Category Archives: Coronavirus

Coronavirus live news: Sri Lanka to impose nationwide lockdown; one in 80 people in England had Covid last week

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Sri Lanka government bows to intense pressure from experts as hospitals overwhelmed; prevalence in England falls slightly on previous week

More than 9,000 Covid infections were linked to Euro 2020 football games monitored for the government’s mass events test scheme, and scientists have said the tournament generated “a significant risk to public health”.

An analysis of the third and final stage of the research programme, released on Friday, found that more than 85% of all the infections connected to the 49 days of various outdoor sport, music and entertainment events came from the eight Euros games involved, and mainly the semi-final and final.

Related: 9,000 Covid cases linked to Euro 2020 games in mass events scheme

India’s drug regulator has granted emergency use approval for Zydus Cadila’s Covid-19 vaccine, the world’s first DNA shot against Covid, in adults and children aged 12 years and above.

Reuters reports that the vaccine, ZyCoV-D, uses a section of genetic material from the virus that gives instructions as either DNA or RNA to make the specific protein that the immune system recognises and responds to.

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9,000 Covid cases linked to Euro 2020 games in mass events scheme

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Study paper says England’s progress to final ‘generated a significant risk to public health across the UK’

More than 9,000 Covid infections were linked to Euro 2020 football games monitored for the government’s mass events test scheme, and scientists have said the tournament generated “a significant risk to public health”.

An analysis of the third and final stage of the research programme, released on Friday, found that more than 85% of all the infections connected to the 49 days of various outdoor sport, music and entertainment events came from the eight Euros games involved, and mainly the semi-final and final.

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Office politics: firms still grappling with home working puzzle

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Whether seen as an obstacle to overcome or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, home working is proving hard to avoid

As the pandemic struck wealthy economies in early 2020, workers (in white-collar jobs, at least) found themselves carrying out their duties from home. Now that vaccination programmes are continuing apace, more companies are grappling with how – and whether – to end the great enforced experiment in home working.

The answer is far from settled, with Apple telling its global workforce on Friday that they will not return to its corporate offices until January at the earliest, amid concern over the spread of new coronavirus variants. The tech company’s original plan to bring staff back in on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in a hybrid home-working pattern had already been delayed from early September to October.

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Victoria Covid update: Dan Andrews hints at more restrictions after 55 new Covid cases

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Premier urges Melbourne residents to follow lockdown rules to the letter and warns Delta outbreak on the verge of ‘getting away from us’

Daniel Andrews has told Victorians he “cannot rule out” introducing more restrictions to curb the state’s coronavirus outbreak after a spike in positive cases that includes 12 in the regional city of Shepparton.

The premier warned that unless Melburnians follow the lockdown rules to the letter, next week’s case numbers “will be like Sydney”.

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UK regulator approves ‘first of its kind’ Covid antibody treatment

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Sajid Javid says green light for Ronapreve – which was used to treat Donald Trump – is ‘fantastic news’

The antibody cocktail used to treat Donald Trump for Covid has been approved by the UK’s medicines regulator, becoming the first treatment in Britain using artificial antibodies to tackle the virus.

The drug, developed by the US biotech company Regeneron, has received the backing of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Clinical trials showed it helped to prevent Covid infection as well as to reduce the risk of hospitalisation or symptoms in severe cases, when given soon after exposure.

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New Zealand national lockdown extended as Covid outbreak spreads to Wellington

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Total case numbers grow to 31, including three in Wellington, as Jacinda Ardern urges public to stay vigilant

The whole of New Zealand will remain in lockdown until midnight Tuesday, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, as the country’s coronavirus outbreak grew to 31 people and spread to Wellington.

The first case in the outbreak emerged in Auckland on Tuesday, prompting the government to put the entire country into a level-4 lockdown – the highest level of restrictions. Genome sequencing has linked the cluster to a returnee from Australia.

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Sydney faces curfew and longer lockdown as Australia’s Delta outbreak grows

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City’s western reaches, already in lockdown, will have a curfew imposed from Monday after huge rise in coronavirus cases

Sydney’s coronavirus lockdown is being extended for another month, with large swathes of the city facing curfew from Monday, as authorities battle a Delta outbreak that has seen record case numbers this week.

New South Wales reported 642 new local cases and four deaths on Friday, prompting premier Gladys Berejiklian to require masks to be worn outdoors throughout the state at all times except when exercising.

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Covid Australia live news update: greater Sydney lockdown extended until end of September; NSW announces 642 cases, four deaths; Victoria records 55 cases

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ACT chief minister Andrew Barr calls on colleagues to stop presenting 70% or 80% vaccination targets as ‘freedom day’ ahead of meeting. Follow latest updates

Berejiklian:

I also want to stress that from Monday midnight, unless you’re exercising masks should be worn outdoors everywhere across New South Wales.

Our concern is that when people are walking past a group of people or accidentally bumping into people that, that can cause that fleeting contact can cause transmission, and even when you’re exercising, you need to have the mask unless you’re doing some strenuous exercise.

Berejiklian:

So from Monday at midnight, the greater Sydney lockdown will extend until the end of September... but I also want to state that the Central Coast and Shell Harbour will be defined as regional.

So Greater Sydney includes all those areas that are currently in lockdown in Greater Sydney but for the Central Coast and Shellharbour which will be defined as rural and regional as we announced yesterday.

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Joe Biden says he and first lady plan on getting Covid booster shot

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President defends shots as millions worldwide are unvaccinated: US has ‘provided more to the rest of the world than all the rest of the world combined’

Joe Biden has said that he and first lady Jill Biden plan on getting a booster shot and is comfortable doing so while millions around the world remain unvaccinated because America has “provided more to the rest of the world than all the rest of the world combined”.

He added that the US will also provide an additional half a billion shots around the world within the first half of next year. Critics argue this remains a drop in the ocean in the context of what is needed.

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Trump team thought UK officials ‘out of their minds’ aiming for herd immunity, book says

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Trump officials tried to convince him to take threat seriously and British experts ‘oddly pessimistic’ on defeating virus, says book

US officials thought their British counterparts “were out of their minds” in aiming for herd immunity as part of Boris Johnson’s initial policy on dealing with the coronavirus, according to a new book about the global response to the pandemic.

As the scale of the threat became increasingly clear in January and February 2020, officials in Donald Trump’s administration were trying to convince him to take the threat seriously, despite personal reassurances he had been given by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, that it was under control.

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Zuckerberg deflects questions about vaccine disinformation on Facebook

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CEO says problem is primarily one of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ among the US public, touting platform’s vaccine literacy tool

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg skirted a question on Thursday about coronavirus vaccine disinformation on the social network, choosing to phrase the problem instead as primarily one of “vaccine hesitancy” among the US public.

In an interview with CBS, which was released on Thursday morning, TV anchor Gayle King pressed Zuckerberg to release information on how many people have viewed and shared Facebook posts containing misinformation about the Covid vaccine.

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US hospitalizations of people under 50 at highest levels since start of pandemic

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Largest increases among those in their 30s and under 18 as US urges world leaders not to attend UN meeting in person

Hospitalizations of people under the age of 50 with Covid-19 are now at the highest levels seen in the US since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest government data shows.

The largest increases in hospitalizations was among those in their 30s and the under-18s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The previous peak in coronavirus patients under 50 needing to be hospitalized was in January this year.

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‘No one comes here any more’: the human cost as Covid wipes out tourism

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From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we find out how the crisis has affected people in four travel hotspots – and whether or not they want the tourists to return

In March last year, it was predicted that the global travel shutdown would cause international arrivals to plummet by 20 to 30% by the end of 2020.

Six weeks later, the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) revised their warning: international arrivals could fall by up to 80% – equating to a billion fewer tourists and the worst crisis in the history of the industry.

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Africa’s park tourism crash is a wake-up call. Can we find new ways to finance conservation? | Peter Muiruri

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As Covid continues to curb visits to see our iconic wildlife, now is the time to move away from western-led funding models

That African governments have failed to mobilise funds to conserve their vast protected areas is not in doubt. Countries were just about managing to pay basic salaries to rangers who barely had enough to put fuel in their patrol vehicles. Covid has exacerbated this already dire situation, with the loss of income from foreign tourism.

The continent has more than 8,500 protected areas, described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as government-led national parks, areas jointly governed by state agencies, communities, privately owned wildlife reserves, and public-private partnerships between governments, companies and NGOs. Included too, are what the IUCN calls “indigenous peoples and communities conserved territories and areas”.

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Coronavirus live news: Japan reports record cases ahead of Paralympics, New Zealand cluster grows

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Critical care beds are reaching capacity in Japan while New Zealand is racing to contain a cluster in Auckland that has grown to 21

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

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UK vaccine watchdog expert sceptical about booster jabs for all adults

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Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to decide on Thursday which groups should get third shot

The UK’s vaccine watchdog is to decide on Thursday 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.

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Hong Kong reportedly lets Nicole Kidman skip Covid quarantine

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Actor said to be given exemption to film Amazon TV series, as territory braces for tougher travel rules

As Hong Kong braces for more draconian Covid-19 travel restrictions from Friday, the Australian actor Nicole Kidman has 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, the news website HK01 reported, a move that contrasts sharply with the mandatory hotel quarantine of up to three weeks that residents must undergo after entering the Chinese-ruled territory.

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‘No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit

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Australian psychologist Steven Taylor published what would turn out to be a prophetic book, and it has become like a Lonely Planet guide to the pandemic

In October 2019, a month or so before Covid-19 began to spread from the industrial Chinese city of Wuhan, Steven Taylor, an Australian psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, published what would turn out to be a remarkably prophetic book, The Psychology of Pandemics.

Even his publishers had doubts about its relevance and market potential. But in the 22 months since the book has become like a Lonely Planet guide to the pandemic, passed around and marked up like waypoints along a new and dreadful global health journey.

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Joe Biden announces Covid booster shots from September – video

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Joe Biden says his administration plans to make Covid-19 vaccine booster shots available from 20 September as infections rise from the Delta variant. Americans who had their initial course at least eight months ago will be initially eligible. The president defended the decision to recommend boosters while other countries are yet to deliver their first shots. "We can take care of America and help the world at the same time," he said. "In June and July, America administered 50 million shots here in the United States and we donated a hundred million shots to other countries."

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