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Northern Ireland: deputy first minister was ‘floored’ by Covid
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Over 4.6 million people have died of Covid globally
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England: 100,000 children off school with Covid or suspected Covid in one day last week
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07:03
Johnson and Johnson booster shot gives ‘94% protection’
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06:34
Senior GP defends remote appointments, warning ‘pandemic isn’t over’
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Health service in Northern Ireland is about to ‘topple over’ without immediate action, says Stormont
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Covid-19 third leading cause of death in England in August
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The British Medical Association has written to the Health Secretary urging him to step in and tackle “the wave of growing abuse” against GPs.
Last Friday four members of staff suffered injuries at the Florence House Medical Practice in Openshaw, Manchester, on Friday afternoon.
Two of the victims were taken to hospital with head injuries and a 59-year-old man was arrested and charged with assault.
In the letter to Sajid Javid, BMA council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said there needed to be a change in legislation to increase the maximum prison sentence for assault against emergency workers from 12 months to two years.
The letter also said the Government must publicly support the profession by condemning “the onslaught of abuse and media scapegoating of GPs and their staff”.
GPs have also come under fire in the media over the number of remote consultations now offered to patients.
Calling for a meeting with the Government, Dr Nagpaul said GPs had worked tirelessly over the course of the pandemic, as had general practice staff.
He said the narrative that practices are not offering face-to-face appointments is “as dangerous as it is inaccurate”.
Dr Nagpaul added: “The reality, as you must know, is that with the constraints of the size of GP practice premises, there are limits on how many people can safely be present in a waiting room while adhering to appropriate infection control measures.
“GP practices, in the same way as hospitals, are using telephone, video and online consultations to assess patients (in accordance with NHS England guidance) and provide them with physical face-to-face consultations when this is needed. It is soul-destroying for GPs and their staff to hear the narrative that they are ‘closed’.”
He said the truth was that “GPs are seeing more patients than ever” and “working longer hours than ever”.
NHS GP appointments data shows there were nearly one million more appointments in July 2021 than pre-pandemic levels (July 2019), he added.
Updated
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Northern Ireland: deputy first minister was ‘floored’ by Covid
Rory Carroll
Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland‘s deputy first minister, has disclosed suffering a severe bout of Covid-19 that was probably her “worst experience” of illness.
The Sinn Fein politician credited her full vaccination with facilitating recovery and urged all eligible people to get jabbed. “Given that I felt so bad, I can only imagine what it would have been like if you didn’t have the vaccination,” she told the BBC.
O’Neill, 44, who announced on 31 August she had contracted the virus, said it “scared” and “absolutely floored” her. She contemplated hospitalisation and wondered what she should tell her children given how “tragic” the disease can be, she said.
Northern Ireland’s vaccination rate lags the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
On Tuesday O’Neill warned Northern Ireland’s health service was “about to topple over” because of pressures on staff. “They’re begging for our support. They are physically and mentally exhausted,” she said during a visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast with the first minister, Paul Givan.
Givan, of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said the Stormont executive would take a “measured approach” when it meets on Thursday to discuss Covid-19 plans.
Updated
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08:02
Covid delays add to failure to hit Cancer treatment targets
The NHS in England has missed its target to diagnose and treat 85% of cancer patients within two months of urgent referral for almost six years running, according to a new analysis.
Cancer Research UK used NHS data to calculate that almost 55,000 cancer patients should have been diagnosed more quickly or started their treatment sooner over that time frame.
The NHS target states that 85% of patients should start a first treatment for cancer within two months of an urgent GP referral.
Cancer Research UK said this target is being missed, and the figures are getting worse. Data shows the target has not been met since 2015.
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “While NHS staff have been doing their utmost, the impact of Covid-19 and years of workforce shortages and insufficient infrastructure have meant that cancer targets continue to be missed.
“Cancer won’t wait and the time for the Government to fix these chronic issues is now.
Professor Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said:
“For people with cancer, every day counts; that is why we have cancer targets.
“I’ve been working in the NHS for a long time and it’s hard to watch the continuous deterioration, and the anxiety and worsening outcomes this can cause patients.
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07:50
Over 4.6 million people have died of Covid globally
New figures compiled by press agency AFP show the enormous scale of the impact Covid 19 has had since it was detected in China in late 2019.
The virus has killed at least 4,696,559 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources released this morning. At least 229,008,620 cases of coronavirus have been registered with the vast majority of those infected recovering from the virus.
The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country. The World Health Organisation estimates that the pandemic’s wider impact could be linked to a death rate three times higher due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.
The United States is the worst-affected country in terms of absolute numbers with 676,092 deaths from 42,290,027 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 604 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina with 314, Hungary with 312, the Republic of North Macedonia with 311, Montenegro with 296, and Bulgaria with 288.
Updated
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07:36
England: 100,000 children off school with Covid or suspected Covid in one day last week
Richard Adams
The reopening of schools in England has sparked a huge surge in Covid cases among students and pupils in England, with official figures showing that more than 100,000 children were absent with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections last week.
The figures from the Department for Education revealed that fewer than 92% of pupils were present in classrooms on 16 September, with 59,000 absent with confirmed cases of Covid-19 and a further 45,000 off with suspected cases.
Another 2,000 children missed school “due to attendance restrictions being in place to manage an outbreak,” according to the DfE.
The total of 103,000 with confirmed or suspected cases is higher than the number seen at the end of the last school year. In mid-July the DfE said just 82,000 children were absent with confirmed or suspected cases.
The statistics are the first official indications of the spread of the virus within schools and colleges since the start of the new school year at the start of September, when the use of preventive measures such as mask wearing, social distancing and the use of small group “bubbles” was abandoned by the DfE.
In July more than a million children were absent overall, but that included more than 930,000 children self-isolating because of classroom contacts. This year the DfE has said that children who are close contacts of confirmed or suspected cases do not need to self-isolate unless they display symptoms.
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is clear from the fact that over 100,000 pupils were absent from school last week with a confirmed or suspected case of coronavirus that educational disruption remains significant. We are hearing of schools where significant numbers of pupils are absent.
“We are hopeful that the vaccination programme for 12 to 15-year-olds will help to reduce this level of disruption. However, the government must also take more action to support schools and colleges.
“It should launch a public information campaign to encourage twice-weekly home-testing among pupils in the appropriate age groups, provide funding for high-quality ventilation systems in schools and colleges, and commit to providing more support if on-site testing is directed under the contingency framework.”
Barton also urged the government to publish its plans for 2022’s A-level and GCSE exams, saying it was “extremely frustrating” that guidance has still not been issued.
Nadhim Zahawi, the new education secretary, said it was “fantastic” to see more than 91% of children back in the classroom, compare with 87% this time last year. “That’s down to the hard work of teachers, support staff as well as families whose efforts have been heroic in making sure children can get back to school safely.
“The rollout of the vaccine to those aged 12-15, which started this week, is another significant step in building the walls of protection from the virus across society,” Zahawi said.
Updated
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07:15
The Indian government has asked Britain to end what they say is a discriminatory approach to vaccines made in India
India’s Covidshield vaccine is developed by AstraZeneca and manufactured in India but it is not recognized for travel purposes under new Uk rules. Because of this, India’s visiting the UK will have to quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated.
Britons vaccinated in the United Kingdom with the same Indian-made doses are not required to quarantine.
Indian government sources saying it was likely to take reciprocal steps if the issue is not quickly resolved.
“Urged early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest,” Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a tweet after a meeting with his British counterpart Liz Truss in New York, where both are attending the United Nations General Assembly.
The British High Commission (embassy) in New Delhi said the United Kingdom was working with India to resolve the issue.
“We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India,” a spokesperson said.
The rules, that mandate 10 days of self-isolation for travellers arriving from India, also apply to many other countries using Covishield, including most African ones.
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07:03
Johnson and Johnson booster shot gives ‘94% protection’
New data from J&J shows that although a single jab is effective, a second jab given about two months later increases effectiveness to 94% against moderate to severe disease. This is higher than the 70% protection given by a single dose.
President Joe Biden is pushing for booster shots in the face of surging hospitalisations caused by the Delta variant and J&J, the only drug-maker with a single-shot Covid-19 vaccine approved in the US, has been under pressure to produce evidence on the effectiveness of an additional dose.
Updated
at 7.12am EDT
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06:34
Senior GP defends remote appointments, warning ‘pandemic isn’t over’
The head of the Royal College of GPs has been talking to the Health and Social Care Committee about remote consultations – defending doctors against recent criticism.
Prof Martin Marshall said that some patients preferred appointments over the phone or via video, while others wanted to be seen face-to-face, but could not be due to Covid.
He said about 80% of general practice appointments were conducted face-to-face prior to the pandemic, dropping to 10% in the first wave and now sitting at about 56%.
“What we’ve learned from the pandemic is we can do more in general practice remotely than we thought we could, and that’s a positive bit of learning,” he said.
“There’s a lot of stuff that can be done without having to examine someone or be in the same room. Having said that, face-to face-contact is a really important part of dealing with, particularly, more complex problems.”
Asked if patients had a right to see a GP in person, Prof Marshall said: “People are saying that the patient should have a right. There’s no point in having a right if it’s undeliverable and it is essentially undeliverable at the moment, because of the workload pressures.”
He said GP workload had gone up over the pandemic “and indeed over the last decade”.
And he added: “The second thing is, really importantly, the pandemic isn’t over. We’d like to think it is – it isn’t over, it might be over for pubs and nightclubs, it’s not over for health services.
“It’s really important that if you run a health service, whether it be in general practice or in hospitals, that you protect vulnerable patients.
“The prevalence (is) around one in 70 and 80 patients in this country have got Covid, so the idea of having somebody who is fit and healthy but shedding the virus sitting next to someone who’s vulnerable in a waiting room is just not something that’s acceptable.”
GPs have come under fire in the media for not offering enough face-to-face appointments, with health secretary Sajid Javid saying the government would urge them to do so.
On Tuesday, Dr Richard Vautrey, from the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said the “anti-GP rhetoric in the media risks fuelling a climate of spiralling abuse”.
Updated
at 6.38am EDT
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06:18
A year of working from home for millions in the UK led to a “sharp reduction” in personal travel that drove household greenhouse gas emissions down by 15m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year.
The drop is equal to about 3% of total UK emissions in 2019.
Even the increase in people turning the heating on at home – working at the kitchen table or furloughed – was more than offset by the drop in travel emissions the Office for National Statistics found.
CO2 equivalent is a way of measuring the global warming potential of various greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide as well as carbon dioxide.
With reduced industrial emissions, households have been the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the UK since 2015. Both the energy and manufacturing sectors have reduced emissions significantly over the last decade, while household emissions have remained relatively high. This has increased interest in reducing household emissions to help cut overall emissions to “net zero” by 2050.
Net zero would mean that total UK emissions would be equal to or less than those removed from the environment, achieved by a combination of reduction and removal of emissions.
Updated
at 7.14am EDT
6.01am EDT
06:01
Here’s a summary of the latest developments
Coronavirus was the third leading cause of death in England in August, the Office for National Statistics has said. It marks a big jump from July, when it was the ninth leading cause of death, and is the highest ranking for Covid-19 since March, when it was also the third leading cause.
A total of 857 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week ending 10 September, reports the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It marked a 30% increase on the week before.
Public sector net borrowing in the UK, excluding public sector banks, hit GBP20.5bn last month, reports the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It marked the second-highest August borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, but GBP5.5bn less than last August.
America’s top infectious diseases expert has said it is still “needs to be worked out” whether the US will accept UK and EU travellers with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the final decision over AstraZeneca lies with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but that he doesn’t believe there is any “reason to believe that people who have received the AZ vaccine should feel that there’s going to be any problem with them”.
World leaders are to meet at the United Nations today for the first time in two years to discuss issues including the still raging coronavirus pandemic. More than 100 leaders are due to attend the summit in New York, with other issues on the agenda are expected to include global heating, US-China tensions and the future of Afghanistan.
That’s it from me for today. Handing over now to my colleague Harriet. Thanks for reading!
Updated
at 7.16am EDT
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05:54
Health service in Northern Ireland is about to ‘topple over’ without immediate action, says Stormont
The Stormont deputy first minister has warned that Northern Ireland‘s health service is “about to topple over” amid the pandemic unless immediate action is taken.
After visiting the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Michelle O’Neill said staff were “begging” for help and that staff are “physically and mentally exhausted”.
She said:
It’s very clear that the health service is about to topple over if we do not take immediate action to support the health service staff, the service itself, but also to stop the spread of the virus.
She also said:
What we heard repeatedly today is that the staff here are exhausted, they are physically and mentally exhausted, they’re extremely anxious for the winter months ahead and what that will bring…
They’re burned out is the best way probably to put it, they’re seeing increased staff absences, for obvious reasons because they’ve had to make such difficult decisions.
They’re constantly facing not just the physical exhaustion but also dealing with families at very difficult times. They’ve had to go over and above and beyond, and we can’t take any of that for granted, they’re begging for our support in the time ahead because they know they’re facing into a very difficult winter.
With normal winter pressures, with the capacity in the health service being where it is at this point in time, I think they’re just so fearful for what’s ahead.
So, they are asking for the executive’s support and I’ve given assurance today that I will reflect all the views that were expressed here today to the executive meeting as we plan for the winter months ahead.
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