Summary
Here’s a roundup of this evening’s Covid-19 news.
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England has recorded its highest day for Covid-cases with 162,572 new infections. It broke the record set on Friday of more than 160,000.
- Italy has reported another 141,262 Covid cases. More than 1 million people in the country currently have the virus. One of its most famous footballers, Giorgio Chiellini, was among those to have tested positive. The country’s latest death count, 111, was also down compared with Friday’s total of 155.
- Children aged six and above must wear masks on public transport in France, according to a new government order. The country reported more than 200,000 cases for the fourth day in a row on Saturday, as 219,126 infections were confirmed amid the spread of the Omicron variant. Its health minister announced that the number of days that fully-vaccinated people have to self-isolate was to fall from 10 to seven.
- The new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said the city needed to be resilient against Covid-19 as he was sworn into office. He used his inaugural address to urge the city’s 9 million residents to not let Covid run their lives. “Getting vaccinated is not letting the crisis control you,” Adams said at City Hall.
- The number of new cases of Covid-19 has quadrupled in four days on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, according to the AFP news agency. Latest figures show they have risen to 2,191 compared with 543 cases over seven days last week.
- Young adults and teenagers are driving the record numbers of daily Covid-19 cases in the US as they make up a bulk of those to have the Omicron variant.
- Brazil registered 49 more Covid deaths on Saturday, with another 3,986 new cases recorded. A total of 619,105 people have now died in the South American country, the second highest death toll globally.
- Dutch police broke up a rave in a disused factory on New Year’s Eve. Several partygoers were arrested by officers, with hundreds involved in the operation in the town of Rijswijk.
France has cut its isolation period for vaccinated people who test positive for Covid from 10 days to 7 days, according to Reuters.
Health minister Olivier Veran said fully jabbed people would have their isolation reduced by three days, following countries including the US. He added that some could have it reduced to as little as five days.
“This isolation could be lifted after five days in case of a negative test. Those who are not vaccinated will have to self-isolate for 10 days, with a possibility to come out of isolation after seven days under the same terms”, Veran told newspaper le Journal du Dimanche published on Sunday.
He also said the new Covid-19 Omicron variant was too contagious to be stopped unless a “strict lockdown” was re-imposed.
Brazil registered 49 more Covid deaths on Saturday, with another 3,986 new cases recorded.
A total of 619,105 people have now died in the South American country, the second highest death toll globally. More than 22,291,507 positive tests have been registered during the pandemic.
Staying in the UK, secondary school pupils have been told to wear face masks in classrooms to stop the spread of the Omicron variant.
Term begins next week for pupils aged 11 and above, and the Department for Education said advice was “short-term only to support pupils and teachers as they return to schools this term”. The advice will be reviewed on 26 January.
In the UK, Boris Johnson has instructed government ministers to come up with “robust contingency plans” for workplace absences to hit up to 25%, as it emerged that the government is concerned about the impact record numbers of daily Covid infections could have on businesses.
The Cabinet Office confirmed that, despite the accelerated booster programme, public sector leaders have been asked to prepare for a worst case scenario that would see up to a quarter of workers being off work due to high Covid levels in the population.
The department claimed that, so far, disruption caused by Omicron has been controlled in “most parts of the public sector”, but acknowledged that public sector leaders have been asked to play through “worst case scenarios” of 10%, 20% and 25% workforce absence rates, PA reported.
An uptick in Covid cases in the US appears to be mainly concentrated among younger people and teenagers. My colleague in New York, Victoria Bekiempis reports.
As the US is seeing record numbers of daily coronavirus cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, public health authorities nationwide have said that teens and younger adults are helping fuel this increase.
The uptick in Covid-19 among the under-50s coincides with a surge in cases among young children – and a troubling increase in pediatric hospitalizations.
The US seven-day average for pediatric hospitalizations increased 58%, to 334, between 21 December and 27 December. The increase in hospitalizations for all age groups was about 19%. Less than 25% of US children are vaccinated, Reuters reported.
One of Italy’s most famous footballers, Giorgio Chiellini, has tested positive for Covid.
Chiellini, who is the captain of Juventus and led his country to success at Euro 2020 last summer, had been isolating after coming into contact with a positive case earlier in the week.
A statement on the Turin-based club’s website said: “Juventus Football Club announce that, during today’s screening procedures to which the player Giorgio Chiellini underwent for the resumption of competitive activity, a positive test for Covid-19 was detected.”
The number of new cases of Covid-19 has quadrupled in four days on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, according to the AFP news agency.
Latest figures show they have risen to 2,191 compared with 543 cases over seven days last week.
Incoming New York mayor calls for defiance against Covid
The new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said the city needed to be resilient against Covid-19 as he was sworn into office.
Adams used his inaugural address to urge the city’s 9 million residents to not let Covid run their lives. “Getting vaccinated is not letting the crisis control you,” Adams said at City Hall. “Enjoying a Broadway show. Sending your kids to school. Going back to the office. These are declarations of confidence that our city is our own.”
The city has seen subway lines, restaurants and urgent care centres close because of Covid-related staff shortages. The 61-year-old said he would keep vaccine mandates in place.
The former New York City police captain rode the subway from his home in Brooklyn to City Hall according to Associated Press. In his address, he added that the pandemic had put the city through “two years of continuous crisis,” Adams said, “and that insults our very nature as New Yorkers.”
“There’s one thing that everyone knows about New Yorkers: We don’t like anyone telling us what to do,” he said.
France has reported more than 200,000 cases for the fourth day in a row, as 219,126 infections were confirmed on Saturday.
The figure is the second highest to date, after the 232,200 record set on Friday, Reuters reports.
It means that it becomes the sixth country in the world to report more than 10m cases since the start of the pandemic. The other countries to cross the mark already are the US, India, Brazil, the UK and Russia.
Dutch police broke up a rave in a disused factory on New Year’s Eve.
Several partygoers were arrested by officers, with hundreds involved in the operation in the town of Rijswijk.
According to AFP, people living nearby said they had seen cars come from Spain and Italy, as well as nearer neighbours France and Germany.
A series of Covid restrictions were imposed a week before Christmas, with all non-essential shops and bars closed until 14 January.
In France, a rave attracted about 1,500 people in the central eastern town of Saint-Florentin, two hours drive from Paris.
Updated
My colleague Emma Graham-Harrison reports on how much longer China can keep up its zero-Covid policy.
Desperate residents in China’s western Xi’an city are running out of food after they were barred from grocery shopping in a fierce lockdown. In the southern province of Guangxi, people who broke Covid laws were recently publicly shamed by being paraded through the streets in hazmat suits with placards round their necks.
The rest of the world is learning, slowly and with some difficulty, to live with Covid-19, but in China, authorities are doubling down on their “zero-Covid” policy: trying to stamp out the disease whenever it appears, and at any cost. A single case in a border town led to 200,000 people being locked down late last month.
Read more:
Updated
Mask wearing on public transport in France extended
Children aged six and above must wear masks on public transport in France, according to a new government order.
Masks had already been compulsory for those aged 11 and over, but new rules have been announced in response to the spread of the Omicron variant.
The new restrictions will come in from Monday. Operators will not be able to sell food or drink on services from the same date, according to AFP. The rules will apply on the channel-crossing Eurostar service.
Another 232,200 cases were confirmed on Friday, breaking the country’s previous record.
Updated
Italy has reported another 141,262 Covid cases, meaning that more than 1 million people in the country currently have the virus.
Saturday’s case figures were a drop on the previous day, when tests confirmed 144,243 new infections. The Italian Ansa news agency said it meant 1,021,697 now had the virus.
The country’s latest death count, 111, was also down compared with Friday’s total of 155.
Updated
Almost 3,000 passengers on a cruise ship had to spend New Year’s Eve ashore in Lisbon because of Covid, after an outbreak of infections among the crew.
The 53 cases among the 1,353 staff meant the German-owned Aida Nova and its passengers had to stay in the Portuguese capital, rather than go to Funchal in Madeira to watch a firework display. None of the ship’s passengers tested positive, the German news agency DPA reported.
The infected crew members were taken to hotels in Lisbon. The ship is now waiting for replacement staff so it can carry on to the Canary Islands.
Updated
England reports record level of new Covid cases
England has broken its record for confirmed new Covid infections, after 162,572 were reported on Saturday. The previous highest total was set on Friday, the final day of 2021, when 160,276 were registered.
It’s the fifth day in a row on which confirmed infections have risen in England.
Figures for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will be published after the new year weekend.
A further 154 people have died within 28 days of a positive test, down from 178 in England the day before.
Updated
Good evening, Harry Taylor here bringing you the latest coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world as we round off the first day of 2022.
If you have any comments, tips or suggestions, drop me an email or get in touch via Twitter @HarryTaylr, where my DMs are open.
Updated
Summary of key events
Below are the latest news stories on Covid-19 from around the world:
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The United Arab Emirates will ban unvaccinated citizens from travelling abroad from 10 January, the state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, citing the foreign ministry and the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority.
- In the UK the NHS Confederation’s chief executive, Matthew Taylor, agreed with the health secretary that the record-breaking Omicron wave of infection will “test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter”, with reports suggesting that a requirement to work from home in England could be in place for most of January.
- Leading figures of UK science and medicine during the coronavirus pandemic have been feted in the Queen’s new year honours list, including the chief medical officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty, who is to receive a knighthood for his role in battling Covid-19.
- The Omicron coronavirus variant dampened new year festivities around much of the world, with Paris cancelling its fireworks show, London relegating its show to television, and New York City scaling down its famous ball-drop celebration in Times Square.
- China ended its final week of 2021 with its biggest tally of local coronavirus cases for any seven-day period since subduing the country’s first epidemic nearly two years ago, despite an arsenal of some of the world’s toughest Covid-19 measures.
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India reported 22,775 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, health ministry data shows, adding to concerns among authorities around the country about the rising number of cases.
- Restrictions on freedom “must be an absolute last resort” and the UK must “live alongside” coronavirus in 2022, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said.
Updated
A health boss has said the “next few days are crucial” in the fight to reduce the impact of the Omicron variant, and that the government “must be ready to introduce new restrictions at pace if they’re needed”.
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts in England, said staff were working “flat out” and that the NHS was under “arguably more pressure” compared with this time last year.
It came after Sajid Javid, the health secretary, warned restrictions on freedom “must be an absolute last resort”. Figures showed that hospital admissions in England have risen to their highest level since January 2021, while the number of NHS hospital staff absent as a result of the the virus nearly doubled in a month.
A further 189,846 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were registered in the UK on Friday, another new daily record, as the British Medical Association called for further public health measures “urgently to prevent the health service being completely overwhelmed”.
Hopson wrote on Twitter: “NHS preparing for worst & hoping for best.
“Staff flat out, esp. given level of staff absences. We will need to ask them to perform flexible heroics again if hospital Covid numbers continue to rise. We can’t keep doing this. Long term NHS capacity issues must be addressed.”
Another, new, update thread on where the NHS is up to, given fast moving situation. Draws on latest performance and covid data and recent intelligence from trust CEOs. Also looks at staff absences, access to tests and NHS work to create extra surge capacity. Happy New Year! 1/25
— Chris Hopson (@ChrisCEOHopson) January 1, 2022
Hopson said the latest infection data showed a “rapid increase in community infections” that is leading to rising hospital admissions.
He added that if growth rates go back up again after the socialising that will have taken place at Christmas, then hospital trusts will have to “start standing up extra surge capacity late next week”. Hopson said this would put pressure “on less-urgent elective activity”.
Hopson said there were fewer severely unwell elderly people needing intensive care treatment, so the problem was “less one of patient acuity” and more “one of sheer volume of patient numbers” needing general and acute beds.
SUMMARY. Pressure and trust leader concern mounting as hospitalisations increase. Next few days crucial. London hospitalisation rates could plateau echoing community infection rates as we hit Xmas. Or they could rise on the back of intergenerational Xmas mixing…23/25
— Chris Hopson (@ChrisCEOHopson) January 1, 2022
Updated
The United Arab Emirates will ban unvaccinated citizens from travelling abroad from 10 January, the state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, citing the foreign ministry and the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority.
The report said that vaccinated citizens would also require a booster shot to be eligible to travel. The ban will not apply to those with medical or humanitarian exemptions.
Updated
Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser to the government says he is “really pleased” to see scientists being recognised in the new year honours list.
I am really pleased to see so many outstanding scientists and engineers recognised in this year’s Honours, including those that have been working tirelessly as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
— Sir Patrick Vallance (@uksciencechief) January 1, 2022
England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, and his deputy, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, have been given knighthoods, along with the chief medical officers for Wales, Dr Frank Atherton, and Scotland, Dr Gregor Smith.
There are also damehoods for Dr Jenny Harries, who leads the UK Health Security Agency, and Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Around a fifth of those recognised have been involved in the fight against Covid.
Updated
The annual New Year’s Day parade in central London has returned after being cancelled last year due to Coronavirus restrictions.
The scaled-back event is just getting under way with this year’s event down to just 600 people in a ticketed arena.
It was a contrast to the 600,000 people that would have normally lined the two-mile route from Piccadilly to Whitehall.
Updated
Germany wants to use its presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) to support the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, has said.
In a tweet, Lindner, party leader of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), junior partner in Olaf Scholz’s three-way ruling coalition said: “Germany has taken over the G7 presidency for 2022 - the G7 countries stand for freedom, democracy and progress.
“With this in mind, we must overcome the pandemic and drive the global economic recovery,” he added.
He also called for a strengthening of efforts to improve climate protection, Reuters reports.
Updated
A leading diabetes doctor who was also among the first to identify the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minority groups has been recognised with a royal honour, PA reports.
Prof Kamlesh Khunti, a University of Leicester scholar, Sage member and GP, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the new year honours list.
Alongside Prof Melanie Davies CBE, Prof Khunti established the globally-recognised Leicester Diabetes Centre, which employs more than 170 researchers.
He has also improved the health of ethnic minority people by leading a body of research throughout the pandemic, and working as chairman of the Sage ethnic sub-panel.
Khunti described being recognised by Buckingham Palace as a “huge honour”, and paid tribute to his colleagues and his family.
Updated
Russia has reported 847 deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours. It also reported 19,751 new coronavirus cases in the same time period, up from 20,638 on the previous day.
Updated
Omicron will lead to 'difficult choices', says UK health boss
The NHS Confederation’s chief executive, Matthew Taylor, agreed with the health secretary the record-breaking Omicron wave of infection will “test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter”, with reports suggesting that a requirement to work from home in England could be in place for most of January.
Taylor also said some hospitals could be forced to exclude visitors as part of the “difficult choices” made to stop the spread of Omicron on wards.
It came as figures showed that hospital admissions in England have risen to their highest level since January 2021, while the number of NHS hospital staff absent because of the virus nearly doubled in a month.
A further 189,846 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were registered in the UK on Friday, another new daily record, as the British Medical Association called for further public health measures “urgently to prevent the health service being completely overwhelmed”.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, a Cambridge University statistician and government adviser, said the actual number of daily cases could be closer to half a million.
Updated
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito offered prayers for those who died during the pandemic, taking to video for the second straight year for his New Year’s greeting, having canceled public palace gatherings to curb coronavirus infections.
Sitting before a bonsai tree with his wife Masako, Naruhito praised and thanked doctors and other health care workers, and expressed concern for countries lacking access to vaccines and adequate hospital systems.
“By treasuring more than ever the connections among people, sharing our pain and supporting each other, I hope from the bottom of my heart that we will overcome these hard times,” he said.
Japan has recorded more than 18,000 Covid-19-related deaths, but the pace of deaths has fallen in recent months. Naruhito also voiced worries about the fast-spreading omicron variant.
Before the pandemic, the imperial palace in central Tokyo would open at the start of each year to cheering, flag-waving crowds. The emperor does not have political power but he carries symbolic significance for Japan and is fairly popular. Naruhito’s father abdicated in 2019. Hirohito, the wartime emperor, was Naruhito’s grandfather.
In the UK, leading figures of science and medicine during the coronavirus pandemic have been feted in the Queen’s new year honours list, including the chief medical officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty, who is to receive a knighthood for his role in battling Covid-19.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, paid tribute to the 1,122 individuals celebrated – 361 receiving a British Empire Medal (BEM), 508 an MBE and 253 an OBE – thanking them for their contribution to the country.
“These recipients have inspired and entertained us and given so much to their communities in the UK or in many cases around the world,” he said. “The honours are an opportunity for us to thank them, as a country, for their dedication and outstanding contribution.”
Updated
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, vowed to further bolster his military capability, maintain draconian anti-virus measures and push hard to improve the economy during a speech at a key political conference this week, state media reported on Saturday.
A state media report on Kim’s speech didn’t carry any comments on dealings with the United States and South Korea. Some experts say this implies Kim has no interest in resuming talks with Washington and Seoul anytime soon and would rather keep his country’s borders closed while seeking a self-reliant economy to overcome pandemic-related difficulties.
“The increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean Peninsula and international politics have instigated calls to vigorously push forward with our national defence build-up plans without any delay,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Kim ordered the production of powerful, modern weapons systems to improve his military forces and called for the military’s “absolute loyalty and allegiance” to the ruling party led by him.
Updated
Covid-19 dampens new year celebrations around the world
The Omicron coronavirus variant dampened New Year festivities around much of the world, with Paris cancelling its fireworks show, London relegating its show to television, and New York City scaling down its famous ball drop celebration in Times Square.
The illuminated ball made of Waterford crystal panels slid down its poll at the midnight hour in Times Square, but only 15,000 spectators were allowed into the official viewing area instead of the usual 58,000.
A year ago, the newly available vaccine offered hope that the pandemic may be under control by the start of 2022. Instead, the sudden arrival of Omicron has brought a surge in coronavirus cases across the globe.
Updated
China ends 2021 with worst Covid week since taming original epidemic
China ended its final week of 2021 with its biggest tally of local coronavirus cases for any seven-day period since subduing the country’s first epidemic nearly two years ago, despite an arsenal of some of the world’s toughest Covid-19 measures.
The National Health Commission reported 175 new community infections with confirmed clinical symptoms for 31 December, bringing the total number of local symptomatic cases in mainland China in the past week to 1,151.
The surge has been driven mostly by an outbreak in the northwestern industrial and tech hub of Xi’an, a city of 13 million.
The deepening outbreak in Xi’an will most likely firm authorities’ resolve to curb transmissions quickly as and when cases emerge. The city, under lockdown for 10 days as of Saturday, has reported 1,451 local symptomatic cases since 9 December, the highest tally for any Chinese city in 2021.
While China’s case count is tiny compared with many outbreaks elsewhere in the world, forestalling major flare-ups in 2022 will be important. Beijing will be hosting the Winter Olympic Games in February, and the ruling Communist party will hold a once-every-five-years congress, expected in the fall, where President Xi Jinping is likely to secure a third term as party secretary.
Updated
India reports more than 22,000 infections in 24 hours
India reported 22,775 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, health ministry data shows, adding to concerns for authorities around the country about the rising number of cases.
The data indicates that thickly populated metros, such as the national capital New Delhi, financial centre Mumbai and Kolkata in the east, are seeing some of the sharpest rises.
In the eastern state of West Bengal, infections rose to 3,450 in the last 24 hours with at least 1,950 cases reported in Kolkata, the capital. Sixteen Omicron cases have been reported in West Bengal.
Kolkata’s municipal corporation declared 17 micro containment zones in residential clusters where more than five infections have been reported. People living in the zones are not allowed to leave the area to try to contain the spread of the disease.
Ajoy Chakrobarty, the state’s director of health services, said he was holding meetings with private hospitals to ensure health facilities are ready to deal with the rising number of cases.
Updated
Limits on freedom in the UK 'last resort', health secretary says
Restrictions on freedom “must be an absolute last resort” and the UK must “live alongside” coronavirus in 2022, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said.
But Javid added the record-breaking Omicron wave of infection will “test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter” as reports suggested a work from home order in England could be in place for most of January to slow the spread of the highly transmissible variant.
Government figures showed a further 189,846 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases had been recorded in the UK on Friday, another new record for daily reported cases. A leading statistician said the actual number of daily cases could be closer to half a million, with the UK going into the new year in the midst of an “unprecedented wave” of infections.
Javid, writing in the Daily Mail, said England had “welcomed in 2022 with some of the least restrictive measures in Europe”, with the UK government at odds with the devolved nations in choosing to keep nightclubs open and to allow hospitality to operate without further measures for new year celebrations.
“Curbs on our freedom must be an absolute last resort and the British people rightly expect us to do everything in our power to avert them,” the health secretary continued.
“Since I came into this role six months ago, I’ve also been acutely conscious of the enormous health, social and economic costs of lockdowns.
“So I’ve been determined that we must give ourselves the best chance of living alongside the virus and avoiding strict measures in the future.”
The cabinet minister said the time lag between infections and hospital admissions meant it was “inevitable that we will still see a big increase” in Covid patients over the next month as he warned that, as the coronavirus crisis entered its third year, the pandemic is “still far from over”.
Welcome to the Coronavirus live feed, where you can follow updates on what is happening surrounding the virus from around the world. If you have any questions, comments or news tips then please send them over to me via any of the channels below.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
