Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

05 Mar

5 March 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • Concern has arisen where some asthma patients who are eligible for a covid vaccine have been refused by their GPs. Under government guidance, patients who have ever had an emergency asthma admission fall within group six who are currently being vaccinated.
  • Cyprus will allow British tourists who have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus to enter without restrictions from 1 May.
  • A new coronavirus variant has been added to Public Health England’s watch list.
  • The Home Secretary yesterday added a number of healthcare professionals , including senior care workers, nursing assistants and pharmacists, to the government’s list of occupations with labour shortages. This will make it easier for the NHS and social care providers to recruit staff internationally.
  • Leader of the Opposition, Kier Starmer, has been calling on the government to give NHS workers a bigger pay rise . The DHSC had recommended to the independent NHS pay review body that staff should have a pay rise of one percent. This has led to criticisms from health unions who have said the rise would be a “kick in the teeth” after a year of exceptionally strenuous work.

Devolved

  • At a virtual party conference event later today, leader of Plyde Cymru Adam Price will say how the pandemic has exposed “crushing poverty” and the “corrupt elite” in Britain. He will relay the post-Covid plan his party would take in Wales to address poverty, with the opinion that “Britain isn’t working for us anymore.”
  • Lockdown has been extended in Wales by at least three more weeks.
  • Care Home visits could begin again in Wales from 13 March , which would see residents having a single designated visitor.
  • Health Minister in Northern Ireland, Robin Swann, has said he is not comfortable with the idea of a vaccine certification system.

International

  • Vaccination efforts will begin in Nigeria today, using Covax acquired Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. Frontline health workers will be prioritised for the vaccine, as will the older population and individuals with underlying health conditions.
  • Despite surging covid numbers and deaths in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has told Brazilians to “stop whining”.
  • Italy has blocked a shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for Australia in a decision which has been backed by the European Commission. This comes for a number of reasons including that Australia is not considered as vulnerable; at a time during which there have been vaccine shortages in Italy and the EU.
  • Germany has overturned their decision on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and is now recommending it for use in people over the age of 65.

Stakeholders

  • Former vice-chancellor for the University of Buckingham, Anthony Seldon, has said it is “right and just” for university students to have refunds. The president for NSU has also backed these calls.
  • The Good Law Project has criticised the government and said that Boris Johnson’s assurances that covid contracts had been published were not true.
  • Marie Curie, in response to research published by Independent Age, has said that bereaved families have received even more inadequate and inconsistent support than they had even before the pandemic