Coronavirus live news: Anthony Fauci gets Covid vaccine in US; UK reports another 691 deaths | World news

British transport minister Grant Shapps said stranded truck drivers would begin receiving Covid tests on Wednesday that, if negative, would allow them to return home to France.

“We’ll be making sure that tomorrow we’re out there, providing tests,” Shapps said, but he cautioned the process would take time. “This will take two or three days for things to be cleared.”

Canada is introducing extra measures to screen people who have spent time in Britain to check for a fast-spreading mutated Covid-19 variant, public safety minister Bill Blair has said.

Separately, health officials said they had seen no sign yet of the variant, which has emerged in Britain and prompted many countries to introduce travel bans.

Although Ottawa imposed a 72-hour block on flights from Britain on Sunday, Blair said more steps were needed to handle people who had been in the country and then flown to Canada via Europe or the US.

Visitors to Britain during the previous two weeks prior to arrival in Canada will be referred to health officials for additional assessments, screening and questions. They will also have to go into quarantine for 14 days.

“We believe (these measures) are among the strongest in the world,” Blair said, adding those who lied about having not been in Britain could face imprisonment and big fines.

Fewer than 2% of coronavirus cases in Canada have been linked to international travel, Blair said.

A second wave of coronavirus is sweeping across Canada and authorities have only just begun to inoculate the population using Pfizer’s vaccine. Health minister Patty Hajdu said a decision on whether to approve Moderna’s vaccine should come very soon but gave no details.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, on Monday announced a partial shutdown of some businesses starting 26 December and banned most indoor gatherings.

Cases continue to rise steadily and chief public health officer Theresa Tam said she was particularly worried about the increasing number of people being hospitalised at a time when health care workers are exhausted.

“It’s going to be much more difficult for us to manage in the next few months,” she said.

Tunisia will ban all events including celebrations for the new year and extend its night curfew until 15 January to help combat the spread of coronavirus, the health minister has said.

The government imposed the night curfew in October and banned travel between regions in the North African country.

On Monday, Tunisia said it had recorded a total of 121,718 coronavirus infections, including 4,199 deaths.

Tunisian authorities said they had ordered vaccines from US drugmaker Pfizer.

France has reported 11,795 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, up from 5,797 on Monday and nearly unchanged from 11,532 last Tuesday, and taking the total to 2.49 million cases.

On Mondays, the number of cases usually drops because of weekend reporting lags.

French authorities also registered 802 new coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, including 381 hospital deaths, compared with 351 on Monday.

They reported 421 deaths in retirement homes over the past four days.

Total deaths from the respiratory pandemic now stand at 61,702.

The number of people in intensive care with Covid-19 in France fell again by 18 to 2,728, while the number hospitalised with the virus fell by 269 to 24,964.

French and EU citizens will again be allowed to enter France from Britain from midnight on Tuesday provided they have a negative Covid test that is less than 72 hours old, the French prime minister’s office has confirmed.

British citizens or citizens from third countries who have residence in France or the European Union can also enter the country or transit through it from Britain as long as they have a negative Covid test, the prime minister’s office said in a statement, according to Reuters.

UK citizens or people from third countries with legitimate professional or other reasons for travelling from Britain will also be allowed into France, provided they test negative.

The government listed several categories of people to whom this would be applicable, including those in transit for less than 24 hours in international zones, diplomats and their families, health workers, airline staff and bus or train operators.

The new rules will be in place until 6 January, unless reviewed following bilateral UK-France or EU-wide talks.

France is prepared to reopen its borders to travellers from the UK from tomorrow morning, the BBC’s Europe Editor Katya Adler reports citing the French transport minister.

The minister, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, confirmed that planes, trains and ships could begin arriving again in the country from midnight.

But he said people returning to France must have tested negative for Covid-19 in the last 72 hours.

The Daily Mirror has more.

Here’s a reminder of the latest developments:

• Almost 3,000 lorry drivers stranded in Kent are waiting for an announcement from France about plans to reopen its borders to UK traffic. “A solution is being worked on and will be announced during the course of the day,” a French government source said.
• Lorry drivers stranded at Manston airport in Kent have been sounding their horns in apparent protest at the delays and conditions. Kent county council insists that food and toilet facilities are being provided for drivers.
• The UK has recorded another 36,804 cases of the virus and announced 691 deaths. The number of deaths is the highest announced in a 24-hour period since early May. Covid-19 case rates are now above 1,000 cases per 100,000 people in 12 local areas of the UK, the latest data shows.
• The US’s top disease expert, Anthony Fauci, has had a shot of the vaccine and says he hopes this will encourage millions of other Americans to do the same. He said the jab should be “a symbol to the rest of the country that I feel extreme confidence of the safety and efficacy of this vaccine”.
• Nicola Sturgeon has warned MSPs that she may have to introduce full lockdown measures across Scotland in the coming days. She said tough restrictions were urgently needed to suppress the new strain of coronavirus that she revealed was likely present in 14% of Scottish cases according to the latest available data.
• Italy, which exceeded the UK last week as the European country with the highest Covid death toll, has reported a further 628 coronavirus-related deaths. Its daily tally of new infections increased to 13,318 from 10,872 on Monday.
• Hospitals in the Netherlands have said they will postpone all non-critical care in the coming weeks in order to deal with the rapid rise in Covid patients. Infections in the country jumped 42% to 83,240 in the last week, the National Institute for Public Health said.
• The chief executive of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech has said he is confident its coronavirus vaccine works against the new UK variant, but that further studies are need to be certain. Uğur Şahin told a press conference that his team had been working on trying to find out whether the vaccine worked on the UK variant or whether it would be necessary to adapt it.
• Antarctica, once the only continent not to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has reportedly recorded its first confirmed cases. The 36 new infections are among people stationed at a Chilean research base and include 26 members of the Chilean army and 10 maintenance workers.
• The US government is reported to have decided against screening passengers traveling from the United Kingdom. Germany has extended its ban on UK travellers until 6 January, while China has closed its visa service in London.

Kent county council says portable toilets have been installed at 1km intervals along the stretch of the M20 where more than 600 drivers are parked.

A further 150 loos are available at Manston airport where 2,220 lorries are parked. Another 70 loos will be installed on Wednesday.

Campaigners warned last month that post Brexit lorry queues threatened to transform Kent into the “toilet of England” without better facilities for drivers.

Belgium has detected four cases of the new variant sweeping the UK, health officials have told AFP.

The four cases were uncovered at the start of the month in the country’s northern Flemish regions that border the Netherlands, said Jan Eyckmans, spokesman for Belgium’s health minister.

A spokesman for the national virus crisis centre said the figure was conservative and that other infections by the strain could have gone undetected as Belgium screens for new mutations far less than Britain does.

“It’s not much, but it is not impossible that there are more,” Yves Van Laethem said.

Van Laethem warned that the decision to close borders could have come too late.

“Isn’t the enemy already among us? I don’t know, but it’s not impossible,” he said. “This closure was perhaps already too late since they started finding cases of this English strain in September.”

Here’s video of Anthony Fauci getting his vaccine:

Hundreds of truck drivers stuck in a lorry park near Dover have been left without water and the only toilet has been blocked, PA reports citing a fellow driver delivering supplies to them.

More than 1,500 lorries are backed up in Kent, while the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel remain closed to traffic leaving the country, with drivers facing a third night sleeping in their cabs.

Freight unable to make the crossing to France have been told to go to Manston Airport, near Ramsgate, which is now being used as a lorry park.

Laszlo Baliga, 51, from London, who is a truck driver himself, spent Tuesday delivering food and water to those lined up in the disused airfield.

He began taking supplies after Hungarian drivers stranded in the lorry park posted on Facebook asking for help, with one driver telling him the only toilet on the site had been blocked.

“No water and no toilet now – there is one toilet, but it is now blocked,” Baliga told the PA.

He and friends have so far spent more than 500 on food and water for drivers at the site.

Delivering bottles of water Baliga said:

This is our third time, we have got ready-to-eat sausages, bread, tomatoes, lettuce, coffee. Basic foods for now for the drivers. When we see Hungarian drivers coming in we say stop, and the drivers take things in to the other side to give to everybody.”

We like to help because this is a difficult time.

Covid-19 case rates are now above 1,000 cases per 100,000 people in 12 local areas of the UK, the latest data shows, PA reports.

Three of the areas are in Wales: Merthyr Tydfil, where the rate is currently 1,336.1 – the highest anywhere in the UK; Bridgend, where the rate is 1,145.9; and Blaenau Gwent, where the rate is 1,002.0.

The other nine areas are in England: Thurrock (1,257.3), Havering (1,190.9), Epping Forest (1,146.6), Brentwood (1,095.8), Basildon (1,080.1), Medway (1,054.4), Rochford (1,041.6), Redbridge (1,040.6) and Castle Point (1,011.3).

All figures are based on data published on Tuesday afternoon and are for the seven days to 18 December. Data on new cases for 19-22 December is incomplete and therefore not included.

Roger Gough, the leader of Kent county council, has told the BBC that almost 3,000 lorries are being held in Kent, including 2,220 at Manston.

Here’s video of Nicola Sturgeon announcing likely tougher restrictions in Scotland.

The US government does not intend to impose screenings for passengers travelling from Britain after the emergence of a highly infectious new coronavirus variant there, Reuters reports citing people briefed on the decision.

A White House coronavirus taskforce discussed requiring negative pre-flight tests after a meeting on Monday, but the government has decided not to take any action for the time being, the people said.

Italy, which exceeded the UK last week as the European country with the highest Covid death toll, has reported a further 628 coronavirus-related deaths.

Its daily tally of new infections increased to 13,318 from 10,872 on Monday, Reuters reports.

The first western country hit by the virus, Italy has seen 69,842 Covid fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February.

Patients in hospital with Covid-19 stood at 24,948 on Tuesday, down by 197 from the day before. There were 201 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 161 on Monday.