Coronavirus live news: more lockdowns ‘unlikely’ to be needed, says UK expert; Australia has record day of cases | World news

China stepped up measures to guard its capital, Beijing, as an uptick in coronavirus instances pushed by the extra infectious Delta variant unfold throughout a number of cities within the nation.

The Nationwide Well being Fee reported on Saturday 107 new confirmed coronavirus instances within the mainland for six August, in contrast with 124 a day earlier.

Of the brand new infections, 75 have been domestically transmitted, the well being authority stated. That compares with 80 native instances a day earlier. A lot of the native instances have been within the japanese province of Jiangsu.

These presently outdoors Beijing in higher-risk areas ought to quickly postpone their return, and others ought to present a destructive Covid-19 take a look at, in accordance with particulars of a Saturday assembly by native officers reported by the Beijing Each day. Epidemic prevention measures at railways, highways and airports ought to be strengthened, they stated.

Some native governments have been referred to as out by Beijing for reducing their guard, resulting in the unfold of the Delta variant from a number of sources.

Russia reported 22,320 new Covid-19 instances on Saturday, together with 2,235 in Moscow, taking the official nationwide tally for the reason that pandemic started to six,424,884.

The federal government’s coronavirus taskforce stated 793 folks had died of coronavirus-linked causes previously 24 hours, pushing the nationwide dying toll to 164,094.

Russia recorded about 463,000 extra deaths from April 2020 to June this 12 months throughout the coronavirus pandemic, in accordance with Reuters calculations primarily based on knowledge launched by the state statistics service on Friday.

The Philippines’ well being ministry recorded 11,021 new coronavirus instances on Saturday, the very best single-day case enhance in virtually 4 months, and 162 extra deaths.

In a bulletin, the ministry stated whole confirmed infections within the Philippines had elevated to virtually 1.65 million, whereas deaths had reached 28,835.

“We’re already feeling the consequences of the Delta variant in our nation,” the well being ministry undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire, advised a public briefing on Saturday.

India accredited Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Saturday, the well being minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, stated in a tweet. The pharmaceutical large had utilized for emergency use approval on Friday.

A college is providing money prizes to college students who can show they’ve been totally vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19 in an effort to drive take-up of the jabs.

All college students at Sussex College are being entered right into a draw, with 10 winners receiving £5,000 if they’ll show they’re double-jabbed or exempt.

Prof Adam Tickell, the college’s vice-chancellor, denied the transfer amounted to “bribing” college students to get vaccinated.

The prize draw will happen on the finish of November to permit college students time to get vaccinated.

“We’re going to routinely enter each pupil in, and until they’ve stated they wish to choose out after we’ve given them the chance to have vaccines – this will probably be about 12 weeks after the announcement – we’ll simply randomly select 10 names,” Prof Tickell advised BBC Radio 4’s As we speak.

The US is now averaging 100,000 new Covid-19 infections a day, returning to a milestone final seen throughout the winter surge in yet one more bleak reminder of how rapidly the delta variant has unfold by means of the nation.

The US was averaging about 11,000 instances a day in late June. Now the quantity is 107,143.

It took about 9 months to cross the 100,000 common case quantity in November earlier than peaking at about 250,000 in early January. Instances bottomed out in June however took about six weeks to return above 100,000, regardless of a vaccine that has been given to greater than 70% of the grownup inhabitants.

The seven-day common for every day new deaths additionally elevated, in accordance with knowledge from Johns Hopkins College. It rose over the previous two weeks from about 270 deaths per day to almost 500 a day as of Friday.

Members of the federal government’s knowledgeable committee on vaccination stay largely against extending Covid jabs to youthful youngsters, regardless of politicians signalling they want to see a shift within the steerage, the Guardian has been advised.

A number of members of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) stated the mainstream sentiment on the physique was nonetheless extraordinarily cautious about increasing the programme to 12- to 15-year-olds, despite the fact that a deputy chief medical officer has urged that consequence is extremely possible and politicians have stated they want the problem to stay underneath assessment.

The JCVI advisable on Wednesday that every one over-16s be supplied jabs, simply two weeks after saying kids shouldn’t routinely be given Covid vaccinations. The U-turn provoked alarm at what was described as a “shambolic” vaccine rollout for older youngsters.

The JCVI has moved to “refresh” the membership of its Covid subcommittee in latest weeks, with one outstanding critic of Covid jabs for youngsters, Prof Robert Dingwall, leaving the physique.

The state of Victoria in Australia has recorded 29 new domestically acquired Covid-19 instances, all linked to present outbreaks however not in quarantine whereas infectious.

Australia detected a document every day variety of new coronavirus instances for the 12 months on Saturday, with the nation’s most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland recording a complete of 361 instances of the extremely infectious Delta variant.

Wales has moved to Covid alert stage zero, which suggests most restrictions together with social distancing will probably be scrapped.

It comes virtually 17 months after Wales’ first lockdown and means nightclubs are allowed to reopen and assembly indoors permitted. Nevertheless, face masks are nonetheless required in most public indoor areas however not in pubs, eating places, or colleges.

The choice was confirmed on Thursday following weeks of declining case charges. The primary minister, Mark Drakeford, has warned in opposition to a “free-for-all”.

In England, a prime scientific adviser to the federal government has stated lockdowns are “unlikely” to be wanted once more to manage the Covid pandemic.

The declare comes because the variety of folks in hospitals with the virus has fallen, and the typical price of an infection has decreased.

The variety of Covid infections is predicted to rise once more in September when college and college phrases start and extra staff are anticipated to return to the workplace.

However Prof Neil Ferguson, an immunologist among the many authorities’s most outstanding scientific advisers on Covid, has predicted it’s unlikely a lockdown will probably be wanted once more to manage the virus.

In an interview with the Occasions, he stated: “I feel it’s unlikely we’ll want a brand new lockdown and even social distancing measures of the kind we’ve had to date.”