UK former health secretary tests positive for Covid Matt Hancock has tested positive for Covid-19 after contracting the virus for a second time. Writing on Twitter, he said he has been isolating at home since testing positive for the virus yesterday afternoon. Pfizer said it is reducing its US sales staff as it expects doctors and other healthcare providers to want fewer face-to-face interactions with salespeople after the pandemic ends, Reuters reports. The move comes as the company is expected to announce more than $80 billion (£59 billion) in revenue in 2021 on sales of the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech. In a statement, Pfizer said: We are evolving into a more focused and innovative biopharma company, and evolving the way we engage with healthcare professionals in an increasingly digital world. There will be some changes to our workforce to ensure we have the right expertise and resources in place to meet our evolving needs. The company did not specify how many sales jobs it was cutting but a source familiar with the matter said Pfizer was eliminating a few hundred positions. Here’s more Quebec’s plan to impose a “health tax” on residents who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccination for non-medical reasons, by my colleague Leyland Cecco. Premier François Legault announced the new “contribution” for the unvaccinated on Tuesday, as the province reported 62 new deaths, bringing the total number of people killed by Covid-19 in the province to 12,028 – the most in Canada. “A health contribution will be charged to all adults that don’t want to get vaccinated. We are there now,” he said. “Those who refuse to get the shot bring a financial burden to hospital staff and Quebecers. The 10% of the population can’t burden the 90%.” The move follows the abrupt resignation of a senior health official in the province, amid mounting anger over new lockdown measures, hospitals at capacity and the slow rollout of vaccine boosters. New Jersey’s governor Phil Murphy has reinstated a public health emergency amid the state’s record number of cases and a sharp increase in hospital admissions. In a statement, he said: While we hope to return to a state of normalcy as soon as possible, the step I am taking today is a commonsense measure that will protect the safety and well-being of all New Jersey residents while allowing state government to respond to the continuing threat that Covid-19 poses to our daily lives. On Monday, Murphy described the state as being in the middle of an “Omicron tsunami” with more residents – including children – being hospitalised than at any point since April 2020. Bolivia’s vice president and six cabinet ministers test positive for Covid Bolivia’s vice president and six cabinet ministers are in isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus, the government said Tuesday. The news comes just a week after Vice President David Choquehuanca received his first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, following widespread criticism over his decision to wait to get a jab, Associated Press reports. The other ministers who tested positive are ministers of the interior, Eduardo del Castillo; defense, Edmundo Novillo; foreign relations, Rogelio Mayta; education, Edgar Pari; justice, Iván Lima, and planning, Gabriela Mendoza. UK former health secretary tests positive for Covid Matt Hancock has tested positive for Covid-19 after contracting the virus for a second time. Writing on Twitter, he said he has been isolating at home since testing positive for the virus yesterday afternoon. Hancock first contracted the virus in April 2020 at the height of the first wave of the pandemic. The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson needs to spend the next six months rebuilding public trust in his government, a senior Conservative MP has said. Sir Charles Walker, the vice chairman of the influential backbench 1922 Committee, said an invitation to Downing Street staff to attend a drinks party in the garden of No 10 in May 2020 had been a “huge error of judgment”. He told Channel 4 News: I think there was probably a bunker mentality in No 10, in and around Downing Street. It is highly possible there was some really poor decision-making around this. I don’t think it was malicious, I just think it was a mistake. I think the Prime Minister needs to spend the next six months restoring trust in No 10 and making some good and strong decisions. I think that is the challenge for him. WHO warns people not to attend "Covid parties" The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s technical lead for Covid-19, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, has described so-called Covid parties as “dangerous” and warned of the threat of long Covid. Images and videos have appeared on social media purportedly showing people purposefully trying to catch Covid at a time convenient to them. Catching the virus at one of these events could lead to a “real” chance of developing severe disease as well as passing it on to someone who is more vulnerable, she warned at a briefing today. We don’t know the implications of Omicron, which replicates in the upper respiratory tract as opposed to the lower respiratory tract and if that has any implication on your chances of developing longer-term effects. I’ve heard some very scary stories about, you know, parties of people and trying to get infected. Please, that is very unsafe. Good evening from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong, taking over from Matthew Weaver to bring you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Do get in touch with tips and stories on Twitter or via email. We’ll start in Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, where residents who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid for non-medical reasons could face a “significant” financial penalty. Quebec’s premier François Legault made the announcement today, describing the measures as a “health-care contribution” though the exact amount has not yet been determined. He told reporters: A health contribution will be charged to all adults that don’t want to get vaccinated. We are there now. Only 10% of the population is unvaccinated but they make up 50% of patients in intensive care beds, Legault said, adding: Those who refuse to get the shot bring a burden to hospital staff and an important financial burden for the majority of Quebecers. The health tax will apply to all adults in Quebec who refuse to get their first vaccine dose “in the next few weeks”. The new measure comes as Quebec’s hospitals find themselves increasingly stretched with more admissions driven by the Omicron variant and staff absences. Ireland is expected to lift restrictions on the movement of people who have been in close contact with someone suffering from Covid, Reuters reports. In a radio interview with Newstalk, the minister for health, Stephen Donnelly, said he had received updated advice on coronavirus restrictions that would be considered by his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday. He said: The main change and recommendation is as follows: if you have boosted immunity currently you are asked to restrict your movements for five days. That requirement would go completely. So no restricted movement if you have boosted immunity. Boosted immunity means people who have had two doses of a vaccine and a confirmed diagnosis of Covid in the last three months, Donnelly said. Ireland’s health department reported 19,290 new cases on Tuesday, with tOmicron accounting for 92% of all infections in the country. Donnelly said he would also propose that certain age groups with a positive rapid antigen test no longer need a PCR test to confirm the result. The isolation period for those who test positive is set to be standardised at seven days, regardless of whether they have received a booster vaccination. France confirms record 368,149 new cases France has reported a record of more than 350,000 new cases as health minister Olivier Véran warned. The confirmed record figure for new cases is 368,149. About three-quarters of teachers in France plan to strike on Thursday to protest against the government’s shifting rules on Covid forcing the closure of half the country’s primary schools, a union has warned. The strike led by the Snuipp-FSU union, the largest among primary school teachers, comes after the latest of several changes on testing and isolation requirements for potential Covid cases announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday. After seeing long queues of parents outside pharmacies and labs in recent days to test children in classes where a case was detected, Castex said home tests could now be used to determine if a student could return to school. But teachers say class disruptions have become unmanageable with the spread of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant, especially since many parents remain unable to get vaccination appointments for children over five, available only since late December. “Students cannot learn properly because attendance varies wildly, and a hybrid of in-house and distance learning is impossible to put in place,” the Snuipp-FSU said, adding that absent teachers are not being replaced. It is also demanding the government provide facemasks for staff, including the more protective FFP2 masks, and CO2 monitors to check if classrooms are sufficiently ventilated. “Not only does the current protocol not protect students, staff or their families, it has completely disorganised schools,” the union said, claiming that classes have effectively been turned into “daycare centres.” The education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has said the government is doing everything possible to avoid outright school closures that could cause havoc for parents and jeopardise learning for thousands, especially those in low-income families. Turkey warns of Omicron danger after record new cases Turkey has become the latest country to announce a record number of cases, with 74,266 new infections. There were 137 deaths related to coronavirus in the same period, the data showed. In late December, daily cases stood at around 20,000. The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said: As cases due to the Omicron variant become dominant, Omicron will be a source of danger for those in risk groups and it may lead to death among the elderly and the chronically ill. Italy reports record 220,532 new cases Italy has reported record 220,532 new cases, more than double the figure announced on Monday. It also announced another 294 Covid-related deaths. Italy has registered 139,559 deaths linked to the virus since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, and has reported 7.77 million cases to date. Patients in hospital with Covid – not including those in intensive care - stood at 17,067 up from 16,340 a day earlier. There were 185 admissions to intensive care units, against 114 on Monday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 1,677 from a previous 1,606. Linda Geddes Public health leaders have called for greater support for those affected with long Covid, warning that the surge in cases risks exacerbating existing health inequalities between rich and poor. Speaking at a webinar organised by the Local Government Association, they noted that, just as those from poorer backgrounds suffered a disproportionately high number of Covid infections, many of those affected by long Covid also came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Dr Aiden Fowler, the national director of patient safety in England, said: Because there is the highest prevalence in areas of deprivation, long Covid has the potential to worsen the health and wider socioeconomic inequalities that already occur, which could prove a challenge for local authorities. Dr Dagmar Zeuner, the director of public health in the London borough of Merton, added that people working in occupations that brought them into contact with infected individuals, and who had little control over their environment, had already borne the brunt of infections. She said: “Now, these are also the ones that carry the burden of long Covid, so they are suffering to keep their jobs.” Yet, they were not necessarily getting equal access to the long Covid clinics set up to help rehabilitate them. Zeuner said: The people we are see now coming through are not mirroring those communities that are hit hardest. We should unashamedly say that the main challenge and also the main opportunity is that we really use this new condition to focus on equity. We all want to reduce inequality, and these have been desperately exacerbated by Covid. Their comments echo the findings of a report published last year, which suggested towns in north-west England were facing a growing health and economic crisis due to high numbers of long Covid cases. Summary Here’s a round up of Tuesday’s developments: France’s health ministry is expected to announce a record of more than 350,000 new Covid infections over a 24-hour period, according to the health minister, Olivier Véran. Novak Djokovic’s defence of his Australian Open title remains in doubt after reports that he might have given misleading information to Australian immigration officials. Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is still considering whether to cancel Djokovic’s visa despite his court victory on Monday. Officials are concerned about Djokovic’s claim on his entry form that he had not travelled in the 14 days prior to his arrival in Australia on January 6. Sweden has announced a record 70,641 new Covid cases since Friday. It also said there were a 54 new deaths from Covid. The US has recorded a record number of hospitalisations due to Covid-19, as the daily infection rate soared to more than 1.35m. There were 145,982 people hospitalised with coronavirus on Monday, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. The UK has recorded another 379 deaths within 28 days of a positive test. It also reported another 120,821 new cases, down on Monday’s new cases total of 142,224. Some local authorities in Finland are defying government isolation measures in schools. Taina Isosomppi, Helsinki’s chief epidemiologist, said: “It would be disproportionate to implement large-scale quarantines at schools when they have not been a high-risk environment to begin with.” More than half of people in Europe could contract the Omicron in the next two months if infections continue at current rates, the World Health Organization has warned. Regional director Hans Kluge said: “At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks.” The WHO also warned that it is too too soon to treat Omicron as a flu-like endemic illness. Senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said: “We still have a huge amount of uncertainty and a virus that is evolving quite quickly, imposing new challenges. We are certainly not at the point where we are able to call it endemic. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was hoarse and had a sore throat after testing positive for Covid for the second time. “It’s like a cold” he told reporters in a video message. Germany has reported a daily rise of 45,690 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 322 deaths, according to the latest figures released by the Robert Koch Institute. Germany’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, has called England’s relatively lax Covid rules an “unethical bet”. He warned against copying England’s pandemic response. Poland’s death toll from Covid has surpassed 100,000. health minister Adam Niedzielski announced the grim milestone, saying: “Today we can say it is another sad day, but especially so because we have passed the level of 100,000 Covid deaths.” The central Chinese city of Anyang has ordered five million people to begin home confinement in a new lockdown to curb the spread of Omicron variant. Residents are not to leave their homes or drive cars on the roads, while all non-essential businesses have been closed and outbound travel is restricted, state news agency Xinhua reports. Slovenia and Serbia have both reported record numbers of new cases amid the spread of Omicron, Reuters reports. Slovenia, which has vaccinated 67.3% of its about 2 million-strong population with at least two dozes so far, reported 5,164 new cases, up 52% from a week before, according to the National Institute for Public Health. Serbia reported 13,693 new cases and 22 deaths. The total number of registered cases in Serbia is 1,359,544, while 12,958 people have died since the outbreak nearly two years ago.