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Agencies

Britain’s royal palace says the Duchess of Cambridge is self-isolating after a contact tested positive for the coronavirus.
Kate Middleton had been due to attend events with her husband Prince William on Monday celebrating the 73rd birthday of Britain’s National Health Service.
But the couple’s Kensington Palace office says the duchess is self-isolating at home after coming into contact last week with someone who subsequently tested positive.
Under current British rules, contacts of confirmed coronavirus cases must quarantine at home for 10 days.
Matt Hancock resigns as UK health secretary after kissing aide in Covid-19 breach
The palace says the Duchess, who is 39, does not have any symptoms of Covid-19.
Both Kate and William received first doses of coronavirus vaccine in May.
Britain on Monday recorded 27,334 new coronavirus cases, government data showed, meaning the rise in cases between June 29 and July 5 stood at just over 53 per cent compared with the previous seven days.
A further nine people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19.
A total of 45.35 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by July 4 and 33.73 million people had received a second dose.


France warns virus fourth wave could hit by end-July
France could see a new spike in Covid-19 cases by the end of July due to the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, the government spokesman said Monday.
“Over the past week the epidemic is again gaining ground,” Gabriel Attal told France Inter radio, with the Delta variant now accounting for 30 per cent of new infections in the country.
A fourth wave of infections is “a possibility” by the end of this month, he said, echoing a warning issued by Health Minister Olivier Veran late on Sunday.
Several countries, including Britain and Russia, have already seen alarming jumps in new cases because of the variant, which was first identified in India.
‘0 per cent’ chance: former French official dismisses Wuhan ‘lab leak’ theory
French officials acknowledge that not enough people are getting vaccinated despite ample supplies, which could lead to a rise in cases.
“We’ve seen in the United Kingdom an explosion (of cases) that occurred very rapidly after the first red flags, and we’re seeing these signs in our country,” Attal said.
Overall, the French infection incidence rate stood at 21 per 100,000 people as of last Thursday, the most recent data available, still below the alert level of 50 but an increase of 10 per cent on the previous week.

“The English example shows that a wave is possible from the end of July,” Veran had warned on Twitter, saying that a combination of vaccines, testing and social distancing can limit its impact.
Only 36 per cent of the French population has been fully vaccinated with two doses, though the government has ruled out making the shots mandatory.
Prime Minister Jean Castex will meet local officials as well as party leaders in parliament this week to discuss requiring vaccines for health workers and retirement home staff.




Israel cases a ‘preliminary signal’ Delta could bypass vaccine: expert
Rising coronavirus cases in Israel, where most residents are inoculated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, offer “a preliminary signal” the vaccine may be less effective preventing mild illness from the Delta variant, a top expert said on Monday.
But Ran Balicer, chairman of Israel’s national expert panel on Covid-19, stressed it was “too early to precisely assess vaccine effectiveness against the variant” first identified in India in April that is surging across the globe.
That is partly due to the overall low number of cases among fully vaccinated Israelis and because those cases are not evenly distributed across the population, further complicating efforts to reach conclusions about the data.
Covid-19 vaccine leader Israel races to curb jump in Delta-driven cases
Balicer, also the chief innovation officer at Clalit, Israel’s largest health maintenance organisation (HMO), said the Delta variant’s emergence as the “dominant strain” in the country has led to a “massive shift in the transmission dynamic”.
Israel’s vaccine roll-out that began in December was one of the world’s fastest, making the Jewish state a closely-watched case study on whether mass inoculation offers a path out of the pandemic.
Vaccinations had brought transmission down to about five local new cases per day, but that figure has risen to around 300 in recent days, with the Delta variant raging.
About half of the daily cases are among children, and half are among mostly vaccinated adults.

“To some extent that could be expected since 85 per cent of Israeli adults are vaccinated,” Balicer said.
“But the rates in which we see these breakthrough cases make some believe they extend beyond that expected point and suggest some decrease in vaccine effectiveness against mild illness – but not severe illness – is likely.”
The number of severe cases among vaccinated Israelis has risen in recent days from roughly one every two days up to five cases per day, Balicer said.
He said it was also too early to draw conclusions about the vaccine’s effectiveness against serious illness caused by the Delta variant.
But, he added, experts “remain hopeful that the vaccine effectiveness against serious illness will remain as high as it was for the alpha strain” identified for the first time in Britain in December.

Luxembourg PM hospitalised
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg has been admitted to hospital a week after testing positive for coronavirus, the government said on Sunday.
“As a precaution,” Bettel is expected to remain in hospital for 24 hours for observation, the brief statement said, adding there would be “further tests and examinations”.
The 48-year-old had tested positive for coronavirus on June 27 following an EU summit in Brussels.
According to his spokesman, he initially had only mild symptoms such as fever and headache and wanted to continue his work from home.
EU to ease restrictions on travellers from US, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Ten days of quarantine had been planned. It was not clear what prompted Sunday’s hospitalisation.
At the summit, Bettel was in contact with many other European leaders. According to his own statements, he has received one coronavirus vaccine dose.
Bettel joins a growing list of political leaders who have contracted the virus, including former US president Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Reporting by AP, dpa, AFP, Bloomberg, Reuters


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: UK’s Kate Middleton in self-isolation; France warns of fourth wave

The Duchess of Cambridge received her first Covid-19 vaccine dose in May. Photo: AFP

French Health Minister Olivier Veran visits a Covid-19 screening test facility set up at the 23rd edition of the festival dedicated this year to health workers, at the Hippodrome de Longchamp race course on July 4, 2021, in Paris. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

FILED - 25 June 2021, Belgium, Brussels: Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel speaks to media as he arrives to attend the second day of the European Union summit at the European Council. Bettel of Luxembourg has gone to hospital for examination a week after testing positive for the coronavirus, the government said on Sunday. Photo: Alexandros Michailidis/European Council/dpa - ATTENTION: editorial use only and only if the credit mentioned above is referenced in full

A teenager receives a dose of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as Israel urged more 12- to 15-year-olds to be vaccinated, citing new outbreaks attributed to the more infectious Delta variant, at a Clalit healthcare maintenance organisation in Tel Aviv, Israel June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge ‘hugely grateful’ for first coronavirus vaccination

Britain’s Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, receives her coronavirus vaccine at London’s Science Museum on Friday. Photo: Kensington Palace via AP

‘0 per cent’ chance: former French official who oversaw safety standards at Wuhan lab dismisses leak theory

Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the February visit by the World Health Organization (WHO) team. Photo: Reuters

The BSL-4 laboratory, at left, on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Photo: AFP

A member of the World Health Organization team is seen wearing protective gear during a field visit to the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center. Photo: AP

Face masks may become a ‘personal choice’ in England, minister says

Britain's Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick appears on BBC TV. He said England may soon abandon legal requirements for wearing masks. Photo: Reuters

Covid-19: positive test for fully vaccinated, UK-based Hong Kong darts player Kevin Leung Kai-fan

Kevin Leung Kai-fan representing Hong Kong in darts. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong’s Kevin Leung Kai-fun with his dog Bauble after an online match on the PDC Tour. Photo: PDC

Coronavirus: samples from Hong Kong quarantine hotel linked to local infection test positive for Delta variant

Officials in Hong Kong have been trying to identify the source of a woman’s coronavirus infection. Photo: AP

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World

Europe

Coronavirus


Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge is self-isolating at home for 10 days after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19
Elsewhere, Luxembourg’s PM has been hospitalised after testing positive for the virus, while France says a fourth wave of infections could hit by July



Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge is self-isolating at home for 10 days after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19.
