Coronavirus latest news: Delaying second Pfizer jab 'builds better immune response'
People who wait longer to get the second dose of their Pfizer vaccine mount a more robust immune response for long-term protection from Covid than those who bring their second jab forward, a major study has found.
The second dose of a Covid jab can be administered at any point three weeks after the first, and the Government now aims to get all second jabs within eight weeks of the first.
A study funded by the Department of Health and led by the University of Oxford has found a longer interval leads not only to more antibodies but also more T helper cells. Both are a product of the immune system but work in different ways and have opposing roles.
In the study, researchers examined changes to the immune response in people with a short interval – 24 days – between jabs compared to a long interval of 70 days.
The results of the study, published on Friday as a pre-print, show antibody levels were twice as high after the longer dosing interval, with those people also having a higher proportion of T helper cells.
Follow the latest updates below.
06:29 AM
How Japan's Olympics turned into an economic disaster
The Olympic Games was supposed to offer Japan a bright new start.
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hoped it would reignite national pride, rebrand the nation on the global stage and show Japan could go toe-to-toe with regional rival China.
Instead, the Tokyo Olympics Games 2020 risks becoming a public relations disaster, exposing deep flaws in Japan’s political leadership.
Read the full story here.
06:14 AM
Daily pupil tests may reduce absence by 39%, Oxford study finds
Daily testing of pupils who have been in contact with someone with Covid-19, rather than isolating whole groups, may be just as effective in controlling transmission in secondary schools, a study suggests.
Research by the University of Oxford estimates that daily Covid-19 testing in schools - as an alternative to the current 10-day contact isolation policy - can reduce coronavirus-related school absences by 39%.
Findings suggest only a small percentage (1.5-1.6%) of pupils and staff tested positive for Covid-19 after close contact with a case in school or college.
Around 200 secondary schools and colleges across England took part in a trial.
The findings come after Government figures show that more than one million children in England were out of school last week for Covid-19-related reasons - the equivalent of around one in seven (14.3%).
05:51 AM
Tourist operators feel pinch as Bangkok cases surge
Tuk-tuks and garishly coloured taxis that once weaved through chaotic Bangkok traffic are sitting idle in storage as a fresh coronavirus surge scuttles hopes of relief for Thailand's tourism-dependent economy.
The kingdom is currently undergoing its worst-ever stretch of the pandemic after largely keeping Covid contained when the illness first emerged last year.
Bangkok is subject to a night-time curfew and a ban on gatherings as authorities advise residents of the capital to stay home.
"Tourists, people going to work, shopping, hanging out with friends - these are our customers but they've all vanished," said taxi driver Anuchit Surasit.
05:35 AM
Australian leaders argue over vaccine access
Australia's largest state of New South Wales has urged the federal government to divert vaccine doses to Sydney, the epicentre of a Covid outbreak, raising objections from other states desperate for protection from the virus.
The Sydney outbreak has ballooned to nearly 1,800 cases since mid-June, with only 15 percent of Australia's adult population fully vaccinated.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said her state needed to get "at least the first jab for as many people as we can in those affected communities as possible, and that's why we are asking for a refocus of the national vaccination strategy".
But her comments did not go down very well with other states who are unwilling to spare doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
04:59 AM
Food industry at crisis point, says Chicken King
The founder and owner of one of the country's largest food producers said the industry is at "crisis point".
Ranjit Singh Boparan, of the 2 Sisters Food Group, said the pingdemic was "masking" other issues, including Brexit-related shortages and Covid troubles.
Mr Boparan - known as the Chicken King because of 2 Sisters' large scale involvement in the poultry trade - warned the Government needed to act or face the "most serious food shortages that this country has seen in over 75 years".
The Government has introduced emergency measures which it says will protect food supplies in face of the so-called pingdemic, allowing thousands of workers to avoid the need to self-isolate if identified as a contact of a coronavirus case.
Read more: The ‘critical’ industries that could be exempt from pingdemic self-isolation
04:40 AM
South Korean warns protesters not to rally
The South Korean government warned the country's main labour federation to cancel a planned rally in defiance of a ban on large public gatherings, as it fought to contain a surge in Covid cases and extended toughest restrictions across the country.
More than 800 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) are expected to hold a rally in Wonju, a rural city about 100km (62 miles) east of Seoul, calling for wage hikes and better welfare. The rally would be in violation of restrictions already in place in many parts of the country.
"The government will respond sternly according to the law and principle if a banned rally is carried out in violation of anti-epidemic rules," Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said at the start of a Covid task force meeting.
The warning comes amid criticism against the government for being lenient over a larger KCTU rally held in early July in Seoul, in contrast to a harsh crackdown against a religious rally led last year by a critic of President Moon Jae-in.
03:32 AM
'National emergency' as Sydney outbreak worsens
Australia's New South Wales state on Friday reported its biggest daily rise in new Covid-19 cases this year, prompting state officials to tighten lockdown measures in Sydney in what they called a "national emergency."
State Premier Gladys Berejiklian also flagged the likelihood that stay-home orders for the country's biggest city would be extended beyond the current end date of July 30.
"There is no doubt that the numbers are not going in the direction we were hoping they would at this stage," Ms Berejiklian said as she announced 136 new cases in New South Wales.
The outbreak of the fast-moving Delta strain was carried across borders to the neighbouring states of Victoria and South Australia, leading to measures that have put more than half the country's population in lockdown.
03:17 AM
Only one in 10 pregnant women may have had first jab
Health leaders are urging pregnant women to get a Covid-19 vaccine after figures suggested only around one in 10 may have had a first dose.
The data, from Public Health England (PHE), shows for the first time that 51,724 women in England who were pregnant or thought they could be have received at least one dose of a jab since mid-April.
The figure is likely to be at least 4,000 higher when taking into account the numbers who have already had a vaccine because they are clinically vulnerable or because they are a health or social care worker.
Nevertheless, leaders say they want more women to come forward, with 95 per cent = of pregnant women in hospital last week with Covid-19 being unvaccinated.
Read more: Startling new findings about Covid and pregnant women revealed
02:08 AM
Fall in cases may not last, warn experts
The apparent fall in Covid-19 case numbers may be temporary ahead of a return to exponential growth, experts have warned.
Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which advises ministers, said school closures would start to have an effect and the "enormous numbers of adults and children self-isolating over the last few weeks" should also help slow epidemic growth.
"On the other hand, it must be remembered that the effect of loosening restrictions earlier this week will not be apparent in the epidemiological data yet," he said.
"So it is difficult to say exactly what will happen. What does seem pretty likely, though, is that if we do not take any further action we are in for an extended period of high incidence with all the disruption and risk of hospitalisations and deaths that that entails."
Read more: UK Covid cases drop almost 10,000 in a week
01:38 AM
Australia approves Pfizer for children aged 12 to 15
Australia's drug regulator has approved the Pfizer vaccine for use with 12 to 15-year-olds, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Friday, as the country fights an outbreak of the Delta variant in three states.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has thoroughly assessed the domestic and international evidence before extending its approval for the Pfizer vaccine to be administered to this age group, Mr Hunt said in a statement.
Similar clearances for the use of the vaccine in children were approved several weeks ago by regulators in the United States, European Union and Britain.
Up until now, the Pfizer vaccine had only been approved for use in Australia for people aged 16 years and over.
01:11 AM
Push for Republicans to speak up for vaccines
Republican politicians are under increasing pressure to speak out to persuade Covid-19 vaccine skeptics to roll up their sleeves and take the shots as a new, more contagious variant sends case loads soaring.
But after months of ignoring - and, in some cases, stoking - misinformation about the virus, experts warn it may be too late to change the minds of many who are refusing.
In recent news conferences and statements, some prominent Republicans have been imploring their constituents to lay lingering doubts aside.
In Washington, the so-called Doctors Caucus gathered at the Capitol for an event to combat vaccine hesitancy. And in Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis this week pointed to data showing the vast majority of hospitalised Covid-19 patients hadn't received shots.
12:38 AM
Today's top stories
Sending hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren home because they had contact with someone with Covid was unnecessary because it is just as effective to keep them in class and conduct daily tests, an official study suggests
Companies in "critical" industries will have to apply to the Government if they want key workers to avoid self-isolation when pinged by the NHS app, it was confirmed on Thursday
Supermarkets began cancelling home deliveries on Thursday as businesses across the country mounted a rebellion against the growing "pingdemic"
Britain recorded nearly 10,000 fewer Covid cases on Thursday when compared to the same day last week, new figures show, raising hopes that the epidemic may be slowing
Holidaymakers flying abroad this weekend will be more than double last week’s numbers as travellers race to escape before any further tightening of rules
People who wait longer to get the second dose of their Pfizer vaccine mount a more robust immune response for long-term protection from Covid than those who bring their second jab forward, a major study has found
Potential Covid variants are entering the UK unchecked as the rate of positive tests being genome sequenced from amber-listed countries has fallen to just three per cent, official figures show
