Covid live: Israel to send 1m vaccines to Palestine in reciprocal deal; England offers jabs to all over-18s | World news

The organisers of the Notting Hill Carnival in London have made the decision to take the event off the streets because of the pandemic.

PA report that in a statement, the board of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd said it had decided this year’s event in London “will not be on the streets due to the ongoing uncertainty and risk Covid-19 poses”.

“This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make,” the statement added.

“Everyone involved in the event desperately wants a return to the road where carnival belongs but safety has to come first and with the latest cautious announcement on the Government’s road map, this is the only way to ensure that.

“In making this decision, we have considered our responsibilities to deliver a safe, spectacular, successful and sustainable carnival.

“The conclusion is that with so much uncertainty, with time short for carnivalists to prepare and the risk of eventual cancellation a real possibility, we must refocus our efforts for 2021.”

The UK has reported 33,630 new cases of the Delta coronavirus variant in the last week, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 75,953, Public Health England said in a data release this morning.

According to the figures, as of 14 June, a total of 806 people have been hospitalised with the Delta variant, an increase of 423 since the previous week. Of these, 527 were unvaccinated, and only 84 of the 806 had received both doses. That implies that 195 people who had received one dose were hospitalised. The data doesn’t appear to show how recently people had received their vaccine.

Dr Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK health security agency said:

Cases are rising rapidly across the country and the Delta variant is now dominant. The increase is primarily in younger age groups, a large proportion of which were unvaccinated but are now being invited to receive the vaccine. It is encouraging to see that hospitalisations and deaths are not rising at the same rate but we will continue to monitor it closely. The vaccination programme and the care that we are all taking to follow the guidance are continuing to save lives.

Israel will give around 1m doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinian Authority, newly-installed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said on Friday.

Reuters report that in a joint statement with the health and defence ministries, Bennett’s office said the Palestinian Authority in exchange had agreed to give Israel a reciprocal number of Pfizer doses from one of its own shipments that is expected to arrive later this year.

As expected, Russia has seen a big jump in case numbers today. Reuters report the official numbers are 17,262 new Covid cases, including a record 9,056 in Moscow. There were 453 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours.

Our UK politics live blog is up and running for the day – but it is going to be almost exclusively swamped with reaction to yesterday’s by-election in Chesham and Amersham, so I’ll be continuing to take in the Covid news from the UK and around the world. But if you do want your politics, then it is over here…

We’d been expecting some expert medical assessment in Japan today on the risks associated with hosting the Olympics. The quotes are extremely strong, and opinion seems very much against hosting the event. Here’s a few samples:

Scientifically, I still believe that cancelling the Games would be optimal to save lives and for the health of the nation. But, the decision is the government’s and organisers’. If the epidemic situation worsens, no spectators and cancelling the Games in the middle (of the event) should be debated – Hiroshi Nishiura, Kyoto University professor.

Even if the optimum mitigation strategy is employed, including, for example, vaccination of every attendee, I think there is still a very significant risk of transmission at the event. And I think that’s concerning, because this is perhaps the first event that I’m aware of where people will be attending in such large numbers from all corners of the world. In terms of potentially mixing variants, and even variances of concern, I think it’s very significant – Paul Griffin, professor at the University of Queensland, Australia

It should be noted that if the Olympics are held with spectators, the risk of infection will not be confined only to the stadium. We need to remember that the increased flow of people is itself a major risk for the spread of infection – Takahiro Kinoshita, public health researcher at Harvard University

I understand that the athletes want an audience so that they can get motivation. But I think this year is probably a special case. To on the safe side, most public health officials would probably say to minimise the risk as much as possible. This shouldn’t be a negative legacy for Japan. Prime minister Suga has said the safety of the people was the priority. If we believe what he said, then he should listen to what the experts have recommended – Kazuaki Jindai, physician and infectious disease researcher recently attached to Kyoto University

Another quick update on the situation in Moscow here. The Russian capital will extend the Covid restrictions imposed this week until 29 June, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Reuters report the measures include bans on public events with more than 1,000 people, shutting cafes and restaurants at night, and closing soccer fan zones set up for Euro 2020.

First minister of Wales Mark Drakeford has also been on Sky News this morning, saying that the Welsh government will not make it compulsory for care staff to have a Covid-19 vaccination

Drakeford told Sky News: “We already have very high levels of take-up of the vaccination amongst care home staff and we’ve done that by persuasion and by conversation and voluntarily.

“Well over 90% of our care home staff have had a first dose and nearly 90% have had a second dose. So we’re pressing ahead to try to make sure we have those remaining staff members offered the vaccine, taking up the vaccine, but if you can do it voluntarily then I think that is a much stronger basis from which to go on persuading people to do the right thing.

PA Media reports he added “Our belief is that actually it would undermine our programme in Wales, which has been the most successful in the United Kingdom. That sense of voluntary participation in the programme is very important to us and has been part of our success.”

First minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has told the BBC this morning that the delay of the further easing of coronavirus restrictions in Wales would allow it to gather data on whether the spread of the Delta variant risked putting “unsustainable pressure” on the health service.

Asked why the decision had been made on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “Because the Delta variant is now in every part of Wales and because it is being transmitted at a community level, we need to pause the changes we had hoped to make in order for us to get better data on whether the number of people falling ill, and we know that number’s going to go up in Wales, does that translate into additional and unsustainable pressure on the health service?”

PA Media reports he added: “Our scientists tell us another couple of weeks will give us that data and in the meantime we will be pressing ahead, vaccinating over half a million more people in these four weeks, building up our defences in that way.”

Asked if he could commit to easing restrictions completely after 15 July, he replied: “I can’t say that because I do not know and nobody else knows what the impact of the Delta variant will be by then.”

Drakeford said people in Wales are “absolutely not in lockdown” and “the vast bulk of freedoms are already restored”.

Some 760,000 South Koreans who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine will be offered Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine as a second shot due to shipment delays by global vaccine sharing scheme Covax, the government has said.

Some 835,000 doses of the AstraZeneca’s vaccine from Covax were scheduled to arrive by the end of June, which South Korea planned to use mainly as a second shot for around 760,000 health and frontline workers who had received their first dose in April.

The shipment is delayed to July or later, while the country had used up available AstraZeneca reserves to meet stronger than expected participation in its vaccination campaign, which helped the country meet its first-half inoculation target ahead of schedule.

Several countries, including Canada and Spain, have already approved such dose-mixing – mainly due to concerns about rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A Spanish study found that giving a dose of the Pfizer shot to people who already received the AstraZeneca vaccine is highly safe and effective, according to preliminary results.

Sangmi Cha reports for Reuters that South Korea said last month it will conduct a clinical trial that mixes Covid-19 doses from AstraZeneca with those from Pfizer and others. It has so far run a trial in 100 health workers to examine the formation of antibody and other immune effects.

South Korea reported 507 new infections yesterday.

Talking of missing the office, the UK government’s plans for people returning to work have been one of the things that has cropped up in the morning media appearances.

PA Media reports that crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse said the government did not have any intention to make it compulsory to return to the office, while there will be a consultation on more flexible working going forward.

“This is a situation for employers and employees to discuss and negotiate themselves,” he told Sky News.

“I know there has been some media about this over the last two or three days, we don’t have any intention to make it compulsory to return to the office.

“Our manifesto at the last election did contain a pledge to consult on more flexible working to allow people to work from home should they wish to, and we will be doing that later on this year.”