Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

06 May

6 May 2021

A series of daily updates for CHO members regarding relevant updates pertaining to Coronavirus from home and abroad.

Key Announcements:

  • Yesterday, the number of people who tested positive for the virus in the UK was 2,144 and 27 people died within 28 days of having tested positive.
  • A total of 34,795,074 people have received their first vaccine dose in the UK and 15,887,493 people have received their second dose.
  • Doctors have told Sky News that specialist clinics treating long Covid might be needed for “much longer” than current funding would allow. NHS England has so far invested £34m on opening 83 of these clinics.
  • The risk of developing blood clots after a dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was “small” and should be “interpreted in the context of the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccination”, according to a new study published in the BMJ.
  • In early human trial data, a third booster dose of the American Moderna vaccine has been shown to increase immunity against the South African and Brazilian variants of coronavirus.
  • The government is expected to publish details tomorrow (Friday 7th May) on which countries will be placed on the Covid-19 “green list” of approved foreign destinations for travel.

Devolved

  • In Scotland, 20 out of 32 local authorities recorded no Covid-related deaths in the last week, according to the National Records of Scotland.
  • In Wales, nearly 75 percent of people in their 40s have now received a first dose of a Covid vaccine. This also comes as the number of Covid patients in hospitals is lower than they have been since the start of the pandemic.

International

  • The first nationwide vaccine data results have been published in Israel, and indicate that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine provides over 95 percent protection against infection, severe illness, and death.
  • American president Joe Biden has said the US would back a proposed waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines. In response, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said it was a “monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19.”
  • An official from the National Centre for Disease Control in India has said the “double mutant variant” of Covid might be linked to the second wave of the pandemic. Yesterday, a further 412,000 cases of coronavirus were reported in the country, and 3,980 deaths.
  • Serbian president Aleksander Vucic has offered to give 3,000 dinars in cash to anyone who gets vaccinated against Covid, in a bid to increase take-up.
  • In Denmark, primary school children return to education full-time from today, whilst gyms and sports centres open to anyone holding a corona passport indicating they are free of the virus.
  • Canada has become the first country in the world to authorise the use of the Pfizer vaccine on children aged 12 to 15.

Stakeholders

  • The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has urged employers to ensure that people who can’t work from home are able to benefit from flexible working options. This comes following new analysis which indicates that the use of flexible working hours has fallen during the pandemic.
  • Which? has said that some holiday providers who broke the law last year are still misleading potential customers over their right to a refund and other financial protections.
  • The Bank of England is expected to say today that Britain’s economy will have a much stronger recovery than had previously been expected.