Medics who have battled coronavirus on the frontline for more than a year and a half have faced a torrent of abuse from patients, a new poll has revealed.
The British Medical Association (BMA) warned of a "rising level of abuse" towards GPs as it called on the public to be kind to NHS workers.
The poll from the doctors' union found that more than a third of doctors have faced "recent abuse" from patients or those accompanying them to appointments.
This was even higher among GPs where half said they had been abused in some format during the past month.
The NHS said that it will "not tolerate" abuse or violence towards staff.
The survey of more than 2,400 doctors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland found that some doctors reported being physically assaulted.
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South Korea gave vaccine developer SK Bioscience the green light today for a Phase III study of its Covid vaccine candidate at a time of vaccine shortages, when a spurt in infections is fuelling demand.
The clinical trial of GBP510, the candidate for the first domestic vaccine, will weigh its immunogenicity and safety against AstraZeneca's vaccine, drug safety minister Kim Gang-lip said.
Three-thousand of the 3,990 adults in the trial will receive the experimental vaccine and 990 will get AstraZeneca doses, with an interval of four weeks.
SK Bioscience said data from early trials of 80 healthy adults who received the two-dose protein-based vaccine showed they all induced neutralising antibodies against the virus.
South Korea gave vaccine developer SK Bioscience the green light today for a Phase III study of its Covid vaccine candidate at a time of vaccine shortages, when a spurt in infections is fuelling demand.
The clinical trial of GBP510, the candidate for the first domestic vaccine, will weigh its immunogenicity and safety against AstraZeneca's vaccine, drug safety minister Kim Gang-lip said.
Three-thousand of the 3,990 adults in the trial will receive the experimental vaccine and 990 will get AstraZeneca doses, with an interval of four weeks.
SK Bioscience said data from early trials of 80 healthy adults who received the two-dose protein-based vaccine showed they all induced neutralising antibodies against the virus.
India has reported 28,204 new infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 16, according to government data.
India's overall case load touched 32 million, the health ministry data showed.
Overall deaths in the country increased by 373 overnight, pushing the tally to 428,682.
Civil servants who refuse to return to the office could have their pay cut under plans being considered by some government departments.
Mandarins face being stripped of "London weighting" – a salary top-up worth ￡4,000 to offset the high costs of living in the capital – if they resist a partial return to the workplace.
However, one government source said such a move would have to be agreed by the Civil Service Commissioner, adding that unions might suggest strike action.
READ MORE: Civil servants could face pay cut if they don’t head back to the office
Mexico is calling for the United States to send at least 3.5 million more doses of Covid vaccines as the country faces a third wave of infections
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that he planned to discuss a transfer of vaccines with US Vice President Kamala Harris during a call scheduled for later in the day.
Lopez Obrador said the US government had initially offered the Moderna vaccine, but Mexican health authorities could not get the necessary approvals in time so now they are considering Pfizer or another approved vaccine.
Mexico has vaccinated more than 50 million people with at least one dose, representing about 56pc of the adult population. It has received 91.1 million doses of five different vaccines.
One of Britain’s biggest private test firms has been hit by an angry backlash from travellers after pictures emerged of dozens of its swabs piled up in plain view on streets.
The images of its over-full metal drop boxes with completed test kits balanced on top of them and awaiting collection were branded a “symbol of the absolute mess that PCR testing has become”.
Randox, which is said to have made ￡120 million from processing 15 million tests since the start of the pandemic, recommends customers should use its free drop boxes to return their test samples.
READ MORE: PCR swabs pile up on the streets as travel testing descends into an ‘absolute mess’
China has reported 143 new Covid cases on the mainland for Monday.
China's latest clusters are mainly driven by the highly transmissible delta variant.
Among the new infections - the highest number China has reported since January, 108 were locally transmitted, while the remainder were imported from abroad, the National Health Commission (NHC) said.
Most local infections were in the eastern province of Jiangsu and the central province of Henan.
New South Wales has reported 356 locally acquired cases of Covid - its biggest daily rise in the pandemic - as officials scramble to contain the virus that has now spread to the northern parts of the struggling Australian state.
Of the cases reported on Tuesday, at least 57 have spent time in the community while infectious, the state's health department said.
Authorities also said four people died from the virus, taking the total deaths in the state from the latest outbreak to 32.
Meanwhile, on the sands of Bondi Beach, one of Sydney's wealthiest suburbs, surfers and seaside walkers jostle for space, while joggers clog the nearby promenade and fitness buffs huddle around public exercise equipment.
To the west, where Covid infections are greatest, stores remain shut on empty streets as some of Australia's most migrant-heavy neighbourhoods endure heightened lockdowns, enforced by high-visibility policing backed up by the military.
"The community here is really struggling at the moment and they feel there's a double standard," said Bilal El-Hayek, a councillor from the city's west who spends most days helping deliver food packages to people who don't qualify for pandemic-related support payments.
"You see photos and videos coming out of the east, people on the beach, whereas here the streets are absolutely empty."
Australia's state of Victoria reported a slight rise in new Covid cases on Tuesday, raising the prospect of an extended lockdown in Melbourne as officials battle to contain a delta strain outbreak.
State officials reported 20 new cases, up from 11 a day earlier, and added dozens of new venues to a list of virus-exposed sites in Melbourne, including cafes, supermarkets and petrol stations.
In line with recent trends, and worrying officials, 15 of the cases were in the community while infectious. Health officials have said the number of people who are in public while infectious needs to be close to zero before lockdowns are lifted.
Melbourne's lockdown is currently scheduled to end on Thursday.
Only eight intensive care beds were available on Monday in the state of Arkansas, its governor said, as the rapid spread of the delta variant pushed cases and hospitalisations in the United States to a six-month high.
In neighbouring Texas, Governor Greg Abbott asked hospitals to postpone elective surgeries as the variant raged through swathes of the country including many southern states grappling with low vaccination rates.
Nationwide, Covid cases have averaged 100,000 for three days in a row, up 35pc over the past week, according to a Reuters tally of public health data.
Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas reported the most new cases in the past week, based on population.
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