‘It was never going to happen’: Government faces backlash over 4,000-bed target for London’s Nightingale Hospital January 11, 2021 Health officials have slammed the government for setting a 4,000-bed target for London’s Nightingale Hospital, as the Excel Centre site today opened its doors as a mass vaccination centre following major staff shortages. The temporary hospital was swiftly erected in just two weeks last March to deal with a spiralling number of admissions to intensive [...]
Lockdown: Tougher Covid restrictions on horizon, ministers warn January 11, 2021 England may face tighter lockdown restrictions amid scientists’ warnings that current measures are not doing enough to reduce Covid rates, the UK’s vaccine tsar has suggested. Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, today said current restrictions may be scaled up as he admitted he was “worried” at the current picture. “We’ve got to review everything [...]
Coronavirus cases in London almost double the national average as R rate hikes to 1.4 January 8, 2021 Confirmed cases of coronavirus in London are almost double the national average, the latest official figures showed, as the capital continues to record the highest level of infection in the country. An estimated 1 in 30 Londoners were infected with coronavirus in the week after Christmas, according to data released today by the Office for [...]
Moderna’s Covid vaccine gets green light from UK January 8, 2021 The UK’s medicines regulatory body has authorised the Moderna vaccine for emergency use, the company has announced, in a major boost to the nation’s vaccination efforts. The US-made drug becomes the third coronavirus vaccine granted approval for use by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Britain, as ministers ramp up plans to [...]
Pfizer vaccine ‘appears effective’ against new Covid strains January 8, 2021 The Pfizer/Biontech Covid vaccine will likely work against a batch of new, highly transmissible coronavirus strains, the companies announced this morning. In a study published today, Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch said the vaccine appeared to be effective in neutralising virus mutations seen in the southeast of England and South [...]
Coronavirus: Patients to receive breakthrough drugs that cut risk of death by a quarter January 7, 2021 Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care are set to receive breakthrough drugs that cut the risk of death by almost a quarter, the government has announced. Data from clinical trials published today showed that tocilizumab and sarilumab, which are typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, reduced the relative risk of death by 24 per cent [...]
UK researchers developing world’s first Covid vaccine patch January 7, 2021 Researchers at Swansea University are in the process of developing the world’s first ‘smart vaccine device’, which is able to inject a Covid-19 vaccine as well as measure its effectiveness by monitoring the body’s response. The patch, which will produce the vaccine through the skin by using thousands of micro-needles, would be capable of monitoring [...]
Nightingale Hospital in London to open as mass vaccination centre January 6, 2021 The Nightingale Hospital at London’s Excel Centre will be used from Monday as a mass vaccination centre along with six other locations across the UK. NHS staff will be used to administer vaccines at the centre, with the government aiming to vaccinate the 13m people most at risk of dying from Covid by 15 February. [...]
Lockdown could last until 31 March, government smallprint reveals January 6, 2021 England’s third national lockdown could last until 31 March, according to smallprint in the government’s newly-published Covid regulations. It comes despite Boris Johnson earlier this week telling the public that restrictions will last until mid-February. Speaking in an address to the nation from Downing Street on Tuesday, the PM said he had “no choice” but [...]
Pharmacies to roll out Covid vaccine in ‘Herculean effort’ to immunise Britain January 6, 2021 High street pharmacies will form a major part of the “Herculean effort” to vaccinate the nation against coronavirus, the vaccines tsar has announced. Nadhim Zahawi, the minister for Covid Vaccine Deployment, told BBC’s Today programme that community pharmacy networks will be “very much involved” in plans to vaccinate 13.4m Brits by mid-February. Current government plans [...]