Health News at Your Fingertips

The UK government said a further 38 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 139,571.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 164,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.

As of 9am on Monday, there had been a further 36,567 lab-confirmed Covid cases in the UK, the Government said.

Slovakia extended tight coronavirus restrictions to more parts of the country on Monday as the latest surge of infections intensified.

The number of counties affected by the measures doubled in a week, from five to 10. They are mostly located in northern Slovakia, on or near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic. Slovakia has 79 counties.

The measures include the closure of hotels, bars and restaurants, with people only allowed to buy meals at takeout windows. Fitness, wellness and aquatic centres also have been closed.

The maximum number allowed to attend public gatherings is reduced to 100 fully vaccinated people. It’s also mandatory to wear face coverings both indoors and outdoors.

Slovakia, which has a population of nearly 5.5 million people, is one of the countries in the European Union that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. It has registered around 457,431 cases and 12,917 deaths.

People in Estonia can no longer use negative test results to obtain the coronavirus certificates needed to attend sporting events, movie showings, indoor public meetings and other events.

As of today, only proof of vaccination or having recovered from Covid are accepted as the basis for obtaining a certificate.

Authorities said the rule, along with another requiring masks in indoor public places, will remain in place until 10 January. The Associated Press reported today:

It wasn’t immediately clear why the government disqualified negative test results from the certificate process, although concerns about the reliability of some tests could be a factor.

The Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said that among the people who have died of Covid-19 in the Baltic nation, there are five times more unvaccinated people than people who have been vaccinated. Kallas did not give the timeframe for the statistic.

Estonia on Monday reported 1,787 new daily cases, a number equivalent to its March pandemic peak.

On Sunday the country’s 14-day coronavirus infection rate stood at 1,311.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Europe, the Estonian broadcaster ERR said.

The Dutch government is seeking advice from a panel of experts on whether it needs to reintroduce Covid restrictions amid sharply rising infection rates, its health minister said today.

The Netherlands has one of the fastest-rising infection rates in Europe. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases increased over the past two weeks from 13.43 new cases per 100,000 people to 29.27 new cases per 100,000 people on 24 October.

“It’s just going too fast. We have to face up to the fact that the numbers are rising faster and sooner than expected,” the health minister Hugo De Jonge told reporters in The Hague.

He said hospital admissions also are rising faster than anticipated when the government relaxed its lockdown last month. “The cabinet will have to think about extra measures,” he said.

The Netherlands ended almost all Covid restrictions on last month, including social distancing. At the same time the government mandated use of coronavirus health passes to get into bars, restaurants, cinemas and other public venues.

Appointments for coronavirus vaccine booster jabs are being offered to the over-60s in Scotland and adults with health conditions.

Invitation letters are being sent to the 60-69 age group for a third dose of a Covid vaccine, the Press Association reported.

Vaccination boosters are already being administered to Scots aged 70 and over, those at the highest risk from infection, care home residents and frontline health and social care workers.

Scotland’s health secretary, Humza Yousaf, insisted the booster programme is “on track” despite calls from opposition parties to speed up the rollout. Yousaf said:

For those eligible for the Covid-19 boosters, appointments can only take place six months (24 weeks) after your second dose.

As such, it may take several weeks before you receive your invitation letter. We remain on track with Scotland’s booster programme, prioritising those at the highest risk for both Covid-19 and flu.

We started this as soon as possible following the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) advice that the booster dose should be offered no earlier than six months after completion of the primary vaccine course.

The Scottish government has said it intends to allow over-50s, unpaid carers and household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals to book booster appointments online from mid-November.

Many Scots, including those with underlying health conditions, will be offered a flu vaccination at the same time.

Sajid Javid has said the government is considering making it obligatory for all NHS staff in England to get vaccinated for Covid after a similar move in the care sector, to pass into law on 6 November, led to a surge in vaccines.

About 93% of NHS staff have received a Covid vaccine, according to the health secretary, who said the continued lack of uptake by a small minority raised concerns about patient safety.

Children as young as three will start receiving Covid vaccines in China, where 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated. It comes as authorities continue to maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards outbreaks.

Local city and provincial level governments in at least five provinces issued notices in recent days announcing that children aged three to 11 will be required to get their vaccinations.

The Associated Press reported:

The expansion of the vaccination campaign comes as parts of China take new clampdown measures to try to stamp out small outbreaks.

Gansu, a north-western province heavily dependent on tourism, closed all tourist sites on Monday after finding new Covid cases.

Residents in parts of Inner Mongolia have been ordered to stay indoors due to an outbreak there.

The National Health Commission reported 35 new cases of local transmission had been detected over the past 24 hours, four of them in Gansu.

Another 19 cases were found in the Inner Mongolia region, with others scattered around the country.

China has employed lockdowns, quarantines and compulsory testing for the virus throughout the pandemic and has largely stamped out cases of local infection while fully vaccinating 1.07 billion people in its population of 1.4 billion.

People in Tokyo can eat and drink in bars and restaurants later in the evening from today as Japan eases social distancing rules.

It comes as the country’s daily coronavirus cases reach the lowest levels in more than a year, the Associated Press reported.

Crowds have been returning to bars and trains since Japan lifted its moderate state of emergency on 30 September. But officials in Tokyo had asked food and beverage businesses to maintain their early closures until Sunday as a precaution against a quick resurgence.

After seeing daily jumps of nearly 6,000 cases in mid-August, Tokyo is now reporting fewer than 50 new coronavirus infections a day. The 17 new cases reported on Monday was the lowest since June 2020.

Good morning, I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest Covid news throughout the day.

We start with news that the pharmaceutical company Merck says it has asked the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to authorise its Covid antiviral treatment, the first pill that has been shown to treat the disease.

In a statement on Monday, Merck said the EU drug regulator had started an expedited licensing process for molnupiravir. If given the green light, it would be the first treatment for Covid that does not need to be administered through needles or intravenous infusions.

Earlier this month, Merck asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to OK molnupiravir, and a decision is expected within weeks. The Associated Press reported:

The company reported this month that the pill cut hospitalisations and deaths by half among patients with early symptoms of Covid The results were so strong that independent medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early.

An antiviral pill that people could take at home to reduce their symptoms and speed recovery could prove groundbreaking, easing the crushing caseload on hospitals and helping to curb outbreaks in poorer countries with weak health care systems.

It would also bolster a two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication, and prevention, primarily through vaccinations.

• Russia has reported 37,930 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day case tally since the start of the pandemic. The government’s coronavirus taskforce reported 1,069 deaths related to the virus, six short of the record of 1,075 set on Saturday.
• There’s a change in Bulgaria today, as enforcement will begin on the Covid “green certificate” scheme that came into effect on 21 October. There continued to be protests in Sofia over the weekend about the move. Bulgaria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe.
• A Covid outbreak in northern China is expected to get worse, authorities have said, after cases were detected in 11 provinces. The news that China is cancelling the Beijing and Wuhan marathons as it battles a Delta outbreak comes badly timed for the International Olympic Committee, which today issued the first “playbooks” for the Covid protocols that will be put in place for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics.
• The Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) published a letter to Hong Kong’s finance secretary, Paul Chan, warning that the city’s Covid restrictions were causing it to be left behind rival financial centres. ASIFMA said it had surveyed its members and found 93% said operations had been “moderately” or “significantly” affected by the coronavirus restrictions.
• The UK health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said he is “leaning towards” making Covid vaccinations compulsory for all NHS staff. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said the government will be making a “mistake” if it forces mandatory vaccinations on health workers.
• Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), has said booster jabs are important because immunity levels are “starting to fall off a little bit”.
• The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) revealed this month that most of the schools surveyed by the union (79%) had been targeted by anti-vaxxers. Sajid Javid described them as “idiots” pushing “fully false vicious lies” outside schools. Keir Starmer has called for schools to be protected from anti-vaccine protests.
• Unvaccinated tennis players could be allowed to travel to Melbourne and compete at the Australian Open, according to an email sent to WTA players that appears to contradict previous federal and state government advice.
• The US chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, predicts Covid shots for kids five to 11 will be available by early November. A review panel of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found last week that the benefits of Pfizer-BioNTech shots for the younger age group outweighed the risks.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. Andrew Sparrow has a UK live blog where the latest Covid and politics news is unfolding. Tom Ambrose will be here shortly to bring you the rest of the day’s global coronavirus developments on this blog.

The news that China is cancelling the Beijing and Wuhan marathons as it battles a Delta outbreak comes badly timed for the International Olympic Committee, which today issued the first “playbooks” for the Covid protocols that will be put in place for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics.

Christophe Dubi, the IOC Olympic Games executive director, said: “The playbooks provide a game plan to help Olympic and Paralympic Games participants, and consequently the local population, stay safe and healthy during Games-time. They have been developed jointly by the IOC, the IPC and Beijing 2022, incorporating the very latest scientific advice and proven countermeasures implemented during the pandemic. This includes important learnings from international sports events held in recent months.”

He continued: “We want everyone at the Games to be safe, that’s why we’re asking all participants to follow these guidelines. Keeping everyone healthy will ensure the focus remains on the very fundamentals of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – the athletes and the sport.”

Colleen Wrenn, the IPC’s chief Paralympic Games delivery officer, said: “The last 12 months in particular have proven that major sport events involving multiple stakeholders from around the world can be held safely providing everyone involved follows the Covid-19 countermeasures outlined by organisers.”

The Winter Olympics will take place between 4 and 20 February 2022 and the Paralympic Winter Paralympics between 4 and 13 March 2022.

There’s a change in Bulgaria today, as enforcement will begin on the Covid “green certificate” scheme that came into effect on 21 October. BNT reports:

From today, 25 October, a green certificate is required for entry to indoor activities such as visits to shopping malls, restaurants, fitness centres. Exceptions are visits to pharmacies, banks and grocery stores.

Checks will be undertaken and customers and owners will be fined if there are people who do not have a certificate of vaccination, a negative PCR or antigen test, or a document proving that they been ill and recovered from Covid-19.

There continued to be protests in Sofia over the weekend about the move. Bulgaria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe.

Here’s a little more from Agence France-Presse on that story of a warning to Hong Kong that its Covid policy is damaging its position as a financial centre.

The Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) published a letter to the finance secretary, Paul Chan, that warned Hong Kong was being left behind while rival financial centres such as London, New York, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo were learning to live with the coronavirus.

“Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre is increasingly at risk along with its long-term economic recovery and competitiveness as a premier place to do business,” the letter said.

ASIFMA said it had surveyed its members and found 93% said operations had been “moderately” or “significantly” impacted by the coronavirus restrictions. Nearly three-quarters complained they were having trouble retaining or attracting talent and nearly half said they were considering moving some staff and operations.

ASIFMA’s chief executive, Mark Austen, said major banks and financial firms were having a real issue with talent drain, with employees no longer willing to remain cut off from loved ones overseas.

“They’re seeing a huge amount of people leaving and they can’t replace them,” he told Bloomberg TV. “Half of firms are contemplating that they need to move positions out of Hong Kong, and that’s really significant.”

Earlier this month the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, said the Chinese mainland was “more important” than international business and that even a single fatality from the coronavirus would be a “major concern”.

Recent attempts by Hong Kong to normalise travel with the mainland have made no concrete progress. Meanwhile China, which also maintains strict curbs on overseas arrivals, has given no timetable for opening its borders.

Russia has reported 37,930 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day case tally since the start of the pandemic.

The government’s coronavirus taskforce reported 1,069 deaths related to the virus, six short of the record of 1,075 set on Saturday. Faced with worsening infection rates and frustrated by the slow take-up of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine by its own population, authorities are introducing stricter measures this week to try to curb the spread of the virus.

Reuters remind us that President Vladimir Putin declared last week that 30 October to 7 November would be paid non-working days. From this Thursday Moscow will introduce its tightest lockdown measures since June 2020, with only essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies remaining open.