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Covid vaccination rates among Indigenous Australians are lagging badly, with new figures showing that across large swathes of Western Australia less than 10% of Aboriginal adults are fully vaccinated.
Education bosses have written to Gavin Williamson demanding an additional £5.8bn to help pupils in England whose learning has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
A letter to the education secretary from influential school leaders set out recovery funding proposals and catch-up plans for the next three years.
It said that not investing in young people’s futures at this “crucial moment” would lead to “greater costs down the line”.
The proposals, as well as increasing funding generally, included “significant investment” in mental health support teams and additional support around extracurricular activities, PA reports.
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Moderna Inc said it had initiated submission of data to the US Food and Drug Administration for the evaluation of a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine, Reuters reports.
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A summary of today's developments
- About half a million severely immunosuppressed people in the UK will be offered a third vaccine dose. The offer, which follows a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, is separate from any broader booster vaccine programme.
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The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said there was no urgent need for the administration of booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines to fully vaccinated individuals based on available data on vaccine effectiveness, Reuters reports.
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Spain said on Wednesday 70% of its population had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, fulfilling a goal set by the government for August, Reuters reports.
- Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said people will have to show digital proof they had been inoculated against Covid-19 to enter a wide range of establishments, dropping earlier opposition to the idea.
From 22 September people will need proof of full vaccination to visit bars, restaurants, nightclubs and indoor sporting facilities. -
France began administering vaccine booster shots to over-65s and people with underlying health conditions on Wednesday as the country tries to increase protection levels to fight the effects of the Delta variant.
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Egypt has set out its ambitions to manufacture 1bn doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine annually, claiming it will become the “biggest vaccine producer” in the Middle East and Africa. Two factories will produce doses to cover domestic demand as well as for export across the region.
- About 10,000 unvaccinated health workers in Greece – 10% of the sector’s workforce – are facing suspension, a union has said. The Greek parliament in July passed legislation to make vaccinations mandatory for health staff from 1 September, leading to protests outside hospitals across the country.
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Contaminants found last week in suspended Moderna vaccines in Japan were particles of stainless steel, the health ministry has said, adding that it did not expect they would pose health risks.
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The Scottish government is proposing vaccine certificates for entry to nightclubs and large-scale indoor and outdoor events in an attempt to curb escalating Covid infections before the autumn.
- Cuba plans to vaccinate children aged two to 18 with its domesticallydeveloped Soberana-2 vaccine as the country tries to reach inoculation levels of 90% by December. About half of Cuba’s 11.3 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose, with more than 3.5 million fully vaccinated. Cuba’s vaccines have not been granted emergency use authorisation by the WHO and so cannot be bought for countries in the America.
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Charities in the UK supporting people at high risk from coronavirus have welcomed the news that those with severely weakened immune systems will get a third dose of a vaccine.
The top-up dose, for people who are not likely to have generated a full immune response with the first two jabs, has been hailed as something that will give “much-needed reassurance and additional protection”. Charities called on the NHS to ensure those who are eligible, including people with leukaemia, advanced HIV and who have had recent organ transplants, receive clear communication. Kate Collins, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust, said: “We know that young people with cancer continue to be worried about the threat of the virus, with some young people continuing to shield and take other precautions despite restrictions lifting.
“We welcome the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s decision to provide a third vaccine dose for people over 12 who are severely immunosuppressed – including some people with cancer – as this will offer much-needed reassurance and additional protection.”
Gemma Peters, chief executive of Blood Cancer UK, described the announcement as “great news”.
Fiona Loud, policy director at Kidney Care UK, said the recommendation of third doses for the most vulnerable must be acted on “as soon as possible”.
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The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said there was no urgent need for the administration of booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines to fully vaccinated individuals based on available data on vaccine effectiveness, Reuters reports.
Arsenal footballer Granit Xhaka has tested positive for coronavirus.
The 28-year-old midfielder received the result while on international duty with Switzerland.
He will miss his country’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers after going into isolation, the Swiss Football Association said.
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Oscar-winning actor Penelope Cruz led the comeback of movie stars to the red carpet of the Venice film festival on its opening night on Wednesday, as cinema hopes to shake off the gloom of the pandemic.
Unlike Cannes, the world’s oldest film festival did not skip the 2020 edition due to the health crisis but it is only this year that celebrities are returning to the Lido waterfront. Organisers are banking on a strict anti-Covid protocol to help keep the 11-day movie marathon trouble-free. Theatres are operating at half capacity and a wall blocks the view to the red carpet to stop crowds from gathering outside the main venue.
Face masks and a health pass or a negative Covid test are required to attend screenings, and there will be fewer late-night parties.
“They are taking measures really seriously. Everyone is being really careful, really responsible. I think it’s great for the industry that things can start to come back,” Cruz told Reuters.
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Half a million people in the UK who have severely weakened immune systems are to be offered third shots of Covid vaccines in an effort to improve their protection against the disease.
So what is the advice, who is eligible, and where does this leave plans for an autumn booster programme?
The US administered a third dose of either Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to more than 1 million people as of Wednesday morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
US health regulators authorized a third shot on 13 August, for people with compromised immune systems who are likely to have weaker protection from the two-dose regimens, Reuters reports. The country has administered 371,280,129 doses and distributed 443,741,705 doses of the two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech , as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine. Those figures are up from the 370,212,027 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by 31 August out of 441,332,155 doses delivered.
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Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said people will have to show digital proof they had been inoculated against Covid-19 to enter a wide range of establishments, dropping earlier opposition to the idea.
From 22 September, people will need proof of full vaccination to visit bars, restaurants, nightclubs and indoor sporting facilities. Beginning on 22 October, the information will be stored as a digital vaccine passport on mobile devices. Premier Doug Ford, who initially opposed the idea on the grounds that it would “create a split society,” said the spread of the Delta variant had shown the need for additional steps. “We must take immediate action and we will, because we need to protect our hospitals. We need to avoid lockdowns,” he told reporters, urging people to get vaccinated.
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Following the announcement that unvaccinated Britons can visit Portugal without having to quarantine, after the country loosened its travel rules in a boost for last-minute summer holidays, travel association Abta said the rule relaxation means the holiday destination will become “even more appealing” for Britons.
A spokesperson said: “Portugal is a popular destination with UK holidaymakers – 2.8 million Brits travelled there in 2018.
“It offers beautiful beaches, fantastic cities and lovely countryside, not to mention a vibrant cafe and restaurant culture.
“The relaxation of travel requirements is likely to make it even more appealing for anyone looking to take a late summer break.”
Travellers still need to show a negative PCR or rapid antigen coronavirus test result but will not need to prove they have had the jab upon arrival at the popular holiday destination.
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As New South Wales’s Delta outbreak worsens, some of its largest hospitals are facing a crisis, with some health workers in Australia warning that major changes are needed to avoid compromising patient care before Covid case numbers reach their expected peak in October.
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Spain said on Wednesday that 70% of its population had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, fulfilling a goal set by the government for August, Reuters reports.
With more than 66m doses administered, 70.3% of the Spanish population had received, by 31 August, a complete vaccination programme while 77% had been partially vaccinated, health ministry data showed. “We have achieved it thanks to the strength of the national public service, the effort by health professionals, the work from public agencies and the great awareness from citizens,” prime minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted.
The average number of cases per 100,000 people in the last 14 days in Spain decreased to 221 on Wednesday from 233 the prior day, according to the health ministry, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to above 4.8 million.
But deaths registered in the past seven days grew, totalling 352 in Wednesday’s report compared with 319 on Tuesday, taking the overall number of fatalities caused by the virus to about 84,500.
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Summary of recent developments
- About half a million severely immunosuppressed people in the UK will be offered a third vaccine dose. The offer, which follows a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), is separate from any broader booster vaccine programme.
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France began administering vaccine booster shots to over-65s and people with underlying health conditions on Wednesday as the country tries to increase protection levels to fight the effects of Delta.
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Egypt has set out its ambitions to manufacture 1bn doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine annually, claiming it will become the “biggest vaccine producer” in the Middle East and Africa. Two factories will produce doses to cover domestic demand as well as for export across the region.
- About 10,000 unvaccinated health workers in Greece – 10% of the sector’s workforce – are facing suspension, a union has said. The Greek parliament in July passed legislation to make vaccinations mandatory for health staff from 1 September, leading to protests outside hospitals across the country.
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Contaminants found last week in suspended Moderna vaccines in Japan were particles of stainless steel, the health ministry has said, adding that it did not expect they would pose health risks.
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The Scottish government is proposing that vaccine certificates be required for entry to nightclubs and large-scale indoor and outdoor events in an attempt to curb escalating Covid infections before the autumn.
- Cuba plans to vaccinate children aged two to 18 with its domestically-developed Soberana-2 vaccine as the country tries to reach inoculation levels of 90% by December. About half of Cuba’s 11.3 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose, with more than 3.5 million fully vaccinated. Cuba’s vaccines have not been granted emergency use authorisation by the WHO and so cannot be bought for countries in the Americas.
I’m heading off now – my colleague Nadeem Badshah will be here soon to keep you up to speed. Thanks for reading along.
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Most vaccinated Americans want a third vaccine dose, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll has found, largely due to concern about the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The US government has already made third shots available to immunocompromised adults, and it will roll out third doses more widely from 20 September if health regulators approve the move.
The national survey, conducted between 27 and 30 August, found that among those adults who received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, 76% want a booster, while 6% do not and 18% were not sure. Among those aged 55 and over, 80% said they want one.
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Egypt has set out its ambitions to manufacture 1bn doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine annually, claiming it will become the “biggest vaccine producer” in the Middle East and Africa.
AFP says health minister Hala Zayed told a press conference that a factory in Cairo will produce more than 200m doses per year to cover “national needs” after reaching a deal with the Chinese pharma giant.
Another plant will produce 3m doses daily, “or around 1bn a year”, to be exported around Africa, Zayed added.
The Egyptian drug authority has given the project the green light, and 1m doses have already been distributed in Egypt, Heba Wali, the doctor in charge of the project, said,
About 7.5 million of Egypt’s more than 100 million people have had at least one vaccine dose so far.
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More details on the UK offering third doses to immunosuppressed people here, by the Guardian’s science editor Ian Sample and political correspondent Peter Walker:
UK to give third doses to severely immunosuppressed people
About half a million severely immunosuppressed people in the UK will be offered a third vaccine dose.
People with conditions such as leukaemia, advanced HIV and recent organ transplants who are over the age of 12 will be given a third jab following a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), according to PA Media.
The offer is separate from any broader booster vaccine programme.
The JCVI said on Wednesday that severely immunosuppressed people may not have been able to mount a full response to vaccination, meaning they could be less protected than the wider population.
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Just as young Americans are starting a new school year, Covid-19 rates among children and teens are rising to rates that have not been seen since the pandemic’s winter surge, before vaccines were made widely available.
On a state level, local leaders have noticed a sharp uptick in cases among children. In Maricopa county, Arizona, home to Phoenix, children under 12 make up one-sixth of the county’s Covid cases, and 6% of hospitalizations are children.
In Tennessee, children under 18 are making up nearly 40% of cases in the state, with over 14,000 cases among children. Texas has reported 20,256 positive cases in the new school year, along with 7,488 cases among staff.
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Italy has reported 69 coronavirus-related deaths, while the number of new infections rose by 6,503, the health ministry said in a statement reported by Reuters.
A total of 129,290 deaths linked to Covid-19 have been registered in Italy since its outbreak emerged in February last year. That is the second-highest tally in Europe behind Britain and the ninth-highest globally. Italy has reported 4.55 million cases to date.
The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 4,231 on Wednesday, while there were 40 new admissions to intensive care units. The total number of intensive care patients is currently 540.
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The World Health Organization has not granted emergency use authorisation to Covid-19 vaccines developed by Cuba and thus they cannot be bought for countries in the Americas, the WHO’s regional health branch said via Reuters.
Jarbas Barbosa, the assistant director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said the vaccines, Abdala and Soberana, need that authorisation before they can be supplied by PAHO’s fund that supports equitable access to vaccines through the WHO-led Covax facility.
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Cuba to vaccinate children from September
Cuba plans to vaccinate children aged two to 18 with its domestically-developed Soberana-2 vaccine as the country tries to reach inoculation levels of 90% by December.
Teenagers will begin to be vaccinated this week, while younger children will be eligible from mid-September, Reuters reports, as the Caribbean island battles a Delta-driven surge.
Trials of the vaccine in children found it to be safe and that it created a stronger immune response than in adults, according to state-owned manufacturer Finlay Institute.
Health ministry official Ileana Morales Suarez said the inoculation drive would be similar to yearly vaccinations against various childhood diseases, taking place at thousands of community-based family medical practices and clinics.
About half of Cuba’s 11.3 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose, with more than 3.5 million fully vaccinated.
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Government data up to 31 August shows that of the 90,994,627 Covid jabs given in the UK, 48,086,605 were first doses, a rise of 38,596 on the previous day.
Some 42,908,022 were second doses, an increase of 117,437.
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UK records 207 deaths within 28 days of a positive test
A further 207 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the UK total number of deaths to 132,742.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 157,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am on Wednesday, there had been a further 35,693 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said.
The figures come following a bank holiday weekend when there is usually a lag in reporting deaths and cases.
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Scottish parliament to vote on vaccine certificates for large events
The Scottish parliament is to vote on the introduction of vaccine certificates for entry into nightclubs and large indoor and outdoor events next week in an attempt to curb escalating Covid infections before the autumn.
Announcing the plans to the Holyrood chamber on Wednesday, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said that, although expected with schools returning across the country, “the scale of the increase [in infection rates] in recent weeks has been very concerning”.
She said the Scottish government had made it clear “that we do not believe that vaccination certification should ever be a requirement for any key services or in settings where people have no choice over attendance – for example, public transport, education, access to medical services or shops. We continue to hold to that position.”
“But we do consider that a limited use of vaccine certification could help to control the spread of the virus, as we head into the autumn and winter,” Sturgeon said.
The Scottish government is proposing that vaccination certification should be introduced later this month – once all adults have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated - for the following events and venues:
- Nightclubs and adult entertainment venues.
- Unseated indoor live events, with more than 500 people in the audience.
- Unseated outdoor live events, with more than 4,000 attendees.
- Any event which has more than 10,000 attendees.
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A World Health Organization “pandemic intelligence hub” launched by the UN agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Germany’s Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday will try to help governments identify future pandemics at an earlier stage and improve monitoring of new variant strains of Covid-19.
The hub, which will host scientists and policymakers from around the globe on a project-by-project basis, is designed to make it easier for governments to compare notes on emerging infectious diseases and pull in additional relevant information on travel patterns, trade routes or human-animal interactions in agriculture.
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Japan finds stainless steel in suspended Moderna doses
Contaminants found last week in suspended Moderna vaccines were particles of stainless steel, Japan’s health ministry has said, adding that it did not expect they would pose health risks.
Japan suspended the use of 1.63m doses of the Moderna vaccine last Thursday after being notified of contamination. In a joint statement reported by Reuters, domestic distributor Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Moderna said:
Stainless steel is routinely used in heart valves, joint replacements and metal sutures and staples. As such, it is not expected that injection of the particles identified in these lots in Japan would result in increased medical risk.”
Three lots of Moderna vaccines were suspended after 39 vials were found to be contaminated. Though all the vials came from one lot, two others were also halted as a precaution as they all came from the same manufacturing line.
It is believed that the particles came from friction caused by pieces of metal in the machinery that puts stoppers on the vials, Takeda said. The three suspended lots were the only ones affected by the manufacturing issue and Rovi, the Spanish pharmaceutical company that bottles the vaccines, has taken corrective measures, the statement said.
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With just two months to go before Cop26, activists from developing countries are concerned that they may be unable to attend the climate summit as they have been unable to access vaccine doses, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.
Despite a pledge by the UK government, which is hosting the talks in Glasgow, to vaccinate participants who cannot otherwise get inoculated in time, doses have yet to be administered. The event will take place between 31 October and 12 November.
Some delegates are therefore considering not attending the meeting due to the uncertainty and high costs.
“We have people who have registered for the vaccine but the vaccination process [Britain] promised hasn’t even started,” said Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, a regional alliance that promotes climate justice.
A spokesman for the UK’s Cop26 team said the government was working “tirelessly with our partners, including the UN, to get vaccines to those that need them in time for the summit”, adding that those eligible will receive an invitation for an appointment soon.
While vaccination will not be mandatory for attendance, many developing countries are on the red list for England and Scotland, including the Philippines, Kenya, Indonesia and Bangladesh. This means that even vaccinated delegates will have to quarantine in a hotel, though the UK government has said it will reduce the mandatory 10-day stay to five days.
Regardless, “the costs [of quarantine] are beyond the reach of some poorer governments and smaller civil society organisations”, said Mohamed Adow, who runs an advocacy group called Powershift Africa, who urged the government to pay their quarantine bills.
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Portugal will allow tourists from Brazil to enter the country, ending the ban it imposed on non-essential travel from the South American country nearly 18 months ago.
Until now, Brazilians were only allowed to enter Portugal for reasons including work or health concerns. Travellers from Brazil will have to show a negative Covid-19 test, but will no longer have to quarantine, Reuters reports.
Portugal is now open to tourists from the European Union who present the bloc’s digital Covid-19 certificate, as well as to tourists from the United States, Australia, Japan and several other countries, from where visitors must show a negative test result on arrival.
Visitors from Nepal, India and South Africa are still required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival and must only be travelling for essential reasons.
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Greece implements mandatory vaccination for health workers
Around 10,000 unvaccinated health workers in Greece are facing suspension, a union has said.
The Greek parliament in July passed legislation to make vaccinations mandatory for health staff from 1 September, and health minister Athanasios Plevris said on Wednesday that the law “will be implemented”, AFP reports.
According to estimates by the National Federation of Public Hospital Workers, some 10,000 health workers – 10% of the sector’s workforce – are not vaccinated. The federation called for a strike against mandatory vaccines on Thursday morning, with Dimitris Kourouvalakis, a member of the executive committee of the federation, telling AFP:
We are pushing health workers to be vaccinated, but we are against compulsory vaccination, which poses a democratic problem.
Protesters gathered in front of hospitals across the country to take a stand against the legislation on Wednesday.
With a tenth of workers unable to work under the new rules, the government is trying to find a way to keep the health system running – including the possibility of suspending holidays for vaccinated workers.
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Pfizer Inc has it had started dosing in a mid-to-late-stage trial of its oral antiviral therapy for Covid-19 in non-hospitalised, symptomatic adult patients, Reuters reports.
The company is working to develop an antiviral pill, PF-07321332, to be taken on early signs of the illness. It is studying the treatment, taken by 1,140 participants in the trial alongside a low dose of ritonavir.
So far, only the intravenously administered remdesivir is the only antiviral treatment that has been approved in the US.
Pfizer said in July if the PF-07321332 trial was successful, it would file for a potential emergency use authorisation in the fourth quarter.
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Reddit has been hit by a user rebellion over the online discussion forum’s failure to tackle misinformation related to Covid and vaccines.
More than 135 Reddit communities, or subreddits, have “gone dark”, which blocks non-members from reading or joining the page, in protest at the site’s refusal to limit discussions that propagate misleading theories about the pandemic. The protest covers many of the site’s largest subreddits, including r/Futurology and r/TIFU, which have more than 10 million subscribers each.
More than half of the world’s people have no social protections, the United Nations has warned, even after the pandemic pushed many governments to offer services to their populations.
According to the AFP news agency, a report on the state of social protection globally by the UN’s International Labour Organization found that 4.1 billion people have no social safety net.
As well as access to health care, social protection includes income security measures related to:
- Old age.
- Unemployment.
- Sickness.
- Disability.
- Work injury.
- Maternity.
- The loss of a family’s main earner.
- Support for families with children.
In 2020, only 46.9% of the global population benefited from at least one such protection, according to the report. This figure would have been even lower had it not been for the rapid expansion of protections during the pandemic, which the ILO chief, Guy Ryder, said “revealed the absolutely crucial role that social protection has played in national responses”.
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Merck & Co Inc and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have announced that they have begun enrolling patients in a late-stage trial of their experimental Covid-19 drug molnupiravir, Reuters reports.
The effect of the oral antiviral drug will be observed in more than 1,300 participants to see if it can prevent coronavirus transmission. The study is examining volunteers, who are all 18 or above and live in the same household as someone infected with symptomatic Covid-19.
Merck said in June the US government had agreed to pay about $1.2bn for 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir, if it is proven to work in a separate, ongoing large trial and authorised by US regulators.
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Italy has widened the scope of its “green pass”, making it mandatory for people to show the health document when travelling on high-speed trains, planes, ferries and inter-regional coaches.
The green pass is a digital or paper certificate that shows whether someone has received at least one vaccine dose, has tested negative or has recently recovered from coronavirus.
The pass, which was introduced earlier in the summer to try and encourage vaccine take-up, was initially only required to enter cultural and leisure venues, but its purview has gradually been broadened, Reuters writes.
Photograph: Ciro Fusco/EPA
The government has already said teachers will need a green pass when schools reopen in September. Last week, officials said they were considering extending the scheme to anyone working in a public office or a supermarket.
Some Italians have opposed the scheme, claiming it infringes on their freedoms, and opponents plan to block railway traffic at demonstrations later on Wednesday. Regardless, with 70.1% of all Italians over the age of 12 fully vaccinated, the vast majority of people seem to support vaccination and the use of the green pass.
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France rolls out booster doses to over-65s and vulnerable people
France began administering vaccine booster shots to over-65s and people with underlying health conditions on Wednesday as the country tries to increase protection levels to fight the effects of Delta.
The AP news agency reports that a nationwide booster campaign will begin on 12 September in France’s nursing homes.
Overall, 18 million people are believed to be eligible for the booster shot, according to the health ministry. People who had their second Pfizer or Moderna jab at least six months ago can get a booster, while those who had the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine can get a booster shot of Pfizer or Moderna at least four weeks after they got vaccinated.
The extended rollout comes after France’s health authority, the HAS, said last month that “recent studies suggest a fall in the vaccine’s effectiveness, especially with the Delta variant”. Elderly people and those with underlying health conditions are most impacted by the drop over time.
The government has not yet decided whether to extend the campaign to the whole population, 65.6% of whom are fully vaccinated.
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As students in Israel return to school on Wednesday, new measures, including mask-wearing and testing requirements, are being enforced in an attempt to stem the country’s rising cases.
Reuters has a bit more information on what the government’s “living with Covid” policy looks like for pupils and parents. As well as requiring face coverings and ramping up the rollout of booster shots, Israel is requiring testing for students and unvaccinated instructors. The prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said:
After a year of Zooming, a difficult year of fading and staring in front of the screens, I want to wish you, the students of Israel, this one thing: May the year of screens be done away, and a year of experiences begin.”
However, parents criticised the government – which announced the new measures just days before classes began – for allowing them little time to prepare.
Gal Altberg, 41, told the news agency that while she was excited to send her children, in Year One and Three, back to school, she was concerned there could be another lockdown. She said:
The policy is still up in the air, the government changes things around but we are hoping for (the best), and we are hoping that the vaccinations will help.
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Hello, this is Clea Skopeliti picking up the blog for the next few hours. Please send over any tips or ideas for coronavirus coverage via Twitter DM, where I’m @cleaskopeliti. Thanks in advance.
Summary
Here is a brief round-up of the main Covid headlines from around the world so far today:
- In Italy, the government has said it will crack down on anti-green pass demonstrators who have threatened to block railway tracks throughout the country. It comes as a rule requiring Covid tests or vaccines takes effect for long-distance domestic public transport.
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North Korea has requested almost 3m doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac jab it was due through a United Nations programme be sent elsewhere.
- Another vial of the Moderna vaccine suspected of containing a “foreign substance” has been found in Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture. Authorities said a pharmacist found “several black particles” in one vial after checking it before the vaccine’s use.
- In Australia, the premier for Victoria has named 23 September as the date he believes 70% of eligible adults will have received their first vaccination dose and when restrictions can begin to lift.
- Many healthcare workers protested in the Philippines today to demand an end to what they described as “government neglect” and “unpaid benefits”.
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New Zealand has recorded 75 new cases of Covid, a bounce upward after two days of falling case numbers.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, as I hand the blog over to my colleague Clea Skopeliti, who will be bringing you the latest Covid news throughout the afternoon. Goodbye.
Updated
Health experts have warned coronavirus cases could rise again as Indonesia and Thailand relax restrictions but vaccination rates remain low.
Cases in South-east Asia have risen sharply in recent months with the arrival of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Although case numbers are still rising fast in most of the region, Indonesia and Thailand, which have its largest economies, have started to lift curbs on restaurants and shopping malls to ease the economic effects of lockdown.
Indonesia reported 10,534 new cases on Tuesday, five times fewer than its peak in mid-July, while Thailand reported 14,802 new cases on Wednesday, down 37% from its mid-August peak.
However, experts said relaxations carried dangers with a low level of vaccination and a shortage of testing, with rates of positive tests often above the 5% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Abhishek Rimal, Asia Pacific emergency health coordinator at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters:
We are definitely concerned around the reopening without meeting all the criteria proposed by the WHO.
Now with the Delta variant, which is highly transmissible, and the low vaccination rate, we could very well see a surge of Covid-19 in days to come.
Indonesia has recently had a positive test rate of 12% and Thailand 34%.
Updated
In Italy, the government has said it will crack down on anti-green pass demonstrators who have threatened to block railway tracks throughout the country.
It comes as a rule requiring Covid tests or vaccines takes effect for long-distance domestic public transport.
Travellers in Italy must now show a “green pass”, which certifies that they have received at least one dose of the vaccine more than 15 days ago, have tested negative in the past 48 hours or have recovered from coronavirus in the past six months.
The Associated Press reports:
The rule applies to domestic flights, train travel between regions and most sea travel.
Local buses, trams and metros are exempt from the rule, which was announced by Mario Draghi’s government when daily case loads started steadily rising as the Delta variant of the virus became prevalent in Italy.
Earlier this summer, a “green pass” requirement began for those wanting to dine indoors, access gyms or attend crowded venues like concerts.
The interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, vowed zero tolerance against any rail track protests or other violence.
Several recent protests against the green pass requirement, including in Rome and Milan, turned violent, with police having to rescue a state TV journalist after a protester started yanking her by her hair and a newspaper reporter was punched repeatedly in the face. Ministers and doctors have received threats.
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North Korea has requested almost 3m doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac jab it was due through a United Nations programme is sent elsewhere.
The immunisation programme procures and delivers shots on behalf of the Covax programme but North Korea has continued to claim that it has no coronavirus cases.
Unicef said the country’s ministry of public health has asked that the 2.97 million Sinovac shots Covax planned to deliver be sent to countries with severe Covid outbreaks.
The North Korean ministry also said it will “will continue to communicate with Covax facility to receive Covid vaccines in the coming months,” Unicef said in an email to the Associated Press.
Covax had also allocated 1.9 million AstraZeneca shots to North Korea but delivery has been delayed.
Experts say North Korea remains focused on tough quarantines and border controls to keep out the virus, and vaccines appear to be a secondary priority.
Updated
India has significantly increased Covid vaccination rates in its vast rural areas but supply issues mean it is unlikely to hit its target of vaccinating all adults by the end of the year.
Around 65% of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people live in rural areas and while India began offering jabs for all adults in May, the campaign stalled in villages due to vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.
However, from mid-July there appeared to be a shift in attitudes and of the nearly 120 million shots administered in the past three weeks, around 70% were in India’s villages - up from around half in the initial weeks of May.
The Associated Press reports:
Although the increased vaccine acceptance in rural areas is promising, the pandemic is far from done in India: After weeks of steady decline, the 46,000 new infections reported on Saturday was its highest in almost two months.
Only about 11% of India’s vast population is fully vaccinated, while half of all adults and about 35% of the total population have received at least one shot. This has left large swathes of people still susceptible to the virus.
Schools in Taiwan have reopened today as the island’s largest coronavirus outbreak appeared to subside.
Schools on the island shut down in May and many switched online in the face of the island’s largest outbreak, which has since passed 15,000 cases. Taiwan is now reporting new Covid cases in the single digits.
The Associated Press reported this morning:
Students will eat lunch at their own desks, which now have plastic dividers separating students. Masks are required, and classrooms will have exhaust fans to circulate air.
Two giant balloons and music created a festive air greeting the students arriving for classes at Tienmu Elementary School on Wednesday.
Parents are relived that their kids are back in school, saying online learning wasn’t necessarily good in the long term.
Liao Cher-hao, president of the parents’ association of the school in the capital, Taipei, said:
You can see that parents are really happy today. They all want to send their kids back to school ASAP. Basically, we made a survey. The results of online classes are not super good.
Another vial of the Moderna Covid vaccine suspected of containing a “foreign substance” has been found in Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture.
Authorities said a pharmacist found “several black particles” in one vial after checking it before the vaccine’s use.
Japan suspended the use of 1.63m doses of Moderna shots last week after becoming aware of contamination in some of the supply, according to the Reuters news agency.
Moderna and Spanish pharma company Rovi, which bottles Moderna vaccines, have said the cause could be a manufacturing issue, and European safety regulators have launched an investigation. Moderna has said no safety or efficacy issues had been identified from the issue.
Kanagawa prefecture said the vaccine’s domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, had collected the vial with the suspected contaminant and that about 3,790 people had already received shots from the same lot.
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More schools in India were given the go-ahead to reopen for the first time in nearly 18 months on Wednesday, despite apprehension from some parents and signs that infections are on the rise once again.
At least six more states in the country will gradually reopen schools and colleges with health measures in place throughout September.
In New Delhi, all staff must be vaccinated and class sizes will be capped at 50% with staggered seating and sanitised desks, the Associated Press reported.
In the capital only students in grades nine to 12 will be allowed to attend at first, though it is not compulsory.
Jacob John, a professor of community medicine at Christian Medical College, Vellore, said:
The simple answer is there is never a right time to do anything during a pandemic. There is a risk, but life has to go on – and you can’t go on without schools.
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Meanwhile, in the Australian state of New South Wales, pubs, restaurants, stadiums and services such as hairdressing could open to fully vaccinated people by mid-October, while vaccinated international travellers could be welcomed for Christmas under a system of home quarantine.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said life will feel “very much more normal” by mid-October when the state is expected to achieve the 70% double-dose vaccination milestone, which would allow freedoms for vaccinated residents.
The state recorded 1,116 new Covid cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday. Four women – one in her 50s, one in her 60s, one in her 70s and one in her 80s – died. They were all in hospital at the time.
Berejiklian said on Wednesday:
Whether it is attending a public event or having a drink, if you are fully vaccinated and the state has hit its 70% double dose target, please expect to do all of those things we have been missing for too long
It follows Berejiklian’s earlier predication that October will be the most challenging period for the state’s hospital system.
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In Australia, the premier for Victoria has named September 23 as the date he believes 70% of eligible adults will have received their first vaccination dose and when restrictions can begin to lift.
But Daniel Andrews on Wednesday warned “we are in for a difficult time” and that case number’s wont’t come down despite the state having “thrown everything at this”.
He also announced that playgrounds would reopen from midnight on Thursday, but that was the only restriction that could ease as “things have changed very rapidly” with 120 new cases announced on Wednesday.
Of the new cases, only 20 were in isolation during their entire infectious period, Andrews said. He added:
These last few days have seen a dramatic shift in the nature and the number of cases coming forward.
From September 23, a number of restrictions will be eased in Victoria. The 5km travel limit in greater Melbourne will be extended to 10km for shopping and exercise; outdoor exercise will increase from two to three hours per day; outdoor communal gym equipment and skate parks will reopen; outdoor personal training will be allowed with up to two people plus a trainer; child-minding for school-aged children will be permitted; real estate private inspections of unoccupied premises for a new purchase or end of a lease will be permitted.
Construction sites will also be able to increase to 50% of their capacity if 90% of their workforce have received at least one vaccine dose. Term three of school will still be at home and the 9pm-5am curfew will remain in greater Melbourne.
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Many healthcare workers protested in the Philippines today to demand an end to what they described as “government neglect” and “unpaid benefits”.
It comes as pressure builds at hospitals fighting one of Asia’s longest-running coronavirus epidemics.
Protesters wearing protective medical gear gathered around the Department of Health (DOH) in Manilla and held placards demanding their risk allowances and hazard pay, and the resignation of health secretary Francisco Duque.
Medical staff have been overwhelmed during the pandemic and 103 have died from Covid, among 33,400 coronavirus deaths in the Philippines.
Robert Mendoza, the president of the Alliance of Health Workers, told Reuters from the back of a pickup truck:
It is sad that many of us have died, many of us became sick, and many have resigned or opted to retire early, yet we are still kneeling before the DOH to give us our benefits.
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China is expected to deliver the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to Taiwan on Thursday, with 932,000 shots set to arrive on the island.
The official state news agency Xinhua, in a brief report, said the vaccines were being provided by Shanghai Fosun Pharamceutical.
It has the right to sell the shots on BioNTech’s behalf in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, according to the Reuters news agency.
The arrival of the first batch of vaccines has proved a controversial issue, with ministers blaming China for blocking an order earlier this year.
However, Beijing – which claims Taiwan as its own territory – has always vehemently denied these claims.
Taiwan’s government subsequently allowed major Apple Inc supplier Foxconn – formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd – as well as its billionaire founder, Terry Gou, along with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, to negotiate on its behalf for the jab.
A $350m deal for 10m shots was agreed last month, which will be donated to the government for distribution
New Zealand records 75 cases after two days of falls
New Zealand has recorded 75 new cases of Covid-19, a bounce upward after two days of seeing cases decline.
The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said on Tuesday the increase was “not unexpected” and noted that during New Zealand’s previous outbreak, case numbers did move up and down somewhat day-to-day, while still tracking down overall.
Bloomfield said that the government’s modelling gave 90% certainty that the reproductive rate – or average number of new people that each case infected – was still below one, “indicating that the number of cases will continue to decline, and we are successfully breaking the chains of transmission”.
The total number of cases in the current outbreak is now at 687. Of these, one was in Wellington and the remainder in Auckland. Thirty-two people are hospitalised in Auckland, eight of whom are in intensive care, and three of whom are on ventilators. Contact tracers have identified 34,832 contacts in the outbreak so far:
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WHO monitoring new Mu variant
A new coronavirus variant named Mu has been designated a variant of interest by the World Health Organization (WHO), PA Media reports. Mu, or B.1.621, was first identified in Colombia and cases have been recorded in South America and Europe.
The WHO’s weekly bulletin on the pandemic said the variant has mutations suggesting it could be more resistant to vaccines, as was the case with Beta, but that more studies would be needed to examine this further.
It said: “Since its first identification in Colombia in January 2021, there have been a few sporadic reports of cases of the Mu variant and some larger outbreaks have been reported from other countries in South America and in Europe.
“Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced cases has declined and is currently below 0.1%, the prevalence in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%) has consistently increased.
“The epidemiology of the Mu variant in South America, particularly with the co-circulation of the Delta variant, will be monitored for changes.”
There are four coronavirus variants of concern, as deemed by the WHO, with the Alpha variant – first recorded in Kent – seen in 193 countries, Beta in 141, Gamma in 91 and Delta in 170 countries, while Mu is the fifth variant of interest.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
A new coronavirus variant named Mu has been designated a variant of interest by the World Health Organization. Mu, or B.1.621, was first identified in Colombia and cases have been recorded in South America and Europe.
The WHO’s weekly bulletin on the pandemic said the variant has mutations suggesting it could be more resistant to vaccines, as was the case with Beta, but that more studies would be needed to examine this further.
Here are the other key recent developments:
- The UK government will press ahead with plans to introduce vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded indoor venues in England from the end of next month, the Guardian reports. Officials also restated their intention to roll out a Covid-19 booster programme from September.
- About 14 million people in the US received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in August, about 4 million more than in July, officials said on Tuesday as the government pushes inoculation as infections rise.
- The US state department has raised its travel advisory alert for Canada to a “level 3: reconsider travel” status amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it said.
- The Irish government has announced plans to remove all Covid-19 restrictions by 31 October.
- Seven in 10 (70%) of the European Union’s adult population has been fully vaccinated against Covid, hitting a target it had set at the beginning of the year. The figure masks the contrast among EU countries, with some nations being well above the 70% goal while others in the poorer eastern region of the bloc are far behind.
- Italy reported 75 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, up from 53 the previous day, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 5,498 from 4,257, the health ministry said.
- Israel has recorded its highest daily coronavirus case tally of nearly 11,000 new infections, amid a surge caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant as schools prepare to reopen.
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