A summary of today's developments
- Sri Lanka announced a nationwide lockdown, bowing to intense pressure from medical experts as coronavirus infections overwhelmed hospitals. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had resisted calls for a lockdown for weeks, agreed to the 10-day closure after warnings that hospitals could no longer cope with the inflow of Covid-19 patients.
- The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has extended its requirements that people wear face masks on planes, buses and trains, as well as in airports, through to January 18th, Reuters reports.
- Brazil has had 33,887 new cases of coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours and 870 deaths from Covid-19, the country’s health ministry said. The South American country has now registered 20,528,099 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 573,511, according to ministry data, Reuters reports.
- Three fully vaccinated US senators, Roger Wicker, Angus King and John Hickenlooper, said they have been confirmed to be infected with Covid, adding to the number of so-called breakthrough cases among American lawmakers.
- Two UK experts said the evidence linking obesity to the worst Covid-19 outcomes is “overwhelmingly clear” and should warrant aggressive obesity prevention and management efforts. Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, suggested that pandemic restrictions are actually worsening obesity levels.
- Pharmaceutical company Moderna faces questions as it holds off mandating all staff be vaccinated against Covid after Johnson & Johnson said it would introduce the measure this week. USA Today reports that the Massachusetts company that supplies 41% of the US’s Covid vaccines has safety and testing protocols in place, but no jab requirement; with Pfizer to require either vaccination or regular testing.
- US drugs regulators are reviewing reports that the Moderna Covid vaccine may be linked to a higher risk of heart inflammation than previously thought. Canadian data that suggests the Moderna vaccine may lead to a higher risk of myocarditis than the Pfizer-BioNTech alternative.
- The drug given to Donald Trump when he had Covid last year has been approved for use in the UK. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said clinical trial data showed Ronapreve could be used to prevent infection, treat symptoms of serious infection and cut the likelihood of being admitted to hospital.
- Catalonia’s regional government sought to reimpose a curfew in Barcelona and dozens of other cities in northeastern Spain, a day after a court ordered the “unjustified” measure to be lifted. But the government claimed the measure was necessary to control Covid.
- Research suggested that transparent barriers, such as in taxis and in nail salons, can interfere with normal ventilation and that they often do little to stop the spread of Covid. Experts said that erecting plastic barriers can change the airflow in a room and create “dead zones” where viral particles can build up.
- Business leaders said Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents “indefinitely trapped” in the city as it pursues a “zero infection” strategy, threatening its status as an international business centre.
- Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce revealed that “a lot” of his football players have not been vaccinated against Covid and cited “conspiracy theories” as a reason why so many are reluctant to get inoculated.
You can follow the latest Covid developments in Australia in our dedicated blog -
Mexico’s health ministry reported 21,897 new cases of Covid-19 and 761 more deaths on Friday.
It brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country since the pandemic began to 3,197,108 and the death toll to 252,080, Reuters reports.
The Euro 2020 final at London’s Wembley Stadium in July was a “superspreader” event because about 2,300 people who attended the match were “likely to be infectious” with the coronavirus at the time, The Times newspaper reported.
A further 3,404 people who attended the match between Italy and England went on to develop Covid-19 shortly after the July 11 match and may have contracted the virus at Wembley, Public Health England found, according to the newspaper.
The US Food and Drug Administration is aiming to give full approval to Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, the New York Times reported.
Regulators had been working to finish the process by Friday, but were still working through “a substantial amount of paperwork and negotiation with the company,” the Times said.
Updated
Brazil has had 33,887 new cases of coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours and 870 deaths from Covid-19, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.
The South American country has now registered 20,528,099 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 573,511, according to ministry data, Reuters reports.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people at an increased risk for severe illness from Covid-19 should avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, irrespective of their vaccination status, Reuters reports.
Updated
As epidemiologist Michael Baker scrolled through a growing list of New Zealand’s Covid-exposed locations, “my heart just sank,” he says.
Bars, nightclubs, churches, schools, restaurants and hospitals – the bullet points were an infectious disease expert’s nightmare. “Virtually every high risk, indoor environment was on that list.”
It was two days into New Zealand’s outbreak. The country, long a pandemic success story, now faces its biggest hurdle since the pandemic began.
Over the past two months, New Zealand has looked on as elimination success-stories across the Asia-Pacific region battle the Delta variant. Hong Kong, Australia, China, Taiwan and Singapore – all had achieved elimination or close to it. Delta arrived to them all, and many struggled to contain it.
A summary of today's developments
- Sri Lanka announced a nationwide lockdown, bowing to intense pressure from medical experts as coronavirus infections overwhelmed hospitals. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had resisted calls for a lockdown for weeks, agreed to the 10-day closure after warnings that hospitals could no longer cope with the inflow of Covid-19 patients.
- The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has extended its requirements that people wear face masks on planes, buses and trains, as well as in airports, through to January 18th, Reuters reports.
- Three fully vaccinated US senators, Roger Wicker, Angus King and John Hickenlooper, said they have been confirmed to be infected with Covid, adding to the number of so-called breakthrough cases among American lawmakers.
- Two UK experts said the evidence linking obesity to the worst Covid-19 outcomes is “overwhelmingly clear” and should warrant aggressive obesity prevention and management efforts. Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, suggested that pandemic restrictions are actually worsening obesity levels.
- Pharmaceutical company Moderna faces questions as it holds off mandating all staff be vaccinated against Covid after Johnson & Johnson said it would introduce the measure this week. USA Today reports that the Massachusetts company that supplies 41% of the US’s Covid vaccines has safety and testing protocols in place, but no jab requirement; with Pfizer to require either vaccination or regular testing.
- US drugs regulators are reviewing reports that the Moderna Covid vaccine may be linked to a higher risk of heart inflammation than previously thought. Canadian data that suggests the Moderna vaccine may lead to a higher risk of myocarditis than the Pfizer-BioNTech alternative.
- The drug given to Donald Trump when he had Covid last year has been approved for use in the UK. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said clinical trial data showed Ronapreve could be used to prevent infection, treat symptoms of serious infection and cut the likelihood of being admitted to hospital.
- Catalonia’s regional government sought to reimpose a curfew in Barcelona and dozens of other cities in northeastern Spain, a day after a court ordered the “unjustified” measure to be lifted. But the government claimed the measure was necessary to control Covid.
- Research suggested that transparent barriers, such as in taxis and in nail salons, can interfere with normal ventilation and that they often do little to stop the spread of Covid. Experts said that erecting plastic barriers can change the airflow in a room and create “dead zones” where viral particles can build up.
- Business leaders said Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents “indefinitely trapped” in the city as it pursues a “zero infection” strategy, threatening its status as an international business centre.
- Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce revealed that “a lot” of his football players have not been vaccinated against Covid and cited “conspiracy theories” as a reason why so many are reluctant to get inoculated.
The Florida Board of Education on Friday told two school districts in the US state they would have some of their state funding withheld if they failed within the next 48 hours to provide parents with a way to opt out of a requirement that their children wear masks, Reuters reports.
The US administered 360,634,287 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 426,106,115 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 359,623,380 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Aug. 19 out of 422,175,735 doses delivered, Reuters reports. The agency said 200,421,787 people had received at least one dose while 169,998,983 people are fully vaccinated as of Friday.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has extended its requirements that people wear face masks on planes, buses and trains, as well as in airports, through to January 18th, Reuters reports.
Retailers are warning of further disruption on Britain’s high streets from shortages of stock caused by Covid and Brexit, after official figures revealed an unexpected fall in sales last month.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said there were mounting problems for the industry after a month when a hoped-for rise in spending following the end of most pandemic restrictions failed to materialise.
“Retailers are keen to see growth continue throughout the second half of 2021, yet there are headwinds looming on the horizon,” she said, warning that new Brexit trade barriers due in October could worsen the outlook for high street shops.
Canada’s five biggest banks are mandating that employees working from their offices must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 this autumn.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) will all require staff to show proof of vaccination to enter their premises, they said in internal memos seen by Reuters.
RBC, TD, BMO and CIBC require employees to be fully vaccinated by the end of October, the banks told employees on Thursday and Friday.
Scotiabank has not set a date yet, but it is “moving in the direction of making vaccinations mandatory” for all employees and contractors based in Canada later in the fall, according to an internal note sent to employees on Friday.
The Canadian banks’ moves come on the back of a mandate by the federal government last week that all federal public servants and employees in the federally regulated air, rail and marine transportation sectors must be vaccinated.
That requirement extends to air, train and cruise ship travelers as well.
A federal appeals court has allowed the Covid-19-related pause on evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to remain in place, Associated Press reports.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a bid by Alabama and Georgia realtors to block the eviction moratorium reinstated earlier this month. The panel said the appeals court had rejected a similar bid and a lower court also declined to overturn the moratorium.
“In view of that decision and on the record before us, we likewise deny the emergency motion directed to this court,” the judges said in the ruling. The realtors are likely to appeal to the Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 in June to allow the moratorium to continue through the end of July. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who joined the majority — warned the administration not to act further without explicit congressional approval. The Biden administration allowed an earlier moratorium to lapse on July 31, saying it had no legal authority to allow it to continue. But the CDC issued a new moratorium days later amid mounting pressure from lawmakers and others to help vulnerable renters stay in their homes amid the surge of the delta variant. As of August 2, roughly 3.5 million people in the US said they faced eviction in the next two months.
A summary of today's developments
- Sri Lanka announced a nationwide lockdown, bowing to intense pressure from medical experts as coronavirus infections overwhelmed hospitals. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had resisted calls for a lockdown for weeks, agreed to the 10-day closure after warnings that hospitals could no longer cope with the inflow of Covid-19 patients.
- Three fully vaccinated US senators, Roger Wicker, Angus King and John Hickenlooper, said they have been confirmed to be infected with Covid, adding to the number of so-called breakthrough cases among American lawmakers.
- Two UK experts said the evidence linking obesity to the worst Covid-19 outcomes is “overwhelmingly clear” and should warrant aggressive obesity prevention and management efforts. Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, suggested that pandemic restrictions are actually worsening obesity levels.
- Pharmaceutical company Moderna faces questions as it holds off mandating all staff be vaccinated against Covid after Johnson & Johnson said it would introduce the measure this week. USA Today reports that the Massachusetts company that supplies 41% of the US’s Covid vaccines has safety and testing protocols in place, but no jab requirement; with Pfizer to require either vaccination or regular testing.
- US drugs regulators are reviewing reports that the Moderna Covid vaccine may be linked to a higher risk of heart inflammation than previously thought. Canadian data that suggests the Moderna vaccine may lead to a higher risk of myocarditis than the Pfizer-BioNTech alternative.
- The drug given to Donald Trump when he had Covid last year has been approved for use in the UK. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said clinical trial data showed Ronapreve could be used to prevent infection, treat symptoms of serious infection and cut the likelihood of being admitted to hospital.
- Catalonia’s regional government sought to reimpose a curfew in Barcelona and dozens of other cities in northeastern Spain, a day after a court ordered the “unjustified” measure to be lifted. But the government claimed the measure was necessary to control Covid.
- Research suggested that transparent barriers, such as in taxis and in nail salons, can interfere with normal ventilation and that they often do little to stop the spread of Covid. Experts said that erecting plastic barriers can change the airflow in a room and create “dead zones” where viral particles can build up.
- Business leaders said Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents “indefinitely trapped” in the city as it pursues a “zero infection” strategy, threatening its status as an international business centre.
- Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce revealed that “a lot” of his football players have not been vaccinated against Covid and cited “conspiracy theories” as a reason why so many are reluctant to get inoculated.
Researchers say they have discovered the Sars-CoV-2 “gate” that opens to allow Covid infection, reportedly presenting new possibilities of blocking cell entry and infection.
Eurekalert reports on a peer-reviewed study which has have discovered how glycans, molecules that reside around the edges of the spike protein, act as infection gateways.
The University of California San Diego’s Rommie Amaro, a computational biophysical chemist and a senior author of the new study, told the site:
We essentially figured out how the spike actually opens and infects. We’ve unlocked an important secret of the spike in how it infects cells. Without this gate the virus basically is rendered incapable of infection.
We were actually able to watch the opening and closing. That’s one of the really cool things these simulations give you—the ability to see really detailed movies. When you watch them you realize you’re seeing something that we otherwise would have ignored. You look at just the closed structure, and then you look at the open structure, and it doesn’t look like anything special. It’s only because we captured the movie of the whole process that you actually see it doing its thing.
The legacy of Boris Johnson’s initial approach to the pandemic can be measured in lives needlessly lost and ruined, says Michael Rosen in a letter to the Guardian.
As it is, the consequence of that late first lockdown and the decanting of patients from hospitals into care homes has produced a terrible toll, while many others of us bear the debilitations of that first round of infections.
Updated
UK rapper AJ Tracey, who has had seven top 10 hits, has announced he is cancelling his “Flu Game” tour this year over “possible lockdowns and vaccine requirements”.
— aj (@ajtracey) August 20, 2021
It comes after fellow rapper slowthai yesterday announced the postponement of his festival next month “due to things out of his control”.
— TYRON (@slowthai) August 19, 2021
Updated
More than 9,000 Covid infections were linked to Euro 2020 football games monitored for the government’s mass events test scheme, and scientists have said the tournament generated “a significant risk to public health”.
An analysis of the third and final stage of the research programme, released on Friday, found that more than 85% of all the infections connected to the 49 days of various outdoor sport, music and entertainment events came from the eight Euros games involved, and mainly the semi-final and final.
India’s drug regulator has granted emergency use approval for Zydus Cadila’s Covid-19 vaccine, the world’s first DNA shot against Covid, in adults and children aged 12 years and above.
Reuters reports that the vaccine, ZyCoV-D, uses a section of genetic material from the virus that gives instructions as either DNA or RNA to make the specific protein that the immune system recognises and responds to.
Unlike most Covid-19 vaccines, which need two doses or even a single dose, ZyCoV-D is administered in three doses. The firm had applied for the authorization of ZyCoV-D on July 1, based on an efficacy rate of 66.6% in a late-stage trial of over 28,000 volunteers nationwide – making it among the less effective approved vaccines.
The generic drugmaker, listed as Cadila Healthcare, aims to make 100m to 120m doses of ZyCoV-D annually and has already begun stockpiling the vaccine.
Zydus Cadila’s vaccine, developed in partnership with India’s department of biotechnology, is the second home-grown shot to get emergency authorisation in India after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
The drugmaker said in July its Covid-19 vaccine was effective against the new coronavirus mutants, especially the Delta variant, and that the shot is administered using a needle-free applicator as opposed to traditional syringes, Reuters reports.
The regulatory nod makes ZyCoV-D the sixth vaccine authorized for use in the country where only about 9.18% of the entire population has been fully vaccinated so far, according to Johns Hopkins data.
Zydus Cadila had also submitted data evaluating a two-dose regimen for the shot in July and plans to seek regulatory approval for the same.
Catalonia’s regional government has sought to reimpose a curfew in Barcelona and dozens of other cities in northeastern Spain, a day after a court ordered the “unjustified” measure to be lifted.
“In these circumstances, the measures are not so much justified on health grounds, but for reasons of security or public order,” the court said in its ruling yesterday, turning down the Catalan government’s request because infection rates had improved.
Now, the regional government has made a fresh request to keep the 1am to 6am measure in place, at least in Catalonia’s most populous cities.
“The proposed measure is necessary to meet the goal of controlling the fifth wave of the pandemic,” the Catalan government claimed. The court is set to deliberate on the request on Monday.
The curfew is intended to discourage social gatherings on beaches and in parks after nightclubs close at 12.30am, AFP reports.
Health is the responsibility of regional governments in Spain, but measures affecting freedoms, such as freedom of movement, must be authorised by the courts.
Portugal has decided to loosen restrictions on the number of people allowed in restaurants and cultural venues two weeks earlier than planned, a government minister has said, after cases levelled out.
Reuters reports that cabinet minister Mariana Vieira da Silva said the number of people allowed to sit together inside restaurants or cafes rose from six to eight, and from 10 to 15 for outdoor seating.
Cultural events, weddings and baptisms can fill up to 75% of the venue’s capacity, up from 50%. Cultural venues, restaurants and other businesses can stay open until 2am.
“The pandemic is not over,” she said. “It has surprised us with new variants we did not expect. It is our responsibility to continue monitoring its evolution and maintaining necessary behaviours to control the pandemic.”
Negative tests or a digital certificates remain required for dining indoors on weekends and holidays, and staying at hotels.
Cases have plateaued since the end of July at around 3,000 a day. The reproduction rate “R” has risen slightly in August but remained below 1, government data showed, indicating that the spread of the pandemic is slowing.
Updated
Two UK experts have said the evidence linking obesity to the worst Covid-19 outcomes is “overwhelmingly clear” and should warrant aggressive obesity prevention and management efforts.
Medscape reports that Dr Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, and Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, suggested that pandemic restrictions are actually worsening obesity levels.
In their article in Current Obesity Reports, they say evidence suggests the link between body mass index (BMI) and Covid-related mortality is stronger than for deaths from other causes, including other respiratory illnesses.
The pandemic is also worsening obesity levels. It is imperative that medical systems worldwide meet this challenge by upscaling investments in obesity prevention and treatments.
There is now overwhelming evidence that BMI relates linearly to adverse Covid-19 outcomes ... It is overwhelmingly clear that obesity (or excess ectopic fat) is an important and major risk factor for adverse Covid-19 outcomes across many ethnicities. Future evidence is unlikely to change this stark conclusion.
Consequently, obesity becomes a strong ‘upstream’ risk factor not just for many chronic diseases but also for an acute viral pandemic that, sadly, continues to impact across the world, leaving considerable morbidity and mortality in its wake. Furthermore, in many places, the indirect consequence of the pandemic (worsening diets and less activity) will be increasing obesity prevalence, perhaps most manifest in those most at risk. Such changes will fuel even more obesity-related diseases, further stretching health services internationally. It is therefore important that health systems around the world meet this challenge by upscaling emphasis on and investments in obesity prevention and treatments.
They added:
Recent successful interventions in weight management need to be extended and offered to many more people at risk. New, simpler, innovative ways to spread evidence-based dietary or activity messages should also be examined as many people with risk factors are not currently receiving advice. If ever there was a time to improve obesity prevention and management, it is now.
Updated
Updated
About nine in 10 people in the UK are still wearing face coverings at least some of the time despite them no longer being compulsory, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data suggests face coverings in some settings could be one of the Covid-enforced changes to daily life in the UK that remain after the pandemic has subsided.
The data also suggested that more than three-quarters of adults in every age group would be likely or very likely to get a Covid booster jab if offered. Overall, 87% of adults surveyed by the ONS said they would be likely or very likely to get an additional coronavirus jab if eligible.
US drugs regulators are reviewing reports that the Moderna Covid vaccine may be linked to a higher risk of heart inflammation than previously thought, the Washington Post has reported.
Citing two anonymous sources “familiar with the review”, the paper reports that regulators are focusing on Canadian data that suggests the Moderna vaccine may lead to a higher risk of myocarditis than the Pfizer-BioNTech alternative.
There might be a 2.5 times higher incidence of myocarditis in those who get the Moderna vaccine compared with those who take Pfizer’s vaccine, the Post quoted a source as saying. But a source told the Post more work was needed before any recommendation could be made.
In June, regulators added a warning to the literature accompanying the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which use the same mRNA technology, to flag a rare risk of heart inflammation, more frequently occurrent in boys and young men.
Data from a government agency’s safety monitoring system in that month suggested a rate of 12.6 cases of heart inflammation per million in 12- to 39-year-olds.
Regulators in the US and the EU, as well as the World Health Organization, have all said that the benefits of mRNA shots in preventing Covid-19 continue to outweigh the risks.
Updated
Vietnam has reported its biggest single day rise in coronavirus infections yet, with 10,657 new confirmed cases.
Authorities also reported 390 additional deaths, raising Vietnam’s overall coronavirus fatalities to 7,540.
After initially controlling the spread of the virus with a series of strict measures last year, the country has in recent weeks seen an inexorable rise in case numbers. Nevertheless, infection rate remains well below that of the UK, US and France.
Updated
Public health officials in Germany are to designate Crete and other islands belonging to Greece in the southern Aegean Sea as high-risk areas for coronavirus.
The reclassification by scientists at the Robert Koch institute for infectious diseases, which takes effect from Tuesday, means unvaccinated visitors to Germany from those regions would be forced to quarantine for at least five days.
Unless they have been fully vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19, travellers entering Germany from high-risk areas must go into quarantine. The 10-day requirement can be shortened to five if they test negative for coronavirus.
Kosovo, North Macedonia, and parts of Ireland are being upgraded to “high-risk” as of Sunday, according to Reuters. At the same time, the government is downgrading some regions in Spain, including Catalonia, Valencia and the Canary Islands, which were previously designated high-risk areas.
Updated
The drug given to Donald Trump when he had Covid last year has been approved for use in the UK.
While the former US president is more popularly associated with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial that has since been discounted as a potential treatment for Covid, Ronapreve was the drug White House doctors actually gave to Trump when he had the disease.
On Friday, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the clinical trial data it assessed showed it could be used to prevent infection, treat symptoms of serious infection and cut the likelihood of being admitted to hospital.
Updated
Three vaccinated US senators test positive for Covid
Three US senators – Roger Wicker, Angus King and John Hickenlooper – have said they have been confirmed to be infected with coronavirus, adding to the number of breakthrough cases among American lawmakers.
“Senator Wicker is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, is in good health and is being treated by his Tupelo-based physician,” his spokesman said, adding that the senator was experiencing only mild symptoms, the New York Times reports.
King said in a statement he was symptomatic but taking recommended precautions. “While I am not feeling great, I’m definitely feeling much better than I would have without the vaccine,” he said. “I am taking this diagnosis very seriously, quarantining myself at home and telling the few people I’ve been in contact with to get tested in order to limit any further spread.”
The senate is in recess this week after adjourning last Wednesday, the NYT reports. It remains unclear where they contracted the virus.
Hickenlooper tweeted:
I've tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19. I feel good but will isolate per docs instructions. I’m grateful for the vaccine (& the scientists behind it!) for limiting my symptoms.
— Senator John Hickenlooper (@SenatorHick) August 19, 2021
If you haven’t gotten your shot—get it today! And a booster when it’s available too!
Updated
Danes with weak immune systems, such as cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, or those with organ transplants, will soon be advised to get a Covid-19 vaccine booster, the Danish health authority has said.
Reuters reports that the Danish decision echoes those of countries like Israel, Germany and France who have also decided to offer booster shots to older adults and people with weak immune systems, though EU officials have said they do not yet see a need to give booster shots to the general population amid a lack of strong evidence.
Guidelines for revaccinating people with weakened immune systems would be published next week, said the Danish health authority, adding that knowledge in the field is still very limited.
“However, it does suggest that certain individuals with significant immunodeficiency need a third injection ... to prevent a serious case of disease if they get infected with Covid-19, even though they have been fully vaccinated,” it said.
If data shows a need to give booster shots to other groups, such as elderly people in nursing homes, it would not hesitate to recommend this, it added.
Updated
Sri Lanka to impose nationwide lockdown after resisting calls for weeks
Sri Lanka has announced a nationwide lockdown, bowing to intense pressure from medical experts as coronavirus infections overwhelmed hospitals.
AFP reports that president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had resisted calls for a lockdown for weeks, agreed to the 10-day closure after warnings that hospitals could no longer cope with the inflow of Covid-19 patients.
“Nationwide lockdown in effect from 10pm today to 30 August,” the health minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, said on Twitter. “All essential services will function as normal. I sincerely request all lka citizens to adhere to the law and StayHome.”
Officials said the president was due to address the nation later tonight to discuss the public health emergency and measures to contain the pandemic.
Large crowds stocked up on supplies in supermarkets, grocery stores and fuel depots as news of the lockdown spread over social media. Long queues were seen at fuel pumps across the country and the energy minister, Udaya Gammanpila, urged consumers not to cause shortages through panic buying.
The daily Covid-related death toll hit a record 186 alongside a new high of 3,800 infections yesterday with no more ICU beds available for virus patients, AFP reports.
Official figures show 6,790 people have died after having the virus, while 373,165 have been infected. However, independent health experts have said the actual toll is at least twice as much.
Rambukwella said 10 days ago the country had not reached a “critical stage” and any lockdown would be a “last resort”.
Updated
The Atlantic reports that with the blanket of initial immunity, there will be fewer hospitalisations and Covid-related deaths in countries where such trends are not already being observed.
The current spikes in cases and deaths are the result of a novel coronavirus meeting naive immune systems. When enough people have gained some immunity through either vaccination or infection – preferably vaccination – the coronavirus will transition to what epidemiologists call ‘endemic’. It won’t be eliminated, but it won’t upend our lives anymore.
We don’t know exactly how the four common-cold coronaviruses first came to infect humans, but some have speculated that at least one also began with a pandemic. If immunity to the new coronavirus wanes like it does with these others, then it will keep causing reinfections and breakthrough infections, more and more of them over time, but still mild enough. We’ll have to adjust our thinking about Covid-19 too.
As Covid is downgraded to a seasonal common-cold like virus for those with immunity, we have to learn to live with it https://t.co/5GeI3SG2tR
— Marty Makary MD, MPH (@MartyMakary) August 17, 2021
Updated
England R-value rises to between 0.9-1.2
The estimated range for England’s Covid-19 reproduction “R” number rose to 0.9 to 1.2, according to official data, compared with 0.8 to 1.0 in last week’s figures.
That means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 9 and 12 other people. The R value in England has gone up and is between 0.9 and 1.2, according to the latest government figures.
Last week, it was between 0.8 to 1. R represents the average number of people each Covid-positive person goes on to infect. An R number between 0.9 and 1.2 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 9 and 12 other people.
When modelling the level of Covid-19 infections among different age ranges in England, the Office for National Statistics today said rates had increased for those aged 35 to 49 but have decreased for those in school years seven to 11, for 25- to 34-year-olds and for people aged 70 and over.
The trend is uncertain for all other age groups. About one in 35 people from school year 12 to age 24 are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to 14 August: the highest positivity rate for any age group.
Earlier we reported that prevalence of Covid-19 infections in England was about 1 in 80 people in the week ending 14 August, the ONS has said, slightly lower than the previous week’s estimate of 1 in 75. One in 80 is the equivalent of about 698,100 people.
It comes after Covid restrictions were relaxed last month, with no dramatic subsequent changes to infection or death rates.
Updated
Moderna faces questions as it holds off staff vaccine mandate after J&J introduces measure
At the end of last month, Joe Biden announced sweeping new measures to require millions of federal workers and contractors to sign forms attesting they have been vaccinated against Covid or otherwise be forced to comply with new rules on mandatory masking, weekly testing and social distancing.
This week, the US president announced that nursing home staff would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of those facilities continuing to receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. It came as both Washington DC and New York moved to impose vaccine mandates on healthcare workers, in attempts to boost uptake.
The Associated Press reported on 29 July that the White House had hoped the move would encourage private companies to push their workers harder to get vaccines that have yet to receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
In response, Pfizer said days later it would require all its US employees and contractors to get vaccinated against Covid-19 or participate in regular weekly testing. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson announced on Monday that it would require all its employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, but only by 4 October.
But, curiously, as USA Today reports, Moderna – the Massachusetts company that supplies 41% of the US’s Covid vaccines – has no vaccination mandate.
“We have safety and testing protocols in place, but no such requirement at this time,” Moderna spokesman Ray Jordan told the newspaper in an email.
Dr Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, told USA Today that since Moderna was a relatively small company, with just 1,500 employees, they would be afraid of giving any of them cause to leave.
“The basic, underlying reason is fear,” he said of companies that have told him they have concerns about imposing a mandate. “They’re afraid of losing employees they can’t replace at a time like this.”
Pfizer has more than 79,000 employees internationally, and J&J has about 130,000. USA Today reports that Disney, Google, Netflix, and Microsoft are among hundreds of US companies requiring employee vaccination or regular testing.
Retsef Levi, an expert in risk management at the MIT Sloan School of Management said he considers vaccine mandates as scientifically, ethically and practically problematic.
He said this was because of breakthrough infections – which a Science Magazine report this week suggested were far more common than the term suggests, with 60% of hospitalised patients with Covid in Israel fully vaccinated. Levi also told USA Today that people should have freedom of choice for medical treatments.
Ultimately, he said all employees would have to get used to the idea that nobody would ever be perfectly protected against Covid-19, even if everyone in the office is vaccinated. “It’s not zero risk,” he told USA Today.
The World Health Organization has not taken a position on this issue. In April, in a policy paper, it said:
This document does not provide a position that endorses or opposes mandatory Covid-19 vaccination. Rather, it identifies important ethical considerations and caveats that should be explicitly evaluated and discussed through ethical analysis by governments and/or institutional policy-makers who may be considering mandates for Covid-19 vaccination.
Mandatory vaccination should be considered only if it is necessary for, and proportionate to, the achievement of an important public health goal (including socioeconomic goals) identified by a legitimate public health authority. If such a public health goal (eg herd immunity, protecting the most vulnerable, protecting the capacity of the acute health care system) can be achieved with less coercive or intrusive policy interventions (eg public education), a mandate would not be ethically justified, as achieving public health goals with less restriction of individual liberty and autonomy yields a more favourable risk-benefit ratio.
But there is increasing scepticism over whether herd immunity could be achieved through vaccination. Earlier this month, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which developed the AstraZeneca jab, said the fact that vaccines did not stop the spread of Covid meant reaching the threshold for overall immunity in the population was “mythical”.
Updated
Many Newcastle United footballers have not been vaccinated against Covid, manager admits
Steve Bruce has revealed that “a lot” of Newcastle United players have not been vaccinated against Covid and cited “conspiracy theories” as a reason why so many professional footballers are reluctant to get inoculated.
We’ve got a lot of players who haven’t had the jab. It’s their prerogative. We’ve had two or three players really sick with Covid here and Karl Darlow spent the best part of a week in hospital with it, so we’ve seen the severity of it first hand. But there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there.
I would urge everybody to get jabbed, and that’s the advice of this country’s top medics, but not everyone’s going to have the same opinion. If you get a group of 20 people you are not all going to have the same opinion.
UK higher education institution bans unvaccinated students from living on site
A specialist agricultural and veterinary nursing college has banned unvaccinated students from living on site, and said they may have limited access to social events and clubs if they do not get a jab.
First reported in the Telegraph, Hartpury University and Hartpury College in Gloucester is thought to be the first higher education institution in England to make vaccination mandatory for applicants.
Hartpury, which runs a number of equestrian courses, has also imposed the requirement on anyone wishing to keep a horse in its stables.
In a statement published on its website about Covid-19 measures in the 2021-22 academic year, it said:
Our expectation is that all eligible students will engage and take up their vaccinations as soon as they are given the opportunity. In order to benefit from the most effective protection against Covid-19, it’s a mandatory requirement that all eligible students in on-site residential accommodation will engage in the Covid-19 vaccination programme and have both doses of the vaccine when made available to them.
It’s highly likely that eligible students who aren’t vaccinated will be limited in terms of access to student social events and venues on the Hartpury campus, amongst other limitations. This is in line with the national picture, where vaccination proof may be required in the autumn for entertainment/hospitality for all adults.”
Hartpury said the requirement does not apply to students who cannot have the vaccine because of medical exemptions.
In a FAQ section of the website marked “Why should I have a Covid-19 vaccination?” it says: “This isn’t just about you. Many of our family and friends have conditions preventing them from developing an effective immune response to vaccination. This makes them highly vulnerable to Covid-19. The vaccines help limit transmission of the virus and you’ll protect others by having your vaccine as soon as you’re eligible.”
Hartpury also emphasised that students who do not wish to engage in the vaccination programme will still be able to attend all on-site classes and lectures as normal.
A spokesman for the university said:
In order to benefit from the most effective protection against Covid-19, we require eligible students who wish to live in our campus residential accommodation to have the Covid-19 vaccinations, when these are made available to their age category.
Students who are not intending to engage with the vaccination programme will still be able to attend all of their in-person teaching on campus, but will not be able to reside in Hartpury on-site accommodation (unless they are exempt due to medical reasons).
The government has stopped short of demanding students in higher education get a jab, but is “strongly encouraging” all those who are eligible to get one, PA reports.
In a recent statement, a spokesman for the Department for Education said: “The government currently has no plans to require the use of the NHS Covid pass for access to learning, however, universities and further education colleges are encouraged to promote the offer of the vaccine and should continue to conduct risk assessments for their particular circumstances.”
One parent told the Telegraph her daughter’s “dreams were in tatters” after the college said she had to prove her vaccine status. “I feel it’s my choice as a mother to say no,” they said. “I’m not an anti-vaxxer but I believe her immune system is strong enough to deal with the virus. Why should she have to prove her medical history?
“I think their stance is completely inappropriate and it is causing a huge amount of distress to my daughter and the whole family.”
There was also criticism of the decision on social media.
Hartpury University will ban unvaccinated students from many parts of student living.
— Rupert Lowe (@RupertLowe10) August 20, 2021
It's a disgrace and those responsible at the University should be ashamed of themselves.
Updated
One in 80 people in England had Covid last week
The prevalence of Covid-19 infections in England was about 1 in 80 people in the week ending 14 August, the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, slightly lower than the previous week’s estimate of 1 in 75. One in 80 is the equivalent of about 698,100 people.
In Wales, about one in 130 people are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the latest week, up from one in 220 in the previous week and the highest level since the week to 12 February.
In Northern Ireland the ONS described the trend as “uncertain”, with a latest estimate of one in 50, up slightly from one in 55 in the previous week and the highest level since the week to 23 January.
For Scotland, the ONS estimates that about one in 200 people had Covid-19 in the week studied, down slightly from one in 190 in the previous week. All figures are for people in private households.
The percentage testing positive in England fell in the week ending 14 August 2021 for people
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) August 20, 2021
▪️ in School Years 7 to 11
▪️ aged 25-34
▪️ aged 70+.
Infection rates increased in the 35-49 age group, while the trend in all other age groups was uncertain https://t.co/VNPn0iPey3 pic.twitter.com/D9YUzDSf3W
Updated
Transparent anti-Covid barriers may raise risk of transmission, experts say
Research suggests that transparent barriers, such as in taxis and in nail salons, can interfere with normal ventilation and that they often do little to stop the spread of Covid.
The New York Times cites experts saying that erecting plastic barriers can change the airflow in a room and create “dead zones” where viral particles can build up.
“If you have a forest of barriers in a classroom, it’s going to interfere with proper ventilation of that room,” Linsey Marr, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and a leading expert on viral transmission, told the NYT.
Everybody’s aerosols are going to be trapped and stuck there and building up, and they will end up spreading beyond your own desk ... One way to think about plastic barriers is that they are good for blocking things like spitballs but ineffective for things like cigarette smoke.
The smoke simply drifts around them, so they will give the person on the other side a little more time before being exposed to the smoke. Meanwhile, people on the same side with the smoker will be exposed to more smoke, since the barriers trap it on that side until it has a chance to mix throughout the space.
A Johns Hopkins University-led study published in June showed that desk screens in classrooms were associated with an increased risk of infection, while another paper found that plexiglass dividers with side walls in main offices impeded air flow.
The NYT cites another study which found that desk barriers had little effect on the spread of the Covid compared with ventilation improvements and masking.
“We have shown this effect of blocking larger particles, but also that the smaller aerosols travel over the screen and become mixed in the room air within about five minutes,” Catherine Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds, told the NYT.
This means if people are interacting for more than a few minutes, they would likely be exposed to the virus regardless of the screen ... I think this may be a particular problem in places like classrooms where people are present for longer periods of time. Large numbers of individual screens impede the airflow and create pockets of higher and lower risk that are hard to identify.
Richard Corsi, the incoming dean of engineering at the University of California, added:
If there are aerosol particles in the classroom air, those shields around students won’t protect them. Depending on the airflow conditions in the room, you can get a downdraft into those little spaces that you’re now confined in and cause particles to concentrate in your space.
Updated
Singapore, one of the world’s most vaccinated countries, is likely to stick to its mask mandate for some more time, according to its foreign minister, as the city-state cautiously reopens its borders and eases its restrictions as part of an explicit “live with Covid” strategy.
“I don’t think people want to wear masks. But on the other hand, I think we’ve gotten used to it,” Vivian Balakrishnan, who was a doctor before taking up politics, told Reuters. “That should be the last measure we dismantle.”
Masks have been compulsory since April last year in Singapore, which only recorded 46 Covid-related deaths amid strict measures.
Singapore has vaccinated more than three-quarters of its 5.7 million population. Balakrishnan also said the government would stick to its commitment to cease using coronavirus contact-tracing technology when the pandemic was over.
“This should not be a political decision, it should not be politicised. Let the professionals tell us whether contact tracing to that level is necessary or helpful and whether it secures the safety of our people,” he said.
The technology, deployed as both a phone app and a physical device, is mandatory in most public places in Singapore. Serious privacy concerns have been raised about such apps in several countries. Singapore had said the data is encrypted, stored locally and only tapped by authorities if individuals test positive for Covid-19, Reuters reports.
But a revelation that the police can use the data for criminal investigations caused a public backlash. Singapore then passed a law to govern the data’s use in criminal investigations.
Updated
Vaccine hesitancy in the US is rooted in the historical mistreatment of Black Americans by the US government and medical institutions – whether it was Henrietta Lacks’s stolen cells or the men in Tuskegee, Alabama, left untreated for syphilis in the name of research, my colleagues report.
Centuries of such injustice have infused distrust in Black communities and have affected health, said Gail Christopher, executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity.
“All of that shows up in our bodies – there’s just no way it doesn’t,” Christopher said. “And then you had this being hit by a Mack truck in terms of Covid-19, so of course you had disproportionate impact.”
Black Americans have borne the brunt of the virus, and are twice as likely to die compared with their white counterparts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the nation’s capital, while Black residents make up 45% of the population, they account for 76% of the Covid-19 deaths, according to DC government data.
Business leaders have said Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents “indefinitely trapped” in the city as it pursues a “zero infection” strategy, threatening its status as an international business centre.
AFP has the story:
In a rare open letter to chief executive Carrie Lam, the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong claimed the city’s most recent hardening of measures for inbound travellers were “out of proportion” and a “significant setback”.
The Chinese financial hub maintains some of the strictest quarantine rules in the world, an approach that has kept virus cases low but left most residents cut off from the rest of the world for the past 18 months.
Arrivals from high-risk countries have to stay in hotel quarantine for 21 days, while for lower-risk countries that drops to seven days followed by another seven days of self-monitoring. Last week, the authorities announced that a brief flirtation with relaxing some of these rules had to be scrapped.
The decision threw travel plans of many into disarray towards the end of the summer holidays, sparked a shortage of hotel rooms and caused growing frustration within the business community.
“We are of the view that Hong Kong must open itself sooner rather than later or this new quarantine regime could lead many in the international community to question if they want to remain indefinitely trapped in Hong Kong when the rest of the world is moving on,” Frederik Gollob, chairman of the chamber’s board of directors wrote in the letter.
“This concern amongst the international business community could pose, undoubtedly, a growing threat to Hong Kong’s status as an international business centre.” He added that while new virus variants were coming in, vaccination had helped lower the risk of extreme cases and many countries had made plans to treat the crisis as endemic.
He urged the government to understand what he called the “new normal” and come up with a “clear exit strategy” so as to provide a basis to restore confidence and enable businesses to plan ahead.
Hello and greetings to everyone reading, wherever you are in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Robyn Vinter for covering the blog up until now. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.
Updated
In New South Wales’s desperate battle to stop its hospital system being overwhelmed and curb case numbers Gladys Berejiklian has been forced to adopt measures she only last week said were unnecessary, writes the Guardian’s Anne Davies.
That’s me done on the Covid live blog today. Let me hand over to Mattha Busby and leave you with a summary of the day’s events so far from around the world:
- Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett received a coronavirus vaccine booster shot on Friday, as the country began administering them to people aged 40 and over amid a spike in infections. Bennett defended the booster jabs after a World Health Organization official said it was akin to taking extra life jackets and “leaving other people to drown”.
- Two months into New South Wales’s Delta outbreak, the Australian premier has toughened and extended greater Sydney’s lockdown and introduced a curfew in the western suburbs, declaring “it is time for all of us to bunker down and take this as seriously as we can”. Authorities in the region reported 644 local Covid cases and four deaths on Friday.
- Sri Lanka’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will meet his Covid-19 advisers on Friday and is expected to address the nation as infections and deaths overwhelm the island’s health system, leading to calls for a complete lockdown.
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg skirted a question on Thursday about coronavirus vaccine disinformation on the social network, choosing to phrase the problem instead as primarily one of “vaccine hesitancy” among the US public.
- The world is experiencing a severe shortage of blood donors, doctors say, as many countries do not allow people who have recently been vaccinated to give blood, while some people are simply staying at home as new infections rise.
- Apple Inc is delaying its return to corporate offices from October until January at the earliest because of rising Covid-19 cases and concerns about new variants.
- Thailand has passed the one million mark in coronavirus cases on Friday, 97% of which were recorded in the past five months, as the country struggles to get on top of one of Asia’s most severe Covid-19 outbreaks.
- Brazil has registered 20,494,212 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 572,641, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the US and India and the second deadliest after the US.
- Police in Kenya used teargas and fired shots in the air to break up protests in Nairobi after a man was allegedly killed by officers for violating the country’s Covid curfew. Shops were looted as unrest grew after John Kiiru’s death, which came just two days after six police officers appeared in court over the death of two brothers this month after they also allegedly broke the curfew.
- US president Joe Biden said he and his wife, Jill, would receive a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to boost their immunity, as his administration announced booster shots would be offered to Americans in September. He also announced that nursing home staff would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.
- Hospitalisations of people under the age of 50 with Covid-19 are at the highest levels seen in the US since the start of the pandemic, the latest government data shows. The largest increases in hospitalisations was among those in their 30s and the under-18s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Updated
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett defends Covid-19 booster shots as he receives third jab
Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett received a coronavirus vaccine booster shot on Friday, as the country began administering them to people aged 40 and over amid a spike in infections.
At a public hospital in Kfar Saba, a central city near Bennett’s home, the 49-year-old Israeli premier kept his eyes on the nurse administering the shot to his left shoulder, with his office saying he was the first head of government in the world to receive a booster, Agence France-Presse reports.
Bennett said shortly before receiving the shot:
We’re at the height of the battle now, together we can win; it’s within arm’s reach, but we’re not there yet. I’m asking of you – use this unique privilege you have as Israelis, and go get vaccinated.
Infections in Israel have in recent weeks surged, raising fears of a lockdown over the Jewish high holy days, which will take place in September.
Bennett said:
If you go get the third shot, we can avoid a fourth lockdown. We’re seeing profound efficacy of the vaccines working, it’s safe and it’s the way to defeat this virus.
The World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on Covid vaccine booster shots to help ease the drastic inequity in dose distribution between rich and poor nations.
On Wednesday, WHO’s emergency director Mike Ryan said booster shots were like “planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we’re leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket”.
On Friday, Bennett reiterated his defence of Israel’s booster practice, stressing again that his country would provide the world valuable data.
“We from Israel are going to share all the data, all the information all the insights in this pioneering” scheme, he said.
“I’m happy to hear that other countries are following suit, because at the end of the day, this is a global war on Covid and we’ve got to win.”
Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination drive in mid-December after an agreement with Pfizer to obtain millions of paid vaccine doses in exchange for sharing data on their effectiveness.
The inoculation campaign was hailed as a success story that helped drastically reduce infections in the country of 9 million people.
But cases have been rising because of the spread of the Delta variant among unvaccinated people and waning immunity in others.
To try and contain the spread, authorities last week began administering a booster shot to those aged 50 and older, after starting a campaign for over-60s late last month.
Israel has recorded more than 970,000 coronavirus infections since the pandemic started early last year, and more than 6,700 deaths.
More than 5.4 million people have received two doses of a vaccine, while 1.2 million have had a third jab.
Updated
An AstraZeneca executive said the prospect of offering a new treatment to prevent Covid-19 could position the British drugmaker as a supplier of both vaccines and drugs which guard against the disease.
The remarks by Mene Pangalos on Friday, after the antibody drug AZD7442 was shown to prevent Covid-19 in a trial, come after another leading executive, Ruud Dobber, said last month that different options were being explored for the vaccine operations, which stem from a collaboration with Oxford University.
“When we talked about the decisions around the vaccine we said obviously we want to see what the results of 7442 are as well,” Pangalos told Reuters.
“No other company has delivered two molecules against Sars-CoV2. This definitely helps us in positioning us in terms of Covid,” he said.
Updated
Australia Covid update: two months into outbreak New South Wales premier toughens lockdown and says it’s ‘time to bunker down’
Two months into New South Wales’s Delta outbreak, the premier has toughened and extended greater Sydney’s lockdown and introduced a curfew in the western suburbs, declaring “it is time for all of us to bunker down and take this as seriously as we can”.
NSW health authorities reported 644 local Covid cases and four deaths on Friday. Gladys Berejiklian said two factors were behind the new restrictions, including a state-wide mask mandate and expanded police powers – surging case numbers and compliance breaches.
Updated
Vietnam will extend the coronavirus lockdown in its capital Hanoi by 15 days to 6 September, state media has reported.
Updated
This is quite thought provoking from Emmanuel Samoglou in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, where tourists from New Zealand are flooding back thanks to a new travel bubble, causing conflicting feelings among the islanders.
Calls for complete lockdown in Sri Lanka intensify over record death toll
Sri Lanka’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will meet his Covid-19 advisers on Friday and is expectedto address the nation as infections and deaths overwhelm the island’s health system, leading to calls for a complete lockdown.
The country recorded its highest single-day death toll of 187 and 3,793 cases on Wednesday. Religious leaders, politicians and businessmen have called for an immediate nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of infections, Reuters reports.
Daily infections have more than doubled in a month to an average of 3,897, according to the Reuters Global Covid tracker.
Hospitals in the country of 32 million people are overflowing with Covid-19 patients as the highly transmissible Delta variant surges through the population.
“If they listen to us it will be good for our leaders and for the country,” said lawmaker Tissa Witarana after calling for a strict lockdown.
Many restrictions are already in place, with schools, gyms, and swimming pools closed and weddings and musical shows banned. Authorities also imposed a night curfew from Monday, restricting movement from 10pm until 4am every day.
Around a quarter of Sri Lanka’s population has been fully vaccinated, a majority of them with China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
Sri Lanka has also approved the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Russia’s Sputnik V shots.
It has reported a total of 372,079 infections since the start of the outbreak last year, with 6,604 deaths.
Updated
Zuckerberg deflects questions about vaccine disinformation on Facebook
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg skirted a question on Thursday about coronavirus vaccine disinformation on the social network, choosing to phrase the problem instead as primarily one of “vaccine hesitancy” among the US public.
The Philippine health ministry on Friday reported 17,231 new coronavirus cases, a record-high daily increase in cases.
It said total confirmed infections in the Philippines have increased to more than 1.8 million, while deaths have reached 31,198, after 317 fatalities were recorded on Friday.
Global shares fell for the fifth straight day and the dollar remained firm in a flight to safety as rising coronavirus cases compounded concerns over Chinese growth and the outlook for US stimulus.
“The Delta variant remains the biggest worry for investors right now, and along with the question of waning vaccine efficacy has made the risks to the outlook much more pronounced relative to just a few months ago,” Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid said in a note to clients, Reuters reports.
The MSCI World Index, a broad gauge of global shares, was down 0.2% in early European deals, on course for its biggest weekly fall since February as small gains in Europe’s top markets failed to make up for Asian losses overnight.
US stock futures, meanwhile, pointed to Wall Street opening down 0.3%-0.5%.
Asian shares finished the week heading for their lowest close since November, with the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 1% and 4.8% weaker on the week, its worst week since February.
The Hong Kong benchmark touched its lowest this year, and was last down 1.9% while Chinese blue chips fell 1.9% with markets spooked by slowing Chinese growth and regulatory intervention across a range of sectors.
With cases of the Delta variant of coronavirus picking up again across the globe from the United States to Australia, New Zealand and Japan, safety was key and the dollar a chief beneficiary.
The dollar index, which measures its performance against six rivals, rose as high as 93.622 for the first time since early November, while gold also rose, up 0.4% and heading for its second straight week of gains.
Covid-19 brings global blood donor shortage
The world is experiencing a severe shortage of blood donors, doctors say, as many countries do not allow people who have recently been vaccinated to give blood, while some people are simply staying at home as new infections rise.
In South Korea, now grappling with record cases, donors cannot give blood for seven days after a Covid-19 shot – and supply is down to just 3.2 days, as of Wednesday, from 6.5 days’ worth this time last year, according to the Korean Red Cross.
The Korean Medical Association (KMA) has launched a blood drive, starting with doctors themselves, warning that patients in need of urgent surgery or transfusions could face emergency situations, KMA spokeswoman Park Soo-hyun told Reuters.
“There have been increasing times when hospitals notify us of postponement of surgeries or treatments and crowding due to lack of blood,” Park said.
Recurrent waves of infections, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, and extension of lockdowns have started taking a bigger toll on donations, according to a Reuters review of the situation in different countries.
In Thailand, confirmed cases topped one million today with authorities reporting record increases in deaths in recent weeks.
“Due to the COVID situation, not many people are donating blood so there is not enough and some surgeries have to be postponed,” said Piya Kiatisewi, a bone caner surgeon at Lerdsin Hospital in Bangkok.
Like South Korea, Russia prohibits blood donations from the fully vaccinated – but for a whole month, not just seven days. It also doesn’t accept blood from those in the middle of Covid-19 vaccination cycle.
The Kommersant business daily reported last week that donor activity in Russia has slumped, hit by the vaccination campaign, with blood service workers in six different regions reporting the problem to the paper.
To be sure, in western Europe concerns over vaccination-hit donations have been exacerbated by the traditional summer holiday period.
France’s blood supply agency, the Etablissement Francais du Sang (EFA), said stocks were too tight for comfort. It said there are 85,000 red blood cell bags in reserve, below a comfortable level of 100,000 or more.
“No sick person will miss out on a transfusion but we are worried for September,” an EFA spokesperson told Reuters, when the volume of surgical operations would typically increase.
In Italy, the National Blood Centre said there were worrying shortages in a number of regions, including Lazio, centred on the capital Rome, which had led some hospitals to postpone planned operations to conserve stocks for emergencies. It blamed the shortfall mainly on many people being away on holiday and a lack of staff in some collection centres.
Across Europe, donation levels have also been plagued by uncertainty over whether people can give blood if they have not been vaccinated, officials in various countries said. Spain’s Health Ministry, for instance, issued a call for donations this week, telling people it’s safe to donate during the pandemic.
In Greece, “People are afraid to go and donate blood to hospitals because of the coronavirus”, said Konstantinos Stamoulis, scientific director of Hellenic National Blood Center in Athens. “There are days when there is a reduction of up to 50% in blood donations compared to 2019,” he said.
Back in Asia, many countries are now facing their most severe outbreak of coronavirus so far amid the Delta variant surge.
In Vietnam, the country’s National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion said it could meet only 50-70% of demand.
“We haven’t been able to deploy mobile donor centres,” said Le Hoang Oanh, head of the blood transfusion centre of Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s coronavirus epicentre.
“Instead, we have to call for donors to go to our permanent centres, which is a challenge given the movement restrictions in the city.”
If you missed this yesterday, on the loss of tourism caused by Covid around the world, it’s really worth a read.
Updated
A bit more detail here on Ronapreve, the drug newly approved in the UK to treat coronavirus:
The UK’s health regulator said it would roll out the antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron and Roche to patients soon.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the drug Ronapreve could help prevent infection, help resolve symptoms of severe COVID-19 infection and reduce the chances of hospitalisation.
“This treatment will be a significant addition to our armoury to tackle Covid-19,” the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said.
Ronapreve can be taken via injection or infusion. It binds tightly to the coronavirus at the lining of the respiratory system and prevents it from gaining access to cells of the respiratory system, the MHRA says.
Ronapreve belongs to a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies which mimic natural antibodies produced by the body to fight off infections. The drug is not intended to be used as a substitute for vaccination, the MHRA says.
Updated
Vietnam’s business hub Ho Chi Minh City has announced that its residents will be prohibited from leaving their homes, as the country’s biggest city turns to drastic measures to slow a spiralling rate of coronavirus deaths.
Vietnam’s toughest order yet comes amid a spike in fatalities and infections, despite weeks of lockdown measures aimed at limiting movement in the city of 9 million people, the epicentre of the country’s outbreak.
“We are asking people to stay where you are, not to go outside. Each home, company, factory should be an anti-virus fort,” Pham Duc Hai, deputy head of the city’s coronavirus authority, said on Friday.
The details of the order, which takes effect on Monday, have yet to be announced.
Hai said the curb on movement should reduce infections and give authorities a chance to focus on treating gravely ill patients.
Vietnam has been slow to procure vaccines and until late April had one of the world’s best containment records, having logged just 35 deaths and less than 3,000 cases as of 1 May.
But that has since jumped to over 312,000 cases and 7,150 deaths, with about half of the infections and 80% of fatalities in Ho Chi Minh City alone.
Testing and vaccinations will continue during the order, Hai said, adding “the vaccine is the key to win this battle”.
More than half of Ho Chi Minh City residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but the national vaccination rate is one of the lowest in Asia.
Apple delays return to corporate offices until 2022 as Covid cases rise
Apple Inc is delaying its return to corporate offices from October until January at the earliest because of rising Covid-19 cases and concerns about new variants.
The iPhone maker told staff in a memo that it would confirm the reopening plans one month before employees are required to return to the office, according to Bloomberg News.
Apple had previously planned to ask staff to return to its offices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays by early September, before delaying it until October. Employees will be able to work remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays.
A brilliant insight here from a book coming out next week, which claims the US president’s advisors thought British health experts were “out of their minds” when they were talking about achieving herd immunity.
One US official told the authors Thomas Wright and Colin Kahl:
We thought they were nuts and they thought we were nuts. It turns out, in the end, we were a little more right than they were.
Thailand records one millionth Covid-19 case
Thailand has passed the one million mark in coronavirus cases on Friday, 97% of which were recorded in the past five months, as the country struggles to get on top of one of Asia’s most severe Covid-19 outbreaks.
Authorities on Friday reported 19,851 cases and 240 fatalities, taking total confirmed infections past one million and deaths to 8,826, Reuters reports.
Thailand had kept the coronavirus largely under control and enjoyed only partial social restrictions for much of the pandemic until it was hit in April by the virulent Alpha variant, followed later by the Delta variant, at a time when few people were vaccinated.
Health officials have been rushing to shore up vaccine supply having inoculated just 8.3% of its population of over 66 million.
Authorities are also mixing AstraZeneca and Sinovac shots to boost immunity and as a workaround for supply issues.
The government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, including its vaccination policy, has fuelled a recent revival of protests against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has stood by his administration’s strategy.
Updated
UK licences Ronapreve drug to treat Covid-19
The UK health regulator said this morning it has approved Ronapreve, the antibody developed by Roche and Regeneron, to prevent and treat Covid-19.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the approval was the first in the UK for a monoclonal antibody treatment for the disease caused by the coronavirus.
In July, Japan became the first country to licence the drug, which a lab trial found lowered hospitalisation or mortality by 70% and lessened the symptom period by four days.
Other countries followed suit and Ronapreve is now licenced in places such as the US, India, Switzerland, Canada and the EU.
This is interesting analysis, in case you missed it. Donna Lu looks at whether closing children’s playgrounds actually helps prevent the spread of Covid-19 and whether keeping them shut might be doing more harm than good.
Hello, Robyn Vinter here in the UK, bringing you Covid-19 news from around the globe for the next few hours.
A bit more background on Israel’s plan to start booster shots for the over 40s here from Reuters:
In Israel’s COVID-19 wards, doctors are learning which vaccinated patients are most vulnerable to severe illness, amid growing concerns about instances in which the shots provide less protection against the worst forms of the disease.
About half of the country’s 600 patients presently hospitalised with severe illness have received two doses of the Pfizer Inc shot, a rare occurrence out of 5.4 million fully vaccinated people.
The majority of these patients received two vaccine doses at least five months ago, are over the age of 60 and also have chronic illnesses known to exacerbate a coronavirus infection. They range from diabetes to heart disease and lung ailments, as well as cancers and inflammatory diseases that are treated with immune-system suppressing drugs, according to Reuters interviews with 11 doctors, health specialists and officials.
Such “breakthrough” cases have become central to a global debate over whether highly vaccinated countries should give booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and to which people.
Israel began offering booster doses to people age 60 and up in July, and has since expanded that eligibility.
“The vaccinated patients are older, unhealthy, often they were bedridden before infection, immobile and already requiring nursing care,” said Noa Eliakim-Raz, head of the coronavirus ward at Rabin Medical Centre in Petach Tikva.
In contrast, “the unvaccinated COVID patients we see are young, healthy, working people and their condition deteriorates rapidly,” she said. “Suddenly they’re being put on oxygen or on a respirator.”
Israel’s Health Ministry raised new alarm this week with a report showing the effectiveness against severe disease of the Pfizer vaccine, developed with Germany’s BioNTech, appeared to have dropped from more than 90% to 55% in people age 65 and up who received their second jab in January.
Disease experts say it is not clear how representative the figures are, but agree it is concerning given evidence that overall vaccine protection against infection is waning.
They cannot say whether that is due to the amount of time that has passed since inoculation, the ability of the highly contagious Delta variant to evade protection, the age and underlying health of the people vaccinated, or a combination of all of these factors.
Sydney’s coronavirus lockdown is being extended for another month, with large swathes of the city facing curfew from Monday, as authorities battle a Delta outbreak that has seen record case numbers this week.
New South Wales reported 642 new local cases and four deaths on Friday, prompting premier Gladys Berejiklian to require masks to be worn outdoors throughout the state at all times except when exercising.
From Monday, curfews will be imposed in western Sydney’s council areas of concern and the city’s lockdown – which has placed five million people under stay-at-home orders since late June – has been extended to 30 September.
Altogether, half of Australia’s population of 25 million is now in lockdown, with the states of Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory also responding to outbreaks:
The whole of New Zealand will remain in lockdown until midnight Tuesday, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, as the country’s coronavirus outbreak grew to 31 people and spread to Wellington.
The first case in the outbreak emerged in Auckland on Tuesday, prompting the government to put the entire country into a level-4 lockdown – the highest level of restrictions. Genome sequencing has linked the cluster to a returnee from Australia.
Since then, some of the cases that have emerged include a high school teacher, students at two more high schools, a nurse at Auckland City Hospital and an Air New Zealand cabin crew member:
South Korea extends restrictions for a fortnight
South Korea has extended its social distancing curbs for two weeks to ward off a surge in coronavirus cases, while allowing vaccinated people some latitude, its prime minister said on Friday.
The country’s fourth Cobid wave has shown few signs of abating six weeks after the toughest Level four distancing rules, which include a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6pm were imposed in the greater Seoul area.
South Korea reported 2,052 new cases on Thursday, 2,001 of which were locally acquired, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) data showed.
As part of the extended restrictions, authorities will require restaurants and cafes in the metropolitan area to close an hour earlier at 9pm until 5 September, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a Covid response meeting.
South Korea has given 48.3% of its 52 million population at least one vaccine dose, and 21.6% are fully vaccinated. It aims to fully immunise 70% by October.
3,000 fake vaccination cards seized in Alaska
US Customs and Border Protection agents in Anchorage seized more than 3,000 counterfeit Covid vaccination cards sent from China, officials said on Thursday.
The cards were of “low-quality printing” but closely resembled authentic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention certificates provided to vaccine recipients, the agency said in a statement.
Reuters: The Alaska shipment follows a similar seizure that Customs and Border Protection reported last week in Memphis, in which counterfeit cards were also sent from China.
“Getting these fraudulent cards off the streets and out of the hands of those who would then sell them is important for the safety of the American public,” Lance Robinson, area port director of the Area Port of Anchorage, said in a statement.
“Looking out for the welfare of our fellow Alaskans is one of the many and varied responsibilities CBP is proud to take on.”
The seized counterfeit cards were headed for destinations around the United States other than Alaska, said Kymberly Fernandez, an assistant area port director in Anchorage.
Israel to start booster shots for over 40s
Israelis aged 40 and over will be able to receive coronavirus vaccine booster shots starting this weekend, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Thursday, as the country battles a spike in infections.
Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination drive in mid-December via an agreement with Pfizer to obtain millions of paid vaccine doses in exchange for sharing data on their effectiveness.
Horowitz, who is among those who have received a third dose, tweeted Thursday that people aged 40 and over will be able to get a booster shot from Sunday.
“We have vaccines for everyone and now those 40 and older can receive a third dose,” he wrote. “The vaccine is effective. Let’s stop this Delta.”
דאגנו למלאי חיסונים לכולם. ועכשיו גם בני 40 ומעלה, ועובדי הוראה, יכולים להתחסן במנה שלישית. אז קדימה. החיסון בטוח וגם יעיל (מאוד!).
— Nitzan Horowitz نيتسان هوروفيتس ניצן הורוביץ (@NitzanHorowitz) August 19, 2021
בואו נעצור את הדלתא הזו.
Cases have been rising due to the spread of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated and waning immunity in others.
To try and contain the spread, authorities last week began administrating a booster shot to those aged 50 and older, after starting a campaign for over-60s late last month.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Israelis aged 40 and over will be able to receive coronavirus vaccine booster shots starting this weekend, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Thursday, as the country battles a spike in infections.
Meanwhile US Customs and Border Protection agents in Anchorage seized more than 3,000 counterfeit Covid vaccination cards sent from China, officials said on Thursday.
The cards were of “low-quality printing” but closely resembled authentic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention certificates provided to vaccine recipients, the agency said in a statement.
More on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Israel’s health minister said on Thursday that people over 40 and teachers would be eligible for a third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, expanding its booster campaign to fend off the coronavirus Delta variant.
- In the UK, the House of Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, is facing calls to urge MPs to wear masks in the chamber, after cabinet ministers and many Tory backbenchers shunned the advice during a packed eight-hour debate on Afghanistan.
- Brazil has now registered 20,494,212 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 572,641, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the US and India and its second-deadliest after the US.
- Police in Kenya used teargas and fired shots in the air to break up protests in Nairobi after a man was allegedly killed by officers for violating the country’s Covid curfew. Shops were looted as unrest grew after John Kiiru’s death, which came just two days after six police officers appeared in court over the death of two brothers this month after they also allegedly broke the curfew.
- A plan to start offering Covid booster vaccinations in the UK from early September is extremely unlikely to happen, it is understood, given the concerns of the government’s vaccines watchdog about the clinical benefits and potential wider risks to vaccine confidence. Immunologist Prof Peter Openshaw also said that the results of ongoing studies to determine their effectiveness “should not be prejudged”.
- The mass rollout of Covid-19 booster vaccines in Britain to residents over 50 this autumn could be shelved, with government scientists considering limiting third doses only to the most vulnerable, The Telegraph reported on Thursday.
- An online open-source intelligence group last year identified that a virus studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology taken from an abandoned copper mine in Yunnan province was the closest known relative to Sars-CoV-2, the Economist reports in a piece which also considers the case for a zoonotic origin to Covid.
- A Spanish court has lifted a coronavirus curfew imposed on most of Catalonia, including the capital Barcelona, leaving it in place in just a fraction of the northeastern region. The high court of justice of Catalonia said the measure was “not justified” because infection rates had improved.
- Joe Biden said he and his wife, Jill, would receive a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to boost their immunity, as his administration announced booster shots would be offered to Americans in September. He also announced that nursing home staff would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.
- Hospitalisations of people under the age of 50 with Covid-19 are now at the highest levels seen in the US since the start of the pandemic, the latest government data shows. The largest increases in hospitalisations was among those in their 30s and the under-18s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The hoarding of Covid jabs by rich countries which are also rolling out booster shots “makes a mockery of vaccine equity” pledges, the Africa director for the World Health Organization said. But she noted that cases across Africa are levelling off and more vaccine doses are finally arriving on the continent
- The French scientist who promoted the discredited hydroxychloroquine treatment for Covid-19 backed by Donald Trump faces being pushed out of the infectious diseases institute he founded amid concerns from key members over its role in feeding conspiracy theories and an investigation by regulators into its clinical studies.
