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Morocco detects first case of UK variant – as it happened

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Mon 18 Jan 2021 18.36 ESTFirst published on Sun 17 Jan 2021 18.48 EST
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A nurse draws the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine into a needle at the Totally Wicked stadium, home of St Helen’s rugby club and one of the UK’s mass vaccination centres.
A nurse draws the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine into a needle at the Totally Wicked stadium, home of St Helen’s rugby club and one of the UK’s mass vaccination centres. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
A nurse draws the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine into a needle at the Totally Wicked stadium, home of St Helen’s rugby club and one of the UK’s mass vaccination centres. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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Terezinha da Conceicao, 80, is the first woman in Brazil to receive the Covid-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, during the start of the vaccination programme which was launched in front of the Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Bruna Prado/AP
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Morocco detects first case of UK variant

An empty street in Rabat on New Year’s Eve: Morocco introduced a night-time curfew on 23 December. Photograph: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

Morocco’s health ministry confirmed its first imported case of the more contagious variant of coronavirus first discovered in the UK.

The variant was detected in the northern port of Tangier in a Moroccan national returning from Ireland via Marseille, the ministry said in a statement.

Morocco has announced plans to launch a free vaccination campaign targeting 25 million people, or 80% of its population.

The country ordered 66m vaccine doses from AstraZeneca and China’s Sinopharm. It has not yet received any.

On 23 December, Morocco imposed a nationwide four-week curfew from 9pm to 6am to contain the virus.

On Monday, the country said it has recorded a total of 460,144 coronavirus infections, including 7,977 deaths and 16,481 active cases.

Health experts have raised concerns over new highly-transmissible mutations of the virus first reported in the UK and South Africa and now cropping up in several other countries. A third new variant has since been reported in Brazil.

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Trump lifting Covid travel restrictions on UK, much of Europe and Brazil

Donald Trump, the US president, has rescinded entry bans imposed because of coronavirus on most non-US citizens arriving from Brazil and much of Europe, including the UK, effective 26 January, two officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The restrictions are set to end on the same day that new Covid-19 test requirements take effect for all international visitors. Joe Biden, the president-elect, once in office could opt to reimpose the restrictions.

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Tom Phillips
Tom Phillips
Rio de Janeiro began its vaccination campaign with a televised ceremony – and jabs – beneath the famous Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

Rio de Janeiro has kicked off its coronavirus vaccination campaign with what is likely to prove the most breathtaking immunisation launch ceremony on earth.

Two Brazilian women, aged 80 and 59, received their first shot of the Chinese Coronavac vaccine at the feet of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue at dusk on Monday.

The spectacular televised event on Corcovado mountain was attended by Rio’s media-savvy mayor, Eduardo Paes, and state governor Cláudio Castro. Brazil’s rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro – who is from Rio but has repeatedly undermined containment measures and vaccination and has attacked the Chinese vaccine – was a notable absence.

Rio is one of the Brazilian states worst-hit by Covid-19, having registered more than 27,000 of Brazil’s 209,000 deaths. If the beachside state capital was a country, it would have one of the worst national Covid death rates.

Ahead of the ceremony Paes, who took office early this month, tried to strike a positive note. “The start of vaccination is not the end of the pandemic but it is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he tweeted, urging residents to continue wearing masks and respecting containment measures.

Vaccination began in Brazil on Sunday after the country’s health regulator approved the emergency use of vaccines produced by China’s Sinovac and Oxford/AstraZeneca.

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Epidemiologist Dr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, spoke at a Downing Street press briefing today. Photograph: Hannah McKay/AFP/Getty Images

More than 37,000 people with a symptomless Covid-19 infection have been detected through rapid lateral flow testing in the UK, the chief medical adviser for NHS Test and Trace has said.

Dr Susan Hopkins said the devices, which can give results in less than 30 minutes, were being rolled out across the country to enable those with no coronavirus symptoms to be tested.

Lateral flow tests are regularly used by NHS staff and were the main method of testing during a mass pilot scheme in Liverpool, but some experts have questioned their accuracy.

Dr Hopkins was asked at a Downing Street press briefing on Monday about the availability of the devices for teachers and supermarket workers who are yet to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

She said: “We are rolling out lateral flow devices throughout the country through community testing sites and also in workplaces to allow people to get tested where they are asymptomatic to reduce the spread of disease.

“We’ve detected more than 37,000 individuals through lateral flow tests over the last number of weeks and we will continue to roll them out rapidly as an additional tool to help get this virus under control.”

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Travellers wait in a queue for coronavirus tests at the Grasmere Toll Plaza, Lenasia, South Africa. Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

A new variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa is more contagious than earlier versions, experts said, but there is no evidence that it is more deadly.

The new variant is 50% more contagious, said epidemiologist Prof Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of the health ministry’s scientific committee.

“There is no evidence the new Covid variant is more severe than the original variant,” he added.

The experts drew their conclusions about the variant – now the dominant strain in South Africa – from an analysis of data collected from the main infection clusters across the country.

With more than 1.3 million people infected, South Africa has recorded more cases than any other country on the continent and has also suffered more deaths, with 37,105 registered.

The second wave of the virus has stretched South Africa’s health system to its limits.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize on Monday said there had been a 23% fall in infections, but that the number of hospital admissions was up by 18.3% on the previous week.

Dr Waasila Jassat, another member of the expert panel, said that even though admissions were up, the death rate from the virus in hospitals had not changed from the first wave of the virus.

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Brazil records nearly 24,000 new cases

Brazil on Monday reported 23,671 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the new total to 8,511,770, the country’s health ministry said.

Deaths rose by 452 to 210,299 in Brazil, which has the world’s highest death toll from the pandemic outside the US.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the government aimed to compensate for a reduction in deliveries of Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer Inc with those from other providers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was in advanced talks with Pfizer about including its vaccine in the agency’s portfolio of shots to be shared with poorer countries.

Mexico had been expecting weekly deliveries of some 400,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE. As a result of the US drugmaker’s WHO agreements, Mexico would for now only be receiving half that, López Obrador told a news conference.

It was not clear how long the reduction would last.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is currently the only one being administered in Mexico, which has reported the fourth-highest death toll from the pandemic worldwide.

Mexico has also signed deals to acquire vaccines from Britain’s AstraZeneca Plc and China’s CanSino Biologics. The country has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot and expects to have it by March. It is still reviewing the CanSino vaccine.

It is due to make the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter that the active ingredient would on Monday be sent to Mexico from Argentina, allowing manufacturers to start the final packaging process.

Mexico said it also expects to approve the Sputnik V vaccine for use soon, though it is likely to acquire fewer doses than it had previously suggested.

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Relatives of coronavirus patients are buying oxygen from private suppliers in Manaus. Photograph: Bruno Kelly/Reuters

Brazil’s health minister Eduardo Pazuello said a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the Amazonian city of Manaus was not tied to a new variant of the virus, and was instead the same coronavirus that caused the first wave of the disease.

Manaus has made headlines in recent days for its high death rate and a shortage of oxygen tanks for patients who develop severe cases of Covid-19.

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