Rates growing fastest among those aged 10-29, and decreasing in the older age groups
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, implored young people to stick to the rules as Covid-19 infections in the UK rose to their highest levels since early May.
It is not known why case rates are higher among young people, but England-level data shows they are rising steeply.
Continue reading...Leading epidemiologist warns over case rate in France; Scottish first minister said her government could ‘put brakes’ on lockdown easing
Fatigue, headache and fever are the most common symptoms of coronavirus in children, with few developing a cough or losing their sense of taste or smell, researchers have found, adding to calls for age-specific symptom checklists.
The NHS lists three symptoms as signs of Covid-19 in adults and children: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change in the sense of smell or taste.
Related: Fatigue and headache most common Covid symptoms in children – study
French people who reject mask-wearing are more likely to be older, educated women who support the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protest movement and the controversial virus specialist Didier Raoult, and would refuse to have a coronavirus vaccination if one were available, according to a new study.
They also describe themselves as free-thinkers who believe the government is meddling too much in their lives, have a distrust of public institutions and often support conspiracy theories, it found.
Related: French 'anti-maskers' most likely to be educated women in 50s, says study
Continue reading...Researchers call for age-based symptom checklists as virus presents differently in children
Fatigue, headache and fever are the most common symptoms of coronavirus in children, with few developing a cough or losing their sense of taste or smell, researchers have found, adding to calls for age-specific symptom checklists.
The NHS lists three symptoms as signs of Covid-19 in adults and children: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change in the sense of smell or taste.
Continue reading...The conditions appeared to cause structural changes that harmed memory and thinking
High blood pressure and diabetes bring about brain changes that impair thinking and memory, research suggests.
Doctors examined brain scans and medical data from 22,000 volunteers enrolled in the UK Biobank project and found significant structural changes in the grey and white matter among those with diabetes and high blood pressure.
Continue reading...Drugs now under development are unlikely to end the pandemic, the Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Farrar warns
Vaccines will not be a silver bullet to end the Covid-19 pandemic and leaders must avoid creating false hope, a key government adviser has warned.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, writes in today’s Observer that the first vaccines are likely to be only partially effective. Raising expectations and rushing new drugs into production risks damaging public trust in any vaccination programmes that eventually arrive, he said.
Continue reading...Experts suggest the capital’s previous exposure, and capacity to embrace home working, may now be inhibiting the virus
It is a question that puzzles both those on the front line fighting Covid 19 and the experts developing strategies to combat its next move: why has London not seen a second flare-up when other parts of the UK are now having to introduce new lockdown restrictions?
“It’s a bit of an enigma, given that London very definitely led during the initial peak,” said Professor David Alexander, who is based at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London.
Continue reading...Significant rise in UK with 2,988 new cases; Netanyahu backtracks on lockdowns for cities with high infection rates; thousands attend protests against measures in Croatia and Italy
More than 200 UN employees have been infected with Covid-19 in Syria, medical workers and UN officials have said.
UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Imran Riza, last week told UN heads of agencies that the global body was close to securing a medical facility for treatment of coronavirus cases.
Up to 300 people who attended a charity football match at a working men’s club on the border of Sunderland and Durham have been asked to self-isolate after 28 tested positive for Covid-19.
Those who attended the event at Burnside working men’s club on 30 August are being told to self-isolate until 13 September.
Breaking: Up to 300 people who were at a charity football match asked to self-isolate, after 28 test positive for #Covid_19
Event was on 30 August at Burnside working men’s club (border of Sunderland and Durham)
Durham & Sunderland Council & @PHE_uk managing response.
Several missions this year are seeking out life on the red planet. But would we recognise extraterrestrials if we found them?
In July, three unmanned missions blasted off to Mars – from China (Tianwen-1), the US (Nasa’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover) and the United Arab Emirates (Hope). The Chinese and American missions have lander craft that will seek signs of current or past life on Mars. Nasa is also planning to send its Europa Clipper probe to survey Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the robotic lander Dragonfly to Saturn’s moon Titan. Both moons are widely thought to be promising hunting grounds for life in our solar system – as are the underground oceans of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
Meanwhile, we can now glimpse the chemical makeup of atmospheres of planets that orbit other stars (exoplanets), of which more than 4,000 are now known. Some hope these studies might disclose possible signatures of life.
Continue reading...India adds 86,432 cases in the past 24 hours; arrests made after hundreds gather for Melbourne anti-lockdown rallies
The UK government will deliver 250,000 clear face masks to frontline NHS and social care workers to help them communicate with people with conditions such as hearing loss and dementia.
The transparent masks are made from plastic with an anti-fogging barrier, meaning patients will be able to see the mouth of the wearer as they speak. The Department of Health and Social Care said this would help the millions of people with hearing loss who needed to use lip-reading to communicate.
In England, coronavirus restrictions are to be eased in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire, Matt Hancock has said.
Casinos, skating rinks, bowling alleys, exhibition halls, conference centres and indoor play areas, including soft play areas, will be able to lawfully reopen on Tuesday in all three places, apart from Bolton in Greater Manchester.
Continue reading...Protesters seen chanting ‘freedom’ and hurling abuse at police and media while not wearing masks
At least 15 people have been arrested at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park after at least 200 protesters defied the city’s stage-four lockdowns to hold an anti-lockdown rally on Saturday.
Police in New South Wales also arrested three people at an unauthorised protest in Sydney’s Hyde Park while another protest was held at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Smaller protests were also held in Townsville, Brisbane and Byron Bay.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Britain approaching ‘pivotal moment’ in attempt to avoid surge in cases, scientists say
Police forces across the country are dealing with thousands of potential violations of quarantine rules involving holidaymakers who may not be self-isolating after trips abroad, the Guardian can reveal.
The requests for “further action” have been raised by Border Force officials and public health authorities, who have been tasked with ensuring that people returning from abroad are abiding by regulations designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Continue reading...India cases top 80,000 for second day in a row; Asia Pacific shares suffer heavy losses; Israel to impose partial lockdown
US president Donald Trump slammed House speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Democrat was filmed at an indoor hair salon with her face covering around her neck. Trump, a longtime critic of Pelosi, pounced on the opportunity to attack her over the incident.
“I’ll tell you what, she must have treated that beauty salon owner pretty badly. She uses the salon and the salon turned her in?” he said. “So I just put out that if she was set up, then she shouldn’t be leading the House of Representatives. I want the salon owner to lead the House of Representatives”:
A groundbreaking new comedy sketch show based on women’s sex lives during lockdown, starring Aimee Lou Wood and Miriam Margolyes, is designed to “claim the stage” for women, its co-creator, Joanna Scanlan, says.
Sex Lives, believed to be the first interactive comedy backed by the BBC’s commercial wing, BBC Studios, documents stories submitted anonymously by women and has proved a hit online.
Related: Women's sex lives in lockdown prove online comedy hit
Continue reading...‘We need to see how safe it is,’ WHO stresses; Cuba welcomes first plane of tourists in months; Italy reports biggest rise since 2 May
Smoking appears to increase the genetic contribution to Covid-19 infections, a small study suggested.
The new coronavirus enters the body by hijacking proteins on the surface of healthy cells, in particular a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).
Liberia’s president George Weah has sacked the country’s top health official over his handling of coronavirus testing in the impoverished West African state.
Mososka Fallah, director general of the Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), was removed from his post for “breaches in the health and administrative protocols that guide the issuance of Covid-19 test results,” Weah’s office said in a statement.
Continue reading...Research suggests stomach trouble more predictive of virus in young people than a cough
Diarrhoea and vomiting could be an important sign of Covid-19 in children, researchers say, leading to calls for the official NHS list of symptoms to be updated.
The checklist for coronavirus in children currently includes just three symptoms: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste. The latter was added to the list in May.
Continue reading...Researchers looking at whether human remains cause changes that could be detected by drones
They can’t shout “whodunnit” but plants could offer vital clues when it comes to finding clandestine graves, researchers say.
Forensic experts in the US have begun experiments at a body farm – a facility where decay processes can be studied – to explore whether decomposing human remains leave their mark on surrounding vegetation, for example by affecting the colour of the leaves.
Continue reading...Researchers believe noise was two black holes colliding around 7 billion years ago, creating a previously unseen class of stellar object
Scientists have announced the detection of a signal from a long-ago collision between two black holes that created a new one of a size never seen before.
“It’s the biggest bang since the big bang observed by humanity,” said Caltech professor of physics Alan Weinstein, who was part of the discovery team.
Continue reading...US rejects global vaccine effort; cases rise in India, Russia and Hungary; Australia enters recession
Greece recorded has recorded the first coronavirus case in the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos, two migration ministry officials said on Wednesday.
A 40-year old asylum seeker has tested positive for the virus and had been put in isolation, one of the officials told Reuters. Authorities were trying to trace the people he had been in contact with, the official said.
I am now handing over the blog to the very capable Amy Walker. Thank you for reading and please do keep us updated on all coronavirus-related tips and stories.
Continue reading...US president’s move challenged by Congress; Silvio Berlusconi has Covid-19; Brazil’s death toll appears to be easing. This blog is now closed
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Related: Coronavirus live news: Trump pushes to withdraw WHO funding immediately
Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll appears to be easing for the first time since May, data shows, a sign the Latin American country could be descending from a long infection plateau that has seen it suffer the world’s second-worst outbreak after the United States, Reuters reports.
With nearly 4 million confirmed cases, the virus has killed over 120,000 people in Brazil. But the level of average daily deaths dropped below 900 per day last week - the lowest in three and a half months and below the rate of both the United States and India, according to a Reuters tally.
Researchers at Imperial College London also calculate that the transmission rate in Brazil, at which each person infected with the coronavirus infects another person, is now below 1, the level required for new infections to slow.
Lifting of restrictions in Bolton and Trafford described as ‘completely illogical’
Restrictions on social gatherings for more than half a million people in two of England’s worst-hit areas have been lifted, despite councils warning the government it was too soon to lift the measures.
The government pressed ahead with the lifting of restrictions for more than 520,000 people in Bolton and Trafford in north-west England overnight despite a surge in the number of cases in both areas.
Continue reading...Analysis shows that pregnant women may be at a higher risk of needing admission to an ICU
Pregnant women in hospital with coronavirus are less likely to show symptoms and may have a greater risk risk of being admitted to an intensive care unit than non-pregnant women of similar age, a study has found.
The analysis, which encompassed 77 studies conducted globally and was published in the British Medical Journal, looked at 11,432 pregnant women admitted to hospital and diagnosed as having suspected or confirmed Covid-19.
Continue reading...