Coronavirus live news: 70% of EU adults now fully vaccinated; Israel reports record daily Covid cases | World news

9.00am EDT09:00

Summary

Alex Mistlin here with a brief round-up of the day’s biggest coronavirus news:

• Seven in 10 (70%) of the European Union’s adult population has been fully vaccinated against Covid, hitting a target it had set at the beginning of the year. The figure masks the contrast among EU countries, with some nations being well above the 70% goal while others in the poorer eastern region of the bloc are far behind.

• Australia will ramp up its vaccination programme this week after prime minister Scott Morrison announced it is set to receive 500,000 doses of the Pfizer jab in a swap deal with Singapore.

• Israel has recorded its highest daily coronavirus case tally of nearly 11,000 new infections, amid a surge caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant as schools prepare to reopen.

• A new Covid variant, C.1.2, detected in South Africa has made headlines around the world. C.1.2 was first detected in May, the alert said, but Delta is still the dominant variant spreading in South Africa and the world.

• The Irish cabinet are meeting to sign off plans that would see all remaining Covid-19 restrictions removed prior to 31 October. It is understood the current plan would see requirements or mandates for physical distancing scrapped, as well as mask wearing outdoors and indoors in private settings.

• Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline and South Korean pharmaceutical firm SK Bioscience have begun a phase 3 trial of their combined Covid vaccine.

• Taiwan has confirmed that 900,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine will arrive in the country “soon”. The arrival of the first batch of vaccines has proved a controversial issue on the island, with ministers blaming China blocking an order earlier this year.

Updated
at 9.07am EDT

8.44am EDT08:44

The Irish cabinet are meeting now to sign off on a plan that would see all remaining Covid-19 restrictions removed prior to 31 October.

It is understood the current plan would see requirements or mandates for physical distancing scrapped, as well as mask wearing outdoors and indoors in private settings.

The plans are subject to 90% of the population being fully-vaccinated and coronavirus cases staying at controllable levels.

The final move to end restrictions will include easing requirements for physical distancing and mask wearing in many settings, as well as removing testing or vaccination as a grounds for accessing many service.

Ireland’s current move towards easing restrictions would see workers returning to the office on a phased basis from 20 September. Live music at weddings and pubs is set to return from Monday.

People queuing while waiting for the Covid-19 vaccine outside Croke Park, Dublin, which is being used as a temporary walk-in centre. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

8.22am EDT08:22

Reuters: Only vaccinated people will be allowed to travel to Oman in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19.

The Omani state news agency said the decision would be applied to all countries without exception.

Oman announced earlier that vaccination would be a mandatory condition of access to Muscat International Airport.

However, Oman Airports announced on Tuesday that the restriction does not apply to travellers.

مطارات عُمان
(@OmanAirports)

Oman Airports would like to emphasize that:

“Vaccination” is mandatory to access the Airports premises but does not apply to travelers. The requirements for Travelers to the access of Airport premises will be limited to the travel requirements of your destination. https://t.co/eU2QqvtFaa pic.twitter.com/Tkk0x3tkXN

August 31, 2021

7.52am EDT07:52

The Spanish government has sent 6m doses of anti-Covid vaccine to Latin America out of the 7.5m doses it had promised, its spokesperson Isabel Rodriguez confirmed to Reuters.

“The government has sent six million of these vaccines,” Rodriguez told reporters.

Spanish Minister of Territorial Politics and Government’s spokeswoman, Isabel Rodriguez, addresses a press conference in Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Juan Carlos Hidalgo/EPA

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at 7.53am EDT

7.38am EDT07:38

Covid-19 vaccine booster shots will be made widely available to Americans in September, while several other countries including Israel, Germany and France have decided to offer boosters to older adults and people with weak immune systems, reports Reuters.

The vastly different approach taken by different nations reflects the fact there is not yet a scientific consensus around the need for a third dose of Covid vaccine.

In the US, federal health authorities are discussing shortening the timeline for Covid-19 booster shots to allow additional doses sooner than the eight-month window officials have been targeting.

While in the EU, countries that decide to administer booster shots may face increased legal risks because the additional dose has not yet been recommended by the EU drugs regulator.

Britain has begun planning for a booster campaign starting later this year after top vaccine advisers said it might be necessary to give third shots to the elderly and most vulnerable from September.

7.30am EDT07:30

With the populations of richer nations increasingly meeting vaccination thresholds (usually 70-80% of the adult population receiving two doses) attention, and controversy, turns to the need for booster jabs.

Even the World Health Organization has expressed uncertainty on the issue. In an 18 August press briefing, senior WHO officials reiterated the need to vaccinated vulnerable people worldwide before administering booster jabs in higher-income nations.

But yesterday, Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said:

A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster taken away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab … It’s basically a way to keep the most vulnerable safe.

Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, told a press conference, that a third dose of Covid vaccine was not a ‘luxury booster’. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

Updated
at 7.36am EDT

7.14am EDT07:14

Zoom shares continued to fall as people returned to in-person work and school.

Zoom Video Communications’ shares fell by 11% despite generating $1.02bn against expected quarterly revenues of $990bn.

The company’s chief financial officer, Kelly Steckelberg, saying: “We had expected that [the slowdown] towards the end of the year, but it’s just happened a little more quickly than we expected.”

And Zoom said it expected to see a decline in revenues from business customers with 10 or fewer employees.

The company is a poster boy for pandemic growth stocks as businesses and academic institutions became highly reliant on video communications from March 2020.

A busy call centre. The return to work and school has seen Zoom shares plummet. Photograph: GCShutter/Getty Images

Updated
at 7.36am EDT

7.07am EDT07:07

Singapore has reported 156 new local coronavirus cases today, its highest number in almost six weeks.

Singapore had fully vaccinated 80% of its population against Covid-19 as of Sunday, one of the highest rates in the world, reaching a threshold for the city-state to further ease its restrictions.

Tuesday’s local cases were the highest since 22 July, reports Reuters.

Singapore’s progress comes in sharp contrast to most of its neighbours, which have been struggling with low inoculation rates while battling deadly outbreaks driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The rise in cases in Singapore comes as the country brokered a “dose swap” for 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine with Australia.

A man receives his vaccination at a coronavirus disease vaccination centre in Singapore. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters

Updated
at 7.37am EDT

6.58am EDT06:58

Scotland’s finance secretary, Kate Forbes, is self-isolating after being identified as a close contact of a family member who has Covid-19.

She will self-isolate for up to 10 days because she received her second dose of a coronavirus vaccine less than two weeks ago, she said.

Kate Forbes MSP
(@_KateForbes)

Late this afternoon, a family member tested positive. As a close contact, I will now self-isolate for the full period as I am not fully vaccinated (it’s been less than a fortnight since my second vaccine). /1

August 30, 2021

Updated
at 7.38am EDT

6.41am EDT06:41

Israel records nearly 11,000 new cases, highest daily case tally

Israel has recorded its highest daily coronavirus case tally of nearly 11,000 new infections, amid a surge caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant as schools prepare to reopen.

The previous high came on 18 January, with 10,118 cases.

Despite today’s 10,947 confirmed cases, AFP reports Israel is pressing ahead with plans to fully open its school system tomorrow as it tries to boost vaccination rates.

Prime minister Naftali Bennett, a critic of the cycle of lockdowns implemented by his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, has maintained that the surge can be controlled through inoculation and protective measures such as masks.

His government has encouraged all residents aged 12 and above to get a third get jab of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

About 60% of Israel’s 9.3 million residents have received two vaccine doses, including 80% of adults.

Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks during a meeting with US president Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the White House. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated
at 7.39am EDT

6.30am EDT06:30

Helena Smith

In Greece, a British-trained respiratory specialist who has played a leading role in the country’s battle against Covid-19, has been appointed deputy health minister as part of a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle.

Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also replaced Vassilis Kikilias as health minister in what was interpreted as a new push to deal with the pandemic ahead of the autumn.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis replaced Vassilis Kikilias as health minister with Dr Mina Gaga. Photograph: Louiza Vradi/Reuters

Halfway through its four-year term, the centre-right government announced Dr Mina Gaga would assume the key post as it struggles with a sharp rise in confirmed coronavirus cases. Last week, Greece held the unenviable record of having the second highest number of fatalities – 23,14 deaths per 1 million population – in the European Union after Cyprus, according to the European Centre for Disease Control.

Greek epidemiologists have expressed mounting concerns over the spread of the now predominant Delta variant with doctors also voicing anxiety over pressures placed on the nation’s increasingly stretched health system.

“The extent of the pressure that we have witnessed in the middle of the summer has really surprised us,” Dr Nikos Kapravelas, who heads the intensive care unit at the Papanicolaou hospital in Thessaloniki, told Open TV.

More than 90% of admissions to intensive care units are of non-vaccinated patients with the government recently unveiling measures that will see all those who have not had the jab against Covid-19 being banned from tavernas, restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs as of 13 September.

Among the few women to hold a ministerial position in Mitsotakis’ cabinet, Gaga, a clinical research fellow at the UK’s Royal Brompton hospital, had previously helped coordinate efforts against the virus as head of a pneumology department at one of the Greek capital’s Covid referral hospitals.

Updated
at 7.40am EDT

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