A summary of today's developments
- The number of people in hospital with coronavirus in England has risen to its highest level in four months, data shows. The latest figures from NHS England show that 4,401 hospital beds were occupied by confirmed Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest level since March 22.
- The US purchased 200m more doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for flexibility in case booster shots are needed later and the shots are approved for younger children, the White House said.
- Iceland has announced new curbs following a spate of infections, AFP reports. Public gatherings will be restricted to 200, the one-metre social distancing rule will be reimposed and bars and restaurants will have to close at 11:00pm.
- All countries must work together to investigate the origin of the coronavirus that sparked the pandemic, the World Health Organization said, a day after China rejected the proposed scope of a second phase, which would have a greater focus on a possible lab leak. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, asked about China’s rejection, said: “This is not about politics, it’s not about a blame game. It is about basically a requirement we all have to try to understand how the pathogen came into the human population.”
- Meanwhile, the row over American funding of potentially risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is deepening, after Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious diseases chief, restated his denial this week that he helped bankroll potentially risky ‘gain of function’ experiments. But, in a meaty fact-check today, the BBC quoted an expert saying that two studies by the Chinese institute – one from 2015, and another from 2017 – included gain-of-function research, where diseases are genetically altered to increase their transmissibility.
- New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that the country is pausing quarantine-free travel from Australia for at least eight weeks, due to Covid outbreaks on the neighbouring island. It is the first time New Zealand has taken this course of action – which will come into force at 11.59pm local time tonight – since the bubble was introduced in April.
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Australia’s most populous state declared a “national emergency” as it struggles to contain a record-breaking surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19 amid a lockdown affecting half the country. The state of New South Wales announced 136 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 today, with continued community transmission among essential workers, including in supermarkets and pharmacies.
- The Republican governor of Alabama said it is “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for rising cases of Covid-19, amid concern that months of misinformation over the need and efficacy of vaccines is fuelling a resurgence of coronavirus infections in several states. Only about a third of eligible people in Alabama have received a vaccine shot, one of the lowest rates in the US.
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About 100 of the 613 US athletes arriving in Tokyo for the Olympics are unvaccinated, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said. Medical director Jonathan Finnoff said 567 of the American athletes had filled out their health histories as they prepared for the trip, and estimated that 83% had replied that they had been vaccinated.
- An Australian clothing brand was fined A$5m for claiming that its garments stop the spread of Covid. Lorna Jane advertised that its clothes used “a groundbreaking technology” called LJ Shield to prevent the “transferal of all pathogens”. But a judge ruled that the claim was “exploitative, predatory and potentially dangerous”.
We are closing the blog now, thanks for reading.
Updated
Mexico’s health ministry on Friday reported 16,421 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country and 328 more fatalities, Reuters reports.
It brings the total to 2,726,160 infections and 237,954 deaths.
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% higher than the official count
Brazil registered 108,732 new cases of coronavirus and 1,324 additional deaths in the last 24 hours, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.
The country has had over 19.5 million cases in total and more than 547,000 deaths.
Australian authorities said fragments of Covid-19 had been detected at the sewage treatment plant at Moss Vale in the NSW Southern Highlands where there were no known cases in this area.
The department said this was of “great concern”.
Moss Vale area residents are asked to be vigilant for any symptoms and if they appear to immediately be tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
The England football manager Gareth Southgate has joined the campaign to encourage people to have their coronavirus vaccine, saying it will allow them to “get your freedom back”.
Downing Street has released a message from the manager thanking the public for their support during the team’s journey to the Euro 2020 final and urging younger people in particular to get the jab.
In the UK, only 58% of people aged 18-25 have their first dose, according to new Public Health England data, despite all adults having been offered the jab. There are also large disparities in uptake by ethnicity.
Southgate, 50, said: “Oldies like me have had both jabs, so we can crack on with our lives, but for you younger ones especially, it’s the chance for everything to open up, to get your freedom back.”
Iceland has announced new curbs following a spate of infections, AFP reports.
At the end of June, Iceland lifted rules around social distancing, mask-wearing, limits on public gatherings and the opening hours of bars and restaurants after introducing virus restrictions in March last year.
Starting from midnight on Sunday until 13 August, public gatherings will be restricted to 200, the one-metre social distancing rule will be reimposed and bars and restaurants will have to close at 11:00pm.
Swimming pools and indoor sports facilities can only operate to 75% of capacity and masks will be mandatory indoors.
Updated
The US administered 340,363,922 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 393,929,955 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 339,763,765 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by July 22 out of 391,998,625 doses delivered.
The agency said 187,579,557 people had received at least one dose while 162,435,276 people are fully vaccinated as of Friday, Reuters reports.
Updated
The north-east of England is to be given a five-week package of support by the UK’s government in a bid to slow the growth of Covid-19 in the region.
The package includes the option to deliver extra testing in the area, as well as providing logistical support to maximise vaccine and testing uptake, PA reports.
It will be deployed to the seven local authorities across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham, and five local authorities in the Tees Valley.
The move comes as similar support in Bedford and much of the north-west, which has been in place for between six and 10 weeks, is being scaled back.
Updated
Health authorities in Australia has issued a warning about misinformation circulating on WhatsApp that claims Sydney supermarkets will close as part of the ongoing lockdown, with owner Facebook saying it is working to limit the spread of misinformation on its private messaging app.
On Thursday, it was reported that a screenshot purporting to be from NSW Health saying that supermarkets would close for four days as part of the Covid-19 response was circulating on WhatsApp.
Supermarkets in NSW have remained open during the greater Sydney lockdown and are considered essential retail. In a statement, the state’s health department urged people not to take advice from anywhere but the official NSW Health channels.
“NSW Health is urging people to use trusted and credible sources of information to inform them about the most up-to-date Covid-19 information in NSW,” a spokesperson said.
Chilean authorities said China’s Sinovac had begun evaluating potential sites for the construction of a vaccine plant in Chile that could begin producing doses of the Chinese shot as early as the first half of 2022.
Chile, a global leader in vaccinating its citizens against the coronavirus, has leaned heavily on the Sinovac vaccine in its fast-paced mass vaccination program. The Andean nation also helped spearhead clinical trials of the shot late last year. A delegation of executives from Sinovac this week visited potential sites for the factory near the capital Santiago and in Chile’s northern desert. “This is an investment that could be made very quickly and that would make the plant ... operational in the first quarter next year,” economy minister Lucas Palacios told reporters. Palacios said the plant could produce as many as 50 million vaccine doses annually and in addition to its CoronaVac COVID-19 jab, it could produce vaccines for hepatitis B or influenza, Reuters reports.
Covid-19 hospitalisations in Mexico City and its suburbs, increased by a third in the last week, authorities said, amid a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
There are currently 3,382 people hospitalised in the metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico, city official Eduardo Clark said.
He added that if necessary more hospital beds would be turned over to Covid-19 treatment.
Positive coronavirus test results, however, had decreased since mid-July, he said.
“Fortunately, we see signs that in the last week positive (results) have stabilised,” Clark said, citing it as a sign that the infection curve might be flattening, Reuters reports.
A summary of today's developments
- The number of people in hospital with coronavirus in England has risen to its highest level in four months, data shows. The latest figures from NHS England show that 4,401 hospital beds were occupied by confirmed Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest level since March 22.
- The US purchased 200m more doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for flexibility in case booster shots are needed later and the shots are approved for younger children, the White House said.
- All countries must work together to investigate the origin of the coronavirus that sparked the pandemic, the World Health Organization said, a day after China rejected the proposed scope of a second phase, which would have a greater focus on a possible lab leak. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, asked about China’s rejection, said: “This is not about politics, it’s not about a blame game. It is about basically a requirement we all have to try to understand how the pathogen came into the human population.”
- Meanwhile, the row over American funding of potentially risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is deepening, after Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious diseases chief, restated his denial this week that he helped bankroll potentially risky ‘gain of function’ experiments. But, in a meaty fact-check today, the BBC quoted an expert saying that two studies by the Chinese institute – one from 2015, and another from 2017 – included gain-of-function research, where diseases are genetically altered to increase their transmissibility.
- New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that the country is pausing quarantine-free travel from Australia for at least eight weeks, due to Covid outbreaks on the neighbouring island. It is the first time New Zealand has taken this course of action – which will come into force at 11.59pm local time tonight – since the bubble was introduced in April.
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Australia’s most populous state declared a “national emergency” as it struggles to contain a record-breaking surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19 amid a lockdown affecting half the country. The state of New South Wales announced 136 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 today, with continued community transmission among essential workers, including in supermarkets and pharmacies.
- The Republican governor of Alabama said it is “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for rising cases of Covid-19, amid concern that months of misinformation over the need and efficacy of vaccines is fuelling a resurgence of coronavirus infections in several states. Only about a third of eligible people in Alabama have received a vaccine shot, one of the lowest rates in the US.
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About 100 of the 613 US athletes arriving in Tokyo for the Olympics are unvaccinated, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said. Medical director Jonathan Finnoff said 567 of the American athletes had filled out their health histories as they prepared for the trip, and estimated that 83% had replied that they had been vaccinated.
- An Australian clothing brand was fined A$5m for claiming that its garments stop the spread of Covid. Lorna Jane advertised that its clothes used “a groundbreaking technology” called LJ Shield to prevent the “transferal of all pathogens”. But a judge ruled that the claim was “exploitative, predatory and potentially dangerous”.
Updated
The state of Florida has asked the US Supreme Court to allow a lower-court decision to take effect that said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could not enforce its coronavirus cruise ship rules in the state.
The ruling had been blocked by a US appeals court, Reuters reports.
Florida asked the Supreme Court to lift the appeals court order warning without action. “Florida is all but guaranteed to lose yet another summer cruise season while the CDC pursues its appeal,” the state said in its filing to the Supreme Court.
Updated
England is facing weeks of disruption to bin collection, transport and food supply due to staff self-isolating, companies and councils have warned, amid concerns the 16 August date to lift quarantine for the double-vaccinated could be delayed.
No 10 was on Friday scrambling to set up a system to let more key workers take daily tests rather than isolate for 10-days, over fears that large parts of the economy could grind to a halt over the so-called “pingdemic”.
Ministers initially said that there would only be a narrow definition of critical workers allowed to be routinely excused from quarantine, with about 10,000 workers at 500 food distribution sites and some NHS and social care workers permitted to take daily tests instead of isolation.
The NFL says that any team that causes a game to be canceled due to COVID outbreaks among unvaccinated players will be responsible for financial losses, could lead to forfeited games — and neither team's players will be paid. pic.twitter.com/qungtbNZKW
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 23, 2021
Public Health England has upgraded its risk assessment of the Delta variant after national testing data revealed it is more likely to cause reinfections than the Alpha variant, which was first identified in Kent.
The health agency’s analysis found the risk of reinfection with Delta may be 46% greater than with the Alpha variant, with the highest risk seen six months after a first infection – when second cases caused by Delta were 2.37 times more common than with Alpha.
The finding is bolstered by new data from Public Health England’s (PHE) Siren study, which monitors more than 40,000 NHS staff for Covid infections. The latest figures show that positive tests rose steadily from May to July when 1.1% had the virus. Nearly a third of the healthcare workers had Covid before enrolling on the study and more than 95% have been vaccinated.
It is unclear why Delta may be causing more reinfections, but one possibility is that immunity from infections early on in the pandemic may be waning a little and so reducing the body’s defences against the variant which became dominant in the UK this year. PHE said that further work is now being undertaken to examine the risk of reinfection.
The US purchased 200 million more doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for flexibility if booster shots are later needed and the shots are approved for younger children, the White House said.
The vaccine makers announced the government’s purchase earlier on Friday , Reuters reports.
Updated
The number of people in hospital with coronavirus in England has risen to its highest level in four months, data shows.
Latest figures from NHS England show that 4,401 hospital beds were occupied by confirmed Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest level since March 22.
This is a week-on-week rise of 30.7% from the 3,367 people in hospital on July 16.
But the numbers are still much lower than the peak of the second wave when patient levels in England reached 34,336 on January 18.
The North East and Yorkshire had the highest number of beds occupied with Covid patients on Friday, at 1,026, PA reports.
My colleague Justin McCurry reports from the Olympic opening ceremony in Tokyo.
Setting the right emotional tone for the precursor to an Olympics being held in such extraordinary circumstances was always going to be a perilous exercise in not causing offence, to a world traumatised by a pandemic and to a host nation deeply uneasy about its moment in the spotlight.
An opening ceremony that overstated its tragic backdrop would have sent a curious message to thousands of athletes, confined inside an Olympic bubble, who from tomorrow will begin their quest for medals. Yet one that appeared to overtly celebrate the start of the world’s biggest sporting event would have come across as insensitive – even callous – in a week when daily Covid-19 cases in Tokyo reached their highest for six months. In the end, Japan played it safe.
Today so far...
- All countries must work together to investigate the origin of the coronavirus that sparked the pandemic, the World Health Organization said, a day after China rejected the proposed scope of a second phase which would have a greater focus on a possible lab leak. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, asked about China’s rejection, said: “This is not about politics, it’s not about a blame game. It is about basically a requirement we all have to try to understand how the pathogen came into the human population.”
- Meanwhile, the row over American funding of potentially risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is deepening, after Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious diseases chief, restated his denial this week that he helped bankroll potentially risky gain of function experiments. But, in a meaty fact check today, the BBC quotes an expert saying that two studies by the Chinese institute – one from 2015, and another from 2017 – included gain of function research, where diseases are genetically altered to increase their transmissibility.
- New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country is pausing quarantine-free travel from Australia for at least eight weeks, due to Covid outbreaks in the neighbouring island. It is the first time New Zealand has taken this course of action – which will come into force at 11.59pm local time tonight – since the bubble was introduced in April.
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Australia’s most populous state declared a “national emergency” as it struggles to contain a record-breaking surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19 amid a lockdown affecting half the country. The state of New South Wales announced 136 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 today, with continued community transmission among essential workers, including in supermarkets and pharmacies.
- The Republican governor of Alabama said it is “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for rising cases of Covid-19, amid concern that months of misinformation over the need and efficacy of vaccines is fuelling a resurgence of coronavirus infections in several states. Only about a third of eligible people in Alabama have got a vaccine shot, one of the lowest rates in the US.
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About 100 of the 613 US athletes arriving in Tokyo for the Olympics are unvaccinated, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said. Medical director Jonathan Finnoff said 567 of the American athletes had filled out their health histories as they prepared for the trip, and estimated 83% had replied they were vaccinated.
- An Australian clothing brand was fined AUS$5m for claiming its garments stop the spread of Covid. Lorna Jane advertised that its clothes used “a groundbreaking technology” called LJ Shield to prevent the “transferal of all pathogens”. But a judge ruled that the claim was “exploitative, predatory and potentially dangerous”.
The recent drop in new daily reported Covid cases in the UK has led some scientists to hope we may have reached the peak of this wave – but others said the dip could be something of a mirage.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, based on swabs collected from randomly selected households, about 1 in 75 people in the community in England had Covid in the week ending 17 July, up from 1 in 95 the week before. The survey suggests infection levels have also risen in Wales and Northern Ireland, although the trend for Scotland was unclear.
A scientist advising the UK government has accused ministers of allowing infections to rip through the younger population in an effort to bolster levels of immunity before the NHS faces winter pressures, my colleagues Ian Sample and Heather Stewart report.
The allegation comes after England’s remaining Covid restrictions were eased on Monday, with nightclubs throwing open their doors for the first time in the pandemic and all rules on social distancing and mask wearing dropped even as infections run high.
The European Central Bank has said it would end pandemic-era restrictions on banks’ payouts to shareholders but urged eurozone lenders to “remain prudent”.
AFP reports that the ECB “decided not to extend beyond September 2021 its recommendation that all banks limit dividends”, it said in a statement. But it warned that eurozone lenders “should remain prudent when deciding on dividends and share buy-backs”.
The ECB imposed a cap on banks’ rewards to shareholders at the onset of the coronavirus crisis in March 2020, to ensure lenders had enough liquidity to weather the fallout. The curbs were then extended twice, until September 2021.
With the eurozone recovery now firmly under way thanks to mass vaccinations and post-lockdown re-openings, the Frankfurt institution said it would return to the “pre-pandemic way of assessing” banks’ plans for dividends and share buy-backs, AFP reports.
But banks should “not underestimate the risk that additional losses may later have an impact on their capital trajectory as support measures expire”, the ECB said.
The US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have also recently lifted their Covid-era restrictions on dividends after banks reportedly proved they had successfully weathered the changing economic circumstances.
Two hospitals in Florida reportedly have more Covid than at any point during the pandemic.
The New York Times reports that more than 140 people at two University of Florida hospitals in Jacksonville are admitted with the virus, a tenfold increase over five weeks — and the highest number of Covid patients so far at any one time.
Last month, the number of Covid-19 patients was down to 14 in total. “It’s very frustrating,” said Dr Leon Haley, the chief executive of UF Health Jacksonville, told the NYT. “Each day we continue to go up. There’s no sense of when things are going to curtail themselves. People are stretched thin.”
He added: “If we were able to get more people vaccinated earlier than this ... We probably wouldn’t be here.”
The costs of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic have forced Mexican archaeologists to re-bury an unusual find that combined colonial and pre-Hispanic features.
The Associated Press reports that the National Institute of Anthropology and History had announced in 2019 that it found a flood control tunnel on the outskirts of Mexico City that had Spanish construction techniques but carved Aztec symbols embedded in it.
The institute had planned to make an exhibit of the strange tunnel, which was apparently built in the early 1600s. It replaced an earlier Aztec flood-control system built in the 1400s to protect Mexico City, then an island surrounded by shallow lakes, against periodic floods. After the Spanish conquered the Aztec capital in 1521, they unwisely destroyed parts of the pre-Hispanic system.
But the institute said that archaeologists would simply cover the finds with dirt again, in hopes that someday it would have enough money to build a display for it.
The institute said in a statement that “it must be considered that the world-wide Covid-19 health emergency forced all levels of government to place priority on assigning money to health care for the population. For that reason, the archaeological project had to be postponed.”
The tunnel was discovered in an ancient flood-control wall during the construction of a confined-lane bus service line, AP reports. Experts speculate the pre-Hispanic symbols may have been placed in the wall because Indigenous labourers were the main work force during its construction.
Updated
French president Emmanuel Macron has backed Japan’s decision to host the delayed Olympics despite the pandemic, as he attended the opening ceremony in Tokyo with just hundreds of other officials and dignitaries.
Paris will host the next edition of the summer Games in 2024, and Macron’s meetings in Tokyo included talks with International Olympic committee chief Thomas Bach, according to Reuters.
The French president, who arrived this morning, was one of only around 950 people in the stands, including US first lady Jill Biden.
Coronavirus rules have forced Macron to reduce his delegation to a minimum, and he is travelling with just a single minister. But despite the restrictions, Macron told France Television hours before the ceremony that “these Olympic Games had to be held” after they were postponed for a year in March 2020, Reuters reports.
“We have to resist, we have to hold these Games. It’s important because the Olympic spirit is a spirit of cooperation and that’s what we need in these times,” he added.
Macron said he sympathised with the difficult decision Japan faced in moving ahead with the Games even as infections rise in Tokyo.
“I think that they did not anticipate that these variants were going to happen and because their borders were shut, they started vaccinations later than some others, which has created difficulties,” he said. “But I think the Japanese authorities were right to go ahead with the Olympics ... It demonstrates something: that whatever happens, we have to adapt, to organise and do the best we can.”
Riot police have fired teargas at hundreds of demonstrators who blocked the entrance to Slovakia’s parliament today as lawmakers debated legislation which could prevent unvaccinated people from public events and premises.
Some protesters chanted “Treason” and one carried a banner declaring “Stop corona fascism” over the draft law that would create a two-tier society, while others reportedly pelted the building in the capital Bratislava with eggs.
Some opposition parties have spoken out against vaccination, including former prime minister Robert Fico, who has said he will not get vaccinated.
Parliament’s speaker Boris Kollár, whose party Sme Rodina is opposed to dividing people based on their vaccination status, reportedly described the situation outside the legislature as a “fatal failure” of the police, as barriers were not erected in anticipation of the protest.
“Those people, obviously, are fighting against something. That does not mean we should beat them with batons or spray them with water cannons or with tear gas,” Kollár said, according to local media.
The government has reportedly proposed using a version of the EU Digital Covid Pass domestically so that that vaccinated people would be able to use it as an alternative to a negative PCR test when entering certain premises, including restaurants, with those unvaccinated to be denied access.
Prime minister Eduard Heger reportedly said that the public’s right to express their opinion is part of democracy, but called for calm
“I understand people are tired of the pandemic and nobody likes the measures,” he said, as quoted by TASR. “But we adopt them to protect the lives of all people in Slovakia, including the protesters.”
One policewoman was slightly hurt, Slovak media quoted parliamentary speaker Boris Kollar as saying. The protest continued peacefully and eventually dwindled after the police intervention, Reuters reported.
The EU member state of 5.5 million has been struggling to get people vaccinated against Covid-19. As of yesterday, just 34.9% of the population was fully vaccinated, data from Johns Hopkins University showed. That is one of the lowest vaccination rates per capita in the EU.
Updated
Greek authorities have turned to the leaders of the country’s Orthodox Church to urge those hesitant to get the vaccine to get jabbed.
The New York Times reports that health minister Vassilis Kikilias and the government’s chief epidemiologist, Sotiris Tsiodras, have also visited the church’s Holy Synod to ask Archbishop Ieronymos to censure vaccine-sceptic priests.
After the visit, the church sent a message to its clergy this week saying vaccination against Covid is “the greatest act of responsibility toward one’s fellow human being” and cast the jab as “a gift from God”.
Some clerics have been using sermons to bolster vaccine hesitancy, the NYT reports, and others have warned inoculated churchgoers would be denied holy communion.
One priest in Halkidiki, northern Greece, has reportedly banned vaccinated and masked worshipers from attending his services, while another in nearby Thessaloniki told his faithful not to get the vaccine and to defy Covid curbs.
Only 44% of Greece’s nearly 11 million citizens are fully vaccinated, with healthcare workers to be required to get the shots. Businesses are reportedly to be given the choice state whether or not they would host only vaccinated customers, with the reward being that they could operate at a higher capacity.
Updated
“Of course, the pandemic has exacerbated our pre-existing condition of extremely rich people,” Stephen Colbert said last night, citing a Bloomberg report on super-yacht charters, which are up over 340%.
“This is disgusting. At a time of dire need, the ultra-rich shouldn’t be blowing their money on boats. That’s money that could be used to launch giant penises into space,” Colbert joked, referring to Jeff Bezos’s phallic-shaped rocket, which traveled to space earlier this week.
South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign is regaining momentum after being disrupted earlier this month by a week of riots sparked by the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma, the country’s acting health minister has said.
The Associated Press reports that at least 120 pharmacies, including 71 that were vaccination sites, were damaged and closed during the unrest in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, according to acting health minister Mamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane. More than 47,000 vaccine doses were destroyed when the sites were ransacked, she said.
“The social unrest has added to the complexity of our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic,” Kubayi-Ngubane said, adding that the “violent nature of the protests unsettled the health care system as a whole.”
At least 337 people died during the riots, including 213 deaths that police are investigating as possible murders, the government has stated. Major highways to Durban, one of Africa’s busiest Indian Ocean ports, were also closed and barricaded, with more than 27 trucks burned in KwaZulu-Natal.
Police also are investigating 132 cases of arson, including the burning of 11 warehouses and 8 factories. Property worth an estimated US$1.37bn was destroyed in KwaZulu-Natal.
South Africa, population 59m, reported 14,858 new infections and 433 deaths today, rising to almost 69,000 in total, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vaccination rates dropped as a result of the unrest, but have picked up pace. South Africa gave shots to more than 220,000 people per day this week and aims to increase the number to 300,000 jabs each weekday next week, AP reports.
More than 6m South Africans have received at least one shot and 1.6 million are fully vaccinated with two jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Estimated 83% of US Olympians are vaccinated
About 100 of the 613 US athletes arriving in Tokyo for the Olympics are unvaccinated, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said hours before Friday night’s opening ceremony.
Medical director Jonathan Finnoff said 567 of the American athletes had filled out their health histories as they prepared for the trip, and estimated 83% had replied they were vaccinated, the Associated Press reports.
“Eighty-three percent is actually a substantial number and we’re quite happy with it,” Finnoff said. Nationally, 56.3% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Republican governor of Alabama has said it is “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for rising cases of Covid-19, amid concern that months of misinformation over the need and efficacy of vaccines is fueling a resurgence of coronavirus infections in several states.
Kay Ivey said that vaccines are “the greatest weapon we have to fight Covid” and added that a surge in new cases of the coronavirus in Alabama is due to a reluctance among many people in the state to get inoculated.
Only about a third of eligible people in Alabama have got a vaccine shot, one of the lowest rates in the US.
In Alabama and neighboring Mississippi, for example, reluctance to take the vaccine can be driven by economic factors as well as politics or simple fear of a new vaccine.
But also, for many Black residents, they struggle to overcome a historical mistrust of the government and the health system because of a history not just of neglect but of racist medical abuse, such as the decades-long, government-sponsored Tuskegee study, where African American men were coerced into a syphilis experiment.
You can follow US-focused updates with my colleague Jessica Glenza here.
Germany’s public health institute has said it is putting Spain and the Netherlands on a list of high-incidence countries for coronavirus, meaning new restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.
The move by the Robert Koch Institute, effective from Tuesday, means anyone arriving from high-incidence countries with new infection rates of 200 or more per 100,000 people in the past seven days is required to go into a 10-day quarantine, which can be cut to five days upon a negative test.
But fully vaccinated people – even though they can still carry the virus – or those who have recovered recently from the coronavirus are exempt from the quarantine.
Today, Germany reported 2,089 new cases and 34 deaths in the previous 24 hours, bringing its seven-day incidence rate to 13.2.
Cases of Covid-19 have increased in Sweden’s main cities and the more contagious Delta has emerged as the dominant variant in the country, health authorities said on Friday, though it added infection levels nationally remained low.
Sweden reported 1,855 new cases of Covid-19 last week, a 24% increase compared to the previous week. Around a quarter of new cases were linked to travel abroad, the heath authority said.
The authority said in a statement:
The number of cases nationally of Covid-19 continues to be at a low level, but an increase is seen in all metropolitan regions.
The statement also said that 75% of Sweden’s adult population had now received at least one dose of vaccine, Reuters reports.
After suffering a third wave during the spring, infection rates, hospitalisations and deaths in the disease fell rapidly during the early summer with the vaccine roll-out and warmer weather seen having helped bring down the spread.
Sweden pressed ahead last week with easing pandemic restrictions, though, faced by the spread of new variants of the virus, the government also urged citizens to keep to social distancing recommendations.
The Nordic country has relied mainly on voluntary measures to stem the spread of infections, though curbs on opening hours for restaurants and limits on crowds at venues such as shopping malls have also been periodically enforced.
Workers in critical roles in Scotland will be able to avoid self-isolation when notified by the NHS Covid app if they are fully vaccinated and are tested daily, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
Scotland’s first minister said it was “essential that lifeline services and critical national infrastructure are maintained” and that the changes would ensure staff shortages do not put key services at risk.
Sectors such as health and social care, transport and food supply have been badly affected by the “pingdemic”, in which those who receive a notification from the NHS are ordinarily required to self-isolate at home.
Affected industries will have to apply to the Scottish government for staff to be given exemption from the mandatory quarantine rules. In those cases where work is deemed to be essential, close contacts of infected people will not be required to isolate.
If the government deems that a critical role is exempt, the worker will still have to prove they have had two doses of coronavirus vaccine at least two weeks before close contact with an infected person, have a negative PCR test and agree to carry out lateral flow tests for 10 days after the contact.
Scotland’s Covid rules shifted to their lowest level on Monday, but the country still has fixed limits on the numbers of people in social gatherings, unlike in England.
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Vietnam will extend a strict lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City until 1 August, its health ministry said on Friday, as the south-east Asian country battles one of its most challenging and unpredictable Covid-19 outbreaks to date.
After successfully containing the virus for much of the pandemic, Vietnam has been facing a complicated outbreak of the virus, with southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding provinces accounting for most new infections, Reuters reports.
Ho Chi Minh City’s governing body said in a statement:
Due to the rapid and unpredictable nature of the Delta variant and in order to protect people and minimise deaths, city authorities have decided to strengthen a number of measures to control the outbreak.
The number of services permitted to operate during the lockdown will be reduced, the health ministry said, citing Duong Anh Duc, deputy chairman of Ho Chi Minh City.
The current measures, which had been in place since July 9, include a stay-home order, a ban on gatherings larger than two people and the suspension of public transport services.
Banking and securities services in the city will be reduced to minimal levels, while unnecessary construction projects will be suspended, the ministry said in a statement.
A week-long disinfection spray in high-risk Covid-19 areas also has started, it added.
Since late April, when the current outbreak began, Vietnam has imposed restrictions on movement in about one third of its 63 cities and provinces, including in the capital Hanoi.
The Ministry of Health reported a record 7,307 cases on Friday, raising Vietnam’s overall caseload to 81,678, with 370 deaths.
Ho Chi Minh City accounts for around 60% of total cases.
City authorities have asked Vietnam’s prime minister for more personnel to help combat the current outbreak, the health ministry said in a Facebook post on Friday.
Vietnam, which has heavily relied on AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, is trying to accelerate its inoculation programme.
The country received 1.2m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday, the largest shipment of its procurement so far.
Around 4.4 million doses have been administered in the country, but fewer than 335,000 people have been fully vaccinated, official data showed.
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Europe’s medicines regulator on Friday recommended approving the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in 12- to 17-year-olds, paving the way for it to become the second shot sanctioned for adolescent use in the EU, Reuters reports.
The use of the vaccine, branded Spikevax, will be the same in children from 12 to 17 years as in people aged 18 and above, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.
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New Zealand suspends quarantine-free travel from Australia
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the country is pausing quarantine-free travel from Australia for at least eight weeks, due to Covid outbreaks in the neighbouring island.
This is not a decision we have taken lightly but it is, we believe, the right one. This will mean many people will find themselves for a time once more separated from friends and families in Australia, and I know this announcement will be a disappointment to them.
The New York Times reports that the travel bubble was a relative rarity in Asia, where many countries have closed their borders during the pandemic.
It is the first time New Zealand has taken this course of action – which will come into force at 11.59pm local time tonight – since the bubble was introduced in April, though travel from New Zealand to Australia would not be affected by the change.
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Australia’s most populous state declares ‘national emergency’ over Covid outbreak
Australia’s most populous state has declared a “national emergency” as it struggles to contain a record-breaking surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19 amid a lockdown affecting half the country.
The state of New South Wales announced 136 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 on Friday, with continued community transmission among essential workers, including in supermarkets and pharmacies.
More than a year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, NSW has broken records for daily case numbers on consecutive days, and the city of Sydney is under the strictest lockdown measures it has ever experienced.
More than 13 million Australians – approximately half the country’s population – are under some form of lockdown or restriction, including the states of Victoria and South Australia.
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Pfizer and BioNTech have said the US government has purchased 200m additional doses of their vaccine and had the option to buy an updated version of the vaccine targeting new variants of the virus.
The announcement brings the total number of the doses to be supplied to the US – which has stepped up its donations abroad amid slowing demand at home – to 500m, out of which roughly 208m doses have already been delivered, according to latest government data.
Reuters reports that Pfizer last year signed the deal with the US government for 100m doses of the vaccine for nearly $2bn, with an option to buy 500m more doses. A majority of the new doses will be supplied by the end of the year, and the remaining 90m will be delivered by 30 April next year, the companies said.
Pfizer earlier this month said the companies plan to seek authorisation from US and European regulators for a booster dose of their Covid-19 vaccine, though officials do not appear keen.
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The row over American funding of potentially risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is deepening, after Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious diseases chief, restated his denial this week that it bankrolled gain of function experiments.
But, in a meaty fact check, the BBC quotes Prof Richard Ebright, of Rutgers University, who said that two published academic studies by the Chinese institute – one from 2015 (written with the University of North Carolina), and another from 2017 – included gain of function research.
He said it showed new viruses – that did not already exist naturally – were created, and these “risked creating new potential pathogens” that were more infectious. “The research in both papers was gain-of-function research”, he told the BBC.
Ebright added that it met the definition of such research outlined in 2014 when the US government paused funding due to biosafety concerns.
Scientists have justified the potential risks of such research since it can help prepare for future outbreaks and pandemics by understanding how viruses evolve.
The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a grant of $3.7m to the US-based EcoHealth Alliance, $600,000 of which was given to the WIV, to look into possible coronaviruses from bats.
But Fauci told a Senate hearing the research in question “has been evaluated multiple times by qualified people to not fall under the gain-of-function definition”.
Dr Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina – who collaborated on the 2015 research on bat viruses with the WIV – has told the Washington Post that the work was deemed by the NIH and his university’s biosafety committee to not be gain of function.
The BBC reports that he also said none of the viruses subject of the 2015 study are related to the pandemic-causing Sars-Cov-2.
Biologist Alina Chan at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has pointed to issues with the wording of the US government’s wording on the funding parameters (amid the pause in 2014), which she said implied that while the permitted research may not intend to produce gain of function, that could be the end result of it.
Rebecca Moritz ,of Colorado State University, told the BBC: “There is not always consensus [on gain of function research] even amongst experts, and institutions interpret and apply policy differently.”
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An Australian clothing brand has been fined AUS$5m for claiming its garments stop the spread of Covid.
The BBC reports that Lorna Jane advertised that its clothes used “a groundbreaking technology” called LJ Shield to prevent the “transferal of all pathogens”.
But a judge ruled that the claim was “exploitative, predatory and potentially dangerous” after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) took legal action.
Accepting the ruling, the company said it had been misled by a supplier. “A trusted supplier sold us a product that did not perform as promised,” said chief executive Bill Clarkson.
“They led us to believe the technology behind LJ Shield was being sold elsewhere in Australia, the USA, China, and Taiwan and that it was both anti-bacterial and anti-viral. We believed we were passing on a benefit to our customers.”
The federal court judge found that Lorna Jane “represented to consumers that it had a reasonable scientific or technological basis” to make its claims when in fact it had none, the BBC reports.
Rod Sims, the chairman of the ACCC, said: “This was dreadful conduct as it involved making serious claims regarding public health when there was no basis for them. The whole marketing campaign was based upon consumers’ desire for greater protection against the global pandemic.”
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It has gone from harmless pastime to one of the most dangerous activities during Covid, but with restrictions in England now lifted, sitting in a small enclosed space with friends belting out favourite songs – otherwise known as karaoke – is taking off and people are returning in droves.
Lucky Voice, which has karaoke rooms in London and Brighton, said it was “jampacked” over the summer. “We’re really hoping to go from strength to strength over the summer, the pent-up demand that we were hoping for is definitely there,” said the managing director, Charlie Elek.
A plastic bag factory outside San Francisco is limiting planned pay rises to unvaccinated workers to 1.5%, while those who have been jabbed will receive a 3% rise.
“With the Delta variant spreading quickly and likely to hit the unvaccinated here, and thus put everyone at risk for sickness, it likely is my last best shot to get people jabbed,” said Kevin Kelly, the chief executive of Emerald Packaging.
The US vaccination campaign has been limping along at a daily pace of just over 500,000 since the 4 July holiday. At the current pace, most models show the country would not reach the lowest threshold for herd immunity, of about 70%, until late this year, Reuters reports.
Now, with those government efforts having stalled, companies like Kelly’s have taken on the task of cajoling reluctant workers to get the vaccine.
German carmaker Daimler AG has opened pop-up vaccine clinics at its larger US sites and adjusted work schedules so that employees, and in many cases their dependents, can get shots conveniently.
Deere & Co, the Illinois-based tractor maker, said it has no requirements that workers get the shots. But employees, as well as suppliers and other visitors to its locations, who are not vaccinated must continue to wear masks – although the jabs do not prevent people from contracting and transmitting the virus.
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Croatia has decided to tighten controls against the spread of Covid-19 along its Adriatic coast in an effort to safeguard its summer tourist season, interior minister Davor Bozinovic has said.
“Any public gathering of more than 50 people will be forbidden from next week,” said Davor Bozinovic, who is also head of the national civil protection directorate.
Reuters reports that the exception will be gatherings of up to 1,000 people, such as for concerts which would require all participants to show a certificate that they are either vaccinated, tested negative for the virus, or have recovered from the respiratory disease.
“Similarly, anyone who wants to attend any sports event will have to meet those requirements,” he said.
Croatia, with its stunning, rugged Dalmatian coast and chains of islands, sweeping beaches, limpid seas and historic Venetian towns including Dubrovnik, is popular with holidaymakers from Italy, Germany, Austria and central and eastern Europe.
Tourism accounts for 20% of Croatia’s gross domestic product. Despite continued travel obstacles caused by the coronavirus pandemic, officials hope this year’s season, now nearing its peak period, can raise 70% of revenues seen in 2019.
In a further move to protect the tourist season, Croatia this week introduced obligatory tests for arrivals from Britain, Russia and Cyprus regardless of their vaccination status. Wearing face masks remains obligatory in indoor public places and in public transport.
The British Olympic Association is resigned to the fact that six Team GB athletes will spend 14 days in enforced quarantine after failing in its attempts to spring them out.
Hugh Robertson, the BOA chair, said they had been working “on an hourly basis” to help the athletes in Yokohama, as well as four staff members who were also pinged as close contacts of a passenger with Covid on their flight to Japan. However Robertson conceded they were now “right up against it”. All the athletes and staff members involved have tested negative for the virus.
We’ve tried the various committees, we’ve tried direct approaches, we’ve been at it through the IOC. I’d be lying if I said at the moment that we’re very confident we’re going to get a whole lot of movement. But at least they can train, and at least we have a roadmap to get them to the start line in order to compete at their events.
I think where we have succeeded in the things we’ve managed to do – where some others haven’t – is to get a concession from the local authority in Yokohama that, even though they are in quarantine, they can actually train. There are athletes around the world who are just sitting in their hotel rooms. At least ours can get out. They can train.
WHO: efforts to find origin of Covid are 'not about a blame game'
All countries must work together to investigate the origin of the coronavirus that sparked the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, a day after China rejected the proposed scope of a second phase.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, asked about China’s rejection, told a UN briefing in Geneva:
This is not about politics, it’s not about a blame game. It is about basically a requirement we all have to try to understand how the pathogen came into the human population. In this sense, countries really have the responsibility to work together and to work with WHO in a spirit of partnership.
Yesterday the White House said China’s decision to reject the WHO plan for a second phase which would have a greater focus on a possible lab leak was “irresponsible and dangerous”.
Previously considered a crackpot conspiracy theory that was not permitted to be discussed on Facebook, there is growing pressure on China to investigate the part US-funded Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which was working with coronaviruses; though most scientists still believe a zoonotic origin remains a more likely explanation.
State-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times cites officials claiming that no WIV staff have been infected with Covid-19, and that WIV has no viruses that can directly infect human beings.
No pathogen leakage or human infection has occurred in Wuhan’s P4 lab since it was put into operation in 2018, Yuan Zhiming, director of China’s National Biosafety Laboratory and professor at the WIV, said.
Liang Wannian, team leader of the Chinese side of the WHO-China joint team on Covid-19’s origins, said at a briefing the lab-leak theory was highly unlikely.
“If some countries believe that further investigation in this area should be carried out, then the investigations should be conducted in labs that have not yet been inspected,” Liang said.
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AFP has this dispatch from Bangkok, Thailand, where there is a night-time curfew and a ban on gatherings as the kingdom undergoes its worst stretch of the pandemic yet.
Tuk-tuks and garishly coloured taxis that once weaved through chaotic Bangkok traffic are sitting idle in storage as a fresh coronavirus surge scuttles hopes of relief for Thailand’s tourism-dependent economy. Bangkok is subject to a night-time curfew and a ban on gatherings as authorities advise residents of the capital to stay home.
“Tourists, people going to work, shopping, hanging out with friends – these are our customers but they’ve all vanished,” said taxi driver Anuchit Surasit. The 47-year-old had just dropped off his vehicle at a garage in western Bangkok, parking it among hundreds of other cabs on forced sabbatical. While he loves being a cabbie, Anuchit said he has watched his income drop to just 300 baht ($9) a day.
Tourism accounts for a fifth of Thailand’s economy, which is suffering its worst crash since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The kingdom has seen a bare fraction of the 40 million tourists forecast to visit last year, before the pandemic began.
Around 100,000 people working in Thailand’s transport sector are now unemployed and more than half of metropolitan Bangkok’s taxi fleet is off the road, Thai Transportation Operators Association president Wasuchet Sophonsathien told AFP.
Tuk-tuk motortaxis – once a ubiquitous sight around Bangkok’s historic neighbourhoods and a favourite transport mode of foreign travellers – have meanwhile largely disappeared from roads. “I feel hopeless but I still have to fight for the survival of my family,” said 57-year-old driver Somsak Boontook.
Wichai Supattranon, who started a transport business with his mother four decades ago and now owns a fleet of 60 furloughed tuk-tuks, said: “The only solution I can see now is for the government to move forward and reopen the country as soon as possible.”
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Tanzania’s government said it is preparing to roll out vaccinations against Covid-19, in a radical departure from the policies of the country’s former Covid-sceptic leader, who died in March.
Health minister Dorothy Gwajima said the government was also banning all “unnecessary gatherings” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Tanzania’s late leader John Magufuli had downplayed the gravity of the pandemic and shunned masks for the healing power of prayer, even as neighbouring countries shut their borders and imposed curfews and lockdowns, AFP reports.
The government stopped releasing Covid-19 data in April 2020, with Magufuli saying that issuing the figures was scaring people and describing vaccines as “dangerous”.
Gwajima said Tanzania had 682 Covid patients as of 21 July. When the government stopped releasing the figures, it had reported 509 cases and 16 deaths. Like many other African countries, the scale of the pandemic appears much less severe than in the global north.
Since Magufuli’s death in March, his successor Samia Suluhu Hassan has taken a different approach more aligned with the international consensus.
Gwajima, who under Magufuli promoted a vegetable smoothie and other purported natural cures to ward off Covid, said vaccines would start being administered soon for free to those who want them, but did not specify a date. “I call upon all citizens to get prepared for vaccination,” she said.
Tanzania, Eritrea and Burundi are the only countries on the continent yet to begin vaccinating their citizens against Covid-19, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The government says Magufuli, nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his uncompromising leadership style, died of a heart condition after a mysterious three-week absence.
Hello and greetings to everyone reading, wherever you are in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Miranda Bryant for covering the blog up until now. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.
Scott Morrison was advised last week by Australia’s chief medical officer that anyone who attends his Canberra residence should be vaccinated against Covid-19 and take daily saliva tests – advice that was not followed in relation to journalists at recent press conferences.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the prime minister held press conferences outside the Lodge, where he is quarantining after returning to Canberra from Sydney.
The press conferences were attended by reporters who were required to wear masks and check in using QR codes to reduce risk – but not all were fully vaccinated and none had been required to undertake saliva testing.
In Indonesia, my colleagues Gemma Holliani Cahya in Jakarta and Rebecca Ratcliffe report that Scenes that have for months haunted hospitals across Java island are appearing across the country, as the Delta variant spreads to new provinces, causing shortages of beds and oxygen.
Images have circulated on social media of overstretched hospitals in both Papua and Kalimantan. One video shows a patient lying inside an ambulance, with two of his relatives sitting next to him. “The people need help. [I] have brought them to hospitals but all of them rejected us. [The hospitals] said there is no oxygen. How come the government can’t provide oxygen?” the ambulance driver, who recorded the video, can be heard saying.
When Klinger Duarte Rodrigues set off for his coronavirus shot last weekend he did so dressed as a South American snake. “A sucuri,” he said, using the indigenous name for the Amazonian water boa whose skin he borrowed for his first dose of AstraZeneca.
The outfit – footage of which went immediately viral on social media – was not merely a fashion statement: it was a protest against the Brazilian government’s woeful handling of a Covid outbreak that has killed more than 545,000 citizens, among them Rodrigues’s brother-in-law.
“If the government had been quicker to acquire vaccines, many people would still be with us,” said the environmentalist and internet influencer, who attached a placard to his snake costume calling for the impeachment of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro.
Rodrigues’s protest was not the only act of reptilian resistance documented as Brazilians have headed out for their jabs – and the explanation for their choice of clothing is the president himself.
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Summary of today so far
- Indonesia has reported a record 1,566 Covid deaths - the country’s highest daily toll to date. It also recorded 49,071 new coronavirus infections.
- Russia has promised to resolve delays in deliveries of Sputnik V to Argentina after the South American country complained that it was holding back its vaccination campaign.
- The Philippines is to suspend travel from Malaysia and Thailand and tighten coronavirus restrictions in Manila – including banning children from going out – in a bid to prevent Delta’s spread.
- Malaysia’s health ministry today reported 15,573 new coronavirus cases – the country’s highest daily cases since the start of the pandemic. The latest figure brings the total number of cases for Malaysia to 980,941.
- As the Olympic Games kicked off today, Tokyo reported 1,359 new Covid cases as the city battles a wave of infection. It comes after the city yesterday reported 1,979 cases – its highest number of cases since January.
- UK government scientific adviser Jeremy Farrar has said Covid is an endemic infection now and believes it is “never going to go away”. Farrar, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and director of the Wellcome Trust, said people are “going to have to learn to live with it”.
- The Police Federation of England and Wales has said they have “no confidence” in home secretary Priti Patel after they were refused a pay rise following the pandemic. It has asked for a 3% increase – which it said would come at a cost of £138m.
- In England, the environment secretary, George Eustice, has said that more than 10,000 food production workers will be exempt from self-isolation rules in a bid to combat “pingdemic” food shortages. He said the government has identified close to 500 key sites – including about 170 supermarket depots plus other “key manufacturers” - that will be able to use the scheme, which he said would cover “well over 10,000 people”.
That’s it from me for today. Handing over now to my colleague Mattha Busby. Thanks for reading!
Asked about China’s rejection of a second virus investigation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that countries have a “responsibility to work together and with WHO,” reports Reuters.
Indonesia reports record death toll
Indonesia has reported a record 1,566 Covid deaths - the country’s highest daily toll to date. It also recorded 49,071 new coronavirus infections.
The latest figures bring the total number of deaths to 80,598 and overall cases to 3,082,410.
Yesterday, Gemma Holliani Cahya reported from Jakarta on the devastating impact coronavirus restrictions have had on people living in poverty:
Updated
Russia promises to fix issues in Sputnik V supplies to Argentina
Russia has promised to resolve delays in deliveries of Sputnik V to Argentina after the South American country complained that it was holding back its vaccination campaign.
The Kremlin said it would fix the issue but that its first priority was to meet demand at home, where deaths and infections are high.
A study suggests that the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine provides poor protection from coronavirus for the elderly.
A survey of the blood samples of 450 people in Hungary who were at least two weeks on from their second dose of the vaccine found that 90% of those under 50 developed antibodies, while 50% of those aged 80-plus didn’t have any.
Here’s more from the Associated Press:
The study by two Hungarian researchers was posted online this week but not yet reviewed by other scientists. Three outside experts said they had no problems with the methodology of the study of the vaccine developed by Sinopharm’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products.
“This is very, very worrying that these people, who are high-risk, have a poor antibody response,” said Jin Dong-yan, a Hong Kong University virologist who was not affiliated with the study.
Antibody levels are not a direct measure of how protected a person is from COVID-19, but there is growing evidence that they are a good proxy. One expert cautioned that the choice of test kits could have limited the accuracy of the measurements.
Still, the study’s findings have value and are the first public, scientific attempt to analyze the effect of the Sinopharm vaccine in the elderly, said Wang Chenguang, a former professor at Peking Union Medical College and an immunology expert.
China’s National Health Commission declined to comment on the study, saying it would only respond to studies by governments or major research institutions.
For more UK-focused coronavirus news and politics, follow Andrew Sparrow’s blog, which is now up and running:
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Philippines bans children from going out and travel from Malaysia and Thailand
The Philippines is to suspend travel from Malaysia and Thailand and tighten coronavirus restrictions in Manila – including banning children from going out – in a bid to prevent Delta’s spread.
A spokesperson for president Rodrigo Duterte said today that the travel restriction will go into effect on Sunday and remain in place until the end of the month, reports Reuters.
The capital region, home to 16 cities and over 13m people, and four provinces have also been placed under tighter restrictions – including a ban on children aged 5-17 leaving the house – until the end of the month.
Other restrictions include bans on indoor sports and conference venues, indoor tourist attractions and gyms and reduced capacity at restaurants.
Spokesperson Harry Roque said: “This action is undertaken to prevent the further spread and community transmission of Covid-19 variants in the Philippines.”
The Philippines has previously issued bans on travellers from eight counties including India and Indonesia.
The Philippines has recorded 47 cases of the Delta variant – eight of which are active – and three deaths. Overall nearly 1.54 million infections and close to 27,000 deaths have been recorded – the second-highest numbers in south-east Asia.
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Russia today reported 23,811 new Covid cases and 795 deaths.
The latest figures bring the overall total cases to 6,078,522 and the death toll to 152,296. The country is facing a surge in cases which authorities have attributed to the Delta variant and slow vaccination rate.
Malaysia reports highest ever daily Covid cases
Malaysia’s health ministry today reported 15,573 new coronavirus cases – the country’s highest daily cases since the start of the pandemic.
The latest figure brings the total number of cases for Malaysia to 980,941.
Updated
Tokyo reports 1,359 new Covid cases on first day of the Olympic Games
As the Olympic Games kicked off today, Tokyo reported 1,359 new Covid cases as the city battles a wave of infection.
It comes after the city yesterday reported 1,979 cases – its highest number of cases since January.
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A French government scientific adviser has said normal pre-pandemic life may not resume until next year or even the year after.
Prof Jean-François Delfaissy told BFM TV today France could reach around 50,000 new Covid cases per day by the beginning of next month.
It comes after he said yesterday that the fourth wave of infections in the country is expected to hit hospitals in the second half of August.
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More from UK government scientific adviser Jeremy Farrar (see 08:10), who said there is “overwhelming” evidence that coronavirus jumped from animals to humans in China but that he “cannot completely rule out” that it leaked from a Wuhan lab.
The member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
My personal view is the overwhelming scientific evidence, consistent with many previous infections that came from animals, is this arose from the animal kingdom, came across to the human population in 2019 and, as the virus adapted to humans, it led to the pandemic.
That is where the wealth and weight of the scientific evidence currently sits, but you cannot completely rule out a laboratory accident, and we need to know which of those two things it is.
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America’s No 2 diplomat has told of her concerns for North Koreans who are facing food shortages as a result of the pandemic.
The Associated Press reports that US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman told reporters in Seoul: “We all feel for the people of the DPRK, who are indeed facing all the most difficult circumstances given the pandemic, and what it means as well for their food security.”
It comes after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, recently warned of a “tense” food situation and admitted his country faces its “worst ever” crisis.
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Latitude, the first music festival to take place since the lifting of England’s lockdown restrictions, kicks off today. As a government test event, festivalgoers had to present either a negative test or proof of full vaccination or immunity to enter.
In England, Ian Wright, chief executive of the food and drink federation, has praised the new government self-isolation exemption plans for food workers saying they have acted “expeditiously”.
But Luke Garnsworthy, owner of Crockers restaurants in Henley and Tring, which was not covered by the exemption, said it was “ridiculous”. He said the “stupid” government policy “traps people in their homes” even if they test negative.
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UK government scientific adviser says Covid "never going to go away"
UK government scientific adviser Jeremy Farrar has said Covid is an endemic infection now and believes it is “never going to go away”.
Farrar, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and director of the Wellcome Trust, told BBC Radio 4’s Today that people are “going to have to learn to live with it”, but that the level of transmission, long Covid and disruption of education doesn’t have to continue.
He said the UK “remains very vulnerable” to variants in other parts of the world, which could cause problems in the way that Delta has done.
Updated
India has recorded 35,342 new cases – bringing the official total to 31.29 million.
The death toll stands at 419,470, the health ministry said, but the true figure is believed to be considerably higher, potentially as high as 4.7 million.
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Police have 'no confidence' in UK home secretary after refused pay freeze following pandemic
In the UK, the Police Federation of England and Wales has said they have “no confidence” in the home secretary after they were refused a pay rise following the pandemic.
National chair John Apter, told Sky News that the federation’s unanimous decision puts Priti Patel on notice that they are “not messing about”.
it has asked for a 3% increase – which it said would come at a cost of £138m.
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More on England, the environment secretary, George Eustice, said ministers are “never going to take risks with our food supply”.
He said there would be two different isolation exemption schemes: one for the food sector, which would mean all employees at identified sites would be automatically included, and another for other key industries.
He told Sky News:
For sectors like the nuclear power industry, the rail network, the water industry, where you have a small number of highly skilled professionals that you need to ensure can come to work, we’re having an exemption for them as well … but it’s quite a narrow exemption. For the food sector, it’s very different. This is quite a big exemption.
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Over 10,000 food workers in England to be exempt from isolation
In England, the environment secretary, George Eustice, has said that more than 10,000 food production workers will be exempt from self-isolation rules in a bid to combat “pingdemic” food shortages.
He told Sky News that the government has identified close to 500 key sites – including about 170 supermarket depots plus other “key manufacturers” - that will be able to use the scheme, which he said would cover “well over 10,000 people”.
He said the government has adopted this approach with the food sector but is keeping everything under review.
They are broadly maintaining isolation rules to “try to dampen the spread” to try to keep the peak of hospitalisations as low as possible but that he is confident the country has passed the peak of infection.
Until infections dip downwards he said it would be “premature” to change rules.
Around 10,000 workers in England involved in food production are to become exempt from isolation rules.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 23, 2021
Environment Secretary George Eustice says absence levels in some companies reached 20% this week.#COVID19: https://t.co/EG0TPH9fdU #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/UNP48F8D3V
Hi, I’m taking over the blog now from Helen. Please get in touch with any tips or suggestions: miranda.bryant@guardian.co.uk
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Vaccinations rising in US states with high cases
Vaccinations are beginning to rise in some states where Covid cases are soaring, White House officials said Thursday in a sign that the summer surge is getting the attention of vaccine-hesitant Americans as hospitals in the south are being overrun with patients.
Coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that several states with the highest proportions of new infections have seen residents get vaccinated at higher rates than the nation as a whole. Officials cited Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada as examples.
“The fourth surge is real, and the numbers are quite frightening at the moment,” the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, said on a New Orleans radio show. Edwards, a Democrat, added: “There’s no doubt that we are going in the wrong direction, and we’re going there in a hurry.”
Louisiana, for example, reported 2,843 new cases Thursday, a day after reporting 5,388 – the third-highest level since the pandemic began. Hospitalisations are up steeply in the last month, from 242 on 19 June to 913 in the latest report. Fifteen new deaths were reported Thursday.
Just 36% of Louisiana’s population is fully vaccinated, state health department data shows. Nationally, 56.3% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Warner Thomas, president and CEO of the Ochsner Health system serving Louisiana and Mississippi, said the system had seen a 10% to 15% increase in people seeking vaccination over the past week or two.
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Taiwan to ease restrictions
Taiwan will ease its Covid restrictions from next week though some will remain in place, the government said on Friday, with rapidly falling case numbers giving authorities confidence to further lower the alert level.
Reuters: Taiwan implemented restrictions on gatherings, including closing entertainment venues and limiting restaurants to take-out service, in mid-May following a spike in domestic cases after months of no or few cases apart from imported ones.
While some of those curbs were eased this month, the so-called level 3 alert has been in force and is due to end on 26 July.
Premier Su Tseng-chang said the alert would be lowered to level 2 from Tuesday. “The domestic epidemic has gradually stabilized and is heading towards a good direction,” Su said.
“Citizens should still strictly follow all pandemic prevention guidance to guard this hard-earned achievement after restrictions are relaxed.”
The health ministry will announce details of the new guidance later on Friday, he said.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Taiwan will ease its Covid restrictions from next week though some will remain in place, the government said on Friday, with rapidly falling case numbers giving authorities confidence to further lower the alert level.
Meanwhile in the US, vaccinations are beginning to rise in some states where cases are soaring, White House officials said Thursday, in a sign that the summer surge is getting the attention of vaccine-hesitant Americans as hospitals in the South are being overrun with patients.
Here are the other key recent developments:
- Workers from 16 key services including health, transport and energy will not have to isolate after being pinged by the NHS Covid app, as it was revealed that more than 600,000 people in England and Wales were sent self-isolation alerts last week.
- Advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will consider evidence suggesting that a booster dose of Covid vaccines could increase protection among people with compromised immune systems. Last week, Israel began administering third doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to immunocompromised people. Some experts believe the CDC is nearing a similar recommendation in the US.
- Chile announced that its citizens and foreign residents would be allowed to travel outside the country if they were fully inoculated against coronavirus, a fresh perk for Chileans participating in one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns.
- The White House said China’s decision to reject a World Health Organization plan for a second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus which would have a greater focus on a possible lab leak was “irresponsible and dangerous”.
- The EU has said that 200 million Europeans had been fully vaccinated, more than half of the adult population but still short of a 70% target set for the summer.
- Tax raids were carried out on the offices of one of India’s most popular newspapers, after months of critical coverage of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
- Johnson & Johnson’s Covid jab is much less effective in mitigating the symptoms of those with the Delta or Lambda variants than against the original virus strain, a new study suggested.
- Peruvian police dismantled an alleged criminal ring that had charged as much as $21,000 per bed for seriously ill Covid-19 patients in a state-run hospital. Authorities arrested nine people in an early morning raid on Wednesday, including the administrators of Lima’s Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen public hospital, according to reports.
- German pharmacies stopped issuing digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates after hackers created passes from fake outlets, the industry association said. The German Pharmacists’ Association said hackers had managed to produce two vaccination certificates by accessing the portal and making up pharmacy owner identities.
