Primark changing rooms at two London stores have been converted into vaccination clinics over the bank holiday weekend.
Anyone aged 16 and over can turn up without an appointment to the Oxford Street East and Wood Green Primark stores and get a first or second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, NHS England said.
The clothing chain store has partnered with the NHS, Haringey Council and Westminster City Council to host its first Covid-19 vaccination clinics in the capital.
Health professionals are on hand to talk to anyone with concerns, and people are reminded that second doses will only be given a minimum of eight weeks after the first.
Pedestrians walk past a poster advertising in-store vaccinations at Primark on Oxford Street in London, England. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images
A pedestrian walks past a poster advertising in-store vaccinations at Primark on Oxford Street in London. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images
The move comes as efforts continue to get more young people vaccinated. The latest analysis shows that more than a third of young adults in most cities in England have not had a first dose of a Covid vaccine.
Dr Vin Diwakar, medical director for the NHS in London, urged people to “add this very important item to the top of their shopping list – get vaccinated”.
He said:
It is fantastic that over a million young Londoners have had the vaccine, but it is vital that all get vaccinated to protect themselves from the harm coronavirus can cause even at their young age, as well as preventing transmission to more vulnerable friends and family.
Kari Rodgers, UK retail director for Primark, said pop-up clinics have worked well in other stores.
She said:
Following the success of the vaccination clinics in our stores in Bristol and Birmingham, we’re pleased to be able to offer people in London the opportunity to get their vaccine this weekend at our Wood Green and Oxford Street (East) store.
Wherever we can, we try to support important local community initiatives and we’re really pleased that we can play a small part in supporting the work of the NHS by making it even easier for people to get their vaccine.
Jabs will be on offer at Primark’s Oxford Street East store on Saturday between midday and 5pm, and at the Wood Green branch on Saturday between 10am and 6pm.
More than 3.8m first doses have been delivered since the NHS “grab a jab” coronavirus vaccination campaign began at the end of June, NHS England has said.
Adults in England are able to turn up at walk-in sites across the country to get a Covid-19 vaccine. Details of the walk-in clinics, which have included festivals, mosques, town halls and football grounds, are available on the NHS website.
Analysis of one weekend in July found that two in five of the 80,000 walk-in doses were administered to people from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Since the campaign was launched, more than 700,000 people from minority ethnic backgrounds have been protected, NHS England said. The fastest growth in vaccinations has been in people of mixed Asian and white backgrounds, followed by mixed white and black African groups.
The return of pupils to schools in England next month could lead to a spike in Covid-19 cases as parents go back to work and increased mixing takes place in other settings, a government scientific adviser has warned.
Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), which advises the government, said September would be a key month for monitoring Covid-19 data.
Speaking to Times Radio, Tildesley, a professor in infectious disease modelling at the University of Warwick, argued that vaccinating younger age groups could provide protection beyond the school environment.
NHS England has yet to confirm whether jabs will be given to people in this age group despite the apparent public health imperative.
Experts have previously warned that it is “highly likely” there will be large levels of coronavirus infection in schools by the end of September.
Tildesley expressed uncertainty about whether an increase in the prevalence of coronavirus would come from within schools or the wider community, saying it “remains to be seen” how things might change next month.
The Delta variant of Covid-19 doubles the risk of Covid hospitalisation compared with the previously dominant Alpha variant, a new study has found. The analysis – based on data collected in England – suggests that outbreaks of the Delta variant are likely to put an additional strain on health services.
The US president, Joe Biden, has accused China of withholding “critical information” on the origins of Covid-19 after a report summary found that the US intelligence community could not agree on whether a Chinese laboratory incident was the source of Covid-19.
Japan’s health ministrysaid it was investigating after two people died after receiving Modernajabs that were among batches later suspended following the discovery of contaminants. The cause of the deaths is still being investigated and the ministry said there was no evidence that the shots taken by the men contained contaminants.
India has administered more than 10 million vaccine doses in the past 24 hours, as the country prepares for a predicted surge in infections. The country reported 46,759 new Covid cases on Saturday, the highest daily number of recorded cases in nearly two months.
The Australian state of New South Wales recorded 1,035 new cases on Saturday – the highest daily total for any Australian state or territory since the pandemic began. Figures obtain by Guardian Australia show a huge gap between Covid vaccination rates among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in every region of the state.
The outbreak in neighbouring New Zealandhas worsened, with 82 new cases reported on Saturday. It brings the total number of cases of the community outbreak to 429, 415 of which have been in Auckland.
Coronavirus restrictions in the Philippines have been extended until 7 September after the country reported a record number of daily infections for the third time in the past nine days.
Secondary school and college pupils will need to wear face coverings in communal areas outside their classrooms in parts of south-west England, following a rise in cases in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Devon. The new measures are expected to be in place for five weeks.
Raul Valenzuela sat inside his living room in Corpus Christi, Texas, as two firefighters prepared him for a Covid-19 vaccine.
Largely homebound, Valenzuela couldn’t imagine going out for a shot. But he knew the pandemic has been getting worse in the city, so he jumped at the opportunity to get vaccinated at his house. “I finally got a number off the TV, and I called it,” he said.
In Corpus Christi, a majority-Latino beach town with a population of about 327,000 in Texas’s coastal bend, almost a thousand residents have already died from the virus. And with cases surging out of control again and all intensive care beds filled, local officials are working feverishly to pre-empt further tragedy.
The saying goes that you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. With universal in-home vaccinations like Valenzuela’s, Corpus is bringing the water to every horse in town.
Since 2010, as part of broader changes to Sweden’s universal healthcare system, patients have been allowed to choose their own doctor and clinic. Before that, patients were assigned a clinic based on where they lived.
However, the change has led to widespread discrimination against medics with foreign-sounding names, Agence France-Presse reports, as patients can refuse to be treated by non-ethnic Swedes.
In March, more than 1,000 doctors and medical students signed an appeal in a daily newspaper calling on “the responsible authorities to act against racism” in their field. Last month, the country’s largest broadsheet, Dagens Nyheter, published an investigative series exposing the scope of the problem.
Posing as patients who had recently moved to a new city or town, journalists called 120 healthcare clinics and asked that their new doctor be an ethnic Swede. A total of 51 clinics agreed to the request, and 40 refused.
Clinics often consent to these kinds of requests because of “competition between healthcare clinics over patients”, the head of the Swedish Junior Doctors’ Association, Madeleine Liljegren, told AFP.
The country’s healthcare system relies heavily on immigrant workers; in 2020, 2,401 doctors received medical licences in Sweden, almost half of whom earned their degrees abroad.
New Zealand’s Covid-19 outbreak has worsened, with 82 new cases reported on Saturday. All of the new cases were in Auckland, with the Pacific community again over-represented, with 62 cases.
It brings the total number of cases of the community outbreak to 429, 415 of which are in Auckland and the remaining 14 in the capital, Wellington.
New Zealand has reached day 11 of a harsh lockdown designed to curb the spread of the virus. The lockdown prevents most people from leaving home other than to exercise, or to buy groceries or medicine. Retail stores are closed, as are restaurants – including takeaway – schools and most businesses.
The vast majority of recent cases have come from household contacts rather than gatherings or essential workplaces.
Coronavirus restrictions have been extended in the Philippines after the country reported a record number of daily infections, Reuters has reported.
The health ministry recorded 19,441 new cases on Saturday, a new high for the third time in the past nine days, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to more than 1.93m. A further 167 deaths were also reported, bringing the total official death toll to 33,008.
“We expect the number of cases will continue to increase in the coming days,” the health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters.
Current restrictions in the capital region, home to more than 13 million people, have been extended until 7 September.
Although some businesses can operate at up to 50% of on-site capacity, dining in restaurants, personal care services and religious activities are still prohibited, said the government.
Russia reported 19,492 new cases and 799 further deaths on Saturday.
Data released by the state statistic service Rosstat on Friday showed that Russia saw its highest monthly coronavirus death toll of the pandemic in July. Some 50,421 people died from Covid or related causes in that month.
Overall, Russia recorded about 365,000 deaths related to Covid-19 between April 2020 and July – more than double the initial figures reported by the government’s coronavirus taskforce.
