Siphiwe Chungu, pharmacist manager at a chemist in Leeds with a vial of Pfizer which will be administered as the first high street Covid booster vaccination in the UK. Photograph: Rick Walker/PA
Siphiwe Chungu, pharmacist manager at a chemist in Leeds with a vial of Pfizer which will be administered as the first high street Covid booster vaccination in the UK. Photograph: Rick Walker/PA
US president Joe Biden has said he will be getting his Covid-19 booster jab “as soon as he can get it done.” Speaking at a press conference Biden said the jab would be free and “easily accessible”, with 60 million Americans now eligible.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said she recommended booster shots for at-risk adult workers to protect essential workers and minority communities despite the agency’s advisory committee voting against the measure.The U.S. government is rolling out boosters starting with third doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions and those in high-risk working and institutional settings, after health regulators cleared the move.
Brazil recorded 19,438 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 699 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.Brazil has registered more than 21 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 593,663, according to ministry data, Reuters reports.
Rules that have limited social interaction and hit businesses during the pandemic will be dropped from Saturday in Norway, Reuters reports. Social distancing will no longer be required, nightclubs can reopen and restaurants can return to capacity.
About one in 90 people in private homes in England had Covid-19 in the week up to 18 September, down from one in 80 the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rate is lower than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
South Korea is expected to exceed its record for daily positive Covid-19 cases with 2,924 new infections reported as of 9pm on Friday, the country’s Yonhap news agency has reported.
Nepal has restarted issuing visas for vaccinated tourists as the country is aiming to revive its tourism industry. Its hoped it will help businesses that have been affected by restrictions and a travel shutdown because of the pandemic.
France and Germany have nominated incumbent director general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for a second term. Tedros has been the head of the organisation throughout the pandemic.
A nightly curfew in Tunisia will be lifted from Saturday, its presidency has said, after being in place for a year.
Italy has reported 3,797 new cases on Friday, a drop from 4,061 the day before. Another 52 people have died, compared to 63 on Thursday.
The UK has reported 35,623 new cases and 180 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, official data shows. The figures compare to 36,710 cases and 182 deaths recorded on Thursday.
Members of Brazil’s government have tested positive for Covid on Friday. Agriculture minister Tereza Cristina, solicitor general Bruno Bianco and president Jair Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a congressman, have confirmed they’ve got the virus, days after the premier’s trip to the UN general assembly in New York.
Brazil recorded 19,438 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 699 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.
Brazil has registered more than 21 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 593,663, according to ministry data, Reuters reports.
Cuba is allowing a staggered opening from Friday of restaurants, shopping centres and beaches in provinces that have lowered coronavirus cases even as it battles some of the highest nationwide rates of infection per capita worldwide, Reuters reports.
The government has already announced it will allow more flights and accept Covid-19 vaccination certificates for inbound travelers in lieu of a PCR test from November.
A steel shade structure went up on Friday over the Gold Coast highway at Tugun, where police and soldiers are manning the border checkpoint between New South Wales and Queensland.
The permanent shelter was put in place a day after the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, made comments that implied the temporary border closure might drag on beyond Christmas.
A roadside monument to a pandemic with no end in sight.
“It’s the uncertainty … that’s as big a problem as anything,” says Emma Visman, who moved from Queensland to the northern NSW town of Ballina last year.
It’s New Zealand’s 1pm Covid press conference, and Chris Hipkins is eyeballing a room of journalists. He stands, sanitising his hands, and takes a moment to look around.
“We’ll start with some good news,” he begins.
In a global pandemic, good news can be hard to come by, but Hipkins, the Covid response minister, uses the line frequently enough that it became a catch-cry.
Even when a gaffe went viral – he advised Aucklanders on how to “get outside and spread their legs” during lockdown – the minister responded with the bright side. “At least I’ve given you all something to laugh about”.
Employees remove Covid-19 social distancing safety stickers for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in The Netherlands as the 1.5 metre rule has ended. Photograph: Koen van Weel/EPA
Pregnant women who receive an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 pass high levels of protective antibodies on to their babies, research shows.
Doctors analysed umbilical cord blood from 36 newborns whose mothers had received at least one dose of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna, Reuters reports
All 36 babies had high levels of antibodies that target the spike protein on the surface of the virus – and all of the antibodies could be traced to the mothers’ vaccinations, Reuters reports.
It is not clear whether the timing of vaccination during pregnancy is related to antibody levels in the baby.
The US administered 388,567,109 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 470,630,875 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The figures are up from the 387,821,704 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by 23 September out of 469,561,625 doses delivered.
The agency said 212,861,380 people had received at least one dose while 182,958,696 people are fully vaccinated as of 6am ET on Friday, Reuters reports.
The White House has said millions of federal contractors must be vaccinated against Covid-19 by 8 December and that the administration will add clauses to future government contracts mandating inoculations.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on 9 September requiring federal contractors to mandate vaccinations, but many US companies with federal contracts have awaited formal guidance from the White House before moving forward.
US airlines were among the industries awaiting confirmation, as they sometimes hold contracts to sell tickets to government employees, Reuters reports.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said she recommended booster shots for at-risk adult workers to protect essential workers and minority communities despite the agency’s advisory committee voting against the measure.
The US government is rolling out boosters starting with third doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions and those in high-risk working and institutional settings, after health regulators cleared the move.
“Many of our frontline workers, essential workers, and those in congregate settings, come from communities that have already been hardest hit,” Walensky told reporters.
“It was a decision about providing rather than withholding access.”
Walensky said the CDC would update its guidance on boosters as needed and expects to evaluate in the coming weeks data on boosters for recipients of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines.
An aerial photo shows taxis used to grow vegetables at a parking lot in Bankok, Thailand. At a parking lot on the outskirts of Bangkok, hundreds of taxis were out of service for more than a year due to the epidemic. Taxi company staff piled soil on the roof and hood of these cars to grow vegetables and distributed them to employees and unemployed drivers. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
US president Joe Biden has said he will be getting his Covid-19 booster jab “as soon as he can get it done.” Speaking at a press conference Biden said the jab would be free and “easily accessible”, with 60 million Americans now eligible.
Rules that have limited social interaction and hit businesses during the pandemic will be dropped from Saturday in Norway, Reuters reports. Social distancing will no longer be required, nightclubs can reopen and restaurants can return to capacity.
About one in 90 people in private homes in England had Covid-19 in the week up to 18 September, down from one in 80 the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rate is lower than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
South Korea is expected to exceed its record for daily positive Covid-19 cases with 2,924 new infections reported as of 9pm on Friday, the country’s Yonhap news agency has reported.
Nepal has restarted issuing visas for vaccinated tourists as the country is aiming to revive its tourism industry. Its hoped it will help businesses that have been affected by restrictions and a travel shutdown because of the pandemic.
France and Germany have nominated incumbent director general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for a second term.Tedros has been the head of the organisation throughout the pandemic.
A nightly curfew in Tunisia will be lifted from Saturday, its presidency has said, after being in place for a year.
Italy has reported 3,797 new cases on Friday, a drop from 4,061 the day before. Another 52 people have died, compared to 63 on Thursday.
The UK has reported 35,623 new cases and 180 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, official data shows. The figures compare to 36,710 cases and 182 deaths recorded on Thursday.
Members of Brazil’s government have tested positive for Covid on Friday. Agriculture minister Tereza Cristina, solicitor general Bruno Bianco and president Jair Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a congressman, have confirmed they’ve got the virus, days after the premier’s trip to the UN general assembly in New York.
I’ll hand over to my colleague Nadeem Badshah who will guide you through the latest Covid developments for the rest of the evening.
More members of Brazil’s government have tested positive for Covid on Friday, in addition to Tereza Cristina earlier on Friday (see 12:55), including president Jair Bolsonaro’s son.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman has confirmed that he has Covid, according to Reuters, as has solicitor general Bruno Bianco.
Bolsonaro was part of his father’s delegation to New York for the UN general assembly. He added on Twitter that he had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
This is in addition to Marcelo Queiroga, a health minister, who tested positive in recent days.
