Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

Just three of 13 promised vaccine hubs for Australia’s young aged care workers have opened

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Almost two months after the dedicated Pfizer pop-ups were supposed to begin operating there are only three – all in Sydney

The federal government has established just three Pfizer pop-up Covid-19 vaccination hubs for younger aged care workers, all of which are in Sydney, almost two months after they were supposed to begin operating.

A major complaint about the vaccine rollout has been the slow and confused process for aged care workers, who were slated to be vaccinated as part of phase 1a, the highest priority stage of the rollout.

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Covid still a threat to Europe – travel should be avoided, says WHO

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Vaccines work against new variants but ‘increased mobility may lead to more transmission’

Covid vaccines in use in Europe appear to protect against all new variants but progress in region remains “fragile” and international travel should be avoided to prevent pockets of transmission quickly spreading into “dangerous resurgences”, the World Health Organization has said.

Weekly official cases in Europe have fallen by almost 60% from 1.7m in mid-April to nearly 685,000 last week with deaths also in decline, the WHO regional director, Hans Kluge, said on Thursday, but incidence rates remained stubbornly high in eight countries.

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Britain in talks to waive Covid vaccine patents to improve global access to jabs

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Pressure growing for UK and others to follow Biden’s lead at WTO to avoid ‘moral and public health failure’

The UK government is in talks about a plan to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents to boost the production of shots in low and middle-income countries, the Guardian can reveal.

The discussions come amid growing calls for Britain and other European countries to follow the US in supporting the proposal put before the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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Putting economics over ethics is a dismal vaccination strategy – Bulgaria shows why | Luba Kassova

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Bulgaria focused on protecting the economy over saving older people from Covid. Ultimately, it will achieve neither

April will forever be in my memory as a month of painful unfairness: it is when I had my first Covid-19 vaccine in the UK and my unvaccinated father died of the virus in Bulgaria. I’m a middle-aged, healthy woman. My father was a vulnerable 85-year-old with underlying health conditions.

I have a pile of letters from the NHS that arrived for my father since January, inviting him to get a vaccination in London, the city he left for his native Bulgaria six months before. With sadness and disquiet, I wonder why Bulgaria did not protect my father in his old age while the UK’s NHS has made every endeavour to do so. Why have I been protected in my middle age while about 90% of Bulgarians over 80 have not?

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Australia news live: doctors warn we are ‘sitting ducks’ until vaccinated; Australian meat could go tariff-free to UK

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Experts raise alarm about Covid vaccination rates as Coalition government explores digital certificates that could unlock international travel; trade minister confident of reaching free-trade deal with UK. Follow the latest news live

Real estate website Domain has alerted customers that is has been the victim of a phishing attack - where an email is made to look official and gets a user to hand over their login details - meaning hackers had access to the company’s administrative system, and was able to access the personal information of people who had recently made inquiries about rental properties.

They had then emailed some of those people asking them to pay a deposit in advance to secure the property, but Domain said so far it had received no reports of anyone paying the deposit.

Another day of zero cases in Victoria.

Yesterday there were no cases reported.
- 9,497 vaccine doses were administered
- 21,488 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/rTYblQWl9E

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Coronavirus live news: France begins cautious return to normality; EU to allow fully vaccinated visitors

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India passes US for record daily deaths; Greece pins hopes for recovery on upgraded airports

This blog is now closed. You can find the latest pandemic news at the link below:

UK government ministers are considering diluting plans for “freedom day” in England on 21 June and delaying the end of all social distancing rules, as new figures showed another sharp increase in the Covid variant first detected in India.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said no announcement would be made until 14 June on whether all restrictions will be lifted a week later, as planned.

Related: Ministers consider diluting plan to relax Covid rules as India variant surges

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How Australia’s vaccination ads compare with the rest of the world – video

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New Zealand has its metaphorical door to freedom, Singapore is leaning on disco, America has presidents and beer, while the UK is calling upon celebrity. As Covid-19 vaccination efforts continue around the globe, countries are using a range of communication methods, including humour and emotional connections to encourage people to get the jab. In contrast, Australia has chosen fear to scare people into what may happen if they contract Covid-19. In one ad, a young woman with oxygen tubes in her nose struggles for air. In another Australian campaign, Australians are urged to 'arm themselves' in a bland ad which has been accused of 'falling flat'

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‘We booked straight away’: first Covid vaccine tourists arrive in San Marino

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Tiny European republic is offering two Sputnik V jabs as part of holiday package

The group of four friends from Latvia had driven 26 hours in a camper van to reach San Marino, where they became the first visitors to take advantage of the microstate’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine holiday package.

One person in the group, Armens, 48, was so happy to receive the Russian jab – available to non-residents who book accommodation in San Marino hotels – that he kept the empty vial as a souvenir after receiving his first dose on Tuesday.

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Covid vaccines: India export delay deals blow to poorer countries

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Efforts in Africa and elsewhere hit by decision not to export AstraZeneca jab until end of year

Vaccine programmes across Africa and much of the developing world will suffer big delays after the world’s biggest producer said it would not be exporting the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine until the end of the year.

“We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritise India … We also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by the end of this year,” Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India (SII), said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Australia news live: Morrison labels India a ‘dangerous place’; Rex Patrick in court fight for cabinet documents

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Coalition backs $600m gas plant as IEA warns against new fossil fuel use; concerns over speed of vaccine rollout continue with Melbourne hubs below capacity. Follow latest updates

With that I shall depart, leaving the amazing Christopher Knaus in my place to take you through the afternoon.

Just a bit more from that Scott Morrison interview with 2GB earlier today:

The prime minister has brushed off criticism about the red carpet treatment he recently received at an Australian airbase.

We have nothing to do with that, I mean, I just walk out of a plane and whatever is there is there...

I have nothing to do with what the defence forces do when you step out of a plane. So it was nice of them to receive it. It wasn’t the first time that’s happened.

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Hilary Mantel and JK Rowling add lots to auction for global vaccine rollout

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Fundraiser running until 21 May also includes chances to consult with star agent Jonny Geller and have a character named after you in a Sarah Pinborough novel

A literary auction raising money to help vaccinate the world against coronavirus has made more than £23,000 so far, as book lovers bid to win signed novels by authors including Hilary Mantel, as well as mentoring sessions from star publishers and agents.

Bidding at Books for Vaccines for a personal consultation with literary agent Jonny Geller has reached £1,000, while a signed box set of the Wolf Hall trilogy, with handwritten first sentences from Mantel, has topped £600. The auction is running until 21 May, with other lots including the chance to have a character named after you in the next novel by Sarah Pinborough, author of the Netflix hit Behind Her Eyes, a signed copy of Marian Keyes’s novel Grown Ups, and the chance to write the dedication at the front of Jill Mansell’s new novel.

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Scott Morrison fends off calls to reopen border as medical association urges ‘plan for 2022’

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The prime minister concedes the government has to ‘step up’ the vaccination effort as the AMA says it’s time to put a date on reopening

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is fending off mounting pressure to reopen Australia’s borders sooner than next year, as the peak medical association joins calls for a “plan for 2022” that would see the country reopen to the rest of the world.

Following last week’s budget, which assumed that Australia’s borders would remain closed until mid next year, the Morrison government has faced a barrage of calls from business, the university sector and from within Coalition ranks for a swifter reopening of borders and a bolstering of quarantine facilities.

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Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine has approved storage period extended

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Increased flexibility of vaccine expected to have ‘significant impact’ on rollout in EU member states

The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature for much longer than previously recommended, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The previous advice was the vaccine needed to be kept at an ultra-low temperature, between -70C and -80C, until a few days before use when it could be transferred to a standard medical fridge.

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Long Covid symptoms ease after vaccination, survey finds

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Exclusive: Fifty-seven per cent of people with illness say they were better overall after jab

Covid-19 vaccines tend to alleviate the symptoms of long Covid, according to a large survey of more than 800 people that suggests mRNA vaccines, in particular, are beneficial.

Though Covid-19 was initially understood to be a largely respiratory illness from which most would recover within a few weeks, as the pandemic wore on increasing numbers of people reported experiencing symptoms for months on end. There is no consensus definition of the condition of these people who have symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue to organ damage, let alone a standardised treatment plan.

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Australia news live: calls from business sector to open border before mid-2022 intensify – live

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Pressure comes as Scott Morrison refuses to commit to a vaccination level at which regular flights will resume. Follow all the day’s news as it happens

Despite Australia’s relative success at locking out the coronavirus pandemic, we still aren’t moving around nearly as much as we used to. Public transport has been hit especially hard, as have recreational and urban areas generally.

Only road traffic has really recovered to pre-Covid levels, which experts say could be a short hangover of fears about the pandemic. Or it could reveal a longer-term shift as working from home becomes more accepted.

Related: How Covid changed the way Australians move: more traffic jams, less public transport

Triple doughnuts!

No new cases were reported yesterday.

- 8,917 vaccine doses administered
- 18,041 test results received

More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco #COVID19VicData #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/m8qeauJvaH

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It could take a decade to vaccinate Venezuela against Covid as pace drags

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Head of country’s academy of medicine issues warning with less than 1% of population having received a dose

Venezuela’s slow rate of vaccination for Covid-19 means it could take up to 10 years for the country to be fully vaccinated, the president of the nation’s academy of medicine said on Monday.

Venezuela, with about 30 million inhabitants, has received 1.4m vaccines from China and Russia, according to its health ministry. Authorities hope to receive enough doses for about 5 million people from the World Health Organization’s Covax system.

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India variant will be dominant UK Covid strain ‘in next few days’

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Scientists’ warning comes as government comes under pressure to explain border policy

The Covid variant first detected in India is set to be the dominant strain in the UK within days, experts have said, with the government and health teams struggling to contain cases, which have risen by more than 75% since Thursday.

With the rapid spread of the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant threatening to reverse moves to ease lockdown, the government faced intense pressure to more fully explain the delay in adding India to the so-called red list of countries.

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Fake Covid vaccine and test certificate market is growing, researchers say

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More than 1,200 vendors operating in the UK and worldwide, offering false documents for as little as £25

A hidden pandemic market advertising fake vaccine and test certificates for as little as £25 has grown exponentially, with more than 1,200 vendors in the UK and worldwide, researchers have found.

After UK ministers announced the return of overseas holidays – with travellers required to show proof of negative tests, and vaccine passports on the horizon – the Guardian has also learned that anti-vaxxers and people arriving in Britain from poorer nations make up a significant number of those buying forged pandemic paraphernalia.

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What threat does Indian Covid variant pose and do vaccines work against it?

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The number of identified cases of the B.1.617.2 variant in the UK has more than doubled in a week

The number of identified cases of the Indian variant in the UK has more than doubled in a week, from 520 to 1,313, according to the most recent figures. The areas with the highest numbers so far include Bolton, Blackburn with Darwen, Erewash in Derbyshire and Bedford, all in England, and Moray in Scotland.

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India variant could seriously disrupt lifting of lockdown, says Boris Johnson

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PM announces acceleration of Covid vaccine programme, saying race could become a ‘great deal tighter’

The final stage of the lifting of coronavirus lockdown restrictions across England could face “serious disruption” due to the India variant, the prime minister has warned, as he announced plans to accelerate the vaccine programme to curb its spread.

Boris Johnson said the gap between the first and second Covid jab would be cut from 12 weeks to eight for all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable, admitting: “The race between our vaccine programme and the virus may be about to become a great deal tighter.”

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