Karnatka and Tamil Nadu impose lockdowns after record new cases; outgoing chief of UK taskforce says population should be protected before winter
- Picture of two pandemics: cases fall in rich west as poorer nations suffer
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Germany’s anti-lockdown movement has co-opted the image of Sophie Scholl, the Germany resistance fighter who was born 100 years ago on Sunday, to the dismay of their opponents.
Scholl, who was executed by the Nazis for distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets, is an emblem of courage and a national hero in Germany. She has, perhaps inevitably, been adopted by protesters who believe they are facing a new medical dictatorship.
The population of the UK will be protected from Covid-19 by this summer, according to the departing chief of the country’s vaccine task force. Clive Dix, who stepped down last week, said he believed that by August no virus would be left circulating in Britain.
More than 50m doses of a Covid vaccine have been distributed in the UK, 16.7m of which are second doses, according to Government figures. Commenting on the success of vaccine distribution, Dix told the Daily Telegraph:
We’ll have probably protected the population from all the variants that are known. We’ll be safe over the coming winter.