UK reports highest deaths since early April – as it happened

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13 Jul 202118.22 EDT

Sarah Butler

In the UK, more pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants could be facing collapse, despite restrictions easing from 19 July, having built up almost £10bn in debt during the pandemic.

Hospitality, retail and property business leaders told MPs on Tuesday there was an urgent need to revamp business rates, kick off arbitration on rent debts and extend payment terms for government-backed loans, as the government hands over responsibility on Covid protection measures to individual businesses:

The latest Covid-19 situation in Australia:

A British couple were prevented from boarding flights after having an Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine that is not licenced in the EU, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The vaccine has been authorised by the World Health Organisation, but it is yet to be approved by the European Medicines Agency and consequently is not accepted by the EU vaccine passport scheme.

The newspaper reported that while some European countries have individually decided to accept it, Malta will not accept the Indian-made variety of the jab.

The Department of Health and Social Care had previously insisted that no Britons who had received the Indian-made jabs would be negatively affected.

A spokesman said earlier this month: “All AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK are the same product and appear on the NHS Covid Pass as Vaxzevria. The European Medicines Agency has authorised this vaccine and we’re confident travel will not be affected.”

On Tuesday, the department did not respond to a request to comment on the experience of a British couple who were turned back at Manchester Airport when they tried to board a flight to Malta on Friday.

Three months since Papua New Guinea launched its Covid vaccine rollout, just 60,000 people – or 0.6% of the population – have received their first dose, with many people hesitant due to misinformation and fears around the vaccine.

Despite a recent surge in cases that has overwhelmed the already rickety health system, just over 2,800 people have received their second dose.

Recent monitoring of Covid-19 awareness programmes by Caritas Australia found that the overwhelming majority of communities in rural areas still have extremely limited knowledge about the disease and how to prevent its spread.

Diane Unagi, Caritas Australia’s country representative in PNG, said that the bulk of the population were getting their information by word of mouth, rather than on social media or from watching and reading the news.

The World Health Organization’s chief scientist has advised individuals against mixing and matching Covid-19 vaccines from different manufacturers, saying such decisions should be left to public health authorities, Reuters reports.
“It’s a little bit of a dangerous trend here,” Soumya Swaminathan told an online briefing after a question about booster shots. “It will be a chaotic situation in countries if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third and a fourth dose.” Swaminathan had called mixing a “data-free zone” but later clarified her remarks in an overnight tweet. “Individuals should not decide for themselves, public health agencies can, based on available data,” she said in the tweet. “Data from mix and match studies of different vaccines are awaited - immunogenicity and safety both need to be evaluated.”

Malta reversed plans to introduce a ban on unvaccinated travellers hours before it was due to come into effect Wednesday with those without coronavirus jabs able now to quarantine.
“Persons who arrive to Malta from any of the countries listed... without being in possession of a vaccination certificate shall be required to submit themselves to a period of quarantine,” the government said in a legal note. The length of the quarantine period was not immediately clear, although Malta had already imposed a requirement for those arriving from certain “red” countries to spend 14 days in self-isolation, AFP reports.

Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 11,137 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 219 more fatalities, bringing its total to 2,604,711 infections and 235,277 deaths.
The government has said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher, and separate data published recently suggested the actual death toll could be 60% higher than the official count, Reuters reports.

• The death toll in a fire that spread through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq is at least 92 with more than 100 others injured, health officials said, as an angry crowd blaming local authorities for negligence gathered near the city’s morgue as two police vehicles were torched in Nasireyah.

• Daily vaccinations hit a new high in France on Tuesday. “Today you are 792,339 to have received a first jab, a new record. This drive must amplify and continue in coming weeks,” the country’s prime minister Jean Castex wrote on Twitter.

• German chancellor Angela Merkel said she is not planning to follow France and other countries in introducing compulsory Covid-19 vaccinations for parts of the population, despite the number of jabs given yesterday at its lowest since February amid apparent hesitancy.

• Thailand defended mixing two different Covid-19 vaccines, after the WHO’s top scientist warned it was a “dangerous trend” not backed by evidence. Authorities said they will mix a first dose of the Chinese-made Sinovac jab with a second dose of AstraZeneca to try to achieve a “booster” effect in six weeks instead of 12.

• The European Medicines Agency said it is analysing data on rare cases of a nerve disorder reported among recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, after the US added a warning label to the shot. In its decision to add a warning label, the FDA said 100 preliminary reports of GBS included 95 serious cases that required hospitalisation and one reported death.

• Cyprus has reported a record-high number of new Covid-19 infections, health ministry data showed, with the number of positive cases surging past 1,000. Tuesday’s figure of 1,081 cases was the highest single-day count since the eastern Mediterranean island recorded its first cases of coronavirus in March 2020, Reuters reports.

• Greece will require customers at indoor restaurants, bars and cafes to prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, the government announced. Under the new regulations, which will remain in force until next month, all customers at indoor bars and restaurants will have to be seated. Those dining outdoors will not require proof of vaccination or a test.

• Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that created one of the first Covid-19 vaccines to be approved, has been making a hard sell for emergency approval of boosters – additional doses given to those already vaccinated, especially immunocompromised adults.

• Bangladesh is to lift its nationwide lockdown for the country’s second-biggest religious festival, the government has said, even as new infections rise. The removal of the curbs would “normalise economic activities” ahead of the celebrations, it added. Tens of millions of people usually head back to their villages to mark Eid al-Adha with their families.

• India’s Covid vaccination rollout has continued to falter due to supply shortages and vaccine hesitancy, casting doubt on the government’s pledge to vaccinate the entire population by December. Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, tweeted that “vaccines have run out in Delhi again. The central government gives vaccines for a day or two, then we have to keep the vaccine centres closed for several days.”

• Philippine police temporarily suspended a requirement for officers seeking promotion to meet body fat targets, after chiefs argued pandemic restrictions had made it difficult for officers to work out and lose weight following a study which showed almost 35% of personnel were overweight and nearly 10% obese.

Stanislas Niox-Chateau, who heads one of France’s biggest online websites used to book vaccine appointments, told RMC radio there were record numbers seeking vaccines after the president’s announcement.
In nearly 24 hours, some 1.7 million vaccine appointments had been booked through Doctolib, Reuters reports. Meanwhile daily vaccinations hit a new high on Tuesday. “Today you are 792,339 to have received a first jab, a new record. This drive must amplify and continue in coming weeks,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Twitter.

Hospitals, GPs and other health providers will still be able to require patients and visitors to wear masks unless they are exempt, after Public Health England (PHE) said existing guidance on Covid infection control will continue beyond 19 July.

Health providers have been pressing the government for clarity on the situation around face coverings in hospitals and GP surgeries when legal requirements on mask-wearing will be lifted, with the NHS Confederation urging mandatory mask-wearing to continue.

In response, PHE made clear on Tuesday that its infection prevention control (IPC) guidance is to remain in place, meaning the current situation on mask-wearing in health and care settings will continue.

Under the guidelines agreed by the four nations of the UK and put in place for the pandemic, it sets out the need for “use of facemasks/coverings by all outpatients (if tolerated) and visitors when entering a hospital, GP/dental surgery or other care settings”. It also recommends physical distancing of 2 metres and thorough hand hygiene, with “patients in all care areas still to be encouraged and supported to wear a face mask, providing it is tolerated and is not detrimental to their medical or care needs”.

Cyprus has reported a record-high number of new Covid-19 infections, health ministry data showed, with the number of positive cases surging past 1,000.
Tuesday’s figure of 1,081 cases was the highest single-day count since the eastern Mediterranean island recorded its first cases of coronavirus in March 2020, Reuters reports. Two people died of Covid-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths to 382, the health ministry said.

Bahrain said entry will be banned from 16 new countries including Tunisia, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa and Indonesia over coronavirus concerns, the state news agency (BNA) reported.

Bahrain had suspended entry of travellers from countries on its “Red List” in May, a list that included India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Bahrain has excluded citizens and residents with valid residency visas from the ban, Reuters reports.

El Salvador’s Congress suspended all public and private gatherings of large groups of people for a period of 90 days amid a rise in coronavirus infections, suspending concerts, rallies and sporting events and enforcing mandatory mask use.

Public transport, churches, bars, restaurants and nightclubs were not included in the closure. Commercial and labor activities were also not affected by the new measures, Reuters reports.

“Mayors who hold festivities, carnivals, rallies or mass events in the next three months will be sanctioned with 100 minimum wages and criminally prosecuted for the crime of disobedience,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Twitter.

The US administered 334,942,236 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 387,241,530 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

Those figures are up from the 334,600,770 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by July 12 out of 387,006,120 doses delivered.

The agency said 184,543,821 people had received at least one dose while 159,675,163 people were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The speaker of Tunisia’s parliament and the leader of the Islamist Ennahda Party Rached Ghannouchi has contracted Covid-19, an advisor to Ghannouchi told Reuters.

He added that Ghannouchi, 80, is at home and will work remotely.

Ghannouchi, the leader of the biggest party in the parliament, received two doses of a Covid vaccine this year.

Tunisia is seeing a significant increase in Covid-19 cases, with intensive care wards almost full, health authorities said, after successfully containing the virus in the first wave last year.

In total, Tunisia has recorded more than 500,000 coronavirus cases and about 16,500 deaths.

As ministers proceed with lifting most of England’s restrictions next week, a third of the population is still unprotected from getting infected with Covid, scientists have estimated.

There have been about 15 million infections so far (roughly 27% of England’s population), and once partial and full vaccinations are accounted for that leaves approximately 33% of the population still susceptible to being infected with the Delta variant that is now dominant, said Matt Keeling, a professor of populations and disease at the University of Warwick and a member of a Sage subcommittee focused on infectious disease modelling and epidemiology (Spi-M).

Roughly half the UK is now fully vaccinated but Covid infections are surging again and hospitalisations are on the rise, driven by the spread of Delta and the lifting of some restrictions. On Tuesday the UK reported 50 new deaths within 28 days of a positive test, the worst daily toll since early April, and 36,660 new Covid cases.

Greenland’s government introduced new virus curbs on Tuesday after a cluster of Covid-19 cases were reported on the huge Arctic island, AFP reports.

Starting Tuesday at 4 pm local time (1800 GMT), residents of the Danish autonomous territory will be required to wear face masks in public places, shops, taxis and on public transport, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede told a press conference.

The move came after 13 cases were recently reported on Greenland.

In addition passengers would not be allowed on buses that have no free seats left, and restrictions were also introduced on the number of people in restaurants and shops.