Coronavirus live news: queues for jabs at English football grounds; Brazil expected to pass 500,000 deaths

Israel’s health ministry insisted a shipment of Covid-19 vaccine doses the Palestinians rejected as about to expire were “completely valid”.
The Palestinian Authority on Friday called off a deal that would have seen Israel provide it with one million jabs in exchange for doses from Pfizer that the Palestinians are scheduled to receive later this year. PA spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said an initial delivery of some 90,000 Pfizer doses failed to conform “to the specifications contained in the agreement, and accordingly prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh instructed the minister of health to cancel the agreement”. “The government refuses to receive vaccines that are about to expire,” Melhem said, in a statement carried by the official WAFA news agency. The Israeli health ministry said the vaccines it delivered were “completely valid”, although the prime minister’s office acknowledged Friday that they were “about to expire”, without specifying the use-by date. “The Palestinian health ministry received Pfizer vaccines that were valid, with expiration dates that were known, agreed on and that matched the agreement between the two sides,” the ministry said.

Five police officers were injured overnight in western France as they broke up a 1,500-strong illegal rave, authorities said Saturday, with one party-goer losing a hand in the clashes.
Police fired teargas to disperse the crowd, who defied an 11:00 pm coronavirus curfew on Friday and just stayed on into Saturday afternoon at a race course near Redon in Brittany, AFP reports. There were “very violent clashes” when 400 police intervened, local prefect Emmanuel Berthier said, adding the violence lasted more than seven hours through the night. Police detained five men on Saturday and opened an inquiry into violence against people in positions of public authority. Two of the five injured police officers had to be taken to the hospital in Redon, Berthier said.

This year’s World Refugee Day offers a chance to reflect on the uncertainty faced by those forced to flee their homes, actor Cate Blanchett said as the world grapples with the unpredictability of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Oscar winner and UNHCR goodwill ambassador said the annual 20 June event came during a time of “challenge and reflection”.

“We’ve been forced to confront what uncertainty feels like and of course that is the situation that the majority of refugees live with, year in, year out,” Blanchett told Reuters.

“There’s a kind of an opportunity … to think about how we have dealt with uncertainty and perhaps place ourselves in the shoes of mothers and fathers and doctors and lawyers who have been, through no fault of their own, displaced and have been living with, often for upwards of 18, 19 years, in that state that we have been dealing with for 18 months.”

Turkey has received five million more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac, Reuters reports.

Turkey’s vaccination programme has accelerated this week, with more than one million injections a day being administered since Monday.

Turkey’s tourism sector is facing a second summer in the doldrums because of international travel restrictions, but could get a late boost if the vaccination pace continues and Covid-19 cases, now around 6,000 a day, are contained.

The president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told members of his ruling AK party in the summer resort of Antalya on Saturday that an easing of restrictions in countries like Germany and Russia could provide a major boost.

“Countries that are critical for our tourism sector have started easing travel restrictions. As of Tuesday, God willing, Russia is lifting the ban,” Erdoğan said, referring to Russia’s decision to resume flights to Turkey.

Delays in coronavirus vaccine shipments to Malawi have caused health facilities to run out of doses as hundreds are due to receive a second shot, the health minister said.

The southern African country has so far received 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the United Nations, 102,000 from the African Union and 50,000 donated by India.

Inoculations started in April and the country was expecting a second UN shipment of 900,000 by the end of May, four weeks before the first vaccinated Malawians would be due a second dose.
But health minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said that batch had been delayed by a recent surge in coronavirus cases in India, the world’s main AstraZeneca supplier, which forced the country to temporarily halt major vaccine exports to meet local demand.

“The situation in India has delayed the supply,” Kandodo told AFP, adding the vaccines would arrive in July or August.

Afghanistan is ramping up supplies of oxygen as a deadly third surge of Covid-19 worsens, a senior health official told the Associated Press.

The government is installing oxygen supply plants in 10 provinces where up to 65% of those tested in some areas are Covid positive, health ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigir Nazari said.

By WHO recommendations, anything higher than 5% shows officials are not testing widely enough, allowing the virus to spread unchecked.

Italy reported 28 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections was up to 1,197 from 1,147.

Italy has registered 127,253 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth-highest in the world.

The country has reported 4.25 million cases to date, Reuters reports.

Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – at 2,504 on Saturday, down from 2,680 a day earlier.

There were 10 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 11 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 394 from 416.

In the UK, 218,636 first doses were given yesterday and 188,858 second jabs. It was the second day in a row more first doses were administered than second.

Government data up to 18 June shows that of the 73,766,593 jabs administered so far, 42,679,268 were first doses and 31,087,325 were second doses.

The US will ship 2.5m Covid-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan on Saturday, a senior administration official told Reuters, more than tripling Washington’s previous allocation of shots for the island.
Washington, competing with Beijing to deepen geopolitical clout through so-called “vaccine diplomacy,” had initially promised to donate 750,000 doses to Taiwan but is increasing that number as President Joe Biden’s administration advances its pledge to send 80m US-made shots around the world. China has repeatedly offered to send coronavirus vaccines to the island, which has been battling a spike in domestic infections. Taipei has expressed concern about the safety of Chinese doses.

Queues have formed at pop-up vaccination centres at football grounds in London.

Giant jab clinics have been set up at the Olympic Stadium, Stamford Bridge, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Charlton Athletic FC, Selhurst Park and Crystal Palace Athletics Centre.

Smaller events are also taking place in local community venues in a drive to vaccinate as many people in the capital as possible.

Chelsea FC had 6,000 Pfizer vaccines to administer on Saturday, with the jab being offered to all adults over the age of 18 yet to receive a first dose, as well as those awaiting a second Pfizer dose.

The UK has recorded 10,321 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, compared to 10,476 on Friday, bringing the total to 4,620,968.

A further 14 deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 127,970.