Lebanon imposed a partial lockdown for two weeks starting today in an effort to counter Covid-19 infections which have spiralled since the catastrophic explosion at Beirut port.

The spread of Covid-19 is compounding the woes of a country still reeling from the 4 August blast that killed at least 179 people and wounded some 6,000, and a financial meltdown that has devastated the economy since October.

Lebanon recorded its highest 24-hour tally of new infections on Thursday, with 613 new cases. The infections have spread in the aftermath of the blast as hospitals were flooded with the casualties, medics say.

“We’ve gone back to square one,” said the caretaker government’s health minister on Friday, adding however that the government was better prepared than at the start of the pandemic.

“Before the explosion, the total cases were 5,000-6,000, now we are approaching 10,000 and above,” Iman Shankiti, the World Health Organisation representative in Lebanon, told Voice of Lebanon radio. “In the last two weeks, the total is equal to everything from February to the day of the explosion.”

The patients were aged between 41 and 96, and all had known underlying health conditions.

Another three deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

Local leaders will be asked to help recommend appropriate geography for lockdown restrictions in areas impacted by a rise in coronavirus cases.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said local authorities in regions subject to national intervention would be asked to agree which areas should be included under any new measures.

It comes after restrictions were imposed on Leicester in June and across Greater Manchester last month.

On Friday, Oldham was exempted from a local lockdown after a review, but will be subject to additional restrictions.

The DHSC has said the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) will provide data to inform decision-making on where measures should be brought in.

A final decision on where local restrictions are imposed will be taken by Health Secretary Matt Hancock and chief medical officer Chris Whitty.

AstraZeneca has received regulatory approval to conduct part of a Phase III trial of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, in Russia, a filing in the Russian registry of clinical trials showed on Friday.

The trial will involve 150 participants and will be handled by four medical facilities in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the registry filing, dated Friday, showed. 

Evictions ban extended in England and Wales
 

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has confirmed the evictions ban in England and Wales will be extended for four weeks and announced that a six-month notice period will be introduced until the end of March.
 

His department said the government plans to give tenants greater protection from eviction this winter by requiring landlords to provide tenants with six months’ notice.
 

An announcement said it would apply to all cases other than those raising serious issues such as antisocial behaviour and domestic abuse perpetrators until at least 31 March.
 

“I am also increasing protections for renters – six-month notice periods must be given to tenants, supporting renters over winter.
 

“However, it is right that the most egregious cases, for example those involving anti-social behaviour or domestic abuse perpetrators, begin to be heard in court again; and so when courts reopen, landlords will once again be able to progress these priority cases.”

The mayor of the West Midlands believes “some people have not been strict enough” with coronavirus measures, after Birmingham was added to a watch list as an “area of enhanced support”.

There have been reports that the UK’s second city could be placed into a local lockdown amid rising numbers of cases in the area.

In the seven days to August 17, 332 positive Covid-19 cases were recorded in Birmingham, a rate of 29.1 per 100,000 people, up from 292 cases the week before.
Conservative mayor of the region, Andy Street, said the city is in”an extremely challenging situation”.

In a statement posted on Twitter he added: “People across the region have made an enormous sacrifice since the start of lockdown to keep the virus at bay, but the virus is now returning and recent efforts to counter that have been insufficient.

“It is evident that some people have not been strict enough when it comes to keeping up the basics of social distancing, hand washing and wearing a face covering, nor following the guidelines on avoiding mass gatherings.

“This has to change immediately and I would ask every single citizen, both across Birmingham and the West Midlands, to redouble their efforts.”

The total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic remains at 1,589.

Public Health Wales said the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country had increased by 34, bringing the revised confirmed cases to 17,673.
 

Another 20 people in Northern Ireland have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Department of Health, bringing the total in the region to 6,576.
 

No further deaths with Covid-19 have been reported leaving the tally in the region, according to the department, at 559.

Ensuring people who are in regular contact with high-risk individuals are not infected with coronavirus could be a way of controlling outbreaks, research suggests.

Hospital staff and care home staff are routinely screened in order to protect patients and residents, but a broader protection strategy would extend the same logic to everyone who is considered to be at high risk.

The suggestions are made in a paper presented to the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Experts Mark Woolhouse, Bram van Bunnik and Aziz Sheikh, from the University of Edinburgh, say there is evidence that by partially decoupling hospital admissions or deaths from community spread, large-scale segmentation and protection could allow lighter interventions in the general population.

This would also still limit the public health burden of Covid-19, they write.

The strategy could allow for more targeted interventions to protect at-risk groups rather than further generalised lockdowns, they said.

Covid-19 fines 12 times more likely to be issued to those in most deprived areas

People living in the most deprived areas of Scotland are 12 times more likely to receive Covid-19-related fines than those in the least deprived, according to research.
 

A University of Edinburgh study found people living in the poorest areas of Scotland are more likely to receive fixed penalty notices (FPN) for breaking lockdown regulations.
 

Almost one third of all FPNs were issued to people living in the 10 per cent most deprived communities.
 

Professor Susan McVie, from the University of Edinburgh, found that 4,328 notices were issued in total between 27 March and 31 May.
 

Police Scotland were given emergency powers to help deal with the pandemic, which includes the ability to break up house parties, as well as using “reasonable force” to return people home.
 

Professor McVie said: “The disparity in the likelihood of receiving an FPN for breaching the coronavirus regulations among those in the most and the least deprived communities of Scotland is startling.”

Ministers are set to announce a four-week extension to the evictions ban in England and Wales following warnings that hundreds of thousands of renters could lose their homes.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the “11th hour U-turn” but warned the evictions ban should be extended until a “credible plan” is in place to prevent anyone losing their home because of the pandemic.

“This 11th hour U-turn was necessary, but such a brief extension means there is a real risk that this will simply give renters a few more weeks to pack their bags,” Sir Keir said.

“Boris Johnson has been warned for months about the looming evictions crisis, but stuck his head in the sand.

“People living in rented accommodation should not be paying the price for this Government’s incompetence.

“Section 21 evictions must be scrapped and renters must be given proper support. The ban should not be lifted until the Government has a credible plan to ensure that no-one loses their home as a result of coronavirus.”

There is a risk the overall coronavirus epidemic in the UK is growing as figures for the reproduction number (R value) suggest it has risen above 1.0.

Data released on Friday by the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) shows the estimate for R across the UK is now between 0.9 and 1.1.

This is an increase from the range of between 0.8 and 1.0 one week ago.

The growth rate of coronavirus transmission, which reflects how quickly the number of infections is changing day by day, has also changed slightly across the UK since last week, with early indications the value may be increasing.

The latest growth rate for the whole of the UK is between minus 3 per cent to plus 1 per cent, a slight change from between minus 4 per cent to minus 1 per cent last week.

The growth rate means the number of new infections is somewhere between shrinking by 3 per cent and growing by 1 per cent every day.

The most likely value is towards the middle of the range, experts say.

Scotland has recorded its second highest number of coronavirus cases since May, Nicola Sturgeon revealed, as she gave an update on several clusters of the virus.

Speaking during the Scottish government’s daily briefing, she said 71 positive tests had been recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 19,605.

This is the second highest daily total of new cases since May 23, after the 77 recorded yesterday.

A total of 10 of these new cases are in the Grampian health board area, 16 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, four in Lanarkshire and 31 in Tayside.

She said 68 cases have been identified in a cluster in Coupar Angus linked to the 2 Sisters poultry factory – 59 employees of the plant and nine of their contacts.

Two of the contacts also have a link to two other factories in the Tayside area.

Families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 while they were working on the front line could be stripped of their social security payments, it has been claimed.

Under the NHS and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance Scheme, a £60,000 lump sum given to relatives of workers who die after contracting coronavirus is being treated as capital in means-tested benefits.

This means that, under current rules, a family entitled to Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or Pension Credit would lose their entitlement.

Labour has warned ministers that families are having to choose between losing access to benefits or receiving a compensation payment.

The party has called for such payments to be disregarded in the same way as other schemes such as the Windrush Compensation Scheme, or for those who hold a Victoria or George Cross.

It has also previously requested that the £16,000 upper capital limit is removed during the pandemic, with a rise in Universal Credit claims.

A Northampton factory which makes M&S sandwiches has temporary closed after 300 workers tested positive for Covid-19.

The outbreak at Greencore Factory has been responsible for the area’s steep increase in cases, with the local incidence rate hitting 125.1 per 100,000 people during the week ending 13 August.

The factory will close voluntarily today, and employees and and their direct households will be forced to self-isolate for two weeks. 

Those found to be in breach of the new restrictions, which are set to be legally enforced, will be subject to a fine. 

Northampton has been placed on the government watchlist as an ‘area of intervention’ following the localised outbreak.

Addressing the new restrictions set to come in place across Oldham, Blackburn and parts of Pendle, health secretary Matt Hancock said: “The only way we can keep on top of this deadly virus is through decisive action led by the people who know their areas best, wherever possible through consensus with a local area.

“Working with local leaders we agreed further action in Oldham, Pendle and Blackburn.

“Our approach is to make the action we take as targeted as possible, with the maximum possible local consensus.”

While preventing businesses from closing, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the measures mean social activities indoors and outdoors can only be shared by people who live in the same home.

The DHSC also said measures will be relaxed in Wigan, Rossendale and Darwen, while Birmingham is added to a watch list as an “area of enhanced support” and Northampton becomes an “area of intervention”.

Oldham and Blackburn have avoided full lockdowns but both towns will impose new coronavirus restrictions following a recent spike in coronavirus cases, authorities have announced.

Different households will no longer be able to meet with each other in the two areas.

Sean Fielding, the leader of Oldham council, tweeted: “We have reached agreement with the Government that Oldham will not go into full local economic lockdown.

“Some additional restrictions will be introduced, however.”

Residents in the two towns will also be told to avoid using public transport except for essential travel, while the number of people allowed to attend weddings and funerals is to be reduced.

The new restrictions come into place on Saturday.

A total of 187 new cases were recorded in Oldham in the seven days to August 17 – the equivalent of 78.9 per 100,000 people – according Public Health England. There were 101 new cases recorded during the same week in Blackburn with Darwen, where the rate has fallen from 81.5 to 67.5.

Doctors strike in Nairobi
 

Doctors in most public hospitals in Kenya’s capital went on strike on Friday to protest against delayed salaries and a lack of protective equipment when handling patients who may have Covid-19.
 

The strike began at midnight on Friday, said Thuranira Kaugiria, secretary general for the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union.
 

He said 320 doctors employed by the Nairobi County government were taking part in the strike because they had inadequate health insurance, poor quality protective gear and not enough isolation wards to treat Covid-19 patients. 

Researchers in Singapore have discovered a new variant of the Covid-19 coronavirus that causes milder infections, a study published in The Lancet medical journal found.

The study showed that Covid-19 patients infected with the variant of SARS-CoV-2 had better clinical outcomes, with a lower proportion developing low blood oxygen or requiring intensive care.

The study also showed the variant elicited a more robust immune response.

The variant, which likely came from Wuhan, China, was detected in a cluster of infections from January to March 2020.

An expert told Reuters this week that mutations in viruses may be “a good thing”.

Holidaymakers returning to face quarantine in the UK could be coming home to towns or cities with higher coronavirus rates than the sun-soaked places they have left.

The government’s threshold for considering quarantine measures is when a country records a seven-day rate of more than 20 cases per 100,000 people.

But a number of local authority areas in England have much higher rates than that.
The latest figures on Thursday showed that Oldham in Greater Manchester, which is already subject to restrictive measures on households being able to meet, had a rate of 78.9 per 100,000 people.

Northampton is almost level on 78.4, while Blackburn with Darwen is third, where the rate has fallen from 81.5 to 67.5.

In Leicester, which was subject to the UK’s first local lockdown, the rate continues to fall, but was still at 52.5.

Meanwhile, according to the Croatian government, the rate of confirmed cases in Dubrovnik was 16.5 per 100,000 – well below the country’s overall rate as indicated by the UK’s Department for Transport this week of 27.4 per 100,000.

In the seven days to August 17, the rate of confirmed cases in Zagreb was 37.9 per 100,000.