Thanks for following along – this blog is now closed. You can catch up with the latest coronavirus coverage here.
Turkey registered 29,802 new Covid cases on Tuesday, the highest number of daily infections since 30 April 30, health ministry data showed.
It came as the country’s health minister Fahrettin Koca urged citizens to get vaccinated and follow personal hygiene and distancing measures, Reuters reported.
Turkey also recorded 228 deaths from the virus, according to the data. The rise in Turkey’s daily death toll since mid-July has been among the sharpest among countries in Europe and the Middle East, global data shows.
Turkey reopened schools to in-person education this month and removed most coronavirus measures over the summer. Earlier this month, Ankara began asking for a negative PCR test or proof of vaccination from teachers and also for certain public events.
Updated
Police fired teargas and water cannons at anti-government protesters in Slovenia’s capital on Tuesday, the eve of a major European Union summit.
Hundreds of protesters showed up to oppose the Slovenian government’s pandemic restrictions, and the confrontation was the third such incident in Ljubljana within a month, the Associated Press reported.
EU leaders have been gathering for a summit with Balkan officials on how to keep engaging with western Balkans neighbours that hope to join the 27-nation bloc, whose once-successful enlargement policy faces an impasse.
The protest was not directly linked with the EU summit, but protest leaders apparently sought the opportunity to get more media attention from foreign reporters covering the event.
Slovenian police set up checkpoints and limited traffic and movement in Ljubljana and at the venue a few miles away from the capital where Wednesday’s summit will take place.
Updated
Covid passes are to be introduced in Wales after the Welsh government won a tight vote in the Senedd.
The Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and the single Liberal Democrat MS were branded “grossly irresponsible” for voting against the proposals, PA Media reported.
They had raised concerns about civil liberties and the details of the plan, which would see the NHS Covid pass be mandatory for all adults wishing to enter nightclubs or attend certain large events. PA Media reported:
It will come into force from 11 October and it would mean all over-18s would need to have one to enter nightclubs, indoor, non-seated events for more than 500 people, such as concerts or conventions, outdoor non-seated events for more than 4,000 people and any setting or event with more than 10,000 people in attendance.
People would also be able to show they have had a negative lateral flow test result within the last 48 hours.
During a debate in the Senedd, health and social care minister Eluned Morgan said the public was on the government’s side. She said:
I want to be clear that the Welsh Labour government has not suggested the introduction of this measure lightly.
It has been challenging for us because we wanted to think through very carefully, what were the practical, what were the legal what were the ethical implications of introducing a passport of this type.
Updated
Good evening, I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest Covid news for the rest of tonight.
We start with the news that AstraZeneca, the drugmaker that developed one of the first Covid vaccines, has asked the US Food and Drug Administration to authorise the emergency use of a first-of-its-kind antibody treatment to prevent the virus.
The Anglo-Swedish company said Tuesday that the treatment, known as AZD7442, would be the first long-acting antibody combination to receive an emergency authorisation for Covid prevention.
If authorised, the drug would likely be limited to people with compromised immune systems who don’t get sufficient protection from vaccination.
Menelas Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s head of research and development, said:
First and foremost we want to protect those vulnerable populations that haven’t been adequately protected by the vaccine.
But ultimately it will be up to health authorities to work out who they choose to immunise.
Pangalos said the company’s long-acting formulation is designed to boost immunity for up to one year, compared with existing drugs that offer a month or two of protection.
The FDA has authorised three other antibody drugs, including two that can be given after a possible coronavirus exposure to head off symptoms. AstraZeneca’s drug would instead be given as a preventive measure in people who have increased vulnerability to the virus.
Updated
British expats in Colombia and UK-based Colombians are calling for the UK government to remove the country from the red list at its next review of international travel so that loved ones can reunite - in some cases, for the first time in more than two years.
Under the policy, travellers arriving in England from Colombia face 10 days in a government-managed hotel, incurring costs of £2,285. Colombia has been a permanent fixture on the red list since the list came into effect back in February 2021.
The “extortionate” hotel quarantine policy has prohibited many British nationals living in Colombia and UK-based Colombian nationals from seeing their families and friends since the start of the pandemic, leaving them feeling abandoned and frustrated.
Maria Catalina Hidalgo, who lives in London, said the red list measures were “inhuman” and she can’t visit her mother, who lives alone in Colombia.
Going to Colombia is not a holiday trip. It’s essential to travel for us, Colombians. Our mental health and wellbeing have been severed impacted by these restrictions. We must be able to see our family. It’s been now years we have been forced not to see them.
Nathan Griffiths, from Folkestone, Kent, said there was “very little logic” to the country’s prolonged presence on the red list and called the expensive hotel quarantine “unfair”.
I’ve been double jabbed and still can’t return to see friends and family that I’ve not seen in nearly two years. Also, I don’t think the rules reflect the Covid data we see in Colombia. It’s time to start down a different path, or we will be separated from our loved ones for the foreseeable future.
For Mariana Gomez, from Bogotá, who lives in London, the lack of information about how and when Colombia will come off the red list has taken an emotional and mental toll. The policy has prevented her parents from meeting her baby - their first and only grandson - who was born in April.
Last April, Laura Gomez’s grandmother died and she was unable to travel from London to Medellín for her funeral. She hasn’t seen her father, who is 63 and has a heart condition, and the rest of her family since January 2019. “The agony of not knowing when I will be able to see them again is painful,” she said.
We tried to request a visa for him to come to visit me but this was also not possible because the UK Consulate in Colombia has suspended tourist visas due to the red list. Travelling through another country is not an option because I don’t have the time and the money to do this.
The group argues that with case numbers at their lowest since June 2020 and over 40 million vaccines administered amongst the population, the UK government’s decision to keep Colombia on the red list is deeply unfair while countries such as Turkey have been removed.
According to data from the World Health Organization, on 4 October, Colombia recorded 1,497 new Covid cases and a further 36 deaths. Meanwhile, on the same day, Turkey, which was taken off the red list on 22 September, recorded 27,351 new cases and a further 194 deaths.
The group is also calling for the UK to formally recognise vaccines administered in Colombia. Under the current rules, despite receiving the AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna jabs, which are also distributed in the UK, those who received their vaccines in Colombia aren’t recognised as vaccinated.
Thomas Mullett, from Shaftesbury, Dorset lives in Ibagué, and hasn’t seen his family or friends in the UK since December 2019 - he feels “truly abandoned by my own country”.
Current travel rules are beyond frustrating as they clearly do not reflect the data concerning Covid-19 in Colombia. It’s a hopeless situation and the fact the UK doesn’t recognise my Moderna vaccine because it was administered outside of the UK/US/EU is a real kick in the teeth.
A petition for Colombia’s removal from the red list has gathered more than 3,000 signatures. The next travel update from the Department for Transport is expected later this week.
A government spokesperson said: “Our international travel policy is guided by one overwhelming priority – protecting public health. Decisions on our red list are kept under regular review and are informed by the latest risk assessment from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and wider public health factors.”
Updated
Evening summary
Before I hand over to my colleague for the rest of the evening, here’s a quick recap of some of the main developments so far today:
- Spain approved administering third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for over-70s, its health ministry said. The country had already authorised booster shots for cancer patients, nursing home residents and other vulnerable groups.
- The distribution of Covid boosters for the most vulnerable people and second shots of vaccine for teenagers in England should be accelerated to help prevent a winter surge of coronavirus overburdening the NHS, Prof Neil Ferguson said. A doubling of England’s 600 daily Covid hospitalisations would warrant a shift to the government’s “plan B” for winter, he added, which includes a return to home working and mask-wearing mandates. Story here.
- The World Health Organization is still reviewing whether Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine can be approved by the UN health agency for emergency use against coronavirus, with no decision imminent.
-
The head of the International Monetary Fund said the world economy remains “hobbled” by the Covid-19 pandemic as she revealed her organisation had cut its forecast for global growth this year. Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said the most serious obstacle to a full recovery was the vaccine divide between rich and poor nations, and she said the global economy could face a cumulative $5.3tn loss over the next five years unless it was closed. Story here.
-
Norway will soon begin to offer a third dose of Covid vaccines to people aged 65 and older, the health minister said. Beginning in late October or early November, the vaccine will be offered to those who received their second dose at least six months earlier.
- More than 100,000 children in England are off school with confirmed cases of Covid, according to the fortnightly Department for Education figures.
- Johnson & Johnson said it had submitted data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorisation of a booster shot of its Covid vaccine in people aged 18 years and older. The FDA has already authorised a booster dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech for 65-year-olds and older, people at high risk of severe disease and others who are regularly exposed to the virus. Moderna also submitted an application seeking authorisation for a booster shot of its two-dose vaccine last month.
- Governments hoping for a global agreement to halt biodiversity loss must put more effort into access to Covid vaccines for developing countries, the UN’s biodiversity chief said. Story here.
- Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, is self-isolating, as Covid cases in the country increased and a record daily death toll was recorded.
Spain approves Covid booster shots for over-70s
Spain has approved administering of third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are based on the same mRNA technology, for people aged 70 or over, the health ministry said.
The country has fully vaccinated around 78% of its population, and authorised the booster shot from six months after people receive their second jab, the ministry said in a statement. The campaign to administer the boosters will begin at the end of October.
Spain had already authorised booster shots for cancer patients, nursing home residents and other vulnerable groups.
The distribution of Covid boosters for the most vulnerable people and second shots of vaccine for teenagers in England should be accelerated to help prevent a winter surge of coronavirus overburdening the NHS, a senior scientist has said.
Prof Neil Ferguson, the head of the influential disease modelling group at Imperial College London, said England’s vaccine strategy had been “cautious” in recent months, with many teenagers having only one jab, and boosters for the most vulnerable people given no sooner than six months after their second dose.
Speaking to the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus on Tuesday, Ferguson said it was unclear whether the winter would bring another substantial wave of infections, but with new cases already high, at about 30,000 a day, even a moderate rise could put the NHS under pressure.
We don’t have very much headroom for increases. We can’t afford to have too much of a winter surge before the NHS is very heavily stressed.
A doubling of England’s 600 daily Covid hospitalisations would warrant a shift to the government’s “plan B” for winter, he added, which includes a return to home working and mask-wearing mandates.
Ian Sample has the story:
Updated
“I took the Covid vaccine while pregnant – let’s not pretend it’s an easy decision,” writes Ankita Rao. “Only 31% of pregnant Americans are fully vaccinated. I felt responsible for this bean-like bundle forming in my body. But the conflicting advice made it hard for me to decide.”
Updated
Greece has named a new head to the state health watchdog that oversees the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as the country’s death toll neared 15,000, AFP reports.
The health ministry said the new head of the Eody agency is Theoklis Zaoutis, a former chief of the division of paediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
As of Monday, the virus had claimed more than 14,990 lives with an average age of 78, according to Eody.
Main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday said he had demanded answers from the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in parliament on the course of the pandemic.
“We are among the first in deaths per million residents in Europe,” Tsipras said, adding that Greece “ranks 20th in vaccinations among 30 European states”.
The government spokesman retorted that the “overwhelming majority” of Greeks have been vaccinated.
According to Eody data, nearly 6.2 million people have received two vaccine doses in the country of 11 million. More than 12.2 million vaccinations have been administered overall.
Singapore’s health ministry reported 3,486 new cases of Covid on Tuesday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, while it recorded a further nine deaths.
A recent surge in infections after the relaxation of some restrictions has prompted Singapore to pause further reopening. It also tightened curbs from last week that limited social gatherings to two people and made work from home a default.
More than 80% of the population has been vaccinated against the virus.
UK reports 33,869 new cases and 166 further deaths
The UK reported 33,869 new coronavirus cases and 166 deaths on Tuesday.
The official figures showed that 348 out of every 100,000 people have coronavirus.
The weekly case tally was down by 5% on the week before, while deaths were 15% lower.
Updated
A Republican senator in the US was booed and catcalled when he told a party audience in South Carolina to think about getting a vaccine against Covid-19, Martin Pengelly reports.
Lindsey Graham was speaking at the Summerville Country Club in Dorchester county. Video of his remarks was first published by the Daily Beast.
“If you haven’t had the vaccine,” the 66-year-old said, “you ought to think about getting it because if you’re my age …
“No!” yelled audience members.
“I didn’t tell you to get it,” Graham said. “You ought to think about it.”
“No!” people in the crowd yelled again.
Graham said he was glad he got the vaccine, and said 92% of people hospitalised in South Carolina with Covid-19 were not vaccinated.
“False!” the crowd cried. “Not true!”
The overwhelming majority of hospitalisations and deaths from the coronavirus in the US are among unvaccinated people. The US death toll recently passed 700,000.
Updated
The World Health Organization has said it is still reviewing whether Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine can be approved by the UN health agency for emergency use against coronavirus, with no decision imminent.
The Associated Press reported that the WHO had issued the clarification after Russia’s health minister Mikhail Murashko said the decision had been delayed for administrative reasons. Instead, the WHO said it was still reviewing data on Sputnik V vaccines from different manufacturing sites. The next vaccine on the group’s agenda is one from India’s Bharat Biotech, to be discussed this month.
The AP reports:
Approval would be a show of international confidence in the [Sputnik V] vaccine after a rigorous review process, and could pave the way for its inclusion into the Covax program organised by WHO and key partners that is shipping Covid-19 vaccines to scores of countries around the world based on need.
This is Rachel Hall taking over – please do get in touch with anything we’ve missed by dropping me a line at rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
Updated
Opposition leaders have challenged first minister Nicola Sturgeon on the “shambles” surrounding the launch of Scotland’s vaccine passports app, as she apologised for technical problems that meant many people over the weekend were unable to download their certification and led nightclubs and football clubs to denounce the scheme as unworkable.
Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, also pointed out the apparent inconsistency whereby thousands of visitors to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow next month won’t be required to show a vaccine passport but will have to show proof of a negative lateral flow test. Sarwar told Sturgeon she was “making it up as you go along”.
Sturgeon also told MSPs it was “prudent” to keep in place the remaining mitigations such as face coverings, especially as worsening weather meant that people would be meeting more indoors and using public transport rather than walking.
The rule that school children must wear face coverings in class is currently under review and parents will be informed “as soon as possible” if changes to the policy are to be made after the half-term break.
Updated
The head of the International Monetary Fund has said the world economy remains “hobbled” by the Covid-19 pandemic as she revealed her organisation had revised down its forecast for global growth this year.
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said the most serious obstacle to a full recovery was the vaccine divide between rich and poor nations, and she said the global economy could face a cumulative $5.3tn loss over the next five years unless it was closed.
Speaking before the IMF’s annual meeting next week, Georgieva called on rich countries to make good immediately on their pledges to share stockpiles of vaccines with developing countries.
We face a global recovery that remains hobbled by the pandemic and its impact. We are unable to walk forward properly – it is like walking with stones in our shoes.
The most immediate obstacle is the ‘great vaccination divide’ – too many countries with too little access to vaccines, leaving too many people unprotected from Covid.
The Guardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliott, has the story:
Updated
Updated
Norway to offer booster Covid jab to over-65s
Norway will soon begin to offer a third dose of Covid vaccines to people aged 65 and older, the health minister Bent Høie said on Tuesday.
Beginning in late October or early November, the vaccine will be offered to those who received their second dose at least six months earlier.
More than 90% of all Norwegians aged 18 and above have now received a first dose of a Covid vaccine, and 85% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to the Institute of Public Health.
Norway uses vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in its national rollout, which since September has included everyone aged 12 and over.
The number of new Covid cases has dropped steadily over the past two months, and the government removed all domestic social restrictions on 25 September.
Several European Union countries, including Spain and France, launched their own booster campaigns before the EU’s drug regulator gave its guidance on Monday, although they vary widely over who is eligible.
Updated
England: more than 100,000 children off school with Covid
More than 100,000 children in England are off school with confirmed cases of Covid, according to the fortnightly Department for Education figures just published.
The proportion of children at school has fallen below 90% – worse than this time a year ago – and the number off school for Covid-related reasons is up by 66% – 204,000 off in total for Covid, compared with 122,000 two weeks ago when the last stats came out.
In total 186,000 are off with suspected or confirmed Covid cases.
Updated
Hospitals may struggle to cope if there is a significant surge of Covid in England this winter even if broad vaccination means that deaths do not approach the same levels as last year, one of the UK’s top epidemiologists told Reuters.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is betting on vaccinating children and giving booster shots to vulnerable adults to avoid a winter lockdown this year. Johnson has so far locked down England’s economy three times since the pandemic began to avoid Covid overwhelming the NHS.
Prof Neil Ferguson, the director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and Jameel Institute, Imperial College London, said the coming months were uncertain but could put strain on hospitals.
“We’re not completely out of the woods yet. We may yet see a significant surge in infections later in the autumn, into the winter,” Ferguson told Reuters after the launch of the Imperial College London Institute of Infection.
I’m optimistic in almost any circumstance that we’re not going to see an overwhelming wave of mortality at this point. The more difficult question is around hospital demands. The NHS is already fairly stressed … there isn’t much A&E capacity left.
England has had an average of around 30,000 daily cases since late July. Ferguson said that such constant case numbers was an unusual pattern, and things could get tougher heading into winter as people spend more time indoors.
He said immunity in the population was probably waning rather than growing, but vaccine effectiveness against severe disease was holding up well.
Nevertheless, many could be hospitalised for a night or two, even if vaccination means they don’t need intensive care.
“Every one of those people puts additional demands on the NHS,” he said, adding that mask mandates and work-from-home orders could be needed to reduce hospital stresses even if another full-blown lockdown was “highly unlikely”.
It’s much more likely that we just roll back on some limited numbers of measures to try and damp down transmission … things short of shutting the country down.
Updated
Johnson & Johnson said it had submitted data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorisation of a booster shot of its Covid vaccine in people aged 18 years and older, Reuters reports.
Last week the FDA scheduled a meeting of its expert advisory committee for 15 October to discuss whether to authorise a second shot of J&J’s single-dose vaccine.
J&J said its submission included data from a late-stage study that found a booster of its vaccine given 56 days after the primary dose provided 94% protection against symptomatic Covid in the US and 100% protection against severe disease at least 14 days after the booster shot.
The FDA has already authorised a booster dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech for 65-year-olds and older, people at high risk of severe disease and others who are regularly exposed to the virus.
Moderna also submitted an application seeking authorisation for a booster shot of its two-dose vaccine last month.
J&J said it planned to submit the data to other regulators, the World Health Organization and national immunisation technical advisory groups to inform decision-making on local vaccine administration strategies as needed.
Updated
Governments hoping for a global agreement to halt biodiversity loss must put more effort into access to Covid vaccines for developing countries, the UN’s biodiversity chief has said.
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the UN convention on biological diversity, said the Kunming Cop15 summit, at which governments will try to forge a “Paris agreement for nature”, was vital for halting the global crisis of species loss.
Arrangements are being made to enable all delegates to be vaccinated in good time for the in-person part of the conference in April next year. But by that stage there must also be a clear plan for making vaccines available to the populations of developing countries, said Mrema.
She told the Guardian:
If we are to continue with negotiations, ensuring that no one is left behind, it means parties can’t meet in person if the whole world is not vaccinated.
In the developing world, vaccines are still not easily available to the rest of the population, and that’s a challenge and a worry. We need to vaccinate more broadly, not just for delegates. Otherwise the principle of leaving no one behind will be the opposite – we will have left many behind.
Read the full story by my colleague Fiona Harvey here:
Updated
Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, is self-isolating, the head of the upper house of parliament said on Tuesday as Covid cases in the country increased and a record daily death toll was recorded, Reuters reports.
“We wish you to get well as soon as possible and get out the self-isolation regime,” Valentina Matvienko told Siluanov, who joined the budget hearings at the upper house of parliament via a video link.
Matvienko did not explicitly say that Siluanov was self-isolating due to Covid, days after Vladimir Putin ended his two-week self-isolation after dozens of people in his entourage had fallen ill with the virus.
The finance ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Siluanov’s health.
Russian authorities have repeatedly urged people to get vaccinated, saying it was the only way to stop the spread of the virus and promising not to impose lockdowns.
In the past 24 hours at least 895 people died from Covid in Russia, the most recorded in a single day since the pandemic began.
Updated
Good morning from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next eight hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Here’s a summary of this morning’s coronavirus news
- Around one in 12 deaths registered in England and Wales towards the end of September involved coronavirus, figures show.
- The Thai Red Cross Society has kicked off a vaccination campaign for migrant workers, who have been largely left behind in the broader inoculation rollout.
- Boris Johnson said there was no need to deviate from the UK’s Covid recovery “plan A”, including a return to offices.
- Portugal is set to join European countries that are giving booster doses of coronavirus vaccine to everyone over 65.
- Senegal has had only a handful of new daily Covid infections so far this week, with only two cases yesterday, the lowest number since the pandemic reached the country.
- Japan’s Covid case numbers have plummeted to the lowest in nearly a year while other parts of Asia are struggling with surging infections
- The British drug company AstraZeneca has requested that the US Food and Drug Administration grant emergency use authorisation for a new antibody treatment that would prevent Covid-19.
- Nearly half of English schools have lower pupil attendance this term than normal, with school leaders warning of high levels of disruption caused by Covid spreading among pupils.
- A tough winter for the NHS in England will be made harder by growing sickness levels among nurses, nursing leaders have warned. Nurses are experiencing more sickness, including for anxiety and depression, than before the pandemic.
- Almost 12,000 women across the UK could have undiagnosed breast cancer after missing out on screening due to the pandemic.
Updated
Around one in 12 deaths registered in England and Wales towards the end of September involved coronavirus, figures show.
There were 888 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 24 September where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is a rise of 4.3% on the previous seven days, with 8.3% of all deaths registered in the latest week involving coronavirus. The ONS said the number of registered Covid-19 deaths fell in five out of nine regions in England, with the south-east seeing the biggest drop.
Overall, the number of registered deaths from all causes fell 2.9% to 10,684 in the week ending 24 September, but they remained 15.3% above the average for this period calculated over five years.
Deaths were above the five-year average in private homes, hospitals and care homes, but below the average in other settings.
Updated
The Thai Red Cross Society has kicked off a vaccination campaign for migrant workers, one of the country’s most vulnerable groups that has been largely left behind in the broader inoculation rollout.
About 300 workers received their first doses, Reuters reports, as part of a campaign due to run until the end of the month that is initially targeting 5,000 workers.
“The more migrant workers we’re able to vaccinate, the better for the Thai people too,” said Tej Bunnag, the secretary general of the Thai Red Cross Society.
Official data shows about 2.35 million migrants have permits to work in Thailand, but the International Organization for Migration estimates there are closer to 4 million to 5 million migrant workers.
Many live in cramped quarters and work in industries including construction, manufacturing and seafood industries. Their lack of access to healthcare has made getting vaccinations a challenge.
“We’re so happy that we will be safe now. We all came in a big group because we’re afraid to die,” said Pesan, 35, who has lived in Thailand for more than 20 years. “Finally there’s someone who’s lending us help.”
Earlier this year the Thai government closed hundreds of construction sites and prevented workers from leaving their camps for a month after Covid outbreaks in Bangkok.
The Thai Red Cross said in July it had bought 1m doses of Moderna’s vaccine, which it planned to administer to medical personnel and vulnerable groups and sell to organizations around the country for general distribution.
Updated
Boris Johnson on Covid: 'We can stick to plan A and get back to offices'
There is no need to deviate from the UK’s Covid recovery “plan A”, including a return to offices, the prime minister has said.
In a radio interview with LBC, Boris Johnson said: “We have got to be humble in the face of nature and we have got to recognise that the disease, or a new variant or another pandemic, could always hit us.”
But he went on: “The data that I see at the moment is very clear that we are right to stick to plan A, which is what we are on.”
That meant “encouraging people to get back to work in the normal way, and I think that’s a good thing. For young people in particular, it is really essential … if you are going to learn on the job, you can’t just do it on Zoom.”
He warned that those who refused to come into the workplace risked being “gossiped about” by colleagues.
“You have got to be able to come in, you have got to know what everyone else is talking about, otherwise you are going to be gossiped about and you are going to lose out.”
However, he admitted that not all his staff were yet back in the office. He added: “The cabinet secretary has written a pretty good letter some weeks ago to everybody telling them to get back to their desks.”
Updated
Portugal to give booster jabs to everyone over 65
Portugal is set to join European countries that are giving booster doses of the coronavirus vaccine to everyone over 65.
Portugal, which has the world’s highest vaccination rate with 85% of its total population fully jabbed, started last month to give an extra jab to those aged over 16 with weakened immune systems. It is now extending it to everyone aged 65 and older starting 11 October, the health secretary, Antonio Sales, said late on Monday.
The booster campaigns in wealthier parts of Europe highlight a growing disparity in vaccination rates across the EU. Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Romania are falling far behind Spain, France and Portugal and are struggling to reach all adults with the first jab.
The European Medicines Agency recommended on Monday giving people with weakened immune systems a third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, but left it to member states to decide if the wider population should have a booster.
Updated
Senegal has had only a handful of new daily Covid infections so far this week, with only two cases yesterday – the lowest number since the pandemic reached the country.
“Two cases were recorded today, the lowest ever recorded,” said the health ministry spokesperson Ngone Ngom. “They were in the past seven, 10 cases, but from the top of my head I think this is the lowest.”
While the number of Covid infections has been relatively low in Senegal compared with elsewhere, the west African nation is emerging from a wave this summer. Twenty thousand of its 73,800 cases and 250 of its 1,860 deaths were recorded in July alone.
The low figures have been maintained without reaching target milestones in vaccinations. Vaccinations have more than doubled since the start of July, with the country having used around 730,000 doses – but in a population of 17 million it is a drop in the ocean. It remains a far cry from the World Health Organization’s target vaccination rate of 40%.
Updated
Japan’s Covid case numbers have plummeted to the lowest in nearly a year while other parts of Asia are struggling with surging infections, Reuters reports, leaving health experts perplexed and raising concern of a winter rebound.
New daily cases in Tokyo dropped to 87 on Monday, the lowest number since early November last year and a huge decline from more than 5,000 a day in August when hospitals came under huge pressure.
The pattern is the same across the country. After a slow start, Japan has made rapid progress in its vaccination campaign, and almost six months of emergency distancing restrictions are likely to have helped stem the spread of the virus.
Nevertheless, the speed with which a wave of infections and hospitalisations fuelled by the infectious Delta variant has ebbed away has confounded the experts.
Kyoto University’s Hiroshi Nishiura is among those who believe the summer spike in cases was mainly due to trends in human activity.
“During the holidays we meet persons whom we seldom meet up with, and moreover there is a substantial chance to eat together in a face-to-face environment,” Nishiura, a top infectious disease modeller advising the government, told Reuters.
Recent record cases in South Korea and Singapore may be connected to some mid-year holidays, and a convergence of Asian and western holidays at the end of the year could lead to a “nightmare”, he said.
But other experts say infection trends have less to do with travel and more to do with regular, seasonal trends.
Jason Tetro, a Canada-based infectious disease expert and author of The Germ Code, said different age cohorts become “fuel” for the virus to perpetuate, depending on vaccination rates and prior infections, at different times.
“Without elimination of the virus, we will continue to see spikes until 85% of the population is immune to the dominant strain,” he said.
A theory gaining ground is that Covid and its variants tend to move in two-month cycles, though Tetro said the cycle is “more a factor of human nature than mother nature”.
Kenji Shibuya, a former director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College, London, said he doubted that “the people’s flow” was driving the virus, as many government experts assert.
“It is primarily driven by seasonality, followed by vaccination and perhaps some viral characteristics which we do not know,” said Shibuya, who also directed municipal inoculations in northern Japan.
Whatever the cause of the lull, experts say time is of the essence to head off another resurgence.
“We only have a window of one month,” Shibuya said. “So we should move fast to secure beds and ramp up vaccination.”
Updated
The British drug company AstraZeneca has requested that the US Food and Drug Administration grant emergency use authorisation for a new antibody treatment that would prevent Covid-19.
While vaccines rely on an active immune system to develop an arsenal of targeted antibodies and infection-fighting cells, this treatment – an antibody therapy called AZD7442 – contains lab-made antibodies designed to linger in the body for months to contain the virus in case of an infection.
AstraZeneca say it could help protect people who may not have a strong enough immune response to Covid vaccines.
A US authorisation for AZD7442 could be a major win for AstraZeneca, whose widely used Covid vaccine is yet to be approved in the United States.
In its request the company has included data from a late-stage trial of more than 5,000 participants that showed the drug reduced the risk of people developing any Covid symptoms by 77%.
Updated
Nearly half of English schools have lower pupil attendance this term than normal, with school leaders warning of high levels of disruption caused by Covid spreading among pupils.
The school leaders’ union NAHT argues that the change in isolation rules that allows children to keep going to school if a parent or sibling tests positive is “actively contributing” to more pupils catching the virus.
A poll by NAHT of more than 1,100 school leaders in September suggests 78% lack confidence in the government’s Covid-19 guidance for schools.
Current guidance says that if a certain threshold of Covid-19 cases is reached, schools should seek public health advice.
The first threshold is if five pupils or staff who are likely to have mixed closely test positive for Covid-19 within a 10-day period, or if 10% of pupils or staff who have mixed closely test positive within 10 days.
The survey found that 26% of school leaders had already met one of these thresholds this term.
Not all leaders believe there is a need for further measures but around half think there might be a need for more mitigations if there is a further rise in Covid-19 cases.
Children in England currently do not have to isolate if they live in the same household as someone with Covid-19. Instead they are advised to take a PCR test and isolate only if they test positive.
The rules were introduced as the same time as changes to isolation for adults, meaning now only people with confirmed Covid have to follow isolation rules.
The findings have been published ahead of the union’s policy conference in London on Friday and Saturday.
Overall, 48% of school leaders said they had lower or significantly lower attendance at the start of term than they would expect in a non-Covid year, with the top reasons being pupils self-isolating due to symptoms of Covid-19 or possible exposure to Covid-19, as well as other illnesses.
A government spokeswoman said: “The phenomenal success of the vaccination programme, protecting tens of millions of people from the threat of the virus, means that those aged under 18 are not required to self-isolate if they are identified as close contacts.
“This is helping to keep young people in classrooms and crucially reducing disruption to their face-to-face education.”
Updated
A tough winter for the NHS in England will be made harder by growing sickness levels among nurses, nursing leaders have warned. Nurses are experiencing more sickness, including for anxiety and depression, than before the pandemic.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) analysed figures for staff sickness from before the pandemic and earlier this year, and found thousands of days lost to staff absence on already overstretched wards.
This adds to other reports about staff pressures on the NHS. As well as news today that women are missing vital breast cancer screenings, yesterday midwifery experts warned that staff shortages were making working life increasingly unbearable for midwives with many planning to leave.
This analysis showed that the NHS in England recorded over 18% more sick days among nurses and health visitors in May 2021 compared with May 2019.
Staff are now more at risk of mental health problems, chest and respiratory problems and migraines than before the pandemic.
The RCN say nursing staff face a difficult winter in treating the backlog of NHS care, working on the flu and Covid booster vaccine programmes and dealing with the usual seasonal pressures.
RCN council chair Carol Popplestone said: “Even in a climate of widespread staff shortages, which governments have refused to acknowledge, there cannot be a stigma against nurses needing time to take stock.
“Without challenging it, we don’t just lose nursing staff for a few days, we lose them forever.
“There will be immense pressure on health and care services this winter and services can’t afford to lose safety-critical professionals to avoidable illnesses on top of tens of thousands of nursing vacancies.
“The risk to our patients is too high to do nothing.”
One nurse, Natalie, from Norfolk, said the pandemic had taken its toll on her mental health and wellbeing and that of her colleagues.
“More of us are having to take sick days due to the side-effects of stress and anxiety, which leads to short staffing, which then causes more pressure and burnout on staff and leaves staff that are currently off feeling guilty,” she said.
“It’s a vicious circle. On an average shift, we can be to two registered nurses and a healthcare assistance down, and there is also increased pressure on newly qualified nurses and registered nursing associates when they actually need support developing themselves as registered practitioners.”
An NHS spokesman said: “NHS staff have pulled out all the stops to care for more than 450,000 Covid patients in addition to keep routine services going throughout the pandemic, and it is absolutely crucial that they receive the support they need as we head into winter, which is why a comprehensive support package is available for all NHS workers including a confidential helpline and rapid access to mental health services.”
Updated
Almost 12,000 women across the UK could have undiagnosed breast cancer after missing out on screening due to the pandemic.
Breast Cancer Now is warning that almost 1.5 million fewer women had breast screening between March 2020 and May 2021 when compared with pre-pandemic levels. Disruption to NHS services has been caused by a variety of factors, including screening being paused at the height of the pandemic and fewer women being referred to specialists with possible symptoms of the disease.
The Royal College of Radiologists said breast screening teams are now trying to fit two years’ worth of appointments into one year.
Dr Jeanette Dickson, the president of the Royal College of Radiologists, said: “Breast services, including screening, are working flat out to make sure patients are seen as quickly as possible, and we cannot urge people enough: if you have any worrying symptoms, please seek help from your GP. If you are given a screening appointment, please take it.
“But breast imaging and treatment services were massively under-resourced even before the pandemic hit. Now, screening teams are trying to fit two years’ worth of appointments into one to catch up with a backlog of millions, while struggling with long-standing staff shortages and woefully substandard facilities, as well as slower working due to Covid restrictions.”
An NHS England spokeswoman said: “The pandemic has inevitably meant that some patient services have been disrupted, which is why the NHS in England is investing more than 70 million in additional funding for screening capacity, so people can get the checks they need.
“Extra weekend and evening clinics will help every woman who needs a screen to access one.”
Updated
Good morning. I’m Harriet Grant and I’ll be bringing you Covid news from around the world this morning.
Updated
New Zealanders are grieving for the end of the country’s Covid elimination strategy and anxious about what the future holds, after prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country would switch to a suppression approach.
New Zealand has held fast to a Covid-zero strategy for the past 18 months. That has been rewarded with some of the world’s best outcomes through the pandemic: extremely low hospitalisations and deaths, little in the way of day to day restrictions, low unemployment and robust economic survival. But on Monday, almost two months into a Delta outbreak, the country stepped into the unknown, pivoting for the first time away from strict elimination despite vaccination rates that remain low.
Read the full story here:
China reports no new local cases of Covid-19
China today reported no new local cases of Covid-19 for the first time in more than three weeks, Reuters reports.
The country recently battled outbreaks in the provinces of Fujian and Heilongjiang but the virus is now believed to have been brought under control.
The first case in Fujian in its recent outbreak was reported on 10 September in the city of Putian.
Infections later spread to nearby Xiamen, but were contained within the southeastern province.
Heilongjiang reported its first case in its outbreak on 21 September. Infections were also contained within the northeastern province.
All of the new infections reported in mainland China for 4 October were imported, the National Health Commission said. That compares with one local case a day earlier in Heilongjiang.
Updated
Summary
Hi, I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be giving you a rundown of the latest coronavirus updates as they happen.
National guard medical teams have been deployed to several hospitals in California’s Central Valley and its rural north where case rates are three or four times higher than the state average.
Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine have been found to be “highly effective” at preventing hospitalisations for at least six months, a large-scale study published in the Lancet has shown.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours.
- A Covid vaccination mandate for teachers and other staff members took effect in New York City’s sprawling public school system on Monday.
- The Kremlin has implored people to get vaccinated against Covid as daily cases rise to their highest levels since January.
- There is anger and fear in New Zealand as it prepares to switch to a suppression approach against Covid after holding fast to a Covid-zero strategy for the past 18 months.
- Epidemiologists are hopeful that the Delta wave of the virus has reached its peak in the US after the number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations dropped.
- The EU regulator has encouraged people with weakened immune systems to get a third dose of a Covid vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna.
- England’s Covid hospital admissions are in decline for the first time since the start of the pandemic, experts say.
