A summary of today's developments
- An award-winning BBC radio presenter died due to complications of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination, a coroner has concluded. Lisa Shaw, 44, died in May, just over three weeks after she had her first dose of the jab, an inquest in Newcastle heard.
- Social care managers in England fear an “exodus” of staff by the autumn. A survey of a 1,000 care managers found that a third (32.8%) have already had staff quit or handed in their notice over the vaccine requirement.
- The UK government has successfully resisted disclosure of potentially explosive WhatsApp messages between ministers and Boris Johnson about decisions to send hospital patients into care homes without first testing them for Covid.
- About 4,700 shots from potentially contaminated batches of Moderna Covid vaccines were used before they were suspended today after “foreign substances” were found in opened vials on 16 August.
- The German city-state of Hamburg is to allow hairdressers, clubs, restaurants and religious institutions to prevent unvaccinated adults or those who have not built up immunity Covid infection from entering, in what reportedly marks a policy first for the country.
- The number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 in the US has risen above 100,000 for the first time since January, when the mass vaccination campaign was just getting under way.
- EU countries that decide to administer booster shots may face increased legal risks because the additional dose has not yet been given emergency recommendation by the EU drugs regulator, the European Commission said.
- An Arkansas jail physician defended the prescribing of widely used anti-parasite medicine ivermectin to prisoners for Covid after criticism. He said he was “fighting like we’re at the beaches of Normandy” to avoid letting inmates go to hospitals with “blue lips”.
- Australia’s major research funder ruled more than 20 fellowship applications ineligible because they mentioned preprints and other non-peer reviewed materials, after the pandemic saw their findings given unprecedented news coverage.
We’re now closing this blog. Thanks for reading. You can read all our latest coronavirus coverage here. Take care!
Updated
The number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 in the US has risen above 100,000 for the first time since January, when the mass vaccination campaign was just getting under way.
Gary Lewis, CEO of the Travel Network Group, the UK’s largest independent travel membership organisation, representing over 1,200 members, comments on news that Canada, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Azores will move from amber to the UK’s green list at the end of the month.
This announcement is little comfort to the travel sector whose recovery has been hampered by the complicated and ever-changing restrictions around travel.
Until people are travelling close to pre-2020 levels again, redundancies and business closures are a real threat to those working in the sector. The industry needs continued support from the government alongside an increased effort to allow the public to travel more freely or travel businesses will struggle to survive. This would be a tragedy for the industry and have a negative impact on high-streets and communities across the country.
With the end of the furlough scheme on the horizon, businesses are under immense pressure. We need the government to urgently look at sector-specific support for the travel industry. Furlough was a lifeline for the travel industry throughout the pandemic, but now the sector’s fate hangs in the balance.
UK ministers have been accused of doing the “bare minimum” to curb companies charging “misleading” prices for Covid travel tests and instead have been urged to name and shame the firms.
Ahead of a review of the traffic light system of quarantine rules which government sources said was unlikely to result in many major changes, Labour urged the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, to take tougher action against businesses “exploiting” the pandemic by imposing “rip-off” prices.
Ministers announced earlier this week that 82 companies had been issued a “two-strike warning” for displaying lower prices on the gov.uk website than were available at the point of checkout, making up about 18% of the companies on the government’s approved list.
The true costs of the tests have now been updated and companies will be removed if they are found to advertise misleading prices again, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
However, the shadow transport secretary, Jim McMahon, said a faster and better way to ensure fairness would be to name and shame those that fail to be transparent about the cost of their tests.
McMahon – who has also called for the government to publish the full data behind decisions to change the traffic light system which grades countries according to factors including their Covid case, vaccine and variant rate – argued ministers should be doing “all they can” to support travellers, “rather than adding to their costs”.
Updated
Newquay is reeling after health officials said that almost 5,000 cases had been linked to the music and surfing festival Boardmasters, which took place in the Cornish town earlier this month, my colleague Steven Morris reports. About three-quarters of them were aged 16-21 and about 800 live in Cornwall. Many of those who attended believe the number of infections is probably much higher.
It prompted tourism bosses to urge people not to visit the region unless they had pre-booked and to test themselves for Covid-19 before, during and after their stay.
Today’s top reader comment, from Mitch44:
So, jabs for those 12 and upwards to get the nod. As predicted by the teaching unions, it’s all being done too late, with pupils due back next week. At least the government weren’t disturbed during their holiday, though. That’s the main thing.
More than a third of young adults in most cities in England have not had a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, new analysis shows. These include Liverpool, where an estimated 47.2% of 18 to 29-year-olds are still unvaccinated, Manchester (44.0%), Leicester (42.4%), and Leeds (39.1%).
In two cities more than a half of young adults have not received any vaccine: Birmingham (52.1%) and Coventry (50.2%). The figures have been calculated by the PA news agency based on the latest data from NHS England, which covers vaccinations delivered up to 25 August.
A host of initiatives have been launched in recent weeks to encourage take-up among young adults, including special “pop-up” vaccination clinics, mobile vaccine hubs at festivals and sporting events, and discounted rides and meals for customers who have received a first dose. An estimated 2.4 million 18-29 year-olds across England remain unvaccinated, however. This is down slightly from 2.5 million a week ago.
Some 71.8% of young adults in England have now received their first dose. This is a higher percentage than in Northern Ireland, where an estimated 69.0% of 18-29 year-olds have had one jab, but lower than the equivalent figures for Scotland (73.9%) and Wales (76.2%).
Updated
Italy reported 43 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, compared with 59 the day before, Reuters reports. The health ministry also said the daily tally of new infections fell to 7,221 from 7,548.
Italy has registered 128,957 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.51 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 4,059 on Thursday, up from 4,023 a day earlier.
There were 38 new admissions to intensive care units, increasing from 34 on Wednesday. The total number of intensive care patients rose to 503 from a previous 499.
New research is to be carried out in the UK into how long immunity lasts after a coronavirus vaccine, Press Association reports, with scientists hoping this could help inform the design of future jabs.
Some £1.5m is being invested in understanding why some people get Covid-19 despite being jabbed or having had the virus before, while others do not.
Research earlier this week concluded that the protection provided by two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines starts to wane within six months. One reasonable worst-case scenario suggests that protection could fall to below 50% for the elderly and healthcare workers by winter.
As well as re-infection and how long immunity after vaccinations lasts, the new research announced by Public Health England will look at the length of immunity from different vaccines and how changes in the genetic make-up of the virus might allow it to get around the immune response.
Antibody results from almost 50,000 healthcare professionals enrolled in two major existing studies who test positive for Covid despite previously having the virus or being double-jabbed will be analysed to find out whether there are aspects of their immune response that are different to people who do not contract the virus.
The findings could help identify factors that increase the risk of “breakthrough” infections, where someone catches the virus despite being vaccinated, PHE said.
Here’s our more detailed take on the changes to England’s green and red travel list destinations. The changes will take effect at 4am BST on Monday.
England to move Denmark, Canada and others to green list while Thailand goes red
I'm told these are the changes to England's traffic light system to be announced today and in force from 4am next Monday.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) August 26, 2021
Going 🟢: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Azores
Going 🔴: Montenegro and Thailand
Confirmation coming from DFT soon
Updated
The UK government has said a further 140 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
As of 9am today, there had been a further 38,281 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, it added.
Government data up until Wednesday shows that of the 90,095,045 Covid jabs given in the UK, 47,860,628 were first doses, a rise of 68,076 on the previous day, and the rest were second doses, an increase of 161,705.
The rise in deaths brought the UK Covid-related death total to 132,003. Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 156,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Of the 9,711 deaths recorded in the week until 13 August, 550 had Covid mentioned on the death certificate – though this does not necessarily indicate causality. However, there have been warnings that the proportion of under-50’s dying after testing positive for Covid has been rising slightly, to 7%.
The statistics come as Alicia Demirjian, incident director for Covid-19 at Public Health England, said:
Cases of Covid-19 are still high, especially among young people. If you have Covid-19 symptoms, please do not go out - stay at home and get a PCR test as soon as possible. If you are heading to a festival or other event this Bank Holiday weekend, to protect your friends and others we encourage you to take a free rapid test before you leave to check that you do not have the virus.”
Updated
The Germany city-state of Hamburg is to allow hairdressers, clubs, restaurants and religious institutions to prevent unvaccinated adults or those who have not built up immunity Covid infection from entering.
The New York Times reports that the policy is a first for Germany, and that those businesses which impose the measure could then forego limits on indoor seating, dancing and distancing requirements. But masks would remain mandatory, while not eating or drinking.
Currently, those showing proof of a recent negative Covid test are allowed into these places. But from this weekend, Hamburg merchants could sign up for the voluntary programs to bar unvaccinated people.
“It’s totally voluntary. Everyone can decide whether they go ahead or not,” Daniel Schaefer, a spokesman for the city, told the NYT.
Updated
Pfizer-BioNTech have said they have signed a deal with Brazil’s Eurofarma Laboratorios SA to manufacture their Covid-19 vaccine for distribution within Latin America.
Reuters reports that Eurofarma will start manufacturing finished doses beginning in 2022. The agreement does not cover the complicated process of mRNA drug substance production that will be done at Pfizer and BioNTech’s US facilities.
Eurofarma is expected to produce more than 100m finished doses annually at full operational capacity, Pfizer and BioNTech said. They have so far shipped 1.3bn doses of their two-shot vaccine across the world and aim to deliver 3bn by the end of this year.
Brazil announced yesterday it would give Covid booster shots to immunosuppressed or vulnerable people, and citizens over the age of 80, after it emerged it had leaked it had leaked its supply contract with Pfizer – showing it provided the pharma giant with indemnity from possible citizen lawsuits over potential adverse events after it was provided with jabs at cheaper prices.
Reportedly, the price paid for some 100m jabs, at US$10 each, was 2.3 times lower than the rate the EU is estimated to have paid, and it comes after tough negotiating by the government of Jair Bolsonaro amid a row with Pfizer over its “abusive” demands to be shielded from lawsuits.
The dispute led to a three-month delay in a deal being agreed, hampering the vaccine rollout in Brazil, after Pfizer’s request for sovereign assets to be put up as a guarantee against any future legal costs from civil claims by citizens if they experienced harms after being inoculated was refused.
Brazil reportedly leaked the document on its health ministry website in violation of the confidentiality rules established in the contract.
Earlier this year, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that one official who was present in an unnamed South American country’s negotiations described Pfizer’s demands as “high-level bullying” and said the government felt like it was being “held to ransom” in order to access life-saving vaccines.
An Arkansas jail physician has defended the prescribing of widely used anti-parasite medicine ivermectin to prisoners after criticism, including from the state’s American Civil Liberties Union.
The Associated Press reports that in a video posted on his Facebook page, Dr Rob Karas said ivermectin is one of nine medications, including vitamin C and D, he has prescribed for Covid-19 to inmates at the jail and has been administering it since October. He said inmates are not forced to take the medications and they can refuse.
Karas said the jail has had 531 virus cases and zero deaths and only one inmate hospitalised over the pandemic. He said 67% of the inmates have been vaccinated against the virus.
Defending administering ivermectin to patients, he added that he has had Covid-19 twice and has taken it himself. He suggested doctors should be able to apply the precautionary principle when prescribing at a time of crisis.
Do you want us to try and fight like we’re at the beaches of Normandy or do you want me to tell what a lot of people do, which is go home and ride it out and go to the ER when your lips turn blue?
The Food and Drug Administration has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing Covid. While it is approved for both people and animals for a number of other conditions, it has been suggested that some people with Covid may be taking the veterinary formulation of the drug – possibly due to shortages that have been observed across the world, including in Indonesia, because of rising demand.
You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021
“For one thing, animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which can weigh a lot more than we do—a ton or more. Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans,” the FDA said.
Updated
Covid case rates rising in most areas of England, with south-west showing highest rate
Covid-19 case rates are rising in all regions of England except London, and Yorkshire and the Humber, as summer moves into autumn, according to the latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England.
PA reports that south-west England has the highest rate, with 481.7 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to August 22, up sharply week-on-week from 351.8. The east Midlands has the second highest rate at 360.9, up from 351.5. London has the lowest rate with 247.3, down from 277.6.
Case rates in England are continuing to rise in most age groups, PHE said. The exceptions are children aged four and under, and adults aged between 20 and 39.
The highest rate is among 10 to 19-year-olds, with 616.5 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to August 22, up sharply week-on-week from 472.5. The second highest rate is among 20 to 29-year-olds, down from 622.2 to 541.2. The lowest rate is among people aged 80 and over, at 95.2, up slightly from 90.1.
Updated
Covid-19 vaccination administrations in Africa tripled over the past week, though protecting even 10% of the continent by the end of September remains “a very daunting task”, the Africa director of the World Health Organization has said.
The WHO Africa director, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said 13m doses were administered in the past week, three times more than the number of shots given in the previous week as donations of doses increased from developed countries.
There have been at least 7.6m reported infections and 192,000 reported deaths related to Covid in Africa, home to 1.3bn people, throughout the pandemic, according to Reuters. The Africa Centre for Disease Control said only 2.4% are currently vaccinated.
“I think it is very difficult for us to talk about booster doses in Africa,” Moeti said. “We have not covered even 5% of the population yet with the initial vaccinations that are needed to slow down the spread of the virus and most importantly, stop what we think might be a fourth wave, which is coming.”
Africa will receive 117m doses in coming months but an additional 34m will be needed to reach the 10% vaccination target, she added. Beyond that, though, Moeti urged African countries to ramp up their readiness to utilise vaccines when they arrive. “No precious dose should be wasted,” she said.
Updated
Australian Research Council rejecting funding applications mentioning preprints
Australia’s major research funder has ruled more than 20 fellowship applications ineligible because they mentioned preprints and other non-peer reviewed materials, Nature reports.
The pandemic has seen preprints given unprecedented news coverage as scientists attempt to decipher a number of unknowns, and while there has been criticism that affording preprints significance can be short-sighted as they have not been peer-reviewed, there was criticism over the allegedly anti-open science move.
Prof Matthew Bailes, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, told Nature that the ARC should modernise to reflect the urgent nature of topical research shared in preprints. “If you didn’t refer to them, you’d be remiss in writing the best science case you could,” he said.
Bailes, who has served on ARC assessment panels, said reviewers were capable of judging the relative merits of preprints and papers.
Previously, the ARC banned researchers from including preprints in lists of their own publications. Nature reported that some researchers understand the rationale for the original rule.
#ARCNotice: Thank you to everyone who has contacted the ARC to provide your disciplinary perspective about including pre-prints in applications for funding. We appreciate your contribution to the discussion. We are looking into the issues raised & will respond as soon as we can.
— ARC (@arc_gov_au) August 23, 2021
Updated
Nature reports on how small numbers of young people with blood clots following the AstraZeneca jab began to arrive at UK hospitals earlier this year after the vaccine rollout was extended.
In an article on Tuesday, it said scientists were still trying to understand why a small number of people develop a mysterious clotting disorder after receiving a Covid jab.
It was when the second person with unusual clots came in that Phillip Nicolson knew something was wrong. Blood clots are uncommon in young people, and it’s even rarer to see a combination of blood clots and alarmingly low levels of platelets — cell fragments that help to form clots.
Yet in the space of one week in March, two young people with this pairing of symptoms had arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK, where Nicolson works as a haematology specialist. And both had recently been given the Oxford–AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Nicolson had been on call at the hospital all weekend, and had been looking forward to a rest on Monday. Instead, he found himself rushing around to get consent to collect samples to study in the laboratory. By the time he arrived at the second patient’s bedside, a third had been admitted.
That week, Nicolson was among the first to witness what researchers now call vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), a life-threatening and mysterious condition that affects a very small number of people who have received the Oxford–AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccines. It is now estimated that VITT occurred in about 1 in 50,000 people aged under 50 who received the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine. This and similar observations in other countries have led some officials to delay and then scale back the deployment of these vaccines.
Despite fervent work by researchers such as Nicolson, the mechanism that links the vaccines and VITT is still uncertain. Establishing a mechanism could reveal ways to prevent and treat the condition, and improve the design of future vaccines. Over the past few months, researchers have gathered clues and developed a host of hypotheses.
Since Nicolson saw the first cases in March, the UK changed its policy and now recommends the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine only for people over 40 – after an absence of long-term safety data on the jab at the time of approval. VITT is more frequent in younger vaccine recipients, possibly because of their more-robust immune responses, Nature reports.
It is unclear whether other countries will have the same luxury of restricting Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccines to older people, given that it is relatively cheap and widely available compared with the mRNA vaccines, for example. Until now, VITT has primarily been reported in Europe and the United States, but researchers don’t yet know whether this reflects regional differences in susceptibility to VITT, or differences in reporting systems that gather data on potential vaccine side effects. In Thailand, for instance, researchers reported in July that there had been no cases of VITT after 1.7m doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine were given.
Updated
The UK government has successfully resisted disclosure of potentially explosive WhatsApp messages between ministers and Boris Johnson about decisions to send hospital patients into care homes without first testing them for Covid.
Two bereaved women whose fathers died from Covid in care homes which received infected NHS patients in April and May 2020, asked the high court to force disclosure of the texts as well as emails sent from a private account by the then health secretary, Matt Hancock.
But Mrs Justice Eady has ruled the government did not need to provide them in evidence for a judicial review of the legality of the government’s care home policy.
Discharging hospital patients into care homes without testing caused “thousands, if not tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths”, the bereaved argue.
Dr Cathy Gardner, one of the women who claim the care homes policy breached human rights laws and discriminated against the elderly and disabled, described the decision to block the release of potentially “highly significant” informal communications as “very disappointing”. They are considering an appeal.
The number of courses of dental treatment given to children in England dropped by 70% in the year after the first coronavirus lockdown, figures show.
Data from NHS Digital shows there were 3.3m courses of dental treatment given to children between April 2020 and March 2021, down from the 11.6m delivered in the previous 12 months.
A total of 12m courses of dental treatment were delivered across England in 2020-21, down 69% from the 38.4m in 2019-20. The British Dental Association (BDA) said that more than 9 million children had missed out on care in the year after the first lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020.
Dental practices were instructed to close and cease all routine dental care from March 25 and reopened on June 8, with dentists and dental surgeons forced to stick to strict infection control rules due to Covid-19. This includes leaving “fallow time” after certain procedures and social distancing requirements.
The BDA said capacity across dental services remained low, with it understanding that about half the NHS practices in England are not meeting government targets to hit 60% of pre-Covid activity levels.
Shawn Charlwood, chair of the BDA’s general dental practice committee, said:
Millions are still missing out on dental care, and patients will be paying the price for years to come. Dentists in England have had capacity slashed by pandemic restrictions and need help to get patients back through their doors.
The BDA said that while the other UK nations had provided capital funding to help practices increase capacity through new “high-volume ventilation systems”, there had been no commitment from authorities in England.
A quarter of 300 dental surgeons polled by the FDS, which is part of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said that the majority of people on their waiting list were children.
Its latest report warns that patients waiting for dental treatment are often in pain, making it difficult to eat and sleep, and delays can lead to a deterioration in their condition and ultimately mean more complex treatment is required.
Updated
A third of England social care managers quitting over mandatory jabs, survey suggests
Social care managers fear an “exodus” of staff by the autumn due to opposition to mandatory vaccination, Covid burnout and a staffing crisis which is already compromising safe care.
PA reports that senior care staff say they are “genuinely concerned about the safety and sustainability of services” amid ongoing staffing shortages, extreme difficulty in recruiting and exhaustion.
The Institute of Health and Social Care Management (IHSCM) surveyed more than 1,000 care managers in partnership with PA. The full survey, which closed yesterday evening, found that nine-in-10 managers said their workplace was experiencing staff shortages or difficulty recruiting, with almost half (49.3%) saying these issues are compromising safety and care.
Almost four in 10 managers (39.3%) say they are considering leaving their role, with a further fifth unsure. It also found that a third (32.8%) of managers have already had staff quit or hand in their notice over the requirement to get a coronavirus vaccine.
More than half (55.2%) of managers also fear they will have to dismiss staff over the coming months because they have not been vaccinated against coronavirus.
The government has said that, from 11 November, all staff in registered care homes in England must be vaccinated against Covid-19 if they are to continue working, unless they are medically exempt.
The Outstanding Manager network, which represents about 5,700 managers of UK social care services, the majority in England, believes the sector’s recruitment crisis will be made “significantly worse” by mandatory vaccination.
Jane Brightman, co-founder of the network and IHSCM director of social care, told PA that care providers are bracing for a tough winter.
We’re going to see a mass exodus of staff not wanting a vaccine. We’re already seeing an exodus of good, strong managers who we need in the system. We will then end up with inexperienced managers being promoted, so we will have a lot of inexperienced people running services that are not staffed adequately. It just doesn’t feel safe, it doesn’t feel right, and we’re letting down those people that we’re there to support.
Updated
In October, the head of the UK government’s vaccine task force said that “we just need to vaccinate everyone at risk” and noted that vaccinating healthy people “could cause them some freak harm”.
Kate Bingham told the Financial Times:
People keep talking about ‘time to vaccinate the whole population’, but that is misguided. There’s going to be no vaccination of people under 18. It’s an adult-only vaccine, for people over 50, focusing on health workers and care home workers and the vulnerable.
David Nabarro, special envoy to the World Health Organization on Covid-19, also told the FT that addressing the pandemic was “not going to be a case of everyone getting vaccinated”.
There will be a definite analysis of who is the priority for the vaccine, based on where they live, their occupation and their age bracket. We’re not fundamentally using the vaccine to create population immunity, we’re just changing the likelihood people will get harmed or hurt. It will be strategic.
Updated
An award-winning BBC radio presenter died due to complications of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination, a coroner has concluded.
Lisa Shaw, 44, died in May, just over three weeks after she had her first dose of the jab, an inquest in Newcastle heard today.
PA reports that the mother-of-one started to complain of a severe headache, including shooting pains across her forehead and behind her eyes, a few days after her vaccination and eventually went to A&E in Durham, where she was diagnosed with a blood clot and was transferred for specialist treatment at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
The inquest heard that, despite treatments including cutting away part of her skull to relieve pressure, nothing further could be done and Shaw died on 21 May. Newcastle senior coroner Karen Dilks gave a narrative conclusion, which said: “Lisa died due to complications of an AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.”
Earlier, the pathologist Dr Tuomo Polvikoski told the coroner that Shaw, who was a well-known presenter for BBC Newcastle, was fit and healthy before receiving the vaccination.
Asked about the underlying cause of the fatal clotting on her brain, Polvikoski said the clinical evidence “strongly supports the idea that it was, indeed, vaccine-induced ... Based on available clinical information, it seems to be the most likely explanation.”
Shaw’s family said in a statement:
This is another difficult day in what has been a devastating time for us. The death of our beloved Lisa has left a terrible void in our family and in our lives. She truly was the most wonderful wife, mum, daughter, sister and friend. We have said all we want to say in public at this time and ask to be left alone to grieve and rebuild our lives in private. Thank you.
The coroner said:
On April 29 2021, she had a first doze of the AstraZeneca vaccine and, following that, she developed a vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia – a rare and aggressive complication associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was the underlying cause of her death.
Dr Christopher Johnson, a consultant in anaesthetics and intensive care at the hospital, told the inquest that Shaw was initially treated with anti-coagulants but the operation was undertaken to relieve the pressure on her brain after bleeding was detected.
Johnson said the surgery could not help with the underlying cause of the haemorrhage and the risks were too great to try to remove the clot “manually”.
This was one of the first cases of this kind of vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis I had seen and had been seen nationally.
Asked whether his team were of the view that the “underlying cause of the events that tragically affected Lisa was complications of the AstraZeneca vaccine”, Dr Johnson said: “We were, yes.”
According to the UK medical regulator, there have been 332 reported cases and 58 reported deaths – after nearly 35m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, the BBC reports.
Updated
More than £7m worth of unneeded masks, gowns and hand sanitiser are being donated from Wales to Namibia, and a further £500,000 grant is being given for oxygen equipment and nurse training, the government said.
With roughly similar populations, the two countries have enjoyed a longstanding relationship, it said, and the gift seeks to help bolster Namibia’s healthcare response to the pandemic.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said:
I have heard directly from Namibia on the extremely difficult situation that they face in the battle against Covid-19. We have a duty to help those in need and I’m proud that Wales is stepping forward to fight the global threat of coronavirus. Wales will stand alongside Namibia and we will do everything we can to help them through this difficult time.”
Updated
Are Covid booster shots necessary? – video explainer
Updated
Thousands of suspended Moderna jab doses used in Japan amid contamination fears
Here’s the latest full story on Japan halting the use of 1.63m doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine after reports of contamination in several vials.
AFP reports that the drugmaker Takeda, which is in charge of sales and distribution of the Moderna shot in Japan, said it had “received reports from several vaccination centres that foreign substances have been found inside unopened vials”.
It added that “upon consultation with the health ministry, we have decided to suspend the use of the vaccine” from three batches from today. The firm said it had informed Moderna and “requested an urgent investigation”.
The Japanese carrier ANA said about 4,700 shots of the halted Moderna lot had been used and it would stop all vaccinations planned today, Reuters reports.
A health ministry official said Takeda first found out about the contaminated vials on 16 August and reported the issue to the government yesterday. The delay was because Takeda needed time to gather information on which vials were affected and where they were in the country, the official said.
In a statement, Moderna said the reported contaminations involved “one product lot distributed in Japan”.
Moderna confirms having been notified of cases of particulate matter being seen in drug product vials of its Covid-19 vaccine. The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address this.
Moderna believes the manufacturing issue was generated in one of the lines used at its contract manufacturing site in Spain ... Out of an abundance of caution, Moderna has put this lot and two adjacent lots on hold.
The government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said there had been no “concrete reports” that doses confirmed to contain contaminants had been administered.
We have not received reports of health problems stemming from the foreign object. But we are asking people to consult their physicians if they experience any abnormality.
Contaminants were seen in 39 unopened vials, or 390 doses, at eight vaccination locations in central Japan, including Tokyo, according to reports. The health ministry also said “foreign materials” were found in some doses of a batch of roughly 560,000 vials, according to the BBC.
The Spanish pharma company Rovi, which bottles or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets other than the US, said it is investigating possible contamination of Moderna doses and the issue appeared to be limited to a few batches bound for Japan.
The defence ministry said doses from a suspended batch had been administered between 6-20 August at its mass vaccination centre in the western city of Osaka.
The health ministry said it would work with Takeda to secure alternative doses to avoid disruption to the country’s vaccine programme, which has ramped up after a slow start.
Updated
EU states' liability 'modified' as boosters roll out without EMA approval, says Commission
EU countries that decide to administer booster shots may face increased legal risks because the additional dose has not yet been given emergency recommendation by the EU drugs regulator, the European Commission has said.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has repeatedly said that more data is needed before it can approve the use of boosters, but eight European countries have decided to recommend the additional dose, and more than a dozen are to make similar moves shortly.
It comes after World Health Organization director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, again said yesterday the data on the benefits and safety of a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot is inconclusive.
“Booster doses are currently not part of the marketing authorisation of Covid-19 vaccines and have not yet been subject to a scientific assessment by EMA in the absence of sufficient data,” the EU Commission said in a statement to Reuters.
The responsibility to decide to include boosters in their vaccination campaign remains with the member states. As long as the booster doses are not part of the marketing authorisation, companies’ liability is modified.
In light of the near-total absence of safety data, it could mean that in the event of unexpected side effects that can be linked to boosters, EU states might bear the brunt of any legal consequences and compensation demands.
The commission said, however, that companies’ liability would not disappear entirely if boosters are administered without the EMA’s approval. For instance, if a side effect after a booster is caused by manufacturing issues, the vaccine maker would remain liable for it, Reuters reports.
EU liability and indemnity rules – granting big pharma blanket protection from lawsuits – apply in cases of unexpected adverse effects linked to the general characteristics of the product or its manufacturing. Each company supplying Covid-19 vaccines to the EU has negotiated different clauses, which remain largely confidential.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovenia are currently recommending the use of boosters, with Germany planning to do the same in the autumn. Thirteen other European states are discussing the matter.
In recent months, the EU has reserved billions of doses from several Covid-19 vaccine makers for the coming years, saying they may be needed for boosters or to fight new variants. They could also be donated to poorer nations.
Possible compensation for unexpected side effects from Covid-19 vaccines is managed at national level. Some EU countries, including the largest ones, have compensation schemes that are meant to indemnify potential victims outside courts, but criteria for reimbursements vary greatly. In others, alleged victims would need to go directly to courts to settle their case.
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Europe, hundreds of claims have been submitted to authorities by potential victims, official data from Denmark, Germany, Norway and Switzerland show, with only a handful of compensation awards so far granted, for undisclosed amounts of money, according to Reuters.
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday:
On the boosters, first of all, its not conclusive, in terms of its benefits; and also, we don’t know, if it’s safe. The second problem is that when some countries can afford to have the booster and others are not even vaccinating the first and second round, it’s a moral issue.
Its technically wrong and morally wrong; and that’s why we had this two- month moratorium, so that countries could refrain from using boosters, so that other countries who don’t have vaccines at hand ... could have access to vaccines. We’re in the same boat, and treating one part won’t help us recover soon from the pandemic. It’s in the interests of all of us to show real solidarity.
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 Léonie Chao-Fong 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
With a quarter of Shepparton’s residents unable to leave their homes, food and medicine supplies disrupted, and the defence force moving in, it is as if the town in Victoria, Australia, has been hit by an earthquake or major flooding, not a Covid cluster.
“It almost needs to be treated as you would a natural disaster,” Chris Hazelman, the manager of the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District, said. “It’s a huge, huge challenge. Look at Melbourne: if you said 2 million people were in isolation, how would you deal with it?”
The regional centre of about 65,000 people about 190km north of Melbourne recorded its first case of this outbreak on 20 August. In the past week, the cluster has grown to 67, with 16,000 people in isolation, my colleagues Nino Bucci and Calla Wahlquist report.
The staggering proportion of residents in isolation has caused two separate but interconnected problems: a surge in demand for the delivery of food and essential items, but a shortage of workers at the businesses that provide them.
Updated
Summary
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, for today. I’m handing over to my colleague Mattha Busby. Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening so far:
- Japan will halt the use of 1.63m doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter.
- NHS England has been told to prepare to administer jabs to all children aged 12 and above, as vaccine advisers continue to consider whether to extend the programme, according to reports.
- A government campaign urging students in England to have twice-weekly Covid tests for “a more normal year” at school and college has been labelled “naive” by school union leaders.
- New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has dismissed criticism of her ambitious elimination strategy to stamp out Covid, as the country’s outbreak grows, saying the approach has saved lives and will continue to do so.
- Russia recorded 19,630 new Covid cases and 820 deaths in the latest 24-hour period, the government’s coronavirus task force said on Thursday.
- China criticised the US “politicisation” of efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus and restated dubious demands for a US military laboratory to be investigated, amid the release of an “inconclusive” American intelligence community report on the virus’s origins.
- Papua New Guinea has banned all repatriation flights from India, after accusing the country’s high commission of a deliberate “deception” that resulted in passengers infected with Covid-19 arriving in the country.
Updated
Air travel to the UK continues to be severely affected by the pandemic, new figures by the Home Office show.
Just 1.4m airline passengers arrived in the country last month, up 14% compared with July 2020 but 87% lower than July 2019. About 54% of arrivals last month were British nationals, PA reports.
Updated
An Aboriginal woman with Covid and breathing difficulties was allegedly turned away from a local hospital in the town of Wilcannia in New South Wales in Australia, as local health officials admit the town does not have a ventilator despite having the highest rate of Covid transmission in the state.
Wilcannia has a higher Covid transmission rate than the worst hotspots in Sydney, sparking fresh calls for a coordinated state and federal effort to help the tiny, majority-Aboriginal town manage increasing illness, as well as securing essential supplies and safe places for people to self-isolate.
Locals say they are scared that “all they have is body bags” as the town has recorded more than 50 active cases in 14 days.
Read the full report here:
Updated
Inmates at a prison in Arkansas in the United States have been prescribed a medicine used to deworm livestock to combat Covid, despite warnings from health officials that the antiparasitic drug should not be used to treat the coronavirus.
Washington County’s sheriff confirmed that the jail’s health provider had been prescribing the drug but didn’t say how many inmates at the 710-bed facility had been given ivermectin, AP reports.
“Whatever a doctor prescribes, that is not in my bailiwick,” Sheriff Tim Helder told members of the Washington County quorum court.
It comes after the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told Americans to stop taking ivermectin instead of getting a Covid shot, after a spike in calls to the Mississippi poison control centre.
At least two people have been hospitalised with potential ivermectin toxicity after ingesting the drug, the state’s poison control centre said Monday.
Updated
Russia reports 19,630 new cases and 820 deaths
Russia recorded 19,630 new Covid cases and 820 deaths in the latest 24-hour period, the government’s coronavirus task force said on Thursday.
The latest figures compare to 19,536 new cases and 809 deaths the previous day.
Updated
Here’s the full story on the proposed plans to extend the UK’s vaccination programme to 12- to 15-year-olds, from my colleague Damien Gayle.
NHS England has been told to prepare to administer Covid vaccinations to all children aged 12 and above, according to reports.
Updated
A “dramatic” recovery in the UK jobs market has led to wage inflation and shortages of qualified workers in some industries.
Recruiters’ fees are closely correlated to the strength of the jobs market, which was hit hard at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as workers were forced to stay at home and companies paused hiring because of uncertainty over economic prospects.
However, the UK recruiter Hays said it had never seen such a strong recovery in the fees it earned over the year to the end of June.
Between April and June fees were up 39% on the same period a year earlier, when many of the countries in which Hays operates were locked down for the first time.
The rebound in demand for workers has given jobseekers more confidence in their bargaining power, particularly in sectors that already faced shortages of workers with the requisite skills, the company said.
Read the full report here:
More on the story of Moderna withdrawing a supply of about 1.63m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter.
Spain’s drugmaker Rovi, which bottles or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets other than the US, has confirmed that the potential contamination is under investigation and appears to be limited to “a few batches” for Japan.
A spokesperson for the company said production of the vaccine has not been halted at its plants.
Updated
UK vaccine rollout 'should be extended to 12- to 15-year-olds', says expert
As back to school looms and in-person teaching returns, there is an expectation that Covid-19 cases will rise, especially among children.
In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) has approved the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children aged 12 to 17, but they are still not available to most people in this demographic. At present, children aged 12 to 15 are only offered a jab if they are considered clinically vulnerable.
A public health expert has said the vaccine rollout should be extended to 12- to 15-year-olds, with the Delta variant “flying through schools”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today, Prof Devi Sridhar, a global public health specialist at the University of Edinburgh, said:
I think right now, if we know the options with Delta, given how infectious it is, is that either you’re going to be exposed to Covid without any protection or you can be exposed and have a vaccine.
And we should be offering teens that vaccine so they have that protection before going back into schools.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not yet advised on widening the rollout to healthy teens in the 12-15 age group.
Sridhar said the JCVI were being “very cautious” when it comes to widening the jabs rollout but “waiting and watching costs time”.
Time is the currency now that matters because it’s not like we can wait and watch and in six months say, ‘OK, it’s safe, let’s vaccinate.’
In those six months if a large percentage of 12- to 15-year-olds get infected, in some ways they’ve lost that window of time and so I think perhaps they don’t feel the urgency that they should be feeling given it’s an emergency situation and we have Delta, which is so infectious. I mean, it’s just flying through schools as we know.
Updated
A store in Malaysia is selling handmade paper Covid jabs for people to honour their loved ones who lost their lives during the pandemic.
A box set of a syringe and two vaccine vials made of paper have become a popular praying item at Raymond Shieh Siow Leong’s religious goods store in the southern Malaysian city of Johor Bahru.
Shieh said the idea came to him after reading testimonies by people who had lost friends and family before they had a chance to be vaccinated.
He told Reuters: “The Covid-19 situation in our country is quite serious and many people passed away before receiving the vaccine. I hope this product can help the deceased to fulfil their dying wish.”
Malaysia has one of the highest rates of Covid infections and deaths in south-east Asia, with almost 1.6m cases and a death toll of 14,818.
Updated
A government campaign urging students in England to have twice-weekly Covid tests for “a more normal year” at school and college has been labelled “naive” by school union leaders.
The campaign includes an Olympic gold medallist, the 18-year-old swimmer Matt Richards, telling students that regular testing allowed him to compete at Tokyo and will allow them to “get back to the things you love, like competitive sports and school matches”.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said students could “look forward to a more normal year” when they return. The government has dropped most of the restrictions imposed last year such as bubbles, social distancing and masks.
But Nick Brook, the deputy general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “It would be naive to assume that things will be completely back to normal in September.
“Scientists are already predicting that Covid cases are likely to increase further when schools reopen and sadly we know that further disruption is inevitable.”
Read the full report here:
Updated
St Lucia could be added to the UK’s travel red list, as ministers prepare to update the traffic-light system for the final time this summer.
Covid data analyst Tim White warned PA news agency that the Caribbean island is “in real peril” of being put on the red list as “the numbers keep getting worse”.
This would mean travellers arriving in the UK from St Lucia would be required to stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights on their arrival, at a starting price of £2,285 per adult.
He said Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Ghana could also face being added to the red list today.
On the positive side, Turkey has said it expects to be removed from the red list and there is also pressure for restrictions to be eased on passengers arriving from Pakistan.
This would mean all passengers would be allowed into the UK again as long as they test negative for Covid before travelling. Some will have to isolate at home for up to 10 days, while those who were fully vaccinated in the UK, Europe or US with a drug approved by their respective regulators could skip quarantine altogether.
Updated
India reported 46,164 new Covid cases and 607 deaths in the latest 24 hour period, according to data released by the health ministry on Thursday.
The figures compare to 37,593 new cases and 648 deaths the previous day.
India’s official total death toll currently stands at 436,365.
Hello! It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over the live blog.
In the UK, teachers and families are being urged to take precautions to reduce outbreaks of the winter sickness bug before pupils return to school next week.
As Covid restrictions have eased, health officials have been alerted to a surge in norovirus outbreaks, particularly in nurseries and child-care settings.
A report by Public Health England (PHE) warns that further rises could be seen in coming months. Norovirus is highly infectious and causes vomiting and diarrhoea but usually passes in a couple of days.
Updated
Summary
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, for today. I’m handing over to my UK colleague Léonie Chao-Fong.
Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening so far:
- Moderna Inc says it has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter, which it suspects involves a production line in Spain.
- New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has dismissed criticism of her ambitious elimination strategy to stamp out Covid, as the country’s outbreak grows, saying the approach has saved lives and will continue to do so.
- The Australian state of New South Wales has reported a record 1,029 cases, with hospitals in Sydney, the epicentre of the outbreak, struggling to cope with the rise in patients. The nurses union says multiple facilities are under “enormous pressure” and have “very little capacity” in their emergency departments.
- The World Health Organization director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated that the data on the benefits and safety of a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot is inconclusive – yet richer states continue to move towards the policy. Meanwhile, Pfizer and BioNTech said they have initiated submission for a full US approval of a booster dose of their vaccine.
- China criticised the US “politicisation” of efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus and restated dubious demands for a US military laboratory to be investigated, amid the release of an “inconclusive” American intelligence community report on the virus’ origins.
- The scientists dispatched to China by the WHO to discover Covid’s origins said that the window of opportunity for solving the mystery is “closing fast”. They appeared to be attempting to reframe their original finding, which said a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”, after details emerge on how terms were agreed with Chinese officials.
- Military troops must immediately begin to get vaccinated against Covid after Pfizer’s jab received full approval, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said as more than 800,000 service members out of 2.1 million, including reserves, remain unvaccinated.
- Brazil announced it will give Covid booster shots to immunosuppressed or vulnerable people, and citizens over the age of 80, after it emerged yesterday it had leaked its supply contract with Pfizer – showing it provided the pharma giant with indemnity from possible citizen lawsuits over potential adverse events after it provided jabs at cheaper prices.
- Papua New Guinea has banned all repatriation flights from India, after accusing the country’s high commission of a deliberate “deception” that resulted in passengers infected with Covid-19 arriving in the country.
- Taiwan reported zero community cases of Covid-19 for the first time since its biggest outbreak began in May, killing more than 800 people. Residents had lived a largely normal life for most of 2020 and early 2021, albeit with closed borders.
- Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students are now required to wear masks in classrooms as a courtroom battle continues over efforts by Governor Ron DeSantis to leave such decisions up to parents.
- The emergence of the Delta variant means that vaccination may not prove to be the magic bullet that many governments hoped for, a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit said. It called on political leaders to rethink their Covid strategy to adapt it for the long term.
Updated
A foreign participant in the Paralympic Games in Japan has been hospitalised with non-severe symptoms of Covid-19, Kyodo News has reported, citing the Games’ organising committee.
It is the first hospitalisation of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which opened on Tuesday. Hospitals in Japan treating Covid-19 patients have usually reserved beds for people showing severe symptoms.
The national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government appealed on Monday to hospitals in the capital to accept more Covid-19 patients.
Less than 10% of coronavirus patients are hospitalised in Tokyo, and the low level of admissions has added to public frustration with the government’s Covid-19 response, undermining voter support for prime minister Yoshihide Suga.
If you’re commuting to work or doing the washing up and need something to listen to, check out our Science Weekly podcast, which this week looks at why children in the UK aren’t being vaccinated against Covid-19 even as in-person teaching is set to resume.
A Covid-19 modeller has suggested New Zealand’s North and South islands could become separate bubbles as the country grapples with a coronavirus outbreak.
New Zealand is battling to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant that swiftly led to a nationwide, level four lockdown – the highest setting – which has been extended until at least the end of the week. There are now 210 cases in the community.
There have been no cases in the South Island, but the 20,000-strong list of close contacts linked to the current outbreak extends across both islands. Around 120 people, who were potentially exposed to the virus at locations in Auckland, are isolating in the South Island.
Auckland could expect to stay in lockdown for a number of weeks , but a North Island and South Island split could make sense, Covid-19 modeller at the University of Auckland, Shaun Hendy, told TVNZ.
“I think at this stage, a North Island and South Island split is probably what we’d be looking at,” Hendy said.
The premier of the Australian state of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, has relaxed rules on outdoor gatherings for fully vaccinated people, even as the region reported a record 1,029 infections and three deaths on Thursday.
Small groups of fully vaccinated people will now be allowed to meet outdoors, but the so-called “picnic rules” are more limited for the 12 local government areas of concern than the rest of the state, and do not come into effect until 13 September.
The statewide lockdown was also extended by another two weeks from Saturday and chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, acknowledged that “the numbers may well go way above a thousand cases”.
The government is expected to make an announcement about the future of reopening schools and the higher school certificate on Friday.
Moderna Inc says it has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter, which it suspects involves a production line in Spain, Reuters reports.
While Moderna said no safety or efficacy issues had been identified, the suspension is a fresh setback for the firm whose partners had production delays last month that disrupted supply to countries including South Korea.
“Moderna confirms having been notified of cases of particulate matter being seen in drug product vials of its Covid-19 vaccine,” it said in a statement.
“The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address this,” it added, referring to Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical.
It said the contamination could be due to a manufacturing issue in one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain.
It was not immediately clear whether the issue affected supplies to other countries.
Moderna did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment. Spain’s Rovi, which bottles or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets other than the United States, was not immediately available to comment.
The vaccine lot with complaints had 565,400 doses and Moderna said that “out of an abundance of caution” it had put the lot on hold and two adjacent ones.
Takeda said it conducted an emergency examination after particulate matter was found in a lot of vaccine vials at an inoculation site in Japan.
Japan’s health ministry said on Thursday had it decided to withdraw some doses as a precaution after consultation with Takeda but will strive to minimise the impact of the withdrawal on its inoculation plans.
Sydney hospitals struggle to cope as NSW reports 1,092 cases
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
Moderna Inc says it has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter, which it suspects involves a production line in Spain.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has dismissed criticism of her ambitious elimination strategy to stamp out Covid, as the country’s outbreak grows, saying the approach has saved lives and will continue to do so.
The Australian state of New South Wales has reported a record 1,029 cases, with hospitals in Sydney, the epicentre of the outbreak, struggling to cope with the rise in patients. The nurses union says multiple facilities are under “enormous pressure” and have “very little capacity” in their emergency departments.
Here’s what else has been happening over the past 24 hours:
- The World Health Organization director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated that the data on the benefits and safety of a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot is inconclusive – yet richer states continue to move towards the policy. Meanwhile, Pfizer and BioNTech said they have initiated submission for a full US approval of a booster dose of their vaccine.
- China criticised the US “politicisation” of efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus and restated dubious demands for a US military laboratory to be investigated, amid the release of an “inconclusive” American intelligence community report on the virus’ origins.
- The scientists dispatched to China by the WHO to discover Covid’s origins said that the window of opportunity for solving the mystery is “closing fast”. They appeared to be attempting to reframe their original finding, which said a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”, after details emerge on how terms were agreed with Chinese officials.
- Military troops must immediately begin to get vaccinated against Covid after Pfizer’s jab received full approval, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said as more than 800,000 service members out of 2.1 million, including reserves, remain unvaccinated.
- Brazil announced it will give Covid booster shots to immunosuppressed or vulnerable people, and citizens over the age of 80, after it emerged yesterday it had leaked its supply contract with Pfizer – showing it provided the pharma giant with indemnity from possible citizen lawsuits over potential adverse events after it provided jabs at cheaper prices.
- Papua New Guinea has banned all repatriation flights from India, after accusing the country’s high commission of a deliberate “deception” that resulted in passengers infected with Covid-19 arriving in the country.
- Taiwan reported zero community cases of Covid-19 for the first time since its biggest outbreak began in May, killing more than 800 people. Residents had lived a largely normal life for most of 2020 and early 2021, albeit with closed borders.
- Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students are now required to wear masks in classrooms as a courtroom battle continues over efforts by Governor Ron DeSantis to leave such decisions up to parents.
- The emergence of the Delta variant means that vaccination may not prove to be the magic bullet that many governments hoped for, a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit said. It called on political leaders to rethink their Covid strategy to adapt it for the long term.
Updated
