As English schools reopen for the autumn, relief and pleasure are mixed with apprehension and anger. Given the government’s shabby record on shepherding schools through the pandemic, it could be no other way. Even now, with a new term under way, confusion surrounds the question of whether younger teenagers are to be vaccinated. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, and his counterparts in the devolved administrations, are seeking advice from the chief medical officers, which could override last week’s decision by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation not to support a full rollout.
The catch-up budget for England, of £50 per year per pupil, is so small as to be an insult (by contrast, the Education Policy Institute pointed out, the US government has committed to spending an additional £1,600 per pupil, and the Netherlands £2,500). This decision led Sir Kevan Collins to resign as catch-up tsar four months after being appointed. Sir Kevan thought he had secured a commitment to a £15bn package, only to be offered £1.4bn instead.
Recent figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies serve to underline the severity of the government’s neglect.
Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s coverage of the pandemic in the UK and around the world.
- Britain will set aside £5.4bn for the National Health Service to help it cover the costs and the patient backlog caused by the pandemic.
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The Philippines recorded a record high of 22,415 new infections. It also recorded 103 more deaths. Meanwhile, the government said it would replace a stay-at-home order in the capital Manila with localised lockdowns.
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Afghanistan could lose the majority of its Covid-19 isolation beds because foreign funding for its core health programme has been suspended since August, potentially forcing 2,000 health facilities to close. The WHO said it is hoping to get several planes of medical supplies into Kabul airport this week to support health facilities.
- Vietnam’s capital Hanoi extended Covid-19 restrictions for a further two weeks, as authorities launched a plan to test up to 1.5 million people for coronavirus in higher-risk areas of the capital to contain a climb in infections.
- Europe’s medicines regulator said on Monday it was evaluating data on a booster dose for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.
- The education of hundreds of millions of children is hanging by a thread as a result of an unprecedented intensity of threats including Covid 19 and the climate crisis, according to a new report warned today.
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Coronavirus rules are set to be renewed in England for another six months as No 10 admitted cases are likely to increase sharply because children are returning to school.
- London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said acting on air pollution is a “matter of life and death” after a report found it increases the risk of Covid-19 hospital admission.
- The American state of Mississippi’s hospitals are being overwhelmed by a surge in cases, which has been driven by its low vaccination rate. Only about 38% of the state’s 3 million people are fully inoculated.
- New Zealand will ease Covid curbs in all regions outside its biggest city of Auckland from midnight on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference.
Companies across the UK are offering perks to lure their staff back into the office after nearly 18 months of working from their kitchen tables, ranging from free meals and ice-cream to cash bonuses.
The professional services firm PwC’s 22,000 UK workforce are being offered one of the most lucrative incentives, each receiving an extra £1,000 this month, as they switchto a hybrid working environment where they will spend two to three days in the office a week.
While the payout is not conditional on whether they stop working from home, it was suggested to staff that they could use it to cover newly incurred commuting expenses.
“How you spend it is up to you,” an internal PwC memo said. “You may wish to spend it on socialising with friends and colleagues, it may help with commuting costs or – perhaps reigniting a gym membership or a new bike to commute. However you choose to spend it, we hope it will go some way to helping everyone adjust over the next few months.”
South Africa has announced 198 new deaths and 4,118 new cases on Monday.
According to the government, the positivity rate for testing is at 14%.
Britain to set aside £5.4bn to help NHS
British prime minister Borish Johnson said £5.4bn has been set aside to help cover NHS costs and tackle the patient backlog caused by the pandemic.
“The NHS was there for us during the pandemic - but treating Covid patients has created huge backlogs,” Johnson said in a statement.
“This funding will go straight to the frontline, to provide more patients with the treatments they need but aren’t getting quickly enough.”
India is planning to ramp up oxygen production by 50% compared to previous capacity to prevent shortages in the event of a third wave, Reuters reports.
Indian hospitals ran out of oxygen during the devastating wave of infections earlier this year, when families often had to search for oxygen cylinders themselves.
The head of Linde India, which supplied a third of oxygen, said the government wants a supply of 15,000 tonnes per day.
A Vietnamese man has been sentenced to five years in prison for breaking quarantine and spreading Covid-19 to others, state media reported.
Le Van Tri, 28, was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases” by the People’s Court of the southern province of Ca Mau - which he travelled to from Ho Chi Minh city, when he should have isolated - the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
“Tung infected eight people, one of whom died due to the virus after one month of treatment,” it added.
Vietnam has strictly imposed restrictions to keep the virus under control. On Monday it announced testing for all residents of Hanoi as it extended lockdown restrictions.
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Finland will end its last coronavirus restrictions when it has vaccinated 80% of over-12s, the government said Monday.
“Our aim is to open up society and keep it open...the advancing vaccination coverage is our key to achieving that,” said Prime Minister Sanna Marin after a cabinet meeting on the country’s coronavirus strategy.
Finland expects to reach the target by October.
Though Finland has had low levels of infection compared to the rest of the EU, cases have risen among unvaccinated groups in recent months, including young people.
Italy has reported 52 deaths and 3,361 cases on Monday, the health ministry said.
Italian hospitals are treating 4,302 patients and another 32 in intensive care.
UK reports 41,192 new cases and 45 further deaths
The UK has reported 41,192 new cases and 45 deaths on Monday.
Cases since 30 August were 12.2% higher than the previous seven days.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there have been 157,000 deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
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Prof Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist from Imperial College, London whose initial modelling was pivotal in Britain’s coronavirus response, has said he would not be surprised if the Chief Medical Officers in the UK decide to go ahead with vaccinating healthy 12-15 year olds, despite the recent advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) that the margin of benefit on health grounds alone is too small to support vaccination of the entire age group.
Speaking at an online event hosted by the Institute for Government, Ferguson
said it was an enormously difficult decision adding there are arguments on both sides of the debate. Among them he noted that vaccinating younger people would drive down transmission and therefore help protect the vulnerable.
“So long as you’re convinced that there is some individual level benefit, then I think it’s valid to call in the population benefits,” he said.
Ferguson said he understood that the JCVI had been relatively conservative in their advice because of the small risk of a condition call myocarditis that appears to be linked to certain Covid jabs.
“I think the committee had some particular concerns about long term follow up data in terms of myocarditis associated with vaccination, and so took quite a conservative position, almost akin to a kind of medical regulator – which isn’t quite its role,” he said, adding The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has licensed certain vaccines for use in children over 12.
Ferguson said that despite the JCVI’s position, vaccinations of older children may yet go ahead. “It wouldn’t surprise me that the chief medical officers taking in account these other factors, decide to go forward with vaccination,” he said.
Vietnam’s capital extended Covid-19 restrictions for a further two weeks, as authorities launched a plan to test up to 1.5 million people for coronavirus in higher-risk areas of the capital to contain a climb in infections.
The Southeast Asian country dealt successfully with the virus for much of the pandemic, but the virulent Delta variant has proved more challenging in recent months, Reuters reports.
Hanoi, which has ordered people to stay at home and has halted all non-essential activities since July, has now divided the city into “red”, “orange” and “green” zones based on infection risk.
“Accordingly, people in red areas must shelter in place and one person of every household there will be tested three times per week,” a statement from city authorities said, adding that in other zones people would be tested every five to seven days.
Photograph: Reuters
Barricades on Monday separated red zones from other areas, photographs posted on social media and media outlets showed.
The government is eager to keep the outbreak from reaching the intensity seen in Ho Chi Minh City.
Although the numbers are still low, authorities are wary after the Delta variant has helped drive up infections across the country to over 524,000 cases.
Vietnam has one of the lowest coronavirus vaccination rates in the region, with only 3.3% of its 98 million people fully vaccinated, and 15.4% with one shot.
New Caledonia will impose a new coronavirus lockdown starting on Tuesday after three new cases were confirmed in the South Pacific French territory that had been declared “Covid free,” officials said.
AFP reports that local authorities ordered strict travel restrictions at the start of the pandemic to avoid an outbreak that would overwhelm hospitals on the islands.
Previously just 139 positive Covid-19 cases had been recorded among the population of around 290,000, and no deaths.
But vaccine hesitancy among the indigenous Kanak population means many people remain vulnerable.
Just 30 percent of residents are currently vaccinated, compared with 73 percent having at least one dose for France overall. The government announced last week that vaccination would now be mandatory for all adults.
“The virus is spreading and it’s likely that several dozens of Caledonians are now infected,” said the territory’s president, Louis Mapou.
Europe’s medicines regulator said on Monday it was evaluating data on a booster dose for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech , to be given six months after the second dose in people aged 16 years and older.
The European Medicines Agency said it would carry out a speedy evaluation of the data, with an outcome expected “within the next few weeks”, Reuters reports.
It added that it was also assessing data on the use of an additional dose of mRNA vaccines in people with weak immune systems.
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Italian life expectancy fell by 1.2 years in 2020 due to Covid-19, dropping to 82, according to the National Statistics Agency (ISTAT).
Life expectancy was 79.7 years for men and 84.4 for women last year.
Italy ranks second – behind only Japan – in terms of having the greatest share of older people, with an estimated 168.7 people over 65 for every 100 young people.
Last year, life expectancy was 79.7 years for men and 84.4 for women.
According to ISTAT the drop was more evident in the areas worst hit by the pandemic. In the provinces of Bergamo, Cremona and Lodi, life expectancy fell by between 4.3 and 4.5 years for men.
Last week, Italy’s PM announced his government could make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory soon, sparking a row in the country that has seen a recent rise in protests and violence from antivaxxers.
During a press conference on Thursday, Draghi said all Italians, eligible for age, could soon be obliged to get a shot, as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives its conditional approval for the four vaccines.
Coronavirus rules are set to be renewed in England for another six months as No 10 admitted cases are likely to increase sharply because children are returning to school.
Downing Street signalled its intention to renew the Coronavirus Act later this autumn, although some temporary powers may be allowed to expire, Jessica Elgot reports.
Boris Johnson’s spokesman said:
It would obviously be irresponsible to allow all temporary provisions to expire. These are provisions that would, if removed, take away the government’s ability to protect renters from eviction, for example, or to give sick pay to those self-isolating from day on.
So it’s important that we take a proportionate approach to the Coronavirus Act because there are elements that do still provide protections for the public.”
You can read the full report here:
Encouraged by the government, companies in the Philippines built the capacity to supply the country’s PPE and provide thousands of local jobs. Instead, contracts were handed to a company with a spotty record that imported PPE, causing job losses. The details have been covered by Philippine news site Rappler.
The same company, Pharmally, was also the subject of a Rappler investigation a week ago that linked it to Alex Yang, a former adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte.
It had all the makings of what could have been an inspiring story of Filipinos looking after each other.
In early March 2020, Philippine trade officials saw the shadows of what would become a global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). So they decided to reach out to local manufacturers to assess whether items like surgical masks and coveralls could be produced for the country.
... Despite these efforts by local manufacturers, the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), which was procuring on behalf of the health department, largely ignored them.
... The figures for local manufactures are easily eclipsed by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, which emerged as the PS-DBM’s favored firm. Congressional hearing have revealed Pharmally won over P8.6 billion worth of COVID-19 contracts despite its lack of solid track record and some of its officials’ links to individuals wanted for financial fraud abroad.
London’s public transport network has had its busiest weekday morning since the early days of the pandemic as children returned to school in England and Wales.
Quoting Transport for London, the BBC reported 860,000 bus journeys and a similar number on the underground - the busiest start to a weekday since March 2020.
Afghanistan could soon be operating with only 3% of the beds used to isolated Covid-19 because of the feared closure of 2,000 health facilities, the WHO has warned.
Since the Taliban takeover, funding has been paused for the Sehatmandi healthcare project, which is the main source of healthcare. The WHO is urging donors to quickly develop a way to resume funding.
“It is the poorest of the poor who will suffer if this critical lifeline is cut,” said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for Eastern and Mediterranean Region.
Aside from Covid-19, WHO said these facilities are crucial for pregnant women, treating malnutrition and for immunisations.
Denmark has scrapped plans to put out a tender for domestic vaccine production, deciding after polling that it would instead support existing efforts by a Danish firm, Reuters reports.
“Overall the assessment is that the best way to support future vaccine production in Denmark is by supporting the development of Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine candidate,” the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs said in a statement.
The government announced last month it would support Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic with 800 million Danish kroner (£92m) to develop its vaccine candidate, which is heading to Phase 2 trials.
The return of British children to school has dominated the media today, reviving debate about what kinds of precautions schools will be taking against outbreaks.
The previous government rules on mask-wearing and social distancing are no longer in place and experts decided against recommending vaccination for 12- to 15-year-olds.
Samantha Price, the president of the Girls’ Schools Association, told PA Media, however, that she expects schools to continue enforcing measures.
“In our school we are going to ask students to wear masks in corridors and in public areas and obviously there’s still going to be testing,” she said.
“I think there’s a degree of caution across all schools while recognising that we want to operate the schools as normally as we can, and it’s a sort of phased caution as well.”
She said measures could be relaxed if there is no surge by the end of the month.
School teachers last week told Guardian reporters Rachel Obordo and Alfie Packham they were “really nervous” about the return, with many fearing relaxed measures would lead to infections spreading rapidly.
Updated
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said acting on air pollution is a “matter of life and death” after a report found it increases the risk of Covid-19 hospital admission.
The research by Imperial College London said long-term exposure to air pollution before the pandemic increased the risk of a person being hospitalised and also might increase their likelihood of catching the virus.
“We already know that air pollution is linked to life-changing illnesses, such as cancer, lung disease and asthma. But until now previous studies have underestimated the role air pollution plays in infectious diseases like pneumonia, bronchitis and, most recently, Covid-19,” said Khan.
“That’s why I’m committed to expanding the ultra-low emission zone next month and why I will continue to take the bold action necessary to eradicate pollution from our city.”
The report was based on studies investigating the links between air pollution and Covid-19 from across the world, hundreds of which have been produced in the past year.
Updated
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has accused Cepheid, a company that produces tests for Covid-19 as well as TB and HIV, of profiting from the pandemic.
MSF said Cepheid should reduce the price of its Covid-19 testing kits for low and middle-income countries, claiming the current price, despite already being reduced, makes 200% profit.
“In this pandemic, where testing as many people as possible is critical, Cepheid’s pricing costs lives. There have been multiple alarms from countries that the unaffordable price of Cepheid’s test is hindering their COVID-19 response,” said Stijn Deborggraeve, Diagnostics Advisor at the MSF Access campaign.
Deborggraeve said the price should should be dropped from $15 to $5 or that Cepheid should open the books to show their costs.
MSF said Cepheid received $250m in public funding to develop its GeneXpert testing system while its annual revenues doubled during the pandemic and its parent company paid no federal tax in 2020.
Cepheid expects to sell 45 million tests in 2021.
The Covid pandemic has already turned life as we know it upside down – and no doubt prompted some people to want to leave the planet.
Now a leading scientist has warned that viruses may not only be found on Earth, but might occur – should life exist – elsewhere in the universe.
Prof Paul Davies, an astrobiologist, cosmologist and director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University, said that the idea of aliens ranges from microbial life to super advanced civilisations that might be signalling to us.
But Davies backed the idea that a wide range of microbes and other microscopic agents would probably be needed to support life as a whole, whatever form it takes. And it seems viruses – or something that performs a similar role – could be part of the equation.
“Viruses actually form part of the web of life,” said Davies. “I would expect that if you’ve got microbial life on another planet, you’re bound to have – if it’s going to be sustainable and sustained – the full complexity and robustness that will go with being able to exchange genetic information.”
Philippines infections reach new high
The Philippines recorded a record-high 22,415 new infections on Monday.
The health ministry also said a further 103 people had been killed by the virus, taking the total number who have died during the pandemic to 34,337.
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Our community team is looking to hear from those who work in care homes and if they have been fully vaccinated. Under a new law, staff who work in CQC-registered care homes in England must have received their first jab by 16 September and their second by 11 November. With the deadline approaching, they would like to hear from managers and staff about their experiences of being vaccinated. You can find out more here …
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RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has backed the development of the nation’s Sputnik V vaccine, has this morning announced that the single-component Sputnik Light vaccine against coronavirus has been approved for use in Armenia.
Sky News Australia denies broadcasting Covid misinformation
Sky News Australia has denied broadcasting Covid misinformation, telling a parliamentary hearing that YouTube’s removal of 23 videos of the broadcaster was “totalitarian” and lacking in transparency.
Chief executive officer Paul Whittaker told the media diversity inquiry it “now appears commonplace to discredit any debate on contentious issues as ‘misinformation’” and vigorously defended Sky’s right to present a range of views on treatments such as ivermectin.
“Most of those videos concerning the YouTube policy breaches were reflecting a discussion that was taking place in the scientific and medical community worldwide, and amongst health practitioners and lawmakers both in this country and overseas,” Whittaker said.
Read more of Amanda Meade’s report here: Sky News Australia denies broadcasting Covid misinformation, saying YouTube is ‘totalitarian’
The clinical lead for Covid services at the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Dr David Strain, has also been doing the media round in the UK this morning. PA Media reports he told Good Morning Britain:
My 16-year-old has already had the vaccine; our 12-year-old, who’s actually starting school tomorrow, will be desperately keen to get the vaccine. We have weighed up the evidence and fully accept there is this very small risk of myocarditis after the first jab, but actually the risk of myocarditis after getting Covid is about the same, if not slightly higher. These are the factors, so I would have no hesitation at all to allow my children to have the vaccine.
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Asylum seeker advocates in Australia are calling for people held in immigration detention to be released into the community after Victorian health officials revealed a guard at a facility in Melbourne had tested positive for Covid-19.
Victoria’s Covid commander, Jeroen Wiemar, on Sunday confirmed at least one coronavirus case at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accomodation centre in Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s north.
But Wiemar downplayed the potential for spread at the detention centre, stating the guard worked outside and had no contact within the facility with staff or people at the centre.
Refugee advocates said they have heard of a second guard at the facility who may also have tested positive for Covid, and between 35 and 45 staff were now isolating after being identified as close contacts. Australian Border Force (ABF) has not responded to requests to confirm those figures.
Sadaf Ismail, detention rights advocacy program manager at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the asylum seekers held in the centre had been told by ABF about the case, but had not been offered any testing. Ismail said some were only offered their first dose of the vaccine last week.
Read more of Josh Taylor’s report: Calls for asylum seekers to be freed from detention after Melbourne guard tests positive for Covid
Parliament is back in the UK today, and so is our Andrew Sparrow. He’s just launched his live blog. With Afghanistan and social care dominating the scene today, he’ll most likely have a focus on that, and so I’ll carry on reporting any major UK Covid lines in this blog. But if you fancy your politics with my colleague Andrew, you’ll find him over here …
Slovakia's bishops relax vaccine rules around Papal visit
Slovakia has widened registration for public events planned during a visit by Pope Francis that begins on Sunday to allow some people not vaccinated against Covid-19 to also attend.
Reuters reports that Pope Francis is due to arrive in Slovakia on 12 September for a visit culminating in an open-air mass at the Sastin pilgrimage site in western Slovakia on Wednesday 15 September.
Forty-three per cent of people in the country of 5.5 million have so far been fully vaccinated or have received their first shot against Covid-19.
The Conference of Slovak Bishops said non-vaccinated people who have tested negative or who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past 180 days would also be allowed to register for the papal events.
About 30,000 people have so far registered for the mass to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at Sastin, a site dedicated to the main patron saint of Slovakia. Francis will be the first pope to visit Slovakia since John Paul II in 2003.
The pontiff recently urged people to get vaccinated, describing doing so as “an act of love”.
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Madeline Holcombe at CNN has some quotes from the Kentucky governor Andy Beshear about the crisis in the state where a federal medical team arrived this weekend to try to help increase hospital capacity. Holcombe quotes Beshear saying:
Our situation is dire. We are hit very, very hard, but we are going to continue to fight. When you’re at war, you don’t get to cry about what you can or can’t do. You’ve got to do your very best every day because this is a battle of life versus death.
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Today’s official Covid figures from Russia are being reported by Reuters. The latest number of deaths is 790, and there have been 17,856 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.
'We don't live in a clear world' – UK expert on unclear vaccine advice for 12- to 15-year-olds
PA Media reports that an expert advising the UK government has said the decision on offering coronavirus vaccinations to healthy 12- to 15-year-olds is a “finely balanced” one.
Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), acknowledged the “uncomfortableness” if the committee says no but the government then says yes to jabbing this age group.
He told Good Morning Britain: “It is very finely balanced. It’s marginally in favour, actually if you look at all the figures – and we have published those – in favour of vaccination, but I do understand it from a parental viewpoint and I understand it from a teenager’s viewpoint.
“This is not an easy decision. And, to a certain extent, by us coming out and saying no, if the government say yes that does create a lot of uncomfortableness, and I fully understand that.”
He said they want to provide the data for everyone to look at and, should the chief medical officers decide healthy children in this age group should be offered a jab, they are “giving choice”.
He added: “It is up to then parents and teenagers to decide whether they go ahead or not. There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this.”
Harnden said “we don’t live in a clear world” when it was suggested to him that parents will want a clear answer on Covid vaccinations for healthy 12- to 15-year-olds.
Updated
Philippines to replace stay-at-home order with local 'granular lockdowns'
Agence France-Presse has this despatch from the Philippines. It reports an official stating that the country will lift a stay-at-home order in the capital Manila this week as it trials “granular lockdowns” in a bid to rein in coronavirus cases and revive the economy.
More than 13 million people in the national capital region – the country’s economic heartland – have been in lockdown since 6 August amid record infections.
The move to ease restrictions from Wednesday comes after nationwide daily cases exceeded 20,000 for the past three days – double the number at the start of the latest lockdown – straining hospitals as they grapple with a nurses shortage.
“Localised lockdowns will be piloted in Metro Manila,” said the presidential spokesman Harry Roque, explaining that a household, building or street could be targeted. “It will be literally a complete lockdown if you are subject to granular lockdown – even the food will be delivered to you.”
AFP reports that there were no further details about how the more targeted measures would be enforced.
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A second Aboriginal person has died with Covid-19 and more than a thousand Indigenous people in New South Wales, Australia, have the virus, with half of those cases in the west and far west of the state.
A 70-year-old woman from the small town of Enngonia who has been described as a “much loved elder” died with Covid in Dubbo hospital on Monday. Enngonia is on Muruwari country, an hour’s drive north of Bourke in the west of New South Wales, close to the Queensland border.
Enngonia has at least 18 cases in a population of just under 200 people – or 9.5% of the town. The woman had been in intensive care after having been transferred from Bourke, where there are now 77 cases in the community.
Read more of Lorena Allam’s report here: NSW records second Aboriginal Covid death, as 1,000 Indigenous people now have virus
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Shami Chakrabarti, Labour’s former shadow attorney general, has been on LBC this morning in the UK, and has described government plans for vaccine passports as “dangerous nonsense”. She said there was little evidence that it was “going to make us safer”. She said
I know a number of people who very sensibly like me are double vaccinated, who nonetheless have contracted Covid. Now, mercifully, because they’ve been vaccinated, they haven’t been as sick as perhaps they otherwise would have been, but they are well capable of transmitting Covid despite being double vaccinated. So, if events are unsafe to take place, because for example, it’s winter and we have another spike in transmission, if they’re unsafe to take place, these vaccine passports will not make them any safer. So I do not know what the vaccines minister is talking about.
On Sky News this morning, the UK’s armed forces minister James Heappey was questioned a little on the issue of medical consent for children regarding the Covid vaccine. This is in response to the UK’s vaccine minister, Nadhim Zahawi, suggesting that healthy 12- to 15-year-olds could override their parents’ decision on vaccination in the right circumstances, as the government prepares to overrule advice and extend jabs to younger teens.
In fairness to Heappey, he did quite clearly say “I’m not familiar with the debate around how the permissions will will work” but he offered what he said was his personal view as a father:
I would probably want to have a discussion with a nervous teenage child to say, look the chief medical officer is saying that this is the right thing to do. Covid is here to stay. The possibility of disruption to your studies, and all of the other things that you enjoy doing in your lives is significantly greater if you don’t get jabbed. And I and parents, I think, would recommend to them that they did. I would help them to want to do it, just as much as I as a parent would want them to be vaccinated. But I appreciate that many might disagree.
Updated
Education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse due to Covid impact, study warns
The education of hundreds of millions of children is hanging by a thread as a result of an unprecedented intensity of threats including Covid 19 and the climate crisis, a report warned today.
As classrooms across much of the world prepare to reopen after the summer holidays, a quarter of countries – most of them in sub-Saharan Africa – have school systems that are at extreme or high risk of collapse, according to Save the Children.
The UN estimates that, for the first time in history, about 1.5 billion children were out of school during the pandemic, with at least a third unable to access remote learning.
Now, as much of the developing world faces a combination of interrelated crises including extreme poverty, Covid-19, climate breakdown and intercommunal violence, there are growing fears for a “lost generation of learners”.
In an analysis ranking countries according to their vulnerability, Save the Children found eight countries to have school systems at “extreme risk”, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Somalia deemed most vulnerable, with Afghanistan following closely behind.
The analysis calculated how vulnerable school systems were as a result of a range of factors including coronavirus vaccination coverage, the climate crisis, physical attacks, and the proportion of school-age children with a home internet connection.
It found that a further 40 countries, including Yemen, Burkina Faso, India, the Philippines and Bangladesh, were all at “high risk”.
Read more of Lizzy Davies’ report here: ‘Lost generation’: education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse, study warns
Hundreds of millions of children fell behind around the world as schools closed during the pandemic. This morning we have a piece that looks at what happened in four countries: the Philippines, India, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso. Here’s a little excerpt from the latter:
Mariam, a 14-year-old girl living in the Centre Nord region of Burkina Faso, used to enjoy going to school before Covid-19 hit the west African country last spring. Her school shut, and she was left wondering what would become of her education. One of Burkina Faso’s growing number of internally displaced children, she was living among some of the most vulnerable and poorest people in the semi-arid Sahel.
Eventually, however, she was able to get back to learning via the radio and a programme of distance education that the government in Ouagadougou is now planning to roll out to more children across the country. “They were very good because they allowed us to maintain our level of study,” says Mariam. Her favourite subject is mathematics.
Now, as the country prepares to reopen as many schools as possible from 1 October, she hopes the radio classes will have provided enough of the basics to make her return to the classroom easier. “Thanks to this programme, we think we will be able to return to school in October,” she says.
Read more here: ‘Their future could be destroyed’ – the global struggle for schooling after Covid closures
Good morning from London, it is Martin Belam here taking over from my colleague Helen Sullivan. It looks like armed forces minister James Heappey is on the media round here in the UK. I imagine most of the questions are going to be about Afghanistan and the controversial government proposals on funding social care, but I shall keep an ear out for any lines on vaccine passports or Covid.
More on New Zealand now:
On 17 August the country was put into a snap nation-wide lockdown following the discovery of one case of the Delta variant in the community. The entire country was in alert level 4 – the highest level – for two weeks, with regions outside Auckland moving down a level last week.
Auckland will remain in a level 4 lockdown – the highest setting – until at least midnight Tuesday next week, but will be revised on Monday.
The country reported 20 new cases of coronavirus in the community for the third day in a row, in another encouraging sign that the outbreak is slowing down and that strict lockdown measures are containing the virus.
Including Monday’s tally, the total number of cases in the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant stands at 821. Of the cases, 117 people have now recovered from the virus, but there are 40 people in hospital, and 6 people in intensive care.
Speaking to media on Monday afternoon, Ardern said Delta changes the game, and requires stricter measures.
“It’s now no longer just whether you have enough space between you and others, but rather, if you have too many people in a shared space generally with poor ventilation. That really ups the risk.”
Level 2, or “Delta 2”, settings will look slightly different to what they have in the past. Face coverings will now be required in indoor public venues, but can be removed at bars and restaurants. Record-keeping will now be legally required at bars, restaurants, churches and other high-risk venues.
New Zealand cases drop to 49 in ‘reassuring indication’ lockdown is workingRead more
Staff at public facing businesses in level 2 must wear face coverings.
“To keep it really simple, if you’re out at about at indoor venues, please wear a mask,” Ardern says. Masks are “our new normal” at level 2, she said:
New Zealand eases restrictions outside Auckland
New Zealand will ease Covid curbs in all regions outside its biggest city of Auckland from midnight on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference.
Schools, offices and businesses can now operate with social distancing rules in place as the regions’ alert level shifts to 2 from 3, Ardern added.
Mississippi hospitals overwhelmed
Mississippi’s low vaccinated rate, with about 38% of the state’s 3 million people fully inoculated, is driving a surge in cases and hospitalisations that is overwhelming medical workers, the Associated Press reports.
The workers are angry and exhausted over both the workload and refusal by residents to embrace the vaccine.
Physicians at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the only level one trauma center in all of Mississippi, are caring for the sickest patients in the state.
The emergency room and intensive care unit are beyond capacity, almost all with Covid patients. Moriarity said it’s like a “logjam” with beds in hallways, patients being treated in triage rooms. Paramedics are delayed in responding to new calls because they have to wait with patients who need care.
In one hospital in Mississippi, four pregnant women died last week, said state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. Three of the cases required emergency C-sections and babies were born severely premature.
“This is the reality that we’re looking at and, again, none of these individuals were vaccinated,” Dobbs said.
Moriarity said it’s hard to put into words the fatigue she and her colleagues feel. Going into work each day has become taxing and heartbreaking, she said.
“Most of us still have enough emotional reserve to be compassionate, but you leave work at the end of the day just exhausted by the effort it takes to drug that compassion up for people who are not taking care of themselves and the people around them,” she said.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mississippi’s low rate of vaccination, with about 38% of the state’s 3 million people fully inoculated, is driving a surge in cases and hospitalizations that is overwhelming medical workers, AP reports.
Meanwhile New Zealand will ease Covid curbs in all regions outside its biggest city of Auckland from midnight on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference. Schools, offices and businesses can now operate with social distancing rules in place as the regions’ alert level shifts to 2 from 3, Ardern added.
Here are the other key recent global developments:
- Vaccine passports will be required for nightclubs, mass events and large venues in England by the end of September, the vaccines minister has confirmed. Nadhim Zahawi said: “The best thing to do then is to work with the industry to make sure that they can open safely and sustainably in the long term, and the best way to do that is to check vaccine status.”
- Zahawi also appeared to confirm reports that the government is considering making vaccination a requirement of working for the NHS. He said it “right and responsible” to consider such a move. The NHS Confederation said such a move was “unnecessary” because the overwhelming majority of NHS staff have been vaccinated.
- Children will be able to overrule parental objections to them having Covid jabs if they are deemed to be able make competent decisions, according to Zahawi. “If they are then deemed to be able to make a decision that is competent, then that decision will will go in the favour of what the teenager decides to do,” he said.
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Several prominent doctors and health experts have criticised the Speaker for allowing the Commons to open next week without Covid restrictions. They include Sage member Susan Michie and Professor Azeem Majeed head of primary Care and public health at Imperial College London.
- The Vietnamese government has set a deadline of 15 September for everyone in its main cities to have at least one jab. Vietnam has one of the lowest coronavirus vaccination rates in the region, with only 3.3% of the country’s 98 million people fully vaccinated with two shots, and 15.4% with one shot.
- Russia’s coronavirus cases have surpassed 7 million, with the country reporting 18,645 new infections in the past 24 hours and 793 more deaths. The latest figures took the total number of cases to 7,012,599, with the overall death toll at 187,200.
- Iran has announced a further 610 deaths from Covid taking its total death toll from the virus to 110,674. Its highest daily increase in Covid deaths of 709 was on 24 August.
- Almost 50 chain stores per day closed down on British high streets, retail parks and shopping centres in the first half of the year,according to research. But the rate of closures slowed compared with the first six months of 2020, a survey conducted for accountancy firm PwC found.
- Brazil’s federal health regulator has suspended the use of over 12 million doses of vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac firm. The regulator said in a statement on Saturday that doses that were suspended were produced in an unauthorized plant.
- Germany reported 10,453 new cases of the virus and 21 more deaths on Sunday. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 4,005,641 and deaths at 92,346.
