Coronavirus live news: vaccine progress ‘encouraging’ says WHO; South Korea at ‘critical crossroads’

South Korea determined to tighten social distancing curbs for the larger Seoul space amid latest spikes in new coronavirus instances, the Yonhap information company reported on Tuesday, citing a gathering hosted by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun.

We’ll have extra element shortly.

California will dramatically roll again its reopening efforts, the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, introduced on Monday, saying he was pulling the “emergency brake” amid a troubling surge in instances.

The modifications, which take impact Tuesday, will see greater than 94% of California’s inhabitants and most companies throughout the state return to probably the most restrictive tier of guidelines aimed at slowing the unfold of the virus. The state can also be strengthening its steering on masks; Newsom introduced face coverings would now be required exterior folks’s properties with restricted exceptions.

You can learn the total report, by Lois Beckett and Vivian Ho, here.

The WHO is experiencing its personal outbreak of coronavirus, with Tedros spending 17 days in quarantine – although he stated he had not developed any signs.

Five new instances inside the identical WHO crew have been registered previously week, WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove stated.

“We don’t know if there is an actual cluster,” she stated, including that specialists have been making an attempt to work out if transmission had occurred on the premises.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan harassed that the Geneva area is experiencing “some of the most intense transmission in the world right now”.

“We are human beings and we live within a society,” he stated.

Reported breakthroughs in Covid-19 vaccine analysis are “encouraging”, the World Health Organization’s chief stated on Monday, however voiced concern about surging instances and warned towards complacency, AFP studies.

“We continue to receive encouraging news about Covid-19 vaccines,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed a digital press briefing.

Tedros, who has simply spent greater than two weeks in quarantine after coming in touch with somebody with Covid-19, stated he was “cautiously optimistic” that new instruments would begin to arrive within the coming months.

But he added: “This is no time for complacency.”

His feedback got here as hopes trials of a second candidate vaccine recommended it was practically 95 % efficient towards the virus.

The information from US biotech agency Moderna adopted related interim outcomes final week for Pfizer and BioNTech’s candidate vaccine.

But WHO has warned that widespread availability of any vaccine stays a good distance off, and Covid-19 instances and deaths are surging in lots of elements of the world.

“Those countries that are letting the virus run unchecked are playing with fire,” he stated.

He voiced specific alarm concerning the scenario in Europe and the Americas, the place he stated well being staff and methods have been being pushed to breaking level.

“A laissez-faire attitude to the virus … leads to death, suffering and hurts livelihoods and economies,” he stated.

“The quickest way to open up economies is to defeat the virus.”

Hello and welcome to in the present day’s live protection of the coronavirus pandemic.

My title is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the most recent Covid-19 information from all over the world for the following few hours.

Reported breakthroughs in Covid-19 vaccine analysis are “encouraging”, the World Health Organization’s chief stated on Monday, however voiced concern about surging instances and warned towards complacency.

“We continue to receive encouraging news about Covid-19 vaccines,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed a digital press briefing. But he added: “This is no time for complacency.”

His feedback got here as hopes trials of a second candidate vaccine recommended it was practically 95% efficient towards the virus.

The information from US biotech agency Moderna adopted related interim outcomes final week for Pfizer and BioNTech’s candidate vaccine.

In South Korea, officers reported greater than 200 new coronavirus instances for the third consecutive day on Monday, as the federal government considers tightening social distancing.
“We are at a critical crossroads where we might have to readjust distancing,” South Korean Health Minister Park Neung-hoo stated.

“The current situation is taking a very dangerous turn considering the rising infections from daily lives and the unrelenting pace of the spread.”

• The US biotech agency Moderna has claimed that its Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5% efficient, based on an interim evaluation launched on Monday and based mostly on 95 sufferers with confirmed Covid infections. The firm plans to use to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency-use authorisation.
• Greeting the information, the top of the World Health Organization stated a vaccine is not going to by itself halt the pandemic.
• Scientists have expressed hope that the preliminary success of mRNA vaccines might be a “leap forward” for combating different illnesses, together with most cancers.
• France’s coronavirus hospitalisations attain new document. French well being authorities have reported that the variety of hospitalised coronavirus sufferers has elevated by 416 to achieve a brand new all-time excessive of 33,497, even because the variety of new instances reached a greater than one-month low.
• There have been an additional 21,363 lab-confirmed coronavirus instances within the UK, based on government data, elevating the cumulative complete to 1,390,681. An additional 213 deaths inside 28 days of a constructive check have been reported on Monday, bringing the whole to 52,147.
• Greece has reported 2,198 new coronavirus infections and 59 fatalities. The nation’s caseloads stands at 76,403, whereas 1,165 have died.
• Norway’s minority authorities and the opposition get together have agreed on an elevated financial help package deal of twenty-two.1bn Norwegian crowns (£1.84bn) amid the persevering with coronavirus disaster.
• The United States registered multiple million new coronavirus instances final week as new infections rose in each state aside from Hawaii, based on a Reuters evaluation of state and county studies.
• A extremely pathogenic pressure of hen flu has been discovered within the pet part of a store in one in every of Corsica’s important cities, the French farm ministry has introduced. It follows Denmark ordering the culling of 25,000 chickens after detecting H5N8 hen flu on a farm.