Coronavirus live news: US to donate 500m vaccine doses; UK health secretary faces aged care questions

South Korea is considering plans to vaccinate workers at key businesses including chip and electronics firms to prevent disruptions to production, an official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Reuters: The labour ministry has sent letters to companies including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, SK Hynix Inc and LG Electronics Inc seeking information on their Covid vaccination needs, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing government and industry sources.

The KDCA and labour ministry said they were discussing such options with government agencies but no specifics had been decided.

Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and LG Electronics said they had received the letter.

The move comes amid a global chip shortage that has affected manufacturers around the world, particularly carmakers. Samsung and SK Hynix are the world’s top two memory chip makers.

The South Korean government is trying to ramp up its inoculation drive after a slow start.

One plan under consideration is to provide vaccines for workers at units that run non-stop, and for those deemed essential to the economy.

The government plans to vaccinate 70% of its 52 million population by the third quarter, starting with kindergarten and primary school teachers, with the aim of achieving herd immunity before November.

South Korea reported 611 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the total tally to 146,303 infections, with 1,979 deaths.

The British Health Secretary is expected to face further questions about accusations made by Dominic Cummings as he appears in front of a select committee on Thursday.

Matt Hancock was accused by the Prime Minister’s former chief aide of lying to Boris Johnson over coronavirus plans and being “disastrously incompetent”, Press Association reports.

Among the explosive claims from Mr Cummings last month was that Mr Johnson was furious to discover that untested hospital patients had been discharged to care homes, alleging that Mr Hancock had told them both that people being discharged would be tested.

It comes as the Guardian reports that several of the UK’s biggest care home operators say they repeatedly warned the Department of Health about the risks of not testing such people in March 2020:

The Biden administration plans to donate 500 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses to nearly 100 countries over the next two years, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The United States is likely to distribute 200 million shots this year and another 300 million in the first half of next year to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, they said.

The donations will go through the COVAX vaccine program that distributes COVID-19 shots to low- and middle-income countries. The program is led by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

GAVI did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. President Joe Biden will announce the deal on Thursday at the Group of Seven meeting of the world’s wealthiest countries in Britain, one of the people said.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage with me, Helen Sullivan.

The Biden administration plans to donate 500 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses to nearly 100 countries over the next two years, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

And in the UK, the Health Secretary is expected to face further questions about accusations made by Dominic Cummings as he appears in front of a select committee on Thursday. Matt Hancock was accused by the Prime Minister’s former chief aide of lying to Boris Johnson over coronavirus plans and being “disastrously incompetent”.

Among the explosive claims from Mr Cummings last month was that Mr Johnson was furious to discover that untested hospital patients had been discharged to care homes, alleging that Mr Hancock had told them both that people being discharged would be tested.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• French prime minister Jean Castex is self-isolating for seven days after his wife Sandra tested positive for Covid-19, the prime minister’s office said. The prime minister, who had received his first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 19, tested negative on Wednesday evening. However as a contact of a person who tested positive, he is self-isolating for seven days, his office said.
• Spain’s health ministry has scrapped a nationwide plan to gradually reopen nightlife just a week after introducing it, following widespread complaints from regional authorities who dismissed it as either too strict or too loose.
• The Czech health ministry has recommended only people over 60 should receive Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson due to a potential risk of blood clots, Reuters reports.
• Canada is prepared to relax quarantine protocols for fully vaccinated citizens returning home starting in early July, Reuters reports.
• Intensive care beds for Covid patients in Malaysia have reached full capacity, according to the country’s health director general, who said the country’s pandemic remained at a critical level. The country’s king started a series of meetings with leaders of political parties amid public discontent over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
• The World Trade Organization’s members have agreed to talks on boosting global vaccine supplies, though there is still opposition to the idea of waiving patents, in particular from the EU which will propose its own plan.
• There were 1.2 million new cases in the Americas over the past week, according to the Pan American Health Organization. It warned that Covid-19 could remain a problem for the region for years unless the current spread is slowed.
• The UK is facing a “substantial third wave” according to new data presented to the government, Prof Neil Ferguson told reporters. He said that the scale of the problem would depend on how effective vaccines are against the Delta variant, originally found in India. Meanwhile according to new data, 8 in 10 adults in the UK are likely to have Covid-19 antibodies through either vaccination or previous infection.
• NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson has told Times Radio this morning that vaccines appear to have “broken” the link between infections, hospital admission and deaths in the UK.
• A judge has ruled that the UK government acted unlawfully when it awarded a contract for polling the public about Covid messaging without a tender last March. The company was owned by friends of Dominic Cummings, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser.
• Confidence in the EU’s ability to handle crises has taken a hit from Covid-19, a major survey shows, but dissatisfaction with national political systems is even higher and most people still support EU membership and want a stronger, more cooperative bloc.
• In the US, a pharmacist has been jailed for three years after pleading guilty to trying to spoil hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine because he was skeptical about them.