Covid live news: NZ to begin reopening border this month; more Tory MPs up pressure on Boris Johnson

The government in Tonga has said the total number of positive Covid-19 cases in the island nation now stands at four, down from five originally announced on Wednesday, New Zealand broadcaster RNZ has reported.

Tonga went into lockdown at 6pm on Wednesday after two port workers tested positive for Covid-19. They are thought to have picked up the virus from one of several merchant ships that has delivered aid to Tonga since it was struck by a volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami two weeks ago.

The prime minister, Siaosi Sovaleni, told RNZ Pacific earlier on Thursday that they were investigating the outbreak, and that it was unlikely to have been transmitted from naval boats that had delivered aid to the country.

He said that the two port workers who had contracted Covid-19 had been collecting aid deliveries at Queen Salote Wharf, a separate port of entry from Vuna Wharf, which was used by the HMAS Adelaide, a Royal Australian Navy boat and the only vessel to have reported Covid-19 among its crew.

China has reported 39 confirmed coronavirus cases for 2 February, down from 63 a day earlier, the country’s health authority said according to Reuters.

Of the new confirmed infections, 21 were locally transmitted and the remaining were found among people arriving from overseas, according to a statement by the National Health Commission.

No new fatalities were reported, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636. Mainland China had 106,241 confirmed cases as of 2 February.

A fresh wave of Conservative MPs have submitted letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson, breaking cover to criticise the UK prime minister as the fallout from the Downing Street lockdown parties scandal continues to imperil his premiership.

In a sign that Johnson’s position is still under threat despite No 10’s desperate attempts to move on from the crisis, three more MPs publicly called on the prime minister to resign, describing their shock and anger at Johnson’s conduct since the publication of an interim report.

Tobias Ellwood, Anthony Mangnall and Gary Streeter all said they had submitted letters of no confidence on Wednesday, joining four others who have confirmed that tey have done so publicly. The Guardian has been told of one other backbench MP who has privately submitted a letter.

More have called for Johnson to go – but have not formally declared they have written letters.

Several MPs loyal to Johnson said they were convinced there was now a renewed co-ordinated effort to oust Johnson, given the timing of the announcements.

One senior member of the One Nation group of centrist MPs said Johnson’s unabashed attempts at linking Labour leader Keir Starmer with the failure to arrest sex abuser Jimmy Savile had “changed the game” for several colleagues.

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New Zealand has announced it will reopen its border to visitors in stages, starting at the end of February, after its earlier plans to do so were derailed by Omicron.

It will be the first time the country has opened up since prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced its snap closure in the first month of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The country’s borders have been closed, apart from a short-lived travel bubble with Australia, for nearly two years.

“With Omicron’s arrival, we pushed that change in border settings out – to give ourselves the chance to roll out boosters – a chance most other countries never had,” Ardern said in a speech on Thursday.

“With our community better protected we must turn to the importance of reconnection. Families and friends need to reunite. Our businesses need skills to grow. Exporters need to travel to make new connections.”

The border will initially open to vaccinated New Zealand citizens and visa holders coming from Australia, then from the rest of the world, and finally to all other vaccinated visitors.

They will still have to self-isolate at home for 10 days, but will no longer have to pass through the country’s expensive and highly space-limited managed isolation facilities, known as MIQ.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.

New Zealand has announced it will reopen its border to visitors in stages, after its earlier plans to do so were derailed by Omicron. The country’s borders have been closed, apart from a short-lived travel bubble with Australia, for nearly two years.

Three more Conservative MPs have publicly called on UK prime minister Boris Johnson to resign, describing their shock and anger at his conduct since the publication of an interim report into parties held at Downing Street while the country was under strict lockdown measures.

Here’s what else has been happening over the past 24 hours:

• Serbia’s state prosecutors on Wednesday rejected suggestions that Novak Djokovic used a fake positive test for Covid-19 to try to enter Australia and compete in the Australian Open.
• The US army has said soldiers who refuse to get a Covid-19 vaccine will be immediately discharged, maintaining the move is critical to maintain combat readiness.
• UK Conservative MP Mark Jenkinson has sparked a backlash after arguing on ITV that breaching Covid rules is equivalent to parking on a double-yellow line.
• Italy will soon announce a timetable to roll back its Covid curbs, prime minister Mario Draghi said today. It comes as the surge in cases fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant started to show signs of slowing.
• Germany has recorded over 10 million total Covid cases, after detecting 208,498 new infections in the past 24 hours. Ministers said they hope to lift restrictions in March.
• Police in Ottawa, Canada, have seen signs that guns have been brought into a
  truckers’ protest against vaccine mandates that has paralysed the Canadian capital, the police chief said.
• The chairman of The Ivors Academy has called for “major reform” so musicians are treated with “dignity and respect” amid criticism of Spotify over Covid misinformation on the platform.
• UK Covid infections have stopped falling, with levels holding steady or climbing, the ONS said. For England one in 20 people had Covid in the week ending 29 January.
• Russia broke its record Covid tally, with 141,883 new infections over the past 24 hours.
• In Japan, Tokyo detected a record-breaking 21,576 new cases, topping the previous record of 17,631, as the country battles Omicron.
• Exposure to a single nasal droplet is sufficient to become infected with Covid-19, according to a landmark trial in which healthy volunteers were intentionally given a dose of the virus.