i_need_contribute
|
Country, |
Total |
New |
Total |
|
World |
201,647,117 |
+705,060 |
4,279,485 |
|
36,301,744 |
+120,945 |
631,879 |
|
|
31,855,783 |
+45,001 |
426,785 |
|
|
20,066,587 |
+40,054 |
560,801 |
|
|
6,379,904 |
+23,120 |
162,509 |
|
|
6,233,876 |
+26,460 |
112,098 |
|
|
5,982,581 |
+30,215 |
130,086 |
|
|
5,846,784 |
+24,297 |
51,875 |
|
|
4,989,402 |
+13,786 |
107,023 |
|
|
4,821,603 |
+6,540 |
121,899 |
|
|
4,566,571 |
+21,387 |
81,931 |
|
|
4,377,188 |
+7,230 |
128,163 |
|
|
4,057,758 |
+38,674 |
92,628 |
|
|
3,789,441 |
+3,460 |
92,255 |
|
|
3,568,331 |
+35,764 |
102,375 |
|
|
2,901,094 |
+20,685 |
242,547 |
|
|
2,883,624 |
+176 |
75,275 |
|
|
2,497,655 |
+13,646 |
73,873 |
|
|
2,256,397 |
+1,052 |
53,049 |
|
|
2,121,061 |
+1,993 |
196,760 |
|
|
1,878,214 |
+3,358 |
17,850 |
|
|
1,684,955 |
+11,871 |
19,000 |
|
|
1,674,410 |
+205 |
30,371 |
|
|
1,627,816 |
+8,127 |
28,427 |
|
|
1,620,389 |
+1,206 |
35,806 |
|
|
1,436,182 |
+1,445 |
26,637 |
|
|
1,322,654 |
+12,744 |
21,902 |
|
|
1,203,706 |
+20,596 |
10,019 |
|
|
1,132,934 |
+2,176 |
25,258 |
|
|
1,084,226 |
+244 |
34,300 |
|
|
1,053,660 |
+5,661 |
23,635 |
|
|
979,987 |
+2,581 |
17,422 |
|
|
970,460 |
+14,211 |
15,228 |
|
|
890,201 |
+4,435 |
6,509 |
|
|
809,803 |
+72 |
30,032 |
|
|
775,251 |
+697 |
10,100 |
|
|
724,097 |
+579 |
7,132 |
|
|
708,079 |
+3,007 |
9,994 |
|
|
693,305 |
+20,920 |
5,663 |
|
|
688,489 |
+1,508 |
1,967 |
|
|
665,325 |
+12,039 |
10,087 |
|
|
661,359 |
+505 |
10,745 |
|
|
610,744 |
+7,792 |
6,402 |
|
|
602,757 |
+3,163 |
20,550 |
|
|
567,044 |
+1,148 |
7,926 |
|
|
530,981 |
+986 |
8,297 |
|
|
506,672 |
+2,787 |
13,000 |
|
|
490,356 |
+859 |
31,754 |
|
|
476,097 |
+832 |
17,910 |
|
|
454,194 |
+400 |
15,207 |
|
|
450,445 |
+1,143 |
3,503 |
|
|
439,599 |
+818 |
6,875 |
|
|
436,573 |
+3,670 |
5,986 |
|
|
431,013 |
+8,399 |
3,184 |
|
|
426,932 |
+500 |
18,243 |
|
|
414,745 |
+1,827 |
5,108 |
|
|
401,697 |
+718 |
2,356 |
|
|
392,898 |
+53 |
12,541 |
|
|
382,155 |
+161 |
5,982 |
|
|
381,514 |
+4,068 |
10,578 |
|
|
364,491 |
+247 |
8,270 |
|
|
348,074 |
+1,196 |
5,043 |
|
|
321,429 |
+2,654 |
4,821 |
|
|
321,154 |
+932 |
2,552 |
|
|
319,250 |
+4,132 |
10,988 |
|
|
317,534 |
+130 |
3,609 |
|
|
309,981 |
+763 |
3,666 |
|
|
307,019 |
+1,492 |
5,044 |
|
|
303,387 |
+1,687 |
8,014 |
|
|
298,020 |
+296 |
3,906 |
|
|
284,681 |
+467 |
4,424 |
|
|
284,523 |
+51 |
16,557 |
|
|
282,498 |
+687 |
4,406 |
|
|
269,737 |
+120 |
1,384 |
|
|
262,948 |
+1,996 |
3,663 |
|
|
260,183 |
+159 |
6,270 |
|
|
259,764 |
+138 |
4,429 |
|
|
231,322 |
+329 |
4,632 |
|
|
227,055 |
+181 |
601 |
|
|
208,262 |
+1,571 |
4,057 |
|
|
205,702 |
+1,776 |
2,109 |
|
|
198,455 |
+664 |
3,447 |
|
|
185,057 |
+7,244 |
2,720 |
|
|
178,013 |
+1,289 |
4,441 |
|
|
176,577 |
+566 |
2,178 |
|
|
169,851 |
+1,178 |
836 |
|
|
167,076 |
+840 |
2,372 |
|
|
139,778 |
+560 |
804 |
|
|
139,204 |
+70 |
2,558 |
|
|
134,479 |
+258 |
1,276 |
|
|
133,852 |
+951 |
910 |
|
|
133,442 |
+132 |
2,457 |
|
|
129,036 |
+1,611 |
1,538 |
|
|
122,574 |
+7,354 |
1,704 |
|
|
120,221 |
+237 |
3,142 |
|
|
114,489 |
+963 |
3,754 |
|
|
109,982 |
+752 |
984 |
|
|
106,434 |
+381 |
854 |
|
|
104,469 |
+580 |
433 |
|
|
102,879 |
+219 |
1,635 |
|
|
94,904 |
+165 |
2,752 |
|
|
93,374 |
+85 |
4,636 |
|
|
88,371 |
+291 |
2,681 |
|
|
25,716 |
+102 |
658 |
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
By Michael Erman
A healthcare worker holds a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site operated by SOMOS Community Care during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo/File Photo
Moderna Inc said on Thursday its COVID-19 shot was about 93% effective through six months after the second dose, showing hardly any change from the 94% efficacy reported in its original clinical trial.
However, it said it still expects booster shots to be necessary ahead of the winter season as antibody levels are expected to wane. It and rival Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have been advocating a third shot to maintain a high level of protection against COVID-19.
During a second-quarter earnings call, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said that the company would not produce more than the 800 million to 1 billion doses of the vaccine that it has targeted this year.
"We are now capacity constrained for 2021, and we are not taking any more orders for 2021 delivery," he said.
Moderna shares fell 3.6% to around $403.87 in pre-market trading after closing at $419.05 on Wednesday.
The Moderna data compares favorably to that released by Pfizer and BioNTech last week in which they said their vaccine's efficacy waned around 6% every two months, declining to around 84% six months after the second shot.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
"Our COVID-19 vaccine is showing durable efficacy of 93% through six months, but recognize that the Delta variant is a significant new threat so we must remain vigilant," Bancel said.
The comment comes as public health officials across the world debate whether additional doses are safe, effective and necessary even as they grapple with the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Pfizer is planning to seek authorization for a third shot later this month, and some countries like Israel have begun or plan to start administering a booster shot to older or vulnerable people.
BOOSTER CANDIDATES
Separately, Moderna said its studies of three different booster candidates induced robust antibody responses against variants, including the Gamma, Beta and Delta variants.
It said neutralizing antibody levels following the boost approached those observed after the second shot.
For this year, Moderna has signed vaccine contracts worth $20 billion in sales. It has agreements for $12 billion in 2022, with options for another roughly $8 billion in sales and expects to produce between 2 billion and 3 billion doses next year.
The company, however, has not been able to keep pace with the much larger Pfizer, which expects to manufacture as many as 3 billion doses this year and 2021 sales to top $33.5 billion.
Moderna's vaccine was authorized for emergency use in adults in the United States in December and has since been cleared for emergency or conditional use in adults in more than 50 countries.
The company expects to finish its submission for full approval with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month.
It posted second-quarter sales of $4.4 billion, slightly above expectations of $4.2 billion drawn from 10 analysts polled by Refinitiv. Its COVID-19 shot is the firm's first authorized product and sales were just $67 million a year earlier.
Moderna earned $2.78 billion, or $6.46 a share, beating quarterly expectations of $5.96 a share.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-says-its-covid-19-shot-remains-93-effective-4-6-months-after-second-dose-2021-08-05/
By Renju Jose
A lone woman, wearing a protective face mask, walks across an unusually quiet city centre bridge on the first day of a lockdown as the state of Victoria looks to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Melbourne, Australia, July 16, 2021. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders
Australian officials warned Sydney residents on Friday to brace for a surge in COVID-19 cases after the country's largest city logged record infections for the second straight day despite a weeks-long lockdown to stamp out an outbreak of Delta variant.
"Just based on the trend in the last few days and where things are going, I am expecting higher case numbers in the next few days and I just want everyone to be prepared for that," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.
Sydney reported a record 279 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, up from the previous high of 259 the day before. New South Wales reported a record 291 cases, up from 262. One more person has died, raising the state total to 22 during the latest outbreak, all in Sydney.
The dead person was an unvaccinated woman in her 60s who died in a Sydney hospital after contracting the coronavirus from a healthcare worker. There are 304 cases in hospitals in New South Wales, with 50 people in intensive care, 22 of whom require ventilation.
Of particular concern is the growing number of people positive with the highly infectious Delta strain moving around in the community, particularly in Sydney's southwestern suburbs. Around one-fifth of Friday's cases have spent time outside while infectious.
Officials in the neighbouring state of Victoria, which on Thursday night entered its sixth lockdown since the pandemic began, warned the state was "in a precarious position" as officials try to trace the source of several unlinked new cases.
"We have many lines of inquiry actively underway as to where these new cases have been and any further exposure sites," state Health Minister Martin Foley said in a media conference.
Faced with another lockdown within weeks, an anti-lockdown protest erupted in state capital Melbourne on Thursday night.
Victoria reported six locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Friday, down from eight a day earlier, with all linked but not in quarantine during their infectious period.
In Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, the authorities reported 10 new cases, down from 16 the day before, and added that they were hopeful a lockdown would be lifted as planned on Sunday since all but two cases were isolated before testing positive.
LOCKDOWN WOES
More than 60% of Australia's 25 million citizens are in hard lockdowns on Friday to try to contain latest surge, including the country's three largest cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Snap lockdowns, strict border controls and swift contact tracing have helped Australia keep its coronavirus numbers relatively low, with just over 35,600 cases and 933 deaths. But recent stop-and-start lockdowns amid a sluggish vaccination rollout, with only about 21% of people above 16 fully vaccinated, have frustrated residents.
Australia has also enacted tough border controls requiring residents to apply for exemptions to leave and incoming overseas travellers, capped at around 3,000 a week, must go through a two-week mandatory quarantine.
The rules will further tighten from Aug. 11 by removing an automatic exemption for citizens and permanent residents living outside of Australia to leave, a government statement tabled in the parliament on Thursday showed.
The change would require all citizens and permanent residents living outside the country to apply for permission to exit.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-victoria-reports-six-local-covid-19-cases-first-day-lockdown-2021-08-05/
People queue outside a mass vaccination center in Paris, as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
People in France have been rushing for COVID-19 vaccines since the government introduced a mandatory health pass to access bars and restaurants, stirring the debate about how to get more shots in arms to combat the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Governments around the world are resorting to creative ways to encourage citizens to get inoculated - several countries are offering lottery tickets, the Netherlands gave away pickled herring and the U.S. plans to offer $100 cash rewards to entice vaccine stragglers.
France has taken an altogether tougher approach, requiring health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while the country's highest court on Thursday backed the introduction of the health passes from Aug. 9.
Trade unions and some scientists have said the move, which has sparked protests in major towns and cities, is too blunt an instrument and may deepen opposition to vaccines among people who are already reluctant.
French President Emmanuel Macron also runs a risk that the health pass could revive the kind of Yellow Vest street protests that roiled the country in the early part of his term and knocked his agenda off course for months.
But the country's vaccination rate has jumped since the policy was announced on July 12 and so far polling has shown public support for the stringent measures.
A survey conducted by polling organisation IPSOS on July 26 and 27 found that 60% of French people surveyed were in favour of requiring a health pass to gain access to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres and for long-distance travel.
Research by another pollster, Ifop, conducted on July 21 and 22, found that 35% of people support anti-health pass protests, 16% are indifferent, and 49% oppose the protests.
Meanwhile, the move appears to be paying off: France overtook the United States on the pace of first-dose vaccinations on July 19 and then its neighbour Germany on July 28, according to Our World in Data.
Just under 64% of people had received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Aug. 2, compared with 53.6% on July 12.
It's not clear if the strong pace will be maintained and some scientists caution the health pass may give vaccinated people confidence to socialise even though early data suggests shots do not stop transmission.
"Clearly, there has been a Macron effect when you look at vaccination bookings," Martin Blachier, an epidemiologist with Paris-based healthcare data analysis firm Public Health Expertise.
"Now we are wondering how things will play out at the end of the summer," he said.
The data though may offer confidence to countries worried about plateauing vaccination rates as the Delta variant, the fastest and most formidable version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, raises concerns about potential fresh lockdowns.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said it will be compulsory for federal workers to be vaccinated while English nightclubs and other venues with large crowds will require patrons to present proof of full vaccination from the end of September.
CARROT OR STICK
France has seen a steady rise in daily inoculations - more than 240,000 got their first injection on July 18, just over 300,000 on July 21 and more than 360,000 on Aug. 1.
By July 12, 36.16 million had received one jab, rising to 42.53 million by Aug. 1.
Vaccination rates have also been rising steadily in Italy where the government on July 22 announced that proof of vaccination or immunity would shortly be mandatory for an array of activities, including indoor dining and entering places such as gyms, pools, museums and cinemas. read more
Some 63.9% of adults there have received a first dose, according to Our World in Data, up from 61.33%, a less pronounced rise than in France.
That may be due to people being away on summer holidays, it may be too soon to show up in the data, but it may also be a sign that a stick rather than a carrot approach won't work everywhere.
Nino Cartabellotta, chairman of the Gimbe health institute, said vaccine hesitancy in people over 50 years old continues to hurt the roll-out in Italy and concerns remain about getting children over 12 years old inoculated ahead of the next school year.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/are-covid-vaccine-passes-moving-needle-getting-people-inoculated-2021-08-05/
The naval base at Guantánamo Bay has managed to avoid any major coronavirus outbreaks so far, but has recently detected seven cases among residents and visitors. Members of the military and their relatives, base workers and journalists debarked from a ferry at Guantánamo Bay in 2019.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The commander of the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has decided to increase coronavirus testing of fully vaccinated people coming to the isolated base, rather than put them in a weeklong quarantine, following the discovery of seven virus cases at a time of heightened concern over the highly contagious Delta variant.
Since July 20, base officials said, seven people who traveled to the base following negative virus tests were later found to be infected. One of the seven, a base resident, was evacuated to a health care facility in the United States, said Dawn C. Grimes, a spokeswoman for the base hospital.
The base commander, Navy Capt. Samuel White, ordered a seven-day quarantine for all vaccinated visitors and returning residents on Monday, but then lifted the order again shortly afterward. The order was a significant departure from the Pentagon’s wider practice, which permits installation commanders to quarantine unvaccinated people for up to 14 days as a precaution.
Now, Navy health workers at the base will test all vaccinated passengers for the virus on arrival, and will immediately quarantine those who test positive, Nikki L. Maxwell, a spokeswoman for Captain White, said on Thursday. All unvaccinated visitors will also be quarantined, and tested later. Fully vaccinated people are protected against the worst outcomes of Covid-19, including those caused by the Delta variant.
The change in course means that the military judge, lawyers and other court personnel who will travel to the base for the arraignment of three Southeast Asian prisoners, scheduled for Aug. 30, will not have to arrive a week early, as long as they are vaccinated. The arraignment is the first consequential hearing to be held by the military commissions at the base since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The three prisoners, who have been held in United States custody for 18 years, are scheduled to go before a judge for the first time, on charges that they conspired in two deadly terrorist bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003. They were captured in Thailand in 2003; one of them, an Indonesian man known as Hambali, was once a leader of the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah.
The arraignment was originally scheduled for Feb. 22, but was postponed because of the pandemic.
The base has already been requiring arriving passengers to show a negative result on a P.C.R. test for the virus performed less than 72 hours before flying to Guantánamo Bay. The new policy requires fully vaccinated people to take what is known as a rapid antigen virus test, and if found to be positive, to be quarantined and retested with a P.C.R. test. Military officials were also considering adding yet another test, to be taken at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington, D.C., before boarding a flight to Guantánamo.
The naval base in Cuba, with about 6,000 residents and a small hospital, has so far been able to avoid a major coronavirus outbreak through isolation, testing and quarantines. It disclosed two cases in the spring of 2020 before the Pentagon adopted a policy of not reporting case tallies base by base.
According to base spokesmen, the seven recent cases connected with Guantánamo Bay included three unvaccinated residents who were quarantined on arrival and later tested positive; two vaccinated residents who tested positive within a week of arrival; and two vaccinated foreign journalists who visited the base from July 26 to July 29 and later tested positive.
Ms. Maxwell also said on Thursday that since March of last year, 12 people had been found to test positive at the base. That figure excluded the journalists, who began experiencing symptoms and discovered they were infected later when they returned to the mainland.
She said the base’s remote location and limited access points — through the seaport and airstrip — “contributed to the base community’s public health success during the pandemic.”
It was not immediately known whether any of the recent cases were linked to the Delta variant of the virus.
As of this week, 63 percent of the adults on base were fully vaccinated, including at least 33 of the 39 long-held prisoners, Ms. Maxwell said. The others have declined. The base cannot vaccinate people younger than 18 years of age because the vaccine that the Pentagon is providing — the Moderna vaccine — is not authorized for children.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/us/politics/guantanamo-testing-quarantine-visitors.html
By Carl Zimmer
Dionne Dias, a nurse, injected John Gray with the Novavax vaccine during a clinical trial at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., in January.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times
Novavax, the Maryland company that won $1.6 billion from the U.S. government last year to develop a Covid vaccine, on Thursday announced that continued production problems would delay the vaccine’s use in the United States until the end of the year.
But the two-shot vaccine, which performed well against the virus in clinical trials, might soon be used in other parts of the world. In partnership with the Serum Institute of India, Novavax has applied for emergency authorization in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, the company announced on an earnings call.
“This is a big step for us,” Dr. Gregory Glenn, the president of Novavax, said in an interview.
The company also presented data showing that a single dose of its protein-based vaccine acts as a powerful booster shot against Covid-19. In clinical trials, the Novavax booster produced higher levels of antibodies against the coronavirus than its original two-dose vaccination did, the company said. Those antibodies were also potent against the highly contagious Delta variant.
The announcement came hot on the heels of similar results on boosters from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Although Novavax has lagged behind its competitors, its vaccine offers impressive protection. In June the company reported that it has an efficacy of 90 percent against symptomatic Covid-19, and 100 percent against severe disease.
That trial ended, however, before the Delta variant surged to dominance across the world, making it impossible to directly measure the vaccine’s efficacy against that highly contagious version of the virus.
Novavax has carried out studies with vaccine antibodies in the laboratory suggesting that two doses of its vaccine provided fairly strong protection against the Delta variant.
What’s more, volunteers who got a booster shot ended up with antibody levels many times higher than with the original two doses. Antibodies that worked against Delta and other variants also rose to very high levels, the company reported.
British researchers are also testing the use of Novavax boosters in people who received two doses of other vaccines and are expecting results next month.
The Novavax vaccine has some advantages over other types. It can remain stable in a refrigerator, for example.
But its development has been dogged by supply shortages, a fire at one of the company’s factories and other mishaps. As a result, Novavax has repeatedly delayed its plans to seek authorization from U.S. regulators.
Today’s applications to India, Indonesia, and the Philippines suggest that the company is starting to overcome these hurdles at last.
Stanley Erck, the chief executive of Novavax, said during the earnings call that he was confident the company would apply for F.D.A. authorization in the fourth quarter of the year.
“It’s a matter of the mechanics of getting all the final data assembled and submitted,” he said. “We’re talking weeks here, we’re not talking months.”
Mr. Erck said Novavax would have 100 million doses ready to ship by the end of the month. By the end of the year, they plan to make 150 million doses per month.
John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine who participated in the Novavax clinical trial, has been impressed by the vaccine’s performance in trials, but disappointed by the company’s struggle to mass-produce the shots.
“I’m sure it all works just fine, but it’s irrelevant until they get their act together with regulatory filings,” he said.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/05/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine/novavax-is-still-struggling-to-produce-its-vaccine
The cartoon posted on the far-right discussion forum showed police officers wearing Biden-Harris campaign logos on bulletproof vests and battering down a door with a large syringe. A caption read in part, “In Biden’s America.”
The cartoon appears to be an example of the latest effort in Russian-aligned disinformation: a campaign that taps into skepticism and fears of coronavirus vaccination to not just undermine the effort to immunize people but also try to falsely link the Biden-Harris administration to the idea of forced inoculations. The image was one of several spotted by Graphika, a company tracking disinformation campaigns.
Both Russia and China have worked to promote their own vaccines through messaging that undermines American and European vaccination programs, according to the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. But Moscow has also spread conspiracy theories. Last year, the department began warning that Russia was using fringe websites to promote doubts around vaccinations.
The rise of the Delta variant of Covid-19 — and shifting scientific advice on how to defend against it — has created an atmosphere for misinformation to more easily spread, experts said.
“Disinformation thrives in an information vacuum,” said Lisa Kaplan, the chief executive of the Alethea Group, which helps corporations guard against misinformation. “That is when disinformation can really take hold. And knowing how the Russians typically play those situations, it wouldn’t surprise me they are trying to take advantage of it.”
The aim of various Russian groups continues to be to exacerbate tensions in Western societies, a key foreign policy goal of Moscow, according to American officials briefed on the disinformation efforts.
The campaign comes after President Biden warned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month to rein in ransomware attacks emanating out of Russia and aimed at critical American infrastructure. Though the ransomware attacks are separate from the disinformation campaigns, the warning was the latest effort by United States officials to prod Russia to rein in destructive digital incursions.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
· China reported 124 new cases of the virus on Friday, the highest number of the current outbreak amid a surge in locally transmitted infections.
· CNN has fired three members of staff in the US for reporting to work without being vaccinated. Company bosses said the staff had violated its zero-tolerance policy for having the jab.
· The UK government has destroyed the public’s trust in travel quarantine rules, a former government adviser has said, after the latest changes to the traffic-light system for overseas travel.
· Young people in the UK will “miss out” on access to nightclubs if they don’t get vaccinated, warns an advertising campaign being launched to boost take-up.
· The UK’s live events sector has finally been promised a Covid cancellation insurance scheme worth £750m after months of lobbying.
· Australians who live abroad will not be able to leave the country if they return home unless they appeal for a special exemption as Canberra tightened its restrictions on pandemic travel.
· New South Wales recorded another record number of cases on Friday – 291 – and more than half of Australia is in lockdown again. There were protests in Melbourne on Thursday night as the state of Victoria headed into another snap lockdown. Queensland could move out of lockdown on Sunday after only 10 new cases of the virus were reported on Friday.
· All businesses in Wales, including nightclubs, will be able to reopen from Saturday and there will be no legal limits on the number of people who can get together as the country moves to Covid alert level 0.
· The US could announce its plan to give out booster vaccines within weeks, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The US has given nearly 350m Covid-19 jabs.
· South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks as the government contends with outbreaks nationwide and more people fall severely ill, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said on Friday.
· The Italian government has said teachers will need proof of immunity from Covid-19 from the start of September, as travellers on public transport will also need the country’s “green pass”.
Medicine
