Category Archives: Science

Coronavirus live news: Hong Kong man’s second Covid-19 infection gives rise to immunity concerns

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Man cleared of virus in April but has now tested positive again; France to impose reciprocal quarantine on travellers returning from UK; ‘Very low evidence’ for plasma therapy authorised by Trump — WHO

The number of new, confirmed cases of Covid-19 in France has risen by 1,955 compared to the previous day, although the increase in new cases was less than in previous days.

The French health ministry said the number of deaths from Covid-19 had risen by 15 from the previous day to stand at 30,528 casualties, while the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases stands at 244,854.

Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the blog for the next few hours.

Please do get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share:

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Coronavirus live news: China says it has been vaccinating key workers as Trump approves plasma treatment

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Chinese government has been administering a vaccine candidate to selected groups of key workers since July; Trump authorises plasma treatment for coronavirus amid attacks on FDA; send children to school, UK PM urges. Follow the latest updates

Australian theatres are reopening – nervously and with mandatory masks and temperature checks – Elissa Blake reports for the Guardian.

Sydney Theatre Company has announced it is ready to open the doors of the Roslyn Packer theatre and present its first show since March.

Related: Australian theatres nervously reopen with mandatory masks and temperature checks

The Chinese government has been administering a vaccine candidate to selected groups of key workers since July, a senior health official told state media yesterday.

Zheng Zhongei, head of the national health commission’s science and technology centre, told CCTV the government had authorised “emergency use” and it was in line with the law, the South China Morning Post has reported.

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‘It was an act of principle’: The Covid doctor who quit over Cummings

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Dr Dominic Pimenta resigned from his cardiology post after Boris Johnson’s chief advisor made his controversial car journey. Was it the right decision?

On 24 May, a couple of days after it was revealed that Dominic Cummings had travelled to Durham during the lockdown, a British cardiologist, Dr Dominic Pimenta, published a tweet in which he threatened to resign if Cummings did not. For Pimenta, news of Cummings’s trip had landed like a blow. In March, he had been drafted on to a Covid-19 intensive care unit, where he had witnessed suffering and death, struggle and recovery: “This sheer volume of human capacity that had been devoted to trying to save lives.” His tweet came at the end of a terrible weekend of intensive care shifts, during which he had watched patients die, their loved ones absent, and he had given everything of himself and seen colleagues do the same. And now this? “If we are going to be asked to risk our lives,” he wrote later, “the least we can expect is to be treated like people.”

Pimenta’s tweet was widely shared. By the following morning he’d become a national news story, and he was invited by the media to share more of what he wanted to say: how he hoped that by making a stand he might highlight the recent sacrifices of healthcare workers while reassuring the public that their own sacrifices had not been in vain, that the lockdown was saving lives, that they must maintain faith in it. Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s former chief medical officer, had recently resigned for a minor lockdown transgression. Pimenta wanted Cummings to do the same, or to at least acknowledge how irresponsible he’d been. “It was an act of principle,” Pimenta says. “And the principle was: this isn’t acceptable, I will not accept it. All I ever wanted was for the government to underline the importance of the lockdown.”

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Why do Covid fatalities remain low when infection numbers are rising?

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While some scientists believe the virus has become less deadly, others look at the factors that suggest otherwise

Are Covid-19 death rates decreasing?
Most statistics indicate that although cases of Covid-19 are rising in many parts of Europe and the United States, the number of deaths and cases of severe complications remain relatively low. For example, patients on ventilators have dropped from 3,000 at the epidemic’s peak in Britain to 70. At the same time, the number of cases in the UK have begun to rise in many areas.

Why lies behind this trend?
Doctors are unsure exactly what is going on. Some suggest that medical interventions are more successful at treating those who suffer complications from the disease. For example, the drug dexamethasone was recently shown to improve survival rates among patients requiring ventilation. Others argue that different factors are involved. One suggestion is that Covid-19 is now becoming a disease of younger people who are less likely to die or suffer serious complications.

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Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice in less than 30 years

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‘Stunned’ scientists say there is little doubt global heating is to blame for the loss

A total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. That is stunning conclusion of UK scientists who have analysed satellite surveys of the planet’s poles, mountains and glaciers to measure how much ice coverage lost because of global heating triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The scientists – based at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London – describe the level of ice loss as “staggering” and warn that their analysis indicates that sea level rises, triggered by melting glaciers and ice sheets, could reach a metre by the end of the century.

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Covid-19 will be around for ever, says former UK chief scientific adviser

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Prof Mark Walport says regular vaccinations are likely to be required to control coronavirus

Coronavirus will be around “for ever” and people are likely to need regular vaccinations against it, a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government has said.

Prof Mark Walport, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), likened the virus to influenza, as he said repeat inoculations on a global scale would almost certainly be required to control it.

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Coronavirus live news: Italy sees 1,000 new cases for first time since May

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India reports 1m daily tests; global death toll passes 800,000; new restrictions for UK travellers from Croatia

US president Donald Trump on Saturday accused members of an alleged “deep state” at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), without providing evidence, of working to slow testing of Covid-19 vaccines until after the November presidential election.

In a Twitter post, Trump said a deep state “or whoever” at the FDA was making it very difficult for drug companies to enroll people in clinical trials to test vaccines and therapies for coronavirus.

The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives! @SteveFDA

The World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the corornavirus pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach.

Children aged 12 and over should particularly wear a mask when a one-metre distance from others cannot be guaranteed and there is widespread transmission in the area, the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a document on the WHO website dated 21 August.

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Were Covid hospital admissions figures in England overreported? It’s not that simple

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A Sage member and NHS England have pushed back against criticism of hospital admissions data

Claims that hospital admissions for Covid-19 in England were overreported at the peak of the outbreak may not be telling the whole story.

According to government figures, the daily hospital admissions for Covid-19 patients in hospital rose from 1,541 on 3 March to 17,172 on 12 April. On 20 August the figure was 516.

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Syringe shortage could hamper delivery of Covid-19 vaccine, experts warn

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US companies make roughly 663m syringes a year but the Trump administration has calculated that an extra 850m may be needed

As the race for a vaccine against the coronavirus heats up, the US faces another potential crisis: a shortage of syringes.

The US federal government has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars in hopes of warding off a syringe shortage, if and when a Covid-19 vaccine is approved. It comes as shortages of personal protective equipment continue to hamper the response to the pandemic.

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Coronavirus live news: Lebanon imposes partial lockdown after Beirut blast; India nearing 3m cases

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Lebanon enters partial lockdown to counter infections; pressure grows in India over rise in infections; concern over cases in Berlin schools

Spain has reported 3,650 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours, bringing its total caseload to 386,054, while three more people have died, the health ministry said on Friday.

On Thursday, cases increased by 3,349. A further 125 people have died from the virus over the past seven days.

Italy registered 947 new infections on Friday, the biggest daily Covid case rise since 14 May, when the country was still in lockdown.

The total number of cases is now up to 257,065. Nine more people have died with the virus and the death toll now stands at 35,427.

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Greenland ice sheet lost a record 1m tonnes of ice per minute in 2019

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Climate-driven loss is likely to be the worst for centuries, and is pushing up sea levels

The Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice in 2019, equivalent to a million tonnes per minute across the year, satellite data shows.

The climate crisis is heating the Arctic at double the rate in lower latitudes, and the ice cap is the biggest single contributor to sea level rise, which already imperils coasts around the world. The ice sheet shrank by 532bn tonnes last year as its surface melted and glaciers fell into the ocean and would have filled seven Olympic-sized swimming pools per second.

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UK coronavirus: top GCSE grades surge to record high in England – live news

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Nearly 550,000 pupils in England receive GCSE results awarded entirely by assessment for first time, but BTec students face further disruption

My colleagues Pamela Duncan and Tobi Thomas from the Guardian’s data unit report discrepancies in today’s GCSE results:

A rising tide lifts all boats and this year’s algorithm-to-teacher-graded-U-turn has resulted in an increase in top grades across every subject. However, some subjects’ boats were lifted higher than others.

After all the uncertainty of the exams fiasco, head teachers across the country are celebrating their pupils’ GCSE success, but they say recent experiences have damaged relations with the Department for Education (DfE).

Jules White, head teacher of Tanbridge House secondary school in Horsham, West Sussex and leader of the Worth Less? education funding campaign, was with pupils this morning, watching with delight as they found out their grades.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: NSW security guard at quarantine hotel in Sydney tests positive to Covid-19 – latest news

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Victoria reports 17 more deaths; ADF says it offered hotel quarantine support to the state; Sydney bus drivers threaten to strike unless masks are made compulsory for passengers. Follow live updates

The security guard who appears to have contracted Covid-19 while working at a hotel quarantine facility later worked at Sydney’s Flemington market and Parramatta Local Court, but did not work at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre, as chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant indicated earlier. A previous case attended the shopping centre on 8 August.

The security guard work at the Marriott Hotel on 3, 4, 7 and 8 August, developed symptoms on 11 August, and was diagnosed late on 15 August.

The Senate committee examining the Morrison government’s response to Covid-19 heard from officials from the Department of Social Services this afternoon. They confirmed that Australian pensioners would not have their payments indexed until at least next March because of soft economic conditions.

In plain English, this means no increase to pensions.

It’s unacceptable that the government is allowing pensions to stagnate in the middle of the coronavirus crisis and the prime minister must outline what he is going to do to fix this.

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Josiane Ekoli was a brilliant nurse and mother of five. Would the right PPE have saved her life?

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As the government made excuses for not providing adequate equipment, Josiane refused to stop caring for the Covid-19 patients who needed her. Soon she was admitted to the ICU, too

After a busy night shift at the hospital, there was nothing the nurse Josiane Ekoli liked to do more than come home and wake up her sleeping children. Her 22-year-old son, Kenan, a finance worker, got the worst of it, because his bedroom was the closest to the front door. “Oh my days,” Kenan groans. “Every day, I’m hearing my name, without a doubt. She’s screaming my name. Kenan! Kenan! She knew I hated being woken up.”

On Saturday mornings, when Josiane had not come off a night shift, she had a routine: at about 9am, she would blast gospel music through the house. If that did not get her children up – she had five, but two of her sons had moved out – she would go into their rooms and start talking to them. At them, really. “Sometimes, she woke me up just to talk,” says Kenan. “I’d say: ‘Mum, couldn’t you wait until I was awake to have this conversation?’”

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Sweden’s Covid-19 strategist under fire over herd immunity emails

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Anders Tegnell appears to have asked if higher death rate among older people acceptable if faster herd immunity achieved

Sweden’s light-touch approach to Covid-19 has come under renewed criticism after emails show the country’s chief epidemiologist appearing to ask whether a higher death rate among older people might be acceptable if it led to faster herd immunity.

Speculation about the views of Sweden’s leading public health officials was further fanned after it also emerged that Anders Tegnell, the architect of the country’s no-lockdown strategy, had deleted some of his emails.

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Covid vaccine tracker: when will we have a coronavirus vaccine?

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More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progress

Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Coronavirus live news: British holidaymakers arrive home with minutes to spare before quarantine as Denmark makes face masks compulsory

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Australian death toll stands at 379; France removed from UK travel corridor; Greece and Croatia impose midnight curfew on bars and restaurants

Related: For Manhattan's retail industry normal may never return

It should have been a great year for Spanish wine: a bumper crop of grapes resulting in millions and millions of extra bottles for sipping or swilling at home and abroad.

But with Covid-19 leading to a catastrophic drop in wine sales, the Spanish government is offering growers subsidies to destroy part of this year’s record grape harvest.

Related: Spain’s vineyards destroy record harvest as wine sales crash

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Coronavirus live news: Spain to close nightclubs and ban public smoking; Italy orders testing for some travellers

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Spain announces 11 new measures; Italy move affects travellers from Spain, Croatia, Malta and Greece; India reports over 60,000 new cases

Canada is preparing for a “reasonable worst case scenario” in which further surges of coronavirus cases would at times overwhelm the public health system, officials have said.

In this scenario, there would be a large peak later this year followed by a number of smaller peaks and valleys stretching to January 2022. Each of the peaks would exceed the health system’s capacity.

Hello, my name is Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be running the blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch with me on Twitter @cleaskopeliti or by email: clea.skopeliti.casual@theguardian.com. I won’t always have time to reply to everything but will read it all! Thanks in advance.

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Coronavirus live news: India sees record daily case rise as global deaths near 750,000

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India’s infections grow by nearly 67,000 in one day; Russia vaccine not yet completed its final trials; global deaths climb towards 750,000. Follow the latest updates

Hello everyone. I am taking on the global live feed from London and will be bringing you all the latest updates on what is happening around the globe. Please do keep in touch with me as I work and contact me if you have any questions, news tips or thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.

My colleague Sarah Marsh will take you through the next few hours.

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Coronavirus live news: UK adds France to quarantine list from 4am BST on Saturday

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UK move takes effect as of 4am BST on Saturday; Pandemic has killed three quarters of a million people; Germany case jump shows ‘unsettling trend’; Iraq reports record daily Covid-19 cases

Britain’s decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from France will lead to a reciprocal measure, French junior minister for European affairs Clément Beaune said late on Thursday.

“A British decision that we regret and which will lead to a measure of reciprocity, hoping that things will return to normal as soon as possible,” Beaune said on Twitter at midnight.

Une décision britannique que nous regrettons et qui entraînera une mesure de réciprocité, en espérant un retour à la normale le plus rapidement possible @Djebbari_JB https://t.co/6pA0qDQun6

La France regrette la décision du Royaume Uni et appliquera des mesures de réciprocité dans le champ des transports. J’ai dit à mon homologue @grantshapps notre volonté d’harmoniser les protocoles sanitaires pour assurer un haut niveau de protection des deux côtés de la Manche. https://t.co/bH7LkqD3LB

Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now.

I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com with questions, comments and news from your part of the world.

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