Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments of the day:
- Boris Johnson is set to publish a Covid blueprint to prepare for a “difficult time” this winter, with jabs for younger teenagers, a booster programme, flu shots and vaccine passports all expected to be part of the measures.
- The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has warned that Covid infections are rising sharply, with the current wave expected to peak at the end of this month. However, he said it was possible to avoid further lockdowns if people behaved sensibly.
- Covid infection rates in Scotland are at the highest level since estimates began, according to the Office for National Statistics. The latest estimates show that around one in 45 people in Scotland had Covid in the week to September 3, up from one in 75 the previous week.
- A further 147 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday, bringing the UK total to 133,988, the government announced.
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The consumer watchdog has called for much tougher government vetting of private companies selling Covid tests to travellers, following revelations about poor service from “rogue” operators that it said had resulted in a lottery for customers.
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The German company BioNTech, which developed the Pfizer vaccine, expects to seek approval from regulators for Covid jabs suited for younger children as early as mid-October, its founders have said.
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More than 8,000 people in the UK were in hospital with Covid on Wednesday – the highest figure for nearly six months – leading to fears of a resurgence in the virus’ ability to cause serious illness and death among the population.
- Around half of adults are worried about their child going back to school or college after the summer holidays, figures suggest. Some 48% of adults with dependent children said they were very or somewhat worried about their child returning to education settings, the Office for National Statistics said.
- One of the leading scientists behind the Oxford vaccine for Covid-19 has said she does not support a widespread booster jab campaign in the UK as immunity among fully vaccinated people is “lasting well”.
We’re going to close this live blog shortly. Thanks so much for joining me today. Our global live blog will be continuing. You can follow that one here:
Updated
A further 147 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday, bringing the UK total to 133,988, the government announced.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 158,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am on Thursday, there had been a further 37,622 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has warned that Covid infections are rising sharply, with the current wave expected to peak at the end of this month. However, he said it was possible to avoid further lockdowns if people behaved sensibly.
Drakeford said the Welsh cabinet would meet next week to discuss whether vaccination passports should be introduced and that the NHS in Wales was ready to begin giving jabs to children if they are approved.
At a press conference in Cardiff, Drakeford said there were now about 520 cases per 100,000 people in Wales, the highest rate this year.
If the virus continues to spread at its current rate, Drakeford said he expected to see about 3,200 cases confirmed every day at the peak.
The first minister said “pandemic pressure on the NHS” was increasing. There are more than 420 confirmed cases in hospitals across Wales – the highest number since March. At the moment there are about 40 Covid-19 hospital admissions a day. But the modelling suggests there could be 100 new Covid-19 daily admissions when the wave peaks.
Drakeford said health and care services were already experiencing staffing pressures, through a combination of annual leave, staff working in other areas, sickness and isolation. Staff were exhausted.
He asked the public to think about whether they could get care from a local pharmacist or GP rather than going to A&E, and asked them not to visit patients in hospital unless absolutely necessary.
Read the full story here:
Updated
The UK’s economic recovery from the pandemic stumbled in July, even as most Covid restrictions were lifted. Monthly growth was the weakest since January, when the UK was in lockdown.
Boris Johnson is set to publish a Covid blueprint to prepare for a “difficult time” this winter, with jabs for younger teenagers, a booster programme, flu shots and vaccine passports all expected to be part of the measures.
Johnson is likely to strike a more cautious note than he has done in recent months, warning the public to continue being careful as cases are rising – with more than 8,000 Covid patients in hospital in the UK despite the vaccination programme.
The government is looking to extend its emergency Covid powers – opposed by a caucus of anti-lockdown Tory MPs – in case restrictions are needed as a last resort.
No 10 is hoping the combination of measures to be announced next week will head off the need for further draconian lockdowns after some scientists warned that a “firebreak” could be needed this autumn.
The prime minister’s Covid plan for England is expected to coincide with announcements from the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) on booster jabs and from the chief medical officers on the vaccination of schoolchildren aged 12-15.
The JCVI is understood to have agreed in principle to an autumn programme of booster jabs following lengthy discussions on Thursday, at which the panel was shown interim findings of the Cov-Boost study, which examined the efficacy of various vaccines given as a third dose to people who had previously had two AstraZeneca or Pfizer jabs.
However, it remains unclear how widespread a rollout of boosters was agreed, with government sources indicating they thought it would only apply to elderly or vulnerable people in the first instance.
Read the full story from my colleagues Heather Stewart, Rowena Mason, Peter Walker and Aubrey Allegretti here:
As Boris Johnson seeks to avoid a return to restrictions, or even another “firebreak” lockdown, this winter, my colleagues Nicola Davis and Peter Walker take a look at what might be in his “toolbox” of contingency measures for England expected to be announced as soon as next week – and just how useful they may be.
Updated
Summary
Here is a roundup of all the latest Covid news across the UK so far today:
- Covid infection rates in Scotland are at the highest level since estimates began, according to the Office for National Statistics. The latest estimates show that around one in 45 people in Scotland had Covid in the week to 3 September, up from one in 75 the previous week.
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The consumer watchdog has called for much tougher government vetting of private companies selling Covid tests to travellers, following revelations about poor service from “rogue” operators that it said had resulted in a lottery for customers.
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The German company BioNTech, which developed the Pfizer vaccine, expects to seek approval from regulators for Covid jabs suited for younger children as early as mid-October, its founders have said.
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More than 8,000 people in the UK were in hospital with Covid on Wednesday – the highest figure for nearly six months – leading to fears of a resurgence in the virus’ ability to cause serious illness and death among the population.
- About half of adults are worried about their child going back to school or college after the summer holidays, figures suggest. 48% of adults with dependent children said they were very or somewhat worried about their child returning to education settings, the ONS said.
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One of the leading scientists behind the Oxford vaccine for Covid-19 has said she does not support a widespread booster jab campaign in the UK as immunity among fully vaccinated people is “lasting well”.
Updated
Covid infection rates in Scotland are at the highest level since estimates began, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The latest estimates show that around one in 45 people in Scotland had Covid in the week to 3 September, up from one in 75 the previous week.
The figures, relating to people in private households rather than in places such as care homes and hospitals, are the highest since estimates began for Scotland in October 2020.
It comes as Wales in experiencing its highest levels since Christmas, with one in 65 people estimated to have had the virus over the past week.
It is up from one in 110 the previous week, and the highest level since the week to 23 December 2020.
Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is one in 60, up from one in 65 the previous week, while in England, around one in 70 people had Covid in the week to 3 September, unchanged from the previous two weeks.
Updated
The consumer watchdog has called for much tougher government vetting of private companies selling Covid-19 tests to travellers, following revelations about poor service from “rogue” operators that it said had resulted in a lottery for customers.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the market for PCR tests, in which private businesses apply for inclusion on a government-approved list, was not working and risked causing a “race to the bottom” among companies touting for customers.
The intervention comes amid concern about the quality of service provided by testing companies, who are thought to have made sales of more than £500m since mid-May, when non-essential international travel resumed.
The Guardian has previously revealed that companies who appeared on the government’s list of approved suppliers lost customers’ test kits, failed to provide results and withheld refunds.
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, was repeatedly asked during his press conference if new restrictions or lockdowns were bound to happen. But he insisted: “Nothing is inevitable.”
Drakeford said the Welsh government’s cabinet would discuss next week the idea of introducing vaccination passports in certain circumstances. “There are a series of practical and ethical issues which need to be considered,” he said.
He said passports would not be introduced in settings that people had no choice but to go to but he said there could be an argument for introducing them for places where people gathered voluntarily in large numbers if having two vaccinations could be shown to reduce the risk.
The first minister asked people to think twice about visiting in-patients in hospital. Cwm Taf Morgannwg university health board, has severely restricted people visiting its hospitals in south Wales.
Drakeford continued to dismiss the idea of a Welsh-only inquiry on its handling of the Covid crisis. He said he believed a UK-wide version was the “best way”.
But he said:
We will need assurances that a UK-wide inquiry would be constructed in a way that would allow for a direct focus on the decisions made here in Wales but also to be able to understand them in that wider context.
Updated
The German company BioNTech, which developed the Pfizer vaccine, expects to seek approval from regulators for Covid jabs suited for younger children as early as mid-October, its founders have said.
“Already over the next few weeks we will file the results of our trial in five- to 11-year-olds with regulators across the world and will request approval of the vaccine in this age group, also here in Europe,” BioNTech’s chief medical officer, Özlem Türeci, told the German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Türeci said her company was working on producing the vaccine, which was the same product being administered to adults and children aged 12 and older but in smaller doses.
“Things are looking good, everything is going according to plan,” said the chief executive, Ugur Şahin, who added that the company was also expecting trial data for younger children aged over six months.
Israel in late July gave the green light for vaccinations with the BioNTech/Pfizer jab to children aged five to 11 at risk of serious health complications, such as brain, heart or lung problems.
Read more here:
The percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have increased in north-east England, remained level in London and south-east England but decreased in north-west England, the ONS said.
The trend for all other regions is uncertain, PA news reports.
North-east England had the highest proportion of people of any region likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to September 3: around one in 45.
Eastern England had the lowest estimate: around one in 90.
In Wales, around one in 65 people are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to September 3, up from one in 110 in the previous week and the highest level since the week to December 23 2020.
In Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is one in 60, up from one in 65 in the previous week. This is slightly below the estimate of one in 40 for the week to August 20, which was the highest since estimates began for Northern Ireland in October 2020, PA news reports.
For Scotland, the ONS estimates that around one in 45 people had Covid-19 in the week to September 3, up from one in 75 in the previous week and the highest level since estimates began for Scotland in October 2020. All figures are for people in private households.
Around one in 70 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to September 3, unchanged from the previous two weeks, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
One in 70 is the equivalent of about 754,600 people, PA news reports.
At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 people in England were estimated to have coronavirus.
This is the graph showing cases of coronavirus in Wales, which was shown during the press conference this lunchtime.
Here's the graph that was shown in today's press conference 👇 pic.twitter.com/iGcVLgBykC
— Welsh Government #KeepWalesSafe (@WelshGovernment) September 10, 2021
More from Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford’s press conference:
Mark Drakeford warned that the pandemic was definitely not over. He said: “For six weeks now, Wales has been at alert level zero. This means all businesses are able to open and there are fewer legal restrictions in place to control coronavirus than at any time since the start of the pandemic 18 months ago. The key message I have to emphasise today is that this does not mean the virus has gone away. The pandemic is not yet over.”
Drakeford said cases had been at their lowest in April and May but since the Delta variant hit they had been steadily rising since June.
The first minister said health and care services were already experiencing staffing pressures, through a combination of annual leave, staff working in other areas, sickness and isolation.
“Our health and care staff are exhausted after working so hard and so intensely over the last 18 months,” he said.
Drakeford asked citizens to think if they could get care from a local pharmacist or GP rather than going straight to A&E.
The first minister said there were a “significant” number of people who could be vaccinated who hadn’t yet been jabbed and were at risk of catching Covid. “We know that many who are admitted to hospital have not been vaccinated – and many are under 30 or younger.”
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has revealed that he expects the current wave of Covid-19 infections to peak towards the end of this month and said the country is ready to give booster vaccines and jabs for children if these are approved.
At a press conference in Cardiff, Drakeford said there were now around 520 cases per 100,000 people in Wales, the highest this calendar year.
If the virus continues to spread at its current rate, Drakeford said he expected to see around 3,200 cases confirmed every day as this wave peaks towards the end of the month.
He said “pandemic pressure on the NHS” was increasing once again. At the moment there are around 40 Covid-19 hospital admissions a day. There are just over 420 confirmed cases in hospitals across Wales – the highest number since March. But the modelling suggests there could be 100 new Covid-19 hospital admissions every day as the wave peaks.
Drakeford said he expected the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to soon confirm the arrangements for the autumn booster programme.
“There is emerging evidence from Israel that the effectiveness of vaccines may start to decrease after eight months, making a booster jab important,” he said. “We will start sending invitations out as soon as the announcement is made and our NHS has worked hard to make sure it can start the programme as soon as it gets the go ahead.
“At the same time, the four UK chief medical officers are continuing to discuss and take further expert evidence about whether the vaccine should be available to 12 to 15-year-olds. We are expecting a decision next week and, if the rollout is agreed, the NHS here, will be ready to begin.”
Updated
A 100-year-old care home resident has issued a video plea for greater freedom, complaining that thousands of people can go to pop festivals but she is being prevented from seeing two of her children at her home in Yorkshire.
Frances Heaton said “human rights and equality are out of order altogether”, as 240,000 people signed a petition demanding a new law ending isolation for care home residents, with many saying care operators are still refusing to follow government advice on facilitating visits and are imposing their own stricter regimes. The petition is titled: “Please let me hug my family before it’s too late!”
Updated
More than 8,000 people in the UK were in hospital with Covid on Wednesday – the highest figure for nearly six months – leading to fears of a resurgence in the virus’ ability to cause serious illness and death among the population.
In countries with high rates of vaccination, such as the UK, fewer people are predicted to become ill enough to require hospital treatment, even if infection rates remain high. But the latest figures show the highest number of patients on wards since 10 March.
The 8,085 people in hospitals across the UK represents a 6% increase on the previous week.
Nevertheless, the figures are still well below those recorded at the peak of the second wave. On 18 January, 39,254 patients with Covid-19 were in hospital – the highest at any point since the pandemic began.
Hospital numbers have been rising slowly but steadily since the third wave of the virus began in May. In Scotland, 928 patients are in hospital – the highest number since late February. In Wales, patient numbers stand at 428 – the highest since mid-March.
Read the full story here:
Around half of parents worried about their child returning to school
Around half of adults are worried about their child going back to school or college after the summer holidays, figures suggest.
Some 48% of adults with dependent children said they were very or somewhat worried about their child returning to education settings, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Almost a quarter (23%) said they were somewhat unworried or not worried at all.
The main reasons for those worried was fear about their child catching coronavirus (58%), spreading coronavirus (31%) and concern about their mental health and wellbeing due to changes in the school or college setting (30%), PA news reports.
A quarter were worried about how prepared their school or college will be for keeping pupils safe, while 15% were worried about sending them back before the vaccine rollout has finished.
The ONS analysed responses from 3,387 people, including 470 responses from adults with dependent children, between August 25 and September 5.
The owner of the Real Greek and Franco Manca restaurant chains has said business is picking up week by week, with trading up more than a quarter over pre-pandemic levels as tourists and office workers begin to return to city centres.
The Fulham Shore, which owns 75 restaurants, said revenues across its chains increased by 27% in the three weeks to 5 September compared with the same period in 2019, PA news reports.
The company, which last month said it planned to open as many as 150 new restaurants over the next few years, said this was a significant surge in business compared with the 8% revenue increase over pre-pandemic levels it had seen in the eight-week period to 15 August.
Business in London, where Fulham Shore operates 17 restaurants in the West End and city centre office locations, remains down on pre-coronavirus levels but continues “to see a week-by-week improvement in footfall and revenues as tourists and office workers have started to return”.
The increase in business also coincides with the end of the “pingdemic” on 16 August, when the government scrapped the self-isolation rules for those with double vaccinations.
David Page, the chairman and founder, said:
We are very encouraged by the accelerating revenue growth trends during recent weeks despite continued challenging trading conditions.
The culture secretary has predicted a Tory bounceback after a new poll suggested their lead had slipped following the announcement of the government’s social care tax hike.
A YouGov survey found that backing for the Tories had fallen by five points to 33% after Boris Johnson announced an increase to national insurance contributions to pay for social care reforms, PA news reports.
The dip sees Labour take the lead on 35% - the first time Sir Keir Starmer’s party has been out in front since January.
Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden said that despite the poll result, he thought voters could still “reward” the Tory government at the next election for taking a decision on social care which he argued was designed to “protect the long-term national interest”.
The senior minister said he “hated” putting up taxes but that the alternative was more borrowing that would “burden” future generations.
Johnson, after seeing off a Tory rebellion, secured the support of the house of commons this week for his controversial 12 billion tax rise to deal with the NHS Covid backlog and reform social care funding.
Ministers intend to raise national insurance contributions by 1.25 percentage points to pay for the changes.
Dowden, asked about the YouGov poll findings on Sky News, said “opinion polls come and go” and praised the prime minister for refusing to shirk the social care challenge.
He said:
When you come to the next general election, which is some time away, people will weigh that up and what they will see as a result of this is, because we have put the extra money into the NHS, we have avoided a crisis in the NHS, we have increased capacity in the NHS and we have finally, after many governments previously ducked this challenge of social care - I remember 10, 15 years ago we were talking about this - finally, the Prime Minister has actually done something about this.
And I think, in the end, the electorate reward governments who are willing to take difficult decisions in order to protect the long-term national interest, and that is what that decision is all about.
Britain’s economic recovery from the winter lockdown virtually stalled in July despite the removal of most pandemic restrictions, amid a fall in retail sales and the impact of “pingdemic” shortages in the workforce.
The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product (GDP) grew by only 0.1% in July from a month earlier, as the government’s end to most restrictions in England failed to offset the fallout from the coronavirus Delta variant. GDP was lower than the 0.6% growth forecast by City economists, and a sharp slowdown compared with June when the economy grew by 1%.
Service sector activity, which accounts for 80% of the economy, recorded no growth overall on the month, with the return of music festivals and sport outweighed by a sharp drop in high street spending and a decline in the legal sector linked to the end of the stamp duty holiday.
Rising costs and shortages of raw materials triggered a fall in the construction sector, while manufacturing remained broadly flat as firms struggled to fill staff vacancies in July amid a lack of suitable applicants and a reduced number of EU workers.
The figures came as business leaders sounded the alarm over the economic recovery as a shortage of workers and materials fuels the worst supply chain meltdown since the 1970s, threatening to delay the UK’s economic recovery from Covid-19.
Read more here:
Oliver Dowden said the UK would do nothing to infringe on international law following French criticism of suggestions home secretary Priti Patel has sanctioned tactics to turn back migrant boats towards the continent to stop them from making the journey to the UK.
Asked whether he could confirm the tactic had been approved, the culture secretary told Sky News:
Firstly, in relation to these migrants, it is worth remembering they are coming from a safe country, which is France.
This has been a persistent problem for a long period of time. The home secretary is rightly exploring every possible avenue to stop that.
We have said that that will include looking at turning migrants back, but that will only be done in accordance with international law and clearly the safety of migrants is absolutely paramount.
We would not do anything to endanger lives, clearly, but I think the public at large would expect us to be taking measures to prevent people from travelling from the safe country of France to England, and I think it is right to consider all measures.
The most important thing about this is the real beneficiaries of this are these criminal gangs who are organising this transport - this is really not in the interest of people who of course have their reasons for wanting to come here.
He later confirmed that the UK government has spoken to counterparts in Paris about how French authorities are using British money that is earmarked for preventing migrants from embarking on trips across the Channel.
Asked if the UK was looking to revise the financial contributions it gives France to help stem the flow of Channel crossings, Dowden told LBC radio:
That’s precisely the point that the Home Secretary raised with her opposite number about what exactly the French were doing in return for this money.
Nicola Sturgeon says Janey Goldley has been “straightforward and dignified” in her apology after racist and other offensive tweets were unearthed about the Scottish comedian, prompting the Scottish government to drop her yesterday from their flagship public health campaign.
Asked about the posts on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland, as the SNP’s online conference begin today, the first minister said:
These things happen. The most important thing is that action was taken. The most important thing to me since the start of this pandemic has been the integrity of our public health message.
She went on:
Janey has apologised, she’s been pretty straightforward and dignified in her apology she thought that gave her licence to say things that she now accepts were completely out of order and unacceptable.
When people make mistakes the climate, the culture we live in these days is pretty unforgiving. When people make mistakes it’s really important to hold your hands up and apologise where required but perhaps we should all recognise that none of us are infallible.
The Culture Secretary said the UK government has “no plans” to extend mandatory vaccinations beyond where there is a “clinical need”, following US President Joe Biden’s ultimatum to big business on the other side of the Atlantic.
Biden has warned all employers with more than 100 workers that their staff will be required to be vaccinated or face weekly testing for the virus, affecting about 80 million Americans, PA news reports.
Asked whether ministers could pursue a similar policy, Oliver Dowden told Sky News:
In England – we have responsibility for the approach in England, it is up to the devolved authorities in their competencies – we are focusing it on whether there is clinical need for it.
That is why, for example, in care homes we are already mandating it; we just announced yesterday a consultation for wider NHS workers – that is because they are in contact with very vulnerable people.
At the moment, we have no plans to extend it to wider government.
All I would say is that during this Covid crisis, you never know what is going to happen, but currently at the moment we have no plans to do that.
The woman who led the development of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has admitted to frustration over criticism of how quickly the jab was created.
Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert’s Oxford university off-shoot Vaccitech was at the forefront of designing a vaccine against the coronavirus at the outbreak of the pandemic, PA news reports.
The Daily Telegraph says Dame Sarah first read about a novel virus spreading through the Chinese city of Wuhan on New Year’s Day in 2020.
Within two weeks she had designed a vaccine for it, and it was approved for use just 351 days later.
Gilbert and her team were lauded worldwide for their achievement, receiving multiple awards. Toy company Mattel even created a Barbie doll in her honour.
But in an interview with the Telegraph, Gilbert said although it was “natural” for people to be hesitant, she found criticism of the speed of the vaccine’s development “frustrating”.
She told the paper it came down to advances in technology and the reality of working amid a worldwide pandemic.
She said:
We were able to overlap processes that you would normally do sequentially.
We had less waiting to do between elements of work. But we still followed the normal regulatory pathway. Yes, we did it quickly, but we didn’t miss any steps out.
It is frustrating when people say development was too fast without saying why that would be.
Oliver Dowden said the UK was “not an outlier” in embarking on a coronavirus vaccine booster scheme.
It follows comments by Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert that boosters were not needed for everyone, with jabs better sent to countries that need more doses.
The culture secretary told Sky News:
First of all, there is a range of opinion among scientists – this is why we have the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) to give us the authoritative advice and we’ll follow that advice.
In terms of support for other countries, we are committed to 100 million jabs going by 2022, we have already delivered nine million, so it is not an either/or - we are doing both of those things.
It is interesting because I was at an international conference earlier this week talking to my counterparts.
Pretty much all nations are looking at doing a booster programme - Israel are already doing it - so we are not an outlier in doing this.
He said guidance on the criteria for giving booster jabs was expected from the JCVI “very shortly”.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the world needed to “turn the tap on” to fight the “fire” of coronavirus internationally.
He told the BBC’s Today programme:
At this moment there is a fire raging all around the world with huge pressure on health systems in many, many countries.
At the G7 meeting in early June there were very substantial pledges of money and of vaccines.
A lot of that money has flowed, so Covax is now in a very good position to start buying their fire hoses for that fire.
What we really need is to turn the tap on and get the water to those countries, and we need that to happen today.
Pollard said despite there being no current, “rapid” evolution of new coronavirus variants, the UK had a “moral” obligation to help vaccinate other countries around the world.
He said:
We’re not seeing the rapid evolution of new variants that are threatening the world today but that may well happen in the future and it’s as likely to emerge in vaccinated populations as unvaccinated populations,”
They key thing for vaccinating people in other countries is because they need to be protected.
There is such a big risk, morally from our perspective, there’s a risk to trade, there’s a risk to economies, but also these are our friends and colleagues who need to be protected and we are losing them every day that goes by.
Welcome to today’s liveblog. I’ll be taking you through all the latest on Covid-19 in the UK today as well as other politics news. Do drop me an email if you think I’ve missed something. I’m on nicola.slawson@theguardian or you can tweet me @Nicola_Slawson.
You can also follow our global blog here:
Updated
Widespread booster jabs not necessary in UK, says Dame Sarah Gilbert
One of the leading scientists behind the Oxford vaccine for Covid-19 has said she does not support a widespread booster jab campaign in the UK as immunity among fully vaccinated people is “lasting well”.
Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert, who developed the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, one of the most widely used Covid vaccines in the world, suggested extra doses should be directed to countries with a low rate of vaccination.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs are safe to use as boosters, but the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has yet to give its advice to ministers.
Gilbert’s comments came as data was presented to the JCVI that indicated a top-up Pfizer vaccine dose several months after a second jab greatly boosted the body’s immune response to Covid-19, according to the Times.
Gilbert told the Daily Telegraph that elderly people and those with weakened immune systems should be in line for a third jab, but “I don’t think we need to boost everybody”.
She said:
As the virus spreads between people, it mutates and adapts and evolves, like the Delta variant. With these outbreaks, we want to stop that as quickly as possible.
We will look at each situation; the immunocompromised and elderly will receive boosters. But I don’t think we need to boost everybody. Immunity is lasting well in the majority of people.
Read the full story here:
Updated
