Coronavirus live news: US records highest daily increase in cases, Brisbane under lockdown as single case reported in Australia | World news

Most of you reading this would have been in a Covid-19 enforced lockdown at some point in the past year. But did you have to wear a mask while driving alone in your own car?

That’s the advice in Brisbane, Australia, which just started a snap three-day lockdown. This was sent earlier today by the state’s health minister:

Here is a piece some of you may have missed earlier, about the countries that are waiting to see how Covid-19 vaccinations unfold elsewhere before launching programs of their own:

Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of Covid-19 around the world.

Here are the major developments from the last few hours:

• The United States has recorded its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases, with 290,000 cases and 3,676 deaths reported in 24 hours.
• Mexico has reported 14,362 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 1,038 deaths.
• In Australia, New South Wales has recorded one new case of Covid-19 in connection to the Berala cluster and five in hotel quarantine; Victoria has recorded no new locally acquired cases and one in hotel quarantine; and Queensland has recorded no new cases on the first day of a three-day lockdown of greater Brisbane.
• Health officials in Australia have changed the rules for releasing people who test positive to Covid-19 from hotel quarantine. It comes as a Queensland woman, who completed quarantine in Victoria and caught a domestic flight to Brisbane, was revealed to have the UK variant of the virus and to still be returning a positive test. States will now do rapid genomic testing of everyone who tests positive to Covid-19, extend the isolation period to 14 days, and require exit testing of positive cases.
• In the UK, all NHS health and social care staff will be offered a Covid vaccine as an “immediate” and “critical” priority, with most to receive their first jab by early February.
• The US Food and Drug Administration has said genetic variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, including the one first detected in the UK, could lead to false negative coronavirus test results.
• Spain has recorded its biggest one-day jump in new coronavirus cases since October.
• China has reported 33 new cases of Covid-19, mainly in Hebei province where authorities have suspended the subway service and announced tight new restrictions ahead of Lunar New year.
• And the World Health Organization director general director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned richer nations against hoarding Covid-19 vaccines, saying there is a “clear problem” that low- and middle-income countries are not yet receiving supplies of Covid-19 vaccines.