Coronavirus live news: New Zealand battles first Delta outbreak, vaccine warning for south-east Asia – The Guardian
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The New York Times reports that while the vaccines are effective at preventing serious illness and death, the risk of developing post-Covid health problems after a breakthrough infection is not known.
While some breakthrough cases among those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are inevitable, they are unlikely to result in hospitalisation or death. But one important question about breakthrough infection that remains unanswered is: can the vaccinated develop so-called long Covid?
While preliminary research suggests that it is, in fact, possible for a breakthrough case to lead to symptoms that can persist for weeks to months, there are still more questions than answers. What percent of breakthrough cases result in lingering symptoms? How many of those people recover? Are the persistent symptoms after breakthrough infection as severe as those that occur in the unvaccinated?
“People have said to me, ‘You’re fully vaccinated. Why are you being so careful?’” said Dr Robert M Wachter, professor and chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’m still in the camp of I don’t want to get Covid. I don’t want to get a breakthrough infection.
“I’m going to take it at face value that one in five people, six weeks after a breakthrough case, continued to feel crummy. That’s enough to make me want to wear two masks when I go into the grocery store, which is not that burdensome anyway.”
Complicating the study of breakthrough infections is the fact that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only tracks post-vaccination infections that result in hospitalisation or death. While the CDC does continue to study breakthrough infections in several large cohorts, the lack of data on all breakthrough cases remains a source of frustration among scientists and patient advocacy groups.
“It’s very frustrating not to have data at this point in the pandemic to know what happens to breakthrough cases,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale School of Medicine who is conducting studies of long Covid. “If mild breakthrough infection is turning into long Covid, we don’t have a grasp of that number.”
A lack of exercise is linked to an increased risk of severe Covid-19 and associated complications, according to a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Researchers compared hospitalisation rates, intensive care (ICU) admissions and mortality among almost 50,000 patients with Covid-19 who were consistently inactive, doing some activity or consistently reporting doing sufficient exercise.
It found that, “consistently meeting physical activity guidelines was strongly associated with a reduced risk for severe Covid-19 outcomes among infected adults.”
The researchers recommend public health agencies to prioritise the promotion of physical activity and to incorporate it into routine medical care.
Obesity increases the risk of dying of Covid-19 by nearly 50% and may make vaccines against the disease less effective, according to a comprehensive study using global data. About 2.2m of the 2.5m deaths related to Covid as of March were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says a report from the World Obesity Federation.
Writing in the Conversation, clinician scientist Jane Thornton, from Western University in Canada, said:
Statistics Canada’s data on Canadian Covid-19 deaths in 2020 reported at least one comorbidity present in 90% of all Covid-19-related deaths (including younger age groups). A comorbidity is a disease or condition that a patient has at the same time as another illness. Many of the most common comorbid conditions on the list — including high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes — are linked to physical inactivity.
As a part of prevention and treatment of these comorbid conditions that put people at greater risk, access to physical activity for all must play a central part in this change. Physicians and other health care providers can play a part by prescribing physical activity, facilitating access and measuring outcomes.
The medical journal Nature has echoed calls for a temporary suspension of Covid boosters, saying the scientific case for their efficacy has not yet been proved.
In a period of vaccine scarcity, the choice to dole out boosters must be guided by evidence of benefit, and consideration given to the cost of delaying the delivery of vaccines to vulnerable people and health-care workers in other countries. So far, there is little evidence that boosters are needed to protect the fully vaccinated.
It said about 58% of people in high-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose, in low-income countries that number stood at just 1.3%.
Sadly, many countries are moving ahead with boosters regardless. Israel has begun giving third doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine to people over 50 and other vulnerable groups. France, Germany, the UK and the US are all planning to provide boosters to certain groups. In the US, more than 1m people have managed to get an unauthorised third dose.
Allowing Covid-19 to spread in low and lower-middle-income countries, where, overall, fewer than 15% of people are vaccinated, could result in millions of people dying or facing long-term complications from severe Covid-19. Economies will erode as businesses and schools remain closed.
If vaccines were not scarce, boosters would be less controversial. But to focus on boosters when more than half the world lacks vaccine doses is short-sighted and will only keep the pandemic burning longer. For wealthy countries, this strategy means they will be indefinitely chasing their tails in terms of new variants. And for the rest of the world, it means prolonging unnecessary suffering.
It added: “In some cases, boosters might be warranted — if the evidence suggests that the usual doses aren’t effective, for example. One study of people who have had an organ transplant, meaning they need to take drugs that suppress the immune system, found that almost half had no antibody response after two doses of mRNA vaccines.”
Counterfeit versions of India’s primary Covid vaccine have been seized by authorities in the country, and in African nations, over the past two months, the World Health Organization has said.
The BBC reports that the WHO warned that fake vaccines “pose a serious risk to global public health” and called for their removal from circulation.
“Although we have a strong system to prevent such cases, with this development the only thing we want to ensure is that no Indian received a fake vaccine,” an unidentified Indian health official told the Mint news website.
Covishield, the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca’s jab, is the most widely used vaccine in India, with more than 486m doses administered so far.
Millions of Covishield vaccines were being sent to countries in Asia, Africa and South America as part of deals with various governments and the global Covax scheme. But the Indian government banned exports in May to focus on its domestic rollout amid surging cases, heightening the need elsewhere.
A Singapore court has sentenced a British man to six weeks in prison, local media reported, after he repeatedly breached coronavirus protocols by refusing to wear a face mask in public.
Benjamin Glynn, 40, was found guilty on four charges over his failure to wear a mask on a train in May and at a subsequent court appearance in July, as well as causing a public nuisance and using threatening words towards public servants, Reuters reports.
Glynn was earlier subjected to a psychiatric assessment ordered by the judge as a result of his conduct and remarks in court. Earlier today, he asked the court to drop what he called “unlawful charges” and asked for his passport to be returned so that he could go back to Britain to be with his family, according to media outlet CNA.
It quoted the judge as telling Glynn that he was “completely misguided” in is belief that he was exempt from Singapore’s laws on wearing masks. Glynn represented himself in court.
The Asian business hub is well known for its enforcement of strict rules and has jailed and fined others for breaking Covid-19 regulations, according to Reuters. Some foreigners have had their work permits revoked for rule breaches.
In February, a Singapore court sentenced a British man to two weeks in jail after he sneaked out of his hotel room to meet his then fiancee while in quarantine.
The Scottish government has announced a return to exams for secondary pupils from spring 2022 “if public health advice allows” – but said two contingency plans would remain in place in case of further disruption due to the pandemic.
Some education experts had suggested this could be an opportunity for the government to reassess whether traditional exams remained the best way of assessing achievement, but there have been numerous concerns raised about the type of intensive continuous assessment imposed on pupils over the last school year, when exams were cancelled.
The head of Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, Larry Flanagan, said he would have preferred to see exams bypassed for younger secondary students “in the interests of supporting education recovery and wellbeing among this cohort”.
It remains to be seen whether the reductions in course content for this year as recognition that young people have been adversely affected by the pandemic through no fault of their own, will suffice.”
The Scottish government announced before the summer that it was replacing the Scottish qualifications authority, which has been the subject of ongoing criticism, and Flanagan called for “alternative models of timetabling and the timing of qualifications to better serve the needs of Scotland’s learners” to be considered as part of the overhaul.
A card shop whose owners repeatedly refused requests to close it during lockdowns, because they sold sweets and soft drinks, has been fined more than £35,000.
The BBC reports that the owners of Grace Cards and Books in Droitwich, Worcestershire, argued their shop qualified for an exemption because they sold confectionary.
But a judge did not agree that these constituted essential goods nor qualified it as a newsagent, calling their reasoning a “fig leaf” despite the sale of Christian publications and, later, some national newspapers.
Alasdair and Lydia Walker-Cox were ordered to pay fines totalling £35,000 after being found guilty at Kidderminster magistrates court. They will also have to pay legal costs of just under £9,000 and a victim surcharge of £190.
They told the BBC last year they were defying the rules “on principle” and risked going out of business if they closed: “We have a God-given right to earn an honest living … If we shut we won’t be able to pay suppliers, the rent, let alone support the family. If we open we can.”
Alasdair Walker-Cox also said he believed lockdowns did not “work” against the virus.
BBC Midlands Today(@bbcmtd)
Covid-19: Droitwich card and gift shop flouts lockdown ‘on principle’ https://t.co/8Z9xx3kpHK
The practice of some politicians not wearing face coverings in parliament when they are not speaking may conflict with the spirit of government guidance.
PA reports that on Wednesday the House of Commons was at its busiest since March 2020, as MPs were recalled to debate the situation in Afghanistan, with members sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Some were wearing face coverings as they sat for the hours-long session, but many, including Boris Johnson, were not.
Since 19 July face coverings have not been mandatory in England, but government guidance says they are recommended in crowded and enclosed spaces.
It says: “We expect and recommend that members of the public continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet.” It adds that people should “use your judgment in deciding where you should wear one”.
Edinburgh University professor of public health Linda Bauld said:
The virus is airborne, we currently have slightly rising numbers of cases, so it is a protective measure that they can take and I’m sure everyone in public health would agree when indoors we should do that where possible.
It is important that people who are in positions of authority lead by example, and that’s been a bit of an issue throughout the pandemic in a whole variety of respects but continues to be the case.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been touting a Covid-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars.
DeSantis has been flying around the state promoting Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment that was used on then-president Donald Trump after he tested positive for Covid-19, the Associated Press reports. The governor first began talking about it as a treatment last year.
Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9m in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical, according to US filings. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75m to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75m in 2018 and $5m last April.
The AP reports that it is not unusual for hedge funds to have a wide range of investments. BlackRock, which has primarily donated to Democratic candidates, though has also donated substantially to Republicans, has a large holding in the company – more so than Citadel.
DeSantis ramped up the call for Floridians to seek out monoclonal antibody treatments in August as coronavirus cases spiked. He has held news conferences at treatment sites and a Tampa hospital touting the effectiveness of the drug if people receive treatment soon after testing positive.
“Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies – Regeneron and others – have proven to radically reduce the chances that somebody ends up being hospitalised,” DeSantis said on Monday at a treatment site in Orlando. “Reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority.”
Experts agree with him. The drugs, when given within 10 days of initial symptoms, have been shown to cut rates of hospitalisation and death by roughly 70%.
“We definitely need treatments like monoclonal antibodies that can prevent mild disease from progressing to severe disease. Ultimately, it’s still best to prevent someone from contracting Covid-19 in the first place,” said Dr. Leana Wen, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore Health Commissioner. “Monoclonal antibodies are not prevention.”
DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said that Citadel has far greater investments in Moderna and Pfizer, which manufacture Covid-19 vaccines.
“Vaccines prevent serious illness from Covid-19. But if someone who is unvaccinated gets Covid, or a vaccinated person gets a breakthrough infection, those in risk categories with comorbidities should consider getting early treatment with Regeneron. It is safe, effective, and free of charge to all patients in Florida. This should not be a political issue – it’s about saving lives,” Pushaw said.
Despite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that K-12 students should wear masks for in-person learning, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed an executive order on 30 July that bars school districts from putting mask mandates in place, even though children under 12 cannot yet receive a vaccine.
This has left some Florida parents making difficult individual decisions to have their children wear masks, often going up against the political and social norms of their schools and communities.
Ecuador is the latest country to announce it will administer booster jabs to people with weak immune systems, health minister Ximena Garzon has said.
With the current evidence base limited, the country will also carry out tests to determine if the rest of the inoculated population also needs a third shot, he said.
“At an international level, it has already been shown that people who have some type of immunodeficiency will need a third dose,” Garzon said. “We will apply it, three months after the second dose, to people who meet certain parameters of immune disorders.”
Experts have warned the scientific and public health case for large-scale boosting has not been made and could have far-reaching consequences in other countries. On Saturday, the World Health Organization renewed its call for a suspension of booster shot campaigns.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus(@DrTedros)
Countries with high coverage are seeing a decoupling of #COVID19 cases & deaths, whereas countries that can’t access vaccines are seeing high cases drive steep rises in death.
No one is safe until everyone is safe & that’s why we need a moratorium on boosters. #VaccinEquityhttps://t.co/Mp4LM2S6tX
Official data shows that as of Sunday, Ecuador has vaccinated 4.8m people with two doses and almost 10m with one dose.
The country is using Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac shots as part of a broad vaccination plan. This week it began to use the single-dose vaccine developed by the China’s CanSino Biologics in hard-to-reach areas and in prisons. “We are already seeing … decreases in the percentage [of hospital bed occupancy],” Garzon said.
Ecuador, population 17m, has reported about 500,000 infections and around 31,900 deaths confirmed or likely Covid-19 deaths, Reuters reports.
Russia’s single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine against Covid-19 has demonstrated 93.5% efficacy in Paraguay, with data taken from the South American country’s vaccination campaign, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has said.
Developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, Sputnik Light had shown 79.4% efficacy when it was first authorised for use in May, Reuters reports.
The RDIF, citing data from Paraguay’s health ministry collected by 30 July, said the vaccine had proved highly effective among more than 320,000 people – though it was unclear whether the study accounted for any possible seasonal change affecting the spread of the virus.
“The use of the single-component vaccine Sputnik Light allows the Paraguayan authorities to shorten vaccination periods for the population and speed up the formation of collective immunity,” RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said.
A person receives the vaccine against Covid-19, in the Club Fomento de Barrio Obrero in Asuncion, Paraguay, 21 July. Photograph: Nathalia Aguilar/EPA
Hello and greetings to everyone reading, wherever you are in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Robyn Vinter for covering the blog up until now. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.
The Australian federal parliament will sit as scheduled next week, despite the ACT lockdown, as the government faces deadlines on key pieces of legislation it must have passed.
The sitting had been placed in limbo after the ACT went into lockdown at the end of last week, following its first positive community-transmitted Covid case in 14 months.
That’s it from me. I’ll leave you with a summary of today’s events before handing over to my colleague Mattha Busby.
New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid took effect in Israel after the largely vaccinated country reported the highest daily infection rate since January. The measures, announced on Sunday, require vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces.
New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case.
Australia is on track to break its daily coronavirus case record with surging infections and more deaths in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, fuelling national concern. The state, which is under lockdown, reported a record-breaking 633 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Qantas airlines will require all of its frontline employees, including cabin crew, pilots and airport workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
India reported on 35,178 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, nearly 40% higher than yesterday. Deaths remained low, with 440 reported in the past 24 hours.
Pope Francis has encouraged people to get Covid vaccines in a new media campaign. Getting vaccinated is “an act of love”, the pontiff says in a public service advert that will circulate online and on television from Wednesday.
The International Federation of Red Cross has called for south-east Asian countries to be given more help securing Covid-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant.
New York has become the first US city to require proof of vaccination to enter gyms, theatres and restaurants.
Japan’s government expanded a coronavirus state of emergency to seven more regions on Tuesday as it battles a record wave of infections a week before the Paralympic Games.
Young people in Mexico City are being encouraged to wear costumes to make receiving their Covid-19 vaccinations more fun.
A young woman wears a chicken mask on the esplanade of the Municipal Palace of Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico, while receiving the first dose of the Sinovac biological vaccine against Covid-19. Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
The country could tip over into a quarter of a million recorded deaths when the figures for yesterday are published today.
Mexico registered 14,814 new Covid-19 infections and 877 more deaths, health ministry data showed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 3,123,252 and the death toll to 249,529.
A woman dressed as a unicorn heads to the esplanade of the Municipal Palace of Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico, to receive the first dose of the Sinovac vaccine. Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
Over the weekend, seven states reported growth in the virus, with health authorities in San Luis Potosí declaring the state was now red on the country’s traffic light system, with Covid-19 now affecting more younger people.
A young woman dressed as a skeleton waits to receive the first dose of the Sinovac vaccine. Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid took effect in Israel on Wednesday, after the largely vaccinated country reported the highest daily infection rate since January.
The measures, announced on Sunday, require vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces, including restaurants and bars, cultural and sports venues, hotels and gyms, the health ministry said.
The same applies to worshippers wanting to enter synagogues, mosques or churches with more than 50 people in attendance, Agence France-Presse reports.
In addition, the capacity of stores, shopping malls and industrial parks will be limited to one person per seven square metres (75 sq ft).
After its launch in December, Israel’s widely praised vaccination drive helped to drastically bring down infections. But that trend has since reversed, driven by the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, with restrictions that were lifted in June reimposed since July.
In recent weeks, the state has begun administering booster shots to Israelis aged 50 and over, while urging anyone aged 12 and older to get vaccinated.
About 1 million Israelis have not been vaccinated even though they are eligible.
According to the health ministry, more than 8,700 people tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest number for a single day since January.
The prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has been imploring Israelis to get vaccinated, warning of a possible lockdown that could affect the Jewish high holidays next month unless inoculation numbers rise.
Russia reported 20,914 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, including 1,590 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,663,473.
The government coronavirus taskforce said 799 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 172,909.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has said Russia recorded about 315,000 deaths related to Covid-19 from April 2020 to June 2021.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has put out a video on social media after testing positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, saying he has no symptoms of the virus and is fully vaccinated.
The Republican spent weeks banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds in the US state.
Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Paediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.
Texas governor who opposed masks tests positive for Covid – video
