Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

9 December 2020

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

Key Announcements:

• Yesterday saw the first wave of vaccinations rolled out across the UK and there are many more still to come. More than a million new doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the U.K. next week, then the remainder of the initial 4 million order the following week.
• From half 9 this morning, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries, Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance and vaccine regulator boss June Raine appear before the joint science and health committee into the lessons learned from the pandemic.
• The Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has efficacy of 90 percent in a small group who got a half-dose first, but only 62 percent in the majority, full trial data newly published in the Lancet has confirmed. The results may create a quandary for regulatory bodies, which will have to decide on how the vaccine should be used if they approve it.

Devolved

• People in Wales who need to self-isolate, or quarantine after travelling, will only need to do so for 10 days from Thursday. That’s a cut from the current period of 14 days and brings Wales in line with England.
• The Scottish government has outlined how it will divvy up millions of pounds of extra funding from the Treasury to tackle the impact of the pandemic. Some £600m has been put aside for health and social care, £570m for business support, and further tranches for transport, local councils, courts and the police.

International

• Rich countries are hoarding doses of Covid vaccines and people living in poor countries are set to miss out, a coalition of campaigning bodies has warned. The People’s Vaccine Alliance says nearly 70 lower-income countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people.
• US President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of 100 million Covid vaccinations in his first 100 days in office. He said his first months in office would not end the outbreak and gave few details on rollout strategy, but he said he would change the course of Covid-19.

Stakeholders

• A survey of 4,000 students by the NUS union has found more than half believe their mental health has deteriorated during the pandemic, but less than a third of them have asked for help. The NUS want more counselling and wellbeing services, but universities say they’ve worked hard to look after young people and keep campuses safe.