Coronavirus - 8th November 2021

• US lifts bans on travel from 33 countries from Monday, allowing in international travellers, but they must be vaccinated. The US is also reopening the land borders with Canada and Mexico for vaccinated people.
  
  
• Germany reports 15,513 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, a decrease from yesterday’s 23,543 reported cases, the Robert Koch Institute reports.
  
  
• India’s daily Covid cases rose by 11,451 to reach a total of 34.37m and deaths rose by 266 for a total death toll of 461,057 the health ministry reports.
  
  
• Russia and Ukraine hit record Covid numbers. Low vaccination rates are a major factor in the sharp rise in cases.
  
  
• Australia will begin administering booster shots of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine from Monday amid an accelerating immunisation drive against the coronavirus.
  
  
• More than 10 million people have had Covid booster jabs in the UK, according to figures, as people were told to get their top-up to help prevent restrictions this Christmas.
  
  
• Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer accused him of being “very dangerous” over his handling of Covid restrictions.
  
  
• UK government could restrict travel for people who refuse Covid boosters as government sources confirmed they are looking at plans for travel restrictions on people who do not take up the booster offer.
  
  
• The UK will start to roll out Merck’s molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral pill through a drug trial later this month, Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday.
  
  
• US president Joe Biden is pushing forward with an ambitious plan to require millions of private sector employees to get vaccinated by early next year, while simultaneously battling to convince workers in his own federal government to get the shot.
  
  
• Analysis puts the pandemic’s death toll between 10 million and 19 million people.
  
  
• For the first time in 18 months, the US is lifting travel restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated.
  From today, 8 November, those travelling to the US by flight from 33 countries or through land borders with Mexico and Canada will be able to enter the country.
  Up until now the US had restricted non-essential travel for non-US citizens from several destinations around the world, including the UK and EU.
  
  
• It’s also good news for those in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland after prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced it would likely end an almost three-month lockdown later this month, with some coronavirus restrictions to be eased from Tuesday, AP reports.
  An outbreak of the delta variant has grown to more than 4,500 cases with about 150 new infections reported each day over the past week.
  

How to book a Covid booster jab: New NHS early booking system explained and when you can get a third vaccine

Across the UK, the roll-out of booster jabs have started and it is possible to get it as soon as five months after receiving your second dose.

How to book your booster jab?

When did Covid booster jabs start?

Who can get a booster jab?

1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
   
2. All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
   
3. All those 75 years of age and over
   
4. All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
   
5. All those 65 years of age and over
   
6. All individuals aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
   
7. All those 60 years of age and over
   
8. All those 55 years of age and over
   
9. All those 50 years of age and over
   

Japan records zero daily Covid deaths for first time in 15 months

Lockdown of New Zealand’s largest city likely to end this month

Robert Koch Institute records Germany's highest ever seven-day Covid incidence rate

NHS England staff should have Covid vaccine before winter, Hancock says

Singapore and Malaysia commit to re-opening travel corridor on 29 November

Most Russian regions left in place requirements for digital Covid passes to enter public areas and events. Moscow requires scannable QR codes for visits to any entertainment and sporting events with attendance of more than 500 people.

St Petersburg, meanwhile, has imposed strict QR code requirements to enter any venue, including shopping malls and hotels. Several regions have extended their paid holidays past Monday, including the Smolensk, Kursk, Chelyabinsk, Novgorod, Tomsk and Bryansk regions.

At this rate, the continent may only reach the 40% target by the end of March 2022.

The number of vaccines available in the country will not be enough for all those who would come forward. If we are to achieve the target, we need more doses to be available and people need to be mobilised to come forward and take the vaccine. Not enough people are coming forward to even take the available vaccines. People are not taking the disease seriously because the severity is not as projected. The risk perception is not as it should be.

Today so far

• Germany’s Covid incidence rate – measuring the number of new coronavirus infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days – has risen to 201.1 today. This is the highest official figure recorded by the Robert Koch Institute.
  
  
• In the eastern state of Saxony, where the incidence rate is more than twice the national average at 491.3, unvaccinated people face new restrictions. Access to indoor dining and other indoor events will be limited to those who are fully vaccinated or can show proof of recovery. The new rules are the toughest state-wide restrictions in Germany against non-inoculated people.
  
  
• Flights carrying the first UK leisure travellers to the US since the pandemic began have taken off from Heathrow, after Joe Biden permitted a reopening of the US border. Setting aside a longstanding rivalry, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic planes took off simultaneously in what the bosses of the two airlines described as a “pivotal moment” for the battered industry.
  
  
• All Aer Lingus flights to the US from Dublin were full on Monday. Delta Airlines warned passengers to be patient as the airports re-open to international travel.
  
  
• Dozens of crossings at the Mexico-US border reopened to non-essential travel on Monday after a 20-month closure. At Tijuana, ahead of the reopening, hundreds of cars formed lines stretching back kilometres from the border, while queues at pedestrian crossings grew steadily.
  
  
• In the UK, Prof Peter Openshaw, chair of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said the need for boosters had become “very clear”. Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M) advising ministers in the UK, has said “we are not out of the woods yet” but the UK was not facing a winter lockdown.
  
  
• NHS workers in England must be legally required to get Covid vaccinations before the winter, former UK health secretary Matt Hancock has said, in his first intervention since leaving government.
  
  
• Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer accused him of being “very dangerous” over his handling of Covid restrictions.
  
  
• Russia has ended the national week long paid holiday that it hoped would break the Covid transmission chain. Today the country reported 39,400 new Covid cases, including 4,982 in Moscow. There were 1,190 further official deaths. Several regions, including Smolensk, Kursk, Chelyabinsk, Novgorod, Tomsk and Bryansk are extending restrictions.
  
  
• Hungary’s pharmaceutical company Richter Gedeon has made Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for its over 12,ooo workers to ensure business continuity after a government decision allowing companies to do so.
  
  
• Singapore and Malaysia will allow quarantine-free travel between both countries for individuals vaccinated against Covid-19 from 29 November.
  
  
• Indonesia plans to give booster shots to the general public after 50% of its population has been fully vaccinated.
  
  
• Japan recorded no daily deaths from Covid-19 for the first time in 15 months on Sunday, according to national broadcaster NHK.
  
  
• In the US, first lady Dr Jill Biden and surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy are set to visit the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, to launch a nationwide campaign to promote child vaccinations. The school was the first to administer the polio vaccine in 1954. The visit comes just days after federal regulators recommended the Covid-19 vaccine for those aged 5 to 11.
  
  
• Auckland’s near-three-month lockdown is likely to end later this month with some coronavirus restrictions eased from Tuesday, according to prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
  
  
• School students could undertake daily Covid tests rather than quarantine at home under a “test to stay” approach being considered by Australia’s state and territory leaders.
  
  

Europe once again at centre of Covid pandemic, says WHO

Loved ones reunited as US drops travel bans after almost two years

Boris Johnson criticised for not wearing mask in hospital

Summary

• UK prime minister Boris Johnson has faced criticism for not wearing a face mask during a visit to a hospital. Some photos from the visit to Hexham Hospital in Northumberland showed a maskless Johnson walking down a corridor and meeting staff, while in others he was wearing one. Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth accused the PM of “irresponsibly parading round a hospital without a mask”. He added: “Patients and NHS staff deserve better than this.”
  
• The UK reported a further 57 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, and another 32,322 Covid cases, according to the latest data on the government’s dashboard. This represents a drop in infections by 16.6% in the past week, while deaths are up by 8.2%.
  
• Covid hospitalisations in France saw their highest daily rise since August. French health authorities said he number of people hospitalised because of Covid went up by 156 over the past 24 hours, the highest daily rise since 23 August, to reach a one-month peak of 6,865. The president Emmanuel Macron will address the nation on Tuesday about the resurgence of Covid infections.
  
• Russia’s one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine had a good safety profile and induced strong immune responses especially in people who had already encountered Covid, according to the results of phase 1 and 2 trials published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe medical journal.
  
• The UK is “a long way away” from thinking about a winter lockdown, a leading scientist advising the government has said, but it is vital that anyone eligible gets their booster vaccine. Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), said “we are not out of the woods yet” as he urged people to have their flu and Covid booster vaccines. Asked about the prospect of a winter lockdown, he told Sky News that if the NHS were under severe pressure and the number of deaths started to increase “there may be discussions around whether more restrictions need to come in”. On the importance of boosgter take-up, he added: “It is certainly true that, if we don’t get good immunity across the population, there may need to be perhaps further measures taken.”
  
• Travellers excited at the prospect of seeing family and friends for the first time since the Covid pandemic began took off for the United States on as it lifted travel restrictions placed on much of the world for the best part of two years. The travel ban, first imposed in early 2020, had barred access to non-US citizens travelling from 33 countries - including China, India and much of Europe - and had also restricted overland entry from Mexico and Canada.
  
• Schoolchildren in large parts of France were ordered to again wear face masks in class, less than a month after being allowed to remove them, as the country tries to tamp down a surge in Covid cases. Primary schools in 40 of France’s 101 departments, which had been mask-free for weeks, are affected by the order, when the incidence rate rises above 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over five consecutive days.
  
• It will be “impossible” for Nigeria to meet its target of vaccinating 40% of its population by the end of the year because Covid is not being taken seriously, health experts have warned. Fewer than 1.5% of the country’s 206 million population has been fully vaccinated. But with more people killed in conflict last year and substantially more recorded deaths from malaria than Covid in Nigeria, experts believe it is further down the list of concerns for many in the country. Story here.
  
• Australia pledged more than 3m Covid vaccine doses to Cambodia, the prime minister Hun Sen said, which would help the country give booster shots to its people.