Summary
Here’s a roundup of today’s Covid-19 news, as the spread of the Omicron variant continues.
- A further 75 cases of the Omicron variant have been identified in England, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 104. More than half of those infected with Omicron in England were double jabbed.
- Five US states have reported having people test positive for the new Omicron variant for the first time; Missouri, Utah, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Nebraska.
- Christmas should go ahead “as normally as possible” this year, despite concerns about the Omicron variant, according to UK prime minister Boris Johnson. He said that people did not need to cancel parties or nativity plays.
- Two hippos in a Belgian zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, their keepers announced Friday, stressing that the giant animals do not appear to be in danger.
- The Red Cross has said the Omicron variant is the “ultimate evidence” of the danger of unequal vaccine rates globally.
- The US gave out nearly another 2 million doses of Covid vaccines on Thursday, according to official figures.
- Cases in South Africa have risen above 3 million after a surge of infections driven by the new Omicron variant.
- Global economic growth projects are likely to be downgraded due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director has said.
- Another 221 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, its health ministry has reported. The death total, one of the world’s largest, now stands at 615,400. It registered 10,627 new cases on Friday.
- Mexico has reported another 188 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday. Its death toll now stands at 294,903, according to the country’s health ministry.
Mexico has reported another 188 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday.
Its death toll now stands at 294,903, according to the country’s health ministry.
Updated
Another US state has reported its first confirmed case of Omicron.
Utah said the case was discovered through “ongoing genetic sequencing”.
It joins Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Missouri and Maryland.
Updated
There have been no Omicron deaths yet, according to the World Health Organization.
It has now been detected in 38 countries, but no deaths have been reported, the global health agency said on Friday.
The WHO has warned it could take weeks to determine how infectious the variant is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective treatments and vaccines are against it.
“We’re going to get the answers that everybody out there needs,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said.
England reports 75 new Omicron cases
A further 75 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been identified in England, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 104. People who have tested positive and their contacts have been asked to self-isolate. Work is under way to find any links to travel.
Cases have been identified in the east Midlands, east of England, London, north-east, north-west, south-east, south-west and West Midlands.
Earlier on Friday health officials said that more than half of those infected with the Omicron variant were double jabbed.
Dr Jenny Harries, the UKHSA chief executive, said: “Increased case detection through focused contact tracing has led to more cases of the Omicron variant being identified and confirmed, as we have seen in other countries globally.
“We are continuing to monitor the data closely. Teams nationally and locally are working at pace to identify and trace all close contacts of every Omicron case. It is critical that anyone with Covid-19 symptoms isolates and gets a PCR test immediately.
“We have started to see cases where there are no links to travel, suggesting that we have a small amount of community transmission.”
Updated
Another 221 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, its health ministry has reported.
The death total, one of the world’s largest, now stands at 615,400. It registered 10,627 new cases on Friday.
IMF: Omicron likely to affect economic growth projections
Global economic growth projects are likely to be downgraded due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director said on Friday.
Speaking to a Reuters conference, Kristalina Georgieva said its current projections of 5.9% growth this year and 4.9% next year are likely to change.
Updated
Omicron variant drives South Africa cases above 3m
Cases in South Africa have risen above 3 million after a surge of infections driven by the new Omicron variant.
Another 16,055 new cases were reported on Friday, taking the total confirmed infections to 3,004,203.
“This increase represents a 24.3% positivity rate,” the government-run National Institute for Communicable Diseases said in a daily update.
The majority of new cases on Friday, 72%, were detected in the Gauteng province – which has emerged as the epicentre of the new variant, AFP reports. It includes the country’s capital Pretoria and economic hub Johannesburg.
Updated
Four US states have reported having people test positive for the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Missouri and Maryland reported cases on Friday as more states identify incidences of it.
The midwest state of Nebraska confirmed six cases, Maryland had three. A man in his 30s tested positive for the variant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reuters reports. Missouri also has a single case.
Updated
The US gave out nearly another 2 million doses of Covid vaccines on Thursday, according to official figures.
A total of 466,348,132 doses were given out as of Friday morning, up from 464,445,850 the day before, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
More than 198 million people are now fully vaccinated with one of the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson inoculations.
The Red Cross has said the Omicron variant is the “ultimate evidence” of the danger of unequal vaccine rates globally.
In an interview with AFP during a visit to Moscow, Francesco Rocca, the president of the charity said: “The scientific community has warned... on several occasions about the risks of very new variants in places where there is a very low rate of vaccinations.”
About 65% of people in high-income countries have had at least one dose of vaccine against the coronavirus, but just over 7% in low-income countries, UN numbers show.
More than half of those infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant in England were double jabbed, health officials have said, as the number of cases detected in the UK continues to rise sharply.
A further 16 cases have been found in Scotland in the past 24 hours, five times the increase recorded the previous day, with some linked to a Steps concert in Glasgow 11 days ago. Wales also announced its first case on Friday, and more cases have been discovered in England, although precise new figures remained unconfirmed on Friday evening.
The sharp rise in cases came as a new risk assessment from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the new variant is “transmitting rapidly and successfully”. A separate analysis by the agency of the first 22 Omicron cases in England also found that more than half of those infected had been double jabbed.
Updated
The US regulator for medicine has approved a dual-antibody therapy for children, including newborns.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday that Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 therapy for mild and moderate diseases could be used on children who are at high risk for progression to severe disease, Reuters reports.
Christmas should go ahead “as normally as possible” this year, despite concerns about the Omicron variant, according to UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
He said that people did not need to cancel parties or nativity plays. It follows comments by public health official Dr Jenny Harries that people should not socialise “when [they] don’t particularly need to”.
Johnson said: “I’ve noticed there’s been quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about it, people concerned that they need to cancel their Christmas parties. That’s not right, we’re not saying that and we’re not saying that nativity plays have to be cancelled.
“I believe very strongly that kids should be in school and I also think that Christmas should go ahead as normally as possible. But the key point, the key point is that whatever the risk Omicron may pose, or may not pose, the booster is everywhere and always, vaccination is going to be your best protection, so everybody should get it.”
UK prime minister Boris Johnson visited a vaccine centre on Friday as part of a byelection campaign, but then got the name of his candidate, an NHS doctor, wrong.
On a visit to Oswestry in North Shropshire, Johnson saw Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst vaccinating people at a pharmacy. However in comments to the press, he called him “Dr Neil Shastri-Hughes”.
He said: “I think we’ve got a fantastic candidate, Dr Neil Shastri-Hughes, who I’ve just been seen contributing already to the life of the community by vaccinating people, he’s a doctor amongst his many other talents and what he’s also going to do is work very, very hard for the people of North Shropshire.”
October was the deadliest month for Russia during the pandemic, with its government’s statistics agency saying nearly 75,000 people died across the month.
Rosstat said on Friday that 520,000 people have died since Russia recorded its first case. It means the country has the third worst death toll behind the US and Brazil, according to AFP.
Authorities in Moscow have been accused of downplaying the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and Rosstat’s figure – released late on Friday – painted a far darker picture than official figures suggest.
This is Harry Taylor taking you through Covid news for the rest of the night. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions - drop me an email or get in touch via Twitter.
Two hippos in a Belgian zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, their keepers announced Friday, stressing that the giant animals do not appear to be in danger.
The infections at Antwerp Zoo are not the first time that zoo animals have tested positive during the pandemic, but most cases are thought to have been in cats and monkeys.
The building housing Hermien and Imani, a mother and daughter aged 41 and 14, has been closed to the public and their keepers have formed an isolated social bubble.
It’s believed to be the first time such animals have caught the virus.
Hi. That’s all from me, Caroline Davies. Thank you for your time, Handing over now to my colleague Harry Taylor.
Summary
Some key developments from today:
- The Omicron variant is likely to be capable of causing a new wave of coronavirus infections that could be even bigger than previous waves, UK government scientists have warned.
- Belgium is to close kindergartens and primary schools a week early for the Christmas holidays.
- Switzerland is tightening restrictions and reinforcing its work from home advice.
-
Europe crossed 75 million coronavirus cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally.
- Wales has reported its first confirmed case of the Omicron variant, which is linked to foreign travel.
- At least 13 people in the Norwegian capital Oslo have been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus following a corporate Christmas party
-
New analysis from the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) of 22 Omicron cases confirmed in England by November 30 shows that:
- 12 of the 22 cases were more than 14 days after receiving at least two doses of vaccine. - Zimbabwe reported a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, a day after it identified its first case of the new Omicron variant. It announced 1,042 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, compared to just around 20 two weeks ago.
- The Czech health ministry is reportedly preparing a decree making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for people over 60, as well as workers in critical sectors such as medical staff, police, soldiers and firefighters.
- Canada has discovered a total of 11 cases of the new omicron variant, all of them among travellers who arrived from abroad.
- Germany’s fourth wave of the pandemic could reach a “sad peak” in intensive care units around the country around Christmas, the outgoing health minister, Jens Spahn, has warned as he defended the decision to bar unvaccinated people from many areas of public life.
- Doctors in South Africa said on Friday there had been a spike in hospitalisations among young children after Omicron swept through the country but stressed it was early to know if they were particularly susceptible.
- A Steps concert in Glasgow is among the sources of new Omicron cases in Scotland, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
- The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist has urged people not panic over the emergence of the Omicron variant and said it was too early to say if COVID-19 vaccines would have to be modified to fight it.
- Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi said some of the four diplomats who first tested positive for the Omicron variant in the country had come from Europe, calling for a reversal of widespread travel bans imposed against southern African countries, Reuters reports.
Ireland announces new restrictions for bars and restaurants after warning risks are 'just too high'
Ireland has reintroduced restrictions to combat the risk posed by the Omicron Covid variant.
However the government stopped short of cancelling Christmas but has restricted interactions in private settings to four households.
Nightclubs will be closed from next Tuesday until 9 January; strict social distancing will be required in bars and restaurants with mandatory table service and a maximum of six people allowable per table.
The measures will return the country to limits which were in force until as recently as 22 October in a blow to the night time economy.
Indoor and sporting venues will be limited to 50% capacity and sporting events must be fully seated and a Covid certificate evidence double vaccination will be required for access to hotels and gyms.
In a televised announcement, taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “Our public health experts have been exceptionally clear in their advice to government. The risks associated with proceeding into the Christmas period without some restrictions…is just too high.”
Updated
Israel’s health ministry has confirmed seven cases of the new Omicron variant.
Four of the confirmed cases are unvaccinated individuals who had recently returned from South Africa, AP reports.
The other three include two people who returned from South Africa and from Britain and who had received two doses and a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The third person returned from Malawi and had been inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. The ministry said it has a “high suspicion” that another 27 identified cases of the coronavirus are also the new variant.
Eight of them are individuals who had either traveled abroad or been in contact with a recent arrival who has tested positive for omicron.
The rest could not be connected to foreign travel — an indication the omicron variant could now be spreading within Israeli towns and cities.
Italy reported 74 coronavirus -related deaths on Friday against 72 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 17,030 from 16,806. Italy has registered 134,077 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 5.08 million cases to date.
The Conservatives are pressing ahead with their Christmas party in spite of scientists’ fears over the spread of Omicron, as their co-chair told people to “keep calm and carry on” with festivities, Rowena Mason and Matthew Weaver report.
Labour has decided to cancel its Christmas function though it is not urging businesses to do the same.
Despite criticism of No 10 for allegedly holding lockdown-busting parties last Christmas, the Conservative party’s co-chair said on Friday that No 10 and the central party would be carrying on with their functions.
“We obviously wouldn’t set out details of private functions in No 10 but, as I say, there will be festive events in the run-up to Christmas,” said Oliver Dowden.
You can read the full report here:
Europe crossed 75 million coronavirus cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally.
More than 15 countries in Europe have now reported confirmed cases of the new variant that has rattled financial markets.
Even before the discovery of Omicron, Europe was pandemic’s epicentre with 66 out of every 100 new infections each day coming from European countries, according to a Reuters analysis.
Eastern Europe has 33% of the total reported cases and about 53% of the total reported deaths in Europe. It makes up 39% of the region’s population.
The UK has so far reported the highest total number of coronavirus cases in the region followed by Russia, France and Germany.
The Reuters data shows the pace of the pandemic has picked up speed in the second half of 2021. Europe has reported highest daily average of 359,000 new cases in second half as compared with highest daily cases of about 241,000 a day in the first half of the year.
It took 136 days for the European region to go from 50 million cases to 75 million, compared with 194 days it took to get from 25 to 50 million while the first 25 million cases were reported in 350 days.
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has said the first confirmed case of the Omicron variant discovered in Wales is associated with foreign travel.
Public Health Wales has said the case was identified in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area.
Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “It is associated with international travel.
“The individual has been identified through our sequencing service and public health officials have now been able to contact them, their immediate contacts, and we are confident that the people who need to be in isolation are now doing that.”
Asked about the health of the affected individual, Drakeford said: “I am told that they are reasonably well and not themselves badly affected by the illness.”
Updated
Tunisia reported its first infection from the Omicron variant, the health minister, Ali Mrabet, said on Friday. The infected person was a 23-year-old man from Congo who came to Tunisia from Istanbul airport.
Updated
At least 13 people in Oslo have been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus following a corporate Christmas party in the capital, and more cases are expected to be confirmed, local authorities said on Friday.
Norway reintroduced some nationwide restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 following the emergence of the new Omicron variant in the country on Thursday.
The outbreak took place at a Christmas party on 26 November organised by renewable energy company Scatec, which has operations in South Africa where the variant was first detected, Reuters reported.
The first person in Oslo confirmed as infected had attended the party, where at least one employee had just returned from the country.
All the attendees were fully vaccinated and had tested negative before the event.
“Health authorities have confirmed a further 12 cases of Omicron in Oslo after an outbreak,” the city of Oslo said in a statement. “So far 13 Omicron cases have been confirmed after sequencing. More cases are expected.”
Health authorities said the individuals infected were so far displaying mild symptoms, with none hospitalised.
“They cough, have sore throats and headaches,” Tine Ravlo, chief physician for the Oslo borough of Frogner, told broadcaster NRK.
Scatec said its focus was on taking care of its employees and limiting the spread of the virus.
Updated
The first case of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in Mexico, the deputy health minister said on Friday. The infected person is a 51-year-old who travelled from South Africa, according to a post on Twitter from the deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, who added that the person has only presented mild symptoms so far.
Updated
New analysis from the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) of 22 Omicron cases confirmed in England by 30November shows that:
- 12 of the 22 cases were more than 14 days after receiving at least two doses of vaccine.
- Two cases were more than 28 days after a first dose of vaccine.
- Six were unvaccinated.
- Two had no available information.
None of the cases are known to have been hospitalised or died, but the HSA said that “most of the cases have a specimen date that is very recent and that there is a lag between onset of infection and hospitalisation and death”.
Updated
Zimbabwe reported a sharp rise in coronavirus infections on Friday despite measures to stem the spread of the virus, a day after it identified its first case of the new Omicron variant.
It announced 1,042 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, compared to just around 20 two weeks ago.
After South Africa alerted the world to the new strain of Covid last week, dozens of countries imposed travel bans on southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, AFP reports.
South Africa led a chorus of criticism over the bans, but Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, instead imposed his own restrictions.
On Tuesday, he required a 10-day quarantine for all arrivals in the country, extended a night-time curfew, and required proof of vaccination to visit bars or clubs. But one case of Omicron was confirmed Thursday, and infections are soaring.
The country has limited health surveillance systems, and the huge jump in cases has alarmed authorities.
“We are now in a particularly dangerous period once again,” the health minister, Constantino Chiwenga, said.
As in neighbouring South Africa, a large cluster of infections appears to have emerged among students.
Many are also worried that, under the new quarantine requirement in Zimbabwe, the country’s large migrant population in South Africa will become stuck at the land border after crossing back over for the Christmas holidays.
Zimbabwe has reported 136,379 Covid-19 infections since March 2020, including 4,707 deaths.
Updated
The Czech health ministry is preparing a decree making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for people over 60, as well as workers in critical sectors such as medical staff, police, soldiers and firefighters, the news website idnes.cz
reported.
The government has been considering compulsory vaccinations due to lagging inoculation numbers compared with west European nations, Reuters reported.
The country of 10.7 million has been one of the world’s worst-hit in recent weeks by a surge in infections. Some other European countries have begun moving towards compulsory vaccinations, including the Czech Republic’s neighbour Austria, which has mandated shots for all citizens.
The report states the decree should be published next week, with the vaccine mandate effective from March.
But whether it remains in place long enough to take effect could be in doubt, as the government is due to be replaced by a centre-right coalition later this month following an election in October. The new coalition has been against compulsory vaccination for age groups, and lukewarm on mandatory vaccination for professions.
Just 59.6% of Czechs are vaccinated, compared to an EU average of 66.3%, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Updated
Canada has discovered a total of 11 cases of the new omicron variant, all of them among travellers who arrived from abroad, chief public health officer Theresa Tam told reporters on Friday. “The need for heightened vigilance remains, regardless of which variant is circulating,” she said.
Two people who returned to Russia from South Africa on Friday tested positive for Covid-19 and their test samples are being studied to determine whether their infection was caused by the new Omicron variant, Russian authorities said.
The two have been hospitalised, Russia’s public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether their condition required hospital care or they were admitted to a hospital for additional testing because of the variant, AP reports.
Russia restricted entry for all foreigners travelling from countries in southern Africa and required all Russian nationals returning from South Africa or neighbouring countries as of Thursday to quarantine for 14 days because of the the Omicron variant, which was first reported by scientists in South Africa.
Updated
More regions of Russia have made Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for residents age 60 and over as the country tries to control infections and to keep the Omicron variant at bay, AP reports.
Authorities in the northern region of Komi said on Friday that people in that age group are required to get fully vaccinated by 1 February. The Omsk region in Siberia introduced a more stringent timeline on Thursday that obligates those 60 and above to get their first vaccine dose by Dec. 24 and their second dose by Jan. 15.
Several other regions, including Lipetsk, Kurgan and the city of St. Petersburg, adopted similar mandates in recent weeks.
Some regions also imposed vaccine mandates for certain categories of essential workers.
Russia has struggled to get cases down amid low vaccination rates and poor compliance with public health measures.
About 40% of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated, even though the country approved a domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, months before most of the world.
Updated
Does the Omicron variant mean Covid is going to become more transmissible?
Here Hannah Devlin, Guardian science correspondent, looks at the facts.
The first case of the Omicron variant has been detected in Wales, in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area, the Welsh Government has announced.
The case is linked to international travel, according to officials.
The government said it was “prepared to respond rapidly to emerging variants of concern and intensive investigations and robust public health action are being taken to slow any spread”.
Meanwhile, the public in Wales have been urged to follow steps “which keep us safe”, with the government calling for people to take up the offer of a vaccine.
Government scientists issue stark warning on Omicron, saying could lead to 'very large wave of infections'
Government scientists have issued a stark warning on the Omicron variant, which they say could lead to a “very large wave of infections” and high numbers of people hospitalised.
Minutes of a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting held on 29 November, released today, note that it is highly likely Omicron could escape immunity to some extent, but that it was unclear by how much.
The government scientists warned:
Even if there continues to be good protection against severe disease for individuals from vaccination (including boosters), any significant reduction in protection against infection could still result in a very large wave of infections.
This would in turn lead to potentially high numbers of hospitalisations even with protection against severe disease being less affected.
The size of this wave remains highly uncertain but may be of a scale that requires very stringent response measures to avoid unsustainable pressure on the NHS.
If vaccine efficacy is substantially reduced, then a wave of severe disease should be expected.
They added:
It is important to be prepared for a potentially very significant wave of infections with associated hospitalisations now, ahead of data being available.
Meanwhile, scientists at a meeting of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) subgroup on 25 November said it is capable of causing a new wave of coronavirus infections of a “magnitude similar, or even larger, than previous waves.”
In a note of the meeting, released by Sage today, scientists conclude: “We cannot exclude that this wave would be of a magnitude similar, or even larger, than previous waves.”
It adds: “Although data on disease severity associated with B.1.1.529 are not yet available, a large wave of infections will be accompanied by a wave of severe cases and the subgroup cannot rule out that this may be sufficient to overwhelm NHS capacity.”
Scientists said it is highly likely that omicron is a “fit” virus that is undergoing extensive community transmission in South Africa and potentially in other places. But they said there is insufficient data o make comments on the severity of disease brought by the variant.
Updated
Belgium to close kindergartens and primary schools a week early for Christmas holidays
Belgium has further tightened its coronavirus restrictions after a surge in cases has hit health services and deprived people with other life-threatening diseases of necessary treatment, prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday.
Kindergartens and primary schools will now close for the holiday season a week early, AP reports, and children must wear masks from the age of 6. The government has capped attendance at indoor events at 200 people.
“There are too many people who are not getting the treatment they need in hospital, so it is important to act quickly,” De Croo said, noting that 40% of Belgium’s intensive care beds are currently filled by Covid-19 patients. “It’s a situation that cannot be tolerated.”
It’s the third week in a row that De Croo’s government has tightened restrictions. Last Friday, the government closed nightclubs, and ordered bars and restaurants to shut at 11 pm for three weeks.
According to the latest pandemic figures, the nation of 11 million appears to have reached a plateau. On a weekly average, 17,862 new daily cases were reported, a rise of 6% over the previous week. Hospital admissions rose 4%. More than 3,700 people are hospitalised with the virus, 821 of them in intensive care. More than 27,000 people have died in Belgium during the pandemic.
Doctors in South Africa said on Friday there had been a spike in hospitalisations among young children after Omicron swept through the country but stressed it was early to know if they were particularly susceptible.
In the week since South Africa alerted the world of the new Covid variant, infections have spread faster than in the country’s three previous waves.
The first cluster of cases centred around university students, and then spread quickly among young people who seem to have spread it to older people.
But scientists and health officials said they had seen increasing hospital admissions in children under five, along with higher positivity rates among children aged 10-14.
Wassila Jassat, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said: “We’ve seen quite a sharp increase across all age groups, particularly in the under fives,” referring to hospitalisations.
“The incidence in those under fives is now second-highest, and second only to the incidence in those over 60,” she told a news conference.
Scientists cited several possible reasons. One is that children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines in South Africa. Doctors have reported anecdotally that both children and parents testing positive have not been vaccinated, she said.
NICD’s head of public health Michelle Groome said the virus was spreading faster than at any point in the pandemic in Gauteng, the province where Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria are located.
“Preliminary data suggests Omicron is more transmissible and has some immune evasion,” she said.
South African scientists on Thursday reported that the reinfections were three times as likely with Omicron, compared to the Delta or Beta strains.
Although generally patients are showing milder symptoms, Groome cautioned that the onset of serious illness would only be expected over the coming two weeks.
The country recorded 11,535 new cases Thursday, mostly in the epicentre Gauteng.
That is five times more than the reported cases just one week ago, when South African scientists alerted the world to the new variant.
We reported a Reuters story earlier that said Slovakia had logged a record 15,278 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic broke out, but the Health Ministry said a technical issue inflated the number.
“The reason for today’s high number of positive test results is additional data, which did not pass from laboratories to the information system on 30 November,” the ministry said.
The ministry did not specify the actual number of cases detected on Thursday. The country of 5.5 million has 3,404 people hospitalised with the illness, including 630 in intensive care.
Slovakia has one of the European Union’s lowest rates of vaccination uptake.
An earlier entry in this live blog on that has been removed.
Updated
Dutch health authorities on Friday said that a significant number of passengers on flights from South Africa over the past week have tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival despite having been vaccinated and testing negative before departure.
“It shows that the virus is spreading easily and that is worrying,” said Bert van de Velden, director of the regional health authority for Kennemerland, which includes Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
A growing number of countries are exploring making Covid jabs compulsory for the general population, but is it the right approach?
Which countries are opting for mandatory Covid vaccinations?
Austria has announced plans to make Covid jabs mandatory from February, with Germany indicating it may follow suit. Greece, meanwhile, has already announced mandatory jabs for the over-60s, while Indonesia and Turkmenistan are among those that have already made Covid jabs mandatory.
Why are they taking this approach?
Many of the countries exploring mandatory vaccination of the general population are doing so in the face of rising levels of Covid that have led to the reintroduction of severe measures including lockdowns.
In Germany, for example, many hospitals are under severe strain while the number of new Covid cases has hit unprecedented highs in recent weeks striking a record of 79,051 new cases on 24 November, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.
According to Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Europe director, the situation faced by Europe and central Asia is down to a number of factors, including insufficient vaccination coverage and the relaxation of public health and social measures.
“Most people hospitalised and dying from Covid-19 today are not fully vaccinated,” he said last month.
You can read the full explainer here:
A Steps concert in Glasgow is among the sources of new Omicron cases in Scotland, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
“The number of Omicron cases now being reported in Scotland is rising, and cases are no longer all linked to a single event, but to several different sources including a Steps concert at the Hydro on November 22,” she said
“This confirms our view that there is now community transmission of this variant within Scotland. Given the nature of transmission we would expect to see cases rise, perhaps significantly, in the days ahead.
“However, health protection teams are continuing work through contact tracing, isolation and testing to slow the spread as far as possible while we learn more about the new variant’s impact. Ministers are also keeping the situation under daily review.”
Six cases are understood to be linked to the concert at the Hydro on November 22. Risk to those who attended is said to be low and those who may have come into contact with the new variant at the event are being contacted.
No one from the concert needs to isolate, unless asked to by Test and Protect or if they develop symptoms.
The United States sent 9 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine doses to countries in Africa and another 2 million doses to other nations, the White House said on Friday.
“Today, we are shipping 9 million vaccine doses to Africa and another 2 million worldwide. We need every country to step up with the same urgency and ambition as the US,” White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a post on Twitter.
Yesterday, @POTUS said we would accelerate vaccine shipments to the world. Today, we are shipping 9 million vaccine doses to Africa and another 2 million worldwide. We need every country to step up with the same urgency and ambition as the US. https://t.co/kSPaolruEi
— Kevin Munoz (@KMunoz46) December 3, 2021
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist has urged people not panic over the emergence of the Omicron variant and said it was too early to say if COVID-19 vaccines would have to be modified to fight it.
Speaking on Friday in an interview at the Reuters Next conference, Soumya Swaminathan also said it was impossible to predict if Omicron would become the dominant strain.
Swaminathan said that the right response was to be ready.
“How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we’re in a different situation to a year ago,” she said.
“Delta accounts for 99% of infections around the world. This variant would have to be more transmissible to out-compete and become dominant worldwide. It is possible, but it’s not possible to predict.”
Much remains unknown about Omicron, which has been detected in more than two dozen countries as parts of Europe grapple with a wave of infections of the more familiar Delta variant.
“We need to wait, lets hope it’s milder ... but it’s too early to conclude about the variant as a whole,” Swaminathan said.
Switzerland tightens restrictions and reinforces message to work from home
Switzerland announced stronger anti-Covid-19 measures on Friday, as its government battles to contain a surge in infections and the arrival of the Omicron variant in the country.
The country will expand the requirement to wear masks and produce a certificate to prove a person is vaccinated or has recovered from the virus, the government said.
Masks will have to be worn indoors wherever a certificate obligation applies, Reuters reports.
The government also reinforced its message for people to work from home, while allowing events and venues to restrict entry only to people who are vaccinated or recovered.
The measures will go into effect on Monday, Dec. 6 and be effective until Jan. 24.
“The Federal Council currently assesses the situation as very critical,” the government said in a statement. “The emergence of the Omicron variant also poses new challenges for pandemic response.”
Three cases of the Omicron variant have already been confirmed in Switzerland, according to the Federal Office for Public Health, with persons placed in isolation and their contacts quarantined.
The country of 8.7 million is also battling an increase in infections, with more than 96,000 cases confirmed in the last 14 days. Nov. 29 saw the highest number of infections since the start of the crisis, with 11,340 cases reported.
Switzerland has also tightened entry restrictions, insisting travellers from 23 countries must present negative test results and quarantine for 10 days.
The government said countries would be removed from the quarantine list from Dec. 4, although it would use introduce a stricter testing obligation upon entry into the country.
Updated
The pace of Covid infections in the South African province of Gauteng is outstripping anything seen in previous waves, and officials say Omicron is now the dominant variant.
Angelique Coetzee, the chair of the South African Medical Association, said Omicron’s ability to spread – its R number – was believed to be above 6. The R number for Delta, the dominant variant globally, is estimated to be above 5.
Speaking to the BBC’s PM programme, Coetzee said: “We know currently that the virus is transmissible. According to the scientists, the R value is 6.3, I think.”
In Gauteng, the populous province that includes Johannesburg and is the centre of the outbreak, public health officials say case positivity rates have climbed from 2% in mid-November to 24% this week.
However, most of the cases seen in the province so far, including by Coetzee, have been described as mild, with the majority of infections concentrated in younger patients who make up a significantly greater proportion of the country’s unvaccinated.
Prof Bruce Mellado, who advises the provincial government, told the Daily Maverick that health officials had seen such a rapid increase in cases in Gauteng over the past few weeks that they had had to recalibrate their projection models.
The increase was at a rate not seen before, he said, not even in the third wave, which Mellado described as a “very serious situation”.
Other officials in the province described a 20% rise in the seven-day rolling average of daily Covid cases, and increasing hospital admissions, driven by Omicron.
Read the full report here:
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi said some of the four diplomats who first tested positive for the Omicron variant in the country had come from Europe, calling for a reversal of widespread travel bans imposed against southern African countries, Reuters reports.
Omicron, dubbed a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation, has prompted many governments to impose curbs on travel from southern Africa.
While it is still not established where Omicron first emerged, on Nov. 25 South Africa, followed by Botswana a day later, announced they had detected a new variant whose mutations were different from the dominant Delta variant.
South Africa has also complained it is being punished for having identified the new variant early.
“It is unnecessary and if you ask me, for lack of a better expression, irresponsible,” Masisi said of the travel curbs, speaking in an interview with CNN on Thursday evening.
“The diplomats came from a number of countries ... and they passed through a number of countries to get to Botswana.”
He declined to disclose their nationalities, only saying “some had been to Europe and some had been elsewhere”.
Asked if some had come from Europe into Botswana, he replied “indeed”.
Botswana said last week the country was investigating certain mutations of the coronavirus that were found in four foreign nationals who were in the country on a diplomatic mission. Omicron was detected in the diplomats who travelled into country on Nov. 7 and left on Nov. 11.
The country has so far reported more than 20 cases of the new variant.
Presidential spokesman Batlhalefi Leagajang told Reuters on Friday that Masisi will not disclose the countries the diplomats passed through, or their countries of origin, because “the virus should never be geo-politicized.”
Omicron has been reported in at least two dozen countries
More on that Italian jab-avoider:
Here is a summary by Reuters of the latest on the main Covid-19 vaccines.
The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that use mRNA technology provide the biggest boost to antibody levels when given 10-12 weeks after the second dose, a new British study has found.
The “COV-Boost” study was cited by British officials when they announced that Pfizer and Moderna were preferred for use in the country’s booster campaign, but the data has only been made publicly available now.
The study found that six of the seven boosters examined enhanced immunity after initial vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, while all seven increased immunity when given after two doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
“A third dose will be effective for many of the vaccines we’ve tested and in many different combinations,” Professor Saul Faust, an immunologist at the University of Southampton and the trial’s lead, told reporters.
The study, published late on Thursday, found that a full dose or half dose of Pfizer or a full dose of Moderna gave a strong boost to both antibody and T-cell levels, regardless of whether the person initially received Pfizer or AstraZeneca.
“All four of the vaccination regimes most widely deployed in the UK lead to essentially the same levels of immunity and are likely to be equally effective,” said Professor Eleanor Riley, immunologist at the University of Edinburgh. She added that a policy change in booster gaps was also supported by the data.
“These data support the JCVI (vaccine committee) decision earlier this week to bring forward booster doses to 3 months after the second vaccination.”
When AstraZeneca, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and Curevac were given as boosters, they increased antibody levels for either initial vaccine, albeit to a smaller degree, the study found. However, while Valneva boosted antibodies in people initially vaccinated with AstraZeneca, it did not provide a boost for Pfizer.
The COV-Boost study pre-dated the spread of the emergent Omicron variant of concern, and Faust said he had shared samples with the UK Health Security Agency to generate data on Omicron.
The study did however find that booster shots also helped to generate a broad T-cell response against the Beta and Delta variants, which may play a key role in longer-term protection.
A separate study by Imperial College London into how initial exposure to SARS-CoV-2 shapes immune responses, also published late on Thursday, similarly found a good T-cell response to both Alpha and Delta after infection followed by vaccination
Germany’s fourth wave of the pandemic could reach a “sad peak” in intensive care units around the country around Christmas, the outgoing health minister, Jens Spahn, has warned as he defended the decision to bar unvaccinated people from many areas of public life.
On Thursday, the German government and heads of the federal states agreed that only those who have been vaccinated or recently recovered from Covid should be allowed in restaurants, cinemas, leisure facilities and many shops, and mooted introducing a general vaccine mandate from February.
“We should have displayed this consistency in our treatment of unvaccinated people at a much earlier stage”, said Spahn, who is due to hand over his job to a successor from the new government next Wednesday.
Spahn warned that the number of Covid-19 patients on intensive care wards would “significantly rise” above the 5,000 mark in the coming weeks and months. On Friday morning, 4,793 patients suffering from the disease are lying on intensive care beds at hospitals around Germany, about half of whom are intubated.
Read the full report here:
A Italian man who wanted a coronavirus vaccine certificate without actually having the jab tried to play the system by presenting health workers with a fake arm, an official said Friday.
Despite the realistic skin colour, nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man - in his 50s - was reported to local police following the incident on Thursday night in Biella, northwest Italy, AFP reports.
“The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity,” the head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, said in a statement on Facebook.
He said such an act was “unacceptable faced with the sacrifice that our entire community has paid during the pandemic, in terms of human lives, the social and economic cost.”
The fake arm incident comes ahead of a tightening of the rules Monday in Italy for people who have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Germany’s BioNTech should be able to adapt its coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant, its CEO Ugur Sahin told the Reuters Next conference on Friday.
Sahin also said that vaccines should continue to provide protection against severe disease, despite mutations.
BioNTech and Pfizer Inc together produced one of the first vaccines against Covid-19.
“This variant might be able to infect vaccinated people. We anticipate that infected people who have been vaccinated will still be protected against severe disease,” Sahin said.
The BioNTech chief executive also said that mutations in the virus meant it was more likely that annual vaccinations would become likely, as is the case with seasonal flu.
Makers of Covid-19 vaccines should gear up for the “likelihood” of needing to adjust their products to protect against the Omicron variant, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) spokesperson said on Friday.
Reuters reports Christian Lindmeier, speaking at a U.N. briefing in Geneva, said the agency was still studying the transmissibility and severity of the new variant, first reported in Southern Africa.
He said:
“It is very recommendable that vaccine manufacturers already start planning ahead and plan for the likelihood for having to adjust the existing vaccine. That’s good not just to wait until the final alarm bell rings.”
Two confirmed cases of the Omicron variant at a school in Switzerland has led to the entire school being quarantined, according to a report on swissinfo.ch.
Around 2,000 people, including 1,600 children at the La Châtaigneraie campus of the International School of Geneva in Founex are said to have been placed in quarantine,
On Thursday, the cantonal medical services of the cantons of Geneva and Vaud (where the school is located) took a joint decision to quarantine all pupils and staff on the campus for ten days.
The two cases are linked a family being exposed to an Omicron infected person returning from a trip to South Africa.
So far, only a few cases of Omicron have been identified in Switzerland and none in Geneva or Vaud until now, it is reported.
Hi. Caroline Davies here now taking over the live blog. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Today so far
- In South Africa, in the week since it alerted the world of the new Covid variant, infections have spread faster than in the country’s three previous waves. Wassila Jassat, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said: “We’ve seen quite a sharp increase across all age groups, particularly in the under fives,” referring to hospitalisations.
- NICD’s head of public health Michelle Groome said the virus was spreading faster than at any point in the pandemic in Gauteng, the province where Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria are located. “Preliminary data suggests Omicron is more transmissible and has some immune evasion,” she said.
- In contrast, India’s health ministry today has said it expects the Omicron variant of coronavirus to cause less severe disease. “Given the fast pace of vaccination in India and high exposure to Delta variant … the severity of the disease is anticipated to be low,” the ministry said in a statement. “However, scientific evidence is still evolving.”
- Takeshi Kasai, World Health Organization regional director for the western Pacific, told a virtual media briefing: “Border controls can buy time but every country and every community must prepare for new surges in cases.
- Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn has said that more than 1% of the population is currently infected with the coronavirus. He said that the number of unvaccinated residents who are infected and seriously ill is much higher than their share of the overall population.
- Slovakia reported 15,278 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic broke out
- In Norway at least 17 people who came down with Covid-19 after a Christmas party gathering of more than 100 guests in Oslo are suspected of having the Omicron variant, city officials said.
- Conservative party chair Oliver Dowden has told the UK to “keep calm and carry on with your Christmas plans as already set out.”
- Doctors in the UK have urged unvaccinated Black and south Asian people to get their Covid jabs after new data revealed hospitalisations and deaths are higher in those groups, despite infection rates being lower than in white people.
- France’s health minister Olivier Véran said the current wave of the country’s Covid disease could peak in late January, with a renewed strain put on the country’s hospital system.
- In Australia, the Fair Work Commission has ruled a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all workers at BHP’s Mt Arthur coalmine was unlawful because the company did not consult adequately with its workers.
That it is from me, Martin Belam, this week. I will be back on Monday. Miranda Bryant has our UK politics and Covid live blog. Caroline Davies will be here shortly to continue bringing you the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.
German health minister: 1% of the population is infected
Germany’s health minister has said that more than 1% of the population is currently infected with the coronavirus, and he called on citizens to get vaccinated if they haven’t done so yet.
The country confirmed 74,352 new daily Covid-19 cases and 390 additional deaths. According to the Robert Koch Institute’s calculations, some 925,800 people in Germany are considered actively infected with the virus.
Health Minister Jens Spahn noted that the number of unvaccinated residents who are infected and seriously ill is much higher than their share of the overall population.
Reuters report he told reporters in Berlin “If all German adults were vaccinated, we wouldn’t be in this difficult situation.”
Spahn spoke a day after federal and state leaders announced tough new restrictions that largely target unvaccinated people, preventing them from entering nonessential stores, restaurants, sports and cultural venues. The government also plans to submit a general vaccine mandate for parliament to consider.
Spahn, who is likely to leave office next week when Germany’s new center-left government takes office, has opposed compulsory vaccination and made clear that he would vote against the measure.
At least 17 people who came down with Covid-19 after a Christmas party gathering of more than 100 guests in Oslo last week are suspected of having the Omicron variant, city officials said on Friday.
The number is likely to grow as sequencing is carried out on other positive tests from party-goers.
“So far 60 people have tested positive (for Covid) with PCR tests, and four with antigen tests,” the city of Oslo said in a statement.
“Seventeen are probably Omicron, but that has yet to be confirmed. So far, one case is confirmed to be Omicron after sequencing,” it said.
Between 100 and 120 people – all of whom were vaccinated, including one who had recently travelled to southern Africa – had gathered last Friday for a Christmas party organised by their employer.
“All of them had been vaccinated, none of them had symptoms and they had all done self-tests” before attending the dinner, city health official Tine Ravlo told Agence France-Presse.
“Everything was done in line with regulations and no rules were broken,” she said.
Updated
Majid Maqbool reports from Ukhoo on the economic impact Covid school closures have had on industry in the area:
School closures in India during the pandemic have left their mark on more than the children who have seen delays to their learning. In one Kashmiri village the impact has been catastrophic on employment.
Pick up a pencil anywhere across India and it is likely to come from the poplar trees of Ukhoo.
This village, with an abundance of trees, about 10 miles south of Srinagar city in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, supplies more than 90% of the wood used by India’s pencil manufacturers, which export to more than 150 countries.
Before Covid, more than 2,500 people worked in the village’s 17 pencil factories and the industry supported about 250 families.
But, after nearly two years of school closures and a dramatic drop in demand for the village’s products, factory owners reduced their workforce by more than half.
Workers were dismissed without pay, while many of those who kept their jobs had migrated from other parts of India, and were cheaper to employ. Now the village and its workforce are waiting eagerly for the market to revive.
Rajesh Kumar, 26, from Bihar, has worked in Ukhoo for seven years. Like other migrant workers, he lives in a room on the factory premises and works 10- to 12-hour shifts. During lockdown last year, the factory owner provided food and accommodation when production shutdown for about three months. He is one of the luckier ones to be back working now.
“I hope the pencil demand increases and these factories are full of workers again, as many of our friends and people from our villages find work [here] and are able to make a living,” says Kumar.
Read more of Majid Maqbool’s report here: India’s ‘pencil village’ counts the cost of Covid school closures
Miranda Bryant has launched our combined UK politics and Covid live blog for the day. You can find that here.
I’ll be continuing with the latest global coronavirus developments on this live blog.
Agence France-Presse has this round-up of the situation in South Africa, reporting that in the week since it alerted the world of the new Covid variant, infections have spread faster than in the country’s three previous waves.
The first cluster of cases centred around university students, and then spread quickly among young people who seem to have spread it to older people.
But scientists and health officials said they had seen increasing hospital admissions in children under five, along with higher positivity rates among children aged 10-14.
Wassila Jassat, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said: “We’ve seen quite a sharp increase across all age groups, particularly in the under fives,” referring to hospitalisations.
“The incidence in those under-fives is now second-highest, and second only to the incidence in those over 60,” she told a news conference.
Scientists cited several possible reasons. One is that children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines in South Africa. Doctors have reported anecdotally that both children and parents testing positive have not been vaccinated, she said.
NICD’s head of public health Michelle Groome said the virus was spreading faster than at any point in the pandemic in Gauteng, the province where Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria are located.
“Preliminary data suggests Omicron is more transmissible and has some immune evasion,” she said.
Updated
Updated
India's health ministry says it expects severity of disease associated with Omicron to be 'low'
I mentioned earlier Prof Saul Faust saying that anybody talking about the impact of Omicron at the moment is speculating, as there is not yet sufficient data to conclude how it will behave. With that caveat in mind, India’s health ministry today has said it expects the Omicron variant of coronavirus to cause less severe disease.
“Given the fast pace of vaccination in India and high exposure to Delta variant … the severity of the disease is anticipated to be low,” the ministry said in a statement. “However, scientific evidence is still evolving.”
Both of India’s first two Omicron patients, reported on Thursday, showed mild symptoms, the ministry added.
But concern over the prospect of a third wave of infections has grown after the variant was found in the southern state of Karnataka, in one person with no recent travel history.
Krishna N Das and Anuron Kumar Mitra report for Reuters that the ministry told parliament its immunisation experts were weighing the need for booster doses, after many lawmakers demanded a third shot for healthcare workers and the vulnerable.
It added that discussions on vaccinating the 145 million children aged between 12 and 17 were under way. The nation’s active caseload currently stands at 99,976 – the lowest since March 2020.
Updated
In Australia, the Fair Work Commission has ruled a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all workers at BHP’s Mt Arthur coalmine was unlawful because the company did not consult adequately with its workers.
Approximately 50 mine workers were stood down without pay last month after they were told they would be required to have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to enter the work site after 9 November, and that they would need to be fully vaccinated by 31 January next year.
The dispute between management of the Mt Arthur open cut coalmine in NSW’s Hunter Valley and the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) was escalated to a hearing by the full bench of the Fair Work Commission in November.
Read more of Stephanie Convery’s report here: Fair Work Commission rules BHP vaccine mandate unlawful due to lack of consultation
WalesOnline has an update this morning on the situation with Cardiff Rugby, who have been stranded in South Africa since new restrictions were placed on travel from the region back to England and Wales. Corrie David writes:
The touring party from the Arms Park have now confirmed their return home, with six players remaining in a quarantine hotel in Cape Town after testing positive. The departure is the team’s fourth attempt at leaving South Africa.
Initially, the touring party attempted to return home prior to the Sunday 4am cut-off point to avoid isolating in a hotel rather than at home. Their second flight was due to fly out on Sunday afternoon. Cardiff Rugby were then hit with the news of two team-mates testing positive with one suspected Omicron case, and they were forced to return to their hotel to isolate.
UK-bound. We’ll see you very soon. pic.twitter.com/bWo8nVVKsS
— Cardiff Rugby (@Cardiff_Rugby) December 3, 2021
Updated
French health minister Olivier Véran said the current wave of the country’s Covid disease could peak in late January, with a renewed strain put on the country’s hospital system.
“The fifth wave in spreading quickly. It has a very noticeable impact on the hospital system,” Reuters reports Véran told France Info radio.
This new wave, with France reporting on Thursday close to 50,000 new infections for the third day running, is due to the Delta variant. France has reported nine cases of the Omicron variant on the mainland.
Updated
Prof Saul Faust is director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at University hospital Southampton NHS foundation trust and trial lead on a major study that shows booster vaccines may well offer good protection in the face of the Omicron variant.
He has been on BBC radio in the UK this morning saying it is far too early to know how booster jabs will interact with the new variant. PA Media quotes him saying:
Nobody can tell you with any degree of certainty what the boosters might do, and if they do they’re speculating, actually. What we can say is that samples from the study have gone to the UK Health Security Agency for testing and they’ll be available, we hope, in due course.
He said the levels of antibody that they were seeing from the boosters are “so much higher” than the first two doses.
Updated
The other thrust of questioning for Conservative party chair Oliver Dowden on Sky News in the UK was about people stranded in South Africa and unable to return home to the UK because of a lack of hotel quarantine capacity. He attempted to reassure viewers that there would be capacity for anybody wishing to return from the region. He said:
We do have to take the risks associated with this new variant seriously, and the government doesn’t want to impose any more restrictions than necessary. But because of the origins of this virus in South Africa, we had to move rapidly to impose those restrictions on South Africa. That’s why we did it. Immediately. Of course, we’ll make sure that the appropriate facilities are in in place for people. But the reason why we did that, and this whole strategy, is about making sure that we limit the spread of the Omicron variant at this stage whilst we we look at the effects of it.
It isn’t strictly true to say that the variant had origins in South Africa – it was first sequenced and detected there but that doesn’t necessarily mean South Africa was the origin of the outbreak.
South Africa is facing an “unprecedented rise” in new Covid-19 cases over a short time due to the Omicron variant, top scientist Michelle Groome of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Friday.
Groome told a media briefing that although additional data on the variant detected in the country last month is still needed on the severity and transmissibility of the variant, the country was starting to see infections move from the younger age cohort into older people.
Reuters reports she said it was important for surge preparedness to include paediatric beds and staff as there has been increased admissions among children under four years of age.
Updated
Oliver Dowden: 'keep calm and carry on your Christmas plans'
Conservative chair Oliver Dowden has planted his flag very firmly in the pro-Christmas party camp in the UK this morning on Sky News. He said:
All of our advice is based on scientific evidence and indeed, the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser attended cabinet when we discussed this earlier this week. That’s why we’ve gone for this balanced and proportionate set of measures.
So it is the case that, unlike previously in England, people will have to wear masks on public transport, and they’ll have to wear masks in retail settings. We’ve very much tightened up the border restrictions.
But beyond that, we believe those are necessary and appropriate steps, but beyond that, people can carry on with their plans as before. So I would say to people, just keep calm and carry on with your Christmas plans as already set out.
Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over the live blog for the next few hours. The UK media round is being handled for the government by Conservative chairman Oliver Dowden today. I’ll have any Covid lines that emerge from that – presumably a lot of questions about Christmas parties again.
Here are the latest coronavirus figures for the UK.
Over the last seven days there have been 311,957 new coronavirus cases recorded in the UK. Cases have increased by 2.8% week-on-week.
There have been 848 deaths recorded in the last week. Deaths have decreased by 3% week-on-week.
Hospital admissions have decreased by 6.5% week-on-week. At the latest count on the UK government’s own dashboard, there were 7,644 people in hospital in total, of whom 931 are in ventilation beds.
Sri Lanka’s health authorities on Friday said they have identified the first Omicron patient in the country.
The health ministry said the new Covid-19 variant was identified in a Sri Lankan national who had recently returned from South Africa.
“As a result of our vigilance we have been able to identify an Omicron patient following gene sequencing lab tests. There is no need for us to panic over this. We are dealing with the situation,” Dr Hemantha Herath, deputy director of health services told reporters.
Updated
Black and south Asian people in UK urged to get jabs to cut higher Covid death rates
Doctors in the UK have urged unvaccinated Black and south Asian people to get their Covid jabs after new data revealed hospitalisations and deaths are higher in those groups, despite infection rates being lower than in white people.
Infections were higher in many Black and Asian groups during Britain’s first two waves of Covid but recently the pattern has shifted, with infections now more common among white people, even though their death rates remain relatively low.
The data, published on Friday in the final government report on understanding and tackling Covid-19 disparities, suggest that poor vaccine coverage is now a major reason for severe Covid in some black and Asian groups, despite programmes to improve underwhelming vaccine uptake.
Dr Raghib Ali, the government’s independent adviser on Covid-19 and ethnicity, and the author of the report, said evidence gathered over the past year showed that higher death rates seen in ethnic minorities in the first two waves of the pandemic were primarily due to a higher risk of infection, particularly among older people.
Read the full story here.
Updated
South Africa entering fourth wave of Covid infections: health minister
South African health minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday the country was entering its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections due to the Omicron variant, but hospitals were not under threat at this stage.
Phaahla told a virtual media briefing that infections with the new variant were now present in seven out of the country’s nine provinces, and hoped that the variant could be managed without causing too many deaths.
He urged South Africans to be fully vaccinated, saying that was the best protection against Omicron.
Phaahla expressed his “outrage and disappointment” at the countries who have so far initiated travel bans on southern African nations, describing the decision as as “destructive path” that “undermines international cooperation and solidarity”.
Phaahla described the recent rise in Covid cases across the nation as “very steep” with new cases increasing by more than 300% over the past seven days.
“Every area in the country is starting to register high levels of the infection,” he said.
“This variant is indeed highly transmissible including in people who have already been vaccinated.”
Just over 42% of all adults have received at least one vaccination dose in South Africa, Phaahla said.
France confirms nine cases of the Omicron variant on the mainland, the health ministry has said.
We will have more details as the story develops.
Updated
WHO urges Asia-Pacific to ready for Omicron surge
Asia-Pacific countries should boost their healthcare capacity and fully vaccinate their people to prepare for a surge in Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant, World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned on Friday.
Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the western Pacific, told a virtual media briefing:
“Border controls can buy time but every country and every community must prepare for new surges in cases.
People should not only rely on border measures. What is most important is to prepare for these variants with potential high transmissibility. So far the information available suggests we don’t have to change our approach.”
Kasai said countries must utilise lessons learned from dealing with the Delta variant and urged them to fully vaccinate vulnerable groups and implement preventive measures such as mask wearing and social distancing rules.
Updated
The nations with the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns have been broken down by Agence France-Presse.
The United Arab Emirates leads the charge, having already completely vaccinated nine out of 10 of its population.
Close behind are Portugal (87%), Singapore (86%), Qatar (85%), Chile and Malta (84%), Cuba (81%), South Korea and Cambodia (80%).
The countries which fired the starting gun on the vaccination campaigns due to their privileged access to vaccines are now lagging behind.
Britain has jabbed just 68%, Israel 67% and the US 60%.
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the least vaccinated countries in the world, having jabbed less than 0.1% of their populations.
Eritrea and North Korea are the only two countries who have not vaccinated at all.
Malaysia detects first case of Omicron
Malaysia has detected the country’s first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Friday.
It was detected in a foreign student who was quarantined after arrival from South Africa two weeks ago.
The 19-year-old woman, who was asymptomatic and had been vaccinated, had tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Malaysia, via Singapore, and was quarantined for 10 days before being released on 29 November.
Five other people who shared a vehicle with her prior to her quarantine all tested negative, Reuters reports.
Authorities, however, have asked the student along with eight close contacts to undergo further testing after her earlier test samples were confirmed to be the new variant.
Updated
Congo's fully vaccinated just 0.06%
The Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to vaccinate its population, ranking among the least immunised nations in the world.
In a population of 90 million, a mere 0.16% have received one dose - and this falls to just 0.06% for those who have been fully vaccinated, Agence France Presse reports.
In early March, 1.7 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, dispatched via the Covax mechanism for poorer countries, arrived in the DRC.
But authorities postponed the start of vaccinations after several European countries suspended vaccination campaigns with AstraZeneca over fears that it caused rare but serious blood clotting.
Rumours flooded social media, claiming that vaccination made people sterile or that Africans were to be used as “guinea pigs” or even killed. The coronavirus was presented as a “white man’s disease” brought into the DRC by travellers.
President Felix Tshisekedi made his suspicions of the AstraZeneca jab widely known.
“I think I was right not to be vaccinated ... I had my doubts,” he said, adding that he preferred to wait for other vaccines before taking the plunge.
Many Congolese say they have not been vaccinated “yet” or are waiting to see, but among others, scepticism runs deep.
“They say that vaccines in Europe are not the same as here,” Emmanuel, a 62-year-old police officer, told AFP by way of explanation.
“In my opinion, Covid does not exist,” Fabrice, a 21-year-old architecture student, said, adding he did not even know anyone who has caught it.
Updated
India has just released its daily Covid figures.
A total of 9,216 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, according to a ministry of health update.
The nation’s active caseload currently stands at 99,976 - the lowest since March 2020.
Summary
Here’s a quick rundown of all the key developments that have unfolded over the past few hours.
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California is reporting its second confirmed case of the Omicron variant in as many days.
- Two more US states report the Omicron variant. Hawaii says it detected a case in an unvaccinated Hawaii resident with no recent travel history. New York reported five cases.
- New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland celebrates after emerging from a gruelling 107 days in lockdown.
- South Korea reports another 4,944 cases of Covid-19 and 34 deaths. The figures are a drop on Thursday’s record of more than 5,200 daily infections as concern grows over the sharp rise in patients with severe symptoms.
- South Africa reports another 11,535 new cases and 44 deaths - a significant jump from Wednesday’s 8,561 new cases, up from 4,373 the day before and 2,273 on Monday.
- A continuing outbreak in a Chinese city of Manzhouli on the Russian border has prompted more freight shutdowns as authorities seek to control it. The country reported 96 new Covid cases for 2 December, up from 73 cases a day earlier.
- China will reduce the time needed for approval of travel by US business executives to no more than 10 days.
- Germany is reporting a further 74,352 new daily Covid cases and 390 deaths, according to recently released figures from the Robert Koch Institute.
- Panama and Nepal both join the growing list of countries on Thursday to move to temporarily ban the entry of travellers from eight African countries due to concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.
Panama has joined the growing list of countries on Thursday to move to temporarily ban the entry of travellers from eight African countries due to concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.
The restriction applies to travellers who have been to South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe or Malawi within a two-week period, Panama’s government said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Panamanians and residents of the country who are vaccinated must present a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of arriving in the country, while those who are not inoculated must place themselves in “preventative quarantine,” the government said.
A continuing outbreak in a Chinese city on the Russian border has prompted more freight shutdowns as authorities seek to control it.
More than 150 cases have been recorded in the city of Manzhouli since 28 November, centred around the freight hub. On Tuesday it reported another 53 locally transmitted cases. On Wednesday the city, in the northern China region of Inner Mongolia, said it would halt cargo loading and unloading and customs transportation and clearance at the highway port of entry.
The city had already closed several cargo yards as a result of the cases, and flights, trains, coaches, taxis and city buses have been suspended. Schools were moved online, and hospitals have been limited to emergency care only.
Authorities had also imposed controls on city exits, temporarily closed markets and cultural, sports, leisure and entertainment establishments, and put limits on weddings, religious gatherings, and restaurants. The more than 300,000 people who live in the city were ordered to get tested.
Nepal will ban the entry of travellers who have been in eight African countries or Hong Kong, to curb the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, a government spokesman said on Friday.
The ban, which goes into effect at midnight on Friday, covers people who have been in or transiting through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and Hong Kong.
Travellers who have been to these countries in the past three weeks will also not be allowed to enter Nepal, and all other international visitors already in transit must spend seven days at their own cost in hotel quarantine, the government said in a statement.
“Nepali nationals are advised against non-essential foreign travel for fear of the new variant,” Home Ministry spokesman Phanindra Pokharel told Reuters.
Germany is reporting a further 74,352 new daily Covid cases and 390 deaths, according to recently released figures from the Robert Koch Institute.
The daily rise brings the cumulative confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to more than six million with 6,051,560 cases.
California is reporting its second confirmed case of the Omicron variant in as many days.
The Los Angeles County public health department says a full vaccinated county resident is self-isolating after apparently contracting the infection during a trip to South Africa last month.
The person’s symptoms are improving without medical care and some people who were in close contact with the traveller have tested negative for the virus and don’t have any symptoms, the department said in a press release.
Updated
As global health bodies race to roll out vaccinations, here is a detailed map of how countries across the world compare with vaccination rates.
Auckland, New Zealand, celebrates end of more than 100 day lockdown
Today marked the first day of eased Covid restrictions in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland, after a gruelling 107 days in lockdown.
The traffic light system, announced by prime minister Jacinda Ardern in late November, ends lockdowns in favour of restrictions on the unvaccinated.
For the vaccinated, much of life opened up at midnight on Thursday: they could once again invite family and friends into their homes, plan a trip to the gym, drink in a bar, sit in a cafe and drink an espresso.
Our New Zealand reporter, Tess McClure, has the full story here.
Updated
China will reduce the time needed for approval of travel by US business executives to no more than 10 days, China’s ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, said on Thursday.
Qin told a dinner hosted by the US-China Business Council that Beijing would also work to make Covid-19 testing more convenient and would allow executives to work during quarantine, Reuters reports.
He repeated Beijing’s call for Washington to abolish additional tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the administration of former President Donald Trump.
More daily Covid updates out of southeast and east Asia have just dropped.
Thailand has reported another 4,912 cases of Covid-19 and 33 deaths over the past 24 hours.
South Korea reports another 4,944 cases of Covid-19 and 34 deaths. The figures are a drop on Thursday’s record of more than 5,200 daily infections as concern grows over the sharp rise in patients with severe symptoms.
Updated
Some Covid numbers out of South Africa have just been released.
Another 11,535 new cases and 44 deaths have been reported.
This is a significant jump from Wednesday’s 8,561 new cases, up from 4,373 the day before and 2,273 on Monday.
The Omicron variant has fuelled a “worrying” surge in coronavirus cases in the country and is rapidly becoming the dominant strain, local health officials have said.
Omicron appears to be reinfecting people at three times the rate of previous strains, experts in South Africa previously said.
As of today the cumulative number of #COVID19 cases identified in SA is 2 988 148 with 11 535 new cases reported. Today 44?deaths have been reported bringing the total to 89 915 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 2 850 905 with a recovery rate of 95,4% pic.twitter.com/nVLSRii28v
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) December 2, 2021
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Hawaii says it has detected a case of the Omicron variant in an unvaccinated Hawaii resident with no recent travel history, the Associated Press reports.
Hawaii Epidemiologist Dr Sarah Kemble said Thursday that the adult had been infected with Covid-19 a year ago, isn’t currently hospitalised and had “mild-to-moderate” symptoms including headache, body aches and cough.
She wouldn’t identify the patient other to say the person lives on the island of Oahu.
Updated
China has reported 96 new confirmed Covid cases for 2 December, up from 73 cases a day earlier, its health authority said on Friday.
Of the new infections, 80 were locally transmitted, according to a statement by the National Health Commission, compared with 53 a day earlier.
China reported 24 new asymptomatic cases, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, compared with 13 a day earlier.
There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,636. As of 2 December, mainland China had 98,993 confirmed cases.
Multiple Omicron cases detected in New York
Multiple cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in New York, health officials said Thursday, including a man who attended an anime convention in Manhattan in late November and tested positive for the variant when he returned home to Minnesota.
In addition to the conventioneer, health officials said tests showed five other people recently infected with Covid-19 had the variant, the Associated Press reports.
They included a person in the city’s Long Island suburbs who had recently travelled to South Africa, residents of Brooklyn and Queens and another case possibly linked to travel.
“No cause for alarm. We just want to make sure that the public is aware of information when we receive it,” said Governor Kathy Hochul.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the geographic spread of the positive tests suggested the variant was undergoing “community spread” in the city, and wasn’t linked to any one event.
Officials in the city of 8.8 million said they expected it would be only a matter of time before the new variant was reported in the city.
“We should assume there is community spread of the variant in our city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
As comfort over air travel returns, it’s inevitable that new variants like Omicron will spread from country to country and state to state, said professor Danielle Ompad, an epidemiologist at New York University’s School of Global Public Health.
“We shouldn’t panic, but we should be concerned,” she said.
Updated
Hi I’m Samantha Lock and welcome to our Friday Covid blog.
I’ll be giving you a rundown of the latest coronavirus updates as they happen.
Let’s start off with the news that multiple cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in New York, health officials said late Thursday, including a man who attended an anime convention in Manhattan in late November and tested positive for the variant when he returned home to Minnesota.
Health officials also said tests showed five other people recently infected with Covid-19 had the variant in the city’s Long Island suburbs as well as Brooklyn and Queens, the Associated Press reports.
Governor Kathy Hochul said the cases were “no cause for alarm” as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the geographic spread of the positive tests suggested the variant was undergoing “community spread” in the city.
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US president Joe Biden announced a new nationwide coronavirus battle plan.
- Scientists believe they may have found the trigger behind the extremely rare blood clot complications stemming from the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.
- South African officials say the Omicron variant is fuelling an “exponential” rise in Covid cases across the country. The variant was found to account for three-quarters of all the virus genomes sequenced last month.
- Indonesia tightened border curbs, extended quarantine and will limit movement on strategic toll roads, in a preemptive move to limit the spread of the Omicron Covid variant.
- Sweden warned it could impose new restrictions as soon as next week.
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Germany imposes restrictions on unvaccinated and mandatory Covid vaccinations from February, outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced.
- German health authorities reported the first confirmed case of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the capital Berlin.
- India detected two cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in the southern state of Karnataka.
- Finland detected its first case of the Omicron variant in a person who had travelled from Sweden.
- Greece detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant on the island of Crete.
- The European Union’s public health agency predicts the Omicron variant could be responsible for more than half of all Covid infections in Europe within a few months.
- Omicron may cause more Covid reinfections, South African health experts say.
- New US rules requiring international air travellers to obtain a negative Covid-19 test within one day of travel will take effect Monday.
- UK drugs watchdog approved new Covid treatment Xevudy.
