Health News at Your Fingertips

The head of a top US government health agency gave a grim assessment of the pandemic that contradicts that of the president Donald Trump, saying “We’re nowhere near the end,” NBC News has reported.

Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has been rebuked by Trump for less rosy assessments of the recovery, also expressed concern that Trump’s late addition to the task force, Dr Scott Atlas, is sharing inaccurate information with the president.

“Everything he says is false,” Redfield said in a telephone call Friday on a plane from Atlanta to Washington, NBC reported.

Redfield later told NBC the threat from the pandemic was far from over, contradicting Trump’s assertion as he seeks re-election 3 November that the country was “rounding the corner”. Redfield said:

We’re nowhere near the end.

Trump publicly dismissed congressional testimony by Redfield earlier this month on when a vaccine could be broadly rolled out, calling him “confused”. The US president, who was reluctant to urge Americans to wear masks until recently, also criticised Redfield for saying wearing a mask can be just as effective as a vaccine. The CDC director made his position clear, telling NBC:

If every one of us did it, this pandemic would be over in eight to 12 weeks.

The CDC did not immediately return a request for comment on Redfield’s reported remarks.

Atlas is a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases whose views on handling the pandemic have been denounced by his peers at Stanford University’s medical school.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• The known number of infections worldwide passed 33 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The death toll has moved closer to 1 million and stands at 998,372.
• The total number of cases in Ukraine exceeded 200,000. The death toll stood at 3,996, the country’s security council said.
• The UK government came under pressure to scrap its 10pm closing time rule. The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, said there needed to be an “urgent review of the emerging evidence” after city centre supermarkets were “packed” after closing time.
• New rules came into effect in Paris and 11 other French cities. All bars must close at 10pm and remain closed until at least 6am. Restaurants can stay open later.
• Children have 44% lower odds of catching Covid-19 than adults. According to an analysis led by the president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, there is preliminary evidence that those younger than 10 to 14 years have lower susceptibility.
• India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall tally to 60,74,703. At least 1,039 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542 since the pandemic began.
• South Korea confirms lowest cases since 11 August. South Korea on Monday reported 50 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since 11 August, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Of the new cases, 40 were domestic and 10 imported. The numbers were the lowest since a new wave of outbreaks emerged from a church whose members attended a large political rally in Seoul on 15 August, KDCA data showed.
• Northern England and possibly London facing new lockdown. The UK government is planning to impose a total social lockdown across most of northern England and potentially London, to combat a second coronavirus wave, the Times reports. Under the new lockdown measures being considered, all pubs, restaurants and bars would be ordered to shut for two weeks initially, the report said, citing a senior government source. The report added that households would also be banned indefinitely from meeting each other in any indoor location where they were not already under the order.
• There have been a further 5,693 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data, taking the total to 429,277. Government figures show a further 17 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Sunday. This brings the official UK toll to 41,988.
• Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia is possible before the end of the year, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Plans for a travel ‘bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand has been in discussions for months as both nations slowed the spread of the coronavirus, but they were disrupted after a resurgence of Covid-19 in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a second wave of infections in Auckland.With the virus largely contained in New Zealand, and as cases continue to decline in Australian regions, talks of a travel bubble with some states have been revived.
• Greece has recorded its first coronavirus fatality among its large migrant community. Health authorities described the victim as a 61-year-old Afghan man, saying the father-of-two succumbed to Covid-19 in Athens’ Evangelismos hospital after being moved from Malakassa, a refugee camp east of the capital.

Monday is among the worst days seen in the Netherlands for new infections, as the country’s second wave continues. Data released by health authorities shows 2,914 new cases registered in the previous 24 hours.

That was just shy of the 2,995 reported on Sunday, according to data published by the National Institute for Health (RIVM). Local and municipal health authorities are gathering on Monday afternoon to consider new regional measures including making masks mandatory and closing bars early. The prime minister, Mark Rutte, is due to address the nation on Monday evening.

Children have 44% lower odds of catching Covid-19 than adults, according to an analysis led by the president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis including 32 studies, children and adolescents younger than 20 years had 44% lower odds of secondary infection with SARS-CoV-2 compared with adults 20 years and older.

There is preliminary evidence that those younger than 10 to 14 years have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults, with adolescents appearing to have similar susceptibility to adults.

The analysis was led by Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Reuters reports.

France’s government has no plan to order a new nationwide lockdown to contain a resurgence in coronavirus cases in the country, the finance minister Bruno Le Maire has said after a cabinet meeting.

The US Food and Drug Administration has placed a partial clinical hold on Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ planned mid-to-late-stage trial of its experimental vaccine candidate, the firm has said.

The pause was not due to any side effects in its early-stage study of the vaccine – the FDA had additional questions, including about the vaccine delivery device to be used in the study, Inovio added.

Russia has sent a first batch of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to Belarus for clinical trials, the first such delivery of the jab abroad, Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF has said.

Volunteers in Belarus would begin receiving the Russian vaccine from 1 October, the Russian Direct Investment Fund which is backing the vaccine developer, said.

Russia has been criticise for pushing ahead with large-scale manufacture off the vaccine before undertaking so-called “phase 3” testing. Experts have called the approach reckless and unethical and the WHO has said the vaccine should not be produced until it had completed the trials.

Ford, which operates two vehicle factories in Germany, has applied for €500m (£445m, $582m) of German loan guarantees aimed at cushioning the impact of the pandemic, the business daily Handelsblatt has reported.

While Germany has given aid to companies such as the parts supplier Leoni, Ford would be the first major carmaker in the country to receive such help from the government.

The sector, one of the key pillars of Germany’s industry, was struggling even before the pandemic due to the shift towards electric vehicles and lower worldwide demand.

Ford wants the federal government to grant most of the loan guarantees, while a smaller share is expected to come from German states, Handelsblatt said, without citing its sources.

The company said it was part of its normal business to be in contact with financial institutions, without providing further details. The economy ministry declined to comment on the report.

In Russia, a consumer health watchdog believes that the number of new coronavirus infections in Russia will reach a plateau at the beginning of October before a small decline, Reuters report the RIA news agency as saying.

The number of Covid-19 infections has been steadily rising in recent weeks and surged past 8,000 on Monday, the highest daily increase since June 16. Russia exited lockdown in early June.

“I think that infections are going to rise now and we will approach a plateau, and then a gradual decline will begin, there is unlikely to be a peak,” said Victor Maleev from the Russian Academy of Sciences. “The plateau will probably be at the start of October.”