A summary of today's developments
- Johnson & Johnson has been criticised for stipulating in its vaccine contract with South Africa that the country must waive its right to impose export restrictions on vaccine doses. While many western countries prevented domestically manufactured doses from leaving their borders, South Africa – which has been in need of vaccine doses – was required to agree to the demand in exchange for a relatively small supply of vaccines, in what was described as a “colonialist extraction”.
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Police in Thailand used water cannon again against protesters to break up a demonstration at the national police headquarters, a day after clashes which left a young protester in a coma with a bullet lodged in his head. Protesters were forcibly dispersed in central Bangkok for a third successive day after demanding the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, resign amid rising anger over his handling of the pandemic.
- The UK medicines regulator gave emergency authorisation for the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds. The government’s vaccine advisers will now consider whether to recommend the use of the jab, after reversing their advice earlier this month and recommending vaccines be offered to all 16- and 17-year-olds without parental consent.
- Both Washington DC and New York moved to impose vaccine mandates on healthcare workers. In New York, about 75% of 480,000 hospital workers and adult care facility workers have already received jabs, as well as 68% of 146,000 nursing home workers. No details were provided about what punishment those who rejected the mandate would face.
- The king of Malaysia has ruled out a new general election in the country, after the resignation of the unelected government amid mounting anger over its handling of the pandemic. The former prime minister’s resignation yesterday after less than 18 months came as Malaysia surpassed 20,000 daily cases this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.
- A 22-year-old who last week shot dead five people during one of the UK’s worst mass shootings, before killing himself, received telephone mental health support during lockdown. But his mother, who he also shot dead, was turned down by local mental health teams for support for her son, who had autism and ADHD and was increasingly erratic, because they were understaffed, it has been reported.
- NHS patients are waiting more than three months for tests including MRIs, colonoscopies and heart scans, with overall waiting lists doubling in some parts of England. The number of people waiting more than three months for tests was 22 times that in 2019 as the health system continues to tackle the Covid pandemic backlog.
- Two brothers in Kenya died this month after being detained on suspicion of breaking a curfew, with an autopsy finding they died of head and rib injuries. The deaths led to demonstrations in Embu County amid heightened scrutiny of police enforcement of Covid measures in Kenya. One person was killed when anti-riot protesters shot at police.
- Temporary emergency powers in Scotland to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners early could become permanent in the event of future public health threats, according to a new consultation put before the country.
- Covid tests which are a prerequisite for arrival to the UK have predictably become a “rip-off”, according to the former chair of the competition watchdog. Holidaymakers have objected to high prices and poor service from many of the firms listed on the government’s website.
We’re now closing this blog. Take care.
Updated
Britons’ hunger for takeaways grew even bigger in the first six months of 2021 as lockdown restrictions led to a 76% increase in orders on the JustEat delivery app.
Consumers stuck at home placed 135m orders, 58m more than in the equivalent period last year. JustEat said people were eating takeaways more often, with the average customer ordering more than three times a month, compared with 2.5 times in 2020. The company said it had also made big market-share gains in London.
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More than 50% of the Swiss population has now been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Alpine nation is using the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, administering the doses four weeks apart. Government statistics showed that 50.1% of the population – 4,311,432 people – had received both injections, AFP reports.
A further 5.63% are partially vaccinated, having received their first dose. People who have recovered from the virus within the last six months and have had one dose are also certified as fully vaccinated, but they are not yet counted as such in official statistics.
Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, was the first country in continental Europe to start using the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. Half the EU population had been fully vaccinated by 3 August, according to an AFP tally.
The Swiss vaccination rate has peaked and slowed off: 2.14m doses were administered in May; 2.42m in June; 1.39m in July, and 772,000 in the calendar month until yesterday. The vaccines are available to people aged 12 and over.
Though the death rate is now very low, the number of daily new cases is rising towards the level seen in the third wave of the pandemic in April. At the end of June, Switzerland lifted many of its remaining Covid-19 restrictions.
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Classrooms in England need air filters and monitoring devices fitted to protect children from Covid-19 and avoid further disruption to their learning, school unions have told the education secretary, Gavin Williamson.
The seven unions – representing teachers, school leaders, administrative and support staff – have written to Williamson asking for “urgent action” to improve ventilation when schools reopen for the autumn term without any requirement for children to wear masks or be grouped in “bubbles”.
The letter, backed by the Liberal Democrats, asks for air purification units to be installed to filter out the virus, as well as carbon dioxide monitors to measure airflow. There is mounting evidence that coronavirus is transmitted primarily through airborne particles in enclosed spaces.
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France has registered 111 deaths in hospitals on Tuesday – the first time since 1 June that the daily toll was more than 100, Reuters reports, citing health ministry data.
The news agency said the figures took the cumulative death toll since the start of the epidemic to 112,844. The seven-day moving average of deaths increased to 72, from 66 on Monday and fewer than 20 per day at the end of July. France also reported that there were 1,953 people in intensive care units.
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Relatives of a grandmother in her 50s, who has been left brain damaged and paralysed from the neck down after contracting Covid-19, are embroiled in a life-support treatment court battle in London.
Specialists treating the woman, who is in a minimally conscious state, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge say they can do nothing more to improve her condition. Hospital bosses have asked a judge to rule that the woman, who is on a ventilator and has underlying health problems, should be allowed to die.
The woman’s adult children, and sister, disagree. Her children say they would rather have a “mum that we could look after” than one they could “visit in a graveyard”.
Mr Justice Hayden is overseeing an online trial, due to end later this week, in the court of protection, where judges consider evidence relating to adults who lack the mental capacity to make decisions.
A lawyer representing hospital bosses told Mr Justice Hayden on Tuesday that the woman’s case appeared to be unique.
The judge, who is based in the family division of the high court in London, said it was the first of its kind.
It is the most extreme example of its kind, and it is the first time in the whole of the pandemic that I have been asked to make an end-of-life decision in relation to Covid-19. It is the first time a court has been asked to consider an end-of-life case, as a result of Covid.
UK reports 170 further deaths and 26,852 new cases
In the UK, a further 170 people have died within 28 days of testing positive as of Tuesday, according to official data, bringing the country’s total to 131,149. This is the highest number of daily reported deaths since 12 March, when 175 were reported.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 156,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am BST (8am GMT) on Tuesday, there had been a further 26,852 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said. That is a week-on-week increase in cases, with new infections last Tuesday recorded at 23,510.
Official data up to 16 August shows that, of the 88,211,389 Covid jabs given in the UK, 47,369,418 were first doses, a rise of 35,716 on the previous day, and 40,841,971 were second doses, an increase of 138,390.
Updated
Thai police use water cannon against protest after demonstrator left in coma
Police in Thailand used water cannon again today against protesters to break up a demonstration at the national police headquarters, a day after clashes which left a young protester in a coma with a bullet lodged in his head.
Protesters gathered in central Bangkok for a third successive day to demand that the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, resign amid rising anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. A record 239 Covid-related deaths were reported today.
“We are out here protesting but in return we get teargas and rubber bullets and a violent crackdown,” activist Songpon “Yajai” Sonthirak said at the protest, which saw clashes for the seventh time in the past 11 days. “We stressed that we are out here peacefully to express our disapproval of the government’s performance.”
Police spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen said protesters threw paint, ping-pong bombs, water bottles and other objects into the police headquarters. Reuters reported there were separate clashes near Prayuth’s residence.
“After repeated warning we needed to enforce the law by using high water-pressure that follows international standards,” Phathanacharoen said.
A man who attended yesterday’s protest was comatose after a gunshot wound to his neck, a hospital said, with an X-ray showing a bullet lodged close to his brain. The victim’s mother told local media her son was 15. Police said live ammunition was not used to disperse demonstrations. However, Human Rights Watch has condemned their response.
At least six people were left injured after the robust police response yesterday near Prayuth’s residence, Bangkok’s emergency services said. A medic working with protesters said a minor was struck by a bullet.
Local media have reported that Thai authorities responded to the renewed protests last week by rearresting eight prominent youth pro-democracy leaders. They are facing numerous charges including sedition and royal defamation.
Reuters also have an album of photos from the protests over the last week, which have continually been met with a stern, at times brutal, police response.
Thai police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters near the office of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the COVID-19 crisis. More photos: https://t.co/PQ2PbhzWAB pic.twitter.com/EcTpbnEsx6
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) August 17, 2021
Instead of listening to understand why people are angry, #Thai government repeatedly used excessive force and unleashed police brutality to suppress street protests in #Bangkok — adding fuel raging fire. Read @HRW dispatch. #WhatsHappeningInThailand https://t.co/iLylRJy5gC
— Sunai (@sunaibkk) August 15, 2021
Updated
A number of former US president Donald Trump’s hotels are imposing mask mandates, despite him opposing mask-wearing during his presidency.
Newsweek reports that Trump hotels in Miami, Chicago and Hawaii have issued mask mandates amid rising Covid cases. But the Trump golf club in Florida and the Albemarle Estate at Trump Winery have relaxed restrictions.
Both state that “staff only have to wear a mask if unvaccinated” on their websites. There is a deepening and deeply partisan row over mask mandates in the US.
“I just don’t want to be doing … somehow, sitting in the Oval Office, behind that beautiful, resolute desk, the great resolute desk, I think wearing a face mask … as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, it somehow … I don’t see it for myself,” Trump told ABC last year.
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Spain has announced the receipt of €9bn in its first tranche of recovery assistance from the EU’s coronavirus fund.
The countrySpain, along with Italy, will receive much of the €750bn earmarked by Brussels to relaunch European economies that have been devastated by their attempts to control Covid.
This first tranche represents 13% of the €70bn in subsidies which Spain will receive between now and 2025, the Spanish government said.
Spain is expected to receive a second tranche of €10bn later this year, with 80% of the payments expected between 2021 and 2023, the statement added.
AFP reports that the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, expects to create 800,000 new jobs with the aid of the EU funds. The government predicts the cash injection should add 2 percentage points to economic growth each year.
Last month, EU member states formally approved recovery plans submitted by 12 countries – including France, Italy and Spain – paving the way for the first instalments to be paid.
Further payouts will depend on whether national governments deliver on reforms and commitments that the money spent will meet targets on advancing Europe’s green and digital investment priorities.
Spain’s economy was one of the worst performers in the eurozone last year, contracting by 10.8% as its tourism sector was battered by the pandemic travel restrictions.
Updated
South Africa forbidden from imposing vaccine export restrictions by J&J in 'colonialist extraction'
The pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has been criticised for a reportedly unusual stipulation in its vaccine contract with South Africa that required the country to waive its right to impose export restrictions on vaccine doses.
The New York Times reports that while many western countries prevented domestically manufactured doses from leaving their borders, South Africa – which has been in need of vaccine doses – was required to agree to the demand in exchange for a relatively small supply of vaccines. The measure has been described as a “colonialist extraction”.
Glenda Gray, a South African scientist who helped lead Johnson & Johnson’s clinical trial in the country, told the NYT that companies should prioritise sending doses to poorer countries that were involved in their production. “It’s like a country is making food for the world and sees its food being shipped off to high-resource settings while its citizens starve,” she said.
Popo Maja, a spokesperson for the South African health ministry, said the government was not happy with the requirements but lacked the leverage to refuse them. “The government was not given any choice,” he said. “Sign contract or no vaccine.”
The former UK prime minister Gordon Brown levelled similar allegations at J&J in an article for the Guardian earlier this month.
Fatima Hassan, executive director of the Health Justice Initiative, said:
J&J is holding South Africa and Africa to ransom, forcibly exporting doses filled and finished here, while our people die by the thousands. It’s horrifying to see that our government was seemingly forced to sign up to this kind of exploitation in return for 32m vaccines here, because this also affects the timely supply of at least 200m vaccine doses for Africa from Aspen [a South African pharmaceutical company], which J&J clearly fully controls - this much-touted license gives Aspen no supply control whatsoever.
Aspen is also the only supplier for Africa - this is nonsensical and dangerous in a pandemic. It is time that all secret vaccine contracts with vaccine manufacturers and distributors are published and reviewed - we have a right to know what has been agreed in our name. In our view, J&J are complicit in vaccine apartheid, diverting doses from those who really need them to the wealthiest countries on earth. It’s colonialist extraction, plain and simple.
Mohga Kamal-Yanni, senior health policy advisor to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:
While South Africa was experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises to arise from Covid-19, J&J diverted desperately needed vaccines to wealthy countries. It’s utterly abhorrent and shows a total disregard for African life. This is further proof that the world cannot trust a handful of pharmaceutical companies to fairly allocate vaccines across the world. Pharma executives seem all too happy to write off African deaths to line their own pockets.
Without urgent action, more of these tragedies could be around the corner. It is time for governments to break pharmaceutical companies’ monopolies on knowledge and technology of vaccines and other tools to deal with Covid-19. We should develop domestic manufacturing in low-and-middle-income countries, not siphon off doses to the rich world.
Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer, Dr Paul Stoffels, told the NYT that the Aspen plant is part of a production network in which vaccines are routinely shipped between countries for manufacturing, quality inspection and delivery. “We have done our best to prioritise South Africa as much as we can,” he said.
Updated
Also in Scotland, alcohol-specific deaths have risen to their highest level in more than a decade in 2020, amid warnings that the pandemic has undermined progress made with the country’s world-leading minimum unit-pricing policy.
There were 1,190 alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland in 2020, an increase of 17% from 2019 and the highest number registered since 2008 when 1,316 people died, according to figures published by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). The tally of alcohol-specific, rather than alcohol-related, deaths excludes those only partially attributed to alcohol.
After annual increases between 2012 and 2018, the number of alcohol-specific deaths fell by 10% in 2019, which experts took as early evidence of the success of minimum unit-pricing (MUP) for alcohol, which was introduced in May 2018 in order to tackle Scotland’s chronically unhealthy relationship with alcohol and is currently fixed at 50p a unit.
More than two-thirds of last year’s deaths were of men, and almost one in three were of people in their 50s and 60s. Inverclyde and Glasgow City had the highest rates over the past five years, and the NRS calculated that the death rate in the most deprived areas was 4.3 times the rate in the least deprived areas in 2020.
Families who lost loved ones to Covid have been told that a decision on a Scotland-only public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic is “imminent” after they met Scottish government ministers earlier on Tuesday.
In May, prime minister Boris Johnson committed to holding an independent public inquiry in spring 2022, but Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has called for a four-nations inquiry by the end of this year.
Members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice met deputy first minister, John Swinney, and health secretary, Humza Yousaf, earlier on Tuesday.
In a statement following the meeting, Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing the families, said: “Today the Scottish families pushed for the greatest scrutiny, accountability and transparency through a Scottish public inquiry which must not be delayed any longer. It is increasingly clear to the bereaved families that they can have no confidence in a UK government that continues to delay a public inquiry.”
The experience of bereaved families must be central to any investigation, he added: “For a public inquiry to be effective and meaningful, grieving Scottish families must be at the heart of the inquiry process to get to the truth of what happened and that can only really happen with a Scottish public inquiry.”
Updated
In Scotland, temporary emergency powers to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners early could become permanent in the event of future public health threats, according to a new consultation put before the country today.
The Scottish government is taking views from the public over the next 12 weeks on a host of temporary powers it would like to either make permanent or extend – including digitising court procedures and the remote registration of deaths and births. Ministers would also be given the power to make public health regulations, bringing the Scottish process further in line with powers available in England and Wales.
Deputy first minister and Covid recovery secretary,John Swinney, said: “This is an opportunity to maintain changes that have been welcomed by people who now don’t want to lose transformations that have been innovative, beneficial, and increased access to services.”
But the Scottish Conservatives raised concerns about making sweeping powers permanent. Shadow Covid recovery secretary Murdo Fraser MSP, said: “It is a dangerous route to go down to allow ministers to implement sweeping powers upon society on a whim. The SNP already steamrolled an extension of Covid powers through parliament and now they’ve snuck this consultation out while it is still in recess.”
Updated
Two brothers in Kenya died this month after being detained on suspicion of breaking a curfew, with an autopsy finding they died of head and rib injuries.
The New York Times reports that police said the two men had fallen from a moving police vehicle, but there are serious doubts over whether the injuries were consistent with officers’ accounts.
It led to demonstrations in Embu County amid heightened scrutiny of police enforcement of Covid measures in Kenya. One person was killed when anti-riot protesters shot at police.
The brothers’ funeral, which took place on Friday, attracted large crowds and there were demands for accountability over the deaths, the NYT reports.
Yesterday, the inspector general of the police, Hilary Mutyambai, said that the police watchdog investigated the brothers’ deaths and forwarded the findings to the national prosecutor.
“All the officers have been suspended with immediate effect to pave way for prosecution,” he said on Twitter, without naming the officers suspected of misconduct in the case.
The latest EU database figures on the Pfizer-BioNTech jab’s safety show that as of 29 July, by which time about 330m doses had been delivered, a total of 244,807 cases of suspected side effects had been spontaneously reported to EudraVigilance by European countries.
The report said 4,198 of these reported a fatal outcome, though it remains “unclear whether the vaccine was the cause”.
Collecting reports of medical events and problems that occur following the use of a medicine, and therefore might be side effects, is one of the pillars of the EU safety monitoring system. Healthcare professionals and vaccinated individuals are encouraged to report to their national competent authorities all suspected side effects individuals may have experienced after receiving a vaccine even if it is unclear whether the vaccine was the cause.
These reports describe suspected side effects in individuals, i.e. medical events observed following the use of a vaccine. The fact that someone has had a medical issue or died after vaccination does not necessarily mean that this was caused by the vaccine. This may have been caused, for example, by health problems not related to the vaccination.
EudraVigilance relies on individual healthcare professionals and patients to report their own experience ... The company that markets Comirnaty [the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine] will continue to provide results from the main clinical trial, which is ongoing for up to two years. It will also conduct additional studies to monitor the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine as it is used in vaccination campaigns and other clinical practice.
Meanwhile, the latest report for the AstraZeneca jab shows that as of 4 July, after about 58m of doses had been delivered, a total of 152,250 cases of suspected side effects were spontaneously reported to EudraVigilance from European countries, with 938 of these reporting a fatal outcome.
Again, the report stated, “the fact that someone has had a medical issue or died after vaccination does not necessarily mean that this was caused by the vaccine”.
With the same caveats, and stressing that these are spontaneous reports, EudraVigilance said that as of 4 July, after about 35m doses had been delivered, a total of 36,294 cases of suspected side effects from the Moderna jab were reported from European countries, with 347 of these reporting a fatal outcome.
However, around 60,000 deaths have been prevented in England alone as a result of the Covid vaccine programme, according to the country’s deputy chief medical officer at the end of last month, with an estimated 22m cases also being stopped.
Vaccines are also thought to have directly averted more than 52,600 hospital admissions, according to Public Health England. The UK does not report to EudraVigilance following Brexit, but while some commentators have suggested the figures on deaths prevented are an exaggeration, they remain useful indicators.
Updated
Moving away from UK-focused news for now, both Washington DC and New York have moved to impose vaccine mandates on healthcare workers.
The Hill reports that officials have announced DC will require health care workers in the nation’s capital to get at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of next month.
“It is necessary for us to ensure that we’re creating safe environments in our health care facilities and in … any places where people receive health care to help disrupt the spread of Covid-19 and to make sure we can prevent outbreaks in these environments,” LaQuandra Nesbitt, the director of the DC department of health, said.
It comes as the disgraced outgoing New York governor Andrew Cuomo also announced that healthcare workers must start their vaccination process by 27 September. His office reported that about 75% of some 480,000 hospital workers and adult care facility workers had received jabs, as well as 68% of 146,000 nursing home workers.
No details were provided about what punishment those who rejected the mandate would face.
The New York Times reports that several private hospitals had already announced a mandatory vaccination policy, but others said they were waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to fully authorise the vaccine – which is currently only approved on an emergency basis due to an absence of long-term safety data.
Meanwhile, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced there are also plans to require visitors and staff members at museums and other cultural institutions to be vaccinated.
Covid tests which are a prerequisite for arrival to the UK have predictably become a “rip-off”, according to the former chair of the competition watchdog.
Holidaymakers have objected to high prices and poor service from many of the hundreds of firms listed on the government’s website, the BBC reports. Tests cost about £75 on average, but prices can reach hundreds.
Andrew Tyrie, the ex-chair of the Competition and Markets Authority, said the competition regulator had been “too slow to react” to complaints, after the health secretary Sajid Javid last week asked the CMA to investigate “excessive” pricing and “exploitative practices”.
It initially said it would take up to a month to investigate and report back but following criticism from the travel industry said it was reviewing the situation “immediately”.
“It should either be acting already directly using existing powers. Or if deemed inadequate for the job, it should be advising the government on how to obtain a quick remedy, whether by legislation or by other means,” Tyrie told the BBC.
“The CMA acted much more quickly to quell price-gouging on hand sanitiser and other Covid-related products 18 months ago. Far from building on this success, boldness appears to have taken a back seat.”
It comes as scientists at the University of Birmingham said a new potentially cheaper and quicker Covid test could be rolled out at airports in as little as three months.
NHS patients are waiting more than three months for tests including MRIs, colonoscopies and heart scans, with overall waiting lists doubling in some parts of England, my colleagues Pamela Duncan, Ashley Kirk and Denis Campbell report.
The number of people waiting more than three months for tests was 22 times that in 2019 as the health system continues to tackle the Covid pandemic backlog. Almost 124,000 people were waiting more than three months in 2021 compared with 5,675 in 2019.
This is a slight fall from the May 2021 figure, which stood at just over 127,000. People referred to hospital for tests are supposed to be treated within six weeks, according to NHS England’s constitution.
But more than 306,000 people were waiting more than six weeks for a range of diagnostic tests. This is 7.6 times the equivalent figure in the same month in 2019 but lower than in June 2020 – by which time services had been massively disrupted by the pandemic and lockdown – when 539,433 people were waiting six weeks or more.
The overall waiting list for tests in June was 1.4 million patients, an increase of 28% compared with June 2019.
UK regulator approves Moderna jab for 12- to 17-year-olds, JCVI to consider
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given emergency authorisation for the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine among 12- to 17-year-olds in Britain.
Dr June Raine, MHRA chief executive said:
I am pleased to confirm that that the Covid-19 vaccine made by Moderna has now been authorised in 12-17 year olds. The vaccine is safe and effective in this age group. We have in place a comprehensive safety surveillance strategy for monitoring the safety of all UK-approved Covid-19 vaccines and this surveillance will include the 12- to 17-year age group.
It is for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to advise on whether this age group should be vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine made by Moderna as part of the deployment programme.
The JCVI will now consider whether to recommend the use of the jab to the government after they reversed their advice earlier this month and recommended Covid vaccines be offered to all 16- and 17-year-olds without needing the consent of their parents.
They had said vaccines should not routinely be given to children unless they were over 12 and clinically extremely vulnerable or living with someone at risk, but changed their minds due to “a small number of serious [hospital] cases” among young people.
It had said on 19 July: “The health benefits of universal vaccination in children and young people below the age of 18 years do not outweigh the potential risks.”
Prof Finn, who sits on the JCVI, told BBC Breakfast last week:
Most young people who get this virus get it mildly or even without any symptoms at all. But we are seeing cases in hospital even into this age group – we’ve had a couple of 17-year-olds here in Bristol admitted and needing intensive care over the course of the last four to six weeks – and so we are beginning to see a small number of serious cases.
What we know for sure is that these vaccines are very effective at preventing those kind of serious cases from occurring.
However, he added that UK experts were “cautious” and wanted to “learn more about rare side effects” such as reports of myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – among some young people in the US and Israel, with the risk of these incidents higher after a second dose.
However, members of the expert committee remain largely opposed to extending Covid jabs to teenagers younger than 16, despite politicians having signalled they would like to see a shift in the guidance.
It comes after one prominent critic of Covid jabs for children, Prof Robert Dingwall, left the body. He has previously expressed scepticism about vaccinating children, saying they were at “low risk for Covid” and suggested they might have been better protected by simply catching the virus. He has also written in favour of lifting Covid restrictions once the population is mostly vaccinated.
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More needs to be done to help struggling English ambulance services which have been forced to call in military support, a union has said.
Unison said that “something is wrong” when other services are “routinely” drafted in to help trusts under pressure. It comes after it was revealed that 87 military personnel have been helping out at ambulance services in the North East, East of England and South West.
While they are not performing medical duties, they have been assisting with logistical needs including restocking ambulances. During the height of the pandemic firefighters and police were also sent to struggling services, performing tasks such as driving ambulances.
Sara Gorton, head of health at the union Unison, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
For both the staff in the ambulance service and patients who are waiting, seeing a member of the military turning up to a 999 call is a real sign that things aren’t all well in the ambulance service ... The demand has been rising - yes, we’ve been through a very exceptional period during Covid - but it’s a pattern that has been building for several years.
One paramedic, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Today programme:
A lot of staff take time off because of burn-out.” We are often back-to-back with our jobs, and often not getting a break until particularly late in our shifts, we often are stuck at hospitals because we can’t unload our patients and that will lead to late finishes as well because of the demand that we’re under.
Unite national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, said:
For 30 years the NHS has taken the worst aspects of ‘lean’ business modelling and has applied it to slash, trash and privatise our NHS, and this has meant our ambulance services across England do not have the capacity to cope with surges in demand.
Though the extra support from the armed forces is welcome for an over-stretched emergency service, this news is symptomatic of what is wrong. Marketisation and privatisation of our ambulance services doesn’t benefit the public, just the greedy ‘vultures’ lying in wait to make profit from the pain and illness of the public.
Plymouth killer received telephone mental health support during lockdown
A 22-year-old who last week shot dead five people during one of the UK’s worst ever mass shootings, before killing himself, received telephone mental health support during lockdown, it has emerged.
Reports have suggested that Davison’s mother, whom he also killed at a home in Plymouth, south-west England, had been struggling to get help for her son, having become concerned about his mental health.
The Daily Mail has reported that Davison’s friends have claimed his mother was turned down by local mental health teams for support for her son, who had autism and ADHD and was increasingly erratic, because they were understaffed.
But gunman Jake Davison had been in contact with a telephone helpline service in Plymouth run by the Livewell Southwest organisation. The independent Plymouth healthcare group Livewell Southwest said he had received support over the past 18 months.
An NHS spokeswoman said: “When mental health services were approached for help it was given. The First Response Service continued throughout lockdown and was strengthened to help people who were struggling.”
It raises more serious questions as to why Devon and Cornwall police gave Davison his shotgun back after confiscating it, PA reports.
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Dolly Parton has said felt compelled to help fund research for the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine because she sensed “something bad” was on its way.
The country music star donated $1m to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tennessee, which participated in the research for the vaccine.
The 75-year-old told Absolute Radio Country:
When the pandemic came out, I just felt led to do something because I knew something bad was on the rise and I just kind of wanted to help with that, so I donated to help with that.
So, mine was a small part, of course, but I probably get a lot more credit than I deserve, but I was happy to be part of that, and to be able to try stop something in its tracks that’s really just become such a monster for all of us.
She received a dose of the jab in March. While documenting the event, she changed the lyrics to one of her best-known ballads to encourage people to have the vaccine.
To the tune of Jolene, Parton sang: “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate. Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, because once you’re dead, then that’s a bit too late.”
The king of Malaysia has ruled out a new general election in the country, after the resignation of the government amid mounting anger over its handling of the pandemic, because of concerns over the spread of Covid.
Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation yesterday after less than 18 months in office comes as Malaysia surpassed 20,000 daily cases this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.
The nation of 32m people has seen 12,510 Covid-related deaths during the pandemic, the New York Times reports, with 33% of people vaccinated.
The king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, appointed Yassin as caretaker prime minister until a successor is found.
Muhyiddin took power in March 2020 after initiating the collapse of the reformist government that won 2018 elections, the Associated Press reports. With a razor-thin majority in parliament and an unstable coalition, he became the country’s shortest-ruling leader.
He reportedly said that he accepted he had lost political support: “I will not conspire with kleptocrats, or interfere with the judiciary or turn my back on the Constitution to stay in power.”
The king also asked all lawmakers to individually submit the name of a preferred candidate for prime minister by tomorrow. Last year, his choice of Muhyiddin was disputed by the person he ousted, Mahathir Mohamad, and by the opposition.
AFP reports that Malaysia’s political landscape has been in disarray since elections in 2018 that saw a scandal-plagued coalition ejected after six decades in power, and replaced by a reformist alliance. But that alliance collapsed, and Muhyiddin came to power in March last year without an election.
The Bersih electoral reform group urged contenders to pursue political stability by offering multiparty governance and institutional reforms, and not just conduct horse-trading over numbers and positions.
“The endless political machination due to winner-takes-all politics in a de facto hung parliament for the past one and a half years must now end to enable a more effective governance of health and economy. The new prime minister must quickly convene a special meeting and table a motion of confidence in himself to prove his majority,” it said in a statement.
Updated
India has administered more than 8.8m doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past 24 hours, government data showed, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inoculate all eligible adults by December.
India has undertaken one of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drives and has so far administered 554m doses, giving at least one dose to about 46% of its estimated 944m adults. Only about 13% of the population have had the required two doses.
After hitting a record high of 9.2m doses on June 21, the pace of daily inoculations had dropped to around 4.2 million on an average in July, according to data compiled from the government’s CoWIN website.
In the first two weeks of August, India administered about 5m doses on an average everyday. Experts have said India needs to administer 10m doses a day to achieve its aim of inoculating all adults by December.
“For each day we fall short of it, the required target goes further up,” Rijo John, health economist and a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi. “Realistically, I do not think we will be able to cover all adults fully by this year’s end.”
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.
Staying in Australia, Sydney’s hospital system is under “enormous pressure” after a positive Covid case resulted in 80 staff being forced into isolation at St George hospital, the New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, has admitted, while ambulances carrying coronavirus patients waited for hours outside another facility.
The St George hospital staff have been deemed close contacts of a patient in the oncology ward who tested positive. Four patients and two staff members have now tested positive, while 21 patients in the ward remain in isolation after their tests, NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty has said.
The federal government will deploy five teams of Australian Defence Force personnel to western New South Wales as part of an urgent push to vaccinate vulnerable Indigenous communities, as the region scrambles to get ahead of a Delta outbreak.
My colleagues Sarah Martin and Elias Visontay report that “highly mobile, highly flexible and highly trained” 14-member vaccination teams, including medics, nurses and logistics specialists will begin arriving in western NSW tomorrow and will be based in Dubbo, where an outbreak is spreading among the Aboriginal population.
An Australian Medical Assistance Team (Ausmat) will also be dispatched to provide clinical support for the health network in the region, along with delivery of extra personal protective equipment and vaccine supplies.
NSW Health has decided to stop publishing Covid exposure sites in greater Sydney, unless they are high risk, after the list ballooned to thousands of locations over the past week.
The department will, however, continue to publish exposure sites in regional New South Wales, where Covid-19 has spread between towns.
“What we’ve learned is where the infection is most likely to spread,” the deputy chief health officer, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said as he explained the new policy. “That’s why we’re focusing on those areas and we’ve learned that people get lost in the detail when we put up venues that we don’t think are risk places on the website or in the media.”
The policy changed over the weekend and was only made public when the media questioned why the number of exposure sites had dramatically shrunk.
Here’s the full story on New Zealand going into a national lockdown tonight, after detecting one case of Covid-19. The entire country will be at alert level 4 – the highest level of lockdown – for at least three days from midnight, and the regions of Auckland and Coromandel for four to seven days.
New Zealand has not had a level 4 lockdown in more than a year, and the case is believed to be the first Delta in-community transmission.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said:
Delta has been called a gamechanger, and it is. It means we need to again go hard and early to stop the spread. We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance.
Updated
Summary
Time for me to hand over to my colleague Mattha Busby. Before I go, here’s a quick summary of the day’s events:
- Across England and Wales coronavirus accounted for around 5% of all deaths over the week ending 6 August, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics.
- With just a few dozen Covid-19 deaths and one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, Singapore wants to reopen for business – and is laying the groundwork to live with the coronavirus as it does other common diseases such as influenza.
Its medical experts say there may be hundreds of deaths each year from endemic Covid-19, similar to the flu. - Many thousands of people in the UK may have isolated unnecessarily because a government error meant they were “pinged” by the Covid app for a “close contact” in the prior five days rather than two days.
- New Zealand has reported its first community case of Covid-19 since February, with health officials racing to discover its source. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said the country needs “to again go hard and early to stop the spread”.
- US experts are expected to recommend vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus as the delta variant spreads across the country
- Authorities in Sydney say cases are set to rise “substantially” in the coming weeks despite a weeks-long lockdown, as the Australian city struggles to get on top of a growing outbreak.
- Japan is set to extend its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to 12 September and widen curbs to seven more prefectures, as Covid-19 cases spike in the capital and nationwide.
- The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was in the post at the beginning of the pandemic, has said the hypothesis that Covid was manipulated or “taught” to infect humans must be investigated further. He said he believes the virus “was most likely uncontained in a laboratory where it was being worked on, and that it escaped unintentionally”.
- Thai police again used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters near the office of the prime minister, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the pandemic. Hundreds marched on government house to demand his resignation.
- Several major California law enforcement agencies are reporting Covid-19 vaccination rates that are significantly lower than those of the general population, and seven state prisons have disclosed that less than a third of their officers are vaccinated.
Weekly Covid deaths up by a third in England and Wales
Across England and Wales coronavirus was mentioned in 527 death certificates in the week ending 6 August.
This was an increase of a third compared to the previous week, which recorded 404 coronavirus related deaths, and the highest total since 719 deaths were recorded in the week ending 26 March.
For England, the number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the week ending 6 August stood at 502, an increase of 113 from the week previous. In Wales, deaths involving Covid-19 increased to 22, from 13, across the same period.
According to ONS analysis, a total of 156,307 deaths have occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Updated
Several Chinese ports are facing congestions partly due to stricter disinfection measures called for by China’s “zero-tolerance” coronavirus policy.
On Tuesday, more than 50 container vessels were queuing at Ningbo port, China’s second largest marine centre, Refinitiv data showed, up from 28 on 10 August when a Covid-19 case was reported at one of its terminals.
China’s economy is losing momentum as a result of new coronavirus restrictions and the global supply chains face further strains with the curbs adding to queues at major Chinese transportation hubs, already stretched by a resurgence of consumer spending, shortage of container ships and logjams at ports, Reuters reports.
China’s Ministry of Transportation has ordered all ports to have special teams to deal with foreign vessels and required their crews to have health certificates or negative tests before allowing them to load and discharge cargos.
Ports also have their own rules, with some applying additional precautions to vessels that stopped at ports in high-risk regions, such as India, Laos or Russia, in the past 21 days.
Dawn Tiura, chief executive of Sourcing Industry Group, a US-based association for the sourcing and procurement industry said:
China’s zero tolerance policy is good for the pandemic but bad for the supply chain. This timing is very tough considering the uptick in back-to-school and return-to-work shopping in addition to the upcoming holiday shopping season.
Ningbo Zhoushan Port Co said in a statement late on Monday its handling volume has resumed to about 90% of its average daily level in July, following efforts to mitigate the impact of the shutdown of a terminal, which accounts for about 20% of Ningbo’s container handling capacity, after a Covid-19 case was detected there last week.
Vessels scheduled to call at the terminal are being re-routed to the nearby ports.
Shanghai port witnessed 34 vessels waiting at anchorage, compared to 27 on 10 August, while the number of vessels waiting at Xiamen port -700 km south of Ningbo - rose to 18 on Tuesday from four early last week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried about the spread of coronavirus in Afghanistan as the upheaval caused by the Taliban advance has slowed vaccinations, a spokesperson said.
The WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic also told a UN briefing that the chaos at Kabul airport, where thousands of people are trying to flee the Taliban, was slowing deliveries of medical supplies, Reuters reports.
Updated
Rishi Sunak is too savvy an operator to declare victory in the battle against unemployment because the past 18 months have shown that the unexpected can happen, and often does.
Yet while noting that there could still be “bumps in the road”, the chancellor is certainly relieved by how well the UK labour market has recovered from the effects of the Covid pandemic.
Monk Phrompong Kaino, 33, works around the clock providing free Covid-19 swab tests for vulnerable people in high-risk Bangkok communities, part of a project by his temple that has reached more than 2,000 people in just over a month.
He is one of thousands of ordinary people who have pitched in to try to help Thailand get out of its worst coronavirus crisis to date, which has strained hospitals and health services in the capital Bangkok, Reuters reports.
One in five of those tested by the project Kaino’s temple runs were positive for Covid-19 and were offered care at the temple in community isolation, or were found hospital beds. “Medical teams cannot meet the demand,” Phrompong said.
“No matter if they are Buddhist, Christian or Muslim communities, we are all human beings and citizens who deserve to get treated fairly and immediately.”
Thailand is on course to pass the 1 million mark in coronavirus cases this week, with 7,700 deaths so far, including a record 239 on Tuesday.
Vaccination rates are low due to supply shortages and temples are inundated with bodies to cremate.
Pairuch Sudtoop is a volunteer for a foundation funded by donations that has provided free undertaking and cremation services for about 350 people in recent months.
“The nation is in crisis now. I’ve never seen Thais suffer this much,” Pairuch said.
He volunteers on top of his job as a business owner and church worker.
“As the last person at the gate between the human world and the afterlife, it’s hard to control our emotions not to be sad.”
The government has hotlines for infected people to call for help, but has been criticised for failing to cope with a surge in demand.
A group of aerospace engineers has created a platform to connect volunteers with infected people needing assistance, tracking their locations and waiting times. It also provides information such as available community isolation centres and places to refill oxygen tanks.
Volunteer developer Wasanchai Vongsantivanich points to red dots on a screen showing a Bangkok map and those awaiting help.
“You can see the situation is pretty bad,” he said, adding that 9,000 volunteers signed up in the first three weeks.
“They are just trying to help people in the community.”
Updated
Offering incentives for workers to be vaccinated could open employers to compensation claims for any adverse reactions, a peak Australian business group has warned.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has released its advice to members as part of a debate over the role of employers in the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Updated
Asian markets gloomy on Delta variant resurgence fears as European markets open down
Asian markets were broadly down Tuesday as investors weighed record gains on Wall Street against fears the resurgent Delta coronavirus variant may put the brakes on the global economic recovery.
Major US indices rebounded overnight from a slow start as bargain hunters stepped up purchases – leaving both the Dow and S&P 500 finishing narrowly positive to extend a streak of record-high closes to a fifth straight day.
Buoyed by Wall Street, Tokyo opened up, before erasing early gains and closing down for a fourth consecutive session as fears over a surge in virus cases dampened hopes for the recovery.
“As long as the number of new cases continues to rise to record highs, investors won’t feel encouraged,” Yoshihiro Ito, a senior strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a note.
Markets in China have also dragged since a regulatory crackdown on private business by Beijing that has left investors on edge, with Hong Kong tumbling throughout the day and Shanghai closing well down.
The outlook for the global recovery was also hit by Chinese data this week showing retail sales and industrial production slowing in July, with a rapid recovery threatened by renewed localised virus lockdowns and extensive travel restrictions.
Raymond Yeung, the chief economist for Greater China at ANZ Banking Group, said the figures “suggest the economy is losing steam very fast”.
Surging infections linked to the Delta variant of the coronavirus “also adds extra risk to August’s activities”, he added.
Markets in Seoul were down, as were Taipei and Sydney, where millions remain under coronavirus restrictions with little end in sight as cases tied to the Delta variant soar.
Wellington also ended the day on losses, hit by news that New Zealand would move into a snap three-day lockdown after recording its first case of locally transmitted Covid-19 in six months.
London, Paris and Frankfurt all opened down.
Updated
Singapore prepares to be the first country to live with Covid-19
With just a few dozen Covid-19 deaths and one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, Singapore wants to reopen for business – and is laying the groundwork to live with the coronavirus as it does other common diseases such as influenza.
Its medical experts say there may be hundreds of deaths each year from endemic Covid-19, similar to the flu. That pragmatic approach could set an example for other countries looking to exit lockdowns as they ramp up their own inoculation programmes.
“The only way to have no deaths from a disease anywhere in the world is to eliminate the disease altogether and that has only been done for smallpox,” said Paul Tambyah, the president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
Singapore has reported only 44 Covid-19 deaths since the outbreak started in early January 2020. That compares with about 800 flu-related deaths in a typical year, according to doctors, in the country with a population of 5.7 million.
“While the idea of hundreds of Covid deaths seems shocking compared to the deaths so far and worth taking efforts to prevent, it is on par with influenza, which society hardly cares about,” said Alex Cook, an infectious disease modelling expert at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
As many as 1,000 may die in the next year or two in Singapore if vaccinations among elderly people do not improve, he added.
Experts forecast that majority of the deaths will be among those in the oldest age group, who remain unvaccinated despite being eligible for nearly half the year.
The country’s health minister, Ong Ye Kung, said this month that as the economy opens up, Singaporeans must “be psychologically prepared that the death toll due to Covid-19 will likely also go up.”
Three-quarters of Singapore’s population is fully inoculated against the coronavirus, and the country is set to ease more restrictions in September when the vaccination rate hits 80%.
As of 16 August, 80% of those aged 70 years and older had been fully vaccinated, and 60-69 year-olds were at 88%.
Singapore reported six Covid-19 deaths in the last two weeks, none of whom were vaccinated.
Early results from mathematical models suggest that the expected number of deaths from seniors aged 60 and above will be about 480 in 2022, said Teo Yik Ying, the dean of the Saw Swee Hock school of public health at the NUS.
Other nations that had early successes with the virus, such as Australia, are also shifting their strategies to brace for more Covid-19 deaths in an era where the disease is here to stay. But as one of the world’s most vaccinated countries, Singapore may be the first to show what that really means.
“If countries start to move towards an endemic Covid-19 strategy, the expectation is that there will be more related deaths, although it is still unclear how many of these will be excess mortality and how many would have occurred regardless of Covid-19,” said Teo.
Updated
Revealing findings from the Guardian Essential Report in Australia here.
Peter Lewis analyses the polling, which shows the public remain resilient in the face of the country’s lockdowns, though younger people have significant concerns around their finances and mental wellbeing.
Thousands could have isolated for no reason due to Covid app error, says source
Also from my Guardian colleagues in the UK: Rowena Mason and Mark Sweney have discovered that many thousands of people may have isolated unnecessarily because a government error meant they were “pinged” by the Covid app for a “close contact” in the prior five days rather than two days.
As the first 16 and 17-year olds in England were jabbed yesterday, the Guardian’s Josh Halliday and Niamh McIntyre reported on the listless trickle of teenagers turning up for the Covid-19 vaccine in Bolton.
The poorest region in mainland France has managed to dramatically speed up its Covid-19 vaccination campaign in recent weeks, notably by opening walk-in pop-up centres to reach out to people where they live and work.
The multicultural, working-class region of Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, initially struggled in getting the word out about vaccines to a population where many are immigrants who do not speak French or lack access to regular medical care.
But offering vaccinations at a highly visible location with easy access seems to be doing the trick, reports Associated Press.
Manuela Buval, 53, was waiting for her teenage son, who was getting his first vaccine shot Friday in a public park in Le Bourget.
“Everybody in the neighbourhood walks through the park ... whether on their way to work or to come play with their children,” she said.
Without the Red Cross pop-up vaccination centre, Mona Muhammad, 24, said she would have had to leave her children at her sister’s on the other side of Paris in order to get to a large vaccination centre outside of town.
“But thankfully, I can get my vaccine here in the city centre while my kids play in the park,” she said.
This region on Paris’ northeast edge, where over a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, had registered the highest rise in mortality in the country when Covid-19 first spread in France last year.
After trailing below the national vaccination rate average for months, the region is now three points above it, with 71% of its population having received at least a first dose. About 57% of people are fully vaccinated in France.
The success story is, in great part, the result of local initiatives. Since June, the Red Cross has vaccinated over 10,000 people at walk-in pop-up vaccination centres it set up across the region.
Immigrants and people staying in the country with no legal permission form a majority of those the Red Cross has vaccinated in its centre in Le Bourget.
Roger Fontaine, the president of the Red Cross in Seine-Saint-Denis, said:
Regular vaccination centres are like huge factories. We have a more local approach. Our goal is to bring the vaccine to people who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the system.
For Le Bourget Mayor Jean-Baptiste Borsali, French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on July 12 that a health pass would be required for many daily activities has been an important factor in driving up vaccination rates in the region.
The pass shows proof that people are fully vaccinated, have recently tested negative or have recovered from the virus. It is needed to enter restaurants, bars, sports arenas or get on long-distance trains, planes and buses, and many younger people have realized that the pass is vital to maintain a social life.
“We saw a real difference from one day to the next,” Borsali said, and many of those visiting the vaccination centre last week confirmed that the new health pass requirement played a role in their decision to get a shot.
Up to 75% of the region’s population are immigrants or have immigrant roots, and its residents speak 130 different languages. Le Bourget is no exception, being home to a large Sri Lankan community, some of whose members don’t speak French.
Anandarajah Rishi, a 42-year-old insurance expert and Red Cross volunteer with Sri Lankan roots, was called in at the pop-up centre over his lunch break on Friday to translate for those who needed help filling in their medical forms.
“I always keep my (Red Cross) uniform in my car, just in case,” he explained. “When it comes to health, it’s important that we are able to speak with them in their mother tongue, to establish trust and make sure that we get their correct medical information.”
Anusuya Thangavel, a 32-year-old business manager also from Sri Lanka, acknowledged it was reassuring to her and her relatives that they could speak in their native tongue to medical workers.
Pop-up vaccination centres also play a crucial role in reaching people with no legal documents allowing them to stay in France. While the French health care system is meant to provide accessible medical treatment for all, those without a valid government-issued ID and proof of enrolment in the country’s social security system cannot be vaccinated at regular centres.
Fontaine realised the scope of the problem after a person delivering food to the vaccination team initially turned down their offer to get the shot.
“We quickly understood he was staying illegally, but we vaccinated him regardless. The next day, he came back with all of his friends who were in the same situation,” he recounted. “We don’t turn anyone away here.”
The Red Cross walk-in centres have also been a “game-changer” for people who work long or unusual hours and cannot make it to large vaccination facilities during traditional work hours, Borsali said.
Many, like Hibach Noureddine, a 50-year-old taxi driver, said taking time off work to go out of town and wait in line for a vaccine shot was a loss of income they simply could not afford.
For Macina Sira, a cleaner in her 40s, the pop-up centre was a big relief.
For those who work long hours and have children like me, going to the larger vaccination centres is complicated. They’re far away, and you can’t bring your children out there.
While Seine-Saint-Denis is overcoming vaccination barriers, inoculation rates and demand for vaccines remain low in France’s most impoverished lands of all: its overseas territories.
The French Caribbean islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe in particular, have seen sky-rocketing infections in recent weeks, mainly among the non-vaccinated, prompting France to send in more medical assistance to cope with the problem.
Japanese markets slide as government set to announce extension of state of emergency
Japan is set to extend its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to 12 September and widen curbs to seven more prefectures, as Covid-19 cases spike in the capital and nationwide, burdening the medical system.
The current state of emergency is due to expire on 31 August, but a continuing surge in coronavirus cases has spurred calls for an extension, Reuters reports. Tokyo announced 2,962 new daily cases on Monday, after a record 5,773 on Friday.
The state of emergency will cover slightly less than 60% of the population after the government adds the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka.
“Many experts expressed an extremely strong sense of crisis about the medical care situation and the status of infections,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said after getting approval from a panel of public health advisers for the expansion.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to formally announce the move later on Tuesday. He will then hold a news conference at 9pm (12pm GMT) to explain the decision.
The coronavirus curbs include asking restaurants to close early and stop serving alcohol in exchange for a government subsidy.
Worries about the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus detracted from upbeat earnings on Tuesday, with the broad Topix (Tokyo Stock Price Index) giving up gains to slip deeper into negative territory after the lunch break.
Dai-ichi Life Research Institute estimated in a report the government’s extended and expanded state of emergency would lead to a total economic loss of about 1.2 trillion yen ($10.98 billion) and could slash 66,000 jobs.
That was about 60% higher than an expected economic loss of about 750 billion yen if the emergency remained at its current scope and schedule.
The expert advisers also approved the government’s plan to expand less strict “quasi-emergency” measures to 10 additional prefectures, Nishimura said.
Repeated states of emergency have had limited effect in slowing the spread of the virus in Japan as cooperation is voluntary.
Takuto Honda, a 20-year-old university student in southwestern Fukuoka city who works part-time at a karaoke shop, said he thought a harder lockdown with government pay-outs would be more effective.
“If there is money to host the Olympics, there should be money to compensate us,” he said.
Pandemic fatigue and summer vacations have also been blamed for contributing to the latest COVID-19 surge in a nation where only around 37% of people have been fully vaccinated.
Updated
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern: "We need to again go hard and early"
New Zealand will go into a national lockdown after detecting one case of the Delta variant in the community today.
The entire country will be at alert level four - the country’s highest level of lockdown - for three days from midnight tonight, and the regions of Auckland and Coromandel for 4-7 days.
This is likely the country’s first case of Delta in-community transmission.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said:
“Delta has been called a game changer, and it is. It means we need to again go hard and early to stop the spread. We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance.”
The case is a 58-year-old male from Devonport, Auckland. He was tested on Saturday 14 August, so the infectious period was considered to have started Thursday 12. The couple traveled to the Coromandel region on Friday, then returned to Auckland on 15 August. Locations of interest are available on the Ministry of Health’s website.
Ardern said that New Zealand would not know if the case was Delta until its genome was sequenced - but that the government would be working under that assumption that it was Delta until informed otherwise.
“That has shaped all of the decisions we have made,” she said.
“We’ve seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act in other countries, not least our neighbors,” she said.
Updated
Robyn Vinter here.
Large events held in Nevada can add themselves to the growing number of places in the US where people in crowds are asked to prove they have been inoculated against Covid-19, the governor said Monday.
Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak said that large indoor venues in cities like Las Vegas and Reno will be allowed to opt out of the state’s mask requirements if they verify their guests are vaccinated, Reuters reports.
Sisolak said:
This is cutting edge. There’s no other venues in the country that are doing this. I think it is going to get people more people wanting to go to an event because they know that when they walk in that arena, or that stadium, everybody’s vaccinated.
Venues with capacities greater than 4,000 will be eligible for the exemption. Partially vaccinated people and children ineligible to receive vaccines can attend venues that opt in, but must remain masked. Sisolak made clear that the policy was not a mandate and was voluntary for venues.
He said he’d seen pictures of unmasked fans at recent soccer and American football games and framed his directive as an option for event organisers who don’t want to enforce mask mandates.
This gives an option for event organizers to choose between requiring masks indoors for all attendees — regardless of vaccination status — or making the choice to only allow vaccinated individuals into their events, and letting the fully vaccinated take their masks off.
The move to expand proof of vaccination requirements in one of the country’s entertainment capitals comes days after officials in New York, San Francisco and New Orleans adopted proof-of-vaccination measures for indoor public spaces, conventions or concert halls.
Key developments so far
That’s from me, Helen Livingstone, for today, I’m handing over to my UK colleague Robyn Vinter.
Here’s a brief rundown of what’s been happening over the past 24 hours:
- New Zealand has reported its first community case of Covid-19 since February, with health officials racing to discover its source. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern is set to address the media at 6pm local time.
- US experts are expected to recommend vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus as the delta variant spreads across the country
- Across the Tasman, authorities in Sydney say cases are set to rise “substantially” in the coming weeks despite a weeks-long lockdown, as the Australian city struggles to get on top of a growing outbreak.
- Japan is set to extend its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to 12 September and widen curbs to seven more prefectures, as Covid-19 cases spike in the capital and nationwide.
- The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was in the post at the beginning of the pandemic, has said the hypothesis that Covid was manipulated or “taught” to infect humans must be investigated further. He said he believes the virus “was most likely uncontained in a laboratory where it was being worked on, and that it escaped unintentionally”.
- A troubling divide in Irish schools looks likely to emerge as unvaccinated children would have to take up to two weeks out of school if they were a close contact of a Covid-positive peer, but vaccinated children would not – despite still being able to contract and transmit the virus.
- The UK’s health regulator said Covid-19 vaccines did not raise the risk of miscarriage, and that it had not found any link between the shots and changes to menstrual periods. It came after Europe’s drugs regulator said it had so far not found a causal link between Covid-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders.
- The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, will temporarily be allowed to enforce an order banning mask mandates, the state supreme court ruled. However, the ultimate fate of mask mandates in Texas is far from clear, as school districts and localities fight to maintain control of public health orders.
- Thai police again used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters near the office of the prime minister, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the pandemic. Hundreds marched on government house to demand his resignation.
- Several major California law enforcement agencies are reporting Covid-19 vaccination rates that are significantly lower than those of the general population, and seven state prisons have disclosed that less than a third of their officers are vaccinated.
In case you missed it, check out this fascinating feature from Kyle Mullin about the rift that vaccinations and other Covid safety measures have caused among country music fans:
New Zealand has recorded a new case of Covid-19 transmission in the community, our correspondent Tess McClure reports, its first since February.
The case was detected in Auckland, and health officials have not yet established a link between the case and the border or managed isolation facilities.
It is not yet known whether the new case is the Delta variant, but it is highly likely – data released by the Ministry of Health yesterday showed 100% of Covid-19 cases detected at New Zealand’s border in recent weeks had been Delta.
Last week, the government warned New Zealanders that they could face a “short, sharp” lockdown if the Delta variant made its way into the country.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to give an update on the case in jut under half an hour so stand by for more news.
In the meantime, here’s our latest report:
Experts in the US are expected to recommend that all Americans should have Covid-19 vaccine boosters eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, the Associated Press reports, as officials race to prevent the Delta variant spreading across the country.
Federal health officials are watching the rising case numbers in the US very closely and are considering whether extra shots for the vaccinated will be needed before the onset of winter, the news wire says.
They are also looking at the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine’s protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January.
To read more on this story, check out this report:
The premier of New South Wales (NSW), Gladys Berejiklian, has warned that cases in Sydney are set to rise “substantially” over the coming weeks despite the prolonged lockdown.
The Australian city has struggled to get on top of a growing outbreak, which was sparked in June when a limo driver is thought to have caught the virus from an international aircrew.
New South Wales reported 452 cases in the past 24 hours, the third-biggest one-day jump, and one new death.
“We envisage that case numbers in the next two or three weeks will bounce around and are likely to rise substantially,” said Berejiklian.
She also announced that the state was launching a vaccination drive targeting 16- to 39-year-olds in Sydney’s south-west, where the majority of new Covid cases are being reported.
More from Guardian Australia reporter Anne Davies:
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
New Zealand has reported its first community case of Covid-19 since February, with health officials racing to discover its source. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern is set to address the media at 6pm local time.
US experts are expected to recommend vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus as the delta variant spreads across the country
Across the Tasman, authorities in Sydney say cases are set to rise “substantially” in the coming weeks despite a weeks-long lockdown, as the Australian city struggles to get on top of a growing outbreak.
Japan is set to extend its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to 12 September and widen curbs to seven more prefectures, as Covid-19 cases spike in the capital and nationwide.
Here’s what’s been happening over the past 24 hours:
- The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was in the post at the beginning of the pandemic, has said the hypothesis that Covid was manipulated or “taught” to infect humans must be investigated further. He said he believes the virus “was most likely uncontained in a laboratory where it was being worked on, and that it escaped unintentionally”.
- The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will not have any spectators due to the Covid-19 outbreak in Japan, the organisers announced in statement “in light of the current emergency declaration issued for Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba prefectures” and “the current infection situation broadly”.
- A troubling divide in Irish schools looks likely to emerge as unvaccinated children would have to take up to two weeks out of school if they were a close contact of a Covid-positive peer, but vaccinated children would not – despite still being able to contract and transmit the virus.
- The UK’s health regulator said Covid-19 vaccines did not raise the risk of miscarriage, and that it had not found any link between the shots and changes to menstrual periods. It came after Europe’s drugs regulator said it had so far not found a causal link between Covid-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders.
- The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, will temporarily be allowed to enforce an order banning mask mandates, the state supreme court ruled. However, the ultimate fate of mask mandates in Texas is far from clear, as school districts and localities fight to maintain control of public health orders.
- Thai police again used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters near the office of the prime minister, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the pandemic. Hundreds marched on government house to demand his resignation.
- Several major California law enforcement agencies are reporting Covid-19 vaccination rates that are significantly lower than those of the general population, and seven state prisons have disclosed that less than a third of their officers are vaccinated.
