A summary of today's developments
- Wealthy countries’ booster campaigns “leave poorer people to drown”, the World Health Organization said. Experts at the organisation insisted there was not enough scientific evidence that boosters were needed. Providing them while so many were still waiting to be immunised was immoral, they argued.
- The condemnation came as US health officials recommended all Americans get Covid-19 booster shots to improve their protection against the virus amid evidence that the vaccines’ effectiveness is falling, despite unproven usefulness.
- The medical journal Nature echoed WHO calls for a temporary suspension of Covid boosters, saying the scientific case for their efficacy has not yet been proved. “So far, there is little evidence that boosters are needed to protect the fully vaccinated,” it said.
- The WHO said it was confident China would cooperate on investigating Covid’s origins, after one of its officials suggested patient zero could be lab worker – in a sudden escalation of pressure – and that their resistance to transparency could mean “that there is a human error” to conceal.
- China’s ambassador to Denmark said groundless accusations were being levelled against China amid suggestions that Covid may have originated from a laboratory leak or the collection of bat coronavirus samples.
- Almost 60% of hospitalised patients with Covid in Israel are fully vaccinated - Science Mag reports, despite 78% of those 12 and older in Israel being fully jabbed. The experience of Israel thus makes clear that so-called “breakthrough” cases are not such rare events as implied by the term.
- Ireland has administered at least one dose to 90% of adults, the head of the vaccine rollout has announced. He said 83% of adults were fully vaccinated after 6.46m vaccine doses were administered to date.
- People refusing to get Covid-19 vaccines in France are paying hundreds for fake health passes in an online black market that has flourished since the government imposed mandates for them to enter cafes, intercity trains and other public places.
- A lack of exercise is linked to an increased risk of severe Covid-19 and associated complications, according to a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers found that, “consistently meeting physical activity guidelines was strongly associated with a reduced risk for severe Covid-19 outcomes among infected adults”.
- A high-ranking Catholic cardinal who has Covid-19 and is a vaccine sceptic, is in serious condition and has been sedated, according to officials at a Wisconsin shrine that he founded. He spoke out against mandatory vaccinations in May 2020, saying some in society want to implant microchips in people.
We’re now closing this blog. You can read all our coronavirus coverage here. Take care.
Updated
WHO confident China will cooperate on Covid origins, after suggestion patient zero could be lab worker
Just days after Beijing rejected calls for a renewed probe into the origins of Covid-19 with a greater focus on virus labs in Wuhan, the World Health Organization said it remained confident China would cooperate in the investigation.
“I’m confident ... that our colleagues in China are very much willing to cooperate on the scientific studies that are needed to further explore the origins,” the WHO emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said.
“I think what’s happened in all of this is that the politics have really contaminated the environment and changed the atmosphere. We’re working very hard behind the scenes to increase the level of confidence and to get people to recommit to the scientific process.”
AFP reports that in the face of China’s reluctance to open up to outside investigators, experts are increasingly open to considering the theory that the virus might have leaked out of a lab, once dismissed as a conspiracy.
Earlier today, China’s ambassador to Denmark said China would reject any further origin-tracing studies which may arrive at a conclusion that a lab leak was not extremely unlikely.
It comes after the WHO mission lead to Wuhan said Chinese resistance to scrutiny of the labs could mean “that there is a human error” to conceal and that it was a “probable hypothesis” that a lab employee collecting field bat coronavirus samples was patient zero.
Updated
Wealthy countries' booster campaigns 'leave poorer people to drown', says WHO
The World Health Organization has again condemned the rush by wealthy countries to provide Covid vaccine booster shots, while millions around the world have yet to receive a single dose.
Speaking before US authorities announced that all vaccinated Americans should soon be eligible to receive additional doses, WHO experts insisted there was not enough scientific evidence that boosters were needed. Providing them while so many were still waiting to be immunised was immoral, they argued.
“We’re planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we’re leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket,” WHO’s emergency director Mike Ryan said. “The fundamental, ethical reality is we’re handing out second life jackets while leaving millions and millions of people without anything to protect them.”
AFP reports that earlier this month, the WHO called for a moratorium on Covid vaccine booster shots to help ease the drastic inequity in dose distribution between rich and poor nations. That has not stopped a number of countries moving forward with plans to add a third jab.
US authorities, warning that Covid-19 vaccination efficacy was decreasing over time, said today they had authorised booster shots for all Americans from 20 September. They would start eight months after an individual has been fully vaccinated. Israel has also begun administering third doses to Israelis aged 50 and over.
But, as AFP reports, WHO experts insisted that the science was still out on boosters and stressed that ensuring that people in low-income countries where vaccination is lagging received jabs was far more important.
“What is clear is that it’s critical to get first shots into arms and protect the most vulnerable before boosters are rolled out,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “The divide between the haves and have nots will only grow larger if manufacturers and leaders prioritise booster shots over supply to low- and middle-income countries.”
Tedros voiced outrage at reports, as we reported yesterday, that the single-dose J&J vaccine currently being finished in South Africa was being shipped for use in Europe “where virtually all adults have been offered vaccines at this point”.
We urge J&J to urgently prioritise distribution of their vaccines to Africa before considering supplies to rich countries that already have sufficient access. Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months.”
South African NGOs have denounced the shipments from South Africa as “vaccine apartheid” when less than 2% of 1.3bn Africans have been fully vaccinated so far.
“Global allocation of vaccines is currently not being made by public health officials but instead by a handful of company officials, who consistently prioritise Europeans and North Americans over Africans,” said Dr Matthew Kavanagh of the Health Law Institute at Georgetown University.
Almost 60% of hospitalised patients with Covid in Israel are fully vaccinated - report
Science Mag reports that despite 78% of those 12 and older in Israel being fully vaccinated, the country is now logging one of the world’s highest infection rates, with nearly 650 new cases daily per million people.
Nearly 60% of hospitalised cases are among fully vaccinated people, heightening concerns that the benefits of inoculation – which Pfizer, the primary jab in Israel, has acknowledged – decrease significantly over relatively short periods of time.
The magazine reports that the experience of Israel makes clear that so-called “breakthrough” cases are not such rare events as implied by the term.
The sheer number of vaccinated Israelis means some breakthrough infections were inevitable, and the unvaccinated are still far more likely to end up in the hospital or die. But Israel’s experience is forcing the booster issue on to the radar for other nations, suggesting as it does that even the best vaccinated countries will face a Delta surge.
Now, the effects of waning immunity may be beginning to show in Israelis vaccinated in early winter; a preprint published last month by physician Tal Patalon and colleagues at KSM, the research arm of MHS, found that protection from Covid-19 infection during June and July dropped in proportion to the length of time since an individual was vaccinated. People vaccinated in January had a 2.26 times greater risk for a breakthrough infection than those vaccinated in April. (Potential confounders include the fact that the very oldest Israelis, with the weakest immune systems, were vaccinated first.)
Cases in the country, which were scarcely registering at the start of summer, have been doubling every week to 10 days since then, with the Delta variant responsible for most of them. They have now soared to their highest level since mid-February, with hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions beginning to follow. How much of the current surge is due to waning immunity versus the power of the Delta variant to spread like wildfire is uncertain.
What is clear is that “breakthrough” cases are not the rare events the term implies. As of 15 August, 514 Israelis were hospitalized with severe or critical Covid-19, a 31% increase from just 4 days earlier. Of the 514, 59% were fully vaccinated. Of the vaccinated, 87% were 60 or older. “There are so many breakthrough infections that they dominate and most of the hospitalized patients are actually vaccinated,” says Uri Shalit, a bioinformatician at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) who has consulted on Covid-19 for the government. “One of the big stories from Israel [is]: ‘Vaccines work, but not well enough.’”
Boosters are unlikely to tame a Delta surge on their own, says Dvir Aran, a biomedical data scientist at Technion. In Israel, the current surge is so steep that “even if you get two-thirds of those 60-plus [boosted], it’s just gonna give us another week, maybe 2 weeks until our hospitals are flooded.” He says it’s also critical to vaccinate those who still haven’t received their first or second doses, and to return to the masking and social distancing Israel thought it had left behind—but has begun to reinstate.
Aran’s message for the US and other wealthier nations considering boosters is stark: “Do not think that the boosters are the solution.”
Updated
A school district in Texas has announced an amendment to their dress code, reportedly requiring face masks for all members, ahead of the school’s reopening tomorrow.
An announcement issued on the website of the Paris Independent School District (PISD) on Tuesday pointed out Greg Abbott’s recent executive order doesn’t allow his office to “usurp the board of trustees’ executive power”.
The Texas governor’s executive order, issued last month, had said no governmental institution, including schools, could not require anyone to wear masks.
The small school district made the announcement on its website, citing its concerns for the health and safety of its students. The city of Paris, with a population of about 25,000, currently has almost 3,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Updated
Paraguayan media have reported that a Reuters write-up of a Russian Investment Fund report, which we carried earlier (since updated), was inaccurate. Health authorities in the country said that the vaccine being used is Sputnik V, not the Sputnik Light jab as reported.
Ultimahora reports that at a press conference convened to dispel any confusion, officials said that although the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine is the same as that used in the single-dose Sputnik Light, they are not using the latter.
“That does not mean that we have emergency use of the Sputnik Light. We have learned and received clinical endorsements. This vaccine is an adenovirus 26, as it is applied in the first formula,” said the head of the National Health Surveillance Directorate (Dinavisa), María Antonieta Gamarra.
The RDIF report said the jab had demonstrated 93.5% efficacy in Paraguay, citing data from Paraguay’s health ministry collected by 30 July.
It the vaccine had proved highly effective among more than 320,000 people – though it was unclear whether the study accounted for any possible seasonal change affecting the spread of the virus.
“[The Russian report] is not very far from the analyses that we are doing. We will report later on the effectiveness of all vaccines. This type of analysis usually comes out when 50% of the population is reached,” said Sequera.
Héctor Castro, head of the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI), said that the ministry of health always delivered both doses appropriately.
“We with Sputnik do not talk about single doses, we always follow the completion of the scheme with component 2. In relation to these vaccines we have always supported the reception of the second component as part of the contract and we do not mention interchangeability with these vaccines.”
RDIF said there were no cases of serious adverse effects associated with vaccination or deaths in the country.
Yesterday we reported the latest EU database figures on the Pfizer/BioNTech jab’s safety, which shows that of about 330m doses delivered by late July a total of 244,807 cases of suspected side-effects had been reported. The report said 4,198 of these reported a fatal outcome, though it remains “unclear whether the vaccine was the cause”.
Updated
A high-ranking Catholic cardinal who has Covid-19 is in serious condition and has been sedated, according to officials at a Wisconsin shrine that he founded.
The Associated Press has the story:
The shrine issued a statement saying Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of Pope Francis’ loudest critics and a vaccine skeptic, is in serious but stable condition at an undisclosed location. He has been sedated and is still using a ventilator to breathe. He has received sacraments from priests nearby and several relics have been placed in his room.
“In humility, we understand that it is not necessary for us to know every detail of the Cardinal’s treatment,” the statement said. “Though his family realises that the Cardinal belongs’ to the Church, they also ask that we respect his privacy. The period of hospitalisation, and for now isolation because of the Covid virus, may be prolonged as His Eminence’s body fights the infection and recovers strength. For the time being, the sedation assists his own peace and rest.”
Burke also has warned people that governments were using fear of the pandemic to manipulate people. He spoke out against mandatory vaccinations in May 2020, saying some in society want to implant microchips in people. He has said the best weapon for fighting the virus is Jesus Christ.
Updated
The World Health Organization has called on the pharmaceutical company Roche to ensure fair distribution of its arthritis drug used to treat Covid-19 patients as supplies of the drug run low due to rising cases driven by the more infectious Delta variant.
Associated Press reports:
In a statement on Monday, Roche’s US unit Genentech warned of a global shortage of tocilizumab, sold by Roche as Actemra and RoActemra, which will last at least for the next few weeks. The latest wave of the pandemic has led to unprecedented demand, with orders well over 400% of pre-Covid levels over the last two weeks, it said.
Genentech has notified its customers that it has sold out of the drug in the US. New stock will arrive by the end of August, but if the pandemic continues at its current pace, there will be additional periods of disruption, it warned.
The squeeze comes after the US regulator approved the drug for emergency use in hospitalised patients who need oxygen and the WHO also recommended it in June after promising clinical trial data.
Updated
Italy reported 69 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday against 54 the day before, according to the health ministry, which reported an increase in the daily number of new infections to 7,162, up from 5,273.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,559 on Wednesday, up from 3,472 a day earlier.
There were 50 new admissions to intensive care units, edging up from 49 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients rose to 442 from a previous 423.
Some 226,423 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 238,073, the health ministry said.
Updated
Norway will offer all 16- and 17-year-olds their first Covid-19 vaccine dose after those over 18 are fully vaccinated, the government said.
Reuters reported that the vaccinations for this group could start within a few weeks. Almost 88% of those over 18 in Norway have now received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 53.5% of those are fully vaccinated.
UK reports 111 further Covid-linked deaths and 33,904 new cases
The UK reported 33,904 cases of Covid, with the weekly tally standing at 211,238, a 7% increase on the previous week.
There were 111 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, with 655 over the past week, an 8% rise on the previous week. There were 773 patients admitted to hospital, taking the weekly tally to 5,623.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Mattha Busby, do email over any tips to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
Updated
CDC recommends everyone in US gets booster shot despite unproven usefulness
US health officials have recommended all Americans get Covid-19 booster shots to improve their protection against the virus amid evidence that the vaccines’ effectiveness is falling.
The plan, as outlined by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top authorities, calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
The doses could begin the week of 20 September, the Associated Press reports, though the plan is still awaiting a Food and Drug Administration evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of a third dose, the officials said.
Health officials said people who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots. But they said they are awaiting more data and have yet to work out a plan.
In a statement, health officials said it is very clear that the vaccines’ protection against infection wanes over time, and now, with the highly contagious delta variant spreading rapidly, “we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease”.
They said: “Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death could diminish in the months ahead.”
It comes after pressure from Pfizer to introduce booster shots in the US, which health officials initially rebuffed.
We reported earlier that the medical journal Nature has echoed calls from the World Health Organization for a temporary suspension of Covid boosters, saying the scientific case for their efficacy has not yet been proved and that the shots would be better used elsewhere in the world.
Updated
China rejects further Covid origin investigation with lab focus, says ambassador to Denmark
Groundless accusations have been levelled against China amid suggestions that Covid may have originated from a laboratory leak or the collection of bat coronavirus samples, the country’s ambassador to Denmark has said.
Writing in the Copenhagen Post, Feng Tie responded to a Danish documentary which last week quoted the World Health Organization mission lead to Wuhan as saying Chinese resistance to scrutiny of the labs could mean “that there is a human error” to conceal.
Feng said China would reject any further origin-tracing studies which may arrive at a conclusion that a lab leak was not extremely unlikely, as the WHO concluded earlier this year before a number of figures rowed back on the suggestion.
The Danish scientist Peter Ben Embarek said according to Danish media, translated by Google:
An employee who was infected in the field by taking samples falls under one of the probable hypotheses. This is where the virus jumps directly from a bat to a human. In that case, it would then be a laboratory worker instead of a random villager or other person who has regular contact with bats. So it is actually in the probable category.
Until 48 hours before we finished the whole mission, we still had no agreement that we would talk about the laboratory part of the report, so it was until the very end that it was discussed whether it should be included or not.
We did not get to look at laboratory books or documents directly from the laboratory. We got a presentation, and then we talked about and asked the questions we wanted to ask, but we did not get to look at any documentation at all.
But Feng has responded robustly:
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has been working closely with WHO in Covid-19 origin-tracing. However, there have been groundless accusations against China. On 12 August, TV2 aired a documentary on origin-tracing. This documentary, full of specious assumptions and vague inferences, is not based on facts but presuppositions and aims to smear China and politicise the origin studying issue by misleading the audience.
The WHO-China joint report formed after the trip was in full compliance with WHO procedures and scientific methods. It has been proved to be a valuable and authoritative report that can stand the test of science and history. Officially released by the WHO, the report should serve as the basis and guide for global efforts on origin-tracing.
Any attempt to overturn or distort the conclusions of the joint research report is a result of political manipulation and disrespect to science and scientists from different parts of the world. In the WHO-China joint origin-tracing report, the conclusion was that laboratory leak is extremely unlikely.
China supports the second phase of origin-tracing study. What China disagrees with is politicsation of origin-tracing. What China rejects is the origin-tracing that deviates from the relevant [WHO] resolution. And what China will not participate in is the origin-tracing that disregards the conclusions and recommendations of the first phase of the study.
Updated
At least 90% of adults have received one vaccine dose in Ireland
Ireland has administered at least one dose to 90% of adults, the head of the vaccine rollout has announced.
VACCINATION UPDATE
— Brian MacCraith (@muirtheimhne) August 18, 2021
💉 >90% of adults have received at least 1 vaccine dose
💉 ~83% of adults fully vaccinated
💉 >75% of eligible population (12+) fully vaccinated
💉 6.46m vaccine doses administered to date@HSELive#ForUsAll#DoChách pic.twitter.com/oS0pSW0Sbj
Updated
Former Australia prime minister Kevin Rudd claims that the New South Wales premier has “put the state and nation at risk” because of pressure from Rupert Murdoch, the current PM, Scott Morrison, and “the far right”, after she dismissed calls to tighten lockdown rules.
Berejiklian, having ignored advice to lock down Sydney early because of pressure from Murdoch, Morrison & the far right, still refuses to impose an effective lockdown despite 633 cases today. As a result, she puts the rest of the state and nation at risk. https://t.co/C3j6NnQtpy
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) August 18, 2021
Updated
People refusing to get Covid-19 vaccines in France are paying hundreds for fake health passes in an online black market that has flourished since the government imposed mandates for them to enter cafes, intercity trains and other public places.
AFP reports that people in the historically vaccine-sceptic country have had to show proof they have either been vaccinated, tested negative for Covid or have recovered from the disease in order to enter a museum, cinema or sports venue since July.
It was expanded to restaurants, bars, hospitals and trains earlier this month as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, seeks to compel people to get vaccinated.
A parallel market for fraudulent health passes has sprung up on Snapchat - despite the risk of jail sentences – amid large protests.
Some ads say: “Your health pass by email in eight to 10 hours maximum”, “Vaccination is optional thanks to our service” or “Say no to the vaccine and get a health pass without getting vaccinated”.
A 28-year-old event planner told AFP he obtained his fake health pass for €350 (£300). He said he was not anti-vaccine, but that he did not feel that young people should be forced to get vaccinated when they were not particularly vulnerable.
“If Covid-19 still exists when I’m 50 or 60, then yes, I’ll get vaccinated,” he said, adding getting regular tests to show that he is not infected was not an option as he risks a positive result which means he could not work. “Security guards told me that even if I am the person organising the party, if I’m positive, I can’t get into my own event,” he said.
He said he was not worried about getting scammed as he has friends who had already bought fake health passes.
“I send all the information to my doctor contact who registers it in” the French national health system database and the phone app for the health pass, said one counterfeiter.
One woman has received a one-year prison term – which was converted to home detention owing to Covid – for creating some 200 QR codes for sale. She worked at a vaccine centre.
Updated
The New York Times reports that while the vaccines are effective at preventing serious illness and death, the risk of developing post-Covid health problems after a breakthrough infection is not known.
While some breakthrough cases among those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are inevitable, they are unlikely to result in hospitalisation or death. But one important question about breakthrough infection that remains unanswered is: can the vaccinated develop so-called long Covid?
While preliminary research suggests that it is, in fact, possible for a breakthrough case to lead to symptoms that can persist for weeks to months, there are still more questions than answers. What percent of breakthrough cases result in lingering symptoms? How many of those people recover? Are the persistent symptoms after breakthrough infection as severe as those that occur in the unvaccinated?
“People have said to me, ‘You’re fully vaccinated. Why are you being so careful?’” said Dr Robert M Wachter, professor and chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’m still in the camp of I don’t want to get Covid. I don’t want to get a breakthrough infection.
“I’m going to take it at face value that one in five people, six weeks after a breakthrough case, continued to feel crummy. That’s enough to make me want to wear two masks when I go into the grocery store, which is not that burdensome anyway.”
Complicating the study of breakthrough infections is the fact that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only tracks post-vaccination infections that result in hospitalisation or death. While the CDC does continue to study breakthrough infections in several large cohorts, the lack of data on all breakthrough cases remains a source of frustration among scientists and patient advocacy groups.
“It’s very frustrating not to have data at this point in the pandemic to know what happens to breakthrough cases,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale School of Medicine who is conducting studies of long Covid. “If mild breakthrough infection is turning into long Covid, we don’t have a grasp of that number.”
Updated
A lack of exercise is linked to an increased risk of severe Covid-19 and associated complications, according to a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Researchers compared hospitalisation rates, intensive care (ICU) admissions and mortality among almost 50,000 patients with Covid-19 who were consistently inactive, doing some activity or consistently reporting doing sufficient exercise.
It found that, “consistently meeting physical activity guidelines was strongly associated with a reduced risk for severe Covid-19 outcomes among infected adults.”
The researchers recommend public health agencies to prioritise the promotion of physical activity and to incorporate it into routine medical care.
Obesity increases the risk of dying of Covid-19 by nearly 50% and may make vaccines against the disease less effective, according to a comprehensive study using global data. About 2.2m of the 2.5m deaths related to Covid as of March were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says a report from the World Obesity Federation.
Writing in the Conversation, clinician scientist Jane Thornton, from Western University in Canada, said:
Statistics Canada’s data on Canadian Covid-19 deaths in 2020 reported at least one comorbidity present in 90% of all Covid-19-related deaths (including younger age groups). A comorbidity is a disease or condition that a patient has at the same time as another illness. Many of the most common comorbid conditions on the list — including high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes — are linked to physical inactivity.
As a part of prevention and treatment of these comorbid conditions that put people at greater risk, access to physical activity for all must play a central part in this change. Physicians and other health care providers can play a part by prescribing physical activity, facilitating access and measuring outcomes.
Nature backs WHO calls for third-shot suspension, 'little evidence of need'
The medical journal Nature has echoed calls for a temporary suspension of Covid boosters, saying the scientific case for their efficacy has not yet been proved.
In a period of vaccine scarcity, the choice to dole out boosters must be guided by evidence of benefit, and consideration given to the cost of delaying the delivery of vaccines to vulnerable people and health-care workers in other countries. So far, there is little evidence that boosters are needed to protect the fully vaccinated.
It said about 58% of people in high-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose, in low-income countries that number stood at just 1.3%.
Sadly, many countries are moving ahead with boosters regardless. Israel has begun giving third doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine to people over 50 and other vulnerable groups. France, Germany, the UK and the US are all planning to provide boosters to certain groups. In the US, more than 1m people have managed to get an unauthorised third dose.
Allowing Covid-19 to spread in low and lower-middle-income countries, where, overall, fewer than 15% of people are vaccinated, could result in millions of people dying or facing long-term complications from severe Covid-19. Economies will erode as businesses and schools remain closed.
If vaccines were not scarce, boosters would be less controversial. But to focus on boosters when more than half the world lacks vaccine doses is short-sighted and will only keep the pandemic burning longer. For wealthy countries, this strategy means they will be indefinitely chasing their tails in terms of new variants. And for the rest of the world, it means prolonging unnecessary suffering.
It added: “In some cases, boosters might be warranted — if the evidence suggests that the usual doses aren’t effective, for example. One study of people who have had an organ transplant, meaning they need to take drugs that suppress the immune system, found that almost half had no antibody response after two doses of mRNA vaccines.”
Updated
Counterfeit versions of India’s primary Covid vaccine have been seized by authorities in the country, and in African nations, over the past two months, the World Health Organization has said.
The BBC reports that the WHO warned that fake vaccines “pose a serious risk to global public health” and called for their removal from circulation.
“Although we have a strong system to prevent such cases, with this development the only thing we want to ensure is that no Indian received a fake vaccine,” an unidentified Indian health official told the Mint news website.
Covishield, the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca’s jab, is the most widely used vaccine in India, with more than 486m doses administered so far.
Millions of Covishield vaccines were being sent to countries in Asia, Africa and South America as part of deals with various governments and the global Covax scheme. But the Indian government banned exports in May to focus on its domestic rollout amid surging cases, heightening the need elsewhere.
Updated
A Singapore court has sentenced a British man to six weeks in prison, local media reported, after he repeatedly breached coronavirus protocols by refusing to wear a face mask in public.
Benjamin Glynn, 40, was found guilty on four charges over his failure to wear a mask on a train in May and at a subsequent court appearance in July, as well as causing a public nuisance and using threatening words towards public servants, Reuters reports.
Glynn was earlier subjected to a psychiatric assessment ordered by the judge as a result of his conduct and remarks in court. Earlier today, he asked the court to drop what he called “unlawful charges” and asked for his passport to be returned so that he could go back to Britain to be with his family, according to media outlet CNA.
It quoted the judge as telling Glynn that he was “completely misguided” in is belief that he was exempt from Singapore’s laws on wearing masks. Glynn represented himself in court.
The Asian business hub is well known for its enforcement of strict rules and has jailed and fined others for breaking Covid-19 regulations, according to Reuters. Some foreigners have had their work permits revoked for rule breaches.
In February, a Singapore court sentenced a British man to two weeks in jail after he sneaked out of his hotel room to meet his then fiancee while in quarantine.
Updated
The Scottish government has announced a return to exams for secondary pupils from spring 2022 “if public health advice allows” – but said two contingency plans would remain in place in case of further disruption due to the pandemic.
Some education experts had suggested this could be an opportunity for the government to reassess whether traditional exams remained the best way of assessing achievement, but there have been numerous concerns raised about the type of intensive continuous assessment imposed on pupils over the last school year, when exams were cancelled.
The head of Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, Larry Flanagan, said he would have preferred to see exams bypassed for younger secondary students “in the interests of supporting education recovery and wellbeing among this cohort”.
It remains to be seen whether the reductions in course content for this year as recognition that young people have been adversely affected by the pandemic through no fault of their own, will suffice.”
The Scottish government announced before the summer that it was replacing the Scottish qualifications authority, which has been the subject of ongoing criticism, and Flanagan called for “alternative models of timetabling and the timing of qualifications to better serve the needs of Scotland’s learners” to be considered as part of the overhaul.
Updated
A card shop whose owners repeatedly refused requests to close it during lockdowns, because they sold sweets and soft drinks, has been fined more than £35,000.
The BBC reports that the owners of Grace Cards and Books in Droitwich, Worcestershire, argued their shop qualified for an exemption because they sold confectionary.
But a judge did not agree that these constituted essential goods nor qualified it as a newsagent, calling their reasoning a “fig leaf” despite the sale of Christian publications and, later, some national newspapers.
Alasdair and Lydia Walker-Cox were ordered to pay fines totalling £35,000 after being found guilty at Kidderminster magistrates court. They will also have to pay legal costs of just under £9,000 and a victim surcharge of £190.
They told the BBC last year they were defying the rules “on principle” and risked going out of business if they closed: “We have a God-given right to earn an honest living ... If we shut we won’t be able to pay suppliers, the rent, let alone support the family. If we open we can.”
Alasdair Walker-Cox also said he believed lockdowns did not “work” against the virus.
Covid-19: Droitwich card and gift shop flouts lockdown 'on principle' https://t.co/8Z9xx3kpHK
— BBC Midlands Today (@bbcmtd) November 24, 2020
Updated
The practice of some politicians not wearing face coverings in parliament when they are not speaking may conflict with the spirit of government guidance.
PA reports that on Wednesday the House of Commons was at its busiest since March 2020, as MPs were recalled to debate the situation in Afghanistan, with members sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Some were wearing face coverings as they sat for the hours-long session, but many, including Boris Johnson, were not.
Since 19 July face coverings have not been mandatory in England, but government guidance says they are recommended in crowded and enclosed spaces.
It says: “We expect and recommend that members of the public continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet.” It adds that people should “use your judgment in deciding where you should wear one”.
Edinburgh University professor of public health Linda Bauld said:
The virus is airborne, we currently have slightly rising numbers of cases, so it is a protective measure that they can take and I’m sure everyone in public health would agree when indoors we should do that where possible.
It is important that people who are in positions of authority lead by example, and that’s been a bit of an issue throughout the pandemic in a whole variety of respects but continues to be the case.
Updated
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been touting a Covid-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars.
DeSantis has been flying around the state promoting Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment that was used on then-president Donald Trump after he tested positive for Covid-19, the Associated Press reports. The governor first began talking about it as a treatment last year.
Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9m in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical, according to US filings. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75m to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75m in 2018 and $5m last April.
The AP reports that it is not unusual for hedge funds to have a wide range of investments. BlackRock, which has primarily donated to Democratic candidates, though has also donated substantially to Republicans, has a large holding in the company – more so than Citadel.
DeSantis ramped up the call for Floridians to seek out monoclonal antibody treatments in August as coronavirus cases spiked. He has held news conferences at treatment sites and a Tampa hospital touting the effectiveness of the drug if people receive treatment soon after testing positive.
“Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies – Regeneron and others – have proven to radically reduce the chances that somebody ends up being hospitalised,” DeSantis said on Monday at a treatment site in Orlando. “Reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority.”
Experts agree with him. The drugs, when given within 10 days of initial symptoms, have been shown to cut rates of hospitalisation and death by roughly 70%.
“We definitely need treatments like monoclonal antibodies that can prevent mild disease from progressing to severe disease. Ultimately, it’s still best to prevent someone from contracting Covid-19 in the first place,” said Dr. Leana Wen, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore Health Commissioner. “Monoclonal antibodies are not prevention.”
DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said that Citadel has far greater investments in Moderna and Pfizer, which manufacture Covid-19 vaccines.
“Vaccines prevent serious illness from Covid-19. But if someone who is unvaccinated gets Covid, or a vaccinated person gets a breakthrough infection, those in risk categories with comorbidities should consider getting early treatment with Regeneron. It is safe, effective, and free of charge to all patients in Florida. This should not be a political issue – it’s about saving lives,” Pushaw said.
Despite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that K-12 students should wear masks for in-person learning, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed an executive order on 30 July that bars school districts from putting mask mandates in place, even though children under 12 cannot yet receive a vaccine.
This has left some Florida parents making difficult individual decisions to have their children wear masks, often going up against the political and social norms of their schools and communities.
Ecuador is the latest country to announce it will administer booster jabs to people with weak immune systems, health minister Ximena Garzon has said.
With the current evidence base limited, the country will also carry out tests to determine if the rest of the inoculated population also needs a third shot, he said.
“At an international level, it has already been shown that people who have some type of immunodeficiency will need a third dose,” Garzon said. “We will apply it, three months after the second dose, to people who meet certain parameters of immune disorders.”
Experts have warned the scientific and public health case for large-scale boosting has not been made and could have far-reaching consequences in other countries. On Saturday, the World Health Organization renewed its call for a suspension of booster shot campaigns.
Countries with high coverage are seeing a decoupling of #COVID19 cases & deaths, whereas countries that can't access vaccines are seeing high cases drive steep rises in death.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 14, 2021
No one is safe until everyone is safe & that's why we need a moratorium on boosters. #VaccinEquity https://t.co/Mp4LM2S6tX
Official data shows that as of Sunday, Ecuador has vaccinated 4.8m people with two doses and almost 10m with one dose.
The country is using Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac shots as part of a broad vaccination plan. This week it began to use the single-dose vaccine developed by the China’s CanSino Biologics in hard-to-reach areas and in prisons. “We are already seeing ... decreases in the percentage [of hospital bed occupancy],” Garzon said.
Ecuador, population 17m, has reported about 500,000 infections and around 31,900 deaths confirmed or likely Covid-19 deaths, Reuters reports.
Russia’s Sputnik vaccine against Covid-19 has demonstrated 93.5% efficacy in Paraguay, with data taken from the South American country’s vaccination campaign, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has said.
Developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, it had shown 79.4% efficacy when it was first authorised for use in May, Reuters reports.
The RDIF, citing data from Paraguay’s health ministry collected by 30 July, said the vaccine had proved highly effective among more than 320,000 people – though it was unclear whether the study accounted for any possible seasonal change affecting the spread of the virus.
Hello and greetings to everyone reading, wherever you are in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Robyn Vinter for covering the blog up until now. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.
Updated
The Australian federal parliament will sit as scheduled next week, despite the ACT lockdown, as the government faces deadlines on key pieces of legislation it must have passed.
The sitting had been placed in limbo after the ACT went into lockdown at the end of last week, following its first positive community-transmitted Covid case in 14 months.
Summary
That’s it from me. I’ll leave you with a summary of today’s events before handing over to my colleague Mattha Busby.
- New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid took effect in Israel after the largely vaccinated country reported the highest daily infection rate since January. The measures, announced on Sunday, require vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces.
- New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case.
- Australia is on track to break its daily coronavirus case record with surging infections and more deaths in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, fuelling national concern. The state, which is under lockdown, reported a record-breaking 633 new cases in the past 24 hours.
- Qantas airlines will require all of its frontline employees, including cabin crew, pilots and airport workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
- India reported on 35,178 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, nearly 40% higher than yesterday. Deaths remained low, with 440 reported in the past 24 hours.
- Pope Francis has encouraged people to get Covid vaccines in a new media campaign. Getting vaccinated is “an act of love”, the pontiff says in a public service advert that will circulate online and on television from Wednesday.
- The International Federation of Red Cross has called for south-east Asian countries to be given more help securing Covid-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant.
- New York has become the first US city to require proof of vaccination to enter gyms, theatres and restaurants.
- Japan’s government expanded a coronavirus state of emergency to seven more regions on Tuesday as it battles a record wave of infections a week before the Paralympic Games.
Updated
Mexican young people wear costumes to get their vaccine
Young people in Mexico City are being encouraged to wear costumes to make receiving their Covid-19 vaccinations more fun.
The country could tip over into a quarter of a million recorded deaths when the figures for yesterday are published today.
Mexico registered 14,814 new Covid-19 infections and 877 more deaths, health ministry data showed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 3,123,252 and the death toll to 249,529.
Over the weekend, seven states reported growth in the virus, with health authorities in San Luis Potosí declaring the state was now red on the country’s traffic light system, with Covid-19 now affecting more younger people.
Updated
Israel begins new measures requiring vaccination certificates or negative tests to enter public spaces
New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid took effect in Israel on Wednesday, after the largely vaccinated country reported the highest daily infection rate since January.
The measures, announced on Sunday, require vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces, including restaurants and bars, cultural and sports venues, hotels and gyms, the health ministry said.
The same applies to worshippers wanting to enter synagogues, mosques or churches with more than 50 people in attendance, Agence France-Presse reports.
In addition, the capacity of stores, shopping malls and industrial parks will be limited to one person per seven square metres (75 sq ft).
After its launch in December, Israel’s widely praised vaccination drive helped to drastically bring down infections. But that trend has since reversed, driven by the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, with restrictions that were lifted in June reimposed since July.
In recent weeks, the state has begun administering booster shots to Israelis aged 50 and over, while urging anyone aged 12 and older to get vaccinated.
About 1 million Israelis have not been vaccinated even though they are eligible.
According to the health ministry, more than 8,700 people tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest number for a single day since January.
The prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has been imploring Israelis to get vaccinated, warning of a possible lockdown that could affect the Jewish high holidays next month unless inoculation numbers rise.
Updated
Russia reported 20,914 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, including 1,590 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,663,473.
The government coronavirus taskforce said 799 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 172,909.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has said Russia recorded about 315,000 deaths related to Covid-19 from April 2020 to June 2021.
Updated
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has put out a video on social media after testing positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, saying he has no symptoms of the virus and is fully vaccinated.
The Republican spent weeks banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds in the US state.
Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Paediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.
Updated
Growing New Zealand Covid cluster linked to Sydney Delta outbreak
There’s more on New Zealand’s lockdown from Eva Corlett in Wellington and Tess McClure here:
New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case.
Updated
Owing to staff from private hospitals across greater Sydney and some regional areas being deployed to assist the response to Covid-19 in New South Wales, Australia’s health department has announced non-urgent elective surgery at just under 30 private hospitals will be postponed from Monday 23 August.
The federal government has agreed to the temporary suspension. Emergency and urgent elective surgery will continue as normal.
Updated
UK inflation falls as clothing and footwear retailers cut prices
Price cutting by clothing and footwear retailers after the prolonged spring lockdown helped push down the annual rate of UK inflation by more than expected last month, from 2.5% to 2%, according to official figures.
The return of the traditional summer sales after the hiatus last year caused by the coronavirus pandemic was a factor in bringing the government’s main measure of the cost of living back to its target rate, the Office for National Statistics said.
Updated
Asian markets rallied on Wednesday as investors engaged in bargain hunting despite losses on Wall Street and a surge of the coronavirus Delta variant stoking fears about the global economic recovery, Agence France-Presse reports.
A fresh lockdown in New Zealand and a curfew imposed in Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne over a Delta outbreak added to concerns about lockdowns along with travel restrictions in China, the world’s second-largest economy.
A lacklustre US retail sales report also exacerbated worries about the latest Covid-19 wave, bringing Wall Street’s streak of five straight records for the Dow and S&P 500 indices to a stuttering halt.
But Asian markets appeared unmoved by gloomy prospects, with Tokyo snapping a four-day losing streak to close higher Wednesday.
Hong Kong also enjoyed gains, with investors seemingly broadly unfazed by new antitrust plans from Beijing designed to rein in China’s burgeoning tech giants - plans that saw Chinese firms listed on Wall Street slide overnight.
In China, markets were well up, recouping losses after disappointing economic data from Beijing earlier in the week. Seoul rose, while Australia was steady.
New Zealand made gains despite fears over fresh virus cases as the country’s Reserve Bank chose to keep interest rates unchanged, opting against a move that would have seen it become the first advanced economy in the Asia Pacific to normalise policy.
Malaysia has reported 22,242 cases yesterday, a new daily record for the country.
Updated
Research should focus on diseases of the airways to help patients with long Covid, experts in the UK have said.
International bodies and governments are being advised of the research priorities which have been identified to address the long-term effects of coronavirus in airways diseases, PA reports.
This includes conditions such as in cystic fibrosis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Professor Tony De Soyza, professor of pulmonary medicine at Newcastle University, who led the research on behalf of the International Group of Airways Diseases, said:
The challenges of long Covid cannot be understated - this is an entirely new disease which we need to understand better so we can treat better.
Symptoms of the condition can include extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, and range from joint pain to depression and anxiety.
The international team adapted the established Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method to set research priorities.
This uses the principle of crowdsourcing to independently generate research ideas from a large group of experts and score these against a predefined set of criteria.
They also considered patients’ views.
Dr Samantha Walker, Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation director of research and innovation, said:
We’re really pleased that these research priorities, which will guide the direction of future research into the long-term effects of Covid-19 on respiratory diseases, have been developed with patient needs at their heart.
Far too often the hugely valuable lived experiences of patients have been peripheral or absent.
By embedding the needs of those living with long Covid into the very structure of the research questions, people across the globe will benefit from this effort to deepen our understanding of the impact of Covid-19 and help improve the range and effectiveness of treatments in years to come.
Red Cross sounds vaccines alarm as Covid deaths in south-east Asia soar
Here is more detail on Red Cross’s call for more vaccines support for south-east Asia, from the Guardian’s correspondent Rebecca Ratcliffe:
Updated
The UK has called for an immediate and sustained pause in clashes and unrest in Myanmar to allow vaccinations as an intense Covid-19 surge is ravaging the country.
Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, James Kariuki, told reporters after closed Security Council discussions:
Prior to the coup, Myanmar had a strong vaccination record and was developing a COVID-19 plan. Now, Myanmar’s health system is barely functioning, unacceptable attacks on hospitals, doctors and nurses continue, and only 3% of the population are vaccinated.
Myanmar has been struggling with one of the worst Covid-19 surges in Southeast Asia, and the military leadership that ousted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government 1 February has been accused of diverting critical medical supplies to itself and its supporters.
Kariuki said: “The UK is calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian pause to allow vaccines to get to all in need, and for medical and humanitarian staff to work without fear or attack.”
Hello, Robyn Vinter here (actually in the north of England).
The US reported more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, or about 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates.
Coronavirus-related deaths have spiked in the past month and are averaging 769 per day, the highest since mid-April, according to a Reuters tally. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has lost 622,813 people to Covid-19, the highest number of deaths for any country in the world.
That’s all from me on the blog today. I will now be handing over to my colleague Robyn Vinter in London
Southeast Asian countries need more help securing Covid-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The region escaped the worst when the pandemic erupted last year, but in recent weeks has seen the highest deaths globally, as soaring infections have pushed fragile health care systems to the brink and exposed sluggish vaccination roll-outs.
“This Covid-19 surge driven by the Delta variant is claiming a tragic toll on families across Southeast Asia and it’s far from over,” Alexander Matheou, Asia Pacific Director, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said in a statement.
“In the short-term, we need much greater efforts by richer countries to urgently share their millions of excess vaccine doses with countries in Southeast Asia.”
Matheou added: “These coming weeks are critical for scaling up treatment, testing and vaccinations, in every corner of all countries in Southeast Asia.”
Indonesia and Philippines, the most populous countries in Southeast Asia, have only fully vaccinated about 10-11% of their population, while Vietnam sits at below 2%
To overseas eyes, going into national lockdown over a single case should have been a hard sell, even for an extraordinarily popular prime minister such as Jacinda Ardern.
But a disastrous outbreak of the Delta variant in Sydney has helped galvanise New Zealand’s “team of 5 million” – and across the country, the government’s tough strategy on Covid-19 has enjoyed widespread popular support.
On Tuesday, New Zealand was plunged into a national, level 4 lockdown – the highest level of restrictions – as the country announced its first local case of the Delta variant.
That news was greeted with a degree of surprise, and some criticism from overseas figures. Ex-politician and brexiter Nigel Farage said Ardern had “lost her marbles”. A presenter for GB News – a partisan UK television station that has struggled in the ratings – said “Jacinda Ardern’s zero Covid fantasy is nothing short of a never ending nightmare.” Writer Glenn Greenwald called the move “demented, oblivious to the costs of sustained isolation”.
But in-country, the loudest overseas critics of its elimination approach have been mostly greeted with bemusement or defiance.
People planning to tie the knot with partners in Australia will be granted travel exemptions, paving the aisle for long delayed weddings to go ahead.
Long-term prospective marriage visa holders will be eligible for an exemption one year after the date they submitted their visa application.
The change is expected to allow 1600 people to immediately apply to come to Australia.
Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds.
Abbott, a Republican, is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said in a statement. He is taking a monoclonal antibody treatment and isolating in the governor’s mansion.
Spokesperson Mark Miner said: “Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently.”
Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Pediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.
Health officials in Texas said they have asked the federal government for five mortuary trucks, as Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise in the state.
Japan extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to counter a spike in COVID-19 infections, ahead of the Paralympic Games.
The current state of emergency, the fourth of the pandemic so far, was due to expire on 31 August but will now last until 12 September. The emergency will now cover nearly 60% of Japan’s population.
Tokyo announced 4,377 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, after a record 5,773 on Friday.
“The Delta variant raging across the world is causing unprecedented cases in our country,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. “Serious cases are increasing rapidly and severely burdening the medical system, particularly in the capital region.”
Here is the new advert featuring Pope Francis calling for universal access to vaccines and encouraging people to get their jabs as “an act of love”
Covid transmission is surging across a locked-down New South Wales, with the state setting a new daily case record of 633, as well as three deaths, and premier Gladys Berejiklian delivering a bleak warning that “we haven’t seen the worst of it”.
Wednesday’s case numbers are a significant jump on the previous daily case record, set on Monday, when 478 cases were announced.
Children, who not eligible for vaccines, are also driving transmissions in Sydney. Of the new cases, 63 are children aged nine and under, 104 are aged 10 to 19, and 170 are in their 20s. The chief health officer, Kerry Chant, said she was “keen” to see vaccines be approved for children under 16.
Sydney is currently in its eighth week of lockdown.
‘Spreading like a virus’: inside the EU’s struggle to debunk Covid lies
Understaffed and underpowered, a Brussels taskforce tries to fight a fake news tide that threatens to undermine the union itself
In April 2020, near the start of the global pandemic, Felix Kartte was working 14-hour shifts as an EU policy officer, struggling to monitor a barrage of coronavirus-linked disinformation.
Articles claiming that the pandemic was a hoax, that it was caused by 5G, that it could be cured by hydroxychloroquine or alternative medicine were going viral across the continent – part of a global phenomenon the World Health Organization warned was becoming an “infodemic.” Kartte and colleagues in StratCom, the EU diplomatic service’s strategic communications division, could detect what they say were patterns of Covid-denier and anti-vaxxer disinformation linked to Russia and to a lesser extent China, being disseminated in several languages across Europe.
They scrambled to flag the bogus reports on their monitoring database and wrote up internal reports. But problems arose when they produced a public assessment which said China was pushing false narratives to deflect any blame for the pandemic. Believing the report to be finalised, Kartte was surprised when the office of Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, paused its release for rewrites. In the document that was eventually published the criticisms of China appeared to have been softened.
Growing New Zealand Covid cluster linked to Sydney Delta outbreak
New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to seven, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case.
The country went into a snap level four lockdown – the highest level of restrictions – on Tuesday night, after detecting one case with no obvious links to the border. New Zealand has not had a level 4 lockdown in more than a year, and the case is the country’s first instance of Delta transmission in the community.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, warned on Wednesday that there would be more cases given the activity of those infected and that a link to the border had yet to be established, adding “there is more to be done to help piece together this puzzle”.
“Our ability to narrow down that this is a case that is linked to New South Wales outbreak, gives us a lot of leads to chase down as quickly as we can,” she said.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
New Zealand went into a snap one day national lockdown on Tuesday night after a single case of Covid-19 was detected in the country with no obvious links to the border. By Wednesday, the coronavirus cluster had grown to seven, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney. New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Arden warned the number of cases in the country was likely to rise.
As a fourth wave of infections, driven by the Delta variant, is driving up cases, hospitalisations and deaths in the US, the state of Texas has asked the government for five more mortuary trucks. The Texas governor Greg Abbott, a staunch opponent of masks, tested positive for Covid yesterday.
In the UK, the restaurant Nandos have temporarily closed a 10th of their branches due to Covid-related staff and supply shortages
Here’s a summary of the past 24 hours
- Australia is on track to break its daily coronavirus case record with surging infections and more deaths in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, fuelling national concern. The state, which is under lockdown, reported a record-breaking 633 new cases in the past 24 hours.
- Thirty-four aged care facilities in New South Wales are currently in the grips of a Covid-19 outbreak
- Qantas airlines will require all of its frontline employees, including cabin crew, pilots and airport workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19
- India reported on 35,178 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, nearly 40% higher than yesterday. Deaths remained low, with 440 reported in the past 24 hours
- Pope Francis has encouraged people to get Covid vaccines in new media campaign. Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is “an act of love,” Pope Francis says in a public service advert that will start circulating online and on television on Wednesday.
- The International Federation of Red Cross has called for southeast Asian countries to be given more help securing Covid-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant
- New York has become the first US city to require proof of vaccination to enter gyms, theatres and restaurants
- Japan’s government on Tuesday expanded a coronavirus state of emergency to seven more regions as it battles a record wave of infections a week before the Paralympic Games
- The UK has approved the use of the US-made Moderna vaccine for 12 to 17 year olds. The Pfizer jab was given the same approval a few weeks ago.
