Friday Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s top news on Covid from around the world:
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India’s daily Covid cases jumped fivefold in a week, to 117,100 on Friday, with the Omicron wave on course to overtake the country’s previous peak from Delta.
- UK experts advised no fourth doses yet, as third shots continue to provide high protection against severe disease from the Omicron variant among older adults. The UK recorded 178,250 new cases and 229 further deaths.
- Germany toughened restrictions for bars and restaurants and cut isolation times for boosted people.
- Authorities in Henan province, China, imposed more Covid restrictions after a sharp rise in infections, limiting travel and activities in some cities or launching mass testing drives in others.
- Bulgaria tightened travel restrictions, as ministers sought to limit the rise of new infections from Omicron. Friday’s 5,525 new cases were almost double the 2,810 cases from a week ago.
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Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer tested positive for Covid, but is continuing to work remotely.
- Japan will impose introduce limits on bar and restaurant opening times in three areas in an attempt to stem a surge in Covid infections that has been linked to US military bases. Meanwhile, new cases hit their highest level in nearly four months as 4,475 cases were detected.
- Senior officials in Hong Kong entered a 21-day quarantine after they attended a birthday party, despite the government’s own pandemic warning.
- In Romania, isolation and quarantine times will be cut for Covid-positive people, depending on their vaccination status.
- French president Emmanuel Macron doubled down on his comments saying he wanted to “piss off” the 5 million French people who are still not vaccinated.
- Spain’s Covid prevalence rate jumped to 2,722.72 cases per 100,000 people — 147 cases higher than the 2,574.46 per 100,000 on Wednesday.
- Russia continues to see a steady decline in cases, with 16,735 new Covid infections, a 32% decline from the 24,522 new cases detected two weeks ago.
- Likewise, Poland’s gradual decline kept its pace, despite Omicron fears on the horizon. The country reported 11,902 new infections, a 22.5% decrease on two weeks ago.
- In the US, public school systems including in Newark, New Jersey, Milwaukee and Cleveland went back to remote learning as infections soared and sidelined staff members.
- Mexico is likely to surpass 300,000 deaths from Covid this week - the fifth highest death toll worldwide - as infections rise after the holiday season, fuelled by the Omicron variant and largely unrestricted tourism.
That’s all from me, Jem Bartholomew in London, and for the blog today. Thanks for following along. Bye for now.
Updated
Brazil detected 63,292 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, a more than tenfold increase on the 4,362 reported on Friday three weeks ago. (Reporting lags over the holiday period may have contributed to irregularities.) A further 181 people died from Covid-related causes on Friday.
Brazil, which has the third-highest Covid deaths globally behind the US and Russia, according to Reuters’ tally, has experienced one the world’s most acrimonious pandemics. In October Brazil’s Senate accused right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro of “crimes against humanity” for his handling of the pandemic, during which more than 620,000 people died from Covid-related causes. Bolsonaro’s popularity dropped last year.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly sowed doubts about the dangers of the virus and the value of getting vaccinated, saying he is not vaccinated himself. The president has also put pressure on Anvisa, the country’s health regulator responsible for approving vaccines, over its decision to recommend vaccination for children in line with dozens of other countries worldwide. Bolsonaro trails leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in polls for October’s elections.
Malaysia reported 3,381 new Covid infections on Friday, the New Straits Times reports, a 4% decline on the 3,528 detected two weeks ago.
The country’s last peak came in August, with daily cases often vaulting 20,000, but new infections have largely been below 10,000 a day since October.
Yet the Omicron variant led to ministers banning mass celebrations on New Year’s Eve in efforts to a void another surge.
A further 19 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, health authorities said, taking the country’s total death toll to 31,628 people.
Updated
Ukraine reported 7,177 new Covid cases on Friday, a 5% jump on the 6,828 new infections on Friday two weeks ago.
Ukraine’s most recent epidemic peaked in early November, with daily cases sometimes rising above 25,000. Recent infections have receded but authorities fear Omicron will provoke a new wave.
A further 192 people died from the virus, local media Ukrinform reports, a 29% decline on 241 a week ago. Ukraine has recorded a total of 97,088 Covid-related deaths since the pandemic began, the world’s 16th highest.
Spain’s Covid prevalence rate has jumped to 2,722.72 cases per 100,000 people — 147 cases higher than the 2,574.46 per 100,000 on Wednesday.
To try and suppress cases, Spain brought back its strategy from earlier in the pandemic of mandating mask-wearing outdoors, joining Italy and Greece who took similar measures in December.
Prime minister Pedro Sánchez said masking was “as an effective tool” amid the surge caused by the “highly contagious” Omicron strain. It applies to all people over 6.
Spain’s reported figures were disrupted over the festive period, but the percentage of hospital beds occupied by patients with Covid was 11.79% on Friday, compared to 24% amid the previous peak on 28 January 2021.
New Covid cases in Japan were at their highest level in nearly four months on Friday, as 4,475 cases were detected nationally.
That is an almost tenfold increase since the 418 cases on 31 December 2021, and represents the highest daily case number since 18 September.
The dramatic increase follows Japan’s plans to introduce limits on bar and restaurant opening times in three areas in an attempt to stem a surge in Covid cases that has been linked to US military bases.
Updated
Russia reported 16,735 new Covid infections on Friday, a 32% decline from the 24,522 new cases detected on Friday two weeks ago.
Russia experienced spiking cases in late-October and early-December, with a gradual decline in recent months. But Omicron has sparked fears of a new wave after the Sputnik V vaccine was found to offer little protection from infection against the highly-mutated strain.
Covid deaths in Russia are falling but remain at high levels. A further 787 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, the Moscow Times reports, a 19% fall on the 972 deaths reported two weeks ago today.
Russia’s death toll is now the second-highest in the world, behind the US, with over 650,000 people dying from Covid-related reasons.
Travel restrictions tighten in Bulgaria
Travel restrictions tightened in Bulgaria on Friday, as ministers seek to limit the rise of new infections.
Public broadcaster BNT has details on the new rules:
As of 7 January, new rules come into force for those arriving from countries in the Covid “red zone”. They will be required to present both a valid EU digital Covid certificate and a negative PCR test done up to 72 hours before arrival in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian citizens who do not have any of these documents will be placed under a mandatory 10-day quarantine. The quarantine may not be cancelled.
Those who present only one of the two required documents will also be required to go into a 10 day quarantine, but it can be revoked if they present a negative PCR test. The updated list of countries by colour zones can be found on the website of the Ministry of Health.
Bulgaria detected 5,525 new cases in the past 24 hours, almost double the 2,810 cases a week ago today. (Some countries reported lower figures over the holiday period.)
A further 72 people died from Covid-related causes on Friday, the Sofia Globe reports, taking the total death toll to 31,375 people.
Bulgaria now has a Covid prevalence rate of 547.89 cases out of 100,000 people over the past two weeks.
Poland reported 11,902 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, a 22.5% decrease on the 15,376 new cases recorded two weeks ago today.
On Thursday, 646 people died from Covid-related causes, a 5% climb on the 616 two weeks beforehand.
Poland experienced spiking cases in late-November and early-December, with new infections receding in recent weeks. But Omicron has led to fears of a resurgent wave.
Health minister Adam Niedzielski said reporters the country is bracing for a peak in late-January, Polskie Radio reported, when up to 60,000 hospital beds could be needed.
It comes as people in the Polish capital of Warsaw celebrated Epiphany on Friday with a procession.
Let’s take a look at those UK daily Covid figures in context, starting with surging cases:
Ministers will still be keeping a keen eye on how that translates into hospitalisations – which are climbing – after weeks of high cases driven by Omicron:
When it comes to deaths, we are yet to see a steep jump but numbers have been rising recently:
No immediate need for fourth jab for older adults, JCVI says
UK experts have advised that booster doses continue to provide high protection against severe disease from the Omicron variant among older adults, meaning a fourth jab is not yet needed.
Around three months after boosting, protection against hospitalisation among those aged 65 and over remained at about 90%, the latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency show. Protection against mild symptomatic infection is more short-lived, dropping to around 30% by about three months.
In comparison, with just two vaccine doses, protection against severe disease drops to around 70% after three months and to 50% after six months.
The priority therefore remains to get first, second and third doses to those who have not already had them, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said.
This is despite some countries including Israel rolling out fourth Covid shots in response to the highly infectious Omicron, which is driving up infections around the world.
Prof Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI’s chair of Covid-19 immunisation, said:
The current data show the booster dose is continuing to provide high levels of protection against severe disease, even for the most vulnerable older age groups. For this reason, the committee has concluded there is no immediate need to introduce a second booster dose, though this will continue to be reviewed.
The data is highly encouraging and emphasises the value of a booster jab. With Omicron continuing to spread widely, I encourage everyone to come forwards for their booster dose, or if unvaccinated, for their first two doses, to increase their protection against serious illness.
Extremely vulnerable patients with impaired immune systems are advised to have four shots overall, rather than the usual three, to be fully vaccinated.
But the JCVI said there is no immediate need to introduce a second booster dose, or fourth jab, to the most vulnerable care home residents and those aged over 80.
The timing and need for further booster doses will continue to be reviewed as the data evolves, it added.
Summary
Here is a quick recap of some of the main developments from today so far:
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The UK recorded 178,250 new coronavirus cases, and 229 more deaths, according to the daily update to the government’s Covid dashboard.
- Large school systems in the US, including those in Newark, New Jersey, Milwaukee and Cleveland, have gone back to remote learning as infections soar and sideline staff members. Dozens of smaller districts have followed, including many around Detroit, Chicago and Washington. The disruptions also raise alarms about risks to students. Long stretches of remote learning over the last two years have taken a toll, leaving many kids with academic and mental health setbacks that experts are still trying to understand. Joe Biden, who campaigned on a promise to reopen classrooms, is pressing schools to remain open. With vaccines and regular virus testing, his administration has said there’s no reason to keep schools closed. But the reality for some districts is not so simple: Testing supplies have been scarce, and many districts face low vaccine uptake in their communities. Story here.
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Japan is to introduce limits on bar and restaurant opening times in three areas in an attempt to stem a surge in coronavirus cases that has been linked to US military bases. The measures – officially described as a quasi-state of emergency – will go into effect from Sunday until the end of the month in Okinawa, home to more than half of the US service personnel based in Japan, and parts of the western prefectures of Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, which also host American troops. Story here.
- Dozens of senior officials and legislators in Hong Kong that have been sent into a 21-day quarantine after they attended a birthday party despite the government’s own pandemic warning. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said it was a “deep disappointment” that her bureaucrats ignored the government’s own advice on avoiding large gatherings in the middle of an Omicron outbreak. Story here.
- Germany’s leaders agreed to introduce stricter requirements for entry to restaurants and bars, and decided to shorten quarantine and self-isolation periods for people who have been boosted. Customers will have to show either that they have received a booster shot or provide a negative test result on top of proof that they have been vaccinated or recovered. Scholz and the governors also agreed to shorten quarantine or self-isolation periods that are currently as long as 14 days, something that many other countries already have done. People who have received boosters will no longer have to go into quarantine after having contact with coronavirus cases, Scholz said. All others can end their quarantine or self-isolation period after 10 days if they don’t have – or no longer have – symptoms; that can be cut to seven days with a negative test. [see 4.31pm.].
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The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, tested positive for Covid-19 following contact with an infected member of his security team. The chancellery said in a statement that Nehammer was in self-isolation and was not showing symptoms. The chancellor, who is boosted, is conducting official business from home via video and telephone conferences and will not attend any public appointments in the next few days, the statement added. [see 3.57pm.].
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Romania will cut the isolation and quarantine periods for Covid-positive people, their direct contacts and untested travellers from high-risk countries to varying lengths depending on whether they are vaccinated, health officials said. For direct contacts of Covid-positive people and travellers arriving from high-risk countries, quarantine will last five days from 14 currently for people who are vaccinated or have already been infected, and 10 days for the unvaccinated, according to a decision approved on Friday. The health ministry will approve a separate decree mandating that Covid-positive people will isolate for seven days if they are vaccinated and for 10 days if they are not, Pistol said. The shorter isolation period is appropriate because of faster incubation of the new variant, officials said. As of Saturday, wearing face masks becomes mandatory in both outdoor and indoor public spaces, and officials have banned the use of cloth face coverings, saying surgical or FFP grade respirator masks offered better protection. [see 3.44pm.].
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French president Emmanuel Macron said he stood by his earlier comments saying he wanted to “piss off” the 5 million French people who are still not vaccinated against Covid-19, adding it was his responsibility to sound the alarm given the Omicron threat. [see 11.58am.].
UK records 178,250 new cases and 229 further deaths
The UK has recorded 178,250 new coronavirus cases, and 229 more deaths, according to the daily update to the government’s Covid dashboard.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow reports that the total number of new cases over the past week is still up on the total for the previous week, by 19.8%. But yesterday the equivalent figure was up 29.3%, and for the third day in a row now the figure for reported cases has gone down. That explains the tiny kink downwards in the graph, which could be early evidence of cases starting to plateau.
You can read more of Andy’s UK Covid coverage here:
The vast majority of US districts appear to be returning to in-person learning, but other large school systems including those in Newark, New Jersey, Milwaukee and Cleveland have gone back to remote learning as infections soar and sideline staff members. Dozens of smaller districts have followed, including many around Detroit, Chicago and Washington.
The disruptions also raise alarms about risks to students. Long stretches of remote learning over the last two years have taken a toll, leaving many kids with academic and mental health setbacks that experts are still trying to understand.
Joe Biden, who campaigned on a promise to reopen classrooms, is pressing schools to remain open. With vaccines and regular virus testing, his administration has said there’s no reason to keep schools closed.
“We have no reason to think at this point that Omicron is worse for children than previous variants,” Biden told reporters earlier this week. “We know that our kids can be safe when in school.”
But the reality for some districts is not so simple: Testing supplies have been scarce, and many districts face low vaccine uptake in their communities. In Detroit, just 44% of residents five and older have received a vaccine dose, compared with a statewide rate of 63%.
Read more here: Return to remote schooling brings despair in US as Omicron surges
Japan is to introduce limits on bar and restaurant opening times in three areas in an attempt to stem a surge in coronavirus cases that has been linked to US military bases.
The measures – officially described as a quasi-state of emergency – will go into effect from Sunday until the end of the month in Okinawa, home to more than half of the US service personnel based in Japan, and parts of the western prefectures of Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, which also host American troops.
The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has come under increasing pressure this week to address outbreaks that began at US military facilities last month and have since spread to the local civilian population.
US military authorities on Thursday announced stricter Covid-19 measures, including mandatory mask wearing off base and stronger testing regimes.
More on this story here: Japan attempts to stem surge in Covid cases linked to US military bases
Once obscure diagnostic devices, lateral flow tests have had a rocky path to mainstream use, but some experts now view their rise to ubiquity as a “heroic” step in the fight against Covid-19 and say they could be here to stay.
Read the full story here: The rise of lateral flow tests: are these ‘heroes’ of the pandemic here to stay?
Here is my colleague Vincent Ni’s story on the dozens of senior officials and legislators in Hong Kong that have been sent into a 21-day quarantine after they attended a birthday party despite the government’s own pandemic warning.
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said it was a “deep disappointment” that her bureaucrats ignored the government’s own advice on avoiding large gatherings in the middle of an Omicron outbreak.
The party, held at a Spanish tapas restaurant earlier in the week, was to celebrate the 53rd birthday of Witman Hung Wai-man, a local delegate to China’s top national legislature. The well-connected politician invited a long list of the city’s political establishment, ranging from the home affairs secretary to the security chief.
Read more here: Dozens of Hong Kong officials in Covid quarantine after birthday party
Germany toughens restrictions for bars and restaurants and cuts isolation times for boosted
Germany’s leaders have agreed to introduce stricter requirements for entry to restaurants and bars, and decided to shorten quarantine and self-isolation periods for people who have been boosted, AP reports.
With the Omicron variant spreading fast throughout hte country, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the 16 state governors built on restrictions introduced just after Christmas that limited private gatherings to 10 people and effectively shut nightclubs.
People have already been required for some time to show proof of full vaccination or recovery to enter restaurants and bars – as well as many nonessential shops, theatres and cinemas.
Friday’s decision calls for the requirements to be ratcheted up for restaurants and bars across the country. Customers will have to show either that they have received a booster shot or provide a negative test result on top of proof that they have been vaccinated or recovered.
“This is a strict rule … but it is a necessary one,” Scholz said.
Scholz and the governors also agreed to shorten quarantine or self-isolation periods that are currently as long as 14 days, something that many other countries already have done.
People who have received boosters will no longer have to go into quarantine after having contact with coronavirus cases, Scholz said. All others can end their quarantine or self-isolation period after 10 days if they don’t have – or no longer have – symptoms; that can be cut to seven days with a negative test.
“These are strict rules, but they are pragmatic and mean an easing of the current rules,” Scholz said.
The Covid situation in Germany has been foggy for the past two weeks because of very patchy testing and slow reporting over the holiday period. Official figures, which authorities have acknowledged don’t yet show the full picture, have shown a steady increase in the infection rate over the past week.
On Friday, the national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, reported an official rate of 303.4 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days. Over the past 24 hours, 56,335 new cases were reported.
In its weekly report on Thursday, the institute said Omicron accounted for 44.3% of cases tested for variants in Germany last week, up from 15.8% the previous week.
Germany’s vaccination campaign is regaining speed after the holidays. As of Friday, 71.6% of the population had received a full first vaccine course and 41.6% had had a booster shot.
Updated
Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer tests positive for coronavirus
The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, has tested positive for Covid-19 following contact with an infected member of his security team, he wrote on Twitter.
The chancellor said he went home immediately to quarantine following his positive result and will continue to work remotely. His contacts had been notified, he said.
Nehammer added:
Of course I am threefold vaccinated and thus protected as best as possible from a severe course.
Ich wurde heute mittels PCR-Test positiv auf COVID19 getestet. Die Ansteckung geschah über ein Mitglied meines Sicherheitsteams. Ich habe mich sofort in Heimquarantäne begeben. Meine Amtsgeschäfte werde ich vorläufig per Video- & Telefonkonferenzen führen.https://t.co/W7xRawJBHC
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) January 7, 2022
Alle, zu denen ich seit gestern Kontakt hatte, wurden & werden gerade verständigt. In den gestrigen Beratungen habe ich durchgehend FFP2-Maske getragen bzw. Sicherheitsabstände eingehalten. Natürlich bin ich 3-fach geimpft & damit bestmöglich vor einem schweren Verlauf geschützt.
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) January 7, 2022
The chancellery said in a statement on Friday that a member of his security team tested positive on Thursday, and Nehammer was in self-isolation and was not showing symptoms.
“There is no need to worry, I am fine and doing well,” the chancellery quoted him as saying.
Nehammer, a conservative, is conducting official business from home via video and telephone conferences and will not attend any public appointments in the next few days.
His wife and children tested negative, the chancellery said.
The news came after Nehammer, 49, announced new measures on Thursday designed to curb the spread of the pandemic and pressed on with plans to make vaccinations mandatory from next month.
Austria managed to slash daily Covid cases with another lockdown between November and December last year, but the Omicron variant is pushing the numbers up again.
Updated
Romania shortens isolation for Covid cases, contacts and travellers from high-risk countries
Romania will cut the isolation and quarantine periods for Covid-positive people, their direct contacts and untested travellers from high-risk countries to varying lengths depending on whether they are vaccinated, health officials said on Friday.
Romania is the European Union’s second-least vaccinated state, with roughly 40% of the population fully inoculated amid distrust in state institutions and poor vaccine education.
Omicron is expected to become the dominant variant in the country around mid-January, with a peak of over 25,000 daily infections and a hospitalisation rate of up to 20%, the head of the National Center for the Monitoring and Control of Communicable Diseases, Adriana Pistol, told reporters.
The number of daily infections has tripled over the last week, with 5,922 cases confirmed on Friday.
For direct contacts of Covid-positive people and travellers arriving from high-risk countries, quarantine will last five days from 14 currently for people who are vaccinated or have already been infected, and 10 days for the unvaccinated, according to a decision approved on Friday.
The health ministry will approve a separate decree mandating that Covid-positive people will isolate for seven days if they are vaccinated and for 10 days if they are not, Pistol said.
The shorter isolation period is appropriate because of faster incubation of the new variant, officials said.
As of Saturday, wearing face masks becomes mandatory in both outdoor and indoor public spaces, and officials have banned the use of cloth face coverings, saying surgical or FFP grade respirator masks offered better protection.
At the height of the fourth wave in late October and November, Romania topped global lists of new coronavirus deaths per million. The country of 20 million has an official death toll of 58,971.
The ruling coalition government is still negotiating whether to send a new bill mandating a Covid health pass.
The UK Health Security Agency has published its latest Covid transmission statistics.
Latest weekly figures for the reproduction number (R) and growth rate of #coronavirus (#COVID19)
— UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) January 7, 2022
Statistics for England as of 07 January:
▶️R value range: 1.2 to 1.5
▶️Growth rate range: +3% to +6%
More info: https://t.co/tQUj8yTEVu pic.twitter.com/iIrODdlwZC
Police in India are tracking down Covid-positive air passengers who escaped on their way to quarantine, reports CNN.
At least ten passengers have escaped from an airport in the northern city of Amritsar after testing positive for Covid-19, Ruhee Dugg, a senior district official, told CNN.
The travellers had arrived aboard an international chartered plane from Italy on Thursday and 125 people tested positive. The passengers were tested for coronavirus after they landed, in accordance with India’s entry rules. While those who tested positive were taken to a local hospital, at least ten of them separated from the main group and managed to evade authorities.
“They were supposed to go to the hospital but they went home … The police are now working on tracking these people down and will take the required action,” Dugg told CNN.
VK Seth, the director of Amritsar airport, added that 160 passengers were tested, and 19 were exempted because they were under five years of age.
India’s medical resources are coming under great strain as the fast-spreading Omicron variant rampages through the cities. The country’s daily Covid-19 cases have jumped to 117,100 on Friday, Reuters reports, a five-fold increase in a week.
Updated
Hello. I’m Georgina Quach, bringing you more global coronavirus coverage while Lucy Campbell takes a lunch break. Please feel free to contact me if you have a story tips, news or gossip. You can reach me on:
Email: georgina.quach@theguardian.com
Twitter: @georginaquach
Austria was the first western country to moot making vaccinations mandatory for all, but the Alpine nation’s timetable is starting to slip.
On Friday, Austria’s electronic health records provider ELGA informed the parliament that its national vaccine database will not be ready for use until 1 April.
Until then, ELGA said in a statement, the government could merely “incentivise” unvaccinated people to get the jab, but not accurately identify and issue fines against those who didn’t comply with a mandate.
Austria’s government says it is still in favour of introducing a vaccine mandate law, a draft of which is being debated by experts and will need to be approved in the health committees of the upper and lower houses of the Austrian parliament before the end of the month.
But the political consensus around the plan has started to fray in recent weeks as some scientists and politicians argue the nature of the Omicron variant has changed the situation.
Updated
The Omicron-driven surge in US Covid cases has likely not peaked yet, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday, as schools, hospitals and businesses struggle with rising caseloads.
“I don’t believe we’ve seen the peak yet here in the United States,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told NBC News’ Today programme.
Health officials have urged Americans not to get complacent in the face of the highly transmissible variant, noting that even if it turns out to induce milder disease the fact that it is more contagious means a higher volume of cases, including more severe ones.
The US reported 662,000 new Covid cases on Thursday, its fourth highest daily total ever recorded and just three days after a record of nearly 1 million cases was reported, according to a Reuters tally.
The seven-day average for new cases set a record for a 10th day in a row at 597,000 new infections, while Covid hospitalisations reached nearly 123,000 and are approaching the record of over 132,000 set last year, the data showed.
Deaths, an indicator that lags behind hospitalisations, remain fairly steady at 1,400 a day, according to the tally.
“We are still seeing those numbers rising,” Walensky said, noting that while cases outpaced hospitalisations and deaths, rising hospitalisations were primarily among the unvaccinated.
Rising cases have forced hospital systems in nearly half of US states to postpone elective surgeries.
While many school systems have vowed to continue in-person instruction, some have faced ad hoc closures as cases rise. Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest US education district, were closed for a third day on Friday amid a teacher walkout over Covid protections.
US and other officials have said schools can be safely opened, especially amid widely available vaccines and boosters, and the CDC on Thursday issued new guidelines for schools on isolation policies.
While the US is fighting a surge right now, the country will have to face the long-term impacts, Walensky said. “We are definitely looking at a time ahead of us where Covid … will be an endemic virus,” she told NBC.
Officials continue to press vaccinations as the best protection against Covid, although federal mandates requiring them have become politically contentious.
Later on Friday, the US Supreme Court will weigh requests to block president Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for larger employers and a separate similar requirement for healthcare facilities.
Updated
Novak Djokovic has broken his silence after being held in an immigration detention centre in Australia to thank his fans for their support.
Writing on Instagram, the men’s world No 1 tennis player said:
Thank you to people around the world for your continuous support. I can feel it and it is greatly appreciated.
It is believed – although not confirmed – that Djokovic, who has never disclosed his vaccination status, was granted an exemption to play at the Australian Open based on him having previously contracted Covid.
But when he landed in Australia he was detained by border officials who said his exemption was not valid. He is waiting to challenge in court the federal government’s decision on Thursday to cancel his visa.
Australia’s home affairs minister has dismissed any suggestion that Djokovic is being held “captive” in a Melbourne hotel, declaring he is free to leave the country whenever he chooses.
There is more on this story here: Novak Djokovic not being held ‘captive’ and free to leave whenever he chooses, Australia says
Updated
Pakistan’s largest city Karachi is launching a door-to-door campaign to vaccinate women, who are lagging behind men in rates of Covid inoculation as the country enters a fifth wave of the pandemic, a senior official said on Friday.
Pakistan on Friday reported nearly 1,300 cases in a single day, its highest tally in two months, with a positivity rate of 2.5%. Karachi’s positivity rate rose to 10%, from 4.74% on 31 December.
“We have found that a sizeable population of housewives are unvaccinated, and they socialise and attend weddings without face masks,” Qasim Siraj Soomro, parliamentary secretary health of the Sindh provincial government, told Reuters.
In contrast, the rate of vaccination among male family members who go out to work is higher than the rate among women, he added.
The provincial government’s campaign will use female health workers, who have long played an instrumental role in country-wide polio vaccination campaigns in Pakistan.
“We plan to target clusters in urban areas and at later stage in rural areas,” said the parliamentary secretary.
About 70 million people, or 32% of the population, have had two vaccine doses.
The first case of the Omicron variant was reported on 13 December in Karachi, and the federal government has acknowledged that a fifth pandemic has started in the country, with most of the cases in Karachi, Lahore and the capital, Islamabad.
The government has not yet announced new restrictions but has urged people to follow precautionary measures.
It has authorised booster doses for citizens over the age of 30 from Monday. Children over the age of 12 are being offered vaccinations at their schools.
Updated
Norwegian conscripts are to return their underwear after completing military service for the next recruits, as the army struggles with dwindling supplies due to Covid, AFP reports.
Norway, which guards Nato’s northern borders and shares a border with Russia, calls up about 8,000 young men and women for military service every year and until recently allowed newly discharged conscripts to leave barracks with the underwear they were issued.
But the pandemic has seriously strained the flow of supplies with factory shutdowns and transport problems, leading the Norwegian military to ask conscripts to hand over underwear, including bras and socks.
Though originally voluntary, it has now been made mandatory, public broadcaster NRK reported on Friday.
“Now that we have chosen to reuse this part of the kit, it helps us … We don’t have enough in stock,” the defence logistics spokesman Hans Meisingset told NRK.
“The textiles are washed, cleaned and checked. What we distribute is in good condition,” he said.
A conscripts’ representative, however, criticised recurrent shortcomings, saying they could end up affecting operations.
“Severe shortages of equipment and clothing can potentially affect operational readiness and, in the worst case, the safety of the soldier,” Eirik Sjohelle Eiksund told trade publication Forsvarets Forum.
The full story is here: Norwegian conscripts told to return underwear as Covid hits supplies
Updated
Hong Kong authorities have ordered about 170 people, including several officials, to be quarantined at a government facility on Friday after they attended a birthday party where two guests later tested positive for Covid, AP reports.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam expressed disappointment on Thursday that government officials had attended the large party during the Omicron outbreak, saying it did not set a good example for the public.
Fears of a new cluster were sparked when the two guests tested positive. On Friday, health authorities said all guests at the 3 January party would be classified as close contacts and be sent to mandatory quarantine.
The city has been racing to control the Omicron variant, with authorities locking down multiple residential buildings for mass testing and sending hundreds of people into quarantine.
About 170 guests attended the birthday party, including about nine government officials and nearly 20 lawmakers.
“We now think that every person who had gone to the party is now a close contact. Therefore, our quarantine work is specifically aimed at the people who have attended the party,” said Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection.
Local media including the South China Morning Post reported that the party was held for Witman Hung, the principal liaison officer for Hong Kong at the Shenzhen Qianhai Authority, which oversees economic development between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
The government officials at the party included Hong Kong police chief Raymond Siu, home affairs minister Caspar Tsui and director of immigration Au Ka-wang.
Au apologised in a statement on Friday, saying he would be more vigilant in the future. “Regarding the additional burden to the epidemic prevention work and the disturbance to the public as a result of my personal behaviour, I offer my sincere apology to all people of Hong Kong,” he said.
Hong Kong tightened epidemic restrictions this week, banning dining-in at restaurants and eateries after 6pm and ordering businesses such as museums, beauty salons and gyms to close for two weeks. The city has also banned passenger flights from eight countries, including the US and UK, from landing until at least 21 January.
Authorities reported 33 new confirmed infections on Friday, 26 of which were imported. They also reported over 30 preliminary-positive cases.
The city has officially reported a total of 12,749 infections and 213 deaths.
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Good afternoon from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next five hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Macron: 'I stand by my earlier comments' about wanting to 'piss off' the unvaccinated
French president Emmanuel Macron said he stood by his earlier comments saying he wanted to “piss off” the 5 million French people who are still not vaccinated against Covid-19, adding it was his responsibility to sound the alarm given the Omicron threat.
“I stand by my earlier comments,” said Macron, as he hosted the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, during her trip to Paris.
The verb he used earlier this week, emmerder, is derived from the word merde, or shit, and was slammed by Macron’s political opponents as vulgar and beneath a president’s standing. It can be translated in several ways and carries a sense of creating hassle for someone.
Reuters report he added today that it was the authorities’ obligation to place restrictions against those who are not vaccinated, to protect the more than 90% of French citizens who are vaccinated.
France is reporting more than 200,000 daily new Covid-19 cases on average, an all-time record, due to the high contagiousness of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
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More tennis intrigue, this time with news coming out of Prague, where the Czech foreign ministry has confirmed media reports that player Renata Voráčová was detained in the same immigration hotel as Novak Djokovic ahead of the Australian Open.
ABC News reported on Friday the Australian Border Force (ABF) had cancelled Voráčová’s visa, and the Czech ministry, in response to questions from Reuters, has said that it had sought an explanation to the situation but also that Voráčová had decided to leave the country.
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There’s a great report on the BBC News website today from their disinformation reporter, Marianna Spring, looking at the case of one man who was interviewed while in hospital suffering from Covid, and then found himself on the receiving end of social media abuse from anti-vaccine activists. There’s a fantastic segment here:
After the initial wave of abuse tailed off he tried to joke about it on his Instagram bio, sarcastically describing himself as a “1x Academy Award Winning Crisis Actor”.
“Humour is my way of coping, all you can do is laugh,” he explains.
A BBC News Special broadcast on 27 December, called Review 2021: The Coronavirus Pandemic … included [a] clip of Dyne’s original interview. Someone posted a video of themselves watching the special, googling Henry Dyne’s name, finding his Instagram bio and reading the phrase “crisis actor”.
One of the main drivers of the Twitter storm was an aspiring Welsh politician, Richard Taylor. He posted the video on Facebook and racked up thousands of reactions with a tweet. Taylor received 20% of the vote in Blaenau Gwent standing for the Brexit Party in the 2019 General Election.
Taylor’s posts read “We see you” along with the video, but when contacted said via email: “In my original post, I was not implying anything. It is unfortunate that Mr Dyne decided to reference himself sarcastically in his social media accounts. I have lived believing that when someone tells you who or what they are, believe them, so I would have taken Mr Dyne at face value when he referenced himself as a crisis actor.”
It’s a good read: BBC News – ‘Crisis actor’ conspiracy theory: How anti-vax activists targeted a Covid patient
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Pedro Fonseca and Ricardo Brito have a bleak assessment of the situation in Brazil for Reuters. They write that health experts are warning that insufficient testing and a data blackout caused by hackers have left Brazil in the dark as it grapples with a wave of infections from the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Brazilians with Covid symptoms are facing long lines to get tested due to the lack of kits in a country without a comprehensive testing strategy since the start of the pandemic.
To make matters worse, some health ministry databases have been offline since an apparent ransomware attack on 10 December seriously hampered the government’s ability to gather data from state health authorities.
“We are seeing an expressive increase in the number of cases, dealing with patients and people in everyday life. And this increase is happening in the places where Omicron has been detected,” said Esper Kallas, a doctor who specialises in infectious diseases and a professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
“In general, the registration system was bad from the start, and it got worse with the hacker attack, so we’re really under water,” said Gonzalo Vecina, former head of Brazilian health regulator Anvisa and professor at the University of Sao Paulo. “We’re in the dark,” he said.
Despite having the world’s third-deadliest outbreak after the US and Russia, according to Reuters calculations, Brazil tests for Covid-19 far less than its South American peers.
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France’s sports minister Roxana Mărăcineanu has stuck her oar into the Novak Djokovic drama by confirming that the Serbian world No 1 tennis player would be allowed to enter France and compete in the French Open at Roland Garros, which begins in May.
Reuters reports her saying: “He would not follow the same organisational arrangements as those who are vaccinated. But he will nonetheless be able to compete because the protocols, the health bubble, allows it.”
France does not bar unvaccinated people from entering its territory, but it does imposes tougher restrictions on them than on those who have had the shot.
Djokovic, 34, has consistently refused to disclose his vaccination status, while publicly criticising mandatory vaccines.
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Today so far
- The Covid-19 wave engulfing France could reach its peak in about 10 days’ time, said Prof Alain Fischer, an official responsible for France’s Covid vaccine strategy. France reported 261,481 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, and the seven-day moving average of new cases rose above 200,000 for the first time since the start of the crisis.
- Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s 16 state premiers are likely to build on restrictions introduced just after Christmas when they meet later today. Health minister Karl Lauterbach said the hospitality industry was a “problem area, as people often sit there for hours without a mask”.
- One measure under consideration is toughening the requirement for people to provide proof of full vaccination or recovery to enter restaurants or bars. Scholz and the premiers also are expected to consider shortening required quarantine or self-isolation periods
- The northern German city of Bremen has become the hardest-hit by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The seven-day infection rate there stood at 800 cases per 100,000 residents, more than double the national rate of 303.
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India’s daily Covid-19 cases have jumped to 117,100, a five-fold increase in a week and on course to overtake its previous infection peak as the fast-spreading Omicron variant replaces Delta in cities.
- Ten Hong Kong government officials were among more than 100 people sent into quarantine after attending a banquet where two guests tested positive for Covid-19. From today, 15 types of venues, including bars, clubs, gyms and beauty parlours have to close in the city for at least two weeks. Restaurants can stay open until 6pm, but are only allowed to offer takeaway service after that.
- Thailand will extend the suspension of its quarantine waiver programme and bring in new restrictions after a jump in new coronavirus cases linked to the Omicron variant. To curb local virus transmissions, alcohol consumption in restaurants will be stopped after 9pm from Sunday in eight provinces including the capital Bangkok, and banned in the country’s other 69 provinces.
- Australia’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has tested positive for Covid-19.
- Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, meanwhile, has dismissed any suggestion Novak Djokovic is being held “captive” in a Melbourne hotel, declaring the world No 1 is free to leave the country whenever he chooses.
- Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has criticised the country’s health regulator Anvisa for authorising the vaccination of children aged five to 11 years against Covid.
- Argentina reported a record number of Covid-19 cases for a third day in a row at nearly 110,000.
- The true number of deaths from the Covid pandemic in the US are likely being undercounted, due to the long-lasting and little-understood effects of Covid infection and other deadly complications that surged during the past two years.
- After the debacle of the Ruby Princess’ arrival in Sydney in March 2020 led to over 900 cases of Covid-19 and 28 deaths, the cruise ship appears to be in another Covid-19 outbreak situation in San Francisco.
Thanks for sticking with our coverage. Andrew Sparrow has a combined UK politics and Covid live blog today. I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be here with you for a little while yet bringing you the latest coronavirus news from around the world.
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The northern German maritime state of Bremen has the country’s highest Covid vaccination rate by far, but it has become the hardest-hit by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, reporting the highest infection rate of any region in Germany.
Experts say that the rise in Bremen could herald where Germany as a whole is heading in the coming days.
Riham Alkousaa reports for Reuters that the seven-day infection rate in Bremen stood at 800 cases per 100,000 residents on Thursday, the highest in Germany and more than double the national rate of 303, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
“I assume that Bremen is just a little further ahead than other federal states,” said Hajo Zeeb of the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen. He said he expected many of Germany’s federal states to report infection rates similar to Bremen in the coming days.
Bremen’s location near the Netherlands and Denmark, where Omicron has already become the dominant variant, could be one reason for the higher infection rate in the state, Zeeb said. Omicron now accounts for more than 85% of coronavirus infections in Bremen, well above the national figure of around 44%, according to data from the RKI on Thursday.
Hong Kong government officials sent into quarantine after attending banquet
Ten Hong Kong government officials, including the heads of home affairs and immigration, were among more than 100 people sent into quarantine after attending a banquet where two guests tested positive for Covid-19, health authorities have said.
The banquet was on Monday, before the new restrictions came into force but after the first Omicron community transmission was confirmed in Hong Kong on 31 December.
None of the officials has tested positive but they were sent into quarantine as a precaution, in line with the city’s zero Covid policy.
City leader Carrie Lam said she was “highly disappointed” that so many officials attended a big gathering and they should not be “engaging in activities that carry risks and create more work for the city’s health bureau.”
Reuters reports that senior officials who attended included home affairs secretary Casper Tsui, director of immigration Au Ka-wang, police commissioner Raymond Siu and the head of the city’s independent commission against corruption, Simon Peh.
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The true number of deaths from the Covid pandemic in the US are likely being undercounted, due to the long-lasting and little-understood effects of Covid infection and other deadly complications that surged during the past two years.
There have been an estimated 942,431 excess deaths in the US since February 2020, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hispanic, Black and Native American and Alaska Native populations have been disproportionately affected with high death rates, research shows.
In addition to deaths from Covid-19, drug overdoses – already one of the leading causes of death for working-age adults – and homicides have also risen during the pandemic.
Insurers are also seeing a rise in disability claims – at first for short-term disability and now for long-term disability, because of both long Covid and delayed care for other illnesses.
Deaths from long Covid have been particularly difficult to track, because the virus may no longer be present at the time of death, but it weakened organs or created fatal new ailments.
“We’re seeing the statistics get written as we go, almost,” Micah Pollak, associate professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest, said. “We really don’t know what the tail of this thing looks like,” Pollak said of long Covid. “The further you get out [from infection], the longer time you have to potentially develop some kind of complications.”
Read more of Melody Schreiber’s report here: True number of Covid deaths in the US likely undercounted, experts say
Australia’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has tested positive to Covid-19, he has announced.
As the country deals with a massive rise in case numbers due to the spread of the Omicron variant, with more than 78,000 Covid cases reported in a single day on Friday, Frydenberg tweeted the news that he had joined the statistics.
“Like thousands of Australians, I tested positive today to Covid-19. I have the common symptoms and am isolating with my family,” he said.
Miranda Murray at Reuters has a small update on Germany. She reports that health minister Karl Lauterbach said the hospitality industry was a “problem area, as people often sit there for hours without a mask”, in an interview with broadcaster RTL Direkt.
Additionally, Hendrik Wuest, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, told the news outlet Welt that tighter dining rules were reasonable, since being around maskless people required maximum protection and the booster shot was available to everyone.
There is an expectation, however, that rules on quarantine are set to be relaxed, to avoid having too many people in isolation at the same time, especially in critical sectors.
Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK Covid live blog for the day. He is leading with the news that the military are on standby to extend hospital support beyond London. You can find that here:
I’ll be continuing here with the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.
Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, has dismissed any suggestion Novak Djokovic is being held “captive” in a Melbourne hotel, declaring the world No 1 is free to leave the country whenever he chooses. Here’s the clip:
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France's Omicron wave expected to peak in 10 days
The Covid-19 wave engulfing France could reach its peak in about 10 days’ time, said Prof Alain Fischer, an official responsible for France’s Covid vaccine strategy.
“I think we are coming to the peak of this new wave,” Reuters report Fischer told LCI TV, adding that this peak could come “primarily towards the beginning of the second fortnight of January, so if we work it out this would be in around 10 days’ time”.
France reported 261,481 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, less than the record of more than 332,000 set on Wednesday, but the seven-day moving average of new cases rose above 200,000 for the first time since the start of the health crisis.
French president Emmanuel Macron is banking that enough people will take up Covid vaccine booster shots to mitigate the effects of the virus, and thereby allow Macron to avoid enforcing major new restrictions to tackle the pandemic.
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There are more quotes here from Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), about the status of the NHS in the UK.
PA Media reports him telling Sky News “we have never known this level of staff absence before”, adding: “Every winter of course, the NHS has additional pressures, but I don’t think anyone who’s worked in the NHS has experienced this level of absence of their colleagues and we’re feeling it in very real time because doctors and nurses and healthcare workers are having to cover for their absent colleagues – that’s adding additional, exceptional strain.”
Asked how close the NHS was to being overwhelmed, he said: “I think that the words like overwhelmed, I mean, I think we should just look at the reality. The reality of the army having been drafted in to London, the reality of 24 hospitals having declared critical incidents, the reality of having some hospitals having to cancel all their routine surgery, the reality of general practices having to cancel clinics on the day. I’m a GP, I’ve never known it this bad.”
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Associated Press is carrying this update on the situation in Germany. It reports that chancellor Olaf Scholz and the country’s 16 state premiers are likely to build on restrictions introduced just after Christmas that limited private gatherings to 10 people, among other steps, when they meet later today.
One measure under consideration is toughening the requirement for people to provide proof of full vaccination or recovery to enter restaurants or bars. They could now be required to provide proof of either a booster shot or a fresh negative test.
Scholz and the premiers also are expected to consider shortening required quarantine or self-isolation periods that are currently as long as 14 days, a step that other countries have already taken.
The government is hindered because testing and reporting over the holiday period has been patchy. Official figures, which authorities have acknowledged don’t yet show the full picture, have shown a steady increase in the infection rate over the past week.
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Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, has said people should not feel concerned by the presence of the military in hospitals, as this was how the service was dealing with staff shortages.
“It is unfortunately the case for example that in some parts of the country we are going to have to cancel non-urgent operations and I know that’s really frustrating for people who’ve been waiting for a long time but it’s important to understand that these are very special circumstances we’re in,” PA Media quotes him saying.
“The NHS is not going to disintegrate – it’s been dealing with this crisis for two years and it will deal with it again and NHS managers will … burn the midnight oil thinking about how they deploy their resources to deal with things that are most urgent.”
Air Commodore John Lyle meanwhile has said that the army had handled over 400 requests for individual support from the military since March 2020, while more than 1,000 personnel were deployed supporting the booster programme, so the support in hospitals was part of a “wide range” of help provided by the armed services, he said.
He said patients could expect to see a “primarily NHS workforce” supported by personnel wearing Army uniform and protective equipment.
PA Media reports he added that the army remained in discussions and that there were areas where they were aware of the need for more assistance outside London where support will be deployed first.
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BMA council chair says some NHS staff still unable to access Covid tests
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the council chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), has told Sky News in the UK that it was important that “the government doesn’t just wait to ride this out, because every day people are suffering”.
He said there are two or three things that must be done, adding: “One is we do need to bring down levels of Omicron infections in the community because healthcare staff and frontline key staff, just members of the general population, if you have such high levels of Omicron, over 200,000 on many days last week on a daily basis, you will have NHS staff and other staff isolating and off ill, it’s as simple as that.
“So the infection rates do need to be brought down. The second thing is we need to ensure that those of us who are working on the frontline who are mixing with patients who are infectious, need to be properly protected.
“And one of the things we’ve been calling for is higher grade masks that can filtrate the airborne spread of Covid-19 and Omicron as opposed to the normal paper surgical masks.”
PA Media reports he said some NHS staff still could not access the lateral flow tests needed to allow them to return to work after seven days of isolation instead of 10 days.
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Edmond Ng reports from Hong Kong for Reuters that bars, restaurants and caterers say tighter restrictions aimed at averting a new wave of Covid-19 infections may cause hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, threaten jobs and even, for some, their survival.
Hong Kong has stuck to a zero Covid policy, but three months without community cases in Hong Kong ended with the confirmation on 31 December of the first local transmission of the Omicron variant – and numbers have been rising since then – prompting authorities to reinstate a raft of restrictions on daily life.
On Friday, 15 types of venues, including bars, clubs, gyms and beauty parlours had to close for at least two weeks. Restaurants can stay open until 6pm, but are only allowed to offer takeaway service after that.
If restrictions are extended into the lunar new year holiday period, which begins on 1 February, when restaurants and caterers are usually most busy, there will be substantial losses.
“If they can’t see light at the end of the tunnel, restaurants will close,” said Tommy Cheung, a legislator representing the restaurant and catering industry. He estimates businesses will lose up to HK$6bn ($770m) in the next two weeks alone.
Jason Hui, who owns the Yuet Nam Mak Min noodle restaurant, expects to lose up to 40% of his business. He expressed some scepticism to Reuters about the measures. “It’s no use,” Hui said. “Is the virus only out at night?”
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Labour: UK government 'lost control' over testing availability
In the UK, Labour’s shadow justice secretary Steve Reed has been on Sky News calling for the UK government to “get a grip” on testing immediately in order to avoid the possibility of more restrictions. He said:
The key to avoiding [restrictions], and we all want to avoid them if it’s possible, is to make sure that testing gets out and works properly. Now. we’ve got a problem at the moment, because the government was relying on testing to keep us safe during this period, but they haven’t ensured that there is a sufficient supply of tests available for people to make sure before they go out that they haven’t got Covid.
And one of the reasons we’re seeing this big increase in infections is, if people can’t check before they go out, they may be infected and go on to infect other people. That is what leads to the risk of a higher level of lockdown. We don’t want to see that. The government needs to get a grip on testing immediately.
The government lost control by failing to make sure the tests were available, and we do need to now be prioritising what tests are available for those key workers, essential services, the National Health Services, and making sure we keep the schools open because kids school kids in particular lost too much education already.
Later in the interview, he described the government’s “sheer and utter incompetence”, saying: “They put us in this position. We must protect the NHS and education.”
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Chief exec says NHS 'in a very, very difficult set of circumstances'
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said military personnel in London hospitals would be “helping out in different ways depending on whether or not they are clinically qualified, so obviously if people have medical skills, then they can be used in clinical settings”.
Others would be used helping “in relation to transport or potentially setting up facilities … we’re building a surge capacity in some of our hospitals to deal with the numbers of patients coming in”.
PA Media quotes Taylor saying there were several thousand NHS staff absent primarily due to Covid, and that “having 200 extra people is going to help but it’s only a very small part of what will continue to be a very difficult situation”.
He added Omicron was a fast-moving situation “moving up the country” and that NHS staff must have access to tests so that they could return to work.
“We’ve suggested that as a very short-term expedient we should think about clinical students working at the front line – we don’t want that to happen for long but that’s something again we’ve done in the past,” he added.
“We are in a very, very difficult set of circumstances – we all hope this will last a few weeks, but in those circumstances we have to do everything we can, and we as the public have to understand the pressure the health service is in.”
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Thailand will extend the suspension of its quarantine waiver programme and bring in new restrictions after a jump in new coronavirus cases linked to the Omicron variant, the government’s Covid taskforce said on Friday.
Reuters report that new applications for Thailand’s “Test & Go” quarantine waiver scheme will not be approved until further notice to stem the increase of coronavirus infections, but existing applicants can still enter Thailand without quarantine until 15 January.
“We can still make changes if the situation improves, but for now we have to learn more about Omicron,” said Taweesin Visanuyothin, the spokesman of the Covid taskforce
Due to concerns over Omicron, Thailand had halted the waiver programme since 22 December.
To curb local virus transmissions, alcohol consumption in restaurants will be stopped after 9pm from Sunday in eight provinces including the capital Bangkok, and banned in the country’s other 69 provinces, Taweesin said. “Social drinking is the cause of the virus spread. Measures to restrict this will help curb the spread,” he said.
However, from 11 January, Thailand will lift an entry ban on people travelling from eight African countries it had designated as high-risk.
Having kept numbers low for so long, the growing Covid outbreak in Australia is generating headlines that other parts of the world were seeing 18 months ago. This morning there are dire predictions about hospital capacity. Elias Visontay reports for us:
Almost all of the 12,500 beds across public and private hospitals in New South Wales will be occupied – by both Covid cases and regular patients – when pressure from the state’s Omicron outbreak peaks in late January, if worst-case scenario modelling is realised.
On Friday, after NSW’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant, acknowledged that the 38,625 new cases recorded were an “underestimate” of the actual total, health authorities released fresh hospitalisation modelling, alongside the announcement of a pause on elective surgeries and new restrictions to slow the speed of Omicron.
Pressure on the state’s health system will peak in the third or fourth week of January, the modelling based on vaccination coverage, general health and outbreak data from NSW and abroad predicts, with beds in intensive care and other wards likely to be stretched.
NSW’s public hospital bed capacity is about 9,500, and on Thursday, 8,000 of these beds were occupied by 1,600 patients with Covid and 6,400 people receiving treatment for other illnesses.
Read more of Elias Visontay’s report here: Almost all 12,500 hospital beds in NSW could be full during Omicron peak in worst-case scenario
One slightly odd bit of UK small business minister Paul Scully’s Sky News interview this morning was when he tried to reassure viewers that members of the armed forces deployed in London’s hospitals wouldn’t be wearing combat uniforms. He told the programme:
When you talk about armed forces around hospitals, they are not sitting there in combats or anything like that. It is more people helping out with the undoubted pressures on the NHS and that’s why we want people to get out and get vaccinated and get boosted, because that remains our best weapon against the pressures on the NHS and against Covid, as we learn to live with Covid.
Australians may be unable to buy fresh produce at supermarkets while fruit and vegetables are left to rot on farms unless staff shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic are fixed, the industry’s peak body has warned.
Michael Rogers, the chief executive of the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, said there was a “significant risk” of such a situation.
The industry is calling for seven-day isolation times for close contacts who test negative to be done away with so that workers who are cleared of the disease can immediately return to work.
He said the pandemic had halved the workforce available to some companies, with transport and distribution hubs worst hit so far. However, he said he expected that if nothing was done to address the staff shortage it would soon follow the spread of Covid-19 across Australia and hit farms and packing businesses in rural Australia.
“Through all of Covid, the food supply chain was continuing to operate,” he said. “So we’re very realistic and pragmatic about the way forward. But what we’re trying to say is we’re in the worst position that we have been through Covid.”
Read more of Ben Butler’s report here: Australians face worse fresh food shortages unless Covid isolation rules ease, industry warns
India's Covid cases jump five-fold in a week
India’s daily Covid-19 cases have jumped to 117,100 on Friday, Reuters reports, a five-fold increase in a week and on course to overtake its previous infection peak as the fast-spreading Omicron variant replaces Delta in cities.
Government officials have privately said they are working under the assumption that daily infections will surpass the record of more than 414,000 set in May.
“We will clearly surpass our record shortly and reach a new peak by early February,” MD Gupte, a former director of the state-run National Institute of Epidemiology and an immunisation adviser to the government, told Reuters.
“Given the size of our population, we will report more daily cases than the US. But what we have seen is that these cases are much more mild, so the need for hospitalisation and oxygen and all that is not picking up.”
He said India’s high rate of infection during a previous major wave in April and May, as well as vaccinations, would mean a reduction in the severity of the illness for those infected by the Omicron variant.
Health officials have said hospitals and testing infrastructure have yet to come under pressure as many people are recovering quickly at home.
In Mumbai, about quarter of all tests are positive but fewer than a fifth of those who have contracted the virus have needed hospitalisation, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope told reporters. The city recorded 20,181 new infections on Thursday, well above its previous high of just over 11,000 set last year.
“Around 80% of the hospital beds are still empty,” he said. “Oxygen demand is not rising in proportion to the rising cases. Right now, there is no plan to impose a lockdown. If required, we may increase restrictions.”
Delhi, where daily cases have risen by more than five times in a week, goes into a 55-hour lockdown from Friday night to Monday morning. Authorities have also imposed a night curfew on weekdays, closed schools, and ordered most shops to open only on alternate days when there is no curfew.
Polly Toynbee writes for us this morning that in the UK, the NHS was already collapsing long before the arrival of Covid:
The admirable NHS “copes”. It triages and triages again, treating people according to available beds and who is nearest to death. That’s rationing, a word politicians shun. Waiting used to be the traditional rationing mechanism in a financially capped system. There’s no mystery as to why this is happening: waiting lists rise and fall according to the level of funding. Seasoned observers used to assume queueing was a permanent function, until New Labour all but abolished waiting times, ensuring everyone was treated within 18 weeks from GP to hospital. During the post-2010 austerity years, funding increases fell behind the country’s growing, ageing population. By 2017, waiting lists had risen to just over 4 million.
Let’s hope that despite the record infection rates we’ve seen in recent days, hospitalisations stay low enough so that the NHS still “copes”. If so, Johnson will get away with his high-risk plan B, with its new year pubbing and clubbing in the face of scientists’ concerns. But you wouldn’t praise someone for surviving a dash across the M1 with their eyes shut, especially if we all had to run across with him.
Read more here: Polly Toynbee – The NHS was already collapsing long before the arrival of Covid
Paul Scully, the Conservative minister for small businesses and for London, is doing the media round this morning in the UK. He has appeared first on Sky News. Despite the use of the armed forces to support hospitals in the capital, he appeared to rule out further restrictions being brought in soon.
At the moment we are looking at the data, but we’ve seen what’s happening in London, which was leading the way on the case numbers. And we don’t see the need to [put in more restrictions] at this moment in time. We would clearly be reviewing our plan B scenario before 26 January and then we’ll come to parliament with the decisions that have been taken at that time.
But what you find is that any plans and any restrictions that come in, take weeks to get through the progress of being infected with the virus and then hospitalisations and unfortunately, deaths. So what we’re doing now is something that effect will affect the numbers in the NHS in a few weeks time. That’s why we’re looking at the curve and the data on a day-to-day basis.
Scully is promoting government plans to make payments to support businesses. He said:
We’ve got to make sure that we can balance the needs of everybody within what is an incredibly difficult situation, the pressures on the NHS, but also the pressures on the economy. The pressures on households jobs, livelihoods, and indeed the money that’s coming in to pay for the public services in the first place.
Updated
Hello from London. It’s Martin Belam here, taking over from my colleague Helen Livingstone. Here is a rundown of the latest Covid figures in the UK, according to the government.
Over the last seven days there have been 1.27 million new coronavirus cases recorded in the UK. Cases have increased by 29% week-on-week.
There have been 1,094 deaths recorded in the last week. Deaths have increased by 56% week-on-week.
Hospital admissions have increased by 64% week-on-week. At the latest count on the UK government’s own dashboard, there were 17,988 people in hospital in total, of whom 875 are in ventilation beds. The peak of hospitalisations during the pandemic was in January 2021, with 39,254 patients in hospital.
Updated
Summary
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, for today. I’m handing over to my UK colleague Martin Belam.
Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening in Covid news over the past 24 hours:
- Schools in England are “teetering on the edge” with more than a third (36%) struggling with staff absence rates in excess of 10%, according to a snap poll by a headteachers’ union. Almost one in 10 heads (9%) who took part in the survey said more than 20% of their teaching staff were absent on the first day of term for Covid-related reasons.
- Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has criticised the country’s health regulator Anvisa for authorising the vaccination of children aged five to 11 years against Covid. His comments came as the country reported reported 35,826 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number of infections since September.
- Australia’s home affairs minister has dismissed any suggestion Novak Djokovic is being held “captive” in Melbourne, declaring the world No 1 is free to leave the country whenever he chooses.
- The more infectious Omicron variant appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta, but should not be categorised as “mild”, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
- Authorities in Henan province, China, have imposed more Covid restrictions after a sharp rise in infections, limiting travel and activities in some cities or launching mass testing drives in others.
- Argentina reported a record number of Covid-19 cases on Thursday for a third day in a row at nearly 110,000, as Omicron drives a third pandemic wave in the South American nation.
- The efficacy of boosters against Covid-19 is likely to decline over the next few months and people may need another shot in the fall of 2022, Moderna Inc chief executive officer Stephane Bancel has said.
- A Japanese government panel has put forward a request to declare quasi-emergency measures in three regions to stem a Covid-19 surge that some officials have linked to US military bases in the country. If approved, it would mark the first such measures since September.
- After the debacle of the Ruby Princess’ arrival in Sydney in March 2020 led to over 900 cases of Covid-19 and 28 deaths, the cruise ship appears to be in another Covid-19 outbreak situation in San Francisco. Local media reports around 25% of passengers on board were tested and 12 people came back positive.
- Johnson & Johnson has confirmed a real-world study shows that its single shot Covid vaccine produced long-lasting protection for up to six months against breakthrough infections and hospitalisations.
- Mexico is likely to surpass 300,000 deaths from Covid this week - the fifth highest death toll worldwide - as infections rise after the holiday season, fuelled by the Omicron variant and largely unrestricted tourism.
- The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has ordered the arrest of unvaccinated people who violate stay-at-home orders aimed at curbing “galloping” infections driven by the Omicron variant.
Updated
It feels like a lifetime or two ago, but the Melbourne hotel Novak Djokovic is now being held at was previously used as a hotel quarantine hotel for returning travellers.
It became the focus of attention in mid-2020 because it was the source of a number of transmissions of Covid-19 that ultimately led to the second wave of cases in Victoria, and the marathon lockdown Melbourne endured in 2020.
The inquiry into hotel quarantine concluded around 90% of cases of Covid-19 in Victoria between late May and the end of the year could be attributed to the outbreak at the then-Rydges Hotel, which was being run by the state government as a “hot hotel” where people who were Covid positive were being held.
A number of the returning travellers who stayed there told the inquiry of how the hotel lacked open windows, and in some instances that the rooms themselves were not clean.
There have been a lot of changes since that report was handed down, and also two new variants, and our understanding of how Covid-19 is transmitted has changed, and our daily case numbers are now more than the total of that second wave ... but it’s an interesting bit of history.
Adding to the melting pot of groups outside Park Hotel CARF - campaign against racism and fascism have just arrived. No one can accuse them of mincing their words. #Djokovic pic.twitter.com/VRMBClBFNC
— Cait Kelly (@cait__kelly) January 7, 2022
Covid-19 cases on Ruby Princess again
I regret to inform you the Ruby Princess is at it again.
After the debacle of the cruise ship’s arrival in Sydney in March 2020 led to over 900 cases of Covid-19 and 28 deaths, the ship appears to be in another Covid-19 outbreak situation in San Francisco.
The cruise ended its 10-day trip in San Francisco, but according to reports there is an outbreak on board.
SFist reports around 25% of passengers on board were tested and 12 came back positive, amid suggestions the outbreak may be much larger than just among those tested, with entertainment cancelled as performers had reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.
According to NBC, one passenger said they were not going to get tested and “the Bay Area is getting us as is”.
In a statement to NBC, Princess Cruises said a small number of Covid-19 cases were detected among vaccinated guests who are all asymptomatic, and will either return home in their own cars, or be taken to hotels to be quarantined.
Updated
Schools in England are “teetering on the edge” with more than a third (36%) struggling with staff absence rates in excess of 10%, according to a snap poll by a headteachers’ union.
Almost one in 10 heads (9%) who took part in the survey said more than 20% of their teaching staff were absent on the first day of term for Covid-related reasons.
The staffing situation is already so critical in some schools that 4% of heads have had to send classes or year groups home for online learning, while almost 7% have combined classes or year groups in response to teacher absence.
Half of school leaders said they were already dependent on supply teachers to cover classes, and more than a third (37%) were unable to source the supply staff they need, even via agencies – almost certainly because of high demand.
The Guardian’s education correspondent, Sally Weale, has more:
Australia denies Djokovic is being held 'captive'
Australia’s home affairs minister has dismissed any suggestion Novak Djokovic is being held “captive” in Melbourne, declaring the world No 1 is free to leave the country whenever he chooses.
Djokovic is being held in an immigration hotel until Monday when he will challenge in court the federal government’s Thursday decision to cancel his visa.
The home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, said on Friday that other international players and officials who had already been allowed into the country on a similar vaccine exemption to Djokovic were being investigated by border force officials.
She rejected accusations from the Serb star’s family that the Australian government was “keeping him in captivity”.
“Djokovic is not being held captive in Australia,” Andrews told the national broadcaster ABC. “He is free to leave [the country] at any time that he chooses to do so and border force will actually facilitate that.”
The Victorian state government on Friday said it had not seen correspondence between the federal government and Tennis Australia in late November that stipulated unvaccinated players could not enter the country on the basis they had previously been infected with Covid.
“I can confirm people who contracted Covid-19 within the past six months and seek to enter Australia from overseas, and have not received two doses of a TGA-approved vaccine or TGA-recognised vaccine, are not considered fully vaccinated,” the federal health minister wrote to the Tennis Australia boss, Craig Tiley.
Tiley and the sports governing body in Australia declined multiple requests for comment on Friday.
Andrews, however, confirmed the Australian Border Force, which she oversees, was looking at other individuals who have travelled in similar circumstances to Djokovic for the Open.
“We do have the intelligence to indicate there are some individuals here now that have not met the entry requirements and we have to investigate that,” she told the Nine Network.
Cait Kelly has more:
As Australia battles a huge surge in Covid cases, one exhausted ICU nurse has described how it has felt to work in intensive care for the past two years.
Here’s a taster:
My non-medical friends get angry on my behalf at protesters and anti-vaxxers, because I don’t have the energy. I obtained my critical care registered nurse qualification in 2020 after nursing in ICU for a few years, and almost all of the colleagues I graduated with have attempted to leave intensive care since.
Leaders of the US’s third-largest school district have cancelled classes for a third consecutive day, AP reports, as heated negotiations continue with the Chicago Teachers Union over remote learning and other Covid-19 safety measures.
The union, which voted this week to revert to online instruction, told teachers not to show up to schools starting Wednesday during the latest Covid-19 surge while both sides negotiate.
The move just two days after students returned from winter break prompted district officials to cancel classes each day for students in the roughly 350,000-student district during negotiations, saying there’s no plan to return to districtwide remote instruction.
School districts nationwide have confronted the same pandemic issues, with most opting to stay open while ramping up virus testing, tweaking protocols and other adjustments in response to the shifting pandemic.
In a Thursday message to parents, Chicago leaders said classes would be cancelled Friday but “in-person learning and activities may be available at a small number of schools” based on how many employees report to work. A small percentage of teachers, along with substitutes, have continued to come to schools during what the district has labeled an “illegal work stoppage.”
Some schools preemptively alerted parents earlier Thursday that they didn’t have enough staff and wouldn’t accept students aside from offering meal pickup in the largely low-income and Black and Latino district. The district said roughly 10% of about 21,620 teachers came to work Wednesday and by Thursday it was nearly 13%.
“Our schools are the best, safest place for students to be during this pandemic, and we are working tirelessly to get everyone back in class every day,” Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement Thursday evening. “We will continue working with CTU to resolve this situation and will provide you with ongoing updates as the week continues.”
Chicago’s school leaders have rejected a return to remote learning, saying it worsens racial inequities and is detrimental to academic performance, mental health and attendance. District officials have spent about $100 million on a safety plan, including air purifiers in classrooms.
There was little sign Thursday that either side was softening — the district and union both filed labor complaints with the state this week as negotiations continued.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who has said the city is considering legal options to get teachers back in classrooms, issued a statement late Thursday saying negotiations went on most of the day and were “productive from our perspective.” The city has said that teachers who don’t come to schools won’t get paid. Issues on the table include more testing and metrics to trigger school closures.
The union has blasted the district for not doing enough, like botching a testing program and maintaining unreliable data on infections in schools.
They’ve sought demands similar to a safety agreement put in place last year after a fierce debate. However, the district says the pandemic is different now than a year ago and requires a different response, particularly since 91% of school staff is vaccinated.
A deputy district attorney from California who regularly spoke out against vaccine mandates has died of complications from Covid-19.
Kelly Ernby, 46, a prosecutor from Orange county, southern California, who recently ran for the state assembly, died after contracting the virus, her family and friends have said.
According to Ernby’s husband, Axel Mattias Ernby, Kelly Ernby was unvaccinated at the time of her death.
“She was NOT vaccinated. That’s the problem,” Axel Ernby said on social media posts.
Here’s more from our correspondent Gloria Oladipo:
Updated
Here’s Serbia’s response to the whole Novak Djokovic kerfuffle from AAP’s Andrew Brown:
Serbia’s foreign affairs ministry has hit out at Australia’s decision to cancel the visa of tennis star Novak Djokovic, saying the world No.1 was a victim of a political game.
Australia’s ambassador to Belgrade, Daniel Emery, was summoned to the ministry and urged to make personal efforts to assist Djokovic.
The federal government on Thursday cancelled Djokovic’s visa to enter the country for the Australian Open due to him not meeting vaccination requirements needed for entry.
The Serbian ministry said Australia had acted in bad faith towards the tennis star.
“Starovic emphasised that the Serbian public has a strong impression that Djokovic is a victim of a political game against his will, and that he was lured to travel to Australia in order to be humiliated,” the ministry statement said.
“Novak Djokovic is not a criminal, terrorist or illegal migrant, but he was treated that way by the Australian authorities, which causes understandable indignation of his fans and citizens of Serbia.”
A protest note was also sent by the Serbian government to its embassy in Canberra, following the visa decision.
Djokovic is being held in an inner north Melbourne hotel while he awaits a court challenge to his visa cancellation on Monday
The hotel is also used to house asylum seekers, and Serbia’s foreign ministry has called on the federal government to give Djokovic better accommodation.
“Serbia does not want to influence the upcoming decision of the Australian judiciary in any way,” the statement.
“(Serbia) expects that the authorities of the country, in the spirit of good bilateral relations between Australia and Serbia ... allow Djokovic to spend (time) in better accommodation.”
Australian state of NSW reinstates restrictions as infections surge
A third vaccination shot will soon be mandatory for frontline workers in the Australian state of New South Wales, home to Sydney, as it bans singing and dancing in pubs and clubs, and pauses non-urgent elective surgery, to try and slow the state’s Omicron outbreak.
High-risk major events could also be postponed, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, said on Friday.
NSW will additionally start requiring positive rapid Covid test results to be reported to health authorities – as already occurs in Victoria – and has asked residents to “minimise mingling” whenever possible.
Teachers, health workers and those in frontline disability roles will be among the groups required to get a booster shot to be considered “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19, Perrotet told reporters.
The state reported 38,625 Covid cases on Friday – taking the three-day total above 100,000.
Perrottet was warned by health experts not to ease restrictions as Omicron cases spiked ahead of the Christmas holiday period, but nevertheless scrapped most measures on 15 December.
Here’s more on the premier’s backflip:
Updated
India reported 117,100 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, the most since early June, as the Omicron variant overtakes Delta in the cities, Reuters reports.
The health ministry also reported 302 new deaths, taking the total to 483,178. Total infections stand at 35.23 million.
China reported 174 confirmed coronavirus cases for 6 January, versus 189 a day earlier, its health authority said on Friday.
Of the new infections, 116 were locally transmitted, according to a statement by the National Health Commission, from 132 a day earlier, Reuters reported.
Most of the new local cases were in Henan and Shaanxi provinces. Zhejiang province also reported new cases.
China reported 45 new asymptomatic cases, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, compared with 45 a day earlier.
There were no new fatalities, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636. Mainland China had 103,295 confirmed cases as of 6 January.
Despite the pouring rain Novak Djokovic supporters are still singing loudly and dancing across the road from the Park Hotel in Melbourne, where the tennis star is being kept.
The crowd is a lot smaller today, with Djokovic protestors now mixed in with refugee activists and a comparatively strong anti-vaxx contingent.
While some anti-vaxx protestors are yelling out at passing pedestrians they are largely drowned out by Djokovic’s supporters.
They have brought a large banner with the tennis star’s face on it and are chanting “Novak” in-between songs. Many are draped in Serbian flags or colours.
The rain has meant the crowd is disbursed under shelter, huddling together.
Inside the hotel, some of the 33 men who are detained there have put banners on the windows. “I’m looking for my freedom” reads one, while another says “Nine years too long”.
an odd scene at the park hotel atm - #Djokovic supporters mixing with refugee activists and now a strong (comparatively) anti-vaxx contingent. pic.twitter.com/xLu0AWesUy
— Cait Kelly (@cait__kelly) January 7, 2022
A Japanese government panel has put forward a request to declare quasi-emergency measures in three regions to stem a Covid-19 surge that some officials have linked to US military bases in the country, Reuters reports.
If approved, it would mark the first such measures since September, when Japan lifted emergency controls that had prevailed over the country for most of last year.
Official approval is expected later on Friday after a meeting of health experts.
The infectious Omicron variant has been found in about 80% of Japanese prefectures, and coronavirus cases are surging. New infections exceeded 4,000 nationwide on Wednesday, compared with an average of about 200 per day last month.
“There are cases where there is no history of overseas travel and the route of infection is unknown, while the Delta strain also continues to spread,” Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters.
“We must be prepared for the rapid spread of infection in the future,” he added.
The new measures, affecting the southern prefecture of Okinawa and the western prefectures of Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, would last from Jan. 9 until the end of the month.
All three regions host bases for the US military, which on Thursday announced stricter infection controls at Japan’s urging after on-base outbreaks appeared to have spilled into surrounding communities.
Governors of the prefectures had requested the quasi-emergency steps, which include limited opening hours for bars and restaurants, after seeing a surge in cases, driven by the infectious Omicron variant.
The southern island chain of Okinawa, host to 70% of U.S. military facilities in Japan, has been the hardest hit so far, in what appears to be the nation’s sixth wave of the pandemic.
The prefecture is expected to report more than 1,400 new cases on Friday, Okinawa TV reported, a new record and up from 981 on Thursday.
Updated
The efficacy of boosters against Covid-19 is likely to decline over the next few months and people may need another shot in the fall of 2022, Moderna Inc chief executive officer Stephane Bancel has said at a Goldman Sachs-organised healthcare conference.
Bancel said the company was working on a vaccine candidate tailored to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but is unlikely to be available in the next two months, Reuters reported.
“I still believe we’re going to need boosters in the fall of ‘22 and forward,” Bancel said. His comments on needing a fourth shot come on the back of Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett citing a study on Tuesday that a fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine boosts antibodies five-fold a week after the shot is administered.
Moderna, which benefits by repeat inoculations, during its third quarter earnings results said commercial booster market sales could be up to $2 billion in the United States in 2022.
Serbia’s Foreign Ministry hauls in Australia’s ambassador to Belgrade Daniel Emery to tell him the country believes Djokovic is “a victim of the political game against his will and that he was lured to travel to Australia in order to be humiliated” https://t.co/rnFkbWy8Os
— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) January 7, 2022
Argentina reported a record number of Covid-19 cases on Thursday for a third day in a row at nearly 110,000, Reuters reports, as the highly infectious Omicron variant drives a third pandemic wave in the South American nation.
The record tally of 109,608 in the middle of the southern hemisphere summer holiday season with tourist centres full of travellers, has not translated into a similar exponential rise in Covid-related deaths, which totalled 40, the government said.
“We do not have a strong impact on intensive therapy units and less in terms of deaths,” the chief of staff of the Ministry of Health, Sonia Tarragona, told local radio station Urbana Play. “The cases are mild or moderate and they are not putting stress on the health system.”
Argentina accelerated its vaccination campaign in recent months, which started with the Sputnik V vaccine, then added AstraZeneca and Sinopharm and, later, CanSino, Pfizer and Moderna.
Tarragona said she does not know “what the ceiling for infections is going to be,” but some experts believe the true number among the country’s 45 million population is already significant.
“Today in Argentina we could be quietly at around 150,000 or 200,000 cases of new infections per day,” biochemist Jorge Geffner told Reuters.
He estimated that the infection peak could come in mid-January.
And if you want to read more on the refugees being held in the same Melbourne hotel as Novak Djokovic, check out Ben Doherty’s interview with Mehdi, an Iranian who sought asylum in Australia when he was 15 and has been locked up by authorities there for the past nine years.
Here’s a short extract:
Mehdi has watched boatmates he arrived alongside leave detention to begin lives, careers and families in Australia; he has watched others in detention burn themselves to death in despair. He has been beaten, abused, incarcerated without reason.
Mehdi has never been charged with a crime, nor has any wrongdoing been alleged against him, yet still he has not known a day of freedom in Australia. Friday is his ninth birthday in detention.
“I’m getting older; it’s really sad that my youth, my teenage time – that’s been wasted. I don’t want to leave here as a middle-aged man, all those years lost.”
Novak Djokovic’s wrangling with authorities over entering Australia has inadvertently highlighted a different plight: those of the refugees and asylum seekers stuck for months, and years, at the Park Hotel.
The infamous detention hotel in Carlton, Melbourne, where the tennis star is likely to spend the weekend as he awaits a court hearing over his visa cancellation has been described by detainees as a “torture cell”.
“There is no fresh air, there was recently a fire, the food is not great, we do not have access to a gym, the hotel is totally locked up,” 38-year-old Jamal Mohamed told Guardian Australia.
Read the full report from Guardian Australia correspondents Mostafa Rachwani and Ben Doherty here:
Authorities in Henan province, China, have imposed more Covid restrictions after a sharp rise in infections, limiting travel and activities in some cities or launching mass testing drives in others.
On Thursday health authorities reported 64 community cases in Henan for the preceding 24 hours, a jump from four the day earlier. None have been reported as Omicron, the fast-spreading new variant which has raced through numerous other countries, but China has remained committed to a Zero-Covid policy of stamping out all infections, which officials are under pressure to maintain especially ahead of next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics.
The one million residents of Gushi have been stopped from leaving the county, and visitors have been discouraged after two cases – one symptomatic and one asymptomatic – were reported on Wednesday. Another four million people in Xuchang are set to be tested.
New rules have also been added for people travelling to China from the US. They are now required to complete a nucleic acid test seven days before departure, and report their body temperature daily.
The city of Yuzhou, home to almost 1.2 million people, has been locked down since earlier this week, after three asymptomatic cases were detected.
It joined Xi’an in Shaanxi province, which has held 13 million residents under lockdown for more than two weeks so far, with troubling reports of limits on access to medical care. On Thursday officials apologised after a woman miscarried at eight months pregnant after she was denied entry to a hospital because her negative Covid test was four hours past the dictated validity.
Philippines' Duterte orders arrest of unvaccinated people who flout stay-at-home rules
The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has ordered the arrest of unvaccinated people who violate stay-at-home orders aimed at curbing “galloping” coronavirus infections driven by the Omicron variant, AFP reports.
The government tightened restrictions in Manila and several provinces and cities this week. Unvaccinated people among the capital’s 13 million people were ordered to stay home, after infection numbers tripled in the last two days.
Health officials said infections were projected to increase further in the coming days and would peak by the end of the month.
“Because it’s a national emergency, it is my position that we can restrain” people who have not got their shots, Duterte said in a pre-recorded message on Thursday.
“I am now giving orders to the [village chiefs] to look for those persons who are not vaccinated and just request them or order them, if you may, to stay put.
“And if he refuses and goes out of the house and goes around in the community or maybe everywhere, he can be restrained. If he refuses then the [official] is empowered to arrest the recalcitrant persons,” he added.
James Corden, host of the Late Late Show, has tested positive for Covid. In a post on his Instagram account the British comedian said he was “fully vaccinated, boosted and because of this am fortunate enough to say I feel completely fine.”
He also said the show would be “off the air for the next few days”.
An update from James. pic.twitter.com/DIssDUuNzD
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) January 6, 2022
His diagnosis comes a day after fellow TV host Seth Meyers was forced to cancel his Late Night show after also catching the virus.
The scene at the Park Hotel in Melbourne where tennis star Novak Djokovic is staying is very quiet this morning.
There are a small number of refugee activists setting up for today’s protest, including representatives from Amnesty International and Tamil Refugee Council.
The two groups crossed over yesterday, with some Djokovic supporters calling on more help for the refugees, and refugee advocates calling on the tennis star to help them raise awareness of the 33 men detained indefinitely inside.
“We are here to stand vigil, to make sure the men detained know that we are here,” national campaign manager for Amnesty International Australia Shankar Kasynathan told Guardian Australia:
We’re hoping that Novak, who is inside there today as well, knows the world is watching him, that he has the opportunity today to bring an end to this madness.
To shine a light on the cruelty in this country. The game that is being played with lives must end. It’s game over.
Serbian Australians came out in force yesterday, mixing their protest of Djokovic’s detainment with celebrations of their Christmas Eve.
They lit candles, sung and danced into the evening, yelling “Free Novak” up at the hotel.
“What do we want? Novak at the Tennis!” #Djokovic pic.twitter.com/4xFVmeGYqc
— Cait Kelly (@cait__kelly) January 6, 2022
There was a small skirmish between police and refugee activists as they arrested two women who had been protesting on the awning above the old hotel entrance.
The two protestors on the awning have been taken off by police. #Djokovic pic.twitter.com/d7ucjabyC9
— Cait Kelly (@cait__kelly) January 6, 2022
Today’s protests are expected to be bigger for the refugee activists, but many of Australia’s Serbian community will be enjoying Christmas Day.
Djokovic is expected to stay inside the hotel until the court hearing on Monday, when he will fight the deportation.
Bolsonaro criticises health regulator over plans to vaccinate children
President Jair Bolsonaro has criticised Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa for authorising the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years against Covid-19, Reuters reports, one day after his health minister unveiled plans to inoculate that age group.
Vaccine skeptic Bolsonaro said in a radio interview on Thursday that he had not heard of children dying of Covid-19 and repeated that his daughter Laura, 11, would not be vaccinated. Bolsonaro said vaccines could have side effects on children, but gave no evidence.
Anvisa and health regulators around the world have found that Covid-19 vaccines are safe from age 5 and up.
“Are you going to vaccinate your child when the possibility of dying is almost zero? What is behind this? What are the interests of vaccine maniacs?” Bolsonaro stated.
The Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that it had bought 20 million pediatric vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and voluntary vaccination of children 5 to 11 years old will begin by the end of the month.
Bolsonaro’s comments came as the Health Ministry reported 35,826 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number of infections since September, and 128 deaths from Covid.
In a social media broadcast later on Thursday, Bolsonaro stressed that the vaccination was not obligatory. “No town mayor or state governor can prevent a child from going to school for not being vaccinated,” he said.
Bolsonaro warned that Pfizer has not assumed responsibility for any side effects the vaccine could have in children, and said parents should immediately seek a doctor if their child developed chest pains or shortage of breath.
Anvisa approved the Pfizer vaccine for children on 16 December, drawing heated criticism from people opposed to vaccines and the president, who suggested that children only be vaccinated with a doctor’s prescription.
The ministry dropped the idea as impractical. Requiring a written prescription would discourage vaccination at a time when the more transmissible coronavirus variant Omicron is starting to spread in Brazil, health experts said at a public hearing.
According to the national council of state health secretaries at least 300 children aged 5 to 11 had died in Brazil from Covid-19 by the start of December.
Brazil’s army differed from the president this week on how to deal with Covid-19. It ordered soldiers to get vaccinated, wear masks and maintain social distance, and warned them against spreading false news about the pandemic.
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of the Covid pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has criticised the country’s health regulator Anvisa for authorising the vaccination of children aged five to 11 years against Covid. His comments came as the country reported reported 35,826 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number of infections since September.
Novak Djokovic’s family have said he is the victim of “a political agenda” aimed at “stomping on Serbia” as protesters in Belgrade called for his release and Serbia’s president insisted “the whole country” was behind him.
The more infectious Omicron variant appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta, but should not be categorised as “mild”, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
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Britain’s first wave of coronavirus raised the risk of death by more than 40% for most adults regardless of their underlying health and other factors, research suggests.
- Johnson & Johnson has confirmed a real-world study shows that its single shot Covid vaccine produced long-lasting protection for up to six months against breakthrough infections and hospitalisations.
- Mexico is likely to surpass 300,000 deaths from Covid this week - the fifth highest death toll worldwide - as infections rise after the holiday season, fuelled by the Omicron variant and largely unrestricted tourism.
- Peru raised its pandemic alert level in numerous cities and tightened some restrictions amid a third wave of infections caused by the spread of the Omicron variant.
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Nigeria is working to develop a Covid vaccine, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a televised interview on Thursday, as the country battles growing cases of the virus.
- Chile will begin offering a fourth shot of the Covid vaccine next week to immunocompromised people, making it the first country in Latin America and one of the first in the world to offer the extra dose.
- The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has ordered the arrest of unvaccinated people who violate stay-at-home orders aimed at curbing “galloping” infections driven by the Omicron variant.
