Ireland ends mandatory hotel quarantine – as it happened

Mexico’s health ministry on Saturday reported 9,697 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country and 596 additional deaths, bringing the total number of official infections since the pandemic began to 3,628,812 and the death toll to 275,299.

Health ministry officials have previously said the real coronavirus numbers are likely significantly higher.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spoken about vaccine equity with a United Nations official before they join a concert in New York set up to promote the topic.

The deputy secretary-general of the UN, Amina Mohammed, said she has been speaking to Harry and Meghan about the issue as well as other topics they “care about deeply” including climate action and mental health.

This comes ahead of their attendance at Global Citizen Live, which is being staged in New York’s Central Park and around the world and calls on leaders to adopt a vaccine equity policy.

The couple were pictured in front of the UN logo alongside Mohammed on Saturday, with Meghan wearing a beige blouse and trousers with an auburn jacket, and Harry wearing a black suit and blue tie.

New York City schools have been temporarily blocked from enforcing a vaccine mandate for its teachers and other workers by a federal appeals judge just days before it was to take effect.

The worker mandate for the US’s largest school system was set to go into effect Monday. But late Friday, a judge for the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction and referred the case to a three-judge panel an an expedited basis.

Department of Education spokesperson Danielle Filson said officials were seeking a speedy resolution by the circuit court next week.

“We’re confident our vaccine mandate will continue to be upheld once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection our students and staff deserve,” Filson said in an email.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in August that about 148,000 school employees would have to get at least a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination by 27 September.

France has reported 29 new Covid-19 deaths, with 1,571 Covid patients in hospital today, compared with 1,586 yesterday.

UK government data up to yesterday shows that of the 93,392,830 Covid jabs given in the UK, 48,699,874 were first doses, a rise of 26,964 on the previous day.

Some 44,692,956 were second doses, an increase of 43,801.

The data reported on Friday has been revised for Wales and the UK as the initial data for first doses in Wales on September 23 included booster doses which should have been recorded separately.

Italy reported 50 coronavirus-related deaths today, compared with 52 the day before, the health ministry said, and the daily tally of new infections fell to 3,525 from 3,797.

Italy has registered 130,653 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.66m cases to date.

Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,497 on Saturday, down from 3,553 a day earlier.

There were 26 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 35 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 481 from 489 previously.

Some 357,491 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with the previous daily tally of 277,508, the health ministry said.

From Billie Eilish in New York to BTS in Seoul and Elton John in Paris, one of the biggest-ever international charity events will kick off today with concerts around the world to raise awareness about climate change, vaccine equality and famine.

Global Citizen Live, a series of concerts from more than 60 artists in London, Lagos, Rio, Sydney, Mumbai and beyond, will be broadcast globally from 5pm (GMT) for a full 24 hours.

Eilish, Coldplay and Jennifer Lopez will perform in New York’s Central Park, where Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will also be on stage.

Stevie Wonder will play in Los Angeles, while Ed Sheeran will headline in Paris alongside Elton John, Black Eyed Peas and Stormzy.

Tens of thousands of spectators are due to attend the biggest concerts, on condition of vaccination proof or negative Covid tests.

There will also be pre-recorded performances from a huge number of stars, including BTS in South Korea, Green Day in Los Angeles, DJ superstar Alok in Rio, Kylie Minogue in London and Andrea Bocelli in Tuscany.

This week’s comeback gig by The Fugees in New York – their first in 15 years – will also be broadcast as part of the event.

“Across six continents, artists will help rally citizens in demanding that governments, major corporations and philanthropists work together to defend the planet and defeat poverty,” the NGO Global Citizen said in a statement.

It said it was focusing “on the most urgent, interrelated threats hitting those in poverty the hardest – climate change, vaccine equity, and famine”.

Global Citizen said it wants 1bn trees planted, 1bn vaccines delivered to the poorest countries and meals for 41 million people on the brink of famine.

The organisation has been behind other high-profile charity events, including Vax Live: The Concert To Reunite The World earlier this year in Los Angeles.

That brought together musicians, actors, celebrities, world leaders and even the pope, in a united call for global vaccinations to fight Covid-19.

The UK government said a further 122 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 136,105.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 160,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

As of 9am (GMT) today, there had been a further 31,348 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said.

Cuba has said it exported its three-shot Abdala coronavirus vaccine for the first time, sending an initial shipment to Vietnam as part of a contract to supply 5m doses to the south-east Asian country.

Scientists in the island have developed three home-grown vaccines against Covid-19, all of which are waiting to receive official recognition from the World Health Organization, Reuters reports.

State-run pharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma made Saturday’s export announcement on Twitter after saying earlier this week it had produced enough doses to meet a target to immunise more than 90% of the local population by mid-November.

BioCubaFarma says it has the annual capacity to produce 100m doses of the Abdala, Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus vaccines, which it said recently reduced by about 90% the risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the disease.

Hard-hit by the pandemic, the Caribbean nation has seen vital industries such as tourism collapse and other foreign exchange earnings dwindle – creating shortages of food, medicine and other essential goods.

BioCubaFarma corporate vice-president, Mayda Mauri, said once domestic supply goals had been met, Cuba would also start supplying vaccines to countries including Iran and Venezuela.

State media quoted Mauri as stating:

There are very advanced conversations and exchanges on regulatory matters with Argentina and with other countries in various regions of the world.”

Iran is already producing the Soberana-2 vaccine.

Vietnam, Argentina and Mexico have said they hope to produce the Cuban vaccines soon, while a number of countries are using other Cuban drugs in their Covid-19 treatment protocols.

A third federal judge has blocked Tennessee governor Bill Lee’s order allowing families to opt out of school mask mandates, AP reports.

The decision, handed down by the US district judge Waverly Crenshaw late on Friday, is the latest development in the ongoing legal battle over Lee’s order launched by parents and advocates alarmed over the spike in coronavirus cases in Tennessee’s schools.

Lee issued the order in August after a handful of Republican lawmakers demanded the governor call a special session so the GOP-dominant General Assembly could halt mask mandates in schools and other Covid-19 safety measures. Many students have been attending classes without masks ever since as paediatric hospitalisations reached record highs.

Public health agencies say indoor mask-wearing is a key coronavirus-prevention tool. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says masks do not pose health risks for children older than toddlers, and recommends them for schools since vaccines still are not authorised for children younger than 12.

After being postponed twice due to the pandemic, Birmingham Pride has returned, with thousands taking to the streets to celebrate.

The event was held virtually last year, and was delayed in May due to coronavirus restrictions.

Birmingham Pride’s organisers said it will be the largest in its 24-year history.

Saima Razzaq, Birmingham Pride’s head of diversity and inclusion, told the BBC: “This Pride this year is probably the most inclusive and diverse Pride that we’ve ever had in Birmingham, might I say in the UK.”

The caretaker prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, has sacked a cabinet minister who had publicly questioned the use of Covid health passes hours after they were introduced.

Rutte’s office said the deputy economic affairs minister, Mona Keijzer, had been dismissed because her comments went against cabinet policy on an issue “of such importance and weight”, Reuters reports.

Keijzer had questioned whether the requirement was justified in an interview with the Telegraaf newspaper.

If we end up in a society where we have to be afraid of each other unless we can show proof, then you really have to scratch your head and ask yourself: Is this the direction we want to go?” she was quoted as saying.

In the UK, new students are more likely to suffer “impostor syndrome” because they have won their place at university on the back of teacher-assessed A-level grades and not exams, a study has warned.

Undergraduates arriving on campuses this week may “feel like a fraud” as they have not had the chance to “earn” their grades in public examinations, said the study from the University of Leeds. Such perceptions could particularly affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds, leaving some at risk of dropping out, it warned. A strong sense of belonging at university is associated with the feeling that a student “deserves” their place, said the Psychology Learning and Teaching journal’s study.

Mongolia has registered a further 2,662 coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, the ministry of health said, taking the cumulative total to 292,591.

The cases include 1,288 contacts of previously confirmed cases in Ulaanbaatar, as well as 1,374 cases in other regions of the country, according to the AKIpress news agency.

A further 18 coronavirus patients died in the last day, while there were 2,662 recoveries.

Israel has recorded a slight drop in the number of people seriously ill with coronavirus, with unvaccinated people making up 70% of the cases, the health ministry said on Friday.

Those in Israel who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 account for 17% of the population, Haaretz reports.

As of Friday, 1,029 people in Israel were hospitalised with the virus.

The country’s overall death toll from Covid-19 stands at 7,611.

Authorities in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, have reimposed lockdown for 10 days in six wards following a rise in cases.

Shops are only allowed to open between 7am and 11am. “There shall be strict corona curfew in the areas of Zadibal (wards 55-Hawal, 56-Alamgari Bazar and 63-Kathi Darwaz) and Lal Bazar (wards 59-Lalbazar, 60-Botshah Mohalla, 61-Umer Colony) for a period of 10 days starting from today,” Mohammad Aijaz, the district magistrate of Srinagar said on Friday.

The introduction of Covid passes in the Netherlands has sparked protests, with demonstrators marching against the requirement to show proof of vaccination to enter bars, theatres and other venues.

After social distancing was brought to a close on Saturday, customers are now required to show proof of vaccination, recent recovery from Covid or a negative test to enter hospitality and leisure venues in the Netherlands.

Reuters reports that hundreds of protesters gathered in The Hague on Saturday, to march through the city centre against the measure, which while generally popular with the public, has drawn ire from the hospitality sector.

More than 40% of bar and restaurant owners do not plan to ask clients for the vaccination certificate, a survey of the members of the Netherlands’ hospitality industry association found. The association described it as “impossible to enforce”.

About 72% of the population has received at least one vaccine dose.

South African state-owned rail company Transnet has launched a “vaccine train” to aid the government’s rollout and administer doses to people living outside big cities.

Just 14% of South Africans are fully vaccinated. Associated Press reports:

Carrying doctors, nurses and, crucially, vaccine doses, it has a mission to bring vaccines closer to people in small towns and poorer parts of South Africa, which has the continent’s highest number of coronavirus infections at more than 2.8 million.

The train is parked at the rail station in Swartkops, a small town on the country’s south coast, the first stop on a three-month journey through the poor Eastern Cape province. It will stay for about two weeks at a time at seven stations in the province to vaccinate as many people as possible.

The initiative aims to meet head-on two of the government’s biggest challenges: getting doses out beyond big cities to areas where health care facilities are limited and trying to convince hesitant people in those areas to get vaccine shots.

The train, named Transvaco, can hold up to 108,000 vaccine doses in ultra-cold refrigerators. It has nine coaches, including accommodation coaches and a kitchen and dining area for the staff, a vaccination area and consulting rooms.

India will export 8m vaccine doses abroad by the end of October, a ministry official has announced as the country resumed exports.

Most of the 8m doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine will be sent to Asia-Pacific countries, the foreign secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, said in a statement reported by Agence France-Presse.

This would be ready by the end of October. This is an immediate delivery, from the Quad into the Indo-Pacific region,” Shringla told reporters.

The country, which is one of the world’s biggest vaccine producers, had pledged to export 1bn doses by December 2022, but suspended exports in May after India was overwhelmed by its second wave of cases.

Nearly half of the adults in India have now had at least one dose of the jab and 16% have had a second dose. The export ban was lifted earlier this week.

Russia recorded an additional 22,041 Covid cases in the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative total to 7,398,415.

The largest number of cases were in Moscow, which registered 3,211 infections, while St Petersburg tallied 1,907.

A further 822 Covid patients died in the 24-hour period, while there were 16,325 recoveries across the country.

Israel is going ahead with its campaign to administer third doses to over-12s, encouraged by the US rolling out booster shots to more vulnerable patients.

The AP news agency reports that Israeli officials attributes the suppression of its third wave to the booster shot rollout, and expects the US and others to expand their campaign in coming months.

The decision reinforced our results that the third dose is safe,” said Dr Nadav Davidovitch, head of the school of public health at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University. “The main question now is of prioritisation.”

The WHO has called on countries to hold off on administering booster doses until at least the end of the year to allow people in poorer countries to get their initial doses.

Davidovitch acknowledged the problem, saying: “We know for sure that the current system of vaccine nationalism is hurting all of us, and it’s creating variants”, but added that the problem is “much broader than Israel”.