January 5 coronavirus news

By Joshua Berlinger, Adam Renton, Kara Fox, Ed Upright and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 12:02 a.m. ET, January 6, 2021
24 Posts
Sort byDropdown arrow
7:40 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

UK Prime Minister cancels India trip, citing a national lockdown and the new virus variant

From CNN's Stephanie Halasz

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference in London on December 30, 2020.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference in London on December 30, 2020. Heathcliff O'Malley/WPA Pool/Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has canceled a January trip to India, “in light of the national lockdown announced last night, and the speed at which the new coronavirus variant is spreading," according to a Downing Street statement.

"The Prime Minister said that it was important for him to remain in the UK so he can focus on the domestic response to the virus,” the statement said.

It added that Johnson spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the phone on Tuesday morning, saying that he "hopes to be able to visit India in the first half of 2021, and ahead of the UK’s G7 Summit that Prime Minister Modi is due to attend as a guest."

“The leaders underlined their shared commitment to the bilateral relationship, and to continuing to build on the close collaboration between our countries -- including in response to the pandemic," the statement went on.

On Tuesday, the UK government said that is currently reviewing measures to restrict international travel.

7:27 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

Kremlin says that Putin and Merkel discussed the possibility of joint vaccine production

From Mary Ilyushina and Stephanie Halasz, CNN

Getty Images
Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a phone call in which they discussed cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, with an “emphasis on possible prospects for joint production of vaccines," according to a statement from the Kremlin on Tuesday.

"It was agreed to continue contacts on this topic between the ministries of health and other specialized structures of the two countries,” the Kremlin said.

A German government press officer who confirmed the call said that the "focus was the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic." 

No further information was made available by the German government press office.

6:58 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

The pandemic has put an end to five years of job recovery in Spain

From CNN's Vasco Cotovio

The economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic has put an end to five consecutive years of job recovery in Spain, data released by the country’s Employment Ministry on Tuesday showed.

Some 724,532 more people were unemployed at the end of December 2020 than were a year earlier, according to the data.

Spain ended 2020 with an unemployment rate of 15.8% -- an increase from last year’s figure of 14.1%.

The numbers put an end to a job recovery rate that started in 2014, following a soar in unemployment as a result of the 2008 financial crash.

“Unlike what happened with the previous crisis, the employment policies put in place throughout this year were able to soften the impact of Covid-19 over the jobs market,” said Joaquín Pérez Rey, Spain's Secretary of State for Jobs and the Social Economy, on Tuesday.

6:40 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

Vaccine developed in India will be tested on children as young as two years old

From CNN's Esha Mitra in New Delhi

A health worker fills a syringe with the Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine at Maharaja Agrasen Super Speciality Hospital in Jaipur, India, on December 18.
A health worker fills a syringe with the Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine at Maharaja Agrasen Super Speciality Hospital in Jaipur, India, on December 18. Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Covaxin vaccine, which was developed by labs in India and given emergency approval on Sunday, will be tested on children as young as two, pending approval from India’s drug regulatory body, according to the developer and manufacturer Bharat Biotech.

Bharat Biotech's chairman Krishna Ella said at a news conference on Monday that the company was planning to submit a proposal to India's drug regulatory body soon on its plan to start a clinical trial that would include 2- to 15-year-olds.

Covaxin is currently still in Phase 3 trials and there are questions that remain about how it could have been approved without the release of those trials' efficacy data. 

In a news release Sunday, Bharat Biotech said Covaxin's Phase 3 trial started in mid-November, with a goal to include 26,000 volunteers.

India's health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan tweeted late on Sunday that the emergency use authorization (EUA) for Covaxin is "differently conditional -- in clinical trial mode."

Children above the age of 12 are already a part of the Phase 3 trials but Bharat Biotech hopes to establish the vaccine’s effectiveness among children by testing lower age groups, according to Ella. 

Ella explained that this vaccine would be the safest option for babies as it is an inactivated vaccine.
Inactivated vaccines are produced by growing the virus in culture media, then inactivating it with heat and/or chemicals, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Inactivated vaccines are not alive and can't replicate, nor can they cause disease from infection, according to the CDC.
Ella explained that inactive polio vaccines are currently given to newborns -- and are safe to do so. The Covaxin vaccine, which is also an inactivated vaccine, is working under the same reasoning, he said.
An inactive vaccine is "a proven platform and the safest platform to give to children," Ella added.

Bharat Biotech said that it intends to sell their vaccine to the United States, and will specifically target it for the vaccination of children there, said Ella.

The company has 20 million doses of the vaccine currently in stock, with the capacity to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses across four manufacturing facilities.

Regarding the timeline of the vaccine's rollout, Ella said: “I would love to launch it the earliest possible time ... but it is not in our hands."

6:01 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

Thailand extends nationwide emergency decree until end of February

From CNN’s Kocha Olarn and Eric Cheung

Commuters walk through Siam BTS Station in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, January 4.
Commuters walk through Siam BTS Station in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, January 4. Andre Malerba/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Thailand has lengthened its nationwide emergency decree until the end of February, a government spokesperson told a weekly news conference on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri said the cabinet has decided to extend the decree to ensure that authorities are equipped with the power to swiftly address a Covid-19 outbreak.

On Monday, Thailand recorded the largest daily increase in new virus cases since the beginning of the pandemic with 745 new infections, according to figures from the Department of Disease Control.

In global terms, the number of people affected by the pandemic in the country remains low. As of Tuesday, the total number of accumulated positive Covid-19 cases in Thailand stands at 8,966, with the death count at 65.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said Monday that the country has not imposed a lockdown, but more stringent measures -- such as limiting dine-in services at restaurants -- will be adopted to contain the outbreak, according to the country’s Center of Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

The country has already started local production of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine under a technology transfer agreement, which is expected to be distributed later this year, according to the CCSA.

The Thai government has already procured close to 28 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, with a goal of inoculating no less than half of its population of 70 million, the country's National Vaccine Institute said.
6:06 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

British citizens should not be traveling, says UK minister, as England starts new lockdown

From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite and Nada Bashir

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove arrives at the Cabinet Office on December 21 in London.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove arrives at the Cabinet Office on December 21 in London. Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

As England woke up to another national lockdown Tuesday morning, a senior UK minister reiterated that the government hopes to be able to "progressively lift restrictions after February 15.”

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said on Sky News that "we can't predict with certainty that we'll be able to lift restrictions [in mid-February],” but that "what we will be doing is everything we can to make sure that as many people as possible are vaccinated, so that we can begin progressively to lift restrictions."

On Monday, the UK became the world's first to roll out the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as cases surged.

The country is back in crisis mode as new daily Covid-19 cases soared above 50,000 infections for the seventh day in a row and hospitalizations exceed April's peak.

Meanwhile, more travel restrictions for England could be on the way, Gove said.

Speaking on BBC News, Gove said that the government was looking at "further options to restrict international travel," and that he had spoken with the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure that the approach would be a coordinated one.

The message is very very clear for UK citizens that they should not be traveling," he said.

Gove added that it was understandable that "there's a natural concern about people coming into this country."

The minister said that the new travel proposals were still being worked out but they would be reviewing the situation at airports and ports.

The announcement of new restrictions on Monday followed mounting calls from public health experts, teachers' unions and lawmakers for a more stringent lockdown, and further criticism of the UK government's handling of the pandemic.

The UK recorded a record 58,784 new coronavirus cases on Monday -- the highest daily increase since the beginning of the pandemic. 

According to the latest government data, the total number of cases recorded across the UK now stands at 2,713,563.

A further 407 deaths have also been registered over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK to 75,431.

4:33 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

Italy to extend coronavirus lockdown

From CNN's Livia Borghese in Rome

A deserted street in Turin, Italy on January 2 amid the country's coronavirus lockdown measures.
A deserted street in Turin, Italy on January 2 amid the country's coronavirus lockdown measures. Tino Romano/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Italy will extend most of the coronavirus restrictions imposed during the Christmas holidays until January 15, the government said on Tuesday.

According to a new government decree, traveling between regions will be forbidden except for health or work reasons. People will be allowed to visit friends only once a day, with no more than two adults per group of visitors. Bars and restaurants will only provide takeout service. 

High schools will reopen on January 11, with only 50% of the students in class and 50% remotely. Kindergarten and primary school students will start as expected on January 7. 

"If we don’t have the (epidemic) conditions, it’s useless to reopen the schools just to close them again after a few days,” Health Undersecretary Sandra Zampa said in a radio interview on Tuesday.

Regional governors have the power to implement even tighter measures and in some regions, like Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, high school students will resume activities at the end of January. 

According to the latest data from the Health Ministry on Tuesday, the total number of those infected by the virus in Italy is 2,166,224, with 10,800 more cases added on Monday. The total number of deaths is 75,680, with an increase of 348 fatalities on Monday.

4:22 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

Singapore police can obtain Covid-19 contact tracing data for criminal investigations

From CNN's Eric Cheung and Sophie Jeong

Government Technology Agency staff demonstrate Singapore's new contact-tracing smartphone app called TraceTogether, which was launched as a preventive measure against the novel coronavirus on March 20, 2020.
Government Technology Agency staff demonstrate Singapore's new contact-tracing smartphone app called TraceTogether, which was launched as a preventive measure against the novel coronavirus on March 20, 2020. Catherine Lai/AFP/Getty Images

Singapore police can obtain data from the country's Covid-19 contact-tracing technology for criminal investigations, a government minister said in parliament.

“The Singapore Police Force is empowered under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to obtain any data, including TraceTogether data, for criminal investigations,” said Desmond Tan, the country's Minister of State for Home Affairs.

TraceTogether is a digital system developed by the Singaporean government that notifies people who might have been exposed to Covid-19 through close contact with confirmed cases. It comes in the form of either a smartphone app or a Bluetooth token.

Tan added that the government is the "custodian" of data collected through the system, and that "stringent measures" are in place to ensure that it can only be used for "authorized purposes."

As of Monday, more than 4.2 million people, or 78% of Singapore's population, have enrolled in the TraceTogether program, said Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the multi-ministry task force tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to information posted on TraceTogether's website, the system only records users who have come into close contact with one another by exchanging Bluetooth signals on their tokens, but does not record their geolocation data.

4:03 a.m. ET, January 5, 2021

Hospitals are already overwhelmed. Now some US states are beginning to feel the impact of holiday gatherings

From CNN's Christina Maxouris

Medical Director of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center's intensive care unit, Dr. Thomas Yadegar, walks inside a temporary emergency room built into a parking garage in Tarzana, California on January 3.
Medical Director of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center's intensive care unit, Dr. Thomas Yadegar, walks inside a temporary emergency room built into a parking garage in Tarzana, California on January 3. Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images

Parts of the US are beginning to feel the brunt of last month's holiday celebrations -- at a time when hospital systems are already at their breaking point.

Experts warned holiday travels and gatherings could help fuel another surge of Covid-19 infections. Yet millions of Americans traveled anyway -- with more than 1.3 million people -- a pandemic record -- screened by the TSA on Sunday alone.

That's as hospitalizations hit another grim record Monday, with more than 128,200 Covid-19 patients, according to the COVID Tracking Project. But some states are warning worse may be yet ahead.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the state had "more patients with Covid in ICU beds at the end of last week than we have had at any other period throughout this pandemic."
And he expects "some very large numbers with the spread from the holiday gatherings combined with the backlog and testing and reporting that may have occurred during the last 10 days."

After marking a particularly deadly day in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday there has been a spike following the recent social gatherings that took place.

"It is clear that the increase through the holidays, increased the infection rate and increased the number of people who are now walking into hospitals," the governor said.

In California -- where at least two regions have zero ICU beds left -- infections are continuing to soar.

"We are heading into what we anticipate as a surge on top of a surge," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Monday news conference. "It's going to put a lot of pressure on hospitals and I see it coming out of the holidays."

Read the full story: