Coronavirus live news: South Korea to mix vaccines amid Covax supply issues; England opens jabs to all adults

First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has told the BBC this morning that the delay of the further easing of coronavirus restrictions in Wales would allow it to gather data on whether the spread of the Delta variant risked putting “unsustainable pressure” on the health service.

Asked why the decision had been made on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “Because the Delta variant is now in every part of Wales and because it is being transmitted at a community level, we need to pause the changes we had hoped to make in order for us to get better data on whether the number of people falling ill, and we know that number’s going to go up in Wales, does that translate into additional and unsustainable pressure on the health service?”

PA report he added: “Our scientists tell us another couple of weeks will give us that data and in the meantime we will be pressing ahead, vaccinating over half a million more people in these four weeks, building up our defences in that way.”

Asked if he could commit to easing restrictions completely after 15 July, he replied: “I can’t say that because I do not know and nobody else knows what the impact of the Delta variant will be by then.”

Drakeford said people in Wales are “absolutely not in lockdown” and “the vast bulk of freedoms are already restored”.

Some 760,000 South Koreans who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine will be offered Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine as a second shot due to shipment delays by global vaccine sharing scheme Covax, the government has said.

Some 835,000 doses of the AstraZeneca’s vaccine from Covax were scheduled to arrive by the end of June, which South Korea planned to use mainly as a second shot for around 760,000 health and frontline workers who had received their first dose in April.

The shipment is delayed to July or later, while the country had used up available AstraZeneca reserves to meet stronger than expected participation in its vaccination campaign, which helped the country meet its first-half inoculation target ahead of schedule.

Several countries, including Canada and Spain, have already approved such dose-mixing – mainly due to concerns about rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A Spanish study found that giving a dose of the Pfizer shot to people who already received the AstraZeneca vaccine is highly safe and effective, according to preliminary results.

Sangmi Cha reports for Reuters that South Korea said last month it will conduct a clinical trial that mixes COVID-19 doses from AstraZeneca with those from Pfizer and others. It has so far run a trial in 100 health workers to examine the formation of antibody and other immune effects.

South Korea reported 507 new infections yesterday.

Talking of missing the office, the UK government’s plans for people returning to work have been one of the things that has cropped up in the morning media appearances.

PA report that crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse said the government did not have any intention to make it compulsory to return to the office, while there will be a consultation on more flexible working going forward.

“This is a situation for employers and employees to discuss and negotiate themselves,” he told Sky News.

“I know there has been some media about this over the last two or three days, we don’t have any intention to make it compulsory to return to the office.

“Our manifesto at the last election did contain a pledge to consult on more flexible working to allow people to work from home should they wish to, and we will be doing that later on this year.”

There’s quite thin pickings in the news this morning, but while you are here, we have a couple of Covid-related diversions today. Steven Poole has picked “zoonotic” as his word of the week, and my very dear colleague Hannah Jane Parkinson has chosen missing the office as her joy of small things column.

As I mentioned earlier, with that shock by-election result, Covid isn’t getting much of a look-in during the UK early morning media round today. The UK’s crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse has just been asked on Sky News about there being any possibility of an earlier release of lockdown restrictions, and he stuck pretty faithfully to the script, saying:

This is a decision obviously for the prime minister and the the court of ministers, and they’re looking at the data as we go. Nobody wants to stay in lockdown any longer than we need to, and I know that they’ll be looking carefully at the numbers over the days and weeks to come to see what can be done.

In another tiny move towards normalising things in Tokyo before hosting the Olympic Games in a month’s time, Reuters are reporting that local authorities are set to allow the ordering and consumption of alcohol between 5pm and 7pm, in a slight relaxing of the rules.

Tokyo will allow “solitary drinkers” to order alcohol between 5pm and 7pm, but retain an 8pm deadline for bars and restaurants to shut, while limiting to 90 minutes the time each customer spends on the premises.

Starbucks slumped to a £41m loss in the UK in the past year as the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on the coffee shop chain.

PA’s City Editor reports their accounts showed revenues in the year to September 2020 fell £243m, down 32.7% due to the heavy restrictions imposed during much of the year.

Starbucks say they continued to pay their staff in full and did not take any furlough money for its non-franchised stores, which account for around 30% of all their sites in the UK.

Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said the city is facing a surge of the Delta variant, and the situation in the city is rapidly deteriorating.

Reuters report he said Friday’s caseload would be more than 9,000, which would be the most recorded in Moscow since the pandemic began. Until the beginning of June, daily new infections had been mostly below 3,000 for months.

The head of the consumer health watchdog in Russia said the number of coronavirus cases attributed to the Delta variant – the one first identified in India – was rising significantly across the country.

Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Helen Sullivan. I’ve got a feeling that the domestic media round in the UK this morning is going to feature a lot of questions about Chesham and Amersham, and not so much about coronavirus. But I’ll be continuing to bring you all the latest coronavirus news from around the world, so do stay tuned.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern received the her first shot of the Pfizer Covid vaccine on Friday, as the country steps up efforts to inoculate its population, Reuters reports.

The Pacific island nation shut its borders and used tough lockdown measures to become one of the few countries to have virtually eliminated Covid in the community, but the government is facing criticism for a slow rollout of vaccines.

“I’m smiling under the mask,” Ardern said as she sat down to receive the shot at a vaccination centre in Auckland, as the media watched on.

The United States is devoting $3.2bn to speed development of antiviral pills to treat Covid-19 and other dangerous viruses that could turn into pandemics.

AP: The new program will invest in “accelerating things that are already in progress” for Covid but also would work to come up with treatments for other viruses, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. He announced the investment Thursday at a White House briefing.

“There are few treatments that exist for many of the viruses that have pandemic potential,” he said, including Ebola, dengue, West Nile and Middle East respiratory syndrome.

But he added, “vaccines clearly remain the centerpiece of our arsenal.
The U.S. has approved one antiviral drug, remdesivir, specifically for Covid, and allowed emergency use of three antibody therapies that help the immune system fight the virus. But all the drugs have to given by IV at hospitals or medical clinics, and demand has been low due to these logistical hurdles.

Health experts have increasingly called for a convenient pill that patients could take themselves when symptoms first appear. Some drugmakers are testing such medications, but initial results aren’t expected for several more months. The new funds will speed those tests and support private sector research, development and manufacturing.

The health service in England will open up Covid vaccinations to everyone aged over 18 on Friday, a big step towards the government’s target of giving every adult who wants a vaccine a first shot in the next month, Reuters reports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday pushed back the full re-opening of England from lockdown until July 19 because of a rise in cases, but also accelerated his vaccination plans, pledging to give every adult a first dose by the same date.

“Offering all adults a jab less than 200 days after the programme launched is one of our country*s greatest collective achievements, saving over 14,000 lives so far,” he said, referring to Public Health England estimates of the impact of the vaccine rollout.

Britain has given a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to more than 42 million people, almost 80% of adults, while well over a half have received both shots.

Health authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each run their own vaccination campaigns. Wales and Northern Ireland have already made vaccines available to any adult, while Scotland is offering them to anyone over 30.

Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are being rolled out across the United Kingdom, although officials have said that people under 40 should be offered an alternative to AstraZeneca’s shot after it was linked to rare blood clots.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is devoting $3.2bn to speed development of antiviral pills to treat Covid-19 and other dangerous viruses that could turn into pandemics.

The new program will invest in “accelerating things that are already in progress” for Covid but also would work to come up with treatments for other viruses, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. He announced the investment Thursday at a White House briefing.

The health service in England will open up Covid vaccinations to everyone aged over 18 on Friday, a big step towards the government’s target of giving every adult who wants a vaccine a first shot in the next month.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• Wales is delaying further easing of coronavirus restrictions for four weeks after seeing a spike in cases of the Delta variant of the disease first identified in India.
• Germany will reopen its borders later this month to non-EU nationals who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, the government announced Thursday.
• AstraZeneca can charge a higher price for its Covid-19 vaccine in dozens of poor countries once the pharmaceutical company decides the pandemic has ended, according to a copy of its contract with Oxford University seen by the Guardian.
• Travel in and out of the Lisbon metropolitan area is to be banned over coming weekends as Portuguese authorities respond to a spike in new Covid-19 cases in the region around the capital, officials announced.
• Nepal significantly reduced coronavirus infections after its worst outbreak, which overwhelmed the country’s medical system, but is in desperate need of vaccines, according to its health minister.
• Denmark will administer Covid-19 vaccines for those aged 12 to 15, broadcaster TV 2 reported, citing sources. Danish health authorities are due to hold a news briefing to about using the vaccines on that age group later today, amid concerns there is limited information about possible side-effects to children who have nothing to gain from such a move.
• Austria announced that revellers will be allowed to hit the dance floor legally again from next month as nightclubs reopen, in line with a broader easing of measures.
• France’s tourism sector is taking a further step toward normality with the reopening of Disneyland Paris, two weeks after the country reopened its borders to vaccinated visitors from across the world.