Health News at Your Fingertips

Americans are increasingly turning away from the coronavirus and focusing their attention elsewhere, especially toward rising consumer prices and other economic areas where Democrats are less trusted, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.

While Covid-19 continues to claim more than 1,000 lives a day in the US, the 18-22 October national opinion survey shows the country’s fixation on public health and diseases has faded since the beginning of the year. In October, just 12% of US adults rated public health issues like the coronavirus as a top national priority, down from 20% in February.

Chris Kahn reports for Reuters that it is a dramatic shift in the political landscape in just one year. Joe Biden and his Democratic Party won the White House and control of Congress last year on a campaign focused on the pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s handling of it.

As is often the case at the moment, we have two other live blogs running alongside this, which may be of interest to you. Andrew Sparrow is live with our UK politics blog. There is more than enough fallout from yesterday’s vote to demolish the oversight of MPs’ behaviour to keep him busy today.

Also live is my colleague Bibi van der Zee, who continues our coverage of the Cop26 conference in Glasgow. You can find that here.

I will be continuing here with the latest coronavirus-related news from the UK and around the world.

I know it is early for a Christmas tale, but Reuters have this from Naples this morning. The Three Wise Men will have something extra to carry along with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh when they travel to visit Baby Jesus this year: Covid-19 health passes.

Craftsmen along San Gregorio Armeno street in the historical centre of Naples, Italy, are famous for using art to adapt their nativity scenes to the times they are living in.

“Last year was the year of the masks, so the figurines of Mary, Joseph and the Three Wise Men were wearing masks. This year it seemed like the right thing to keep following this direction,” said craftsman Marco Ferrigno.

The Green Pass, which shows someone has received at least one vaccine dose, tested negative or recently recovered from the virus, is a requirement in Italy for travel on much inter-city transport and to access a range of cultural and leisure venues.

“Because the Three Wise Men have to take a long journey to the crib, I gave them all their own Green Pass so that they have the proper documents for travelling,” said Ferrigno.

Slovakia reported 6,713 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily tally since the pandemic hit last year, data from Health Ministry showed.

Reuters note the country of 5.5 million has 1,890 patients in hospital, including 327 in a serious condition. The ministry said that 79% of the hospitalised people were not vaccinated.

In Kiev, the director of hospital number four, Tetiana Mostepan, says: “Five of our patients have died since yesterday.” In the hospital’s morgue, rows of bodies in black plastic bags testify to the deadly surge in infections. The hospital’s 455 Covid beds are 70% full.

Among those hospitalised, “only 3-4%” were vaccinated, Mostepan says.

A despatch from Agence France-Presse today says that Ukraine, one of Europe’s poorest countries, has been hit by a huge rise in infections with the more contagious Delta variant. The country of about 40 million reported 720 new daily Covid deaths on Wednesday, the third-highest number in the world after the US and Russia.

Ukrainians have access to three vaccines – AstraZeneca, Pfizer and the Chinese-made CoronaVac – with about 180 vaccination centres in Kiev alone, including in shopping malls and at the main train station.

But so far only 7.6 million people in Ukraine have been fully vaccinated – less than 20% of the population – despite a strong government push and restrictions on the unvaccinated.

Some Ukrainians even prefer to pay for fake certificates, and police have opened hundreds of cases into false vaccination documents.

“It is distrust of the state,” says Mostepan. “Covid is preventable, so why not prevent it instead of listening to all sorts of nonsense?” she says.

Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with Ukrainians to ignore the noise and get vaccinated. “Switch off social networks and turn on your brain,” he said.

Here’s a reminder of our science editor Ian Sample’s overnight story that England’s Covid infection rates doubled in over-65s between September and October:

The study, which analyses swabs from a representative group of people in the community whether they have symptoms or not, recorded its highest overall infection rate ever for England, at 1.72%. The study launched in May 2020, after the peak of the spring wave that year and, because of a pause in data-taking, missed the peak of last winter’s wave.

By far the sharpest rise in cases between September and October was seen in the south-west, home to the 10 lower-tier local authorities with the highest rates in the country. According to the study, prevalence of the infection almost quadrupled from 0.59% in September to 2.18% in October in areas around Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester.

Prof Paul Elliott, director of the React study, said the study could not explain why cases had surged in the south-west, but added that the rise might be related to issues at the Immensa lab which issued tens of thousands of false negative test results in the region, leading infected people to believe they were safe to mingle. The UK Health Security Agency is investigating how the lab failed to spot the problem before the public did.

Read Ian Sample’s full report here: England Covid infection rates doubled in over-65s between September and October

Bulgaria is also in the grip of a new Covid wave. There were 4,922 new cases yesterday, and the government said there were 954 new hospitalisations, of which 89.5% of people had not been vaccinated. Bulgaria has the lowest uptake of Covid vaccination in the EU, with only 28.5% of eligible adults having received at least one dose, well below the overall EU figure of 80.5%.

A very quick snap from Reuters here just to note that Hungary reported a jump in daily Covid-19 infections to 6,268 on Thursday, with the government saying that the daily tally had more than doubled from the middle of last week.

Speaking of Germany, it has reported 33,949 new Covid-19 infections, the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic last year, ahead of a two-day meeting of state health ministers which starts today.

There’s a note of caution on the numbers though – they were likely inflated by a public holiday in parts of Germany on Monday that led to a delay in data-gathering. The previous record was on 18 December, with 33,777 cases.

Helge Braun, chief of staff to acting chancellor Angela Merkel, said that German states needed to make faster progress in giving older people booster shots.

“That should have happened long ago,” he told broadcaster ZDF on this morning.

Maria Sheahan reports for Reuters that as of Wednesday, only 6.7% of people over 60 in Germany had received a booster shot, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.

Older people were also more likely to be admitted to hospital with Cover-19. The number of infected people in hospital stood at 3.62 per 100,000 on Wednesday – up from 1.65 in early October – but at 8.27 per 100,000 for those over 60.

Here’s a reminder of the latest picture of case numbers across Europe. You can see the surge of cases in the east of the continent, but also a concerning change of colour from recent days for Germany and Denmark, as Belgium and the Netherlands seem to be in the foothills of their next Covid wave. The prevalence of cases per 1 million people in Ireland and in the UK has dipped slightly.

It is the second year that Diwali will be taking place under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. That obviously hasn’t stopped people celebrating, or creating scenes of light and great beauty across south Asia.

Varying degrees of Covid prevention measures are being taken by different countries in the region, with many devotees wearing face masks while they celebrate.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has returned to India from the Cop26 conference in Glasgow, and used the opportunity to visit troops in Jammu & Kashmir’s Nowshera district, saying: “It is because of you all that people of our country can sleep peacefully and there is happiness during festivals.”

India is currently experiencing a respite from Covid, with the seven-day average number of new cases detected at about 13,000, down from a peak of nearly 400,000 at the height of May’s crisis.

South Korea has opened Covid-19 quarantine centres to house potentially thousands of teenagers ahead of the country’s annual ritual of eight-hour college entrance exam in two weeks.

The quarantine centres will house confirmed Covid-19 cases and possibly any students who come into contact with an infected person over the next two weeks.

The highly competitive exam is seen as a life-defining event, as success and a good college place are considered the main route to a prosperous job in the future.

It was unclear how many, if any, students were in the quarantine centres on Thursday. The Education Ministry is not expected to disclose the number of quarantined students who plan to take the test until closer to the exam date of 18 November.

On the test day, there will be 112 centres specifically for students who have been in quarantine and 33 hospitals and treatment centres will prepare special rooms for students with the virus, on top of the regular 1,255 test centres.

Around 510,000 final-year high school students, about 40% of the total across the country, are scheduled to take the lengthy test, which encompasses subjects ranging from languages to mathematics and science.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Ukraine has exceeded 3 million with more than 70,000 deaths, the health ministry said today.

Pavel Polityuk reports for Reuters that the ministry said it had registered a record daily high of 27,377 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, exceeding the previous high of 26,870 on 29 October. Ministry data also showed 699 new coronavirus-related deaths.

Ukraine has registered record-high rates of new cases and deaths from the coronavirus in recent weeks, and the government has imposed strict lockdown restrictions to curb new infections.

Several thousand people blocked traffic in the centre of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday in a protest against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory vaccinations.

Vaccines have become mandatory for some state workers, and in “red” zone areas including Kyiv only vaccinated people or those with negative COVID test results are allowed into restaurants, gyms and on public transport

It is Martin Belam here in London taking over from Samantha Lock in Sydney. I’ll bring you any quotes from UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng doing the early morning media round in the UK for the government if he talks about coronavirus, although I suspect Cop26 and Tory sleaze will be the dominant themes. Here’s the latest Covid numbers for the UK.

Indians across the country began celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, on Thursday amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and rising air pollution.

Diwali is typically celebrated by socialising and exchanging gifts with family and friends. Many light oil lamps or candles to symbolise a victory of light over darkness, and fireworks are set off as part of the celebrations.

Last year, celebrations in India were upended by a renewed spike in Covid infections, but festivities this year seem to be back, AP reports. Even though the government has asked people to avoid large gatherings, markets have been buzzing ahead of Diwali, with eager crowds buying flowers, lanterns and candles.

As dusk fell on Wednesday, over 900,000 earthen lamps were lit and kept burning for 45 minutes in the northern city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, retaining the Guinness World Record it set last year. As part of the Diwali celebrations, the city last year lit 606,569 oil lamps.

The festival is being celebrated at a time when India’s pandemic crisis has largely subsided, however some experts have warned that the festival season could bring a renewed spike in infections if health measures are not enforced.

China is on high alert at its ports as strict policies on travel in and out of the country are enforced to reduce Covid risks amid a fresh domestic outbreak, Reuters reports.

The National Immigration Administration (NIA) said on Thursday it would continue to guide citizens not to go abroad for non-urgent and non-essential reasons.

China aims to ensure no outbreaks among people arriving from overseas for the Winter Olympics, according to a recent state television report, citing Huang Chun, an official on the Beijing organising committee for the event.

Authorities will strive to avoid failures in virus control for the Games that would then disrupt the event or lead to clusters among residents, Huang said.

Hello and thanks for joining us back on 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.

In promising news as the world looks towards vaccinating all its citizens, The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted an emergency use license to a coronavirus vaccine developed in India, offering reassurance for a shot that was authorised by the country’s regulators long before advanced testing was completed to prove it was safe and effective.

Covaxin, the Indian domestically developed Covid vaccine, was rolled out as part of India’s vaccination drive.

A recent study found a record prevalence of Covid in England throughout October. Researchers at Imperial College London warn the virus is spreading from schoolchildren into more vulnerable age groups, noting that rates had doubled in older groups compared to September, a concerning sign as the government races to give booster shots to the most vulnerable.

“We did see a doubling in that group, and clearly that’s the worry,” Paul Elliott, the Imperial epidemiologist who leads the programme, told reporters.

• The Covid pandemic has caused the loss of 28m years of life, according to the largest-ever survey to assess the scale of the impact of the pandemic. The enormous toll was revealed in research, led by the University of Oxford, which calculated the years of life lost (YLL) in 37 countries.
• Germany is enveloped in a “massive” pandemic of the unvaccinated, health minister says. Jens Spahn has warned: “The pandemic is far from over. We are currently experiencing a pandemic of the unvaccinated, which is massive. There would be fewer coronavirus patients on intensive care units if more people would let themselves be vaccinated.”
• The US has administered 425,272,828 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Wednesday morning and distributed 525,071,855 doses, the CDC said.
• Turkey will begin administering booster shots to people who have received two doses of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, its health minister Fahrettin Koca said.
• France reports highest daily cases since mid-September. Health authorities reported 10,050 daily new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, the first time the tally has topped 10,000 since September 14.
• The UK recorded another 41,299 Covid cases, and a further 217 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, in the latest 24-hour period. This is compared to 293 deaths and 33,865 positive infections reported a day prior.
• UK launches trial of drug to tackle fatigue in long Covid patients. The first trial of a drug, called AXA1125, is set to target the fatigue and muscle weakness experienced by more than half of people with long Covid/ The drug targets cellular power plants called mitochondria, which it is thought could be dysfunctional in the subset of long Covid patients with severe fatigue.
• The US is set to begin giving Covid vaccines to children aged five to 11, with roughly 28 million school-age kids eligible for the shots that provide protection against the illness.