Covid latest news: Europe could hit two million coronavirus deaths by March 2022, warns WHO
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How a boom in social mixing helped fuel Europe's Covid surge
Over-60s cut social mixing because ‘selfish’ public shun masks
AstraZeneca jab could be why Britain is faring better than Europe
Analysis: Economic recovery in peril as fourth Covid wave sweeps Continent
Over two million Covid-19 deaths could be recorded in Europe by March 2022, the World Health Organization has warned.
The staggering total would represent an increase of at least 500,000 deaths over the winter as the Continent once again becomes the epicentre of the pandemic.
The WHO said that Europe remains "in the firm grip" of the coronavirus, with reported daily deaths rising to almost 4,200 a day - double the 2,100 deaths a day at the end of September.
Reported deaths from the virus have already passed the 1.5 million mark, but cumulative reported deaths are projected to reach more than 2.2 million by spring next year, based on current trends.
Europe's fourth wave has been blamed on a sluggish vaccine uptake in some nations, prompting governments across the Continent to consider reimposing unpopular lockdowns.
Austria powered down public life on Monday as its fourth national Covid-19 lockdown began, making it the first western European country to reimpose the drastic and unpopular measure this autumn.
Meanwhile Belgium and the Netherlands are still reeling from clashes that rocked weekend protests against new anti-Covid measures.
Follow the latest updates below.
12:42 PM
German military to mandate Covid jabs
The German military is making coronavirus jabs compulsory for troops amid a growing debate in the country about whether to introduce a general vaccine mandate to counter rising infection and hospitalisation rates.
The Defense Ministry on Tuesday confirmed a report in the German military blog Augen Geradeaus that officials and soldiers' representatives agreed late Monday to add the coronavirus jab to the list of vaccines soldiers must get.
The measure still needs to be formally added to military regulations, the ministry said in a statement.
There were 1,215 reported active coronavirus cases as of Monday within the military and the ministry's civilian staff.
Two soldiers have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. A further 309 deaths from Covid-19 were also reported, taking the total toll since the start of the outbreak to 99,433.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department urged Americans not to travel to Germany because of rising case numbers, and to ensure they are fully vaccinated if they do.
Some German states have tightened rules for unvaccinated people in recent days and urged people who haven't done so yet to get the jab.
But a sizeable minority has resisted calls to do so, prompting a stark warning from the country's health minister about the consequences of not getting vaccinated.
"By the end of this winter pretty much everyone in Germany (...) will have been vaccinated, recovered or died," health minister Jens Spahn said Monday.
12:22 PM
Unvaccinated patients ten times more likely to be admitted to intensive care
Belgian coronavirus figures show that people are ten times more likely to be admitted to insensitive care if they haven’t been vaccinated against the disease, reports our Brussels Correspondent Joe Barnes.
Between Nov 13 and 19, some 15,448 new Covid-19 cases were registered in Belgium, a 54 per cent jump from the previous week, according to the Sciensano Institute of Public Health.
And between Nov 16 and 22, there were an average of 280 hospital admissions per day due to coronavirus, up 19 per cent over the previous reporting period. In total, some 3,289 people remain hospitalised with Covid-19, including 654 people in intensive care.
In Brussels, where there are more than 400 people in hospital, the coronavirus vaccination rate has met the threshold of 70 per cent, two months after the EU’s deadline to reach the marker.
12:05 PM
Dutch Covid-19 patients transferred to Germany as hospitals struggle
The Netherlands on Tuesday started transporting Covid-19 patients across the border to Germany to ease pressure on Dutch hospitals struggling to deal with a surge in coronavirus cases.
A patient was transferred by ambulance from Rotterdam to a hospital in Bochum, some 240 km (150 miles) east, on Tuesday morning, and another would follow later in the day, health authorities said.
The number of Covid-19 patients in Dutch hospitals has swelled to its highest level since May in recent weeks and is expected to increase further as infections jump to record levels.
German hospitals in total have offered 20 beds for patients from the Netherlands, after treating dozens during previous waves of the pandemic.
11:49 AM
Merkel's husband slams 'lazy' anti-vaxxers
The husband of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blasted the millions of Germans who have still not received their coronavirus vaccination as “lazy” and “indolent”.
Prof Joachim Sauer, 72, said he was disturbed by the fact that “one third of the German population… are not open to the successes achieved by science”.
This “irrationality'' is comparable to Creationism in the United States, he claimed.
Ms Merkel has warned that Germany's current Covid-19 curbs will not rein in a fourth wave currently crashing over the country.
"We have a highly dramatic situation - the current rules are not enough," she reportedly told a meeting of leaders of her conservative CDU party as new infections "double every 12 days".
11:30 AM
French Prime Minister Castex tests positive
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has tested positive for the coronavirus and is isolating himself, the prime minister's office said on Monday.
Mr Castex, who is fully vaccinated against the virus, learned his daughter had tested positive after he returned from Belgium, where he met his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo. Mr Castex then tested positive himself.
The French Prime Minister will continue to work and will remain in isolation for 10 days, his office added in a statement.
11:27 AM
Prince Charles to open new AstraZeneca research centre
Prince Charles will formally open a new £1 billion AstraZeneca research and development (R&D) facility on Tuesday, as the company aims to fuel the growth of its drug pipeline.
AstraZeneca has supplied two billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine and is also looking to bring a preventative antibody cocktail against Covid-19 to market.
But while the company is setting up a separate division for vaccine and antibody therapies in light of the coronavirus pandemic, it has also beefed up other areas of research
"Our new Discovery Centre in Cambridge... will allow us to break new boundaries in the understanding of disease biology, bring life-changing medicines to patients and power the next stage of our company's growth," Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement.
Prince Charles will take a walking tour of the centre and give a short address at the opening.
11:16 AM
Why are cases surprisingly low in India?
India reported its smallest rise in cases in one-and-a half years on Tuesday, despite huge festival gatherings in recent weeks.
The country of 1.35 billion celebrated Durga Puja in October and Diwali this month, during which millions of people shopped, travelled and met family, mostly without masks. Mask-wearing is nearly non-existent outside the big cities.
So why has India beaten the odds?
Well, antibodies from prior infections and rising vaccination rates are playing a huge part in keeping cases low.
Government surveys have estimated that nearly 70 per cent of Indians had been naturally infected by July, following a record rise in infections and deaths in April and May.
So far, 81 per cent of India's 944 million adults have received at least one dose of vaccine and 43 per cent have had two doses.
India has reported a total of 34.5 million Covid-19 cases, second only to the tally in the United States. India's Covid-19 deaths rose by 236 in the past 24 hours to 466,147.
11:01 AM
Spain pulls back on nightlife freedom as traffic light limits reintroduced
After several months of virtual normality with almost no restrictions across Spain, the government is reformulating a traffic light system to introduce curbs on social interaction as caseloads and hospital pressure rise with the onset of winter, reports James Badcock from Madrid.
The new system is currently being finalised by the Health Ministry’s expert committee, and will be based on the number of new hospital admissions as well as cumulative infection rates.
In a draft seen by Spanish media, the amber or medium-risk restrictions would kick in with a cumulative 14-day infection rate of between 100 and 300 per 100,000 inhabitants if the caseload in over-65s is over 50 and with more than 10 per cent of intensive care beds taken up by Covid-19 patients. The regions of Catalonia and Aragon are already at these levels.
Possible restrictions could include closing bars at 11pm and limits on capacity and group sizes in interiors.
Spain has maintained compulsory mask wearing in public indoor spaces since the start of the pandemic. The government is also considering whether to expand its successful vaccination campaign to offer all over-60s a booster jab, with more than half of the over-70s already having had their third jab.
“We mustn’t sit back and do nothing now cases are rising once more,” said Daniel López-Acuña, a former WHO director and special advisor to the government of Asturias on Covid-19.
10:46 AM
Weekly registered Covid-19 deaths pass 1,000 for first time in eight months
The number of weekly registered deaths involving coronavirus in England and Wales has passed a thousand for the first time in eight months, figures show.
There were 1,020 deaths registered in the week ending Nov 12 where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Covid-19 accounted for around one in 12 of all deaths registered over the seven-day period.
The number is up 3 per cent from the previous week, when 995 deaths were registered.
And it is the first time the weekly total has passed a thousand since the week ending March 12, during the 2021 national lockdown.
10:29 AM
AstraZeneca jab could be the reason why Britain is faring better than Europe, says vaccine boss
The AstraZeneca jab could be the reason why Britain is faring better than Europe when it comes to Covid-19, the vaccine company's boss has said.
As countries in the EU - including Germany, the Netherlands and Austria begin to reimpose lockdown restrictions, the UK appears to be coping with the return to relative normality.
Pascal Soirot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, believes this could be due to the fact that so many older people were given the Oxford vaccine in Britain, whereas members of the EU banned the jab for its elderly populations.
Read the full story here.
10:14 AM
Fresh arrests in fourth night of Dutch Covid-19 unrest
Dutch police said Tuesday they had arrested at least 21 people during a fourth night of unrest over coronavirus measures, although the situation had calmed down.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte has slammed the days-long spree of "pure violence" by "idiots", and warned that more Covid-19 restrictions are on the cards.
More than 150 people have now been arrested across the country during protests against coronavirus measures that came into force on Nov 13.
The violence started in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday when four people were shot after police opened fire during pitched battles with stone-throwing rioters.
Demonstrators took to the streets of The Hague on Saturday, pelting police with fireworks and setting fire to bicycles. Five police were injured.
Mr Rutte said on Monday he understood the "tension in society" as the pandemic drags on but "I will never accept that idiots use pure violence".
His government has warned that further measures are likely if there is no sign of a fall in cases from the current restrictions, under which bars, cafes, restaurants and supermarkets close early and people are instructed to work from home.
09:57 AM
Israel vaccinates children as young as 5 to combat 'children's wave'
Israel began rolling out Covid-19 vaccines for children aged five to 11 on Monday, becoming one of a handful of countries to inoculate children so young as it seeks to ward off another pandemic wave.
Over the summer, the Jewish state experienced an upsurge in coronavirus infections, fuelled by the Delta variant, and launched one of the earliest campaigns for booster shots.
As infections start to creep up again, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said the country is experiencing a "children's wave" with about half of the recently confirmed cases among children below the age of 11, he wrote on Facebook.
Authorities had already begun immunising those aged 12 to 17 but decided to lower the age threshold in the wake of trials by Pfizer and recommendations from a panel of Israeli scientists.
"Right now during the epidemic, the best tool to protect our children is vaccination," said Heli Nave from outside a clinic giving the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to children.
She said "it is not an easy decision at all" but the availability of data from the United States - which started immunising five-to-11-year-olds earlier this month - had convinced her.
More than 5.7 million of the Israel's nine million people are now fully vaccinated.
09:39 AM
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to The Telegraph's Covid-19 liveblog. Here's a snapshot of the latest news from around the world:
Case numbers in Germany have been soaring, especially among the elderly whose first two shots of Covid-19 vaccine were at the start of the year, and among children who are not eligible for inoculation.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the State Department on Monday advised against travel to Germany and Denmark because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases in those countries.
Dutch police said Tuesday they had arrested at least 21 people during a fourth night of unrest over coronavirus measures, although the situation had calmed down.
The situation remains "very difficult" in Guadeloupe, where unrest erupted last week over Covid-19 curbs imposed by Paris, despite Prime Minister Jean Castex's call for calm in France's overseas territory, said the French interior minister.
Israel on Tuesday began administering the to children age 5 to 11.
