Coronavirus live: UK expert fears lockdown Christmas; vaccines alone not enough to curb variants – WHO | World news

In China, individuals had been queuing to get their Covid vaccine booster photographs at a vaccination centre in Beijing this morning.

Some native governments have begun providing the jabs to individuals aged 18 and over who’ve already been vaccinated.

It comes as greater than 2.232 billion doses of Covid vaccines had reportedly been administered on the Chinese language mainland as of 17 October.

South Korea has introduced that it has achieved its aim of vaccinating 70% of its 52 million inhabitants.

The nation set the goal when it started its inoculation marketing campaign in late February and Korea Illness Management and Prevention Company (KDCA) stated it was reached by 2pm (5am GMT), with 36 million individuals now vaccinated.

Regardless of a gradual begin, South Korea shortly ramped up its vaccination drive by growing provides and due to a excessive take-up among the many public.

Well being minister Kwon Deok-cheol stated final week that the federal government will start a phased return to “regular actions” from 1 November. The KDCA stated in an announcement:

It’s not possible to place an finish to the pandemic by reaching herd immunity because of the unfold of extremely transmissible Delta variant.

However assembly the vaccination aim has vital which means in lowering extreme circumstances and fatality, and as an vital precondition for a transition to phased restoration of our every day lives.

South Korea has largely efficiently managed to deal with the pandemic with out imposing lockdowns seen in lots of different elements of the world, on the again of its intensive testing and tracing.

Unvaccinated individuals in Austria might face new lockdown restrictions if coronavirus case numbers proceed to rise, the nation’s chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, stated on Friday evening.

The information got here after a gathering between Schallenberg and state leaders to debate their response to quickly growing case numbers, based on the Related Press.

“The pandemic isn’t but within the rearview mirror,” Schallenberg stated. “We’re about to stumble right into a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

He stated that if the variety of Covid sufferers in intensive-care items had been to succeed in 500, or 25% of the nation’s capability, entrance into companies comparable to eating places and motels could be restricted to those that had been vaccinated or had recovered from the virus.

If the quantity had been to succeed in 600, the federal government would impose restrictions on unvaccinated individuals, solely permitting them to depart dwelling for particular causes.

The variety of Covid sufferers in ICUs at the moment stands at 220.

A outstanding Covid adviser to the UK authorities has stated he’s “very fearful” there might be one other Christmas lockdown as he urged the general public to do all the pieces potential to cut back transmission of the virus.

Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Rising Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), stated the present variety of circumstances and deathwas unacceptable.

He stated measures comparable to working from dwelling and masks sporting had been “so vital” as a part of efforts to regulate the unfold of Covid, PA Media stories.

His warning comes after Boris Johnson resisted well being leaders’ requires tighter restrictions.

Talking in a private capability, Openshaw, of Imperial Faculty London, advised BBC Breakfast:

I’m very fearful that we’re going to have one other lockdown Christmas if we don’t act quickly. We all know that with public well being measures the time to behave is instantly. There’s no level in delaying.

For those who do delay then you have to take much more stringent actions later. The immediacy of response is completely very important should you’re going to get issues below management. All of us actually, actually desire a great household Christmas the place we will all get again collectively.

If that’s what we would like, we have to get these measures in place now so as to get transmission charges proper down in order that we will truly get collectively and see each other over Christmas.

He stated it’s “unacceptable to be letting this run in the meanwhile”:

I believe the hospitals in lots of elements of the nation are barely coping truly. Speaking to individuals on the entrance line, I believe it’s simply not sustainable to maintain going at this charge. I believe it’s simply unacceptable to see the variety of deaths that we’ve bought in the meanwhile.

At one stage final week there have been 180 deaths in a single day. That’s simply too many deaths. We appear to have bought used to the concept that we’re going to have many, many individuals dying of Covid and that I believe is simply not the case. We have to decelerate transmission and actually redouble efforts to get everybody vaccinated and all of the boosters out, after which we will open up once more.

Right here is a picture of a significant Covid vaccination drive underway in Chennai, India.

China reported 50 new confirmed coronavirus circumstances on Saturday in contrast with 43 on Friday, based on the nation’s well being authority.

Thirty-eight had been domestically transmitted circumstances, in contrast with 28 on Friday, the Nationwide Well being Fee stated in an announcement.

The brand new native circumstances had been reported in Beijing, the provinces of Gansu and Yunnan and the autonomous areas of Interior Mongolia and Ningxia.

China additionally reported 17 new asymptomatic sufferers, which it classifies individually from confirmed circumstances, in contrast with 26 on Friday.

There have been no new deaths, leaving the demise toll unchanged at 4,636.

Sri Lanka has introduced plans to supply booster photographs to frontline employees adopted by the aged because it prepares to additional ease Covid restrictions.

Employees within the well being, safety, airport and tourism sectors will begin receiving a 3rd dose of vaccine from 1 November, stated Channa Jayasumana, the state minister of pharmaceutical manufacturing, provide and regulation.

The Pfizer booster photographs will then be rolled out to the over-60s, he stated.

Thus far, 59% of the inhabitants of twenty-two million have been vaccinated, and the well being ministry expects the speed to rise to 70% inside three weeks, Reuters reported.

The booster rollout comes earlier than authorities’s plans to elevate journey restrictions between provinces in November. The federal government has additionally introduced that prepare providers, which have been suspended for almost two months, would restart subsequent week.

Sri Lanka lifted a six-week lockdown on 1 October. Life has since begun returning to regular with the reopening of cinemas, eating places and marriage ceremony events as Covid every day circumstances fell to under 1,000 with lower than 50 deaths.

A ban on public gatherings continues, nevertheless, together with some restrictions on public transport.

The Romanian authorities is to re-introduce an evening curfew and make well being passes obligatory for entry to most public venues from Monday.

Different measures embody sending schoolchildren on vacation for 2 weeks, because the nation seeks to stem a surge in Covid circumstances and deaths.

The nation’s interim authorities accredited the measures late on Friday.

Romania has reported document numbers of every day coronavirus infections and deaths this month and the hospital system is stretched to breaking level.

The nation has the second-lowest coronavirus vaccination charge within the EU.

Russia reported an additional 1,075 Covid deaths on Saturday, its fifth straight every day document, as authorities put together to close workplaces throughout the nation and lock down Moscow.

A document 37,678 new circumstances had been additionally reported, based on Reuters.

Regardless of growing one of many world’s first vaccines towards Covid, Russia has immunised solely a couple of third of its inhabitants, one of many lowest charges in Europe.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, this week accredited a nationwide office shutdown within the first week of November, and Moscow will reimpose a partial lockdown from 28 October below which solely important outlets comparable to pharmacies and supermarkets might be allowed to open.

Right here is an effective image to start out your weekend with as a zoo in Jakarta, Indonesia, reopens following a dramatic fall in Covid circumstances within the nation.

The entire world should be vaccinated to cease new Covid variants from growing, the World Well being Group (WHO) stated on Saturday.

In an interview with Occasions Radio, the WHO’s spokesperson Margaret Harris stated:

What’s actually going to affect transmission for all of us is ensuring there’s as little virus as potential circulating world wide. Probably the most excessive precedence teams are these which are uncovered to the virus on a regular basis, healthcare employees, but just one in 10 are vaccinated in Africa at the moment.

We’re in such a nasty place in a lot of the world, we’re going to see extra variants develop, we’re going to see extra transmission, and even when magically the vaccine protected one inhabitants as successfully as we hoped a variant then might develop and undo all of that work.

She additionally stated, nevertheless, that vaccines alone wouldn’t be capable to elevate the world out of the pandemic:

The issue is specializing in one factor, the vaccine isn’t going to get us out of this. We actually must do different measures.

We’ve got bought to be severe about not crowding. We’ve got nonetheless bought to be sporting the masks, whenever you’re indoors notably.

As Melbourne continues to have fun opening up, well being officers in Australia have expressed concern a couple of rising proportion of Covid circumstances in younger individuals, notably in regional Victoria.

Victoria recorded 1,750 new Covid circumstances and 9 deaths within the 24 hours since Melbourne emerged from its sixth lockdown. The brand new infections had been discovered from 72,858 check outcomes processed on Friday.

However because the state entered its second day of newly relaxed freedoms, the Covid commander, Jeroen Weimar, stated Victoria was “not out of the woods but”.

He pointed to a rise in younger individuals catching the virus in current days, whereas about 14% of the circumstances recorded on Saturday had been from regional Victoria. In metropolitan Melbourne 29% of all circumstances recorded had been below the age of 19 and in regional Victoria the determine was 38%.

“To all of the younger Victorians amongst us, you might be notably weak right now to operating into buddies and associates who’re Covid-positive,” Weimar stated. “These are our youngsters and college students who’re clearly very energetic in the neighborhood.”

It got here as town started its first weekend out of the world’s longest string of Covid lockdowns with spontaneous road events, reside music and packed pubs, bars and eating places.

Regardless of rain on Saturday morning, individuals queued for barbers and breakfast eating places, all of that are open solely to the totally vaccinated.

Late on Friday, individuals broke right into a spontaneous road celebration in Melbourne’s south-east and lots of rejoiced with their first drink in months in a pub with buddies, social media footage confirmed.

New Zealand has reported 104 new coronavirus infections, together with the primary group case within the nation’s South Island in almost a 12 months, well being officers stated.

Many of the new infections reported on Saturday had been in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest metropolis, which has been below a strict lockdown for greater than two months. Looser restrictions are in place in a lot of the remainder of the nation of 5 million.

The dangers of an additional unfold from the case reported in Blenheim, within the north-east of South Island, was low, well being officers stated, as a result of the individual was prone to have been within the late stage of an infection.

“Thus far, preliminary case interviews have recognized a small variety of shut contacts, who’ve been contacted and are at the moment isolating with exams organized,” the well being ministry stated in an announcement.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, stated on Friday that the nation would finish its strict lockdown measures and restore extra freedoms solely when 90% of its eligible inhabitants was totally vaccinated. As of Saturday, the determine stood at 70%.

The success of the vaccine rollout means outlets, pubs and nightclubs ought to stay open and there might be no extra lockdowns in England, based on the nation’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Rishi Sunak gave a wide-ranging interview with The Occasions this morning and though it leads on his ambitions to be the subsequent Prime Minister, there are some fascinating traces concerning his view on any potential additional lockdown.

He stated that there should not be a return to “vital financial restrictions” regardless of warnings from some well being consultants that the virus might overwhelm the NHS this winter.

The chancellor added:

I believe we’re simply in a really completely different place to the place we had been a 12 months a go due to the vaccine. There’s this monumental wave of safety and that modifications issues. That’s our first line of defence.

There’s a variety of choices which are accessible and people usually are not choices that contain lockdowns or very vital financial restrictions.

Nonetheless, it got here as polling for a similar newspaper confirmed that 69 per cent of the British public would help a return to the work-from-home edict, whereas an additional 76 per cent again obligatory masks.

One other 22 per cent stated they help closing pubs and eating places to assist combat one other wave of Covid.

Federal well being regulators within the United States have introduced child-sized doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine seem extremely efficient at stopping symptomatic infections in main college age youngsters.

The Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) stated late on Friday that the vaccine prompted no surprising questions of safety, because the US considers starting vaccinations in younger individuals.

It posted its evaluation of Pfizer’s information forward of a public assembly subsequent week to debate whether or not the jabs are prepared for the nation’s roughly 28 million youngsters aged between 5 and 11. The company will ask a panel of outdoor vaccine consultants to vote on the query.

The Related Press reported:

Of their evaluation, FDA scientists concluded that in virtually each state of affairs the vaccine’s profit for stopping hospitalisations and demise from Covid-19 would outweigh any severe potential negative effects in youngsters. However company reviewers stopped in need of calling for Pfizer’s shot to be authorised.

The company will put that query to its panel of unbiased advisers subsequent Tuesday and weigh their recommendation earlier than making its personal choice.

If the FDA authorises the photographs, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention will make extra suggestions on who ought to obtain them the primary week of November. Kids might start vaccinations early subsequent month – with the primary kids in line totally protected by Christmas.

Full-strength Pfizer photographs already are really helpful for anybody 12 or older, however paediatricians and lots of mother and father are anxiously awaiting safety for youthful youngsters to stem infections from the extra-contagious delta variant and assist maintain children at school.

The FDA evaluate backed up outcomes from Pfizer posted earlier within the day exhibiting the two-dose shot was almost 91% efficient at stopping symptomatic an infection in younger youngsters.

Many of the examine information was collected within the US throughout August and September, when the Delta variant had turn into the dominant Covid pressure.

The FDA evaluate discovered no new or surprising negative effects. Those who did happen largely consisted of sore arms, fever or achiness.

Nonetheless, FDA scientists famous that the examine wasn’t massive sufficient to detect extraordinarily uncommon negative effects, together with myocarditis, a sort of coronary heart irritation that often happens after the second dose.

Good morning and welcome to right this moment’s Covid weblog, the place we might be bringing you all the newest coronavirus information from the UK and world wide.

I’m Tom Ambrose, reporting reside from London, and I might be with you from now till 4pm native time.

We begin with the information that scientists on the United States’s Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) have stated that the doubtless advantages of giving the Pfizer vaccine to five- to 11-year-olds “clearly outweigh the dangers of uncommon circumstances of coronary heart irritation”.

It comes as Pfizer stated their Covid jab confirmed 90.7% efficacy towards the virus in a scientific trial of main college age youngsters yesterday.

Different high tales from world wide this morning embody:

• In a wide-ranging interview with The Occasions newspaper right this moment, the UK’s chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has stated outlets, pubs and eating places should not shut once more because the vaccine rollout meant there might be “no extra lockdowns”.
• Native public well being chiefs in England are breaking from the federal government’s official steerage and recommending so-called plan B protecting measures to fight a surge in coronavirus circumstances. At the very least a dozen administrators of public well being have known as on residents of their areas to readopt protecting measures comparable to mask-wearing and dealing from dwelling.
• Well being officers ought to have recognized about main failings at a non-public Covid testing lab inside days of the issue arising, quite than taking weeks to close down operations on the web site, senior scientists say.
• The senior official credited with the early success of the Covid vaccine rollout in England is returning to the NHS to renew her function overseeing the programme, months after leaving to turn into the top of Boris Johnson’s Downing Road supply unit. Emily Lawson is ending her secondment at No 10 to return to NHS England amid concern that the rollout of booster jabs in England is flagging.
• New Zealand reported 104 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, together with the primary group case of the virus within the nation’s South Island in almost a 12 months, well being officers stated. Many of the new infections had been reported in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest metropolis that has been below a strict lockdown for greater than two months.
• Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest metropolis, started its first weekend out of the world’s longest string of Covid lockdowns with spontaneous road events, reside music and packed pubs, bars and eating places.

As I say, I’ll carry you all the highest headlines from at dwelling and overseas as and once they occur. Tweet me @tomambrose89, or through direct messages if you wish to maintain issues personal, with any suggestions or tales all through the day.