Health News at Your Fingertips

Brazil reported 193,465 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 929 Covid deaths, the health ministry said.

Ministry data shows Brazil has now registered a total of 25,620,209 cases and 628,067 deaths since the pandemic began.

The UK prime minister attended a prosecco-fuelled leaving do for a No 10 aide during the strict post-Christmas lockdown, which is now under police investigation, the Guardian has learned.

Sue Gray’s investigation into lockdown parties this week revealed several events that had not previously been publicised, including a gathering on 14 January 2021 “on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries”.

Sources said the event was held in Downing Street in part as a leaving do for a senior policy adviser who is now a top civil servant working in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Prosecco is alleged to have been drunk by some staff, with Johnson understood to have given a speech thanking the official for their work and staying for around five minutes.

England’s third national Covid lockdown came into force just over a week earlier, on 6 January, with a “stay at home” order banning people from leaving their home except for a handful of reasons including where it was not possible to work from home. The previous month, the prime minister had effectively cancelled Christmas for millions of people amid surging Covid cases.

The revelation places Johnson at another event under investigation by Scotland Yard. He also attended a “bring your own booze” party on 20 May 2020 and a 56th birthday celebration on 19 June that year. It is not known whether he was present at two alleged Downing Street gatherings on 13 November, the day his aide Dominic Cummings quit, including one in the private flat of Boris and Carrie Johnson.

US President Joe Biden has never been ambushed by cake, the White House has said. In a press briefing today, Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about troubles “on the other side of the Pond”.

From the Washington Post’s reporter, Matt Viser:

Pakistan has launched a nationwide door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination drive starting today amid the continued rise in daily cases driven by the Omicron variant.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), which oversees the country’s pandemic response, said about 55,000 mobile teams will provide the doses, including booster shots. The first phase of the campaign will last for two weeks and officials hope more than 35 million people will be vaccinated from this initial phase.

“If you haven’t been vaccinated, then get yourself inoculated. If you have received both doses and it has been more than six months, then please get the booster dose,” NCOC chief Asad Umar said in a press conference today.

On Tuesday, Pakistan reported 32 deaths and 5,327 infections in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases stayed above 100,000 for the fourth consecutive day. Nearly 104 million people have received at least one dose, according to NCOC data.

Here’s a bit more on Bloomberg’s report on Pfizer and BioNTech submitting data to regulators in the US for authorisation of vaccines for children under five.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the data, the report said: “The rolling submission of data asks regulators to clear the shot as a two-dose vaccine, though it’s expected that ultimately a three-shot regimen may become standard.”

The Pfizer vaccine is already approved for emergency use in children in the United States aged five and older. It has full approval for adults.

Representatives for Pfizer, as well as for the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.

In a statement late on Monday, Pfizer said it had not yet sought approval and was “continuing to collect and analyse data from both two and three doses in our younger age cohort.”

Good evening from London. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over from Rachel Hall to bring you all the latest Covid news from around the world and the UK. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

We’ll start with some good news for ravers and clubbers in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia. The Catalan government confirmed today that nightclubs and discotheques can fully reopen on 11 February.

Nightclubs, the last sector completely closed as part of the pandemic restrictions, have been shut since 24 December but soon will be allowed to open without any restrictive measures in place. Capacity limits will be removed and proof of vaccination will no longer be required for entry.

Since the closure of the nightlife sector ahead of the Christmas holidays, Covid-19 cases increased to an all-time high but are now declining, according to official figures by the health department. “Covid-19 figures are still high, but the outbreak risk is decreasing as well as the transmission rate,” government spokesperson Patricia Plaja said at a press conference today.

The nightlife sector has been closed for over 600 days since the start of the pandemic and the latest news has been met with relief among nightclub owners. “We hope this is the last time we have to close,” Ramon Mas, secretary-general at Barcelona’s nightclubs association, told the Catana News Agency.

Pfizer has begun submitting its data today to US regulators for authorisation of vaccines for kids under five, according to Bloomberg sources.

Reporter Josh Wingrove tweeted that this forms part of a rolling submission that may include data to support giving a third dose.

Gilead Sciences Inc’s Covid-19 drug remdesivir last year overtook AbbVie Inc’s 20-year-old arthritis drug Humira as the medicine that US hospitals spent the most on, according to Vizient Inc, a purchasing group used by about half the nation’s hospitals.

Reuters reports:

Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral approved early in the pandemic for hospitalised Covid patients and authorised last month for high-risk outpatients, could retain the top spot through mid-2023, according to Vizient’s projections.

Norway will scrap most of its remaining Covid-19 lockdown measures with immediate effect as an ongoing spike in coronavirus cases is unlikely to jeopardise health services, the prime minister said on Tuesday.

Restaurants will again be allowed to serve alcohol beyond 11 o’clock at night, working from home will no longer be mandatory and the current limit of 10 visitors in private homes is removed, Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference.

He added that restrictions may be reimposed in the future, and said that social distancing was still recommended.