February 1 coronavirus news

China has said it is cracking down on a crime ring making "fake vaccines" for Covid-19 that has been running since September, state media report.

Police departments in Jiangsu, Beijing and Shandong have arrested more than 80 people involved in producing more than 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccine doses, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xinhua said China's Ministry of Public Security is investigating crimes related to manufacturing and selling of counterfeit vaccines "and the illegal practice of medicine and fraud under the guise of the vaccines."

China has been vaccinating its population with shots from two companies, Sinovac and Sinopharm, and both have also been rolled out in other countries, including Turkey.

Both companies initially said their vaccines were more than 78% effective, but late-stage trials of the Sinovac candidate in Brazil reported an efficacy rate of 50.38%.

Sinovac has stood by its vaccine, even as some countries have placed it under review and paused rollouts, but scientists have called on the company to release more data.

Sinopharm, the state-owned company whose vaccine was the first to be approved in China, said its product was 79.34% effective in trials.

Israel will remain under lockdown until Friday at the earliest after the Cabinet voted to extend restrictions for five more days.

Speaking at the start of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told senior government colleagues that the British and South African mutations of the virus were “stretching the health care system to the maximum.”

“We are in a very tight race against the spread of the mutations to vaccinate as many citizens of Israel as possible. I hope that as long as there are no additional surprises, we will be able to gradually open the education system and our economy,’ Netanyahu said.

The announcement came on the same day as two huge funerals were held by members of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox communities in open defiance of rules around public gatherings.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men took part in the funerals, several hours apart, for two luminaries of the Haredi rabbinate. Videos of the funerals drew a furious response from many in Israel.

The latest numbers from Israel’s Health Ministry show more than 5,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday and a positivity rate on tests of 9.7%. The total number of fatalities from the virus now stands at 4,808, with almost one third of that number having come since the start of the year.

The Cabinet is to meet again Wednesday to decide whether to extend the lockdown beyond Friday.

Meanwhile, a general ban on entry to and exit from Israel was extended until Sunday.

Iran reported 6,597 new daily coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the country's total number of cases to 1,424,596.

The new numbers were announced by Iran’s Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadaat Lari in a news conference on state TV .

The country reported 79 new deaths from Covid-19, bringing the country's death toll to 58,038.

The health ministry said 3,896 patients are currently hospitalized in intensive care units.

Iran is the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of both total cases and deaths, though both have fallen from record highs at the end of 2020. The country is keeping restrictions in place to bring the case tally under control.

As governments across Europe try to suppress the deadly second wave of Covid-19 with strict lockdown measures, protests against the restrictions flared up in Brussels, Vienna and Budapest over the weekend.

In Belgium on Sunday, 488 demonstrators were arrested in Brussels in an unauthorized anti-lockdown protest, a spokesperson for Mayor Philippe Close told CNN.

“Protests of 100 people are allowed under strict coronavirus restrictions, but when far more people arrived they were asked to leave by police and some (were) arrested because they didn’t comply with police orders," said Close's spokesperson Wafaa Hammich.

TV footage showed protestors clashing with riot police and holding signs that said, "Free Belgium."

Some of those arrested were found to be carrying dangerous items such as knives, firecrackers, and a catapult, the Brussels Police department said on Twitter.

In Hungary, people marched in Budapest on Sunday to protest the closure of restaurants and cafes, which are limited to takeout service because of the pandemic.

Anatoli Belov, the owner of Husikam restaurant in the Hungarian capital, told CNN the government has been promising restaurants funds for many months but the industry has not received any. “It’s been very difficult but we are going to pull our socks up,” he said.

The Budapest Metropolitan Police said in a statement posted to their website that demonstrations are not allowed because of the pandemic. Police fined six people during Sunday's demonstration for not wearing a mask but made no arrests.

Restaurateur Peter Regős -- who owns the Regős Vendéglő restaurant in Budapest -- didn't attend Sunday's demonstration, but said that he was in a tough situation. When asked by CNN about whether he had been given any government assistance, he lamented that, “there is nothing for little people.” Regős said his restaurant had been closed for three months, and he had lost Forint 500,0000 (bpproximately S$ ,7000) f his savings duince

And in Austria, Reuters reported that thousands of anti-lockdown protesters gathered in central Vienna on Sunday but were prevented from marching by riot police. Austria is currently in its third national lockdown, with non-essential businesses closed.

An accommodation facility for refugees in Cologne, Germany has been hit by a coronavirus outbreak, according to Cologne officials.

41 residents have tested positive for Covid-19, with 31 of them testing positive for the variants first identified in South Africa or Brazil, according to a statement from the city's press office.

In addition, 16 members of staff have tested positive for the virus, with 11 of them testing positive for the South Africa variant, labeled B.1.351 by researchers. 

The other five staff members are awaiting the results of the variant analysis, the statement said.

All of the residents living in the center have been under quarantine since January 26, which has been under surveillance since Sunday, it said.

Entry into the accommodation center is not currently allowed.

The first two coronavirus cases were detected in the accommodation -- home to approximately 600 refugees -- about 10 days ago, with the first case of the variant identified last week.

The head of Cologne's health department Harald Rau said that the news of the outbreak is a "clear alarm sign for all of us" and urged residents of Cologne to avoid contact "even more consistently than before" and to keep practicing social distancing and good hygiene measures.

Residents at "every eligible care home" in England have been offered the coronavirus vaccine, England's National Health Service (NHS) said Monday.

Residents at more than 10,000 care homes have been offered vaccines, an achievement UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as a "crucial milestone."

The UK is vaccinating its citizens at one of the fastest rates in the world, partly due to a decision to extend the length of time between people getting the first and second doses.

More than 8.9 million people across the UK have received a first dose, and 491,053 people have had a second, according to the most recent government data.

Nearly 600,000 doses were administered in the UK on Saturday, marking the highest daily record for the country's vaccination program.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold a summit Monday to discuss the less than stellar start of the country's coronavirus vaccination drive.

The virtual meeting will be attended by representatives of the European Union and pharmaceutical companies, along with German state premiers and the country's Health Minister Jens Spahn.

Germany's vaccination program has had a rocky start: For example, a vaccination center in the hard-hit state of Saxony only administered around 650 vaccinations in a week, despite its capacity for 13,000 inoculations during the same period, CNN affiliate n-tv reported Monday.

Health Minister Spahn said the country would experience vaccine shortages in the coming months, but added that he expected the situation to gradually improve.

So far, more than 2.3 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in the country, according to the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's disease control agency.

BioNTech will deliver 75 million extra doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union, according to a statement from the German drugmaker.

Some context: The announcement comes as several European countries are struggling with a shortage of vaccines. In a bid to tackle concerns over supply, the European Commission adopted new measures Friday that could restrict the export of Covid-19 vaccines outside the EU in some situations.

President Joe Biden will on Monday meet with 10 Republican senators who have drawn up a smaller counter-proposal to his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 rescue plan in the most critical test yet of his core promise to forge unity over bitter partisan lines.

But hopes for a rare bipartisan deal at the start of a new administration still look doubtful because the offer pushed by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and her colleagues has a potentially fatal catch. It is less than a third of the size of the economic shock treatment the White House says the nation needs.

Biden's original legislation proposes direct payments to most Americans and extends unemployment benefits until September as it seeks to plug a huge hole in the economy caused by the pandemic. It also raises the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, fulfilling a major campaign promise. The plan provides hundreds of billions of dollars to expand Covid-19 testing, to improve the rollout of vaccines and to get kids back in school.

The President must now evaluate whether the new Republican offer is a good faith opening bid in an effort to find common ground, or a bluff calling exercise that would cause lasting damage to a new President's authority and political capital if he were to accept it.

And while Biden is keen to prove his capacity to make divided Washington work, he knows he risks fracturing support from Capitol Hill Democrats if he significantly downsizes his own plan to win Republican support in the Senate.

While welcoming the willingness of the 10 Republicans to engage with the President, the White House is also subtly underscoring that a plan that is well short of Biden's ambitions will not be acceptable.

Read the full analysis:

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Analysis: Biden faces presidency-defining dilemma over Republican offer on Covid-19 rescue plan