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Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
People wait for COVID-19 testing at a mobile testing location along 5th avenue amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., December 13, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar
The Netherlands went into lockdown on Sunday and the possibility of more COVID-19 restrictions being imposed ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays loomed over several European countries as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly.
In the United States, White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci urgedpeople travelling to visit loves ones to get booster shots and always wear masks in crowded public spaces.
He said Omicron was "raging through the world" and that travelling will increase the risk of infection even among vaccinated people. Since the start of the month, U.S. COVID cases have risen 50%, according to a Reuters tally.
Dutch urban centres were largely deserted as the country began a snap lockdown that threw people's Christmas plans into disarray.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the shutdown on Saturday evening, ordering the closure of all but essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places from Sunday until at least Jan. 14.
Omicron, a very contagious variant first detected last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong, has raced around the globe and been reported in 89 countries, the World Health Organization said on Saturday. It said the number of Omicron cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission, but noted that much remains unknown about the variant, including the severity of the illness it causes.
While the Netherlands took the plunge and shut down much of public life to prevent its healthcare system from being overwhelmed, several other European governments are considering additional curbs - at a time when businesses count on people spending more heavily than usual on shopping, entertainment and travel.
Overall COVID infections are rising in 64 out of 240 countries and territories tracked by Reuters, with 12 countries recording more cases than at any point during the pandemic, including the United Kingdom.
Sajid Javid, the health minister, declined on Sunday to rule out the chance that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government will impose further restrictions before Christmas.
He said the government was taking the "sobering" advice of its scientists seriously, was watching the data closely, and would balance both against the broader impact of restrictions on areas such as businesses and education.
Johnson is reeling after a series of scandals and missteps, and more than 100 of his own Conservative lawmakers this week voted against the government's latest measures to tackle what he had warned was going to be a "tidal wave" of Omicron cases.
Javid said Johnson was not too politically weak to bring in further curbs if necessary.
In Italy, the government is considering new measures to avoid a surge in infections during the holiday period, local newspapers reported on Sunday.
After meeting with ministers on Dec. 23, Prime Minister Mario Draghi could mandate that people who have been vaccinated also show a negative test to access crowded places, including nightclubs and stadiums, daily Corriere della Sera reported.
Germany's health minister Karl Lauterbach ruled out a Christmas lockdown on Sunday but warned a fifth COVID-19 wave could no longer be stopped, adding that he viewed mandatory vaccination as the only way to end the pandemic.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/threat-omicron-looms-over-christmas-holidays-europe-us-2021-12-19/
By Doina Chiacu and David Brunnstrom
People stand in a queue for a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test in Times Square as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 19, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
U.S. health officials urged Americans on Sunday to get booster shots, wear masks and be careful if they travel over the winter holidays, as the Omicron variant raged across the world and was set to take over as the dominant strain in the United States.
The government is gearing up for the next phase of battle in a two-year fight against a virus that has killed 800,000 people in the United States and disrupted every aspect of daily life.
Two U.S. senators, Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, said on Sunday they tested positive for COVID-19 but were experiencing only mild symptoms. read more
Warren, 72, said on Twitter she was "grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated and boosted," and urged other Americans to do the same.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the number of Omicron cases will rise steeply in the next two weeks.
"A big message for today is if you've had vaccines and a booster, you're very well protected against Omicron causing you severe disease. So, anybody listening to this who's in that 60% of Americans who are eligible for a booster but haven't yet gotten one: This is the week to do it. Do not wait," he said.
Omicron is multiplying rapidly, making COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots more crucial than ever, chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday. Currently, 27% of U.S. residents have not gotten even a single dose of vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It is just, you know, raging through the world," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Omicron has been found in 43 out of 50 U.S. states and around 90 countries so far.
'WAR FOOTING'
New York state recorded 22,478 positive COVID-19 cases on Saturday, Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted on Sunday, marking the state's third daily record in new positive cases in three days.
More than half of the state's new cases recorded on Saturday were in New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the country to "go on a war footing" to fight the Omicron variant with more vaccinations. He said the city would spend $10 million on an advertising campaign to promote booster shots.
The number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to three days in areas with community transmission, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.
In certain regions of the United States, 50% of the COVID-19 tests genetically sequenced detected the Omicron variant, Fauci told CNN, "which means it's going to take over."
The virus is forcing sports leagues to reschedule games and entertainment venues to cancel shows. The National Basketball Association postponed five additional games on Sunday.
The National Hockey League said it agreed with its players association to continue its 2021-22 regular-season schedule, as nearly all players and staff are vaccinated, but would temporarily shut down individual teams on a case-by-case basis. It also postponed cross-border games involving Canadian and U.S.-based teams through Thursday.
In a reminder of the pandemic's early spread on cruise ships, about four dozen guests and crew members aboard Royal Caribbean's (RCL.N) Symphony of the Seas ship, which docked in Miami on Saturday, tested positive for COVID-19, NBC News reported, citing a statement from the company.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis told NBC he was considering changing the definition of fully vaccinated in his state to three shots from two. "I wish they'd stop talking about it as a booster. It really is a three-dose vaccine," he said.
BOOSTERS, TESTING, SURGE TEAMS
President Joe Biden plans to give a speech on Tuesday about the rising COVID-19 cases, hammering home his message to unvaccinated Americans to get a shot and for those who are vaccinated to get a booster.
Part of Biden's strategy is to focus on increased testing, Fauci told CNN's "State of the Union."
"We really need to flood the system with testing. We need to have tests available for anyone who wants them," he said.
Hospitals in some parts of the country are already becoming strained by COVID-19 patients and things are likely to get worse, the health officials said.
"The government is prepared now to start sending out surge teams as needed to places that are really hit hard and the president's going to have more to say about that in a speech on Tuesday," Collins said.
Neither Fauci nor Collins urged vaccinated Americans to cancel travel plans - just to wear a mask at all times in airports, on planes, trains and buses.
"I'm not going to say you shouldn't travel, but you should do so very carefully," Collins said.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/covid-omicron-variant-raging-through-world-traveling-increases-risk-fauci-2021-12-19/
People wearing face masks as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are seen at a train station in Bangkok, Thailand November 29, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
A Thai woman has tested positive to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country's first reported case of local transmission, a health ministry official said on Monday.
The woman contracted the virus from her husband, a Colombian who returned to Thailand from Nigeria in November, the official told a daily health ministry briefing.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thailand-says-finds-first-reported-local-transmission-omicron-2021-12-20/
By Ed O’Loughlin
Restaurants and bars in Ireland will be required to close early starting at 8 p.m. Monday.Credit...Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Bars and restaurants in Ireland will be required to close early in the week leading up to Christmas, usually their busiest time of the year, as governments around Europe battle a new wave of Covid infections driven by the Omicron variant.
Restaurants, bars and public venues must reduce their hours and close at 8 p.m., beginning on Monday. Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that cases of the Omicron variant in Ireland were doubling every few days and that, for Ireland, the worst of the pandemic could be ahead.
“I’m apprehensive in terms of what this might mean in terms of the sheer scale of infection,” Mr. Martin told RTE, Ireland’s state broadcaster. “Which is why we can’t take risks — the great unknown being, how severe is this in terms of requiring hospitalizations and ICUs, and just damaging people in terms of health?”
On Saturday, health authorities announced 7,333 new cases — double the number of new cases the day before. Health authorities said that 35 percent of positive swab tests taken last Wednesday indicated the Omicron variant, suggesting that it would become the dominant variant in Ireland “within days.”
The new restrictions have been sharply criticized by trade bodies for bar owners and restaurateurs, and also by some lawmakers representing parties in Mr. Martin’s coalition government.
The Licensed Vintners Association, representing bar operators in the Dublin area, said that many of its members, already weakened by previous lockdowns, saw the new measures as “closure by camouflage.”
The Restaurants Association of Ireland called for the reintroduction of emergency payments to businesses that were forced to close completely in previous lockdowns. The government said it is considering such measures this week.
For Mr. Martin and his deputy prime minister, Leo Varadkar, the difficult choice between business needs and public health echoes their painful experience this time last year, when they gave in to calls to ease tight restrictions on socializing and entertainment so that Ireland could enjoy a “meaningful Christmas.”
Emergency restrictions were reintroduced on Christmas Eve last year, followed by a January lockdown, which further damaged the retail economy.
Jane Suiter, a politics and communications professor at Dublin City University, said that government policy is to contain overall levels of infection while keeping schools open. Ireland’s entertainment businesses, famously convivial at this time of year, seem to be an “easy target.”
“It’s hardest on people aged 18 to 30, who’ve already given so much,” she said. “My life isn’t really impacted at all, but my students’ lives are very deeply impacted.”
In neighboring Britain, the government is leaving open the possibility of soon imposing another round of restrictions, the country’s health secretary said on Sunday.
Scientific advisers have warned lawmakers that more action is needed, because the country’s surge is threatening to overwhelm its health system, even after the government announced a long-resisted coronavirus contingency plan earlier this month, urging people to work from home if possible and extending a face-mask mandate.
Over the weekend, Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, declared a “major incident” — an emergency status that frees up resources — in the capital, and speculation on the possibility of a short-term nationwide lockdown has been swirling.
A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid-19 vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defense against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protectionagainst serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.
The other shots — including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia — do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.
A global surge of infections in a world where billions of people remain unvaccinated not only threatens the health of vulnerable individuals but also increases the opportunity for the emergence of yet more variants. The disparity in the ability of countries to weather the pandemic will almost certainly deepen. And the news about limited vaccine efficacy against Omicron infection could depress demand for vaccination throughout the developing world, where many people are already hesitant or preoccupied with other health problems.
Most evidence so far is based on laboratory experiments, which do not capture the full range of the body’s immune response, and not from tracking the effect on real-world populations. The results are striking, however.
The Pfizer and Moderna shots use the new mRNA technology, which has consistently offered the best protection against infection with every variant. All of the other vaccines are based on older methods of triggering an immune response.
The Chinese vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac — which make up almost half of all shots delivered globally — offer almost zero protection from Omicron infection. The great majority of people in China have received these shots, which are also widely used in low-and middle-income countries such as Mexico and Brazil.
A preliminary effectiveness study in Britain found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine showed no ability to stop Omicron infection six months after vaccination. Ninety percent of vaccinated people in India received this shot, under the brand name Covishield; it has also been widely used across much of sub-Saharan Africa, where Covax, the global Covid vaccine program, has distributed 67 million doses of it to 44 countries.
Researchers predict that Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, which is also being used in Africa and Latin America, will show similarly dismal rates of protection against Omicron.
Demand for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been surging in Africa, because its single-shot delivery regimen makes it easy to deliver in low-resource settings. But it too has shown a negligible ability to block Omicron infection.
Clashes erupt at a protest in Brussels, Belgium, against Covid-19 measures on 19 December. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching & Referral Hospital in Kisumu County, Kenya, in June. Hospitals are among the locations targeted by a broad vaccine mandate that has been temporarily blocked.Credit...Brian Otieno for The New York Times
Belgian police intervened to disperse stone-throwing youths on Sunday after the latest protest march in Brussels turned violent against anti-coronavirus measures.
The crowd of around 3,500 mainly young, black-clad and hooded protesters marched from the Gare du Nord railway to a park in the city’s European quarter, AFP reported.
The protesters clashed with riot officers protecting the route to EU headquarters, where officials were meeting African leaders.
The stone- and bottle-throwers were dispersed back into the Jubilee Park by riot police, and plain clothes officers made several arrests, an AFP journalist saw.
Belgium is recording around 10,000 new Covid cases per day as the Omicron variant spreads in Europe, and authorities have again begun to tighten public health rules.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo’s government will meet on Wednesday to decide on any new measures, and the neighbouring Netherlands has already ordered a Christmas lockdown.
Belgium has run a relatively successful vaccine campaign and has begun issuing booster shots, but a vocal minority is wary of compulsory jabs and certificates or opposes lockdown measures.
Here’s a round-up of the day’s leading Covid stories:
· The Netherlands entered a strict lockdown that meant the closure of non-essential stores, restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places until 14 January to push back the new wave.
· Germany followed France and tightened restrictions from Britain, mandating a 14-day quarantine for incoming travellers to avoid an Omicron wave.
· Pressure builds on UK prime minister Boris Johnson after the Guardian published a picture of him with wine and cheese in the No 10 garden, suggesting a social event, during a strict UK lockdown. No 10 insists the meeting was for work.
· Poland confirmed seven Omicron cases in total as an official warned the variant is spreading at “unprecedented rate”. A further 15,976 Covid cases were recorded.
· Peru, the country with the highest Covid deaths per capita and sixth-highest total death toll, detected its first four Omicron cases.
· The UK recorded above 80,000 new daily cases for only fourth time since pandemic began, and clocked another 12,000 Omicron cases – taking the tally to over 37,000. Health secretary Sajid Javid refused to rule out new restrictions on the Sunday broadcast round. Cases are up 72% in one week.
· Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, said the Omicron variant has “extraordinary spreading capabilities” and is “raging through the world”.
· Ireland said Omicron is now the dominant strain of Covid after an estimated 52% of its cases – 5,124 new cases on Sunday – were from the highly mutated variant.
· The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency warned of political violence from the country’s anti-vaccine movement with its connections to the far-right.
· Iran detected its first case of Omicron.
· Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said on Sunday the country is in a fifth Covid wave and urged people to step up vaccinations.
· US Senator Elizabeth Warren tested positive for Covid after a routine test. She has mild symptoms.
· 30,000 people in Vienna, Austria commemorated the country’s 13,000 people who have died from the virus with a “sea of lights” march.
· Italy detected 24,259 new Covid infections, a 62% climb on the 15,010 new cases on Sunday two weeks ago.
· Sri Lanka will require Covid vaccine certificates for entry to public places from New Year’s Day.
· Russia recorded 27,967 new Covid infections, a 13% slide on the 32,031 new cases on Sunday two weeks ago.
· France reported 48,473 new Covid infections, a 15% climb on the 42,252 new cases detected on Sunday two weeks ago.
· Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa asked for greater law enforcement protection on Sunday after a flurry of threats following its decision to approve Covid vaccines for children aged five to 11. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has played down the virus’s risks, has publicly pressured the agency over the decision.
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