Covid news – live: Wales to end Covid passes and masks as a third of young people in cities still unvaccinated

That’s all for our live updates this afternoon. We’ll be back soon with more Covid news.

The failure to lift remaining Covid restrictions in Northern Ireland is a "complete disgrace", Belfast Chamber chief executive Simon Hamilton said.

The present Covid-19 regulations are not due to expire until March 24, but were previously reviewed by the Executive every three weeks. However, there has been a lack of progress since  the DUP removed Paul Givan as first minister as part of a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Mr Hamilton tweeted: "It is, quite frankly, a complete disgrace that it appears, as feared, people and businesses in NI may be stuck with Covid restrictions because of instability at Stormont whilst the rest of the UK and Ireland begin to benefit from their removal."

Thousands of public workers in New York City face being fired Friday if they haven’t complied with the city’s vaccine mandate. This includes teachers, firefighters and police officers.

Some 4,000 workers had not had two doses of a vaccine by the end of January, according to City Hall, but that number has dropped since workers were warned they would be fired if they refused to comply.

The exact number of people who will be fired will remain unclear until the end of the workday on Friday, when the deadline passes, city officials said.

Across the entire workforce, up to 3,000 employees failed to meet an end of October deadline and have been on unpaid leave for months while an additional 1,000 new employees, who started work after August 2, face termination because they have not shown proof of having received two jabs.

Polling suggests people in England prefer the approach the Welsh government has taken to Covid-19 regulations, Wales’s economy minister claimed Friday.

Speaking during a press conference on Friday, Vaughan Gething said: “We know from the polling evidence that not only is the gradual approach of the Welsh Government supported by people in Wales in overwhelming numbers, but the majority of people in England prefer the Welsh approach too.

“If anything, people are more concerned that we’re moving too quickly.

“This is about moving in time with the advice we get, bringing the public with us, and being honest about the fact that this really is supported by the latest public health advice.”

The estimated range of England’s Covid-19 reproduction ‘R’ number appears to have levelled out after it remained roughly similar week-on-week.

According to the UK Health Security Agency, England’s R number is currently between 0.8 and 1.0, down from last week’s 0.8 to 1.1. This means that, for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 8 and 10 other people.

The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines that are part of the Quad group of countries’ pledge to donate shots across the world, manufactured by India’s Biological E, will roll out in the first half of 2022, the grouping said in a statement on Friday.

Last year, Australia, Japan, India and the United States, the grouping known as the Quad, promised to supply more than a billion Covid-19 vaccines worldwide by the end of 2022.

“We are pleased with the Quad Vaccine Partnership’s rapid progress in expanding vaccine production at the Biological E Ltd facility in India, which aims to deliver at least 1 billion vaccines by the end of 2022,” a statement released after a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in the Australian city of Melbourne on Friday said.

The statement did not specify quantities of vaccines, nor to which countries they would go to.

Reuters

Indonesia will urge the Group of 20 leading economies to establish a global body that can dispense emergency funds during a health crisis, functioning in a similar way to international financial institutions, its health minister said on Friday.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo on Thursday urged support for that initiative from developed countries, saying all nations needed equal chance to prepare themselves for future pandemics.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said: “There is no global health institution that has enough power or money to jump in and help, you are basically on your own.”

He said he didn’t think the World Health Organisation would be up to the task, and said organisations like the Global Fund, an international financing organisation, or GAVI, the global Vaccine Alliance, might be better suited.

“Whether the WHO is equipped to raise a trillion USD like the IMF, to be honest, (after) 30 years in finance, I don’t think so,” he said. “The WHO is not built to do this job.”

The Chancellor appeared to suggest that he does not expect to be asked to fill out a police questionnaire about his involvement in a No 10 event that possibly broke Covid rules.

Scotland Yard has said it will be sending formal legal questionnaires by the end of the week to more than 50 individuals, from whom officers involved with Operation Hillman – the probe into so-called “partygate” – wish to hear, regarding the 12 events they are investigating.

On Friday, Mr Sunak told Sky News he had not received a questionnaire from the Met and, asked whether he expected to receive a form to complete, he replied: “No… well, I don’t know.”

Over in Denmark, officials are considering “winding down” the country’s vaccination drive in the spring “due to large population immunity”.

Health authorities said they see no reason now to administer a booster dose to children or a fourth shot to any more residents at risk of severe Covid-19.

“The very high vaccine coverage in Denmark, especially with the third shot, means that we can cope with increasing infection without getting serious illness,” the government agency said in a statement.

“We will of course follow the epidemic closely, and we are ready to change our decision if, contrary to expectations, there is a fourth spring wave or new worrying variants this spring,” it added.

Scotland’s first drone port, Mercury Drone Port based in Angus, is set to begin trialling collection and delivery of medical supplies and samples for the NHS in an effort to improve current transportation methods, PA reported.

Assisting with the Covid-19 response, Mercury Drone Port will provide a trials airspace for drones to operate to and from multiple healthcare facilities between Angus and Dundee.

The new transportation method aims to provide the NHS with an on-demand collection and delivery service, allowing samples to be collected from local medical practices for analysis at pathology laboratories at larger hospitals via a quicker and more reliable service.

Angus Council leader councillor David Fairweather said: “This level of improvement could potentially allow life-saving treatment to be able to commence earlier by reducing testing times, speeding up diagnoses for patients, all at a reduced cost to the NHS by reducing the reliance on expensive taxi transportation that currently exists.

“As the significant demands continue for Covid-19 testing, we are delighted to lead the way through innovative technologies to increase connectivity with our rural facilities, at a time that the NHS requires greater support.”

UK government Minister for Scotland Iain Stewart said the move will put Scotland “at the forefront of innovation” and help bring in new jobs to Angus.

He added: “Drones have huge potential in Scotland, from connecting health services to remote communities, to helping maintain renewable energy installations, to assisting with Scottish aquaculture and environmental monitoring.”