5 Nov 202100:16
That’s it from me, Samantha Lock, for today.
Please join us a little later for our next Covid blog but in the meantime you can follow along with all the latest developments here.
5 Nov 202100:14Summary
Here’s a run down of today’s key stories.
- Europe is once again at centre of the Covid pandemic, the World Health Organization has said. Cases are at near-record levels and 500,000 more deaths are forecast by February. Uneven vaccine coverage and a relaxation of preventive measures have brought Europe to a “critical point” in the pandemic, WHO says.
- The UK has become the first country to approval an oral antiviral pill to treat Covid. Nearly half a million doses of molnupiravir, a pill that can be taken twice daily at home, are due for delivery from mid-November and will be given as a priority to elderly Covid patients and those with particular vulnerabilities, such as weakened immune systems. The drug will initially be given to patients through a national study run by the NHS.
- Central and Eastern Europe are grappling with spiralling coronavirus cases with several countries hitting new daily records in the regions, which have lower vaccination rates than the rest of the continent. Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia reported their highest ever numbers of daily cases, while other countries registered the most infections in months.Most Central and Eastern European countries have vaccinated about half of their populations or less, which is lower than the European Union average of some 75%.
- Understanding the origins of Covid-19 remains a key focus of the Biden administration and that they will continue pushing for answers, The White House said.
- A study suggests UK Covid cases may have peaked for this year. The study, which estimates the number of Covid cases in the community from the information that users log on an app, found a clear decline in cases in under-18s since mid-October, with infection rates levelling off in most other age groups though still climbing in 55- to 75-year-olds.
- Latvia will allow businesses to fire workers who refuse to either get a Covid vaccine or transfer to remote work, from 15 November as the country battles one of the worst Covid waves in the EU. The new law allows businesses to suspend the unvaccinated without pay if they refuse to either get the Covid jab or, if possible, to get transferred to remote work. They can then fire the employees if they do not get the vaccine in three months of the suspension.
- US vaccine mandate for private sector workers to begin 4 January. President Joe Biden will begin enforcing the mandate that private-sector workers in the US be vaccinated against Covid or be tested weekly from 4 January.
Updated at 00.15 GMT4 Nov 202123:57
Cyprus expanded its Covid-19 vaccination booster shot drive on Thursday to include everyone aged 50 and over, as well as those who have been diagnosed as obese irrespective of age.
The country began administering booster shots last month to people aged 60 and over.
Around one in 10 people on Cyprus have been diagnosed with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic with some 570 having died as a result of the virus, AP reports.
4 Nov 202123:55
Germany has reported a record number of new Covid cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The Robert Koch Institute said 33,949 new cases had been registered in the last 24 hours, up from 28,037 daily cases a week ago. The previous record was 33,777 new cases on 18 December, 2020.
The all-time high comes as the country’s federal Health Minister Jens Spahn is set to meet with the 16 state health ministers to discuss how to limit the spread of the virus in the winter as intensive care units in the hospitals are starting to fill up again and infections among children are skyrocketing.
Germany hasn’t made coronavirus vaccinations obligatory for any professional groups, unlike some of its European counterparts.
4 Nov 202123:21
It’s Samantha Lock here, taking over from Nadeem Badshah for the next short while.
Here’s a quick update on where Australia stands with Covid.
The state of Victoria has recorded 1,343 Covid cases and 10 deaths, NSW has recorded 249 cases and 3 deaths as the border with Victoria opens.
The Northern Territory town of Katherine has gone into a full 72-hour lockdown after the Top End recorded its first community transmitted Covid-19 case.
The NSW premier Dominic Perottet and prime minister Scott Morrison are expected to make a joint press conference very soon.
4 Nov 202122:57
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and unions representing over 70,000 workers reached a deal on Thursday on a Covid-19 vaccine mandate, including on exemption requests and leave policies, Reuters reports.
New York City’s public-sector employee union District Council 37 said union members who have not provided proof of at least one dose of the vaccine will have the option to resign or take a leave of absence. In both cases, employees will maintain their health benefits.
Employees without proof of vaccination who have either not submitted an application for an exemption or have been denied an exemption may be placed on unpaid leave beginning as of last Monday through November 30, the union said. It added that employees will remain eligible for health benefits during that time.
4 Nov 202122:42
Vaccine developer Novavax Inc said it has completed the submission process for emergency use listing of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate with the World Health Organization, Reuters reports.
The company submitted to the health agency all modules required for the evaluation of NVX-CoV2373, its protein-based vaccine, days after receiving its first emergency use authorisation from Indonesia. “The first authorisation of the Covid-19 vaccine… will fill a vital need for Indonesia, which is the fourth most populous nation on earth and continues to work to procure sufficient vaccine for its population,” chief executive Stanley Erck said during an investor call. The company is also expecting regulators in countries including India and the Philippines to decide on its jab within weeks.
4 Nov 202122:24
Brazil registered 436 Covid-19 deaths on Thursday and 13,352 additional cases, according to data released by the country’s health ministry.
The South American country has now registered a total of 608,671 coronavirus deaths and 21,849,137 total confirmed cases, Reuters reports.
4 Nov 202122:0601:33Europe ‘at the epicentre’ of Covid pandemic again, warns WHO – video
4 Nov 202120:45
The US administered 426,728,092 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Thursday morning and distributed 528,775,895 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 425,272,828 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Nov. 3, out of 525,071,855 doses delivered. The agency said 222,591,394 people had received at least one dose, while 193,227,813 people were fully vaccinated as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, Reuters reports.
4 Nov 202120:25
The White House said understanding the origins of Covid-19 remains a key focus of Biden administration and that they will continue pushing for answers.
“It’s incredibly important for us to get to the bottom of this,” said spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.
She said the US and its partners will continue to fight for transparency from China, Reuters reports.
Updated at 20.48 GMT4 Nov 202120:15
Scientists on the Zoe Covid study believe UK cases of coronavirus may have peaked for the year, a suggestion that prompted some experts to warn that it was too soon to know how the epidemic would play out in the weeks ahead.
The study, which estimates the number of Covid cases in the community from the information that users log on an app, found a clear decline in cases in under-18s since mid-October, with infection rates levelling off in most other age groups though still climbing in 55- to 75-year-olds.
The trends are based on 42,359 swab tests taken between 16 and 30 October and point to 88,592 daily symptomatic cases, a decrease of 4.7% on the previous week’s Zoe data. The numbers equate to one in 53 people in the UK currently with symptomatic Covid infections.
UK Covid cases may have peaked for this year, study suggestsRead more
4 Nov 202120:02
Pacific islanders at risk of rising sea levels are struggling to be heard at the climate summit in Glasgow as the Covid-19 pandemic impacts travel from the other side of the Earth, Reuters reports.
Only three Pacific leaders – of Palau, Fiji and Tuvalu – have travelled to the COP26 U.N. climate talks in Scotland to make speeches to press for deep cuts in greenhouse gases by major emitters. Usually, almost all the leaders of 14 Pacific island states come to the annual talks. “It has been a huge challenge,” Seve Paeniu, finance minister of Tuvalu, said of getting to Glasgow. He said it was the first time he had left the low-lying nation of about 12,000 people in almost two years. Paeniu faces a three-week quarantine on his return home to Tuvalu, one of the only countries in the world to have recorded zero cases of Covid-19.