COVID-19 News And Updates

Edinburgh festival fringe 2023 to host artists from nearly 70 countries

Executives urge audiences to ‘fill yer boots’ and watch as many shows as possible amid Covid fightback

Encore! Surefire shows returning for the Edinburgh festival in 2023

The Edinburgh festival fringe is expecting to host artists from nearly 70 countries this year, with participants hungry to return to live performances after the Covid crisis, its directors have said.

The fringe, regarded until the pandemic as the world’s largest arts event, is fighting to rebuild its finances and win back audiences after the twin shocks of Covid and the economic crises triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Liz Truss’s short-lived government last year.

from Coronavirus | The Guardian
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Influenza vaccinations recommended as cases of respiratory illness rise across Australia

Of the nearly 58,000 cases recorded across the country, 30% occurred over the last fortnightly reporting period

A range of respiratory illnesses are on the rise in Australia as the colder weather hits, with the number of laboratory-confirmed influenza in particular steeply increasing.

The latest Australian influenza surveillance report shows that in the fortnight to 28 May almost all jurisdictions saw a rise in respiratory illnesses. Of the 57,816 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza reported to the government this year, 30% were recorded in the latest fortnightly reporting period. The proportion of people taking time off work also increased, the report said.

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Long Covid can impair quality of life more than advanced cancers, study says

Some patients’ health-related life quality scores worse than those of people with stage 4 lung cancer

Many people with long Covid have a lower health-related quality of life than people with some advanced cancers, research suggests.

Fatigue is the symptom with the greatest impact on the daily lives of long Covid patients, according to a study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Exeter. They found that many were seriously ill and had fatigue scores worse than or similar to people with cancer-related anaemia or severe kidney disease.

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Boris and Carrie Johnson ‘hosted friend at Chequers during Covid restrictions’

Exclusive: friend ‘helped the couple plan their wedding’ in May 2021 when restrictions on indoor gatherings in place

Boris and Carrie Johnson hosted a close friend, who helped plan their wedding, overnight at Chequers when a number of Covid restrictions were in place, the Guardian has been told.

Dixie Maloney, a corporate events organiser, stayed at the former prime minister’s grace-and-favour country mansion on 7 May 2021 when indoor gatherings between different households were banned except when “reasonably necessary” for reasons such as work or childcare.

from Coronavirus | The Guardian
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Ex-Italian prime minister and health minister cleared of Covid culpability

Court rules that Giuseppe Conte and Roberto Speranza not at fault over 6,000 excess deaths in Bergamo at start of pandemic

Italy’s former prime minister Giuseppe Conte and the former health minister Roberto Speranza were not responsible for the alleged mismanagement of the country’s first phase of the Covid pandemic, a court ruled on Wednesday.

Last March, prosecutors in Bergamo, the Lombardy province worst hit during the first wave of the virus in 2020, had placed Conte and Speranza under investigation on suspicion of “aggravated culpable epidemic” and manslaughter in connection with the government’s response at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

from Coronavirus | The Guardian
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MPs call for action on pandemic-widened gap between England’s poor and rich pupils

Public accounts committee warns that without more intervention, attainment gap could take decade to return to pre-Covid levels

It could take a decade for the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers to return to pre-pandemic levels in England without faster and more effective intervention, MPs have warned.

The estimate was made during evidence given to parliament’s influential public accounts committee (PAC) as part of its inquiry into education recovery after the disruption of Covid.

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Guardian’s David Conn wins Paul Foot award for Michelle Mone investigation

Reporter and his team exposed the Tory peer’s use of a government ‘VIP lane’ to provide PPE during the Covid pandemic

The Guardian reporter David Conn has won the Paul Foot award for investigative journalism for his report on a Tory peer’s use of a government “VIP lane” to provide PPE during the Covid pandemic.

Conn and the Guardian’s investigations team reported last year that Michelle Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers.

from Coronavirus | The Guardian
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Poorest countries are biggest losers from economic shocks, says World Bank

Combined impact of Covid crisis, Ukraine war and tough measures by central banks taking heavy toll

The world’s poorest countries are the biggest losers from a global economy failing to cope with the combined impact of the Covid pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the tough anti-inflationary measures taken by central banks, the World Bank has said.

In its half-yearly update, the Washington-based body said the international community was well off course to meet the UN’s 2030 anti-poverty development goals and warned of the risk of a fresh debt crisis for the most vulnerable countries.

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Covid inquiry heads for row with government over Google Spaces redactions

Inquiry lawyer says not providing complete set of messages on platform would be ‘wrong in principle’

A fresh battle over unredacted Covid documents is looming, as the public inquiry’s most senior lawyer voiced fears about a tussle with the government over messages sent on the Google Spaces platform.

Hugo Keith KC said the “same issue” threatened to arise as with WhatsApps, which the Cabinet Office is refusing to hand over in full.

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What is the UK government hiding from the Covid inquiry? – podcast

The government has launched legal action to prevent the independent Covid inquiry demanding disclosure of thousands of WhatsApp messages. What does it have to hide, asks Aubrey Allegretti

Next week the first full hearings will take place for the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry. It is expected to last at least three years and cover everything from the government’s preparedness for pandemics to the conduct of those responding to it and lessons that could be learned for next time a deadly virus must be contained.

As the Guardian political correspondent Aubrey Allegretti tells Michael Safi, the aims of the inquiry itself have become clouded in recent days by an unedifiying row between the government and the inquiry’s chair over who gets to decide what information is relevant and in the public interest to examine. With the Cabinet Office arguing to hold back contents of WhatsApp group chats, Boris Johnson waded in and offered to hand over all of his material, hailing a need for transparency – and in the process dropping his former colleague, Rishi Sunak, into a row about allegations of a cover-up.

from Coronavirus | The Guardian
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