Health News at Your Fingertips

Here is a brief round-up of the day’s top Covid news stories so far:

• In Australia, Victorian authorities say Thursday’s spike in Covid-19 cases – the highest one-day total for the state the pandemic so far – was “completely avoidable”.
• India recorded a further 311 Covid deaths today, according to its latest government figures.
• Charity food banks in Britain are “preparing for the worst” as the government starts winding up emergency aid measures put in place to cushion the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on millions of workers and low-income households, Reuters reports.
• Malaysia has announced it is now mandatory for all federal government employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, with exceptions only to be allowed on health grounds.
• The lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, will end tomorrow, ending almost three months of restrictions on movement to curb the Covid surge.
• The UK government needs to speed up Covid vaccine donations to developing countries or risk causing “irreparable damage” to both global health security and Britain’s reputation, a committee of MPs has warned.
• In the US, a Covid outbreak within Disney’s stage show Aladdin prompted an 11th-hour cancellation of Wednesday evening’s performance.
• Denmark appears to have fallen short of its target of 90% of people over the age of 12 having been vaccinated twice by 1 October.
• In the United States, a second hospital in Alaska is rationing health care as the state deals with a spike in coronavirus cases.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back tomorrow but am now handing over the coronavirus blog to my colleague Kaamil Ahmed, who will keep you across all this afternoon’s breaking Covid news. Goodbye.

The UK government needs to speed up Covid vaccine donations to developing countries or risk causing “irreparable damage” to both global health security and Britain’s reputation, a committee of MPs has warned.

In a report released today, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said “glaring inequality” in access to vaccines risked allowing new variants to spread in developing countries.

The report also warned that Russia and China were attempting to exploit that inequality to “undermine the West and expand their influence by donating and selling vaccines”, the Press Association reports.

Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said:

The rapid creation of an effective vaccine is a remarkable achievement for international cooperation and has saved a huge number of lives.

However, glaring inequalities in vaccine access mean that lower-income countries have been left far behind. Bolstering vaccination rates in these countries is not only a moral imperative but will benefit us all by slowing the spread of a deadly disease.

The UK cannot allow authoritarian states, such as Russia and China, to exploit the shortfall in vaccine supply to gain leverage over other countries.

In Russia, people may soon be able to get coronavirus vaccines not registered in the country.

They are expected to be available from clinics set up in a special economic zone, under a healthcare ministry proposal, Russian Kommersant daily reported on Thursday.

Many Western nations have not registered Russian vaccines such as Sputnik V and require visitors to have other shots that are not available to Russians, a situation that has prompted vaccine tourism, Reuters reports.

According to the Kommersant report, the healthcare ministry has proposed allowing clinics set up in the Moscow International Medical Cluster to import vaccines made abroad, such as the Pfizer/BioNTech, or Moderna shots.

It was unclear whether and when the proposed regulations could be enacted.

In the United States, a second hospital in Alaska is rationing health care as the state deals with a spike in coronavirus cases.

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp, in Bethel, announced the move on Wednesday as it reported it is operating at full capacity.

Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, which is the state’s largest hospital, has already been rationing care.

Coronavirus infections in Alaska have risen 42% in the past week.

The president of the Bethel region hospital says it did everything possible to delay rationing but had to take the step.

Hospital CEO Dan Winkelman urged “every resident of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region to get vaccinated, wear a mask in indoor public areas, and social distance.” He warned that “this is our last stand against this virus.”

Denmark appears to have fallen short of its target of 90% of people over the age of 12 having been vaccinated twice by 1 October.

The latest official figures from the Danish Health Authorities show only 84.9% have had both shots, amounting to 4,366,235 people.

Those who have received the first shot — 4,453,321 people — represent 86.6% of those over the age of 12.

The vaccine is voluntary and free of charge in Denmark, which on 10 September declared that it no longer considers Covid as “a socially critical disease” because of the large number of vaccinations.

All restrictions have since been removed.

Ukraine recorded its highest number of daily Covid cases since April today, after its health ministry confirmed almost 12,000 new infections in the past 24 hours.

It came as the country registered 194 new coronavirus-related deaths.

The number of new cases has been growing over the past several weeks and the government has already tightened lockdown restrictions, Reuters reports.

Ukraine lifted lockdown restrictions as cases dropped over the summer but last week imposed a nationwide “yellow” code, which curbs mass events and limits the occupancy rates of gyms, cinemas and other venues.

The lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, will end tomorrow, ending almost three months of restrictions on movement to curb the Covid surge.

People will be able to leave their homes, restaurants can serve take-away meals and other essential businesses can reopen, the city said on its website Thursday.

However, social distancing will remain, while schools are closed, public transport continues to be suspended, travel in and out of the city will be controlled and public gatherings of more than 10 people outside is banned.

People who wish to attend social activities will have to show proof of vaccination to be admitted to establishments, authorities said.

Ho Chi Minh City along with 18 southern provinces went into lockdown in mid-July when cases started to surge.

In the past three months, the delta variant of the virus has infected 770,000 people and killed over 19,000, according to the health ministry. Most of Vietnam’s Covid deaths occurred in this wave, with Ho Chi Minh City accounting for the majority of them.

Malaysia has announced it is now mandatory for all federal government employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, with exceptions only to be allowed on health grounds.

It comes as the country looks to boost vaccination rates with the aim of inoculating 80% of the population by the end of the year, Reuters reports.

Malaysia has one of the fastest vaccine rollouts in Southeast Asia, with 61% of its 32 million population already fully vaccinated.

In a statement, the Public Service Department said vaccinations would be made compulsory for federal staff in order to boost public confidence and ensure government services can be delivered smoothly.

Nearly 98% of civil servants were already vaccinated, while 16,902 or 1.6% have yet to register under the country’s inoculation programme, the department said. Malaysia has around 1.6 million public servants.

Unvaccinated employees have been given until 1 November to complete their inoculations, while those who are unable to be vaccinated must submit health information verified by a government medical officer.

Those who fail to get vaccinated in time will face disciplinary action, the department said.

Meanwhile, India recorded a further 311 Covid deaths today, according to its latest government figures.

It brings its overall death toll up to 448,062 since the pandemic began last year.

It also registered some 23,529 new infections within the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 33.74 million.

In the US, a Covid outbreak within Disney’s stage show Aladdin prompted an 11th-hour cancellation of Wednesday evening’s performance.

It came just one night after the production joined the return of Broadway’s biggest musicals from a pandemic-induced hiatus, reports Reuters.

In a notice posted on Twitter shortly before the curtain was due to go up, producers said testing protocols had detected an unspecified number of “breakthrough” infections among vaccinated members of the Aladdin company at The New York Amsterdam Theatre.

“Because the wellness and safety of our guests, cast, and crew are our top priority, tonight’s performance, Wednesday, September 29th, is canceled,” the tweet said, adding that tickets would be refunded at their points of purchase.

It said the status of future performances of Aladdin, based on Disney’s 1992 animated hit film, would be announced on Thursday.

Good morning, I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest Covid news from the UK and around the world this morning.

We start with the news that people who experienced depression or anxiety before the Covid pandemic were more likely to lose their jobs and suffer delays to medical treatment at the height of the crisis.

The new study, one of several set up by the UK’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, found those with higher levels of anxiety and depression pre-pandemic were 24% more likely to have had delays to medical procedures and 12% more likely to have lost their job than those with average levels of anxiety and depression.

They were also 33% more likely to have suffered delays or missed out on prescriptions or medication during the first eight to 10 months of the pandemic, according to the Press Association.

The UK Research and Innovation-funded Covid-19 Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing National Core Study is looking at the health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

The new analysis, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at data from 59,482 people who are surveyed regularly as part of ongoing studies.

Dr Praveetha Patalay, senior author on the paper from University College London (UCL), said:

Our findings highlight that the wider health and economic impacts of the pandemic have been disproportionately experienced by those with mental health difficulties, potentially leading to worsening longer-term outcomes, even post-pandemic, for those already experiencing poor mental health.

Rishi Sunak’s decision to wind up the furlough scheme today will intensify Britain’s economic woes, an array of unions, business groups, employment experts, City firms and politicians have warned.

With signs of activity slowing even before pressures on supply chains began to mount over the past few weeks, the chancellor was criticised for cutting off a wage-subsidy lifeline that is still supporting well over a million jobs.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said the end of the furlough scheme coupled with the £20 a week cut in universal credit next week meant the government was heading into the winter with no plan to protect workers.

“Ministers should rethink the end of furlough. Many workers in hard hit industries are still furloughed and need support for longer. Otherwise, we may see a rise in unemployment,” O’Grady said.

Business leaders warned of an “autumn storm” from the government dismantling emergency pandemic support schemes at a time when the economic recovery from Covid-19 was faltering.

Larry Elliott and Richard Partington report:

Blomberg has ranked the Philippines last in its list of the best and worst places to be during the pandemic.

The news organisation explains why:

The monthly snapshot – which measures where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval – ranks 53 major economies on 12 datapoints related to virus containment, the economy and opening up.

The Philippines’ drop to No. 53 reflects the challenges it’s facing from the onslaught of the delta variant, which has hit Southeast Asia particularly hard amid difficulties containing the more contagious strain and slow vaccination rollouts. The region, which recently had the worst outbreak in the world, populates the September Ranking’s lowest rungs, with Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam all in the bottom five.

Charity food banks in Britain are “preparing for the worst” as the government starts winding up emergency aid measures put in place to cushion the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on millions of workers and low-income households, Reuters reports.

An extra weekly payment of £20 (US$27) to support the country’s poorest families will be cut next month, and more than a million workers face an uncertain future as Britain becomes the first big economy to halt its Covid jobs support scheme.

Food banks, which hand out staple goods from dried pasta to baby food, are especially concerned about the loss of the top-up to the Universal Credit (UC) benefit, which is claimed by almost 6 million people, according to official statistics.

The British move comes as other countries start wrapping up state aid programmes announced last year as Covid battered the global economy.

In the United States, pandemic unemployment benefits that supported millions of jobless, gig workers and business owners came to an end in early September, a month after a moratorium on residential evictions expired.

Australia and Canada have also announced plans to end income subsidies in the near future.

A British government spokesperson said the income benefit increase was always intended to be temporary and had been effective in softening the pandemic’s impact on family finances, adding that the focus now was on helping people back to work.

Nationwide, more than 800,000 people will be pushed into poverty by the benefit cut, according to British think-tank the Legatum Institute.

A fifth of the benefit’s claimants said they would “very likely” need to skip meals once the uplift is withdrawn, found a survey of more than 2,000 people carried out for the Trussell Trust.

A similar number said they would struggle to afford to heat their homes.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.

Britain’s charity food banks are “preparing for the worst”, Reuters reports, as the government starts winding up emergency aid measures put in place to cushion the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on millions of workers and low-income households.

Meanwhile in Australia, the Victorian state of Melbourne has reported its highest one-day case total of the pandemic so far, as its Delta outbreak overtakes infections in the neighbouring state of New South Wales.

More on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• Latvia has reported 1,203 new coronavirus cases – the country’s highest daily figure since February. It is the first time infections have crossed the threshold of 1,000 since May.
• There have been 1,847 new coronavirus cases in Lithuania over the past 24 hours, the country’s statistics office has said – the highest number of cases since early January.
• The number of Covid fatalities recorded in Scotland hit the highest level since February last week, with 165 deaths registered that involved Covid-19, 30 more than the previous week.
• Slovenia has temporarily suspended use of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine while it investigates the death of a 20-year-old woman. Health minister Janez Poklukar said the benefits of receiving the vaccine “continue to outweigh the risks”.
• Singapore has reported 2,268 new cases – its highest number since the pandemic began. Its previous highest daily increase was 2,236 reported on Tuesday.
• The UK has reported 36,722 new cases, an increase on Tuesday figure of 34,256. It also report 150 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
• Merck & Co’s experimental oral Covid-19 antiviral drug molnupiravir is likely to be effective against known variants of the coronavirus, the company has said following laboratory studies.
• The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is in advanced talks with vaccine manufacturers to purchase further vaccine doses for its members after reaching a deal with Sinovac to buy 8.5 million vaccine doses for 2021 and some 80 million doses next year.
• Cuba reported 5,617 new cases – the first time since July that the island has reported fewer than 6,000 new cases. It also reported 48 more deaths from the virus.