Headlines
• Italy makes green passes mandatory for public and private workers
• UK government unveils its autumn and winter plan
• Russia launches vaccine lottery
• China claims it has vaccinated 91% of 12-17 year olds
• UK inflation in August was 3.2% YoY
World news
• The UK inflation rate was 3.2% in the year to August, the biggest increase since records began in 1997, as the economy continued to reopen. CPI rose from 2% in July, according to the ONS, driven by higher food costs.
• Italy is to make ‘green passes’ mandatory for public and private sector workers. The pass is a digital or paper certificate showing someone has received at least one vaccine dose, tested negative, or recently recovered from the virus.
• The UK Government has unveiled an autumn and winter plan for the pandemic. Under Plan A, ministers will:
• Encourage the unvaccinated to get vaccinated • Offer vaccines to 12-15-year-olds
• Begin a booster vaccine programme
• Continuing testing and tracing of cases and self -isolation
• Encourage businesses to use NHS Covid Pass to check the vaccination or test status of customers Under Plan B – which ministers say would only be enacted if further measures are needed to protect the NHS – they would:
• Urge the public to act more cautiously
• Introduce mandatory vaccine passports for mass events and other settings
• Make face coverings legally mandated in some places
• Issue guidance on working from home • Pupils in South Wales have been warned they may face a 45 -minute wait for their school bus because of a shortage of bus drivers and passenger assistants.
• From today, health workers in France who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid risk being suspended without pay.
• Sierra Leone has ended a curfew in place since early July.
• China has fully vaccinated 91% of children aged 12 -17, state television has reported. This is higher than the proportion of people fully vaccinated across all ages, which is just under 70%.
• A curfew in the 12 Sydney suburbs comes to an end tonight, but stay at home rules continue to apply to everyone living or staying in Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains and Wollongong local government areas.
• The Russian government has launched a lottery in an effort to promote its flagging vaccination campaign. A total of RUR100m is on offer – any entry requires a vaccine.
• The European Union is donating an additional 200 million vaccine doses to other countries in a bid to speed up global immunisation.
• The Canadian province of Alberta has warned this week that its ICU capacity was strained, with more people requiring intensive care than any other point during the pandemic
