French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Getty Images
Leaders from more than 20 countries and the World Health Organization have agreed to work towards an international treaty on future pandemics, in a joint letter published in media outlets Tuesday around the world.
The treaty would “greatly” enhance international co-operation to improve research, data-sharing, distribution of vaccines, medicines and personal protective equipment to protect future generations from pandemics, the letter said, adding it would be “rooted in the constitution of the World Health Organization.”
Among signatories were leaders from the UK, Germany and France, and from Africa, leaders from Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa signed the letter. South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia were among Asian signatories, while Chile and Costa Rica were among Latin American countries making the call.
China and the United States were not part of the group.
The letter’s publication comes ahead of an “extraordinary joint call” with the signatories on Tuesday to outline the treaty’s proposal.
“No single government or multilateral agency can address this threat alone. The question is not if, but when. Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly co-ordinated fashion. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a stark and painful reminder that nobody is safe until everyone is safe,” the letter reads.
It noted how political leaders united following following the devastation of two world wars, and could do so again.
“Today we hold the same hope that, as we fight to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic together, we can build a more robust international health architecture that will protect future generations.”
Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife, Asma, are seen in a hotel in Damascus on September 5, 2010. Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma, have recovered from Covid-19 and are no longer symptomatic, the president’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Assad’s office said in a statement on March 8 that the president and his wife tested positive for Covid-19. Both were in “stable condition” at the time and planned to self-isolate for two or three weeks.
“The symptoms of Covid-19 infection have disappeared,” the statement said. PCR tests for both also returned negative results.
War-torn Syria has recorded nearly 46,000 positive Covid-19 cases and more than 2,000 deaths based on cumulative numbers of multiple local medical authorities. It’s been difficult to put together a full picture of the outbreak in the country due to the ongoing conflict.
Damascus received its first shipment of vaccines on March 1 from an unnamed “friendly” country, according to Syria’s state news agency. The type and quantities of the vaccines were not mentioned in the statement.
Other territories in Syria, including rebel-held and Kurdish-held areas, have not yet received vaccines.
France’s Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot attends an event in Paris on February 11. Francois Mori/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
France’s Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot was admitted to hospital after contracting Covid-19, her spokesperson told CNN Wednesday, the second government minister hospitalized with the virus this week. The 74-year-old had received her first dose of the vaccine on March 17.
Labor Minister Élisabeth Borne, 59, was hospitalized with Covid-19 on Monday and was discharged on Wednesday, according to a ministry press release.
“I am relieved,” Borne tweeted as she left hospital. She tested positive for the virus on March 1.
Covid lockdown: France is in the throes of a third wave of the coronavirus, with new lockdown restrictions implemented in 16 areas last Friday.
Non-essential businesses have been closed in the most impacted areas of France, where people have been forbidden to go further than 10km from their home or travel between regions without a valid reason.
The new measures are less restrictive than those imposed in March and November of last year, Prime Minister Jean Castex acknowledged when he announced them last week.
“Very clearly, the messages haven’t got through. The confusion of the weekend has led to more distrust,” Jean-François Timsit, ICU chief at the Paris’ Bichat hospital, said on France Inter radio on Wednesday, referring to backtracking over travel permits as he criticized the complicated nature of the restrictions.
“We should have put the brakes on earlier,” he added in the interview.
Recalling that positive Covid-19 cases now could require hospitalization in the coming weeks, Timsit said: “The next month is going to be hellish.”
“We’ve got several difficult weeks ahead of us,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on BFMTV Wednesday morning, adding: “Covid is once again taking a kind of expansion, it is very worrying.”
Easter restrictions: The minister said in the interview that there will be no easing of restrictions for the Easter weekend, although church services will be allowed to go ahead outside of the night-time curfew. He also encouraged the French public “not to gather together overthe coming weekends.”
“We must limit them,” the minister said of Easter celebrations. “They must stay within the strict family intimacy of the home, of the apartment, and we should not receive friends, family, nor travel.”
France’s Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot attends an event in Paris on February 11. Francois Mori/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
France’s Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot was admitted to hospital after contracting Covid-19, her spokesperson told CNN Wednesday, the second government minister hospitalized with the virus this week. The 74-year-old had received her first dose of the vaccine on March 17.
Labor Minister Élisabeth Borne, 59, was hospitalized with Covid-19 on Monday and was discharged on Wednesday, according to a ministry press release.
“I am relieved,” Borne tweeted as she left hospital. She tested positive for the virus on March 1.
Covid lockdown: France is in the throes of a third wave of the coronavirus, with new lockdown restrictions implemented in 16 areas last Friday.
Non-essential businesses have been closed in the most impacted areas of France, where people have been forbidden to go further than 10km from their home or travel between regions without a valid reason.
The new measures are less restrictive than those imposed in March and November of last year, Prime Minister Jean Castex acknowledged when he announced them last week.
“Very clearly, the messages haven’t got through. The confusion of the weekend has led to more distrust,” Jean-François Timsit, ICU chief at the Paris’ Bichat hospital, said on France Inter radio on Wednesday, referring to backtracking over travel permits as he criticized the complicated nature of the restrictions.
“We should have put the brakes on earlier,” he added in the interview.
Recalling that positive Covid-19 cases now could require hospitalization in the coming weeks, Timsit said: “The next month is going to be hellish.”
“We’ve got several difficult weeks ahead of us,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on BFMTV Wednesday morning, adding: “Covid is once again taking a kind of expansion, it is very worrying.”
Easter restrictions: The minister said in the interview that there will be no easing of restrictions for the Easter weekend, although church services will be allowed to go ahead outside of the night-time curfew. He also encouraged the French public “not to gather together overthe coming weekends.”
“We must limit them,” the minister said of Easter celebrations. “They must stay within the strict family intimacy of the home, of the apartment, and we should not receive friends, family, nor travel.”
India reported 275 deaths due to coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest number of fatalities in a single day since December 31, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.
The country also reported 47,262 new Covid-19 infections Wednesday, the highest single-day rise since November 12, bringing the total to 11,734,058 cases, including 160,441 deaths.
This comes as India marks one year since the first nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was imposed in the country, forcing its 1.3 billion people indoors.
New rules: In light of the “fresh surge in cases in some parts of the country,” the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday announced new Covid-19 control guidelines that will be in place until the end of April.
India has reported more than 35,000 new cases daily for seven consecutive days, according to CNN’s tally of figures from the Ministry of Health. This rise follows a “sustained decline in the number of active cases, continuously for about 5 months,” as per the MHA order.
Some of the measures outlined in the Tuesday order included quickly isolating positive cases and tracing contacts of Covid-positive patients within 72 hours.
According to the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu accounted for 81% of new cases reported over the previous 24 hours. Parts of many of these states have imposed complete or partial lockdowns and night curfews in order to contain the spread of the virus.
India has distributed more than 50 million vaccine doses since January 16 when it began vaccinating healthcare and frontline workers, as well as those over age 60 or above 45 with comorbidities. Everyone 45 or older will be included in the rollout from April 1, according to the Ministry of Health.
More than 500 people in the United Kingdom were put on “do not resuscitate” orders without their consent or their carers’ consent during the coronavirus pandemic, a study released by the country’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) reported Thursday.
“From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were concerns that ‘do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’ (DNACPR) decisions were being made without involving people, or their families and/or carers if so wished, and were being applied to groups of people, rather than taking into account each person’s individual circumstances,” according to the study from the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
Out of 2,048 adult social care providers who responded to the CQC’s information request, 5.2% (508 out of 9,679) of DNACPR decisions put in place since March 17, 2020 “had not been agreed in discussion with the person, their relative or carer,” the study said.
The report includes at least one case study of a man whose death may have involved an involuntary order not to resuscitate.
“Jim, who was in his 80s, was taken to hospital at the beginning of the pandemic after becoming unwell with a chest infection. Jim, who still worked, had normally been fit, well and active and went out most weeks in his car to visit friends or go to the cinema,” the report said. “About 12 hours after being admitted to hospital Jim called [his daughter] Melanie. He was upset and confused, and told her he had signed away his life and was going to die. He told her that a doctor had put an order in place that they wouldn’t restart his heart if it stopped. He was upset that he had agreed to it because he didn’t want to die.” The daughter told the commission she had tried to speak to medical and nursing staff about the decision. “Because Jim was able to make decisions about his care, no one had discussed the decision with her,” she said, according to the report. “However, she was concerned that her dad was vulnerable because he was ill, likely to be confused as he had a bad infection, and he was all alone. She felt he would have just gone with what they told him.” “Jim died while in hospital,” the report said.
The report is a result of a request from the Department of Health and Social Care to the CQC to conduct a “rapid review of how DNACPR decisions were used during the coronavirus pandemic, building on concerns that they were being inappropriately applied to groups of people without their knowledge.”
“It is unacceptable for any DNACPR decisions to be made without proper conversations with the individual, or an appropriate representative, taking into account their wishes and needs,” the report said.
An interim report from the CQC in November 2020 revealed “a combination of unprecedented pressure on care providers and rapidly developing guidance may have led to decisions concerning DNACPR being incorrectly conflated with other clinical assessments around critical care,” CQC said.
Despite positive feedback from most care providers, CQC revealed some concerns regarding the use of “blanket” DNACPR decisions proposed at a local level.
“Across the review process, whilst inspectors did find some examples of good practice, they also found a worrying picture of poor involvement of people using services, poor record keeping, and a lack of oversight and scrutiny of the decisions being made,” the study said.
The CQC called for government action to address a “worrying variation” in people’s experiences of DNACPR decisions and “to take responsibility for delivering improvements in this vital and sensitive area.”
The CQC’s goal with the plea to ministers is to have a bigger focus on “information, training and support,” as well as a “consistent national approach to advance care planning” and “improved oversight and assurance,” it said.
Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated the date the CQC interim report was released.
The United States has reported at least 2,753 cases of the coronavirus variants first spotted in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Genomic sequencing has turned up cases of the three top variants of concern in 47 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
The CDC says this does not represent the total number of such cases circulating in the US — just those detected by analyzing positive samples.
UK variant: The vast majority of these cases — 2,672 — are the more contagious variant known as B.1.1.7, which was originally detected in the UK. This variant has been found in 46 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. About 24% of cases are in Florida.
South Africa variant: There have been 68 cases of a variant first seen in South Africa, called B.1.351, in 16 states and Washington, DC.
Brazil variant: 13 total cases of the P.1 variant first linked to Brazil have been discovered in 7 states.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on Thursday that new Covid-19 vaccines modified to tackle new variants of the virus can now be fast-tracked for approval.
The MHRA issued new guidance with ACCESS Consortium — a coalition of regulatory authorities in Australia, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland.
The regulator said authorized Covid-19 vaccines that are modified in response to new variants will not need brand new approval or lengthy clinical studies.
But the guidance states that vaccine manufacturers will need to provide robust evidence that the modified shot produces an immune response.
Researchers can now measure such protection from vaccines by monitoring antibodies in the blood after inoculation, reducing the need to wait and see if people in a trial become infected with the disease or not through clinical trials.
The manufacturer would also be expected to provide evidence showing the modified vaccine is safe and is of the expected quality.
Data from original clinical trials of the vaccines and ongoing studies on their real-world use could also be used to support any decision by the regulators.
Our priority is to get effective vaccines to the public in as short a time as possible, without compromising on safety. Should any modifications to authorised Covid-19 vaccines be necessary, this regulatory approach should help to do just that,” MHRA Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Christian Schneider said.
“The announcement today also demonstrates the strength of our international partnerships with other regulators and how our global work can help ensure faster access to life-saving vaccines in the UK and around the world,” Schneider said.
He added: “The public should be confident that no vaccine would be approved unless the expected high standards of safety, quality and effectiveness are met.””
June Raine, chief regulator at MHRA said she’d like to “emphasize that to date we don’t have evidence that the vaccines in use in the UK are significantly lacking in effectiveness.”
She added: “A clear goal is that the future vaccine modifications that respond to the new variants of coronavirus can be made available in the shortest possible time to UK recipients without compromising at any stage on safety, quality, or effectiveness.”
According to the guidance, the fast-tracking approach is tried and tested on seasonal flu vaccines for which modifications are needed each year to match the emerging strains circulated.
Spain’s Princess Elena, left, and Princess Cristina. Ballesteros/Pool/Getty Images
The Covid-19 vaccinations of two Spanish princesses in the United Arab Emirates — much earlier than they would have received them in Spain — have sparked controversy since the news was first reported by El Confidencial digital newspaper in Madrid.
Several Spanish ministers on Wednesday publicly criticized the two princesses, Elena and Cristina, who were vaccinated recently while visiting their father, Spain’s former King Juan Carlos, in Abu Dhabi, where he’s living.
Soon after the criticism, Princess Elena issued a statement that she said was “in response to media reports about the vaccination.”
“My sister (Cristina) and I, having gone to visit our father (in Abu Dhabi) and with the aim of getting a health passport that would allow us to visit him regularly, we were offered the vaccine and we accepted it.”
The statement concluded that had it not been for the circumstances, the princesses would have waited for their turn to get the vaccine in Spain.
A royal household spokesman noted that princesses Elena and Cristina, while sisters of Spain’s King Felipe, have not had any official duties as members of the royal family at least since 2014.
The spokesman also emphasized that the King, Queen and their two daughters are strictly following Spain’s Covid health guidelines, and “will wait their turn” for the vaccinations in Spain, based on their ages and health conditions.
Spain, like other European Union countries, has had delays in its vaccine program due to limited supplies. It has also seen a number of government officials and a few Roman Catholic clergy who have jumped the queue to get vaccinations. Several of them later apologized publicly and some resigned from their positions.
Health Ministry data shows that just 1.4 million people in Spain have received both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, along with some others getting the AstraZeneca vaccine, in a population of about 47 million.
Dr. Anthony Fauci attends a press conference the White House on January 21, in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
It’s “inexplicable” that some US states are pulling back on restrictions as Covid-19 continues to infect tens of thousands of Americans every day, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday.
Texas and Mississippi moved this week to end state-wide mask mandates.
“It just is inexplicable why you would want to pull back now,” Fauci told CNN. “I understand the need to want to get back to normality, but you’re only going to set yourself back if you just completely push aside the public health guidelines — particularly when we’re dealing with anywhere from 55,000 to 70,000 infections per day in the United States,” he added. “That’s a very, very high baseline.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the administration’s guidance about pandemic precautions is not arbitrary.
“We know that these interventions work. It’s very clear,” Fauci said. “When you implement them, you see the cases go down. When you pull back the cases go up.”