Germany sends healthcare workers to Portugal – as it happened

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As pubs and cafes bustle back to life on the Isle of Man, islanders are thankful for ‘that bit of water between us and the UK’, my colleague Steven Morris reports.

The Isle of Man brought in a “circuit-breaker” lockdown on 7 January following a cluster of Covid-19 cases. On Monday, the restrictions were lifted after the government declared no community transmission was taking place.

Social distancing measures have been lifted and face coverings are no longer required. There are no time limits for exercise or leisure activities and non-essential shops have reopened, as have schools, nurseries, colleges and entertainment venues.

The island, a self-governing British crown dependency, has not been untouched by Covid-19: there have been more than 400 cases and 25 deaths. But it maintains strict border controls and, most agree, has reacted nimbly to challenges posed by the virus.

Read Steven’s full report here:

In case you missed this gem, a PE teacher appears to have danced through the military coup in Myanmar.

In an aerobics video that has gone viral on Twitter, the woman, named Khing Hnin Wai, dances for three minutes - complete with face mask - seemingly oblivious to the armoured vehicles gathering behind her on the way to parliament.

This is from CNN’s Aditya Raj Kaul

Buzzfeed has more on this story.

French border police turned away some passengers bound for non-EU destinations on Monday as new rules came into force banning flights to and from countries outside the bloc, AFP reports.

The prime minister Jean Castex announced the measure Friday as part of new efforts to contain Covid-19 infections and avoid another nationwide lockdown.

Travellers must also present proof of a recent negative Covid-19 test.

Only urgent reasons for travel are accepted and border police require written proof before allowing passengers to board, as Toure, a Malian national, found out when he tried to leave France for Bamako without the necessary document.

“I said that my mother, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, was ill but they told me I needed proof,” Toure, who withheld his last name, told AFP in the 2E terminal at Paris’s main airport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.

After being turned away Toure, who works for a French public works foundation, managed to get hold of his mother’s doctor in Bamako who sent him a barely legible note by WhatsApp. He tried again, and this time was waved through.

By curbing international travel, the government hopes to get a better grip on the circulation of the coronavirus and its recent variants, which have been spreading at a fearsome pace.

“The idea is to limit the outbound-inbound loops between France and abroad,” Julien Gentile, head of the border police for the Roissy and Le Bourget airports, told AFP.

Passengers must first show the required documentation at airline counters during check-in, and then again at the border controls, where agents were no longer allowing automated passport scanning but instead checking each document, as passenger queues grew longer.

The time needed per passenger can easily reach five or 10 minutes, compared with just seconds usually, as agents try to determine what is an “urgent” motive and what isn’t.

“If you want to visit the grave of somebody who didn’t die recently you can’t go, even if that may seem cruel,” said Cecile Aerdeman, head of the airports’ border service. “You will have to wait until the health situation changes.”

The president Emmanuel Macron has decided, for now, not to impose a third national lockdown, choosing a different path than France’s neighbours such as the UK and Germany.

The health minister Olivier Veran said Sunday that the number of new coronavirus cases had barely increased over the past week, while other indicators - such as traces of the virus detected in waste water - were also reassuring.

The French government put in place a strict nighttime curfew after a second lockdown ended in December, while deaths of around 250 a day are currently less than a quarter of the number in the UK or Germany.

Brazil registered 24,591 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday and a further 595 fatalities attributable to the virus, the nation’s health ministry said. Brazil has registered a total of 9,229,322 Covid-19 cases and 225,099 deaths, the second highest death toll in the world after the US.

The Canadian province of Ontario on Monday reported its first case of a coronavirus variant that emerged in South Africa that is believed to be more contagious than the original, AP reports. British Columbia has also reported cases of the South African variant.

Dr David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said the case was found in Peel region outside Toronto and the person did not have a known history of travel or any known contact with someone who had travelled.

Viruses constantly mutate, but scientists are especially concerned about the emergence of three that researchers believe may spread more easily. One first reported in the UK was previously confirmed in Canada, and Ontario, the country’s most populous province, has dozens of cases now.

The variant first found in South Africa was detected in October. Since then, it has been found in at least 30 other countries, including the US.

The discovery comes as the pandemic-weary Ontario government is thinking of reopening schools in Canada’s largest city of Toronto and its suburbs.

Scientists recently reported preliminary signs that some of the recent mutations may modestly curb the effectiveness of two vaccines, although they stressed that the shots still protect against the disease.

France’s main Covid-19 indicators have reached two-month highs on average on Monday and the country’s ski lifts will remain closed throughout February, but the government is still hoping to avoid a third national lockdown.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday defended his decision to hold off imposing a new lockdown, telling the public he had faith in their ability to rein in Covid-19 with less severe curbs even as a third wave spreads and the vaccine rollout falters.

Earlier in the day, government spokesman Gabriel Attal did nonetheless say the chance of avoiding a third lockdown was slim, adding everything would be done to avoid it.

French health authorities reported 4,347 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours on Monday, down from Sunday’s 19,325 and slightly higher than last Monday’s 4,240.

The seven-day moving average of daily new cases, which evens out daily irregularities, now stands at 20,515, a high since 23 November.

The number of people being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) for the disease was up again, at 3,228, going above the 3,200 threshold for the first time since 6 December.

France’s cumulative total of cases reached 3,201,461, the sixth highest in the world. The Covid death toll was up by 455, at 76,512, the seventh highest in the world, versus an almost two-month-high seven-day moving average of 431.

France, population 67 million, also said on Monday it had delivered more than 1.5 million Covid-19 shots in its vaccination programme so far, a figure 50,000 higher than 24 hours earlier.

The South African president Cyril Ramaphosa hailed the arrival of the first doses of Covid-19 vaccine on Monday as a chance to “turn the tide” on a disease that has devastated the country.

Once testing of the batches is completed, the first shots will be given to health workers, who have been stretched during a second wave of infections and have been critical of the government for not securing supplies sooner.

Ramaphosa and other top officials were at the OR Tambo international airport to receive the 1 million shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

“The arrival of these vaccines contains the promise that we can turn the tide on this disease that has caused so much devastation and hardship in our country and across the world,” Ramaphosa said in an address to the nation.

South Africa has recorded the most Covid-19 infections and deaths on the African continent, at more than 1.4 million cases and over 44,000 deaths to date.

Since late last year, it has battled a more contagious virus variant called 501Y.V2 that has also been detected in countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The shots that arrived on Monday will be checked over roughly 10 to 14 days before inoculations can begin. The SII is due to send another 500,000 doses later this month, but more will be needed to cover South Africa’s 1.25 million health workers, as the AstraZeneca vaccine is administered in two doses.

Spain’s Madrid region will start relaxing its Covid-19 restrictions this week, officials said on Monday, even as the rest of the country and Europe are toughening up measures to tame a third wave of infection.

From Friday, groups of up to six people will be allowed to gather at outdoor restaurant terraces, up from the current limit of four, while a 10pm curfew might be pushed to midnight. People are still allowed to eat and drink inside bars and restaurants, but they have to leave at 9pm.

“In Madrid, we are doing everything in our power to keep our bars and restaurants and our cultural space open despite political pressure,” said the conservative regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso, who has repeatedly clashed with the left-wing central government on how to tackle the pandemic.

Her administration has studied accelerating the vaccination programme for workers in “highly exposed sectors,” she said on Monday, adding that this could include teachers, as well as waiters and taxi drivers.

Madrid’s 14-day incidence of the virus reached 978 cases per 100,000 people on Monday, above the national average of 866 cases.

Ildefonso Hernandez Aguado, a public health professor at Miguel Hernandez University, said the region’s insistence on keeping restaurants open was the main reason behind its high infection rate.

Spain reported 79,686 new cases since Friday, slowing from the previous weekend’s tally of 93,822 and pushing the cumulative total above 2.8 million. The death toll rose by 762 to 59,081.

With governments across Europe grappling with delays to vaccine shipments, some Spanish regions - including Madrid - had to suspend vaccinating new people last week.

But the health minister Carolina Darias reaffirmed national targets of vaccinating 80% of people over 80 and health workers by the end of March, and having 70% of the total population inoculated by the end of summer.

Spain will receive a combined 2.3 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in February, she added.

Officials in Catalonia said the region had received a shipment of 65,520 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, slightly lower than initially agreed, and expected to soon receive 8,500 doses from Moderna. This will allow the northeastern region, which was fast running out of doses, to continue vaccinating.

The number of people in intensive care for Covid-19 in France is at a peak not seen since early December, the daily figures show.

French health authorities reported 4,347 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours on Monday, down from Sunday’s 19,325 and slightly higher than last Monday’s 4,240, figures assuaging the country’s decision not to impose a third lockdown for now.

But the number of people being treated in ICUs for the disease was up again, at 3,228, going above the 3,200 threshold for the first time since 6 December.

France’s cumulative total of cases now stands at 3,201,461, the sixth-highest in the world.