Minister forced to self-isolate for 43 days since June 1
Sarah Newey
·41-min read
pingdemic - Yui Mok/PA Wire
04:30 PM
Here's a look at today's top stories
A minister has expressed his frustration at the UK's "pingdemic" after spending 43 days in self-isolation since June 1. Greg Hands, a minister of state for trade policy, tweeted on Saturday afternoon that he again have to isolate after his child tested positive for Covid-19.
The NHS drew up secret plans to withdraw hospital care from people in nursing homes in the event of a pandemic, The Telegraph can disclose.
The UK has reported a further 26,144 new coronavirus cases, with infections dropping by 33 per cent over the past week.
The Euro 2020 final held earlier this month helped "supercharge" infections in North East England, according to the joint director of public health for Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland.
The gap between the number of coronavirus cases and the infection rate - as signalled by this week's Office for National Statistics survey - could be down to people wanting to avoid self-isolation, according to a health psychologist.
Women are more likely to spot early signs of Covid than men because they are better at noticing changes in their body, researchers believe.
Elsewhere across the globe:
Cases are surging across southeast Asia. One Thai hospital demonstrates the scale of the crisis: it has started storing bodies in refrigerated containers, resorting to a measure it last took in a devastating 2004 tsunami.
Vietnam is also imposing strict curbs on movement from Monday, while Myanmar is grappling with a Covid crisis - experts have warned half of its 54 million people could be infected with the virus in the next two weeks.
In Australia, the third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state will enter a snap Covid lockdown today as authorities race to contain an emerging outbreak of delta. China, too, is battling its biggest surge in months fuelled by the infectious variant.
And finally, amid all the excitement of the Olympics, some bad news for Toyko: newly reported Covid-19 cases in the capital city have surged to a record high of 4,058.
04:12 PM
Oxford vaccine team make 'big step forward' in fight against deadly Nipah virus
The Oxford team behind the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has made a “big step forward” in efforts to develop a jab against Nipah virus, a disease with known pandemic potential and a fatality rate as high as 70 per cent.
In an early stage challenge trial on African green monkeys, the Nipah virus shot - which uses the same technology as the AstraZeneca Covid jab - triggered a “very robust protective immune response”, according to a paper published online this week which is yet to be peer reviewed.
None of the monkeys who received the vaccine showed signs of disease, and researchers were unable to detect any infectious virus in all but one swab sample taken from the inoculated animals.
Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford’s Jenner Institute and a key figure behind the AstraZeneca vaccine, told The Telegraph that the results – which build on previous studies in hamsters – were “very impressive”.
Clamour for vaccines in West Africa as Covid cases surge
Thousands of new coronavirus cases have been reported in West Africa in recent weeks amid low vaccination rates and the spread of the delta variant.
Officials say cases have risen sharply in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and elsewhere. The surge is pushing a reluctant population to seek out the Covid-19 vaccine in larger numbers at a time when doses are arriving from multiple sources after nearly stopping across Africa in recent months.
Misinformation and conspiracy theories previously prevented many from getting the shots. But officials say more residents in West Africa are lining up as people close to them fall ill and funeral numbers rise.
Confirmed cases in Senegal, which had been ahead in the fight against the virus, leapt from 380 on July 10 to 1,700 on July 18, the highest number since the start of the pandemic, according to the Ministry of Health.
Senegal received nearly 300,000 Johnson & Johnson doses and more than 330,000 of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in the past week. Tens of thousands of residents are waiting for a second dose of AstraZeneca, but it is out of stock and new deliveries are not expected until August.
Germany's government plans to stop covering the cost of rapid coronavirus virus tests, according to the nation's health ministry.
"Health Minister Jens Spahn already said weeks ago that he thinks it's conceivable for the government to stop offering free tests to unvaccinated people at a later date," the ministry told the German news agency dpa. No exact date has been set.
The confirmation comes after a report in the Bild newspaper, which said the government would stop paying for tests as soon as everyone has had the opportunity to receive two doses of vaccine, meaning late September or early October.
Since March, German citizens and residents have been eligible to receive free rapid coronavirus tests in pharmacies and designated testing centers across the country. The tests have been a crucial part of Germany's reopening strategy:
Those who cannot show proof that they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from the virus must present a negative test result for certain activities, including dining indoors at restaurants or staying in a hotel.
Some government officials have recently begun advocating for this shift to incentivise vaccination, saying unvaccinated individuals should bear the costs once everyone has had an opportunity to get the vaccine.
03:32 PM
French police clash with anti-virus pass protesters in Paris
Thousands in France protesting a special virus pass marched through Paris on Saturday, with French police in full riot gear using their fists to push some demonstrators back and firing tear gas against some crowds.
Some 3,000 security forces deployed around the French capital for a third weekend of protests against the pass that will be needed to enter restaurants and other places. Police took up posts along Paris' Champs-Elysees to guard against an invasion of the famed avenue by violent demonstrators.
Anti-pass marches were being held in scattered cities across France, and four separate protests were held in Paris, the third weekend of anti-health pass protests.
With virus infections spiking and hospitalisations rising, French lawmakers have passed a bill requiring the pass in most places as of August 9. Polls show a majority of French support the pass, but some French are adamantly opposed.
The pass requires vaccinations or a quick negative test or proof of a recent recovery from Covid-19 and mandates vaccinations for all health care workers by mid-September.
But for anti-pass demonstrators, "liberty" was the slogan of the day.
03:12 PM
Latest data: Covid cases down by 33 per cent over past week
The UK has reported a further 26,144 new coronavirus cases, according to the latest figures from the Government's data dashboard.
This is a slight decline on yesterday, and means infections have dropped by 33 per cent between July 25 and July 31.
A further 71 people been reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, taking the seven-day increase to 9.2 per cent.
A total of 46.81 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by July 30 and 38.13 million people had received a second dose.
03:08 PM
Pakistan imposes lockdown on southern province
Pakistani authorities have imposed a lockdown in the southern Sindh province, including the commercial hub of Karachi and other urban centers, amid an alarming increase in Covid-19 cases.
The lockdown is set to last until August 8, despite opposition from the federal government and the local business community.
Sindh's chief minister Murad Ali Shah said on Friday that a sudden rise in virus cases has flooded hospitals in Karachi, the provincial capital. The new surge appears linked to many of the crowd-attracting activities earlier this month during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The Sindh provincial government is closing all markets, except for pharmacies, bakeries, gas stations and grocery stores, which still must close by 6pm. All transport between cities is halted and public busses aren't operating. Private cars and taxis are limited to two people.
Ongoing examinations at schools and universities are also postponed until after the lockdown.
Nationwide, Pakistan on Saturday reported 65 deaths and 4,950 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The South Asian country has reported 1,029,811 confirmed cases and 23,360 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
02:54 PM
How drugs dished out by GPs for everything from head lice to diabetes could be the future
Britain has led the world in finding drugs that can help save the lives of people on death’s door with Covid.
Already, the UK has approved the steroid dexamethasone and the arthritis drug tocilizumab following trials. Together, they can lower the risk of death in the sickest patients by around 40 per cent.
Yet we may be approaching a time when Covid could be largely treated by the GP, with the majority of patients never needing hospital treatment.
This week, Japan became the first country to grant full approval for the use of Regeneron’s casirivimab and imdevimab antibody cocktail to treat patients with mild to moderate Covid-19, a sign that treatments are heading out of the ward and into the surgery.
The drug not only reduces viral load by 90 per cent, preventing the disease getting worse, but appears to stop people picking up the virus in the first place - even when they live in the same house as a carrier.
Excitement is also building around the GlaxoSmithKline monoclonal antibody sotrovimab, an early treatment drug that stops high-risk patients from being hospitalised once they catch Covid.
Recap: Euros 'supercharged' infections in north east England
The Euro 2020 final held earlier this month helped "supercharge" infections in North East England, according to the joint director of public health for Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland.
Speaking to BBC Radio Four's Today programme, Mark Adams said the football accelerated the spread of coronavirus across the region, which will be offered enhanced support by the Government to help tackle its case rates.
"The rates tended to kick off just after the Euros football final - our three highest days were three-to-five days after that final," said Mr Adams. "So I think our momentum was kind of picking up then and that event just supercharged it up to the unfortunate position we found ourselves in."
Middlesbrough currently has the highest rate of new cases in England - although it is down sharply week-on-week from 1,421.5 cases per 100,000 people to 695.8. The biggest fall was recorded by Redcar and Cleveland, which is down from 1,520.2 to 668.6.
"We have seen over the last week is our rates have more than halved, and so even though everyone else's rates are coming down as well, our rates seem to be coming down very quickly," Mr Adams said.
He added: "So I think areas like Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and places you've seen in the North West and further north in the North East, are more susceptible to Covid because of the types of jobs that people do, the inability to work from home - Middlesbrough was cited in the ONS survey of being in the bottom 10 of areas where people are able to work from home."
02:26 PM
Holidaymakers face chaos with Greek islands ‘one step’ from new Covid curbs
Holidaymakers heading to Greek islands face disruption after an Athens minister warned that some were "one step" away from tougher Covid restrictions.
Nikos Hardalias, the Greek deputy civil protection minister, said Mykonos and Ios were on the brink of fresh curbs due to a surge in infections. Case rates have soared among people aged 20 to 30.
Mr Hardalias warned that the situation on the islands of Zakynthos, Tinos, Lefkada, Santorini, Paros and Rhodes was also worrying.
Curbs including a curfew and a music ban were imposed on Mykonos two weeks ago following a 248 per cent rise in confirmed cases. The measures were lifted on Monday following negative publicity and a wave of cancelled bookings, but could be reimposed.
Mr Hardalias's comments dovetailed with the arrival of 185 police officers on Mykonos on Thursday to step up checks at nightspots – up from the 56 stationed there last summer. An additional 30 were sent to Ios, along with security officials and undercover agents.
02:12 PM
Covid can spread between quarantine hotel rooms, experts warn
Quarantine hotels have seen people infect each other in adjacent rooms, warns a new Lancet paper which claims airborne transmission is being underplayed.
Scientists from the University of Oxford argue that "decades of painstaking research" has revealed that "diseases once considered to be spread by droplets are airborne".
They claim that reports of neighbours in quarantine hotel rooms infecting each other provide evidence that Covid-19 is spread in air - and it's transmission via this route should not be underestimated.
"Long-range transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between people in adjacent rooms but never in each other's presence has been documented in quarantine hotels," reads the comment piece in The Lancet.
As cases surge, Thai hospital uses containers to store bodies
A Thai hospital morgue overwhelmed by Covid-19 deaths has begun storing bodies in refrigerated containers, resorting to a measure it last took in a devastating 2004 tsunami, as the country grapples with its biggest coronavirus outbreak.
Thailand today reported a daily record of 18,912 new cases and a record of 178 new deaths, bringing total accumulated cases to 597,287 and 4,857 fatalities.
At Thammasat University Hospital near the capital Bangkok, a 10-freezer morgue usually handles up to seven autopsies a day. But the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic means it now has to deal with more than 10 bodies daily.
"There's not enough space, so we bought two containers for bodies' storage," Pharuhat Tor-udom, a director of the hospital, told Reuters, adding the containers cost about 250,000 baht ($7,601) each.
Almost 20 per cent of bodies with an unidentified cause of death later tested positive for Covid-19, overwhelming the morgue and medical staff, he said.
"During the tsunami, we used containers to store bodies waiting to be autopsied for identification. But we haven't had to do that (again) until now," Pharuhat said.
01:44 PM
Latest data: 9 out of 10 adults have Covid-19 antibodies
It is no wonder the worlds eyes are on the UK epidemic, having also weathered Delta ahead of the curve.
Policy makers in many countries will be watching the very data closely for the next few weeks.
Vietnam to extend lockdown throughout southern region as cases soar
Vietnam will from Monday impose strict curbs on movement in its business hub Ho Chi Minh City and another 18 cities and provinces throughout its south for another two weeks to help combat its worst Covid-19 outbreak, the government said.
After successfully containing the virus for much of the pandemic, Vietnam is facing a rapid spread of infections that has led to movement restrictions in around one-third of the country. It has registered a total of 145,000 cases and 1,306 deaths, 85 per cent of which were recorded over the past month.
"Authorities of Ho Chi Minh City and other places have to urge citizens to stay where they are and strictly follow the curbs," a government statement said on Saturday.
The Vietnamese health ministry also issued an urgent appeal on Friday for private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients as state hospitals were stretched to capacity.
The re-emergence of the virus with complicated clusters has prompted calls for the government to accelerate vaccinations. Vietnam has a population of 98 million and has so far administered over 5.9 million doses of vaccine, but only around 589,000 people have been fully inoculated.
01:22 PM
Pandemic in pictures
Bangkok, Thailand:
A medic holds the hand of elderly Covid-19 coronavirus patient Worapoj Salee as he is taken away for additional medical care in the Charoen Krung neighbourhood in Bangkok - Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
Sreenagar, Bangladesh:
People disembark from a ferry in Sreenagar to resume and return to their work areas, after the Bangladesh government relaxed the lockdown for all export oriented factories - MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
Funeral workers carry out burials of Covid-19 victims at Inhauma Cemetery, north of the city, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Fabio Teixeira/Anadolu Agency
Bogota, Colombia:
A nursing assistant prepares to give a vaccine during a door-to-door vaccination campaign to immunise people in rural areas of Bogota - Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images
01:09 PM
More coronaviruses have 'pandemic potential' than thought, study suggests
There are more animal coronaviruses with the potential to “spill over” to humans and cause pandemics than scientists previously thought, new research from a leading US institute has suggested.
By tracking existing coronaviruses, a team from the University of Washington found that only small mutations could allow many pathogens that currently circulate in bats to jump over to humans.
Pre-pandemic, there were six known coronaviruses that spread in people. Four of them cause mild respiratory illness, like the common cold. The other two - Sars and Mers - both emerged this century and are more deadly, but the outbreaks were contained.
However, the severity of the current pandemic has focused research on the coronavirus family, in an attempt to uncover if related viruses may pose threats.
WHO: Vaccine nationalism remains a 'very serious problem'
The World Health Organization has warned that nearly 70 per cent of African countries will miss ambitions set out by the UN agency at the start of the year to vaccinate 10 per cent of the population by September, as the world's poorest have been "trampled on" in the stampede for vaccines.
At a press conference on Friday, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' frustrations were laid bare. He said that, a year after the WHO first warned of the threat of vaccine nationalism, inequitable distribution remains a "very serious problem".
"Nearly 70 per cent of African countries will not reach the 10 per cent vaccination target by the end of September.
"Around 3.5 million to 4 million vaccines are administered weekly on the continent, but to meet the September target this must rise to 21 million, at the very least, each week.
He added: "Many African countries are prepared to roll out vaccines, but the vaccines have not arrived. Less than two per cent of all those administered globally have been in Africa, less than two per cent. Just 1.5 per cent of the continent's population are fully vaccinated."
A vaccine trashed by Macron, politicised by Europe but quietly saving lives across the world
Sitting in the Royal Box on Centre Court on the first day of Wimbledon this summer, Dame Sarah Gilbert appeared a little uncomfortable as tennis fans gave her a standing ovation, writes Steve Bird.
Many of the crowd in SW18 that day had themselves received the AstraZeneca vaccine that Professor Gilbert and her team helped to develop. As they rose to their feet applauding, most knew her research at Oxford University in conjunction with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant had helped free the UK from the grip of the Covid lockdown.
While the audience recognised the achievements of her and her colleagues, some heads of state have found it politically expedient to be anything but complimentary about the first low-cost and not-for-profit vaccine.
As a result of what many claim was a European backlash fueled by resentment towards the UK over Brexit, the very public opposition to AstraZeneca could even cost many lives in some of the poorest countries where the vaccine is the only one available.
Some are even suggesting European leaders have “blood on their hands” for creating confusion and mixed messages, often about claims or rumours that turned out to be unfounded.
Plague and protests: how Covid has sparked a wave of unrest around the world
It was London’s unlocked gates that ushered in the angry mob. In June 1381 – after weeks of riots – rebels marched on the capital, destroying the homes of the nobility, breaching the Tower of London and beheading the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Peasants’ Revolt – which was sparked by a series of unpopular poll taxes – has gone down in history as Britain’s first major protest.
But the unrest also had its roots in a devastating plague that hit Europe some three decades previously, killing (by some estimates) a third of the continent’s population.
This triggered a major labour shortage and workers clamoured for higher wages. But their demands were unmet and simmering resentments were left to fester. It was this, some historians argue, that laid the foundations for future violence.
“If there had been no Black Death, tension and bitterness would never have risen by 1381 to the level that it did,” the historian Philip Ziegler argues in his book on the bubonic plague, The Black Death. The disease laid the groundwork for the uprising, he says.
Some 650 years later, the enormous upheaval triggered by the coronavirus has led to a similar spate of unrest over the past few weeks, in countries from Thailand to South Africa, Cuba to France.
'Trojan horse': bulk of UK vaccine donations to poor countries set to expire in September
The bulk of nine million coronavirus vaccines donated by the UK to developing countries in the coming weeks will expire at the end of September, raising concerns that many of the doses will go to waste.
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, announced on Wednesday that Britain will begin delivering nine million AstraZeneca shots this week, as part of a broader pledge to donate 100 million surplus vaccines by June 2022.
Roughly five million of these vaccines will be sent to the Covax distribution scheme, while the remainder will be given directly to more than a dozen countries – including 817,000 doses to Kenya, 600,000 to Indonesia and 300,000 to Jamaica.
While he donations have been widely welcomed amid vast inequalities in global distribution, there are mounting concerns that the vaccines’ short shelf life could undermine the rollout.
The Telegraph understands that a substantial chunk of the shots arriving in countries in August will expire at the end of September.
Donated AstraZeneca jabs leave Heathrow Airport - SIMON WORTH/FOREIGN, COMMONWEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
11:46 AM
Myanmar: Half the country may soon get Covid as disaster spreads
Myanmar is grappling with a Covid crisis, and half of its 54 million people could be infected with the virus in the next two weeks, Britain has warned.
The South-East Asian nation has been in turmoil since a military coup in February ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government. Hundreds have died in protests and other coup-related violence, and now thousands more are being caught up in Myanmar’s worst Covid outbreak, which has been exacerbated by the political turmoil.
Infections have surged from about 50 a day in June to an average of more than 5,000 since mid-July. Officially, there are more than 289,000 confirmed cases and 8,500 deaths reported in the country, although analysts say the true toll is likely to be higher given limited testing.
Myanmar’s already run-down healthcare system has buckled under a deadly delta variant-fueled wave of Covid, together with a shortage of staff and vital medical supplies.
There are overflowing burial grounds in the capital, Yangon - GETTY IMAGES
11:32 AM
Double vaccination halves the risk of long Covid
An interesting analysis here from Alasdair Munro, an expert in paediatric infectious diseases at the University Hospital Southampton, looking at a review of prolonged Covid symptoms published by Sage yesterday.
Thew review found that having two coronavirus vaccines halves the risk of prolonged symptoms, and long Covid also appears uncommon in children. It also appears that the long-term impacts of a coronavirus infection are more similar to other respiratory viruses than previously feared.
Finally, some more evidence that #COVID19 is not that different to other respiratory infections
Risks of serious complications in other organ systems are significantly higher after hospitalisation with covid, but not compared to hospitalisation for other pneumonias
Perspex screens ‘unlikely’ to block Covid, warns Sage
Perspex screens used as “Covid-safe” partitions in the workplace, beauty salons, barbers and shops may actually increase the spread of the virus if positioned incorrectly, Sage scientists have warned.
An undated document from a meeting of the Sage subgroup warned there was “very little data” on how effective screens were at stopping the spread of viral particles.
Evidence suggests there are three main ways in which coronavirus can spread, and they all centre around the ejection of infectious particles from an infected person’s mouth or nose after they talk, sneeze, or cough.
Large droplets which contain viral particles may be stopped in their tracks by barriers, if a person is within two metres of someone else, Sage experts have said. However, physical barriers are “unlikely to provide any direct benefit” over larger distances.
Women are more likely to spot early signs of Covid than men because they are better at noticing changes in their body, researchers believe.
The study, which looked at data from the Zoe Covid Symptom Study app, found that men were more likely to report shortness of breath, fatigue, chills and fever following infection, while women were more likely to notice loss of smell, chest pain and a persistent cough.
Researchers believe that although the differences could be biological, they may also be caused by women being better at recognising more subtle symptoms. While loss of smell or a cough may be easy to ignore, it is harder to brush off chills or a fever, which may be a later stage of the virus.
Claire Steves, the study's lead author and a reader at King's, said: "It's important people know the earliest symptoms are wide-ranging and may look different for each member of a family or household.
"We're not the first study to show a difference in symptom reporting between men and women. Women report more symptoms overall than men, and women might be more sensitive to a wide range of symptoms. They are more likely to recognise symptoms within themselves.
"The point is we found a slightly different structure of symptoms between women and men, which means they may well need different symptoms to prompt them to get a test."
China is racing to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak in months, with fresh cases reported in two more parts of the country including the sprawling megacity of Chongqing.
The highly contagious Delta variant has already been confirmed in the capital Beijing and four other provinces, prompting mass testing and putting more than one million people under lockdown.
More than 200 infections nationwide have been linked to a Delta cluster in eastern Jiangsu province, where cleaners at an airport in the city of Nanjing first tested positive on July 20.
The outbreak is geographically the largest in several months, challenging China's aggressive containment efforts, which have relied on mass testing, lockdowns and swift contact tracing.
The new cases reported Saturday in Fujian province and Chongqing included one patient who visited the tourist city of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and an international cargo crew member at Xiamen Airlines who recently travelled from abroad, authorities said.
State media footage broadcast Saturday showed residents of Chongqing, a municipality that is home to more than 30 million people, queueing up for virus tests.
10:15 AM
WHO: Progress curbing Covid in 'jeopardy'
Hard won progress curbing Covid-19 is in "jeopardy", the head of the World Health Organizationhas warned.
Speaking at a press conference, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus painted a stark image of a pandemic far from over - with total known cases set to pass 200 million "within the next two weeks".
On average infections have nearly doubled in five of the six WHO regions in the last four weeks, Dr Tedros said, with rising figures largely driven by the highly infectious delta variant - which has now been detected in 132 countries.
Increased social mixing, vaccine inequity and inconsistent use of public health measures are also to blame.
"Hard won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed," Dr Tedros warned. "The increased number of infections is creating a shortage of treatments such as life saving oxygen.
He added: "Meanwhile, testing rates in low income countries are less than two per cent of what they are in high income countries, leaving the world blind to understanding where the disease is and how it's changing."
"On current trends, we expect the total number of cases [worldwide] to pass 200 million within the next 2 weeks.
And we know that is an underestimate," says @WHO chief @DrTedros at a #COVID19 press briefing today.
Modellers warned of ‘1m cases a week’ even as third wave was subsiding
Government modellers predicted that cases could hit one million a week in a last-minute warning ahead of "Freedom Day".
Documents released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies on Friday show that scientists forecast increasing numbers of cases and said they expected July 19 to bring "further waves of infections, hospitalisations and deaths".
The statement of "concerns" from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) subgroup on July 14 also reveals that the modellers believed the ending of restrictions may have to be reversed.
Yet daily cases have dropped dramatically since peaking the next day, July 15, at around 60,000 – less than half the number the group was predicting. Infection numbers fell again on Friday to 29,622 after a slight rise earlier in the week, less than a quarter of the forecast. The seven-day average is now down 36 per cent.
Australia's third-largest city of Brisbane to enter Covid lockdown
Australia's third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state will enter a snap Covid lockdown from Saturday as authorities race to contain an emerging outbreak of the Delta strain.
Millions of residents in the city and several other areas will be placed under stay-at-home orders from Saturday afternoon for three days, state Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.
"The only way to beat the Delta strain is to move quickly, to be fast and to be strong," Miles said.
There were now seven cases of the Delta strain of the coronavirus in Queensland mainly linked to a school student, her family and a tutor, but authorities were still trying to trace the source of the outbreak, Miles said.
In the "strictest lockdown" the city has enforced, residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons including buying groceries and exercising.
Brisbane's snap lockdown comes as Australia's largest city of Sydney and its surroundings completed its fifth week of lockdown with authorities struggling to stop the spread of a Delta-variant outbreak.
"We cannot afford to be complacent just because we have done so well so far. We all we have to comply with these restrictions," Miles said.
09:38 AM
China battles biggest Covid-19 outbreak in months as US ramps up vaccine push
China is battling its biggest Covid-19 surge in months fuelled by the delta variant, while the US is intensifying efforts to combat the strain which officials believe is more contagious than chicken pox after a fast-spreading outbreak in Massachusetts.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Jiangsu province were in a coronavirus lockdown on Friday after a cluster of infections were detected in the provincial capital Nanjing.
The outbreak, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, was linked to airport workers who cleaned a plane from Russia earlier this month. By Friday, infections were detected in Beijing and five provinces.
At least 206 infections across China have been linked to the cluster, and the outbreak is geographically the largest in several months. In Beijing's Changping district, where two locally transmitted cases have been found, 41,000 people in nine housing communities were placed under lockdown Thursday, according to city officials.
It comes as a leaked document from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggested the delta variant causes more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox.
Malaysia: Demands for Prime Minister to quit as pandemic worsens
Hundreds of black-clad Malaysian youth rallied Saturday in central Kuala Lumpur to demand the resignation of the prime minister over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as new cases soared in a surge that has also become a political crisis.
Public anger against Muhyiddin Yassin's unelected government, which took power in March 2020 after forming a coalition with the opposition, has built up as cases jumped eightfold since January.
New daily infections breached 10,000 on July 13 for the first time and have stayed there since, despite a virus emergency in January and a lockdown since June 1. Total deaths have risen to nearly 9,000. Nearly 20 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.
The rally added to pressure on Muhyiddin, after his government was reprimanded by Malaysia's king for misleading Parliament over the status of emergency measures.
09:14 AM
NHS on track for 'major winter crisis', says doctor, calling for debate on how to live with Covid
Dr Rupert Pearse, an intensive care doctor at Queen Mary University of London, has warned that the NHS is on track for a "major winter crisis" in a Twitter thread analysing current trends.
"Lots of discussion this week about whether UK Covid infections are falling," he said. "The answer is maybe, but this misses the point. We must accept that these waves will come and go. The pandemic is not over, nor is the impact on individuals, the NHS and society.
"The current wave is smaller than the winter peak but will last longer because public health rules are much less strict. We should expect hospital admissions to continue through October combining with other problems to create a major NHS winter crisis.
"The simple fact is Covid won’t go away any time soon, whatever next week’s trend does. Learning to live with Covid includes learning that people continue to die from Covid. The virus will be with us for years to come. We need an honest national discussion about this."
See more of the thread here:
We also need to understand the huge long-term impact of COVID. For society, death is quick, simple and relatively inexpensive. But survival with complications is the most common outcome from severe COVID. Hundred's of thousands of patients will experience lasting harms. 9/10
Watch: Israel to offer third dose of Covid vaccines amid surge in delta variant
08:43 AM
Lib Dems: Vaccine passports for domestic use 'unworkable, expensive and divisive'
Introducing vaccine passports domestically would be "unworkable, expensive and divisive", according to the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.
The former cabinet minister and his party are calling for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess after changes were rolled out to the NHS app, allowing people to prove their vaccine status in domestic settings.
Asked why there needed to be a parliamentary debate on vaccine passports, Sir Ed told Times Radio:
"Because the Government told us they weren't going to do this. We've all agreed that for international travel you'll need to have Covid options but domestically, sort of Covid ID cards, the Liberal Democrats have led the campaign against them.
"We've seen MPs in other parties share our views that this would be a real attack on people's freedoms and particularly hit businesses and young people - it is unworkable, it is expensive and it is divisive.
"That's why the Government haven't gone ahead with it previously. Now we hear, in the recess when Parliament can't debate it, they've by stealth changed the rules so your NHS app could be used as a Covid ID card across venues.
"That's completely wrong, it is undemocratic, they are not being held accountable to it, so Liberal Democrats are saying, given that serious undermining of civil liberties without any debate in Parliament, Parliament should be recalled."
08:30 AM
Tokyo's daily Covid-19 infections hit new record of 4,058
Amid all the excitement of the Olympics, some bad news for Toyko: newly reported Covid-19 cases in the capital city have surged to a record high of 4,058, the metropolitan government announced.
The surge comes after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday declared an emergency in Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, near Tokyo, as well as in the western city of Osaka, effective Monday until August 31.
Emergency measures already in place in Tokyo and the southern island of Okinawa will be extended until the end of August, after the Olympics and well into the Paralympics which start on August 24.
The upsurge in cases in Tokyo despite more than two weeks of emergency measures is raising doubts that they can effectively slow infections.
"Infections are expanding in the Tokyo and western metropolitan areas at an enormous speed that we have never experienced before," Suga said as he declared the expansion of the state of emergency. If the spike continues at the current pace with the spread of the more contagious delta variant, Japan's medical system could collapse, he said.
Discrepancy in Covid data could reflect desires to avoid self-isolation
The gap between the number of coronavirus cases and the infection rate - as signalled by this week's Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey - could be down to people wanting to avoid self-isolation, according to a health psychologist.
Professor Robert West, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), said the "discrepancy" between the ONS survey - which found that around one in 65 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to July 24 - and the positive case rate was a "puzzle", and that it was the first time it had materialised during the pandemic.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
"One of the things that is a concern is that people may not be coming forward as they used to do for testing. One of the reasons for that may be that the messaging from the Government in a way has sort of given a bit of a green light to people to say, 'well, it is not so bad if you get the infection'.
"(But) if you get tested you're going to have to self-isolate, at least at the moment, and that's going to be very disruptive. I suspect that may be a factor."
08:10 AM
Today's front pages
Here's a look at some of the front pages of today's newspapers. Covid dominates - with stories about mandatory jabs, secret pandemic plans and holiday hell. Fuel prices and climate change also feature, while the Financial Times has a story about the Conservative donor's access to the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile in Scotland, almost all the paper's splash on the latest drug deaths figures (read about that here).
The Telegraph: NHS made pandemic plan to deny elderly care
Quarter of older people living in more physical pain post-pandemic
Around a quarter of older people were unable to walk as far or were living in more physical pain earlier this year compared to the start of the coronavirus pandemic, research suggests.
Extrapolated to the UK population, the findings suggest that millions of older people have seen their health decline following multiple lockdowns, social distancing measures, the loss of routines and support and limited access to services.
People reported being less steady on their feet, struggling to manage the stairs and feeling less independent since the start of the crisis, according to polling for Age UK.
The charity fears the adverse effects may be long-lasting and in some cases irreversible, heaping pressure on NHS and social care services over coming years.
The research also found that some people living with a mental health condition saw their symptoms exacerbated, while others were feeling depressed or anxious for the first time.
07:31 AM
Euros helped 'supercharge' infections in North East
Mark Adams, the joint director of public health for Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, said the Euro 2020 final, in which Italy beat England on penalties earlier this month, helped "supercharge" infections in the North East.
Middlesbrough currently has the highest rate of new cases in England - although it is down sharply week-on-week from 1,421.5 cases per 100,000 people to 695.8. The biggest fall was recorded by Redcar and Cleveland, which is down from 1,520.2 to 668.6.
With the areas to be offered enhanced support by the Government to tackle its case rates, Mr Adams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The rates tended to kick off just after the Euros football final - our three highest days were three-to-five days after that final, so I think our momentum was kind of picking up then and that event just supercharged it up to the unfortunate position we found ourselves in.
"But what we have seen over the last week is our rates have more than halved, and so even though everyone else's rates are coming down as well, our rates seem to be coming down very quickly.
"So I think areas like Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and places you've seen in the North West and further north in the North East, are more susceptible to Covid because of the types of jobs that people do, the inability to work from home - Middlesbrough was cited in the ONS survey of being in the bottom 10 of areas where people are able to work from home."
Mr Adams said his team was contacting those people who had not yet come forward for their first vaccine jab to encourage them.
05:29 AM
China battles biggest outbreak in months
China is battling its biggest Covid-19 surge in months fuelled by the delta variant.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Jiangsu province were in lockdown on Friday after a cluster of infections were detected in the provincial capital Nanjing.
The outbreak was linked to airport workers who cleaned a plane from Russia earlier this month. By Friday, infections were detected in Beijing and five provinces.
At least 206 infections across China have been linked to the cluster, and the outbreak is geographically the largest in several months.
The NHS drew up secret plans to withdraw hospital care from people in nursing homes in the event of a pandemic, The Telegraph can disclose.
Confidential Whitehall documents show that the NHS plans refused treatment to those in their 70s and that "support" would instead be offered to use so-called "end of life pathways".
The strategy was drawn up by NHS England following a pandemic planning exercise in 2016 and was designed to stop hospitals being overwhelmed.
As New South Wales struggles to control its latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic, parts of its neighbouring state of Queensland will enter a three-day snap lockdown today after the state recorded six new cases of the delta strain.
The new outbreak in Queensland is putting football, rugby and other sporting events in limbo.
"We have seen from the experience in other states that the only way to beat the delta strain is to move quickly, to be fast and to be strong," the state's Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.
"That is now the nationally agreed approach."
03:26 AM
Police prepare for Sydney lockdown demonstration
Police patrol George Street in front of Sydney Town Hall in anticipation of an anti-lockdown rally - MICK TSIKAS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, reported 210 locally acquired cases of Covid today, as police cordoned off downtown Sydney with multiple checkpoints to prevent a planned anti-lockdown protest.
Sydney has been under a weeks-long strict lockdown that is to last at least until the end of August while battling an outbreak of the highly infectious delta variant. Today's numbers bring the outbreak to 3,190 cases.
Protests last weekend resulted in a series of arrests and clashes with police.
A late-July poll by the NSW-based market research firm Utting Research showed, however, that only 7pc of people support the demonstrations.
Compliance with public health rules has been one of the key cited reasons behind Australia's success in managing the pandemic.
China is battling its biggest Covid-19 surge in months fuelled by the delta variant, while the US is intensifying efforts to combat the strain which officials believe is more contagious than chicken pox after a fast-spreading outbreak in Massachusetts.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry made their first public appearance alongside Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2018, but a Royal author has claimed it was marred by an awkward moment
For the Love of Dogs viewers were left infuriated as they pointed out a 'bad habit' of presenter Alison Hammond's during the latest episode of the ITV show, which has seen ratings plummet.
Sabrina Carpenter went braless wearing the Mirror Palais Anemone Dress in butter featuring illusion tulle adorned with lace appliqués along the neckline and hem
Callum Laing, 40, was diagnosed with a stage 4 Glioblastoma brain tumour, after he had been suffering from intense headaches - but surgeons in Edinburgh have made a surprising discovery.
The ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show star, who is a BBC Sounds podcast host too, spoke out on Twitter/X over how to get in touch with your bank urgently
Whatever the long-term electoral consequences of the ending of the SNP-Greens agreement, Humza Yousaf has at last seized one of the most important elements in politics: the initiative.
Footage taken by a Brazilian tourist shows several pedestrians stepping to soothe the black horse which caused damage after running through the London streets on Wednesday.
They contain a triple whammy of alpha linolenic acid, fibre and lignans which help protect against heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol
Death in Paradise fans are continuing to speculate about DI Neville Parker's replacement following actor Ralf Little's exit, with another name being thrown into the mix
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