All schools across England have reopened as part of the first of four stages of the gradual easing of lockdown, amid concerns that infection rates will spike in the following months as restrictions begin to relax. 

During a press conference aired on BBC News to commemorate the beginning of the first stage, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the risk of increased transmission was inevitable as schools reopen but nonetheless he is hopeful that today will be a “cautious but irreversible” step on the roadmap out of lockdown.  

Despite the cautious optimism, Johnson warned that the number of people being admitted to hospital with the coronavirus was eight times higher when compared to the summer of 2020 when numbers were generally low and repeated that people must continue to follow the "stay at home" message. 

“We must remember that today’s return to schools will, of course, have an impact on the spread of the virus, and so, at all times and as we decide on the next steps forward and when we take them it’s more vital than ever to follow the rules,” Johnson said. 

“We all know that the education of our children is so important that the greater risk now is keeping them out of school for a day longer. We all know that the burden has disproportionately fallen on women often holding down jobs and providing childcare at the same time,” he added. 

Last month the government unveiled a four stage plan that will see England gradually eased out of its third national lockdown starting with the reopening of schools, allowing people from different households to meet outside and the reopening of businesses. 

At the end of each stage the government will assess the data and statistics relating to the number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations caused by the virus and will decide whether or not to go ahead with each stage depending on whether there is a rise or fall in the three factors. 

On Monday, 4,712 people had a confirmed positive test of the virus adding this week’s total to 41,225. This represents a 26.2% decrease in comparison to the last seven days. 

Sixty-five deaths were reported within 28 days of testing positive for the virus on Monday. Between March 2 and March 8, there were 1,441 deaths within 28 days of testing. This shows a 34.4% decrease in comparison to the previous week. 

More than 22.3 million people had been administered their first dose of the vaccine as of late Sunday, with 1.14 million others receiving the second. Vaccines are currently administered in two doses, three weeks apart.  

The latest R range for the UK has increased slightly and is now at 0.7-0.9, with the current growth rate also increasing to -5% to -3% per day. The R number is a mechanism used to rate the virus’s ability to spread, with R being the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to./aa

Women of all color and ethnicities, some dressed in their work uniforms, others holding colorful flags, banners, posters and armed with musical instruments assembled in Paris on Monday afternoon for a protest march against the deteriorating condition of women amidst the ongoing pandemic on International Women's Day.  

An estimated 30,000 women and men participated in the march, which several organizations and unions used the opportunity to protest and highlight gender atrocities, sexual abuse at workplace, and demand equity in rights and work payment for women. 

Around 40 international, local organizations and left-wing, ecology political parties, came together under the collective "feminist strike" to denounce pay inequality and exploitation. 

“The pay gap between men and women persists at 25%... It is as if every day from 3:40 pm, women worked for free... We will be on strike along with women all over the world to refuse to pay the price of the crisis with our jobs, our salaries, our bodies,” a statement from the collective said. 

The Federal Union of State Trade Unions (UFSE) and General Confederation of Labor - (CGT) held demonstrations in front of the ministry of culture, ministry of labor, inside the Paris metro stations holding large banners in support of the “invisible, precarious women workers.”

In France, women represent 80% of part-time workers, 60% of contract workers, 80% of single-parent families and are often the first victims of precariousness and adverse poverty precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, a statement signed by various trade and workers unions said. 

“Lockdown, work from home, closure of schools and nurseries, have contributed to penalizing women with negative consequences on their careers, physical health, risking them to increased instances of domestic violence and a weakening of access to care,” said the statement. 

They demanded the government to enforce a law guaranteeing "equal pay for work of equal value" in the private and public sectors, upgrading wages in predominantly female occupations and strengthening public services for women. 

They have also asked employers to widen the scope of convention No. 190 and recommendation No. 206 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) which recognizes elimination of violence and harassment at work places to protect work of victims of domestic violence. 

The National Union of Midwives, a key cornerstone of safeguarding women’s health, continued its strike for the fourth time this year. 

The government has failed to meet the demands of 23,000 midwives including granting medical profession status to their work in hospitals, increasing salaries and number of staff. 

The French government has increasingly come under criticism for failing to set an example to protect women’s rights. 

The most visible blunder committed by the President Emmanuel Macron administration is allowing Interior minister Gerald Darmanin who is under investigation for rape, to head the ministry. Women demonstrators held large signs of “get out Darmanin” and posters showing him behind the bars in the march. 

Elisabeth Moreno, minister delegate in charge of Gender Equality, who is the only minister of color in the current cabinet, criticized Macron for lacking efforts in gender representation. 

During a TV interview hosted by RTL - Le Figaro - LCI Grand Jury on Sunday, Moreno disclosed she told Macron that he was “not setting an example'” when it came to gender parity. Amongst the 13 close members of the cabinet, the deputy chief of staff Cecile Geneste is the only woman. 

Although women are leading important ministries like defense, culture, environment and labor in the current government, top cabinet jobs are still held by men./aa

The Turkish-German scientist who co-developed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine said Monday the "grand mission" is "herd immunity" with enough jabs administered to tame the virus.  

In achieving this goal, Dr. Ozlem Tureci stressed that no one will be safe until everyone is safe. 

Tureci addressed a biweekly World Health Organization (WHO) press webinar to celebrate International Women's Day and spoke of her "three worlds" as a trained physician in patient care, an immunologist rooted in academic science, and an entrepreneur immersed in the biopharma industry. 

"The grand mission is to achieve herd immunity," she said. 

"The last 14 months have brought us closer to this aim," said Tureci, who founded the German company BioNTech with her Turkish-born husband Ugur Sahin, who teamed up with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer for one of the first vaccines to gain widespread approval.  

"Mission herd immunity means no one will be safe until everyone is safe across genders, ethnicities, economies, and nations," said Tureci.  

The WHO says on its website, "'Herd immunity', also known as 'population immunity', is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection." 

"We at BioNTech/Pfizer are proud to be part of the solution, and the more of our peers who are successful with their vaccine developments, the better for the world."   

She said that not all virus variants will be of concern. 

"Against many variants, just boosting with the original vaccine will suffice," said the scientist./aa

A Somali migrant who had to flee his country due to violence has been forced to live on the streets after two European countries refused to grant him asylum. 

Ahmed Muhammed, who is using a different name due to security concerns, told Anadolu Agency his asylum request was rejected by France after two years of waiting and he was evicted from an asylum center.

Muhammed said he initially applied for asylum in Belgium and stayed 11 months in an overcrowded asylum center, but his request was rejected.

He said that although he brought his case to the court of appeal, he was rejected again and moved to France in 2017.

He also applied for asylum in France, and after a long wait, the asylum interview was held in January last year but he was rejected again.

Muhammed said that although he appealed the decision with a volunteer lawyer to defend him, his application was rejected in a second interview in October.

“I’m in a very bad situation. They left me on the street in the middle of the [coronavirus] pandemic. My life, my health are in danger. I cannot return to my country either,” he said.

“My asylum applications have always been declined. I don't understand what's going on. I'm doing my best,” said Muhammed, adding he did not know what to do or where to go in the middle of the pandemic as he had no opportunity to work and earn money in Europe.

Muhammed said his family in Somalia has no idea about his situation and they would be very upset if they knew.

"Europe is saying they are helping and supporting refugees. But I have been in many different countries in the last six years, and what they say and do are totally different,” he said.

Stating that the French authorities did not allow him to return to Somalia because it was dangerous, Mohammed said: "Well, if they refuse my asylum application and throw me out on the street, how can I continue my life here?"

He said he follows news reports of bombings coming from the Somali capital Mogadishu with great sorrow and feels like he has lost everything.

"For everyone who helps me today, I want to help someone tomorrow," he added.

Muhammad said he was very sorry that he was abandoned to the streets.

He temporarily took refuge at the As-Sufa association in the Yvelines region./aa

ZURICH (Reuters) - Austrian authorities have suspended inoculations with a batch of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine as a precaution while investigating the death of one person and the illness of another after the shots, a health agency said on Sunday.

"The Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) has received two reports in a temporal connection with a vaccination from the same batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the district clinic of Zwettl" in Lower Austria province, it said.

One 49-year-old woman died as a result of severe coagulation disorders, while a 35-year-old woman developed a pulmonary embolism and is recovering, it said. A pulmonary embolism is an acute lung disease caused by a dislodged blood clot.

"Currently there is no evidence of a causal relationship with the vaccination," BASG said.

Austrian newspaper Niederoesterreichische Nachrichten as well as broadcaster ORF and the APA news agency reported that the women were both nurses who worked at the Zwettl clinic.

BASG said blood clotting was not among the known side effects of the vaccine. It was pursuing its investigation vigorously to completely rule out any possible link.

"As a precautionary measure, the remaining stocks of the affected vaccine batch are no longer being issued or vaccinated," it added.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said: "There have been no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine," adding that all batches are subject to strict and rigorous quality controls.

Trials and real-world experience so far suggests the vaccine is safe and effective and it had been approved for use in well over 50 countries, he said.

AstraZeneca also said it was in contact with Austrian authorities and would fully support the investigation.

European Union regulators at the end of January approved the product, saying it was effective and safe to use, while the World Health Organization (WHO) in mid-February listed the product for emergency use.

Adverse reactions seen in trials were short-lived for the most part and blood clotting issues were not reported.

A safety assessment by Germany’s vaccine regulator of more than 360,000 people who received the Astra vaccine in the country between the launch in early February and Feb. 26 concluded that adverse reactions were in line with the safety profile described in clinical trials.

• An estimated 4,300 people received less of the Pfizer vaccine than they should have, KTVU reported.
• Too little of the vaccine was administered due to a problem with new syringes, the media outlet said.
• California health officials have said patients will be informed "immediately" if they need a booster.

Thousands of people who visited a mass vaccination site in Oakland, California, on March 1 received the wrong dosage of the Pfizer vaccine, according to KTVU.

An estimated 4,300 people were administered less than the recommended dose while getting a shot at the Oakland Coliseum, two unnamed medical workers told the media outlet.

The optimal vaccine dosage is 0.3-mL of Pfizer but thousands of people received around 0.2 mL, KTVU said.

Due to a problem with the syringes, too little of the COVID-19 vaccine was administered, the media outlet reported.

The mixup took place on Monday morning but was identified and resolved by 2 pm, state officials confirmed to KTVU.

Both agencies that run the mass vaccination site - the California Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency - were unaware of the issue until KTVU alerted them of it on Tuesday.

The State Department of Public Health, United States Health and Human Services (HHS), and Pfizer held emergency meetings on Tuesday to discuss the error, a California OES spokesperson told the media outlet.

Officials from the California Department of Health then visited the Oakland Coliseum out of "an abundance of caution," a spokesperson said.

Ali Bay, deputy director of communications for the health department, told KTVU on Friday that nobody who was vaccinated on March 1 "has been harmed or would be harmed if we conclude they received a slightly smaller dose of the vaccine."

Those vaccinated on that date are not being advised to seek out additional medical care but, Bay said, patients will be informed "immediately" should they need an emergency booster.

California's health department is now working with the HHS, CDC, and Pfizer to "ensure that vaccine best practices and quality assurance are adhered to at this site," Bay told KTVU.

 Business Insider

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Indian police have detained more than 150 Rohingya refugees found living illegally in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir and a process has begun to deport them back to Myanmar, two officials said on Sunday.

Dozens of Rohingya are in a makeshift "holding centre" at Jammu's Hira Nagar jail after local authorities conducted biometric and other tests on hundreds of people to verify their identities.

"The drive is part of an exercise to trace foreigners living in Jammu without valid documents," said one of the two officials, who declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

"We have started the process of deportation of these refugees," the official added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's federal government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's special status in August 2019 and now administers the region from New Delhi.

The Hindu nationalist government regards the Rohingya, who are Muslim, as illegal aliens and a security risk, and has ordered that thousands of them living in scattered settlements be identified and repatriated.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee their Buddhist-majority homeland after a crackdown by Myanmar's military in 2017. Most are in ramshackle camps on the border with Bangladesh.

Myanmar denies accusations of genocide and says the army was fighting a legitimate counter-insurgency campaign.

Rohingyas living in Jammu said they were concerned about the weekend's detentions and the threat of deportation.

"We will go back when peace returns to our country," said Sufeera, 28, who said her uncle and brother had been sent to the holding centre, leaving her alone with her children.

Another refugee, 48-year-old Sadiq, said members of his family had also been detained.

"We have been told that we will be deported," he said. "They took mother and father ... Who will take care of them?".

India rejects a United Nations position that deporting the Rohingya violates the principle of refoulement – sending refugees back to a place where they face danger.

Rohingyas staying in India have said conditions are not conducive for them to return to Myanmar after fleeing violence and persecution over the years.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is at least 30 years away from becoming a manufacturing nation of "great power", a former industry minister said on Sunday, despite boasting the world's most complete industrial supply chains.

In recent years, China has become the world's top manufacturing nation, accounting for over a third of global output, driven by domestic demand to produce everything from motor vehicles to industrial machinery. But its industries' heavy dependence on U.S. high-tech products such as semiconductors constituted a strategic weakness.

"Basic capabilities are still weak, core technologies are in the hands of others, and the risk of 'being hit in the throat' and having 'a slipped bike chain' has significantly increased," said Miao Wei, who was Minister of Industry and Information Technology for a decade before stepping down last year.

As the Chinese economy pivots towards a services-based model and polluting smoke-stack factories are mothballed, manufacturing output as a share of the economy has declined. In 2020, manufacturing accounted for slightly over a quarter of gross domestic product, the lowest since 2012.

"The ratio of manufacturing output to GDP has been declining too early and too quickly, which not only weighs on economic growth and affects employment, but also brings security loopholes to our industries and diminishes our economy's ability to withstand risks, and its global competitiveness," said Miao, now a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top advisory body to the government.

President Xi Jinping said in November that innovation in the manufacturing industry is far from adequate, and firms need to tackle "bottleneck" technologies to become fully innovative.

"China's manufacturing industry has made great achievements in recent years, but the situation of being 'big but not strong' and 'comprehensive but not good' has not been fundamentally changed," Miao said in a speech to CPPCC delegates at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

There are many problems restricting the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing, but the most fundamental one is insufficient market-oriented reforms, Miao said.

While the tax burden on companies remains heavy, and financial support on the manufacturing sector needs strengthening urgently, a shortage of innovative and high-tech talent has also significantly constrained development of the sector, Miao added.

"We must maintain our strategic resolve, stay clear-headed and deeply understand the gaps and deficiencies."

An adviser to former President Donald Trump has hinted at his return to social media in a new podcast, describing the alleged comeback in the most Trumpian of ways, saying: “It will be a tectonic plate shift in the world of social media, because anything that he touches is going to be big.”

But the former president still faces continued bans on the most prominent social media platforms in the world, from Twitter to Facebook, with no major tech executives announcing plans to lift their blocks on Mr Trump after he promoted flagrant falsities of a rigged election during the Capitol insurrection, and amid warnings of continued threats to national security.

Still, Jason Miller, described as a top adviser to the former president, said on Mediaite’s “The Interview” podcast: “We’re not that far off from seeing President Trump return to social media.”

“I think it will be on some new platforms that maybe you haven’t seen before,” he added, alluding to recent reports that Gab and other new social media platforms popular among the far-right have called on Mr Trump to join their sites. “I think there’s going to be some excitement on that front.”

Mr Miller acknowledged Mr Trump does not have an invitation to return to the platforms where he spent years promoting falsities about the 2020 election before Americans could event begin voting, and then lied about the outcome after he lost to President Joe Biden. As calls grew for him to release a statement on social media calling for calm during the Capitol riots on January 6, Mr Trump posted a video that continued to spread falsities about the vote.

The adviser said Mr Trump “would never shut the door completely on anything” while suggesting the former president might be open to returning to those platforms, though it was unlikely those companies would reverse their policies in his favor.

“I’m sure Jack [Dorsey] will probably shut the door completely to a Twitter return and [Mark] Zuckerberg,” Mr Miller said, referring to the founders of Twitter and Facebook, respectively. “We’ll see what happens in April with this advisory board review from Facebook.”

Discussions surrounding Mr Trump’s return to social media have featured “both existing social media platforms and also potentially with some brand new platforms,” according to Mr Miller, who noted how some members of the team have been pleased with the response of the former president’s more infrequent messaging.

“One of the things we were discussing the other day is he’s actually had a lot more pickup from his once every couple of day-press releases that he’s put out than he did over a lot of his tweets by the end of the administration,” he said.

The former president has largely stayed much further out of the national spotlight than he did in the final days of his tenure in the Oval Office, avoiding many television interviews and only recently having delivered his first major post-presidency speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He has released several statements through a new office in Florida, where most of his family moved from Washington after Mr Biden’s inauguration. Mr Trump has teased a potential third bid for the White House in 2024.