COURTESY HT JAN 18

China finds virus in ice cream; UK likely to quarantine fliers
Agencies

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BEIJING : The coronavirus was found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch, according to the government.

The Daqiaodao Food Co, Ltd in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were being tested for the coronavirus, a city government statement said. There was no indication anyone had contracted the virus from the ice cream.

Most of the 29,000 cartons in the batch had yet to be sold, the government said. It said 390 sold in Tianjin were being tracked down and authorities elsewhere were notified of sales to their areas. The ingredients included New Zealand milk powder and whey powder from Ukraine, the government said.

The Chinese government has suggested the disease, first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, came from abroad and has highlighted what it says are discoveries of the coronavirus on imported fish and other food, though foreign scientists are sceptical.

UK plans to enforce hotel quarantine for travellers

London : Britain’s government said on Sunday it is looking at requiring all incoming travellers to isolate in hotels, expanding on new coronavirus restrictions entering into force in the coming hours.

All arrivals to the UK will have to quarantine and show negative tests for Covid-19 from Monday, after the government scrapped “travel corridors” from countries with lower caseloads following the emergence of new strains.

The Sunday Times said the government planned to go further, emulating countries such as Australia and New Zealand in requiring travellers to self-isolate in hotels at their own charge, using GPS and facial-recognition technology to check they are staying put.

Pakistan approves

Oxford-AstraZeneca shot

Islamabad : Pakistan has approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and hopes to make it available by the first quarter of the year, as the country’s coronavirus tally surged to 519,291.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Health Dr Faisal Sultan confirmed on Saturday that the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) has granted approval for emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine across the country.

Pfizer reassures Europe on vaccine supply worries

Paris : Pharma giant Pfizer tried to ease concerns in Europe about deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine as nations across the world doubled down on restrictions to fight the pandemic.

With infections globally surging past 94 million and more than two million deaths, Europe is among the hardest-hit parts of the world. Worries have grown that delays in the delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech shots could hamper a European vaccine rollout which has already faced heavy criticism across the continent.