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The racial gap in the United States’ Covid vaccination campaign has been eliminated while the partisan divide continues to loom large, according to a highly-cited survey published Tuesday.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Covid Vaccine Monitor, which conducted a nationally representative phone poll of 1,500 people, found that “similar shares of adults now report being vaccinated across racial and ethnic groups”, AFP reports.
More than seven in ten (72 percent) of adults reported receiving one or more doses to KFF researchers who called them September 13-22, roughly tracking with official figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for that time.
This included 71 percent of white adults, 70 percent of Black adults, and 73 percent of Hispanic adults.
Some people possess a version of a gene which can potentially restrain the virus which causes Covid-19, a study has indicated.
The findings offer an explanation for why some people have better natural defences against serious Sars-CoV-2 infection, say scientists.
Scientists suggest antiviral responses are better in people who have a more protective “prenylated” version of the OAS1 gene, while others have a version which fails to detect the virus, the PA reports.
But if new variants learn to evade the protection offered by the prenylated gene they could become “substantially more pathogenic and transmissible in unvaccinated populations”, say experts.
The study is published in the journal Science and is the result of work led by the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.
Summary
Here is a round-up of all the day’s leading coronavirus news stories:
- The UK government said a further 167 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 136,375.
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Scotland will delay the enforcement of vaccine passports by introducing a two-week grace period for venues, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
- In England, latest figures suggest more than one in ten secondary school pupils and over a third of school staff who had coronavirus have suffered long Covid symptoms.
- The head of the UN has called on rich countries to step up efforts to protect workers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with an additional $1tn (£736bn) injection of funds to avoid a twin-track recovery that widens the gap with the world’s poorest nations.
- A chair will be appointed by Christmas to the UK public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic and sessions should take place around the country, Boris Johnson has told the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group.
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Turkey will “never” close schools again despite the recent rise in coronavirus infections, its health minister Fahrettin Koca said today.
- New Covid infections in Romania rose by a record high of 11,049 in the past 24 hours, its government said on Tuesday.
- In the US, a federal appeals panel has said New York City can mandate teachers be vaccinated against Covid.
- In New Zealand, travel restrictions in Auckland are being rolled back six weeks after the city was locked down.
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Pakistan is to start vaccinating children aged 12 and above after a decline in Covid deaths across the country.
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Australians will be able to test themselves for Covid at home from November using rapid antigen test kits bought from chemists or online, health authorities have announced.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I am handing the Covid blog over to my colleague Charlie Moloney now, who will bring you all the latest pandemic news throughout the evening. Goodbye.
In the United States, more than 400,000 people got Pfizer booster shots last weekend through local pharmacies.
It came in the opening days of the US government effort to provide more protection for vulnerable populations, reports Reuters.
White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients says an additional one million people have scheduled booster shots for the coming weeks. He added: “We’re off to a very strong start with the booster campaign.”
As many as 25 million people qualify for the third dose of the Pfizer shot, which was authorized last week for those 65 or older, those with pre-existing conditions or facing an elevated risk at their workplace.
Officials say their primary focus is ensuring the roughly 25% of eligible Americans who have yet to get their first shot do so.
Brazil will give coronavirus vaccine booster shots to all people over 60-years-old, health minister Marcelo Queiroga said on Tuesday.
Queiroga said in a tweet that the decision comes in line with progress in the country’s vaccination program. About 7 million Brazilians could get the booster shot under these conditions, he said.
Brazil had already started giving booster shots to people over 70-years-old and healthcare workers. According to Health Ministry data, about 600,000 booster shots have been administered up to now.
Tenho uma boa notícia para compartilhar:
— Marcelo Queiroga (@mqueiroga2) September 28, 2021
💉 Vamos ampliar a dose de reforço para todos os adultos acima de 60 anos. Esta decisão é resultado do avanço da nossa campanha de vacinação, que segue em ritmo acelerado! 🇧🇷🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/rn2YUSpBvz
Roughly 52% of the country’s adult population is fully vaccinated with two doses or a single-dose vaccine.
Nearly 40 people arriving from red list countries have absconded from Covid quarantine hotels in the West Midlands, UK.
A total of 38 people broke quarantine between mid-February and the end of August, according to figures released by West Midlands Police on Tuesday, reports PA Media.
Covid measures mean passengers arriving from red list countries, where the coronavirus case rate is high, must quarantine at designated hotels for 10 days on their return, costing £2,285 per solo traveller.
Breaking quarantine rules can result in a fine of up to £10,000.
The Government first announced the hotel quarantine measures would come into force on February 15, initially affecting arrivals from 33 nations - though that list has since changed.
Chief Superintendent Richard North, of West Midlands Police, told the force’s strategic policing and crime board on Tuesday about how many absconders had been recorded and how officers had dealt with those who had fled the hotels.
A chair will be appointed by Christmas to the UK public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic and sessions should take place around the country, Boris Johnson has told the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group.
The delegation of five people who lost loved ones to the virus also said the prime minister had described the wall of 150,000 hand-drawn red hearts, which the group had initiated in May opposite parliament in London as a guerrilla memorial to the deceased, as “a strong candidate” to become the pandemic’s official memorial.
He told them that while it was not his decision: “I support it, it’s very moving”. He said he would be the minister in formal charge of the public inquiry and supported the idea of the inquiry holding sessions in different parts of the country.
The group counts more than 4,000 families as members and has been pressing the government for an urgent start to the inquiry. Johnson had previously only said the statutory inquiry would start in spring 2022.
Updated
The Grammy-nominated R&B and gospel singer Kelly Price has said she almost died from Covid-19 – and was never missing, as family members feared.
Price announced her Covid diagnosis in July. According to the website TMZ, family members said the singer was rushed to hospital about a week later.
This month, Price became the subject of a missing person’s report, confirmed by authorities in Cobb county, Georgia, after last being seen at a police wellness check at her home on 18 September. Her sister spoke about her family’s worry and asked Price to make contact.
This week Price’s attorney, Monica Ewing, told NBC News Price was never missing, but recovering from Covid after being released from hospital.
UK confirms 167 more coronavirus deaths
The UK government said a further 167 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 136,375.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 161,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 34,526 lab-confirmed Covid cases in the UK, the Government said.
Sweden is offering a third dose of the Covid jab to additional groups, including people aged 80 and above, the Nordic country’s health minister said on Tuesday.
So far, a third jab has only been offered to small numbers, but health minister Lena Hallengren told a news conference this would be expanded also to those in nursing homes and were supported in assisted living systems.
“Those with the greatest need will, as before, come first,” she told a news conference.
Sweden will remove most remaining pandemic restrictions and recommendations later this week, Reuters reported.
Scotland delays enforcement of vaccine passports
Scotland will delay the enforcement of vaccine passports by introducing a two-week grace period for venues, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The scheme for nightclubs, adult entertainment venues and large capacity events will come into effect from 5am on Friday. However, venues which fail to obey the new rules will not face punishment for another 17 days.
Ms Sturgeon said she had made the change after listening to the “reasonable concerns of business”. She said:
I can therefore confirm that after the legal obligation comes into force at 5am on Friday, this week, we intend to allow a further period of slightly more than two weeks - until October 18 - before any business could face enforcement action for non-compliance.
This period - effectively a grace period - will allow businesses to test, adapt and build confidence in the practical arrangements they will need to put in place to be compliant with the scheme.
An NHS Covid Status App - which will provide a digital record of a user’s vaccination status, including a QR code for each vaccination a person has received - will go live on Thursday.
Also in England, the postponement of NHS appointments for some cancer patients because of the fuel crisis will heap additional pressure on patients and their families, charities have warned.
The Guardian learned that several cancer patients due to attend appointments this week at University College Hospital (UCLH), one of London’s largest hospitals, have been told they will have to be rescheduled.
A UCLH spokesperson confirmed that a “small number” of patients were having appointments rearranged, but insisted that no patients requiring urgent treatment would have their treatment delayed. The spokesperson said:
Owing to the national fuel supply we are rearranging a small number of outpatient appointments over the next few days for patients who are due to be brought into our hospitals by our non-emergency patient transport provider, offering virtual appointments where possible.
Police legitimacy in the UK was negatively affected by the passing of “quick law” leading to the enforcement of Covid rules, a chief constable has said.
Sir David Thompson, who leads West Midlands police, told a meeting on Tuesday that “quick law isn’t always great law”, referring to legislation introduced during a series of national lockdowns.
He told the force’s strategic policing and crime board that his comments were “not meant as a criticism of anybody”, given the “unprecedented” situation, but there were lessons to be learned if public health rules were ever needed again.
He said:
There are some challenges, as a result of this legislation, which has impacted quite heavily on police legitimacy around what we were asked to do.
Not since 1829 and the formation of (Sir Robert) Peel’s police has anybody been required to enforce legislation about who can go into somebody’s house. That’s been really tricky.
Updated
The president of South Africa and the head of Oxfam joined forces to call on World Trade Organization (WTO) members and manufacturers to allow fairer access to Covid jabs.
They addressed a WTO public event on trade and vaccines and asked for a waiver on intellectual property rights. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said a waiver on patents was needed to save millions of lives during the pandemic.
He said:
This is not the time just to be uni-dimensionally focused on profit. This is the time to save lives.
Without mentioning the waiver specifically, Oxfam’s executive director Gabriela Bucher said monopolies, not science were the biggest challenge to defeating the virus. She added:
The reality is the current trade rules enable rich country governments and pharmaceutical corporations to work hand in hand to artificially limit vaccine supplies to developing countries.
I must appeal to BioNTech – the vaccine has turned your CEO into a double digit billionaire.
Updated
There have been a further 16 coronavirus deaths and 2,370 cases recorded in Scotland in the past 24 hours, the latest figures show.
It means the death toll under this daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – stands at 8,551.
The daily test positivity rate is 10.6%, up from 9.5% the previous day, reports PA Media.
A total of 1,027 people were in hospital with recently confirmed Covid, up four, with 73 patients in intensive care, down three.
So far, 4,184,574 people have received the first dose of a Covid vaccination and 3,832,498 have received their second dose.
Updated
Wealthy nations must share more resources, warns UN
The head of the UN has called on rich countries to step up efforts to protect workers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with an additional $1tn (£736bn) injection of funds to avoid a twin-track recovery that widens the gap with the world’s poorest nations.
Speaking in New York, the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, said the most serious global public health and economic crisis the world has faced in the past century was on course to worsen existing inequalities and threaten “the long-term livelihoods and well-being of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people” without a greater determination by rich nations to share resources.
He said the gap between rich and poor nations is evident in the different access to vaccines and the ability of rich nations to borrow cheaply to fund welfare programmes while poorer nations are left to finance debts at high rates of interest.
A debt crisis across Africa, south and central America and parts of Asia was possible if poor countries continued to pay a high price for trying to protect their citizens from the worst effects of Covid-19, he said.
UN officials have become increasingly concerned that a growing divide between the world’s rich and poor nations is likely to worsen over the next few years as wealthy governments race to regain previous levels of economic activity.
Updated
Meanwhile, on the west coast of the US, a federal judge has ordered all employees entering California prisons must be be vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption.
The order is aimed at preventing another coronavirus outbreak like the one that killed 28 inmates and a correctional officer at San Quentin state prison last year.
The order also requires that inmates who want in-person visits or who work outside prisons, including inmate firefighters, must also be fully vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption, Reuters reports.
The prison guard’s union says it may appeal. More than 50,000 California inmates have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 240 have died of Covid.
Updated
In the US, a federal appeals panel has said New York City can mandate teachers be vaccinated against Covid.
The three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals acted late Monday to lift a temporary order issued Friday that blocked the mandate from taking effect so a challenge could be heard from a group of teachers.
The mandate had been set to go into effect Monday for teachers and other employees of the city’s schools.
The appeals panel’s ruling put the mandate back in force, Reuters reported.
Lawyers for the teachers said they will now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. One attorney said:
With thousands of teachers not vaccinated the city may regret what it wished for. Our children will be left with no teachers and no security in schools.
The French drug-maker Sanofi has shelved plans for a messenger RNA Covid vaccine despite postiive results from early stage testing.
The Paris-based company said on Tuesday that it will continue to develop another vaccine and that it is already undergoing late stage human trials.
The vaccine, developed jointly with Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, is based on the characteristic spike protein of the virus that causes the coronavirus.
Messenger RNA vaccines use a different technology that uses genetic information from the virus to trigger an immune response. This technology is already being used in the vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna.
Sanofi told the Associated Press:
From a public health perspective, mRNA Covid vaccines are widely available today, and starting a placebo-controlled study in countries where vaccines are available would be extremely challenging, so it does not make sense for us to further advance our mRNA Covid vaccine into Phase 3.
Updated
There were almost 21,000 coronavirus-related crimes recorded in Scotland during the first full year of their existence, figures show.
Cyber crime levels almost doubled during the pandemic, with 14,130 being recorded throughout the year, although overall crime in Scotland remains at historically low levels, the Press Association reported.
The annual Recorded Crime in Scotland report said national lockdowns and other measures to reduce social contact were very likely to have had an impact on the volume and nature of crimes during the year.
A total of 20,976 crimes relating to coronavirus legislation were recorded by police, accounting for 9% of all crime recorded in Scotland. This figure does not include incidents which were dealt with by police without the need for enforcement.
Justice Secretary Keith Brown said:
By all main measures, crime, including violent crime, is now considerably lower than it was a decade ago, with fewer victims.
These statistics show how crime in areas like vandalism and dishonesty, the sorts of crime that affects peoples’ everyday lives, has fallen - with levels not seen since the 1970s.
There is still work to be done as the figures on cyber crime show - which is why we have this year published a prevention, awareness and enforcement strategy to make Scotland an inhospitable place for scammers.
In New Zealand, travel restrictions in Auckland are being rolled back six weeks after the city was locked down.
People will be able to cross the city boundary beginning on Monday night if they are permanently relocating, have shared caring-giving arrangements or are returning home, the Reuters news agency reports.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says more flexibility is being given because the system of pandemic restrictions is “currently doing its job”.
The city registered eight new infections Tuesday in the latest 24-hour period. Auckland was locked down August 17 after the delta variant leaked from hotel quarantine from a New Zealander who had returned from Sydney.
Pakistan is to start vaccinating children aged 12 and above after a decline in Covid deaths across the country.
The announcement was made by its planning minister Asad Umar on Tuesday.
He said in a tweet that the government would soon launch a campaign soon to vaccinate children at schools but did not give a precise date.
Pakistan is currently offering free vaccine shots to teenagers and adults.
In today's NCOC meeting decided to start vaccination of all 12 years and older. Special drive will be run for vaccination at schools to make it easier for children to be vaccinated
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) September 28, 2021
The country reported 41 more Covid deaths today and 1,400 new cases in the past 24 hours. It was the first time since July that Pakistan confirmed fewer than 1,500 daily cases.
Portugal is ending its military-led vaccine task force after almost reaching its target of fully vaccinating 85% of the population against Covid.
The task force, led for the past eight months by a senior naval officer from a NATO building near Lisbon, is to be replaced by three teams reporting to the country’s health ministry.
Portugal’s vaccination drive e rollout is the most advanced in the world, with 84.88% of the country’s 10.3 million people having received shots, according to Our World in Data.
Portugal is scrapping most of its pandemic restrictions starting on Friday this week.
Egypt has moved to provide immediate coronavirus vaccinations at youth centres without prior online registration.
It is aimed at encouraging vaccinations and relieving pressure on hospitals and health centres amid a fourth wave of infections, Reuters reported.
Nearly 270 youth centres are now open for people to get the vaccines, the health ministry said, bringing the total number of vaccination sites across the country to 1,100.
Youth centres also started to receive university students seeking vaccination on Monday, the health ministry added.
Singapore’s population size saw its sharpest percentage drop since 1950 this year, a report said on Tuesday.
It came as coronavirus-induced travel restrictions kept foreigners away from the Asian financial hub, Reuters reported.
It was the second consecutive year the city-state saw its population shrink and only the third time it had negative growth since 1950, according to an official annual population report.
The total population, which includes foreigners who live, work and study in Singapore but are not permanent residents, dropped by 4.1% to 5.45 million people.
That was largely as a result of a 10.7% decrease in its non-resident population.
Turkey vows 'never' to close schools despite rise in infections
Turkey will “never” close schools again despite the recent rise in coronavirus infections, its health minister Fahrettin Koca said today.
After months of online classes during the pandemic, Turkey reopened schools this month, while removing most restrictions over the summer.
It also began asking for a negative PCR test or proof of vaccination from teachers and also for certain public events, Reuters reported.
Turkey’s daily infections have risen over the last month at a rate of just below 30,000 per day, as have average positive tests, according to global data.
However, daily deaths, which rose to around 250 this month, have fallen slightly. Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Koca said:
I have said that we will keep schools open this year under any circumstances. It’s not about being the last to close, they should never close.
Updated
Australians will be able to test themselves for Covid at home from November using rapid antigen test kits bought from chemists or online, health authorities have announced.
In evidence to the Covid committee on Monday, the head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, John Skerritt, said details were still being finalised with companies on how the testing would work. He added:
As of 1 November, we will have home tests available for self-purchase for people to get on the internet, at pharmacies, convenience stores, whatever channels they want to get.
We’re working very actively with a range of companies because the current tests are designed for professional use and they are not home tests.
Even though the little cartridge will be the same, everything else will be quite different with a home test, and we’re working with those companies to transform those tests to make them suitable for home tests now.
Skerritt said he was expecting the “stars will align” by 1 November for home testing, with the health department wanting to ensure test kits were effective in detecting the Delta variant.
Smokers are 60%-80% more likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid and also more likely to die from the disease, data suggests.
A study, which pooled observational and genetic data on smoking and Covid to strengthen the evidence base, contradicts research published at the start of the pandemic suggesting that smoking might help to protect against the virus. This was later retracted after it was discovered that some of the paper’s authors had financial links to the tobacco industry.
Other studies on whether smoking is associated with a greater likelihood of more severe Covid infection have produced inconsistent results.
One problem is that most of these studies have been observational, making it difficult to establish whether smoking is the cause of any increased risk, or whether something else is to blame, such as smokers being more likely to come from a lower socioeconomic background.
The race to develop pills to fight coronavirus is well and truly underway as global pharmaceutical firms battle to develop the first oral treatments.
As Merck & Co and Pfizer Inc prepare to report clinical trial results for experimental Covid antiviral pills, other companies are queuing up to beat them to market.
Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Pardes Biosciences, Japan’s Shionogi & Co Ltd and Novartis AG said they have designed antivirals that specifically target the coronavirus while aiming to avoid potential shortcomings such as the need for multiple pills per day or known safety issues, Reuters reported.
While infectious disease experts stressed that preventing Covid through wide use of vaccines remains the best way to control the pandemic, they said the disease is here to stay and more convenient treatments are needed.
Dr Robert Schooley, an infectious diseases professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine, said:
We need to have oral alternatives for suppression of this virus. We have people who aren’t vaccinated getting sick, people whose vaccine protection is waning, and people who can’t get vaccinated.
The Reuters news agency reports:
Pfizer and Merck, as well as partners Atea Pharmaceuticals and Roche AG have all said they could seek emergency approval for their Covid antiviral pills this year.
Rivals are at least a year behind. Pardes began an early-stage trial last month, Shionogi plans to start large-scale clinical trials by year-end, Enanta aims to start human trials early next year and Novartis is still testing its pill in animals.
Enanta Chief Executive Jay Luly said re-purposing drugs originally developed for other viral infections is not an unreasonable approach. But it is not known how potent they will be against Covid or how well they can target lung tissue, where the virus takes hold.
Romania suffers record daily high number of Covid cases
New Covid infections in Romania rose by a record high of 11,049 in the past 24 hours, its government said on Tuesday.
The country has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the European Union (EU), with only just over a third of its adult population jabbed amid distrust in state institutions and misinformation campaigns.
About 40% of medical staff were not vaccinated and the government is considering making a digital EU Covid passport mandatory for them, the Reuters news agency reported.
On Tuesday, Romania had only 26 intensive care beds available and was struggling to add more because of staff shortages.
The pandemic has killed 36,658 people so far. Its capital Bucharest and other cities were said to be gearing up for restrictions.
One in 10 secondary school pupils in England and a third of staff who had coronavirus have long Covid symptoms
Also in England, latest figures suggest more than one in ten secondary school pupils and over a third of school staff who had coronavirus have suffered long Covid symptoms.
The most common symptom reported by staff and pupils was weakness or tiredness, while staff were more likely to experience shortness of breath than pupils, according to a small study of schools in England, the PA news agency reports.
The survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that about 35.7% of staff and 12.3% of secondary school pupils with a previously confirmed Covid infection reported experiencing ongoing symptoms more than four weeks from the start of the infection.
Among those experiencing ongoing symptoms, 15.5% of staff and 9.4% of secondary school pupils said their ability to carry out day-to-day activities had been significantly reduced.
Updated
Meanwhile, new analysis released today has shown that more than 70,000 extra deaths have taken place in private homes in England and Wales since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Extra deaths, also known as “excess deaths”, are the number of deaths above the average for the corresponding period in the non-pandemic years of 2015-19.
A total of 70,602 excess deaths in homes in England and Wales were registered between March 7, 2020, and September 17, 2021, according to PA news agency analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Of this number, just 8,423 - or 12% - were deaths that involved Covid. The figures show there are still many more people than normal who are dying in their own homes.
Deaths in private homes have been consistently well above the 2015-19 average since April 2020.
Back in the UK, the government is facing calls to bring its “zombie proposal” for Covid passports to a guaranteed vote in Parliament.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael MP said the plans for a domestic Covid ID card kept “coming back even worse than before”.
The government has reserved the right to bring in Covid passports as part of its back-up plan - Plan B for England - if infection rates increase over the winter.
But the Lib Dems have called for MPs to get a vote on the scheme ahead of the winter. Mr Carmichael said:
Covid ID cards have become this Government’s zombie proposal. Every time we think we’ve killed it, it keeps coming back even worse than before.
Ministers have already wasted millions on this pointless scheme, and are now wasting even more on a consultation.
The Government must give Parliament a vote on these unworkable and unnecessary plans now, so we can bury them for good.
Also from the United States, my colleague Richard Luscombe has an intriguing piece this morning exploring Florida’s approach to Covid in schools.
He writes:
The only place nine-year-old Reefy Kinder wants to be is in school with her friends. She has missed so many lessons in six years battling a long-term gastro-intestinal condition, including more than 30 surgeries during many months as an inpatient at Orlando’s Arnold Palmer children’s hospital, that she figures she has a lot to catch up on.
Standing in her way, according to Reefy and her mother, Jamie, are Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and his handpicked new state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, an opponent of mask mandates who believes vaccines are no more effective than eating healthily and losing weight in the fight against Covid-19.
For the full story, see below.
Some 456 people were violently killed across the greater San Francisco Bay Area last year, according to data reported to California’s department of justice.
Like other major cities in the US, the area witnessed a surge in gun violence during the first year of the Covid pandemic. Homicides across the 12 counties that make up the greater region rose 25% in 2020, compared with the previous year, a new Guardian analysis of census data and state homicide data shows. That’s 114 more homicides than the year before.
A detailed analysis shows that homicide rates across the region increased in nine out of 12 counties, but that the rise did not affect all cities and residents equally.
Updated
Hello, I’m Tom Ambrose and will be keeping you up-to-speed on the latest coronavirus news as it happens this afternoon.
We start with the news that, in Australia, Victoria has officially overtaken New South Wales in daily Covid case numbers, recording its highest since the beginning of the Delta outbreak.
It comes as the state’s health department revealed an error meant almost 150 cases had not been tallied over the weekend.
On Tuesday, Victoria recorded 867 new, locally acquired cases and four deaths.
The City of Latrobe will enter a seven day lockdown from 11.59pm local time on Tuesday, after case numbers increased to 18, including a further four cases detected later on Tuesday afternoon.
Health deputy secretary Kate Matson said:
A number of these cases were unfortunately infectious in the community for a number of days.
And we are aware of a household gathering that occurred over the weekend, so we have concerns these case numbers will grow.
Updated
Summary
I’m handing over now to my colleague Tom Ambrose who will have the rest of the Covid news throughout the day.
Here’s a summary of the news from this morning:
- Russia has recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll yet, following an increase in cases linked to the Delta variant and what Associated Press reports is a “lacklustre vaccination drive”.
- In the UK, parents of a teenager with special educational needs and disabilities are preparing to launch a high court legal challenge against the government over its guidance on Covid-19 testing for school pupils.
- A total of 851 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 17 September mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – down slightly by 1% on the previous week.
- In Australia, the unvaccinated face a “difficult life indefinitely”, the state Premier of New South Wales has warned.
- A YouGov poll of working mothers carried out for the BBC has found that many women feel that the Covid-fuelled shift to home working will help their career.
- In the US, hospitals in the state of New York have begun the process of firing or suspending healthcare workers who are not fully vaccinated. The resulting staff shortages are leading to elective surgeries being postponed and services restricted in other ways.
- The co-founder of a bereaved families group in the UK has said he hopes the British prime minister will “at long last … take us seriously” when he meets members at Downing Street this week.
- Spain’s labour ministry has agreed a deal with labour unions and representatives of employers to extend the country’s Covid furlough scheme until the end of February 2022.
- In Europe’s least vaccinated countries, Bulgaria and Romania, the delta variant is putting hospitals under pressure.
- The coronavirus pandemic has made people in the UK more likely to support the use of technology such as artificial intelligence and data analytics in enhancing public safety, a report argues.
- A major study of vaccine hesitancy among schoolchildren has found that younger children and those who are from more deprived communities were the most hesitant to get the jab. Those who were less willing to be vaccinated also felt less connected to their school community.
- An NHS England medical director has warned parents against hoax Covid vaccine letters aimed at spreading misinformation, PA Media reports. Three million youngsters aged 12-15 across the UK are now eligible to receive a first jab as part of a programme that began on 20 September and is expected to be delivered primarily within schools.
Updated
Russia reports highest daily Covid-linked death toll
Russia has recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll yet, following an increase in cases linked to the Delta variant and what Associated Press reports is a ‘lacklustre vaccination drive’.
A government tally reported 852 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a record in Russia since the start of the pandemic.
The new figure brings the country’s total deaths from Covid-19 to 205,531 - the highest toll in Europe.
Authorities have been accused of downplaying the severity of the outbreak.
Under a broader definition for deaths linked to the coronavirus, statistics agency Rosstat reported in late August that Russia had seen more than 350,000 fatalities.
Russia, the world’s fifth worst-hit country with more than seven million infections, has seen cases climb since last month as vaccinations stall.
Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, has experienced a spike over the past week, with authorities warning of rising hospital admissions.
Deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova has said that the highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for all of the cases in the Russian capital.
Authorities face a vaccine-sceptic population, with polls showing that a majority of Russians do not plan to get jabbed.
The Kremlin initially set a goal of fully inoculating 60 percent of Russia’s population by September, but later dropped that target even though free jabs have been available since early December.
As of Tuesday, only 28 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies Covid data from the regions.
Updated
In the UK parents of a teenager with special educational needs and disabilities are preparing to launch a High Court legal challenge against the Government over its guidance on Covid-19 testing for school pupils.
The Press Association reports that the family is calling for the guidance to be revised to enable children with disabilities to take “less intrusive” saliva tests as they say the current PCR swab testing unfairly disadvantages disabled pupils.
The parents of the 15-year-old have now instructed solicitors Irwin Mitchell to challenge the lawfulness of government guidance as their child is unable to take the PCR swab test due to their complex disabilities.
The guidance says pupils should follow public health advice, which says individuals should self-isolate “straight away and get a PCR test” if they have any of the three symptoms of Covid-19.
It adds pupils should continue to self-isolate whilst awaiting the PCR result.
But the parents from south-west London, who wish to remain anonymous to protect their child’s identity, say exceptions should be made for pupils who are unable to take a PCR test due to their special needs or disabilities.
Many pupils with severe disabilities are also unable to adequately complete the PCR testing required, the family’s legal team say.
Irwin Mitchell have written to Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi requesting that the guidance is revised to enable pupils with disabilities to take saliva tests.
If the Government does not change its guidance on Covid-19 PCR testing for pupils, or fails to respond to the letter, it could face a judicial review in the High Court, the lawyers say.
Angela Jackman, a specialist Irwin Mitchell lawyer representing the family, said: “This is an important issue because of the negative impact on potentially thousands of disabled pupils forced to miss vital schooling when they may not be infectious.
“It also has broader impact for individuals in other contexts who are unable to take a PCR test due their disabilities, with consequent impact upon their civil liberties if they are forced to self-isolate when they do not pose any Covid-19 risk.
“There are alternative Covid-19 tests which include saliva PCR tests or enhanced lateral flow tests which are much less intrusive and stressful for people such as our client.
“These tests are considered acceptable in other settings. We’re asking the Government to amend the guidance for schools to help disabled pupils through the testing process.”
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesman said: “We recognise that the testing experience can be difficult for some people, which is why there are two options available for Covid-19 testing.
“Those who are unable to take a Covid-19 test and have symptoms, or have been told to self-isolate, are advised to continue to self-isolate as a household and follow the latest government guidance.”
A total of 851 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending September 17 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - down slightly by 1% on the previous week.
Among care home residents 116 care home deaths involving Covid-19 were registered in the week to September 17, also down slightly from 120 the previous week.
A total of 161,446 deaths have occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said. The highest number on a single day was 1,484 on January 19.
In Australia, the unvaccinated face a “difficult life indefinitely”, the state Premier of New South Wales has warned.
The biggest city in the state, Sydney, is beginning to open up post-lockdown – but only to those who are fully vaccinated. Under a roadmap to exit lockdown, unvaccinated people in Sydney will have their freedom delayed, while those who have been jabbed can begin to leave their houses and return to normality next month.
The unvaccinated could still be barred from some social activities even when they are freed from stay-at-home orders in early December, New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian warned on Tuesday.
Berejiklian said people who choose not to be vaccinated could be barred entry to shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
“A lot of businesses have said they will not accept anyone who is unvaccinated,” Berejiklian told Seven News on Tuesday. “Life for the unvaccinated will be very difficult indefinitely.”
The two-tier system, designed to encourage more people to get vaccinated, has been criticised for both penalising vulnerable groups who have not had access to inoculations and for falling short of providing a real incentive for the vaccine hesitant.
Pubs, cafes, gyms and hairdressers open for the vaccinated on 11 October and more curbs will be eased once 80% of its adult population becomes fully vaccinated.
Australia is pursuing a faster reopening through higher vaccination rates despite persistent infections, largely in its two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Along with the capital, Canberra, both cities are in a weeks-long lockdown.
The Delta-fuelled outbreak has divided state and territory leaders, with some presiding over virus-free parts of the country indicating they will defy a federal plan to reopen internal borders once the adult population reaches 80% vaccination, expected in November. The national vaccine rate is currently about 52%.
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A YouGov poll of working mothers carried out for the BBC has found that many women feel that the Covid-fuelled shift to home working will help their career.
Just over half (56%) of the 1,684 women surveyed said they thought working from home would help them progress at work, as childcare and caring duties become less of a hindrance to working full-time.
In all, 65% of managers felt that working from home helps advance women’s careers.
However, a quarter of the women polled believed home working was unlikely to advance their careers.
Of the 1,684 women polled by YouGov, the greatest believers in the career benefits of homeworking were those aged between 18 and 24 (65%) and women in London (61%).
In the US, hospitals in the state of New York have begun the process of firing or suspending healthcare workers who are not fully vaccinated. The resulting staff shortages are leading to elective surgeries being postponed and services restricted in other ways.
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference that while the city’s hospitals were not yet seeing a major impact from the mandate he was worried about other areas of the wider state where vaccination rates are lower.
Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo suspended elective inpatient surgeries and stopped accepting intensive-care patients from other hospitals as it prepares to fire hundreds of unvaccinated employees, a spokesman Peter Cutler told Reuters.
Cutler said the decision to curtail some operations would inconvenience patients and hurt hospital finances. Elective inpatient surgeries bring in about $1m per week, he said.
“We had to make a decision as to where we could temporarily make some changes so that we could ensure other areas of services are as little affected as possible,” Cutler said. “Financially, it’s a big deal.”
New York’s state health department issued an order last month mandating that all healthcare workers receive at least their first Covid-19 shot by 27 September, triggering a rush by hospitals to get their employees inoculated.
Of the 43,000 employees at the New York City’s 11 public hospitals, about 5,000 were not vaccinated, Dr Mitchell Katz, head of NYC Health + Hospitals, said at the news conference with de Blasio.
Katz said 95% of nurses were vaccinated and all the group’s facilities were “open and fully functional” on Monday.
On Saturday, New York governor Kathy Hochul said she was considering employing the National Guard and out-of-state medical workers to fill staffing shortages, with 16% of the state’s 450,000 hospital staff not fully vaccinated.
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The co-founder of a bereaved families group in the UK has said he hopes the British prime minister will “at long last … take us seriously” when he meets members at Downing Street this week.
Matt Fowler, who helped set up the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the most important thing is for Boris Johnson to understand the necessity of starting the public inquiry as soon as possible.
The PM is hosting a private meeting with representatives of the group later today – more than a year after promising to meet with those bereaved by the pandemic.
Families have asked for it to take place outdoors with social distancing.
They will share stories of how their loved ones caught the virus and died, and repeat their calls for the promised public inquiry to be prioritised.
Fowler told PA Media: “I think it’s going to be something incredibly, incredibly difficult for our representatives who will be there.
“And I’m just really hoping that the prime minister will at long last take it seriously and take us seriously – we definitely feel like we haven’t been.”
The 34-year-old from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, added: “We haven’t been standing in the streets and shouting at him about how it’s all his fault and making accusations against him because as far as we’re concerned, that doesn’t help anybody.
“What’s important for us, what should be important for everybody, is the work that goes into this is about protecting people and saving lives.”
Fowler’s father, Ian, who developed coronavirus symptoms in the week before the first national lockdown, died in hospital in April 2020 aged 56.
He described his father, a former design engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, as the “life and soul of every party – including the ones he wasn’t actually invited to”.
He was an “immensely well-known, popular, well-loved guy” who enjoyed playing snooker during his semi-retirement.
Issues the group plans to raise during Tuesday’s meeting include the disproportionate effect of the virus on some ethnic minority groups, public transport and workplace transmission, the impact of repeated late lockdowns, and failures to learn lessons from the first wave.
Johnson has previously said the inquiry will start in spring 2022.
Elkan Abrahamson, the director and head of major inquiries at the law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, will represent the group at the upcoming inquiry. He has represented families at the Hillsborough and Manchester Arena bombing inquests.
Mr Abrahamson, who will attend Tuesday’s meeting, said the PM will be asked for timings on when an inquiry chair and panel will be appointed and when hearings can start.
The group also wants him to ensure that bereaved families will be properly consulted throughout the process.
He told PA Media: “It’s not impractical to suggest that oral hearings can start pretty soon. It might be impractical to suggest you can have the whole thing done and dusted in three months because you can’t.
“But it’s about saving lives, and if there was a particular area where lives could arguably be saved by a detailed analysis of the position, and hearing expert evidence, that would be the way to go.”
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Spain’s labour ministry has agreed a deal with labour unions and representatives of employers to extend the country’s Covid furlough scheme until the end of February 2022.
The measure to support workers, which was due to end on Thursday this week, has been “important” during the pandemic, the ministry said in a statement. Workers in sectors such as tourism and transportation have been particularly hard hit by lockdowns and travel restrictions.
It is the sixth extension to the scheme since Spain imposed its first lockdown in March 2020. The number of furloughed people stands at about 270,000, down from a peak of 3.6 million last year.
In Europe’s least vaccinated countries, Bulgaria and Romania, the delta variant is putting hospitals under pressure.
The Associated Press reports that while around 72 per cent of adults across the entire EU have been fully vaccinated, there is a far lower uptake in some eastern european countries.
Bulgaria and Romania are lagging dramatically behind as the EU’s two least-vaccinated nations, with just 22% and 33% of their adult populations fully inoculated.
Rapidly increasing new infections have forced authorities to tighten virus restrictions in the two countries, while other EU nations such as France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal have all exceeded 80% vaccine coverage and have begun to ease restrictions.
In Norway, which has vaccinated around 70%, authorities on Saturday scrapped restrictions that Prime Minister Erna Holberg called “the strictest measures in peacetime.” Denmark lifted virus restrictions on Sept. 10, while the U.K. has also abandoned most pandemic restrictions due to high vaccine rates.
Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s health commissioner, said the “worrying gap” on vaccinations needs urgently addressing.
At Bucharest’s Marius Nasta Institute of Pneumology, the ICU’s chief doctor, Genoveva Cadar, says its beds are now at 100% capacity and around 98% of all its virus patients are unvaccinated.
“In comparison to previous waves, people are arriving with more severe forms” of the disease, she said, adding that many patients in this latest surge are younger than in previous ones. “Very quickly they end up intubated — and the prognosis is extremely bleak.”
Daily new coronavirus infections in Romania, a country of 19 million, have grown exponentially over the last month. Government data shows that 91.5% of COVID-19 deaths in Romania between Sept. 18-23 were people who had not been vaccinated.
On Sunday, 1,220 of Romania’s 1,239 ICU beds for virus patients were occupied.
In a packed intensive care unit for coronavirus patients in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 55-year-old Adrian Pica spoke to Associated Press from his bed. “Until now I didn’t believe in COVID-19,” Pica, who said his early symptoms left him sweating and feeling suffocated. “I thought it was just like the flu. But now I’m sick and hospitalized. I want to get a vaccine.”
Vlad Mixich, a Romanian public health specialist, told the AP that a “historic distrust of authorities” together with what he said was a very weak government vaccination campaign has contributed to the low vaccine uptake among his compatriots.
In neighboring Bulgaria 23% of people said they do not want to get vaccinated, compared with only 9% across the bloc, according to a Eurobarometer survey.
Sabila Marinova, the ICU manager at a hospital in Bulgaria’s northern town of Veliko Tarnovo, says none of its COVID-19 patients is vaccinated.
“We are very exhausted,” she said. “It seems that this horror has no end.”
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The coronavirus pandemic has made people in the UK more likely to support the use of technology such as artificial intelligence and data analytics in enhancing public safety, a report argues.
A study by Goldsmiths University and Motorola found that three-quarters of people surveyed believed technology should be used to help emergency services predict risk, while a similar number said all forms of technology including video surveillance, needed to be more widely used to address the challenges of the modern world.
The Consensus for Change report says that in the wake of the pandemic and high-speed innovative developments like vaccines and contact tracing, the public is willing to place greater trust in new tech.
“Citizens all over the world are coming to terms with what it means to live with Covid-19 and how it impacts their safety,” Dr Chris Brauer, director of the Goldsmiths research team, said.
“Our shared experience of the pandemic has made us realise that technology can play a far greater role in keeping us safe and has increased our understanding of why public safety and enterprise organisations need it to respond to new threats.”
The research suggests that the pandemic may have even softened some attitudes on subjects such as data collection – according to the report, 78% of people in the UK said they were also willing to trust organisations to hold their data so long as it was used appropriately and in the interest of public safety.
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A major study of vaccine hesitancy among schoolchildren has found that younger children and those who are from more deprived communities were the most hesitant to get the jab. Those who were less willing to be vaccinated also felt less connected to their school community.
Researchers say the study shows the need to focus information more on social media than in traditional news outlets so that it can reach a younger audience.
More than 27,000 students in England aged between nine and 18 took part in the survey, which showed that 50% were willing to have a coronavirus vaccination, 37% were undecided while 13% wanted to opt out.
Just over a third (36%) of nine-year-olds were willing to have a jab, compared with 51% of 13-year-olds and 78% of 17-year-olds.
The study was carried out in schools across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Merseyside between May and July this year – before the government made the decision to offer the vaccine to this age group.
Researchers at the University of Oxford, University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge are calling for more resources to be provided to communities to ensure young people feel the vaccine is safe.
Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told a Science Media Centre briefing the study highlights “that we’ve actually missed this really important group in making sure they have access to information”.
“And of course they don’t access their information by reading the newspaper or watching broadcast news,” he added. “A lot of it is through social media. We have some work to do in order to improve that.”
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Parents in England warned over vaccine hoax letters
An NHS England medical director has warned parents against hoax Covid vaccine letters aimed at spreading misinformation, PA Media reports. Three million youngsters aged 12-15 across the UK are now eligible to receive a first jab as part of a programme that began on 20 September and is expected to be delivered primarily within schools.
But some headteachers have reportedly been targeted by letters which include a “consent checklist”, under a fake NHS logo, which they are asked to share with students.
After a parent shared one of these “checklists” on Twitter, NHS England medical director for Covid immunisation Dr Jonathan Leach replied: “Just to confirm that this is not a legitimate NHS form.”
Just to confirm that this is not a legitimate NHS form.
— Dr Jonathan Leach (@jonathanleach13) September 27, 2021
Earlier in September, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it was aware some schools have been receiving campaign letters and emails with “misinformation” about the vaccine programme, following ministers allowing children aged 12 to 15 to get a first jab.
Yesterday, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi wrote in the Daily Telegraph that vaccination was not mandatory and remained a personal choice, but was critical of those who have abused and threatened school staff.
“As education secretary, I want teachers and students to know that I will always stand up for them and tackle harassment head on, so teachers can do their vital jobs safely and children can get the education they deserve – regardless of choices made over vaccination,” he wrote.
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Good morning, I’m Harriet Grant and I’ll be here on the Covid liveblog this morning
In Hong Kong, masks have evolved into a jazzy new style:
Latest news from Hong Kong (zero cases for 5 months now) - masks are mandatory in schools, and children are being asked to purchase special masks in order to attend instrument lessons . I thought it was a joke when I saw the picture. It's not a joke. Cost US$23, reusable. pic.twitter.com/M85JkhuzCA
— Ben Cowling (@bencowling88) September 27, 2021
Japan to end state of emergency
Japan will lift a coronavirus state of emergency in all regions on Thursday as the number of new cases falls and the strain on the medical system eases, economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.
Reuters: The plan, approved by a government advisory panel, takes Japan as a whole out of an emergency state for the first time in nearly six months. Prime minister Yoshihide Suga will hold a news conference at 7pm (10am GMT) to announce the decision after the plan is formalised by a government task force.
But Nishimura said some limitations on eateries and large-scale events would remain in place for about a month to prevent a resurgence in cases.
“New cases will undoubtedly rise after the emergency state is lifted,” Nishimura, who also oversees Japan’s coronavirus response, said on Tuesday as the advisory panel began its meeting.
“We need to continue with the necessary measures to prevent a rebound,” he said, adding that if cases surged again, reinstatement of a more limited “quasi emergency” was possible.
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India reports lowest deaths since mid-March
India reported 179 Covid deaths on Tuesday, the smallest daily toll since the middle of March, taking the total to 447,373.
Infections rose by 18,795, the smallest increase since early March, lifting the total to about 33.7 million, health ministry data showed.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.
India reported 179 Covid deaths on Tuesday, the smallest daily toll since the middle of March, taking the total to 447,373. Infections rose by 18,795, the smallest increase since early March, lifting the total to about 33.7 million, health ministry data showed.
Meanwhile, Japan will lift a coronavirus state of emergency in all regions on Thursday as the number of new cases falls and the strain on the medical system eases, economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said. The plan, approved by a government advisory panel, takes Japan as a whole out of an emergency state for the first time in nearly six months.
Here are the other key recent developments:
- Covid infection control measures in UK hospitals should be relaxed to help the NHS tackle a record backlog of patients waiting for treatment, the UK’s public health agency has advised.
- In the US, president Joe Biden has had a coronavirus booster jab, the White House confirmed. It comes days after his administration gave the go-ahead for a third shot of Pfizer’s vaccine in certain populations.
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The British prime minister Boris Johnson has finally agreed to meet the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group at Downing Street, well over a year after first promising to do so.
- The UK has fully vaccinated more than two-thirds of its population against Covid – one of a small number of countries to reach the milestone.
- In the US, hospital and nursing home workers in New York must be vaccinated against Covid by the end of today to be allowed to continue working in their jobs.
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Australian authorities have announced plans to reopen locked-down Sydney using a two-tiered system that will give people who are vaccinated against Covid more more freedoms than their unvaccinated neighbours for several weeks.
- South Korea has announced it will begin vaccinating children aged 12 to 17 and offering Covid vaccine booster shots to those 75 years and above.
- In Northern Ireland, shoppers have been urged not to “rush at once” to apply for a high street voucher scheme. All adults are eligible for a £100 pre-paid card to spend on the high street as the government looked to boost local businesses devastated by the pandemic.
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