Health News at Your Fingertips

Since the Zimbabwean government partly reopened church gatherings in August, Apostolic members, known for their open-air worship, can be seen every weekend around the capital.

The government has asked religious groups to endorse the Covid-19 vaccine. The Catholic church, evangelical and adventist groups have done so.

But with a tradition of not seeking or trusting medical help, some of the “white garment” churches are refusing to encourage congregations to get vaccinated.

With millions of followers across southern Africa, the church’s stance could undermine Zimbabwe’s attempts to vaccinate 60% of the population by December.

“We believe in God, and science is entirely subject to God’s will,” says Gramaridge Musendekwa, of the Vadzidzi Apostolic church.

“I grew up on my parents’ prayers and I am passing it down to my children. My family will not take the vaccine because we are protected by prayers,” says Musendekwa, 38.

“I believe we should not be forced to get vaccinated. For us who grew up without medicine, vaccinations are an insult to our faith and religion. Surely the authorities can achieve whatever they want to do without involving us.”

Read more of Nyasha Chingono’s report here: ‘We are protected by prayers’: the sects hampering southern Africa’s vaccine rollout

Just back to that global death toll again for a moment, Associated Press have some quotes from Dr Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP, a global health centre at Columbia University in the UK.

She says “What’s uniquely different about this pandemic is it hit hardest the high-resource countries. That’s the irony of Covid-19.”

Wealthier nations with longer life expectancies have larger proportions of older people, cancer survivors and nursing home residents, all of whom are especially vulnerable to Covid-19, El-Sadr noted. Poorer countries tend to have larger shares of children, teens and young adults, who are less likely to fall seriously ill from the coronavirus.

Russia has today confirmed another 40,402 Covid-19 infections and 1,155 further deaths.

The Moscow Times notes that all of Russia’s 85 regions across 11 time zones have now mandated vaccines for certain categories of workers. Israel recently announced that it would recognise the Sputnik V vaccine and allow vaccinated Russians into the country from 15 November.

As the global death toll from coronavirus hits five million Dr Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health, said “This is a defining moment in our lifetime. What do we have to do to protect ourselves so we don’t get to another 5 million?”

The death toll, as tallied by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco combined. It rivals the number of people killed in battles among nations since 1950, according to estimates from the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Globally, Covid-19 is now the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke.

Carla K Johnson for Associated Press writes that hot spots have shifted over the 22 months since the outbreak began, turning different places on the world map red. Now, the virus is pummeling Russia, Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe, especially where rumours, misinformation and distrust in government have hobbled vaccination efforts. In Ukraine, only 17% of the adult population is fully vaccinated; in Armenia, only 7%.

Phil Valentine was a Tennessee-based conservative talk radio host who was sceptical about the US government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. He was not completely “anti-vax”, but he did not think he was vulnerable to Covid and talked on air about his decision not to be vaccinated. He even performed a song called Vaxman, a parody of the Beatles’ Taxman. Shortly after the song was released, he contracted the virus.

Before Valentine died, he sent a message to his brother Mark from hospital about his regret. He asked him to tell others to get the vaccine to make amends for the message he had spread on his show.

In today’s episode of our Today in Focus podcast, Michael Safi speaks to Mark Valentine about his efforts to carry out his brother’s dying wish and to reporter Sirin Kale about how you should approach conversations about the vaccine with hesitant loved ones.

You can listen to it here: Today in Focus – The regrets of the unvaccinated: why Covid-bereaved families are speaking out

Singapore could see as many 2,000 Covid-19 deaths annually over time, mainly among the elderly, but it was focused on avoiding excess mortality, a minister said this morning, as the country battles its biggest surge in infections.

Reuters report that at 0.2%, Singapore’s Covid-19 case fatality rate is similar to the rate of deaths from pneumonia before the pandemic struck.

Janil Puthucheary, a senior minister of state in parliament, said “It does mean that over time, the absolute number of deaths from Covid-19 will rise despite the best possible medical care,” he said. “We could have perhaps 2,000 deaths per year from Covid.”

The minister did not specify for how many years that estimate might apply. Singapore had 4,000 deaths per year due to influenza and other respiratory diseases pre-pandemic, he said.

More than 80% of Singapore’s 5.45 million population has been fully vaccinated and almost all its cases are asymptomatic or mild. Puthucheary said the country was trying to live with Covid as endemic without excess mortality.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, has just told BBC Breakfast this morning in the UK that any government plan for mandating vaccinations for NHS workers should be delayed until April next year, to avoid shortages of healthcare workers during the winter. PA Media quote him saying:

If we lose staff over the winter period our ability to provide care is compromised. We’ve got a very, very difficult winter coming up and we know the NHS is going to be at full stretch, so it makes sense to set that deadline once that period has passed. If we lose very large numbers of unvaccinated staff, particularly over the winter period, then that also constitutes a risk to patient safety and quality of care.

Thailand has reopened to fully vaccinated tourists, with tens of thousands of travellers expected to touch down in Bangkok and Phuket as the country reboots its tourism industry after 18 months of Covid restrictions.

The coronavirus pandemic has hammered the kingdom’s economy, with tourism making up almost 20% of its national income. Last year saw its worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis with arrivals down more than 80%.

From 1 November, Thai authorities will allow vaccinated tourists from more than 60 “low-risk” countries to skip hotel quarantine – providing the sector a much-needed lifeline.

Previously, vaccinated tourists had to undergo at least seven days hotel quarantine.

Read more here: Thailand reopens to some vaccinated tourists after 18 months of Covid curbs

New Zealand will extend coronavirus curbs for another week in its largest city of Auckland, but ease some after that, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, another day of record new infections.

As New Zealand battles the spread of the infectious Delta variant of Covid, it has agreed on a 10 November reopening date for retail stores and institutions such as libraries and museums, Ardern told a news conference.

“Because of the high vaccination rates in Auckland we can move with greater confidence,” Ardern said. “These decisions are carefully balanced and allows us to release some of the pressure and fatigue that we know exists in Auckland.”

Reuters report the city’s limit on the size of outdoor gatherings was lifted to 25 people.

Daily cases have been rising to record highs in the last few days, with 162 on Monday. Of these, 53 people were in hospital, with four in intensive care. Cases are expected to keep rising in a model of the outbreak released to the media.

But Ardern said high vaccination rates gave protection to keep down hospital admissions. “Previously we worked hard to eliminate every case. While Delta has forced us to change our approach, vaccines ensure we have the same goal,” she added.

More than 75% of New Zealand, or about 3.1 million people, have now been fully vaccinated, while 88% have had one dose.

As expected, foreign secretary Liz Truss’s first media appearance of the day on Sky News was entirely dominated by Cop26 and the Brexit fishing row, and coronavirus didn’t get a look in. Here’s a quick status check on the latest situation in the UK.

For a bit of wider context, here’s the longer view on the UK government’s own data dashboard, so you can get a view of how the current caseload compares to other phases of the pandemic in the UK.

One of those countries lifting restrictions is Australia, with citizens able to fly home and walk straight out of the airport for the first time in 583 days. As fully vaccinated passengers on the first flights from Singapore and Los Angeles walked into the arrivals terminal shortly after 6am, they were greeted by family members. In many cases, they had been separated for years – since before the pandemic began. “It’s a little bit scary and exciting,” traveller Ethan Carter said. “I’ve come home to see my mum ‘cause she’s not well. So it’s all anxious and excitement and I love her heaps and I can’t wait to see her”

Hello, it is Martin Belam in London stepping in now. I’ll be with you for the next four hours or so. Having a look across the news landscape this morning before I started, I can tell you that there will be a lot of posts coming today explaining that “country X is lifting restrictions, just as nearby country Y starts imposing restrictions.”

The UK government minister doing the media round this morning is foreign secretary Liz Truss, and I’ll have any Covid lines that emerge from her first appearances soon, though I suspect Cop26 is likely to dominate any questioning.

Indonesia has authorised the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 6-11, following the FDA’s authorisation of the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5-11 in the US. It also authorises the Novavax vaccine.

Indonesian tourism officials also held a regular briefing as more countries in the Asia-Pacific reopen to foreign visitors

Hello and welcome back to our global Covid blog.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be reporting from Sydney, Australia, to bring you all the latest developments from around the world.

First up, it’s welcome news for recently returning Australians and their families – many of whom have not seen each other for almost two years due to strict Covid-19 quarantine and lockdown measures.

Sydney airport was the scene of tearful reunions as fully vaccinated Australians flew in and walked straight into the arms of loved ones for first time in 583 days.

On the other side of the world less hopeful news is unfolding as French health authorities say the number of people hospitalised because of Covid-19 went up by 48 over the past 24 hours to reach 6,572, the highest daily increase since 6 September.

Daily new infections stood at 6,329, a 26.5% rise from a week ago, and the seven-day moving average of daily new cases reached a five-week high of 5,858, Reuters reports.

For everything else you might have missed read our summary below.

A summary of today’s developments

• Thailand has reopened to fully vaccinated tourists from more than 60 “low-risk” countries as the nation reboots its tourism industry after 18 months of Covid restrictions.
• The UK recorded 38,009 new infections, but the rise in weekly cases is down 13.5%. A further 74 deaths saw the weekly average Covid deaths a day climb 15.8% on last week.
• Covid booster jabs are being offered at NHS walk-in clinics in England for people who have had their second dose at least six months ago.
• New Zealand will extend coronavirus curbs for another week in its largest city of Auckland after another day of record new infections.
• Russia reported 40,993 new Covid-19 infections, its highest single-day case tally since the start of the pandemic.
• The US jabbed the most vaccine doses into arms in 5 months,
  delivering 1,412,416 doses of Covid vaccines in the last 24 hours.
• US regulators are delaying their decision on Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds while they study the rare risk of heart inflammation, the company said on Sunday. The FDA is looking into a rare heart inflammation called myocarditis after vaccination.
• White House press secretary to US president Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday, but said she last saw Biden on Tuesday in masks and outside.
• France saw new infections surge by 26.5% on the previous week.
• Taiwan will receive a total of 4 million vaccine doses from the US, up 1.5 million from the former amount, Reuters reported.
• Singapore recorded 3,163 Covid-19 cases, a high tally for the city state during the pandemic which until recently pursued a zero-Covid strategy.
• New York City’s municipal worker vaccine requirements come into force on Monday, and officials said 2,000 fire department workers took medical leave to protest the measures. But officials said the part-vaccinated rate had jumped to 91% on Saturday from 76% on Thursday.
• Italy saw 26 more Covid-related deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 132,100 – the highest tally in Europe behind the UK.
• Poland reported 7,145 new Covid cases as the Eastern European epidemic continued to grow.