Health News at Your Fingertips

Here’s the key global coronavirus developments from the past few hours.

• The UK has recorded over 7,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day running. New cases totalled 7,108 while a further 71 deaths have been recorded in the country.

• The Italian Senate has been suspended after two members fell ill with Covid-19. Parliamentary activity was suspended after Marco Croatti and Francesco Mollame, from the ruling Five Star Movement, tested positive.

• The Czech Republic is to enter a state of emergency to control a surge in cases. The measure will be in place from Monday and will last for 30 days.

• A vaccine trial has raised hop of offering some protection against the virus. New results from a clinical trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine have shown that the jab can induce a “robust” immune response against the virus, raising hopes it will provide at least some protection against Covid-19 infection.

France has reported 12,845 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours.

The number of people who have died after contracting the virus rose by 63 to 31,956, French health authorities said.

The cumulative number of infections recorded in France since the beginning of the pandemic now totals 563,535.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an increase of 38,764 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total caseload to 7,168,077.

The number of deaths reported by the agency also increased by 774 to 205,372.

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

India’s federal government allowed states to reopen schools and other educational institutions, as well as movie theatres, in a phased manner on Wednesday, even as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the country.

India reported nearly 80,500 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its tally to 6.23 million, government data showed. Deaths from Covid-19 stood at 97,497.

Late on Wednesday, the federal government issued guidelines allowing movie theatres to reopen at 50% capacity and said states could decide to gradually open schools, colleges and other educational institutions from 15 October.

“Students may attend schools/institutions only with the written consent of parents,” the federal government said in a statement.

Covid-19 outbreaks are accelerating rapidly in the north-west and north-east of England, while there has been a significant rise in intensive care admissions, the country’s chief medical officer has warned.

During a news conference with UK prime minister Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty said the pattern of growth was different from that of the first wave in March, as England was seeing heavy concentrations of outbreaks in particular areas.

Whitty added:

This increase, as you can see, is accelerating quite rapidly in some of those areas.

In the north-east, in the north-west in particular but also in London to some extent, we’re seeing a significant uptick in the number of people who are entering intensive care.”

Colombia’s land and water borders will remain closed until 1 November, the country’s migration agency said on Wednesday, in an effort to stem coronavirus infections.

The Andean country shares a porous eastern border with Venezuela traversed by millions of migrants seeking refuge from the latter’s economic and social collapse. It shuttered crossings in March ahead of a national lockdown.

The quarantine ended at the end of August and Colombia is once again allowing international flights.

The month of October will be used to “coordinate, along with local and provincial authorities, the ideal conditions to allow us to contemplate a possible reopening, without putting people at risk,” the migration agency said in a statement.

More than 100,000 Venezuelan migrants have returned home as the lockdown cut them off from work opportunities, but the agency said last week small numbers have begun to return to Colombia via illegal crossings.

The UK has recorded 7,108 new Covid-19 cases today, the second day in a row over 7,000 cases have been reported as infections rise.

Prime minister Boris Johnson will hold a news conference on Covid-19 later on Wednesday as he grapples with a swiftly spreading second wave of the outbreak.

Tuesday’s number of 7,143 was the biggest single daily case total recorded, although the UK is now testing more people, and processing more than 200,000 tests a day compared to under 100,000 at the start of the pandemic.

You can read more on the situation over on our UK blog:

The Italian senate has suspended all parliamentary activity after two members from the ruling 5-star Movement fell ill with Covid-19.

Marco Croatti and Francesco Mollame wrote on Facebook that they had gone into quarantine.

Croatti, 48, said he participated in a 5-star lawmakers’ assembly last Thursday, wearing a mask and respecting social distancing.

Mollame, 58, said he did not take part in the 5-star meeting because he already had a fever and is now having difficulties breathing and speaking.

All 5-star’s senators are now being tested, the senate press office said. Out of Italy’s 319 senators, 95 are from 5-Star, the largest party group in the upper house.

A malaria drug taken by US president Donald Trump to prevent Covid-19 did not show any benefit in reducing coronavirus infection among healthcare workers, according to clinical trial results published on Wednesday.

The study largely confirms results from a clinical trial in June that showed hydroxychloroquine was ineffective in preventing infection among people exposed to the new coronavirus.

Trump began backing hydroxychloroquine early in the pandemic and told reporters in May he started taking the drug after two White House staffers tested positive for Covid-19. Studies have found the drug to offer little benefit as a treatment.

In the study of 125 participants, four who had taken hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment for eight weeks contracted Covid-19, and four on placebo tested positive for the virus.

All eight were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms that did not require hospitalisation, according to the results published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal.

The research shows that routine use of the drug cannot be recommended among healthcare workers to prevent Covid-19, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania said.

In the latest trial, which was terminated before it could reach its enrolment target of 200 participants, mild side-effects such as diarrhoea were more common in participants taking the malaria drug compared with a placebo.