Coronavirus live news: masks could return in UK if infections rise; Australia tops 2,000 new cases for first time

The Philippines has reported a record 26,303 new daily coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.

The health ministry said confirmed cases rose to 2.206 million, while deaths rose by 79 to 34,978.

AP reports that more than a dozen tented Covid-19 vaccination sites have been set up in busy areas in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, to make it easier to get jabbed.

Previously people had to go to vaccination centres which were mostly in hospitals to be inoculated.

Dr Misaki Wayengera, who leads a team of scientists advising authorities on the pandemic response, said of the new vaccination sites: “All of this we could have done earlier, but we were not assured of availability of vaccines. Right now we are receiving more vaccines and we have to deploy them as much as possible.”

Health authorities have been teaming up with the Red Cross to administer more than 120,000 doses that will expire at the end of September.

In addition to the 128,000 AstraZeneca doses donated by Norway at the end of August, last month the UK donated nearly 300,000 doses.

China recently donated 300,000 doses of its Sinovac vaccine, and on Monday a batch of 647,000 Moderna doses donated by the US arrived in Uganda.

Australia has topped 2,000 new Covid-19 cases for the first time. It has now recorded nearly 73,000 cases and a death toll of 1,084, Reuters reports.

AP reports that the push to require millions of US workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus is running into resistance from Republican leaders.

They are threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that have festered since the onset of the pandemic.

In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster says he will fight “to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian”. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, says she is preparing a lawsuit. And JD Vance, a conservative running for a US Senate seat in Ohio, is calling on businesses to ignore mandates he describes as Washington’s “attempt to bully and coerce citizens”.

“Only mass civil disobedience will save us from Joe Biden’s naked authoritarianism,” Vance says.

Queensland, Australia’s third most populous state, has said it may order a snap lockdown after a cluster of Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.

Queensland, home to more than 5 million people, said it had detected five new infections in the past 24 hours after a family tested positive.

The next few days would be critical to see if a lockdown was necessary, authorities said.

State premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: “If we start seeing any seeding, then we may have to take very quick, fast action. But at the moment, it’s contained to the family.”

The family lives in Brisbane, the state’s capital. It was not clear whether a lockdown would be limited to some parts of the state like previous orders.

The Times reports that compulsory face coverings and working from home will be reintroduced if Covid-19 cases rise this winter under government plans to protect the NHS.

Boris Johnson is expected to publish the Covid Winter Plan next week which will detail proposals on how to combat the spread of the virus.

Britain must head into an “uncertain” winter fully prepared for a new wave of the pandemic, Boris Johnson will warn next week as he unveils a blueprint to avoid shutting schools and pubs again.

The prime minister’s Covid winter plan will set out “contingency” measures – which could involve the reintroduction of some nationwide restrictions such as social distancing or masks – that would come into force if case numbers and hospitalisations begin to overwhelm the NHS again.

On Tuesday Johnson is expected to announce his plan for avoiding a full lockdown, including the introduction of Covid boosters and the biggest ever flu jab campaign, to be administered at the same time.