Coronavirus live news: New Zealand cases drop for second day, Japan blames vaccine contamination on needles | World news
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04:06
Nike has given its head office employees in the US a week off to “destress” and recover from the pressures of the Covid pandemic.
The sportswear and trainers brand said workers at its headquarters in Oregon would be “powering down” until Friday, with senior leaders encouraging staff to ignore all work responsibilities to aid their mental health.
Nike senior manager of global marketing science, Matt Marrazzo, said in an open message to staff posted on LinkedIn:
Take the time to unwind, destress and spend time with your loved ones. Do not work.
In a year (or two) unlike any other, taking time for rest and recovery is key to performing well and staying sane.”
He acknowledged that “this past year has been rough”, adding that staff should recognise that “we’re all human” and living through a traumatic event.
04:01
South Korean officials have expressed “cautious hope” that Covid transmissions are starting to slow, after battling the country’s worst wave of infections for weeks.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported the country’s lowest daily jump in about two weeks with 1,372 cases on Tuesday.
The Associated Press reported:
Officials have been enforcing the strongest social distancing restrictions short of a lockdown in the capital of Seoul and other large population centres, including banning private social gatherings of three or more people after 6pm.
A senior health ministry official pleaded for citizens to remain vigilant ahead of next month’s Chuseok holidays, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, when millions usually travel across the country to meet relatives.
Less than 30% of South Korea’s population have been fully vaccinated.
03:47
In Australia, the New South Wales (NSW) government has refused to take responsibility for what it admits is the “disappointing” vaccine rollout in Aboriginal communities in the west of the state.
This comes despite being warned last year of a potential catastrophe in the Covid-hit town of Wilcannia, as reported by Guardian Australia in an exclusive yesterday.
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said the vaccination rollout to Aboriginal communities has been challenging, but that it was a federal government responsibility.
Hazzard was responding to claims made by the Maari Ma Aboriginal health service in the far west of NSW, revealed exclusively by Guardian Australia, that it warned both state and federal governments in March 2020 that they needed to urgently prepare for an outbreak.
As of Tuesday, Wilcannia had recorded 73 coronavirus cases in a population of 720, the highest transmission rate in NSW.
Updated
03:20
Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and South Korean pharmaceutical firm SK Bioscience have begun a phase three trial of their combined Covid vaccine.
GSK confirmed “positive” interim results from its first two rounds of studies and said the partners are aiming for the product to be available through Covax in the first half of 2022, reports PA Media.
The rollout of the new coronavirus vaccine will be subject to data and regulatory reviews.
Thomas Breuer, chief global health officer, GSK, said:
While many countries have made good progress with vaccination, there remains a need for accessible and affordable Covid-19 vaccines to ensure equitable access and to protect people across the world.
We are pleased to contribute with GSK’s pandemic adjuvant and to be working with SK to deliver the vaccine at scale via Covax if it is approved.
About 4,000 participants from various countries will be monitored to evaluate the vaccine candidate’s safety and immunogenicity compared with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
GSK said the study will be one of the first global late-stage trials to compare two different vaccine candidates.
SK Bioscience chief executive Jaeyong Ahn added:
We are grateful that we were able to advance to the phase three study with the unprecedented support of global initiatives, including GSK, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Taking this important step towards overcoming the global pandemic situation, SK and GSK will bring our technical expertise together for the development of an adjuvanted protein-based vaccine candidate, GBP510.
Updated
02:40
Australia will ramp up its vaccination programme this week after prime minister Scott Morrison announced it is set to receive 500,000 doses of the Pfizer jab in a swap deal with Singapore.
Canberra struck the deal, which will see Australia return the same amount of vaccine doses to Singapore in December, as daily cases reached near record levels for the country, the Reuters news agency reported.
Morrison told reporters today:
That means there are 500,000 doses extra that will happen in September that otherwise would have had to wait for several months from now, accelerating our vaccination program at this critical time as we walk towards those 70% and 80% target.
A slow rollout of the vaccine has left Australia particularly vulnerable to the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant, despite initial success in containing the virus by implementing a strict lockdown and quarantine system.
With just under 28% of Australia’s population fully vaccinated, compared with 80% in Singapore, several states and territories have had to reintroduce strict lockdowns as cases soared, hitting businesses and the domestic economy.
Updated
01:26
A new Covid variant has made headlines around the world after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa issued an alert about the “C.1.2 lineage”, saying it had been detected in all provinces in the country, but at a relatively low rate.
C.1.2 was first detected in May, the alert said, but Delta is still the dominant variant spreading in South Africa and the world.
A pre-print, non peer-reviewed paper published about the variant said C.1.2 “… has since been detected across the majority of the provinces in South Africa and in seven other countries spanning Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania”.
The C.1.2 lineage has drawn the attention of scientists because despite its low rate in the population, it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest and variants of concern, like the Delta variant, as well as some additional mutations.
So what do we know about the new variant, and how concerned should we be?
01:16
Japan’s health minister says it is highly likely that foreign matter found in Moderna Inc Covid-19 vaccines in the southern prefecture of Okinawa got into vials when needles were stuck in, Reuters reports.
Some Moderna shots were temporarily halted in Okinawa on Sunday after foreign materials were discovered in vials and syringes. The health ministry said later needles may have been incorrectly inserted into vials, breaking off bits of the rubber stopper.
“Whatever the reason (for the foreign matter) we have heard that there is no safety or other issues,” health minister Norihisa Tamura told reporters on Tuesday, adding that it was not uncommon for foreign material to enter a vial with other vaccines.
“We will continue to gather information and report back,” he added.
Japan is facing its biggest wave of Covid-19 infections so far during the pandemic, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
A race to boost inoculations has been hampered by delays in imported vaccines and the discovery of the contaminants in some Moderna doses that prompted the suspension of three batches last week.
Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the inoculation campaign, said on Tuesday he wanted to speed up shipments of vaccines to municipalities that had been forced to put a halt reservations due to shortages.
The government is considering when and how to give out booster shots that may be needed to maintain immunity against the virus but is focusing for now on completing the first two shots for the public, Kono told reporters.