Health News at Your Fingertips

Russia reported 929 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, the largest single-day death toll it has recorded since the pandemic began, compared to 895 the day before.

The government coronavirus task force also said it had recorded 25,133 new cases in the last 24 hours, a slight increase from a day earlier.

I’m grateful to reader Anthony for flagging this.

Canada’s federal employees who are not fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and are not exempt from getting the shots will be put on administrative leave without pay, officials said on Wednesday, while domestic air, train and cruise ship travellers and workers will soon have to show proof of vaccination.

Federal employees will be required to show proof of vaccination through an online portal by 29 October. Workers and travellers on trains, planes and cruise ships operating domestically must show they have been inoculated by 30 October.

The introduction of these vaccine mandates was a cornerstone pledge by the Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau during his campaign for re-election.

Canada’s vaccine policy will be one of the strictest in the world.

Fiji in August forced public servants to go on leave if unvaccinated. If still not inoculated by November, they will lose their jobs. Later this month, Italy will require proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from infection for all the country’s workers.

Canada’s vaccine mandate for federal workers, first promised on 13 August, will be reassessed every six months and stay in place until the policy is no longer required, one official said.

For travellers, a negative test will not be accepted as a replacement for proof of vaccination after 30 November, officials said. Children under 12, who are not yet eligible for vaccination in Canada will be exempted from the travel mandate.

The number of new Covid infections has been dropping over the past month throughout the Americas, even though only 37% of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.

However, Alaska has the most serious outbreak in the United States today that is overwhelming emergency rooms, and while South America is continuing to see a drop in infections, Chile has seen a jump in cases in the capital Santiago and port cities Coquimbo and Antofagasta.

PAHO has closed vaccine supply agreements with Sinovac Biotech Inc and AstraZeneca Plc for delivery this year and next and with China’s Sinopharm for 2022, the agency’s director Carissa Etienne told reporters.

The UK has reported 39,851 new cases of Covid-19, government data showed on Wednesday.

A further 143 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test, taking the seven-day total down by nearly 15% from the previous week.

And a total of 49.04 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by the end of 5 October and 45.05 million people had received a second dose.

The Lithuanian government on Wednesday proposed to pay 100 euros to people aged 75 or old to take the Covid-19 vaccine, to boost the inoculation rate for the group, which lags in the European Union.

“We are unable to convince them to vaccinate otherwise”, the prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė said during a televised government meeting.

Although 73% of all Lithuanian adults are vaccinated, in line with the EU average, about a third of over-75s remain unvaccinated, according to government data, one of the worst in the bloc. Two-thirds of the 4,965 Covid deaths in the country have been in this age group.

If parliament approves the scheme next week, the government will spend up to 27 million euros to pay over-75s who got their full vaccination between September and November.

The already vaccinated will get the payout if they take a booster shot until end of March next year.

“If this helps at least some people to take the right decision and avoid severe form of the disease, or death – this is an investment worth doing”, Šimonytė added.

During the two weeks until Sept. 27, the nation of 2.8 million had the worst rates of Covid spread in the EU, as well as the second worst mortality rate, with 646 new cases and 81 deaths per 10,000 people, a European Commission agency said.

In the United States, officials in the Houston metropolitan area said in August they would pay $100 to any person receiving a first dose of a Covid vaccine, after the president Joe Biden called for state, local and US territorial governments to provide such payments to boost inoculation rates.

The UK is sending an extra 245,000 vaccines to Indonesia, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has tweeted.

Indonesia experienced more than 56,000 new daily cases at the peak of its recent wave in July but infection levels have since dropped dramatically and are now back below 2,000 a day.

The skin condition known as Covid toe may be a side-effect of the immune system’s response to fighting off the virus, according to a study.

The symptom results in chilblain-like inflammation and redness on the hands and feet, with the condition sometimes lasting for months at a time. It typically develops within a week to four weeks of being infected and can result in toes and fingers becoming swollen or changing colour.

Researchers behind the study, which has been published in the British Journal of Dermatology, examined 50 participants with the condition and 13 with similar chilblains lesions that arose before the pandemic.

They found one mechanism behind both types of the condition involved the body generating an immune response with high levels of certain autoantibodies, which mistakenly target and react with a person’s own cells and tissues as well as the invading virus. They also found an overlap with type I interferon, a key protein in the antiviral response.

In addition to the immune system, cells lining blood vessels that supply the affected areas also appeared to play a critical role in the development of Covid toes and chilblains.

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Pfizer Inc will study the effectiveness of its vaccine against Covid-19 by inoculating the whole population over the age of 12 in a town in southern Brazil, the company said on Wednesday.

The study will be conducted in Toledo, population 143,000, in the west of Parana state, together with Brazil’s National Vaccination Program, local health authorities, a hospital and the federal university.

Pfizer said the purpose was to study the behaviour of Covid-19 in a “real-life scenario” after the population has been vaccinated.

“The initiative is the first and only of its kind to be undertaken in a developing country in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company,” Pfizer said.

The Welsh government will press ahead with the introduction of a Covid pass for nightclubs and big sporting events despite only getting its policy through the Senedd because a technical issue meant an opponent could not cast his vote, Steven Morris reports.

Vietnam is planning from December to reopen key tourist destinations to vaccinated visitors from countries deemed a low Covid risk, the government said on Wednesday, ahead of a full resumption targeted for June next year.

Vietnam imposed tight border controls at the start of the pandemic in an effort to keep Covid vout, with some initial success, but that harmed its burgeoning tourism sector, which typically accounts for about 10% of gross domestic product.

Vietnam last month announced it would reopen the resort island Phu Quoc for vaccinated travellers from November.

It will from December also allow tourists from approved countries to visit Unesco world heritage site Halong Bay and Hoi An, the highlands town of Dalat and beach destination Nha Trang.

“We are only open when it’s truly safe,” the government said in a statement. “We are moving step by step, cautiously but flexibly to adapt to real situations of the pandemic.”

The move follows similar steps taken by neighbouring Thailand, which will next month expand locations in its pilot scheme to allow vaccinated visitors.

Foreign arrivals to Vietnam fell to 3.8 million last year down from 18 million in 2019, when tourism revenue was $31bn, equivalent to 12% of GDP.

The country is trying to speed up Covid vaccinations, with 13% of its 98 million people inoculated so far, one of the lowest rates in Asia.

Sweden will pause the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for people born in 1991 and later after reports of possible rare side-effects, such as myocarditis, the Swedish health agency said on Wednesday.

“The Swedish Public Health Agency has decided to suspend the use of Moderna’s vaccine Spikevax for everyone born 1991 and later, for precautionary reasons,” it said in a statement.

“The cause is signals of an increased risk of side-effects such as myocarditis and pericarditis. However, the risk of being affected is very small,” it said.

The health agency said it recommended the Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer/BioNtech instead. People born 1991 or later that had received a first Moderna shot – 81,000 – would not get a second Moderna jab, it added.

Earlier this week, the Swedish health agency said people aged 12 to 15 would only get the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.

The European Medicines Agency approved the use of Comirnaty in May, while Spikevax was given the nod for children over 12 in July.

Kazakhstan has signed a deal to buy about 4m doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, the healthcare minister Alexei Tsoi said on Wednesday.

The country’s government has said it will offer the Pfizer shots, at least initially, only to children aged 12 and older, and to pregnant women.