Headlines
• California lifts stay-at-home order for Sacramento region
• Japan extends state of emergency
• Half of intensive care staff have severe mental health issues after the first wave
World news
• AstraZeneca’s UK President Tom Keith-Roach told the Commons Science and Technology Committee that 1.1 million doses of the company’s vaccine had been released to date. He also said “We are scaling up very rapidly – and this will happen imminently – to releasing two million doses a week.”
• Tunisia will be going into a four-day nationwide lockdown tomorrow. New measures include extending the night curfew and schools closing until 24 January.
• Scotland is to tighten lockdown restrictions – Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced six changes to take effect in Scotland from Saturday:
• The government has changed lockdown rules in England at least 64 times since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a human rights barrister has calculated.
• The African Union has secured close to 300 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, in the largest such agreement yet for Africa. The doses are being secured independently of the global Covax effort aimed at distributing Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income countries.
• California lifted a stay-at-home order in the 13-county Sacramento region today, as hospital conditions improved.
• Japan is today set to expand a coronavirus state of emergency to seven more regions, including the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto. It asks restaurants and bars to close by 8pm, with residents requested to avoid unnecessary outings.
• A study by King’s College London has found that nearly half of the 709 intensive care workers that took part reported symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or problem drinking, as the first wave eased.
