Spain becomes first western European country to pass 1m cases; Rome among latest to bring in curfew; German health minister has Covid-19. Follow the latest updates
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Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian:
A day after recording its highest number of new Covid-19 cases in a single day for more than six months – most of them diagnosed in border quarantine facilities – New Zealand reported just two new cases of the virus on Thursday.
Both new cases were diagnosed in travellers returning to the country, who must spend two weeks in government-run quarantine, where they are tested twice for the coronavirus.
Neither of the new cases were related to the 18 instances of the virus reported yesterday, after being diagnosed in fishing crews recently arrived from Russia. All of the 235 Russian and Ukraine workers are in isolation.
There were no new cases diagnosed in the community on Thursday; New Zealand currently has three active cases of domestic spread, and 55 cases in the border quarantine facilities.
In total, the country has recorded 1,558 cases of the virus and 25 deaths. A strict, early lockdown when the virus first emerged in New Zealand has resulted in one of the world’s lowest death tolls to date.
Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University had died but added that the trial would continue, Reuters reports.
Oxford confirmed the plan to keep testing, saying in a statement that after careful assessment “there have been no concerns about safety of the clinical trial.”
AstraZeneca declined to comment immediately.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the trial would have been suspended if the volunteer who died had received the Covid-19 vaccine, suggesting the person was part of the control group that was given a meningitis jab.
The Federal University of Sao Paulo, which is helping coordinate phase 3 clinical trials in Brazil, said an independent review committee had also recommended the trial continue. The university earlier confirmed the volunteer was Brazilian but gave no further personal details.
“Everything is proceeding as expected, without any record of serious vaccine-related complications involving any of the participating volunteers,” the Brazilian university said in a statement.
So far, 8,000 of the planned 10,000 volunteers in the trial have been recruited and given the first dose in six cities in Brazil, and many have already received the second shot, said a university spokesman.
CNN Brasil reported that the volunteer was a 28-year-old man who lived in Rio de Janeiro and died from Covid-19 complications.
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