January 20 coronavirus news

Some UK hospitals look like a “war zone” due to the influx of Covid-19 patients, the country's Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance told British broadcaster Sky News on Wednesday.

“It is very difficult, it may not look like it when you go for a walk in the park, but when you go into a hospital this is very, very bad at the moment with enormous pressure and in some cases it looks like a war zone in terms of things that people are having to deal with,” Vallance said.

The UK is currently in the midst of a sharp surge in coronavirus cases and the country hit a record 1,610 deaths from Covid-19 on Tuesday - the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Public Health England. The UK currently has the fifth highest death toll from Covid-19 in the world with 91,643 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Responding to a question on when lockdowns might be eased, Vallance commented that “the numbers are nowhere near where they need to be at the moment and need to come down quite a lot further”.

“Vaccines are not going to do the heavy lifting for us at the moment or anywhere near it,” he said, emphasizing the need to follow social distancing guidelines - “this is about the restrictive measures that we’re all living under and carrying on with those, we need to make sure we stick with it.”

Over 4 million people in the UK have already received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, yet while this will give protection against “severe illness,” Vallance stressed that “much less” is known about the vaccine’s ability to stop transmission.

A third cabinet minister has tested positive for Covid-19 in Portugal within a week, according to the government.

Minister of the Economy Pedro Siza Vieira tested positive for the vírus Tuesday.

On January 14, Ana Mendes, the labor minister, tested positive, followed by Finance Minister João Leão on January 16,

On Tuesday, Portugal marked the deadliest day since the start of the pandemic, as the Health Ministry recorded 218 Covid-19 related deaths and 10,455 new cases.

As of Tuesday, the death toll stood at 9,246, whilst the total number of coronavirus cases was 566,958, according to the Health Ministry.

Government officials continue to call on the population to stay at home and follow protocol, stressing the need to save lives and protect the national health system.

Medical staff across the country have taken to social media to express concerns over the rising numbers and the impact on their working conditions, with many working overtime and under-resourced.

Portugal has the second worst epidemiological situation in Europe, according to the most recent statistics from Our World in Data, an online scientific publication based at the University of Oxford.

Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo has died from Covid-19, according to a government statement.

Moyo succumbed to Covid-19 at a local hospital in the capital Harare early Wednesday.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa confirmed the news on his official Twitter profile.

Moyo rose to fame after appearing on national television to announce the “mission” in the November 2017 coup that removed the late President Robert Mugabe—while insisting it was not a coup.

Germany is extending its current national lockdown until mid-February and introducing new, tougher measures as the country’s death toll continues to rise.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her 16 state premiers agreed on Tuesday night to the extension of the lockdown, which began in December, following a marathon eight-hour discussion. Stricter mask requirements -- including the use of FFP2/N95 masks on public transport and in shops -- have been made mandatory across the country. The enhanced measures came after the German government was warned about the danger of the new variants of the virus. 

One sticking point in the discussions was on the subject of schools. Officials ultimately decided that they will remain closed but in the end, it is up to the federal states to mandate this.

CNN affiliate n-tv spoke to German members of public about the changes to Covid-19 restrictions, with one woman telling the local television channel that she had hoped the current lockdown’s impact would be evident by now.

“The lockdown should have brought some effects already, but we are not seeing that,” she said.

Another man backed the government’s moves, saying: “They are elected officials, and will know what is best for the population.” 

The changes come as the latest coronavirus figures were released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national agency for disease control and prevention, on Wednesday morning.

An additional 1,148 fatalities were recorded, bringing the total number of those having died from the disease to 48,770 -- the second highest daily jump since January 14, when the death toll stood at an additional 1,244. 

A further 15,974 new Covid-19 cases were also registered, raising the total number in the country to 2,068,002, according to RKI.

When it comes to vaccinations, RKI said 1,195,543 people have been inoculated so far, with 1,195,543 people having received the first dose and 24,741 people given the second.

A funeral bell tolled at the Washington National Cathedral 400 times Tuesday, once for every thousand Americans who have died of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States.

As the numbers climb, health experts and officials have turned their attention to mitigating the impacts of the new variant that has sparked alarm, and they are calling for ramped up vaccinations and preventative measures.

But some officials say they aren't seeing as many doses as the federal government reports distributing and many states say the demand for the vaccine is outpacing the supply.

The count of people in the US who have died from the virus rose rapidly over the course of the last year to reach Tuesday's grim 400,000 marker. And while the rate of new cases has dipped recently, experts warn that a variant of the virus could send cases surging once again.

When Biden's administration takes office, Osterholm said it will do everything it can to bolster distribution. But, he said, "we can't make the vaccine go much faster than it is right now," adding that officials will need to plan for dramatic action to keep the variant under control.

"The difference is going to be, 'Are we going to react now or later?'" Osterholm said. "Do we put the brakes on after the car's wrapped around the tree, or we try to put the brakes on before we leave the intersection?"

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Officials call for more vaccine doses as the US death toll exceeds 400,000

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said the high Covid-19 death toll in England and rate of hospital admissions mean that it is “far too early to speculate” about easing lockdown measures. 

Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Patel said the UK is in a “pivotal stage” in the vaccination effort but that the country has a “long way to go.” 

The UK recorded 1,610 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday -- the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic. Some 33,355 new cases were also reported Tuesday. 

More than 15.7 million total coronavirus vaccine doses have been given out to nearly 13.6 million Americans, as of 6 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This breaks down to roughly 8.9 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 6.8 million from Moderna.

The CDC reports that more than 2 million people have received a second shot to complete their vaccination.

New method: The CDC had last updated the vaccine data on its Covid data tracker Friday, when it said more than 12 million doses had been administered to 10.6 million people. More than 31 million doses had been distributed in total. 

The agency has not since updated the number of doses distributed -- 31,161,075 -- because “CDC is refining how the number of doses distributed is reported on CDC COVID Data Tracker to move from reporting doses shipped to doses delivered,” the CDC explained.

The United States reported 168,058 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, bringing the total to at least 24,246,830 since the epidemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

There were 2,550 virus-related deaths also reported Tuesday. The total number of US Covid-19 fatalities now stands at 401,553.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

China is rushing to build a massive quarantine camp that can house more than 4,000 people, after an outbreak of Covid-19 this month that has left tens of millions of people under strict lockdown.

The quarantine camp is located on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei province, which surrounds the country's capital, Beijing.

China has largely contained the spread of the virus, with much of the country returning to normal. However, a sudden rise in cases has alarmed officials and raised concerns ahead of the Lunar New Year, the county's most important annual festival, during which hundreds of millions of people are expected to travel to visit family members.

Officials in Shijiazhuang, where the outbreak is centered, have initiated mass testing and strict lockdowns, moving entire villages into centralized quarantine facilities in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.

The new quarantine camp will house close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients, as authorities continue an extensive contact tracing and testing program.

Quick build: The camp was originally planned to house 3,000 people, but has since been expanded to a capacity of 4,160. More than 4,000 construction workers performed "six days' and nights' work" to complete the first phase, said Shijiazhuang Deputy Mayor Meng Xianghong on Tuesday.

Authorities began construction on January 13 and the first section of the camp is now complete and ready for use, while construction continues on the second phase, according to state-owned broadcaster CCTV.

Each prefabricated room is expected to measure 18 square meters (around 194 square feet), and will come with an en-suite bathroom and shower, desks, chairs, beds, Wi-Fi, and a television set, according to CCTV.

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