Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

14 Apr

14 April 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • The Oxford Vaccine Group’s Com-Cov trial, which is looking at whether different Covid vaccines can be mixed, is being expanded. Individuals over 50 who have had a first dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca can apply to join the study.
  • The government has confirmed that all university students who have not yet returned to campus and in-person teaching will be able to do so from 17 May, at the earliest.
  • The UK is moving into the next phase of the vaccination programme, with adults aged 45 to 49 invited to book their appointments. Everybody in cohorts 1 to 9 – those aged 50 and over, the clinically vulnerable, and health and social care workers – have now been offered a vaccine, meeting the government’s 15 April target ahead of time.

Devolved

  • Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has brought forward relaxations to travel and outdoors meetings. From this Friday, people in Scotland will be able to travel for the purposes of outdoor socialising and exercise; and up to six adults from up to six households can meet outdoors.
  • Northern Ireland’s Health Minister has warned that hospital waiting lists cannot be tackled without a joint executive approach. Northern Ireland currently has the longest waiting times of any UK region.

International

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a “partial closure” for the first two weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
  • The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is reviewing cases of rare blood clots in women who have received the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine
  • Germany’s federal and regional health ministers have agreed that people aged under 60 who have been given a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in Germany will receive a different jab for their second dose.
  • Brazil’s senate has launched an investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.

Stakeholders

  • The Covid testing firm Randox says it will reduce the price of PCR tests to £60 for travellers returning to the UK from overseas. PCR tests currently cost upwards of £100 each.
  • Manchester City and Tottenham football clubs are facing criticism that their decision to ban clinically extremely vulnerable supporters from the Carabao Cup final is “direct discrimination”. Both clubs have been allocated 2,000 tickets each for the match on 25 April as part of the government’s pilot scheme for mass venues.
  • Age UK have warned that hospitality requiring people to order food and drinks on an app “risks widening the digital divide”.
  • Supermarket giant Tesco has said that its profits fell by around a fifth over the past year after costs associated with the pandemic of almost £900m offset an increase in