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Updated
Here is the latest on the Covid situation in Australia:
The US will ship three million doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-jab Covid-19 vaccine to Brazil on Thursday, the country with the second highest coronavirus death toll in the world, a White House official said.
The shipment - part of Washington’s pledge to donate 80 million vaccines - will depart Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on an Azul Airlines flight, bound for Campinas, a city in southeastern Brazil about 100 km (62.14 miles) from Sao Paulo, Reuters reports.
Updated
The European Union’s top diplomat in Washington said the US should safely ease Covid-19 travel restrictions on Europeans, calling it a mistake to prevent European business executives from overseeing their US investments.
Stavros Lambrinidis told a virtual trade event on Wednesday that Brussels was working day and night to resolve the issue and he was hopeful an agreement could be reached “very soon.”
He said the EU had allowed Americans who were working in Europe and had a valid work visa to enter the EU so that trade and investment could continue, but stricter restrictions were in place for European citizens, Reuters reports.
That meant Europeans living in the US visit their families in Europe, but they are not allowed to return, even if they are vaccinated or quarantined.
“That has to end,” he told a Washington International Trade Association event.
Updated
The US Food and Drug Administration said it will add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory groups, meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condition after vaccination, found the risk in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines, but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk.
Pfizer, whose vaccine has been authorised for use in Americans as young as 12, previously said it had not observed a higher rate of heart inflammation than would normally be expected in the general population.
Moderna said it is aware of reports of heart inflammation cases following administration of mRNA vaccines. It said it is working with public health and regulatory authorities to assess the issue, Reuters reports.
Updated
A summary of today's developments
- Portugal on Wednesday reported almost 1,500 new cases, two-thirds of them in the capital region where 2.8 million people live. Three people died in Portugal of Covid-19 over 24 hours, Reuters reports. The national 14-day cumulative Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people has risen to 130 — over double what it was three weeks ago.
- A Brazilian health ministry official has revealed he alerted president Jair Bolsonaro to internal pressure he was facing to buy a Covid-19 vaccine developed by India’s Bharat Biotech, according to a newspaper interview.
- The share of Covid-19 infections caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus has doubled in Germany in a week and is likely to gain more traction over other variants, the Robert Koch Institute public health agency said.
- Tunisia has detected six cases of the Delta variant, the health ministry said on Wednesday, amid a rapid spread of the virus in the North African country.
- Angela Merkel said travellers from the UK should be quarantined wherever they arrive in the EU, as the union’s agency for disease control forecast that the Delta variant of Covid will account for 90% of cases in member states by the end of August.
- The Australian federal government announced it will shelve the controversial AstraZeneca vaccine by October after safety fears, suggesting it will have enough supplies of other vaccines to meet “allocation horizons” for vaccinating the population by the end of the year.
- A UK-backed study is investigating anti-parasite drug Ivermectin as a possible Covid treatment after a pilot showed promising signs of efficacy and a number of authorities around the world rolled out the cheap drug, reporting significant benefits – with data from January already suggesting Covid mortality falls where it is being used.
- Switzerland will scrap most of its remaining coronavirus restrictions this weekend, the government confirmed, including for entry into the country, but non-Schengen arrivals will need to have been vaccinated.
- Greece is to end the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors and ease other remaining restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic, authorities said, with infections now clearly on the wane.
- Over 150 staff at a hospital in Texas, US, were forced to leave their jobs after refusing to be vaccinated against Covid. Employees had been told they had to be inoculated by 7 June or face a fortnight’s suspension as dozens protested over the mandatory vaccine policy and filed an unsuccessful lawsuit.
- The US embassy in Thailand turned down a direct appeal to fly in coronavirus vaccines for its citizens even as French officials begin a rollout to its expatriates in the country.
Tunisia has detected six cases of the Delta variant, the health ministry said on Wednesday, amid a rapid spread of the virus in the North African country.
As cases have mounted and intensive care wards almost filled, Tunisia last week imposed a lockdown in four governates.
Tunisia has recorded 387,000 coronavirus cases and about 14,233 deaths, Reuters reports.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it has begun a study to evaluate the immune responses generated by Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant or postpartum women.
Pregnant women are at higher risk of complications including premature birth, high blood pressure with organ failure risk, need for intensive care and possible death, according to the NIH. Reuters reports.
The NHS has made good progress in tackling coronavirus vaccine hesitancy but there is “still more to do”, according to England’s top GP.
Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS England’s medical director of primary care, said vaccine uptake had increased from 75% to 86% in Asian communities, and from 55% to 68% in black communities.
The senior official, who is a working GP in south-east London, acknowledged that efforts were “not quite tackling all of the hesitancy” as she renewed calls for people to take up the offer of a jab, PA reports.
Portugal on Wednesday reported almost 1,500 new cases, two-thirds of them in the capital region where 2.8 million people live.
Three people died in Portugal of Covid-19 over 24 hours, Reuters reports.
The national 14-day cumulative Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people has risen to 130 — over double what it was three weeks ago.
The pressure on hospitals remains manageable, with 437 virus patients admitted and 100 in intensive care. The Portuguese government has already banned travel into and out of the Lisbon region on weekends, though policing last weekend was patchy.
Experts blame the delta variant for Lisbon’s virus spread, estimating it accounts for more than 70% of cases. The government is widely expected to announce new restrictions for Lisbon after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
To step up the pace of vaccinations, authorities on Wednesday reopened an inoculation center at Lisbon University’s sports stadium that is being operated by the Portuguese armed forces.
Beginning Monday, a walk-in vaccination center will open in the capital’s riverside neighborhood of Alcântara.
Updated
A summit to try and boost the vaccine uptake in London is to take place on Friday.
Senior officials, the NHS in London, London mayor Sadiq Khan, clinical experts, community, faith and business leaders will come together at the London Vaccine Summit in an effort to speed up the number of jabs ahead of 19 July when Covid restrictions could be eased.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, who praised the London team for doing “an incredible job”, said those at the summit will seek to “see what has worked and how we can learn from it and scale it”.
He said the focus of the summit will be on how to increase the uptake of vaccines over these “crucial few weeks” ahead of the planned easing of restrictions on July 19.
Updated
A Brazilian health ministry official has revealed he alerted president Jair Bolsonaro to internal pressure he was facing to buy a Covid-19 vaccine developed by India’s Bharat Biotech, according to a newspaper interview.
A Senate panel probing the government’s handling of the pandemic on Wednesday formally called the logistics department official, Luís Ricardo Miranda, to testify.
Miranda has told prosecutors he was pressured by Alex Lial Marinho, an aide to one of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, former health minister Eduardo Pazuello, according to documents seen by Reuters.
Miranda told O Globo he took his concerns, with documents, to Bolsonaro on 20 March, and the president said he would speak with the head of the federal police.
The meeting was brokered by Miranda’s brother, Congressman Luís Miranda, who backed up the account in an interview with CNN Brasil.
Updated
Spain has vaccinated half of its 47 million population with at least one dose and nearly 32%, or over 15 million people, have been fully inoculated.
With a record 680,540 people receiving a vaccine over the past 24 hours, Spain has already administered nearly 37.6 million doses, putting it on track to reaching the government goal of fully vaccinating 70% of the population by late August.
Infection numbers have been falling for weeks and Spain is preparing to lift a blanket obligation to wear masks outdoors from Saturday, as announced by prime minister Pedro Sanchez last week.
“It won’t be necessary to use the mask outdoors and in open spaces as long as the distance of 1.5 metres can be maintained,” health minister Carolina Darias said, Reuters reports.
Updated
The share of Covid-19 infections caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus has doubled in Germany in a week and is likely to gain more traction over other variants, the Robert Koch Institute public health agency said.
A whole genome sequencing analysis shows the strain accounting for 15% of infections, the Institute said, adding that “the proportion of variant B.1.617.2 (Delta) continues to increase and the proportion of this VOC (variant of concern) doubled within one week.”
“The current distribution of the variants in Germany shows that it can be expected that the VOC B.1.617.2 can be expected to prevail over the other variants,” it added, Reuters reports.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would like other European countries to require people entering them from countries where there are high levels of the Delta variant, like Britain, to go into quarantine, as is the case in Germany.
Updated
The US territory of Guam is now offering Covid vaccinations to incoming visitors in an effort to lure tourists to the island.
Yesterday, authorities announced that a program which previously allowed US citizens to visit and get vaccinated would now be open to international tourists aged 12 and over, the New York Times reported.
The program is said to be mostly aimed towards those in the Asia-Pacific region where vaccine have been relatively slow.
Carl Gutierrez, president of the island’s visitor bureau, said: “This program captures a unique demographic of travellers around the world that are tired of waiting to get vaccinated in this pandemic.”
It comes as the UAE appear to adopt a similar scheme.
Today so far...
- Angela Merkel said travellers from the UK should be quarantined wherever they arrive in the EU, as the union’s agency for disease control forecast that the Delta variant of Covid will account for 90% of cases in member states by the end of August.
- The Australian federal government announced it will shelve the controversial AstraZeneca vaccine by October after safety fears, suggesting it will have enough supplies of other vaccines to meet “allocation horizons” for vaccinating the population by the end of the year.
- A UK-backed study is investigating anti-parasite drug Ivermectin as a possible Covid treatment after a pilot showed promising signs of efficacy and a number of authorities around the world rolled out the cheap drug, reporting significant benefits – with data from January already suggesting Covid mortality falls where it is being used.
- Switzerland will scrap most of its remaining coronavirus restrictions this weekend, the government confirmed, including for entry into the country, but non-Schengen arrivals will need to have been vaccinated.
- Greece is to end the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors and ease other remaining restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic, authorities said, with infections now clearly on the wane.
- Over 150 staff at a hospital in Texas, US, were forced to leave their jobs after refusing to be vaccinated against Covid. Employees had been told they had to be inoculated by 7 June or face a fortnight’s suspension as dozens protested over the mandatory vaccine policy and filed an unsuccessful lawsuit.
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The US embassy in Thailand turned down a direct appeal to fly in coronavirus vaccines for its citizens even as French officials begin a rollout to its expatriates in the country.
Greece is to end the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors and ease other remaining restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic, authorities said, with infections now clearly on the wane.
Wearing face masks will remain mandatory in indoor spaces but not outdoors from tomorrow except in congested places, Reuters reports.
“The country’s improved epidemiological picture is clear and pleasant,” said Vana Papaevangelou, a member of the committee of infectious disease experts advising the government. “The outlook is favourable.”
Today, health authorities reported 520 new coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, bringing total infections to 419,455 since the first case was detected in February last year. The total death toll is now 12,595.
Effective on June 28, authorities will also lift remaining late night curfews and requiring self-testing for workers who have been vaccinated.
At restaurants the number of people allowed to sit at the same table will be increased to 10 from six and the maximum limit on social gatherings such as weddings will rise to 300. At organised beaches, a limit of 120 people per 1,000 square metres will be allowed as part of the relaxation of curbs.
Updated
The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) is highlighting a study which suggests Covid-19 positive patients with alcohol user disorder have longer hospital stays and die at significantly younger ages.
It comes during the 2021 International Liver Congress, with results of a study indicating that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine confers low immunity on people with advanced liver disease also being highlighted.
Philip Newsome, general secretary of EASL and professor of experimental hepatology and director of the UK centre for Liver Research at the University of Birmingham:
We are beginning to understand more clearly just how disproportionately Covid-19 is impacting on people living with liver-related diseases and the studies presented at ILC 2021 advance our knowledge on multiple fronts, knowledge that can potentially help inform policy responses to the pandemic going forward.
Vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech remain broadly effective against Delta and Kappa variants of coronavirus, suggests a study.
Reuters reports:
The study by Oxford University researchers, published in the journal Cell, investigated the ability of antibodies in the blood from people, who were vaccinated with the two-shot regimens, to neutralise the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants, a statement said.
“There is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current generation of vaccines will provide protection against the B.1.617 lineage,” the paper said, referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code.
However, the concentration of neutralising antibodies in the blood was somewhat reduced, which may lead to some breakthrough infections, they cautioned.
Last week, an analysis by the Public Health England showed that vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca offer high protection of more than 90% against hospitalisation from the Delta variant.
Switzerland will scrap most of its remaining coronavirus restrictions this weekend, the government has confirmed, including for entry into the country, but non-Schengen arrivals will need to have been vaccinated.
AFP reports that remaining outdoor mask-wearing rules will be dropped from Saturday and the requirement to work from home will be downgraded to a recommendation.
Shops will be able to open at full capacity, while the limit on the numbers of people at restaurant tables will be lifted.
“The situation allows us to take an important step forward,” health minister Alain Berset said. “We have a good epidemiological situation, new infections are down sharply and in parallel, of course, vaccination continues to advance at a very sustained rate,” he said, estimating that 50 percent of adults will be fully vaccinated before July.
He said the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines used in Switzerland give good protection against the Delta variant.
Cases have continued to fall despite the previous waves of reopening on April 19 and May 31.
Switzerland, a country of 8.6 million people, has recorded 699,155 positive Covid-19 tests and 10,273 deaths from the virus.
People entering Switzerland from the 25 other countries in Europe’s Schengen area will not need to go into quarantine, and testing will now only apply to those arriving by plane who have not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19.
People will be allowed in from third countries if they can prove they have been vaccinated – a move which notably will ease restrictions for people travelling from the US.
And from countries with variants of concern in circulation - meaning states where the Delta variant is widespread, such as Britain and India - vaccinated or recovered people will be allowed in without testing or quarantine.
Updated
The European Commission has approved a French plan to spend part of the bloc’s coronavirus rescue fund, which will see the release of €40 billion over the next five years.
“The French plan will help France to maintain its autonomy and leadership by investing in innovation and new technologies, while keeping the need for cohesion, inclusion and justice at its heart,” commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in Paris.
“I am happy to announce our full support,” von der Leyen told French President Emmanuel Macron as she handed over a large yellow and purple folder containing the commission’s assessment at the Elysee palace.
Macron used the opportunity to stress how the EU had taken “steps that were considered unthinkable even a year ago” by authorising the commission to raise money by issuing bonds on behalf of the entire 27-member bloc.
He also praised its policy of centralising the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines, which was much criticised at the start of the year for lagging behind programmes in Britain and the US.
“Europe is succeeding with its vaccination programme,” he claimed, adding: “Europe is emerging stronger from the pandemic.”
📊 INFOGRAPHIE - Von der Leyen valide le plan de la France et vient l'annoncer directement à Macron
— La Tribune (@LaTribune) June 23, 2021
Sur les 100 milliards d'euros prévus dans le plan de relance du gouvernement français, quelque 40 milliards devraient venir des subventions européennes https://t.co/CZGb063Vv7
Updated
The billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he is resigning as a trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and has donated half his wealth to philanthropy since pledging 15 years ago to give away his fortune from running Berkshire Hathaway – with much currently going towards pandemic-related work.
Reuters has the story:
Buffett, 90, said that he has been an “inactive trustee” for years at the foundation, but fully supported its chief executive Mark Suzman and that their goals were “100% in sync.”
He also announced a new $4.1 billion donation of Berkshire shares to the Gates Foundation and four family charities, part of his 2006 pledge to give away about 99% of his net worth.
The future of the Gates Foundation has been uncertain following last month’s announcement that co-founders Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates were divorcing after 27 years of marriage.
Founded in 2000, the nonprofit focuses on combating poverty, disease and inequity, spending $54.8 billion in its first two decades. It receives roughly four-fifths of Buffett’s annual charitable donations.
Here’s the full story on Angela Merkel saying travellers from the UK should be quarantined wherever they arrive in the EU, as the union’s agency for disease control forecast that the Delta variant of Covid will account for 90% of cases in member states by the end of August.
The World Health Organization has said it has concerns about the methods used at one plant producing the Sputnik V vaccine, as Slovakia announced it would sell or donate 160,000 of the 200,000 doses it ordered of the Russian shot.
It comes after US regulators this month told Johnson & Johnson that about 60 million doses of its vaccine produced at a Baltimore factory could not be used because of possible contamination, the New York Times reported.
The mayor of Moscow has said that over 90% of new coronavirus cases in the city are being registered as the Delta variant of the virus, as the city reports its highest ever death toll.
The mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said that the city’s healthcare system was operating “close to its capacity” after the spike, prompting him to introduce new restrictions to the city.
Reuters reports:
Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second-biggest city, reported their highest daily numbers of COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday at 88 and 93 respectively.
Sobyanin said the Delta variant appeared to have first entered Moscow in April and spread over the course of May, thus provoking the spike in new cases this month.
Ukraine registers first two cases of the Delta variant
Ukraine has registered its first two cases of the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus, senior security official Oleksiy Danilov has said.
Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s security and defence council, told TSN television news service the variant was detected in a mother and her daughter who recently returned from Russia.
Reuters reports:
Ukraine’s health minister said earlier on Wednesday the government was considering strengthening border controls on travellers from the United Kingdom, India, Russia and Portugal in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant.
Danilov said Ukraine might stop transport links with some countries hit by the new strain, but did not specify which ones.
Russia on Wednesday reported 548 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since February, amid a surge in new cases that authorities have blamed on the Delta variant.
Ukraine, which has been recording a significant decline in new infections, earlier this month significantly relaxed travel requirements, lifted many of its domestic restrictions though extended some lockdown measures until Aug. 31.
Ukraine, with a population of 41 million, has been among the European countries most affected by the pandemic, with around 2.23 million COVID-19 cases and 52,123 deaths as of June 23.
Cabin crew, pilots and travel agents have called on the UK government to relax the rules around international travel and provide financial support for a sector facing “chaos”.
Hundreds of people employed in the travel industry joined a day of action organised by industry body Abta outside Parliament in Westminster, Holyrood in Edinburgh and Stormont, in Belfast.
PA reports:
The demonstrators, many wearing uniform, took over College Green in central London carrying placards reading “speak up for travel” and “allow safe travel overseas”.
They demanded transparency over why the Government has failed to put countries with low rates of Covid-19 on the foreign travel green list despite those countries apparently meeting the criteria for doing so.
Among those taking part was Paul Naylor, 49, from Steppes Travel, who said: “We need targeted financial support because our industry is probably the most in-demand now.
“We’ve got people crying out for a holiday whether short or long-haul and our industry is totally and utterly dependent on the Government regulations.“We understand safety comes first but we just need the help and support to get us through because an industry in demand should not be allowed to go under.”
The protest comes ahead of an expected update to the traffic light lists on Thursday, with Malta and the Balearic Islands reportedly under consideration to be added to the green list and cleared for quarantine-free travel.
On Tuesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock indicated the Government is actively looking at changing travel rules for those who have received both doses of their Covid vaccination.
The first minister of Scotland has said that coronavirus could continue to put “huge pressure” on the NHS, with the warning coming after Scotland recorded their highest ever daily total of new cases and the most deaths since April.
Nicola Sturgeon’s warning came after Wednesday’s figures show 2,969 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours - higher than the 2,649 cases in one day at the height of the winter peak. Five deaths were also recorded in the last 24 hours, the highest daily total since April.
3/ Most cases are now in younger, yet to be vaccinated groups, so fewer are becoming v ill. Around 5% of cases are admitted to hospital now cf 10% in Jan - again 👍
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) June 23, 2021
BUT…5% of a large number of cases will still put huge pressure on NHS and cause suffering and loss…/
PA reports:
The coronavirus death toll since the start of the pandemic now stands at 10,150.
Of the deaths in the most recent week, three were people aged under 65, two were 65-74, and eight were over 75.
Four of the deaths occurred in Glasgow, two in Perth and Kinross and one each in Dundee, Falkirk, Highland, Midlothian, South Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian.
Ten of the deaths took place in hospitals, one was in a care home and two were at home or in a non-institutional setting.
By comparison, the number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland in the same week was 1,046 – 46, or 5%, more than the five-year average.Under this daily figure, the death toll stands at 7,701, with a total of 260,711 positive tests since the start of the pandemic.
Poland has announced that from midnight, the country will introduce a mandatory 10-day quarantine for travellers from outside the Schengen Area, deputy health minister Waldemar Kraska has said.
The quarantine regulations will not apply to people who are fully vaccinated, he added.
Delta variant to represent 90% of infections in EU by September, says EU disease agency
The European centre for disease control her warned that by the end of August the Delta strain will represent 90% of all SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the EU, and that it is vital for people, including the young, to get fully vaccinated as the summer holiday season begins.
Director Andrea Ammon said:
Unfortunately, preliminary data shows that it can also infect individuals that have received only one dose of the currently available vaccines. It is very likely that the Delta variant will circulate extensively during the summer, particularly among younger individuals that are not targeted for vaccination.
This could cause a risk for the more vulnerable individuals to be infected and experience severe illness and death if they are not fully vaccinated. The good news is that having received two doses of any of the currently available vaccines provides high protection against this variant and its consequences. However, about 30% of individuals older than 80 years and about 40% of individuals older than 60 years have not yet received a full vaccination course in the European Union.
There are still too many individuals at risk of severe Covid-19 infection whom we need to protect as soon as possible. Until most of the vulnerable individuals are protected, we need to keep the circulation of the Delta virus low by strictly adhering to public health measures, which worked for controlling the impact of other variants.
Seven researchers whose work contributed to designing new technology behind Covid-19 jabs which use the sister molecule of DNA have won Spain’s prestigious Princess of Asturias award for scientific research.
AP reports that the award panel announced it had chosen mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) experts Hungary’s Katalin Karikó, Americans Drew Weissman and Philip Felgner, Germany’s Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, Canadian Derrick Rossi and Sarah Gilbert of the UK as this year’s prizewinners.
Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna use mRNA technology for their vaccines after recent innovations meaning this is the first time it has been used in this way.
“mRNA is a molecule used by living cells to turn the gene sequences in DNA into the proteins that are the building blocks of all their fundamental structures,” Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the Bristol Children’s Vaccine Centre, University of Bristol, has explained. “A segment of DNA gets copied (“transcribed”) into a piece of mRNA, which in turn gets “read” by the cell’s tools for synthesising proteins. In the case of an mRNA vaccine, the virus’s mRNA is injected into the muscle, and our own cells then read it and synthesise the viral protein.”
The panel said the seven were “leading figures in one of the most outstanding feats in the history of science.”
With their long careers in pure research, they led the way to innovative applications such as obtaining, in an extraordinarily short space of time, effective vaccines to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Their work constitutes a prime example of the importance of pure research for the protection of public health the world over.
The annual $60,000 award is one of eight Asturias prizes handed out each year by a foundation. The awards are among the most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world.
Türeci and Sahin, founders of small biotech firm BioNTech, have also been presented with the German knight commander’s cross of the Federal Order of Merit from German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
DW reports that BioNTech’s project named “Lightspeed” launched in January 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, with their shot, produced with US partner Pfizer, proving more than 90% effective in creating immunity against the original virus.
The EU’s disease control agency has called for swifter vaccination in Europe as the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid is forecast to account for 90% of all cases in member states by the end of August.
Dr Andrea Ammon, the director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said people who have had a single jab were still at risk of infection and hospitalisation, with the variant likely to spread widely among young people this summer.
In a sombre statement at a time when many EU countries are looking to relax restrictions and facilitate travel through a Covid passport, Ammon said there remained too many people in the more vulnerable age groups in the union who were not fully vaccinated.
Quick newsflash from Reuters on a story for our times:
Videogame developer Electronic Arts has said it had bought Playdemic Ltd, the mobile games studio responsible for “Golf Clash”, from Warner Bros Games for $1.4 billion in cash.
Merkel: all EU states should quarantine UK arrivals
German chancellor Angela Merkel has said she would like other European states to follow Germany and require people entering from countries with high levels of the Delta variant, like Britain, to go into quarantine.
“In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine - and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see,” Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
Yesterday, Merkel said she hoping for better coordination on pandemic travel rules among the bloc’s 27 member states. She said it was problematic to have a patchwork of regulations. Seemingly, she would like other EU states to follow her lead.
“I regret that we haven’t managed yet to have completely uniform action among the member states on travel guidelines – that is coming back to haunt us,” she told reporters after a meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, according to AFP.
Merkel criticised Portugal, which has allowed the entry of British tourists despite the prevalence of the Delta variant in the UK.
Von der Leyen acknowledged she was “worried” about the spread of the Delta variant, saying it was “only a matter of time” before it became dominant in Europe.
We’ll report some reaction to Merkel’s call shortly.
Updated
The New York Times reports on an absence of evidence on whether office working boosts innovation. On the contrary, it may even harm innovation, according to Dan Spaulding, chief people officer at a real estate marketplace.
“That’s led to a lot of the outcomes we see in the modern office environment — long hours, burnout, the lack of representation — because that office culture is set up for the advantage of the few, not the many,” he told the paper.
“The idea you can only be collaborative face-to-face is a bias,” he said. “And I’d ask, how much creativity and innovation have been driven out of the office because you weren’t in the insider group, you weren’t listened to, you didn’t go to the same places as the people in positions of power were gathering?”
Needing to be in a particular workplace during a prescribed time makes work inhospitable for many people, the NYT said.
But Yahoo cited spontaneous workplace innovation in 2013 when it banned working from home. “It is critical that we are all present in our offices,” wrote Jacqueline Reses, then a Yahoo executive, in a staff memo. “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings.”
“Innovation isn’t always a planned activity,” said Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, about post-pandemic work, according to the NYT. “It’s bumping into each other over the course of the day and advancing an idea you just had.”
US refuses to vaccinate citizens in Thailand as French embassy begins campaign
No taxation without inoculation? The US embassy in Thailand has turned down a direct appeal to fly in coronavirus vaccines for its citizens but said its government was taking actions to boost vaccine access worldwide.
In a message to its citizens in Thailand, it said the state department could not provide vaccines to the millions of Americans abroad, but would advocate for equitable access locally, Reuters reports.
The message comes after four US citizens’ groups last month wrote to secretary of state Antony Blinken asking for Thailand to be made a pilot project for vaccinating Americans abroad, who should have the same rights as at home. US citizens famously still have to pay taxes even if abroad.
Thailand’s mass vaccination drive, which includes foreigners, started this month amid its worst coronavirus outbreak so far. So far, about 2.3 million people in Thailand have been fully vaccinated, in a country of 70 million.
France’s embassy today started vaccinating its citizens in Thailand. China has donated one million vaccine doses to Thailand, with 400,000 earmarked for its nationals.
The US government will release seven million vaccine doses to countries in Asia, including Thailand, the embassy said.
Slovakia plans to sell or donate 160,000 doses of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to other countries, offering up much of the first batch it had available after months of wrangling and a political crisis.
Reuters reports that prime minister Igor Matovic resigned in March amid uproar over his surprise decision to buy 2 million shots without consulting his coalition partners, who opposed using the vaccine before it had EU approval.
In June, the country began administering the shot to those who wanted it following months of delay. But the government said it would not order more shots beyond the initial batch of 200,000 doses it had received until Sputnik V won EU approval.
According to an official website displaying the government’s work agenda for Wednesday, only 14,214 people have registered to get inoculated with the vaccine, of which 8,004 have already got the shot.
“[Given the numbers] it is important to provide the possibility to use the vaccines to third countries, which show interest in the vaccine,” the government document said.
Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Argentina showed interest in the vaccine, according to the material.
Slovakia has administered 3.37 million shots in total and 1.40 million people have been fully vaccinated in the country of 5.5 million.
Over 150 staff at a hospital in Texas, US, were forced to leave their jobs after refusing to be vaccinated against Covid.
The New York Times reports that the hospital in Houston had told employees that they had to be inoculated by 7 June or face a fortnight’s suspension, which nearly 200 incurred – with 153 subsequently being fired or having resigned.
Gale Smith, hospital spokeswoman, told the paper that those who got vaccinated were able to return to work, though she did not give the exact figure.
Dozens had protested outside the hospital over the mandatory vaccine policy, while over 100 employees last month filed a dismissed lawsuit citing that the jab had not received full FDA approval and accusing it of “forcing its employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment.”
But Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, told the NYT that “health care workers have three special ethical responsibilities ... One is protect the vulnerable, people who are really at risk of a disease. Secondly, put patient interests for first. It doesn’t say, ‘put your choice first.’ Third, they’re supposed to do no harm.”
The NYT reports that surveys have showed that nearly half of frontline healthcare workers remained unvaccinated as of mid-March, despite being among the first to become eligible for the shots in December.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey also reported that nurses and doctors were concerned about possible side effects from a vaccine with no longitudinal safety data.
Updated
Delta variant behind 9-10% of new French cases, up from 2-4% in a week
The Covid Delta variant, which experts deem more infectious than other variants, currently represents 9-10% of confirmed new cases in France, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said.
Last week, French health minister Olivier Veran said the Delta variant represented 2-4% of cases in France. Attal also told reporters that Russia had been added to the list of countries considered by France as high-risk Covid zones, along with Namibia and Seychelles.
Updated
Australian government to gradually shelve AstraZeneca jab amid safety fears
The Australian federal government has announced it will shelve the controversial AstraZeneca vaccine by October, suggesting it will have enough supplies of other vaccines to meet “allocation horizons” for vaccinating the population by the end of the year.
A vaccination document, titled National vaccination allocation horizons, suggests in July and August AstraZeneca will continue to dominate the vaccination program, with up to 2.6m doses being administered each week, predominantly to those over the age of 60, through state and territory clinics and the primary care network.
But as the vaccination of this age group nears completion, it is anticipated AstraZeneca will be used only “subject to request” from October.
The commonwealth last week announced changed health advice for the AztraZeneca shot restricting it to over-60s because it has been linked to an extremely rare blood clotting condition.
In the “Horizon 2” phase in September, supplies of the Moderna vaccine come on stream, with up to 125,000 doses per week to be made available to the primary care network, the document foreshadows.
By this stage, Pfizer supplies will also be ramping up, with up to 1.3m doses a week available, up from the 750,000 a week available in July and August.
The Pfizer supplies are expected to increase again by the end of the year to between 1.7m and 2.3m doses a week, as the government races to meet its pledge to allow every Australian access to a vaccine by the end of 2021.
It comes after a 52-year-old woman from NSW who died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine was deemed to “likely” be Australia’s second death from a rare and severe blood clotting syndrome linked to the Covid vaccine, according to Australia’s drugs regulator.
Denmark’s football team is set to enjoy a significant advantage over their opponents Wales in their knockout fixture in Euro 2020 on Saturday because Welsh fans are not allowed to attend the game in Amsterdam.
The BBC reports that Danish fans can enter if they stay in the country for less than 12 hours, with tickets on general sale in the north European country. Thousands are expected to attend, with the UK not on the Netherlands safe list of countries and no longer in the EU.
Currently there are no plans to provide fan zones in Wales for people to watch the game, according to the BBC.
Football Supporters’ Association Cymru chairman Vince Alm said yesterday fans had been treated like “second-class citizens”. He told the BBC: “It’s very, very disappointing that we weren’t made aware of this at the start of the competition. I think Uefa should have looked at these venues and made sure there was a level playing field.”
Updated
UK-backed study looks at Ivermectin for Covid after pilot shows promising signs
Ivermectin is being studied by University of Oxford scientists as a possible Covid treatment as part of a UK government-backed study that aims to aid recoveries in non-hospital settings.
Ivermectin resulted in a reduction of virus replication in laboratory studies, the university said, adding that a small pilot showed giving the drug early could reduce viral load and the duration of symptoms in some patients with mild Covid-19.
While World Health Organization, US and European regulators have recommended against using ivermectin in Covid-19 patients – largely due to the absence of large, standalone trials – it is being used to treat the illness in some countries, including India, Mexico, Bolivia, and elsewhere in south America.
“By including ivermectin in a large-scale trial like Principle, we hope to generate robust evidence to determine how effective the treatment is against Covid-19, and whether there are benefits or harms associated with its use,” co-lead investigator of the trial Chris Butler said.
A report in the Times in January, revealing the plans for the Oxford study, described Ivermectin as a Covid “wonder drug” saying the drug could save “thousands of lives a day” and that the data from where it was being used was “compelling” and suggested mortality had fallen.
An Indian state health chief said last month:
Uttar Pradesh was the first state in the country to introduce large-scale prophylactic and therapeutic use of Ivermectin. In May-June 2020, a team at Agra, led by Dr Anshul Pareek, administered Ivermectin to all RRT team members in the district on an experimental basis.
It was observed that none of them developed Covid-19 despite being in daily contact with patients who had tested positive for the virus ... Despite being the state with the largest population base and a high population density, we have maintained a relatively low positivity rate and cases per million of population.
The FT has meanwhile reported on a University of Liverpool metaanalysis which it said “could cut chance of Covid-19 deaths by up to 75%” – with striking results from a number of smaller RCTs.
Critics have said that the Ivermectin saga has raised questions over an apparent lack of interest from pharmaceutical companies in repurposing existing, cheaper drugs due to a lesser profit motive.
Updated
US federal authorities have seized unauthorised versions of the COVID-19 treatment remdesivir destined for distribution in Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Versions of antiviral remdesivir, without licenses from the drug’s manufacturer Gilead Sciences, were arriving in the US by plane from Bangladesh and India, the newspaper said.
They were being smuggled by individuals to Mexico for patients willing to pay significant amounts of money for the drugs, the report added, citing people familiar with the investigation.
In recent months, US customs and border protection officers have captured more than 100 shipments that they referred to US department of homeland security special agents for further investigation, according to the report
AP reports that the capital of the United Arab Emirates has apparently started offering free coronavirus vaccines to tourists flying into the emirate.
While Abu Dhabi has made no official announcement on the matter, the health authority’s phone application showed updated criteria for vaccine access yesterday. It said visitors to the capital could now get the Covid-19 shot by presenting their passports.
Passport holders must be eligible for entry visas on arrival, the guidelines said, without offering further information. Previously, vaccine recipients in the emirate had to show proof of Emirati residency.
The federation of seven sheikhdoms boasts among the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world, with 14.6 million doses administered to its population of over 9 million. The country has relied heavily on China’s state-backed Sinopharm shot and even started manufacturing Sinopharm earlier this year.
Abu Dhabi and the nearby emirate of Dubai also offer the Pfizer-BioNtech shot. Since March, everyone over age 16 in the country has been eligible to get the vaccine.
As vaccination inequality grows increasingly stark worldwide, Abu Dhabi’s expanded vaccine access could prove a major draw for those frustrated by the sluggish pace of inoculation campaigns.
But medical tourism for vaccines has also raised ethical concerns over access being limited to those with the means to travel far afield while others remain vulnerable and exposed.
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading, wherever you are the in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Martin Belam. 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.
Updated
Today so far…
- Thailand announced 51 new fatalities, the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic, and 3,174 new infections. State-run hospitals in Bangkok are on the brink of running out of space for critically ill patients, according to an official, who said there are just 20 intensive care beds left for emergencies.
- NHS bosses have sounded the alarm over the number of people on ventilators in hospital in the UK, which has risen over the past week. The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said the number of Covid patients in hospital on ventilation beds had increased by 41% in the last week to 227
- There will be a televised press conference at 5pm tonight in the UK from vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.
- Britain will not require delegates attending November’s international climate conference in Glasgow to have been vaccinated against Covid. Climate and health experts have said poorer nations struggling to access vaccines could find sending delegates to an in-person meeting difficult.
- UK media minister John Whittingdale defended handling of crowds, players and VIPs at Euro 2020, saying: “We’ve always been clear that we were keen to host tournaments in the UK and therefore obviously, we’ve had to make special dispensation already for team members and people closely associated with teams.” He insisted those who would be able to come into the country without quarantining would not be allowed to “just go on a tour of Britain whilst they’re here”.
- More than 250 members of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) and their associates, including airlines, tour operators and pilots, will protest outside the Scottish parliament today as part of a UK-wide Travel Day of Action. They will demand sectoral support for travel, clarity over the data being used to ground travel, a plan for a safe return to international travel and a low-cost, easy-to-access testing regime.
- New restrictions on gatherings have been introduced in Wellington after a Covid-infected Australian travelled to the New Zealand capital and visited a range of popular tourist locations. “This is not a lockdown,” Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said, but indicated one could come if unconnected cases emerged in the community.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) said this morning that its review of Russian vaccine production had found some issues with one Russian manufacturing plant which fills vials with the Sputnik V coronavirus shot. The company involved have said the issues have already been addressed.
- Russia has reported 548 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since February, amid a surge in new cases that authorities have blamed on the new Delta variant.
- Taiwan has extended its level 3 restrictions for another fortnight, five days before they were due to end. A major Taiwanese Buddhist group has said that it was hoping to buy 5m doses of BioNTech vaccine, joining Foxconn and TSMC in trying to secure vaccines for the island.
- Direct flights from the southern city of Shenzhen to Beijing have been suspended until at least 1 July ahead of celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party’s founding in the capital on that date. The city is located in the Guangdong province, which is one of China’s most populous and has been battling a Covid outbreak, with 170 confirmed local cases between 21 May and 21 June. No new confirmed local cases were reported for 22 June.
- The Red Cross called for faster vaccine rollouts in vulnerable Pacific island nations as a record Covid-19 surge threatens to overload Fiji’s health system.
- Japan’s daily rate of coronavirus vaccinations has reached a crucial milestone of 1m, government data has showed.
- Olympic organisers will be holding a fresh ticket ballot to reduce the number available from 4.48m to 2.72m.
- Colombia became the tenth country in the world to reach 100,000 covid deaths. The South American nation has been registering a growing number of daily cases since April. Over the past seven days, it had the world’s third-highest per capita death rate from Covid-19.
- Employees and visitors to Morgan Stanley will barred from entering the bank’s New York offices unless they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 from next month.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr Rochelle Walensky has said “nearly every death, especially among adults, due to Covid-19 is at this point entirely preventable.”
- Dr David Nabarro, a special envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organization, has suggested that mask wearing and keeping apart would still be needed in areas of high infection.
There’s a very swift follow-up to that WHO Sputnik V story, with Reuters reporting that “a source close to Russian pharmaceuticals contractor UfaVITA” has said they’ve already addressed the issue.
The source told Reuters that the WHO’s complaints mostly lay with technical issues in just one of 20 lines used to fill vials with Sputnik V, and that the issues had since been fully addressed.
The source said the plant intended to continue the WHO’s pre-qualification process and would invite WHO inspectors to return and re-inspect the facility.
“The source” in this context will usually be someone senior in the company anxious to get their side of the story out to the press as fast as possible without the delay of putting together a formal press statement.
WHO review of Russian Sputnik V vaccine finds issues with manufacturing plant
The World Health Organization (WHO) said this morning that its review of Russian vaccine production had found some issues with one Russian manufacturing plant which fills vials with the Sputnik V coronavirus shot.
Andrew Osborn reports for Reuters that the concerns relate to integrity of data and test results necessary for quality controls. The WHO preliminary report also cited other concerns related to potential cross contamination and sterility levels.
Olympic organisers to re-ballot to bring total spectators down to 2.72m tickets
Olympic organisers have given a bit more detail on what they are doing with ticket sales. If you’d purchased tickets from outside Japan, you can forget it, because they are only allowing domestic spectators.
Ju-min Park writes for Reuters that would-be Japanese spectators have already been given a chance to ask for refunds because of the one-year postponement.
Some 840,000 tickets had been refunded so far, out of a total of 4.48m sold through the initial lottery, organisers said. Because of the new limits, the organisers will organise a fresh lottery to whittle down the number of spectators to 2.72m.
Results of the lottery will be announced on 6 July, and those who are unable or do not wish to attend the Games can apply for refund between 6 July and 15 July, the organisers said today.
Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said the revenue from ticket sales would amount to less than half of the projected $817m (¥90bn). The organisers will discuss with the national and Tokyo governments on how to make up for the shortfall.
It looks like the UK is going to get a vaccines press conference at 5pm tonight with minister Nadhim Zahawi.
NEW: Vaccines Minister @nadhimzahawi will lead a No 10 news conference at 5pm.
— Joe Pike (@joepike) June 23, 2021
It is expected to focus on uptake of vaccines.
Vaccination not a requirement for delegates to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow
Britain will not require delegates attending November’s international climate conference in Glasgow to have been vaccinated against Covid, an official responsible for organising the event has told MPs this morning.
Susanna Twidale reports that Rosalyn Eales, chief operating officer of the Cop26 conference, said Britain will strongly recommend that delegates are vaccinated, but it will not be a mandatory requirement.
Morgan Stanley to bar unvaccinated staff from New York offices
Employees and visitors to Morgan Stanley will barred from entering the bank’s New York offices unless they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 from next month, as the Wall Street firm prepares to get staff back to their desks by early September.
The banking company warned staff and clients that they have less than three weeks to receive both coronavirus jabs before visiting its buildings in New York City and Westchester from 12 July – or keep working from home.
A memo from the Wall Street bank, reported by the BBC, says: “Starting July 12 all employees, contingent workforce, clients and visitors will be required to attest to being fully vaccinated to access Morgan Stanley buildings in New York City and Westchester.”
Morgan Stanley is not expected to ask staff and visitors to provide proof of their vaccination status, but the double-jab requirement may result in relaxing restrictions on social distancing and face coverings in its New York office spaces.
Read more of Jillian Ambrose’s report here: Morgan Stanley to bar unvaccinated staff from New York offices
Madeline Holcombe reports for CNN on a change of tone from the US administration, with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr Rochelle Walensky saying every death now is “preventable”. Holcombe writes:
“Covid-19 vaccines are available for everyone ages 12 and up,” Walensky said at a White House briefing. “They are nearly 100% effective against severe disease and death – meaning nearly every death due to Covid-19 is particularly tragic, because nearly every death, especially among adults, due to Covid-19 is at this point entirely preventable.”
“This virus is an opportunist,” Walensky said. “As long as there are those who are not vaccinated, Covid-19 will remain a threat.”
Those still dying from Covid-19 in the US are “overwhelmingly” unvaccinated, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
As of Tuesday night, 65.5% of the adult population in the US has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC.
Read more here: CNN – Nearly every new Covid-19 death is now entirely preventable, CDC director says
Prof Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science, is unimpressed with the UK government’s handling of Euro 2020.
PA Media reports he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people had a right to feel confused by messaging from the government. He said: “Actually I think the major problem with football, it’s not people at the matches, it’s people at home not taking precautions.
“I saw data yesterday from Scotland showing that whereas two or three weeks ago, the ratio of males and females, men and women, who get infections is roughly the same, now it’s about three times higher for younger men, and the obvious explanation for that is people meeting up at home, forgetting restrictions …
“But the point is that 60,000 people at the match sends a message to 60 million, which is ‘well if they can all meet together why can’t we? If they’re rammed together and leaping up and down and hugging each other when a goal is scored, why shouldn’t we?’
“If we live in a society which tells us ‘well, it’s fine for 60,000 people to meet at Wembley’, it’s very hard at the same time to say to people, ‘look, there’s still a pandemic out there, and we’ve still got to be careful’.”
Updated
NHS bosses have sounded the alarm over the number of people on ventilators in hospital in the UK, which has risen over the past week.
The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said the number of Covid patients in hospital on ventilation beds had increased by 41% in the last week to 227, which she said was a strong indication Covid was having an impact on health services. [see 8.11am]
Cordery said NHS leaders were already worrying about the potential for a Covid surge to collide with other winter illnesses such as flu and respiratory viruses later in the year, posing “a significant challenge” to the health system. She added: “I think we need to look at this sudden rise in the demand for emergency care as well.”
However, official data published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday showed the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia was now 10 times higher than Covid.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Prof Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said this and other surveillance data were “encouraging”, despite rising case numbers. Lower hospitalisations and death rates relative to case numbers prove the high effectiveness of vaccines in protecting people from serious illness, he said.
“It’s clear now that having two doses of either AstraZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer gives high level of protection against severe disease. People still get infected but at a much lower level, they probably get 80-90% protection against infection alone, and even those people who do get infected after two doses are almost certainly probably 50% less infectious, so the combined effect of that is quite dramatic at reducing risk,” he said.
Read more of Rachel Hall’s report here: NHS alarm over rise in number of UK Covid patients on ventilators
One keen area of interest is what kind of restrictions might be left in place even as economies reopen. Different countries – indeed different states within the US – have taken wildly different approaches to this.
On Sky News in the UK earlier, Dr David Nabarro, a special envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organization, suggested mask wearing and keeping apart would still be needed in areas of high infection.
PA Media reports he told Sky News there was a need to “maintain defences against the virus to stop it welling up more and more, and that’s going to be the life to come, at least until there’s enough vaccine, and enough certainty, to be sure that vaccination will protect us. Right now we can’t say that.”
Dr Nabarro said that due to variants “as well as using vaccine as part of our defence, we’re going to have to continue by keeping a bit of a distance from each other and then I’m going to suggest that the physical distancing part of 1-metre-plus and mask wearing will be necessary, particularly in places where there’s a lot of virus. We can’t just simply ignore that.”
On workplaces, he said: “There will be a need for every single workplace to be asking, ‘is it right that we stop wearing masks and stop maintaining distance?’
“Because that’s the way you prevent people from getting infected and that’s the key to stopping big spikes building up … I am advocating continued physical distancing, continued mask wearing for the time being, including in countries where there’s a lot of vaccination.”
Updated
Japan’s daily rate of coronavirus vaccinations has reached a crucial milestone of 1m, government data has showed, as authorities scramble to recover lost time in inoculating the population.
Rocky Swift in Tokyo for Reuters reports that the figure is a critical threshold set by prime minister Yoshihide Suga to ensure that the nation’s sizeable elderly population is covered by the end of July, and all adults by November.
As the campaign has gained momentum, with vaccination sites opening at workplaces on Monday, the latest cabinet office figures show 1,013,061 doses injected on 14 June, and just under 1m on each of the three subsequent days.
Only 18% of a population of 125 million has got at least one dose according to a Reuters tracker with one month remaining until the start of the summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The vaccination campaign began in mid-February, trailing most large economies, and initially hampered by scarce supplies of imported doses. But even as shipments increased, shortages of medical staff and logistics hurdles became acute.
To speed things up, the government opened massive vaccination centres operated by the defence ministry and relaxed rules on recipients and those allowed to inject them.
Updated
It is time for the parting of the ways. Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK live blog for today – but I suspect he will be mostly taken up with the Brexit vote anniversary and whatever culture war policies are the big thing today, so I’ll still be carrying major UK Covid developments there, alongside the latest global coronavirus news.
Of course, you could always have both live blogs open in different tabs…
Updated
Russia's Covid death hits four month peak with 548 deaths
Russia has reported 548 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since February, amid a surge in new cases that authorities have blamed on the new Delta variant.
Reuters note that the government coronavirus taskforce confirmed 17,594 new cases in the last 24 hours, including 6,534 in Moscow.
The Red Cross called for faster vaccine rollouts in vulnerable Pacific island nations as a record Covid-19 surge threatens to overload Fiji’s health system.
Fiji’s two largest hospitals have been converted into dedicated Covid-19 facilities, with cases doubling every nine days since a second wave began in April.
The situation has been a “serious wake-up call” showing the need for more urgency across the region, Red Cross Pacific chief Katie Greenwood said.
“In the Pacific, it’s a critical time to ramp up vaccinations … we can’t let our guards down,” she said.
AFP report that only about 1% of Fiji’s 930,000 population has been fully vaccinated and government health chief James Fong said community unease about inoculations was putting a strain on hospitals.
“If people keep rejecting vaccination and Covid-safe measures, that group will start to take up a lot of our health resources because the sick will come from them,” he said. “That means we have less and less (resources) for non-Covid patients.”
Fiji kept community transmission at bay for more than a year by closing its borders but is currently struggling to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant.
Updated
There have been rumblings about the different rules those associated with Euro 2020 are experiencing in order to facilitate matches at Wembley and Hampden compared with the average person in England or Scotland.
UK government media minister John Whittingdale was on the defensive over this on ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier. PA Media reports he said: “We’ve always been clear that we were keen to host tournaments in the UK and therefore obviously, we’ve had to make special dispensation already for team members and people closely associated with teams.”
He insisted those who would be able to come into the country without quarantining would not be allowed to “just go on a tour of Britain whilst they’re here”.
Whittingdale said: “They come in, they stay in a designated place, they attend the match, and then they leave. So it is for a specific purpose.”
Updated
The UK government is due to announce on Monday whether there will be an early lifting of Covid restrictions before 19 July. We are not expecting there will be, but there’s a lot of jockeying for position on the issue on the airwaves this morning.
Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, has told Times Radio that he sees no reason in the data not to do it on 19 July as planned. PA Media quotes him saying: “The thing everyone’s looking for is the rate of increase in cases and the level to which vaccine prevents those cases turning into hospitalisations and deaths. The trends for both of those are in encouraging directions. Whether or not this wave will have turned around by 19 July is harder to say for sure.”
Brendan Wren is professor of microbial pathogenesis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and he’s been more bullish on Sky News, saying: “I think the government has been a bit over-cautious, there’s a certain amount of coronamania going on, we do need to take a wider view of society as a whole.”
He said excess deaths in the UK were down, in part because there were fewer infectious diseases going around due to current restrictions aimed at Covid. He also cast doubt on fears over the Delta variant, saying: “The evidence that the new variant, the Delta variant, will increase like in previous waves, I believe is unlikely, because obviously we have a fully vaccinated, or nearly fully vaccinated population.”
“I think the government has been a bit over cautious, there is a certain amount of coronamania going on.”
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 23, 2021
Professor Brendan Wren, explains why the date of 19 July for lifting remaining lockdown restrictions could be brought forward.#KayBurleyhttps://t.co/vnD7sLx2qm pic.twitter.com/hbHoBpDh9z
Updated
WHO expert: variants are 'going to go on coming' and some will be 'troublesome'
The WHO special envoy, Dr David Nabarro, has been on Sky News with a grim forecast for the way the pandemic will continue to play out. He said:
That issue of variants, we are watching all over the world. They are going to go on coming. We will go from Delta to Lambda and then on to the other Greek letters. That’s inevitable, and some of these variants will be troublesome, they will be able to break through the vaccine related protection in a few people, and that will cause problems. I’m basically saying variants are going to go on coming. That’s part of life, we need to pick them up fast, we need to move quickly if we see them in a certain location, we need to build the management of variants, into what we call our Covid ready strategy, which is going to be the pattern for the foreseeable future.
“That issue of variants is what we are watching all over the world.”
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 23, 2021
WHO Special Envoy, Dr David Nabarro says variants of the virus will keep on coming and some “will be troublesome” for vaccine protection.#KayBurley
Get live #COVID19 updates: https://t.co/vnD7sLx2qm pic.twitter.com/saVLQmrGDM
Updated
IOC president to arrive in Japan for Olympics earlier than originally planned
A quick Olympic update from Reuters: International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach will arrive in Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on 9 July, three days earlier than initially planned, broadcaster JNN said on Wednesday.
He was originally planning to arrive in Japan on 12 July. The report does not give an explanation for why he is arriving earlier than planned, but says that he will quarantine in his hotel until 12 July.
Today marks a month until the opening ceremony of the Covid-disrupted Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Lucinda Cameron reports from Scotland for PA Media that the travel sector is calling for answers from the Scottish government over why it feels it has been “sacrificed” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 250 members of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) and their associates, including airlines, tour operators and pilots, will protest outside the Scottish parliament today as part of a UK-wide Travel Day of Action.
They will demand sectoral support for travel, clarity over the data being used to ground travel, a plan for a safe return to international travel and a low-cost, easy-to-access testing regime.
It comes as a survey for the SPAA found that more than nine in 10 (96%) Scots who travelled overseas between March 2020 and today felt very or fairly safe. Only 4% of overseas travellers felt “not very safe”, with no travellers reporting that they “did not feel safe at all”.
I should note here this is somewhat cherry-picking the data by the SPAA to try and push that as a headline stat. Saying that most of the people who were willing to take the risk of making an international journey were comfortable in that risk isn’t the most earth-shattering insight.
The OnePoll survey of 876 adults in Scotland was carried out this week. It found that since March 2020 only 10% of those surveyed have been overseas, while 35% have cancelled at least one holiday, 28% have postponed and 17% have rebooked.
Joanne Dooey, the SPAA president, said: “We’re hoping that the first minister comes to meet us to explain why, despite a world-beating vaccination programme and easily accessible albeit expensive testing, we’re further behind at opening up travel than we were 12 months ago when we had no rapid testing and no vaccination.
“Our survey of ordinary Scots shows that almost two-thirds of Scots feel devastated, disappointed, confused or upset at the current travel restrictions and more than half (57%) would travel overseas within the next 12 months if they were able – with 17% of all surveyed saying they would be willing to travel in the next three months or sooner.
“We want the Scottish government to show us their data, to trust the vaccine and to make testing more affordable.”
Updated
Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers Saffron Cordery has told the BBC that the number of patients in hospital on ventilation beds has gone up by 41% in the last week.
“Trusts on the front line are really coming under huge pressure … they have plans in place to tackle the backlog, but with more Covid cases and demand for emergency care going up, that’s really challenging,” she told BBC Breakfast.
PA Media reports she added: “If we look at the recent stats, the number of people of ventilation beds has gone up 41% in the last week, so that’s a really strong indication of how Covid is impacting again.
“We are really worried that if we have a further surge over winter alongside all of those usual elements that we see in winter – like flu and respiratory viruses – we are going to face a significant challenge.
“I think we need to look at this sudden rise in the demand for emergency care as well, so you know we are seeing record levels of demand for that kind of care.”
The UK government’s own coronavirus dashboard states that 1,446 people have been admitted to hospital with Covid in the last week. That figure is 374 higher than the previous week – a rise of 35%.
Updated
Taiwan extended level restrictions for two more weeks
Taiwan has extended its level 3 restrictions for another fortnight, five days before they were due to end.
The island reported 104 new local cases on Wednesday, pushing the daily level back up into triple figures. Authorities also announced 24 new deaths recorded, bringing the total death toll to 599.
With authorities resistant to lockdowns and mass testing, Taiwan has been under level 3 restrictions since 19 May. The restrictions are the third highest on a four-tier system, and limit indoor gatherings to five and outdoor gatherings to 10, force the closure of entertainment, adult and sporting venues, and ordered restaurants to operate take-away only. Markets and some supermarkets have instigated some entry restrictions, and working from home has been encouraged – but not enthusiastically taken up by businesses.
There have also been concerning outbreaks at factories where migrant workers are employed, prompting companies and local governments to impose restrictions which rights groups said were discriminatory because they targeted migrant workers only, and not local employees.
Level 3 had already been extended once to 28 June, and on Tuesday the central epidemic command centre announced a further extension to 12 July.
Buddhist group offering to buy 5m vaccine shots for Taiwan
A major Taiwanese Buddhist group has said that it was hoping to buy 5m doses of BioNTech vaccine, joining Foxconn and TSMC in trying to secure vaccines for the island.
Taiwan’s government has millions of vaccines on order but has been hampered by global supply shortages, though Japan and the US this month donated 3.74m doses as the island deals with a cluster of domestic infections.
Ben Blanchard reports for Reuters that the Tzu Chi Foundation said that after “initial progress” had been made in sourcing the shots, it had submitted application documents to the government to be allowed to buy 5m BioNTech doses.
Health minister Chen Shih-chung said the government had received the documents and was reviewing them. He gave no details.
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Meanwhile, on Sky News, the UK’s media minister John Whittingdale has been promising that the government will publish the results of trials of mass events before the next stage of coronavirus lifting which it is hoped will take place next month.
Pilot events with crowds in the UK included the Brit awards and the FA Cup final.
PA Media quotes him saying the information would would be made public, but he said: “It’s a complicated exercise, it needs a lot of analysis, and obviously we want to be absolutely confident of the findings before we publish.”
He said: “I think that people will expect us to carry out a very thorough analysis, we’ve always made plain that we will publish and we will publish before we announce the next steps.”
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Back to the events industry in the UK for a moment, Politico’s Playbook this morning is touting a scoop, saying it has seen internal documents from the government setting out how disastrous Covid restrictions have been for the sector. They write:
The events industry will be devastated by huge losses if even the most minimal coronavirus restrictions remain beyond 19 July, according to an internal economic impact assessment produced by the government’s Events Research Programme. Playbook has obtained a series of slides and graphs drawn up by officials and presented to ministers that lay bare the stark consequences for businesses if face masks and other “non-pharmaceutical interventions” continue.
The good news is the [pilot events] didn’t find a serious spike in Covid transmission – at one point there were just 15 cases across the whole program. The bad news is the modeling found in effect that keeping any measures would cost the economy billions and see many businesses close.
The Events Research Programme tried to find out why non-pharmaceutical measures, even relatively small ones like face masks, would have such a massive impact. They surveyed 3,810 adults, finding that all these interventions significantly decreased demand, with the exception of Covid testing, which actually boosts demand. Mandatory Covid testing meant people were 15 percent more likely to attend an event. But face masks meant people were 28 percent less likely to go. A ban on food or drink meant people were 43 percent less likely to attend.
Playbook says:
Whitehall officials confirmed to Playbook last night that these economic concerns, as well as improving health data, mean the government is now looking at lifting almost all measures next month.
However, whether that is just wishful thinking on behalf of Covid-sceptics remains to be seen. The only MP they quote on the issue is Mark Harper, chair of the so-called “Covid recovery group”.
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Johnson & Johnson’s single shot vaccine was hailed earlier in the year as a game-changer, and is still involved in clinical trials in the UK as to whether it might become part of a booster shot programme. However, uptake of the shot within the EU has been slow.
Despite the shot’s clear logistical advantage of not requiring a second dose, the European Union has administered only about half of the delivered doses – an uptake rate much lower than any other vaccine.
Looking at the issue, Reuters reports that supply problems in particular have soured the mood in Brussels, which has already decided not to take up an option to order 100m additional doses of the vaccine, and has not yet decided whether to exercise a second option for a further 100m shots. EU sources say that if ordered, the extra doses will most likely be donated elsewhere.
Production problems at Johnson & Johnson subcontractor Emergent led the EU to refuse about 20m doses this month.
“There is no strategic reason for the low administration of this vaccine,” said Guido Rasi, former director of the EMA and adviser to the Italian government on the Covid-19 emergency.
He said one of the explanations for the low uptake was that the vaccine became available after other shots, when many of the most vulnerable people had already been inoculated, making its use less pressing.
Ironically, the logistical advantage it offers may also have reduced its use, as authorities sought to deploy it in more remote regions with fewer people.
“Being a single-dose jab, it has been seen as preferable to administer it in places where it would be more problematic to administer the vaccines twice, such as islands and those parts of the country that are more difficult to reach,” Rasi said.
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Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London. Like a lot of people, I should imagine, I had booked plenty of tickets to go to concerts in 2020, that then got rescheduled to 2021, and some are now being pushed back a further year. Rajeev Syal reports for us on the help that festivals in the UK urgently need to be viable this summer:
Dozens of festivals are facing “devastating consequences to their survival” this summer amid confusion within government over how a £1.57bn post-Covid arts fund will affect the sector, parliament’s spending watchdog has found.
The influential public accounts committee has called on the government to offer urgent support to outdoor events organisers in a report released on Wednesday.
The cross-party committee has revealed that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has not modelled the cost of underwriting festival insurance, despite demands for an immediate intervention.
The disclosure comes amid growing calls from across parliament and the music industry for the government to consider providing insurance for festivals against the risk of cancellation. The musician and Womad organiser Peter Gabriel last week urged ministers to intervene because commercial insurers “have run a mile”.
Read more here: UK festivals organisers need urgent help, say MPs
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That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along – and stay tuned for more updates from my colleague Martin Belam.
Chinese city of Shenzhen bans direct flights to Beijing
Direct flights from the southern city of Shenzhen to Beijing have been suspended until at least 1 July ahead of celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party’s founding in the capital on that date, Reuters reports.
The city is located in the Guangdong province, which is one of China’s most populous and has been battling a Covid outbreak, with 170 confirmed local cases between 21 May and 21 June. No new confirmed local cases were reported for 22 June.
Of the cases, eight were recorded in Shenzhen, while 146 were reported in the provincial capital Guangzhou.
A Shenzhen government official who declined to be identified and two airline representatives confirmed flights from Shenzhen to the capital had been suspended. Flights to other mainland destinations appeared to be operating as normal.
Colombia becomes tenth country in the world to reach 100,000 covid deaths
The South American nation has been registering a growing number of daily cases since April. Over the past seven days, it had the world’s third-highest per capita death rate from Covid-19, according to data published by Oxford University.
On Monday night, President Iván Duque blamed antigovernment protests that began at the end of April for the deaths, saying “more than 10,000 deaths could have been avoided.”
But epidemiologists in Colombia said it’s too soon to tell how much of an impact the protests had on the current surge in Covid deaths.
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Bangkok hospitals running out of space
More now on the situation in Thailand: State-run hospitals in Bangkok are on the brink of running out of space for critically ill patients, according to an official, who said there are just 20 intensive care beds left for emergencies.
Thailand, which avoided the worst of the pandemic last year, is battling a third wave of Covid-19, which is the country’s most severe yet and concentrated in the capital Bangkok.
On Wednesday, the country announced 51 new fatalities, the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic, and 3,174 new infections.
The recent outbreak, which began in April, has placed pressure on Bangkok’s hospitals, which are struggling to accommodate an influx of patients with moderate and severe symptoms, according to Dr Somsak Akksilp, head of the Department of Medical Services.
Despite this, the government has relaxed coronavirus restrictions over recent weeks, easing the bans on massage parlours and clinics, and allowing parks to reopen. In areas such as Bangkok, where rules are the most strict, restaurants are allowed to operate at 50% capacity, but the sale of alcohol is banned. Shopping malls are allowed to open until 9pm.
Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the country would open fully by mid-October. However, the national vaccination campaign has been slow and hampered by supply shortages. Rougly 3% of the population has been fully vaccinated, while almost 9% have received at least one dose.
New Zealand reintroduces restrictions in capital Wellington
New restrictions on gatherings have been introduced in Wellington after a Covid-infected Australian travelled to the New Zealand capital and visited a range of popular tourist locations.
“This is not a lockdown,” Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said, but indicated one could come if unconnected cases emerged in the community.
Hipkins said on Wednesday the Wellington region would move to alert level two from 6pm that night, and continue until Sunday.
The measures come after the traveller spent a weekend visiting Wellington from Sydney, and visited sites around the city, including busy inner-city eateries, and popular tourism spot Te Papa, the capital’s museum.
New Zealand officials have released an initial list of more than a dozen locations of interest, and those who have visited them at the listed times are being told to get tested and self-isolate.
Tess McClure reports from Wellington:
Tokyo organisers ban alcohol at Olympics
The organisers of the Tokyo Olympics have been forced to abandon plans to allow the sale of alcohol at venues after public outcry.
The president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, Seiko Hashimoto, said on Wednesday that the decision had been made to ensure the Games were “safe and secure” during the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this week, media reports said organisers were poised to allow Japanese sports fans to drink alcohol inside venues following pressure from Asahi Breweries, an Olympic sponsor. Hashimoto said Asahi had accepted the ban.
Earlier, she had said the sale of alcoholic drinks was “being considered”, but acknowledged there were concerns that alcohol consumption could make spectators more likely to shout and ignore social distancing rules.
Critics pointed out that residents of Tokyo, where a full state of emergency was lifted at the weekend, still face restrictions on alcohol consumption:
Thailand suffers record daily deaths
Thailand has suffered its highest one-day death toll of the pandemic so far, with 51 Covid fatalities confirmed on Wednesday, bringing the total toll to 1,744.
The country, grappling with its third and most deadly outbreak, also reported 3,174 new infections, bringing total confirmed cases to 228,539. More than 85% of new cases and deaths came after April this year.
Summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Thailand has suffered a record daily death toll, with 51 Covid fatalities reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympics organisers have banned alcohol at venues while defending the decision to allow spectators.
We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key developments from the last few hours.
- Poland is introducing a mandatory seven-day quarantine for all travellers from Britain in a bid to curb the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, Reuters reports
- China could keep its border restrictions to control the pandemic for another year amid variant fears and a desire to protect important events from any potential disruption, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Russia reported 546 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since February, amid a surge in new cases that authorities blamed on the new Delta variant. Moscow authorities announced that residents will soon have to present an anti-Covid pass to enter restaurants.
- Cases of the Delta variant with an additional mutation called K417N have been found in multiple countries including the UK, the US, Canada, Portugal, Poland, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Japan and Nepal. It was briefly, and unofficially, described as the Nepal variant when it first came to light.
- The White House is preparing to acknowledge it will not meet president Joe Biden’s goal of delivering at least one Covid-19 vaccination dose to 70% of US adults by 4 July, a day after it emerged it was expected to fall short of the president’s separate commitment to shipping 80m Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June with below 10m doses so far shipped.
- Cuba’s government announced that its three-shot Abdala vaccine has proved to be 92% effective against the coronavirus, without immediately providing details of the clinical testing. President Miguel Diaz Canel denounced the crippling US blockade on the island and said Cuban scientists had “surpassed all obstacles and have given us two very effective vaccines”.
- Tokyo Olympics president Seiko Hashimoto defended the organisers’ decision to allow spectators into Olympic venues, with 30 days to go until the start of an Olympic Games dogged by the pandemic and by controversy,
- Eight members of the Ugandan Olympic team were quarantined in Japan until early July, a local official said, after a coach tested positive for coronavirus on arrival last week despite vaccination and testing before departure.
- Berlin is making permanent the extra bike lanes it added during lockdowns as it seeks to support the cycling boom that started during the pandemic but campaigners say more needs to be done to protect cyclists, with five killed already this year.
