Health News at Your Fingertips

Hello, it’s Robyn Vinter here, taking over the live blog for the next few hours.

US President Joe Biden has received his booster jab for Covid-19 at the White House. This is his third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after announcing last week that Americans over the age of 65 and frontline workers would be eligible for booster shots.

Here is a quick round-up of the coronavirus stories dominating the headlines today in the UK and around the world:

• The UK has recorded a further 40 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest government data. It marks a decrease in the daily deaths figure, after 58 deaths were reported on Sunday. However, 37,960 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours – up from 32,417 on Sunday.
• In the United States, president Joe Biden will receive a coronavirus booster jab on Monday, the White House announced. It comes days after his administration gave the go-ahead for a third shot of Pfizer’s vaccine in certain populations.
• The British prime minister Boris Johnson has finally agreed to meet the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group at Downing Street, well over a year after first promising to do so.
• In Japan, the Covid state of emergency will be lifted in all regions at the end of September. Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Monday that he will discuss whether to lift the state of emergency with a government expert panel on Tuesday.
• The UK has fully vaccinated more than two-thirds of its population against Covid – one of a small number of countries to reach the milestone.
• In the US, hospital and nursing home workers in New York must be vaccinated against Covid by the end of today to be allowed to continue working in their jobs.
• Australian authorities have announced plans to reopen locked-down Sydney using a two-tiered system that will give people who are vaccinated against Covid more more freedoms than their unvaccinated neighbours for several weeks.
• South Korea has announced it will begin vaccinating children aged 12 to 17 and offering Covid vaccine booster shots to those 75 years and above.
• In Northern Ireland, shoppers have been urged not to “rush at once” to apply for a high street voucher scheme. All adults are eligible for a £100 pre-paid card to spend on the high street as the government looked to boost local businesses devastated by the pandemic.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back on the Covid live blog tomorrow but my colleague Robyn Vinter will continue to bring you the latest coronavirus news throughout the evening. Goodbye.

Yemen’s top diplomat has said the country needs millions more Covid vaccines to ensure people living in poverty are not left behind.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said the roughly one million doses it received is not enough to vaccinate even its most vulnerable citizens. He said:

These amounts are still not enough to cover the targeted groups.

We hope that the donating countries will contribute to increasing the number of vaccines so that no one is left behind.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported:

Yemen has a long way to go toward vaccinating the majority of its some 30 million people, most of whom are facing multiple humanitarian crises, including poverty, hunger and poor access to adequately run hospitals.

Yemen’s government has received just roughly 500,000 doses so far this year through the COVAX initiative, and the rest through direct donations from other countries.

Yemen has been stricken by civil war since 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital, Sana’a, and much of the northern part of the country.

A pharmacy owner in Puerto Rico has pleaded guilty to illegally vaccinating two dozen children against Covid with shots that had not been approved as safe for that age group.

The US Attorney’s Office said Liz Ann Banchs fully inoculated children between the ages of seven and 11 with the Pfizer vaccine from late May until late June, the Associated Press reported.

The vaccine is currently approved for those 12 years and older, though Pfizer announced last week that a version of its vaccine, with much-reduced doses, is safe and works for children ages 5 to 11 and that it will soon seek US authorisation for that age group.

Authorities said the illegal vaccination occurred at Farmacia Gabriela in the southern mountain town of Juana Diaz. They said Banchs faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

In Venezuela, concerns have been raised over the use of Cuba’s Abdala Covid vaccine due to a lack of scientific research into its safety and efficacy.

It comes as Cuba confirmed on Saturday that it had exported the three-dose vaccine for the first time, with an initial shipment being sent to Vietnam as part of a contract to supply five million doses to the Southeast Asian country.

But Venezuela’s National Academy of Medicine has moved to warn against its use due to its lack of World Health Organization (WHO) approval, Reuters reported today.

The Venezuelan government has so far been relying on the Russian Sputnik V and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines and, in recent months, received its first shipment of doses via the global COVAX program.

The academy said in a statement:

The characteristics of the Sputnik V vaccine have been published in scientific journals and its quality has been verified in independent clinical trials … the Sinopharm vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Abdala has not been approved by the WHO or any international regulatory agency.

Venezuela received its first batch of 30,000 Abdala doses in June as part of clinical trials, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sunday said another batch had been sent, without confirming how many vaccines were shipped.

The academy “expresses its deep concern that a product for which there is no scientific information on safety and efficacy … is being administered to Venezuelans,”€ the academy added.

In the United States, president Joe Biden will receive a coronavirus booster jab on Monday, the White House announced.

It comes days after his administration gave the go-ahead for a third shot of Pfizer’s vaccine in certain populations.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week backed an additional dose of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions and adults in high-risk working and institutional settings.

Biden, 78, has said he and his wife Jill Biden would get their booster dose as soon as eligible.

Pfizer has started testing a potential coronavirus treatment as a preventive medicine.

The drug will be aimed at preventing people becoming infected with the virus if a close contact have tested positive for it already.

The Reuters news agency reported:

The drugmaker said Monday that it will study the pill it is developing in combination with a low dose of the HIV drug ritonavir in people who are at least 18 years old and live in the same household with someone who is infected.

Pfizer plans to enrol 2,660 people in the late-stage study. Those participating will get either the treatment combination or a fake drug orally twice a day for five to 10 days.

Researchers expect that the use of ritonavir will help slow the breakdown of the potential treatment so it remains active longer to help fight the virus.

“If successful, we believe this therapy could help stop the virus early – before it has had a chance to replicate extensively,” Pfizer chief scientific officer Dr Mikael Dolsten said in a statement.

Jordan’s crown Prince Hussein has tested positive for coronavirus, the country’s palace announced today.

His parents King Abdullah and Queen Rania, who tested negative, have chosen to protectively self-isolate for five days, according to the Reuters news agency.

The palace said in a statement:

His Highness Prince Hussein, who had received the vaccine against the coronavirus, showed mild symptoms and is in very good health.

A vaccine-sceptic Roman Catholic cardinal who was placed on a ventilator after contracting Covid has admitted he is still struggling to recover from the virus.

Cardinal Raymond Burke posted a letter on his website on Saturday saying he had left hospital and moved into a house near his family, reports the Associated Press, which added:

Burke said he’s going through in-home rehabilitation, still suffers from fatigue and has difficulty breathing. He didn’t detail what his rehabilitation regimen includes but said he is making steady but slow progress. He said a secretary from Rome has moved in with him to help him with his rehabilitation and catch up on his work.

Burke wrote on his website:

I cannot predict when I will be able to return to my normal activities. Seemingly, it will be several more weeks.

Burke, one of the church’s most outspoken conservatives, tweeted on August 10 that he had contracted Covid.

Meanwhile, Italy has reported 45 more coronavirus-related deaths on Monday compared to 44 the day before, its health ministry said.

It comes as the country’s daily tally of new infections fell to 1,772 from 3,099, Reuters reported.

Italy has registered 130,742 deaths linked to Covid since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world.

The UK has recorded a further 40 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest government data.

It marks a decrease in the daily deaths figure, after 58 deaths were reported on Sunday. However, 37,960 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours – up from 32,417 on Sunday.

The number of Covid vaccines being delivered also fell, with 14,120 first doses and 24,851 second doses being given to people up to and including Sunday.

It brings the total number of jabs given to 48,736,534 first doses and 44,764,324 second doses and marks more than 82% of over-16s in the UK as being fully vaccinated.