Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

12 Mar

12 March 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • 6,753 new cases of coronavirus and 181 deaths were recorded yesterday. Over 23m people have received their first dose of vaccine, and 1.4m have received their second dose.
  • US firm Novavax announced its vaccine was 96.4 percent effective against the original strain of Covid; 100 percent effective against hospitalisations; 86 percent effective against the Kent variant and 55 percent effective against the South African strain in people without HIV; the UK has 60m doses of this vaccine on order.
  • UK economy has shrunk by 2.9 percent in January, according to new ONA figures. Deputy national statistician Jonathan Althow said this was a notable hit, but smaller than expected.
  • France will ease restrictions on travel to and from the UK today, opening the way for Britons to cross the Channel for spring holidays

Devolved/Regional

  • Easing of the Welsh lockdown is coming into effect tomorrow. The message to stay at home will be replaced with ‘stay local’. Two households will be allowed to meet outdoors. Hairdressers and golf, tennis and basketball facilities can open.
  • In Scotland up to four adults from two different households are now able to meet in any outdoor space, including in private gardens.

International

  • Some countries in Europe, including Austria and Italy, have suspended the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZenica vaccine after reports of blood clotting after vaccination. Health authorities have stressed there is no indication of a link to vaccination
  • The European Medicines Authority has now recommended the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine for use. Johnson and Johnson will only begin delivering the vaccine to the EU however in mid to late April.
  • Brazil has exceeded 2,000 Covid related deaths in a single day for the first time.

Stakeholders

  • Care Provider Alliance call for emergency funding, warning that the budget last week did not announce any specific measures for social care, despite the imminent end to the emergency funding on 31st March 2021.
  • The National Audit Office said the culture recovery fund had budgeted for £830m in grants and loans funding so far, but only £495m had been paid out. Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, urged payments to arms-length bodies to be sped up, the Guardian reports.

Unconfirmed reports

  • A Government source told the Times that a pay rise for nurses of more than 1 percent was a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’. They said a hike of between 2 and percent would be ‘realistic’ but argued 5 percent would be a bit steep.
  • Politico’s Playbook reports that South Yorkshire Mayor Dan Jarvis is poised to announce hundreds of millions of pounds in new funding to kickstart the region’s Covid recovery.
  • FT reports that MHRA will not require ‘lengthy’ clinical studies to assess modifications to Covid-19 vaccines to tackle new variants.