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




07:09

Delta surge in UK ‘could leave hundreds of thousands with long Covid’

The decision to lift England’s remaining Covid restrictions next Monday – even as cases of the Delta variant surge around the country – is expected to turbocharge the epidemic and push the nation into what one leading scientist called “uncharted territory” in terms of the numbers of people left suffering from long Covid.

Ministers have been told to expect at least one to two million coronavirus infections in the coming weeks. And while the mass rollout of vaccines – which started with elderly and vulnerable people – will dramatically reduce the proportion who are hospitalised and die, the wave may leave hundreds of thousands of younger people with long-term health problems, researchers have said.

Also known as post-Covid syndrome, long Covid describes more than a dozen symptoms that can endure for months after testing positive for the virus. Many patients experience debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, sleeping difficulties and problems with memory and concentration, often referred to as “brain fog”.

Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College, says evidence from multiple countries now suggests that a significant number of people who get Covid – whether they know they are infected or not – are at risk of developing longer-term illness.

“From every version of Covid we’ve ever seen on the planet, we’ve got a rule of thumb that any case of Covid, whether it’s asymptomatic, mild, severe, or hospitalised, incurs a 10 to 20% risk of developing long Covid, and we haven’t seen any exceptions to that,” he said.

Read more from our science editor Ian Sample: Delta surge ‘could leave hundreds of thousands with long Covid’




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07:00

Germany to re-evaluate basing restrictions on case numbers




06:46

South Korea cases top 1,000 for seventh day

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06:06

WHO appeals for rich countries to donate vaccines rather than using boosters

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05:59

Summary

source: theguardian.com