Health News at Your Fingertips

Chile has broken its record for daily Covid cases, with more than 29,000 confirmed in the last 24 hours.

Its the fourth day in a row that the country has broken its highest one-day number of new cases. The government’s reporting dashboard showed that nearly 100,000 people are confirmed to have the virus, with 33 people dying in the last 24 hours.

Another 72,727 cases were reported in the UK on Saturday, the lowest figure for more than a month. The previous low was on 14 December, when only 59,610 positive tests were logged at the start of a spike caused by the Omicron variant.

It means 16,406,123 positive tests have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic.

Latest government data shows that a further 296 deaths were recorded of people who had a positive Covid test within 28 days of dying.

I’m Harry Taylor, and I’ll be bringing you the latest coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world for the rest of tonight.

If you have any comments, tips or suggestions – drop me an email or get in touch via Twitter where my DMs are open.

Trucks rolled into Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on Saturday to stage what police say will be a massive protest against the prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates in front of parliament on a frigid winter day.

The so-called “Freedom Convoy” – coming from east and west – started out as a rally against a vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers, but has turned into a demonstration against alleged government overreach during the pandemic, with a strong anti-vaccination streak.

Portuguese election organisers were taking extra safety precautions on Saturday after the government decided to allow voters who are infected with the coronavirus to leave isolation and cast ballots in person along with everyone else.

With around a tenth of Portugal’s 10 million-strong population thought to be isolating due to Covid-19, the government decided last week to lift restrictions for Sunday’s vote.

In a press conference on Saturday, the electoral commission said: “All conditions have been met for the vote to take place in absolute safety.”

Like many European countries, Portugal is experiencing record-setting infections, although widespread vaccination has kept deaths and hospitalisations lower than in earlier waves.

Authorities have asked people with Covid to vote between 6pm and 7pm, but the time recommendation is not mandatory. There will be no designated areas for infected voters.

Staff setting up a polling station at an vehicle repair shop in the Lisbon parish of Santo Antonio were placing stickers on the floor on Saturday to encourage social distancing. Voters will receive a face mask before they enter.

Scotland has recorded 18 coronavirus-linked deaths and 6,679 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to recent figures.

It means the death toll under this measurement, of people who tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days, has risen to 10,309.

There were 1,291 people in hospital on Friday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 11 on the day before, with 35 in intensive care, up three.

So far 4,410,290 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, while 4,122,152 have received their second dose, and 3,286,355 have received a third dose or booster, according to figures published by the Scottish Government on Friday.

Hungary’s daily tally of new Covid-19 cases could reach 30,000 in the next one or two weeks, up from about 20,000 this week, a government minister said on Saturday.

Miklos Kasler, the minister for human resources, blamed the Omicron variant for the rise, Reuters reports.

In a Facebook video, he said the variant was causing less severe illness, but the third of Hungarians not vaccinated were at higher risk.

Just over 6 million of the country’s 10 million people have received at least two shots, and nearly 3.6 million have also received a booster, but the country’s vaccination rate lags western European levels.

Hungary is now offering shots to anyone, without people needing to register in advance, as well as booster shots to children aged 12-17.

The government announced in mid-January that a fourth Covid-19 booster shot was available should people want one, after they have had a consultation with a doctor.

Hungary has made booster shots mandatory for healthcare workers, and vaccinations mandatory for all teachers. Protective masks have been required in most indoor places since late November.

London’s Metropolitan police have been “vacillating” about alleged Downing Street lockdown parties in the face of major public concern, a former attorney general has said.

Lord Morris of Aberavon was commenting on Scotland Yard’s intervention regarding the publication of Sue Gray’s inquiry report on “partygate” over concerns that its contents may affect a police investigation into possible lockdown breaches.

Morris told the PA news agency:

I am dismayed with the vacillation of the Metropolitan police. Surely it is in the public interest that major concerns over events in Downing Street be investigated and reported on. Any prejudice that might result in fines would be a disproportionate concern.

The Met has asked Gray, a senior civil servant, to make only “minimal reference” in her report to No 10 events that are subject to a criminal investigation, buying more time for Boris Johnson as he faces a threat to his leadership.

Japan logged 84,936 daily coronavirus infections on Saturday, a new record for the fifth consecutive day, as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the country.

The number has more than tripled from two weeks ago, according to the Kyodo News agency.

The Osaka prefecture reported a record 10,383 casesand Tokyo 17,433, slightly down from Friday’s record of 17,631.

A backbench Tory MP who has been critical of the government’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal has become the first to announce he intends to stand for leader if Boris Johnson is voted out.

The news comes as the prime minister could finally get sight of the highly anticipated “partygate” inquiry report from the senior civil servant Sue Gray as early as this weekend, after police insisted they had not delayed its publication.

No 10 had still not received a copy of the report into possible lockdown breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall on Saturday morning. It is widely believed that either the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, or the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, are frontrunners to win the top job if Johnson is ousted.

But the Daily Mail reported on Friday that centrist Tories are backing the former soldier Tom Tugendhat. The newspaper said some Conservative MPs believed the chair of the foreign affairs committee ( represented the “best chance for a fresh start”.

The MP for Tonbridge and Malling told Times Radio on Saturday: “I think I’m making it pretty clear that I think that it’s up to all of us to put ourselves forward. And it’s up to the electorate, in the first case parliamentary colleagues, and in the second case the party, to choose.

“I think it’s a position of absolute integrity to say that of course you should offer yourself to the electorate if you think you can do it. Of course you should talk to colleagues and see if you can get a group together, and if you can get a group together you should go for it.

“Now I haven’t been canvassing support so I don’t know if I’d be able to get the first group together – you’ve got to get a group first. But if you could, of course you should have a go.”

Austria will begin easing Covid-19 related restrictions next week, the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, told a news conference on Saturday, allowing shops and restaurants to remain open longer and easing restriction on unvaccinated people.

The moves come as the Omicron variant leads to reduced hospital admissions despite high infection numbers.

Austria will extend the maximum permitted opening hours of restaurants and shops until midnight from 5 February, and will increase the number of people able to participate in events from 25 to 50, Nehammer said.

“The good thing in spite of everything in this difficult situation – the hospital numbers are at a good level, the intensive care beds, I think it’s fair to say, are at a very good level,” he said.

Russia reported more than 100,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time on Saturday as the country weathers a surge of infections driven by the Omicron variant.

A government Covid-19 portal registered 113,122 new cases over 24 hours, nearly double the number of daily infections just a week ago.

The number of cases across Russia continues to rise sharply, with Omicron accounting for the majority.

Since a brief, strict national lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic, Russia has held back on curbs, hoping instead to protect its struggling economy. But with four vaccines widely available for months, Russians remain reluctant to take them up. Just under half of the population is fully vaccinated.

The Russian government has reported 330,111 deaths from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, the highest death toll in Europe. The figure is contradicted, however, by the statistics agency Rosstat, which counts Covid deaths under a broader definition and says the overall toll is close to double the official number.

An interesting article by Eric Berger in St Louis, US. He writes about parents and doctors who think children under five are being left behind in the Covid vaccine race.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has gone into self-isolation until Tuesday after being deemed a close contact of a person who tested positive for Covid-19, the government said.

The exposure took place on 22 January during a flight to Auckland from the town of Kerikeri, the government said on Saturday, adding that the result of whole genome sequencing of a sample from the infected person was expected on Sunday. That would show if the infection was caused by the Omicron variant, it said.

Ardern was asymptomatic and feeling well, the statement added. She will be tested on Sunday and is in isolation in line with the health ministry’s directives. The governor-general and members of her staff who were also on the flight are following the same isolation procedure.