Summary
- The Delta coronavirus variant is expected to become dominant globally within months, the World Health Organization has warned as 13 further territories detected cases. The highly contagious strain has now been discovered in 124 territories.
- As part of a US nationwide response to the threat posed by the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant, New York City will require Covid vaccinations or weekly tests for workers at city-run hospitals and clinics from 2 August, the mayor Bill de Blasio said.
- The army’s health department will be put in charge of Tunisia’s pandemic response, president Kais Saied has said, as tensions rise in government amid the country’s worsening health crisis.
- More than 45,000 coronavirus patients across India have suffered from the deadly “black fungus” which has followed the virus’s spread in the last two months, the health ministry said.
- The UK has recorded 44,104 new coronavirus cases, and 73 further deaths, according to the latest update to the government’s dashboard. The total number of new cases over the past week is up 35.8% on the total for the previous seven days, and deaths are up 59.8% week on week.
- The number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital in England has reached its highest level for nearly five months, with 752 admissions were reported on 19 July. This is a rise of 21% on the previous week, and the highest daily number since 25 February.
- At least 800 people in Uganda were given fake Covid-19 vaccines in a scam that involved “unscrupulous” doctors and health workers, government officials have said.
- Chile’s Institute of Public Health has approved the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, adding the Russian-made jab to its arsenal that includes vaccines by Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
- Coronavirus infections in Rome have increased fivefold over the past nine days, a boom believed to have been triggered by the European football championship celebrations.
- Thousands of people demonstrated on Wednesday in Athens and other Greek cities against plans to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all health workers, with police using tear gas and water cannon to disperse some protesters.
That’s all from us for today. Thanks for following along. Take care!
Updated
Mexico on Wednesday reported its biggest jump in new confirmed cases of Covid-19 since January, with 15,198 registered infections and 397 additional deaths, bringing its total to 2,693,495 infections and 237,207 fatalities, according to health ministry data.
The government has said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher, and separate data published recently suggested the actual death toll could be 60% more than the official count.
As part of a US nationwide response to the threat posed by the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant, New York City will require Covid vaccinations or weekly tests for workers at city-run hospitals and clinics, Reuters reports.
The new policy will go into effect on 2 August, the mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Wednesday. The city will suspend without pay any employee who refuses to either get vaccinated or tested.
“Because of the Delta variant, increasingly the choice is between infection or vaccination, and that can mean the difference between life and death,” Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, said at the same briefing.
About 60% of the more than 42,000 employees of the city’s public hospital system are vaccinated, Mitch Katz, who heads the nation’s largest public healthcare system, said on Wednesday.
Across New York City, 70% of hospital staff have received both doses of the vaccine, state data shows.
The percentage of New York public hospital workers who are fully vaccinated is also lower the percentage of the city’s adult population, which stands at 65%, city health data shows.
The requirement marks the first time City Hall has mandated vaccinations or negative tests for public-sector workers.
In California, San Francisco took more decisive steps last month when it announced that all municipal workers in “high risk” settings such as homeless shelters and jails will have to get vaccinated by 15 September.
De Blasio said New York City may take further measures if the threat posed by the Delta variant grows. He did not rule out extending vaccination or test requirements to all city workers in the future.
The highly contagious Delta variant has now become the dominant strain worldwide has been wreaking havoc among the nation’s unvaccinated population in recent weeks.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said last week that 97% of people entering US hospitals with Covid are unvaccinated.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Wednesday in Athens and other Greek cities against plans to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all health workers, with police using tear gas and water cannon to disperse some protesters, AFP reports.
On the eve of a parliamentary vote on a government decree, protesters held up posters saying “No to mandatory vaccinations” and “Freedom”, along with Orthodox crosses and Greek flags.
Police said 3,000 people demonstrated in Athens. Officers fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse around 120 masked people who were throwing projectiles.
Another 2,000 people demonstrated in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, police said.
The prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last week that all people working in retirement homes must be vaccinated by 16 August, or they will be put on sick leave.
Vaccination for health workers in both the public and private sectors will become mandatory from 1 September.
Faced with the spread of the Delta variant, the government wants to get as many people as possible vaccinated.
In a population of 10.7 million people, more than 4.6 million have now been fully inoculated. But the spread of the Delta variant is raising concerns. In only two weeks, the number of cases has increased from 800 to 3,000 per day.
Good evening from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Summary of recent developments
- The Delta coronavirus variant is expected to become dominant globally within months, the World Health Organization has warned as 13 further territories detected cases. The highly contagious strain has now been discovered in 124 territories.
- The army’s health department will be put in charge of Tunisia’s pandemic response, president Kais Saied has said, as tensions rise in government amid the country’s worsening health crisis.
- More than 45,000 coronavirus patients across India have suffered from the deadly “black fungus” which has followed the virus’s spread in the last two months, the health ministry said.
- The UK has recorded 44,104 new coronavirus cases, and 73 further deaths, according to the latest update to the government’s dashboard. The total number of new cases over the past week is up 35.8% on the total for the previous seven days, and deaths are up 59.8% week on week.
- The number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital in England has reached its highest level for nearly five months, with 752 admissions were reported on 19 July. This is a rise of 21% on the previous week, and the highest daily number since 25 February.
- At least 800 people in Uganda were given fake Covid-19 vaccines in a scam that involved “unscrupulous” doctors and health workers, government officials have said.
- Chile’s Institute of Public Health has approved the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, adding the Russian-made jab to its arsenal that includes vaccines by Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
- Coronavirus infections in Rome have increased fivefold over the past nine days, a boom believed to have been triggered by the European football championship celebrations.
That’s all from me for today – thank you for reading. My colleague Lucy Campbell will be here shortly to keep you updated on the latest.
Chile approves Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use
Chile’s Institute of Public Health has approved the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the institute said in a statement.
The country has already rolled out the Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, with more than 13 million of its 19 million people having received at least one dose of one of the jabs, according to Reuters.
“We have approved the Sputnik-V vaccine to be used in Chile,” institute President Heriberto Garcia said in the statement. The committee evaluated data from Chile as well as Mexico and Argentina, where the Russian vaccine is also applied, he said.
Garcia said no major adverse effects from Sputnik-V had been observed.
Updated
The GMB union has slammed ministers’ 3% pay rise offer for more than 1 million NHS staff in England as “insulting”, saying it had been “sneaked out as MPs are packing up for summer holidays”.
Rachel Harrison, GMB national officer, said: “Hospitals and ambulance services are operating under extreme pressures due to rising demand and staffing shortages.
“Now, rather than focusing on staff welfare they are being advised to enter the workplace against self-isolation advice and now given this frankly appalling pay offer.
“This was the opportunity for government to turn their clapping into genuine recognition. Their response is paltry. They have failed spectacularly. NHS workers know their worth and so do the public – shame on the government who don’t.”
The government had initially put forward a 1% offer, which had sparked fury among frontline workers.
Scotland’s deputy first minister and chief Covid minister, John Swinney, has deleted a misleading graphic he posted on Twitter which wrongly claimed facemasks can cut Covid transmission by 100%, after days of pressure to remove it.
Swinney posted an unsourced graphic on his Twitter feed on Monday which asserted that if two people wearing facemasks are standing six feet (2m) part, the risk of Covid transmission was “0%”. That has not been supported by any official health agency or real-world testing.
There were immediate protests and Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, acknowledged on Tuesday her ministers should not circulate unverified claims. But she did not instruct him to remove the tweet, and said Swinney was right to promote mask-wearing on public health grounds.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Scottish Conservatives announced they had complained to the UK Statistics Authority, which polices official data and which has previously criticised misleading figures issued by the Scottish and UK governments.
Several hours later, Swinney took the tweet down, and said: “I shared an image on Monday to illustrate that masks and distancing can help stop Covid transmission. I have now deleted the image as the figures in it were not verified. Sorry for that. But the message is unchanged: masks and distancing remain critical to beating this virus.”
Annie Wells, the Scottish Tory health spokesperson, said earlier on Wednesday: “A message from the deputy first minister that is essentially fake news has been retweeted nearly 1,000 times and has likely reached an audience in the tens or possibly even hundreds of thousands.
“The continued use of an unverified graphic like this is potentially dangerous. It undermines the serious public health message that masks can limit the spread of the virus. It may even convince some people that there is zero risk from Covid in certain situations, which is not supported by science.”
Updated
Covid hospitalisations in England rise to highest level in five months
The number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital in England has reached its highest level for nearly five months.
A total of 752 admissions were reported on 19 July, NHS England figures show – a rise of 21% on the previous week. It is the highest daily number since 25 February, according to analysis by the PA news agency.
Although hospitalisations are still significantly below the peak of the second wave, when they hit a high of 4,134 on 12 January, the figures show the third wave is driving a steady rise in admissions.
Updated
As the UK government unveiled its newest slogan – ‘keep life moving’ – Peter Walker looks over some of its other soundbites during the last 18 months:
Updated
The Americas is being hit with “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” as cases rise in countries with low inoculation rates, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has warned, calling for vaccine donations.
“We face a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and the only way to stop it is to expand vaccination,” PAHO director Carissa Etienne said at a weekly briefing reported by Reuters. “Vaccines are critical, even if no vaccine is 100% effective.”
The beginning of Haiti’s vaccine rollout highlights how ready countries are to receive donations of shots, she added.
Haiti received its first shipment of shots last week, after the US donated 500,000 doses via the Covax programme.
Updated
Up to 70,000 care home staff in England could leave the workforce or lose their jobs because the government is insisting they must be vaccinated against Covid, with women and ethnic minorities disproportionately affected, according to an official estimate.
In an impact statement from the government, officials believe between 3% and 12% of care home staff may still resist getting a Covid jab by the end of a 16-week grace period. The central estimate was that 40,000 could be left without jobs, but it could be as high as 70,000 or as low as 17,000.
In a separate statement on the public sector equality duty, the government said the policy of mandatory vaccination for care home staff was “likely to have a significant impact on ethnic minorities” as one in five members of the social care workforce are black, Asian or from another ethnic minority, a higher proportion than in the overall population of England.
More than 45,000 coronavirus patients across India have suffered from the deadly “black fungus” which has followed the virus’s spread in the last two months, the health ministry said.
More than 4,200 deaths attributed to mucormycosis, as the fungus is scientifically termed, have been recorded, junior health minister Bharati Pravin Pawar told parliament in remarks reported by AFP.
The aggressive fungal infection usually affects patients after they have recovered from Covid, forcing surgeons to remove patients’ eyes, noses and jaws to stop it from progressing to their brains.
Mucormycosis was previously considered very rare – with around 20 cases recorded annually in India prior to the pandemic – but infections have surged during the pandemic. Experts have attributed the rise to the excessive use of steroids to treat Covid-19.
The highest number of cases were reported in the western state of Maharashtra, with 9,348 infections. Although government data suggests mucormycosis infection numbers peaked during May and June, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported on Monday that there had been a rise in cases among children in the northern state of Rajasthan.
An earlier entry suggested that there were signs of falling Covid rates in the UK - that post has been corrected now. The total number of new cases over the past week is up 35.8% on the total for the previous seven days, and deaths are up 59.8% week on week
At least 800 people in Uganda were given fake Covid-19 vaccines in a scam that involved “unscrupulous” doctors and health workers, government officials have said.
The fraudsters took advantage of the deadly coronavirus in May and June to target victims looking to pay for a jab, injecting some with water, while new cases soared to record highs of about 1,700 cases per day and doses were in short supply.
Dr Warren Naamara, the director of a health services monitoring unit under the presidency, said that those who were tricked should not be concerned as the doses did not contain anything dangerous.
“Some unscrupulous individuals with intentions of making money, duped members of the public into a fake Covid-19 vaccine exercise,” Dr Warren Naamara, the director of a health services monitoring unit under the presidency, told AFP.
“We have arrested two medical workers in the scam, and one medical doctor is on the run.”
The scammers charged recipients between 80,000 and 500,000 Ugandan shillings (around $25-$120 / 20-100 euros) for a fake shot, officials said.
The health ministry said that the government was providing free and approved Covid-19 jabs at designated vaccination sites.
Around nine in 10 adults in all of the UK’s regions are now likely to have Covid-19 antibodies, figures suggest.
In Scotland, 88.6% are estimated to have antibodies, rising to 90.0% for Northern Ireland, 91.9% for England and 92.6% in Wales. Antibodies can be from a previous infection or vaccination.
The figures, by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are based on a sample of blood test results for the week beginning 28 June.
It takes between two and three weeks after infection or vaccination for the body to make enough antibodies to fight the virus. Antibodies then remain in the blood at low levels, although these levels can decline over time to the point that tests can no longer detect them.
Clea Skopeliti taking the blog back now – you can contact me via Twitter.
Updated
Italy reported 21 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday against 10 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections increased to 4,259 from 3,558.
Reuters reported Italian health ministry data showing that patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 1,196 on Wednesday, up from 1,194 a day earlier.
There were nine new admissions to intensive care units against 11 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 158 from a previous 165.
Saudi Arabia has banned direct or indirect travel by citizens to Indonesia over concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.
UK records 44,104 new infections and 73 further deaths
The UK has recorded 44,104 new coronavirus cases, and 73 further deaths, according to the latest update to the government’s dashboard. The total number of new cases over the past week is up 35.8% on the total for the previous seven days, and deaths are up 59.8% week on week.
Updated
Norway and Lithuania have signed a deal to swap 100,000 unused Johnson & Johnson shots for an equivalent number of Pfizer doses.
Reuters reports:
Norway, which is not using the J&J shot, known as Janssen, in its national vaccination programme due to concerns about rare blood clotting issues, will lend 100,000 doses to Lithuania, the government said.
In return, Lithuania will loan 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Norway, with the delivery scheduled for Thursday.
Russia’s deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova has estimated that 80% of the population may be immune to the coronavirus by November.
Reuters reported her as saying in a televised government meeting that 33.6 million Russians have been vaccinated with at least one dose of so far while 22.6 million have had two.
Rachel Hall here manning the liveblog - do send over any thoughts and ideas to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
From the Mirror’s senior political correspondent as the Labour leader enters self-isolation again today:
This is the fourth time that Keir Starmer has had to isolate.
— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) July 21, 2021
Vietnam has produced the first test batch of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund and Vietnamese pharmaceutical firm Vabiotech has said.
The first validation samples taken from the batch of 30,000 doses will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center in Russia for quality control checks, the fund and the company said in a joint statement reported by Reuters.
A Vabiotech executive said that the quality check result would be available within 30 days.
Infections are surging in Vietnam, which is facing its worst outbreak yet after successfully keeping cases low during much of the last year. There were 5,357 new infections on Wednesday, up from 4,795 cases on Tuesday. The country has recorded 68,177 infections and 370 deaths overall.
Vabiotech will begin packaging Russian vaccines from July, with a monthly capacity of five million doses, according to a statement by Vietnam’s health minister Nguyen Thanh Long last month.
Tunisian military to take over management of pandemic
The army’s health department will be put in charge of Tunisia’s pandemic response, president Kais Saied has said, as tensions rise in government amid the country’s worsening health crisis.
The announcement comes a day after the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, sacked health minister Faouzi Mehdi, who is close to Saied. Mechichi accused him of making “criminal” decisions that led to chaos at vaccination centres, according to Reuters.
The North African country is battling soaring cases and deaths while faced with critical oxygen shortages in hospitals and packed intensive care wards.
“The Military Health Department will take over the management of the health crisis in the country,” he announced in televised comments during a visit to a vaccination centre in Tunis.
Tunisia has reported about 18,000 deaths and more than 550,000 coronavirus infections since the pandemic began. Only 940,000 of its 11.6 million people have been fully vaccinated.
Updated
Keir Starmer enters self isolation
The Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, is self-isolating after one of his children tested positive.
New - Keir Starmer's child has one of his children tested positive for Covid this lunchtime. Just hours after appearing in person at PMQs and spending time in Westminster, Starmer is now self-isolating. Spox says he tested negative this morning.
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) July 21, 2021
A party spokesperson said:
One of Keir’s children tested positive for Covid this lunchtime. In line with the rules, Keir and his family will now be self-isolating.
Keir was already doing daily tests and tested negative this morning. He will continue to take daily tests.
He joins Boris Johnson, who has been self-isolating since the weekend, after meeting with Sajid Javid, the health secretary, who tested positive.
Updated
In the UK, people affected by long Covid are almost twice as likely to have been depressed as those who haven’t had coronavirus, research indicates.
Some 6.2% of adults said they may have experienced long Covid, with 3.6% saying they had it and 2.6% saying they may have had it, when polled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) between 7 April and 13 June. PA Media writes:
Of these, 30% reported experiencing moderate to severe depressive symptoms in the last two weeks. This compares with 16% of respondents who did not think they had contracted coronavirus.
A quarter (25%) were likely to have some form of anxiety, compared with 15% of people not believed to have been hit by Covid.
Some 57% of adults who may have had long Covid said this had negatively affected their wellbeing, while 39% said their ability to exercise had been affected.
Considering only those who were sure they had experienced long Covid, 72% said their wellbeing had been negatively affected and 48% said the same about their ability to exercise.
The ONS warned against deducing cause-and-effect relationships from the results due to a combination of complicating factors including age, sex, disability status and deprivation level.
Updated
Delta variant makes up 83% of sequenced cases in the US
The highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday.
“This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% [in] the week of 4 July,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Senate testimony.
Walensky also said Covid fatalities had risen by nearly 48% over the past week to an average of 239 a day.
“Each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe available vaccine,” she said.
A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as the new hotspots for Covid-19.
Germany’s infection levels will pass 400 per 100,000 people in September if cases keep rising at their current pace, the health minister has said.
Around 60% of the population have received at least one vaccine dose, Jens Spahn said in remarks reported by Reuters, while about 47% are fully vaccinated.
The country’s seven-day rate, which evens out daily irregularities in reporting, was at 11.4 per 100,000 on Wednesday, following a rise in recent weeks attributed to the spread of the Delta variant.
The German cabinet on Wednesday extended Covid-19 quarantine regulations for travellers arriving from higher-risk areas until mid-September.
A South African manufacturer has been found to produce the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine domestically, the companies said, announcing the first such deal on the African continent.
The deal will see Cape Town-based Biovac complete the final step in the production process, the companies said in a statement reported by AFP.
Once the process gets off the ground, Biovac will produce more than 100m doses each year to be distributed across African countries. However, the first South African-made vaccine are not expected until 2022.
The move comes amid growing criticism of vaccine inequality as richer countries leave poorer nations behind in immunisation campaigns. Eleven billion doses are needed to fully vaccinate 70% of the world’s population. About 3.2bn doses had been administered by early July.
Updated
BrewDog swung into the red last year as booming sales of its craft beers online during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns failed to offset the impact of bar closures.
The Aberdeenshire-based company sank to a £13.1m pre-tax loss in 2020, despite reporting revenues of £238m for the year, 10% higher than in 2019.
Report by Joanna Partridge:
Updated
WHO warns Delta variant will dominate globally in months with world set to pass 200m cases in weeks
The Delta coronavirus variant is expected to become dominant globally within months, the World Health Organization has warned as 13 further territories detected cases. The highly contagious strain has now been discovered in 124 territories.
“It is expected that it will rapidly out-compete other variants and become the dominant circulating lineage over the coming months,” the UN health agency said in its weekly epidemiological update.
AFP reports that the WHO said overall, 3.4 million new Covid-19 cases were reported in the week to 18 July – 1 12% rise on the week before.
“At this rate, it is expected that the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next three weeks,” said the WHO.
Cases were up 30% in the WHO’s Western Pacific region and up 21% in its European region.
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from Indonesia (350,273 new cases; up 44%), Britain (296,447 new cases; up 41%), and Brazil (287,610 new cases; down 14%).
Updated
The highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant has become dominant in France, prime minister Jean Castex has said.
Castex told TF1 television that the major steps taken to tackle fourth wave of infections in the country have been settled upon by a cabinet meeting of the government, according to Reuters.
“We are in the fourth wave”, Castex said. “The Delta variant is the majority one, it is more contagious.”
The French government is presenting legislation to parliament this week to ramp up its vaccination take-up rates. Its plan includes requiring a health pass in a wide array of venues from the start of August and making vaccination mandatory for health workers.
Tunisia’s prime minister Hichem Mechichi has slammed the health minister over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic as the country’s hospitals face a critical lack of oxygen.
Mechichi’s officed announced that health minister Faouzi Mehdi had been sacked on Tuesday evening. The premier has hit out at the ex-minister for his role in the slow rollout of vaccines and soaring cases, according to AFP – a move some view as the premier trying to scapegoat him for wider failures.
“There’s an extraordinary level of dysfunction at the head of the health ministry,” Mechichi told health officials in footage published on his Facebook page late Tuesday.
Mehdi was sacked the day after vaccine centres opened their doors to over-18s, leading to runs on clinics and stocks quickly running dry.
Tunisia has been facing an overwhelming Covid-19 caseload that has left more than 17,000 people dead in a population of around 12 million. Fewer than 8% of the population are fully jabbed.
The country’s hospitals have faced acute shortages of oxygen, staff and intensive care beds, and fewer than eight percent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Business leaders, health experts and trade associations representing tens of thousands of businesses have hit out at the UK government’s handling of the “pingdemic” self-isolation crisis.
Amid mounting concern that staff absences are stifling economic recovery, Princess Yachts and luxury carmaker Bentley added their names to a growing list of firms with a significant number of workers absent.
And a day after leading business lobby group the Institute of Directors criticised “poor communication and mixed messages” from the government, a host of trade associations followed suit.
Leading figures in farming, accounting, boating, paper and printing, and engineering said they were dismayed by the government’s apparent confusion over whether staff who are pinged by NHS test and trace need to isolate.
Updated
Fivefold increase in Rome cases linked to Euro 2020 celebrations
Coronavirus infections in Rome have increased fivefold over the past nine days, a boom believed to have been triggered by the European football championship celebrations.
The Italian capital registered 557 new cases on Tuesday, compared to 122 on 11 July, the day Italy beat England in the Euros 2020 final.
Across Lazio, the region surrounding Rome, there were 681 new infections – the highest among Italy’s 20 regions.
“We’re paying for the effects of the football,” said Alessio D’Amato, the health councillor for Lazio, adding that the situation in hospitals was so far under control. He expects cases to rise further over the next few days as a result of the football victory celebrations, with mostly “young and unvaccinated” people being affected.
Infections across Italy have jumped over the past week, mostly driven by the Delta variant. As of Tuesday, the seven-day average was 19,384 infections, compared to 9,007 the week before.
Ten more Covid-related fatalities were confirmed on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to 127,884 – the highest in Europe after Britain.
Updated
Thailand reports record daily cases
Coronavirus cases have reached a new daily high in Thailand, which has registered 13,002 new infections over the past 24 hours as the country battles against its third wave.
The previous daily high of Covid-19 cases was 11,784 on Monday, according to the Bangkok Post. Thailand on Wednesday also reported a further 108 further deaths.
The third wave has accounted for the bulk of Thailand’s coronavirus cases, with 410,614 of its 439,477 Covid-19 cases being recorded since 1 April. Its death toll has also soared in recent months, with 3,516 of its 3,610 fatalities recorded in the third wave.
Updated
Fewer than one in 12 people reported negative side effects in the week after having a Covid-19 vaccine, a study has suggested, with experts saying the figures are similar to those expected with any vaccination.
The Vac4Covid study found that some 7.9% of participants experience side effects, with the most common including fever, headaches and fatigue. The researchers recruited more than 12,000 people across the UK.
Meanwhile, 45% of study participants said they felt better in the seven days following their jab, according to the researchers from the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine.
Study clinical researcher Dr Amy Rogers said: “The side effects of Covid-19 vaccination have been a talking point, but the figure of 7.9% is very much in line with what we expect from any vaccination, such as seasonal flu.
“That should make these results very reassuring for anybody still concerned about the possibility of side effects from their Covid-19 vaccination.”
Updated
Saudi authorities have rolled out electronic “hajj cards” allowing contactless access to religious sites, accommodation and transport during the annual event amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Just 60,000 vaccinated Saudi citizens and and residents have been permitted to participate in the pilgrimage – compared with 2.5 million in 2019, according to AFP.
People hoping to attend the annual event had to apply online.
The digital system also allows the authorities to guide the tens of thousands who attend the pilgrimage, with different coloured cards corresponding to signage on the ground guiding pilgrims through the different stages of the hajj. In previous years, there have been deadly accidents and stampedes.
Each card contains basic information about each pilgrim including their registration number, exact location of their accommodation, mobile phone number and the ID number of their guide.
Saudi Arabia has reported more than 510,000 cases and 8,089 deaths.
Updated
Hi, this is Clea Skopeliti taking the liveblog reins for the next few hours. As always, you can reach me on Twitter if you have suggestions for our coverage. Cheers.
Today so far…
- A survey in India has found that 67% of the country has coronavirus antibodies, compared with 24% when the last survey was conducted in December-January.
- A major Buddhist group in Taiwan has said it has signed a deal to buy 5m doses of BioNTech Covid vaccine via the German firm’s Chinese sales agent, bumping the island’s order for the shot up to 15m doses.
- South Korea reported a daily record of 1,784 coronavirus cases for Tuesday, breaking a mark set last week, as the country grapples with Delta-driven outbreaks.
- Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, has refused to apologise for his government’s handling of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, amid testy exchanges during a radio interview as more than 13 million Australians – or half of the population – awoke in lockdown conditions.
- Russia has announced 23,704 new Covid cases on Wednesday, including 3,254 in Moscow. There were 783 further deaths.
- The first test batch of Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine has been produced in Vietnam. The first validation samples taken from the produced batch will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center in Russia for quality control checks.
- Face masks and other Covid restrictions could be reintroduced in England in as little as three weeks if hospital admissions rise above anticipated levels, scientists advising the government have warned.
- The British Meat Processors Association has warned that production lines have started to fail due to the number of workers self-isolating over coronavirus contacts.
- Labour’s Lisa Nandy expressed sympathy for those who have been sent into self-isolation by the NHS app, and called on the government to provide more financial help for workers and for the introduction of a “test and release” approach.
- New infections in France are increasing at an unprecedented rate due to the Delta variant, after 18,000 cases were reported for the previous 24 hours, according to the health minister Olivier Véran.
- The delayed and Covid-affected Tokyo 2020 Olympics got underway with softball and women’s football matches. Japanese chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said on Wednesday he hadn’t heard of any major violations of infection prevention measures among athletes, certainly nothing severe enough to warrant pulling their accreditation.
Andrew Sparrow has our UK live blog, but the focus of that today is mostly politics. Clea Skopeliti will be here shortly to take you through the main UK and international coronavirus developments today.
Finally, just a quick personal note from me, Martin Belam. This has been my last day on the Covid live blog for a while. I’m going to be spending the next few weeks writing our daily Tokyo 2020 briefing for the Olympics and the Paralympics. You can sign up to get that here. I would say that I am looking forward to a nice change, but I suspect that I am still going to be writing an awful lot about Covid.
Anyway, thank you very much for reading over these past few months while I’ve been on the blog regularly, and especially to all of those of you who have been in contact with me by email or Twitter with tips or suggestions or spotting and helping me fix my errors – I really appreciate it. Take care, keep safe, and I will see you back here later in the year…
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A major Taiwanese Buddhist group has said it has signed a deal to buy 5m doses of BioNTech Covid vaccine via the German firm’s Chinese sales agent, bumping the island’s order for the shot up to 15m doses.
The Tzu Chi Foundation said in June it was bidding to get the vaccines, and Taiwan’s government said it would allow the group to negotiate on its behalf for the shot. The vaccines will be donated to the government for distribution.
In a statement on its Facebook page, Tzu Chi said: “After successfully signing the vaccine procurement contract, all the purchased vaccines will be donated to the competent authority for use by the public,” it added, without saying when the vaccines would arrive.
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Reuters report that Russia has announced 23,704 new Covid cases on Wednesday, including 3,254 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,030,240. There were 783 further deaths.
In the UK, Next has reported strong revenue growth as shoppers returned to its clothing stores after the Covid-19 lockdown reopening and as a result has decided to repay £29m of business rates relief to the government.
Shares in the bellwether retail chain soared 10% in early trading on Wednesday, making Next the biggest FTSE 100 riser as investors responded positively to the news that it was raising its profit forecast for the third time in four months.
The new profit forecast is after a deduction of £29m in business rates relief, which Next is repaying to the government, covering the period this year when its shops were open but were not charged rates.
Read more of Joanna Partridge’s report: Next to repay £29m in Covid rates relief amid strong revenue growth
England may have to reimpose Covid rules in August, scientists warn
Face masks and other Covid restrictions could be reintroduced in England in as little as three weeks if hospital admissions rise above anticipated levels, scientists advising the government have warned.
Members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have reportedly said Boris Johnson should be ready to take action in the first week of August to avoid the NHS being overwhelmed.
The i reports that if admissions exceed central estimates – that daily hospitalisations in the UK will peak at the end of next month at between 1,000 and 2,000 and daily deaths will reach 100-200 – Sage scientists have advised that some measures such as mandatory masks and working from home advice should be reinstated at the beginning of August.
Recent government figures show that in the middle of July – six weeks ahead of the forecasted peak and before removal of England’s coronavirus restrictions on 19 July – the UK had already reached 745 daily hospital admissions and has continued to rise since.
Prof Dominic Harrison, the director of public health for Blackburn, told i: “Any return to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control spread would have to focus on those that give the biggest suppression effect.
“Essentially we might expect a reverse through the lockdown lifting steps with each ‘reverse step’ being introduced to match the scale of the surge in cases.”
Read more of Miranda Bryant’s report here: England may have to reimpose Covid rules in August, scientists warn
The Washington Post is leading this morning with the story that driven by Covid deaths, US life expectancy dropped by 1.5 years in 2020 – and the racial disparity hidden within the headline figures:
Life expectancy in the United States dropped by a year and a half in 2020 – a continuation of a worrisome decline that was observed in the first half of last year as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the country, according to federal data released Wednesday.
The decline, which is the largest seen in a single year since World War II, reflects the pandemic’s sustained toll on Americans, particularly the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on communities of color. Black Americans lost 2.9 years of life expectancy while Latinos, who have longer life expectancy than non-Hispanic Blacks or Whites, saw a drop of three years. There was a decrease of 1.2 years among White people.
Read more here: Washington Post – Driven by Covid deaths, US life expectancy dropped by 1.5 years in 2020
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Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK live blog for today. He says:
Politics Live has been a mix of Covid and non-Covid news recently but today I will be focusing largely on Priti Patel at the home affairs committe, PMQs and the Northern Ireland protocol statements.
I’ll be carrying on with leading UK Covid lines here, along with the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.
Now, my clubbing days may be long behind me, although I have been known to frequent a gig or two, but Joe Muggs is here for us today with a science-driven guide to safer clubbing:
The government removed all Covid regulations on Monday – but in their place are “guidelines” putting all responsibility on businesses and individuals to ensure their own protection. Infections are rising, especially among still-unvaccinated younger people, and while mandatory vaccine certificates are being introduced for crowded venues like clubs, that won’t be the case until September. Not only are young people more likely to be clubbers, they are more likely to work in hospitality, too. Some people find it impossible to see how clubs can functionally reopen: clinical virologist Dr Julian Tang of the University of Leicester says: “I don’t think there is any really safe way to do this … if all restrictions are lifted.”
Nonetheless, venues will be opening, with varying degrees of self-imposed restrictions. Carly Heath is Bristol City Council’s night-time economy advisor, and has the responsibility of representing the interests of clubbers, venues and promoters – who have no recompense if they end up being closed down. A long-time lover of “soundsystem culture – the sort of clubs where you don’t wear your good shoes”, she understands the urgency of people wanting to get back to the unique shared space of the dancefloor. “You look at the football, the Euros, we want that same ‘yessss!’ moment that people had together: but at the same time it’s hard to moderate your behaviour in that moment.” So what can we do?
Read more here from Joe Muggs: Rave responsibly – a guide to clubbing safely as Covid restrictions end
Another little Olympic snippet here from Reuters: Japanese chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said on Wednesday he hadn’t heard of any major violations of infection prevention measures among athletes, certainly nothing severe enough to warrant pulling their accreditation.
He added that his understanding that what violations there have been were minor and “mostly due to carelessness.”
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Labour's Lisa Nandy calls for 'test and release' to replace self-isolation for hard-pressed workers
Labour’s Lisa Nandy has been on the airwaves in the UK, and she was asked on Sky News about the NHS app. She expressed sympathy for those who have been sent into self-isolation, and called on the government to provide more financial help for workers and for the introduction of a “test and release” approach.
I live in Greater Manchester, in Wigan, as you well know, and we’ve been in almost continuous lockdown for the last 12 months. I got the sense a very long time ago that people were deleting the app, turning off the contact tracing. People are trying to do their best, they’re trying to follow the rules, but I totally understand that getting pings all the time and being told to self-isolate, especially when there’s no proper payment for that, people have been asked to take annual leave at the moment, they’ve run out of annual leave so they, they’re being docked pay, they’re worried about their families. I guess what I would say to them is that I totally sympathise, do your best, try to follow the rules, but what we need is the government to step up.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak that got a lot of grief, understandably, for saying that they weren’t going to participate in this system, that they were going to have an opt out. But actually what we should be doing is making sure that everyone has access to that opt-out, that you can test, instead of having to self-isolate. That would make a huge difference to the economy, but it would make a huge difference for a lot of families around this country as well.
"I'm surprised it's as low as that."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 21, 2021
Shadow minister @lisanandy says she "got the sense a long time ago" that people were turning off or deleting the NHS COVID app, and says she does have the app enabled on her own phone.
Latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/Odl4AMBIZH #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/3q3N99LKgn
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First Vietnam-produced Sputnik V vaccine to be sent to Russia for validation
The first test batch of Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine has been produced in Vietnam, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF and Vietnamese pharmaceutical firm Vabiotech said today.
Reuters report the first validation samples taken from the produced batch will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center in Russia for quality control checks, the fund and the company said in a joint statement.
The British Meat Processors Association has warned that production lines have started to fail due to the number of workers self-isolating over coronavirus contacts.
Chief executive Nick Allen said the industry cannot rely on exemptions announced by Boris Johnson because it has been made clear that very few people will benefit from the plan.
Asked if the government has made the situation clearer, PA Media reports he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No, not really. There’s an air of despondency creeping through the industry. Until now we’ve managed to keep the food supply chain running but there’s a sense of we’re starting to fail on that front.
“Morale isn’t helped by the confusion that comes from these confusing messages from government.”
Asked if production lines are stalling, he said: “They are. It’s happening already. We’re starting to see that at retail level and in restaurants – everyone is struggling to get things out really.”
He said the industry is not clear who is covered by the exemption for a small number of double-jabbed critical workers.
“It was made very clear to us late yesterday that this exemption will be for very, very few people. They described it as setting the bar very, very high and we’re certainly not counting on that,” he said.
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The opening ceremony may not be until Friday, but the much-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics are officially under way, with women’s softball and opening women’s football matches scheduled for today. Hosts Japan got off to a win in their softball battle with Australia in an empty stadium in Fukushima.
Reuters report that Tokyo 2020 organisers disclosed a further seven other Covid infections among attendees on Wednesday, bringing the total to 75. Chilean taekwondo competitor Fernanda Aguierre has become the first athlete to withdraw from the Olympic Games after testing positive.
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Australia’s PM defends Covid vaccine rollout as half of population awakes in lockdown
Here’s Helen Sullivan again with a round-up of latest developments in Australia:
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has refused to apologise for his government’s handling of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, amid testy exchanges during a radio interview as more than 13 million Australians – or half of the population – awoke in lockdown conditions.
Morrison carried out a whistle-stop tour of radio stations on Wednesday as Covid measures spread further into the state of New South Wales, while Victoria reported a record one-day increase in cases and South Australia began its first full day of a week-long lockdown.
The opposition Labor party has ramped up its pressure on the government, saying the latest restrictions were only necessary because of a lack of vaccine supplies.
Despite repeatedly being pushed to apologise for the “nightmare” vaccine rollout during an interview on Kiis FM, Morrison refused, saying only that the government was focused on “fixing the problems”. To date, just over 11% of Australians are fully vaccinated.
“We have had our problems, there is no doubt about that, and they are problems that are not always things within our control, that is the nature of Covid 19,” Morrison said.
The host, Jason Hawkins, said: “I’m not trying to have a go, I think it is just frustration, we are in lockdown. Can you just say ‘sorry Jase’? It will make me feel so much better and then I feel like I can move on.”
Later, that frustration was not helped by a request that only vaccinated reporters attend the prime minister’s afternoon press conference.
Read more of Helen Sullivan’s report here: Australia’s PM defends Covid vaccine rollout as half of population awakes in lockdown
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So, one bit of Covid questioning for UK home office minister Victoria Atkins this morning on Sky News was about the overnight polling figures from YouGov on the usage of the NHS test and trace app. They reported overnight:
New YouGov data finds that one in ten online Brits (10%) have deleted the app, having previously installed it. This is on top of the 31% who have never downloaded it despite owning a smart phone and the 9% who don’t have the technology to download anyway. “App deserters” are more likely to be in the younger age group, with 17% of those aged 18-24 deleting the app having previously installing it.
Asked about this, the government minister told Kay Burley:
We don’t have those figures within the system itself. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people have joined it recently. In terms of the app itself, I know it’s frustrating when people have been pinged, and they have to self isolate if they’ve been in contact with someone who has Covid. And I really do understand the pressures this is placing on people and on businesses. But we’re now in this new stage about solutions for the pandemic, and the test and trace up is one of the key tools that we have. Isolation is one of the key tools we have to try to slow the spread of this virus.
That’s very much a contrast to minister Paul Scully, who got slapped down yesterday for saying on his morning media round that getting “pinged” by the app was just advice for people to make their own decisions.
Asked about expanding exemptions to self-isolation to key workers, as has been done to some NHS staff, but using the list of key workers the government defined last year, Atkins said:
It’s a different exercise from the exercise of last year, in terms of key workers who can return to their place of work. It’s a slightly different exercise because the scientists will have to be calculating how many people equals risks in terms of spreading the virus around the country. So it is a complicated exercise, but it is very much being worked on.
Polina Nikolskaya has been in Vladimir in Russia for Reuters, speaking to people about vaccinations. She reports that about 12% of the 1.4 million people in the Vladimir region 200km (125 miles) east of Moscow had been vaccinated by 12 July. Some people said the sudden rise in demand for shots was due to a spate of government policies.
These included a week-long regional requirement to prove vaccination against, or recent recovery from, Covid with QR codes to enter cafes and other venues. The policy was cancelled amid an outcry from business and shortages of vaccine.
The region also ordered some public sector and service sector businesses to inoculate at least 60% of their employees with one dose by 15 August. Cafe owners Dmitry Bolshakov and Alexander Yuriev said word-of-mouth recommendations came earlier.
Third-time lucky vaccine recipient Alexander, who gave only his first name due to the sensitivity of the issue, said he had queued for the shot of his own accord after his local clinic said it could not offer one until late August.
But nine out of 12 people approached by Reuters at the city’s vaccination centres said they did not want to be vaccinated but had been pressured by their employers.
In one Vladimir café called ZZZed, owner Yuriev had, along with officials, set up a centre for vaccinations, starting with the city’s restaurant workers. People filled out their consent forms sitting at the bar, under a disco ball.
“We have a queue now of about 1,000 people,” Yuriev said. With demand up, shortages of shots are the next obstacle. “We are limited by the lack of vaccines in the region,” he said.
The acting head of the local health watchdog, Yulia Potselueva, told reporters on 16 July that the problem of vaccine supply would be solved in the near futur
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In the UK, it is Victoria Atkins who is doing the morning media round for the government, she is parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding. She has started on Sky News, but at the moment most of the questions are about immigration. I’ll bring you the key quotes if she says anything about Covid.
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Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London. Here are the latest Covid figures from the UK government dashboard.
- Hospitalisations stand at 4,567 patients, with 611 people needing ventilation. 745 people were admitted to hospital in a single day for the last day there is data – 14 July. Hospitalisations have risen 38.4% week-on-week.
- Cases have risen by 46,588 on the day the latest data is available – which is 20 July. There have been 332,068 cases in the last seven days, which equates to a week-on-week rise of 40.7%.
- There were 96 deaths recorded on 20 July. That’s a week-on-week rise of 60.6%.
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67% in India have Covid antibodies, survey finds
A survey in India has found that 67% of the country has coronavirus antibodies, compared with 24% when the last survey was conducted in December-January, the Times of India reports.
Indian officials hopeful that antibody positivity rate means majority of country less vulnerable but have cautioned that the rates differ state to state.
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South Korea reports record daily cases
South Korea reported a daily record of 1,784 coronavirus cases for Tuesday, breaking a mark set last week, as the country grapples with Delta-driven outbreaks, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Wednesday.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
South Korea reported a daily record of 1,784 coronavirus cases for Tuesday, breaking a mark set last week, as the country grapples with Delta-driven outbreaks, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a survey in India has found that 67% of the country has coronavirus antibodies, compared with 24% when the last survey was conducted in December-January, the Times of India reports.
More on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
- A democracy campaigner and confidant of the deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi died after contracting Covid-19 in prison, authorities said.
- New infections in France are increasing at an unprecedented rate due to the Delta variant, after 18,000 cases were reported for the previous 24 hours, according to the health minister Olivier Véran.
- The chief of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee did not rule out cancelling the Olympics if Covid-19 cases rise sharply, as more athletes tested positive for the virus and sponsors ditched plans to attend Friday’s opening ceremony.
- Fox News host Sean Hannity had a message for viewers of his primetime show on Tuesday night: “Please take Covid seriously.” The influential host, a close ally of Donald Trump, also said: “I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination.”
- A man in Perth, Australia, escaped mandatory quarantine in a hotel by scaling down a rope made of tied-together bedsheets from a fourth-floor window, police have said.
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