Health News at Your Fingertips

Israel has authorised plans to offer vaccines to Palestinians with Israeli work permits.

The country has come under fire for not extending its campaign to the 5.2 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who have so far received around 32,000 vaccines doses.

Israel has vaccinated more than a third of its population. It agreed earlier this month to give Palestinian health officials 5,000 Moderna Inc doses, of which it has since distributed 2,000.

Now, the state has said it will offer Moderna vaccines to the roughly 130,000 Palestinians who work in Israel or its West Bank settlements. Vaccinations will begin within days.

Human rights groups have criticised the step as not going far enough. Since its vaccine rollout began, Israel has argued that under the Oslo peace accords, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for vaccination in Gaza and parts of the West Bank where it has limited self-rule.

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said that the state was bound by international law to vaccinate Palestinians living under its effective control.

France has reported 19,952 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours, down from 22,046 last Sunday, the health ministry said.

The data from the ministry showed that 122 had died in hospital with the coronavirus, compared with 159 a week today.

Police have dispersed a crowd of around 250 people who had come together for an “organised fight” in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

The gathering took place near the village of Benburb on Sunday morning, causing concern for local residents.

Ch Insp Barney O’Connor told the BBC that the event was “clearly a breach” of the coronavirus lockdown rules.

“Significant engagement took place between our officers and those in attendance and the crowd subsequently left the area,” he told the broadcaster.

“An investigation is underway and evidence gathered will now be reviewed, and breaches of the regulations will be reported to the Public Prosecution Service.”

Germany will tighten its border restrictions for those coming from France’s Moselle region after it declared the area high-risk for virus variants.

France’s eastern Moselle region is now classed as an area “at particularly high risk of infection due to widespread occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants”, Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for disease control announced.

From Tuesday onwards, travellers from Moselle will need to be able to show a negative coronavirus test from the previous 48 hours, AFP reports.

Germany has stepped up its restrictions despite the EU urging member states to keep borders open within the bloc.

The country has already introduced tough measures at its land borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol region, allowing only Germans and non-German residents to enter, as well as lorry drivers and cross-border commuters working in certain roles.

Mexico recorded a further 458 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, bringing its overall death toll to 185,715, according to health ministry data, as the country marks the one-year anniversary of its first confirmed infections.

The ministry’s data also showed an additional 2,810 confirmed cases, taking the total to 2,086,938, Reuters reports.

The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

South Africa’s coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from three to one following a fall in infections, president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced, with the change coming into effect at midnight.

“As we ease restrictions, we cannot let our guard down. The few remaining restrictions under Alert Level 1 are meant to maintain low levels of infections and, in particular, to prevent super-spreading events,” Ramaphosa said.

“We were able to emerge from the second wave because most people adhered to the tighter restrictions and observed the basic health protocols, including wearing masks in public and social distancing.”

The country has also signed a deal with Johnson & Johnson to secure 11m vaccine doses, Ramaphosa announced on Saturday, with 2.8m doses set to arrive in the second quarter.

The rest will be spread over the rest of the year.

Unlike most available vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not require a second shot.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has labelled the news that the Brazil variant has been found in the UK “deeply concerning”.

He said: “It is now vital that we do everything we can to contain it.

“But this is further proof that the delay in introducing a hotel quarantine was reckless and the continuing refusal to put in place a comprehensive system leaves us exposed to mutations coming from overseas.”

The Norwegian capital Oslo is ramping up its coronavirus restrictions after a surge in infections connected to the more transmissible variant first detected in the UK.

The varaint started spreading in Oslo in January and now accounts for 50-70% of infections, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said on Saturday, Reuters reports.

The city registered a daily record of 245 new coronavirus infections on Friday.

“We have to tighten the measures,” Raymond Johansen, the governing mayor of Oslo, told a news conference.

All restaurants, except take-away services, and non-essential shops, except groceries, pharmacies and liquor stores, will have to close from Tuesday, while the “red” level is imposed at upper secondary schools, meaning that students will return to remote learning.

Residents in some postcodes of South Gloucestershire are being asked to take a coronavirus test after a variant first detected in Brazil was found in the area.

People over 16 who live or travel in five postcode areas and do not have symptoms of Covid-19 are invited to come forward for testing.

The following postcode areas have been identified for surge testing: BS320, BS328, BS329, BS345 and BS346.

Drive-in surge testing sites will be open at Stoke Gifford Parkway Park & Ride, as well as The Mall Coach Park at The Mall Cribbs Causeway from 9am on Monday.

The enhanced programme is expected to run for a week and any positive tests will be be followed up with genome sequencing to identify which strain of Covid-19 is present.

Cases of the virus variant first detected in Brazil have been discovered in the UK for the first time, Public Health England has said.

The variant has been labelled a “variant of concern” as there are fears that it ma existing vaccines may be less effective against it.

Three cases have been detected in England and three in Scotland, PA reports.

The first two cases of the P1 strain are from one household in South Gloucestershire with a history of travel to Brazil but the third is not linked.

The third person’s whereabouts is unknown, as PHE says they did not complete their test registration card so follow-up details are unavailable. This case is not believed to be linked as the virus was found to have slight genetic differences.

Officials are asking anyone who took a test on 12 or 13 February and who has not received a result or has an uncompleted test registration card to come forward immediately.

The Brazil variant shares key mutations with the variant detected in South Africa.

The Metropolitan police have handed out fines worth almost £70,000 after breaking up two parties in central London in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Officers responded to a report of an illegal gathering at an address in Mayfair at about 1.30am. They found about 50 people in the flat on Green Street, W1, all of whom were issued £800 fixed penalty notices.

The organiser, a 29-year-old man, was reported for a £10,000 fine for breaching Covid regulations.

Police then dispersed another illegal gathering in the same area at around 2am, fining each of the 20 people at the property in Brooks Mews, £800. Officers were unable to identify the organiser.

The total value of the fines issued for the two gatherings comes to £66,000.

Inspector Kevin Fagan of the Central West Command Unit, which covers Westminster, said: “Despite recent announcements about how and when Covid restrictions may be eased, nothing has changed in terms of the regulations.”

He criticised the gatherings as “irresponsible” and said that “people’s selfish actions” worsen pressure on emergency services, adding that police will continue to enforce the rules.

Nigeria will receive its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines this week, with nearly 4m of its 16m vaccines due to arrive in Africa’s most populous nation via the Covax scheme.

The first doses will be administered to frontline healthcare staff.

The 3.92m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are set to arrive on Tuesday, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency said in a statement reported by AFP.

“The delivery will mark the first arrival of Covid-19 vaccine in the country and make Nigeria the next West African country to benefit from the Covax facility after Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast),” it said.

Nigeria, which is home to 200 million people, aims to immunise at least 70% of its adult population over the next two years.

The Italian health ministry reported 17,455 coronavirus cases on Sunday, down from Saturday’s figure of 18,916. It also reported 192 deaths, down from 280 the previous day.

That’s it from me. Clea Skopeliti will take over shortly.