Enough outdoor masks from 28 June
With the CTS in favor, the Ministry of Health says stop the obligation to wear masks outdoors in the white area, inviting, however, to respect the other precautionary rules and to put them back in case of gatherings
(image: Pixabay ) From June 28, the obligation to wear masks outdoors in the white area will drop. The news was given by the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza with a post on Facebook, specifying however that compliance with the precautionary indications of the Cts will still apply. In other words, you must continue to keep your distance if you are not joined, and if you gather, you put your masks back on. So it is good to always keep one at hand.The note from the CTS
The decision of the Government comes after the publication of the opinion of the CTS experts, which , while stressing that personal protective equipment is "one of the most effective means for reducing the circulation of the virus", they recognize that the current epidemiological scenario is propitious: with 53% of Italians having received at least one dose of anti- Covid (and about 27% have completed the cycle) and an incidence of cases of infection stable at less than 50 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants over 7 days, the whole of Italy will be white zone and the mandatory use of the mask open can be overcome. Except for certain contexts.When it is necessary to continue wearing it
In closed places and on public transport, however, masks remain mandatory. And it will be good to keep them on hand in practice always, even if you are outdoors, so that you can wear them in case you find yourself in gathering contexts, such as markets and fairs, queuing or waiting for public transport together with many other people, and so on.Who should continue to wear it all the time
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Coronavirus live news: Italy to lift outdoor mask wearing rules from 28 June; North Korea tells WHO it has no cases
10.25am EDT 10:25
Elsewhere in Germany, Berlin is making permanent the extra bike lanes it added during lockdowns as it seeks to support the cycling boom that started in the pandemic.
The easterly capital has marked about 15 miles of extra “pop-up” bike lanes since Covid-19 hit in 2020 as commuters switched to cycling to avoid crowded public transport. Other European cities - like Paris and London - have also been adding bike paths.
Reuters reports that in some parts of Berlin, temporary lanes – often marked by yellow tape stuck on the road – are now being made permanent, widened and better protected, with bollards or low ramps to stop cars or vans blocking them.
The district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, which came up with the idea of the “pop-up” lanes, formally opened a new stretch of bike lane yesterday and began work on making another busy street only accessible by bikes and pedestrians.
The German Cyclists Association says bike traffic rose by 25% in Berlin due to the temporary lanes and the pandemic. It has welcomed making the lanes permanent but says more needs to be done to protect cyclists in Berlin, where five have already been killed this year.
Cyclists make their way down a two-way cycling lane in Berlin’s central Friedrichstrasse shopping mile, a length of which was closed to vehicle traffic for months last year. Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images10.07am EDT 10:07
German chancellor Angela Merkel has received her second coronavirus vaccine dose, a government spokesperson has announced, saying that she received a Moderna jab a few days ago, after getting an AstraZeneca shot on 16 April, DW reports. She did not roll up her sleeve for a photo, this time, which brings my mind back to this lighthearted but incisive piece.
9.58am EDT 09:58
Sweden will offer Covid jabs to all people aged 16 and upwards, the country’s health agency has said, expanding the vaccine roll out which previously was limited to those aged 18 and older.
“Today, we have decided that young people aged 16 and 17 should be covered by the vaccination programme,” health agency head Johan Carlson told a news conference.More than half of Sweden’s adult population have received at least on shot and just under a third are fully vaccinated.
After a third wave in Sweden in the spring, deaths, new cases and hospitalisations have plummeted in recent weeks.
9.38am EDT 09:38
Cuba claims its three-shot jab is 92% effective without citing dataCuba’s government has announced that its three-shot Abdala vaccine has proved to be 92% effective against the coronavirus.
It provided no details of the clinical testing, according to AP. The Abdala is one of the vaccines Cuba is testing. It recently said its Soberana 2 vaccine has shown a 62% efficacy. It comes as Cuba faces its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic with record new infections.
Cuban president Miguel Diaz Canel tweeted: “In less than 48 hours, Cuban scientists have given our heroic people, who are resisting the criminal blockade exacerbated in a pandemic, two overwhelming results. In two days we will denounce the blockade to the world, counting on two of our own vaccines.”
He added that the country has been “hit by two pandemics” – Covid and the ongoing US-led economic blockade of the island – but that its scientists had “surpassed all obstacles and have given us two very effective vaccines”.
Dr Francisco Durán, the island’s director of epidemiology, yesterday reported 1,561 new coronavirus cases for a total of 169,365 cumulative confirmed cases and 1,170 deaths over the course of the pandemic on the island of 11 million people.
Updated at 10.04am EDT
9.24am EDT 09:24
Moscow authorities have announced that residents will soon have to present an anti-Covid pass to enter restaurants.
The new restriction is the latest in a series of measures after new daily coronavirus cases tripled in just two weeks, with mayor Sergei Sobyanin attributing the rise to the highly infectious Delta variant.
Sobyanin said that from 28 June restaurantgoers will have to present a QR code showing a negative coronavirus test valid for three days – or proof they have been vaccinated or were sick with coronavirus within the previous six months, AFP reports.
“We must find solutions that will allow us to maximally protect people and reduce the burden on the healthcare system,” he wrote on his blog. However those solutions, he added, could not disrupt the “normal functioning” of the service industry and “other sectors of the economy”.
“Similar rules for visiting restaurants and cafes have been in effect for several months in many European and Asian cities. And the time has come for Moscow to learn from their experience if we want to avoid a new, highly undesirable lockdown,” Sobyanin said.
Unlike many European countries, Russia did not reimpose a lockdown when it was hit with a second wave of infections last fall as it sought to support a struggling economy.
The country instead pinned its hopes of curtailing the pandemic on its four homegrown vaccines – Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac and the one-dose Sputnik Light. But authorities face a vaccine-sceptic population, with one recent independent survey saying that some 60% of Russians do not plan to get a shot.
Even though free jabs have been available since December, only 15.5 million people out of a population of some 146 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies Covid figures from the regions and the media.
Updated at 9.26am EDT
9.21am EDT 09:21
Since the first Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 was injected into the arm of a British woman in December 2020, hundreds of millions of vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.
9.07am EDT 09:07
German chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping for better coordination on pandemic travel rules among the bloc’s 27 member states. She said it was problematic to have a patchwork of regulations.
“I regret that we haven’t managed yet to have completely uniform action among the member states on travel guidelines – that is coming back to haunt us,” she told reporters after a meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, according to AFP.
She cited the example of Portugal, where the government this month was forced to slow the process of post-lockdown reopening in Lisbon and three other municipalities after a hike in new Covid-19 cases. “That perhaps could have been avoided which is why we need to work harder,” she said. “We have made some good progress in recent months but aren’t where I’d like the EU to be.”
Von der Leyen acknowledged she was “worried” about the spread of the Delta variant, saying it was “only a matter of time” before it became dominant in Europe.
Updated at 9.27am EDT
8.55am EDT 08:55
Eight members of the Ugandan Olympic team have been quarantined in Japan until early July, a local official has said, after a coach tested positive for coronavirus on arrival last week.
The country’s delegation arrived on Saturday just over a month before the pandemic-postponed Games. But despite being vaccinated and testing negative before travel, a coach tested positive during screening at Tokyo’s Narita airport, AFP reports.
The coach was isolated, and the rest of the squad was allowed to leave for their training base in Izumisano, southern Osaka.
“But our local healthcare centre questioned the eight members and designated them as close contacts with the person who tested positive,” a city official told AFP. “Now we are requiring them to stay inside the hotel until July 3,” the official said, adding that the city was still looking into the possibility of allowing training outside the hotel.
The eight members have so far tested negative and are in good condition, the official said. They have not left the hotel since arriving or had contact with others, he added.
The team, which is the second to arrive in Japan for the Games after Australia’s softball players, was originally due to arrive in Japan on 16 June. But their flight was cancelled following a surge in Covid-19 cases in Uganda, local media said.
The coach was the first positive virus case among officials and other Olympic participants arriving in recent days, local media said.
8.49am EDT 08:49
The UK government has denied the G7 summit is behind a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases in south-west England, an increase that is raising significant concern about extra tourism pressures on the region in the summer weeks.
However, Andrew George, the former Lib Dem MP for St Ives who is now a councillor in Cornwall, said the government must publish its risk assessment for the summit, a request he said had been denied.
The correlation between G7 and the tsunami of Covid-19 caseload in St Ives/Carbis Bay and Falmouth is undeniable. It ought to drive public bodies to at the very least maintain an open mind about the connection between the two. Those who were responsible for that decision and for the post-G7 summit Covid-19 case management and assessment should be held to account for their decisions and actions.
8.27am EDT 08:27
China plans to retain border restrictions for another year - reportThe Wall Street Journal reports that China could keep its border restrictions to control the pandemic for another year amid variant fears and a desire to protect important events from any potential disruption.
The Winter Olympics is to take place in the country in February, while there will also be a once-a-decade power transition within the ruling party that is set to be less transitional than usual as leader Xi Jinping is expected to seek an additional term, past the two-term limit.
The provisional timeline of the second half of 2022 was set during a mid-May meeting of the country’s state council, the WSJ reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
New visas to enter China are mostly restricted to those who have received a Chinese jab, while arrivals also have to spend at least a fortnight in hotel quarantine. China has not yet approved any of the WHO-approved western vaccines, and vice versa.
It is as yet unclear whether China will follow Japan and not allow foreign spectators for the February games, with only Japanese residents permitted to attend the Tokyo games next month.
Last month, Australia said it would gradually begin to open its borders in mid-2022.
Updated at 8.31am EDT
8.19am EDT 08:19
Thai authorities have approved a pilot model for quarantine-free travel to the beach destination Phuket that will allow the island to reopen to tourists on 1 July.
Its tourism industry has been on tenterhooks since March, when the government floated the so-called “Phuket sandbox” scheme, which would have allowed vaccinated tourists to enter the country without undergoing the usual two week’s quarantine.
But after a third wave of Covid infections in April, the scheme was seemingly delayed but tourism officials and members of Thailand’s Covid taskforce announced last week the sandbox scheme was set to begin on 1 July, Reuters reports.
Today, the government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said the cabinet of the prime minister, Prayut Chan-O-Cha, had officially given the scheme its blessing. In Phuket, the number of weekly Covid cases cannot exceed 90.
Thailand’s tourism industry previously made up almost 20% of its national income. Its losses have reverberated through other sectors including restaurants, transportation and the service industry.
The PM announced last week that he plans for Thailand to fully reopen to foreign visitors by October – a vow that would require his administration to hit the target of inoculating 50 million Thais in four months, he said.
Updated at 8.24am EDT
8.05am EDT 08:05
About three-quarters of Israelis in eligible age groups have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. But that includes just 2-4% of 12- to 15-year-olds since they were made eligible this month, according to health ministry data.
But with cases more than doubling to 125 yesterday after outbreaks at two schools, attributed to the more infectious Delta variant, Israel’s two largest healthcare providers say appointment requests for vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-old have risen steeply, according to Reuters.
The country’s health ministry yesterday recommended that 12- to 15-year-olds get vaccinated and is investing in outreach to get parents to bring their children in for shots.
But some parents still see no rush. Eldad Askof, who got the vaccine himself, sat outside a school with his 13-year-old son Amit, both wearing masks. “There was a debate, but at the moment we feel that we don’t want to vaccinate. If we can control it without vaccinating the kids we prefer that,” he said. “We feel that at the moment in Israel that the situation is not too alarming.”
Updated at 8.21am EDT
7.54am EDT 07:54
Rwanda has announced fresh restrictions including a ban on weddings as it struggles to contain a surge in infections.
“All social gatherings including celebrations of all kinds are prohibited,” a government statement said. “Traditional, civil and religious weddings are suspended.”
AFP reports that other measures due to come into force tomorrow include the extension of a nationwide curfew, from 7pm until 4am, restrictions on movement between districts, and the suspension of air travel to neighbouring Uganda where coronavirus cases are spiralling.
“The public is reminded of the critical importance of complying with health measures including physical distancing, wearing face masks, and ensure hand hygiene. Penalties will be applied for non-compliance,” the statement said.
Rwanda has already been enforcing some of the strictest containment measures on the continent and implementing a rigorous regime of testing and contact tracing. But over the last few weeks, cases have increased with authorities counting 662 cases and seven deaths yesterday.
The country of 13 million people has registered a total of 31,435 positive cases and 388 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
7.47am EDT 07:47
The leader of a spurious church which peddled industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for Covid-19 is claiming that he provided Donald Trump with the product in the White House shortly before the former president made his notorious remarks about using “disinfectant” to treat the disease.
7.33am EDT 07:33
A vaccine “hack” rumoured to alleviate any unpleasant side-effects from the Covid vaccination, which involves swinging your arm like a windmill, has gone viral on TikTok.
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said they were “loth to rule anything out” in terms of whether the dance might reduce post-jab arm-ache but they were “certainly not aware of it being helpful”.
Azeem Majeed, professor of primary care and public health, and head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London, said: “If it raises awareness of the jab and makes it seem like a joyful, playful thing, then that’s a very good outcome to the dance.”
7.25am EDT 07:25
Australia’s most populous state has extended the wearing of masks inside buildings, while New Zealand paused quarantine-free travel with the state.
Ten new locally acquired cases were reported in New South Wales state as officials work to contain a cluster of the highly infectious Delta virus variant. Eight of the 10 were household contacts of previous cases in isolation.
“Given how absolutely contagious the virus is, we expected household contacts already in isolation were likely to get the virus,” said state premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Reuters reports that masks will be mandatory indoors in Sydney, home to a fifth of Australia’s 25 million population, for another week from Thursday morning although officials stopped short of imposing further curbs as the cluster increased to 21 infections in six days.
New Zealand, which in April began letting visitors from Australia enter the country without undergoing hotel quarantine, said it was pausing the “travel bubble” for three days for people flying from NSW.
Neighbouring Victoria state, which emerged from a strict lockdown more than a week ago, reported no local cases today, prompting New Zealand to restart its quarantine-free travel with the state from tonight.
Updated at 8.27am EDT