Coronavirus news live: Britons ‘ready to accept vaccine passports’

UK Covid-19 vaccinations: Latest figures

Britons are prepared to accept home coronavirus vaccine passports, and even to hold them as soon as the pandemic has abated, unique polling for The Independent suggests.

More than half – 56 per cent – of individuals surveyed by Savanta ComRes mentioned it will be acceptable to make consumers present a go earlier than coming into a retailer, whereas 32 per cent mentioned it will not.

Retailers imagine such a scheme can be unhelpful, coming after greater than a 12 months of disruption to their backside strains.

Non-essential companies at the moment are gearing up for reopening in England tomorrow, with the general public urged to respect retail employees and Covid-19 security measures.

The British Retail Consortium mentioned that “everybody needs to be thoughtful and respectful to their fellow consumers and hard-working store employees”, and never overreact if requested to adjust to the foundations.

Behind the headline overview on the week in well being

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France pours chilly water on vacation plans

It is simply too early to say whether or not folks residing in France will likely be in a position to take holidays overseas this summer season, a French minister has mentioned.

A 3rd wave of coronavirus infections is presently ravaging the continent.

Tough restrictions are enforced in lots of European nations, hitting restoration prospects for the tourism trade’s essential peak season. Government are additionally struggling to outline a timeframe for the gradual reopening of nationwide borders.

“I can’t say to you after we will likely be in a position to resume journey inside Europe,” European affairs minister Clement Beaune instructed LCI tv. “I hope it is going to be attainable this summer season.”

Mr Beaune mentioned journey restrictions had been a “vital evil” and that EU states would have to coordinate the easing of guidelines when the time got here.

“We’re doing all we are able to in order that journey can resume between French areas, after which Europe hopefully by the summer season, however I can’t in the present day provide you with a hard and fast calendar,” the minister added.

The nagging uncertainty additionally weighs on France’s personal tourism trade. It was essentially the most visited nation on the planet earlier than the pandemic struck, with practically 90 million international vacationers coming into in 2018. Tourism accounts for about 7 per cent of France’s GDP.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 14:36

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Albania relaxes journey guidelines for UK

Albania has turn into the most recent European nation to ease restrictions on journey from the UK, writes Simon Calder.

In December the federal government in Tirana suspended all direct flights between the UK and Albania due to fears concerning the “Kent variant” of coronavirus.

In addition these arriving by different routes from the UK had been required to quarantine for 2 weeks.

The ministry of well being says each restrictions will likely be lifted from tomorrow.

The UK Foreign Office says: “We advocate you proceed to liaise carefully along with your airline earlier than travelling because the scenario can change at very quick discover.”

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 14:17

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‘This is our backyard’: The parks retaining us sane throughout the pandemic

It is a bitterly chilly winter’s afternoon, with hardly any daylight breaking by way of the thick cloud cowl, and but Alton Public Gardens is teeming with human life, writes Mark Drummon.

Every nook of this small park is occupied by folks in lengthy parkas or vibrant down jackets, topped off with woolly hats and scarves. All the age teams are represented: younger folks drink takeaway cappuccinos, aged associates share a bench, {couples} stroll their canine, moms and dads chat with different mother and father whereas their youngsters play on the swings and climbing frames, and youngsters stand in clusters on the garden and within the bandstand, bantering, laughing.

Normally the park can be virtually empty right now of 12 months, particularly in climate this unappealing. And there’s something else odd about this scene – everyone is standing just a bit additional aside than is pure, and the interactions really feel stilted. But this isn’t your common gloomy, frigid midwinter’s day. It is January 2021 and far of Europe is in lockdown as new, aggressive strains of Covid-19 rage uncontrolled.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 13:44

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Starmer wouldn’t make use of unvaccinated aide

Keir Starmer says he would seemingly not make use of an aide who refused to be vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19.

The Labour chief made the admission – regardless of opposing home coronavirus passports – in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Asked whether or not he would rent an individual who didn’t need to get a jab, he mentioned: “No, my intuition is I’d be very uncomfortable with that.”

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 13:14

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EU should have greater Covid-19 restoration scheme, France says

The EU’s present coronavirus restoration plan is just not bold sufficient, in accordance to France’s international minister.

Clement Beaune mentioned on Sunday he believed the landmark €750bn (£650bn) stimulus agreed final summer season after the epidemic’s first wave needs to be vastly expanded.

Mr Beaune mentioned Europe should not repeat errors made after the worldwide monetary disaster a decade in the past and, this time, ought to underpin the restoration with funding in fifth-generation (5G) wi-fi networks, inexperienced and digital applied sciences and different areas.

Asked in an interview on LCI tv how a lot can be wanted, Mr Beaune mentioned: “No doubt one thing like a doubling [of the existing figure].

“The financial response has to be extra bold,” he mentioned.

Beaune mentioned he hoped the EU’s 27 member states would ratify the restoration fund by May and that the €750bn can be obtainable from the summer season.

France is due to obtain €40bn underneath the scheme.

EU governments are nonetheless submitting detailed spending plans for his or her share of the pot, and frustration is rising in Paris and another capitals on the sluggish velocity of disbursing the cash.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 12:55

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Nervtag skilled urges warning forward of lockdown easing

A prime authorities illness adviser has urged warning forward of a significant easing of the lockdown in England.

Professor Peter Horby, chair of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) instructed Times Radio: “The watchword has acquired to be warning, actually.

“The modelling which is now fairly good does present that we are able to anticipate some type of rebound. It’s not clear precisely when or how massive it is going to be however there’s, I believe, inevitably going to be a little bit of a rebound within the variety of circumstances when issues are relaxed.

“Hopefully it will not translate an excessive amount of into hospitalisations and deaths due to the vaccine programme, however there will likely be a few of that. Now the extent of it actually will depend on how nicely we adjust to the continued restrictions, so we actually have to take this step-by-step.

“I believe we could be joyful and benefit from the freedoms, however we have nonetheless acquired to realise there’s nonetheless numerous individuals who’ve not been contaminated or vaccinated and so they are going to be in danger.”

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 12:36

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‘Call it Trumpcine’: Trump tells GOP donors Covid vaccine needs to be named after him

Donald Trump has claimed that the Covid vaccine needs to be known as the “Trumpcine” at a dinner for Republican Party donors at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in accordance to experiences.

The former president can be mentioned to have dismissed Joe Biden’s election victory as “bulls**t”, known as Senate chief Mitch McConnell a “dumb son of a b***h” and expressed his “disappointment” along with his vp Mike Pence for missing the “braveness” to block Electoral College votes in a candid hour-long speech, writes Joanna Taylor.

Hundreds of GOP donors gathered at Mr Trump’s resort in Florida this weekend to focus on the occasion’s future. The Four Seasons Hotel in Palm Beach had been booked out for Republican National Committee (RNC) occasions, however Mr Trump reportedly refused to take part until his non-public enterprise benefitted.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 12:17

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Covid jabs produced in EU states to keep in Europe, says Brussels vaccine tsar

The EU’s vaccine tsar has mentioned that AstraZeneca has agreed that every one however one batch of its Covid vaccine produced at a Netherlands plant will likely be despatched to European member states quite than Britain.

In an interview on Friday, Thierry Breton mentioned that “zero” doses made within the EU can be sanctioned for supply to the UK till AstraZeneca fulfilled its contract with the bloc, writes Andrew Woodcock.

The French former finance minister mentioned that after a sluggish begin, an “extraordinarily fast” improve in European manufacturing was now enabling EU nations to step up their vaccination programmes, giving him confidence that the bloc will meet its goal of full inoculation for 70 per cent of adults by July, and permitting it “an virtually regular vacationer season” this summer season.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 11:58

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Pandemic highlights pressing international want to management air pollution, docs say

The coronavirus pandemic needs to be a “wake-up name” to sort out international air air pollution and “finish our tolerance” for soiled air in deprived neighbourhoods, docs have warned.

Suggesting that disproportionate ranges of publicity to polluted air could possibly be partly to blame for “extreme disparities” in coronavirus dying charges amongst ethnic minorities and low-income communities, doctor researchers at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) mentioned Covid-19 had “highlighted the widespread well being penalties” of air air pollution, writes Andy Gregory.

In an article revealed within the Annals of the American Thoracic Society journal, researchers from the Harvard Medical School-affiliated instructing hospital reviewed research suggesting a major hyperlink between Covid-19 mortality and air air pollution exists – with one examine blaming long-term publicity to polluted air for 15 per cent of world coronavirus deaths.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 11:39

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Thailand posts one-day file of latest infections

Thailand reported a single-day file of 967 new coronavirus infections on Sunday.

However, no new deaths had been recorded, even because the nation handled a 3rd wave of circumstances and a extremely contagious variant of Covid-19.

Of the infections, 964 had been home transmissions, together with 236 within the capital Bangkok, the epicentre of an outbreak that has unfold to most of Thailand’s 77 provinces.

The spike comes forward of main nationwide Songkran holidays, recognized for giant water fights within the streets that authorities have now banned for a second 12 months due to the pandemic.

Officials have requested folks to keep away from pointless journey and scale back gatherings to assist restrict the outbreak, which incorporates the extremely transmissible B117 variant first recognized within the UK.

Jon Sharman11 April 2021 11:20