North Korean leader says there is ‘huge crisis’ in antivirus fight; French government’s leading scientific adviser blames Delta variant

• Australia: Queensland says Pfizer vaccine supply will run out in days
• North Korea outbreak fears after Kim Jong-un warns of ‘huge crisis’
• Sage scientist fears England could repeat ‘mistakes of last summer’
• Brazil suspends Covaxin contract after accusations of irregularities
• LA recommends indoor masks regardless of vaccination status

12.07pm BST

The Associated Press has this dispatch from a prison in Florida, reporting that there are few suggestions that US correctional institutions have made significant reforms and changes to better deal with future waves of Covid infection after an estimated half a million people in prisons contracted the virus and 3,000 died.

Derrick Johnson had a makeshift mask. He had the spray bottle of bleach and extra soap that corrections officers provided. But he still spent every day crammed in a unit with 63 other men in a Florida prison, crowding into hallways on their way to meals and sleeping feet from one another at night.

As the coronavirus ravaged the Everglades Correctional Institution, Johnson was surrounded by the sounds of coughing and requests for Tylenol. And while he thought a lot of the prison’s policies were ineffective at protecting prisoners, he also wondered if that was the best the facility could do.

11.25am BST

Vladimir Putin – who received the Russian Sputnik vaccine earlier this year (see entry at 10.39) – has said he is opposed to mandatory vaccinations in Russia despite a surge in coronavirus infections in the country.

“I do not support mandatory vaccinations,” Putin said on a phone-in broadcast on television, according to the AFP news agency.