Category Archives: Coronavirus

Covid live: daily deaths in Russia at record-equalling high; life expectancy falls for UK men due to pandemic

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Russia reports 820 Covid-linked deaths; coronavirus causes male life expectancy in the UK to drop for the first time since records began

That’s it from me for today. Handing over now to my colleague Nicola Slawson. Thanks for reading!

Coronavirus has caused male life expectancy in the UK to drop for the first time since records began.

A boy born between 2018 and 2020 is expected to live until he is 79 years old – a drop from 79.2 years for 2015-2017, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Life expectancy has increased in the UK over the last 40 years, albeit at a slower pace in the last decade.

However, the coronavirus pandemic led to a greater number of deaths than normal in 2020.

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Tell us: how will you be affected by France’s new vaccine passport rules?

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From 30 September, people aged 12-17 visiting France from the UK must present a vaccine passport to access most public places in the country

From 30 September, people aged 12-17 visiting France from the UK must present a “passe sanitaire” (vaccine passport) to access most public places in the country. Previously, this was only required for people aged 18 years and older.

The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) does not recommend that most 12 to 15-year-olds get vaccinated and, for the time being, is only backing offering a first dose to 16 and 17-year-olds. This may pose practical problems for many UK-based parents, whose only option would seem to be paying for PCR tests.

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US public health workers leaving ‘in droves’ amid pandemic burnout

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Many workers feel stonewalled by elected officials and scapegoated for the high US Covid death toll

Alexandra was working in the public health emergencies unit in a major north-eastern American city when the first wave of the pandemic hit. Although her job was in public health policy research, and not treating Coovid-19 patients on the frontlines of the healthcare system, she recalls the spring of 2020 as a blur of 24-hour shifts.

Related: ‘We’re trying to survive’: workers face cuts as US public sector lags in recovery

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England’s Covid travel rules spark outrage around the world

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Refusal to recognise vaccines given across Latin America, Africa and south Asia has been denounced as ‘discriminatory’

England’s Covid travel rules and refusal to recognise vaccines administered across huge swaths of the world have sparked outrage and bewilderment across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, with critics denouncing what they called an illogical and discriminatory policy.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, described England’s rules, unveiled last Friday, as “a new simplified system for international travel”. “The purpose is to make it easier for people to travel,” Shapps said.

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More than 100 countries face spending cuts as Covid worsens debt crisis, report warns

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As pandemic widens inequalities, many developing countries spend more on debt than health, study says

More than 100 countries face cuts to public spending on health, education and social protection as the Covid-19 pandemic compounds already high levels of debt, a new report says.

The International Monetary Fund believes that 35 to 40 countries are “debt distressed” – defined as when a country is experiencing difficulties in servicing its debt, such as when there are arrears or debt restructuring.

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‘Would you like Pfizer with that?’ New Zealanders could get Covid jab with fast-food fix

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Government is in talks with KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell to administer vaccinations while customers wait in line

New Zealanders looking to get a fast-food fix could soon be asked if they would like a vaccine with their meal. The country is aiming to vaccinate at least 90% of its population and the government is now in talks with fast-food giant KFC to help reach that goal.

“We just want to reach out to where people are,” the deputy prime minister Grant Robertson told RNZ on Thursday morning.

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Whitty and Van-Tam say it is ‘inevitable’ that unvaccinated children will get Covid – video

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Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, and Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, appeared before the Commons education committee over the decision to offer Covid vaccines to 12- to 15-year-olds, after the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) had said the benefits were too small.

Whitty told MPs said any time in school missed as a result of being inoculated should be balanced against the potentially longer period lost as a result of being infected.

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UN food summit will be ‘elitist’ and ‘pro-corporate’, says special rapporteur

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Michael Fakhri says Thursday’s meeting will not be promised ‘people’s summit’ on tackling world’s nutrition crisis

The UN global food summit is “elitist and regressive” and has failed in its goal of being a “people’s summit”, according to the special rapporteur on food rights.

As world leaders prepare to attend the virtual event on Thursday, which aims to examine ways to transform global food systems to be more sustainable, Michael Fakhri said it risked leaving behind the very people critical for its success. In an interview with the Guardian, Fakhri said neither the worsening impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the right to food, nor fundamental questions of inequality, accountability and governance were being properly addressed by the meeting.

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Covid live: Germany to end quarantine pay for un-vaccinated workers; no plans to relax France health pass restrictions

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Draft document suggests new Germany rules would come into force from 11 October; French government says coronavirus situation improving

Global Covid cases have fallen in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed.

There were 3.6 million new cases reported around the world last week, down from 4 million new infections the previous week.

Health authorities in Germany are planning new rules under which unvaccinated workers would not receive compensation for lost pay if coronavirus measures forced them to quarantine.

In a draft document seen by the Reuters news agency, it showed the rules would come into force from October 11 at the latest.

Why should others pay for someone who decides not to be vaccinated?

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Ron DeSantis appoints anti-mask and anti-vax doctor as Florida’s surgeon general

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Dr Joseph Ladapo attacked concern over the pandemic as ‘Covid mania’

A medical professor who is opposed to mask and vaccine mandates, attacked concern over the pandemic as “Covid mania” and likened the eating of fruit and vegetables to the benefits of vaccination has been named as Florida’s new surgeon general.

Dr Joseph Ladapo has been appointed to the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor who has railed against restrictions placed upon day-to-day life to dampen the Covid-19 pandemic and has sought to block funding for schools in the state that have attempted to make students wear masks to stop the spread of the virus that has killed more than 675,000 people in the US since the pandemic began.

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Melbourne police break up anti-lockdown protest with non-lethal rounds and teargas

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Third day of demonstrations ends in a standoff between officers and protesters at the city’s war memorial

Police in Melbourne have again fired non-lethal rounds and teargas at anti-Covid lockdown protesters to end an almost three-hour standoff at the city’s war memorial during a third straight day of demonstrations.

More than 200 people were arrested. Two officers were injured by bottles thrown at them and one was hospitalised with chest pains, Victoria police said.

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Big pharma fuelling human rights crisis over Covid vaccine inequity – Amnesty

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Six companies warned not to put profit before lives as report shows less than 1% of almost 6bn doses have gone to low-income countries

Amnesty International has accused six pharmaceutical companies that have developed Covid-19 vaccines of fuelling a global human rights crisis, citing their refusal to sufficiently waive intellectual property rights, share vaccine technology and boost global vaccine supply.

After assessing the performance of six Covid-19 vaccine developers – Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax – Amnesty International claims that all are failing to uphold their own human rights commitments and warns they should not be putting profit before the lives of people in the world’s poorest countries.

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Brazilian minister tests positive for Covid after meeting maskless Johnson

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Marcelo Queiroga sat close to Boris Johnson and Liz Truss at New York meeting

Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, has tested positive for Covid and gone into isolation, 24 hours after meeting a maskless Boris Johnson and other British officials in New York.

Queiroga, who sat close to Johnson and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday during their meeting with Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced his positive test on Twitter on Tuesday night.

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UK to send 1m Pfizer vaccine doses to South Korea in swap deal

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Doses will help South Korea boost full vaccination rates, and UK will get same number back later in year

One million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine are being sent from the UK to South Korea as part of a swap deal.

South Korea will return the same “overall volume of doses” before the end of the year, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

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US to donate an additional 500m Covid vaccines to poorer countries, says Biden

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US president outlines plan at Covid summit, bringing America’s global donation to over 1.1bn doses amid backlash over boosters

Joe Biden has announced that the US will donate an additional 500m Covid-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries around the world, bringing America’s total global donation to more than 1.1bn doses.

The US president outlined the plan on Wednesday at a virtual coronavirus summit where he urged world leaders to “go big” in tackling the pandemic and closing the vaccination gap with poorer nations.

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Argentina to lift almost all Covid restrictions as cases and deaths fall

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Masks will no longer be required outdoors as government says country could be at ‘end of pandemic’

Masks will no longer be required outdoors in Argentina as the country’s government announced the lifting of almost all Covid restrictions following a dramatic fall in Covid cases and deaths in recent months.

“If the numbers of coronavirus infections continue like this, we could say we are experiencing the end of the pandemic,” said presidential cabinet chief Juan Manzur amid a flurry of measures including the return of football matches with stadiums at 50% capacity starting next month – just in time for the 3 October classic super-match between Argentina’s two longtime rivals Boca and River Plate teams.

“Today for us the Covid pandemic ends to a large extent,” government Covid adviser Luis Camera said in a radio interview. “The pandemic ends but the virus continues,” he said.

The announcements were met with cautious optimism by doctors on the frontline. “We’re at a very good place: at the hospital where I work we have not admitted a single Covid patient to intensive care for three weeks now – but I would not dare say the pandemic is over,” said intensive care doctor Arnaldo Dubin, a researcher and professor at La Plata University.

Related: ‘People die in less than a week’: Covid wave catches Argentina off-guard

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Capitol riot committee ‘going straight to subpoenas’, says Adam Schiff – live

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Leaders scrambling to get infrastructure bill and the $3.5tn spending plan to Biden’s desk while trying to avoid a shutdown and raise the debt ceiling

House Democrats are moving forward with their plan to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill next week, despite pushback from progressive lawmakers.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer confirmed this morning that the vote on the infrastructure bill will happen next Monday or Tuesday.

Vaccine mandates for the US military are meant to identify “sincere Christians … free thinkers” and “men with high testosterone levels”, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday night.

Related: Tucker Carlson claims US military vaccine mandate a ‘purity test’ for ‘men with high testosterone’

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Covid live: 31,564 new cases in UK; EU set to accept NHS pass as proof of vaccination

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UK figures show 203 further deaths have been reported; UK officials say Brussels will recognise NHS pass as equivalent to EU’s own

Germany is reeling after a petrol station worker was shot dead by a 49-year-old customer who refused to wear a face mask.

Authorities in the western town of Trier said the unnamed suspect, a German citizen, told officers he acted “out of anger” after the 20-year-old cashier in the town of Idar-Oberstein, in Rhineland-Palatinate, asked him to put on a mask.

Related: Petrol station worker killed in Germany after face mask row

Good evening, Euan O’Byrne Mulligan here. I’m taking over the blog for the next few hours.

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‘Mask it, vax it or choose the casket’: the pastor and barber urging his community to get vaccinated

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The Rev Kenneth B Thomas Sr, also a barber shop owner, coach and teacher, is making a grassroots effort in a Black Arkansas community

This photo essay was published in partnership with Scalawag, a nonprofit journalism and storytelling organization that disrupts dominant narratives about the US south. Scalawag’s series Breaking Through Covid is a collection of stories focused on illuminating the ways the Covid-19 pandemic has realigned communities and put sharper points on the crises the south was already facing.

At Bethesda Worship and Healing Missionary Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the Rev Kenneth B Thomas Sr preaches the gospel of “Mask it, vax it or choose the casket. The choice is yours.”

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Holiday homes for disabled people face closure due to England’s vaccines mandate

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Charity says Covid policy is having ‘devastating consequences’ for sector already in crisis

Some of England’s only holiday homes for disabled people in care are facing closure due to the policy that means all staff must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

The charity, Revitalise, said England’s vaccines mandate for care homes was having “devastating consequences” for a sector already in crisis.

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