Live Coronavirus News: UK Watchdog Criticizes £ 37bn Test and Trace Service; Australia Approves Launch of Covid Booster Vaccine | World News

A Brazilian Senate committee recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal charges for actions and omissions related to the second highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in the world.

Tuesday’s 7-4 vote was the culmination of a six-month committee investigation into the government’s handling of the pandemic. It formally approved a report calling on prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging from charlatanism and incitement to crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity, and in doing so, they hold him responsible for many of the more than 600,000 deaths of Covid-19 in Brazil.

The president has denied wrongdoing, and the decision on whether to bring most of the charges will rest with Attorney General Augusto Aras, a Bolsonaro appointee who is widely regarded as a protector. The complaint of crimes against humanity should be processed by the international criminal court.

Senator Omar Aziz, chair of the investigation, said he would deliver the recommendation to the attorney general on Wednesday morning. Aras’s office said the report will be carefully reviewed as soon as it is received.

The world’s largest economies should create a forum to facilitate global coordination for the next pandemic, as well as a new financing mechanism to keep up with emerging threats, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. , and Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. letter to your G20 colleagues

The two finance ministers said the forum would allow the finance and health ministers to better cooperate and coordinate prevention, detection, information exchange and any necessary responses.

Yellen and Indrawati said that the Covid-19 pandemic revealed a lack of preparedness at the country level and a lack of coordination between G20 countries.

“While we are making progress in the fight against Covid-19, we are also facing a stark reality: this will not be the last pandemic,” they wrote ahead of Friday’s joint meeting of the G20 finance and health ministers. “We must not miss this opportunity to demonstrate leadership with a decisive commitment to act.”

Welcome back to our Covid blog, where we will bring you the latest news on the evolution of the coronavirus crisis.

I’m Samantha Lock reporting to you from Sydney, Australia. Here’s just a quick guide on what you might have missed before.

A damning report out of the UK lashed out at the NHS ‘trace and test system, saying it did not achieve “its primary goal” of reducing infection levels and helping to return to normal life.

The initiative received the sum of £ 37 billion in cash from taxpayers, but ultimately, ‘it has not achieved its primary goal of helping to break the chains of Covid-19 transmission and allowing people to return to a form more normal life, “says Commons. said the watchdog of spending.

At the time of its launch, Boris Johnson claimed that the program would be “global”, but the watchdog says its goals had been “exaggerated or not achieved.” The funding, equivalent to roughly 20% of the total annual health service budget, was used to hire more than 2,000 consultants who were employed at rates of more than £ 1,000 per day, according to the public accounts committee (PAC) report. ).

• The Covid-19 crisis is far from “far from over”, the World Health Organizationthe emergency committee said. The 19-member committee, which meets every three months to discuss the pandemic and make recommendations, also called for next-generation vaccine research and long-term actions to control the virus.
• Vaccine reinforcement rates are now outpacing first-shot rates in the US, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• On Thailand, companies are pleading with the government to remove the nation’s current alcohol ban when the country reopens, saying it will deter tourists.
• porcelain has closed a 4 m city in 6 cases of Covid. Residents of Lanzhou, Gansu, have been told to stay home while buses, taxis and key rail routes are suspended.
• FDA assessors recommend approval of From Pfizer Covid vaccine for children from 5 to 11 years old. It will be the first vaccine available to younger children in the US The near unanimous vote paves the way for possible approval for emergency use next month, making nearly 30 million children eligible.
• Pregnant women are being turned away from Covid vaccination clinics despite clinical advice, experts warned, urging ministers to step up efforts to reach unvaccinated groups.
• the United Kingdom recorded 40,954 new Covid cases today and 263 more people have died, official figures show.
• A Brazilian Senate commission on Tuesday recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro faces a series of criminal charges for actions and omissions related to the second highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in the world. The 7-4 vote was the culmination of a six-month committee investigation into the government’s handling of the pandemic.
• No exemptions will be granted for unvaccinated tennis players traveling from abroad for australian open, said the prime minister of the state. Players like Novak Djokovic have repeatedly refused to reveal their vaccination status.
• Fully vaccinated Australians will no longer have to apply for travel exemptions to leave the country as Australia prepares to loosen its international borders as of November 1.
• Australia could reach 80 percent of the complete Covid-19 vaccination mark in one week.
• Russia, Bulgaria and the Ukraine all reported a record number of daily deaths on Tuesday. Russia reported 1,106 deaths in 24 hours, the highest since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total death toll to 232,775, the highest in Europe by far. Slow vaccination rates have allowed the virus to spread rapidly through Eastern Europe.
• Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has been fined for the third time for refusing to wear a mask on the floor of the house.