UK reports lowest number of Covid deaths since mid-September
The UK has reported its lowest number of Covid deaths since mid-September, according to official figures.
Data shows that more than five million people have now had both doses of a vaccine.
A further 3,423 infections were reported in the latest 24-hour period, while another 10 deaths have been recorded within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test.
This compares to 52 on Friday and 58 last Saturday. It’s the lowest figure since nine deaths were reported on 14 September.
The IT company helping the UK Government with a possible Covid-19 passport app has said its technology is “an efficient, secure and scalable solution” that will support the safe reopening of society, reports Catherine Wylie of the Press Association.
Netcompany has already confirmed its digital Corona passport app will be used in Denmark and is expected to be ready in May.
The UK Government is working on the development of a “Covid status certification” scheme, the so-called vaccine passport, and a Whitehall source said Netcompany is “helping with the technical architecture of a possible app”.
Netcompany was awarded a year-long contract in November worth 3,107,200 for “Alpha, Beta and Live Support services to NHS Test and Trace”, according to the Government website.
The firm’s website says:
Netcompany’s digital Corona passport is an efficient, secure and scalable solution that supports a safe reopening of societies and businesses, granting citizens access to the workplace, business - and holiday travels, healthcare institutions and cultural institutions.
In addition, the solution can support a more responsible return of private gatherings, weddings etc.
The company says the solution is built on technology that prevents forgery and is ready-made to be adapted to ongoing developments, such as mutations and new test solutions.
The company says:
This ensures that organisers and citizens can feel safe, while society gradually reopens, and venues and cultural events can remain open, without experiencing long queues, as the app works offline as well, and checks can be made in less than one second.
The app is said to be user-friendly and simple for both citizens and organisers to use, and the protection of user privacy is “central to the solution” with all data stored on the user’s phone.
Announcing that Netcompany would deliver the Danish corona passport app last month, CEO Andre Rogaczewski said it will be “a vital tool in accelerating the return to a more normal everyday life in Denmark where we can cross borders more easily and reopen society, based on testing, vaccination and immunity”.
Videos on the Netcompany website show what the app looks like and how people will use it, with one of the videos featuring the fictitious Larsen family using the app in a number of scenarios.
A Government spokeswoman said:
The video on Netcompany’s website states that all scenarios are fictitious and not indicative of how a certification system might work in the UK.
No final decisions have been made on how a certification system might work in practice. Any such system that we use will take into account three factors: vaccination, a negative test and natural immunity.
The review is considering a range of issues, including the ethical, equalities, privacy, legal and operational aspects and what limits, if any, should be placed on organisations using certification.
India’s richest state, Maharashtra, said it would impose stringent COVID-19 restrictions from Monday as there has been a rapid rise in infections, a state minister said today.
Reuters reports that the state will shut down malls, cinema halls, bars and restaurants from Monday evening and impose a complete lockdown on weekends, Nawab Malik told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Coronavirus cases continue to rise rapidly in India with the number of new infections nearing all-time high on Sunday, largely driven by infections in Maharashtra, home to the country’s financial capital Mumbai.
The country reported 93,249 new cases in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, according to data from the federal Health Ministry. Maharashtra accounted for more than half of that with a record 49,447 new cases.
Sports minister Nigel Huddleston has said the UK Government trials for the return of mass events were intended as a “learning experience” to understand how to “manage and mitigate” the risks of coronavirus transmission.
In a pooled clip for broadcasters, he said:
It is not just about certification. The earlier pilots almost certainly won’t involve any elements of certification but it will involving testing, making sure that people are tested before and after the events.
What we will be looking at is the mitigation measures. So ventilation, one-way systems, hygiene measures, all of those kind of things to help inform long-term decision-making.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has said it is designating the Netherlands an area of particularly high risk of coronavirus infection due to a high number of cases in the country.
From Tuesday people entering Germany from the Netherlands will need to provide documentation of a negative coronavirus test.
Conservative former cabinet minister David Davis has questioned the need for the UK Government’s planned “Covid status certification” scheme.
He told LBC radio:
It is really rather hard to see what the purpose of this test is. It is very different from anything we have done in Britain outside wartime.
We are not used to presenting papers - or the electronic equivalent - to go to the pub or to go to a football match. That is not what we think of our freedoms.
Once you have got the population to above about 70% vaccinated then you have got herd immunity. So it is very difficult to see what they are trying to stop.
The idea that we’d somehow stop (coronavirus) variants by this rather silly measure in Britain alone is nonsense.
Pope urges quicker distribution of Covid-19 vaccines
Pope Francis urged countries in his Easter message on Sunday to quicken distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, particularly to the world’s poor, and called armed conflict and military spending during a pandemic “scandalous”.
Reuters reports:
Coronavirus has meant this has been the second year in a row that Easter papal services have been attended by small gatherings at a secondary altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, instead of by crowds in the church or in the square outside.
After saying Mass, Francis read his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, in which he traditionally reviews world problems and appeals for peace.
He said:
The pandemic is still spreading, while the social and economic crisis remains severe, especially for the poor. Nonetheless - and this is scandalous - armed conflicts have not ended and military arsenals are being strengthened.
Francis, who would normally have given the address to up to 100,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, spoke to fewer than 200 in the church while the message was broadcast to tens of millions around the world.
The square was empty except for a few police officers enforcing a strict three-day national lockdown.
The pope asked God to comfort the sick, those who have lost a loved one, and the unemployed, urging authorities to give families in greatest need a “decent sustenance”.
He praised medical workers, sympathised with young people unable to attend school, and said everyone was called to combat the pandemic:
I urge the entire international community, in a spirit of global responsibility, to commit to overcoming delays in the distribution of vaccines and to facilitate their distribution, especially in the poorest countries.
Francis, who has often called for disarmament and a total ban on the possession of nuclear weapons, said:
There are still too many wars and too much violence in the world! May the Lord, who is our peace, help us to overcome the mindset of war.
Noting that it was International Awareness Day against anti-personnel landmines, he called such weapons “insidious and horrible devices ... how much better our world would be without these instruments of death!”
In mentioning conflict areas, he singled out for praise “the young people of Myanmar committed to supporting democracy and making their voices heard peacefully”. More than 550 protesters have been killed since a Feb. 1 military coup in Myanmar, which the pope visited in 2017.
Francis called for peace in several conflict areas in Africa, including the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia and the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique. He said the crisis in Yemen has been “met with a deafening and scandalous silence”. He appealed to Israelis and Palestinians to “rediscover the power of dialogue” to reach a two-state solution where both can live side by side in peace and prosperity.
Francis said he realised many Christians were still persecuted and called for all restrictions on freedom of worship and religion worldwide to be lifted.
Police shut down a Good Friday service at a Polish church in south London in the UK for breaching coronavirus rules and threatened worshippers with a £200 fine each.
Sky News reports that footage captured officers interrupting a Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion service at Christ the King Polish church in Balham at around 6pm on Friday.
One police officer was filmed telling parishioners that the gathering was “unfortunately unlawful under the coronavirus regulations”.
He added:
You are not allowed to meet inside with this many people under law.
At this moment in time you need to go home. Failure to comply with this direction to leave and go to your home address, ultimately could lead you to be fined £200 or, if you fail to give your details, to you being arrested.
It’s Good Friday and I appreciate you would like to worship, but it is unlawful.
The church has criticised the police for interrupting the service, saying it believes the officers “brutally exceeded their powers by issuing their warrant for no good reason” because “all government requirements were met”.
Police said they “engaged with the priest” outside the church and understood the sensitivity of the situation, and were invited inside to address the congregation. Inside not everybody was wearing masks and there was a lack of social distancing, said police. They said no fines were issued.
More than 100,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine has at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport today, Libya’s ministry of health said.
Reuters reports that it is the first shipment to reach the country, which is seeing an average of about 1,000 news cases a day/
The number of cases is a challenge for a health sector ravaged by years of conflict.
Interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh said in a tweet:
It is the first drop of rain. Thank God, we are able to supply the first batch of corona vaccine. The rest of the shipment will arrive in succession.
He did not give details of how many doses the country expected to receive.
A box of the vaccine was shown being unloaded from a cargo plane in a social media post by the health ministry, saying it would be moved to the ministry’s warehouses before distribution.
In February, the disease control centre launched an electronic registration campaign for vaccinations for those aged over 18. No details on the numbers of those registering have been disclosed. Libya has a population of around 6.5 million.
Libya has recorded almost 200,000 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic and 2,684 deaths, according to the latest data from the diseases centre.
Libya has been torn by division and violence for a decade since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and split between warring western and eastern factions in 2014.
Dbeibeh’s new U.N.-backed unity government took office last month with a mandate to improve services and prepare for a national election in December.
