Unions demand fair compensation for dozens of doctors now unable to work because of debilitating symptoms
Family doctors are being forced out of their jobs after developing long Covid, prompting demands for the government to compensate NHS staff with the debilitating condition who cannot work.
GPs struggling with the condition have told the Observer they felt “shocked and betrayed” when their colleagues removed them from their posts because of prolonged sick leave.
Continue reading...Austrian expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach says the real number could be 200, despite official Nepali denials
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A coronavirus outbreak on Mount Everest has infected at least 100 climbers and support staff, a mountaineering guide said, giving the first comprehensive estimate amid official Nepalese denials that the disease has spread to the world’s highest peak.
Lukas Furtenbach of Austria, who last week halted his Everest expedition due to virus fears, said on Saturday one of his foreign guides and six Nepali Sherpa guides had tested positive.
Continue reading...Widespread compliance with rules contradicts notion that we are anti-authoritarian, expert on national identity says
• Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout: how is your state doing?
If Ned Kelly was still around he’d probably be an anti-vaxxer, yet no doubt find himself in the minority.
That’s the view of Monash University’s Professor Graeme Davison, one of Australia’s leading experts on the elusive notion of national identity.
Continue reading...Health agency says the rates of myocarditis are not higher than expected and no causal link has been found to mRNA jabs
Some teenagers and young adults who received Covid-19 vaccines have experienced heart inflammation, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group said, recommending further study of the rare condition.
In a statement dated 17 May, the CDC’s advisory committee on immunisation practices said it had looked into reports that a few young vaccine recipients, predominantly male adolescents and young adults, developed myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.
Continue reading...Germany to bar visitors from UK over Covid variants of concern; sewage samples being tested across England to monitor Covid variants
Australia has now administered more than 3.5m doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, with a further 89,000 jabs delivered around the country.
New South Wales delivered 12,485 doses in the past 24 hours, becoming another one-day record for the state. Around 5000 of them were administered at its Olympic Park mass vaccination hub alone, AAP reports.
Malaysia has reported a further 6,320 coronavirus cases amid a recent surge in infections, as well as 50 new deaths. Saturday’s figures compare with 4,140 cases and 44 deaths a week today.
The nation reported a record high of 6,806 new cases on Thursday when it also saw its highest daily toll of 59 deaths. Taking the total number of cases since the onset of the pandemic to 505,115, Reuters reports.
The perceived wisdom has been that children do not suffer severely from the virus. Yet they are now in Brazil, Indonesia and India
Emergency physician and leading epidemiologist in Brazil, Dr Fatima Marinho, is seeing symptoms of Covid-19 in children that starkly contrast with the message that has been relayed globally throughout the pandemic that children do not appear to suffer severely from the virus.
Severe muscle aches, diarrhoea, coughing, abdominal pain and hospitalisation – all of these are happening to children with Covid-19 in Brazil, Marinho says.
Continue reading...A Public Health England study has revealed the vaccines can be up to 88% effective after a second dose
Both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs are highly effective at protecting people from the strain of the Covid-19 virus first found in India, a study by Public Health England (PHE) has found.
The analysis, carried out between 5 April and 16 May, found the Pfizer vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the India variant two weeks after a second dose, compared with 93% effectiveness against the Kent strain. For its part, the AstraZeneca jab was 60% effective, compared with 66% against the Kent variant over the same period.
Continue reading...Pascal Soriot defends firm and says its booster jab has performed well against new Covid variants in trials
The chief executive of AstraZeneca has defended the company against “armchair generals” and said its vaccine has a future.
Pascal Soriot disclosed the UK had priority access to the jab in a deal with Oxford University in return for investment and that it was only slightly less effective against the India variant than the strain identified in Kent.
Continue reading...Australian and international scientists publish open letter defending Dr Elisabeth Bik and calling for science whistleblowers to be protected
A world-renowned Dutch expert in identifying scientific misconduct and error, Dr Elisabeth Bik, has been threatened with legal action for questioning the integrity of a study promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.
The case, filed with the French state prosecutor by controversial infectious diseases physician Dr Didier Raoult, has prompted hundreds of scientists from across the world to publish an open letter calling for science whistleblowers to be protected.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson still plans to end restrictions in June despite experts’ fears over spread of India and Kent variants
Covid infection levels are showing early signs of an increase in England, data has revealed, as experts continue to warn the variant of concern first detected in India could grow exponentially in the UK.
On Friday Boris Johnson told broadcasters in Portsmouth he has seen nothing to suggest it will be necessary to “deviate from the roadmap”, indicating that the planned lifting of all coronavirus restrictions in England on 21 June may yet go ahead.
Continue reading...Spanish PM says negative test not needed even as Boris Johnson warns against travel to amber list countries
Spain will allow British holidaymakers into the country without the need to provide a negative Covid test from 24 May.
In a move aimed at restarting the country’s battered tourist industry, the Spanish government has announced that visitors from the UK will be free to enter Spain “without restrictions and without health requirements”. The same applies to visitors from Japan. All arrivals are still required to fill out a health form.
Continue reading...7,200 mucormycosis cases reported, usually in patients with diabetes or compromised immune systems
States across India have begun declaring a “black fungus” epidemic as cases of the fatal rare infection shoot up in patients recovering from Covid-19.
The fungal disease, called mucormycosis, has a 50% mortality rate. It affects patients initially in the nose but the fungus can then spread into the brain, and can often only be treated by major surgery removing the eye or part of skull and jaw.
Continue reading...Pandemic worsens in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region with the worst per capita death rate from Covid; Germany declares Britain and Northern Ireland a virus variant region
Hi, I’m Edna Mohamed; we’ll now be closing this live blog. Thank you all for following along with me tonight!
We’ll be starting a new live blog In a few hours, but until then, you can read up on all our coronavirus coverage from across the world here.
Here are some of the top headlines from the past few hours:
Continue reading...The potential arrival of a highly transmissable variant could overwhelm health systems already struggling after military coup
Doctors in Myanmar have warned the country would be unable to cope with a major outbreak of Covid-19 as hospitals and medical facilities struggle to function in the aftermath of February’s military coup.
Fears are growing about the potential impact of a highly transmissible variant as neighbouring countries, chiefly India but also Thailand and Laos, battle record numbers of Covid cases.
Continue reading...Rising number of British B.1.617.2 cases to push back Brussels decision by two weeks
A decision in Brussels to add the UK to an EU “white list” of countries from where tourists will be welcome this summer is to be delayed, it is understood, due to concerns over the Covid variant first identified in India.
EU diplomats were expected to use a revised threshold of infection cases to extend the list of countries at a meeting on Friday but sources said that the decision will be put back by two weeks.
Continue reading...Work culture of presenteeism sees some staff told to switch on GPS location tracking by distrustful managers
When Amanda asked a colleague to bring her laptop home from their tech-company office, anticipating that Taipei was about to join the ranks of global cities suddenly working remotely, managers refused to release it. She told him to grab it anyway, and soon enough the Taiwanese capital was placed under restrictions amid a shock coronavirus outbreak. Her company soon sent an office-wide email saying that 50% of staff would be staying home.
“But it still had reminders that working from home means you are working at home and your equipment must be connected at all times, and you’re expected to work eight hours and this is not a holiday,” she says.
Continue reading...Latest figures from PHE come as another new variant is designated ‘under investigation’
The number of confirmed cases in the UK of the Covid variant of concern that was first detected in India has risen more than 160% in the past week, data shows, and another new variant has been designated as “under investigation”.
Data from Public Health England (PHE) shows there have now been 3,424 confirmed cases of the B.1.617.2 variant in the UK, up from 1,313 cases confirmed by last Thursday.
Continue reading...Covid certificates designed to open up tourism across bloc; two doses of AstraZeneca jab 85% to 90% effective against symptomatic disease
Leaders of the world’s largest economies will adopt on Friday a declaration recommending voluntary actions to boost Covid-19 vaccine production, snubbing a push from the US and other nations on patent waivers, the final text shows.
Several G20 leaders will speak at the summit, one of this year’s major events to coordinate global actions against the pandemic. The US president Joe Biden is not listed among the speakers, with vice-president Kamala Harris representing at the meeting, an EU Commission spokesman said. The White House did not immediately comment.
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_
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.
Continue reading...Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy attack Penguin Random House India for putting out book by a prime minister they say has mishandled Covid and persecuted writers
Leading Indian authors Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy have spoken out against Penguin Random House India’s decision to publish and promote a book by Narendra Modi during the country’s coronavirus crisis, with Mishra accusing PRH India of “enlist[ing] in a flailing politician’s propaganda campaign”.
In a letter published in the London Review of Books blog, Mishra wrote to the chief executive of PRH India, Gaurav Shrinagesh, after the publisher announced it would be reissuing Modi’s book Exam Warriors while, in Mishra’s words, “smoke from mass funeral pyres rose across India”. India suffered a world record one-day death toll from Covid-19 on Wednesday – 4,529 – with the overall figure believed to be much higher than the official death toll of 283,248.
Continue reading...