Coronavirus live: UK sees daily cases rise to over 50,000; WHO warns indoor socialising driving infections

That’s it from our global Covid blog today and thanks for following along.

Keep up with all the latest coronavirus coverage by reading here.

We’ll join you again later today with all the key developments as they happen.

Summary

• UK prime minister Boris Johnson resists calls to activate ‘plan B’ as daily Covid cases top 50,000. “The numbers of infections are high but we are within the parameters of what the predictions were, what Spi-M [modelling group] and the others said we would be at this stage given the steps we are taking. We are sticking with our plan,” Johnson told reporters.
• Infections in UK at highest level since July with 52,009 new coronavirus cases. That is the highest daily total on this measure, and the first time the daily tally has topped 50,000, for more than three months.
• Jeremy Hunt has called for the government to cut the time required between Covid vaccine doses to allow more booster jabs to be given. Relaxing six-month gap between second and third doses would speed up rollout, the former health secretary said.
• Melbourne, Australia, ends its sixth lockdown today after spending 267 days following stay-at-home orders, thought to be the longest lockdown in the world.
  
• Moscow announces a one-week nationwide lockdown as Russia Covid deaths rise. The country registered its highest daily number of coronavirus deaths and infections since the start of the pandemic.
• UK’s neighbours criticise British Covid policies as cases begin to surge across EU.
  
• Only 14% of promised Covid vaccine doses reach poorest nations, a report has revealed. Of 1.8bn doses pledged by wealthy nations, just 261m (14%) have arrived in low-income countries, according to the analysis by the People’s Vaccine alliance, a coalition of groups that includes Oxfam, ActionAid and Amnesty International.
• WHO estimates up to 180,000 health workers may have died from Covid in the period between January 2020 to May 2021, while calling for more health workers to be fully vaccinated.

The World Health Organization estimates 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers may have been killed by Covid-19 up to May this year, insisting they must be prioritised for vaccination.

A WHO paper estimated that out of the world’s 135 million health staff, “between 80,000 to 180,000 health and care workers could have died from Covid-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health care workers needed to be immunised against the disease first, as he slammed the global inequity in the vaccine roll-out.

“Data from 119 countries suggest that on average, two in five health and care workers globally are fully vaccinated. But of course, that average masks huge differences across regions and economic groupings.”

“In Africa, less than in one in 10 health workers have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, in most high-income countries, more than 80 percent of health workers are fully vaccinated.”

He added: “We call on all countries to ensure that all health and care workers in every country are prioritised for Covid-19 vaccines, alongside other at-risk groups.”

Thanks for joining us for a rundown of all the top Covid stories from around the world.

I’m Samantha Lock reporting from Sydney, Australia, and I’ll be with you for the next hour or so as we go through all the latest developments.

Brazil has had 451 more deaths from Covid in the last 24 hours, with an additional 16,853 cases.

The south American country has now recorded 21,697,341 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Reuters.

The official death toll has now risen to 604,679 – the third worst outbreak outside the US and India, and its second deadliest.

The US has now administered 411,010,650 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Thursday morning, and distributed 498,702,405 doses – according to the country’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The figure is an increase of almost 1 million from Wednesday. According to Reuters, 219,624,445 have had at least one dose, while 189,924,447 have received both jabs.

The figures include two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, as well as Johnson & Johnson. About 11.6m people have had a booster jab.

Police in Toronto in Canada will be put on unpaid leave if they are unable to provide proof of being completely vaccinated against Covid by the end of November.

The move by the force, the largest in Canada, is the latest in a crackdown by professional bodies in the country, Reuters reports. It employs 5,500 officers and 2,200 staff.

It said 90% of members had disclosed their vaccine status and of those, 94% had both doses.

Other institutions, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and the country’s civil service have similar policies in place to encourage vaccination.

Daily Covid-19 cases have risen above 50,000 in the UK for the first time since July, as the prime minister resists calls for the government to activate its backup plan.

Official figures on Thursday put the number of positive tests at 50,009 as cases have continued to rise. The last time cases were at this level was 17 July.

Boris Johnson told broadcasters that he would not be switching to “plan B”, including homeworking and Covid-passports.

Here is a round-up of the day’s top Covid stories from around the world so far:

• More social mixing indoors after the lifting of restrictions just as winter sets in is driving a rise in Covid infections in many countries across Europe, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency director Mike Ryan said today.
  
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on the world’s 20 richest nations, holding a summit next week, to step up donations of Covid doses to the global south where vaccinations lag.
• Sweden has extended the pause of Moderna Covid vaccine for people aged 30 and younger due to rare heart-related side-effects, the public health agency said today.
• Moscow authorities have announced a week-long closure of most non-essential services from 28 October, as Russia registered its highest daily number of coronavirus deaths and infections since the start of the pandemic.
  
• In the US, the mask mandate for students in some South Florida schools could be eased by the end of October.
  
• A systematic disinformation campaign in Russian media to foster doubts and misgivings about western coronavirus vaccines has backfired as the death toll in Russia rises to record daily tolls, a European Union (EU) report said.
  
• Russia has reported “isolated cases” of coronavirus with a subvariant of the Delta variant that is believed to be even more contagious, the state consumer watchdog’s senior researcher said.
• New Covid cases in France jumped 18% to 6,127 compared to a week ago after rising 8% on Wednesday, health ministry data showed today.
  
• Iraq has resumed direct flights to and from Saudi Arabia after a 19-month suspension due to Covid, according to the state news agency INA.
  
• Italy reported 36 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday compared with 33 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 3,794 from 3,702.
• The decision to halt vaccinating young people with the Moderna Covid vaccine in Sweden and Denmark is being monitored by a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group.
  
• Coronavirus infections and deaths in Ukraine have surged to all-time highs amid a slow vaccination rate, which is one of the lowest in Europe.
• In Greece, hundreds of state hospital workers have marched through central Athens today as part of a 24-hour strike to protest staff shortages and compulsory coronavirus vaccinations.
• Bulgaria today recorded 4,522 new cases in the last 24 hours, the highest number since the last peak of the pandemic in the country in April.
• Belgium’s government warned today that the country could be on the cusp of another major surge in Covid cases despite its high vaccination rate.
• Authorities in China cancelled hundreds of flights, closed schools and ramped up mass testing on Thursday to try and stamp out a new Covid outbreak linked to a group of tourists.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Harry Taylor will be taking over shortly to bring you more coronavirus news throughout the evening. I’ll be back tomorrow morning but, for now, goodnight.

New Covid cases in France jumped 18% to 6,127 compared to a week ago after rising 8% on Wednesday, health ministry data showed today.

New cases had already spiked last week - after falling continuously from more than 28,000 per day on August 17 - but that was at least partially in response to the fact that free Covid testing ended last week, which encouraged more people to take a test before the deadline.

After a 36% spike following the last day of free testing, new case numbers slowed down again on Sunday and Monday, but then picked up again from Tuesday.

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The total cumulative new cases now stand at 7.1 million. Hospital data - whose trend usually lags new case data by one to two weeks - continued improving with the number of Covid patients in intensive care falling by another 17 to 1,009.

France also registered 37 new deaths from the epidemic today, taking the total to 117,389.

Iraq has resumed direct flights to and from Saudi Arabia after a 19-month suspension due to Covid, according to the state news agency INA.

In March 2020, Saudi Arabia suspended entry from and travel to Iraq along with eight other countries due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic.

The country said last week it was easing its Covid measures from 17 October as a result of a sharp drop in daily infections.

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