That concludes our live blogging of global coronavirus news for the moment. For Australian readers here is our continuing live coverage from Guardian Australia.
Here is the full story on Australia’s regulator provisionally approving a Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5-11.
A summary of today's developments
- Australia’s medicine regulator provisionally approved on Sunday the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11. The health minister, Greg Hunt, said the rollout could begin from 10 January.
- All international arrivals to the UK will again be required to take pre-departure Covid-19 tests, the health secretary Sajid Javid announced. The rule applies to all travellers visiting the UK or returning from a holiday, regardless of vaccination status, and will come into force from 4am on 7 December.
- Nigeria is also being added to the UK’s travel red list, joining several southern African nations which were added after the Omicron variant was detected.
- In Brazil, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro has announced the cancellation of the city’s world-famous New Year’s Eve celebrations amid fears over the impact the Omicron variant could have on a country that has already lost more than 615,000 lives to Covid.
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Chilean health authorities reported the first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a person who had arrived in the country from Africa.
- The German government has announced a lockdown for the unvaccinated and is considering making Covid vaccines mandatory, after weeks of record infections in the country and much of German-speaking Europe. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Saturday urged Germans to get vaccinated against Covid-19, speaking days ahead of leaving office in the final episode of more than 600 weekly video podcasts.
- The Omicron variant has been detected in at least 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the World Health Organization has said, amid warnings that it could damage the global economic recovery.
- Doctors’ leaders in England have welcomed a move to suspend some targets for GPs to enable them to concentrate on the vaccination programme, but warned the service remains under pressure.
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Romania’s health ministry said it has detected the first two cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in two Romanians who returned from South Africa on 30 November 30.
- The UK prime minister has been reported to the police by Labour MPs over allegations there were at least two parties in Downing Street during lockdown restrictions last year.
- South Korea again broke its daily records for coronavirus infections and deaths and confirmed three more cases of the new Omicron variant as officials scramble to tighten social distancing and border controls. The 5,352 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday marked the third time this week the daily tally exceeded 5,000. The country’s death toll was at 3,809 after a record 70 virus patients died in the past 24 hours, while the 752 patients in serious or critical conditions were also an all-time high.
Mexico’s health ministry on Saturday reported 251 more deaths from Covid-19.
It brings the country’s death toll since the pandemic began to 295,154, Reuters reports.
Australia’s regulator provisionally approves Pfizer's vaccine for children
Australia’s medicine regulator provisionally approved on Sunday the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11.
The health minister, Greg Hunt, said the rollout could begin from 10 January.
“They (the Therapeutics Goods Administration) have made a careful, thorough assessment, determined that it is safe and effective and that it is in the interests of children and Australians for children 5 to 11 to be vaccinated,” Hunt said.
Updated
New York announced three more cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus Saturday, bringing the number of state cases linked to the new variant to eight.
“The omicron variant is here, and as anticipated we are seeing the beginning of community spread,” state health commissioner Mary Bassett said in a news release.
The number of states finding the variant is growing as well, with Massachusetts announcing its first case Saturday, a day after New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Maryland reported their first confirmed cases, Associated Press reports.
Updated
You can follow the latest Covid developments in Australia in our dedicated blog here:
Romania reported 1,490 new daily Covid-19 cases and 131 deaths on Saturday.
The EU’s second-least vaccinated country experienced its deadliest wave of the pandemic so far in October and early November, Reuters reports.
Brazil has reported 8,838 new cases of coronavirus and a further 170 deaths, according to the country’s health ministry.
The former queen of the Netherlands, Princess Beatrix, 83, has tested positive for Covid-19, the royal information service RVD said in a statement.
Princess Beatrix, as she has been known since her abdication in 2013, got tested after coming down with “mild cold symptoms”, the statement said.
“The princess is at home in isolation and adheres to the rules of life for people who have tested positive,” it added, according to Reuters.
Updated
The emergence of the Omicron variant shows that the world is “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end”, one of Britain’s most senior scientific figures has warned, as he lamented a lack of political leadership over Covid.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, who stepped down as a government scientific adviser last month, said the progress in combatting Covid-19 since its emergence was “being squandered”.
Writing in the Observer, he said rich countries had been taking “a very blinkered domestic focus, lulled into thinking that the worst of the pandemic was behind us”. He said while he was cautiously hopeful that current vaccines would protect against severe illness from Omicron, that may not be true for future variants.
Updated
France on Saturday said more than 50,000 people had tested positive for coronavirus in the past 24 hours, AFP reports.
The country recorded 51,624 new daily cases of Covid, health authorities said.
France has recorded an average of almost 41,000 new cases a day over the past week, compared to fewer than 28,000 a week ago.
Some 694 people had been admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours, including 119 who were critically ill.
Updated
Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has supported the pre-departure tests for UK arrivals but criticised the speed it took the government to introduce the measure.
“Why on Earth is this still only being brought in nearly two weeks after Omicron was identified?” she asked on Twitter.
“Wes Streeting and I called for this, SAGE recommended this, and I am relieved the government is finally acting. But waiting until Tuesday is too slow at the border yet again,” she wrote.
Finally! But why on earth is this still only being brought in nearly TWO WEEKS AFTER #Omicron was identified? @wesstreeting & I called for this, SAGE recommended this, & am relieved Govt is finally acting. But waiting til Tuesday is too slow at the border yet again. https://t.co/ipYFIZUQEb
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) December 4, 2021
Updated
Romania detects first Omicron cases
Romania’s health ministry said it has detected the first two cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in two Romanians who returned from South Africa on 30 November 30.
The two travellers, a 48-year-old woman from the central county of Brasov and a 59-year-old man from the eastern county of Vaslui, were isolated in their homes and had no symptoms, the ministry said.
Authorities were sequencing a third test to identify virus variant, Reuters reports.
Romania has introduced travel bans for non-European Union citizens arriving from several African states and has sent planes to recover Romanians stranded by cancelled flights.
The returnees are expected to quarantine for two weeks.
Updated
Chilean health authorities reported on Saturday that they detected the first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a person who had arrived in the country from Africa.
The foreign patient residing in Chile arrived in the country on 25 November from Ghana with a recently taken negative Covid-19 test, Reuters reports.
But a subsequent test taken upon arrival in Chile was positive and then sequenced.
“The passenger, who had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, is currently in good health and fulfilling his isolation,” the secretary of health of the Valparaiso region in Chile said.
Updated
The UK’s health secretary Sajid Javid said there are now about 160 confirmed Omicron cases in the UK, up from 134 on Friday.
Some 130 cases are in England, Javid added.
Updated
People arriving in Scotland from abroad will need to take pre-departure Covid tests to help stem the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the Scottish government has announced.
International travellers will have to provide a negative pre-departure test taken two days before travelling, in addition to a negative PCR test on or before day two after arrival, under measures agreed on a four-nation basis.
The requirement comes into effect at 4am on 7 December.
Nigeria has also been added to the red list for international travel from 4am on 6 December, meaning all travellers returning to Scotland from Nigeria will be required to quarantine on their arrival in managed accommodation for 10 days.
Updated
The introduction of pre-departure Covid tests for travellers entering the UK has been branded a “devastating blow” for travel by the chief executive of the Airport Operators Association.
Karen Dee said that the policy, beginning on 7 December, will act as a “major deterrent” to travel.
This is a devastating blow for aviation and tourism,” she said.
“Pre-departure tests act as a major deterrent to travel and most of the limited remaining demand following the reintroduction of self-isolation will now fall away, just as airports were hoping for a small uplift over the Christmas holiday.
“Travel and aviation are the only sectors hit with any operating restrictions in response to the Omicron variant.
“The UK and devolved governments should have done the right thing and, alongside the restrictions, announced support for our businesses and our staff to get through another period of shutdown.”
Updated
The UK’s transport secretary has given his reaction to the new measures for arrivals.
As the scientists work to understand new Omicron variant we need to apply additional caution until picture is clearer. We appreciate this will be difficult for the travel sector as we prioritise public health & protect the progress of our world-leading vax & booster programme 💉
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) December 4, 2021
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, tweeted that he would follow the recommendations of Rio de Janeiro state to cancel the celebrations, despite the city’s own view to the contrary.
“We respect science,” he wrote.
“The city’s committee says it can go ahead and the state’s says no. So it can’t take place. Let’s cancel the official New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio,” the tweet said.
“I am very sad as mayor and personally. The New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio is one of the most incredible and incomparable parties in the world,” Paes later told a press conference.
In Brazil, the pandemic has claimed more than 615,000 lives, the second highest total in the world after the US, Reuters reports.
Updated
France has reported 92,557 coronavirus deaths in hospital, an increase of 49.
It also reported that 2,037 people are in intensive care units with the virus, down by 21, Reuters reports.
Nigeria has become the 11th African country to be added to the UK’s travel red list.
Health secretary Sajid Javid said: “Over recent days we have learned of a significant number of growing cases linked to travel with Nigeria.
“There are 27 cases in England already and that’s growing.”
Updated
Some more data from Italy. The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 5,428 on Saturday, up from 5,385 a day earlier.
There were 59 admissions to intensive care units, down from 60 on Friday, Reuters reports.
The total number of intensive care patients increased to 732 from a previous 708.
Some 636,592 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 588,445, the health ministry said.
Updated
International arrivals to UK will be required to have pre-departure Covid tests
All international arrivals to the UK will again be required to take pre-departure Covid-19 tests, the health secretary Sajid Javid announced.
The rule applies to all travellers visiting the UK or returning from a holiday, regardless of vaccination status, and will come into force from 4am on 7 December.
Nigeria is also being added to the travel red list, joining several southern African nations which were added after the Omicron variant was detected.
Updated
Higher hospital admissions among children during a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections in South Africa that has been driven by the Omicron coronavirus variant should not prompt panic as infections have been mild, a health official said.
A large number of infants admitted with coronavirus last month in Tshwane, the metropolitan area that includes the capital Pretoria, raised concerns that the newly identified Omicron could pose greater risks for young children than other variants. Scientists have yet to confirm any link and have cautioned that other factors could be at play. Ntsakisi Maluleke, a public health specialist in the Gauteng province, told Reuters that out of the 1,511 Covid-positive patients in hospitals in the province 113 were under nine years old, a greater proportion than during previous waves of infection.
Updated
Italy reported 75 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, the health ministry said.
The daily tally of new infections was 16,632.
Italy has registered 134,152 deaths linked to Covid-19 since February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain.
It has reported more than five million cases to date.
More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
Faced with a surge in infections, the government last month made Austria the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown and said it would make vaccinations mandatory from February.
Around 1,200 police officers deployed to handle scattered protests that merged into a march on the central Ring boulevard.
Police put the size of the protest at over 40,000, while around 1,500 staged counter-protests, Reuters reports.
#COVID19 VACCINE UPDATE: Daily figures on the total number of COVID-19 booster & third doses that have been given in the UK.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) December 4, 2021
As of 4 December, 19,809,442 booster & third vaccine doses have been given in the UK.
Visit the @UKHSA dashboard for details:https://t.co/cQkuLQglz1 pic.twitter.com/FjLxzt0Dvl
In the darkest days of the pandemic, with the industry she represented on its knees and no light at the end of the tunnel, the boss of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, went to see a therapist.
She had been acting as an “emotional sponge”, soaking up the anguish of tens of thousands of pubs, bars and restaurants fearing oblivion, while trying to shield her team, particularly the younger members, from the ravages of a uniquely stressful event.
“There were times when it was really quite bleak,” she says. “Particularly when you got to October and November last year. We were in tears: there was that sense of frustration that businesses are open but not able to trade and you could see it all sliding away from you again.”
UK death toll increases by 127
The UK has recorded 127 deaths Covid-related deaths and 42,848 positive cases in the latest 24-hour period, government figures show.
It brings the total number of cases to 10,421,104 and the death toll to 145,551.
Updated
Summary of the latest news
- In Brazil, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro has announced the cancellation of the city’s world famous New Year’s Eve celebrations amid fears over the impact the Omicron variant could have on a country which has already lost more than 615,000 lives to Covid.
- The German government has announced a lockdown for the unvaccinated and is considering making Covid vaccines mandatory, after weeks of record infections in the country and much of German-speaking Europe. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Saturday urged Germans to get vaccinated against Covid-19, speaking days ahead of leaving office in the final episode of more than 600 weekly video podcasts.
- The Omicron variant has been detected in at least 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the World Health Organization has said, amid warnings that it could damage the global economic recovery.
- UK government officials and scientific advisers believe that the danger posed by the Omicron variant may not be clear until January, potentially allowing weeks of intense mixing while the variant spreads.
- Doctors’ leaders in England have welcomed a move to suspend some targets for GPs to enable them to concentrate on the vaccination programme, but warned the service remains under pressure.
- The UK prime minister has been reported to the police by Labour MPs over allegations there were at least two parties in Downing Street during lockdown restrictions last year.
- South Korea again broke its daily records for coronavirus infections and deaths and confirmed three more cases of the new Omicron variant as officials scramble to tighten social distancing and border controls. The 5,352 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday marked the third time this week the daily tally exceeded 5,000. The country’s death toll was at 3,809 after a record 70 virus patients died in the past 24 hours, while the 752 patients in serious or critical conditions were also an all-time high.
I am at the helm of the Guardian’s global live blog, bringing you the latest information on coronavirus from around the world.
Please keep in touch with me today via any of the channels below to ask questions, share comments or provide news tips. Thanks
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In the UK, the Metropolitan Police have said they are considering complaints from Labour MPs that Boris Johnson and his No 10 staff held Christmas parties in breach of Covid regulations.
Labour backbenchers Neil Coyle and Barry Gardiner have each written to Scotland Yard asking police to investigate reports that two parties were held in the run-up to last Christmas at a time when such gatherings were banned.
Johnson has not denied the events took place but said no rules were broken - although he has repeatedly refused to explain how that could be the case.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said that while it did not routinely investigate “retrospective” breaches of the Covid regulations, it was considering the correspondence it had received.
On Wednesday, the Daily Mirror reported the prime minister gave a speech at a packed leaving-do for a senior aide last November when the country was in the midst of the second lockdown.
Updated
Scotland has recorded 14 coronavirus-linked deaths and 1,257 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data.
One case of the new Omicron variant has been confirmed in that time, in NHS Grampian, taking the total people infected with the variant to 30. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has the most of the new variant cases at 11, followed by NHS Lanarkshire with nine, five in NHS Forth Valley, three in NHS Highland and two in NHS Grampian.
The Scottish Government said Public Health Scotland is “aware of a processing issue with UK government lab tests contributing to lower than expected cases and tests” in the daily figures and investigations are ongoing to resolve the problem.
The death toll under the daily measure, of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days, is 9,648. The daily test positivity rate was 5.9%, down from 7.6% the previous day.
There were 605 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 as of Friday night and, of these, 50 were in intensive care. So far, 4,351,214 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 3,956,719 have had a second, and 1,823,515 have been given a third dose or booster.
Updated
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro has announced the cancellation of the city’s world famous New Year’s Eve celebrations amid fears over the impact the Omicron variant could have on a country which has already lost more than 615,000 lives to Covid.
“It’s a decision I take with sadness ... but the most important thing is to carry on vaccinating and saving lives,” mayor, Eduardo Paes, tweeted on Saturday morning, adding that vaccinated tourists were still welcome to visit his “magical” city.
A few weeks ago Rio authorities had voiced optimism that, with the Covid situation finally improving, it would be possible to hold the annual beachside ‘Réveillon’ fireworks display, which attracts millions of revellers onto Copacabana beach.
“Right now Covid is under control … We’ve been through moments of such sadness. This is a moment of hope,” Rio’s health secretary, Daniel Soranz, told the Guardian last month, hailing a vaccination campaign that has seen 90% of over-12s fully vaccinated.
“We hope that our New Year’s Eve and Carnival will be the best we have ever had, to make up for all this lost time,” Soranz added.
Omicron, six cases of which have been confirmed in Brazil, none of them in Rio, has wrecked those plans.
“I hope to be able to be on Copacabana beach hugging everyone to see out 2022,” Paes tweeted on Saturday, adding that his government respected science.
Updated
The German government has announced a lockdown for the unvaccinated and is considering making Covid vaccines mandatory, after weeks of record infections in the country and much of German-speaking Europe.
In Austria, thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest against a string of measures: from February, the government will be introducing compulsory vaccines for all, with exemption for those unable to receive a jab on medical grounds.
Vaccination rates in both Germany and Austria are lagging behind the rest of western Europe, with under 70% of the populations having had two jabs.
Read what people from both countries have to say about the current situation, and what they think of vaccine mandates and restrictions for the unvaccinated:
The Omicron variant has been detected in at least 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the World Health Organization has said, amid warnings that it could damage the global economic recovery.
The United States and Australia became the latest countries to confirm locally transmitted cases of the variant, as Omicron infections pushed South Africa’s total cases past 3 million.
The WHO has warned it could take weeks to determine how infectious the variant is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective treatments and vaccines are against it.
The WHO emergencies director, Michael Ryan, said:
We’re going to get the answers that everybody out there needs.
The WHO said on Friday it had still not seen any reports of deaths related to Omicron, but the new variant’s spread has led to warnings that it could cause more than half of Europe’s Covid cases in the next few months.
The new variant could also slow global economic recovery, just as the Delta strain did, the International Monetary Fund chief, Kristalina Georgieva, said on Friday.
She said:
Even before the arrival of this new variant, we were concerned that the recovery, while it continues, is losing somewhat momentum.
A new variant that may spread very rapidly can dent confidence.
A preliminary study by researchers in South Africa, where the variant was first reported on 24 November, suggests it is three times more likely to cause reinfections compared with the Delta or Beta strains.
Read the full story here:
Several thousand people gathered in the central Dutch town of Utrecht on Saturday to protest against new coronavirus restrictions that came into force last weekend.
Protesters walked through the streets of the town carrying banners saying “Medical Freedom Now!” and waving Dutch flags. A heavy police presence was visible along the route of the march.
It is the first major demonstration in the Netherlands against the measures, which include a nighttime closure of bars, restaurants and most stores to stem a record-breaking wave of Covid-19 cases that is threatening to overwhelm the country’s healthcare system.
The Netherlands saw violent protests two weeks ago after the government announced plans to ban most people who have not been vaccinated from public places. Those plans face widespread opposition in parliament, including from parties in the governing coalition and have not been put into place yet.
Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Saturday made what is likely her final appeal before leaving office next week for Germans to get vaccinated against Covid.
Merkel gave what is expected to be her last weekly video message two days after federal and state leaders decided on a series of measures meant to break a wave of coronavirus infections.
The measures include excluding unvaccinated people across the country from nonessential stores, restaurants and sports and cultural venues. In a longer-term move, parliament will consider a general vaccine mandate.
At least 68.9% of Germans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, short of the government’s aim of a minimum 75% vaccination rate. The number of unvaccinated residents has been blamed as a key factor in a surge of new virus cases in recent weeks.
Official figures suggest that the infection rate may now be stabilising, but at too high a level.
Updated
The UK health secretary, Sajid Javid, has met the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, describing the meeting as “productive”.
He tweeted:
Productive meeting with @DrTedros and his team to share our findings so far on Omicron.
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) December 4, 2021
We continue to work with @WHO on our global treaty to prepare for and respond to future pandemics, and on building a global surveillance network. pic.twitter.com/X1CEjMd395
“We continue to work with WHO on our global treaty to prepare for and respond to future pandemics, and on building a global surveillance network.”
Updated
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Saturday urged Germans to get vaccinated against Covid-19, speaking days ahead of leaving office in the final episode of more than 600 weekly video podcasts.
“I once again emphatically ask you to take this tricky virus seriously,” Merkel said, calling the fourth coronavirus wave to hit Germany “very serious” and even “dramatic”, with intensive care units overloaded in some parts of the country.
“The new Omicron variant in particular seems to be even more infectious than those that came before. Get yourself vaccinated, whether it’s your first shot or a booster,” she added.
“Every vaccine helps.”
After 16 years in power, Merkel is expected to pass the reins to Social Democrat, Olaf Scholz, following a vote in parliament on Wednesday to elect the new chancellor.
In her podcast, she thanked “those who are reasonable and understanding in this difficult period” and “stick to the rules to protect themselves and take care of others”.
“You are the vast majority in our country. You demonstrate the civic responsibility that’s so marvellous about our country, without which no chancellor or government can achieve anything.”
One of Scholz’s first steps as head of government is expected to be passing a law to make vaccination compulsory from February or March next year.
Most of the political spectrum has rallied behind the previously controversial move.
Looking back at her first video podcast in 2006, Merkel recalled that “back then it was very unusual for a head of government to address the public online so directly”.
“My hope at the time, that the World Cup should be a great party even beyond the stadiums, was more than fulfilled,” she added, using the “summer fairytale” moniker Germans still apply to the football tournament they hosted that year.
While Merkel touched on a vast range of subjects in podcasts over her time in office, from digitalisation to antisemitism, in the past two years she has frequently spoken about the pandemic.
Updated
UK government officials and scientific advisers believe that the danger posed by the Omicron variant may not be clear until January, potentially allowing weeks of intense mixing while the variant spreads.
Across Westminster, invitations to Christmas drinks are landing in embossed envelopes or on WhatsApp groups. Departmental staff parties are set to take place, as well as a reception for journalists with Rishi Sunak at No 11. Even Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are hosting a joint bash.
However, minutes for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) suggest there is deep concern about the threat from the new variant, particularly its transmissibility. Though there is a wariness about overreacting, one government scientific adviser said Downing Street was “putting all its eggs in one basket” by focusing its efforts on the booster vaccine drive.
Russia has reported 32,974 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. Additionally, 1,215 deaths were reported in the country.
Updated
GP targets suspended to focus on vaccination programme in England
Doctors’ leaders in England have welcomed a move to suspend some targets for GPs to enable them to concentrate on the vaccination programme, but warned the service remains under pressure.
NHS England has told GPs that routine health checks for the over-75s and for new patients may be deferred. Dr Farah Jameel, chair of the BMA’s England GP committee, said suspending some paperwork would create some additional capacity, but that individual practices would have to decide how much they could switch to delivering Covid jabs.
“That will then allow us to support the national effort - the national priority being to one vaccinating the nation as quickly as possible,” she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“We have been struggling with significant prevailing workforce pressures - backlog pressures, winter pressures, pandemic pressures.
“Whilst these changes make a difference and start to create some time, I think every single practice will have to look at just how much time it does release.
“What it will do is free up staff time who are busy filling some of these tick-box exercises, so some of our staff can be redeployed to the vaccination effort.”
Updated
Welcome to the Guardian’s live blog, bringing you the latest information on coronavirus from around the world. Please keep in touch with me today via any of the channels below to ask questions, share comments or provide news tips. Thanks
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
UK prime minister reported to police over lockdown breaches
The UK prime minister has been reported to the police by Labour MPs over allegations there were at least two parties in Downing Street during lockdown restrictions last year.
Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, wrote to the Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick, asking her to investigate reports that the prime minister spoke at a leaving do in November and also allowed a staff Christmas party to go ahead in December.
At the time, there were lockdown restrictions in place preventing socialising. After sending the letter, Coyle said: “I believe they broke the law. Most of my constituents followed the rules; those that didn’t faced penalties. Johnson is not above the law, despite his bloated self-entitlement.”
Updated
Normally, planes are in constant motion, pinballing between continents. But in March 2020 all that came to a halt. What did it mean for our jobs, our horizons – and the planet?
In England, unvaccinated women who suffered with Covid-19 during their pregnancies have told “terrifying” stories of having the virus, from being rushed to hospital to having emergency C-sections.
The women appear in a video sharing their experiences of severe Covid-19 during pregnancy as part of a new campaign encouraging expectant mothers to get the vaccine.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 98% of pregnant women in hospital with symptomatic Covid-19 are unvaccinated.
The video features three women who experienced serious complications after contracting Covid-19 before they had been vaccinated, as well as the doctors and frontline staff who treated them, to warn of the dangers of the virus for pregnant women and their babies.
Christina, a mental health therapist from Guildford who was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in her third trimester, said: “I had to give birth via emergency C-section because there was concern that I could have a stillbirth. It was terrifying.
“I don’t know what the future holds for me and my baby; I’m still suffering with symptoms now along with the anxiety of not knowing how or when I’ll recover.
“I would urge pregnant women to get vaccinated because I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through.”
Tanviha, who works in anaesthesiology and research in Manchester, spent two months in hospital with Covid-19 following an emergency C-section, said she caught Covid-19 during her second pregnancy in February.
An Italian man who wanted a coronavirus vaccine certificate without actually having the jab tried to play the system by presenting health workers with a fake arm.
Despite the realistic skin colour, nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man – in his 50s – was reported to local police following the incident on Thursday night in Biella, northwest Italy.
“The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity,” the head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, said in a statement on Facebook.
He said such an act was “unacceptable faced with the sacrifice that our entire community has paid during the pandemic, in terms of human lives, the social and economic cost.”
Updated
The Cook Islands on Saturday recorded its first case of Covid-19 since the pandemic began, as the South Pacific country edges toward reopening its borders to tourists.
The nation of around 17,000 people has one of the highest vaccination rates globally, with 96% of the eligible population double-dosed.
The virus was detected in a 10-year-old boy quarantining after arriving on a repatriation flight with his family on Thursday, the prime minister, Mark Brown, said in a statement. The boy was believed to have flown in from New Zealand.
Record cases in South Korea
South Korea again broke its daily records for coronavirus infections and deaths and confirmed three more cases of the new Omicron variant as officials scramble to tighten social distancing and border controls.
The 5,352 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday marked the third time this week the daily tally exceeded 5,000. The country’s death toll was at 3,809 after a record 70 virus patients died in the past 24 hours, while the 752 patients in serious or critical conditions were also an all-time high.
As the Delta-driven surge threatens to overwhelm hospital systems, there is also concern about the local spread of the Omicron variant, which is seen as potentially more infectious than previous strains of the virus.
The country’s omicron caseload is now at nine after KDCA confirmed three more cases. The new cases include the wife, mother-in-law and a friend of a man who caught Omicron from a couple he drove home from the airport after they arrived from Nigeria on 24 November. The couple’s teenage child and two other women who also travelled to Nigeria have also been infected with Omicron.
Officials say the number of Omicron cases could rise as some of the patients had attended a church gathering involving hundreds of people on 28 November.
While the emergence of Omicron has triggered global alarm and pushed governments around the world to tighten their borders, scientists say it remains unclear whether the new variant is more contagious, more likely to evade the protection provided by vaccines or more likely to cause serious illnesses than previous versions of the virus.
Updated
