Health News at Your Fingertips

Professor Neil Ferguson, whose modelling led to the original lockdown in the UK back in March, said “individual judgment” would be important in deciding whether to see elderly relatives this Christmas.

While Ferguson said that celebrating with family would “increase transmission compared with everyone staying at home not mixing at all”, he said the real question was that if everyone was told to stay home, “what proportion of the population would actually go along with it?”

“I think you have to bring the population with you,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today.

“I think the measures at Christmas, they do pose some risks and I think individual judgment is important in deciding whether to see elderly relatives. But I think they strike a balance – expanding the bubble system limits the extent to which if people adhere to that transmission can really take off,” he said.

“Then what happens in January will depend on what the data is showing, and we don’t have the ability to predict precisely what the impact of both the tier system which will start next week and activity over Christmas.”

The University of Surrey has announced that it will reduce its entry requirements by one grade for most undergraduate courses next year, in recognition of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education.

The university said the lowering of grade requirements aimed to help “relieve the pressure and anxiety”, faced by young people whose learning has been disrupted by the pandemic across two academic years.

The reduction in grade requirements will not apply to applicants for Veterinary Medicine, foundation year courses, four-year integrated masters programmes and audition-based performance courses.

Earlier this month, the University of Birmingham also revealed it planned to reduce entry requirements for 2021 by one grade in recognition of the impact of Covid-19 on A-level students.

One of the rebel Conservative MPs that Michael Gove was trying to pacify on Saturday is Craig Mackinlay, who said he will vote against the tiered system on Tuesday.

Mackinlay, MP for South Thanet, questioned whether the measures were working: “given that we’ve been through this before, we have to ask ourselves, is this the cure, is this actually working?”

He told BBC Breakfast that instead of tiered restrictions, he would favour natural “self-regulation” which he claimed happens when people see the R-rate in their local area starting to rise.

“There was a report out on Friday that was suggesting there were 40,000 less cancer diagnoses this year than there were last year,” he said. “I don’t suppose for one minute there’s less cancer out there, but what it means is we are building up in the system, a lot of people who are too fearful to go into a medical arena, possibly struggling to see their GP for the first appointment.”

“These are going to be built up for the future, with more intensive treatment required… or indeed death,” he added.

Mackinlay has previously voted to block coronavirus legislation including the 10pm curfew for the hospitality industry in October and England’s second lockdown in November.

Germany’s partial lockdown measures could go on until early Spring if infections do not reduce, economy minister Peter Altmaier has said, warning that the country had “three to four long winter months ahead of us.”

Altmaier told Die Welt newspaper that it was not possible to end the measures while there were incidences of more than 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in large parts of Germany.

Germany imposed a “lockdown light” in early November, which closed bars and restaurants but saw schools and shops stay open. While the measures have stopped exponential growth in cases and the number of infections has stabilised, this is at a high rate.

On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed with leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states on to extend and tighten measures against the coronavirus until at least Dec. 20.

The chief executive of NHS Providers has urged the government to “take precautions now” to ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed in January, which is the busiest time of the year for the healthcare service.

Chris Hopson said that “winter emergencies” like slipping on ice and breaking bones caused massive demand on the NHS in January, and that if there is “a cold snap, there will be a danger that the NHS gets overwhelmed.”

“So what we’d say to MPs is, just think forward, think what it might be like in January, and you need to take the precautions now to ensure that the NHS doesn’t get overwhelmed at what is always it’s busiest time of year,” Hopson said.

He also urged people to follow coronavirus regulations over Christmas, saying that if “people go beyond the rules”, “we could trigger a third phase” of coronavirus.

However, there was some cause for hope.

Hopson said that while the NHS was still under heavy strain, infection rates were “definitely dropping” in areas like Manchester and Liverpool, which had been under sustained and strict lockdown measures.

He also said he expected the Pfizer vaccine to reach regulatory approval by “early to mid December”.

“This a huge logistical task that we’re doing at real pace, so I can’t believe there won’t be some bumps in the road,” he said. “But look how brilliant the NHS is in terms of being innovative and adapting to ensure it can fight this coronavirus, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing to ensure that we can deliver the vaccine.”

Every hospital in England could be overwhelmed with coronavirus cases if new tier restrictions are not introduced, cabinet minister Michael Gove has warned.

Gove said the decision to impose the restrictions was necessary to “pull the handbrake” and avoid the “disaster” of NHS hospitals reaching capacity with coronavirus patients.

The move was an apparent attempt to prevent a Tory backbench rebellion, amid a backlash from some Conservative MPs against the stringent measures introduced in parts of the country. Cornwall, the Isle of Weight and Isles of Scilly will be the only areas under Tier 1 restrictions when the national lockdown in England ends on 2 December, with the rest of the country under stricter tier 2 and 3 restrictions.

The chairman of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, was among the critics. He accused the government of infringing people’s “fundamental human rights”.

But Gove urged MPs to “take responsibility for difficult decisions”.

“Keeping our hospitals open, available and effective was not just crucial to dealing with Covid-19. It was imperative for the health of the whole nation,” Gove wrote in an article for The Times. “But the only way to ensure we can take care of cancer patients, administer radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and help stroke victims and treat heart attacks is by protecting the NHS.”

“And just as we want to reduce Covid-19 infections to save lives, so reducing them is the key to saving the economy. Think for a moment what would happen to our economy if we allowed infections to reach such a level that our NHS was overwhelmed,” he added.

Coronavirus infections in India dipped further on Saturday with 41,322 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, and apparently there are no signs of a resurgence as a result of a major festival two weeks ago.

The highest case count in the country this week was 44,739 on Wednesday. Single-day cases have remained below the 50,000-mark for three weeks.

The Indian capital also saw a drop in daily cases with 5,482 after recording an all-time high on 11 November.

The federal government blamed state authorities’ inability to ramp up testing and enforce social distancing for the surge in New Delhi. On Saturday, India’s death toll rose to 136,200 with 485 additional fatalities.

In an effort to stop the virus from spreading, the home ministry has allowed states to impose local restrictions like night curfews but has asked them to consult before imposing lockdowns at state, district or city levels.

South Korea has reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases for the third straight day, the speed of viral spread unseen since the worst wave of the outbreak in spring.

The 504 cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday brought the national caseload to 33,375, including 522 deaths.

Around 330 of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s 51 million population, where health workers are struggling to stem transmissions linked to hospitals, schools, saunas, gyms and army units.

Infections were also reported in other major cities including Daegu, which was the epicentre of the country’s previous major outbreak in late February and March.

The recent spike in infections came after the government eased social distancing restrictions to the lowest levels in October to support a weak economy, allowing high-risk venues such as nightclubs and karaoke bars to reopen and spectators to return to sports.

Hungary may source Covid-19 vaccines from Russia sparking new criticism at home and abroad of the prime minister Viktor Orban’s go-it-alone policies, AFP reports.

“We are the first European country to receive such a sample,” the foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said in a video showing the plane touching down at Budapest airport.

An initial 10 doses were handed over for local testing, with large-scale deliveries and potentially mass production by a Hungarian firm possible next year if it proves safe and effective, according to Budapest.

Hungarian doctors and experts will soon study the production of Sputnik V in Russia, Szijjarto told a press conference with the Russian health minister, Mikhail Murashko, in Budapest on Friday.

Their visit would allow a speedier decision on approval of the vaccine in Hungary, Szijjarto said.

While Hungary has reserved potential future vaccines from both Europe and the United States, it is also in contact with Chinese and Israeli developers, according to Budapest.

“No one can say for certain when we’ll get a vaccine or when it’ll be mass-produced, (hence) Hungary should also look to the east and cooperate with Russia and China,” a foreign ministry official, Tamas Menczer, said this week.

Menczer accused critics of the procurement plans of representing the interests of pharmaceutical multinationals and “the Brussels lobby scene”.

The US president-elect, Joe Biden, has put out a message on Twitter today asking Americans to follow Covid-19 restrictions:

A recount in Wisconsin’s largest county demanded by President Donald Trump’s election campaign ended on earlier today with Biden gaining votes.

After the recount in Milwaukee county, Biden made a net gain of 132 votes, out of nearly 460,000 cast. Overall, the Democrat gained 257 votes to Trump’s 125.

Trump’s campaign had demanded recounts in two of Wisconsin’s most populous and Democratic-leaning counties, after he lost Wisconsin to Biden by more than 20,000 votes. The two recounts will cost the Trump campaign $3m. Dane county is expected to finish its recount on Sunday.

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The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 21,695 to 1,028,089, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.

The reported death toll rose by 379 to 15,965, the tally showed.

The Australian Capital Territory has recorded one new Covid-19 case in a returned traveller.

Health authorities say the woman in her 20s contracted the virus more than a month ago while overseas.

She returned a low positive result during routine testing on day one of mandatory quarantine. We believe this represents her old overseas-acquired infection.

She is not considered infectious and contract tracing will not be required.

The woman returned to Australia on a government-facilitated charter flight that arrived on 26 November.