Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

Coronavirus live news: UK chancellor ‘pushes PM to relax holiday rules’; mass testing amid China outbreak

Posted on by

Latest updates: Rishi Sunak says restrictions ‘out of step’ with international rivals, according to media reports; China battling worst caseload in months

As cases of the Delta coronavirus variant have risen and vaccination rates slowed, several US businesses and institutions have announced they will now require vaccinations from employees.

Major companies like Walmart and Disney said this week all employees must be vaccinated, while Joe Biden said all federal employees must be vaccinated or face masking, testing and distancing requirements.

Related: America mulls vaccine mandates – will they work?

Hackers have attacked and shut down the IT systems of the company that manages Covid-19 vaccination appointments for the Lazio region surrounding Rome, the regional government said on Sunday.

“A powerful hacker attack on the region’s CED (database) is under way,” the region said in a Facebook posting.

It is a very powerful hacker attack, very serious... everything is out. The whole regional CED is under attack.

Continue reading...

Is Covid-19 on the run in the UK?

Posted on by

A fall in case numbers last month raised hopes that Britain may be reaching herd immunity, but experts warn against complacency, given uncertainty about new variants and autumn’s return to school

John Edmunds has been at the centre of the unravelling of the Covid-19 pandemic since cases first appeared in January 2020. A member of Sage, the government’s scientific advisory group, and a professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, he has consistently warned ministers about the threats posed by the disease.

These risks have often been clear in their nature. But today, 18 months after Covid-19 first appeared, he believes the nation stands at a point of maximum uncertainty about the future of the pandemic.

Continue reading...

Sky News Australia banned from YouTube for seven days over Covid misinformation

Posted on by

Digital giant issues strike after channel posted videos denying the existence of disease and encouraging people to use discredited medication

Sky News Australia has been banned from uploading content to YouTube for seven days after violating its medical misinformation policies by posting numerous videos which denied the existence of Covid-19 or encouraged people to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin.

The ban was imposed by the digital giant on Thursday afternoon, the day after the Daily Telegraph ended Alan Jones’s regular column amid controversy about his Covid-19 commentary which included calling the New South Wales chief health officer Kerry Chant a village idiot on his Sky News program.

Continue reading...

As Delta spreads, Pfizer and Moderna get set for a booster shot to profits

Posted on by

The firms are already taking the lion’s share of earnings from the market, as this week’s results will show

Praised for preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths and allowing a return to more normal life, Covid vaccines will also substantially benefit some pharmaceutical companies.

In June, analysts estimated the global market for the vaccines could be worth $70bn (£50bn) this year, but the figure could be even higher as the Delta variant of coronavirus spreads and scientists debate whether people will need booster shots.

Continue reading...

Sarah Perry: As an author, I felt useless in the pandemic. So I trained to be a vaccinator

Posted on by

Inspired by a desire to be good and help others during the pandemic, novelist Sarah Perry trained to vaccinate people. But what does it mean to be good when there is so much bad faith?

Earlier this year – lockdown three: no sign of spring – I travelled to an airport to try to be good. Dogged for months by the sense of my own uselessness, and having wept with relief and accumulated sorrow when the first Covid-19 vaccine was approved, I’d joined an organisation training volunteers to deliver vaccinations, and so arrived at a desolate Stansted shortly after dawn. Here I sat in the basement of a hotel fallen almost out of use, and in the company of a hundred strangers – though alone and masked in a square of carpet marked out with black tape – learned how to treat fainting fits, panic attacks and anaphylactic shock. In our number were a circus performer, a firefighter, a consultant of some kind; and having been starved of unfamiliar faces for so long we were all, I think, happy to be there (putting a woman in the recovery position I apologised for what seemed a shocking intimacy; but she said what a pleasure it was, after all that time, to be touched). Then we attached sponges to our upper arms, and learned how to insert the needle at 45 degrees, stretching the skin to avoid a bleed; how to depress the plunger, and then remove the needle without doing ourselves a mischief. Then, observed by the nurse, who’d hurried out of retirement to train us, we demonstrated our prowess, were awarded a certificate, and went home to await deployment.

Related: Sarah Perry: what good are books, in a situation like this?

Continue reading...

NSW reports 210 cases as protesters a no-show; Queensland announces snap lockdown – as it happened

Posted on by

New South Wales records 210 new locally acquired cases of coronavirus – two-thirds in people under 40 – as police set up exclusion zone over anti-lockdown protest; Queensland locks down 11 LGAs from 4pm today after six new cases. Follow the latest news

We’ll leave it there for today.

But before we leave you, here are the main developments of the day.

Tasmania’s premier, Peter Gutwein, has been a providing a Covid-19 update this afternoon.

The state has closed its borders to south-east Queensland. About 11,000 people who entered the state from Queensland will need to self-isolate.

#BREAKING: Anyone who has arrived in Tasmania from south-east Queensland since 17th of July needs to isolate immediately. That’s around 11,000 people #covid19tas

Continue reading...

Israel to offer Pfizer Covid booster shots to people over 60

Posted on by

Announcement makes Israel the first country to offer a third dose of a western vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale

Israel’s prime minister has announced that the country would offer a coronavirus booster shot to those people over 60 who have already been vaccinated.

The announcement by Naftali Bennett makes Israel, which launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination drives earlier this year, the first country to offer a third dose of a western vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale.

Continue reading...

Federal workers must be vaccinated or submit to Covid testing and distancing

Posted on by

Rule would affect more than 2m civilian employees, but Republicans continue to block preventive measures

Joe Biden has announced that all civilian federal workers must show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus or face regular testing and stringent physical distancing, masking and travel restrictions.

Facing a daunting political test as the Delta variant cuts a swath through unvaccinated Americans, the president outlined a more aggressive approach by the federal government and expressed hope that it would offer a model for corporate employers.

Continue reading...

Australia Covid live update: 2 million in western Sydney face tougher lockdown as some construction resumes

Posted on by

Residents of eight local government areas banned from leaving hotspots unless they are essential workers; tradespeople now allowed into clients’ homes. Follow all the day’s news

Oooh, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking early this morning. I wonder if we will get the Covid-19 update at this event or if we will have to wait for the CHO to step up later in the day:

Daniel Andrews is speaking at from 9.45am at a level crossing removal.

NSW is lagging behind many other states and territories when it comes to vaccinating its elderly population, with fewer than 40% of over-70s fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

New data released by the federal government on Wednesday provides a state breakdown of national vaccination numbers for the first time. The figures reveal that of the almost 1 million people over 70 in NSW, 77% have received a first vaccine dose and 39% have received a second.

Related: Just 39% of NSW residents over 70 are fully vaccinated against Covid, despite push for jabs

Continue reading...

Sajid Javid admits UK Covid rates unpredictable as cases rise again

Posted on by

Health secretary’s comments came after a week of declining cases ended with 4,000 increase in one day

Sajid Javid has said “no one really knows” what trajectory the Covid pandemic will take in the weeks ahead, as new cases across the UK rose after seven days of consecutive declines.

The latest Covid data, published on Wednesday, showed 27,734 people testing positive across the UK – up by 4,000 from a day earlier.

Continue reading...

Failure to help poor countries fight Covid ‘could cost global economy $4.5tn’, says IMF

Posted on by

Fund calls on rich nations to help halt spread of infectious variants through countries with low vaccination rates

The world economy risks losing $4.5tn (£3.3tn) from highly infectious variants of Covid-19 spreading through poor countries where vaccination rates are lower, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Calling on rich countries to take urgent action to share at least 1bn doses with developing nations, or risk severe economic consequences, the Washington-based fund said the gap between rich and poor economies had widened during the pandemic and risked worsening further next year.

Continue reading...

Sydney Covid lockdown restrictions: update to Orange and regional NSW coronavirus rules explained

Posted on by

Covid restrictions for greater Sydney, including residents in the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland and Blacktown LGAs, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong to be extended, with lockdown set to lift for Orange, Blayney and Cabonne local government areas in the state’s central west. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in NSW

Sydney’s lockdown is expected to continue beyond 30 July, but there will be some changes to the rules.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is expected to announce a four-week extension to the lockdown on Wednesday, where it is understood she will also outline eased restrictions for the construction industry.

Continue reading...

‘Seriously ill’ young people in current Covid admissions, expert warns

Posted on by

‘We have had people under 30 in intensive care,’ says Prof Adam Finn of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation

Young people are getting “seriously ill” from Covid-19, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has warned, as he urged them to get vaccinated.

Prof Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol, said there have been close to 200 admissions, with a mean age of 40, in the city during the Delta variant wave. England’s remaining Covid restrictions were eased on Monday and pictures of crowded nightclubs, filled with revellers not wearing masks or social distancing, have raised fears among some experts that infections could surge among unvaccinated young people.

Continue reading...

Fears for Covid vaccine drive if second doses clash with boosters

Posted on by

Risk that low take-up by young will lead to crunch as older people get third shot

Health experts have warned the government that it needs to increase efforts to ensure more young adults are vaccinated against Covid-19 – as a matter of urgency.

They fear the current low take-up of jabs among 18- to 25-year-olds could lead to a pile-up of vaccine campaigns in September, when other groups are scheduled to get booster injections and also to be inoculated against influenza. In addition, they argue that vaccines also have a crucial role to play in protecting young adults against long Covid, which is now recognised as a serious problem associated with the disease.

Continue reading...

Europe clamps down amid fears over rapid spread of Delta variant

Posted on by

Governments are launching de facto vaccine passport schemes as they try to head off a summer Covid wave like the UK’s

With the school term finally over, Britons are flying to Europe in their tens of thousands, record levels for this Covid year. They are arriving in countries where the Delta variant paralysing Britain is just becoming dominant – and Europe is responding by clamping down.

Some countries have tightened border controls, with Malta barring entry to unvaccinated travellers and Germany bringing in stricter quarantine rules for people arriving from Spain and the Netherlands. More broadly, authorities from Greece to Italy and France to Portugal are bringing in what are effectively vaccine passports for a wide range of activities, although most are shying away from using that term, which has become incendiary.

Continue reading...

Tennessee radio host doubted and mocked vaccines – now he has Covid

Posted on by

A conservative radio host in Tennessee who urged listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has changed track and called on listeners to get the shot, after contracting the virus and ending up in hospital in “very serious condition”.

Related: Fox News backs Covid vaccination – a pity no one told Tucker Carlson

Continue reading...

Atagi changes vaccine advice for Sydney – as it happened

Posted on by

Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd says NSW will get additional 50,000 vaccines from national stockpile. This blog is now closed

And this is where we are going to leave the blog for today. It’s been breathless. Again.

The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has issued a statement on today’s protest. She says:

I am utterly disgusted by the illegal protesters in the city today whose selfish actions have compromised the safety of us all.

The protesters have shown utter contempt for their fellow citizens who are currently doing it tough.

Continue reading...

Australia coronavirus live news: 136 new cases announced in NSW Covid update; Victoria records 14 cases; Pfizer vaccine approved for 12-15 year olds

Posted on by

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says 53 of the new cases were infectious in the community; northern NSW on alert after Covid fragments found in Byron Bay sewage; national cabinet to meet to discuss vaccine rollout. Follow live

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant is back after a few days, and she is speaking to the tighter restrictions she has recommended.

Chant said:

I have advised the government today that this is a national emergency and requires additional measures to reduce the case numbers. What we are seeing is that the actions we have taken to date have averted many cases.

But what we are not seeing is the turnaround that we would have liked to see at this stage. And I’m concerned that we need to put in place urgent additional measures, what I’m recommending strongly is that our vaccination efforts are refocused on those affected LGAs. Every day, people from those LGAs have to go out to work to keep our city going.

We also know that, as I indicated that the group of workers that keep the society going is this group of workers in the 20 to 49 year old age group in south-western Sydney. Under 40s would not have been routinely eligible for vaccination, in terms of Pfizer. And what I’ve recommended to government is we urgently do mass vaccination of those workers to stem the transmission risk. We know the vaccines do that because they reduce the risk. If you’re vaccinated, even one dose, it reduces your risk of onward transmission.

Gladys Berejiklian has announced a new Covid death in her state, a 89-year-old male.

Details of the death are brief as the death is recent (it happened after 8pm last night) and authorities want to make sure family members have been notified.

I also want to say that tragically, as we see more cases, develop, we will also see more hospitalisations and more people in intensive care and regrettably, we did have an additional death overnight, which I’ve only just learned about.

I just want to foreshadow that unfortunately, we’re going to see more of this as the case numbers increase.

Continue reading...

Rates of double-jabbed people in hospital will grow – but that does not mean Covid vaccines are failing

Posted on by

Several factors, including the portion of those at highest risk among the double-vaccinated and antibody levels, account for the data

The next wave of Covid will be different. When cases soared in spring and winter last year lockdowns rapidly brought them back under control. This time it will be vaccines that do the hard work.

But Covid jabs are not a perfect shield. They slow the spread of the virus, help prevent disease, and reduce the risk of dying. They do not bring all this to an end.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live: Dutch and Czech athletes in Tokyo test positive; South Korea reports record daily cases

Posted on by

More Olympic athletes confirmed to have Covid; Seoul considering new restrictions amid one of worst outbreaks to date

In the UK, a record 618,903 alerts were sent to users of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales in the week to July 14 telling then they had been in close contact with a person who had tested positive for coronavirus, according to NHS figures.

Angela Merkel has urged Germans to get vaccinated amid a worrying rise in cases, telling the nation: “The more we are vaccinated, the freer we will be.”

“We all want our normality back,” the German chancellor, who is preparing to step down later this year, said. “The more we are vaccinated, the freer we will be.”

Continue reading...