Health News at Your Fingertips

Italy reported 555 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 23,477 from 16,202.

There were 186,004 swab tests carried out in the past day, the ministry said, up from a previous 169,045.

Italy has seen an official total of 74,159 COVID-19 deaths since its outbreak came to light on Febuary 21, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.

Italy has also reported 2.107 million cases to date, the health ministry said.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 stood at 23,151 on Thursday, down by 415 from the day before. There were 202 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 175 on Wednesday.

The current number of intensive care patients rose by 27 – the first increase for at least a month – to 2,555, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.

The ambulance service is braced for delays, and hospitals have reached full capacity in Northern Ireland.

Overall bed occupancy is at 100%, with only six beds still empty, latest official figures show.

Paramedic chiefs have warned that Covid-19 staff sickness absences could delay answers to 999 calls at one of the busiest times of year.

Around 160 employees were off work for pandemic-related reasons.

Response times for less urgent cases were expected to increase and people could wait longer before their emergency calls were answered.

Meanwhile, schools will deliver remote learning in the first week of the new term after a return to classrooms was delayed due to spiralling infection rates.

A Northern Ireland ambulance service (NIAS) statement said: “Unfortunately, the NIAS emergency ambulance control room is currently experiencing absences due to Covid-19, and contingency planning to mitigate the potential risk to service disruption is ongoing.

This has put our service under even more pressure and we anticipate that callers to 999 may, at times, experience a delay in having their calls answered.

A further 11 people have died with Covid-19, Stormont’s Department of Health said. Another 1,929 individuals had tested positive.

Crowds of people filled the main square in the North Korean capital Pyongyang to watch a concert and fireworks show marking the new year, state media showed, amid restrictions aimed at preventing a coronavirus outbreak.

State television showed participants wearing face masks but standing close together as they waved glowing lights and balloons in Kim Il Sung Square.

Performers – none of the them wearing protective masks – sang and danced on a stage decorated with a large, colourful “2021” sign. Costumes included traditional Korean “hanbok” dresses and sequined dance suits.

Giant snowmen characters clapped along as performers sang songs with patriotic refrains such as “glory to the general Kim Jong Un” and “I like my country the best”.

The event appeared to be smaller in scale than past years, said Colin Zwirko, a correspondent with Seoul-based NK News, which monitors North Korea.

Definitely a much smaller event than last year, judging by the lowkey presentation and smaller crowd,” he wrote on Twitter.

North Korea has said it has no confirmed cases of coronavirus, though it has tested thousands of people, and the government has imposed near total border lockdowns and other strident measures to prevent an outbreak.

Officials in South Korea and the US have cast doubt on the claim that North Korea has had no cases.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the main part of the vaccination drive against the coronavirus in Mexico will have be completed by April.

I think that by April, the majority of us Mexicans, the most vulnerable, will have been vaccinated,” Lopez Obrador told a regular government news conference.

Moderna Inc has confirmed it will supply 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the South Korean government with deliveries starting in May.

The vaccine, which is authorised for emergency use in the US and Canada, is not currently approved in South Korea.

The company said it would work with regulators to pursue an approval prior to the distribution of the vaccine.

The European Union medicines watchdog said German company BioNTech has applied for clearance in the 27-nation bloc to administer up to six doses of its COVID-19 vaccine from each vial, instead of the five doses currently approved.

In an email to The Associated Press, the European Medicines Agency said that BioNTech, which developed its vaccine together with Pfizer, has “submitted a request for change” which will be reviewed by the agency’s human medicines committee “in the shortest possible timeframe.”

It said if the committee establishes that six doses can be consistently extracted from each vial of vaccine, it will recommend changing the authorization that clears the vaccine for use in EU nations.

Portugal’s daily number of coronavirus cases reached a record high of 7,627 on Thursday as the country prepared for a subdued New Year’s Eve with an 11 pm curfew and no travel between municipalities.

The country, which has so far registered 413,678 cases and 6,906 deaths from the virus, eased restrictions around Christmas but has cracked down again on New Year’s Eve with a ban on travel between municipalities and public gatherings, an 11pm curfew and a 1 pm curfew from Jan. 1-3.

Cases had risen abruptly to 6,049 on Wednesday from 3,336 on Tuesday, but prime minister Antonio Costa said it was too early to say if this was as a result of the Christmas easing of rules.

“In the second week of January we will be able to evaluate the impact of Christmas,” Costa said.

“We happily lightened the restrictions but now we need a period of containment to evaluate the results.”

Police and federal authorities in the US are investigating after a Wisconsin health system said an employee admitted to deliberately spoiling 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine.

Aurora Medical Center first reported that the doses has been spoiled on Saturday, saying they had been accidentally left out unrefrigerated overnight by an employee at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton. The health system said the doses of vaccine now appear to have been deliberately spoiled.

Police in Grafton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, said in a statement that the department, FBI and Food and Drug Administration are “actively” investigating the case.

In a statement Aurora said the employee involved “acknowledged that they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration.”

Aurora said it has fired the employee and referred the matter to the authorities. The statement said nothing about a possible motive for the action.

We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine.”

Case rates in England remain highest among 30- to 39-year-olds, Public Health England said.

The rate in this age group stood at 557.5 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 27 December, up week-on-week from 495.4.

Among 20- to 29-year-olds, the rate rose from 498.6 to 539.5, and for 40- to 49-year-olds it rose from 465.9 to 527.3.

Rates fell slightly among five- to nine-year-olds, 10- to 19-year-olds, and people aged 80 and over.

The lowest rates were recorded among those aged four and under (150.6) and five to nine (167.2).

Scotland has recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began for the third day in a row.

A total of 2,622 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, following 2,045 cases reported on Wednesday and 1,895 on Tuesday.

Another 68 fatalities were also reported on Thursday, bringing the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 4,578.

Seven Covid-19 deaths were recorded between 25 and 29 December 25 and December 29 – though the government noted that register offices had been closed over the public holidays – with a further 43 deaths on Wednesday.

The latest statistics also show a total of 127,453 people have tested positive in Scotland, up from 124,831 the previous day, with the daily test positivity rate at 10.1%. On Wednesday it was at 11.3%.

There are 1,174 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, with 70 in intensive care.

All of mainland Scotland and Skye remain under level 4 restrictions, while the other islands are in level 3.

Police Scotland and the Scottish government have warned people against Hogmanay gatherings to mark the new year as they could break restrictions and potentially spread the virus further.