Coronavirus: Ireland reports three cases of Brazilian variant; Italian police investigate fake vaccines — as it happened

And that’s it from me, Edna Mohamed. We’re now closing this liveblog. To follow the latest Guardian coverage on coronavirus, head here for all the latest developments across the globe.

• Italian police are investigating fake Covid-19 drugs and vaccines after interviewing a Veneto regional official reported to have received an offer to buy 27m doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of the EU procurement system.
• Greece has extended lockdown restrictions to more areas of the country to stem the spread of infections, Reuters reports. But it has also lifted lockdown in others where infections receded.
• US land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least 21 March to address Covid-19 concerns, the US government has said, according to Reuters.
• The gap between vaccinating people in wealthy and developing countries could narrow to half a year, the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said on Friday.
• Around 200,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine are on their way to Mexico, the country’s foreign minister said on Friday, as part of a global scramble to secure tight supplies.
• The Philippines recorded 157 new deaths from Covid on Friday, the highest daily death toll in five months.
• In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, lockdown and stay at home orders are being extended until at least 8 March despite schools only just starting up again and shops scheduled to reopen on 22 February.
• Serbian state television has reported that the singer Djordje Balasevic, 67, has died after contracting Covid-19.
• Denmark has announced the closure of some border crossings from Germany following a cluster outbreak in a German town close to the border. Thirteen crossings will be closed outright and nine others will receive increased security.
• France reports 328 deaths, up from yesterday’s figure of 271 and Wednesday’s 310, in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 83,964, according to data published by its health ministry.
• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that pulse oximeters, devices that measure oxygen levels in blood, should not be used to diagnose Covid-19 in particular circumstances.
• The Irish Department of Health has reported three cases of the Brazilian variant of Covid-19. The cases have been identified as having been directly related to recent travel from Brazil.
• On Friday night, Dutch senators approved hastily drawn up legislation underpinning the country’s coronavirus curfew, ensuring it will remain in force until at least early March.
• After demonstrations in Gabon’s two major cities, the president has said two people have died as protests against new Covid-19 restrictions degenerated into a street standoff.
• Argentina’s health minister has been asked to resign after a well-known local journalist said he had been given the vaccine preferentially after requesting one from the minister.

Argentina’s health minister has been asked to resign after a well-known local journalist said he had been given the vaccine preferentially after requesting one from the minister.

A government official said that the Argentinian president, Alberto Fernandez, “instructed his chief of staff to request the resignation of the health minister”.

Gines Gonzalez Garcia, the health minister who is also in charge of the government’s Covid-19 strategy, has not spoken out about the request to resign from his post.

AP reports:

The scandal erupted when journalist Horacio Verbitsky, whose stories and columns on a website and on the radio are seen as pro-government, said he called the minister to request a vaccination, and Gonzalez Garcia summoned him to the health ministry where he received a Sputnik V vaccine shot Thursday.

“I decided to get vaccinated. I started to find out where to do it. I called my old friend Gines Gonzalez Garcia, whom I have known long before he was a minister,” Verbitsky told a local radio station.

“I went to the ministry, and the team of vaccinators was there.”

The case is not isolated in Argentina, where in recent days reports have emerged of mayors, legislators, activists and people close to political power receiving the vaccine despite not being in the priority group of doctors, health personnel and the elderly authorized to receive shots.

Fernandez’s government has been harshly criticized for Argentina’s slow vaccination operation. So far, the South American country has received about 1.5 million doses, mostly Sputnik V but also AstraZeneca, insufficient to immunize a population of 40 million.

Argentina has had 2 million people infected by the coronavirus and 50,857 deaths from Covid-19.

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After demonstrations in Gabon’s two major cities, the president has said two people have died as the protest degenerated into a street standoff, Reuters reports.

Security forces fired teargas and stun grenades in neighbourhoods in Libreville and Port Gentil that had put up barricades, banged pots and burned tyres.

Prime Minister Rose Christine Ossouka Raponda said in a statement: “Yesterday evening, two of our compatriots died during protests against these protective measures.”

Last week, Gabon restricted travel in and out of the capital city. It expanded curfew hours from 6 pm to 6 am, much to the dismay of its residents.

Reuters reports:

The new 6 pm measure is harsh and thoughtless,” law student Sarah Lewoubi said on Friday.

She added that most Gabonese workers and students, who don’t have cars, struggle to get home before the curfew hour.

“Work ends at 4 pm, and it is impossible to reach our homes for the most part before 8 pm because of traffic jams and other hassles. So the government must review this matter,” Lewoubi said.

Gabon has reported 13,107 coronavirus infections and 75 Covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began. The central African nation is experiencing a second wave of infections, reporting 133 new cases on average each day.

Restrictions will be eased when new infections fall below 50 a day, which should be achieved by March, Raponda said.

“All these measures were enacted, not for the pleasure of disrupting our everyday life, but to protect our health and our lives,” she said.

Due to the extreme weather hitting the United States, the White House said about 6m vaccines have been temporarily delayed due to the frigid weather.

The drop in temperatures has affected Texas the worst as about 165,000 households in the state remain without power.

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The Guardian’s Alexandra Villareal has more on the delays caused by America’s cold snap:

Dutch senators have approved hastily drawn up legislation on Friday underpinning the country’s coronavirus curfew, ensuring it will remain in force until at least early March.

Several opposition parties joined government senators in approving the legislation by a 45-13 vote.

The vote was a victory for the government which has been battling to ensure the measures stay in place amid fears that more transmissible Covid-19 variants will reverse the decline in infections.

The coronavirus curfews was first met with rioting when lawmakers introduced the 9pm to 4.30 am stay at home order. Still, it remains a rule that is broadly supported and followed.

However, earlier this week, a lower court sided with the anti-lockdown group Virus Waarheid or Virus Truth that the curfew lacked a legal basis and ordered that it be abandoned.

An appeal ruling is due to be issued in The Hague next Friday on that case.

The Irish Department of Health has reported three cases of the Brazilian variant of Covid-19.

The cases have been identified as having been directly related to recent travel from Brazil.

Public health teams are following up on all cases, and enhanced public health measures have been put in place, in line with existing guidance, PA reports.

The deputy chief medical officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said: “Anyone who has recently travelled from Brazil, or any of the other 19 countries recently designated by the Minister for Health as ‘Category 2’, is required by law to quarantine at home for 14 days.”

19 Feb 202116.23 EST

Martin Pengelly

New York City congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has joined the growing calls to investigate New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.

The calls came after it was revealed last week that an aide to the governor told the city’s legislators the actual number of nursing home deaths in fear that it would be used against the governor during an investigation launched by the former president’s justice department.

Ocasio-Cortez said: “Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes throughout the pandemic.

“Their loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from their elected leadership, and the secretary to the governor’s remarks warrant a full investigation.”

My colleague Martin Pengelly has more on the story here:

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that pulse oximeters, devices that measure oxygen levels in blood, should not be used to diagnose in particular circumstances, Reuters reports.

Despite the World Health Organization including the pulse oximeter to identify people who may need hospital treatment due to Covid-19, the FDA recommended that people pay attention to other low oxygen indicators, such as raising pulse or blueness in the face.

While the FDA said that it might be useful, multiple factors such as skin pigmentation, skin temperature, tobacco use and nail polish can affect the accuracy of the oximeter.

The health agency’s warnings came nearly two months after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the device was three times more likely to give misleading readings among African-American patients.

France has reported 328 deaths, up from yesterday’s figure of 271 and Wednesday’s 310, in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 83,964, according to data published by its health ministry.

The country has also reported 24,116 new Covid cases, up from yesterday’s figures of 22,501.

As early as next month, elderly Australians and those with a disability are expected to receive a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, however, it’s unlikely that patients will be able to get it from their local doctors.

The Guardian’s Francine Crimmins has more on the national Covid-19 vaccine rollout with AstraZeneca here:

Italian police are investigating fake Covid-19 drugs and vaccines after interviewing a Veneto regional official reported to have received an offer to buy 27m doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of the EU procurement system.

Luca Zaia, Veneto’s regional governor from the rightwing League party, said he received offers by unnamed intermediaries to sell him vaccines – including the Pfizer, Russian and Chinese products – after publicly voicing his frustration over delayed deliveries in the country.

Italy centralised its vaccine procurement to avoid regions or the private sector going their own way.

So far, the country has administered 3.37m doses, prioritising healthcare workers and residents of nursing homes.

AP reports:

On Friday, Zaia said his healthcare chief dealing with the offers, Dr Luciano Flor, was questioned by the carabinieri’s health care squad. The squad confirmed it was searching Veneto regional offices “to look into the presumed providers of vaccines outside agreements with central authorities”.

The carabinieri squad has been issuing near-daily updates of its efforts to crack down on fraudulent Covid-19 drugs, vaccines, protective equipment and e-commerce sites selling them.

On Friday, it announced it had obscured another four e-commerce websites, bringing to some 250 the number of portals it has blocked.

Police are also investigating a Sicilian man who claimed to be a representative of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and had offered to sell vaccines to Umbrian authorities.

In response, AstraZeneca’s Italy unit said there was currently no private distribution of its shots and that if “someone is offering vaccines via the private sector, they’re probably counterfeit vaccines and should be reported to the competent authorities”.

Zaia revealed details of the purported offers he had received this week, telling a late-night talkshow that he had received two contractual proposals for 12m and 15m doses of Pfizer shots at market prices.

He said he asked Italy’s virus tsar and the national pharmaceutical agency on 3 February how to proceed, and on 12 February informed police “because we realise the issue of vaccines is delicate”.

He insisted he had done nothing wrong and that it was up to Italy’s pharmaceutical agency to verify if the offers and vaccines were legitimate.

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Denmark has announced the closure of some border crossings from Germany following a cluster outbreak in a German town close to the border, AFP reports.

A statement published on the Danish justice ministry’s website cited the rise in cases in the town of Flensburg as the reason for introducing stricter border checks and implementing the closure of some border crossings.

Thirteen crossings will be closed outright and nine others will receive increased security.

Since Christmas, Denmark has been in a partial lockdown and reopened primary schools in the last weeks following the drop of new coronavirus cases reported.

AFP reports that the mayor of Flensburg, Simone Lange, said on Friday that 80 cases of the UK variant of the virus had been detected in the town in recent days.

Serbian state television has reported that the singer Djordje Balasevic, 67, has died after contracting Covid-19.

The Serbian signer launched his career in the late 1970s and early 1980s and remained a popular figure throughout the Balkans for his opposition to nationalism as the former Yugoslavia broke apart.

He was well known across the Balkan region for his on-stage comments about various topics.

AP reports:

Media in Croatia and Bosnia promptly carried the news of Balasevic’s death, which also was widely shared on social networks.

Bosnia’s Klix news portal described Balasevic as a legendary performer whose songs could “inspire deepest emotion in an audience”.

Croatia’s state HRT television evoked Balasevic’s “utterly antiwar and pacifist position that is present in many songs, concert speeches and interviews”.

Balasevic is survived by his wife and three children. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.

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In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, lockdown and stay at home orders are being extended until at least 8 March despite schools only just starting up again and shops scheduled to reopen on 22 February, AP reports.

The lockdown has been in place since 23 November after a second wave of Covid infections hit the Ontario province.

Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr Eileen de Villa, asked the provincial government this week to extend lockdown measures after saying that she had never been more concerned about the future as new coronavirus variants were discovered.

Scientists have said that the variant discovered in the UK and found in Ontario spreads more easily amongst people, but that the current vaccines remain effective.

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Hi, I’m Edna Mohamed, I’ll be taking over the blog for the next few hours from my colleague. As always for any tips, you can tweet me or email me here: edna.mohamed.casual@theguardian.com

19 Feb 202113.51 EST

Philippines records highest death toll in 5 months

Jedidajah Otte

The Philippines recorded 157 new deaths from Covid on Friday, the highest daily death toll in five months.

CNN Philippines reports:

On Septemper 14 , the [Department of Health] announced 259 deaths, the highest daily casualty count on record.

The agency’s latest case bulletin also stated that the number of infections is now at 557,058 with 1,901 new cases. Of this number, 5.8% or 32,440 are active cases or currently ill patients. At least 86% of the active cases have mild symptoms, 8.5% have no symptoms, 2.4% are in critical condition, 2.4% are in severe condition, and 0.72% are moderate infections.

The death toll has jumped to 11,829 or 2.12% of the case tally. However, the department clarified 120 of the new deaths were mistakenly recorded as recoveries in the last report. It also removed six duplicates, including three survivors and one death.

Meanwhile, 537 more cases got better, raising the recovery count to 512,789 or 92.1% of the Covid-19 total.

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I’m now handing over to my colleague Edna Mohamed.