Covid-19: Government aims to avoid winter restrictions with booster jabs and teenage vaccinations September 14, 2021 Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said Government intends to avoid a return to Covid-19 restrictions through booster jabs and vaccinations of 12 to 15-year-olds, as he set out an autumn and winter pandemic plan. The Health Secretary said ‘Plan A’ is a series of pharmaceutical interventions, with the objective of avoiding “unsustainable pressure” on the [...]
Johnson: Booster Covid-19 jabs for over 50s ‘going ahead’ September 14, 2021 A third booster jab is to be offered to over 50s in the upcoming months, prime minister Boris Johnson confirmed last night. It is expected that all over 50s will be offered a third Pfizer/BioNTech jab at least six months after their second dose, beginning with those over the age of 70 and the most [...]
Vaccines for teens: Covid jabs for 12 to 15-year-olds given the green light September 13, 2021 Covid-19 vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds has been given the green light by the government’s chief medical officers. A single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is set to be offered to children over the age of 12 through in-school immunisation programmes as soon as next week. Chief medical officer Chris Whitty and his counterparts agreed [...]
It’s working: UK Covid vaccination programme slashes death likelihood September 13, 2021 Only 640 of the more than 51,000 people who died of Covid-19 within the first six months of this year were fully vaccinated, according to the latest figures. The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), for the months between 2 January and 2 July, has found that the UK’s immunisation programme is reducing [...]
Over 300,000 travellers may have breached Covid-19 quarantine rules September 13, 2021 More than 300,000 travellers arriving in England or Northern Ireland may have breached mandatory quarantine rules just before the height of the Delta variant spike. Some 300,000 cases were handed to investigators between March and May this year, according to the BBC, while the government was unable to say how many cases were found to [...]
Scrap travel restrictions for fully vaccinated people, aviation industry begs September 13, 2021 Representatives for the aviation industry have written to Grant Shapps to demand that travel restrictions be scrapped for those who are double vaccinated. In a letter to the Transport Secretary, Airlines UK and the Airport Operators Association (AOA) said that the UK was lagging behind the rest of Europe in terms of the sector’s recovery. [...]
Hotel quarantine: Ex-BBC journalist leaving red-list Turkey released due to PTSD September 10, 2021 A Syrian former BBC journalist, who had been “imprisoned” in Heathrow’s hotel quarantine after leaving red-listed Turkey, has reportedly been allowed out after suffering post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Three days into the mandatory 10 days quarantine, Zaina Erhaim detailed her experience in the airport hotel on Twitter, saying they had been the worst she had [...]
Analysis: Which demographics are still dying of Covid-19 the most? September 10, 2021 The UK’s immunisation programme is well underway, with 80.4 per cent of the population over the age of 16 receiving their second dose as of today, according to official government data. Despite immunisation rates steadily increasing, the number of deaths in the week to 27 August jumped 17.8 per cent to 649 across the country, [...]
PCR test providers need more regulation, says competition watchdog September 10, 2021 The UK’s competition watchdog has warned that greater regulation of the PCR Covid testing market is required amid fears that competition alone “will not deliver the right outcomes for consumers”. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that without such provisions, testing firms could begin to compete on grounds other than quality, leading to a [...]
Biden to announce all federal workers must be vaccinated September 9, 2021 US President Joe Biden is set to require all federal employees and government contractors to be vaccinated against coronavirus. Biden will sign an executive order on Thursday that will require federal workers to receive jabs against Covid-19, a source briefed on the matter told news agency Reuters. The Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans [...]