Red hearts been painted on the National Covid memorial wall opposite the Houses of Parliament to commemorate each life lost in the UK due to the Covid pandemic. Photograph: Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock
Red hearts been painted on the National Covid memorial wall opposite the Houses of Parliament to commemorate each life lost in the UK due to the Covid pandemic. Photograph: Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock
Denmark is to offer a fourth coronavirus vaccination to vulnerable citizens as it faces record infection numbers from the Omicron variant.
Sweden will cut the recommended time interval between the second and third Covid vaccine shot to five months from six.
Greece will extend restrictions by a week at restaurants and bars to help curb the Omicron variant.
Doctors in Spain will be awarded up to €49,000 (£40,882) each in compensation for working without proper personal protection gear in the first few months of the pandemic.
The UK government’s operation of a “VIP lane” for suppliers of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic was illegal, a judge has ruled.
Germany has reported 80,430 coronavirus cases - a new daily record - and 384 deaths, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute.
Austria also set a new record of 18,427 daily Covid cases.
Russia’s deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova said that the government will prepare new measures to combat Covid by the end of the week.
China is battling coronavirus outbreaks in several cities, severely testing the country’s strict “zero-Covid” strategy just weeks before Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics. The northern city of Tianjin has ordered a second round of Covid testing on all 14 million residents after the discovery of 97 cases of the Omicron variant during initial screenings that began Sunday.
A Chinese woman became an overnight sensation after she posted video diaries documenting her life after being stuck at a blind date’s house when the city was put under lockdown. Story here.
Novak Djokovic has blamed his agent for an “administrative mistake” when declaring he had not travelled in the two weeks before his flight to Australia and acknowledged an “error of judgment” by not isolating after he tested positive for Covid.
The Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra hasannounced he tested positive for Covid-19.
Hoekstra, who was only sworn in Monday, had been in Brussels on Tuesday where he met with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Joseph Borrel and Belgian foreign minister Sophie Wilmes.
Denmark is to offer a fourth coronavirus vaccination to vulnerable citizens as it faces record infection numbers from the Omicron variant.
Sweden will cut the recommended time interval between the second and third Covid vaccine shot to five months from six.
Greece will extend restrictions by a week at restaurants and bars to help curb the Omicron variant.
Doctors in Spain will be awarded up to €49,000 (£40,882) each in compensation for working without proper personal protection gear in the first few months of the pandemic.
The UK government’s operation of a “VIP lane” for suppliers of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic was illegal, a judge has ruled.
Germany has reported 80,430 coronavirus cases - a new daily record - and 384 deaths, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute.
Austria also set a new record of 18,427 daily Covid cases.
Russia’s deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova said that the government will prepare new measures to combat Covid by the end of the week.
China is battling coronavirus outbreaks in several cities, severely testing the country’s strict “zero-Covid” strategy just weeks before Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics. The northern city of Tianjin has ordered a second round of Covid testing on all 14 million residents after the discovery of 97 cases of the Omicron variant during initial screenings that began Sunday.
A Chinese woman became an overnight sensation after she posted video diaries documenting her life after being stuck at a blind date’s house when the city was put under lockdown. Story here.
Novak Djokovic has blamed his agent for an “administrative mistake” when declaring he had not travelled in the two weeks before his flight to Australia and acknowledged an “error of judgment” by not isolating after he tested positive for Covid.
Most Americans will get Covid, health officials say
Federal health authorities in America have said the Omicron Covid-19 variant is so contagious it is likely most people in the US will be infected, and compared the pandemic to a “natural disaster”.
Authorities said even as Omicron shatters records for new cases, they are hopeful the surge will quickly subside, and said the US needs to focus on ensuring hospital systems do not collapse amid the surge.
“I think it’s hard to process what’s actually happening right now, which is [that] most people are going to get Covid, all right?” said Janet Woodcock, the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration. “What we need to do is make sure the hospitals can still function … [that] transportation, other essential services are not disrupted while this happens.”
Soldiers could be asked to carry out basic care needs, such as hydration and nutrition, for patients in so-called super-surge beds, as well as ancillary support including porter work, admin tasks and cleaning.
The highly transmissible Omicron variant has seen mini-Nightingale-style wards open at a number of NHS hospitals in Greater Manchester, with the Royal Oldham understood to be facing significant pressure.
Samantha Lock back with you on the blog reporting to you from Sydney.
Here’s a quick snapshot of how Covid is unfolding across Australia.
The state of NSW recorded 92,264 Covid cases and 22 deaths with 2,383 in hospital while Victoria reported 37,169 cases and 25 deaths with 953 hospitalised.
British skiers could soon be able to return to French slopes after an announcement that France is due to lift its blanket ban on non-essential travel from the UK, Jon Henley and Nazia Parveen report.
The French government’s official spokesman, Gabriel Attal, said after a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Paris would ease travel restrictions from the UK to France in the next few days.
“I confirm that a further easing of the restrictions with the UK will be announced in the coming days,” Gabriel Attal told reporters. “Work is continuing. I hope that the announcement can be made by the end of the week.”
France dramatically tightened restrictions on travel from and to Britain on 18 December in an attempt to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, effectively banning all non-essential journeys by requiring vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers to show a “compelling reason” for travel.
The rule, which effectively limited entry from the UK to France and EU nationals and British citizens resident in France, was later eased to allow people in “for the pursuit of an economic activity requiring an on-site presence that cannot be postponed.”
The rules also require all arrivals from the UK to present a negative PCR or antigen test taken within the previous 24 hours, rather than 48 hours, and to quarantine in France for seven days – reduced to 48 hours if they can produce a new negative test.
On December 30, the French government suspended one of the new rules to allow British nationals who were legally resident in other EU countries to transit through France to reach their homes by road and rail. Border officials would “show tolerance” in order to allow people to return home after the Christmas and New Year period, the interior ministry said, without specifying when the rule would be reimposed.
On Wednesday, Attal said he had said at the time that the new rules were introduced that “if we continued to see the same situation, that is the Omicron variant becoming dominant in France, of course we would continue to ease the restrictions.”
Here is a quick recap of some of the main developments from today so far:
Quebec’s announcement that it will impose a healthcare tax on unvaccinated residents has prompted a fierce debate, as the province looks to salvage its crumbing healthcare system amid the latest Covid wave. Story here.
A Chinese woman became an overnight sensation after she posted video diaries documenting her life after being stuck at a blind date’s house when the city was put under lockdown. Story here.
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is dangerous - and especially so for those who have not been vaccinated against the disease, the World Health Organization said. “While Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, it remains a dangerous virus, particularly for those who are unvaccinated,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. “We mustn’t allow this virus a free ride or wave the white flag, especially when so many people around the remain unvaccinated.” The “overwhelming majority” of people admitted to hospitals around the world were unvaccinated, he added.
Sweden will cut the recommended time interval between the second and third Covid vaccine shot to five months from six. “The purpose of the shorter time interval is for more people to be able to be vaccinated earlier. The regions should not have to stand idle with unused capacity,” the health agency chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, said in a statement. A number of other countries, including the UK, Denmark and France, have already reduced the interval between the second and third shots of the vaccine for at least some sections of their populations, sometimes to as little as three months.
Greece will extend restrictions by a week at restaurants and bars to help curb the Omicron variant. The country imposed curbs on bars, restaurants and nightclubs over the Christmas holidays last month, which were due to end on 17 January. The restrictions, which have forced bars, nightclubs and restaurants to close at midnight, with no standing customers and no music, will be extended to 24 January, health authorities said on Wednesday. A double mask will still be mandatory in supermarkets and transport.
The UK reported 129,587 new Covid cases and 398 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test. The figures compare with Tuesday’s total of 120,821 cases and 379 deaths. The latest data shows 398 deaths were recorded today – the second day in a row that the daily figure has hit an 11-month high. Wednesday’s number is the highest since 24 February 2021, when 442 deaths were reported.
Germany should make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all adults, chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament, brushing off heckling from opposition lawmakers who accused him of fomenting social divisions. Scholz credited his new government’s measures to tighten curbs on public life and step up booster doses for preventing an even worse onslaught. But as Omicron increases its spread, infections would likely continue to rise and measures such as mandatory vaccination will be needed, he said, adding: “With the decision not to get vaccinated, one ultimately is not just making a decision for oneself but also for 80 million others.”
Doctors in Spain will be awarded up to €49,000 (£40,882) each in compensation for working without proper personal protection gear in the first few months of the pandemic. A doctors’ union in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain, took the region’s government to court for failing to protect its health workers in the first three months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Denmark is to offer a fourth coronavirus vaccination to vulnerable citizens as it faces record infection numbers from the Omicron variant, the health minister said. The move comes as lawmakers agreed to reopen theatres, cinemas, museums, entertainment parks and botanic gardens, as well as allowing spectators at indoor and outdoor sports events, albeit with limited attendance, as hospitalisation rates and deaths have stabilised despite the surge in cases. The European Union’s drug regulator has expressed doubts about the need for a fourth dose and said there was currently no data to support this approach as it seeks more data on the fast-spreading variant. [see 3.13pm.].
The Biden administration has announced a new set of measures to keep classes open, including doubling Covid testing capacity in schools with 10 million more tests, as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly through the US.
An estimated 4.3 million people in the UK had Covid in the week ending 6 January, figures from the ONS showed. [see 2.41pm.].
The UK government’s operation of a “VIP lane” for suppliers of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic was illegal, a judge ruled. In a written judgment, Mrs Justice O’Farrell said the Good Law Project and EveryDoctor, which together had challenged the lawfulness of the way billions of pounds worth of contracts were awarded through the high priority lane, had established that its operation was “in breach of the obligation of equal treatment”. More than 32bn items of PPE with a value of £14bn were bought through directly awarded and negotiated contracts. Story here.
Switzerland will halve its quarantine time to five days to help tackle a wave of Covid infections that threatens to hamstring the economy. The reduction in the self-isolation requirement will go into effect from Thursday. This could be done because the Omicron variant had a shortened time between infection and transmission to other people, the government said. The government also proposed extending until the end of March curbs on public life that were tightened last month. It is trying to avoid not only another lockdown but also mandatory vaccinations, a route neighbouring Austria has taken.
Tunisia will reimpose a night curfew and ban all gatherings for two weeks from Thursday to counter the rapid spread of Covid, the government has said in a move critics decried as aimed at stopping protests. The ban on gatherings and a request to avoid travel within the country except for emergencies comes two days before a planned demonstration against the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, called by major political parties. A senior official in the main opposition Ennahda party, Mohamed Goumani, told Reuters on Wednesday the protest would go ahead in defiance of the new ban.
Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, admitted attending a gathering in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown and apologised to the nation while arguing it was a work event and “technically” broke no rules. Johnson said he went into the garden of Downing Street on 20 May 2020 to thank staff before going back into his office 25 minutes later. He said at the time he believed it was a “work event” and in hindsight he should have sent everyone back inside. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, rejected Johnson’s version of events and called on the prime minister to resign. “The only question is: will the British public kick him out, will his party kick him out, or will he do the decent thing and resign?” Starmer said. Story here.
Quebec’s announcement that it will impose a healthcare tax on unvaccinated residents has prompted a fierce debate, as the province looks to salvage its crumbing healthcare system amid the latest Covid wave.
The Canadian province’s premier, François Legault, said on Tuesday that those who had chosen to remain unvaccinated would pay a “health contribution”, acknowledging growing friction in the province as the unvaccinated draw on a greater share of the scarce medical resources.
The Quebec news site La Presse warned the tax could target vulnerable members of society who often lack the resources or information needed to access vaccines. Minorities, including Black and Indigenous residents, also have a long history of discrimination in the province’s healthcare system.
“They must not become the scapegoats of the collective fed up,” the paper wrote.
But La Presse concluded the tax was necessary tool in the fight against the virus.
“In this exceptional context, asking non-vaccinated people to pay a reasonable price can be explained. It’s a question of fairness. Everyone must contribute to the war effort.”
The province has not released a timeline for when it could impose the tax – the first of its kind in North America – or how much it might charge. Austria, which rolled out a similar tax in November, requires residents over 14 years of age pay €3,600 (US$4,100) every three months they remain unvaccinated.
In case you missed it earlier, I’d like to highlight once again the story we all deserve - of a Chinese woman who became an overnight sensation after she posted video diaries documenting her life after being stuck at a blind date’s house.
Ms Wang went for dinner on Sunday at her blind date’s residence in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, where a recent outbreak of Covid cases sent thousands into quarantine in parts of the city. As she was finishing her meal, the area was put under lockdown.
She was unable to leave her date’s house as result, she told the Shanghai-based news outlet the Paper this week, saying she had gone to the city for a week-long trip to meet potential suitors from the southern province of Guangdong.
Omicron remains 'dangerous', especially for the unvaccinated - WHO
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is dangerous - and especially so for those who have not been vaccinated against the disease, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
The WHO said the huge global surge in cases was being driven by Omicron but insisted there should be no surrender to the variant of concern.
“While Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, it remains a dangerous virus, particularly for those who are unvaccinated,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.
He went on:
We mustn’t allow this virus a free ride or wave the white flag, especially when so many people around the remain unvaccinated.
In Africa, over 85% of people are yet to receive a single dose of vaccine. We can’t end the acute phase of the pandemic unless we close this gap.
Tedros said he had wanted every country to have 10% of their population vaccinated by the end of September 2021, 40% by the end of December, and 70% by mid-2022.
But 90 countries had still not reached 40%, 36 of them still short of the 10% mark, he said.
The “overwhelming majority” of people admitted to hospitals around the world were unvaccinated, he added.
And while vaccines remain very effective at preventing death and severe Covid-19 disease, they do not fully prevent transmission, and so the risk of a more deadly variant emerging was real, he said.
More transmission means more hospitalisations, more deaths, more people off work - including teachers and health workers - and more risk of another variant emerging that is even more transmissible and more deadly than Omicron.
On the news that the number of deaths worldwide had stabilised at around 50,000 per week, Tedros said:
Learning to live with this virus does not mean we can, or should, accept this number of deaths.
The WHO emergencies director, Michael Ryan, added:
This is not the time to declare this is a welcome virus.
Sweden will cut the recommended time interval between the second and third Covid vaccine shot to five months from six, Reuters reports.
The decision will affect people between the age of 18 and 64. People above 65 were already eligible to get their booster shot five months after the second. Children aged 12 to 17 will still have to wait six months.
A number of other countries, including the UK, Denmark and France, have already reduced the interval between the second and third shots of the vaccine for at least some sections of their populations, sometimes to as little as three months.
“The purpose of the shorter time interval is for more people to be able to be vaccinated earlier. The regions should not have to stand idle with unused capacity,” the health agency chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, said in a statement.
Sweden has vaccinated 86% of the population aged 12 and up with one shot and 82% with two shots or more.
The country stood out early in the pandemic by opting against lockdowns, instead focusing on a mostly voluntary strategy based on social distancing and good hygiene.
It has an official Covid death toll of over 15,000, several times higher per capita than its Nordic neighbours but lower than most other European countries.
Greece will extend restrictions by a week at restaurants and bars to help curb the Omicron variant, which has dominated the country and has driven a surge in Covid infections in recent weeks, Reuters reports.
The country imposed curbs on bars, restaurants and nightclubs over the Christmas holidays last month, which were due to end on 17 January.
The restrictions, which have forced bars, nightclubs and restaurants to close at midnight, with no standing customers and no music, will be extended to 24 January, health authorities said on Wednesday. A double mask will still be mandatory in supermarkets and transport.
Authorities have said that Omicron variant, which is highly contagious, is dominant in the community, after it was first detected in early December.
Greece reported 32,694 new infections and 80 related deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total official number of infections since the pandemic began to 1,568,215 and the death toll to 21,559.
It registered a record of 50,126 coronavirus infections in a day on 4 January.
UK reports nearly 400 Covid-related daily deaths, with 129,587 new cases
The UK has reported 129,587 new positive Covid-19 cases and 398 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to the ONS.
The figures compare with Tuesday’s total of 120,821 cases and 379 deaths.
The latest data shows 398 deaths were recorded today – the second day in a row that the daily figure has hit an 11-month high. Wednesday’s number is the highest since 24 February 2021, when 442 deaths were reported.
The new data also showed that 139,584 people had received their booster or third dose, bringing the total number of booster or third doses administered in the UK to 35,953,243.
Germany’s Scholz urges compulsory Covid-19 jabs for all adults
Germany should make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all adults, chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament on Wednesday, brushing off heckling from opposition lawmakers who accused him of fomenting social divisions, reports Reuters.
It comes the same day Germany reported a record of 80,430 coronavirus infections, where the previous record was 65,000 in November. The Robert Koch Institute, the country’s national disease control agency, said 384 people had died in the previous 24 hours, bringing the death toll from coronavirus in Europe’s most populous country to about 115,000.
Scholz credited his new government’s measures to tighten curbs on public life and step up booster doses for preventing an even worse onslaught.
But as Omicron increases its spread, infections would likely continue to rise and measures such as mandatory vaccination will be needed, he said, adding:
With the decision not to get vaccinated, one ultimately is not just making a decision for oneself but also for 80 million others.
Schools going virtual, airlines canceling flights, pharmacies and testing centres closing temporarily, shelves emptying in grocery stores because of transportation delays, blood donations dropping to crisis levels for the first time ever and the country’s hospitals are becoming stretched. This is the US in the grip of the Omicron variant.
Omicron may cause milder symptoms in some people, but its effects are ricocheting throughout America and creating some of the greatest challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have supply shortages, we have transportation shortages, that are a result of people being out because of Covid, and especially Omicron being so infectious. And that is obviously limiting the workforce, and limiting the workforce is creating some of the havoc that we’re all experiencing,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, vice-provost at the University of Pennsylvania.
Joe Biden has vowed to keep businesses and schools open, but some experts wonder if that’s possible given the nature of Omicron and the lack of adequate measures to combat it.
“The economy cannot stay open and schools cannot stay open when so many people are getting sick,” said Margaret Thornton, an educational researcher at Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. “We must take action to slow the spread in order to keep schools running, to keep businesses running,” she said – but much of that action has been slow to happen.
Doctors in Spain will be awarded up to €49,000 (£40,882) each in compensation for working without proper personal protection gear in the first few months of the pandemic.
A doctors’ union in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain, took the region’s government to court for failing to protect its health workers in the first three months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Associated Press reports:
The lawsuit brought by a doctor’s union is the first of its kind to be won in Spain, whose health care system was pushed to the brink when COVID-19 first struck.
The judge ordered compensation between €5,000 - 49,000 (£4,171 - 40,882) to be paid to the 153 doctors who formed part of the suit, adding the lack of personal protection suits created a “serious safety and health danger for all health workers, especially for doctors due to their direct exposure”.
“This ruling is groundbreaking in Spain,” said Dr. Victor Pedrera, secretary general of the Doctors’ Union of Valencia CESM-CV, told AP.
Pedrera, a family doctor, said he got ill with Covid-19 shortly after it hit Spain in March 2020 and spent two months at home “quite badly off and with no idea of what was being done for treatment.”
Those doctors who were forced to work without proper protection but did not get infected nor were forced to isolate will receive 5,000 euros. The compensation increases to 15,000 euros for those who were forced to isolate, 35,000 euros for those who were infected but did not need hospital care, and to 49,000 euros for those who needed hospital treatment.
Valencia’s government will appeal the ruling. Regional chief Ximo Puig apologised to the medical workers, adding that the initial impact of the pandemic was “completely unexpected”.
As families grieving for lost loved ones call on authorities for answers, there are likely to be similar legal proceedings on the horizon. France’s former health minister Agnès Buzyn was charged in September with “endangering the lives of others”, according to the prosecutor in a special court that deals with ministerial accountability. In the UK, a public inquiry is due to begin in the spring.
