Coronavirus: Canada set to overtake US in terms of fully vaccinated population — as it happened

The share of fully vaccinated residents in Canada is set to overtake that of the US, underscoring the country’s effort to overcome a rocky start to its vaccine rollout.

Just under 48 per cent of Canada’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to the latest update from the government’s Covid-19 vaccination tracker.

Canada is now on the verge of surpassing the US, which has fully vaccinated 48.4 per cent of its population, according to figures updated on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After a vigorous start, the US’s inoculation campaign has slowed in recent months; fewer than half a million doses are now being administered, on average, each day, down from a peak rate of more than 3.4m in mid-April. The percentage of fully vaccinated residents in the US now ranks as the 14th-highest in the world, according to the Financial Times’ vaccination tracker.

Canada overcame a rocky start to its vaccination programme, having been beset by problems such as securing sufficient supply of doses. At the start of June, the country had fully vaccinated 5.8 per cent of its population, compared with 41 per cent in the US.

The improved level of coverage has given policymakers some confidence that Canada could allow fully vaccinated travellers to enter the country before the end of summer.

Justin Trudeau’s office said on Thursday evening the prime minister acknowledged that if the current pace of vaccinations remained intact and new coronavirus infections remained under control, “Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by early September” and “we could expect to start allowing fully vaccinated US citizens and permanent residents into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel.”

Canada has administered at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to about 70 per cent of its entire population, compared with 55.7 per cent in the US, according to the FT’s vaccine tracker. US President Joe Biden hoped that 70 per cent of American adults would have received at least one dose by July 4; that level stood at 68 per cent on Friday, according to the CDC.

Kansas City health officials “strongly recommend” residents in Missouri’s most populous city wear masks in crowded outdoor settings due to rapidly increasing new Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations in the area.

Individuals should also maintain social distance of at least 6 feet when they do not know the vaccination status of those around them, the officials said in a public health advisory on Friday.

Kansas City stopped short of a mask mandate, unlike Los Angeles, which on Thursday said it would again require mask-wearing indoors as of this weekend, regardless of vaccination status.

The highly contagious Delta variant is spreading quickly in Kansas City, which straddles the Missouri-Kansas state line, partly because of lower vaccination rates there, a city health department official told local media. In some parts of the city, the vaccination rate is lower than 40 per cent, she said.

Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System said on Friday the number of people hospitalised because of Covid-19 was now at its highest level in about five months.

“These are the highest numbers we’ve had as a health system since February the 19th. So clearly it’s one the rise. I don’t like it. I think trouble’s here,” Steven Stites, vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the university’s Medical Center said.

Statewide, 40 per cent of residents are fully vaccinated in Missouri and 42.9 per cent in Kansas, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. About 48 per cent of people in the US are fully vaccinated.

The Delta variant now accounts for more than half of new US infections, according to the CDC. In the four weeks ended June 19, about three-quarters of sequenced genomes in Missouri were of the Delta variant, the CDC found.

The number of new daily cases has nearly doubled in Missouri over the past two weeks, to an average of 1,107 per day, according to the Financial Times Covid-19 tracker.

Las Vegas casino patrons have been advised to wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status, after regional health officials issued a recommendation to mask up again due to rising coronavirus infection rates.

The Southern Nevada Health District said in a statement on Friday it was “now recommending both unvaccinated and vaccinated people wear masks in crowded indoor public places where they may have contact with others who are not fully vaccinated.”

The recommendation applies to settings like supermarkets, malls, large events and casinos and was introduced in response to the rise in Covid-19 case counts and positivity rates in the district, which covers Clark county, Boulder City, Henderson, Las Vegas, Mesquite and North Las Vegas.

The district’s decision places it on a growing list of cities, counties and states that are recommending residents wear masks in indoor settings, even if they have completed their vaccine regimen. 

Health officials in Kansas City, the most populous city in Missouri, issued a similar recommendation on Friday afternoon, with the state ranking as one of the hottest spots in the US for the highly-transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19.

Over the past few weeks, officials and policymakers in Canada, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi and Sacramento have urged residents, particularly vulnerable ones, to keep wearing masks.

Los Angeles county on Thursday broke away from the pack and announced it would reinstate a mask mandate this weekend to quell a rise in new coronavirus cases.

Nevada earlier this month asked for federal help in taming its epidemic after the Biden administration said it was setting up special ‘surge response teams’ to help communities with low vaccination rates deal with outbreaks. Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus task force co-ordinator, revealed earlier on Friday that 100 federal employees were being sent to the state to help with vaccinations.

Nevada has vaccinated 43.2 per cent of its population, ranking 33rd in the US, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national average is 48.4 per cent.

The state has averaged about 23 new cases per 100,000 people a day over the past week, the fifth-highest per capita rate in the US and nearly triple the national average.

More than 44 per cent of sequenced genomes collected in Nevada in the four weeks ended June 19 were the Delta variant, the second highest proportion among states after Missouri, according to CDC figures.

Alabama has launched a TikTok contest offering cash prizes in an effort to boost Covid-19 vaccination rates among younger people in the state, which has the lowest level of vaccine coverage in the US.

Individuals between the ages of 13 and 29 can submit a video to the social media platform between now and August 6 showing themselves being vaccinated, the state health department announced on Friday.

The videos will be judged by a panel of advertising professionals and health department personnel and winners will be determined “based on creativity, originality and popularity”. 

The four winners of the contest will each receive a Visa gift card preloaded with $250.

Alabama has fully vaccinated 33.6 per cent of its population, the lowest level of coverage among all US states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The generally low level of vaccination take-up among young people across the country has become of increasing concern to local, state and federal officials and policymakers, particularly as case rates among these age groups exceed those for older ones.

Pop star Olivia Rodrigo this week visited the White House to discuss the importance of young people getting vaccinated, as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to boost inoculation rates in these age groups. Some institutions are taking a more localised approach: Ohio University announced a prize draw for vaccinated students coming to the college at the start of the autumn semester.

The highly contagious Delta variant has, in the past fortnight, wiped out four months of progress Louisiana made in bringing its pandemic under control, the state’s governor said.

Figures from the state health department on Friday revealed that 563 patients were being treated for Covid-19 in Louisiana hospitals.

That is double the number from two weeks ago, Governor John Edwards told a press conference on Friday during which he and other state officials urged residents to get vaccinated.

“We’re being overwhelmed, and it’s happening really fast,” said Catherine O’Neal, infectious disease specialist with Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 is now the dominant strain in the state, Edwards, a Democrat, said.

The seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases in Louisiana more than doubled to 1,107 on July 15 from 434 on July 2, according to the Financial Times Covid-19 tracker.

The Delta variant is particularly dangerous for unvaccinated people because it “hides” from some of the body’s immune system defences, O’Neal said.

About 36 per cent of Louisiana residents are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, compared to about 48 per cent nationwide.

The CDC has said that 99 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths are in unvaccinated people, and that the available vaccines are very effective against the current variants of the virus, including Delta, the governor’s office noted.

Lessons gleaned from dealing with Covid-19 until now do not apply to the current situation with the Delta variant, O’Neal cautioned.

“Delta variant is coming for our children,” she said. “We are seeing increased admissions, we are seeing increased office visits, we are seeing sick kids and intubated kids, today, in our hospital.”

Thirty-five new outbreaks were identified in the state over the previous week, with 200 new cases stemming from those outbreaks, the governor’s office said. Outbreaks increased at camps, child day cares and restaurants.

“If you don’t choose the vaccine, you’re choosing death,” O’Neal said. “And you’re choosing a surge and another surge.”

Ministers in the London government will on Monday discuss whether to add France to the “red list” under which people can only travel under strict hotel quarantine conditions. 

Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, has shown ministers data showing a rapid growth in variants in France, including the Beta variant and the strain first discovered in South Africa. 

Whitty is understood to be concerned that younger, unjabbed people could bring back the virus in August ahead of the start of school terms. 

However for now there is a split within the cabinet over whether to take a super-cautious approach to French travel, according to Whitehall figures. “There is caution brewing again from the Department of Health,” said one.

Downing Street refused to comment beyond saying that the travel advice would be updated in due course. 

Paul Charles, founder of the PC Agency, a travel firm, said: “The constant threat of change by government is creating anxiety for consumers and leading to a slowdown or changes in new and existing bookings. The government needs to show that fully-vaccinated travellers, and those properly tested, are safe to travel to areas popular at this time of year.”

Global health experts have condemned Boris Johnson’s lifting of most Covid-19 legal restrictions in England on Monday as “a threat to the world”, as daily case numbers in the UK rose to more than 50,000.

The UK now has the third highest number of cases of any country in the world — only Indonesia and Brazil have more — and some scientists fear it could become a breeding ground for new Covid variants.

Ministers have warned that daily cases could soon hit 100,000 and have in recent days shown growing signs of nerves as July 19 — described by tabloid newspapers as “Freedom Day” — approaches.

Health secretary Sajid Javid declared this month that there was “no going back”, but now ministers admit restrictions may have to be reintroduced as they brace themselves for a huge spike in cases.

“Of course if we get into a situation where it’s unacceptable and we do need to put back further restrictions then that of course is something the government will look at,” Lucy Frazer, solicitor-general, told Sky News.

As the UK reported 51,870 cases — the highest figure since January 15 — global scientists at an “emergency international summit” urged the Johnson government to “urgently reconsider its proposed actions”.

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The Cannes film festival, which resumed this year after a pandemic hiatus in 2020, will on Saturday lower the curtains on dozens of film screenings attended by movie-goers in masks, which were mandatory at all indoor venues.

During the festival’s nearly two-week duration, the number of new Covid-19 cases in France jumped from an average of 2,534 per day on July 6, when the event began, to more than 5,000 on July 14, according to the Financial Times’ Covid-19 tracker.

But case numbers at the seaside festival itself were low, Francois Desrousseaux, the event’s general secretary, told Variety four days into the star-studded occasion.

“Out of several thousand people getting testing here on a daily basis, there are an average of three cases per day,” Desrousseaux said. Salivary tests were carried out free of charge in a lab tent next door to the Palais des Festivals.

Festival attendees were required to be vaccinated or tested for Covid-19 every 48 hours, according to the organiser’s website.

French actor Lea Seydoux skipped the festival after testing positive for Covid-19. She starred in four films shown there, including Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Deadline reported.  

Nearly 40 per cent of France’s residents were fully vaccinated as of July 14, the FT’s Covid-19 tracker shows.

Vaccination appointments in France leapt last week after President Emmanuel Macron made the shots mandatory for healthcare workers and announced the nation would limit access as of August to cafés, restaurants, planes and trains for the unvaccinated.

The US is experiencing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, the head of the country’s top public health agency said, but there are some signs that states with low vaccination rates are picking up the pace.

More than 33,000 new infections were reported in the US on Thursday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a press briefing on Friday morning. That boosted the seven-day average of new cases to about 26,300 a day, representing a 70 per cent increase from a week earlier.

Hospitalisations are up 36 per cent from a week ago to a seven-day average of almost 2,800, while the average daily death rate has increased 26 per cent over the past week to 211.

“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said. “We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk.”

Communities that have a higher share of fully vaccinated residents are “generally faring well”, she continued.

Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, Nevada and Louisiana are the states averaging more than 20 new cases per 100,000 people a day, according to the CDC, and compared to a national average of almost eight.

Those five states were “boosting vaccination rates” and over the past week “had a higher rate of people getting newly vaccinated than the national average”, said Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus task force co-ordinator.

Four states — Florida, Texas, California and Missouri — accounted for more than 40 per cent of new coronavirus cases in the US over the past week, Zients said. The first three of those rank third, second and first, respectively, in the US by population and have often been responsible for sizeable shares of daily national cases during the pandemic, while much-smaller Missouri has become a hotspot for the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19.

Florida accounted for one in five new coronavirus infections in the US over the past week, Zients continued. The state reported 39,349 cases over the past seven days out of 184,145 nationally over the same period, more than double second-ranked Texas, according to CDC data.

Credit rating agencies are upgrading hundreds of billions of dollars of US corporate debt, in a partial reversal of the downgrades at the outset of the pandemic that reflects the strong rebound in profitability across much of corporate America.

Roughly $361bn of higher-rated, investment grade bonds have been upgraded in the past two months, including a record $184bn in June, according to data from Bank of America.

The brisk pace shows credit rating agencies such as S&P Global, Moody’s and Fitch believe the economic recovery spurred by vaccine rollouts has made corporate debt piles more manageable. It also reflects the abundant liquidity and low borrowing costs available to many companies, in part thanks to monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

“I don’t think you could have anticipated the vaccine, the economic growth, and the strong availability of really low-rated debt,” said Christina Padgett, senior vice-president of Moody’s Corporate Finance Group. 

Rating agencies, which had been chastised after the 2008 financial crisis for giving pristine grades to bonds that ultimately defaulted, moved swiftly during the pandemic to downgrade their assessments on swaths of debt.

Ratings on nearly $1tn of US investment grade corporate debt were cut in March and April of 2020, the BofA data showed, out of about $7.6tn outstanding.

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The Eiffel Tower has reopened to visitors with online tickets after a nine-month closure, the longest since the second world war, with stringent anti-coronavirus measures that include a “health passport”.

France’s national symbol, which lights up to celebrate historic moments, opened its doors to those with pre-booked online tickets at 1pm local time, the first time since October.

The landmark attraction will limit numbers and put in place Covid-19 restrictions. From Monday adult visitors must present an EU certificate, which will show their vaccination history, a negative test or that they have recently recovered from the disease.

France in its attempts to ward off another wave of infections this week made vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for all healthcare workers and barred access to cafés, restaurants and venues such as the Eiffel tower for those without “health passports”.

Last year the tower shut down during the first wave of Covid-19 for about three months before reopening on June 25 2020.

In the pre-pandemic days of 2019, the tower welcomed about 6m visitors a year and generated about €100m in sales.

US consumers were feeling less optimistic about the economy in July, as growing inflation concerns dimmed their outlook for the recovery.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 80.8, down from 85.5 in June and confounding economists who expected the gauge to rise by one point.

“Rather than job creation, halting and reversing an accelerating inflation rate has now become a top concern,” Richard Curtin, chief economist for the university’s surveys of consumers, said.

Consumers are facing higher prices for a variety of goods with strong demand, supply chain bottlenecks and worker shortages stoking inflation. US consumer prices jumped 5.4 per cent year on year in June, the biggest gain in 13 years, according to the labour department.

Complaints in the consumer sentiment survey related to rising prices on homes, vehicles and durable goods hit an all-time high, fuelling the index’s drop to its lowest level since late February.

Respondents estimated a 4.8 per cent rate of inflation in the year ahead, compared with 4.2 per cent in June.

“Inflation has put added pressure on living standards, especially on lower and middle income households, and caused postponement of large discretionary purchases, especially among upper income households,” Curtin said.

Consumers’ expectations for the economy and their personal finances fell to a reading of 78.4 from 83.5. Another sub-index measuring their view of current economic conditions slipped to 84.5, down about four points.

Plans to relax coronavirus restrictions in England next week present a “threat to the world” given the risk of new variants emerging, health advisers opposed to the unlocking have warned.

Current and former government advisers in countries including Israel, Italy, South Africa and Taiwan urged the UK prime minister Boris Johnson to “urgently reconsider” his plan to drop legal requirements such as mask wearing.

Participants in an online event on Friday organised by The Citizens, a group linked to Independent Sage, signed a declaration that said: “In a pandemic, the actions of each country impact others across the globe.

“The UK is one of the world’s leading travel hubs — any variant that becomes dominant there is likely to spread to the rest of the world.”

Infections are set to rise further as a result of the relaxation, which government ministers have justified on the grounds that coronavirus vaccines have weakened the link between hospitalisation and death.

Michael Baker, professor of public health at the University of Otago and an adviser to the New Zealand ministry of health, said: “It just seems so remarkable that you’re not following even basic public health principles here.”

Stephen Duckett, former secretary of Australia’s health department, said: “There is no reputable public health adviser of any kind who would recommend opening up at a time when the virus is spreading rapidly.”

The fourth and final stage of the government’s “roadmap” out of lockdown for England, which takes effect on July 19, “defies any logic, any science of any kind”, Duckett added.

Walter Ricciardi, president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations and Covid-19 advisor to the Italian minister of health, said the plans were “very difficult” to understand given the scientific expertise available in the UK.

England will enter its fourth and final stage out of lockdown on Monday, despite a 40 per cent increase in infections last week.

Among the main changes are:

• The government is no longer instructing people to work from home if they can

• Face masks will no longer be required by law, although the government is recommending that people should wear them in crowded places

• Social distancing will end

• There will be no limits on the number of people who can attend events such as weddings

• All businesses which are still closed, such as nightclubs, will be allowed to open

• All capacity limits at sports, entertainment and business events will be lifted

However, a raft of provisions remain in place. There will still be targeted asymptomatic testing in education and high risk workplaces to help people manage their personal risk. 

Individuals will still need to self-isolate following a positive test for coronavirus or contact by England’s Test and Trace programme.

And the government will work with organisations where people are likely to be in proximity to others to encourage the use of the NHS Covid Pass, which details a carrier’s Covid-19 status. 

US retail sales rose in June, propelled by strong demand at electronics stores, apparel outlets and restaurants even as prices continued to climb for consumer goods and spending on travel and entertainment increased.

Data released by the US Census Bureau on Friday showed a 0.6 per cent increase in sales from the month before, bucking expectations for a 0.4 per cent drop, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

Retail spending had decelerated in recent months after a burst of shopping activity earlier this year. In May, sales were down 1.7 per cent as the boost from federal stimulus cheques continued to fade, revised lower from an original estimate of minus 1.3 per cent.

Shoppers are facing sticker shock on a wide range of goods from chicken to used cars. The consumer price index jumped 5.4 per cent in June from a year ago, a 13-year high, following a 5 per cent rise the previous month. Wholesale prices have also climbed, portending an increase in costs for consumers. The producer price index was up 7.3 per cent last month, the biggest yearly gain since at least 2010.

But consumers have shown a willingness to spend, with strong demand for goods, while many Americans have been booking hotel rooms and tickets for sporting events now that Covid-19 restrictions have lifted in nearly every corner of the US.

The reproduction rate of Covid-19 in England is between 1.2 and 1.4, according to government estimates.

An R rate at that level means that every 10 people infected will pass the virus on to between 12 and 14 others.

The number of new infections is growing by between 4 per cent and 7 per cent every day, the Department of Health and Social Care said on Friday.

While cases are continuing to rise, the rate of infection remained broadly similar to the previous week, although the top end of the estimate of R dipped from 1.5 to 1.4.

In the north-east and Yorkshire, the R rate is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.6, with infections there estimated to be rising by between 5 and 9 per cent a day.

Similar figures were reported in the south-east, where the R rate is estimated to be between 1.3 and 1.6.

Infections are rising at the slowest rate in the north-west, which was previously considered a hotspot for the Delta variant. The R rate in the region has been put at between 1 and 1.3, with new infections rising by between 1 and 5 per cent a day.

All of the estimates represent the transmission of Covid-19 two to three weeks ago.

More than 577,000 people in England, or one in 95, were infected with Covid-19 in the week to July 10, the Office for National Statistics has estimated.

That was an increase of 43 per cent on the previous week when 401,000 were thought to have the virus, according to the latest ONS infection survey. It added that the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 increased in all age groups.

Infection rates were higher in Scotland, where one in 90 people are thought to have Covid-19, compared with one in 100 the week before.

Weekly infections fell to one in 360 people from one in 340 in Wales, although the ONS said it was hard to make out a trend, while increasing to one in 290 from one in 300 the week before in Northern Ireland.

“Infections have increased across much of the UK”, said Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the survey, who added that England was “at levels last seen in February this year.”

The latest data show that the Delta variant accounts for 96 per cent of positive cases across the UK.

Moscow is set to abandon a QR code system that restricts restaurants and bars to the vaccinated after three weeks even as Covid-19 death rates set records.

Sergei Sobyanin, the Russian capital’s mayor, said at a meeting of Russia’s coronavirus task force on Friday that the code system had encouraged 2m to be inoculated against Covid-19 in the past month after the city introduced forced vaccination for most working-age people. The city will ditch the QR code requirements from Monday.

The apparent success in driving up Russia’s low vaccination rate allowed Sobyanin to end a measure that was unpopular with bars and restaurants, whose revenues plummeted as they largely stood empty and received no state support.

“The situation in Moscow remains difficult,” Sobyanin said. “Nonetheless, we have been observing an improvement of main indicators for the fourth consecutive week: the number of daily infections has practically halved since the peak morbidity levels; the number of hospitalisations has been reduced by a third.”

Some scientists have blamed Moscow’s restrictions and mixed messaging on the threat for the pandemic for Russia’s low vaccine uptake.

Moscow had previously backtracked on a QR code system regulating which days people could leave their house and a shortlived ban on sitting on park benches. It is yet to remove a little enforced, barely observed mandate for people to wear gloves in shops and on public transport.

Russia’s health watchdog said the pandemic “appears to be stabilising” despite the country setting 11 daily death records in past three weeks.

Russia reported 25,704 daily coronavirus cases on Friday, and 799 deaths, nearly double the toll a month ago. Infection rates in Moscow, however, have fallen from over 9,000 a month ago to 5,382 on Friday.

Ports across the UK are experiencing their worst staff shortages since the pandemic began, with some operators missing a tenth of their workforce as the Delta variant continues to spread.

Tim Morris, chief executive of the UK Major Ports Group, warned that “skyrocketing numbers of staff” were having to self-isolate after being contacted by the NHS Covid-19 app.

Some port operators were having to cope with 10 per cent of their workforce absent, he said. “In many cases this is the worst absence situation that ports have experienced through the whole pandemic.”

Most of those having to self-isolate had received at least one dose of vaccine, Morris said, adding that port operators needed “protocols that better reflect the vaccination status of key workers”.

Half of the individuals admitted to hospital for Covid-19 during the UK’s first wave of infections suffered at least one complication, according to a new study.

The study, published in The Lancet on Friday, found that 49.7 per cent of those admitted to a hospital for coronavirus between January 4 and August 4 last year developed at least one complication.

Complications were associated with a higher risk of mortality during hospitalisation, and also reduced the ability of patients to self-care once discharged.

Complex respiratory and cardiovascular complications had the biggest impact on the survival of patients, researchers said.

Researchers monitored 73,197 adult patients from 302 UK healthcare facilities. The mean age of participants was 71.1. However, the study also looked at younger participants.

Researchers said that the risk of death was much higher in younger patients with complications then in those of the same age who did not have complications.

Normal life was snatched from Sarah Hemmings a year before it was from everyone else. In early 2019, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that can interfere with the brain and spinal cord, making everyday tasks difficult.

Then the pandemic struck.

Taking treatment for MS and caring with her husband for two young children, Hemmings stepped back from a job teaching at a local primary school and almost never left the house. She is now one of 3.8m people across the UK deemed clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid-19, advised until recently to “shield” from the outside world.

The government hopes the effectiveness and high take-up of vaccines will protect them once most of England’s legal restrictions are removed next week, although it says that people like Hemmings should consider going to the shops at “quieter times of the day”.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, meanwhile, has suggested administering variant-targeting booster shots to the group from September.

Yet given the UK is reporting more than 42,000 daily infections, up 50 per cent from a fortnight ago, the prospect of dropping the remaining coronavirus rules fills Hemmings with a mix of anger and apprehension.

“The guidance is appalling,” she says over the phone from the family home in Norfolk. “There are hand sanitizer pumps all over the place but Covid is an airborne virus.”

Hemmings worries most about the lifting of the requirement to wear masks in public places. Although double-jabbed and considered relatively safe by the government since it ended shielding advice on April 1, a recent test showed she hasn’t developed antibodies. Going for a coffee with friends or visiting a busy shop will once again feel too risky.

“They don’t sound like much, but those freedoms are a huge part of your world when you’re stuck at home,” says Hemmings. “Masks should absolutely be kept, and proper ventilation should be spoken about far more.

“[The clinically vulnerable] have been forgotten,” she adds. Politicians say everybody should “learn to live with Covid deaths” but “I feel like they’re talking about me. It’s really unsettling.”

Hemmings finds it hard to believe that a group of millions can be “ignored” so easily, claiming that prime minister Boris Johnson and health secretary Sajid Javid are “naive” about the risks coronavirus still poses.

“We’re a diverse group”, she says. “There are clinically vulnerable people with all sorts of conditions, jobs, all sorts of unique situations, but the guidance doesn’t take any of that into account.”

She has put off her plan to apply for another teaching job in September and, with another period of isolation looming, she is unsure what the future holds.

“On ‘freedom day’ I’ll be having pre-treatment tests and a few days afterwards I’ll be having an immunosuppressant infusion,” she says. “So fearful is probably the main emotion for the next phase.”

This is the 11th article in a series for the blog that explores the effects of the pandemic on people and businesses around the world

Antibody levels in people who received two doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine were 10 times higher than in those who received both shots of China’s Sinovac jab, a study published in The Lancet found.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong collected blood samples from 1,400 healthcare workers who had received one of the two vaccines, recording their antibody levels before vaccination, before the second dose, and 21 to 35 days after the second dose.

Among the 93 people for whom there was complete data, the researchers found that those who were administered both shots of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine had more antibodies then those who were inoculated with Sinovac’s inactivated virus vaccine.

Antibody concentrations “rose substantially after the first dose and then rose again after the second dose of vaccination” among recipients of the Pfizer jab, the researchers said.

“In contrast, the healthcare workers who received the inactivated vaccine had low antibody concentrations . . . after the first dose, rising to moderate concentrations after the second dose.”

“The difference in concentrations of neutralising antibodies identified in our study could translate into substantial differences in vaccine effectiveness,” the researchers concluded, adding that booster shots could bolster the immune response of people who receive inactivated vaccines.

A majority of the British public is worried about the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and plans to continue to wear masks in shops and on public transport, the Office for National Statistics has found.

In a survey conducted last week, 57 per cent of adults said they were worried about the plan to remove most legal restrictions in England. This included one-fifth who were very worried.

Almost two-thirds of respondents said they planned to cover their faces in shops or wear masks on public transport even after the legal requirement to do so is lifted in England from July 19.

European stock markets steadied after falls in the previous session driven by concerns about economic growth and the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19.

The regional Stoxx Europe 600, which closed 1 per cent lower on Thursday, rose 0.2 per cent in early dealings. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose gained 0.6 per cent after losing 1.1 per cent the day before, while Germany’s Xetra Dax added 0.2 per cent.

The moves came after a week when France, Germany and the Netherlands implemented new social restrictions as a result of the Delta variant, global investors rushed into the perceived safety of longer-dated bonds and shares in European companies whose fortunes are pegged to economies reopening dropped heavily.

The Stoxx travel sector has fallen 3 .1 per cent this week in its worst performance since mid-May. Energy stocks listed on the European index are down 2.3 per cent this week.

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The University of California will require all students and staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to return to campus in the autumn.

The move makes UC one of the largest public university systems to join a growing list of US colleges to mandate the vaccines.

UC said it wanted to “facilitate protection of the health and safety of the University community”.

Students and staff must be fully vaccinated at least two weeks before the first day of instruction for the autumn semester at any campus, while September 1 will be the deadline for some locations that do not operate on an academic calendar.

UC has 10 campuses across California, from Davis, about an hour north east of San Francisco, down to San Diego near the border with Mexico. Those locations must begin collecting proof of vaccination and processing any requests for exceptions or deferrals no later than July 15.

More than 580 college campuses in the US require students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning for the autumn semester, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Columbia, Harvard and Princeton are among the Ivy League universities to require vaccines for returning students and staff.

Burberry said sales have surged as the British luxury group has successfully found new buyers for its leather bags and coats.

The London-listed group said on Friday that sales in the 13 weeks ending June were up 90 per cent to £479m compared to the same period last year, when the world was grappling with the onset of the pandemic.

“We have seen strong recovery in [the first quarter] with comparable store sales now in line with pre-Covid-19 trading despite a continuing challenging environment,” the company said, referring to the lack of international travel.

Burberry’s chief executive Marco Gobbetti last month said he would leave the company after five years to join its Italian rival Salvatore Ferragamo, prompting investors to worry that his efforts to bring youth and glamour to the brand will lose momentum.

Recent success on that front has included a marketing campaign with social media celebrity Kendall Jenner, who helped promote Burberry’s new Olympia bag to a younger audience.

Rio Tinto faces a battle to achieve full-year guidance for its flagship iron ore business after heavy rain, labour shortages and a fresh approach to cultural heritage issues hit shipments.

In a quarterly update on Friday, the world’s biggest iron ore producer said it exported 76.3m tonnes of the steelmaking ingredient in the three months to June, down 12 per cent on the same period a year ago.

Chief executive Jakob Stausholm said Rio had faced “some challenges” at its Pilbara operations in Western Australia, including materially higher rainfall and coronavirus-related labour shortages that hampered its ability to bring replacement mines into its system.

In addition, Rio lost 2m tonnes of iron ore production as it changed buffers and exclusion zones to protect areas of “high cultural significance”. These changes followed last year’s Juukan Gorge scandal, when ancient aboriginal rock shelters were destroyed by the expansion of a Rio mine.

As a result, the company expects iron ore shipments to be at the low end of its 325m to 340m tonne guidance range, a target analysts said would be tough to meet.

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Investment bank Goldman Sachs has said it will not require its workforce to be fully vaccinated to return to the office as England prepares to end its coronavirus lockdown.

“The centre of gravity for our workforce is going to be in our buildings,” Richard Gnodde, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday. “It’s really important to have our people together.”

He recognised that some people will not be fully protected against Covid-19 yet.

England is due to end its fourth and final stage of lockdown on July 19 and the US investment bank will enforce safety measures when staff members return to the office.

“People will still be wearing masks on Monday,” said Gnodde. “We’ll continue to manage our exit from this in a cautious and appropriate way.”

The NHS Covid-19 app that tells people to self-isolate is an “important tool” to prevent infection but the government recognises the disruption it is causing business, a minister has said.

Lucy Frazer, solicitor general for England and Wales, also said the government would consider reimposing coronavirus restrictions if rising cases led to an “unacceptable” situation.

More than 520,000 alerts were sent in England last week by the mobile app, which detects when users have been in contact with positive cases.

Business leaders have complained the surge in “pings” is leading to staff shortages, while health authorities are concerned about people deleting the app to avoid the instruction to self-isolate.

However, Frazer told Sky News on Friday: “It is an important tool, because it is important that you do isolate if you’ve come in to contact.”

Double-jabbed contacts of positive cases will not be required to isolate from August 16, she noted. Ministers were also examining other possible changes, including telling people to take a test instead of isolating.

“The government is looking at this very carefully, recognising the significant impact it is having on businesses,” Frazer added.

She said ministers were justified in ending the legal requirement to wear masks and other restrictions from next week, as coronavirus vaccines had weakened the link between cases and hospitalisation.

Still, she added: “If we get into a situation where it’s unacceptable and we do need to put back further restriction then of course that is something the government will look at.”

GlaxoSmithKline plans to unlock up to £400m of private investment and create thousands of skilled jobs over the next decade as the UK drugmaker sets out a post-pandemic strategy to invest in life sciences.

The pharmaceuticals group aims to build one of Europe’s largest biotechnology campuses in the Hertfordshire town of Stevenage. GSK will sell 33 acres of land to garner private investment to develop the campus at its research and development site.

The venture will aim to create up to 5,000 jobs over the next five to 10 years, it said.

GSK intends to select a development partner this year to start work in 2022 and transform the land within GSK’s 92-acre research and development site.

“The past 18 months has shown the UK life sciences sector at its best and the UK has recently unveiled an ambitious 10-year vision for the UK life sciences sector,” said Tony Wood, senior vice-president of medicinal science and technology at GSK. “Our goal is for Stevenage to emerge as a top destination for medical and scientific research by the end of the decade.”

Canada could permit fully vaccinated Americans to enter the country by mid-August and international visitors by September, according to prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Changes to border measures were discussed during a Covid-19 response call on Thursday between Trudeau and provincial and territorial premiers.

“The Prime Minister noted that, if our current positive path of vaccination rate and public health conditions continue, Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by early September,” said a statement from Trudeau’s office.

Trudeau “noted the ongoing discussions” with the US on reopening their border, which has been closed to non-essential travel since March 2020. He “indicated that we could expect to start allowing fully vaccinated US citizens and permanent residents into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel,” the statement said.

The prime minister last week said that it would be “quite a while yet” before unvaccinated tourists would be allowed to enter the country, and that his administration and public health officials would be first turn their attention to which measures could be relaxed for individuals who had been fully inoculated.

Canada has given at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to 70 per cent of its population, according to the FT vaccine tracker, which is one of the 10 highest coverage levels in the world.

In early July, Canada took a step in its first phase of easing border restrictions by allowing fully vaccinated citizens, permanent residents or eligible foreign nationals to skip mandatory quarantine requirements upon arrival.

The UK government has published its first “hospitality strategy” aiming to help one of the worst-hit sectors to rebuild after the pandemic.

The support will be overseen by a council of senior hospitality industry leaders chaired by business minister Paul Scully and Karen Jones, who chairs the casual dining chain Prezzo.

The government said that it would ease licensing constraints on adding tables and chairs outside and allow venues to sell alcohol for takeaway for another 12 months to boost sales, but did not say it would provide any further funding.

It will also encourage employment in the sector by backing apprenticeship schemes and exploring the potential for a hospitality T level, a two year course targeted at 16 to 18 year olds.

The industry has been hit by severe staffing shortages after thousands who worked in hospitality before the pandemic returned to their home countries or moved into other jobs while sites were closed.

“We’ve been working with hospitality businesses throughout the pandemic to understand what support they need to not only reopen, but change and improve how they do things to meet changing consumer demands and protect jobs and livelihoods,” said Scully.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, the sector trade body, said that while Friday’s strategy document was “light on detail and specifics” there were “indications of intent”.

A lung charity has urged the UK government to maintain the legal requirement for face masks to protect millions of asthma sufferers as England is set to ditch the need for people to cover up indoors.

About 2.6m, or about 57 per cent, of people who have lung conditions in England are “scared” about accessing essential medical care once the UK government relaxes restrictions next week, found a survey of more than 650 people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“The government must reconsider its guidance around face coverings and keep the legal requirement for them to be worn to reassure vulnerable people that they can access medical care in an environment that doesn’t put them at risk,” said Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, which carried out the study.

Asthma sufferer Lauren Couchman is “very anxious” about the government plans to ease the rules from Monday: “People will just assume the pandemic is over. With cases rising, I’m scared about catching Covid-19. Unless everyone wears masks I will feel I am at risk.”

All but 7 per cent in the survey said they thought the legal requirement to wear a face covering should remain, while 88 per cent believe the restrictions are being eased too quickly.

“People with lung conditions could put off getting the care that they desperately need at their GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital,” the charity said in a release on Friday.

Joe Biden said he would be ready “within the next several days” to say when the US might lift its Covid-related travel ban on European countries after being pressed on the matter by Angela Merkel.

“It’s in process now. And I’ll be able to answer that question to you within the next several days,” Biden said at a press conference with Merkel, who is on her final visit to Washington as German chancellor.

“I’m waiting to hear from our folks in our Covid team as to when that should be done. And the chancellor did raise it.”

The US president’s comments raised hopes of a timeline for ending pandemic-era restrictions on travel between America and European countries within the Schengen area, which have been in place since the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic last year.

But US officials have resisted lifting the travel ban and Merkel acknowledged that the spread of the Delta variant was “a new challenge to both of us”.

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The NHS Covid-19 app sent more than half a million alerts last week recommending that people self-isolate after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus, a tenfold jump in a month to a new all-time high.

Initial jobless claims in the US last week fell to their lowest level of the pandemic, as lay-offs gradually slow and businesses attempt to staff up amid labour shortages.

Los Angeles is reinstating a mask mandate, requiring residents to wear face coverings in indoor situations, regardless of vaccination status, with the country continuing to experience a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Haiti, which until now was the only country in the Americas that had not received a single dose of coronavirus vaccine, has finally got its first batch.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to huge drops in childhood vaccinations, leaving countries more vulnerable to disease outbreaks, the World Health Organization has warned.

Covid-19 cases among vaccinated people in the UK are set to overtake those in the unvaccinated, according to the weekly Zoe study.

Businesses want discretion to decide what regulations to impose on their own premises when coronavirus restrictions are dropped in England next week, a cabinet minister said.

UK employment continued to recover in June, with the gradual reopening of the economy boosting jobs in hospitality and retail.

South Korean authorities are scrambling to contain a coronavirus outbreak on a South Korean destroyer on anti-piracy missions off the coast of Africa.

US retail banks slashed their branch networks and trimmed headcount in the first half of the year in a bet that much of the foot traffic that went digital during pandemic lockdowns will never return.

Singapore has reported a stark jump in Covid-19 cases after identifying a new cluster linked to karaoke lounges and their “social hostesses”.