World rings in a second pandemic Christmas as UK reports record Omicron cases
The world will ring in a second pandemic Christmas, its third since the first outbreak in China, as the UK announced record cases fuelled by Omicron.
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The UK on Friday announced a new record number of virus cases fulled by the Omicron variant.
The government reported 122,186 new cases in the last 24 hours, more than 2,000 higher than Thursday’s figure.
The UK is among the worst hit countries in Europe with a virus death toll of 147,857.
Case numbers surged 48 percent over the last 7 days, as compared to the previous week, while hospitalisations and death figures have risen much less sharply.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said Thursday that figures so far show the risk of being admitted to hospital with Omicron infection to be up to 70 percent less than with the previously dominant Delta variant.
The government agency cautioned however that the results were “preliminary and highly uncertain” since they are based on a small sample of cases of hospitalisations so far.
The UKHSA’s chief executive Jenny Harries told BBC Radio 4 on Friday that the data offer a “glimmer of Christmas hope” but “it definitely isn’t yet at the point where we could downgrade that serious threat.” The government will not update its virus case figures again until December 27 due to the public holidays.
It comes as several hundreds of flights have been cancelled between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the Northern Hemisphere – with one airline blaming Omicron for staffing shortages.
United Airlines cancelled 168 flights on Friday and another 47 on Saturday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
“The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation,” a United Airlines spokesman told The New York Post.
The company said they are reaching out to customers affected by the cancellations before they head to the airport.
Additionally, Delta Airlines is also facing cancellations on the same two days, scrapping 115 flights on Christmas Eve.
German-based Lufthansa said it wouyld be cancelling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights over Christmas due to a “massive” rise in sick crew and pilots.
Leaders of the airline industry have been pushing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue updated guidance cutting the length of time for self-isolation for those infected with Covid-19, according to USA Today.
However, the US will lift travel restrictions on eight South African countries as of New Year’s Eve, the White House announced.
The decision was recommended by the CDC who say the travel bans bought scientists some time in studying the impact of the variant.
It comes as New York State recorded over 38,000 positive coronavirus cases on Thursday — shattering the previous day’s record.
Total positives hit a new statewide high of 38,835 cases among a record number of 324,786 individuals tested in a single day, according to new data released by the state Department of Health.
“We are experiencing the winter surge, and numbers are expected to rise. You can also expect to reduce your chance of severe illness from Covid-19 if you get vaccinated and if you get the booster,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a statement.
New York City will cap its crowd and require masks to be worn by revellers at its traditional Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration.
The restrictions add to the previously announced rules that limit attendance to only those who can show proof that they are fully vaccinated against Covid.
About a month after announcing a “full-strength” Times Square ball drop, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio opted to cut the amount of participants by nearly 75 per cent. Officials said capping the crowd size at 15,000 — down from the usual 58,000 — will provide significant additional space for social distancing.
Germany’s health minister said that the cases caused by the Omicron variant will sharply increase in the days ahaead, as German authorities anticipate another wave of Covid-19.
Official figures showed Germany has a 25 per cent increase from the previous day in cases caused by Omicron.
Authorities are introducing new restrictions with most regions shutting nightclubs, and curbs being implemented on Christmas Eve.
It comes as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitted to making communication “mistakes” in handling the pandemic, in an interview published Friday as his country braced for second Christmas under lockdown.
Rutte last week closed all non-essential shops, restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums and theatres until January 14 and closed schools until at least January 9, in a return to Europe’s toughest lockdowns this winter.
He limited guests at home to only two people except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, December 26 and the New Year period when four guests are permitted. And gatherings of only two people are allowed outdoors.
“We could have started the vaccinations earlier,” Rutte told the mass-circulation De Telegraaf newspaper in comment published Friday.
He added that he had also “failed to convince people about the basic measures” to take to stem the virus’s spread.
“I made mistakes in the communication,” he said.
Japan on Wednesday urged the US military to adhere to coronavirus testing and quarantine rules as a cluster linked to an American base grew to more than 200 cases.
Cases have nosedived in recent months in Japan, which has seen a comparatively low 18,300 Covid deaths during the pandemic.
But in recent days, 215 people linked with the US base Camp Hansen in Japan’s southern Okinawa region have tested positive, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
Hayashi said he had voiced “strong regret” to the commander of US Forces Japan, Lieutenant General Ricky Rupp, over anti-infection procedures for American military arrivals.
Japan’s borders are closed to almost all foreign nationals. Incoming travellers must get tested before departure and on arrival, then isolate for two weeks at home or in hotels.
Hayashi said, however, the US military was testing soldiers only three to five days after they landed, with newly arrived troops allowed to move freely inside their base.
“These rules are not consistent with the Japanese rules,” Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo, saying he had been instructed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to voice his concern to Rupp.
It was unclear how many in the Okinawa cluster have the fast-spreading Omicron virus variant, which accounted for nearly three-quarters of new US cases in the past week.
CHINESE OFFICIALS PUNISHED OVER OUTBREAK
Dozens of officials have been punished over a virus outbreak in the locked-down city of Xi’an, China’s disciplinary body said Friday — the latest state reprimands under Beijing’s strict zero-Covid approach.
China, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, is on high alert for new infections as it prepares to hold the Winter Olympics in February in the capital Beijing.
The world’s most populous nation has reduced cases to a minimum thanks to a zero-Covid strategy of tight border restrictions, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns.
But cases have been bubbling up in recent weeks — with Xi’an, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, telling all 13 million residents to stay home from Thursday, shuttering businesses and launching several rounds of mass testing.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Friday that 26 Communist Party officials had been punished for “insufficient rigour in preventing and controlling the outbreak”.
Xi’an reported another 49 cases on Friday, bringing the total outbreak to more than 250 in recent weeks.
Chinese officials who are deemed to have failed at controlling the virus in their region are regularly sacked or reprimanded.
The statement said inspections had revealed there had been a lax approach to testing and an uncoordinated response that hindered contact tracing in Xi’an.
Authorities would clamp down on “bureaucratic issues in disease control work such as shirking responsibility, not taking action, passing the buck and dealing with things in a negative way”, a Party discipline official said.
A party secretary in Inner Mongolia was sacked after his area was hit by a cluster of cases in October, while the head of Zhengzhou city’s health commission was sacked in August after cases this summer.
Cases from Xi’an have so far spread to five other cities including Beijing, according to state media — fuelling fears about how quickly the virus can spread geographically across the vast country.
Under lockdown rules, since Thursday all households in Xi’an have only been permitted to send one member outside every two days to purchase necessities.
Residents who want to leave the city must first apply for approval, while major venues including the museum housing the Terracotta Army — the mausoleum of China’s first emperor — have been shut until further notice.
Xi’an reported another 63 cases on Thursday, days after authorities began mass testing all 13 million residents.
Cases from Xi’an have so far spread to five other cities, according to state media, including one traced in Beijing and another in southern Guangdong — fuelling fears about how quickly the virus can spread geographically across the vast country.
Vice Premier Sun Chunlan visited Xi’an a few days before the lockdown and urged “swift virus containment measures to curb the spread”, according to official news agency Xinhua.
China – where the coronavirus was first detected – has slowed new cases to a trickle since the middle of last year, implementing a strict zero-Covid strategy involving tight border restrictions, targeted lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and population tracing technology.
Even a single case can lead to a swift imposition of curbs, and officials deemed to have failed at controlling Covid are often sacked.
The country has stepped up already-strict measures as it braces for the arrival of thousands of international athletes for the Olympics in February.
The capital Beijing is demanding negative Covid-19 tests from all visitors and limiting flights from other cities.
And once they arrive and enter the Olympic “bubble”, all participants — who must be fully vaccinated — will undergo daily virus tests.
US HOSPITALS BRACE FOR SURGE IN CASES AS PILLS WIN APPROVAL
With Omicron now the most widely detected variant in the US, hospitals are preparing for a surge of Covid-19 cases. And for the second year in a row, many doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic will be treating these patients over the Christmas holiday. Nearly 70,000 Americans were hospitalised with Covid-19 as of yesterday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, up from around 45,000 in early November.
The US has suffered the most Covid-related deaths with 812,069.
It comes as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday authorised Merck’s Covid pill for high risk adults, a day after giving the green light to a similar pill by Pfizer.
“Today’s authorisation provides an additional treatment option against the Covid-19 virus in the form of a pill that can be taken orally,” said FDA scientist Patrizia Cavazzoni.
The pill developed by Merck, which is known as MSD outside the US and Canada, is taken within five days of symptom onset and has been shown to reduce Covid hospitalisation and deaths by 30 per cent among at-risk people.
Pfizer’s pill reduced the same outcomes by 90 per cent.
The FDA stressed in its statement that both the Pfizer and Merck pills should complement, rather than replace vaccines, that remain the frontline tool in the fight against the coronavirus.
While both treatments were found to be generally safe in clinical trials, more potential concerns have been raised about Merck’s pill, called molnupiravir.
The FDA has not authorised Merck’s pill for people under 18 because it may affect bone and cartilage growth.
It is not recommended for use in pregnant women because of the potential foetal harm, but doctors can still decide if the benefits outweigh the risks in individual cases.
Eight capsules of molnupiravir are taken orally for five days, for a total of 40 capsules.
The US has paid for 3.1 million courses of Merck’s treatment, and 10 million courses of Pfizer’s.
Molnupiravir works by incorporating itself into the genome of the virus, causing mutations that prevent viral replication.
US health regulators also approved the use of a Covid-19 pill from Pfizer, the first drug patients can take at home.
The US Food and Drug Administration’s call now allows GPs to prescribe the groundbreaking medicine to high-risk patients age 12 and older early in the course of disease, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The FDA said the drug, named Paxlovid, worked safely and would help reduce hospital admissions and death.
Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s drug division said it was a major step forward.
“This authorisation provides a new tool to combat Covid-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge,” she said.
Paxlovid is expected to be available at pharmacies and hospitals in the coming days. Initial supplies will be limited, until Pfizer can ramp up production.
WALES GOES BACK INTO LOCKDOWN
Wales has became the latest UK nation to announce new Covid restrictions as the government in London said it was cutting the isolation period required for positive cases.
The First Minister of the devolved assembly, Mark Drakeford, said on Wednesday that from December 26 socialising in Welsh pubs, cinemas and restaurants would be limited to groups of six people or less.
Two-metre distancing will return in public places, pubs and other licensed premises will be table service only and staff will have to collect contact tracing details, and masks will be required once again.
Large events will essentially be banned, the maximum permissible number of people allowed to gather indoors set at 30, and outdoors at 50.
The moves by the government in Cardiff follow Scotland’s unveiling of new rules there, which also come into force on December 26.
Scottish crowds will be capped at 500 for outdoor events, while for indoors the limit will be 100 standing or 200 seated, for at least three weeks.
That means the pandemic has forced the cancellation of Edinburgh’s hugely popular New Year’s Eve street party for the second successive year.
The UK has seen a surge in infections since Omicron became the dominant variant in recent weeks, with 90,629 cases reported on Tuesday alone.
The country is already one of the hardest hit in Europe, with a death toll of 147,433.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resisted calls to impose stricter rules over Christmas in England, unlike the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, which have responsibility for their own health policies.
The embattled leader, reeling from weeks of scandals and setbacks — including growing discontent among his ruling Conservatives — has said he wants more evidence on Omicron’s severity and ability to evade vaccines.
But he warned he “will be ready to take action” after the Christmas weekend if the situation gets worse.
And on Wednesday, his government announced that those who have caught the virus but feel well can come out of self-isolation after seven days instead of 10, potentially allowing more to join family celebrations.
This rule only applies to people who have taken two negative lateral flow tests, NHS England said.
The government also announced it had signed deals to buy more than four million courses of two new antiviral drugs to treat Covid-19.
ISRAEL GIVES GREEN LIGHT FOR FOURTH Covid JAB
The Prime Minister of Israel says people over the age of 60 and medical teams will now be eligible for a fourth dose of the Covid vaccine, in a bid to protect them against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Naftali Bennett made the decision on Tuesday after he met with the country’s ministerial coronavirus cabinet which convened amid growing case numbers.
“The citizens of Israel were the first in the world to receive the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and we are continuing to pioneer with the fourth dose as well,” Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday.
The premier called the pandemic expert committee’s decision to go ahead with a fourth dose “wonderful news that will assist us in getting through the Omicron wave that is engulfing the world”.
Immunodeficient people will also be eligible for the fourth shot, which can be administered to them, while elderly people and the medical teams will be eligible at least four months after the third shot.
The health ministry and health funds, which administer the vaccinations, have been told by Bennett’s office to prepare the “widespread (vaccination) operation”.
The decision follows the first known death in Israel of a patient with the Omicron variant. However, the man — aged in his 60s — had a number of serious pre-existing conditions.
“His morbidity stemmed mainly from pre-existing illnesses and not from respiratory infection arising from the coronavirus,” a hospital statement said.
There were at least 340 known cases of Omicron in Israel on Tuesday.
The country has already expanded a travel ban to countries including the United States, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Canada to try to curb the spread of the virus.
US TO HAND OUT FREE Covid TESTS AS TROOPS DEPLOYED
Hundreds of millions of free Covid tests will be distributed in the US in the face of surging Omicron cases, which have forced governments worldwide to reimpose restrictions ahead of the holidays.
President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday afternoon local time the purchase of a half-billion at-home rapid Covid-19 tests, one of a series of new steps he unveiled during a speech that came as the country faces a potentially crippling wintertime surge of infections.
The US administration will also set up a website to distribute via mail 500 million free at-home rapid tests, starting in January.
However, they are still working to determine how many tests each household may request.
Officials were also unable to provide any new details about exactly when the website to request the tests will launch and how quickly tests will be shipped out.
The government will make no attempt to track the results, the official said.
Among the President’s other initiatives, 1000 troops will be deployed to help hospitals overwhelmed by a surge of Covid cases as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly, according to the Biden administration.
Biden took the drastic measures as he seeks to calm mounting panic about the highly contagious variant causing many “breakthrough” infections even among people who are vaccinated.
The military members will be deployed to hospitals to prevent them from being overwhelmed if nurses and doctors are sickened by Omicron, according to a federal official.
“The president is directing (Defence) Secretary (Lloyd) Austin to mobilise 1,000 members of our military — these are doctors, nurses, medics and other military medical personnel — to deploy to overburdened hospitals in January and February,” the spokesman said.
“God willing, we will not need all of these servicemen and -women. But if we do, they are ready and they are mobilised.”
The Omicron variant is responsible for almost three quarters of all new Covid cases in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday — reflecting a rapid spread despite emerging only last month.
The US will also launch federally run Covid testing sites in New York City and other areas buckling under pressure to meet demand as the Omicron variant causes record numbers of new coronavirus cases.
“The president will announce that the federal government will set up new federal testing sites around the country. The first of these will be set up in New York City before Christmas,” a senior administration official told reporters.
“We will actually have several of those — the first several open in New York City before the Christmas holidays. And we’re going to continue to add sites based on where states and communities have capacity constraints and where the state and local public health officials request our assistance.”
Since last week, New Yorkers have had to stand in line for hours to wait for a free city-provided coronavirus test.
The beleaguered test sites at times turned away people who spent long stretches in line for documentation of a negative test for travel, to attend events, or to get peace of mind before seeing family, the NY Post reports.
Retailers including major pharmacy chain, CVS, are running out of rapid tests at some locations in response to a surge in demand.
Biden also warned the tens of millions of Americans who have so far declined to get shots that they run a high risk of becoming ill or hospitalised as the Omicron variant runs rampant.
“I know some Americans are wondering if you can safely celebrate the holidays with your family and friends. The answer is, yes you can if you and those you celebrate with are vaccinated, particularly if you‘ve gotten your booster shot,” Biden said.
“All these people who have not been vaccinated, you have an obligation to yourselves, to your family and quite frankly … to your country. Get vaccinated now, it‘s free, it’s convenient and it saves lives.”
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