Further 804 Covid patients also admitted to UK hospitals; Spanish court lifts coronavirus curfew imposed on most of Catalonia
- UK Covid booster jabs highly unlikely to begin soon, JCVI sources say
- Are Covid booster jabs necessary?
- Jabbed adults with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’
- Japan sees record number of Covid cases days before Paralympics begin
- Hong Kong reportedly lets Nicole Kidman skip Covid quarantine
Police in Kenya used tear gas and fired shots in the air to break up protests in Nairobi on Thursday after a man was allegedly killed by officers for violating the country’s Covid curfew.
Shops were looted as unrest enveloped the eastern Nairobi district of Kayole after John Kiiru’s death, residents told French news agency AFP. His widow Esther Wanjiru said her husband had called her shortly after midnight and told her he had been beaten by police, but she did not hear from him again.
A further 113 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, according to the latest update to the government’s coronavirus dashboard on Thursday.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 156,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Nearly 3 million young adults in the UK have not had a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, despite a host of initiatives aimed at increasing uptake among 18- to 29-year-olds.
According to official figures published by the UK’s four health agencies, 2.9 million from that age group have not answered calls to take the vaccine, including nearly 2.5 million in England. The data comes amid a slowdown in uptake: the latest estimate only slightly lower than the previous estimate of 3 million one week ago.
Joe Biden has said he and his wife, Jill, would receive a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to boost their immunity, as his administration announced booster shots would be offered to Americans in September.
“We will get the booster shots,” the president told ABC News. The booster programme is being launched even as millions of Americans have yet to have their initial shots and as many more people around the world await vaccine supplies.
From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we look at communities left adrift when the visitors stopped and their plans for the future
Related: ‘No one comes here any more’: the human cost as Covid wipes out tourism
The European commission has said it had reached a temporary agreement with South Africa to use a plant there to bottle Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines that are being imported into the EU.
Reuters reports the deal is likely to stir concerns about drugmakers’ power in negotiating supply deals with countries, after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday he was “stunned” by news that J&J vaccines were being exported from South Africa to the EU.
It is time that all secret vaccine contracts with vaccine manufacturers and distributors are published and reviewed - we have a right to know what has been agreed in our name. In our view, J&J are complicit in vaccine apartheid, diverting doses from those who really need them to the wealthiest countries on earth. It’s colonialist extraction, plain and simple.
Many rich countries are considering offering a third dose of the Covid vaccine to those who have already received two. But are these booster shots necessary?
Preliminary data shows that people experience a fall in protective antibody levels weeks and months after getting their jabs, particularly against the highly infectious Delta variant. However, it is unclear what level of antibodies or other tools in the immune system’s armament confer protective immunity.
Related: Are Covid booster jabs necessary?
Vaccines stockpiling by richer countries is “causing much preventable suffering, needlessly prolonging the pandemic, and leaving us all at risk of vaccine resistant variants”, writes British Medical Journal editor-in-chief Fiona Godlee.
It is not a lack of manufacturing capacity: it is possible to make enough vaccines for the world. Instead, vaccine-preventable deaths and illness are occurring across Africa, Asia, and Latin America at an unprecedented speed and scale. And the reason? A free-market, profit-driven enterprise that is based on patent and intellectual property protection, combined with a lack of political will. So, while rich countries hoard a billion unused doses, poorer nations, with only 1-2% of their populations vaccinated, remain at the mercy of the virus.
The answer is equally clear, say our editorialists. Vaccine manufacture needs to be globalised, intellectual property rights relaxed to allow technology transfer, and regional manufacturing hubs established. More than 100 countries have backed this approach, but it is being blocked by vaccine manufacturers and rich countries.
The EU will recognise national Covid certificates from Turkey, Ukraine and North Macedonia from tomorrow, opening the way to easier travel for their residents, the European commission said.
AFP reports that the “equivalence decisions” mean those three countries’ certificates will be connected to the bloc-wide EU digital Covid certificate system, the EU executive said.
A man from Southampton in the UK is taking legal action over “despicable” conditions in a quarantine hotel that he said left him “traumatised” and suffering from depression.
Pritheepal Singh stayed at Park Plaza Waterloo, London, after visiting a sick relative in India. He told the BBC the experience was like prison, with restricted exercise and food that was inappropriate for his religion.
It was pure fear. I had to go and speak to my doctors. I couldn’t sleep at night. I didn’t know that I was going to be treated like a Covid prisoner. It is despicable behaviour – just not acceptable.”
A Spanish court has lifted a coronavirus curfew imposed on most of Catalonia, including the capital Barcelona, leaving it in place in just a fraction of the northeastern region.
AFP reports that Catalonia’s government in mid-July imposed a nightly curfew between 1am and 6am in most municipalities to fight a surge in virus cases, and the region’s top court then gave the green light to extend it three times.
A plan to start offering Covid booster vaccinations in the UK from early September is extremely unlikely to happen, it is understood, given the concerns of the government’s vaccines watchdog about the clinical benefits and potential wider risks to vaccine confidence.
No formal date has been set for third vaccinations as clinical trials continue, but the Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS have talked about their starting early next month after results from a series of clinical trials due this month.
Related: UK Covid booster jabs highly unlikely to begin soon, JCVI sources say
Many people on Twitter are using the hashtag #together to take a stand against “discriminatory” vaccine passports.
I oppose vaccine passports because they are
- ineffective (vaccinated people still spread COVID-19)
- discriminatory (against those who do not want/ cannot have the vaccine) and
- authoritarian (no to a "papers, please" society) #together pic.twitter.com/Icj5nG7YPF
I am opposed to Covid passports. They are ineffective (the vaccinated are still infectious), illiberal and discriminatory. #together pic.twitter.com/ChZxrpPtbQ
I could rehearse the arguments about racism, sexual harassment and all the other ways in which domestic pass laws of any kind will inevitably lead to discrimination, corruption and oppression. I will only say that as this new kind of compulsory ID is explicitly about health data, it crosses a further line into personal privacy as well as liberty.
Related: It's time for a serious debate about vaccine passports | Shami Chakrabarti
Related: Pressure grows for recall of parliament over domestic Covid vaccine passports
An MSNBC columnist and lawyer has said “Fox News is back to lying about Covid vaccine”, after he filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against the channel for possible violations of the Covid-19 Consumer Protection Act.
Typically, when Fox News spews lies or misinformation on political issues, my response is a mix of fact-checking and eye rolls. But the current misinformation campaign about the Covid-19 vaccine from some of Fox News’ most popular hosts demands more than a typical response given lives are on the line.
People receiving accurate information about the Covid-19 vaccines is literally a matter of life and death. But look at what is undeniably deceptive information coming from Fox News about the vaccine.
US president Joe Biden has announced that his administration will require that nursing home staff be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.
“If you visit, live or work in a nursing home, you should not be at a high risk for contracting Covid from unvaccinated employees,” Biden said.
Immunologist Prof Peter Openshaw has told the BBC the issue of booster jabs is “contentious” and that the results of ongoing studies to determine their effectiveness “should not be prejudged”.
Prof Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which advises the UK government, said:
Its offering good protection against the more severe disease, that’s very important to emphasise. There still is breakthrough infection in a proportion of people even if they have been doubly vaccinated. So the question of boosters is a contentious one. I think we really need specific studies on the effect of boosters and those studies are ongoing - we shouldn’t prejudge those. Everyone is very keen that if we do have surplus vaccines that they are not necessarily used in this country but might be sent overseas to be used by people who are in desperate need of vaccination.
There are people with impaired immune systems for whom boosters will be necessary because they won’t have developed a very good response when they have been given the conventional two-dose vaccines. But as a general boost to the vaccine programme, I think we really need to look at the data more.
NEW: ministers are set to be told that the plan to start offering Covid booster jabs early next month is very unlikely to happen, and more research is needed into both clinical benefits and the impact on vaccine confidence, JCVI sources say. Story soon.
The hoarding of Covid jabs by rich countries which are also rolling out booster shots “makes a mockery of vaccine equity” pledges, the Africa director for the World Health Organization has said
Matshidiso Moeti and other African health officials, including the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have warned against booster shots in recent weeks as less than 2% of the population on the continent of 1.3bn people is fully vaccinated.
South Africa is seeing “vaccine apathy or vaccine fatigue,” Nomafrench Mbombo, a Western Cape provincial health minister, has warned.
Since mass public vaccination began in May, only 11% of the nationwide adult population has so far been fully immunised and many vaccination sites are standing empty despite hundreds of Covid-related deaths each day.
The World Health Organization has urged Indonesia to take action to stem the spread of coronavirus, with retail and recreation reaching pre-pandemic levels in some key regions.
Reuters have the story:
Indonesia, which last month became the epicentre of Asia’s coronavirus outbreak, has social mobility restrictions in place that currently allow malls and restaurants in designated areas to operate at 25% capacity.
The WHO’s latest situation report highlighted “a notable increase in community mobility in retail and recreation” in the provinces of Banten, West Java and Central Java, collectively home to about 97m people.
The New South Wales police cybercrime squad is investigating a “selfish and sickening fraud” after money was apparently exchanged for Covid-19 vaccination appointments at a major hospital in Sydney.
The Australian Associated Press understands people on the Chinese language social media app WeChat were asked to pay $300 to secure a quick turnaround booking for Pfizer at the Royal Prince Alfred hospital, in Sydney’s inner west.
Related: NSW police investigate alleged Covid vaccination booking scam
European financial markets have fallen sharply on fears that central banks will start tapering their emergency Covid-19 support packages, despite slowing growth in the world economy.
In London, the FTSE 100 fell by more than 160 points, or about 2.3%, on Thursday morning to trade at about 7,000 as share prices tumbled across the continent after the US Federal Reserve said it could start cutting back support for the economy this year.
Related: European stock markets tumble on Covid support concerns
I’m going to hand over to my colleague Mattha Busby now but here’s a brief round-up of what’s been happening around the world over the past 24 hours:
France has added Algeria and Morocco to its list of countries deemed high-risk Covid-19 zones as it battles a fourth wave of infections.
The move, which will take effect on Saturday, means people arriving from the two African countries will have to undergo strict protocol measures, such as self-isolating.
A fantastic long read here from Anand Pandian, a US anthropologist who struck up an unlikely friendship with an anti-masker.
Related: What I learned from an unlikely friendship with an anti-masker
The effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 declines faster than that of the AstraZeneca jab, according to a study published on Thursday.
“Two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech have greater initial effectiveness against new Covid-19 infections, but this declines faster compared with two doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca,” researchers at Oxford University said.
A record number of children and young people with a potentially life-threatening eating disorder are waiting for treatment in England, as psychiatrists warn soaring demand is overwhelming services.
NHS data analysed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists shows that while the number of those waiting for urgent and routine treatment has reached record levels during the pandemic, more children and young people are being treated than ever before.
Related: Record number of young people wait for eating disorder treatment in England
Russia has reported 791 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours as well as 21,058 new cases, including 2,142 in Moscow.
Russia was hit by a surge in cases this summer that peaked in July and that authorities blamed on the Delta variant and slow uptake for domestically produced vaccines.
The UK’s vaccine watchdog is to decide today which vulnerable groups will be given booster shots against coronavirus, but it is expected to rule out a general rollout of third jabs.
Prof Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, confirmed the group would be discussing the issue on Thursday morning.
Related: UK vaccine watchdog expert sceptical about booster jabs for all adults
Markets fell in Asia and Europe today following a second straight day of losses on Wall Street in response to US Federal Reserve minutes indicating it could begin withdrawing its huge financial support by the end of the year, reports Agence France-Presse.
Expectations of an end to the largesse that helped drive a global equity rally for more than a year added to the already sombre mood on trading floors caused by the fast-spreading Covid Delta variant, which is forcing a re-evaluation of the economic recovery as fresh curbs are put in place.
An update on the British man sentenced to six weeks in prison in Singapore for refusing to wear a mask:
Benjamin Glynn, 40, was released today and will be deported, the country’s prison department said.
This is an interesting story by Edward Helmore about an Australian psychologist living in Canada who penned a book on pandemics just before Covid-19 hit.
Stephen Taylor’s book, The Psychology of Pandemics, was rejected by his publisher because “no one’s going to want to read it”.
Related: ‘No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit
As Hong Kong braces for more draconian Covid-19 travel restrictions to take effect from midnight Thursday, Australian actor Nicole Kidman received an exemption from the government to skip quarantine, media reported.
The exemption was given to allow her to film an Amazon television series called The Expats, online news site HK01 reported, a move that contrasts sharply with up to three weeks of hotel mandated quarantine that residents must do after entering the Chinese-ruled hub.
A school district in Texas, US, has announced an amendment to its dress code, reportedly requiring face masks for all members, ahead of the school’s reopening on Thursday.
An announcement issued on the website of the Paris Independent school district (PISD) on Tuesday pointed out Greg Abbott’s recent executive order doesn’t allow his office to “usurp the board of trustees’ executive power”.
Related: Texas school district requires masks after finding dress code loophole to bypass ban
A British man was sentenced to six weeks’ jail in Singapore for not wearing a mask and harassing police, officials confirmed Thursday.
The city-state, which has had comparatively mild Covid-19 outbreaks, has taken a tough line against people breaking virus rules, and there have been several cases of foreigners being punished.
When February’s military takeover of Myanmar led to the collapse of the central health care system, independent ethnic organisations that had operated for decades on the Southeast Asian country’s borders stepped in. They provided basic medical services, treated Covid-19-patients and occasionally even tended to injuries from armed skirmishes.
But a fierce new wave of coronavirus cases, and myriad other challenges — closed borders, shrinking support from international donors, and a crackdown on aid by the military, which has been accused of hoarding medical supplies for its own use — are stretching their abilities to the limit.
South Korea reported more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases for the second time as it struggles to subdue a wave of outbreaks during the summer holidays, driven by the more contagious Delta variant.
South Korea has managed to tackle outbreaks since its epidemic began early last year thanks to intensive testing and tracing but it is now facing persistent spikes in infections and vaccine shortages, Reuters reports.
Fully vaccinated adults can harbour virus levels as high as unvaccinated people if infected with the Delta variant, according to a sweeping analysis of UK data, which supports the idea that hitting the threshold for herd immunity is unlikely.
There is abundant evidence that Covid vaccines in the UK continue to offer significant protection against hospitalisations and death. But this new analysis shows that although being fully vaccinated means the risk of getting infected is lower, once infected by Delta a person can carry similar virus levels as unvaccinated people.
Related: Jabbed adults infected with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’
New Zealand’s coronavirus cases jumped on Thursday, as questions grew about the government’s response to the pandemic given the slowest vaccination rate among developed countries and the economic pressures of prolonged isolation.
Eleven new cases were reported on Thursday, taking the total to 21 in the latest outbreak that ended the country’s six-month virus-free run, Reuters reports.
This is a significant development. It means now we can be fairly certain how and when the virus entered the country. And the period in which cases were in the community were relatively short.
The Philippines is allotting 45.3 billion pesos ($899 million) for COVID-19 booster shots under its 2022 budget, an official said, even as health authorities have yet to conclude there is a need for a third dose.
“We have a budget entry for a booster shot for all Filipinos,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a regular news conference.
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, I’m handing over to my UK colleague Robyn Vinter.
Here’s a brief round-up of what’s been happening around the world over the past 24 hours:
Mexico has posted a record 28,953 new confirmed cases of Covid-19, Reuters reports, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 3,152,205, health ministry data showed.
The figure is the highest daily total since the pandemic began, excluding statistical blips that heath authorities said were caused by one-off adjustments to back data.
Mexico also reported 940 more deaths and the total confirmed death toll now stands at 250,469 although health officials have said the real number is likely significantly higher.
Elsewhere in Australia, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has sought to reassure Melburnians the state’s Covid response is working after 57 new cases of Covid-19 were reported, the highest daily figure since last year’s deadly second wave.
As Melbourne marked its 200th day in lockdown since the start of the pandemic, Thursday’s 57 cases were the highest figure since the 73 infections recorded on 9 September last year.
Related: Victoria Covid update: Daniel Andrews insists lockdown is working despite daily cases rising to 57
Japan has recorded a record number of coronavirus cases while critical care beds in Tokyo are nearing capacity less than a week before the city is due to host the Paralympic Games, our correspondent Justin McCurry reports.
The latest wave of Covid-19 infections has spread well beyond Tokyo, the centre of previous outbreaks, with Osaka, neighbouring Hyogo and other prefectures all reporting record caseloads on Wednesday.
Related: Japan sees record number of Covid cases days before Paralympics begin
The Australian state of New South Wales has posted another record number of cases and one death, as it struggles to contain its Delta outbreak, Guardian Australia’s Elias Visontay reports.
But despite announcing 681 new cases, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, told locked-down residents there were “exciting things to look forward to” when she introduces freedoms for vaccinated people once targets are met in coming weeks.
Related: NSW Covid update: premier signals ‘exciting things to look forward to’ after record 681 new cases
The coronavirus cluster in the New Zealand city of Auckland has grown to 21, our correspondent Eva Corlett reports, with a strong link discovered to a case at the border.
The country was plunged into a country-wide lockdown on Wednesday, its first in over a year, after a 58-year-old man with no known link to the border was diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday.
Related: New Zealand Covid outbreak linked to Sydney flight as Ardern widens vaccine rollout
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
Japan has recorded a record number of coronavirus cases while critical care beds in Tokyo are nearing capacity less than a week before the city is due to host the Paralympic Games.
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