Covid news live: Latest updates as UK ‘faces lockdown Christmas’ if ministers delay plan B

Up to 150 people could be in intensive care with Covid by the end of next month, the Taoiseach has warned.

Micheal Martin also said he could not predict when Ireland would return to normal following the pandemic.

In an interview with Newstalk FM, Mr Martin said there was concern about the growing number of Covid cases in the country.

On Friday, there were a further 2,466 confirmed cases, with 457 patients in hospital, 90 of those in intensive care units.

The Taoiseach said: “There is the optimistic model, there is the pessimistic model.

“You could be looking at up to 150 in ICU by the end of November. That would be serious in terms of the wider impact on the health service.

“But if we all collectively behave, what I mean by that is watch ourselves, be a bit more cautious about how we go about in congregations, we can pull this back.”

Melbourne has begun celebrating the end of the world’s longest string of lockdowns with street parties, beach games, live music, and packed indoor venues.

Australia’s second-largest city, home to about five million people, was in lockdown for nearly nine months straight until this weekend.

The ease in restrictions came the state’s full-vaccination rate reached 70 per cent.

Nearly 72 per ent of adults in Australia are now fully vaccinated and nearly 87 per cent have received one jab.

According to a national strategy, lockdowns will be unlikely once 80 per cent of Australians are fully-jabbed.

South Korea has announced that it has achieved its goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of its 52 million population.

The country set the target when it started its Covid vaccination scheme in February.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said it was reached by 2pm (5am GMT) today.

Health minister Kwon Deok-cheol said last week that the government would begin a slow return to “normal activities” from 1 November.

A billionaire property tycoon claimed up to £6 million in furlough cash during the pandemic through shell companies, it has been reported today.

This is despite John Christodoulou, who has a net worth of more than £2 billion, having said that he “borrowed nothing from the Government during Covid pandemic”.

According to The Times, Mr Christodoulou’s businesses – Blue Manchester, Blue Liverpool, YFSCR and Octagon Pier – received the cash via the coronavirus job retention scheme from December 2020 to June 2021.

In June, he told an audience at an event that firms which take money from the government were sending the “wrong image”.

Mr Christodoulou is not a director nor listed as an owner but the four companies are all controlled by him – the newspaper reported.

Local councils are telling residents to follow tougher Covid measures while the government resists called to implement Plan B measures to halt the spread of Covid.

Residents in Liverpool, Windsor and Suffolk are among those who have been told by public health teams to follow stricter measures.

Romania’s government is planning to keep children off school for two weeks as part of efforts to lower numbers of Covid cases and deaths.

The authorities are also set to re-introduce a night curfew and make health passes and face masks mandatory for entry to most public venues from Monday.

Weddings and other private events are banned, and the government is also urging employers to send half their staff to work from home.

The measures to be in force for 30 days were approved by the interim government late last night.

Romania reported record numbers of daily Covid deaths and cases this month, and the health system is stretched to breaking point.

The country has the second-lowest coronavirus vaccination rate in the EU, with just over a third of the adult population fully jabbed.

“We are in a disaster situation,” deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat said on Friday.

“We have seen other countries go through this when there wasn’t a weapon available, namely the vaccine.

“We are in this situation while having the vaccine, because the majority of us refused to get inoculated. This situation could have been avoided.”

Russia has reported record levels of Covid-19 infections and deaths.

This comes after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russians to stay away from work between 30 October and 7 November.

The national coronavirus taskforce said today that 1,075 people had died with the virus in the past 24 hours.

A total of 37,678 new infections were recorded.

The daily death toll is about 33 per cent higher than in late September and infection cases have risen by about 70 per cent in the past month.

Only about a third of Russia’s 146 million people are vaccinated.

Another country is considering restriction travel to and from the UK due to concerns over a Delta subvariant of the Covid virus.

The Philippines is mooting whether to put the UK on its “red list” of countries that will have restrictions for travel.

The Philippines’ health department said today that officials are looking into placing the UK on the red list, which has the most strict rules for travel, over the spread of the AY 4.2. variant.

It comes after Morocco banned travel to and from the UK for an unspecified time over fears that allowing in travellers from the UK would wreck its own progress in controlling the virus.

The Moroccan government also banned travel to and from Germany and the Netherlands.

Labour MP Wes Streeting has announced that he will be self-isolating until the beginning of November after contracting Covid.

In July, the 38-year-old Ilford North MP announced that he had been declared cancer-free after having undergone an operation to remove one of his kidneys.

Two months prior, Mr Streeting revealed he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and would be stepping back from frontline politics while he received treatment.

Some more reaction to the government’s announcement of a £65 million fund to help clear rent and bills arrears that up to 4 million households accrued during the pandemic.

The government announced today that vulnerable renters in England who have fallen into arrears will be helped with the support package this winter.

The funding is in addition to a £500m package announced in September to help families struggling to afford food, energy, water and other essentials.

Campaign group Generation Rent said that more funds are needed, especially now that the temporary £20 a week increase in benefits has been scrapped.