Health News at Your Fingertips

As I somewhat expected, Rishi Sunak’s opening media round appearance on Sky News in the UK this morning was 100% devoted to talking about the Budget, and with not one mention of Covid. Here’s a reminder of the latest coronavirus figures from the UK.

A few border cities in northeastern China started to tighten Covid-19 measures, restricting travel and limiting gatherings in public spaces, and some declared a “pre-war” mode of vigilance and monitoring, as China combats an outbreak hitting mainly the north.

China reported 23 locally transmitted symptomatic cases for yesterday, official data showed this morning, down from 50 a day earlier, bringing the total number to 270 since 17 October, when the current outbreak began.

Ryan Woo and Roxanne Liu report for Reuters that in northeastern Heilongjiang province, which shares a border with Russia, Heihe city detected one local confirmed case, plus three asymptomatic cases, for 27 October.

The city of 1.3 million suspended manufacturing activities and business operations in urban areas, except for essential ones. It banned people and vehicles in those urban areas from leaving and suspended entry into the areas for non-essential reasons via public roads, while halting bus and taxi services.

Flights from the city and some train services were cut, local media said. It remains unclear how the Heihe cluster started, or whether any of the infected were linked to outbreaks in other regions.

China remains one of the few countries attempting to pursue an absolute zero-Covid policy as it approaches hosting the Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics early next year.

It is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Samantha Lock in London. The UK post-Budget media round is being handled by the chancellor Rishi Sunak for the government this morning. I’ll bring you any Covid lines that emerge from that shortly.

Covid-19 is slowly retreating across most of North, Central and South America, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday, reporting that last week the continent’s death and infection figures were the lowest in more than a year.

“Over the last week, the Americas reported over 800,000 new Covid infections and 18,000 Covid-related deaths – the lowest Covid figures in over a year,” the PAHO said.

“We have reason to be optimistic, but we must remain vigilant,” the agency added.

Ukraine has reported a record daily high of 26,071 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said earlier today.

The figures exceed the previous high of 23,785 on 22 October, Reuters reports. Ministry data also showed 576 new coronavirus-related deaths.

Ukraine’s pandemic tally of infections stands at 2.85 million, with 66,204 deaths.

Welcome back to our rolling coverage of all things coronavirus from around the world.

I’m Samantha Lock reporting to you from sunny Sydney, Australia, and I’ll be with you for the next short while delivering all the Covid headlines.

First up, Singapore’s health ministry is stumped as to why the city-state reported 5,324 new cases of Covid on Wednesday, the most since the beginning of the pandemic.

A report out of the World Health Organization found the European region recorded an 18% increase in Covid cases over the last week — a fourth straight weekly increase for the area.

Here’s a round-up of all the top stories.

• Thousands of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses are going to waste in Australia despite near-record production and calls for increased donations to lower-income neighbouring countries. Almost 1,000 Covid vaccination providers are destroying expired AstraZeneca supplies, wasting 31,833 doses, data shows. About 7m doses of AstraZeneca remain unused.
• Bangkok, Paris and London were the three most visited most visited international destinations in the year before the pandemic hit, according to a recent report.
• Israel will welcome vaccinated tourists from 1 November.
• Australia destroys thousands of expired AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses despite near-record production. A total of 31,833 doses were reported to have been binned despite Australian production of the vaccine continuing at near-record rates.
• Australia confirms Covid booster shots will be available from 8 November after Atagi approval.
• The CDC says the seven day average of Covid cases in the U.S is down 16% to 765,900 per day.
• The UK recorded 43,941 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday and 207 more people have died within 28 days of a positive test, official figures show.
• Europe was the only region in the world to report an increase in both Covid-19 cases and deaths this week, according to the WHO’s latest epidemiological update.
• Covid-19 infections continue to surge across Eastern Europe in particular, with reported cases rising in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
• Novavax Inc. has filed for authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the UK.
• A landmark licensing deal between Merck and the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool could expand access to the company’s antiviral Covid-19 pill throughout the developing world.
• New Zealand’s South Island records first Covid cases in major city in over a year.