Health News at Your Fingertips

Brunei has reported 42 new coronavirus cases, a record daily tally, following the detection over the weekend of the southeast Asian country’s first locally transmitted cases in 15 months.

Reuters reports that Brunei has implemented strict quarantine rules for inbound travellers and reported 406 infections since the onset of the pandemic. One cluster in the current outbreak was linked to a hotel quarantine centre, health minister Mohd Isham Jaafar said.

“Compared to the [outbreak] last year, we don’t know the sources of many cases this time around,” he said.

The outbreak was causing quarantine centres to quickly fill up, and authorities were also investigating the possibility illegal border crossings between Brunei and Malaysia were the source of the latest infections, he said

“We know that the weakest chain is mainly smuggling routes and frontliners from the airport to hotels,” he added.

On Saturday, Brunei reported seven Covid-19 infections transmitted in the community – the first such infections since May 2020.

It immediately reinstated strict movement restrictions, including a ban on most public gatherings. Schools, mosques and most non-essential businesses have been closed.

Around 33% of the country’s total population of 450,000 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to government data.

Saudi Arabia is from today taking travel requests from vaccinated foreign visitors seeking to visit the holy city of Mecca as part of the Umrah pilgrimage.

The Gulf state closed its borders 18 months ago due to the pandemic but since the beginning of the month vaccinated foreign tourists are also allowed in.

Last month, just 60,000 vaccinated residents were allowed to take part in a scaled-down Hajj, a foundational element of Islam which Muslims who are able must undergo at least once.

Saudi Arabia will initially allow 60,000 pilgrims to perform the pilgrimage each month, gradually increasing numbers to reach two million people a month, the BBC reports the state Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.

The tight restrictions, including on which vaccines are considered acceptable, means that millions of Muslims could be prevented from ever going on the pivotally important journey.

Saudi Arabia, population 34m, has recorded nearly 532,000 coronavirus cases and more than 8,300 deaths.

Staying in the UK, online supermarket Ocado has told staff who worked from home during the pandemic that they can work remotely outside the country for one month per year.

The firm’s chief people officer Claire Ainscough said the move answered a “top question” from staff, particularly those with families abroad who did not want to use up their holiday leave by spending time with them.

Ocado said it wanted to offer “a balance and choice” in response to requests from staff, the Times reports.

Also in opinion, Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik writes that it appears there is little desire among many states for normal rates of international travel to return. Instead, they have sought to use this opportunity to make it permanently harder to move around, particularly for those whose starting point is in the global south.

At the top of the pyramid sit the holders of “high-value passports” who don’t need visas to travel to most places and who live in countries with high vaccination rates. At the bottom are those who live in countries with no access to vaccines in the foreseeable future. Political conflict also plays its part: when Egypt was placed on Britain’s red list earlier this year, UK-based Palestinians visiting Gaza were trapped, as Egypt is the only port of entry and exit.

It is unfathomable that the US is not monitoring post-vaccination breakthrough infections unless they lead to hospitalisations or deaths, writes Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and professor of molecular medicine.

Still being reported by CDC, from their latest website data, and a constant refrain from public health officials, is that “99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization or death.” That could not be further from the truth. In the July Provincetown Delta outbreaks that the CDC reported on the risk of fully vaccinated requiring hospitalization was 1%, not .01%, and that may not be a reliable estimate for the incidence of such infections occurring throughout the country.

With billions of dollars allocated to CDC earlier this year for improved Covid-19 surveillance, this represents a blatant failure that is putting millions of vaccinated Americans at unnecessary risk for breakthrough infections and leaving us without a navigational system for the US Delta wave.

Canada today lifts its ban on Americans entering, though under a strict regime they must be both fully vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19 within three days.

The Canada Border Services Agency won’t say how many people it is expecting to enter Canada for the reopening, even though travellers have to register, after the border was closed to non-essential travel since March 2020, the Associated Press reports.

The US has said it will extend its closure to all Canadians making nonessential trips until at least 21 August, which also applies to the Mexican border.

The US also looks set to require that nearly all foreign visitors to the US would have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. But such plans have been criticised as being certain to “further exacerbate inequities”.

Near the border in Washington state, Blaine Chamber of Commerce board member Carroll Solomon told AP the reopening was a step in the right direction for businesses, but due to the tight rules, she doesn’t think that people will be going to Canada for many day trips.

“I have a lot of friends on the Canadian side and would love to go have lunch with somebody, but you can’t just do that; you have to plan days in advance to make sure you can get through,” she said.

In related news, Australia’s pharmaceutical regulator has granted provisional approval to Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, Morrison has said. Australia in May agreed to buy 25m doses of the Moderna vaccine, and Morrison said the first 1m doses would arrive in September.

The country has a shortage of the Pfizer vaccine but an abundant supply of locally manufactured AstraZeneca jabs, which many have refused because of the slight blood clot risk.

• British business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he would like staff in his department to go to the office “at least” two or three days a week.The government has said it would follow a “cautious” approach to the return to the office for civil servants.
• The day after the 2020 Olympics came to a close, Tokyo on Monday reported 2,884 new coronavirus cases. It comes after Tokyo Olympics organisers earlier reported 28 new Games-related cases, bringing the total to 458 since 1 July.
• Australia has expanded its New South Wales lockdown amid fears that coronavirus has spread from Sydney. The rural town of Tamworth, 257 miles northwest of Sydney, and Byron Bay, a popular tourist spot 478 miles from the city, entered a week-long lockdown on Monday – despite neither having recorded a single case.
• In the UK, NHS workers face a “vicious circle” of staff shortages, causing growing numbers of staff to suffer from exhaustion, health experts have warned. Dr Layla McCay, policy director of the NHS Confederation, said vacancies and increasing staff sickness means those left to recover are becoming exhausted and leading to “very challenging” working conditions.
• Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said she has “butterflies in my stomach” about lifting most of the country’s legal coronavirus restrictions on Monday, but that she believes it is the right time to do it. However, she warned that people must “continue to exercise care and caution” over coronavirus and that “we underestimate it at our peril”.
• New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is expected to announce plans later this week to reopen the country’s border amid a shortage in workers. The country’s border has been shut since March 2020 as part of measures to contain the virus.
• As Delta surges in the US, intensive care unit capacity is running out in hospitals in Austin and officials have warned of “catastrophe” in Texas. Local governments have urged residents to stay at home, wear masks and get vaccinated as the state again becomes an epicentre of the pandemic.
• Australian prime minister Scott Morrison’s public approval rating hit its lowest level since the pandemic began amid growing frustration over lockdowns and a sluggish vaccination drive, according to a poll published on Monday.
• Nightclubs across Scotland opened their doors as the clock moved a minute past midnight on Monday and the country’s Covid-19 Levels system was scrapped.

That’s it from me for now. Handing over to my colleague Mattha Busby. Thanks for reading!

British business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he would like staff in his department to go to the office “at least” two or three days a week.

The government has said it would follow a “cautious” approach to the return to the office for civil servants.

It comes after an unnamed minister reportedly said officials should have their pay cut if they will not return to the office.

Kwarteng told Sky News:

I think we should try to come in maybe 2-3 days a week at least. But it’s a gradual process, no-one is being forced back against their will.

You’ve got to make the environment very safe but I think it is probably quite a good thing to spend more time in the week at work, that’s just a personal view.