Coronavirus

Turkey reports daily record of 111,157 new cases – as it happened

turkey-reports-daily-record-of-111,157-new-cases-–-as-it-happened

Turkey records highest daily toll of cases

Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed on Friday.
In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The data also showed 248 people died due to Covid-19 in the same 24-hour period, the highest daily toll since Oct. 4 when there were also 248 deaths, Reuters reports.

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  • Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed.
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  • The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard. Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday
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  • A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against Covid is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated.
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  • India’s death toll from Covid-19 has officially crossed 500,000. Yet many health experts say half a million deaths was reached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys.
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  • Russia broke its daily Covid record again on Friday with infections surging to 168,201. Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks.
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  • Ukraine also registered a record daily high of 43,778 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours.
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  • Scientists in South Africa are keeping their eyes on the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which made up 23% of recent samples, but said there’s no clear sign BA.2 is substantially different to the original Omicron.
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  • Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.
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  • Allies of embattled UK prime minister Boris Johnson came out swinging on this morning’s broadcast round, saying he is “taking charge” amid the partygate row, following a series of departures on Thursday which were dubbed a “meltdown in Downing Street”.
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  • Malaysia detected over 7,000 Covid infections for the first time since mid-October, as the health minister said a further Omicron surge is likely.
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  • Poland reported 47,534 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours – near-peak levels – which is a 30% rise on two weeks ago.
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  • Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid “six times” to reach the target of 70% coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
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  • The vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for over-18s. Clinical trials suggest two doses have a roughly 90% efficacy against symptomatic Covid.
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  • South Korea extended social distancing rules for an additional two weeks as Omicron variant infections soar, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings.
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    Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed on Friday.
    In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The data also showed 248 people died due to Covid-19 in the same 24-hour period, the highest daily toll since Oct. 4 when there were also 248 deaths, Reuters reports.

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    The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard.

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    Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday. On Friday last week, the UK reported 89,176 new cases of coronavirus and 277 deaths within 28 days of a positive test

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    The estimated range of England’s Covid reproduction “R” number has risen to between 0.8 and 1.1, returning to its value of two weeks ago, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday, adding that the number of cases each day could be rising.

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    An R number between 0.8 and 1.1 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between eight and 11 other people. Last week, the range was 0.7 to 0.9, however, the week before the range was also 0.8 to 1.1.

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    The daily growth of infections was estimated at between -3% to +1%, compared with -6% to -2% the previous week.

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    A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against Covid is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated.

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    Few other countries look likely to go as far as attention turns to loosening restrictions, the Associated Press reports.

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    The Austrian mandate for residents 18 and over to get vaccinated — the first of its kind in Europe – cleared its last legislative hurdle Thursday when parliament’s upper house approved what health minister Wolfgang Mückstein called “a forward-looking and active step”.

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    It’s expected to become law in the coming days but it will be a while before Austrians notice any practical change. And it isn’t clear when or even whether the toughest part of the plan, which was watered down from the initial proposal, will take effect.

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    Only in mid-March will police start checking people’s vaccination status during traffic stops and checks on coronavirus restrictions.

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    People who can’t produce proof of vaccination will be asked in writing to do so, and will be fined up to €600 ($680) if they don’t; fines could reach €3,600 if people contest their punishment and full proceedings are opened.

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    Here’s a round-up of today’s Covid news from around the world so far.

    “,”elementId”:”4978ab5f-de17-4327-a261-0bea2ab2e80a”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

      n

    • India’s death toll from Covid-19 has officially crossed 500,000. Yet many health experts say half a million deaths was reached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys.
    • n

    • Russia broke its daily Covid record again on Friday with infections surging to 168,201. Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks.
    • n

    • Ukraine also registered a record daily high of 43,778 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours.
    • n

    • Scientists in South Africa are keeping their eyes on the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which made up 23% of recent samples, but said there’s no clear sign BA.2 is substantially different to the original Omicron.
    • n

    • Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.
    • n

    • Allies of embattled UK prime minister Boris Johnson came out swinging on this morning’s broadcast round, saying he is “taking charge” amid the partygate row, following a series of departures on Thursday which were dubbed a “meltdown in Downing Street”.
    • n

    • Malaysia detected over 7,000 Covid infections for the first time since mid-October, as the health minister said a further Omicron surge is likely.
    • n

    • Poland reported 47,534 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours – near-peak levels – which is a 30% rise on two weeks ago.
    • n

    • Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid “six times” to reach the target of 70% coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
    • n

    • The vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for over-18s. Clinical trials suggest two doses have a roughly 90% efficacy against symptomatic Covid.
    • n

    • South Korea extended social distancing rules for an additional two weeks as Omicron variant infections soar, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings.
    • n

    “,”elementId”:”71d6f6b1-f8f0-414f-bf7a-3168135c88ca”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

    That’s all from me, Jem Bartholomew, for today. I’ll be back next week. Over to my colleague Tom Ambrose for the next few hours. Bye for now.

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    Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.

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    The measure intended to compress the Omicron strain was introduced in December.

    “,”elementId”:”9b6e2684-94e0-4489-ada0-be7374182f58″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

    Reuters reports the details:

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    n

    In the past two weeks, Covid-19’s contagion rate, measured over the past 14 days, has been steadily falling to 2,421 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday down from almost 3,400 in early January.

    n

    Despite the surge in cases between November and January as Omicron spread, hospital admissions and deaths remain well below those seen in earlier waves of the pandemic, thanks in large part to Spain’s high vaccination rate.

    n

    “,”elementId”:”a907f685-421b-4bf3-bc4b-bf3380a12c2f”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

    Spain reported 74,368 new infections on Thursday, down 53% from the 157,447 new cases on Thursday two weeks ago.

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    The country has a death toll of 94,040 people dying from Covid-related causes, the 18th highest worldwide. (Spain has the 30th highest population.)

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to scrap outdoor mask mandate from Thursday”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sat 5 Feb 2022 00.03 GMT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 4 Feb 2022 05.50 GMT”},{“id”:”61fce7f68f08df1d7f09076f”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

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    Greg Hands, the energy minister, said Johnson is taking charge of his Downing Street team by making changes after the ”partygate” row.

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    It comes after the resignation on Thursday of four key No 10 officials – policy chief Munira Mirza, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s principal private secretary, and director of communications Jack Doyle.

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    “Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted,” Hands told Sky, adding: “This is the prime minister taking charge.”

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    After Mirza’s departure and criticism of Johnson – her colleague and ally of 14 years – the three other resignations were then announced in quick succession on Thursday night, in what was seen widely in Westminster as an attempt to regain control.

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    On Friday morning, another adviser reportedly quit. Elena Narozanski, a special adviser to the prime minister on women and equalities, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and extremism, has resigned, according to Paul Goodman, the editor of Conservative Home.

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    That’s a 242% jump on the 49,127 cases detected on Friday two weeks ago, which was itself a record-breaker.

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    Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks. Thursday saw 155,768 cases.

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    The labour ministry has recommended working from home. But the Kremlin has ruled out a national lockdown. Meanwhile, at the local level some cities have imposed restrictions to crimp the virus’s spread.

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    A further 682 deaths from Covid-related causes were reported in the past 24 hours. Russia has the world’s 2nd highest Covid death toll of over 700,000, according to a Reuters estimate, behind only the US. (Russia has the 9th highest population worldwide.)

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    “Our study published in the journal Science estimates 3 million Covic deaths in India until mid-2021 using three different databases,” Chinmay Tumbe, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad who co-authored the study, told Reuters.

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    Last month, the Indian government dismissed the study as baseless in a notification saying there is a robust system of birth and death reporting.

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    India’s states record deaths from Covid-19 after collating data from their districts. In the last few months, several states have updated the number of deaths, some under pressure from the country’s top court. In most instances, authorities said there were lapses due to delayed registrations and other administrative errors.

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    India is currently in the midst of a third wave of the coronavirus led by the Omicron variant, which some top experts say is already in community transmission although federal officials say most cases are mild.

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    Last month, the government eased testing norms and told states to drop mandatory testing for contacts of confirmed cases unless they were old or battling other conditions. But, with the number of tests falling, the government issued a revised circular warning states they would miss the spread of the virus.

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    But, as many infected people took the option of not testing at all, total infection numbers may not reflect the extent and severity of cases, said Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University near the capital who has been tracking the spread of the virus.

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    According to official figures, India’s overall number of Covid-19 infections has reached 41.95 million, the second-highest globally behind the United States.

    India’s cumulative tally of 500,055 deaths on Friday included 1,072 fatalities reported over the last 24 hours, according to the federal health ministry. Out of this, 335 deaths were reported from the southern state of Kerala that has, for weeks, been updating data with deaths from last year.

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    Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.

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    India’s death toll from Covid-19 has crossed 500,000, a level many health experts say was breached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.

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    Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has said a military response to the ongoing Ottawa protest against Covid-19 measures is “not in the cards right now” after
    Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said that all options were on the table.

    “,”elementId”:”8767ba14-5dc6-42c3-9e82-98c526b51ff2″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

      n

    • Tensions in societies around the world over the current Covid situation are going to be very difficult to handle, one of Britain’s most senior scientific figures has warned. Sir Jeremy Farrar, who stepped down as a government scientific adviser in November last year, warned the idea of simply “exiting” a pandemic was not realistic.
    • n

    • Frustrations are boiling over in Canada’s capital as a protest by truckers against Covid-19 vaccine mandates has clogged downtown Ottawa for a week and shows no sign of ending, with many residents angry at police for not breaking it up.
    • n

    • Two years after the outbreak of Covid, Europe could soon enter a “long period of tranquility” due to high vaccination rates, the milder Omicron variant and the end of winter, the WHO has said.
    • n

    • Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid-19 “six times” to reach the target of 70 percent vaccine coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said
    • n

    • The number of adults in Denmark infected with Covid may be double the official tally, Danish scientists said on Thursday, after releasing data suggesting one third of the adult population has been infected in the past three months.
    • n

    • The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for use in people over the age of 18. Clinical trials suggest two doses of the Novavax jab have an efficacy of about 90% against symptomatic Covid, similar to the other approved UK vaccines.
    • n

    • Palestinians are facing a winter coronavirus surge driven by the Omicron variant, placing stress on the medical system even though vaccines are widely available. More than 70,000 active cases in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, more than twice the number at the height of previous increases.
    • n

    • South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics has used the publicly available sequence of Moderna’s Covid mRNA vaccine to make its own version of the shot, which could be tested in humans before the end of this year, Afrigen’s top executive has said.
    • n

    “,”elementId”:”e3f4400a-0483-46aa-bebd-e987bb86bc8e”}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1643953842000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”05.50 GMT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1643953835000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”05.50 GMT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1643953842000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”05.50 GMT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”05.50″,”title”:”Welcome and summary”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sat 5 Feb 2022 00.03 GMT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 4 Feb 2022 05.50 GMT”}],”filterKeyEvents”:false,”format”:{“display”:0,”theme”:0,”design”:11},”id”:”key-events-carousel-mobile”}”>

    Key events

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    A summary of today’s developments

    • Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed.
    • The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard. Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday
    • A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against Covid is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated.
    • India’s death toll from Covid-19 has officially crossed 500,000. Yet many health experts say half a million deaths was reached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys.
    • Russia broke its daily Covid record again on Friday with infections surging to 168,201. Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks.
    • Ukraine also registered a record daily high of 43,778 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours.
    • Scientists in South Africa are keeping their eyes on the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which made up 23% of recent samples, but said there’s no clear sign BA.2 is substantially different to the original Omicron.
    • Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.
    • Allies of embattled UK prime minister Boris Johnson came out swinging on this morning’s broadcast round, saying he is “taking charge” amid the partygate row, following a series of departures on Thursday which were dubbed a “meltdown in Downing Street”.
    • Malaysia detected over 7,000 Covid infections for the first time since mid-October, as the health minister said a further Omicron surge is likely.
    • Poland reported 47,534 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours – near-peak levels – which is a 30% rise on two weeks ago.
    • Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid “six times” to reach the target of 70% coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
    • The vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for over-18s. Clinical trials suggest two doses have a roughly 90% efficacy against symptomatic Covid.
    • South Korea extended social distancing rules for an additional two weeks as Omicron variant infections soar, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings.

    Police have a photograph of Boris Johnson holding a can of beer at his lockdown birthday party in June 2020, according to reports.

    It is understood to be among the 300 pictures submitted to the Metropolitan police by Sue Gray for their investigation into social gatherings which breached coronavirus regulations.

    The UK’s prime minister is pictured with a can of Estrella beer standing next to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in No 10’s Cabinet Room, the Mirror has been told.

    It was reported that the picture was taken by the prime minister’s official taxpayer-funded photographer, who was documenting the event in June 2020.

    A study in monkeys pitting the current Moderna Inc Covid-19 booster against an Omicron-specific booster showed no significant differences in protection, suggesting an Omicron-specific booster may not be needed, US government researchers reported.

    The study involved monkeys vaccinated with two doses of Moderna’s vaccine who were dosed nine months later with either the conventional Moderna booster or one specifically targeting the Omicron variant.

    The researchers tested various aspects of the animals’ immune responses and exposed them to the virus.

    They found both boosters produced “comparable and significant increases in neutralising antibody responses” against all of the variants of concern, including Omicron, according to the study, posted on bioRxiv ahead of peer review.

    Both Moderna Inc and BioNTech/Pfizer Inc have started testing Omicron-specific boosters of their vaccines in human clinical trials.

    “This is very, very good news,” Daniel Douek, a vaccine researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who co-lead the study, told Reuters.

    “It means we don’t need to radically redesign the vaccine to make it an Omicron vaccine.”

    Brazil recorded 184,311 new coronavirus cases and 493 deaths in the last 24 hours, the country’s health ministry said on Friday, although data was missing from the populous states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

    Brazil has now registered more than 26 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 630,494, Reuters reports.

    US health officials said they are considering lengthening the recommended interval between the first two doses of the most widely used Covid-19 vaccines to eight weeks to lower the risk of heart inflammation and improve their effectiveness, Reuters reports.

    Dr Sara Oliver, an official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the agency was considering making the recommendation for Moderna and Pfizer /BioNTech jabs during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of outside advisers to the CDC.

    In the US, the recommended interval between the two Pfizer jabs is three weeks while it is four weeks for Moderna’s vaccine.

    Spectators wear face masks as they sit amidst carboard cut-outs during the ISTAF indoor athletics meeting in Berlin, Germany.
    Spectators wear face masks as they sit amid carboard cut-outs during the ISTAF indoor athletics meeting in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

    Wearing any kind of mask indoors is associated with significantly better protection from coronavirus, with N95 and KN95 coverings providing the best chance of avoiding infection, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, the Washington Post reported.

    Police in Canada have vowed to crack down on an “increasingly dangerous” protest by hundreds of truckers who have shut down the centre of the capital Ottawa for eight days to demand an end to Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

    In the western province of Alberta, where truckers have been blocking a major border crossing with the United States in a similar protest, premier Jason Kenney said ministers would meet early next week to start lifting restrictions, Reuters reports.

    Blockades are also planned in Quebec City and Toronto, where authorities closed off access to the city centres.

    “We all want to do everything we can to avoid the situation we are seeing in Ottawa,” said Toronto mayor John Tory.

    An employee of the Moscow Association of Administrative and Technical Inspection Offices is seen outside a cafe during a raid to monitor its compliance with Covid-19 regulations.
    An employee of the Moscow Association of Administrative and Technical Inspection Offices is seen outside a cafe during a raid to monitor its compliance with Covid-19 regulations. Photograph: Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

    Cait Kelly

    Cait Kelly

    John Souisa had spent five days at sea when relief washed over him – the Australian navy was approaching their boat, which was carrying 53 asylum seekers. After dodging Indonesian patrols, battling rough seas, and warding off hunger, the group had finally made it.

    And just off the coast of Darwin, a huge warship was there to guide them safely to shore.

    It was the year 2000 and behind them, John and his son Paul had left a terrible conflict in a remote and rarely visited part of Indonesia, one that led to more than 5,000 deaths and the displacement of 700,000 people.

    On 16 January this year, John, 78, became one of the 42 South Australians to die from Covid that day.

    Damian Carrington

    Damian Carrington

    Preventing future pandemics at source would cost a small fraction of the damage already caused by viruses that jump from wildlife to people, according to scientists.

    Each year on average more than 3 million people die from zoonotic diseases, those that spillover from wildlife into humans, new analysis has calculated.

    The scientists heavily criticise approaches by global bodies and governments that focus only on preventing the spread of new viruses once they have infected humans, rather than tackling the root causes as well.

    A family are reunited at Perth Domestic Airport in Perth, Australia. Expanded travel exemptions have made it easier for those with strong connections in WA to enter the state but are required to complete 14 days of self-quarantine at a suitable premises.
    A family are reunited at Perth Domestic Airport in Perth, Australia. Expanded travel exemptions have made it easier for those with strong connections in WA to enter the state but are required to complete 14 days of self-quarantine at a suitable premises. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

    Leyland Cecco

    Police in Canada have promised tougher action against the “unlawful and unacceptably dangerous” protests in the nation’s capital, but admitted the situation was increasingly out of their control.

    With 400 more trucks and 2,000 protesters expected to arrive in the city this weekend, Ottawa police on Friday announced that 150 additional officers will be deployed and concrete barricades set up to prevent more vehicles from reaching the city’s downtown core. Illegally parked vehicles will be towed and highways and bridges could be closed.

    Hundreds of trucks have remained outside parliament for nearly a week in protest against public health measures. Sloly said that the police force took “no solace” in the fact that the current police strategy has so far prevented “riots, injuries and death”.

    France has recorded 104,804 coronavirus deaths in hospital, up by 355.
    It also reported 3,618 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, down by 25, Reuters reports.

    Turkey records highest daily toll of cases

    Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed on Friday.
    In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The data also showed 248 people died due to Covid-19 in the same 24-hour period, the highest daily toll since Oct. 4 when there were also 248 deaths, Reuters reports.

    Of the 377 local areas in the UK, 111 (29%) have seen a week-on-week rise in Covid-19 rates, 264 (70%) have seen a fall and two are unchanged.

    Lisburn & Castlereagh in Northern Ireland has the highest rate in the UK, with 2,871 cases in the seven days to January 31.

    Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon in Northern Ireland has the second highest rate, up slightly from 1,924.2 to 1,942.6, with 4,220 cases.

    Cambridge has the third highest rate, down slightly from 1,812.7 to 1,796.7, with 2,247 cases, PA reports.

    Trucks block traffic in front of Manitoba Legislative Building as truckers and their supporters continue to protest coronavirus vaccine mandates, in Winnipeg, Canada.
    Trucks block traffic in front of Manitoba Legislative Building as truckers and their supporters continue to protest coronavirus vaccine mandates, in Winnipeg, Canada. Photograph: Shannon Vanraes/Reuters

    UK reports 84,053 new cases and 254 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test

    The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard.

    Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday. On Friday last week, the UK reported 89,176 new cases of coronavirus and 277 deaths within 28 days of a positive test

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