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World

France, Germany, Italy suspend AstraZeneca vaccinations amid reports of blood clots

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France, Germany and Italy on Monday became the latest countries to suspend use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as EU regulators investigate reports of blood clots in recipients, joining Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland and several others.

The latest: The European Medicines Agency said in a statement it would carry out a” rigorous analysis of all the data related” to blood clots this week, but added: “While its investigation is ongoing, EMA currently remains of the view that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, outweigh the risks of side effects.”

The state of play: AstraZeneca has insisted that its vaccine is safe, and the World Health Organization has cautioned countries against suspending vaccinations. The countries said they were taking the steps as a precautionary measure.

What they’re saying: AstraZeneca said in statement Sunday that there have been 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism among the 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and United Kingdom thus far.

  • “This is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines,” the pharmaceutical company said.
  • “The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety,” AstraZeneca’s chief medical officer Ann Taylor said.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said Monday: “As of today, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem severe disease from the virus.”

The big picture: AstraZeneca is one of four coronavirus vaccines that have received emergency authorization in the EU, in addition to Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. AstraZeneca has not yet applied for emergency authorization in the U.S., as it awaits data from a large clinical trial.

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World

Italy coronavirus: Nation prepares for another lockdown as Covid-19 cases grow exponentially

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Half of Italy’s 20 regions, which include the cities Rome, Milan and Venice, will be entering new coronavirus restrictions from Monday, March 15. The measures will be effective through April 6, according to a decree passed by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s cabinet on Friday.

In regions demarcated as “red zones” people will be unable to leave their houses except for work or health reasons, with all non-essential shops closed. In “orange zones,” people will also be banned from leaving their town and their region — except for work or health reasons — and bars and restaurants will only be able to do delivery and take-away service.

Affected regions will be labelled red or orange, depending on the level of contagion. Regions that report weekly Covid-19 cases of more than 250 per 100,000 residents will also automatically go into lockdown, meaning that other regions could also be affected during this time period.

The health ministry said that the aim of the measures is to get the R rate — the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus onto — down to 1.

Additionally, over Easter weekend, the entire country will be considered a “red zone,” and will be subject to a national lockdown from April 3 to 5.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said new coronavirus measures are “necessary” because “we are unfortunately facing a new wave of infections” one year after the start of the pandemic.

The country’s R rate is now at 1.6 with coronavirus variants increasing the spread of the virus, according to the health ministry.

The variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, is also now prevalent in the country, according to the health ministry, who also said that they are worried about the presence of small clusters of the Brazilian variant.

The UK variant was originally found to be more easily transmissible — and new data published in the medical journal, the BMJ, supports claims from UK officials, based on preliminary data, that the variant may be more deadly, as well.
Meanwhile, the variant first reported in Brazil, known as P.1, may be up to 2.2 times more transmissible and could evade immunity from previous Covid-19 infection by up to 61%, according to a modeling study, released earlier this month by researchers in Brazil and the UK.

Speaking at a vaccination center at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Friday, the PM said he understands the toll that lockdowns take on society, but the upcoming measures were a necessary step to ensure the situation didn’t further deteriorate.

“I am aware that today’s measures will have consequences on children’s education, on the economy and also on the psychological state of us all,” Draghi said.

Italy was under a national lockdown from March to May 2020, however there have been many localized lockdowns in regions across Italy since.

A long road ahead

In the past week, there have been 150,175 new coronavirus infections, up nearly 15% from the previous week, according to Draghi.

On Thursday alone Italy reported more than 25,000 new daily cases. That was its highest record since November — and it jumped to over 26,000 cases on Friday.

The last two weeks have also seen an additional 5,000 people in hospital with Covid-19, with the number in intensive care increasing by more than 650, he said.

In tandem with the lockdown, the PM also promised to accelerate the country’s vaccination program, even as Italy banned the use of vaccines from a specific batch of AstraZeneca doses following the death of a serviceman in Sicily, who had died of cardiac arrest one day after receiving his first dose of the vaccine.

Draghi said the Italian Medicines Agency’s (AIFA) suspension of that specific AstraZeneca batch was “a precautionary decision, in line with what has been done in other European countries.”

The European Union’s medicines regulator, the EMA, is currently investigating whether the shot could be linked to a number of reports of blood clots.

Draghi added that “the opinion of AIFA, shared by scientists, is that there is no evidence that these events are related to the administration of the vaccine,” he added.

Meanwhile, some European nations have completely paused their AstraZeneca rollout while the EMA investigation continues. The European drugs regulator said the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks, and did not recommend suspending use.

“There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine,” the EMA said in a statement on Thursday.

“Whatever the final decision of the EMA, I can assure you that the vaccination campaign will continue with renewed intensity,” Draghi continued.

On Saturday, Italy’s new Covid-19 commissioner Paolo Figliuolo said, “By this summer, all Italian adults will be vaccinated,” noting that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which is expected to be the next coronavirus vaccine authorized by the EU, will be “decisive.”

Only 3.08% (1,861,852 people) of Italy’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated so far, with 6,219,849 doses administered, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Italy, once the epicenter of Covid-19 in Europe, has marked 3,149,017 Covid-19 cases in total. The country ranks sixth highest in the world for coronavirus fatalities, with 101,184 deaths recorded, according to JHU.

CNN’s Nicola Ruotolo and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report.

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World

Italy to lockdown again as coronavirus cases escalate

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Italy will be on lockdown for Easter as the country struggles to contain spiking COVID-19 cases.

Starting Monday, Italians in the most populated regions will be required to stay home except for work, health or other essential reasons.

The whole country will be locked down on Easter weekend for the second year in a row from April 3-5.

Cases have been rising across the country in excess of 25,000 a day over the past six weeks, as Italy’s vaccination campaign is hit by delays.

Officials warn they are quickly losing ground in the fight against new, highly contagious variants.

Only 3 percent of the country is vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

“Italy is administering about 170,000 doses a day — our aim is to triple that,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said.

“It is only with widespread vaccinations that we will be able to do without restrictions like the ones we have had to adopt.”

More than 100,000 Italians have died from coronavirus complications, the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK.

Unlike last year, when Italy became the first western county to implement a nationwide lockdown, officials will allow for limited visits to friends and relatives over the Easter holiday.

Pope Francis’ Easter Vigil will likely be held earlier so that worshipers can abide by a 10 p.m. curfew.

Italians in non-essential jobs were also ordered to stay indoors over much of the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.

“I hope that this will be the last sacrifice asked of our citizens,” said Lombardy President Attilio Fontana.

Italian health officials Friday approved Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine. The doses will be delivered in a month, which leaders said will help efforts to fight back the surge.

With Post wires

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Business

AstraZeneca Covid vaccine suspended in some countries over blood clot fears

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A health worker holds a box of the AstraZeneneca vaccine at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute in Nonthaburi province on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Chaiwat Subprasom | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images

LONDON — The coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has now been suspended in a number of countries across Europe and Asia, following reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people. Many other nations, however, have defended their use of the shot and said they will continue their respective inoculation campaigns.

Thailand on Friday became the first Asian country to halt the use of the jab over safety concerns, shortly after Denmark announced a two-week pause to its nationwide rollout after reports of blood clots and one death.

In a setback to Europe’s ailing vaccination campaign, eight other countries have also suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot: Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Austria and Italy, meanwhile, have said that they will stop using certain batches of the vaccine as a precautionary measure.

Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, stressed on Thursday that there was no indication the shot was causing blood clots, adding it believes the vaccine’s benefits “continue to outweigh its risks.”

The EMA acknowledged some member states had paused the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot but said inoculations may continue to be administered while an investigation of blood clot cases is ongoing.

As of Wednesday, around 5 million people in Europe had received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Of this figure, 30 cases of so-called “thromboembolic events” have been reported. These cases refer to blood clots forming in the blood vessels and blocking blood flow.

AstraZeneca has said the vaccine has been studied extensively during Phase 3 trials and peer-reviewed data confirms the shot is “generally well tolerated.”

Why are countries pausing vaccination campaigns?

Thailand’s health ministry on Friday announced it would temporarily postpone the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, reportedly describing the shot as a “good vaccine” but one it wishes to suspend for safety investigations.

Kiattiphum Wongjit, permanent secretary for the Public Health Ministry, said the Southeast Asian country was able to pause its vaccination campaign because it had largely brought a second wave of Covid cases under control through quarantines and border controls, according to Reuters.

A press conference on temporarily halting the roll-out of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination in Thailand is held in Bangkok, Thailand, March 12, 2021.

Xinhua | Rachen Sageamsak via Getty Images

The country of nearly 70 million people has so far recorded around 26,600 cases and 85 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Thailand’s decision to suspend its planned rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which had been due to begin on Friday, came after the decision by the Danish Health Authority.

“It is important to emphasize that we have not opted out of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but that we are putting it on hold,” Soren Brostrom, director of the National Board of Health in Denmark, said on Thursday.

“There is good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective. But both we and the Danish Medicines Agency have to react to reports of possible serious side effects, both from Denmark and other European countries.”

Many high-income countries have chosen to continue the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the wake of safety concerns.

The U.K., France, Australia, Canada and Mexico are among some of the nations that have sought to reassure citizens about the benefits of getting the vaccine and have said they will continue their respective inoculation campaigns.

What do the experts say?

The EMA’s safety committee is reviewing the issue, but has said there is currently no evidence the vaccination had caused blood clots — noting they are not listed as side effects of this vaccine.

Europe’s drug regulator also noted that the data available so far showed that the number of blood clots in vaccinated people is no higher than that seen among the general population.

“Reports of blood clots received so far are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population,” said Dr. Phil Bryan, vaccines safety lead at Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory.

“The safety of the public will always come first. We are keeping this issue under close review but available evidence does not confirm that the vaccine is the cause. People should still go and get their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so,” Bryan said.

Southampton resident, Peter Brownsea receives the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from a member of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service at a temporary vaccination centre set up at Basingstoke Fire Station, Hampshire, south England, as crews continue to take 999 emergency calls.

Andrew Matthews | AFP | Getty Images

Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “The problem with spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions to a vaccine are the enormous difficulty of distinguishing a causal effect from a coincidence.”

“This is especially true when we know that Covid-19 disease is very strongly associated with blood clotting and there have been hundreds if not many thousands of deaths caused by blood clotting as a result of Covid-19 disease. The first thing to do is to be absolutely certain that the clots did not have some other cause, including Covid-19,” Evans added.

How does the vaccine work?

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is a shot designed to prevent the coronavirus in people aged 18 and older. It is made up of an adenovirus that has been modified to contain the gene for making a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The most common side effects of the shot, which does not contain the virus and cannot cause Covid, are typically mild or moderate and improve within a few days of vaccination.

Late-stage clinical trials found the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot to have an average efficacy of 70% in protecting against the virus.

A more recent study by Oxford researchers found that the Covid vaccine was 76% effective at preventing symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose, and that the efficacy rate actually rose with a longer interval between the first and second doses.

— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

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Business

Stocks rise after wild tech reboot, yields inch higher

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LONDON (Reuters) – World share markets inched higher on Wednesday after a stunning reboot in U.S. tech stocks, while the dollar and benchmark government yields both ticked up ahead of a key U.S. Treasury auction and inflation reading later.

FILE PHOTO: A man stands on an overpass with an electronic board showing Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes, at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

But gains were subdued after Tuesday’s 20% surge in electric car doyen Tesla, 4% jump in the Nasdaq and biggest one-day gain for global heavyweights Amazon and Microsoft in well over a month.

Asia had bounced back from a two-month low as China’s markets shrugged off their recent central bank policy tightening worries and Europe was helped early on by a new all-time high for Germany’s DAX.

The dollar and bond yields ticked up too. Traders were focused on the U.S. bond auction and inflation data later, as well as Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting where it is expected to respond to the recent jump in borrowing costs.

Mikhail Zverev, head of global equities at Aviva Investors, said Tuesday’s wild moves in big U.S. tech underscored how volatile markets, which are increasingly dominated by super-sized passive funds, are likely to be this year as the world tries to reset after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The winds are blowing harder now. The world isn’t a more dangerous place, a mild increase in interest rates is not a cataclysmic event… but there is now the big-herd mentality with a greater propensity for rotations,” he said.

“They are moving more frequently, they are moving faster and they are leaving a trail of inefficiency,” leaving markets vulnerable to big swings, he added.

Gains in Asian stocks overnight came after Chinese shares had fallen to their lowest levels since mid-December the previous day on the prospect of tighter policy and a slowing economic recovery.

News that a $1.9 trillion U.S. coronavirus relief package was nearing final approval had sparked a global spike in bond yields on Monday. That had pushed the Nasdaq more than 10% below its Feb. 12 closing high, confirming a correction for the index.

The yield on benchmark 10-year notes was at 1.540%, having peaked at 1.626% on Friday, after Tuesday’s auction of $58 billion in U.S. 3-year notes was well received.

Yet, many market investors remained on edge, with the next tests of investor appetite for government debt due later this week in the form of 10-year and 30-year auctions.

“Although the bond market has steadied a bit, pressures will remain,” said Naokazu Koshimizu, senior rates strategist at Nomura Securities.

“It has priced in future normalisation of the Fed’s monetary policy, the Fed’s policy becoming eventually neutral. But it has not yet priced in the chance of its policy becoming tighter.”

INFLATION PALPATIONS

Some investors see a real risk of an overheated U.S. economy and higher inflation on the back of the planned government spending boom.

U.S. consumer price data due at 1330 GMT is expected to show a slight acceleration in the overall inflation in February, with analysts expecting further gains in coming months due to base effects from a severe economic downturn in early 2020.

The speedier rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in some countries and the planned U.S. stimulus package helped underpin a brighter global economic outlook, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday, as it raised its 2021 growth forecast.

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar was supported by expectations of faster U.S. economic recovery.

The euro eased as much 0.25% to $1.1871, not far from Tuesday’s 3 1/2-month low of $1.18355. The yen changed hands at 108.70 per dollar, having hit a nine-month low of 109.235 set the previous day.

The Australian dollar shed 0.6% at one point to $0.7672 as well after the country’s top central banker rebuffed market chatter about early rate increases.

Oil prices, which have surged 30% since the start of the year, steadied meanwhile as concerns over a supply disruption in Saudi Arabia eased.

Brent crude futures recovered from an overnight wobble to sit at $67.45 per barrel while U.S. crude futures hovered at $64.18 a barrel, after hitting a near 2 1/2-year high of $67.98 on Monday.

Precious metal gold eased 0.1% to $1,714.55 per ounce after rising more than 2% on Tuesday.

“There’s an element of corrective price action after a very spirited gold rebound,” DailyFX currency strategist Ilya Spivak said.

Reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo and Matt Scuffham in New York; Editing by Sam Holmes, Richard Pullin and Ana Nicolaci da Costa

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World

Russia to make Sputnik V vaccine in Italy; a 1st in EU

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MILAN (AP) — Russia has signed a deal to produce its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Italy, the first contract in the European Union, the Italian Russian Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday.

The deal was signed with Adienne Srl, the Italian subsidiary of a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company, and Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Production of a planned 10 million doses this year is set to launch in July.

“The innovative production process will help create new jobs and allow Italy to control the entire production of the compound,” the chamber said in a statement. Financial terms were not released.

Sputnik V has not yet been approved for use in the EU, but the body’s regulator, the European Medicines Agency, started a rolling review of the vaccine last week.

Russian authorities are working on 20 similar collaborations in Europe and the Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 45 nations worldwide, the chamber said.

The EU has been criticized for its slow vaccine rollout and some EU nations have decided not to wait for the EMA’s approval. Hungary became the first EU country to authorize Sputnik V for use last month while Slovakia announced a deal last week to acquire 2 million Sputnik V doses and received the first shipment of 200,000 doses.

Despite skepticism about Russia’s hasty introduction of the vaccine, which was rolled out before it had completed late-stage trials, the vaccine appears to be safe and effective. According to a study published in the Lancet, Sputnik V is 91% effective and appears to prevent inoculated individuals from becoming severely ill with COVID-19, although it’s still unclear if the vaccine can prevent the spread of the disease.

With a global shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, some experts say boosting the use of vaccines made by China and Russia could offer a quicker way to increase the global supply. Others note that Russia’s push to export its vaccine around the world may be driven by political interests.

An EMA official has warned European nations against issuing national emergency clearance of Sputnik V.

Christa Wirthumer-Hoche, the chair of the EMA’s management board and the head of the Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, said on Austrian television that EU members approving Russian and Chinese vaccines via emergency national procedures is “partly comparable with Russian roulette,” citing the need to first examine data on the quality, safety and effectiveness of the shots.

“Citizens have a right to get really safe and effective medicinal products,” Wirthumer-Hoche added. “We can have Sputnik V on the market here in the future if we have examined the corresponding data.”

Wirthumer-Hoche’s remarks elicited outrage in Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called them “inappropriate,” and developers of the vaccine demanded a public apology from the official, saying that her comments “raise serious questions about possible political interference in the ongoing EMA review.”

“EMA did not allow such statements about any other vaccine. Such comments are inappropriate and undermine credibility of EMA and its review process. Vaccines and EMA should be above and beyond politics,” Sputnik V’s official Twitter account said Tuesday.

An EMA spokesperson told The Associated Press in written comments that the agency “will assess Sputnik V’s compliance with the usual EU standards and any recommendation will be based on the strength of the scientific evidence on the vaccine’s safety, quality and efficacy, and nothing else.”

The EU commission does not now have plans for a collective purchase of Sputnik doses, relying instead on deals already made with other vaccine manufacturers. But it has made clear that member states are entitled to reach separate agreements as long as they don’t compete with the commission’s advance purchases of 2 billion vaccine doses.

Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, has indicated he is open to introducing the Russia-developed vaccine in Italy, as long as it has regulatory approval. Italy’s new premier, Mario Draghi, has pledged to accelerate the vaccination campaign to dampen the spread of new variants that have again put Italy’s health system under pressure. So far, just 2.85% of Italy’s population has been fully vaccinated.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the vaccine and markets it abroad has said the production of Sputnik V will span several countries, including India, South Korea, Brazil, China, Turkey, as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan and possibly Iran.

Kazakhstan manufactured 90,000 doses of the vaccine last month but there are few indications any large amounts of the vaccine have been produced outside of Russia so far.

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Litvinova contributed from Moscow. Samuel Petrequin contributed from Brussels. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.

— Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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World

Europe staggers as infectious variants power virus surge

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MILAN (AP) — The virus swept through a nursery school and an adjacent elementary school in the Milan suburb of Bollate with amazing speed. In a matter of just days, 45 children and 14 staff members had tested positive.

Genetic analysis confirmed what officials already suspected: The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in England was racing through the community, a densely packed city of nearly 40,000 with a chemical plant and a Pirelli bicycle tire factory a 15-minute drive from the heart of Milan.

“This demonstrates that the virus has a sort of intelligence. … We can put up all the barriers in the world and imagine that they work, but in the end, it adapts and penetrates them,” lamented Bollate Mayor Francesco Vassallo.

Bollate was the first city in Lombardy, the northern region that has been the epicenter in each of Italy’s three surges, to be sealed off from neighbors because of virus variants that the World Health Organization says are powering another uptick in infections across Europe. The variants also include versions first identified in South Africa and Brazil.

Europe recorded 1 million new COVID-19 cases last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline in new infections, WHO said Thursday.

“The spread of the variants is driving the increase, but not only,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, citing “also the opening of society, when it is not done in a safe and a controlled manner.”

The variant first found in the U.K. is spreading significantly in 27 European countries monitored by WHO and is dominant in at least 10 countries: Britain, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and Portugal.

It is up to 50% more transmissible than the virus that surged last spring and again in the fall, making it more adept at thwarting measures that were previously effective, WHO experts warned. Scientists have concluded that it is also more deadly.

“That is why health systems are struggling more now,” Kluge said. “It really is at a tipping point. We have to hold the fort and be very vigilant.”

In Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy’s spring surge, intensive care wards are again filling up, with more than two-thirds of new positive tests being the UK variant, health officials said.

After putting two provinces and some 50 towns on a modified lockdown, Lombardy’s regional governor announced tightened restrictions Friday and closed classrooms for all ages. Cases in Milan schools alone surged 33% in a week, the provincial health system’s chief said.

The situation is dire in the Czech Republic, which this week registered a record-breaking total of nearly 8,500 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Poland is opening temporary hospitals and imposing a partial lockdown as the U.K. variant has grown from 10% of all infections in February to 25% now.

Two patients from hard-hit Slovakia were expected to arrive Saturday for treatment in Germany, where authorities said they had offered to take in 10 patients.

Kluge cited Britain’s experience as cause for optimism, noting that widespread restrictions and the introduction of the vaccine have helped tamp down the variants there and in Israel. The vaccine rollout in the European Union, by comparison, is lagging badly, mostly because of supply problems.

In Britain, the emergence of the more transmissible strain sent cases soaring in December and triggered a national lockdown in January. Cases have since plummeted, from about 60,000 a day in early January to about 7,000 a day now.

Still, a study shows the rate of decline slowing, and the British government says it will tread cautiously with plans to ease the lockdown. That process begins Monday with the reopening of schools. Infection rates are highest in people ages 13 to 17, and officials will watch closely to see whether the return to class brings a spike in infections.

While the U.K. variant is dominant in France, forcing lockdowns in the French Riviera city of Nice and the northern port of Dunkirk, the variant first detected in South Africa has emerged as the most prevalent in France’s Moselle region, which borders Germany and Luxembourg. It represents 55% of the virus circulating there.

Austria’s health minister said Saturday the U.K. variant is now dominant in his country. But the South Africa variant is also a concern in a district of Austria that extends from Italy to Germany, with Austrian officials announcing plans to vaccinate most of the 84,000 residents there to curb its spread. Austria is also requiring motorists along the Brenner highway, a major north-south route, to show negative test results.

The South Africa variant, now present in 26 European countries, is a source of particular concern because of doubts over whether the current vaccines are effective enough against it. The Brazilian variant, which appears capable of reinfecting people, has been detected in 15 European countries.

WHO and its partners are working to strengthen the genetic surveillance needed to track variants across the continent.

The mayor of Bollate has appealed to the regional governor to vaccinate all 40,000 residents immediately, though he expects to be told the vaccine supply is too tight.

Bollate has recorded 3,000 positive cases and 134 deaths — mostly among the elderly — since Italy was stricken a year ago. It took the brunt in the resurgence in November and December, and was caught completely off guard when the U.K. variant arrived, racing through schoolage children before hitting families at home.

“People are starting to get tired that after a year there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Vassallo said.

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AP correspondents Jill Lawless in London, Karel Janicek in Prague, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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Science

How Did This Skull End Up All Alone in a Cave in Italy? We Finally Have an Answer

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It was found in 2015 – an isolated clue to a macabre mystery set in motion thousands of years in the past.

This ancient puzzle consisted of just a single piece: a solitary human cranium, discovered all by itself with no other skeletal remains around, resting inside a cave in Bologna, Italy, at the center of a cavernous depression the locals call Dolina dell’Inferno (Hell’s sinkhole).

 

It was not an easy thing to find.

The well-concealed skull, missing its lower jawbone, could only be reached by traversing a difficult cave passage called the Meandro della cattiveria (Maze of Malice), and then ascending a vertical shaft to a height of 12 meters (39 ft), where the cranium rested on a rocky ledge.

Due to difficulty in accessing the spot, speleologists weren’t able to retrieve the cranium until 2017, at which point researchers had a chance to study this mysterious, ancient specimen.

The lonesome skull turned out to be ancient indeed, with radiocarbon dating suggesting the cranium belonged to an individual who lived sometime between 3630 and 3380 BCE, placing them within the archaeological context of the early Eneolithic (aka Chalcolithic) period of the region.

Other Eneolithic human remains have been found in the general area; not in Hell’s sinkhole, but in a rock shelter approximately 600 meters (nearly 2,000 ft) away from the cave in which the skull was found.

So, the greater context makes some sense. But how exactly did this solitary skull get so far away from its Eneolithic counterparts, positioned high up on a ledge, yet buried within a malicious maze of a cave, and concealed at a depth of 26 metres (85 ft) below the ground?

 

According to anthropologist Maria Giovanna Belcastro from the University of Bologna – the first author of a new analysis of the skull’s unusual fate – a number of factors were at play.

Belcastro’s team investigated the cranium, which the team says most likely came from a young woman, aged between 24 and 35.

Evidence of various lesions on the sides of the skull are likely the result of human manipulations of the skull at the time of the woman’s death, the researchers suggest, perhaps reflecting ritualistic acts to remove flesh from the cranium, as part of a funeral custom.

Other lesions on the cranium, some believed to have been sustained antemortem (prior to death), may have been due to an injury that killed the woman, and other markings could be evidence of a kind of medical treatment delivered by her people.

As for how the skull became so separated from the rest of its skeleton, the researchers hypothesize that the cranium may have intentionally or accidentally been removed from the rest of the body, before rolling or being pushed along the ground by water or mud flows, until it somehow came to the edge of Hell’s sinkhole, ultimately falling within the depression.

 

Over time, water infiltration in the sinkhole could have dissolved gypsum deposits within the cave, creating the vertical shaft beside the skull’s secure resting place.

“The reactivated cave passage started evolving downward, with the formation of a lateral sinking creek and carving out the maze lying below,” the researchers write in their paper.

“This new reactivation was able to entrench approximately 12 meters of gypsum, connecting to the lowering base level.”

Various sediments lodged within the cranial cavity offer some support for this argument, suggesting matter got stuck inside the skull during water or debris flow, as the skull made its improbable, chaotic journey into the cave. Signs of other trauma to the cranium suggest plenty of bumps along the ride.

This hypothetical interpretation isn’t what necessarily happened, of course, which is something we can never truly know for sure. But as the researchers point out, of all the parts of a human skeleton, the shape of a skull makes it the most suited to doing a runaway.

“If the skeleton was intact by the time of this sequence of events, other skeletal elements, different in shape and size, might have remained stuck elsewhere and dispersed during transportation,” the authors suggest.

“The cranium would have rolled more easily than other skeletal parts in a water stream and debris flow… During its decomposition and those dynamic phases, it would have been filled with sediment. Therefore, it would have reached the cave and come to a stop on the plateau where it was found.”

The findings are reported in PLOS One.

 

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World

Virus variant races through Italy, especially among children

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ROME (AP) — The variant of the coronavirus discovered in Britain is prevalent among Italy’s infected schoolchildren and is helping to fuel a “robust” uptick in the curve of COVID-19 contagion in the country, the health minister said Tuesday.

Roberto Speranza told reporters that the variant, associated with higher transmission rates, has shown pervasiveness “among the youngest age group” of the population.

In recent weeks, Italy’s incidence of new cases among young people has now eclipsed incidence among the older population, a reversal of how COVID-19 afflicted residents in the first months of the pandemic.

Italy, a nation of 60 million people where COVID-19 first erupted in the West in February 2020, has registered nearly 3 million confirmed cases.

Speranza announced stricter directives, contained in the first anti-pandemic decree of new Italian Premier Mario Draghi, aimed at trying to “govern this curve of contagion,” especially among school-age children.

There are “rather robust signs of an uptick in the curve of contagion and terrible variants,” particularly the one discovered in Britain, the minister said.

The president of the government Superior Institute of Health, Silvio Brusaferro, said that as of analyses of cases on Feb. 18, 54% of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Italy involved that variant. But, said Brusaferro, “if measured today surely the percentage would be higher.”

Another variant, found in Brazil, is now involved in 4.3% of recent COVID-19 cases in Italy, Brusaferro said, particularly in central Italy, including the area of Rome’s region.

In recent days, authorities have taken to sealing off many towns and cities in areas where transmission rates are rapidly increasing. The mayor of Bologna, which has 400,000 residents, announced that, starting on Thursday and until March 21, the city will be under strict “red zone” lockdown rules, which means all restaurants and cafes are closed to dining, as are nonessential shops.

Another critical place is Como, the lakeside city near Switzerland. Many of Como’s citizens commute across the border.

The variant found in South Africa is involved in 0.4% of COVID-19 infections in Italy and mainly confined to the Italian Alpine area near the border with Austria, Brusaferro said.

Draghi’s decree, which takes effect on Saturday and lasts until April 6, to just after Easter, tightened measures governing schools. It mandates that all schools, including for nursery and elementary students, in “red zone” regions must be shuttered. Some exceptions will be made for students with special needs.

But the decree loosens restrictions in the world of culture. Starting on March 27, cinemas and theaters can reopen in “yellow zone” regions with low incidence and virus transmission rates, but these venues must limit capacity to 25%. Museums in yellow zones, already permitted to admit the public on weekdays, can open also on weekends starting March 27.

Gyms and pools stay shut. Also remaining is a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew, and a ban on travel between Italy’s regions.

Italy’s known death toll of more than 98,000 is the second-highest in Europe, after Britain’s.

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Archeologists find intact ceremonial chariot near Pompeii

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MILAN (AP) — Officials at the Pompeii archaeological site in Italy announced Saturday the discovery of an intact ceremonial chariot, one of several important discoveries made in the same area outside the park near Naples following an investigation into an illegal dig.

The chariot, with its iron elements, bronze decorations and mineralized wooden remains, was found in the ruins of a settlement north of Pompeii, beyond the walls of the ancient city, parked in the portico of a stable where the remains of three horses previously were discovered.

The Archaeological Park of Pompeii called the chariot “an exceptional discovery” and said “it represents a unique find – which has no parallel in Italy thus far – in an excellent state of preservation.”

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed Pompeii. The chariot was spared when the walls and roof of the structure it was in collapsed, and also survived looting by modern-day antiquities thieves, who had dug tunnels through to the site, grazing but not damaging the four-wheeled cart, according to park officials.

The chariot was found on the grounds of what is one of the most significant ancient villas in the area around Vesuvius, with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea. on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city.

Archaeologists last year found in the same area on the outskirts of Pompeii, Civita Giulian, the skeletal remains of what are believed to have been a wealthy man and his male slave, attempting to escape death.

The chariot’s first iron element emerged on Jan. 7 from the blanket of volcanic material filling the two-story portico. Archaeologists believe the cart was used for festivities and parades, perhaps also to carry brides to their new homes.

While chariots for daily life or the transport of agricultural products have been previously found at Pompeii, officials said the new find is the first ceremonial chariot unearthed in its entirety.

The villa was discovered after police came across the illegal tunnels in 2017, officials said. Two people who live in the houses atop the site are currently on trial for allegedly digging more than 80 meters of tunnels at the site.

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