A summary of today's developments
- The UK recorded a further 121 Covid-19 deaths and 30,301 new cases on Saturday. Both figures are slight falls from the previous day’s tallies of 127 and 35,577, official data showed. Cases in the last seven days were up 3.1% on the week before, while daily fatalities of people who had tested positive for Covid-19 within the last 28 days were down 17%.
- The number of people who have died across the globe as a result of coronavirus has passed more than 5 million, as the virulent Delta strain continues to ravage unvaccinated countries.
- The Covid-19 death toll in the US has now surpassed 700,000, despite the Covid-19 vaccines’ wide availability, in what one expert called a “tragic and completely avoidable milestone”.
- Tens of thousands of protesters have returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities to demand Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment, as a poll showed the Brazilian president’s ratings had plumbed new depths. Brazil had 13,466 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 468 deaths, the country’s health ministry said.
- A 15-year-old girl who tested positive for Covid-19 has died on the day that she was due to have her vaccine, her family said. Jorja Halliday, from Portsmouth in England, died at the Queen Alexandra hospital in the Hampshire city on Tuesday after being tested for the virus four days earlier.
- Nicaragua has authorised two Cuban-made coronavirus vaccines to be used in the Central American nation, the Cuban state-run pharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma said.
For the latest Covid developments in Australia, you can follow our dedicated blog here:
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has launched an attack on people who refuse coronavirus vaccinations by comparing them to drink-drivers and saying they are to blame if others catch Covid from them.
The football coach accused the anti-vaccination movement of ignoring the experts and endangering others while making disingenuous claims about a loss of freedom to justify their stance.
While many English Premier League clubs are reportedly yet to get half their players fully vaccinated, Klopp said his persuasive powers were not required to ensure Liverpool’s squad are double jabbed.
“I can say we have 99% vaccinated. I didn’t have to convince the players, it was more a natural decision from the team. I cannot remember really talking to a player in a one-on-one situation and explaining to him.”
UK prime minister Boris Johnson will open up more countries for hotel quarantine-free travel later this week with the country’s “red list” of destinations reduced to nine from 54, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Fully vaccinated arrivals from countries including South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia will no longer have to quarantine in a government-designated hotel for 10 days when they get to the UK from later in October, the newspaper said.
The changes are expected to be announced on Thursday.
Updated
Brazil had 13,466 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 468 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday.
The South American country has now registered 21,459,117 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 597,723, according to ministry data, Reuters reports.
The US administered 394,690,283 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday and distributed 478,362,045 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 393,756,866 vaccine doses that the CDC said had gone into arms by Friday out of 477,069,555 doses delivered.
The agency said 214,870,696 people had received at least one dose while 185,143,698 people had been fully vaccinated as of 6am ET on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Updated
Two winters ago, my evening dip at Port Fairy’s East Beach, Australia, was framed by a backdrop of darkened, empty holiday houses. I could swing into a parking spot outside the front door of the supermarket. And to some extent these things still applied in the winter of 2021, but there were noticeable differences.
The town’s two primary schools are at capacity. Long-term rentals and homes for sale are scarce. The lights are very much on.
Updated
Tens of thousands of protesters have returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities to demand Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment, as a poll showed the Brazilian president’s ratings had plumbed new depths.
Huge crowds paraded through downtown Rio on Saturday to voice their outrage at Bolsonaro’s response to a Covid outbreak that has killed nearly 600,000 people and dealt a heavy blow to the South American country’s economy.
“We have come to shout at the top of our voices: Bolsonaro’s place is behind bars,” Carlos Lupi, the president of Brazil’s Democratic Labour party, told thousands of flag-waving demonstrators who had gathered outside Rio’s municipal chamber under a ferocious midday sun.
Nicaragua has authorised two Cuban-made coronavirus vaccines to be used in the Central American nation, the Cuban state-run pharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma said.
Cuban scientists have developed three vaccines against Covid-19, all of which are waiting to receive official recognition from the World Health Organization.
BioCubaFarma said on Twitter that the Health Regulation Authority of Nicaragua’s health ministry authorised the Abdala and Soberana vaccines for emergency use, Reuters reports.
Updated
Hundreds of hot air balloons launched into the skies over Albuquerque in the US on Saturday for the first time in two years, as the city’s balloon fiesta returned following a pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta brings millions of tourist dollars into the city but last year’s event was canceled as a precaution because of the pandemic.
The event’s website says 588 hot air balloons will take part and that nearly 900,000 visitors are expected to attend.
While the event is not requiring proof of vaccination against Covid-19, participants are required to wear masks indoors or at crowded outdoor settings, Reuters reports.
Updated
Boris Johnson has defended the government’s decision to require all care home workers in England to get the Covid vaccine.
Health secretary Sajid Javid said on Saturday that staff who were not prepared to have the jab should “get out and get another job”, PA reports.
Johnson said: “I think any government really hesitates for a long time before asking people to get a vaccine as a condition of their employment.
“It is a dilemma but we did decide some time ago now that the right thing, for the peace of mind of families up and down the country, is that people working in social care should get vaccinated.”
Updated
France has reported 4,948 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The country has had over 7 million cases overall.
Since last year the eight provincial governments across Australia have constantly shifted restrictions and enforcement about travel and quarantine as outbreaks are suppressed in one place or flare up in another. Parochialism and public health are each factors. A federal vaccine program defined mostly by its absence has maintained that necessity. Where politicians elsewhere speak in blasé style about living with the virus, much of Australia still has the luxury of living without it.
Which makes the prospect of a nationwide Ashes tour daunting for the England players and staff weighing it up. It is counterintuitive that people from a country smothered in the virus should be anxious about travelling somewhere that is not, but the double-jabbed ranks of the autumn tourists can by now live a mostly unencumbered life at home. Travelling to or around Australia at present offers far less certainty.
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France has reported 31 new coronavirus deaths in hospital in the past 24 hours, Reuters reports.
It has also recorded that 1,325 people are in intensive care with Covid-19 compared with 1,355 on Friday.
The Covid-19 death toll in the US has now surpassed 700,000, despite the Covid-19 vaccines’ wide availability, in what one expert called a “tragic and completely avoidable milestone”.
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the US went just past 700,000 deaths on Friday; the US had previously reached 600,000 deaths in June. The country has had a total of 43.6m confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins.
Updated
#COVID19 VACCINE UPDATE: Daily figures on the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses that have been given in the UK.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) October 2, 2021
As of 2 October, 93,836,747 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given in the UK.
Visit the @UKHSA dashboard for more info:
▶️ https://t.co/cQkuLQglz1 pic.twitter.com/ix1MyRG6Cg
More data from Italy. Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,057 on Saturday, down from 3,118 a day earlier.
There were 27 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 20 on Friday.
The total number of intensive care patients increased to 432 from a previous 429, Reuters reports.
Some 355,896 tests for Covid were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 293,469, the health ministry said.
Updated
Singapore reported 2,356 coronavirus cases on Saturday, compared to 2,909 the previous day, and four further deaths.
Senior doctors have warned that practice staff and GPs in the UK are quitting after an unprecedented and escalating wave of abuse from patients that has followed weeks of public pressure over face-to-face appointments.
Many practices are maintaining Covid-19 protocols to prevent the spread of the virus, including the use of face masks; some patients have refused to wear them and become abusive when asked to do so.
Italy reported 25 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, while the daily tally of new infections was 3,312, the health ministry said.
Italy has registered 130,998 deaths in total linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, Reuters reports.
The country has reported 4.68 million cases to date.
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UK death toll increases by 121
The UK recorded a further 121 Covid-19 deaths and 30,301 new cases on Saturday.
Both figures are slight falls from the previous day’s tallies of 127 and 35,577, official data showed.
Cases in the last seven days were up 3.1% on the week before, while daily fatalities of people who had tested positive for Covid-19 within the last 28 days were down 17%.
Updated
A 15-year-old girl who tested positive for Covid-19 has died on the day that she was due to have her vaccine, her family said.
The Press Association reports:
Jorja Halliday, from Portsmouth in England, died at the Queen Alexandra hospital in the Hampshire city on Tuesday after being tested for the virus four days earlier.
Her mother, Tracey Halliday, 40, said that the GCSE student at the Portsmouth Academy was a “loving girl” with lots of friends, a talented kickboxer and an aspiring musician.
Halliday said:
She was very active, she liked to go out and spend time with her friends and loved spending time with her brothers and sisters.
Growing up she turned into a beautiful young lady, always wanting to help others, always there for everybody.
It’s heart-wrenching because your kids are always meant to outlive you, and that’s the one thing I can’t get over.
Halliday said that Jorja’s siblings were devastated at her death. She said that Jorja, who did not have any underlying health conditions, first developed flu-like symptoms before she underwent the PCR test which gave a positive result, leading to her isolating at their home.
Jorja was struggling to eat on Sunday but by Monday she could not eat at all due to her throat hurting.
A doctor prescribed antibiotics, but when Jorja’s condition worsened she was seen by a doctor who said her heart rate was double what it should be and she was taken to hospital.
Halliday said:
They realised how serious it was and I was still allowed to touch her, hold her hand, hug her and everything else.
They did allow me that. I’m at the point where I can’t comprehend that it’s happened.
I was with her the whole time. They tried to put her on a ventilator to give her body a chance to recover.
Her heart rate didn’t stabilise. Her heart couldn’t take the strain.
They worked as well as I think they could medically but were unable to save her.
Preliminary results from the hospital’s medical examiner indicated Jorja had Covid myocarditis, heart inflammation caused by the virus. Halliday explained that Jorja had been booked to have a jab on Tuesday, but had tested positive the Saturday before. She had been planning to get the jab once the isolation period was over, but passed away on the day she had originally been scheduled to have the vaccine. Halliday said:
She had the best of care, I know that they did everything they could to save her.
Updated
Campaigners have accused the UK government of creating a system of “vaccine apartheid” by blocking an intellectual property waiver for coronavirus vaccines.
India and South Africa first proposed waiving intellectual property rights for vaccines at the World Trade Organization (WTO) a year ago today.
Campaigners argue it would allow global south countries to produce Covid-19 vaccines patent-free, and make use of global spare capacity.
The US announced support for the waiver in May 2021, while Australia announced its support last month, and it has received wide support from low- and middle-income countries.
Germany has led EU opposition to the waiver, despite support from countries including France, but campaigners hope a change of government in Germany could leave the UK isolated, according to Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now.
As of 30 September, an average of 10,193 people have died across the 363 days since the proposal was put forward. While the UK rolls out booster vaccines and third doses for vulnerable adults, only 0.5% of people in low-income countries are fully vaccinated and fewer than 3% of people in Africa, he said:
Right now, Boris Johnson is enforcing a system of vaccine apartheid.
Given the British government’s failure to export or supply more than a tiny trickle of doses, the least we can do is get out of the way of others producing their own vaccine. Failing to act will shame the UK for a generation or more.
Next week, campaigners – who argue that the global death toll is far greater than it could be because of the UK’s inaction – plan to hold a funeral procession protest on Whitehall.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has given his support to a waiver and has called on wealthy countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines to not offer booster shots through the end of the year – a request that has been largely ignored.
Epidemiologists have warned that global vaccine inequality threatens to undermine current vaccines, while a report from the Wellcome Trust and Institute for Government warned virus mutations will “chip away” at the protection offered by vaccines.
The government says the UK is a significant financial donor to Covax.
Deardan said Covax only intends to vaccinate 30% of participating countries’ populations and has faced recurrent delays, supply problems, and setbacks, while pharmaceutical companies have boycotted the WHO’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), a patent pool intended to share vaccine technology and expertise to maximise global vaccine production.
Dearden said:
We have so much untapped vaccine manufacturing capacity, but corporate monopolies are creating an artificial shortage of Covid jabs. For an entire year, the UK has quashed pleas from low- and middle-income countries to waive patents and millions have died in the process.
Ten thousand people die every day that the UK continues to block a vaccine intellectual property waiver at the World Trade Organization. Each one of those deaths should be a stain on the conscience of the prime minister.
Updated
The Queen has told MSPs that as the country emerges from the “adverse and uncertain times” of the pandemic, there is an opportunity for “hope and optimism”.
PA Media reports:
As she formally opened the new session of the Scottish parliament, the Queen urged Scotland’s MSPs to “help create a better, healthier future” by tackling the challenges of climate change ahead of the Cop26 conference.
She also reflected on the “deep and abiding affection” and happy memories she and the late Duke of Edinburgh shared of Scotland as she formally opened the new session of the Scottish parliament.
Accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall – known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland – the Queen told MSPs that as the country emerges from the “adverse and uncertain times” of the pandemic, there was an opportunity for “hope and optimism”.
The Queen said:
The beginning of a new session is a time for renewal and fresh thinking, providing an opportunity to look to the future and our future generations.
Next month, I will be attending Cop26 events in Glasgow.
The eyes of the world will be on the United Kingdom – and Scotland in particular – as leaders come together to address the challenges of climate change.
There is a key role for the Scottish parliament, as with all parliaments, to help create a better, healthier future for us all, and to engage with the people they represent – especially our young people.
Speaking at Holyrood for the first time since Philip’s death, she added:
Today is also a day when we can celebrate those who have made an extraordinary contribution to the lives of other people in Scotland, locally or nationally during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I have spoken before of my deep and abiding affection for this wonderful country and of the many happy memories Prince Philip and I always held of our time here.
Updated
Scottish ministers declined an offer to join the Covid vaccine passport app used in England and Wales before opting to set up their own alternative, which has been hit by glitches.
PA Media reports:
The NHS Scotland Covid Status app has been beset by technical issues since its release on Thursday evening, just hours before the passport scheme was set to go live at 5am on Friday.
Many users have reported being unable to verify their identities on the app to certify their double-jabbed status, required for access to large events and venues.
Too many people trying to access the app simultaneously has been blamed for the problems, with the Scottish government saying more than 70,000 people downloaded it on Thursday.
A grace period means venues will not be liable for enforcement action before October 18 to allow the system to settle, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said earlier this week.
The UK government confirmed Scottish ministers were offered the option to use the NHS Covid pass via the NHS app but developed their own solution instead.
The Scottish government said it was told it would “take at least 12 months to get access to the NHS log-in” required for the NHS app, saying England and Wales share more infrastructure.
The Daily Mail, which first reported the story, said Scotland’s app was developed by Danish IT firm Netcompany, after being appointed in June by NHS National Services Scotland with a contract worth up to £600,000.
The Scottish Conservatives have sharply criticised the government over the matter. Leader Douglas Ross said:
This is becoming an omnishambles – the SNP’s scheme is lurching from one issue to the next, all at the very last minute.
The Tory MSP for North East Scotland, Maurice Golden, added on Twitter:
The SNP ignored warnings about their vaccine passports scheme. Rushed it out at the last minute. And now the Health Secretary is advising people to ignore it. You couldn’t make it up.
The Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf, has said people should be admitted to nightclubs and football stadiums this weekend without the certification as part of the “bedding in” delay.
He told Bauer Radio:
We delayed enforcement of the certification scheme because we wanted to make sure that the system had time to bed in, to set in, to test in.
Therefore there’s nothing within the regulations that means you should be turned away from the nightclub door or turned away from the turnstiles this weekend.
The Scottish government said on Friday:
[We have] increased the capacity of the NHS systems that sit behind the app [...] As a result, we are seeing increasing numbers of people now able to access their records.
A UK Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said:
We have worked closely with the devolved administrations to make it as easy as possible for people across the UK to access their Covid-19 vaccine status.
A Scottish government spokesman said:
England and Wales share some of their infrastructure, which is why Wales can use the NHS app.
We don’t have the NHS log-in required for the app in England and were informed it would take at least 12 months to be able to get access to the NHS log-in.
Updated
Earlier today, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said care home workers who are not prepared to get the Covid vaccine should “get out and get another job”.
Nadra Ahmed, the chair of the National Care Association, has urged the government to put back the 11 November deadline for staff to have both jabs, saying it will have a knock-on effect on the NHS if homes have to reduce resident numbers, reports PA Media.
Ahmed said care homes have already overcome significant resistance among staff to the vaccines.
In November last year, shortly before the vaccine programme launched, she said just 40% of staff had said they would get it. But 86% of staff are now fully vaccinated, she said.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We are not anti-vaccine. What we are saying is we needed a bit more time to get people where they needed to be.
She said that without a delay to the deadline, the consequences for care homes and for the wider health sector will be severe.
The situation is chronic now with staffing and that deadline will just add to it.
We will have providers who are no longer able to staff their services safely and that can only mean they will have to be handing back contracts.
They will have to be looking at whether they can minimise the number of beds that they use to keep themselves open, which will have a direct effect on the NHS’s ability to discharge people out of hospital and into care settings.
Updated
Covid-19 vaccine uptake in the Republic of Ireland “would have been much lower” without the vaccine passport scheme, according to an immunology expert.
Prof Kingston Mills from Trinity College Dublin called the requirement - which will be removed from 22 October - “a big incentive” for people to get jabbed, reports the BBC.
To get an EU digital Covid certificate, people were required to show proof of their vaccination status, a recent negative PCR test or proof that they had recently recovered from the disease.
More than 90% of adults in the Irish Republic have now been vaccinated.
The “vaccine passport scheme, amongst other factors, has reflected that”, said Mills.
Asked whether if the Stormont Executive should introduce a vaccine passport scheme in Northern Ireland, he said “it is in everybody’s interest, both people who are fully vaccinated and even people who aren’t”.
He added:
You only have to compare our data to that in Northern Ireland or the UK where uptake is not as good.
If you’re allowing people into events, whether it be pubs, restaurants or travel, it shows that you can get people to buy into this vaccine certificate.
When vaccinated people meet, the transmission or infection rate is much lower against someone who is unvaccinated.
It’s done the trick in terms of getting people vaccinated.
Updated
This piece by the Associated Press’ Daria Litvinova is really fascinating – there is an obsession with antibody tests in Russia even as vaccine takeup remains low – only 28% are fully vaccinated and cases are again rising.
Here’s a bit of an edited version:
When Russians talk about the coronavirus over dinner or in hair salons, the conversation often turns to “antitela,” the Russian word for antibodies – the proteins produced by the body to fight infection.
Even President Vladimir Putin referred to them this week in a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, bragging about why he avoided infection even though dozens of people around him caught the coronavirus, including someone who spent a whole day with the Kremlin leader.
“I have high titers,” Putin said, referring to the measurement used to describe the concentration of antibodies in the blood. When Erdoğan challenged him that the number Putin gave was low, the Russian insisted: “No, it’s a high level. There are different counting methods.”
But Western health experts say the antibody tests so popular in Russia are unreliable either for diagnosing Covid-19 or assessing immunity to it.
[...]
In Russia, it’s common to get an antibody test and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country’s low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again.
[..]
More interest in antibody testing came this summer when Russia had a surge of infections. The demand for tests spiked so sharply that labs were overwhelmed and some ran out of supplies.
That’s when dozens of regions made vaccinations mandatory for certain groups of people and restricted access to various public spaces, allowing in only those who were vaccinated, had had the virus, or had tested negative for it recently.
Daria Goryakina, deputy director at the Helix Laboratory Service, a large chain of testing facilities, said she believed the increased interest in antibody testing was connected to the vaccination mandates.
In the second half of June, Helix performed 230% more antibody tests than in the first half, and the high demand continued into the first week of July. Goryakina told The Associated Press:
People want to check their antibody levels and whether they need to get vaccinated.
Both the World Health Organization and the CDC recommend vaccination regardless of previous infection.
Guidance in Russia has varied, with authorities initially saying that those testing positive for the antibodies weren’t eligible for the shot, but then urging everyone to get vaccinated regardless of their antibody levels. Still, some Russians believed a positive antibody test was a reason to put off vaccination.
Maria Bloquert recovered from the coronavirus in May, and a test she took shortly after revealed a high antibody count. She has put off her vaccination but wants to get it eventually, once her antibody levels start to wane. The 37-year-old Muscovite told AP:
As long as my antibody titers are high, I have protection from the virus, and there is no point in getting injected with more protection on top of it.
High-profile officials, like Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliament, both have been quoted as saying they didn’t need to get vaccinated due to having high levels of antibodies, but they eventually decided to get their shots.
Contradicting guidelines may have contributed to Russia’s low vaccination rate, said Dr Anastasia Vasilyeva, leader of the Alliance of Doctors union. She said:
People don’t understand (what to do), because they’re constantly given different versions” of recommendations.
Even though Russia boasted of creating the world’s first vaccine, Sputnik V, only 32.5% of its 146 million people have gotten at least one shot, and only 28% are fully vaccinated. Critics have principally blamed a botched vaccine rollout and mixed messages the authorities have been sending about the outbreak.
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading in England, said antibody tests shouldn’t influence any health-related decisions.
Getting an antibody test “is for your own personal satisfaction and curiosity,” he added.
Barchuk, the St. Petersburg epidemiologist, echoed his sentiment, saying there are too many gaps in understanding how antibodies work, and the tests offer little information beyond past infection.
But some Russian regions disregarded that advice, using positive antibody tests to allow people access to restaurants, bars and other public places on par with a vaccination certificate or a negative coronavirus test. Some people get an antibody test before or after vaccination to make sure the shot worked or see if they need a booster.
Dr Vasily Vlassov, an epidemiologist and a public health expert with the Higher School of Economics, says this attitude reflects Russians’ distrust of the state-run health care system and their struggle to navigate the confusion amid the pandemic. He said:
People’s attempt to find a rational way of acting, to base their decision on something, for example the antibodies, is understandable -- the situation is difficult and bewildering. And they opt for a method that’s available for them rather than for a good one. Because there is no good method to make sure that you have immunity.
Updated
Russia has reported 886 deaths and 25,219 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, compared with 24,522 cases on the previous day.
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Javid: care home workers who are not prepared to get the Covid vaccine should “get out and get another job”
The UK health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said care home workers who are not prepared to get the Covid vaccine should “get out and get another job”.
Javid said he is not prepared to “pause” the requirement for care home staff to be fully vaccinated by 11 November, amid concerns significant numbers are reluctant to get the jab.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
If you work in a care home you are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our country and if you cannot be bothered to go and get vaccinated, then get out and go and get another job.
If you want to look after them (care home residents), if you want to cook for them, if you want to feed them, if you want to put them to bed, then you should get vaccinated.
If you are not going to get vaccinated then why are you working in care?
Updated
Vulnerable people feel 'completely let down' by third dose rollout
Vulnerable people with weakened immune systems feel “completely let down” by the rollout of third doses of Covid vaccines, according to charities.
Kidney Care UK and Blood Cancer UK say that immunosuppressed patients are still waiting for a third dose of the vaccine, a month after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said they should be given an extra dose.
The BBC reports that the charities have both expressed concern at the high number of calls and emails they have received about the issue over the last few weeks.
Kidney Care UK has passed on the names of more than 80 GP practices to NHS England which it says were not helping vulnerable patients.
Fiona Loud, its policy director, told the BBC:
This lack of clarity is causing a huge amount of stress, anxiety and frustration amongst thousands of kidney patients.
This group are returning to work and public places with no specific national advice or support.
They feel completely let down and many have told us this is the most worried and anxious they have felt throughout the entire pandemic.
Around half a million people in the UK are immunosuppressed, with studies showing they are unlikely to be protected from Covid-19, even after two doses of vaccine.
NHS England says eligible patients should be offered the third doses by the end of next week.
An NHS spokesperson said:
While a decision on when to get a third jab remains a decision between a patient and their clinician who know about their ongoing care and treatment, all hospitals have been asked to identify and offer a jab to those who are eligible, by the end of next week.
Where vaccines cannot be administered at the same site, patients and their GP will be written to shortly so they can arrange their jab at their local practice or vaccine centre.
Updated
Worldwide Covid deaths pass 5m mark
The number of people who have died across the globe as a result of coronavirus has passed more than 5 million, as the virulent Delta strain continues to ravage unvaccinated countries.
While it took just over a year for the Covid-19 death toll to hit 2.5 million, the next 2.5 million deaths were recorded in just under eight months.
An average of 8,000 deaths were reported daily across the world over the last week – about five deaths every minute. But the global death rate has been slowing in recent weeks, according to Reuters analysis.
It reports that more than half of all global deaths reported on a seven-day average were in the United States, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and India.
From Reuters:
There has been increasing focus in recent days on getting vaccines to poorer nations, where many people are yet to receive a first dose, even as their richer counterparts have begun giving booster shots.
More than half of the world has yet to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Our World in Data.
The World Health Organization this week said its Covax distribution programme would, for the first time, distribute shots only to countries with the lowest levels of coverage.
Co-led by the WHO, Covax has since January largely allocated doses proportionally among its 140-plus beneficiary states according to population size.
Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director general for access to vaccines, said:
For the October supply we designed a different methodology, only covering participants with low sources of supply.
The Delta variant is now the dominant strain around the globe and has been reported in 187 out of 194 World Health Organization member countries.
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