That’s it from me, Samantha Lock, for now.
Keep up to date with all the latest Covid developments by following along here.
And don’t forget to join us when we launch the blog a little later.
Until then stay safe wherever you are in the world.
Summary of today's developments
- US lifts bans on travel from specific countries from Monday, allowing in international travellers, but they must be vaccinated. The US is also reopening the land borders with Canada and Mexico for vaccinated people.
- Germany reports 23,543 new cases in the past 24 hours.
- Russia and Ukraine hit record Covid numbers. Low vaccination rates are a major factor in the sharp rise in cases.
- Australia will begin administering booster shots of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine from Monday amid an accelerating immunisation drive against the coronavirus.
- More than 10 million people have had Covid booster jabs in the UK, according to new figures, as people were told to get their top-up to help prevent restrictions this Christmas.
-
Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer accused him of being “very dangerous” over his handling of Covid restrictions.
- UK government could restrict travel for people who refuse Covid boosters as government sources confirmed they are looking at plans for travel restrictions on people who do not take up the booster offer.
- The UK will start to roll out Merck’s molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral pill through a drug trial later this month, Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday.
-
US president Joe Biden is pushing forward with an ambitious plan to require millions of private sector employees to get vaccinated by early next year, while simultaneously battling to convince workers in his own federal government to get the shot.
Russia and Ukraine hit record Covid numbers
Russia’s Covid-19 cases hit another one-day record over the weekend as the country struggles to contain a month-long wave of infections and deaths.
The national coronavirus task force on Saturday reported 41,335 new cases since the previous day, exceeding the previous daily record of 40,993 from 31 October. The task force said 1,188 people with Covid-19 died, just seven fewer than the daily death record reported Thursday.
Officials cite Russia’s low vaccination rate as a major factor in the sharp rise in cases that began in mid-September.
A similar story is playing out in the Ukraine where the country has been inundated by coronavirus infections in recent weeks, putting the country’s underfunded medical system under severe strain.
The health ministry on Saturday reported a one-day record of 793 deaths from Covid-19 and 25,063 new infections.
Although four different coronavirus vaccines are available in Ukraine, only 17.9% of the country’s 41 million people have been fully vaccinated, the second-lowest rate in Europe after Armenia.
Updated
Hi there I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be taking over from my colleague Tom Ambrose for the next short while.
First up, some Covid numbers out of Australia where I’m reporting to you from.
The state of Victoria has just recorded 1,126 local Covid-19 cases and five deaths.
The NSW numbers are in and the state has recorded just 187 cases overnight and seven deaths.
And a woman who lied on a border form is reportedly the source of the three-person cluster which triggered a lockdown in Katherine, Northern Territory.
Australia will begin administering booster shots of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine from Monday as millions in its largest city, Sydney, woke up to more freedom amid an accelerating immunisation drive against the coronavirus.
Australia’s vaccination rate has picked up pace since July, after widely missing its initial targets, when its southeast was hit by a third wave of infections triggered by the highly infectious Delta variant forcing months-long lockdowns.
Sydney and Melbourne, its largest cities and worst hit by the Delta wave, have been racing through their inoculations before gradually relaxing restrictions, Reuters reported.
Life will return close to normal on Monday in New South Wales, home to Sydney, as the state nears its 90% dual-dose vaccinations in people above 16.
There will be no limit on the number of fully vaccinated guests at homes, while restaurants and entertainment venues can allow more patrons. Stadiums can operate at full capacity as organisers look to get more fans for the soccer World Cup qualifier between Australia and Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
Amid a vaccine-driven shift to more freedom, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said more than 173,000 booster shots have already been administered in aged care centres and for some health workers ahead of Monday’s formal rollout.
“So we are off to a flying start ... it’s a great start and good news for Australians,” Hunt told Seven News on Monday.
The booster doses will be given to people 18 and over who took their second shot more than six months ago. Double-dose vaccination levels in Australia topped 80% over the weekend.
A senior doctor has urged pregnant women to get the Covid vaccine “as soon as you can” to protect themselves and their baby.
Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told BBC News that unvaccinated pregnant women should not “defer the vaccination until after the pregnancy has ended but to get vaccinated while they are pregnant”.
His call came as the family of a woman who died last week before getting the chance to hold her new-born daughter made their own plea for people to get the jab, PA Media reported.
Prof Finn told the BBC:
We now recognise that pregnant women are really at very substantially higher risk of getting seriously ill as compared to women of the same age who are not pregnant, and of course that increases the risk of premature delivery and the risks for the child.
So pregnant women wherever you are in your pregnancy, come forward, get vaccinated and protect yourself and your baby as soon as you can.
There are no described risks and very large numbers of pregnant women have now received these vaccines without any report of lost pregnancies or damage or injury to the foetus. So far no evidence at all of any risks of the vaccine, but lots of evidence of real risk of the infection.
Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer accused him of being “very dangerous” over his handling of Covid restrictions.
Robin Swann’s legal action relates to a well-publicised appearance by the musician at the Europa hotel in Belfast in June. Morrison criticised the Ulster Unionist party minister after the last-minute cancellation of his show.
Video of the incident went viral after Morrison called the Democratic Unionist MP Ian Paisley on to the stage to join him in chants. Paisley has since described it as “parody” and said he did not believe Swann was dangerous.
Four gigs scheduled by Morrison, including one at the Europa hotel, were cancelled at the 11th hour as live music was still not permitted under Covid restrictions. The management of the hotel blamed confusion by Stormont ministers for the late notice, believing they had been given the green light to proceed.
A few weeks later, Morrison said he would challenge the Northern Irish government in court over its “blanket ban” on live music in licensed venues.
According to reports, Swann began defamation proceedings earlier this year that also cite two subsequent incidents when the singer elaborated on his views on Swann.
More than 10 million people have had Covid booster jabs in the UK, according to new figures, as people were told to get their top-up to help prevent restrictions this Christmas.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said the milestone was “amazing” as he warned boosters will be “vital” to keep “you and your loved ones protected through the winter”.
The prime minister tweeted:
An amazing 10 million people across the UK have already come forward for their booster.
We know vaccine immunity wanes over time, so boosters are vital in keeping you and your loved ones protected through the winter.
Please get this lifesaving jab as soon as you are called.
In total, 10,062,704 people in the UK have received a top-up jab, according to the government, with 409,663 receiving one on Saturday.
But about 30% of over-80s and 40% of over-50s in England are yet to receive a booster shot of vaccine, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Updated
My colleague Mark Brown has an interesting piece this evening on the importance of pregnant women getting the vaccine.
Here is an excerpt:
She was eight months pregnant and weeks from welcoming her fifth daughter to the world, but Saiqa Parveen died of Covid after putting off getting the coronavirus jab. Her family have now issued an emotional plea for pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Parveen, 37, had planned to delay having the jab until her baby was born, her family said, but she was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties in September and put on a ventilator.
A decision was taken by medical staff at Good Hope hospital in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, to deliver the baby by emergency caesarean section. Parveen died on 1 November after spending five weeks in intensive care. She never got the chance to meet her newborn baby, her fifth daughter, named Dua Maryam.
Her husband, Majid Ghafur, a 40-year-old taxi driver, is now caring for all five girls. He told Sky News: “She didn’t even know if she’d had a baby girl or a boy. It was just shocking. She didn’t have a chance to talk to me, five minutes even, to tell me about the daughters, you know, what to do.”
Asked what her last words were, Gahfur said: “She couldn’t even talk. She couldn’t breathe properly … She couldn’t talk.”
He added: “I’m going to pass this message to the whole world, I just beg all people to get the vaccine, otherwise it’s very hard for them. It’s a very deadly disease, you know. She planned so many things, and this disease didn’t give her a chance.”
Parveen’s brother Qayoum Mughal told the BBC his family had “lost everything”. He described how his sister had received a letter offering the vaccine, but told her family: “It’s too late now. When I’ve had my baby, I will get my vaccine.”
“But she didn’t get the chance,” he said.
See below for the full story.
UK government could restrict travel for people who refuse Covid boosters
More than 10 million people in the UK have had Covid vaccine top-up shots, figures show, as government sources confirmed they are looking at plans for travel restrictions on people who do not take up the booster offer.
NHS figures for Sunday showed that 10,062,704 people in the UK had received a booster jab, or third shots for those with weakened immune systems, with the number in England reaching 8.5 million.
The milestone follows a record day for boosters on Saturday when more than 371,000 people in England had the jabs. About 30% of over-80s and more than 60% of people aged 50 and over have yet to receive the extra doses, however.
The health secretary, Sajid Javid, urged people to take up the offer of booster shots when they became eligible, describing the push as a “national mission” that would help the country “avoid a return to restrictions and enjoy Christmas”.
The Texas senator Ted Cruz led conservatives in condemnation of a much-loved public figure for advocating Covid-19 vaccinations for children. Big Bird.
This week saw final US approval for five- to 11-year-olds to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine. Sesame Street, which has offered Covid advice before, duly deployed its popular characters to encourage parents to protect their children.
Big Bird, who despite his vast size and to some slightly overbearing mien is according to the beloved show perpetually six-and-a-half-years-old, announced on Saturday that he had been vaccinated.
“I got the Covid-19 vaccine today!” the hulkingly benevolent yellow avian announced, using an appropriate communications platform, Twitter.
“My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy. [CNN reporter] Erica Hill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!”
Cruz responded: “Government propaganda … for your 5 year old!”
Other rightwingers piled in. Lisa Boothe, a Fox News contributor, said “brainwashing children who are not at risk from Covid” was “twisted”.
To read the full story, see below.
Worldwide Covid cases were approaching 250 million as the surge from the Delta variant eases and more normal trade and tourism resume.
However, some countries in eastern Europe are experiencing record outbreaks.
Over the last three months, the daily average number of cases has fallen by 36%, according to a Reuters analysis.
Even though the spread has slowed, the virus is still infecting 50 million people every 90 days due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, the analysis showed. It took nearly a year to record the first 50 million Covid cases.
Health experts are optimistic that many nations have put the worst of the pandemic behind them thanks to vaccines and natural exposure, although they caution that colder weather and upcoming holiday gatherings could increase cases.
“We think between now and the end of 2022, this is the point where we get control over this virus ... where we can significantly reduce severe disease and death,” Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist leading the World Health Organisation, told Reuters.
Summary
Here is a round-up of all the day’s top Covid stories so far:
- In the UK, a further 62 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 141,805. As of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 30,305 lab-confirmed Covid cases in the UK, the government said.
- A record 371,339 of booster jabs were administered on Saturday, NHS England said. The figure is 12.4% higher than the 330,445 recorded on 31 October, the previous highest day.
- A member of Sage, the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, has said the British government’s “plan B” to control the spread of coronavirus is still “very much in consideration”.
- The UK will start to roll out Merck’s molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral pill through a drug trial later this month, Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday.
- Three million more people in England will be invited to have their coronavirus booster jabs next week, with the British health minister Sajid Javid urging the elderly and vulnerable to take up the offer so they can “enjoy Christmas”.
-
US president Joe Biden is pushing forward with an ambitious plan to require millions of private sector employees to get vaccinated by early next year, while simultaneously battling to convince workers in his own federal government to get the shot.
- Italy reported 26 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday compared with 31 the day before, the health ministry said.
- Covid-19 infections are increasing in Hungary, and have been for weeks, with 4,106 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 44% of the peak, the highest daily average reported on 26 March, according to the Reuters Covid-19 tracker.
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Russia reported 1,178 deaths from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, as well as 39,165 fresh infections.
- Covid infections in Germany have risen sharply again, with 23,543 new cases reported within one day.
Stay tuned for more coronavirus news as it comes this evening and, of course, feel free to tweet me @tomambrose89.
Updated
Italy reported 26 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday compared with 31 the day before, the health ministry said.
It reported 5,822 new infections, down from 6,764 a day earlier.
With 4.81 million cases to date, Italy has registered 132,391 deaths linked to Covid since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain, and the ninth-highest in the world.
The number of patients in hospital with Covid – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,215 on Sunday, up from 3,173 a day earlier.
There were 26 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 23 on Saturday. The total number of intensive care patients rose slightly to 398 from a previous 392.
A total of 434,771 tests for Covid were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 491,962, the health ministry said.
Updated
UK confirms 62 more Covid deaths, 30,305 new cases
Good afternoon, I’m Tom Ambrose and will be seeing you through the rest of today’s Covid news from home and abroad.
We start with the news that in the UK, a further 62 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 141,805.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 166,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 30,305 lab-confirmed Covid cases in the UK, the government said.
A further four deaths of people who had previously tested positive for Covid-19 have been reported in Northern Ireland.
The Department of Health said there had also been another 1,035 positive cases of the virus confirmed in the last 24-hour reporting period.
President Biden to try making vaccinations for millions of workers mandatory
US president Joe Biden is pushing forward with an ambitious plan to require millions of private sector employees to get vaccinated by early next year, while simultaneously battling to convince workers in his own federal government to get the shot.
About 70% of American adults are fully vaccinated and 80% have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
The Associated Press reports:
About 4 million federal workers are to be vaccinated by 22 November under the president’s executive order. Some employees, like those at the White House, are nearly all vaccinated. But the rates are lower at other federal agencies, particularly those related to law enforcement and intelligence, according to the agencies and union leaders. And some resistant workers are digging in, filing lawsuits and protesting what they say is unfair overreach by the White House.
The upcoming deadline is the first test of Biden’s push to compel people to get vaccinated. Beyond the federal worker rule, another mandate will take effect in January aimed at around 84 million private sector workers, according to guidelines put out this past week.
On Saturday, a federal appeals court in Louisiana temporarily halted the vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers. The administration says it is confident that the requirement will withstand legal challenges in part because its safety rules preempt state laws.
If the mandates are a success, they could make the most serious dent in new coronavirus cases since the vaccine first became available, especially with the news this past week that children ages 5-11 can get the shot making an additional 64 million people eligible.
But with two weeks remaining until the federal worker deadline, some leaders of unions representing the employees say that convincing the unvaccinated to change their mind is increasingly challenging.
[...] Vaccines have a proven track record of safety, backed by clinical trials and independent reviews showing them overwhelmingly effective at preventing serious illness and death from Covid-19. More than 222 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 193 million are fully vaccinated. More than half of the world population has also received a shot.
Updated
Hospitals in Bosnia are bracing for a new wave of Covid in the Balkan nation that was already among the hardest hit European countries earlier in the pandemic.
In the north-western town of Banja Luka, staff at the Covid-19 ward of the city’s main hospital warned that hospitalisations had increased in the past days and could explode soon, AP reported.
Out of the hospital’s 300-bed capacity for Covid-19 patients, 223 were already filled on Friday, including 32 in intensive care.
On Saturday, reports emerged that Bosnia’s only certified medicinal oxygen filling plant has been forced to close due to severe flash flooding, which caused power outages in most of the capital of Sarajevo.
The oxygen plant is crucial for the treatment of the country’s seriously ill Covid-19 patients, CGTN reported.
The country of 3.5 million has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, struggling to reach 20%. On Friday, it reported 1,100 new daily infections and 32 deaths.
Updated
A record 371,339 of booster jabs were administered on Saturday, NHS England said. The figure is 12.4% higher than the 330,445 recorded on 31 October, which was the previous highest day.
Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS deputy vaccination programme lead and GP, said:
The NHS Covid vaccination programme, the biggest and fastest in health service history, continues to go from strength to strength with another record day for boosters.
More than 371,000 people were recorded as receiving a top-up yesterday, meaning almost 8.5 million have received one in the seven weeks since the latest phase of the programme launched.
With winter fast approaching I would urge anyone who has not yet had a booster – or indeed a first or second dose – to not delay but take up the offer to protect themselves, their family and their friends.
People can now walk-in without an appointment to get their top-up vaccination and from tomorrow can book in an appointment a month in advance of becoming eligible – so there is no excuse to not get the lifesaving vaccine and people should do so as soon as they can.
Updated
Hospitals in England are already at peak winter levels for bed occupancy, according to NHS bosses who fear the health service will come under severe pressure in the months ahead, my colleague Ian Sample writes.
The chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents England’s 240 NHS trusts, said the situation was unprecedented and “very worrying” as exhausted hospital staff prepare for higher levels of Covid and other respiratory infections such as influenza, while dealing with a backlog of care for patients.
“What’s very, very striking in talking to our trust chief executives is how worried some of the very long term leaders, who’ve been around a long time, are at this point. What they are saying to us is they’ve never been so worried,” Chris Hopson told Times Radio on Sunday.
Full story here.
'Plan B' style return to lockdown restrictions still on the cards, Sage member says
A member of Sage, the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, has said the British government’s “plan B” to control the spread of coronavirus is still “very much in consideration”.
Prof Dame Anne Johnson, president of Academy of Medical Sciences, was asked if the government was right to not go to plan B this winter.
She told LBC:
I think plan B is still very much, as I understand it, plan B is still in consideration.
We’re only at the beginning of winter and I think if we want to avoid any restrictions in the future, or indeed reduce the damage, we need to think about all the things that we can do, which include not just vaccinating, which is very important, but also going to isolate when we’re sick, get tested.
A lot of people get infected in their homes, trying to reduce transmission. So, all these things we can continue to do, and all those things are going to reduce the risk of having to go to plan B.
Treasury documents that were leaked to Politico have suggested that a return to home working, a key element of Boris Johnson’s “plan B”, would cause up to £18bn of damage to the UK economy over five months.
Updated
Here an update on the global pandemic situation from AFP:
On Saturday, 6,306 new deaths and 411,296 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Russia with 1,179 new deaths, followed by India with 506 and Ukraine with 449.
The US is the worst-affected country, with 754,279 deaths from 46,461,779 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 609,388 deaths from 21,874,324 cases, India with 460,791 deaths from 34,355,536 cases, Mexico with 289,674 deaths from 3,825,404 cases, and Russia with 246,814 deaths from 8,795,095 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared with its population is Peru, with 608 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria with 359, Bosnia-Herzegovina with 357, Republic of North Macedonia with 346, Montenegro with 342, and Hungary with 323.
Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 1,525,388 deaths from 46,084,819 cases, Europe 1,424,434 deaths from 76,202,176 infections, and Asia 876,875 deaths from 56,130,911 cases.
The US and Canada has reported 783,411 deaths from 48,189,463 cases, Africa 219,336 deaths from 8,531,449 cases, the Middle East 209,980 deaths from 14,024,411 cases, and Oceania 2,906 deaths from 267,951 cases.
Updated
The UK will start to roll out Merck’s molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral pill through a drug trial later this month, Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday.
This from Reuters:
Last week, Britain became the first country in the world to approve the potentially game-changing Covid-19 antiviral pill, jointly developed by US-based Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
The government said in October it had secured 480,000 courses of the Merck drug, as well as 250,000 courses of an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer Inc.
Asked about the molnupiravir approval, Hopkins told BBC television: “That is great news and it will start to be rolled out through a drug trial in the end of this month/the beginning of December.”
Hopkins said all the trials so far had been done with the unvaccinated, so this would help understand how it will work in the wider vaccinated population.
“The new Pfizer drug is probably not going to be licensed until the new year some time,” she added. “It is still likely to be a couple of months away.”
Updated
Covid-19 infections are increasing in Hungary, and have been for weeks, with 4,106 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 44% of the peak, the highest daily average reported on 26 March, according to the Reuters Covid-19 Tracker.
Hungary’s employees at state institutions are now required to be vaccinated, while the government announced last week that private company employers will also be empowered to make Covid-19 jabs mandatory for employees if they believe that is necessary.
Mask wearing has been mandatory on public transport from 1 November.
Hungary has administered at least 12,744,317 doses of Covid vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 65.2% of the country’s population.
Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, has said while the Covid-19 booster rollout was going well, she is urging more people to come forward to get their top-up jabs.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she said:
There’s over 60% of the population that are being offered boosters [who] are taking it up. I think it’s slower than we saw in the first round.
I think that may be due to people thinking they’re already protected, which is why we’re giving a lot of public health messages about why it’s so important for them to come forward for that third dose.
Hopkins said the peak number of new cases was on 18 October, with nearly 58,000 people being diagnosed.
She said that while the UK is now at the flattening of the peak, the country could still stay at a “very, very high level like this, which will mean that we have deaths that could be prevented by vaccination”.
Asked who was dying as a result of contracting Covid-19, Dr Hopkins said:
The people who are dying are the same people who have died all the way through.
It is particularly the older age groups, so the over-70s in particular, but also those who are clinically vulnerable, extremely vulnerable, and have underlying medical conditions.
She said there are still deaths in the elderly population due to about 5% of those remaining unvaccinated and the waning effects of the vaccine on those who have been jabbed.
Acoording to the government’s latest vaccine surveillance report published this week, 2,032 double-vaccinated individuals over 70 have died, and more than 3,000 from the same age group were hospitalised despite having had both jabs.
Dr Hopkins added that while it is too early to say the virus has nowhere else to go, its changes are likely to be “smaller and more incremental from here on in”.
Outlining if she thinks this will be the last Christmas where people will be wearing face masks, Dr Hopkins said:
Hopefully this will be the last Christmas where we have to think that way. I think we’ll know much more when we get to the spring and as time goes on.
I do think, though, that this is going to be part of our endemic seasonal influenza and other respiratory viruses.
Updated
Russia reported 1,178 deaths from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, as well as 39,165 fresh infections.
Infections have been climbing steadily since mid-September, when daily new confirmed infections per million people stood at 122.44 on 12 September. This value reached 269.71 on Saturday, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data database.
On Saturday, the country recorded 41,335 new infections, its highest ever daily tally, despite president Vladimir Putin having declared a circuit breaker holiday period from 30 October to 7 November to curb infections.
Updated
The chief executive of NHS Providers has described how he believes the Covid pandemic will soon be considered endemic and “draconian” lockdowns should be avoided.
Chris Hopson told Times Radio:
I think all of us in the NHS recognise that we are now moving from a situation of a pandemic towards an endemic where we need to live with Covid.
Everybody in the NHS absolutely recognises that it’s our job to cope as best we can with Covid pressures, without resorting to the very draconian lockdowns that we’ve had to go through before.
He added NHS staff recognise the “impact” of jabs as vaccinated people are less likely to be admitted to hospital or die. “The NHS needs to do absolutely everything it can to avoid having to call on measures to restrict social contact because of the impact of those measures,” he said.
Long waiting times in emergency departments in England are becoming normal, with some patients spending days in A&E wards before they can be moved into other hospital beds, emergency physicians have warned, my colleagues James Tapper and Toby Helm write.
Leaders of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) and the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) said that some hospitals had effectively run out of space, meaning patients could not receive the right care until a bed became free.
NHS figures for September show that 5,025 patients waited for more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital in England. That is only 1% of the 506,916 admitted via A&Es, but it is more than 10 times as many as the 458 waiting more than 12 hours in September 2019 and nearly twice as many as the January peak of 2,847.
Read the full story here:
Covid infections in Germany rise sharply
Covid infections in Germany have risen sharply again, with 23,543 new cases reported within one day.
The nationwide seven-day incidence also increased significantly, with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) saying on Sunday the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants now stands at 191.5.
The previous day the incidence was 183.7, and a week ago it was 149.4. Last month it had been 62.6.
On Friday, the number of new infections reached 37,120, a record high since the pandemic began. A week ago, 16,887 new cases were recorded.
Thirty-seven new deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 33 deaths.
The number of patients admitted to clinics with Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over the past seven days – the most important parameter for a possible tightening of the country’s coronavirus restrictions – was 3.91 on Friday and has not been updated since. On Thursday, it had been 3.73.
The previous high was around 15.5 last Christmas.
Updated
'Get booster jab to save Christmas', British health minister urges
Three million more people in England will be invited to have their coronavirus booster jabs next week, with the British health minister Sajid Javid urging the elderly and vulnerable to take up the offer so they can “enjoy Christmas”.
NHS England will be inviting those who had their second dose more than five months ago, meaning they can receive their top-up as soon as it has been six months since their last vaccine, PA Media reports.
Government guidelines state that people who are 50 and over, or aged 16 and over with a health condition that puts them at high risk of contracting Covid-19, and had their second dose six months ago are eligible to get their booster.
So far almost 10 million people in the UK have received a top-up jab, but about 30% of over-80s and 40% of over-50s in England are yet to receive a booster shot of vaccine, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said younger relatives should urge eligible parents and grandparents to take up the offer of a booster and the flu vaccine.
He said that if “we all come together and play our part” then the country can “avoid a return to restrictions and enjoy Christmas”.
He said:
Almost 10 million people in the UK have received their Covid-19 booster and third jabs, a phenomenal achievement in under two months.
As we approach this milestone, I want to thank those who have come forward and urge everybody across the nation to get vaccinated, get protected and get boosted.
We know immunity begins to wane after six months, especially for the elderly and the vulnerable, and booster vaccines will top-up their protection to keep people safe over the winter.
I strongly urge everybody who is eligible for a Covid-19 booster or flu vaccine to take up the offer as soon as you can.
For those not yet eligible, please help your parents, grandparents or vulnerable loved ones get their jabs, it could save their life.
And if you haven’t yet had your first and second vaccines, it is not too late, the NHS will always be there to welcome you with open arms.
This truly is a national mission.
If we all come together and play our part, we can get through this challenging winter, avoid a return to restrictions and enjoy Christmas.
NHS England said eight million people were vaccinated by Saturday out of 12 million people that have been invited. By next week, 16 million invitations for a booster will have been sent since the NHS booster programme began.
People who have not received their invitation can book an appointment on the NHS website or call 119.
Updated
Hello, I’m Jedidajah Otte and I’ll be at the helm of our global coronavirus blog for the next few hours.
The city of Sydney will further ease social distancing curbs on Monday, a month after it started easing out of a coronavirus lockdown that lasted nearly 100 days, as close to 90% of people have got both vaccine doses.
Although limited to people who are fully inoculated, the relaxation in the state of New South Wales, home to Sydney, lifts limits on house guests or outdoor gatherings, among other measures, Reuters reports.
“We’re leading the nation out of the pandemic,” said state premier Dominic Perrottet, as he called for a “final push” to reach, and even surpass, a milestone of 95% vaccinations.
Australia eased its strict border curbs for international travel on Monday for the first time during the pandemic, but only for its vaccinated public from states with high levels of inoculation.
The south-eastern state of Victoria recorded the majority of Australia’s 1,417 new coronavirus cases, with public health figures showing 10 more deaths.
There were no new infections in the remote Northern Territory, where a snap lockdown was extended until midnight on Monday to tackle a small outbreak in some areas.
Australia crossed the 80% mark of full inoculations on Saturday.
“That should give us all confidence in terms of opening up,” federal finance minister Simon Birmingham told broadcaster Channel 9 in an interview on Sunday.
Domestic travel is still tightly regulated, as most states and territories keep internal borders shut. Western Australia state will reopen when it hits the 90% level of double vaccine doses, its premier said.
So far, Australia has recorded a comparatively low overall infection tally of just over 180,000 cases and 1,597 deaths in total.
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