Serious illness among 16 and 17-year-olds prompted expansion of vaccine rollout, expert says

Good evening, here's a summary of today's Covid news:

• Future Covid control measures should only apply to the most vulnerable, a government adviser has said.
• Some NHS trusts are busier than ever amid a multitude of pressures on the NHS, a leading voice in the sector has said.
• The World Health Organization said a clinical trial in 52 countries will study three anti-inflammatory drugs as potential treatments for Covid-19 patients.
• Italy's government has urged regions to prioritise Covid-19 vaccinations for those aged between 12 and 18, in an effort to extend the campaign before schools and sports activities restart across the country.
• Europe's drugs regulator said it was looking into three new conditions to assess whether they may be possible side-effects related to Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, following a small number of cases.
• Pregnant women should be vaccinated against Covid-19, based on a new analysis that did not show increased risk for miscarriage, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
• France recorded 30,920 daily Covid cases on Wednesday, meaning that the country narrowly overtook the UK, which reported 29,612 new cases today.

French health authorities reported 30,920 new daily Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, a figure above the 30,000 threshold for the first time since April 28, when the country was about to exit its third lockdown.

France's daily cases narrowly overtook the UK, which reported 29,612 new cases today.

The seven-day moving average of daily new cases now stands at 23,288, above the 23,000 limit for the first time since May 1.

That figure is almost 13 times higher than a June 27 low of 1,816 as the more contagious delta variant is spreading in the country.

Earlier French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said France would strengthen lockdown rules in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe to control the spread of the virus.

President Joe Biden is meeting on Wednesday with the chief executives of United Airlines and Kaiser Permanente to find ways to boost US Covid-19 vaccination rates, the White House said.

In addition to United Airlines' Scott Kirby, the meeting includes Kaiser Permanente Chief Executive Gregory Adams, Howard University President Wayne Frederick and a South Carolina business owner who adopted a vaccinate-or-get-tested requirement for her workers, an administration official said.

Biden has endorsed companies and local governments pressing more people to get vaccinated. The Biden administration is also looking into what authority businesses have to mandate vaccines, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters last week.

Pregnant women should be vaccinated against Covid-19, based on a new analysis that did not show increased risk for miscarriage, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

The CDC said it has found no safety concerns for pregnant people in either the new analysis or earlier studies. It said miscarriage rates after vaccination were similar to the expected rate. Pregnant women can receive any of the three vaccines given emergency authorization, Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.

The agency had not previously recommended pregnant women get vaccinated but had said that they should discuss vaccination with their healthcare providers.

Pregnant women should feel reassured by a UK study showing similar birth outcomes between those who have had a Covid-19 vaccine and those who have not, a researcher has said.

There were no statistically significant differences in the data, with no increase in stillbirths or premature births, no abnormalities with development and no evidence of babies being smaller or bigger, a paper from a team at St George's, University of London said.

Thousands of pregnant women in England have been vaccinated against coronavirus, with no safety concerns reported.

But the latest data - which researchers said is the first from the UK focusing on safety outcomes for pregnant women - should add an extra layer of reassurance for expectant mothers, said lead author Professor Asma Khalil.

Separate research last month revealed the vast majority of pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated and there has been a drive in recent weeks to encourage more to get a jab, with England's chief midwife writing to GPs and fellow midwives to spread the message.

The Swiss government plans to halt most free Covid-19 testing for people who are not vaccinated now that nearly half the population has got the jabs, it said on Wednesday.

"For the government, protecting hospital structures now has priority, no longer protecting the non-vaccinated population," it said while keeping in place scaled-back curbs on public life it adopted in June as new cases were on the decline.

The Swiss strategy has focused on repetitive testing in schools and companies as well as preventive testing free of charge. The federal government will continue to finance tests in schools, companies and healthcare facilities.

India is in talks to buy 50 million doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

A Pfizer spokesperson said it was in talks with the government to supply vaccines, but declined to provide further details. The Indian health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The drugmaker has not yet sought permission for use of its vaccine in India.

Europe's drugs regulator said on Wednesday it was looking into three new conditions to assess whether they may be possible side-effects related to Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna following a small number of cases.

Erythema multiforme, a form of allergic skin reaction, and glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome, disorders related to kidneys, are being studied by the safety committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), according to the regulator.

The mRNA technology used by the two vaccines has been a turning point in the pandemic and for the scientific community, with their high effectiveness against Covid-19, but some rare side-effects of the shots are being studied as more people are inoculated globally.

Last month, the EMA found a possible link between very rare heart inflammation and the mRNA vaccines. However, the European regulator and the World Health Organization have stressed that benefits from these vaccines outweighed any risks posed by them.

Italy's government has urged regions to prioritise Covid-19 vaccinations for those aged between 12 and 18, in an effort to extend the campaign before schools and sports activities restart across the country.

In a letter addressed to regional governors, the Government's special Covid Commissioner Francesco Paolo Figliuolo on Wednesday called on the regions to vaccinate youngsters without them requiring a reservation.

"In order to fast-track vaccinations among the 12 to 18-year-olds ... you should give them priority even if they don't have a booking," Figliuolo wrote, saying the new policy should apply from Aug. 16.

Italy's 20 regional governments have front-line responsibility for organising and carrying out inoculations.

Some 40pc of around 4.6 million Italians aged below 19 have had at least one vaccine dose and around 23pc are fully inoculated, latest government data show.

The family of Captain Sir Tom Moore have officially opened the new garden of a children's hospice, which was created with the help of a "significant" donation from the charity set up as part of his legacy.

Second World War veteran Captain Tom captured the nation's imagination with his fundraising at the height of the first coronavirus lockdown last year as he set out to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday.

He raised £38.9 million for the NHS, including Gift Aid, with the money given to NHS Charities Together.

Before his death on February 2 this year, he and his family set up the Captain Tom Foundation with the motto of "inspiring hope where it is needed most".

Some health trusts are busier than ever amid a multitude of pressures on the NHS, a leading voice in the sector has said.

Despite lower levels of Covid hospital admissions recently than had been predicted, the latest performance figures are expected to show that every part of the health service is under "huge pressure", NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said.

Monthly NHS performance statistics are due to be published on Thursday.

Mr Hopson, boss of the membership organisation for NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance trusts, said there are six different pressures facing the health service.

The pressures include recovering care backlogs "at full pelt", lower bed capacity due to infection control measures, staff self-isolating and more workers on holiday than normal due to the build-up of leave cancelled in the pandemic.

Mr Hopson said the demand for urgent and emergency care is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels in some trusts, especially those in "holiday hotspots".

French Covid-19 vaccination centres have been hit by vandalism and daubed with Nazi-themed tags as the government steps up its vaccination drive.

Across the country, vaccination centres and outdoor testing facilities at pharmacies have been tagged with swastikas and graffiti such as "collaborator", "Nazi" and "genocide" in recent weeks.

The same slogans have also been seen in some demonstrations against Covid health passes.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said a clinical trial in 52 countries will study three anti-inflammatory drugs as potential treatments for Covid-19 patients.

"These therapies - artesunate, imatinib and infliximab – were selected by an independent expert panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in hospitalised Covid-19 patients," it said in a statement.

Artesunate is already used for severe malaria, imatinib for certain cancers, and infliximab for diseases of the immune system such as Crohn's Disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Vaccine equity campaigners have slammed Pfizer for "profiteering" during a pandemic, as the company increases Covid-19 vaccine prices for the NHS.

The UK will pay £1 billion for 35 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for "booster" jabs next year, with prices increasing a fifth from £18 to £22 a dose, according to reports in The Times.

Global Justice Now has called the "jacking up" of prices mid-pandemic "shamefully unsurprising", warning that "billions of people remain unvaccinated in countries with health systems that can ill-afford this kind of profiteering".

By ordering millions of "overpriced" booster jabs, the UK is sending low and middle-income countries who are struggling to access vaccines "to the back of the queue", says Global Justice Now.

More than 150 people who may have been in contact with a confirmed case of the Ebola-like Marburg virus are currently in isolation in Guinea, as authorities race to contain the deadly haemorrhagic fever.

On Monday, the World Health Organization confirmed that a man in southeastern Guinea had died from the disease last week, the first known case of Marburg virus in West Africa.

The man fell ill on July 25, sought medical care near his village in a remote forested area on August 1, and died the following day.

Health authorities are now scrambling to contain the threat, with the head of the WHO’s Africa office warning that the outbreak has the potential “to spread far and wide”. So far, 155 people who may have come into contact with the Marburg victim have been told to isolate.

Sarah Newey has more detail on this story here

Future Covid control measures should only apply to the most vulnerable, a member of Sage has said. 

Germany is to abolish free testing for asymptomatic people from Oct 11, and asked if the UK could follow suit, Professor Andrew Hayward of University College London's Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, told BBC Radio 4's Today: "I think  generally as we move into a sort of endemic rather than a pandemic situation then the potential harm that the virus can cause at the population level is much less.

"So it merits much... you can't really justify such broad population-wide control measures and we tend to target the control measures more, to those who are most vulnerable.

"And so I think, not only in testing but in all sorts of forms of control, as we move into a situation where we're coming to live with this virus forever then we target the measures to the most vulnerable rather than having the more disruptive measures."

Ukraine's government will extend Covid-19 restrictions until Oct. 1 to tackled a surge in infections due to the spread of the Delta variant, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Wednesday.

The seven-day average daily number of new cases has risen above 1,000 since mid-July, after the authorities lifted most restrictions and maintained only mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing requirements.

Ukraine, which has a population of 41 million, has been among the most affected European countries, with around 2.3 million Covid-19 cases and 53,149 deaths as of Aug. 11, and only 2.5 million have been fully vaccinated so far. 

A surge in American children being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 is dividing doctors and regulators on either side of the Atlantic.

Dr Lee Savio Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics has written to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging it to work  “aggressively” toward authorising Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as five to 11. 

The jab is already available to children over 12 in the US and the plea came as the country experienced the largest week-on-week spike in pediatric Covid cases since the start of the pandemic.

According to official data, the rate of US pediatric hospital admissions is now 3.75 times higher than it was a month ago and is equal to its highest point since January.

Read the full story here

A wider Covid-19 vaccination booster campaign still hangs in the balance even though it is due to start in less than four weeks.

Experts said they are still assessing data before they confirm whether all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable will need a third jab.

They confirmed a booster will "quite likely" be needed for a small number of people who are immunosuppressed.

There are plans for around 30 million people to receive a third Covid-19 jab alongside a flu vaccine, with the programme due to start on September 6.

But the expert panel that advises the Government - the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation - is still assessing hospital admissions data and blood test samples before they approve the programme.

Many workers returning to offices are struggling to cope with noise or problems with facilities such as video conferencing, a new study suggests.

Research among 2,000 adults indicated that most of those who worked from home during the pandemic have now gone back to offices at least once.

The Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management said only one in four of those it questioned noticed any changes to their office layout on their return.

Seven in 10 home workers in the West Midlands, Northern Ireland and London have returned at least temporarily to the office, compared to half in the South West, Wales and North West, said the report.

Scottish workers were said to be the least likely to have tried to return.

Half of respondents believed they are more productive working from home, especially among younger workers.

A Government scientific adviser has said Covid is unlikely to be eradicated entirely but the "nature of the virus" meant it would become a seasonal infection.

Andrew Hayward, of University College London's Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, also told BBC Radio 4's Today that Covid would likely continue to mutate, meaning true herd immunity was unlikely.

The professor said: "I think the nature of this infection and the nature of the vaccines is such that the level of immunity that is achieved is not enough to consider that.

"If someone could come up with a vaccine that was not only 95% protective against severe disease but 95% protective against infection then, yes, we would stand a chance of eradicating it."

He added: "I think it is a pretty distant prospect and we need to get used to the concept that this will become what we call an endemic disease rather than a pandemic disease.

"A disease that is with us all the time - probably transmits seasonally a bit like influenza where we see winter outbreaks."

Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said the body advised the Government that children aged 16 and 17 would need the jab after seeing a small number of serious cases in the age group.

He told BBC Breakfast: "We're going cautiously down through the ages now into childhood and it was clear that the number of cases and the number of young people in the age group - 16, 17 - that were getting seriously ill merited going forward with giving them just a first dose."

Prof Finn added: "Most young people who get this virus get it mildly or even without any symptoms at all.

"But we are seeing cases in hospital even into this age group - we've had a couple of 17-year-olds here in Bristol admitted and needing intensive care over the course of the last four to six weeks - and so we are beginning to see a small number of serious cases.

"What we know for sure is that these vaccines are very effective at preventing those kind of serious cases from occurring."

He said the group would advise "when and what" the second dose for 16 and 17-year-olds would be after assessing more data.

Prof Finn said that even though 16-year-olds do not need parental consent to get the vaccine, in practice most are guided by parents, who he hoped would advise their children to take up the vaccine when offered.

Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, has threatened to withhold pay from school leaders who require masks for students.

Most of Florida's schools reopened this week at full capacity. Mr DeSantis, a Republican, has warned the state could level financial penalties to districts that mandate masks.

Many school officials and public health experts say masks are needed to protect students and teachers, and President Joe Biden has clashed with Mr DeSantis over the issue.

Asked on Tuesday whether he could intervene in states that have banned mask mandates, Mr Biden said he did not think so but his administration was studying the possibility.

"I don't believe that I do," Mr Biden said when asked if he had the power to intervene. "We're checking that."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the administration is looking at whether it can use unspent Covid-19 relief funds to combat any pay cuts imposed by Mr DeSantis.

Earlier in the week, a group of parents in Florida announced they were suing Mr DeSantis for preventing schools from introducing mask mandates when children return to the classroom.

There are currently 1,450 children in hospital in America with coronavirus - the most since the pandemic began.

Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, has disagreed with the argument that asymptomatic schoolchildren should be exempt from coronavirus testing to prevent them from missing out on lesson time.

Speaking on Times Radio, he added it "would be a good thing" for children over 12 years old to be vaccinated and that "the world would be a safer place" if first and second doses of the vaccine were distributed around the globe ahead of booster jabs in the UK.

On children being exempt from testing, Prof Altmann said: "From a medical scientific point of view, I'd say there's nothing special about the virus in their lungs that can't transmit through to their families, through to their schoolteachers, through to their colleagues.

"What's special about an asymptomatic child? They're as dangerous to the spread as anybody else."

When asked whether children over 12 years old should be vaccinated, he said: "I think so, we'll look across and see it being done very successfully in other countries, as is happening, and we'll give way to that as well. I think that would be a good thing."

On whether booster jabs should be given ahead of first doses around the world, he said: "If you forced me to say, I'd say the world would be a safer place with more of the world single and double-jabbed, so fewer people on the planet have the virus."

A third coronavirus jab will "quite likely" be needed for a small number of people but a broader campaign is still uncertain, one vaccination expert has said.

Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) - which advises the Government on vaccine policy - said people who have a weak immune system are likely to need a booster jab, but it is still unclear whether it will be needed for all over-50s.

"We've been asked to advise as to who might receive a booster if it proves necessary to give boosters," he told BBC Breakfast.

"I think it's becoming quite clear that there are a small group of people whose immune responses to the first two doses are likely to be inadequate - people who've got immunosuppression of one kind or another, perhaps because they've got immunodeficiency or they've been receiving treatment for cancer or bone marrow transplants or organ transplants, that kind of thing.

"I think it's quite likely we'll be advising on a third dose for some of those groups.

"A broader booster programme is still uncertain, we've laid out potential plans so that the logistics of that can be put together, alongside the flu vaccine programme.

"We need to review evidence as to whether people who receive vaccines early on in the programme are in any serious risk of getting serious disease and whether the protection they've got from those first two doses is still strong - we clearly don't want to be giving vaccines to people that don't need them."

Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, has said new future variants of coronavirus could mean vaccine immunity may never overcome it completely.

When asked on Times Radio whether coronavirus could "die away" once enough people have antibodies through having caught the virus or via vaccination, he said: "That's still kind of true.

"More vaccination means more people carrying antibodies means fewer susceptible people, which means fewer lungs for the virus to be in, which means less pandemic.

"So, it hasn't all gone out of the window. But nobody said this virus had to be simple.

"There's Delta at the moment, there may well be other worse ones coming round the curve, and they impact the effectiveness of the vaccines and change their calculations."

Here is your Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, Aug 11.

More than 90 per cent of private travel Covid test providers are yet to be accredited as competent operators amid claims that holidaymakers face a "Wild West".

The UK accreditation service is responsible for vetting and approving the 434 companies listed by the Government as offering testing and which are charging holidaymakers up to £399 per PCR test.

The process to check that they meet medical and scientific standards began at the end of last year after the Department of Health and Social Care set up the gov.uk site of approved companies.

However, only 38 have so far been fully accredited, prompting complaints that holidaymakers are being exposed to rip-offs, misleading pricing and missed flights because of delays in returned test results.

Read the full story

Read more: Which countries are on the green list and when is the next update?

Hawaii will re-impose Covid-19 restrictions limiting social gatherings to avert straining the state's healthcare, Governor David Ige said on Tuesday, as the rapid spread of the delta variant pushed cases and hospitalisations in the US to a six-month high.

"I'll be signing an executive order that will limit social gatherings, effective immediately," Ige said in a tweet.

In June, social gatherings were increased to 25 indoors and 75 outdoors statewide but now it will be capped to no more than 10 indoors and 25 outdoor.

Hawaii, with more than 60 per cent of population fully vaccinated, has witnessed a rise in cases by 168 per cent between July 26 and August 8, according to the state's department of health.

Read more: Vaccine uptake or obesity? Surging child Covid hospitalisations in the US leave experts stumped

Soldiers will be deployed to help beleaguered ambulance staff after an influx of staycationers led to two 999 calls every minute. 

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust (SWAS) said it had experienced a “substantial increase” in callouts over recent months due to visitors taking advantage of the sunny weather.

The emergency service, which covers Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall, said it had been forced to call in the military after struggling to handle more than 3,000 emergency incidents daily. 

A “small number” of soldiers would help “alleviate pressures on services”, it added. 

Read the full story

Five million people in Australia's second-largest city will remain under stay-at-home orders for at least another week after authorities extended a lockdown on Wednesday after failing to curb Melbourne's latest Covid outbreak.

The city entered its sixth pandemic lockdown last Thursday after a fresh delta variant cluster emerged at a Melbourne school and quickly spread.

Daniel Andrews, the premier of the state of Victoria, said lockdown rules will be extended until at least August 19, after 20 new cases were detected overnight including several "mystery" cases.

In Sydney, more than five million people are enduring their seventh week under stay-at-home orders, currently scheduled to remain until the end of August.

The state of New South Wales recorded 344 new cases Wednesday, taking the total for an outbreak that began in Sydney in mid-June to more than 6,100 cases.

South Korea reported more than 2,200 new daily cases, a record since the pandemic began last January, Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said on Wednesday, as the country grapples with its worst Covid-19 outbreak to date.

Despite having tough distancing measures in place for over a month, infections have spiked due to the spread of the more transmissible delta variant and a rise in domestic travel over summer, Kwon told a Covid response meeting.

Nearly half of new cases detected recently have been found outside Seoul and in summer holiday spots, while authorities are concerned many people are ignoring social distancing rules.

The Emmy Awards ceremony for achievement in television was moved outdoors on Tuesday in the latest setback to live events because of rising concerns over the pandemic.

The Sept. 19 ceremony in Los Angeles was initially due to take place indoors before a limited celebrity audience.

"The Television Academy and CBS have decided to host all ceremonies ... on the Event Deck at LA LIVE, directly behind the Microsoft Theater," the Television Academy said in a statement.

The Event Deck in downtown Los Angeles is an outdoor space that includes a large tented area.

The statement said the changes followed discussions with Los Angeles County health and safety experts.

It added there would be further limits on the numbers of those invited to the show, including those nominated for the highest honours in US television.

• More than 90 per cent of private travel Covid test providers are yet to be accredited as competent operators amid claims that holidaymakers face a "Wild West".
• Soldiers will be deployed to help beleaguered ambulance staff after an influx of staycationers led to two 999 calls every minute. 
• Risk assessments have been ordered before civil servants can return to workplaces en masse on the basis that not everyone will be vaccinated, raising the prospect of ongoing limits to numbers. 
• A surge in American children being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 is dividing doctors and regulators on either side of the Atlantic.
• The delta variant has wrecked any chance of herd immunity, a panel of experts including the head of the Oxford vaccine team said as they called for an end to mass testing so Britain can start to live with Covid.
• Herd immunity “is not a possibility” because the delta variant can spread among vaccinated individuals, according to experts including the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group.