Summary
Here’s a round-up of this evening’s news
- The UK has begun the process of delivering 9m Covid-19 doses overseas as part of the international effort to combat the virus. Countries set to benefit include Belize, Indonesia and Kenya.
- Dr Anthony Fauci has said granting full approval for Covid-19 vaccines could spur Americans who haven’t had the jab to get it. Currently the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are licensed under emergency rules.
- The US has now administered 344,928,514 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and distributed 399,090,105 jabs as of Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
- Africa’s tightest lockdown, in Uganda, has been eased after 42 days. President Yoweri Museveni partially eased restrictions which were brought in to halt a sweeping second wave of Covid infections, and has reopened some markets and shopping centres.
- Mexico’s health ministry has confirmed another 459 people died from Covid-19 on Friday, bringing the death toll to at least 240,456. The real death toll is thought to be up to 60% higher than official figures.
- Another 963 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, bringing the death toll to 555,460. Another 40,904 new infections have been confirmed, which means the country has registered more than 19.8 million cases since the pandemic began.
- Canada’s chief public health officer has warned the country could face a fourth wave of Covid-19 if restrictions are lifted too quickly, as she urged young people to get vaccinated.
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Walt Disney Company said vaccination will become mandatory for all its on-site salaried and non-union hourly employees in the US, Reuters reports.
- The EU is likely to get 40 million more Moderna vaccine doses by October, after a boost in output at US-based factories.
- The World Health Organization has urged action to suppress Covid before deadlier variants emerge. Officials said the Delta variant was a warning to the world to clamp down on the virus before it mutates again into something worse.
That’s all for this blog. Thanks for following it.
Updated
Official death toll in Mexico rises to above 240,000
Mexico’s health ministry has confirmed another 459 people died from Covid-19 on Friday, bringing the death toll to at least 240,456.
The real figure is thought to be up to 60% higher, due to problems with reporting.
Another 19,346 new cases were confirmed in the country, meaning 2,829,443 people in the South American country have now had the virus, Reuters reports.
Canada’s chief public health officer has warned the country could face a fourth wave of Covid-19 if restrictions are lifted too quickly.
Dr Theresa Tam said vaccination rates had helped reduced hospitalisations and deaths, but the rate at which people are getting jabbed must rise further to avoid further strain on hospitals. It’s feared that the Delta variant could be behind any future increase in cases.
Associated Press reports that she urged younger adults to become fully vaccinated as soon as possible, saying they continue to lag behind other age groups and are associated with highest rates of disease transmission.
About 6.3 million Canadians have not received a first dose and more than 5 million have not had a second, she told a news briefing.
“With just over five weeks until Labor Day in Canada, this time is crucial for building up protection before we gather in schools, colleges, university and workplaces this fall,” she said.
Walt Disney Company said vaccination will become mandatory for all its on-site salaried and non-union hourly employees in the US, Reuters reports.
The company said all newly hired employees will be required to be fully vaccinated before beginning their jobs.
“Employees who aren’t already vaccinated and are working on-site will have 60 days from today to complete their protocols and any employees still working from home will need to provide verification of vaccination prior to their return, with certain limited exceptions,” Disney said.
More than 40,000 new cases in Brazil
The latest figures from Brazil have confirmed that another 963 people have died from Covid-19, bringing the death toll to 555,460.
Another 40,904 new infections have been confirmed, which means the country has registered more than 19.8 million cases since the pandemic began, according to health ministry data.
In Australia, supermarkets are finding novel ways of enforcing anti-Covid measures.
Some supermarket workers in Sydney will wear bracelets that alert them to social distancing breaches as part of increased efforts to limit the risk of transmitting Covid at their stores and distribution centres.
It’s part of a range of new safety measures in place in response to the outbreak of the Delta variant, and comes as the first supermarket workers in hotpots in Sydney’s south-west are to get vaccinated within days under a new deal giving them priority access to Pfizer.
Supermarkets, food outlets and hardware stores regularly feature on the New South Wales list of exposure sites.
In many instances its because the stores have been visited by Covid-positive customers. But in some instances the duration of the times notified indicates that the infected person is a staff member.
Africa's tightest lockdown in Uganda is relaxed
Over in Uganda, a tight lockdown has been eased after 42 days.
President Yoweri Museveni partially eased restrictions which were brought in to halt a sweeping second wave of Covid infections, and has reopened some markets and shopping centres.
In late May, the east African country saw a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections and deaths as a result of the Delta variant.
In response Museveni imposed one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns, which saw a total ban on private and public vehicles, closed all non-essential businesses and shut schools, according to Reuters.
In a televised address on Friday, the president said movement of both private and public vehicles was allowed, but with fewer passengers. He has relaxed restrictions in light of a fall in hospital admissions and deaths.
More than 2,660 people have died from the virus, with 93,675 positive tests recorded. Only 1.1 million of the country’s 44.2 million people have had a vaccine dose, all from donated supplies.
Museveni said: “During the period of the lockdown data generated by the ministry of health has shown a consistent reduction in daily confirmed cases.”
A study in the US has found that vaccinated people who get Covid-19 carried the same amount of the virus as those who are unvaccinated.
Scientists who studied an outbreak in Massachusetts, on the east coast of the US, found that about 900 people got the virus near Cape Cod. About three quarters of them were fully vaccinated.
The findings have contributed to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending that vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the US where the Delta variant is fuelling infection surges, according to Associated Press.
Previously people who had received both jabs were thought to have low levels of the virus and be unlikely to pass it on to others.
One of those who got the virus was Travis Dagenais, who was fully vaccinated. He had partied in crowds for long nights around the Independence Day holidays in early July.
He said: “Unfortunately, I’ve now learned it’s a few steps toward normal, not the zero-to-sixty that we seem to have undertaken.”
The World Health Organization has urged action to suppress Covid before deadlier variants emerge.
In a press conference on Friday, officials said the Delta variant was a warning to the world to clamp down on the virus before it mutates again into something worse.
The variant, first detected in India, has now been found in 132 countries and territories, the WHO said.
The body’s emergencies director, Michael Ryan, told a press conference: “Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge.”
Its head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added: “So far, four variants of concern have emerged – and there will be more as long as the virus continues to spread,” according to AFP.
He said that on average infections increased by 80% over the last four weeks in five of the six WHO regions.
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The EU is likely to get 40 million more Moderna vaccine doses by October, after a boost in output at US-based factories.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement on Friday that a production increase at US sites in Massachusetts and New Hampshire would have a significant impact on the supply of Spikevax, which is the Moderna vaccine’s brand name.
When the EMA gave approval in June for the sites to produce ingredients for the vaccine in Europe, it hoped that it would produce 1m to 2m vials for the EU market every month, according to AFP. Yet the increase means even more will arrive in Europe.
About 70% of adults in the EU have had at least one dose of the vaccine, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said this week.
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The US has now administered 344,928,514 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and distributed 399,090,105 jabs as of Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
The figures were up from the 344,017,595 on Thursday, out of the 397,464,625 doses delivered.
The agency said that 190,509,182 people had received at least one dose, according to Reuters, with 164,184,080 fully vaccinated as of Friday.
The total includes Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
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Dr Anthony Fauci has said granting full approval for Covid-19 vaccines could spur Americans who haven’t had the jab to get it.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Reuters that formal approval by the US Food and Drug Administration could also give doctors the ability to prescribe a third shot of the vaccine to people with weakened immune systems.
Currently the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson doses are authorised on an emergency use basis.
Fauci, who is also the chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, said it could reduce fears about the safety of the jabs, and make local officials more comfortable with vaccination plans.
“Given what we’ve been through now and the number of months that have gone by since the (emergency use authorisation), I would hope that within the very reasonable period of time in the future we’ll see that. I hope as we get into the middle of August that we’re almost there,” Fauci said.
More than 163 million people in the United States, or nearly half of the population, have been fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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UK starts shipping 9 million Covid jabs overseas
The UK has begun the process of delivering 9m Covid-19 doses overseas as part of the international effort to combat the virus.
The first flight carrying doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to Guyana and Belize left Heathrow airport on Friday, PA Media reported.
Further batches will depart for Kenya, Indonesia and Jamaica, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.
The government pledged a total of 100m vaccines abroad, 80 million of which will go towards the World Health Organization’s Covax scheme, which helps supply vaccines to lower-income countries.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said: “The UK is sending nine million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, the first batch of the 100m doses we’ve pledged, to get the most vulnerable parts of the world vaccinated as a matter of urgency.
“We’re doing this to help the most vulnerable, but also because we know we won’t be safe until everyone is safe.”
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Hi there, Harry Taylor here bringing you the latest Covid updates from around the world for the rest of this evening.
If you’ve got any tips or suggestions, you can get in touch by email, or Twitter where I’m @HarryTaylr and my DMs are open.
UK MPs enjoyed a bonanza of free tickets this summer worth more than £100,000 from gambling, drinks and sporting companies as they took advantage of the government’s Covid pilot scheme for large events.
Cabinet ministers Ben Wallace and Brandon Lewis, plus the opposition leader, Keir Starmer, were among those who benefited from free tickets declared during July, with more than 35 MPs in total accepting hospitality as they took part in the research project.
With large events banned for more than a year due to Covid rules, MPs appeared keen to make use of the pilot scheme as they took up free tickets to the Euro 2020 football, motor racing at Silverstone and Goodwood, tennis at Wimbledon, cricket at Lord’s, Rugby League Challenge Cup, and the Brit awards.
Many fans with long-held tickets to Euro 2020 matches had their tickets cancelled due to Covid restrictions, but 19 MPs managed to attend for free courtesy of gambling companies and the Premier League.
Three-quarters of those infected with Covid at US county were fully vaccinated - study
A new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that almost 75% of people who became infected with Covid-19 at public events in a Massachusetts county had been fully vaccinated.
The new study’s authors recommended that local health authorities consider requiring masks in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status or the number of coronavirus cases in the community.
The study identified 469 people with Covid-19, 74% of whom were fully vaccinated, following large public events in the state’s Barnstable county. The viral load was similar in people who were fully vaccinated and those who were unvaccinated, the CDC said.
The finding of the report “is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
“The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones,” Walensky said.
It comes after the World Health Organization said higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, suggesting that while it is about 50% more transmissible this does not necessarily equate to a greater death or significantly higher hospitalisation risk.
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Today so far...
- Higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, the World Health Organization said, suggesting that while it is about 50% more transmissible this does not necessarily equate to a greater death risk. Just a few countries have reported increased hospitalisation rates, a spokesperson said. However, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents cite studies suggesting that the Delta variant may pose a greater risk for the worst health outcomes than the Alpha variant first detected in the UK.
- Israeli president Isaac Herzog received a third shot of coronavirus vaccine, kicking off a campaign to give booster doses to people aged over 60 amid a waning efficacy of the jabs and a push by Pfizer to encourage their use. Prime minister Naftali Bennett, pledged that Israel would share all information from the rollout — which in large part represents a medical trial due to a relative absence of evidence on the efficacy and safety of boosters.
- Kenya’s government suspended all in-person meetings and public gatherings to try to contain the growing spread of Covid-19, with the country already under some form of curfew since March last year when the pandemic first hit. It will be extended nationwide from 10pm to 4am. It comes after Human Rights Watch warned that the Kenyan government’s response to the pandemic “has devastated many people’s livelihoods”.
- The Thai government outlawed sharing news that “causes public fear”, even if such reports are true, as officials face mounting criticism over their handling of the pandemic. The latest constrictions forbid people from distributing “information causing public fear”, or from sharing “distorted information causing misunderstanding which affects national stability”.
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Anyone entering Germany from abroad are set to have to take a Covid-19 test from Sunday unless they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from the disease. Under current German rules, any unvaccinated person entering the country by plane must get tested, but those entering by road or rail must not unless they are coming from an area deemed high risk.
- Millions of Americans hitherto protected from eviction by a federal suspension that has been allowed to expire at the end of this week now face potential eviction. States with weak renter protections, such as Florida, are bracing for an “avalanche” of evictions while the federal moratorium’s expiration won’t be noticed in states with stronger protections, such as Washington.
- The Philippines will send more than 13 million people in the national capital region back into lockdown next week in a bid to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. Restaurant dining and mass gatherings have been banned with immediate effect and a two-week stay-at-home order will start on 6 August.
- Allegations are growing from residents and human rights activists in Myanmar that the military government, which seized control in February, is using the pandemic to consolidate power and crush opposition. Medical workers have been targeted after spearheading a civil disobedience movement that urged professionals and civil servants not to cooperate with the government, known as the State Administrative Council.
- The depiction of French president Emmanuel Macron dressed like Adolf Hitler, including a toothbrush moustache, has tested the government’s appetite for satire, after the Charlie Hebdo magazine was robustly defended for publishing controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad. But it appears Macron does not have the stomach for such implicit criticism.
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Man behind Macron billboard comparing him to Hitler says France is pro-satire
The depiction of French president Emmanuel Macron dressed like Adolf Hitler, including a toothbrush moustache, has tested the government’s appetite for satire, after the Charlie Hebdo magazine was robustly defended for publishing controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
But it appears Macron does not have the stomach for such implicit criticism, as his lawyers and political party have filed legal complaints alleging that the depictions displayed on billboards paid for by the owner of a French street advertising business were a public insult. This has risked opening the door to hypocrisy.
Michel-Ange Flori decided to use some of his billboards in his home region of the south of France for what he called an exercise in political satire. He said the consensus in his country was on the side of Charlie Hebdo.
“But when it is a matter of making fun of the president by depicting him as a dictator, then it becomes blasphemy, then it is unacceptable,” he said in an interview with Reuters, mimicking his critics. Flori said he has been contacted by police acting on the legal complaint.
In October, Macron honoured school teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed by a Chechen teenager who wanted to avenge Paty’s use of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in a class on freedom of expression. “We will not give up on cartoons and drawings, even if others back down,” Macron said.
Flori put up the Macron billboards – which also carry the phrase “Obey, get vaccinated” – in response to a law adopted by parliament this month barring people from some public venues unless they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or can show a fresh negative test.
Some of Macron’s opponents say the rules trample on civil liberties and accuse the president of acting like a dictator, particularly since the vaccines have not received full approval due to an absence of long-term safety data, but the administration argues that it needs to encourage greater vaccination rates to protect public health.
“I did not expect this at all. That the president would file a complaint against a French citizen,” Flori said. “I caricature,” he said. “People may or may not like it but it is all the same, caricature will remain caricature.”
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As England’s “freedom day” dawned on 19 July, Boris Johnson was grumpily confined to his 16th-century grace-and-favour mansion, humiliated by the row over a bungled quarantine exemption, my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Ian Sample report. Cases were at more than 46,000 per day as all legal restrictions lifted and the international press called it Britain’s great gamble.
Almost a fortnight later, despite dire predictions, the UK’s cases are falling. Downing Street does not quite dare to be jubilant but cases fell for seven consecutive days this week for the first time since November, though the last few days have seen a slight rise. On Thursday, cases were down by 40% on the week before.
Broadway theatres to require Covid-19 vaccinations and masks
Covid-19 vaccinations and masks will be required for all Broadway audience members when theaters reopen in the coming weeks, New York theatre operators announced today.
Audience members will have to wear face coverings and show proof they are fully vaccinated when they enter the theatres, the Broadway League said.
There will be exceptions to the vaccine rule for children under 12, who are not yet eligible for any of the approved shots, and for people with a medical condition or religious belief that prevents vaccination, the theatre operators said. Those individuals will need to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test, the Associated Press reports.
“As vaccination has proven the most effective way to stay healthy and reduce transmission, I’m pleased that the theatre owners have decided to implement these collective safeguards at all our Broadway houses,” Broadway League president Charlotte St Martin said.
Vaccinations will also be required for all performers, crew members and theatre employees, the league said. Bruce Springsteen’s one-man show is the only performance currently running on Broadway.
Meanwhile, Walmart has made it mandatory for its retail workers in US counties with substantial or high transmission of coronavirus to wear masks in its stores, clubs and distribution centres, according to a memo reported by Reuters.
The memo also showed retail workers would receive an incentive of $150, double the amount it had been paying, to get inoculated, with those already paid $75 set to receive the rest next month.
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Drug manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions has said it has received inquiries and subpoenas from multiple US authorities related to its abilities to manufacture a Covid-19 bulk drug substance.
Emergent came under regulatory scrutiny after an error led to millions of vaccine doses being ruined at its manufacturing facility in Baltimore, which was producing bulk substance for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine.
US health regulators in April halted operations at the plant after it discovered that ingredients from AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, also being produced there at that time, contaminated a batch of J&J’s vaccines, Reuters reports.
A subsequent inspection from the US Food and Drug Administration reported a long list of sanitary problems and bad manufacturing practices at the facility.
But the production at the facility will now resume, Emergent said on Wednesday, following additional reviews and collaboration with the FDA and its manufacturing partners.
In a filing today, Emergent said it has received “preliminary inquiries and subpoenas to produce documents” from the lawmakers, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and Maryland and New York Attorneys General.
Moving away from the WHO briefing for now, here’s the full story on how millions of Americans hitherto protected from eviction by a moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that has been allowed to expire at the end of this week now face potential eviction.
This pain won’t be felt equally across the US. States with weak renter protections, such as Florida, are bracing for an “avalanche” of evictions while the federal moratorium’s expiration won’t be noticed in states with stronger protections, such as Washington.
A small number have been able to pay off roughly three months of owed rent thanks to the $47bn in rental assistance the government allocated to stave off evictions.
But only 6.5% of that money has been delivered, and advocates are concerned evictions will rise next week when renters are suddenly on the hook for months, if not a year, of unpaid rent. Roughly 12.7 million renters told the census in late June and early July that they had no or slight confidence in being able to make next month’s rent payment.
Delta variant of Covid not more deadly than original strains, says WHO
Higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, said Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization technical lead on Covid-19, suggesting that while it may be more transmissible this does not necessarily equate to a greater death risk.
She said that the Delta variant is about 50% more transmissible than ancestral strains of Sars-CoV-2, that first emerged in China in late 2019. A few countries have reported increased hospitalisation rates but higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, she said.
However, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents obtained by the Washington Post today cite studies from Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that the Delta variant may pose a greater risk for the worst health outcomes than the Alpha variant first detected in the UK.
The paper cites “a combination of recently obtained, still-unpublished data from outbreak investigations and outside studies showing that vaccinated individuals infected with Delta may be able to transmit the virus as easily as those who are unvaccinated. Vaccinated people infected with Delta have measurable viral loads similar to those who are unvaccinated and infected with the variant.”
WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan also said that WHO-approved vaccines remain effective against the disease, despite growing real-world evidence of their waning efficacy.
“The vaccines currently approved by the WHO all provide significant protection against severe disease and hospitalisation,” he said. “We are fighting the same virus but a virus that has become faster and better adapted to transmitting amongst us humans, that’s the change.”
The CDC documents show that since January, people who got infected after vaccination make up an increasing portion of hospitalisations and in-hospital deaths among Covid-19 patients, the Associated Press reports.
Van Kerkhove added that Covid-19 variants are not targeting children in the UK.
Updated
Here’s the full story on Japan expanding its coronavirus state of emergency to four more areas beyond Tokyo after record increases in infections while the capital hosts the Olympics Games.
The country’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, declared an emergency in Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba near Tokyo and in the western city of Osaka, effective from Monday until 31 August, the Associated press reports.
Emergency measures already in place in Tokyo and the southern island of Okinawa will also be extended until the end of August, after the Olympics and well into the Paralympics, which start on 24 August.
The upsurge in cases in Tokyo despite more than two weeks of emergency measures is raising doubts that the authorities can slow infections effectively. Five other areas, including Hokkaido, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka will be placed under less-stringent emergency restrictions.
Tokyo has reported record increases in cases for three days in a row, including 3,865 on Thursday before logging a further 3,300 on Friday. The number of cases has doubled since last week, but officials say the rise is unrelated to the Olympics.
A top public health official in a St Louis suburb has spoken out after he was targeted by racist abuse at a council meeting on re-introducing mask mandates to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The St Louis county executive, Sam Page, imposed an indoor mask mandate on Monday on the advice of Khan and other health experts as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations rose.
Dr Faisal Khan, acting director of public health for St Louis County, told the Guardian:
I’ve been to many council meetings where we’ve had tense conversations. Never has it spilled over into this anger, vitriol and directed abuse to the point where I was fearful for my own safety. All we asked was for people to wear a mask indoors as they went about their business, whether they wanted to crowd a hundred people in a church or meeting space.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new recommendations, saying that people vaccinated against the coronavirus should resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces in regions where the virus is surging.
However, the move in the St Louis suburb prompted swift backlash, and the county council voted 5-2 to overrule the mask mandate on Tuesday. In a video widely circulated on social media, a crowd present at the council meeting can be seen cheering the result. Page has insisted the mask mandate is still in effect, despite the vote.
Here’s our good news story of the week in case you missed it, courtesy of our environment editor Damian Carrington, on where to flee in case of total societal breakdown.
New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Tasmania and Ireland are the places best suited to survive a global collapse of society, according to a study. The researchers said human civilisation was “in a perilous state” due to the highly interconnected and energy-intensive society that had developed and the environmental damage this had caused.
A collapse could arise from shocks, such as a severe financial crisis, the impacts of the climate crisis, destruction of nature, an even worse pandemic than Covid-19 or a combination of these, the scientists said.
To assess which nations would be most resilient to such a collapse, countries were ranked according to their ability to grow food for their population, protect their borders from unwanted mass migration, and maintain an electrical grid and some manufacturing ability. Islands in temperate regions and mostly with low population densities came out on top.
The researchers said their study highlighted the factors that nations must improve to increase resilience. They said that a globalised society that prized economic efficiency damaged resilience, and that spare capacity needed to exist in food and other vital sectors.
Billionaires have been reported to be buying land for bunkers in New Zealand in preparation for an apocalypse. “We weren’t surprised New Zealand was on our list,” said Prof Aled Jones, at the Global Sustainability Institute, at Anglia Ruskin University, in the UK.
A British cabinet minister has sought to dampen down a growing diplomatic row with France over the imposition of tougher international restrictions on millions of travellers owing to the threat of the Beta variant of coronavirus.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, defended the decision to put France on the “amber-plus” list, after the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, on Thursday suggested the variant’s prevalence on Réunion, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, was partly to blame.
The move – which means fully vaccinated people entering the UK from France are not able to avoid quarantine and must self-isolate for up to 10 days – prompted fury from the French authorities and those living or holidaying across the Channel.
A French deputy recently criticised the extra restrictions as being based on neither science nor logic, summing it up as “Kafka goes on holiday with Godot”, while France’s Europe minister called the change “frankly incomprehensible on health grounds” and discriminatory.
Delta variant now makes up 94.8% of cases in Italy
The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus has gained dominance in Italy, the National Health Institute (ISS) said on Friday, releasing data showing it accounted for 94.8% of cases as of July 20.
The variant, first identified in India in December 2020, is now dominant worldwide and has led to a spike in infection rates that has stoked concerns over the global economic recovery.
In the previous survey based on data from June 22, the Delta variant represented just 22.7% of cases. By contrast, the Alpha variant accounted for 3.2% of cases as of July 20 against a previous prevalence of 57.8%.
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Cyprus is to become the latest country to expand its Covid-19 vaccination rollout to cover children aged 12 to 15.
Health minister Michalis Hadjipantelas announced that the rollout would start on Monday. “The vaccination will be voluntary and with the necessary consent of the parents or legal guardians,” he said.
“Already several European Union countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Greece, vaccinate children aged 12-15 to achieve greater protection of the population,” he said.
Children will be vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna. Over 20% of Cypriot teenagers aged 16-17 have received a vaccine shot, AFP reports.
But the UK has stopped short of rolling out the jabs to children. Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said last month: “The risk of death [from Covid in children] is one in a million. That’s not a figure and plucking from the air, that’s a quantifiable risk.”
Prof Robert Dingwall, a sociologist on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has also said that “it is not immoral to think that [children] may be better protected by natural immunity generated through infection than by asking them to take the possible risk of a vaccine”.
Meanwhile, in Cyprus, in its bid to contain rising yet relatively small numbers of cases, the cabinet decided today that unvaccinated visitors and tourists staying longer than seven days will need to take a PCR test after a week’s stay.
The health ministry said Cyprus has inoculated 73% of the eligible population with a first jab, and 64% are fully vaccinated.
Government-controlled southern Cyprus, population almost 800,000, has registered over 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 416 deaths since the pandemic reached its shores in March 2020. Wearing face masks and social distancing remain compulsory.
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Thailand bans news 'affecting national stability', even if true
Staying in south Asia, the Thai government has outlawed sharing news that “causes public fear”, even if such reports are true, as officials face mounting criticism over their handling of the pandemic, my colleagues Rebecca Ratcliffe and Navaon Siradapuvadol report.
Yesterday, the government tightened an emergency decree imposed more than a year ago that initially targeted false news. The latest constrictions forbid people from distributing “information causing public fear”, or from sharing “distorted information causing misunderstanding which affects national stability”.
The measures have been widely condemned by media groups and rights experts as an attempt to shut down negative news reports and silence debate. Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand in Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, described it as a “serious blow” to press freedom in the country.
“I think the government realises it is now facing a credibility crisis because of this disastrous response to the Covid situation, but instead of trying to find better solutions, more efficient solutions, it chooses to gag anyone from speaking about its failures,” said Sunai. “This provision doesn’t care about accuracy or whether it is true or false.”
Sri Lanka has announced it is ending its work-from-home option for civil servants, ordering all 1.2m back to the office from Monday despite rising yet relatively small scale numbers of infections.
The island’s top bureaucrat, P.B. Jayasundera, claimed there was no need for officials to work from home since “the majority... have been vaccinated”, AFP reports.
Government figures show that 9.17m people, or 43% of the population, have had one vaccine dose, and more than 2m people have received two shots.
Sri Lanka, population 22m, has recorded at least 4,300 coronavirus deaths and almost 305,000 infections in total, according to official data seen widely as an underestimate.
US president Joe Biden faces significant opposition to his plan to require federal workers to get vaccinated or undergo regular testing.
The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents more than 26,000 federal officers, said that requiring vaccinations represents an infringement on civil rights, the Washington Post reports. “There will be a lot of pushback. It’s going to be an avalanche,” president Larry Cosme said.
Meanwhile, the American Postal Workers Union said: “While the APWU leadership continues to encourage postal workers to voluntarily get vaccinated, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent.”
The American Federation of Teachers, which represents almost 200,000 health-care workers who could be affected by vaccination mandates in places such as California, said, according to the Washington Post:
In order for everyone to feel safe and welcome in their workplaces, vaccinations must be negotiated between employers and workers, not coerced. We believe strongly that everyone should get vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious exception, and that this should be a mandatory subject of negotiation for employers to keep their employees safe and build trust.
But healthcare professionals are concerned that mandating vaccines outside contract negotiation will only result in more people leaving the bedside at a time when staffing levels are already low from the trauma of the past year.
However, the proposal commands the support of other unions such as the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents about 25,000 federal workers at agencies such as NASA.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic, over 600,000 people are dead, and we don’t want any more of our members dying,” said Paul Shearon, the union’s president, according to the Washington Post.
Updated
A leading UK club night promoter will no longer require revellers to show an NHS Covid pass at the door to prove their vaccination, test or immunity status.
Ultimate Power initially told people they needed an NHS Covid pass at venues, the BBC reports, but it now says people can prove their status in other ways, including by email.
It comes as the the Liberal Democrats called on the government ministers to ditch Covid passes and allow MPs to debate the policy, which has wide-ranging ramifications for civil liberties, in parliament.
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael has accused ministers of committing to Covid passports “by stealth”.
“We now have a new ID card snuck onto our phones without even as much as a whisper from the government,” he told the BBC.
Ultimate Power — which organises club nights at venues including the O2 Ritz in Manchester and London’s Electric Ballroom — had said that, for its “initial London and Manchester events, we are requesting Covid passes at point of entry to our clubs”.
The change comes amid some nightclub owners claiming that Covid passes were “unworkable” and that they would not be requiring them, after prime minister Boris Johnson announced them earlier this month. A minister later admitted it was a ploy to encourage younger people to get vaccinated.
Kenya bans meetings and gatherings in attempt to contain virus spread
Kenya’s government has suspended all in-person meetings and public gatherings to try to contain the growing spread of Covid-19.
Health minister Mutahi Kagwe said that the government had asked public and private-sector employers to allow their workers to work from home, unless they were classified as essential services.
“All public gatherings and in-person meetings of whatever nature are suspended countrywide. In this regard, all government, including intergovernmental meetings and conferences, should henceforth be converted to either virtual or postponed in the coming 30 days,” he said.
Kagwe singled out politicians — seemingly from opposition parties — for holding meetings that turn out to be “super spreader” events.
“We want to be part of the solution. We are asking those in politics to be part of the solution instead of creating epicentres of spreading of the disease,” he said.
As of today, Kenya, population 53m, had registered a total of 200,109 confirmed cases through the pandemic and 3,910 deaths, health ministry data showed.
Kenya has been under some form of curfew since March last year when the pandemic first hit, and Kagwe said it will be extended nationwide from 10pm to 4am until further notice. It was unclear what evidence was provided to justify the move.
Human Rights Watch said yesterday that it has found that the Kenyan government’s response to the pandemic “has devastated many people’s livelihoods” after authorities responded with stringent measures including curfews, stay-at-home orders, school closures and other restrictions on movement.
The authorities failed to design a social security program that would guarantee that those who most needed assistance would receive it. As a result, many families, especially those living in informal settlements, have faced extreme hunger and have accumulated several months of rent arrears, putting them at risk of eviction.
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A 60-year-old man in India suffering from lung damage caused due to due to a reportedly unprecedented combination of “black and white funguses” following Covid has undergone successful treatment.
India Today reports that doctors in Hyderabad performed a lobectomy surgery on Rama Nageshwar Rao, who developed the condition known as aspergilloma after recovering from Covid, and successfully removed the virus ball from his lung.
Otherwise occurring due to tuberculosis, the combination of black and white funguses in the lung in a post-Covid patient is reportedly a first of a kind. Rao was admitted to hospital on 10 July after a CT scan revealed a deep cavity in his lung, India Today reports.
“Aspergilloma is normally noticed among people with a weak immune system. While this is commonly found among patients suffering from tuberculosis, finding it as an after-affect of Covid-19 infection is a first. This condition of damaged lungs causes a cavity and could result in fatality at an advanced stage,” Dr Vivek Babu Bojjawar, consultant cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon at SLG hospitals, told India Today.
‘’This condition can be seen as a medium to long term side-effect of Covid-19 infection, and such conditions must be traced and treated early before they develop into health emergencies, necessitating surgical procedures.”
A renewed push to encourage people in New York to get vaccinated is underway.
“Here’s $100 to thank you for doing the right thing.”
— ABC News (@ABC) July 30, 2021
Starting Friday, New Yorkers who receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at any city-run site will get a $100 incentive. https://t.co/xo4WvBuQI1 pic.twitter.com/xJDRJLrs6o
Staying in Australia, where hundreds of unarmed soldiers have been deployed in Sydney to help enforce a Covid lockdown after nine deaths related to the virus, amid rising but small numbers of cases, critics have questioned whether troops needed to sent in.
The outbreak has largely affrcted the city’s poorer and ethically diverse areas, which already face “targeted” policing measures, they say.
The Australian Lawyers Alliance, a civil rights group, called the deployment a “concerning use” of the army in a liberal democracy, the BBC reports. Spokesman Greg Barns also said that such “extraordinary measures” could set a “dangerous precedent”, SBS reports.
Using the defence force to ensure compliance by Australians or to deter civil disobedience is a concerning use of our armed forces. The role of any police or enforcement agencies should be to help meet the needs of residents so they don’t have to break the rules.
Steve Christou, one local mayor, told SBS:
Our people are one of the poorest demographics, and as it is, they already feel picked on and marginalised.
They can’t afford to pay the mortgage, the rent, the food or work. Now to throw out the army to enforce lockdown on the streets is going to be a huge issue to these people
But state police minister David Elliott said the deployment would be useful because a small minority of Sydneysiders thought “the rules didn’t apply to them”.
Vaccinated Australians will be able to head overseas again to visit family and friends when 80% of the adult population is fully vaccinated under a national pandemic exit plan, the prime minister says.
But there’s no target date for when that might happen and one premier has already suggested they might not follow the revamped roadmap agreed to by state and territory leaders on Friday.
Germany arrivals must from Sunday be inoculated, take test or have recovered from virus
Anyone entering Germany from abroad will have to take a Covid-19 test from Sunday unless they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from the disease, health minister Jens Spahn has said.
“All unvaccinated people entering Germany will have to be tested in future - regardless of whether they come by plane, car or train,” Spahn said.
The new rules, to be signed off by the cabinet later today, will apply to all travellers over 12 years old with the exception of cross-border commuters and those passing through in transit, according to a draft seen by AFP.
They will apply to travellers “regardless of where they have come from and the means of transport they use,” finance minister Olaf Scholz told the Funke media group.
Under current German rules, any unvaccinated person entering the country by plane must get tested, but those entering by road or rail must not unless they are coming from an area deemed high risk.
Those entering from so-called virus variant countries, such as Brazil and South Africa, must get tested even if they are vaccinated — a rule set to remain unchanged according to the draft.
Police have said the rules will not be enforced through systematic border controls, but through random checks.
Germany has seen low infection numbers over the summer compared to many of its European neighbours, but cases have been creeping up over the past few weeks.
The country, population 83m, recorded 2,454 new cases in the past 24 hours today, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) health agency, and an incidence rate of 17 new cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days — up from a low of 4.6 in early July.
Updated
Israeli president gets third Pfizer jab, casts country as pioneer
Israeli president Isaac Herzog received a third shot of coronavirus vaccine today, kicking off a campaign to give booster doses to people aged over 60 amid waning efficacy of the jabs and a push by Pfizer to encourage use of booster shots.
Herzog, 60, received a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.
He said he was proud to launch the booster vaccination initiative “which is so vital to enable normal circumstances of life as much as possible in this very challenging pandemic”. Herzog’s wife Michal also received a shot.
The couple were accompanied by prime minister Naftali Bennett, who urged the importance of booster shots in fighting the pandemic and pledged that Israel would share all the information it gleans from the public inoculation rollout — which in large part represents a medical trial due to a relative absence of evidence on the efficacy and safety of boosters.
“Israel is a pioneer in going ahead with the third dose for older people of the age of 60 and above. The fight against the Covid pandemic is a global fight. The only way we can defeat Covid is together,” Bennett said.
On the eve of the booster rollout Bennett said Israel had already given 2,000 immunosuppressed people a third dose with no immediate severe adverse events. His government hopes that stepped up inoculation efforts will help avoid further lockdowns.
The campaign will in effect turn Israel into a testing ground for the companies’ booster, Reuters reports, which is likely to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The efficacy of the jab developed with BioNTech fell from 96% to 84% over six months, according to a preprint not yet peer-reviewed released this week based on company data.
The World Health Organization said earlier this month it is not clear whether Covid-19 booster vaccines would be useful to maintain protection against the virus, due to an absence of trial data, but that it would monitor emerging research.
Israel was a world leader in the vaccination rollout, and around 57% of the 9.3m population has been double-vaccinated, rising to 87% of people in their sixties and more than 90% of those over 70.
Daily new infections have spiked to more than 2,000, up from a handful of cases per day a few months ago and about 160 people are currently hospitalised with severe symptoms. More than 6,400 people have died from the virus, though Reuters did not report what proportion of these were excess deaths.
Updated
Office workers in England not obliged to be vaccinated, says minister
People should be fully vaccinated before returning to office jobs but it will not be made a legal requirement in England, a cabinet minister has said.
Nor will the government go as far as requiring vaccine passports for entry to shops or pubs in England, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said. Some nightclubs require an NHS Covid pass for entry, while some football clubs have said they will also ask for proof of vaccination or a negative test.
Downing Street’s continued insistence that a so-called “jabs for jobs” policy is for individual businesses comes after some firms announced plans to make Covid-19 vaccinations obligatory for all workers.
Last April people across America came out of quarantine each night to cheer the healthcare workers fighting to save lives a the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Sixteen months on, nurses around the US are holding strikes and picket actions amid claims of deteriorating working conditions and severe understaffing issues.
“Most of us felt like we went from heroes to zeroes quickly,” said Dominique Muldoon, a nurse for more than 20 years at Saint Vincent’s hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts.
For over four months, more than 700 nurses at the Tenet Healthcare-owned Saint Vincent hospital have been on strike, the second longest nurses’ strike in Massachusetts’ history. The hospital has brought in replacement workers throughout the strike and have spent more than $30,000 a day on police coverage during the strike.
Muldoon, co-chair of the local bargaining unit, said understaffing worsened during the pandemic, with more staffing cuts and furloughs, while nurses worked through breaks and past scheduled shifts to try to keep up with the demand for patient care.
The US has donated 3m doses of coronavirus vaccines to Uzbekistan, its ambassador said, as Washington seeks to boost its relationships with the Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan.
The US ambassador, Daniel Rosenblum, tweeted that embassy staff had greeted a plane carrying3m doses of the Moderna vaccine at Uzbekistan’s main airport in the capital, Tashkent, early on Friday morning.
He wrote: “A gift from the American people to the people of Uzbekistan through Covax. We can’t beat this virus until all of us are vaccinated!”
Washington is looking to increase its cooperation with central Asia’s “stans” as it completes a military pullout from Afghanistan.
Updated
China’s latest Covid-19 outbreak is thought to originate from passengers arriving in Nanjing on a flight from Russia.
Gene sequencing results of 52 cases linked to the outbreak showed they have all contracted the Delta strain, according to Ding Jie, deputy director at the city’s centre for disease control and prevention.
Reuters reports:
Cases in the early stage of the outbreak were workers at Nanjing Lukou International Airport who cleaned an airplane after it arrived on a flight from Russia, Ding said. The gene sequence of the virus found in samples of the workers were identical to that from an infected person arriving from the flight, he said.
“After their work was complete, due to cleaning and protective measures not meeting standards, it’s possible some staffers got infected, causing the virus to spread among cleaning staff,” Ding said.
Moscow has abolished a widely flouted requirement for people to wear gloves in public places and shops as daily coronavirus cases in the Russian capital stayed below 4,000, down from more than 7,000 earlier this month.
Reuters reports:
Moscow reported 3,481 new infections on Friday and 76 deaths, even as the number of daily nationwide cases, at 23,564, remained close to levels recorded at the start of the month with 794 nationwide deaths in the last 24 hours.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the number of newly detected Covid-19 cases in Moscow was, however, 2.2 times lower than during the peak of a wave of infections in the second half of June, which authorities blamed on the contagious Delta variant and the slow rate of vaccinations.
Updated
Relaxing restrictions such as mask-wearing and social distancing when most people have been vaccinated greatly increases the risk of vaccine-resistant variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, according to research.
AFP reports:
At a time when nearly 60% of Europeans have received at least one vaccine dose, the authors said their modelling study showed the need to maintain non-vaccination measures until everyone is fully jabbed.
To predict how the Sars-CoV-2 virus might mutate in response to vaccination campaigns, a pan-European team of experts simulated the probability of a vaccine-resistant strain emerging in a population of 10 million people over three years.
Updated
Vietnam’s health ministry issued an urgent appeal on Friday for private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients as it battles a surge in infections driven by the Delta variant.
The government has asked the country’s 228 private medical facilities to make their 20,000 beds, equipment and manpower available.
Reuters reports:
After successfully containing the virus for much of the pandemic, Vietnam has been facing record daily increases in infections since late April. The country has detected a total of 133,000 cases, 85% of which were recorded over the past month.
Vietnam had maintained a policy which required anyone who tested positive for the virus to be hospitalised at a state-run institution.
Allegations are growing from residents and human rights activists in Myanmar that the military government, which seized control in February, is using the pandemic to consolidate power and crush opposition.
Associated Press reports:
In the last week, the per capita death rate in Myanmar surpassed those of Indonesia and Malaysia to become the worst in Southeast Asia. The country’s crippled health care system has rapidly become overwhelmed with new patients sick with Covid-19.
Supplies of medical oxygen are running low, and the government has restricted its private sale in many places, saying it is trying to prevent hoarding. But that has led to widespread allegations that the stocks are being directed to government supporters and military-run hospitals.
At the same time, medical workers have been targeted after spearheading a civil disobedience movement that urged professionals and civil servants not to cooperate with the government, known as the State Administrative Council.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog received a third shot of coronavirus vaccine on Friday, kicking off a campaign to give booster doses to people aged over 60 as part of efforts to slow the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, Reuters reports.
Updated
Trials mixing a first dose of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine with AstraZeneca’s vaccine have revealed no serious side effects among volunteers, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).
Reuters repoted that the trial involved 50 people and began in Azerbaijan in February.
Updated
The Philippines will send more than 13 million people in the national capital region back into lockdown next week in a bid to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
AFP reports:
Experts have warned of an explosion in infections fuelled by the Delta variant that could overwhelm hospitals in the coming weeks if restrictions are not drastically tightened in the crowded capital.
Restaurant dining and mass gatherings have been banned with immediate effect and a two-week stay-at-home order will start on 6 August.
Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga announced on Friday that he would extend the coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo as well as introducing it in four more prefectures as infections have surged in recent days.
Reuters reports that newly reported Covid-19 cases in Tokyo totalled 3,300 on Friday, according to official figures. he metropolitan government has announced. On Thursday, the Olympic host city registered a record 3,865 daily infections, up from 3,177 a day earlier.
Updated
Thailand has begun a renewed drive to vaccinate Buddhist monks and other temple workers in Bangkok against the coronavirus, as the country battles its most deadly surge in infections since the pandemic began.
Reuters reports:
Officials said they planned to provide AstraZeneca vaccines to 221 temples in the Thai capital, before beginning distribution in other parts of the country.
Thailand first began rolling out vaccines to Buddhist monks in May, building up protection to allow them to receive daily alms and perform spiritual duties. Thailand has an estimated 200,000 monks.
Updated
A man diagnosed with Covid linked to Sydney’s anti-lockdown protest is being investigated for breaching self-isolation rules, Michael McGowan reports.
As the New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller warned people not to attend another anti-lockdown protest planned for Sydney on Saturday, police also revealed a case linked to last Saturday’s demonstration was being investigated for a possible breach of self-isolation rules.
Police revealed the man had been stopped at Central station last Saturday as part of a “proactive operation targeting those attending last week’s protest”. The protest in Sydney was attended by 3,500 people demonstrating against lockdown rules.
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 2,454 to 3,766,765, according to official data.
Tthe Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases also reported a rise in the death toll from 30 to 91,637,.
The UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has defended the government’s plan to ease self-isolation restrictions from 16 August after Wales brought forward its date.
Wales’s Labour first minister, Mark Drakeford, has confirmed 7 7 August as the day when double-vaccinated adults can avoid isolation if they come into contact with a positive case.
Asked if the government should look again at the date the restrictions ease in England, Shapps told Sky News it is under close review but there are no plans to move the date forward.
He added that the restrictions have saved “a lot of lives” since one in three people requested to self-isolate develop symptoms.
“It is, if you like, the only remaining measure that is being taken at the moment, because of course all the other measures have been dropped at the fourth unlock stage on the 19 July,” he said. “So we are being, if you like, slightly cautious about it.”
Updated
China’s successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic could be under threat as he Delta variant causes its worst outbreak in months.
A coronavirus cluster that emerged in the Chinese city of Nanjing has now reached five provinces and Beijing, forcing lockdowns on hundreds of thousands of people as authorities scramble to control Delta’s spread.
AFP reports:
China has previously boasted of its success in snuffing out the pandemic within its borders after imposing the world’s first virus lockdown in early 2020 as Covid-19 seeped out of Wuhan in the centre of the country.
But an outbreak this month driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant has thrown that record into jeopardy since it broke out at Nanjing airport in eastern Jiangsu province.
The city reported a total of 184 local coronavirus cases Friday, after nine cleaners at Nanjing Lukou International Airport tested positive on July 20. At least 206 infections nationwide have been linked to the Nanjing cluster, which officials have confirmed as the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Pregnant women should not worry about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a lead researcher on a study.
PA Media reported that researchers at Oxford University said more than 99% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated – with the Delta variant posing a significantly greater risk of severe disease.
Marian Knight, professor of maternal and child population health at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, and chief investigator of the study, said more than 50,000 women in the UK and more than 130,000 in the US have had a vaccine in pregnancy with no concerns over safety.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think pregnant women can be reassured about the safety of the vaccine.
“And we need to emphasise the benefits, not only to them but we know that antibodies are passed on to their babies as well, so it’s really important not just to prevent illness in you as a pregnant woman, but also to prevent the consequences of illness for your baby.”
Updated
The Czech government is offering two days of additional vacation to state employees who get vaccinated against Covid-19 to boost the vaccination effort.
The European Union country of 10.7 million reported 10.19m doses of vaccines given as of Thursday, with 4.74 million people fully vaccinated.
Reuters reports:
The aim is to have maximum vaccination, to protect ourselves against infection from abroad,” Babis said. “This is the main task: inoculate, inoculate, inoculate.”
Updated
Thailand has banned people from sharing “false messages” that could cause panic on grounds these affect security, drawing accusations from media groups that it is trying to crack down on criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Reuters reports:
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said this week that the spread of fake news had become a major problem causing confusion in society and undermining the government’s ability to manage the pandemic.
An emergency decree that took effect on Friday prohibits the dissemination of false messages and distorted news that cause panic, misunderstanding or confusion “affecting state security, abusing the rights of others, and order or good morality of the people”.
The decree empowers the state regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), to order service providers to block internet access to individual IP addresses if it believes they are disseminating false news and to inform the police to take legal action.
The decree comes after the government has faced public criticism over its handling of the pandemic. For most of last year Thailand managed to keep the virus at bay but a recent surge of infections, driven by the Delta variant of the virus, has been the deadliest yet.
Updated
One of the last members of the hunter-gatherer nomadic Awá tribe in Brazil’s Maranhão state died of Covid-19 earlier this month after surviving a massacre and a decade alone in the forest, Saaed Kamali Denghan reports.
With only 300 Awá thought to remain, they have been called the “earth’s most threatened tribe”.
Updated
The Delta variant of the coronavirus is as contagious as chickenpox and could cause severe illness, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The New York Times reported this morning that the research showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carried “tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat”. This makes vaccinated people without symptoms who are infected with the Delta variant as infectious as people who are unvaccinated.
When the virus tries to enter the lungs, immune cells in vaccinated people rapidly clear the infection. That means vaccinated people should be infected and contagious for a much shorter period of time than unvaccinated people
The CDC research, which found the Delta variant to be twice as contagious as previous strains, underpins the recent recommendation that people resume wearing masks in the US.
Rachel Hall here, I’m looking after the blog all day so please do contact me at rachel.hall@theguardian.com to share your thoughts and ideas!
That’s it from me for today. My colleague Rachel Hall will be taking up the global live blog from London; our Australia live coverage continues here:
Updated
New Delhi has sent a team of experts to Kerala in south India to help stem the surge in cases that has persisted for weeks and is now causing alarm. The state registered 22,064 cases on Thursday, almost half the nationwide figure of 44,230 new daily infections.
Kerala was once applauded as a model state in containing the virus. Now, with an active caseload of 140,000, the state accounts for 37.1% of the total active cases in India.
A lockdown is to be imposed over the weekend to control the explosion in cases. The state government’s decision last week to relax Covid restrictions for three days to allow people to celebrate Eid provoked sharp criticism, particularly as other states banned festivals.
Experts have said the reasons for Kerala’s high numbers could be its high population density (double the national average), a large number of elderly residents, and a high incidence of diabetes and hypertension.
Another possibility is that Kerala’s containment measures in the earlier waves were successful, with the result that many people still remain vulnerable to the virus.
The latest antibody survey showed that only 44% of people in Kerala have been infected, compared to the national average of 67%.
Updated
Israel will be first country to give third Pfizer shot
Israel’s prime minister has announced that the country would offer a coronavirus booster shot to those people over 60 who have already been vaccinated.
The announcement by Naftali Bennett makes Israel, which launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination drives earlier this year, the first country to offer a third dose of a western vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale:
Japan to expand state of emergency
Japan is set to expand the coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo to neighboring areas and the western city of Osaka on Friday in the wake of record-breaking surge in infections while the capital hosts the Olympics.
A government panel approved the plan putting Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, as well as Osaka, under the state of emergency from Monday until 31 August. The measures already in place in Tokyo and the southern island of Okinawa will be extended until the end of August.
Prime minister Yoshihide Suga is scheduled to officially announce the measures later Friday. Five other areas, including Hokkaido, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka, will be placed under less-stringent emergency restrictions.
Tokyo has reported a record rise in cases for three days in a row, including 3,865 on Thursday. The cases have doubled since last week, and officials have warned they may hit 4,500 a day within two weeks.
Updated
Philippines locks down 13 million in Manila
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on Friday approved the imposition of lockdown measures in the capital region.
The Manila capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to more than 13 million people, will be placed under the tightest quarantine curbs from 6 August to 20 August.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a televised address. “While it is a painful decision, this is for the good of all.”
The lockdown will prevent people leaving their homes, except for essential shopping, while indoor and al fresco dining is banned.
The Philippines also extended a ban on travellers coming from 10 countries including India, Indonesia, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates to 15 August.
Already battling the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in Asia, the Philippines has so far recorded over 1.57 million confirmed Covid cases and more than 27,000 deaths.
The country has reported 216 cases of the Delta variant, but health experts say there could be more undetected cases because of the slow pace of the country’s genome sequencing.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has approved lockdown measures in the Manila capital region, home to more than 13 million people. It comes after Duterte said on Thursday that officials should detain those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid inside their homes. Legal experts said the move would be unconstitutional and reflected his “militaristic mindset”, after Duterte claimed responding to the pandemic was more important than laws guaranteeing freedom of movement
Meanwhile Japan is set to expand the coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo to neighbouring areas and the western city of Osaka on Friday in the wake of record-breaking surge in infections while the capital hosts the Olympics.
More on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
- Campaigners said the global vaccine rollout may represent “the most lethal profiteering in history”, as the People’s Vaccine Alliance published an analysis suggesting pharmaceutical companies are charging at least five times above cost price.
- Israel is to begin offering a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to people over 60, local media said.
- The British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has said it is considering its future in the vaccine market after it Covid jab generated $1.2bn in sales in the first half of the year, with quarterly sales tripling.
- Pakistan is to controversially ban air travel for anyone without a Covid-19 vaccine certificate from August and will require all public sector workers to get vaccinated by the end of next month.
- A “substantial chunk” of 9m Covid jab doses to be donated by the UK to developing states in the coming weeks expire at the end of September, “setting up African countries to fail”.
- The Biden administration announced it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to end on Saturday, claiming that its hands are tied after the supreme court signalled it would only be extended until the end of the month - putting millions at risk of eviction amid a sluggish distribution of promised support funds.
- Health authorities in China set up checkpoints and reportedly suspended flights in the eastern city of Nanjing in the country’s worst coronavirus emergency in months.
