In the UK, more information emerges about the waste and fraud scandal over pandemic contracts.

Companies handed a combined £1.3 billion in controversial fast-track Covid contracts with minimal scrutiny also claimed at least £1 million in furlough grants, The Guardian reports.

It comes after Labour’s Keir Starmer attacked prime minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday over “eye-watering waste” – following revelations on Monday the government had spent £8.7 billion on unusable PPE in England.

My colleagues Joseph Smith and Pamela Duncan have the details:

Analysis of the accounts of companies that won lucrative emergency contracts to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS during the height of the pandemic shows 12 also claimed funds to put staff on furlough at taxpayers’ expense.

Many had no prior history of supplying PPE but received huge boosts in revenue after securing deals to supply items ranging from gowns to masks. Overall the scramble to obtain PPE resulted in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spending £9bn on personal protective equipment that was either substandard, defective, past its use-by date or dramatically overpriced.

These furlough claims were legal under the terms of the £70bn job preservation scheme, but the revelations raise questions about the ethics of claiming taxpayer support while reaping windfall gains from lucrative state contracts.

All 12 companies that claimed furlough grants had won PPE contracts via a so-called VIP lane, where approvals were fast-tracked often after a recommendation by ministers and government officials. The government spent £5bn on VIP lane contracts with 47 companies, but its use of the lane was found unlawful by the high court in last month.

Read the full story here.

Poland detected 54,477 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours, Polskie Radio reports, a 66% climb on the 32,835 new cases reported on Thursday two weeks ago.

That’s near Poland’s peak of more than 57,000 new cases on 27 January. It also takes the total Covid case tally to more than 5m, according to a count by Reuters.

Deaths rose by 307, compared to 316 two weeks ago. The total death toll stands at more than 106,000 people dying from Covid-related causes, the 15th highest worldwide. (Poland has the 38th highest population.)

Public-sector employees have been told to work from home and quarantine periods were cut from 10 to seven days amid the country’s surging Omicron wave.

Infections show no signs of slowing. The health minister, Adam Niedzielski, has said Covid cases could jump by 140,000 a day by mid-February.

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, is self-isolating after exposure to Covid.

A member of the populist president’s household staff, who he had contact with last weekend, tested positive. Duterte, 76, has so far tested negative twice, AP reports.

Duterte, who has urged police to start killing drug users, leading to the deaths of as many as 30,000 people according to the international criminal court, has received three vaccine shots and continues to work from quarantine.

Bulgaria detected 9,152 Covid cases in the past 24 hours, state broadcaster BNT reports today, taking the seven-day average to 8,381 infections a day.

The European Union’s least-vaccinated country has experienced surging cases recently – driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant – breaking the daily Covid record with more than 12,000 infections in late-January.

A further 87 people were reported to have died from Covid-related causes, BNT reports, taking the seven-day average to 79 Covid deaths a day.

Bulgaria has the 28th highest Covid death toll globally, with more than 33,000 people dying, compared to only the 107th highest population.

India reported 172,433 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, the Times of India reports, a 50% drop on the 347,254 new infections detected on Thursday two weeks ago.

India experienced surging cases last month but there are signs infections have spiked.

Yet as cases fall, deaths are rising. A further 1,008 people were reported to have died from virus-relates causes, a 43% climb on the 703 deaths on Thursday two weeks ago.

That takes India’s virus death toll to 498,983 people, by some counts the fourth-highest worldwide behind the US, Russia and Brazil. (India has the world’s second-highest population.)

This is Jem Bartholomew in London taking charge of the global blog for today. Do get in touch via email or Twitter with tips from around the world.

An anti-virus mask that folds up to only cover the nose and can continue to be worn while eating and drinking are on sale in South Korea.

The ‘kosk’, a combination of ‘ko’, the Korean word for nose, and mask, has been released by a company called Atman and sells for 9,800 won ($8.13; £5.99) for a box of 10 on online retailer Coupang.

Meanwhile, three resusable “Copper Antivirus Nose Masks” which only cover the nose at all times are available in different colours for 2,000 won ($1.65; £1.22) from Spar Clone Fabric, also on Coupang. The masks are designed to be worn under a regular mask that covers the mouth, which can be removed when dining out or drinking with other people.

The unusual masks have attracted a lot of attention online. “Are they also selling teapots made from chocolate?” asked one tweeter, while another commented, “Next level stupidity!”.

Still, some studies have suggested that the nose is the easiest route for the coronavirus to enter the body, so wearing a nose mask may not be as ridiculous as it looks.

Professor Catherine Bennett, chair in epidemiology within Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation in Australia, told Nine News that masks that only cover the nose were a “strange idea’” but would be “better than nothing”. “It probably makes a marginal difference,” she said.

Coronavirus cases in South Korea hit a record 22,907 on Thursday after topping 20,000 for the first time on Wednesday, driven by the spread of the Omicron variant.

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Germany’s expert panel on vaccine use (STIKO) is preparing to recommend a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose, the committee’s head, Thomas Mertens, told media group Funke on Thursday, according to Reuters.

“We have data from Israel that shows a fourth dose significantly improves protection from a severe case of illness,” Mertens told Funke. “The STIKO will make the recommendation soon,” he added.

The panel would recommend booster shots only with vaccines that are already available, Mertens added.

On vaccines that have been adapted to work against the Omicron coronavirus variant, STIKO would have to wait for clinical data from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, the media group cited Mertens as saying.

Some countries have already started offering additional booster doses, but a recent study from Israel showed that while a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine boosted antibodies, the level was not high enough to prevent Omicron infection.

Major airlines, business and travel groups have urged the White House to end Covid-19 pre-departure testing requirements for vaccinated international passengers traveling to the United States.

Airlines for America, the US Chamber of Commerce, International Air Transport Association, Aerospace Industries Association, the U.S. Travel Association and other groups called for change in a letter to White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.

“Surveys of air passengers indicate that pre-departure testing is a leading factor in the decision not to travel internationally. People simply are unwilling to take the chance that they will be unable to return to the US,” they wrote.

The White House declined to comment. Airlines for America, which represents American Airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc, United Airlines Holdings and others said as of last week international air travel was down 38% over 2019 levels.

In December, the Biden administration imposed tougher new rules requiring international air travellers arriving in the United States to obtain a negative Covid-19 test within one day of travel.

Under prior rules, vaccinated international air travelers could present a negative test result obtained within three days of their day of departure.

The White House and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) previously considered but have never imposed testing requirements for Americans to board domestic flights.

The letter noted that more than 74.3 million people have had Covid-19 in the United States, meaning that at least 22% of the population has had the virus.

“Clearly Covid is widespread throughout the US and attempts to control its importation via air travel under today’s circumstances are unlikely to change that fact,” it said.

If any new threatening variants appeared “pre-departure testing could be easily reinstituted,” it added.

The European Union recommended countries remove intra-Europe Covid travel restrictions, the letter noted. Britain will end Covid predeparture testing for vaccinated air travelers to enter the country starting 11 February.

The groups said “travel and aviation’s recovery is dependent on the government taking steps to remove travel restrictions that are no longer justified by current circumstances.”

Hello, Elias Visontay here, bringing you the latest Covid news from around the world. Thanks to Helen Livingstone for taking us through to now.

I’ll start with this update from Reuters citing a Fuji News Network report on Thursday, that Japan is considering a two-week extension of infection controls in 13 regions, including its capital Tokyo, to rein in a record surge of Covid-19 infections.

Officials may decide next week to extend the measures originally set to expire on 13 February, the broadcaster added.

Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest level on Thursday, after reporting a record 21,576 infections the previous day, when the nationwide tally reached a record 94,815, driven by the infectious Omicron variant.

The government in Tonga has said the total number of positive Covid-19 cases in the island nation now stands at four, down from five originally announced on Wednesday, New Zealand broadcaster RNZ has reported.

Tonga went into lockdown at 6pm on Wednesday after two port workers tested positive for Covid-19. They are thought to have picked up the virus from one of several merchant ships that has delivered aid to Tonga since it was struck by a volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami two weeks ago.

The prime minister, Siaosi Sovaleni, told RNZ Pacific earlier on Thursday that they were investigating the outbreak, and that it was unlikely to have been transmitted from naval boats that had delivered aid to the country.

He said that the two port workers who had contracted Covid-19 had been collecting aid deliveries at Queen Salote Wharf, a separate port of entry from Vuna Wharf, which was used by the HMAS Adelaide, a Royal Australian Navy boat and the only vessel to have reported Covid-19 among its crew.

China has reported 39 confirmed coronavirus cases for 2 February, down from 63 a day earlier, the country’s health authority said according to Reuters.

Of the new confirmed infections, 21 were locally transmitted and the remaining were found among people arriving from overseas, according to a statement by the National Health Commission.

No new fatalities were reported, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636. Mainland China had 106,241 confirmed cases as of 2 February.

A fresh wave of Conservative MPs have submitted letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson, breaking cover to criticise the UK prime minister as the fallout from the Downing Street lockdown parties scandal continues to imperil his premiership.

In a sign that Johnson’s position is still under threat despite No 10’s desperate attempts to move on from the crisis, three more MPs publicly called on the prime minister to resign, describing their shock and anger at Johnson’s conduct since the publication of an interim report.

Tobias Ellwood, Anthony Mangnall and Gary Streeter all said they had submitted letters of no confidence on Wednesday, joining four others who have confirmed that tey have done so publicly. The Guardian has been told of one other backbench MP who has privately submitted a letter.

More have called for Johnson to go – but have not formally declared they have written letters.

Several MPs loyal to Johnson said they were convinced there was now a renewed co-ordinated effort to oust Johnson, given the timing of the announcements.

One senior member of the One Nation group of centrist MPs said Johnson’s unabashed attempts at linking Labour leader Keir Starmer with the failure to arrest sex abuser Jimmy Savile had “changed the game” for several colleagues.

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