COVID digest: UK police injured by anti-vaccine protesters

Dozens of angry anti-vaccine demonstrators on Friday set upon police during a protest outside the UK regulator that approves immunizations. 

"A number of protesters have become violent towards police. Four of our officers have been injured during clashes," the Metropolitan Police said, adding "this is unacceptable."

The clashes happened outside of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the first regulator in the world to approve a COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020.

In videos posted to social media, the demonstrators can be seen trying to breach the door before being cordoned off by officers. The protesters then moved toward the Science Museum in central London.

Here are other major coronavirus developments from around the world:

Europe

The European Commission and UK pharmaceutical and biotech firm AstraZeneca have reached an out-of-court settlement on the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines ordered by the bloc.

The European Commission had taken the company to court for not upholding its end of a contract to supply COVID-19 shots.

In the first quarter of 2021, as vaccination rates in the EU were lagging, the Commission accused AstraZeneca of acting in bad faith by distributing doses to other countries, while not supplying EU countries.

Under the settlement agreement, AstraZeneca has committed to providing 60 million doses of its vaccine, Vaxzevria, by the end of the third quarter of 2021. A further 140 million must be provided by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Around 100 million doses have already been supplied.

As the EU's current vaccine supply now comes mainly from BioNTech-Pfizer, Brussels has said part of the AstraZeneca doses secured in the settlement will be sent outside the EU to countries in need of vaccines. 

German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Friday said that there will be no new lockdowns or social distancing measures imposed on people in Germany who have received a vaccine or recovered from a COVID infection. 

"Those who have decided to take a vaccine, have decided to protect themselves and others," Spahn told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

As autumn approaches, Spahn said it will be essential for Germany to increase its vaccination rate, especially among younger people. 

"We are in a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Spahn said, adding it will be "decisive" in September for millions of people in Germany get vaccinated ahead of the colder months. 

In an interview Thursday, top German virologist Christian Drosten warned that the vaccination rate in Germany was "absolutely not enough" to prevent new social distancing measures and limitations on public life moving into the fall and winter.

"We absolutely have to work on the vaccination quota for society as a whole," Dorsten told Deutschlandfunk. 

Drosten cited studies showing that hospitalization rates are higher in COVID patients with delta variant infections, numbers of which threaten to increase in fall and winter. 

Oceania

Australia's New South Wales has reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections and deaths despite being under strict lockdown measures for the last 10 weeks.

The state has seen 1,431 cases of local transmission as well as an overseas case, along with 12 deaths in 24 hours.

"We anticipate a peak in cases in the next fortnight. The next fortnight is likely to be our worst in terms of the number of cases," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

"But as I have said it is not the number of cases we need to be focusing on, but how many of those cases end up in our intensive care wards and hospitals and how many people we have vaccinated."

However, despite the surging caseload, plans to slightly ease restrictions in some hotspots are going ahead on Friday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday that Australia will receive 4 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from the United Kingdom as his nation scrambles to contain a deadly outbreak of the delta variant.

 As part of the exchange deal, Australia will send 4 million doses of the same vaccine doses to Britain at a later date.

Asia

South Korea on Friday extended social distancing restrictions to October as the country attempts to boost its vaccine rollout ahead of a Thanksgiving holiday later this month.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said the strictest level 4 restrictions in greater Seoul and level 3 measures in the rest of the country would last until October 3.

But restaurants and cafes in the greater Seoul area will now be allowed to close an hour later while family gatherings of up to eight people will be permitted in the week of the September 21 Chuseok holiday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has told officials to pursue a tougher virus prevention campaign in "our style'' after refusing some COVID-19 vaccines offered through the UN-backed inoculation program.

In a Politburo meeting on Thursday, he said officials must "bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment,'' the Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday.

While emphasizing the need for material and technical means of virus prevention and increasing the qualification of health workers, Kim also called for "further rounding off of our style of epidemic prevention system,'' KCNA said.

Americas

In the United States, Florida is witnessing its deadliest surge in daily COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began, according to federal figures published on Thursday.

The data provided to the US Centers for Disease Control shows that at least eight days in August saw more daily deaths than during the last peak of the pandemic in August 2020.

The number suggests that the seven-day average in daily deaths reached 244 last month, in comparison with their highest previous rate of 227 in August 2020.

The figures for mid- to late August of this year could still spike as the Florida Department of Health sends more data to the federal government.

A new variant of the coronavirus, named after the Greek letter of the alphabet "mu," which was first identified in Colombia in January, is now the South American nation's predominant variant and the cause behind its deadliest wave of infections yet, a health official said on Thursday.

Nearly two-thirds of tests from people who died between April and June came back positive for the mu variant, with 700 deaths per day.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization declared mu a "variant of interest."

wmr,dvv,es/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)