That’s all from me, Alex Mistlin, today. Hope it’s been a good one wherever you are. Bye!
- South African scientists have detected a new coronavirus variant that may have increased transmissibility.
- Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the World Health Organization and Unicef have demanded.
- A third-dose booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine is a way to keep the most vulnerable safe and “not a luxury”.
- Senior WHO officials fear there could be 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe between now and 1 December.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said no deaths had been reported in young adults after a rare heart inflammation known as myocarditis, reports Reuters.
Myocarditis is a known side-effect of Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, although studies show Covid poses a higher risk of the condition than vaccines for the disease.
So far, 2,574 preliminary cases of heart inflammation have been reported in the country, of which 1,282 occurred after Pfizer shots and 557 after the Moderna vaccine.
Updated
Australia’s Covid-19 vaccine certificate system cannot recognise anyone with mixed doses as fully vaccinated, prompting further concerns about the mooted move to vaccine passports and conditional reopening.
The Guardian has received multiple reports from individuals who have been unable to obtain a digital vaccination certificate after they acted on medical advice and switched from AstraZeneca to Pfizer for their second dose.
You can read our full report from Christopher Knaus here:
France reported 3,795 new Covid cases for Monday. It also reported 98 Covid deaths in the previous seven days.
Updated
A leading British authority on public health, Prof Ian Harvey, has urged the JCVI to vaccinate teenagers as schools return from the summer break.
Ian Harvey, emeritus professor of public health at the University of East Anglia, wrote: “The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is showing unhelpful signs of procrastination over the vaccination of teenagers and the use of adult boosters ...”
He added that the debate was “reminiscent” of the early one about mask wearing.
Prof Harvey said:
Some scientists swerved away from their use on the plausible but unlikely grounds of other unintended effects on behaviour. These were not realised, and most of us now regret the delay in mask wearing. I would urge the JCVI to realise that time is not on its side if an autumn campaign is to be organised.
Updated
The US Department of Education has announced that it’s investigating five Republican-led states with universal mask bans, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions.
Red-state governors have signed executive orders in recent weeks that prohibit school districts from requiring staff and students to wear masks.
AP reports:
The department’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. Those states have barred schools from requiring masks among students and staff, a move that the department says could prevent some students from safely attending school.
“It’s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve,” education secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
“The department will fight to protect every student’s right to access in-person learning safely.”
Updated
Summary
Alex Mistlin here on the Guardian’s global Coronavirus live blog as the EU removes six countries, including the US, from a Covid ‘white list’ of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.
A round-up of the day’s biggest Covid news below:
- South African scientists have detected a new coronavirus variant that may have increased transmissibility. Scientists are yet to establish whether it is more contagious or able to overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or prior infection.
- Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the World Health Organization and Unicef have demanded, as a new term gets under way with the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominant in the region.
- A third-dose booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine is a way to keep the most vulnerable safe and “not a luxury”, the WHO has said. It urged European countries with excess vaccines to share them with other countries, particularly those in eastern Europe and Africa.
- Senior WHO officials fear there could be 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe between now and 1 December on account of stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries.
- The UK has reported 26,476 new cases of Covid-19 between 24 August and 30 August, bringing reported cases up by 1.8% compared with the previous seven days.
- The Czech government will offer a booster Covid-19 vaccine to any previously vaccinated person. The jabs will be available from 20 September.
- The Italian health ministry reported 4,257 new Covid cases today, down from 5,959 on Sunday. The Italian health ministry reported 53 Covid deaths, up 43% from 37 on Sunday.
- France will provide 10m doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines for Africa over the next three months, President Emmanuel Macron’s office has announced.
- More than 1.8 million French workers in service jobs and on long-distance rail will have to present a health pass for work. The measures come into force today after prompting weekly protests from a small but vocal minority since being announced in July.
- Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, will stay in lockdown for another two weeks after another 53 cases were recorded on Monday. But one expert said the outbreak could be about to reach its peak.
- Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, tested negative for Covid-19 after being identified as a close contact of a person with the virus. Sturgeon was self-isolating pending a PCR test result but she was no longer doing so in accordance with current regulations.
- The Philippines has reported a record 22,366 new Covid cases in one day, as the number of infections continued to soar. This was the fifth straight day the new cases recorded by the department of health exceeded 15,000.
Updated
Further to the last post on the discovery of a new variant, C.1.2, in South Africa, Richard Lessells, an infectious disease specialist and one of the authors of the research on C.1.2, told Reuters that its emergence tells us “this pandemic is far from over and that this virus is still exploring ways to potentially get better at infecting us”.
He said people should not be overly alarmed at this stage and that variants with more mutations were bound to emerge further into the pandemic.
South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, with only around 14% of its adult population fully vaccinated so far.
A spokesman for South Africa’s health department declined to comment on the research.
New coronavirus variant reportedly detected in South Africa
South African scientists have detected a new coronavirus variant with multiple mutations associated with other variants with increased transmissibility, according to reports.
Scientists are yet to establish whether it is more contagious or able to overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or prior infection.
Reuters reports the new variant, known as C.1.2, was first detected in May and has now spread to most South African provinces and to seven other countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania, according to research which is yet to be peer-reviewed.
It contains many mutations associated with other variants with increased transmissibility and reduced sensitivity to neutralising antibodies, but they occur in a different mix and scientists are not yet sure how they affect the behaviour of the virus. Laboratory tests are underway to establish how well the variant is neutralised by antibodies.
South Africa was the first country to detect the Beta variant, one of only four labelled “of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Beta is believed to spread more easily than the original version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and there is evidence vaccines work less well against it, leading some countries to restrict travel to and from South Africa.
Updated
Health authorities in Brussels began offering Covid-19 jabs in supermarkets and shopping centres today in an effort to increase vaccination rates in the Belgian capital.
Belgium has recorded 25,360 deaths from the coronavirus, one of the world’s highest tolls per capita.
Reuters reports:
Host to the European Union and NATO, Brussels has only given vaccinations to about 65% of its population, much lower than the surrounding Belgian regions, mainly because people did not respond to requests to go to vaccination centres.
“We’re really trying to bring, as much as possible, the vaccine to the people,” Inge Neven, crisis manager responsible for the COVID-19 response in Brussels, told Reuters.
EU removes six countries, including the US, from Covid safe travel list
The EU has removed six countries, including the US, from a Covid ‘white list’ of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.
A majority of EU countries had reopened their borders to Americans in June, in the hope of salvaging the summer tourism season although most required a negative test ahead of travel. The move was not, however, reciprocated by the US.
The EU’s “white list” necessitates having fewer than 75 new cases daily per 100,000 people over the previous 14 days - a threshold that is not currently being met in the US.
The guidance is non-binding and the recommendation is that the fully vaccinated should nevertheless be granted entry for non-essential travel.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the US suffered the world’s highest number of infections over the past 28 days. Also removed from the EU’s safe list due to a spike in Covid infections are Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and the Republic of North Macedonia.
The current white list now includes: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Ukraine and China.
The member states are also advised that travel restrictions should be gradually lifted for the special administrative regions of China Hong Kong and Macao.
Updated
The Italian health ministry reported 4,257 new Covid cases today, down from 5,959 on Sunday.
The Italian health ministry reported 53 Covid deaths, up from 37 on Sunday.
Updated
A number of health trusts in Northern Ireland have urged people not to attend some hospitals, except for medical emergencies.
Emergency departments have been “extremely busy” over the weekend and into bank holiday Monday.
Officials at Altnagelvin Area hospital said the emergency department was very busy today, with more than 60 people waiting in tA&E and 24 people waiting to be admitted to the hospital.
Health officials said those with serious illnesses and life-threatening injuries would be seen first.
It comes as a further 1,259 positive cases of Covid-19 was reported as well as six deaths in the past 24 hours, the Department of Health said.
To date, 2,442,855 vaccines have been administered in Northern Ireland.
Updated
With the return to school in the UK imminent, the Welsh education ministry said on Monday that all schools, universities and colleges in Wales would be supplied with ozone disinfecting machines.
Once a room has been disinfected, the machine, each the size of a suitcase, converts the ozone back to oxygen. But ozone is so toxic that no one will be allowed inside the room when the machine is operating.
Dr Chedly Tizaoui, a member of the machine’s design team told the Guardian:
It is like the use of chlorine, you don’t want to be in an environment where chlorine is dispersed at high concentration. Ozone smells but people are not allowed to smell it. That is extremely important from a safety point of view.”
You can read Matthew Weaver’s full report here:
Updated
UK reports 48 Covid deaths amid rise in cases over past week
Britain has reported 26,476 new cases of Covid-19 between 24 August and 30 August, 1.8% increase on the previous seven days.
A further 48 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, taking the seven-day increase to 14.8%.
A total of 48.2 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by the end of 29 August, with 42.7 million people having received a second dose.
Updated
It is the first day of school in much of the US today, and uncertainty reigns about what the school year will actually look like with the patchwork of Covid-19 rules and the spread of the delta variant.
You can follow live updates on the US Covid and political situation from my colleague Amanda Holpuch here:
The Czech government will offer a ‘booster’ Covid-19 vaccine to any previously vaccinated person, Reuters reports citingthe country’s health minister, Adam Vojtěch.
The jabs will be available from 20 September.
Reuters: The Czech Republic, a country of 10.7 million, has been one of the countries worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic as measured by deaths per population, with more than 30,400 dead.
Nearly 1.68 million Czechs have contracted the virus, and many more are estimated to have caught it without being tested.
Updated
Scotland has recorded 3,893 new cases and no new deaths in the past 24 hours.
Figures, which were published by the Scottish government, indicate the death toll under the daily measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – remains at 8,111.
The total number of confirmed cases in Scotland now stands at 424,508.
2,738,930 people in Scotland have been tested for #coronavirus
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) August 30, 2021
The total confirmed as positive has risen by 3,893 to 424,508
The number of deaths of people who tested positive remains at 8,111
Latest update ➡️ https://t.co/bZPbrCoQux
Health advice ➡️ https://t.co/l7rqArB6Qu pic.twitter.com/oKshEZ21uI
Updated
A medical worker speaks to people outside a coronavirus disease assessment centre in Shah Alam, Malaysia as cases soar in the country.
Malaysia recorded 19,268 new cases of Covid-19, with 295 deaths.
The country’s new prime minister missed his own cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony because he was self-isolating after coming into contact with someone infected by Covid-19.
Updated
Municipal authorities in Berlin are offering a special train service for anyone keen to get a Covid-19 jab.
Amid slowing demand for the shot, officials invited anyone aged 18 or older to step onboard and receive a dose of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Slightly more than 60% of the German population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with infection rates are rising strongly again.
Updated
Summary
Hey there, Alex Mistlin here with a round-up of the day’s Covid-19 developments:
- Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the World Health Organization and Unicef have demanded, as a new term gets under way with the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominant in the region.
- A third dose ‘booster’ shot of the Covid-19 vaccination is a way to keep the most vulnerable safe and “not a luxury”, the WHO has said. Kluge urged European countries with excess vaccines to share them with other countries, particularly those in eastern Europe and Africa.
- Senior WHO officials fear there could be 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe between now and 1 December on account of stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries.
- Japan has now suspended 2.6m doses of Moderna vaccines over concerns about contamination and the deaths of two people. The vaccine rollout and the prime minister Yoshihide Suga’s handling of the pandemic have already been criticised, leading to his public approval hitting record lows in polls.
- More than 1.8 million French workers in service jobs and on long-distance rail will have to present a health pass for work. The measures come into force today after prompting weekly protests from a small but vocal minority since being announced in July.
- Malaysia’s new prime minister missed his own cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony because he was self-isolating after coming into contact with someone infected by Covid-19.
- Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, will stay in lockdown for another two weeks after another 53 cases were recorded on Monday. But one expert said the outbreak could be about to reach its peak.
- New Zealand has reported the country’s first recorded death linked to the Pfizer Covid vaccine, after a woman died following rare side-effects. The information was released by the health ministry after a review by an independent Covid vaccine safety monitoring board.
- Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has tested negative for Covid-19 after being identified as a close contact of a person with the virus. Sturgeon was self-isolating pending a PCR test result but she was no longer doing so in accordance with current regulations.
- Schools in the Indonesia capital, Jakarta, have reopened after the government eased some Covid restrictions.
- The Philippines has reported a record 22,366 new Covid cases in one day, as the number of infections continued to soar. This was the fifth straight day the new cases recorded by the Department of Health exceeded the 15,000-mark.
- New South Wales recorded its highest ever number of daily cases on Monday with 1,290 infections. A paramedic has pleaded with people to get vaccinated as the health system feels the strain.
- France will provide 10m doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines for Africa over the next three months, President Emmanuel Macron’s office has announced.
Updated
Around 6 million students returned to classes in Saudia Arabia this week after data suggested infections were stabilising and fatalities falling.
But Reuters report that Saudi authorities remain cautious.
Children older than 12 have to show they have been vaccinated before they can return.
New coronavirus infections in Saudi Arabia have stabilised at a few hundred daily over the last months from a peak of more than 4,000 new cases in June 2020. The average daily number of deaths fell below 10 during August.
Updated
France will provide 10m doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines for Africa over the next three months, President Emmanuel Macron’s office has announced.
“The pandemic can only be overcome through intense cooperation,” Macron said in a statement that emphasised “our solid partnership” with the African Union (AU).
AFP reports:
The statement by Macron’s office said that enough jabs had now been purchased through AVAT to enable vaccination of 400 million people in Africa - a third of the continent’s population - by September 2022, at a cost of $3bn.
Separately, the World Health Organization said on Monday that the Republic of the Congo had received more than 300,000 vaccines doses from the United States, its first under Covax.
The donation amounts to 302,400 jabs of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the agency’s African branch said on Twitter.
Congo, also called Congo-Brazzaville to differentiate it from its much bigger neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo, began vaccinations in April using the Chinese formula Sinopharm and Russia’s Sputnik.
But uptake of these vaccines has been very low, and vaccine hesitancy or suspicion are widespread. As of mid-August, less than two percent of Congo’s eligible population had been inoculated.
On August 15, President Denis Sassou Nguesso issued an appeal for the public to get vaccinated, saying collective immunity was “the only path to safety” in the fight against the pandemic.
Updated
The UK education secretary, Gavin Williamson, warned parents and children not to get “carried away” when schools return.
Writing in the Daily Mail, he said: “At long last, we will see children once more free to chase a football around, sing in a choir or just hang out with friends. I am absolutely delighted.
Williamson said the easing of restrictions was welcome but warned that parents and children should not “throw caution to the wind”.
He said:
It is important not to get too carried away with these new freedoms and throw caution to the wind. The fact that we are in the happy position we are now is because everyone has worked hard to follow the national guidelines. We still need to do so.
Updated
A booster jab of Covid-19 vaccine for vulnerable people is not a luxury but a good way to protect them, the World Health Organization has said.
Our Europe correspondent Jon Henley reports from today’s WHO press briefing as surging infection rates and a pan-European vaccination slowdown are coalescing to produce a “deeply worrying” situation.
Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said:
A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster taken away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab … It’s basically a way to keep the most vulnerable safe.
You can read Jon’s full report below:
Updated
After 18 months of remote learning, some children in Jakarta have returned to classrooms.
Indonesia is experiencing one of the worst Covid outbreaks in the world but the government is going ahead with easing restrictions in some areas.
AP reports:
School bells rang in parts of Indonesia’s capital for the first time in more than a year on Monday as schools shut by the coronavirus were allowed to begin reopening as cases decline.
A total of 610 schools that passed standards set by the Jakarta Education Agency reopened their doors, though with many precautions still in place.
In-person schooling will be blended with remote learning and gradually increased based on the government’s evaluation of the situation. Elementary students will initially attend school three days a week, junior high students four days and high school students five days, all with shortened class periods.
The city administration initially planned to reopen schools in June, but postponed the restart when a wave of infections triggered by the highly contagious delta variant engulfed the country.
“We have passed the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 infections,” Jakarta’s vice-governor, Ahmad Riza Patria, said on Monday, adding that officials hope to reopen all schools by January.
Updated
Philippines reports record high for new infections
The Philippines has reported a record 22,366 new Covid cases in one day, as the number of infections continued to soar.
This was the fifth straight day the new cases recorded by the Department of Health exceeded the 15,000-mark. Monday’s tally surpassed the previous single-day record of 19,441 set just last Saturday.
Monday’s jump in infections raised the country’s total number of Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began to 1,976,202.
With still a day left in August, the number of single-day Covid-19 infections recorded this month now stood at 387,237, the highest total for a calendar month in the Philippines.
The alarming rise in cases comes as the Philippines is increasingly struggling to secure enough nurses to staff its wards, on account of low pay and poor conditions.
Updated
UK data journalist Tim White has tweeted the latest Covid figures for Europe, including alarming rises in cases and deaths in Ukraine and Hungary, which recorded an addition 521 cases, a 50% increase on last Monday’s figure (340).
Europe #Covid19 cases today (+/- last Mon)#Austria 1,120 (+43) 1 death#Czechia 82 (-25)#Estonia 255 (-64), 2 dead#Finland 472 (+101)#Latvia 81 (+8)#Lithuania 353 (+39) 8 dead#Poland 151 (+44)#Slovakia 49 (+38)#Slovenia 142 (+27) 1 death#Ukraine 749 (+139) 18 dead
— Tim White (@TWMCLtd) August 30, 2021
Updated
Italian officials are to drop on Tuesday a five-day mandatory Covid-19 quarantine for travellers from the United Kingdom who are fully vaccinated and can show a negative test, reports Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo.
Children under 6 do not need to take a test.
The Italian health ministry said existing restrictions for travellers from other countries would remain in place.
It is still unclear what the policy would be towards those who have not completed the vaccination cycle.
As for non-vaccinated UK travellers, the rules will remain the same as before: they will have to show a PCR or antigen negative test taken no more than 48 hours before their departure and quarantine for 5 days upon their arrival.
Updated
New Zealand reports first death linked to Pfizer vaccine
New Zealand has reported the country’s first recorded death linked to the Pfizer Covid vaccine, after a woman died following rare side-effects.
The information was released by the health ministry after a review by an independent Covid vaccine safety monitoring board.
“This is the first case in New Zealand where a death in the days following vaccination has been linked to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine,” the ministry said in a statement, without giving the woman’s age.
The board considered that the woman’s death was due to myocarditis, known to be a “very rare” side-effect of the Pfizer vaccine. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can limit the organ’s ability to pump blood and can cause changes in heartbeat rhythms.
The New Zealand Health Ministry were keen to stress however:
The benefits of vaccination with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine continue to greatly outweigh the risk of both Covid-19 infection and vaccine side-effects, including myocarditis.
You can read our latest New Zealand Covid update below:
Updated
AFP: Covid-19 has killed at least 4,500,620 people since the outbreak emerged in December 2019.
The US is the worst-affected country with 637,539 deaths, followed by Brazil with 579,308, India with 438,210, Mexico 258,165 and Peru 198,167.
The French government has extended €240 billion (£206 billion) in financial aid to businesses hammered by the pandemic since March 2020, mainly in the form of state-guaranteed loans, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced Monday.
President Emmanuel Macron vowed to protect French companies and their employees “whatever the cost” after many were forced to close during three nationwide lockdowns since the outbreak began.
“The bill for ‘whatever the cost’ stands at €80 billion in subsidies, and €160 billion in loans,” Le Maire told France Inter radio.
The public accounts minister Olivier Dussopt warned: “It’s the end of whatever it takes”. The government wants to “look at what is really being lost, rather than just what is being said”.
From today, over 1.8m French workers in service jobs in restaurants, cinemas, librairies as well as long-distance rail staff will be required to show a health pass to go to work.
Members of the public are already required to show a pass confirming they are vaccinated or have had a recent negative test or recent recovery from Covid 19 in order to eat in a restaurant, enter a library, use a public swimming pool, go to the cinema or take a high-speed, long distance train.
WHO expects 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe by 1 December
Senior officials at the World Health Organisation fear there could be 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe between now and 1 December on account of stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries.
“Last week, there was an 11% increase in the number of deaths in the region - one reliable projection is expecting 236,000 deaths in Europe, by December 1,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told reporters.
Europe has registered around 1.3 million Covid deaths to date.
Of the WHO Europe’s 53 member states, 33 (62%) have registered an incidence rate greater than 10 percent in the past two weeks, Kluge said.
Kluge attributed the higher transmission to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, an “exaggerated easing” of restrictions and measures, and a surge in summer travel.
While around half of people in Europe are fully vaccinated, vaccination uptake in the region has slowed, Kluge noted.
“In the past six weeks, it has fallen by 14 percent, influenced by a lack of access to vaccines in some countries and a lack of vaccine acceptance in others...The stagnation in vaccine uptake in our region is of serious concern,” Kluge said.
Sturgeon ends self-isolation after negative PCR test
Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon has tested negative for Covid-19 after being identified as a close contact of a person with the virus.
Scotland’s First Minister announced on Sunday evening that she was self-isolating pending a PCR test result.
Relieved to report that my PCR test is negative. Coupled with fact I’m double vaccinated - with second dose more than 2 weeks ago - that means I no longer need to isolate. I’ll still be doing regular LFD tests as added precaution tho - and encourage everyone else to do likewise. https://t.co/aVFbSEtkco
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) August 30, 2021
Under current regulations, double-vaccinated adults can avoid self-isolation if they are a close contact of someone with coronavirus so long as they are symptomless and provide a negative PCR test.
The First Minister had her second dose of a coronavirus vaccine in June.
Updated
A third dose ‘booster’ shot of the Covid-19 vaccination is a way to keep the most vulnerable safe and “not a luxury”, the World Health Organization has said.
Hans Kluge, head of WHO Europe, told a press briefing.
A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster (that is) taken away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab. It’s basically a way to keep the most vulnerable safe. We have to be a little bit careful with the booster shot, because there is not yet enough evidence.
“More and more studies show that a third dose keeps vulnerable people safe, and this is done by more and more countries in our region,” he added.
Reuter reports, Kluge urged European countries with excess vaccines to share them with other countries, particularly those in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Last week, the World Health Organisation’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pointed out that out of ~5bn Covid vaccine doses delivered around the world, around 75% have gone to just 10 countries.
Updated
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has declared the government has “overcome” the challenges of the national vaccine program, despite the states crying out for more mRNA vaccine supplies to curb the Delta outbreak tearing through NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
The prime minister’s assertion came as the country marked the grim milestone of the first Indigenous death from a Covid-19 case, in western NSW, and as the national death toll surpassed 1,000 since the pandemic began in early 2020.
On Monday, NSW reported an extra 1,290 cases, Victoria 73 and the ACT 26, bringing the total number of active cases to more than 17,000
You can read our full report from Sarah Martin and Paul Karp here:
Hi there, Alex Mistlin here taking over on the Guardian’s global coronavirus live blog.
If you’ve spotted a mistake or a development I’ve missed, you can get in touch with me via Twitter: @amistlin
Updated
Summary
Hello, here’s a round-up of today’s coverage of the pandemic so far.
- Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the World Health Organization and Unicef have demanded, as a new term gets under way with the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominant in the region.
- Japan has now suspended 2.6m doses of Moderna vaccines over concerns about contamination and the deaths of two people. The vaccine rollout and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s handling of the pandemic have already been criticised, leading to his public approval hitting record lows in polls.
- Russia has reported 792 deaths 18,325 new cases.
- More than 1.8m French workers in service jobs and on long-distance rail will have to present a health pass for work. The measures come into force today after prompting weekly protests from a small but vocal minority since being announced in July.
- Malaysia’s new prime minister missed his own cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony because he was self-isolating after coming into contact with someone infected by Covid-19.
- Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, will stay in lockdown for another two weeks after another 53 cases were recorded on Monday. But one expert said the outbreak could be about to resch its peak.
- Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon is self-isolating after being identified as a close contact of someone who has Covid-19. She said she will be self-isolating pending a PCR test result.
- Hundreds of thousands of people in England have failed to come forward for their second Covid jab, official data shows. It comes as scientists warned that improving uptake among adults is more crucial than moving on to children’s vaccines or booster shots.
- New South Wales recorded its highest ever number of daily cases on Monday with 1,290 infections. A paramedic has pleaded with people to get vaccinated as the health system feels the strain.
-
A recent recovery in global trade is beginning to wane, according to some early warning signs pointing to the negative effects of widespread Covid-19 outbreaks in the manufacturing centres of east Asia.
-
Dozens of states in the US are reporting a big rise in Covid fatalities. Top Covid expert Anthony Fauci said as many as 100,000 new Covid-19 deaths by December was “predictable but preventable”.
- Schools in the Indonesia capital Jakarta have reopened after the government eased some Covid restrictions.
Updated
Over 1.8m French workers in service jobs in restaurants, cinemas, librairies as well as long-distance rail staff must from today show a health pass to go to work.
Members of the public are already required to show a pass confirming they are vaccinated or have had a recent negative test or recent recovery from Covid 19 in order to eat in a restaurant, enter a library, use a public swimming pool, go to the cinema or take a high-speed, long distance train.
As part of the French government’s drive to increase vaccination and protect against the spread of the virus, workers in service jobs and who deal with the public must now also have a pass. This includes staff in museums, conference halls, festivals and nightclubs.
Failure to present a pass can lead to workers being suspended without pay. Employers who don’t respect the new rules would face financial penalties, and even prison, the culture minister said on Monday.
Emmanuel Macron’s decision in July to make the health pass compulsory for certain activities, such as long-distance rail travel and eating out, has led to a high take-up of vaccines in France. Nearly 72% of French people have had at least one dose and 64% are fully vaccinated - pushing France into the top five EU countries with the highest rates.
A small but vocal minority who oppose the health pass or vaccinations are continuing to protest every Saturday in French cities.
Malaysia’s new prime minister has missed the swearing-in ceremony for his cabinet because he was self-isolating after contact with someone infected by Covid-19, his office said.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob has taken office at a time when infections have been surging, with cases above 20,000 since 5 August and deaths now above 16,000.
The prime minister’s office said he would still attend National Day celebrations virtually.
The new health minister is Khairy Jamaluddin, the former science minister who was in charge of vaccinations under the previous government.
Russia reports 792 deaths
Russia has reported 792 deaths linked to Covid-19 over the past 24 hours and 18,325 new cases.
Deaths have not dropped below 700 since early July, when infections began hitting record levels, especially in the two biggest cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Russia reported 19,286 and 797 deaths on Sunday.
One poem imagines an NHS nightshift worker at the height of the coronavirus crisis as an astronaut, adrift and untethered from a spacecraft. Another touches on the difficulty of trying to console a patient when the comfort of a smile is obscured by a mask.
The feelings of horror, sadness, isolation and frustration that NHS staff and volunteers endured at the height of the pandemic have been crystallised in verse as part of a spoken word collection at Salisbury district hospital.
The poet Martin Figura was commissioned by the Wiltshire hospital to help staff deeply affected by the pandemic work through their ordeals and create an artistic record of their experiences.
Dr Kate Jenkins, a clinical psychologist for the intensive care unit, said it was important to offer different ways for people to recover. “Reflection on traumatic events helps people move forward, but people want to reflect in different ways,” she said.
As well as working at the hospital, Jenkins was one of the first patients admitted to it with Covid. “It was shocking not to be able to see people’s faces because of masks, being isolated from friends and family. To be that vulnerable and alone.”
The Australian federal government was warned 18 months ago of the urgent need to protect the Covid-hit town of Wilcannia, leaked correspondence seen by Guardian Australia shows, with an Aboriginal health service pleading for immediate help at the time to prevent an outbreak.
The Maari Ma Aboriginal health corporation wrote to the Indigenous Australians minister, Ken Wyatt, in March 2020, outlining “grave fears” for the far western New South Wales town if Covid were to spread to the vulnerable population there.
“Warnings from around the world are clear: the earlier we prepare and act, the better the outcomes will be. We cannot wait until the first case turns up in the community, or worse, the first hospital case presents,” the letter said.
The Datablog has looked at the numbers of Covid-19 deaths in Australia and how the situation has looked since the current outbreak began in June.
Most deaths had been among over-60s in care homes but that appears to have changed during this outbreak, with vaccinations among the elderly changing the pattern.
Johanna Konta has opened up about her torrid, Covid-19-affected summer, during which she was withdrawn from Wimbledon on the eve of the tournament as a close contact of an infected team member. The British No 1 then contracted the virus herself, ruling her out of the Olympics.
Although she watched the Tokyo Games, Konta says that she could not bring herself to watch Wimbledon while sitting at home in quarantine, and that she had to “make peace with” the frustration of not being able to compete.
“It was a combination of feeling quite ill so I was sleeping or just existing for a few days. And then I didn’t really want to watch that. There was also a period there where I had to work through my own feelings of injustice at all of it, like: ‘Why now?’ sort of feeling. I needed a bit of space and a bit of licking my wounds,” she said.
Public approval for Japan’s prime minister has hit record lows amid a new surge in Covid-19 infections and a troubled vaccination rollout.
According to Reuters, support for Yoshihide Suga had dropped to 26% in a poll by the Mainichi newspaper and were at 34% in The Nikkei daily.
There was already concern about the slow vaccine rollout but more than 2.6 million doses of Moderna vaccines have now been suspended after the discovery of foreign substances in some vials and two deaths.
Japan has administered enough doses to have vaccinated almost half the population, according to Reuters.
Popular novelist Harumi Murakami used his monthly radio show on Sunday to slam Suga’s handling of the pandemic, accusing the prime minister of ignoring the current outbreak and public concerns.
“He doesn’t listen to others, and perhaps he only has eyes that see well, or he sees only what he wants to see,” he said, criticising Suga’s comments about seeing an exit from the pandemic.
“If he really saw an exit, his eyes must be extremely good for his age. I’m of the same age as Mr. Suga, but I don’t see any exit at all,” said Murakami, 72.
Suga faces a vote for the leadership of his party at the end of the month.
Principals of schools in Australia’s Covid-19 hotspot local government areas have warned the decision to proceed with delayed face-to-face exams, with no certainty their schools will be able to open, could further entrench inequality in western and south-west Sydney communities.
The decision to postpone the High School Certificate (HSC) until 9 November in order to proceed with face-to-face exams in NSW has divided students, teachers and schools.
The concern is particularly acute in the 12 local government areas of concern, where lockdowns have gone on for longer, while some families have had the added strain of Covid-19 within their family or lockdowns at their schools.
The principal of Georges River Grammar, Raquel Charet, said it was particularly devastating for her students who were in one of the areas with high case numbers.
“I am worried that we will string them along for another couple of months and then they still won’t be able to do their exams,” she said.
“There is already a sense of being left behind in our LGAs. No one is giving clear advice and it is highly unlikely, given the level of case numbers now, that we will be able to go ahead with the HSC,” she said.
First Indigenous Australian fatality
An Aboriginal man in the New South Wales town of Dubbo has become the first Indigenous victim of Covid in Australia.
The man in his 50s had not been vaccinated and had underlying health conditions, health officials said.
However, the death will raise further alarms about the growing number of cases in the state’s Indigenous communities.
There are currently 561 active cases of Covid-19 in the western NSW health district, 65% of whom are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Read the full story here:
Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef have demanded, as a new term gets under way with the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominant in the region.
“The pandemic has caused the most catastrophic disruption to education in history,” said Hans Kluge, the head of the WHO’s Europe region. “It is vital that classroom-based learning continues uninterrupted.”
You can read the full story from our Europe correspondent Jon Henley here:
Auckland lockdown extended for two weeks
Auckland is facing two more weeks of lockdown after the government judged there was still too much Delta circulating in the community to ease the restrictions in place for 13 days already.
New Zealand reported 53 new cases in the community on Monday, bringing the total number in its outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 562.
Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, said on Monday that regions outside of Auckland will downgrade to level 3 from Wednesday, except Northland, which will downgrade from Friday, pending negative results from some outstanding tests.
But Auckland would have to wait.
Ardern said: “As we saw from this outbreak, it only took a week for one case to spread across the city. And that’s why we’re working so hard to get this right.”
Here’s the full story:
Welcome
Hello wherever you are in the world. This is our rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
The key events in the past few hours are:
- Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the World Health Organization and Unicef have demanded, as a new term gets under way with the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominant in the region.
- Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, will stay in lockdown for another two weeks after another 53 cases were recorded on Monday. But one expert said the outbreak could be about to resch its peak.
- Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon is self-isolating after being identified as a close contact of someone who has Covid-19. She said she will be self-isolating pending a PCR test result.
- Hundreds of thousands of people in England have failed to come forward for their second Covid jab, official data shows. It comes as scientists warned that improving uptake among adults is more crucial than moving on to children’s vaccines or booster shots.
- New South Wales recorded its highest ever number of daily cases on Monday with 1,290 infections. A paramedic has pleaded with people to get vaccinated as the health system feels the strain.
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A recent recovery in global trade is beginning to wane, according to some early warning signs pointing to the negative effects of widespread Covid-19 outbreaks in the manufacturing centres of east Asia.
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Dozens of states in the US are reporting a big rise in Covid fatalities. Top Covid expert Anthony Fauci said as many as 100,000 new Covid-19 deaths by December was “predictable but preventable”.
- Schools in the Indonesia capital Jakarta have reopened after the governmewnt eased some Covid restrictions.
