Coronavirus dwell information: UK to quarantine arrivals from high-risk nations; international Covid instances cross 100m | World information

The German government is discussing reducing to almost zero the number of flights into Germany in an effort to prevent more virulent mutant Covid variants gaining a foothold in Germany, the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, told Bild newspaper.

Other measures being considered included closures of borders to regions where mutant strains were more prevalent, he added.

“The risk posed by these virus mutations demands of us that we consider even drastic measures,” Seehofer told Bild. “They include stricter border controls, especially at frontiers with high-risk regions, but also a reduction of air traffic to Germany to almost zero, as Israel is currently doing.”

Cuba’s death toll from the coronavirus reached 200 on Tuesday, with authorities reporting nearly as many deaths so far in January as in the six previous months combined, due to an unprecedented acceleration in infections.

While Cuba had just a tenth of the world average of daily infections per capita for much of last year, cases have surged since the government reopened borders in November and loosened restrictions on daily life.

The situation in Cuba is now much worse than at any other point during the pandemic, and edging closer to that world average.

The health ministry has reported 54 deaths in January so far compared with 60 in the previous six months, with daily infection numbers hitting new records on a regular basis – 786 on Tuesday – and cases spread throughout the Caribbean island nation.

A relative of a coronavirus victim in China is demanding to meet a visiting World Health Organization team, saying it should speak to affected families who say their voices are being stifled by the Chinese government, the Associated Press reports.

China approved the visit by researchers under the auspices of the UN agency only after months of negotiations. It has not indicated whether the experts will be allowed to gather evidence or talk to families, saying only that the team can exchange views with Chinese scientists.

“I hope the WHO experts don’t become a tool to spread lies,” said Zhang Hai, whose father died of Covid-19 in February 2020, after travelling to the Chinese city of Wuhan and getting infected. “We’ve been searching for the truth relentlessly. This was a criminal act and I don’t want the WHO to be coming to China to cover up these crimes.”

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wuhan doctor: China authorities stopped me sounding alarm on CovidRead more

The WHO team arrived in Wuhan on 14 January to investigate the origins of the virus, and is expected to begin field work this week after a 14-day quarantine:

The Biden administration is increasing vaccination efforts with a goal of protecting 300 million Americans by early fall, as the administration surges deliveries to states for the next three weeks following complaints of shortages and inconsistent supplies.

“This is enough vaccine to vaccinate 300 million Americans by end of summer, early fall,” Biden said. “This is a wartime effort,” he added, saying more Americans had already died from the coronavirus than during all of the second world war:

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world on Tuesday passed 100 million since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The current total stands at 100,164,399.

Worldwide, at least 2,153,477 people have lost their lives to Covid-19.

The official number of cases registered since the pandemic first broke out in China, in late 2019, represents just a fraction of the real number of infections around the world, AFP reports.

Many countries were late to implement systematic testing, and some continue to test only the most seriously ill.

The poorest nations meanwhile only have the capacity for limited testing.

The United States, which passed 25 million confirmed cases last weekend, remains the country with the largest outbreak.

India is second with 10.7 million cases, and Brazil third with 8.9 million cases.

A hotel quarantine system targeted at arrivals from high-risk countries will be announced by the home secretary, Priti Patel, on Wednesday, after ministers met to sign off the more targeted approach.

Boris Johnson rejected calls at Tuesday evening’s meeting for a blanket policy in favour of imposing hotel quarantine on British citizens from a limited number of countries such as South Africa and Brazil.

Ministers were presented with a number of options, with some – including Patel and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, in favour of a more blanket approach, a larger number of countries on the list or even a temporary closure of UK borders.

Labour said a country-by-country quarantine policy would be “half-baked” and leave the UK’s vaccination programme vulnerableto as-yet unknown strains of coronavirus.

The Guardian’s Jessica Elgot and Natalie Grover report:

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

In just over a year, 100 million people have been infected with Covid-19. At least 2,153,477 have died.

I’ll be bringing you the latest as the staggering infections milestone is passed.

Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:

• AstraZeneca’s chief executive has insisted the UK will come first for vaccines as he rejected calls to divert doses to the European Union following a breakdown in supply.
• US states will get a 17% increase in the amount of vaccines from next week after shortages across the country. The government will supply 10.1 million first and second doses, up from this week’s allocation of 8.6 million.
• Leaders of tribes in the Amazon rainforest have urged governments to ensure vaccine rollouts reach all its communities, according to Reuters. Head of the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin (COICA), Jose Gregorio Diaz, said his people faced a “health emergency”.
• The death toll in France rose to more than 74,000 on Tuesday, as its new case figures stayed above 20,000 for the fourth day in a row. President Emmanuel Macron hopes a new 6pm curfew will be enough to contain the surge.
• Iceland has issued its first vaccine “passports” in an attempt to ease international travel for people who have had the jab, AFP reports.
• Lebanon has hit a new daily record of Covid-19 deaths amid a second day of protests against strict lockdown measures. Another 73 people died in the last 24 hours from the virus, according to Associated Press.
• Brazil has had 61,963 new recorded cases and another 1,214 deaths. The South American country has now had 8,933,356 confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic, while the death toll has risen to 218,878.
• The Gambian health ministry has said it will “name and shame” people refusing to self-isolate, after 40 refused to do so last week or escaped treatment clinics. The west African country has recorded 128 deaths since the pandemic began.