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Two-thirds of Australian parents are concerned that lockdowns are affecting the mental health of their children, with half worried about emerging behavioural problems, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The survey of 1,100 people has also found strong support for the government to indemnify employers who provide Covid-19 vaccinations to their employees through workplace vaccination programmes – something that is being pushed by business but which the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has ruled out.
With New South Wales in its eighth week of lockdown, and Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory both hit with a two-week extension on Monday, the latest snapshot of national sentiment reveals ongoing resilience among the adult population but growing concern about the impact of lockdowns on children.
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A summary of the latest developments
- The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was in the post at the beginning of the pandemic, has said the hypothesis that Covid was manipulated or “taught” to infect humans must be investigated further. He said he believes the virus “was most likely uncontained in a laboratory where it was being worked on, and that it escaped unintentionally”.
- The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will not have any spectators due to the Covid-19 outbreak in Japan, the organisers announced in statement “in light of the current emergency declaration issued for Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba prefectures” and “the current infection situation broadly”.
- A troubling divide in Irish schools looks likely to emerge as unvaccinated children would have to take up to two weeks out of school if they were a close contact of a Covid-positive peer, but vaccinated children would not – despite still being able to contract and transmit the virus.
- The UK’s health regulator said Covid-19 vaccines did not raise the risk of miscarriage, and that it had not found any link between the shots and changes to menstrual periods. It came after Europe’s drugs regulator said it had so far not found a causal link between Covid-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders.
- The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, will temporarily be allowed to enforce an order banning mask mandates, the state supreme court ruled. However, the ultimate fate of mask mandates in Texas is far from clear, as school districts and localities fight to maintain control of public health orders.
- Thai police again used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters near the office of the prime minister, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the pandemic. Hundreds marched on government house to demand his resignation.
- Several major California law enforcement agencies are reporting Covid-19 vaccination rates that are significantly lower than those of the general population, and seven state prisons have disclosed that less than a third of their officers are vaccinated.
The Covid-19 culture war has a new front: country music. Be it the Nashville establishment or up-and-comers in adjacent roots, folk and Americana genres, numerous artists are taking a stand about concert pandemic precautions, often along partisan lines. Jason Isbell has become one of the most prominent musicians to step into the fray.
The Grammy-winning independent alt-country artist – who has released acclaimed albums including Southeastern and last year’s Reunions – rowed with some venues and vitriolic Twitter users, while also eliciting praise, after announcing on 9 August that proof of a Covid-19 vaccination or a negative test was mandatory for his concertgoers.
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Japan’s economy recovered strongly in the second quarter to join the turnaround seen across G7 countries as the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions sent consumers rushing to the shops, writes Philip Inman for the Guardian.
Beating the expectations of City analysts, the world’s third-largest economy also capitalised on global trade’s return to health with a surge in exports.
After a 0.9% drop in the first quarter, economic output expanded 0.3% in the second quarter, or by 1.3% using the annualised calculation that is more commonly cited by Tokyo. Analysts had expected the annualised growth to be only 0.7%.
However, a state of emergency imposed in the final days of the Olympic summer games to tackle the Delta variant and a broader slowdown in China and the US is expected to dampen momentum in the third quarter.
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The number of coronavirus patients in hospital in England has risen to its highest level in five months, according to the latest official figures.
NHS England reported there were 5,429 coronavirus patients in hospital in England at 8am on Monday, up 6.5% from the 5,098 the previous Monday and the highest number of beds occupied by coronavirus patients in England since 16 March, when there were 5,664.
The number of hospital admissions of people with Covid-19 in England was 689 on Saturday 14 August, the latest day for which figures were available, up 9.4% week-on-week from the 630 recorded on the previous Saturday.
Hull is the English region with the highest current rate of new coronavirus infections, with 1,621 new cases in the seven days to 12 August – the equivalent of 625.6 per 100,000 people – according to separate data published by Public Health England. That was up from 560.3 in the seven days to 5 August.
Mansfield in Nottinghamshire had the second-highest rate, up from 473.7 to 549.6, with 601 new cases. Sedgemoor in Somerset had the third highest rate, up from 262.5 to 522.5, with 645 new cases.
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Tehran’s notoriously heavy traffic eased on Monday, with many shops in the city closing their doors, as new measures aimed at curbing record numbers of coronavirus deaths came into force across Iran.
Since late June, Iran has experienced what officials have called a “fifth wave” of cases and deaths, the country’s worst yet, largely blamed on the highly infectious Delta variant. On Monday, the health ministry announced the deaths of a record 655 coronavirus patients in the preceding 24 hours, with more than 41,000 new cases recorded.
In total, the country of 83 million has recorded upwards of 98,000 deaths from Covid-19, making it the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak.
The latest measures include restrictions on driving between provinces until 27 August, as well as the closure of government buildings, banks and non-essential shops until Saturday inclusive.
The Grand Bazaar in Tehran, a vast and usually busy shopping hub, was empty as the rules came into effect, according to an AFP wire report. In other parts of the capital, only essential businesses such as pharmacies and food shops remained open, and markedly fewer cars were on the roads.
Since the pandemic began, Iran has avoided imposing a full lockdown, instead resorting to piecemeal measures such as temporary travel bans and business closures.
The health ministry says that more than 15 million Iranians have been vaccinated with at least one shot since the immunisation campaign began in February.
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Bangladesh has begun a Covid-19 vaccination drive for displaced Rohingya people living in Cox’s Bazar, one of the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camps.
Implemented with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the campaign aims to vaccinate the 48,000 refugees living in the area who are aged 55 and over.
In a statement circulated by the WHO, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the regional director, said:
Bangladesh is demonstrating what WHO has been advocating for – equitable access to vaccines. Inclusion is key to protecting vulnerable populations like the refugees, for safeguarding their health and that of their host communities and societies.
The WHO said it had repurposed field staff working in TB and other field programmes, and also deployed medical officers specialising in vaccine-preventable diseases alongside its entire Cox’s Bazar health emergencies team to prioritise the smooth rollout of the vaccination programme.
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French prosecutors have launched hate speech and incitement of violence investigations into antisemitic banners seen at demonstrations against the country’s coronavirus health pass, which is now required for many daily activities.
Recent anti-health pass demonstrations have seen protesters brandishing placards featuring syringes forming swastikas, wearing yellow stars or carrying banners bearing the word “Qui?” (who?), which has emerged as the latest antisemitic slogan of the far right and conspiracy theorists.
After the fourth Saturday of demonstrations in Paris, the city’s public prosecutor said the police were looking at whether some protesters were “provoking public hate or violence against a group of people because of their origin, their belonging or not belonging to a particular ethnic group, a nation, a race or a religion”.
Last week, Cassandre Fristot, a teacher and former far-right Front National official, was put under investigation after carrying a cardboard placard during an anti-health pass march in the eastern city of Metz.
On it was written “mais qui” followed by names of well-known French and international Jewish people and their supposed supporters. The education authorities have suspended Fristot from her job. She will appear in court in September accused of provoking racial hatred. If convicted she faces a one-year jail sentence and a fine of up to €45,000 (£38,000).
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The UK’s health regulator has said Covid-19 vaccines did not raise the risk of miscarriage, and that it had not found any link between the shots and changes to menstrual periods.
“There is no pattern from the reports to suggest that any of the Covid-19 vaccines used in the UK, or any reactions to these vaccines, increase the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth,” said the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The MHRA’s findings come after Europe’s drugs regulator earlier this month said it had so far not found a causal link between Covid-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders and advised three new conditions be added as possible side-effects after vaccination with Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus shot.
Reuters reports that cases of menstrual disorders after vaccination were studied by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), adding that it had requested for more data from vaccine developers to assess the issue.
The EMA said in its most recent Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine safety update:
Menstrual disorders are very common in the general population and can occur without an underlying medical condition. Causes can range from stress and tiredness to conditions such as fibroids and endometriosis. Women experiencing unexpected vaginal bleeding (eg, in postmenopausal women) or who are concerned about prolonged or severe menstrual disturbances may want to seek medical advice.
The marketing authorisation holders for all Covid-19 vaccines authorised in the EU have been requested to provide further data as part of the MSSRs. The [pharmacovigilance risk assessment committee] will review all available evidence, including reports of suspected side-effects and scientific literature, and will continue monitoring the issue.
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Tokyo Paralympics will not have any spectators due to Covid, organisers announce
The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will not have any spectators due to the Covid-19 outbreak in Japan, the organisers have announced.
The International Paralympic Committee, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the government of Japan said in a joint statement:
In light of the current emergency declaration issued for Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, another declaration of the state of emergency being requested by Shizuoka prefecture and the current infection situation broadly, more stringent measures will be taken for competitions to be held in these prefectures, including having no spectators.
With regards to road events, the organisers request the general public to refrain from coming to the roadsides to watch the competitions. With regard to the school programme, given that the Tokyo 2020 Games are very important in helping us realise a more inclusive society, safety measures will be taken in order to facilitate spectating in cases where local authorities or school administrations request this in response to the wishes of parents and others.
We very much regret that this situation has impacted the Paralympic Games, following the Olympic Games, and we sincerely apologise to all ticket buyers who were looking forward to watching the Games at the venues. We hope that you understand that these measures are unavoidable and being implemented in order to prevent the spread of infection. Everyone is encouraged to watch the Games at home.
CNN reports there was an absence of spectators for 97% of competitions during the Olympics, including in all Tokyo venues, with limited capacity in several other areas. The Paralympic Games are scheduled to begin on 24 August and go until 5 September.
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The UK has reported a further 28,438 daily cases of Covid-19, up from 26,750 recorded on Sunday, and another 26 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test, official data showed.
Cases in the last seven days were up by about 5% on the week before, the data showed. It comes after Public Health England said the estimated range for England’s Covid-19 reproduction “R” number had narrowed further and could be below 1, suggesting cases may no longer be growing exponentially.
The Office for National Statistics said on Friday that although the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in England “continued to be high”, estimates suggested “an overall decreasing trend over the past two weeks”.
Last week Prof Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said the way infections were reported needed to change as the reported statistics did not necessarily reflect Covid’s impact.
“We need to be moving towards reporting hospital admissions that are admitted because of Covid, not because they just happen to be positive and they’re being admitted for something else,” he told MPs.
The latest statistics for excess deaths show rates have continued to remain stable and have been mostly below average since the end of winter in England.
For the week ending 30 July, of 9,487 total deaths over seven days there were 389 fatalities in which Covid was mentioned on the death certificate. Of the total deaths, 843 were statistically unexpected and 516 of those were aged 75 and above.
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The Associated Press reports that the head of Virginia’s Covid-19 vaccination effort has said church pastors are reluctant to advocate for inoculation.
“A lot of pastors, based on where their congregations are at, are pretty hesitant to do so because this is so charged, and it immediately invites criticism and furore by the segment of your community that’s not on board with that,” Dr Danny Avula said.
He said some members of his own church referred to the jabs as “the mark of the beast”, a biblical reference to allegiance to the devil, and revealed to the AP that he was not sure how to respond.
A few outspoken religious leaders have garnered crowds or media attention for their opposition to the vaccines, such as Tony Spell, who repeatedly defied restrictions to hold in-person services at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, church where he is pastor. He has preached that vaccinations are “demonic” and vowed that the government will not “force us to comply with your evil orders”.
But they appear to be outliers, according to theologian Curtis Chang, with the majority of ministers avoiding the vaccine issue so as not to inflame tensions in congregations already struggling with the pandemic and political division, the AP reports.
“I would say that the vast majority are paralysed or silent because of how polarised it has been,” said Chang, who has pastored churches and is on the faculty at Duke Divinity School.
A survey by the National Association of Evangelicals found that 95% of evangelical leaders planned to get inoculated, but that number hasn’t translated into widespread advocacy from the pulpit, he said.
More than 200 pastors, priests and other church leaders from Missouri last month, signed a statement urging Christians to get vaccinated because of the biblical commandment to “love your neighbour as yourself.”
Meanwhile, on a recent Sunday, during the first in-person services in a month, Evangelical pastor Keven Blankenship at an independent church in suburban Birmingham revealed he had got his first shot and was due for a second.
“If you feel comfortable receiving it, I want you to receive it. If you don’t feel comfortable, I want you to talk to your doctor and you get your doctor’s guidance,” he told worshippers. “But I want you to do what you feel is the best thing for you and your family, and don’t be bullied into anything.”
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Vaccine hesitancy is a symptom of broader failures, writes the Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik.
What all people wary of vaccines have in common, from Khartoum to Kansas, is their trust in the state has been eroded. Without understanding this, we will be fated to keep channelling our frustrations towards individuals without grasping why they have lost trust in the first place.
Vaccine rejection doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s easier to dismiss hesitancy and conspiracies as unhinged behaviour; it makes us feel less unnerved by displays of unreason from those who we think are, or should be, rational people. Sure, among vaccine-hesitant people are those who are simply stubborn, misanthropic or selfish.
But, just as the pandemic exploited the weaknesses of our economic and public health systems, vaccine hesitancy has exposed the weaknesses of states’ bond with their citizens. There are no easy answers for how to deal with those who repeat conspiracy theories and falsehoods, but scrutinising the systems that lost their trust is perhaps a good place to start.
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Meanwhile, Thailand, a regional manufacturer of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus shots, is seeking to borrow 150,000 doses of the same vaccine from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, an official has said, amid a Thai supply shortage.
The request to tap vaccines from Bhutan, a country of less than 1m people, reflects efforts to plug gaps in Thailand’s chaotic vaccine rollout, after AstraZeneca said it could supply the country with about 5-6m monthly doses, about half of what the government had targeted.
Thailand produces AstraZeneca’s vaccine for regional distribution but has managed to fully inoculate just 7.1% of its 70m population so far. Thailand reported 182 new Covid-related deaths today, bringing the total to 7,734.
By contrast, Bhutan started its vaccinations in March and has administered over 1m doses, a number sufficient to have immunised about two-thirds of its population. It has recorded less than 3,000 cases and just three deaths.
“The vaccine swap arrangement between Bhutan and Thailand ... is on basis that Thailand will send back vaccines to Bhutan later on,” said Natapanu Nopakun, a foreign ministry spokesperson. “At the moment, the agreement is being reviewed and considered by the government.”
Yet again, Thai police have used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters near the office of the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the pandemic.
Reuters reports that hundreds of protesters marched on government house to demand Prayuth resign, the latest show of growing public anger about a worsening epidemic and a chaotic vaccine rollout.
Police fired teargas canisters and used water cannon when protesters tried to dismantle a police barricade, the latest as in a series of recent demonstrations that police sought to disperse using rubber bullets – injuring a number of protesters, while officials said police have also been injured.
The rallies are being led by groups who also sought former army chief Prayuth’s ouster last year, accusing him and his allies of seeking to entrench the military’s control of politics.
“We are out here to stop the ongoing failure and stop the losses, because if Prayuth Chan-ocha remains in power, more people will die,” the activist Songpon “Yajai” Sonthirak said during the march.
Opposition lawmakers today filed a no-confidence motion against Prayuth and five of his cabinet ministers, which will lead to a censure debate over the Covid-19 crisis, likely later his month or early September, according to the house speaker.
Reuters reports “clashes” also took place late near Prayuth’s residence in another part of the capital. “Bangkok has declared an emergency and a gathering or activity involving more than five people is not possible, it’s illegal,” said Piya Tavichai, deputy head of the Bangkok police.
Local media reports that Thai authorities responded to the renewed protests last week by re-arresting eight prominent youth pro-democracy leaders. They are facing numerous charges including sedition and royal defamation.
I imagine there will be developments to report later.
Instead of listening to understand why people are angry, #Thai government repeatedly used excessive force and unleashed police brutality to suppress street protests in #Bangkok — adding fuel raging fire. Read @HRW dispatch. #WhatsHappeningInThailand https://t.co/iLylRJy5gC
— Sunai (@sunaibkk) August 15, 2021
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Moving away from the debate over the origins of the virus for now, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, will temporarily be allowed to enforce an order banning mask mandates, the state supreme court has ruled.
However, the ultimate fate of mask mandates in Texas is far from clear, as school districts and localities fight to maintain control of public health orders and Covid-19 caseloads driven by Delta variant infections among unvaccinated people surge.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended masks for all schoolchildren, unvaccinated individuals and vaccinated people in areas with substantial transmission of Covid-19.
“Local mask mandates are illegal under GA-38,” the office of the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, tweeted yesterday evening, after the ruling was released. “Let this ruling serve as a reminder to all [independent school districts] and local officials that the governor’s order stands.”
Chinese state media is seeking to divert attention on to a US scientist, Ralph Baric, from the University of North Carolina, who has also been experimenting with coronaviruses.
In an article titled “Conspiracy theory or reasonable scepticism?”, the tabloid Global News highlighted that Baric had collaborated with Wuhan researchers and cited a journal article in Nature with his byline that reported “a Sars-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence”.
The paper also links to a recent article in MIT Technology Review on “the risky bat-virus engineering that links America to Wuhan” and how “China emulated US techniques to construct novel coronaviruses in unsafe conditions”.
It reported: “The NIH decided the risk was worth it. In a potentially fateful decision, it funded work similar to Baric’s at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which soon used its own reverse-genetics technology to make numerous coronavirus chimeras.”
Baric called for greater lab security. “There’s some risk associated with those viruses,” he said. “We have no idea whether they could actually cause severe disease in a human, but you want to err on the side of caution ... If you study a hundred different bat viruses, your luck may run out.”
He told Italian media last year: “You can engineer a virus without leaving any trace. The answers you are looking for, however, can only be found in the archives of the Wuhan laboratory.”
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A whistleblower protection group has said it is time for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be transparent over its funding of risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan to make viruses more transmissible – a call echoed by the Washington Post.
Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research president Jason Foster wrote in Newsweek earlier this month:
Members of both the House and Senate have sent multiple requests to the NIH demanding to see documents about the money American taxpayers provided to the virus lab in Wuhan, and to view reports that explain specifics about this research. By refusing to release these documents, Dr Fauci and other NIH officials have made it impossible to learn what the NIH has funded, and what it knows about research at Wuhan.
House members recently sent the NIH a second letter, demanding transparency on documents requested months ago about funding and reports of this research at the WIV. Meanwhile, the Washington Post editorial board reiterated its call for transparency on the WIV’s risky gain-of-function research.
In a recent editorial, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs laid out what we know: the NIH funded US and Chinese scientists to collect Sars viruses and study them at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. As Dr Sachs explained, this research “included the creation of chimeric genetic recombinants of Sars-like viruses to study their capacity to infect human cells and to cause disease.” In short, American taxpayers funded research at the WIV that many scientists call “gain of function,” meaning it can increase the ability of an animal virus to infect and harm humans.
The Washington Post editorial board wrote last month:
The institute was carrying out experiments using chimeric viruses with modified spike proteins, tested on mice with respiratory cells genetically altered to resemble those of humans. The goal was to see which were more infective.
These experiments were written into grant applications, including for US funds; the research began in 2014-2015 and was under way at the institute through 2019. The work was not done in the highest biosecurity level laboratory. The institute had collected bat coronavirus samples from a mine in southern China and stored genomic sequences of a number of them.
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Last week, the former CDC director Redfield said he was “sidelined” and “threatened” for saying that Covid had escaped from a lab.
“I think I’m very disheartened when I have seen how the scientific community failed to approach both hypotheses with an open mind,” he said according to Newsweek. “I was very rapidly sidelined, threatened, because somehow I believed as a virologist that this virus may have come from the laboratory.”
In an interview with Fox News, he said that over the past 18 months there had been “no new evidence” to suggest the virus had “evolved from nature” and that there was no proof that it was “associated with any of the animal species they’ve tested”.
He said there was “growing evidence” to back his original claim, “so I continue to believe of the two hypotheses that the laboratory leak is the most likely origin of this virus ... It’s in a way tragic because you would then say this pandemic was caused in a way by science, not necessarily by nature.”
In March, he was criticised for saying on CNN that he believed the virus originated in a lab in China. But the theory is now a publicly expressed mainstream consideration, and the WHO chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, conceded last month there had been a “premature push” to rule out the theory.
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Former CDC director says he believes Covid 'escaped unintentionally' from Wuhan lab
The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was in the post at the beginning of the pandemic, has said the hypothesis that Covid was manipulated or “taught” to infect humans must be investigated further.
He believes the virus “was most likely uncontained in a laboratory where it was being worked on, and that it escaped unintentionally”.
Dr Robert Redfield, in an article for the Wall Street Journal (paywall), co-written with Dr Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at New York University, addressed the growing controversy over the origin of the pandemic after the WHO mission chief said last week that it could have come from a lab worker taking field samples of bat coronaviruses.
They called “for a worldwide moratorium on gain-of-function research” – which was controversially being conducted in Wuhan in part with US funding – while authorities develop a clear and careful policy to help prevent the next pandemic.
On 12 September 2019, coronavirus bat sequences were deleted from the institute’s database. Why? It changed the security protocols for the lab. Why? It put out requests for more than $600m for a new ventilation system. What prompted this new need?
One of the lab theories hypothesizes that Sars-CoV-2 was manipulated or “taught” to infect humans. Imagine several viruses being run through humanized mice (grafted with human tissue and immune cells) to test their ability to infect human tissue. Notably, Sars-CoV-2 includes a kind of cleavage site that allows its spike protein to change its orientation and dock more easily with a human cell.
This hypothesis bears investigation, especially since no new information has emerged in the past 18 months to support the natural-origin theory. Meantime, a growing body of circumstantial evidence supports the lab-leak theory, including information reported by the US State Department that employees of the Wuhan lab were becoming sick with Covid-like symptoms in the fall of 2019. A virus with a head start in becoming acclimated to humans likely has an easier time evolving to increase transmission.
The story of Sars-Cov-2 started long before January 2020. We believe the virus was most likely uncontained in a laboratory where it was being worked on, and that it escaped unintentionally.
We need a comprehensive bipartisan investigation into the origin of Covid-19. Until then, we call for a world-wide moratorium on gain-of-function research while authorities develop a clear and careful policy to help prevent the next pandemic.
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And here’s a bit more, sort of.
Some light relief as armies of re-enactors are back in all their full period-costume glory 18 months on the sidelines.
Working from home in the UK during Covid has caused an “epidemic of hidden overtime” that particularly affects women, leading to a need for new “right to disconnect” laws, according a report from Autonomy thinktank.
The organisation said unpaid labour was a growing problem in the age of increased home working, with women at a greater risk of negative health impacts and mental distress.
As part of the report, it proposed draft legislation that would create a “right to disconnect”, based on French law, which stipulates employees do not have to take calls or read emails related to work during their time off.
It called for two amendments to be made to the Employment Rights Act 1996 to ensure workers have the right to fully disconnect from all work communications outside working hours and bring employment tribunals for any breach of that.
It suggested an employer should “not require a worker employed by him to monitor or respond to any work-related communications, or to carry out any work, outside the worker’s agreed working hours” or subject the worker to any detriment for failing to do so.
There would be proposed exemptions for industries where that is not feasible and where the employer has made all reasonable steps to minimise working outside agreed hours.
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Such calls have been echoed by the British Medical Association (BMA) which says it would “strongly urge” people to continue to take “sensible precautions” in the wake of self-isolation rules being eased for the fully vaccinated.
The body also said healthcare workers who want to self-isolate “should not be penalised in any way for doing so”. Double vaccinated health and social care staff who are close contacts of cases must have a negative PCR test and daily lateral flow tests will also need to be taken for 10 days as a precaution.
Dr Penelope Toff, BMA public health medicine committee co-chair, said:
We remain in a very precarious situation with Covid-19. Being fully vaccinated significantly reduces the chance of being infected, but it does not totally eliminate it so we strongly urge the public to remain cautious and take sensible precautions, such as taking a PCR test if in close contact with a positive case.
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Fully vaccinated people, who are no longer required to self-isolate in the UK after being a close contact of someone with Covid-19, should be told it is “absolutely vital” to get a PCR test, an academic has said.
Prof Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) which advises the government, told Sky News the vaccines are “not perfect”, adding:
You can still be hospitalised, you can still get infected, you can still infect others. So I think it’s really important to say to people that having a PCR test is absolutely vital – it should be more than just ‘Do it if you want to do it’. And what’s more, I think it would have made sense to ask people to self-isolate until they get the results of that test, but at the very least be cautious.
The problem is that if you now make it a choice [for] people as to whether to take a test, and therefore have to self-isolate if you’re positive, people aren’t going to take that test if they can’t afford to be positive. So we need to give people more support, so they can self-isolate.
If you give the message to people that once you’re double-vaccinated you are in fact immune, invulnerable, that you can’t get infected, you can’t infect others, you’re not going to be hospitalised – there is a very real danger that we increase the extent to which we socialise and we undermine the efforts against the pandemic; it’s really important to have a balanced message.
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A man who was stabbed when a fight broke out between anti-vaccine mandate protesters and counter-protesters in Los Angeles has been released from hospital.
AP reports that several hundred people calling for “freedom against medical tyranny” turned out for Saturday’s rally outside LA City Hall, while a small group of counter-protesters gathered nearby to rally against fascism.
Counter-protester reportedly sprayed Mace amid scuffles while members of the anti-mandate rally screamed death threats. It came after local officials voted to impose a ban on allowing unvaccinated people into indoor public spaces.
The identity of the man with the stab wound was not released and no information was given about the extent of his injury, the Los Angeles Times reported.
California governor Gavon Newsom said this week that proof of Covid vaccination for school teachers and staff members would be required to return to campus, NBC reports.
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Of the 65 patients in Iceland’s hospitals with Covid in the country, 40% are reportedly unvaccinated – more than four times the proportion of unvaccinated Icelanders.
The Washington Post reports that Pall Matthiasson, chief executive of the country’s largest hospital, said he had not expected an upswing in cases, as it seemed Iceland had vanquished the virus. He added that the the data is clear, and that “being vaccinated reduces the likelihood of admission manyfold.”
Of the 1,300 people currently infected with the virus, of the 360,000 population, just 2% are in hospital, and country has not recorded a virus death since late May.
Brandon Guthrie, an epidemiologist and global health professor at the University of Washington, said the case of Iceland should reframe the idea of what represents a successful public health campaign.
“The goal line has been shifted here because they are so effective, especially with the earlier variants,” he told the Washington Post. “Having few deaths or severe cases of illness in the context of large surges should absolutely be seen as at least a partial victory.”
On 25 June, Iceland had recorded just 1.6 new infections per 100,000 people over the previous 14 days. But as of Thursday, that number had risen to more than 421, far higher than the country’s previous waves, the paper reports, though the absolute number remain relatively small.
Iceland has administered at least 477,205 doses of Covid vaccines so far, Reuters reports. Assuming every person needs two doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 66% of the country’s population.
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The daughter of a fully inoculated man who died after complications from Covid has urged people to take precautions even if they have had both vaccine doses.
The BBC reports that Jade Allum’s father, David, died in hospital aged 58 on 15 July after a cardiac arrest. Allum, from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, had the virus but had started to feel better the day before.
Jade Allum said:
We’re not begging the government to go back into another lockdown. We want our life back as much as everybody else does. But there are little things that we could be doing to keep each other safe. I really think wearing a mask in a shop if you’re not exempt is so easy. It’s no hassle.
I know it’s a little bit uncomfortable but if you think that’s going to save your life, or your mum’s life, or your auntie’s life, or someone you don’t know, it’s such an easy thing to do. You can still go to the pub, you can still see your friends, you can still do lateral flow tests if you’re busy. It’s easy to do.
Updated
Several major California law enforcement agencies are reporting Covid-19 vaccination rates that are significantly lower than those of the general population, and seven state prisons have disclosed that less than a third of their officers are vaccinated.
The Guardian requested vaccine data from police departments in California’s 20 largest cities and the top 10 largest sheriff’s departments in the state and reviewed reports from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
The majority of police and sheriffs’ departments declined to share statistics, but the ones that replied appeared to have vaccination rates that were markedly lower than their surrounding communities, raising significant public health concerns as the Delta variant of the coronavirus surges and lawmakers debate vaccine mandates for government employees.
Updated
Ireland to exempt vaccinated children from missing school if exposed to virus
A troubling divide in Irish schools looks likely to emerge as unvaccinated children would have to take up to two weeks out of school if they were a close contact of a Covid-positive peer, but vaccinated children would not, the Irish Independent reports.
Despite the protection offered by the jabs, the children would still be able to contract and transmit the virus. The chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, this week urged the health minister, Stephen Donnelly, that there should be no segregation or stigmatisation of children based on vaccination status.
It comes as parents and their children queued in the rain in Dublin over the weekend as the main rollout of Covid vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds began. About 75,000 children had been registered for an appointment by Saturday, 48 hours after they were able to book, and a number of centres administered jabs to children on Friday ahead of the full rollout.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has said it wants to vaccinate the 12-15 age group “rapidly and quickly”. Chief executive Paul Reid added that opening the vaccination programme to the cohort marked a “very strong point” of the country’s vaccine rollout.
From next month, it is planning to allow vaccinated children to be exempt from even taking a test if they are a close contact of a Covid case in school as long they have no symptoms.
Ireland’s Department of Education said this week that “there is no intention that any child would be [permanently] excluded from education on the basis they have not received a vaccine,” the Irish Independent reported. Unvaccinated teachers would be permitted to continue to work in schools.
The children, who need the consent of a parent or guardian to be vaccinated, are receiving Pfizer or Moderna jabs.
At the vaccine centre at Citywest in Dublin on Saturday, Bill Shelley, 14, and his 12-year-old sister, Rebecca, were among those who queued in the pouring rain for their jabs. Their father, Michael, afterwards expressed his relief that his children had received their jabs. “We’re very pleased, I’m delighted they’ve got their first vaccine,” he told PA.
“As parents, protecting them for their future health is one of the main reasons we’re here and keeping schools open is really important too. Really happy and really pleased – it went really well. We can’t thank the vaccinators and the team here enough.”
According to the most complete analysis of English data on children, 25 children and teenagers died as a direct result of Covid during the first year of the pandemic, and 6,000 children in hospitals also had the virus.
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
A traditionalist Catholic cardinal who expressed scepticism over social distancing and obligatory vaccination schemes has been placed on a ventilator as he fights Covid-19.
Raymond Leo Burke, a staunch critic of Pope Francis, told his Twitter followers last week that he had “recently” tested positive for the virus.
A subsequent tweet from his account on Saturday read: “Cardinal Burke has been admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 and is being assisted by a ventilator. Doctors are encouraged by his progress. H.E. faithfully prayed the Rosary for those suffering from the virus. On this Vigil of the Assumption, let us now pray the Rosary for him.”
Cardinal Burke has been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 and is being assisted by a ventilator. Doctors are encouraged by his progress. H.E. faithfully prayed the Rosary for those suffering from the virus. On this Vigil of the Assumption, let us now pray the Rosary for him.
— Cardinal Burke (@cardinalrlburke) August 15, 2021
Burke lives in Rome but travels frequently. It is thought he may have contracted the virus during a recent trip to Wisconsin, where he grew up.
Burke has previously criticised the way governments have handled the pandemic and vaccines. During a homily in December last year, he referred to Covid-19 as the “Wuhan virus”, echoing the former US president, Donald Trump.
He also said that coronavirus “has been used by certain forces, inimical to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda” and that the most effective weapon against it is “our relationship with Christ through prayer and penance, and devotions and sacred worship”.
Summary
That’s it from me, Robyn Vinter. I’m now handing over to Mattha Busby.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening so far:
- Hong Kong’s government said it would upgrade 15 overseas places including the US, Spain and France to “high risk” from “medium risk” by 20 August, meaning international arrivals from those countries will face lengthened quarantine due to a resurgence of the coronavirus.
- Sri Lanka’s president has demoted the health minister who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to battle Covid-19, as coronavirus infections and deaths hit record highs. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said Pavithra Wanniarachchi’s health portfolio had been given to the media minister, Keheliya Rambukwella.
- Australia’s biggest city of Sydney has recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic, while residents in Melbourne face a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown amid a surge in infections.
- Japan is reportedly set to extend it state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to the middle of September as well as adding several other regions.
- Former British prime minister Gordon Brown has called on US, British and Italian leaders to hold an emergency summit before the UN general assembly to end vaccine inequality and send more shots to Africa and other low-income nations.
- All 16- and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Monday 23 August, the Department of Health has announced. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the date would give teenagers two weeks to build up immunity before school starts again in September.
- France’s pass sanitaire health permit system will be extended to more than 120 major department stores and shopping centres on Monday in areas where levels of Covid infection are causing concern, including Paris and the Mediterranean coast. The measure restricts entry to customers who can prove they have been vaccinated, have had a negative Covid test or have recovered from coronavirus.
- Iran has reported more than 600 Covid-linked deaths in a day for the first time, as the government tightens curbs aimed to contain the spread of the virus.
- The Austin area of Texas is in the midst of a dire Covid-19 crisis, after setting local records this week for the most patients in intensive care and on ventilators. Only seven ICU beds remain in a region of almost 2.4 million.
Updated
Sri Lankan health minister demoted for endorsing magic to treat Covid-19
Sri Lanka’s president on Monday demoted the health minister who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to battle Covid-19, Agence France-Presse reports, as coronavirus infections and deaths hit record highs.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said Pavithra Wanniarachchi’s health portfolio had been given to the media minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, who is also the government spokesman.
Wanniarachchi was in intensive care in January after contracting the virus despite publicly consuming and endorsing a “magic potion” against Covid-19 made by a sorcerer.
She also poured a pot of “blessed” water into a river in November after a self-styled god-man told her that it would end the pandemic in the island nation of 21 million people.
Sri Lanka’s health ministry under Wanniarachchi came under intense criticism last week for understating coronavirus infections. Despite the demotion, she will remain in the cabinet – the president gave her the less important transport ministry.
The number of daily virus deaths crossed 150 in the past week, overwhelming crematoriums.
Daily infections crossed 3,000, and with hospitals struggling to cope, even government health workers say the actual number of infections could be three times higher.
The government has so far rejected calls for a lockdown to contain the surge, but last week tightened restrictions.
Wedding and parties have been banned from Tuesday, while state ceremonies and public gatherings are also prohibited until 1 September.
Shops, restaurants and officers will have to follow a night curfew from Monday.
In the cabinet reshuffle, foreign minister Dinesh Gunawardena and education minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris swapped their portfolios.
Updated
Taiwan has rejected an application for the emergency use of UBI Pharma’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, the government said on Monday, though the president said she would get a separate domestic shot in a show of support for the scheme.
Although Taiwan has ordered millions of Moderna and AstraZeneca shots, developing a local vaccine has been a major goal and it is due next week to start injecting its first domestic vaccine, made by Medigen Vaccine Biologics.
The health ministry, explaining the rejection of the request for emergency use authorisation (EUA), said the antibodies engendered by UBI’s candidate did not match up with those prompted by the AstraZeneca vaccine, Reuters reports.
However, the ministry said, UBI planned Phase III trials in India.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung expressed regret that the EUA had not been granted. “We still have to follow certain standards,” he told reporters.
UBI, whose stock closed down 30% on Monday following the rejection, did not respond to requests for comment.
In June, the company had said it would seek an EUA in Taiwan and that Phase II tests showed no major adverse effects for its candidate, which, it said, generated a good immune response.
The government has drawn criticism from opposition parties after President Tsai Ing-wen initially pledged to start administering domestically developed vaccines in July, before results of second clinical trials were released.
Later, Tsai said Taiwan would strictly scrutinise the process according to global scientific norms and put safety first.
Writing on her Facebook page, Tsai said she would be getting her first shot of Medigen’s vaccine next Monday.
About 40% of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people have received at least one dose of the two required by the vaccine regimen.
However, unlike some other parts of Asia, Taiwan faces no huge pressure to vaccinate the populace.
The pandemic is well under control, with only a handful of domestic infections reported daily following tough controls adopted after a spike in cases that began in mid-May.
A top doctor in China’s fight against the coronavirus is under investigation for plagiarism, weeks after making a social media post questioning the country’s zero-tolerance strategy to control the pandemic.
Beijing has basked in its success in bringing to heel a virus that first emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, but was virtually extinguished through hard lockdowns, closed borders and massive test and trace campaigns.
But the Delta variant has breached China’s defences, with record local infections in dozens of cites – albeit still in low numbers – prodding authorities to reintroduce travel restrictions, mass testing and hyperlocal lockdowns.
Zhang Wenhong – a leading doctor described by state media as “China’s Fauci”, after the top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci – has since said countries have to find a way “to learn to live with it”.
“The way China will choose in future will... help establish communication with the world and a return to normal life, while protecting citizens from fear of viruses,” Zhang wrote on China’s Twitter-like Weibo on 29 July.
The suggestion of a softened approach to Chain’s zero-case approach to virus control enraged nationalists who stalk China’s social media.
Zhang has found himself accused of “pandering to foreign ideas,” while an apparent witch hunt is targeting his academic credentials.
Posts on Weibo accused Zhang of plagiarising his doctoral thesis published two decades ago.
On Sunday, Fudan University in Shanghai said it was “aware of the online criticism and had launched an investigation into the degree it awarded Zhang in 2000.”
Zhang did not respond to AFP inquiries on the investigation.
Academics and scientists have rallied around Zhang, in a country where all non-state sanctioned information linked to the pandemic is highly sensitive and has led to arrests and smear campaigns on social media.
“Who will dare to speak out and act according to their professional judgment in the future?” Yan Feng, from Fudan’s Chinese literature department, said on Weibo.
In a sign of the risks, a teacher in east China’s Jianxi province was detained by police for 15 days after commenting last week on a news article saying the country can “coexist with the coronavirus”, according to a local government notice.
China has reported 94,430 cases since the virus first emerged in Wuhan, and the death toll of 4,636 has remained unchanged for nearly a year.
But a recent flare-up at an airport in Nanjing spread to 18 provinces infecting 1,300 people in two months – although just 13 domestic transmissions were reported on Monday.
Updated
Hong Kong’s government said it would upgrade 15 overseas places including the US, Spain and France to “high risk” from “medium risk” by 20 August, meaning international arrivals from those countries will face lengthened quarantine due to a resurgence of the coronavirus.
The government said arrivals from Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, Greece, Iran, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States would all face the new restrictions, according to a statement released on Monday, as reported by Reuters.
Hong Kong has some of the most stringent coronavirus entry requirements globally, with arrivals from countries considered “high risk” mandated to undergo compulsory quarantine for 21 days in a designated quarantine hotel, even those who are vaccinated.
The government said there had been acute surges in the number of confirmed cases in a short period of time in many countries. It said in a statement:
Despite large-scale vaccination programmes, many places are also experiencing resurgence of the virus, which poses enormous challenges to our local anti-epidemic efforts.
Australia will be reclassified as “medium risk” from “low risk” from 20 August, meaning that even vaccinated arrivals will need to quarantine for 14 nights unless they have a positive antibody test result conducted by a laboratory recognised by the Hong Kong Government, which then allows them to do a seven-day quarantine.
Countries including Brazil, India and the UK had already been classified as “high risk”, but the government had largely relaxed measures for travellers from most other countries, prompting hope of increased international travel for residents and a greater number of foreign visitors.
Hong Kong has largely controlled the virus with hardly any locally transmitted Covid-19 cases, but has seen a steady inflow of imported coronavirus cases over the past two months. The city has recorded around 12,000 Covid-19 cases in total.
Updated
Today’s episode of Today in Focus features Sirin Kale’s reporting on the heartwarming reunion of Karl Gray, a 60-year-old Salvation Army minister from north London, and Dr Susan Jain, the ICU consultant who helped save his life in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Updated
Children caught in Covid culture wars as US politicians defy health advice
Rightwing politicians are leaving parents of vulnerable children with an impossible dilemma: send children to school where others are unmasked, or keep them home – again.
More of the UK’s best-known businesses will offer rewards to customers who are vaccinated against Covid-19.
Asda, lastminute.com, National Express, Free Now taxis and Better leisure centres are among those offering incentives to encourage younger people to get vaccinated.
Uber, Bolt and Deliveroo have already said they will offer discounted rides and meals for customers who get a Covid-19 jab, to help boost vaccine uptake.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said Asda will offer £10 vouchers for their clothing brand George to vaccinated 18- to 30-year-olds who spend over £20.
The travel company lastminute.com will offer over-18s £30 gift cards towards holidays abroad to all young people getting vaccinated through their website.
Better leisure centres will offer over-16s a £10 voucher to use on any Better membership and a free three-day pass at any of their 235 leisure facilities across the UK.
Taxi app Free Now will provide up to £1m in free rides for over-18s attending their vaccine appointment each way from Sunday until the end of September, while National Express Buses (Midlands) will offer 1,000 people five-day unlimited travel saver tickets which can be used within 90 days.
The DHSC said Deliveroo has also revealed further details of its support, which will include thousands of £5 vouchers to those who get the vaccine, distributed in the coming weeks.
Bolt will be offering £10 vouchers for 10,000 rides from next week in Birmingham and Leicester, and Uber is expected to announce further details around its drive to help students get vaccinated ahead of term time.
The health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid, said:
It is fantastic to see more companies backing the phenomenal vaccine rollout and joining the public as they do everything they can to continue protecting their loved ones, themselves, their community and this country.
With over 84,000 lives already saved and 23 million infections prevented by the vaccines, get the jab as soon as possible and take advantage of these excellent offers – whether that’s for taxi rides, gym passes, or trips away with family and friends.
Updated
Thailand downgraded its economic growth forecast for 2021 on Monday as it battles its worst Covid-19 wave, which has brought record numbers of new infections and deaths.
The kingdom last year suffered its worst full-year performance since the Asian financial crisis of 1997 with a 6.1% economic contraction, reports Agence France-Presse.
The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) had initially given a cool forecast for recovery during the first quarter, estimating growth of 1.5% to 2.5% for 2021.
But on Monday, NESDC secretary general Danucha Pichayanan announced it had to revise that figure down to between 0.7% and 1.2%.
He said during a press conference:
This crisis caused by the pandemic is unlike the financial crises of 1997 and 2009 – our estimation is based on domestic causes.
He added that the new forecast was dependent on the hope that the pandemic’s curve will flatten after the third quarter, thus enabling a relaxation of restrictions by October.
But if the pandemic continues and relaxation cannot start in the fourth quarter ... the growth could be lower than 0.7%.
Thailand’s GDP for the second quarter was up 7.5% on the same period last year, the first sign of recovery since the pandemic.
The growth was most visible in agricultural, industrial and exports sectors, while tourism – once Thailand’s cash cow – remained sluggish.
Since the start of the pandemic Thailand has recorded 928,314 cases with 7,733 deaths, the bulk of them detected since April.
The country has seen more than 20,000 new cases reported daily for nearly a week, crowding its already-hampered healthcare system and filling up its state-run quarantine facilities.
Updated
If you missed it, here’s Alexandra Villarreal’s reporting from Austin, Texas in the US, where there are only five ICU beds left in a region of almost 2.4 million and masks are still not compulsory in public places.
Updated
Covid-19 took a chunk out of China’s retail sales and industrial production in July, official data showed Monday, with a rebound of Covid-19 dragging on demand while recent floods disrupted businesses.
The world’s second-largest economy staged a rapid recovery from last year’s coronavirus outbreak, beating back the virus with mass testing and strict lockdowns.
But a flare-up across the country due to the Delta variant has threatened the good news on growth with renewed localised lockdowns and extensive travel restrictions, reports Agence France-Presse.
Retail sales rose 8.5% on-year in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, below a Bloomberg consensus forecast of analysts.
This figure was also below 12.1% growth in June, likely reflecting the virus resurgence in dozens of places last month, according to analysts.
“The spread of domestic outbreaks and natural disasters have affected the economy of some regions, and economic recovery remains unstable and uneven,” NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press briefing on Monday.
But he added that “the national economy continues to stabilise and recover” overall.
Industrial production rose 6.4% in July, easing as well from the month prior, the NBS said.
China’s urban unemployment rate, meanwhile, ticked up to 5.1%.
Iris Pang, ING’s chief economist for Greater China, told AFP industrial output was weak “because of the semiconductor chip shortage that has affected production”.
A shortage of chips has been sending shock waves through the global economy, squeezing supplies of everything from cars to headphones.
Capital Economics’ chief Asia economist Mark Williams added in a recent note that a “broad-based slowdown” seen in July was likely caused by disruptions in the final week of the month, due to Covid-19 and the aftermath of flooding in central China.
“There were also reports of production lines being halted as workers were unable to travel to factories,” he said.
Updated
A total of 93,000 children have lost a parent to Covid in Peru and many are now facing worsening poverty and depression.
More on this from Luke Taylor:
Updated
It’s Robyn Vinter here in the UK, taking over from Helen.
If you’re in lockdown and finding yourself increasingly grumpy and/or sluggish, Guardian Australia’s Alyx Gorman has investigated how you can best avoid “lockdown brain”:
Summary
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, I’m handing over to my UK colleague Robyn Vinter.
Here’s a brief rundown of what’s been happening so far:
- Australia’s biggest city of Sydney has recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic, while residents in Melbourne face a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown amid a surge in infections.
- Japan is reportedly set to extend it state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to the middle of September as well as adding several other regions.
- Former British prime minister Gordon Brown has called on US, British and Italian to hold an emergency summit before the UN General Assembly to end vaccine inequality and send more shots to Africa and other low-income nations.
- All 16- and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Monday 23 August, the Department of Health has announced. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the date would give teenagers two weeks to build up immunity before school starts again in September.
- France’s pass sanitaire health permit system will be extended to more than 120 major department stores and shopping centres on Monday in areas where levels of Covid infection are causing concern, including Paris and the Mediterranean coast. The measure restricts entry to customers who can prove they have been vaccinated, have had a negative Covid test or have recovered from coronavirus.
- Iran has reported more than 600 Covid-linked deaths in a day for the first time, as the government tightens curbs aimed to contain the spread of the virus.
- The Austin area of Texas is in the midst of a dire Covid-19 crisis, after setting local records this week for the most patients in intensive care and on ventilators. Only seven ICU beds remain in a region of almost 2.4 million.
- A million workers in the UK are employed by businesses at risk of closure over the next three months, as the government is poised to withdraw critical Covid support schemes, according to new analysis.
- A Tory donor and his son are facing questions about two private companies they run offering Covid-19 PCR tests for travellers, amid complaints about poor service.
Gordon Brown has accused the EU of adopting a “neocolonial approach” to the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and demanded rich western nations relinquish their stranglehold on pandemic treatments.
The former prime minister has called on Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Mario Draghi to convene a special summit to coincide with next month’s UN general assembly in New York to address Africa’s vaccine deficit.
Writing for the Guardian, Brown said it was shocking that that about 10m single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines produced at a factory in South Africa were being exported to the EU instead of helping African countries meet their modest targets for pandemic jabs.
Brown wrote: “Compared to the swift development of the pathbreaking Covid vaccines, getting shots into all the world’s arms should be straightforward. But vaccine nationalism – and Europe’s neocolonial approach to global health – is dividing the world into rich and protected people, who live, and those who are poor, unprotected and at risk of dying.”
Ever wondered what it was like being a contact tracer? One anonymous contributor has told Guardian Australia what it’s like to tell someone they have Covid-19 and to have to ask them intimate questions:
Australia’s biggest city of Sydney has recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic, while residents in Melbourne face a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown amid a surge in infections.
Sydney, which is in its eighth week of lockdown, is the epicentre of Australia’s third Covid-19 wave.
New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said seven people in Sydney had died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the state’s previous record daily toll from earlier this month.
Berejiklian said New South Wales has also detected 478 infections, the highest one-day rise since the pandemic begun.
“Our community transmission numbers are disturbingly high,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
“Every death is a person who has loved ones, who has died in tragic circumstances and our heartfelt condolences to all of those loved ones and families.”
Authorities also confirmed the death of 15-year-old boy from Sydney, who had pneumococcal meningitis and Covid-19.
The toll was announced as 200 military personnel were deployed across Sydney to set up roadblocks to enforce restrictions of movement. Australia last month deployed 500 troops to help New South Wales.
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
Japan is set to extend its “state of emergency” soft lockdown in regions including Tokyo to the middle of September as well as adding several other regions, the Sankei Shimbun daily has reported.
Former British prime minister Gordon Brown has called on US, British and Italian to hold an emergency summit before the UN General Assembly to end vaccine inequality and send more shots to Africa and other low-income nations.
Australia’s biggest city of Sydney has recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic, while residents in Melbourne face a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown amid a surge in infections.
Here’s a roundup of what’s been happening over the past 24 hours:
- All 16- and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Monday 23 August, the Department of Health has announced. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the date would give teenagers two weeks to build up immunity before school starts again in September.
- France’s pass sanitaire health permit system will be extended to more than 120 major department stores and shopping centres on Monday in areas where levels of Covid infection are causing concern, including Paris and the Mediterranean coast. The measure restricts entry to customers who can prove they have been vaccinated, have had a negative Covid test or have recovered from coronavirus.
- Iran has reported more than 600 Covid-linked deaths in a day for the first time, as the government tightens curbs aimed to contain the spread of the virus.
- The Austin area of Texas is in the midst of a dire Covid-19 crisis, after setting local records this week for the most patients in intensive care and on ventilators. Only seven ICU beds remain in a region of almost 2.4 million.
- A million workers in the UK are employed by businesses at risk of closure over the next three months, as the government is poised to withdraw critical Covid support schemes, according to new analysis.
- A Tory donor and his son are facing questions about two private companies they run offering Covid-19 PCR tests for travellers, amid complaints about poor service.
