New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the lockdown on Saturday, after the detection of a community case of the UK variant from an unknown origin.The hard lockdown, which affects two million people, started at 4am Sunday AEDT.The rest of the country has been be put into Level 2 restrictions that limit public gatherings, among other restrictions.Genomic sequencing of the new case was linked to the existing cluster, health authorities said on Sunday, bringing it to 13 cases.COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told local television network TVNZ on Sunday: “It’s unlikely we wouldn’t see more cases. How many cases at this point we simply don’t know.”The new case involves a 21-year-old student who visited a number of public spaces over a period of one week.The part-time airport worker went to the GP for a COVID-19 test – then went to the gym.Prime Minister Ardern said that was “frustrating” and the patient had experienced symptoms since earlier in the week.“People who should have been in isolation, weren’t,” Ms Ardern said. She said humans make mistakes and warned New Zealand won’t succeed if “we turn on one another”.“Unfortunately, we have still had breaches of requirements in this case.”The new lockdown, with level 3 restrictions, allows people to leave home only for essential shopping and essential work. Public venues will remain closed.Restrictions in the rest of the country will be tightened to level 2, including limits on public gatherings to 100 people but allow workers to leave home for work. Schools and daycare stay open but no one is allowed to enter Auckland unless there’s a travel permit or exemption. Auckland was plunged into a snap three-day lockdown in mid-February after a family of three were diagnosed with the more transmissible UK variant of COVID-19.RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL BETWEEN NZ AND AUSTRALIALast week, Australia’s chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, announced restrictions had been placed on green zone travel between New Zealand and Australia from February 24. These restrictions do not allow people who have been in Auckland in the previous 14 days to travel to Australia.Normal green flight arrangements can continue for people who have not been in Auckland in the previous 14 days, Professor Kelly said.Some states have added additional restrictions for New Zealand travellers, including, Queensland, NSW, Tasmania and Victoria. Professor Kelly said all travellers were advised to check the arrangements in both their place of arrival and place of final destination before they travel.He said the situation in New Zealand was of concern and the Australian Government and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee would continue to work closely with colleagues in the New Zealand Ministry of Health to monitor and assess the public health risk.The Auckland lockdown has disrupted a number of special events due to take place next week, including the Twenty20 International cricket match, which has been moved to Wellington. The match will also be played without spectators.Public venues will be closed for seven days and gatherings outside of bubbles are not allowed.All sports games were also cancelled as Aucklanders were told to work from home and keep children at home with them away from school. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said supermarkets will remain open, but travel restrictions will apply to the borders around Auckland.UK HAS VACCINATED MORE THAN 20 MILLIONBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tweeted about the ongoing success of the UK’s vaccination program. In a post he said: “20 million people across the UK have now got the jab — a huge national achievement and a testament to the tireless work of NHS staff, volunteers, the Armed Forces & many more. I urge everyone to get the jab when called. Every jab makes a difference in our battle against COVID.”In Britain alone, already 17 million people have been vaccinated against coronavirus, according to NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens.“Vaccinating 20 million people – including 17 million across England – in a few short weeks shows the NHS vaccination campaign is firing on all cylinders, and looking out to Easter and beyond it’s full speed ahead,” he said.But amid that good news is the report that three cases of the Brazil variant have been found in England, with three additional in Scotland.It is still not known if the vaccines are completely effective against variants of the virus.It comes as Prince William warned that anti-vaccination messages are rife on social media and urged those eligible to get jabs.“Social media is awash sometimes with lots of rumours and misinformation,” the Duke of Cambridge said in video footage released by Kensington Palace on Saturday evening, local time.It showed him and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, speaking to two women who are clinically vulnerable and eligible for first jabs soon.In one video call, a woman called Shivali, who has type 2 diabetes, said she had read a lot of social media posts that made her “a bit nervous” about getting vaccinated initially, while she was now confident about getting the jab.Prince William said: “We have to be a little bit careful who we believe and where we get our information from, especially for those who are clinically vulnerable as well, it’s so important that these vaccinations are done.” “Catherine and I are not medical experts by any means but if it’s any consolation we can wholeheartedly support having vaccinations, it’s really, really important.” Vaccine uptake so far has been “amazing,” the prince said, while the task now is to ensure that younger generations “feel that it’s really important for them to have it.”JOHNSON & JOHNSON ONE-DOSE VACCINE CLEARED IN THE USThe US is getting a third vaccine to prevent COVID-19, as the Food and Drug Administration cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two.The FDA said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against serious illness, hospitalisations and death.One dose was 85 per cent protective against the most severe COVID-19 illness, in a massive study that spanned three continents.The protection remained strong even in countries such as South Africa, where the variants of most concern are spreading.PFIZER TO BEGIN VACCINE TRIALS ON CHILDRENPfizer will begin testing its COVID vaccine on children as young as five.The pharmaceutical company’s boss said it has already finished enrolling volunteers aged 12 to 15 and is now looking at younger subjects.It will begin trials on kids aged five to 11 soon, with data available by the end of 2021, according to The Sun.Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told NBC News: “We have already licensed in kids 16 and above.“We are already doing trials with kids 12 years old, all the way to 16 and I hope that we will be able to have data in a couple of months.“We are also planning to initiate paediatric studies from younger ages, from five all the way to 11.“And I believe we should have data about this population by the end of the year.”Children as young as six are already being given the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in a new trial in the UK.Researchers are studying 300 kids aged between six and 17 to examine whether the jab produces a strong immune response in youngsters.So far, 70.5million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been administered in the United States.Meanwhile, 19.2million have received their first dose of the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines in the UK, and 736,037 have had a second.EXPERT WARNS AMERICANS AGAINST COMPLACENCYDr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, went on telelvision on Sunday morning, local time, to issue a stern warning to Americans as COVID-19 have plateaued.While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the third now available to Americans, has been greenlit overnight, the manufacturing and the rollout of doses is still slow. And data still doesn’t indicate whether or not vaccinated people won’t pass the virus ointo others.When Dr Fauci was asked whether or not those who had been administered two-dose vaccines could still be carriers of the virus, Dr Fauci said, “The answer is theoretically and probably in reality, yes. We don’t know the exact incidence of that. But let me tell you the reason why we say that. And sometimes it confuses people. The endpoint of efficacy of the vaccine is preventing clinically apparent disease, which means that you could get infected, have nasopharynx virus in your nose and in your mouth. But because you are vaccinated, you could feel perfectly well and the issue is now, can you then transmit it to others? So until we prove that that’s not the case, that’s the reason why we’re recommending that when people are vaccinated and are in the presence of unvaccinated people to put a mask on to prevent them from infecting others. “What we’re doing now, is studies to see if we can get some good scientific data to show that the level of virus in the nasopharynx of a vaccinated person, if they get infected, is so low, it’s not going to transmit. And we’re getting more and more data.”It comes as the White House has held “serious discussions” with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention about recommending that those vaccinated for COVID-19 can socialise together, according to Dr Fauci — who said he is eager to take up that advice and finally hug his daughter after a year.Noting that “even though it isn’t backed by data, it’s backed by common sense,” Dr Fauci told CNN that people who have received all their doses could start hanging out.Dr Fauci noted that “even though the risk is not zero, the risk becomes extremely low when you have both parties vaccinated, according to a report in the New York Post.“So we’re going to start seeing people saying, ‘Hey, the more people get vaccinated, I can have dinner with my family member that comes in,” he said.“Back before they were vaccinated, if they wanted to come to visit you, they would have to quarantine for a while, get tested, wear a mask,” he said.“My professional judgment is that when my daughter wants to come in here and she’s doubly vaccinated, I’m going to have her over the house and I’m going to give her a big hug that I haven’t been able to do for a year, “ he added.Dr Fauci also discussed the new coronavirus strain emerging in New York that shares some of the characteristics with the South African variant.As of mid-February, the variant — called B. 1.526 — was present in about 12 per cent of coronavirus samples collected in the city and surrounding areas, according to researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.“You know, it started off just a cluster in the Washington Heights section [in Manhattan] up by Columbia Medical Centre and then it started to go through the other parts of the city, the other boroughs, and it’s something you really want to pay attention to because it has some worrisome mutations in it, the cluster of mutations,” Dr Fauci said on CNN.“Again, that’s the reason why keep doing the public health measures and get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can. Everything you throw at us about a mutant is going to be countered by getting people vaccinated,” he said.When asked whether the current vaccines work against the variant, Dr Fauci said: “No, we don’t know if it works directly against it, but that’s the point you want to get across to people.“Even though this vaccine is not directly matched to a variant that might occur, wherever — South America, South Africa, California, New York — the higher the level of protection against the original one there’s a spillover of protection against the variant.”UK VARIANT DOMINANT IN BELGIUMMeanwhile, the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant strain in Belgium, authorities said Friday, as they explained why infection numbers have again started to rise.“Last week, we estimate that 53 per cent of infections were caused by the UK variant, against 38 per cent a week earlier,” a spokesman for the government’s coronavirus response, Steven Van Gucht, told a news conference.Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a separate media conference that “the situation is very delicate” in the country, in particular because of a worrying rise in hospitalisations over the past week.The UK variant, technically identified as B.1.1.7, is considered a “variant of concern” because it is more infectious — though it has not been shown to be more dangerous in terms of deaths or intensive hospitalisation than earlier forms of the coronavirus.It emerged late last year in southeast England, prompting EU countries to quickly restrict movement from Britain.Current COVID-19 vaccines are shown to be effective against the UK variant. That, however, is not the case with other variants that have popped up elsewhere in the world: one in South Africa (B. 1.351) and another in Brazil (P. 1), both of which appear to have a level of vaccine resistance.In Belgium, just 2.2 per cent of all detected cases are of the South African variant, and 0.9 per cent are of the Brazilian strain.In neighbouring France, authorities say the UK variant now accounts for “around half” of its COVID-19 cases, which are also increasing.CANADA APPROVES ASTRAZENECA VACCINECanadian authorities said on Friday (local time) they have approved a third COVID-19 vaccine, greenlighting that of AstraZeneca.It joins the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna jabs.“Great news! Heath Canada has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine,” tweeted Pablo Rodriguez, government leader in the House of Commons.The government has ordered 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, reports said.As of Friday, Canada has reported more than 858,000 cases of the coronavirus and 21,865 fatalities.Altogether Canada has ordered or reserved more than 400 million doses of vaccine from seven suppliers for a population of 38 million.EU’S ‘ACCEPTANCE PROBLEM’ AROUND ASTRAZENECAAs Europe deals with the sluggish rollout of the coronavirus vaccine to its citizens, it has been revealed that four out of five of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses delivered to European Union countries are yet to be used on a patient.It comes as global deaths from the coronavirus passed 2.5 million on Thursday (local time).According to a report in the Guardian, data taken from the European Centre for Disease Prevention Control (ECDC) and other official sources, said that is estimated that 4,849,752 of the 6,134,707 doses distributed among the 27 member states have not yet been administered.Health authorities believe that the decision by countries such as France, Germany, Poland and Italy to only recommend use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for use in people aged under 65 has been a significant factor in its slow administration, with authorities failing to redirect jabs to younger people.German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted there was an “acceptance problem” among Europeans being offered the vaccine.In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ms Merkel said that the vaccine was also being rejected by those concerned over its efficacy and safety following a run of bad publicity.“There is … currently an acceptance problem with the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Ms Merkel said. “AstraZeneca is a reliable vaccine, effective and safe, approved by the European Medicines Agency and recommended in Germany up to the age of 65 years. All the authorities tell us that this vaccine can be trusted. As long as vaccines are as scarce as they are now, you cannot choose what to vaccinate with.”Asked whether she would volunteer to be administered with the vaccine, Ms Merkel said: “I am 66 years old and I do not belong to the recommended group for AstraZeneca.”And as the worldwide death roll passed 2.5 million, Europe remains the hardest-hit region with 842,894 deaths, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (667,972 deaths) and the US and Canada (528,039). Almost half of deaths have occurred in just five countries: the US, Brazil, Mexico, India and Britain.
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