Covid live: Poland announces quarantine for UK travellers; Russia reports most daily deaths since February | World news

California is pursuing an ambitious plan to pay off the entirety of unpaid rent from low-income tenants who fell behind during the pandemic, in what could constitute the largest ever rent relief program in the US.

The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is negotiating with legislators and said the $5.2bn plan would pay landlords all of what they are owed while giving renters a clean slate.

If successful, the rent forgiveness plan would amount to an extraordinary form of aid in the largest state in the US, which has suffered from a major housing crisis and severe economic inequality long before Covid-19.

The US will likely fail to meet president Joe Biden’s goal to deliver at least one Covid-19 vaccine to 70% of adults by 4 July, officials said.

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on 4 July, US Independence Day, but will fall short of Biden’s goal for adults 18 and older, Reuters reports.

“Our focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our efforts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistance,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

White House Covid-19 senior adviser Jeffrey Zients said it would likely take a few weeks beyond 4 July to meet Biden’s target.

“The country has more work to do… particularly with 18- to 26-year-olds,” Zients told reporters.

“The reality is many younger Americans have felt like Covid-19 is not something that impacts them, and they’ve been less eager to get the shot.”

Chile is studying the possibility of issuing a third, booster dose of vaccines, its president said, as the country seeks to beat back the latest wave of infections amid questions about how effective the widely used Sinovac vaccine is against more transmissible virus variants, Reuters reports.

President Sebastian Pinera said health experts were examining “many scientific studies” to determine if a third dose would be necessary as he launched the rollout of vaccines among teenagers in Chile.

“As a government we are attentive to today’s problems but also must anticipate and prepare to face the problems of tomorrow,” he added.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital Kinshasa has tightened its Covid-19 restrictions, banning street hawking and large gatherings in a bid to tamp down rising infections spurred by the Delta variant.

Kinshasa governor Gentiny Ngobila has ordered a ban on gatherings of more than 20 people both indoors and outdoors, according to a decree seen by AFP.

“On public transport, only 50 percent of capacity will be tolerated, and motorbike taxis are authorised to carry no more than one passenger,” said the document signed Monday.

Churches, public administration offices and businesses must also run at a maximum of 50 percent capacity, along with restaurants, which must close at 9pm.

DRC’s daily caseload has risen from 250 recorded infections on 15 June to 404 on Tuesday, 347 of them in the capital, according to the latest epidemiological update.

Children in England will not be expected to isolate if new rules are introduced that could spare double-jabbed travellers quarantine when they return from amber-list countries, government sources say.

Ministers are expected to discuss the plans at a meeting of the cabinet’s Covid-O committee, likely to be held on Thursday, where they will hear the latest scientific advice about when vaccination rates will be high enough to consider loosening quarantine requirements.

If agreed, the plan could be announced on that day. It could potentially come into force in late July, but government sources said August was more likely – potentially opening up the possibility that families could visit relatives in amber list countries during the school summer break.

Vaccination has not yet been extended to under-18s. One Whitehall source said they would “certainly expect” children to be exempt from the new regime – they would not need to be double-jabbed to avoid quarantine – to avoid the sense that families were being discriminated against.

Poland is introducing a mandatory seven-day quarantine for all travellers from Britain in a bid to curb the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Britain is currently seeing a rise in cases due to the more contagious Delta variant, which was first identified in India.

“The decisions made on quarantine for travelers arriving from Great Britain are intended to reduce the risk of transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant from the endangered area,” health minister Adam Niedzielski was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.

“We must take care of our citizens and their security.”

Health ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz said that as of Wednesday, travellers from Britain would be obliged to spend seven days in quarantine even if they had a negative test result before arrival. They would then be required to do a test after seven days, Reuters reports.

The quarantine rules will not apply to travellers who have been fully vaccinated.

Nigeria’s president has asked parliament to approve 895.8 billion naira ($2.18 billion) as an extra budgetary provision to fund the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines and military equipment, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The government in February said it will draw up a supplementary budget to cover the cost of Covid-19 vaccinations, for which no provision was made in the 2021 finance bill adopted in December. Nigeria had planned to spend 13.6 trillion naira ($33.10 billion) in 2021, a 21% rise from the previous year.

“The availability of Covid-19 vaccines and the procurement terms were still uncertainat the time of finalizing the 2021 budget,” President Muhammadu Buhari said in his letter.

Buhari said the health ministry and primary healthcare agency has developed a Covid-19 program for the country that intends to vaccinate 70% of eligible Nigerians this year and next.

Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi has had a second dose of the coronavirus vaccine different from his first, Reuters reports.

The 73-year-old had previously had an AstraZeneca vaccine but switched to Pfizer-BioNTech jab for his second dose.

Draghi’s government earlier this month changed its advice on vaccines, saying those under the age of 60 should no longer have the AstraZeneca jab due to fears over rare blood clots.

The recommendation for those who have already had one AstraZeneca dose to switch to another vaccine sparked a major debate in Italy over whether such a mix-and-match approach was safe.

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the US’s effort to eradicate Covid-19 in its borders, said US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci.

“The transmissibility is unquestionably greater” in the Delta variant than the original variant of Covid-19, Fauci said, adding that “it is associated with an increased disease severity.”

The US is falling short of its goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target, White House Covid-19 senior adviser Jeffrey Zients said, Reuters reports.