Coronavirus live news: Vladimir Putin self-isolating; new China outbreak grows | World news

It could take a year for the WHO’s vaccine hub in South Africa to produce a copy of Moderna’s vaccine without the company’s help, a WHO official told Reuters.

The hub was established to boost vaccine production in Africa for low and middle-income countries and help them produce vaccines themselves.

Moderna said it will not enforce its vaccine patents, opening the door for replication, but without information sharing the process will be lengthy.

“The talks [with Moderna] have not yielded any results,” Martin Friede, WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research coodinator, told Reuters.

“We have to make a choice now. The deadline is upon us; time to start ordering chemicals. We’ve chosen Moderna,” he said.

Indonesia will open its borders again to foreigners once it meets its target of having given 70% of the population at least one vaccine dose – a target it hopes to reach by November, the health minister said on Tuesday.

“So for us we concentrate on the first dose. If we can vaccinate 70% of the target population of 208 million, if we can hit 140-150 million, 70% with the first dose, then we can gradually start reopening,” health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told Reuters

Budi said border restrictions would be eased even further once 70% of the target population had received two doses.

No timeline has been set for reopening the popular tourist destination Bali but cabinet minister are keen for that to happen.

Sierra Leone has ended a curfew in place since early July after infections dropped, AFP reports.

In its statement on Monday evening, the government said places of worship would now be open to people wearing masks, which will also be required in schools, public buildings and on public transport.

Bars and restaurants, which have also been closed since July, can allow entry to anyone who can prove vaccination.

Sierra Leone has officially recorded 6,385 cases and 121 deaths. The weekly numbers have been in the single digits in recent weeks, compared with hundreds in June and July.

The Netherlands is expected to announce the rollout of vaccine passports and ease restrictions, effective from late September, Reuters reports.

The pass would be required for cultural events and restaurants. Masks are expected to remain necessary for public transport and schools.

At least 65% of the population have been fully vaccinated.

Malaysia’s health ministry recorded 15,669 new cases on Tuesday, taking it past 2 million cases since the pandemic began.

Malaysia has recently suffered its worst outbreak of infection but the R number has dropped to 0.98. An R number below 1 is considered to be a sign that infections are dropping.

The WHO’s representative in the Philippines has warned that hospitals could be overwhelmed if lockdown in the Manila Capital area is eased before vaccination coverage increases.

Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the government needed to be “very careful” about changes, according to local news site Rappler.

The Philippines has been suffering its worst outbreak of the pandemicwith the government planning to trial localised lockdowns in Manila from Thursday.

“We have significant population coverage within NCR [National Capital Region]. I believe it’s about 60% now. But this is not adequate at this point to relax quarantine positions,” said Abeyasinghe.

England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, said vaccines had saved 112,000 lives in the UK.

“Our latest estimates are that since we began deploying these vaccines, they’ve probably averted in the region of 24 million cases of Covid in the UK and 112,000 deaths – so incredibly successful to date and remains so,” Van-Tam said at a Downing Street briefing.

“We’re not past the pandemic – we’re in an active phase still. We know this winter could quite possibly be bumpy at times.”

Covid boosters will be offered to all over-50s and those at severe risk of the disease as part of the “toolbox” of measures for controlling coronavirus over the autumn and winter following guidance from the government’s vaccine advisers.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said a third dose of vaccine would top up the immunity in those whose protection had likely waned since they completed their first round of shots earlier in the year.

Data from the UK suggests that protection provided by two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines wanes within six months, though it is unclear what impact this has on cases of severe disease.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is healthy, his spokesman said after it was announced he would have to self-isolate because of contact with someone infected, reports Reuters.

“Of course yes. The president is absolutely healthy,” said Dmitry Peskov, when asked.

“Of course we know who fell ill in the president’s entourage and the self-isolation [regime] does not directly affect the president’s work … but it’s just that in-person meetings will not take place for a while. But that does not affect their frequency and the president will continue his activity via video conferences.”

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin is self-isolating after cases of coronavirus were detected iamong close contacts. The Kremlin has said that he will no longer travel to Tajikistan this week as planned for regional security meetings and will instead do them by video conference. He will self-isolate for “a certain period”, the Kremlin said.
• A total of 659 coronavirus deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week ending 3 September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This marked a 1% decrease on the previous week, but the ONS said the figure was affected by the August bank holiday.
• Government scientific adviser Calum Semple has warned that the UK faces a “rough winter” amid a combination of coronavirus, flu and other respiratory conditions making a comeback.
• Russia has reported 17,837 new coronavirus cases and 781 deaths in the last 24 hours.
• Mauritius is battling an explosion of coronavirus cases. Hospitals are overwhelmed, ventilators in short supply and cemeteries are running out of space.
• The UK vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has said he is hopeful that the over-50s booster campaign will be the “last piece of the jigsaw” for ending lockdowns, but that he is concerned about the incoming flu season.
• Children aged 12-15 will be given their first coronavirus vaccines from next week, Zahawi has confirmed.
• A Republican governor in the US, Kim Reynolds, has said she will appeal a temporary order by a federal judge allowing schools in Iowa to make face masks mandatory amid coronavirus. Meanwhile, in Florida, governor Ron DeSantis has threatened to fine cities and counties that force employees to get coronavirus vaccines.
• UK government adviser Prof Anthony Harnden has admitted that varying advice on vaccinating 12-15-year-olds will cause “uncertainty, hesitation and debate” for families.
• The UK vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has said that winter lockdowns will be an “absolutely last resort”. He said the government will instead rely on vaccines to attempt to move Covid-19 from a pandemic to an endemic.
• The number of workers on payrolls in the UK rose by 241,000 between July and August, marking a rebound above pre-pandemic levels, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports.

Handing over to my colleague Kaamil Ahmed now, thanks for reading.

Nigeria is experiencing one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years, with over 2,300 people dying from suspected cases so far, potentially worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreak, which has a higher case fatality rate than the last four years, is being exacerbated by the prioritisation of Covid-19 by state governments, reports the Associated Press.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, at least 69,925 suspected cholera cases were recorded as of 5 September in 25 of Nigeria’s 36 states and in Abuja, the capital.

The country is facing a coronavirus resurgence driven by the Delta variant, while less than 1% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Cholera is endemic and seasonal in Nigeria and the country experiences regular outbreaks of other infectious diseases including yellow fever, Lassa fever and measles.

Outgoing Nigeria CDC director-general, Chikwe Ihekweazu, told AP:

We must remain conscious that these multiple outbreaks can further strain our health system.

But he said experiences of other health crises had helped Nigeria to prepare for coronavirus.

Prior investment in diagnostic capacity, case management, electronic surveillance systems, event-based surveillance, risk communication, logistic management systems and national/subnational workforce development have paid off significantly during Covid-19 pandemic.