Coronavirus news live: BMA has ‘grave concern’ over mandatory NHS staff vaccines; Russia sets another record for daily Covid deaths

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Union warns over staff being forced out of work at time of pressure on health service; Russia sees 1,123 official deaths, highest since pandemic began.

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A landmark voluntary licensing deal has been signed between pharmaceutical giant Merck and the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool which will enable low-cost access to the company’s Covid-19 antiviral pill in lower income countries.

A voluntary license allows for the royalty-free licensing and generic production of Merck’s antiviral pill. It’s one of the few examples we’ve seen in the pandemic so far of a multinational suspending intellectual property rights in order to share life-saving medical technology.

The pill, known as molnupiravir, was developed by Merck in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

Regulators in the US and Europe are currently conducting rolling reviews of the medicine for emergency use authorisation.

If authorised, molnupiravir could become the world’s first oral antiviral Covid-19 treatment.

Today so far

  • The British Medical Association (BMA) has said the threat that NHS staff could lose their jobs if they do not get a Covid-19 vaccine is “of grave concern”. Healthcare workers have been warned they could face a mandatory requirement to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Any reduction of NHS staff due to vaccination requirements would be a “devastating” blow, leading doctors have said.
  • The UK government’s flagship test-and-trace system has failed to achieve “its main objective” to cut infection levels and help Britain return to normal despite being handed an “eye-watering” £37bn in taxpayers’ cash, the Commons spending watchdog has warned. Chair of the committee Dame Meg Hillier said to the media this morning that the Dido Harding-led test and trace programme treated taxpayers as if they were “an ATM”.
  • Russia has set another new record for daily Covid deaths, at 1,123. That brings the nation’s official death toll to 233,898, although that number is widely suspected to be under-counted. Russia also reported 36,582 new coronavirus cases. Moscow will be putting in new restrictions from tomorrow, and next week the country will have a week away from work in a bid to halt the domestic transmission of the virus – the government has mandated a week’s paid leave for all non-essential workers.
  • Poland’s health ministry said there were 8,361 new cases in the previous 24 hours, a sharp rise on the 6,265 recorded the previous day. The last time Poland was recording more than 8,000 cases per day was back in April 2021.
  • Hungary has seen a steady increase in infections over the past weeks – with today’s numbers – 3,125 new cases – jumping from 1,668 daily new cases a week ago.
  • The Czech Republic reported 6,274 new Covid-19 cases, almost doubling in a week as the country struggles to contain a new wave of the pandemic. The number of coronavirus infections in Bulgaria rose by 6,813 in the past 24 hours, a new record high daily tally since the start of the pandemic
  • China has reported nearly 250 locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 since the start of the current outbreak 10 days ago, with many infections in remote towns along porous international borders in the country’s northwest. China had 50 new local cases for 26 October, the highest daily count since 16 September.
  • A Brazilian Senate committee recommended that president Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s second highest Covid-19 death toll. The seven-to-four vote on Tuesday was the culmination of a six-month committee investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
  • The world’s biggest economies should create a forum to facilitate global coordination for the next pandemic, as well as a new financing facility to keep up with emerging threats, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen and Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati have said in a letter to their G20 colleagues
  • The Covid-19 crisis is far “far from finished”, the World Health Organization’s emergency committee has said. The 19-member committee, which meets every three months to discuss the pandemic and make recommendations, also called for research into next-generation vaccines and long-term action to control the virus.
  • Vaccine booster rates are now exceeding first-shot rates across the US, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  • In Thailand, businesses are pleading with the government to drop the nation’s current alcohol ban when the country reopens, saying it will deter tourists.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. It is a big day in UK politics as it is the Budget, so Andrew Sparrow and Graeme Wearden are live blogging that here. Hannah Ritchie will be here shortly to take you through the rest of the day’s coronavirus news from the UK and around the world.

BMA warns of ‘grave concern’ over making vaccines mandatory for NHS staff

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said the threat that NHS staff could lose their jobs if they do not get a Covid-19 vaccine is “of grave concern”. Healthcare workers have been warned they could face a mandatory requirement to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Any reduction of NHS staff due to vaccination requirements would be a “devastating” blow, leading doctors have said.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “The BMA fully supports the Covid vaccination rollout and, given the effectiveness of the vaccine, it’s important that every NHS worker is vaccinated, other than those who can’t for medical reasons.

“There is, however, an important distinction between believing every healthcare worker should be vaccinated and advocating for mandatory vaccinations; this comes with its own legal, ethical and practical implications that must be considered. The threat to staff who refuse the vaccine of losing their jobs is also of grave concern.

“One of the BMA’s main concerns is the impact this decision may have on the workforce. Vaccination coverage among NHS workers is high – latest data shows that in several hospital trusts in England the number of staff who have had both vaccinations is in excess of 90%.

“However, even if a small number of staff were forced out of work because they are not vaccinated, this would have a big impact on a health service that’s already under immense pressure. With severe workforce shortages afflicting the NHS, and 93,000 unfilled vacancies, any reduction in healthcare workers could be devastating for patient services as we face a record backlog of care and winter pressures.”

Health Correspondent Ella Pickover writes for Associated Press that Health secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday he is “leaning towards” making the jabs compulsory for staff in England, with around 100,000 NHS workers not fully vaccinated.

Javid insisted he had not yet made a final decision, but the move would mean the situation for NHS staff in England is broadly in line with the requirement for care home workers. From 11 November, anyone working or volunteering in a care home will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, unless exempt.

The consultation on mandatory vaccines for health workers closed last week and the Department of Health and Social Care has said it is considering feedback. The BMA said the Government should consider the legal, ethical and practical implications of mandating vaccines.

Russia sets another daily record for Covid deaths

Russia has set another new record for daily Covid deaths, at 1,123. That brings the nation’s official death toll to 233,898, although that number is widely suspected to be under-counted. Independent analysis of Russia’s excess deaths during the course of the pandemic by the Moscow Times puts the total number of deaths at closer to 660,000.

Russia also reported 36,582 new coronavirus cases. Moscow will be putting in new restrictions from tomorrow, and next week the country will have a week away from work in a bid to halt the domestic transmission of the virus – the government has mandated a week’s paid leave for all non-essential workers. Around a third of Russian adults have had at least one dose of the four vaccines available in the country.

 

A parent writes for us today on the experience of their daughter being bullied at school for having the Covid jab:

We are a pro-vaccination family, although we have friends who aren’t – we have chosen to stay off the topic with them. My daughter is at an age where she seeks out a lot of information online, so I directed her to some websites to read up more widely about it, while emphasising the reasons why it was my strong preference for her to have the vaccine.

On the day S was due to get her vaccine in school, we had a final discussion about it. “Some of the kids are saying they won’t have it because they can’t see how it helps them,” she told me. “But I think that there’s a benefit to me being able to see grandma without worrying about infecting her. And I can’t face school closing again, so I’m a bit stressed, but I’m going to do it.”

Take-up at the school was low, partly because there was an issue with the consent form being difficult for some parents to access. Ultimately, S was the only child in her class to have the vaccine, with about 20% of her entire year group taking it up. She came home with a sore arm and slight headache, but other than that she was fine. She said that the vaccination team talked her through what was going to happen, and double-checked that she was sure before they went ahead.

All was well until the following day, when another child in her class declared that because S had the vaccine, that meant she had now been injected with Covid – so if anyone went near her she would pass Covid on to them. This resulted in several children moving away from her, and refusing to sit beside her during lessons or at lunchtime.

Read more here: My daughter was bullied at school for having the Covid jab. No wonder UK take-up is low

Related: My daughter was bullied at school for having the Covid jab. No wonder UK take-up is low | Anonymous

Poland records over 8,000 new cases for first time since April

Poland’s health ministry have issued their new Covid figures for today, which show that there were 8,361 new cases in the previous 24 hours.

That is a sharp rise on the 6,265 recorded the previous day. The authorities also said that there were 44 death judged to be due to Covid-19, with an additional 89 deaths recorded where Covid-19 was present alongside co-morbidities.

The last time Poland was recording more than 8,000 cases per day was back in April 2021.

 

Agence France-Presse have a useful round-up this morning of the state of play with closed borders in Asia, to coincide with the news that Thailand will allow vaccinated travellers from 46 countries and territories to enter the kingdom without quarantining from Monday.

Singapore has started quarantine-free travel for fully vaccinated travellers from 10 countries, including the US and several European countries, and will add more soon.

Indonesia re-opened the resort island of Bali this month to tourists from select countries although, with travellers still required to do a five-day quarantine on arrival, the scheme has had a slow start.

Vietnam plans to allow foreign visitors entry to the holiday island of Phu Quoc from next month and Malaysia has a similar plan for Langkawi island, while Cambodia will reopen beach spots Sihanoukville, Koh Rong and Dara Sakor from 30 November.

Mainland China remains closed to overseas tourists, as is Japan. South Korea has started accepting visitors from 49 countries. A negative coronavirus test is required for all arrivals, with a limited exemption from a 14-day quarantine for those vaccinated in South Korea.

Some of the world’s toughest measures have been implemented in Hong Kong – with a maximum 21-day quarantine for incoming travellers.

India re-opened for foreign tourists on charter flights this month and will allow in visitors on all flights from mid-November. Fully vaccinated travellers no longer have to undergo home quarantine, provided they are arriving from countries with which India has reciprocal arrangements for acceptance of WHO-approved vaccines.

Last month, Nepal started issuing visas on arrival for vaccinated tourists and dropped quarantine requirements. Among the first countries to reopen borders was the popular holiday destination of the Maldives, which started allowing in foreign tourists in July last year.

Sri Lanka opened its international borders for fully vaccinated tourists without any quarantine requirements on 7 October, while Pakistan allows in foreign visitors as long as they have proof of vaccination and a negative Covid-19 test.

The Philippines and Myanmar remain closed to foreign tourists.

 

Hungary has seen a steady increase in infections over the past weeks – with today’s numbers – 3,125 new cases – jumping from 1,668 daily new cases a week ago. However, daily new infections still remain below the numbers elsewhere in central and eastern Europe.

Reuters note that Hungary, a country of 10 million, has reported 30,647 deaths since the start of the pandemic. More than 5.7 million people have been fully vaccinated against the virus so far, and more than 1.1 million have received a third, booster shot.

In Hungary there are still few restrictions, and mask wearing is not mandatory in closed spaces, only in healthcare facilities. However, Janos Szlavik, the country’s chief epidemiologist, told public television on Tuesday that some measures will become unavoidable if infection numbers worsen.

 

Here’s some of the key points from the Telegraph’s report last night on the test and trace cost scandal. Laura Donnelly wrote:

The excoriating report details a host of missed targets and a lack of control over spending on consultants.

When it was launched last May, Matt Hancock said it would enable the Government to replace national lockdowns with “individual isolation” for contacts of Covid-19 cases.

The report shows how the performance of the system deteriorated just when it was needed most – despite spare capacity in laboratories. Meanwhile, less than half of the contact tracing staff hired were ever in use at any one time.

While the country was in lockdown in February, just 11 per cent of contact tracers were working.

Read more of our report here: NHS test and trace ‘failed its main objective’, says spending watchdog

Related: NHS test and trace ‘failed its main objective’, says spending watchdog

 

A very quick Reuters snap: Hungary reported a jump in daily Covid-19 cases to 3,125 on Wednesday, the highest daily tally since April, the government said.

 

China has reported nearly 250 locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 since the start of the current outbreak 10 days ago, with many infections in remote towns along porous international borders in the country’s northwest.

China had 50 new local cases for 26 October, the highest daily count since 16 September, Reuters report official data showed.

The overall number is modest compared with more than 1,200 local cases reported during China’s July-August outbreak and the more than 2,000 cases in January during the last winter.

However, the steady increase of cases in the past week and their geographical spread alarmed local authorities and prompted the return of complex sets of restrictions on travel as well as on the tourism and catering sectors.

China has said the Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge to its hosting of the Winter Olympics in February and Winter Paralympics in March. Officials suspected the current flare-up was caused by a virus source from overseas.

Prior to Covid-19, Ejina Banner, a remote administrative division on China’s border with Mongolia, saw 8 million visitors in 2019 thanks to attractions such as a drought-resistant forest that would turn a golden yellow in October.




© Provided by The Guardian
A medical worker works at a nucleic acid sampling site in Ejina Banner. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

But the settlement of its 36,000 residents has been hard hit in the latest outbreak. Ejina has gone into a lockdown since last week, rendering nearly 10,000 tourists unable to leave, a local official said. Nearly half of those visitors are aged over 60.

Ruili in the southwestern province of Yunnan, rocked by multiple domestic outbreaks this year, has been served with the toughest curbs ever seen in China.

People who want to leave the city, except for those leaving for a few essential reasons, must be quarantined at centralised facilities for at least seven days before departure

Committee chair: Dido Harding-run test and trace programme treated taxpayers like ‘an ATM machine’

Following up on those comments, Dame Meg Hillier has been on the BBC this morning, saying that the Conservative government’s test and trace programme treated taxpayers as if they were an ATM. PA Media quote her saying:

There was a lot of gung-ho confidence from No 10 that we would have a ‘moonshot’ towards mass testing. Those messages kept getting more optimistic. Baroness Harding was also very optimistic about what they achieved.

But in the end it massively over-promised for what it delivered and it was eye-watering sums of money.

That is one of the biggest concerns – it is almost as if the taxpayer was an ATM machine. That lack of regard for taxpayer funding is a real concern for us as a committee.”

 

Here’s a reminder of the conclusion of the Commons public accounts committee chair Meg Hillier after that report into the money they say has been wasted by the UK government on its test and trace system led by Dido Harding, who was appointed by Matt Hancock. Hillier said:

The national Test & Trace programme was allocated eye watering sums of taxpayers’ money in the midst of a global health and economic crisis. It set out bold ambitions but has failed to achieve them despite the vast sums thrown at it. Only 14% of 691m lateral flow tests sent out had results reported, and who knows how many took the necessary action based on the results they got, or how many were never used. The continued reliance on the over-priced consultants who “delivered” this state of affairs will by itself cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds. For this huge amount of money we need to see a legacy system ready to deliver when needed but it’s just not clear what there will be to show in the long term. This legacy has to be a focus for government if we are to see any value for the money spent.

Czech Republic cases double in one week – set highest daily tally since April

The Czech Republic reported 6,274 new Covid-19 cases, almost doubling in a week as the country struggles to contain a new wave of the pandemic.

The latest number is the highest since 7 April in the country of 10.7 million.

Hospitalisations have risen to 1,146 as of 26 October, up from 249 at the start of the month, with 166 people in intensive care, Reuters report.

Despite the rapid growth, cases and hospitalisations are still well below peak levels of early 2021 and the end of last year.

This chart shows the latest case rates across Europe.

Bulgaria sets new daily record for Covid infections at 6,813

A quick report from Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia for Reuters here: the number of coronavirus infections in Bulgaria rose by 6,813 in the past 24 hours, a new record high daily tally since the start of the pandemic, official data showed.

The virus has killed 124 people in the past 24 hours, according to the figures, bringing the total death toll to 23,440. Yesterday the data showed that 243 people had died, which was a record for Bulgaria.

Over 7,300 people were in Covid-19 wards in the European Union’s least vaccinated country, overwhelming hospitals amid medical staff shortages.

 

As anticipated, in the UK on Sky News the interview with former minister Robert Jenrick was mostly about Budget speculation. However he was asked briefly about the damning report from the public accounts committee of the Commons which concluded that NHS test and trace “has not achieved its main objective to help break chains of Covid-19 transmission and enable people to return towards a more normal way of life” despite receiving about 20% of the NHS’s entire annual budget – £37 bn – over two years. Jenrick defended it, saying:

It has played an important part in tackling the pandemic. Are there lessons that can or must be learned from it? I think absolutely. And we’re all going to have to pay heed – particularly the government – to what’s said by the public accounts committee.

I should imagine the details of this report are going to very quickly get swamped by news of the Budget today – you can read our health editor Andrew Gregory’s report on it here: NHS test and trace ‘failed its main objective’, says spending watchdog

Related: NHS test and trace ‘failed its main objective’, says spending watchdog

 

Arwa Mahdawi has written her latest column for us, and today she says that telling anti-vaxxers to get the jab should not be controversial – even Fox News is doing it:

Telling people to get vaccinated during a pandemic shouldn’t be controversial. Neil Cavuto’s employer Fox News has worked overtime to ensure that it is. A recent analysis by a media watchdog found 60% of Fox News’ summer programming included claims undermining vaccinations. While Fox has been amplifying anti-vaxxer propaganda, however, it has also been quietly enforcing its own strict vaccination and testing policies. Nearly 90% of full-time employees at the Fox Corporation have been vaccinated, it was reported last month. The company has also said it will soon implement daily Covid testing for employees who haven’t had the jab.

It has become depressingly clear that we’re not going to end this pandemic by relying on everyone to do what is best for the greater good. If we want to have any hope of getting back to normal then we need strict vaccine and testing requirements – as Fox, for all its posturing about freedom, clearly realises. There are heated debates across the world about how to implement this. Indonesia has made vaccines mandatory, with big fines for refuseniks. While it seems unlikely that most countries will go that far, vaccine mandates for people such as government employees and care workers have been implemented in countries including the US, Australia, France and – from 11 November – in England. As well they should be. There is nothing controversial about requiring people to get inoculated; vaccination requirements for school and travel have been in place for decades. If you’re marching in the street to protest against the “tyranny” of being forced to consider other people, please get a grip. Even Fox News hosts think you are being an ass.

Read more here: Arwa Mahdawi – Telling anti-vaxxers to get the jab should not be controversial – even Fox News is doing it

Related: Telling anti-vaxxers to get the jab should not be controversial – even Fox News is doing it

 

Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over from Samantha Lock. It is Budget day in the UK, and Robert Jenrick is the former minister out doing the media round for the government. I don’t expect Covid will get a second thought in the questioning, but I will bring you any lines that develop out of that shortly.

Brazil senators support criminal charges for Jair Bolsonaro over Covid crisis

A Brazilian Senate committee recommended that president Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s second highest Covid-19 death toll.

The seven-to-four vote on Tuesday was the culmination of a six-month committee investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic. It formally approved a report calling for prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity, and in doing so hold him responsible for many of Brazil’s more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths.

The president has denied wrongdoing, and the decision on whether to file most of the charges will be up to prosecutor general Augusto Aras, a Bolsonaro appointee who is widely viewed as protecting him. The allegation of crimes against humanity would need to be pursued by the international criminal court.

Senator Omar Aziz, the chairman of the inquiry, said he would deliver the recommendation to the prosecutor general on Wednesday morning. Aras’ office said the report would be carefully reviewed as soon as it was received.




© Provided by The Guardian
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro could face criminal charges for his Covid policies. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

Ministers call for new G20 forum to prepare for next pandemic

The world’s biggest economies should create a forum to facilitate global coordination for the next pandemic, as well as a new financing facility to keep up with emerging threats, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati have said in a letter to their G20 colleagues

The two finance ministers said the forum would allow health and finance ministers to better cooperate and coordinate prevention, detection, information-sharing, and any needed response.

Yellen and Indrawati said the Covid-19 pandemic revealed a lack of readiness at the country level and a lack of coordination among G20 countries.

“While we are making progress in fighting Covid-19, we also face a stark reality: this will not be the last pandemic,” they wrote ahead of Friday’s joint meeting of G20 health and finance ministers. “We must not lose this opportunity to demonstrate leadership with a decisive commitment to act.”

 

Welcome back to our Covid blog where we’ll bring you all the latest news surrounding the evolving coronavirus crisis.

I’m Samantha Lock reporting to you from Sydney, Australia. Here’s just a quick guide on what you might have missed earlier.

A damning report to come out of the UK has lambasted the NHS test and trace system, saying it failed to achieve “its main objective” to cut infection levels and aid in returning to life as normal.

The initiative was handed an “eye-watering” £37bn in taxpayers’ cash but ultimately “has not achieved its main objective to help break chains of Covid-19 transmission and enable people to return towards a more normal way of life,” the Commons spending watchdog has said.

At the time of its launch, Boris Johnson claimed the programme would be “world-beating” but the watchdog says its aims had been “overstated or not achieved”. The funding – equal to about 20% of the health service’s entire annual budget – was used to hire more than 2,000 consultants who were employed on rates of more than £1,000 a day, the report by the public accounts committee (PAC) found.

Source: Thanks msn.com