Boris Johnson urged world leaders to unite to fight against coronavirus when he launched a global vaccine summit in London, as the UK death toll from Covid-19 neared 40,000.
The prime minister committed £1.6bn towards the £6bn needed over the next five years and persuaded Donald Trump to send a short video message from the White House. The US president described Covid-19 as “mean and nasty” and vowed: “We are all going to take care of it together.” Later in the day a study published in revered journal The Lancet which raised concerns over hydroxyvhloroquine, a drug touted by Mr Trump, was withdrawn amid concerns over its use of data.
Meanwhile Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed those using public transport will be compelled to wear a face mask as a condition of travel. Those without face coverings could be stopped from boarding trains and busses.
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In other news a former MI6 chief claimed the pandemic may have started as an accident in a Chinese laboratory, business secretary Alok Sharma has tested negative for the virus after falling unwell in parliament, and both Mexico and Brazil reported record daily numbers of coronavirus deaths while the Spanish tally rose by just five fatalities
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Good morning and welcome to The Independent‘s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK and worldwide.
Boris Johnson will urge the world to unite to pledge billions of pounds to fund vaccinations in the poorest countries in the world when he opens the Global Vaccine Summit in London today.
The prime minister will say the move would save millions of lives and protect the world from future outbreaks of infectious diseases.
At least 35 heads of state or government, as well as leaders of private sector organisations and civil society, will take part in the virtual event, designed to raise funds for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Sir Richard Dearlove has said he believes the coronavirus pandemic may have “started as an accident”, with the virus escaping from a Chinese laboratory.
The former head of MI6 cited a new study by British and Norwegian researchers which had been rejected by several journals, despite scientific consensus that the disease most likely originated in bats.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the government has seen “no evidence” to suggest the virus originated in a laboratory.
Clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus are to re-start the World Health Organisation has said amid concerns over research into its effects that have been published in leading medical journals.
Yesterday the government forced through a 14-day quarantine on travellers in the face of growing opposition within the prime minister’s own party and from the travel and aviation industries.
And amid ritual protestations from ministers that the government was “following the science”, the PM’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance made it brutally clear that the timing of the unprecedented measure was decided by ministers alone.
British tourists are also facing quarantines if they travel abroad due to the relatively high numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths in the UK, compared to the rest of Europe.
Greek tourism minister Harry Theoharis said the current restrictions on travellers from most UK airports meant it would be difficult for the majority of holidaymakers from Britain wanting to take a trip to the European country.
Mr Theoharis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Testing is mandatory and for a certain amount of days you wait for the test results.
“If it is a negative result, then it is effectively a self-imposed quarantine of seven days but you can go ahead to your destination. If, however, it is a positive result then it is a supervised quarantine for longer than seven days.”
UK quarantine ‘useless and ineffective’, says Ryanair boss
Ryan air boss Michael O’Leary has again warned that the 14-day international quarantine, due to start on 8 June, will damage the country’s tourism industry.
“This is going to do untold damage to British tourism, the thousands of hotels and restaurants and guest houses all over the UK that depend on European visitors will be deterred by this useless and ineffective quarantine,” he told the BBC.
“This is a quarantine designed by Dominic Cummings for Dominic Cummings, who as we all know, doesn’t observe quarantine.”
Professor Robert Dingwall, a member of a sub-group of Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), has cast doubt over the effectiveness of a blanket quarantine arrangement for visitors to the UK.
The Nottingham Trent University academic is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), which reports to Sage.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are not seeing new clusters that are taking off from people who have been travelling abroad.
“I think we would really need to get the level in this country significantly further down before quarantine started to become a useful measure.
“That I think, even then, we would have to see something that is targeted on countries with a significantly higher level of community transmission than ourselves – and there aren’t too many of those around, I’m afraid.
“If you’re a holiday destination in Europe in a country that has worked really hard to get its levels of community transmission down and you’re perhaps looking forward to seeing the end of the virus circulating, apart from in isolated outbreaks, then you have to wonder would they really want to welcome a load of British tourists from a country which hasn’t fully got this virus under control yet?”
Around 1,500 jobs are set to be axed and another 12 showrooms closed at struggling car dealership Lookers as the group announced plans to slash costs in the face of the coronavirus crisis and a tough car market.
The Altrincham-based firm, which has 8,100 staff, said it was launching redundancy consultations across all areas.
It comes on top of the 15 dealerships being closed already under plans announced in November, leaving it with 136 dealerships across the UK.
Etihad Airways has announced it will resume carrying transit passengers from 20 cities in Europe, Asia and Australia on 10 June after the United Arab Emirates government lifted a suspension on those flights.
The UAE government suspended all passenger flights in late March but airlines were later allowed to operate services for foreign citizens leaving the Gulf Arab state.
It said late on Wednesday that UAE carriers, which include Emirates, flydubai and Air Arabia, could resume transit flights.
Brazil registered a record number of daily deaths from the coronavirus for the second day in a row, according to Health Ministry data.
The nation recorded 1,349 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, and 28,633 additional confirmed cases, bringing the total to 32,548 deaths and 584,016 total confirmed cases.
Mexico’s health department reported 1,092 deaths, more than double the previous one-day record, despite predictions from officials that the outbreak may have peaked.
Pakistan reported a record single-day spike in coronavirus-related deaths with 82 new fatalities and 4,688 cases that it says resulted from increased testing in the past 24 hours. A total of 1,770 people have died and 85,264 have tested positive.
New Zealand is on the verge of eradicating coronavirus from its shores after reporting no new confirmed cases for nearly two weeks.
Bill Gates has called for international health workers to be immunised first when a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed.
The US billionaire, who heads Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, told BBC’s Radio 4 that any vaccination programme “should be done on a global basis”.
It comes amid rising fears that governments will look to hoard supplies of the vaccine, when it is produced, and treat their citizens first.
“Pretty clearly the health workers in the countries where you still have the epidemic would be the first priority, because allowing them to keep doing their jobs, saving lives and not be at the incredible risk they’re at today, that would be top of the list,” he said.
“Then you’d have police and other first responders, essential workers on the front lines. Only after you get to those then you would start to do the citizens, particularly if the vaccine does work in older people. That would be a key criteria, getting it out to nursing homes, prisons, homeless shelters so you really got those at risk. It should be done on a global basis.”
Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis sought to play down coronavirus fears in parliament by suggesting his cabinet colleague Alok Sharma might have had “severe hayfever”.
But Mr Lewis rejected calls for virtual voting to be resumed after MPs spoke out about being forced to return to parliament amid the pandemic.
“It is important for parliamentarians to be able to properly scrutinise legislation, not just for Covid but for the wider legislative agenda we have to continue with for people across the country, but to do so within proper guidelines.
“That’s what the House authorities have set up, that’s what’s been working over the last few days and that’s a very good thing.
“It highlights Alok’s situation, if he has got coronavirus, why it is so important that if you are in a work environment, you have got to follow the guidelines.”
Around 150,000 crew members are stuck on merchant vessels around the world during the pandemic, according to the International Chamber of Shipping.
“In some ways, they’ve been the forgotten army of people,” said Guy Platten, secretary general of the ICS. “They’re out of sight and out of mind, and yet they’re absolutely essential for moving the fuel, the food, the medical supplies and all the other vital goods to feed world trade.”
Another 150,000 are stuck on shore, waiting to get back to work, and companies are urging nations to recognise their crews as essential workers so they can travel and change vessels.
“Our challenge now is to get a very strong message to governments. You can’t expect people to move (personal protective equipment), drugs and all the issues that we need to respond to COVID, and keep cities and countries that are in lockdown fed, if you don’t move cargo on ships,” said Steve Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, or ITF. “They’ve got to recognize the sacrifice seafarers are making for our global society.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has admitted that under the new quarantine policy, a family from Spain could visit the Lake District for a holiday, while a family from London cannot.
He told BBC Breakfast: “As long as they are following the guidance and doing the quarantine as outlined, and giving the details to Public Health England (PHE), somebody from abroad can come to the UK but they will have to quarantine for 14 days.”
Mr Lewis said: “PHE will be checking up on this, there will be substantial fines for people who don’t follow those guidelines, they will have to quarantine – here within the UK we are gradually looking at how we can ease the lockdown measures.
“We are very keen that people across the country, with a cautious approach, will be able to enjoy their summer, will be able to take those trips. We’ve got to do that in a very managed and cautious way.”
Russia has reported 169 new deaths from coronavirus , bringing the total to 5,384.
Russia has the third highest number of cases behind the US and Brazil, but questions remain over the accuracy of its recording of deaths.
Many businesses in Uzbekistan, including restaurants and cafes, clothing retailers and kindergartens, will be able to reopen on 15 June, the government has announced.
Bus routes will also start operating on the same date between some provinces in areas deemed low-risk.
A ban on mass events such as group prayers and concerts, and the operation of nightclubs, colleges, universities and city public transport, will remain in place.
The country has confirmed 3,874 coronavirus cases and 16 deaths.
The boss of Ryanair has ridiculed the UK travel quarantine, suggesting it has been drawn up by the prime minister’s chief aide who notoriously broke coronavirus rules.
Michael O’Leary told BBC Breakfast: ”You don’t have a quarantine, people are going to be allowed to come next week through Heathrow and Gatwick, they then get on the London Underground, the trains, the buses, the taxis, to get to their destination.
“In the unlikely event you are actually called by someone from track and tracing, you could be on a golf course, you could be on a beach, you could be in the supermarket, saying ‘yes, I am complying fully, I am sitting at home quarantining’.
“This is a quarantine designed by Dominic Cummings for Dominic Cummings, who as we all know, doesn’t observe quarantine.”
“Normally at Ryanair we process about 10,000 refunds a week, currently we have 35 million refunds to process,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“The good news is we are about 40 per cent of the way through the process and we have already paid out nearly 500 million euro and we’ve got another 600 – 700 million euro to go, we think we will get through that in the next 10 to 12 weeks.
“We are assuring everyone that your refund is safe, if you want the cash refund you will get it, just be patient because we have to process a record backlog of cancellations caused by government measures and we have limited staff in our offices to process these refunds, but they are on their way.”
