Health News at Your Fingertips

Greece has named a new head to the state health watchdog that oversees the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as the country’s death toll neared 15,000, AFP reports.

The health ministry said the new head of the Eody agency is Theoklis Zaoutis, a former chief of the division of paediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

As of Monday, the virus had claimed more than 14,990 lives with an average age of 78, according to Eody.

Main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday said he had demanded answers from the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in parliament on the course of the pandemic.

“We are among the first in deaths per million residents in Europe,” Tsipras said, adding that Greece “ranks 20th in vaccinations among 30 European states”.

The government spokesman retorted that the “overwhelming majority” of Greeks have been vaccinated.

According to Eody data, nearly 6.2 million people have received two vaccine doses in the country of 11 million. More than 12.2 million vaccinations have been administered overall.

Singapore’s health ministry reported 3,486 new cases of Covid on Tuesday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, while it recorded a further nine deaths.

A recent surge in infections after the relaxation of some restrictions has prompted Singapore to pause further reopening. It also tightened curbs from last week that limited social gatherings to two people and made work from home a default.

More than 80% of the population has been vaccinated against the virus.

The UK reported 33,869 new coronavirus cases and 166 deaths on Tuesday.

The official figures showed that 348 out of every 100,000 people have coronavirus.

The weekly case tally was down by 5% on the week before, while deaths were 15% lower.

A Republican senator in the US was booed and catcalled when he told a party audience in South Carolina to think about getting a vaccine against Covid-19, Martin Pengelly reports.

Lindsey Graham was speaking at the Summerville Country Club in Dorchester county. Video of his remarks was first published by the Daily Beast.

“If you haven’t had the vaccine,” the 66-year-old said, “you ought to think about getting it because if you’re my age …

“No!” yelled audience members.

“I didn’t tell you to get it,” Graham said. “You ought to think about it.”

“No!” people in the crowd yelled again.

Graham said he was glad he got the vaccine, and said 92% of people hospitalised in South Carolina with Covid-19 were not vaccinated.

“False!” the crowd cried. “Not true!”

The overwhelming majority of hospitalisations and deaths from the coronavirus in the US are among unvaccinated people. The US death toll recently passed 700,000.

The World Health Organization has said it is still reviewing whether Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine can be approved by the UN health agency for emergency use against coronavirus, with no decision imminent.

The Associated Press reported that the WHO had issued the clarification after Russia’s health minister Mikhail Murashko said the decision had been delayed for administrative reasons. Instead, the WHO said it was still reviewing data on Sputnik V vaccines from different manufacturing sites. The next vaccine on the group’s agenda is one from India’s Bharat Biotech, to be discussed this month.

The AP reports:

Approval would be a show of international confidence in the [Sputnik V] vaccine after a rigorous review process, and could pave the way for its inclusion into the Covax program organised by WHO and key partners that is shipping Covid-19 vaccines to scores of countries around the world based on need.

This is Rachel Hall taking over – please do get in touch with anything we’ve missed by dropping me a line at rachel.hall@theguardian.com.

The head of the International Monetary Fund has said the world economy remains “hobbled” by the Covid-19 pandemic as she revealed her organisation had revised down its forecast for global growth this year.

Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said the most serious obstacle to a full recovery was the vaccine divide between rich and poor nations, and she said the global economy could face a cumulative $5.3tn loss over the next five years unless it was closed.

Speaking before the IMF’s annual meeting next week, Georgieva called on rich countries to make good immediately on their pledges to share stockpiles of vaccines with developing countries.

We face a global recovery that remains hobbled by the pandemic and its impact. We are unable to walk forward properly – it is like walking with stones in our shoes.

The most immediate obstacle is the ‘great vaccination divide’ – too many countries with too little access to vaccines, leaving too many people unprotected from Covid.

The Guardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliott, has the story:

Norway will soon begin to offer a third dose of Covid vaccines to people aged 65 and older, the health minister Bent Høie said on Tuesday.

Beginning in late October or early November, the vaccine will be offered to those who received their second dose at least six months earlier.

More than 90% of all Norwegians aged 18 and above have now received a first dose of a Covid vaccine, and 85% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to the Institute of Public Health.

Norway uses vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in its national rollout, which since September has included everyone aged 12 and over.

The number of new Covid cases has dropped steadily over the past two months, and the government removed all domestic social restrictions on 25 September.

Several European Union countries, including Spain and France, launched their own booster campaigns before the EU’s drug regulator gave its guidance on Monday, although they vary widely over who is eligible.