The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the coronavirus is being spread largely by young people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are unaware they have been infected.
Takeshi Kasai, regional director for WHO Western Pacific, told a virtual briefing on Tuesday that young people driving the spread pose a risk to more vulnerable groups.
Meanwhile, Australia's prime minister Scott Morrison has announced it will manufacture a coronavirus vaccine and give it to its citizens free.
AstraZeneca’s experimental jab is considered a leader in the global race for an effective vaccine.
A major state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company has claimed its coronavirus vaccine will be commercially available by the end of the year.
SinoPharm has two vaccines in trial and an annual manufacturing capacity of 220 million doses, said its chairman, Liu Jingzhen.
Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has said the government's decisions on the region's local lockdown were "more or less as we expected".
"We had planned to continue our neighbourhood testing programme throughout August and the restrictions around households will help in our efforts to track down the virus and contain it.
"I'm pleased to see that the guidelines around shielding have relaxed slightly as I think it's important that vulnerable people who have been shielding for many months now are able to have more contact with family and friends.
"This will greatly benefit their mental health, while still keeping their physical health as the greatest priority.
"What we really don't want is to see numbers increase which could result in more severe restrictions being put in place once again in parts, or all, of the city."
Lockdown measures will continue to be eased in Leicester, which has seen more stringent rules to stem the spread of the virus in place for several weeks.
Health secretary Matt Hancock tweeted: "The rate of infection in Leicester has now dropped to a safe enough level to allow further businesses including beauty salons, nail bars & some outdoor venues to reopen.
"Current restrictions on gatherings must remain in place to further bring down the rate of infection."
Asda: Online sales double after pandemic causes ‘shift’ in customer habits
Asda has said online sales doubled in the past quarter after the coronavirus pandemic caused a “structural shift” in customer shopping habits.
The supermarket chain reported a 3.8 per cent spike in like-for-like sales for the three months to 30 June after online grocery sales jumped.
Online sales “doubled” in the second quarter after Asda increased delivery capacity by 65 per cent during the lockdown period.
Click and collect sales also quadrupled for the quarter because of “increased and sustained appetite for online grocery shopping”.
Asda chief executive Roger Burnley told the PA news agency: “The pandemic has created a structural shift in customer behaviours towards grocery shopping.
“We have accelerated our online capacity expansion to meet levels we had anticipated reaching in eight years within a matter of weeks and we will continue to expand this offer.
“We will also maintain focus on ensuring our in-store experience delivers what customers want from a shopping trip - great value, relevant range and ease.
“As life under Covid-19 continues, customer concerns are shifting from the health consequences of the pandemic to its financial impacts - and we remain absolutely committed to protecting both their health, and their budgets.”
PHE boss sends message of thanks to staff
As the axing of Public Health England is underway, chief executive Duncan Selbie sent a message of thanks to staff, caring them “rock stars of the health and care system”.
"The most obvious next priority is to secure the right and best future for all those other responsibilities of PHE that are not about health protection and I can assure everyone that there will be more on this to follow soon," he said.
"It has been the honour and privilege of my career over 41 years to lead PHE and I want to convey my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues for the remarkable contribution each has made to protecting and improving the public's health over our eight years together.
"I have been immensely proud of what we do under intense public and political scrutiny, always with professionalism and dignity and with the values that matter the most: decency, kindness and respect.
He added: "I wish Baroness Harding as the chair of this new organisation and the transition every success, and I know everyone will be delighted to hear that Michael Brodie will be returning as the interim chief executive officer to PHE, from tomorrow pending the appointment of a new leadership team."
Ryanair cuts 20% of flights from September due to drop in demand
Ryanair will cut its capacity by 20 per cent from September and October as “forward bookings have noticeably weakened over the last 10 days” following surges of Covid-19 infections increased.
The airline announced an increase in capacity less than two weeks earlier.
Key destinations affected by the cuts include Spain, France, Sweden and Ireland, reports Qin Xie.
Germany pauses easing lockdown further
Angela Merkel has ruled out easing coronavirus restrictions any further after a surge in infections in Germany.
Last week, Germany recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus infections in more than three months, with over 1,200 cases reported in 24 hours.
Jane Dalton reports:
Leicester lockdown to ease, nail bars, outdoor pools and beauty salons can reopen from tomorrow
Certain restrictions will be eased in Leicester, with some establishments and outdoor venues allowed to reopen but rules for gatherings in private homes and gardens will remain in place.
Nail bars, beauty salons, massage parlours, tattoo parlours and outdoor pools are among some of the venues that can reopen from tomorrow, 19 August.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said: “My gratitude goes out to the people of Leicester who have all made sacrifices to keep the virus at bay and protect their local communities.
“The rate of infection has now dropped to a safe enough level to allow further businesses including beauty salons, nail bars and some outdoor venues to reopen in the area. Current restrictions on gatherings must remain in place to further bring down the rate of infection.
“We must remain vigilant and I urge everyone in Leicester to continue to follow the rules - wash your hands regularly, follow social distancing, get yourself a free test as soon as you get any symptoms, and isolate if NHS Test and Trace tells you to.”
Coronavirus cases among students will ‘inevitably’ rise, says Nicola Sturgeon
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said a rise in the number of pupils testing positive for coronavirus is inevitable as they return to the classroom.
Speaking during the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon stressed the importance of keeping schools open as the harms of children losing out in an education are “considerable”.
“But we will inevitably I think see more cases which involve school pupils in the weeks and months ahead,” she said.
“In those cases, as has happened in the ones I’ve mentioned today, contact tracers will identify if other students or staff at schools need to isolate and will let them and their parents know.”
It comes after at least three pupils tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland, in Paisley, Perth and Kinross.
Canberra is also buying 100 million syringes and needles from a US company.
AstraZeneca’s experimental jab is considered a leader in the global race to deliver an effective vaccine against Covid-19, Jon Sharman reports:
The number of adults experiencing depression has almost doubled during the pandemic, according to new figures.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that almost one in five adults (19.2 per cent) were likely to be experiencing some form of depression in June.
This had risen from around 1 in 10 before the nationwide lockdown, Samuel Lovett reports:
British tourists flock to south west coast but locals refuse to welcome them
Residents in the south west of England are reluctant to welcome more guests as large numbers of tourists decide against holidaying abroad and turn to vacations closer to home.
Many locals would have preferred lockdown to continue - but the region relied heavily on its tourism industry.
Jon Lewis reports:
Australia will manufacture a coronavirus vaccine and give it to its citizens free, prime minister Scott Morrison has pledged.
The country has signed a deal with drugmaker AstraZeneca to secure a potential vaccine and plans to produce and distribute enough doses for its population, he announced.
"Under this deal we have secured early access for every Australian," he said in an emailed statement.
"If this vaccine proves successful, we will manufacture and supply vaccines straight away under our own steam and make it free for 25 million Australians."
Countries around the world are looking to secure supplies of Astrazeneca's potential vaccine. Argentina and Mexico said last week they would produce it for much of Latin America.
Mr Morrison, however, warned that while AstraZeneca's candidate is showing early promise, there was no guarantee it would materialise as an effective tool in preventing Covid-19.
Risk of vigilante attacks rising as justice delayed by coronavirus
Lawyers have warned that vigilantes “will take matters into their own hands” if trust in the criminal justice system crashes after the coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 570,000 court cases are stuck in a backlog in England and Wales, with some trials not being scheduled until 2022. Victims face a wait of several years between reporting a crime and seeing a result, writes Lizzie Dearden.
Read more about the issue below:
Jared Kushner calls US handling of coronavirus a success story
Jared Kushner, son-in-law and adviser to Donald Trump, has praised his father-in-law’s administration as a success after he was questioned about the death toll in America, which surpassed 170,000.
In an interview with CNN’s The Situation Room, Mr Kushner said the president was “able to rush the supplies we needed” in the first phase of the pandemic as it hit the US.
Andrew Naughtie reports:
The chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, has warned that the government is risking a “major misstep” by dismantling Public Health England.
"Undoubtedly, there are questions to be answered about England's handling of the Covid-19 crisis, but the middle of a pandemic is not the time to dismantle England's public health agency," Mr Murray said.
New National Institute for Health Protection announced
Matt Hancock has announced the formation of a new organisation, the National Institute for Health Protection, which will replace Public Health England.
He said the new organisation will protect “people from external threats to this country’s health”.
“To give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus and spotting and tackling other external health threats now and in the future, we need to bring together the science and the skill into one coherent whole.
“So today, I am announcing that we are forming a new organisation, the National Institute for Health Protection.
“The National Institute for Health Protection will have a single and relentless mission: protecting people from external threats to this country’s health. External threats like biological weapons, pandemics and, of course, infectious diseases of all kinds.”
France to make face coverings mandatory in work places
France will make wearing face masks mandatory in work places from 1 September, with some exceptions, the head of a leading union told BFM TV on Tuesday.
Yves Veyrier, leader of Force ouvriere, said the government “deems it necessary to wear a mask when you’re not alone (in the work place)”, adding the labour minister made it clear it was up to the companies concerned to pay for the masks.
France’s High Council for Public Health recommended that mask-wearing be made compulsory in all workplaces as the daily infection numbers surged past 3,000 for the first time since May.
According to French newspaper Journal du Dimanche, French labour minister Elisabeth Borne is laying out the new requirements today. Face masks could be required in collective spaces and during meetings, but could be taken off in private offices, it was reported.
London City Airport pauses £500m expansion due to pandemic
London City Airport is pressing pause on its £500m expansion plans at the end of the year because of coronavirus.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the aviation industry hard, and the airport said it will have to “re-evaluate the timing of the next phases of the development programme”.
Helen Coffey reports:
World Health Organisation calls for end to ‘vaccine nationalism’
The pandemic is being worsened by countries prioritising their own supplies of a potential vaccine for coronavirus, warned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He said on Tuesday that each country should be acting “strategically and globally” as “no one is safe until everyone is safe”.
Mr Ghrebreyesus told a virtual briefing he had sent a letter to all WHO members asking them to join the multilateral COVAX vaccine effort.
Surge in depression among British adults during pandemic
The proportion of people in Britain suffering with depression has almost doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic, official data showed on Tuesday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 19% of adults reported some form of depression during June, compared with 10 per cent in the nine months to March 2020. Stress and anxiety were the most common types of depression listed by people, it said.
In this graph, created for The Independentby Statista, data from the ONS shows 19.2 per cent of British adults reported depressive symptoms in June alone, compared to 9.7 per cent between July 2019 to March this year.
