Health News at Your Fingertips

Hello, this is Helen Livingstone taking over the blog from my colleague Tom Ambrose.

Democratic leaders in the US Congress are planning to hold a moment of silence on Monday to commemorate the 900,000 American lives lost to the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will gather on the steps of the US Capitol building at 7 pm ET (0000 GMT), joined by congressional leadership and a bipartisan group of legislators, according to Pelosi’s office.

The US reached the milestone of 900,000 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday, according to data collected by Reuters, totalling 906,017 deaths as of Monday.

The figure marks an increase of more than 100,000 US Covid-19 fatalities since 12 December coinciding with a surge of infections and hospitalisations driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant of the virus.

Brazil recorded 66,583 new coronavirus cases and 428 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, its health ministry confirmed on Monday.

Brazil has now registered over 26.6 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 632,621, according to ministry data.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Helen Livingstone will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest coronavirus news.

Staying with the UK for the moment, Boris Johnson has come under fresh pressure over the Jimmy Savile smear he aimed at Keir Starmer after the Labour leader had to be rescued by police from a mob of anti-vaxxers near parliament.

Starmer faced baseless allegations of “protecting paedophiles” and chants about the sex offender from protesters before being bundled into a police car for protection, the Press Association reported.

Johnson tweeted that the “behaviour directed” at the Labour leader was “absolutely disgraceful” but did not address the nature of the abuse.

Officers stepped in to protect the opposition leader as the group, some protesting against Covid measures, followed him from outside Scotland Yard.

On at least two videos posted to social media, a man and a woman were heard shouting about Savile to the Labour leader, as he walked with the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy.

At least one person was heard repeatedly shouting about “protecting paedophiles”.

Last week, an under-pressure Johnson accused Starmer of having “used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” while director of public prosecutions (DPP).

The German government is working on plans to relax coronavirus restrictions after the peak in new cases has passed, most likely by the end of February.

Unlike some of its European neighbours, Germany still has many pandemic restrictions in place that exclude unvaccinated people from restaurants, public venues and some stores.

“Perspectives for opening are being developed,” government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann told reporters. She said the measures would be discussed at a meeting of federal and state officials on 16 February, but would only take effect when authorities can be sure that Germany’s health system won’t be overwhelmed.

“According to experts, that could be by mid-to-end February,” she said.

Germany has seen a sharp spike in newly confirmed cases in recent weeks due to the omicron variant.

Pharmacists in the country are scheduled to begin offering vaccinations Tuesday, after parliament changed the rules so that they, dentists and vets could also administer the shoots.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday advised against travel to six countries including Japan, Cuba, Libya, Armenia, Oman and the Democratic Republic of Congo over Covid cases.

The CDC now lists more than 130 countries and territories with Covid cases as “Level Four: Very High.”

It lists just over 50 countries as “Level Three: High,” discouraging non-essential travel by unvaccinated Americans.

Hello. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest Covid news throughout the next few hours.

Let’s start with the news that, in the US, the governors of New Jersey and Delaware have said their states would lift school mask mandates in the coming weeks.

The change signals a desire by at least some Democratic state governors, including New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and Delaware’s John Carney, to take their states off emergency footing and shift toward policies that treat the virus as part of normal life.

By no longer requiring students, teachers and administrators to wear masks in schools to wear masks, the governors are also seeking to blunt one of the most divisive issues of the pandemic, Reuters reported.

Republican leaders in some states, including Florida and Texas, have banned mask mandates in schools, while Democrats have generally encouraged the policy to help stall new infection.

In New Jersey, where the number of new cases have decreased over the past two weeks, Governor Murphy announced the state would lift its school mask mandate on 7 March.

France reported on Monday that there are 3,622 patients in intensive care units with coronavirus, an increase by 45 as of yesterday.

The country has also reported a total of 105,520 coronavirus deaths in hospital.

Sweden will lift its travel restrictions for foreign nationals travelling to Sweden from Nordic countries and the rest of the European Union and European Economic Area from Wednesday, the Swedish government has announced.

The travel bans, which were introduced to slow the spread of the coronavirus, will be lifted on the same day that Sweden is due to lift pandemic restrictions that had been extended last month.