Coronavirus live news: US vaccine nearly 95% effective in trials; Germany could impose tougher curbs

The Malaysian government tightened movement curbs in an area where Top Glove Corp Bhd worker dormitories are located, to enable targeted coronavirus screenings on workers and residents as infections rise, the security ministry said on Monday.

The curbs, in effect from Tuesday until the end of the month, will affect 13,190 workers and close to 1,200 residents in Klang, about 40km west of Kuala Lumpur, Senior Minister of Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said at a media conference.

“(This enforcement) will allow the Health Ministry to continue targeted screenings on workers and residents in the area,” he said.
There had been 215 cases of the virus recorded in the area by Sunday.

Top Glove, the world’s largest medical glove manufacturer, is also required to screen all workers at its local factory and all dormitories for workers at that factory, the minister said.

Top Glove said in a bourse filing it will seek clarification with the relevant authorities about the implementation of the curbs.
“Meanwhile, we will continue to adhere to Covid-19 preventive Standard Operating Procedures on a stringent basis.

Disinfection exercises at our premises and accommodation are also conducted regularly, with all the necessary precautionary measures strictly in place,” it said.

A vaccine will not by itself halt the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the World Health Organisation has said, as the agency’s data showed the number of infections around the world on Saturday hit a new high.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we knew that a vaccine would be essential for bringing the pandemic under control. But it’s important to emphasise that a vaccine will complement the other tools we have, not replace them.

Initial supply of Covid-19 vaccines will be limited, so health workers, older people and other at-risk populations will be prioritised. That will hopefully reduce the number of deaths and enable health systems to cope, but the virus will still have a lot room to move.

The WHO’s figures for Saturday showed that 660,905 coronavirus cases were reported to the UN health agency, setting a new high water mark.

That number, and the 645,410 registered on Friday, surpassed the previous daily record high of 614,013 recorded on 7 November.

Authorities in Belgium “abandoned” thousands of elderly people who died in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, violating their rights by denying hospital treatment to many who were infected, Amnesty International has said.

An investigation by the human rights organisation has claimed that authorities weren’t quick enough in implementing measures to protect nursing home residents and staff during this period, failing to protect their human rights.

Between March and October, Amnesty International said “a staggering” 61.3% of all Covid-19 deaths in Belgium – the world’s worst affected country by deaths per capita, according to the Worldometers website – took place in nursing homes.

Amnesty International said one of the reasons so many people died in nursing homes is because infected residents weren’t transferred to hospitals to receive treatment.

Philippe Hensmans, the director of Amnesty International Belgium, said:

The results of our investigation allow us to affirm that [care homes] and their residents were abandoned by our authorities until this tragedy was publicly denounced and the worst of the first phase of the pandemic was over.

Even as nursing homes were overwhelmed and the death toll climbed, the country’s hospitals weathered the crisis, with their intensive care units never reached their 2,000-bed capacity.

Vincent Fredericq, the general secretary of the care homes federation Femarbel, told Amnesty International that many residents in need of medical assistance were left behind.

Everyone was struck by the images of the Italian and Spanish hospitals. These situations had a great impact on our federal decision-makers, who said from the outset that it was absolutely necessary to avoid overloading intensive care. Nursing homes have been relegated to second line and residents and staff have been the victims.

Belgium, a country of 11.5 million has reported more than 535,939 confirmed virus cases – 46,167 per million – and 14,421 deaths linked to the coronavirus – 1,242 per million.

We have more from Reuters on the tough new measures expected to be agreed in Germany in a meeting between state leaders and the chancellor, Angela Merkel, later on Monday.

Earlier, we reported how they would include compulsory mask-wearing at schools and drastic restrictions on household gatherings. A draft document of the measures, seen by Reuters, also said people would be urged to avoid private parties completely in the coming weeks.

The document says Germany expects to gradually overcome the pandemic after winter thanks to warmer weather and hopefully the start of vaccinations.

According to the proposals, which could still change pending talks between the federal and 16 regional governments, private gatherings in public will only be possible for people from one household with two people from another household, compared with a maximum of 10 people from two households now.

An exemption from wearing masks at school for some elementary pupils will be scrapped and all classes will be halved to allow more space between students.

All people considered vulnerable will be eligible once a week for one heavy-duty face mask, also known as FFP2.

Hullo! This is Damien Gayle taking the reins on the live blog now for the rest of the working day here in the UK.

If you have any interesting coronavirus-related news, suggestions or comments from your part of the world, that you think is worth our including on the blog, please drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter DM to @damiengayle.

Swiss authorities say infections rose by 12,839 cases since Friday. The total confirmed cases in Switzerland and the neighbouring principality Liechtenstein increased to 269,974 and the death toll rose by 198 to 3,158, while hospitalisations went up by 483.

Malaysia has reported 1,103 new cases, raising the total number of infections to 48,520. The health ministry also recorded four new deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 313.

As Russia reports its own worst daily increase, authorities in Moscow have turned to a temporary hospital built inside an ice rink.

The country of about 145 million people has started opening temporary clinics and repurposing hospitals in the capital and other cities to relieve the strain on its medical system.

In Moscow, the Krylatskoe Ice Palace, known for hosting international speed skating competitions, is now on the frontline after being converted into a temporary hospital. It opened last month.

Though better resourced than other regions, authorities in Moscow are under severe pressure. They reported 6,360 new infections in the Russian capital on Monday.

More than 1,300 hospital beds equipped with oxygen tanks cover the former ice rink’s 400-metre speed skating track, with more than 100 doctors and nurses deployed.

“Only its design differentiates it from a regular hospital,” the chief doctor, Andrei Shkoda, told Reuters. The facility, he said, is equipped with all necessary equipment to treat and diagnose the illness, including a CT scanner. It is treating about 600 people, with 60-80 new patients being admitted and released every day.

We prepared very well, which wasn’t the case in the spring. Since then, we have prepared clinical protocols, gained experience in the fight against the coronavirus.

Iran has reported its greatest daily increase in infections, with a further 13,053 recorded, while 486 more people died over 24 hours, the country’s health ministry has said.

The government has said it will impose stricter restrictions, with a health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari telling state TV the total number of infected cases has reached 775,121, while the country’s total number of fatalities has increased to 41,979.

The latest surge in the number of infections in the Indian capital, New Delhi – which has swamped its intensive care wards and killed hundreds of people – has passed its peak, the city’s top health official has claimed, dismissing fears of another lockdown.

Pointing to a decline in the city’s positivity rate, New Delhi’s minister of health, Satyendar Jain, told the ANI news agency:

I can definitely tell you that the peak is gone and cases will slowly come down now.

He said there was “no chance” of another lockdown, even as authorities prepared hundreds of additional intensive care beds and increased capacity to conduct more than 100,000 tests a day.

“We are analysing the data daily and keeping a watch on the positivity,” Jain said. Delhi has been carrying out an average of 55,000 tests a day.

The city’s positivity rate – the percentage of people who test positive of all those tested – has declined since early November. But it rose again on Sunday, when fewer people were tested owing to a major festival on the weekend, possibly skewing the findings, an official said.

New Delhi has seen what authorities have called a third wave that has killed more than 600 people in the past week, even as cases in other parts of the country have declined.

India has confirmed more than 8.8m cases; the word’s second-highest number. But the number of new daily cases has fallen since a peak in mid-September. India has recorded 129,635 deaths.