Coronavirus latest news: UK secures 35 million Pfizer vaccines for next winter
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Britain has bought 35 million more Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines for next winter to “future proof” the country with booster jabs for "years to come".
The vaccines, announced in a new deal on Monday, are set to be administered from the second half of 2022 to protect against current and future variants of coronavirus.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “While we continue to build this wall of defence from Covid, it’s also vital we do everything we can to protect the country for the future too – whether that’s from the virus as we know it or new variants.”
He added the extra doses would “future-proof our vaccine programme, ensuring we have plans in place to keep the nation safe for years to come”.
Third jabs for vulnerable groups in the UK, including all over-50s, are set to begin as early as next month after the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation issues its final advice.
It comes as an Israeli study found that among over-60s, protection from infection was four times higher 10 days after a booster dose of Pfizer than those who had received two, however experts have questioned whether regular Covid-19 vaccines will be needed.
Follow the latest updates below.
11:43 AM
What are the Covid vaccine uptake levels in your area?
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11:31 AM
Vaccine booster 'significantly lowers infection risk for over-60s'
A booster dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine significantly improves protection from infection and serious illness in people over 60, an Israeli study has found.
Findings published by the country's Health Ministry said that among people in this age group, protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than those who had received two.
A third jab for over-60s also offered five to six times greater protection from serious illness and hospitalisation after 10 days, it added.
The data were presented at a meeting of a ministry panel of vaccination experts and uploaded to its website on Sunday, though the full details of the study are yet to be released.
The findings were on par with separate statistics reported by Israel's Maccabi healthcare provider, one of several organisations administering booster shots to try to curb the delta coronavirus variant in the country.
11:23 AM
Boosters for years to come as 35 million Pfizer jabs set for next winter
Britain has bought 35 million more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for next winter to "future proof" the country from Covid-19 and any new variants.
The vaccines, announced in a new deal on Monday, are set to enter arms from the second half of 2022 as the UK looks to roll out a booster jab programme.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “While we continue to build this wall of defence from Covid, it’s also vital we do everything we can to protect the country for the future too – whether that’s from the virus as we know it or new variants.”
He said the extra doses would “future-proof our vaccine programme, ensuring we have plans in place to keep the nation safe for years to come”.
A programme of third jabs for vulnerable groups, including all over-50s, is set to begin as early as next month after the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation issues its final advice.
11:08 AM
UK warns 'cowboy' Covid travel test firms over pricing
Dozens of domestic private medical testing companies have been warned over "misleading prices" for coronavirus travel tests, following a government review of costs and standards.
The Department for Health and Social Care said on Monday that more than 80 firms would be issued a "two-strike warning" and could be removed from the government's list if they fail to accurately advertise their prices.
It added that the companies would now also face regular spot checks to ensure prices are accurate and providers are legitimate.
As many as 82 firms - around 18 percent of the database - were identified as displaying lower prices on the list than are actually available on their website at the point of checkout, according to the ministry.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "It is absolutely unacceptable for any private testing company to be taking advantage of holidaymakers and today's action clamps down on this cowboy behaviour."
10:52 AM
‘If a GP had seen my mum in person, they’d have spotted the cancer sooner’
It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. In April 2020, just as Covid was causing the NHS to focus all its energies on tackling the emerging pandemic, to the exclusion of almost all of its usual activities, Gill Dutton, a 65-year-old hospice community care worker from Tamworth in the Midlands, developed a cough that just wouldn’t go away.
What Gill knew was that her mother, father and aunt – the last two, like her, non-smokers – had died of lung cancer.
The local surgery, though, wasn’t offering any face-to-face appointments because of lockdown.
She had probably had Covid already, she was told, and the cough would clear up in its own time. It was the start of over six months of delay before it was diagnosed in October as stage 4 lung cancer. She was given three years to live.
10:36 AM
'Major crisis' for GPs in England over high staff turnover
A quarter of GP surgeries are losing up to 40 per cent of their staff every year, researchers have warned, amid fears that the pandemic will exacerbate the “major crisis”.
The majority of NHS regions experienced a steady rise in GP turnover between 2007 and 2019, according to a new study by University of Manchester academics.
During this period, the proportion of GP practices with high turnover (10 per cent to 40 per cent within a year) almost doubled from 14 per cent in 2009, to 27 per cent in 2019.
However, the proportion of practices with very high turnover (above 40 per cent) remained stable at around eight per cent.
10:22 AM
Flu jabs could fail this winter due to Covid emergency, experts warn
The flu jab may fail to protect people this winter, vaccine makers fear, because global Covid surveillance prevented laboratories gathering sufficient data on the dominant variants.
Health experts were already concerned that coronavirus restrictions had left people with little natural immunity to influenza, but now they fear the vaccine may also be mismatched to the circulating virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) made the recommendation about what to put in northern hemisphere jabs in late February, but vaccine makers say that global genetic sequencing of flu had dropped by up to 94 per cent in the months preceding the decision.
There are fears that a mismatched flu vaccine, coupled with waning immunity, high levels of Covid and the NHS backlog, could quickly lead to the health service being overwhelmed this winter.
10:19 AM
Vaccination push sees young people tell of being bed-bound with Covid
Young patients suffering with the debilitating effects of long Covid have urged people to get their vaccine.
A new NHS video features three previously healthy people in their early 20s and 30s, including a man who thought he would die with the virus in hospital.
It comes as 16 and 17-year-olds in England have been invited to book their first doses from Monday. The invitation also extends to "at-risk" people aged 12 to 15 ahead of their return to school in September.
People aged 18 to 34 now make up more than one in five of those admitted to hospital with the virus, which is four times higher than the peak in winter 2020, the NHS has said.
In the clip, support worker Quincy Dwamena, 31, described himself as a "healthy young guy" who "went to the gym often" and delayed getting the vaccine - but became seriously ill.
Mr Dwamena, from east London, said: "My advice is to get the vaccine: don't put yourself and others at risk, I wish I'd got mine as soon as it was offered."
09:50 AM
Take more Covid patients. Tokyo hospitals told
The Japanese and Tokyo governments have appealed to hospitals in the capital to accept more coronavirus patients amid soaring cases.
Health Minister Norihisa Tamura, stood with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, said: "The Delta variant's strong infectiousness just isn't comparable to previous ones.
"We would like to have further support from the medical community to secure hospital beds for coronavirus patients."
This was the first time the national government had issued such a request based on the infectious diseases control law, Tamura said.
With infections showing no sign of slowing down, the government is considering expanding areas covered by state of emergency measures, the Kyodo news agency said. Emergency measures are now in force in 13 prefectures, including Tokyo.
While infection numbers in Japan have been setting daily records, the number of deaths per day has stayed at less than a quarter of the record 216 fatalities seen on May 18, as more people are vaccinated.
09:42 AM
Abandon booster jabs and give vaccines to poorer countries, says WHO chief
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that coronavirus booster shots should be delayed as priority should be given to raising vaccination rates in less advantaged countries.
During a trip to Budapest, he added that if vaccination rates are not raised globally, stronger variants of the coronavirus could develop.
Countries planning booster jabs should in particular help countries where only one per cent or two per cent of the population has been inoculated, he said.
09:33 AM
One in 20 Irish schoolchildren tested positive during school year
A total of four per cent of schoolchildren tested positive for coronavirus in schools in the last academic year, figures show.
A HSE study, published on Monday, shows that since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and July 10 2021, a total of 46,470 cases of Covid-19 were reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).
The study also found that the proportion of close contacts of a confirmed case that later tested positive for Covid-19 was significantly lower in schools, compared to the general population.
09:11 AM
Expect surge in cases during autumn, Sweden warned
Sweden is likely to see a surge in coronavirus infections in the coming months, its Health Agency has warned.
The country, which has opted against lockdowns and mostly relied on voluntary measures, has experienced a lull in the pandemic during the summer with few deaths and hospitalisations.
However, cases have risen in recent weeks and that trend is expected to continue as schools reopen and people return to work.
"All our three scenarios point to increased spread during the autumn," the Health Agency said in a statement. "More people are assumed to need hospital and intensive care, but at significantly lower levels than before during the pandemic."
While infections have been lower during summer, the rapid spread of the highly infectious delta variant has seen authorities urge Swedes to remain on their guard, especially as colder weather forces people indoors.
It said that current restrictions and recommendations, mainly to limit social interactions, isolate if sick and work from home if possible, should be kept in place until more people had received COVID jabs. Around 65 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.
Sweden has seen significantly higher deaths per capita than its Nordic neighbours during the pandemic but lower than in most European countries.
08:54 AM
Cases falling in Russia
Russia has reported 19,454 new COVID-19, the first time the daily tally has dipped below 20,000 since June 23 as authorities blamed a case surge on the infectious delta variant.
The government coronavirus task force also reported 776 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours nationwide.
08:39 AM
Cow festival amid a pandemic
Not even the traditional Gai Jatra (Cow Festival) procession is immune from the impacts of coronavirus, with people forced to take precautions as they hit the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal.
Children were seen wearing PPE alongside traditional garb as Nepalese Hindus celebrated the religious festival, where they ask for salvation and peace for family members who have passed away in the past year.
Children participating in the procession often dress as cows, holy animals according to Hindu belief, who help departed souls to reach heaven.
08:21 AM
Cautious approach over jabs for kids
Officials are taking a "cautious approach" on whether to give children vaccines and the situation is "under constant re-evaluation", Professor Adam Finn said.
The professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and JCVI member said: "We're very confident that for first doses for healthy 16 and 17-year-olds, that benefit/risk ratio is overwhelmingly in favour of receiving that first dose, but people can be reassured that we're taking this cautiously, we're not rushing forward, and we very much don't want to be in a position of later discovering we made the wrong decision.
"So, the benefits are clear for the first dose for this age group.
"We will be looking very carefully before taking any further steps into younger children, or second doses."
He said the JCVI "always review evidence going forward", adding: "And so this whole situation is under constant re-evaluation, if you like."
08:06 AM
Minister questions New Zealand strategy
The arrival of the Delta strain in New Zealand has prompted one minister to question whether the "Covid zero" elimination strategy is unviable.
New Zealand's strategy - which has resulted in just 26 deaths in a population of five million - has relied on strict border controls backed by hard lockdowns when any cases do slip through.
But in the face of the highly transmissible new variant, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the strain raised “big questions about the long-term future of our plans”.
“Delta does raise some big questions that we’re going to have to grapple with, you know less than a 24-hour period for someone getting it and passing it on to others … that’s like nothing we’ve dealt with in this pandemic so far, and it does change everything,” he said.
Despite his fears, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she believed in it "absolutely".
"Our plan has worked before and together we can make it work again," she said.
Ardern has previously announced plans to relax restrictions next year when vaccination rates are higher.
07:52 AM
Vaccine take up lower for young people as they do not 'live in fear of Covid'
Fewer young people will get the coronavirus vaccine because they are not "living in fear" of coronavirus like older age groups, an expert advising the Government has said.
But despite the admission, Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said that he is "optimistic" that many still will.
He told Sky News: "I don't think we're going to see as many young people receiving the vaccine as the elderly.
"Old folks like me were living in fear of Covid with very large numbers of serious cases, admissions and deaths, and clearly as you come down through the age groups you see those rates coming down.
"But nevertheless, I think we can be optimistic that the majority of young people will want to receive the vaccine.
"And of course we don't have compulsory vaccines in this country, people don't have to have them if they don't want them, and we will see some people not coming forward.
"But it will contribute to the effort to bringing this pandemic to an end, if a majority of people do receive this vaccine. And I think that's what we're going to see."
07:42 AM
Hazmat suits and disinfecting spray: Chinese schools prepare to reopen
Staff members at Chinese schools have started disinfecting classrooms ahead of reopening next month, including those in Bozhou in the eastern Anhui province.
07:29 AM
Church criticised for lockdown-flouting service
Australian police have criticised a Sydney church for flouting lockdown rules by holding a service for 60 people in a pandemic hotspot.
The church is part of Christ Embassy, an international religious group headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, which has a record of spreading Covid-19 conspiracy theories.
After being tipped off by residents on Sunday, police moved in on the Christ Embassy Sydney church, issuing a fine of 5,000 Australian dollars to the organisation and Aus $1,000 fines to 30 parishioners.
"It is always disheartening and disappointing when you see people blatantly take it upon themselves to contradict what we know works, to contradict what we know is keeping people out of hospital," Gladys Berejiklian, premier of New South Wales state - of which Sydney is the capital - told a news conference.
"That is the key: to keep people out of hospital, to make sure that we keep people as safe and as healthy as possible. And we know the vaccine is having such a huge impact on that."
The whole of greater Sydney is currently under stay-at-home orders, as Australia's largest city struggles to contain a Delta variant outbreak that now tops 800 new cases a day.
The Sydney church did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
06:51 AM
New Zealand extends lockdown
The nationwide coronavirus lockdown in New Zealand has been extended until the end of the week.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said hat the move was the "safest option" in the face of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
"The safest option for all of us right now is to hold the course for longer," Ms Ardern said at a news conference. "If the world has taught us anything it is to be cautious with this variant of COVID-19."
The Level 4 lockdown has been extended until midnight on 27 August, while Auckland, the epicentre of the latest outbreak, will have restrictions until at least 31 August.
06:43 AM
Jakarta has reached herd immunity, official claims
Weeks after the Delta variant of the coronavirus ripped through Jakarta, the Indonesian capital has reached "herd immunity", the city's deputy governor said, ahead of an expected decision by the president on whether to extend COVID-19 curbs.
Last month, Jakarta was devastated by the outbreak with inundated hospitals, oxygen shortages and coronavirus patients dying at home, but in recent weeks case numbers have dropped sharply, while vaccination rates have climbed.
On July 12, Jakarta recorded more than 14,600 infections, but by Sunday the figure had fallen to 700.
"Jakarta has entered the green zone and has reached herd immunity," deputy Jakarta governor Ahmad Rizia Patria told reporters on Sunday.
The deputy governor was referring to high vaccination rates in the capital, where more than 54 of residents are per cent fully vaccinated and most have received one shot.
Nationally, just over 11 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated since the Southeast Asian nation began its inoculation program this January.
05:51 AM
'Cowboy' Covid test companies given final warning
More than 80 "cowboy" Covid testing companies face being removed from the Government's website after misleading travellers over prices.
A rapid review by the Government found that nearly one in five recommended providers of Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) holiday test kits advertised lower prices on the GOV.UK website than they later charged customers.
Spot checks will now be carried out and companies will be removed from the list if they do not update their pricing within the next three days, the Health Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed.
Read the full story
05:39 AM
Young long Covid sufferers appear in NHS advert
Young people who were struck down by long Covid have appeared in a new NHS advert to encourage people of their age to receive a vaccine.
The video features three previously healthy people in their early 20s and 30s, including a man who thought he would die with the virus in hospital.
The advert is designed to make the case to young people that the virus could cause them serious harm, even if they are in a low-risk category and do not have any underlying health conditions.
05:03 AM
Vietnam deploys troops to enforce lockdown in largest city
Vietnamese soldiers on Monday were deployed on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to help enforce a lockdown in the country's business hub, which has become the epicentre of its worst coronavirus outbreak so far during the pandemic.
Panic-buying broke out at supermarkets in the city of nine million people over the weekend ahead of the tighter lockdown, which started on Monday and prohibits residents from leaving their homes.
Vietnam's toughest order yet comes amid a spike in fatalities and infections.
Soldiers on Monday were checking permits of residents on the streets and delivering food, according to witnesses and photographs on state media.
The city has recorded a total of 176,000 infections and 6,670 deaths, accounting for half of the Southeast Asian country's overall cases and 80 per cent of fatalities, according to the health ministry.
04:18 AM
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson 'responding positively' to treatment
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his wife are "responding positively" to treatments after catching Covid-19, their son said in a statement on Sunday.
Physicians at the Northwestern University Memorial Hospital in Chicago are carefully monitoring Jackson, 79, and his wife, Jacqueline, 77, because of their ages, a day after the two were hospitalised, their son Jonathan said in a statement issued by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a group founded by his father.
03:26 AM
Australia PM backs reopening targets, says lockdowns unsustainable
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday the country must begin to ease strict Covid-19 restrictions once vaccination rates increase.
"(Lockdowns) cannot go on forever. This is not a sustainable way to live in this country," Mr Morrison said during a televised media conference in Canberra. "Because if not at 70 per cent and 80 per cent, then when? Then when? We must make that move and we must prepare to make that move and we must prepare the country to make that move."
The federal government last month unveiled a four-stage plan to relax restrictions once 70 per cent of its 25 million people aged over 16 are vaccinated, with stringent lockdowns "unlikely" to be required.
When vaccination coverage reaches 80 per cent only "highly targeted lockdowns" would be necessary and vaccinated Australians would be free to travel interstate.
However, Western Australia and Queensland states have raised concerns that the plan was agreed before a large outbreak in New South Wales (NSW), where daily cases have topped 800 for the last three days.
On Monday, NSW reported 818 cases, most of them in Sydney, slightly down from the record 830 a day earlier.
03:08 AM
New Zealand's delta outbreak tops 100 cases
New Zealand on Monday reported 35 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of infections in its current outbreak to 107.
The health ministry said in a statement that 33 new cases are in Auckland and two are in the capital Wellington.
Read more: How Jacinda Ardern's 'fortress New Zealand' strategy risks crumbling
02:16 AM
China reports no new local cases for first time since July
China's health authority reported on Monday that there were no new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 for the first time since July, offering more signs that the current outbreak which began late last month may be tapering off soon.
The latest outbreak was driven mainly by infections first detected among a few airport workers in the eastern city of Nanjing on July 20. Since then, more than 1,200 people in China have been confirmed to be infected.
Over the weekend, Shanghai placed hundreds of people under quarantine after infections were found in cargo workers at one of its two airports, sparking concerns of a fresh outbreak in the city.
Shanghai has reported no new local infections since then.
01:50 AM
N.Korea develops its own PCR equipment, state media reports
North Korea has developed its own Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) equipment to conduct coronavirus tests, state media said on Monday, as the country steps up efforts to head off more contagious new strains of the virus.
The country has not confirmed any Covid-19 cases, but has sealed borders, restricted travel and imposed strict prevention measures, seeing the pandemic as a matter of national survival.
As part of the anti-virus efforts, scientists and technicians at the State Academy of Sciences have developed the PCR system that meets global standards for the first time, said the Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Worker's Party's newspaper.
The equipment was introduced as one of recent achievements made under leader Kim Jong Un's push to localise machinery, tools and materials amid international sanctions and border closures that sharply reduced trade.
Read more: How to get a Covid PCR test for travel and how much they cost
12:22 AM
Taiwan's president leads way in first domestic shot
President Tsai Ing-wen got vaccinated with Taiwan's first domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, giving her personal stamp of approval as the island begins rolling out the contested shot whose approval critics say has been rushed.
The health ministry last month approved the emergency use of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp's vaccine, part of a broader plan for inoculation self-sufficiency as delays in vaccine deliveries from global drug companies have affected Taiwan and many other countries.
Tsai received her Medigen shot at a hospital in central Taipei, demonstrating her confidence and to prove it is safe.
Tsai chatted to medical workers as they prepared her shot, the whole process being broadcast live on her Facebook page, and gave a short response of "no" to a shouted question from reporters about whether she was nervous.
More than 700,000 people have signed up so far to receive the Medigen vaccine, which requires a second shot 28 after the first one.
11:01 PM
Today's top stories
The flu jab may fail to protect people this winter, vaccine makers fear, because global Covid surveillance prevented laboratories gathering sufficient data on the dominant variants.
Studies suggest people may not require a third vaccination despite falling antibody levels among the elderly.
Four Caribbean and African holiday destinations are at risk of UK travel bans being imposed this week, sparking a scramble by holidaymakers to return to avoid hotel quarantine, an analysis suggests.
An Australian council fearful of the spread of coronavirus has sparked outrage after shooting dead a number of rescue dogs to stop volunteers at an animal shelter travelling to pick them up.
A British biotech helping Vectura to develop an inhalable Covid-19 drug is issuing a staunch defence of the company’s £1.1bn takeover by Philip Morris, claiming blocking the deal would leave the tobacco firm “no choice but to continue its bad practices”.
