22:44
A prison officer in the UK behind a widely copied scheme to support women in custody and a nurse at the forefront of developing one of the NHS Nightingale hospitals are among public sector workers recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list.
Ian Noons, 59, a prison officer, receives an MBE for helping marginalised people after becoming aware that many women in custody did not have enough suitable clothing. In partnership with the Katharine House hospice, he set up the first charity shop in a prison in a model that been mirrored across England.
His work also benefited transgender prisoners in the West Midlands through the supply of items of clothing.
Tamsin Harris, 43, a teacher who has worked in Cornwall for 21 years, receives a British Empire media (BEM) after taking up a leadership role at her school last year when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the head and deputy to shield.
22:24
The US administered 306,509,795 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and distributed 373,413,945 doses in the country as of Friday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
Those figures were up from the 305,687,618 vaccine doses the CDC said had been given by June 10 out of 372,830,865 doses delivered, Reuters reports.
The agency said 172,758,350 people had received at least one dose, while 142,095,530 people were fully vaccinated as of Friday.
22:17
France extends Covid curfew for French Open tennis fans
The 5,000 fans attending the French Open semi-final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have been allowed to stay in the stadium despite the nationwide coronavirus curfew starting at 11pm in Paris.
After Djokovic moved ahead 2-1 on sets, a stadium announcement said that following talks with French authorities the fans would be allowed to stay until the end of the match.
The Serb is currently one game away from sealing victory.
Updated
22:02
Hours before Victorians came out of lockdown this week, the acting premier, James Merlino, announced a rule scheduled to end would instead remain in place.
Merlino said on Thursday that masks would still need to be worn outdoors.
Australian health authorities backtracked on the plan to lift the mandatory requirement after four members of the same family tested positive to Covid. It led to health authorities being pressed on why outdoor masks were required when transmission throughout Victoria’s most recent outbreak had occurred indoors – whether in stores, family homes, or workplaces.
Victoria’s Covid-19 testing commander, Jeroen Weimar, confirmed “we have no evidence that we’ve seen yet, in this particular outbreak or the most recent ones we’ve dealt with, of outdoor transmission”.
21:42
Novavax Inc said its Covid-19 vaccine candidate showed immune response and protection against the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant, which was originally identified in South Africa, in three animal and human studies, Reuters reports.
21:33
Nitish Kumar will never forget the day he and his sisters buried their dead mother in the back garden.
Just 32, Priyanka Devi had died from Covid on 3 May. Neighbours and relatives refused to help with her burial, and all the family’s money had gone on hospital fees.
The coronavirus pandemic had hit his family, who live in the small village of Madhulata in the deprived Indian state of Bihar, with a tragic double blow.
It was his father, 40-year-old doctor Birendra Mehta, who had first developed symptoms of Covid-19 in the last week of April. Swiftly after, his mother, 32-year-old Priyanka Devi, also fell sick.
20:42
The head of the European Medicines Agency told AFP all countries must have access to coronavirus vaccines, as G7 leaders were expected to pledge to donate one billion doses to poor nations.
Emer Cooke also said in an interview that while the Amsterdam-based watchdog was confident current vaccines were effective against all different variants, that could “change quickly”.
“This is not within the competence of the EMA so I can only speak from a personal perspective, where I really believe we need to ensure access, availability and access throughout the world, not just in the countries that have the means to pay for them,” Cooke said.
20:31
Young children have relative protection from coronavirus because their bodies produce a strong immune response to it, according to a study.
The University of Bristol and Bristol Royal Hospital for Children conducted research which found that infants produce relatively high levels of antibodies and immune cells which protect against the virus, compared to adults.
Researchers say the findings could help explain why younger children appear to be protected from the severe effects of Covid-19 at a time of their development when they could be more vulnerable, PA reports.
Dr Anu Goenka, clinical lecturer in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at the University of Bristol, said the findings could help design vaccines which mimic the protection in children.
Updated
20:11
Britain’s main doctors’ union has joined calls for the next planned lockdown easing in England to be delayed, as figures Friday showed new Covid-19 cases across the U.K. running at their highest level since late February.
The rise in new infections comes as a result of the spread of the delta variant first identified in India.
Government figures showed that 8,125 new cases were recorded on Friday, the highest figure since February.
The pick-up in cases has led a number of scientists to call on the British government to delay the next planned lockdown easing in England from June 21.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to announce on Monday whether he will sanction the next lockdown easing, which is intended to remove all legal limits on social contact including the reopening of nightclubs for the first time since the pandemic struck in March 2020.
The British Medical Association said a “sensible delay” would help keep a lid on infections as it would allow more people to be vaccinated with first and second doses, particularly younger people who are seeing the highest proportion of infections.
Updated
19:55
The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson gave the Tokyo Olympics a show of public support at a meeting with Japan’s Yoshihide Suga and welcomed efforts to ensure next month’s Games can take place safely.
At a meeting with Suga on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the British seaside resort of Carbis Bay, Johnson agreed to work together on a range of issues from trade and technology to defence and climate, PA reports. “The prime minister expressed his support for the Tokyo Olympics, and welcomed Japanese efforts to ensure the Games can take place safely,” a Downing Street spokesperson said. Tokyo 2020 would be “grateful” if G7 countries could support the Summer Games going ahead as planned, Tokyo 2020 organising committee president Seiko Hashimoto said. “It is Japan’s expectation that the other members of the G7 countries share the idea of Japan,” said Tomoyuki Yoshida, press secretary at Japan’s Foreign Ministry. “It is quite encouraging for us for the G7 countries to support the efforts of Japan on this occasion as well.”
19:44
Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, has expressed Beijing’s serious concern that some people in the US were spreading the “absurd story” about the coronavirus escaping from a Wuhan laboratory, Reuters reports.
Yang, head of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of China’s ruling Communist Party, told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Beijing firmly opposed what he called “abominable actions” over the pandemic, which he said were being used to slander China, Chinese state media said.