Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

11 Jun

11 May 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • UK government data shows 7,393 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, and seven people died within 28 days of a positive test. They also show 40,886,878 people had received a first dose of a Covid vaccine up to and including 9 June, and 28,857,102 had received a second dose.
  • Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced the UK will donate more than 100m surplus Covid vaccine doses to poorer countries in the next year, with 5m to be given by the end of September.
  • The G7 leaders are expected to agree to provide a total of one billion vaccine doses, with President Joe Biden already committed to donating 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to 92 low and middle-income countries and the African Union.
  • Giving evidence to two parliamentary committees yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the decision not to test care home residents being discharged from hospital at the beginning of the pandemic was based on “clinical advice”. He also said he knew of evidence early on of asymptomatic transmission, but the World Health Organisation had said there may have been a ‘mistranslation’.
  • The UK economy grew by 2.3 per cent in April, the highest rate since July, according to the Office for National Statistics.
  • A hotel housing security staff and media for the G7 summit in Cornwall was shut completely following an outbreak of Covid-19.
  • The WHO has warned that Europe is “by no means out of danger” in the battle against Covid-19 and has called for caution as social gatherings and travel become more frequent.
  • The Guardian reports that G7 leaders will call for a fresh WHO investigation in to the origins of Covid-19, according to a leaked document.

Devolved

  • The supply of Pfizer vaccine will run low over the next few weeks and restrict the vaccination programme, the Scottish Health Secretary has warned. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the supply of the Pfizer vaccine will be tight over the next few weeks, but it was “stable”.
  • Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that pupils will not have their results downgraded this year because of the past performance of their school, following opposition parties’ warnings that pupils will face a similar situation to last year.
  • Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann said that “normality, as we knew it in 2019, is still some way off”, and Northern Ireland was not yet at a point where a date could be set for social distancing to end.

International

  • The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that a higher-than-expected number of young men have suffered heart inflammation after their second dose of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

Stakeholders

  • Professor Susan Michie, who sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) that advises ministers, said people should continue to wear face coverings to protect public health and curb other viruses.
  • The Association of Directors of Public Health has urged the government to keep Covid rules in England in place beyond 21 June, warning that a complete lifting of measures risked cases and hospitalisations rising further.