Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s news coronavirus news:
- Brazilian protesters demanded Jair Bolsonaro step down as president over his handling of the pandemic. There were demonstrations in more than 40 cities by people angered by the number of deaths and slow rate of vaccination. On Friday the Supreme Court approved an investigation into Bolonaro over irregularities in a contract to procure vaccines from an Indian company.
- Brazil registered 1,635 new deaths and 54,556 new cases over the past 24 hours. More than half a million people have been killed by the virus in Brazil.
- Boris Johnson is planning to end compulsory wearing of masks in England, according to a report by the Telegraph. The newspaper also said he is convinced the link has been broken between infection and hospitalisation.
- The NHS was celebrated on its 73rd birthday with thank you messages and by illuminating landmarks in England blue. But NHS workers were also out protesting, demanding fairer pay and better working conditions after their contribution through the pandemic.
- South Africa broke its record number of cases, which was only set yesterday. It registered 26,000 cases as it goes through a third wave of infections having made very little progress on vaccination.
- Concerned about the spread of the Delta variant, especially among the young, Portugal is aiming to vaccinate 1.7 million people in the next two weeks. That amounts to almost a fifth of its population and, from tomorrow, will also be open to anyone aged 18 to 29.
- Australia’s largest state, West Australia, will continue to use lockdowns when needed. Leaders from federal and state level had agreed yesterday to only use them as a “last resort” but West Australia’s premier said that was interpreted differently by the various regional governments.
- Indonesia has imposed a partial lockdown on the main island of Java, including in Jakarta, and on Bali, in a bid to curb surging infections after a record number of cases and deaths on Friday. The country reported an even higher number of cases on Saturday, with 27,913 infections.
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Phase 3 trials for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine showed it was 93.4% effective against severe disease, according to a statement from the Indian firm.
- Russia has reported its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began – the fifth day in a row it has set that record.
Brazil records 1,635 new deaths
Brazil’s health ministry announced another 54,556 new cases of coronavirus and 1,635 deaths linked to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
That means Brazil has now had 18,742,025 cases and 523,587 deaths because of the virus.
As night fell, landmarks in England were lit blue to celebrate 73 years of the NHS. The messages went up in the capital and in cities throughout the country, including Wembley stadium, the London Eye, Sunderland’s Penshaw monument, the Liver building in Liverpool and Salisbury Cathedral.
NHS staff for their role in the pandemic. Photograph: NHS England/PA
Updated
Boris Johnson 'to end mask-wearing in England'
Boris Johnson, the UK’s prime minister, has approved plans to end compulsory mask-wearing in shops and on public transport in England, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
He is reportedly planning to declare the link broken between infection and hospitalisation this week as he launches a new plan on how England deals with the virus.
Discarded alongside face masks will be rules enforcing social distancing inside pubs and restaurants.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, Johnson is convinced that the data shows restrictions can be dropped from 19 July because vaccinations are progressing and proving effective enough to protect the NHS.
Leading doctors have urged the government to keep some measures in place in England after 19 July in a bid to help control the spread of Covid amid the “alarming” rise in cases.
Updated
South Africa hits record 26,000 cases
For the second day running South Africa has broken its record number of cases, registering 26,000 on Saturday.
South Africa has vaccinated only 3.3 milion people after its attempts at launching a vaccination campaign suffered several setbacks. It is now struggling with a third wave that is pushing its health system to the limit.
South Africa has recorded over 2 million cases and 61,500 deaths so far during the pandemic, according to its health ministry.
Alongside India, the country has been leading a push to waive vaccine patents so that doses can be manufactured more quickly and be delivered to poorer countries that have struggled to secure supplies.
Updated
Prof Catherine Bennett recalls being in a supermarket the first time she was recognised.
“A woman called out acknowledging she’d seen me on TV. She screamed out, ‘I love you!’”
Bennett, the inaugural chair in epidemiology at Deakin University, is one of a number of Australian experts who have been thrust into the spotlight by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since March 2020, public appetite for information and analysis has turned researchers into household names.
Throughout the pandemic, Bennett has communicated the latest in Covid-19 developments and research to the public, through media interviews and written analysis. Now, she hardly goes anywhere without being recognised.
“While it happened progressively, it’s still a very strange thing,” she says.
Updated
A San Franciso zoo has started vaccinating some of its animals against Covid-19, the San Franciso Chronicle reported on Saturday.
Oakland Zoo has launched a vaccination programme starting with Tigers, Black bears, Grizzly bears, Mountain lions and ferrets - the animals it considers highest risk.
The jabs were part of 11,000 doses donated by Zoetis, which developed the experimental vaccine.
Like getting a 🍭 after your doctor's visit!
— Oakland Zoo (@oakzoo) July 2, 2021
After receiving his first covid vaccination, Kern, an American Black Bear, gets a favorite reward - whipped cream!
All of that hard work, in training for medical procedures, has surely paid off.
🎥: Keeper Brittany @Zoetis pic.twitter.com/db4vkUOTbR
The US has administered almost 330 million vaccine doses but the debate is growing about about whether the country can really relax with the spread of the Delta variant.
Despite the number of vaccinations, there are massive gaps in some areas. Less than 50% of adults in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana have recieved a dose.
Dr Rachel Levine, assistant secretary at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said on CNN that the Delta variant could threaten herd immunity.
“We don’t exactly know what the herd immunity percentage would be for Covid-19. It would be different for the Delta variant, and higher, because it is more transmissible.”
The 4 July independence day celebrations were supposed to be a milestone for Americans to feel clear of the pandemic but the Washington Post reported that instead the situation varies wildly between areas.
More than 2,000 counties representing over half of the American population have not met Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine by Independence Day, according to an analysis by The Washington Post...
Most ominously, the highly transmissible delta variant is on the rise and represents a quarter of confirmed cases, posing a greater risk to pockets of unvaccinated communities than earlier strains of the virus.
Brazilian protesters demand Bolsonaro resignation over coronavirus deaths
Huge crowds of protesters have returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities to demand the removal of a president they blame for more than half a million coronavirus deaths.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators hit the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday morning as calls for Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment intensified after allegations that members of his government had sought to illegally profit from the purchase of Covid vaccines.
“The people have awoken,” said Benedita da Silva, a 79-year-old congresswoman and veteran of the Brazilian left, as she joined the rally.
“I’m here because we absolutely have to get this monster out of power and reclaim Brazil,” said Magda Souza, a 64-year-old dissenter, as she marched through downtown Rio with her husband, José Baptisa. “We’re surrounded by barbarism,” Souza added as a police helicopter circled over the throng.
Souza wore a bright red T-shirt calling for the return of Bolsonaro’s leftwing antagonist, the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who recently stormed back on the political scene after his political rights were restored and is expected to run for the presidency next year. But many at the demonstration said they were not members of Brazil’s left and simply wanted rid of a far-right leader they accused of condemning thousands of fellow citizens to death with his chaotic – and some now suspect corrupt – response to coronavirus.
Updated
Brazil’s Supreme Court approved an investigation into President Jair Bolosnaro over dereliction of duty in procuring vaccines from India, Reuters reports.
The president has been implicated in allegations of irregularities surrounding a 1.6 billion reais ($316 million) contract signed in February for 20 million doses with a Brazilian intermediary for the vaccine’s maker, Bharat Biotech.
A Brazilian Senate commission investigating the administration’s handling of the pandemic has cited suspicions of overpricing and corruption related to the contract. After allegations of irregularities surfaced, the government suspended the contract.
Brazil has suffered the world’s second highest number of COVID-19 deaths.
Brazilian federal prosecutors and the comptroller general’s office, or CGU, are also separately investigating the alleged irregularities in the deal. The case allegedly involves the government’s chief whip in the lower house of Congress, Ricardo Barros, according to lawmakers.
Bolsonaro and Barros denied any wrongdoing.
Robin McKie, Rachel Hall and Michael Savage report on fears about infections spreading in schools and offices if the British government goes too far in abandoning restrictions.
Boris Johnson is facing increasing warnings of a summer of chaos in schools and workplaces, amid urgent demands for clarity over the government’s plans to tackle an unpredictable escalation in Covid cases.
Retaining advice to wear masks in certain settings and abandoning quarantine for anyone in England who is fully vaccinated are measures being examined by the government to stop a resurgence in cases and more enforced isolations – something that also risks hitting the NHS workforce.
Senior scientists warn that it is still possible for hospitals to be stretched over the summer should no Covid suppression measures stay in place after 19 July, when legal restrictions are due to be lifted. Doctors are already demanding that some measures remain over the summer, while teachers and parents are warning of a chaotic situation in schools, with different institutions applying different rules for sending children home if they have been exposed to Covid.
The competing demands of schools, businesses and the NHS, and the potential course of the disease, now present Johnson with difficult decisions over his timetable for the end of restrictions. While hospital admissions have been rising in England, doctors speak of a “slow burn” to levels that remain manageable. However, some are warning that along with staffing pressures and high levels of emergency admissions, an increase in Covid patients could have an effect on non-Covid services.
Updated
Portgual aiming to vaccinate 1.7m people in two weeks
Portugal is aiming to vaccinate close to a fifth of its population in two weeks after the biggest increase in cases since February, Reuters reports.
The country has already vaccinated around 35% of its population of 10 million and is aiming for another 1.7 million during the drive announced by its vaccination taskforce. They warned people to be prepared for long queues outside vaccination centres.
There were 2,605 new cases on Saturday but most cases have been among unvaccinated young people. From Sunday, 18 to 29-year-olds will be able to book vaccines.
James Tapper and Robin McKie report in the Observer on the dangers vaccine of sharing continuing to move so slowly, which according to the World Health Organization has already allowed extensive spread of the Delta variant.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said the sharing of vaccines was “only a trickle, which is being outpaced by variants”, after it emerged that the Delta variant is now present in at least 98 countries.
His warning came as Dame Sarah Gilbert, the Oxford professor who led the team behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, called for caution over proposals to vaccinate children in the UK. “We have to balance what we think about vaccinating children in high-income countries with vaccinating the rest of the world because we need to stop transmission of this virus globally,” she told the Observer.
“We’re not completely out of the woods. And that’s why I’m very worried about getting vaccines around the rest of the world because we need to stop the virus being transmitted and continuing to evolve. That could give us a new variant that is going to be really difficult to deal with.”
Updated
Joe Biden has warned that although America has Covid-19 ‘on the run’ the latest variant is of particular concern among those who remain unvaccinated – as the president’s goal of 70% of US adults receiving at least one shot of vaccine by the Fourth of July holiday looks set to fall short.
Dozens of protests have called for an end to underfunding and understaffing in the NHS across England, Scotland and Wales to mark the health service’s 73rd anniversary.
Campaigners from Keep Our NHS Public said they wanted an end to health service privatisation, better pay and to highlight threats to patient safety due to working conditions.
Outside University College Hospital in London on Saturday, NHS health workers and activists chanted: “Boris Johnson hear us shout, pay us properly or get out”. They also begged for the NHS to be kept alive, as it continues to face structural reforms that many say damage efficiency and see some services in effect privatised.
Italy reports 22 deaths, France records 17
Italy has reported 22 new deaths linked to coronavirus and the number of infections rose compared to the previous day, with 932 new cases. France also reported 17 deaths. In both countries the number of patients in intensive care fell slightly.
Updated
UK reports 18 Covid deaths over past 24 hours
Another 24,885 people tested positive for Covid-19 over the past 24 hours in the UK, according to the daily data just released by the government. Positive tests are now up 67% on the previous seven days.
There were 18 deaths today while 1,905 people were in hospital as of 1 July. The number of people admitted to hospital has increased by around a quarter over the past week.
Updated
The head of Australia’s largest state has said that lockdowns will continue to be a “necessary tool” in fighting Covid-19, despite an agreement to use them as a last resort as part of re-opening plans.
Australian Associated Press reported that West Australia’s Premier McGowan said lockdowns will still be important “until we have enough West Australians vaccinated”.
He said the nationwide agreement made by federal and state leaders was subjective.
“NSW’s version of ‘last resort’ is get 80 cases and then you have community spread and a lockdown that might go for weeks and weeks, if not months,” he said.
“Our view of last resort is that you listen to the medical advice, you see if there’s any prospect of community spread and try and kill it quickly and efficiently right then rather than let it drag on and result in potentially catastrophic consequences.”
Landmarks across the country are being lit blue in thanks for the NHS on its 73rd birthday but health workers rallied outside Downing Street today asking for more: fairer pay and better working conditions.
Hi, this is Kaamil Ahmed taking over the blog for the evening with global coverage of Covid-19. Feel free to drop a line on Twitter if you think there’s a story that needs covering.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s developments:
- Leading doctors are calling on the government to maintain some protective measures in England after 19 July as the highly transmissible Delta variant sweeps the UK.
- Indonesia has imposed a partial lockdown on the main island of Java, including in Jakarta, and on Bali, in a bid to curb surging infections after a record number of cases and deaths on Friday. The country reported an even higher number of cases on Saturday, with 27,913 infections.
- Phase 3 trials for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine showed it was 93.4% effective against severe disease, according to a statement from the Indian firm.
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Russia has reported its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began – the fifth day in a row it has set that record.
- The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has expressed fears the country is headed towards a fifth coronavirus wave as the Delta variant spreads.
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Saudi Arabia has halted flights to the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Vietnam to protect against a coronavirus variant, the interior ministry has said.
- Vietnam’s health ministry reported 922 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily total since the virus was first found in the country in January last year.
That’s all from me for today – I’m handing over to my colleague Kaamil Ahmed. Thank you for reading along.
Updated
A deadly fungal infection first observed in Indian Covid-19 patients has been detected in Afghanistan, which is battling a third wave of the virus, health minister Wahid Majroh has said.
One death has been recorded, while the black fungus has been detected in another two patients, Majroh said in comments reported by the Associated Press.
The fungal disease, called mucormycosis, has a 50% mortality rate.
Despite low testing levels – barely 4,000 tests are carried out in Afghanistan each day – cases have risen by 1,272 in the past 24 hours and 92 deaths have been recorded. Just 2.5% of the country 36 million people have been vaccinated.
Kabul’s hospitals are almost at capacity, and oxygen shortages mean poor Afghans sometimes wait for days for oxygen cylinders to be filled at the few production plants.
Updated
Nurses are holding a rally outside Downing Street, protesting the deaths of hundreds of health and care workers during the pandemic. Today marks 73 years since the NHS was founded.
Boris Johnson blamed for the covid related deaths of 850 hospital staff and care workers, at a nurses rally outside Downing Street, London, today. The event is part of a nationwide protest for better pay and conditions for health workers, and the end to privatisation in the NHS pic.twitter.com/gGapqm0Tea
— Jason Rodrigues (@RodriguesJasonL) July 3, 2021
A further 250,234 vaccinations have taken place in England, including first and second doses, taking the total to 65,932,869 since the rollout began.
Of the daily figure, 107,959 were first doses and 142,275 were second shots, NHS England said. A total of 37,859,897 have had an initial jab, while 28,072,972 are fully vaccinated.
Greece is considering vaccinating teenagers as cases begin to rise again, a scientific adviser to the government has said.
Vana Papaevangelou, a member of the committee of infectious disease experts advising the government, said the group was considering advising the vaccination of 15- to 17-year-olds, Kathimerini newspaper reports.
“June has been an exceptional month. Cases dropped by 75%,” she said. However, the number of new infections has started to rise again over the last week.
Meanwhile, measures are being put in place to stop the spread of the virus on the country’s islands. From Monday, people visiting an island will need to present a Covid-19 vaccination certificate, proof of recent recovery from the virus, a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of travel or a negative rapid test taken 42 hours before travelling.
Updated
Celebrities including the comedian David Walliams and actor Jim Broadbent have called on their fellow Britons to “get back to the rhythm of life”, by getting vaccinated against Covid.
In the film, which is to the tune of a song from the 1966 musical Sweet Charity, Broadbent enters an empty theatre before celebrities including Walliams, actors Asa Butterfield, Colin Salmon, Derek Jacobi and Don Warrington, and singer Nicola Roberts take the stage to perform the song.
Before the launch, Little Britain co-creator Walliams said: “The NHS has done an absolutely fantastic job rolling out Covid-19 vaccines at such speed and, as we do in the film, I want to implore everyone to get their vaccine when called so we can get back to the all-singing, all-dancing, rhythm of life that we love.”
Updated
Driven by the Delta variant, infection numbers have risen across dozens of African countries over the last six weeks.
Deaths rose by 15% across 38 African nations to nearly 3,000 in the same period, according to AFP.
“The speed and scale of Africa’s third wave is like nothing we’ve seen before,” Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said this week.
South Africa, the continent’s worst-hit country, reported a new record of 24,000 cases on Friday.
“We are indeed … in the eye of the storm of the third wave,” deputy health minister Joe Phaahla said.
Just 5% of the country’s population have been vaccinated, and the surge in cases has overwhelmed hospitals, particularly in Johannesburg.
Updated
Thousands of students are applying to study “panic masters” courses after getting no response to their job applications in the shrinking pool of graduate roles.
Universities including UCL, Cambridge and Edinburgh, told the Observer they were seeing substantial increases, ranging between 10 and 20%, in the number of UK students applying to study for postgraduate degrees in the autumn.
Mary Curnock Cook, an admissions expert who is chairing an independent commission on students, said the rise is due to “a collapse in confidence in the graduate employment market”. There is a backlog of applications from graduates who struggled to secure roles last year or whose placements were cancelled, she said.
The UK government has confirmed that proposals to end the requirement to self-isolate for those who have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine are under consideration.
Downing Street said it was looking at whether to drop all legal self-isolation measures for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who is infected “as part of the post-step 4 world”.
The plans have been met with scepticism in some quarters. Prof Robert West, a health psychologist and adviser to Sage, said the problems associated with such an exemption “outweigh the potential benefits” and warned that it could cause “resentment”.
West, who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, which advises Sage, said: “The most serious problem is that if you have a situation where not everyone has been even offered the vaccine then you’ve already got clearly a huge unfairness.
“When you get unfairness in situations like this, you get resentment and when you get resentment you can get loss of compliance.”
In contrast, Dr Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer in communicable diseases at the University of Exeter, supported the proposal, saying that vaccines were breaking the link between cases, hospital admissions and deaths, meaning “we can start thinking about other uncoupling measures, such as no need to quarantine after being fully immunised”.
Updated
Hundreds of healthcare workers in Italy have launched a legal bid against the requirement that they get the Covid-19 vaccination, according to media reports.
The case, brought by professionals throughout northern Italy, will be heard on 14 July.
“This isn’t a battle by anti-vaxxers but a democratic battle,” constitutional lawyer Daniele Granara, who helped build up the case, was quoted as saying in the Giornale di Brescia newspaper. “We force people to take a risk under threat of no longer being allowed to exercise their profession.”
Since April, anyone working in public or private social health positions, including in pharmacies and doctors’ offices, is required to get vaccinated against Covid-19 or be suspended without pay, unless their employer can reassign them to a less sensitive position.
According to recent official figures, 45,750 of the 1.9 million salaried healthcare workers have not yet received a single vaccine dose.
Updated
Vietnam’s health ministry reported 922 new coronavirus cases today, the highest daily total since the virus was first found in the country in January last year, Reuters reports
Most cases were in Ho Chi Minh City, where restriction orders have been in place for the past four weeks. Vietnam has recorded 19,043 infections overall and 84 fatalities.
New restrictions in Indonesia include tighter travel checks, a ban on restaurant dining and outdoor sports and the closure of non-essential workplaces.
Police have established road blocks and more than 400 checkpoints across Java, the archipelago’s most populous island, and the resort island of Bali, with more than 21,000 officers enforcing curbs and helping in random testing.
Reuters reports that traffic in the capital, Jakarta, in western Java, has been much lighter than usual, with trains and buses nearly empty, but some people still jogged and rode bicycles, even though main roads were blocked.
Updated
Joe Biden has warned that although America has Covid-19 “on the run” the latest variant is of particular concern among those who remain unvaccinated – as the president’s goal of 70% of US adults receiving at least one shot of vaccine by the Fourth of July holiday was set to fall short.
New US cases of coronavirus jumped by 10% in the past week as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads, especially where vaccination rates are low.
“I am concerned that people who have not gotten vaccinated have the capacity to catch the variant and spread the variant to other people who haven’t been vaccinated,” Biden said on Friday. “I’m not concerned there’s going to be a major outbreak … another epidemic nationwide. But I am concerned lives will be lost,” he added.
Read the full report, by Sarah Betancourt and Joan E Greve, here:
Indonesia reports new daily infections record
Indonesia has reported a new daily record number of coronavirus cases, with 27,913 infections on Saturday as the Delta variant sends part of the country into lockdown.
The south-east Asian country also reported 493 deaths, taking its tally to 2,256,851 cases and the death toll to 60,027, official data showed.
Battling one of Asia’s worst outbreaks, the government has imposed restrictions on Java and Bali, but senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan has said the government expects infections to keep rising for up to two weeks before the curbs begin to reduce cases.
The restrictions on more than 100 million people include tighter travel checks, a ban on restaurant dining and outdoor sports and the closure of non-essential workplaces. They will be in place until 20 July, and could be extended in order to bring daily infections below 10,000.
“In the next 10 days, in my opinion maybe two weeks, cases can continue to rise” as infections before the restrictions took place are now in incubation period, said Pandjaitan. “These two weeks is a critical time for us,” he said.
Updated
Saudi Arabia has halted flights to the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Vietnam to protect against a coronavirus variant, the interior ministry has said.
The move comes seven weeks after the kingdom opened up overseas travel for fully vaccinated citizens after a ban that lasted more than a year.
Flights to and from the three countries will be suspended from Sunday, an interior ministry official said, quoted by the state news agency SPA and Reuters. Citizens and residents returning from these countries will be required to quarantine for 14 days, it added.
The decision was taken due to “the spread of a new mutated strain of the (Covid-19) virus”, the ministry said, without explicitly mentioning the Delta variant.
Updated
Phase 3 trials for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine showed it was 93.4% effective against severe disease, the Indian firm had said.
It was also found to be 77.8% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 in the trial, according to Reuters.
The data demonstrated 65.2% protection against the Delta variant, first identified in India, that led to a surge in infections in April and May, and the world’s highest daily death tolls.
Bharat Biotech now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month.
Cambodia has reported a record number of daily deaths as infections continue to surge in the south-east Asian country.
The nation of 16.49 million announced a 36 further deaths, taking the death toll to 696, according to a report in the Khmer Times. Coronavirus cases rose by 948, with active cases at 6,472.
The latest figures follow on from comments by Dr Or Vandine, the chairwoman of the country’s vaccination committee, who warned that the country’s infection levels had reached a “red line”, calling on Cambodia to “unite” to prevent it from crossing this point.
Updated
Malaysia will ease coronavirus lockdowns next week in five states that have achieved the government’s targets for relaxing restrictions, the security minister has announced.
The south-east Asian country has been under a nationwide lockdown since 1 June to rein in a surge of Covid-19 infections, according to Reuters.
Restrictions will be partially lifted in the states of Kelantan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, and Terengganu on Monday as they have met the indicators for progressing to the second phase of lockdown, minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told reporters.
However, stricter measures have been implemented in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the neighbouring state of Selangor, which are among Malaysia’s worst-hit regions.
Unlocking is being carried out in four phases, with infection numbers, vaccination rates, and the capacity of the healthcare system used as indicators to judge a region’s situation.
Updated
Iran facing fifth virus wave due to Delta variant
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has expressed fears the country is headed towards a fifth coronavirus wave as the Delta variant spreads.
“It is feared that we are on the way to a fifth wave throughout the country,” Rouhani told a meeting of Iran’s coronavirus taskforce, warning the public to be careful as “the Delta variant has spread” in southern provinces, according to Reuters.
Iran is battling the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of the coronavirus, with a death toll of over 84,000. The capital of Tehran has been designated a “red” zone, along with nine other cities in the province. The southern and southeastern provinces of Fars, Hormozgan, Kerman and Sistan-Baluchistan are also now classified as “red”.
Iran says it is struggling to import vaccines for its population of 83 million due to US sanctions that complicate transferring money to foreign firms.
Just over 4.4 million of the country’s 82.9 million people have received a first jab, while only 1.7 million have received two doses, the health ministry says.
Updated
Standing outside the glass wall at one of the emergency installations in a hospital in Tangerang, Benten, Uta Verina Maukar, 26, looked at her mother as she lay resting on a bed. She texted her mother, telling her that she was standing outside. Her mother looked at her from across the room, and with an oxygen mask on her face, tried to sit up so she could see her better. They both looked at each other like that for a while. That was the last time Uta saw her mother’s face. She died from Covid the following day. She was 51.
Gemma Holliani Cahya reports on the situation in Indonesia’s overwhelmed hospitals, where infections have repeatedly surged to record levels over the past two weeks.
Russia reports record daily death toll
Russia has reported its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began – the fifth day in a row it has set that record.
The government coronavirus taskforce reported 697 deaths and 24,439 new cases, the most it has reported since early January, according to Reuters.
Moscow accounted for 7,446 of those cases. Officials blame the case surge on the infectious Delta variant.
Faced with the problem of low vaccine take-up, officials in Moscow and other cities have begun implementing a series of strict new measures targeting those who refuse to vaccinate. In Moscow, cafes and restaurants require vaccine QR codes for patrons to be seated, while hospitals can turn away patients seeking non-emergency surgeries.
Updated
An infectious disease epidemiologist has said the NHS test and trace app only instructs recipients to self-isolate if they are at risk of infection, following criticisms that it is too sensitive.
Prof Christophe Fraser, who advised the Department of Health on test and trace, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you check in at a venue where there has been an outbreak, essentially you get a warning which tells you you have been at that venue and informs you either to be cautious or, if it is a large outbreak, informs you to take a test – so there is no requirement to isolate.
“The requirement to isolate comes if you’ve come into close contact, and we’ve shown in our analysis that it really is a close contact - it is not six to eight metres, it is the kind of contact which gives a reasonable probability that you may have been infected and you may become a case - so if people use the app in that way, we are slowing infections.”
His comments come after Rob Pitcher, chief executive of Revolution Bars Group, said the app was making it “very difficult” for the hospitality trade to recover.
Pitcher, whose company runs 66 bars, said: “At any one point at the moment, we’ve probably got 10-15% of our estate in some form of closure. It is having a huge impact across our business and the industry at large.”
Updated
More than 70 landmarks across England will be lit up blue on Saturday to mark 73 years of the NHS and thank staff for their contributions during the pandemic.
The Wembley arch, the Liver building in Liverpool, Salisbury Cathedral and vaccination centres across the country will be illuminated as memorial events are held to remember health workers who died in the pandemic.
The NHS chief people officer, Prerana Issar, will attend a memorial service at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford on Saturday afternoon.
She said: “Each of the colleagues who sadly died while caring for and protecting patients represents an irreplaceable gap in a family and a workplace. While this is a private event for families and some NHS colleagues, I encourage everyone to take a moment on Saturday to reflect and remember.
“It is no exaggeration to say that health service staff have helped to keep the country going during the pandemic, and while NHS staff have rightly been celebrated for their contribution, we know that the role played by other key workers - people keeping supermarkets open, refuse collectors, child carers and other public services - as well as the resilience of the general public, has helped ensure we can start to move forward.”
She urged people to book their jabs, describing it as “the best way” to thanks NHS and other key workers.
Updated
One of the main reasons people do not self-isolate when instructed to is the lack of financial support, a professor in health psychology has said.
Prof Robert West of UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health, described the economic factor as a “the big gap in our armour” which the UK government has never properly addressed.
Prof West told Times Radio: “Most of the reason why people are not self-isolating even when they’ve got symptoms, to be honest, is because they have felt that they haven’t had a financial, material and social support needed to do it.
He said the solution to rising infection rates would be to give the public the right kind of support to self-isolate, but added: “I’m not holding my breath on that one since the government seems to have set its face against it so that is a big problem.”
Following on from Prof West’s comments on unfairness, here are some young people’s views on how double jabs could enable quarantine-free overseas travel:
Updated
A health psychology expert has warned that the UK government’s reported plans to allow those who have been fully vaccinated to avoid self-isolation if they come into contact with someone with an infected person risk breeding resentment among the public.
Prof Robert West of University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health, told Times Radio he could “see the rationale” for the policy, but added: “There are significant problems with it and at the moment those problems outweigh potential benefits.”
Prof West, who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours, which advises Sage, said: “The most serious problem is that if you have a situation where not everyone has been even offered the vaccine then you’ve already got clearly a huge unfairness.”
He said: “When you get unfairness in situations like this, you get resentment and when you get resentment you can get loss of compliance.”
Prof West said “the only possible scenario” where the policy might work was “a long way down the line” when everyone has been offered a double vaccine.
Parents are angry and confused by the government’s shifting messages over how schools deal with Covid outbreaks among pupils, according to a headteachers’ leader, who says “exhausted” staff are unlikely to get a break over the summer.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said comments by MPs and special advisers meant teachers were being blamed for the huge rise in pupils in England having to self-isolate, while ministers dangled the prospect of the isolation rules being scrapped.
Whiteman said the sharp rise in school Covid outbreaks – after official figures showed 330,000 pupils in England isolating at home last week – was compounding the heavy workload for headteachers, which was likely to continue into August.
BMA urges government to keep some Covid restrictions beyond 19 July
Leading doctors are calling on the government to maintain some protective measures in England after 19 July as the highly transmissible Delta variant sweeps the UK.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, British Medical Association (BMA) council chair, said easing restrictions was not an “all or nothing” decision.
He added: “As case numbers continue to rise at an alarming rate due to the rapid transmission of the Delta variant and an increase in people mixing with one another, it makes no sense to remove restrictions in their entirety in just over two weeks’ time.”
Dr Nagpaul emphasised that the government had promised “to make decisions based on data and not dates” and urged ministers to “not now simply disregard the most recent, damning, numbers by rushing into meeting their new 19 July deadline”.
The call comes as the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that about one in 260 people in private households in England had Covid in the week to 26 June – the highest level since the week ending 27 February.
Additionally, Public Health England figures show that confirmed and probable cases of Delta variant have risen by 50,824, or 46%, on the previous week. They now stand at 161,981.
It also comes amid reports that the government plans to scrap all legal requirements including self-isolation for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who is infected. According to the the Times, ministers are expected to sign off a plan on Monday that see fully vaccinated people “advised” to take daily tests but not be required to do so.
Indonesia locks down Java and Bali
Hello, and welcome to today’s coronavirus liveblog. I’ll be covering both UK and global lines here – feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if there’s something you think I’ve missed. Thanks in advance.
Indonesia has imposed a partial lockdown on the main island of Java, including in Jakarta, and on Bali, in a bid to curb surging infections after a record number of cases and deaths on Friday.
Driven by the Delta variant, the latest wave has seen infections reach an unprecedented level in the south-east Asian country, which recorded more than 25,000 cases and 539 deaths on Friday, both new daily records.
The new measures announced by the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, this week are set to last until July 20 in hope of bringing daily infections below 10,000. Mosques, restaurants and shopping malls have been ordered to close, while non-essential employees and students are moving to remote working and learning.
