We are closing the blog now. Thanks for following. You can see all our coronavirus coverage here.
A summary of today's developments
- The UK government’s vaccines watchdog has decided there is not enough evidence to recommend the rollout of Covid vaccines to all 12- to 15-year-olds, but has held open the possibility of ministers seeking other advice to go ahead nonetheless.
- Moderna Inc said it has submitted for conditional approval of a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine at a 50 microgram dose level to the EU drugs regulator, Reuters reports.
- Brazil recorded 25,565 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours along with 756 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Friday. Brazil has registered more than 20 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 582,670, according to ministry data, Reuters reports
- In Denmark, the country’s health minister Magnus Heunicke has announced residents in nursing homes will get a third shot of the Covid vaccine, starting next week.
- The US government’s plan to roll out additional shots of the coronavirus vaccine for the general public on September 20 will proceed with just the Pfizer vaccine, a source familiar with the discussion said on Friday.
-
Italy’s prime minister has announced his government could make Covid vaccines mandatory, sparking a row in the country that has seen a recent rise in protests and violence from anti-vaxxers.
-
Spain’s two-week Covid rate fell below 200 cases per 100,000 people for the first time in over two months, according to its health ministry.
- In the US, Joe Biden has said he will set out his administration’s next steps to combat the coronavirus Delta variant next week.
- North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation programme.
Mexico’s health ministry reported 17,409 new cases of Covid-19 and 725 more deaths on Friday, Reuters reports.
It brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country since the pandemic began to 3,405,294 and the death toll to 262,221.
You can follow the latest Covid developments in Australia in our dedicated blog -
The front page of Saturday’s Guardian.
Guardian front page, Saturday 4 September: Ministers expected to defy advice on jabs for children pic.twitter.com/G3O4HrfpK1
— The Guardian (@guardian) September 3, 2021
American Airlines said it would not provide special leave from next month to unvaccinated employees who have to quarantine due to coronavirus.
Unvaccinated workers will have to use their sick time or medical leave if they miss work due to the disease, it said. “Given there is an FDA-approved vaccine, pandemic leave will only be offered to team members who are fully vaccinated and who provide their vaccination card to us,” the carrier said in a memo to staff seen by Reuters. The move comes after United Airlines Inc last month became the first U.S. carrier to require vaccinations for all domestic employees.
Brazil recorded 25,565 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours along with 756 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.
Brazil has registered more than 20 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 582,670, according to ministry data, Reuters reports.
Five officers were injured and 10 people arrested during clashes with anti-vaccine protesters in London, the Metropolitan Police said.
The force said a number of protesters had “become violent” towards police during action in the capital. In a tweet, Scotland Yard said “These ugly scenes are not why police officers come into work. This level of violence is totally unacceptable and it will not be tolerated. “Five officers were injured while policing a protest group in Canary Wharf and at South Kensington.
“Crowds quickly became hostile when they reached a building in Canary Wharf. Officers moved in to prevent those protesting from gaining entry.”
It took nine days for the New South Wales health department to contact Antoinette Chidiac after she visited Trim’s Fresh in Merrylands, western Sydney, where there was a positive Covid case in mid-July.
Across New South Wales, people have been experiencing long delays between visiting a high-risk Covid exposure site and being notified to isolate and test as a close contact, prompting warnings from one epidemiologist that the contact tracing system is “overwhelmed”, which would be “a recipe for disaster”.
For Liz Giusti in Liverpool, who visited a Sydney Woolworths in mid-July, and Jodie Wright, who also visited a Woolworths last month, there was no notification at all.
“I checked in to the supermarket QR code,” Giusti told Guardian Australia. “I later realised, after scrolling through my check-in history on the Service NSW app, that my visit was within the same hour as the positive case. But I still wasn’t alerted.
The US administered 373,516,809 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 447,619,715 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC0 said.
Those figures are up from the 372,116,617 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Sept. 2 out of 445,672,595 doses delivered, Reuters reports.
The agency said 206,461,869 people had received at least one dose while 175,538,025 people were fully vaccinated as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday.
Moderna Inc said on Friday it has submitted for conditional approval of a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine at a 50 microgram dose level to the EU drugs regulator, Reuters reports.
Updated
A White House plan to offer Covid-19 booster shots will most likely start this month only with the vaccine made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, a source told Reuters.
President Joe Biden had expected to launch a campaign to administer 100 million booster shots on September 20. But U.S. vaccine makers other than Pfizer have lagged in seeking authorization of an additional dose. Moderna Inc only started submitting data for regulatory approval of a booster shot on Wednesday and said on Friday it had completed its submission. “We are awaiting a full review and approval by the FDA and advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)“, White House spokesman Chris Meagher said. “When that approval and recommendation are made, we will be ready to implement the plan our nation*s top doctors developed so that we are staying ahead of this virus.”
Four officers have been injured during clashes with anti-vaccine protesters in London, the Metropolitan Police said.
The force said a number of protesters had “become violent” towards police during action in the capital.
The Met said it had made 10 arrests while policing the group.
It said: “We have made 10 arrests while policing this protest group. They originally gathered at Canary Wharf and then travelled to South Kensington.”
Ministers have faced calls to “get a grip” after it emerged flu vaccine deliveries to GPs will be delayed.
Appointments for many patients will have to be rescheduled after Seqirus, the largest provider of flu vaccines to the UK, confirmed delays of up to two weeks in England and Wales.
The company blamed “unforeseen challenges linked with road freight delays” for the delivery disruption, PA reports.
GP Online reported the company had sent a letter advising practices not to rebook appointments until they receive confirmation of a new delivery date of vaccine supplies.
An apparent exodus of HGV drivers from EU countries, who returned to the continent during the coronavirus pandemic and remained there, has been blamed for disruption in sectors of the economy in recent weeks.
A Seqirus spokeswoman said: “Seqirus supplies influenza vaccines to all GP practices in England and Wales.
“Due to unforeseen challenges linked with road freight delays, we have informed all our customers of a consequent delay to their scheduled vaccine delivery by a maximum of one to two weeks.
“Seqirus is working hard to resolve the delay to allow customers to reschedule their influenza vaccination clinics.”
Updated
After much deliberation, the government’s independent vaccine advisers concluded that, on the strength of evidence so far, there was a marginal benefit to vaccinating healthy children aged 12 to 15 years old.
But that benefit was deemed so very marginal the advisers would not give the green light to mass vaccination of healthy children in the age group.
Instead, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) broadened out the existing group of 12- to 15-year-olds eligible for Covid vaccination. Beyond the extremely vulnerable who have already been called forward for shots, the JCVI drew on research from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to include children with major, chronic heart, lung, kidney and neurological conditions.
Children with sickle cell disease and type I diabetes will also be eligible.
Consumers have been warned of an autumn rise in living costs from sharp increases in household energy bills and food prices, as Covid and Brexit disruption ripple through the UK economy.
Sounding the alarm for a wide range of products and services going up in price, business leaders said the UK was facing a “perfect storm” of worker shortages and problems with global supply chains that would lead to a burst of inflation within months.
The warning over the cost of living comes as millions of households face a drop in their income as the government prepares to cut universal credit by £20 a week from 6 October and close the furlough wage subsidy scheme, in moves charities warn will push more people into poverty.
Rebecca McDonald, senior economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “Millions of families are facing mounting stress and anxiety about how they will cover the cost of living as the planned cut to universal credit rapidly approaches.
Summary
Here is a brief summary of all the big coronavirus news from so far today:
- The UK government’s vaccines watchdog has decided there is not enough evidence to recommend the rollout of Covid vaccines to all 12- to 15-year-olds, but has held open the possibility of ministers seeking other advice to go ahead nonetheless.
- In Denmark, the country’s health minister Magnus Heunicke has announced residents in nursing homes will get a third shot of the Covid vaccine, starting next week.
- The UK government has announced 121 more Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.
- The US government’s plan to roll out additional shots of the coronavirus vaccine for the general public on September 20 will proceed with just the Pfizer vaccine, a source familiar with the discussion said on Friday.
-
Italy’s prime minister has announced his government could make Covid vaccines mandatory, sparking a row in the country that has seen a recent rise in protests and violence from anti-vaxxers.
-
Spain’s two-week Covid rate fell below 200 cases per 100,000 people for the first time in over two months, according to its health ministry.
- In the United States, Joe Biden has said he will set out his administration’s next steps to combat the coronavirus Delta variant next week.
-
North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation programme.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’m now handing over to my colleague Nadeem Badshah, who will keep you across all the latest Covid news tonight.
Healthcare workers in Hawaii say a lack of government action is worsening the coronavirus crisis in the islands.
They say that without effective policy changes the state’s limited hospitals could face a grim future.
“Soon we’re going to be in a situation where we’re going to ration health care,” said Dr. Jonathan Dworkin, an infectious diseases specialist in Hawaii.
Dworkin said that while mandates may be unpopular, rationing Hawaii’s limited health care resources is “going to be far more ugly.”
“It involves making decisions about who lives and dies,” he said. “I hate the idea of having to make a decision about who’s going to get oxygen.”
Dworkin added that another stay-at-home order may be needed.
Spain’s two-week Covid rate fell below 200 cases per 100,000 people for the first time in over two months, according to its health ministy.
The 14-day infection rate was 198, the first time it has dipped below 200 cases since July 2, Reuters reported.
The health ministry said 71.5% of the population are fully vaccinated, while 39.4% of people aged 12 to 19 have received both doses of a vaccine.
Since the pandemic started, 4,877,755 people have tested positive for Covid in Spain while the death toll rose to 84,795 on Friday, the health ministry said.
In the UK, police have prevented anti-vaccine protesters from storming the headquarters of Britain’s medical regulator amid violent clashes in east London.
At least four officers were injured and arrests were made during a confrontation as hundreds of people gathered outside the offices of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Canary Wharf.
Police drew batons and called for reinforcements as protesters attempted to force open the door of the regulator’s offices, with security guards looking on from inside.
Some of the crowd who had gathered at Canary Wharf were later involved in another confrontation outside the Science Museum vaccination centre in Kensington, west London.
We have officers attending a demonstration outside a commercial building on Cabot Square in Canary Wharf.
— Metropolitan Police Events (@MetPoliceEvents) September 3, 2021
A number of officers are on scene, guarding the entrance to the building.
“A number of protesters have become violent towards police,” the Metropolitan police said on Twitter after the confrontation in east London.
“Four of our officers have been injured during clashes. This is unacceptable. We remain on scene.”
The protests are understood to have been organised by activists angered by reports that the Covid-19 vaccination campaign could be extended to younger age groups.
Updated
The US government’s plan to roll out additional shots of the coronavirus vaccine for the general public on September 20 will proceed with just the Pfizer vaccine, a source familiar with the discussion said on Friday.
Moderna’s booster submission was found inadequate and the US Food and Drug Administration and requires stronger data from the company, reports the Reuters news agency.
It makes the process likely to be a few weeks behind that of Pfizer/BioNTech, the source added.
Italy’s prime minister has announced his government could make Covid vaccines mandatory, sparking a row in the country that has seen a recent rise in protests and violence from anti-vaxxers.
During a press conference on Thursday, Mario Draghi said all Italians of eligible age could soon be obliged to get a shot, as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives its conditional approval for four vaccines.
The news sparked protests by anti-vaxxers who, in recent days, have sent death threats to members of the government, virologists, health officials and journalists, because of their pro-vax stances.
Prosecutors in Turin on Tuesday have launched an investigation into an antivax chat group on Telegram, where members posted death threats against foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio.
Updated
A bit more on those jobs statistics mentioned in the Joe Biden press conference earlier this afternoon.
The US economy added just 235,000 jobs in August, a sharp drop from preceding months, as employers cut back hiring plans amid the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus virus.
The unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points to 5.2% from 5.4% in July and has fallen dramatically from a high of 14.7% in April last year.
So far this year, monthly US job growth has averaged 586,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But August’s hiring slowdown was unexpected. Economists polled by Bloomberg had anticipated a gain of 725,000 jobs for August, after surging over 1m in July.
With companies increasingly recognising that pandemic-induced burnout is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed, what are the signs and what can frazzled workers do to help recovery?
My colleague Alexandra Topping has been speaking to Dr Rajvinder Samra, a psychologist and lecturer in health at the Open University, who describes burnout as “the effects of chronic and acute stress over long periods of time”.
For the full story, click below.
In the United States, Joe Biden has said he will set out his administration’s next steps to combat the coronavirus Delta variant next week.
He also called the US economic recovery “durable and strong”.
“We need to make more progress in fighting the Delta variant,” Biden said in remarks from the White House.
However, earlier today Reuters reported the US economy created the fewest jobs in seven months in August as hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector stalled amid a resurgence in Covid infections.
But other details of the Labor department’s closely watched employment report on Friday were fairly strong, with the unemployment rate falling to a 17-month low of 5.2% and July job growth revised sharply higher.
Wages increased a solid 0.6% and fewer people were experiencing long spells unemployment.
Updated
UK confirms 121 Covid deaths, 42,076 new cases for Friday
The UK government has announced 121 more Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.
This represents a drop from 178 deaths related to coronavirus on Thursday.
The latest data also confirmed a further 42,076 people tested positive for Covid.
UK watchdog rules out Covid vaccinations for children
The UK government’s vaccines watchdog has decided there is not enough evidence to recommend the rollout of Covid vaccines to all 12- to 15-year-olds, but has held open the possibility of ministers seeking other advice to go ahead nonetheless.
But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended an expansion of the group of children with health conditions that makes them clinically vulnerable. They should receive two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, as they are more at risk of the virus.
The committee said that with a rate of just two per million of healthy children needing intensive care treatment for Covid, the marginal benefit of vaccinating them was “insufficient to support a universal offer” of vaccines to the age group.
One issue is the very small risk of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, in children who receive the vaccine. While this is extremely rare, and children tend to recover quickly, there was uncertainty about any longer-term effects, with further research needed.
However, the JCVI has left ministers – who are under intense pressure to begin the children’s vaccinations as schools in England return this week – with the option of overruling the watchdog.
The JCVI’s decision notes that it is not within its remit to consider wider issues such as disruption to education and wider community transmission, and has agreed that ministers can seek advice on this elsewhere.
The chief medical officers of the four UK nations will be asked for their views, with the hope of a UK-wide policy being formed. It is understood the JCVI made the decision by a majority vote on Thursday, following lengthy discussions and debate.
Updated
The UK has sent coronavirus vaccines to delegates attending the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, next month.
The government has already sent the first batch of shots to delegates and they will start arriving next week, targeting those who cannot access vaccines at home.
“Vaccines are shipping and vaccination will begin next week and through mid-September before second jabs in October well ahead of COP26,” British COP26 envoy John Murton said on Twitter on Friday.
He did not specify where the vaccines would be sent or how many are being shipped.
The COP26 conference, postponed from last year, takes place from October 31 to November 12.
Delegates from more than 190 countries would typically attend the annual talks but with Covid still affecting many poorer countries, it is thought some country’s will not send delegates.
At the G7 the PM announced the UK would enable COVID vaccinations for all delegates coming to COP that couldn’t access them locally. Delegates registering for COP were invited to indicate whether they sought this support….
— John Murton (@JohnMurton) September 3, 2021
Updated
South Africa will leave it up to businesses to choose if they want to make vaccinations mandatory for their employees and clients, the country’s health minister said today.
Restaurants, bars, grocery stores and other businesses must set their own policies on whether or not to insist consumers ought to be vaccinated, Joe Phaahla said on Friday. He added:
It is not our priority to start thinking about legislation and regulations which say every adult must vaccinate.
We leave it to those who run industries and services.
The government plans to encourage people to get inoculated with incentives such as allowing soccer matches and music concerts for vaccinated people, he said.
Currently, such public gatherings are not permitted under Covid restrictions. Other ways to promote vaccines are currently being discussed by the department of health, he said.
Some South African companies have announced that they will make vaccinations mandatory for all employees, Reuters said.
Danish care home residents to receive third Covid jab
In Denmark, the country’s health minister Magnus Heunicke has announced residents in nursing homes will get a third shot of the Covid vaccine, starting next week.
He says Denmark has seen an increase in cases in nursing homes, despite 96% of the people living there getting vaccinated.
“At the same time, they have the greatest risk of a serious course,” Heunicke wrote on Twitter.
I næste uge begynder revaccination af vores plejehjemsbeboere i Danmark. De seneste par uger har vi set en stigende smitte på plejehjemmene, selvom 96% af alle beboere er vaccinerede, og samtidig har de den største risiko for et alvorligt forløb med COVID-19. #dkpol #Covid19dk pic.twitter.com/bB0FvRpdJM
— Magnus Heunicke (@Heunicke) September 3, 2021
The government acted on a recommendation by the Danish Health Authority, which says the “re-vaccination of residents in nursing homes starts now, as they are at increased risk of a serious course of Covid-19.”
Updated
The epicentre of Vietnam’s Covid crisis, Ho Chi Minh City, is considering abandoning its strict lockdown from September 15.
The city previously had operated a “zero Covid” strategy but now appears to be targeting a policy of living with the virus.
The city of 9 million people is targeting a phased reopening and the full vaccination of its citizens by the end of this year, according to the draft plan seen by Reuters, which has yet to be endorsed.
Ho Chi Minh City last month deployed troops to enforce its lockdown and prohibited residents from leaving their homes to slow a spiralling rate of deaths.
Just 3% of Vietnam’s 98 million population has been fully vaccinated.
Vietnam’s biggest city, a business hub flanked by industrialised provinces, aims to “promote economic recovery ... and move towards living with Covid-19,” the draft proposal said.
The reopening would be gradual, and low-interest loans and tax cuts would be offered to affected firms, it said.
Ho Chi Minh City alone has recorded 241,110 coronavirus infections and 9,974 deaths, representing half of the country’s cases and 80% of its fatalities.
It might come as a surprise that people look back fondly at lockdown, but 54% of people in the UK say they will miss at least some aspects of a life closer to home.
So, what will we miss most? My colleague Rachel Hall has the full report.
The US plans to send more than 1.2m doses of coronavirus vaccines to four different African countries as part of the Covax programme.
A White House official told Reuters that the shipment is set to include 250,320 doses of the Moderna vaccine for the Democratic Republic of Congo, 657,080 Moderna doses for Uganda, 302,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for Guinea and 35,100 doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer/BioNTech for Seychelles.
The doses are being delivered through Covax, jointly run by the World Health Organization and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Updated
South Africa’s health minister, Joe Phaahla, has said scientists have told the government that at this stage the C.1.2 coronavirus variant detected is not a threat.
First identified in May, the variant has now been recorded in all of the country’s nine provinces. The Reuters news agency reports:
It contains some mutations associated in other variants with increased transmission and reduced sensitivity to neutralising antibodies, leading researchers to flag its detection to the government and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“At this stage they [scientists] have assured us it’s not really a threat, they are just watching it,” Phaahla told a news conference, adding that C.1.2 had only been detected in small numbers so far.
He said it was almost certain that the country would face a fourth wave of Covid cases towards the end of the year.
Updated
In Australia, the state of New South Wales has reported 1,431 new Covid cases while 12 people have died from the virus, as the state premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned cases were likely to peak over the next fortnight.
An unvaccinated woman aged in her 30s was among the dead. The woman, identified as mother-of-four Jamila Yaghi, died in her Guildford home on Wednesday, one day after testing positive for the virus.
While investigations are under way to determine if she had underlying conditions, it is understood authorities were trying to understand how long the woman had been symptomatic before getting tested and seeking care.
Despite the case record on Friday, Berejiklian said health authorities expected cases to continue to grow and peak over the coming two weeks.
She said this aligned with a predicted peak in hospitalisation in October, because of a lag between initial infection and serious sickness that requires hospitalisation, adding:
The next fortnight is likely to be our worst in terms of the number of cases, but as I have said it is not the number of cases we need to be focusing on, but how many of those cases end up in our intensive care wards and hospitals and how many people we have vaccinated as quickly as possible.
Updated
More on those ONS statistics coming in for England today.
The overall picture masks regional differences: the survey shows that the percentage of people testing positive increased in the south-west of England and West Midlands in the most recent week, but decreased in London and the east Midlands.
There are also age disparities, with infection rate having risen in those aged 70 and older – despite remaining low – and early signs of an increase in those aged 25-34. By contrast, rates are showing some signs of falling in younger adults, from school year 12 to age 24.
Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 Infection Survey, said the results findings show a mixed picture of infection rates across the UK. She adds:
While rates are level overall in England, we are seeing a possible impact of the holiday season in the south-west as infections are among their highest estimated rates. Meanwhile, however, infections have decreased in London and the east Midlands.
In Scotland we are seeing our highest estimate of infections since we started collecting data last autumn with a notably sharp increase recorded in the week to 28 August.
Updated
One in 70 people in England infected with Covid – ONS
Meanwhile, in England, the prevalence of coronavirus infections was around 1 in 70 people in the week ending 27 August, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figure remains unchanged from the previous week’s estimate. One in 70 is the equivalent of about 766,100 people.
At the peak of the second wave in early January, about one in 50 people in England were estimated to have coronavirus.
The percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have increased in south-west England and the West Midlands, the ONS said.
London and the east Midlands reported a decrease, while the trend for all other regions is uncertain.
Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest proportion of people of any region likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to 27 August, about one in 55.
The east Midlands, eastern England and London had the lowest estimate: about one in 85.
Updated
Some breaking news coming in from Brussels this morning.
Europe’s medicines regulator has said it is reviewing cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome after inoculation with Covid vaccines, following a report of a similar case with Pfizer/BioNTech’s shot.
The European Medicines Agency’s safety committee is also looking into cases of rare blood clots in the vein with Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine, the regulator said, adding that the issue was distinct from a rare side-effect identified earlier.
China is facing “increasingly difficult” problems in expanding its mass coronavirus vaccination effort, a health official has said.
However, it has vowed to press on with plans to inoculate more people, as well as ramping up its booster jab programme.
Zheng Zhongwei, an official at the National Health Commission, did not say what obstacles the government was facing but said those who have not been vaccinated could not rely on being protected by those who have had the shots.
It comes amid concerns over the highly transmissible Delta variant sweeping China.
“Recently, as [pushing vaccination work] came to the later stage, it has become increasingly difficult,” Zheng said at a health forum.
He said China has given full doses to about 900 million people, or more than 60% of its 1.4 billion population, but cited some experts saying China may need a vaccination rate higher than 80%.
China administered around 13 million doses per day on average in July and August, slower than June’s daily average of 19 million, according to Reuters.
An agreement has been reached between the European Union and AstraZeneca over the delivery of pending vaccine doses.
It comes after months of argument played out in public over the company’s European vaccine production and the bloc’s vaccination campaign.
Under the settlement, AstraZeneca has committed to deliver 60 million doses of its vaccine, Vaxzevria, by the end of the third quarter this year, 75 million by the end of the fourth quarter and 65 million by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
The dispute plunged the EU into crisis earlier this year as states, under pressure to speed up vaccinations, scrambled for shots.
It also caused a public relations crisis for AstraZeneca, which is led by the Frenchman Pascal Soriot, reported Reuters.
Brussels has since reduced its reliance on the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker, with vaccine supplies coming from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
The EU’s executive body said that under the new agreement, member states would be provided with regular delivery schedules and if there were any delayed doses, capped rebates would be applied.
Updated
Good morning, I’m Tom Ambrose and will be keeping you abreast of all the developing Covid news throughout the afternoon.
We start with the news that, in Indonesia, an online leak of the president’s coronavirus vaccine certificate has heightened concern about information security.
It comes in the same week as a data breach affecting 1.3 million users of a government contact-tracing application, the Reuters news agency reports.
President Joko Widodo’s vaccine records were accessed using the app, PeduliLindungi, and shared widely on social media.
Digital analyst Ismail Fahmi said the leak showed how easy it was to view or potentially use another individual’s vaccination certificate. He said:
If there was protection, there would be an investigation into why this problem persists, why personal records can be easily mined.
But there is no such protection.
The health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, has since confirmed officials’ records could no longer be accessed.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a brief roundup of the last few hours of coronavirus news:
- The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said he wants to work with the government in Pakistan to see if the country can come off the red travel list.
- Children’s rights groups have called for an end to Covid regulations that restrict family visits and access to education in the youth detention system.
- As schools return after summer across Europe, some countries with lower vaccination rates have decided to postpone reopening. Rates are particularly low in some Balkan countries including Kosovo and Albania.
- UK ministers are reported to be preparing to extend emergency Covid legislation this autumn.
- Covid jab technology will help fight cancer, scientists have revealed.
- Parental consent could be required, it is being reported, as the UK independent vaccine body JCVI weighs up whether to say 12- to 15-year-olds should get vaccinated.
That’s it from me Harriet Grant, I’m handing over to my colleague Tom Ambrose.
Updated
The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said he wants to see Pakistan come off the government’s red list for travel restrictions.
He told a press conference in Pakistan – where he is in talks about the future of Afghanistan – that he would work with the government to “find a way through”.
Raab said: “We do understand that this is a sensitive issue and a difficult issue. We base our decision on the technical evidence. I understand that is often contested, which is all the more reason why it’s good that the Pakistan special adviser to Prime Minister Khan will be holding expert level talks with UK public health authorities.
“We want to find a way through, no one wants Pakistan off the red list more than I do, but we take these decisions at a technical level. I think the smart thing for us to do is work together to enable that to happen as soon, as safely and as responsibly it can be done.”
Updated
Call to end Covid restrictions on young people in custody
Rights groups have written to the UK justice secretary, Robert Buckland, asking him to end harsh Covid regulations that restricted family visits and access to education for young people in prison.
In a letter published this morning the groups Article 39 and the Howard League say children in custody have “suffered greatly” during the pandemic.
They write: “[L]egal protections for children in custody were last year watered down overnight without any consultation or parliamentary debate. With the majority of coronavirus restrictions lifted within the community, vaccinations now available for teenagers aged 16 and 17, and schools reopening, we write to ask that the statutory instruments made in May and July 2020 be revoked, and children’s entitlements to education and family visits be reinstated. Children in prison have suffered greatly during the pandemic and should be guaranteed to receive the statutory minimum requirement for education from now on.”
They go on to note that children in custody already have far lower levels of literacy than the general population.
They also criticise the government for allowing the solitary confinement of under-18’s during lockdown.
Updated
Some Balkan countries with low vaccination rates are delaying the start of the school term. In a report looking at different approaches to Covid protection in schools around Europe, Associated Press reveals that both Kosovo and Albania have postponed the beginning of the school year.
The weekly average of new cases rose by tenfold between July and August in Kosovo where children have a delay of two weeks before they can get back to the classroom. In Albania teachers are now facing mandatory vaccination. Only a third of the population there has been vaccinated with rates even lower in Kosovo.
Across the world, authorities are taking a variety of approaches to try and keep children in school and avoid another academic year of disruption. The UK has ended the system of isolation of Covid contacts for children while other countries including France will keep the measure.
Earlier this week the World Health Organization and Unicef warned of the “catastrophic” disruption that Covid has caused to children’s learning. They listed precautionary measures that they hoped would let all European schools remain open including better ventilation and regular testing.
Updated
Sajid Javid has said the delivery of 4m vaccines from the UK to Australia will help the country “supercharge” its vaccine rollout.
Earlier we reported that the doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines were sent in a swap deal. The UK health secretary said: “Vaccines have built a strong wall of defence in the UK and we want to support nations around the world in recovering from Covid-19 and improving access to vaccines.”
Updated
Ministers ‘preparing to extend emergency Covid laws’
The FT is reporting unnamed UK government insiders saying that the extension of legislation later this autumn will be necessary. The measures must be voted on every six months and the story reports that the government will renew them because cases across the UK are running high, hospitalisations are rising and a difficult flu season is expected.
The insider says: “The Coronavirus Act is going to be one of the trickier bills to pass. We’re gearing up for a fight with our own MPs, who are going to be reluctant to support it.”
The story quotes the Tory MP Steve Baker, who has consistently opposed stringent Covid laws, as saying: “We are going to have to learn to live with this virus, and retaining sweeping powers of detention in the Coronavirus Act is not consistent with this. What justification can there be for extending these measures?”
Fellow Tory MP Mark Harper argued that any unforeseen events could be covered with existing legislation. “Parliament can already give the police emergency powers under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, but these regulations only last up to 30 days, require almost immediate parliamentary approval and involve judicial oversight.”
Labour has in the past backed the laws and would be likely to do so again.
Updated
Covid jab tech will help fight cancer
Scientists have been talking this morning about the news that the technology behind the Covid vaccine could help fight cancer.
Researchers have designed a two-dose vaccine they hope can target tumours in humans. In order to create the treatment, scientists designed their vaccine to target proteins that are present on the surface of many types of cancer cells.
When tested in mice, the vaccine increased the numbers of anti-tumour T cells that attack cancerous growths, helping to increase survival rates.
The team at Oxford University now have the go-ahead to do human trials.
Prof Benoit Van den Eynde told Sky News: “The vaccine technology based on viral vector is extremely powerful. In recent years we have had a new approach to treat cancer … immunotherapy … it has had remarkable results. But some patients immune system doesn’t respond. So … the idea here is to use a vaccine based on the Oxford technology to really to teach the immune system how to recognise cancer cells.”
Updated
Schools in France reopened to 12 million students this week with all children over the age of six wearing masks. Associated Press reports this morning that the measures are seen as key to keeping schools open.
The vaccine is available in France to over 12s, with consent needed from one parent for under 16s. The vaccination programme is going well, with more than 63% of teenagers aged 12-17 having received at least one shot, and 47% fully vaccinated.
In French primary schools, if one child tests positive for the virus, the class closes for seven days. In middle and high schools, children who test positive and those who aren’t vaccinated and have been in contact with them will be placed into isolation for at least one week. Those fully vaccinated will be allowed to keep going to school.
France is one of the countries around the world that has maintained the highest rate of in-person classes during the Covid-19 crisis. The country closed its schools completely or partially for 12 weeks between March 2020 and July this year, compared with 38 weeks in neighbouring Germany and 58 weeks in the US, according to Unesco figures.
Updated
Parents consent could be required for 12-15s to have jab
The Times is reporting this morning that parents will need to give their written permission for under 15s to get the Covid vaccination. Previous suggestions had been that children would be able to decide for themselves if they wanted the jab.
The development is reported to be part of attempts to bring parents onboard with the plans to vaccinate younger teens. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is said to wants schools to follow procedures used for routine childhood immunisation programmes. This would mean schools sending out consent forms and not vaccinating unless they are returned.
The Times quotes Prof Helen Bedford of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health saying that this was likely to defuse the potential for rows, with nurses phoning parents who did not return forms to discuss concerns. She says: “In practice, most [vaccinations] are given by school nurses and it’s very unlikely, if you know for certain the parent doesn’t want it, that you would go ahead.”
A decision is yet to be made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on whether children aged 12-15 will be vaccinated.
Updated
Summary
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone for today. I’m handing over to my UK colleague, Harriet Grant.
Before I go, here’s a brief roundup of Covid-related news from the past 24 hours:
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign Covid-19 vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation program.
- Australia has secured 4m doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines in a swap deal with Britain, the prime minister Scott Morrison has said, as he attempts to convince states and territories to stick to a national reopening plan.
- New Zealand has reported 28 new cases of coronavirus in the community, a drop of 21 compared with the previous day, in an “encouraging” sign that the country’s lockdown is working, deputy prime minister Grant Robertson has said.
- Boris Johnson has said the UK needs to “go faster” with the vaccination of 16- to 17-year olds, despite a “strong” uptake within the age group, while a decision on extending vaccinations to 12- to 15-year-olds is expected to be announced imminently, the Guardian understands.
- The US plans to invest $3bn (£2.2bn) in the vaccine supply chain as it continues to work to position the US as a leading supplier of vaccines for the world, Reuters reports.
- The European Union has agreed to send millions of coronavirus vaccine doses made in South Africa back to the continent, AFP reports.
- Schoolchildren in France returned from their summer holidays to be told to get vaccinated by headteachers and the French president Emmanuel Macron.
- Members of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have been sent suspicious packages and hate mail throughout the pandemic, one of the UK’s leading virologists has revealed.
- The popular US podcast host Joe Rogan has tested positive for Covid-19 and is taking ivermectin, a drug more commonly used as a veterinary deworming agent, to treat it.
Updated
India has reported 45,352 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Friday, with 366 deaths.
Total infections have now risen to 32.9 million and deaths to 439,895.
In case you missed it, Guardian Australia has been running a new series that aims to give a voice to people from all walks of life who are adapting to changing circumstances in the coronavirus pandemic. In this latest dispatch, reporter Mostafa Rachwani spoke to a supermarket manager and a postman:
North Korea rejects offer of vaccines through Covax scheme
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign Covid-19 vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation program, according to the Associated Press.
During a Politburo meeting on Thursday, Kim said officials must “bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday.
KCNA said Kim “called for fully providing material and technical means necessary for strengthening epidemic prevention, enhancing the professional qualifications and roles of the officials in the field of epidemic prevention and further rounding off our style epidemic prevention system.”
Kim had previously called for North Koreans to brace for prolonged Covid-19 restrictions, indicating the nation’s borders would stay closed despite worsening economic and food conditions.
Since the start of the pandemic, North Korea has used tough quarantines and border closures to prevent outbreaks, though its claim to be entirely virus-free is widely doubted.
Updated
Australia has secured 4m doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines in a swap deal with Britain, prime minister Scott Morrison has said, as he tries to speed up the country’s re-opening efforts.
“The plane is on the tarmac now. It will be leaving tomorrow ... this will enable us to bring forward significantly the opportunity for Australia to open up again,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra, days after announcing a smaller vaccine swap agreement with Singapore.
Morrison has been criticised for failing to initially secure an adequate supply of vaccines and for a slow roll out which has seen initial vaccination targets delayed by months.
State governments say their vaccination programmes are being hindered by a lack of supply of the Pfizer vaccine needed to inoculate the younger population.
The announcement came as the state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, reported its worst day of the pandemic, with a record 1,431 cases and 12 new deaths.
State premier Gladys Berejiklian warned residents to brace for a spike in numbers as the next two weeks would “likely to be our worst in terms of the number of cases”.
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign Covid-19 vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation program.
Australia has secured 4m doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines in a swap deal with Britain, the prime minister Scott Morrison has said, as he attempts to convince states and territories to stick to a national reopening plan.
Here’s what else has been happening over the past 24 hours:
- New Zealand has reported 28 new cases of coronavirus in the community, a drop of 21 compared with the previous day, in an “encouraging” sign that the country’s lockdown is working, deputy prime minister Grant Robertson has said.
- Boris Johnson has said the UK needs to “go faster” with the vaccination of 16- to 17-year olds, despite a “strong” uptake within the age group, while a decision on extending vaccinations to 12- to 15-year-olds is expected to be announced imminently, the Guardian understands.
- The US plans to invest $3bn (£2.2bn) in the vaccine supply chain as it continues to work to position the United States as a leading supplier of vaccines for the world, Reuters reports.
- The European Union has agreed to send millions of coronavirus vaccine doses made in South Africa back to the continent, AFP reports.
- Schoolchildren in France returned from their summer holidays to be told to get vaccinated by headteachers and the French president Emmanuel Macron.
- Members of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have been sent suspicious packages and hate mail throughout the pandemic, one of the UK’s leading virologists has revealed.
- The popular US podcast host Joe Rogan has tested positive for Covid-19 and is taking ivermectin, a drug more commonly used as a veterinary deworming agent, to treat it.
Updated
