Health News at Your Fingertips

Around one in 70 people in private households in England had Covid in the week to 2 October.

The number is up from one in 85 the previous week, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

One in 70 is the equivalent of about 786,300 people.

At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 were estimated to have coronavirus.

Slovenia’s interior minister rejected accusations on Friday that police used excessive force to curb anti-government protests with water cannons and tear gas.

The chaotic scenes came on the eve of a major European Union summit in the country earlier this week.

The demonstrations were the third in a month, organised against virus measures and the use of Covid passes, including for going to work in all state-run firms. People must show that they are either fully vaccinated or that they have taken an expensive PCR test.

Interior Minister Ales Hojs said in Brussels that “police did their job very well during Tuesday’s intervention” and were “within their jurisdiction.” An investigation still has opened into police actions, he added.

About 25 protesters were detained and several were injured or hospitalised, mostly for inhaling tear gas, according to the Associated Press. Hojs added:

The director of the police has already ordered a commission in accordance with the law, which will investigate the legality and proportionality of all means used by the police in these protests.

Officers in riot gear and on horses repeatedly used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who threatened to block roads as EU and Western Balkan leaders were arriving for the meeting.

The clashes led to hours-long chaos on the streets of the capital, Ljubljana, and the detention of a protest leader.

Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has said he will address the country on Saturday about the Covid situation and the country’s “path to a new normal”.

“Tomorrow at 12 noon, I will be addressing Singaporeans on the COVID-19 situation and the path to a new normal,” Lee said in his Facebook post on Friday evening.

The Southeast Asia city-state with about 5.7 million population has been reporting an average of more than 3,000 daily infections over the past few days, though almost all cases are asymptomatic or mild, according to Reuters.

Good morning, I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest coronavirus news from the UK and around the world today.

We start with the news that Denmark has announced it will continue to give the Moderna vaccine to under-18s.

It comes as Finland joined other Nordic countries in suspending or discouraging the use of the vaccine in certain age groups because of an increased risk of heart inflammation, a rare side effect associated with the shot.

The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said Thursday that authorities won’t give the shot to males under age 30. They will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine instead, according to the Associated Press.

The move by Finland followed similar decisions by three neighboring countries on Wednesday. Sweden suspended the use of Moderna for people under 30, Denmark said those under 18 won’t be offered the Swiss-made vaccine, and Norway urged those under 30 to get the Pfizer vaccine instead.

• The UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said he wants to scrap costly PCR tests for international travellers returning to England in time for the October half-term holiday.
• “When it comes to the safety aspect, we are still requiring a test,” Shapps said, speaking on Sky News. “But we are going to move that down from being a PCR one, an expensive one that you have to send away to a lab, to a lateral flow test, so that will help and enable us to monitor things. We anticipate having it ready for the half-term. What a difference it will make for people.”
• Nadhim Zahawi, the UK education secretary, admitted yesterday he had no idea how many 12- to 15-year-olds in the UK had had their jabs, with early figures suggesting the government has little hope of hitting its target of vaccinating them all by half-term. There has been criticism today.
• The NHS says it aims to immunise more than half the population of the UK amid fears of a particularly deadly flu season. The health service said it planned to immunise a record 35 million people in what would be the most ambitious programme of flu jabs in its history.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has finalised a clinical case definition for post-Covid-19 condition, often called Long Covid. The definition states that symptoms appear within three months of infection, last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. Common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction. They may appear following recovery from acute-stage Covid-19, or persist from the initial illness. Symptoms may also fluctuate over time.
• Russia has set a new record for daily Covid deaths for the second time in three days. 936 died, surpassing the previous record of 929 that was set on Wednesday. There were 27,246 new cases recorded, just shy of yesterday’s total 27,550, which itself was also a record high.
• There continues to be a war of words over the delay in the European Medicines Agency (EMA) certifying Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use within the European Union. EU ambassador Markus Ederer said Russia has repeatedly delayed inspections by the EMA necessary for the certification. Russia has accused the West of refusing to certify its main vaccine for political reasons.
• A spokesperson for the World Health Organisation has said “We are slowly solving most of the issues” regarding delays in the WHO authorising Sputnik V for emergency use. The Sputnik V shot is widely used in Russia and has been approved for use in more than 70 countries.
• US president Joe Biden has talked up vaccine mandates, saying the unvaccinated have “put our economy at risk”. Speaking in Illinois on Thursday, he said: “vaccination requirements are good for the economy” and called on more business owners to enact them.
• Malaysia’s health ministry has granted conditional approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to be used as a booster shot. Panama, meanwhile, has said it is purchasing 3m additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
• Hospitals in Papua New Guinea are being pushed to the brink and morgues are overflowing, as the country suffers what health authorities say is the worst surge in Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, this week. I’ll be back live blogging from London bright and early on Monday. My colleague Tom Ambrose will be here shortly. There’s no UK politics live blog today, so he’ll be bringing you Covid-related news from the UK as well as around the world. Have a good weekend, see you soon.

There’s another quick update here on the situation with getting Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine registered for use by the World Health Organisation. Reuters report that the health agency has said it was “near” to resolving issues on the vaccine, without giving a date for a potential emergency use listing.

“We are slowly solving most of the issues” spokesperson Fadela Chaib said at a Geneva briefing.

I mentioned earlier [see 8.50am] that there has been a continuation of the war of words between Russia and the European Union over the failure of the vaccine to make progress in being registered for use in the EU.

Reuters have the latest official caseload and death figures from Russia, and again the country has set a record number of daily Covid-related deaths at 936. That surpasses the previous record of 929 that was set on Wednesday.

There were 27,246 new cases recorded, just shy of yesterday’s total 27,550, which itself was also a record high.

There continues to be a war of words over the delay in the European Medicines Agency (EMA) certifying Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use within the European Union. The Sputnik V shot is widely used in Russia and has been approved for use in more than 70 countries.

Olzhas Auyezov for Reuters has some quotes this morning attributed to EU ambassador Markus Ederer, who has told Russian media outlet RosBusinessConsulting: “This is a technical rather than a political process. When Russian officials talk about the process being delayed and politicised by the European side, I sometimes think they are largely referring to themselves because it is them who makes this about politics.”

Ederer said that Russia has repeatedly delayed inspections by the EMA necessary for the certification. Russia has accused the West of refusing to certify its main vaccine for political reasons, and that this makes it harder for Russians to travel.

Russian health minister Mikhail Murashko said this month that all the barriers to register Sputnik V with the World Health Organisation have been cleared and only some paperwork remained to be completed.

So to recap, in his media appearances this morning, UK transport minister Grant Shapps has said that the government are aiming to change the requirement for vaccinated people returning from abroad to take a PCR test to having them take a lateral flow test instead.

He told various UK media outlets that the government was hoping to have the change in place before half-term in October – which starts in England in most schools on Friday 22 October. He suggested people hold off from booking PCR tests with their holidays, as the cheaper lateral flow test option would be available.

Shapps said he hoped that travellers returning to the UK could be “done and dusted” with organising testing before they even get home, with lateral flows set to be made available at airports. He also told Times Radio that he hoped that by next summer, international travel would be testless.