We are closing this blog now. Goodnight and a good New Year’s Eve from London.
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has announced plans to lift Covid containment measures in January that have been in place since March 2020, including reopening schools, bars and nightclubs, citing rising vaccination rates.
The country has imposed some of Africa’s toughest restrictions. In September some measures were eased, including allowing the resumption of education for universities and other post-secondary institutions.
In a televised speech late on Friday, Museveni said pre-primary, primary and secondary schools would reopen on 10 January.
Bars and nightclubs would reopen and a nighttime curfew will be lifted two weeks after schools have resumed, he added. Movie theatres and sporting events would also be allowed to reopen, he said, without giving further details.
As of Friday, Uganda had registered about 137,000 confirmed cases and nearly 3,300 deaths.
The president urged Ugandans to get vaccinated as the “first solution” to Covid.
Updated
Summary
Here is a quick recap of some of the main developments from today so far:
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The UK reported another 189,846 Covid cases in the last 24 hours and reported a further 203 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test. More than 1 million people have tested positive in the last seven days. The number of patients in hospital with Covid in England increased to 12,395, up from 11,452 the day before. Experts say the daily case figures do not include reinfections, and not everyone who is infected has symptoms and takes a test, suggesting the true number of infections is likely to be higher. The full story is here.
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One in 25 people in England had Covid before Christmas, including one in 15 in London, according to a new estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Story here.
- The Philippines will impose tighter curbs in the capital region for the next two weeks, an acting presidential spokesperson said, to try to limit infections by the Omicron variant. The region including the capital, Manila, will be placed under the third of a five-scale alert system from 3 to 15 January. Level 3 bans face-to-face classes, contact sports, and closes funfairs and casinos. The government’s coronavirus taskforce will also reduce the operating capacity for social events, tourist attractions, amusement parks, restaurant dine-in services, fitness studios and personal care services.
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Ireland became the latest EU country to cut the isolation period for many people who contract Covid, as record infection numbers spark fears of crippling staff shortages in essential public services as well as retail and hospitality venues. Spain, Portugal and Greece reduced isolation times this week, others such as Germany and France are considering doing so, and Italy cut its quarantine for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who has tested positive. The moves follow a similar decision by the US and reflect early research suggesting Omicron generally causes milder illness than earlier versions of the virus. The World Health Organization has described the decisions to cut isolation and quarantine periods as part of a delicate balancing act between controlling the transmission of the virus and keeping national economies up and running. Story here.
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Germany’s leading coronavirus expert has expressed optimism that his country could expect a “relatively normal” winter in 2022, after data from other countries firmed up the impression that infections with the Omicron variant could be milder than Delta. Story here.
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UK regulators approved Pfizer’s “life-saving” antiviral drug Paxlovid, which boasts nearly 90% success in preventing severe illness among vulnerable adults if taken soon after becoming infected with Covid. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) found the oral treatment “to be safe and effective at reducing the risk of hospitalisation and death in people with mild to moderate Covid-19 infection, who are at an increased risk of developing severe disease”. The agency said Paxlovid was most effective when taken during the early stages of a Covid infection, and recommended it was used within five days of a patient’s first symptoms. The approval is for patients aged 18 and over with at least one risk factor for developing severe illness, such as obesity or diabetes, or being over 60. Story here.
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The number of NHS hospital staff in England absent due to Covid has nearly doubled since the start of the month, new figures show. There were 24,632 staff at NHS hospital trusts ill with coronavirus or having to self-isolate on Boxing Day, up 31% from 18,829 a week earlier and nearly double the 12,508 at the start of the month.
Updated
Turkey logged 40,786 new coronavirus cases on Friday, its highest since April.
The health minister warned that the Omicron variant had become dominant as Turks celebrated New Year’s Eve without restrictions.
“Although there are no restrictions, we recommend that you act as if there are,” Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter in what he called a New Year’s “warning”.
The minister recommended that in this time of increased risk, people should avoided crowded, poorly ventilated environments.
New Covid infections have more than doubled from 18,910 a week ago.
YILBAŞI UYARISI! Kısıtlama söz konusu olmasa da, varmış gibi davranmanızı öneriyoruz. Riskin arttığı bir dönemdeyiz. Kalabalık, havalandırması iyi olmayan ortamlardan kaçının. Yeni yılı aile içinde kutlamayı tercih edin. 2022’de salgını geride bırakma dileğiyle. Sağlıklı yıllar! pic.twitter.com/MwWGtwEVzt
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) December 31, 2021
Since the first cases of Omicron were reported in the UK just over a month ago it has spread rapidly across the UK, fuelling a surge of infections. But scientists have also been working at speed. Here is an overview of the expanding scientific knowledge of the variant.
Greece reported 40,560 Covid cases on Friday, setting a new record high for the fourth successive day following a surge of cases of the Omicron variant.
Health authorities said 76 deaths had been reported on Friday.
Greece introduced new restrictions this week, ordering bars, restaurants and nightclubs to close at midnight, with no standing customers and no music. An exception is New Year’s Eve, when establishments can close at 2am.
The country of 11 million people has reported 1,210,853 infections since the first case was detected in February 2020 and 20,790 Covid-related deaths.
Italy reports record 144,243 new cases on Friday
Italy reported a record 144,243 Covid cases on Friday, following 126,888 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell slightly to 155 from 156.
Italy has officially registered 137,402 deaths linked to coronavirus since February 2020, and reported 6.125 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid - not including those in intensive care - stood at 11,150 on Friday, up from 10,866 a day earlier.
There were 119 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 134 on Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 1,260 from a previous 1,226.
A record 1.22 million tests for Covid were carried out in the last day, compared with 1.15 million the previous day, the health ministry said.
Updated
Here’s a bit more context on those latest case numbers in the UK:
The number of confirmed Covid cases in the UK continued to rise on the last day of 2021, with 189,846 reported in the previous 24 hours, while the number of people in hospital and the number of deaths also rose.
The figures follow two consecutive days when the number of new cases was above 180,000, with a record 189,213 reported on Thursday and 183,037 on Wednesday – although the latter included a backlog in some nations of cases recorded before and during the Christmas period.
Friday’s figures reported 203 people having died within 28 days of a positive Covid test. Thursday’s data had 332 recorded deaths, a steep rise from 57 on Wednesday, explained in part by NHS England not reporting hospital deaths since 24 December.
The number of Covid patients in hospital in England increased to 12,395 on Friday, from 11,452 the day before.
Experts say the daily case figures do not include reinfections and not everyone who is infected has symptoms and takes a test, suggesting the true number of infections is likely to be higher.
According to a new estimate on Friday from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), one in 25 people in England had Covid before Christmas, including one in 15 in London.
Based on swabs collected from randomly selected households in England, the ONS said an estimated 4% of the community had Covid in the week ending 23 December – equating to about 2,024,700 people. The week before, about one in 35 people were estimated to be infected.
UK reports nearly 190,000 daily Covid cases
The UK has reported another 189,846 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours as over 1m people tested positive in the last seven days.
The number is likely to be on the low side thanks to widespread shortages of PCR and lateral flow tests.
The official UK Covid dashboard also recorded another 203 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
Nearly 2,000 people were admitted to hospital.
The world is celebrating New Year’s Eve in spite of the Omicron variant spreading across the globe – and fireworks and parties are making a comeback this year after many events were cancelled in late 202.
My colleague Martin Belam is covering the celebrations in our New Year’s Eve live blog:
Portugal has reported a new daily record of 30,829 coronavirus cases, up from 28,659 the previous day, with Omicron accounting for an estimated 83% of new cases.
The health authority DGS registered 18 fatalities from Covid, up from 16 on Thursday, but that was a fraction of the more than 300 daily deaths recorded in late January when Portugal had just begun its vaccination campaign.
The number of patients in intensive care was steady at 145, well below the more than 900 in early 2021.
Portugal has one of the world’s highest Covid vaccination rates with about 87% of its 10 million population fully inoculated.
In the run-up to New Year’s Eve, the government ordered nightclubs and bars to close, required people to have negative Covid tests to enter hotels, casinos and restaurants, and limited outdoor gatherings to 10 people.
Updated
Thousands of flights in the US and internationally have been delayed or cancelled on Friday, adding to travel disruption during the holiday week owing to adverse weather and rising Covid cases, Reuters reports.
More than 2,600 flights were cancelled globally as of early Friday, including more than 1,200 flights within the US or entering or departing it, according to a running tally on the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. There were more than 4,600 flight delays in total.
The Christmas holidays are typically a peak time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the Omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in Covid infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as pilots and crew need to be quarantined.
On Thursday, for the second day in a row, the US had a record number of new reported cases, with more than 290,000 new infections reported each day, a Reuters tally showed.
The state of New York reported more than 74,000 new Covid cases on Thursday, from more than 336,000 tests. New York said last week it would sharply limit the number of people it allows in Times Square for its New Year’s Eve celebration. Some critics have raised concerns over the celebrations going ahead at all.
The rise in US Covid cases has caused some companies, particularly in the energy sector, to change course from earlier plans to increase the number of employees working from their offices starting next week. Chevron was to start a full return to office from 3 January but told employees this week it was postponing the plans indefinitely.
US airline cabin crew, pilots and support staff are reluctant to work overtime during the holiday travel season despite offers of hefty financial incentives. Many workers fear contracting Covid and do not welcome the prospect of dealing with unruly passengers, some airline unions have said.
In the months preceding the holidays, airlines were wooing employees to ensure solid staffing, after furloughing or laying off thousands over the past 18 months.
Updated
It’s been more than two years since China first notified the rest of the world of a new virus sweeping through its population. Since then the hunt for Covid’s origins has been mired in controversy and accompanied by political tensions.
Our China affairs correspondent Vincent Ni has taken another look at efforts to trace Sars-CoV-2’s origins:
Robert Garry, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane medical school in Louisiana, got a call from his university management telling him that agents from the FBI and CIA had requested a chat about his research into the origins of Covid-19.
Garry agreed and on 30 July three agents flew down to Louisiana to talk to him in person.
The meeting, held at a university conference room, began at 9am and ended at about 5pm. “I presented my evidence to the agents, who were properly trained scientists themselves. They asked all the right questions,” Garry told the Guardian.
“I told them: there is no way this virus could have been a manufactured weapon. There is also no evidence to suggest it was a lab leak. But I’m also conscious there are people out there who will always disagree.”
Their conversation came two months after Joe Biden ordered US intelligence to investigate how the pandemic began.
In normal circumstances, investigating an emerging infectious disease outbreak is a purely scientific inquiry, as was the case with Sars in 2003 and with Mers a decade later. But the search for the origin of the Covid pandemic has come in the middle of a global controversy that has mixed public health, domestic politics and international diplomacy.
Updated
Local authorities in England are drawing up contingency plans to deal with staff shortages being made worse by Covid that could leave them unable to empty bins or provide other council services.
The Local Government Association said:
As cases of Covid-19 rise in light of the Omicron variant, councils are concerned that existing staffing issues may get worse, potentially impacting on service delivery in some areas and they are putting in place contingency plans to address this.
We want to work with government to address these issues to ensure councils can be resilient in supporting their communities through this wave of the Omicron variant and that they can continue to deliver the services people rely upon.
The Philippines will impose tighter curbs in the capital region for the next two weeks, the acting presidential spokesperson said on Friday, to try to limit infections by the Omicron variant.
The health ministry on Friday recorded 2,961 new coronavirus infections, a two-month high, and reported a positivity rate of 10.3%.
“In the coming days, we might see an increase in active cases,” acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said in a televised announcement.
The region including the capital Manila is an urban sprawl of 16 cities that is home to more than 13 million people. It will be placed under the third of a five-scale alert system from 3 to 15 January, Nograles said.
Level 3 bans face-to-face classes, contact sports, funfairs, and casinos. The government’s coronavirus task force will also reduce the operating capacity for social events, tourist attractions, amusement parks, restaurant dine-in services, fitness studios, and personal care services.
With roughly 2.84 million total confirmed cases and 51,504 casualties, the Philippines has the second highest number of Covid cases and deaths in southeast Asia, after Indonesia.
The Philippines has so far detected 10 Omicron cases, three of which three were domestic infections and the rest were from overseas travellers. The country’s genome sequencing capacity is limited.
“It is prudent to assume that Omicron is already in circulation, or is already in the community,” the health secretary, Francisco Duque, said at a news conference on Friday.
Ireland becomes latest EU country to cut isolation period
Ireland has become the latest EU country to cut the isolation period for many people who contract Covid, as record infection numbers spark fears of crippling staff shortages in essential public services, as well as retail and hospitality venues.
Spain, Portugal and Greece reduced isolation times this week while others, such as Germany and France, are considering doing so and Italy cut its quarantine for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who has tested positive.
The moves follow a similar decision by the US and reflect early research suggesting the highly transmissible Omicron variant fuelling the pandemic’s latest surge generally causes milder illness than earlier versions of the virus.
However, the sheer number of people becoming infected – and thus having to self-isolate if they contract the virus, or quarantine if they are a contact of someone who tests positive – threatens to cause chaos in hospitals and on public transport.
“Many Omicron cases are going to be asymptomatic,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday after halving the recommended isolation time for asymptomatic people to five from 10 days.
We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning, while following the science.
The UK’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Wednesday cut the 10-day self-isolation period for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in England who have tested positive for coronavirus from 10 days to seven if they get the all-clear from lateral flow tests.
The World Health Organization has described the decisions to cut isolation and quarantine periods as part of a delicate balancing act between controlling the transmission of the virus and keeping national economies up and running.
“It is a trade-off between the science and being absolutely perfect in what you try to do, but then having the minimal disruption you can possibly have,” Michael Ryan, the WHO emergencies director, said. “Governments are struggling to find that balance.”
Read the full story here: EU countries cut Covid isolation periods in Omicron balancing act
Updated
Germany’s leading coronavirus expert has expressed optimism that his country could expect a “relatively normal” winter in 2022, after data from other countries firmed up the impression that infections with the Omicron variant could be milder than Delta.
Christian Drosten, who heads up the institute of virology at Berlin’s Charité hospital, told public broadcaster ZDF that Omicron had the potential to take the pandemic into an “endemic situation”, where the virus that has brought the world to a standstill could be more comparable to a common cold or flu virus.
Of course, it is a good situation if you have a virus that no longer makes you ill but transmits easily so that it can seek out and find all of the immunity gaps among the population and still trigger regular updates in immunity.
Nonetheless, the coronavirus expert said he expected indoor mask-wearing mandates and an updated top-up dose of a vaccine to be necessary to protect vulnerable people over the course of the coming year.
Germany was at a particular disadvantage because it had a higher percentage than other European countries of people who had neither attained immunity through vaccination or infection with the virus, Drosten said.
We have too many unvaccinated people in Germany, especially over 60. And those are of course seriously at risk.
More on this story here: Germany buoyed by data from abroad amid Omicron spread
Almost one in five frontline ambulance staff in Wales are off sick or isolating with the numbers expected to continue to grow over the next week or so.
Jason Killens, the chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, said that 322 people were off because of Covid – around 12% of frontline staff. Adding in “normal” sickness absenteeism, the number off work rises to around 17%.
Killens told the Guardian:
We are starting to feel the pinch because of the absence rate. We are expecting that to grow over the next 10 days.
More armed services personnel are joining the ambulance service in January, bringing the number driving on the frontline up to around 250, with more doing backroom roles.
Killens said the service had its most numbers of referrals from the NHS 111 service on Monday and Tuesday. The pressure is also still being increased by delays in patients being admitted, leading to queues of ambulances at hospital A&E departments.
We expect it to get very challenging in the next 10-14 days. Some patients are waiting much longer than we would like.
1 in 25 people in England had Covid last week
One in 25 people in England had Covid last week, rising to one in 15 in London, official figures have revealed.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, based on swabs collected from randomly selected households, an estimated 4% of people in the community in England had Covid in the week ending 23 December – about 2,024,700 people. The week before, about one in 35 people in England were estimated to have had Covid.
The study revealed infections have increased across all regions of the UK as the Omicron variant continues to fuel record numbers.
“The highest rates of infections were seen in London, where one in 15 would have tested positive, and the lowest in the north-east of England, where one in 45 would have tested positive for Covid-19,” the report notes.
Infection levels also rose in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the most recent week, with the latest estimates suggesting that for all three countries about one in 40 people had Covid in the week ending 23 December.
The study also reveals that Omicron is now the dominant variant in England and Scotland.
“Infection levels have continued to increase across the UK, with England’s increase driven largely by London, which has the highest rate of infection seen in this survey,” said Sarah Crofts, the head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 Infection Survey.
“Omicron is now the dominant variant in both England and Scotland, and has been growing rapidly in Northern Ireland and Wales,” she added. “We’ve also seen infections rise in all age groups, with school-aged children and young adults seeing the highest rates.”
Updated
Boris Johnson must be ready to restrict social mixing to stop hospitals being overwhelmed by an Omicron-driven surge in Covid cases, a senior NHS leader has said.
The rapid spread of the new variant means the prime minister may have to introduce “tighter restrictions, at real speed” to reduce the number of people falling ill with Covid.
But any new curbs would take two weeks to cut the number of people needing hospital treatment, added Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers.
His comments came as a leading scientist predicted that the sharp increase in Covid infections seen in recent days means that the NHS will be overwhelmed “quite quickly”.
Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), warned exposure to only “a whiff of infected breath” could lead to catching the Omicron variant.
He also said that mingling during new year celebrations may well lead to a further increase in those testing positive.
Read the full story here: UK must be poised to introduce swift Covid curbs, says NHS leader
UK approves Pfizer's antiviral Covid-19 pill for at-risk patients
The UK has become “one of the first in the world” to approve the use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral after it was found to help prevent the virus from multiplying in at-risk sufferers, PA reports.
A potentially “life-saving” treatment called Paxlovid has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for use among adults who could be vulnerable to coronavirus due to age, weight or a prior chronic illness.
The decision comes after the regulator found the drug - which can be taken at home - was safe and effective at reducing the risks of being admitted to hospital and death in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infection and who are also at an increased risk of developing severe disease.
In a clinical trial in high-risk adults with symptomatic coronavirus infection, it was found to reduce the risk of being admitted to hospital and of death by almost 90%.
The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said:
The UK has been a world leader at finding and rolling out Covid-19 treatments to patients. This is further proved by the MHRA being one of the first in the world to approve this life-saving antiviral.
The booster campaign, testing and antiviral defences ensure our country is in the strongest possible position to deal with the threat posed by Omicron as we head into the new year.
Developed by Pfizer, Paxlovid is an antiviral medicine with a combination of active ingredients, PF-07321332 and ritonavir, that works by inhibiting a protease required for virus replication.
This prevents it from multiplying, keeping virus levels low and helping the body to overcome the viral infection.
The two active substances of Paxlovid come as separate tablets that are packaged together and taken together, twice a day by mouth for five days.
Dr June Raine, MHRA chief executive, said:
Today we have given our regulatory approval for Paxlovid, a Covid-19 treatment found to cut Covid-19 related hospitalisations and deaths by 89% when taken within three days of the start of symptoms.
We now have a further antiviral medicine for the treatment of Covid-19 that can be taken by mouth rather than administered intravenously.
This means it can be administered outside a hospital setting, before Covid-19 has progressed to a severe stage.
I hope the announcement today gives reassurance to those particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, for whom this treatment has been approved. For these individuals, this treatment could be life-saving.
Based on the clinical trial data, MHRA said it had found Paxlovid is most effective when taken during the early stages of infection and so recommends its use as soon as possible and within five days of the start of symptoms.
It has been authorised for use in people aged 18 and above who have mild to moderate Covid-19 infection and at least one risk factor for developing severe illness.
Such risk factors include obesity, being over 60, diabetes mellitus, or heart disease.
Ben Osborn, country manager at Pfizer UK, said:
This milestone is an important moment in our continued fight against Covid-19, offering the NHS another possible treatment option as cases continue to rise.
This at-home therapy, shown in clinical trials to reduce hospitalisations and save lives, has the potential to lessen the devastating impact of a virus that has now taken over five million lives globally.
Updated
Almost forgot to say, good morning from New Orleans! I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next eight 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_
NHS staff absences due to Covid nearly double in a month
The number of NHS hospital staff in England absent due to Covid has nearly doubled since the start of the month, new figures show.
PA reports that some 24,632 staff at NHS hospital trusts were ill with coronavirus or having to self-isolate on Boxing Day, up 31% from 18,829 a week earlier and nearly double the 12,508 at the start of the month.
The new NHS England data comes after separate figures showed that the number of Covid patients in hospital in England had climbed to 11,452 on Thursday, the highest level since 26 February.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the NHS is facing a “perfect storm” of rising Covid hospital admissions and illness alongside increasing numbers of frontline workers being off sick.
The NHS is putting in plans to step up once again for patients with the new Nightingale surge hubs, extra support from community services and virtual wards, but there is no doubt the whole system is running hot.
While the government seems determined not to increase restrictions in England, it is vital we all behave in ways that will not exacerbate an already dangerous situation.
NHS England national medical director Prof Stephen Powis said the health service is “on a war footing” and minimising absences on the frontline would be “essential” in the coming weeks.
We don’t yet know the full scale of rising Omicron cases and how this will affect people needing NHS treatment but, having hit a 10-month high for the number of patients in hospital with Covid while wrestling with sharply increasing staff absences, we are doing everything possible to free up beds and get people home to their loved ones - and in the last week hundreds more beds were freed up each day compared to the week before.
The NHS is on a war footing, and, while staff remain braced for the worst, with Covid absence for NHS staff almost doubling in the past fortnight, keeping as many colleagues as possible at work on the front line and minimising absence, will be essential in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, ministers have been warned they must be ready to apply restrictions “at pace” as the NHS puts itself on an emergency footing to deal with a possible surge in patients with Covid.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said trust leaders recognise that the UK government’s threshold for introducing extra measures in England “hasn’t been crossed yet” but that additional capacity is being created in case hospital pressures increase.
Even if extra restrictions are put in place to control the Omicron variant, it will take two weeks to reduce the hospital admission rate, he said.
Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It is the government who sets the rules on restrictions, not the NHS, and we know that the government has set a high threshold on introducing new restrictions. So, on that basis, trust leaders can see why the government is arguing that, in the absence of a surge of seriously ill older patients coming into hospital, that threshold hasn’t yet been crossed.
But we still don’t know if a surge will come, and indeed we are exactly talking about the preparations we are making for that surge right now. So, in terms of restrictions, I think we are in exactly the same place we’ve been for the past fortnight, which is the government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed should they be needed.
So-called Nightingale hubs are being established at some hospitals to deal with a “super-surge” in patients with Covid in a move that Hopson said would require the NHS to “go into an emergency mode” amid staff shortages, partly due to high coronavirus infections.
He said recently retired health workers and volunteers would be asked to staff the hubs, which would be used for patients “who are effectively over the worst” and being readied for discharge.
It came as a leading scientist said it is likely that the NHS will be overwhelmed by the spread of Omicron.
Prof Peter Openshaw, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), told BBC Breakfast:
I think we haven’t quite reached the threshold that was set by government in terms of the NHS being overwhelmed, but it looks like that will be reached quite quickly.
What I’m very concerned about is our NHS staff, my dear colleagues who have worked so, so hard all through the repeated waves of this infection. How are they going to cope?
Today so far
- The World Health Organization has issued a message of hope while urging renewed action for the year ahead. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “With the curtain closing on 2021, we are faced by a somber milestone, and a stark choice. The power is in our hands to change the course of the Covid-19 crisis once and for all.”
- South Africa, the first country to report the Omicron variant, says a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.
- UK prime minister Boris Johnson claims Britain is in an “incomparably better” position in the fight against Covid than it was at the end of 2020, in his new year’s message.
- The number of patients in hospital with Covid in England is up from 7,166 on Christmas Day, to 11,452. That is the highest figure since February.
- A huge number of people in England are not turning up for their Covid vaccine appointments, health leaders have said, saying as many as 40% of bookings are missed.
- Amid a shortage in the UK, National Pharmacy Association chairman Andrew Lane said more lateral flow tests are being distributed to pharmacies but supply is “still very patchy.”
- Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, has said “In terms of restrictions, I think we are in exactly the same place we’ve been for the past fortnight, which is the government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed should they be needed. It is worth remembering that it does take about a fortnight for any new restrictions to affect the level of hospital admissions, so the pattern of hospital admissions for the next fortnight has already been set.”
- Schools and parents across Wales are preparing for some children to return to home and online learning when the new term begins. First minister Mark Drakeford said teacher and staff illness meant some pupils would return to home learning with decisions would be made by individual schools and councils, rather than the Welsh government.
- Hogmanay in Scotland will be marked for a second consecutive year with restrictions in place on the hospitality sector. Pubs will be able to stay open provided they have table service in place, but there will be no nightclubbing. First minister Nicola Sturgeon has praised healthcare workers in her new year’s address, and said “this is not the Hogmanay we all wanted and hoped for. But I believe that we can still look ahead to 2022 with optimism.”
- Israel’s health minister Nitzan Horowitz said the country will extend the offer of a fourth vaccine dose to elderly people in care facilities, citing their high exposure and vulnerability to infections.
- Hong Kong authorities have discovered cases of infection of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the community, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said. It marked the first local cases in about three months.
- Daily Covid cases in New South Wales, Australia, almost doubled overnight, raising pressure on the state’s health system.
- The Victorian and New South Wales governments are scrambling to organise the distribution of rapid antigen tests to vulnerable people amid short supply, confusion over who should use them and skyrocketing Covid case numbers.
- A US woman has told how she confined herself to an aeroplane toilet cubicle after testing positive for Covid halfway through a flight from Chicago to Iceland.
- New Zealand has eased rules on public gatherings in time for New Year’s Eve after a scare over community cases of the new Omicron variant.
That is it from me, Martin Belam. I will see you here next week, and in the meantime I wish you all the best for the new year. Lucy Campbell will be here shortly to take you through the rest of the day.
A couple of statistics derived from the NHS England figures that have been released this morning. Dan Bloom, a former colleague of mine at the Mirror, points out that the number of patients in hospital with Covid in England is up from 7,166 on Christmas Day, to 11,452. That is the highest figure since February.
Meanwhile: There were 11,452 Covid patients in England’s hospital beds at 8am yesterday - up from 7,166 on Christmas Day.
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) December 31, 2021
The figure is the highest since February 26. pic.twitter.com/HldFgcq6e1
The Spectator have a slightly different take on this, with their data journalist Michael Simmons highlighting that “a third of Covid positive hospital patients in England are not primarily being treated for Covid.”
🚨 NEW | Figures to 28 December show a third of Covid positive hospital patients in England are not primarily being treated for Covid.
— Michael Simmons (@Simmons__) December 31, 2021
Updated now on Spectator data hub.https://t.co/scdPUIOVOi pic.twitter.com/2x5vbAwy8g
This is a matter of some contention between those who say Covid cases risk overwhelming the NHS, and those that argue that a significant proportion of those in hospital “with Covid” only have it as a side issue, and it isn’t the primary reason they are occupying an NHS bed.
In fact, much earlier this morning on Sky News, Chaand Nagpaul, who is chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, was asked about this. He had said:
Whilst the proportion of people who end up in hospital as a result of Omicron is smaller, we’re definitely seeing significant increases. And the trouble is that those increases in hospitalisation mean that other patients – and there are 6 million people are on a waiting list at the moment, it’s a record for the NHS, 312,000 have been waiting more than 12 months – it means that they can’t then be treated in hospital because their beds have been occupied by other patients. You know, 25,000 patients were admitted with Covid in a four week period before Christmas, those are 25,000 beds that could have been available for other patients.
He was then asked to clarify whether that was 25,000 people admitted with Covid, or 25,000 people in hospital who now have Covid, which isn’t quite the same thing. Dr Nagpaul said it was a good question, but he didn’t have the data.
The argument here boils down to, on the one hand, if you are not in favour of further restrictions or precautions, arguing that incidental cases of Covid caught in hospital mean the numbers being admitted with Covid are over-stated and the NHS isn’t under as much pressure as people claim.
On the other hand, the argument runs that these people are still in NHS beds and, presumably, need to be moved into more Covid-secure wards, be treated as Covid-positive, and have the potential to still get seriously ill with the novel coronavirus.
Opposition parties in Wales have been calling for the Labour-led Welsh government to publish the advice from scientific advisors it used to introduce the “alert level two” restrictions Wales is living under.
It has now published two reports from its Technical Advisory Group (TAG) that show that the advice changed significantly between 15 and 17 December.
A TAG report dated 15 December said introducing very strong alert level four restrictions (measures such as staying local and non-essential shops shutting) would have a “material effect” on reducing the peak of cases.
It said anything below alert level four would have “some dampening effect” but may not prevent “material harm to NHS and care services” and added it was “not advisable” to start off with “light touch” mitigations.
Then a report dated 17 December said no matter what measures were taken peak cases would far exceed previous heights.
Significantly, it said the size of the peak would be similar whether Wales moved to alert level two or four for a maximum of two weeks, the only difference being the timing of the peaks. Being in alert level four could delay peak hospitalisations from mid-late January to early February 2022.
The report concluded that if restrictions were going to be applied for two weeks only, there may be “negligible benefit” but a “high cost” of imposing stricter rules. However, if bringing in restrictions for four weeks, alert level four “could have a significant impact”.
A huge number of people in England are not turning up for their Covid vaccine appointments, health leaders have said, saying as many as 40% of bookings are missed.
The revelation comes as the government claimed to have met its coronavirus booster jabs target, and that every adult in England had been offered a top-up shot.
The NHS Confederation said it was “encouraging” to see people coming forward and getting their Covid-19 jabs but that it was receiving reports that some sites were only a third full.
Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said it had been informed by some primary care leaders that people were not showing up to as many as 40% of their scheduled bookings.
“It is encouraging to see people still coming forward for their first and second doses, as well as the massive achievement on boosters,” he said. “However, cases of Omicron are rising rapidly … Health leaders are worried about the level of illness and demand that their staff across the NHS could have to respond to in January and so, it is vital that everyone who is eligible takes up the offer of a jab or booster shot.”
Read more of Sarah Marsh’s report here: Huge numbers of people in England ‘not turning up for Covid booster jabs’
Schools and parents across Wales are preparing for some children to return to home and online learning when the new term begins.
The first minister, Mark Drakeford, said teacher and staff illness meant some pupils would return to home learning with decisions would be made by individualschools and councils, rather than the Welsh government.
He told BBC Wales: “We’ve asked schools to prepare for how they can reopen and have children back in the classroom - what level of protections do they need to build in for that?
“But in some places, because teachers are ill and other school staff aren’t able to be there, they will have to plan for some period where some children will have to be taught remotely again.”
Drakeford has told people thinking of travelling to England from Wales for New Year’s Eve celebrations to “think consciously and carefully,” but is not asking people to remain in Wales, where nightclubs are closed and pubs and restaurants are operating under restrictions.
“If you are travelling, make sure you have taken a lateral flow test before you go and think about the people you will be mixing with when you return,” he said.
Leaders of a group of protesters who set fire to the facade of Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia are closely linked to a complex network of anti-vaccination and conspiracy groups which have been accused of spreading misinformation in Indigenous communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fire, which broke out during a protest at the entrance to the building on Thursday, caused extensive damage to the doors and portico.
There have been a series of demonstrations by Indigenous groups as well as elements of the anti-vaccination movement and sovereign citizen groups at Old Parliament House over the past days.
Among the protesters are Indigenous land rights activists, anti-vaccine groups and so-called sovereign citizens. The latter is a fringe conspiracy group rooted in antisemitism and organised around a haphazard collection of pseudo-legal beliefs broadly grouped around the notion that modern government is an illegitimate corporation.
Before the fire on Friday, a piece of paper was taped to a door at Old Parliament House labelled a “notice of acquiescence by default”. It was addressed to, among others, “The Australian Commonwealth de facto Corporate Administration” and contained a garbled set of legalese mirroring sovereign citizen beliefs.
Read more of Michael McGowan’s report here: Old Parliament House fire protesters linked to anti-vaccine and conspiracy groups
My colleagues Alfie Packham and Rachel Obordo have spoken to three people about their plans for New Year’s Eve, posing the question – is it time to self-isolate or to party?
Nervtag’s Prof Openshaw: Omicron so infectious 'almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected'
If you were thinking of heading out to celebrate New Year’s Eve tonight, this quote from Nervtag’s Prof Peter Openshaw on BBC Breakfast might give you pause for thought. PA Media quote him saying:
Omicron is so infectious. We’re lucky really that it wasn’t this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission. We’ve had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected.
We’re in a relatively good position in countries like the UK but I think you have to remember that in many parts of the world the vaccination rates are only about 5%, and they’re being exposed to this very infectious virus with very little protection.
Omicron spread through Europe has sent Spain’s infection rate spiralling to record highs and decimated reservations at restaurants that had pinned their hopes on holiday season trade.
Reuters spoke to Juan Lozano, head waiter at the La Querida restaurant in Madrid’s Pozuelo neighbourhood, which was almost fully booked in early December. He said that now just four tables out of La Querida’s two dozen booked on New Year’s Day. “We all thought... we’d be able to make some money and pay off many things that are overdue,” he said.
Unlike other Spanish regions, which have imposed capacity limits, mandatory COVID passes and even a curfew in Catalonia, Madrid has not introduced any restrictions on eating out and socialising. But restaurants are still feeling the pinch.
“The outlook is horrendously bad,” said Lozano, insisting that the government must give more support to the sector. He complained that state-backed soft loans were not enough.
“People say ‘can’t you get a state credit?’ Yes but that’s a debt I have to pay back, isn’t it?”
NHS chief: 'government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed'
Part of the reason that the airwaves in the UK this morning have featured a lot of chatter that things aren’t so serious with the Omicron variant is because The Times lead their front page today with a story “No need for more Covid curbs, say NHS chiefs”. They opened:
NHS chiefs do not believe that the threshold for new Covid-19 restrictions has been crossed despite a surge in hospital admissions.
The number of patients with the coronavirus on wards in England rose to 11,452 yesterday, the highest since February and up 61 per cent in a week.
While concerned by the increase in admissions, NHS leaders have been reassured by the fact that serious illness among the elderly has not risen significantly.
They then quoted Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, saying:
Although the numbers are going up and going up increasingly rapidly, the absence of large numbers of seriously ill older people is providing significant reassurance. But they are aware that this may change after the Christmas period.
Trust CEOs know that the government has a high threshold to cross before it will introduce extra restrictions and can see why, in the absence of that surge of severely ill older people, that threshold hasn’t been crossed yet.
Hopson has been asked about this on the BBC Radio 4 programme this morning, and this is what he said, according to PA Media (with my emphasis on the two key lines):
It is the Government who sets the rules on restrictions, not the NHS. We still don’t know if a surge will come, and indeed we are exactly talking about the preparations we are making for that surge right now.
So, in terms of restrictions, I think we are in exactly the same place we’ve been for the past fortnight, which is the government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed should they be needed.
And just to make the point that that is somewhat different to a headline that states NHS leaders think there is no need for more curbs - they may be needed at pace if the evidence warrants it.
And just one more important point, I think - it is worth remembering that it does take about a fortnight for any new restrictions to affect the level of hospital admissions, so the pattern of hospital admissions for the next fortnight has already been set.
Updated
Amid a lot of optimistic noises about evidence of the “mildness” of the Omicron variant and the modest rise in hospitalisations compared to cases so far in the UK, Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), has struck a more cautious note this morning on BBC Breakfast. PA Media quote him saying:
The latest figures show extraordinary rises in infection rates and this is before we’ve had time to see the full effect of what’s happened over Christmas.
The people currently who are very sadly dying of Covid were probably infected on average about 35 days ago, so this was really before Omicron really started to transmit.
It’s therefore too early to say what the impact of Omicron is going to be on more severe disease.
It’s mostly been circulating in children, in people in contact with children, and it’s now going to spread into older adults at much higher risk of severe disease and those with pre-existing illnesses.
I’m very, very glad that a very large majority of those have been triple-vaccinated because that gives you very good levels of protection, admittedly probably not for good but at least for a while.
Here’s a little bit more detail from Reuters on the moves in Israel to offer a fourth vaccine shot. Dan Williams reports that health minister Nitzan Horowitz said today the country will extend the offer of a fourth shot to elderly people in care facilities, citing their high exposure and vulnerability to infections.
An Israeli hospital administered fourth shots to a test group of health workers on Monday, in what it called the first major study into whether a second round of boosters will help contend with the Omicron coronavirus variant. Results are expected within two weeks.
A health ministry expert panel last week recommended that Israel offer a fourth shot of the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech to medical workers and those over 60 or with compromised immune systems.
Updated
You may recall British prime minister Boris Johnson’s words from 12 December, when he told the UK in a televised address:
A fortnight ago I said we would offer every eligible adult a booster by the end of January. Today, in light of this Omicron emergency, I am bringing that target forward by a whole month. Everyone eligible aged 18 and over in England will have the chance to get their booster before the New Year.
There then ensued a minor kerfuffle about the exact semantics of that. It certainly seemed to give the impression in some quarters that the prime minister was promising those booster jabs would be administered to everyone who wanted one, not just offered, although as you can see it was very tightly worded.
The government’s own Covid dashboard indicates that as of 29 December, 58.3% of those aged 12 and above have had a third booster jab.
Bipasha van der Zijde is a marketing and communications adviser at KIT Royal Tropical Institute, and she writes for us today that we can vaccinate 70% of the world against Covid by mid-2022:
According to the WHO vaccine strategy, published in October, the goal is to have 70% coverage across the world by June 2022. How can this target be achieved?
Will freeing up intellectual property rights, often cited as a possible solution, bridge the widening gap? For a country to start producing vaccines from scratch would be a massive challenge. According to Benjamin Ongeri, a health supply chain specialist with Crown Agents in Kenya: “Countries like Kenya have begun this journey by targeting the final filling of vaccine vials locally which is still quite challenging given the need for state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plants that will guarantee safe production with no chance of contamination.”
A lot more will be required in terms of technology transfer and building the expertise needed to fully produce vaccines locally, these cannot be achieved in the short to medium term.
The answer lies in global funding mechanisms such as Covax – provided they can guarantee a pre-planned availability of vaccines. More equitable distribution of the jabs on a structural basis with longer shelf lives will allow for realistic and efficient planning.
Read more here: Bipasha van der Zijde – We can vaccinate 70% of the world against Covid by mid-2022. Here’s how
Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, has said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the use of extra capacity hubs at hospitals would be a recognition that there was an “emergency” situation needed to deal with Covid-19 admissions. PA Media quotes him saying:
The hubs are there to have super-surge capacity on top of that, so we really would be in an emergency if we were having to use them and therefore we would have to use an emergency staffing model, because we are very clear in the NHS: we don’t have the staff, the existing staff, to be able to staff these beds, so we would have to go into an emergency mode.
The important thing to understand is that what we would be using these hubs for - we wouldn’t be using these hubs for the most critically ill patients. What we would be doing is using them for patients who were effectively over the worst, heading towards discharge for home
Earlier Dr Azeem Majeed, the head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, cast some doubt on the ability to staff the hubs that were announced by NHS England yesterday. He told Times Radio:
We saw when these hubs were established in March and April last year when the NHS struggled to find the staff to man those hospitals. Hopefully those won’t be needed, but if we do need those extra beds it will be a struggle to find the staff to deal with those patients - I’m not quite sure where those staff will come from given the fact hospitals are struggling now with their current workload.
NHS England has said it is creating new small-scale “Nightingale” facilities with up to 100 beds each at eight hospitals across the country. The first sites will be at Preston, Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester, Stevenage, St George’s in London, Ashford and Bristol.
Updated
National Pharmacy Association: supply of tests in UK 'still very patchy'
In the UK, National Pharmacy Association chairman Andrew Lane said more lateral flow tests are being distributed to pharmacies but supply is “still very patchy”, and he expects the test packs to be picked up “within the first few hours” of them being delivered today.
He added that pharmacy staff are facing abuse from patients frustrated by being unable to find a test. PA Media quote him telling BBC Breakfast:
I spoke to the managing director of Alliance Healthcare who are our wholesalers that distribute the tests into pharmacies, and she assured me that they are putting out two million a day and we are starting to see that come through.
It is still very patchy though, so I will say that not every pharmacy today will have a box but most pharmacies in the country will be having a box so we just ask the public to persevere, and also treat us with respect.
We have had a lot of abuse over the last couple of weeks when the tests haven’t been there, but teams are doing their very best to help the public with this.
A box will contain, I think, 54 tests and many of our members are reporting that that box is gone within the first couple of hours of arriving within the pharmacy.
In December 2019 the World Health Organization was told of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. My colleagues Ashley Kirk and Pamela Duncan have produced these charts which show how Covid-19 has spread across the world since then.
Hong Kong detects community transmission of Omicron variant for first time
Hong Kong authorities have discovered cases of infection of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the community, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said. It marked the first local cases in about three months.
Chan told reporters, including Marius Zaharia of Reuters, that one of four air crew members testing positive after their return to Hong Kong had breached home quarantine rules by going to a restaurant, where he passed the virus to his father and a client sitting at another table.
Hong Kong had not recorded any coronavirus cases spread by community transmission since October.
Schools in Wales are being asked to prepare for the possibility of reopening in January for remote learning.
Yesterday First Minister Mark Drakeford explained in an interview with Wales Online that:
The first two days of term are planning days. What the education minister Jeremy Miles has asked schools to do is to plan for two possible futures: the one in which children can still be in the classroom, where there are sufficient staff to be there to be able to provide face-to-face learning, but to maximise the protection that can be put in place inside the classroom to keep students and staff as safe as possible.
But we recognise that there will be some schools where, because Omicron is so transmissible, there will be staff who will be ill so it won’t be possible for every child to be in the classroom and therefore that a return for some students for a shorter period of time as possible to online learning may have to be there as well.
This morning Cathy Owen reports for Wales Online that Laura Doel, director of head teachers’ union NAHT Cymru, has described remote learning as a “last resort”, and called for tests to be prioritised for schools. She said:
The availability of staff is the biggest threat to education in January. Without the workforce fit and well, learners cannot go back to the classroom. If regular LFTs are to be part of the package of mitigations it is vital that schools have a supply ready for reopening.
Another doctor, Dr Azeem Majeed, head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, has also been on the airwaves in the UK this morning to say that NHS workers are struggling to access Covid-19 tests, and the government should prioritise key workers when distributing them. PA Media quote him telling Times Radio:
I struggled to get a test recently. I am required to test twice a week as an NHS worker but when I log on to the online site, there’s often none in stock.
It’s not just NHS staff but other key workers too, such as social care workers, police, fire service and so on, who need these tests as well so it is worrying that they’re in such short supply at the moment.
My view is that people in key groups, whether they’re healthcare workers or other key workers like public transport should be prioritised to ensure our NHS can function, our schools can function, that our society can function well.
Testing capability is also making the headlines in Australia. Ben Butler reports for us:
The Victorian and New South Wales governments are scrambling to organise the distribution of rapid antigen tests to vulnerable people amid short supply, confusion over who should use them and skyrocketing Covid case numbers.
Amid a national shortage of the tests, both governments said they were working out how best to distribute tens of millions of kits they have ordered, most of which will not arrive until the end of January.
NSW and Victoria have watered down previous commitments to provide free tests after a national cabinet meeting with the federal government on Thursday.
Adding to the confusion, on Friday morning the prime minister, Scott Morrison, issued a statement removing a requirement that confirmed Covid cases who are in isolation but don’t have symptoms take a test on the sixth day.
This directly contradicted statements, also made on Friday, by the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, and Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, that a day-six rapid test was required.
Read more of Ben Butler’s report here: NSW and Victoria unable to explain how Covid rapid antigen tests will be distributed to vulnerable
BMA chair: lack of lateral flow tests adding 'strain and stress' to NHS staff
Chaand Nagpaul, who is chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, has been on Sky News this morning in the UK outlining what he sees as one of the significant issues with the lack of availability of lateral flow or PCR tests in the UK at the moment – the knock-on effect for staffing in the NHS. He said:
We’ve seen up to about a three times increase in staff absence from either infection or isolation in some London hospitals. Now that’s creating huge pressure on the system, when we already are short-staffed at the busiest time of the year.
And to add to that problem, we now have a situation where many staff cannot get their lateral flow tests, or a PCR test, which means they can’t return to work. Because what they need to return to work is to demonstrate a negative lateral flow test on day six and seven, which was specially introduced so that we can shorten the period of isolation.
So this is creating enormous problems for us. And for the workforce that remains, they’re having to carry out the work of their absent colleagues. And that’s adding additional strain and stress, and patients are therefore going to suffer as a result.
Updated
Hogmanay in Scotland will be marked for a second consecutive year with restrictions in place on the hospitality sector. Pubs will be able to stay open provided they have table service in place, but there will be no nightclubbing.
In her new year message, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has praised healthcare workers, saying:
Throughout this year, our health and care workers have continued to do an absolutely magnificent job. And those working on our vaccination programme have provided all of us with an incredible service. Thanks to their efforts – and also thanks to the sacrifices of people right across the country – earlier this year businesses were able to reopen.
The Omicron variant is a very significant threat. It means that at the moment, we need above all to keep each other safe. We all need to stay at home, far more than we would want to at this time of year. And we have asked that you minimise new year socialising as much as you can.
So this is not the Hogmanay we all wanted and hoped for. But I believe that we can still look ahead to 2022 with optimism.
Updated
Queensland in Australia is due to change travel restrictions into the state despite a surge in fresh Covid cases and criticisms the new requirements are “pointless” in states with large outbreaks.
From 11.59pm on Friday 31 December, travellers entering Queensland will be required to return a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) result within 72 hours before travel, rather than a negative PCR test.
The change in rules comes as the state recorded 3,118 new cases overnight, with the number of active infections rising to 11,697.
Evidence of a negative test result has to be uploaded to the Queensland Health website when applying for a border pass, with applicants making a declaration the information is correct.
However, the change raises questions about the accuracy and reliability of test results, as unlike PCR tests, the tests are not performed by trained professionals or analysed by and reported to a central authority.
Police commissioner Katarina Carroll said on Wednesday that from January those caught lying about a RAT result on their border declaration would face a heavy fine.
Read more of Royce Kurmelovs’ report here: Queensland’s new travel rule labelled ‘pointless’ as state faces fresh Covid surge
Updated
A lot of the noises coming from politicians and health experts in the UK seems cautiously optimistic across much of the media this morning. One concern though is the continued shortage of Covid tests, which may impact people’s ability to test themselves before going out tonight.
To give you an idea of the availability issue, one web developer Russ Garrett has been monitoring the situation on the government’s own booking website, and the picture looks pretty grim from the last few days.
Testing situation pretty bad
— Theo Sanderson (@theosanderson) December 30, 2021
Data collected by @russss at https://t.co/NvpXwEloK6 pic.twitter.com/NTufNwqqZ9
Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over from Samantha Lock. Here’s a recap of the latest Covid figures for the UK.
Over the last seven days there have been nearly 1 million new coronavirus cases recorded in the UK – 984,147. Cases have increased by 45.1% week-on-week.
There have been 701 deaths recorded in the last week. Deaths have decreased by 10.6% week-on-week.
Hospital admissions have increased by 32.3% week-on-week. At the latest count on the UK government’s own dashboard, there were 11,898 people in hospital in total, of whom 868 are in ventilation beds.
There’s some considerable caveats over those numbers though, due to data collection issues over the holiday period. With the constraint on the availability of tests, that record number of new cases may be an undercount.
Nevertheless, the large number of cases is yet to translate into a significant increase in deaths or hospitalisations, which many will see as a positive sign and a vindication of the decision in England not to impose significant new Covid restrictions.
Updated
WHO issues message of hope ahead of 2022
The World Health Organization has issued a message of hope while urging renewed action for the year ahead.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
With the curtain closing on 2021, we are faced by a somber milestone, and a stark choice. The power is in our hands to change the course of the Covid-19 crisis once and for all.”
In a statement titled ‘My hope for ending the Covid-19 pandemic’ Tedros outlined a series of resolutions including a global target of vaccinating 70% of people in all countries by the middle of 2022, building a stronger global framework for global health security and investing in stronger primary health care.
I believe that if we can make progress on these goals, we will be gathering again, at the end of 2022, not to mark the end of a third year of pandemic, but to celebrate a return to pre-Covid norms, when we gathered with our families and communities to celebrate together and cherish each other’s company and love.”
In series of video messages shared to Twitter, he added:
If we end inequity, we end the pandemic, and end the global nightmare we have all lived through.
This will be the year we end it [the pandemic] … When health is at risk everything is at risk.”
2021 was a year of great hardship but was also one of great hope when the world came together to develop vaccines & other tools to protect people from #COVID19, says @DrTedros, urging to use lessons learned in 2021 to end the pandemic in 2022. pic.twitter.com/Nxl91nxzNU
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 30, 2021
Updated
Summary
If you’ve just joined us here’s a quick rundown of the latest developments:
- UK prime minister Boris Johnson claims Britain is in an “incomparably better” position in the fight against Covid than it was at the end of 2020, in his new year’s message.
- South Africa, the first country to report the Omicron variant, says a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.
- Daily Covid cases in New South Wales, Australia, almost doubled overnight, raising pressure on the state’s health system.
- Israel has approved a fourth vaccine shot for vulnerable and immunocompromised people, becoming one of the first countries to do so.
- China is set to impose new import restrictions over virus contamination fears in a move that has worried foreign businesses providing goods to the world’s largest market for food and drink.
- South Korea said on Friday it will extend stricter social distancing rules for two weeks until 16 January. The curbs ban gatherings of over four fully vaccinated people, and require restaurants, cafes and bars to close by 9pm and movie theatres and internet cafes by 10pm.
- A US woman has told how she confined herself to an aeroplane toilet cubicle after testing positive for Covid halfway through a flight from Chicago to Iceland.
- New Zealand has eased rules on public gatherings in time for New Year’s Eve after a scare over community cases of the new Omicron variant.
- New York City will go ahead with New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of Covid-19 infections.
- Foreign revellers on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali have been warned they could be deported if they are caught violating Covid-19 health rules during New Year celebrations.
- US health experts are urging Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks due to the rising wave of Covid cases led by the Omicron variant.
Updated
Hello and thanks for joining us for our final Covid blog of 2021. I’m Samantha Lock and I’m certainly hoping for a more promising new year ahead and end to the pandemic.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson claims Britain is in an “incomparably better” position in the fight against Covid than it was at the end of 2020, in his new year’s message.
“We can say one thing with certainty - our position this December the 31st is incomparably better than last year,” Johnson said, while admitting there was still anxiety about the Omicron variant and growing numbers of hospital admissions.
However, he hailed the success of the government’s vaccine programme as the “one overriding reason” that tougher restrictions were not needed in the face of daily case numbers hitting record levels.
“Precisely because of that huge national effort that we can celebrate tonight at all,” he said.
More promising news has also emerged from South Africa, the first country to report the Omicron variant.
Health officials say a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.
“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” a statement from the special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said.
New cases detected in the week ending 25 December fell 29.7% compared to the previous week, government data showed.
Updated
Daily Covid cases in New South Wales, Australia, almost doubled overnight, raising pressure on the state’s health system.
Cases have likely exceeded 25,000 a day, a month earlier than the government was predicting a fortnight ago, an acceleration likely to bring forward the strains on the health system, experts say.
The NSW government reported 21,151 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, almost a 90% jump on the previous day’s tally. Kerry Chant, the state’s chief health officer, said in a video briefing it’s “likely” the increase is higher than reported.
Michael Lydeamore, an infectious disease modeller at Monash University said tests were probably catching about 80% of actual cases, meaning NSW will already be at the 25,000 cases a day rate flagged by health minister Brad Hazzard on 15 December.
Read the full story here.
The World Health Organization has shared an optimistic message ahead of the New Year.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, infectious disease epidemiologist and WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead, said:
We can take the death out of Covid-19 and we can also reduce the spread.
It will end. This pandemic will end.
I’m incredibly hopeful for 2022 in the fact that we can regain control over this.”
As we mark the second anniversary of the #COVID19 pandemic, Dr @mvankerkhove shares her hope to end this crisis in the new year.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 31, 2021
Let's #ACTogether 💪 pic.twitter.com/WoJ8BvPryc
Updated
Germany is reporting a daily rise of 41,240 confirmed coronavirus cases and 323 deaths, according to recently released data from the Robert Koch Institute.
China to impose new import restrictions over virus contamination fears
China will impose new import restrictions from Saturday in a move that has worried foreign businesses providing goods to the world’s largest market for food and drink.
Under laws set to kick in on 1 January, all producers of food shipped to China will have to register with the customs authority.
The extra hurdle was previously required only for products posing potential health risks, such as seafood. But now coffee, alcohol, honey, olive oil, chocolate and several other products will also be scrutinised, Agence France-Presse reports.
On New Year’s Day, “the import curtain will fall”, Alban Renaud, a China-based lawyer with the firm Adaltys, told AFP.
Food companies and importers have already been battered by control measures included in Beijing’s strict zero-Covid strategy, with China linking the virus to food ever since a Beijing outbreak last year was blamed on imported salmon.
Products entering China are now subject to extra screening and repeated disinfection, with products often banned when a Covid outbreak is discovered at the point of packing overseas.
The World Health Organization has said the chances of Covid-19 being transported in food are slim.
Updated
South Korea to extend social distancing rules
South Korea said on Friday it will extend stricter social distancing rules for two weeks amid a persistent surge in serious coronavirus infections and concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.
The government reinstated the curbs on 18 December, six weeks after easing them under a “living with Covid-19” scheme, as record-breaking numbers of new infections and serious cases put a huge strain on the country’s medical system.
The extension is also aimed at bracing for a further spread of Omicron cases by using the time to secure more hospital beds and encourage a booster vaccine shot campaign, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said.
“We should reserve sufficient beds that can cover some 10,000 cases a day, and we should also speed up booster shots and children’s vaccinations,” he told an intra-agency meeting.
The curbs, which will be effective until 16 January ban gatherings of over four fully vaccinated people, and require restaurants, cafes and bars to close by 9 pm and movie theatres and internet cafes by 10pm.
Unvaccinated people can only dine out alone, or use takeout or delivery services.
South Korea also cancelled its traditional midnight bell-ringing ceremony.
A US woman has told how she confined herself to an aeroplane toilet cubicle after testing positive for Covid halfway through a flight from Chicago to Iceland.
Marisa Fotieo, a teacher from Michigan, said her throat began to hurt halfway through the trip so she went to the bathroom to perform a rapid Covid test which confirmed she was infected.
“I just took my rapid test and I brought it into the bathroom, and within what felt like two seconds there were two lines [indicating a positive test],” Fotieo told NBC News.
Sharing the news over TikTok, Fotieo posted a short video from inside the cramped quarters, writing: “POV you test positive for Covid while over the Atlantic Ocean.”
Read the full story here.
Stock markets in Asia are looking mixed today with the Nikkei, Australia’s ASX200 index and Kospi in Seoul all down.
This is despite the Nikkei finishing at its highest point since 1989 – just before its bubble burst – in Thursday’s session.
It was more positive in China and Hong Kong where all the induces were up helped by positive figures about China’s giant manufacturing sector and an easing of commodity prices.
New Zealand eases Covid crowd rules in time for New Year’s Eve
New Zealand has eased rules on public gatherings in time for New Year’s Eve after a scare over community cases of the new Omicron variant.
The country is set to lead the world’s celebrations of the new year at midnight on Friday and crowds will be allowed to gather in Auckland for the first time since August to join in the party after the city’s Covid traffic-light settings were moved from red to orange.
New Zealand is traditionally one of the first countries to bring in the new year before time differences usher in midnight elsewhere but the festivities had been threatened by tight coronavirus restrictions in place for months.
Under orange settings, the bars, restaurants and cafes that enforce vaccine pass requirements can remove crowd size limits and the requirement to sit down, allowing people to dance the night away.
Read the full story here.
New York City will go ahead with New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of Covid-19 infections.
Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the news on Thursday, saying the city’s high Covid-19 vaccination rate makes it feasible to welcome masked, socially distanced crowds to watch the ball drop in Times Square.
We want to show that we’re moving forward, and we want to show the world that New York City is fighting our way through this.
We’ve got to send a message to the world. New York City is open.”
City officials previously announced plans for a scaled-back New Year’s bash with smaller crowds and vaccinations required.
Other US cities such as Atlanta have cancelled New Year’s Eve celebrations,
New York City reported a record number of new, confirmed coronavirus cases — almost 44,000 — on Wednesday, according to New York state figures.
Foreign revellers on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali have been warned they could be deported if they are caught violating Covid-19 health rules during New Year celebrations, authorities warned on Thursday.
Bali immigration office head Jamaruli Manihuruk warned that health rules must be observed in an interview with AFP.
Get ready to be kicked out.”
Bali’s governor has barred carnivals, fireworks and gatherings of more than 50 people over the Christmas and New Year period.
Malls, restaurants and cafes must shut by 10pm, and only operate at 75% capacity.
Bali has taken a tough stance on tourists who violate Covid-19 protocols.
Almost 200 tourists were deported from Bali in 2021, Manihuruk said, with seven booted out for violating health protocols.
Indonesia has been seriously hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As of Wednesday, it had reported more than 4.2 million confirmed Covid-19 cases, and more than 144,000 deaths. Bali alone reported more than 110,000 confirmed cases with over 4,000 deaths.
Vaccination rates remain relatively low and country is vulnerable to new outbreaks.
Experts warn of US Omicron ‘blizzard’ in weeks ahead
US health experts are urging Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks due to the rising wave of Covid cases led by the Omicron variant.
Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told MSNBC:
We are going to see the number of cases in this country rise so dramatically, we are going to have a hard time keeping everyday life operating.
The next month is going to be a viral blizzard,” he added. “All of society is going to be pressured by this.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, also warned cases will likely rise throughout January.
The governor of Louisiana, where hospitalisations have more than tripled in the past two weeks, said January would be “very challenging”.
“We are still at the very beginning of this current surge,” John Bel Edwards told a news conference on Thursday. “January is going to be very, very challenging.”
The warning comes as the United States reached a record high in Covid-19 cases for the second day in a row.
South Africa says Omicron-fuelled fourth Covid wave has passed
South Africa has lifted a nighttime curfew on people’s movement with immediate effect, believing the country has passed the peak of its fourth coronavirus wave driven by the Omicron variant.
The government removed the midnight-to-4am curfew based on the trajectory of the pandemic, vaccination levels and available capacity in the health sector, the government said on Thursday.
A statement from a special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said:
All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level.
While the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, there has been lower rates of hospitalisation than in previous waves.”
Data from the Department of Health showed a 29.7% weekly decrease in new cases detected in the week ending 25 December, the government said. Hospital admissions have declined in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces.
South Africa, with close to 3.5 million infections and 91,000 deaths, has been the worst-hit country in Africa during the pandemic on both counts, and was where the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was first detected last month.
The country is at the lowest of its five-stage Covid-19 alert levels.
Israel approves fourth Covid jab
Israel has approved a fourth vaccine shot for vulnerable and immunocompromised people, becoming one of the first countries to do so, amid a surge in Covid in cases driven by the Omicron variant.
The country also received its first shipment of Pfizer’s anti-Covid pills.
Health ministry director-general Nachman Ash told reporters:
Today I approved giving the fourth vaccine for immunocompromised people.
I did this in light of studies that show the benefit of the vaccine, including the fourth vaccine, to this population, and in light of the fear they are more vulnerable in this outbreak of Omicron.”
Health authorities reported on Thursday more than 4,000 new cases, a high not seen since September.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Israel was in “a fifth wave”, with most cases probably related to the Omicron variant.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel, which was among the first countries in the world to offer a third shot to the general public, would be a trailblazer for the fourth jab.
“Israel will lead the way in administering a fourth vaccine to the Israeli people,” he said.
Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you on the blog as we count down the final hours until 2022.
Regions across the world are battling to stem a surge in Covid infections driven largely by the Omicron variant.
However South Africa, the first country to report the variant, appears to be bucking the trend.
Health officials say a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.
“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” a statement from the special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said.
New cases detected in the week ending 25 December fell 29.7% compared to the previous week, government data showed.
Meanwhile in the United States, health experts are urging Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks due to the rising wave of Covid cases led by the Omicron variant.
“We are going to see the number of cases in this country rise so dramatically, we are going to have a hard time keeping everyday life operating,” Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told MSNBC.
“The next month is going to be a viral blizzard,” he added. “All of society is going to be pressured by this.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, also warned cases will likely rise throughout January.
Here’s a quick summary of the latest Covid developments:
- The number of people to die from Covid in Eastern Europe has reached 1 million, as Russia climbed above Brazil to become the country with the second-highest deaths behind the US.
- South Africa said the country had passed its Omicron peak without a major death surge, offering hope to countries hit hard by the mutated variant.
- France reported 206,243 new confirmed Covid cases, a tally above 200,000 for the second day running.
- The UK reported 189,213 new Covid cases, smashing Wednesday’s record-breaking tally of 183,037 positive tests.
- The UK is dogged by a shortage of tests, as Wales assists England with 4m tests amid fears of New Year’s Eve celebrations turning into breeding grounds for the virus.
- Scotland’s first minister urged people to avoid household mixing after a record high of nearly 17,000 cases.
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India fears it is entering a new wave after cases surge, as confirmed Omicron cases also climb.
- Portugal cuts Covid isolation from ten days to seven, after the World Health Organization said on Wednesday slashing isolation was a trade-off between transmission and economic concerns.
- Germany will drop quarantine demands for UK travellers from 4 January after seeing its own Omicron cases jump above 3,000 recently.
- Malaysia detected 3,997 positive Covid cases, with the number among survivors of its recently deadly floods rising to 442 in total.
- Japan recorded over 500 new infections for the first time in two months.
- Five Bulgarian regions moved from yellow to red zones as the country recorded 3,449 new infections, a 139% jump on two weeks ago.
- The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all people should avoid cruises, following a rise in onboard Covid cases in a major blow to the industry.
