A summary of today's developments
- The UK has recorded 157 deaths in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 142,835. It also recorded 38,351 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 9,524,971.
- The UK government is to allow people to have their Covid booster jab after five months, a month sooner than under the current policy, in an effort to help stop the NHS becoming overwhelmed this winter.
- Morocco will conduct rapid Covid-19 tests to passengers arriving in its airports and ports and will deny access to any visitor with a positive result, the government said.
- In the first year of the pandemic, 25 children and young people in England died as a result of coronavirus infection, according to research published this week. “These results are important for guiding decisions on shielding and vaccinating children,” the researchers said in the journal Nature Medicine.
- Matt Hancock, the former UK health secretary, may be set to write a book entitled How I Won the Covid War. According to the Daily Mail, Hancock is in talks with HarperCollins for a blow-by-blow account of lockdown rows with ministers, aides, scientists and doctors.
- A US court upheld a decision to halt Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 workers, condemning it as “staggeringly overbroad”. “The mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces,” judges said.
- The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged unvaccinated people to reconsider getting their jabs, as the seven-day coronavirus incidence rate in Germany rose to the highest level since the pandemic began. “Difficult weeks lie ahead of us, and you can see that I am very worried,” Merkel said.
- Germany is preparing to bring in the army to assist overrun healthcare services, according to reports. Der Spiegel reported that 12,000 soldiers will be mobilised by Christmas. Among their missions will be providing booster vaccinations and tests in care homes and hospitals.
- A new record Covid death toll has been reported in Russia, with 1,241 dying from the disease in the past 24 hours. There were 39,256 new coronavirus cases recorded in the same period. It came after most of Russia’s 80-plus regions lifted a weeklong workplace shutdown at the beginning of the week.
- Greece has once again tightened its restrictions on the number of people that can enter supermarkets, just weeks after it relaxed the measure. As of Saturday, supermarkets will only be allowed to allow in one person per 9 sq m, after the rule was eased on 25 October.
- Several thousand people rallied in Melbourne, Australia against vaccine mandates. Vaccinations are voluntary, but some areas mandate vaccinations for many occupations and have barred the unvaccinated from activities such as dining out and concerts. Protests also took place in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Brazil has registered 14,642 new cases of coronavirus over the last 24 hours and 731 further deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday, Reuters reports.
You can follow the latest Covid developments in Australia here:
The US administered over 9.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past seven days, the highest weekly total since late May, a White House official said on Saturday.
In total, the US administered 439,034,461 doses of vaccines as of Saturday morning and distributed 553,881,535 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, according to Reuters.
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The publisher HarperCollins said it is not in talks with former UK health secretary Matt Hancock and has “no knowledge” of any book about his pandemic experience.
“We have no knowledge of such a book and are not in talks,” it said in a tweet.
Carbon emissions, after a brief plunge last year owing to the Covid-19 lockdowns, are set to rise again by a record amount next year as countries return to their fossil-fuel habits.
Emissions must fall by 45% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels, to have a good chance of sticking to the 1.5C limit, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Three German state health ministers have urged parties negotiating to form a new government to prolong states’ power to implement stricter pandemic measures such as lockdowns or school closures as the country’s seven-day Covid incidence rate hit record highs.
The number of people per 100,000 infected last week rose to 277.4, data from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Saturday, and has risen to over 500 in some regions of the country.
The head of Germany’s largest doctors’ association, Marburger Bund, told German media group Funke Mediengruppe that overburdened intensive care units may need to move patients between regions to find beds in coming weeks, Reuters reports.
The federal government and leaders of Germany’s 16 states are due to discuss new pandemic measures next week, but the three parties negotiating to form a new government have agreed to let a state of emergency, in place since the start of the pandemic, expire on 25 November as planned.
But state health ministers of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hessen and Brandenburg argued that states needed to keep the option open of implementing policies that required a state of emergency to enforce – such as curfews, lockdowns or school closures – if the situation worsened.
“In the face of the burden on hospitals, which in some regions are close to absolute overload, the epidemic status should be prolonged on a national level,” the three health ministers said in a joint statement.
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The drive to get the population vaccinated in Australia is gathering momentum despite the issue dividing families and straining friendships in some parts of the country:
France has reported 14,646 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The country has had more than 7.26 million cases overall.
Morocco will conduct rapid Covid-19 tests to passengers arriving in its airports and ports and will deny access to any visitor with a positive result, the government said.
Travellers with a positive test must be returned at the cost of the airline that brought them into the country, unless they have a permanent residency document, it said.
Passengers visiting Morocco should also have proof of vaccination, Reuters reports.
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The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group said any memoir by former health secretary Matt Hancock would “inevitably cause pain and hurt” for those mourning people who died after contracting the virus, and urged a rethink by the potential publisher.
The group posted on social media: “You’d think the health secretary who presided over one of the worst death tolls in the world would have some humility or seek to reflect on the many lives lost, rather than try and cash in on the tragedy.
“We’d urge HarperCollins to reconsider paying for a story that will inevitably cause pain and hurt for those of us who have lost loved ones.
“Families have a right to hear about the decisions that have changed their lives forever in an inquiry, not a tell-all memoir.”
France has reported a further 16 deaths, bringing the total to 91,211, Reuters reports.
The country also said there are 1,202 people in intensive care units for Covid-19, an increase of 20.
Matt Hancock has been “approached” about writing a book about his experience as the UK’s health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic, his spokesperson has confirmed, provoking anger from campaigners and the Labour party.
The former minister, who stepped down in June after it was revealed he had broken Covid restrictions, had been contacted but no deal had been made, his spokesperson said.
More data from Italy. Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,597 on Saturday, up from 3,525 a day earlier.
There were 39 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 47 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 453 from a previous 445, Reuters reports.
Some 540,371 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 498,935, the health ministry said.
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#COVID19 VACCINE UPDATE: Daily figures on the total number of COVID-19 booster & third doses that have been given in the UK.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) November 13, 2021
As of 13 November, 12,164,586 booster & third vaccine doses have been given in the UK.
Visit the @UKHSA dashboard for details:https://t.co/cQkuLQglz1 pic.twitter.com/7lph0kkRYL
The UK government is to allow people to have their Covid booster jab after five months, a month sooner than under the current policy, in an effort to help stop the NHS becoming overwhelmed this winter.
The major change to the vaccination programme could see ministers flouting the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which recommends that people should wait until six months after their second dose before having their top-up in order to maximise protection.
It is unclear whether the policy would apply only in England or across all of the UK.
It means that millions of Britons will be able to have their booster sooner than expected to reduce the risk of hospitals failing to cope with large numbers of people becoming seriously ill with Covid during the winter months, when the NHS always comes under intense pressure.
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Singapore has reported 2,304 new Covid-19 cases, compared with 3,099 the previous day, and a further 14 deaths, Reuters reports.
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Italy reported 53 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, while the daily tally of new infections was 8,544, Reuters reports.
Italy has registered 132,739 deaths linked to Covid-19 since February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK. The country has reported more than 4.8 million cases to date.
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UK death toll increases by 157
The UK has recorded 157 deaths in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 142,835.
It also recorded 38,351 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 9,524,971.
Updated
Summary
- A catastrophic winter wave of coronavirus is unlikely in the UK, an influential pandemic adviser to the government has said. “I think it is unlikely we will get anything close to what we had last year, that catastrophic winter wave,” Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said on Saturday morning.
- In the first year of the pandemic, 25 children and young people in England died as a result of coronavirus infection, according to research published this week. “These results are important for guiding decisions on shielding and vaccinating children,” the researchers said in the journal Nature Medicine.
- Matt Hancock, the former UK health secretary, may be set to write a book entitled How I Won the Covid War. According to the Daily Mail, Hancock is in talks with HarperCollins for a blow-by-blow account of lockdown rows with ministers, aides, scientists and doctors.
- A US court upheld a decision to halt Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 workers, condemning it as “staggeringly overbroad”. “The mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces,” judges said.
- The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged unvaccinated people to reconsider getting their jabs, as the seven-day coronavirus incidence rate in Germany rose to the highest level since the pandemic began. “Difficult weeks lie ahead of us, and you can see that I am very worried,” Merkel said.
- Germany is preparing to bring in the army to assist overrun healthcare services, according to reports. Der Spiegel reported that 12,000 soldiers will be mobilised by Christmas. Among their missions will be providing booster vaccinations and tests in care homes and hospitals.
- A new record Covid death toll has been reported in Russia, with 1,241 dying from the disease in the past 24 hours. There were 39,256 new coronavirus cases recorded in the same period. It came after most of Russia’s 80-plus regions lifted a weeklong workplace shutdown at the beginning of the week.
- Barnsley is set to unveil one of the first public memorials in England to the heroes of the coronavirus pandemic later this month. The bronze statue will feature seven figures – a refuse collector, a nurse, a teacher, a carer, a police officer, an elderly man and a young girl.
- Greece has once again tightened its restrictions on the number of people that can enter supermarkets, just weeks after it relaxed the measure. As of Saturday, supermarkets will only be allowed to allow in one person per 9 sq m, after the rule was eased on 25 October.
- Several thousand people rallied in Melbourne, Australia against vaccine mandates. Vaccinations are voluntary, but some areas mandate vaccinations for many occupations and have barred the unvaccinated from activities such as dining out and concerts. Protests also took place in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Updated
Police in the Netherlands have arrested at least five people in connection with protests that led to clashes with police in The Hague over new pandemic restrictions.
Demonstrators were accused of throwing rocks and fireworks at police, and disobeying police instructions, German news agency dpa reported. Police eventually used water cannon to disperse the crowd.
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Barnsley to unveil permanent Covid memorial
Barnsley is set to unveil one of the first public memorials in England to the heroes of the coronavirus pandemic later this month.
The bronze statue, featuring seven figures – a refuse collector, a nurse, a teacher, a carer, a police officer, an elderly man and a young girl – is to be installed in the redeveloped town centre on 22 November, the Independent reports. The ceremony will be led by John Sentamu, the previous archbishop of York.
The £210,000 sculpture was funded by Barnsley Council and designed by Graham Ibbeson. A line composed by the local poet Ian McMillan will be inscribed on its plinth: “Barnsley’s fierce love will hold you forever in its heart.”
Ibbeson told the Independent: “With this work we are paying tribute to the incredible work of our key workers and the ordinary people that have bound a community together.
“We are literally putting these ordinary working people on a pedestal, acknowledging their extraordinary, efforts, sacrifices, and skills in protecting our community, and giving us hope for the future.”
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There’s more on the news, broken by the Mail this morning, that Matt Hancock, the former UK health secretary, has been approached to write a book about his role in the country’s Covid pandemic response.
Relatives of people who have died from Covid in the UK have criticised Hancock after the Mail reported a potential title for the book was How I Won the Covid War.
Now a spokesperson for Hancock has confirmed he has been “approached” by a publisher. She told the PA Media news agency: “Matt has been approached to write a book about his experiences in the pandemic, but no decisions have been made. There is no deal.
“The people who were heroic during the pandemic were the NHS staff who worked round the clock to save lives.”
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Children aged between five and 11 in Vienna will be able to start getting coronavirus vaccinations next week as part of a pilot project.
According to the Associated Press, the Austrian broadcaster ORF reported that about 200 children in Austria’s capital would be able to get jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine each day.
The European Medicines Agency, which regulates approval within the European Union, has not yet given the go-ahead for vaccinations of children under the age of 12, although it has been evaluating the Pfizer jab for this age group since last month.
Several pediatricians in Austria have been vaccinating children of this age group already, since demand is very high as the infection rate in the country has been rapidly increasing, ORF reported.
“The interest in off-label vaccination is enormous,” Peter Voitl, a pediatrician and vaccination expert with the Vienna Medical Association, told ORF. “We vaccinate the age group five to 11 at our clinic and have several hundred people on the waiting list.”
Updated
Matt Hancock, the former UK health secretary forced to resign after a scandal involving an extramarital breach of social distancing guidelines, may be set to write a book entitled How I Won the Covid War.
According to the Daily Mail, Hancock is in talks with HarperCollins for a blow-by-blow account of lockdown rows with ministers, aides, scientists and doctors. The paper suggests the former cabinet minister could be set for an advance of up to £100,000.
The Mail quoted Hancock as saying: “I have been approached to write a book, but no decisions have been made.”
Bereaved relatives of victims of the pandemic criticised Hancock, urging him to “have some humility”, the i reported. Lobby Akinnola, the spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, told the paper that Hancock was “cashing in” on the tragedy.
“You’d think the health secretary who presided over one of the worst death tolls in the world would have some humility or seek to reflect on the many lives lost, rather than try and cash in on the tragedy,” Akinnola said.
“If he thinks he has ‘won the Covid war’, it’s hard not to feel like our loved ones were used as cannon fodder.”
Hancock stepped down from his role as health secretary in June after CCTV camera footage emerged of him in a clinch with a colleague in his office, in a breach of social distancing regulations.
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Three snow leopards have died as a result of complications of Covid-19 at a zoo in Nebraska, according to local media.
Lincoln children’s zoo announced a month ago that two Sumatran tigers and three snow leopards showing signs of infection had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The tigers have since recovered, after a regimen of treatment including steroids and antibiotics to prevent secondary infection, KOLN 10/11 NOW reported.
The snow leopards died despite having been cared for “tirelessly” by vets, the zoo was quoted as having said in a press release.
“We know how much each of our animals means to our community inside and outside of the zoo,” a spokesperson said.
“It is very tough to lose any animal unexpectedly, especially one as rare and loved as the snow leopard. We are all heartbroken by the loss of Ranney, Everest, and Makalu and we are grieving together.”
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Germany has reversed a decision to stop paying for coronavirus tests, as fears grow in the country over rising rates of infection, Deutsche Welle reports.
The decision comes just a month after authorities said they would stop paying for the tests, which are necessary for unvaccinated people to obtain a coronavirus health pass.
According to the Robert Koch institute, Germany’s public health authority, 45,081 new infections and 228 Covid-related deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours.
It comes after the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged unvaccinated people to reconsider their hesitancy.
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A decision on whether to authorise a Covid vaccine for children aged between five and 11 in Canada will come “in the next one to two weeks”, the country’s medicines regulator has said.
Dr Supriya Sharma, the chief medical adviser to Health Canada, said the government department was “actively continuing” its review of the Pfizer/BioNtech jab for younger children, Global News reported.
The chief medical officer, Dr Theresa Tam, said that age group continues to have the highest rates of coronavirus infection of any in the country.
There was an 11% increase in the rate of new Covid cases in Canada this week, Tam said. She said more than 1,800 were admitted to hospital, 528 of whom were placed in intensive care wards. There was an average of 22 deaths a day from the disease, she said.
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In the first year of the pandemic, 25 children and young people in England died as a result of coronavirus infection, according to research published this week.
The study, published on Thursday in Nature Medicine, found that of 12,023,568 people aged under 18 in the country, 3,105 died, including 61 who were positive for Sars-CoV-2.
Of those who died while infected with the virus, 22 died of Covid, while three died as a result of “paediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome temporally associated with Sars-CoV-2”.
On the back of those figures, the researchers calculated a coronavirus-infection survival rate in under-18s of 99.995%.
The new figures emphasise the extremely low mortality risk from coronavirus infection in young people, and will add fuel to an already heated debate around vaccinating young people against it.
“To distinguish between CYP [children and young people] who died as a result of Sars-CoV-2 infection and those who died of another cause but were coincidentally infected with the virus, we undertook a clinical review of all CYP deaths with a positive Sars-CoV-2 test from March 2020 to February 2021,” the researchers said.
“These results are important for guiding decisions on shielding and vaccinating children. New variants might have different mortality risks and should be evaluated in a similar way.”
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Germany 'mobilises 12,000 soldiers to fight Covid'
Germany is preparing to bring in the army to assist overrun healthcare services, according to reports.
Der Spiegel reports that 12,000 soldiers will be mobilised by Christmas. Among their missions will be providing booster vaccinations and tests in care homes and hospitals.
So far, 630 soldiers have been deployed, according to the paper. The army was not immediately available for comment, Reuters reports.
Thousands gathered in Christchurch to protest against current government and pandemic controls on Saturday.
There have been a number of protests across New Zealand this week including one outside parliament in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday.
The protests come as New Zealand prepares to implement a vaccine mandate for workers employed in education and the health and disability sectors. The majority of the population supports the public health measure, with a survey by Talbot Mills Research finding that 78% agree with a vaccine mandate for health workers, and 76% with one for teachers, according to the New Zealand Herald.
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Greece has once again tightened its restrictions on the number of people that can enter supermarkets, just weeks after it relaxed the measure.
As of Saturday, supermarkets will only be allowed to allow in one person per 9 sq m, after the rule was eased on 25 October. It had been changed to one customer per 2 sq m, according to the Kathimerini newspaper.
The reintroduction comes after it was deemed not feasible to require unvaccinated shoppers to show proof of a negative rapid test, with the minister for development, Adonis Georgiadis, saying on Friday: “There are problems ... There are some of our fellow citizens who will not even take a rapid test and we cannot deprive them of access to basic goods.”
Since 6 November, unvaccinated people have been obliged to show a recent negative test to enter most indoor public areas, including banks, most shops, government buildings and hair salons.
Greece registered a record number of cases this week, with its tally of new daily infections rising to 7,335 on Monday.
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Four times as many people in Tokyo are likely to have been infected with the coronavirus between September last year and this March than were reported in official figures, new research has claimed.
Based on a survey of more than 23,000 people in the Japanese capital, researchers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science estimated that the seroprevalence of Covid antibodies was 3.4% during that period, the Japan Times reports.
That indicates that 470,778 out of Tokyo’s total population of about 14 million had been infected with Covid.
“The estimated number of individuals in Tokyo with a history of Sars-CoV-2 infection was 3.9-fold higher than the number of confirmed cases during the period,” the study said. It has been peer reviewed and was published in the Japan Epidemiological Association’s Journal of Epidemiology.
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California has become the latest US state to make Covid vaccine booster doses available for all adults, despite a call from federal health officials to limit their distribution to people most at risk.
It follows similar moves by Colorado and New Mexico, which have among the highest rates of new infections in the US. California, the country’s most populous state, has now joined them in the “high” tier for transmission, according to recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a letter to local health officials and providers, seen by the Associated Press, California’s public health officer, Tomás Aragón, said they should “allow patients to self-determine their risk of exposure” and not turn away anyone over the age of 18 who has gone more than six months since their second dose of vaccine.
Pharmacies should prioritise boosters for people working in skilled nursing or living in care homes, but generally “should not miss any opportunity” to give top-up jabs to anyone visiting a drug store, hospital or medical office, he said.
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These were the scenes in The Hague on Friday night as the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, announced new coronavirus restrictions across the Netherlands.
Police fired water cannon against hundreds of firework-throwing protesters gathered outside the justice and security ministry during Rutte’s press conference.
About 200 protesters threw stones and fireworks at riot police and built barricades, according to AFP.
Police used water cannon to disperse them, with loud bangs and chants echoing through the centre of the city as mounted police rounded up the stragglers.
The Dutch restrictions, which include at least three weeks of Covid curbs on restaurants, shops and sporting events, are western Europe’s first partial lockdown of the winter.
From Saturday, bars, restaurants, cafes and supermarkets will have to shut at 8pm for the next three weeks, while shops classified as non-essential must shut at 6pm.
Public events will be scrapped while football matches, including the Netherlands’ home World Cup qualifier with Norway next week, will have to be played behind closed doors.
People will be limited to having four visitors at home and have been advised to work at home unless absolutely necessary. However, schools will remain open, and people will be allowed to leave their homes without restrictions.
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The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has urged unvaccinated people to reconsider their decision, as the seven-day coronavirus incidence rate in Germany rose to the highest level since the pandemic began.
“Difficult weeks lie ahead of us, and you can see that I am very worried,” Merkel said in her weekly video podcast on Saturday. “I urgently ask everyone who has not yet been vaccinated: please reconsider.”
Germany’s seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 277.4 on Saturday, data from the Robert Koch Institute showed, according to Reuters. The record in the third wave of the pandemic, last December, was 197.6.
The federal government is due to meet the leaders of Germany’s 16 states next week to discuss new pandemic restrictions. However, the three parties negotiating to form a new government have agreed to let the expiry of a state of emergency that has been in place since the start of the pandemic go ahead on 25 November as planned.
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'Catastrophic winter wave unlikely in UK,' says Ferguson
The UK is in “quite a different situation” from other European nations where curbs on freedoms are being considered, an influential pandemic adviser to the government has said.
Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said high Covid case numbers in the summer had boosted immunity in the UK’s population, compared with Germany, the Netherlands and France.
He said he hoped the UK could avoid returning to social distancing restrictions this winter, adding: “I think it is unlikely we will get anything close to what we had last year, that catastrophic winter wave.”
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme what direction he believes the country is going, Ferguson said several weeks of declining Covid cases and hospital admissions had been followed by “a hint of an uptick in the last few days”.
“But we are in quite a different situation from those European countries [the Netherlands and Germany] you are talking about,” he said.
“We’ve had very high case numbers – between 30,000 and 50,000 a day – really for the last four months, since the beginning of July.
“That has obviously had some downsides. It has also paradoxically had an upside of boosting the immunity of the population compared with countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France, which have had much lower case numbers and are only now seeing an uptick.”
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About 400 South Korean and Japanese tourists have become the first to visit Vietnam in almost 20 months, after the country closed its borders in an effort to contain the coronavirus.
The passengers, who were required to show proof of vaccination and negative Covid test results before departure, travelled on charter flights from Seoul and Tokyo to Nha Trang, a resort city in the south of Vietnam, according to AFP.
Vietnam, which closed its borders to international visitors in March last year, is desperate to revive its badly hit economy after months of lockdowns. The communist one-party state was widely praised for its handling of the pandemic last year, with only dozens of known coronavirus cases.
However, the highly transmissible Delta variant arrived in the country this April, and Vietnam has since recorded more than a million infections and almost 23,000 deaths.
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A new record Covid death toll has been reported in Russia, with 1,241 dying from the disease in the past 24 hours. There were 39,256 new coronavirus cases recorded in the same period, according to Reuters.
At the beginning of the week, most of Russia’s 80-plus regions lifted a weeklong workplace shutdown that was designed to curb a surge in case numbers.
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Court declares Biden vaccine mandate "staggeringly overbroad"
A US court has upheld a decision to halt Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 workers, rejecting a legal challenge from his administration.
A three-member panel of the 5th US circuit court of appeals in New Orleans affirmed its ruling despite the Biden administration’s claim that putting the vaccine mandate on hold could lead to dozens or even hundreds of deaths, according to Reuters.
“The mandate is staggeringly overbroad,” the opinion said.
“The mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers),” circuit court judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote for the panel.
Vaccine mandates are controversial. Supporters say they are needed to put an end to the almost two-year pandemic, while opponents argue they violate the US constitution and curb individual liberty.
In a boost to critics of the mandate, Engelhardt wrote: “The public interest is also served by maintaining our constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions – even, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials.”
The rule, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), mandates that businesses with at least 100 employees require staff to get vaccinated or face weekly tests and face mask requirements.
Biden imposed the requirement in September, telling Americans that “our patience is wearing thin” with those refusing to get vaccinated.
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Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has urged elderly and vulnerable people to get their coronavirus vaccine booster jabs to prevent a rise in Covid cases, as he warned of “storm clouds” forming over parts of Europe.
Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Croatia are among the countries that have recently seen a surge in Covid cases, with the former recording its highest coronavirus case numbers since the start of the pandemic.
Speaking in a broadcast clip, Johnson said the situation was of concern. “I’m seeing the storm clouds gathering over parts of the European continent. And I’ve got to be absolutely frank with people: we’ve been here before. We remember what happens when the wave starts rolling in,” he said.
The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, has said a lack of uptake of Covid vaccines is behind the increase.
While Johnson noted that cases in the UK had been “drifting down for a while”, he said it was unclear whether the trend was set to continue. “I’m looking at what’s happening overseas, and I’m simply saying to the British people … this is the moment to get your booster,” he said.
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Australians protest against compulsory vaccinations
Several thousand people rallied in Melbourne against new vaccination mandates on Saturday, with a few comparing the state government to Nazis and calling for violence against politicians.
In Australia, where 83% of people aged 16 and above have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, nationwide vaccinations are voluntary. But states and territories have mandated vaccinations for many occupations and barred the unvaccinated from activities such as dining out and concerts.
The Melbourne demonstration against the vaccination mandate that came into effect on Saturday – requiring construction workers in Victoria state to be fully vaccinated – was peaceful, with no immediate reports of unruly behaviour or arrests, according to Reuters.
But a reporter at The Age posted video on Twitter of a protester carrying a mock gallows with three nooses hanging from it, and the newspaper showed a protester carrying a poster depicting the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, with a Hitler moustache and the hashtag #DictatorDan.
“We’re being governed by insane medical bureaucrats,” Craig Kelly, a former Liberal party member of parliament and now the leader of the United Australia party, told the rally, media reported.
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Good morning from London, and welcome to yet another coronavirus live blog.
I’m Damien Gayle and I’ll be keeping you up to date with all the latest headlines and developments from the coronavirus pandemic around the world.
Got a coronavirus-related story you think we should be covering? Drop me a line at damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via my Twitter profile @damiengayle.
