Coronavirus live news: GPs in England to start vaccinations; Trump says he is not scheduled to take vaccine

Italy is considering more stringent nationwide coronavirus restrictions during the Christmas and New Year holiday, Reuters reports.

After some restrictions put in place last month were eased, crowds of shoppers flocked to many city centres on Sunday, as Italy reported 484 coronavirus-related deaths.

On Saturday, Italy surpassed Britain as the European country with the worst death toll.

The government could decide to put the country under so-called “red-zone” lockdown rules from 24 December to at least 2 January, extending night curfews, banning non-essential movement and closing shops, bars and restaurants on weekends and holidays, with the exception for those selling essential goods, Italian media reported.

Ireland may need to reimpose some Covid-19 restrictions in January, prime minister Micheal Martin said on Monday, Reuters reports.

Ireland currently has the lowest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the European Union after it moved early to temporarily shut shops, bars and restaurants in October.

People will be allowed to travel throughout the country again from Friday with small levels of household mixing permitted until Jan. 6.

“You could very well be looking at some further restrictions in January,” Martin told national broadcaster RTE, noting that the curbs lifted this month were not as strict as the initial lockdown. He said the government would consult widely before making any decisions.

Dr Nikita Kanani, director of primary care at NHS England, urged people waiting for coronavirus vaccinations to be patient and wait to be contacted by their doctors, rather than ringing up the practices themselves, PA Media reports.

She told the Today programme:

You can imagine that general practices are very busy, particularly on a Monday morning.

There’s a huge range of things that general practices are already doing so if we can ask for people to just wait a moment and wait to be contacted that would be very appreciated.

Russia on Monday confirmed 27,328 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 5,874 in Moscow, Reuters reports, pushing the national tally to 2,681,256.

Authorities said 450 people had died overnight, taking the official death toll to 47,391.

The UK business secretary, Alok Sharma, insisted the government was confident that supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would not be disrupted if there was a no-deal Brexit, although he refused to set out what contingency plans were in place.

He told the BBC that was partly due to security concerns around the supply of the vaccine, which is made in Belgium.

We have put in place arrangements to make sure that the distribution of vaccines is not in any way disrupted. I’m confident that as things stand these vaccines will continue to flow into the UK.

There has been speculation that the RAF could be used to airlift supplies if there is chaos at ports following the end of the Brexit transition period.

Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said members of the public should carefully consider their actions over the festive period, PA Media reports.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, he said:

We’re not looking as our preference to disturb the Christmas arrangements. (Consider) should you go and see lots of different people? Should you see the maximum number permitted or should you think about how you can restrict your contacts?

Because this isn’t just one Christmas.

These are many future life events we are planning for because the greater mixing, the greater the number of infections, the greater number of people who will need hospital care and the greater number of people who will not leave that care.

He added that a number of “significant interventions” would be taking place in Wales to help reduce the spread of infections over the festive period:

It wasn’t very long ago that we were facing lots of criticism for taking action in the hospitality industry. Now the pendulum has swung and people are wondering loudly and persistently whether we need to do more.

A broad lifting of anti-pandemic measures in Germany early next year is unlikely, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, said on Monday, Reuters reports.

Germany goes into full lockdown on Wednesday to tackle high infection rates. Braun told broadcaster n-tv he was very optimistic that the stricter measures would help to bring new infection numbers down.

However, during winter and as long as not enough vaccines are available for everyone, “we are going to have some difficult days ahead”, he said. “A comprehensive easing is very, very unlikely.”

Hello, I’m Aamna Mohdin and I’ll be taking over the liveblog this morning. If you want to get in touch, you can email me (aamna.mohdin@theguardian.com) or message me on Twitter (@aamnamohdin)

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• After reports that Trump and other White House staff would be offered the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, the US president said he was not scheduled to receive the vaccine, tweeting: “People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary. I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time. Thank you!” Although Trump has had coronavirus, his taking it is meant to instil confidence in Americans that the vaccine is safe.
• London mayor said surge in cases “deeply concerning”. The surge in coronavirus cases across London is “deeply concerning” and requires further government action to be brought under control, Sadiq Khan has said. He wrote to Boris Johnson on Sunday requesting for an immediate increase in Covid-19 testing provision across the capital in response to the rising number of infections.
• Vaccination clinics run by family doctors will begin across England from Monday but people have been warned that a rise in cases after Christmas socialising could disrupt the rollout of protective jabs. GP practices in more than 100 locations will have the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine delivered to them on Monday, with some offering vaccinations within hours.
• South Korea ordered schools to shut. South Korea ordered schools to close from Tuesday in the capital, Seoul, and surrounding areas as it battles its worst outbreak of novel coronavirus since the pandemic began, surpassing the previous peak in February.
• The US is on the brink of marking the sad milestone of 300,000 dead from coronavirus in just under a year. The US death toll, a fifth of the global total, stands at 299,168, according to Johns Hopkins University.
• ESwatini (formerly Swaziland) prime minister Ambrose Dlamini, who tested positive for Covid-19 four weeks ago, has died at the age of 52 after being hospitalised in neighbouring South Africa, the tiny absolute monarchy’s government said late on Sunday.
• The Dutch government will decide on stricter measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak in the Netherlands on Monday, as the country reported the biggest rise in infections in more than six weeks.
• Schools in Greenwich, south-east London, have been asked to close from Monday evening after “exponential growth” of coronavirus demanded “immediate action”, the council said, amid reports that the capital is likely to enter tier 3 soon.
• Bahrain has approved a Covid-19 vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and launched online registration for the vaccine for citizens and residents. Citizens and residents above 18 years of age could register online to receive the vaccine for free.
• Mauritania has reimposed a night-time curfew in in the face of a “worrying surge” in Covid-19 cases and deaths, the president’s office said.
• Greece has reported 693 new coronavirus cases – the lowest daily figure since mid-October. There have been a further 85 deaths.
• Algeria’s president Abdelmadjid Tebboune has said he is recovering from Covid-19, in his first televised appearance since he was treated in a German hospital almost two months ago.

Germany will likely be able to avoid another recession despite a second national lockdown in the coronavirus pandemic, due to start on Wednesday, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told public radio Deutschlandfunk on Monday.

“I hope we can prevent a complete economic standstill in the second wave of the pandemic,” he said.

Vaccination clinics run by family doctors will begin across England from Monday but people have been warned that a rise in cases after Christmas socialising could disrupt the roll out of protective jabs, PA Media reports.

GP practices in more than 100 locations will have the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine delivered to them on Monday, with some offering vaccinations within hours.

The majority will begin providing vaccination services to their local community from Tuesday, NHS England and NHS Improvement said.

NHS staff including nurses and pharmacists will work alongside GPs to inoculate those aged 80 and over, as well as care home workers and residents.

The vaccination centres will operate from doctors’ surgeries or community hubs in villages, towns and cities.

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “GPs and our teams are about to embark on an enormous challenge, delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme in the community whilst also delivering the expanded flu vaccine programme and the usual care and services our patients rely on us for.”

The opening of the community centres comes after dozens of hospital hubs began offering vaccinations from last Tuesday.

The surge in coronavirus cases across London is “deeply concerning” and requires further Government action to be brought under control, Sadiq Khan has said.

PA Media: The Mayor of London wrote to Boris Johnson on Sunday requesting for an immediate increase in Covid-19 testing provision across the capital in response to the rising number of infections.

Mr Khan also asked for a compensation scheme to be put in place for businesses ahead of any further restrictions being imposed on the city.

He warned that moving London from Tier 2 into Tier 3 would have a “catastrophic” economic impact on businesses and put “hundreds of thousands of livelihoods at stake”.

The Government said it will review all tiers in England on 16 December.

Mr Khan said: “The surge in coronavirus cases across our capital is deeply concerning.
“I am calling on the Government to urgently provide additional support to get the spread under control, save lives and livelihoods and ensure our NHS is not overwhelmed this winter.

“Increased testing is key to this, which is why I want to see regular asymptomatic testing extended to all those unable to work from home and to students and staff at London’s secondary schools, sixth-form college and FE (further education) colleges.”

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Monday reported 718 new coronavirus cases, down from the record daily increase of 1,030 a day earlier. Of the new cases, 682 were locally transmitted, it said.

Most of the new cases were in Seoul, the neighbouring port city of Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, home to over 25 million people.

South Korea’s total infections now stands at 43,484, with 587 deaths.

The government launched a massive tracing effort involving hundreds of troops, police and officials to help track down virus carriers.

Some experts said the government and the public needed to do more.

“This is the time to send an impactful message to the public, so that they can take voluntary actions,” said Kim Dong-hyun, president of Korean Society of Epidemiology and a professor at Hallym University College of Medicine.

Under a Phase 3 lockdown, only essential workers would be allowed into offices and gatherings would be capped at less than 10 people.

South Korea ordered schools to close from Tuesday in the capital Seoul and surrounding areas as it battles its worst outbreak of novel coronavirus since the pandemic began, surpassing the previous peak in February, Reuters reports.

Schools in the capital region would move classes online until the end of the month, in the latest ratcheting up of social distancing measures which so far have failed to reverse the spike in infections.

The school closure is a step towards the imposition of Phase 3 social distancing rules, a move that would essentially lock down Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said such a step required careful review, as the government comes under mounting pressure to do more to step the rise of infections.