Coronavirus news live: Pfizer to license Covid pill for poor nations, Beijing tightens entry rules ahead of Olympics

Switzerland is having a referendum later this month on whether the public backs the government’s anti-Covid measures. They had been approved earlier in the year, but those opposing the measures have forced a second vote, which will take place on 28 November.

Reuters report a poll this morning from broadcaster SRG that suggests the law will be confirmed with 61% backing it, with 38% opposed and 1% undecided.

The law was originally passed in March and expanded financial aid to people hit by Covid and laid the foundation for certificates the government requires for people to enter bars and restaurants and attend certain events.

Here’s a recap of the situation in Northern Ireland, where PA Media have been reporting overnight that they have seen a paper from the Department of Health which has informed Executive ministers that positive cases have risen by 23% in a week.

The paper says hospital admissions have risen by 19% in the last week, while occupancy is up 10%. The conversion rate of cases to hospital admissions has risen above 2% for the first time since early September, and is now estimated at around 2.8%.

The paper says an increase in admissions is inevitable in the coming week and will continue to rise beyond that if cases numbers are not reduced. Officials warn that community transmission is at a “high level and increasing rapidly”.

The Health Department experts state that without further intervention “as soon as possible”, modelling suggests hospital capacity may be exceeded in mid-December, if the current trajectory follows a central pathway.

The paper states: “Evidence suggests that adherence to guidelines by the public is declining and that there has been very low uptake of Covid certification on a voluntary basis by the hospitality sector.”

It states the need for immediate measures to increase adherence to current mitigations – such as face mask use and work-from-home guidance.

It says those mitigations will be unlikely to bring the reproduction rate below one unless they are accompanied by “widespread use of Covid certification across higher risk settings”.

Robin Swann, Northern Ireland’s health minister, has previously proposed that mandatory Covid-19 passports become enforceable from 13 December. PA says it understands that Swann is proposing that passports are used to gain entry to nightclubs, hospitality premises that serve food and or drink, cinemas, theatres and conferences halls. The passport issue has sharply divided the five-party coalition in Belfast.

PA report that the paper warns that without a significant decline in community transmission in the next three weeks “there is a risk that more severe restrictions will need to be considered from mid-December to avoid hospital capacity from being overwhelmed”.

17 November is usually a day of great celebration in the Czech Republic, as people remember the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution that ended the communist government in Czechoslovakia.

However, the day has started with some worrying news. Reuters report that the Czech Republic reported 22,479 new coronavirus cases for Tuesday, the highest tally recorded in the country of 10.7 million since the pandemic started.

The seven-day rolling average of case numbers is at 11,313, as opposed to the level of a week ago, when it stood at 7,878.

Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Samantha Lock in Sydney. Here’s a reminder of the Covid situation in the UK. According to the government’s own data dashboard, case numbers are up over 14% on the previous week, but deaths were down 10% and hospitalisations were down 4% on the previous week.

The UK media round is being handled for the government by international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan. I’ll bring you any Covid lines that emerge from that, as well as the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.

Strict new Covid-19 restrictions come into force for visitors to Beijing on Wednesday.

All visitors to the capital must now show a negative Covid test result from the past 48 hours, while flights from higher risk areas within China will be cancelled or limited to one a day at reduced capacity, the AFP reports.

The restrictions also reportedly include Covid tests every three days for the more than 30,000 people working with cold-chain imports in the city.

“Beijing is the capital and has strong regional and international connections … The virus must not be introduced into Beijing and it must not spread in Beijing,” city spokesman Xu Hejian said at a press conference on Tuesday.

With less than 100 days to go to the games in February, China is bracing for a challenge to its zero-Covid strategy when thousands of international athletes descend on Beijing after months of strict border controls.

No spectators from outside China will be allowed to attend the Olympics, which will be held from 4 February in a “closed-loop” bubble.

And the estimated 2,900 athletes must be fully vaccinated or face 21 days’ quarantine upon arrival. They will also be tested daily.

Welcome back to our live Covid news blog this Wednesday.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be with you for the next short while to give you a rundown of all the latest headlines.

First up, in a move that may go towards closing the vaccination gap between the world’s wealthiest and poorest nations, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced a deal to make its antiviral Covid-19 pill available more cheaply in the world’s least-wealthy countries.

The company will allow generic manufacturers to supply its Paxlovid pill to 95 low-and middle-income nations covering about 53% of the world’s population, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Strict new Covid restrictions will also come into force in Beijing from Wednesday for visitors to the Chinese capital, requiring negative tests and dramatically cutting domestic flights, the AFP reports.

With less than 100 days to go to the Winter Olympics in February, China is bracing for a challenge to its zero-Covid strategy when thousands of international athletes descend on Beijing after months of strict border controls.

• Auckland, New Zealand, is set to lift Covid travel restrictions in December.
  
• Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases public official in the US, said on Tuesday that if America further ramps up vaccination rates and those already immunised take booster shots that it is feasible Covid-19 could be reduced from a pandemic emergency to endemic status next year.
• Pfizer has announced it is asking US regulators to authorise its experimental antiviral Covid-19 pill, Paxlovid, which has been shown in clinical trials to cut the risk of hospitalisation and death for adults by almost 90%.
• The Philippines has approved the emergency use of the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine, Reuters reports.
• India’s daily Covid-19 deaths rose by 301, bring the total death toll to 464,153 the health ministry said.
• Germany reports another 52,826 confirmed coronavirus cases and 294 death, the Robert Koch Institute reports.
• Slovakia is planning new restrictions on unvaccinated people in an effort to tame the latest surge of coronavirus infections that has caused a “critical” situation in the country’s hospitals, the prime minister said Tuesday.
• People in Ireland are being asked to work from home where possible from Friday and bars, restaurants and nightclubs will introduce a midnight closing time on Friday as a raft of new restrictions is agreed by the government in the face of rising hospitalisations.
• Thousands of restaurant owners in Greece shut their businesses in a nationwide protest against recent measures that fine establishments for serving customers without proper documentation of their vaccination or test status.
• The UK has recorded another 37,243 Covid cases in the last 24 hours, and a further 214 deaths within 28 days of a positive test. That is compared with 39,705 infections and 47 deaths reported the day before.
• Scotland’s Covid passport scheme could be extended to cinemas, theatres and bars next week if that helped avoid a harsher lockdown closer to Christmas, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.
• Portugal may bring back some measures to stop the spread of Covid in the run-up to the holiday season as infections soar across Europe, prime minister Antonio Costa said.
• In Germany, plans are under way for the introduction of tighter restrictions on people who have so far chosen not to be vaccinated. Munich became the first major German city to cancel its upcoming Christmas market, blaming the “dramatic” coronavirus resurgence. Berlin introduced restrictions for those who are unvaccinated on Monday.