Biden blasts Trump for COVID failures

US President Joe Biden said the vaccination program he had received from former president Donald Trump was in "much worse shape" than he expected. 

He said his transition team had been misled about vaccine supplies. 

"While scientists did their job in discovering vaccines in record time, my predecessor — I’ll be very blunt about it — did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions," said Biden, during a visit to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Biden said Trump had not ordered enough doses to inoculate the American population, which had caused a delay for people registering for vaccinations. He said the US has signed contracts for 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 100 million more from Pfizer to help reach the target.

Asia Pacific

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the country was on track to begin its inoculation program on February 20, after receiving doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine earlier than expected. New Zealand's 12,000 border workers would be the first to receive doses, followed by their household contacts. This would be followed by health care workers and high-risk people such as the elderly. 

The Australian state of Victoria will undergo a five-day "circuit breaker" lockdown, Premier Daniel Andrews said. The move comes after an outbreak spread from a hotel used to quarantine international travelers. There are 19 active coronavirus cases in Victoria, including 5 new instances linked to the hotel.

Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced will be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport. Schools and many businesses will be shut and residents ordered to stay home, except to exercise and for essential purposes

From tomorrow, the Australian Open (AO) tennis tournament, currently taking place in the Victorian capital of Melbourne, will proceed without crowds for at least five days.

"Australian Open sessions today and tonight will continue as planned with COVID safe protocols," organizers said in a statement. "We are notifying ticket holders, players and staff that there will be no fans onsite at the AO for five days, commencing from Saturday 13 February. Full refunds will be available"

Europe

In Germany, inoculation priority rules have been broken in at least nine states, according to research by news agency dpa. Local politicians, clergy members as well as police officers and firefighters received vaccinations despite not belonging to the top priority groups. Germany's highest priority group includes people over 80 and health workers.

According to the report, the reason given for the early doses was because some vaccines were left over at the end of the day. Once prepared, the jabs can only be used within a few hours. So far, there are no regulations in place to deal with left over doses.

Germany is also preparing temporary entry bans and border controls with areas of the Czech Republic and Austria's Tyrol, classifying them as virus "mutation areas." The travel  ban will be implemented from Sunday. 

A study by the University College London found that young British people are more worried about Brexit than contracting coronavirus. The survey found 42 percent of adults aged between 18 to 29 were stressed about Brexit, while 32 percent were worried about catching coronavirus. 

The survey showed 22 percent of youngsters are worried about becoming seriously ill from coronavirus, as opposed to 33 percent of all adults. Daisy Fancourt, the lead author of the study, said this could be because more people voted to remain in the European Union, and also because they are less at risk from COVID-19.

The UK economy shrank by 9.9% in 2020 amid one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks globally and a series of lockdowns. The fall in GDP is the biggest since records began, but the country avoided two successive quarters of contraction — the standard definition of a recession in Europe.

The country's economy saw some growth in the last quarter of 2020, but is likely to shrink again in early 2021 due to the current strict lockdown.

tg, jsi/sms (AP, Reuters, dpa, AFP)