Headlines
• Schools in England will not reopen before March
• UK to quarantine travellers from 22 countries in hotels
• Sanofi to produce Pfizer vaccine
• 38% decline in ATM use in 2020
• Central London rents fall 12.4%
World news
• Schools in England will not reopen before March.
• The UK government has confirmed that travellers to the UK from 22 countries with the risk of known new variants, including South Africa, Portugal and South America, will have to quarantine in hotels.
• Sanofi announced it will mass produce the Covid vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer and BioNtech.
• A plant in Wales that produces anti-Covid vaccines for AstraZeneca has been partially evacuated after a suspicious package was received.
• Moscow has eased restrictions on bars and office working.
• Link, the UK’s largest cash machine network, said its latest data showed there was a 38% decline in ATM transactions in 2020.
• Iceland has issued its first digital vaccination certificates to make it easier for people to travel. So far 4,800 people are eligible as they have had two doses – but the certificate is not recognised in Europe.
• Australia recorded a 10th straight day of no new local cases today, allowing its most populous state of New South Wales to relax coronavirus restrictions.
• Peru ordered a total lockdown across 10 states, including the capital Lima.
• Most poor countries will not achieve mass Covid-19 immunisation until at least 2024, and some may never get there, according to new forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
• Countries such as the UK, US, Israel and those in the EU will probably achieve “widespread vaccination coverage” – meaning priority and vulnerable groups, and almost all of the rest of the population – by late 2021, according to analysis from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
• US President Joe Biden has vowed to vaccinate the 300m people in US by end of summer or early autumn. The administration’s immediate plan is to accelerate vaccine distribution to deliver roughly 1.4m shots per day and 10m doses per week for the next three weeks
• Private rents in some of the UK’s biggest city centres have fallen by up to 12%, according to Rightmove. Central London has been hardest hit, with average asking rents down by 12.4% YoY, followed by Edinburgh city centre, which was down 10%, and Manchester city centre, down 5.3%. However, rents have risen sharply in parts of northern England, as some tenants swapped an urban life for the suburbs, smaller towns and villages.
• Madrid health authorities have suspended vaccination against Covid-19 this week and next, as they are running out of doses.
• South Africa has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.
• Cyprus today announced a staggered easing of lockdown measures, including the reopening of primary schools and shopping malls on 8 February.
• The Chelsea Flower Show has been postponed to September; it was due to take place in May.
• Bahrain will suspend dine-in services in restaurants and cafes and will move public and private schools to remote learning for three weeks.
