11.21am EDT11:21
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a “tragic reversal” in development and pushed debt in poor countries to record levels, the head of the World Bank has said.
David Malpass, the bank’s president warned the virus had widened the gap between rich and poor nations, setting back progress by years and, in the case of some countries, by a decade.
Announcing new World Bank figures showing the debt burden of more than 70 low-income nations had increased by a record 12% to $860bn (£630bn) in 2020, Malpass called for a comprehensive plan to ease the debt pressures and for rich countries to make vaccines available to the less well-off.
He said one particular problem was the lack of a bankruptcy process to help in cases where debts had become unsustainable. Under the current system, companies can declare themselves bankrupt but countries cannot.
With income per head expected to rise by an average of 5% in developed countries this year compared with 0.5% in developing countries, Malpass said the problem of inequality was getting worse. The bank fears the problems of poor countries could deteriorate further as global interest rates rise from the emergency levels seen during the crisis. Malpass said:
We need a comprehensive approach to the debt problem, including debt reduction, swifter restructuring and improved transparency. Sustainable debt levels are vital for economic recovery and poverty reduction.
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11.11am EDT11:11
Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former president Win Myint pleaded not guilty to violating Covid restrictions, their lawyers said.
The pair were formally indicted after the army seized power and each was charged with two counts under the Disaster Management Act for failing to observe pandemic restrictions during last year’s general election campaign.
Each count carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.
Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won last November’s election in a landslide, but was unable to take a second five-year term in office when the military seized power on 1 February.
Ms Suu Kyi and leading members of her government and party remain under arrest, Reuters reported. The military said it acted because of widespread voter fraud, an assertion for which it has presented little proof.
10.58am EDT10:58
In case you missed it earlier, a study of 22 million people over the age of 50 in France has found that vaccination reduces the risk of dying or being hospitalised with Covid-19 by 90%.
The research published on Monday also found that vaccines appear to protect against the worst effects of the most prevalent virus strain, the Delta variant.
“This means that those who are vaccinated are nine times less at risk of being hospitalised or dying from Covid-19 than those who have not been vaccinated,” the epidemiologist Mahmud Zureik, who oversaw the research, told AFP.
The study – the largest of its kind so far – was carried out by Epi-Phare a scientific group set up by France’s health system, its national health insurance fund, l’Assurance Maladie (CNAM), and the country’s medicine’s agency (ANSM).
10.47am EDT10:47
In the UK, government ministers have urged parents to get their children vaccinated against Covid amid concerns about the vaccination programme in secondary schools.
The plea comes after the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that around one in 15 children in school years 7 to 11 in England are estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to 2 October.
A school leaders’ union has said head teachers are “increasingly frustrated” about delays to the Covid vaccination programme for 12- to 15-year-olds in schools at a time of rising pupil absences. The PA Media news agency reported:
The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) suggests that just 9% of this cohort in England had been vaccinated by October 3. In a joint letter to parents of secondary school and college pupils, the Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and Health Secretary Sajid Javid have said “vaccines are our best defence”.
Three million pupils aged between 12 and 15 across the UK are eligible to receive a first Covid-19 jab as part of a rollout that began three weeks ago.
The programme is expected to be delivered primarily within schools, but in Scotland young people in this cohort can also go to drop-in vaccine clinics. More than a third of 12- to 15-year-olds in Scotland have received a jab, the latest figures suggest.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has said it would support the use of walk-in centres in England if it would help to “boost take-up and speed of delivery” of vaccines among the age group.
It comes after figures showed the number of children out of school for Covid-related reasons in England increased by two-thirds in a fortnight.
The Department for Education (DfE) estimates that 2.5% of all pupils – more than 204,000 children – were not in class for reasons connected to coronavirus on 30 September.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL, said:
We welcome the intervention of the Education Secretary in encouraging take-up of Covid vaccinations, and indeed anything else that can be done to boost this crucial programme.
However, school leaders are increasingly frustrated about delays to the rollout of coronavirus vaccinations. There appear to be logistical issues around the capacity of health teams to deliver vaccinations at the speed and scale required.
The urgency of this programme is self-evident from the fact that the latest Government statistics show that more than 200,000 pupils were out of school at the latest count because of coronavirus-related reasons. Many schools are also experiencing teacher shortages because staff are contracting the virus.
Mr Barton has called on the Government to “do everything possible” to ensure the vaccination programme is properly resourced in a bid to tackle disruption.
10.30am EDT10:30
More than a third of fully vaccinated people aged 80 and above in England are likely to have received their Covid booster jab, latest figures suggest.
Of the nearly 2.7 million people in this age group in England who have already received two doses of vaccine, around 923,000 are estimated to have had their booster dose – the equivalent of 34%.
The figures, from NHS England, also show that 18% of double-jabbed people aged 75 to 79 are likely to have received a booster, along with 8% of those aged 70 to 74.
In total, more than 2.4m booster doses have now been delivered in England. This is the equivalent of just over 6% of the double-jabbed population – around one in 16 – according to analysis by PA Media.
Booster doses can only be offered to people who are at least six months on from receiving their second dose of coronavirus vaccine. If eligible, people who can receive a booster dose include all adults aged 50 and over; frontline health and social care workers; and those living in residential care homes for older adults.
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9.58am EDT09:58
Thailand to re-open to vaccinated tourists in November
Thailand is to re-open its borders to vaccinated tourists on 1 November, according to a speech made by the country’s prime minister today.
Prayut Chan-o-cha also confirmed alcohol will be allowed to be served at restaurants from 1 December, with entertainment venues reopening on the same date.
Thailand hopes to have 170m doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of the year, the prime minister added.
The country has some of the most intense Covid restrictions in the region, as the nation battles raising case rates due to coronavirus variants.
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9.36am EDT09:36
Calls are growing to abolish Italian neofascist movements after violent protests against Covid-19 vaccine passes in Rome, during which demonstrators tried to force their way into the official residence of the Italian prime minister.
Twelve people, including Roberto Fiore, the founder of the far-right Forza Nuova party, were arrested in connection to Saturday’s unrest, in which a group of about 30 raided a hospital accident and emergency unit – injuring four medical workers – and the offices of a trade union were stormed.
Protesters also tried to force their way past riot police and into the Chigi palace, the official residence of Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, in scenes reminiscent of supporters of the former US president Donald Trump storming the Capitol in January.
Neofascists had infiltrated a crowd of an estimated 10,000 people who had gathered in central Rome to protest against a government rule that obliges public and private workers to have a “green pass” before entering their workplaces.
The measure comes into force on 15 October and will require workers to have been double vaccinated, to show proof of a negative test taken within the previous 48 hours, or of having recovered from Covid-19.
Giuliano Castellino, the leader of Forza Nuova who has been banned from protests in the capital after previous violence, allegedly incited the crowd to ransack the offices of CGIL, Italy’s oldest trade union. A gang used metal bars and sticks to smash their way into the building.
The scenes were widely condemned on Monday, with politicians from the centre-left Democratic party presenting a motion in parliament calling for Forza Nuova and other neofascist movements to be dissolved. A similar motion was presented by the centrist Italia Viva party and the Italian Socialist party.
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9.29am EDT09:29
Developing nations and the head of the United Nations have demanded a fairer global distribution of Covid vaccines.
At a meeting to mark the 60th anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (Nam), founder member Ghana hit out at global powers for failing to share vaccines equitably, suggesting poor nations were at the mercy of powerful states hoarding supplies.
Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo told the meeting in Belgrade:
We are observers of a global power play and are subject to the benevolence of powerful countries who give out their hoarded [vaccine] supplies at their own pace.
Meanwhile, the UN’s secretary-general António Guterres urged wealthy nations to allocate half of the funds they provide to developing nations to tackle the climate crisis to the job of helping those countries to adapt and survive in a heating world, the Reuters news agency reported.
Guterres said in a video message at the opening of a two-day meeting:
Fifty percent of all climate finance provided by developed countries and multilateral development banks should be dedicated to adaptation, to resilience.
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9.09am EDT09:09
NHS test-and-trace units in the UK run by G4S have cut the pay of some workers by up to 5% after a new contract from the government that specifies they should receive the real living wage.
The affected workers are part of a group of 1,000 who work at mobile Covid-19 testing units at about 100 sites around the country, and are employed by G4S via the HR Go recruitment agency.
Some were told their hourly pay rate would drop from £10 an hour to a maximum of £9.50 an hour outside London, a cut of 5%. Those in London will drop from a maximum £11 an hour to £10.85, a 1.4% cut.
In a note sent to staff, G4S said the pay change was the result of a new 12-month contract with the government, under which it was required to pay all staff the real living wage, an independently verified minimum of £10.85 in London and £9.50 elsewhere.
While this will result in a pay rise for some workers, who earned as little as £9.30 an hour, others contacted the Guardian to say their pay had been cut from £10 an hour.
The letter to workers said that the previously higher rates of pay reflected “uncertainty around how long [the government] would require sites to operate”.
It said: “The longer-term nature of the [new one-year contract] provides more certainty and therefore the real living wage is more appropriate for the longer-term role.”
Sara Gorton, the head of health at the Unison union, said: “Living wage clauses are designed as a minimum – not an excuse for some greedy contractors to reduce pay.”
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8.42am EDT08:42
In the UK, a minister has refused to confirm whether Russian spies “stole” the British-made Covid-19 vaccine to create its own jab.
Home Office minister Damian Hinds would not be drawn on allegations that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine’s design was used to create Russia’s Sputnik V jab, instead saying more generally that “state activity” was involved in “industrial espionage”.
His comments come after a report by the Sun newspaper that suggests “security services” sources have evidence that Russian intelligence agents had stolen the Oxford vaccine design.
Downing Street has said accusations of intellectual property theft and cyberattacks were taken “extremely seriously”. Hinds told LBC:
We live in world, I am afraid, where there is state activity seeking to engage in industrial espionage and economic espionage, there are cyber attacks that happen and so on.
I won’t comment on the specific case that you mention because that wouldn’t be right to do in detail, but it would be fair to say, correct to say, that we face threats of this type that are different, they are more sophisticated, they are more extensive than they ever have been before.
The face of espionage, the face of spying, is very different from when you and I were growing up and we need to constantly upgrade our capability. These are very serious matters.
Conservative MP Bob Seely, a member of the foreign affairs committee, told the Sun that the UK needed to “get serious about Russian and Chinese espionage”.
The Isle of Wight MP said:
Whether it is stealing the design for AstraZeneca or blackmailing us over energy by these authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, we need to get wise to them.
Last year, UK security services had accused Russian spies of trying to steal details of coronavirus vaccine research being carried out by the UK, US and Canada.
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