Delta variant likely to represent 90% of infections in EU by September – as it happened | World news

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The US will ship three million doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-jab Covid-19 vaccine to Brazil on Thursday, the country with the second highest coronavirus death toll in the world, a White House official said.

The shipment – part of Washington’s pledge to donate 80 million vaccines – will depart Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on an Azul Airlines flight, bound for Campinas, a city in southeastern Brazil about 100 km (62.14 miles) from Sao Paulo, Reuters reports.

The European Union’s top diplomat in Washington said the US should safely ease Covid-19 travel restrictions on Europeans, calling it a mistake to prevent European business executives from overseeing their US investments.

Stavros Lambrinidis told a virtual trade event on Wednesday that Brussels was working day and night to resolve the issue and he was hopeful an agreement could be reached “very soon.”

He said the EU had allowed Americans who were working in Europe and had a valid work visa to enter the EU so that trade and investment could continue, but stricter restrictions were in place for European citizens, Reuters reports.

That meant Europeans living in the US visit their families in Europe, but they are not allowed to return, even if they are vaccinated or quarantined.

“That has to end,” he told a Washington International Trade Association event.

The US Food and Drug Administration said it will add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory groups, meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condition after vaccination, found the risk in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines, but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk.
Pfizer, whose vaccine has been authorised for use in Americans as young as 12, previously said it had not observed a higher rate of heart inflammation than would normally be expected in the general population.

Moderna said it is aware of reports of heart inflammation cases following administration of mRNA vaccines. It said it is working with public health and regulatory authorities to assess the issue, Reuters reports.

Tunisia has detected six cases of the Delta variant, the health ministry said on Wednesday, amid a rapid spread of the virus in the North African country.

As cases have mounted and intensive care wards almost filled, Tunisia last week imposed a lockdown in four governates.

Tunisia has recorded 387,000 coronavirus cases and about 14,233 deaths, Reuters reports.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it has begun a study to evaluate the immune responses generated by Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant or postpartum women.

Pregnant women are at higher risk of complications including premature birth, high blood pressure with organ failure risk, need for intensive care and possible death, according to the NIH. Reuters reports.

The NHS has made good progress in tackling coronavirus vaccine hesitancy but there is “still more to do”, according to England’s top GP.

Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS England’s medical director of primary care, said vaccine uptake had increased from 75% to 86% in Asian communities, and from 55% to 68% in black communities.

The senior official, who is a working GP in south-east London, acknowledged that efforts were “not quite tackling all of the hesitancy” as she renewed calls for people to take up the offer of a jab, PA reports.

Portugal on Wednesday reported almost 1,500 new cases, two-thirds of them in the capital region where 2.8 million people live.

Three people died in Portugal of Covid-19 over 24 hours, Reuters reports.

The national 14-day cumulative Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people has risen to 130 — over double what it was three weeks ago.

The pressure on hospitals remains manageable, with 437 virus patients admitted and 100 in intensive care. The Portuguese government has already banned travel into and out of the Lisbon region on weekends, though policing last weekend was patchy.

Experts blame the delta variant for Lisbon’s virus spread, estimating it accounts for more than 70% of cases. The government is widely expected to announce new restrictions for Lisbon after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

To step up the pace of vaccinations, authorities on Wednesday reopened an inoculation center at Lisbon University’s sports stadium that is being operated by the Portuguese armed forces.

Beginning Monday, a walk-in vaccination center will open in the capital’s riverside neighborhood of Alcântara.

A summit to try and boost the vaccine uptake in London is to take place on Friday.

Senior officials, the NHS in London, London mayor Sadiq Khan, clinical experts, community, faith and business leaders will come together at the London Vaccine Summit in an effort to speed up the number of jabs ahead of 19 July when Covid restrictions could be eased.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, who praised the London team for doing “an incredible job”, said those at the summit will seek to “see what has worked and how we can learn from it and scale it”.

He said the focus of the summit will be on how to increase the uptake of vaccines over these “crucial few weeks” ahead of the planned easing of restrictions on July 19.