Coronavirus - 15th November 2021

• Covid passes are now needed at cinemas and theatres in Wales
  
  
• Businesses organisations in Scotland say the retail industry is "struggling in the shadow" of Covid and are calling for support
  
  
• A website that allows eligible groups in Scotland to book their Covid booster and flu vaccination appointments has been launched
  
  
• All over-40s should be offered a third dose of a Covid vaccine, top advisors say
  
  
• Professor Jonathan Van-Tam hosted a briefing with Professor Wei Shen Lim of the JCVI and Dr June Raine of the MHRA
  
  
• Dr June Raine says benefits of getting the booster jabs "far outweigh any risks", and that it is safe for people in 16-17 age group to have second Pfizer/BioNTec vaccine
  
  
• 12.6 million people have had a booster dose so far - over-50s, front-line medical staff and people with health conditions
  
  
• Professor Jonathan Van-Tam says those in over-60s group getting a booster achieve in excess of 90% protection from infection. 
  
  
• He says the UK could be in for a "bumpy few months" over winter but hopes the situation will be calmer by spring
  
  
• About two million unvaccinated people are told to stay at home in Austria amid growing Covid pressure on hospitals
  
  
• Britain expected to extend Covid booster programme to under 50s.
  
  
• Brazil reports lowest end of week Covid death toll in over a year.
  
  
• Egypt’s national research body said on Sunday that it will start clinical trials for a domestically made coronavirus vaccine.
  
  
• UK firm to trial T-cell Covid vaccine that could give longer immunity against Covid-19. An Oxfordshire-based company Emergex will soon start clinical trials of a second-generation vaccine against Covid-19, an easy-to-administer skin patch that uses T-cells to kill infected cells and could offer longer-lasting immunity than current vaccines.
  
  
• UK officials have compiled a ‘Covid exit strategy’ from April called Operation Rampdown, leaked documents reveal. Under the plan, the government could wind down testing and people would no longer be forced to isolate if they are ill from April, leaked documents reveal.
  
  
• Three snow leopards died of complications from Covid-19 at the Lincoln children’s zoo in Nebraska.
  
  
• Germany to return to work from home amid rising infections. The measure is being reintroduced under draft legislation seen by AFP on Sunday, after the home working restriction was lifted at the beginning of July.
  
  
• In the UK more than two million people received their Covid-19 booster in the past week, with health officials describing the numbers as record-breaking. NHS England said 2.1 million boosters were delivered between November 6-12, an increase on the 1.7 million boosters given out during the previous seven days.
  
  
• China donated 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday to Syria, which has one of the world’s lowest inoculation rates and what the UN called an alarming rise in cases.
  
  
• Japan’s economy has shrunk much faster than expected as supply shortages hit and global production bottlenecks pose increasing risks to the export-reliant nation.
  
  
• Outcry in China after Covid health workers kill a pet dog while owner was in quarantine.
  
  
• China reported 52 new confirmed coronavirus cases for 14 November compared with 89 a day earlier, its health authority said on Monday. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.
  
  
• Cambodia reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers on Monday, two weeks earlier than originally planned, as it emerges from a lengthy lockdown bolstered by one of the world’s highest rates of immunisation against Covid-19.
  
  

Austria introduces lockdown for unvaccinated

Police will carry out spot checks in Austria

UK government rules out Austria approach of locking down the unvaccinated

That’s not something we’re currently contemplating. Of course it is the case – although it’s an entirely separate matter – that in relation to very high risk areas such as care homes, we are requiring people to have those those double jabs. It’s always been a British tradition, I think, to move on a consensual voluntary basis. So we have no plans to have that kind of differentiated approach between the vaccine and non-vaccine.

Covid passport rules broadened in Wales

How have Covid passes been received in other countries?

Protests in Vienna over Covid measures

Government to host coronavirus briefing at 9:30am

What did we learn from today's Covid Briefing?

• The UK's top vaccine experts, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), will advise the government that people aged 40 and over should be given a booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines six months after their second jab
  
• Booster doses help stop 93% of symptomatic Covid cases and even more Covid-related hospitalisations, Prof Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI’s chair said
  
• No new safety concerns have been identified with Covid booster doses, and the benefits of preventing Covid far outweigh the risks of having the jab, Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency added
  
• The JCVI will advise that it is safe for healthy 16 and 17-year-olds to get second vaccine doses in the form of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, with the JCVI adding there are “overall benefits” to keeping the longer 12-week gap between jabs, even for those aged 16 and over
  
• England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam warned the UK could see a “bumpy few months” over the winter, with more respiratory viruses circulating and concern over a resurgence of flu
  
• Prof Van-Tam said the virus is “unpredictable” and it is still a time of “great delicacy” - but if the booster rollout went well, the UK would be in a “much calmer set of waters” by mid-spring.
  

Today so far

• The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has made two significant announcements, recommending rolling out booster vaccines to those aged between 40 and 49, and recommending a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to people aged 16 and 17.
  
• England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, has said the country may still face “a bumpy few months ahead” and that “everyone has a key role to play in achieving as safe and disruption free winter as possible. Wear face coverings in crowded places if it is practical to do so. Increase indoor ventilation whenever you can. Make sure you are vaccinated.”
  
• Dr June Raine of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that studying the data from the booster programme for over-50s in the UK there were “no new safety concerns” and “the booster doses are effective”.
  
• Outsourcing company Serco said profits would be higher than expected in 2021 thanks to greater demand from the UK government for its Covid-19 services, including test and trace.
  
• Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has backed AstraZeneca’s controversial announcement that it is moving to seek a profit from its Covid vaccine sales. Dowden also ruled out the UK government following the example of Austria and imposing lockdown conditions on people who are unvaccinated.
  
• Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, as the three parties in talks to form a new government plan an expansion of measures to tackle the pandemic. The seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 303 from 289 the previous day, figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed.
  
• Austria’s lockdown restrictions on those who are unvaccinated came into force today. “My aim is very clear: to get the unvaccinated to get vaccinated, not to lock up the unvaccinated,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told ORF radio.
  
• The government in Belgium has moved a meeting to debate new measures against Covid from Friday to Wednesday in order to have them in place for the weekend, as hospital admissions in the country are up 30% on a weekly basis.
  
• China is battling the spread of its biggest Covid-19 outbreak caused by the Delta variant as case numbers in the northeastern city of Dalian outpace anywhere else in the country. The Dalian outbreak has prompted China to confine nearly 1,500 university students to their dormitories and hotels in the city.
  
• Florida lawmakers will meet on Monday for a week-long special legislative session called by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates imposed by businesses or government agencies.
  
• Israel gave the green light Sunday to start vaccinating children aged between five and 11 against Covid-19 using Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, following the example of the United States.
  
• Cambodia reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers on Monday, two weeks earlier than originally planned, as it emerges from a lengthy lockdown bolstered by one of the world’s highest rates of immunisation against Covid-19.
  
• Classrooms across the Philippines are filling up with students again for the first time in nearly 2 years. Children have been allowed back for face-to-face learning from Monday as the country begins its pilot implementation of limited in-person classes.
  

The Philippines welcomes children back to classrooms for first time in nearly 2 years

Israel to vaccinate children aged 5-11

China battles northeast Covid cluster, university locked down

Oliver Dowden: it is in 'our hands' to prevent Christmas Covid restrictions

I can assure you there are no plans or anything else to stop Christmas happening. The huge difference this time is the vaccine, and the huge impact of the vaccine. And the way we keep that vaccine topped up, the way that we keep that wall of defence protected, is to get your booster when you get the all. Because if you compare to where we were last year, zero people had the vaccine. We’re now at around 89-90% of adults with the vaccine. So that is what is protecting us from going back to what we had at Christmas.
It’s in our hands, so if all of us, all of your viewers, if you get the booster when the call comes that is the biggest wall of defence that we have against Covid. And if you look at some of the numbers, at the end of October infection numbers were roughly comparable to where they were mid–January last year. Remember that was really at the height last year, but hospitalisations were 74% lower. Now that shows you the power of the vaccine. So I’m confident that if we stick the course, if people take the boosters when they’re asked to do so, that vaccine will hold up and we’ll be able to have a decent Christmas this year.

Germany's Covid infection rate hits highest level since start of pandemic

Latest Covid numbers for Russia

Belgian government accelerates plan to decide on tighter Covid measures

No more Covid measures needed according to current data - PM

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

• All over-40s should be offered a third dose of a Covid vaccine six months after their second dose, according to the government's vaccination advisers
  
• The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation also said 16 and 17-year-olds, initially offered only a single dose, should now receive a second
  
• Each nation in the UK has to formally decide whether to accept the scientists' vaccine advice, although it is almost certain the expanded booster campaign will be rolled out across the country
  
• Scotland's chief medical officer has confirmed people over 40 will be offered a booster, and said the Scottish government was "considering how best to implement" the new advice on 16 and 17-year-olds. Wales has also said it will follow the advice
  
• PM Boris Johnson has said current data suggests no further Covid restrictions are needed at present - but cases spreading across Europe are a danger to the UK. He will host a Covid news conference later today
  
• About two million people who have not been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have been placed in lockdown in Austria, as the country faces a surge in cases
  
• A Maori tribe has told anti-vaccine protesters in New Zealand to stop the use of a famous haka "immediately"
  
• More than a dozen business organisations have called on the Scottish government to provide a business rate discount for all shops in the next financial year
  
• Covid pass requirements have been extended to cinemas, theatres and concert halls in Wales
  
  

Austria lockdown for unvaccinated

Peru also gets tough

India opens to tourists

UK to expand booster shots

Filipinos back to school

Italy targets radical anti-vaxxers

Cambodia welcomes jabbed

Japan economic hit

More than five million dead

Irish Republic to consider new measures amid rising cases

Hospitals in the Netherlands feeling the strain, says health group

Cases falling in China, a month after fresh outbreak

PM's Covid news conference coming up

What we learned from the No 10 briefing

• Boris Johnson urged people to get vaccinated and have booster jabs as "storm clouds" of rising Covid cases are moving across Europe
  
• He said that there was no data leading the government to think it has to implement its winter Plan B, or take tougher measures such as a lockdown. But he said "we cannot rule anything out"
  
• The government is planning to add details of booster jabs to the NHS Covid pass, so people can prove their vaccination status for travel
  
• The prime minister also suggested that Covid rules may also be amended in future so that being fully vaccinated means having had a booster dose as well
  
• Johnson said that issues with the booster jabs rollout had been down to demand from the public rather than problems with supply, but he said people are now coming forward in greater numbers
  
• England's chief medical officer made a particular plea for pregnant women to get vaccinated, saying the benefits outweighed the risks and there had been "preventable" hospital admissions of pregnant women
  
  

Concern in Ireland over rising cases weeks after lockdown lifted

UK reports 39,705 new Covid cases

Analysis: What’s in store this winter?

What did we learn from Javid's Covid update?

• He said Europe is now the "epicentre" of the pandemic and the UK cannot be complacent, particularly with the circulation of the Delta Plus variant, which now accounts for 15% of UK cases
  
• The government will follow advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to offer second vaccine doses to 16 and 17 year-olds 12 weeks after their initial dose - unless they are in an at-risk group - with second doses available from Monday
  
• Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called on Javid to do more to avoid a reintroduction of restrictions, including better sick pay and isolation support, better support for ventilation of public buildings and actions to fix the "stalling vaccination programme"
  
• Javid said nobody wanted to see a return of tougher Covid measures and it was crucial to keep the "vaccine wall strong" - urging people to come forward for booster jabs, and highlighting the safety and efficacy of Covid vaccines for pregnant women
  
• Asked when the NHS Covid Pass app would be updated to record third vaccine doses - which is needed to enter some countries - he said the government was considering how best to do this and would have more to say on this "very shortly"
  

UK prime minister warning as Covid cases rise in Europe

Northern Ireland's Southern Health Trust 'absolutely on the edge'

Europe

• Britain’s booster vaccine rollout is to be extended to people aged between 40 and 49, officials said, in a bid to boost waning immunity in the population ahead of the colder winter months.
  
• Dutch hospitals are feeling the strain from a surge in Covid-19 patients but the worst has yet to come, the head of the country’s hospital association said.
  
• Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel said that the world needs to be better prepared to probe the origins of diseases and welcomed the creation of a new World Health Organization advisory group on dangerous pathogens.
  
• International travel to Spain will likely recover some two thirds of its pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of this year, the tourism minister Reyes Maroto said.
  
• Russia reported 1,211 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, close to an all-time high of 1,241 reported last week, as well as 38,420 new cases.
  

Americas

• Florida lawmakers will meet in a special legislative session, called by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates.
  
• US president Joe Biden’s vaccine requirements are prompting more Americans to get Covid shots, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.
  

Asia-pacific

• Singapore will allow vaccinated arrivals from five more countries, including Indonesia and India, to access the country without quarantine via its travel lanes from Nov. 29, its transport minister said.
  
• Japan will promote the establishment of production bases for semiconductors, Covid vaccines and drugs as part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s economic stimulus, a draft plan seen by Reuters showed.
  
• A Maori tribe that claims New Zealand’s most famous haka as its heritage told anti-vaccine protesters to stop using the traditional performance to promote their message.
  
• China is battling the spread of its biggest outbreak, according to the latest numbers, with travellers from a city where infections have grown faster than elsewhere in the country subject to tough quarantine rules in nearby areas.
  

Middle-east and Africa

• A ban on public sector employees entering their offices if they are unvaccinated and untested for Covid-19 took effect in Egypt on Monday as the government pushes to accelerate vaccination rates in the final weeks of the year.
  
• Israel’s economy is expected to grow 7.1% in 2021 and 4.7% in 2022, the finance ministry said following a rapid recovery. The country also said on Sunday children aged five to 11 would be eligible for vaccination.