Coronavirus news as it happened: UK records a further 164 deaths and 30,144 new cases; anti-vaxxers protest in London

Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, reported 507 new locally acquired coronavirus cases and one related death on Sunday, as the state remains in a months-long lockdown imposed to rein in the highly infectious Delta variant.

There are now 5,262 active cases of the virus in Victoria, home to nearly 7 million people, Reuters reports.

Mexico reported 11,711 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 765 deaths on Saturday, Reuters reports.

It brings the total number of infections since the pandemic began to 3,564,694 and 271,303 fatalities, according to health ministry data.

Boris Johnson is expected to push Joe Biden for a restoration of UK-US travel during a visit to the White House.

Mr Biden’s administration imposed a ban due to soaring rates of the Delta variant of coronavirus.

Johnson will also meet vice-president Kamala Harris and other senior figures in American politics next week, PA reports.

The US administered 384,911,290 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Saturday morning and distributed 466,569,635 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Those figures are up from 383,994,877 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by September 17, out of 464,315,725 doses delivered.

The agency said 211,489,242 people had received at least one dose, while 181,035,022 people were fully vaccinated as of 6 a.m. ET Saturday, Reuters reports.

Those most at risk from Covid-19 in Australia say the easing of restrictions when vaccination targets are met will bring anxiety and danger.

In the roadmap to freedom, I hear nothing about people like me, other than as a qualifying postscript to the Covid deaths: ‘But they had an underlying health condition’,” says Racquel Sherry.

“Freedom day doesn’t include me.”

Sherry, 49 and based in Sydney, is immunocompromised and afraid.

Food charities say demand for assistance in south-west and western Sydney is continuing to grow, with more than five times the number of hampers being handed out each week since before lockdown.

OzHarvest, a food rescue organisation that has been providing food hampers and cooked meals for people in need, has established two “hamper hubs” in the 12 local government areas hardest hit by NSW’s Covid outbreak, in Lakemba and Granville, to deal with the increasing demand.

Sarah Flomersfeld, the NSW operations lead at OzHarvest, said there has been a 500% increase in demand for hampers since the start of this year’s lockdown in greater Sydney.

“We’ve seen unprecedented demand across New South Wales, but particularly in western Sydney. We’re delivering about 150,000kg across greater Sydney, which is about 350,000 meals every week,” she said.

A school district in the Canadian province of British Columbia will be locking down schools from Monday due to ongoing anti-vaccine protests.

The “hold and secure” protocol was enacted on Friday after people protesting against vaccines and masks, who the district said had been targeting schools all week, entered two school buildings in and around Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

The protocol meant that students could not leave or enter the building for the rest of the day.

All schools in the district will be under the same “hold and secure” guidance from Monday.

Canada has seen a wave of anti-vaccine protests ramp up in recent weeks as the country’s federal election draws nearer, Reuters reports.

France has reported 7,414 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The country has recorded more than 6.94 million cases in total.

England’s deputy chief medical officer asked ministers to withhold all UK clinical trial data from the EU if European countries continued to deny entry to British vaccine trial volunteers, the Observer can reveal.

Jonathan Van-Tam made the extraordinary proposal after months of uncertainty for the 19,000 volunteers who are in effect unable to travel to Europe to see family, work or go on holiday because they took part in trials of Novavax and Valneva.

Because neither treatment has yet been approved by medical regulators, people who received vaccines during the trials are faced with a catch-22. They have had two doses, so they are not allowed other vaccines through the NHS. But since their trial vaccines were unlicensed, they cannot prove their vaccination status outside the UK, which means that many countries require them to quarantine.

France reported 1,837 people in intensive care with Covid-19, down by 54, Reuters reports.

Dozens of the world’s biggest brands have been advertising on websites that spread Covid-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories, it has emerged.

The companies, as well as an NHS service, are among a string of household names whose ads appear to have helped fund websites that host false and outlandish claims, for example that powerful people secretly engineered the pandemic, or that vaccines have caused thousands of deaths.

An analysis of nearly 60 sites by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and shared with the Observer found that ads were placed through the “opaque” digital advertising market, which is forecast to be worth more than $455bn (£387bn) this year.

France reported 89,206 coronavirus deaths in hospital, an increase of 42, Reuters reports.

The country has had more than 115,000 deaths overall.

Around 25,000 people joined a massive outdoor drinking party marking the start of term at a Madrid university without observing safety precautions, police said Saturday, admitting they were caught off-guard.

Spanish media said it was the biggest such gathering since the start of the coronavirus pandemic when large public gatherings were halted to stop the spread of the virus, AFP reports.

“There were thousands of people on the grounds of Complutense University, about 25,000,” a municipal police statement said, indicating the gathering appeared to have been organised online via Whatsapp.

Images on social media showed vast crowds of beaming youngsters gathered on the campus, drinking, dancing and hanging out with hardly a mask in sight.

“Without prior warning from the university or time to prepare an appropriate operation, breaking up a gathering of some 25,000 people is an almost impossible job,” police said, indicating they had only reached the site after midnight.

Although Spain has lifted many of its pandemic safety restrictions, people are still required to wear masks outdoors if they are unable to maintain a 1.5-metre (five-foot) safety distance from those around them.

And large gatherings remain banned, although the numbers vary from region to region.

But some people have dropped their guard given the rapid pace of the vaccination programme, with more than 75 percent of Spain’s 47 million residents now fully vaccinated.

Some more data from Italy. Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,958 on Saturday, down from 3,989 a day earlier.
There were 31 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 34 on Friday.

The total number of intensive care patients fell to 519 from a previous 525, Reuters reports.
Some 355,933 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 284,579, the health ministry said.

Artist Michael Craig-Martin’s paintings of Covid era items in pictures.