Health News at Your Fingertips

Labour is calling on the UK education secretary to ensure students who have faced significant disruption to their education during the pandemic are not unfairly disadvantaged in their GCSE and A-level exams.

Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, said thousands of pupils have missed out on essential learning because of the government’s failure to “get a grip” on the pandemic.

She reiterated a call for the education secretary to ensure pupils are assessed on what they have been taught, have reserve papers for all subjects so self-isolating pupils do not miss out and put in place a plan B in case exams do not go ahead.

Christmas carolling, attending church services, volunteering and taking a trip to Santa’s grotto will all be permitted in the run-up to Christmas, according to guidance for England published by the government.

However, the new rules vary across the different tiers that regions will enter when lockdown ends on 2 December. For example, the advice says school nativities will be able to take place, with those in tiers 1 and 2 able to attend in person, while those in tier 3 in England will have to watch streams or recordings.

Lanre Bakare has the details here.

Canada is prolonging its restrictions for all travellers entering the country, except from the United States, until 21 January, the government said on Sunday, in a bid to limit the spread of the virus.

Restrictions for people arriving from the United States will continue until 21 December and may be extended then, health minister Patty Hajdu said.

The ban does not apply to Canadian citizens, permanent residents and essential travel.

Brazil has registered 24,468 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours and 272 new deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday. This compares with 51,922 infections and 587 on Saturday.

The country has now registered 6,314,740 total confirmed coronavirus cases and 172,833 deaths.

Here’s a run-through of the latest coronavirus developments for anyone just joining us.

• Children in Iraq have started returning to school for the first time since late February, with social distancing measures in place and schools operating six days a week.
• Lebanon will begin to slowly relax coronavirus restrictions imposed two weeks ago from Monday, as it looks to boost its struggling economy ahead of Christmas.
• Turkey’s daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high for a seventh consecutive day on Sunday, with 185 fatalities in the last 24 hours.
• The WHO delivered 15 ventilators to hospitals in Gaza on Sunday as the Palestinian territory suffered a rise in Covid-19 infections.
• New York City’s state schools will start to reopen on 7 December, beginning with primary schools, the mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced on Sunday.
• The top infectious disease expert in the US has warned that the country may record a “surge upon a surge” of the virus in coming weeks.
• Greece announced 1,193 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, a significant decrease compared to recent figures and its lowest number since 2 November.
• Doctors and nurses are protesting in Madrid, Spain against cuts that they say have left them struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
• France’s highest administrative court has ordered the government to loosen coronavirus rules allowing no more than 30 people at religious services, in the face of angry objections from church leaders.
• There have been a further 12,155 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data. This compares to 15,871 cases registered on Saturday.

France reported 9,784 new cases on Sunday, down from 12,580 on Saturday and 13,157 last Sunday.

The number of people in intensive care fell by another 21 to 3,756 and the number of new deaths fell to 198 from 213 on Sunday, health ministry data showed.

Children in Iraq have started returning to school for the first time since late February.

Schools will operate for six days a week, in a bid to maintain social distancing in classrooms.

Primary school pupils will attend class one day a week, while secondary school students will go in twice a week. Remote learning will be relied upon during the rest of the week – although online education remains out of reach for many.

In England, police have apologised after a pastor was accused of breaking coronavirus regulations while holding a religious service online, PA reports.

The Rev Daniel Mateola said he was “treated like a criminal” when officers arrived at Kingdom Faith Ministries International church in Milton Keynes earlier this month.

Thames Valley police said there had been a “misunderstanding” by officers in “what is an ever-changing and complex area of enforcement”.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 143,333 further coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total to 13,142,997. This compares to 176,572 cases reported on Saturday.

Deaths have risen by 1,210 to 265,166 – a slight decrease from 1,283 on Saturday.

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.

NHS bosses plan to enlist celebrities and “influencers” with big social media followings in a major campaign to persuade people to have a Covid vaccine amid fears of low take-up.

Ministers and NHS England are drawing up a list of “very sensible” famous faces in the hope that their advice to get immunised would be widely trusted, the Guardian has learned.

Health chiefs are particularly worried about the number of people who are still undecided, and about vaccine scepticism among NHS staff. “There will be a big national campaign [to drive take-up],” said one source with knowledge of the plans. “NHS England are looking for famous faces, people who are known and loved. It could be celebrities who are very sensible and have done sensible stuff during the pandemic.”

Read the exclusive report by Denis Campbell here.

Lebanon will begin to slowly relax coronavirus restrictions imposed two weeks ago from Monday, as it looks to boost its struggling economy ahead of Christmas.

Acting health minister Hamad Hassan said restaurants will reopen at 50% capacity but bars and nightclubs will remain closed and weddings will be banned, while an overnight curfew will start from 11pm instead of 5pm.

Schools would also reopen but with some classes still held online, Hassan said.

Arcadia is expected to enter administration in the coming hours after the weekend failed to bring a last-minute rescue deal for Sir Philip Green’s retail giant.

The appointment of administrators by the owner of household names including Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Burton would be the biggest corporate failure of the pandemic.

Amid concerns among MPs and unions about the impact of possible job cuts from the 13,000-strong workforce and a shortfall in the group’s pension scheme, the company’s collapse was also expected to jeopardise a takeover by JD Sports of the department store chain Debenhams, which rents out space to dozens of Arcadia-owned outlets.

Turkey’s daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high for a seventh consecutive day on Sunday, with 185 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

The number of new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic infections, decreased slightly to 29,281. Turkey only started reporting asymptomatic cases on Wednesday.

The total death toll stands at 13,558.

The government introduced tighter measures a week ago including nightly curfews at weekends, restrictions on movements of people of non-working age, a move to online schooling and limiting restaurants and cafes to takeaway services.

Greece announced 1,193 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, a significant decrease compared to recent figures and its lowest number since 2 November.

The total number of cases stands at 104,227.

There were 98 deaths over the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 2,321. Greece announced a record increase in deaths on Saturday, with 121 fatalities registered.

The country’s public health system is close to capacity, according to a report in Kathimerini, with 603 patients on ventilators. In Thessaloniki, patients are being transferred to a private clinic requisitioned due to the crisis.

The WHO delivered 15 ventilators to hospitals in Gaza on Sunday as the Palestinian territory suffers a rise in Covid-19 infections.

The donation was funded by Kuwait and came a week after local and international public health advisers said the territory’s hospitals could soon become overwhelmed.

“These devices will help medical teams provide better service to patients, but it is not enough,” said Abdullatif Alhaj of Gaza’s health ministry, adding that hospitals had suffered acute oxygen shortages.

The health ministry said more than than half of the territory’s 150 ventilators were in use.

There are 342 Covid-19 patients in Gaza’s hospitals, including 108 in a critical condition.

New York City’s state schools will start to reopen on 7 December, beginning with primary schools, the mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced on Sunday.

Schools were closed less than two weeks ago when test positivity rates across the city passed the 3% benchmark agreed by the mayor and teachers’ union.

To go into school, students must have a signed consent form agreeing to weekly coronavirus testing or a letter of medical exemption from a doctor, the mayor said.

The top infectious disease expert in the US has warned that the country may record a “surge upon a surge” of the virus in coming weeks.

Dr Anthony Fauci said he did not expect current guidance around social distancing to be relaxed before Christmas.

“When you have the kind of inflection that we have, it doesn’t all of a sudden turn around like that,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC.

“So clearly in the next few weeks, we’re going to have the same sort of thing. And perhaps even two or three weeks down the line … we may see a surge upon a surge.”