Health News at Your Fingertips

Schools in England may have to remain shut in order to control coronavirus transmission, senior scientists have warned.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said there had been a “balancing act” since lockdown was initially eased between keeping control of the virus and maintaining “some semblance of normal society”.

But he said planned school reopenings from next week may have to be postponed.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Clearly nobody wants to keep schools shut. But if that’s the only alternative to having exponentially growing numbers of hospitalisations, that may be required at least for a period.

“There are no easy solutions here. My real concern is that even if universities, schools, do have staggered returns or even stay closed, how easy it would be to maintain control of the virus is unclear now, given how much more transmissible this variant is.”

Earlier, Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) members Professor Andrew Hayward and Dr Mike Tildesley signalled the possibility of a “slight delay” to having pupils back on site, with latest figures from NHS England on Tuesday afternoon showing that a further 365 people who tested positive for Covid-19 had died, taking the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 49,225.

The government said it is “still planning for a staggered opening of schools” after Christmas but is keeping the plan under constant review.

This from the FT’s Sebastian Payne on the UK’s new infections record:

Dr Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser for Public Health England, said the “unprecedented levels” of Covid-19 infection across the UK was of “extreme concern”.

“Whilst the number of cases reported today include some from over the festive period, these figures are largely a reflection of a real increase,” she said.

“It is essential, now more than ever, that we continue to work together to stop the spread of the virus, bring the rate of infection down and protect the most vulnerable and the NHS.

“A critical part of this is each and every one of us abiding by the restrictions in place however hard it may seem at this time of the year.

“It is critical that we reduce our contacts, especially mixing between households. We must observe the basic measures – wash your hands, wear a mask and keep your distance from others.”

My colleague Sarah Marsh spoke to a junior doctor on the front line in a busy London hospital.

The UK has recorded 53,135 new daily infections, health data showed on Tuesday, as well as 414 deaths.

The daily increase in infections is a new record, and significantly higher than Monday’s 41,385 new new lab-confirmed cases, the previous record since the start of the pandemic and the first day new daily cases rose above 40,000.

2,322 new patients were admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours.

The UK’s total official death toll now stands at 71,567.

Italy reported 659 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 445 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,212 from 8,585.

At Italy’s peak of infections since the beginning of the pandemic, the country had recorded over 40,000 new infections in a single day on 13 November.

There were 128,740 swab tests carried out in 24 hours to Tuesday, the ministry said, up sharply from a previous 68,681.

Italy has seen an official total of 73,029 Covid-19 deaths since its outbreak came to light on 21 February, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.

The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 was 23,662 on Tuesday, down by 270 from the day before.

There were 256 new admissions to intensive care units, compared with 167 on Monday. The current number of intensive care patients decreased by 16 to 2,549, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.

When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day, Reuters reports.

Turkey has recorded 15,805 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, as well as 253 new Covid-19 deaths, Turkish authorities said on Tuesday.

The country’s total death toll is 20,388, with Turkey’s total cases since the beginning of the pandemic now at 2,178,580.

Ankara has imposed full weekend lockdowns and weekday curfews to curb infections.

Turks will also be on lockdown from 9pm on 31 December to 5am on 4 January as part of the measures.

Argentina began to vaccinate its citizens against the coronavirus on Tuesday using 300,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V treatment delivered last week, the government said.

Latin America’s third largest economy has been hit hard by Covid-19, logging nearly 1.6m cases of the disease and 42,868 deaths.

Officials said frontline health workers would be the first to be vaccinated, followed members of the security forces, teachers, the elderly and other high-risk groups.

Argentina became the third country to approve the Sputnik V vaccine, after Russia and Belarus. Critics in Argentina and abroad have questioned the drug’s efficacy, side effects and the transparency of its trial results. Russia says those criticisms are unfounded.

“You have to be afraid of the disease, not the vaccine,” Argentine health minister Ginés González García told reporters on Tuesday.

Reuters reported on Monday that the vaccine sent to Argentina, Russia’s first major international shipment, consisted only of the first dose of the two-shot vaccine, which is easier to make than the second dose.

Russian and Argentinian officials did not immediately comment on when the second dose might arrive.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has referred to a single-component option as a “light vaccine”, which he said would provide less protection than the two components, but would still reach 85% effectiveness.

Argentina has also approved the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech.

More areas of England could be placed under tougher coronavirus restrictions when the health secretary outlines changes to tiers on Wednesday.

Matt Hancock will address the recalled House of Commons after MPs have passed key legislation on the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.

A decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the government’s Covid-19 Operations committee on Tuesday evening, to be chaired by Boris Johnson.

With case rates rising in all regions of England, as well as the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals, any changes are likely to involve areas moving up a tier rather than down.

Some parts of the east Midlands, such as Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, could be moved up from tier 3 to 4, while other counties such as Lincolnshire and Derbyshire may stay in tier 3, the Press Association reports.

All the areas within the West Midlands metropolitan county – Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton – might be facing a move from tier 3 to 4.

Hartlepool in north-east England, along with a handful of areas in Lancashire – Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Ribble Valley – could also be upgraded from tier 3 to 4.

Cumbria might be moved from tier 2 to 3, as could Worcestershire and North Yorkshire.

Pressure has been mounting on ministers to expand tier 4 restrictions in the face of increasing strain on hospitals in England, where the number of patients has surpassed the April peak of the first wave.

The United Arab Emirates has discovered a “limited number” of cases of people infected with the new coronavirus variant in the country, a government official has said.

At a press conference on Tuesday, the official also said those affected had travelled from abroad, without specifying from where or the number of the cases.

Meanwhile, the UAE reported 1,506 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall national tally of those infected to 204,369.

A 90-year-old woman who became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine this month has been given her second dose.

Margaret Keenan was given the follow-up injection at Coventry’s University hospital in England on Tuesday, three weeks after making history with the first jab.

She received an initial injection on 8 December, and NHS England said at the time that she would have a “booster jab” 21 days later “to ensure she has the best chance of being protected against the virus”.

Prof Andy Hardy, the chief executive of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS trust, said:

We were delighted to welcome Margaret Keenan back to Coventry’s University Hospital today to safely receive the second dose of the vaccination, after she became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine following its clinical approval.

Our hardworking staff who have been involved in the vaccination programme have remained in contact with Margaret’s family since that day and we are delighted that Margaret has been continuing to recover well at home following her discharge from hospital.

The most recent figures published by the Department of Health last week showed the number of people to have had their first jab between 8 and 20 December in the UK was 616,933.

But speaking on Christmas Eve, Boris Johnson said almost 800,000 people had been given their first dose of the two-step vaccine.

Since the initial jabs were administered in hospitals, the rollout has widened to GP-led sites and care homes.

Secondary schools in England are unlikely to fully reopen until after mid-January at the earliest, according to new plans being thrashed out within government that would also see school staff be given high priority for Covid vaccinations.

According to government sources, ministers are torn between heeding its scientific advisers over the rapid spread of the new Covid variant, and warnings from the Department for Education that switching to remote learning for the whole of January would make it hard for schools and colleges to reopen again before Easter, jeopardising next year’s exams.

The revised timetable being discussed would mean only older students who are taking exams, such as A-levels and GCSEs, would receive remote teaching for the week from 4 January, in effect giving most secondary pupils an extra week’s holiday while schools and colleges gear up for mass testing.

You can read the full report from my colleagues Richard Adams and Simon Murphy here:

In England, a further 365 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 49,225.

NHS England said the patients were aged between 26 and 101. All except 12, aged between 43 and 92, had known underlying health conditions.

The deaths were between 12 and 28 December. There were 11 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

The European Union has criticised the jailing of a citizen-journalist in China who reported on the early outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic from Wuhan.

Zhang Zhan, who reported at the peak of the crisis in the city where the coronavirus first emerged, was sentenced to four years imprisonment on Monday. Her lawyer said Zhang was jailed on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

The EU called for Zhang’s immediate release, as well as for freedom for jailed human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and several other detained and convicted human rights defenders and individuals who engaged in reporting in the public interest.

“According to credible sources, Ms Zhang has been subject to torture and ill-treatment during her detention and her health condition has seriously deteriorated,” an external affairs spokesman for the 27-member EU said.

Citizen-journalist Zhang was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic than the official narrative.

Critics say China deliberately arranged for Zhang’s trial to take place during the holiday season in the west, to minimise scrutiny.

“The restrictions on freedom of expression, on access to information, and intimidation and surveillance of journalists, as well as detentions, trials and sentencing of human rights defenders, lawyers, and intellectuals in China, are growing and continue to be a source of great concern,” the EU spokesman said.

Ireland began administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday, amid surging Covid-19 cases.

Annie Lynch was the first person in the country to receive the vaccine at Dublin’s St James’s Hospital, Ireland’s health service said. Health staff and patients at four hospitals were also vaccinated.

“Today is a new day. It marks a new chapter in our fight,” health minister Stephen Donnelly told RTE Radio.

Donnelly said Ireland expected to vaccinate all 75,000 people who live or work in nursing homes and tens of thousands of other health workers by the end of February.

Earlier on Tuesday, a senior official said Ireland may be able to provide a Covid-19 vaccine to everyone in the country who wants one by August in a “fairly positive scenario” that would depend on the timing of approval of other vaccines.

The seven-day average number of daily cases of Covid has tripled in Ireland to almost 1,000 over the last two weeks, after restrictions were eased in the run-up to the Christmas holiday.

The government has since closed restaurants and is to meet on Wednesday to consider additional restrictions.

It also brought forward the vaccine programme by a day following criticism it was acting too slowly after receiving the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 26 December, as part of a coordinated European Union-wide roll-out.

A total of 86,894 have been infected in Ireland since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and 2,205 people have died as a result, health ministry data showed on Monday.