Health News at Your Fingertips

The Spanish government has approved an agreement with unions and business groups to extend its furlough scheme for workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic until the end of March.

The ERTE scheme provides furloughed workers with 70% of their base salary for the first six months, before dropping to 50% for the following months.

It was first introduced in April 2020 and has since been extended several times. The most recent extension had been due to end on 28 February.

In a statement, the Spanish government said:

The extension will occur automatically, and the companies and workers concerned will not have to take any steps.

About 104,000 people are currently furloughed in Spain, compared to a peak of 3.4 million in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon concludes that “Covid has not gone away, it isn’t the case that it has simply disappeared because we want it”.

She adds that she agree with the Chief Medical Officer of England that it is “highly likely” we will face “new threats” from Covid in the form of new variants.

“We need contingency measures in place, we need to make sure that we have laws fit for purpose … I’m sure there will be many people across this country that breathe a sigh of relief that Douglas Ross hasn’t been in charge of these decisions,” she says, before sitting down to applause from her fellow SNP MSPs.

In addition, Sturgeon announces plans for the legal requirement on businesses to keep customer contact details to end on 21 March.

But in contrast to the UK Government, she says that the Scottish Government will ensure continued access to free PCR and lateral flow tests, saying Scotland is committed to a “robust” testing system.

She also says those testing positive should continue to self-isolate for the time being.

She said:

I must express frustration at the position of the UK government. It is, of course, for the Prime Minister to decide how best to tackle Covid in England.

However, current funding arrangements mean that though taxpayers in all four UK nations contribute to the costs, it is decisions taken for England that determine the resources available to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for testing and other Covid measures.

Scotland’s coronavirus certification scheme will “come to an end” on Monday, Sturgeon confirms.

She says the plans for the legal requirement for people to wear face coverings in some settings to become converted to guidance from 21 March.

However, she says it is “highly likely” the virus will continue to mutate and sets out how Scotland plans to deal with that scenario.

“If a new variant emerged that was more transmissible and more severe, perhaps with the ability to evade vaccine or natural immunity, this threat would likely be classified as high,” she says.

“In those circumstances, we might advice people to avoid social contact for a period or to work from home if possible.”

Following the lead from the UK Government yesterday, Sturgeon says that those most at risk from Covid will be offered a fourth jab to help protect them.

She says: “This phase of the programme will also start in March.”

Sturgeon says the best available treatment will be used on those suffering from Covid and need to receive hospital treatment.

Also in Scotland, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is setting out the Scottish government’s “strategic framework” for tackling Covid.

She says that it “makes clear that in future we will seek to rely less on legally imposed measures and more on vaccines, treatments and sensible adaptations and good public health behaviours”.

Sturgeon says the Scottish government will aim to ensure vaccines are still readily available for people, in line with expert advice. She says there are more than 600,000 people living in Scotland who have yet to receive a third dose.

Scotland has recorded another 18 coronavirus deaths, as well as 6,427 new cases of the virus.

The latest statistics mean that 10,614 people have now died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.

The figures, published by the Scottish government, showed 1,060 people in hospital on Monday with recently confirmed coronavirus, up from 1,051 the previous day.

This total included 12 who were in intensive care, down from 13.

Meanwhile 4,433,160 people in Scotland have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, with 4,152,325 having had two doses and 3,404,119 have received a third dose or booster.

The UK government’s Covid dashboard will no longer be updated at weekends, the UK Health Security Agency has confirmed.

Established at the start of the pandemic, the dashboard has provided daily updates on Covid-19 cases and deaths in all parts of the UK, as well as data on hospital capacity and vaccinations.

As of this week, the dashboard will be updated from Monday to Friday, the UKHSA said. Daily cases and deaths by report date published on Mondays will include figures from the weekend. These will not be separated out to show daily figures for Saturday and Sunday.

The announcement comes after Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” plan said the dashboard would be kept under review to ensure its data remains “useful and relevant” as testing is scaled back.

The plan states:

As testing reduces and the Government’s approach to managing Covid-19 further evolves, the UK Health Security Agency will keep the content and frequency of reporting on Covid-19 under close review – including the Gov.uk dashboard – to ensure that statistics are being produced with the appropriate level of quality and transparency, and remain useful and relevant as per the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The i reports the dashboard could face the axe altogether, with Whitehall sources saying the prime minister wanted to end daily updates on the dashboard by mid-April “at the latest”.

A senior source told the paper:

The prime minister has pencilled in Easter as the latest date by which the daily Covid statistics will be published in their current form. In an ideal situation, he will bring an end to them sooner if the current downward trend in deaths continues.

Boris Johnson’s ‘living with Covid’ strategy fails to provide testing, or address the impact of future variants, long Covid and inequality, writes Prof Christina Pagel, the director of UCL’s Clinical Operational Research Unit.

On Monday the government announced its “living with Covid” strategy, including a phasing-out of free access to rapid lateral flow tests, reduced access to the more accurate PCR tests for most of those with symptoms, an end to legal requirements to self-isolate and an end to financial support for those on low incomes needing to self-isolate.

Announcing the changes, which will come into force on Thursday, Boris Johnson said the time to “compel” people was over. Now people “will be asked to exercise personal responsibility” to look after each other, he said.

Health and education leaders and scientists are concerned about the wisdom of phasing out testing and self-isolation measures at this stage of the pandemic – but given that it is happening, what will the shift in policy mean in practice? What will things look like in the UK over the next year, and how will it affect our ability to deal with Covid-19?

Supporters of relaxing the measures have often appealed to individual responsibility – whether that’s to voluntarily self-isolate if positive, or to assess our own appetite for risk and behave accordingly. But this misses the point: there is a limit to what the individual can do with a highly infectious disease.

Many might choose to isolate if positive, but that relies on knowing you are positive in the first place, on being able to resist pressure from employers to go in to work, and on being able to afford to stay home (financially and practically). All three aspects will become much more difficult from now on, and will necessarily put others at risk.

European Union countries agreed to open their borders to foreign travellers who have had Covid-19 vaccines authorised by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The recommendation adopted today by EU governments means people from outside the bloc will be able to enter if they have been vaccinated with shots not approved in the EU.

The EU has so far authorised vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca (when produced in Europe), Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

In addition to these shots, the WHO has also approved the vaccines produced by Chinese makers Sinopharm and Sinovac and by Indian company Bharat Biotech. It has also authorised the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India by the Serum Institute.

The recommendation states:

Member states should lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU for persons vaccinated with an EU- or WHO-approved vaccine.

Our education editor, Richard Adams, reports on the drop in numbers of pupils absent for Covid-related reasons in England.

State schools in England continued to see lower numbers of pupils absent for Covid-related reasons, although the number of pupils with confirmed cases of Covid remained above 100,000 earlier this month.

The data from the Department for Education’s survey of schools in England found that by 10 February, more than 90% of pupils were attending school on site, the highest level since November last year.

Covid-related absences in all state schools accounted for 2.2% of pupils on 10 February, down from 3.9% on 3 February. That included 136,000 pupils absent with a confirmed case of coronavirus, compared with 250,000 confirmed cases the week before. However the DfE classifies pupils absent after a positive PCR test as ill, and does not include them as Covid-related absences.

Staff absences remained high but falling, with 7.5% of teachers and school leaders recorded as absent, compared with 9% previously.

Overall attendance in primary schools was 93% on 10 February, up from 92% on 3 February. Attendance in secondary schools was 87%, up from 86%. The rates of pupil absence remain higher than pre-pandemic surveys, but the figures are not directly comparable.

Ministers in Ireland have approved plans to remove almost all Covid-related restrictions, including the wearing of face masks, on Monday.

The taoiseach, Micheal Martin, tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, and Green party leader, Eamon Ryan, agreed to lift the remaining restrictions at a cabinet meeting this morning.

From next week, people will be advised to exercise their own judgment on the use of masks in schools, shops and on public transport. The use of masks will only be required in healthcare settings.

The decision follows a recommendation from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

Social distancing measures will also be lifted on schools and childcare settings, bringing an end to pods and staggered breaks, while testing and tracing will be scaled back.

All 7.4 million Hong Kong residents must undergo three rounds of compulsory coronavirus testing in March, the chief executive, Carrie Lam, said.

The tests will be spread out over a number of data with residents also having to take multiple rapid antigen tests every day at home in between, she said.

The city’s leader confirmed that officials in mainland China were now coordinating the response to the territory’s worst outbreak as she admitted that local authorities had failed to stamp out the current surge.

Lam told reporters today:

This quickly worsening epidemic has far exceeded the Hong Kong government’s ability to tackle it, so there is great need for the central government’s support in fighting the virus.

The head of Beijing’s Liaison Office, Xi Baolong, was coordinating the mainland’s response from the border city of Shenzhen, she added.

Schools, gyms, bars and beauty salons will remain closed into late April, while flights from nine countries, including the UK and US, will remain banned.

People attempting to order free lateral flow tests in England are struggling to do so as the system has been overwhelmed with the scramble for free tests while they are still available.

A message on the government testing portal states:

Sorry, there are no home delivery slots left for rapid lateral flow tests right now.

The number of free tests available each day will be capped to “manage demand” as the government scales back free testing for people in England.

People could previously order a new pack of tests every 24 hours, but now they are available only every three days.

It comes after Boris Johnson said free mass testing would end from 1 April and be limited to the most vulnerable, as part of his government’s “living with Covid” plan.

The public has been encouraged not to stockpile test packs but since the changes were announced the system has been overwhelmed with people trying to order tests.

The UK Health Security Agency said that test availability was refreshed regularly so people were encouraged to revisit the site every few hours as more would become available.

Hong Kong’s foreign domestic workers who test positive for the coronavirus are being forced into unemployment and homelessness in a move that has been called illegal and “immoral” by the Philippines’ top diplomat in the territory.

Charities warned last week that many of the city’s 370,000 foreign domestic workers – the vast majority women from the Philippines and Indonesia – were being “abandoned” in the current wave sweeping the city, with some forced to sleep rough or being denied treatment after testing positive.

In Hong Kong, foreign domestic workers must live with their employers, cannot swap jobs easily, and are entitled to one day off a week.

The Philippine consul-general Raly Tejada said today that the mission had helped 31 Filipinos who sought its help for hospitalisation or access to isolation rooms, adding that 61 in all had tested positive. It is also looking into cases of Filipinos whose employment contracts were allegedly terminated after they tested positive.

Speaking at an online news conference, Tejada said:

If it can be proven that they were asked to leave because of their sickness, this can be considered an illegal dismissal under the employment ordinance in Hong Kong.

We are proactively engaging also the employers to explain to them that terminating their employees in these difficult times especially when they are positive is not only illegal. It is immoral.

Reinfection with two different Omicron subvariants is possible – but rarely happens, a Danish study has found.

In Denmark, a more infectious sublineage of the Omicron coronavirus variant known as BA.2 has quickly overtaken the original BA.1 variant. BA.2 now accounts for more than 88% of cases in Denmark.

Until now, it had been unclear whether a person could get infected by both variants. However, a study led by researchers at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), has found that people infected with BA.1 can get infected with BA.2 shortly afterwards, but that it is a rare occurrence.

The study authors said:

We provide evidence that Omicron BA.2 reinfections are rare but can occur relatively shortly after a BA.1 infection.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Tom Ambrose to bring you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

We start with the news that the Queen has cancelled her planned engagements for Tuesday as she is still experiencing mild cold-like symptoms from Covid-19, Buckingham Palace has said.

The palace confirmed on Sunday that the monarch, 95, had tested positive for coronavirus and was planning to continue carrying out “light duties” at Windsor Castle.

Royal officials said today:

As Her Majesty is still experiencing mild cold like symptoms, she has decided not to undertake her planned virtual engagements today, but will continue with light duties.

It is understood further engagements over the coming week, including her weekly conversation with the prime minister, will be decided upon nearer the time.

The announcement came after the Queen’s eldest son, Prince Charles, 73, tested positive on 10 February, two days after the pair had met each other. His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, tested positive just days later.

A number of people have also tested positive at Windsor Castle, it is understood.

Here is a round-up of today’s top Covid headlines:

• People infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant are nearly 75% less likely to develop serious illness or die than those who contract the Delta variant, real world data released by South Korea’s health authorities showed.
• Canada’s parliament backed the decision of Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, to invoke rarely-used emergency powers to end pandemic-related protests that have blocked streets in the capital, Ottawa, for more than three weeks.
• A protester drove a car toward a New Zealand police line, narrowly avoiding officers, while other protesters sprayed personnel with a stinging substance, police said.
• Uganda plans to fine people who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid and imprison those who fail to pay, under a new public health law which lawmakers are scrutinising, its parliament said on Tuesday.
• Hong Kong authorities said they found Covid in samples taken from the packaging of imports of frozen beef from Brazil and frozen pork skin from Poland, vowing to step up inspections of imported food.
• Hong Kong reported 6,211 new confirmed Covid infections on Tuesday, and another 9,369 self-diagnosed cases.
• Meanwhile, Hong Kong will test its entire population for Covid in March, its leader said today, as the city grapples with its worst outbreak driven by the Omicron variant.
• Mask rules are set to be relaxed in Australia’s three biggest states, with authorities also considering removing isolation requirements for household contacts of Covid-19 cases as part of a “big shift” towards living with the virus.
• Also in Australia, the Nine Network has apologised after mistakenly suggesting the Queen was using the drug ivermectin after contracting Covid.
• In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon will set out her new strategic framework for dealing with coronavirus on Tuesday. The first minister will speak in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday afternoon as the Scottish government’s blueprint for managing and recovering from Covid is published, PA Media reported.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back tomorrow but my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to bring you the latest coronavirus stories throughout the day.