Coronavirus latest news: First preventative treatment made of artificial antibodies gets MHRA approval

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits MHRA Labs - Andrew Parsons/No10 Downing Street
Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits MHRA Labs – Andrew Parsons/No10 Downing Street
  • Booster jabs for all over-50s could be shelved

  • Top university is first in UK to ban unvaccinated students

  • Only eight ‘cowboy’ travel test firms taken off list since review began

  • Fraser Nelson: Can ministers fight off another schools crisis?

  • Matthew Lesh: Ardern is trapped in her arrogant Zero Covid policy

The medicines regulator has approved use of the first treatment in the UK using man-made antibodies to prevent and fight coronavirus.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said approval of the first drug designed specifically for Covid-19 in the country is “fantastic news” and he hoped it could be rolled out for patients on the NHS “as soon as possible”.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the clinical trial data they had assessed has shown Ronapreve may be used to prevent infection, treat symptoms of acute Covid-19 infection and can reduce the likelihood of being admitted to hospital due to the virus.

Trials took place before widespread vaccination and before the emergence of virus variants.

The drug, previously known as REGN-Cov2, was given to former US president Donald Trump when he was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 last year.

It is the first monoclonal antibody combination product approved for use in the prevention and treatment of acute infection from the virus for the UK.

Monoclonal antibodies are man-made proteins that act like natural human antibodies in the immune system.

​​Follow the latest updates below.

11:05 AM

Hong Kong quarantine exemption for Nicole Kidman draws flak

Hong Kong’s granting of a quarantine exemption to Hollywood star Nicole Kidman is drawing criticism from lawmakers as the city tightens entry restrictions for international travelers to control the coronavirus.

The decision by Hong Kong, which maintains some of the strictest quarantine measures in the world, to grant Hollywood star Nicole Kidman a quarantine exemption as she films an Amazon-funded series about the lives of wealthy expats has sparked public anger - VALERIE MACON/AFP
The decision by Hong Kong, which maintains some of the strictest quarantine measures in the world, to grant Hollywood star Nicole Kidman a quarantine exemption as she films an Amazon-funded series about the lives of wealthy expats has sparked public anger – VALERIE MACON/AFP

Kidman, who reportedly flew to Hong Kong last week from coronavirus-hit Sydney, was exempted from a weeklong quarantine and was spotted in the city this week filming a new Amazon Prime Video series titled Expats, according to local media reports.

The government said in a statement Thursday that it had granted the exemption “for the purpose of performing designated professional work.”

It said the work was “conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong’s economy.”

10:49 AM

Rich are more vaccine hesitant, says study

A study from Spain has revealed that income could be the most significant factor behind vaccine hesitancy, with wealthier people showing higher levels of scepticism towards being inoculated against Covid-19, reports James Badock in Madrid.

Published by Spain’s Health Ministry, the study said that “neither gender nor age were significant in the intention to get vaccinated, but the income level was”.

The 600 participants in the study were divided equally between wealth brackets above and below monthly income of 2,500 euros, with the researchers noting that “there was a greater propensity to reject the vaccine at the highest income levels”.

The study was carried out by researchers from three Spanish universities and one Portuguese university in September 2000, and focused questioning on people’s attitudes towards the possibility of being offered the AstraZeneca vaccine, which, the researchers explained, was the most obvious candidate for eventual use in Spain at that time.

10:40 AM

Majority of under-50s in hospital not jabbed

Almost two thirds of people under 50 who died in England with the Delta variant were not vaccinated against the virus, the latest figures show.

New data from Public Health England (PHE) also shows that 74% of this age group in hospital with the variant had not had a jab.

The statistics come amid a continued push to get as many people vaccinated against Covid-19 as possible, with 16 and 17-year-olds getting letters and text reminders this week inviting them for a jab.

There were a total of 1,189 deaths up to August 15 of people who were either confirmed or likely to have had the Delta variant and who died within 28 days of a positive test, PHE said.

10:09 AM

K-pop boyband cancel world tour due to pandemic

K-pop superstars BTS have officially cancelled their Map Of The Soul world tour amid uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

The chart-topping boy band had been due to embark on the tour in April last year before it was postponed as Covid-19 swept the world.

The tour, which had planned stops in cities including London, Toronto and Tokyo, has now been cancelled – the latest example of high-profile musicians being forced to rethink their live performances due to the virus.

News of BTS’s cancelled tour follows similar announcements from artists including rock band Nine Inch Nails, country music star Garth Brooks and Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks.

09:42 AM

1,189 people have died from Delta variant and 7,285 hospitalised as of mid-August

New data from Public Health England shows that 1,189 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the Delta variant of Covid as of mid-August.

Out of 1,189 – 113 of them were under the age of 50, 72 of which were unvaccinated, 11 had received one dose of a vaccine and 27 had been given both doses.

Public Health England has also revealed that 7,285 have been hospitalised with the Covid variant, 4,112 of which were under the age of 50.

The data covers the period between 1 February and 15 August.

09:18 AM

Mother of disabled 13-year-old says: ‘Vaccine will let him experience life’

The mother of a profoundly disabled 13-year-old has said she “can’t make him bulletproof” but getting him vaccinated will let him “live and experience life”.

Donna Quinn’s son Logan has serious respiratory problems and a rare neurological condition. He is one of around 4,000 children in Scotland with neuro-disabilities and other conditions to be offered a Covid-19 vaccine under new guidance.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Government announced children aged 12-17 with certain conditions would be offered a Pfizer vaccine in line with recommendations from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

Ms Quinn said: “We’ve done as much as we can, I can’t make him bulletproof, but I can just do as much as I can to move forward and start living again.

“He’s about to be 14 next week and I’ve had to have faith in science and medical experts for him to be alive today.”

08:50 AM

Israeli PM has third Covid-19 shot as Israel extends booster campaign

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett received a third shot of Pfizer/BioNtech’s Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, after Israel extended its booster campaign for people over 40 to try to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.

New cases in Israel have surged since Delta’s emergence and Bennett, 49, has sought to avoid an economically painful national lockdown by ramping up third doses.

People over 60 began receiving third doses in July, before the minimum age of eligibility was dropped to 50. Health Ministry officials cited waning immunity and Delta’s high infectiousness.

The Health Ministry said on Friday boosters would now be administered to people over 40 whose second shot was at least five months ago. It recommended teachers, health workers, carers of the elderly, and pregnant women of all ages have the shot.

The United States has announced plans to offer booster shots to all Americans, citing data showing diminishing protection. Canada, France and Germany have also announced booster campaigns.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett receives a third shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in Kfar Saba - RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett receives a third shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in Kfar Saba – RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS

08:33 AM

Small-scale study on mixing Sputnik V and AstraZeneca shows positive result, says RDIF

Russian sovereign fund RDIF said on Friday it has achieved positive results from a small-scale study into the combined use of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine.

“Preliminary data from the first 20 participants shows antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein (S-protein) elicited in 100% of cases,” RDIF said in a statement, citing a clinical trial carried out together with AstraZeneca in Azerbaijan.

08:02 AM

No severe cases or deaths reported in phase three trials of AstraZeneca antibody treatment

In the phase three trials of AstraZeneca’s antibody treatment, PROVENT, a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of symptomatic Covid-19 was achieved.

The trial showed that the antibody treatment reduced the risk of developing symptomatic Covid by 77 per cent compared to a placebo.

Additionally, the company reported that there were no cases of severe Covid-19 and no virus-related deaths in the those treated with the combination of the two antibodies.

The antibody combination, called AZD7442, is reportedly the first antibody combination, non-vaccine, that can potentially provide long-lasting protection and has demonstrated the prevention of Covid-19 in a clinical trial.

The trial included 5,197 participants in a 2 to 1 randomisation of the antibody treament to placebo.

07:35 AM

Sydney faces curfew and longer lockdown as Australia’s delta outbreak grows

Almost half of Sydney’s population will be under a nightly curfew and an extended lockdown from next week as Australia’s delta variant outbreak continues to grow.

New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian extended Sydney’s lockdown on Friday until the end of September and imposed new restrictions, including a curfew, limits on exercise and a requirement to wear a mask when outside.

The 9pm to 5am nightly curfew will take effect from Monday in the 12 worst-affected council areas, which covers about 40 per cent of Sydney’s population of five million people. Anyone caught entering those areas would be fined and required to self-isolate for 14 days.

Police walk past the Sydney Opera House in Circular Quay, during lockdown in Sydney, Australia - Steven Saphore/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Police walk past the Sydney Opera House in Circular Quay, during lockdown in Sydney, Australia – Steven Saphore/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Ms Berejiklian told a news conference: “I asked health and police to work together, to give me a final list of what we can throw at this, to leave no shadow of a doubt as to how serious we are about getting the rate of growth down, the case numbers down.”

A similar curfew is already in place in Melbourne, which means that more than a quarter of Australia’s population will be confined to their homes from Monday, with the exception of essential workers.

NSW reported 644 new infections on Friday, most of them in Sydney, Australia’s biggest city.

With only about 28 per cent of people above 16 years of age fully vaccinated, Australia has failed to contain Sydney’s outbreak.

07:05 AM

‘Cowboy’ travel test firms still operating despite government review

Sajid Javid’s review of “cowboy” travel test providers has seen less than two per cent removed so far, with misleading £20 offers still available.

A week after the Health Secretary announced an “urgent” review of false claims and rip-off practices by the firms, there are only eight fewer test providers on the 422-strong list than last week.

An investigation by The Telegraph found companies on the approved Gov.UK list are also continuing to promote offers to provide tests “from” £20, but which come with catches when a prospective holidaymaker clicks through from the government’s site to the firms’ websites.

Nearly all of the 16 companies offering tests from £20 could only deliver them at that price if the returning holidaymaker travelled in person to have the test at the testing firm, usually outside London and as far away as Glasgow or Livingston.

Some companies promote offers that come with catches when a prospective holidaymaker clicks through from the government’s site to the firms’ websites - PA Wire
Some companies promote offers that come with catches when a prospective holidaymaker clicks through from the government’s site to the firms’ websites – PA Wire

06:38 AM

Today’s front page

Here is your Daily Telegraph for Friday, August 20.

daily tel
daily tel

05:56 AM

Businesses say Hong Kong quarantine threatens financial hub status

European business leaders have warned that Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents “indefinitely trapped” in the city, threatening its status as an international business centre.

In a rare open letter to chief executive Carrie Lam on Thursday, the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said the city’s most recent hardening of measures for inbound travellers were “out of proportion” and a “significant setback”.

The Chinese financial hub maintains some of the strictest quarantine rules in the world, an approach that has kept virus cases low but left most residents cut off from the rest of the world for the past 18 months.

Arrivals from high-risk countries have to stay in hotel quarantine for 21 days, while for lower-risk countries that drops to seven days followed by another seven days of self-monitoring.

Last week, the authorities announced that a brief flirtation with relaxing some of these rules had to be scrapped.

Hong Kong is caught between its desire to reopen and the government's zero tolerance for any cases of Covid-19 - Bloomberg
Hong Kong is caught between its desire to reopen and the government’s zero tolerance for any cases of Covid-19 – Bloomberg

05:25 AM

Israeli doctors finding which vaccinated patients are most vulnerable

In Israel’s Covid-19 wards, doctors are learning which vaccinated patients are most vulnerable to severe illness, amid growing concerns about instances in which the shots provide less protection against the worst forms of the disease.

Around half of the country’s 600 patients presently hospitalised with severe illness have received two doses of the Pfizer shot, a rare occurrence out of 5.4 million fully vaccinated people.

The majority of these patients received two vaccine doses at least five months ago, are over the age of 60 and also have chronic illnesses. They range from diabetes to heart disease and lung ailments, as well as cancers and inflammatory diseases that are treated with immune-system suppressing drugs, according to Reuters interviews with 11 doctors, health specialists and officials.

Such “breakthrough” cases have become central to a global debate over whether highly-vaccinated countries should give booster doses of vaccines, and to which people.

Israel began offering booster doses to people age 60 and up in July, and has since expanded that eligibility.

The US, citing data out of Israel and other findings, said on Wednesday it would make booster doses available to all Americans beginning in September.

Other countries, including France and Germany, have so far limited their booster plans to the elderly and people with weak immune systems.

Read more: Covid booster vaccines for all over-50s could be shelved

04:49 AM

Japan to ramp up tests as it battles worst wave of infections

Japan plans to dramatically ramp up daily Covid-19 tests, borrowing from anti-contagion measures used in the recent Tokyo Olympics, as it battles its worst wave of infections, driven by the delta variant.

New infections exceeded 25,000 on Thursday for the first time, a tally by national broadcaster NHK showed, with the surge mainly among those in their 40s and 50s, most of whom are unvaccinated.

The speed and severity of Japan’s delta-driven infections are overtaking the strategy of targeted cluster tracing it has favoured over the mass testing used by many nations.

The cabinet office said Japan intends to employ its full daily capacity of about 320,000 PCR tests, or about triple the use now.

03:59 AM

Sydney extends lockdown for another month

Sydney’s lockdown was extended throughout September on Friday and tougher pandemic restrictions were imposed, including a curfew and compulsory mask wearing outdoors.

New South Wales state reported 642 locally acquired infections in the latest 24-hour period, the fourth consecutive day of tallies exceeding 600.

Australia’s largest city has been locked down since June 26. Since then, 65 people have died from coronavirus in New South Wales, included four overnight.

The Sydney lockdown was to end on Aug. 28, but the state government announced it will continue until Sept. 30.

A curfew will apply from 9pm to 5pm from Monday in the worst-effected Sydney suburbs.

NSW Police and Defence Force members speak to a man about compliance at Campsie in Sydney - JOEL CARRETT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
NSW Police and Defence Force members speak to a man about compliance at Campsie in Sydney – JOEL CARRETT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

02:33 AM

New Zealand outbreak widens

New Zealand’s Covid-19 outbreak widened beyond its largest city Auckland on Friday as new infections were discovered in the capital Wellington and case numbers jumped to 31.

The findings meant Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will most likely extend a nationwide lockdown that she announced this week to try and curb the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

Health authorities said 11 new cases were recorded on Friday, of which three cases were in Wellington.

The three in Wellington had recently travelled to Auckland and had visited locations that were identified as exposed to the outbreak, the health ministry said in a statement.

Read more: Typically obedient New Zealanders start to chafe at Covid restrictions

02:15 AM

S.Korea extends social distancing, allows fully vaccinated some leeway

South Korea has extended its social distancing curbs for two weeks to ward off a surge in coronavirus cases, while allowing vaccinated people some latitude, its prime minister said on Friday.

The country’s fourth Covid-19 wave has shown few signs of abating six weeks after the toughest Level 4 distancing rules, which include a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6pm, were imposed in the greater Seoul area.

South Korea reported 2,052 new cases on Thursday, 2,001 of which were locally acquired, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data showed.

As part of the extended restrictions, authorities will require restaurants and cafes in the metropolitan area to close an hour earlier at 9 pm until Sept. 5, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a Covid response meeting.

In the same region, though previously only two people could gather after 6pm, one or two other fully vaccinated people can now join them, 14 days after their last shot, Kim said.

A medical worker looks at a screen showing negative pressure quarantine rooms at Bagae Hospital where patients infected with Covid-19 are treated - YONHAP/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A medical worker looks at a screen showing negative pressure quarantine rooms at Bagae Hospital where patients infected with Covid-19 are treated – YONHAP/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

12:54 AM

Australian children experiencing ‘fear and anxiety’ in Covid ward

A health care worker in Sydney, Australia, is concerned children are experiencing fear and anxiety when they are separated from their parents on a Covid-19 ward.

As the delta variant of coronavirus surges across the Australian state of New South Wales, a nurse at Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital said children were distressed being in a foreign environment and not knowing anyone.

“[The] nurses not only attend to all clinical needs but try to support these children emotionally in a very frightening time for them,” she told the ABC. “Seeing the effects of such young children separated from parents has left staff feeling pretty miserable and on top of that, the anxiety and stress of working with Covid-positive patients every day takes a toll on us all.”

The children have been admitted to the Covid ward because their parents are too sick to care for them but most children with Covid-19 are treated at home, according to the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network (SCHN).

12:48 AM

Feds seize over 3,000 fake vaccination cards shipped from China

More than 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccination cards have been confiscated at cargo freight facilities at the Anchorage airport as they were being shipped from China, officials said on Thursday.

Officers from US Customs and Border Protection seized the cards in the past week as they arrived in small packages, said Jaime Ruiz, an agency spokesperson.

There were between 135 and 150 packages found in Anchorage, all sent by the same person in China, Ruiz said. The packages contained small amounts of the fake cards, about 20 or 25 each.

The cards confiscated in Anchorage closely resemble the authentic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention certificates given out by health care workers when US citizens receive their vaccinations, the agency said.

The seizure comes as a cottage industry for counterfeit cards has sprung up online to accommodate people who say they won’t get vaccinated for either personal or religious reasons.

11:21 PM

Today’s top stories

  • The mass rollout of Covid booster vaccines to all over-50s this autumn could be shelved, with government scientists considering limiting third jabs to the most vulnerable.

  • A leading university has become the first in the country to ban students from living on campus if they cannot prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, The Telegraph can disclose.

  • Sajid Javid’s review of “cowboy” travel test providers has seen less than two per cent removed so far, with misleading £20 offers still available.

  • Ministers breached their own guidance by failing to wear face masks in the House of Commons during a debate on Afghanistan on Wednesday, a Sage scientist has said.

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