Covid news: 75 more cases of Omicron variant found in England; Ireland announces new restrictions – as it happened

Here’s a roundup of today’s Covid-19 news, as the spread of the Omicron variant continues.

• A further 75 cases of the Omicron variant have been identified in England, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 104. More than half of those infected with Omicron in England were double jabbed.
• Five US states have reported having people test positive for the new Omicron variant for the first time; Missouri, Utah, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Nebraska.
• Christmas should go ahead “as normally as possible” this year, despite concerns about the Omicron variant, according to UK prime minister Boris Johnson. He said that people did not need to cancel parties or nativity plays.
• Two hippos in a Belgian zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, their keepers announced Friday, stressing that the giant animals do not appear to be in danger.
• The Red Cross has said the Omicron variant is the “ultimate evidence” of the danger of unequal vaccine rates globally.
• The US gave out nearly another 2 million doses of Covid vaccines on Thursday, according to official figures.
• Cases in South Africa have risen above 3 million after a surge of infections driven by the new Omicron variant.
• Global economic growth projects are likely to be downgraded due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director has said.
• Another 221 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, its health ministry has reported. The death total, one of the world’s largest, now stands at 615,400. It registered 10,627 new cases on Friday.
• Mexico has reported another 188 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday. Its death toll now stands at 294,903, according to the country’s health ministry.

Mexico has reported another 188 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday.

Its death toll now stands at 294,903, according to the country’s health ministry.

Another US state has reported its first confirmed case of Omicron.

Utah said the case was discovered through “ongoing genetic sequencing”.

It joins Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Missouri and Maryland.

There have been no Omicron deaths yet, according to the World Health Organization.

It has now been detected in 38 countries, but no deaths have been reported, the global health agency said on Friday.

The WHO has warned it could take weeks to determine how infectious the variant is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective treatments and vaccines are against it.

“We’re going to get the answers that everybody out there needs,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said.

A further 75 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been identified in England, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 104. People who have tested positive and their contacts have been asked to self-isolate. Work is under way to find any links to travel.

Cases have been identified in the east Midlands, east of England, London, north-east, north-west, south-east, south-west and West Midlands.

Earlier on Friday health officials said that more than half of those infected with the Omicron variant were double jabbed.

Dr Jenny Harries, the UKHSA chief executive, said: “Increased case detection through focused contact tracing has led to more cases of the Omicron variant being identified and confirmed, as we have seen in other countries globally.

“We are continuing to monitor the data closely. Teams nationally and locally are working at pace to identify and trace all close contacts of every Omicron case. It is critical that anyone with Covid-19 symptoms isolates and gets a PCR test immediately.

“We have started to see cases where there are no links to travel, suggesting that we have a small amount of community transmission.”

Another 221 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, its health ministry has reported.

The death total, one of the world’s largest, now stands at 615,400. It registered 10,627 new cases on Friday.

Global economic growth projects are likely to be downgraded due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director said on Friday.

Speaking to a Reuters conference, Kristalina Georgieva said its current projections of 5.9% growth this year and 4.9% next year are likely to change.

Cases in South Africa have risen above 3 million after a surge of infections driven by the new Omicron variant.

Another 16,055 new cases were reported on Friday, taking the total confirmed infections to 3,004,203.

“This increase represents a 24.3% positivity rate,” the government-run National Institute for Communicable Diseases said in a daily update.

The majority of new cases on Friday, 72%, were detected in the Gauteng province – which has emerged as the epicentre of the new variant, AFP reports. It includes the country’s capital Pretoria and economic hub Johannesburg.

Four US states have reported having people test positive for the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Missouri and Maryland reported cases on Friday as more states identify incidences of it.

The midwest state of Nebraska confirmed six cases, Maryland had three. A man in his 30s tested positive for the variant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reuters reports. Missouri also has a single case.

The US gave out nearly another 2 million doses of Covid vaccines on Thursday, according to official figures.

A total of 466,348,132 doses were given out as of Friday morning, up from 464,445,850 the day before, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

More than 198 million people are now fully vaccinated with one of the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson inoculations.

The Red Cross has said the Omicron variant is the “ultimate evidence” of the danger of unequal vaccine rates globally.

In an interview with AFP during a visit to Moscow, Francesco Rocca, the president of the charity said: “The scientific community has warned... on several occasions about the risks of very new variants in places where there is a very low rate of vaccinations.”

About 65% of people in high-income countries have had at least one dose of vaccine against the coronavirus, but just over 7% in low-income countries, UN numbers show.

More than half of those infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant in England were double jabbed, health officials have said, as the number of cases detected in the UK continues to rise sharply.

A further 16 cases have been found in Scotland in the past 24 hours, five times the increase recorded the previous day, with some linked to a Steps concert in Glasgow 11 days ago. Wales also announced its first case on Friday, and more cases have been discovered in England, although precise new figures remained unconfirmed on Friday evening.

The sharp rise in cases came as a new risk assessment from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the new variant is “transmitting rapidly and successfully”. A separate analysis by the agency of the first 22 Omicron cases in England also found that more than half of those infected had been double jabbed.

The US regulator for medicine has approved a dual-antibody therapy for children, including newborns.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday that Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 therapy for mild and moderate diseases could be used on children who are at high risk for progression to severe disease, Reuters reports.

Christmas should go ahead “as normally as possible” this year, despite concerns about the Omicron variant, according to UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

He said that people did not need to cancel parties or nativity plays. It follows comments by public health official Dr Jenny Harries that people should not socialise “when [they] don’t particularly need to”.

Johnson said: “I’ve noticed there’s been quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about it, people concerned that they need to cancel their Christmas parties. That’s not right, we’re not saying that and we’re not saying that nativity plays have to be cancelled.

“I believe very strongly that kids should be in school and I also think that Christmas should go ahead as normally as possible. But the key point, the key point is that whatever the risk Omicron may pose, or may not pose, the booster is everywhere and always, vaccination is going to be your best protection, so everybody should get it.”

UK prime minister Boris Johnson visited a vaccine centre on Friday as part of a byelection campaign, but then got the name of his candidate, an NHS doctor, wrong.

On a visit to Oswestry in North Shropshire, Johnson saw Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst vaccinating people at a pharmacy. However in comments to the press, he called him “Dr Neil Shastri-Hughes”.

He said: “I think we’ve got a fantastic candidate, Dr Neil Shastri-Hughes, who I’ve just been seen contributing already to the life of the community by vaccinating people, he’s a doctor amongst his many other talents and what he’s also going to do is work very, very hard for the people of North Shropshire.”

October was the deadliest month for Russia during the pandemic, with its government’s statistics agency saying nearly 75,000 people died across the month.

Rosstat said on Friday that 520,000 people have died since Russia recorded its first case. It means the country has the third worst death toll behind the US and Brazil, according to AFP.

Authorities in Moscow have been accused of downplaying the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and Rosstat’s figure – released late on Friday – painted a far darker picture than official figures suggest.

This is Harry Taylor taking you through Covid news for the rest of the night. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions - drop me an email or get in touch via Twitter.