Coronavirus live news: China sees new surge of cases; CNN sacks three staff for not having vaccine

As Wales sees its biggest easing of coronavirus measures since the pandemic began, First Minister Mark Drakeford dismissed talk of so-called “Freedom Day”.

Asked if he is concerned people might take the language of Freedom Day and think it is all over, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:

We don’t use that language here in Wales because it’s not all over.

Hundreds of people every day are still falling ill from coronavirus in this third wave and while vaccination has fundamentally altered the relationship between falling ill and hospitalisation, it hasn’t eliminated it.

So while today’s a good day here in Wales, a day for optimism here in Wales, it’s also a day on which we ask Welsh people to go on making those contributions which each one of us can make to keeping each other, and Wales, safe from this awful virus.

Drakeford said the approach to encouraging young people to get their jab in Wales is by telling them they “have a contribution to make”, rather than offering “prizes”.

Asked if he is concerned about resistance to vaccines among young people, he told the Today programme:

We have over 75% of people aged 18 to 29 already having received a first dose of a vaccine, and 55% have been doubly vaccinated already.

So, our appeal to young people is not one that either threatens them by saying you won’t be able to do things or tries to induce them by offering them prizes, but just says to them, ‘you have a contribution to make, you can keep yourself but also other people who matter to you safe’.

That appeal, I think, means that we’ve succeeded in getting our vaccination numbers in that cohort up higher than in other parts of the United Kingdom.

Vietnam’s capital Hanoi will extend coronavirus restrictions until August 22, the state Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Friday, after authorities warned of new clusters of infections detected in the city of more than eight million people.

Hanoi has ordered people to stay at home and halted all non-essential activities in the past two weeks, but a three-fold rise in infections has prompted the city to extend the current curbs that were due to end on Saturday, Reuters reports.

The city reported 21 new cases on Friday and has recorded nearly 1,600 cases since late April, official data showed.

While the numbers are still low, authorities are wary after the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus has helped drive up infections across the country to a total of 189,000 cases.

The health ministry said following Hanoi’s announcement of the extended restrictions:

The risk is still high with the continuous detections of new clusters of infections, many of which have unidentified sources.

Nationwide, about a third of Vietnam’s 63 cities and provinces are under strict coronavirus curbs as the country struggles to get on top of its worst outbreak so far.

Hanoi’s vaccination programme is still at an early stage. Around 1.1m Covid-19 doses have been administered in the city of 8.5 million, but only 74,000 people have been fully vaccinated.

Overall, just 780,000 people have been fully vaccinated in Vietnam, or less than 1% of the country’s 98 million population, according to official data.

A South African study has shown the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine offers over 90% protection against death, the joint lead investigator for the country’s J&J trial, Glenda Gray, said on Friday.

Gray said:

We can report that the single jab J&J vaccine protected between 91% to 96.2% of healthcare workers against death.

This was our primary endpoint and we are able to say this vaccine protected health workers against death.

China was successful in containing the original Covid outbreak in January 2020 thanks to stringent lockdowns and mass testing.

But the growing Delta outbreak that we reported on in the opening post is leading to a growing pushback against China’s aims of eliminating the virus completely. Not unlike the growing restiveness in Australia at seemiongly endless lockdowns.

A leading Chinese virologist, Shi Zhengli, said this week that Chinese people “need to let go of the panic and be prepared to live with the coronavirus for a while”.

Shi, who is also known as “Bat woman” for her extensive work researching the origins of novel coronaviruses, urged people to get vaccinated.

“As the number of infected cases has just become too big, this allowed the novel coronavirus more opportunities to mutate and select. New variants will continue to emerge,” Shi said.

Read the full analysis of whether China can contain the Delta strain here:

Australia’s three most populous states are in lockdown as the Delta variant continues to play havoc across the country thanks to one of the lowest vaccination rates in the developed world.

Victoria entered a snap one-week lockdown on Thursday night after an outbreak of mystery infections. It is the state’s sixth shutdown and comes only 10 days after the end of the last one. Fifteen people were arrested after hundreds turned out to protest against the curbs in Melbourne on Thursday night.

Cases are still rising in New South Wales as it begins its seventh week in lockdown, but Queensland hopes to soon lift restrictions that have been in place since last Saturday.

Here’s my full wrap of the situation:

A new advertising campaign in launching in the UK to warn young people that they will miss out on nightlife and clubbing if they don’t get themselves vaccinated.

The move is an attempt by the government to encourage the roughly 33% of adults under the age of 30 who have still not had their first Covid jab. Some big venues such as the Ministry of Sound have people to get inoculated so they can all “keep dancing together safely”.

Here’s the full story:

South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks as the government contends with outbreaks nationwide and more people fall severely ill, prime minister Kim Boo-kyum said on Friday.

The government tightened restrictions last week across most of the country ahead of the country’s peak summer holiday period.

Seoul and surrounding regions have banned private gatherings of more than two people after 6pm and any gatherings of more than four people are prohibited in the rest of the country.

And as the spreads anew across Asia, Vietnam’s capital Hanoi will extend its coronavirus restrictions for another 15 days until 22 August, the state Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday, following the discovery of new clusters of infections in the city over recent days.

China reported its highest daily Covid-19 count in its current outbreak of the Delta variant, reporting 124 new cases on Thursday, including 80 local transmissions, reports helen Davidson in Taiwan.

It also confirmed 54 asymptomatic infections, which Chinese authorities count separately to symptomatic cases.

Most of Thursday’s cases were in Jiangsu province, where the airport in Nanjing is believed to be at the centre of many of the clusters, after cleaning staff fell ill after working on an international plane.

Authorities have since enacted mass lockdowns and testing drives targeting tens of millions of people, suspended or advised against travel between provinces, and halted passport processing.

On Thursday health authorities said the outbreak was complicated but generall controllable.

He Qinhua, a senior official with the national health commission, told state media outlet Xinhua:

As long as local authorities strictly implement various prevention and control measures, I think the epidemic will be largely under control within two to three incubation periods.

He said the size and spread of the outbreak had put strain on response efforts. Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the commission, said sporadic outbreaks during the Summer holiday period were increasing the risk of the epidemic spreading, and “stringent measures” were needed.

Good morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are and welcome to our rolling coverage of the pandemic.

Here are the main developments overnight:

• China reported 124 new cases of the virus on Friday, the highest number of the current outbreak amid a surge in locally transmitted infections.
• CNN has fired three members of staff in the US for reporting to work without being vaccinated. Company bosses said the staff had violated its zero-tolerance policy for having the jab.
• The UK government has destroyed the public’s trust in travel quarantine rules, a former government adviser has said, after the latest changes to the traffic-light system for overseas travel.
• Young people in the UK will “miss out” on access to nightclubs if they don’t get vaccinated, warns an advertising campaign being launched to boost take-up.
• The UK’s live events sector has finally been promised a Covid cancellation insurance scheme worth £750m after months of lobbying.
• Australians who live abroad will not be able to leave the country if they return home unless they appeal for a special exemption as Canberra tightened its restrictions on pandemic travel.
• New South Wales recorded another record number of cases on Friday – 291 – and more than half of Australia is in lockdown again. There were protests in Melbourne on Thursday night as the state of Victoria headed into another snap lockdown. Queensland could move out of lockdown on Sunday after only 10 new cases of the virus were reported on Friday.
• All businesses in Wales, including nightclubs, will be able to reopen from Saturday and there will be no legal limits on the number of people who can get together as the country moves to Covid alert level 0.
• The US could announce its plan to give out booster vaccines within weeks, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The US has given nearly 350m Covid-19 jabs.
• South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks as the government contends with outbreaks nationwide and more people fall severely ill, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said on Friday.
• The Italian government has said teachers will need proof of immunity from Covid-19 from the start of September, as travellers on public transport will also need the country’s “green pass”.