A summary of today's developments
- The UK has recorded 28,612 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 6,042,252. There have been a further 103 deaths, bringing the total to 130,281.
- Protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row to rally against a new coronavirus health pass needed to enter a cafe or travel on an inter-city train, two days before the new rules come into force. The new rules championed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, make it obligatory to have either a full course of vaccination against Covid-19, be in possession of a negative test, or be recently recovered from the virus to enjoy usually routine activities.
- Protests were held in a number of Italian cities against the introduction of new measures requiring proof of coronavirus status to attend indoor events and for teachers.
- In Thailand, police fired teargas and rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters in Bangkok demanding political reform and calling for a change to the sluggish coronavirus vaccination programme.
- The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,275,868 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. The US is the worst-affected country with 616,493 deaths, followed by Brazil with 561,762, India with 427,371, Mexico with 243,733, and Peru with 196,818.
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Saudi Arabia said it would gradually receive Umrah pilgrimage requests from abroad starting on 9 August, with a capacity that would go from 60,000 pilgrims to 2 million pilgrims a month, the state news agency reported. An official in the Hajj and Umrah Ministry said pilgrims will have to provide an authorised Covid-19 vaccination certificate in their Umrah request.
- Drop-in clinics will begin to offer Pfizer vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds this week, said the Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf. Some clinics will begin to offer the vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds from this weekend, and all Pfizer drop-in centres in mainland Scotland will be offering the vaccine to this age group from Tuesday 10 August.
- Six EU states have now fully inoculated a larger share of their total populations with a coronavirus vaccine than the UK, after the bloc’s dire initial rollout took off while Britain’s impressive early jab rate has slumped. According to government and health service figures collated by the online science publication Our World in Data, Malta, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland have all overtaken the UK in terms of the percentages of their populations who are fully vaccinated.
To follow the latest coronavirus situation in Australia, you can follow our dedicated blog -
Brazil has recorded 43,033 new coronavirus cases and 990 deaths, the country’s health ministry said, Reuters reports.
The country has had over 20.1 million cases in total and more than 562,000 deaths.
Saudi Arabia said it would gradually receive Umrah pilgrimage requests from abroad starting on 9 August, with a capacity that would go from 60,000 pilgrims to 2 million pilgrims a month, the state news agency reported.
An official in the Hajj and Umrah Ministry said pilgrims will have to provide an authorised Covid-19 vaccination certificate in their Umrah request.
Updated
Britain’s Holly Bradshaw, who won bronze in the pole vault, described Tokyo 2020 as “special” despite a lack of spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bradshaw, who was among the Team GB athletes to land at Heathrow Airport this evening, told PA: “I think every Olympics is different anyway but this has felt very different in that it’s all about the performance and not about going out and exploring or anything like that.
“You just trained and came home and you had to be super on it with hygiene.
“But I think it’s been a really, really good Games and Japan did a really good job to make it feel special even though there was no one there.”
As her father lay dying last August from the coronavirus at a Georgia hospital in the US, Lindsay Schwarz put her hands on his arms and softly sang him lines from their favorite songs.
Associated Press reports:
Eugene Schwarz had been admitted three weeks earlier, but the hospital had not allowed his daughter to visit him for fear of spreading the virus. The 72-year-old looked nothing like the ebullient, crisply dressed cardiologist who used to kiss her on the forehead before heading off to work.
“I was hugging my father, and it didn’t really feel like my father,” Schwarz said.
Less than an hour after she was allowed to see him, he died.
Schwarz recalled the painful experience to raise awareness about the devastating impacts of Covid-19.
She and other victims of the virus, including people who were infected months ago and are still experiencing severe symptoms, organised rallies in Atlanta, New York, Washington DC, Denver and more than a dozen other cities around the country on Saturday to encourage people to get vaccinated and wear a mask.
Tanya Washington, who organised the Atlanta rally of Covid Survivors for Change, told about 50 people gathered outside a downtown church that “Covid is still very much a part of our lives.”
“If it saves one person from hurting, just one person, it would have been worth it,” said Washington, who lost her father to the coronavirus in March.
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Updated
A summary of today's developments
- The UK has recorded 28,612 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 6,042,252. There have been a further 103 deaths, bringing the total to 130,281.
- Protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row to rally against a new coronavirus health pass needed to enter a cafe or travel on an inter-city train, two days before the new rules come into force. The new rules championed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, make it obligatory to have either a full course of vaccination against Covid-19, be in possession of a negative test, or be recently recovered from the virus to enjoy usually routine activities.
- Protests were held in a number of Italian cities against the introduction of new measures requiring proof of coronavirus status to attend indoor events and for teachers.
- In Thailand, police fired teargas and rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters in Bangkok demanding political reform and calling for a change to the sluggish coronavirus vaccination programme.
- The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,275,868 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. The US is the worst-affected country with 616,493 deaths, followed by Brazil with 561,762, India with 427,371, Mexico with 243,733, and Peru with 196,818.
- Drop-in clinics will begin to offer Pfizer vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds this week, said the Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf. Some clinics will begin to offer the vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds from this weekend, and all Pfizer drop-in centres in mainland Scotland will be offering the vaccine to this age group from Tuesday 10 August.
- Six EU states have now fully inoculated a larger share of their total populations with a coronavirus vaccine than the UK, after the bloc’s dire initial rollout took off while Britain’s impressive early jab rate has slumped. According to government and health service figures collated by the online science publication Our World in Data, Malta, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland have all overtaken the UK in terms of the percentages of their populations who are fully vaccinated.
The US administered 350,627,188 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 407,550,175 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 349,787,479 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Aug. 6, out of 405,102,715 doses delivered.
The agency said 194,346,486 people had received at least one dose, while 166,203,176 people were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, Reuters reports.
Almost half of voters do not approve of the job Boris Johnson is doing as UK prime minister, an opinion poll has indicated.
The decline in Johnson’s personal rating came despite an increase in support for the government’s handling of the pandemic, PA reports.
It has gone from a net -16% a fortnight ago to -9% recorded by pollster Opinium for The Observer.
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In Poland, thousands marched to protest against Covid-19 restrictions in the southern city of Katowice as the country’s government debated whether to place restrictions on unvaccinated people.
Some carried placards that said “Enough of coronapsychosis”, but no major incidents were recorded, Reuters reports.
Poles are split on the issue with several surveys showing support for restrictions on unvaccinated people at between 43% and 54%, depending on the severity of the restrictions.
Updated
France has reported 25,755 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The country has had over 6.25 million cases in total.
Protests were held in a number of Italian cities against the introduction of new measures requiring proof of coronavirus status to attend indoor events and for teachers.
More than 1,000 people gathered in Piazza del Popolo in central Rome shouting “No Green Pass!” and “Freedom!”.
Thousands more marched in Milan, with some wearing Star of David badges, like those worn by Jews in Nazi-era Germany, with the words “not vaccinated”, the ANSA news agency reported.
Around 100 people from the “No Vax” movement also gathered in Naples, objecting in particular to vaccinations for children, shouting “Hands off the children” and “Shame! Shame!”.
The Green Pass, an extension of the EU’s digital Covid certificate, became compulsory in Italy on Friday to enter cinemas, museums and indoor sports venues or to eat indoors at restaurants.
France has also reported 1,510 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, Reuters reports.
France has reported 32 new Covid-19 deaths in hospital, Reuters reports.
The country has had more than 112,000 deaths in total.
Updated
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the public about a scam falsely notifying recipients that they have been selected as a winner of a $1m lottery compensation prize payment for losses and damages suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The WHO said: “These fraudulent correspondences falsely allege that the so-called “COVID-19 Lottery Compensation Prize” is brought to you by WHO, in association with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
“These scammers – who claim to be a financial management firm in London – falsely state that they have been appointed by WHO to process payment of the “COVID-19 Lottery Compensation Prize.”
The WHO added it “seeks to warn the public at large that the “COVID-19 Lottery Compensation Prize” is a fraudulent scam being falsely perpetrated in the name of WHO through different channels.”
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Patients in hospital with Covid-19 in Italy – not including those in intensive care – stood at 2,533 on Saturday, up from 2,449 a day earlier, the health ministry said.
There were 29 new admissions to intensive care, down from 32 on Friday. The total of intensive care patients increased to 288 from 277.
Some 293,863 tests for Covid-19 were carried out over the past 24 hours, compared with a previous 244,657, Reuters reports.
Updated
Italy reported 22 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday compared with 24 the day before, the country’s health ministry said.
The daily tally of new infections rose to 6,902 from 6,599.
Italy has registered 128,209 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year.
The country has reported 4.39 million cases to date, Reuters reports.
In one of several protests planned in Paris, hundreds marched from the western suburbs to the centre of the French capital, chanting “Freedom!” and “Macron, we don’t want your pass!”
In Lyon, police fired teargas to disperse protesters hurling projectiles at them, TV images showed.
From Monday, the health pass will be mandatory in order to eat in a restaurant or drink in a cafe indoors or on a terrace. It will be obligatory on intercity transport, including high-speed trains and domestic flights, but will not be needed on metro systems and suburban transport.
The pass has already been required since 21 July to visit cultural venues such as cinemas, theatres and museums. Its extension was approved by France’s constitutional council on Thursday.
Updated
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UK government data up to 6 August shows that of the 86,207,851 Covid jabs given, 46,997,495 were first doses, a rise of 35,665 on the previous day.
The number of second vaccinations increased by 162,827, to a total of 39,210,356.
Updated
UK death toll rises by 103
The UK has recorded 28,612 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 6,042,252.
There have been a further 103 deaths, bringing the total to 130,281.
Updated
Summary of the latest developments
I will shortly be handing the blog over to my colleague. Below is a summary of the latest news on coronavirus from around the world.
- Protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row to rally against a new coronavirus health pass needed to enter a cafe or travel on an inter-city train, two days before the new rules come into force. The new rules championed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, make it obligatory to have either a full course of vaccination against Covid-19, be in possession of a negative test, or be recently recovered from the virus to enjoy usually routine activities.
- In Thailand, police fired teargas and rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters in Bangkok demanding political reform and calling for a change to the sluggish coronavirus vaccination programme.
- The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,275,868 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data. The US is the worst-affected country with 616,493 deaths, followed by Brazil with 561,762, India with 427,371, Mexico with 243,733, and Peru with 196,818.
- Drop-in clinics will begin to offer Pfizer vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds this week, said the Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf. Some clinics will begin to offer the vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds from this weekend, and all Pfizer drop-in centres in mainland Scotland will be offering the vaccine to this age group from Tuesday 10 August.
- Six EU states have now fully inoculated a larger share of their total populations with a coronavirus vaccine than the UK, after the bloc’s dire initial rollout took off while Britain’s impressive early jab rate has slumped. According to government and health service figures collated by the online science publication Our World in Data, Malta, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland have all overtaken the UK in terms of the percentages of their populations who are fully vaccinated.
Updated
The Guardian’s Donna Ferguson has interviewed the children’s book author Michael Rosen, discussing the traumatic experience with coronavirus that inspired his latest piece of writing.
Updated
The UK’s first nightclub vaccine centre inoculated people on Saturday at the Nightingale Club, Birmingham’s oldest and largest LGBTQ+ venue.
Mark Woodcock, 33, (pictured below) was one of those who received a jab, getting his second coronavirus vaccination.
Lucinda Benton-Hawthorn, 18, (pictured below) also received a dose, getting her first coronavirus vaccination.
The news comes as cases of Covid-19 have increased across the majority of the UK, although hospitalisations have fallen. There has been a rise in Lincoln that public health officials linked to the night-time economy.
Updated
Protests in France for four weeks over health pass
Protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row to rally against a new coronavirus health pass needed to enter a cafe or travel on an intercity train, two days before the new rules come into force.
The new rules championed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, make it obligatory to have either a full course of vaccination against Covid-19, be in possession of a negative test, or be recently recovered from the virus to enjoy usually routine activities.
Macron, who faces re-election next year, hopes the new rules will encourage all French people to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and defeat the virus and its fast-spreading Delta variant.
However, opponents of the health pass, who have turned out en masse in the streets in the past weeks, argue that the rules encroach on civil liberties in a country where individual freedom is prized.
Updated
Summary of the latest developments
Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:
Police fire on Thai protesters
In Thailand, police fire teargas and rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters in Bangkok demanding political reform and calling for a change to the sluggish coronavirus vaccination programme.
Protests in France
Protesters take to the streets across France for the fourth weekend in a row against a new coronavirus health pass needed for inter-city trains and many indoor public spaces, two days before the new rules come into force.
Single-shot approval
India gives emergency approval to Johnson and Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its flailing immunisation campaign as fears grow of a new wave of infections.
Australia battles the virus
Australia’s state of New South Wales reports another record day of Covid-19 cases, and authorities in the country’s second city of Melbourne rush to trace the source of its outbreaks.
Unvaccinated at greater risk
Unvaccinated people are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with Covid-19 as the fully vaccinated, according to a study by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Half of Americans jabbed
Half of the US population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the White House says, as inoculations rise in response to the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Over 4.2 million dead
The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,275,868 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data.
The US is the worst-affected country with 616,493 deaths, followed by Brazil with 561,762, India with 427,371, Mexico with 243,733, and Peru with 196,818.
Updated
The first death of a child aged under 15 linked to Covid-19 has been recorded in Northern Ireland.
The landmark was revealed in the latest figures provided by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
Patricia Donnelly, the head of Northern Ireland’s vaccination programme, said: “I do send my sincere condolences to that family. I think it is a very stark reminder that it is not just older people who are affected by this virus.”
A weekly release by Nisra on Friday stated: “The latest week’s registration figures include the first Covid-19 related death in Northern Ireland within the under-15 age group.”
Updated
Thai riot police on Saturday used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to repel a crowd of several hundred young anti-government protestors who marched on an army base where the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has his residence, to demand his resignation.
The demonstrators threw rocks, bottles and fireworks, and fired slingshots during the hours-long confrontation in the Din Daeng area of Bangkok, which was obscured by swirling smoke.
The rally was led by the Free Youth, a student protest group that drew tens of thousands to its protests last year. It demands Prayuth’s resignation over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, with the number of cases spiraling and the healthcare system stretched to the limit. Prayuth has been criticised for a slow vaccination programme.
Thailand reported a new high of 21,838 confirmed cases on Saturday, with 212 more deaths. Bangkok and surrounding provinces have been under lockdown, including an overnight curfew, for weeks.
According to the city’s Erawan Medical Center emergency services, five people were admitted to hospital, including three police officers. The march was called off in the early evening but disturbances continued, with protesters battling the police and hurling objects.
The protesters are also calling for part of the budget for the monarchy and the military to be redirected into the Covid-19 fight.
Updated
Drop-in clinics will begin to offer Pfizer vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds this week, the Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf, has said.
Some clinics will begin to offer the vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds from this weekend, and all Pfizer drop-in centres in mainland Scotland will be offering the vaccine to this age group from Tuesday 10 August.
The Scottish government has written to health boards to say that this age group can be vaccinated in drop-ins from Saturday, provided staff training and information resources are in place. Availability will be advertised locally before the full national rollout on Tuesday.
Pleased some clinics will begin to offer vaccine to 16 & 17 year olds from this weekend, all Pfizer drop-in centres on mainland will be offering vaccine to this age group from Tue 10 August
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) August 7, 2021
You should check your local health board’s social media channels to see what is available https://t.co/Z6KHPbiApW
Updated
Six EU states have now fully inoculated a larger share of their total populations with a coronavirus vaccine than the UK, after the bloc’s dire initial rollout took off while Britain’s impressive early jab rate has slumped.
According to government and health service figures collated by the online science publication Our World In Data, Malta, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland have all overtaken the UK in terms of the percentages of their populations who are fully vaccinated.
While Britain’s hugely successful campaign was bound to slow first as it ran into harder-to-reach, more vaccine-hesitant groups, the rate of decline is dramatic: the UK is currently administering a fraction of the daily doses of some EU states.
Updated
Protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row to rally against a new health pass needed to enter a cafe or travel on an inter-city train, two days before the new rules come into force.
The new rules championed by President Emmanuel Macron make it obligatory to have either a full course of vaccination against Covid-19, be in possession of a negative test or be recently recovered from the virus to enjoy usually routine activities, Reuters reports.
Macron, who faces re-election next year, hopes the new rules will encourage all French to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and defeat the virus and its fast-spreading Delta variant.
But opponents, who have turned out en masse in the streets in the past weeks, argue that the rules encroach on civil liberties in a country where individual freedom is prized.
From Monday, the health pass will be needed to eat in a restaurant or enjoy a drink in a cafe both indoors and on a terrace. It will be obligatory on inter-city transport including high-speed trains and domestic flights although will not be needed on metro systems and suburban transport.
The pass has already been required since 21 July to visit cultural venues such as cinemas, theatres and museums. Its extension was approved by France’s Constitutional Council on Thursday.
In one of several protests planned in Paris alone, hundreds began gathering at Pont de Neuilly metro station on the outskirts for a march to the centre, chanting “Freedom!” and “No to the health pass”.
Wearing a mask, Alexandre Fourez, 34, said he was protesting for the first time and that he had himself recovered from Covid.
“The problem with the health pass is that our hand is being forced,” said the marketing employee, adding he “really has difficulty believing its use will be temporary”.
Other protests were planned later in the afternoon across the country including Lille in the north-east and Toulon on the Mediterranean coast.
Updated
A return to life as normal in the UK “will certainly fuel an autumn wave” of coronavirus cases but further lockdowns may not be required, a government scientific adviser has said.
Prof John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said he was “cautiously optimistic” that another lockdown would not be needed to bring cases under control again, PA news reports.
He said there was a need to be “very cautious” about the situation at the moment because previous peaks had been countered by locking down.
He told Times Radio:
We’re not doing that this time. But I don’t think we will need to go into a lockdown. I hope not anyway. I very much hope not. I’m cautiously optimistic about that.
Infections are expected to rise again in September, when school and university terms begin and more workers are expected to return to the office.
Edmunds said:
Will we ever return to completely normal behaviour? I don’t know.
But there’s a long way to go between the sorts of behaviours that we’re collectively making now and the average behaviour that we were making before the pandemic. There is a big difference.
If we go back completely to normal, that will certainly fuel an autumn wave.
Updated
Sussex University is offering cash prizes of £5,000 to students who can prove they have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, in an effort to incentivise take-up of the jab.
All students at the university are being entered into a draw, with 10 winners receiving £5,000 if they can prove they are double-jabbed or are medically exempt from having the vaccine.
Prof Adam Tickell, the university’s vice-chancellor, denied the move amounted to “bribing” students to get vaccinated.
It follows the news that cheap taxi rides and discounts from the biggest takeaway companies are to be deployed by the government in a desperate effort to boost Covid vaccination rates among young people.
The car-hailing companies Uber and Bolt and the delivery service Deliveroo are involved in the scheme, which was devised after ministers became concerned that demand from younger age groups was levelling off.
The prize draw will take place at the end of November to allow students time to get vaccinated.
Tickell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We’re going to automatically enter every student in, and unless they have said they want to opt out, after we’ve given them the opportunity to have vaccines – this will be about 12 weeks after the announcement – we’ll just randomly choose 10 names.
If they can prove they’ve been double-vaccinated, or indeed if they are medically exempt, we’ll make them the award.
He added: “We’re not bribing them. What we’re doing is we’re just giving an incentive.”
Jade Altass-Hye, who graduated from Sussex University this summer, thinks the cash prize draw is a good idea.
She said:
Uptake in the vaccine among students seems to be really low. I’ve been lucky to get both of mine but I think this idea is really smart.
It’s an interesting way to spend the funding but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea to help encourage people.
Read more here:
Updated
India gave emergency approval to Johnson and Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine on Saturday to ramp up its flailing immunisation campaign as fears grow of a new wave of infections.
The health minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, said the approval would boost the fight against the pandemic in India, where at least 200,000 people died in a brutal two-month wave up to mid-June.
“India expands its vaccine basket! Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India,” the minister said on Twitter.
No indication has been given as to when the US company’s doses will reach India.
The nation of 1.3 billion people has administered 500m vaccine doses so far, but barely 8% of the population has had two shots.
Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine is the fifth to be approved after Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covishield, the home developed Covaxin, Russia’s Sputnik V and the US-made Moderna jab.
India remains the second-worst-hit nation after the US, with more than 32m confirmed cases and 427,000 deaths. Because of under-reporting, experts say the real toll is much higher.
They also warn that the slow vaccination pace puts India at risk from any new infection crisis. The number of new cases and deaths has started rising again in the past two weeks.
The government’s free vaccination drive relies heavily on Covishield and Covaxin and producers are struggling to meet demand.
Sputnik has not yet scaled up production and Moderna is yet to import any shots.
Updated
Equatorial Guinea is struggling with a drugs shortage as pandemic pressures continue. Santos Bimbile has been to four pharmacies in Malabo, the capital, and not one of them has the drug that his sister-in-law needs to ease stomach pain, AFP reports.
“It’s very difficult to get your hands on certain drugs, and especially for an affordable price,” he said.
It is a familiar story to many of the 1.4 million citizens of this country – a tiny state in central-western Africa known for its oil wealth, widespread poverty, and iron-fisted regime.
Years-long shortages of drugs have combined with the coronavirus pandemic pressures. “We have received almost nothing for the past three years,” Francisco Ondo Nsue, the director of Centramed, a government agency that supplies Equatorial Guinea’s hospitals and pharmacies, said in early July.
Updated
On Friday a record high of 15,645 new cases was reported in Japan, according to a tally by Japan’s public media organization NHK. The Tokyo Metropolitan government said there were an additional 4,515 cases while Osaka Prefecture logged a record 1,310 infections.
The figure in Tokyo – which is hosting the Olympics under a state of emergency – was the second-highest for the capital, which reported a record 5,042 cases Thursday.
The Guardian’s Sirin Kale has written an inspiring and touching feature article, after interviewing Covid patients alongside the NHS staff who looked after them through their illness.
In Thailand, Covid-19 deaths rose to a record 212 with 21,838 new cases over the past 24 hours, according to the Public Health Ministry.
Of the new cases, 20,915 were among the general population and 923 were inmates. Over the past 24 hours, 21,108 patients were discharged from hospitals.
Since 1 April, around when the third wave of Covid-19 began, there have been 707,659 Covid-19 patients, 489,586 of whom have recovered.
Updated
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, is facing mounting anger after it emerged he continued with a tour of Scotland and decided not to isolate despite a member of his team testing positive for Covid-19 on the trip.
A senior government source told the Guardian the prime minister and official were “side-by-side” on several occasions and even travelled together on an RAF Voyager between Glasgow and Aberdeen, but a Downing Street spokesperson said they did not come into close contact.
Updated
China stepped up measures to protect its capital, Beijing, as an uptick in coronavirus cases driven by the more infectious Delta variant spread across multiple cities in the country.
The National Health Commission reported on Saturday 107 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland for 6 August, compared with 124 a day earlier.
Of the new infections, 75 were locally transmitted, the health authority said. That compares with 80 local cases a day earlier. Most of the local cases were in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
Those currently outside Beijing in higher-risk areas should temporarily postpone their return, and others should provide a negative Covid-19 test, according to details of a Saturday meeting by local officials reported by the Beijing Daily. Epidemic prevention measures at railways, highways and airports should be strengthened, they said.
Some local governments have been called out by Beijing for lowering their guard, leading to the spread of the Delta variant from multiple sources.
Updated
Russia reported 22,320 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including 2,235 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,424,884.
The government’s coronavirus taskforce said 793 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 164,094.
Russia recorded about 463,000 excess deaths from April 2020 to June this year during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the state statistics service on Friday.
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry recorded 11,021 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest single-day case increase in almost four months, and 162 additional deaths.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed infections in the Philippines had increased to almost 1.65 million, while deaths had reached 28,835.
“We are already feeling the effects of the Delta variant in our country,” the health ministry undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire, told a public briefing on Saturday.
Updated
India approved Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Saturday, the health minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, said in a tweet. The pharmaceutical giant had applied for emergency use approval on Friday.
Updated
A university is offering cash prizes to students who can prove they have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in an effort to drive take-up of the jabs.
All students at Sussex University are being entered into a draw, with 10 winners receiving £5,000 if they can prove they are double-jabbed or exempt.
Prof Adam Tickell, the university’s vice-chancellor, denied the move amounted to “bribing” students to get vaccinated.
The prize draw will take place at the end of November to allow students time to get vaccinated.
“We’re going to automatically enter every student in, and unless they have said they want to opt out after we’ve given them the opportunity to have vaccines – this will be about 12 weeks after the announcement – we’ll just randomly choose 10 names,” Prof Tickell told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
Updated
The US is now averaging 100,000 new Covid-19 infections a day, returning to a milestone last seen during the winter surge in yet another bleak reminder of how quickly the delta variant has spread through the country.
The US was averaging about 11,000 cases a day in late June. Now the number is 107,143.
It took about nine months to cross the 100,000 average case number in November before peaking at about 250,000 in early January. Cases bottomed out in June but took about six weeks to go back above 100,000, despite a vaccine that has been given to more than 70% of the adult population.
The seven-day average for daily new deaths also increased, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It rose over the past two weeks from about 270 deaths per day to nearly 500 a day as of Friday.
Members of the government’s expert committee on vaccination remain largely opposed to extending Covid jabs to younger teenagers, despite politicians signalling they would like to see a shift in the guidance, the Guardian has been told.
Several members of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said the mainstream sentiment on the body was still extremely cautious about expanding the programme to 12- to 15-year-olds, even though a deputy chief medical officer has suggested that outcome is highly probable and politicians have said they would like the issue to remain under review.
The JCVI recommended on Wednesday that all over-16s be offered jabs, just two weeks after saying children should not routinely be given Covid vaccinations. The U-turn provoked alarm at what was described as a “shambolic” vaccine rollout for older teenagers.
The JCVI has moved to “refresh” the membership of its Covid subcommittee in recent weeks, with one prominent critic of Covid jabs for children, Prof Robert Dingwall, leaving the body.
Updated
The state of Victoria in Australia has recorded 29 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, all linked to current outbreaks but not in quarantine while infectious.
If ever there were a demonstration of the need to act immediately, this is it. Amazing work yesterday and overnight to link everyone here and to quarantine contacts. We'll get ahead of this. Check exposure sites, get tested, stay home. Support each other. https://t.co/5Rik4wMZsi https://t.co/sE9R3HMUQM
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) August 7, 2021
Record daily cases in Australia
Australia detected a record daily number of new coronavirus cases for the year on Saturday, with the country’s most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland recording a total of 361 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant.
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Wales has moved to Covid alert level zero, which means most restrictions including social distancing will be scrapped.
It comes almost 17 months after Wales’ first lockdown and means nightclubs are allowed to reopen and meeting indoors permitted. However, face masks are still required in most public indoor spaces but not in pubs, restaurants, or schools.
The decision was confirmed on Thursday following weeks of declining case rates. The first minister, Mark Drakeford, has warned against a “free-for-all”.
Updated
In England, a top scientific adviser to the government has said lockdowns are “unlikely” to be needed again to control the Covid pandemic.
The claim comes as the number of people in hospitals with the virus has fallen, and the average rate of infection has decreased.
The number of Covid infections is expected to rise again in September when school and university terms begin and more workers are expected to return to the office.
But Prof Neil Ferguson, an immunologist among the government’s most prominent scientific advisers on Covid, has predicted it is unlikely a lockdown will be needed again to control the virus.
In an interview with the Times, he said: “I think it is unlikely we will need a new lockdown or even social distancing measures of the type we’ve had so far.”
