Coronavirus news as it happened: UK records a further 164 deaths and 30,144 new cases; anti-vaxxers protest in London

Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, reported 507 new locally acquired coronavirus cases and one related death on Sunday, as the state remains in a months-long lockdown imposed to rein in the highly infectious Delta variant.

There are now 5,262 active cases of the virus in Victoria, home to nearly 7 million people, Reuters reports.

Mexico reported 11,711 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 765 deaths on Saturday, Reuters reports.

It brings the total number of infections since the pandemic began to 3,564,694 and 271,303 fatalities, according to health ministry data.

Boris Johnson is expected to push Joe Biden for a restoration of UK-US travel during a visit to the White House.

Mr Biden’s administration imposed a ban due to soaring rates of the Delta variant of coronavirus.

Johnson will also meet vice-president Kamala Harris and other senior figures in American politics next week, PA reports.

The US administered 384,911,290 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Saturday morning and distributed 466,569,635 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Those figures are up from 383,994,877 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by September 17, out of 464,315,725 doses delivered.

The agency said 211,489,242 people had received at least one dose, while 181,035,022 people were fully vaccinated as of 6 a.m. ET Saturday, Reuters reports.

Those most at risk from Covid-19 in Australia say the easing of restrictions when vaccination targets are met will bring anxiety and danger.

In the roadmap to freedom, I hear nothing about people like me, other than as a qualifying postscript to the Covid deaths: ‘But they had an underlying health condition’,” says Racquel Sherry.

“Freedom day doesn’t include me.”

Sherry, 49 and based in Sydney, is immunocompromised and afraid.

Food charities say demand for assistance in south-west and western Sydney is continuing to grow, with more than five times the number of hampers being handed out each week since before lockdown.

OzHarvest, a food rescue organisation that has been providing food hampers and cooked meals for people in need, has established two “hamper hubs” in the 12 local government areas hardest hit by NSW’s Covid outbreak, in Lakemba and Granville, to deal with the increasing demand.

Sarah Flomersfeld, the NSW operations lead at OzHarvest, said there has been a 500% increase in demand for hampers since the start of this year’s lockdown in greater Sydney.

“We’ve seen unprecedented demand across New South Wales, but particularly in western Sydney. We’re delivering about 150,000kg across greater Sydney, which is about 350,000 meals every week,” she said.

A school district in the Canadian province of British Columbia will be locking down schools from Monday due to ongoing anti-vaccine protests.

The “hold and secure” protocol was enacted on Friday after people protesting against vaccines and masks, who the district said had been targeting schools all week, entered two school buildings in and around Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

The protocol meant that students could not leave or enter the building for the rest of the day.

All schools in the district will be under the same “hold and secure” guidance from Monday.

Canada has seen a wave of anti-vaccine protests ramp up in recent weeks as the country’s federal election draws nearer, Reuters reports.

France has reported 7,414 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The country has recorded more than 6.94 million cases in total.

England’s deputy chief medical officer asked ministers to withhold all UK clinical trial data from the EU if European countries continued to deny entry to British vaccine trial volunteers, the Observer can reveal.

Jonathan Van-Tam made the extraordinary proposal after months of uncertainty for the 19,000 volunteers who are in effect unable to travel to Europe to see family, work or go on holiday because they took part in trials of Novavax and Valneva.

Because neither treatment has yet been approved by medical regulators, people who received vaccines during the trials are faced with a catch-22. They have had two doses, so they are not allowed other vaccines through the NHS. But since their trial vaccines were unlicensed, they cannot prove their vaccination status outside the UK, which means that many countries require them to quarantine.

France reported 1,837 people in intensive care with Covid-19, down by 54, Reuters reports.

Dozens of the world’s biggest brands have been advertising on websites that spread Covid-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories, it has emerged.

The companies, as well as an NHS service, are among a string of household names whose ads appear to have helped fund websites that host false and outlandish claims, for example that powerful people secretly engineered the pandemic, or that vaccines have caused thousands of deaths.

An analysis of nearly 60 sites by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and shared with the Observer found that ads were placed through the “opaque” digital advertising market, which is forecast to be worth more than $455bn (£387bn) this year.

France reported 89,206 coronavirus deaths in hospital, an increase of 42, Reuters reports.

The country has had more than 115,000 deaths overall.

Around 25,000 people joined a massive outdoor drinking party marking the start of term at a Madrid university without observing safety precautions, police said Saturday, admitting they were caught off-guard.

Spanish media said it was the biggest such gathering since the start of the coronavirus pandemic when large public gatherings were halted to stop the spread of the virus, AFP reports.

“There were thousands of people on the grounds of Complutense University, about 25,000,” a municipal police statement said, indicating the gathering appeared to have been organised online via Whatsapp.

Images on social media showed vast crowds of beaming youngsters gathered on the campus, drinking, dancing and hanging out with hardly a mask in sight.

“Without prior warning from the university or time to prepare an appropriate operation, breaking up a gathering of some 25,000 people is an almost impossible job,” police said, indicating they had only reached the site after midnight.

Although Spain has lifted many of its pandemic safety restrictions, people are still required to wear masks outdoors if they are unable to maintain a 1.5-metre (five-foot) safety distance from those around them.

And large gatherings remain banned, although the numbers vary from region to region.

But some people have dropped their guard given the rapid pace of the vaccination programme, with more than 75 percent of Spain’s 47 million residents now fully vaccinated.

Some more data from Italy. Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 3,958 on Saturday, down from 3,989 a day earlier.
There were 31 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 34 on Friday.

The total number of intensive care patients fell to 519 from a previous 525, Reuters reports.
Some 355,933 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 284,579, the health ministry said.

Artist Michael Craig-Martin’s paintings of Covid era items in pictures.

Italy reported 51 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose marginally to 4,578.

Italy has registered 130,284 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, Reuters reports.

The country has reported 4.63 million cases to date.

An update from police on the protest in London against Covid-19 vaccinations and testing:

Today’s data on the UK transmissions and fatalities means deaths in the last seven days were up 2% on the week before, while cases are down 20.4% on the week before

Boris Johnson should set out plans to provide Covid-19 vaccinations to all developing countries to achieve a global climate deal, Labour’s shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, has urged.

Only 2% of the population of developing countries have been inoculated, despite promises by rich nations. Ensuring the rest have access to vaccines would build trust with the poor world which is lacking, Miliband said, ahead of the vital UN Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

“We’ve got to deliver on vaccinations to the populations of the world’s poorest countries,” he said in an Observer interview.

“It’s a shameful scar on the developing world, what is happening. We promised 870 million doses of vaccine – 100 million have been delivered.”

He said the cost of rich countries providing vaccines, estimated at £3bn, was “not astronomical” and was “morally right, it’s doable … even on public health grounds alone, it’s obviously in our interests [because of the rise of variants]. It’s inexplicable and reprehensible to me that this is not happening.”

Here is a summary of developments so far:

• Half-term holiday bookings up by 200% since the relaxation of travel rules in England.
• Professor Adam Finn, a member on the JCVI has warned of “uncertain times ahead” in the coming months adding it was “sensible” for 12-to-15-year-olds to get the Covid vaccine.
• Secondary schools in UK have been caught up in row over Covid vaccines for students
• Ronapreve, the Covid antibody drug, is to be given to vulnerable NHS patients.
• A disaster relief organisation founded by the actor Sean Penn is boosting Georgia’s drive to vaccinate people against the coronavirus.
• Unvaccinated university students have been urged to get a Covid jab in freshers’ week to protect themselves and their peers against the virus.
• Two professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing have reportedly refused to be vaccinated against Covid, causing complications before the show’s return on Saturday night.
• The night-time economy in Wales needs “clarity” and “simplicity” when it comes to the implementation of Covid vaccine passes, an industry chief has warned.
• Victoria police clashed with anti-lockdown protesters in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, as the Australian state recorded another 535 new coronavirus cases and one death.

Student unions are telling students they won’t be admitted to freshers’ parties in the next few weeks without a Covid pass or negative lateral flow test, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year’s outbreaks on campus.

Earlier this month, the government performed a U-turn on plans to compel nightclubs from 1 October to ask for Covid passports that prove someone has had two Covid vaccinations or a negative test. But many student unions have chosen to go further than government guidelines because they fear that a more relaxed stance could lead to outbreaks and students being confined to their bedrooms again.

AP reports that a disaster relief organisation founded by the actor Sean Penn is boosting Georgia’s drive to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, though some of its pop-up vaccine clinics have struggled to attract people.

Community Organized Relief Effort (Core) has offered Covid shots at hundreds of sites in big and small communities around the state, including schools, farmers’ markets and meat plants.

The percentage of people who are fully vaccinated in the state is well below the national average, and that is a big factor in Georgia’s nearly three-month surge in Covid infections and hospitalisations.

Teni-Ola Ogunjobi, a spokeswoman for Core said: “We ‘re really trying to focus on the last frontier of unvaccinated individuals.”

Core is also offering vaccines in Washington DC; Oakland, California; New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles and a county in North Carolina.

Penn started the organisation in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake claimed tens of thousands of lives in Haiti, and it still works in the country.

Arwa Mahdawi reflects on reports that the Covid-19 vaccine temporarily disrupts menstrual cycles.

Could the Covid-19 vaccine have a short-term impact on your menstrual cycle? Thousands of women think so: ever since the vaccines became widely available, people who menstruate have been sharing stories about weird changes to their cycle following their shots. More than 30,000 reports of post-vaccine menstrual irregularity have been made to the UK’s medical regulator alone. In the US, researchers Kate Clancy and Katharine Lee have collected more than 140,000 reports from people who have noticed a change in their period post-vaccination.

For the most part, these concerns have been brushed off by health experts. Nothing to see here, the message basically was. Periods are often irregular! Now, however, the medical establishment is finally admitting that maybe all those women weren’t just making things up after all. This week the BMJ published a report by Dr Victoria Male, a lecturer in reproductive immunology at Imperial College London, noting that a link between the vaccine and menstrual changes was “plausible and should be investigated”.

Travellers could be as likely to catch Covid on a trip to Torquay as one to Turkey, an expert has said, PA reports.

Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said:

Given the fact that community transmission within the UK is still running at a high level, it seems churlish to put high barriers in the way of international travel when the risks of catching Covid at home are relatively high.

With infection rates as high as they are in the UK, and with vaccines offering good but not perfect protection, you may be as likely to pick up Covid from a trip to Torquay as a trip to Turkey.

With changes to testing rules, he warned that the “more accurate” PCR tests should be used to confirm results of quicker lateral flow tests.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced on Friday that the travel traffic light system is to be replaced from 4 October by a single, reduced, “red list” of destinations, from where travellers arriving in England will have to quarantine in a government-supervised hotel.

The New York Times reports on how overblown fears that Covid-19 can be transmitted through surfaces has had an impact on handling non-hazardous rubbish and is hampering recycling.

Two professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing have reportedly refused to be vaccinated against Covid, causing complications before the show’s return on Saturday night.

The BBC’s flagship dance contest will return to screens on 18 September with a pre-recorded launch show revealing which professional dancer each competitor has been matched with, before the live show kicks off on 25 September.

Before Saturday night’s launch show, there are reports that two unnamed dancers have not had Covid jabs, with the Sun saying it has meant that some celebrities are reluctant to dance with the professionals.

Sadia Rafiquddin writes about the compassion fatigue US doctors are experiencing as they treat unvaccinated Covid-19 patients.

Last February, Dr Bryce Meck, 30, would lock herself in the bathroom to cry for five minutes when her patients, whom she had watched over for weeks in the medical intensive care unit, were dying from Covid-19. They begged her to tell people in their community to get vaccinated. Of the 20 patients with Covid-19 in her care, only three survived.

Each week, Meck’s frustration grew when she saw patients in a Columbia, Missouri, primary care clinic. They expressed vaccine hesitancy, shared misinformation or told her that their friends were pressuring them to remain unvaccinated. “If only the patients in the clinic could just meet the people who are suffering in the hospital,” said Meck, who continues to experience long-term effects of the virus herself.

Now more than ever before, medical professionals are drained from the relentless grief and trauma of the pandemic. But it’s more than the volume of patients that’s the problem: they’re dealing with the dissonance of unvaccinated patients, and constraints of the health system, leaving them without the tools to do their jobs the way they were trained to do.

The seven-day incidence for Covid infections in Germany has fallen for the fifth day in a row.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said there were 72.0 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants as of Saturday morning.

On the previous day the incidence rate stood at 74.4; a week ago it was 82.8.

German health authorities reported 8,901 new coronavirus infections to the RKI within one day.

A week ago, 11,214 new infections had been logged.

I’m Jedidajah Otte and am taking over while my colleague Jane Clinton has a break. If you have anything to flag you think we should be covering, please feel free to get in touch – I’m on Twitter @JedySays.

AFP reports that North Africa coronavirus cases are “sharply declining”.

The agency looks at the situation in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Libya, based on official figures it has collected.

Tunisia

Hechmi Louzir, the director of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis, who is a member of the country’s scientific committee on the pandemic told AFP that up to 60% of the population could be fully vaccinated by October, adding that large numbers of infections had also boosted levels of immunity.

AFP figures show that over the past week, Tunisia was vaccinating its population faster than any other African country, with 0.81% of the population receiving a jab each day.

More than a quarter of Tunisians are now fully inoculated.

In the past seven days there had been 342 deaths from the virus – a fifth of the toll in the last week of July.

Morocco

Morocco has had 13,800 Covid deaths in its population of about 36 million, according to AFP figures.

The kingdom is ahead of its Maghreb neighbours in inoculations, with 46.7% fully vaccinated.

Abdelkrim Meziane Bellefquih, a health ministry official, said this week that infections were down for a fifth straight week.

But in comments reported by the official MAP news agency, he warned that “high rates of critical cases and deaths continue to be recorded”.

The country has pushed back the start of the new school year to 1 October and has launched a vaccination drive among teenagers.

Algeria

Algeria’s official death toll from Covid-19 is 5,650.

In September it announced a target to vaccinate 70% of its 43.9 million population by the end of the year.

AFP figures show that this week, barely 13% of the population had received a first vaccine jab, with fewer than 10% fully vaccinated.

In the first week of August 268 deaths were recorded, compared with 132 in the past seven days.

Authorities have retained a curfew but reopened beaches, entertainment venues and sports grounds, with spectators required to present health passes. Weddings and political protests remain banned.

Algeria relaunched international flights in June after a suspension of more than a year.

Libya

Libya has officially recorded 4,500 Covid deaths among its 7 million population.

In the last week of July, it recorded 24,000 new cases and 204 deaths, but in the past seven days it has recorded just a third of that number of infections, and 83 deaths.

The country’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start but, on 11 August, a centre was opened in the capital Tripoli, with another in the country’s east 10 days later - followed by a string of smaller ones.

An AFP tally shows that just over 18% of Libyans have received a first jab.

But the vaccines have arrived in irregular batches, and just 2% of Libyans have received the full two doses.

Libyan health authorities have noted a fall in infections in the west after the border with neighbouring Tunisia was closed on 8 July.

The frontier reopened on Friday with strict health measures in place to prevent another uptick in cases.

Authorities fear eastern Libya could see a similar uptick as cases surge in neighbouring Egypt.

Prof Adam Finn, a member of the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has said while it is not “essential” for 12-15 years to get the Covid-19 vaccination, it is also “perfectly sensible” for them to have it.

He told Times Radio:

It’s a finely balanced decision. It’s not a black and white decision. It’s not essential that these children receive the vaccine, but equally it’s a perfectly sensible thing to do. It’s being offered because the benefits do outweigh the risks, and it’s available for people who want it. And I’m afraid that’s the truth of the situation.

He said the process for deciding whether to vaccinate the age group had been “convoluted and complex” because there wasn’t “a completely clear, straightforward answer”.

People should not become too “agonised” about it, he said, adding:

Because the risks on either side are not that high. It’s not like these children are at great risk from Covid, or indeed that they’re at great risk from the vaccination.

Ronapreve, the Covid antibody drug, is to be given to vulnerable NHS patients.

Russia has reported 799 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

There were 20,329 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours compared with 19,905 cases on the previous day, Reuters reports.

The night-time economy in Wales needs “clarity” and “simplicity” when it comes to the implementation of Covid vaccine passes, an industry chief has warned, PA reports.

David Chapman, UKHospitality’s executive director for Wales, said there are unanswered questions about how the scheme will work.

He told BBC Breakfast:

I think it’s about timing, about definition, about capability, about people being able to be in position to do all of those checks to make it work.

Will they be effective in the long run, compared to the commercial viability impacts that they have? I don’t know. Is it possible that people could take other people’s passports and use them? How efficient is this?

There are so many questions for us to have to try to resolve. We’ve had months where we’ve been in discussions talking about the impacts of this type of vaccine passport or cards, but we haven’t had any definitions in advance of this to be able to get ourselves ready to incorporate it properly.”

He added that the industry will make it work, but is already battered and bruised from the effects of the pandemic.

He said:

This industry has just got to take it on the chin. The problem is, it’s got two black eyes, a broken nose and it’s on the canvas already.

We’ve got staff shortages, we’ve got great difficulties within businesses about trying to get our heads not above water, but we’re already under water, and to make it happen.

We will make it happen because this industry is great, it’s resilient.

Exhausted nurses in the Philippines are struggling to care for Covid-19 patients and many are quitting the profession entirely, reports AFP.

The country is enduring a record rise in infections, fuelled by the Delta variant.

Prior to the pandemic, the nursing profession was dangerously understaffed and those who are working are under increasing strain with staff absences because of Covid-19 infection.

The health department reported a nursing shortfall of more than 100,000 - forcing those left to work long hours for little pay on often precarious short-term contracts.

The “chronic understaffing” was down to inadequate salaries, said Maristela Abenojar, the president of Filipino Nurses United.

An entry-level nurse in a public hospital can earn 33,575 pesos (£488) per month, official data shows.

Australia’s police arrested 235 people in Melbourne and 32 in Sydney on Saturday at unsanctioned anti-lockdown rallies and several police officers were injured in clashes with protesters, reports Reuters.

Victoria police said six officers required hospital treatment. Several officers were knocked to the ground and trampled, the police said and television footage showed.

About 700 people managed to gather in parts of Melbourne, as 2,000 officers made the city centre virtually a no-go zone, setting up checkpoints and barricades. Public transport and ride shares into the city were suspended.

In Sydney, riot squad officers, highway patrol, detectives and general duties police were also deployed to the streets, preventing large gatherings.

Australia has been grappling with an outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus since mid-June, with both Sydney and Melbourne, and the capital Canberra, in strict lockdowns for weeks now. On Saturday, there were 1,882 new coronavirus cases reported, most of them in Sydney.

Prof Adam Finn has warned of “very uncertain times” in the pandemic over the coming months, and urged people to take precautions such as wearing masks, even if they are not mandatory, reports PA.

Asked about winter, Prof Finn, who is a member of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told Times Radio:

I think we’re all concerned. We’re in a position of uncertainty as we have been from the outset.

Things are changing all the time and although we have some insight into the future and we’ve learned a lot about the vaccine programme and other things, there is still a high level of uncertainty.

With people interacting and behaving more normally, we are going to see the circulation of infections that more or less disappeared last winter, and they are going to provide an additional burden.

We don’t really know what’s going to happen with the trend in cases of Covid but it’s certainly still circulating. So I think we’re entering very uncertain times.

I would strongly encourage people to go on taking precautions, even though they’re not being required to. I certainly am. On a personal basis, I use a mask when I’m inside with other people and I’m avoiding social contact beyond a fairly low level, and I think if everybody continues to do that we can bring down the risk to some extent.

Unvaccinated university students have been urged to get a Covid jab in freshers’ week to protect themselves and their peers against the virus, PA reports.

The NHS’s top doctor has called on freshers to get the vaccine at pop-up clinics and walk-in centres set up by universities before their courses begin.

Thousands of students will be arriving at university campuses across the UK over the next few weeks.

Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, said:

Starting university is a really exciting time and getting your Covid vaccine means you will be armed with maximum protection against the virus.

With many universities set to run pop-ups and walk-ins throughout the first weeks of term it has never been easier to get protected, so I urge anyone yet to be vaccinated to take up the offer as soon as possible.

Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of Universities UK, said:

We welcome this reminder to students from Professor Powis, which echoes messages from universities to their students that they should make every effort to get vaccinated before the start of the university year.