Category Archives: Coronavirus

Covid live: UK sending poor countries ‘to back of queue’ by ordering boosters; Iran calls for urgent pandemic action

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UK accused of sending countries who are struggling to access vaccines ‘to back of queue’; pandemic ‘number-one’ problem in Iran, says supreme leader

Two US companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have raised the prices of their Covid-19 vaccines after data from clinical trials showed their mRNA formula was more effective than cheaper vaccines from Britain’s AstraZeneca and the American drugs maker Johnson & Johnson.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have pledged to provide their doses on a not-for-profit basis until the pandemic ends.

Related: Covid-19 vaccines: the contracts, prices and profits

A new US practice of transferring asylum-seekers and migrants expelled under public health orders by plane to southern Mexico contravenes international law, the UN refugee agency has said.

Those being expelled may have urgent protection needs and risk being sent back to the very dangers they have fled in their countries of origin in central America without any opportunity to have those needs assessed and addressed, UNHCR said.

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CDC urges pregnant women to get Covid vaccine, finding no increased risk of miscarriage

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Updated guidance comes after a CDC analysis of new safety data, as vaccination rates remain low among pregnant women in the US

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention urged all pregnant women Wednesday to get the Covid-19 vaccine as hospitals in hot spots around the US see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus.

Expectant women run a higher higher risk of severe illness and pregnancy complications from the coronavirus, including perhaps miscarriages and stillbirths. But their vaccination rates are low, with only about 23% having received at least one dose, according to CDC data.

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Covid-19 vaccines: the contracts, prices and profits

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Raised charges and Covax deals on order books of Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca

Two US companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have raised the prices of their Covid-19 vaccines after data from clinical trials showed their mRNA formula was more effective than cheaper vaccines from Britain’s AstraZeneca and the American drugs maker Johnson & Johnson.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have pledged to provide their doses on a not-for-profit basis until the pandemic ends.

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UK orders extra Covid vaccines for autumn 2022 booster campaign

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Pfizer reportedly asked to supply 35m more doses, with final go-ahead for this year’s programme still awaited

Ministers have started ordering vaccines for a booster campaign in autumn 2022, with Pfizer reportedly being asked to supply the UK with a further 35m doses.

The government has still not give the final go-ahead for the vaccine booster programme expected this autumn, but it is understood to have placed the order with Pfizer despite the company raising its prices.

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Nurse in Germany suspected of replacing Covid vaccines with saline solution

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Authorities say about 8,600 people may have been affected

Authorities in northern Germany have appealed to thousands of people to get another shot of Covid vaccine after a police investigation found that a Red Cross nurse may have injected them with a saline solution.

The nurse is suspected of injecting salt solution into people’s arms instead of genuine doses at a vaccination centre in Friesland – a rural district near the North Sea coast – in the early spring.

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Australia Covid live update: NSW on edge as cases spread in regions; Melbourne waits for news on lockdown

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Melbourne faces the possibility of a lockdown extension as shopping centre workers ordered into quarantine; new cases emerge across regional NSW. Follow all the day’s news

Queensland LNP MP George Christensen has spoken to Sydney radio 2GB about being censured through a parliamentary motion yesterday.

The whole House, including the government, voted to support Labor’s motion disassociating the parliament with Christensen’s anti-lockdown and anti-public health measure comments yesterday (although Scott Morrison couldn’t bring himself to name or reference Christensen in his speech and just a hour or so later, cabinet minister Paul Fletcher declined five times on national TV to say he disagreed with Christensen’s views)

Happy Wednesday!

It’s not just hump day; we’re also halfway through the parliamentary sitting. At this stage, there’s a week break and then it’s back into it, but you have to wonder whether any of the east coast MPs will risk going home, given how quickly Covid is changing the landscape. Although, it doesn’t seem like anyone is missing the deputy prime minister, who has been in lockdown in Armidale, and apparently, unable to zoom in for the sitting (he has answered no questions in QT and offered no contributions to debate).

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Economic recovery from Covid ‘running out of steam’ – OECD

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Data collected from 38 member countries says UK among the major economies now in the slow lane

The world’s major economies have seen their rapid recovery after easing Covid restrictions begin to run out of steam in the past month as a resurgence in the virus depressed consumer spending, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

There are signs that the recovery in the US and Japan is losing momentum, the OECD said, while parts of Europe and China have slowed as consumers remain reluctant to eat out, visit attractions and shop as they did before the pandemic.

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New Zealand should take phased approach to border reopening, experts advise

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Panel says country should also continue to pursue ambitious Covid elimination strategy, even after border reopens

New Zealand should take a phased approach to reopening its border but not before a high percentage of the population is vaccinated, according to an expert governmental advisory panel.

The advice’s release comes a day before the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is expected to make an announcement on the government’s approach to the reopening of the country on Thursday.

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US urged to fast-track vaccine approval for children under 12 as cases rise

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Children accounted for 15% of new Covid cases reported last week, American Academy of Pediatrics data analysis shows

As Covid cases among children continue to rise in the US due to spread of the Delta variant, experts are urging the federal government to fast-track vaccine approval for those under the age of 12.

New data analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) indicated that children accounted for 15% of new cases reported last week, with a total of almost 94,000 cases. There was a 4% increase in child cases over the past two weeks, the AAP found.

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Coronavirus live news: China reports highest cases since January; India reports lowest infections since March

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UK reports 146 daily deaths, highest figure since 12 March; more than three-quarters of adults in UK now fully vaccinated

As Covid cases among children continue to rise in the US due to spread of the Delta variant, experts are urging the federal government to fast-track vaccine approval for those under the age of 12.

New data analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) indicated that children accounted for 15% of new cases reported last week, with a total of almost 94,000 cases. There was a 4% increase in child cases over the past two weeks, the AAP found.

All of this was likely unnecessary if we as adults did what we needed to do and get the vaccine. We could have protected these children.

Related: US urged to fast-track vaccine approval for children under 12 as cases rise

School districts in Florida and Texas are bucking their Republican governors’ bans on requiring masks for children and teachers as coronavirus cases soar in conservative areas with low vaccination rates, Reuters reports.

The Broward County school board in Florida on Tuesday became the latest major district to flout an order by the governor Rick DeSantis outlawing mask requirements in that state. The Dallas Independent School District said late Monday that it would also require masks, despite an order banning such mandates from the governor Greg Abbott.

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Elegantly wasted: has lockdown made booze dangerously aspirational?

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Drinking at home was once a guilty pleasure. Now everyone from bored homeworkers to professional influencers is swapping cocktail recipes and photos of colourful aperitifs. Is gin o’clock turning into unhappy hour?

The shadow of a palm frond falls on a young woman in a bikini, holding an emerald-coloured cocktail in one manicured hand. A negroni glows from the depths of a darkened bar; a tray of fruit-laden glasses sits beside a swimming pool. The #cocktail hashtag on Instagram is a passport to a magical land of aspirational drinking, where everything comes garnished with rose petals and nobody ever seems to get hangovers.

Its inhabitants are a mix of amateur enthusiasts reviewing their latest discoveries, and professional “ginfluencers” making a living from creating lusciously photographed cocktail recipes or sponsored posts promoting this rhubarb gin or that new tequila. Colourful drinks are popular, says Inka Kukkamäki, a full-time drinks influencer whose @onthesauceagain account has 21,000 Instagram followers. “Something a bit interesting and unusual, or just something simple like a negroni – any kind of negroni twist becomes popular. The Italian aperitivo culture has really spread into the UK in the last year.”

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Morrison responds to IPCC report; NSW records 356 Covid cases, Victoria 20 and Qld three – as it happened

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NSW records 356 new Covid cases as virus spreads across the state; Queensland records three new cases; Victoria records 20 new cases. This blog is now closed

That’s where we will leave the live blog for Tuesday.

If you haven’t been one of the millions to fill out your census already, tonight is the night.

The former prime ministers Malcom Turnbull and Kevin Rudd are addressing a La Trobe Asia webinar focused on Australia’s relationship with China.

The discussion has turned to climate action, a day after the IPCC report on the threat the climate emergency poses.

The proposition that we should all down tools until China does more is very naive.

We’re not. So that’s a huge, huge problem.

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‘Our morgues are full’: Zimbabwe struggles with surge in Covid burials

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Pressure on undertakers leads to widespread delays after record number of coronavirus infections and deaths last month

A group of women sing hymns at the cemetery in Harare as undertakers, dressed in Covid-19 protective gear, gently lower a white casket into the grave.

“This world is not our home,” they sing, as relatives, standing a few metres away, mourn their loss.

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Support for Japan’s PM reaches all-time low over Covid-19, despite Olympics success

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Public support for Yoshihide Suga’s cabinet dipped below 30%, despite widespread support for going ahead with the Games

Public support for the government of Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has slumped to an all-time low, despite evidence that most people support the decision to go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics during the coronavirus pandemic.

Suga had been hoping to bask in the afterglow of the Games, which ended on Sunday, but support for his cabinet has dipped below 30% for the first time since he became prime minister last September, largely over its response to a recent surge in infections.

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Think it’s all over? Why the Covid experts are not so sure about that

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Analysis: the end of restrictions in the UK has not led to a surge in cases, but coronavirus remains unpredictable

They are questions lurking in many people’s minds: just how upbeat or pessimistic should we be about the pandemic now? How does the UK compare with other countries? And is the worst of the crisis really over?

Two weeks after “freedom day” in England and with case numbers across the UK remaining lower than some modellers had feared, the worst seems to have eased. Future lockdowns, according to experts, seem unlikely unless new variants emerge.

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Coronavirus live: one Covid death every two minutes in Iran, reports say; anger at PCR test chaos in UK

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Iranian media reports say one person dying of Covid every two minutes as crisis worsens; in the UK one company left test drop boxes overflowing amid requirement for returning travellers to get tested after arriving

Good evening from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_

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Covid hospitalizations surge in US south as unvaccinated urged to get shots

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  • Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases
  • Intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations

Covid-19 hospitalizations continued to surge among America’s deep south states on Monday as health officials urge unvaccinated residents to receive the shot and intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations, prompting fears of a surge close to the numbers of last winter.

The state of Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases as the Delta variant rips through a region with some of the lowest vaccination rates in the US. Last Friday, the Louisiana department of health announced a daily increase of 6,116 positive Covid cases, with 2,421 people now hospitalized with the virus including 277 on ventilators. With just 37% of residents fully vaccinated, state data indicated that unvaccinated people accounted for 90% of hospitalizations in the state. 181 people died from the virus in Louisiana last week.

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France extends Covid health pass after fourth weekend of protests

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Pass sanitaire allows people to visit restaurants, hospitals and take long train trips but backlash continues

An extension to France’s “health pass” covering activities including going to restaurants and cafes, taking long-distance train journeys and visiting hospitals has come into effect after a fourth weekend of protests.

The pass sanitaire, which the government hopes will boost vaccination rates, is shown in the form of a QR code either digitally or on paper and given to those who are fully vaccinated, have a negative Covid-19 test or have had coronavirus and recovered.

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Manila in lockdown as Delta cases soar in Philippines

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Covid death toll hits four-month high amid record case numbers in countries across south-east Asia

The more aggressive Delta variant of Covid-19, detected in the Philippines in mid-July, has spread across much of the country, reaching 13 of 17 regions, health officials have said.

On Sunday, the Philippines reported a sharp rise in daily Covid fatalities, with 287 deaths, the highest daily increase in four months. A further 9,671 new infections were also confirmed.

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‘A great blow to Uganda’: surgeon John Baptist Mukasa dies of Covid

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One of the few neurosurgeons in the country, Mukasa declined lucrative opportunities to work overseas, dedicating himself to training a new generation and going the ‘extra mile’ for patients

Kennedy Owuor first fell over in his hotel room in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, before headaches followed. He initially brushed the symptoms off as a minor problem, but soon he started having difficulties speaking and moving.

A trip in August 2020 to northern Uganda, as part of his duties working for the UN’s food agency, had to be interrupted. He was instead driven for 12 hours to UMC Victoria hospital in Kampala.

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