Coronavirus live news: WHO appeals for rich countries to donate vaccines rather than using boosters

Good morning, it is Martin Belam here taking over this leg of the blog in London from my colleague Helen Sullivan. The chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has emphasised “caution is vital” ahead of England’s expected final relaxing of pandemic measures on 19 July.

Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard said the academy did not generally involve itself in public debate, but “we felt it necessary to say caution is vital”.

“We need everyone to think very carefully and responsibly about what they’re doing personally: Just because the law changes doesn’t mean that what we do as individuals has to change,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme.

“We are strongly encouraging everyone to continue to wear masks in crowded places, keep windows open and use the good weather to ensure good ventilation, and keep washing hands.

PA media report that the GP said the academy felt the standard of hygiene and personal protection needed to be even higher in hospital and social care settings.

“We want everyone to know if you come into a health and care setting you will be asked to wear a mask.”

Prof Stokes-Lampard added that vigilance was required to minimise the current surge in Covid-19 infections, saying: “Just because the law has changed, behaviour does not have to.”

With Covid cases again on the rise, German officials said on Monday said that authorities need a “broader focus” beyond the country’s infection rate to fully gauge the impact the pandemic is having on the health system and the kind of measures that should be taken.

AP: For much of the past year the incidence rate — how many cases are confirmed per 100,000 people each week — has been key to the government’s decisions over what restrictive measures to impose.

The relevance of that figure is increasingly being called into question by those who argue that a sharp rise in new cases — already seen in other European countries such as Britain and the Netherlands — doesn’t necessarily mean many more seriously ill patients.

“Because the at-risk groups are vaccinated, a high incidence doesn’t automatically mean an equally high burden on intensive care beds,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Twitter. “The incidence is increasingly losing significance, we now need more detailed information on the situation in clinics.”

His ministry said that as of Tuesday, hospitals will need to transmit more data on their Covid patients, including names, the type of treatment and their vaccination status.

The government says 58.5% of the population have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 42.6% are fully vaccinated. The number of shots administered daily has dipped slightly in recent days, raising concerns that “vaccine lethargy”.

Germany’s disease control agency said last week that the country should aim to vaccinate 85% of people ages 12-59 and 90% of people over 60 to prevent the delta variant causing a strong resurgence of coronavirus cases this autumn and winter.

South Korea reported 1,150 new coronavirus cases for Monday, the day it implemented the toughest curbs it can apply on residents and business activity in Seoul as the country battles its worst-ever outbreak, spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant.

Data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Tuesday showed the daily tally topped 1,000 for a seventh consecutive day, though it was below last week’s peak at 1,378.

The latest clusters have seen far fewer serious infections than earlier ones, with many older and more vulnerable South Koreans now vaccinated against the virus. The new cases brought South Korea’s total tally to 170,296, with 2,048 deaths, KDCA data showed.

A mass testing system has helped the country suffer lower Covid death rates than other developed countries so far without severe lockdowns.

But the new wave of infections prompted the government to impose the toughest restrictions yet in capital Seoul and neighbouring areas starting Monday, including a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6pm.

About 11.6% of the country’s 52 million population has completed vaccination, including receiving both shots for products requiring two doses, while 30.4% have received one dose, according to the KDCA.

Top officials at the World Health Organization say there’s not enough evidence to show that third doses of coronavirus vaccines are needed, the Associated Press reports, as they appealed Monday for the scarce shots to be shared with poor countries who have yet to immunise their people instead of being used by rich countries as boosters.

At a press briefing, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world’s grotesque vaccine disparity was driven by “greed” as he called on drugmakers to prioritize supplying their Covid-19 vaccines to poor countries instead of lobbying rich countries to use even more doses. His plea comes just as pharmaceutical companies are seeking authorization for third doses to be used as boosters in some Western countries, including the US.

“We are making conscious choices right now not to protect those in need,” Tedros said, adding the immediate priority must be to vaccinate people who have yet to receive a single dose.

He called on Pfizer and Moderna to “go all out to supply Covax, the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team and low and middle-income countries with very little coverage,” referring to the UN-backed initiative to distribute vaccines globally.

After a 10-week drop in global coronavirus deaths, Tedros said the number of Covid patients dying daily is again beginning to climb and that the extremely infectious delta variant is “driving catastrophic waves of cases.”

Both Pfizer and Moderna have agreed to supply small amounts of their vaccines to Covax, but the vast majority of their doses have been reserved by rich countries.

The UN-backed effort has faltered badly in recent months, with nearly 60 poor countries stalled in their vaccination efforts and their biggest vaccine supplier unable to share any doses until the end of the year.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Top officials at the World Health Organization say there’s not enough evidence to show that third doses of coronavirus vaccines are needed and appealed Monday for the scarce shots to be shared with poor countries who have yet to immunise their people instead of being used by rich countries as boosters.

More on that story shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• France will not allow health workers to go to work and will not pay them if they are not vaccinated against Covid-19 by September 15, the health minister Olivier Veran said.
• Indonesia reported its highest daily number of infections on Monday, with 40,427 cases logged, data from the country’s Covid-19 task force showed.
• South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said that days of protests, looting and riots in the country led to the cancellation of coronavirus vaccination efforts in some parts of the country and could lead to further disruption of the programme just when the country was picking up the pace to inoculate its citizens.
• Vietnam has reported another new record in daily coronavirus infections, with 2,367 cases, its health ministry said.
• The reopening of schools cannot wait for all pupils and teachers to be vaccinated, or for the number of Covid cases to be reduced to zero, the chiefs of Unicef and Unesco have said in a joint statement.
• Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte apologised for relaxing coronavirus restrictions too soon as cases surge in the wake of reopening.
• The number of people who did not have enough food to eat rose steeply during the pandemic to include almost a third of the world, according to a new UN report published on Monday.
• Valencia’s regional government has succeeded in obtaining a court order to authorise lockdowns in more than 30 towns in eastern Spain as cases surge among unvaccinated young people.
• Healthcare workers and nursing home staff in Greece will be required to be vaccinated against Covid, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said as infections rapidly soar again after a sustained decline.