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Mexico’s health ministry reported 775 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 57 more fatalities on Monday, bringing the country’s overall death toll from the pandemic to 291,204 and the total number of cases to 3,846,508.
Officials have said the ministry’s figures are likely significantly lower than the actual numbers of both Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Ukrainians to be offered cash if they get fully vaccinated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that people will be offered a cash incentive to get double-vaccinated against Covid-19 in a bid to boost the country’s low inoculation rate.
AFP reports:
“Everyone who has had two doses will be able to receive 1,000 hryvnias” or about 35 euros ($40), Zelenksy said in video message, a sizeable sum for the citizens of one of Europe’s poorest countries and where fewer than a third of the population has been fully vaccinated.
The money could be used to buy a sports club membership, tickets for the cinema, theatre or a museum, or go towards a train or plane ticket for a journey within Ukraine, the president said.
“These are the sectors that have been hardest hit by the lockdowns,” Zelenksy said.
The government is expected to approve 200m euros in the coming months for the scheme which will be launched on 19 December.
The former Soviet republic recorded 442 deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours on Monday, the second-highest number of new deaths in the world after Russia, which reported 1,211.
The country of 45 million people is currently experiencing its worst-ever wave of the pandemic, driven mainly by the more infectious Delta variant and a high degree of vaccine scepticism among the population.
Authorities have tried to boost the vaccination by imposing restrictions on people who are not vaccinated, such as the requirement for a vaccine certificate for some public spaces.
But according to health ministry data, only 28% of Ukrainians have received two vaccine doses.
“We have passed the peak of this wave” of the pandemic, Zelensky nevertheless insisted.
In all, Ukraine has recorded 3.2m cases since the start of the pandemic and more than 77,000 deaths.
Updated
Nigeria to speed up vaccination campaign in mass inoculation effort
Nigeria will start a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign later this week, aiming to inoculate half of its targeted population by the end of January, government officials said.
Reuters reports:
Africa’s most-populous country has a goal to vaccinate 111 million people to reach herd immunity.
Under the initiative to start on Friday, 55 million doses or more than a million a day will be administered. The country has to date vaccinated only 2.9% of those eligible to get vaccines.
The plan will see vaccine sites set up at private health facilities, universities, colleges, stadiums, motor parks and shopping malls among other venues.
Boss Mustapha, head of the presidential steering committee on Covid-19, said the government “has enough vaccines in the pipeline to vaccinate about 50% of the target population by the end of January 2022”.
He also said the government was making efforts to secure booster shots “so as to build a healthy level of antibodies”. He did not provide details.
Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said Nigeria received about 5 million AstraZeneca shots last month from the Covax global-sharing facility, both purchases and donations. Nigeria also had commitments for 11.99 million and 12.2 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, respectively, he said.
The government has purchased nearly 40 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses, which would be coming in batches, said Shuaib.
Updated
The US had administered 442,005,260 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Monday morning, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
This from Reuters:
Those figures are up from the 440,559,613 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by 14 November.
The agency said 99.2% of the population aged 65 years and above had received at least one dose as of 6am ET on Monday.
The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine.
About 30.1 million people have received a booster dose of either Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine. Booster doses from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson were authorized by the US health regulator on 20 October.
Updated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised Americans not to travel to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Iceland because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases in those countries.
The CDC raised its travel recommendation to “Level Four: Very High” for the three countries, telling Americans they should avoid travel there.
The CDC separately lowered its Covid-19 travel advisory to “Level One: Low” for Japan, India, Pakistan, Liberia, Gambia and Mozambique.
Updated
Germany mulls 'lockdown for unvaccinated people'
Germany’s prospective coalition government is pondering lockdown restrictions for the unvaccinated, as infections in the country keep soaring.
Measures could include requiring the unvaccinated to show proof of a negative test before travelling by bus or train.
“The possibility of being able to order contact restrictions in private and in public spaces is to be added to the catalog of measures,” agreed the possible partners of the so-called traffic light coalition, which is expected to be formed.
The leader of the Green Party Robert Habeck told ARD: “Contact prohibition or 2G regulation [a rule stipulating people must either be vaccinated or recovered from the virus] means in large parts: Lockdown for unvaccinated people. That is the vulgar translation.”
The federal states should also get legislative tools that would enable them to prohibit or restrict leisure, cultural and sporting events as well as gatherings, and to prohibit entry to health facilities, prohibit the sale and public consumption of alcohol and close universities.
Green parliamentary party leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt announced Monday afternoon that a vaccine mandate for certain professional groups such as nurses would also be introduced. “We will get this off the ground,” she said, adding that her party was in agreement with the SPD and FDP, the other two parties hoping to make up the next government.
On Monday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said public health authorities had reported a record 303 new infections per 100,000 people over the past seven days - the first rise above 300 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Updated
UK TV presenter Craig Revel Horwood has tested positive for Covid, meaning he will not take part in the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing this weekend.
The judge is the first member of the show’s broadcast team to test positive for the virus and is having to self isolate.
A Strictly spokesperson said: “Craig Revel Horwood has tested positive for Covid-19 and is now self-isolating following the latest government guidelines. While Craig will not be taking part in Strictly Come Dancing this weekend, all being well he will return the following week.”
Summary of key events
Below is a rundown of the latest Coronavirus news from around the world:
• Britain’s booster vaccine rollout is to be extended to people aged between 40 and 49, officials said, in a bid to boost waning immunity in the population ahead of the colder winter months.
• France has reported 1,257 people in intensive care units for Covid, a rise of 47 on the previous days figures. It reported 91,298 deaths now that have taken place in hospital, up by 70.
• Italy reported 44 Coronavirus deaths on Monday, up from 36 on Sunday, the health ministry said. The country also reported 5,144 infection cases, down from 7,569 a day earlier.
• UK prime minister Boris Johnson warned people not to be complacent, saying that a new wave of Covid has “steadily swept through central Europe” and is now affecting the nation’s closest neighbours.
• The coronavirus has killed at least 5,098,386 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Monday.
• On the day its lockdown of unvaccinated people begins, Austria has become the first European country to take radical action in a bid to increase take-up of jabs as new cases surge.
A doctor was suspended by a Houston hospital for spreading misinformation about Covid-19.
Houston Methodist hospital said Dr Mary Bowden, an ear, throat, and nose specialist, spread “dangerous misinformation” about Covid and shared personal and professional opinions the hospital deemed “harmful to the community”.
Bowden, a recent hire, posted several tweets stating that she was against Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
She also used Twitter to promote Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19, despite several public health officials having warned the public not to use the anti-parasitic drug, which has uses in humans and animals, as a coronavirus treatment.
Battling a surge in Covid-19 cases, Switzerland’s week-long immunisation drive nudged up its vaccination rate, figures showed Monday, as the president accepted that few more people may come forward for jabs.
The wealthy Alpine nation launched a “vaccination week” to address the drop-off in uptake of the jab in recent months.
The number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered during last week’s nationwide push was up 38 percent on the week before, Monday’s health ministry figures showed, according to the ATS national news agency.
Switzerland had just 10% of the population fully vaccinated by April 23, racing to 50% three months later on July 29. But in the subsequent months that swift progress has tailed off drastically.
Halfway through November, 65% of the Swiss population are now fully vaccinated, with a further two percent having had their first dose of a two-jab course.
Employers in Latvia are allowed to dismiss employees who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid-19 from Monday, under new rules aimed at taming the pandemic in the EU member state.
Elected politicians without a vaccination certificate or evidence of having recovered from Covid-19 will also be barred from their duties and receive no salary until they get vaccinated.
The ban could include two parliamentarians who are refusing to get inoculated.
Below is a summary of the latest developments:
Europe
• Britain’s booster vaccine rollout is to be extended to people aged between 40 and 49, officials said, in a bid to boost waning immunity in the population ahead of the colder winter months.
• Dutch hospitals are feeling the strain from a surge in Covid-19 patients but the worst has yet to come, the head of the country’s hospital association said.
• Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel said that the world needs to be better prepared to probe the origins of diseases and welcomed the creation of a new World Health Organization advisory group on dangerous pathogens.
• International travel to Spain will likely recover some two thirds of its pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of this year, the tourism minister Reyes Maroto said.
• Russia reported 1,211 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, close to an all-time high of 1,241 reported last week, as well as 38,420 new cases.
Americas
• Florida lawmakers will meet in a special legislative session, called by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates.
• US president Joe Biden’s vaccine requirements are prompting more Americans to get Covid shots, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.
Asia-pacific
• Singapore will allow vaccinated arrivals from five more countries, including Indonesia and India, to access the country without quarantine via its travel lanes from Nov. 29, its transport minister said.
• Japan will promote the establishment of production bases for semiconductors, Covid vaccines and drugs as part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s economic stimulus, a draft plan seen by Reuters showed.
• A Maori tribe that claims New Zealand’s most famous haka as its heritage told anti-vaccine protesters to stop using the traditional performance to promote their message.
• China is battling the spread of its biggest outbreak, according to the latest numbers, with travellers from a city where infections have grown faster than elsewhere in the country subject to tough quarantine rules in nearby areas.
Middle-east and Africa
• A ban on public sector employees entering their offices if they are unvaccinated and untested for Covid-19 took effect in Egypt on Monday as the government pushes to accelerate vaccination rates in the final weeks of the year.
• Israel’s economy is expected to grow 7.1% in 2021 and 4.7% in 2022, the finance ministry said following a rapid recovery. The country also said on Sunday children aged five to 11 would be eligible for vaccination.
France has reported 1,257 people in intensive care units for Covid, a rise of 47 on the previous days figures. It reported 91,298 deaths now that have taken place in hospital, up by 70.
In Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill said her party was prepared to take “whatever steps are necessary” to avoid another lockdown.
“The executive will meet again on Wednesday with a focus on the huge pressures in the health service,” she tweeted.
“We will continue to be guided by the health advice to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the public and avoid another lock down scenario.”
In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, there have been double the number of cremations as deaths from Coronavirus soar.
The numbers are up vastly compared to the summer months, its spokesman told AFP, as the country battles a devastating new wave of coronavirus infections and low vaccination rates.
One of Europe’s poorest countries, Ukraine recently reported record numbers of daily Covid-19 deaths and cases, resulting in a significant increase in burials and, in particular, cremations.
“To date, compared to the summer period, the number of processions has doubled,” Andriy Yashchenko, a spokesman for the Kiev crematorium, told AFP.
“If during the summer there was on average 60 processions per day, now there are between 100 and 120,” he said.
Ukraine reported 442 daily coronavirus fatalities on Monday, the second-highest number in the world after Russia.
Ukrainian authorities initially struggled to source vaccine doses and have since fought to convince vaccine-sceptic Ukrainians to get inoculated.
But new restrictions requiring vaccinations have seen people across the country flock to vaccine centres.
The crematorium – one of three such facilities in the ex-Soviet country – is part of one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in Kiev.
Yashchenko said the facility has stayed open for hours more than usual in recent weeks, and has sometimes been operating until midnight.
He added that the cremation of coronavirus victims is different as indoor services and open caskets are prohibited.
On Monday, an AFP correspondent saw two processions that followed the cremations of coronavirus victims.
Relatives of the victims distributed candles outside the building, and a priest read a prayer before the closed coffins were taken away for cremation.
Yashchenko said that in October the facility cremated over 2,800 people, compared to 1,400 in August.
Since the start of the pandemic, Ukraine has recorded more than three million coronavirus cases and 77,000 deaths.
Italy reported 44 Coronavirus deaths on Monday, up from 36 on Sunday, the health ministry said. The country also reported 5,144 infection cases, down from 7,569 a day earlier.
UK prime minister warning as Covid cases rise in Europe
UK prime minister Boris Johnson said that a new wave of Covid has “steadily swept through central Europe” and is now affecting the nation’s closest neighbours.
He said: “Our friends on the continent have been forced to respond with various degrees of new restrictions, from full lockdowns, to lockdowns for the unvaccinated, to restrictions on business opening hours and restrictions on social gatherings.”
“We don’t yet know the extent to which this new wave will wash up on our shores, but history shows we cannot afford to be complacent.”
The government said a further 47 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 142,945.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 167,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am on Monday, there had been a further 39,705 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said.
Summary
You can follow what is happening over on the UK blog as Boris Johnson is about to hold a press briefing.
Below is a summary of the global news in the last few hours:
- Belgium’s government is bringing forward a meeting to decide on tighter measures to control the spread of Covid-19 amid a rapid increase in infections and hospital admissions.
- The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has made two significant announcements, recommending rolling out booster vaccines to those aged between 40 and 49, and recommending a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to people aged 16 and 17.
- The coronavirus has killed at least 5,098,386 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Monday.
- On the day its lockdown of unvaccinated people begins, Austria has become the first European country to take radical action in a bid to increase take-up of jabs as new cases surge.
Updated
Concern in Ireland over rising cases weeks after lockdown lifted
The Irish prime minister has said he is “extremely concerned” by the rise in covid cases just weeks after the strictest lockdown in the EU was lifted.
On Monday night, the government’s cabinet subcommittee on Covid is to meet to discuss pausing some of the easing of restrictions including the return to office work.
It comes amid fears a relaxation in public behaviour in relation to masks and Covid certificate checks in restaurants and indoor hospitality is leading to a rise in cases.
On Monday, the chief executive of the national Health Service Executive said the situation in hospitals was “grim”.
The department of health was notified of 3,805 new cases on Monday with 106 patients in intensive care units, just under half that in January.
Paul Reid said this was “very concerning” as hospitals were now also open to other patients on elective surgery unlike earlier in the year.
“Now we’ve a whole set of non-Covid care taking place in our hospitals alongside rising Covid cases. The situation is grim and something has to give,” he told RTE.
The figures come just weeks after the night time economy was re-opened after 20 months. Official data shows last week showed the median age of those with Covid was 34.
Updated
Cineworld’s box office revenues surpassed pre-pandemic levels at its cinemas in the UK and Ireland last month as blockbusters such as No Time to Die, Dune and Venom draw film fans back to the big screen.
The world’s second-largest cinema operator, which owns the Cineworld and Picturehouse chains in the UK and Regal Theatres in the US, said box office and concession revenues at its UK and Irish operation in October reached 127% of the level in the equivalent month in 2019.
Shares in Cineworld jumped 11%, making the company the biggest riser on the FTSE 250 on Monday morning, as investors cheered the news of a recovery in the Covid-battered cinema industry.
Austria became the first EU country on Monday to impose a lockdown on the unvaccinated and the first to start inoculating children as young as five, as the virus strengthens its grip on the continent.
Surging infection rates have placed western Europe once again at the heart of the global epidemic and governments are being forced to take action, the Netherlands already announcing the region’s first partial lockdown of the winter.
Austria has inoculated about 65% of its 9 million people, below the EU average of 67%.
Daily new infection rates have been hovering at about 12,000 in recent weeks, up from roughly 2,000 a day in September.
Updated
Summary
Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:
Austria lockdown for unvaccinated
Austria’s lockdown of unvaccinated people begins, the first European country to take radical action in a bid to increase take-up of jabs as new cases surge.
Peru also gets tough
Peru, the country with the world’s highest Covid-19 mortality rate, is to require adults to show proof of vaccination to enter indoor spaces from next month.
India opens to tourists
India opens again to foreign tourists from countries with reciprocal agreements after a 20-month ban due to the pandemic.
UK to expand booster shots
Britain’s booster programme for vaccinations will be expanded to all healthy adults aged 40 to 49 after scientists give the green light.
Filipinos back to school
Thousands of children in the Philippines are allowed to return to classrooms for the first time since the start of the pandemic, as a pilot reopening of schools gets under way.
Italy targets radical anti-vaxxers
Italian police raid radical anti-vaccine activists alleged to have called for violence, including urging “hangings” and “shootings” of people supporting virus restrictions.
Cambodia welcomes jabbed
Cambodia announces that fully vaccinated foreign travellers can visit the kingdom without quarantine, giving a boost to the Covid-battered tourism industry.
Japan economic hit
Japan’s economy shrank far more than expected in the three months to September, as a surge in virus cases hit spending and supply chain issues hampered business.
More than 5 million dead
The coronavirus has killed at least 5,098,386 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Monday.
The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 763,092, followed by Brazil with 611,283, India with 463,655, Mexico with 291,147, and Russia with 256,597.
The countries with the highest number of new deaths were Russia with 1,211, followed by Ukraine with 442 and Romania with 233.
Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.
Updated
Spain’s medicines agency has authorised Catalonia-based pharmaceutical group Hipra to test a vaccine it is developing on more than 1,000 volunteers, the prime minister Pedro Sánchez has said.
Hipra will carry out the so-called phase 2 trial – the second stage of a three-round trial process – on volunteers at 10 hospitals around Spain, Sánchez said.
Speaking at an event to present how European Union recovery funds will be channelled into health investments, Sanchez described the vaccine development as “extraordinary news”.
“It demonstrates that Spain can position itself at the forefront of the response to Covid,” he said, adding that the government had given a €15m (£12.78m, $17.17m) grant to develop the drug.
Hipra, a pharmaceutical lab that mainly researches and manufactures veterinary vaccines, has been working on two shots. One is based on the same RNA messenger technology used in shots made by Pfizer and Moderna, while the second, which has just received approval for trial, uses a recombinant protein like that of US-based drugmaker Novavax.
Hipra has said on its website that it anticipates being able to produce 600m doses in 2022 and double that figure the following year.
Updated
Stormont is facing renewed calls to introduce vaccine passports after escalating pressures on the health system saw ambulances diverted away from a main hospital.
Craigavon Area hospital in County Armagh stopped receiving ambulances carrying patients with non-life-threatening conditions on Sunday night due to severe capacity issues in its emergency department.
At one point, there were 108 patients waiting in A&E, 32 needing hospital admission. However, the hospital, which had 123 Covid-19 inpatients last night, had only three available beds.
As a result, the British Medical Association called on the Stormont Executive to revisit the issue of vaccine passports as a priority.
Making certification a legal entry requirement for hospitality venues has been credited with driving up vaccination rates among young people in the Irish Republic.
In Scotland, the executive has recommended that nightclubs and other venues carry out Covid entry checks and an official app has been developed to enable people to show proof of their vaccine status.
However, the administration has stopped short of making it a legal requirement of entry.
Updated
A “blizzard” of cases coming from Europe could derail Christmas plans unless people in the UK take up the offer of booster jabs, Boris Johnson has warned.
The prime minister said there was a “storm of infection” in mainland Europe, but the top-up vaccinations offered the best form of protection for the UK.
He stressed there was nothing in the domestic data that suggested a need to increase restrictions in England.
Ministers have set out contingency measures – a “plan B” – if there is unsustainable pressure on the NHS. The use of face coverings could become mandatory, vaccine passports could be required for some busy venues and people could be asked to work from home where possible. But Johnson said:
We don’t see anything in the data at the moment to suggest that we need to go to plan B, we’re sticking with plan A.
But what we have certainly got to recognise is there is a storm of infection out there in parts of Europe, you can see those numbers ticking up very sharply in some of our continental friends.
And we’ve just got to recognise that there is always a risk that a blizzard could come from the east again, as the months get colder.
The best protection for our country is for everybody to go forward and get their booster.
Updated
Today so far
- The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has made two significant announcements, recommending rolling out booster vaccines to those aged between 40 and 49, and recommending a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to people aged 16 and 17.
- England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, has said the country may still face “a bumpy few months ahead” and that “everyone has a key role to play in achieving as safe and disruption free winter as possible. Wear face coverings in crowded places if it is practical to do so. Increase indoor ventilation whenever you can. Make sure you are vaccinated.”
- Dr June Raine, of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said that studying the data from the booster programme for over-50s in the UK there were “no new safety concerns” and “the booster doses are effective”.
- Outsourcing company Serco said profits would be higher than expected in 2021 thanks to greater demand from the UK government for its Covid-19 services, including test and trace.
- Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has backed AstraZeneca’s controversial announcement that it is moving to seek a profit from its Covid vaccine sales. Dowden also ruled out the UK government following the example of Austria and imposing lockdown conditions on people who are unvaccinated.
- Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, as the three parties in talks to form a new government plan an expansion of measures to tackle the pandemic. The seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 303 from 289 the previous day, figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed.
- Austria’s lockdown restrictions on those who are unvaccinated came into force today. “My aim is very clear: to get the unvaccinated to get vaccinated, not to lock up the unvaccinated,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told ORF radio.
- The government in Belgium has moved a meeting to debate new measures against Covid from Friday to Wednesday in order to have them in place for the weekend, as hospital admissions in the country are up 30% on a weekly basis.
- China is battling the spread of its biggest Covid-19 outbreak caused by the Delta variant as case numbers in the north-eastern city of Dalian outpace anywhere else in the country. The Dalian outbreak has prompted China to confine nearly 1,500 university students to their dormitories and hotels in the city.
- Florida lawmakers will meet on Monday for a week-long special legislative session called by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates imposed by businesses or government agencies.
- Israel gave the green light on Sunday to start vaccinating children aged between five and 11 against Covid-19 using Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, following the example of the US.
- Cambodia reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers on Monday, two weeks earlier than originally planned, as it emerges from a lengthy lockdown bolstered by one of the world’s highest rates of immunisation against Covid-19.
- Classrooms across the Philippines are filling up with students again for the first time in nearly two years. Children have been allowed back for face-to-face learning from Monday as the country begins its pilot implementation of limited in-person classes.
That is your lot from me, Martin Belam, today. Kevin Rawlinson will be here shortly to take you through the rest of the days coronavirus news from the UK and around the world.
Updated
Belgium government accelerates plan to decide on tighter Covid measures
Belgium’s government is bringing forward a meeting to decide on tighter measures to control the spread of Covid-19 amid a rapid increase in infections and hospital admissions.
The meeting, originally set for Friday, was brought forward to Wednesday so that any measure approved midweek could be operational by the weekend, the government said this morning.
Associated Press notes that hospital admissions are up 30% on a weekly basis, and the number of patients in intensive care have risen to more than 500, putting more strain on hospitals in the nation of 11 million.
Belgium has just gone through an extended holiday weekend and no precise new caseload figures were published on Monday.
Authorities reimposed some pandemic restrictions three weeks ago after relaxing them just a few weeks earlier. They also expanded a nationwide use of the Covid-19 pass.
But infections have continued to rise, and the government is expected to look into further areas where face mask-wearing should be made mandatory. It is also set to consider turning its advice on working from home into a mandatory order to prevent employees from mingling.
Updated
It will be too soon to judge what impact Austria’s lockdown that targets the unvaccinated will have on the vaccination rates in the country, but I’ve just seen this picture from this morning in Salzburg, where there is a large queue to get the jab at the “Impfbus”.
Updated
One of the questions for England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, at that press briefing was around the ethics of using vaccine doses to deliver booster shots in a wealthy country like the UK, when there are developing nations struggling to even put one dose into people’s arms. He said:
Nobody working in public health would question for one second the ethos that until we’re all safe from this virus, no one is fully safe. And there is of course a global public health concern about making sure that as many countries and as many people around the world have access to these vaccines.
But equally, our job as advisors to the UK government is to give advice relevant to the UK, and that is what we do when we advise our ministers and the UK has a massive programme of vaccine donation underway in parallel to our own vaccine programme, which is advised by JCVI.
This is another key stat that Jonathan Van-Tam gave in his message – looking at the hospitalisation rates. Pippa Crear, political editor at the Daily Mirror, sums it up in one tweet:
Prof Jonathan Van Tam warns that you're FIVE times more likely to end up in hospital if you're NOT doubled jabbed and in your 40s - and FOUR times more likely in your 30s. 💉
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) November 15, 2021
The precise numbers given were:
The rate of admission to hospital with Covid is 1.4 per 100,000 if double vaccinated, but 7.8 for 100,000 if unvaccinated, which is fivefold higher. And for those aged 30 to 39, those rates are 4.1 per 100,000 for the double vaccinated and 17.3 per 100,000 for the unvaccinated, which is four times higher.
Jonathan Van-Tam: 'a bumpy few months ahead' for UK over Christmas period
England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, has said the country may still face “a bumpy few months ahead”. At this morning’s Downing Street briefing he said:
The UK Covid programme is evolving as the data evolves, with further evolutionary steps announced today. And this is how we go forwards. Wait for the data. Move the dial, wait again for more data, move the dial. Develop confidence and certainty with every step.
People keep asking me about Christmas. I think for Christmas and the winter period, we can expect respiratory viruses to be around and we are particularly concerned that flu will come back and cause us problems, and it could be quite a bumpy few months ahead.
But everyone has a key role to play in achieving as safe and disruption free winter as possible.
Wear face coverings in crowded places if it is practical to do so. Increase indoor ventilation whenever you can. Make sure you are vaccinated. And like any medicine, make sure you finish the course. And when you are called for your booster, please come forward so that we as a whole UK can get on and finish this job.
Updated
Jonathan Van-Tam: very clear 'one dose is not enough' of any UK deployed vaccine
England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, has made the following comments at a Downing Street briefing on the coronavirus. He was delivering his comments remotely from a clinical setting. The key points he made included:
I believe that if the booster programme is successful, and with very high uptake, we can massively reduce the worry about hospitalisation and death due to Covid at Christmas, and for the rest of this winter, for literally millions of people. It really is as simple as and decisive as that.
Whilst vaccines have fundamentally changed the course of the pandemic in the UK, and the high uptake of the initial programme has saved countless lives and help restore our freedoms in an unprecedented way. It is also clear that protection will wane over time.
The JCVI has acted decisively and recommended that the booster programme is now extended to 40-to-49s and 16- to-17-year-olds. I’ve full confidence in both of the decisions that have been announced today. The UK expects it to have enough supplies of vaccine to implement these changes. The details of how to access the boosters for these extra two layers of protection will be announced in due course by the NHS.
I want to make another plea to people who have not been vaccinated or have only had one dose. It is now very clear indeed that one dose is not enough of any of the UK deployed vaccines and that no doses at all massively increases the risk of hospitalisation.
Updated
JCVI announcement: UK booster jabs for 40- to-49-year-olds; second Pfizer doses for 16- to-17-year-olds
Prof Wei Shen Lim of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) summed up his announcements like this.
In summary, there are two updates we’re giving today. The first is for a booster dose for persons age 40 to 49 years old, and a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine for 16- to 17-year-olds. Both of these updates are important to maximise our protection against this virus. And I strongly urge anyone who is eligible for these vaccines to come and have those vaccines.
I’ll have some quotes from England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam in a moment, he is following the technical announcements with what he said were some “over-arching comments”.
Updated
16- and 17-year-olds encouraged to come forward for second vaccine doses in the UK
Dr June Raine of the MHRA also spoke on the safety of vaccine delivery to younger people. She said:
We’ve closely monitored the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in individuals under 18. Our review of reports of suspected side-effects does not raise any additional safety issues specific to this age group. As is set out in our summary report, there have been a small number of reports of suspected myocarditis heart inflammation associated with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in both the UK and internationally. This is a recognised very rare potential risk with these two vaccines. We’re closely monitoring it and importantly, now that we have more experience of use in the under-30s. In the UK, we are not detecting any increase in risk with the second dose. So our messages to people aged 16 and 17 is it’s safe to have a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. And if you’re called for your second vaccination, please come forward and this ensures that you’re further protected again
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There will be a difference with the dose of Moderna delivered as a booster, said Prof Wei Shen Lim of the JCVI. He said:
I’d like to just mention the dose use for the Moderna booster. The dose used is 50 micrograms, which is half the dose used in the primary cause which is 100 micrograms. This use of a lower dose of vaccine for the booster dose is a recognised method of boosting vaccine-induced immunity. It has been used for years and is continuing to be used now in other routine immunisation programmes, such as the booster doses used in against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. This is not an unusual thing to do. A lower dose for the booster dose is a very usual method of boosting the immune system.
Booster jabs in UK to be extended to those between 40 and 49 years old
Chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Prof Wei Shen Lim has just made the following announcement at a Downing Street press briefing: the booster jab programme in the UK is extended to people aged 40 to 49. Either Pfizer or Moderna can be used, regardless of the type of vaccine received for the first two doses. The gap again will be six months from the second dose of vaccine.
MHRA chief exec: 'no new safety concerns' with booster jabs for over 50s
Dr June Raine has just given an update in the UK from the perspective of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). She stated that the safety of vaccines is their top priority, and that they remain confident that the Covid vaccines available in the UK are “very effective and acceptably safe”. She said:
Since the booster doses began to be rolled out in people aged 50 and over from September. We have identified no new safety concerns. Our careful review of the data at the time of approval found that the booster doses are effective. Our ongoing safety monitoring has found the majority of adverse effects to be mild to moderate relating to reactogenicity such as a sore arm or headache or tiredness. When you’re called for your booster dose. In the next phase, you can come forward confident that the benefits in preventing serious Covid-19 far outweigh any risks.
In the UK, we are expecting shortly a press briefing from England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, alongside chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Prof Wei Shen Lim and chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Dr June Raine.
The assumption is they are going to announce that booster jabs will be made available for the under-50s in the UK.
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Serco expects bigger profits thanks to Covid test-and-trace work
The outsourcing company Serco said profits would be higher than expected in 2021 thanks to greater demand from the UK government for its Covid-19 services, including test and trace.
Serco raised its full-year revenue guidance from £4.3bn to £4.4bn on Monday, helping underlying profits rise to at least £225m, up from previous forecasts of £200m.
The Hampshire-based company said the uplift could be explained by the fact the volume of its Covid-related work in the UK and Australia “have been higher, and have continued for longer, than we anticipated”.
Serco runs large parts of the UK’s largely privatised test-and-trace service, which is labelled NHS test and trace. The firm runs a fifth of Covid-19 testing sites and half the tier 3 contact tracers, who are mostly required to phone the contacts of people who have tested positive.
That work was extended in June, when the company won a £322m contract to keep Covid-19 test centres running in England and Northern Ireland for another 12 months, with an option to add another six more.
Read more of Kalyeena Makortoff’s report here: Serco expects bigger profits thanks to Covid test-and-trace work
Andrew Sparrow has just gone live with our UK politics live blog for the day. I’ll be continuing here with the top Covid lines from the UK and around the world.
Russian authorities have issued the latest Covid numbers from the country which has been in the grip of a coronavirus wave that led to the government calling a national paid week off work to try and break the chain of transmission. They are now waiting to see if has had an effect.
Russia on Monday reported 1,211 deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, close to the all-time high of 1,241 reported last week. There were 38,420 new coronavirus cases.
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“My aim is very clear: to get the unvaccinated to get vaccinated, not to lock up the unvaccinated,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told ORF radio as he explained Austria’s lockdown on the unvaccinated.
Many Austrians are sceptical about vaccines, a view encouraged by the far-right Freedom party, the third-biggest in parliament, which is planning a protest against the government’s coronavirus policies on Saturday.
There has been a rise in first vaccinations since the unvaccinated were barred from places including restaurants, cafes, theatres and ski lifts last week.
Police are conducting extra checks and interior minister Karl Nehammer said on Sunday they would check the vaccination status of all members of the public they interact with.
Francois Murphy reports for Reuters that there are widespread doubts including among Schallenberg’s conservatives and the police about whether this lockdown can be properly enforced.
It can be hard to verify, for example, whether an unvaccinated person is on their way to work, which is allowed, or going to shop for non-essential items, which is not.
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UK vaccine advisers ‘set to approve Covid booster jabs for under-50s’
The UK’s vaccine advisers are understood to have approved the rollout of Covid booster jabs to people under 50, with a minister saying an announcement was due on Monday.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) was scheduled to set out the next steps in the booster programme “later today”, Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party co-chair, told Sky News.
Dowden said: “It’s up to them but I would hope that we would see a further expansion of the booster rollout. But we’ll wait for their announcement.”
While Dowden did not set out what changes were expected, it is understood that the JCVI has already decided that the scheme for boosters – a third injection to top up potentially waning immunity – should be extended to younger age groups.
Those currently eligible for a booster, which is usually given six months after the second dose, include those aged 50 or over, or anyone younger seen as clinically very vulnerable to Covid. Others who are eligible include frontline health and care workers, or those who care for someone at high risk from Covid.
There is a separate programme of third injections for people who have a compromised immune system, for whom vaccines are often less effective.
Read more of Peter Walker’s report here: UK vaccine advisers ‘set to approve Covid booster jabs for under-50s’
Germany's Covid infection rate hits highest level since start of pandemic
Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, public health figures showed on Monday, as the three parties in talks to form a new government plan an expansion of measures to tackle the pandemic.
The seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 303 from 289 the previous day, figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Monday.
Paul Carrel notes for Reuters that the number of deaths increased by 43 to a total of 97,715.
The three parties in talks to form a coalition plan to tighten proposed measures to tackle the spread of the new wave of infections, Greens co-leader Robert Habeck said before their plans go to parliament on Thursday.
“We are expanding the toolbox compared to the proposals introduced in the first reading,” Habeck told broadcaster ARD. The measures will include contact restrictions, an amendment seen by Reuters showed.
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Florida lawmakers will meet on Monday for a week-long special legislative session called by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates imposed by businesses or government agencies.
DeSantis recently announced he is running for re-election in 2022 but is seen by many as a potential presidential candidate in 2024 – particularly if Donald Trump decides not to run again.
The special legislative session will be about “a combination of policy and politics”, said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, adding that DeSantis is following Trump’s lead in being staunchly against mask and vaccine mandates.
According to an agenda released by the governor’s office, a body of legislators dominated by Republicans will consider four bills to impose penalties on businesses and local governments that require workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
“No cop, no firefighter, no nurse, nobody should be losing their job because of these jabs,” DeSantis said in a media release, echoing a previous plea for first responders from other states to relocate to Florida if they do not wish to be vaccinated by mandate.
“We’re going to be striking a blow for freedom,” DeSantis said.
Read more here: Florida lawmakers’ special session aims to thwart Covid vaccine mandates
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Oliver Dowden says AstraZeneca 'entitled' to make a profit from Covid vaccines
In the UK, Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has backed AstraZeneca’s controversial announcement that it is moving to seek a profit from its Covid vaccine sales. Britain’s biggest pharma firm late last week said it expects the vaccine to move to “modest profitability” as new orders are received. This morning on Sky News, asked about it, Dowden said:
Well, I think the drug companies like AstraZeneca, who invested huge amounts of money into the vaccine programme, are entitled to have a profit from their investment. Actually, if you look at the Oxford AstraZeneca model, and contrast it to others around the world, the number of very, very low cost doses that are made available particularly to developing countries is an exemplary model.
Mike Tildesley, the professor who specialises in infectious diseases at Warwick University and who has been a media regular during the pandemic in the UK has been on Sky News this morning. He was asked about his views on the outlook for Covid in the UK for the next few weeks and said he was “cautiously optimistic”:
If we look at his year, compared with where we were last year, of course it’s not just the overall number of cases, hospital admissions and deaths we need to look at, but also the trends. If we look at that, we can see that although there has been quite a lot of variation over the past few weeks, and we’re still reporting very high numbers of cases, the total number of daily hospitalisations and the total number of deaths are quite long way below where we were in November last year, which should give us some level of confidence.
Questioned on the situation with rising caseloads on the European continent overall, he said:
If we look at the situation in Germany, for example, over the past couple of weeks cases have been rising in a really concerning way. And that’s the really key thing in terms of whether we need to react in response to what’s going on in Europe. When we already have a high number of cases, it doesn’t necessarily mean we need more restrictions to prevent what might come in from Europe, but really what it actually is, is a message that really shows us how important it is to get vaccinated so that we do prevent cases starting to rise again and of course that’s spilling over into hospital admissions.
He was also asked about the vaccination of children, with the news that Israel is following the lead of the US and other countries like Austria in sanctioning jabs for the five- to 11-year-old age group. On this he said:
I think there’s some really tough decisions that have to be made actually over the next few weeks. When it gets to younger people what they have to look at is the benefits and the risks to the individual. And the thing with very young children is generally they don’t get very sick. But by vaccinating them it protects the rest of the population indirectly, so that’s the decision that the government guided by Joint Committee for Vaccinations and Immunisations are going to have to make over the next few weeks
Prof Tildesley’s long-term prediction remains that “Covid is probably likely to become endemic and we probably are going to have to manage it with repeated vaccination campaigns for years to come.”
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Agence France-Presse has an update from Cambodia, where prime minister Hun Sen made an unexpected announcement last night that all fully vaccinated international travellers, tourists and businesspeople could visit the whole of Cambodia freely without quarantine from today.
The decision overrode the previous reopening plan, under which popular beach spots Sihanoukville and the island of Koh Rong, as well as Dara Sakor – a Chinese-developed resort zone – were set to welcome visitors from 30 November.
And the reopening of Siem Reap – the gateway to the world heritage-listed Angkor Wat complex – is brought forward from January.
Hun Sen said travellers would have to show two negative Covid tests - one taken no less than 72 hours before travel and one on arrival in Cambodia.
“When they arrive and we see they have received two doses of vaccine, we will take swabs for rapid tests. After results show they are free of Covid-19, they are allowed to travel across Cambodia,” Hun Sen said in an audio message posted on his Facebook page.
“I order the ministry of health, the ministry of tourism and relevant sectors to implement these measures from 15 November 2021 onwards,” he said, adding that the move was a quick way to re-open the country.
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UK government rules out Austria approach of locking down the unvaccinated
During his interview with Sky News this morning, Conservative chairman Oliver Dowden ruled out the UK government following the example of Austria and imposing lockdown conditions on people who are unvaccinated. He told Sky News:
That’s not something we’re currently contemplating. Of course it is the case – although it’s an entirely separate matter – that in relation to very high risk areas such as care homes, we are requiring people to have those those double jabs. It’s always been a British tradition, I think, to move on a consensual voluntary basis. So we have no plans to have that kind of differentiated approach between the vaccine and non-vaccine.
Oliver Dowden: it is in 'our hands' to prevent Christmas Covid restrictions
There were a couple of bits of Covid interest in Conservative chairmen Oliver Dowden’s first interview of the day in the UK, which was on Sky News. He – not quite definitively – ruled out any further Covid restrictions being imposed before Christmas. Although he did concede that this was the case last year, only for the government to change tack at the very last minute. He said this year the vaccine was the difference, and urged people to take booster jabs when called forward for them. He said:
I can assure you there are no plans or anything else to stop Christmas happening. The huge difference this time is the vaccine, and the huge impact of the vaccine. And the way we keep that vaccine topped up, the way that we keep that wall of defence protected, is to get your booster when you get the all. Because if you compare to where we were last year, zero people had the vaccine. We’re now at around 89-90% of adults with the vaccine. So that is what is protecting us from going back to what we had at Christmas.
It’s in our hands, so if all of us, all of your viewers, if you get the booster when the call comes that is the biggest wall of defence that we have against Covid. And if you look at some of the numbers, at the end of October infection numbers were roughly comparable to where they were mid–January last year. Remember that was really at the height last year, but hospitalisations were 74% lower. Now that shows you the power of the vaccine. So I’m confident that if we stick the course, if people take the boosters when they’re asked to do so, that vaccine will hold up and we’ll be able to have a decent Christmas this year.
Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Samantha Lock in Sydney. I’ll be bringing you any Covid lines that emerge from the UK media round this morning as well as coronavirus news from around the world. Oliver Dowden, chairman of the Conservative party is doing the interviews for the government in the UK. Here are the latest UK figures.
China battles northeast Covid cluster, university locked down
China is battling the spread of its biggest Covid-19 outbreak caused by the Delta variant as case numbers in the northeastern city of Dalian outpace anywhere else in the country,
Chinese authorities said 32 new domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms were reported for 14 November, which is a drop from the 89 reported the day earlier.
However, most of the reported cases were in Dalian. That brings the tally of local cases since 17 October to 1,308, Reuters calculations based on official data showed, surpassing the 1,280 local cases from a summer Delta outbreak.
This marks China’s most widespread Delta outbreak, which has affected 21 provinces, regions and municipalities. While it is smaller than many outbreaks in other countries, Chinese authorities are anxious to block any further transmissions under the government’s zero-tolerance guidance.
Since Dalian’s first local symptomatic patients from the latest outbreak was reported on 4 November, the port city of 7.5 million people has detected an average of about 24 new local cases a day, more than any other Chinese cities, according to Reuters calculations.
The Dalian outbreak has prompted China to confine nearly 1,500 university students to their dormitories and hotels in the city.
The order was issued Sunday after several dozen cases were reported at Zhuanghe University City and hundreds of students were transferred to hotels for observation, the Associated Press reports.
Students have been attending class remotely and having their meals delivered to their rooms.
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Israel to vaccinate children aged 5-11
Israel gave the green light Sunday to start vaccinating children aged between five and 11 against Covid-19 using Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, following the example of the United States.
“The director general of the ministry of health... authorised the vaccination of children aged five to 11 years,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination campaign last year using the jabs thanks to a deal with Pfizer that gave it access to millions of doses in exchange for data on the vaccine’s efficacy.
The vaccination campaign allowed the health authorities to fully vaccinate 5.7 million of the country’s 9 million population.
The authorities had already begun vaccinating minors aged 12 to 17 but decided to lower the age threshold in the wake of trials by Pfizer and recommendations from a panel of Israeli scientists.
The ministry will announce the date for the start of inoculations for young children in coming days.
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The Philippines welcomes children back to classrooms for first time in nearly 2 years
Classrooms across the Philippines are filling up with students again for the first time in nearly 2 years.
Children have been allowed back for face-to-face learning from Monday as the country begins its pilot implementation of limited in-person classes.
This makes the Philippines one of the the last countries in the world to return to in-person classes after Venezuela reopened schools in late October.
President Rodrigo Duterte initially approved 120 basic education schools for the dry run, with 20 private schools scheduled to begin their limited in-person classes on 22 November, local publication ABS-CBN reported.
Students are checked for their body temperature, required to fill out a health declaration form, proceed to hand washing stations and sit in chairs with installed plastic barriers inside classrooms. During recess time, students are given meals that they eat on their respective seats. They were not allowed to leave their seats unless they needed to go to the restroom.
In September, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF urged education authorities to reopen schools as soon as possible in countries where millions of students were still not allowed to return to classrooms 18 months into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pupils observe minimum health protocols as they attend the first day of limited face-to-face classes in Longos Elementary School in Barangay Pangapisan in Alaminos City, Pangasinan on Monday, November 15. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News pic.twitter.com/hdQ0PNZBYz
— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) November 15, 2021
Hello and welcome back to our Covid blog this Monday as we start the week.
I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be with you to deliver all the latest headlines.
As Europe battles its fourth and fifth wave of the virus, Austria is the first nation in the region to place millions of people not fully vaccinated against coronavirus in lockdown as of Monday.
The drastic move is part of an effort to deal with a surge in infections, the country’s chancellor has said while describing the nation’s vaccination rate as “shamefully low”.
Anti-vaccination demonstrators protested against the annoucement at the Ballhausplatz in the capital of Vienna on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Israel will go ahead with a vaccination drive for children aged 5 to 11 against Covid-19.
The decision, announced by the health ministry on Sunday, followed approval by an expert panel last week after the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use of Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s vaccine for the age group at a 10-microgram dose.
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Britain expected to extend Covid booster programme to under 50s.
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Brazil reports lowest end of week Covid death toll in over a year.
- Egypt’s national research body said on Sunday that it will start clinical trials for a domestically made coronavirus vaccine.
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UK firm to trial T-cell Covid vaccine that could give longer immunity against Covid-19. An Oxfordshire-based company Emergex will soon start clinical trials of a second-generation vaccine against Covid-19, an easy-to-administer skin patch that uses T-cells to kill infected cells and could offer longer-lasting immunity than current vaccines.
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UK officials have compiled a ‘Covid exit strategy’ from April called Operation Rampdown, leaked documents reveal. Under the plan, the government could wind down testing and people would no longer be forced to isolate if they are ill from April, leaked documents reveal.
- Three snow leopards died of complications from Covid-19 at the Lincoln children’s zoo in Nebraska.
- Germany to return to work from home amid rising infections. The measure is being reintroduced under draft legislation seen by AFP on Sunday, after the home working restriction was lifted at the beginning of July.
- In the UK more than two million people received their Covid-19 booster in the past week, with health officials describing the numbers as record-breaking. NHS England said 2.1 million boosters were delivered between November 6-12, an increase on the 1.7 million boosters given out during the previous seven days.
- China donated 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday to Syria, which has one of the world’s lowest inoculation rates and what the UN called an alarming rise in cases.
- Japan’s economy has shrunk much faster than expected as supply shortages hit and global production bottlenecks pose increasing risks to the export-reliant nation.
- Outcry in China after Covid health workers kill a pet dog while owner was in quarantine.
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China reported 52 new confirmed coronavirus cases for 14 November compared with 89 a day earlier, its health authority said on Monday. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.
- Cambodia reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers on Monday, two weeks earlier than originally planned, as it emerges from a lengthy lockdown bolstered by one of the world’s highest rates of immunisation against Covid-19.
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