Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

29 Jan

29 January 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • A new coronavirus vaccine, developed by Novavax, has been shown to be 89.3 per cent effective in large-scale UK trials and is the first to show in trials it is effective against the new UK variant.
  • More than 60 suspected Covid outbreaks in offices were recorded in the first two weeks of the current lockdown in England, a BBC investigation has found.
  • Germany’s vaccine committee has said AstraZeneca’s Covid jab should only be given to people aged under 65.
  • The prime minister and Public Health England have both defended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, after Germany recommended that it should only be given to people aged under 65.
  • Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine could be blocked from entering Britain from the EU within days after Brussels said it had to respond to shortages emerging in member states.
  • Volunteers who are being trained to help the NHS with the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine will now be given the jab themselves.
  • Hospital pressure will not ease enough to allow the reopening pubs and restaurants until May if this year follows the same trajectory as last spring, analysis by The Times suggests.
  • A decision on how £7.75m of emergency funding for arts and entertainment organisations will be spent has been delayed.
  • People may soon be offered a “spit in a pot” coronavirus test, after promising trial results.
  • Surplus Covid-19 vaccines have been given to healthy young people in parts of England and some GPs have “run out” of eligible patients to vaccinate in the scramble to inoculate the country.

Devolved

  • Some primary school children could begin a phased return to school from 22 February – just after half term – if Covid rates continue to fall, Wales’ first minister has said.
  • Nicola Sturgeon has said she will publish confidential data on the supply of coronavirus vaccines in response to claims the Scottish Government is failing to roll out the jab fast enough.
  • Another “significant supply” of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is to arrive in Northern Ireland next week, the health department has said.
  • Most pupils in Northern Ireland will not return to school until Monday 8 March at the earliest, the Stormont Executive has agreed.
  • New technologies and a better understanding of Covid-19 will help drive down the virus and ease Wales out of lockdown, the Welsh Government has said .

International

  • China has declared that it is in a race to “reshape the global structure” and that it must become the first country to fully inoculate its people.
  • Hospitals in Portugal are running short of oxygen supplies as the country recorded the world’s highest seven-day average of new daily cases and deaths.
  • The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for the EU’s vaccine contract with drug-maker AstraZeneca to be published, in a growing row over reduced supplies.
  • France’s health ministry has announced supplies of the Moderna vaccine expected during February will be reduced by 25 per cent.
  • Mexico has surpassed India as the country with the third highest coronavirus death toll.

Stakeholders

  • Certain pupils should get the right to repeat a year of school, if their parents or carers agree, suggests the Education Policy Institute (EPI)