Coronavirus live news: Japan prefectures to declare emergency; calls for ‘surge vaccinations’ in UK | World news

Japan will declare a state of emergency in three more prefectures hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday, in a surprise move reflecting growing concerns about the virus’s spread.

Hokkaido, Okayama and Hiroshima will on Sunday join Tokyo, Osaka and four other prefectures under a state of emergency until May 31, said Nishimura, who is also in charge of coronavirus countermeasures.

The government had originally proposed a more targeted “quasi-emergency” declaration for Hokkaido, Okayama and Hiroshima, and two other prefectures. The lesser declaration now covers eight of Japan’s 47 prefectures.

“There were various views expressed at the meeting (with experts). Based on those views, we retracted our original proposal and came up with this new one and got approval for it,” Nishimura told reporters after the meeting.

The rising state of emergency declarations come as Japan grapples with a surge of a more infectious strain just 10 weeks before the Tokyo Olympics are due to start.

Experts say medical resources are being pushed to the brink, while Japan’s vaccination drive has been the slowest among advanced nations with just 3% of the population vaccinated, according to Reuters data.

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

As always, you can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Japan will declare a state of emergency in three more prefectures hit hard by Covid, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday, in a surprise move reflecting growing concerns about the virus’s spread.

Meanwhile UK ministers are under growing pressure to deploy “surge vaccinations” in Covid hotspots, with some local authorities pushing to extend the offer of jabs to over-18s to stop the spread of a coronavirus variant.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• Fully vaccinated Americans no longer have to wear a mask in most settings, the Center for Disease Control said on Thursday. Joe Biden called it “a great day for America in our long battle against coronavirus”.
• UK cases of an Indian variant have more than doubled in the past week, according to Public Health England data. Figures published on Thursday evening show there are 1,313 cases of the VOC-21APR-02 variant in the country, up from 520 the previous week.
• Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said it was a variant of concern. “We are anxious about it,” he said when asked by reporters.
• The four most worrying variants have been detected in virtually all parts of the Americas, a World Health Organization expert said.
• French health authorities reported 19,461 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, representing a weekly rise of less than two per cent for the first time in almost a year, Reuters reports. The total number of hospitalisations for the disease fell by 598, decreasing for the 10th day in a row to 23,656, the lowest since October 31.
• The Philippines is set to ease of some coronavirus restrictions in the capital and nearby provinces, with daily infections well down from a peak six weeks ago.
• The United Arab Emirates have approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine for children, the government announced.
• Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the country is on track for herd immunity, predicting 33 million people will be vaccinated by mid-August.
• Malaysia has reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases in more than three months.
• The number of cases of the Indian Covid variant in Northern Ireland has increased to at least 12, it has been reported.
• A South African report into excess deaths over the past year suggests more than 133,000 people in the country have died from Covid, far more than the official tally of nearly 55,000.