Coronavirus live news: Brazil records more than 2,000 deaths for second day; EU approves J&J vaccine | World news

In a primetime address, US president Joe Biden has said “We’re actually on track to reach this goal of 100 million shots on my 60th day in office,” noting that the US will likely surpass the president’s initial goal of 100m “shots in arms” within his first 100 days in office.

He officially announced the goal of having each state and local government make all adults eligible to be inoculated by 1 May.

As more and more adults, including teachers and public transportation employees, are vaccinated, “we can accelerate the massive nationwide effort to reopen our schools safely”, Biden said – within the next 50 days.

“I will not relent until we beat this virus,” he said.

A north London business centre previously used to host almost a million people across hundreds of events each year has reopened as an NHS Covid-19 mass vaccination centre.

Up to 4,000 people a day will receive shots in dozens of private booths at the Business Design Centre in Islington, treated by trained staff and an army of volunteers. Patients arriving on its opening day expressed excitement and hope that the vaccine programme could eventually end lockdowns:

Joe Biden has signed into law a $1.9tn coronavirus relief package, cementing the first major legislative victory of his presidency. “This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” Biden said about the American Rescue Plan. Touting the bill’s broad public support, he said the plan’s passage by the House of Representatives on Wednesday ensured that “their voices were heard”:

Portugal’s government announced it would start to gradually ease its strict rules from next week, Reuters reports, nearly two months into a lockdown imposed in mid-January to tackle what was then the world’s worst coronavirus surge.

Kindergartens, pre-schools and primary schools will reopen on Monday, as well as hair salons and book shops, Prime Minister AntonioCosta told a news conference, adding restaurants will only be allowed to open their doors in May.

The measures to ease the lockdown will be re-evaluated every 15 days, Costa said.

Hospitals in Brazil’s main cities are reaching capacity, health officials warned, as the country recorded the world’s highest Covid death toll over the past week, triggering tighter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state, Reuters reports.

Intensive care wards for treating Covid patients have reached critical occupancy levels over 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to biomedical centre Fiocruz.

In Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, the main reference hospital for Covid stopped admitting new cases because all its ICU beds were taken. A Reuters photographer saw patients on respirators crowding emergency rooms.

“This is a warning. We’ve reached capacity and people need to become aware of how bad the situation is,” said Claudio Oliveira, director of the Conceiçao Hospital. It was the first time the hospital has turned away patients since the H1N1 epidemic in 2009.

Oliveira told reporters the hospital closed its doors to avoid the collapse of care for the Covid patients there.

The death toll from Covid for the last 24 hours surpassed 2,000 for the second time, the Health Ministry said on Thursday, with 2,233 dead and new infections rising by 75,412.

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

I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.

Brazil reported 2,233 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the second consecutive day that fatalities have exceeded 2,000, the health ministry said on Thursday, and 75,412 new cases.

Meanwhile the European Union approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine on Thursday – the fourth jab to get the green light for the 27-nation bloc.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• Portugal’s government announced it would start to gradually ease its strict rules from next week, nearly two months into a lockdown imposed in mid-January to tackle what was then the world’s worst coronavirus surge. And controls on the country’s land border with neighbouring Spain will remain in place until Easter.
• The Covid-19 situation in greater Paris is “especially worrying” and the government will take extra restrictive measures there if the pandemic continues at its current pace, France’s health minister said on Thursday. While new infections are not growing exponentially, the numbers taken into intensive care have reached a new 3-1/2-months high nationally, close to 4,000, as France faces more dangerous variants
• Europe’s medicines regulator (EMA) said there appeared to be no higher risk of blood clots in those vaccinated against Covid-19, after Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab and another five European countries withdrew a batch.
• The governor of Brazil’s most populous state, São Paulo, declared a two-week emergency shutdown as the South American country’s coronavirus outbreak continues to spiral out of control.
• Slovakia’s health minister announced his resignation in an attempt to defuse a political crisis over the government’s mishandling of the pandemic and a row over the purchase of vaccines from Russia (see 4.08pm).
• Pfizer and BioNTech said that real-world data from Israel suggests that their vaccine is 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections, meaning the vaccine could significantly reduce transmission.
• The Polish capital, Warsaw, will be among cities facing tougher restrictions from Monday, the country’s health minister said, as several central European nations face surges in infections.
• Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be urgently reviewed for cancer patients after a single shot was found to offer inadequate protection, researchers said.
• France is to ease some Covid restrictions on international travel outside Europe, the foreign ministry said. Travellers to or from Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Britain and Singapore will no longer have to need a compelling reason to travel.