Coronavirus cases dropped 15 330 000 week lockdown england

Boris Johnson has raised hopes of a ‘normal’ summer by announcing plans to lift all Covid restrictions in England by June 21. The Prime Minister set out a four-step easing of restrictions starting with the return of all children to school and social mixing outdoors ( see below ). He predicted that the success of the vaccine roll-out meant: “Today the end really is in sight”. Mr Johnson told MPs: “A wretched year will give way to a Spring and a Summer that will be incomparably better”. He later added that the “crocus of hope is poking through the frost”. But in a dramatic shift in tone, he stressed that his approach must now be “cautious” to avoid a fourth national lockdown. And he admitted that he could not guarantee that the measures would be “irreversible” - although he wanted them to be. What is your view? Have your say in the comments section Tory MPs have urged him to lift measures by April 26 now that more than 17.7m people have received their first Covid … [Read more...] about ‘Normal’ summer hope for Brits as lockdown to end on June 21 after 4 key steps

More surge testing will be rolled out in Ealing after additional cases of the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa were detected. It is an extension of testing which was started in the west London borough earlier this month following the discovery of previous cases. Cases have been identified in Acton, Greenford, Southall and West Ealing and are not believed to be linked to international travel. Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world People living in Ealing are strongly encouraged to take a COVID-19 test when offered. Advertisement Anyone with symptoms should book a free test online or by phone to get tested at a testing site or have a testing kit sent home. On Wednesday the government announced that surge testing would begin in the HP10 postcode in Buckinghamshire and SW8 and SW9 postcodes in Lambeth in London. More from Covid-19 Kenneth Branagh transforms into Boris Johnson in uncanny first-look … [Read more...] about COVID-19: More surge testing in Ealing as additional South Africa variant cases detected

A large, real world study involving half a million people has revealed that the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is 94% effective. The paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday and involved studying 1.2 million people during Israel's mass inoculation campaign . What did the study reveal? The study showed that two shots of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine cut symptomatic COVID-19 cases by 94% across all age groups, while a single shot was 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic infections after two weeks. The vaccine also proved 92% effective at preventing severe illnesses after two shots and 62% after one, the peer-reviewed study found. The results of the study were close to those in last year's clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which found two doses to be 95% effective. It showed that there could be a strong protective benefit against infection, a factor that is considered crucial in breaking onward transmission. … [Read more...] about Coronavirus: Mass study confirms BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine ‘extremely effective’

France on Thursday said it would tighten controls at the German border to curb the spread of coronavirus, which is spreading faster in the eastern Moselle region than elsewhere in France. "Strengthening of health measures at the Franco-German border in Moselle, from March 1," the Ministry of Solidarity and Health tweeted. From Monday, workers commuting between Germany and Moselle will have to submit to a weekly PCR test before being allowed to cross the border, Health Minister Olivier Veran and European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said in a statement. Watch video 12:01 Share Europeans cross borders to escape tough lockdowns Send Facebook Twitter reddit EMail Facebook Messenger Web Whatsapp Web Telegram linkedin Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3pZRu Europeans cross borders to escape tough lockdowns The new measures follow a warning from the German government last week that it was considering … [Read more...] about Coronavirus: France announces new border checks with Germany

Leaders from across the 27-nation bloc convened via videoconference on Thursday to thrash out joint approaches to the COVID-19 crisis. The topics of discussion included unilateral border closures and restrictions , the slowness of the EU's vaccine rollout and the thorny issue of so-called vaccine passports . The issues discussed Vaccine passports: Tourist-reliant southern European nations such as Greece and Spain urged the rapid adoption of an EU-wide vaccination certificate for travelers. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz backed the idea in an appearance on the online television channel of Germany's Bild newspaper. He said it would enable a restart to free travel in Europe and could help "secure and protect" struggling sectors like the arts, sports and gastronomy. Manfred Weber, the head of the conservative bloc in the European Parliament, has called for a speedy rollout of a vaccine passport in order to allow freedom of movement in the EU. "[A] vaccination … [Read more...] about Coronavirus: EU leaders consider vaccine passports