Health News at Your Fingertips

France will ease some restrictions on foreign travellers from Saturday to reflect the improving pandemic situation.

Travellers with a European vaccination certificate will no longer be required to take a Covid test before departing for France, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Non-vaccinated travellers must still show proof of a negative test to enter the country but travellers coming from countries where the circulation of coronavirus is moderate, the so-called “green countries”, will no longer have to undertake a test and self-isolate upon arrival, it said.

Hello. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you the latest Covid news from around the world over the next four hours.

We start with the news that messenger service Telegram, which has proved popular with far-right groups and people opposed to Covid-related restrictions, has blocked 64 of its channels in Germany, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Friday, without giving a source for the information.

The move came after Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office sent shutdown requests to the messenger service, the paper said.

Telegram has been blamed in Germany for fuelling an increasingly virulent subculture of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists who exchange news about supposed dangers and arrange protests that have spilled over into violence.

The newspaper said the channels affected included that of Attila Hildmann, a vegan celebrity chef who spreads conspiracy theories about coronavirus to more than 100,000 followers on the messaging service.

This report is from AFP.

The acute phase of the pandemic could end this year, if around 70% of the world gets vaccinated, the World Health Organization chief has said.

“Our expectation is that the acute phase of this pandemic will end this year, of course with one condition, the 70% vaccination [target is achieved] by mid this year around June, July,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters in South Africa.

“If that is to be done, the acute phase can really end, and that is what we are expecting. It’s in our hands. It’s not a matter of chance. It’s a matter of choice.”

He was speaking during a visit to Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, which has produced the first mRNA Covid vaccine made in Africa using Moderna’s sequence.

“We expect this vaccine to be more suited to the contexts in which it will be used, with fewer storage constraints and at a lower price,” said the WHO boss.

The vaccine will be ready for clinical trials in November, with approval expected in 2024.

Afrigen is leading the pilot project, backed by the WHO and the Covax initiative.

Set up in July, the tech transfer hub will train other countries and hand out production licences to poor nations left out in the race for the life-saving shots.

Tedros said WHO was “committed to supporting the development of local manufacturing in Africa and around the world, to increase regional health security”.

Just over 11% of Africans are vaccinated, the lowest rate in the world. Last week the WHO’s Africa office said the continent must boost its vaccination rate “six times” to reach the 70% target.

The US Food and Drug Administration said it was postponing the advisory committee meeting to discuss request for authorisation of Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for children 6 months through 4 years of age.

In a separate statement, Pfizer and BioNTech said they planned to extend the process of submitting data to US regulators for authorisation of their Covid vaccine in children under 5.

CNBC has more on this story.

People who have been vaccinated abroad can now have their jabs validated at the Science Museum in London.

People who have been double jabbed abroad have so far been unable to have their status updated on NHS systems, meaning difficulty accessing vaccine passports and booster jabs.

Anyone can can use this service if they are:

• Aged 16 or over.
• Have an NHS number.
• Have received a Covid vaccine dose outside of England that is one of the four MHRA-approved vaccine types – Astra Zeneca (Vaxzevria), Pfizer (Comirnaty), Janssen or Moderna (Spikevax).

Welcoming the opening of the Validation Centre at the Science Museum, Cem Kemahli, Kensington and Chelsea council’s lead member for public health said:

I want to encourage our residents who have been vaccinated abroad to get their vaccine validated as soon as possible. If you have had your first or second jab, you’ll be able to get your other vaccinations here. This can make it much easier to go on holiday, if you need an up-to-date vaccine passport, you’ll be able to get this through the NHS once your records are updated. Go to the national booking system and get a slot to update your records.

The other vaccination validation sites in north-west London are:

• CP House (Ealing)
• Brent civic centre (Brent)
• The Gordon hospital (Westminster)

An appointment can be made through the National Booking Service or by calling 119.

Here is a quick recap of some of the main developments from today so far:

• Belgium announced further easing of Covid restrictions to allow nightclubs to reopen and drop the requirement for primary school pupils to wear masks, as Omicron cases fell from an end-of-January peak. “The successive waves have not been easy for us,” the prime minister, Alexander De Croo, told a news conference, referring to back-to-back Omicron and Delta variant surges. “But we have got through them and we have got through them together.” From next Friday, nightclubs will be allowed to reopen, bars will be able to extend their hours beyond the current limit of midnight and end curbs on the number of customers per table and concerts will be possible with a standing audience. Indoor access will still be largely based on a Covid pass, showing vaccination or a recent test or recovery from infection. Limits, from 70% to full capacity, will be based on the activity and the degree of ventilation. Non-essential workers will also no longer need to work from home for at least four days a week and consumers will be able to go shopping in groups of more than two.
• Iceland will ease some Covid restrictions at the weekend, including limits on crowd numbers and restaurant opening hours, before lifting all measures at the end of the month, two weeks ahead of schedule. From midnight on Saturday, the limit on the number of people allowed to gather in public will increase from 50 to 200, and sports centres and ski resorts will be allowed to operate at full capacity, the government announced on Friday. Bars, restaurants and discos will be allowed to stay open until 1am. Then, from 25 February, the remainder of pandemic restrictions will be lifted, including the limit on crowd numbers and the obligation to wear a mask, as long as no new virus variant emerges and the number of cases does not overwhelm the country’s healthcare system, the government said.
• Canada is reviewing its pandemic-related border restrictions and will probably announce changes next week, as the worst of an Omicron-driven wave appears to have passed, the health minister said. “With the worst of Omicron now behind us, our government is actively reviewing the measures in place at our borders and we should be able to communicate changes on this next week,” Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters. CBC earlier reported that the federal government was close to removing mandatory Covid-19 PCR testing for fully vaccinated Canadians who travel outside Canada. Canada requires all travellers entering the country to provide proof of a negative PCR test conducted within 72 hours of arrival. It also requires all non-essential foreign travellers to be fully-vaccinated.
• Spain announced it would loosen its border requirements, with children over 12 from non-EU countries no longer needing to be fully vaccinated. The Spanish government announced it was relaxing its travel rules from Monday, which will be a boost for British holidaymakers planning to head abroad in February half-term. Children aged 12 to 17 will now be able to visit by showing a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of arrival in Spain, as an alternative to presenting a Covid certificate with proof of having been fully vaccinated. All other UK travellers, excluding children under 12, will still need to present a Covid certificate showing proof of being fully vaccinated at least 14 days prior to arrival in Spain. If more than 270 days have passed since the last dose was administered, proof of a booster jab is also required. Prior to travelling to Spain, all passengers must also present a QR code which is obtained from filling in the Health Control Form (FCS in Spanish) available via Spain Travel Health (SpTH). Story here.
• Canada’s Ontario province declared a state of emergency and the premier, Doug Ford, threatened fines and jail terms as authorities came under increasing pressure from the US to end anti-vaccine mandate protests that have drastically cut trade between the two nations. The “Freedom Convoy” by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, mirrored by the US government, began with the occupation of the Canadian capital, Ottawa. The truckers then blocked the Ambassador Bridge earlier this week, and shut down two other smaller border crossings. The closure of the bridge, North America’s busiest international land border crossing and a key supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to limit economic damage. “I will convene cabinet to use legal authorities to urgently enact orders that will make crystal clear it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and service along critical infrastructure,” Ford said in a press briefing on Friday. Ford also pledged new legal action against protesters, including fines and potential jail time for non-compliance with the government’s orders. More here.
• The UK recorded a further 58,899 Covid cases and 193 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to the government’s coronavirus dashboard. Separately, the estimated range of England’s Covid reproduction “R” number is between 0.8 and 1.0, similar to its range the previous week, the UK Health Security Agency said, with the daily reduction in cases also around the same level.
• France will no longer require people to wear masks indoors in public places where entry is subject to the Covid vaccine pass from 28 February, the health ministry said in a statement, citing an “improvement in the health situation”. Masks will remain mandatory in public transport and in indoor places not subject to the vaccine pass. The rules apply to public spaces like bars and restaurants, sports and leisure activities which now require proof of vaccination to enter. The new rule is in line with a health council recommendation and follows a slowdown of the Covid-19 infection rate. France had already dropped its requirement for people to wear a mask outdoors on 2 February. The change in the rules on Friday also reduces from three to one the number of tests people must take if they come into contact with a confirmed case of Covid.
• The UK’s vaccines watchdog is set to announce new recommendations for vaccinating younger children next week, after a long and complex evaluation. The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) made its decision last week, and a formal announcement was due on Friday afternoon but has been delayed. Thus far, only clinically vulnerable children in the five to 11 age group have been offered vaccinations, a decision made in December.

South Africa’s efforts to produce vaccines are key to helping the African continent become more self-sufficient in inoculations to combat Covid-19 and many other diseases, the chief of the World Health Organization said on Friday.

On his visit to Cape Town, the WHO director general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, is viewing three facilities that are starting work to manufacture vaccines.

Tedros visited the Biomedical Research Institute at the Tygerberg campus of Stellenbosch University on Friday. He is also scheduled to visit Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines and the Biovac laboratories in Cape Town.

The pandemic had shown the need for local production of vaccines in low and middle-income countries, he said addressing a press briefing on Friday.

“More than half of the world’s population is now fully vaccinated, and yet 84% of the population of Africa is yet to receive a single dose,” he said.

Much of this inequity has been driven by the fact that globally vaccine production is concentrated in a few, mostly high-income countries. One of the most obvious lessons of the pandemic, therefore, is the urgent need to increase local production of vaccines, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Tedros was also scheduled to visit the Afrigen lab that, with support from the WHO, is creating a Covid vaccine from scratch. The laboratory is replicating the Moderna vaccine using mRNA vaccine technology. The Afrigen facility has backing from WHO and several other partners including the governments of South Africa, France and Belgium. The initiative is also supported by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tedros said it was expected that clinical trials for the vaccine candidate developed by Afrigen would start in 2022 and it was hoped that approval for its use would be granted in 2024.

“Delighted to be in South Africa to visit the groundbreaking WHO mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in Cape Town.” Tedros tweeted on Friday.

If Covid-19 has taught the world anything, it is all countries need equitable access to knowledge and tools that protect health. The hub is making this possible in South Africa.

Iceland will ease some Covid restrictions at the weekend – including limits on crowd numbers and restaurant opening hours – and lift all measures at the end of the month, two weeks ahead of schedule, AFP reports.

From midnight on Saturday the limit on the number of people allowed to gather in public will increase from 50 to 200, and sports centres and ski resorts will be allowed to operate at full capacity, the government announced on Friday. Bars, restaurants and discos will be allowed to stay open until 1am.

From 25 February, the remainder of pandemic restrictions will be lifted, including a limit on crowd numbers and the obligation to wear a mask, as long as no new virus variant emerges and the number of cases does not overwhelm the country’s healthcare system, the government said.

Canada is reviewing its pandemic-related border restrictions and will probably announce changes next week, as the worst of an Omicron-driven wave appears to have passed, the health minister said on Friday.

“With the worst of Omicron now behind us, our government is actively reviewing the measures in place at our borders and we should be able to communicate changes on this next week,” Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters.

CBC earlier reported that the federal government was close to removing mandatory Covid-19 PCR testing for fully vaccinated Canadians who travel outside Canada.

Canada requires all travellers entering the country to provide proof of a negative PCR test conducted within 72 hours of arrival. It also requires all non-essential foreign travellers to be fully vaccinated.