Putin orders start of mass inoculation – as it happened

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Brazil reported 49,863 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 698 new deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said on Wednesday. The country has now registered 6,436,650 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 174,515, according to ministry data. Brazil has the world’s second deadliest outbreak behind only the United States.

Prince Harry has suggested that the coronavirus pandemic is a rebuke from nature as he called for more action to tackle climate change.

During a conversation about the environment with the chief executive of a streaming platform for climate documentaries, he said:

Somebody said to me at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s almost as though Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms for bad behaviour, to really take a moment and think about what we’ve done.

It’s certainly reminded me about how interconnected we all are, not just as people but through nature. We take so much from her and we rarely give a lot back.

Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have spoken out on issues such as race and the environment since stepping down from their roles as working members of the royal family at the end of March and moving to California.

The prince, who has been criticised in the past for his use of private jets, urged people to imagine being a raindrop in order to help repair the Earth.

Every single raindrop that falls from the sky relieves the parched ground. What if every one of us was a raindrop? If every single one of us cared? We do, because we have to, because at the end of the day nature is our life source.

Since the start of the pandemic, scientists have stepped up warnings that deforestation, ecosystem destruction and illegal trade in wildlife can increase the risk of disease transmission from animals to people, and have urged tighter controls.

Italians will not be able to attend midnight mass or move between regions over the Christmas period, a top health ministry official said on Wednesday, as the country battles high coronavirus infection rates and deaths.

Italy has been reporting more daily Covid-19 fatalities than any other European nation in recent weeks and, while the increase in new cases and hospital admissions is slowing, the government is worried about gatherings over Christmas.

The junior health minister Sandra Zampa said Christmas Eve mass must end by around 8:30pm so that worshippers can return home before a 10pm curfew, and people should not invite non-family members home for Christmas lunch or other celebrations.

“From December 20, people will only be able to travel outside their own region for emergencies such as to care for a single parent,” she said in an interview with private television channel La7.

The government has already said ski resorts will be closed over the Christmas and New Year period.

The cabinet is meeting late on Wednesday to decide the details of restrictions over coming weeks, which the prime minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to outline at a news conference on Thursday.

Germany will extend restrictive measures designed to stem a tide of new COVID-19 infections until 10 January, the chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday after talks with German state leaders.

The measures, which had been due to expire on 20 December, include keeping restaurants and hotels shut and limiting private gatherings to five people from two households.

“The states will extend their measures from December 20 until January 10,” Merkel told a news conference, adding that another round of consultations would be held on 4 January. “In principle things will remain as they are.”

While the daily rise in infection numbers has started to fall, Germany reported its highest single-day death toll on Wednesday since the start of the pandemic, and regions that had been spared the worst are seeing case numbers surge.

More than 17,000 new cases were reported overnight, and 487 deaths - a new daily record.

Markus Soeder, leader of the southern state of Bavaria, said the high number of deaths justified keeping restrictions in place until January. He said:

Over the next few weeks we will also be considering whether all this is enough.

In the past, Germany’s many regional and central government bodies have been at odds over how strictly to impose lockdown, since cases were concentrated in the south and west of the country.

While Merkel has always been in favour of stricter lockdowns, many of the regional premiers who have the final say in Germany’s federal system were opposed. This is beginning to change.

Other than a few, mainly northern areas, the entire country is well above the rate of 50 new infections per 100,000 population per week that the government says is the fastest the virus can spread without overwhelming track-and-trace systems.

Restrictions on gatherings will be eased slightly over Christmas to allow families to meet.

The Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested on Wednesday that politicians who impose lockdowns or curfews to limit Covid-19 are acting like dictators, the Associated Press reports.

The comments came as López Obrador once again fended off questions about why he almost never wears a face mask, saying it was a question of liberty. He said pandemic measures that limit people’s movements are “fashionable among authorities ... who want to show they are heavy handed, dictatorship”.

“A lot of them are letting their authoritarian instincts show,” he said, adding “the fundamental thing is to guarantee liberty.” It was unclear if the Mexican leader was referring to authorities in other countries, or the mainly opposition-party local leaders who have tried to impose limits in Mexico.

Many governments across the world have effectively implemented lockdowns or limits on when people can leave their homes, something López Obrador has fiercely resisted doing, arguing some people live day-to-day on what they earn on the streets.

Some local governments in Mexico have tried to use police to enforce limits on masks or movement, which resulted in scandals of abusive behaviour by police. López Obrador argues such measures should be voluntary. “Everyone is free. Whoever wants to wear a face mask and feel safer is welcome to do so,” López Obrador said.

The Mexican government has gone against the grain of international anti-virus practices in two ways. It has offered changing and contradictory advice on the utility of wearing face masks, and has described mass testing as wasteful and pointless.

But one area in which Mexico has joined with the rest of the world is in the rush to acquire vaccines. López Obrador urged the country’s medical safety commission, known as Cofepris, to hurry up and approve the vaccine developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, which has already been given the go-ahead by regulators in the UK.

“The whole process of authorization in Cofepris is being simplified, we don’t want that to get held up in bureaucracy there,” López Obrador said. “This is an urgent issue, the final paperwork is being started and Cofepris is going to be working day and night to approve it as soon as possible.”

And on Wednesday, Mexico’s health department signed a contract for 34.4 million doses of that vaccine, and said it hoped to receive 250,000 doses in December. Each person requires two doses.

Mexico has seen almost 107,000 test-confirmed deaths so far, the fourth-highest tally in the world, but Mexico does relatively little testing and officials estimate the real death toll is closer to 150,000.

The Spanish government agreed with regional authorities on Wednesday that a maximum of 10 people per household will be allowed to gather for the Christmas and New Year holidays to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the health minister Salvador Illa said.

The agreement, which applies to celebrations on Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and on New Year’s Day, means a slight relaxation of the current general rule that allows gatherings of up to six people, except in some regions that have defined their own limits.

The start of the night-time curfews in force in most Spanish regions would be moved to 1:30am from 11pm on 24 and 31 December.

Still, movement of people between regions will be banned, with some exceptions, between 23 December and 6 January, Illa told a news conference, adding that although the latest infection data inspired some optimism, prudence was paramount.

To sum it up, this Christmas we stay at home ... It is desirable that people restrict their mobility and social contacts as much as possible.

Governments across Europe are trying to navigate between avoiding spreading the virus over the holiday season and allowing people to celebrate with family and friends.

The 10-person limit includes children, and the official recommendation is for people from the same household to celebrate together without outside guests.

Spain imposed a six-month state of emergency in October, giving regions legal backing to impose curfews and other restrictions. While the rate of infection in the country has slowed since, its overall tally of over 1.66m Covid-19 cases is among the highest in western Europe. The death toll reached 45,784 on Wednesday.

French health authorities on Wednesday reported 14,064 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, up from Tuesday’s 8,083. The number of people in France who have died from Covid-19 in hospitals rose by 313 in 24 hours to 37,002, bringing that tally to 53,816. The cumulative number of cases now totals 2,244,635, the fifth highest in the world.

Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus developments across the globe from the last few hours:

• Vaccines won’t prevent short-term coronavirus surge - WHO expert. The World Health Organization does not believe there will be enough supplies of coronavirus vaccines in the next three to six months to prevent a surge in the number of infections, its top emergency expert said.
• UK put speed before public confidence in vaccine, says EU agency. The European Medicines Agency has suggested British regulators prioritised speed over winning public confidence to enable the UK to become the first western country to license a coronavirus vaccine.
• France to carry out border checks to stop skiers spreading Covid. France will carry out random border checks over the holiday season targeting French skiers on their way to and from foreign resorts – particularly Switzerland and Spain – where slopes stay open, the prime minister, Jean Castex, said.
• Beware fake coronavirus vaccines, says Interpol. Interpol has issued a global alert to law enforcement agencies around the world warning them that organised crime networks may try to sell fake Covid-19 vaccines or steal real supplies.
• Putin orders Russia to begin mass Covid-19 vaccinations. President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian authorities to begin mass voluntary vaccinations against Covid-19 next week, as Russia recorded 589 new daily deaths from the coronavirus.
  
• North America seeing record-setting daily Covid-19 cases. Covid-19 deaths in the Americas have increased nearly 30% in November compared to the end of October, while North America is seeing record-setting daily cases registered, the WHO regional director, Carissa Etienne, said.
  

That’s all from me Jessica Murray, I’m now handing over to my colleague Lucy Campbell.

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has suggested politicians who impose lockdowns or curfews to limit Covid-19 are acting like dictators.

The comments came as López Obrador once again fended off questions about why he almost never wears a face mask, saying it was a question of liberty.

The Mexican leader said pandemic measures that limit people’s movements are “fashionable among authorities … who want to show they are heavy-handed, dictatorship.

“A lot of them are letting their authoritarian instincts show,” he said, adding “the fundamental thing is to guarantee liberty”.

It was unclear if the Mexican leader was referring to authorities in other countries, or the mainly opposition-party local leaders who have tried to impose limits in Mexico.

Many governments across the world have effectively implemented lockdowns or limits on when people can leave their homes, something López Obrador has fiercely resisted doing, arguing some people live day to day on what they earn on the streets.

Some local governments in Mexico have tried to use police to enforce limits on masks or movement, which resulted in scandals of abusive behaviour by police.

López Obrador argues such measures should be voluntary. “Everyone is free. Whoever wants to wear a face mask and feel safer is welcome to do so,” he said.

The Mexican government has offered changing and contradictory advice on the utility of wearing face masks.

Mexico has seen almost 107,000 test-confirmed deaths so far, the fourth-highest toll in the world, but Mexico does relatively little testing and officials estimate the real death toll is closer to 150,000.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress remain unable to reach agreement on fresh relief for a pandemic-hit US economy, with top Republicans supporting what the Senate’s top Democrats dismissed as an “inadequate, partisan proposal”.

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said outgoing president Donald Trump supported a proposal put forth by Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell, after McConnell on Tuesday rejected a $908bn bipartisan package.

McConnell’s outline is very close to the legislation that the Senate leader has been touting for months and was rejected by Democrats, according to one Senate Republican source. The plan includes $332.7bn in new loans or grants to small businesses, according to a document provided to Reuters.

“The president will sign the McConnell proposal that he put forward yesterday. We look forward to making progress on that,” Mnuchin said.

But the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, blasted the Republican effort for excluding Democrats, who control the US House of Representatives. In a speech on the Senate floor, he said:

The Republican leader should not waste the Senate’s time on another inadequate, partisan proposal and instead should sit down with Democrats to begin a true bipartisan effort to quickly meet the needs of the country.

He noted the McConnell proposal includes liability protection for businesses that Democrats reject.

Adding to the pressure, the two parties face a 11 December deadline to pass a $1.4tn budget or risk a shutdown of the government as the Covid-19 crisis worsens across the US.

2 Dec 202013.01 EST

Ben Doherty

The global Covid-19 pandemic could derail efforts to control and eradicate malaria across the Pacific, with the potential for thousands of new cases and deaths, health experts have warned.

Malaria, one of the oldest diseases on Earth, remains one of its most significant killers: the mosquito-borne disease still kills 400,000 people a year, most of those children under five.

Prof Brendan Crabb, chair of Pacific Friends of Global Health and chief executive of the Burnet Institute, said the Pacific was at acute risk if intervention measures were disrupted within health systems overwhelmed by, or focused on, Covid-19.

There are a number of infectious diseases that could spike if we ignore them in the wake of the focus on Covid-19, but none are more acute than the short-term risk that malaria poses. It can double, even triple or worse in a single season if the wheels come off control measures.

In Papua New Guinea, where malaria remains highly endemic, case numbers surged between 2001 and 2016 – from 80,000 to 500,000 every year – when control measures weakened.

A recent Lancet study said disruptions to malaria interventions could lead to 46m additional cases worldwide.

The Hungarian politician József Szájer has quit Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party after fleeing a lockdown party in Brussels via a gutter, the daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet has reported.

“The actions of our fellow deputy József Szájer are incompatible with the values of our political family,” the paper cited Orbán as saying.

“We will not forget nor repudiate his 30 years of work, but his deed is unacceptable and indefensible. Following this, he took the only appropriate decision when he apologised and resigned from his position as member of the European parliament and left Fidesz,” Orbán added.