Climate change 'unabated' by coronavirus lockdowns: Live news - Flaze News

Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels as emissions are returning to pre-pandemic levels, a UN report shows.

Wednesday, September 9

15:10 GMT - Mexican president says other options available after pause in AstaZeneca vaccine trial

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the country has "other options" for a potential COVID-19 vaccine after drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc suspended a late-stage trial due to an illness in a participant.

The governments of Argentina and Mexico have agreed to produce the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for most of Latin America. Mexico is in talks with several companies about vaccine trials.

14:47 GMT - EU secures 300M doses of COVID-19 vaccine

The European Union has secured 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from medical firms BioNTech and Pfizer

The European Commission announced that it had concluded talks on buying the potential vaccine with Germany- and US-based companies working together on developing the serum.

The EU would buy 200 million doses under the envisaged agreement with an option of getting further 100 million doses if the vaccine proves to be safe and effective against COVID-19.

This is the sixth agreement the bloc has managed since the EU Commission announced its Vaccine Strategy in June.

14:15 GMT - Portugal reports record number of COVID19 cases since April 20

Portugal reported 646 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily toll since April 20, with transmission primarily occurring in family households, health secretary of state Jamila Madeira told a news conference.

New cases fell to around 100 a day at the beginning of August but have crept back up since then, worrying the tourism industry as it waits to hear whether it will taken back out of the UK's air bridge list.

13:45 GMT - South African volunteers on AstraZeneca vaccine trial say not alarmed by pause

South African volunteers on AstraZeneca's experimental coronavirus vaccine trial said they were not worried to hear the trial had been paused after a participant fell ill and they hoped to be part of a potential solution to the pandemic.

Some 2,000 volunteers in South Africa are taking part in the trial which was paused globally on Tuesday after an unexplained illness in a participant. An independent committee will review safety data.

Khensani Nkuna, 27, started the trial in July. She said she had not yet been personally told about the suspension, but added the unexplained illness was not worrying her since she had no symptoms.

13:15 GMT - Angola to reopen schools in October

Angolan authorities have decided to reopen schools in the country next month after months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to media reports. 

Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 will resume on October 5," nation.africa news website quoted Education Minister Luísa Grilo as saying. 

Classes for the grades 7 and 8 will resume on Oct. 19, she added.

Hello, this is Arwa Ibrahim, taking over our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic from my colleague Virginia Pietromarchi.

12:19 GMT - Climate change has not stopped for COVID-19: UN

Climate change is continuing unabated despite the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, said the United Nations.

While daily global carbon dioxide emissions saw a 17 percent drop at the height of the lockdown in April, they were again nearing pre-pandemic levels by early June, according to a climate report by multiple UN agencies.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives worldwide. At the same time, the heating of our planet and climate disruption has continued apace," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword.

11:44 GMT - Netherlands sees surge in daily cases

The number of new coronavirus cases registered in the Netherlands surged to 1,140 in the past 24 hours, said the health minister, the highest daily total since April.

Hugo de Jonge announced the figures recorded by the National Institute for Health (RIVM) during a live video stream. "It's not going the right way," de Jonge said. A day earlier, the country recorded 964 cases, with cases rising quickly among young adults.

The RIVM said the increase was not tied to the reopening of primary schools across the country over the past three weeks.

11:05 GMT - UAE reports highest daily increase since May

The United Arab Emirates recorded 883 new infections, its highest daily increase in three months.

Daily infections in the Gulf Arab state have risen in recent weeks, after generally declining from a peak in May. As of today, the UAE counted 75,981 infections and 393 deaths.

Additional 85,917 Covid-19 tests were conducted by #UAE health authorities, revealing 883 new cases and bringing the total number of cases to 75,981 . The new cases identified are undergoing treatment. #UAEGov

— UAEGov (@uaegov) September 9, 2020

10:17 GMT - Fauci says vaccine pause unfortunate but a safety valve

US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said AstraZeneca's decision to pause global trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine was unfortunate but not an uncommon safety precaution in a vaccine development process.

"It's really one of the safety valves that you have on clinical trials such as this, so it's unfortunate that it happened," Fauci told CBS's This Morning.

"Hopefully, they'll work it out and be able to proceed along with the remainder of the trial but you don't know. They need to investigate it further."

09:40 GMT - Indonesia's latest figures

Indonesia has reported 3,307 new coronavirus cases, bringing the national total to 203,342, data from the country's COVID-19 task force website showed.

There were also 106 new deaths in Indonesia overnight, taking the total number to 8,336, the highest coronavirus death toll in Southeast Asia.

09:16 GMT - Russia's RDIF to sell 32 million vaccine doses to Mexico firm

Russia's sovereign wealth fund will sell 32 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik-V to a top pharmaceutical company in Mexico, Russia's second vaccine export deal, a source close to the deal told Reuters.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the state sovereign wealth fund backing the vaccine's development, signed its first export deal with Kazakhstan in August.

08:35 GMT - WHO says safety is 'first and foremost' priority 

Safety of a prospective vaccine for COVID-19 comes "first and foremost", the World Health Organization's chief scientist has said, as a trial of a candidate from AstraZeneca was temporarily paused due to concerns over side effects.

"Just because we talk about speed ... it doesn't mean we start compromising or cutting corners on what would normally be assessed," Soumya Swaminathan said during a social media event.

"The process still has to follow through rules of the game. For drugs and vaccines which are given to people, you have to test their safety, first and foremost," she said.

08:13 GMT - Czech Republic reports daily record in new cases 

The Czech Republic has reported a record one-day spike in COVID-19 infections, with 1,164 new cases, as it battles a surging spread of the coronavirus.