Health News at Your Fingertips

Trials begin in Manchester for new Covid drug

UK scientists are beginning human trials of a new Covid jab that they hope may work against new variants and offer longer-lasting immunity than the vaccines currently in use.

The new drug – GRT-R910 – will initially be trialled on participants over 60 in Manchester and will be investigated to see if it boosts the immune response created by the first jabs.

The trials are taking place at the National Institute for Health Research Manchester Clinical Research Facility at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Professor Andrew Ustianowski, of Manchester University, one of the clinical leads of the study, said: “We now know the immune response to first-generation vaccines can wane, particularly in older people.

“Coupled with the prevalence of emerging variants, there is a clear need for continued vigilance to keep Covid-19 at bay.

“We think GRT-R910 as a booster vaccination will elicit strong, durable and broad immune responses, which are likely to be critical in maintaining protection of this vulnerable elderly population who are particularly at risk of hospitalisation and death.”

The research is being done through collaboration between US pharmaceutical company Gritstone, The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

The vaccine GRT-R910 is a self-amplifying mRNA second generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine – or SAM for short.

Long awaited results from trials of Pfizer Covid vaccines on children aged five to 11 have shown promising results.

This morning, Pfizer and their partner BioNTech SE announced that their Covid vaccine produced strong antibody responses in children aged five to 11 in a large scale trial.

It is one of the first major trials to look at how well the vaccine could work on young children.

In a trial with 2,268 participants, two shots of a 10 microgram dose – one-third the adult shot – produced antibody levels comparable to those seen in a trial of 16- to 25-year-olds who got the adult dose, the companies said, with similar side effects.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they plan to submit the data as part of a near-term request for an emergency-use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, and to share it with regulators in Europe as well.

Pressure has been mounting to vaccinate children in the US where restrictions exist in many parts of the country for people who are not fully vaccinated.

In an interview with Bloomberg News this summer, top FDA vaccine official Peter Marks said he asked drugmakers to expand their peadiatric trials three or four times in size “to try to have a larger safety dataset” to increase confidence in the shots.

Because children are at lower risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid there has been extra pressure on drug developers to ensure the vaccine risk doesn’t outweigh the threat of Covid.

In rare cases, the messenger RNA vaccines have been linked to heart inflammation and heart-lining inflammation, and the risk appears to be highest in younger males.

“Uncertainty” over Covid in Germany means restrictions may need to stay over winter.

The German government has said it will not be setting a “freedom day” date for lifting all Covid social distancing regulations.

A spokesman for the government told Reuters that because of the lack of certainty over how the pandemic would develop over winter there could not be a commitment to ending all restrictions.

Local media reported at the weekend that some German health experts have been calling for a “UK-style freedom day”.

Andreas Gassen, the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), said Germany should take inspiration from England and lift Covid restrictions at the end of October.

“After the experience of Britain, we should also have the courage to do what worked on the island,” Gassen told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “So what’s needed now is a clear announcement from politicians: in six weeks, it’s Freedom Day here too! On October 30th, all restrictions will be lifted!”

Germany is trying to boost vaccination rates as it goes through what some are saying is a fourth Covid wave. About 67.2% of the total population has received at least one jab in Germany, and 63.1% are fully vaccinated.

Hello, it’s Harriet Grant now taking over the liveblog.

UK lockdown led to a huge fall in teen pregnancies

The number of girls under 18 becoming pregnant in England and Wales fell by more than a quarter during the first national coronavirus lockdown – to the lowest number of conceptions in a single quarter for 20 years.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that between April and June 2020 there were 2,600 conceptions among under-18s.

Although teen pregnancies have been on a downward trend in recent years these figures are still was a fall of 27.7% on the previous three months, January to March.

The figures cover pregnancies that result in a live birth, stillbirth or an abortion. They do not include miscarriages or pregnancies terminated through illegal abortions.

The date of conception is estimated using the recorded gestation for abortions and stillbirths, and assuming 38 weeks’ gestation for live births.

Here is a round-up of all the day’s main Covid news stories from around the world so far:

• Coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out to children aged between 12 and 15, with 3 million youngsters eligible across the UK.
• China reported on Monday 49 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland for 19 September, down from 66 a day earlier, according to National Health Commission data.
• In Australia, riot police have moved in to disperse crowds at the Melbourne headquarters of a construction union, after a protest against mandatory vaccines turned ugly, with the CFMEU blaming “outside extremists” for the violence.
• In the US, a group of disgruntled Republicans has questioned if the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, used political influence to pull a TV ad criticising his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
• India carried out its lowest number of daily coronavirus tests since mid-August on Sunday as its health ministry urged local governments to remain resilient throughout the autumn festival season.
• Workers in Ireland have started returning to offices for the first time since March 2020 after the latest easing of Covid restrictions. The government on Monday also allowed the resumption of indoor group activities such as dance and yoga for up to 100 people who are vaccinated or have recovered from the virus.
• Russia has reported 778 new deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I am handing over the global Covid blog to my colleague Harriet Grant, who will bring you the latest throughout the afternoon.

Russia has reported 778 new deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, according to the Reuters news agency.

It comes days after president Vladimir Putin said “dozens” of people in his inner circle at the Kremlin have tested positive for Covid, which has affected more than 7 million people in the badly hit country.

Putin said he was self-isolating after announcing an outbreak among members of his entourage.

“Cases of the coronavirus were detected in my inner circle. Not just one or two but several dozen people,” Putin said, speaking via video link at a meeting of a Moscow-led security alliance.

Researchers are collecting samples from bats in northern Cambodia in an attempt to understand the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a region where a very similar virus was found in the animals a decade ago.

Two samples from horseshoe bats were collected in 2010 in Stung Treng province near Laos and kept in freezers at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh.

Tests done on them last year revealed a close relative to the coronavirus that has killed more than 4.6 million people worldwide.

Dr Veasna Duong, the head of virology at the IPC, said his institute had made four similar trips in the past two years, hoping for clues about the origin and evolution of the bat-borne virus.

“We want to find out whether the virus is still there and … to know how the virus has evolved,” he told Reuters.

Back in Australia, riot police have moved in to disperse crowds at the Melbourne headquarters of a construction union, after a protest against mandatory vaccines turned ugly, with the CFMEU blaming “outside extremists” for the violence.

Police used pepper spray and rubber bullets to move the crowd, which took over the intersection outside the Queen Victoria Market.

Bottles were thrown at the already smashed glass entrance doors to the building in Melbourne’s city centre as those protecting the entry sought refuge indoors just before 4pm local time.

Protesters also seemed to be turning against each other, with a number of small fights breaking out within the crowd of bright orange and yellow.

The union released a statement just after 4pm, saying it has always supported freedom of choice regarding vaccination. It read:

We are not going to be intimidated by outside extremists attempting to intimidate the union, by spreading misinformation and lies about the union’s position.

The CFMEU will always advocate for safety, jobs, and freedom of choice.

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has given the go-ahead for face-to-face school classes to resume in areas of the country seen as “low risk”.

Reuters reports that up to 120 schools to join a two-month pilot scheme in areas with low Covid case rates.

The Philippines is among 17 countries globally where schools have been closed for the entirety of the pandemic, according to a report last week by the United Nations children’s agency Unicef, highlighting what it called “18 months of lost learning”.

Previously Duterte has said he would keep schools close until a vaccine was available but his education secretary Leonor Briones confirmed on Monday that lessons, limited to three to four hours per session, will resume with the consent from parents and guardians required.

However, Briones warned in a media briefing:

If there are changes in the risk assessment, then we will stop it.

The pilot, which will begin immediately, will include 100 public schools and 20 private institutions, limiting class size to 12 children in kindergarten, 16 in grades 1-3, and 20 at senior high school level.

India carried out its lowest number of daily coronavirus tests since mid-August on Sunday as its health ministry urged local governments to remain resilient throughout the autumn festival season.

Only 1.18m tests were carried out in states and federally controlled territories on Sunday, according to government data. That is down from 1.56m on Saturday.

India has the capacity to test more than 2 million but most states have now dropped compulsory testing for fully vaccinated travellers as they attempt to reopen their economies.

The Reuters news agency reported today:

The federal health ministry urged states and federally controlled territories on Saturday to step up testing, warning that the festival season could lead to another spike in infections.

Local governments are responsible for local-level health policies in the country, as per the Indian constitution.

After a meeting with state officials on Saturday, the health ministry said that there was “no room for any complacency” and that local authorities should urgently augment hospital infrastructure, oxygen supply, ambulance services and build up buffer stocks of critical drugs.

New Covid infections have plateaued at around 30,000 a day as vaccinations surged but health experts say this could also been down to reduced testing.

Some 64% of India’s adult population has received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose and 22% two doses.

On Monday, India reported 30,256 new Covid-19 infections and 295 deaths, taking the total caseload to 33.48 million and death toll to 445,133.

Covid restrictions in Hanoi, Vietnam, are set to ease this week as new cases continue to decline and the majority of its adult population are at least partially vaccinated.

Its government has announced that most construction projects can resume on Wednesday, according to the Reuters news agency.

While Hanoi has managed to avoid the brunt of the coronavirus wave to hit the country since late April, average daily cases are down to 20.

Authorities have confirmed that 94% of adults in Hanoi have received at least one shot of the Covid jab, with second doses aiming to be completed by the end of November.

The deputy chairman of Hanoi’s ruling People’s Committee, Duong Duc Tuan, said:

We can’t maintain the social distancing measures indefinitely.

Tuan added that the city’s approach will be flexible and scientific, aimed at containing the virus while reviving economic activities.

Vietnam has suffered from Covid throughout spring and summer 2021 but fewer than 50 of more than 17,000 deaths nationwide were recorded in the city, as well as just 4,414 of the country’s total 687,000 cases.

The centre of the outbreak, the business hub Ho Chi Minh City, more than 1,50 km (932 miles) away by road, has been hardest hit, with 49% of the country’s cases and 78% of its fatalities.

China reported on Monday 49 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland for 19 September, down from 66 a day earlier, according to National Health Commission data.

Of the new infections, 28 were locally transmitted, all of them in the south-eastern province of Fujian, the health authority said. That compares with 43 local cases a day earlier.

China reported two new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, which it does not classify as confirmed infections, compared with 19 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported.

As of Sunday, mainland China had recorded 95,738 confirmed cases, with the death toll unchanged at 4,636.

Coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out to children aged between 12 and 15, with 3 million youngsters eligible across the UK, PA Media reports.

The programme is expected to be delivered primarily within schools, and guidance has been issued to headteachers to contact police if they believe protests could be held outside their buildings.

Children will be offered jabs at some schools in England from Monday.

The rollout for 12- to 15-year-olds is also beginning in Scotland and Wales this week. Young people in this age bracket in Scotland can go to drop-in clinics or wait for a letter offering them a scheduled appointment.

Jabs for children in Wales will be carried out at mass vaccination centres and some school settings.

In Northern Ireland, the head of the region’s vaccination programme said jabs are likely to be offered to children aged 12 to 15 in schools from October.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.

Coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out to children aged between 12 and 15, with three million youngsters eligible across the UK. The programme is expected to be delivered primarily within schools, and guidance has been issued to headteachers to contact police if they believe protests could be held outside their buildings. Children will be offered jabs at some schools in England from Monday. The rollout for 12- to 15-year-olds is also beginning in Scotland and Wales this week.

Meanwhile, China reported 49 new Covid cases on Monday, down from 66 a day earlier, according to National Health Commission data.

Of the new infections, 28 were locally transmitted, all of them in the south-eastern province of Fujian, the health authority said. That compares with 43 local cases a day earlier.

More on these stories shortly.