Thailand reports record case numbers – as it happened

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• Developing countries will be able to buy Covid-19 vaccines collectively through the Covax facility using a new World Bank financing mechanism.
  
• The number of Covid-19 cases across the US may have been undercounted by as much as 60%, researchers at the University of Washington have found.
  
• California and New York City will mandate government workers to be vaccinated or regularly get tested for the virus.
• Russia has approved clinical trials combining the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines, according to Russia’s state drug register.
  
• Tunisian president Kais Saied has ordered a month-long nighttime curfew, banning the movement of people and vehicles between 7pm to 6am.
  
• Cases fell in the UK fell for the sixth day running, to 24,950 new cases. That’s the lowest number of new cases since 4 July, three weeks ago.
• Tanzania received its first shipment of vaccines through the Covax facility, donated by the US.
• The White House has cited the Delta variant as reason to keep in place a travel ban from the UK and Schengen countries.

Greece has said children between 12-15 could be inoculated against Covid-19 using Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s vaccines.

About 46.8% of Greece’s population is fully vaccinated, and the government is offering cash incentives to young people in a bid to drive take-up rates up to 70% by autumn.

Greece announced 2,070 new Covid19 infections and five deaths on Monday, taking the country’s total number of infections to 477,975 and the death toll to 12,903.

The United States has administered 342,212,051 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Reuters reports that Monday’s figure is up from the 341,818,968 vaccine doses the CDC said had been injected by 25 July.

The agency said 188,729,282 people had received at least one dose, while 163,173,366 people were fully vaccinated as of Monday.

The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech , as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine.

Developing countries will be able to buy Covid-19 vaccines collectively through the Covax facility using a new World Bank financing mechanism.

The mechanism will allow 92 developing territories to buy doses additional to the subsidised shots they receive through Covax, AFP reports.

Covax will use funds from the World Bank and other development banks to make advanced purchases from pharmaceutical companies based on countries’ total demand.

The financing arrangement would mean that up to 430 million additional doses could be delivered between late 2021 and mid-2022 to the 92 territories.

The financing mechanism “will allow Covax to unlock additional doses for low- and middle-income countries” Gavi chief executive Seth Berkley said in a statement.

In the UK, Downing Street and scientists remained cautious about declaring a turning point in the outbreak on Monday night despite a huge drop in Covid case numbers for the sixth day in a row.

No 10 said it was “encouraging” that infections had fallen to their lowest level in three weeks at 24,950 confirmed cases, with Boris Johnson taking the decision to allow more double-vaccinated key workers to avoid isolation with a daily testing programme.

But the prime minister’s official spokesman said he still believed the UK was “not out of the woods yet” and highlighted the fact that the full impact of the 19 July unlocking has not yet been reflected in case numbers.

Employees at a further 1,200 workplaces will have daily testing set up in a bid to deal with the wave of staff shortages hitting key industries in the UK.

The move is an expansion of the government policy announced last week to allow fully vaccinated workers at 800 sites in the food industry and transport sector among others to avoid self-isolation if they test negative.

The requirement to self-isolate following contact with a Covid case will end for all fully vaccinated people on 16 August.

On Monday, the health ministry said it would set up daily testing at a further 1,200 workplaces including military bases and prisons.

26 Jul 202115.52 EDT

US cases may have been undercounted by up to 60%

Jessica Glenza

The number of Covid-19 cases across the US may have been undercounted by as much as 60%, researchers at the University of Washington have found.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, builds on research which has found the number of reported cases “represents only a fraction of the estimated total number of infections”. It has important implications for how many Americans need to be vaccinated to stop outbreaks.

The paper comes as a swath of states across the south and midwest, especially Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana, experience outbreaks driven by Delta variant infections among unvaccinated people.

California and New York City will mandate government workers to be vaccinated or regularly get tested for the virus, officials said on Monday, as they battle to curb a wave of infections caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Reuters reports New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city would require its more than 300,000 employees to get vaccinated by 13 September or otherwise take weekly tests. His announcement came a week after the city passed a vaccine mandate for all healthcare workers at city-run hospitals and clinics.

Soon after, California governor Gavin Newsom said that all state employees, around 246,000 people, would be required to get vaccinated starting in August or else be subjected to Covid-19 testing on a minimum weekly basis.

“We’re at a point now in this pandemic where an individual’s choice to not get vaccinated is impacting the rest of us,” Newsom told a press conference on Monday.

Russia has approved clinical trials combining the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccine, according to Russia’s state drug register.

Reuters reports that five Russian clinics will hold trials that will conclude in early March 2022. Trials mixing the two vaccines have already been given the go-ahead in Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Belarus.

The Russian health ministry’s ethical committee had halted the approval process for the trials in May, requesting further information.

“Has immunity finally got the upper hand, or will the sudden drop in Covid cases prove no more than a brief downturn?” The Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample, analyses the factors driving the UK’s recent downturn in cases:

Tunisian president Kais Saied has ordered a month-long nighttime curfew, banning the movement of people and vehicles between 7pm to 6am.

Urgent health cases and night workers are exempt from the curfew, wihich is due to last until 27 August, the presidency said in a statement posted on Facebook.

The presidential order also prohibits people from travelling between cities, except for essential or urgent health reasons. It also banned the gathering of more than three people on public roads or in public squares.

Hello, I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be updating the blog for the next few hours. Feel free to send me a DM on Twitter if you spot a development I’ve not included. Thanks in advance.

I’m signing off for the day so here’s a summary of today’s coronavirus news.

• The US has decided to keep in place travel restrictions on the UK and Schengen area put in place under Trump, citing the delta variant as a cause for concern.
• Cases fell in the UK fell for the sixth day running, to 24,950 new cases. That’s the lowest number of new cases since 4 July, three weeks ago.
• Tanzania received its first shipment of vaccines through the Covax facility, donated by the US. The planned vaccine rollout marks a massive turnaround after late President John Magafuli had denied the coronavirus was a threat and refused to accept vaccines.
  
• Indonesia is expecting to receive 45m more doses of Covid-19 vaccines in August, health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a virtual news conference on Monday. The country also plans to relax some of its restrictions after going through a harsh outbreak of cases but there are concerns about the potential impacts. Some experts believe social and economic concerns are driving the changes more the scientific advice.
• For the second day running Thailand reported a record-breaking number of coronavirus cases, hitting 15,376 cases and 87 new deaths.
• Singapore plans to vaccinate 80% of its population by September in the hope it can begin to open borders and establish travel corridors with other countries with widespread vaccination.
• South African pharmaceutical company Aspen said it is releasing its first batch of vaccines manufactured in Africa. The doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be distributed within South Africa and also made available to the African Union’s vaccination initiative.
• Heathrow airport has urged the UK government to reopen travel to fully vaccinated flyers from the EU and US after announcing cumulative losses from the Covid-19 pandemic have hit £2.9bn.
• More than 10 million residents of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam will be placed under a strict overnight curfew beginning on Monday, an unprecedented move to curb infections as Vietnam battles a rapid Covid-19 surge.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said concerns about the delta variant are the cause for the US maintaining travel restrictions.

In response to a reporter’s question about the reasoning behind the move, considering the delta variant is already spreading in the US, Psaki said: “That doesn’t mean that having more people who have the delta variant is the right step.”

Psaki said infection numbers are going in the wrong direction but said it was positive that while there were hospitalisations among the unvaccinated, major illness was mostly being avoided in people who were vaccinations.

Psaki also said they saw good signs of increasing people being willing to encourage vaccination, including those who had changed their views after falling ill.

“We don’t want that to be the breaking point for anyone but we are seeing that across the country,” said Psaki, referring to a hospitalised radio host who planned to now advocate for the vaccine.

26 Jul 202113.01 EDT

Sarah Marsh

For some people, the moment the ambulance arrives is the time they start expressing regrets about not receiving a coronavirus vaccine. For others, it’s the death of a loved one.

Healthcare workers and Covid patients have spoken out about growing numbers who, once faced with the serious reality of catching the virus, realise that they made a huge mistake.

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, a senior intensive care registrar, said she had only come across one patient in critical care who had received both vaccination doses, and that the “vast majority” of people she was seeing were “completely unvaccinated”.

According to official statistics, about 60% of people being admitted to hospital with Covid are unvaccinated.

Batt-Rawden said it was difficult to witness the look of regret on patient’s faces when they became very unwell and needed to go on a ventilator. “You can see it dawn on them that they potentially made the biggest mistake of their lives [in not getting the vaccine], which is really hard,” she said, adding that she had overheard people telling family members about their remorse.