- Johnson & Johnson has been criticised for stipulating in its vaccine contract with South Africa that the country must waive its right to impose export restrictions on vaccine doses. While many western countries prevented domestically manufactured doses from leaving their borders, South Africa – which has been in need of vaccine doses – was required to agree to the demand in exchange for a relatively small supply of vaccines, in what was described as a “colonialist extraction”.
- Police in Thailand used water cannon again against protesters to break up a demonstration at the national police headquarters, a day after clashes which left a young protester in a coma with a bullet lodged in his head. Protesters were forcibly dispersed in central Bangkok for a third successive day after demanding the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, resign amid rising anger over his handling of the pandemic.
- The UK medicines regulator gave emergency authorisation for the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds. The government’s vaccine advisers will now consider whether to recommend the use of the jab, after reversing their advice earlier this month and recommending vaccines be offered to all 16- and 17-year-olds without parental consent.
- Both Washington DC and New York moved to impose vaccine mandates on healthcare workers. In New York, about 75% of 480,000 hospital workers and adult care facility workers have already received jabs, as well as 68% of 146,000 nursing home workers. No details were provided about what punishment those who rejected the mandate would face.
- A 22-year-old who last week shot dead five people during one of the UK’s worst mass shootings, before killing himself, received telephone mental health support during lockdown. But his mother, who he also shot dead, was turned down by local mental health teams for support for her son, who had autism and ADHD and was increasingly erratic, because they were understaffed, it has been reported.
- Two brothers in Kenya died this month after being detained on suspicion of breaking a curfew, with an autopsy finding they died of head and rib injuries. The deaths led to demonstrations in Embu County amid heightened scrutiny of police enforcement of Covid measures in Kenya. One person was killed when anti-riot protesters shot at police.
- Covid tests which are a prerequisite for arrival to the UK have predictably become a “rip-off”, according to the former chair of the competition watchdog. Holidaymakers have objected to high prices and poor service from many of the firms listed on the government’s website.
We’re now closing this blog. You can read all our coronavirus coverage here. Take care.
Britons’ hunger for takeaways grew even bigger in the first six months of 2021 as lockdown restrictions led to a 76% increase in orders on the JustEat delivery app.
Consumers stuck at home placed 135m orders, 58m more than in the equivalent period last year. JustEat said people were eating takeaways more often, with the average customer ordering more than three times a month, compared with 2.5 times in 2020. The company said it had also made big market-share gains in London.
More than 50% of the Swiss population has now been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Alpine nation is using the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, administering the doses four weeks apart. Government statistics showed that 50.1% of the population – 4,311,432 people – had received both injections, AFP reports.
A further 5.63% are partially vaccinated, having received their first dose. People who have recovered from the virus within the last six months and have had one dose are also certified as fully vaccinated, but they are not yet counted as such in official statistics.
Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, was the first country in continental Europe to start using the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. Half the EU population had been fully vaccinated by 3 August, according to an AFP tally.
The Swiss vaccination rate has peaked and slowed off: 2.14m doses were administered in May; 2.42m in June; 1.39m in July, and 772,000 in the calendar month until yesterday. The vaccines are available to people aged 12 and over.
Though the death rate is now very low, the number of daily new cases is rising towards the level seen in the third wave of the pandemic in April. At the end of June, Switzerland lifted many of its remaining Covid-19 restrictions.
Classrooms in England need air filters and monitoring devices fitted to protect children from Covid-19 and avoid further disruption to their learning, school unions have told the education secretary, Gavin Williamson.
The seven unions – representing teachers, school leaders, administrative and support staff – have written to Williamson asking for “urgent action” to improve ventilation when schools reopen for the autumn term without any requirement for children to wear masks or be grouped in “bubbles”.
The letter, backed by the Liberal Democrats, asks for air purification units to be installed to filter out the virus, as well as carbon dioxide monitors to measure airflow. There is mounting evidence that coronavirus is transmitted primarily through airborne particles in enclosed spaces.
France has registered 111 deaths in hospitals on Tuesday – the first time since 1 June that the daily toll was more than 100, Reuters reports, citing health ministry data.
The news agency said the figures took the cumulative death toll since the start of the epidemic to 112,844. The seven-day moving average of deaths increased to 72, from 66 on Monday and fewer than 20 per day at the end of July. France also reported that there were 1,953 people in intensive care units.
Relatives of a grandmother in her 50s, who has been left brain damaged and paralysed from the neck down after contracting Covid-19, are embroiled in a life-support treatment court battle in London.
Specialists treating the woman, who is in a minimally conscious state, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge say they can do nothing more to improve her condition. Hospital bosses have asked a judge to rule that the woman, who is on a ventilator and has underlying health problems, should be allowed to die.
The woman’s adult children, and sister, disagree. Her children say they would rather have a “mum that we could look after” than one they could “visit in a graveyard”.
Mr Justice Hayden is overseeing an online trial, due to end later this week, in the court of protection, where judges consider evidence relating to adults who lack the mental capacity to make decisions.
A lawyer representing hospital bosses told Mr Justice Hayden on Tuesday that the woman’s case appeared to be unique.
The judge, who is based in the family division of the high court in London, said it was the first of its kind.
It is the most extreme example of its kind, and it is the first time in the whole of the pandemic that I have been asked to make an end-of-life decision in relation to Covid-19. It is the first time a court has been asked to consider an end-of-life case, as a result of Covid.
In the UK, a further 170 people have died within 28 days of testing positive as of Tuesday, according to official data, bringing the country’s total to 131,149. This is the highest number of daily reported deaths since 12 March, when 175 were reported.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 156,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am BST (8am GMT) on Tuesday, there had been a further 26,852 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said. That is a week-on-week increase in cases, with new infections last Tuesday recorded at 23,510.
Official data up to 16 August shows that, of the 88,211,389 Covid jabs given in the UK, 47,369,418 were first doses, a rise of 35,716 on the previous day, and 40,841,971 were second doses, an increase of 138,390.
Police in Thailand used water cannon again today against protesters to break up a demonstration at the national police headquarters, a day after clashes which left a young protester in a coma with a bullet lodged in his head.
Protesters gathered in central Bangkok for a third successive day to demand that the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, resign amid rising anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. A record 239 Covid-related deaths were reported today.
“We are out here protesting but in return we get teargas and rubber bullets and a violent crackdown,” activist Songpon “Yajai” Sonthirak said at the protest, which saw clashes for the seventh time in the past 11 days. “We stressed that we are out here peacefully to express our disapproval of the government’s performance.”
Police spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen said protesters threw paint, ping-pong bombs, water bottles and other objects into the police headquarters. Reuters reported there were separate clashes near Prayuth’s residence.
“After repeated warning we needed to enforce the law by using high water-pressure that follows international standards,” Phathanacharoen said.
A man who attended yesterday’s protest was comatose after a gunshot wound to his neck, a hospital said, with an X-ray showing a bullet lodged close to his brain. The victim’s mother told local media her son was 15. Police said live ammunition was not used to disperse demonstrations. However, Human Rights Watch has condemned their response.
At least six people were left injured after the robust police response yesterday near Prayuth’s residence, Bangkok’s emergency services said. A medic working with protesters said a minor was struck by a bullet.
Local media have reported that Thai authorities responded to the renewed protests last week by rearresting eight prominent youth pro-democracy leaders. They are facing numerous charges including sedition and royal defamation.
Reuters also have an album of photos from the protests over the last week, which have continually been met with a stern, at times brutal, police response.
Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures)
Thai police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters near the office of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, as opposition parties moved to censure him in parliament over his handling of the COVID-19 crisis. More photos: https://t.co/PQ2PbhzWAB pic.twitter.com/EcTpbnEsx6
Sunai (@sunaibkk)
Instead of listening to understand why people are angry, #Thai government repeatedly used excessive force and unleashed police brutality to suppress street protests in #Bangkok — adding fuel raging fire. Read @HRW dispatch. #WhatsHappeningInThailand https://t.co/iLylRJy5gC
A number of former US president Donald Trump’s hotels are imposing mask mandates, despite him opposing mask-wearing during his presidency.
Newsweek reports that Trump hotels in Miami, Chicago and Hawaii have issued mask mandates amid rising Covid cases. But the Trump golf club in Florida and the Albemarle Estate at Trump Winery have relaxed restrictions.
Both state that “staff only have to wear a mask if unvaccinated” on their websites. There is a deepening and deeply partisan row over mask mandates in the US.
“I just don’t want to be doing … somehow, sitting in the Oval Office, behind that beautiful, resolute desk, the great resolute desk, I think wearing a face mask … as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, it somehow … I don’t see it for myself,” Trump told ABC last year.
Spain has announced the receipt of €9bn in its first tranche of recovery assistance from the EU’s coronavirus fund.
The countrySpain, along with Italy, will receive much of the €750bn earmarked by Brussels to relaunch European economies that have been devastated by their attempts to control Covid.
This first tranche represents 13% of the €70bn in subsidies which Spain will receive between now and 2025, the Spanish government said.
Spain is expected to receive a second tranche of €10bn later this year, with 80% of the payments expected between 2021 and 2023, the statement added.
AFP reports that the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, expects to create 800,000 new jobs with the aid of the EU funds. The government predicts the cash injection should add 2 percentage points to economic growth each year.
Last month, EU member states formally approved recovery plans submitted by 12 countries – including France, Italy and Spain – paving the way for the first instalments to be paid.
Further payouts will depend on whether national governments deliver on reforms and commitments that the money spent will meet targets on advancing Europe’s green and digital investment priorities.
Spain’s economy was one of the worst performers in the eurozone last year, contracting by 10.8% as its tourism sector was battered by the pandemic travel restrictions.
The pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has been criticised for a reportedly unusual stipulation in its vaccine contract with South Africa that required the country to waive its right to impose export restrictions on vaccine doses.
The New York Times reports that while many western countries prevented domestically manufactured doses from leaving their borders, South Africa – which has been in need of vaccine doses – was required to agree to the demand in exchange for a relatively small supply of vaccines. The measure has been described as a “colonialist extraction”.
Glenda Gray, a South African scientist who helped lead Johnson & Johnson’s clinical trial in the country, told the NYT that companies should prioritise sending doses to poorer countries that were involved in their production. “It’s like a country is making food for the world and sees its food being shipped off to high-resource settings while its citizens starve,” she said.
Popo Maja, a spokesperson for the South African health ministry, said the government was not happy with the requirements but lacked the leverage to refuse them. “The government was not given any choice,” he said. “Sign contract or no vaccine.”
The former UK prime minister Gordon Brown levelled similar allegations at J&J in an article for the Guardian earlier this month.
Fatima Hassan, executive director of the Health Justice Initiative, said:
J&J is holding South Africa and Africa to ransom, forcibly exporting doses filled and finished here, while our people die by the thousands. It’s horrifying to see that our government was seemingly forced to sign up to this kind of exploitation in return for 32m vaccines here, because this also affects the timely supply of at least 200m vaccine doses for Africa from Aspen [a South African pharmaceutical company], which J&J clearly fully controls – this much-touted license gives Aspen no supply control whatsoever.
Aspen is also the only supplier for Africa – this is nonsensical and dangerous in a pandemic. It is time that all secret vaccine contracts with vaccine manufacturers and distributors are published and reviewed – we have a right to know what has been agreed in our name. In our view, J&J are complicit in vaccine apartheid, diverting doses from those who really need them to the wealthiest countries on earth. It’s colonialist extraction, plain and simple.
Mohga Kamal-Yanni, senior health policy advisor to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:
While South Africa was experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises to arise from Covid-19, J&J diverted desperately needed vaccines to wealthy countries. It’s utterly abhorrent and shows a total disregard for African life. This is further proof that the world cannot trust a handful of pharmaceutical companies to fairly allocate vaccines across the world. Pharma executives seem all too happy to write off African deaths to line their own pockets.
Without urgent action, more of these tragedies could be around the corner. It is time for governments to break pharmaceutical companies’ monopolies on knowledge and technology of vaccines and other tools to deal with Covid-19. We should develop domestic manufacturing in low-and-middle-income countries, not siphon off doses to the rich world.
Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer, Dr Paul Stoffels, told the NYT that the Aspen plant is part of a production network in which vaccines are routinely shipped between countries for manufacturing, quality inspection and delivery. “We have done our best to prioritise South Africa as much as we can,” he said.
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