England to scrap quarantine travel rules for 47 destinations; Italy increases maximum attendance capacity allowed at cultural and sporting venues
Hungary has offered its help to neighbouring Romania in treating Covid patients as the country grapples with record high new infections and a shortage of intensive care beds, the Hungarian foreign ministry said on Thursday.
“Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto offered Hungary’s help in treating coronavirus patients in a letter over the weekend,” the ministry said in a reply to Reuters questions, adding that talks were underway with Romania about the actual steps to be taken.
Scotland recorded 39 coronavirus-linked deaths and 2,691 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data.
It means the death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - stands at 8,760.
The Scottish Government’s daily figures on Thursday show there were 42,191 new tests, of which 6.8% were positive, down from 6.9% the previous day, the Press Association reported.
A total of 990 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid, down eight in 24 hours, of whom 69 are in intensive care, up one.
The daily figures also show 4,235,075 people have received their first dose of a Covid vaccination and 3,854,847 have received their second dose.
Pfizer’s new vaccine for children aged five to 11 could be ready as early as November pending approval from federal regulatory health agencies, White House Covid response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said on Thursday.
The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled time to review the Pfizer/BionNTech application for emergency use with its advisory panel at the end of October, to be followed by recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zients told CNN.
Once the authorisation is complete, Zients said:
We are ready. We have the supply. We’re working with states to set up convenient locations for parents and kids to get vaccinated including pediatricians’ offices and community sites.
Asked if he thought vaccines could begin before the US Thanksgiving Day holiday at the end of November, Zients said, “Up to the FDA and CDC scientific processes, but yes it could.”
Pfizer and BioNTech said on Thursday they had asked US regulators to approve emergency use of their Covid vaccine for children aged from five to 11, Pfizer said in a post on Twitter.
“We and @BioNTech_Group officially submitted our request to @US_FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of our #COVID19 vaccine in children 5 to <12,” the company said.
UPDATE: We and @BioNTech_Group officially submitted our request to @US_FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of our #COVID19 vaccine in children 5 to <12. pic.twitter.com/72Z2HXlkOx
— Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) October 7, 2021
Germany does not expect to have to impose any further coronavirus-related restrictions this autumn and over the coming winter, since the vaccination rate is higher than previously thought, its health minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday.
He said that a study by the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases had shown that the number of people vaccinated against Covid was 5% higher than believed, Reuters reported.
It means existing rules requiring people to show evidence of showing a negative test or having been vaccinated or recovered on entering an indoor space or event should be enough, he said.
“As things stand, this vaccination rate means no further restrictions are needed,” he said.
In Wales, the leader of the opposition in the Senedd is taking time off work to recover from coronavirus and the impact it has had on his mental health.
Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, said he was taking a “complete break” on doctor’s orders to focus on his recovery, having caught flu and Covid, reports the Press Association.
Mr Davies last spoke in the Senedd on September 21 and Paul Davies has stood in for him during the last two First Minister’s Questions in Plenary. In a statement, he said:
As some of you are aware, over the past fortnight I’ve been fighting a dose of the flu and subsequently coronavirus. I’m starting to recover but I will admit it’s knocked me for six and has had an impact on my mental well-being.
Like many men, I’ve always believed I had a shield of invincibility, and like many who have struggled, I’ve contemplated whether I should make this public. However, as a leader, I believe you should set an example and I want to be open and honest - in the good times and the bad - as I know many people have struggled and will do with their mental health.
As such, and on doctor’s orders, I will be taking a complete break from work to ensure I can fully recover and bounce back from the difficulties I’ve experienced over the past fortnight. In the meantime, I would like to thank Paul Davies for continuing with my duties during my absence and I ask that my privacy and that of my family is respected.
Scotland’s NHS faces an “incredibly, incredibly difficult winter” despite the recent £300 million funding boost, the country’s health secretary has said.
Humza Yousaf said that as well as the coronavirus pandemic, low immunity levels to flu could lead to a severe impact, the Press Association reported.
On Tuesday, he set out a £300 million package for health and social care which was described as the largest in the history of devolution.
Mr Yousaf answered questions from Holyrood’s Covid Recovery Committee on Thursday.
Scottish Labour MSP Alex Rowley raised concerns from trade unions that the money still did not go far enough and staff were under “immense pressure”. He said:
There are times when they say, in their wards, the hospitals are not safe.
That the nurse-patient ratio is way beyond what is acceptable.
Mr Yousaf said he was in regular contact with trade unions. He said:
We have the highest record level of staffing and the NHS ever under any government.
We’ll continue to recruit, of course my statement made significant ambitions and recruitment, not just for nurses but also band twos to fours as well.
But I have to be upfront with the member, and with the public. These measures will help to mitigate some of the challenges, but we’re still in for an incredibly, incredibly difficult winter.
Clinicians tell me that their real concern is not just the Covid pressures - but we hope to make a significant dent into those as we’re controlling transmission - but the flu and other respiratory viruses because our immunity we suspect is quite low.
Because last year of course the flu wasn’t circulating as much due to the lockdown and restrictive measures we were under.
Recall attempts across the US in recent months have hit a fever pitch in response to Covid-19 and racial justice disputes, and a socialist city council member in Seattle has become the latest prominent seat to be targeted.
Opponents of Kshama Sawant have spent months collecting thousands of signatures in an attempt to unseat the council member, who became the first socialist on the Seattle council in nearly a century after she beat a Democrat in 2013. Last week, the recall effort officially qualified for an election in December.
The attempt to oust Sawant during her third term was based on claims that she opened city hall to demonstrators during a protest, disregarding Covid-19 restrictions, used city resources for a “Tax Amazon” effort and led a march to Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s home despite the address being protected under state confidentiality laws.
Across the US, there have been at least 500 recall attempts this year, with the majority in the west, according to Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Hugh L Carey Institute at Wagner College, and the author of Recall Elections: From Alexander Hamilton to Gavin Newsom. Although many have not qualified for the ballot, he said the number of attempts is already one of the highest in more than a decade.
More on that story about the World Health Organization (WHO) shipping Covid aid supplies into North Korea today.
The coronavirus supplies have arrived in North Korea but are being held in quarantine in its seaport of Nampho, the WHO confirmed.
North Korea sealed its borders when the coronavirus pandemic began last year, though officials in neighbouring South Korea and the United States have cast doubts on its claim to have never had a case, despite a lack of signs of major outbreaks.
In its latest weekly report for South and East Asia, covering the period to the end of September, the WHO said it had begun shipments through China’s port city of Dalian, near the border with North Korea.
“To support DPR Korea with essential Covid medical supplies, WHO started the shipment through Dalian port, China for strategic stockpiling and further dispatch,” the agency said.
The aid in quarantine in the North includes emergency health kits, medicines and medical supplies for essential health services, said Edwin Salvador, the WHO representative to North Korea.
“We are informed that these items, along with others from other U.N. agencies, remain under quarantine at the seaport,” he said in a statement to Reuters.
The Italian government could approve the reopening of nightclubs, closed since August 2020 due to Covid-19 outbreaks linked to nightlife venues, later on Thursday.
The government’s technical scientific committee (CTS) has advised that nightclubs reopen with a maximum capacity of 35% indoors and 50%
for outdoor venues.
Guests would have to present a ‘green pass’, which shows proof of double vaccination, a negative test or of having recovered from coronavirus, before entering. Face masks would also be obligatory and can only be taken off when dancing.
The suggested limit on capacity has provoked criticism from nightclub owners and Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League and partner in prime minister Mario Draghi’s broad coalition. “It’s crazy, with the green pass it [the capacity] should be at least double,” he said.
Despite giving the go-ahead for reopening, the CTS warned that nightclubs are among the places that present the “highest risk” for spreading the virus.
Italy registered 3,235 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday and 39 deaths.