The EU yesterday began a COVID-19 vaccine rollout, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from the UK.
The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of innoculation campaigns has boosted hopes that next year could bring a respite.
Hours before the first vaccine doses arrived in France, the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health late on Friday confirmed that it had detected its first case of the new variant in a citizen returned from the UK.
Photo: Reuters
Several countries have reported cases of the new strain, which has sent jitters through already overstretched health services.
As European nations eye a post-Christmas return to harsh restrictions, China’s communist leadership issued a statement hailing the “extremely extraordinary glory” of its handling of the virus that emerged in the country’s Hubei Province last year, state news agency Xinhua reported.
The first French case of the new coronavirus variant was found in a citizen resident in Britain who arrived from London on Saturday last week, the French health ministry said.
They are asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, and the health professionals who treated him have been traced.
The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK, where it first emerged.
However, cases of the new variant have still been reported worldwide: Japan on Friday confirmed five infections in passengers from the UK.
Tokyo yesterday reported a record 949 new COVID-19 cases as city authorities urged residents to stay home.
That compared with 884 new cases on Friday and the previous high of 888 on Thursday, Tokyo Metropolitan Government data showed.
Cases of the new coronavirus variant have also been reported in Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands.
South Africa has detected a similar mutation in some infected people, but on Friday denied British claims its strain was more infectious or dangerous than the one originating in the UK.
Some countries that loosened restrictions slightly for Christmas have re-imposed them — Austria, for example, would have a curfew imposed until Jan. 24.
Millions in the UK have been affected by a tightening of restrictions there — according to the BBC, more than 40 percent of England’s population are now affected by the strictest measures — which include the closure of all non-essential businesses and a limiting of social contacts.
New lockdowns also started in Scotland and Northern Ireland yesterday, and Wales has also reimposed restrictions after relaxing them for Christmas.
Vaccinations in all 27 EU countries are to begin today, after regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday.
Meanwhile, South Korea yesterday posted its second-highest daily number of COVID-19 cases as outbreaks at a prison, nursing homes and churches continued to grow, prompting authorities to plead for a halt to all year-end gatherings.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said that there were 1,132 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, not far off the record 1,241 logged a day earlier.
“The virus is spreading whenever and wherever it wants,” South Korean Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol told an intra-agency meeting, adding that people are also being infected at small gatherings with friends and acquaintances.
“As we stand at the crossroads of the third wave, how we stop the spread hinges on how we spend this year-end and New Year period,” he said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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