Mandatory masks on beaches while Spain tightens rules

Spain has tightened its rules on face masks, making them mandatory outside and in all public places, including beaches.

Masks have been mandatory since last May, but only in places where it was not possible to maintain at least two meters of physical distance.

The new law went into effect today.

Spain has been hit hard by the pandemic, having recorded over 75,000 deaths from nearly 3.3 million cases.

“Importers it is important for citizens to know that we have not reached a stage of relaxation and we can in no way allow ourselves to be reckless,” government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told a news conference.

Exceptions will continue to be made for people with medical conditions or respiratory problems or for those who exercise outdoors.

So far about 2.6 million people in the country with about 47 million have been fully vaccinated, mostly residents and nursing home workers who have been given priority.

The central government of Spain said it would present a legal challenge against a law passed by the northwestern Galicia region that makes vaccination against Covid-19 and other diseases mandatory.

The law, which was passed in February, requires a fine of up to € 3,000 for anyone who refuses to receive a vaccine.

But Ms Montero said it “restricted fundamental rights” and was a matter of national, not regional, legislation.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Carolina Darias said Spain would extend the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to essential workers over the age of 65 to care for previously excluded groups.

She said the country will receive the delivery of one million doses of strokes tomorrow and the government is on track to achieve a vaccination target of 70% of the population this summer.

Spain, meanwhile, expects digital vaccine certificates to facilitate travel within the European Union to be ready by June at the latest, according to Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya.

In the face of a pandemic that has killed more than 900,000 people in Europe and pushed the continent into its deepest recession, EU leaders agreed last month to work on vaccine certificates to kick-start tourism, which has been hit hard. .

“We are in Brussels with a proposal made by the Commission to the European Parliament,” Ms Gonzalez Laya told Onda Cero radio station, saying parliament had agreed to quickly track down certificates to facilitate travel to Europe.

Vaccine certifications will not prevent unvaccinated people from traveling, she said, but certified people would cross borders faster while others would have to go through all existing controls.

Recent coronavirus histories

Australia does not achieve the purpose of vaccines

Australia will fall far short of its initial Covid-19 vaccination target, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said, claiming that European export restrictions were partly to blame.

Australia has been globally touted as a pandemic success story, but it is one of the richest countries to have an extremely limited vaccination.

So far, only 670,000 doses have been administered in Australia, according to official statistics, well below the initial plan to vaccinate four million people by the end of March.

Mr Morrison said the target had been “dispersed” months ago, and that delayed exports of three million doses from Europe “would undoubtedly affect early success”.

“It’s not a race,” he said, accusing critics of “wanting to play politics with vaccine and distribution.”

Critics have warned that the slow level of vaccination in Australia threatens to create new groups and an indefinite delay in reopening the country’s borders.

Richard Holden, an economist at the University of New South Wales, said Mr Morrison “should say ‘it’s not a race'”.

“Because if it were, we would have dipped many times and fought for 75th place,” he wrote on Twitter.

“It is certainly a race against virus and outbreaks and for economic recovery.”

At the start of the pandemic, Mr Morrison had boasted that Australia would be “at the forefront” of vaccines following a number of deals with pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Novavax.

His government had set an initial target for all adults to be fully vaccinated by October.

Today, Mr Morrison indicated that the target had changed, saying “we are on track for our first full dose by the end of October”.

Australia has largely avoided widespread coronavirus transmission, but has regularly had to try to contain outbreaks originating from hospitals and hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals.

About two million people are currently stranded in Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city, after about a dozen cases were discovered.

The country has reported about 30,000 Covid-19 cases in total from a population of 25 million since the pandemic began – including those detected in quarantine for overseas travelers.

Authorities hope domestic production of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines will now open up speed and provide about one million doses a week.

China under pressure as WHO chief revives laboratory leak theory

China faced growing pressure today over the investigation into the origins of Covid-19 after the World Health Organization chief revived a theory that may have stemmed from a Chinese lab and U.S. concerns over data access .

A report by the WHO and Chinese experts released yesterday had judged the laboratory leak hypothesis very unlikely, saying the virus behind Covid-19 was probably thrown from bats to humans through an intermediary animal.

The report also initially appeared to support China’s firm rejection of theories that the pandemic may have been caused by a leak from a virology lab in Wuhan, China’s central city where the virus first appeared.

But WHO chief Theodros Ghebreyesus reopened the laboratory leak theory after raising concerns about the level of entry China gave to experts during their visit to Wuhan in January.

“In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties encountered in accessing the raw data,” Dr Tedros said.

He called for “timely and comprehensive data sharing” in future investigations.

Dr Tedros also said that although experts concluded that laboratory leakage was the “less likely” hypothesis, this theory needed to be further investigated.

“I do not believe this assessment was broad enough,” Dr Tedros said of the possibility of a leak.

“This requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, whom I am ready to deploy,” and stressed that no theory had yet been ruled out.

The pandemic has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide since it first appeared in Wuhan in late 2019.

The United States issued a statement with 13 of its allies – Britain, Japan and Australia among themselves – saying the investigation did not have the data and samples it needed.

China insists it was transparent with the investigation and said it provided open access to wet markets, laboratories, patients and data from the first weeks of the virus, advising critics on the “politicization” of a global health crisis.

In the laboratory accident hypothesis, the head of the investigation team, Danish scientist Ben Embarek, told reporters that the Chinese laboratory staff had admitted that they were initially afraid of a leak.

“They all went back to their registers … but no one could find any trace of something similar to this virus in their registers or in their samples,” he said.

That said, Dr Embarek added: “We have not done a full investigation or inspection of any of the laboratories.”

Russia registers the world’s ‘first’ Covid vaccine for animals

Russia has announced it has recorded what it said was the world’s first coronavirus vaccine for animals, describing the step as important in stopping mutations.

He said mass production of the vaccine could begin in April.

The agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that the vaccine called Carnivak-Cov had been tested in early October on dogs, cats, mink, foxes and other animals and had been proven to be effective.

“All the animals in the test that were vaccinated developed antibodies to the coronavirus in 100% of cases,” said Konstantin Savenkov, deputy chairman of Rosselkhoznadzor.

“The product is the first and only product in the world for the prevention of Covid-19 in animals,” he said.

Rosselkhoznadzor said the development of his stroke would help prevent mutations in animals and cited Denmark’s decision to eradicate 15 million mink last year after some were found to carry a variant of the mutated virus.

“The use of the vaccine, according to Russian scientists, could prevent the development of mutations in the virus,” the statement said.

The agency added that animal husbandry facilities and private enterprises from countries including Greece, Poland, Austria, the United States, Canada and Singapore had expressed interest in Carnivak-Cov.

Military officials in Russia’s second city, Saint Petersburg, announced earlier this week that army dogs would undergo compulsory vaccination before being stationed at airports and attending nationwide World War II commemorations in May.