Scientific adviser urges further coronavirus restrictions to prevent catastrophe in England
From CNN s Sharon Braithwaite
A government message about the coronavirus tier 4 restrictions is seen urging people to stay home in London on December 29. Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
Further coronavirus restrictions are needed in England to prevent a catastrophe at the start of 2021, a member of the UK government s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) said Tuesday. I think we are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic and we re going to need decisive, early, national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February, Andrew Hayward, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London, told BBC Radio 4 s Today programme.
Josefa Perez, 89, on Sunday becomes the first woman to be vaccinated in Spain s Catalonia region, at the Feixa Llarga residence in Barcelona. Photo: Pau Venteo/Europa Press via Getty Images
Spain is creating a registry of people who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination and will share this with other European Union member states, the country s Health Minister Salvador Illa told broadcaster La Sexta Monday.
The big picture: Spain become on Monday the fourth European nation to surpass 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus, after the United Kingdom, Italy and France, per Johns Hopkins. It s confirmed nearly 1.9 million cases. Illa said vaccinations are free and not mandatory. Data on those who refuse inoculation won t be publicly disclosed and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection, he added.
Europe Eyes Measures to Bolster Uptake of Covid Vaccines Bloomberg 12/29/2020 Macarena Munoz, Raymond Colitt and Helene Fouquet
(Bloomberg) European governments are planning to track the number of people getting Covid-19 vaccines to help chart a path out of the crisis.
France will have a registry of people who get vaccinated, and Spain will track people who refuse to get inoculated against the disease, which has caused more than 400,000 deaths in Europe.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is considering legislation to ensure unvaccinated people are treated fairly as the economy begins to open up. More than 21,000 people in the country have already received the shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
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FILE PHOTO: Josefa Velasco, 94, who overcame the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and lives in a care home, waves goodbye to her relatives after they talk through a glass front at the Centre Parc nursing home after Catalonia s regional authorities announced restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Barcelona, Spain August 27, 2020. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered an investigation into the deaths of elderly nursing home residents during the COVID-19 pandemic as the government warned the nation was facing a possible third wave of infections.
Magistrates were asked to find out if deaths at nursing homes “were associated with political, administrative or management decisions and whether those decisions merit criminal sanctions”.
Russia has admitted having the world s third highest Covid death toll with more than 186,000 fatalities three times higher than previously acknowledged and a higher per-capita rate than in Britain or America.
President Vladimir Putin has previously claimed the country has done a better job managing the pandemic than Western nations, despite some Russian experts saying the government was playing down the outbreak.
But the Rosstat statistics agency said that 186,057 people had died from coronavirus in the country between the start of the pandemic and November, compared to the official death count of just 55,265.
Rosstat gave no explanation for the difference but Russia s official figures usually come from health officials based on deaths where Covid was found to be the cause only after an autopsy.