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UK to start hotel quarantine this month amid criticism of delay

Everyone arriving in the UK from countries identified as coronavirus hotspots will have to spend 10 days in hotel quarantine starting February 15 in a bid to stop new virus variants reaching the country, the government said on Friday.

But authorities are facing criticism for delays in implementing the policy, which was first announced in late January.

READ MORE: Diverse east London 'eye of the storm' as it grapples coronavirus

Under the plan, British citizens and residents returning from high-risk countries will have to quarantine in approved hotels near airports and sea ports, patrolled by security guards, and will be billed for their stay.

Most international travel is already banned under current restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, and arriving passengers must show a negative coronavirus test and self-isolate.

Enforcement of the quarantine has been uneven, however.

The UK says it has sought advice from Australia and New Zealand, where quarantine hotels have been used to contain COVID-19.

The main opposition Labour Party said it was "beyond comprehension" that the policy was only being introduced 50 days after a new, more transmissible strain of the virus from South Africa was first identified.

Labour borders spokesman Nick Thomas-Symonds said the government was doing "too little, too late."

Some hotel chains said they were in talks with the government about taking part, but Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said others were concerned about their brand reputation being "tarnished" if they became associated with pandemic quarantines.

READ MORE: New trial looks at efficacy of mixing COVID vaccines

Meher Nawab, chief executive of the London Hotel Group, questioned whether there was enough time to set the system up safely.

"To set all the processes up you need virologists to come and visit the property, you need to set up hygiene protocols — that can't all be done overnight," he told the BBC.

"The ventilation system has to be looked at very closely. I'm not sure what (the government) has set out can be done in this time."

Britain has experienced Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak with more than 110,000 confirmed deaths.

It also has one of the world's fastest-moving vaccination campaigns.

So far, almost 10.5 million people, 20 per cent of all adults, have received the first of two doses of a vaccine.

The government aims to give a shot to 15 million people by February 15, including everyone over 70 and those with underlying health conditions.

The government announced on Friday that everyone in the UK over 50 should have received at least one dose by May, a vaccination schedule that meant local elections across England could be held as planned on May 6.

"Democracy should not be cancelled because of COVID," Constitution Minister Chloe Smith said.

READ MORE: Australia secures additional 10 million Pfizer vaccine doses

The government said in-person voting could be held safely despite the pandemic, but voters would have to bring their own pencils or pens to mark their ballots.

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Russian doctor who treated Navalny after poisoning has died

A top doctor at the Russian hospital where opposition leader Alexei Navalny was treated immediately after his poisoning last summer has died, the hospital said on Thursday.

Sergey Maximishin, who was the deputy chief physician of the Omsk emergency hospital, "suddenly" died at the age of 55, according to a statement released by the hospital.

"With regret, we inform you that…the deputy chief physician for anaesthesiology and resuscitation of the emergency hospital №1, assistant of the department of Omsk State Medical University, PhD of medical sciences Maximishin Sergey Valentinovich suddenly passed away," the hospital said in a statement, which did not mention a cause of death.

Police patrol an area, as journalists gather at the Omsk Ambulance Hospital No. 1, intensive care unit where Alexei Navalny was hospitalised in Omsk, Russia (Photo: August 21, 2020)

A spokeswoman from Omsk's regional health ministry told CNN on Friday that according to "preliminary data" Maximishin had died as a result of a heart attack. She would not provide further details.

Navalny was initially admitted to the acute poisoning unit of Omsk emergency hospital No. 1 on August 20, after falling ill from exposure to military-grade Novichok on a plane heading from Siberia to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk.

RELATED: Russia's Navalny accuses Putin of being behind poisoning

Maximishin did not give any press briefings at the time of Navalny's hospitalisation. As the hospital's deputy chief physician for anaesthesiology and resuscitation, he was one of the most senior doctors at the hospital.

Navalny was put into a medically induced coma and eventually evacuated to the German capital of Berlin, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning. After returning to Russia, he was arrested, and was sentenced to prison this week for violating probation terms of a previous sentence. The verdict sparked swift condemnation abroad, including the US.

Navalny blames his poisoning on Russian security services and on President Vladimir Putin himself, accusations that the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. A CNN-Bellingcat investigation in December has implicated the Russian Security Service (FSB) in the attack. Navalny also duped one of the agents into revealing that he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok applied to his underwear.

Leonid Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, confirmed Maximishin was in charge of treating the opposition leader. "Sergey Maximishin was the head of department that treated Alexei Navalny and was in charge of his treatment — specifically his medically induced coma," Volkov told CNN.

"(Maximishin) knew more than anyone else about Alexei's condition so I can't dismiss possibility of foul play," he added.

"However Russia's health care system is very poor and it's not uncommon for doctors of his age to suddenly die. I doubt there will any investigation into his death," Volkov continued.

CNN is seeking additional comment from local health authorities into the cause of Maximishin's death. Deaths of Russian frontline medical workers, including whistleblowers, became a politically charged topic in the country amid the Covid-19 pandemic. CNN has no evidence that any foul play was involved.

The minister of health of the Omsk region said in statement that Maximishin had worked at the hospital for 28 years and saved thousands of lives.

"He brought people back to full reality. We will miss Dr. Maximishin very much. He left too early and because of this the pain of loss is especially bitter," Alexander Murakhovsky said in a statement.

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US with Record 5,000 Virus Deaths as Hospitalizations Drop, World Stats

===============================================

STUDY: YOUNGER ADULTS ARE BIGGEST US CORONA SPREADERS

Adults age 20 to 49 are the biggest spreaders of COVID-19 in the US, according to British researchers who say targeting this age group for vaccination could hasten school reopenings.

A team at Imperial College London used cellphone data from more than 10 million people to calculate that 65 of 100 infections originated from those ages 20 to 49 in the US.

A team at Imperial College London used cellphone data from more than 10 million people to calculate that 65 of 100 infections originated from those ages 20 to 49 in the US. (iStock)

A team at Imperial College London used cellphone data from more than 10 million people to calculate that 65 of 100 infections originated from those ages 20 to 49 in the US. (iStock)

They found that people in that age bracket accounted for about 72 percent of the cases after schools reopened in October. Less than 5 percent came from children, and less than 10 percent from teens.

Adults ages 35 to 49 accounted for 41 percent of new cases through mid-August, compared to 35 percent for adults ages 20 to 34, according to the peer-reviewed study published in Science.

FAUCI BACKS ‘DOUBLE-MASKING’ IN CORONAVIRUS FIGHT

“We find adults aged 20-49 are a main driver of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United State and are the only age groups contributing disproportionally to onward spread, relative to their population size,” Imperial College’s Dr. Melodie Monod said.

“While children and teens contribute more to COVID-19 spread since school closure mandates have been lifted in fall 2020, we find these dynamics have not changed substantially since school reopening,” she added.

The college’s Dr. Oliver Ratmann said: “We believe this study is important because we demonstrate that adults aged 20-49 are the only age groups that have consistently sustained COVID-19 spread across the US, despite large variations in the scale and timing of local epidemics.

“Thus, at least where highly transmissible variants have not established, additional interventions targeting the 20-49 age group could bring resurgent epidemics under control and avert deaths,” he added.

Meanwhile, a new study suggests that coronavirus antibodies last for at least six months after infection for the majority of people who contracted the bug.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

The research from UK Biobank found that 99 percent of participants who had tested positive for previous infection retained antibodies for three months after being infected, while 88 percent did so for the full six months of the study, according to Sky News.

“This important study has revealed that the vast majority of people retain detectable antibodies for at least six months after infection with the coronavirus,” said Professor Naomi Allen, UK Biobank chief scientist.”Although we cannot be certain how this relates to immunity, the results suggest that people may be protected against subsequent infection for at least six months following natural infection,” Allen said.

“More prolonged follow-up will allow us to determine how long such protection is likely to last,” she added.

========================================

Coronavirus Cases:

105,502,306

Deaths:

2,296,454

Recovered:

77,200,023

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USVI: Epstein’s Victim Payments Cease in Asset Freeze

NEW YORK (AP) — A fund set up to provide money to scores of women who say they were abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein when they were as young as 14 has abruptly suspended payouts over uncertain funding, an action the Virgin Islands attorney general blamed Thursday on Epstein’s estate as she moved to freeze its assets.

The announcement by the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program came through a release that attributed the suspension to uncertainty about the liquidity of estate assets needed to finance payouts.

Officials said the fund, which operates independently of the estate, would have up to $630 million when it began operations last June.

It said payments, which have topped $55 million, will not resume before March 25, the deadline to file claims. The deadline to register for the program is Monday.

A view of Jeffrey Epstein’s stone mansion on Little St. James Island, a property owned by Jeffrey Epstein, is backdropped by St. John Island, Wednesday, August 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Gabriel Lopez Albarran)

Late Thursday, US Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise N. George said in a statement that her office was seeking a court order to freeze all payments and sales of assets by the co-executors of Epstein’s estate to preserve and protect its assets.

“My office’s worst fears have been realized as we learned the Epstein Estate will not make its currently owed payment to the fund it claimed to have set up to compensate sexual abuse survivors and victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” George said.

The Estate has found its way to pay for lawyers, landscaping, and helicopter fees, but not the brave women who have stepped forward to participate in the compensation fund. It is, unconscionably, another promise made and broken by Epstein and now, his Estate,” she said.

George said she was unaware that the estate was defaulting on deposits it was required to make until the estate informed her Wednesday that it could not make its agreed-to payment and did not know when it could.

She said the estate had breached an agreement with the government of the Virgin Islands and lawyers for victims that was approved by the Probate Court of the US Virgin Islands.

In a statement, the estate said it has so far funded the program with over $87 million to pay claimants and that over $55 million has been paid out.

It said the estate finished 2020 with $240 million in assets, but that many of them were residential properties, private investments and aircraft that need to be sold, a process hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and lawsuits the estate must defend against.

Estate attorney Daniel Weiner said in an email that the payouts since June are “a measure of the Programs’ remarkable efficiency in hearing and issuing determinations for the benefit of scores of claimants.”

He said the attorney general’s claims in court were “factually and legally unsupportable” and he called upon her to lift liens on two islands in St. Thomas that are owned by the estate so that they can be sold and the money disbursed to women through the fund.

According to the release from the fund, the program’s 150 claims to date have far exceeded expectations; when the fund began, the program said there was expected to be over 70 claims.

Annie Farmer, left, and Courtney Wild, right, alleged victims of Jeffery Epstein, stand outside the courthouse in New York, Monday, July 15, 2019. (AP/Seth Wenig)

Jordy Feldman, the fund’s administrator, said the suspension of payouts was necessary to protect those who have not yet resolved their claims.

“Issuing a compensation offer that cannot be timely and fully funded and paid, consistent with the way the Program has operated to date, would compromise claimants’ interests and the guiding principles of the Program,” Feldman said in a statement.

The fund provides an alternative to pursuing claims through the courts. It was established with help from Kenneth Feinberg, a well-known mediator who oversaw compensation funds for victims of the September 11 attacks and of clergy sex abuse within New York’s Roman Catholic archdiocese.

The fund was financed with money from the estate of Epstein, 66, who killed himself at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges that alleged he abuse women and girls under the age 18 at his Florida estate and his Manhattan mansion in the early 2000s.

Messages seeking reaction to the fund’s shutdown have been sent to several lawyers involved in litigation on behalf of women who say they were sexually abused by Epstein.

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US: Racist Congresswoman Stripped by Democrats

House Democrats on Thursday took the extraordinary step of voting to strip committee assignments from a member of the opposite party, saying Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had forfeited her right to those seats by endorsing conspiracy theories, racist dogma and violence against Democratic politicians.

Lawmakers passed the resolution largely along party lines — 230-199 — to remove Greene from the House Education and Budget committees after Republicans declined to take action against her themselves.

Eleven Republicans crossed the aisle in a rare rebuke of a colleague from their own party: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Carlos Giménez (Fla.), Chris Jacobs (N.Y.), John Katko (N.Y.), Young Kim (Calif.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Chris Smith (N.J.) and Fred Upton (Mich.).

The debate over Greene’s fate has become emblematic of the larger brawl over the direction and future of the Republican Party in post-Trump Washington. The former president has moved to Florida, his Twitter account shut down, but retains enormous influence over GOP base voters drawn to the nationalist, no-apologies persona that defined his time in the White House — a mold Greene has assumed, with Trump’s enthusiastic support.

Democrats implored the GOP to hold members of Congress to what they think should be a minimal standard: that anyone who has endorsed political violence or embraced conspiracy theories like suggesting school shootings were staged or QAnon — whose supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 — has no business serving on committees.

But House Republicans, wary of angering the GOP base that embraces Trump and Greene, have stepped to her defense. While condemning Greene’s incendiary comments, they also maintain that most were made before she became a member of Congress and therefore shouldn’t be disqualifying.

Republicans further warned that Democrats were setting a dangerous precedent with the majority party taking unilateral action to dictate the minority’s committee roster.

“I think you are, frankly, overlooking the unprecedented nature of the acts that you’ve decided upon, and where that may lead us when the majority changes,” said Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the senior Republican on the Rules Committee.

Given the extraordinary nature of Greene’s past stances, however, Democrats said they had no qualms about setting an institutional precedent Thursday.

“If any of our members threatened the safety of other members, we’d be the first ones to take them off of a committee,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Relegated to the minority after losing the White House, Senate and House, Republicans are trying to maintain what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) described as a “very big tent.” Their dilemma is in locating a strategy that attracts the pro-Trump nationalist base, exemplified by Greene, without repelling other groups of voters — women, independents, suburbanites — vital to their party’s national success.

The delicate effort to thread that needle was on display in the Capitol on Wednesday night, where House Republicans voted privately on the fate of another of their members, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who fended off a challenge to her position as the party’s conference chair after voting to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Greene, meanwhile, received a standing ovation during Wednesday night’s closed-door GOP conference meeting after she apologized for embracing QAnon and other conspiracy theories. QAnon baselessly claims that Democrats and other public figures are running a global child sex-trafficking ring.

Hours before Thursday’s vote, Greene delivered a speech on the House floor where she defended her foray into the world of online conspiracy theories, but insisted she had more recently recognized the falsities and dangers of those narratives.

Greene described how she’d “stumbled across” QAnon in late 2017 and began posting about it on Facebook while she was “upset about things and didn’t trust the government.”

Later in 2018, Greene said, “when I started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these QAnon posts, I stopped believing it.”

Greene also disavowed her previous support for several conspiracy theories, declaring a belief that school shootings are “absolutely real” and that 9/11 “absolutely happened.”

But as Greene concluded her speech, she adopted a more defiant tone, blasting unnamed Democrats for what she suggested was their encouragement of the violence that, at times, accompanied last year’s national protests against police brutality.

“If this Congress is to tolerate members that condone riots that have hurt American people, attack police officers, occupy federal property, burn businesses and cities, but yet wants to condemn me and crucify me in the public square for words that I said, and I regret, a few years ago, then I think we’re in a real big problem,” she said.

Greene also took a shot at the mainstream media, equating the veracity of its information to that espoused by QAnon.

“Will we allow the media, that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies, to divide us?” Greene said.

That promptly drew a rebuke from House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who called the comparison “beyond the pale.”

Greene’s speech was just as notable for what she didn’t say. Greene did not address a primary driver of Thursday’s vote: her repeated indications of support for violence against Democrats.

Greene previously liked a Facebook comment in January 2019 that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove Pelosi. And when a Facebook commenter asked her in April 2018 “now do we get to hang them,” referring to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Obama, Greene responded: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

And last September, Greene posted a photo of herself holding a gun alongside images of progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) with the caption “Squad’s Worst Nightmare.”

McCarthy said he proposed moving Greene from the Education and Labor Committee to the Small Business Committee instead as a possible compromise, given the particular outrage over her skepticism of school shootings. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democrats rejected the offer, arguing that Greene shouldn’t have the privilege of sitting on any committees.

McCarthy did take punitive action against former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) two years ago for making remarks considered racist and booted him from committees.

“If this is the new standard, I look forward to continuing up the standard. Because if you look for a side that has a leadership that’s done something when their members do something as a member, not prior, look to me,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy pledged during House floor debate that he will “hold [Greene] to her words and her actions moving forward.”

While House Republicans rallied behind Greene on Thursday, their Senate counterparts have gone out of their way to distance themselves from her.

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the second-ranking Senate Republican, warned Thursday that Republicans need to “get away from members dabbling in conspiracy theories.”

“I don’t think that’s a productive course of action or one that’s going to lead to much prosperity politically in the future,” Thune said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this week condemned Greene’s embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories” as a “cancer for the Republican Party.”

Democrats have happily embraced those comments, citing them throughout the debate to pressure McCarthy and House Republicans to take action against Greene themselves.

“Why would Kevin McCarthy continue to associate himself and the Republican Conference with someone who Leader Mitch McConnell has characterized as a cancer?” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus. “The last time I checked, cancers need to be cut out and not allowed to metastasize.”

The first-term congresswoman earlier made a floor speech in which she claimed she had ceased to believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory in 2018 and expressed “regret” for some of her earlier statements.

But Greene is hardly going to slink away into backbench obscurity.

She claims to have raised $175,000 in a fundraising appeal this week from 13,000 donors. Her now-infamous Twitter account had more than 345,000 followers by Thursday evening.

The contrition in her floor speech was limited, too. She said nothing about her previous support for the idea of assassinating Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), instead complaining that Democrats were trying to “crucify me in the public square.”

The House vote only happened after Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had declined to take action against Greene.

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Young women 'tattooed as property, sold as sex slaves'

A Brisbane man has been charged with forcing girls as young as 17 into sexual slavery and branding them with tattoos claiming them as his property.

Police allege 35-year-old Matthew Markcrow kept the women aged 17 to 24 in conditions of servitude of unlawful prostitution, and drugged them.

They alleged he controlled their life and money, had them tattooed as being his property and secretly filmed their sexual acts with male clients.

He has been charged with ten offences after police raided two residential addresses in Mount Gravatt East, in the city's south, and South Brisbane.

The women were working at the South Brisbane unit and resided at Mt Gravatt East property, police said.

He was allegedly assisted by a 23-year-old woman, Crystal Marie Sawyer, who has also been arrested and charged with unlawful prostitution.

Police allegedly found four women at the property in the Mount Gravatt East during the search, alongside drugs, and other evidence they said supports sexual servitude and organised prostitution offences.

Police also say they found covert recordings made of male clients and the victims engaged in sexual acts.

Detective Inspector Juliet Hancock, Officer-in-Charge of the Prostitution Enforcement Taskforce said investigations started in October 2020 following calls from the public.

"The information received was that the women were being exploited by the male by being given stupefying drugs and forced into prostitution," she said.

"We believe there are other victims who have been exploited by the man and I encourage them to come forward and contact police.

"Police are working with community service providers to offer the victims any care and support they may seek."

The man has been charged with 10 offences related to the alleged crimes, including unlawful prostitution, aggravated servitude of a victim under 18, possessing dangerous drugs and utensils and illegally recording in breach of the Privacy Act.

"One of them was a Commonwealth Servitude charge of a minor so that carries a 20 year imprisonment," Detective Inspector Hancock said.

"When you work and you don't have access to your money and you have no freedom, that's exploitation."

The man appeared at Brisbane Magistrates Court today on a return to prison warrant, allegedly seen blowing kisses and gesturing love hearts to women in the back of the court.

He will be remanded in custody.

The woman has been charged with three offences and will face court next month.

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Channel Nine weatherman pulls body from water at Gold Coast beach

Nine News Queensland weatherman Luke Bradnam has been involved in two emergency rescues at Narrowneck on the Gold Coast this evening while reporting on tonight's dangerous swells.

Moments after he was off-air, Mr Bradnam stripped out of his suit, and raced to the water, to assist what he thought was someone struggling in the treacherous conditions.

"A boogie border at Narrowneck alerted me, he thought he'd seen someone struggling again out in the surf," Mr Bradnam said on-air after the rescue, having spotted a surfer in trouble earlier.

READ MORE: Huge waves and destructive tides see mass erosion at the Gold Coast

"I immediately stripped off and raced out with the boogie boarder to help the person in trouble."

But as the pair got closer, they realised the man's condition was ill-fated.

"It became pretty evident that there was a body floating in the water," the Channel Nine reporter said.

"The two of us were able to secure the body and start making our way through a rip, back into shore."

Police arrived at Narrowneck as the body made it to the sand — a confronting scene for the dozens of locals taking a Friday evening stroll along the beach.

Mr Bradnam told 9News.com.au he hopes to "never experience that again".

"In the heat of the moment, I thought this is someone's son, it's going to bring some closure – we've just got to do it," he said.

Making his efforts more heroic, the weatherman did it all with an injured shoulder, which is normally in a sling.

"I feel alright, it might hit me later," he said.

The identity of the person is yet to be confirmed but comes as a recovery mission is currently underway for man who went missing off a Gold Coast beach last night.

The man, believed to be a UK national aged in his 30s, was reported missing overnight at Kurrawa Beach, 5.7km south of Narrowneck where Mr Bradnam retrieved the body.

Police said earlier today, the search for the missing man was being treated as a recovery mission, after the body of the woman he was with, was found unresponsive.

Police remain on the scene.

Mr Bradnam's rescue happened moments after he spotted a surfer stuck in a strong swell.

It was almost a rescue mission but as Mr Bradnam got to the water's edge, the surfer began to make it to shore.

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Canada to Produce US Vaccine in Montreal

Ottawa (CNN) Canada says it has signed a tentative agreement with US vaccine firm Novavax to produce millions of doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate at a facility in Montreal.

The agreement, announced Tuesday by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is the first of several being developed as Canada says it intends to repatriate vaccine production for decades to come.
“What we’re very clear on is Canada will be developing domestic manufacturing, so regardless of what could happen in the future, we will have domestic production on top of all our partnerships and contracts signed with companies around the world,” said Trudeau during a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday.

Trudeau says Canada needs to 'buckle down' as cases surge, vaccines delayed

Trudeau says Canada needs to ‘buckle down’ as cases surge, vaccines delayed
He added that it was important for Canada to be “self-sufficient” in vaccine production.
Novavax is still doing clinical trials of its vaccine but submitted more data to Health Canada for review Friday. Canada has an agreement to buy 52 million doses from Novavax when and if its vaccine candidate receives Canadian approval.
Approval is not expected for weeks and any domestic production of vaccines won’t happen until fall, at the earliest.
That still leaves Canada with a significant shortage of vaccines in the short term. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are the only vaccines so far approved for use in Canada.
Both of those vaccine suppliers have significantly slowed deliveries to Canada after a combination of manufacturing delays and demands from Europe, where Canada procures its doses, to restrict vaccine exports subject to EU approval.
Canada did not attempt to procure any vaccine doses from the US after the Trump administration indicated it would not allow any vaccines to be exported.

Pfizer tells Canada it will not receive any Covid-19 vaccine doses next week

Pfizer tells Canada it will not receive any Covid-19 vaccine doses next week
According to public health data from the provinces and the federal government, just over 2% of Canada’s population has received at least 1 dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Provinces in Canada, who are responsible for vaccine distribution, are growing frustrated as mass vaccination sites are ready, but in many cases sit “empty” awaiting vaccine doses.
“They have the capacity of several thousand each per day and the possibility to ramp up past that so all of us are a little disappointed, a little frustrated, and chomping at the bit to do more and get the vaccines to us,” said retired general Rick Hillier, now leading Ontario’s vaccine task force.
He added that he has lost confidence in the Pfizer supply chain as doses that were promised to Canada were not delivered.

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12 Mexican Police Officers Arrested for Immigrant Mass Murder

Twelve police officers have been arrested in northern Mexico for their alleged connection to the killing of a group of migrants last month.

The bodies of 19 people were found in a burnt-out vehicle near the US border in Tamaulipas state on 22 January.

Most of the victims are believed to have been Central American migrants.

Investigators think they were killed as part of a turf war between criminal gangs over control of migrant smuggling routes in the area.

Tamaulipas State Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said the officers would be charged with murder and abuse of power.

Who were the victims?

Sixteen of the victims were male and one female. Two of the bodies were so badly burned, their sex could not be established.

DNA tests have so far shown that two were Mexican nationals and two were Guatemalan.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the two Mexicans may have been involved in smuggling the rest of the group to the US.

The two Guatemalans so far identified were 22-year-old football player Marvin Tomás and Élfego Roliberto Miranda Díaz. Both are from the town of Comitancillo in Guatemala.

Picture of Marvin Tomásimage copyrightJuventud Comiteca
Marvin Tomás played for a third-division football club in Guatemala

 

The remaining victims are also thought to have been from Guatemala. Forensic tests suggest they were shot before being set alight.

What was the alleged role of the police?

Few details are available. Prosecutors say that on the day of the killings, several vehicles carrying Guatemalan and Salvadorean migrants to the US were “escorted by armed individuals”.

Mr Barrios Mojica said the crime scene had been “altered”. He pointed to the fact that the pick-up truck on which the bodies were found had 113 bullet holes but no casing were found.

The state attorney general also described the reports filed by the officers as “contradictory”.

What’s the background?

Killings of migrants are not unusual. In 2010, 72 migrants were killed in San Fernando, also in Tamaulipas state. And in 2012, 49 dismembered bodies were found in Cadereyta in Nuevo León.

Both killings are believed to have been carried out by the powerful Zetas cartel.

The cartel controls much of the region and is thought to target immigrants who try to cross it without paying the gang for safe passage.

The fees paid to people smugglers often exceed $10,000 (£7,330) and competition for the migrants’ money is fierce.

Municipal and state police officers are often recruited by cartels – either by the offer of large sums or by threats – to turn a blind eye or even provide the cartels with safe passage.

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UK Minister Defends Forced ‘Own Expense’ Hotel Quarantine

Foreign Office minister James Cleverly has defended the government’s plan to quarantine travellers in hotels, which begins on 15 February.

Arrivals from Covid variant hotspots will have to stay in a hotel for 10 nights at their own expense.

Mr Cleverly said he did not know how many hotels had signed up yet.

Labour said the scheme should be extended to all international travellers – not just some countries.

The hotel quarantine requirements are being introduced in an effort to control the spread of new variants of coronavirus first identified in South Africa and Brazil, which scientists believe may be more infectious and may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.

The rules affect UK residents and Irish nationals travelling from 33 countries on the “red list” – which covers much of South America, southern Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Portugal.

Non-UK travellers from these locations are currently banned from entry anyway, so that is why they are not – at this time – affected by the quarantine plan.

Hotels near airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen are expected to be booked up for quarantine.

The government said it is working “at pace” to secure the rooms it needs and has had discussion with more than 60 companies in the hotel and travel industries.

“In the face of new variants, it is important that the government continues to take the necessary steps to protect people and save lives,” a Department of Health and Social Care statement said.

Quarantined travellers will be served three meals a day in their rooms, with hot and cold options. Tea, coffee, fruit and water will be available.

The hotels would also be required to work with government-approved security staff, according to documents seen by the BBC.

These security guards will patrol inside and outside the hotel to “prevent unauthorised access”. Anyone wanting to smoke outside or get fresh air will also be escorted by security staff.

An industry source said the government estimated quarantine could cost about £80 a night.

“If they are taking rooms for 1,425 [newly-arrived] passengers per night until 31 March, that is a bill of £55m,” the source added.

Hotels ‘waiting to hear’

But many hotels have said they are waiting to hear more details from the government about how it will work.

The chair of the Manchester Hoteliers’ Association, Adrian Ellis, said some hotels “would be interested”.

“We had a meeting yesterday with about 35 members attending. We are waiting to hear – normally it would come from UK Hospitality – the guidelines, but unfortunately nothing has been received as of now,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We understand what we can read in the media… but as of now we don’t know which hotels are assigned and we don’t know how the rules will work.”

Asked how many hotels had signed up, Foreign Office minister Mr Cleverly said: “I don’t have that detail at my fingertips.”

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he added: “The announcement only came out at one minute past midnight this morning so it is unsurprising that no one has formally signed up to this. But the whole point of this is that we give the hotels notice.”

Documents suggest ministers expect more than 1,000 UK residents a day to return from places where new variants are prevalent.

“We’re planning for capacity greater than the expected numbers of people arriving from those countries,” said Mr Cleverly. “Ideally, what we are trying to do is limit as much as possible the number of people who are arriving from those countries.”

When asked why the policy did not apply to all UK arrivals, Mr Cleverly told the Today programme the logistics would be “difficult to implement” and would mean imposing hotel quarantine on people arriving from low-risk countries.

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People in the UK are currently banned from travelling abroad unless they “first have a legally permitted reason to leave home”, such as work.

Many hotels in and around airports have lost bookings from holidaying customers who typically book in for a night to be near the airport for early-morning departures. That means they may be more likely to agree to the government’s main requirement that quarantine hotels agree to turn away all other customers and have their premises used solely by quarantining travellers.

Hotelier Mr Ellis, said: “My understanding is if you become a quarantine hotel, you can’t have other business. So those that are already open, for example dealing with business groups or business guests, as per the government guidelines, you can’t then become a quarantine hotel as well.

“So only those ones that are currently closed, and we are guessing near to the airport, will be the ones that are selected.”

‘Brand reputation’

Paul Charles, a travel consultant who is leading a campaign called “Quash Quarantine”, said many hotels are “concerned about the brand reputation being tarnished if they take in guests who could turn out to be positive” and staff are concerned they “may be subject to guests who pass on Covid”.

Government sources said they expect the prospect of paying for secure accommodation could see the numbers of travellers returning from high risk areas swiftly reduce.

Ministers are also likely to increase the fines for people who break the rules.

Details on how passengers will book their place in a quarantine hotel are expected to be set out by the government next week.

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