Health News at Your Fingertips

Novavax Inc. announced Wednesday it had completed its rolling regulatory submission to the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

The application is based on clinical data from a phase 3 trial involving 15,000 volunteers in the UK, in which the vaccine “demonstrated efficacy of 96.4% against the original virus strain, 86.3% against the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant and 89.7% efficacy overall.”

The submission also includes supporting data from a 30,000-person clinical trial in the US and Mexico, which demonstrated “100% protection against moderate and severe disease and 90.4% efficacy overall,” according to Novavax.

If approved, Novavax will be the first protein-based vaccine available in the UK.

Europe was the only region in the world to report an increase in both Covid-19 cases and deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

Europe reported a rise in cases for the fourth consecutive week, amounting to a 18% increase in infections compared with the previous week. The region also saw a 14% increase in deaths week on week, according to WHO’s weekly epidemiological update.

The figures represent more than 1.6 million new cases across Europe and over 21,000 deaths.

With over 513,000 new cases, the United States reported the highest number of infections last week, the UK was second, followed by Russia.

Singapore has reached a grim milestone, reporting its highest single-day rise in Covid-19 infections since the pandemic began.

The health ministry reported 5,324 new cases Wednesday, and 10 more coronavirus related deaths.

Infections have surged in Singapore following the relaxation of some restrictions earlier this month, prompting the country to pause plans for a full reopening.

Last week, public health officials warned that Singapore’s hospitals are at risk of being “overwhelmed”, after the country reported its highest ever daily death toll.

Of the country’s 366 ICU beds in public hospitals, 306 have occupants and 171 of those patients are being treated for coronavirus, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health Monday.

Over 80% of Singapore’s total population are fully vaccinated against the virus.

Covid-19 cases and deaths are declining in countries across North, Central and South America, the United Nations Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) told a press briefing Wednesday.

The region recorded its lowest Covid-19 figures in over a year according to PAHO, with only a few outlying countries, such as Paraguay and Belize, bucking the trend.

Downward trends in cases and deaths have taken hold across the large Caribbean islands, including Cuba, which has faced a resurgent outbreak of Covid-19 in recent months.

The overall vaccination rate in Latin America and the Caribbean currently sits around 44% according to PAHO’s data, however at least half a dozen countries in the region are yet to immunise 20% of their populations.

In August, PAHO set up a fund to procure additional vaccine doses on top of the UN-backed Covax initiative, in order to boost coverage throughout the region.

The UK recorded 43,941 new Covid-19 cases Wednesday and 207 more people have died within 28 days of a positive test, official figures show.

Today’s numbers represent a slight uptick in cases since yesterday, when 40,954 new infections were reported.

Cases, hospitalisations and deaths continue to steadily rise across the UK, but leaked documents from Treasury have warned that enacting the government’s ‘Plan B’ proposal to curb the spread of the virus could cost the economy £18bn.

Covid-19 case numbers and deaths among meatpacking plant workers across the US were three times higher than previously estimated, a probe by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis revealed Wednesday.

The Select Subcommittee has been investigating surging Covid-19 infections and deaths across the meatpacking industry since February, focusing on the country’s major beef providers, Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, National Beef, and Smithfield Foods, which control over 80% of the beef market and 60% of the pork market.

Reuters reports that Covid-19 cases were 2.6 times higher, and deaths were 3 times higher at these companies’ plants, than previously estimates by the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN).

A fuller picture of the Subcommittee’s findings will emerge later today, during a remote/in-person hearing entitled “How the Meatpacking Industry Failed the Workers Who Feed America.”

Meatpacking plants – which were filled with essential workers – were identified as Covid-19 hot spots early on in the pandemic.

The Subcommittee’s investigation was launched to examine how America’s largest meat companies failed to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 throughout their facilities or put in place measures to protect workers, despite pulling in record profits during the pandemic.

This week’s hearing will review those missteps and recommend what actions need to be taken in order to better protect essential meatpacking workers in the future.

The nationwide state of emergency in Germany – put in place to deal with the pandemic – will likely expire next month, after the three political parties in talks to form a new coalition government signaled Wednesday they won’t extend it.

The national state of emergency, which has been in place since last year, was the first in Germany’s post-war history. It expands the executive powers of the federal government, and allows it to unilaterally impose restrictions on states without the consent of parliament.

A parliamentary vote is needed to extend the order, but despite a rise in infections, key players in coalition talks – the center-left Social Democrat (SPD), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) – said they will likely let it expire.

“School closures, lockdowns and curfews will no longer happen with us. And these are not necessary at the moment,” SPD parliamentary group vice chairman Dirk Wiese said, according to Deutsche Welle.

Covid-19 booster shots will soon be available in Sweden for health care workers and people over 65 the government announced Wednesday.

1.5 million people will be offered booster shots under the expanded program, according to Reuters. Previously, only residents of care homes or those aged 80 and over were eligible.

Nearly 67% of Sweden’s total population have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 according to Our World in Data.

British opposition leader Keir Starmer has tested positive for coronavirus and will miss the opportunity to respond to the government’s budget during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in parliament today, the Labour party has confirmed.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband is standing in and it is expected that Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, will respond to the budget.

Starmer is fully vaccinated, after receiving both doses of AstraZeneca earlier this year.

A landmark voluntary licensing deal has been signed between pharmaceutical giant Merck and the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool which will enable low-cost access to the company’s Covid-19 antiviral pill in lower income countries.

A voluntary license allows for the royalty-free licensing and generic production of Merck’s antiviral pill. It’s one of the few examples we’ve seen in the pandemic so far of a multinational suspending intellectual property rights in order to share life-saving medical technology.

The pill, known as molnupiravir, was developed by Merck in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

Regulators in the US and Europe are currently conducting rolling reviews of the medicine for emergency use authorisation.

If authorised, molnupiravir could become the world’s first oral antiviral Covid-19 treatment.

• The British Medical Association (BMA) has said the threat that NHS staff could lose their jobs if they do not get a Covid-19 vaccine is “of grave concern”. Healthcare workers have been warned they could face a mandatory requirement to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Any reduction of NHS staff due to vaccination requirements would be a “devastating” blow, leading doctors have said.
• The UK government’s flagship test-and-trace system has failed to achieve “its main objective” to cut infection levels and help Britain return to normal despite being handed an “eye-watering” £37bn in taxpayers’ cash, the Commons spending watchdog has warned. Chair of the committee Dame Meg Hillier said to the media this morning that the Dido Harding-led test and trace programme treated taxpayers as if they were “an ATM”.
• Russia has set another new record for daily Covid deaths, at 1,123. That brings the nation’s official death toll to 233,898, although that number is widely suspected to be under-counted. Russia also reported 36,582 new coronavirus cases. Moscow will be putting in new restrictions from tomorrow, and next week the country will have a week away from work in a bid to halt the domestic transmission of the virus – the government has mandated a week’s paid leave for all non-essential workers.
• Poland’s health ministry said there were 8,361 new cases in the previous 24 hours, a sharp rise on the 6,265 recorded the previous day. The last time Poland was recording more than 8,000 cases per day was back in April 2021.
• Hungary has seen a steady increase in infections over the past weeks – with today’s numbers – 3,125 new cases – jumping from 1,668 daily new cases a week ago.
• The Czech Republic reported 6,274 new Covid-19 cases, almost doubling in a week as the country struggles to contain a new wave of the pandemic. The number of coronavirus infections in Bulgaria rose by 6,813 in the past 24 hours, a new record high daily tally since the start of the pandemic
• China has reported nearly 250 locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 since the start of the current outbreak 10 days ago, with many infections in remote towns along porous international borders in the country’s northwest. China had 50 new local cases for 26 October, the highest daily count since 16 September.
• A Brazilian Senate committee recommended that president Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s second highest Covid-19 death toll. The seven-to-four vote on Tuesday was the culmination of a six-month committee investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
• The world’s biggest economies should create a forum to facilitate global coordination for the next pandemic, as well as a new financing facility to keep up with emerging threats, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen and Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati have said in a letter to their G20 colleagues
• The Covid-19 crisis is far “far from finished”, the World Health Organization’s emergency committee has said. The 19-member committee, which meets every three months to discuss the pandemic and make recommendations, also called for research into next-generation vaccines and long-term action to control the virus.
• Vaccine booster rates are now exceeding first-shot rates across the US, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• In Thailand, businesses are pleading with the government to drop the nation’s current alcohol ban when the country reopens, saying it will deter tourists.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. It is a big day in UK politics as it is the Budget, so Andrew Sparrow and Graeme Wearden are live blogging that here. Hannah Ritchie will be here shortly to take you through the rest of the day’s coronavirus news from the UK and around the world.