Coronavirus digest: Auckland emerges from weeklong lockdown msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Leading Brexiteer Daniel Hannan got it right for once last week. The now ennobled Baron Hannan – an adviser to the UK government’s Board of Trade – waxed lyrical about Britain joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), suggesting it could be a backdoor route to concluding the increasingly beleaguered UK trade deal with the US which Boris Johnson’s government longs for.
Hannan acknowledged that British farmers and environmentalists might oppose a trade deal, but he implied it was a price worth paying for an agreement which forces governments to “refrain from certain actions that would restrict free commerce”.
Such restrictions include EU regulations aimed at controlling the Big Tech giants in favour of Hannan’s preferred free market, “Hayekian” approach to the exploitation of our data.
Japan Approves Pfizer Shot; Auckland Locked Down: Virus Update
Bloomberg 2/14/2021
The pace of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. continued to ease as the country’s week-to-week average fell to its lowest in almost four months. The White House issued its strongest criticism yet of the World Health Organization’s handling of the investigation into the origins of the virus and China’s involvement in the probe’s findings.
New Zealand imposed a three-day lockdown on Auckland with the discovery of several local cases, bringing an abrupt halt to the country’s summer of unrestricted movement. Melbourne recorded only one community infection, bringing hope that its lockdown can be lifted this week.
New Zealand s Covid-19 cases that put Auckland in lockdown confirmed to be UK variant
From CNN s Chandler Thornton in Hong Kong
People get tested for Covid-19 at a busy testing station in Otara Town Centre on February 15, in Auckland, New Zealand. Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
Two of the three new Covid-19 cases that sent the New Zealand city of Auckland into lockdown are confirmed to be variant of the virus first detected in the UK.
The three local Covid-19 cases announced on Sunday are a mother, father and daughter from the same South Auckland household, Director-General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said Sunday at a news conference. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said one of the trio works in a facility that does the laundry for airlines.