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Brazil reported 171 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday and 8,430 additional cases, according to data released by the nation’s health ministry.
The South American country has now reported a total of 618,705 coronavirus deaths and 22,254,706 total confirmed cases.
The nation has registered a total of 77 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant, according to data from Brazil’s 27 state and district health secretaries.
Summary
Here’s a quick snapshot of how Covid is unfolding across the world:
Europe:
- Omicron “appears to be less severe and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital,” Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and leading immunologist has said.
- UK prime minister Boris Johnson said he will not introduce further Covid restrictions in England before 2022 giving mass events the go-ahead and leaving nightclubs open for New Year’s Eve. Scientists say it is “the greatest divergence between scientific advice and legislation” seen since the start of the pandemic.
- The UK recorded 129,471 new Covid cases on Tuesday, the highest recorded total ever, and up from 98,515 reported yesterday.
- More than 500 children admitted to hospital with Covid in England in week up to Boxing Day.
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France has reduced the waiting time for a third booster shot to three months from four. From Monday, all indoor gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people, and to 5,000 people for outdoor events. Consumption of drinks and food will be banned in long-distance transport and home working will become mandatory for at least three days per week where possible.
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France reported 179,807 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, by far the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
- Denmark and Iceland reported record daily Covid cases on Monday. Denmark now has the world’s highest infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people.
- Denmark has the world’s highest Covid infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people.
- Greece will impose further restrictions from January 3 including the closure of bars and restaurants at midnight, no standing customers at entertainment venues and a maximum limit of six people per table.
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Greece reported a new daily record of 21,657 Covid cases on Tuesday, more than double the number the day before.
- Germany toughens Covid restrictions with indoor and outdoor gatherings restricted in size and leisure facilities closing in several states.
Asia:
- Daily cases in Australia exceeded 10,000 for the second consecutive day, with a total of 11,264 new Covid cases across the country – the highest figure since the beginning of the pandemic.
- In Yan’an, China, hundreds of thousands more people were ordered to stay at home, joining millions under strict lockdown in Xi’an. China’s coronavirus cases rose for a fourth consecutive day on Monday.
- Delhi, India, announces new Covid restrictions. Schools, colleges and educational institutions will close as well as sports complexes, cinemas, conference halls, stadiums and swimming pools. Offices will operate at 50% capacity, as will restaurants with a 10pm curfew.
- Japanese officials have detected a five-person cluster of Omicron cases in the city of Osaka.
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Hong Kong will tighten quarantine rules for air cargo crew.
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Malaysia will cut the booster vaccine waiting time to three months and has banned mass celebrations for New Year’s Eve with negative Covid tests required for private gatherings.
- India has approved Merck’s Covid-19 pill and two more vaccines for emergency use.
United States:
- Omicron accounts for 58.6% of all Covid cases in the US, new CDC data shows. Delta accounts for 41.1% of Covid cases for the week ending 25 December.
- The US recorded 512,553 daily new cases on Tuesday – by far the single highest number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.
- Dr Anthony Fauci said a vaccine mandate should be considered for all passengers in the US.
- The US Centre for Disease Control has reduced the recommended isolation time for people recording a positive test from 10 days to five.
- Joe Biden said the dramatic surge in US Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant “should be a source of concern but it should not be a source of panic”.
Africa:
- South Africa has recalled rules that no longer required people without symptoms of Covid-19 to isolate or test if they have been in contact with a positive case. Last week the health ministry said that asymptomatic individuals who had been in contact with a case of Covid-19 no longer had to isolate but should monitor for symptoms for 5-7 days and avoid attending large gatherings.
Updated
Hello. It’s Samantha Lock back with you on the blog and I hope everyone is well.
As I will be reporting from Sydney here is quick snapshot of how Covid is unfolding across Australia.
The nation’s most populous state of New South Wales recorded 11,201 cases and reports suggest that the state government will seek to wind back isolation times for Covid positive patients. Victoria recorded 3,767. Some states are considering shorter isolation and Queensland border test requirements are changing.
Waiting times at testing sites in NSW and Victoria have been overwhelmed, with reports the system is being strained. Some have reported queuing for hours and being turned away, and many have reported waiting up to six days for results.
South Australia saw a huge surge in cases, recording 995 yesterday, with concerns numbers could continue to rise. Premier Steven Marshall told reporters the numbers were “doubling every three to four days”.
The ACT also recorded its highest daily case numbers yesterday, reporting 252 new cases.
Updated
More than 500 children admitted to hospital with Covid in England in week up to Boxing Day
A total of 512 children were admitted to hospitals in England with Covid-19 in the week leading up to Boxing Day, new figures show.
The numbers, released on the government’s coronavirus dashboard, showed 59 children aged under 5 were admitted to hospital between Christmas Day and Boxing Day alone.
A further 50 children in this same age group were admitted to hospital in the 24 hours prior.
From 19 to 26 December, a total of 226 children aged 6 to 17 were admitted to hospital with Covid. Over that same duration, 286 children under the age of 5 were admitted to hospital.
In comparison, 256 children aged 17 and under were admitted into hospital in the last week of November. Of those, 100 were aged under five and 156 aged between six and 17.
The mass fatalities and packed intensive care units that marked the pandemic’s first year will likely not be repeated in the UK, a scientist advising the government has said.
Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, told The Independent that vaccines based on early iterations of the virus appear to have remained highly effective at protecting against severe disease and deaths from subsequent waves driven by new variants.
“The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago – intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely – that is now history in my view and I think we should reassured that that’s likely to continue,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
South Africa has scrapped rules that no longer required people without Covid-19 symptoms to isolate or test if they have been in contact with a positive case, the government has announced.
The decision comes after health authorities said on Thursday they would stop contact tracing everywhere except places like prisons and schools, as they believed most of the population had already been exposed to the virus through vaccination or infection.
Under last week’s rules, contact cases would only have to do a test if they started developing symptoms. If they tested positive, they were to isolate for 10 days then resume their activities as normal after recovery without another test.
“The department of health has been inundated with media, stakeholders and public enquiries and comments since the release of the revised protocols,” it said today.
“The department has decided to put the implementation of the revised policy changes on hold, while taking all... comments and inputs received into consideration.”
Officials said a new “amended circular” would be re-issued once all comments had been assessed.
Quebec’s health minister Christian Dubé has announced some health care workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 will continue working.
The second most populous Canadian province has “no choice” but to allow some Covid infected essential workers to continue working to prevent staff shortages from impeding its healthcare services, Dubé told reporters at a briefing today.
“Omicron’s contagion is so exponential, that a huge number of personnel have to be withdrawn – and that poses a risk to the network capacity to treat Quebecers,” he said.
“We made the decision that under a certain condition positive staff will be able to continue working according to a list of priority and risk management,” he said, adding that more information would be provided in the coming days.
Quebec, which has been setting daily records since the Omicron variant started a new wave of rapidly rising infections, recorded 12,833 new cases on Monday – the highest one-day count of any region in Canada during the pandemic.
Last week, Quebec ordered bars, gyms and casinos to shut and directed people to work only from home. It also limited the size of gatherings at private homes and restaurants to six people.
Thousands of New Year’s Eve revellers are expected to escape strict Covid-19 restrictions in Wales by hopping across the border to visit nightspots in English towns and cities.
Leaders of the nightlife industry in Wales are angry that they will lose trade to their counterparts in England because Welsh nightclubs have been ordered to shut and pubs told to put in social distancing measures.
But the Welsh government said on Tuesday that its restrictions were proportionate, with the latest seven-day coronavirus rate per 100,000 people rising to 1,004 – the highest since the pandemic began. About 6,000 new infections are being confirmed daily, the majority caused by the Omicron variant.
Nick Newman, the chair of the Cardiff Licensees Forum, said he expected many people to leave Wales for England. “It’s 40 minutes from Newport to Bristol and it’s easy to get from north Wales into Manchester or Liverpool. English businesses are going to benefit.
“We’re hugely disappointed with the stance the Welsh government is taking, especially not presenting the evidence that links the virus to the hospitality industry.”
Mark Finlay, the operations manager for a number of pubs and bars in Wrexham, which is close to the border, said people were bound to pop over to places like Chester for a night out with few restrictions.
“It’s frustrating that a few minutes down the road you can celebrate a normal New Year’s Eve but we’re not allowed that opportunity here. For us it will be an average night serving people at tables. There won’t be the normal party atmosphere. I’m fully expecting everyone to go to Chester.”
Read the full article here:
Updated
US reports single highest number of daily cases
According to data by Johns Hopkins University, the US recorded 512,553 daily new cases today – by far the single highest number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. The previous record was 294,015 set on 8 January 2021.
One mitigating factor is the delay in reporting over the Christmas weekend. Many testing centres were likely closed over the holiday, meaning some test results would have been likely rolled over to Monday and today.
Germany’s highest court has ruled that disabled people must be protected by legally binding guidelines in case hospitals are forced to introduce a triage system as the country braces itself for a new, more infectious wave of coronavirus.
The constitutional court announced its decision on Tuesday, ordering legislators to create a legal framework that would prevent disabled people from being unfairly treated.
It urged the state to establish a criteria to which doctors would have to refer before deciding which patients received lifesaving treatment if intensive care units were overwhelmed and resources were exhausted.
The case was brought by a group of nine people with disabilities and pre-existing medical conditions who feared that current medical guidelines would not protect them from being overlooked or disregarded if they became seriously ill with Covid-19.
Read the full article here:
Updated
Cyprus reports record daily high of 2,241 new cases
Cyprus has recorded its highest single-day number of cases with 2,241 infections, up from 1,925 the day before.
To date, Cyprus has reported 154,926 cases and 630 deaths, Reuters reports.
“I think this is due to the Omicron variant, which may have arrived earlier than we thought,” said Petros Karayiannis, professor of microbiology and molecular virology at the University of Nicosia and a member of the government’s scientific advisory committee.
The first confirmed case of the Omicron variant was recorded in Cyprus on 10 December. More than 80% of residents have received two doses of a Covid vaccine.
Updated
In Turkey, figures by the health ministry show daily cases have exceeded 30,000 for the first time since 19 October.
Turkish authorities reported 32,176 cases and 184 deaths today. The country’s daily caseload has risen in recent days due to the Omicron variant, with daily cases surging by 30% on Monday.
“Bringing case numbers to the 20,000 level was a serious achievement,” Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said. “Due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, it can be seen we are now entering a rising trend.”
Updated
The number of children being admitted to hospital in New York City has increased fivefold this month as paediatric Covid cases and hospitalisations across the US continue to rise. Paediatric hospitalisations in New York City jumped from 22 to 109 in the week ending 23 December.
Nationwide, paediatric hospitalisations rose by 35% in the past week, CNN reports.
“I think we are going to see more numbers now than we have ever seen,” said Dr Stanley Spinner, the chief medical officer and vice president at Texas Children’s paediatric and urgent care units in Houston.
“Cases are continuing to rise between Christmas gatherings and we’re going to continue to see more numbers this week from that.”
Earlier today, New York’s acting state health commissioner said the risk of Covid for children was “real”. “We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in paediatric Covid-19 admissions so that paediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers,” she said.
Updated
Greece reports record daily high of 21,657 new cases
Greece reported a new daily record of 21,657 Covid cases today, more than double the number the day before.
The previous record was 9,284 cases, set on Monday. That figure was more than double Sunday’s figure of 4,036.
Of the new infections, 9,882 were reported in Attica and 2,665 in Thessaloniki.
A further 60 deaths were also reported, slightly down from 66 the previous day.
Updated
The joint head of the largest nursing union in the US has warned that new federal guidance reducing the isolation time for asymptomatic people infected with Covid-19 will increase the spread of the virus.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated guidance on Monday halving the recommended isolation time from 10 days to five days.
Speaking to CNN, Jean Ross, the co-president of National Nurses United, said: “It’s only going to lead to more illness, more cases.”
Ross argued that reducing isolation time during a surge of the Omicron variant was misguided. “This is when you should be tightening your controls, not lessening [them],” she said.
Her comments came as new data released today by the CDC estimated that the Omicron variant accounted for 58.6% of cases circulating in the country for the week ending 25 December.
Updated
France reports record high of 179,807 new cases
France reported 179,807 new confirmed cases in a 24-hour period today, by far the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
The previous highest daily number, 104,611 cases, was recorded on Saturday.
Updated
Portugal reports record Covid cases but hospitalisations remain low
Portugal reported a record 17,172 new cases today, beating the previous high of 16,432 cases in late January this year.
Despite the rise in cases, the number of people admitted to hospital and intensive care with Covid-19 is a fraction of the peak reached during Portugal’s winter wave. The latest data showed hospitals had 936 patients with Covid, compared with a peak of 6,869 on 1 February.
In the last 24 hours, 19 further deaths have been recorded, compared to a peak of 303 deaths reported on 28 January.
Official data showed the Omicron variant, which has fuelled a sharp rise in cases across Europe, representing 61.5% of all new cases in the country.
With about 87% of its 10 million population vaccinated and almost 2.4 million people having received a third booster jab, Portugal has one of the world’s highest Covid vaccination rates. The United Arab Emirates is the only country with a higher proportion of vaccinated people.
Updated
Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest global development on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
The UK’s care minister has said people should enjoy themselves but exercise caution when celebrating the new year. Speaking to BBC News, Gillian Keegan advised that people should take a lateral flow test before going out and celebrate in well-ventilated areas.
“I’ve been to a couple of outdoor parties,” she said. “Just be cautious but do try to enjoy yourself as well.”
Updated
Covid cases in the UK have reached a record high, with 129,471 new cases reported on Tuesday in England and Wales, as the Omicron variant continues to fuel a winter wave of infections.
While official data was not provided for Scotland and Northern Ireland, a record 117,093 cases – infections that are picked up through testing – were reported for England, up from a previous high of 113,628 on Christmas Day.
Despite the incomplete nature of the data, the total number of cases reported on Tuesday for England and Wales is higher than the previous record for the entire UK.
The UK Health Security Agency reported 17,269 additional confirmed cases of the Omicron variant across England and Northern Ireland, with the total number of confirmed cases in the UK to date at 177,201 – although such figures are a significant underestimate.
Data from NHS England released on Tuesday revealed that the number of patients in hospital had risen by more than 1,000 in the space of a day, with 9,546 beds occupied by people with Covid on Tuesday, compared with 8,474 the day before – although some trusts, thought to have about 220 Covid patients in total based on recent submissions, did not report their figures for Monday.
Tuesday’s figure is a 38% increase on that reported on 21 December and the highest since 3 March, although still far below the peak last winter of more than 34,000.
Read the full article here:
Updated
UK reports highest daily cases of 129,471
The UK recorded 129,471 new Covid cases on Tuesday, the government’s Covid dashboard says. This is the highest recorded total ever, and up from 98,515 reported yesterday. The previous record high of daily infections was 122,186 on 24 December.
The data is not complete as it does not include figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland due to differences in reporting practices over the Christmas holidays. The 12,378 cases reported for Wales included data that would normally have been reported in previous days.
A further 18 deaths were also reported. This data is incomplete due to the holiday period, so the true figures are likely to be higher.
Here’s the breakdown of cases:
- England – 117,093
- Scotland – no data yet
- Wales – 12,378
- Northern Ireland – no data yet
Updated
Severin Carrell, Scotland editor
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has predicted that Omicron case numbers will continue to rise in Scotland as she prepared to address Holyrood about further possible restrictions on Wednesday.
The latest provisional data showed 9,360 new cases were recorded in Scotland on Tuesday, after a record daily high of 11,030 recorded on Boxing Day, with 10,562 cases detected on Monday. Confirmed daily case numbers for the Christmas period are expected to be published on Wednesday.
Jason Leitch, the Scottish government’s national clinical director, told the BBC earlier the present Omicron wave was likely to peak in mid to late January across the UK, or possibly early February. He said it may yet become an “enormous wave” dwarfing the current case numbers.
“The modelling suggests that we won’t see the big numbers, and that seems terrifying, having [9,000] to 10 and 11,000, you won’t see the big numbers for two to three weeks yet,” he said.
Sturgeon urged people to take up the offer of booster vaccinations and to act as cautiously as possible this week, particularly around Hogmanay and New Year’s Day. Many organised Hogmanay events have been cancelled.
She said:
While these figures remain provisional, the significantly increased transmissibility of Omicron is reflected in the steep increase in cases now materialising, and we would expect to see case numbers rise further in the days to come.
[We] must not underestimate the impact of Omicron. Even if the rate of hospitalisation associated with it is lower than past strains of the virus, case numbers this high will still put an inevitable further strain on the NHS, and create significant levels of disruption due to sickness absence across the economy and critical services.
Updated
England recorded highest number of Covid hospitalisations since early February on Boxing Day
There were 1,374 Covid-19 hospital admissions in England on 26 December, NHS England said.
This is up 48% week-on-week and is the highest number since 11 February.
During the second wave of coronavirus, admissions peaked at 4,134 on 12 January.
In London, 374 admissions were reported on 26 December, up 53% week-on-week but slightly below the 390 admissions reported on 23 December.
Admissions during the second wave peaked in London at 977 on 6 January, PA reports.
The number of Covid-19 admissions includes people admitted to hospital in the previous 24 hours who were known to have Covid-19, plus any patients diagnosed in hospital with Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours.
A total of 9,546 people in England were in hospital with Covid-19 as of 8am on 28 December, according to figures from NHS England, a rise of 38% from a week earlier and the highest number since 3 March.
During the second wave, this number peaked at 34,336 on 18 January.
In London, 3,024 people were in hospital with Covid-19 on 28 December, up 59% week-on-week and the highest number since 19 February.
London’s peak in the second wave was 7,917 on 18 January.
Updated
Demand for free Covid-19 testing kits provided by Madrid’s regional government, which is relying on increased testing instead of restrictions on socialising, far outstripped supply on Tuesday, with long queues forming outside pharmacies, Reuters reports.
Madrid-based pharmacist Cristina Sanchez said she had only received 20 test kits to distribute on Tuesday as part of a plan to reinforce supply after pharmacies started running out of paid tests, but there were already more than 30 people waiting ouside when she opened.
Fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant, cases in Spain have soared in the past month, pushing the national 14-day incidence to a record 1,206 cases per 100,000 people on Monday, a five-fold rise since the beginning of December.
Despite the surge, hospital admissions and intensive-care occupancy remain well below the peaks of last January.
The government reintroduced an outdoor mask mandate last week, but has so far not attempted to reimpose any tougher national restrictions.
However, regional administrations, which are responsible for implementing their own health policy, have introduced measures ranging from a night curfew in Catalonia to limits on social gatherings and bar opening times.
Denmark becomes country with world's highest Covid infection rate
Denmark has the world’s highest Covid infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people.
The country of 5.8 million reported a new record on Monday for daily infections and now has the highest recorded incidence of the virus in the world.
New daily cases exceeded 15,000 for the first time, with health authorities registering 16,164 Covid-19 cases in 24 hours. The 16,164 positive results came from 130,686 PCR tests, giving a remarkably high positivity rate of 12.4%.
As of last week, the Omicron variant is the dominant form of the virus in the country.
The five countries with the highest case rates over the last seven days were all European, according to statistics compiled by news wire AFP and drawn from official sources.
The numbers, taken from statistics bureau Our World in Data on 27 December, place Denmark as the country with the highest incidence of the virus.
There is, however, a large variation in the amount of testing undertaken by different countries, with Denmark among the countries that carries out the most tests per resident.
Updated
Tuesday summary
Here’s a roundup of the latest news on Omicron and Covid from around the world.
- The Delhi government announced lockdown-like restrictions as the Omicron variant spreads, with certain public venues shuttered and others at 50% capacity or facing curfews, impacting the Indian city’s more than 19 million people.
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China shut down the city of Yan’an, joining Xi’an as millions are now locked down to prevent Omicron taking hold.
- Malaysia banned New Year’s Eve mass celebrations and people will require negative tests for private celebrations.
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Japan reported its first suspected Omicron cluster in Osaka, leading to fears of community transmission despite Japan’s strict border policies.
- Wales reported 12,378 Covid cases in the past 48 hours, with the UK reporting 17,269 new Omicron cases in the past 24 hours.
- Scotland is suffering with up to five-day PCR test waiting times, and England is experiencing a shortage of lateral flow tests that threatens New Year’s Eve celebrations.
- Hospitality bosses in England welcomed news of no further restrictions over the new year. Meanwhile, a leading immunologist said Omicron is “not same disease as a year ago” and horrific levels of UK deaths are “now history.”
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Indonesia detected its first Omicron case, in a 37-year-old man.
- France reduced the waiting time for a third booster shot to three months from four in response to the rapid spread of Omicron.
- Omicron cases make up 58.6% of US Covid cases, CDC data showed.
- Also in the US, top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci suggested the federal government should consider a vaccine mandate for domestic air travel.
- Globally, 3,500 flights were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday as airlines crews become infected with the Omicron Covid strain.
- The S&P 500, the benchmark US stock market index, opened at record highs after four buoyant days as investors shrug off Omicron concerns.
- Health authorities in Denmark are concerned over low vaccination rates for children ahead of the 5 January return to schools and urged parents to come forward.
That’s all from me, Jem Bartholomew in London, for today. I’ll be back on Thursday. Do get in touch with tips and stories via email or on Twitter for then. Bye for now.
Updated
There have been a bunch of changes recently around the world on Covid isolation rules.
My colleague Nicola Davis has this helpful explainer on how long people with Covid are infectious and how isolation rules differ internationally.
Public health authorities in the UK and US cited data on infectiousness when cutting their isolation times from 10 days to seven and five, respectively.
Dr Richard Tedder, a member of the Clinical Virology Network, said the shift was a compromise, and was based on the assumption that people with two negative tests are unlikely to transmit coronavirus to contacts.
“On a balance of probabilities this is probably correct,” he said, although he suggested the situation may be different for some people, such as those who are immunosuppressed, and it may not hold if future variants are not picked up by lateral flow tests.
But not everyone agrees – paricularly in the US, where a negative test is not required.
Dr Michael Mina, an assistant professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, noted that some people can stay infectious for 12 days, so testing is crucial. “I absolutely don’t want to sit next to someone who turned positive five days ago and hasn’t tested [negative],” he said on Twitter.
CDC’s new guidance to drop isolation of positives to 5 days without a negative test is reckless
— Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) December 27, 2021
Some ppl stay infectious 3 days,Some 12
I absolutely don’t want to sit next to someone who turned Pos 5 days ago and hasnt tested Neg
Test Neg to leave isolation early is just smart
Updated
UK reports 17,269 new Omicron cases amid PCR test waits and LFT shortages
The UK Health Security Agency detected 17,269 new cases of the Omicron variant in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to 177,201 identified through sequencing.
The majority of tests are not sequenced, so the figure is likely to be far higher. (Wales has not reported case numbers since 23 December. Scotland is no longer separating Omicron from other cases.)
The number of people in England who have died with the Omicron variant has risen to 49, the UKHSA said. Hospitalisations reached a total of 668 in England.
It comes as PCR tests are taking up to five days for results in Scotland and a shortage of lateral flow tests in England threaten New Year’s Eve plans.
Updated
Record demand in Scotland for PCR tests has left some families waiting up to five days for results over the Christmas period.
Some people taking tests on 23 December only got them back on 28 December, the BBC reports. The normal waiting time is within 48 hours.
Both Scotland and England detected record-level daily case numbers over the Christmas period, with infections peaking provisionally in Scotland at 11,030 on 26 December.
“I couldn’t see my mum on Christmas Day and my dad couldn’t see his partner. It was all a bit strange,” teacher Matthew Campbell from Dundee told the BBC. Campbell spent Christmas Day in isolation awaiting a PCR test taken on 23 December – only for it to be negative on 28 December.
The BBC has more details:
The UK Health Security Agency apologised to those waiting “a little longer” for their result. They said they were adding extra capacity to their laboratories to meet “exceptional demand”.
Scotland’s national clinical director, Jason Leitch, told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland the delays were caused by the scale of demand. “Quite a lot of people went for testing before Christmas in order to try and get Christmas celebrations that were safe if they had symptoms, or if they had contact,” he said. “So I apologise for that, I’m sorry if people had to wait a little bit longer.”
Updated
Shortages in England of lateral flow tests and lack of walk-in test slots are threatening to undermine the UK government’s plans for New Year’s Eve celebrations to go ahead unimpeded, the Guardian reports.
Some community pharmacies in rural areas said they had not received deliveries of LFTs since early last week, although many remained closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the extended bank holidays.
People turning to the NHS website were also out of luck: on Tuesday morning it said no delivery slots for LFTs were available, for the second day in a row. But by mid-afternoon deliveries were again being offered, with a warning that the LFT kits could take three days to arrive.
The UK Health Security Agency said it encouraged people to revisit the sites “every few hours” if they were unable to order tests, as more would become available, and to use any tests they may already have before ordering or collecting more kits.
A UKHSA spokesperson said: “Despite unprecedented demand, we are continuing to supply millions of rapid lateral flow tests every day. Our total delivery capacity has doubled to 900,000 test kits per day since Saturday 18 December so more people can order tests.”
Read the full story here.
Updated
The S&P 500, the US’s benchmark stock market index widely used as a barometer of economic confidence, opened on Tuesday at a record high.
It follows four buoyant days in global markets as investors shrug off Omicron concerns amid studies of potentially lessened severity and new drugs to treat the virus. Reuters reports:
The [benchmark] S&P 500 and [tech-heavy] Nasdaq index on Monday posted their best four-day rally since November 2020, with the S&P 500 scaling a peak as an upbeat outlook on the US economy helped investors look past thousands of flight cancellations and Apple shutting its New York stores due to surging cases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days.
The CDC’s update along with approvals to new pills and more vaccines to fight Covid have all helped put the three main indexes on pace for monthly gains.
“This policy change is sending the message that it is becoming more like the flu and less like the variants we saw early on when we had no treatments, no vaccines and it was much more deadly,” Thomas Hayes, the managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York, told Reuters.
It comes after a leading UK immunologist told the BBC on Tuesday that Omicron is “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago” and high UK Covid death rates are “now history”.
Updated
In the US, National Basketball Association (NBA) players who test positive for Covid now have a quicker path to return to play, AP reports, after the league cut isolation times from 10 to six days for vaccinated asymptomatic players.
The NBA has seen coronavirus numbers soar in recent days, even with 97% of players vaccinated and at least 65% of eligible players boosted against the virus.
It follows a move from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to cut the isolation period for people testing Covid-positive from 10 to five days. Officials said that data shows people are most infectious in the two days before, and three days after, symptoms appear.
Read the full NBA story here.
Updated
Health authorities in Denmark are concerned over low vaccination rates for children ahead of the 5 January return to schools.
Currently, 38% of children aged five to 11 have had at least one dose, the Copenhagen Post reports, leading ministers to urge parents to get their kids vaccinated as soon as possible to prevent a new-term surge.
“We can see that it had a beneficial effect on infection among the younger age groups when the schools were shut down before Christmas,” the health minister, Magnus Heunicke, said. “But we still need to vaccinate more of the youngest schoolkids so the infection doesn’t skyrocket in the schools when they open in January.”
Omicron has seen new cases climb in Denmark. The country reported 16,164 new Covid cases on Monday, the Post reports, more than doubling the 7,799 new infections on Monday two weeks ago.
Denmark currently has one of the highest per capita Covid rates in the world, local media TV 2 reports, with 1,612 cases of infection per 100,000 people last week.
Updated
US Covid cases are 58.6% Omicron – CDC
Omicron accounts for 58.6% of all Covid cases in the US, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows.
Delta accounts for 41.1% of Covid cases for the week ending 25 December. (The remaining 0.3% is made up of other variants.)
The drastic rise of the highly mutated strain comes after the US reported its first Omicron case on 1 December. Omicron has pushed cases up to record levels in some states and sparked a rush for the delivery of booster jabs in efforts to beat back the variant.
The new data comes after Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser, said the US should consider making vaccination mandatory for domestic air travel, to push up the vaccination compliance rate.
Updated
Ukraine detected 2,248 new positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, a 71% decrease from the 7,716 new cases on Tuesday two weeks ago.
Ukraine saw spiking cases in late October and early November, sometimes above 20,000 or 25,000 a day, but cases have receded in recent weeks. (Some countries are reporting lower numbers over the holiday period.)
A further 134 Covid-related deaths were recorded, a 68% decrease on two weeks ago, and 944 hospitalisations were reported. Ukraine’s death toll is now 95,105, the world’s 15th highest.
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Wales reports 12,378 Covid cases in past 48 hours
Public Health Wales has reported a new 12,378 Covid cases over the latest 48-hour period and warned the country is quickly catching up with the rates seen in England.
Wales was stable at about 2,500-3,000 new cases every day until Omicron hit the UK. The seven-day case rate per 100,000 is now up to 918.
The Labour-led Welsh government is under fire for imposing stricter restrictions than England, with bosses in the night-time industry warning they are being unfairly hit, especially on New Year’s Eve.
The Tories in Wales are demanding to see the science behind the government’s decisions. The party’s leader in the Welsh parliament, Andrew RT Davies, said: “It’s unacceptable that Labour ministers have failed to publish the scientific advice and evidence behind the latest Covid restrictions in Wales.
“The public health picture is challenging for ministers of all stripes across the UK, but full transparency on the data and information behind decision-making is crucial.
“Many Welsh businesses will be severely hit this Christmas and new year, and I can understand their anger and frustration given they’re not being afforded the advice that’s provided to ministers.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said: “The Omicron variant is causing a rapid rise in coronavirus cases across Wales.
“Already, people are off work sick, putting essential services under strain, and we expect this situation to get worse.
“New protections have been put into place to help businesses continue to trade and updated and strengthened guidance has been issued to help people stay safe in their homes. We all need to do everything we can to protect ourselves and keep Wales safe.”
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Bangladesh began its booster vaccination drive today in a bid to ward off the highly mutated Omicron variant.
Health officials said frontline workers and the over-60s will be first in line to get the booster jab, with the campaign starting in the capital, Dhaka.
About 27% of Bangladesh’s population is double vaccinated, Reuters reports.
Two Omicron cases have been detected so far – in two travellers returning from Zimbabwe – but community transmission is yet to be confirmed.
Updated
Really interesting opinion article on burnout for The Guardian here: I thought I could plough through the pandemic without burning out. I was wrong.
The rapid spread of the Omicron variant brings home the difficult truth: the moment isn’t going to come “when all this is over”. The pandemic isn’t like a war, to be survived until the day when peace is made, and we can all exhale and begin picking up the pieces. It’s a new reality that will, at best, gradually fade into the background as the threat recedes and our coping strategies improve.
The problem is that our bodies aren’t designed to cope with this. As Emily and Amelia Nagoski point out in their book Burnout, our stress response is designed to help us run away from lions. It is something we are supposed to move through: it has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Writer Christine Berry goes on to discuss her own experience with burnout.
I learned this the hard way when I burned out at the end of July. Like many people, I thought I could just plough on through the pandemic and still meet my own wildly unrealistic expectations of myself.
In my case, this meant juggling parenthood with writing my first solo book and taking on a new senior leadership role. As it turned out, I was spectacularly wrong. After several months wrestling with anxiety, depression and fatigue, I finally faced up to reality and decided to step away from the new job. It was wrenching, but I just couldn’t ignore the message my body was giving me: I had to slow down.
Read the full story here, including how it is important to “find ways to deal with our stress, calm our nervous systems and make our bodies feel safer.”
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The multibillion-pound world’s fair in Dubai has warned that some venues on site may shut down as Covid cases rapidly rise in the United Arab Emirates, AP reports.
Dubai’s Expo 2020 said that virus outbreaks among staff may force some parts of the fair to “close temporarily for deep cleaning and sanitisation,” without elaborating on the scope or the location of the infections.
The UAE’s daily virus caseload has skyrocketed by a multiple of 37 in just the last three weeks after the arrival of the Omicron variant.
The vague statement from Dubai’s government-run media office on Monday underscores the daunting challenges of hosting among the world’s first major in-person events amid a still-raging pandemic. The fair opened in October after a year’s delay as the UAE bet that its rapid vaccine rollout would allow its economy to avoid the closures that have paralysed much of the west.
With Dubai’s peak winter tourism season in full swing, the world’s fair has vaulted into the spotlight. Millions of tourists from around the world are flocking to the sprawling site packed with scores of national pavilions, restaurants, shops and performance stages.
Updated
Lockdown-like restrictions announced in Delhi, India
The government of Delhi, India on Tuesday announced more restrictions amid rising Omicron cases, the Times of India reports.
The city of about 19 million people will enter lockdown-like restrictions after it reported a further 63 Omicron cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 142. (The number is likely to be much higher.)
“As the Covid-19 positivity rate has been above 0.5% for the past few days, we are enforcing Level-I (yellow alert) of the Graded Response Action Plan,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
The new restrictions include, the Times of India reports, among other things:
- Schools, colleges and other educational institutions closed
- Sports complexes, cinemas, conference halls, stadiums and swimming pools closed
- Offices at 50% maximum capacity
- Restaurants and bars at 50% maximum capaicty with a 10pm curfew
- Delhi Metro at 50% seating capacity and no standing
It comes after India reports 671 total Omicron cases sequenced so far.
Despite the severity of India’s Delta wave providing some barrier of protection from antibodies, there are fears Omicron could re-infect people – and that the high use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which studies have showed to be less effective against Omicron, could provoke a new wave.
Updated
Japan reports first suspected Omicron cluster
Japanese officials have detected a five-person cluster of Omicron cases in the city of Osaka, local media agency Kyodo reports.
It follows days of anxiety over Omicron community transmission in Japan, which has imposed strict border restrictions in attempts to shut out the variant.
The cluster relates to five people in a nursing home. Omicron has been detected beforehand but this is the first suspected cluster, Kyodo reports.
Prime minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday Japan is prepared for a domestic outbreak. “Using the time we bought through strengthened border controls, we have accelerated efforts to enhance the process of prevention, testing and early treatment,” he said.
Japan detected 214 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, the Japan Times reports, a 67% increase on the 128 on Tuesday two weeks ago. No Covid deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours.
Updated
Omicron “not same disease as a year ago” – UK scientist
Omicron is “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago” and high Covid death rates in the UK are “now history”, a leading immunologist has said.
Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and the UK government’s life sciences adviser, said that although hospitalisations had increased in recent weeks as Omicron spreads through the population, the disease “appears to be less severe and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital”. Fewer patients were needing high-flow oxygen and the average length of stay was down to three days, he said.
“The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago of intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely, that is now history, in my view, and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue,” Bell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
For the full story, read my colleague’s report here.
Updated
Poland reported 9,843 positive Covid infections today, a 44% drop on the 17,460 cases detected on Tuesday two weeks ago.
Poland saw high case numbers often over 25,000 a day in late-November and early-December. In recent weeks cases have receded, but Omicron is driving fears of a new wave.
A further 549 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, local media Polskie Radio reports, bringing Poland’s total fatalities to 94,914, the world’s 16th highest.
New restrictions – tighter quarantine rules for people living with a Covid-infected person, and the closure or capacity-limitation of certain public venues – were implemented this month.
Poland currently has 21,283 patients with Covid in hospitals, the health ministry said, and 250,422 people are quarantined after exposure.
Updated
France will offer intensive care nurses a bonus of €100 a month, prime minister Jean Castex said, to improve working conditions for exhausted frontline staff.
“This is about improving attractiveness, training, qualification, working conditions in intensive care units, acknowledging the skills of those who work there,” Castex said.
A broader set of measures for preventing staff shortages will be announced next week by health minister Olivier Veran.
Hong Kong will tighten quarantine rules for air cargo crew in efforts to block spread of the highly-infectious Omicron variant.
Currently, travellers into Hong Kong must quarantine in hotels, whereas air cargo crew are permitted to quarantine at home. New rules will see them spend three days in hotels before going home.
It comes after several Omicron cases have been identified by regular testing during people’s qurantine period.
Hong Kong, like China, pursues a “zero Covid” strategy, seeing it impose some of the world’s strictest travel restrictions to keep out the virus. Authorities seek to avoid community transmission of Covid entirely.
Last week Yuen Kwok-yung, a government advisor, told CNBC the zero Covid border policy will remain until around 95% of the eligible population is vaccinated. Currently, 72.1% of the total population has been jabbed with at least one dose.
Hospitality in England welcomes news of no further restrictions
Hospitality bosses in England have welcomed UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that no retrictions will be imposed to suppress Covid until at least the new year.
The prime minister’s decision gives mass gatherings on New Year’s Eve the green light after days of speculation new measures might be imposed to tackle record-breaking Covid levels.
Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of UKHospitality, the industry body, said: “Britain’s hospitality businesses will be raising a New Years toast to celebrate the government’s pragmatic and proportionate approach. This will give a real lifeline for many who have struggled with the loss of trade in the run up to Christmas and the loss of New Year on top of that would have been devastating for many.”
She added: ‘This will be a welcome boost and keeping restrictions to a minimum and lifting the remaining restrictions as quickly as possible to help the beleaguered sector back onto the road to recovery.”
Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association (Nita), which represents bars, pubs, nightclubs, restaurants and entertainment venues, said that the decision had come after “an extremely anxious few weeks for our sector”, but he was pleased that the PM had listened.
Kill said: “Our industry can now start to plan with some certainty over the next week, and make up for lost time promoting one of the key nights of the year in the coming days.
New Years is on!! Amazing News!!
— Night Time Industries Association (@wearethentia) December 27, 2021
Michael Kill CEO NTIA Says
“Following an extremely anxious few weeks for our sector, we are pleased that the Prime Minister has listened to us, and announced today that no further restrictions will be implemented before New Year.” #Savenightlife pic.twitter.com/TMhc2Ds6IX
British Chambers of Commerce president Baroness McGregor-Smith welcomed the announcement on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, but warned the hospitality sector needed additional support.
“I am delighted to see that we are protecting New Year’s Eve but it just won’t go far enough,” she said.
For more on the reaction from hospitality in England, read this Guardian report.
Updated
Malaysia bans New Year's Eve mass celebrations
Malaysia has banned mass celebrations for New Year’s Eve and said negative Covid tests will be required for private gatherings, Reuters reports.
Malaysia also lifted its travel ban on eight southern African nations given the Omicron variant’s rapid spread around the world.
Malaysia reported 2,897 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, local media the New Straits Times reports.
Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin told reporters Malaysia is also cutting the booster vaccine waiting time to three months.
Updated
Russia detected 21,922 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, a 21% decrease on the 27,910 cases recorded on Tuesday two weeks ago.
Russia experienced spiking cases in early-November and has seen its cases recede in recent weeks. But deaths still remain high.
A further 935 people died from Covid-related causes, a 16% decrease ion the 1,114 deaths on Tuesday two weeks ago. The Moscow Times reports that Russia’s excess deaths since the pandemic began is over 810,000.
There are concerns the highly-mutated Omicron strain might provoke a surge in new infections, after a study earlier this month found Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine provides little or no protection against Omicron.
Last Tuesday Russian authorities said 41 Omicron cases had been detected, but the number is likely to be much higher.
As UK prime minister Boris Johnson said he will not introduce further Covid restrictions in England before 2022 – giving the go-ahead for mass gatherings on 31 December – let’s take a look at the latest Covid stats on cases and hospitalisations.
Here are the UK’s record-breaking infections in recent weeks. (Some figures for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland were not released over Christmas.)
And here’s the hospitalisation figures, which ministers have said will guide their decisions on restrictions. We’re yet to see what impact the latest wave of cases, driven by Omicron, will have. Some experts have warned that despite the potential lessened severity of Omicron it could still overwhelm the health service.
This is Jem Bartholomew in London taking charge of the global Covid blog for today. Do get in touch with tips or stories, it’s always great to hear from readers.
Updated
Summary
I’ll be handing over blogging duties shortly, but if you’re just joining us these are the main developments in the pandemic in the past several hours:
- Thousands more flights have been cancelled by airlines around the world, causing chaotic scenes at airports at one of the busiest times of the year for travel. Carriers scrapped 2,700 flights on Monday and a further 800 have already been dropped from Tuesday’s schedules. Dr Anthony Fauci said a vaccine mandate should be considered for all passengers in the US.
- Hundreds of thousands more people were ordered to stay at home in northern China on Tuesday, joining millions under strict lockdown in Xi’an as the government tries to contain a worsening outbreak of Covid-19.
- Boris Johnson will not introduce further Covid restrictions in England before 2022, giving mass events the go-ahead and leaving nightclubs open for New Year’s Eve – in contrast with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scientists said it was “the greatest divergence between scientific advice and legislation” seen since the start of the pandemic.
- The US Centre for Disease Control has reduced the recommended isolation time for people recording a positive test from 10 days to five. The CDC said these changes reflect the latest data on when the virus is most contagious.
- Joe Biden said the dramatic surge in US Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant “should be a source of concern but it should not be a source of panic”.
- France has narrowed the delay for a third booster shot to three months from four in response to the rapid spread of Omicron but there will be no curfew for New Year’s Eve. From Monday, all indoor gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people, and to 5,000 people for outdoor events. Consumption of drinks and food will be banned in long-distance transport and home working will become mandatory for at least three days per week where possible.
- Daily new coronavirus cases in Turkey surged 30% on Monday to 26,099, health ministry data showed, the highest percentage rise this year, as the health minister warned about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant:
- The number of patients in England admitted into hospital with Covid-19 has reached its highest level since mid-February after a 74% rise in a week. In London, hospital admissions have increased by 73%. A total of 8,474 people were in hospital in England with Covid-19 as of 8am today – the highest number since 5 March.
- Scotland has recorded a record number of Covid cases over the Christmas weekend, hitting a high of 11,030 new cases on Boxing Day, the Scottish government has said. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is due to update a specially-reconvened sitting of the Scottish parliament on Wednesday about the spread of the virus and the impact on hospitals.
Catching the Omicron variant means it’s more unlikely that you’ll get the Delta infection, according to a study in South Africa, Reuters reports.
The study, by the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, which has not been peer-reviewed, found that people who were infected with Omicron, especially those who were vaccinated, developed enhanced immunity to the Delta variant.
The analysis enrolled 33 vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected with the Omicron variant in South Africa.
While the authors found that the neutralization of Omicron increased 14-fold over 14 days after the enrolment, they also found that there was a 4.4 fold increase of Delta virus neutralization.
Updated
There is varied treatment of Boris Johnson’s decision not to introduce restrictions for new year celebrations in England.
The Mail hails it as “Boris’s new year cheer”.
Tuesday’s @DailyMailUK #MailFrontPages pic.twitter.com/bF0YlZTk1G
— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) December 27, 2021
The Guardian says England is “going it alone” compared with the devolved nations...
Guardian front page, Tuesday 28 December: England goes it alone - PM rejects extra Covid curbs before new year pic.twitter.com/YusgfaWOhV
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) December 27, 2021
...the Telegraph says there will be no restrictions to “spoil New Year’s Eve”..
TELEGRAPH: No fresh restrictions to spoil New Year’s Eve #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/mJBmx0yDqF
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 27, 2021
... and the Mirror asks “Where is the PM”
Tomorrow's front page: Where's the PM? #tomorrowspaperstoday https://t.co/M9cE5OEsmU pic.twitter.com/qPd8RH5Dis
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) December 27, 2021
China shuts down another city
Hundreds of thousands more people were ordered to stay at home in northern China on Tuesday, joining millions under strict lockdown in Xi’an as the government tries to contain a worsening outbreak of Covid-19.
Yan’an, which is about 300km (186 miles) from Xi’an, ordered the closure of businesses on Tuesday and told hundreds of thousands of people in one district to stay indoors.
China has followed a “zero-Covid” strategy as Beijing prepares to welcome thousands of overseas visitors to February’s Winter Olympics.
But authorities have faced a resurgent virus in recent weeks, reporting 209 infections on Tuesday – the highest single-day tally since March last year, when the virus was only beginning to spread around the world from the city of Wuhan.
Indonesia detects first Omicron case
Reuters reports that Indonesian health authorities were conducting contact tracing on Tuesday after detecting the Southeast Asian country’s first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the community, health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi said.
It says: The first confirmed case was a 37-year-old male who was from the city of Medan and had visited a restaurant in Jakarta’s central business district earlier this month, Tarmizi told a news conference. The man had no recent history of overseas travel or contacts with international travellers, Tarmizi said, adding he was asymptomatic and was in isolation at a Jakarta hospital.
Updated
There is an interstate fight brewing in Australia over Covid testing requirements for tourists travelling from New South Wales into Queensland during the busy summer holidays. Cait Kelly and Caitlin Cassidy explain:
Daily new coronavirus cases in Turkey surged 30%
Reuters reports that daily new coronavirus cases in Turkey surged 30% on Monday to 26,099, health ministry data showed, the highest percentage rise this year, as the health minister warned about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant:
Turkey’s daily case levels have been below or about 20,000 in December, down from about 30,000 in October. The number of deaths due to coronavirus fell to 157 on Monday from 173 a day earlier.
“The Omicron variant is spreading more quickly than the other variants,” health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter late on Monday. “You must be careful and get your booster shot done.”
Let’s take a look at some of the UK papers for Tuesday, most of which lead on the announcement that there will be no new restrictions before New Year’s Eve:
GUARDIAN: England goes it alone - PM rejects extra Covid curbs before new year #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/NUk6jnI1ce
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 27, 2021
TELEGRAPH: No fresh restrictions to spoil New Year’s Eve #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/mJBmx0yDqF
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 27, 2021
THE TIMES: No Covid curbs on New Year’s Eve parties #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/sYhszzM1VY
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 27, 2021
MIRROR: Where’s the PM? #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/WTQpuDibTe
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 27, 2021
Agence France-Presse reports that Delta Air Lines on Monday cited new Chinese cleaning requirements after it rerouted a China-bound flight back to the United States, drawing criticism from Chinese authorities.
The report states:
The December 21 flight was supposed to land in Shanghai after disembarking from Seattle, but instead returned to the US city midair. Delta said the reason for the reversal was new Chinese requirements issued earlier that day in the wake of the latest Covid-19 surge.
“The new cleaning procedures require significantly extended ground time and are not operationally viable for Delta,” a Delta spokesman said. “We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing for customers as we continue to work on rebooking on alternate flights.”
The Chinese consulate in San Francisco complained that several Chinese citizens were stranded on board with expired visas and Covid-19 tests that no longer met time requirements, according to Chinese state media.
Airlines, including Delta and other leading US carriers, have canceled thousands of flights in recent days as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 hits airline workers and roils travel plans for many consumers.
In three days time, on 31 December, it will be the second anniversary of the day that health authorities in Wuhan reported an unknown pneumonia outbreak to World Health Organization (WHO) colleagues in Beijing.
This time last year, Michael Standaert visited Wuhan to report on how the city had changed since the emergence of the coronavirus.
Updated
Our colleagues in Australia report that 486 people who were initially told by a Sydney clinic that their Covid test had a negative result were actually positive.
That is a total of 886 people to whom St Vincent’s hospital mistakenly gave the all clear. First, 400 people were told on Christmas Day that their result was negative, only to be told later they were positive.
Yesterday the hospital’s pathology department (SydPath) said another 950 people who were tested in the days before Christmas were “prematurely” sent a text message saying they were negative when their actual results had not yet been confirmed.
Of those 950 people, 486 were eventually found to be positive.
All of the Covid developments in Australia are wrapped up at their live blog:
Updated
Local authorities in Shaanxi province are cracking down on food hoarding and price gouging as 13 million people in its capital Xi’an entered a sixth day of strict lockdown and mandatory testing, writes our correspondent in Taipei, Rhoda Kwan.
The new rules, introduced on Sunday, introduced a reporting hotline and strengthened the monitoring of shops and markets. The hotline has received over 300 complaints in two days, most over an increase in the prices of daily necessities including eggs, meat and vegetables.
Authorities say they have investigated 33 illegal cases and have closed five by Tuesday.
The measures come as China is battling its worst community outbreak of the Delta variant since 2020 little over a month before Beijing is set to host the Winter Olympic games.
Updated
Stock markets have continued to gain ground despite the surge of Omicron around the world.
Asian markets lifted on Tuesday with the Nikkei in Japan up nearly 1%, Shanghai up 0.2%, Seoul up 0.1% and Sydney’s ASX200 is up 0.44%.
Wall Street had another record-breaking day on Monday with the S&P 500 index rising 1.38% to end at an all-time high thanks to strong US retail sales. The narrower Dow Jones average climbed 0.98% and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.39%.
Apple has closed all of its 12 stores in New York City to indoor shopping as cases of the Omicron variant surge across the United States. Customers will be able to pick up online orders at the stores, an Apple spokesperson said.
“We regularly monitor conditions and we will adjust both our health measures and store services to support the wellbeing of customers and employees,” the company said in a statement.
Germany has reported another 21,080 cases bringing the country’s total to 7,026,369. The Robert Koch Institute also reported another 372 deaths which means that Germany has now seen 110,805 people die of Covid-19.
More from the US where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday it was shortening the recommended time for isolation for Americans with Covid to five days from its previous guidance of 10 days, given they are asymptomatic.
CDC has shortened the recommended time for #COVID19 isolation and quarantine. Learn more about what to do if you test positive or have close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19: https://t.co/ScxsyrZI16.
— CDC (@CDCgov) December 27, 2021
It is hoped the move will help airlines and other businesses mitigate staff shortages from the disease.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said it was “vital people stay home and test when sick and adhere to recommended masking in order to mitigate the spread of Covid, especially as we continue to see more of the Omicron variant”.
With these updates to isolation & quarantine recommendations, it is vital people stay home and test when sick and adhere to recommended masking in order to mitigate the spread of #COVID19, especially as we continue to see more of the #OmicronVariant.
— Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) December 27, 2021
France speeds up booster scheme - but no new year curbs
France has reduced the waiting time for a third booster shot to three months from four in response to the rapid spread of Omicron.
Jean Castex, the French prime minister, also said that from Monday and for the next three weeks all public gatherings would be limited to 2,000 people for indoor events, and to 5,000 people for outdoor events.
Masks will be mandatory in city centres and people must work from home three days a week if possible, Castex said, as the country’s infection rate hit a record level of more than 700 per 100,000 people.
However, there will be no curfew on New Year’s Eve celebrations and schools will reopen after the festiv season as planned on 4 January.
China cases rise again
China’s coronavirus cases rose for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, with Xi’an city reporting more infections in a flare up that has put 13 million residents under lockdown.
Xi’an reported 175 cases, up from the previous day’s 150, official data showed on Tuesday. None of them are of the Omicron variant. China has reported only a handful of Omicron infections among international travellers and in its south.
Mainland China detected 182 local symptomatic cases for Monday, the health commission said, compared with 162 a day earlier.
Xi’an is experiencing China’s biggest community outbreak since 2020. Read our correspondent Rhoda Kwan’s report on how the city is responding, including a disinfection campaign, with staffers spraying pathogen-killing solutions on surfaces of roads and buildings:
Government should consider flight vaccine mandate, says Fauci
Dr Anthony Fauci has suggested that the federal government should consider a vaccine mandate for domestic air travel.
“That is just another one of the requirements that I think is reasonable to consider,” America’s leading infectious disease expert told MSNBC in an interview.
The Biden administration has thought about this move before , or one requiring either vaccination or proof of negative test. But given the resistance to vaccine mandates for health workers and other categories in the US, such a requirement could face legal challenges.
Here’s how we reported the pushback against mandates in the US earlier this year:
An illustration of the airline problem comes in the travel saga of two brothers from the US Pacific North-west.
Harley Garner, a 27-year-old creative strategist from Portland, and his brother, who lives in Seattle, were staying with their parents in Pahrump, Nevada, over the holidays and had planned to fly home on Sunday evening, Reuters reports.
Both brothers’ respective flights from Las Vegas – to Portland via Alaska Airlines and to Seattle via Allegiant Airlines – were cancelled on Sunday afternoon. Both managed to book seats on later flights.
When their second flights were cancelled, they decided at 3am on Monday to start driving. Their father took them to Bakersfield, California, where they planned to rent a car and then drive up to Portland and Seattle, totalling some 17 hours on the road.
Garner said the most frustrating part of the travel nightmare, which Alaska Airlines said was weather-related, although Portland was not experiencing severe weather on Monday, was the last-minute notification of cancellations.
Thousands more flights scrapped
More than 3,500 flights have been cancelled on Monday and Tuesday causing widespread disruptions for travellers all over the world as airlines crews succumb to the Omicron Covid strain.
According to flight tracker FlightAware, 2,700 flights have been cancelled on Monday and 860 more on Tuesday.
In total, 11,000 flights have been cancelled since Friday thanks to the impact on crews, although bad weather has also played a part in cancellations in the US.
In more travel misery, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday it was investigating 68 cruise ships after reports of Covid-19 cases on board.
Updated
Good morning/afternoon/evening to you wherever you might be and welcome to our rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s a summary of the main developments:
- Thousands more flights have been cancelled by airlines around the world, causing chaotic scenes at airports at one of the busiest times of the year for travel. Carriers scrapped 2,700 flights on Monday and a further 800 have already been dropped from Tuesday’s schedules. Dr Anthony Fauci said a vaccine mandate should be considered for all passengers in the US.
- Boris Johnson will not introduce further Covid restrictions in England before 2022, giving mass events the go-ahead and leaving nightclubs open for New Year’s Eve – in contrast with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scientists said it was “the greatest divergence between scientific advice and legislation” seen since the start of the pandemic.
- The US Centre for Disease Control has reduced the recommended isolation time for people recording a positive test from 10 days to five. The CDC said these changes reflect the latest data on when the virus is most contagious.
- Joe Biden said the dramatic surge in US Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant “should be a source of concern but it should not be a source of panic”.
- France has narrowed the delay for a third booster shot to three months from four in response to the rapid spread of Omicron but there will be no curfew for New Year’s Eve. From Monday, all indoor gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people, and to 5,000 people for outdoor events. Consumption of drinks and food will be banned in long-distance transport and home working will become mandatory for at least three days per week where possible.
- Denmark and Iceland reported record daily Covid cases on Monday. Denmark now has the world’s highest infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people.
- The number of patients in England admitted into hospital with Covid-19 has reached its highest level since mid-February after a 74% rise in a week. In London, hospital admissions have increased by 73%. A total of 8,474 people were in hospital in England with Covid-19 as of 8am today – the highest number since 5 March.
-
Scotland has recorded a record number of Covid cases over the Christmas weekend, hitting a high of 11,030 new cases on Boxing Day, the Scottish government has said. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is due to update a specially-reconvened sitting of the Scottish parliament on Wednesday about the spread of the virus and the impact on hospitals.
- Paraguay has confirmed the country’s first Omicron cases, health officials said. The cases were detected in people who had travelled outside the country this month but the government has not taken immediate action on travel. Argentina reported its highest daily tally for six months with 20,263 cases.
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Greece has announced further restrictions effective between 3 and 16 January to contain a further surge in Covid infections. Bars and restaurants will have to close at midnight and no standing customers at entertainment venues will be allowed. There will also be a maximum limit of six people per table.
