Health News at Your Fingertips

France has recorded 104,804 coronavirus deaths in hospital, up by 355.
It also reported 3,618 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, down by 25, Reuters reports.

Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed on Friday.
In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The data also showed 248 people died due to Covid-19 in the same 24-hour period, the highest daily toll since Oct. 4 when there were also 248 deaths, Reuters reports.

Of the 377 local areas in the UK, 111 (29%) have seen a week-on-week rise in Covid-19 rates, 264 (70%) have seen a fall and two are unchanged.

Lisburn & Castlereagh in Northern Ireland has the highest rate in the UK, with 2,871 cases in the seven days to January 31.

Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon in Northern Ireland has the second highest rate, up slightly from 1,924.2 to 1,942.6, with 4,220 cases.

Cambridge has the third highest rate, down slightly from 1,812.7 to 1,796.7, with 2,247 cases, PA reports.

The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard.

Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday. On Friday last week, the UK reported 89,176 new cases of coronavirus and 277 deaths within 28 days of a positive test

Police in the Canadian capital of Ottawa have promised tougher action against hundreds of truckers who have blockaded the city centre for eight days as part of a protest against Covid vaccine mandates.

To the increasing fury of residents, police have so far largely stood by and watched as some protesters smashed windows, threatened reporters and abused racial minorities.

The Ottawa police service said it would put more officers on the street and was “implementing a surge and contain strategy” to restore order, Reuters reported.

“The hatred, violence, and illegal acts that Ottawa residents and businesses have endured over the last week is unacceptable in any circumstance,” it said in a statement.

“The Ottawa Police Service and the City of Ottawa are bringing significantly greater resources to restore order, hold offenders to account and protect our neighbourhoods.”

Police will order some truckers to move and if they refuse, their vehicles will be towed, it said.

There is a realistic possibility of large waves of Covid infection in the future in Britain and such waves might even be considered likely, epidemiologists who model the Covid pandemic to inform government advice have said.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has ditched legal restrictions in England, saying that, while the pandemic was not over, Britain needs to learn to live with Covid, Reuters reported.

The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) said the emergence of new viral variants was the biggest unknown factor in the medium-to-long term, along with waning population immunity and changes in mixing patterns.

“Large future waves of infection that need active management to prevent detrimental pressure on the health and care sector are, at least, a realistic possibility (high confidence) or likely (medium confidence),” SPI-M-O said in a consensus statement published on Friday.

Britain has reported 157,730 deaths from Covid, the seventh highest total globally, and Johnson has faced heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic, which has seen three national lockdowns.

The estimated range of England’s Covid reproduction “R” number has risen to between 0.8 and 1.1, returning to its value of two weeks ago, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday, adding that the number of cases each day could be rising.

An R number between 0.8 and 1.1 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between eight and 11 other people. Last week, the range was 0.7 to 0.9, however, the week before the range was also 0.8 to 1.1.

The daily growth of infections was estimated at between -3% to +1%, compared with -6% to -2% the previous week.

In Scotland, a community hospital is taking no new admissions due to an outbreak of coronavirus.

Invergordon County Community hospital announced its closure to new patients and visitors on Friday after it detected a small number of positive cases on site, PA Media reported.

Staff said contacts of those who have tested positive have been identified and given advice, and patients in the hospital are being monitored, with in-patient care continuing as normal.

A spokesperson for the hospital said:

All appropriate infection prevention and control measures have been put in place.

We have not reached this decision lightly and recognise that this could cause a great deal of concern and anxiety for patients and their loved ones during this time. These measures will be reviewed on a regular basis.

If your visit is essential please contact the ward your relative or loved one is in, and the staff will support you with arrangements.

Please do not visit any of our hospitals or care home settings if you or anyone else in your household has tested positive for Covid-19 or has any symptoms.

The UK’s transport secretary Grant Shapps has tested positive for coronavirus.

Shapps is the second British cabinet minister to test positive in the space of five days following foreign secretary Liz Truss, who revealed she was isolating on Monday.

Writing on Twitter, Shapps said: “Have tested positive for £COVID19 so am self-isolating and testing as required.”

A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against Covid is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated.

Few other countries look likely to go as far as attention turns to loosening restrictions, the Associated Press reports.

The Austrian mandate for residents 18 and over to get vaccinated — the first of its kind in Europe – cleared its last legislative hurdle Thursday when parliament’s upper house approved what health minister Wolfgang Mückstein called “a forward-looking and active step”.

It’s expected to become law in the coming days but it will be a while before Austrians notice any practical change. And it isn’t clear when or even whether the toughest part of the plan, which was watered down from the initial proposal, will take effect.

Only in mid-March will police start checking people’s vaccination status during traffic stops and checks on coronavirus restrictions.

People who can’t produce proof of vaccination will be asked in writing to do so, and will be fined up to €600 ($680) if they don’t; fines could reach €3,600 if people contest their punishment and full proceedings are opened.

The risk of death involving Covid is 93% lower for people who have had a booster or third dose of vaccine compared with unvaccinated people, research suggests.

Mortality rates for coronavirus deaths were found to be “consistently lower” across all age groups for those who had received an extra dose compared with those who had received no doses, according to the the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The research used age-standardised mortality rates, which take into account differences in age structure and population size, to allow for comparisons between vaccination groups, the Press Association reports.

Among fully vaccinated people in England who had received a booster or third dose at least 21 days previously, the age-adjusted risk of death involving Covid between July and December last year was 93.4% lower compared with unvaccinated people, while it was 81.2% lower for those who had received only two doses.

For much of 2021, mortality rates for death involving Covid for people who had received two doses of vaccine remained well below the equivalent figures for people who were unvaccinated, the ONS found.

But rates among double-jabbed people started to increase at the end of last year, jumping from 92.0 deaths per 100,000 in October to 221.1 in November and 367.7 in December.

This may have been driven by a change in the composition of the double-jabbed group, with most older people having received a booster or third dose by this point, the ONS said. It might also be connected to “waning protection from prior vaccination”.

Hong Kong plans to roll out rapid antigen tests for Covid to all of its 7.5 million population in the near future, city leader Carrie Lam said today.

It comes as the increasingly isolated global financial hub tries to control a new outbreak, the Reuters news agency reported.

Lam told reporters her government was working on increasing testing, contact tracing and vaccination capacity and making plans to send hospitalised asymptomatic patients to a quarantine facility reserved for close contacts as infections add up.

Amid worries of invisible transmissions in the city, Lam said the government was procuring tens of millions of rapid antigen tests, but did not specify when and how the government will deploy them for voluntary universal testing.

On Friday, Hong Kong reported 131 positive cases, compared with 142 on Thursday. Some 195 tested “preliminary positive” and may be added to the count in coming days subject to further tests. The previous record was 164 cases in late January.

“This latest outbreak is the worst we have seen in the past two years,” Lam said. “Our strategy is the same: we aim to cut transmission chains as soon as possible.”