, South Korea, 16 November 2020. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
“Our anti-coronavirus efforts are facing a crisis, and the situation is particularly serious in the Seoul metropolitan area,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting. “The heightened curbs would cause greater inconvenience in our daily lives ... but we all know from our experiences that there would be an even bigger crisis if we don’t act now.” The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 230 cases as of Monday midnight, marking the ninth straight day of triple-digit rises and the highest since early September.
Of them, 202 were locally transmitted and 28 imported, and nearly 68% of the domestic infections came from the greater Seoul area, KDCA data showed.
The numbers took the country’s total infections to 28,998, with 494 deaths.
KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyeong warned on Monday the daily tally could go as high as 400 within coming weeks, asking citizens to stick to strict hygiene rules and minimise year-end celebrations.
The Belgian government said Monday it intends to make any coronavirus vaccine available to around 70% of the population, some eight million people, and free of charge, AFP reports.
The jab will not be compulsory, added Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke as he and regional counterparts attended an interministerial health conference.
“The objective is to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the population. Priority groups will be determined on the basis of scientific opinion and social debate,” Vandenbroucke stated.
“Vaccination will be free for every citizen” receiving it, he added.
An ambulance during the Coronavirus outbreak Coronavirus outbreak, Brussels, Belgium, 16 November 2020. Photograph: Isopix/REX/Shutterstock
Belgium, population 11.5 million, has registered almost 540,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 14,000 deaths to date. Its death rate per million residents is one of the worst in Europe.
As an EU member state Belgium is engaged in bloc-wide procedures for bulk purchases of anti-Covid-19 vaccines once they emerge in the coming months.
Earlier Monday, Brussels indicated it was signing a contract with German pharmaceutical company CureVac for another potential Covid-19 vaccine, bringing to five the number of vaccines in the bloc’s portfolio and a sixth on the way from US firm Moderna.
Belgium itself has so far signed up to receive 7.7 million doses from AstraZeneca (administered in two doses) and a further 5.5 million from Johnson & Johnson, national news agency Belga reported.
In Australia, returned travellers quarantining in an Adelaide hotel linked to a coronavirus cluster that has now infected 20 people are being told they may have to restart their quarantine in a new hotel, regardless of how many days they have already served.
It means some returned travellers may ultimately be forced to quarantine for up to 28 days.
The action is being taken out of concern Covid-19 could spread inside the Peppers medi-hotel in Adelaide’s city centre, where three Covid-19 cases in the cluster are linked to workers at the hotel:
More now on the measures being taken in US states.
Reuters: Ohio, where daily case tallies have increased by 17% and total hospitalisations by at least 25% in the past week, the state’s health department issued a revised order to limit mass gatherings starting on Tuesday, Governor Mike DeWine announced.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced a new 11pm curfew for bars and restaurants starting on Thursday, while some 33,000 state employees will be required to wear masks at work beginning on Wednesday.
Students sit outside Thompson Library during the first day of fall classes at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, in August 2020. Photograph: Joshua A Bickel/AP
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham urged residents to stay home for all but essential activities. “We face a life-or-death situation and we cannot fail to act,” Grisham wrote on Twitter. Michigan and Washington state on Sunday imposed sweeping new restrictions on gatherings, including halting indoor restaurant service.
The flurry of measures came as 40 states have reported record daily increases in Covid-19 cases this month, while 20 states have registered all-time highs in daily coronavirus-related deaths and 26 reported new peaks in hospitalizations, according to a Reuters tally of public health data.
The United States as a whole has averaged more than 148,000 new cases a day, and 1,120 daily deaths, over the past week.
In one of the most aggressive actions taken in the US to confront the looming crisis, Philadelphia officials on Monday ordered a ban on “indoor gatherings of any size in any location, public or private,” except among individuals who live together.
“We need to keep this virus from jumping from one household to another,” city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told a news conference.
If the current rate of “exponential” growth in cases continues, hospitals will soon be strained to their limits and more than 1,000 people could die in Pennsylvania’s largest city over the next six weeks, Farley said.
The Rocky statue is outfitted with a mock surgical face mask at the Philadelphia Art Museum in Philadelphia. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
In neighbouring New Jersey, one of the hardest-hit states in the early phase of the pandemic, Governor Phil Murphy said he was ordering indoor gatherings of individuals from different households to limit to 10 people, down from 25, while the mandatory cap on outdoor gatherings will be lowered next week to 150 from 500.
