Health News at Your Fingertips

Here is a round-up of all the day’s leading coronavirus news stories:

• The UK government said a further 167 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 136,375.
• Scotland will delay the enforcement of vaccine passports by introducing a two-week grace period for venues, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
• In England, latest figures suggest more than one in ten secondary school pupils and over a third of school staff who had coronavirus have suffered long Covid symptoms.
• The head of the UN has called on rich countries to step up efforts to protect workers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with an additional $1tn (£736bn) injection of funds to avoid a twin-track recovery that widens the gap with the world’s poorest nations.
• A chair will be appointed by Christmas to the UK public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic and sessions should take place around the country, Boris Johnson has told the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group.
• Turkey will “never” close schools again despite the recent rise in coronavirus infections, its health minister Fahrettin Koca said today.
• New Covid infections in Romania rose by a record high of 11,049 in the past 24 hours, its government said on Tuesday.
• In the US, a federal appeals panel has said New York City can mandate teachers be vaccinated against Covid.
• In New Zealand, travel restrictions in Auckland are being rolled back six weeks after the city was locked down.
• Pakistan is to start vaccinating children aged 12 and above after a decline in Covid deaths across the country.
• Australians will be able to test themselves for Covid at home from November using rapid antigen test kits bought from chemists or online, health authorities have announced.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I am handing the Covid blog over to my colleague Charlie Moloney now, who will bring you all the latest pandemic news throughout the evening. Goodbye.

In the United States, more than 400,000 people got Pfizer booster shots last weekend through local pharmacies.

It came in the opening days of the US government effort to provide more protection for vulnerable populations, reports Reuters.

White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients says an additional one million people have scheduled booster shots for the coming weeks. He added: “We’re off to a very strong start with the booster campaign.”

As many as 25 million people qualify for the third dose of the Pfizer shot, which was authorized last week for those 65 or older, those with pre-existing conditions or facing an elevated risk at their workplace.

Officials say their primary focus is ensuring the roughly 25% of eligible Americans who have yet to get their first shot do so.

Brazil will give coronavirus vaccine booster shots to all people over 60-years-old, health minister Marcelo Queiroga said on Tuesday.

Queiroga said in a tweet that the decision comes in line with progress in the country’s vaccination program. About 7 million Brazilians could get the booster shot under these conditions, he said.

Brazil had already started giving booster shots to people over 70-years-old and healthcare workers. According to Health Ministry data, about 600,000 booster shots have been administered up to now.

Roughly 52% of the country’s adult population is fully vaccinated with two doses or a single-dose vaccine.

Nearly 40 people arriving from red list countries have absconded from Covid quarantine hotels in the West Midlands, UK.

A total of 38 people broke quarantine between mid-February and the end of August, according to figures released by West Midlands Police on Tuesday, reports PA Media.

Covid measures mean passengers arriving from red list countries, where the coronavirus case rate is high, must quarantine at designated hotels for 10 days on their return, costing £2,285 per solo traveller.

Breaking quarantine rules can result in a fine of up to £10,000.

The Government first announced the hotel quarantine measures would come into force on February 15, initially affecting arrivals from 33 nations – though that list has since changed.

Chief Superintendent Richard North, of West Midlands Police, told the force’s strategic policing and crime board on Tuesday about how many absconders had been recorded and how officers had dealt with those who had fled the hotels.

The UK government said a further 167 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 136,375.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 161,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.

As of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 34,526 lab-confirmed Covid cases in the UK, the Government said.

Sweden is offering a third dose of the Covid jab to additional groups, including people aged 80 and above, the Nordic country’s health minister said on Tuesday.

So far, a third jab has only been offered to small numbers, but health minister Lena Hallengren told a news conference this would be expanded also to those in nursing homes and were supported in assisted living systems.

“Those with the greatest need will, as before, come first,” she told a news conference.

Sweden will remove most remaining pandemic restrictions and recommendations later this week, Reuters reported.

Scotland will delay the enforcement of vaccine passports by introducing a two-week grace period for venues, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The scheme for nightclubs, adult entertainment venues and large capacity events will come into effect from 5am on Friday. However, venues which fail to obey the new rules will not face punishment for another 17 days.

Ms Sturgeon said she had made the change after listening to the “reasonable concerns of business”. She said:

I can therefore confirm that after the legal obligation comes into force at 5am on Friday, this week, we intend to allow a further period of slightly more than two weeks – until October 18 – before any business could face enforcement action for non-compliance.

This period – effectively a grace period – will allow businesses to test, adapt and build confidence in the practical arrangements they will need to put in place to be compliant with the scheme.

An NHS Covid Status App – which will provide a digital record of a user’s vaccination status, including a QR code for each vaccination a person has received – will go live on Thursday.

Police legitimacy in the UK was negatively affected by the passing of “quick law” leading to the enforcement of Covid rules, a chief constable has said.

Sir David Thompson, who leads West Midlands police, told a meeting on Tuesday that “quick law isn’t always great law”, referring to legislation introduced during a series of national lockdowns.

He told the force’s strategic policing and crime board that his comments were “not meant as a criticism of anybody”, given the “unprecedented” situation, but there were lessons to be learned if public health rules were ever needed again.

He said:

There are some challenges, as a result of this legislation, which has impacted quite heavily on police legitimacy around what we were asked to do.

Not since 1829 and the formation of (Sir Robert) Peel’s police has anybody been required to enforce legislation about who can go into somebody’s house. That’s been really tricky.

The president of South Africa and the head of Oxfam joined forces to call on World Trade Organization (WTO) members and manufacturers to allow fairer access to Covid jabs.

They addressed a WTO public event on trade and vaccines and asked for a waiver on intellectual property rights. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said a waiver on patents was needed to save millions of lives during the pandemic.

He said:

This is not the time just to be uni-dimensionally focused on profit. This is the time to save lives.

Without mentioning the waiver specifically, Oxfam’s executive director Gabriela Bucher said monopolies, not science were the biggest challenge to defeating the virus. She added:

The reality is the current trade rules enable rich country governments and pharmaceutical corporations to work hand in hand to artificially limit vaccine supplies to developing countries.

I must appeal to BioNTech – the vaccine has turned your CEO into a double digit billionaire.