Health News at Your Fingertips

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the first pill designed to treat symptomatic Covid, the BBC reports.

Having been approved by the UK medicines regulator, the “gamechanging” tablet – molnupiravir – will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease.

In clinical trials the pill, originally developed to treat flu, cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half.

The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the treatment as a “gamechanger” for the most frail and immunosuppressed.

In a statement he said:

Today is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for Covid.

Developed by the US drug company Merck, molnupiravir is the first dedicated oral antiviral medication for Covid.

It is designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus, preventing it from spreading in the body. It works by targeting an enzyme the virus uses to make copies of itself.

Merck said that should make it equally effective against new variants of the virus as it evolves in the future.

According to data published in a press release and not yet peer-reviewed, clinical trials on 775 patients in the study found:

• 7.3% of those given molnupiravir were hospitalised
• that compares with 14.1% of patients who were given a placebo or dummy pill
• there were no deaths in the molnupiravir group, but eight patients who were given a placebo in the trial later died of Covid

Trial results suggest molnupiravir needs to be taken soon after symptoms develop to have an effect.

An earlier study in patients who had already been hospitalised with severe Covid was halted after disappointing results.

• Diwali celebrations have been taking place in south Asia, amid concern that they may cause another rise in Covid cases.
• After months of delay, the World Health Organization (WHO) has finally given emergency approval to Covaxin, the Indian domestically developed Covid vaccine, which was rolled out as part of India’s vaccination drive.
• Germany reported its highest-ever daily new infection tally of 33,949, ahead of a two-day meeting of state health ministers. 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.
• The German health minister, Jens Spahn, has warned that Germany is developing a “massive” pandemic of the unvaccinated.
• The total number of Covid-19 cases in Ukraine has exceeded 3 million, with more than 70,000 deaths, the health ministry said today. It also registered a record daily high of 27,377 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours
• Slovakia reported 6,713 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily tally since the pandemic hit last year. Bulgaria, with the lowest vaccine uptake in the EU, saw 4,922 new cases. Hungary reported a jump in daily Covid-19 infections to 6,268 with the government saying that the daily tally had more than doubled from the middle of last week.
• Europe has been warned by the World Health Organization that due to rising case numbers, it could record “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February.
• In the UK the Office for National Statistics estimates that 1.2 million people in private households were experiencing self-reported long Covid as of 2 October 2021. This is just shy of 2% of the population.
• A separate study has recorded its highest overall Covid infection rate ever for England, at 1.72%.
• 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.
• A poll in the US found that Americans are increasingly turning their attention away from the coronavirus and focusing it elsewhere. Just 12% of US adults rated public health issues such as the coronavirus as a top national priority, even as the country continues to experience over 1,000 deaths per day.
• 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 Lesotho government’s plans to implement a Covid passport system this week are being undermined by widespread fraud involving certificates being sold to unvaccinated people.
• 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.

On the site today there is live UK politics with Andrew Sparrow – which has been incredibly eventful this morning. Bibi van der Zee is covering Cop26 live. Lucy Campbell will be here to take over from me shortly, and I’m off to host our Thursday quiz. See you tomorrow.

In the UK there is an Office of National Statistics (ONS) bulletin this morning, and they find that an estimated 1.2 million people in private households were experiencing self-reported long Covid as of 2 October 2021. This is just shy of 2% of the population.

The ONS say that of those reporting long Covid symptoms, about a third (35%) were experiencing these symptoms for at least a year after their first suspected infection. Symptoms adversely affected the day-to-day activities of about two-thirds of those with self-reported long Covid.

Symptoms reported include

• fatigue (55%)
• shortness of breath (39%)
• loss of smell (33%)
• difficulty concentrating (30%)

The study found that self-reported long Covid was more common among those aged 35 to 69 years, females, people living in more deprived areas, those working in health or social care, and those with another health condition or disability. The ONS noted that compared with the survey the previous month, self-reported long Covid was higher among young people aged 12-16 or 17-24 years.

There’s a World Health Organization briefing about Covid in Europe going on at the moment. I’ll have a full report in due course, but just for now there’s quite an alarming message coming out about the prospects for a winter wave sweeping the continent.

Americans are increasingly turning their attention away from the coronavirus and focusing it 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 such as 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 the 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.